diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Henry Fool.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Henry Fool.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..3458d81acc7aa465b195ed7036c5114158bc8d62 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Henry Fool.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + HENRY FOOL Written by Hal Hartley SHOOTING DRAFT EXT. JUNK YARD -- DAY A garbage truck roars by and... Simon Grim hangs from the back of it. He is a shy, skinny and terrified-looking guy around thirty years old. The truck rumbles to a halt and Simon climbs down off it to go punch out at the time clock. EXT. BEHIND THE WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Moments later. He comes walking up a small alley and sits to drink his beer. He begins to relax. This is his quality private time. Then he hears something and looks up. He peeks up over the edge of some junked kitchen appliances and sees... Two teenage kids -- Warren and Amy -- smoking crack and having sex. Simon looks on, intrigued, as Warren smokes, then... WARREN (to Amy) You want some? Amy takes the pipe and smokes as he feels her up. Simon is fascinated. He drinks and looks on as... Amy grins up foolishly at Warren and lowers the pipe. The boy undoes his belt and hikes up the girl's skirt. Simon can't believe this. He looks around to see if the coast is clear, then returns just in time to see... Warren takes Amy by the waist and enter her. The pipe falls from the young girl's hand. Warren throws his head back and grinds himself into her. Simon's mouth falls open in awe. But Amy tosses her head back to the side and sees... The amazed garbage man; caught. Amy starts screaming insanely. Simon runs for his life. Amy and Warren throw rocks and bottles at him as they chase him away. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY Moments later. Simon runs up and throws open the screen door. He stands there in the doorway catching his breath. His sister, Fay, is at the kitchen table watching a small portable TV while their mother, Mary, sits a few feet away in the living-room watching another TV tuned to a different channel. FAY (to Simon) Where the hell have you been? (to Mary) Mom, come on and eat. MARY I'm not hungry. FAY (pissed) Then why'd I cook! Mary is a manic-depressive, still in her bathrobe at six in the evening. MARY I don't know why you cooked! I don't know why you bother! Fay holds her head in her hands and sighs. She glares at her brother. FAY Sit down and eat, Simon. Simon sits at the table and Fay slams down before him a bowl of some sort of gruel. He hesitates, then lifts his spoon. Supper is horrible and he screws up his face in disgust. Fay gives him a sideways glance and he leans back down over the bowl and eats some more. Pushing the bowl away gently, he reaches out for the container of milk on the table and drinks straight from it. He suddenly jumps back and spits out sour milk all over the table. The container drops to the floor and thick globs of cheese roll out. He stands back against the fridge, holding his stomach while... Fay and Mary look on in disgust. EXT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY Moments later. Simon crosses the lawn and sits on the curb outside his house. He stares at the ground before him as he holds his stomach and spits, sickened. He looks up, though, and sees... A little seven-year-old girl -- Pearl age seven -- standing there in the street watching him. Simon tries to smile at her. But she throws a rock at him and hits him in the head. He falls forward, hurt, as the little girl runs away. Lowering his hand, he sees he's bleeding. Desperate, lonely and ill, he drags his bloodied fingers across the coarse pavement. Fay slams out of the side door of the house in a tight-fitting dress and stands on the lawn, applying lipstick. FAY God, I wanna get fucked. Fay snaps shut her compact, straightens her skirt and sighs. FAY You OK? Simon loses track of what he is hearing and relaxes. He looks back at his sister. Fay fluffs out her hair and walks off. FAY See ya later. Simon watches her go, but is still drawn to something he seems to hear up the street in the other direction. He cocks his head, sits perfectly still and listens. He hears it now. We do, too. Footsteps. Big ones. Like a giant somewhere in the distance. The neighborhood trembles. Titles begin. Simon tries to figure out where it's coming from; the sky, the house, the highway at the end of his block... Finally, he focuses on... The blacktop right before him, smeared with his own blood. Music starts. He kneels out slowly into the street and stares at the pavement. He stretches out his hand and places it flat on the road. The pounding is louder now, becoming the beat of the music over the scene. Simon lowers his face to the pavement, closes his eyes and... Puts his ear right down against the road. He hears... The steady tread of somebody very much larger than life. Kneeling forward, with his ear to the ground, Simon opens his eyes and sees... A man approaching. The music swells up full. Simon lifts his head slowly from the road, looking off in wonder at... This stranger coming towards him; an oddly handsome freak striding over the crest of the distant intersection with a windswept mane, two over-stuffed suitcases and a crumpled tie fluttering back over his broad but crooked shoulders. Simon rises till he's kneeling up straight in the road. Henry Fool finally reaches him and stops. Titles finish. Simon says nothing and watches as Henry looks off at the house. Satisfied, but wary, Henry Fool looks around the neighborhood and then down at Simon. HENRY Get up off your knees. He tosses the suitcases down in front of Simon and walks off towards his new home. EXT. BACK OF THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY Henry comes around behind the house and finds the door to his basement apartment. He approaches. Simon follows, carrying the suitcases. INT. HENRY'S APARTMENT -- DAY Moments later. The door is wrenched open and Henry is hit square in the jaw by a decade of dank airless gloom. He coughs. Entering, he finds a few old wooden chairs littering the main room. He inspects the old wood stove, then takes a chair and smashes it. He tosses the wood in the stove. Simon looks on, amazed. Henry lights a fire with unusually quick results, then stands back and looks at Simon. HENRY Where you gotta go to get a six-pack of beer around here? INT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY This is a convenience store with a number of tables at which to eat donuts. Warren is shoplifting while Amy terrorizes Gnoc Deng, the Vietnamese cashier, who stares out at them from behind the safety of the counter. AMY Say something. WARREN (calling) She's mute. AMY What? WARREN She don't -- you know -- talk. Amy looks back at Gnoc, snarls, then follows the cashier's gaze to the door. Simon enters. Clutching Henry's cash, he stops dead in his tracks when he sees... Warren and Amy. He steps forward and approaches the beer cooler. Warren and Amy hover around, just out of reach, like a couple of vampires. Dragging a six-pack out of the cooler, Simon crosses to the counter. Warren and Amy hang back, silent and threatening. Gnoc rings up the purchase and glances over at... Amy, staring a hole into the side of Simon's skull. Gnoc hands Simon back his change and he makes for the door, but... Warren shoves himself between it and Simon. Simon freezes. Warren is expressionless. Simon looks back at Amy. She turns away, reaches up under her skirt, jerks down her panties, then leans forward on to the counter. Leering back over her shoulder, she hisses... AMY Kiss my ass. Simon is nonplussed. Gnoc presses a button on the wall that sets... A red light flashing above the stockroom door. Warren grabs Simon by the neck and drags him over to Amy's bare behind. Amy laughs as Simon is forced to his knees and has his face shoved up right into the crack of her ass. But then... Simon throws up all over her. Warren falls back in disgust. Gnoc covers her face with her hands. Amy looks around at herself, realizes, and starts screaming bloody murder. Simon falls back on to the floor, clutching his stomach, as Amy staggers around with her vomit-strewn underwear down around her ankles. Then Gnoc's father, Mr Deng, appears at the stockroom door holding a shovel and ready to fight. WARREN (scared) Oh, shit! Mr Deng comes running at them and Warren drags Amy from the store. Simon crawls out of the way as the old man throws open the door to the parking lot and screams at the retreating delinquents... MR DENG (in Vietnamese) Stay the hell out of my store, you good-for-nothing punks! Having scared them off, he comes back in and starts screaming at Simon. MR DENG Look at this! What's going on here? Simon, get up off the floor! Is this beer paid for? INT. HENRY'S APARTMENT -- NIGHT Later. Simon splashes water over his face at the kitchen sink, then watches as Henry unpacks one of his suitcases. It is filled with dozens of old, worn notebooks. Henry stacks them on the mantelpiece over the fireplace; the fire is now crackling and bright. Simon steps over and looks at... The name tag on the other suitcase: 'Henry Fool'. HENRY (off-screen) Centuries ago it had an 'e' at the end. Simon looks over and sees... Henry's silhouette against the fire. He steps forward into the light and grabs a beer from the six-pack on the floor. He hands one to Simon. Simon takes it and stares at it a moment before raising his eyes to Henry. SIMON Where do you come from? HENRY Nowhere in particular. He winks at Simon, then struts around the room, hugely impressed with himself. HENRY I go where I will and I do what I must. (stops, drinks) That's why I'm in trouble. I'm sort've what you might call... 'in exile'. SIMON Why are you in trouble? HENRY (stopping) An honest man is always in trouble, Simon. Remember that. Simon comes away from the fire, watching him carefully. Henry stands in a dim corner across the room. SIMON How do you know my name? Henry pauses, looks aside, drinks, then grins demoniacally. He steps forward and comes face to face with Simon. He lifts his finger and points to... Simon's name stitched upon the breast of his work shirt. Realizing this, Simon moves off and thinks. Henry throws more wood on the fire, glancing back over his shoulder, laughing mischievously. SIMON (stopping him) I am not retarded. HENRY (pauses) Well... I'll take your word for that. SIMON (explaining) People. I mean. They think. You know. Because. He tries to articulate what he thinks he feels but winds up gesticulating curiously with his hands. This finally dissolves into a dumb stare into empty space. HENRY I see. Simon looks at him. Henry stands and grabs a notebook from off the mantelpiece. He tears out a few pages and shoves them in his pocket. He hands the now fresh writing tablet to Simon. HENRY Here. Take this. And... He searches his pockets and finds a pencil. HENRY ...this. Keep them with you at all times. You ever feel like you got something to say and you can't get it out, stop and write it down. OK? Simon hesitates, then accepts the gifts. Henry goes for another beer while his new friend studies the dozens of notebooks on the mantelpiece. SIMON What are these? HENRY (proudly, returning) This? This is my life's work. My memoirs. My 'Confession'. SIMON (carefully) What have you done? Henry drinks and looks down into the raging fire. HENRY (wistfully) I've been bad. Repeatedly. (shrugs and steps away) But why brag? The details of my exploits are only a pretext for a far more expansive consideration of general truths. (contemplating the notebooks) What is this? It's a philosophy. A poetics. A politics, if you will. A literature of protest. A novel of ideas. A pornographic magazine of truly comic-book proportions. It is, in the end, whatever the hell I want it to be. And when I'm through with it, it's gunna blow a hole this wide straight through the world's own idea of itself! He smokes. Simon is impressed. They hear a bottle smash outside in the street and Henry goes to the window. They're throwing bottles at the house. HENRY (throwing down his cigarette) Come on, let's go break their arms! Simon jumps up. SIMON No! Henry stops. Simon looks away and sits back down. SIMON (pauses) If I'm quiet. He is ashamed of himself. Henry sees this and settles down. He considers his new friend with genuine care as he gets himself a new cigarette. He lights up, thinks, then grabs another chair and sits close by Simon. They sit there in silence a while, then... HENRY Once. I forget where I was. Central America maybe. Somewhere hot. Stupid job. Bad pay. Dangerous location and water so foul the natives wouldn't even piss in it. This crowd of drunken motherfuckers hired by the local drug cartel shows up at my hotel room and threatens to tear me limb from limb. And I say, listen, hombres, OK, you've got me outnumbered four to one and you're gunna kill me here tonight and not a soul in this dimly lit world is ever gunna notice I'm gone. Fine. But one of you... one of you... one of you is gunna have his eye torn out. Period. Silence. I repeat myself. One of you poor, underpaid jerks is gunna have an eye ripped out of its socket. I promise. It's a small thing, perhaps, all things considered. But I will succeed. Because it's the only thing I have left to do in this world. So why don't you just take a good look at one another one last time and think it over for a few minutes more. (smokes, waits) They sober up a little, look at their shoes in confusion, then step out into the hall to talk among themselves. Henry stares into the flames and falls silent. Simon is riveted. He leans forward, on the edge of his seat... SIMON What happened? HENRY (winking) Well, here I am, still, after all. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE. UPSTAIRS -- NIGHT Later that night. Simon climbs the stairs and stops when he hears raunchy sex from his sister's room. He stands outside her door and listens. MARY (off) Did you throw up all over some girl? Simon looks up the hall and sees his mother in her room, sitting on the edge of her bed, smoking. He approaches and stands in her doorway. MARY They were throwing bottles at the house. Simon says nothing. He looks down at his feet. MARY (gesturing to Fay's room) She's got some ex-con in there she met at the bar. Tattoos all over himself and a big red bloated nose. SIMON Did you take your pills? Now she says nothing. She smokes and looks away. Simon steps into the bathroom and gets her medication. He runs a glass of water and brings it in to her. She swallows the pills and washes them back with water. SIMON You want me to tell her to be quiet? She looks away, unconcerned and cynical. MARY What's the use? She might as well get it while she can. She's not always gunna have the ass she has now, you know. That's just how life is. She throws the blanket over herself and turns off the light. Simon stands there in the dark. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE KITCHEN -- NIGHT Moments later. Simon comes downstairs into the quiet, dark kitchen and sits at the table. He listens to the traffic on the highway and stares off into space. Finally, he takes the notebook Henry gave him from his pocket and places it before him. But then he just gazes off into the dim living-room and scratches his head. Returning his attention to the notebook, he digs down into his pocket and retrieves his short stub of pencil. He opens the notebook and carefully flattens back the cover. Lifting the pencil, he pauses and stares at the blank page. Then, after more intense hesitation, he brings the pencil's dull tip to the very top left edge of the page and begins writing in a slow, laborious hand. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE KITCHEN -- DAY The next morning. Henry barges in the kitchen door with two containers of coffee and some jelly donuts. Simon jumps up from where he sits asleep over his notebook at the table. HENRY Good morning, Simon! Glorious day, huh? Here, have a donut. Can you lend me twenty dollars? Simon rubs the sleep from his eyes, blinks, disoriented and reaches for his wallet. HENRY Thanks. Where's the library in the scruffy little burgh? SIMON (handing him cash) Down the highway about a mile and a half and then make a left. HENRY Excellent! I'm polishing up the final chapters of my 'Confession' and I need a reasonably well-stocked reference section. He lifts up Simon's notebook. HENRY What's this? Simon hesitates, shyly. SIMON I thought. Um. I was. I wanted to. Maybe. He gives up, sighs and gazes at the floor. Henry flips through the book, impressed. It is full from cover to cover, every page dense with Simon's cryptic scrawl. Henry frowns, intrigued. Then... HENRY Can I take this? Simon looks up, terrified. But his friend puts him at ease. HENRY I'll correct the spelling. EXT. JUNK YARD -- DAY Later that day. Simon finds a number of volumes of the classics while crushing garbage. EXT. BEHIND WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY That evening. Simon sits with his evening beer and his new collection of soiled classics. He cracks open a volume of Shakespeare and tries to read. It's an obvious struggle. He puts it aside and lifts up Wordsworth, studying its cover and the texture of the pages. A page flutters away and he climbs down to the edge of a greasy puddle to retrieve it. It's now wet and torn, so he flattens it out on the concrete and tries to fit it back into the book. He reads a little, furrowing his brow, then drinks. He bites his lip and tries again. He sits back, exhausted and thinks. He hears a twig snap and looks back over his shoulder to see... Amy throws a bottle at his head. Smash!!!! He falls to the ground, blood streaming down his neck. Warren runs over and grabs him by the shirt, lifting him out of the puddle and smacking him in the head. Amy runs forward and waits with a rolled-up newspaper which she sets aflame with her lighter. Warren punches Simon in the stomach and throws him to the ground, then unzips his fly and pisses on him. Amy watches, giggling excitedly, waving the flaming torch. Simon crawls away and grabs hold of an old section of fence, while Warren zips up and grabs the fire from Amy. Simon pulls himself to his knees, rests his face against the rusted fence and gasps for breath. Warren waves the flaming torch in his face. SIMON (weakly, unheard) One of you is gunna lose an eye. Amy comes nearer with a can of gasoline. Simon pulls himself to his feet as she splashes him with fuel. Warren is waving the torch deliriously above his head. SIMON (screaming) One of you is gunna lose an eye! Warren stops. Amy steps back and lowers the gas can. Simon turns with effort to face them, adjusts his glasses and continues... SIMON One of you. I promise. Warren watches him blankly, then is burned by the torch which is too hot to handle. He drops it. Amy giggles, then stops, excited, but confused. Simon grips the rusted chainlink so that it cuts into his hands and stares straight at Warren. SIMON You can set me on fire. But one of you is gunna have an eye torn out of your head. I promise. Warren is transfixed. He shivers and looks at Amy, who steps back, scared, and puts down the gas can. She turns and walks away. Warren looks back at Simon, troubled. He hangs there still, glaring at him. Further away, Warren rejoins Amy and stares at his hands. Amy looks ill. WARREN Fuck. AMY Take me home. INT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Henry is at one of the tables, correcting the spelling in Simon's notebook, when he looks up and sees... Simon stumble in, beaten and bruised, dropping his classics to the floor. Henry and Mr Deng rush over to him. HENRY (scared) Simon! Who did this to you? SIMON I was gunna tear out their eyes. I knew I could do it. HENRY Whose eyes? SIMON I told them. Like you said. I told them. And I knew I could do it. He passes out. Henry looks at Mr Deng. MR DENG You should take him home. He smells like a toilet. Henry nods, agreeing, then lifts Simon off the floor. Mr Deng holds the door open as Henry carries his friend out into the parking lot. Meanwhile, Gnoc gathers up the classics from the floor and places them beside Simon's notebook, where it still sits open on the table. She looks at it, then reads. She lifts it off the table and reads further, immediately and deeply engrossed. Mr Deng watches as Henry departs with Simon, then comes back into the store and stops, startled, when he sees... Gnoc sitting there, staring off into space, the notebook open in her hands before her, singing quietly. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY Twenty minutes later. Fay is in the bathroom helping Simon out of his clothes, trying to clean his wounds. FAY (calling) Shit, Mom, we gotta get him to a hospital! SIMON No! FAY Oh, shut up! Turn around. Henry is at the kitchen table with Mary. She watches him suspiciously. He lets her. MARY This kinda thing has happened before. HENRY (standing) It won't happen again. She watches him as he walks around the room, browsing. MARY How do you know? He stops and lifts a small framed photo of a soldier off the piano. HENRY This your husband? Violated somehow, she gets up and snatches it out of his hands. She puts it in a drawer and cringes as Henry plays one note on the piano. MARY Stop that. He fixes her with a steady, knowing stare which causes her to gather the collar of her bathrobe up around her neck. She steps back, exposed, when there's a knock at the door. They look over to see... Mr Deng enter with the notebook. MR DENG (nods to Mary, then) Mr Fool, what is this? HENRY It's poetry. MR DENG Are you sure? Henry comes over, takes the notebook from him and shoves it in his pocket. HENRY Of course I'm sure. I corrected the spelling myself. MR DENG It made my daughter sing. HENRY Yeah, well, you know -- that's what poetry does. MR DENG But she has never spoken in her life. Meanwhile, back in the bathroom... SIMON Owww!!! FAY Keep still! SIMON Let me do it! FAY (fed up) Fine! You do it, Simon! I don't care! She storms out to the top of the stairs, cocks her hip and whines... FAY Mom! Simon's got a broken rib, his shoulder's dislocated or something, and he won't let me disinfect the gash in his head! MARY Fay, just take him to the hospital, will ya! FAY (stamping her foot) But he won't go! MARY (screaming) Simon Grim, you go to the hospital with Fay right now, do hear me! Simon reaches out and slams the bathroom door. Fay looks from the bathroom door down the stairs to Mary. Mary, her nerves rattled, glances over at Mr Deng, who turns and leaves the house. Henry lights a fresh cigarette, loosens his tie and heads upstairs. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE BATHROOM -- DAY A moment later. Henry throws open the door and enters. He steps over Simon, who is on the floor, folded up against the toilet. HENRY We gotta talk. Henry sits on the edge of the bathtub and takes the notebook from his pocket. HENRY What the hell were you trying to do when you wrote this thing? Simon just looks at him, not certain what he means. SIMON Nothing. HENRY Well, you know you wrote it in a kind of iambic pentameter. SIMON Iambic what? HENRY Verse. He scratches his chin and smokes. HENRY Look, in my opinion, this is pretty powerful stuff. Though your spelling is Neanderthal, and your reasoning a little naive, your instincts are profound. But the whole thing needs to be given a more cohesive shape. It can be expanded. Followed through. Unified. (smokes, then) You see what I'm getting at? Simon just stares at him, overwhelmed. Henry drops the notebook on the floor and points at it with his cigarette. HENRY Are you willing to commit yourself to this? To really work on it? To give it its due? In the face of adversity and discouragement? To rise to the challenge you yourself have set? Simon just blinks, looks away and wonders. HENRY And don't gimme that wonderstruck 'I'm-only-a-humble-garbage-man' bullshit, either. SIMON It hurts to breathe. HENRY (nodding) Of course it does. Simon coughs and Henry leans back and smokes. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE UPSTAIRS -- NIGHT An hour later. Fay cringes outside Simon's room as Henry goes about setting her brother's arm. SIMON Like this? HENRY Yeah. No. OK? SIMON Wait! HENRY Don't move! Fuck. There. SIMON Are you sure that's right? HENRY Yes. Now shut up and lie back. Simon does. SIMON Is this gunna hurt? HENRY Yes. He pauses, then leans back. HENRY You gunna be alright? Simon nods and stares at the ceiling. Henry hands him a towel. HENRY Here. Bite on this. SIMON (spots blood on it) What's that? HENRY (looking) It's blood. From your head. Lie back. Shove that in your mouth and hold on to something. Simon bites down on the towel and grips the edge of the bed with his free hand. Henry sits on his legs and gently raises the broken arm. Outside the door, Fay bites her knuckles. Further down the hall, Mary listens from her bedroom. HENRY Okay. You ready? Simon nods. Henry grabs hold of the arm, swallows and braces himself. Simon waits, then Henry tugs the arm straight. SIMON Aaagghhh!!!!!!! Fay turns and runs down the stairs. Mary backs away into her room and shuts the door. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE KITCHEN -- NIGHT Later that night. Henry comes downstairs and stops, tired. Fay is sitting at the table with a bottle of gin and two glasses. She has dolled herself up a little and Henry likes what he sees. He looks her over and she smiles. He sits. She pours. They drink. FAY So, do you have, like, you know, a girlfriend, Henry? HENRY No. They drink again in silence. He lights her cigarette and they watch each other closely. Finally, Fay leans on the table and twirls a strand of her hair between her fingers. FAY Do you find me attractive? HENRY Yes, I do. FAY I look young for my age, don't I? HENRY How old are you? FAY How old do you think I am? HENRY You look young. FAY (playfully) How young? HENRY I don't know. Young. FAY But how... I mean, do I look more like twenty, or... you know, thirty? He drinks and studies her. She presents her profile. Finally, he leans back. HENRY Thirty. Fay jumps up, furious. FAY Listen, you geek, after a couple of drinks plenty of people mistake me for eighteen! She grabs her bag and storms out of the house. Henry watches her go, then chuckles deviously and splashes himself another drink. EXT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Next morning. A thirty-year-old cocktail waitress named Vicky walks up and stops when she sees... Warren, sitting back against the side of World of Donuts, smoking a joint and thinking about his future. She sighs and approaches. VICKY Hey, Warren, are you a registered voter? WARREN Bug off, Vicky! Unruffled, she hands him a flyer. WARREN (reading) 'Saving America From Itself.' What the fuck is this? VICKY It's everything you need to know about the upcoming elections and congressman Owen Feer and all the really good things he wants to do for our country. He tokes deeply, then... WARREN Oh yeah, like what? VICKY He wants to win back this country for us Americans, Warren, and restore some kind of cultural-moral standard to our way of life. Warren looks over the flyer, then reconsiders Vicky. WARREN What time's your kid go off to school? VICKY (carefully) Nine o'clock. WARREN How about I come over and visit you later? Vicky sighs, troubled. She adjusts her waitress uniform and looks mildly offended. VICKY Well, I don't know, Warren. I mean... Warren gets up, too. WARREN Come on. I mean it. I'm trying to change. Vicky is hard-pressed. She wants to believe him, but knows better. She thinks about it while... Henry passes by and approaches the store. INT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Same time. Henry enters and takes Simon's notebook from his pocket. He flips through a few pages and selects one in particular. He tears it out of the book and tapes it up beside the register so customers can read it. He winks at Gnoc. She smiles shyly and makes him a coffee. He takes it and moves off to a table just as... Vicky enters. She starts accumulating groceries, placing them on the counter one item at a time. Henry settles down and watches as... Vicky returns to the counter with a bottle of orange juice and notices the poem. She reads, holding the orange juice out to her side. Gnoc starts to ring up the other purchases as her father comes up behind her, busying himself with an inventory of the cigarettes. Vicky's lip starts to tremble as she reads, a horrified expression clouding her face. Finally... Smash!!!! She drops the bottle of orange juice and stands back. Mr Deng and Gnoc jump back, alarmed. Henry tilts his head and pays close attention. VICKY (screaming at Mr Deng) How dare you put something like this up where anyone can see it! Mr Deng looks from her to the poem and then over at Henry. Henry urges the man to stand up for himself. MR DENG (to Vicky) It's poetry. VICKY It's pornography! The product of a diseased mind! You oughta be ashamed of yourself, Mr Deng! MR DENG It made Gnoc sing. VICKY (pauses, confused) It's disgusting! There oughta be a law or something! She grabs her things and leaves. Mr Deng holds his head and looks over at Henry. HENRY (winking) There's no accounting for taste, is there, Mr Deng? Mr Deng has no idea. He sits, worried, as Gnoc comes out from behind the counter and begins mopping up the mess. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE KITCHEN - DAY Later. Henry is at the kitchen table with Simon, working on the poem. Simon is bandaged up, his arm in a sling, black eyes, etc. HENRY See, Simon, there are three kinds of there. There's 'There'. T-H-E-R-E. There are the donuts. Then there's T- H-E-I-R; which is the possessive. It is their donut. Then, finally, there's 'they're'. T-H-E-Y-'-R-E. A contraction, meaning they are. They're the donut people. Get it? SIMON Uh-huh. Henry lifts up one of Simon's newly acquired classics... HENRY And look, if you're gunna read Wordsworth you've gotta get a more up-to-date edition. This odoriferous tome you're so attached to doesn't even have all fourteen books of the Prelude. And you need notes. Commentary. I'll go to the library and find you the best edition they have. SIMON Thank you, but that's OK. I'll stop there on my way back from work. Well, yes, maybe not today, but, you know, tomorrow, probably. HENRY Quit. SIMON My job? HENRY Yeah. SIMON Why? HENRY You need time to write, Simon. To study. To reflect. SIMON But I like my job. HENRY We all have to make sacrifices. A vocation like ours, Simon, is not a nine to five thing. You can't put a fence around a man's soul. We think and feel where and when we can think and feel. We are the servants of our muse and we toil where she commands. Simon looks past him and Henry follows his gaze to find... Mary standing at the foot of the stairs, listening to them. She says nothing. She looks Henry up and down, then shakes her head disdainfully and grunts. She throws herself on the couch and turns on the TV, casting acid glances over at the kitchen. EXT. THE GRIM HOUSE - DAY Moments later. Henry and Simon come outside... SIMON She's clinically depressed. HENRY Yeah, and what's that mean? SIMON (thinking, then) I guess it means it's not her fault. Henry wanders out to the road, checking his wallet, then... HENRY (sighing) You ever think of leaving? SIMON Here? HENRY Yeah. SIMON To go where? HENRY Out there. You know, into the world. Where ever. Simon looks off, thinks it over and slowly nods. SIMON Yeah, I guess. HENRY (reciting) 'Opportunity will step away and make room for a man to pass it by.' SIMON Is that from your book? HENRY No. I found it in a fortune cookie. He pulls the tiny piece of crumpled advice out from one of his pockets and shows it to Simon. SIMON Can I read your confession? HENRY No. Not yet. Soon. We'll see. SIMON Is it almost finished? HENRY (puffing himself up) Well, you know, Simon, a piece of work like this, it's... A vocation like ours... You can't put a fence around a man's soul. What I'm trying to achieve, it's... Well, it takes a lifetime really. It's a life's work. (looking around) But soon. Don't worry. I'd appreciate your feedback. I gotta go. See ya. He hurries away around the corner. Simon walks back to the house and stops when he sees... A plain-clothes policeman, Officer BuÒuel, drive up and park before the house. Simon spies as the man gets out of his car and knocks on Henry's door. He, of course, gets no answer. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE KITCHEN -- DAY Later that day. Simon works on his poem at the kitchen table while Fay flips through a magazine and watches TV. Mary, lying on the couch in her bathrobe, watches her own TV. The cacophony is augmented by the rattling dishwasher and the trucks rumbling by on the highway outside. Mary looks over at her son, suspicious, and leans off the couch. MARY What are you doing there, Simon? He carefully finishes writing a word, then looks up and pauses. SIMON I'm writing a poem. Mary looks at Fay, who looks up from her magazine and considers her brother. Then they break out laughing. Simon looks on. They laugh and laugh and laugh... INT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Later. Simon is bent over his notebook, consulting a dictionary, hard at work. Amy and three kids are grouped around the register, reading the page Henry taped up earlier. As they read, Amy glances anxiously back at Simon. They finish reading and stand back. PAT So what? It ain't so great. CHRIS (to Amy, of Simon) That him? Amy nods 'Yes', then leads them towards Simon. Simon scribbles away. AMY (off) Pardon me, Simon. He looks up, sees her, panics and slides away on the seat. Amy looks down and bites her lip, contrite. She sighs. AMY Uhm. Look, ah... I'm the editor of the high school newspaper now and... PAT One of the editors. AMY One of the editors, and we... PAT You. AMY I... wanted to know if we could print your poem in this month's issue. Simon looks around at them all, threatened. SIMON Why? AMY Because I think it's great. PAT I don't. CHRIS (to Pat) Who cares what you think? TED You're a drag. CHRIS A well-known drag. AMY (to Simon) Please? Simon fumbles with his pencil, ill at ease and self-conscious. Then, to get rid of them, he nods his consent. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY That evening. Fay comes downstairs in only a towel and wet hair. She switches on the TV and looks for cigarettes. She finds Mary's pills on the table and remembers to ask... FAY Ma, you take your medication? Mary is lying on the couch. She drags her eyes from the TV and glances lazily at Fay, then back to the TV. FAY (to herself) Guess so. She sits at the kitchen table and lifts her magazine. Henry shows up at the kitchen door with a pile of library books. His eyes brighten when he sees... Fay sitting there wearing only her towel. He knocks. She looks back over her shoulder and sees him. HENRY Evening, Fay. FAY (disdainfully) What do you want? HENRY I've got these books for Simon. She turns away. FAY Well, leave 'em there on the counter, then. He comes in and stacks the books near the sink. Fay pretends to ignore him, but rakes her fingers through her wet hair anyway, to show more shoulder. This is not lost on Henry, who tarries and leans back against the counter, salivating. Fay flips through her magazine and Henry steps closer and leans against the fridge. She casts a bored glance in his direction, then returns her attention to the TV. She senses him step aside and follows his movements without turning. Suddenly his hand appears from behind her and gently strokes her hair. She freezes, waits, wonders... He leans his face down beside her. She looks at him. He looks at her, then down to... Her bare legs crossed before her on the kitchen chair. His hand moves down and slides itself deep in between her things. Her mouth drops open. He looks back up at her. He grins. Fay jumps up and away, breathlessly clutching the towel around herself. Henry casts a glance over her body, throws his hair back out of his face and shivers with lust. Fay steps back and grabs hold of the staircase banister, making an unconvincing gesture of injured pride. Henry comes closer and she steps backwards up the stairs. He stops, loosens his tie, holding her with his gaze. She readjusts her towel, throws back her wet hair, sighs defiantly, then sashays into her room, leaving the door ajar. Henry waits there at the foot of the stairs, reaches down, grabs his crotch and repositions his hard-on. He takes a step up the stairs, then stops. He looks over to the couch and sees... Mary, lying there, sedately amazed. He pauses, then grins. Mary blinks and smiles sleepily. INT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Same time. Simon sits back from his writing and rubs his neck. Putting down his pencil, he looks up and sees... Warren enter the store and grab a beer from the cooler. Seeing Simon, he waves and approaches. WARREN Hey, Simon, you a registered voter? Simon hesitates, but then nods uncertainly. Warren hands him a flyer. This year when you go to the polls, I want you to consider Congressman Owen Feer. He wants to restore America to its position of unmatched wealth, power and opportunity; to revitalize American civilization and lead the human race to even greater levels of freedom, prosperity and security! He's a good man. He steps over to the register and pays for his beer. Mr Deng glares at him, distrustfully. Warren stops on his way out and snarls at the old man... WARREN Immigrant. He leaves. Simon looks down and studies the flyer. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE. UPSTAIRS -- DAY Same time. Fay lies across her bed in her towel, holding a pose and glancing anxiously back at the door. Finally, losing her patience, she gets up. FAY Where is he? She opens the door and looks out into the hall. He's not there. She steps out into the hall and listens. FAY Henry? Nothing. She comes to the top of the stairs and hears faint activity from down below. She proceeds downstairs. She sees no one in the kitchen, then looks in the living- room and stops. She goes white, her mouth falling open in horror. Henry and Mary are screwing one another on the couch. Sloppy, impassioned, brute sex. FAY (screaming) Mommy!!!!! They fall away from each other in terror and fatigue. Mary clutches wildly at her bathrobe as Henry falls over the coffee table, stumbles to his feet and pulls up his trousers. Fay is crushed. She breaks out in tears and runs upstairs. Henry catches his breath and starts after her, but stops, uncertain and confused. MARY You bastard! HENRY What? MARY Get out! INT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Simon is asleep with his head down on the table. He wakes finally and sees... Henry sitting across from him, gripping a beer and reading the poem. He finishes, shuts the book and drinks. HENRY Listen. I know a man. He's a big shot in the publishing business. Angus James. Smart, adventurous and tons of integrity. When this thing is ready, I'll recommend he reads it. He'll respect my opinion. Simon takes this in, then looks down at his hands and proceeds carefully. SIMON A man was here today looking for you. HENRY (alert) What man? SIMON I don't know. He drove by the house a few times. Henry throws his eyes heavenward and pulls his hair. Jumping to his feet, he paces maniacally. HENRY Why do they torment me like this? Why? They're like a bunch of fucking mosquitoes! A customer a few tables away gets nervous and leaves. SIMON What do they want from you? HENRY They want to suffocate me, Simon! They wanna extinguish me like a flame! Some kid named Tim, sitting at another table, turns around and asks... TIM But why? HENRY They're afraid, that's why! They're afraid of what I might do! What I might say! Think! They're afraid of my ideas! He drinks, then returns and sits beside Simon. HENRY You and I are alike in this way, Simon. SIMON Yeah? HENRY We're outsiders. We think and feel too much and too deeply. And the world can't handle that. Our mere existence is a threat to its illusion of security. Sure, they'll name a wing of a new library after us when we're dead! But now... Now, when we're alive... Now, they wanna burn us at the stake! He drinks, burps, then slams down the can. He glances over at Tim who is still looking on. HENRY Scram. Tim hesitates, but then obeys. He gets up and leaves. Henry returns to Simon. HENRY For example, I made love to your mother about half an hour ago and now I'm beginning to think that maybe it wasn't such a good idea. Simon blinks. Henry adds... HENRY I mean to say, I think Fay may be jealous. Simon is deeply confused. He looks ill. He stands and takes a few steps away, staring at the floor. SIMON I don't want to think about this. HENRY Bad move, Simon. Simon stops and looks at him. HENRY (pointing at him) A poet has got to be able to think about anything. Simon pauses, then comes closer to Henry and stops. SIMON Am I really a poet? Henry jumps up, strides around the store and speaks at the top of his voice. HENRY Of course you are! A great poet! But you need experience. You need to do something to be ashamed of every once in a while, for cryin' out loud. He walks to the door. HENRY Come on! Let's go out! There's a den of iniquity right across the street! You got any money? He strides out of the store. Simon stands there, stunned and looks at Mr Deng as the old man wipes off the table with a wet rag. INT. THE INFERNO -- NIGHT Later that night. Henry is dancing wildly on the bar with two sloppy-drunk topless dancers. The place is rocking and the crowd cheers them on. Simon sits perched on a stool, gripping the bar with white knuckles and clutching a beer, looking on in terror as... Henry starts stripping. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- NIGHT Later that night. Simon stumbles in and heads upstairs. But he stops, seeing... Mary, sitting on the top step, smoking. She looks guilty and tense. So does Simon. MARY That man's a bad influence. SIMON On who? She gets up and storms into her room. INT. FAY'S ROOM -- NIGHT Moments later. Simon comes upstairs and stops outside his bedroom door when he sees... Fay, passed out drunk on her bed. Her clothes are half off and her lipstick smeared. She still grips a bottle of tequila in her hand. Simon hesitates, but then goes in and removes her shoes. He gets her out of her jacket and rolls her into the bed. Her bare limbs have their effect on Simon and he finds himself staring at her thigh. He reaches out and almost caresses her leg where her hiked- up skirt reveals the bottom of her behind. He catches himself, snaps his hand away and covers Fay with a blanket. He flees. INT. SIMON'S ROOM -- NIGHT Moments later. Simon is alone in the room with his bed. The pale sheets beckon. He is flushed. He blinks. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE KITCHEN -- NIGHT Moments later. He creeps down the stairs with an arm-load of books. Sitting at the table, he wrenches a nearby lamp into a more useful position and begins to read. DISSOLVE TO: INT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY The next morning. Henry stumbles up the stoop carrying a laptop computer, its various accessories and a couple of coffees. He lets himself in and dumps the computer on the kitchen counter. Simon is asleep on the couch, still in his clothes. HENRY (shoving him) Simon. Hey, Simon. (Simon wakes) Come on. I got ya some coffee. Henry trudges back to the kitchen, where he whips out his red pen and immediately begins to correct Simon's poem. Simon rolls off the couch and makes his way to the table. Seeing the computer... SIMON What's this? HENRY It's a computer. You write on it. He reaches into his pocket. HENRY Here's the manual. Simon looks over the computer and flips through the manual. SIMON Where'd you get it? HENRY I stole it. Now listen. Remember how yesterday we discussed the relative desirability of cadence in relation to the readability of... FAY (off) Oh, shit! Not you again! Fay is on the stairs, hungover and disgusted. Henry throws up his hands and gets up to go. HENRY Simon, I can't work under these conditions. FAY Yeah! Get outta here, you freak! HENRY Get a life! FAY Eat shit and die, Henry! Mary throws open her bedroom door. MARY (screaming) Beast! Fiend! Rapist! FAY Oh, shut up, Mom! Fay stomps back upstairs. Mary slams her door shut. Simon runs out after Henry. EXT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Moments later. Simon follows Henry out into the street and over towards World Of Donuts... SIMON Henry, wait up! HENRY I am not a rapist! But Henry stops short, seeing... Officer BuÒuel enter World of Donuts. HENRY Shit. Come on, this way. And he runs down the street in the opposite direction. Simon hangs back, but then follows... INT. CHURCH -- DAY Moments later. They scramble in and Henry is out of breath. He slumps down into a pew. HENRY Keep a look out. Tell me when he's gone. Simon does, but then... SIMON Henry, what's going on? Who is that guy? What's he want? HENRY He wants to help me! He wants to be my friend. He pats his pockets, looking for his smokes. Simon looks on, baffled. He comes closer. SIMON Help you with what? HENRY (suddenly) Shhh! He hears something, stands and moves further into the church. Simon hesitates, but then follows. They hear someone crying. Finally, in a pew off to one side in the shadows, they find... A young priest named Father Hawkes. He's a wreck. He looks up from his quiet sobbing and sees... Henry and Simon standing there looking on with embarrassed distaste. He lowers his head in shame. Henry moves closer and sits beside the distraught priest. HENRY What's wrong? The priest sighs hopelessly. FATHER HAWKES I doubt. Henry leans back with a sigh and reaches for his cigarettes. HENRY So, you're an honest man. Why beat yourself up about it? He offers a cigarette to the priest and he accepts. FATHER HAWKES I don't know if there are grounds for faith. Is my vocation relevant? Does it make a difference? SIMON A difference in what? FATHER HAWKES The world. The way it is. Is this a way to help relieve suffering? HENRY Your vocation makes a difference. FATHER HAWKES How can you be so sure? HENRY Because vocation is the difference. Only someone who really cares doubts. Listen, father, as I was about to tell my friend Simon here, I am, without doubt, the biggest sinner within a hundred miles of this parish. But still, I've gotta stay up late at night to outdo the unending parade of mundane little atrocities I see committed every day right out in the open spaces of this loud and sunlit culture we call home. FATHER HAWKES You seem to me to be a sensitive and generous man. HENRY I like to think so. But the fact is I appreciate depravity. Nevertheless, I insist your vocation makes a difference, because to hold out anything other than a spiritual yardstick to reality is to be jerking off grandly into the abyss. Listen, have you got any money? Let's go have a drink. EXT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Warren is stopping people on their way in and out of World of Donuts. WARREN Excuse me, miss, are you a registered voter? MISS Oh God, really I don't know. WARREN Well, I'd like to give you some information about Congressman Owen Feer. This man is gunna make a big difference in the lives of every American in the years to come... MISS Thanks, sure. I gotta go, thanks. A man, Bill, steps up... WARREN Pardon me, sir... BILL Fuck off! WARREN Right. Warren stands back and loosens his tie. He looks over at Pearl age seven, who is sitting outside the store. WARREN What time's your mother get off work? She doesn't respond. He shakes his head and approaches. He sees Fay exit the store... WARREN Fay, are you a registered voter? FAY (stopping) Don't you dare talk that way to me! And keep your hands off my brother. Pearl, what are you doing here? WARREN I'm watchin' her. Fay figures it out and approaches. FAY You and Vicky get back together? WARREN I gotta regular job now and everything. She lifts a flyer and reads. FAY I saw this retard on TV this morning. WARREN He's gunna be the next president of the United States of America, Fay. FAY Keep dreamin' Warren. The guy's a Nazi. WARREN I like him! FAY Gimme a light. WARREN (lighting her cigarette) He's a decent man. He takes complicated issues and totally simplifies them. And I appreciate that. FAY You still sell dope? WARREN No. You know what the problem is with this country, Fay? Me. I'm the problem. We live in a culture of poverty and crime, where the work ethic is undermined and male responsibility is made irrelevant. She studies him a moment more, lost, then shakes her head and helps the child off the car. FAY Come on, Pearl, let's go play at my house. WARREN She gives you any trouble, Fay, you just let me know. INT. THE INFERNO -- DAY An hour later. Henry and Father Hawkes are drinking. Simon leans on the bar, nodding off to sleep. After a while, Father Hawkes leans back and... FATHER HAWKES Do you think human beings are innately bad? HENRY Worse than bad! Monstrous! But I love that about them. (banging on the bar) Wake up, Simon! Simon falls off his bar stool. EXT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Moments later. Warren straightens his tie and looks over to see... Simon stagger up. Warren shakes his head in dismay and approaches. Simon steadies himself against the wall of the building. WARREN Jesus Christ, Simon, you're letting yourself go to hell! You read that flyer I gave you? SIMON What? WARREN Simon, wake up and smell the coffee, huh! It's up to guys like you and me to help create a better tomorrow! Simon is lost. INT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Moments later. He staggers into World of Donuts and heads for the coffee machine, but stops when he sees BuÒuel talking to Mr Deng. BuÒuel looks over. Their eyes lock. EXT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Same time. WARREN (to Vicky) Why would I steal a computer from the campaign office? VICKY I'm not saying you did, I'm just saying one was and since you do have this criminal background... Whack!!! He slaps her... WARREN (pointing) Don't judge me! Simon runs out of the store and limps away towards home as BuÒuel storms out in pursuit. Simon tries to run, but BuÒuel catches him easily. BU—UEL Look, I know you know him. People have seen you around together. Simon ceases to struggle, but shakes himself free and stands looking down at his feet. BuÒuel stands aside and watches him a moment, then reaches in his jacket and brings out his badge. BU—UEL I'm his parole officer. Simon studies the badge and waits a little, before asking... SIMON What did he do? BU—UEL I'm not supposed to talk about that stuff with people. SIMON He's my. Friend. BuÒuel pauses, then puts away his badge and looks around the parking lot. BU—UEL Mr Deng says you're some sort of a poet, or something. Simon doesn't corroborate this. He looks away and readjusts his sling. BuÒuel scratches his head, satisfied and prepares to leave. But first... BU—UEL You tell Henry to call me -- Officer BuÒuel -- pronto! Or they're gunna chuck his ass straight back into jail! Got it? Simon shrugs. BuÒuel waits a moment, then steps away and gets back in his car. Simon watches as the parole officer drives away and passes... WARREN Vicky, look I'm sorry. VICKY Don't you even come near me! INT. THE GRIM HOUSE KITCHEN -- DAY Later. FAY What do you mean, you quit? SIMON I quit my job. FAY Why! SIMON There are things I want to do. FAY Like what? Simon thinks of trying to explain, but then decides not to. SIMON 'Opportunity will step out of the way to let a man... pass it by.' FAY Are you drunk? SIMON Now you have to go out and get a job! FAY I am not gettin' a job! (paces, then) Who's gunna look after Mom! SIMON I will. Fay looks at the ceiling and sighs. FAY Pearl, go outside. They wait as the child goes outside. Mary listens, unseen, from her bedroom door. Fay comes over and frowns at her brother. She's about to lecture him, but he cuts her off. SIMON If you treat Mom like a sick person, she's gunna stay like... you know, a sick person. Fay tries to control herself. She sighs tiredly and attempts to reason with him... FAY Simon, don't be retarded... SIMON (banging the table) I am not retarded! Fay steps back, startled. Simon stands, but can't decide which way to go. He sits back down. SIMON I can see with my own eyes. Mary turns away from her door and sits on her bed. Fay leans over the stove, where a large pot of water is beginning to boil. FAY Mom can't be left alone with no one to keep an eye on her. Simon is frustrated and lashes out. SIMON Well, who's been keeping an eye on her while you've been out getting fucked by every OTB winner in town? Fay's mouth falls open and she staggers back, hurt. Simon regrets it already and stands to leave, scared. But Fay grabs the pot off the stove and hurls it at him, splashing boiling water all over his back. SIMON Aggghhhh!!! Outside, Pearl turns and looks back at the house. Simon lies gasping on the floor of the kitchen. Fay falls back against the stove, terrified and drops her head into her hands. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE BATHROOM -- DAY Later. Fay is crouched on the floor, sobbing, while Simon lies in a tub of cold water. Mary comes in with a pathetic little freezer tray of ice cubes and dumps them into the tub. She steps back into the hall and throws the ice tray down the stairs. She glares back at Fay, who cries even louder as Simon stares up at the ceiling. Mary shakes her head and walks into her room, slamming the door behind her. FAY (sniffling) What happened to her, Simon? How did she get this way? Will it happen to me too? Huh? Why are we so fucked up? Simon has no answers. But he reaches out and touches his sister's hand. INT. LIBRARY -- DAY Evening. Simon comes limping in, all stiff because of his scalded back. He's not familiar with the library, so he stands looking around, trying to figure it out. INT. LIBRARY STACKS -- DAY Moments later. He wanders into an aisle, overwhelmed by all the books. Coming to the far end of the aisle, he looks off to his left and sees Henry sitting on a small stool, reading, with ten or twenty open volumes scattered around him on the floor. SIMON (approaching) Henry? HENRY (looking up and rising) Simon! What are you doing here? SIMON Henry... Your parole officer, Officer BuÒuel, came by again today. Henry sighs and sits back down. SIMON He told me to tell you that if you don't call him they're gunna put you back in jail. HENRY Simon... SIMON He gave me this number... HENRY Simon... SIMON He was talking to Mr Deng too, and, well, you know, I was thinking... HENRY Simon, just shut the fuck up! Simon blinks and looks down at his feet, unable to respond. Deeply hurt, he simply turns to walk away. But Henry reaches out and grabs his arm. Simon stops, pauses and looks back at his friend. HENRY Forgive me. He lets go and turns away on his stool. HENRY Forgive me, Simon. Simon comes back over to him. SIMON Call him, Henry. Please. Henry gives in slowly to the inevitable. He sighs deeply and stands, handing Simon a book... HENRY OK. Look, do me a favor. You got a library card? SIMON Yeah. HENRY Check this out for me. Simon looks at the cover: Paradise Lost. HENRY Milton. Seventeenth century. English. You see, Simon, it's important my 'Confession' dig up the past, comb previous evidence and help chart the historic -- even the aesthetic -- inevitability of my ideas. And... A young woman passes by, scanning the stacks. She and Henry have a split second of eye contact, then she turns and moves away. Henry straightens his tie and watches her go. HENRY This place is crawling with chicks, Simon. Wander around. Leer a little. Cop a feel. Impose yourself on 'em. See what happens. SIMON I make girls uncomfortable. HENRY Bullshit! You've got a rough hewn charm that sets 'em on edge. Now, listen, I gotta go. SIMON Henry? Henry stops and turns. Simon pauses, then... SIMON What did you do? Henry watches him for a moment, then swaggers closer... HENRY I got caught. Simon waits for more but is disappointed. With one final cracked grin at his friend, Henry throws back his shoulders, slicks back his hair and strides off. Simon watches him go and frowns, not comforted. He flips through the pages of Paradise Lost. SIMON (voice over) 'Whereto with speedy words the arch- fiend replied Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable...' INT. LIBRARY READING ROOM -- DAY Moments later. He comes out from the stacks, working his way through the first page of Paradise Lost. He nearly bumps into a girl and they stop and look at one another. He tries to hold her gaze for a moment, challenging himself, but then turns away and stalks to a table. He sits and leans over the page. After a moment, though, he lifts his face and glances at... Another girl, sitting further down the table. She looks up from her reading and returns his gaze. He smiles at her. She gets up and leaves. Simon frowns, confounded and returns to his book. He takes out his notebook and pencil, meaning to take notes, but sees instead... A third girl sitting at another table, listening to her Walkman and typing her homework into a laptop computer. He finds himself staring at her and forces himself back to his book. But he can't help himself and glances back over at her. With a sigh, he begins to write in his notebook... SIMON (voice-over) Why is it this beautiful girl makes me sad? Does she know how beautiful she is? Do people tell her? Does she ever feel stupid? He looks back over at her. She happens to look up and their eyes meet. She smiles. Horrified, he looks down. SIMON Why don't I smile when she looks at me? I look away. Ashamed of myself. He watches her again, thinks, then writes... SIMON Her figure makes me violent. I want to somehow break her. But tenderly. How is this possible? Ask Henry. He writes a few moments more, scribbling across the page, then stops and looks back over at the girl. SIMON (voice-over) I can't breathe. He tears out the page and folds it in half. Then he gets up and crosses the room to where the girl is busily engaged in her work. She looks up, sees him, and removes her headset with a pleasant smile. He places his note on the table before her, then turns and walks quickly away. The girl watches him go, confused, then lifts the note and reads... SIMON (voice-over) Why do I do this to myself? And why do I reduce you to only one possibility? These are not even questions anymore. I know the answers myself. This isn't a page of notes. It's a letter. A letter to you. A desperate act. You are a miracle to me. I can't breathe. By now, Simon is gone from the library. The girl finishes reading the letter and looks around in astonishment. INT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Evening. Henry enters and sits with BuÒuel. BU—UEL How are you, Henry? HENRY (frowning) Peachy. Gimme a light. BU—UEL Have you found a job? Henry just glares at him and smokes. BU—UEL How 'bout those Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, did you go over and visit them yet? HENRY What happened to this assistant librarian position you were supposed to set me up with? BuÒuel looks down, disappointed. BU—UEL I tried, Henry. I really did. HENRY So what happened? BU—UEL Henry, with your background... Well, I mean, with your record, they didn't think it'd be right to have you at the neighborhood library. HENRY Why not? BU—UEL They thought you'd be a bad influence on the kids. Henry sits back, offended. BU—UEL (adds) Or worse. HENRY So my word is not enough. My promise worthless. The fact I've served my time nothing but the emblem of my continuing guilt. BU—UEL Apparently. Henry leans back and sighs, furious and indignant. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- NIGHT Simon comes in, excited and preoccupied, and finds Fay working at the computer. FAY What's up? SIMON (guiltily) Nothing. FAY I'm creating my rÈsumÈ. This computer's got a program especially for it. I bought some special stationery too. It's scented. Look. She shoves a sheath of papers up under his nose and he backs away in disgust. FAY It's roses. Simon takes his notebooks from a cabinet above the fridge. SIMON Can you type my poem into that thing? FAY (shocked) That's your poem? SIMON Yeah. FAY (smokes, then) Simon, Mom's right about you. A poem's supposed to be a small, delicate kinda thing. Kinda feminine. Gentle. Look at this. You've made a fuckin' telephone book. He places the notebooks on the table and leaves the house. Fay clears the computer screen, pulls the notebooks closer and gets down to work. INT. HENRY'S APARTMENT -- NIGHT Moments later. Simon arrives with a six-pack and finds Henry sitting in front of the fire, staring into the flames, brooding darkly. HENRY I was caught. Yes, I was caught... once. I was caught in flagranti delicto screwing a thirteen-year-old girl named Susan. She was an ugly and mean-spirited kid, but she knew how to play upon my weaknesses which, I admit, are deep and many. He drinks, then looks at Simon and adds... HENRY You appear shocked. SIMON (he is) Sorry. Henry stands and leans over the fire. HENRY It was a pathetic little conspiracy. A transparently desperate attempt to discredit me and my ideas; to label me a mere pedophile. As if I'd be ashamed of such a thing. As if Socrates himself hadn't been taken out of circulation for corrupting the youth of Athens! He comes over and takes a beer. He strides around the room, thinking, reflecting. HENRY Seven years. Seven years for one afternoon of blissful transgression. But what of it? Who cares? Prison's not so bad; particularly if one's a sex offender, free from the popular and conventional horror of sodomy. Stops, drinks declares... HENRY They were not 'lost years'. He approaches the notebooks lined up on the mantelpiece. HENRY I put them to good use. I began my major work. My opus. He glances over at Simon, who sits gripping his beer, watching, rapt. HENRY Believe me, Simon, this incident with the girl, prison... It pales to insignificance in the wider context of my career. He pauses and swills back some beer. He brightens up, gets excited... HENRY Nothing in comparison to the day my 'Confession' is unleashed. (beginning to pace) What an orgy we'll have then, huh? What shouts of outrage from the offended populace, from the sanctimonious purveyors of culture and quality, the righteous defenders of what ever inane and haphazard notion of progress then in vogue. They'll be beside themselves with fiercely reasoned critical analysis. Apoplectic with indignation! Drinks sloppily, burps, wipes his mouth with his arm. HENRY Their feelings will be hurt. He smashes the bottle in the fireplace. HENRY Yes, like a mirror which reflects only the inside of the person before it, my 'Confession' will lovingly render humanity's common monstrosity in all of its lurid wide screen glory. He grabs a new beer and twists off its cap. HENRY Why should I blush or feel shame before the common lot of humanity, anyway, for a few banal and, again I admit, inelegant transgressions? He drinks, sighs and sits back down. HENRY After all, really, I'm doing civilization a favor. Simon sits back in awe. He waits a moment and thinks. Finally he stands and approaches the 'Confession'. He reaches out and drags his hand across the notebooks. SIMON When can I read it? Henry sits staring into the flames again. He pauses, then... HENRY Soon. INT. CHURCH -- DAY Next day. Simon and Father Hawkes are deep in conversation. FATHER HAWKES We are told not to judge. But to forgive. Not to look into our neighbor's eye to find the bad, but to find the good. (pacing) Now this is difficult. I admit. (pause) But having a good friend is not always easy. Simon listens and carefully considers all the priest says. SIMON Yes, but... do you think Henry is... dangerous? Father Hawkes pauses, then comes closer and sits. FATHER HAWKES He needs help. Our help. Yours especially. SIMON But what can I do? FATHER HAWKES The best parts of himself come to the surface when he's helping someone learn. I've seen this. Let yourself be taught. Show your appreciation for his guidance. In this way, you know, perhaps. Well. There's hope for everyone. Even. Even Henry. INT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Fay comes walking up through the parking lot with Simon's notebooks and a pile of typed papers. She's a wreck; tear- stained face and a ball of tissues gripped in her hand like a weapon. She throws open the door to the World of Donuts and looks around. The place is crowded with teenagers hanging around like it was a cafÈ or student union. Fay sniffles tragically and falls on the counter. FAY Gnoc, gimme a value pack of Kleenex, will ya? Gnoc gets the Kleenex while Fay overhears two kids near Simon's poem... TIM The violence of the imagery reminds me of early Clash, while the lyricism of the verse recalls, for me, Walt Whitman. BIBI I would have said Dickinson, maybe even Eliot, and so on. But I agree with the punk roots... Fay pays for her tissues and makes her way to the back of the store where she finds Simon with Henry, who is holding forth to his friend and the small coterie of high school students surrounding them... HENRY The greats all say the same thing: little. And what little there is to be said is immense. Or, in other words, follow your own genius to where it leads without regard for the apparent needs of the world at large, which, in fact, has no needs as such, but, rather, moments of exhaustion in which it is incapable of prejudice. (drinks) We can only hope to collide with these moments of unselfconsciousness. This divine fatigue... this... FAY (sitting) Push over. Henry takes the typed manuscript from her and continues... HENRY As I tried to make plain in Paris: 'Nous savons que nous avons chutÈ parce que nous savons qui nous sommes.' 'We know we have fallen because we know who we are.' FAY (skeptically) When were you in Paris? HENRY (interrupted) That's beside the point. But did they listen to me? Of course not! Fay blows her nose and Simon is concerned. SIMON You alright, Fay? FAY (lighting a cigarette) No, I'm not alright! Your poem brought my period on a week and half early! So just shut up. Everybody just shut up! She drops her head to the table and cries. Henry and Simon look on in silence. Then Henry continues... HENRY For is this not the best of all possible worlds? Are not the evils of this world necessary components of a cosmos that could not exist without them? Amy's girlfriend, Chris, leans forward studiously and asks... CHRIS So, do you believe in God? HENRY (smokes, shrugs) Unfortunately. FAY (lifting her head) Yeah, but when were you in Paris? HENRY (aggravated) At. One. Time. CHRIS Simon, can I have your autograph? Simon looks from her to Henry. Henry winks at him. HENRY Go ahead. But never let yourself be flattered. Simon signs the girl's book. FAY (to Henry) So what about this friend of yours, Hot Shot? The publisher. HENRY Who? SIMON (reminding him) Angus James. FAY Yeah. Angus James. How about sending this poem to him? Henry seems a bit put upon. HENRY Because it's not done yet. FAY (to Simon) When's it gunna be done, Simon? SIMON I don't know. FAY Well, you oughta be home writing instead of hanging out over here with all your groupies. AMY Hey, I'm not a groupie. FAY Pardon me, swivel-hips. Is that your PowerBook? AMY Yeah. FAY Can I see it? Fay and Amy talk tech as... HENRY (continues) The thing to do is to send parts of it to different magazines and literary journals first. That kinda thing. You know. Substantiate it. AMY (looking up) What's 'scatalogical' mean? Henry sips his beer and looks at her. HENRY Filth, child. A preoccupation with excrement. Why? AMY That's what the Board of Education called Simon's poem, yesterday; scatological. Henry reaches across the table and shakes Simon's hand. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE KITCHEN -- DAY The next day. Fay is frying something on the stove, a cigarette hangs from her lip. A middle-aged woman with a press ID on her lapel appears at the kitchen door and taps. EDNA Hello? FAY Yeah, I'm listening. EDNA My name is Edna Rodriguez and I write the human interest column for the Queens County Examiner and I was just wondering if I could have a word with Simon Grim? Intrigued, Fay steps over to the door with her spatula. She looks Edna over, studies her ID, then steps away and screams upstairs. FAY Simon! EDNA (startled) Thank you. Fay comes back over near the door, waving her spatula. FAY You can't talk to him for, you know, too long or anything, 'cause he's gotta, you know... he writes all day. That's all he does. Can you believe that? No response. FAY (calling again) Hey! Simon! Get down here! Simon finally shuffles into the kitchen. FAY Simon, this is Edna. She's from the newspaper. EDNA (rapid fire) Simon, the Parents' Association at the local high school are calling your poem pornography. The teachers are defending the students' right to exercise their critical tastes and sensibilities. The county agrees with the Church and considers the poem emblematic of modern society's moral disintegration. How do you feel about these controversial reactions to your poem? Simon says nothing. He just stares at her. FAY (punching him) Simon, answer the woman. Simon just looks away, thinks, then wanders back upstairs. Mary passes him on his way out of the kitchen and comes up to Fay and Edna at the door. MARY I need my prescription filled. FAY Mom, this is Edna. Edna, Mom. EDNA Mrs Grim, what was Simon like as a child? MARY We all thought he was retarded. FAY Everyone did. MARY Never said a word. FAY He masturbated constantly. MARY Had no friends. FAY Till he met Henry. MARY And that's when all the trouble really started. INT. HENRY'S APARTMENT -- DAY Henry is shaving. Simon sits in the kitchen, sorting through rejection letters... SIMON (reading) Dear Mr Grim, we here at the magazine consider ourselves and the publication open-minded and cutting edge and have consistently printed the work of the most brilliant and farseeing young talent of the day. Every week we are forced to return writing which we can not for one reason or another publish and include a brief but polite refusal. But this tract you've sent us demands a response as violent as the effect your words have had upon us. Drop dead. Keep your day job. Sincerely, The Editors. HENRY De gustibus non disputandum est. SIMON (thinking) You can't argue with taste? HENRY About taste. You can't argue about taste. God, Simon. Simon gives up and pushes the letters away, beaten. SIMON The other twenty-five are almost as bad. I don't know why I bother. Henry drops his razor and stomps out into the hall. HENRY What do you mean you don't know why you bother? You bother because you know the poem is excellent! SIMON Do I? HENRY Of course you do! SIMON I'm not so sure sometimes. HENRY Can you sit there, look me straight in the eye, and tell me you don't think this poem is great? That it is not at once a work of great lyrical beauty and ethical depth? That it is not a genuine, highly individual, and profound meditation on the miracle of existence? Simon holds the stare, overwhelmed. SIMON I, ah... HENRY Can you? Simon looks away, thinks a moment, then looks back at Henry. SIMON No. I can't. HENRY So, you see, you have no choice! He goes back into the bathroom. Simon thinks a while, then... SIMON (calling) Can you recommend it to your friend, the publisher? No response. SIMON Henry? Can you recommend the poem to him? Still no response. Simon gets up and stands in the bathroom doorway. Henry is shaving. SIMON I mean, I think it's finished and, for better or worse, it is book length. HENRY That might not be as easy as it seems. SIMON Why? HENRY Well, it's been a long time. My name might not carry as much weight as it once did with Angus. SIMON But he's your friend, right? HENRY We were close at one time. SIMON You said he respected your opinion. Henry puts down his razor and looks at Simon in the mirror. HENRY Look, Simon, opinions come and go. He sees Simon looks worried. HENRY To be honest; my ideas, my writing, they haven't always been received well or even calmly. They're upsetting. I'm a controversial man. He walks around the bathroom, gesticulating. HENRY You see, what I'm doing is too radical. Too uncompromising. It'll take time for people to see its value. It's ahead of its time, perhaps, or maybe just... (stops) A recommendation from me might do you as much harm as it does good. Simon patiently absorbs all this, then walks through the kitchen and looks across at the 'Confession' notebooks. SIMON Henry, why can't I read the 'Confession'? HENRY Because certain work needs to be experienced all at once in order for one to appreciate the full force of its character. INT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Simon talks with Fay as she eats her lunch. FAY Simon, wake up! The guy's in a dream world! SIMON He's afraid that his reputation will prevent people from giving my work an honest chance. FAY His reputation as what? SIMON As a writer. FAY Gimme a break. SIMON He's kinda like in exile. Marginalized on account of his ideas. FAY If he's such a great big fat genius, why doesn't he write books? Like you do. SIMON He has. He's written a book. It's almost completed. He's been working on it for years. It's just not published. FAY Yeah, I bet. It's probably disgusting. SIMON (defensively) It's a quite serious and difficult piece of work, apparently. FAY Have you read it? SIMON No. Not yet. Soon. Certain work needs to be experienced all at once in order for one to appreciate the full force of its character. FAY Yeah, well, what ever. Listen, Simon, forget Henry. Go straight up to this Angus James character yourself and make him read your poem. She gets up to go. She's wearing a smart outfit. FAY I'm gunna apply for a job at the one- hour photo joint and then go over to the Mall to see about that job in the bank. Make sure Mom takes her pills. See ya. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY Mary is sitting, brooding in front of the TV, which displays only static white noise. She turns it off with the remote and sits in silence for a moment. She gets off the couch and moves to the kitchen table, where Fay's computer sits. She goes over and reaches up above the fridge, opening the cabinet containing Simon's notebooks. She hesitates, then takes them down and holds them in her hands, as if to begin reading. But then she puts them back. She walks over to the piano and stands there, hesitating, before slowly sitting down and opening it. She lifts her hands to play, then pauses and looks around behind her, making sure no one is there. But, finally, she turns back and begins playing. She plays a sad-sounding modern classical piece with rusty accomplishment. At one time she was probably quite good. She plays for a while, gradually letting herself become moved by the music. But then she stops, pauses, and looks behind her. Simon is standing in the kitchen. He has been deeply affected by her playing. SIMON Please don't stop. She stares him down a moment longer, then looks away and closes the piano. She returns to the couch and switches on the TV. Simon comes closer. He sits. SIMON That was nice what you were playing. MARY Yes, it was nice. But it was unremarkable. Simon waits. Eventually... SIMON Does that matter? MARY (looking right at him) Yes. It does. She gets up off the couch and goes upstairs. She slams her bedroom door and leaves Simon alone on the couch. He thinks. Then, he gets up and goes into the kitchen. He takes the typed manuscript of his poem from the cabinet above the refrigerator and goes to the door. He pauses, clutches the poem and goes out. EXT. SUBWAY STATION -- DAY Simon waits, clutching his poem to his side, as a train pulls into the station. Excited and determined, he gets on. INT. TRAIN -- DAY Simon travels to New York City. He finds an envelope on the floor to put the poem in. INT. MARY'S ROOM -- DAY Mary wakes up and sits on the edge of the bed, feeling regretful about her tone of voice with Simon. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE KITCHEN -- DAY Moments later. Mary comes down into the kitchen and listens. MARY Simon? No answer. She steps over to the cabinet and almost takes down Simon's notebook. But doesn't. She grabs her pills and is about to take them. But then she stops. She puts them down and goes to the cabinet. She takes down Simon's notebooks and sits at the table, pauses, then pulls them closer and begins to read. INT. PUBLISHING HOUSE LOBBY -- DAY Simon enters a big, posh lobby and checks the registry. INT. PUBLISHING HOUSE RECEPTION -- DAY Moments later. Simon comes out of the elevator and enters the reception area of James Midriff and Sutton Publishing. He walks hesitantly up to the receptionist, a bright and spirited young woman named Laura. LAURA Hi, I'll take that. Simon steps back defensively. LAURA Aren't you the messenger? SIMON No. LAURA Are you here to fix the plumbing? SIMON I'm here to see Mr. Angus James. LAURA (amused) Are you? SIMON I'm not a plumber. Or a messenger. I was once a garbage man. But now I'm a poet. Laura steps back, cocks her head and removes her designer eye-wear. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM -- DAY Same time. Angus is at a big table with two other men, Steve and Barry. BARRY The book, as we know it, Angus, will be a thing of the past within the next few years. Novels, articles, newspapers will all be downloaded on to our personal computers anyway. ANGUS So you're telling me to get out of the publishing business? STEVE No. But we've got to re-invent the publishing business for the electronic age. Laura knocks. ANGUS Yes, Laura? LAURA I'm sorry to disturb you, gentlemen, but... Angus, there's a particularly wound-up young garbage man out here who seems to have written a poem. A long poem. And I recall how, at last month's meeting, you stressed the need for us to be on the look-out for more marginalized verse from unestablished quarters of the American scene. ANGUS Did I say that? Steve and Barry nod. STEVE Yeah. You did. BARRY Twice. ANGUS Well, OK. Make an appointment, Laura. Sometime next month. LAURA Right-e-o. And she's gone. ANGUS (returning) So, anyway, how is the digital revolution going to help me sell books? INT. PUBLISHING HOUSE RECEPTION -- DAY Simon looks disappointed. SIMON Why can't I see him now? LAURA (sincerely) Because he's a very important man and, well, you're not. Simon just looks down at his shoes. Laura touches his arm and reassures him. LAURA Be reasonable. He looks up, pauses, then... SIMON Why? INT. CONFERENCE ROOM -- DAY Same time. ANGUS I don't think people are going to prefer reading books on television, Steve. STEVE It won't be television! BARRY It'll be interactive. STEVE Angus, look, we have a number of charts here... BARRY In every home in America the PC will be where the TV used to be. STEVE And it'll be a direct connection to all forms of media. BARRY An unprecedented transformation of American social life... STEVE We'll all become better informed, more literate, increasingly productive, and... Well, and, like I said, we have a number of charts... Laura re-enters... LAURA Sorry to disturb you again, gentlemen, but... Angus, I'd like to call security for this one. Though, before I do, I just wanted to ask just how marginal the as yet undiscovered voice of American poetry should be? ANGUS (thinking) Pretty damn marginal, I'd think. BARRY Down right controversial, probably. ANGUS How's he strike you? LAURA He's been denounced by his local Board of Education. BARRY Oh, I read about him in the paper. Hangs out in a delicatessen somewhere and writes pornography. INT. PUBLISHING HOUSE RECEPTION -- DAY Moments later. Angus comes out to the water cooler and glares at Simon as he gets a drink. ANGUS Hello, and why do you think I should take valuable time out of my busy schedule to read... He grabs the envelope and sees no title. ANGUS This? Simon is stumped. He looks over at Laura, who purses her lips and tilts her head. He twists a button on his shirt, thinking, then returns to Angus. SIMON Because it's a masterpiece. ANGUS Really? SIMON Yes. ANGUS (to Laura) Are you hearing this? LAURA He's adorable. SIMON I wouldn't want to waste your time. ANGUS I'm sure you wouldn't and I appreciate you being so straightforward. SIMON Thank you. ANGUS I assume you can take straightforward criticism? Simon looks over at Laura. LAURA Just say 'Yes'. SIMON (looking back) Maybe. ANGUS Get him a coffee, Laura. LAURA Have a seat, Mr Grim. ANGUS Hold my calls for the next half hour. LAURA What about Steve? ANGUS He doesn't drink coffee. Steve, do you drink coffee? STEVE (off) Angus, listen to me! INT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Henry paces back and forth. With the fingers of one hand pressed against his forehead and his eyes closed tight in concentration, he dictates to Amy, who is sitting at a table with her laptop computer, typing his every word. HENRY In the infinite amplitude of his love, God wants to create the largest number of best elements that can exist together in one cosmos... OK. Amy types away, fascinated by Henry's intelligence. HENRY In an instantaneous calculation made in eternity, God computes the best possible world and creates it. Fine. This 'decision' by God is uncontingent and eternal rather than temporally or ontologically sequential. Stops, zeroing in on his point. AMY How do you spell that? HENRY What? AMY Ontologically. HENRY O-N-T... Don't you have some kinda spell-check on that thing? AMY Never mind. HENRY It is impossible for every perfect good to be compatible with every other perfect good. The intense beauty of the mountain must be set off by the fertility of the plain, so to speak. He smokes, drinks, paces some more. Amy waits with bated breath, devastated by his obscure profundity. He comes back and sits beside her, reaching his conclusion. HENRY The good of freewill must entail real choices for sin. She gazes at his profile, in love. Henry sits thinking and Amy watches him reverently. She leans over close and whispers in his ear. He turns and looks at her, alarmed. HENRY Listen, Amy, back off. I'm on parole. AMY You feel the same way. I can tell. I can see it when you look at me. Henry jumps up and looks around, paranoid. He keeps his voice down and points at her. HENRY Hey! I don't look at you. AMY Yes you do. In the street. In the parking lot yesterday. That night on the highway. HENRY I look at a lot of people that way. Disappointed, Amy turns away and sulks. AMY You think I'm stupid. Henry sees she's genuinely upset and feels bad. He sits back down and lays his hand on hers. HENRY No, as a matter of fact, I think you're a real bright kid and I like that about you. AMY (looks up, pouts) You do? Now Henry tries to scare her away. He leers at her. HENRY I like it so much I've got half a mind to do perverse things to you. Right here. Right now. Things you might just learn to like. She just stares at him, blinks, then looks away and tries to imagine this. She takes her laptop and leaves, confused and blushing. Henry watches her go and grins, satisfied with himself. INT. PUBLISHING HOUSE RECEPTION -- DAY Angus throws on his coat and thrusts the poem at Simon as they walk down the hall. ANGUS This is really quite unbelievably bad, my friend. I mean, I'm all for experimentation and I've made a career out of a healthy disregard for convention, but... Look, this is profoundly irrelevant material. This is only my opinion. But it's an opinion I value highly. Goodnight, Laura. Call Norton Press. We're still on for tomorrow. Simon looks pale as Angus strides towards the elevator. ANGUS I've been wrong before as a publisher. But I refuse to admit I've ever been wrong as a reader. You have talent, I admit. You have an innate sense of the musicality of language. A good ear, maybe. But you do nothing significant with it. And this twisted reasoning that poses as... conviction or insight, it's... well, it's embarrassing. They reach the elevator and stop. Simon tries to catch his breath. ANGUS Why did you bring this thing to me, anyway? SIMON (weakly) A friend of mine spoke of you. He said you had a lot of integrity. ANGUS Yes, well, of course, I do. But I'm not crazy, am I? Who is this person? Do I know him? Simon hesitates, almost decides against it, but then... SIMON Henry Fool. Angus looks back at him. Simon waits. Angus looks aside, thinks, then shakes his head. ANGUS Never heard of him. Simon just looks at him blankly, confused. The doors slide open and Angus gets in the elevator. He's gone. Simon sinks into a chair and stares at the carpet. He is so surprised and hurt he gasps for breath. His poem slips from his hand and falls to the floor. LAURA (off) I remember Henry. Simon doesn't register this right away. But then he looks up and over at the receptionist. Laura stands and comes around her desk. She pauses, seeing his disappointment, then comes closer and picks up his poem. Handing it to him, she explains... LAURA He used to be the janitor here. He just stares at her, demolished. EXT. SIDEWALK/SUBWAY ENTRANCE -- DAY Later. Simon dumps his poem in a trash can, pauses, then enters the subway. INT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Henry is leaning on the counter, flipping through pornographic magazines and smoking. MR DENG (off) Henry, put those magazines back. HENRY I'm just looking at the pictures. MR DENG It's not good for you. Henry flips through pages and nods, impressed. HENRY I learn so much from these magazines, Mr Deng. I refuse to discriminate between modes of knowing. MR DENG And you can't smoke in here anymore. Henry looks up, outraged. HENRY Why not! MR DENG It's the law. Henry throws his cigarette to the floor, steps on it and returns to his magazine. HENRY This place is losing all its charm, Mr Deng. MR DENG Business is good. The kids, they hang out all day and drink coffee, talk about art and read poetry. Henry shakes his head in dismay and studies a centerfold. HENRY It's just a fad, Mr Deng. These kids today, they're just slaves to fashion. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE KITCHEN -- DAY Same time. Fay comes in, hot and tired from walking around in high heels. FAY Anybody home? Mom? She stands on the stairs and hears the water running in the bathroom. FAY Ma, that you? No answer. She discovers she's out of cigarettes. INT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Henry is leaning on the counter with a six-pack of beer, pleading with Mr Deng. HENRY Come on, Mr Deng! How much do I owe you? MR DENG Twenty-five dollars. HENRY That can't be right! And so what? My credit's good. Warren comes in. WARREN Henry! HENRY Hey, Warren, you gotta couple of bucks I can borrow? Warren reaches for his wallet. WARREN Listen, Henry, I wanna remind you to vote this Thursday. HENRY Ah, yes, of course. When noble minds shrink from the task of leadership scoundrels will rush in to fill the void. (takes cash) Thanks. WARREN It's every American's right. A blessing. Yet another opportunity to save America from itself. Henry pays Mr Deng for his beer. INT. HENRY'S APARTMENT -- DAY Moments later. Fay bangs on the door. FAY Hey, Henry, you in there? Gimme a cigarette. No answer. She tries the door. It's open. She hesitates. FAY Henry? She goes quietly in. EXT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Moments later. Henry steps out of the store and stops when he sees Amy standing there, pouting. He looks away and sighs. Amy picks at the fabric of her stockings and bites her lip. AMY Henry? Henry smokes. HENRY Yeah. AMY What kind of... Well, I mean... What kind of... perverse things would you do to me? It's more than he can stand. He holds his head. HENRY Take a powder, cupcake. AMY No, really. HENRY Evaporate! Crushed, she breaks out in tears and flees. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY Same time. Simon comes in, furious and throws open the fridge. He finds nothing to eat or drink. He slams the door, then hears the water running in the bathroom upstairs. He stops and listens. The bathroom door; the water heard running steadily. Simon turns away then sees... The poem notebooks face down on the table. He thinks. The bathroom door; the water heard running... INT. HENRY'S APARTMENT -- DAY Moments later. Henry comes into his house, hot and bothered, cradling his six-pack. But he stops, listens, then steps through the kitchen towards the living-room. He stops in the entrance and sees... Fay on the floor of the living-room, reading his 'Confession', her mouth hung open in an astonished 'O'. He drops his six-pack and... She spins around, caught in the act. Henry stands in the doorway, pent up, sweating and with perverse things on his mind. Fay, her hands palm down on the floor behind her, bites her lip, coquettishly. Henry looks her over like she was something good to eat. She feels his gaze all over her and twists to one side with a breathless little shudder. He steps nearer, stands over her and she looks up at him. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY Same time. Simon climbs the stairs to the bathroom... INT. HENRY'S APARTMENT -- DAY Same time. Henry and Fay kissing passionately... INT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY Same time. Simon knocks on the bathroom door. INT. HENRY'S APARTMENT -- DAY Same time. Henry and Fay groping and shoving one another as they stagger from room to room. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY Same time. Simon bangs on the bathroom door. INT. HENRY'S APARTMENT -- DAY Same time. Fay falls to the couch... INT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY Same time. Simon crashes through the door and finds... Mary, kneeling over the edge of the tub, her wrists slit and the blood running down the drain, the shower raining down over her back. Simon looks on in horror. INT. HENRY'S APARTMENT -- DAY Same time. Henry tears open his trousers... INT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY Same time. Simon lifts Mary from the bathtub. INT. HENRY'S APARTMENT -- DAY Same time. Henry and Fay clutch and grind and heave... INT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY Same time. Simon drags his mother from the bathroom and down the stairs. INT. HENRY'S APARTMENT -- DAY Same time. Henry and Fay are making mad, passionate love, oblivious to the world around them. INT. GRIM HOUSE DAY -- DAY Same time. Simon drags Mary through the house. INT. HENRY'S APARTMENT -- DAY Same time. Henry and Fay fuck. EXT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY Same time. Simon drags Mary out the kitchen door and into the yard, looking desperately for help. He reaches the street, her limp body hanging grotesquely before him, and looks helplessly up and down the block. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. CEMETERY -- DAY Simon, Henry, Mr Deng, Fay, Gnoc and BuÒuel stand with Father Hawkes at the grave. FATHER HAWKES Let us pray. Lord, grant that peace be within reach for our friend, Mary. May the pain and confusion she endured on earth be fought through in the after life, so that she may enter the Kingdom of Heaven and live in the light of God. Amen. He sprinkles holy water on the coffin and they all drop carnations at the grave. Simon and Fay remain there looking down at the coffin. Henry waits for them a few yards away, wishing he could help, but feeling out of place. EXT. JUNKYARD -- DAY Simon is back working on the garbage truck. He collects garbage and throws it in the truck as Henry, who is just along for the ride, hangs from the side of the truck and pulls the lever whenever Simon tells him to. HENRY So I was a janitor! So what? SIMON But Angus James said he didn't even know you! Henry shrugs and qualifies... HENRY Well, I mean, we weren't like bosom buddies or anything. But we used to talk sometimes. In the elevator. In the morning. He said he liked my ideas. Being a janitor's a good job if you're a writer. Especially the night shift; all that time to think and develop my ideas. SIMON Do it. Henry pulls the lever and the garbage gets crushed. SIMON Anyway, he hated my poem. HENRY Well, what the hell does he know? He wouldn't know a vital piece of literary art if it came up and bit him in the leg. To hell with him! He's not the only publisher in the world! SIMON But nobody likes it. HENRY (smokes) It's true. A prophet is seldom heeded in his own land. Remember that. SIMON Do it. Henry is about to pull the lever again, but sees something in amongst the garbage... HENRY Hey, look, treasure! Henry steps down and leans over into the garbage. Simon joins him as he lifts something that is either a ring or a stray piece of machinery. HENRY What is this? SIMON Brass maybe. Some kinda copper. HENRY It's a ring. Jewelry. SIMON I think it's a gasket. A fitting from off of that old refrigerator over there. Henry puts it in his pocket, satisfied and Simon jumps on the back of the truck as it turns the corner and rolls away. Henry starts to walk off in the opposite direction, but stops when he sees Pearl age seven. EXT. VICKY'S HOUSE -- DAY Henry comes up the street with Pearl age seven on his back. He walks into Vicky's yard and finds Warren lifting weights in the garage. HENRY Hey, Warren, I found Pearl wandering around by the garbage dump. WARREN He lost. HENRY Who lost? Warren rests. He sits up on the bench and takes a toke off the joint he has waiting. WARREN Congressman Feer. HENRY (realizing) Oh. Well, you know. Somebody's gotta lose. WARREN What's the fucking use. You make sacrifices. You try to be a decent human being. Try to contribute something meaningful to society. And what happens? They lose to a bunch of cultural elite liberal fuck-ups. I don't give a shit anymore. People deserve what they get. Henry pauses, then leads Pearl age seven towards the house. Warren lies back down and continues his lifting. INT. VICKY'S HOUSE -- DAY Moments later. Henry knocks on the door as he enters... HENRY Vicky? No answer. He comes in and finds her sitting on the couch with a drink. She's got a black eye. HENRY What happened to you? VICKY He's a good man, Henry. Nobody's perfect. HENRY I guess not. VICKY He's terribly disappointed. HENRY I found Pearl wandering around with no shoes on her feet. Pearl comes over and stands beside her mother. VICKY Thanks. She gets scared. HENRY And you don't? Vicky caresses Pearl's hair, then drinks and looks over at Henry. VICKY I love him. INT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Moments later. BuÒuel is waiting when Henry walks in and steps up to the beer cooler. HENRY (alarmed) Where's the beer? MR DENG No more beer. Coffee. Espresso! Cappuccino! CafÈ au lait. Carrot juice. Herbal tea. Henry looks at the man, disgusted, then falls in to a seat and motions to Gnoc, who is now the waitress. HENRY A double espresso and a jelly donut, Gnoc. (to BuÒuel) You mind paying? My credit's no good here anymore, apparently. BU—UEL (nods amiably) Did you go to the employment agency today, Henry? HENRY No, but it's OK. Simon's gunna try to get me a job on the garbage truck. BU—UEL Listen, I'm a little concerned about your friend. HENRY Simon? BU—UEL Seems he gave an obscene note to a girl in the library. HENRY Get outta here! When? BU—UEL I'm not sure. HENRY It couldn't have been Simon. BU—UEL It almost certainly is. He mentions you. Look... He unfolds a print-out of the letter. Henry reads and BuÒuel leans over, pointing out... HENRY 'Her figure makes me violent. I want to somehow break her. But tenderly. How is this possible? Ask Henry.' Henry thinks this over, gulps back some espresso and nods his approval. Then... HENRY BuÒuel, this is obviously a love letter. BU—UEL (taking it back) We've had complaints. HENRY Where did you get it? BU—UEL She posted it on the Internet. HENRY Oh, the slut! BU—UEL She was trying to warn other girls about a potential rapist. HENRY (smokes) Is all this true about the Internet? About how you can get pornography on it? BU—UEL Well, yeah, sure. It's a big problem. You can send dirty pictures and everything. HENRY On the Internet? BU—UEL Yeah. Henry is impressed. HENRY No kiddin'? BuÒuel gets up to go. BU—UEL See you on Thursday, Henry. HENRY (thinking) Sure. See you. (calls the waitress) Gnoc, gimme one of these double espressos to go, will ya? He is having ideas. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE KITCHEN -- DAY Moments later. Fay, still dressed in black, is tapping away on the keys to the computer, surfing the Internet, as Henry appears at the kitchen door, gripping his tall double espresso. HENRY Hello, Fay. FAY Go away. HENRY You gotta get outta the house, Fay. You can't blame yourself for not being here. You did all you could for her. She turns and glares at him. FAY Is there something you want? Henry stops, pauses, looks away. Then... HENRY You got the Internet on that contraption? FAY (resumes typing) Yeah. So what? He changes the subject again, preoccupied and continues tenderly... HENRY Look Fay, about, you know, between us -- what happened... FAY I don't wanna talk about it, Henry! He sighs and drinks his coffee, then looks back at her. HENRY Type a part of Simon's poem onto the Internet. FAY (stops) What? HENRY Go ahead. FAY No. HENRY Why not? FAY Because. HENRY Come on, Fay. It's a great idea. FAY I don't know if he would want us to do that. HENRY Sure he would. Just the first ten verses. Fay is tempted. FAY I don't know. HENRY He'll thank you for it later. Frowning, she reconsiders. She gets up and takes the notebooks from the cabinet above the fridge. She flips through the pages but suddenly stops and turns to the door with a nicer attitude. FAY Henry... But he's gone. It's as if he has vanished into thin air. She sighs, sits back down, and begins typing the poem onto the Internet. INT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Moments later. Henry comes back into the store, satisfied with himself. He finishes off his coffee, tosses away the cup and takes a pornographic magazine from the rack. He leans on the counter where Mr Deng is busy working and flips through the pages. HENRY Gimme another one of those tall double espressos, Mr Deng. Mr Deng starts to make him one and sees him with the magazine. MR DENG You gunna buy that? HENRY I'm just looking. MR DENG Well then put it back. HENRY There's this fascinating story about a famous rock band and how they tied a friend of theirs to a bed in their hotel room and inserted a live fish into her vagina. Mr Deng shakes his head and frowns. HENRY (explains) They say she had numerous orgasms. MR DENG Henry, you need to do something with your life. Get a job, or something. HENRY I mean, it wasn't the entire fish, it was just, you know, the nose. The nose of the fish. Mr Deng brings over the coffee. Henry is surprised to notice he is not riveted. HENRY You don't find that interesting? MR DENG No. Henry closes the magazine and puts it back. Leaning on the counter, he sips his coffee and ponders. HENRY You ever wonder what it would be like to have sex with an animal, Mr Deng? MR DENG That coffee is free. Just take it and get out of here. HENRY I mean, some dogs are almost as big as people and often more attractive. Mr Deng just goes back to work, leaving Henry there at the counter thinking big thoughts. EXT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- EVENING Simon hangs from the garbage truck as it comes up the street and pauses in front of his house. He jumps down and the truck barrels away. INT. FAY'S ROOM -- EVENING Simon taps at the door. She looks over at him and he sees she's been crying. He comes into the room and she sits up on the edge of the bed. SIMON Did you see him? FAY He came by this afternoon. SIMON Did you talk? FAY No. He comes over and sits beside her. He thinks a moment, then... SIMON You've got to tell him, Fay. FAY He thinks I'm a slut. And she starts crying again. Simon awkwardly touches her shoulder, then moves his hand away. Fay pulls herself together, sniffles and goes into the bathroom. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE, AT THE PIANO Moments later. Simon comes downstairs and finds Henry at the piano. He looks ill and is clutching a nearly empty container of espresso. He is staring sickly at 'the ring'. SIMON Henry? HENRY Simon, I don't feel so good. SIMON What's wrong? HENRY I feel all kinda clammy. And damp. Simon lifts the coffee container and smells it. SIMON How many of these did you have? Henry tries to remember. He squints. HENRY Seven. Simon puts the container down and sits at the table. SIMON Henry, we have to talk. HENRY Can I use your toilet? SIMON Fay's taking a shower. Henry grabs his stomach. He presses his hand against his chest, holds his head, then stares at the ring. HENRY How much you think I can get for this? He looks at Simon. SIMON (pauses) Henry, Fay's pregnant. Henry looks at him. SIMON Fay's pregnant with your child. Henry lets this sink in. He stands and the room tilts. White with fear, he clutches at his rumbling gut. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE BATHROOM Moments later. Fay is in the shower as... Henry bursts into the bathroom, tearing at his belt and trousers. She starts screaming and wraps herself in the shower curtain. He drops his pants and throws himself on the toilet just in time to begin shitting his brains out. Fay crouches, terrified and disgusted, in the shower. FAY Jesus, Henry! Henry sweats and moans as he empties his bowels in a violent and messy blast of noise and foul air. Fay covers her face and whimpers sickly. Finally, he's done. He hangs with his face out over his knees, sick, exhausted and in shock. Fay wraps herself in a towel and steps out of the shower. She creeps carefully around him and flushes the toilet, growing increasingly concerned. FAY Hey, Henry. You OK? He is destroyed, staring down at... The 'ring' he still holds in his hand. Fay sees this, looks at Henry, then kneels and takes it from him. He doesn't resist. She lifts it up and breathlessly admires it. Totally misunderstanding, moved beyond words... FAY Oh. Oh, Henry. And she throws her arms around him as he sits there, sweating and spent, on the toilet. INT. CHURCH -- DAY A month later. Mr Deng and BuÒuel drag Henry, kicking and screaming, into the church foyer. Once inside, he shakes them off and they stand back. He huffs and puffs and tosses the hair back out of his eyes. He paces back and forth like a caged animal, then stops, sees... Fay, at the altar, waiting with Simon. She is beautiful. Henry calms down, deeply affected. Fay smiles down the aisle at him. Henry throws back his shoulders, straightens his tie and strides up the aisle. Also present at the ceremony are Vicky and Warren. Gnoc is maid of honor. INT. CHURCH -- DAY Later. Henry holds Fay's hand and repeats after Father Hawkes. FATHER HAWKES I, Henry, take you, Fay to be my wife. HENRY I, Henry, take you, Fay to be my wife. FATHER HAWKES And do promise before God and these witnesses... HENRY And do promise before God and these witnesses... FATHER HAWKES To be your loving and faithful husband. HENRY To be your loving and faithful husband. FATHER HAWKES In plenty and in want. HENRY In plenty and in want. FATHER HAWKES In joy and in sorrow. HENRY In joy and in sorrow. FATHER HAWKES In sickness and in health. HENRY In sickness and in health. FATHER HAWKES For as long as we both shall live. HENRY For as long as we both shall live. The gasket everyone is now mistaking for a ring is lifted high before the altar. FATHER HAWKES Bless, O Lord, this ring, that he who gives it and she who wears it may abide in your peace and continue in your favor until their life's end. The gasket is placed on Fay's finger. FATHER HAWKES Whom God has joined, let no man separate. The doors of the church swing open with a tremendous creak and everyone turns from the altar to see... Amy enter. She steps in and stands there, alarmed, clutching a long scroll of fax paper. HENRY Oh, shit. FAY Simon, do something. Simon walks down the aisle to see to Amy. The guests watch and wait. As Simon reaches her, Amy looks away from the altar and shows him the fax scroll. AMY Look. He studies the fax and recognizes his poem. He grows concerned. SIMON Where did you get this? AMY It's all over the Internet. Simon looks up the aisle at... Fay and Henry. They look away, caught. AMY They're even talking about it on the TV news. Confused, Simon starts for the door, shoving the fax in his pocket. Fay steps down from the altar... FAY Simon? Amy hurries along beside him. AMY There's a guy from the radio station over at World of Donuts and a story in the newspaper about some kids burning down a school near Boston! INT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- NIGHT Later that evening. The whole neighborhood is celebrating Fay's wedding. The music is loud. The people are drunk. The place is a shambles. A big dance number is playing. Amidst all the festivities, though, Simon and BuÒuel have the small TV propped up on top of the fridge, following the evening news... REPORTER (on TV) It all started right here in Queens, Jim, at World of Donuts about one year ago today, when local garbage man, Simon Grim, put pencil to paper and began to compose what many have come to regard as vicious, antisocial and pornographic poetry -- 112 lines of unrhymed free meter verse which would one day serve to spark the flames of controversy across the nation and -- indeed -- the world. Fay leads the neighbors in the dance... OWEN FEER (on TV) This is outrageous! Measures must be taken. Have we debased our culture to such an extent that a garbage man with a head full of sick ideas is legitimately referred to as a poet, and where the filth he spews can be accessed by any child old enough to turn on a computer? Is this what we have come to? Not the transmission of our highest ideals, but a cynical, atheistic delirium! Henry and Fay dance, surrounded by the dancing neighbors... POET LAUREATE (on TV) Poetry of this kind, and this poem in particular, is, I think, a worthy form of desperation; a digression on the extremes of human experience; of solitude, of community. It is perhaps alarming, even upsetting to some -- myself included -- but it must be allowed to exist. Henry throws an arm around Warren, who stands looking dejected in the doorway, and raises his glass to the happiness in the room. ANCHORMAN (on TV) Meanwhile, in Rome today, the Pope issued a message of hope for believers in their fight against what he termed the godless and lost. He did not mention Simon Grim by name, but offered a prayer for the young whom he described as sadly in need of faith and not the illusion of conviction offered by rock music, drugs and contemporary poetry. The TV is switched off. It's later now. People are passed out on the kitchen floor and various neighbors are sitting around the table. Fay steps back from the TV, drains a glass of beer and wipes her mouth on the sleeve of her wedding gown. She hugs Simon, who is deeply unsettled by the news of his growing infamy. FAY God, Simon, I mean, like, you're a total fucking rock star. INT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY A huge crowd of kids are pressed up against the doors, trying to get a peek at their hero, Simon Grim. Angus comes away from the window. He stands and regards Simon, who is sitting at a table tearing a napkin to shreds. ANGUS I'm willing to negotiate, Simon. SIMON I know, it's just... ANGUS You've had other offers. SIMON Well, yes. But. ANGUS What? SIMON Why have you reconsidered? ANGUS Because I think your writing will be tremendously successful. SIMON But you don't like it? ANGUS It's growing on me. SIMON What made you change your mind? He points to the fans outside. ANGUS Other people's responses. I don't live in a vacuum, you know. Two months ago I didn't have the proof of your poem's appeal. Now I do. Simon thinks this over, but says nothing. Angus comes over and lays his hand on his shoulder. ANGUS Consider my offer carefully. Get some professional advice. I'll call you tomorrow. Simon nods. EXT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Moments later. Angus emerges and has to fight his way through the throng of excited adolescents. He reaches his limo and gets in. But he pauses before closing the door and considers the crowd. Simon emerges from the store and kids begin screaming and shouting for autographs. Angus shakes his head, impressed. INT. CHURCH -- DAY Simon consults Father Hawkes. FATHER HAWKES What were the terms? SIMON A hundred thousand in cash up front. FATHER HAWKES Royalties? SIMON A seventy/thirty split. FATHER HAWKES Well, that could be better. But it is a hundred thousand dollars up front. Guaranteed money. You could use that. SIMON So it's a good deal? FATHER HAWKES Of course it's good. SIMON So I should take it? FATHER HAWKES No. Try to get him up to a hundred and fifty thousand. EXT. JUNKYARD -- DAY Evening. Henry stalks along, all fired up. Simon tries his best to keep up with him. HENRY I've let myself down, Simon! I've let myself be caught in the bloody maw of banal necessity! How did I get here? How did this happen to me? I'm going to be somebody's father! I need time to think. To write. Time to finish my 'Confession'! I can't work for a living! It's impossible! I tried once. My genius will be wasted trying to make ends meet! He collapses extravagantly. HENRY This is how great men topple, Simon. Their hearts are in the right place too much of the time! They get sidetracked! Distracted. Oh! How could I have been so careless! SIMON Henry, please, let me read the 'Confession'. HENRY No. Not now. It's not done. I'm all washed up. I'm finished! SIMON Angus James is convinced my poem is going to make him incredibly wealthy. He'll read your book and seriously consider publishing it. If I ask him to. I'm certain. Henry glances back at his friend, digesting this. He thinks it over, then... HENRY Really? You really think so? Having finally got through to him, Simon comes forward, anxious to help Henry. SIMON I'll insist he publish the 'Confession'. He paces back and forth, thrusting out his chest, for the first time in his life displaying something like pride or arrogance. SIMON (adds) Or I won't let him publish my poem. Henry sits there watching Simon, impressed with this evidence of increased self-esteem. He realizes the profundity of the gesture. HENRY You'd do that? You'd do that for me? Simon stares off into the distance. SIMON You saved my life. Henry is moved. He stands and comes forward. He grabs his friend by the shoulders and turns him around. HENRY Do you realize what you're saying? SIMON (pausing) I owe you everything. Henry steps away, considering, then looks back at Simon and extends his hand. HENRY OK. Simon smiles. Henry smiles. They shake hands. INT. HENRY'S APARTMENT -- DAY Simon enters, comes forward into the room and pauses, looking off at... The stack of twelve books that comprise the 'Confession'. EXT. HOUSE/BACKYARD -- DAY Henry stands outside, watching his door. INT. HENRY'S APARTMENT -- DAY Simon lifts the first volume, opens it and begins reading. He sits. EXT. BACKYARD -- DAY Henry paces, drinking and smoking nervously. INT. HENRY'S APARTMENT -- NIGHT Simon strides the length of the living room, reading. He stops, frowns. INT. HENRY'S APARTMENT -- NIGHT Simon reads in front of the fire. EXT. BACKYARD/GARAGE -- NIGHT BuÒuel, Hawkes and Mr Deng sleep sitting up as Henry talks to himself. Fay leans out the back door and interrupts him. He looks at her, but says nothing. She sighs and goes back inside: turning off the lights. INT. HENRY'S APARTMENT -- DAY The next morning. Simon sits wearily reading the final page of volume twelve as the morning sun streaks into the room. Finally, he finishes and slowly closes the book. He stands and crosses the room. Leaning against the wall, he removes his glasses and rubs his aching eyes. EXT. BACKYARD -- DAY Simon steps out of Henry's apartment and sees Henry asleep on the back stoop. EXT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Simon stares into a glass of water. Fay sits ten feet away, waiting. Finally... FAY It's really that bad? SIMON It's terrible. INT. ANGUS JAMES' OFFICE -- DAY The 'Confession' lies on the big desk. Angus' hand comes down upon it. ANGUS You've read this? SIMON Yes. ANGUS And you want me to consider publishing it? SIMON Yes. ANGUS As part of our deal? SIMON Yes. ANGUS Simon, this book, it's... It's really quite bad. SIMON That's what you said about my poem. Angus pauses and figures. He changes the subject. ANGUS I'm offering you a very real expression of my faith in your writing. Two hundred thousand dollars and a sixty/forty split. SIMON But just exactly what is the nature of your faith in my writing? ANGUS Look, Simon, you don't require my admiration. You require my experience as a publisher. And that experience leads me to believe your poem will make more money than any book of poetry ever published. In history. Virtually make you a household name within two years. You'll never have to work on a garbage truck again, I assure you. Or do anything else for that matter. Whereas this 'Confession' by Henry Fool... He is at a loss for words. ANGUS The most I can say for this is... The man is a scoundrel. SIMON He taught me everything I know. ANGUS No! He encouraged all that was expressive in you to become manifest. He inspired you to act. He influenced your perception. Simon waits a while, staring at his shoes. SIMON How about if my advance is only a hundred thousand? ANGUS It's not about money, Simon. SIMON We could split the royalties seventy/thirty. ANGUS I will not publish Henry Fool's 'Confession'. Simon sits and lets this sink in. Angus waits, then... ANGUS Will you sign the contract? Simon continues looking out at the city. Angus waits, but there is no response. Finally, Simon turns, pauses and slowly crosses the room. He sits at the table and looks down at the contract. He signs. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE KITCHEN -- DAY Fay is in labor. Henry helps her into her coat as they rush for the door. INT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Moments later. Henry runs into the store and stands there, panicked, looking at Hawkes, BuÒuel and Mr Deng. Gnoc runs out to get Fay. EXT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Henry and Gnoc load Fay into the van. The van pulls out. INT. VAN -- DAY Henry drives recklessly. Fay rolls around in the back. INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR -- DAY Fay is in a wheelchair being rushed down the hall. She is gripping Henry's hand as he runs along beside her. INT. HOSPITAL DELIVERY ROOM -- DAY Fay gasps and sweats as the Doctor and Nurse prepare her. She is scared. She looks over at... Henry, looking in through the window. He looks scared too. Fay is sedated by gas. Henry is taken away by the Nurse. Fay stares up at the ceiling. INT. HOSPITAL WAITING ROOM -- NIGHT Henry is asleep on a row of waiting-room chairs, exhausted. Simon comes running up the hall and finds him. It's late and no one is around. He sits down beside Henry and shakes him. Henry wakes. HENRY Simon? You're here. He sits up and Simon sits beside him. SIMON What happened? HENRY (coughs) It's a boy. SIMON And Fay? HENRY She's alright. Simon sits back, relieved. Then he remembers the rain-soaked shopping bag he has with him. He pulls out a couple of cans of beer and hands one to Henry. HENRY Thanks. They look around, seasoned conspirators and make sure the coast is clear. Then they pop open the beers and toast. They drink. Then... HENRY How did it go? Simon pauses, scared, then gets up and crosses the room. He looks out of the window and gathers his strength. SIMON Listen, Henry, Angus James didn't like your 'Confession'. Henry looks at Simon blankly, then blinks and looks away. HENRY Ah. I see. Well, what now? SIMON What do you mean? HENRY Did he suggest changes? Silence. Simon comes back and sits again. SIMON No. He didn't. HENRY I mean, after all, there are things I can do to make it more accessible. SIMON Accessible? HENRY I can soften up some of the language and make it read easier. Take out some of the more intratextual references and popularize the underlying Sturm und Drang, so to speak. I can change its mode. Make it more of a conventional novel instead. Simon just stares at him blankly, then sighs and shakes his head. SIMON No. Don't. HENRY (laughing) Oh, Simon, don't be such a purist! I appreciate your protectiveness, but the integrity of the work gives it a durability that can sustain such things. Simon comes over and lays his hand on Henry's shoulder. SIMON No. Really, Henry. Don't. HENRY What are you saying; that it doesn't merit revision? SIMON I'm saying... Angus James didn't like it. He steps away and sits. Henry pauses, then approaches and leans down over him. HENRY Well, did you tell him what you think? SIMON What I think doesn't matter. HENRY Yes, it does. You've got to use your influence with him. SIMON I gave it to him to read and he hated it. What more can I do? HENRY You can refuse to let him publish your poem. SIMON I can't do that. HENRY You said you would. SIMON That was before I read your book. HENRY (hit hard) Oh. SIMON (looking up at him) I signed the contract, Henry. Henry stands there a moment longer, then lowers himself into the nearest seat, weakened. SIMON Look, Henry, what did you expect? HENRY I... I don't know. Honesty, perhaps. SIMON (indignantly) Look, if I had told you, when at first I read it, that I thought it was no good, what would you have done? HENRY I would have respected your opinion. SIMON And insisted that there's no accounting for taste. HENRY Well, is there? Simon's words catch in his throat. He turns away, frustrated. SIMON I don't know. I didn't bring it to Angus because I thought it was good. I brought it to Angus because you're my friend. HENRY (staggered) Oh how perfectly enormous of you, Simon. SIMON (explodes) Look, Henry, I did it! I wrote. I wrote poetry because you told me to! I worked! I worked while you sat back and comfortably dismissed the outside world as too shallow, stupid and mean to appreciate your ideas. HENRY Is that such a priority? Is that some sort of measure of a man's worth? To drag what's best in him out into the street so every average slob with some pretense to taste can poke it with a stick? SIMON (sits, tired) Maybe. Maybe it is. Henry just stares at him, stands, then turns on his heel and waves him off. HENRY You must be pretty impressed with yourself, huh? The all too obviously talented new man, the important new voice, the early clue to a new direction, or whatever, etc., etc., etc! A popular new trend conveniently packaged for the distracted young herd! You want to be liked more than you know, Simon Grim! You'd be nowhere without me and you know it. Simon hangs his head, destroyed. SIMON I'm leaving. Henry is scared all of a sudden. But he puts on a defiant exterior. HENRY Yes. It's time you left. He stands, drinks and walks over to the window... HENRY I saw you for what you were in the beginning, Simon. I hold no grudge and I'm certain you will, in time, leave some serious and small dent in this world. SIMON (weakly) The world is full of shit. Henry take advantage of Simon's disillusionment and puts on a big show of secure wisdom. HENRY The world is full of shit. It's true. And you have to walk through it. That's your part. I'm sorry. But you're no good at it. Perhaps I'm not. Perhaps I wasn't made to walk through shit. Go on now. Leave. Do what you're good at. Go. Simon sits there a moment, numb with grief. Henry, red in the face, stares at the floor. Suddenly, Simon stands and walks out. Henry looks up and watches him go. He can hardly believe it. He almost raises his voice and apologizes, but can't. He lowers his head again and covers his face with his hands, listening to Simon's footsteps receding through the halls. Simon walks on, away from us, down the hospital corridor. FADE TO BLACK EXT. STREET -- DAY Seven years later. Fay bangs out of the kitchen door with her seven-year-old son Ned. Frazzled and overworked, she grips a loaded laundry basket to her side as she sits Ned down on the curb and points at him. FAY Play! The kid sits still, obviously guilty of some unspeakable mischief, as Fay storms back into the house. He looks around, bored, then brightens up when he sees... Henry, coming up the street, hanging from the back of a garbage truck. INT. THE INFERNO -- DAY Moments later. Henry enters with Ned on his back and the bartender, Patty, goes ballistic. PATTY Henry, what did I tell you about bringing the kid in here! HENRY Say hello to Patty, Ned. NED Hi. She suddenly becomes all soft and cuddly. PATTY How you doin', sweetie? You wanna Coke? He nods and Henry stands him on a stool at the bar. HENRY So what did you learn at school today, Ned? Anything? He shakes his head. HENRY Here, I'll teach you something. He hands Ned a cigarette and lights it for him. Ned takes a drag and coughs. HENRY Horrible, isn't it? Ned nods in agreement. NED It burns. HENRY See. That'll teach ya. Here, sip this. And he offers the kid his whiskey. EXT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY Same time. Fay comes out of the house and looks for her son. FAY Ned! She comes out to the street and looks around. FAY Ned! EXT. VICKY'S HOUSE -- DAY Fay comes up looking for Ned and sees... Pearl, age fourteen, come out of Vicky's House. She is fourteen years old now. Warren steps out the door and grabs her by the arm. She shakes him off. He slaps her. She runs down the steps and glares back at him. WARREN (pointing at her) I'm warning you, Pearl! Pearl turns defiantly away and walks into the street. INT. THE INFERNO -- DAY Same time. Henry is teaching Ned how to tip a topless dancer. A dancer stands on the bar and stretches her garter as Ned slips a dollar bill in beneath it. HENRY That's it. That's it. Perfect! Some other guy down the bar is reading a newspaper... BILL Hey, Fool, it's about your friend -- what's his name. Your brother-in- law. Henry looks over. The guy, Bill, shows him the article. HENRY What about him? BILL (reading) The controversial and reclusive American poet Simon Grim has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy, who will confer the award late next week, praised Mr Grim for works of great and difficult striving, for the rendering of the desperate, the ugly and the mundane in a language packed with our shared human frailties... HENRY God, they must be hard up for geniuses to pin medals on because, listen, I gotta tell you, when I first met this guy he didn't even know what an iambic pentameter was. BILL He's a fraud. HENRY Keep a lid on it, Bill, you're outta your league. BILL Stir things up so as to stay in the newspapers. That's his racket. HENRY He's a great American poet, you dumb fuck! BILL Poet, my ass! I could puke all over a piece a loose leaf and be more profound than he is! HENRY Come over here and say that and I'll cripple ya in three different ways, you boozed-up Philistine! FAY Henry! Henry and Ned crouch and quiver -- caught. Fay strides up to the bar and grabs the kid. FAY Listen, you degenerate, I've had about enough of this! (smells Ned's breath) Ned, have you been drinking? The kid checks with Henry then looks back at Fay and nods. Fay looks at her husband, outraged. HENRY (explains) His throat hurt from smoking. Fay slaps him across the face -- hard -- and the place goes quiet. Henry shakes his head clear and she pokes him in the chest with her finger. FAY Henry, don't come home tonight! I'm warning you! Don't come home at all! Ever! And she storms out with the kid. Henry snaps his jaw back into place, then looks at Patty and Bill and shrugs. He knocks back his drink and motions for another. EXT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- NIGHT Later (evening). Henry staggers out of the back door of the Inferno and comes across Mr Deng sitting against the wall of the store, watching the basketball game on a small TV. World of Donuts vibrates with loud music. HENRY Who's winning? MR DENG Nobody. Henry gestures to World of Donuts... HENRY What's going on in there? MR DENG We gotta have rock 'n' roll shows these days, Henry. The poetry readings just don't pay the bills no more. HENRY What did I tell you! It was just a fad. I told you that! I told everyone! MR DENG Did you hear about Simon? It was on the news today. HENRY Yeah yeah yeah. So what? A Nobel Prize. Anybody can get one of them these days. That's the problem, with this world, Mr Deng... Nobody's got any standards anymore. You seen Fay? MR DENG You better sleep in my office tonight, Henry. She was very angry. You've gotta let her cool off. HENRY I can't sleep in there with that racket! MR DENG Suit yourself. Henry considers his options, then... INT. GARAGE -- NIGHT The place is abandoned. Henry comes in and, just as he is laying down to go to sleep on an old couch, finds Pearl age fourteen. She is hardened and disturbed, but frequently vulnerable and scared; a troubled kid. HENRY What are you doing here, Pearl? PEARL You want some? HENRY (pauses) Some what? Pearl comes towards him. He is kneeling with his face at her crotch level when she reaches him. She holds out a bottle of cheap rot-gut wine. Realizing, he takes it and drinks. He winces. HENRY Shit! Pearl laughs and falls back onto the couch, her sweater hanging off her shoulder and her skirt hiked up and displaying her underwear. Henry stands and searches for something to sit on. PEARL Come sit here. She pats the couch beside her. He comes over, eyeing her carefully and sits. He hands back the bottle. She drinks, winces and sits staring at the flames. PEARL That's what my dad always says. HENRY What? PEARL (dead) 'You want some?' Henry looks away, uncomfortable. She slides her gaze over to him, their eyes meet, and she pins him to the spot. PEARL People say you were once in jail for having sex with a girl my age. HENRY That was a long time ago. He gets up and stands at the window. Pearl age fourteen watches him closely as she drinks, then... PEARL You want some? He looks over at her and she slides her coat off her shoulder. Henry is sweating. HENRY You oughta get outta here, Pearl. PEARL I was here first. HENRY Go home. PEARL You go home. HENRY Fine. And he starts to leave. But Pearl sits up... PEARL (scared) Wait! Henry stops and looks back at her. PEARL (hanging her head) I can't go home. HENRY (concerned) Why not? PEARL He beat her up again. Henry holds his head, tries to sober up. He looks around the room, then focuses on the girl. HENRY Warren beat up your mom? Pearl stares at the floor. She glances over at him, then back down at the bottle gripped in her hands. She nods. Henry pauses, then comes across the room, lowering himself tentatively to the couch. HENRY Is she alright? She says nothing for a moment, then... PEARL (sadly) Do you think I'm pretty? Henry lifts his hand and covers his face. He looks up at the ceiling and sighs. He returns to Pearl... HENRY Does she need help? Pearl reaches over and grabs his thigh. Looking up at him, with tears rolling down her face, she suggests... PEARL I'll suck your cock if you kill him for me. Henry jumps away from her and Pearl throws herself down on the couch, covering her face. INT. VICKY'S HOUSE -- NIGHT Moments later. Henry barges in and starts searching for... HENRY Vicky! Vicky, it's Henry from across the street! Vicky! He runs through the house, checking the rooms. He throws open the door to the bedroom and finds... Vicky, sitting on the edge of the bed, smoking. She has a black eye and a swollen cheek. HENRY (taken back) Vicky? VICKY (standing) What do you think you're doing, you idiot! WARREN (off) Hey! Henry looks over and sees Warren stumble drunkenly out of the bathroom. What are you doing in my house? HENRY (to Vicky) It's about Pearl. Vicky looks troubled. She sits back down with a sigh. VICKY Mind your own business, Henry. WARREN (shoves him) Yeah, who the hell do you think you are, anyway? Henry falls back and looks at Vicky. She looks away. Henry looks at Warren, pauses, then gives him a sharp, hard shove. Warren stands back against the wall, pauses, then erupts into viciousness. He grabs Henry and throws him violently down the hall, where he hits the wall and collapses. As Henry gets to his knees, Warren kicks him in the ribs. Henry curls up and rolls out on to the kitchen floor. Warren kicks him in the side of the head. Vicky sits back down on the bed, covering her ears. Warren beats the hell out of Henry, kicking him in the face and ribs whenever he manages to get up on his hands and knees. Henry crawls under the kitchen table for safety. Warren grabs his feet and drags him out. As he is dragged across the floor, Henry finds a screwdriver and grabs it. He rolls over on his back as... Warren lunges down at him again and... WARREN Ah. Warren is stabbed in the heart. Henry can't believe it. Warren can't believe it. He stands there in the middle of the kitchen, amazed, with the screwdriver sticking out of his chest. Henry, semi-conscious and severely beaten, falls against the back door and coughs up a few of his teeth. Vicky steps into the hall from her room and shudders. Warren sits at the table, stunned. He looks from the screwdriver to Vicky, then... WARREN Fuck. He falls to the floor. EXT. STREETS -- NIGHT Henry staggers away, limping. He comes to the intersection at the end of the block and doesn't know which way to run. Panicked, he looks round, holding his arm to his chest. He runs towards the highway. INT. POLICE STATION -- NIGHT Later. Fay is wired beyond belief. Trying to listen attentively, but still too overwhelmed to maintain her concentration. LAWYER (off) It is true your husband served seven years in prison for statutory rape. FAY Yes. It is. LAWYER And when was that? FAY That was... I dunno. Fifteen... Sixteen years ago. LAWYER And when were you married? FAY We were married seven years ago. LAWYER Were you aware at all of the victim's relationship with his daughter? FAY Pardon me? LAWYER The girl, the daughter, Pearl. She had been having sexual relations with her father. Fay is overwhelmed. FAY I didn't know that. No. LAWYER Pearl claims she offered your husband sexual favors if he would kill her father. Fay just looks at him blankly, overwhelmed, confused. She starts to cry quietly. LAWYER I'm just repeating what she said, Mrs Fool. The victim's wife, Vicky, claims your husband broke into the house and forcefully entered her bedroom. Fay trembles and catches her breath trying to take this all in. A cop hands her some tissues. She takes them and tries to concentrate on what the lawyer says. LAWYER Fay, I know this isn't easy. But we need your help here. The girl claims she asked your husband to kill her father in exchange for, well, I guess the promise of sexual relations with her. INT. POLICE STATION CORRIDOR -- NIGHT Later. Fay staggers out into the noisy corridor and rests against the wall. Looking down the hall she sees... Pearl and Vicky, sitting in a blank, brightly lit room beyond a glass door. Fay comes closer and looks in at them. They don't see her. They stare at the floor before them, dazed and confused. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY Morning. Fay is lying on her bed with her coat still on, trying to think. Ned stands by the side of the bed, watching her. NED Mom? FAY Yeah. NED Where's Dad? FAY I don't know, honey. Leave me alone a minute, I gotta think. He picks at the bedspread and looks at the ceiling, then... NED Mom? FAY What! NED Is Dad in trouble? FAY Yes, Ned, he is. He's in big trouble. Now just be quiet for two minutes. He walks around to the other side of the bed and waits a moment before... NED Mom? FAY I'm warning you, Ned. NED Mom, can I be a mailman when I grow up? Fay sits up, pauses and studies her son. FAY Sure you can, honey. You can be anything you want. Ned is happy to hear this. He shuffles out of the room and Fay falls back on the bed. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE KITCHEN -- DAY Moments later. Ned comes into the kitchen and digs through the drawers beneath the sink. He finds an envelope. He reads the return address: Chelsea Hotel, New York City. EXT. SUBWAY -- DAY Ned approaches the subway station and climbs the stairs to the platform. EXT. SUBWAY PLATFORM -- DAY Moments later. Ned runs up the stairs to the elevated platform just as a train pulls into the station. He runs down a few cars and hops in as the doors slide open. INT. TRAIN -- DAY Ned rides the train to New York City. EXT. SUBWAY STOP -- DAY Twenty minutes later. He comes up out of the subway on to the street, looks around. INT. HOTEL LOBBY -- DAY He comes into the hotel and rings an annoying buzzer which brings out the concierge, who is in his little office, watching TV. CONCIERGE Yeah, what do you want? NED My uncle. CONCIERGE What's his name? NED Simon Grim. The concierge looks through his book as Ned waits. CONCIERGE There ain't no one here by that name. Ned pulls the envelope from his pocket, unfolds it and shows it to the concierge. NED Room 423. The concierge studies the envelope and hands it back. CONCIERGE This is post marked five years ago. Disappointed, Ned takes back the envelope and stands looking at his sneakers. CONCIERGE What does he look like? NED (hopeless) I don't know. CONCIERGE Sorry, kid. Can't help ya. Ned steps away from the front desk and moves towards the door. But then he stops and looks back at... The concierge, sitting back in his office, returning his attention to the TV set. The boy heads for the elevator. The concierge looks up and sees him. CONCIERGE (jumping up) Hey! Ned checks his step and runs for the service stairs. The concierge goes after him. INT. HOTEL STAIRCASE -- DAY Moments later. Ned runs up the stairs, the concierge in pursuit. INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR -- DAY Moments later. Ned jumps out into the hall, narrowly escaping the clutches of the concierge, who falls to the floor. Ned runs up the hall, checking the room numbers as the concierge gets to his feet. He finds... Room 423. He knocks. The concierge strides up the hall towards him. Ned knocks again. The concierge bears down upon him. He knocks again and... The door opens a crack, held by its safety chain. A female figure in silhouette is at the narrow gap. Ned looks from the door to the concierge approaching. The concierge arrives and reaches out for him, but the door opens wide and Ned dives in. INT. HOTEL ROOM 423 -- DAY Same time. The concierge stands in the hallway. The door swings shut in his face. Ned kneels on the floor of the hotel room, waiting to be smacked, or something. But when nothing happens, he opens his eyes and looks back over his shoulder at... Laura, the secretary from the publishing house. She is dressed for travel and has her coat hung over her arm, a suitcase in her hand. She smiles at him, then looks from the boy to someone across the room and... Ned follows her gaze to find... Simon, standing there before him, a suitcase in his hand as well. He looks down at Ned with a calm, intrigued expression. The boy looks up at him in awe. Simon steps forward, pauses, then... SIMON Get up off your knees. He does. EXT. WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY A taxi pulls up. Simon and Ned climb out and Laura leans out of the window. LAURA Promise me you'll be on that plane at seven, Simon. SIMON I'll see you in Stockholm. They kiss. The taxi pulls away. Simon comes down beside Ned, takes the boy by the shoulders and whispers in his ear. The kid takes off. Simon looks over at World of Donuts and sees Gnoc waiting there at the door. EXT. BEHIND WORLD OF DONUTS -- DAY Gnoc leads Simon out through the kitchen. A band is seen doing a sound check, inside. BuÒuel and Hawkes are waiting there, looking concerned. Simon gives BuÒuel his passport. BuÒuel nods and leaves. Hawkes and Gnoc open the cellar doors. INT. WORLD OF DONUTS BASEMENT -- DAY Moments later. Simon is lead down the stairs and stops. He looks on in horror at... Henry, lying on a makeshift bed, badly beaten up and weak. Mr Deng is wrapping his chest in bandages. Simon pauses, then comes closer. He reaches out and touches Henry's shoulder, standing there looking down at his friend. Henry looks up at him, pauses and then gestures vaguely with his hand. HENRY Look, Simon, the world's a scary place. I admit it. But it's not my fault. I swear! Simon thinks about this and looks away. SIMON I'm sorry, Henry. HENRY Don't be. You had things to do. SIMON So did you. Henry thinks about that, sighs and looks away. INT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY Fay packs up the many books of the 'Confession' into one of the old suitcases Henry first came to town with. She slams it shut. EXT. THE GRIM HOUSE -- DAY Ned runs along the street and stops at the police car. He points down the street with great urgency. The cops jump in their cars and take off. He then looks over at... Fay, leaving the house with Henry's suitcase. EXT. WORLD OF DONUTS BACK ALLEY -- DAY Same time. BuÒuel backs his car into the alley behind World of Donuts. Stepping out of the car he hands Simon back the passport. Simon checks it and then looks up to see... Father Hawkes and Mr Deng helping Henry outside. Coming out into the daylight, he straightens up and manages to walk on his own. He motions Ned over and leans down to the kid with difficulty. HENRY Gotta light? Ned does. He has his own Zippo lighter and he proudly lights his dad's cigarette. Henry smokes, hugs Ned, then leans back and pauses. Finally... HENRY Take care of your mom and don't start trouble you can't finish. Ned nods and Henry pats him on the shoulder. Then he stands before Fay and looks at his feet. With her arms folded across her chest and her hip cocked, she taps her foot impatiently and waits for his last line of crap. HENRY I love you, Fay. FAY (rolls her eyes) Yeah, well, tough. But then she looks at him and softens. He leans in and kisses her passionately on the mouth. Moments later, they all help Henry into BuÒuel's car and Simon gets in behind the wheel. The doors slam shut and Simon steers the car slowly up the alley. Henry gazes out at Fay running along beside the car with the rest of the neighborhood, some of them laughing, some of them crying... EXT. AIRPORT TERMINAL -- DAY Simon pulls up at the curb and jumps out. He helps Henry climb out and together they enter the terminal. INT. AIRLINE TICKET COUNTER -- DAY Moments later. Henry steps up. AIRLINE TICKET CLERK Passport and ticket, please. Henry hands them over. He glances back at... Simon, waiting. The clerk compares Henry to the picture in the passport, checks again, then... AIRLINE TICKET CLERK (recognizes) It's an honor to meet you, Mr Grim. Really. I mean, God. Congratulations on the Nobel Prize. HENRY Thanks. AIRLINE TICKET CLERK I know all your work by heart. It changed my life. HENRY Yeah, well. Look, thanks, but.. AIRLINE TICKET CLERK Yes. Of course. She types something more into the computer, then looks up urgently. AIRLINE TICKET CLERK You'll have to hurry, sir. They're holding the plane for you on the runway. INT. AIRPORT GATE -- DAY Moments later. Airline representatives come rushing up with walkie-talkies to meet Henry and Simon as they run through the terminal. AIRLINE REP #1 This way, please, this way! This way, Mr Grim! This way! Excuse me! As they are ushered up towards the gate, Henry stops and looks off at the security guards and ground crew waiting for him, certain they can spot him as a wanted criminal. SIMON (shoves him) Go on. Henry is ushered through security. They take his ticket and check his passport again. They take his suitcase and place it on the conveyor belt. He passes through the metal detector. They pass the metal detector wand over him and he stands there with his hands outstretched, as... Simon waits and watches. The suitcase rolls out from the x-ray machine and as Henry grabs it, he stops and looks across the security checkpoint at... Simon, standing there. He steps forward anxiously. Henry lingers, speechless, but the airline representatives are at his side... AIRLINE REP Mr Grim, please, the plane is waiting! We have to hurry! They drag him away, but Henry looks back as... Simon stops and watches. EXT. AIRPORT RUNWAY -- DAY Moments later. The plane is waiting out on the asphalt and the airline representative runs straight for it, calling back over her shoulder to Henry... AIRLINE REP This way, Mr Grim! This way! Runway technicians rush to their positions, but Henry hangs back and struggles across the tarmac, looking back over his shoulder at... Simon, behind the huge plate glass window of the terminal. He stops and waits. Simon raises his hand in farewell and... Henry raises his in reply. Then Simon, unheard behind the gigantic glass wall, silent amongst the roar of the runway, says... SIMON (unheard) Run. And Henry understands. He lowers his hand, waits just a moment, then turns and looks out at... The airplane. The airline representative is shouting at him from the foot of the stairs and waving him on with her walkie- talkie. He glances back once more at Simon. Then... Henry is running, struggling towards us, forcing himself towards the plane, getting stronger and running faster with every step he takes. CUT TO BLACK THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Hesher.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hesher.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f1e1e714b8872ad3420ea7f6171bbb652ef9e205 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hesher.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + HESHER Written by Spencer Susser & David Michod July 7th, 2008 EXT. STREET - DAY A small kid, TJ FORNEY (13), with a grubby worn cast on his arm, rides his BMX really fast down a street. He chases a tow truck towing a badly wrecked red Volvo. He struggles to keep up. The truck makes a turn. TJ follows, turning dangerously in front of oncoming traffic. The truck makes another turn. TJ turns with it, running straight into the side of a car pulling out of a driveway. He comes off his bike and is thrown across the hood. He picks himself up, stunned. The driver of the car gets out to see if he's hurt. TJ looks down the street to see the tow truck disappearing in the distance. He hurries back to his bike. He jumps on and continues after the truck. TJ gives chase. He gains on the truck. He can see it pull into a used car lot ahead - FAIR OAKS CAR CITY. EXT. FAIR OAKS CAR CITY - DAY TJ arrives at the car lot as the TOW TRUCK DRIVER is lowering the car onto the drive. TJ dumps his bike, out of breath. TJ This car has to go back. TOW TRUCK DRIVER Huh? TJ This car has to go back to where it came from. Put it back on the truck. TOW TRUCK DRIVER What are you talking about, kid? The driver continues working, unhooking the car from the truck. TJ Stop unhooking it. There's been a mistake. TOW TRUCK DRIVER I was told to bring it here. That's what it says on my work order. Talk to that guy if you've got a problem. The driver nods in the direction of LARRY TOWERS, who is approaching with 17 year-old DUSTIN HOWARD and another man, TONY, in dirty overalls. (CONTINUED) 2. CONTINUED: LARRY (to tow truck driver) Hey, Bill. Larry shakes the tow truck driver's hand. TJ This car has to go back where it came from. LARRY I beg your pardon? TJ It was brought here by mistake. Larry smiles at the little out-of-breath kid. LARRY And where was it supposed to go? TJ It wasn't supposed to go anywhere. It needs to go back where it came from. The guy who sold it to you made a mistake. LARRY (TO TONY) What's the deal with this car again, Tony? Tony flips through a stack of papers he's holding. TONY Ah let's see, we bought this car yesterday afternoon from a Paul Forney- TJ That's my dad. It wasn't his to sell. LARRY Well, it's his name on the pink slip, son. And that means it's his to sell if he wants. TJ Yeah, but I'm just telling you it was a mistake, OK, so it needs to go back where it came from. (CONTINUED) 3. CONTINUED: (2) The car has now been lowered off the back of the tow truck. Larry moves away from TJ and approaches the driver. LARRY Thanks, Bill. (TO TONY) You got that work order there? Tony looks through his papers for the work order. TJ doesn't like being ignored. He moves around to the driver's side of the wrecked car and wrenches open the bashed-in door. He climbs behind the wheel, slams the door shut and locks the door. LARRY (CONT'D) Get out of the car, son. TJ ignores him. Larry doesn't have time for this. LARRY (CONT'D) Dustin, get him outta there, will ya? Dustin moves around to the open driver's side window. DUSTIN Come on dude, get out of the car. TJ turns the key and begins winding the window up. Dustin reaches in trying to unlock the door. DUSTIN (CONT'D) C'mon. Open it. The window is rising. Dustin grabs at TJ. TJ keeps winding the window. It gets to the top, trapping Dustin's arm. DUSTIN (CONT'D) Ow, fuck. What the fuck you doing? Open it. Dustin is stuck. Larry, Bill and Tony laugh. Dustin yells at TJ. TJ ignores him, staring straight ahead. The men laugh some more. Dustin's humiliation sets in. DUSTIN (CONT'D) Put down the fuckin' window. I'm serious. Larry goes around to the passenger's side broken window and opens the door. He leans in and easily drags TJ out of the car. (CONTINUED) 4. CONTINUED: (3) LARRY I'd get out of here kid, before he works himself loose. TJ's not getting the car back. The men continue laughing at the trapped Dustin. TJ picks up his bike and rides away defeated. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / KITCHEN - NIGHT TJ sits at the kitchen table with his tiny 85 year-old GRANDMA and his depressed and dishevelled DAD, Paul Forney (45). Dad has a full shaggy beard and a recently healed wound on his forehead. They eat in silence. There's tension in the air. GRANDMA There's still plenty of applesauce boys. TJ (TO DAD) I don't get why what I think doesn't matter. DAD It couldn't stay in the front of the house anymore, TJ. I'm not having this conversation again. TJ Yeah, why not? DAD It's there everyday and I have to look at it. TJ When do you look at it? When was the last time you got off the couch? DAD It's not healthy. TJ Neither are all the pills you're taking, but I don't tell you not to take them. DAD I don't wanna talk about it anymore. (CONTINUED) 5. CONTINUED: TJ I do. DAD I don't. And that's it. TJ fumes. They eat in silence a bit more. TJ drops his fork and leaves the table, angry. GRANDMA It's OK dear. He just needs time. It's his first day back tomorrow. Lets try and be patient. Dad is a mess. GRANDMA (CONT'D) One thing at a time dear. One thing at a time. DAD Yeah, I know, mom. Grandma nods quietly. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / BATHROOM - MORNING TJ gives his mouth a once over with a toothbrush. He spits, then sets his toothbrush down on the edge of the sink. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / TV ROOM - MORNING TJ stands holding a banana and wearing a backpack in front of the couch where his dad is sleeping. Dad is lying face down, half-covered with a sheet, his leg hanging off the side. There's dirty plates and pill bottles on the coffee table in what is otherwise an old lady's living room. Dad stirs, it's a pathetic sight. TJ taps Dad's leg with his foot. Dad slowly comes to life and notices TJ. TJ Can I have some money so I can buy lunch today? DAD Yeah. Dad sits up on the couch, he looks a total mess. Dad pick up his wallet from the mess of a coffee table and hands TJ a few dollars. (CONTINUED) 6. CONTINUED: DAD (CONT'D) Hope you have a nice day Teej. TJ exits, leaving Dad sitting there. Dad sets his wallet back down and stares blankly into the room. We hear the door slam in the background. EXT. FORNEY HOUSE - MORNING TJ on his BMX pedals down the drive and out onto the street. EXT. STREET - MOMENTS LATER TJ pedals in the middle of a suburban street. He steers his bike with his broken arm as he tries to peel and eat the banana with the other. He glides down a hill. It's a long hill. He travels fast. Despite the glide and the wind in his hair he's slouching and looks depressed. EXT. HOUSING DEVELOPMENT - MOMENTS LATER TJ rides his bike through an eerily barren unfinished housing development - half-built houses and perfectly sealed wide streets. Up ahead, he can see a small section of unfinished road - a big patch of dirt and rocks. He veers up a driveway to avoid it. He passes the dirt patch and then comes down off the curb back onto the road, trying to keep control of his bike. He hits the road and loses his balance. The handlebars twist and he crashes onto the road. He jumps up and yelps in pain, clutching his elbow. He looks at it. It's badly grazed. He yelps again, angry. He picks up a rock lying in the street and charges towards an unfinished house. He hurls the rock through its front window. Glass crashes down. A silent beat passes, and then the front door of the house opens and a late-20s, long-greasy-haired, wiry shirtless guy in filthy black jeans emerges. He has a baby moustache and a cracked front tooth. This is HESHER. He makes a determined line toward TJ. HESHER The fuck you think you're doing!? Before TJ can back away Hesher grabs him by the back of his T- shirt and drags him kicking and squealing towards the house. 7. INT. HALF-BUILT HOUSE - CONTINUOUS Hesher drags TJ into the unfinished front room. He slams TJ against an uncoated drywall. Hesher pulls a pair of garden shears from his back pocket and squeezes TJ's nose between the blades. TJ is terrified. He squirms. HESHER The fuck you think you're doing!? TJ Nothing. HESHER You got five seconds or I'm gonna cut your fuckin' nose off. TJ I was just, I was just going to school. I, I didn't know anyone was here. Hesher stares intimidatingly at TJ. TJ looks seriously scared. HESHER Bullshit. You're gonna fuckin' - Hesher is suddenly startled. His ears prick up like a rabbit. He hits the deck dragging TJ down with him. Their faces are close together. Hesher makes a very serious finger-to-mouth gesture to 'shhhh'. The SOUND of a car idling outside. Hesher listens. TJ is on his stomach, freaked. TJ looks around the room - a duffel bag, some beer cans, a few porn magazines, a weathered bass guitar and a sleeping bag. A car door closes loudly. Hesher peers through the window and sees a SECURITY GUARD inspecting TJ's bike in the front yard and then making his way toward the house. Hesher looks at TJ with serious and considered venom. HESHER (CONT'D) You just fucked me. Hesher snaps into action. With speed and precision he gathers his stuff together. He shoves it all his duffel bag. (CONTINUED) 8. CONTINUED: SECURITY GUARD (O.S.) Who's in there? Hesher lights the fuse on a stick of homemade dynamite wrapped in duct tape and throws it through the broken window. He then slips out the back door, leaving TJ face down on the floor freaked out and confused. SECURITY GUARD (O.S.) (CONT'D) What the hell- BOOM! Dirt sprays against the house and pours in through the window. TJ cowers, then hears the guttural roar of a van starting up. He hears the van screech away. SECURITY GUARD (O.S.) (CONT'D) Hey! Get back here! TJ jumps to his feet and looks out the window. A dirty black van screams out onto the road and tears away, spraying dirt and rocks in its wake. The security guard stumbles around, covered in dirt and disoriented. He rushes back to his car and gives chase. TJ lets them get away up the street, then bolts to the front door. EXT. HOUSING DEVELOPMENT - CONTINUOUS TJ darts for his bike. He picks it up and rides off quickly. EXT. FAIR OAKS HIGH SCHOOL - MORNING Outside a public high school, kids mill around before class. Lots of noise. TJ rides down a path and clocks Dustin Howard, the kid from the car lot, who stands talking with friends by his car - a shiny 2007 YELLOW CONVERTIBLE MUSTANG. They spot each other. TJ quickly looks away (oh shit) and b-lines for the bike rack. INT. FAIR OAKS HIGH SCHOOL / HALL - DAY TJ opens his locker. He pulls out a clear zip-lock bag with a rotten apple inside. He looks at it a moment then puts it back in the locker. A kid puts his hand on TJ's shoulder. KID 1 Hey, TJ. You're back. Welcome back. Another kid comes over, eating a bagel. (CONTINUED) 9. CONTINUED: KID 2 Hey, Teej. Welcome back, man. TJ nods, despondent, putting books into his backpack. KID 2 (CONT'D) How you feeling, man? TJ (UNENTHUSIASTIC) Fine. KID 2 I came by your house a while ago, see if you wanted to come skateboarding or something, but it looked like the place was empty. Have you moved or something? KID 1 Yeah, I tried calling you a bunch of times, but it kept saying there was a new number or something. TJ Yeah, we moved in with my Grandma for a little while. KID 1 Oh OK, cool... I didn't want to call cause I didn't know. (changing the subject) You want some of my bagel? TJ No. Thanks. Awkward beat. TJ doesn't want to make chit-chat. People are already making him feel weird. KID 1 Hey, can I be the first one to sign your cast? TJ Ah, if you want I guess, but I'm getting it off tomorrow, so there's no point really. KID 1 OK, cool. Well, welcome back, man. (CONTINUED) 10. CONTINUED: (2) KID 2 Yeah, welcome back, dude. The kids steps away, feeling awkward. INT. FAIR OAKS HIGH SCHOOL / CLASSROOM - DAY TJ sits in class, at the back near the window. The teacher, MRS ELSBERRY, a big African-American lady, is taking roll. Kids answer as their names are called. MRS ELSBERRY Cerisola? Cimino? Cody? Cooper? Early? Edgerton? Fletcher? (LIGHTENS) Forney. TJ Forney's back. Welcome back, TJ. TJ gives a half hearted nod. The class turns to look at him. A couple whisper. TJ looks away. The teacher continues taking roll. MRS ELSBERRY (CONT'D) Folks? Fullwood? Greenberg? Herriman? Kelman? EXT. FAIR OAKS HIGH SCHOOL / FOOTBALL FIELD - DAY COACH McDonald? Mohajer? Nanden? Paonessa? Saunders? Sumner? TJ is in gym class, another roll call. TJ looks up. He notices a guy high up in the bleachers smoking a cigarette and staring at him through long hair. TJ looks concerned. Is this Hesher, the guy with the garden shears? INT. FAIR OAKS HIGH SCHOOL / HALL - DAY TJ is walking down the hall. He looks over and sees Hesher who's wearing a Misfits "Skull" T-shirt, watching him through the crowd. Suddenly TJ is grabbed and slammed against a locker. It's Dustin Howard and his posse. Dustin towers over him. DUSTIN S'up now, punk? You don't look so tough now, do you? (CONTINUED) 11. CONTINUED: TJ attempts to walk away. Dustin pushes him against the locker. TJ tries to walk away again. TJ Leave me alone. DUSTIN How about you suck my cock? Dustin slams him again. TJ stays put. DUSTIN (CONT'D) Huh? Suck my cock. TJ tries to walk. Dustin slams him. DUSTIN (CONT'D) Suck my cock. TJ tries to leave again, Dustin pushes him again. DUSTIN (CONT'D) Suck my cock. TJ Yeah, yeah, I heard you. Suck your cock. Then why don't you pull it out? DUSTIN What'd you say, bitch? TJ tries to walk away. Dustin grabs him and throws him down. DUSTIN (CONT'D) Don't fuckin' talk back to me. TJ squirms trying to free himself, kicking wildly. One of TJ's kicks catches Dustin. Dustin punches him. A crowd quickly gathers. KIDS Fight, fight, fight... INT. FAIR OAKS HIGH SCHOOL / COUNSELLOR'S OFFICE - DAY The school COUNSELLOR flips through papers in a file. COUNSELLOR Look, TJ. I know you've been through a lot and it's gonna take time to readjust, but as you know, the school can't tolerate this kind of behavior. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 12. CONTINUED: COUNSELLOR (CONT'D) I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt this time, but you can't be starting fights. TJ I didn't start anything. He pushed me. COUNSELLOR What he did or didn't do isn't important. What's important is what you do, and how you react. Do you understand? TJ Not really. COUNSELLOR Which part don't you understand? TJ I don't understand the part about how it's not important that he pushed me and he punched me and he kicked me and he told me to suck his cock and now I'm the bad guy sitting in the office. The counsellor cuts him off. COUNSELLOR Hey, hey, hey. I do not wanna hear that kind of language in my office. TJ Yeah, but I didn't - COUNSELLOR Listen, I'm gonna cut you some slack, but you're gonna have to meet me halfway here. TJ shakes his head. He gives up on this conversation. He looks out the window. Hesher is out there - smoking and watching. TJ is suddenly unnerved. COUNSELLOR (CONT'D) I should really be suspending you, but I won't if you can promise me you'll put in a real effort... (noticing TJ looking ELSEWHERE) Are you listening? (CONTINUED) 13. CONTINUED: (2) TJ Yeah, OK. EXT. FAIR OAKS HIGH SCHOOL - LATE AFTERNOON It's after school. TJ walks out to his bike. It's the last one left on the rack. Only a couple of other kids are still on campus. TJ looks around. He jumps on his bike and quickly rides off. INT. FORNEY HOUSE - LATE AFTERNOON TJ enters the house, which is quiet except for the sounds of a TV. There are no lights on so it feels dark. He walks past the TV room, the TV is on. Dad is on his back, fast asleep, mouth wide open. He barely seems alive, until he makes a small whimper. His mouth closes, he swallows, then his mouth drops open again. TJ picks up the remote control from a mess of empty pill bottles on the coffee table and switches off the TV. TJ walks past the kitchen and drops his backpack. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / GRANDMA'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS TJ walks past his grandma's bedroom. The door is open. He gently knocks. She's sitting up in bed, reading. GRANDMA Hi, pumpkin. TJ Hey. TJ stands in the doorway. Grandma takes off her glasses. GRANDMA How was your day? TJ Pretty much sucked. GRANDMA Why sweetheart? TJ thinks for a moment. TJ I don't know. It just sucked. (CONTINUED) 14. CONTINUED: Grandma looks at TJ with an empathetic nod. TJ (CONT'D) Do you want me to turn on the light for you? GRANDMA Do I look like I'm sitting in darkness here? TJ I don't know, maybe, a little. GRANDMA Maybe I need new glasses? She holds her glasses up for closer inspection. GRANDMA (CONT'D) Actually, I don't even know if these are mine. TJ Whose are they? GRANDMA Geez, I don't know. TJ Well, can you see better with them? GRANDMA Jesus, I don't know. Grandma holds the glasses in different positions. GRANDMA (CONT'D) You know my mother always told me that I'd damage my eyes if I read by poor light and I always think about that when I'm reading, but I've gotten this far, so why am I still worrying about it? Why am I even reading? There's something more I need to learn? She give this a moment of thought. GRANDMA (CONT'D) I guess there's always something more to learn. (CONTINUED) 15. CONTINUED: (2) She seems almost tickled by this. She slips her bookmark in her book and puts it on her bedside table. GRANDMA (CONT'D) Is is your dad up yet? TJ No. Why, has he been sleeping all day? GRANDMA Well, you know, sometimes people get knocked off course a little when bad things happen. But they come good in the end. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / KITCHEN - EVENING TJ sits at the kitchen table alone staring at a cute and happy bunny salt and pepper shakers. He can see in through to the TV room where Grandma is shaking Dad awake on the couch for dinner and holding a glass of milk for him. Dad lifts himself off the couch. Grandma hands him the glass of milk. GRANDMA Here's some milk to wet your whistle. DAD Thanks mom. Dad shuffles into the kitchen and takes his seat at the table. Dad empties a couple of pills into his palm and downs them with milk. TJ forks his food around his plate. DAD (CONT'D) Hey Teej. TJ Hey. GRANDMA Take some applesauce, sweetheart. DAD What's the time? TJ It's six o'clock. Have you been sleeping all day? (CONTINUED) 16. CONTINUED: DAD I just had to lay down for a bit. Dad looks up but doesn't seem to notice TJ's bruised face. DAD (CONT'D) How was school? TJ Fine. When are you going back to work? DAD That's a good question. Dad scrapes a mouthful onto his fork, avoiding the good question. A moment passes. TJ stares at him. TJ Are you gonna answer it? DAD I don't know. I'm not ready yet. Dad's eyes are lowered. He stares at his plate. TJ watches him, feeling powerless. TJ I'm not ready yet either. They eat in silence. GRANDMA TJ, would you please pass me the salt? TJ passes the bunny salt shaker. GRANDMA (CONT'D) Did you know that when Albert Einstein interviewed people for a job, he would take them out for lunch and if they put salt on their food before tasting it, he would not give them the job. Grandma looks up at TJ with a small grin. She sets the salt shaker down. GRANDMA (CONT'D) I've always liked that. 17. INT. DOCTOR'S OFFICE - DAY TJ sits on the bed in a doctor's office. The DOCTOR is cutting off his cast with a little buzz saw. The doctor pulls the cast free and inspects TJ's arm. It is pale and skinny compared to the other. DOCTOR (referring to the smell) Whoa, that's like an eight week old dirty sock. OK, so how does that feel? You wanna turn your wrist like this for me? The doctor demonstrates. TJ imitates. DOCTOR (CONT'D) And like this. The doctor twists his wrist in a different direction. TJ does the same. The doctor looks for a pen. DOCTOR (CONT'D) Any pain or discomfort? TJ I don't know. It feels kinda weird, I can't tell. DOCTOR It will feel strange for a few days, but should start to feel normal again soon. Alright, lookin' good. I s'pose I should write you a note for school. The doctor writes the note. While he does so he makes chit chat. DOCTOR (CONT'D) How's your Dad doing? TJ Not great. I don't know. You should probably just ask him yourself. INT. FAIR OAKS HIGH SCHOOL / CLASSROOM - DAY Mrs. Elsberry drones on from the front of the class. (CONTINUED) 18. CONTINUED: MRS ELSBERRY If we consider that dreams serve a metaphoric function in narrative fiction, as they do in life, what metaphoric function would you suggest the dreams here are serving? TJ sits in the back of the class, by the window. A little pebble hits TJ's desk. It bounces onto the floor. TJ looks around to find where it came from - and then another one hits him in the head. He looks out the window. Hesher is right outside the window. He takes the cap off of a large BLACK MAGIC MARKER. He holds it up to his nose and takes a long slow inhale. He exhales slow and long, staring hard at TJ. TJ looks around confused. Hesher recaps the marker, throws it hard at TJ and wanders off. The marker hits TJ, then falls to floor near his feet. He reaches for it. Mrs. Elsberry sees this. MRS ELSBERRY (CONT'D) TJ! What are you doing? Please pass that forward. TJ passes the marker forward. Mrs. Elsberry sets the marker on her desk. MRS ELSBERRY (CONT'D) You can collect this after class. She continues back to the chalkboard. MRS ELSBERRY (O.S.) (CONT'D) OK, so for our protagonist, are these dreams premonitions or desires or even nightmares perhaps? EXT. FAIR OAKS HIGH SCHOOL - AFTERNOON It's after school. Kids are leaving campus. TJ wheels his bike across the school yard. EXT. STREET - MOMENTS LATER TJ rides his bike down the street. Dustin's YELLOW MUSTANG appears beside him. Dustin is boiling. DUSTIN You're fuckin' dead. (CONTINUED) 19. CONTINUED: We see that someone has drawn - in BIG BLACK MARKER - a crude picture of a body, sitting on a toilet with a big erect penis. The picture is drawn on the side of Dustin's Mustang door, so his real head lines up with the drawing. It's drawn in perspective so it looks like Dustin's head is attached to the naked defecating body to outsiders. The words 'SUCK MY COCK' have been scrawled beside the picture. Dustin swerves the car toward TJ, narrowly missing him. TJ cuts into a large super market parking lot, attempting to get away. Dustin accelerates ahead of TJ and screeches to a halt in front of him, cutting him off, almost hitting him. TJ stumbles and falls off his bike. His bike lands on top of him. Dustin jumps out of his car and starts beating TJ in the middle of parking lot traffic. TJ struggles just to protect himself, cowering on the ground and covering his head. Dustin tries to wrestle TJ free of the bike so as to get a clearer shot at him. He drags TJ by his T-shirt, ripping it off in the process. And then a WOMAN'S VOICE - VOICE (O.S.) Hey! Dustin ignores the voice. He continues beating TJ. VOICE (O.S.) (CONT'D) Hey! Leave him alone! Dustin ignores again. VOICE (CONT'D) Hey! I said stop it! Dustin ignores one last time - a beat passes, then the woman, NICOLE (mid-20s), appears behind Dustin and jumps onto his back, bear hugging his face. NICOLE Leave him alone! Dustin shakes erratically, Nicole has a tight grip on him, but eventually Dustin manages to throw her onto the ground. DUSTIN What the fuck are you doing lady? Nicole picks herself up off the ground and holds up her fists like she's ready to fight. She doesn't look very tough. (CONTINUED) 20. CONTINUED: (2) NICOLE What are you doing?! Nicole stands defiantly between Dustin and TJ. Dustin looks around at the scene he's created in the street. A man steps out of his car. Dustin realizes it's time to go. DUSTIN (TO TJ) I'm not finished, you fuck. He gets back into his car, slams the door and speeds off. Nicole watches him go, then helps TJ up. TJ is shirtless, scrawny, dirty and traumatized. NICOLE Are you alright? TJ I don't know. (BEAT) Am I bleeding? NICOLE I don't think so. Am I? TJ I don't know. TJ grabs his T-shirt and pulls it back on. He picks his bike up off the ground and hops on. He goes to peddle, but the chain is busted. His peddling goes nowhere. INT. NICOLE'S CAR - DAY Nicole drives. TJ is in the passenger seat. TJ's bike is crammed in the back. NICOLE I can't believe he called me lady. Do I look like a lady to you? TJ I don't know, I guess? NICOLE Thanks. I mean do I look old? Well anyway, at least I can say I've been in a fight. She thinks about this for a beat. TJ is silent. (CONTINUED) 21. CONTINUED: NICOLE (CONT'D) I can't believe he called me lady. TJ notices an ice-cream cone sitting in a cup-holder between the seats. TJ I think your ice cream's melting. NICOLE Oh shit. She tries to pick it up, suddenly flustered. It drips everywhere. She doesn't know what to do with it. It's too melted to eat. NICOLE (CONT'D) Ah, fuck it. She throws it out the window. NICOLE (CONT'D) Hey, so I'm kinda like a hero now, aren't I? TJ looks over confused. TJ What? NICOLE Well actually, I basically just didn't want to have to go home and then spend the rest of the day feeling bad about the fact that I didn't help you and then hear about you on the news being beat to death in the parking lot. So you know, really I'm just - I did it for me. I'm just selfish. (BEAT) And I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm like that. TJ is silent, he has no idea how to respond to this girl. She spots a gas station. NICOLE (CONT'D) Oh, gas station. She quickly makes an illegal turn into oncoming traffic. Cars honk at her. (CONTINUED) 22. CONTINUED: (2) NICOLE (CONT'D) Whoaaa... sorry, sorry. INT. NICOLE'S CAR / GAS STATION - DAY They pull up next to a gas pump. NICOLE Perfect landing. She gets out of the car. NICOLE (CONT'D) You like black or red? TJ Ah, I don't know, black? NICOLE Black? Really? Are you sure? TJ OK, red? NICOLE OK. Nicole walks off. TJ watches her for a beat then his eye wanders over the contents of her messy car. He picks up a white name tag from the coin tray between the seats. It reads: RALPH'S - Hi my name is NICOLE, how can I help you? TJ looks up and sees Nicole heading back to the car. He puts the name tag down as the car door opens and Nicole gets in. She hands him a stick of red licorice covered in green sugar. NICOLE (CONT'D) Red it is. INT. NICOLE'S CAR - MOMENTS LATER Nicole and TJ are driving. They eat sour licorice. TJ's not enjoying it, but not wanting her to know this. NICOLE It's super sour isn't it? You don't have to eat it if you don't like it. TJ It's really sour. (CONTINUED) 23. CONTINUED: NICOLE I know, that's the point. I used to hate this crazy sour stuff, I don't know what happened. I just recently acquired a taste for it. I don't even really know what's in it, but I pretty much eat it all the time. And I'm sure it's making me fat. I just don't want to end up like those fat old ladies you sometimes see, you know, the really fat ones? TJ doesn't know what to make of her. NICOLE (CONT'D) I don't know why I'm telling you this. Anyway, I was secretly hoping that you loved these - Holding up the licorice, then taking a bite. NICOLE (CONT'D) So you could eat 'em for me. But now I can see you don't like em' and I'm kinda glad cuz it means more for me. I guess I'm sort of a hypocrite in a way. She smiles at that. TJ attempts to smile back, but he's so confused he ends up making a strange face. He awkwardly looks away. EXT. FORNEY HOUSE - DAY Nicole's car pulls up. TJ gets out and notices a dirty black van creeping slowly around the corner toward them. This makes him very nervous. TJ OK, thanks for the ride. I really appreciate it. He hurries to the door. NICOLE Hey! TJ turns. NICOLE (CONT'D) You want your bike? (CONTINUED) 24. CONTINUED: TJ notices his bike still in Nicole's back seat. TJ Shit. TJ rushes back. He drags it out of her car. TJ (CONT'D) Thanks. He wheels it back towards the house. TJ goes around the side of the house to the back door. He knocks on the back door. Grandma appears at the door. GRANDMA Hi, TJ. What you doing around the back? Grandma lets TJ in. TJ is nervous. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS TJ I just, I dunno. I was just dumping my bike. TJ heads for the living room. TJ (CONT'D) (CALLING) Hey, Dad! GRANDMA Your Dad's gone to the supermarket, honey. Everything OK? TJ Ah, yeah, OK. But TJ isn't listening. He can't stop thinking about that black van. He exits the kitchen. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / FRONT DOOR - DAY TJ walks the hall carefully to the front door. He squints through the peephole. The black van is parked directly in front of the house. TJ can't see properly through the hole. He turns, to get a better look through the TV room window. 25. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / TV ROOM - CONTINUOUS TJ turns to the living room. There is Hesher standing in the middle of the room with a dirty duffel bag over his shoulder. TJ is petrified. They stand looking at each other for a long moment. HESHER Where's the laundry room? TJ My dad'll be home soon. HESHER Where's the laundry room? TJ Why? HESHER You've got two seconds to tell me where the laundry room is before I tear your fuckin' head off and skull fuck you. TJ points to a door off the lounge. TJ It's through there. But why? You can't - my dad's gonna be home soon. Hesher stares at him for a second, then heads for the door. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / LAUNDRY - CONTINUOUS Hesher empties his sack into the washing machine. TJ steps into the room, wary. Hesher ignores him. Hesher strips off his T-shirt and jeans and add them to the load. He's now standing in the laundry room wearing underwear only. TJ sees bad burn scars running down Hesher's thighs. Hesher pours laundry detergent liberally into the machine. TJ What are you doing? You can't - Hesher turns on a dime and grabs TJ by his throat and pins him against the wall. (CONTINUED) 26. CONTINUED: HESHER I swear to god. I'll cut your face off. He closes the lid. He wrenches the dial around and clicks 'start'. The machine begins a loud cycle. Hesher exits. TJ follows awkwardly. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / TV ROOM - CONTINUOUS Hesher sits in the middle of the couch and lights a cigarette. TJ You can't smoke in here. Hesher drags deep and blows the smoke out in a long whistle straight into the air above him. TJ (CONT'D) You can't smoke. Hesher flicks his cigarette, ashing on the floor. TJ (CONT'D) What are you doing? You can't smoke in here. Hesher looks at him and ashes on the couch. TJ (CONT'D) Will you please put it out? HESHER Can I put it out in your mouth? TJ What?! Wait. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / KITCHEN - DAY TJ enters the kitchen. Grandma is crumbing chicken fillets at the counter. She's listening to loud talk radio. TJ goes straight for the cupboards and looks through them. Grandma turns, eyebrows raised. She turns the radio down. GRANDMA I'm gonna make a cake. Do you remember my cherry cake story? TJ gets down on his knees and digs his way through the cupboard while Grandma rambles, continuing her chicken crumbing. (CONTINUED) 27. CONTINUED: GRANDMA (CONT'D) I used to make a cherry cake all the time and it always came out just wonderful. One time I invited my doctor and his wife and I wanted to make an impression. I asked him to come see your dad in a play and he came and I said, 'would you like to come back to the house?' TJ emerges from the cupboard with a bowl. He turns toward the sink and begins to fill it with water. GRANDMA (CONT'D) And he said, or his wife said, 'yes they'd like to come back.' So earlier that day I made a cherry cake and I used a - I didn't know it till afterwards, I used a new product - instead of Crisco, I used Fluffo. They never made it again that Fluffo. TJ Grandma, can I hear the rest of your story later? I'm kinda busy. GRANDMA Oh, of course honey. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / TV ROOM - CONTINUOUS TJ enters, carrying the bowl. Hesher is on the couch, smoking. The TV is now on. He flips channels. TJ stands next to Hesher. Hesher looks at him. The front door opens and Dad enters, wearing old sweatpants, a dirty T-shirt, and carrying a plastic grocery bag. He stops when he sees the practically naked, greasy-haired guy smoking on the couch (his 'bed'). It's a strange moment. DAD TJ, who's this? After a long uncomfortable silence, Hesher stands and extends his hand. HESHER My name's Hesher. Call me Hesher. (CONTINUED) 28. CONTINUED: Paul has to rearrange the bags to shake his hand. Hesher sits back down. DAD (TO TJ) What's he doing? TJ He's doing laundry. They stand looking at each other. TJ is just plain stressed out. DAD Why is he smoking in the house? TJ I don't know. Hesher continues flipping channels. He's not finding anything he wants. DAD Did you tell him he can't? TJ Yes. HESHER How come you only have four channels? Hesher gets up off the couch and exits the room. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS Hesher enters the kitchen. Grandma is still crumbing chicken. He starts going through drawers right next to her. He doesn't acknowledge her. Grandma notices him, but not seemingly his cigarette, his state of undress or his complete stranger-ness. GRANDMA Hello there. HESHER Hello, old lady. His cigarette is done. He flicks it into the sink. It sizzles out. He opens another drawer. Dad enters with his grocery bag. (CONTINUED) 29. CONTINUED: DAD (TO HESHER) Can I help you with something? Hesher shuts the drawer. He's holding a fork. HESHER Nope, I'm good. He exits the kitchen. EXT. FORNEY HOUSE / BACKYARD - CONTINUOUS Hesher strides across the back lawn in his underwear. TJ and Dad step out the door and watch him. Hesher reaches a telephone pole and climbs it nimbly like a monkey. At the top, he fiddles around with the fork, banging and wrenching at the cable box. He drops the fork to the ground and begins his descent. Only a couple of feet from the ground, he loses his grip and falls, crashing down into a thick bush at the base of the pole. HESHER Motherfucker. TJ and Dad stand staring frozen. Hesher lifts himself up out of the bushes, brushes himself off and heads back to the house. He walks right past them and back inside. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / TV ROOM - CONTINUOUS Hesher sits back down on the couch and begins to flip through the newly acquired channels. He finds porn and drops the remote down beside him. He sits back and watches girl-on-girl action. TJ and Dad stand just inside the TV room, stunned, watching the newly acquired porn. Then a LOUD BUZZ marking the end of the wash's cycle sounds from the laundry room. Hesher gets up off the couch and heads for it. A stunned and silent (bar the porn noise) moment later, TJ follows. (CONTINUED) 30. CONTINUED: Dad picks up the remote and switches the TV off. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / LAUNDRY - CONTINUOUS Hesher loads his wet laundry into the dryer. TJ's nervous. TJ So, ah, what are you doing now? Hesher slams the dryer door shut and wrenches the dial around. The dryer starts up loud. Hesher pretends he can't hear TJ. HESHER Huh? He turns and looks into the garage which is right off the laundry room. He points inside. HESHER (CONT'D) (LOUD) This your room? TJ (huh?) That's the garage. Hesher walks into the garage with his bag and slams the door leaving TJ standing in the laundry room with the noisy dryer. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / DINING ROOM - NIGHT TJ sits at the dinner table with Dad and Grandma. From the garage we hear a muffled bass guitar playing loud and heavy. GRANDMA Does your friend want to eat some dinner dear? TJ He's not hungry. GRANDMA Are you sure? TJ Yeah, I'm sure. DAD What's he doing in the garage? (CONTINUED) 31. CONTINUED: TJ I don't know. I said he could practice his guitar in there. GRANDMA That's great honey, it's nice having a bit of music in the house again. Is he a new friend? TJ Yeah, sort of. GRANDMA You know your grandfather played the harmonica for many years. TJ doesn't respond. He eats. Dad looks on perplexed, yet disconnected. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / BATHROOM - MORNING TJ is dressed for school, wet hair. He brushes his teeth. We can hear the sound of cartoons in the background. TJ stops brushing and listens a second. He hasn't heard cartoons at this hour in a long time. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / TV ROOM - MOMENTS LATER TJ enters the TV room. Dad is lying on the couch. Hesher sits on an armchair eating a bowl of cereal and watching cartoons. TJ stands for a beat and watches them. This is strange. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS TJ enters the kitchen. Grandma pulls a bottle of orange juice out of the fridge. GRANDMA (LOUDLY) Hesher, would you like a glass of orange juice. HESHER (O.S.) Ah, yeah. Sure. GRANDMA Morning, TJ. TJ Hi, Grandma. (CONTINUED) 32. CONTINUED: TJ goes to the counter. He pours cereal into a bowl. He grabs the milk carton. He pours it into the bowl, but the carton's empty. GRANDMA Oh, I'm sorry, honey. We're out of milk. I can cook you up some eggs if you like, dear. TJ No, thanks. I don't have time. TJ leans back and looks into the TV room at Hesher enjoying his milky cereal. GRANDMA Would you like to come for a walk with me today? TJ I can't, Grandma. I gotta go to school. GRANDMA No, I mean later. This afternoon. TJ grabs his backpack. TJ I don't know. Can you ask me when I get home? GRANDMA OK, honey. EXT. FAIR OAKS HIGH SCHOOL / LUNCH YARD - DAY The lunch yard is busy. The crowd clears a moment and we find TJ sitting on a bench in the shade, alone and depressed, hidden away from the other kids. He drinks from a can of soda. EXT. FAIR OAKS CAR CITY - DAY TJ rides his bike into the car lot. TJ stands staring at the crashed red Volvo (from the opening scene) that is parked on the lot. He takes a few deep breaths. 33. INT. FAIR OAKS CAR CITY / OFFICE - DAY TJ walks up to an open office door and knocks. Inside is LARRY TOWERS. He looks up. LARRY Yes? TJ I need to talk to you. LARRY Oh, yeah? What about? TJ enters and sits opposite. TJ I want to get the car back. LARRY Yeah, I figured that. You made it pretty clear the last time you were here, and I thought I made it pretty clear that I couldn't give it to you. TJ What do I need to do to get it back? LARRY The car's not for sale. TJ I want to get it back, though. How much do you want for it? Larry takes a breath. He doesn't want to be having this conversation. He counts the obstacles out on his fingers. LARRY I don't know. We're talking at least eighteen hundred dollars, not including taxes, registration, ADM, or dealer's fees. On top of that, you'd need a driver's license. I'm guessing you don't have one of those. You'd need valid car insurance. I'm guessing you don't have that either. But even if you did have these things, I still couldn't sell it to you because the car's not street legal. There's a million reasons why I can't sell it to you. (CONTINUED) 34. CONTINUED: For a second it seems Larry feels sympathetic toward TJ. LARRY (CONT'D) Look kid, I appreciate your enthusiasm, I really do, but I don't know what to tell you. You can't have the car. End of story. TJ churns all this over in his head. Larry thinks he's made himself clear. He motions to the papers on his desk. LARRY (CONT'D) Do you mind if I get back to it here? EXT. FAIR OAKS CAR CITY / OFFICE - CONTINUOUS TJ walks out of Larry's office, forlorn. He walks across the showroom, head down, mumbling angrily to himself. He is stopped by a hand on his chest. It's Dustin. DUSTIN You're lucky I'm at work right now. EXT. STREET - DAY TJ sits on his bike staring at a Ralph's supermarket. INT. RALPH'S SUPERMARKET - MOMENTS LATER Nicole is at the checkout, checking grocery items. She finishes with a customer and TJ appears next in line, with an ice cream cone. NICOLE Hi Sir, how are you today? Oh, hey. TJ Hey. NICOLE How's it goin'? TJ I got you a replacement ice cream. Nicole is a little taken aback. NICOLE Oh my god. That's so sweet, thanks. TJ smiles awkwardly. He hands her the cone. (CONTINUED) 35. CONTINUED: TJ I paid for it over there. He points to the ice cream counter on the other side of the store. NICOLE Oh, OK. She holds the cone, not quite sure what to do with it, not quite sure how to take this kid. NICOLE (CONT'D) Thanks. TJ (NERVOUS) Sure, OK. See ya. TJ walks away. NICOLE See ya. Nicole watches him leave while a line of customers wait to be served. She smiles at the next customer, sharing the moment. NICOLE (CONT'D) (to next customer) Hi. She starts checking the customer's items, still holding her melting cone. She looks up out the door. She can see TJ outside, shaking his head and mumbling to himself. He feels like an idiot. INT. FORNEY HOUSE - EVENING TJ enters the house. Dad isn't on the couch. He heads for the kitchen. He stops abruptly in the doorway. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS Hesher and Grandma are at the counter. Grandma is baking an apple pie. Hesher is joyfully eating the apple slices she is preparing for the pie. They don't notice TJ. (CONTINUED) 36. CONTINUED: GRANDMA - and his wife said, yes they'd like to come back to the house.' So earlier that day I made a cherry cake and I used a new product - I didn't know it till afterwards- I used Fluffo. They never made it again that Fluffo. It was an imitation brand. I served the cake and there was silence. And then - Grandma makes a clicking sound with her tongue on the roof of her mouth. GRANDMA (CONT'D) (LAUGHING) You put the cake in your mouth and it stuck to the roof of your mouth. They could hardly swallow it. Hesher finds Grandma's story amusing, he laughs, never losing a beat while eating the delicious apple slices. Grandma notices that TJ is standing in the doorway. GRANDMA (CONT'D) (STILL LAUGHING) Hi sweetheart. Hesher glances over, he clearly doesn't give a shit about TJ. TJ is not impressed with Hesher either. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / KITCHEN - NIGHT TJ, Grandma, Dad and Hesher all sit at the dinner table. They eat in an awkward silence. Grandma breaks the ice. GRANDMA So who's coming for a walk with me tomorrow morning? Again silence. Clearly no one is jumping at this opportunity. GRANDMA (CONT'D) TJ? TJ I can't Grandma. I have school tomorrow. GRANDMA Ok, well you're always invited. (CONTINUED) 37. CONTINUED: Silence again. The sounds of chewing add to the awkwardness of this dinner. HESHER So what? Everyone turns toward Hesher. This is the first thing to come out of his mouth all night. He's looking at TJ. HESHER (CONT'D) So what school? Go on a walk with your Grandma. Grandma lights up. GRANDMA He's right TJ, it'd be very good for you to get some fresh air. HESHER Your Grandma goes walking in the morning by herself? You can't get your ass outta bed like an hour earlier? She could get raped. Dad stops chewing. TJ looks at Hesher like he's crazy. HESHER (CONT'D) I read about this shit all the time. Grandmas get raped. You ever hear about that guy who killed like 13 old ladies. TJ What? HESHER Fuckin' Google it, dude. The Granny Killer, he killed like hella old ladies by strangling them with their dirty panties. (taking a mouthful) Not all of them necessarily got fucked, but they all got penetrated by like the dude's fingers and I don't know, other shit too. DAD That's enough. (CONTINUED) 38. CONTINUED: (2) HESHER (TO TJ) I just think your Grandma asks you to go on a walk, you should go with her so she doesn't get raped. GRANDMA Why would anyone rape me? HESHER I don't know, they do it, Grandma. There's some sick fucks out there. DAD That's enough. Everyone continues to eat in silence. TJ stares at Hesher who is shovelling food into his mouth. EXT. FAIR OAKS HIGH SCHOOL / LUNCH YARD - DAY TJ sits alone in the busy yard, nibbling halfheartedly on crackers from his lunch bag. Kid 1 from the locker scene earlier appears beside him. KID 1 Hey, Teej. What are you doing? Come sit with us, we're in our spot. TJ What? Uh, Ok. TJ gets up reluctantly, then notices Hesher walking across the yard towards the bathroom followed by an EMO KID with a skateboard. TJ (CONT'D) I'll meet you there in a second. TJ walks off, following Hesher. Kid 1 watches TJ walk off toward the bathroom. INT. FAIR OAKS HIGH SCHOOL / BATHROOM - DAY TJ enters the bathroom. He hears voices coming from a back stall. He walks towards them. In the end stall TJ finds Hesher finishing a drug deal with the Emo kid. Hesher hands him a bag of pot. The kid hands him money. TJ stands and watches. The kid leaves. (CONTINUED) 39. CONTINUED: Hesher shoves the money in his pocket, ignoring TJ. He unzips his fly and turns to urinate in the bowl. TJ What are you doing here? HESHER Pissing. TJ What are you doing at my school? HESHER I'm putting out a fire. TJ notices that he isn't actually urinating in the bowl. He's spraying his pee all over the seat and the lid and the wall and the floor. He finishes and zips up. He turns and shoves past TJ. Hesher looks at his hair in the mirror, then exits. TJ watches him leave, frustrated. He follows him out. INT. FAIR OAKS HIGH SCHOOL / HALL - CONTINUOUS TJ sees Hesher disappear through the crowd. From behind, TJ is grabbed and dragged back into the bathroom. INT. FAIR OAKS HIGH SCHOOL / BATHROOM - CONTINUOUS TJ is swung by his backpack across the bathroom. His backpack gets ripped off him and he goes down, sliding across the pissy floor. He looks up. It's Dustin, seriously angry. TJ leaps up and shoves Dustin back. Dustin stumbles backwards and trips over TJ's bag in the middle of the bathroom floor. Dustin falls and lands on his ass. He flounders embarrassingly. TJ knows he's a dead man. Dustin jumps up and grabs TJ by the back of his head. He shoves TJ's face down onto the filthy urinal tray. TJ struggles. DUSTIN You fucked my car, you little prick. Dustin holds TJ's head down in the tray. He shoves his face into the little yellow urinal deodorizer cake. DUSTIN (CONT'D) Eat the cake. TJ goes to lift himself up. Dustin punches him and then stands, putting his foot on TJ's neck, jamming TJ's head into the tray. He pushes the flusher. The urinal flushes all over TJ's face. (CONTINUED) 40. CONTINUED: DUSTIN (CONT'D) Fuckin' eat it. Hesher comes back into the bathroom. Dustin turns and looks at him, sensing danger. TJ looks up from the bathroom floor, eyes pleading for help. Hesher walks calmly towards TJ and Dustin. But instead of saving TJ, he walks straight past them and into the stall where he just completed his drug deal. He grabs his cigarette lighter from the top of toilet tank. He lights a cigarette, takes a long drag, blows the smoke in the air and walks back out again. Dustin watches him go. He puts another boot into TJ. DUSTIN (CONT'D) It's your birthday. Eat your fuckin' cake. EXT. FAIR OAKS HIGH SCHOOL - DAY TJ waits with his bike in the street outside the school. He's beat up, wet and dirty. School's out. Most kids have already left. Dad pulls up in Grandma's maroon Buick. He gets out and opens the back door for TJ's bike. DAD You ready? TJ I don't wanna go. DAD It'll be good for us, Teej. C'mon. We'll be late. Dad takes TJ's bike and starts trying to fit it in the backseat. TJ I really don't want to go. DAD I don't think anyone ever 'wants to go' to these things. It's supposed to be good for us. That's the whole point. TJ stands watching his Dad struggle with the bike. DAD (CONT'D) C'mon. Give me a hand here. 41. INT. COMMUNITY CENTER - DAY TJ and Dad sit on beanbags set out in a circle of about 12. Eight of these beanbags have people sitting on them - adults and a few kids. Some drink tea and coffee from little styrofoam cups. The tone is sombre. Dad and TJ look unsure of themselves. The chairperson of the meeting is MERYL, a 42 year-old grief counsellor. MERYL OK, so welcome everyone to the Transformational Grief Group. My name is Meryl. We should start off by going around the circle and introducing ourselves and briefly explaining why we are here. Hi Miss, would you please start us off? A heavy set woman, COLEEN, and her husband, JACK, sit on beanbags looking pale and sad. COLEEN We are the Bolder family. I am Coleen and this is my husband Jack. Our daughter Cynthia was murdered last year. (she chokes a bit) She was the victim of a violent attack that was unfair and sick. She can't go on. Her husband Jack sets his hand on her shoulder. She is able to hold back the tears. COLEEN (CONT'D) We are here because we need help. We lost our baby and we are broken. JACK Hi, my name is Jack. As my wife said, we're here hoping for some answers and just some help with the pain. MERYL Thank you, Coleen and Jack. Welcome. Weird silence. MERYL (CONT'D) (to Dad and TJ) Sir. Dad shuffles in his seat, looks around the group. (CONTINUED) 42. CONTINUED: DAD Ah, OK. Sure. My name is Paul Forney. This is my son, TJ. We're here today because we lost my wife, TJ's mother, a bit more than two months ago now. And ah, I don't know, we're still trying to come to terms with things and, you know, just find some guidance of some kind, I guess, and, ah, yeah, so... Dad finishes mid-sentence, then brief silence. MERYL OK, great. Welcome, Paul. TJ? Would you like to introduce yourself, say a few words to the group? TJ Not really. Meryl waits to see if TJ has anything more to add. He doesn't. MERYL OK. That's OK. (to the person next to TJ) Nicholas, would you like to introduce yourself to the group? EXT. FORNEY HOUSE / DRIVEWAY - NIGHT Dad and TJ pull into the driveway of the Forney house. Hesher's van is parked haphazardly on the lawn. TJ looks at it with venom - a reminder of the afternoon. INT. FORNEY HOUSE - NIGHT TJ bursts through the front door. He walks through the TV room to the laundry room. He rips open the door to the garage and flicks on the light. It's empty except for a little pile of Hesher's stuff. He walks back through the living room as Dad walks in through the front door, closing it behind him. TJ heads to the kitchen. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS TJ enters the kitchen. Grandma is baking. (CONTINUED) 43. CONTINUED: GRANDMA Hi, honey. How was your special group? TJ Fine. TJ exits the kitchen. He walks the hall to the bathroom. He turns the handle and enters. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / BATHROOM - NIGHT Hesher is having a bubble bath, smoking a cigarette, totally calm. TJ immediately lets rip. TJ Fuck you! HESHER Fuck you. TJ Fuck you. You let that fuck stick my head in a toilet and you don't do anything about it? You stand there and fucking watch him do it? Hesher ignores TJ. He watches him closely. He calmly takes a drag of his cigarette and ashes into the bath. TJ (CONT'D) You stay in my grandma's house? You're taking a bath in my fucking grandma's bath? Hesher flicks his butt in the bath and pulls the plug. He stays reclined as the water starts gurgling down the drain. Hesher stands. He's totally naked. He doesn't care. TJ waits for him to say something. Anything. Hesher steps out of the bath, dripping wet, naked. TJ (CONT'D) Say something! TJ shoves him. Hesher, in a flash, grabs TJ by throat and slams him against the wall. He holds him there for a second, staring at him intensely. HESHER (CALM) Listen to me. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 44. CONTINUED: HESHER (CONT'D) I'm gonna put some clothes on, then you're gonna meet me in my van. Hesher lets go of TJ and walks out of the bathroom naked. INT. HESHER'S VAN - NIGHT TJ and Hesher drive through the dark streets of Fair Oaks. Hesher finishes a cigarette. Wind blows in his hair. The van rattles. The Sex Pistol's 'Anarchy in the UK' is blasting. TJ is still angry. TJ Where are we going? Hesher ignores him. TJ (CONT'D) Where are we going? After a beat, TJ turns the music down. HESHER Touch my stereo again, I'll seriously fucking hurt you. Hesher turns the music back up. TJ is confused. Hesher drives into a gas station and pulls on the handbrake. He lights another cigarette. EXT. GAS STATION / VAN - CONTINUOUS TJ What are we doing? Hesher gets out of the van and slams the door shut. He goes around the back of the van and opens the back doors. He pulls something out and shuts the doors again. Through the side-view mirror, TJ can see Hesher filling up a big beat-up plastic gas container. He continues to smoke. INT. HESHER'S VAN - LATER Hesher brings the van to a quiet halt across the street from a suburban house. He kills the engine and surveys the area. TJ has no idea where they are. TJ What are we - (CONTINUED) 45. CONTINUED: TJ catches himself asking questions, but stops himself mid- sentence. He looks out the window and across the street and sees Dustin Howard's YELLOW MUSTANG parked in the drive. TJ (CONT'D) (OH SHIT) What are you doing? Hesher smiles to himself - he's looking forward to this. He opens the van door and climbs out. TJ is in a quiet panic. EXT. DUSTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS Hesher opens the van's back doors and grabs the container of gasoline. TJ appears beside him, still panicked. TJ Hey, seriously. What are you doing? Hesher makes his way across the street toward the house and the yellow Mustang. He pours gasoline all over the car. He does this with confidence - he's clearly had some practice. TJ (CONT'D) (loud whisper - too loud) Come on. This is insane. Let's get out of here. Hesher ignores him and continues dousing the car with gas. The porch light comes on. Someone peels open the front window curtains and looks out. TJ and Hesher drop to the ground behind the Mustang. TJ is terrified. He looks over to Hesher who is smiling, in his element, this is the happiest we have seen him. The curtains close but the porch light stays on. Unfazed, Hesher hops back up and empties the gas can onto the Mustang. Hesher stands a moment, admiring the car, saying a silent goodbye to it perhaps, as he pulls a single bent cigarette from his pocket. He straightens it, then lights it with a match. TJ (CONT'D) (QUIETLY FRANTIC) C'mon, man. Let's just go. Hesher takes one long drag on the cigarette, then calmly flicks the still lit match onto the Mustang. (CONTINUED) 46. CONTINUED: Instantly, it erupts in flames. Hesher picks up the gas can and walks calmly back to the van. TJ follows still franticly looking back at the car and the house. Hesher gets in the van and throws the gas can into the back. TJ goes to the passenger door. It's locked. He wrestles the handle, panicking. TJ (CONT'D) Open the door! It's locked! Hesher starts the van and pulls away, leaving TJ stranded in the street. The front door of the house opens and a woman appears on the porch. Discovering the car in flames, she screams. TJ takes off, running across the street and through a neighbor's yard, down the side of the neighbor's house, with the woman on the porch screaming at him. WOMAN Hey, get back here! EXT. STREETS & BACKYARDS - NIGHT TJ runs. He jumps fences and slips down the sides of houses. He's running fast and breathing hard. He finds his way out onto another dark and quiet street. He stops. He has no idea where he is or where to go. Then - HEADLIGHTS appear at the end of the street. They bear down on him slowly. TJ stands immobile. He can now see it is Hesher's van, approaching slow and menacing. The van stops about 10 feet from TJ. A moment's stand off. Then Hesher sticks his head out the window. HESHER Get in. TJ You fucking ditched me. HESHER Get in the van, dude. (CONTINUED) 47. CONTINUED: TJ doesn't move. He stares. Hesher REVS the engine. Hesher revs the engine some more. TJ still doesn't move. Hesher FLOORS THE VAN. ON TJ - the headlights of the van bear down on him. Hesher slams on the brakes and the van screeches to a halt inches from TJ's nose. TJ doesn't flinch. He and Hesher stare at each other through the windshield. Hesher smiles. He's impressed. TJ walks around to the passenger door. INT. HESHER'S VAN - CONTINUOUS TJ climbs in the passenger seat of the van. He's surly. TJ What the fuck's wrong with you?! HESHER What? TJ What's wrong with you? HESHER What's the problem? That's the guy who put you in the toilet. TJ Yeah, but - Hesher suddenly freezes, looks round, motions for TJ to 'shhh'. HESHER (WHISPERS) Something's coming. TJ looks around everywhere. What's coming? Then Hesher lets out a FART. He laughs. He puts the van in gear and drives. He cranks up the music. TJ stares at Hesher for a moment, then looks straight ahead shaking his head. 48. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / TJ'S ROOM - DAY TJ wakes in bed, still shell-shocked from the previous night. He sits up and rubs his eyes. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / BATHROOM - MOMENTS LATER TJ stands at the sink and begins to brush his teeth. He hears the DOORBELL RING. He hears muffled voices outside. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / HALL - CONTINUOUS TJ exits the bathroom, still brushing and walks the hall toward the voices. Hesher is standing shirtless in the front doorway eating a banana, blocking the view to outside. As TJ nears the front door, Hesher turns and moves away to reveal Grandma talking to two uniformed police officers. HESHER It's for you. Hesher disappears back into the house, smiling at TJ as he passes. COP Are you Thomas Forney? TJ (toothbrush in mouth) Yeah. COP We'd like to ask you some questions. TJ What about? COP We'd like you to come down to the station with us. TJ What for? DAD (O.S.) What's going on? (CONTINUED) 49. CONTINUED: TJ turns. His Dad is now sitting up on the couch, blinking in the light. He's in his boxers. His hair's a mess. He's dopey. He's just woken up. Hesher emerges from the kitchen, heading back to the garage, carrying a glass of orange juice. HESHER (TO DAD) Cops. INT. POLICE STATION - DAY TJ's MUG-SHOT is taken. TJ's FINGERPRINTS are taken. TJ and his Dad sit in an interview room. Dad looks confused, dopey and dishevelled. A uniformed police officer enters with a file. He shuts the door and sits. COP OK, so we're gonna have to let you go now. We may very well be calling on you again very soon, but in the meantime, let this be a warning to you. Regardless of what evidence we do or don't find, you've come to our attention today. Our attention isn't good. TJ But I didn't do anything. COP You hearing me here? These are very serious crimes we've been presented with. Let's just say someone had been in that car, and they'd burned - to death. We'd be talking about manslaughter, possibly murder. Have you thought about that? You'd be sitting here with detectives from Homicide right now. These are felony offences we're talking about, son. Serious jail-time offences. TJ nods, his dad looks on. 50. INT. GRANDMA'S CAR - DAY TJ's in the passenger seat. His dad drives. They sit in silence for a little while. Then dad speaks- DAD Did you do it? TJ pauses before answering. TJ Not really. DAD Not really? TJ I didn't do it. DAD What does `not really' mean? TJ ignores him, stares out the car window. DAD (CONT'D) Tell me what `not really' means. TJ It means I didn't do it. DAD No, it doesn't. Why would you say 'not really'? TJ I didn't. DAD You did. I heard you. TJ I said I didn't do it. DAD Yeah, before that. I asked if you did it. You said `not really'. TJ I can't remember what I said. DAD Why would you do something like that? (CONTINUED) 51. CONTINUED: Dad pulls the car into the driveway and comes to an abrupt stop. Hesher is sitting in a lawn chair in the middle of the driveway, sunbathing with his shirt off, drinking beer. He has a farmer's tan. TJ jumps out. Dad stares at Hesher from inside the car. HESHER Howdy. TJ walks past Hesher without looking at him. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / TJ'S ROOM - CONTINUOUS TJ enters and slams his door shut. TJ sits on his bed. Hesher enters without warning. HESHER So what'd the pigs want? TJ What the fuck do you think!? HESHER Did they give you a cavity search? TJ What? HESHER Did any of the cops put their fingers in your butthole? TJ Just fuck off, OK. HESHER What'd they do? TJ They took my fucking finger prints! HESHER So what? TJ So what!? I can get into serious trouble. HESHER Oh, is that right? (CONTINUED) 52. CONTINUED: TJ Yeah, that's right! They don't take this shit lightly. HESHER Oh, they don't? TJ People could have been hurt! If someone was killed it would have been considered murder. Hesher feigns concern. HESHER Really? Murder? (BEAT) That's badass shit. TJ Please just leave me alone. HESHER OK, but first show me your best impression of a dumpling. TJ What? HESHER You know, a dumpling, the Chinese little thingies you eat - Hesher holds up his thumb and index finger to show the size of a dumpling. TJ shakes his head, he's not finding this funny. HESHER (CONT'D) Come on, like this - Hesher constricts all the muscles on his face imitating a dumpling, he looks ridiculous. TJ tries to hold back a smile, but Hesher looks so absurd he can't. HESHER (CONT'D) OK, your turn. TJ shakes his head, fighting a smile. TJ No. (CONTINUED) 53. CONTINUED: (2) HESHER OK. And Hesher is gone in a flash. INT. SUPERMARKET / CANNED GOODS AISLE - DAY TJ is hiding, peering down an aisle, watching Nicole working at the check out scanning groceries. A can falls from one of the shelves just in front of him. It startles him. And then another one falls. He steps along the shelf to where the cans fell. He looks through to the next aisle. Nothing. Then a voice from behind him. HESHER Do you think she is totally bald or do you think she's more of a landing strip kind of chick or more of a 70's jungle bitch. TJ is startled. Hesher stands behind him, also watching Nicole. TJ What are doing here? HESHER You're stalking that chick, dude. TJ No, I'm not. HESHER Yeah, you are. I've been stalking you for half an hour. You gonna try to fuck her? TJ What? No. HESHER Can't fuck her from here, dude. Gotta be way closer. TJ Shut up about it. HESHER You wanna poke her clam? TJ Shut up. (CONTINUED) 54. CONTINUED: TJ is freaked and embarrassed. He walks away down the aisle. Hesher follows. HESHER You wanna poke her clam or what? TJ Please stop saying that. TJ walks ahead fast. He wants out of this conversation. Nicole finishes up, turns her light off and hangs a 'Check Stand Closed' sign. She walks off toward the back of the store. TJ stops to be sure to avoid her. HESHER You want to poke her clam, dude. Nothing wrong with that. Don't be ashamed about it. Humans have been poking vagina for hundreds of years. Longer even. Hesher says this a little too loud. Nearby shoppers look over. TJ shakes his head, then exits the store. Hesher follows. HESHER (CONT'D) Bro, there's nothing wrong with wanting a little pussy. EXT. RALPH'S SUPERMARKET / PARKING LOT - DAY TJ unlocks his bike from a pole. HESHER Where you going? TJ Home. HESHER I'll give you a ride. TJ No thanks. HESHER OK, but if you come with me it'll take 5 minutes and if you ride it will take you about 15. TJ gets onto his bike. (CONTINUED) 55. CONTINUED: HESHER (CONT'D) Come on dude, don't be silly, let's just car pool. TJ clearly doesn't want to ride his bike home, but his is reluctant to go with Hesher. TJ Fine, just don't talk to me. HESHER I won't say shit. EXT. RALPH'S SUPERMARKET / PARKING LOT - MOMENTS LATER TJ and Hesher load TJ's bike into the back of Hesher's van. Hesher closes the back doors and they get in. INT. HESHER'S VAN - CONTINUOUS HESHER Look dude, I'm really sorry about the fire the other night - He waits a beat for TJ to respond. TJ is still mad, he says nothing. HESHER (CONT'D) That was totally out of control. Foolish and irresponsible actually. TJ looks at Hesher, doubting his sincerity. HESHER (CONT'D) I want you to have this - Hesher reaches into the back of the van and picks up a dirty magazine. He flips through some pages and shows TJ a photo. TJ pushes the magazine away, disgusted. TJ Get that away from me. HESHER Dude are you gay? I can't work you out. Hesher spots Nicole getting into her car. He drops the magazine on TJ's lap and fires up the engine. TJ spots Nicole. (CONTINUED) 56. CONTINUED: TJ Hey, what are you doing? Hesher puts the car in gear and begins to follow Nicole's car out of the parking lot. TJ (CONT'D) Stop the car, I want to get out. HESHER Shush. TJ opens the door. Hesher grabs his arm. HESHER (CONT'D) You get out of this van, I'll rip your dick off and fuck her for you. Hesher means business. TJ is silent and back on edge. Nicole drives through the parking lot. Hesher follows her out of the lot and into the street. INT. HESHER'S VAN / STREET - MOMENTS LATER Hesher bobs his head in time with a heavy metal track that blasts from the stereo. TJ is ignoring Hesher, looking straight ahead at Nicole's car. Nicole stops at a red light behind another car. Hesher pulls up behind her and starts playing air drums to the track. The light turns green. Nicole hits the gas, running straight into the back of the car in front which hadn't started moving yet. HESHER Whoops. TJ's first impulse is to duck. Hesher watches the road. We hear the sounds of an angry DRIVER yelling at Nicole. Through the windscreen we see the guy get out of his car, yelling at Nicole. EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS Nicole is flustered and begins to cry. The driver is inspecting the smashed rear end of his car. NICOLE I'm sorry. I didn't - (CONTINUED) 57. CONTINUED: DRIVER You just messed up the back of my car you stupid idiot. You need to pay attention when you're driving a fucking car - HESHER (O.S.) I think I can help here. Hesher is out of the van approaching on foot, smoking. HESHER (CONT'D) I saw the whole thing. The chick here was stopped and you reversed right into her. DRIVER What? HESHER I don't know what your fucking problem is, dude. Why would you just reverse into her? That's fuckin' retarded. DRIVER What are you talking about? INT. HESHER'S VAN - SAME TJ lifts himself up again to see what's going on. He sits low, concealing himself, and watches the altercation in the street. EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS Hesher and the driver face off. The driver is simultaneously bewildered and angry. DRIVER Are you out of your mind? HESHER You better start making like you're gonna pay her for the damage. DRIVER I didn't back into her. I don't know what you're talking about. Hesher rips his shirt off, aggressively. HESHER You calling me a fucking liar, dude!? (CONTINUED) 58. CONTINUED: The guy immediately begins backing down. DRIVER No, I, I, I'm just saying I don't know what's going on here. HESHER You're calling me a fucking liar is what's going on here. Hesher pushes the guy hard. HESHER (CONT'D) Let's go. DRIVER Look, I don't want any trouble, sir. HESHER Fight me cocksucker! Hesher is seriously amping up the street agro. The guy doesn't know what to do. He starts heading back to his car. DRIVER This is ridiculous - HESHER Come back here and find out how ridiculous it is! The guy gets in his car and speeds away, leaving Hesher (shirtless) and Nicole in the street. Hesher stubs his cigarette, now totally relaxed again. HESHER (CONT'D) OK. See you later. Hesher heads back to the van. Nicole watches him not exactly sure what to say. Hesher climbs back into his van. INT. HESHER'S VAN - CONTINUOUS Hesher slams the van door. TJ is slouched way down in his chair out of sight. Hesher gets in and looks ahead. Nicole's car sputters and steam pours from under the hood. TJ Come on man, let's just go. (CONTINUED) 59. CONTINUED: HESHER Your sexy girlfriend's in trouble. We're not going anywhere. Hesher gets out. TJ ducks. He can't see what's going on. Long seconds pass. And then his door opens. Hesher is standing there next to Nicole. HESHER (CONT'D) You know, TJ? This is now beyond embarrassing for TJ. He can't even think straight. TJ Hey. EXT. FAIR OAKS STREET - MOMENTS LATER TJ and Hesher push Nicole's car off to the side of the road. INT. HESHER'S VAN - MOMENTS LATER Hesher drives. Nicole's in the passenger seat shaken by the turn her day has taken. TJ is in the back. NICOLE Sometimes, you know, a day is bad and then when you think it couldn't get any worse you suddenly discover whole new ways it can get worse. Hesher reaches over her and pulls a joint from the glove compartment. He lights the joint and takes a big toke. He offers it to Nicole. NICOLE (CONT'D) No, thanks. Hesher shrugs and takes another big toke then offers it to TJ who also declines. (CONTINUED) 60. CONTINUED: HESHER This one time I had like four hella drunk chicks in the back of the van, and we were going for it and I had one hand on this one girl's tit and my other hand on this other chick's twat, but there was like still two other girls wanting to get off so like I had my foot rubbing on one girl's asshole while I'm trying to eat the other girl out, and I was going crazy man. It was too much. I couldn't work out which chick was which and I'm making one girl cum but then I'm forgetting about the others and my tongue's hurting and my fingers are getting tired and like eventually I was just like 'Fuck this. This is too much' and I just stepped back. I just stepped back. And before you know it these girls are all working on each other, you know. They're all fingering each other and eating each other out, you know, and I jerk myself off and everyone's a winner, you know? Nicole looks at Hesher like he's crazy. TJ is in the back - he can't believe what's coming out of Hesher's mouth. A moment passes. NICOLE Was that some kind of perverted metaphor for me? About how I should just step back and let things work themselves out? HESHER A what? He reaches for the stereo and cranks the knob - Metallica's, 'Motorbreath' BLASTS through the speakers. As if he were possessed by the music, Hesher veers dangerously off the road onto a dirt patch. He has a crazed look in his eyes. TJ and Nicole grab onto anything they can hold onto. Hesher turns the wheel hard and floors the gas. The van spins in circles spraying dirt in every direction. TJ gets thrown from the back seat onto the ground. Dirt pours into the windows and covers them from head to toe. Hesher corrects the wheel and veers back onto the road again. (CONTINUED) 61. CONTINUED: (2) He turns the knob on the radio to an easy listening station. UB40's 'Red Red Wine' plays. A car honks as an angry driver passes. NICOLE What the hell was that? Hesher looks over at Nicole. HESHER I saw a mouse. NICOLE What? TJ picks himself up off the van's floor, dusting himself off. NICOLE (CONT'D) (TO TJ) Are you OK? TJ I have dirt in my mouth. TJ scrapes his tongue with his fingers. Nicole breaks a little smile. EXT. SUBURBAN HOME - DAY The black van pulls up curb-side outside a neat suburban home. Hesher gets out and walks, covered in dirt, to the front door of the house. He looks in through the window, knocks, waits. An old man opens the door. They exchange a few words. Hesher heads back to the van and they drive off. Nicole and TJ seem confused. NICOLE Who's that guy? Hesher says nothing. They drive three houses down the street and stop again. Hesher gets out. Again he peers in the window, knocks on the door. This time no answer. He heads back to the van. Nicole and TJ watch him approach from inside. He sticks his head in. HESHER We're here. Come on, let's go. NICOLE We're where? HESHER My uncle's house. (CONTINUED) 62. CONTINUED: Hesher walks off toward the side gate of the house. Nicole and TJ climb out of the van and follow Hesher. Nicole seems cautious. TJ knows he's on an adventure. Hesher jumps the SIDE GATE, then opens it for the others. NICOLE What was that back there? HESHER What was what? NICOLE That other house? HESHER Wrong house. EXT. SUBURBAN HOME / BACKYARD - MOMENTS LATER In the backyard is a swimming pool. Nicole and TJ stand looking in the pool. It's a nice pool with a diving board. Hesher walks up behind them and pushes them in. Nicole comes up for air. NICOLE What the fuck!? HESHER What? You're dirty. NICOLE Yeah, and now I'm wet. Hesher smiles wide. HESHER You're dirty and wet. I'm coming in... He throws his T-shirt off and does a huge bomb into the pool. HESHER (CONT'D) Now I'm dirty and wet too. He splashes water at her. He dives under the water. Suddenly TJ is pulled under. Nicole can't see them under all the motion. Then TJ and Hesher come bursting up for air. (CONTINUED) 63. CONTINUED: NICOLE Cut it out. HESHER R2! Shut down all the fucken' trash compactors on the detention level! Hesher dives under the water again. Nicole squirms. Hesher has her leg. He doesn't drag her under. He just tugs her leg. She slaps at the water. He tugs her leg again. Pretty soon she's laughing. Hesher's head appears above water momentarily. HESHER (CONT'D) ...All the fucking trash compactors... (underwater, then up again) ...on the detention level!... He dives again. He pulls her leg. She laughs hard. TJ watches feeling a little left out. Hesher jumps up and climbs out of the pool. He goes to a garden table nearby. HESHER (CONT'D) Oh, shit. More trash coming in! He heaves the table over and into the pool. He grabs a banana lounge. HESHER (CONT'D) Oh shit! He throws it in the pool. Nicole and TJ have to dive out of the way. They go to the sides of the pool and climb out laughing, while Hesher continues heaving garden furniture, a barbecue and anything else in reach into the water. TJ and Nicole sit on the edge of the pool with their legs dangling in the water. They're fully clothed and soaking wet. He walks off, around the side of the house, looking for more things to break. There is an awkward silent moment between TJ and Nicole. TJ looks down and notices a small army of ants marching along the side of the pool. He manages to get one to crawl onto the his finger. NICOLE So, how do you know this guy? TJ I don't know, he's sort of moved into my grandma's house with us. (CONTINUED) 64. CONTINUED: (2) NICOLE What, like he's renting a room or something? TJ No, not really, I don't know, it's kinda a long story. TJ flicks the ant off of his finger, then another one that's climbing up his arm. NICOLE Do you realize that the equivalent to you flicking that ant would be like one of us getting hit in the face by a giant wrecking ball at 100 miles an hour and getting thrown into the next yard? TJ stops mid ant flicking. TJ Sorry, I... NICOLE Do you think the other ants are gonna wonder where that ant's gone? Do you think their gonna miss her? TJ doesn't know how to answer. Hesher reappears with a container of lighter fluid and goes to the diving board. He climbs on and squirts the lighter fluid through his lighter, sending streams of flames into the pool. Hesher douses the diving board with lighter fluid and ignites it with his lighter. The diving board erupts into flames. NICOLE (CONT'D) Jesus Christ. HESHER (SINGING) Jump in the fi-re. Hesher takes a few steps back then runs toward the board. He springs through the flames into the air. He does a messy sideways flip. HESHER (CONT'D) FUCK YOU BITCHES!!! (CONTINUED) 65. CONTINUED: (3) He lands in the pool splashing TJ and Nicole. He pulls himself out and shakes his hair around like a wet dog. He looks over at the flaming diving board. HESHER (CONT'D) Shit, look at that. Hesher grabs his shirt on his way toward the fence. He doesn't look back. HESHER (CONT'D) I got a doctor's appointment. TJ What? Hesher hops over the fence. HESHER (O.S.) (YELLS) It burns when I urinate... Hesher disappears over the fence. We hear his van start and peel away. The flaming diving board pours black toxic smoke into the sky as it crumbles into the pool. NICOLE Did he just leave us? I think we should get out of here. Nicole stands and heads for the gate, TJ tags behind. They jump the side fence and head out into the street, dripping wet. EXT. FAIR OAKS STREET - LATE AFTERNOON TJ & Nicole walk over the crest of a small hill on a tree-lined street eating ice-cream cones. They walk in the middle of the road, still damp. The sun is setting. The light is magical. TJ My shoes are so squishy. TJ steps hard, squirting water out the sides of his wet shoes. Nicole smiles. NICOLE So, what's his name? TJ Hesher. (CONTINUED) 66. CONTINUED: NICOLE Hesher?... Is that a name? TJ I don't know. I guess? NICOLE Does he have a last name? TJ I don't know. NICOLE How old is he? TJ I don't know. NICOLE Do you know anything about him? TJ Not really. Beat. NICOLE That was so lucky you guys were behind me when that guy got all mad about his car. I was freaking out. I don't really have any insurance right now. I just can't afford it. There's no way I could afford to fix that guy's car. How do people do this stuff? I mean, I have a job. It's kind of a joke though. I've been there for like a year and I'm still only doing like five hours a week. Why aren't they giving me any more hours? Do you think it's because they think I suck? Did you think I sucked when I served you at the checkout? TJ (UNSURE) No? NICOLE I don't even get paid enough to really cover my rent. I'm gonna have to start selling shit pretty soon. (CONTINUED) 67. CONTINUED: (2) TJ licks his ice cream, then reaches into his pocket. TJ Here, I got two bucks. NICOLE The sad thing is I could actually use it. EXT. STREET - AFTERNOON A parking ticket sits under the wiper on Nicole's windshield. TJ and Nicole approach the car, smiling - and then Nicole sees the ticket. Her face sinks immediately. NICOLE Oh, no. Please tell me that's not a ticket... She runs the last few steps to the car and rips the ticket from under the wiper. She reads it quick. NICOLE (CONT'D) Fuck, fuck, fuck it. She paces a couple of angry circles and then kicks the car's tire. It hurts her foot. She yelps. NICOLE (CONT'D) Ah, shit. Fuck it. In a small frenzy, she pulls her keys from her pocket and opens the car door. She gets in and slams the door behind her. She sits behind the wheel and yells, frustrated. TJ stands in the street, uncomfortable, not knowing what to do. He goes to the car and gets in beside her. He sits, still not knowing what to say. She tries to settle herself, but she's still very emotional. NICOLE (CONT'D) What have I done to deserve this chain reaction of shit all the time? Sometimes I wonder if I were to die right now, if anyone would care, or even notice. TJ I would. She lets out a small disbelieving laugh. (CONTINUED) 68. CONTINUED: NICOLE That's nice of you to say, but I doubt it. TJ I would. If you died right now. (BEAT) I'd notice. TJ thinks a moment. It's a sweet and sour moment. He wants to cheer Nicole up, but he's remembering his Mom at the same time. TJ (CONT'D) Mainly because I'd be sitting in a car with a dead lady. Nicole sniffs, smiling through her tears. NICOLE Please don't call me lady. She smiles warmly at TJ. NICOLE (CONT'D) Let's get out of here. She puts the key in the ignition and turns it. Nothing. Nicole takes a breath - not wanting to get upset again. She turns to TJ and smiles sadly. NICOLE (CONT'D) You wanna steer or push? INT. FORNEY HOUSE - NIGHT TJ enters the house, he leaves his wet shoes and socks at the door. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS He enters the kitchen. Hesher sits at the table, waiting for his dinner. Grandma is serving food onto plates. TJ sits. Hesher is smiling. GRANDMA Hi TJ. TJ Hey Grandma. (CONTINUED) 69. CONTINUED: HESHER So did you fuck her? TJ What?! No?! Dad enters tying the drawstring on his track pants. He looks messy as ever. DAD (TO TJ) Where were you today? TJ What? DAD Counselling - 3:30, I'm there by myself. TJ Oh, sorry. I forgot. DAD Yeah, that's real nice. This thing is for you just as much as it is for me. I waited outside school for 45 minutes. TJ Yeah, well, I told you I don't want to go. DAD Maybe you should let me know before you don't show up next time. TJ I did. I told you I didn't want to go. I told you a hundred times. DAD No you didn't. TJ Yes I did. You're just not listening. DAD No you didn't. What you told me was that you didn't want to go. You didn't tell me that you were just not going to show up. (CONTINUED) 70. CONTINUED: (2) TJ What difference does it make? DAD For me a big difference. It means, I'm sitting on a fucking beanbag in a room full of losers by myself. Grandma sets more food on the table. GRANDMA Boys please, I'm not feeling well. Grandma heads back to the kitchen to grab more food. There is silence at the table. DAD (TO HESHER) Can you pass me my pills? Hesher slides dad's pill bottle over. Hesher puts his finger into the mashed potatoes and wiggles it around. HESHER (discreetly, to TJ) Did you finger her twat? TJ Shut the fuck up. DAD (SWALLOWING PILLS) TJ. TJ What? Hesher licks the potatoes off his finger. DAD Language. I don't wanna hear it. TJ Did you hear what he just said? DAD I don't care. If I hear it again, you're going to your room. (CONTINUED) 71. CONTINUED: (3) TJ My room!? You gonna start punishing me now? DAD Maybe I need to. If it's not the language, then it's your lack of responsibility... or I'm having to escort you down to the police station. TJ Shit, dad. I'm really sorry you had your ass dragged off the couch. I'm sorry you had to put some fucking underpants on for the first time in months. DAD TJ. TJ What?! TJ sits and fumes, nostrils flaring. DAD That's enough. TJ Oh, what, soon as I'm right, that's enough?! DAD TJ! I don't want to hear one more word from you! TJ Fine. Fuck this. TJ sweeps his plate off the table. It goes crashing onto the kitchen floor, food everywhere. Grandma walks back into the room, looking worried. Hesher seems riveted, like he's watching the tennis. And then Dad sweeps his plate off the table. Crash, food, mess. He glares back at TJ. DAD That make you feel better? TJ wrenches his chair back and storms off. (CONTINUED) 72. CONTINUED: (4) Dad sits a moment. With TJ gone, his reproach turns to shame. Grandma and Hesher make eye contact with each other. Dad gets up and leaves the kitchen. Hesher shovels some more food into his mouth. Grandma looks concerned. GRANDMA Did I miss something? HESHER (MOUTH FULL) Not really. Paul came in and said some dumb shit which TJ got angry about and so TJ smashed his plate and then Paul smashed his plate too but I got a feeling he smashed his one cuz he couldn't actually think of anything to say cuz he kinda knew TJ had a point and so now he feels bad about it and so he's gone somewhere. (takes another mouthful) I don't know where. Grandma contemplates this. GRANDMA Those boys have been through a lot. This makes Grandma very sad. GRANDMA (CONT'D) Sometimes I wonder if they're ever gonna smile again Tears well in Grandma's eyes. Grandma is quietly crying. GRANDMA (CONT'D) I just wish there was something more I could do. A long beat passes. Hesher doesn't know what to say. He pours applesauce on his food. Grandma looks around the kitchen at the mess. She shakes her head, takes a deep breath and starts cleaning up. She picks up bits of broken plate and takes them to the sink. Hesher watches her. HESHER This is delicious. (CONTINUED) 73. CONTINUED: (5) GRANDMA Thank you, dear. Hesher holds up a piece of bacon covered in applesauce and licks off the sauce. HESHER What's green and slimy and smells like bacon? GRANDMA I don't know, dear. HESHER What's green and slimy and smells like bacon? GRANDMA A worm? I don't know. I'm going to lie down. I'm not feeling well. I'm very nauseated. HESHER Oh, OK. Grandma exits. Hesher finishes the last few bites of his dinner. He notices Dad's pill bottle. He reaches for them. He unscrews the lid and empties a few into his hand. He swallows the pills. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / GRANDMA'S BEDROOM DOORWAY - NIGHT Grandma lies in bed on top of her covers. Hesher enters the doorway and knocks lightly. HESHER Did you figure it out yet? GRANDMA Figure what out, dear? HESHER What's green and slimy and smells like bacon? GRANDMA No, not yet dear. Can you do me a favor? HESHER Sure, what? (CONTINUED) 74. CONTINUED: GRANDMA Will you please hand me that red tin on the cabinet dear? Hesher enters the room, grabs the tin from on top of the cabinet and hands it to Grandma on the bed. HESHER Kermit the frog's finger. GRANDMA What? HESHER Think about it... Miss Piggy. Grandma opens her red tin and takes out what looks like a rolled cigarette. HESHER (CONT'D) Woah, what's that? GRANDMA Oh, I'm feeling very nauseated. They're medical cigarettes that help me with the nausea. Will you light a match for me, dear? HESHER (IMPRESSED) Hang on a second. Can I see that? Hesher sniffs the "cigarette". HESHER (CONT'D) No shit. Hesher sets the "cigarette" down. HESHER (CONT'D) I'll be right back. Hesher dashes out of Grandma's room. After a few moments, he comes back and sits on the edge of the bed. He is holding a glass BONG. The bong has so much resin caked onto the sides, it looks as though a thousand pounds of marijuana have been smoked through it. HESHER (CONT'D) May I? (CONTINUED) 75. CONTINUED: (2) Hesher takes one of Grandma's medical joints and breaks it in half and loads the bowl of the pipe. GRANDMA What is that? HESHER It's a bong. The water filters the smoke. It's probably the most healthy way to smoke weed. Hesher lights up and takes a HUGE hit from the bong. He explains his technique to Grandma while holding the smoke in. HESHER (CONT'D) OK, so basically cover the hole here with your thumb then suck on the top and once the chamber fills with smoke, take your finger off the hole and suck in. Hesher takes a quick sip of air sucking the smoke deeper into his lungs. HESHER (CONT'D) Then try and hold the smoke in for as long as possible, OK bro? GRANDMA Umm, OK. Grandma takes the bong and has a hit. It's a bit clunky, but she manages to make it work. HESHER Ok, lift your finger. Hesher helps her. The smoke shoots into her lungs. Grandma begins to cough. GRANDMA Oh, wow... That was a big one. HESHER Yeah, that was good. Hit it again. Grandma has another hit. It goes well. She blows out the smoke. Hesher takes the bong off her and has another HUGE one for himself. He passes the bong back. (CONTINUED) 76. CONTINUED: (3) GRANDMA I think I'm OK, dear. Hesher takes the last hit. He dusts off the bowl and sets the water pipe down. They sit for a moment and let the drug sink in. GRANDMA (CONT'D) Honey, how old are you? HESHER Who wants to know? GRANDMA I don't know. You seem a little older than TJ. HESHER Who? GRANDMA Oh, stop it. Aren't you a little old to be hanging around TJ all the time? HESHER Aren't you? GRANDMA No, I'm his grandmother. HESHER Yeah, I guess you have a point... OK, well I used to have a mouse. No, wait... hang on a minute. I used to have a snake. And do you know what snakes eat? GRANDMA Actually, there's no limit to the food items that you can even think of that a snake might eat. Whatever is available in abundance would become the prey for the snakes. Depending on their growth, their diet - Hesher cuts her off. HESHER Yeah, OK, OK well, actually they eat mice. (CONTINUED) 77. CONTINUED: (4) GRANDMA They do eat mice. A lot of times snakes eat other snakes because they're the right shape - HESHER Yeah, OK, well anyway... I used to have a snake and I fed it mice. But one time I fed this little fuckin' mouse to my snake and that mouse was tough. I dropped that mouse in the snake's tank and the snake wouldn't go near him, and any time he tried that mouse would just smack him with his little, you know... Hesher looks at his hand, not knowing what mouse hands are called. HESHER (CONT'D) With his little mouse hand. So instead of eating the mouse the snake just curled up crying in the corner and the mouse ruled that fuckin' cage. And this went on for weeks, the snake wouldn't go near him. That tiny mouse used to sit in a little miniature lawn chair scratching his balls and shelling peanuts and this snake was just too scared to go near it. And cuz the snake was scared of that mouse I had to feed him other mice, but every time I dropped another mouse in the tank, it'd hide behind the brave mouse. And so eventually the snake starved to death. I had a cage full of mice. Grandma is stoned and sleepy and fading out. GRANDMA So is TJ the mouse? HESHER Maybe he is. GRANDMA Well then, what am I? HESHER You're an old lady. (CONTINUED) 78. CONTINUED: (5) GRANDMA No, I'm a grandmother. HESHER Yes you are. And you know what grandmother? I'm gonna go on a walk with you in the morning. GRANDMA Oh, that's nice. Where are you going? HESHER I'm not going anywhere. I'm going with you. Around the block, I guess. GRANDMA Oh, OK, well have a nice time. I'll see you when you get back. HESHER No, I'm going with you. GRANDMA Ohh, OK, caauuse iii... Grandma has fallen asleep, but mumbles like she is continuing the conversation. Hesher smiles to himself, turns off her lamp and exits the room. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS Hesher enters. He stands over what's left of the mess on the kitchen floor. He lights up a cigarette off the stove's flame and takes a long, slow drag, as he crouches down and starts picking up pieces of broken plate from the pile. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / LIVING ROOM - MORNING Dad is asleep on the couch. A single shaft of bright sunlight lands on his face, causing him to stir. TJ nimbly reaches down to the table, covered with dirty dishes and pill bottles, and quietly picks up his dad's wallet. He removes an ATM card and places the wallet back where it was. He exits. EXT. FAIR OAKS STREET / ATM - MORNING Close on an ATM card, sliding into the slot. Fingers type numbers. A small stack of twenty dollar bills pours out. (CONTINUED) 79. CONTINUED: TJ puts the money in a dirty envelope, pockets it and rides off on his bike. INT. FAIR OAKS CAR CITY - MORNING TJ walks through the showroom to Larry's office. Larry is on the phone. TJ stands and waits. Larry watches him. The kid isn't going anywhere. LARRY Yeah, why don't you just have him send them over... Sure... Scott, can you hold on a minute? (TO TJ) What do you want? TJ Can I talk to you? LARRY I'm on the phone here. Can you see that? TJ I need to talk to you. LARRY I'm on the phone. Wait outside. I'll be with you in a minute. TJ takes a seat outside the office. Larry closes the door. Dustin Howard appears. DUSTIN The fuck are you doing here? TJ I came to talk to him. DUSTIN What about? TJ It's none of your business. DUSTIN What do you wanna talk to him about? TJ ignores him. Dustin taps TJ's leg with his foot. DUSTIN (CONT'D) What do you want to talk about? (CONTINUED) 80. CONTINUED: TJ Just leave me alone. Larry's door opens. Larry emerges from his office. TJ stands. LARRY What? TJ I got the money. LARRY What money? TJ The money for the car. LARRY What money for the car? TJ You said if I got eighteen hundred dollars I could have the car back. LARRY Are you kidding me? (BEAT) I said, 'even if you had eighteen hundred dollars, I still couldn't sell it to you.' Even if you had five million dollars, I couldn't sell it to you. It's not even here any more anyway, so that's it. TJ flinches. He wasn't expecting this. TJ What? What do you mean- LARRY Kid. Leave me alone. I feel like I've had this conversation with you too many times already, but I can tell you we won't be having it again because the car's gone. TJ What are you talking about? LARRY It's all over. It's gone. It's not here. (CONTINUED) 81. CONTINUED: (2) TJ Where's it gone?! LARRY Kid. It's over. Good bye. Larry steps back into his office and shuts the door. TJ (TO DUSTIN) Where's it gone? Dustin smiles. DUSTIN And what makes you think I'm gonna tell you? TJ stares, angry. An awkward moment passes. He storms away, dragging a water cooler down as he leaves. It crashes onto the ground. Water spills everywhere. EXT. FAIR OAKS CAR CITY - CONTINUOUS TJ angrily winds his way toward the back of the lot. He stops at the spot where his mom's car once was - now just an empty space. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / KITCHEN - SAME Hesher is pouring himself a bowl of Captain Crunch Berries. He pours milk onto the cereal. He does a half-hearted side-to-side stretch, getting ready for his walk. He looks out the window - gray clouds suggest rain. He takes the bowl with him out of the kitchen. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / HALL - CONTINUOUS Hesher walks the hall, eating his bowl of Crunch Berries. He stops at Grandma's door and looks in. He stops eating and stands strangely still for a moment. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / GRANDMA'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS Inside, we see Grandma's feet sticking out from behind the bed where she lies face down on the ground. Hesher enters the room, cautiously. He stands at the end of the bed. He sets his cereal bowl down, bends and shakes her. No response. HESHER Grandma? (CONTINUED) 82. CONTINUED: He shakes her again, this time a little harder. Nothing. He stands up, looking at her still body. As he realizes she is not waking up, his breath becomes fast, fighting hard not to get emotional. EXT. FAIR OAKS STREET - MORNING Gray clouds fill the sky. We hear distant thunder. On his bike, TJ coasts down the hill of a tree-lined street. He's upset and trying hard to hold it back. EXT. FORNEY HOUSE / FRONT PORCH - MOMENTS LATER TJ drops his bike and enters the house. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / FRONT DOOR - CONTINUOUS Dad sits on the couch, his head in his hands. He looks up. DAD Teej. Hesher enters the room... HESHER FUCK! He punches a hold in the wall. He paces angrily back & forth. Dad, holding back tears, gets up off the coach and hugs TJ. TJ What's going on? DAD Teej. Grandma, she's not.. she's not waking up. TJ What!? DAD She won't wake up. Short fast heavy breathing sets in. TJ What do you mean? TJ runs over to Grandma's room and stops at the door. TJ (CONT'D) Oh, Jesus. (CONTINUED) 83. CONTINUED: He disappears into the room for a second then emerges again in tears, his hands on his face. He heads back to the living room. TJ (CONT'D) What happened? DAD I don't know, she just, she just didn't wake up. TJ is in shock. He sits on the couch next to dad. They are both lost for words. Hesher stands in the corner with his head shoved between the walls. Hesher joins TJ and Dad on the couch. They are all raging inside, confused, lost and upset. They sit together in silence for a long beat, in the same boat for the first time. Hesher breaks the silence. He kicks the table over as he stands. HESHER I gotta get the fuck out of here before I hurt someone. He leaves through the front door, leaving it open behind him. TJ gets up in a daze and stands at the doorway looking out. It has started to drizzle. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / GRANDMA'S BEDROOM - DAY TJ stands in the doorway working up the nerve to enter. He enters and leans down to Grandma and tries to lift her onto the bed. She is heavy for him, he struggles. He gets her on top of the bed and looks at her for a moment. TJ breaks into tears. He leans down onto the bed holding Grandma, crying into her chest. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / TJ'S ROOM - DAY TJ sits on his bed and looks inside the envelope of cash. He closes it and seals it shut. On the front he writes: 'NICOLE'S PARKING TICKET FUND. LOVE TJ.' INT. FORNEY HOUSE / TJ'S ROOM - MOMENTS LATER Close on a small piece of paper with a hand written number. The numbers are dialed on a phone. TJ waits while the phone rings. Answering machine. (CONTINUED) 84. CONTINUED: NICOLE (ANSWERING MACHINE) Hi, it's Nicole. I'm not in right now, but leave a message and I'll call you back. Beep. TJ Ah, hi. It's TJ here. I, ah, I'm sorry to bug you, but um, I don't know, I guess I wanted to talk to you right now. I don't know. I have a present for you too, so maybe I'll just come drop it off or something, or ah, yeah... Um, OK. Bye. He hangs up the phone and exits. EXT. FORNEY HOUSE - AFTERNOON TJ walks out the front door. Dad is quietly sitting on the front steps wearing a T-shirt in the light rain. TJ goes to his bike. TJ What are you doing? DAD (SNAPPING TO) I don't know. Getting some fresh air, I guess. TJ It's starting to rain. Dad reaches out his hand and catches a few drops. DAD Yeah. TJ picks up his bike and rides. We stay with Dad as TJ disappears down the wet street. EXT. STREET - AFTERNOON TJ rides his bike. He rounds a corner onto Nicole's street. He jumps off his bike outside her building and wheels it inside the front fence. 85. EXT. NICOLE'S APARTMENT - AFTERNOON TJ climbs the stairs of Nicole's building. As he approaches her apartment door, he hears loud, but muffled music. He knocks on the door. No answer. The music is really loud. He knocks again. No answer. He tries the door handle. It gives. He pushes the door open tentatively. INT. NICOLE'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS TJ enters the apartment. The music is blasting. He looks around the living area. Clothes are strewn around. He sees Hesher's combat boots, T-shirt, jeans. TJ looks seriously troubled. We can faintly hear heavy breathing/moaning coming from the bedroom. TJ walks over to a door. It's an inch ajar. He pushes it open gently. We don't see what he sees, but TJ stands deathly still, eyes wide, white as a ghost. We hear Nicole giggle. Then - NICOLE (O.S.) Oh shit. TJ. TJ storms away, heading for the front door. He pulls a lamp smashing to the ground on his way out. EXT. NICOLE'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS TJ charges down the stairs. He grabs his bike and heads out into the street. Light rain falls. We see Hesher appear behind him, barefoot and topless, buttoning his jeans. TJ notices Hesher's van parked out the front, he drops his bike and grabs a rusty pipe from a pile of garbage on the sidewalk and heads straight toward the van. HESHER Hey, hey... wait. TJ takes a hard swing into the van, smashing the tail light. Nicole runs out into the street, concerned, wearing an oversized sweatshirt and underpants. HESHER (CONT'D) Hey! The fuck are you doing? (CONTINUED) 86. CONTINUED: TJ ignores him and takes another swing at the van. Hesher approaches TJ. TJ takes a swing at him with the pipe. Hesher steps back. Nicole gasps, her hand to her mouth. She doesn't know what to say or do. TJ Fuck you. Fuck you fuck you fuck you. HESHER Stop hitting my van. TJ Fuck you. (TO NICOLE) And you're a fucking whore. I hope you die. And when you do, no one's gonna fuckin' notice. (BREATHES) Cuz you're a fat fucking prostitute. Hesher steps toward TJ. HESHER Dude, chill out for a second. TJ swings the pipe at Hesher again. TJ Get the fuck away from me! I'll smash you in the face, I swear to God. Back the fuck up. TJ swings again. He's so angry, he's practically foaming at the mouth. TJ (CONT'D) I never want to see you or your ugly fucking face again. That goes for both of you fucking assholes. TJ throws the pipe at Hesher. It hits the road with a loud clang. TJ grabs his bike and rides away furiously. Hesher and Nicole watch TJ ride away. It begins to rain hard. EXT. STREET - AFTERNOON TJ glides his bike down a long hill in the pouring rain, in tears. 87. EXT. FORNEY HOUSE - EVENING TJ rides up the front porch. A funeral home truck is parked out the front - HAPPY EVER AFTER is written on the side. TJ drops his bike and enters the house. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS Dad sits at the dining room table with a FUNERAL DIRECTOR - a tall, lanky man. He talks in a drawn, soft monotone. Dad doesn't appear to be at all in the mood for this conversation. FUNERAL DIRECTOR After the service we have complimentary lemonade in our wake room, but should you wish to upgrade to soda and sandwiches we can arrange that. People typically like to have a light bite after the service. The front door slams. TJ storms past the dining room table. The funeral director pauses and watches him pass. The sound of TJ's bedroom door slamming shakes the house. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / TJ'S ROOM - EVENING TJ is angrily pacing back and forth. A gentle knock reveals Dad at his door. DAD Are you OK? TJ refuses to look at his dad. TJ Will you just leave me alone. Dad doesn't know what to say beyond this. He feels as lost as TJ does. He leaves the room. TJ paces. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / GARAGE - MOMENTS LATER He enters the garage violently. TJ sweeps Hesher's belongings off the work bench in the garage. He kicks Hesher's sleeping bag and pillow. A weathered bass guitar leans against a little amplifier. TJ kicks the guitar, snapping it in two. Out of breath, he stands in the mess he has created. Something catches his eye. He contemplates this for a beat. (CONTINUED) 88. CONTINUED: Close on: GARDEN SHEARS. TJ pockets them and exits the garage. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / HALL / FRONT DOOR - CONTINUOUS TJ heads straight toward the front door of the house. He exits. EXT. FORNEY HOUSE / FRONT DOOR - CONTINUOUS It's raining hard. TJ storms out, just as Hesher is making his way up the path, his van parked on the street behind him. Hesher reaches out his arm to slow TJ. HESHER I wanna talk to you. TJ pushes Hesher's arm out of the way. TJ Get your fucking hands away from me! I told you, I never want to see you again. Hesher, at a loss, watches TJ grab a brick from the muddy garden and throw it through the passenger side window of his van. Hesher charges TJ. He throws him into the muddy garden and kneels over him holding him by the collar of his hooded sweatshirt. HESHER I fuckin' told you, leave my van out of this! Hesher lifts TJ up and slams him back down on the ground, knocking the wind out of him. TJ struggles to get away. TJ Let go of me! Fuckin' let go of me. Dad runs out the front door and pulls Hesher off TJ by the back of his shirt. DAD What in God's name - Hesher shakes free from Dad's grip and punches him square in the nose. Dad goes down hard. HESHER Don't fuckin' touch m- (CONTINUED) 89. CONTINUED: Without hesitation, TJ jumps on Hesher's back, bear hugging his face. They struggle for a beat, until Hesher manages to throw TJ off. He lands on the wet grass like a ragdoll. HESHER (CONT'D) Fuck you both! Motherfuckers! Hesher stands breathing hard, dripping wet from the rain, fists clenched. He turns back to his van, gets in, slams the door and peels away. TJ picks himself up out of the mud, grabs his bike and rides off in the opposite direction. Dad stands holding his bloody nose. He watches Hesher, he watches TJ. He is left confused and bleeding in the pouring rain. EXT. DUSTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT It's raining cats and dogs. TJ stands outside Dustin's house, soaking wet with his hoodie pulled over his head, the garden shears in his hand. He walks around the side of the house and looks in the window. INT. DUSTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS From TJ's POV outside, we see Dustin in the kitchen preparing a sandwich, one eye on the TV. He takes the sandwich to the couch in front of the TV and lies down. EXT. DUSTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS TJ walks around the back of the house. He tries the handle to the back door. It's locked. TJ sees the dog door. He climbs through the flap, trying to be as quiet as possible. The TV is loud inside. INT. DUSTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS TJ treads softly through the kitchen, soaking wet, shears poised. He walks through to the living area. He steps behind the couch out of Dustin's line of sight. Dustin's bare feet hang off the end of the couch. TJ ducks down. He opens the shears and carefully brings them down over Dustin's big toe. He squeezes them shut... Dustin squeals. (CONTINUED) 90. CONTINUED: TJ Where's my car? DUSTIN What are you doing!? TJ Where's my fucking car? DUSTIN Are you crazy?! TJ You make me ask one more time, your toe's coming off. I swear to God. DUSTIN It's gone to the wrecker's. TJ What? DUSTIN The wrecking yard. TJ Bullshit. TJ squeezes a little harder. Dustin squeals a little louder. DUSTIN Why would I be lying? TJ Because you're a fucking asshole. Tell me where it is. DUSTIN It's gone to the wrecker's. I swear to God. TJ squeezes harder. Dustin squeals. DUSTIN (CONT'D) I'm not lying. It went to the wrecking yard on Sunrise near Red Bridge, yesterday afternoon. It's there now. TJ thinks, holding Dustin's toe in his grip. (CONTINUED) 91. CONTINUED: (2) DUSTIN (CONT'D) I swear to God, man. It's at the wrecking yard on Sunrise. TJ If you're lying, I'm gonna cut off every one of your fingers. TJ doesn't quite know what to do now. He stares at Dustin who looks genuinely frightened. TJ releases the shears and backs away. And the second he does so, Dustin leaps off the couch, grabs TJ by the throat and slams him down on the living room floor. TJ drops the shears. DUSTIN You finished? Want to tell me something else while you're visiting? Dustin wails into TJ. TJ cowers on the ground. Punches land UNTIL - A LAWN CHAIR comes CRASHING through the front window into the living room, raining glass everywhere. Dustin stops punching, stunned, and looks up to see Hesher, dripping wet, step through the big nasty hole he has just made. HESHER Hello. DUSTIN What the fuck? Dustin moves to stand. Hesher pounces on him, dragging him along the ground. He grabs the shears and brings them straight up to Dustin's nose. In the same movement, he snaps the shears shut and takes the end of Dustin's nose off. Dustin squeals in pain and scurries backwards, clutching his face, blood leaking between his fingers. TJ stands, stunned. TJ What the fuck is wrong with you? HESHER What? DUSTIN Oh my god, my nose! TJ What the fuck is wrong with you? (CONTINUED) 92. CONTINUED: (3) HESHER I just saved you. TJ You cut his nose off. HESHER Only a bit, it's just a cut. Dustin is crying now, clutching his face. TJ goes to the kitchen. TJ You just cut his nose off! HESHER What are you talking about? TJ runs a rag under the tap and takes it to Dustin. Hesher stands, clutching the shears, confused. TJ Hold this against your face. Dustin moans. Hesher is still confused. TJ (CONT'D) You gotta stop the bleeding. DUSTIN Oh my god! HESHER What's your problem? Dustin holds the rag. TJ stands to face Hesher. TJ I want you outta my life. I'm serious. I never want to see you again. How many times do I have say it? They look at each other a moment. Hesher looks taken aback. He honestly believed he was doing a good thing. TJ leaves, through the front door. Hesher stands over a whimpering Dustin wondering what went wrong. 93. EXT. RED BRIDGE - NIGHT TJ rides his bike over a rickety red bridge. He pulls his bike up outside the tall wire fence of a big dirty wrecking yard - D&S Auto-Wreckers. It's still raining very hard. TJ is soaking wet. He sits on his bike, looking at mountains of wrecked cars inside. TJ hops off his bike and shoves it behind a dumpster. He gets up on the dumpster and climbs the wrecking yard's fence. EXT. D&S WRECKING YARD - MOMENTS LATER TJ roams the stacks, looking for his mother's car. He looks distraught. All around sit stacks of wrecked cars. A vicious dog on a chain barks and snarls nearby. TJ stops. He sees his mom's car atop a tall stack of wrecks. He looks at it a moment, contemplating what to do. He moves to the base of the stack and begins to climb. He clambers slowly up the pile in the rain. It's awkward and difficult and more than a little dangerous. Finally he reaches the top. He wrenches open the car door and squeezes behind the wheel. INT. RED VOLVO - CONTINUOUS TJ sits, catching his breath. The rain clatters on the roof of the car. TJ is up high enough to see the lights of the surrounding neighborhood. He sits and contemplates the last few days and months of his life. He closes his eyes. INT. MIDDLE CLASS HOME - DAY FLASHBACK A doorbell rings. TJ runs to the door wearing the bottom half a suit. It's the pizza man. TJ Hi. (yells into house) Pizza's here, I need money. Dad, clean shaven, dressed in a suit, comes to the door and pays. (CONTINUED) 94. CONTINUED: TJ (CONT'D) (yells into the house) OK, pizza's here. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) (YELLING BACK) Alright, let's do it. The woman comes down the stairs with her hair nicely done, wearing a fancy pink dress, it's TJ's MOM. MOM Teej, c'mon sweetheart. We have to go. We're going to be late. TJ What about the pizza? MOM We'll eat it in the car. She begins to do up TJ's tie. MOM (CONT'D) (TO DAD) Honey, will you grab the present? Dad picks up a large box off the side table, it's clearly heavy. DAD Holy crap, what is this thing? The three emerge from the house. TJ is wearing a suit and carrying the pizza box, Dad's carrying the heavy present, and Mom's carrying a bouquet of flowers and her purse. Dad stands at the door of a little white car. Clearly the box is too big. DAD (CONT'D) Ah, slight problem. Mom open the back of her red volvo which is parked right next to the white car. MOM We'll take my car. Dad does a heel spins around the white car and heads towards Mom's red volvo, never losing a beat. DAD Sure thing. 95. INT. RED VOLVO - CONTINUOUS FLASHBACK Dad's driving, eating a slice of pizza. TJ is in the backseat, looking out the window, also eating pizza. Mom does her make-up in the visor mirror. DAD I think we should keep the new one and give them our old one. MOM That's a great idea. I'll be sure to let them know that our dirty old microwave is a gift from you. DAD Good. I'm not even sure they know who I am. MOM Honey, they're my friends. Please. DAD OK, I just don't understand why they get so many presents. MOM A microwave and a bottle of scotch is hardly a lot of presents. DAD And flowers. Mom half-laughs and shakes her head. TJ (mouth full of pizza) Mom can you turn on the radio? MOM Sure honey. How about some oldies? TJ Oldies but goodies. Mom turns on the oldies station. Dion And The Belmont's, "A Teenager In Love" plays. Dad sings along. The car hits a bump. Mom smudges her lipstick. (CONTINUED) 96. CONTINUED: MOM (TO DAD) Honey? She turns to Dad and we can see her lipstick has gone up onto her cheek. She smiles at Dad. They all smile at this, then - From out of nowhere, the car is T-BONED on the passenger's side. The impact is massive. The NOISE is deafening. Smashed glass. The car spins into the oncoming traffic and is hit by a delivery truck. The car flips. More deafening noise... INT. RED VOLVO / D&S WRECKING YARD - MORNING TJ wakes in the wrecked car at the wrecking yard. The loud sound of crunching metal continues. TJ is startled and disoriented. He realizes the car is moving. EXT. WRECKING YARD - CONTINUOUS A crane is lifting the car with a huge wrecking yard magnet. As it rises off the stack, it dangles at a precarious angle. INT. RED VOLVO - CONTINUOUS TJ is thrown through the car to be wedged up against the windshield. He panics. He yells. He squirms his way to the window and waves his arm wildly outside, yelling, trying to get the attention of the guys below. The car shifts violently and TJ slides out through the window. EXT. D&S WRECKING YARD - CONTINUOUS TJ is hanging dangerously out of the car, swinging his legs and screaming at the top of his lungs. His voice can barely be heard over the sound of machinery. A guy on the ground, MARIO, looks up and spots TJ. He frantically looks to get the crane operator's attention. MARIO Ricky! (YELLS LOUDER) Ricky! Kill it, man. Ricky sticks his head out of the crane cab, like he can't hear. RICKY What? MARIO Kill it! There's someone in the car! (CONTINUED) 97. CONTINUED: Mario points. Ricky looks up. Both men can see TJ dangling. EXT. D&S WRECKING YARD - MOMENTS LATER As the car is lowered TJ jumps the last few feet to the ground. Mario leads him away from the car and the crane. MARIO What the hell are you doing? TJ I don't know. MARIO What were you doing in there? TJ I don't know. I'm sorry. MARIO This car's about to get crushed. If I didn't see you, you would be dead. TJ I know. MARIO What were you thinking, man? TJ doesn't respond, he backs away. Mario watches him walk away, still disbelieving. He turns back to Ricky and gives him the all clear to start her up again. TJ walks to the entrance gate while behind him his mom's car is hoisted high in the air. TJ stops at a dirty vending machine by the gate. He pulls coins from his pocket and slots them in. It spits out a chocolate bar. Moments later TJ stands with his half-eaten chocolate bar while watching his Mom's car get fed into a giant crushing machine and compacted into scrap. Tears well in his eyes. He feels helpless. INT. FORNEY HOUSE - DAY TJ walks in the front door. Dad jumps up from the couch. He has a bandage on his nose and a black eye. He looks distraught, like he's been up all night. DAD Where have you been? (CONTINUED) 98. CONTINUED: TJ Sorry. DAD Where have you been? TJ I'm sorry. I lost track of time. DAD You lost track of time? It's ten in the morning! TJ I'm sorry. DAD I've been up all night. How is that fair to me? TJ I don't know. Dad looks at him, breathing hard. Tears well in his eyes. Dad starts crying, he's falling to bits. DAD Just go to your room. Dad knows he's being pathetic. TJ walks off down the hall. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / TJ'S BEDROOM - LATER TJ stands in front of a mirror trying to correctly tie his neck tie. He makes a sad attempt and leaves it - it looks wrong. There's a knock at TJ's bedroom door, but the door doesn't open. DAD (O.S.) There's someone at the front door for you. INT. FORNEY HOUSE - DAY Nicole stands at the door. TJ is unimpressed with seeing her. He stands in the doorway looking silly with his tie. TJ Hesher's not here. NICOLE I came to see you. (CONTINUED) 99. CONTINUED: TJ Why? What do you want? NICOLE I wanted to tell you something. TJ stares at her. NICOLE (CONT'D) I didn't know if I should come here or not, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. I thought maybe if I came you'd still just be really angry at me and hate me, but then I thought if I didn't you'd think I didn't care and you'd hate me anyway, so I figured I might as well come, just in case, so here I am. TJ Yeah, well what do you want? NICOLE I want to apologize. I feel bad about what happened. I didn't take your feelings into consideration - TJ Yeah, well, whatever. It doesn't really matter. I have to go. NICOLE Yes it does. It does to me. I like you, TJ. We're friends. TJ looks at her, he doesn't really want to be mad at her. NICOLE (CONT'D) I understand if you don't want to be my friend. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Sometimes I just... I don't know. I just wanted to come around and say all that, but maybe you still hate me and so it doesn't matter, but I just came round to say that, but I've said it now, so I should just go. So, OK, bye. Nicole walks off. She gets half way across the lawn before - TJ I'm sorry I broke your lamp. (CONTINUED) 100. CONTINUED: (2) Nicole turns. NICOLE It's OK. TJ And I'm sorry I called you a fat prostitute. NICOLE It's OK. TJ You're not fat. Nicole smiles at this. NICOLE But I'm a prostitute? TJ I dunno. Maybe. They smile at one another. She crosses the lawn back toward TJ. She fixes his tie. She smiles again and then she leaves. INT. GRANDMA'S CAR / FAIR OAKS STREET - AFTERNOON Dad and TJ sit in the front seat. They are still angry and not speaking to each other. It is an unpleasant and uncomfortable ride. They both wear a suit and tie. EXT. FUNERAL HOME - AFTERNOON Dad and TJ drive into the funeral home parking lot in Grandma's car. A few people are milling around. INT. FUNERAL HOME - DAY Dad and TJ enter the funeral home foyer. They look like they don't know where they're supposed to go. They are greeted by the funeral director from earlier. He talks in a soft monotone whisper. FUNERAL DIRECTOR Excuse me, Mr. Forney, may I have a word? He takes Dad aside. (CONTINUED) 101. CONTINUED: FUNERAL DIRECTOR (CONT'D) I hate to have to do this here, but there's a couple of things I need to discuss with you quickly, if that's OK. DAD Ah, sure. FUNERAL DIRECTOR I know that we discussed your preferences for some aspects of today's service, including your choice of the cedar casket which the insurance company had covered. Unfortunately we were out of those and instead we've chosen a mahogany casket. Now there is an extra charge for the mahogany which I need to clear with you before we proceed. Is that OK? Dad looks confused. He doesn't know how he's supposed to respond. DAD Ah, I guess. FUNERAL DIRECTOR OK, great, thank you. If you could just sign here. The director hands Dad a fancy pen and holds out a dense order form for him to sign. FUNERAL DIRECTOR (CONT'D) Just at the bottom there. Dad's pen hovers. He doesn't know where he's signing. FUNERAL DIRECTOR (CONT'D) Just here, Mr. Forney, just under that... yes, that's great. Dad signs and hands the pen back. FUNERAL DIRECTOR (CONT'D) Now, just one other thing - we have another service following yours today, we hate to do this, but we're going to have to try to get through yours as quickly as possible. (CONTINUED) 102. CONTINUED: (2) The funeral director's cell phone vibrates loudly on his belt. He ignores it. Dad can't. FUNERAL DIRECTOR (CONT'D) I don't want you to feel rushed, but we are really under the pump today and I just thought I should give you the heads up. Now, I notice, just looking at your order of service... (beat, thinking) Ah, look, let's play it by ear. We should be fine. Dad looks at the funeral director, not quite sure he's hearing him right. The funeral director's phone continues to vibrate. FUNERAL DIRECTOR (CONT'D) OK. Excuse me. The funeral director walks away and answers his phone. INT. SERVICE ROOM - DAY The funeral director stands at the front of the room. He hits play on the in-house stereo - generic classical musak. TJ and Dad take seats next to each other, but they might as well be a hundred miles apart. About ten other people sit. The funeral director hits stop. He stands and approaches the microphone. FUNERAL DIRECTOR We are gathered here today to mourn the loss and commemorate the life of Madeleine Frances Forney. (to arriving late comers) Ah, if you could please take your seats as quickly as possible that'd be great. Thank you. (he waits a beat) Madeleine was a beloved wife, mother, grandmother and friend. And now Mrs Agnes Rosowski, a dear friend and neighbor, will say a few quick words. MRS AGNES ROSOWSKI hobbles her way to the microphone. MRS ROSOWSKI I did not know Madeleine long enough, but from the moment I moved into the neighborhood so many years ago, she treated me as though I was part of the family. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 103. CONTINUED: MRS ROSOWSKI (CONT'D) Madeleine always had open arms and welcomed friends as kindly as her own. She had such a kind wonderful heart. While Agnes speaks, TJ and Dad notice the funeral director, off to the side, whispering business to two of his employees. He makes every attempt to be subtle and discreet about it, but he is clearly struggling with today's workload. MRS ROSOWSKI (CONT'D) We shared so many wonderful walks and enjoyed each other's company very much. I will miss our walks. I will miss our talks and most of all, I will miss Madeleine. I will always remember what she told me, life is like walking in the rain, you can either hide and take shelter or you can just get wet. She was dear to me and she will always have a place in my heart. Agnes places her hand on Grandma's coffin and stands for a long silent beat. MRS ROSOWSKI (CONT'D) I love you, Madeleine. Another drawn out moment of silence. The funeral director takes this opportunity to step to the microphone. FUNERAL DIRECTOR OK, thank you, Agnes... Agnes steps towards her seat. When she sees TJ she stops. MRS ROSOWSKI TJ, I think you should say something. The funeral director pauses awkward. Everyone looks at TJ. MRS ROSOWSKI (CONT'D) Go on, TJ. TJ gets up reluctantly. He doesn't know what to say. He stands at the microphone and struggles for a long beat, but nothing comes out. TJ Sorry. TJ makes his way off the stage. (CONTINUED) 104. CONTINUED: (2) Sound of slow clapping from the back. It's Hesher. His hair looks extra greasy, he's wearing a dirty white Budweiser T-shirt and he's holding a tall can of beer under his arm which spills as he claps. He is VERY drunk. The funeral director tries to wrap it up. FUNERAL DIRECTOR OK, so at this point we should conclude today's service with a moment's silence, after which lemonade will be served in the... HESHER Actually, I'd like to add to TJ's speech. I think I know where he was going with that. Hesher stands and makes his way to the front. The funeral director tries politely to protest. FUNERAL DIRECTOR I'm sorry, sir... Dad stands up in the aisle and tries to stop Hesher. DAD What are you doing here? Up on the stage, funeral home employees begin wheeling Grandma's coffin away. HESHER Hey, hey, hey... Hesher pushes past Dad and stops the coffin. HESHER (CONT'D) What are you doing? Get your fuckin' hands off that box. The funeral director walks up to Hesher. FUNERAL DIRECTOR I'm sorry, sir we really need to- Hesher turns and stands at the microphone. HESHER Um... (CONTINUED) 105. CONTINUED: (3) The funeral director looks over to Dad, not sure what to do. He lightly puts his hand on Hesher's arm to guide him off stage. FUNERAL DIRECTOR I'm sorry, sir- Hesher pushes the funeral director's arm away hard. HESHER You touch me again, I'll rip your fucking head off and skull fuck you. The funeral director backs off, scared and unsure of what to do. HESHER (CONT'D) Ah, OK. Listen. I know you guys don't want me here and I don't want to fucking be here, but I'm not here for me, I'm fuckin' here for her- Hesher gestures to Grandma's coffin. HESHER (CONT'D) - and I'm not fuckin' here to say goodbye or have my farewell or whatever the fuck you assholes call it - this is not how I want to say goodbye to someone I like - in this shit-hole with these- Hesher points to the funeral director. HESHER (CONT'D) - fuckin' assholes. TJ's dad stands and interrupts. DAD OK, this is enough- HESHER Yeah, well why don't you shut up for a second and listen cause I'm going to say what I want to say and then you'll never see me again. Alright?! There is a beat of silence. No one knows what to say or do. (CONTINUED) 106. CONTINUED: (4) HESHER (CONT'D) I'm here cause she's been trying to tell you guys something, but you don't want to listen... so I'm gonna fuckin' break it down. Hesher takes a long pull from his beer can. HESHER (CONT'D) I pulled the gas tank from an old Chevy and I wanted to fuckin' blow it up, so I did. I didn't think about the millions of bits of metal that were gonna fly in every direction. I almost killed myself. I woke up in a hospital. I couldn't remember what happened and then this doctor at the end of my bed said 'son', and I said, 'don't call me son you fuckin' cunt', then he said, 'you blew off your nut'. Some shrapnel had penetrated my left scrotal sack and ripped the furry sucker right off. My left fucking nut was gone, just like that. Hesher makes a magic disappearing arm gesture, spilling a bit of beer on the floor. HESHER (CONT'D) I went crazy. I assaulted a nurse, a doctor or two, I can't remember. I got arrested. I got sent to juvie. But all I could think about day and night was my missing fuckin' nut. I couldn't eat or sleep, I just wanted my fucking nut back. I had to get out of there and find it, so I busted out of juvie and went lookin' for it. I looked for days, but didn't find shit. The tiny crowd listens, half offended, half intrigued. HESHER (CONT'D) And then one night I was taking a shit and I was just staring down at my balls, looking at my flabby piece of sack where my left nut used to be and then I noticed my right nut, for like the first time. My right nut was just sitting there, totally happy, just hanging out. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 107. CONTINUED: (5) HESHER (CONT'D) All this time I'd been driving myself crazy thinking about my missing nut and not thinking about the nut I still had all along. And I realized, I've still got a nut. I've still got one good nut. God or the Devil or whoever left me with one good nut. At least I didn't lose both my nuts. I've still got one good nut and it works, and my dick works too. Hesher looks up at TJ and Dad, sad and imploring, he's made his point. They look back at him stunned. HESHER (CONT'D) You lost your mom. You lost your wife. I lost a nut. Hesher takes the last swig of his Budweiser. He sways, drunk. This soaks in with the crowd. HESHER (CONT'D) Fuck this. Hesher throws the can down. He goes to stomp on it. He misses and stumbles, crashing into the microphone podium, knocking it over and falling in a heap with it. He starts puking on the stage. A couple of old ladies are horrified. The funeral director motions to his assistants that now is the time to move the coffin out. Hesitantly, they obey. Hesher looks over from the floor. HESHER (CONT'D) Leave her alone. We're not finished yet. FUNERAL DIRECTOR (POLITELY) Unfortunately sir, we need to be. They continue to push the coffin away. Hesher lifts himself up and wipes the vomit from his face and steps toward the coffin. The funeral workers back away. HESHER I told Grandma I was going on a walk with her and I'm gonna do it! Determined, Hesher leans down and unlocks the wheels of the coffin stand. Dad stands, not exactly sure what to do. (CONTINUED) 108. CONTINUED: (6) With purpose Hesher pushes the coffin down the stage ramp and down the center aisle of the room, toward the exit. He turns to TJ - HESHER (CONT'D) You promised Grandma you'd go on a walk with her. This is your last chance. Hesher seems overcome with emotion, he continues pushing the coffin toward the exit and out through the doors. TJ and Dad watch him, unsure. After a moment, They follow him to the door. They stand at the doors watching Hesher push the coffin out into the parking lot. TJ is overcome with emotion, his eyes well with tears. He heads across the lot and catches up with Hesher, joining him on the walk. Dad watches for a beat, his eyes well up too, then he does the same. All three are now walking together through the funeral home parking lot with Grandma's coffin. They don't speak. It's a release. Other mourners watch from the doorway. EXT. FUNERAL HOME - CONTINUOUS Hesher wheels Grandma's coffin across the parking lot with TJ and Dad beside him. They seem solemn and strangely dignified in a dishevelled way. Hesher leads them out of the parking lot and into the street. Traffic passes around them. Some cars come to a complete stop. Hesher gets the coffin up onto the sidewalk on the other side of the street and the three continue their silent walk with Grandma. In slow motion the three walk. Dad puts his arm around TJ's shoulders, TJ puts his arm around Dad's. And then a cop car cruises beside them slow. The cops inside watch them. Dad looks over. One of the cops smiles. EXT. FORNEY HOUSE - EVENING The cop car pulls up outside the house. The back door opens and Hesher falls out onto the sidewalk, still very drunk. Dad climbs out and steps over Hesher helping him to his feet. A cop speaks to them from the open window. (CONTINUED) 109. CONTINUED: OFFICER (SMILING) You'll get him to bed now, won't you? DAD That's the plan. Hesher squirms and slurs. HESHER Get your hands off me, pig. DAD That's the plan. The cop gives them a casual wave as their car pulls away. TJ and Dad help Hesher across the lawn to the front door. We hold on the house for a beat. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / BATHROOM - NEXT MORNING Close on scissors to beard. Dad stands over the sink cutting away at his beard. Golden sunlight pours in through the windows. A moment later he lathers his face up with shaving cream. INT. FORNEY HOUSE / TJ'S ROOM - MORNING There's a gentle knock at the door. TJ wakes and makes a big stretch. His hair's a mess. TJ Come in. Dad enters, he's clean-shaven now. He looks like a new man. DAD Morning, Teej. TJ Hey. Look at you. DAD I know. It feels weird. I can feel air on my face. TJ I hardly recognize you. (CONTINUED) 110. CONTINUED: DAD I think Hesher's gone. TJ Gone where? DAD I don't know. But I think you should come take a look at this. EXT. FORNEY HOUSE / GARAGE - MOMENTS LATER The garage door is open. The garage is flooded with daylight and no sign of Hesher. TJ and Dad walks across the garage to the open door. At the garage's entrance they stop. Their eyes register something seriously unusual outside. 'Master of Puppets' by Metallica punches in. LOUD. A giant red cube of Volvo scrap metal has been placed in the center of the driveway like a huge piece of abstract art. They stand and stare at it, almost in awe. Then from the across the street, we see the object in the driveway and TJ and Dad on the porch looking at it. We also see the words 'HESHER WAS HERE!' spray painted on the front of the house in big letters, as yet unseen by TJ and Dad. Dad puts his arm around TJ's shoulders. On the beat we CUT TO: HESHER MOMENTS: Hesher ripping on the guitar; Hesher blowing something up; Hesher cupping a fart and putting it in TJ's face; Hesher pantsing Dad; Hesher metal saluting Grandma and Grandma saluting him back. Hesher behind the wheel of his van, smoking a cigarette and making a direct line for the setting sun. A mouse sits an in a tiny armchair like a human, shelling a peanut. He throws the shell over his shoulder watching the setting sun. CUT TO BLACK: THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_High Fidelity.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_High Fidelity.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..3f395d13168e49c9825e13b0187f3424ede003a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_High Fidelity.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + HIGH FIDELITY By D.V. De Vincentis, Steve Pink, & John Cusack Based on the novel by Nick Hornby 9/11/98 London Draft Registered: WGAw FADE IN INT. ROB'S APARTMENT - NIGHT STEREO Not a minisystem, not a matching set, but coveted audiophile clutter of McIntosh and Nakamichi, each component from a different era, bought piece by piece in various nanoseconds of being flush. ROB (V.O.) What came first? The music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns and watching violent videos, we're scared that some sort of culture of violence is taking them over... RECORDS Big thin LPs. Fields of them. We move across them, slowly... they seem to come to rest in an end of a few books... but then the CD's start, and go on, faster and faster, forever then the singles, then the tapes... ROB (V.O.) But nobody worries about kids listening to thousands -- literally thousands -- of songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss. It seems the records, tapes, and CD's will never end until... we come to ROB -- always a hair out of place, a face that grows on you. He sits in an oversized beanbag chair and addresses us, the wall of music behind him. ROB Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable, or was I miserable because I listened to pop music? INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Group of bags huddled next to the door. Not the go-on- vacation set, but the clothes-to-coffee-maker moving out variety. Rob stares at them, his face unreadable, his head gripped by a big pair Boudokan headphones. We hear what he is hearing, something foreboding and upbeat at the same time. LAURA, Rob's girlfriend, enters the room, and he immediately pulls the headphones off. She clocks him for a moment, catching him in what seems to be an old and repeated moment of nonpresence. She begins to heft the bags, Rob goes to her, a little tardy for his big goodbye. Laura begins to cry a bit. LAURA I don't really know what I'm doing. He smiles, and she doesn't. He adjusts. ROB You don't have to go this second. You can stay until whenever. LAURA We've done the hard part now. I might as well, you know... ROB Well stay for tonight, then. Laura shakes her head, lifts the last small bag, and backs out the door. A strap catches on a handle and the two of them wrestle with it a bit, while trying to keep the door open, until Laura awkwardly disappears from view and the door shuts behind Rob. He stays right there staring at the shut door for a long moment, listening to the fading sound of Laura and her dragging bags. STEREO Rob's left hand cranks the volume knob while his right switches the CD changer to something loud and adrenal. He addresses us again. ROB My desert-island, all-time, top five most memorable break-ups, in chronological order are as follows: Alison Ashworth, Penny Hardwick, Jackie Allen, Charlie Nicholson, Sarah Kendrew. INT. APARTMENT STAIRWELL Laura drags her bags, banging down the stairs -- INT. ROB'S APARTMENT Rob moves around the apartment, seeming to expand physically, looking for change as he continues. ROB Those were the ones that really hurt. Can you see your name in that list, Laura? Maybe you'd sneak into the top ten, but there's no place for you in the top five. Sorry. Those places are reserved for the kind of humiliations and heartbreaks that you're just not capable of delivering. He adjusts the angle of the TV, stuffs a creepy family portrait into a drawer. ROB That probably sounds crueler than it's meant to, but the fact is, we're too old to take each other miserable. Unhappiness used to mean something. Now it's just a drag like a cold or having no money. He moves through the living room to an open window facing the street. Looking down two stories, he sees Laura emerge from the building and drag her bags toward her car across the street. ROB If you really wanted to mess me up, you should have got to me earlier. CUT TO: EXT. SUBURBAN PARK - DUSK - Rob and Alison sit on the bench, kissing awkwardly. ROB (V.O.) Which brings us to number one. Alison Ashworth. PARK BENCH - DUSK The same shot, the next night: new clothes, same clumsy make- out session. ROB (V.O.) My relationship with Alison Ashworth lasted six hours. PARK BENCH - DUSK ...Next night... ROB (V.O.) The two hours after school and before The Rockford Files, three days in a row. On the fourth afternoon. SAME PARK BENCH ...And the fourth night... ROB (V.O.) Kevin Bannister. Alison and another boy, KEVIN BANNISTER. Kissing. In the background, Rob approaches and stops. He implodes with self- consciousness and humiliation and attempts to affect a casual gait as he mopes away. ROB (V.O.) It would be nice to think that since I was fourteen, times have changed, relationships have become more sophisticated, females less cruel, skins thicker, but there still seems to be an element of that afternoon in everything that has happened to me since. All my other romantic stories seem to be a scrambled version of that first one. INT. ROB'S APARTMENT Rob sits in his chair, a cord leading from the stereo to headphones draped around his neck. Behind him is the wall of music. ROB Number two. Penny Hardwick. Penny was great-looking, and her top five recording artists were Carly Simon, Carole King, James Taylor, Cat Stevens, and Elton John... He lets the needle down on the turntable next to him. "Nobody Does It Better" by Carly Simon begins to play as PRESENCE... EXT. HIGH SCHOOL LAWN - FLASHBACK - MOS ...and continues as SOUNDTRACK. PENNY, 16, is walking across the grass toward us. She's the clean, sporty, nice wholesome girl-next-door. She waves to off-camera friends, smiling a winning smile. ROB (V.O.) Everybody liked her. She was nice. Nice manners. Nice grades. Nice- looking. INT. PENNY'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Penny and Rob sit on the edge of the bed, kissing. Rob moves his hand up toward the breast, but the hand then seems to have a new idea, and dives south to follow the thigh into Penny's skirt... ROB (V.O.) She was so nice, in fact, that she wouldn't let me put my hand underneath, or even on top of, her bra. ...when he contacts skin, Penny rolls like a gymnast away and off of the bed, out of frame. Rob looks away balefully. EXT. STREET - NIGHT "Nobody Does It Better" continues as Rob walks Penny to her front door. She is smiling, he seems distant. ROB (V.O.) Penny was nice, but I wasn't interested in nice, just breasts, and therefore she was no good to me. And so I was finished with her. She leans in to kiss him, and he shrugs her off. ROB What's the point? It never goes anywhere. Without looking at her, Rob turns and walks down the street, getting smaller. Penny watches for a while. CUT TO: INT. "EL" TRAIN CAR - MORNING - PRESENT Rob sways with the other commuters. ROB She cried, and I hated her for it, because she made me feel bad. I started dating a girl who everybody said would put out, and Penny went with this asshole Chris Thompson who told me that he had sex with her after something like three dates. How had Penny gone from a girl who wouldn't do anything to a girl who would do everything? A BUSINESSMAN looks up from his paper at Rob, then back down. EXT. CLARK STREET - DAY An old Chicago block of local merchants, on a busy street. Rob makes his way down the street, jangling a set of keys and talking to us. ROB My store's right up here. It's called The Record Exchange. It's carefully placed to attract the bare minimum of window shoppers. Rob arrives at a storefront, and begins unlocking a rusty gate with two locks and then a beaten-down door. ROB I get by because of the people who make a special effort to shop here on Saturday young men, always young men, who spend a disproportionate amount of their time looking for deleted Smiths singles and "original not rereleased" underline Frank Zappa albums. INT. RECORD STORE - DAY In almost darkness. More light might penetrate the windows if there weren't so many record-release posters taped to them. A dusty narrow corridor clad in burlap and shag rug. On the walls are bagged 45's you will never hear unless you commit your life to the losing proposition of listening to every noodling of Jah Wobble and Glen Glenn and other people you've never heard of. But as Rob opens the door, enters, and flips a switch causing the fluorescents to sputter, we see in his eyes the reverence and earnestness of a football coach gazing across an empty field or a priest drawn at midnight to his empty church. ROB The fetish properties are not unlike porn. I would feel guilty taking their money if I wasn't, kind of, well, one of them. As he walks one of the two slim aisles toward the back, he stops on a dime, steps back and pulls a CD from the sea and replaces it almost the same position, but not quite -- meticulousness and pride in this gesture... After a moment the door creaks open behind Rob, admitting DICK, a nervous, forlorn but sweet and intelligent discophile with long greasy black hair, a Sonic Youth T-shirt, a monstrous pair of headphones, and a canvas record bag emblazoned with a label logo. ROB 'Morning, Dick. DICK Oh, hi. Hi, Rob. ROB Good weekend? DICK Yeah, OK. I found the first Licorice Comfits album at Vintage Vinyl. The one on Testament of Youth. Never released here. Japanese import only. ROB Great. DICK I'll tape it for you. ROB No, that's okay. Really. DICK 'Cause you like their second one, you said, Pop, Girls. etc. The one with Cheryl Ladd on the cover. You didn't see the cover though. ROB Yeah, I haven't really absorbed that one. DICK Well, I'll just make it for you. ROB (resigned) Okay. CUT TO: INT. RECORD STORE - LATER Dick is behind the counter, Rob in the aisles with a clipboard doing inventory. ROB (re: music) What's this? DICK The new Belle and Sebastian. Like it? The door flies open and BARRY, an acid-tongued post-punk rock misanthrope without quite enough intelligence to conceptualize his own rebellion, walks in. His teeth are clenched in air-guitar concentration and he's phonetically cranking a Clash riff: BARRY BAA! BA BA DANG! Dick shrinks back from him instinctively. He stops mid-step and cocks his ear at the music playing in the store. His face adopts an exaggerated grimace. BARRY Holy Shiite! What the fuck's this? DICK It's the new -- ROB It's the record we've been listening to and enjoying, Barry. Barry moves in on the stereo behind the counter, and Dick gets out of his way. BARRY Well that's problematic because it sucks ass. He pops the CD out and frisbees it to Dick. BARRY (re: the CD) Yours, I assume... Barry pulls a tape out of his jacket and jams it in. "How to Kill a Radio Consultant" by Public Enemy comes through at through the red levels. ROB (over the blare) TURN IT OFF, BARRY. BARRY IT WON'T GO ANY LOUDER. Barry walks in rhythm toward the stockroom and disappears. Rob goes behind the counter and stops the tape. Barry's head pops out of the stockroom. BARRY What are you doing? ROB I don't want to hear Public Enemy right now. BARRY Public Enemy! All I'm trying to do is cheer us up. Go ahead and put on some old sad bastard music see if I care. ROB I don't want old sad bastard music either. I just want something I can ignore. BARRY But it's my new tape. My Monday morning tape. I made it last night just for today. ROB Yeah, well it's fucking Monday afternoon. You should get out of bed earlier. BARRY Don't you want to hear what's next? ROB What's next? BARRY Play it. ROB Say it. BARRY (sighs) "Little Latin Lupe Lu." Rob groans. DICK Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels? BARRY (defensive) No. The Righteous Brothers. DICK Oh well. Nevermind. Barry bristles and moves slowly in on Dick. BARRY What? DICK Nothing. BARRY No, not nothing. What's wrong with the Righteous Brothers? DICK Nothing. I just prefer the other one. BARRY Bullshit. ROB How can it be bullshit to state a preference? BARRY Since when did this shop become a fascist regime? ROB Since you brought that bullshit tape in. BARRY (sarcastic) Great. That's the fun of working in a record store. Playing crappy pap you don't want to listen to. I thought this tape was going to be, you know, a conversation stimulator. I was going to ask you for your top five records to play on a Monday morning and all that, and you just had to ruin it. ROB We'll do it next Monday. BARRY Well what's the point in that? From outside. HEAR THE SOUND OF SKATEBOARD WHEELS CLACKING AND SCRAPING, GETTING LOUDER. Rob, Dick and Barry stop fighting to listen, then each moves purposefully to a spot in the store. Dick to the register, Barry to the back, Rob next to the door, as if bracing for a street fight. The SOUND gets closer, then stops. The door swings open to admit VINCE and JUSTIN, two fifteen-year-old skate punks. Vince's hair is post-apocolyptically hacked to different lengths, Justin's in uniformly shaven with leopard spots dyed browse. Rob follows them, watching their every move. Dick counters from his perch, getting another angle. Barry cracks his knuckles threateningly. Vince and Justin do their best browser impersonations. Finally Justin plucks a CD, and the two move to the counter. ROB Hey. Didn't you steal that one already? DICK Can I help you? JUSTIN Just this. DICK That'll be fifteen-twenty-seven. Vince reaches into his deep pocket and pulls out a paper cup, with piece of paper attached that says "Please help me. I'm retarded." He pours a mass of change and crumpled singles onto the counter. Dick begins counting it out. VINCE Isn't your name Dick? DICK Yes. VINCE That sucks. Get it? Dick cracks a sad smile for a second. He bags the CD and Vince and Justin are off. Rob walks back through the stock room door. CUT TO: INT. RECORD STORE - STOCK ROOM - LATER Rob is on his knees, opening boxes with a razor knife. He talks to us as he works. ROB I'm sick of the sight of this place, to be honest. Some days I'm afraid -- Dick sticks his head in the door, looks at Rob, looks where Rob is looking (camera), and retreats back through the door. Rob continues. ROB I'm afraid I'll go berserk, rip the Elvis Costello mobile from the ceiling, throw the "Country Artists Male A-K" rack out onto the streets, go off to work in a Virgin Megastore and never come back -- He hears the bell on the front door RING, and he stops and listens, looks a bit worried. CUSTOMER (O.S.) I'm looking for a record for my daughter. For her birthday. "I Just Called To Say I Love You." Do you have it? BARRY (O.S.) Oh yeah. We got it. Rob relaxes and goes back to work. CUSTOMER (O.S.) Great. Can I have it then? BARRY (O.S.) No, you can't. Rob deflates, shaking his head. STORE FLOOR Barry leans back, elbows up on the counter behind him, talking to the CUSTOMER, a middle-aged graying man in a raincoat. CUSTOMER Why not? BARRY Because it's sentimental tacky crap, that's why not. Do we look like the kind of store that sells "I Just Called To Say I Loved You?" Go to the mall and stop wasting our time. CUSTOMER What's your problem? What did I... Why are you -- BARRY Do you even know your daughter? There is no way she likes that song. Or is she in a coma? The Customer throws up his hands and starts out of the store. CUSTOMER Okay, okay, buddy. I didn't know it was Pick On the Middle-Aged Square Guy Day. My apologies. I'll be on my way. He steps out of the door. BARRY B'Bye! Outside, anger catches up to the Customer. He turns and throws up a middle finger -- CUSTOMER FUCK YOU! -- and bolts. Barry smiles and turns to see ROB standing in the doorway of the stock room. He feigns applause. ROB Nice, Barry. BARRY Rob. Top five musical crimes perpetrated by Stevie Wonder in the '80's and '90's. Subquestion -- is it in fact unfair to criticize a formerly great artist for his latter- day sins? "Is it better to burn out than to fade away?" ROB You just drove a fucking customer away, Barry. BARRY We didn't even really have it. I happen to know for a fact that the only Stevie Wonder single we have is "Don't Drive Drunk." I was just goofing on the straight, and it never cost you a penny. ROB Not the point. BARRY Oh, so what's the point then? ROB I don't want you talking to our customers like that again. BARRY "Our customers?" You think that Mr. L.L. Bean out there is going to be a regular? Rob's face begins to redden with anger. ROB Barry, I'm fucking broke! I know we used to fuck with anyone who asked for anything we didn't like, but it's gotta stop. BARRY Bullshit. The guy was going to buy one record -- which we didn't even have -- and leave and never come back again anyway. Why not have a little fun? Big fucking deal. ROB What did he ever do to you? BARRY He offended me with his terrible taste. ROB It wasn't even his terrible taste. It was his daughter's. BARRY Oh, now you're defending that motherfucker? You're going soft in your old age, Rob. There was a time when you would have chased him out of the store and up the street. Now all of a sudden I'm offending your golf buddy. (sarcastic) You're right, Rob. I am so sorry. How are we ever going to make enough money to get you and Laura into the country club? Rob is red and seething. BARRY And by the way, I tell you this for your own good: That's the worst sweater I've ever seen. I have never seen a sweater that bad worn by anyone I'm on speaking terms with. It's a disgrace to the human race. Rob springs on Barry, grabbing him by the lapels and jerking him up against the wall. Rob is so mad he can't say anything. DICK Hey, guys... Hey. Rob runs out of steam and drops Barry, who backpedals fast. BARRY (extremely shaken) What are you, some kind of fucking maniac? If this jacket's torn you're gonna pay big. Barry stomps out of the store. Rob turns and goes back to the stockroom, and sits on the stepladder. Dick appears in the doorway, terrified. DICK Are you all right? ROB Yeah. I'm sorry... Look Dick, Laura and I broke up. She's gone. And if we ever see Barry again maybe you can tell him that. DICK 'Course I will, Rob. No problem. No problem at all. I'll tell him next time I see him. Rob nods. Dick sets out into the uncharted conversational territory of interpersonal relationships. DICK I've ah... got some other stuff to tell him anyway, so it's no problem. I'll just tell him about, you know, Laura, when I tell him the other stuff. ROB Fine. DICK I'll start with your news before I tell him mine, obviously. Mine isn't much, really, just about Marie LaSalle (flashes CD of pretty woman) playing at Lounge Ax tonight. I like her, you know, she's kind of Sheryl Crowish... but, you know, good. So I'll tell him before that. Good news and bad news kind of thing. Dick laughs nervously. DICK Or rather, bad news and good news, because he likes this person playing tonight. I mean, he liked Laura too, I didn't mean that. And he likes you. It's just that -- ROB I understand, Dick. DICK Sure. 'Course. Rob, look. Do you want to... talk about it, that kind of thing? Rob looks up at Dick, who is so nervous that his brow is wet. ROB No. Thanks though, Dick. Dick sighs with relief, and smiles his way out of the stock room. CUT TO: ROB IN HIS CHAIR Rob to camera. ROB Number three in the top five break- ups was Charlie Nicholson, sophomore year of college. Some people never got over 'Nam, or the night their band opened for Nirvana. I guess I never really got over Charlie. CUT TO: EXT. COLLEGE QUAD - DAY - FLASHBACK About twenty feet away we see a tall, thin beauty, bleach- blonde hair cropped short in darling '80's new-wave asymmetry. She is speaking animatedly to a PAMPHLETEER, driving her points home with a forefinger. ROB (V.O.) She looked different. Dramatic. Exotic. She talked a lot, about remarkably interesting things like music, books, film, and politics... INT. CAFE - DAY A younger Rob sits amongst a group of STUDENTS who are engaged in a heated conversation. He is smiling, mouth closed, just happy to be there. Charlie sitting next to him, tousles his hair as she talks incessantly. ROB (V.O.) (over her talking) ...so we didn't have those terrible, strained sentences, that seemed to characterized most of my relationships. And she liked me. She liked me. She liked me. Charlie gives Rob a quick kiss and keeps talking... EXT. STREET - AFTERNOON Rob and Charlie walk arm in arm, Rob in cool clothes and sunglasses trying to look cool, Charlie making a point about something. Rob checks out how cool he looks with her as they walk by a store window REFLECTION. ROB (V.O.) We went out for two years, and for every single minute I felt as though I was standing on a dangerously narrow ledge. I couldn't get comfortable, couldn't ever stretch out and relax. Why would a girl -- no, a woman -- like Charlie go out with someone who only a few years ago sewed a Foghat patch on his jacket? I felt like all those people who suddenly shaved their heads and said they'd always been punks. I felt like a fraud. And I was depressed by the lack of flamboyance in my wardrobe... INT. CHARLIE'S APARTMENT - DAY The fabulous sophomore design student's studio apartment: White wood floor, white walls, overvarnished door, Doisneaux print on the wall, futon on the floor. Rob lies back on his elbows, watching Charlie in uncomfortable, worried awe. She stands, her back to him, wearing only her underwear and pulling on a T-shirt -- a heartbreaking image to look back on. ROB (V.O.) ...I worried about my abilities as a lover. I was intimidated by the other men in her design department, and became convinced that she was going to leave me for one of them. Charlie turns around and looks at Rob with naked ambivalence. ROB (V.O.) She left me for one of them. The dreaded Marco. EXT. CHARLIE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT It is RAINING like crazy, and Rob is shouting up at a lit window, maniacally gesturing. The curtains part and Charlie's figure appears, clad only in a sheet. Next to her is a tall, built, handsome man, MARCO, also in a sheet. Eventually he falls to his knees with a splash and buries his head in his hands. The light goes out. ROB (V.O.) And I lost it. I lost it all. Dignity, faith, fifteen pounds... EXT. STREET - NIGHT Rob wandering through the rain. ROB (V.O.) Any small idea of personal identity that I had acquired up to that point. INT. SOME RECORD STORE - DAY A younger and catatonic Rob listlessly sorts through a stack of records. ROB (V.O.) I came to three months later, and to my surprise had flunked out of school and started working in a record store. INT. ROB'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Rob stands in front of his wall of music, shifting LPs around between the shelves and piles on the floor as he talks to us. ROB What I really learned from the Charlie Debacle is that you gotta punch your weight. Charlie was out of my Class: too pretty, too smart, too witty, too much. What am I? Average. A middleweight. Not the smartest guy in the world, but certainly not the dumbest. I've read books like The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Angela's Ashes, and Love in the Time of Cholera, and understood them, I think -- they're about girls, right? -- just kidding -- but I don't like them very much. My all time top five favorite books are Johnny Cash's autobiography, Snow Crash by Neil Stevenson, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, The Trouser Press Guides to Rock, and, I don't know, probably something by Kurt Vonnegut. I look through the New Yorker when my neighbor's done with it, and I'm not averse to going down to the Fine Arts to watch subtitles films, although on the whole I prefer American films. Top five being Blade Runner, Cool Hand Luke, the first two Godfathers which we'll count as one, Taxi Driver, and The Shining. I'm okay looking, average height, not skinny, not fat. My genius, if I can call it that, is to combine a whole load of averageness into one compact frame. You might say there were millions like me, but there aren't, really: Alot of guys have impeccable music taste but don't read, alot of guys read but are really fat, alot of guys are sympathetic to women but have stupid beards, alot of guys have a Woody Allen sense of humor but look like Woody Allen. Some drink too much, some drive like assholes, some get into fights, or show off money, or do drugs. I don't do any of these things, really. If I do okay with women it's not because of the virtues I have, but because of the ugly flaws I don't have... So. Charlie and I didn't match. After her I was determined to never get out of my league again. INT. ROB'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Rob presses play on the answering machine. A pleasant, older female voice is heard. It's JANET, Laura's mother. JANET (on machine) Hello, you two. Laura, it's your mother. Your father's angina is a little rough today and I thought he'd like to talk to you. No big deal. I love you two. Bye. Beep. LIZ (on machine) Rob, it's Liz. Just calling to see, well, if you're okay. Give me a ring. I'm not taking sides. Yet. Lot's of love. Bye. He pulls an LP from a shelf, puts it on the turntable and sits back in his chair. EXT. LAKE MICHIGAN WATERFRONT - MOS - THE PAST The MUSIC becomes SOUNDTRACK to the following scenes. Rob and SARAH, a thin, modestly attractive young woman, SARAH, walk and talk. They seem to be emphatically complaining together. ROB (V.O.) Charlie and I didn't match. Marco and Charlie matched. Me and Sarah, number four on the all time break- ups list, matched. She wore more or less the same clothes as mine, had an acceptable working knowledge of music, and she had been dumped by some asshole named Michael. He was her moment, Charlie was mine. Sarah had sworn off men. I had sworn off women. It made sense to pool our loathing of the opposite sex, swear them off together, and get to share a bed with someone at the same time. INT. SARAH'S APARTMENT - MOS - NIGHT Rob and SARAH sit up in bed, staring at the television... ROB (V.O.) We were frightened of being left alone for the rest of our lives. Only people of a certain disposition are frightened of being alone for the rest of their lives at twenty- six. We were of that disposition. Everything seemed much later than it was. INT. SARAH'S KITCHEN - MOS - DAY ROB'S POV of Sarah, sitting across the table, mid-confession. ROB (V.O.) When she told me that she met someone else it made no sense. Her meeting someone else was contrary to the whole spirit of our arrangement. All we really had in common was that we were dumped by people, and that we were against dumping. We were violently anti-dump. So how come I got dumped? ROB IN HIS CHAIR The MUSIC becomes PRESENCE again, and Rob takes the needle off the record. ROB You run the risk of losing anyone who is worth spending time with. But I didn't know that at the time. All I saw was that I'd moved down a division and that it still hadn't worked out, and this seemed cause for a great deal of misery and self- pity. And that's when Laura came along. INT. ROB'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Rob is surrounded by stacks of records on the floor. He looks to camera. ROB I'm reorganizing my records tonight. It's something I do in times of emotional distress. When Laura was here I had them in alphabetical order, before that, chronologically. Tonight, though, I'm trying to put them in the order in which I bought them. That way I can write my own autobiography without picking up a pen. Pull them all off the shelves, look for Revolver and go from there. I'll be able to see how I got from Deep Purple to The Soft Boys in twenty- five moves. What I really like about my new system is that it makes me more complicated than I am. To find anything you have to be me, or at the very least a doctor in Rob-ology. If you wanna find Landslide by Fleetwood Mac you have to know that I bought it for someone in the fall of 1983 and then didn't give it to them for personal reasons. But you don't know any of that, do you? You would have to ask me to-- The phone rings again. Rob picks it up. ROB Yeah? MOM Hi, Rob. It's your mother. Rob deflates a bit. ROB Hi, Mom. MOM Everything all right? ROB Great. Super-fantastic. MOM How's the store? ROB So so. Up and down. MOM Your lucky Laura's doing so well. If it wasn't for her, I don't think either of us would ever sleep... Rob holds his lips together with thumb and forefinger, but succumbs -- ROB She left. She's gone. MOM What do you mean? Where did she go? ROB How would I know? Gone. Girlfriend. Leave. Not say where gone. Laura move out. MOM Well call her mother. ROB She just called. She doesn't even know. It's probably the last time I'll ever hear her voice. That's weird, isn't it? You spend Christmas at somebody's house, you know, and you worry about their operations and you see them in their bathrobe, and... I dunno... Silence. ROB There'll be another mom and another Christmas. Right? Silence... More silence. ROB Hello? Anybody there? THE SOUND OF SOFT CRYING ROB I'm all right, if that's what's upsetting you. MOM You know that's not what's upsetting me. ROB Well it fucking should be, shouldn't it? MOM I knew this would happen. What are you going to do Rob? ROB I'm going to drink this bottle of wine watch TV and go to bed. Then tomorrow I'll get up and go to work. MOM And after that? ROB Meet a nice girl and have children. I promise the next time we talk I'll have it all sorted out. MOM I knew this was going to happen. ROB Then what are you getting so upset about? MOM What did Laura say? Do you know why she left? ROB It's got nothing to do with marriage, if that's what you're getting at. MOM So you say. I'd like to hear her side of it. ROB Mom! For the last fucking time, I'm telling you Laura didn't want to get married! She is not that kind of girl! To use a phrase. That's not what happens now. MOM Well I don't know what happens now, apart from you meet someone, you move in, she goes. You meet someone, you move in, she goes. Silence. Rob busted. ROB Shut up, Mom. Rob hangs up the phone. He fills up his glass again, takes a swig, and slumps into a chair. If there was any wind left in Rob, it just got knocked out. After a moment, he gets to his feet, grabs his jacket and heads out the door. CUT TO: EXT. LOUNGE AX CLUB - LINCOLN AVE. - NIGHT Rob comes down the street and gets in the short line to enter the club. From inside he hears a GUITAR, playing a tune that becomes familiar not only to Rob, but to us. When a strong, lilting female VOICE begins to sing, we hear what it is: "Baby I Love Your Way," by Peter Frampton. Rob smiles at first, but begins to darken as the verse continues. He steps out of line and leans against the outside wall, listening. Is he beginning to cry? Yes, he is... CUT TO: ROB IN HIS CHAIR ROB Peter. Frampton. That perm! "Show Me the Way"! A phenomenon based on a live album that was actually recorded in a studio! What is happening? I am getting misty, choked up at a song that I had the good sense at twelve to realize was so saccharine and stupid as to be inarticulatable, until Michael Bolton, that is. CUT BACK TO: EXT. LOUNGE AX CLUB - LINCOLN AVE. He looks around self-consciously, and paces a bit, deciding whether or not to stay. He takes a deep breath, and heads in the door. INT. LOUNGE AX - NIGHT As Rob enters he looks to the stage, where MARIE LASALLE is standing alone with her acoustic guitar, heading toward the song's finish. Rob's expression begins to shift from the melancholy to something else altogether. Marie is beautiful, and Marie has touched his heart. Rob navigates toward her though the small crowd as if pulled by something unseen. He addresses us over his shoulder. ROB Sentimental music makes you nostalgic and hopeful at the same time. Marie's the hopeful part. Laura's the nostalgia part. These things happen. They happen to men, at any rate. This is why I shouldn't be listening to pop music. As he gets closer to the stage -- DICK ROB! Rob looks over to see Dick sitting with Barry, a few feet away. He shakes it off and sits with them, extending a meaningful hand to Barry, who takes it. They turn back to the stage as Marie finishes the song. ROB I always hated this song. DICK Yeah. BARRY Yeah. ROB But now I kind of like it. Dick and Barry nod, then keep watching. All three of them are in their own private fantasies with Marie. DICK She shouldn't done it on "The Number Four With a Smile." BARRY Isn't her album called "Number Four With A Smile?" DICK That's what I said. BARRY No, no, no, you said "The Number Four With a Smile," and there's no "The" at the front of the title of the album. DICK It's a reference to a Chinese meal in Toronto and I think that there is a "The." But I could be wrong. BARRY You can be and are wrong. They drop it, so that their eyes can drift back to Marie. BARRY I wanna date a musician... ROB (nods in agreement) I wanna live with a musician. She'd write songs at home, ask me what she thought of them, maybe even include one of our private jokes in the liner notes. BARRY ...Maybe a picture of me in the liner notes... DICK Just in the background somewhere. MARIE as the song ends, and she smiles out over the room. The audience applauds. MARIE Thanks, you guys, I know I'm not supposed to like that song, but I do. I'm gonna take a break for a second. Anybody wants to buy one of my tapes, they're five bucks up here. One of my other personalities will be selling them. ROB, DICK, AND BARRY BARRY Let's go get one. ROB Let's not. DICK I want a tape. Barry and Dick stand and begin to move off... ROB I don't need to go up there right now. ...and they're gone. After a beat, Rob gets up and follows them. FOOT OF THE STAGE Dick and Barry wait nervously to buy a tape, Rob just behind them. Marie processes sales with polite monosyllables, until the three get up front. MARIE Enjoying yourselves? They dart eyes to each other, then nod. MARIE Good. 'Cause I'm enjoying myself. ROB Good. Rob hands her a ten and she roots around in a duffel bag for change... ROB So you live in Chicago now? MARIE Yup. Not far from here, actually. BARRY You like it? MARIE It's okay. Hey. You guys might be the sort to know. Are there any good record stores around here or do I have to go downtown? Barry and Dick do not try to control themselves. They point to Rob. DICK He's got one! BARRY On Clark Street! DICK A couple blocks! About six! BARRY We work there! DICK You'd love it! Marie laughs. MARIE What do you sell? BARRY A little of anything that matters. Rock, soul, R&B, punk rock, hip- hop, ska, new wave... MARIE Sounds great. The line behind them is moving in, and Marie smiles at them and turns to someone else. They scurry back toward their table. ROB What did you tell her about the shop for? BARRY I didn't know it was classified information. I mean, I know we don't have any customers, but I thought that was a bad thing, not, like, a business strategy. Rob looks over Barry at Marie. She catches his eye as she looks over the room. His eyes shoot to the floor. CUT TO: INT. RECORD STORE - STOCK ROOM - LATER Rob is going through a huge stack of used CD's, sorting them off into different bins, bouncing his head absently to the music -- the same song of Marie's that Rob had on when Laura called last night. BARRY (O.S.) ROB! PHONE! Rob reaches over and hits the SPEAKER button on the phone, still in the groove of sorting. ROB Rob here. LIZ (O.S.) Hey. It's Liz. ROB What's happenin'. LIZ You called this morning? ROB Yeah. I just wanted to thank you for that message last night. It made me feel like... like less of an asshole. LIZ How're you holding up? ROB Actually, I'm fine. I'm great. Last night I got to thinking, "you know what? Maybe it is time to move on. Maybe we're just not right for each other. Or maybe we are. But time will tell and at this point I'm going to be fine with whatever's meant to be." You know? LIZ Yeah. Like I said, I don't want to take sides. And I like Laura with you. She's more fun, more open. You guys are good together. I just wish you two could, I don't know. I don't think much of this Ian guy -- -- Dick bursts in, huge-faced -- DICK Rob. ROB Liz, hold on a second -- (turns to Dick) What? DICK Marie LaSalle is in the store! Here, she's here, and now! Rob freezes, he and Dick turn to the speaker, which cranks Marie's voice. Rob goes to the phone and picks up the handset. ROB Liz, can you hold for a second? He hits hold. ROB (to Dick) I'll be out there! Go! (picks up the phone) Hey, Liz, I gotta go... Tomorrow night? Great. Green Mill. Fine. Seven? Done. Thanks. Right. Bye. He hangs up fast, spins around to look in a cracked one-foot- square cracked mirror bearing the logo of Aerosmith that is mounted on the wall, and moves out into the FRONT ROOM and up the aisle fast toward the stereo where he turns Marie's music off. He takes a deep breath and looks up, meeting her eyes. ROB Oh. Hi. Marie smiles. MARIE (re: music) Don't you like that? ROB No, no, I love, it's just, thinking you're, you must be so sick of it... Well. He reaches back and puts it back on. He cracks his face into a smile, then walks fast back to the stock room door. Marie watches him go. STOCK ROOM where as soon as he crosses the threshold his fist clench and he grimaces: ROB WHAT FUCKING IAN GUY?!! Dick comes in -- DICK Rob --! ROB -- FUCK OFF! Dick backs out fast. Rob leans on a wall. Barry enters -- BARRY We're only on the fucking list for Marie's gig at the Pulaski Pub, that's all! All three of us. ROB That's fucking great, Barry. We can spend fifteen bucks on a cab to save five each. Fantastic, Barry! BARRY We can take your car. ROB It's not my car, now is it? It's Laura's car, and thus Laura has it. So it's an ass-bumping double- transferring bus ride through bumblefuck or a fat wad on a cab. Wow. Fucking great. Barry sighs, throws up his hands and heads out the door. BARRY Jaggoff... Barry exits. Rob seems to be having trouble staying on his feet. ROB Who the fuck is Ian?! CUT TO: INT. ROB'S BUILDING'S LOBBY - NIGHT Rob enters and walks to the mail table, looking like shit. He starts sifting through envelopes for his. ROB Laura doesn't know anybody called Ian. There's no Ian at her office. She has no friends named Ian. She has never met anyone called Ian in her whole life. Although there may have been one in college -- but I am almost certain that since 1989 she has lived in an Ian-less universe. He slows... and stops. His face gets a little paler as he lifts a letter up to his face. CLOSE-UP: LETTER A cable service bill to a Mr. I. Raymond. ROB as he looks at it, divining. ROB "I. Raymond." Ray. "I." IAN. CUT TO: ROB IN HIS CHAIR Rob to camera. ROB Mr. I Raymond. "Ray" to his friends, and, more importantly, to his neighbors. The guy who up until about six weeks ago lived upstairs. I knew it was him the moment I saw the letter. I start to remember things now: His stupid clothing, his music -- Latin, Bulgarian, whatever fucking world music was trendy that week--stupid laugh, awful cooking smells. I can't remember anything good about him at all. I never liked him much then, and I fucking hate him now... I manage to block out the worst, most painful, most disturbing memory of him until I go to bed. INT. ROB'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Darkness. We move silently through the rooms, and enter the bedroom... closer to the bed, we see Rob on his back, sheets held clenched up to his chin. He stares at the ceiling, sadly. JUMP CUT To almost the same shot, but it's Rob and Laura in the bed, semi-tangled. Laura has a book in her lap. A CREAKING is heard. Laura's eyes go to the ceiling, and Rob sits up at attention. They look up at the light fixture, which shakes a little faster, with the rhythm of the creaking. Someone is definitely having sex upstairs, and they are going for it. ROB Jeez. He goes on long enough. LAURA I should be so lucky. They turn to each other and laugh. JUMP CUT BACK to Rob lying still in bed, staring at the ceiling. ROB You are as abandoned and as noisy as any character in a porn film, Laura. You are Ian's plaything, responding to his touch with shrieks of orgasmic delight. No woman in the history of the world is having better sex than the sex you are having with Ian in my head. ROB'S IAN-LAURA SEX NIGHTMARE - QUICK CUTS Ian mercilessly savages Laura from behind, below, and above, champagne showers, toe-sucking, and animal screams -- BACK TO ROB IN BED, imploding with disgust and sorrow. Tears run down his cheeks into his ears. ROB Number five -- Jackie Allen. My break up with Jackie Allen had no effect on my life whatsoever. I just slotted her in to bump you out of position, Laura. Yes, you do in fact make it into the top five. Welcome. And just to remind you, the list is in chronological order, not in the order of pain and suffering. INT. RECORD STORE - DAY Dick and Barry are stocking the racks. Rob stands at the register, rocking back and forth sort of like an idiot, to "Always and Forever" by the Commodores. He is a mess. FEMALE VOICE Hey. Rob looks up to see a nineteen or twenty-year-old GIRL standing in front of him. GIRL Do you have soul? Rob smiles bitterly at her, clearly having a different meaning in mind. ROB That all depends. She kind of backs away and goes back to browsing. The phone rings and Rob picks it up. ROB Record Exchange... How many records... Right, well if you could bring them -- okay, well, where do you live? Right... how about now? I can come right over... (Rob scribbles) Okay. He hangs up and grabs his jacket. Dick emerges from the back. ROB (to Dick) Some lady's got some singles to sell. I'll be back in a half-hour. Rob walks out. EXT./INT. FANCY LINCOLN PARK TOWNHOUSE - DAY Rob mounts the stairs and rings the doorbell. The door opens, revealing a too-tan WOMAN in her late forties, in designer jeans and a T-shirt bearing a rhinestone peace sign. She says nothing. ROB Hi. You called about the records? She turns and walks into the house, leaving the door open for him. He follows her in and through a fabulous first floor, packed with big-bucks bourgeois: Rugs, art, and antiques: She ushers Rob into a large study, and turns the light on. He misses a breath. The walls are lined with mahogany cases custom-built for CDs, albums, epicurean stereo components, a couple priceless vintage guitars -- every one of the thousands of items bear a little numbered sticker, like a museum. She points to several boxes on the floor, full of hundreds of singles. WOMAN Those. Rob steps into the room like an Undeserving, and carefully drops to his knees to examine the singles, each pristine in a plastic sleeve: the original God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols, original Otis Reddings, Elvis Presleys, James Browns, Jerry Lee Lewises, Beatles... on and on. The mother lode. Rob is doing the best to control the onset of hyperventilation. He dares a glance over his shoulder to her to see if this is a joke. WOMAN What do you think? ROB It's the best collection I've ever seen. WOMAN Give me fifty bucks and they're all yours. Rob's face goes funny. He looks around for a hidden camera. ROB These are worth at least, I don't know -- WOMAN I know what they're worth. Give me fifty and get them out. ROB But you must have -- WOMAN I must have nothing. Their my husband's. ROB And you must not be getting along too well right now, huh? WOMAN He's in Jamaica with a twenty-three- year-old. A friend of my daughter's. He had the fucking nerve to call me and ask me to borrow some money and I told him to fuck off, so he asked me to sell his singles collection and send him a check for whatever I go, minus a ten percent commission. Which reminds me. Can you make sure you give me a five? I want to frame it and put it on the wall. ROB It must have taken him a long time to get them together. WOMAN Years. This collection is as close as he's ever come to an achievement. Rob looks back at the records but avoids the trance. ROB Look. Can I pay you properly? You don't have to tell him what you got. Send him forty-five bucks and blow the rest. Give it to charity. Or something. WOMAN That wasn't part of the deal. I want to be poisonous but fair. ROB (looking back at the records) Look... I... I'm sorry. I don't want to be any part of this. WOMAN Suit yourself. There are plenty of others who will. ROB That's why I'm trying to compromise. What about fifteen-hundred? They're worth five times that. WOMAN Sixty. ROB Thirteen hundred. WOMAN Seventy-five. ROB Eleven-hundred. That's my lowest offer. WOMAN And I won't take a penny over ninety. They start smiling at each other. WOMAN With eleven hundred he could come home, and that's the last thing I want. ROB I'm sorry but I think you better talk to someone else. WOMAN Fine. Rob half stands, then drops again for one last lingering look. ROB Can I buy this Otis Redding single off you? WOMAN Sure. Ten cents. ROB Oh, come on! Let me give you ten dollars for this, and you can give the rest away for all I care. WOMAN Okay. Because you took the trouble to come up here. And because you've got principles. But that's it. I'm not selling them to you one by one. CUT TO: EXT. FANCY LINCOLN PARK TOWNHOUSE - DAY Rob comes down the stairs holding his single, and walks down the street talking to camera. ROB How come I end up siding with the bad guy, the man who ran off to Jamaica with some nymphette? I just got left for someone else, so why can't I bring myself to feel whatever it is his wife is feeling? All I can see is that guy's face when he gets that pathetic check in the mail for those records, and I can't help but feel desperately, painfully sorry for him. CUT TO: INT. GREEN MILL - NIGHT The bar where Al Capone used to party, and it looks about the same: colored lightbulbs, shadowboxes, deep plush booths and a stage for jazz. Rob slumps back in a booth, stirring a drink with his finger. After a beat, we hear a DOOR SLAM off camera, and Rob looks up with a bit of fear. Heavy footsteps get louder and closer, until a shadow shrouds Rob -- LIZ stands in front of him. LIZ MOTHERFUCKER. She is enormous, and she is mad as hell. Rob reflexively shrinks. ROB What's the -- hey, Liz -- LIZ -- No, no, no, don't even. I talked to Laura, Rob. I talked to her and she gave me a little background. And you're a fucking ASSHOLE. She turns and stomps toward the door. Rob gets up and follows. EXT. STREET - NIGHT Rob comes out of the club and follows Liz. She hears him and turns on him, punctuating with a finger in his chest. LIZ To think I sympathized with you for two seconds! Poor Rob! Laura left him out of nowhere for the schmuck upstairs. You let me believe that! ROB It's true! LIZ Rob! Two years ago you got Laura pregnant; you then proceeded to cheat on her! You borrowed money from her and never paid a dime back! And then, just a few weeks ago, you told her you were unhappy with her and were "kind of looking around for somebody else!" ROB Well she -- She turns again and keeps walking, holding a defiant middle finger over her shoulder as she fades down the street. INT. SUBWAY CAR - NIGHT Rob sits, rocking slightly with the movement of the train. He stares at an OLD COUPLE who do not speak to each other. ROB She's right, of course. I am a fucking asshole. I did and said those things. But before you judge, although you've probably already done so, go off for a minute and write down the top five worst things that you have done to your partner, even if -- especially if -- your partner doesn't know about them. Don't dress things up or try to explain them. Just write them down in the plainest language possible... A LONG BEAT, even five or ten seconds. ROB Pencils down. Okay, so who's the asshole now? CUT TO: INT. RECORD STORE - DAY Saturday. For the first time we see the place kind of busy. Rob watches the room. Barry is toward the back, talking to a CUSTOMER. "Cruel to Be Kind" by Nick Lowe plays. BARRY It's almost impossible to find, especially on CD. Yet another cruel trick on all of the dumbasses who got rid of their turntables. But every other Echo and the Bunnymen album -- CUSTOMER I have all of the others. BARRY Oh really. Well what about the first Jesus and Mary Chain? CUSTOMER They always seemed... BARRY They always seemed what? They always seemed really great, is what they always seemed. They picked up where your precious Echo left off, and you're sitting here complaining about no more Echo albums. I can't believe that you don't own that record. That's insane. He plucks it from the rack, and sticks it in the Customer's hand, who regards it with a bit a of shame. CUSTOMER Well what about the new Echo -- BARRY Do not get ahead of yourself. DICK is listening to a female customer, but he doesn't hear her voice. CUSTOMER - DICK'S POV The army bag with a red cross on it. The ring-of-ivy tattoo around the wrist. The monkey boots. The eye shadow. DICK thinking, calculating... DICK The interesting thing about Green Day is that so much of their music is in truth directly influenced by, in my opinion, two bands. FEMALE CUSTOMER The Clash. DICK Correct. The Clash. But also the Stranglers. FEMALE CUSTOMER Who? DICK I think you would love the Stranglers... Dick pulls a Stranglers record and puts it on the stereo. Her brow furrows, and then she smiles. FEMALE CUSTOMER This sounds great. Dick smiles humbly. Two people in the store turn and approach. CUSTOMER Is this the new Green Day? BARRY still talking to his Customer, who now has several CD's in his hand. He looks at Barry with a mixture of hate and adoration. BARRY That is perverse. Do not tell anyone you don't own fucking Blonde on Blonde. What about Television? CUSTOMER I have a television. BARRY NO--! Barry adds more records to the Customer's stack. A FEW MINUTES LATER - ROB AND DICK stand behind the counter. Rob holds a CD in his hand, and surveys the roaming customers with a semi-serious air of authority. ROB I will now sell four copies of Cats and Dogs by the Royal Trux. DICK Do it. Do it. Rob pops the CD in and it begins to play... He stands there with his arms folded, waiting. After a moment, a Customer approaches. CUSTOMER (re: music) What is this? ROB It's the Royal Trux. CUSTOMER It's great. ROB I know. ROB'S POV of the room. Something has caught his eye: a cropped head with a leopard skin pattern surfaces and disappears, like Nessie. Rob's face gets hot and mad. He jumps out from behind the counter. ROB Dick, ring the man up... He moves like a cat through the crowd. Justin sees him coming and counters around the middle island and heads for the door. Vince appears next to him, fiddling with his belt. He sees Rob now, and he and Justin bolt for the door. Rob doubles back. ROB DICK! THE DOOR! Dick sees Vince and Justin too late. Rob is right behind them and as they get out the door, he reaches... and comes up with the back half of a skateboard. EXT. RECORD STORE - DAY Rob emerges behind them, Vince's skateboard in hand. They have enough distance to bolt, but they can't leave that board behind. ROB Okay, fuckos. How much is this deck worth to you, and how many CD's did you rip off? Can you do the math? Justin pulls two CD's out and slides them over to Rob. ROB (to Vince) And what about you, dork? Vince pulls about six, and puts them down in a neutral spot. Rob picks all of them up and starts looking through them. Dicks pokes his head out of the door. ROB Dick, call the police, please. Vince and Justin look at each other. ROB (looking through the CD's) Eno import. Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Break beats. Serge Gainsbourg. Ryuchi Sakamoto, Syd Barrett... What's going on here? Are you guys stealing for other people now? VINCE Naw. Those are for us. ROB Oh really. You two are slamming to Nico now? JUSTIN You're, like, so bigoted to look at us and, like, think you know what we listen to. VINCE You got the CD's so can I have my board back? ROB I think you have more. VINCE Well we don't. ROB I can't frisk you but the cops can. Justin reaches down again into his baggy shorts and comes up with a tattered old book, "How To Make A Record." He tosses it over. ROB Jesus. That thing's been in the bargain bin for six months! Was it just your criminal nature or what? Hell, I would've given it to you for free. VINCE No, we... JUSTIN We don't know how it works. Nobody even knows, so we wanted to check it out in that mag. Rob snorts. JUSTIN Like, do you know how to actually make a CD? Rob can't resist edifying them -- the curse of the underappreciated expert. ROB Uh, yes I, like, do... It's simple. You make the tracks -- recording studio -- deliver them to the pressing plant where a master is cut, the master is then dubbed to submasters, which are the "mothers," as their called, for each press in the plant. You press the CD's or records, put in your cover art, and that's it. VINCE Records are those big round black things, right? ROB Fuck off. Rob turns to go back in the store. VINCE Hey, can I have my board? Rob drops it and enters the store. CUT TO: INT. RECORD STORE - NIGHT - QUICK CUTS: Barry emerges from the back with three opened bottles of beer as the last customer goes out the door... The three lean against the bins, tired and smiling. BARRY (to Rob) What? ROB What do you mean, "what?" BARRY What are you snickering about? ROB I'm not snickering. I'm smiling. Because I'm happy. BARRY What am I missing? What do you have to be happy about? DICK Well we rang $900 today. ROB Yeah but more than that. I'm happy because I'm proud of us. Because although our talents are small and peculiar, we use them to their best advantage. Dick and Barry look at each other. They almost know how to take a compliment. EXT. RECORD STORE - NIGHT Rob, now alone, turns the sign from "open" to "closed" shuts the door behind him, and pulls the gate across. Laura appears from the next doorway. He jumps. ROB Shit! LAURA Hi. ROB Hi. LAURA I thought I could give you a lift back. ROB Are you coming home? LAURA Yes. Well, I'm coming over to your house to get some things. ROB My house? Laura turns and begins walking. Rob looks at camera. ROB First of all: The money. The money is easy to explain: She had it and I didn't, and she wanted to give it to me. If she hadn't, I would have gone under. I've never paid her back because I've never been able to, and just because she's took off and moved in with some Supertramp fan doesn't make me five grand richer. So that's the money -- Laura's CAR HORN is heard. He heads off. CUT TO: INT. LAURA'S CAR - NIGHT They move down the street, and it's a little tense. Laura pushes a tape into the stereo. Art Garfunkel's "Bright Eyes" begins to play. Rob turns away from her and makes a face, but she knows he's making it. LAURA You can make all the faces you want. My car. My car stereo. My compilation tape. Rob tries not to speak, but -- ROB How can you like Art Garfunkel and Marvin Gaye? It's like saying you support the Israelis and the Palestinians. LAURA It's not like saying that at all, actually, Rob. Art Garfunkel and Marvin Gaye make pop records -- ROB -- Made. Made. Marvin Gaye is dead, his father shot him in -- LAURA -- whatever, and the Israelis and the Palestinians don't. Art Garfunkel and Marvin Gaye are not engaged in a bitter territorial dispute, and the Israelis and the Palestinians are. Art Garfunkel and Marvin Gaye -- ROB -- Alright, alright but -- LAURA -- and who says I like Marvin Gaye, anyway? He reels on her. ROB Hey! Marvin Gaye! "Got to Give It Up!" That's our song! Marvin Gaye is responsible for our entire relationship! LAURA Is that right? I'd like a word with him. ROB But don't you remember? LAURA I remember the song. I just couldn't remember who sang it. Rob shakes his head in disbelief. LAURA I can see why you prefer Gaye to Garfunkel. I get it, really. But there are so many other things to worry about. They're only records, and if one is better than the other, well, who cares, besides you and Barry and Dick? I mean really, who gives a flying fuck? Silence. ROB You used to care more about things like Marvin Gaye than you do now. When I first met you, and I made you that tape, you loved it. You said -- and I quote -- "It was so good it made you ashamed of your record collection." LAURA Well, I liked you. You were a deejay, and I thought you were hot, and I didn't have a boyfriend, and I wanted one. ROB So you weren't interested in music at all? LAURA Yeah, sure. More so then than I am now. That's life though, isn't it? The car slows, and Laura parks. ROB But Laura... that's me. That's all there is to me. There isn't anything else. If you've lost interest in that, you've lost interest in everything. LAURA You really believe that? Laura turns the engine off and unbuckles her seat belt. ROB Yes. Look at me. Look at our -- the apartment. What else do I have, other than records and CDs? LAURA And do you like it that way? ROB Not really. She half smiles. LAURA Let's go in. She gets out of the car. Rob turns to camera, speaking quietly and urgently. ROB Okay, Number two: The stuff I told her about being unhappy in the relationship, about half looking around for someone else: She tricked me into saying it. We were having this state of the union type conversation and she said, quite matter-of-factly, that we were pretty unhappy at the moment, and did I agree, and I said yes, and she asked whether I ever thought about meeting someone else. So I asked her if she ever thought about it, and she said of course, so I admitted that I daydream about it from time to time. Now I see that what we were really talking about was her and Ian, and she suckered me into absolving her. It was a sneaky lawyer's trick, and I fell for it, because she's much smarter than me. He scrambles out of the car. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT The lock turns and Rob enters, holding the door for Laura who slips by, her coat in her hands. She glances down at the table by the door and sees Ian's envelope. ROB You can take it with you if you want. She slips it into her purse. He stands facing her for a moment, then crosses to her, takes her coat and tosses it on a chair. She opens the closet and takes out a big laundry sack. LAURA Have you tackled the Great Reorganization yet? ROB Don't you think there are more important things to talk about than my record collection? She begins putting books and other things into the bag... LAURA You bet. I've been saying that for years. Having no comeback, Rob goes for the moral high ground. ROB So. Where have you been staying for the last week? LAURA I think you know that. ROB Had to work it out for myself, though, didn't I? Laura looks suddenly tired and sad, and looks away. LAURA I'm sorry. I haven't been very fair to you. That's why I came here to the store this evening. I feel terrible, Rob. This is really hard, you know. ROB Good. (beat) So. Is it my job? LAURA What? Gimme a fucking break. Is that what you think? That your not big enough a deal for me? Jesus, gimme a little credit, Rob. ROB I don't know. It's one of the things I thought of. LAURA What were the others? ROB Just the obvious stuff. LAURA What's the obvious stuff? ROB I don't know. She stands and walks toward the bathroom. LAURA I guess it's not that obvious, then. ROB No. As soon as she shuts the door behind her, he turns to camera. ROB And number three: The Pregnancy. I didn't know she was pregnant. Of course I didn't. She hadn't told me because I had told her I was... sort of... seeing somebody else. We thought we were being very grown-up, but we were being preposterously naive, childish even, to think that one of us could fuck around and then own up to it while we were living together. So -- I didn't find out about it 'til way later. We were going through a good period and I made a crack about having kids and she burst into tears. I made her tell me what it was all about, and she did. I felt guilty and so I got angry. She told me that at the time I didn't look like a very good long- term bet. That it was a hard decision and she didn't see any point in consulting me about it... When the whole sorry tale comes out in a great big -- We hear the bathroom door open. LAURA (O.S.) What? ROB (covering) What, what? Laura comes out with a toiletry bag and places it by the door. LAURA Did you say something? ROB No. So. Is it working out with Ian? LAURA Rob. Don't be childish. ROB Why is that childish? Your living with the guy! I'm just asking how it's going. LAURA I am not living with him. I've just been staying with him for a few days until I work out what I'm doing. Look, this has nothing to do with anyone else. You know that, don't you? I left because we weren't exactly getting along, and we weren't talking about it. And I suddenly realized that I like my job, and I like what my life is could be turning into, and that I'm getting to a point where I want to get my shit together and I can't really see that ever happening with you, and yeah, yeah, I sort of get interested in someone else, and that went further than it should have, so it seemed like a good time to go. But I have no idea what will happen with Ian in the long run. Probably nothing. ROB Well then why don't you quit it while you seem to not be ahead? Laura rolls her eyes and head off into the bedroom with the laundry bag. Rob turns back to camera. ROB -- When the whole sorry tale comes out in a great big lump like that, even the most shortsighted jerk, even the most self-deluding and self pitying of jilted, wounded lovers can see that there is some cause and effect going on here, that abortions and Ian and money and affairs all belong to, all deserve each other. Laura reappears, her bag half-filled with clothes, and goes to the book shelves next to the records. She starts topping off the bag with books. LAURA Look. Maybe you'll grow up and we'll get it together, you and me. Maybe I'll never see either of you again. I don't know. All I know is that it's not a good time to be living here. ROB So, what, you haven't definitely decide to dump me? There's still a chance we'll get back together? LAURA I don't know. ROB Well, if you don't know, there's a chance, right? It's like, if someone was in the hospital and he was seriously ill and the doctor said, I don't know if he's got a chance of survival or not, then that doesn't mean the patient's definitely going to die, now does it? It means he might live. Even if it's only a remote possibility. LAURA I suppose so. ROB So we have a chance of getting back together again. LAURA Oh, Rob, shut up. ROB Hey, I just want to know where I stand. What chance -- LAURA -- I don't fucking know what chance you fucking have! She abandons her attempt at packing. ROB Well if you could tell me roughly it would help. LAURA Okay, okay, we have a nine percent chance of getting back together. Does that clarify the situation? ROB Yeah. Great. LAURA (shaking her head) I'm too tired for this now. I know I'm asking a lot, but will you take off for a while so I can get my stuff packed up? I need to be able to think while I do it and I can't think while you're here. ROB No problem. If I can ask one question. LAURA Fine. One. ROB It sounds stupid. LAURA Nevermind. ROB You won't like it. LAURA Just ask it! ROB Is it better? LAURA Is what better? Better than what? ROB Well. Sex, I guess. Is sex with him better? LAURA Jesus Christ, Rob. Is that really what's bothering you? ROB Of course it is. LAURA You really think it would make a difference either way? ROB I don't know. LAURA Well the answer is that I don't know either. We haven't done it yet. ROB Never? LAURA I haven't felt like it. ROB But not even before, when he was living upstairs? LAURA No. I was living with you, remember? We've slept together but we haven't made love. Not yet. But I'll tell you one thing. The sleeping together is better. ROB (trying not to smile) The sleeping together is better but not the sex because you haven't done it was him yet. LAURA Will you please just go? INT. APARTMENT HALLWAY - NIGHT Rob shuts the door behind him and does a crazy Charleston/Cabbage-Patch/Boxstep/Touchdown dance of pure elation, then bounces down the stairs. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - NIGHT Rob bounces along, a smile wider than we have seen yet. Maybe even jumping to touch an awning. He lands and tells us: ROB I feel good! I feel great! I feel like a new man. I feel so much better, in fact -- INT. WEEDS BAR - NIGHT Rob moves through the room, still grinning a bit like a proud new father, toward the table where Barry, Dick, Marie and T- Bone sit, listening to a story T-Bone is telling. Marie turns to him. ROB Hi, Marie. MARIE Everything go alright? Rob glances at Barry, who averts his gaze. ROB She just wanted to pick up some stuff. No big thing. A relief, actually. MARIE God, I hate that time. That pick up stuff time. I just went through that before I came here. You know that song "Patsy Cline Times Two" I play? That's about me and my ex dividing up our record collections. ROB It's a great song. MARIE Thank you. Rob glances at T-Bone, his mind calculating the new info. ROB Is that why you came to Chicago in the first place? Because of, you know, dividing up your record collection and stuff? MARIE Yup. Marie slides closer, turning her back on the others. The loop is closed. ROB You share a place with T-Bone? MARIE No way! I'd cramp his style. And I wouldn't want to listen to all that stuff happening on the other side of the bedroom wall. I'm way to unattached for that. ROB I understand completely. SERIES OF CUTS - ELAPSED TIME Rob and Marie lean in to each other, everyone else out of focus. ROB (V.O.) Awhile back, Dick and Barry and I agreed that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like... ROB AND MARIE - LATER MARIE Yeah, but if you heard this band called the Crumblers, you'd -- ROB What do you mean, the Crumblers? You know the Crumblers? Nobody's heard the Crumblers. Except me. MARIE Yeah, I know the Crumblers! I bought a used Blasters album in New York about ten years ago and somebody left a Crumblers single in it. My everything changed for a couple of weeks. Rob glows -- ROB (V.O.) Books, records, films -- these things matter. Call me shallow but it's the damn truth, and by this measure I was having one of the best dates of my life. ROB AND MARIE ROB Yeah, but you know what's his best film and nobody's even seen it? MARIE The Conformist. ROB Exactly! Fucking ex-actly! MARIE (laughs) You haven't even seen it! ROB Nor have you! They just laugh and laugh -- ROB (V.O.) References, titles, lyrics, flew and met each other in mid-air embraces. The evening goes with breathtaking precision. INT. MARIE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Rob and Marie are kissing standing up. MARIE Are you okay? ROB (nodding) Yes. You? MARIE For now. But I wouldn't be if I thought this was the end of the evening. ROB I'm sure it isn't. MARIE Good. In that case, I'll fix us something else to drink. You sticking to the whiskey or you want coffee? ROB Whiskey. Marie goes into the kitchen, and they keep talking around the corner. MARIE Tops off two whiskeys and starts into the other room where she sees Rob, standing and holding his jacket. ROB I'd better go. I gotta get up early. Go over to my parents'. MARIE When I said before that I hoped it wasn't the end of the evening, I was, you know... talking about breakfast and stuff. She plants the whiskeys firmly on the coffee table. MARIE I'd like it if you could stay the night. ROB (as if it is dawning on him) Oh, right. Alright. MARIE Jesus, so much for delicacy. I pegged you for a master of understatement, beating around the bush and all that buzz. ROB I use it but I don't understand it when other people use it. MARIE So you'll stay? ROB Yeah. MARIE Good. Marie picks up the drinks again and exits to the bedroom. Rob just stands there... and the LIGHTING CHANGES. ROB (to camera) Over nine million men in this country have slept with ten or more women. And do they all look like Richard Gere? Are they all as rich as Bill Gates? Charming as Oscar Wilde? Hell no. Nothing to do with any of that. Maybe fifty or so have one or more of these attributes, but that still leaves... well, about nine million, give or take fifty. And they're just men. Regular guys. We're just guys, because I, even I, am a member of this exclusive, nine million member club. In fact, Marie is my seventeenth lover. "How does he do it?" you ask. "He wears bad sweaters, he's grumpy, he's broke, he hangs out with the Musical Moron Twins, and he gets to go to bed with a recording artist who looks like Susan Dey-slash-Meg Ryan. What's going on? Listen up, because I think I can explain, with all modesty aside: I ask questions. That's it. That's my secret. It works precisely because that isn't how you're supposed to do it, if you listen to the collective male wisdom. There are still enough old-style, big-mouthed, egomaniacs running around to make someone like me appear to be refreshingly different. If you can't hack this simple strategy, there are some women out there, of course, who want to get pushed around, ignored and mowed over, but do you really want to be with them anyway? ...he goes through a door into the bedroom. Marie is taking off her earrings. ROB Would you like me to turn the lights out? Or would you like them on? MARIE God, you ask a lot of questions. INT. MARIE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Rob stares at the ceiling as Marie sleeps on next to him. ROB (V.O.) But in the morning we were just two people, slightly hung-over, who were not in love, sharing the same space. And I feel... Rob looks to the camera. ROB Sex is about the only grown-up thing that I know how to do; It's weird, then, that it's the only thing that can make me feel like a ten-year- old. CUT BACK TO: EXT. MARIE'S APARTMENT - MORNING The two of them come out of the building and into the street. ROB Which way are you going? MARIE (points left) That way. You? ROB (points right) That way. MARIE And so it is. I'll talk to you later. ROB I'll call you. MARIE (smiles) Right. INT. RECORD STORE - DAY Empty. Dick prices records out on the floor. Rob leans against the register. Barry sits on a stool next to him. They're top-fiving it. Rob's heart isn't in it. ROB Okay. Top five side one track ones. Number one... "Janie Jones," the Clash, from The Clash. BARRY Ehh. ROB "Thunder Road," Bruce Springsteen, from Born to Run. "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Nirvana, Nevermind. BARRY Oh no, Rob, that's not obvious enough. Not at all. Dick, did you hear that? ROB Shut up. "Let's Get It On," Marvin Gaye, from Let's Get It On. "Airbag," Radiohead, from OK Computer. BARRY (sarcastic) Ooh! A kind of recent record! Rob's sly declaration of new classic-status slipped into a list of old classics! Nice! "Let's Get It On?" Couldn't you make it more obvious than that? DICK Rob. Phone. (whispers) It's Laura. Rob springs to his feet, takes the phone and walks to the end of the cord. Deep breath. ROB Hi. LAURA - INTERCUT LAURA Hi. I've been looking for an envelope of my receipts from last month and I'm thinking I didn't take them with me. Have you seen them around? ROB I'll look for 'em. How you doing? LAURA I'm sorry to call, but I need that stuff... ROB Fine, I'm sure it's in the file at home. I'll call you when I find it, and then we'll talk. LAURA We'll talk some other time. ROB Great... That's great. Rob comes back to the counter and hangs up the phone. BARRY Rob! What about the Beatles? What about the fucking Rolling Stones? What about fucking... fucking... Beethoven? Track one side one of the Fifth Symphony? You shouldn't be allowed to run a record shop. You shouldn't be allowed to -- SFX: BARRY'S VOICE FADES OUT. Rob's mouth slacks and he stares off. ROB (V.O.) There's something different about the sound of her voice... And what did she mean last night, she hasn't slept with him yet. Yet. What does "yet" mean, anyway? "I haven't seen... Evil Dead II yet." What does that mean? It means you're going to go, doesn't it? SFX: BACK TO THE ROOM. BARRY -- You're like a little squirrel of music, storing away dead little nuts of old garbage music, musical lint, old shit, shit, shit -- ROB -- Barry, if I were to say to you I haven't seen Evil Dead II yet, what would that mean? Barry just looks at Rob. He pulls out a Game Boy and begins playing. ROB Just... come on, what would it mean to you? That sentence? "I haven't seen Evil Dead II yet?" BARRY To me, it would mean that you're a liar. You saw it twice. Once with Laura -- oops -- once with me and Dick. We had that conversation about the possibilities of the guy making ammo off-screen in the Fourteenth Century. ROB Yeah, yeah, I know. But say I hadn't seen it and I said to you, "I haven't seen Evil Dead II yet," what would you think? Barry shuts off the Game Boy. BARRY I'd think you were a cinematic idiot. And I'd feel sorry for you. ROB No, but would you think, from that one sentence. That I was going to see it? BARRY I'm sorry, Rob, but I'm struggling here. I don't understand any part of this conversation. You're asking me what I would think if you told me that you hadn't seen a film that you've seen. What am I supposed to say? ROB Just listen to me. If I said to you -- BARRY "-- I haven't seen Evil Dead II yet," yeah, yeah, I hear you -- ROB Would you... would you get the impression that I wanted to see it? BARRY Well... you couldn't have been desperate to see it, otherwise you'd have already gone... Rob brightens. Barry finally considers. BARRY ...But the word "yet..." Yeah, you know what, I'd get the impression that you wanted to see it. Otherwise you'd say you didn't really want to. ROB But in your opinion, would I definitely go? BARRY How the fuck am I supposed to know that? You might get sick of people telling you you've really gotta go see the movie. Rob darkens. ROB Why would they care? BARRY Because it's a brilliant film. It's funny, violent, and the soundtrack kicks fucking ass. They look at each other for a strange moment. BARRY I never thought I would say this, but can I go work now? ROB Let's pack it up. We haven't had a customer in four hours. Barry stands. BARRY Fine by me. I still want pay to 7 o'clock. ROB Ha. DICK I can't go to the club tonight, guys. BARRY Why? Dick smiles sheepishly. BARRY Who are you going to see? DICK Nobody. Barry's eyes widen. BARRY Rob, looky looky. Dick! Are you getting some?! Silence. BARRY Un-fucking-believable. Dick's out on a hot date, Rob's boning Marie LaSalle, and the best-looking and most intelligent of all of us isn't getting anything at all. ROB How do you know about that? BARRY Oh come on, Rob. What am I, an idiot? I'm more bothered by Dick's thing. How did this happen, Dick? What rational explanation can there possibly be? What's her name? Barry is going a little hard. Dick shrinks back. DICK Anna. BARRY Anna who? Anna Green Gables? Anna Conda? DICK Anna Moss. BARRY Anna Moss. Mossy. The Mossy Thing. The Swamp Thing. Is she all green and furry? ROB Shut the fuck up, Barry. BARRY Yeah, you would say that, wouldn't you? You two have to stick together now. Boners United. United in getting some. Barry picks up his bag and heads for the door. ROB Don't be sad, Barry. You'll find true love someday. BARRY Suck my ass. ROB Terrific. Rob looks to Dick, who looks guilty. ROB Don't worry about it, Dick. Barry's an asshole. DICK Yeah... Well... I'll see you tomorrow, Rob. Dick exits. Rob watches the door close behind him, and looks out over the empty store. He TALKS TO CAMERA as he goes to the light switches and begins shutting them off, one by one... ROB Why does it bother Barry that much that Dick is seeing someone? He's worried about how his life is turning out, and he's lonely, and lonely people are the bitterest of them all. ...until all the lights are out. Rob's silhouette slips out the door. EXT. STREET - NIGHT A downpour is on. Rob has himself wedged into a phone booth, the little kind. ROB (into phone) Hi. It's me... I'm right outside... I know... I know... I figured I could just walk you to the train and you could go... home. Or whatever it is... No! Of course not -- okay. I'll be right here. EXT. OFFICE BUILDING Rob stands under the overhang, watching Laura walk the long hallway from the elevators to the door. ROB (V.O.) Laura looks different. Less stress- out, more in control. Something has happened, maybe something real, or maybe something in her head. Whatever it is, you can see that she thinks she's started out on some new stage in her life. She hasn't. I'm not going to let her. She emerges from doors, says something to him and they start walking, sharing her umbrella. INT. OLDE TOWNE ALE HOUSE - NIGHT Rob and Laura have just sat down in a booth. LAURA So, how are you? ROB Have you slept with him yet? LAURA I told you I slept with him. ROB No, not -- I mean have you, you know -- LAURA Is that why you wanted to see me? ROB I guess. LAURA Oh, Rob. What do you want me to say? ROB I want you to say that you haven't, and I want it to be the truth. She looks past him. LAURA I can't do that. She starts to say something else but Rob is up and out. EXT. STREET - NIGHT Rob pushes through the rush hour raincoats, seeming to be the only one going his way. INT. ROB'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Rob is soaking, slumped in his chair, his headphones on and the stereo lit up behind him. He talks a little loud, due to the headphones. ROB Tonight we're gonna figure out the five best angry songs about women. Let's go... He holds up a stack of records and CDs. ROB You kind of have to start with Elvis Costello, but where? "Motel Matches?" "I Want You?" "I Hope You're Happy Now?" "Green Shirt?" His records should be sealed in cases that say "in case of vicious betrayal, smash glass." "Where Did You Sleep Last Night," sure, but by Robert Johnson or by Nirvana? Maybe a Liz Phair track. There are a couple to get angry at instead of being angry with. Some devil's advocate stuff. The Silver Jews could be good when you're ready to start putting it all behind you... But I think we're getting ahead of ourselves there. Ah. Dylan. Bob fucking Dylan. Now Bob Dylan would --The phone rings. He pulls off his headphones and picks it up but says nothing. LAURA (O.S.) You must have known it would happen. You couldn't have been entirely unprepared. Like you said, I've been living with the guy. We were bound to get around to it sometime. She laughs a bit nervously. LAURA (O.S.) (machine) And anyway, I keep trying to tell you, that's not really the point, is it? The point is we got ourselves into an awful mess, Rob... Are you there? What are you thinking? ROB (barely a whisper) Nothing. LAURA (O.S.) We can meet for another drink if you want. So I can explain it better. I owe you that much. ROB Look, I gotta go. I work too, you know. LAURA (O.S.) Will you call me? ROB I don't have your number. LAURA (O.S.) Call me at work. We can arrange to meet properly. I don't want this to be the last conversation we have. I know what you're like. ROB You do, huh. He hangs up and stares at the wall for awhile. He gets a beer from the fridge and sits back down. He picks up the phone and dials. ROB Yes, a residence, a Mr. Ian Raymond, North Side... thank you. He writes down a number and hangs up, then looks to camera. ROB You know the worst thing about being rejected? The complete lack of control due to loss of control. He picks up the phone and dials, while continuing to talk to us -- ROB If I could only control the when and how of being dumped by somebody then it wouldn't seem as bad. But then, of course -- He hangs up quickly -- ROB -- it wouldn't be rejection, would it? It would be mutual consent. It would be musical differences. I would be pursuing a solo career. CUT TO: EXT. IAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Rob is tucked into a phone booth across the street. He can see the silhouettes of Laura and Ian in the window. He picks up the phone, drops a quarter, and hits the numbers hard as he dials... a muffled male "hello?" is heard and Rob hangs up. He does it again. And again. And again. Until -- INT. IAN'S APARTMENT - INTERCUT Still an unpacked box or two, but it's set up: a framed "Woodstock - The Movie" poster, stacks of new fiction, a bread maker -- you get the idea. Ian is shorter than Laura, scruffier than Rob, and looks not unlike Leo Sayer/Steve Guttenberg. He stares at Laura with amused exasperation. She picks up the phone -- LAURA Hello. ROB It's me. LAURA I figured it was. (re: traffic noise) Where are you? ROB I think the big question here is where are you, if you don't mind my saying so, and I think I know where you are. You're running. On the run. You're running from a point that everyone hits in any relationship, and you're just going to hit it again with Ian but it's going to be with a World Music bunny- rabbit-looking earth-shoe-wearing "Doctor Who"-watching twit who doesn't really understand you, not the way that I do and will more in the future, and you'll have just wasted more time and arrive in the exact same place that you're in now, only later. And with... him. LAURA I'm not -- hold on... She walks into another room, shutting the door behind her. On a bookshelf is a picture of a younger Ian in a tunic, emoting on some college stage. She turns it face down. LAURA I'm not in love with Ian, okay? She wanders over to the window, looking out absently. She sees Rob down there at the phone booth. ROB Are you still in love with me? LAURA Jesus. I do not know. I'll talk to you later. ROB Think about what I said. I mean, if you want to experiment, or whatever -- LAURA (indignant) I'm not experimenting. Why don't you go experiment. ROB I don't want to. Don't need to. I love you. LAURA You don't ever think about other people? ROB No... not really... I mean, I think about it... but no, I don't really think about it. IAN (O.S.) (through the door) Laura? Are you okay? LAURA (covering the mouthpiece, to Ian) I am fine... (to Rob) I gotta go. Goodbye. She clicks the phone off. The door cracks and Ian sticks his head in. IAN Are you sure you're okay? She moves past him back into the apartment. LAURA Yeah, I'm fine. I'm off the phone. IAN You look upset. LAURA I'm upset, but I'm fine. IAN Maybe I should talk to him. LAURA Mmmm, no. Not a good idea. IAN Conflict resolution is my job, Laura. LAURA Nothing to resolve, Ian. Let's get a drink. She grabs her coat and opens the door. The phone begins to ring. LAURA (waving toward the door) C'mon, c'mon. EXT. IAN'S APARTMENT Rob stands on the sidewalk in the rain, Ian's building behind him and down a few doors. ROB I wish I could be one of those guys who doesn't call, the kind of guy that gets broken up with and appears not to give a shit. He doesn't make an ass out of himself, or frighten anybody, and this week I've done both of those things. One day Laura's sorry and guilty, and the next she's scared and angry, and I'm entirely responsible for the transformation, and it doesn't do my case any good at all. I'd stop if I could but I -- His head turns at the sharp SOUND of a door opening -- Ian and Laura are coming out of the building. He jumps behind a tree, peering around it as they fade down the street. INT. GREEN MILL - NIGHT Rob sits alone, nursing a scotch. Rob looks up into the mirror behind the bar and sees an older woman, MRS. ASHWORTH, sitting alone a few stools down. ROB Do I know you? ALISON'S MOM I don't know. Rob remembers, and his gaze has a new found seriousness. ROB You're Mrs. Ashworth. I'm Rob. An old boyfriend of you're daughter's. Alison's Mom's brow furrows and her face darkens. ROB Alison's. ALISON'S MOM Really. ROB Long time ago. I was just thinking about her. I was her first boyfriend. ALISON'S MOM What did you say your name was? ROB Rob. Rob Gordon. Circa junior high... ALISON'S MOM I hate to quibble with you Rob, but she married her first boyfriend. Kevin Bannister. ROB You gotta be kidding me. ALISON'S MOM That's right. Kevin. She's Mrs. Kevin Bannister. She lives in Australia. She doesn't seem too happy that Alison lives in Australia. Rob is thrilled. ROB Really? Married Kevin? Her junior high sweetheart... What chance would I have had against that? None, no chance. That's just fate. ALISON'S MOM I beg your pardon? ROB Technically, I'm number one. I went out with her a week before Kevin did. Her first boyfriend. Me. She stands. ALISON'S MOM Well Rob, I'll tell her you said hello. If she remembers you. Alison's Mom strolls out. ROB (calling after her) I think she will. But it's okay if she doesn't. I'm fine now. Rob turns to the bartender, smiling giddily. EXT. STREET - NIGHT Rob walks through Uptown toward the train. ROB And suddenly I am fine. For the moment there is not one extra pound on my chest. This is fate. Alison married Kevin. You get it? That's fate. That's got nothing to do with me, that is beyond my control, beyond my fault... CUT TO: ROB IN HIS CHAIR Rob into camera, digging through a box, fishing through pictures and letters, concert tickets and other mementos. He begins to assemble a small pile of pictures of women. ROB I want to see the others on the Big Top Five. Penny, who wouldn't let me touch her and then went and had sex with that bastard Chris Thompson. Sarah, my partner in rejection who rejected me, and Charlie, who I have to thank for everything: my great job, my sexual self-confidence, the works. There's this Springsteen song, "Bobby Jean," off Born in the USA. About a girl who's left town years before and he's pissed off because he didn't know about it, and he wanted to say goodbye, tell her that he missed her, and wish her good luck. Well, I'd like my life to be like a Springsteen song. Just once. I know I'm not born to run, and it's clear that Halsted Street is nothing like Thunder Road, but feelings can't be that different, can they? I'd like to call up all those people and ask them how they are and whether they've forgiven me, and tell them that I have forgiven them. And say good luck, goodbye. No hard feelings. And then they'd feel good and I'd feel good. We'd all feel good. I'd feel clean, and calm, and ready to start again. That'd be good. Great even. CUT BACK TO: INT. ROB'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Rob holds an old crumpled address book in one hand and the phone in the other. ROB Penny Hardwick? This is Rob Gordon... From High school... Yeah. EXT. MOVIE THEATER - NIGHT Rob and Penny walk out of the theater mid-conversation. They look happy as they walk down the street. ROB (V.O.) Penny is as beautiful as she was in high school when I broke it off with her because she wouldn't sleep with me. In fact she's even more beautiful, and really grown into herself. INT. RESTAURANT - NIGHT A mid-scale trattoria. Rob and Penny sit at table laughing and talking. If we didn't know better we might think there is chemistry. ROB (V.O.) She tells me about her life, and I get it. And I tell about mine, and she's interested. CLOSE-UP -- ROB TALKING ROB (V.O.) And then, with no real explanation, I just launch into it: I tell her about Laura and Ian, and Charlie and Marco, and about Alison Ashworth and Kevin Bannister... ROB ...and you wanted to sleep with Chris Thompson instead of me, and... and I thought you could help me understand why it keeps happening, why I'm doomed to be left, doomed to be rejected and... He slows to a stop. We see Penny as she goes from happy to livid. PENNY Rob. I was crazy about you. I wanted to sleep with you, one day, but not when I was sixteen. When you broke up with me -- when you broke up with me -- because I was, to use your charming expression, tight, I cried and cried and I hated you. And then that little shitbag asked me out, and I was too tired to fight him off, and it wasn't rape because I said okay, but it wasn't far off. And I didn't have sex with anyone else until after college because I hated it so much. And now you want to have a chat about rejection? Well, fuck you, Rob. Penny stands and leaves. Rob just sits. ROB (cheerful) So that's another one I don't have to worry about. I should have done this years ago. Rob indicates to an off-screen waiter. ROB Check... ROB IN HIS CHAIR Rob to camera. ROB Sarah's easy to find. She still sends me Christmas cards with her address and phone number on them. They never say anything else, except for "Merry Christmas, Love Sarah." I send her equally blank ones back. INT. APARTMENT BUILDING HALLWAY - NIGHT - ROB'S POV of a door opening, revealing Sarah, a few years older but still pretty in her mousey way. She looks at Rob with a bit too much in her eyes. INT. CARMEN'S PIZZA - NIGHT Rob and Sarah face each other over a half-eaten pizza. SARAH I can't believe I left you for him... Crazy. Sarah looks down at her plate, shaking her head, blushing. Rob looks uncomfortable. This is more than he was looking for. ROB Well... probably seemed like a good idea at the time. She looks up again... SARAH Probably. I can't remember why, though. ...and back down again. ROB (V.O.) I haven't got the heart for the rejection conversation. There are no hard feelings here, and I am glad that she ditched me, and not the other way around. INT./EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING HALLWAY - NIGHT Sarah, in the doorway, smiles painfully. It's clear she doesn't want to shut the door, but she does. Rob turns and walks down the hall toward the door to the street as he talks TO CAMERA. ROB I could've ended up having sex back there. And what better way to exorcize rejection demons than to screw the person who rejected you, right? But you wouldn't be sleeping with a person. You'd be sleeping with a whole sad single-person culture. It'd be like sleeping with Talia Shire in "Rocky" if you weren't Rocky. INT. ROB'S APARTMENT - NIGHT CLOSE-UP: PHONE BOOK as Rob's finger moves down the column, then stops. Rob looks up with a little shock, almost recoiling from the phone book. CUT TO: ROB IN HIS CHAIR Rob to camera. ROB Charlie's in the fucking phone book. She has come to assume such an importance, I feel she should be living on Mars. She's an extraterrestrial, a ghost, a myth, not a person with an answering machine, in the phone book... I call and hang up on her voice mail a couple of times, then I leave my name and number and throw in a "long time-no- see..." I don't hear anything back from her for a few days. Now that's more like it, if you're talking about rejection: someone who won't even return your phone messages a decade after she rejected you. INT. RECORD STORE - DAY Rob hears the door open as he stocks shelves, and turns. It's Ian. Rob reacts, gunfighter eyes. ROB Can I help you? IAN Hello, Rob. Remember me? I'm Ray. Ian. Rob says nothing. IAN I thought maybe we should talk. Sort a few things out? Rob is disoriented on the way to angry. Dick and Barry's ears perk up. ROB What needs sorting out? IAN Come on, Rob. My relationship with Laura has obviously disturbed you a great deal. ROB Funnily enough I haven't been too thrilled about it. IAN We are not talking jokey understatement here, Rob. We're talking actionable harassment. Ten phone calls a night, hanging around outside my house... ROB Yeah, well, I've stopped all that now. IAN We've noticed and we're glad. But, you know... how are we going to make peace here? We want to make things easier for you. What can we do? Obviously I know how special Laura is, and I know things can't be good for you at the moment. I'd hate it if I lost her. But I'd like to think that if she decided she didn't want to see me anymore, I'd respect that decision. Do you see what I'm saying? ROB Yeah. IAN Good. So shall we leave it at that then? ROB I dunno. IAN Think about it, Rob. CUT TO FANTASY #1: Rob looking sure of himself, righteous. IAN Good. So shall we leave it at that then? ROB I've already left it, you pathetic rebound fuck! Now get your patchouli stink out of my store. Ian leaves, rattled. CUT TO FANTASY #2: Same thing. IAN Good. So shall we leave it at that then? ROB We won't leave it, Ian. Not ever. Rob springs toward Ian, but Barry blocks his way. Dick helps hold Rob back. DICK Don't do it, Rob! BARRY He's not worth it! Rob reaches a pointed finger over Barry's shoulder. ROB Leave town. Leave the country, you little bitch, because you're gonna look back on walks by the house and ten phone calls a night as a golden age. Get ready, mutherfucker. Ian trips backward and scurries out the door. CUT TO FANTASY #3: Rob, Dick, and Barry just beating the living shit out of Ian, Rodney King style. Ian lies on the floor trying to cover himself. Dick, already out of breath, breaks from the pack and jerks the air conditioner from the wall and hefts it over his head, preparing for the death blow. CUT BACK TO REALITY IAN So shall we leave it at that then? ROB I dunno. IAN Think about it, Rob. Ian walks out. Rob looks spent. He shuffles toward the back of the store. INT. RECORD STORE - BACK ROOM - DAY Rob is laying on his back, staring at the ceiling. Dick sticks his head in the door. DICK Phone, Rob. Somebody named Charlie. Rob pulls the phone into the bathroom and shuts the door. BATHROOM Rob curls up with the phone. ROB Hello? INT. CHARLIE'S HOUSE - INTERCUT Charlie looks even better than when we saw her in college. CHARLIE Rob, hi, so sorry I missed your call. In LA on business. You know how it gets. ROB Yeah, sure... CHARLIE Good. Great. Yeah... Wow. Rob Gordon. Seems like a 100 million years ago now. ROB Yeah. A billion. Right... How are you? CHARLIE Fantastic but I'm a little busy right now. Listen. Do you want to come to dinner Saturday? I'm having some friends over and I need a spare man. Are you a spare man? ROB Uh...yes, at the moment. CHARLIE Great. Gotta go. See you then. INT. CHARLIE'S DINING ROOM SERIES OF SHOTS OVER THE COURSE OF DINNER Sexy version of a hip wine commercial: a small mid-thirties crowd of successful, beautiful people. Rob sits at the table silently as the other guests talk and eat. Rob's central activities are working his way through maybe a few too many wines making sure his cigarette smoke doesn't get in anyone's face. His eyes occasionally dart around the table, but he says nothing to anyone. CUT TO: INT. CHARLIE'S LIVING ROOM - LATER Rob is a little too settled into the couch, somewhat bleary. Everyone gone but the two of them, Charlie plops down into a chair across from Rob. ROB Hey Charlie. CHARLIE Hey Rob. ROB Why did you break up with me for Marco? CHARLIE (on her feet) Fuck! I knew it! You're going through one of those what-does-it- all-mean things. ROB Huh? CHARLIE There's been a rash of them, recently. I find it a little unnerving. In fact Marco called a few months back, and he wanted to see me, and rehash the past as they say, and I wasn't really up for it. Do all men go through this? ROB C'mon, just answer the question. You can say what you like. What the hell? Charlie looks off at a corner of the ceiling, musters a look of "contemplation." CHARLIE It's all kind of lost in the... in the dense mists of time now... It wasn't that I really liked Marco more. In fact I thought you were more, shall we say, attractive than him. It was just that he knew he was good-looking and you didn't, and that made a difference somehow. You used to act as if I was weird for wanting to spend time with you, and that got kind of beat, if you know what I mean. Your self-image started to rub off on me and I ended up thinking that I was strange. And I knew that you were kind and thoughtful... you made me laugh, and I dug the way you got consumed by things you loved... and Marco seemed a bit more, I don't know, glamorous? More sure of himself? (pause) Less hard work, because I felt like I was dragging you around, sort of. (pause) A little sunnier. Sparkier. (pause) I don't know. You know what people are like at that age. They make very superficial judgements. Do you think that's superficial? He was a clown, if it's any consolation. ROB Did you tell that to Marco when he did his what-does-it-all-mean thing with you? CHARLIE Oh God, no. I didn't want to hurt his feelings. CUT TO: ROB IN HIS CHAIR Rob to camera. ROB I wanted the works and I got it. None of Alison Ashworth's fate, none of Sarah's rewriting of history, and no reminder that I'd got all the rejection stuff a little backward, like I did about Penny. Just a perfectly clear explanation of why some people have it and some don't. All I've learned from Charlie is that maybe my one talent, my genius for being normal, is a little overrated. CUT TO: INT. RECORD STORE - DAY Rob enters the already open store, in a bad mood, to find Barry putting up a poster. It reads: "BARRYTOWN/appearing Saturday night/Bucktown Pub" BARRY Hey. ROB What the fuck is that? BARRY My band. ROB What band? BARRY The band that found me and asked me to join. ROB You are not in a band, Barry. You are not a musician. And no posters. BARRY Thanks for your support, Rob. Really appreciate it. ROB Barrytown. Barrytown? Is there no end to your arrogance? BARRY I didn't make up the name. It's the Steely Dan song. And it was in The Commitments. ROB You can't be called Barry and sing in a group called Barrytown. BARRY They were fucking called that before I was in it, okay? It wasn't my idea. ROB That's why you got the gig, isn't it? Barry says nothing. ROB Isn't it? BARRY That was one of the reasons they asked me to join originally, yes. But -- ROB Great! That's fucking great! They only asked you to sing because of your name! You can stick it above the browser racks over there. BARRY How many tickets can I put you down for? ROB None. Christ! BARRY You're not even coming? ROB Of course I'm not coming. Do I look like I'd want to listen to some terrible experimental racket played in some hideous cave? Where is it? (looks at the poster) The fucking Bucktown Pub? Ha! BARRY So much for friends, then. You're a bitter bastard, Rob, you know that? ROB Bitter? Because I'm not in Barrytown? You should be shot like a lame horse, you jerk. (re: the poster) Just keep that out of my window. INT. ROB'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Rob opens the door to find Laura filling a duffel bag in the living room. LAURA I called and called but you were out. I thought I'd be gone before you got back. ROB Is that the last of it? LAURA Yep. I might have missed some stuff. I'm so used to some things being here that I don't even notice them. ROB Those look heavy. Where's Ian? LAURA He's at home. Listen, I can't believe he went to the store. I'm mortified, actually. I'm really sorry. He had no right to do that, and I told him so. ROB It was kind of funny. They smile. LAURA I'm sure. ROB You still together? Going all right? LAURA I don't really want to talk about it, to be honest. ROB That bad, eh? LAURA You know what I mean. Rob flops onto the couch and surveys the room. ROB It's a dump, isn't it? Laura sits down, on the other side of the couch. LAURA Fix it up. It'll make you feel better. ROB I'll bet you can't remember what you were doing here, can you? I mean, how much are you making now? Sixty? Seventy? And you were living in this shitty place. LAURA You know I didn't mind. And it's not as if Ray's place is any better. ROB I'm sorry, but can we get this straight? What is his fucking name, Ian or Ray? What do you call him? LAURA Ray. I hate Ian. ROB I hate him too. So I just call him "Mavis." Or "Sissyboy." Or "Mavis the Sissyboy." Laura starts laughing, laying on the couch on her back, very close to Rob. Rob leans in, sort of looking down into her eyes. ROB This is where you're supposed to say that you haven't laughed this much in ages, and then you see the error of your ways. LAURA You make me laugh much more than Ray does, if that's what you're getting at. But I already knew you could make me laugh. It's everything else I don't know about. ROB You know I'm a good person. LAURA Mmm hmm. ROB You know that I can cook my ass off when I feel like it. LAURA Oh ho, so very infrequently. He moves a little closer. ROB You know my favorite beverage is your bath water. She laughs. He moves in, not really trying to kiss her but leaving the door open for her... She almost goes for it, but instead gets to her feet. LAURA Time to go. She goes to her bags. Rob points to a pile of CDs. ROB Don't forget your CDs. LAURA Those aren't mine. ROB Sure they are. LAURA They're not really, though, are they? I know you bought them for me, and that was really sweet of you, but that was when you were trying to turn me into you. I can't take them, I know they'd just sit around staring at me, and I'd feel embarrassed by them and... they don't fit in with the rest of what's mine, do you understand? That Sting record you bought for me... that was a present for me. I like Sting and you hate him. But the rest of this stuff... (bending down to the pile) Who the hell is Nick Lowe? Or Gram Parsons? Or the Boredoms? I don't know these people. I... ROB Okay, okay. I get the picture. LAURA I'm sorry to go on about it. But, I don't know, there's a lesson here somewhere, and I want to make sure you get it. ROB I got it. You like Sting but you don't like Gram Parsons, because you've never heard of him. LAURA You're being deliberately obtuse. ROB I guess I am. LAURA Well, think about it. She hefts the duffel bag, opens the door and exits. ROB Fuck. CUT TO: ROB IN HIS CHAIR Rob to the camera. ROB What's the point in thinking about it? If I ever have another relationship, I'll buy her, whoever she is, stuff that she oughta like but doesn't know about -- that's what new boyfriends are for. And hopefully I won't borrow money from her, or have an affair, and she won't need to have an abortion or run away with the neighborhood, and then there won't be anything to think about. Laura didn't run off with Ian because I bought her CDs she wasn't that keen on, and to pretend otherwise is just... just... psychowank. If she thinks that, then she's missing the Brazilian rainforest for the twigs. If I can't buy the Plastic People of the Universe's first album for new girlfriends, then I might as well give up, because I'm not sure I know how to do anything else. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Rob walks toward the record store, and looks into a Starbuck's window he passes. He stops for a second, seeing Ian at the counter, chatting merrily with the espresso jockey. Rob keeps walking. INT. RECORD STORE - BACK ROOM - DAY Rob tosses his coat down and picks up the phone and dials... LAURA (O.S.) (muffled, almost a whisper) Hello. ROB Hey, how ya doin'? No answer. ROB Guess who I just saw, right by my store? Ian. In Starbuck's. Neat, huh? LAURA (O.S.) I can't talk right now. ROB God, that's a cold and a half. Maybe you should bet back in bed. No response. ROB Are you alright? LAURA (O.S.) Pigsty. ROB Don't worry about it. Just get into bed. Worry about that when you're better. LAURA (O.S.) Pig died. ROB Who the fuck's Pig? LAURA (O.S.) (louder) My dad died. My dad, my dad. She hangs up. FRONT ROOM Rob comes out of the back, in a daze. Dick and Barry notice. BARRY What's up? ROB Laura. Her dad died. BARRY Ooh. Drag. Barry goes back to his comic book and burrito. DICK I'm sorry, Rob, that's, it's -- ROB You're a horrible person, Barry. I mean it. Barry looks up at him, shrugs, then gets an idea. BARRY Hey. Top five songs about death. A Laura's Dad Tribute list. Nobody can help thinking about it. BARRY Okay, okay -- "Leader of the Pack." The guy fucking cracks up on a cycle and dies right? "Dead Man's Curve," Jan and Dean... DICK Did you know that after that song was recorded, Jan himself crashed his -- BARRY -- It was Dean, you fucking idiot. ROB It was Jan, and it was a long time after-- BARRY Whatever. Okay. "Tell Laura I Love Her." That'd bring the house down. Laura's mom could sing it. ROB Fuck off, Barry. BARRY I'd want "One Step Beyond" by Madness. And "You Can't Always Get What You Want." ROB Because it's in The Big Chill. BARRY Haven't seen it. ROB Liar. We saw it in the Lawrence Kasdan double-bill with Body Heat. BARRY Oh. Right. But I'd forgotten about that. I wasn't biting the idea. ROB Not really. The phone RINGS. Rob picks it up. ROB Record Exchange. INTERCUT - IAN'S APARTMENT Laura is curled up on the couch. Dick and Barry keep listing. LAURA I'm sorry. ROB No, no. When are you going home? LAURA In a minute. When I get it together. BARRY (to Dick) What about Sabbath? Or Nirvana? They're into death. Rob tries to signal to them to shut up but they don't see him. He moves as far away as the cord will let me. ROB Can I do anything? DICK "Abraham, Martin, and John." That's a nice one. BARRY "Somebody's Gonna Die" by Blitz. "Bella Lugosi's Dead," Bauhaus. It's got that creepy Halloween feeling. LAURA No. No. Mom wants you to come to the funeral. It's on Friday. ROB Me? LAURA My dad liked you. And Mom never told him we'd split, because he wasn't up to it and... oh, I don't know. I don't really understand it. I think she thinks he'll be able to see what's going on. It's like... (small laugh) He's been through so much, what with dying and everything, that she doesn't want to upset him any more than she has to. ROB Do you want me to be there? LAURA I don't care. As long as you don't expect me to hold your hand. Rob is silent. LAURA Look, are you coming or not? ROB Yes, of course. LAURA Liz'll give you a lift. She knows where to go and everything... I don't have time to talk, Rob. I've got too much to do. ROB Sure. I'll see you on Friday. She hangs up. BARRY (to the tune of "Candle In the Wind") "Goodbye Laura's dad/blah blah la di da di da/ (belting it out) Seems to me/you lived your life/like a dentist in the wind... Rob stomps toward Barry, who jumps over the counter to keep singing -- INT. LIZ'S CAR - DAY THUNDERCLAPS and RAIN. Rob is in a somber suit, looking through the windshield wipers as Liz drives. ROB So the minister says nice things, and then, what, we all troop outside and they bury him? LIZ It's a crematorium. ROB You're kidding. A crematorium? Jesus. LIZ What difference does it make? ROB Is Ray going? LIZ No. They don't know him. And Ken liked you. Rob, Ken didn't die for your benefit, you know. It's like everybody's a supporting actor in the film of your life story. ROB Isn't that how it is for everybody? INT. CHAPEL TWO Liz and Rob sit in the back of the dark, smallish nondenominational room. At the front is a coffin, resting on a stand. Laura, her younger sister JO, and her mother sit in the front row, listening to the MINISTER. MINISTER ...Now and forever, Amen. He nods "offstage," and a muffled mechanical noise is heard. The coffin begins to lower through a trap door beneath it. A low, baleful human HOWL is heard, starting quietly but gaining in volume. ROB (V.O.) I hear something in Laura's voice, but I know what it is, and at that moment I want to go to her and offer to become a different person, to remove all trace of what is me, as long as she will let me look after her and try to make her feel better... INT. CHAPEL PARLOR Rob stays back, watching mourners approach Laura and her mother, hugging them. After awhile, Laura sees Rob through the throng, hanging back. She breaks through and to him, holding him close for a long time... ROB (V.O.) ...And when she let's go of me, I feel I don't need to become a different person. It's happened already. INT. LAURA'S PARENTS' HOUSE - AFTERNOON A cozy old Victorian house, full of things -- furniture, paintings, ornaments, plants -- which don't go together but which have obviously been chosen with care and taste. Rob and Liz stand, drinking wine. Jo approaches them. LIZ (to Jo) How are you? JO I'm all right, I suppose. And Mom's not too bad. But Laura... I dunno. LIZ She's had a pretty rough few weeks already, without this. It's hard when you're putting all of your efforts into one part of your life and it doesn't work out. She glances at Rob, embarrassed. ROB (sincere) Don't mind me. No problem. Just pretend you're talking about somebody else. Jo smiles, Liz gives him a look. LIZ We are talking about somebody else. Laura. Laura and Ray, actually. Rob begins to turn red. Anger, sorrow, everything else building. ROB Enough, Liz. LIZ Enough of what? ROB (getting louder) I know I can't speak now because Laura's father died, and I just have to take it because otherwise I'm a bad guy, with the emphasis on guy, self-centered. Well, I'm fucking not, not all the time, anyway, I'm really sorry Jo. (lowering his voice) But you know, Liz... I can either stick up for myself or believe everything you say about me and end up hating myself. And maybe you think I should, but it's not much of a life, you know? LIZ Maybe I've been a little unfair. But is this really the time? ROB Only because it's never the time. I can't go on apologizing my whole life, you know? LIZ If by "we" you are referring to men, then I have to say that just the once would do. Rob looks around the room, beginning to hyperventilate and near tears. He sees Laura in a corner of the room surrounded by four or five mourners. He crosses to them and breaks through to her. ROB I'm sorry. He breaks away from her and slips out the front door. EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - AFTERNOON So darkened by weather that it is almost night, raining torrents and big sheets. Rob emerges from the front door of Laura's parents' house and begins walking down the street, hands thrust into his pockets. The rain almost immediately soaks him. EXT. ANOTHER STREET In the distance, Rob runs toward us. As he gets to us we move with him down the street. He is drenched. We hear the rain, and his ragged breath. Headlights appear behind him and backlight him, getting brighter as the sound of an engine gets louder. Rob takes a look over his shoulder, looks desperately left and right, and vaults himself over a small brick wall and into a flower bed, landing on his back in the black wet earth. The big drops of rain splash mud on his face, and he burrows deeper into the dirt and flowers with his back, panting and staring up at the sky. Off-camera the car engine catches up, and a door opens and shuts. He sighs and shuts his eyes... He opens his eyes again, to see Laura's face, wet as well, staring down at him. It is difficult to distinguish rain from tears. LAURA Are you going to lie in that flower bed all night? ROB Uh... No. But Rob keeps lying there. Laura pulls herself to a sitting position on the wall just above him. LAURA You're soaking. ROB Mmnn. LAURA You're also an idiot. Rob pulls his muddy self to his feet and sits on the wall next to her. ROB I can see why you say that. Look, I'm sorry. I really am. The last thing I wanted was... that's why I left, because... I lost it, and I didn't want to blow my top in there, and... look, the reason I fucked everything up was because I was scared. I just wanted you to know, that's all. LAURA Thank you. I appreciate it. I can't reciprocate. ROB What do you mean? LAURA I didn't mess things up because I was scared. I slept with Ray because I was sick of you. And I needed something to snap me out of it. ROB Sure, I understand. Look, I don't want to take up any more of your time. You get back, and I'll wait here for a bus. LAURA I don't want to go back. ROB What do you want to do? LAURA C'mon. They swing their legs over the wall and walk to Laura's VW. INT. LAURA'S CAR - NIGHT They drive sort of aimlessly through Laura's old neighborhood. Laura sees something on her left, and makes a sudden turn up a narrow road through some overgrown trees. They come to a stop in a formerly paved clearing, looking out on a field with an old abandoned school on the other side. Laura shuts down the engine. ROB When are you going back? LAURA I don't know. Sometime. Later. Listen, Rob, would you have sex with me? ROB What? LAURA I want to feel something else than this. It's either that or I go home and put my hand in the fire. Unless you want to stub cigarettes out on my arm. ROB I've only got a couple left. I'm saving them for later. LAURA It'll have to be sex, then. She pulls herself over him, staddling him in the passenger seat and kissing his neck. She pauses and regards him from above. LAURA Hello. It doesn't seem so long ago that I looked at you from here. ROB Hi. LAURA I knew there was a reason I wore a skirt today. Laura reaches down and unzips his pants, as they keep kissing. ROB You know, with Ray... LAURA Oh, Rob, we're not going to go through that again. ROB No, no. It's not... are you still on the pill? LAURA Yes, of course. There's nothing to worry about. ROB I didn't mean that. I mean... was that all you used? Laura looks at him, motionless, then begins to cry. ROB Look, we can do other things. LAURA I lived with you. You were my partner just a few weeks ago and now you're worried I might kill you, and you're entitled to worry. Isn't that a terrible thing? Isn't that sad? She rolls off of him into her seat. They sit there in silence, watching the rain run down the windshield. CUT TO: ROB IN HIS CHAIR Rob to camera. ROB Later, I wonder if I was really worried about where Ian has been. I have no idea where he's been, and that gives me every right to insist on protection. But in truth, it was the power that interested me more than the fear. I wanted to hurt her, on this day of all days, just because it's the first time since she's left that I've been able to. INT. BAR - LATER Rob and Laura lean back in a booth, facing each other. We get that feeling that not another word has been spoken since we last saw them. ROB Laura... LAURA I'm too tired not to go out with you. Rob leans forward. ROB So if you had a bit more energy we'd stay split. But things being how they are, what with you wiped out, you'd like us to get back together. LAURA (nodding) Everything's too hard. Maybe another time I would have the guts to be on my own, but not now I don't. ROB What about Ian? LAURA Ray's a disaster. I don't know what that was all about, except that sometimes you need someone to lob into the middle of a bad relationship like a hand grenade, I guess, and blow it all apart. ROB Mission accomplished. LAURA I know it's not very romantic, but there will be romance again at some stage, I'm sure. I just... I need you, Rob. That's it. And we know each other and we care for each other, and you've made it clear that you want me back, so... She looks up at him. LAURA Let's go home. Okay? ROB Okay. CUT TO: ROB IN HIS CHAIR Rob to camera. ROB But wouldn't you know it? Suddenly I feel panicky, and sick, and I want to run around and sleep with female recording artists... CUT TO: INT. ROB AND LAURA'S APARTMENT - MORNING Post-lovemaking. Rob and Laura lie on their backs. ROB C'mon. I want to know. LAURA Want to know what, exactly? ROB What it was like. LAURA It was like sex. What else could it be like? ROB Was it like good sex or was it like bad sex? LAURA What's the difference? ROB You know the difference. LAURA Look, we're okay now. We just had a nice time. Let's leave it at that. ROB Okay, that's cool, okay. But the nice time we just had... was it nicer, as nice, or less nice than the nice times you were having a couple of weeks ago? Laura is silent. ROB Oh, c'mon, Laura. Just say something. Lie, if you want. It'd stop me asking you questions and it'd make me feel better. LAURA Well I was gonna lie and now I can't, because you'd know I was lying. ROB Well why the fuck would you want to lie, anyway? LAURA To make you feel better. ROB Oh, great... Rob begins to get out of bed. She grabs his hand and pulls him back down. LAURA Look, Rob. If great sex was as important as you think it is, and if I was having great sex with him, then we wouldn't be lying here now. And that is my last word on the subject, okay? ROB Okay. She pulls him close and they lie there, the matter seemingly settled. LAURA I wish your penis was as big as his, though. He turns slowly to her. A giggle from her turns into a laugh, then a howl, a roar -- EXT. LAKEFRONT - TWILIGHT Rob and Laura walk the cement breakfront. LAURA ... Like Mexico. Or Jamaica. Or New York, even. ROB Hey, great idea. What I'll do is, tomorrow I'll get a hold of a box full of mint Elvis Presley 78s on the Sub label, and I'll pay for it that way. LAURA I'll pay for you. Even though you owe me money. We have to do something with the money I earn. I need to. I deserve it. You can just think of it as winning the lottery. ROB Fantastic. The Girlfriend Lottery. LAURA Money does not matter. I do not care how much you earn. I'd just like you to be a little happier in your work, but beyond that you can do what you like. ROB But it wasn't supposed to be like this. When I met you we were the same people and now we're not, and... LAURA How? How were we the same people? ROB Well, you were the kind of person who came to the Artful Dodger and I was the kind of person who deejayed at the Artful Dodger. You wore jeans and T-shirts, and so did I. And I still do, and you don't. LAURA Because I'm not allowed to. I still do, after work. So, what? Should we just break up? Is that what you're saying? Because if you are, I'm going to run out of patience. ROB No, but... LAURA But what? ROB But why doesn't it matter that we're not the same people we used to be? LAURA You haven't changed so much as a pair of socks in the years I've known you. If we've grown apart, then I'm the one who's done the growing, and all I've done is change jobs. ROB And hairstyles and clothes and attitude and friends and... LAURA I can't go to work with my hair dyed pink. And I can afford to go shopping more now, and I've met a couple people I like over the last year or so. ROB You're tougher. LAURA More confident, maybe. ROB Harder. LAURA Less neurotic. Are you intending to stay the same for the rest of your life? ROB I'm alright. LAURA Yeah, you're alright. But you're certainly not happy. So what happens if you get happy? And yes I know that's the title of an Elvis Costello album, I use the reference deliberately to catch your attention. Should we split up because I'm used to you being miserable? What happens if you, I don't know, start you're own record label, and it's a success? Time for a new girlfriend? ROB You're being stupid. LAURA How? What would be the difference between you having a record label and me going from legal aid to private practice? Rob is silent. LAURA All I'm saying is, you have to allow for things to happen to people, most of all to yourself. Otherwise, what's the use? ROB No use. INT./EXT. RECORD STORE - DAY Rob comes out of the stock room and walks toward the counter where Dick and Barry stare at the tape deck like two concerned doctors, listening to a song that is raw and moody and lyrical -- Minor Threat meets Brian Eno, if that's possible. Rob joins them in contemplation. ROB What is this. DICK It's Vince and Justin. ROB Who's that? BARRY The little skate-fuckers. ROB No way. BARRY Yes way. It's really... Rob and Dick look at him, ready to pounce -- BARRY (pained to say it) It's really fucking good. Dick and Barry look to Rob, who continues to just listen... He takes a deep breath and walks to the front door and out, seemingly with a mission. Vince and Justin are doing noisy skate tricks against the curb across the street. When they see Rob they stop, get ready to flee. He walks across to them. Dick comes out and hovers in the background. ROB Your tape. It's good. They mumble thanks. ROB It's rough. But it shows promise. We record a couple of songs right, in a studio. I'll take care of the rest. I'll put out your record. Any profits after recouping expenses get split down the middle, between us and you guys. VINCE Wait a minute. Island Records charged U2 a million five against their overhead for one plane ride. ROB We're not there yet, Justin. VINCE I'm Vince. ROB Whatever. He begins to move toward the store. Vince and Justin look at each other. Rob gets to the door but stops and turns. ROB Hey. What's the name of your band? JUSTIN The Kinky Wizards. ROB What? VINCE We saw this ad in the personals for two swingers lookin' for a Renaissance fair. ROB Nice. VINCE What's the name of your label? Rob looks at them. Then at Dick. Then through the window at Barry, inside looking out. Then at his own reflection in the window. Then back at them. ROB Broken Records. Welcome aboard. Rob walks back inside. He seems to be shaking a little. BARRY What the fuck is that? ROB What? BARRY I heard you, man. Don't give me that "what" shit. You just told them that you're gonna put out a record with them. ROB So? You even said they're good. BARRY HELLO. DO YOU SEE ANYONE ELSE around here with a band, Mr. Branson? Mr. Phil Spector? Rob waves him off and disappears into the stock room. Laura enters. LAURA Hey, Barry. BARRY Oh, hi. LAURA Where's Rob? BARRY The Malcolm McClaren of Clark Street is in his executive suite. Do you have an appointment? LAURA What are you talking about? BARRY Just that Rob seems to think it would be wiser to start a record label by putting out a record with business- crippling Nazi Youth shoplifters than with someone he knows in his bitter jealous heart is a musical visionary. That's all. Laura puts it together, and smiles. She goes to the back and crack the door, finding Rob sitting on a box, thinking. ROB Hi. LAURA Hi. What are you doing? ROB Nothing. LAURA Wanna go to dinner? ROB Where? LAURA At Paul and Miranda's. Paul from work. ROB Oh. Well. We don't really get along. Paul and I. LAURA I know. But you've never met. It just seems like a stone unturned in your relationship with him. ROB Ha. CUT TO: ROB IN HIS CHAIR Rob to camera. ROB We're at a point where I can't really walk away from gauntlets she might throw down, and so I go. And wouldn't you know it, I sort of fall in love with Paul and Miranda -- with what they have, and the way they treat each other, and the way they make me feel as if I'm the new center of their world. I think they're great, and I want to see them twice a week, every week, for the rest of my life. Only right at the end of the evening do I realize I've been set up. INT. PAUL AND MIRANDA'S LIVING ROOM - LATER After dinner. Rob ambles in from the dining room. Laura close behind. He looks through the bookshelves until he finds a meager little grouping of CDs. He moves up to them and scans the titles: Tina Turner. Billy Joel. Kate Bush. Pink Floyd. Simply Red. The Beatles. The Windham Hill Sampler... PAUL Lame, right? Rob turns around to see PAUL behind him. ROB Oh, I don't know. The Beatles are okay. Paul laughs. PAUL We're kinda out of date. ROB Hey, to each his own, I say. PAUL Maybe we can come by your store and you can hook us up. ROB Sure, sure. Any time. LAURA Better hurry, though, Paul. Rob started a record label, so he's gonna be in the shop less and less. Rob looks at her. CUT TO: INT. ROB AND LAURA'S APARTMENT - NIGHT as they come in the door. LAURA ..."To each his own!" Unbelievable! You! Rob Gordon said that. You even sounded like you meant it. They throw their jackets over a chair. Rob turns on the CD player and "Call Me A Liar" by Palace begins to play. ROB (smiling) You did that deliberately. You knew all along I'd like them. It was a trick. LAURA I tricked you into meeting some people you'd think were great. I thought it would be fun to introduce you to someone with a Tina Turner album and then see whether you still felt the same way. She moves to Rob and wraps her arms around him. They look deeply at each other. She breaks away from him and walks into the bedroom. He turns off the stereo and follows her. EXT. CLARK STREET - MORNING Rob walks to work, drinking his coffee. He stops and backs up a few feet, and stares at a poster on a plywood board-up. "'I SOLD MY MOM'S WHEELCHAIR'/the debut single from The Kinky Wizards/on Broken Records/Record release party July 20 at The Artful Dodger/Featuring the triumphant return of DJ ROB GORDON/"Dance Music For Old People" Rob scowls, and storms off. INT. ROB AND LAURA'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Rob paces, Laura sits on the couch, smiling. LAURA I called Dan Koretzky because he -- ROB Has Drag City Records, I know, I know. You told Dan Koretzky about this? LAURA Yeah, and he said it's a good way to break out a record. Especially for what he said, and I quote, "would be a highly anticipated event, locally." He helped me put out a press release. ROB WHAT? LAURA Just local, of course. ROB And the "triumphant return of DJ Rob Gordon?" "Triumphant?" "Return?" LAURA I had that idea when I was living with Ian and it was such a good idea that I was annoyed we weren't together anymore. It might even be why I came back. ROB You had no right. Supposing I was doing something that couldn't be cancelled? LAURA What do you ever do that can't be cancelled? ROB That's not the point. I mean, what if the single isn't done in time? LAURA Barry said its done. ROB Barry? Barry knows about this? LAURA Yeah. His band is playing a set. Rob wheels on her. INT. RECORD STORE - DAY Rob and Barry. ROB Like fuck you are. BARRY Laura said we could. If we helped out with the posters and stuff. And we did. And we are. ROB I'll give you 10% of the door if you don't play. BARRY We're getting that anyway. ROB What is she doing? Okay, 20%. BARRY No. We need the gig. ROB 110%. That's my final offer. I'm not kidding. That's how much it means to me not to hear you play. BARRY We're not as bad as you think, Rob. ROB You couldn't be. Look, Barry. There's going to be people from Laura's work there, people who own dogs and babies and Tina Turner albums. How are you going to cope with them? BARRY We're not called Barrytown anymore, by the by. They got sick of the Barry/Barrytown thing. We're called SDM. Sonic Death Monkey. ROB Sonic Death Monkey. BARRY What do you think? Dick likes it. ROB Barry, you're over thirty years old. You owe it to yourself and your friends and to your parents not to sing in a group called Sonic Death Monkey. BARRY I owe it to myself to go right to the edge, Rob, and this group does exactly that. Over the edge, in fact. ROB You'll be going over the fucking edge if you come anywhere near me next Friday night. BARRY That's what we want. Reaction. And if Laura's bourgeois lawyer friends can't take it, then fuck 'em. Let 'em riot, we can handle it. We'll be ready. Barry wanders off laughing. CUT TO: INT. ROB AND LAURA'S APARTMENT - DAY Rob and Laura. LAURA They'll go on early. Nobody will even be there yet and I told them they can't play for more than a half hour. ROB It's no joke. I'm responsible for what happens, you know. Embarrassment aside, there's a lot of money and effort in this, at least by my standards. I have to put down a deposit for the room. I have to pay the pressing plant for the records, sleeve them, sticker them -- LAURA We took care of that. Rob's brow furrows. LAURA Barry and Dick and me. Look in the bedroom. Rob goes to the bedroom door and opens it. It's sort of like Christmas: hundreds of Kinky Wizards CD singles, painstakingly packaged and stacked on the bed. CUT TO: ROB IN HIS CHAIR Rob to camera. ROB I suddenly feel choked up. It's not the money, it's the way she's thought of everything: one morning I woke up to find her going through my records, pulling out things that she remembered me playing when I deejayed and putting them into the little carrying cases that I used to use and put away in a closet somewhere years ago. She knew I needed a kick in the ass. She also knew how happy I was when I used to deejay. From which every angle I examine it, it still looks as though she's done all of this because she loves me. CUT BACK TO: INT. ROB AND LAURA'S APARTMENT Rob turns from the bedroom and goes to Laura, putting his arms around her. ROB I'm sorry I've been acting like a jerk. I do appreciate what you've done for me, and I know you've done it for the best possible reasons, and I do love you, even though I act like I don't. LAURA That's okay. You seem pissed off all the time, though. ROB I know. I don't get it. CUT TO: ROB IN HIS CHAIR Rob to camera. ROB But if I had to take a wild guess, I'd say that I'm pissed because I know I'm stuck with Laura, bound to her, and I don't like it. That dreamy anticipation you have when you're fifteen or twenty or thirty even, that the most perfect person in the world might walk into your store or office or friend's party at any moment... That's all gone, I think, and that's enough to piss anybody off. Laura is who I am now, and it's no good pretending otherwise... CUT TO: INT. RECORD STORE - DAY Rob is standing shelves. A very pretty young woman, CAROLINE, comes through the door and looks around. She sees Rob. CAROLINE Excuse me? Rob looks up and takes her in like a dish in a window. ROB May I help you? CAROLINE I'm looking for Deejay Rob Gordon. ROB Uh. That's me. CAROLINE I'm Caroline Fortis from The Reader. I want to do a story on you. ROB Right. Why? CAROLINE Well, I used to go to the Dodger on your nights, and I saw you're doing it again and that your putting out a record, and it's sort of a then-and- now story against the backdrop of the Chicago music scene with the emphasis on now. ROB Oh. Okay. CAROLINE I thought I would ask you a few questions if that's okay. ROB Huh. You used to come to the club? I shouldn't have let you in. You must have only been about sixteen. Rob realizes what he must be sounding like. He blushes and retreats. ROB What I mean is, I didn't mean you look young. You don't. You don't look old either. You look just as old as you are. A bit younger maybe, but not a lot. Not much. Just right. CAROLINE So. Is now a good time? Rob looks around: there is absolutely nothing going on in the store. He nods. She pulls out a pad and pencil. CAROLINE Right. So. You must have an enormous record collection. ROB Yeah. I could show it to you if you want to come over and see it. He winces immediately. CAROLINE Yeah, well... Let's see... What are you're all-time top five records? ROB Pardon me? CAROLINE Your desert island top-five. ROB Oh boy... In the club, or at home? CAROLINE Is there a difference? ROB (a little too shrill) OF COURSE... Well yeah, a bit. "Sin City" by the Flying Burrito Brothers is an all-time top five, but I wouldn't play it at the club. It's a country-rock ballad. Everybody'd go home. CAROLINE Nevermind. Any five. So four more. ROB What do you mean, four more? CAROLINE Well if one of them is this "Sin City" thing -- ROB Can I go home and work this out and let you know? In a week or so? CAROLINE Look if you can't think of anything, it doesn't matter. I'll do one. My five favorite from the old days at the Dodger. Rob is aghast, humiliated, quietly outraged. ROB Oh, I'm sure I can manage something... "Sin City." "New Rose," by The Damned. "Hit It and Quit It" by Funkadelic. "Shipbuilding," Elvis Costello, Japanese import, no horns, or different horns, anyway... um... "Mystery Train" by Elvis Presley... And... "Spaced Cowboy" by Sly and the Family Stone. A bit controversial, I know, but... CAROLINE Fine. That's great. ROB Is that it? CAROLINE Well, I wouldn't mind a quick chat, if you got the time. ROB Sure, but is that it for the list? CAROLINE That's five. So. Why did you decide to deejay again? ROB Well it was a friend's idea, really, and the record release party seemed like a good place to do it. So... (looking over her pad at the list) I should really put a James Brown in there -- CAROLINE Nice friend. ROB Yeah. CAROLINE What's his name? ROB Who? Oh. My friend. My friend is Laura. A girl. A friend who's a girl. CAROLINE "Music for Old People." What does that mean? ROB Look, I'm sorry about this, but I'd like "the Upsetter" by Lee "Scratch" Perry, in there. Instead of "Sin City." She scribbles and writes. CAROLINE Okay. "Dance Music For Old People?" ROB Oh, you know... a lot of people aren't too old for clubs but they're too old for acid jazz and garage and ambient and all that. They want to hear old funk and Stax and New Wave and Old School Hip Hop and some new stuff all together and there's nowhere for them. CAROLINE And the new label? And the Kinky Wizards? ROB Oh, well, the Kinky Wizards are -- you know what? Why don't I just make you a tape? CAROLINE Would you? Really? Wow. I could have deejay Rob Gordon play in my own home. ROB Haha. Right. It's no problem. I love making tapes. CUT TO: ROB IN HIS CHAIR Rob to camera. ROB A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to hold the attention. Then you have to take it up a notch, but not blow your wad, so maybe cool it off a notch, and you can't put the same artist twice on the tape, except if some subtle point or lesson or theme involved, and even then not the two of them in a row, and you can't woo somebody with Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" and then bash their head off with something like GBH's "City Baby Attacked by Rats," and... oh, there are a lot of rules. Anyway, I worked hard at this one. INT. ROB AND LAURA'S APARTMENT - DAY Rob sits Indian-style on the floor in front of the stereo. He has a pad of paper with scrawled titles and cross-outs, and is surrounded by piles of CDs and records. LAURA Who's that for? Rob winces, turns. He's busted. ROB This? Oh, just that woman who interviewed me for The Reader. Carol? Caroline? Something like that. Laura turns and walks out of the room. INT. RECORD STORE - DAY Rob is tucked into the corner, on the phone. ROB Hi, Caroline... Oh, it's Rob. Yeah, listen, I have a new list for you and -- Oh. Yes. Of course... Well maybe next week they could print a, uh, retraction. Or a correction. Because the list I have now it really much more -- right. Okay. Anyway, I have your tape. That's right. Shall I mail it to you? Or... would you like to have a drink? CUT TO: ROB IN HIS CHAIR Rob to camera. ROB How are you not going to fall for someone who wants to interview you? Now Caroline is all I can think about. And in the daydreams I imagine every detail, the entire story of our future relationship, until suddenly I realize that there's nothing left to actually, like, happen. I've done it all, lived through it all in my head. I know the whole plot, the ending, and the good parts. Now I'd have to watch it all over again in real time, and where's the fun in that? And fucking--when is it all going to stop? Am I going to jump from rock to rock for the rest of my life until there aren't any rocks left? Am I going to bolt every time I get itchy feet? Because I get them about once a quarter, along with the store's tax bill. I've been thinking with my guts since I was fourteen years old and, frankly speaking, I've come to the conclusion that my guts have shit for brains. You know what's wrong with Laura, what my problem is? What's wrong with Laura is that I'll never see her for the first or second or third time. That's all. Fuck it. I'll probably mail the tape. Probably. CUT TO: INT. NORTH SIDE TAVERN - DAY Rob sits at a table in the bar, nervous. He watches the door, sits up straight when it opens, and follows someone with his eyes, all the way to his table. She sits. It's Laura. LAURA A drinking lunch on a school day. What a nice surprise. Rob says nothing. LAURA Are you worried about tomorrow night? ROB Not really. He plays with his drink. LAURA Are you going to talk to me, or shall I get my paper out? ROB I'm going to talk to you. LAURA Right. He plays with his drink some more. LAURA What are you going to talk to me about? ROB I'm going to talk to you about whether you want to get married or not. To me. LAURA Ha ha ha. Hoo hoo hoo. ROB I mean it. LAURA I know. ROB Oh, well thanks a fucking bunch. LAURA I'm sorry. But two days ago you were in love with that girl who interviewed you for The Reader, weren't you? ROB Not in love, exactly, but... LAURA Well forgive me if I don't think of you as the world's safest bet. ROB Would you marry me if I was? LAURA No. Probably not. ROB Right. Okay, then. Shall we go? LAURA Don't sulk. What brought all this on? ROB I don't know. LAURA Very persuasive. ROB Are you persuadable? LAURA No. I don't think so. I'm just curious about how one goes from making tapes for one person to marriage proposals to another in two days. Fair enough? ROB Fair enough. LAURA So? ROB I'm just sick of thinking about it all the time. LAURA About what? ROB This stuff. Love and marriage. I want to think about something else. LAURA I've changed my mind. That's the most romantic thing I've ever heard. I do. I will. ROB Shut up. I'm only trying to explain. LAURA I mean, maybe you're right. But were you really expecting me to say yes? ROB I dunno. Didn't think about it, really. It was the asking that was the important thing. LAURA Well, you've asked. She leans over and takes his hands in hers, smiles at him. LAURA Thank you. INT. ARTFUL DODGER - NIGHT TWO TURNTABLES with the mixer in the middle. "Just Begun" by Jimmy Castor spins on turntable #1. A hand reaches in, and begins to draw the slides down, quieting the music. Rob looks up from behind the deejay table, set up amongst the instruments. The place is packed with people, and everyone seems to be having a great time. Almost everyone -- Rob sees Barry, who pretends to nod off when Rob catches his eye, and Justin, who looks back at him and mocks a bulimic act. Rob gives him the finger. He sees Laura, and she beams at him. He comes to the front of the stage, and taps a microphone. ROB Uh, thanks for uh, coming out tonight. I hope you have a good time. And I hope you like the record. The one by the Kinky Wizards. The record that we're having this record release party for. (hoots from the crowd) Thanks. Listen to it first, though. (laughs) Okay. We'll get to that later. Right now, I'd like to introduce... (mumbles) Sonic Death Monkey. Good-natured applause. Rob steps down and bee-lines to Laura. Barry and his crew mount the stage. Rob takes a big gulp of beer. ROB (to Laura) I'm an idiot. I should have played the record first. This place is about to get burned down. LAURA It's gonna be fine. These people are ready for anything. BARRY (dubious) Yeah, well... Barry stands in front of the mic, surveying the crowd with a smile. He and the band all wear suits and ties. BARRY Thanks for the enthusiastic intro, Rob. We're not called Sonic Death Monkey anymore, though, ladies and gentlemen. We might be on the verge of becoming the Atavistics, but we haven't decided yet. But tonight, we are... BARRY JIVE AND THE UPTOWN FIVE! ONE TWO THREE --And they launch into Marvin Gaye's "Got To Give It Up," almost flawlessly faithful to the original. Barry is transformed -- shuffling footwork, a wide smile, and when the intro winds up, an almost perfect falsetto. The crowd goes nuts, filling the floor. Rob is stunned, begins to smile. Laura takes his hand and leads him out into the crowd... THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Highlander_ Endgame.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Highlander_ Endgame.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c1166b7ea7bf6736311b27f0467203377458f954 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Highlander_ Endgame.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3355 @@ + + +HIGHLANDER IV + +WORLD WITHOUT END + +OVER BLACK, A VOICE: + +VOICE +IN THE DAYS BEFORE MEMORY, THERE WERE THE IMMORTALS. WE WERE WITH YOU THEN, AND WE ARE WITH YOU NOW. + +SWEEP LOW + +through CLINGING HIGHLAND MISTS that shroud a land still + +in its infancy. Cathedral spires of granite. Cradled lakes. A solitary vastness. + +VOICE (cont'd) +WE HAVE BEEN WORSHIPPED AS GODS MISTAKEN FOR DEMONS AND REVILED'AS WITCHES. WE ARE THE SEEDS OF A MILLION LEGENDS BUT OUR TRUE ORIGINS ARE UNKNOWN. WE SIMPLY ARE. + +ANCIENT CASTLES dot the landscape, whisper of battles long forgotton. + +VOICE (cont'd) +WE ARE DRIVEN BY THE CEASELESS FIGHT TO ENDURE. NO LIMIT, IT IS A BATTLE THAT KNOWS NO BOUNDRY OF TIME OR PLACE. + +TWO FIGURES clash with broadswords atop the tallest promontory. + +VOICE (cont'd) +TO THE WINNER COMES AN UNKNOWABLE PRIZE. YET AN IMMORTAL CAN FIND NO COMFORT IN VICTORY. + +MATCH MOVE to the top of an ULTRA-MODERN SKYSCRAPER. Swordsmen continue to battle. + +VOICE (cont'd) +BECAUSE IN THE END, THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE. + +Loser falls to the other's sword as the HEAVENS CLEAVE in a TITANIC RUPTURE OF SIGHT AND SOUND. + +Like the birth of a brand new universe. + +BEGIN/END TITLES: + +EXT - MANHATTAN, PRESENT-DAY ESTABLISHING - DAWN + +Teeming millions. Yawning concrete spires. Blare of traffic. + +EXT - ANTIQUE STORE - DAWN + +Engraved into a brass plaque: + +MACLEOD & ELLENSTEIN ANTIQUES (FORMERLY RUSSELL NASH LTD) + +A FACE reflects in the window glass. It's RACHEL ELLENSTEIN, early 60's now, a graying, maternal beauty. + +She moves to the front door, reaches out to unlock i.t. + +It falls open at her touch. Even though the hanging placard is still flipped to "WE’RE CLOSED" + +Rachel hesitates. Draws a shallow breath and steps + +inside. + +INT - ANTIQUE STORE + +All those sublime European antiquities now drip with menace. Celtic harp. Scottish targe. Brooding statuary. + +She moves deeper into the shadowed recesses, flicks on a lamp. + +Her gaze settles on the one exception to the impeccable order of things. An open wooden case, empty. + +Just the felt impression of a missing broadsword. + +RACHEL +(icy dread) +Connor...? + +She crosses to the foot of the staircase. Listens. + +A MUSIC BOX + +spools a faint, tinny madrigal. + +She climbs the stairs, padding softly upward. + +The music grinds EVER LOUDER in its maddening repetitions. Every so often, it's punctuated by a CHILD'S GIGGLE. + +AT THE SECOND FLOOR LANDING + +Rachel edges around the corner. Her breath catches in her throat. BEFORE HER stands a locked wooden cabinet. It's been cleaved nearly in half by the BROADSWORD that still juts hilt-first from the base of the splintered front panel. PHOTO ALBUMS and leather-bound DIARIES have been shredded and scattered across the floor-- + +--except for several selected PHOTOGRAPHS, skewered onto the sword tip like a Medieval message spike. Rachel struggles to breathe. Like she's taken that sword in her own gut. + +INSIDE THE CABINET A TELEVISION flickers with videotape of GRAINY HOME MOVIES. A LITTLE GIRL (RACHEL) is entranced by a PORCELAIN MUSIC BOX held out by an AGELESS CONNOR MACLEOD. + +YOUNG RACHEL +Let me see, Connor! Let me see! + +Rachel stands frozen, watching her life with Connor flash by in RAGGED FILM CLIPS. + +CONNOR teaching RACHEL to ride a horse. + +CONNOR with RACHEL outside an English boarding school. In a train station. At her college graduation. + +CONNOR and RACHEL in a laughing embrace that only hints at something deeper. + +In each new clip, Rachel has aged further. Connor has not. + +Rachel steps up to the broadsword, wraps both hands around the grip and jerks it clean of the cabinet. + +THE SKEWERED PHOTOGRAPHS (flutterd to the floor like dead leaves) + +THE VIDEOTAPE ENDS, CLICKS OFF... + +and a NEW IMAGE burns itself onto the screen in perfect digital clarity. Rachel. Staring back at herself, terror-stricken. + +She hadn't even noticed it before now. The tiny CAMCORDER on the shelf above the TV with the glowing red light. + +MOVE IN ON THE TV as Rachel SLOWLY BACKS AWAY. Keep moving in on the TV until the PIXELS SWIM... + +THE PHONE RINGS shattering the stillness. The old rotary phone on the little Louis XIV stand. It's not just beckoning her. It's taunting her. + +Gathering up the photos and hugging them to her breast, Rachel slowly approaches the phone. Any second now, you'd expect it to stop ringing, nobody home. But whoever's on the other end knows better. It keeps right on RINGING. Insistant. Trembling fingers reach out for the receiver. Slowly lift it off the hook. + +RACHEL +Hello? + +EXTREME CLOSE ON PHONE: + +A TINY ELECTRIC CLICK is the last thing Rachel hears before-- + +EXT - ANTIQUE STORE - WIDE + +--a BLISTERING EXPLOSION blows out the entire second floor. Rachel Ellenstein is obliterated right along with her own treasured history. Linger on the FLAMES as we + +TRANSITION TO: + +EXT - SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS (1565) - DAY + +A MOUND OF BURNING CORPSES + +They crackle and twist in the fire that feeds off them. It takes a moment to realize they're LIVESTOCK-- oxen, pigs, goats, sheep-- piled like burning refuse. + +A CRUDE, WOVEN-STRAW HUMAN EFFIGY stands astride the pile, engulfed in flame. + +BEYOND THE FIRE Connor MacLeod and his young wife, HEATHER, watch from the steps of their simple, isolated home. Connor betrays no emotion. Heather looks on in horror. + +HEATHER +My God, what are they? + +CONNOR +Farm animals. Dead of the plague. + +HEATHER +Why do they torment us with their dead cattle? +(no response) +Connor...? + +CONNOR +They think I've brought this upon them. It's a warning. + +A deeper fear now grips Heather. + +HEATHER +A warning?! They drove you from your home! They cut you off from your own people! What else could they want?! + +Connor turns away from the flaming heap. + +CONNOR +Someone to blame. + +CUT TO: + +CONNOR swinging astride his horse. + +HEATHER +(dread) +Don't go back there. + +THUNDER RUMBLES in the distance. + +CONNOR +I have no choice. + +HEATHER +Please-- + +CONNOR +They can't hurt me. And they know it. But they can still hurt the ones I care about. + +Heather looks off. Shivers. + +HEATHER +I'm afraid. + +Connor leans forward, takes her face in his hands. + +CONNOR +I love you, Heather. More than anything in this world. + +She grips his hands. Desperately. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +Do you believe me? + +HEATHER +Yes. + +CONNOR +Then you needn't be afraid. +(kisses her) +Nothing can ever keep us apart. + +DISSOLVE TO: + +EXT - SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS, VARIOUS - DAWN + +Connor travels a primeval landscape of jagged peaks and fog-shrouded valleys. + +CONNOR'S VOICE +Nothing... + +CUT TO: + +EXT - RIDGE ABOVE GLENFINNAN - TWILIGHT + +He gazes down at the tiny hamlet of Glenfinnan, nestled between castle and shimmering loch. Breathes deep the forgotten smell of home. + +INT - HUT - EVENING + +CAIOLIN MACLEOD, ravaged by neglect and despair, strokes her son's face as if confirming his reality. + +CAIOLIN +I thought you might be the water horse come to take me on his back and drown me in the loch. + +CONNOR +(smiles) +Maybe I am, Mother. + +CAIOLIN +(touches his hair) +Then come, let me grab hold of your golden mane and off we go. + +Connor lifts her from the tattered bed, spins her around several giddy times and sits her upright in a chair. + +CONNOR +Not before we put some meat on those bones. + +He rummages through her shelves looking for food. Finds + +painfully little. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +No one comes to look after you? + +CAIOLIN +They're all afraid of me. They think I bedevil their children because I've lost my own. + +CONNOR +I'm sorry. I'm so sorry... + +CAIOLIN +Tiny minds and sour dispositions. I don't need them, Connor. Any of them. + +Connor crouches at her feet. + +CONNOR +Then it's settled. You're coming with me. There's somebody I want you to meet. She's nearly as beautiful as you. + +Caiolin blinks back her disbelief. + +CAIOLIN +You're sure? + +CONNOR (cont'd) +We leave tonight. Let's start packing. + +CAIOLIN +(lifts up her shoes) +I'm already packed. + +THE SLATTED WOODEN DOOR + +swings OPEN. A YOUNG MAN stands in the doorway. He's strong and severe, dressed in clergyman's black. But + +that's not what draws the eye. + +Even though it's cold enough to fog his breath-- he's sweatinq. + +Connor looks up, guarded. + +CONNOR +Jacob-- + +KASE +You shouldna come back, Connor. + +Connor feels the tension in Kase's voice. + +CONNOR +Surely as a friend you can look the other way just this once... For old times' sake... + +KASE +You knew. You knew what would happen if you came back. I am not to blame for this. + +CONNOR +What? +(beat) +What have you done? + +KASE +God help you. + +FATHER ALASDAIR RAINEY, the local priest and inquisitor, steps inside, bent over a silver cane. He's gross, corpulent and perpetually short of breath. A nasty NOSE BOIL figures prominently in his overall appearance. + +VILLAGERS of varying stripe crowd nervously behind them. + +FATHER RAINEY +In the name of the Holy See and the rule of law, you are hereby charged, Connor MacLeod, with heresy and the practice of black magic. +(turns to the villagers) +Take him. + +The townsmen jostle in place, each trying to squeeze backward behind the other. + +FATHER RAINEY (cont'd) +(squints) +Heresy is not contagious. + +Two of the bolder men move forward, gripping Connor by the elbows.Once its clear they haven't sucked up any demons, the others SWARM HIM. + +EXT - STONE HUT - NIGHT + +Caiolin SCREAMS as Connor's dragged outside and driven to the ground by a relentless battery of sticks and clubs. + +CUT TO: + +INT - STONE CELL - NIGHT + +Connor stirs awake in a centuries-old dungeon, a dark hole, crumbling and damp. + +VOICES seem to drip through the porous mortar. Taunting, vengeful, expectant. + +He crosses to the barred window that affords him a narrow, ground-level view of THE TOWN COMMONS where a well-attended EXECUTION is now underway. + +Connor squints, craning to make out the identity of the condemned. + +TOWNSPEOPLE mingle and mill in front of him, obstructing his line-of-sight. + +Even as A FAMILIAR VOICE rises above the surrounding chatter. + +JACOB KASE'S VOICE + +The curse that afflicts one generation will invariably pass its mark onto the next. The ties of blood cannot be severed by word or deed, if in fact your blood is that of your son. + +Several villagers STEP ASIDE to reveal: + +CONNOR'S MOTHER bound to an UPRIGHT STAKE atop a mound of shorn timber. CONNOR siezes with the impossible horror of recognition. + +CONNOR +No.. . NO! ! + +JACOB KASE Makes the sign of the cross as he reads from a writ ofexecution. He stands atop a primeval CELTIC MONOLITH worn down to the form of a pedestal. Father Rainey wobbles behind him, sniffing ammonia to spell his chronic angina. + +KASE +Through the infinite compassion of our Lord God, you are entitled one final opportunity to renounce all that is unholy, to declare Connor MacLeod not of your loins and help put an end to the darkness that has been cast upon this land. How say you, Caiolin MacLeod? + +Caiolin lifts her head, pale and beatific. + +CAIOLIN +If your god should persecute me into the next world, then I shall simply have to find myself another. + +Shocked murmers of outrage shudder through the crowd.Kase steps up and RIPS AWAY Caiolin's cherished silver CRUCIFIX, with its distinctive wooden Christ figure. + +KASE +(holding up Caiolin's crucifix) +You won't need this where you're going. + +CONNOR grabs at the iron window-bars. Shakes them until the mortar chips from their moorings. THE RUDDY-FACED EXECUTIONER solemnly approaches Caiolin. Unseen by the bloodlusting crowd, he takes out a small leather sack and drapes it around her neck by the drawstring. He tucks it under her coarse woolen robe and pats it flush against her chest. + +EXECUTIONER +(softly) +Black powder. It will make short work of your suffering. + +Caiolin nods. He steps down off the pyre. Reaches for a BURNING TORCH. CONNOR strains against the bars like a madman. Mortar continues crumbling until one bar actually RIPS AWAY COMPLETELY. THE EXECUTIONER touches torch to kindling. It ALIGHTS. CONNOR tries to squeeze through the window gap. Too tight. So he winds back with the iron bar and swings with mindless fury. Iron strikes unyielding stone, SPARKING and CHIPPING... + +THE PYRE BENEATH CAIOLIN ENGULFS IN FLAME. Heat ripples her face, distorts her body. CONNOR hammers harder, quicker, louder. Bits of stone fly everywhere. But the bulk of it remains spitefully intact. Still, it's enough to convince ALL FOUR GUARDS to intervene. They throw open the heavy iron door and descend upon Connor with swords and axes. >Wielding the iron bar like a battle mace, Connor splits the first guard's head, catches his sword mid-air and slices into the next. Third guard's axe catches on a ceiling beam. Connor runs him through like an overstuffed feedsack. + +The fourth guard drops his sword and BOLTS. + +THE PYRE is now fully ABLAZE. Caiolin looks out through the rippling wall of flame... + +. . . and smiles weakly. + +CAIOLIN +My water horse... + +AS CONNOR splits the crowd like a battering ram. He reaches the pyre, hurling flaming timbers aside with his bare hands. Initially stunned, the townsfolk shrink back, watching Connor desperately scatter the fire. Caiolin buries her face in her shoulder, biting back the agony as... + +Sword in hand, Connor stretches upward, hacking away the ropes that bind her, oblivious to the fire now crawling in serpentine coils around his own arms and legs. Freed of the ropes, Caiolin begins to slump forward. Connor grabs for her arm as THE BLACK POWDER EXPLODES in a CONCUSSION of FIRE that renders any further hope of rescue futile. + +Connor stands atop the burning pyre, wicked tongues of flame leaping off his back and shoulders like fiery wings. He throws back his head and HOWLS to the heavens. Fire dances across Connor's skin and clothing as he raises his broadsword and steps down into the crowd. + +PANDEMONIUM breaks out. This isn't just a common witch. This is one of Hell's very own. Those few foolish enough to attack are cut down where they stand. The rest scatter in mindless PANIC. Father Rainey blocks Connor's path. Lifts his cross... + +. . . as he's CUT DOWN by the blind SLASH of Connor's sword. Connor steps over Rainey's body and keeps coming, driving the mob fleeing into their dwellings. Kase crouches blustering over Rainey. + +KASE +Father... Father, please-- +(tries to staunch the bleeding) +Father--! + +Rainey's eyes open slightly. + +RAINEY +Who are you...? + +KASE +Your son. It's your son-- Jacob. + +Rainey stares back as if a veil has suddenly been lifted. And what he now sees terrifies him to death. + +RAINEY +(eyes widen) +Who are YOU? + +KASE +I'm your-- + +He stops. Rainey's eyes are frozen. Dead. + +CONNOR returns to the flaming pyre, refueling his rage with thesight of his mother's blackened corpse. >KASE + +scoops up a discarded sword, leaps to his feet and CHARGES CONNOR, bellowing like a madman. >Connor whirls around with his sword, making Kase IMPALE HIMSELF on the blade. Kase stares wide-eyed and gagging at Connor's smoldering visage-- the depthless black pools of hate that shroud his eyes. It's the last thing Jacob Kase will ever see. Connor opens his fingers and lets him DROP, the sword hilt still jutting from Kase's chest. Gathering up several chunks of flaming timber, Connor HEAVES them onto the straw-covered rooftops, setting them instantly ABLAZE. In short order, the village is transformed into a giant swirling INFERNO. Silhouetted against the crimson sky, Connor lifts Caiolin's body and turns his back on Glenfinnan for the last time. + +DISSOLVE TO: + +EXT - ANCIENT STONE MONASTERY - NIGHT + +Standing outside the massive door is a MONK clad in dark, hooded monastic garb. Nothing in the panorama would suggest we've just jumped four centuries into an uncertain future... Until-- + +A PACK OF MOTORCYCLISTS chew their way up the rubbled slope. Fishtail to a stop. THE LEADER, a tall eclectically-dressed Jamaican, dismounts and approaches the hooded monk. + +JAMAICAN +You people are extremely hard to find. + +Monk unshoulders a PUMP-ACTION SHOTGUN. + +HOODED MONK +We like it that way. +(pumps shotgun) +Now go. + +The other six INTRUDERS surround the monk. His eyes flick from one to the next-- a buffet of different nationalities, all big. + +JAMAICAN +Take your pick. Before you squeeze the trigger a second time, you'll be dead. + +Easy choice. Monk levels his gun and BLOWS the Jamaican right off his feet. And sure enough, he GAGS before his next trigger-pull. A very nasty SERRATED BLADE retracts into a wooden hilt. Monk drops in a heap as his assailant, a WIRY ASIAN, turns for the door, joined by the others. IN THE VERY NEXT INSTANT the heavy oak-and-iron door SWINGS OPEN with a BARRAGE of AUTOMATIC GUNFIRE-- + +The intruders are CUT DOWN where they stand. THREE MORE HOODED MONKS appear in the doorway, wielding ASSAULT RIFLES. They grimly regard the bodies. + +MONK #1 +Take the heads. Just in case. + +Saws and cleavers are pulled by the other two guards while Guard #l keeps his gun trained on the corpses. + +VOICE +Don't bother. Really. + +A FIGURE stands in shadow, his face UNSEEN. We catchonly a brief glimpse of a PRIEST‘S COLLAR. Guard #l whips his rifle toward the Stranger. Stranger diverts it with the tip of his sword. Bullets go nowhere. One slash and the guard is gone. Two more slashes and his comrades fall. Stranger kicks the body of the dead Jamaican as he steps through the open doorway. + +STRANGER +Don‘t be long. + +INT - MONASTERY - NIGHT + +FOLLOW THE STRANGER through a maze of chambers and DOWN into serpentine catacombs. He KICKS THROUGH a DOOR into AN INNER ROOM cavernous and dripping, where even the air seems septic. A few dim candles illuminate A DOZEN MEN bound to complicated, almost Giger-esque chairs. Arms, legs and faces have been immobilized by crossing flats of metal BOLTED into flesh and wood. From the wild overgrowth of hair and beard, and the impossibly long, curled fingernails, it's a good guess none of them have moved a muscle in years. + +Except for a pale CUSTODIAN standing in a corner, trembling silently. Stranger stands at the threshold, his face obscured by flickering shadows. He scans the living corpses. + +STRANGER +So it's true. + +He moves slowly among them. + +STRANGER (cont'd) +What sacrifices they made of you all. Warehoused, like rotting pieces of meat. + +He pauses to lift up a downcast head. Gazes into the shackled face. The eyes are covered by strips of rustediron, the face by tangled beard. + +STRANGER (cont'd) +Tell me-- is this the better way? I'm sure you've had some time to reflect on it. + +One by one, THE RECENTLY-DEAD INTRUDERS filter into the room, led by the Jamaican. Blood stipples their clothes, streaks their faces. But they are, in every other sense, fully-restored. + +Stranger straightens, swivels around to the terrified Custodian. Custodian backpeddles into the wall. + +STRANGER +Which one is Connor MacLeod? + +CUSTODIAN +I-- I don't know... They never told me names... + +STRANGER +(low, seething) +Don't. Lie. To. Me. + +CUSTODIAN +I swear. I don't know... + +Stranger grabs him under the chin, lifts him to his toes. + +STRANGER +You need to understand one thing, my gimpy friend. I don't care about the Game. I don't care about the rules. I don't even care about these other pathetic souls you lock away as a barrier to the Prize. + +The Custodian stares back, uncomprehending. + +STRANGER (cont'd) +(squeezes his throat) +I want Connor MacLeod. Give me MacLeod and I'll leave. And you can go right on pretending that what you do here actually matters. + +The custodian lifts a shaking finger. RACK FOCUS TO: + +THE PRISONER IN THE LAST CHAIR Even with an iron slat across his eyes, he is unmistakably Connor MacLeod. Stranger lets go of the custodian, turns... + +STRANGER +Long time. + +Connor strains to lift his head. His voice comes weak and drug-heavy. + +CONNOR +Who are you...? + +STRANGER +You'll know soon enough. + +GLINT OF A SWUNG BLADE-- + +CUT TO: + +EXT - MONASTERY - NIGHT + +An unearthly LIGHT pulses through slitted windows and cracked mortar. TENDRILS of RAW ENERGY vein the ancient building, growing BRIGHTER until-- + +THE WINDOWS EXPLODE OUTWARD with a keening, animal-like HOWL. ABOVE the sky responds with SCREAMING WIND and TORRENTS of RAIN. + +CUT TO: + +EXT - PARIS - NIGHT + +WIND HOWLS over the City of Lights, slicing up the Seine to. . .DUNCAN MACLEOD'S BARGEdocked at the quay. + +EXT - BARGE - NIGHT + +PUSH IN on DUNCAN MACLEOD, cross-legged in meditation atop the deck. He JOLTS from a series of SUDDEN VIOLENT IMAGES. A FACE, bolted immobile, wrenched in agony. A SWORDBLADE slashing into flesh. FINGERNAILS clawing wood. BLOOD flecking tile. ESSENCE. PHONE. Ringing. Duncan snaps up the receiver, sweat drenched. + +DUNCAN +Yeah? + +Tiny electric CLICK... + +. . . then the HISS of an overseas line. + +WOMAN'S VOICE +(filtered) +He's dead. + +DUNCAN +Who? + +CUT TO: + +A PAYPHONE, SOMEWHERE IN LOWER MANHATTAN + +In a driving RAIN. A woman's hand holds the receiver to her face, obscuring her features. + +WOMAN +Connor MacLeod. He was killed last night. + +INT - DUNCAN'S BARGE + +Duncan reels with a sudden flood of emotions. + +DUNCAN +Who is this?! + +WOMAN'S VOICE +A friend. + +EXT - PAYPHONE + +The unidentified woman slowly lowers the receiver and sets it back in the cradle. + +CUT TO: + +EXT - PARIS, ESTABLISHING, SUNRISE + +Shadows crawl across the Parisian skyline as an ENGINE REVS TO 8000 RPM. + +STREET LEVEL POV: + +We PUNCH through the ARC DE TRIOMPHE and up the CHAMPS ELYSEE with a throaty FERARRI HOWL. On a WICKED DOWNSHIFT, we SQUEAL HARD RIGHT onto the PONT NEUF, stopping on a franc at + +EXT - NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL - DAY + +Duncan hops out of his Ferrari 355 Spyder, pauses before the massive Gothic edifice, then disappears inside. + +CLOSE ON A CROUCHING STONE GARGOYLEperched atop the highest balustrade. MOVE SIDEWAYS TO REVEAL A SECOND CROUCHING FIGURE, this one human. To many he'll be instantly familiar. He‘s METHOS, oldest of all Immortals, gazing down in quiet contemplation. Methos keeps staring at the ground below, sipping bordeaux from a paper cup, even as Duncan joins him at the edge. + +DUNCAN +Methos. + +METHOS +so-- What brings you up here to the aerie of the lesser gods? + +DUNCAN +I need your help. + +METHOS +I'm out of the help business. No future in it. + +DUNCAN +I was told Connor MacLeod was killed last night. + +Methos' darkens. Another one lost. + +DUNCAN (cont'd) +I just want to know who did it. + +METHOS +(sighs) +In our world, does it really matter? + +DUNCAN +It does to me. + +Methos looks down at the clotted life below. + +METHOS +Did I ever tell you I once kept a vineyard on the very spot where they built this monstrosity? Glorious, the wine. +(looks up) +When did you see him last? + +DUNCAN +Almost ten years ago. + +METHOS +What did you talk about? + +DUNCAN +Nothing much. + +METHOS +Think back. + +FLASH TO: + +INT - PUB (FROM HIGHLANDER 1) - DAY + +Connor and Duncan hunch over the bar, pounding scotch. + +DUNCAN +We mostly just sat around, downing shots, staring at the beer lights above the bar. When he finally got up to go, he looked at me like it was the last time I'd ever see him again. No goodbye. No handshake. Just got up and left. + +BACK TO SCENE: + +Duncan blinks back the memory. + +DUNCAN (cont'd) +Nobody's seen him since. + +METHOS +Describe the look. + +DUNCAN +What do you mean? + +METHOS +Describe it. + +DUNCAN +It was like... + +FLASH: CONNOR'S FACE + +DUNCAN (cont'd) +. . . Like every death he'd ever caused had come back to haunt him. + +BACK TO SCENE: + +Methos takes a thoughtful sip from his wine. + +METHOS +For an Immortal who comes to abhor bloodshed, there's a solution-- a way to be removed from the Game forever. The price is unimaginably high, but you are, for all practical purposes, protected from the violence within yourself. It's called The Sanctuary. + +DUNCAN +I don't understand. + +METHOS +Think of those Buddhist monks who came to cherish life so much that to step on a single insect, to harm a blade of grass was a violation of their creed. They placed themselves into an extreme form of protective custody. A sanctuary of sorts. +(beat) +What I'm talking about is something similar. But one that doesn't allow for a change of heart. + +He opens his fingers and watches his cup plummet to the plaza below. Wine SPLATTERS like blood on white marble. + +METHOS (cont'd) +Apparently it was wiped out last night. + +DUNCAN +By who? + +METHOS +I don't know. + +EXT - ABOVE THE ATLANTIC - DAY + +A 747 cruises at 40,000 feet. + +METHOS (O.S.) +He left no witnesses. + +INT - 747 - DAY + +Duncan stares out the passenger window as the FLIGHT ATTENDANT sets a DRINK down. He lifts the little plastic COCKTAIL SWORD from the glass. Yanks it out of the olive... + +TRANSITION TO: + +A BROADSWORD being jerked from a fallen warrior. + +EXT - 17TH CENTURY BATTLEFIELD - DAWN + +FOLLOW THE SWORD swinging above a PAIR OF HIDE-BOOTED FEET that tramp across uneven ground littered with CORPSES. FEET STOP at a BLOOD-CAKED BODY, swathed in the shredded colors of a defeated army. On a SWIFT KICK TO THE RIBCAGE-- + +DUNCAN MACLEOD JERKS UPRIGHT, flailing in spastic fits. + +DUNCAN +GAHHHHHHH! ! + +He blinks thickly, as if routed from a deep, disorienting slumber. Gapes up at-- + +A SILHOUETTEthat ECLIPSES the rising sun. + +SILHOUETTE +You've better things to do than lie there collecting flies. + +Duncan puts a hand to his chest, touches the worst of his several lethal wounds. Utter confusion stitches his face. + +SILHOUETTE (cont'd) +I suppose you're wondering how a knock- kneed swordsman with your obvious lack of skill keeps living to fight another day. + +The figure extends a hand to Duncan. Duncan hesitantly reaches up... + +DUNCAN +(squints) +Are you an angel? + +SILHOUETTE +I've been called that. And worse. + +Duncan‘s hand RECOILS-- + +SILHOUETTE (cont'd) +Rest assured, I'm neither. + +He hoists Duncan to his feet. Duncan gazes for the first time ever upon the face ofCONNOR MACLEODwho smiles back with the gift of untold secrets. + +CONNOR +I'm Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod. And like you, I have a hard time dying. + +TRANSITION BACK TO: + +INT - 747 - DAY + +Duncan's now sitting upright in his seat as the FLIGHT ATTENDANT'S VOICE brings him back to the here and now. + +FLIGHT ATTENDANT (O.S.) +We'll be making our final descent into New York... + +WHEELSSMACK down onto the runway at JFK. + +CUT TO: + +A PHOTOGRAPH OF DUNCAN + +PULL BACK and see it's his passport, held by a US CUSTOMS OFFICER. He lowers the passport and turns to the long metal case Duncan's brought with him from the plane. + +CUSTOMS OFFICER +Would you open the case, please? + +Duncan hands the Officer documentation as he sets it on the counter and opens it. Inside is an old, meticulouslycared-for Japanese KATANA SWORD. Customs Officer studies Duncan's paperwork, smiles. + +CUSTOMS OFFICER (cont'd) +Get much use for this? + +DUNCAN +You'd be surprised. + +Duncan shuts the case and continues on. Next MAN in line watches Duncan exit as he hands over his passport. Hang on the PHOTO. We'll remember those steel- gray eyes. + +INT - CAB, DRIVING - DAY + +Duncan watches the passing scenery. MUSIC and LANDMARKSfamiliar from the first "Highlander" sweep past. + +EXT - NEW YORK SIDE-STREET - DAY + +Cab WIPES FRAME, leaving Duncan standing before the charred husk of Connor's antique store. Windows boarded, shreds of flapping police tape, the investigators have long since come and gone. + +INT - ANTIQUE STORE + +Door SPLINTERS OPEN. Duncan steps inside. In the aftermath of the firebombing, nothing has beenspared. Rachel and Connor's richly-cultivated collection has been reduced to a bitter moonscape. One can only shudder at the degree of overkill that went into this attack. Duncan climbs the back stairs to THE SECOND FLOOR LOFT which is even worse. Ash and cinder are virtually all that remain of Connor's home.Pausing at the far wall, Duncan yanks down an old charred tapestry, revealingAN INNER DOORdeliberately hidden from view. He dips down, retrieves a key from under a loose floorboard and opens the heavily- reinforced door. + +ENTERING he finds himself in a LARGE CIRCULAR ROOM surrounded by a staggering display of ARTIFACTS drawn from centuries of personal history. We're looking at the sum total of Connor MacLeod's existance, stacked floor to ceiling. + +Duncan moves among the mementos, smiles as he lifts them; an old Scottish coin, pocket flask... a faded PHOTO of himself in a World War I uniform.He pauses at a painting of Connor's wife HEATHER, radiant in simple peasant garb, smiling serenely across the ages.Finally, a tarnished epee that he wields with instant familiarity. + +TRANSITION TO: + +INT - FENCING ACADEMY, RAVENNA ITALY (1627) - DAY + +Duncan's LUNGE misses Connor by a mile. He stumbles upright in a grand hall streaked by SUNLIGHT from floor- to-ceiling windows. Duncan and Connor face off with duelling swords, sporting black waistcoak andd knee breeches in the manner of the times. Several other elegant FENCING PAIRS spar in this most genteel version of the ancient bloodsport, a far cry from the corpse-littered battlefield seen earlier. A little mustachioed PUFFER darts between the duellists with lint brush, pail and towel as Connor and Duncan re- engage in a rapid series of strikes and parries. + +CONNOR +You've improved greatly. + +DUNCAN +You really think so? + +Connor executes a simple combination that sends'Duncan's sword flying one way, his body the other. + +CONNOR +No. I'm just being gracious. + +Duncan recovers, sets his feet. Puffer skitters over, brushes the dust off Duncan's coat, dabs his sweat and puffs the back of his hair. Duncan swats him away. They take en-garde position. Connor points his blade. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +Remember, you're only immortal as long as your head remains attached to those shoulders. + +Duncan lunges again. Misses and hits the deck. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +Which in your case might not be long at all. + +He puts his blade to Duncan's neck. Humor evaporates. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +What we give up to our adversary in defeat, Duncan... is evervthinq. + +Duncan stares up at him, uncomprehending. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +We call it "The Quickening"-- our strength, our knowledge, our life essence-- it all flows into the victor, feeds him, makes him stronger, in ways you can't possibly comprehend. It's what drives other Immortals to kill us. And what forces us to be better-- smarter-- than the rest. + +He takes Duncan by the arm, jerks him to his feet. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +Survival. Learn it. + +Duncan goes on the attack. What he lacks in technique, he makes up for in determination. Almost. Connor sidesteps Duncan's next lunge, swats his blade flat across Duncan's ass and sends him plowing face-first into the floor. Duncan re-engages Connor in fighting stance. Puffer races up behind Duncan again, meticulously dusts his backside. Reaches around and plucks an unsightly piece of lint off his crotch with thumb and forefinger. + +DUNCAN +(whirls around) +You mind?! + +Connor clucks his tongue. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +Allow me. + +He squares Duncan‘s shoulders and steps back. Considers. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +Unh uh. + +He steps up and swivels Duncan around until he‘s facing the opposite way. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +If you should ever again find yourself backside to a blade... just keep this in mind. + +He proceeds to take Duncan through a move that's dazzling in it's inherent simplicity-- a move that winds up with Duncan's blade whisking perilously close across Connor's throat. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +It's a coup de fin. + +He catches Duncan's sword-fist in his own, holds it immobile. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +Properly executed, even you cannot prevent your blade from finding its mark. + +DUNCAN +Properly executed, we'll never have this talk again. + +Duncan and Connor's eyes lock. They break. + +TRANSITION BACK TO: + +INT - CIRCULAR ROOM + +Duncan suddenly SIEZES UP with a strange disquiet and ringing in the ears known as THE BUZZ. It's the sense of another Immortal. + +He swings around, reaches for his katana and steps back through the door, swinging it closed asA YOUNG WOMANappears at the top of the stairs. She saunters toward him, glancing around. + +She takes her time checking out the place before stepping up to Duncan. + +The ragged crop of her hair and the slashing trowel application of makeup impart a kind of crazed anti- beauty. Like a post-nuclear Barbi doll. + +Duncan regards her, intrigued and wary. + +DUNCAN +Who are you? + +YOUNG WOMAN +A friend. + +Those two words instantly recall the mystery voice on thephone. + +YOUNG WOMAN (cont'd) +Or lover. Or wife. Take your pick. + +Memory jogs with a sudden lurch. + +DUNCAN +Kate? + +YOUNG WOMAN +Atta boy. 'cept I'm "Faith" now. Part of the makeover. Like it? + +She runs a playful finger across his chest. + +FAITH +Funny how 'the time slips by, huh? You wake up one day and ohmigod-- Airplanes! + +DUNCAN +Why're you here? + +FAITH +Remember our wedding day, Duncan? I do. + +She takes him by the hands and leads him into animpromptu dance. + +FAITH (cont'd) +We danced the "Highland Fling." + +She spins under his arm, circles back into his embrace. + +FAITH (cont'd) +I felt like we were flying. + +Her sinuous body moves in perfect sync with his. + +FAITH (cont'd) +And that we'd never come down. + +She spins out of his arms again-- + +--and SPIN KICKS him across the FACE. BLOOD spatters from his nose and mouth. + +FAITH (cont'd) +Of course, we did come down. Didn't we? +(kicks him again) +Crashinq. + +Duncan staggers backward into a concrete stanchion. Recovers.They stand facing each other across a gulf centuries wide. + +DUNCAN +(spitting blood) +Why are you here? + +FAITH +Isn't it obvious? I wanted to see you again. + +Duncan tenses at-- + +THE ROAR OF APPROACHING MOTORCYCLES. + +His eyes track the SOUND. It's directly BELOW him. + +EXT - STREET OUTSIDE ANTIQUE STORE + +THREE MOTORCYCLES hop the curb, SLICE through the open door to the antique store... + +INT - ANTIQUE STORE + +. . . and SPIRAL up the BACK STAIRS. + +INT - LOFT + +Duncan's eyes flick upward to a NEW SOUND, directly above him as-- + +EXT - ROOF - DAY + +A FOURTH BIKEVAULTS the NARROW GAP between buildings and LANDS. + +Knobby tires SLAM onto the rooftop, squirrelling wild across the tarred surface before shuddering to a stop. + +A jackbooted heel digs in and grinds to a stop. + +Biker suddenly BACKWHEELS around, BLASTS through theROOF ACCESS DOORand disappears inside. + +TWO MORE BIKERSfollow suit, SLAMMING DOWN onto the roof like alien invaders. + +INT - LOFT + +Duncan reacts. But it's not just the full-throttle howl of approaching bikes. + +It's the BUZZ of approaching IMMORTALS. + +THE BIKERS + +now crest the stairs and fan out into the loft-- Same group we saw outside the monastery. + +Tricked out in everything from Keds to chainmail, they drag a variety of weapons in their trailing hands-- sword, baseball bat, mace, dao and chain-whip. + +The tips make a scraping noise across the floor that's deliberately unsettling. + +They surround Duncan, cutting off any avenue of escape. Nobody moves or speaks. Just the low staccato growl of idling two-stroke engines. + +Duncan takes a step backward. Looks to Faith. + +DUNCAN +Who're they? + +FAITH +More friends. + +PAN THE FACES. CARLOS from Bed-Stuy, BUG from Kyoto, WINSTON from Jamaica, SARGE from Shreveport and CRACKER BOB from nowhere in particular. + +And then there's CALVIN. + +A swaggering Immortal from the he's traded brute force in on a brand new weapon of choice. A DIGITAL VIDEO CAMERA. + +CALVIN +Make it pretty now. It's the bottom of the ninth. + +BIKERS DISMOUNT and CONVERGE on Duncan, swinging their weapons to limber up. + +Duncan backs away. This is unheard of-- Immortals packing like jackals. + +DUNCAN +What-- it's a team sport now? + +CALVIN +(zooming in) +Whole new ballgame. + +THREE IMMORTALS ATTACK. They're good. Duncan's better. About three times better. + +CALVINjockeys his camcorder-- GOES IN TIGHT on Duncan. + +CALVIN +Sup with the new blood, huh? Who's gonna lay him out? Take his secret sauce? +(swivels around) +YOU, Winston? + +WINSTON,the tall Jamaican, stands off to one side watching, thelone holdout. + +CALVIN (cont'd) +Nope. Too proud. Old school. + +INTERCUT - VIDEO VIEWFINDER + +Image lurches and jostles as Calvin mixes it up with the combatants. + +CALVIN (O.S.) +How 'bout you, Carlos? You good for it? Carlos--? + +CARLOS HURTLES THROUGH FRAME. Lands hard. + +CALVIN (O.S.) +I'll catch you later. + +SWISH PAN TO:SWORDsparking off chainmail.HANDS AND FEETpounding flesh. + +BODIESslamming into walls. + +BLOOD. MAYHEM. PAIN.And Calvin, catching it all, up close and personal. + +CALVIN (cont'd) +Sarge is down. Cracker Bob's down. + +But Carlos got some kick. Still got some kick. + +Carlos crawls to his feet, oozing blood and spite. + +CALVIN (cont'd) +Like the man says, you gotta play with the small hurts. + +Carlos LUNGES-- + +Duncan lays him out flat again, then swivels around to face-- + +BUGwho straightens up to his full five-foot frame. + +CALVIN (cont'd) +Say hello to my man BUG and his ugly- stick. + +Bug brandishes a simple metal ROD with a woven grip. Nothing much to speak of... + +Until he squeezes the grip-- + +--and SIX BLADES EJECT SIMULTANEOUSLY. + +The two on each end are SWORD BLADES, one for piercing, one for slashing. + +Jutting perpendicular to the shaft, like an insane Swiss Army knife, are twin sets of DAGGERS-- two for stabbing and two sawtoothed SWORDBREAKERS. + +And then there's the shaft itself, if you're in need of agood old-fashioned battering ram. + +CALVIN (cont'd) +Like it? Came from a Tamaric swordsmith. +(grins) +Who smoked a lotta very wicked stuff. + +Bug opens up a multi-pronged BARRAGE on Duncan. + +Duncan adapts to the first assault-- only to find himself reacting to an entirely new set of insane moves. + +CALVIN (cont'd) +Uhp--- Say welcome back to Carlos... + +Carlos cuts in yet again, swinging for the stands. He fans several times before Duncan backfists him across the nose and dumps him back onto the floor. + +Duncan spins back to Bug as the wiry Asian lifts his lethal metal rod again and grins. + +But this time as he SQUEEZES the release mechanism-- + +--Duncan KICKS IT, shoving it flush against Bug's chest. + +SNICK SNICKtwo PIVOTING DAGGERS slice into the dumbstruck Immortal. He falls backward WAILING like a stuck pig. + +A BOOMING VOICE freezes everyone in their tracks. + +VOICE +That's enough. + +All eyes converge on: + +THE STRANGERwho stands at a distance, cloaked in murky halflight. + +STRANGER +I'm sorry, Duncan. When it comes to discipline, the first hundred years are the hardest. + +Duncan lowers his katana, turns to the Stranger as-- + +CARLOSpainfully hauls himself upright and suddenly BULLDOZES Duncan clear through one of the immense loft windows. + +Duncan's launched AIRBORNE in a plume of shattered glass,still clutching his katana. + +Carlos hooks an arm around the empty window-frame and watches with unvarnished satisfaction as the body SPIKES onto an upright iron ROD jutting from the construction site below. + +STRANGER +What was that? + +CARLOS +(squinting) +Full gainer with a quarter twist. Degree of difficulty-- not very. + +STRANGER +I thought I told you to stop. + +CARLOS +Yeah, well. I stopped. + +STRANGER (cont'd) +Are you challenging my authority? + +Carlos does his best to ignore him. + +STRANGER (cont'd) +Because the only way to challenge my authority is to kill me. + +CARLOS +(turns away) +Hey hey, take it easy, man. + +STRANGER (cont'd) +Is that clear? + +In the split second it takes Carlos to turn back from the window, the Stranger is right there in his face. + +CARLOS +Shit! + +STRANGER +IS THAT CLEAR? + +Stranger takes Carlos' sword and yanks it uo to his own neck -. + +STRANGER (cont'd) +Here's your chance. + +Carlos stares wide-eyed. Pride won't let him back down.Fear won't let him proceed. + +STRANGER (cont'd) +Take it. You won't have another. + +We can FEEL the SUDDEN HAMMERING of Carlos' HEART. + +CARLOS +You're crazy, man! + +STRANGER +Am I? Then go ahead... +(rubs his neck across the blade) +Stop the madness. + +CARLOS +Hey-- + +STRANGER +Or walk away... in perpetual fear of your own shadow. +(beat) +Tell me, Carlos. Can you live with that? Can you live with the fear? Can you live with the weakness? + +THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-- + +STRANGER (cont'd) +Weakness, Carlos. Isn't that why you're here with me? Isn't that why you‘re ALL here with me?! Face it, you're nothing but. . . +(savoring) +. . . cattle. + +Blood POUNDS in Carlos' eyes. He YANKS back the sword,CRIES OUT and SLASHES for the Stranger's neck. + +CLOSE ON STRANGER'S HANDas it catches his wrist and diverts the blade around to Carlos' own throat, wedging it up tight under his chin. + +STRANGER (cont'd) +God loves you. I don't. + +In one vicious UP-SLICE, Stranger cuts through bone andsinew, stopping just short of a clean sever. + +Carlos gags and gurgles in liquid protest. + +STRANGER (cont'd) +(whispers) +They say the worst part, Carlos, is those last few seconds when you find yourself staring at your own headless body. + +SNICK--He sends Carlos' head tumbling to the floor. + +STRANGER (cont'd) +Of course it's pure speculation, since nobody ever lives to tell about it. + +HOLD ON CARLOS' EYESstaring in pure, unknowable horror at his own body,twitching several yards away.A tiny ARC of electrical ESSENCE crackles from the neck... + +THE OTHERSbear mute witness to the GLOWING TENDRILS of ENERGY that stutter across the walls and ceiling. + +EXT - CONSTRUCTION SITE BELOW + +Duncan lies IMPALED on a JUTTING SHAFT OF RE-BAR as an UNMARKED PANEL VAN screeches INTO FRAME.His eyes stare sightless upward asTHE LOFT WINDOWSEXPLODE with unearthly HOWLS of stretching metal and pulverizing concrete.SHOCKWAVES strafe the walls, blowing out mortar and brick.POWER LINES SNAP and LASH against the building, spittingfiery plumes of SPARKS. + +INT - LOFT + +Seen from behind, the Stranger absorbs the QUICKENING in a series of wild electro-shock convulsions. + +EXT - CONSTRUCTION SITE BELOW + +Several darkly-clad MEN jump from the panel van and race up to Duncan. With pit crew efficiency, one takes a mondo set of BOLT CUTTERS to the metal stake while the others grab Duncan by the arms and ankles. A fourth throws open the cargo door. + +Snap-lift... they TOSS Duncan in the back of the van. + +INT - LOFT, SAME + +Arms outstretched and rigid, head thrown back in silent rapture, the Stranger RISES slowly off the floor, suspended Christ-like in the air. + +BLINDING HALOES of PURE RADIANT ESSENCE engulf him, a lifeforce beyond human understanding. + +THE OTHERSwatch transfixed. They've seen it all before, but it never ceases to amaze and terrify them. + +CUT TO: + +DARKNESS + +Which becomes a harsh blast of LIGHT. + +DUNCAN'S EYESflutter open, squint at the glare. He's strapped to thesame Giger-like chair, immobilized. Standing around himare hooded members of that same monk-like order in what is, essentially, a dungeon. + +One of them, MATTHEW, steps forward. His steel-gray eyes are familiar. He's the one who followed Duncan through customs. + +As he reaches to cinch closed one of the iron cuffs with a thick metal dowel, he reveals a distinctive TATTOO across his inner forearm. One that Duncan instantly recognizes. _ + +DUNCAN +Watchers? + +Matthew simply nods. + +DUNCAN +Watchers observe. They don't interfere. + +MATTHEW +True. And we were more than happy to perform our traditional function. Believe me, it's a whole lot easier charting the history of Immortals than it is running a day care center for them. Unfortunately our role has changed somewhat. + +DUNCAN +Why? + +MATTHEW +Because the rules have been broken. + +DUNCAN +Not by me. + +MATTHEW +You're not the one we're worried about. + +Matthew moves to the other side of the chair. Pegs thearm cuff and ratchets down a redundant set of bindings. + +MATTHEW (cont'd) +One of your kind has gone renegade. In doing so he's gained himself a sizeable advantage. One that will be impossible to overcome. + +DUNCAN +Nobody's unbeatable. + +MATTHEW +He's surrounded himself with Immortals loyal only to him. He uses holy ground as a safe haven. And every head taken in battle is reserved for him alone, each Quickening-- hundreds upon hundreds-- taken by just one man. Yes, Duncan. He is unbeatable. + +Matthew pours a Scotch. Glenmorangie. Holds it toDuncan's lips like the final offering to a condemned man. + +MATTHEW (cont'd) +Worse still, far worse, is that he's become a perversion to the Game. And if he prevails, that perversion will resonate through everything we know. For eternity. In ways we can't possibly comprehend. + +Duncan tugs at his bonds. Knows what's in store for him. + +MATTHEW (cont'd) +There must always be two of your kind. As long as there are two, and they're kept from fighting, the Prize is safe. The Sanctuary must continue. + +DUNCAN +Get yourself another volunteer. + +MATTHEW +We had a number of "volunteers." Sadly, that's no longer the case. + +Another WATCHER steps up and forces an IRON FACE SHACKLE down over Duncan's head. + +MATTHEW (cont'd) +You'll be warehoused. Hidden away. So the Prize can remain safe. + +Duncan struggles frantically against his bonds. + +DUNCAN +You're insane! + +MATTHEW +For the world, Duncan. We do this for the world... + +The Watcher takes two large BOLTS and begins to screw the mask directly into Duncan's skull. + +DUNCAN'S POV: + +BLACKNESS, accompanied by BRIGHT SEARING FLASHES ofAGONY. + +MATTHEW'S VOICE (cont'd) +Don't worry. The drugs should kick in momentarily. + +All external SOUND is slowly DROWNED OUT by the POUNDING IN HIS OWN BRAIN. + +A POUNDING interspersed with jarring, synaptic flashes ofBATTLE. Killing. Dying. Killing again. Dying again. + +The recycling nightmare finally RECEDES back intoNOTHINGNESS. + +Then, a NEW SOUND. Distant. Grind of metal on bone. Bolts being unscrewed. + +Iron plate lifts from his eyes, flood of LIGHT. + +Once again, Duncan SQUINTS up at a FACE. This time, the blurred, swimming features of a familiar Irish-American mug. + +DUNCAN +(WOOZY) +Dawson... + +JOE DAWSON, familiar to many as Duncan's one friend inside the Watchers, smiles back. + +DAWSON +You look like shit. + +DUNCAN +How... long...? + +DAWSON +Week, maybe longer. We can't talk here. +(unstraps Duncan) +We gotta go. + +Dawson reacts to the sound of APPROACHING FOOTSTEPS. + +DAWSON (cont'd) +(urgently) +Now. Can you walk? + +DUNCAN +Think so. + +He takes one step and pitches forward onto his face. + +DUNCAN (cont'd) +Potent whiskey. + +He clambers to his feet and follows Dawson out of the chamber. + +EXT - ARMORY - NIGHT + +Dawson and Duncan emerge from a nondescript cinderblock armory, an overgrown Cold War relic recently co-opted by the Watchers. + +They duck some scurrying guards, plow through thick underbrush toA HIDDEN CARand climb inside. + +INT - CAR, TRAVELLING - NIGHT + +DUNCAN +You knew about The Sanctuary. + +DAWSON +Just because I'm a Watcher, doesn't mean I'm always in the loop. + +DUNCAN +I don't buy that. + +Dawson averts his gaze. Stares ahead. + +DAWSON +I really struggled with it, y'know, the idea of keeping guys on ice like that. But I couldn't argue with the logic. Least not 'til they went after you. +(squeals hard onto the main drag) +Guess that put it a little too close to home. + +DUNCAN +I owe you. + +Dawson slides Duncan's katana out from under the seat. Hands it over. + +DAWSON +Do me a favor, buddy. Live to pay me back. + +DUNCAN +What happened to the bodies? + +Dawson winces slightly. Keeps driving. + +DUNCAN (cont'd) +C'mon, Joe. + +DAWSON +Listen-- I got you outta one jam. Don't push your luck. + +DUNCAN +I need to see them. + +DAWSON +They're dead. Trust me. + +DUNCAN +Was one of them Connor MacLeod? + +DAWSON +Yes. + +DUNCAN +Let me see the bodies. + +DAWSON +The heads are gone. You really don't wanna go there. + +DUNCAN +I have to, Joe. I have to know. + +Dawson jerks the car to a sudden shuddering stop. + +DAWSON +Alright... Alright-- If I tell you, that's it, I'm outta here! You're on your own! I can't be a part of this, OK?! + +DUNCAN +OK. + +DAWSON +OK. + +Dawson stares at Duncan. A beat, then: + +DAWSON +Fuck. I'm a part of it. + +He throws the car back into gear and fishtails back onto the road. + +CUT TO: + +A VIEW THROUGH THE WINDSHIELDof a forlorn and forgotten CEMETERY. Nothing marks its perimeter but a toppled gate and some trampled barbed wire. + +DAWSON +It was a Christian burial. Decent. They said all the right words. + +DUNCAN +I can't begin to tell you how reassuring that is. Pull over. + +WIDE + +Dawson pulls over. He and Duncan get out of the car. + +DAWSON +Needless to say, with a dozen unexplainable corpses, they had to go a bit off the beaten track. + +EXT - CEMETERY - SUNSET + +From here it looks like just a barren hillside littered with broken and crumbling marble. + +CLOSER + +Duncan and Dawson tramp up the shallow incline. + +DAWSON (cont'd) +What do you think you're gonna find when you get up there? + +DUNCAN +I don't know. + +DAWSON +I'm not digging. Get that through your skull right now. Not these hands... + +CRESTING THE RIDGE + +Twelve freshly-mounded graves come into view, gouged into the rubbled downslope like wounds, each set off by a simple wooden cross. + +Duncan stops when he reaches the first grave. Stiffens. + +DAWSON +What? + +Duncan remains frozen, staring, seemingly at nothing. + +DAWSON (cont'd) +My dog used to do that with locked closets. I hate that. + +DUNCAN +Shh. + +Dawson listens. Nothing but the soft moan of WIND. + +DUNCAN (cont'd) +He's here. + +DAWSON +Tell me I'm not here for a seance. + +Duncan squints. Feels the BUZZ. Slight, but unmistakable. + +WHAT HE SEES: + +A row of stunted oaks, thick and gnarled againt the setting sun. + +CLOSER. . . + +Standing against the trunk, silhouette on silhouette, is the ghostly form of a MAN. Barely discernible, his features are hidden in shadow. + +Duncan slowly approaches the figure. Dawson hangs back,nervous and slightly twitchy. + +CLOSER STILL... + +The figure steps up to greet Duncan. Sunlight brightens the face ofCONNOR MACLEODwho smiles as he embraces Duncan in the traditional bear- crush of Scottish clansmen. + +DUNCAN +Sorry I missed your funeral. + +CONNOR +All told, it was a bit underwhelming. + +DUNCAN +So it would seem. + +They break. The brief joy suddenly drains from Connor's face-- his eyes speak of diffuse, faraway suffering. + +CONNOR +Why are you here? + +DUNCAN +Ten years ago you skipped out on a bartab. + +Connor's expression hardens. + +CONNOR +You need to know something... + +He steps up to Duncan, locks eyes. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +Every life I touch ends. Brutally. And for no reason. It's a curse that's followed me for centuries. I can't outrun it and I can't outlive it. +(beat) +You're my last friend in this world, Duncan. I left for your own good. It was better that you didn't know where. + +DUNCAN +The Sanctuary. + +CONNOR +Yes. The Sanctuary. + +DUNCAN +But you escaped. + +CONNOR +No, I didn't escape... + +FLASH BACK TO THE SANCTUARY as the STRANGER moves toward a shackled Connor MacLeod. + +CONNOR (V.O.) +...I was freed. + +As before, the immobilized Connor stirs in a drug-addled haze. + +CONNOR +Who are you? + +STRANGER +You'll know soon enough. + +CONNOR'S POV - THROUGH THE BOTTOM EDGE OF HIS FACEPLATE + +All Connor can see is the Stranger's HAND as it reaches down and PULLS THE PIN from one of Connor's arm shackles. The cuff FALLS OPEN. + +Stranger turns away. A beat later come the unmistakable SOUNDS of SLAUGHTER that fill the room to a DEAFENING CRESCENDO. + +CONNOR (V.O.) +I couldn't see the slaughter. I only heard it. + +BACK TO CEMETERY: + +We can still see the agony playing out in Connor's eyes. He turns away, seesJOE DAWSONstill standing on the ridge, swatting at the occasional deerfly. + +CONNOR +Who's he? + +DUNCAN +The reason I didn't become your replacement. + +Dawson casually removes one of his legs and vigorously shakes it upside down. + +CONNOR +What's he doing now? + +DUNCAN +Sand in the shoe would be my guess. + +Connor suddenly gazes beyond Dawson toTHE NEXT HILLSIDEand the FAINT SOUND OF APPROACHING MOTORCYCLES. He stiffens. + +CONNOR +You were followed. + +One by one, a HALF-DOZEN MOTORCYCLISTS crest the surrounding hills and come to a menacing stop. + +DUNCAN +Yeah. I was meaning to tell you about those guys. + +Dawson fumbles to put his leg back on. Hops a full 360 as he watches the intruders surround them.TWO MOREapproach on foot, following the same path Duncan and Dawson took.One is Faith. The other, The Stranger.Except he's no stranger to Connor MacLeod. Far from it.Connor goes rigid. Breathing stops.His nightmare's finally taken human form.MOVE IN for our first clear look atJACOB KASEstriding forward, bigger than death.His is a face hewn by God‘s sharpest blade, every angle cold, remorseless, Puritannical.As before, he's clad in basic black, accented by the stark white of a priest's collar. + +CONNOR +(ice) +Jacob Kase... + +Connor edges back his coat. Hand seeks out the grip of his sword.Duncan grabs his arm. + +DUNCAN +Not here. + +CONNOR +Walk away, Duncan. + +Kase and Faith continue toward them. Connor's rage seems to ratchet up with every step. + +DUNCAN +You're on holy ground. Remember the rules... + +Pure, radiating hate seethes in Connor's eyes. + +CONNOR +The rules be damned. + +Kase stops, inches from Connor's face. Cooly regards the sword. + +KASE +Look at you. You'd think after half a millenium, you'd learn to keep that you'd learn to keep that temper of yours in check. + +Gone is any trace of brogue. He's a fully-assimilated New Yorker now.Connor's fingers tighten around the swordgrip... + +CONNOR +Just tell me where, Kase. + +KASE +If all I wanted was to kill you, you'd have been dead a very long time ago, Connor. + +Something roils under Kase's controlled exterior. A rage every bit as consuming as Connor's. + +KASE (cont'd) +But your death alone could never appease the innocent souls you slaughtered. + +FLASH TO SEVERAL OF GLENFINNAN'S VILLAGERS being MOWED DOWN by Connor's mindless fury. + +KASE (cont'd) +It couldn't even begin to appease mine. + +FLASH TO KASE as he drops to his knees, gagging blood, RUN THROUGH by Connor's blade. + +KASE (cont'd) +Worst of all, you murdered a man of God. Who raised me as his son. + +FLASH TO A FATHER RAINEY as Connor brings his sword CLEAVING DOWN on him. + +KASE (cont'd) +...and no punishment conceived by man can ever atone for that. + +AFTERMATH OF MASSACRE + +Scattered wisps of smoke gambol across the demolished commons, leading up to the CORPSE of JACOB KASE. + +KASE (cont'd) +What you never could have expected was that you'd leave behind this one humble servant... + +Kase's body lies there as cold as the Highland dawn. + +KASE (cont'd) +...who would trade eternity itself to make you pay. + +HIS EYESsnap open.And we're once again TRANSPORTED BACK TO: + +EXT - CEMETERY - DAY + +Kase steps closer, revelling in this moment. + +KASE +Look back over the endless travesties of your life and you'll see me. Always there, waiting in the shadows. +(beat) +When friends and lovers are wiped from your sight, I'm there. + +KASE (cont'd) +When those you cherish die abruptly and for no reason, I'm there. +(kicks a clod of dirt onto a grave) +And when a handful of misguided and pathetic idiots just happen to share your own private hell... +(shrugs) +Guess who? + +He walks a full circle around Connor.All the while Kase addresses Connor, Faith never takes her eyes off Duncan. + +KASE (cont'd) +But if you think it ends here, my ancient friend, you're wrong. Very... Very... Wrong. + +Kase turns back to Faith. Pulls his sword and withoutwarning SLICES it across her throat.Faith reflexively GASPS, stumbles backward, leaving--A WOOD AND SILVER CRUCIFIXdangling on Kase's swordtip.FOLLOW THE CRUCIFIXas he swings it around and offers it up to Connor. + +KASE +Thought you might be wanting this. I kept it for you... + +FLASH TO CONNOR'S MOTHER, bound to the stake as Kase rips the crucifix from her neck. + +BACK TO SCENE: + +Connor stares down at the crucifix now in his open palm. + +KASE (cont'd) +For old times' sake. + +Kase puts an arm around Faith. + +KASE (cont'd) +Want to find me again, Connor? Just put your hands together... + +KASE (cont'd) +(winks) +And pray. + +He gives Faith a little shove and they both start downhill.THE SURROUNDING BIKERSgun their engines and ride off on billowing plumes of dust.Connor makes no move to follow. Strangely silent and impassive, he's like a warrior gutted by an invisible sword.Duncan puts a hand on his shoulder. + +DUNCAN +Whatever it is... + +Connor swipes away Duncan's hand, starts walking. + +DUNCAN (cont'd) +I can help you, Connor. + +Connor stops, swivels back. Eyes dead. + +CONNOR +Nobody can help me. + +He walks off alone, a ghost against a sea of gravestones, + +DUNCAN +CONNOR-- + +Duncan watches his friend depart, helpless. Turning back, he seesFAITH AND KASEstopped halfway down the hill. They seem to be arguing. Kase turns abruptly and strides off. + +CLOSE ON FAITHShe stands there a moment, sullenly rubbing her throat. Duncan's VOICE spins her back around. + +DUNCAN (O.S.) +Problem? + +FAITH +I get a bit fussy whenever somebody points a sword at me. +(dry) +Goes a long way back. + +Their eyes fix on one another. Air thickens. Buzzes with electricity. + +DUNCAN +Just one question. After all these years. . . +(re: Kase) +Why him? + +Faith glances down at Kase, who stands waiting at the base of the hill. Considers. + +FAITH +Because I've never known anyone who had such an amazing capacity for hate. +(beat) +Except me. + +On that, she brushes past Duncan and rejoins Kase. + +TRANSITION TO: + +EXT - IRISH COUNTRYSIDE, 17TH CENTURY - DAY + +Duncan and Connor ride side by side on horseback. They reach aRIVERBANKwhere a YOUNG WOMAN and her elderly CONSORT are detained at a crude wooden TOLL GATE.Eight or nine disreputable-looking HIGHWAYMEN surround their carriage.Connor rides up to what would appear to be the LEADER. He has the most teeth. + +CONNOR +What's going on? + +HIGHWAYMAN +The lady here refuses to pay her toll. + +CONNOR +Toll for what? + +HIGHWAYMAN +Passage over the bridge. + +Connor cranes his eyes, upriver and down. + +CONNOR +I see no bridge. + +HIGHWAYMAN +What do you think pays for the bridge? + +Connor considers, then turns back to the lady with ashrug. + +CONNOR +The man has a point. + +Despite her sweeping auburn hair and natural beauty, we now recognize the young woman as FAITH from an earlier era.Her original name is CATHERINE MARY DEVANEY. + +CATHERINE +These men are liars and scoundrels. They‘ve preyed upon us three years running. + +CONNOR +This true? + +HIGHWAYMAN +A good sturdy bridge is not an overnight accomplishment, Sir. + +CONNOR +Exactly what, may I ask, have you accomplished so far? + +HIGHWAYMAN +(proudly) +The tollgate. + +Duncan trots around the tollgate and up alongside Connor. He leans over to the highwayman. + +DUNCAN +Excuse me, but by whose authority do you act? + +HIGHWAYMAN +(holds up scroll) +By deed of the King. + +DUNCAN +Might I see that? + +Highwayman slowly unravels the parchment scroll. The nearly-illegible scrawl suggests random words copied by an illiterate. + +DUNCAN (cont'd) +Does the King always sign his name with an "X"? + +Highwayman's cronies reach for their swords. + +HIGHWAYMAN +He was in a hurry. + +All eyes hover on Duncan's reaction. Two of the highwaymen edge around behind Catherine and her elderly consort, ready to gut them both at a moment's notice. + +Duncan tracks them with his eyes. + +DUNCAN +(nods) +Busy man, the King. +(to Catherine) +I suggest you pay the gentlemen and be on your way. + +CATHERINE +His deed is a fake! + +DUNCAN +That's a matter of opinion. + +CATHERINE +You, Sir, are no better than they! + +DUNCAN +That's also a matter of opinion. +(to Connor) +Shall we? + +Connor sizes up his young protege'. Gives a dubious nod. + +CONNOR +Lead on. + +CATHERINE +You can't just leave! + +DUNCAN +You're right... + +He tosses a handful of gold coins to the Highwayman. + +DUNCAN (cont'd) +Good luck with the bridge. + +He kicks his horse into a brisk trot. Connor reluctantly follows suit.They cross the river through ankle-deep water. + +CONNOR +I can't believe you gave those bastards your money. + +DUNCAN +It wasn't my money. + +Duncan pulls a cinched canvas BAG overstuffed with coins from his overcoat. + +DUNCAN (cont'd) +It was theirs. + +RACK FOCUS TO the duped HIGHWAYMEN scrambling onto their horses and riding hard in frantic pursuit.They hit the river at a gallop, kicking up giant shimmering fantails of water. + +DUNCAN (cont'd) +By the time they reach us, the young lady and her escort should be safely out of harm‘s way. + +The pursuers close the gap in seconds.Connor grins approvingly. Draws his sword and glancesover at Duncan. + +CONNOR +Shall we? + +Duncan FLICKS his own sword, lets the hilt auto-rotate around his open palm and snaps it vertical. He nods back at Connor. + +DUNCAN +Let's. + +Together, they whirl around to face the onrushing horde.THEY BATTLEin the middle of the shallow river. Nine maniacal thieves against two sporting Immortals.The spray of water, the slashing of swords and the pounding of hooves all build to an operatic crescendo.Duncan's improved since Ravenna. He easily scatters three of his adversaries before engaging the blood-crazed LEADER.This time it's Connor who finds himself in trouble. He tumbles from his horse and goes down, losing his sword in the river.DUNCANsuddenly winds back and FLINGS his sword at his opponent like a throwing dagger.BLADEwhistles past the dumbstruck highwayman's head. Which was not the intended target... + +. . .as we discover when we follow it's end-over-endflight. . . + +. . . straight into CONNOR'S OUTSTRETCHED HAND. + +Connor parries his attackers, drives them backward onto their asses, then swivels around and TOSSES the sword back toDUNCAN,who catches it, ducks the highwayman's next swing and swiftly sends him packing. + +CONNOR +recovers his own sword, which is enough to send the last of their attackers into a full-on, stumbling retreat. + +They both stand watching asTHE CARRIAGEjostles safely across the river.CLOSE ON CATHERINEas she looks back at Duncan. She gives Duncan a knowing smile that's as innocent as it is seductive. + +CONNOR +(watching Duncan) +You know that stirring in your gut? It's not just simple lust, my friend. + +DUNCAN +I know... + +CONNOR +Ah, but do you really? + +MATCH CUT TO: + +FAITH +as she and Kase drive away from the cemetery in a late model convertible. + +EXT - CEMETERY - SUNSET + +Joe Dawson walks up to Duncan. + +DAWSON +I feel like I stepped in on the wrong party. + +Duncan keeps watching the convertible until it disappears over the next rise. + +DUNCAN +(quietly) +Let's go. + +CUT TO: + +EXT - BAR - NIGHT + +We recognize this place. It's where Connor and Duncan shared a last drink together. + +Duncan and Joe Dawson now hunch over that same bar, staring into their drinks. + +DAWSON +I swear, the man's a walking ghost. + +EXT - SIDEWALK - NIGHT + +FEET pound pavement. + +DAWSON (V.O.) (CONT'D) +Whatever it is he's carrying around inside him, it's like he's dead already. + +Glare of streetlights rake across Connor's face, his eyes fixed forward as if driven by a sense more powerful than sight. + +Connor bumps shoulders with a passing PEDESTRIAN. + +PEDESTRIAN +Eyy man-- watch it. + +He continues on, oblivious. + +INT - BAR - NIGHT + +Duncan turns to Dawson. + +DUNCAN +There are things you do in this life that damn you for eternity. They can't be changed. And they can't be undone. You carry these things to the grave, Joe, in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, you'll find some peace there. Some relief, even if it's oblivion. +(hollow smile) +But Immortals don't die. We just go on reliving our sins. Over and over again. + +EXT - ANOTHER STREET - LATER + +Connor stops. Lifts his eyes to the light. + +A SOLITARY STONE CHURCH + +stands before him in a bed of crawling mist. It seems eerily out of place amid the urban blight around it. + +INT - BAR - NIGHT + +Duncan downs the last of his drink, shoves off from the bar. + +Dawson glances warily up at him. + +DAWSON +Where now? + +DUNCAN +There were two places I figured Connor was likely to go. One of 'em was here. + +DAWSON +And the other? + +DUNCAN +You're the "Watcher." You tell me. + +EXT - STONE CHURCH - NIGHT + +Connor climbs the steps, presses through the heavy wooden doors... + +INT - CHURCH + +. . . and prowls slowly through the dimly-lit interior. Icon SHADOWS loom large and menacing. + +JUMP CUT: + +He moves along the stations of the cross. + +JUMP CUT: + +He's stalking through the nave. + +JUMP CUT: + +Barging into the sacristy. + +EXT - DAWSON'S CAR, DRIVING - NIGHT + +Dawson's car screams past with a doppler howl. + +DAWSON (O.S.) +It's an old abandoned church just off Canal... + +INT - DAWSON'S CAR - SAME + +Dawson's behind the wheel, gunning through narrow backstreets. + +DAWSON +. . . Perfect safe haven for a so-called priest, huh? "Our Lady of Sorrows." +(dry) +Kinda has a nice ring to it. + +He fishtails around the next corner. Recovers. + +DAWSON (cont'd) +I'll tell ya this-- if he's going after Kase, he's in for a rude awakening. The man's untouchable. + +DUNCAN +So they tell me. + +INT - CHURCH SANCTUARY - NIGHT + +Connor stops before the darkened altar, senses BUZZING.THE SHADOWED CRUCIFIXstirs. Arms lift in the darkness.Jacob Kase steps down off the cross, lingers in shadow. + +KASE +I would grant you absolution. If I were a better man. + +He turns and disappears out the back.Connor follows.Right pastKASE'S POSSE OF IMMORTALSscattered throughout the pews, who simply track him with their eyes but make no move to follow.WINSTON,the tall Jamaican, leans over to Faith. + +WINSTON +You know we're next, don't you? + +Faith lowers the book she's reading-- the Holy Bible. Looks up. + +FAITH +What? + +WINSTON +Our days are numbered. You can see it in Kase's eyes. + +FAITH +Do you believe in a hereafter, Winston? + +WINSTON +All I know is I won't be hereafter Jacob Kase gets through with me. And that's all I care about right now. + +Faith leans back against the hardback pew, closes hereyes. + +FAITH +Yeah... + +CUT TO: + +EXT - REAR OF CHURCH - NIGHT + +Kase strides just beyond the perimeter of the church grounds, then turns back to Connor.Connor draws his sword, moves on Kase. + +KASE +The ancient samurai vowed never to draw blood in anger. It defiled their sense of purpose. +(draws his own sword) +Of course they're also somewhat extinct. + +He steps fearlessly up to Connor, places his neck against Connor's swordblade... + +. . . just like he did with a certain late Immortal named Carlos. + +CLOSE ON KASE'S SWORD + +He opens his fingers and lets the sword DROP. It clatters useless to the ground. + +KASE +Would you slaughter an unarmed man of God again, Connor? Would that finally put your soul to rest? +(low, taunting) +Then go ahead. Send me home. + +BLOOD POUNDS with the rage pulsing through Connor's veins. + +KASE (cont'd) +What's stopping you? Guilt? The nagging sense that maybe you, more than I, deserve to die? + +Dawson's car pulls up in the background. Duncan jumpsout. + +KASE (cont'd) +Or somewhere along the way did you just lose your nerve? + +Connor's sword digs into Kase's neck. Breaks skin. + +DUNCAN +(approaching) +Don't do it, Connor. + +CONNOR +(gritted) +Keep back. + +KASE +(to Duncan) +You heard him. No Immortal can interfere with another's duel. + +DUNCAN +He's playing you! Step back onto holy ground before it's too late-- + +Kase faces back to Connor. + +KASE +Go ahead-- what better chance than now? Take your shot. + +DUNCAN +Don't listen to him! + +KASE +Do it. For your sweet mother... + +FLASH + +Caiolin burns at the stake. Suddenly startled, + +KASE (cont'd) +Your Huguenot bitch in Navarre... + +FLASH + +rears back, THROWS Suddenly startled, the HORSE bearing a FRENCH DUCHESS her to the ground, breaking her neck. + +KASE (cont'd) +Brenda Wyatt... + +FLASH + +BRENDA WYATT ("Highlander 1") is seen walking in CENTRAL PARK. A HIT-AND-RUN DRIVER MOWS HER DOWN from behind. + +KASE (cont'd) +Rachel Ellenstein... + +FLASH + +RACHEL is BLOWN APART in the antique store she shared with Connor. + +KASE (cont'd) +Tell me-- do they even begin to equal the devastation of an entire village? + +BLADE TREMBLES in Connor's hands. Kase presses his neck even harder against Connor's blade. BLOOD trickles down his neck. + +KASE (cont'd) +So close. Soooo close... + +Duncan stands by, helpless to intervene. + +KASE (cont'd) +Look at you. Even now, you're afraid you'll lose. That's your true fear isn't it? +(whispers low, seductive) +Oh, it's not the dying, my friend. I know that. That would be a blessing. It's the thought of giving up your essence to me. Making me even stronger by it. + +One look in Connor's eyes and you know he's right. + +KASE (cont'd) +What's wrong? +(almost a purr) +Don't you want to be inside me? + +Connor slowly LOWERS his sword... + +and FLICKS Kase's discarded sword back up into his hands. + +Kase simply smiles and takes position. + +Duncan can only look on helplessly as Kase takes the first offensive, driving Connor backward with dazzling -- almost casual-- swordplay. + +KASE +I've taken more heads than you can possibly imagine. + +His sword whistles across Connor's face, opens a THREEINCH GASH over his eye. + +KASE (cont'd) +Do you really want a taste of all those accumulated quickenings? + +Connor stumbles backward again, blinded by his own dripping blood. Knows beyond a shadow of a doubt he's doomed.Duncan knows it too. And it's killing him to watch.Still Connor won't go down easy.He manages a brief offensive, walking Kase backward on his toes.Kase puts one hand behind his back, fencing-style, and goes to work on Connor's torso, crosshatching him in blood.Connor lunges wildly. Kase parries effortlessly.Kase now opens up a BLINDING BARRAGE on Connor. It's like duelling against lightning, so quick and unpredictable are Kase's strikes.Constantly off balance, Connor still manages to NICK Kase in the cheek. + +KASE (cont'd) +(touches scratch) +I'd almost forgotten what that felt like. Thank you. + +He now turns it on full. Drives Connor up against a wall and pins him with his swordtip.His eyes go impossibly cold. + +KASE +I want you to think back to this moment in the endless nights ahead. And know that every time you close your eyes, from now to eternity, I'll be there. +(beat) +Ripping apart the ones you care about most. + +He removes his sword and steps back. + +KASE (cont'd) +It's not over, Connor MacLeod. It will never, never be over. + +He turns and walks back toward the church.Duncan does not step aside to let him pass-- their shoulders bump. + +KASE (cont'd) +You, on the other hand, are on borrowed time. + +He continues on, past the other Immortals who have gathered to watch the unfolding spectacle.One-by-one, they turn and file back into the church behind Kase.Connor stares into Duncan's eyes as if wanting to say something. Can't.Instead, he turns and starts limping out across the empty lot.Feeling the presence of another Immortal, Duncan slowly looks over at + +FAITH +who stands at a distance. Watching him. + +As their eyes meet, she, too, turns and melts back into the surrounding blackness. + +TRANSITION TO: + +EXT - DUBLIN ROWHOUSE (17TH CENTURY) - DAY + +A BEARDED BRAWLERCRASHES DOWN onto a wooden table. He takes the table cloth with him as he TUMBLES head over heels onto the floor in a cascade of soda bread and cabbage. + +Miraculously (unless you're an Irishman) he spills not one drop of precious Guinness, which he hoists in a cheery salute to: + +THE BRIDE AND GROOM + +who sit laughing in the eye of an Irish hurricane. DUNCAN MACLEOD and CATHERINE MARY (KATE) DEVANEY-- aka "Faith"-- are a stunning couple that inspire joyful madness.Things have progressed nicely since their chance encounter at the toll crossing. + +BRAWLER +Let's have at it! + +They kiss to a CHORUS of BOOS. So this time they REALLY KISS. Crowd goes wild. + +AROUND THEMREVELERS DANCE and FIGHT with equal abandon, making it almost impossible to tell the difference. But they stop like clockwork for every new toast and testimonial. + +THE BEARDED BRAWLER +spears his mug into the air like a royal scepter. + +BRAWLER +Happy is the bride that sees the sun! Sorry the corpse that sees the rain! + +CLOSE ON BEER MUGframed in a perfect BEAM of SUNLIGHT streaming through an open window. + +FOLLOW THE SUNBEAM TO: + +KATE who smiles back with her own inner radiance. Bedecked in flowers, her brown hair sweets low over white lace shoulders and cream skin. + +She leans over RAUCOUS CHEERS and kisses Duncan, provoking a new RIOT of and UPRAISED GLASSES. + +THE PIPERSresplendent in their Celtic kilts, launch into the "Highland Fling.Kate is instantly YANKED up onto her feet and into a ROUSING JIG.Before Duncan can protest, he's HOISTED from his seat and FLUNG onto the dance floor.Duncan and Kate link arms, goaded on by a circle of shouting, stumbling CLAPPERS.With each new upshift in tempo, they spin faster and faster until they're hanging on for dear life. + +SIGHT AND SOUNDgradually blur into a queasy sense of vertigo. But for Duncan, it's not just the headstrong mix of drink and passion.It's the BUZZ of another Immortal.He spins to a stop as his eyes come to rest onCONNOR MACLEODwho enters the room on a wave of silence.Duncan breaks away from Kate, crosses over to Connor and wraps him in a bear hug. + +DUNCAN +About time. I was beginning to wonder. + +CONNOR +I was on a junk in the South China Sea when I got your notice. 12 hours ago. + +DUNCAN +How...? + +CONNOR +Don't ask. + +Kate spins by on the arm of a new partner. + +KATE +You're next, Connor MacLeod. + +CONNOR +That better be no idle threat. + +Duncan watches Kate with a rapturous smile. + +DUNCAN +Well, I finally did it! + +CONNOR +So it would appear. + +DUNCAN +What do you think of her? + +CONNOR +You know that's not an easy answer. + +The edge in his voice is not lost on Duncan. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +Outside. + +EXT - PORCH - NIGHT + +Connor stands with Duncan at the railing, staring out into the encroaching night. + +CONNOR +You know she's like us. + +DUNCAN +Yes. I sensed it the day we met her. + +CONNOR +So you know that, like us, her immortality can only be triggered by the shock of a violent death. + +Duncan looks off, as if purging the thought from his head. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +It's what makes warriors of us all, Duncan. Good or bad, there seems a purpose to it. + +DUNCAN +Yes. And without such a death, she'll simply grow old and die like any other. Is that what you dragged me out here to tell me? + +Connor removes a uniquely-braided GOLDEN ROPE from his vest pocket.It catches the candlelight with the glint of a thousand silken threads as he runs it lightly over his fingertips. + +CONNOR +Many years after I was married, I came home to find Heather sitting on a stool in the kitchen, with a knife in one hand... and her hair in the other. + +FLASH TO: + +HEATHER, early-forties, her hair shorn to the scalp. She looks up at Connor with red-rimmed eyes and a bitter smile. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +At first I was scared. Scared that she'd gone mad. And then angry, as if she'd somehow meant to hurt me by it. + +BACK TO CONNOR AND DUNCAN: + +CONNOR (cont'd) +When I asked her why she'd done such a thing to herself, her answer cut me to the quick. She said it was the one part of her that would not age. It would forever remain the same as when I first fell in love with her. + +FLASH TO: + +CONNOR burying Heather in a simple grave overlooking their home. Tears streak his face. He sinks to his knees in unspeakable anguish. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +And that's how she wanted me to remember her. + +BACK TO CONNOR AND DUNCAN: + +Connor closes his fingers around the braid. Squeezes. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +It's all I have now. + +DUNCAN +I love Kate. I'll hold on to her as long as I can. That's all I can do. + +Kate can be seen through the window behind them, exchanging dance partners with dizzying abandon. + +CONNOR +If that's your intent, so be it. + +Duncan swings over the rail and hops off the porch. Takes to the ground in long angry strides. + +EXT - COBBLED STREET - NIGHT + +Conner walks double time to catch up with him. + +DUNCAN +Why are you telling me this? + +CONNOR +Because I once loved a woman more than life itself. And I watched her die. Unlike you, I had no other choice. + +DUNCAN +And I have a choice?! What would you have me tell her?! + +CONNOR +I'd tell her nothing. She wouldn't believe you. They never do when it involves themselves. + +DUNCAN +Then I can do nothing. + +CONNOR +She's in the flower of her youth. Enjoy the moment and let it pass. If you think you can. + +Duncan suddenly grabs Connor's shoulder, spins him around. + +DUNCAN +You'd have me kill her?! Is that it?! Is that what you came all this way to tell me on my WEDDING NIGHT?! + +CONNOR +I'd have you do what your heart-- and our conscience-- demand. + +Duncan settles. Searches his eyes. + +DUNCAN +And if it were you in my place? + +Connor ponders. Then shakes his head. + +CONNOR +I thank God I never had the choice. + +He listens to the faint strains of music and laughter carried on the rising WIND. + +CONNOR (cont'd) +Tell Catherine I'm sorry I couldn't stay longer. + +He clasps Duncan by the forearm. Then turns and continues n down the cobbled lane leading from the wedding party. + +TRANSITION BACK TO: + +INT - SOHO HOTEL - NIGHT + +Duncan lies sleepless in a nouveau-stark hotel room, somewhere in the bowels of Manhattan. + +A half-empty bottle of Glenmorangie is there for company.The door CREAKS OPEN, casting a single ribbon of light across the room.It WIDENS to REVEAL THE SILHOUETTE OF A WOMAN.Duncan closes his eyes. Feigns sleep.She pads silently inside. Pulls the door closed.Duncan remains still, breathing heavily.The woman steals slowly up to the bedside. Pauses, as if quietly studying Duncan-- + +--then swings her leg up and straddles him.Even in the murky halflight, he can still make out the familiar painted eyes framed by a tangle of bleached hair.She says nothing, her expression lost under a veil of darkness. Only her rapid breathing betrays her tension.Instead, she suddenly leans forward and KISSES HIM.Passionately.Duncan responds in kind. AS if powerless to do anythingelse... + +LIGHTNING stitches the sky outside as-- + +They embrace.Bodies entwine with an urgency that builds with the STORMraging outside. + +ON THE NEXT THUNDERCRACK + +TRANSITION TO: + +EXT - EMPTY FIELD (DUBLIN) - NIGHT + +ANGRY SHEETS OF RAIN rake the countryside as Duncan slogs imlessly through calf-deep mud. Still in his wedding arb, he's thoroughly drenched, as if he's been wandering this way for hours. + +INT - ROWHOUSE - NIGHT + +The last of the guests have gone or passed out beneath toppled kegs of ale.Only Kate remains upright, her face etched with sober dread asDUNCANappears in the doorway, rivulets of water pouring off hisshoulders and brow.For a while they just stare at one another, each lost to his own sense of foreboding.Kate is the first to speak. Despite her stoic veneer, her voice comes out small and terrified. + +KATE +If this is wrong, Duncan, tell me now. + +Saying nothing, Duncan slowly crosses the floor and takes her hands in his own. + +INT - BEDROOM - NIGHT + +CANDLES flicker in the storm-fed drafts that whistle through closed windows.Kate lays Duncan's rainsoaked clothing across a nightstand then turns, regarding him naked for the very first time.Duncan reaches out to touch her. She trembles.Gently, as if unwrapping an object of unimaginable fragility, Duncan removes her clothing down to a simple floating chemise.Then guides her down onto a canopied bed encircled by a hundred fresh-cut wildflowers.HANDSclasp, fingers dig into skin.Whatever refinements Kate displayed in public are now happily abandoned.She arches up under Duncan, puts her lips to his ear. + +KATE +I'll love you forever. + +On an OMINOUS THUNDERCLAP-- + +TRANSITION BACK TO: + +INT - SOHO HOTEL - NIGHT + +We're back in the present. Little has changed but thesheets.And the fury of their lovemaking. + +Each new THUNDERCRACK highlights a different aspect of their hunger-- their wet, glistening bodies STROBING FASTER AND FASTER until the act itself becomes abstracted from any sense of time or place. + +FLASH FRAMES + +stutter inside the lightning: + +SILKEN HAIRcoursing over cream-colored breasts and a simple pewter cross. + +EYESsimilar in shape and color, that shift from painted to plain... + +FINGERNAILSthat toggle between neo-goth BLACK and natural pink... + +FAITHthrows back her head, biting back the shudders of release.... . . and sinks down into the bed with a drawn sigh. + +INT - DUBLIN BEDROOM - NIGHT + +A SHADOW darkens Kate as she sleeps. It lingers there, deadly still.DUNCANstands over her, gripped by indecision.The fateful choice tears at him, even as he holds a DAGGER over her gently-rising chest.His hand TREMBLES. + +DUNCAN +(softly) +Forgive me. + +KATE'S EYESSNAP OPEN as the DAGGER PLUNGES INTO HER HEART.For an instant their eves meet. And in that single shattering moment, Duncan knows he chose wrong.It's not just terror that passes through Kate's eyes. It's the incomprehensible pain of betrayal.Kate gasps once, jerks and settles. Lies there dead, blood pooling across her nightgown.Duncan stares down at her body, numb. + +DUNCAN +I'm sorry... + +On that look we TRANSITION BACK TO: + +INT - HOTEL - NIGHT + +The pain imprints on Duncan as if he's still clutching the knife. + +DUNCAN +I'm sorry. + +Whatever passion stirred Faith moments before is gone without a trace. Her eyes are as cold and empty as the dead Kate. + +FAITH +You had no right. + +DUNCAN +I was doing it for you. For us. + +FLASH TO: + +INT - DUBLIN BEDROOM - NIGHT + +Kate CONVULSES BACK TO LIFE, eyes wild, insane. + +Duncan reaches out to her, which only sends her reeling further into panic delirium. She swats at him, punching flailing... + +DUNCAN +Now you're an immortal. Like me. It was the only way... + +Words fall on deaf ears.She wrenches out of his grip. Stumbles for the door, drenched in her own blood.Leaves Duncan standing mindblown in her wake. + +EXT - DUBLIN STREETS - NIGHT + +Kate flees through wet empty streets-- barefoot, nightgown ripped and bloody, face contorted like a madwoman. Breath comes in ragged, whimpering gasps.She trips, falls. Comes up running. + +BACK TO PRESENT: + +Faith climbs off the bed, throws on Duncan's shirt, whirls back, tears streaking her face like warpaint. + +FAITH +You wanted this! I never asked for eternity! You forced it on me! +(screams) +IT WAS MY DECISION, NOT YOURS!! + +DUNCAN +Would you have really understood? + +FAITH +Understood? Which part?! The part about never having children? Or the endless, numbing sameness of it all? +(bitter laugh) +Or maybe you mean the part where you wake up one day and realize you're nothing but a whore racking up faceless affairs because whole lifetimes tick by so fast they don't even count anymore! + +She wraps her arms around herself as if to stem the escaping demons.Duncan remains silent, taking it all in. + +FAITH (cont'd) +Here's the kicker, Duncan. I came here for one reason and one reason only. To see if I could feel again. Anything. + +She walks out, leaving the door hanging wide in her wake. + +INT - HALLWAY + +Faith reaches for the stairwell door as-- + +--DUNCAN'S ARM LANCES OUT, holding it shut. + +DUNCAN +(leaning in) +I'm watching my best friend driven insane by something that happened four centuries ago. And there's nothing I can do to stop it. Because those people are dead and nobody can bring them back. + +Faith struggles to open the door. Duncan holds firm. + +DUNCAN (cont'd) +But I'm lucky. You know why? + +FAITH +Let go! + +DUNCAN +I'm lucky because my crime can still be forgiven. + +FAITH +LET GO!! + +DUNCAN +As long as you're still alive, there's at least the chance. It could take years. Centuries even. It may never happen... + +Faith is now PUSHING FURIOUSLY on the door. + +DUNCAN (cont'd) +But at least I can still carry the hope inside me. That's one blessing of immortality. There's always tomorrow. + +He lets go of the door and steps back. + +DUNCAN (cont'd) +Even for you. + +Faith shoves her way past him and disappears into the stairwell. + +CUT TO: + +EXT - MANHATTAN SKYLINE - NIGHT + +CONNOR MACLEOD stands on a ROOFTOP, sword in hand, face upturned to the bitter heavens. Stinging WIND and RAIN slash at his face. + +He doesn't even blink. + +CUT TO: + +EXT - NEAR CHURCH - NIGHT + +Seen through a CAMCORDER VIEWFINDER, our roving POV wends its way past a couple fixing junkies up to aGARAGEwhere WINSTON hunkers over his bike making repairs. Kase's church looms in the background like a veiled threat. + +CALVIN (O.S.) +Win-ston. + +WINSTON +Shut that thing off. + +CALVIN (O.S.) +Hey, c'mon. + +WINSTON +SHUT IT OFF! + +SCREEN BLACKS OUT as Winston slams his hand over the lens, ENDING CAMCORDER POV.Calvin sets it down. + +CALVIN +Awright... + +WINSTON +I'm out. I'm leaving. + +CALVIN +You're out. You're out... You don't g&z out. + +WINSTON +Watch me. + +CALVIN +You saw what he did to Carlos. He's Genghis the fucking Hun, man. You live his way or you die your way. Be grateful you got the choice. + +Winston looks off. + +WINSTON +We could take him. + +CALVIN +Huh? Say how much you value your life? + +WINSTON +Forty-three guineas. Saw the bill of sale myself. Kingston Jamaica, August 14th, 1813. + +CALVIN +Sorry there, Cinque', but I got a bigger price goin on this unit. + +WINSTON +I watched Connor MacLeod stand up to Kase tonight. Got me thinking. + +CALVIN +What about. + +WINSTON +That maybe my soul wasn't part of the deal after all. + +Calvin considers his point. + +CALVIN +You really think we can take him? + +WINSTON +The man can't stop a bullet. I know that much. But I need your help. + +CALVIN +Yeah and who takes his head, huh? Gets that bucket fulla lucky charms. You, Mr Cool? +(beat) +Who's gonna be master then? + +INSERT - CALVIN'S CAMERAand that little glowing RECORD LIGHT... + +EXT - RUBBLED CEMETERY - DAWN + +FOLLOW CONNOR MACLEOD + +CUT TO: + +as he reaches the crest of the cemetery ridge. + +He sags against a solitary windswept oak, slides down until he's sitting cross-legged at the base of the tree. Eyes wide, unblinking. + +BEFORE HIMstand those TWELVE DEAD IMMORTALS from The Sanctuary, directly over their burial plots.Their heads are missing.CONNORlooks on impassively. Even as--THOUSANDS MOREnow stipple the barren landscape. All headless, in period dress spanning untold centuries. The forgotten casualties of an endless, impossible war.Connor nods solemnly. + +CONNOR +Soon. + +He blinks.The specters are gone. + +TIME LAPSE ON CONNOR: + +DAY becomes NIGHT becomes DAY.And still he sits there, unmoved, as if ready to embrace the rest of eternity from this one desolate spot. + +TRANSITION TO: + +EXT - CEMETERY RIDGE - DAY + +Connor remains sitting against the tree asA SHADOWslices over him. He slowly tilts his gaze upward. Squints. + +DUNCAN (O.S.) +There's supposed to be an end to all this, right? A final answer... + +Duncan slides down next to him. Gazes out at the trackless ocean. + +DUNCAN +Isn't that the "prize" we're all butchering each other to win? + +CONNOR +I already know the answer. The "prize"-- the real prize-- is just to close your eyes and see nothing. + +DUNCAN +I don't believe that. + +CONNOR +You think the Game is still about good against evil? A better world? Look around. Who among us really deserves to win? + +DUNCAN +Not Jacob Kase. + +CONNOR +And who's going to stop him? You? Me? + +DUNCAN +There has to be a way. + +Connor looks off. Nods. + +CONNOR +Oh, there's a way, kinsman. There's a way. But I don't believe you have the guts to take it. + +DUNCAN +Try me. + +Connor stands up. Offers a hand to Duncan. Hauls him upright. + +CONNOR +Alright then. + +HE SUDDENLY LASHES OUT WITH HIS SWORD.Duncan barely catches Connor's blade with his own. + +DUNCAN +What're you doing?! + +CONNOR +Don't you know? The better of us will take the other's gift. Pray it'll be enough. + +Duncan lowers his blade. + +DUNCAN +I won't do it. + +CONNOR +Then you'll die. + +Again, Connor STRIKES. Again, Duncan barely escapes with his head.And settles into a fighting stance. + +DUNCAN +It can't end like this! + +CONNOR +It already has. Goodbye, brother. + +He SWINGS FOR DUNCAN'S NECK.Steel RINGS against steel.Clansman against clansman. + +CUT TO: + +INT - CHURCH SANCTUARY - DAY + +Faith sits in a center pew, head bowed, deep in thought. Or prayer. Hard to tell with somebody like Faith.Kase sits down beside her. + +KASE +You were with him. + +He curls his nose, as if he can still smell the sin. + +KASE (cont'd) +Woman is a temple built upon a sewer. + +FAITH +Glad I can help you feel a bit better about yourself there, Jacob. + +KASE +Remember what you were when I first found you? A whore. Now look. A liberated woman. + +FAITH +Fuck you. + +Kase runs a delicate finger across her neck. + +KASE +Be grateful I don't this minute remove your pretty little heafod. + +FAITH +(looks up, cold) +Holy ground, lover. It's a bitch, ain't it? + +CUT TO: + +EXT - CEMETERY RIDGE - DAY + +Two figures dot the faraway ridge as the savage music of their swordplay PEALS out across the barren countryside. + +MOVING CLOSER,we watch these timeless warriors exchange strikes that would drive lesser men into the ground. Each gifted in his own way, neither gaining full advantage over the other.... . . they both gradually succumb to EXHAUSTION. + +CLOSER: + +Connor and Duncan finally lower their swords, panting andspent. + +DUNCAN +(hollow rasp) +Enough? + +CONNOR +(barely audible) +Enough... + +And that's as much as either can say as they suck back great gulping lungfulls of air.A little color finally returns to Duncan's cheeks. He mops his face with his sleeve. + +DUNCAN +Next time I won't hold back. + +CONNOR +Nor I. + +Dragging his sword like a half-ton barbell, Duncan turnsand makes his way back toward the "resting tree.CONNORcloses his eyes and HOISTS HIS SWORD... + +CONNoR +(whispered) +Remember well, old friend.DUNCANfeels, more than sees, the ONCOMING BLADE.He turns into the ARC of CONNOR'S SWING--SLOW MOTIONHe reacts on pure instinct, SWORD LIFTING, BODY PIVOTING with the DRIVING FORCE of CONNOR'S THRUST... + +FLASH TO: + +CONNOR TEACHING THAT SAME MOVE TO DUNCAN BACK IN 1627. + +FLASH BACK TO: + +CONNOR'S SWORDas it GRAZES Duncan‘s side. + +DUNCAN'S KATANASWINGS UP with the same vicious thrust, CATCHES CONNOR UNDER THE CHIN... + +Connor doesn't flinch. + +TIME SUSPENDS the instant before blade meets flesh... + +CONNOR'S VOICE +The game is not about survival, Duncan. It's about living. In the end, it's all that matters. + +REAL TIME-- + +THE BLADE CUTS CLEAN THROUGH CONNOR'S NECK WITH UNSTOPPABLE MOMENTUM. + +Duncan CRIES OUT as he follows through, BLOOD staining his blade with the crushing reality of what he has just committed. + +He sinks to his knees... + +. . . and SCREAMS TO THE HEAVENS. + +The heavens answer back with THUNDER, LIGHTNING and GALE FORCE WINDS that seem to come from everywhere at once. + +PURE ESSENCE-- + +--HOWLS out of CONNOR'S BODY. + +DUNCAN +CON-NORRRRRRR!! + +It SURGES UPWARD into endless SHEETS of LIGHTNING.Duncan CONVULSES at the epicenter of a GROWING CLASH between EARTH and SKY.SHOCKWAVES POUND through his skull, triggeringA LAST FLEETING VISION OF CONNOR MACLEOD:Walking with Heather across an open field. He turns and looks back at Duncan.CONNOR'S EYESshine with a look of ultimate peace and transcendence.He seems to be gazing straight into Duncan's soul. And smiling at what he sees as--A FINAL BLAST OF ESSENCERIPS through Duncan's BRAIN. + +EXT - HIGHRISE - NIGHT + +DISSOLVE TO: + +Duncan stands alone on the rooftop, stripped to the waist, moving slowly through an elaborate kata.The precision of his movement belies the chaos inside him.He windmills the katana over his head, faster and faster, until he suddenly RELEASES IT--THE SWORDPINWHEELS through the night sky, arcing out across the open space between buildings...Duncan watches its long, lofting trajectory... + +. ..then takes off RUNNING. He reaches the edge of the rooftop and LEAPS.WIDELegs cycling through empty air, he traces a matching arc directly under the far-flung sword.Like a long-jumper stretching for that last inch of sand, Duncan HYPER-EXTENDS for the next rooftop. + +EXT - NEXT ROOFTOP + +HIS LEADING FOOThits the edge-- digs in, pivots and sets.HIS HANDTHRUSTS UPWARD as the sword grip SLAPS INTO HIS OPEN PALM. Fingers wrap around the ivory hilt, slowly lowering it down to eye-level.GO IN CLOSE ON THOSE EYESand see a new Duncan MacLeod. Stronger. Deadlier. A man cooly aware of his own destiny. + +CUT TO: + +EXT - ARMORY - DAY + +Dawson's car pulls up to the generic cinderblock building that now stands unguarded and abandoned. + +INT - ARMORY - DAY + +Dawson enters, squints into the darkness.The interior looks as if it's stood fallow for the last three decades. No giger-chair, no gothic restraints. No evidence the Watchers ever took up temporary residence here.Except for MATTHEW, who emerges from the stale halflight to confront Dawson. + +MATTHEW +I'm a bit surprised to see you again. All things considered. + +Dawson just stands there, hands plunged inside his coat pockets. + +MATTHEW (cont'd) +As you can see, we had to move on. Find a new Sanctuary. + +DAWSON +It's wrong. What you're doing. It's inhuman. + +MATTHEW +Ah, but they're not human, really. Are they? + +DAWSON +Gimme a reason, Matthew. + +MATTHEW +It's for the good of us all. You know that. + +DAWSON +Gimme a reason. + +Matthew cocks his head like the RCA dog. + +MATTHEW +Because we must. It's that simple. And if you get in our way again, there will be very serious consequences. + +DAWSON +Gimme a good reason. + +Matthew pulls a gun. Aims it at Dawson's heart. + +MATTHEW +I'm sorry to have to do this, Joe. + +He pulls the trigger...as TWO SLUGS pound into his chest. Matthew topples backward, dead.Dawson palms the gun still concealed in his coat pocket. Nods. + +DAWSON +Reason enough. + +CUT TO: + +EXT - NEW YORK STREET - DAY + +Kase is roaring through narrow streets in a low-slung convertible, Faith at his side. With utter disregard for speed or care, he guns it madly in shrieking turns. + +INT - CONVERTIBLE, DRIVING + +Faith grips the dashboard two-handed. + +FAITH +Slow down. + +KASE +Adrenalin's good for the sex drive. + +FAITH +I'm not amused, Jacob. + +She reaches over and slaps on her shoulder harness. + +KASE +Thought maybe you needed a little more excitement. You know, spice up our relationship a bit. + +WIDE + +He OVERSTEERS, caroms off several parked cars, recovers... + +KASE (cont'd) +I mean, isn't that why you went back to Duncan MacLeod? The risk? + +FAITH +I don't know what you're trying to prove. + +Kase puts an arm around her shoulder... + +KASE +Why do I have to prove anything to you? + +.... as his foot flattens the accelerator. ENGINE WHINES. + +KASE (cont'd) +I can have anything I want already. + +FAITH +Except me. And that bugs the shit out of you, doesn't it? + +KASE +Not really. + +AT THE NEXT TURNit's clear he'll never make it, he's going too fast. Kase only smiles.Releasing the wheel, he stands in his seat, lifts his arms above his head and SHOUTS in exultation as-- + +--the car EXPLODES into the wall.It's all over in a breath. Accordioned metal, drooling radiator, and Faith, slumped over the dash.Kase lies sprawled and battered on the pavement, thrown some distance from the wreckage. He's clearly taken the worst of the impact.FAITHstirs and slowly wrenches herself free of the smoking mangle of steel and plastic.She reaches back and pulls Kase's sword free of the wreckage.With single-minded determination, she limps over to Kase's body, face-up in his own pooling blood.A disbelieving PEDESTRIAN pauses in shock.Faith gives her a twisted smile. + +FAITH +Don't mind us. + +Pedestrian SCURRIES OFF as Faith lifts the sword over her head and brings it WHISTLING DOWN across Kase's neck.With inhuman reflexes, Kase awakens and catches her wrist in the same heartbeat.Eyes narrow. + +KASE +Does this mean it's over? + +DISSOLVE TO: + +EXT - KASE'S CHURCH - DAY + +Kase steps up to the back entrance, alone.THE DOOR hangs slightly ajar, which clearly disturbs him. + +INT - CHURCH SANCTUARY - DAY + +Kase enters the main room to find Calvin and Sarge asleep on their pews. He kicks the first pew, awakens both with a start. + +KASE +Who left the back door open? + +CALVIN +Huh? + +Kase looks to Sarge. + +SARGE +I dunno. + +KASE +Where's Cracker Bob? He was supposed to be watching the back. + +Calvin and Sarge both shrug. + +KASE (cont'd) +(sotto) +Infants. + +He whirls, stalks out. + +INT - SACRISTY + +Kase enters his dark, cluttered office, SLAMMING the door behind him.FLICKS ON THE LIGHTand stops cold.A SWORDJUTS from a small wooden table... + +. . . right through CRACKER BOB, who lies skewered to the tabletop.WRAPPED AROUND THE SWORDHILTis Caiolin MacLeod‘s unique silver-and-wood CRUCIFIX.The message is not lost on Kase.BOB'S EYESsuddenly flutter open. First thing he sees is that sword hilt sticking rudely out of his own chest. + +CRACKER BOB +Ah-- Ahhh-- AHHHHHHH!! + +KASE +Shut up. + +He reaches forward and JERKS the sword out of Bob, and with itA SINGLE SCRAP OF PAPERimpaled on the blade.It bears just one word, scrawled in Bob's plentiful blood.GLENFINNANBob sits up on the table, wild-eyed, as Kase calmly opens his fingers and lets the paper slide from his fingers. + +CUT TO: + +EXT - LITTLE ITALY, ESTABLISHING - NIGHT + +Glitter lights and milling tourists. Row upon row of gimmicky Italian restaurants. + +INT - ITALIAN RESTAURANT, PRIVATE ROOM - NIGHT + +Jacob Kase and his acolytes dine at a long table set against a gaudy backdrop of faux Roman ruins, babbling fountains and plastic holly.It all imparts a whiff of "Last Supper" pomp to the proceeding.Which is not lost on the other Immortals, who glance around warily while eating, as suspicious of each other as they are of Kase.Nor does anyone miss the fact that there are no windows in this particular room. + +CLOSE ON WINSTONHe stares into his pasta, beading sweat.BENEATH THE TABLEhis fingers curl around the cold steel of a .38 SPECIAL wedged between his knees. He inches the gun upward toward the table rim as...Kase suddenly stands up in the center. + +KASE +A toast... + +All heads turn. + +Gun freezes in Winston's lap, just hidden from view. + +KASE (cont'd) +I see tonight as a celebration of the spirit. +(raises his glass) +Here's to all of you who continue to + +stand by me... +(smiles at Winston) +. . . even those who might waver at times. + +Winston stiffens, fears that Kase is on to him.And when Calvin averts his gaze, he knows.Still, he raises his glass. As do the others. + +KASE (cont'd) +You are my flock. You nourish my soul. + +It's now or never for Winston. His moment of truth.Kase's eyes slowly drift over to meet his. + +SLOW MOTION, + +Kase tips back his glass and drinks, eyes locked on Winston.Winston responds in kind, gulping down his wine as he slips the gun back into his pocket.He shoves off from the table. + +WINSTON +Excuse me. + +KASE +Where you going? + +WINSTON +Toilet. + +KASE +Sit sit. I'm not through with my toast yet. + +WINSTON +Can't wait. + +He angles for the door. + +KASE +I'm almost finished. Sit. + +Winston reaches for the doorknob. Locked.He swivels back. Sees death in Jacob Kase's eyes. His death. + +KASE (cont'd) +It'll all be over in a few more seconds. + +A cold spike of fear shoots through every single one of them... + +. . . as Kase continues. + +KASE (cont'd) +You‘ve all been a part of a great quest. A four hundred year quest for justice. + +He lifts up an exquisitely-crafted sword. + +KASE (cont'd) +And here, my friends, is the instrument of that justice. It's called the "Colichmarde." Finest sword known to man. + +The blade WHISTLES upright. + +KASE (cont'd) +Blessed by Popes and baptized in blood. I only break it out for special occasions. + +He kisses the perfect cross formed by the juncture of blade and quillons. + +KASE (cont'd) +It sings like an angel. Just listen. + +Winston jerks for his gun.In a SUDDEN BLUR of STEEL and BLOOD, Kase beheads Winston and dispatches the next two of his stunned acolytes with blinding efficiency.TONGUES OF LIQUID ENERGY coil up and around Kase's body. But he keeps right on coming.The others scatter like roaches.ESSENCE PULSES off walls and ceiling, SHATTERING STATUARY, HURLING FURNITURE... + +. ..before MERGING with the WALKING INFERNO that is now Jacob Kase.His sword BLAZES through the remaining victims, trailing STREAKS OF BLUE FIRE.One after another, they drop headless to the concrete,triggeringA FULL-ON MULTIPLE-QUICKENING.THE NEXT WAVE OF ESSENCESLAMS into Kase front on. His knees BUCKLE.ANOTHERHits him BROADSIDE, buffeting him one way asYET ANOTHERPOUNDS him from the opposite- side, rocking him back center and IMMOBILIZING HIM inside an omni-directional CRUSH of LIGHT AND SOUND that WHITES OUT THE FRAME. + +DISSOLVE TO: + +EXT - SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS - DAY + +A THICK CLINGING FOG, enshrouds the rocky highlands. Somewhere along the invisible coastline below, a foghorn MOANS.The skeletal remains of an ancient Gaelic CASTLE loom spectral gray aboveJACOB KASEwho stands before an ANCIENT CELTIC MONOLITH (familiar from Glenfinnan's town square) revelling in the changeless land of his birth. + +KASE +(calling out) +Where else could stir the blood of a Scotsman too long of this earth and too far from home? + +Kase picks his way across the uneven ground, unable to see beyond the reach of his own arm. + +KASE (cont'd) +(filling his lungs) +I can nae get enough of it. + +He draws his sword, extends it outward until the tipdisappears from sight.A LOW SCRAPING OF METAL ON STONE taunts him fromsomewhere out there in the slow-drifting whitenessKase's sword TWITCHES toward the SOUND.Just the FAINTEST OUTLINE of a FIGURE COALESCES BRIEFLY inside the fog. + +KASE +Ah, what's this? Hamlet's ghost? + +The FIGURE melts back into silent nothingness. + +KASE (cont'd) +I'm afraid even the cloak of fog won't help you overcome a sizeable disadvantage. + +A DIFFERENT SCRAPING SOUNDspins him around to seeANOTHER GHOSTLY FIGURElooming over him from a narrow stone outcropping.Kase masks a slight tinge of concern. + +KASE (cont'd) +It's always good to see two fellow clansmen banded together in a common cause. But I hope you haven't sunk to the level of a simultaneous ambush. + +Once again, the figure steps backward into the envelopingfog. Disappears.Slightly unnerved, Kase jerks around. No sign of anyone. Just that infernal mist.A SOFT SCRAPING of SWORD against ROCK swivels him back around to his original position. + +CLOSE ON KASEHis nerves are starting to shred.He turns several full rotations, craning for a glimpse of his tormentors.And then he sees it...AN APPARITION WIELDING A SWORD.Kase LUNGES for it. And this time, it doesn't retreat.Swords CLANG in thunderous overture asTWO SPECTRES IN THE FOGbattle for position on tenuous footing.KASE drives his adversary backward into a BLUNTED STONE WALL, leaving him no avenue of escape.Their swords LOCK UP and Kase suddenly finds himself FACE TO FACE WITH-- + +DUNCAN MACLEOD.You can sense Kase's bitter disappointment. + +KASE +Not at all who I'd hoped for. + +CLOSE ON DUNCAN'S EYESas they flick to a point iust behind Kase's head. + +CLOSE ON KASE'S EYESas he realizes he's been had.He SWINGS FULLY AROUND TO FACE CONNOR-- + +--and sees that NOBODY'S THERE!Too late-- he SWINGS BACK TO DUNCAN-- and IMPALES HIMSELF ON DUNCAN'S SWORD. + +DUNCAN +(through clenched teeth) +I'm afraid Connor couldn't be here. But don't worry, he's with us in spirit. + +Still gripping his sword two-fisted, Duncan seems to surge with newfound strength. + +DUNCAN +He gave himself for this moment. And I shan't let him down. + +Duncan SHOVES OFF from Kase and goes to work on him with a VENGEANCE. + +WHAT KASE SEES: + +A frightening, hallucinitory vision of a DUAL ADVERSARY-- one that CHANGES back and forth in the flux of swirling mist.As Duncan's blade BLURS PAST, Kase sees CONNOR. With the very next SWING, he sees Duncan again.Then Connor. Then Duncan. Connor. Duncan...Kase rubs his eyes with the back of his hand. Shakes it off. Can't be.Duncan buffets Kase backward with several dazzling combinations, then goes inside, tough and ugly.Kase seems suddenly overwhelmed, physically and mentally, as he's driven onto his back by sheer relentless overdrive.Duncan SLASHES DOWN for the killing blow, which Kase BARELY DEFLECTS.He SLASHES AGAIN. And AGAIN. Each time Kase barely escapes with his head intact.Duncan keeps up this relentless barrage, hacking down in every conceivable direction, looking for an opening, finding none.With each increasingly-leaden DOWNSTROKE, Duncan is losing strength... + +. . . and Kase is regaining his.Kase BATTLES BACK TO HIS FEET, deftly siezes the advantage. + +KASE +(savage smile) +This is not a game won on points, I'm afraid. + +He drives Duncan back with an answering exchange that leaves no doubt of his superior ability.In a single massive THRUST, Kase STRIPS Duncan's sword and sends him flying.Duncan lands on his back, weaponless.Kase steps up to the katana, scoops his toe under it and FLICKS IT BACK TO DUNCAN.Then waves him back to his feet. A cat playing with his prey.Both combatants square off... and RESUME. + +KASE +That's the beauty of eternity. The fun never stops. + +He THRUSTS-- spiking Duncan clear through the shoulder.Duncan hangs up on the blade, unable to move. Grimacesin pain.Setting boot to chest, Kase KICKS Duncan off his sword and sends him spiralling backward.Duncan reaches out to break his fall-- + +--but there's no ground beneath him.He PLUMMETS OFF a SLANTED CLIFF. Bounces at fifty feet, then tumbles clear to the bottom.Kase steps up to the edge, scowls.A FRESHLY-CUT QUARRYhas been hewn from the hilltop by the massive sword of modern technology.EARTH MOVING EQUIPMENT several stories tall lines the inner basin. + +KASE +What have they done to my mountain?! + +He gazes down at DUNCAN'S BODY sprawled at the base of the cliff. Then starts down after him. + +EXT - BOTTOM OF QUARRY - DAY + +Duncan crawls over to his sword... + +. . . as Kase picks his way down the steep incline.Duncan spikes his sword into the ground and uses it to climb upright.One look at his battered body and you know this fight is over. He just stands there, hunched over his sword, grimly waiting for Kase to reach him and deliver the killing blow.It doesn't take long. Kase stops, regards him withcontempt. + +KASE +Don't make it easy. I hate that. + +DUNCAN +You‘re breaking my heart. + +KASE +Pick up! + +Duncan shakes his blood-streaked head. + +KASE +PICK UP! + +DUNCAN +It's always been too easy for you, Kase. No reason this time should be any different. + +He plucks his sword out of the ground... + +. . . and TURNS HIS BACK TO KASE. + +DUNCAN (cont'd) +Take your best shot. + +He hobbles off, sword hanging limp at his side.Kase starts TREMBLING WITH RAGE. + +KASE +MACLEOD! + +Duncan ignores him, keeps walking.About now, we should have a pretty good idea what Duncan has in mind.But Kase doesn't have a clue. + +DUNCAN'S POV: + +For a fleeting moment, Connor stands before Duncan, moremist than flesh.He opens his arms wide.CONNOR'S APPARITION Remember weil, old friend.He DISSOLVES AWAY as Kase hoists sword over shoulder... + +KASE (cont'd) +MAC-LEOD!! + +. ..and CHARGES... + +Which is exactly what Duncan expected.USING THE SAME MOVE CONNOR TAUGHT HIM-- + +--Duncan PIVOTS WITH the THRUST, catching Kase completely off guard and off balance.This time, no force of man or nature can keep Duncan's sword from hitting home.He SLICES UPWARD with a ROAR OF DEFIANCE... + +. ..and FOLLOWS THROUGH. + +ON KASE: + +He stands there, head miraculously still intact, a look of bewildered relief.Duncan simply POPS his sword butt into Kase's face.The head comes easily away from the neck and falls. + +KASE'S POV spins END OVER END through the air, bounces twice and comes to a rest SIDEWAYS.And that's how we first see his HEADLESS BODY, sprawled across the ground.KASE'S SEVERED HEADblinks with sudden recognition. And now he knows. This is the worst part of losing your head-- those last few seconds of cold lucidity. + +DUNCANopens his arms toHEAVES UNDERFOOT. + +WIDE - THE QUARRY + +the ULTIMATE OUICKENING as THE EARTHWALLSEXPLODE like a circle of VOLCANOES venting into the center.Duncan CLAWS UPWARD on a GROUNDSWELL OF RAW ENERGY as DIRT, ROCK, ASH and SMOKE OBLITERATE THE BASIN.The SEISMIC CONVULSIONS GRADUALLY SUBSIDE.The dust settles.And the blighted landscape falls into an unearthly SILENCE, blind to its own buried secrets.HOLD on the trailing wisps of smoke asTHE GROUND SHUDDERSand DUNCAN'S KATANA BREAKS THE SURFACE.It PLUNGES UPWARD ONE, TWO, THREE MORE TIMES, pulverizing dirt and stone.HANDS FOLLOW, clawing their up way through the loosely- mounded earth until DUNCAN'S HEAD AND SHOULDERS APPEAR.As if the earth itself is giving birth to a new generation of Immortal.He rolls out onto the ground, gasping, triumphant. Reborn.One inch at a time, he slowly rises to his feet.As we KEEP ON RISING up into a FIERY HIGHLAND SUNSET. + +TILT BACK DOWN TO: + +EXT - HIGHLANDS ABOVE GLENFINNAN + +Duncan stands over a freshly-dug grave. Onto the simple stone, he's chisled: + +HEATHER MACLEOD + +BELOVED WIFE OF CONNOR + +And beneath it: + +CONNOR MACLEOD + +BELOVED HUSBAND OF HEATHER + +Duncan's eyes glisten with an unspeakable loss. And a comfort in knowing that his friend has finally found the peace of eternity. + +DUNCAN +yours is the greater prize my friend. Welcome home. + +LINGER ON DUNCAN as we DISSOLVE SLOWLY TO... + +EXT - MANHATTAN SKYLINE - DAWN + +FAITH stands sentinel-like atop a bluff overlooking the Hudson River and the insignificant island of Manhattan beyond.Her trademark slashes of facepaint and hair dye have been shed like molted skin. What remains is a serene beauty that defies fashion or vanity.Her faraway eyes BLINK with a sudden, frightening clarity.THE BUZZ sets her reflexes snapping as she SPINS AROUND-- + +--and CATCHES the COLICHMARDE, handle first.DUNCANfollows, strolling toward her with hands loose at hisside.Faith runs her finger down the shimmering blade. + +FAITH +(considers) +So... what am I supposed to do next -- kiss you or take your head? + +Duncan steps up to her, smiling enigmatically. + +DUNCAN +The choice is yours. + +FADE OUT: + +THE END diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Hills Have Eyes, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hills Have Eyes, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..a20bac6f5f7d77a30874f6f988270eca099d0243 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hills Have Eyes, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + THE HILLS HAVE EYES Written by Alexandre Aja & Gregory Levasseur Based on the original film by Wes Craven FEB 14 05 EXT. DESERT HILLS - DAY Open on a GEIGER COUNTER scanning over a rocky terrain. A SAND STORM blows over the landscape. We are lost somewhere in the middle of the New Mexico desert. According to the instrument, the area contains high levels of radiation... THREE MEN WEARING FULL ANTI-RADIATION SUITS have left their jeep behind to collect samples of contaminated rocks. Not at all worried or bothered by the dust storm or high winds, they walk towards the hills. The man holding the counter stops in his tracks - MAN 1 (loudly through the STORM) ALRIGHT, GUESS. MAN 2 I'D SAY 43.9? MAN 1 IT'S OVER 124.5! MAN 2 IT'S GOT TO BE OFF. (WALKING AWAY) THAT'S THREE TIMES HIGHER THAN THE FALLOUT IN CHERNOBYL... - MAN 3 (following his colleague) YEAH. PROBABLY NEEDS SOME ADJUSTMENT. MAN 2 ...CAN'T TRUST THE DIGITAL ONES... MAN 1 (STANDING STILL) No...It's something else... It's like the radioactivity is moving around us. The numbers on the dial continue to fluctuate. Where is this intensity coming from? (CONTINUED) 2. 1 CONTINUED: 1 He turns around, seeing nothing but sand and rock through his mask. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, THE GEIGER COUNTER GETS LOUDER AS THE NUMBERS SKYROCKET. In confusion, he taps on the instrument attempting to stabilize it, but the radioactivity continues to climb... He looks up to the horizon obscured by the sand storm - still nothing in sight. He sighs. His colleague is probably right, the Geiger counter simply needs an adjustment... He turns it off when A MAN COVERED WITH BLOOD, HALF NAKED, comes out of nowhere and jumps at his face- MAN HELP ME... HELP ME, PLEASE HELP ME! Scared to death, the scientist pushes him away and backs off. The man covered by blood falls on the ground and starts crying, begging for help. The scientist doesn't have time to REACT- THE RUSTY POINT OF A PICKAXE COMES THROUGH THE BACK OF HIS MASK AND OUT OF HIS FOREHEAD! Terrified, the man covered with blood watches the scientist's dead body-fall to the ground revealing, for a quick second, A DARK SHAPE FLASHING IN THE SUN. CUT TO: In the distance, the other scientists continue their work, oblivious to the attack. Kneeling behind a rock, they make a DISCOVERY- MAN 2 What the hell is it? With his hand, one of the scientists removes the dust around some SKELETAL REMAINS. MAN 3 They look human... The strange shape of the bones and skull makes it impossible to tell whether they are human or animal. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: (2) A SHADOW appears above them- MAN 2 (without turning around) Look what we found. Have you... THE PICKAXE SWINGS THROUGH HIS BACK. IMPALED LIKE A PIECE OF MEAT, HIS BODY IS SWEPT INTO THE AIR ONLY TO BE SLAMMED AGAINST THE ROCKS... Blood splatters on the third man, who steps back suffocating with fear behind his mask. The shadowy figure continues the assault on Man 2, finishing him off. Powerless to stop'the massacre, the last scientist runs away in a panic. At the top of the hill, he appears, out of breath. He doesn't have time to climb the rocks as he is pulled down, screaming in his mask. CUT TO: The scientists' Jeep takes off dragging behind it the three bodies in their radiation suits and the dead body of the other man... 2 OPENING CREDITS ON 2 A thick, juicy steak lands on a hot skillet. WE ARE IN A 1950'S COMMERCIAL FOR NUCLEAR ENERGY- While preparing dinner, the perfect housewife presents the kitchen of tomorrow by praising all the benefits of nuclear energy. She is joined by her husband, their children, and their dog. The entire family sits at the table with big smiles. The frame freezes on this naive image of prosperity and well being. A slogan appears: "NUCLEAR ENERGY, TRY IT...WE DID!" CLASSIFIED STOCK FOOTAGE replaces the commercial- These new images are of nuclear tests performed by the US Army in the New Mexico desert during the same period- (CONTINUED) 4. 2 CONTINUED : 2 Old mining towns are evacuated by soldiers. Their inhabitants are rounded up like cattle and loaded into trucks. Somewhere else, prefabricated towns filled with test dummies are eradicated by atmospheric explosions... Caged animals used for experiments are carbonized by nuclear waves. Scientists study the evolution of certain radiated species... In a split second, gigantic craters are formed in the middle of the desert. Explosions destroy everything in their path leaving behind only a giant nuclear mushroom, beautiful and terrifying... FADE TO BLACK. 3 EXT. DESERT HILLS - SUNRISE 3 SUPER: NEW MEXICO - TODAY The sharp outline of the hills appears with the first morning light. The sun begins to rise revealing- A long deserted horizon stretching out endlessly. Nothing lives in this and wilderness. 4 EXT. GAS STATION - DAY 4 A road curves through the desert terrain. On the side of the road, at the bottom of a hill, a gas station has survived years of wind and dust. Around the main building, a tool shed, three gas pumps, a dilapidated well, a water tower, and gutted carcasses of cars from the 1950's accentuate the desolate feeling which prevails in this place. A sign reads "LAST STOP FOR 200 MILES". A few tumbleweeds roll across the road. 5 INT. GAS STATION ROOM - DAY 5 Beams of light slice through the shutters. (CONTINUED) 5. 5 CONTINUED: 5 KRIIINK KRONK - a metal grinding noise is heard outside. KRIIINK KRONK - the noise becomes regular. In the darkness we discover a room hardly furnished. The withered and yellowed wallpaper flaps slowly in the draft. On the dresser, dozens of empty liquor bottles. KRIIINK KRONK - On the bed, THE OLD GAS STATION ATTENDANT lays with his back to the window. KRIIINK KRONK - The noise outside continues steadily without disturbing his sleep. KRIIINK KRONK - Suddenly, the old man wakes up short of breath and looks around trying to locate the noise. KRIIINK KRONK - He looks through the shutters, then quickly puts on the top of his gas station overalls. He grabs a SHOTGUN, loading it swiftly. 6 INT. GAS STATION - DAY 6 KRIIINK KRONK - The metal grinding noise increases as we move towards the gas station door. The door opens and the old man walks out holding his gun. Nobody. Silence has returned. The metal grinding is gone. The lever from the water well still moves. IT'S JUST BEEN USED! Hidden behind the house someone or something observes the old station attendant walking slowly to the well. DRIP... DRIP... DRIP...- water falls on the palm of his hand. Worried, the old man scans the surroundings. HE IS NOT ALONE. OLD GAS ATTENDANT Ruby? Is that you?! Ruby? The sun is already high above, the heat waves shimmering over the desert. The old gas station attendant moves away from the road towards the hills. (CONTINUED) 6. 6 CONTINUED: He stops by a broken fence which is bent halfway to the ground. On a rusty sign next to an atomic symbol, we can READ: MILITARY ZONE - NO TRESPASSING - RISK OF RADIATION OLD GAS ATTENDANT (CONT'D) (towards the hills) RUBY! RU-BY! On the side of the hill,-THE ENTRANCE TO A CONDEMNED NINETEENTH CENTURY MINE. He approaches the mine and looks through the wooden planks barring its entrance. OLD GAS ATTENDANT (CONT'D) RUBY? His echo is the only sound that can be heard from the depths... He aims the shotgun, ready to open fire. OLD GAS ATTENDANT (CONT'D) IF THAT'S YOU JUPITER, I GOT A BUCKSHOT FOR YA... YOU HEAR ME?! Behind the gas station, someone observes the old man coming back to the house. AN EXPENSIVE LEATHER BAG was placed in front of his door during his absence. The old man looks-around terrified. Diligently, he enters the house leaving the bag on the ground. On second thought, the door reopens and the bag is dragged inside. 7 INT. GAS STATION - DAY 7 The shutters are all closed leaving the station in darkness. The old man throws the leather bag on the dining table and sets down the shotgun. He takes a cigar from an ashtray and lights it. He grabs a whisky bottle. (CONTINUED) 7. 7 CONTINUED : 7 After a solid gulp, he turns on a bare light-bulb hanging over the table, and stares at the bag in silence. One more swig for courage, and the old man empties the bag on the TABLE- Jewels, a Swiss watch, a DV Cam, glasses, several cell phones, a pager, loose cash, credit cards, a wallet... .A FEW GOLD TEETH, AND AN EAR ON WHICH HANG GOLD EARRINGS. He grabs the wallet and pulls out a photo already sticking out. On the bent picture, we see a young couple kissing. The young woman wears the same earrings found on the severed ear... The old man heaves a sigh before putting the wad of cash in his pocket. Outside, a voice is heard. MAN (O.S.) SOMEONE THERE?! The voice is followed by a car horn. The old man quickly gathers the objects from the table returning them to the bag. 8 EXT. GAS STATION/ROAD - DAY 8 A 1988 AIRSTREAM TRAILER HOME hitched to A CHEVROLET SUV is parked in front of the gas station. BIG BOB CARTER, an imposing man in his late fifties, stands outside the vehicle still honking the horn. The trailer home and SUV with the AMERICAN FLAG waving on the side, completes the image - Big Bob is an obvious cliche of the middle class Republican father with a touch of John Wayne. BIG BOB where the hell is everybody? I'm gonna... Before he can finish his sentence, the old gas station man appears. BIG BOB (CONT'D) Ah, there you are. Fill it up and check the fluids my friend. (CONTINUED) 9. 8 CONTINUED: (2) 8 OLD GAS ATTENDANT California? Sure didn't take the fastest road! ETHEL My crazy husband absolutely had to see the desert. OLD GAS ATTENDANT Nothing to see in the desert. Big Bob glares at the old man who fills up the tank while still chewing on his cigar. BIG BOB You know, it's illegal to smoke around a gas station. The old man bursts out in laughter revealing rotten teeth. 9 INT. TRAILER - DAY 9 Inside the trailer home, DOUG BUKOWSKI, 32, Lynn's husband, tries to fix the broken A/C. His glasses and white oxford shirt drenched in sweat, Doug is totally out of his element. This is a guy who has never been out of the city. Using a Phillips screwdriver, he forcibly removes the front grill to access the mechanism. The heat and incessant BARKING wear on Doug's nerves. DOUG Piece of shit! Why couldn't we fly like normal people? LYNN Relax Doug, please. It's their silver anniversary and they're so happy you're here. DOUG Please, your parents can't stand me. LYNN You're wrong. They love you. (CONTINUED) 10. 9 CONTINUED: 9 DOUG We could have taken them on a cruise. LYNN Yeah, that's a great idea. Why didn't you plan it? DOUG What's that supposed to mean? LYNN Never mind. Lynn grabs the milk bottle from its heater. DOUG Maybe I shouldn't have even come. LYNN Doug, please stop. I never ask you for anything, OK? (she looks at the baby) Well see how happy you are when Catherine comes along on our 25th anniversary. She walks out. DOUG (TO HIMSELF) It won't be in a shitty trailer home-that's for sure. LYNN (O.S.) I heard that... 10 INT. SUV - DAY 10 In the back seat, BRENDA, 17, sleeps against the window. A twig tickles her nose. Without opening her eyes, the young girl slaps her face as to chase away a fly. But the twig persists - It's her little brother, BOBBY, 15, teasing her. Linkin Park blasts through his iPod. Lynn knocks on the window, interrupting his little game. (CONTINUED) 11. 10 CONTINUED: 10 LYNN If you want to use the restroom, it's now or never. Bobby removes his headphones and pushes Brenda. BOBBY Wake up, lard ass. 11 EXT. GAS STATION - DAY 11 Behind the gas station, Brenda plays with AN ALBINO PIGLET tied to a rope. BRENDA Bobby, come look at this. Bobby joins her. BRENDA (CONT'D) (holding the animal) Oh my god! Poor thing. BOBBY You two make a perfect pair. Bobby turns to a rusty car and unzips to urinate. BRENDA Don't pee there... BOBBY Why not? BRENDA (pointing to a small WOODEN OUTHOUSE) Hello? BOBBY God, what do you care? Bobby re-zips and heads towards the small wooden outhouse while Brenda plays with the baby pig. BRENDA Piggy, piggy, piggy... SOMEONE OBSERVES HER FROM THE CORNER OF THE HOUSE. 12. 12 EXT. CAS STATION/ROAD - DAY 12 In front of the gas station, Lynn leans on the car giving Catherine a bottle. Big Bob opens the hood while the old man continues to fill the tank. At the same time, Doug comes out of the trailer holding his cell phone. DOUG (to the old man) Excuse me sir, do you have a phone I can use? I can't get a signal around here and... Big Bob interrupts. BIG BOB Give. the phone a rest, Bukowski! DOUG Sorry Bob, "duty calls"... LYNN Honey, you haven't put that phone down since we left. DOUG This is why I don't go on vacation. They're lost without me. BIG BOB Stop being at everyone's beck and call, Bukowski. You're the boss, remember? ETHEL .I'm sure all that important business can wait till next week. Doug gives up. He kisses Lynn and takes the baby from her. LYNN (TO DOUG) Are you wearing sunblock? The sun's so strong. 13. 13 INT. SUV - DAY 13 While they are talking outside, a DEFORMED HAND slides into the back window of the SUV. A HAND WITH ONLY THREE STRANGELY PROPORTIONED FINGERS. It moves slowly, snatching BOBBY'S HOODED SWEATER from the back seat. SMALL VOICE (O.S.) (WHISPERING) .Annnnaaaaau... Under the car the visitor's feet walk way. They are bare, dirty and covered with dust. 14 INT. / EXT. OUTHOUSE - DAY 14 Rays of light pass through the wooden planks. The outhouse is so dirty that Bobby is forced to hold his breath... An EYE peeks between the wooden planks! BOBBY JUMPS- BOBBY What the hell Brenda! The eye goes away... He re-zips looking outside. Nobody. When he exits, Brenda appears on the other side. BOBBY (CONT'D) Freak. She looks at him slightly confused... BRENDA What? 15 EXT. GAS STATION/ROAD - DAY 15 Doug sits on the porch giving the baby her bottle. The old gas station attendant checks the oil and the water. ,Ethel joins him, holding a road map. (CONTINUED) 14. 15 CONTINUED: 15 ETHEL How far are we from 1-88? OLD GAS ATTENDANT You're at least six or seven hours away'from there. Ethel gives her husband a dirty look. ETHEL I told you we should have gone through Santa Fe. You never listen to me. OLD GAS ATTENDANT This is the only southbound road that goes to 1-88. From there you can take the 231 West to California. But you'll never make it before sundown... BIG BOB Doesn't bother me. I had night patrol for almost fifteen years... OLD GAS ATTENDANT You a cop? BIG BOB Detective... ETHEL (with a smile) Not anymore. Thank God! BIG BOB I'm starting a private security firm... The old man turns to Doug- OLD GAS ATTENDANT You a cop too? DOUG Who me? No way. I'm in telecommunications. A beat. OLD GAS ATTENDANT Huh...Make money in that? (CONTINUED) 15. 15 CONTINUED: (2) 15 DOUG Everybody's gotta have a cell phone... OLD GAS ATTENDANT Well you won't find any customers around here. DOUG No kidding... As the old man closes the hood, a familiar sound returns- KRIIINK KRONK - KRIIINK KRONK - KRIIINK KRONK He leans over and catches Bobby and Brenda in the distance, playing with the well. Brenda is about to drink from her hands. OLD GAS ATTENDANT (shouting to them) DON'T DRINK THAT WATER, MISS. IT AIN'T NO GOOD. (TO ETHEL) She'll get sick. ETHEL YOU HEAR THAT BRENDA? DON'T DRINK THE WATER! Big Bob walks to the old man. BIG BOB What do -I owe you? The old man looks at the gas pump. OLD GAS ATTENDANT 36 dollars... DOUG Let me pay, Bob. BIG BOB (OFFENDED) Keep your money Bukowski, I can still afford.the gas! DOUG That's not what I meant... (CONTINUED) 17. 16 CONTINUED: 16 There is another room behind the counter, and the beaded curtain which separates the two rooms is still moving. LYNN (CONT'D) Beauty? Come on, sweetie... No answer. Cautiously, Lynn moves through the store to the beaded curtains. Above the cash register, an old sepia photograph of a miner stares at her. LYNN (CONT'D) Beauty? Lynn goes into the other room. In the darkness, among the old empty bottles, she finds Beauty standing with her front legs on a window sill and barking to the backyard. Lynn looks outside- Nobody. Only the desert and hills. Inside the room, THE HALF OPEN EXPENSIVE LEATHER BAG laying alone on the table awakens her curiosity. As she goes to inspect it, she hears the SUV starting and Doug calling out- DOUG (O.S.) Honey!? We're leaving... Lynn grabs the dog by the collar. LYNN (NOT CONVINCED) Come on, Beauty. There's nothing here... She turns around and runs into- THE OLD GAS STATION ATTENDANT, STARING AT HER. OLD GAS ATTENDANT May I help you miss? LYNN Sorry, our dog got out...She won't stay put... A car horn breaks the silence. (CONTINUED) 16 CONTINUED: ( 2) DOUG (0.S.) Honey? What are you doing?! LYNN (YELLING OUTSIDE) I'M COMING! The old man lets her pass with the dog, watching her WITH SUSPICION- Has she seen the contents of the bag? 17 EXT. GAS STATION - DAY 17 Through the gas station window, we see Lynn leaving with the dog. Outside, next to the rusty abandoned cars, THE PIGLET HAS DISAPPEARED. Only the rope remains. A MURMUR IS HEARD AS A SHADOW PASSES SLYLY ON THE FLOOR. 18 EXT. GAS STATION/ROAD - DAY 18 Lynn puts the dog in the trailer where Doug and Bobby are. She enters the SUV. Behind the wheel, Big Bob turns around one last time before driving off- BIG BOB Let's go! KNOCK KNOCK The old man knocks on the window. Big Bob opens- OLD GAS ATTENDANT (SLIGHTLY MOCKING) Isn't it illegal to have people in a trailer while you're driving, "my friend"? ETHEL He's right, Bob. BIG BOB I'm fully aware of the driving laws. OLD GAS ATTENDANT Have a safe trip. Big Bob smiles back and starts the engine. BIG BOB Everyone ready? (CONTINUED) 19. 18 CONTINUED: 18 The old man stops him- OLD GAS ATTENDANT You know, it's not on the map, but if you take a right at the road a couple miles from here, it'll lead you through the hills. Probably save you three or four hours. BIG BOB Thanks for the tip. CUT TO: The trailer drives off in the distance leaving the attendant in a cloud of dust. The old man looks to the hills, taking a deep breath... 19 EXT. MINE ENTRANCE - DAY 19 THE WIND BLOWS OVER THE ROCKY HILLS WHILE WE MOVE TOWARDS THE ENTRANCE OF THE OLD ABANDONED MINE. The camera passes through the wooden planks blocking the entrance and moves into the depths. DARKNESS. FADE IN: 20 EXT. HILLS - DAY 20 POV through binoculars from the hilltops. The binoculars pan across the deserted terrain before stopping on the Carter vehicle, a tiny dot at the end of the road. The car and trailer approach. Off screen, we hear ANIMALISTIC BREATHING behind the binoculars. The SUV turns off the main road onto a dirt trail. We see Brenda lifting the gate and allowing the vehicles to access the path, unaware of the danger lurking about. Brenda gets back in the SUV. It pulls the trailer on the dirt road towards the hills. MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) ..Lizard?!...Lizard?! Dinner's on the way... (CONTINUED) 20. 20 CONTINUED: 20 GOGGLE, the man behind the binoculars, talks into a WALKIE- TALKIE. His voice is rough and deep. His pronunciation is poor and we cannot understand everything he says... GOGGLE (O.S.) (in the walkie) Just got on the road... A Chevy and a trailer... 21 INT. TRAILER - DAY 21 We see the scenery through the window blinds. On a wall, photographs of other Carter vacations are reminders of the good times spent in the trailer home. The thermometer reads above 100 degrees. Sweating, Doug hangs on while the camper bounces over the rough road. Bobby works on the A/C. He has removed the face plate and tries to fix the motor with the screwdriver. DOUG (cleaning his glasses) I tried for an hour but I couldn't get it cold in here. CLICK- the light turns on and the A/C starts. BOBBY (PROUDLY) There! A breeze of cool air circulates through the trailer. On the table, TWO PARAKEETS fly about their strapped-down cage. BOBBY (CONT'D) It was nothing... The thermostat was disconnected. He turns to Doug. DOUG How do you know all this stuff? BOBBY I don't know. DOUG Well, at least we can breathe now. (CONTINUED) 21. 21 CONTINUED: 21 Bobby sets down the screwdriver under the sleeper and sits next to the dogs. Doug grabs a cigarette. BOBBY I thought you stopped smoking? (NO ANSWER) Does my sister know? DOUG (lighting it with a SMILE) Fuck her! BOBBY (TEASING) Big Bob would kill you if he knew you were smoking in his "88 Airstream"... DOUG (PLAYING BACK) Fuck him too. You want one? Doug extends the pack. Bobby hesitates before reaching for one, but Doug pulls the pack away at the last moment. DOUG (CONT'D) Yeah right, if you start smoking your sister would cut my nuts off. BOBBY (after a pause) It's cool that you came with us. It's a drag when it's just us and our parents... DOUG Hey, I like seeing your parents... Bobby is surprised. DOUG (CONT'D) .in pictures! 22 EXT. SW/ HILL ROAD - DAY 22 Under a "too perfect" blue sky, the Carter vehicles pass through the barren landscape, lifting a cloud of dust. ETHEL (O.S.) I think we're somewhere on this blue road... (CONTINUED) 22. 22 CONTINUED: 22 LYNN (O.S.) Mom, we're not on the blue road or any other road. He said it wasn't on the map, remember? In the distance, A LIZARD moves through some rocks before heading across the road unconcerned by the approaching car. BRENDA (O.S.) Dad, you shouldn't have listened to that guy. We're lost. BIG BOB (O.S.) Look how beautiful it is here girls... The hills, the colors... It's amazing. Imagine the first people who crossed this desert. They had no idea where they were going. BRENDA Neither do we, Dad. On the road, the Lizard continues carving a dusty path. 23 INT. SUV - DAY / INTERCUT WITH THE LIZARD 23 Close up on the radio dial moving back and forth unsuccessfully in search of air waves... In the back seat, Brenda, annoyed, sits staring at the passing scenery. ETHEL Don't drive so fast Bob, you might lose the camper... BRENDA (TO HERSELF) .this is fucked... ETHEL Hey... Watch your mouth, young lady. (to her husband) Will you please back me up here? LYNN (calming things down) Relax, Mom. We're all just tired. (CONTINUED) 23. 23 CONTINUED: 23 BRENDA You grew up in the 60's. How can you be so uptight?! Still driving, Big Bob turns to his daughters- BIG BOB (SLYLY) She wasn't like that before... You should've seen her when she was your age. (to his wife) Do you remember honey? ETHEL (PLAYFULLY) Oh, stop it... BIG BOB She remembers... 24 EXT. HILL ROAD - DAY 24 The lizard has almost crossed the road when- SHLING!- RAZOR SHARP METAL SPIRES come out of the ground slicing the lizard in two. A trap has been set: a long chain of retractable spikes have emerged across the road. A few seconds later, the SW drives over them at full speed. INSTANTLY, THE TIRES EXPLODE. Big Bob loses control of the vehicle. The car rolls on the rims causing the trailer to almost flip over. Inside, Doug loses his grip and is thrown against the side of the trailer. On the road, the spikes retract, disappearing into the ground. THE SW AND THE TRAILER HOME ZIGZAG ON THE DIRT ROAD BEFORE CRASHING AGAINST SOME ROCKS. Silence. The chain of spikes slithers away in the dust like a snake. (CONTINUED) 24. 24 CONTINUED: 24 NO TRACE REMAINS OF WHAT CAUSED THE ACCIDENT. The dead lizard, sliced neatly in half, bakes in the hot sun. 25 EXT. TRAILER - DAY 25 The dust slowly settles revealing the broken down vehicles. Lynn jumps out of the car and runs to the trailer. LYNN Doug? Bobby? Are you alright? Bobby opens the door releasing the barking dogs. BOBBY Don't worry, we're fine. DOUG (STILL SHAKEN) What the hell happened?! Where's Catherine? LYNN She's fine. Mom has her. DOUG I knew this wasn't gonna be safe for the baby. LYNN The heat must have caused a blow out. DOUG Are you all right? LYNN I think so... Just a little shaken up. Bobby walks around the car evaluating the damage- The SUV tires are shredded - the rims buried into the ground. BOBBY Holy shit! (MOCKING) I hope they have triple A out here... (CONTINUED) 25. 25 CONTINUED: 25 On the other side of the trailer, Brenda has gotten out and regained her senses. She takes a few steps, taking in the land surrounding them... The lunar terrain of sand and rocks extends beyond the horizon. In the distance, only the jagged hills are cut out against the sky. Something OMINOUS AND INDESCRIBABLE lives in this place... Behind the trailer, Doug walks off with his cell phone. DOUG 97% nationwide coverage, and we have to find ourselves in that 3%... He searches desperately for a signal, extending his arm forward. Lynn grabs him tenderly by the waist. DOUG (CONT'D) (staring to the lifeless HORIZON) Your father wanted to see the desert... LYNN Doug... DOUG I hope he's enjoying himself. On his knees, by the SUV tires, Big Bob inspects under the vehicle... Not only are the tires flattened, but the front axel has buckled from hitting the rocks. BIG BOB (TO ETHEL) How am I supposed to drive with you talking my ear off? I'm pulling a trailer on a dirt road and it's 200 degrees out here! Behind him, Ethel walks with the baby who has stopped crying. ETHEL Oh, so now it's my fault? Doug joins them. DOUG So what's the damage, General? (CONTINUED) 26. 25 CONTINUED: (2) 25 BIG BOB The damn axel is broken... DOUG Can we fix it? BIG BOB With what? The frame is completely twisted... Give me your phone, I'm gonna call a tow truck... DOUG I already tried. I'm not getting a signal. ETHEL Can we use the C/B? BIG BOB That old thing? Give it a try, but this is mining country. Whatever metal is left in those hills will probably scramble the signal... DOUG What are we going to do? Without answering, Big Bob gets back on his feet, wipes his hands and grabs a bottle of water from the car. After a long DRINK- BIG BOB We're going to walk, that's what... DOUG Walk?! But we're miles from ANYWHERE- BIG BOB (cutting him off) So we wait here for someone to drive by? Have you seen a car in the last three hours?! 26 EXT. BOULDERS - DAY 26 A hundred yards away, Bobby has come to retrieve the dogs. Beauty and Beast have stopped below a boulder extending twenty feet high. They bark and growl towards the top. (CONTINUED) 28. 29 CONTINUED: 29 FURTHER AWAY- ETHEL I bet this desert is full of rattlesnakes... BOBBY I saw a documentary on The Discovery channel about desert snakes. If you get bit, you'll die in twenty minutes. Big Bob reaches into the glove compartment pulling out a 9mm and an extra clip. He hands it to his son. BOBBY (CONT'D) .or was it five? Bobby grabs the firearm pointing it to the desert. Big Bob grabs another gun from the car, A 44 CHROME PLATED MAGNUM. BIG BOB (with a big smile) I'd like to see how they stack up against this... Ethel brings her husband's jacket and helps him put it on. ETHEL Some things never change... BIG BOB (loading his weapon) I'll take my bullets over your prayers any day. BOBBY You think we'll see scorpions and coyotes? Big.Bob grabs his son by the shoulders, proud. They look like two kids getting ready to play Cowboys and Indians. Bobby calls out to Doug, offering the gun- BOBBY (CONT'D) Hey Doug, wanna try? (CONTINUED) 29. 29 CONTINUED: (2) 29 DOUG (SMILING) Oh no! No thanks buddy... BOBBY Come on, just one shot, it makes you feel kinda powerful. Big Bob answers for Doug- BIG BOB Leave him alone son. Doug is a liberal, he wouldn't touch a gun... Obviously, the two men disagree. Behind the trailer, Brenda sits on a lounge chair in her bra revealing a sexy body. She applies suntan lotion ready to kill some time. Behind her sunglasses, she observes the silent desert looking like Paris Hilton. Lynn exits the trailer and joins her. LYNN Catherine just fell asleep. How are you holding up? BRENDA (IRONICALLY) Thrilled to be here! LYNN Yeah, this is a total drag, especially with a baby. BRENDA I don't care what they say, next year, I'm going to Cancun with my friends. No more "family trips" for me... LYNN We're not going to have many more trips like this together... As for Cancun, you're gonna have to find a job. BRENDA C'mon, with all the money your husband makes, you could at least buy me a plane ticket. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 30. 29 CONTINUED: (3) 29 BRENDA (CONT'D) Don't you think? Please, for your poor little sister... Doug's voice interrupts. DOUG (O.S.) Lynn, can you bring me my jacket honey? Lynn gets up and returns to the trailer. BRENDA (imitating her sister) "Right away, honey..." Without turning around, Lynn gives her sister the finger. Brenda smiles with satisfaction. 30 INT. TRAILER - DAY 30 Lynn finds her husband's jacket and stops when she sees a cigarette butt in the sink. She's pissed. She picks it up and throws it away. A FLASH OF LIGHT catches her attention outside. She looks through the kitchen blinds and spots the quick reflection of light coming from the top of the hills when- BOBBY JUMPS UP AT THE WINDOW SCREAMING! Lynn falls back against.the kitchen table scared to death. Bobby laughs, pleased with himself. Annoyed, Lynn shuts the blinds in his face. 31 EXT. TRAILER - DAY 31 Outside, Doug and Big Bob look at the road map laid out on the ground. DOUG I'll keep walking north. This road's gotta lead somewhere. Lynn comes around with the jacket and sees Big Bob and Bobby both holding guns. LYNN What are you going to do with those? BIG BOB It's always good to be prepared. Right? (CONTINUED) 31 CONTINUED: LYNN (TO DOUG) Are you taking a gun too? Big Bob answers for him. BIG BOB We've only got two and it's better if you guys have one here. You never know. LYNN Are you sure you're going to be alright? Lynn puts a fisherman's hat on Doug to protect him from the sun and kisses him tenderly. BIG BOB If you don't find any help in six or seven miles come back. I'll go to the gas station... ETHEL It's almost 3, you'll never be back before sunset. BIG BOB It's only about ten miles from here. I'll borrow that crazy old man's truck and use his phone if he has one... Don't worry... I'll be back with a tow truck before nightfall. BOBBY Can I go with Doug? BIG BOB No. Stay here with your mother and sisters. (TO BRENDA) And you, don't tease your brother, he's in charge now. Holding the gun, Bobby winks at his sister who continues to sunbathe. BRENDA Yeah, right. Ethel remains silent and worried. (CONTINUED) 32. 31 CONTINUED: (2) 31 ETHEL We should pray before you go- BRENDA Oh please! ETHEL Is it really too much to ask? (turning to her husband) Bob? Bob finally agrees, and like a good family man, he gathers them around. Brenda slips on her shirt and joins them. BRENDA (GRUMPILY) Thank God nobody's watching us. In a lowered voice, Ethel recites a prayer. Even though only Ethel takes it seriously, in that precise moment the arguing stops and the family seems united and strong. But seen from the surrounding summit, through Goggle's binoculars, the family looks small and vulnerable... Behind them the sun begins to descend. DOUG HEADS NORTHBOUND ON THE DIRT ROAD, WHILE BIG BOB BEGINS HIS JOURNEY IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION. 32 INT. TRAILER - LATER 32 Catherine wakes up crying in her crib. LYNN Hey, little princess. Who doesn't want to sleep anymore? The baby looks at her mother, appeased. LYNN (CONT'D) Are you hungry, my angel? Lynn picks her up and exits the trailer. 33 EXT. HILLS - DAY 33 Goggle grabs his 1950'S MILITARY WALKIE-TALKIE- (CONTINUED) 33. 33 CONTINUED: 33 GOGGLE (O.S) Papa Jupe... Papa Jupe... Coast is clear. PAPA JUPE'S VOICE (O.S) Wait 'til it gets dark... On the radio, Papa Jupe's voice is deep and distorted. Devilish. Goggle's binoculars POV on Lynn- She sits down with Ethel, unbuttons her blouse and breastfeeds. 34 EXT. TRAILER - DAY 34 A table and fold out chairs are set up in front of the camper. Lynn continues to feed Catherine. ETHEL You shouldn't go from the bottle to the breast. At her age she should get used to one or the other. LYNN Mom, thanks for the advice, but she's my baby. Vexed, Ethel remains quiet. LYNN (CONT'D) It's starting to get cold out here, isn't it? (trying to be nice) I can't believe you're spending your anniversary stranded in the middle of nowhere. BRENDA I can already see the headlines: "Family found dead in New Mexico desert." ETHEL This place isn't so bad. At least the air is fresh. BRENDA I think it stinks. (CONTINUED) 34. 34 CONTINUED: 34 LYNN Better than Cleveland... BRENDA Anything's better than Cleveland! ETHEL (after a beat) Maybe it was my fault we had this accident... LYNN Please, Mom. Nothing can stop Dad when he thinks he's found a shortcut. Remember when we ran out of gas on the "shortcut" to the Great Lakes? How old was I? 12, 13? ETHEL This family has certainly seen its share of adventures. BRENDA If we had just stayed on the main road we'd already be in California... LYNN Yeah-what I'd do for a shower and a margarita... BRENDA The beach... LYNN A real bed... Bobby sits down at the table. BOBBY Has anybody seen my grey sweatshirt? It was in the car. I've looked everywhere. BRENDA I didn't touch your smelly sweatshirt. Beast has been pulling on his chain nonstop, while Beauty cries softly from inside the trailer. (CONTINUED) 35. 34 CONTINUED: (2) 34 LYNN Why are the dogs so excited? ETHEL Probably some rattlesnakes not far away. BOBBY (JOKINGLY) You know how Freud would've interpreted your obsession with rattlesnakes Mom? Ethel throws her kitchen towel at him. They laugh. A beat, then Ethel becomes sentimental. ETHEL Brenda's going off to college. And then, next year, it's Bobby's turn... The house is going to feel so empty... Lynn grabs her mother's hand- ETHEL (CONT'D) I'm really happy that we're all together on this trip. Brenda moves to the trailer. Beauty is still barking inside. BRENDA That makes one of us. They glare at her as she opens the door. BOBBY Brenda, the dogs! Too late. Beauty runs out in the direction of the hills Bobby drops his plate and gives chase. BOBBY (CONT'D) Dam¬¢nit, Brenda! Beauty! Worried, Ethel watches her son distance himself from the camper. ETHEL (YELLING) Bobby, come back! 36. 35 EXT. HILLS - DAY 35 Beauty escapes to the hills. Bobby runs as fast as he can but cannot keep up. The dog gets further and further away, climbing up the side of the mountain. Beauty moves through the first series of rocks. Bobby loses sight of her and stops. Out of breath, he hesitates- Ahead, the rocky horizon shows no indication of a definite path. He spots Beauty climbing between some rocks and continues his chase. BOBBY BEAUTY! At the bottom of the hill, the rocks are too jagged for him to continue running. He slows down and begins moving past the first set of rocks. With much more agility, Beauty climbs quickly towards the top, disappearing behind some rocks. BOBBY (CONT-D) BEAUTY? BEAUTY? Nothing. Only sharp rocks stand before him. SUDDENLY, A HIGH PITCHED HOWLING SOUND TEARS THROUGH THE SILENCE AND ECHOES IN THE VALLEY. Bobby freezes. No doubt about it - Beauty found what she was looking for, and it was much stronger... In the distance, Bobby hears his mother calling. 36 EXT. TRAILER - DAY 36 A few feet from the trailer- ETHEL BOB-BY?! BOB-BY!? Overcome with worry, she turns to her two daughters. (CONTINUED) 37. 36 CONTINUED: 36 ETHEL (CONT'D) You think he can hear me? LYNN I don't know, Mom. ETHEL She couldn't have gone that far. Brenda notices the revolver on the table. Bobby is unarmed. ETHEL (CONT'D) (back to the hills) BOB-BY?! 37 EXT. HILLS - DAY 37 Back on a threatening mound of rocks. Bobby must decide- Return to his family waiting by the trailer or continue his search for Beauty? Bobby hesitates, then gathers his courage and decides to confront the hills. Jagged rock after jagged rock, Bobby slowly climbs towards the summit. 38 EXT. ROCKY LABYRINTH - DAY 38 He appears between two big stones reaching an intermediate zone before the top- A type of NATURAL LABYRINTH formed in the rocks by years of erosion. BOBBY Beauty? Beauty? Bobby moves cautiously. He picks up a big stone for protection- A dangerous animal could be hiding behind any corner. A SHADOW PASSES BEHIND HIM.. Bobby doesn't notice. Anaaaaaau - A swift sound of breathing breaks the silence. Bobby spins around, ready to strike. (CONTINUED) 38. 38 CONTINUED: 38 No one. Just the labyrinth formed in the mountain. BOBBY (CONT'D) Beauty? Bobby is ready to give up when something attracts his ATTENTION- A THIN SHADOW ON THE GROUND. Someone or something is hiding behind a rock. Bobby freezes. He stares at the shadow. Who will make the first move? He makes the decision, creeping towards the shadow. Squeezing the stone, he lifts his hand to strike but stops when he DISCOVERS- A YOUNG GIRL, ABOUT 14, WEARING HIS STOLEN SWEATSHIRT. She is about five feet tall and frail. The hood covers her head, partly hiding her face. She is rather pretty, even with her ABNORMALLY LARGE EYES... She trembles, frightened and intrigued by Bobby. What is this girl doing in a place like this? BOBBY (CONT'D) Don't... Don't be scared. I won't hurt you... What are you doing here? The girl keeps silent. Bobby drops the stone to the ground but the young girl remains suspicious. BOBBY (CONT'D) So you're the one who took my sweatshirt? Where did you find it? The young girl smiles shyly. The ice is broken. BOBBY (CONT'D) What's your name? The young girl hesitates and murmurs in a frail voice. YOUNG GIRL Ru... Ruby... Ruby... (CONTINUED) 39. 38 CONTINUED: (2) 38 BOBBY What are you doing here Ruby? Where are your parents? My family needs help. We had an accident. Ruby repeats her name mechanically as if she doesn't understand the questions. RUBY (in a low voice) Ru... Ruby... Ruby... Bobby gets closer. BOBBY I heard you, Ruby... Are you here alone? Ruby won't answer. BOBBY (CONT'D) Ruby... I'm looking for my dog... Do you understand? My dog... her name is Beauty... She's a German Shepherd, about this high... RUBY Beauty... BOBBY That's right, have you seen her? RUBY Ruby.. _Ruby is Beauty... The last sentence makes her laugh. A STRANGE AGONIZING LAUGHTER. BOBBY Have you seen her? Ruby looks down. She knows something. BOBBY (CONT'D) Look at me, Ruby... Look at me... Where did you see my dog? Ruby keeps looking to the ground. Bobby reaches under her chin to raise her head. Instinctively, Ruby SCREAMS as she backs off, lifting her hands to protect herself. (CONTINUED) 40. 38 CONTINUED: (3) 38 HER HANDS LOOK LIKE CLAWS. DEFORMED AND MISSING FINGERS, THEY ARE NO LONGER HUMAN. Frightened, Bobby takes a step back. The girl murmurs softly. BOBBY (CONT'D) What? I can't understand. What are you saying? He comes closer trying to make eye contact as she continues to murmur the same thing. She too is terrified- RUBY (SOFTLY) The hills... The hills have eyes...The hills have eyes...The hills have eyes... Behind him, a small rock slide grabs his attention. He turns his head. When he turns back to Ruby, she is gone. BOBBY Ruby, come back! Once more, Bobby is alone in the labyrinth. On the other side, he finds a trail of blood as if a body had been dragged on the rocks. The bloody trail is still fresh and disappears behind another set of rocks a few feet away. Bobby hesitates, unsure of what he might find... As soon as he's around the outcropping to the other side Bobby sees something that stops him dead in his tracks. Before him, on the ground, is Beauty. Dead. Disemboweled. Bobby drops to his knees, disbelieving, his face turning white. He touches the animal's head as if to convince himself that this nightmare can't be possible at all. Beauty's face is locked in a grimace of horrible pain and shock. And... the animal is missing its front right leg. DRIP... DRIP... DRIP... DROPS OF BLOOD fall on Bobby's hand - ABOVE HIM, PERCHED ON A ROCK, A FIGURE OBSERVES HIM. A man with an impressive build crouches like a monkey. He wears old clothes covered with dust, and a DERBY HAT on his head. Binoculars hang around his neck. (CONTINUED) 41. 38 CONTINUED: (4) 38 IT'S GOGGLE. Goggle has no face, as if it were totally covered with wax. He has two little holes for nostrils and no ears. His mouth is like an opened wound sliced in his skin. His eyes are the only features which give him any human resemblance at all. Using his hand, Goggle devours something ferociously- BEAUTY'S LEG! Terrified, Bobby runs away. Goggle laughs from his rock. Bobby jumps down the hill. From the summit, Goggle continues feasting. A few yards away, Ruby's slender silhouette slides between the rocks. Goggle stops eating, sees Ruby, and throws her the remains. Ruby looks at the half-eaten leg in disgust, and pushes it away. GOGGLE (O.S.) (rough and deep) What's the matter Ruby.. .You don't like dog anymore? 39 EXT. HILLS - DAY 39 Moving at top speed, Bobby descends from the hills, occasionally glancing behind him. He jumps from one rock to the next. Anything to get out of this hellhole. He turns around one too many times and fails to see the sharp precipice ahead. He tries to stop, but it's too late. Bobby slides down a few feet before grabbing hold of a protruding rock. The rock tears his skin. Bobby tries to climb back up, losing his grip. He falls. His head hits the bottom. He loses consciousness. Behind him a RATTLESNAKE slithers rattling its tail. The snake zips its tongue around his face when - A WOODEN STICK WITH FORKED END, TRAPS THE SNARE'S HEAD TO THE GROUND SAVING BOBBY FROM A CERTAIN BITE. (CONTINUED) 42. 39 CONTINUED: 39 With the hood of the sweatshirt still over her head, RUBY WATCHES THE WOUNDED BOY TENDERLY with her big, abnormal eyes. CUT TO: 40 EXT. ROAD - END OF THE DAY 40 Close on THE RED SUN on the horizon. We hear Doug, singing "California Dreaming" a capella. DOUG "...All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray. I've been for a walk on a winter's day. I'd be safe and warm if I was in L.A... California dreamin..." After hours of walking down this road, his face shows signs of fatigue. DOUG (CONT'D) I was in LA._ California Dreamin..." The lyrics resonate throughout the desert. Suddenly, he stops singing. DOUG (CONT'D) (TO HIMSELF) What the hell?! IN FRONT OF HIM, ABOUT A HUNDRED YARDS AHEAD, THE ROAD ENDS- A mound of earth blocks the road like a wall, extending hundreds of yards on either side. Confused, Doug approaches the wall and starts climbing. Reaching the top, he takes off his sun clips from his glasses and tries to grasp what's on the other side- A HUGE ATOMIC CRATER, three hundred yards in. diameter. THE CRATER HAS BEEN TURNED INTO A GRAVEYARD FOR CARS, TRUCKS, TRAILER HOMES, MOTORCYCLES... Doug climbs down and wanders between the rusted vehicles. Doug lights a cigarette before continuing his inspection. (CONTINUED) 43. 40 CONTINUED: 40 In the reflection of a shattered rear view mirror, we see him approaching another car. Dust completely covers the windows. Doug wipes one down to LOOK INSIDE- He notices a baby seat still strapped to the back. The cars all seem to be in good condition, as if they were simply pushed into the crater. He leans down towards another car- Barbed wire is rolled around the flattened tires... As Doug looks around in confusion, trying to figure out what this place might be, THE CAMERA CRANES UP TO A WIDE AERIAL SHOT - revealing five or six others craters. 41 EXT. TRAILER - MAGIC HOUR 41 It's getting colder. Lynn warms her hands at a fire in front of the trailer. A few feet away, Brenda collects firewood while calling out her brother's name... BRENDA BOBBY! BOB-BY! Inside the camper, Ethel watches the sun set in the horizon. She cradles the baby in her arms. Brenda joins Lynn and throws some firewood into the flames. BRENDA (CONT'D) (looking at the hills) We should've gone looking for him when it was still light out. I'm nervous. LYNN Keep it together Brenda, Mom is already worried enough... The fire will help Bobby find his way back. BRENDA What if he doesn't come back? Maybe he's hurt. Maybe there was an accident... (CONTINUED) 44. 41 CONTINUED: 41 LYNN He and Beauty will find their way back together. Lynn hugs her sister. LYNN (CONT'D) I never thought it could be so cold in the desert... BRENDA Bobby was only wearing a t-shirt when he left. LYNN I know... 42 EXT. GAS STATION - NIGHT 42 Clouds pass, revealing an almost full moon. Wind blows around the dark gas station. Between the broken-down cars, we see Big Bob approaching on the road. A rusty tea pot sits on a pile of trash and whistles in the wind. By placing his hand on the spout, Big Bob stops the whistling and silence returns. Whistling. Silence. Whistling. Big Bob walks to the porch. BIG BOB HELLO! ANYONE HERE?! No answer. He knocks on the door. BIG BOB (CONT'D) It's Bob Carter, I got some gas from you a couple of hours ago. Still nothing. Big Bob draws his gun and opens the door when- SILENCE. From the other side of the house, the whistling has stopped. BIG BOB (CONT'D) Anybody there? Answer me! After a few seconds, the whistling returns. (CONTINUED) 45. 42 CONTINUED: 42 Big Bob shrugs it off and enters. 43 INT. GAS STATION - NIGHT 43 Holding his gun, Big Bob steps into the empty gas station store. A faint light comes from the back room. The wind blows dust through the broken windows... Vigilantly, he moves through the empty shelves, behind the counter and past the beaded curtain separating the two rooms. The light bulb above the dining table is on. BIG BOB Somebody home? Hello? Big Bob pushes the last door leading to the back room. His hand feels for the light switch. CLICK - an old lamp comes on in the corner. He finds a wall mounted phone and picks up the receiver. No tone. BIG BOB (CONT'D) (TO HIMSELF) Dammit... Through the window, Big Bob sees a pick-up truck. He starts searching for the keys. Going through the different rooms, he discovers a drawer full of money, jewels, watches, credit cards... A REAL FORTUNE. He spots a key chain hanging from a nail next to the desk. He reaches for the keys when something else grabs his attention- Partially hidden in the dark, he discovers a few family photos and a few newspaper clippings from the 1950s pinned to the wallpaper. Big Bob lights the desk lamp and turns it towards the wall- His face goes cold- On the aged photos, we recognize the old gas station attendant in his younger days, next to his wife and his CHILDREN- (CONTINUED) 46. 43 CONTINUED: 43 ABNORMAL CHILDREN GRUESOME AND DEFORMED BY NATURE... Cleft lips, tumors, uneven extremities, malformations, skin diseases, and gangrene of the face... THEY ARE ALL AFFECTED BY GENETIC ABNORMALITIES. On a more recent polaroid, we can recognize Ruby at 6 years old. Besides her three fingers and big eyes, half of her skull is missing or caved in. Another polaroid - in a wheelchair, a little boy has difficulty holding up his hugely disproportionate head. The headline from the clippings makes Big Bob understand the origins of these horrors- "New Mexico- Nuclear enters a new age." ".. .Miner town evacuated" "Miners refuse to abandon their lands by hiding in MINES" "Military destroys miner's town." The old man's family was. one of those families whose genetic lineage was forever changed by the nuclear fallout. Big Bob is shocked, never believing such a thing was possible. A COUPLE OF MORE RECENT ARTICLES MENTION PEOPLE DISAPPEARING IN THE REGION. BIG BOB (CONT'D) You son of a bitch... Worried for his own family, he grabs the keys and walks out. From the bedroom window, we see him running to the pick-up truck. 44 INT. PICK-UP TRUCK - NIGHT 44 Big Bob slams the door, starts the engine and turns on the headlights. The headlights shine on the outhouse. The wooden outhouse door slams back and forth in the wind. Something blocks it from shutting completely- (CONTINUED) 47. 44 CONTINUED: 44 A FOOT STICKS OUT... Big Bob exits the vehicle holding his gun and approaches. A voice comes to him. A MAN SOBBING- MAN (O.S.) (through his tears) JUPITER! I GOT BUCKSHOT... YOU HEAR? BIG BOB (MOVING SLOWLY) IS THAT YOU MISTER? Big Bob kicks open the door revealing- THE OLD GAS STATION ATTENDANT, IN TEARS, HOLDING HIS SHOTGUN TIGHTLY, READY TO SHOOT AT ANYTHING... HE'S OBVIOUSLY DRUNK. BIG BOB (CONT'D) (aiming his gun at him) PUT THAT WEAPON DOWN RIGHT NOW MISTER! The old man seems mad. BIG BOB (CONT'D) I SAID PUT THAT WEAPON DOWN! OLD GAS ATTENDANT (lifting his eyes to Big BOB) My wife... She didn't want to leave ...she wouldn't move to town even when the state police ordered us to. The kids grew up in the mines... Like animals... (smiling through his TEARS) What kind of place is that for children? In a split second, the old man sets the shotgun under his CHIN- BIG BOB FREEZE! BANG! - THE OLD MAN'S BRAINS SPLATTER IN THE OUTHOUSE... (CONTINUED) 48. 44 CONTINUED: (2) 44 Suddenly, VOICES coming from different directions echo around him. VOICES Daddy... Daddy...Daaaddyyy...Daddy.. THE VOICES ARE HORRIFIC AND TERRIFYING. Big Bob backs up pointing his gun in their direction. VOICES (CONT'D) Daaaaddyyy...Dad-dy...Dad-dy... BIG BOB Who's there? VOICES Dad-dy...Dad-dy...Daddy...Dad-dy... Big Bob can't contain his fear and shoots blindly into the darkness. BIG BOB Who's there? Show yourself! The voices become louder and louder, omnipresent. VOICES Dad-dy...Dad-dy...Daaaddyyy... Daddy.. Daddy... Big Bob walks backwards to the truck, and trips on the ground. Wide eyed, he stands and throws himself on the car door. 45 INT. PICK-UP TRUCK - NIGHT 45 Panicked, he enters the vehicle and turns the ignition. As the engine turns over- A DEEP VOICE RIGHT BEHIND HIM- VOICE (CALMLY) ..Daddy... In a split second, Big Bob sees, in his rear view mirror, A DARK HAIRY FIGURE WITH EVIL EYES IN THE BACKSEAT- It's PAPA JUPITER. 49. 46 EXT. PICK-UP TRUCK - NIGHT 46 BIG BOB'S FACE SLAMS REPEATEDLY INTO THE WINDSHIELD! The truck shakes as Big Bob is attacked inside. Blood splatters on the windows. 47 EXT. MINE ENTRANCE - NIGHT 47 Bloodied and screaming, Big Bob is dragged out of the car in the dirt to the entrance of the old mine behind the gas station. Big Bob disappears inside. The night is once again calm and silent. FADE TO BLACK. 49 INT. TRAILER - NIGHT 49 Miles away, inside the trailer, Ethel washes dishes while dinner cooks on the stove. SUDDENLY THE RED LIGHT ON THE C/B TURNS ON AND THE RADIO SQUAWKS TO LIFE, DISRUPTING THE SILENCE. She wipes her hands on her apron and site down next to the radio. ETHEL (into the mic) Hello...Hello... Can somebody hear me? Please answer if you hear me. Hello? No answer. The radio goes silent. Lynn joins her, holding the baby. LYNN How's it going? ETHEL I heard something. She fiddles with the radio. ETHEL (CONT'D) I'm not even sure I know how to use this thing. Lynn hands her Catherine, and sits in front of the C/B. (CONTINUED) 50. 49 CONTINUED: 49 LYNN (in the mic) Mayday ...mayday... This is a distress call... Do you copy? Still nothing. 50 EXT. TRAILER - NIGHT 50 Lynn's distress call is heard from the trailer isolated in the middle of the desert. 51 INT. TRAILER - NIGHT 51 LYNN Mayday. . .We're stranded in the desert, we need help...mayday... Suddenly, the light on the C/B turns green and static can be heard. Ethel grabs her daughter's hand, hopeful that someone may have heard them. A second later, HEAVY BREATHING is heard over the radio. The light turns off. The two women look at each other in confusion. LYNN (CONT'D) What was that? ETHEL It sounded like an animal... Lynn stands up worried. LYNN If animals start answering our radio calls, we're really fucked! ETHEL Watch your language! LYNN Give it a rest, Mom. We have more important things to worry about. She walks out. ETHEL Lynn, wait. Ethel stays alone with the baby. 51. 52 EXT. TRAILER - NIGHT 52 Still tied to the trailer, Beast growls and pulls on his chain. Lynn raises the collar of her jacket to protect herself from the wind and moves closer to the fire. LYNN Brenda? No answer. LYNN (CONT'D) (LOUDER) BRENDA?! In the distance, we see Brenda looking for her brother. BRENDA BOBBY? BOBBY? With a flashlight in one hand, the gun in the other, and a blanket over her shoulders, Brenda moves through the night. BRENDA (CONT'D) BOBBY? BOB-BY? She hears her older sister calling. LYNN (O.S.) Brenda? Brenda? BRENDA I'm here! I'll be back in a minute. The flashlight partially lights the desert as she disappears into the night. BRENDA (CONT'D) BOBBY? BOB-BY? 53 EXT. HILLS - NIGHT 53 We fly over the hills before stopping over Bobby's unconscious body laid out between two rocks. Ruby is still at his side, observing him silently. She hears Brenda's calls and runs away. (CONTINUED) 52. 53 CONTINUED: 53 Bobby slowly opens an eye, regaining his senses. Blood has coagulated on his face. He turns his head in the direction of his sister's voice, realizing that it's night. How long has he been unconscious? CUT TO: 54 EXT. TRAILER - MIGHT 54 The sky is so clear that you can see the milky way above the Carters' trailer home. Beast strains on his chain, a low growl of rage coming from his chest. 55 INT. TRAILER - NIGHT 55 Inside the trailer- The first aid kit is open on the table. Even with a blanket around his shoulders, Bobby shivers. Ethel soaks cotton in alcohol using it to clean his wounds. ETHEL You're lucky Brenda found you. Imagine if you had to spend the whole night out there in the cold. Bobby winces from the pain. BRENDA Don't worry, Beauty will come back when she's hungry... Bobby doesn't answer. He keeps the truth to himself, not wanting to worry his family. BOBBY Have you tried the radio? ETHEL It doesn't work... LYNN We heard something. Some sort of breathing... Bobby lifts his head. BOBBY What do you mean? (CONTINUED) 53. 55 CONTINUED: 55 LYNN It was really weird, right mom? ETHEL (minimizing the incident) I'm sure it was just static. LYNN Mom, it sounded like a perverted crank call. BRENDA (JOKING) Only Mom would get an obscene phone call out here! Suddenly,a muted sound echoes outside. Bobby jumps up, grabs the gun and crouches behind the door. BOBBY (to the others) Ssshhhh... His mother and two sisters are surprised by his agitated behavior. BRENDA What's wrong with you? Footsteps. Someone approaches. BOBBY (stern but soft) I want you guys to stay in here. Brenda?! You hear me? Gun in hand, he opens the door- Bobby is about to shoot when a figure emerges from the dark. IT'S DOUG, holding as much as he could carry from the car graveyard. DOUG What the fuck are you doing? Don't point that thing at me. Bobby lowers the weapon. BOBBY I didn't know it was you. (CONTINUED) 54. 55 CONTINUED: (2) 55 DOUG Who else would it be?! Bobby is interrupted by Brenda who sees Doug from the window. BRENDA Doug's back! DOUG Hey girls! Quickly, Lynn exits the trailer and jumps into her husband's arms. They kiss. Doug sets down all of his findings. DOUG (CONT'D) Look what I found. Various tools, a fishing pole... DOUG (CONT'D) With all of this, we can find a way to fix the car, right Bobby? Bobby doesn't answer. DOUG (CONT'D) I found this really huge crater at the end of the road! I've never seen anything like it! People must use it as a dump site. It was full of all this garbage... (pointing to the fishing POLE) Look at this, it's brand new! LYNN What are you going to do with a fishing pole in the desert? You didn't you find anybody? DOUG No. The road just stops there. I hope your dad has better luck. Is there anything to eat? I'm starving. LYNN Let's go, it's freezing out here. Doug follows Lynn inside the trailer. (CONTINUED) 55. 55 CONTINUED: (3) 55 Bobby stays outside, worried. Everything seems calm. Perhaps too calm. He looks around- BEAST IS GONE. He finds the BROKEN CHAIN. CUT TO: 57 EXT. ROCKY LABYRINTH - NIGHT 57 At the top of the hill, Beast has found what's left of Beauty's mutilated body and whines as he licks her face. CUT TO: 58 EXT. TRAILER - NIGHT 58 From outside we see Doug and Lynn finishing dinner while Brenda clears the table. Doug holds Catherine on his knees. Outside, Bobby stands guard with the gun. His mother comes out. ETHEL Looks like we're camping out tonight. How's your head? Bobby doesn't answer. ETHEL (CONT'D) Bobby? What's going on? A beat. BOBBY Nothing, Mom. ETHEL Are you sure? BOBBY I'll feel a lot better when dad gets back. ETHEL Me too, honey. Come inside. You've already spent enough time in the cold for one day, don't you think? (CONTINUED) 56. 58 CONTINUED: 58 Bobby agrees to follow his mother, abandoning the fire. The flames dance with the desert wind in the night. 59 INT. TRAILER.- NIGHT 59 Bobby double bolts the lock on the door. Behind him, Lynn comes out of the bathroom, while Doug has just changed Catherine. LYNN Don't close the door, we're leaving in a second! BOBBY (WORRIED) Where are you going? You don't want to wait until Dad comes back? DOUG I'm tired, I really need to rest for an hour or so... BOBBY We can squeeze in here. You'll be more comfortable. DOUG You want us to sleep on the floor?! Doug kisses Catherine and hands her to Brenda so she can put her to bed. Bobby takes him aside. BOBBY (QUIETLY) I need to talk to you... DOUG What? Bobby hesitates to talk. DOUG (CONT'D) So, what Bobby? Lynn walks by- LYNN I'm almost ready... (CONTINUED) 57. 59 CONTINUED: 59 DOUG Listen... I'm sure your dad will be back soon. He's "Big Bob". It's gonna take more than a few snakes in the dark to stop him, right? (TO LYNN) Are you coming, honey? Lynn, holding a blanket and pillows, joins him. They exit together hand in hand. DOUG (CONT'D) (FROM OUTSIDE) If he's not back by midnight, we'll go get him. Deal? Bobby hates himself for not saying anything. He bolts the door shut and stands facing it. Behind him, Brenda sets the baby in her crib and starts a FISHER PRICE MOBILE hanging above, setting off the music and rocking the baby to sleep. She disappears in the bathroom for a moment and comes out in t-shirt and panties. She turns to her brother- BRENDA Can I listen to your iPod? Bobby is still focused on the door. BOBBY What? BRENDA Can I borrow your iPod? BOBBY (DISTANT) Whatever... Brenda grabs it and cranks the volume. she starts swaying to the music, unaware of the dangers lurking about. Next to her, Catherine sleeps quietly in her crib. On the other side of the trailer, Ethel works on a crossword puzzle. INSERT- " family, revenge, homicide..." are some of the words in the puzzle... (CONTINUED) 58. 59 CONTINUED: (2) 59 WIDER- Bobby joins her and sits. 60 EXT. TRAILER - NIGHT 60 In between some bushes, we see the Carter trailer home isolated in the desert under the starlit sky. Backlit in the window, Brenda dances... Next to the trailer home, the SUV- 61 INT. SUV - NIGHT 61 In a makeshift bed in the back, Doug is laying on his back and Lynn rubs his legs. DOUG Ow, Ow... Yeah right there. Perfect. God, I feel like I crossed New Mexico on foot. Amused, Lynn squeezes his legs a bit harder. She moves up to his love handles. LYNN A little work out can't be all that bad for these guys, right? Doug laughs and giggles. DOUG Stop! Stop, you're tickling me! Lynn continues with more fervor. DOUG (CONT'D) Oh, so you want to play? He turns around and starts tickling her as well. They laugh together before kissing passionately. LYNN I love you... DOUG I love you too... They start making out. 62 EXT. SUV - NIGHT 62 At the same time A HAND opens the gas tank and unscrews the cover. (CONTINUED) 59. 62 CONTINUED: 62 In total silence, the hand slips a rubber hose into the tank and starts siphoning gas. We follow the hose up to the monstrous mouth of- PLUTO - The deformed bald giant with a child's face. But a child with a thick, primal cruelty snapping in his asymmetrical, protruding eyes. Silently, Pluto siphons some of the Carter's gas into a gas can. Lynn's hand presses against the window, as she and her husband continue, unaware. Pluto laughs stupidly, excited by the situation. His large smile reveals POINTY SHARK-LIKE TEETH. Once the gas can is full, he waves at somebody hidden in the dark. 63 INT. TRAILER - NIGHT 63 Brenda rests on her bed. Exhausted, she turns off the bed lamp,. and slides under the sheets. She falls asleep listening to the music. In the other room of the trailer, Bobby's watch reads 11:45pm. Bobby is restless. He doesn't know what to do. A few feet away, Ethel sleeps on the couch. Suddenly, Bobby hears barking in the distance. BOBBY Beast?! He grabs the gun and exits the trailer, leaving the door open. 64 EXT. TRAILER - NIGHT 64 Bobby moves into the night. Beast is still barking somewhere in the dark. As he passes the SUV, he overhears the moaning and heavy breathing coming from inside. His flashlight moves over the desert terrain and the occasional bush. He calls out to his dog, trying not to wake anyone. (CONTINUED) 60. 64 CONTINUED: 64 BOBBY Beast? Come on, boy. You hear me! Come on now. Bobby moves further from the trailer towards the barking. HIS FLASHLIGHT PASSES QUICKLY OVER A SHAPE HIDING IN THE BUSHES! Bobby shines the light on the bush and approaches- Nothing. It must have been his imagination. The barking becomes a ferocious growl. BOBBY (CONT'D) Beast? Beast? Its me. Come on... All of a sudden the growling becomes a "mooing" cow. Then a goat. Then a chicken. Terrified, Bobby turns around and runs back toward the SUV. 65 INT. TRAILER - NIGHT 65 In the living room, Ethel sleeps. At the other end, Brenda turns under the sheets. The muted bass coming from the iPod drums on in the background. A GNARLED HAND ENTERS FRAME AND BRUSHES A STRAND OF HAIR FROM BRENDA'S FACE SO STEALTHILY THAT SHE DOESN'T EVEN STIR. IT'S PLUTO. THE DIVERSION OUTSIDE HAS ALLOWED HIM TO ENTER. He stands above Brenda watching her sleep, an innocent smile on his face. His hand softly grazes her hair as if she was a kitten, then pulls on the sheets to expose her body. Pluto covers her mouth, silencing her. BRENDA'S EYES OPEN WIDE. 66 EXT. TRAILER - NIGHT 66 Panting and panicked, Bobby knocks on the SUV's tailgate window, interrupting Lynn and Doug. BOBBY Doug! Doug! Caught red-handed, Lynn dresses and Doug pulls up his pants. (CONTINUED) 61. 66 CONTINUED: 66 DOUG Damanit! What is it now? LYNN (through the window) What do you want, Bobby? BOBBY Come on, open up! Lynn opens the back window giving him a dirty look. LYNN This had better be important. Bobby is too scared to keep the truth hidden. He regains his calm before talking. BOBBY Something's going on around here. We're not alone. Exasperated, Lynn takes a deep breath, not taking him seriously. BOBBY (CONT'D) I know this sounds weird, but there are people living in those hills. LYNN Bobby... We're in the middle of nowhere. Believe me, no one could survive out here! BOBBY I saw them. And Beauty... DOUG Beauty what? BOBBY They cut out her insides. LYNN What are you talking about? BOBBY Her guts were all over the place... He struggles to talk. (CONTINUED) 62. 66 CONTINUED: (2) 66 BOBBY (CONT'D) I...I didn't want to scare you so I didn't say anything, but something's going on... You even said you heard some breathing on the radio didn't you? Lynn nods. BOBBY (CONT'D) We're not alone, I'm telling you... Doug exits the car. Obviously, Bobby is not kidding. DOUG Calm down Bobby, OK? Let's go check it out together. Lynn, stay right here. 67 INT. TRAILER - NIGHT 67 From the window, we can see Bobby and Doug walking to the trailer. In the back room, Pluto hears them, grabs his walkie-talkie AND GROWLS- PLUTO Noaowww! 68 EXT. TRAILER - NIGHT 68 AT THAT MOMENT, an explosion takes place a few hundred yards away from the trailer. The flames climb into the air lighting the surrounding rocky desert. SOMEONE SCREAMS. Doug and Bobby turn around. IT'S BIG BOB! He has been crucified to a Joshua tree and transformed into a HUMAN TORCH... The explosion and the screaming has awakened Ethel who comes out of the trailer in her nightgown. Recognizing his screams, she runs to her burning husband. ETHEL IT'S BOB! IT'S BOB! (CONTINUED) 63. 68 CONTINUED: 68 Doug tries to hold her back, but she is determined to get to him. 69 INT. TRAILER - NIGHT 69 Doug runs into the trailer grabbing a fire extinguisher and some blankets. In the panic, he fails to see Brenda restrained by Pluto. DOUG (PANICKED) Brenda, stay with Catherine! He jumps out without waiting for an answer. Pluto gives Brenda a satisfied smile- NO ONE WILL BOTHER THEM NOW. 70 EXT. TRAILER - NIGHT 70 Doug runs out leaving the door wide open. Someone jumps from the roof and, on all fours, lands in front of the door. He stands and, for the first time, we see the face of - LIZARD - Pluto's cousin. Lizard is as thin as Pluto is imposing. Extremely pale, his face is disfigured by A CLEFT LIP WHICH EXPOSES HIS DEFORMED JAW. A SAVAGE WITH NO SENSE OF PITY, LIZARD IS, AFTER PAPA JUPITER, THE MOST VIOLENT INHABITANT OF THE HILLS. Lizard has Big Bob's Magnum. He enters the trailer and closes the door behind him. 71 EXT. DESERT - NIGHT 71 Big Bob screams as the flames devour his naked flesh. His fingers tighten. His bloodied face distorts with pain. Even his eyes are burnt. Considering the condition of his body, it's a miracle he's still alive... Doug arrives with the extinguisher and begins putting out the fire under Ethel's horrified, watchful eye. 72 INT. TRAILER - NIGHT 72 Back inside the trailer. (CONTINUED) 64. 72 CONTINUED: 72 With a wicked smile on his face, Lizard puts on Ethel's apron and places her flowery sun hat on his head. This disturbed mind takes pleasure in dressing up in "Mama's clothes"... Then, famished, he eats everything he can find in the trailer. Raw meat, fruit, potato chips... He washes it all down with milk, orange juice... His eyes stop on the bird cage. He smiles. Lizard moves closer, opens the cage and grabs one of the parrakeets. The small bird looks around in confusion. HE TEARS OFF ITS HEAD AND SQUEEZES THE BLOOD INTO HIS MOUTH! Blood drips on his chin. Brenda's muted screams attract his attention. Lizard walks across the trailer. HE WANTS HIS SHARE. He pushes Pluto violently to the ground. LIZARD Move! (with a smile) You gotta be a man to do that... Pluto is outraged and tries to stand up. He wants to talk but no words come out. JUST GRUNTS AND GROWLS. Lizard savagely hits him several times. Behind them, terrified, Brenda watches helplessly as they fight. Lizard puts his foot on Pluto's face, pinning him to the ground, and then points the gun to his head. LIZARD (CONT'D) I told ya to move! Pluto moves away and, in a fit of rage, breaks everything in the trailer. Dishes, chairs, table... everything. Lizard laughs like a goon. He grabs Brenda by her feet and pulls her to him. (CONTINUED) 65. 72 CONTINUED: (2) 72 Excited and amused at the same time, he stares at Brenda's appetizing calf muscle. He smells it, licks it, and then, without hesitation, plunges his teeth into her leg. 73 EXT. TRAILER - NIGHT 73 Brenda's muted screams are heard from inside the trailer. 74 EXT. DESERT - NIGHT 74 The flames have been replaced by white smoke. Doug unties Big Bob. His body falls motionless to the ground. COMPLETELY CARBONIZED, HE HAS STOPPED BREATHING. Smoke comes out of his mouth. Doug uses the blanket to extinguish the last flames. Behind Doug, Ethel looks at her husband refusing to accept the truth. ETHEL No..No.. It's not possible. That's not Bob. That's not my Bob. She grabs Doug by his shirt trying to convince him. ETHEL (CONT'D) Doug.. It's not him. Tell me it's not him. It's not my Bob! The poor woman has lost her mind. Ethel erupts in laughter pointing to her dead husband. ETHEL (CONT'D) (HYSTERICALLY) That is not my Bob! That is not my Bob! That's not him! Lynn and Bobby are paralyzed. Doug turns to his wife. DOUG Take your mother away from here! With her eyes fixed on her father, Lynn walks her mother away. In Bobby's eyes, sadness has been replaced by hatred. Full of rage, the youngster grabs the gun and walks away. (CONTINUED) 66. 74 CONTINUED: 74 DOUG (CONT'D) Where are you going? Bobby? BOBBY I'm gonna take care of the motherfuckers! DOUG Come back here, Bobby! Bobby disappears into the night. Doug covers Big Bob's face with a blanket. 75 EXT. TRAILER - NIGHT 75 Returning to the trailer, Lynn struggles to restrain Ethel. Ethel finally realizes it's too late for her husband and collapses into her daughter's arms. Just then, a muffled scream from Brenda pierces the night. LYNN Oh my god! Lynn runs inside leaving her mother alone. 76 INT. TRAILER - NIGHT 76 Bursting into the trailer, Lynn stops on a dime when she sees Lizard, in Ethel's clothes, holding the baby. Behind him, Pluto restrains Brenda. Lizard walks up with the baby. LIZARD (EVIL) Big fat baby good.., you fat... Fat and juicy! Lynn is paralyzed with fear. Lizard imitates a mother cradling her baby. LIZARD (CONT'D) Baby... Baby... Instinctively, Lynn grabs the closest thing, a FRYING PAN, and hits Lizard brutally in the face. (CONTINUED) 67. 76 CONTINUED: 76 Stunned, he falls to the ground and drops the baby, who begins to wail. when he lifts his head, Lynn strikes again- He blocks her arm and twists it, bringing her to her knees. Lynn tries to fight him off, but he is too strong. Still restrained, Brenda spots the PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER under the sleeper. The one Bobby had used to fix the A/C. At the other end of the trailer, Lizard has immobilized Lynn and POINTS THE GUN AT THE BABY! Lynn stops. LYNN (PANTING) No...No...Please... Please don't... Without a word, Lizard tears off Lynn's shirt and bra. The gun stays pointed at the baby as- Lizard removes Ethel's sun hat and hovers over Lynn's breast... Seen from behind her shoulder, we can't figure out exactly what this mental case is doing... Is he nursing from her breast? Lynn trembles, but can only think of her baby and her sister, who are still threatened. Excited by what his brother is doing, Pluto fondles Brenda. Suddenly, Ethel jumps into the trailer with a broom and starts batting away at Lizard. For once, her adrenaline kicks in as she fights for the most important thing in her life - Her family. The broom has little effect and is almost comical... BANG! - Lizard shoots Ethel in her chest, throwing her back. 77 EXT. DESERT - NIGHT 77 From far away, Bobby hears the gunshot. He quickly turns around to help his family. 68. 78 INT. TRAILER - NIGHT 78 In the trailer home, Brenda takes advantage of the confusion to get away from Pluto and grabs the Phillips screwdriver from beneath the sleeper. Brenda slides the screwdriver to Lynn who raises it and is about to strike when- BANG! - Lynn is shot in the chest. Lizard turns to Brenda and aims at her head. He is about to shoot when Lynn, with her last breath- PLANTS THE PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER IN HIS THIGH. IT STARTS TEARING THROUGH HIS FLESH! Lizard screams in pain and turns the gun back to Lynn- BANG! - He blows off part of her skull. Blood splatters throughout the cabin. 79 EXT. DESERT - NIGHT 79 Alarmed by the gunfire, Doug gets up and looks at the trailer in the distance. He doesn't know what to do. Bobby appears behind him- BOBBY Come on Doug! They're in the trailer-! They both take off running. 80 INT. TRAILER - NIGHT 80 Witness to the slaughter, Brenda is petrified with fear. Lizard pulls out the screwdriver and stands with difficulty. He picks up the baby and hands it to Pluto. LIZARD Take it. Pluto obeys. Lizard grabs Brenda by the hair and pulls her out of the trailer. (CONTINUED) 69. 80 CONTINUED: 80 LIZARD (CONT'D) Come on bitch... She screams and resists by grabbing at furniture and pulling off the curtains... Her nails scratch against the paneling. BEFORE LEAVING, LIZARD RIPS THE JEWELRY FROM ETHEL AND LYNN'S BODY... 81 EXT. TRAILER - NIGHT 81 Brenda is pulled out by Lizard. When he sees Bobby and Doug approaching, Lizard changes his MIND- HE INSERTS THE BARREL OF HIS GUN INTO BRENDA'S MOUTH... Brenda is wide eyed. Without hesitating, Lizard pulls the TRIGGER- CLICK! - no more bullets. Lizard drops Brenda. LIZARD I'll come back for ya... Lizard disappears into the night. Brenda lays on the ground trembling and crying. Doug arrives at the trailer, while Bobby aims the 9mm at the assassins. BANG! BANG! BANG! It's too late. They're gone. Bobby runs to his traumatized sister laying on the ground. He holds her in his arms, trying to calm her down. Doug approaches the open door. He notices bloody hand prints along the side of the trailer home- One of the attackers has been hurt... 82 INT. TRAILER - NIGHT 82 Doug enters the trailer unable to imagine the tragedy. (CONTINUED) 70. 82 CONTINUED: 82 Horrified, he discovers Ethel on the couch, not quite dead, but short of breath and in pain. Doug is stone faced- ON THE GROUND, LYNN'S BODY, HIS OWN WIFE, SOAKS IN HER BLOOD! His eyes fill with tears. He tries to keep from crying but his sadness is too deep. His hand approaches her face. His fingers graze her hair. SUDDENLY, LYNN'S BODY SUFFERS A LAST MUSCLE SPASM, LIKE A CIRCUIT SHORTING OUT. Doug tries to breathe life back into her body, but death has overtaken her open eyes. He closes them and starts weeping. The music from the Fisher Price mobile is the only other sound... Doug turns around. THE CRIB IS EMPTY... DOUG (SOFTLY) No...No... He squeezes his fist with rage. 83 EXT. DESERT - NIGHT 83 At the foot of the burnt tree, Big Bob's body is laid out on some rocks, the blanket over his face. A few figures emerge out of the darkness and gather around the body like a pack of hyenas. BIG BOB IS DRAGGED AWAY THROUGH THE DUST... CUT TO: 84 EXT. HILLS - NIGHT 84 Backlit by the moon, at the top of the hill, we find Goggle and his binoculars. Reflecting in the lenses, we see the carters' trailer glowing in the night. A rustling noise attracts his attention. (CONTINUED) 71. 84 CONTINUED: 84 Before Goggle can turn around, a wild animal jumps at his face- IT'S BEAST. The German shepherd tears at Goggle's face and locks deep into his throat. Goggle tries to fight it off, but the animal is determined to kill. Goggle grabs AN OLD RAZOR out of his pocket and tries to cut the animal. The dog bites down tightening its grip. BONES CRACK. He drops the razor. Goggle's derby hat falls between some rocks. BEAST AVENGES BEAUTY IN A BLOODFEST! Someone calls him on the on walkie-talkie- RADIO (O.S.) "Goggle? Goggle..." Goggle will not answer anymore... 85 INT. TRAILER - NIGHT 85 Laid out on the couch, Ethel agonizes between life and death. Brenda stares into space, saying nothing. Doug touches her head as he passes. Instinctively, she backs off terrified. Across the trailer, Bobby paces back and forth. BOBBY (PANICKED) What are we going to do Doug? What are we going to do if they come back? Completely defeated, Doug comes back and goes to Ethel's side. BOBBY (CONT'D) Doug! Doug does not answer and takes Ethel's hand. She opens her eyes and looks at him as if nothing happened. ETHEL This camper's so small. No matter how much you clean, it's always a mess. (CONTINUED) 72. 85 CONTINUED: 85 Doug nods in silence. ETHEL (CONT'D) Is Big Bob home? DOUG Not yet. ETHEL Did everyone go to bed? DOUG Yes, Brenda is here and Bobby is in the kitchen. At the other end, Bobby turns away, crying. Brenda looks away as well. ETHEL (short of breath) Is Lynn sleeping? Doug holds back the tears. DOUG Yes.. (after a beat) Do you need anything? Ethel finds it more and more difficult to talk. ETHEL Look in the closet Doug, I'm sure I have another blanket. I'm so cold. Doug tucks one of the blankets around her. DOUG (REASSURING) There's one here. Nice and warm. ETHEL You've always been so sweet. I understand why Lynn loves you so much. She raises her arm to caress his face. Her hand falls on the bed. Lifeless. Brenda screams, bursting into tears. (CONTINUED) 73. 85 CONTINUED: (2) 85 At the same time Bobby pounds his fist against a wall. His eyes full of hate, he joins Doug. BOBBY (DETERMINED) Come on! I'm not going to take this shit... Doug gets mad as well. DOUG DON'T BE STUPID! WE'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE, DO YOU HEAR ME? BOBBY Fine. You stay here. I'm going after them. Doug gets between Bobby and the door, preventing the kid from leaving. BOBBY (CONT'D) Let me go! DOUG You want to die, too? BOBBY I don't care. Doug drags him in front of his mother's body. DOUG Look! Look at what they did to your mother. Look at what they did to your sister. He slams Bobby against the door. DOUG (CONT'D) You're not a fucking child, alright? Think before you do something stupid. You won't make it three feet! We need a plan, OK? We need to think... BOBBY Think about what? They have Catherine, Doug... Doug remains silent... (CONTINUED) 74. 85 CONTINUED: ( 3) 85 BOBBY (CONT'D) THEY HAVE CATHERINE... You know what they could to do to her, and you're not going to stop them?! You're just a coward... Doug jumps back on Bobby grabbing him by the collar. DOUG (ENRAGED) STOP IT! SHUT UP! JUST SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH! A MUFFLED SOUND COMES FROM OUTSIDE! They all freeze. Doug releases Bobby and immediately turns off the light. Plunged in darkness, Brenda panics again- BRENDA No.. No... don't turn it off! (HYSTERICAL) He swore he'd come back to get me. He swore it. Don't let him take me, Bobby! Outside, another noise, AND A SHADOW PASSES BACKLIT BY THE CAMPFIRE! BRENDA (CONT'D) (TERRIFIED) THEY'RE HERE... THEY'RE BACK... I DON'T WANT TO DIE BOBBY...I DON'T WANT TO DIE...DO SOMETHING... Bobby picks up the gun- BANG! BANG! BANG! - With no hesitation, he shoots through the door. Brenda throws herself into Doug's arms. Bobby stares at the bullet holes in the trailer door. Suddenly, the sound of a radio is heard- RADIO (O.S.) "Goggle, you copy? Goggle..." Bobby and Doug look at each other confused. (CONTINUED) 75. /œøΩ 85 CONTINUED: (4) 85 RADIO (O.S.) (CONT'D) "Goggle?" Doug silently moves closer to the door. From outside we can see Doug's eye through one of the bullet holes. Nobody, everything seems quiet. DOUG Get ready Bobby.. Doug opens the door and jumps out ready to fight. From beneath the trailer, someone observes him... Doug bends down and discovers- GOGGLE'S SEVERED ARM. In its hand, the walkie-talkie still works. RADIO (O.S.) "Goggle? Goggle?" Doug grabs the radio. It's dripping with blood. Bobby is about to join him when Doug signals- THERE'S SOMEONE HIDING UNDER THE TRAILER. Without a sound, Bobby aims the gun at the kitchen floor. Outside, Doug backs up to see who is hiding. Behind the step ladder, he sees an inert shape in the shadows. BANG! - Bobby shoots through the floor. Immediately, the shadowy figure jumps out into the light- DOUG Beast! The dog jumps into Doug's arms and begins licking his face. Bobby can't believe it, his dog has returned. Radio static comes back on the walkie. Bobby picks it up- RADIO (O.S.) "Papa Jupe... Goggle is dead. I found him in the rocks..." "Dead?" (MORE) (CONTINUED) 76. 85 CONTINUED: (5) 85 RADIO (O.S.) (CONT'D) "They got him. He's all torn up..." Bobby is proud of Beast. Still in the trailer, Brenda looks at them, not as hopeful. BOBBY Good boy.. That's a good dog. PAPA DUPE/RADIO (O.S.) "I'm gonna take care of those bastards myself"... Bobby exchanges a worried glance with Doug. Even though neither of the two has yet met Papa Jupe, something in his voice tells them that it's only going to get worse. Doug grabs the radio- DOUG (in the radio) WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO US?! No answer. Just static. DOUG (CONT'D) ANSWER ME! WHY US?! (IN DESPERATION) Give me back my little girl... Give her back to me... More static... DOUG (CONT'D) DO YOU HEAR ME?! Silence. Suddenly we hear- CATHERINE'S CRIES ON THE RADIO! Doug drops the radio, scared speechless... DOUG (CONT'D) How much ammo do you have left? BOBBY I don't know, half a clip? CUT TO: 77. 86 INT. DARK PLACE - NIGHT 86 On a dimly lit wooden table, Catherine lays, wrapped in a blanket. A butcher's knife is planted next to her... Asthmatic breathing, and the sound of running water punctuate the silence. Ruby steps out of the darkness and moves towards the baby. She watches through her abnormally large eyes and extends her stringy fingers to touch the baby. A large screen splits the room in two. A strangely shaped shadow moves behind the screen: A HANDICAPPED BODY washed by A LARGE WOMAN... An empty wheel chair rests in a corner. Amused, Ruby looks at the baby who smiles back. She carefully takes Catherine in her arms when the invalid's voice INTERRUPTS- LARGE WOMAN (O.S.) Put that down Ruby... You know better than to play with your food... Ruby takes a step back, hugging the baby tighter. - RUBY Mama, pleaaase... HANDICAPPED (O.S.) (weak asthmatic voice) Listen to your mother Ruby and put that baby down... Now! Frightened, Ruby obeys and quickly runs out of the room. The baby starts crying... CUT TO: 87 INT. TRAILER - NIGHT 87 Brenda sits by the C/B and retries the SOS calls. (CONTINUED) 78. 87 CONTINUED: 87 BRENDA Mayday... Mayday... We need help ..Mayday... Mayday... can anybody hear me? Something has gone off in her eyes. She is absent, no longer living, just surviving. Doug is about to leave, taking with him anything from the trailer which might be useful. BASEBALL BAT, FLASHLIGHT, PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER... BOBBY Let me go with you. DOUG No, you stay here with your sister and stay by the radio. Somebody's bound to hear us. Brenda continues her distress call. BRENDA Mayday...mayday... Can anybody hear me? DOUG (TO BOBBY) The sun'll be up soon. One of them is hurt, I'm going to follow his trail through the hills. Bobby pulls out the 9mm gun and hands it to him. DOUG (CONT'D) No. You keep it in case they come back. BOBBY What about you? DOUG Don't worry about me, I'll take Beast. Beast sits at his feet ready to go. Doug straps the walkie- talkie over his shoulder. BOBBY Doug? (CONTINUED) 79. 87 CONTINUED: (2) 87 DOUG Yes? BOBBY I... I didn't mean what I said... Doug hugs him like a brother. Before walking out, he bends down to Lynn's body and kisses her one last time on the mouth. DOUG I'm going to find.our baby my love...I promise. CUT TO: 88 EXT. HILLS - SUNRISE 88 The first sign of dawn lights the distant horizon. The vultures perched on a dead Joshua Tree swivel their heads around, to see a distant, running FIGURE - DOUG AND BEAST, moving steadily among the rocks. 89 EXT. MINE ENTRANCE - DAY 89 Doug and Beast arrive at the old mine's entrance on the side of the hill. The trail of blood leads inside. Doug hides behind a rock. Sweating, he catches his breath. Beast breathes heavily as well. Doug remembers what his wife always used to say- DOUG (to the dog) I told you to stop smoking. Doug sets a different frequency on his radio- DOUG (CONT'D) (Into the walkie) Bobby? Bobby? You read me? BOBBY (O.S.) Yeah, Doug... DOUG I followed the blood, I'm in front of a mine! (MORE) (CONTINUED) 80. 89 CONTINUED: 89 DOUG (CONT'D) I'm not sure if I'll get a signal from inside. If you don't hear from me in a half an hour, you're on your own. (A BEAT) Bobby? BOBBY Yeah... Good luck, Doug. He puts the walkie away and takes out the flashlight. DOUG (TO BEAST) You ready big guy? I hope you're not afraid of the dark. He pets the dog one final time and stands up. 90 INT. MINE - DAY 90 With the light from the entrance behind him, shadow enters the mine. The beam from his flashlight follows the trail of blood on the ground. The wooden pylons which have held up the walls for a hundred years threaten to crumble at any second. Only static on the radio. Doug turns it off. He moves further into the darkness, probing with his flashlight into the inky pit. Doug arrives at a fork splitting the tunnel off in two different directions. Doug lights each tunnel with the flashlight until he finds the one with-the blood trail, then continues on into that one. Tracking. Suddenly he stops. The beam of the flashlight has revealed TWO DOZEN PICKAXES that have been planted in the ground over mounds. That look very much like graves. The pickaxes look eerily like crosses, given the whole place the feel of A SUBTERRANEAN GRAVEYARD. Hanging from the graves, dates and portraits of all the miners who have died here, including women and children... The flashlight dims. Doug taps it to no avail. (CONTINUED) 81. 90 CONTINUED: 90 DOUG Come on. You can't be serious. Then light goes. completely off, leaving Doug in darkness. Scratch! - He lights a match. Holding the tiny flame, Doug continues down the tunnel until he arrives at another fork. He can no longer see the blood trail. A SHAPE SLIDES SWIFTLY BEHIND HIM! DOUG (CONT'D) (to Beast, meaning HIMSELF) Just stay calm, boy... A gust of air kills the match. He immediately lights another- Again, THE DRAFT SNUFFS IT OUT. He turns around, looking for the source of the air, and notices a reflection of light at the end of the tunnel. He moves towards the reflection. 91 EST. MINE EXIT - DAY 91 On the other side of the hill, the collapsed wooden beams and stones block part of the mine's exit. Doug emerges with Beast. His eyes takes a moment to adapt to the bright sunlight. He. cannot believe what he sees. At the bottom of a hill, A SMALL TOWN - A CLASSIC ONE-STREET TOWN BUILT BACK IN THE 50'S. Doug turns the walkie on. DOUG (ENTHUSIASTIC) .Bobby, Bobby, it's Doug... I can't believe it! I found a street and some houses. Maybe somebody does live here... The radio remains silent. (CONTINUED) 82. 91 CONTINUED: 91 DOUG (CONT'D) Bobby, do you hear me? Bobby? Still nothing. Doug turns around and looks up- A wall of rock towers behind him. He tries one last time, but the signal won't go through. 92 INT. TRAILER - DAY 92 Close up on the C/B radio in the trailer- Only static comes from the speakers. 93 EXT. TRAILER - DAY 93 Brenda drags one of the tires from the SUV 30 feet away. She douses it with lighter fluid and- Whoosh! - a match sets it on fire creating a thick, black, smoke signal. Brenda joins her brother who is busy planting wooden stakes in a circle fifty meters around the trailer. BRENDA Maybe somebody heard our calls.. BOBBY Nobody's going to find us Brenda, even with that smoke...Nobody's coming._.. You heard what Doug said-We're alone now, just you and me. Let them come, I'm waiting for them. Now, Bobby stretches the nylon wire from the fishing pole around each stake. He sets the fishing pole next to the trailer, rigging to it one of Catherine's TOY SHAKERS- An improvised alarm system. 94 EXT. HILLS - DAY 94 At the summit, somebody observes the trailer and the thick cloud of smoke rising to the air. CUT TO: 83. 95 EXT. TOWN - DAY 95 Doug runs down the hills towards the town. Behind him, from the mouth of the mine, someone observes between the rocks- it's Ruby. Doug slows his pace as he enters Main Street. The town is deserted. No sign of life anywhere. All the houses and cars are covered with a thick layer of dust. Taking a closer look, he realizes all the parked cars are from the 50's. Uncertain, Doug walks through the ghost town, with Beast at his side... No movement besides the wind blowing and lifting an occasional cloud of dust. Doug walks up to a house and knocks on the front door. No one to open the door. Doug wipes one of the windows- It's too dark inside to see anything. The door is unlocked, Doug pushes it. It squeaks open. He hesitates before entering. 96 INT. FIRST HOUSE - DAY 96 Sunlight passes through the dusty windows revealing a living/dining room decorated from the 50's. Doug can't believe his eyes- Through the kitchen door, he can see a woman doing dishes. A man sits in the living room reading a newspaper. Children play in front of the blank TV set... THESE ARE NOT REAL PEOPLE BUT MANNEQUINS! They have been dressed and placed into real life situations. THE ATOMIC SYMBOL CAN BE FOUND ON EACH OF THEIR FOREHEADS. Doug spots a telephone behind the staircase and checks for a dial tone. Nothing. He picks up the phone casing. EMPTY. JUST LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE HOUSE, IT'S FARE. 84. 97 EXT. TOWN - DAY 97 Doug quickly crosses Main Street to visit another house. 98 INT. SECOND HOUSE - DAY 98 New interior- New surreal setting. Around a table, a family of test dummies eat dinner. 99 EXT. TOWN - DAY 99 Stupefied, Doug enters yet another house. The door remains open as we see another family of dummies living a perfect little life. A LIFE WHICH STOPPED IN THE LATE 50'S... Around the corner of a house, a little girl dummy is sitting on a swing, her face half broken. A second later, Doug thinks he hears CHILDREN LAUGHING. He TURNS AROUND- Nothing but the wind blowing through the houses. Doug takes Catherine's bib from his pocket and lets Beast get its scent. DOUG Find her, Beast, find Catherine... With his nose to the ground, the dog pulls Doug straight ahead. Doug walks away through the streets, pulled by the dog. On the outskirts of town, we discover a fence buried in the sand. On it, an old metallic sign reads- TEST SITE 3B - MILITARY ZONE - HIGH RADIATION RISK The scent leads Doug into an alley off the main street. He sees an old generator on full throttle. A thick smoke pours from the exhaust. SOMEONE LIVES HERE! His daughter could be there... (CONTINUED) 85. 99 CONTINUED: 99 Doug tries to see into the windows, but they are caked in filth. He decides to go around when- A MAN WALKS INTO VIEW WITHOUT SEEING HIM! Immediately, Doug backs away. The man drags a cadaver by its feet. Half of the dead body is missing, having apparently been torn off. Beast GROWLS. The man turns around, revealing his horrible face- A METALLIC BRACE is screwed on four sides of his head helping him stand straight. ENORMOUS CYSTS DISFIGURE HIM AND COVER EVERY VISIBLE PART OF HIS BODY. Let's call him "CYST". Cyst traces back his steps, trying to find what caused the noise. He holds the gas station attendant's shotgun! The alley is empty. The generators are still motoring. All seems normal. Cyst turns back towards main street. Cyst passes an old'parked car without seeing Doug and the dog hidden inside. Doug breathes a sigh of relief. Close call. Quietly, Doug gets out of the car. He hesitates as to whether he should bring Beast with him or to leave him in the car. The dog could be his best weapon but, on the other hand, he also represents a_bigger risk to be spotted. DOUG (CONT'D) (SOFTLY) You wait here Beast! Come on, sit!... Good boy. I'm gonna find Catherine... The dog is confused and whines through the half-opened window. DOUG (CONT'D) Shhhh... Quiet Beast... Don't move! I'll be back... He closes the car door and starts down the alley, lowering his head. (CONTINUED) 86. 99 CONTINUED: (2) 99 From inside the car, Beast watches Doug getting further away... Doug sneaks along the side of the building towards the front door. He hesitates, unsure of what awaits him inside- 102 INT. HOUSE - DAY 102 Doug crosses a doorway without making a sound. He enters the front hall squeezing the bat in his hands. Something in the air, A DISGUSTING SMELL, catches his attention. Doug moves slowly and discovers, in the dining room, sitting amongst the dummies- BIG BOB'S CHARRED BODY! His father-in-law's arms have been torn off and devoured. THE AMERICAN FLAG that used to adorn his SUV is planted THROUGH HIS FOREHEAD! Doug approaches terrified. BEHIND HIM A WEAK AND ASTHMATIC VOICE BEGINS TO SING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM- VOICE (O.S.) "Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?" Doug jumps and quickly lifts the baseball bat, ready to swing. Nobody. Just the fake living room filled with inert dummies. No trace of his baby. An electrical fan turns in a corner, close to a shelve full of old books... Doug moves forward, gripping the bat tightly. VOICE (O.S.) (CONT'D) (feeble and asthmatic) "...Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight..." He can hear his own heart beat as he searches through the house. In another room, close to the window and in the shadows, he sees someone sitting in a wheelchair. (CONTINUED) 87. 102 CONTINUED: 102 VOICE (O.S.) (CONT'D) "...And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air..." Doug gets closer- A ray of light shines on the skull of whoever sits in the wheel chair. The wheel chair moves forward revealing a most horrific sight- BIG BRAIN - We recognize the handicapped man whom we have seen before, bathing behind the screen. Big Brain's body is skeletal. He was born with a genetic disease giving him a head ten times bigger than his face. A head so heavy, he is unable to hold it up. It rests back on his chair, forcing him to stretch his eyes to see from side to side. Big Brain is maybe the most representative character of the damage done by nuclear fallout in this area. Doug threatens him with the baseball bat- DOUG Where's my baby! Where's Catherine?! Big Brain does not answer. DOUG (CONT'D) What did you do with her? BIG BRAIN (MURMURING) ..Nothing.. Doug is beyond his breaking point - DOUG Where is she then? ANSWER ME! He raises the bat. BIG BRAIN (weak and asthmatic) .I don't know where she is. I never leave this place... Big Brain moves away from the window wheeling himself to the couch. His hands are thin and pale, like a child's. (CONTINUED) 88. 102 CONTINUED: (2) 102 BIG BRAIN (CONT'D) ..You should've read the signs before taking that road... DOUG What signs?! BIG BRAIN (SMILING) Boom. .. Boom... Boom DOUG What the hell are you saying?! BIG BRAIN (weak and asthmatic) You people settled on our lands, you destroyed our homes, destroyed our silver mines. . .You 'ye made us what we've become! One day my father went into town begging for your help, and you know what the doctors did? They sterilized him like a dog! You thought that in the desert no one would see anything, or say anything, but the hills... The hills never forget... BOOM...BOOM...B000M! DOUG I don't know what you're talking about. All I want is my daughter. Please... Big Brain remains silent. DOUG (CONT'D) What do you want? Money? I can give you money... WHAT DO YOU WANT? BIG BRAIN Maybe a trailer? Yeah, a pretty trailer, just like yours. DOUG Where are the others? Where is my baby? Big brain starts laughing a high pitched sound. (CONTINUED) 89. 102 CONTINUED: ( 3) 102 DOUG (CONT'D) What? What's so funny? BIG BRAIN IT'S BREAKFAST TIME! At the same moment- CRASH - PLUTO, THE DEFORMED BALD GIANT, PULVERIZES THE DOOR WITH AN AXE AND SMASHES INTO THE HOUSE! Like a wild animal, Pluto charges Doug, destroying everything in his path. Doug retreats in the living room, throwing the dummies at his assailant. The giant comes closer and closer. Dummies are chopped into pieces. Doug dodges away and tries to escape, using the stairs in the hallway but the giant grabs him by the feet and pulls him down... The axe swings through the air missing him by a hair each time. 103 INT. 1950 CAR - DAY 103 Sensing his master is in trouble, Beast jumps around inside the car trying to find an exit... The passenger window opening is too small for him to break out... 104 INT. HOUSE - DAY 104 Doug runs into another room, escaping from Pluto and his axe. Instinctively, he uses the first piece of furniture he can find, A CHEST, to block the door behind him. He looks desperately for an exit. No way out. The axe penetrates through the door. The chest won't be enough to hold back Pluto. Second axe blow- This time the axe tears up the boards of the door, allowing Pluto to stick his gruesome face inside. Seeing Doug trapped in the room, the bald giant begins to laugh stupidly before turning around and walking away. (CONTINUED) 90. 104 CONTINUED: 104 The house is now silent. No sign of the giant. With his heart pounding through his chest and the baseball bat in hand, Doug moves towards the half-broken door,. CRASH! - PLUTO EXPLODES THROUGH THE WALL, LANDING ON TOP OF DOUG! Doug loses his bat but slides away before the axe comes swinging down. Desperate, he picks up the bat and uses it as a shield. The axe splits it in half. Doug throws himself at Pluto plunging the splintered bat into his abdomen. The sharp piece of wood enters Pluto's stomach. Completely out of his mind, Pluto removes the piece of wood from his abdomen and beats Doug in the face with it, sending him across the room. Pluto lowers his head, charging Doug like a bull. Doug crashes into one of the walls. He can't even take a breath before the giant grabs him by the leg like a rag doll and throws him through a wall. Doug falls to the ground in the living room. Wounded and exhausted, he is also defenseless. He has lost his glasses. Not far away, Big Brain savors the spectacle. The giant walks to him spinning the axe in his hand like a baton. His foot crushes Doug's glasses on the floor. The axe swings through the air. Doug jumps out of the way. ANOTHER SWING- THE AXE STRIKES INTO HIS LEFT HAND, CUTTING OFF SOME FINGERS! Doug stares wide eyed at his amputated fingers and screams with pain. Blood is everywhere. In an act of self preservation, Doug crawls under the table. (CONTINUED) 91. 104 CONTINUED: (2) 104 Pluto destroys it with the axe and advances to finish him off. His asymmetrical eyes stare coldly- Doug is at his mercy. Pluto slowly caresses the axe's blade on his victims throat and face. The sharp blade moves dangerously across Doug's skin. Pluto stops when he sees Doug holding his PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER! Pluto laughs like a dumb child at the feeble weapon. Behind him, Big Brain joins in on the laughter- Disfigured by his wounds, Doug is frozen with the screwdriver pointed at the giant. He looks ridiculous and starts sobbing like a terrorized child. DOUG Please, I'm begging you... Don't kill me... PLUTO (making fun of him) Loook at-t hiiis fa-ace... Loook at- at hiiis fa-ace... Even the frozen faces of the test dummies seem to mock him. SUDDENLY- Doug stops crying_instantly, it was a trick! He turns the screwdriver around and slams it into Pluto's foot. The screwdriver goes through the shoe nailing Pluto to the floor. Pluto screams in pain. Doug rises and moves behind him. In a swift movement, Doug takes the American flag from Big Bob's forehead, stabbing Pluto in the back of the neck! OLD GLORY'S STAFF COMES THROUGH HIS THROAT ON THE OTHER SIDE. Pluto screams again, dropping the axe. Outraged, Pluto tears the flag from his neck and turns to Doug. (CONTINUED) 92. 104 CONTINUED: (3) 104 PLUTO STOPS- DOUG IS HOLDING THE AXE. The blade swings through the air and slams into Pluto's skull! Pluto's eyes freeze and his body falls to the ground, his skull half open. DOUG JUMPS ON TOP OF HIM. FULL OF RAGE, HE MUTILATES PLUTO WITH THE AXE TO THE POINT OF EXHAUSTION. Big Brain watches Pluto die without showing any emotion. Silence returns to the destroyed house. Doug tears off a piece of Pluto's shirt and uses it as a BANDAGE for his hand... He picks up his half broken shattered glasses on the floor and put them back. SLING! - Doug removes the bloody axe from the corpse. He turns to Big Brain, who backs off- BIG BRAIN The baby... the baby is in the last house on the left... CUT TO: 105 EXT. TRAILER - DAY 105 The back door to the SUV opens, revealing Bobby and Brenda carrying Lynn's body inside where Ethel's body has been moved. Not far from the car and above the fishing pole, Catherine's shaker remains still and silent... 106 EXT. TOWN - DAY 106 Still imprisoned in the car, Beast barks, desperate to find a way out. A hundred yards away- Cyst crosses Main Street toward Big Brain's house still holding the shotgun. Through the broken door, Cyst spots Pluto in a pool of blood. Hatred fills his eyes as he loads the shotgun and prepares to shoot. (CONTINUED) 93. 106 CONTINUED: 106 He looks for Doug but sees no one. Cyst moves in between a few cars, failing to see Doug hiding behind one of them. Doug hits the man in his knee with the axe. HE SEVERS HALF OF HIS RIGHT LEG. Cyst screams in agony. In one swift move, Doug removes the axe from Cyst's kneecap swinging it into his back. Cyst falls on the ground. The fall pushes the axe further into his back. Cyst reaches for the shotgun lost in his fall. Doug steps on his chest and pushes slowly- Crack - The axe finally hits the spine, killing him instantly. Doug picks up the shotgun. 107 INT. HOUSE - DAY 107 From the broken window, Big Brain watches Doug walk away down Main Street. He picks up a walkie-talkie hidden in his WHEELCHAIR- BIG BRAIN Lizard... Kill the baby... 108 INT. LIZARD'S HOUSE - DAY 108 Lizard enters the house holding a MACHETE. The wound Lynn had given him before she died still bleeds through his improvised bandage. He moves to the kitchen with a limp. There, he comes face to face with Ruby. Behind her, the baby is wrapped inside a blanket on the table. The kitchen walls are covered with dry blood. Severed human remains are scattered about and hanging like slabs of meat. Ruby blocks his way- LIZARD Get out of the way Ruby... (CONTINUED) 94. 108 CONTINUED: 108 Ruby refuses to let him pass. Lizard lifts the machete threatening his little sister. LIZARD (CONT'D) I TOLD YOU TO MOVE. NOW MOVE! Scared, Ruby obeys and runs out the kitchen door. Lizard approaches the baby, who moves inside the blanket. 109 INT. LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT- DAY 109 At the same time, Doug arrives at the last house on the street. He looks for his baby in every part of the house. Nothing but dummies. Doug enters a room and sees a crib. DOUG Catherine?! He goes to the crib and discovers a plastic doll... BIG BRAIN LIED! SMALL VOICE (INNOCENT) You want to play with us mister? Doug turns around and sees two children playing in the shadows. They smile at him kindly- THEIR FACES AND LITTLE BODIES ARE MONSTROUSLY DEGENERATED! Doug backs away terrified. 110 INT. LIZARD'S HOUSE - DAY 110 Lizard is about to butcher the baby on the table. Catherine is calm and moves slowly under the blanket. 111 EXT. TOWN - DAY 111 In a panic, Doug runs out of the last house screaming. DOUG CATHERINE! 95. 112 INT. LIZARD'S HOUSE - DAY 112 Lizard lifts the machete and removes the blanket- THE BABY HAS BEEN REPLACED BY THE PIGLET STOLEN FROM THE GAS STATION! Ruby made the swap before Lizard entered the kitchen. The piglet runs off oinking... LIZARD RUUUBY! Enraged, Lizard sticks the machete into the table. 113 EXT. HILLS - DAY 113 Outside, with the baby in her arms, Ruby runs as fast as she can. 114 EXT. TOWN - DAY 114 Desperate, Doug runs through the test town looking for his daughter. In an upstairs window, he sees Ruby's mother, THE OBESE WOMAN, swinging on a rocking chair staring back. Suddenly, coming from the hills, Doug hears the sound of a baby crying. In the distance, he spots Ruby running through the rocks. He runs with the shotgun in hand. DOUG Catherine! 115 EXT./INT. 1950 CAR - DAY 115 Under the fake car, in between the seats, Beast finds a hole big enough to fit his nose. The animal forces his way through, scratching at the floor until he finally fits his body through the hole and out of the car. The dog runs down Main Street... CUT TO: 116 EXT. TRAILER - DAY 116 Back on the trailer- (CONTINUED) 96. 116 CONTINUED: 116 Sweating, Bobby joins his sister hidden behind the SW. With the 9mm in hand, staring at the horizon, he is ready to face the enemy. Above the fishing pole, Catherine's shaker is still. Gust of wind blow on the eerily silent plains. Suddenly, in a flash, the fishing line tightens and THE SHAKER MOVES AROUND, MAKING NOISE. Then, quiet returns as if nothing had ever happened. Brenda is terrified. Maybe someone has crossed their zone of security. Bobby Lifts his head and looks a full 360¬∞- NOTHING. Bobby and Brenda exchange worried glances when- THE FISHING POLE MOVES, SHAKING CATHERINE'S SHAKER FRENETICALLY. The fishing reel quickly unwinds... This time there is little room for doubt, even if all seems clear around the camper. BRENDA I don't.see anybody... What's happening? Bobby and Brenda leave their hiding place. They move, back to back, cautious... BRENDA (CONT'D) answer me, why isn't anyone there? I'm scared... BOBBY (LOW VOICE) Stay close Brenda. From inside the SW, we see the two adolescents getting further away when- A DARK FIGURE JUMPS IN THE FOREGROUND, IN FRONT OF THE WINDOW! (CONTINUED) 97. 116 CONTINUED: (2) 116 It's PAPA JUPITER. His long hair and thick beard cover everything except his determined and PSYCHOPATHIC EYES. Bobby and Brenda have arrived at the end of their security zone... BRENDA Look! Further ahead, on the ground, a tumbleweed is stuck on the fishing wire, moving it in the wind. BRENDA (CONT'D) Let's go back... Not convinced, Bobby agrees, but his face freezes when he turns back to see- THE BACK DOOR OF THE SUV, WIDE OPEN. At a loss, Bobby and Brenda return. THEIR MOTHER'S BODY HAS BEEN REMOVED! BRENDA (CONT'D) (PANICKED) What happened? What happened Bobby? Where's mom? A trail of blood leads from the trailer to somewhere behind some rocks. BOBBY (TO BRENDA) He's over there. Get the trailer ready.._ The new "visitor" has brought the nightmare back to life in Brenda's eyes. She's paralyzed. BOBBY (CONT'D) Brenda? Come on? Brenda remains still. BOBBY (CONT'D) BRENDA?! Terrorized, Brenda backs up to the trailer, while her brother, with a determined look on his face, walks to the hills. 98. 117 INT. TRAILER - DAY 117 Brenda returns to the trailer where two propane tanks have been brought out from under the sink. Through the window, she watches her brother get further out. 118 EXT. TRAILER - DAY 118 What Bobby discovers behind the rocks is beyond horrific- Kneeling next to his mother's corpse, Papa Jupiter devours her heart, tearing into it with his teeth. FEELING BOBBY'S PRESENCE, HE TURNS AROUND AND STARES AT THE YOUNG MAN WITH A SADISTIC SMILE. BLOOD DRIPS DOWN HIS BEARD. Bobby points his gun at him. Papa Jupiter stands and, in a fit of rage, charges at Bobby. Keeping his cool, Bobby fires- BANG! BANG! BANG! The bullets only slow him down. CLICK! The gun is empty. 119 INT. TRAILER - DAY 119 Brenda opens the valves to the gas tanks. 120 EXT. TRAILER - DAY 120 .Outside, Bobby throws the gun and runs to the trailer as fast as he can. _ Papa Jupiter is right behind him. He takes a SMALL PICKAXE from his belt and throws it at Bobby. THE PICKAXE STICKS INTO THE TRAILER INCHES FROM BOBBY'S FACE! 121 INT. TRAILER - DAY 121 Bobby enters the trailer, closing the door behind him. He quickly tapes matches at the bottom of the door, right above the striking part of the matchbox on the floor. Next to him, the propane flows freely. 99. 122 EXT. TRAILER - DAY 122 Behind the trailer, Brenda helps her brother squeeze out of the back window. They both run and hide behind a rock. At the same time, Papa Jupiter stands in front of the trailer door, relishing the idea that his victims are inside. He opens the door. The matches strike- PAPA JUPITER IS ENGULFED IN THE FLAMES. THE TRAILER HOME EXPLODES! Protected by the rocks, Bobby and Brenda watch as the explosion climbs to the sky. They did it... CUT TO: 127 EXT. HILLS EDGE - DAY 127 With Catherine held tightly in her arms, Ruby runs on the edge of the mountain. Seventy yards behind, Lizard gives chase with a limp and the chain of spikes in tow. LIZARD Ruby...Ruby! You come back here right now. You hear me, you little bitch? The road on the edge comes to a dead end. Ruby is stuck, the only way out is to climb. Without using her hands, she attempts to ascend. It's close to impossible. SUDDENLY, LIZARD GRABS HER ANKLE! She tries to fight him off, but he is too strong. Ruby kicks him in the jaw enraging him more. He pulls her down swiftly when- BEAST APPEARS BEHIND RUBY! The animal shows his teeth, advancing towards Lizard who backs off. (CONTINUED) 100. 127 CONTINUED: 127 Lizard is amused and almost excited with this last confrontation... Discreetly, he grabs the chain of spikes while keeping his eyes on the barking German Shepherd. THE RUSTY, RETRACTABLE SPIKES ARE RELEASED ALONG THE CHAIN! Beast sees the weapon and leaps towards Lizard. Too late. The chain strikes the dog in the air, sending him over the edge. BEAST WHINES AS HE LANDS ON A PROTRUDING SECTION OF THE RAVINE A FEW FEET FURTHER DOWN... Ruby refuses to hand over the baby, holding it tightly to her chest. LIZARD (CONT'D) Give me that baby, Ruby! With no time to react, Lizard is brutally struck in the face with the shotgun butt- DOUG IS BACK! Taking no chances and screaming like a wild beast, Doug beats Lizard repeatedly pushing him away from the baby. With a bloodied face, Lizard can hardly stand. Doug turns the weapon around and- BANG! - He shoots Lizard in the chest. Lizard is thrown back with the force. Doug reloads still screaming- BANG! Lizard is hit in the throat and falls.to his knees. Blood sprays everywhere. Doug reloads again- BANG! - hit in the shoulder, Lizard falls back in the dirt. His face slams into the dust. Exhausted, Doug walks over to his adversary. He is dead. Disfigured with wounds, Doug turns to Ruby, who extends the baby. (CONTINUED) 127 CONTINUED: (2) Doug can barely comprehend it - the nightmare is finally over! He. drops the smoking gun and opens his arms to embrace his baby. He cries tears of joy as he holds Catherine close to him. DOUG My baby ...My little princess... It's me, it's daddy... He kisses the baby and hugs her tightly, elated. Ruby is moved. She smiles when suddenly her face freezes- LIZARD STANDS FIFTEEN FEET BEHIND, HOLDING THE SHOTGUN! Trembling, he lifts the weapon towards Doug and the baby. Instinctively, Ruby moves to stop him. KA-CHUNK! - Lizard reloads. His finger squeezes the trigger. BANG! At the last second, Ruby jumps on Lizard changing the direction of the blast. They both fall off the mountain into the emptiness. Their bodies plunge a hundred feet down, splattering on the rocks below. RUBY HAS SACRIFICED HER OWN LIFE TO SAVE DOUG AND THE BABY. 130 EXT. TRAILER - DAY 130 One of the FAMILY PHOTOS of the carters posing with their dogs is slowly burning away in the flames. Pieces of the trailer still burn in the middle of the desert. Surrounded by debris, Papa Jupiter's body is impaled.on a darkened metal siding. Still alive but entirely burnt, his skin is raw and unrecognizable. With every breath, blood spits from his mouth... Facing this post atomic creature, Bobby hesitates to take it out of its misery. Brenda comes to his side- (CONTINUED) 102. 130 CONTINUED: 130 BRENDA Come on, Bobby. Let's get out of here... Bobby's face has changed. He is no longer the innocent kid of just a few hours ago. His eyes are now filled with rage and a determination to survive and succeed no matter what. Brenda and Bobby walk away from the burning trailer. On the other side of the smoke, they see- DOUG WALKING BACK WITH THE BABY, BEAST LIMPING AT HIS SIDE. Exhausted, wounded, disfigured, but still alive. 131 EXT. HILLS - DAY 131 From a distance, next to the fiery trailer, we see Doug, Brenda, and Bobby gathered around the baby. Reunited again. FROM THE SUMMIT OF THE HILLS, SOMEONE OBSERVES THEM WITH BINOCULARS. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_His Girl Friday.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_His Girl Friday.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..35c5b8ff8c489b9ef74f9a7f953efd9b40f60d43 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_His Girl Friday.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + "HIS GIRL FRIDAY" screenplay by Charles Lederer Based on the play "The Front Page" by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur 1939 SHOOTING DRAFT FADE IN: INT. ANTEROOM CLOSE SHOT SWITCHBOARD Two telephone operators sit at switchboard busy plugging in and out answering calls. 1ST OPERATOR This is the Morning Post... The City Room? Just a moment, I'll connect you. (plugs in call) 2ND OPERATOR Morning Post... Sports Department? Just a moment -- (plugs in call) CAMERA PULLS BACK to disclose the rest of the anteroom. To Camera left are the elevators -- at back wall directly behind switchboard are chairs and a table for visitors. Next to switchboard are stairs leading downward to the next floor. A waist-high iron grill with a gate in it separates the switchboard from the anteroom, a similar grill separating it again from the city room which stretches on beyond switchboard. At a table in the switchboard enclosure sits an office boy, about fifteen, doing a crossword puzzle. The big clock on the back wall shows that it is nearly one o'clock. CLOSE SHOT OFFICE BOY as he bends over paper. We catch a glimpse of the squares of a crossword puzzle. MED. SHOT as a reporter comes out of the City Room, clanging gate to behind him. The office boy looks up. OFFICE BOY What's a seven-letter word for --? REPORTER Don't ask me! If I knew any seven- letter words, I'd be something better than a reporter! He catches a glimpse of the far elevator going down. REPORTER Hey! Down! Down! MED. SHOT ELEVATORS as reporter runs in to the closed elevator door and pounds on it. It comes back, the door opens, and he gets in. The door closes, as elevator goes down. The near elevator comes up and discharges Hildy Johnson and Bruce Baldwin. Bruce carries an umbrella and wears a raincoat. MED. CLOSE SHOT TABLE office boy looking over his puzzle as Hildy and Bruce come into the scene. HILDY (with a smile) Hello, Skinny. Remember me? OFFICE BOY (looks up; then a glowing smile) Hildy Johnson! CLOSE SHOT SWITCHBOARD Hildy approaches the switchboard. HILDY (to operator) Hello, Maisie. The first operator looks up. MAISIE Hello -- Hildy! You coming back? HILDY No, just visiting. Tell me, is the lord of the universe in today? MAISIE He is -- and in a very bad humor. I think somebody stole one of his crown jewels. Shall I announce you? HILDY No, never mind -- I'll blow my own trumpet. THREE SHOT BRUCE, HILDY AND OPERATOR Hildy turns to Bruce. HILDY I won't be more than ten minutes, I promise you. BRUCE Even ten minutes is a long time to be away from you. We hear a giggle off scene. CLOSE SHOT OFFICE BOY He looks towards Bruce and Hildy and giggles. TWO SHOT BRUCE AND HILDY HILDY What did you say, Bruce? Bruce, embarrassed, looks at the office boy, then looks back at Hildy as they turn toward second gate leading into City Room. BRUCE I said -- uh -- I said even ten minutes -- is a long time -- to be away from you. HILDY Don't be embarrassed, Bruce. I heard it, but I just wanted to hear it again. I can stand being spoiled a little. The gentleman I'm going to have a chat with did very little spoiling. BRUCE (grimly) I'd like to spoil him just once. Sure you don't want me to go in with you? HILDY My job, Bruce. I started it -- and I'll finish it. BRUCE I suppose you're right -- but if it gets rough, remember I'm here. HILDY I'll come a-running, pardner. She starts to push open the iron-grilled gate leading into the City Room. Bruce quickly springs forward and opens it for her. Hildy smiles. HILDY Thanks, Bruce. She kisses his cheek and walks through. He looks after her. The office boy whistles. Bruce pays no attention, but stares after Hildy. MEDIUM SHOT - SHOOTING DOWN LENGTH OF CITY ROOM Hildy starts to walk through City Room. TRUCKING SHOT - HILDY as she walks the length of the City Room. It's a long walk, because it's a room that takes up practically the whole floor. The scene is a busy one. But, gradually, as Hildy starts down, one after another recognize her. There are cries of: "Hildy!" "Hello, Hildy", etc., from the men as Hildy goes straight down the aisle. She never stops but waves her own greetings: "Jim!" "Hi, good-looking!" "Laura" "Hullo, Pop" "Nan!" "Eddie!" "Hello, Mac" "Pete!" "Frank" "Oscar!", and gets responses from each of them. One man is bent over his desk reading his copy -- he is standing up. Hildy slaps him as she goes by. He turns around: "Say, who did that?" As he sees Hildy: "Hello, Hildy!" Hildy: "Hi, Jake." She passes a middle-aged woman, almost an Edna May Oliver type, seated at a desk pounding out copy and smoking a cigarette. As Hildy comes up to her she slaps the woman on the back. HILDY Hello, Beatrice. How's "Advice to the Lovelorn"? BEATRICE (looking up) Hildy! I'll be a monkey's uncle! What are you doing here? HILDY Point of information -- what does a girl say on meeting her divorced husband? OR: (What does a girl do, etc.) BEATRICE (illustrating) My advice is duck and cross with your right. Hildy moves on. CAMERA TRUCKS WITH HER to the end of the room where she pauses before the frosted glass partition which separates Walter Burns' office from the rest of the City Room. INT. BURNS' OFFICE LONG SHOT as she opens the door. Burns is shaving with an electric razor and Louie is holding the mirror up in front of him. CLOSE SHOT BURNS shaving, Louie holding the mirror. LOUIE A little more round the chin, Boss. MEDIUM SHOT There is a sound of the door closing and Burns, without looking up, says: BURNS What do you want? HILDY Why, I'm surprised, Mr. Burns. That's no way to talk to your wife -- even if she's no longer your wife. BURNS (grinning) Hello, Hildy! HILDY Hello, Walter. (to Louie) Hi, Louie -- how's the slotmachine king? LOUIE Oh, I ain't doing that any more. I'm retired. I'm one of you fellas now -- a newspaper man. HILDY Editorials? BURNS Get going, Louie. I got company. The door flies open and Duffy comes busting in. DUFFY Walter! BURNS I'm busy, Duffy. DUFFY Well, you're not too busy to know that the Governor hasn't signed that reprieve! BURNS What? DUFFY And that means Earl Williams dies tomorrow morning and makes a sucker out of us! BURNS You're crazy. Where's Mac? DUFFY He's on my phone. He just called me. BURNS They can't do that to me! He grabs the phone on his desk: BURNS Give me that call on Duffy's wire! Hello -- Mac? Burns. Where's the Governor? -- What do you mean, you can't locate him? (apparently pleading to the one man in the world who can help him) Mac, you know what this means. We're the only paper in town defending Earl Williams and if he hangs tomorrow we're washed up! Find the Governor and when you find him tell him we want that reprieve!... Tell him I elected him and I can have him impeached! Sure, you can do it, Mac -- I know you can. I always said you were the greatest reporter in the country and now you can prove it. Get going! Attaboy! He hangs up. BURNS (to Duffy, sarcastically) The greatest reporter in the country! First I gotta tell him what news to get! Gotta tell him how to get it -- then I gotta write it for him afterward! Now if you were a decent City Editor -- CLOSE SHOT DUFFY AND BURNS with Louie and Hildy in the b.g. DUFFY Don't blame me. I'm City Editor in name only. You do all the hiring around here. BURNS Yeah! Well, I do the firing, too. Remember that, Duffy, and Keep a civil tongue in your head. MEDIUM SHOT HILDY I don't like to interfere with business, but would you boys pardon us while we have a little heart-to- heart talk? DUFFY AND LOUIE (together) Well -- But I gotta -- They look at Burns. BURNS Scram, you guys. They start to go. HILDY You won't miss anything. You'll probably be able to hear him just as well outside as here. They go. HILDY Mind if I sit down? Hildy sits. CLOSE SHOT DUFFY AND LOUIE going out of the door. They cast an interested look back and linger a second. Over scene comes Burns' voice. BURNS' VOICE I said scram! They close the door hurriedly. MED. CLOSE SHOT BURNS AND HILDY HILDY May I have a cigarette, please? Burns reaches into his pocket, extracts a cigarette and tosses it on the desk. Hildy reaches for it. HILDY Thanks. A match? Burns delves into pockets again, comes up with matchbox, tosses it to Hildy, who catches it deftly, and strikes the match. BURNS How long is it? Hildy finishes lighting her cigarette, takes a puff, and fans out the match. HILDY How long is what? BURNS You know what. How long since we've seen each other? HILDY Let's see. I was in Reno six weeks -- then Bermuda... Oh, about four months, I guess. Seems like yesterday to me. CLOSEUP BURNS BURNS (slyly) Maybe it was yesterday. Been seeing me in your dreams? MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT THE TWO HILDY (casually) No -- Mama doesn't dream about you any more, Walter. You wouldn't know the old girl now. BURNS (with conviction) Oh, yes I would. I'd know you any time -- He grows lyrical and, rising from his seat, is about to start toward her, as he continues: BURNS AND HILDY (together) -- any place, anywhere -- He sits. HILDY (half-pityingly) You're repeating yourself! That's the speech you made the night you proposed. (she burlesques his fervor) "-- any time -- any place -- anywhere!" CLOSE SHOT HILDY AND BURNS BURNS (growling) I notice you still remember it. HILDY I'll always remember it. If I hadn't remembered it, I wouldn't have divorced you. BURNS You know, Hildy, I sort of wish you hadn't done it. HILDY Done what? BURNS Divorced me. It sort of makes a fellow lose faith in himself. It almost gives him a feeling he wasn't wanted. HILDY Holy mackerel! Look, Walter, that's what divorces are for. BURNS Nonsense. You've got the old-fashioned idea that divorces are something that last forever -- till 'death us do part'. Why, a divorce doesn't mean anything today. It's only a few words mumbled over you by a judge. We've got something between us nothing can change. HILDY I suppose that's true in a way. I am fond of you, Walter. I often wish you weren't such a stinker. BURNS Now, that's a nice thing to say. HILDY Well, why did you promise me you wouldn't fight the divorce and then try and gum up the whole works? BURNS Well, I meant to let you go -- but, you know, you never miss the water till the well runs dry. ANOTHER ANGLE HILDY A fellow your age, hiring an airplane to write: (she gestures above to indicate sky- writing) 'Hildy: Don't be hasty -- remember my dimple. Walter.! It held things up twenty minutes while the Judge ran out to watch it. BURNS Well, I don't want to brag, but I've still got the dimple -- and in the same place -- I just acted like any husband who doesn't want to see his home broken up. HILDY What home? WALTER What home? Don't you remember the home I promised you? HILDY Oh, yes -- we were to have it right after our honeymoon -- honeymoon! BURNS Was it my fault? Did I know that coal mine was going to have another cave-in? I meant to be with you on our honeymoon, Hildy -- honest I did. HILDY All I know is that instead of two weeks in Atlantic City with my bridegroom, I spent two weeks in a coal mine with John Kruptzky -- age sixty-three -- getting food and air out of a tube! You don't deny that. Do you? BURNS Deny it! I'm proud of it! We beat the whole country on that story. HILDY Well, suppose we did? That isn't what I got married for. What's the good of -- Look, Walter, I came up here to tell you that you'll have to stop phoning me a dozen times a day -- sending twenty telegrams -- all the rest of it, because I'm -- BURNS Let's not fight, Hildy. Tell you what. You come back to work on the paper and if we find we can't get along in a friendly way, we'll get married again. HILDY What?!! BURNS I haven't any hard feelings. HILDY Walter, you're wonderful in a loathesome sort of way. Now, would you mind keeping quiet long enough for me to tell you what I came up here for? BURNS (rising, reaching for his hat) Sure, come on. We'll have some lunch and you can tell me everything. HILDY (also rising) I have a lunch date. I just want -- BURNS You can break it, can't you? HILDY No, I can't. BURNS Sure you can. Come on. DIFFERENT ANGLE HILDY Don't tell me what to do! We're divorced -- I'm a free woman. You're not my husband and you're not my boss! And what's more, you're not going to be my boss. BURNS What do you mean by that? HILDY Just what I said. That's what I -- BURNS You mean you're not coming back to work here? HILDY That's the first time you've been right today. That's what I -- BURNS (still interrupting) You've had a better offer, eh? HILDY You bet I've got a better offer. BURNS Well, go on and take it. Work for somebody else! That's the gratitude I get for -- HILDY I know, Walter, but I -- BURNS (ignoring her) What were you when you came here five years ago? A little college girl from a School of Journalism! I took a little doll-faced mugg -- HILDY You wouldn't have taken me if I hadn't been doll-faced! BURNS Why should I? I thought it would be a novelty to have a face around here a man could look at without shuddering. HILDY Listen, Walter -- BURNS (going right on) I made a great reporter out of you, Hildy, but you won't be half as good on any other paper, and you know it. You need me and I need you -- and the paper needs both of us. HILDY Well, the paper'll have to learn to do without me. And so will you. It just didn't work out, Walter. WIDER ANGLE BURNS It would have worked if you'd been satisfied with just being editor and reporter. But no! You had to marry me and spoil everything. HILDY (indignantly) I wasn't satisfied! I suppose I proposed to you! BURNS Well, you practically did! Making goo-goo eyes at me for two years till I broke down. And I still claim I was tight the night I proposed. If you'd been a gentleman you'd have forgotten all about it. But not you! HILDY (speechless) You -- you -- She grabs something and chucks it at him. He ducks. The phone rings. BURNS (to Hildy) You're losing your eye. You used to be able to pitch better than that. (he reaches for phone) Hello... Yeah... What? Sweeney? Well, what can I do for you? CLOSE SHOT DUFFY seated at his desk, talking into phone. DUFFY What's the matter with you? Are you drunk? This is Duffy, not Sweeney! CLOSE SHOT BURNS AND HILDY Burns into phone: BURNS Sweeney! You can't do that to me! Not today, of all days! Jumping Jehosophat! Oh, no, Sweeney... Well, I suppose so... All right. If you have to, you have to. (he hangs up) How do you like that? Everything happens to me -- with 365 days in the year -- this has to be the day. HILDY What's the matter? BURNS Sweeney. HILDY Dead? BURNS Not yet. Might just as well be. The only man on the paper who can write -- and his wife picks this morning to have a baby! CLOSE SHOT HILDY HILDY Sweeney? (she laughs) Well, after all, he didn't do it on purpose, did he? CLOSE SHOT BURNS AND HILDY BURNS I don't care whether he did or not. He's supposed to be covering the Earl Williams case and there he is -- waiting at the hospital! Is there no sense of honor left in this country? HILDY (practically) Well, haven't you got anybody else? BURNS There's nobody else on the paper who can write! This'll break me, unless -- (he stares at Hildy; then a light breaks) Hildy! HILDY No! BURNS You've got to help me, Hildy. HILDY Keep away -- BURNS It'll bring us together again, Hildy -- just the way we used to be. HILDY That's what I'm afraid of. "Any time -- any place -- anywhere!" BURNS Don't mock, Hildy, this is bigger than anything that's happened to us. Don't do it for me! Do it for the paper. HILDY Get away, Svengali. BURNS If you won't do it for love, how about money? Forget the other offer and I'll raise you twenty-five bucks a week. HILDY Listen, you bumble-headed baboon -- BURNS All right -- thirty-five, and not a cent more! HILDY Please! Will you just -- BURNS Great grief! What's that other paper going to give you? HILDY I'm not working for any other paper! BURNS Oh! In that case, the raise is off and you go back to your old salary and like it. Trying to blackjack -- HILDY Look at this! (pulling her glove off her left hand) CLOSEUP HILDY She gets glove off left hand and holds up an engagement ring for him to see. HILDY Do you see this? Do you know what an engagement ring is? CLOSEUP BURNS He looks at ring, swallows, then: MED. SHOT Burns and Hildy. HILDY I tried to tell you right away but you started reminiscing. I'm getting married, Walter, and also getting as far away from the newspaper business as I can get! I'm through. BURNS (himself again) Get married all you want to, Hildy, but you can't quit the newspaper business. HILDY You can't sell me that, Walter. BURNS Who says I can't? You're a newspaper man. HILDY That's why I'm quitting. I want to go some place where I can be a woman. BURNS I know you, Hildy, and I know what it would mean. It would kill you. CLOSER SHOT HILDY (bitterly) A journalist! Peeking through keyholes -- running after fire engines -- waking people up in the middle of the night to ask them if they think Hitler's going to start a war -- stealing pictures off old ladies of their daughters that got chased by apemen! I know all about reporters -- a lot of daffy buttinskies going around without a nickel in their pockets, and for what? So a million hired girls and motormen's wives will know what's going on! No, Walter, I'm through. BURNS Where'd you meet this man? HILDY Bermuda. BURNS Bermuda... Rich, eh? HILDY Not what you'd call rich. Makes about five thousand a year. BURNS What's his line? HILDY He's in the insurance business. BURNS (looks up) The insurance business? HILDY (on the defensive) It's a good, honest business, isn't it? ANOTHER ANGLE BURNS Oh sure, it's honest. But somehow, I can't picture you with a guy who sells policies. HILDY Well, I can, and I love it! He forgets the office when he's with me. He doesn't treat me like an errand-boy -- he treats me like a woman. BURNS He does, does he? How did I treat you -- like a water buffalo? HILDY I don't know about water buffaloes, but I know about him. He's kind and sweet and considerate. He wants a home -- and children. BURNS Say, sounds more like a guy I ought to marry. What's his name? HILDY Well, I'll give you a hint. By tomorrow they'll be calling me Mrs. Bruce Baldwin. BURNS Tomorrow? Tomorrow... as quick as that? HILDY The quicker the better. Well -- I finally got out what I came in to tell you. (she extends her hand) So long, Walter, and better luck next time. BURNS (taking her hand) I wish you everything I couldn't give you, Hildy. HILDY Thanks... BURNS Too bad I couldn't see this guy first. I'm pretty particular about whom my wife marries. HILDY (laughing) Well, he's waiting in the anteroom for me now. BURNS Say, could I meet him? HILDY Oh, better not, Walter. Wouldn't do any good. BURNS You're not afraid, are you? HILDY Afraid? I should say not! BURNS All right then, come on and let's see this paragon. (gets hat) Is he as good as you say? HILDY Better. MED. SHOT OFFICE Burns has his hat. They start toward the door. BURNS Then what does he want with you? HILDY (laughing) Now you got me. BURNS Nothing personal. I was just asking. At the door, Burns walks ahead, opens door and walks out. INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE BURNS' OFFICE MED. CLOSE SHOT BURNS BURNS After all -- He stops as he realizes she's not there. The door opens. Hildy comes out. HILDY You wouldn't believe this, Walter, but Bruce holds the door open for me. BURNS (incredulous) No kidding? INT. CITY ROOM FULL SHOT Reporters conversing. They stop as Hildy and Burns enter scene. TRUCKING SHOT as Hildy follows Burns through the City Room. This time, in contrast to Hildy's original walk through the room, the groups are silent as they watch the two. HILDY (trying to keep pace) And he takes his hat off when he's with a lady. BURNS (over his shoulder) What for? HILDY (shouting) And when he walks with a lady, he waits for her! BURNS (stops) Oh, I'm sorry. Burns, at this point, has reached the switchboard. He says, under his breath, to Maisie: BURNS (under his breath) Have Duffy call me in the restaurant in twenty minutes. Hildy, a little out of breath, catches up with him. At the iron gate that opens into anteroom Hildy jumps ahead, opens the gate and holds it for Burns. HILDY Allow me. BURNS (walking right through) Thanks. Hildy follows him out. INT. ANTEROOM MED. SHOT as Hildy follows Burns in. Bruce is sitting on the bench. On the end of a bench sits an old, grizzled Western Union "boy". Ignoring Bruce, Burns strides over to the "boy", seizes his hand, shakes it and says: BURNS I can see right away my wife picked out the right husband for herself. CLOSE SHOT BRUCE Hildy behind him. Bruce registers amazement at this. CLOSE SHOT BURNS AND MESSENGER The messenger is more amazed than Bruce as Burns keeps pumping his hand vigorously. MESSENGER There must be some mistake. I'm already married. BURNS (you never saw a more surprised man) Already married! (turning to Hildy o.s.) Hildy, why didn't you tell me? CLOSEUP HILDY She shakes her head at Burns' antics, but can't help smiling nevertheless. MEDIUM SHOT BURNS AND MESSENGER BURNS (again seizing messenger's hand) Congratulations again, Mr. Baldwin! MESSENGER But my name -- BRUCE (as he enters scene) Mr. Burns! Burns turns slightly but doesn't release messenger's hand. BURNS Yeah? You'll have to excuse me -- I'm busy with Mr. Bruce Baldwin here. Just leave your card with the boy. CLOSE SHOT BRUCE AND BURNS Bruce takes hold of Burns' coat and shakes it to get his attention. Burns turns on him: BURNS I'm very sorry, but I'm busy! Look -- (he points o.s.) -- there's the boy. Take your card and leave it with him. He turns away again. Bruce, determinedly, takes hold of his sleeve and pulls at it. BRUCE Mr. Burns -- BURNS (wheeling around) I've just told you I was busy with Mr. Bruce Baldwin! BRUCE I'm Bruce Baldwin! MEDIUM SHOT Burns, still pumping the dazed messenger's hand, stops at this, drops hand, and turns to Bruce: BURNS You're Bruce Baldwin? BRUCE Yes! BURNS (accusing to messenger) Then who are you? MESSENGER (falteringly) My name's Pete Davis. BURNS Pete Davis! Well, Mr. Davis, this is no concern of yours and after this I'll thank you to keep out of my affairs! The messenger isn't quite sure what he's done but he slinks back to his seat as Burns turns to Bruce. CLOSEUP HILDY She is beginning to get sore, but reluctantly again she is compelled to smile at Walter's behavior. CLOSE SHOT BURNS AND BRUCE BURNS (reaches for Bruce's hand but grabs the umbrella and begins shaking the handle up and down) This is a pleasure, Mr. Baldwin, and I'm sorry about the mistake. BRUCE (he tries to shift the umbrella, calling Burns' attention to it, and offers his hand instead) BURNS Oh, I thought there was something funny... You see, Bruce, you don't mind if I call you Bruce, do you? After all, we're practically related -- BRUCE (completely unnerved by this time, and you can't quite blame him) Mr. -- well -- no -- no -- not at all. BURNS You see, my wife -- I mean, your wife -- that is, I mean Hildy -- had led me to expect that she was marrying a much older man. BRUCE (this is the final crusher) Oh. BURNS But I see, she didn't mean old in years. You always carry an umbrella, Bruce? BRUCE Well, er -- it looked a little cloudy this morning. BURNS That's right. -- Rubbers, too, I hope? A man ought to be prepared for any emergency. Burns looks down. Bruce, in unconscious responses, helplessly lifts his foot up and we see the rubber. BURNS Attaboy! (taking Bruce's arm and leading him toward elevator) Come on, Bruce. BRUCE (going along, but worried) Where are we going? BURNS Where are we going? I'm going to buy you two lunch -- didn't Hildy tell you? BRUCE (a helpless look back at Hildy) No -- she didn't. BURNS Just wanted to surprise you, I guess. (as the elevator is about to pass, he calls) Down! (practically shoving Bruce in) After you, Bruce! (as Bruce disappears inside he turns toward Hildy) Come on, Hildy, my treat! CLOSE SHOT BURNS NEAR OPEN ELEVATOR We don't see the passengers. Hildy comes into scene. HILDY I suppose I can't call this off without creating a scene -- but remember, it's your last fling. BURNS (hurt) How do you like that? Here I am being nice to you and your sweet-heart and that's the thanks I get! He jumps into the elevator -- in a second he hops out. BURNS (very sweetly -- he almost sings it) Oh -- after you, Hildy! With a look of disgust Hildy gets in. Burns follows and the door slams on them. CLOSEUP OFFICE BOY He looks after departed elevator and whistles. Then he grins all over. DISSOLVE TO: INT. RESTAURANT CLOSEUP - A BEAMING WAITER HE GRINS ALL OVER AND SAYS: WAITER Don't tell me it's you, Hildy! CAMERA PULLS BACK and discloses our three at a restaurant table. Nothing swanky -- a place like Jack Blake's in New York, say. HILDY (beaming at waiter) Nobody else. She extends her hand. The waiter takes it; they shake. HILDY How's everything, Gus? GUS I can't complain. BURNS (studying menu) Well, I can. I'm hungry. Roast beef sandwich -- rare. And some coffee. GUS Shall I put a little rum in the coffee? It's a nasty day. BURNS Good idea. How about you, Hildy? HILDY (discarding menu) Oh -- I'll take the same, I guess. And coffee. GUS Little rum in yours, too? HILDY I guess so. Bruce looks at her. She hurriedly changes her mind. HILDY No -- just coffee, Gus. GUS (crestfallen) Just coffee. (to Bruce) And you, sir? BRUCE (putting menu down) Oh, I'll take the same, I guess. And a glass of milk. GUS (incredulous) Milk? BRUCE (thinks he hasn't heard) Yes. GUS (shaking his head as he writes it down) Milk. BURNS And don't put any rum in it, Gus. CLOSEUP - GUS Gus gives him a look and goes. ANOTHER ANGLE - THE TRIO AT TABLE Burns surveys the others quizzically. BURNS (a sigh) Well, so you're getting married tomorrow, eh? How does it feel, Bruce? BRUCE Feels awful good. Yes, sir -- we're taking the four o'clock train to Albany and tomorrow we'll be married. BURNS (it's the Puritan in him) Taking the train today -- and being married tomorrow? He whistles. BRUCE (rising to the bait) Oh, it isn't like that. HILDY (reassuring Mrs. Grundy) It will be perfectly all right, Walter. Mother is coming with us on the train. BURNS Mother? But your mother -- BRUCE No. My mother. BURNS (he gets it and underlines it) Oh. Your mother -- well, of course, that relieves my mind. HILDY (to Bruce) Isn't it sweet of Walter -- still wanting to protect me? She gives Burns that too-sweet look. BURNS (apparently taking this at face value) I know I wasn't a good husband, Hildy, but you can always count on me. TWO SHOT - FEATURING BRUCE AND HILDY BRUCE (a little cookily) I don't think she'll need you very much -- I aim to do most of the protecting myself. He pats Hildy's arm -- she smiles at him. THREE SHOT - HILDY, BRUCE AND BURNS BURNS Well, I'll tell you one thing, old man, she never looked at me the way she's looking at you. HILDY I might have, Walter, but you were never there. BURNS Anyway, I'm glad you two are going to be happy and have all the things I couldn't give her. You know, Hildy is about the best reporter in the country -- and that goes regardless of sex. But all she really ever wanted was a home. BRUCE Well, I'll try to give her one. BURNS I know you will, Bruce. Are you going to live with your mother? BRUCE Just for the first year. BURNS (sighing) That'll be nice. A home with mother. A real honeymoon. In Albany, too. Ow! That "ow" is sotto voce, but it's the direct result of a kick under the table from Hildy. BRUCE Mighty nice little town, Albany. They've got the State Capitol there, you know. BURNS Yes, I know... (he chuckles) Hildy, will you ever forget the night you brought the Governor back to your hotel room and found me taking a bath? She didn't even know I was in town... His laugh stops cold and he clutches for his shin again. Hildy just looks. Providentially, the waiter enters the scene. GUS Well, here we are. He begins serving them. BURNS (trying to pick up again after a second) How's business, Bruce? BRUCE Well, Albany's a mighty good insurance town. Most people there take it out pretty early in life. BURNS I don't blame them. Gus, who has just managed to come between Hildy and Burns, lets out a startled "ouch". HILDY Oh, I'm sorry, Gus! My foot must have slipped. GUS (a pained expression belies his words) That's all right. BURNS I sometimes wish I'd taken out insurance -- but, of course, now it doesn't matter. Still, I suppose it would have been the smart thing to do. BRUCE Well, I honestly feel that way. I figure I'm in one line of business that really helps people. Of course, we don't help you much when you're alive -- but afterward -- that's what counts. BURNS I see what you mean. They fall to. CLOSE SHOT - HILDY She sips her coffee and acts surprised. HILDY Gus, this -- CLOSEUP - GUS GUS (winking) Good coffee, isn't it? CLOSEUP - HILDY She smiles and winks back, and takes another sip. GROUP SHOT AT TABLE Gus starts to go. BRUCE You've forgotten my milk. GUS Oh. The milk. Yes. He leaves scene, shaking his head. Burns sips his coffee. He likes it. He lifts his cup to Hildy. BURNS Here's luck to the bride and bridegroom. HILDY (lifts cup) Thank you. BRUCE (looking for something to respond with -- apologetically) He hasn't brought my milk yet. A bus boy comes into scene and stops before Burns. BUS BOY They want you on the phone, Mr. Burns. BURNS They would! Boy goes, Burns rises, starts off, comes back for his cup of coffee, which he then takes off with him. TWO SHOT - BRUCE AND HILDY BRUCE (looking after him) You know, Hildy, he's not a bad fellow. HILDY (looking at him maternally) You're so nice, Bruce, you think everybody else is. BRUCE Oh, he's not the man for you. I can see that. But I sort of like him. Got a lot of charm. HILDY He comes by it naturally. His grandfather was a snake. BRUCE (shaking his head) If anybody had told me I'd be sitting at lunch with him -- but he swept me right off my feet. HILDY That's what he did to me. Swept me right off my feet -- and left me lying on the floor. INT. PHONE BOOTH FULL SHOT Burns is listening, has coffee on ledge and sips it now and then. BURNS Get this -- get Sweeney off that yarn and out of town on a two weeks' vacation -- and right away... All right, Duffy, keep your shirt on. Hildy's coming back... No. She doesn't know it yet. But she'll be there. I promise you, Duffy. And tell Louie to stick around. He hangs up, smiles, and finishes the coffee. Then he girds himself for being crushed. He gradually begins to look sunk. He pulls out a small mirror to study his expression till he finally gets what he wants. He holds that expression as he comes out of the booth. INT. RESTAURANT MED. SHOT AT TABLE Gus is entering the scene. GUS Your milk, sir. He serves Bruce. GUS And I brought you another cup of coffee, Hildy. Gus serves her and puts still another cup in front of Burns' chair. HILDY Thanks, Gus. She takes a sip and almost chokes. BRUCE Too hot? HILDY (gasping for breath) No. It's strong. (quickly) But I like it that way. Gus goes, smiling. BRUCE (looking off) Say, what's happened to Burns? He looks sunk, doesn't he? HILDY (beaming) He certainly -- hic -- does! Burns comes into scene, looking like a 1929 banker just before jumping off a roof, and sits down. BRUCE Anything the matter? BURNS Just Sweeney again. One of my best reporters. HILDY What now? BURNS His wife had twins and he went out to celebrate and got as drunk as a lord. They can't even find him. (he sips his coffee) I tell you, drink is the ruin of this nation. HILDY (sipping hers) You said it. BURNS So -- Sweeney gets twins -- and Earl Williams gets hanged tomorrow. BRUCE Just what is the lowdown on Williams? BURNS It's simple. A poor little dope who lost his job went berserk and shot a cop who was coming after him to quiet him down. HILDY If he's nuts, why doesn't the State just put him away? BURNS Because it happened to be a colored policeman. HILDY (for Bruce's benefit) The colored vote happens to be very important to the Mayor of this town. BURNS Especially with an election coming up in a few days. BRUCE Are you sure Williams is not all there? BURNS All you've got to do is talk to him. But the Mayor would hang his own grandmother to be re-elected. BRUCE But couldn't you show the man wasn't responsible? CLOSEUP - BURNS BURNS (there's a sly expression on his face) How? HILDY'S VOICE You could run an interview that would prove it. Remember the interview I wrote with Jimmy Wellman? That saved his life. BURNS (slapping hands together) Yes, you could do it, Hildy. You could save that poor devil's life. You could -- but -- (the enthusiasm dies away) -- you're going away. I forgot. THREE SHOT BRUCE How long would the interview take? BURNS Oh -- an hour for the interview. Another hour to write it. BRUCE We could take the six o'clock train, Hildy. If it would save a man's life. HILDY No, Bruce, dear. Don't you see? This is a trick to get your sympathy. No, Walter, I've been waiting for something like this -- but I wasn't sure when you'd spring it. If you want to save Earl Williams' life, you can interview him yourself. You're still a good reporter. Bruce and I will be on that four o'clock train -- and thanks just the same. BURNS I'm an editor. I know what ought to be written, but I can't write it the way you could. It needs a woman's heart -- HILDY Why, Walter, you're getting poetic! BURNS (to Bruce) You see what I had to put up with? She never trusted me! You argue with her -- otherwise you're going on a honeymoon with blood on your hands! Bruce gulps. BURNS How can you have any happiness after that? All through the years you'll remember that a man went to the gallows because you were too selfish to wait two hours! I tell you, Earl Williams' face will come between you on the train tonight -- and at the preacher's tomorrow -- and all the rest of your lives! HILDY (breaking into applause) What a performance! Bravo! Don't let him fool you, Bruce -- it's only an act! BURNS What do you mean, only an act? Haven't you got any feeling? HILDY Well, it's either an act on your part or a miracle on Sweeney's. BURNS What do you mean? HILDY I happen to know Sweeney was married only three months ago. If he's got twins this morning, I claim it was done with mirrors. BURNS (laughs, throws up his hands) All right, Hildy, I'm licked. But I'll make you and Bruce a business proposition. HILDY We're not interested. BURNS (to Bruce) Maybe you'll be. You're a smart young man. You let Hildy do this story for me and you can write out a $100,000.00 insurance policy for me. What do you say? BRUCE I don't use my wife for business purposes, Mr. Burns! HILDY Wait a minute, Bruce. What's commission on a $100,000.00 policy? BRUCE Well, at his age, twenty payment life, a little over a thousand dollars. HILDY And what's the matter with a thousand dollars? BRUCE But -- HILDY According to the budget, we laid out that's more than our food bill for a whole year. Listen, Bruce, I don't want Walter Burns to use me, but I'm perfectly willing to use him. How long will it take to get him examined? BRUCE I could get a company doctor in twenty minutes. BURNS Now you're talking! HILDY (turning on Burns) You keep out of this. Bruce, suppose you examine Mr. Burns in his office. I'll get my bag and go over to the Press Room in the Criminal Courts Building. You phone me as soon as Mr. Burns has given you his check. Then I'll go get the interview and you phone Mother that we're taking the six o'clock train. (back to Burns) And no tricks, Walter! BURNS What tricks would I pull? HILDY Oh, nothing! Of course, you might cancel the check. Yes! Wait a minute! What would be his first payment on that policy? BRUCE About twenty-five hundred dollars. HILDY Better make that a certified check, Walter. BURNS (indignantly) What do you think I am -- a crook? HILDY Yes --- and that's putting it mildly! No certified check -- no story -- Get me? BURNS All right. The check will be certified. Want my fingerprints? HILDY (rising) No thanks, I've still got those. Well, I'll step into some working clothes and hop over to the Press Room for the background on this yarn. It'll be kind of fun to see the boys again, too. Remember, Bruce, it must be certified. BRUCE All right, dear. HILDY Wait a minute, Bruce. Have you got that money? BRUCE (feeling his pocket) The five hundred? Sure. HILDY On second thought, would you let me have it? I'll get the tickets. BRUCE But -- HILDY Believe me, Bruce, I know what I'm doing. He'd get you in a crap game -- BRUCE But I don't gamble, Hilda! HILDY I know a lot of men who didn't do anything till they met Walter Burns. Please, dear. BRUCE (reluctantly) All right. (he pulls out his wallet) One -- two -- three -- four -- five. Five hundred. Be careful, honey. HILDY I'll be careful, darling. You be, please. She kisses him, kisses her hand and pats it to Burns' cheek. HILDY So long, husbands. She goes. TRUCKING SHOT - HILDY leaving. She weaves just a bit. MED. CLOSE SHOT - THE TWO MEN They look after her. BRUCE (smiling a little) I never knew Hildy to be so determined before. BURNS You haven't seen anything yet. Bruce turns to look at Burns -- they look at each other. FADE OUT: FADE IN: INT. PRESS ROOM - CRIMINAL COURTS BLDG - DAY CLOSE SHOT AT TELEPHONE It is ringing. A hand comes in to take the phone. CAMERA DRAWS BACK A LITTLE to show Endicott taking the phone. He has an eye shade over his eyes and five cards in his other hand. ENDICOTT (into phone) Criminal Courts Press Room... This is Endicott... No, nothing new on the Williams case yet boss. Well, you bet I'm here plugging away every minute. (hangs up and studies his cards) Up a dime. CAMERA PANS SLOWLY to reveal the other players as they speak. Playing are reporters Murphy, Endicott, Wilson, Schwartz and McCue. MURPHY (dropping his cards) By me. WILSON (also dropping) Droparoo. Schwartz knocks on table and drops cards. MCCUE (reluctantly) I'll call. ENDICOTT Three sixes. Is that any good? HILDY'S VOICE It sure looks good from here. The boys all look up toward sound of Hildy's voice. CLOSE SHOT HILDY JOHNSON framed in the doorway. She is carrying a bag and has changed her costume to a tailored travelling suit. She grins and comes into the room. MED. SHOT REPORTERS They are all talking at once as Hildy comes into the scene. There are ad libs of "Hildy!" "Where'd you come from?" "Holy Mackeral, Hildy Johnson!", etc. Hildy raises her hand for silence. HILDY One at a time, boys. She enters to a desk, places her bag on top of the desk, takes her hat off and hangs it on a clothes tree in the corner, comes back to desk and opens the travelling bag. All through the above action she is talking rapidly. HILDY No, I'm not back for good. I'm just covering the Earl Williams story for Mr. Sweeney who had a sudden attack of something but will be all right by tomorrow. No, I haven't made up with Walter Burns -- far from it! As a matter of fact, I'm leaving tonight for Albany and I'll be married tomorrow morning. The lucky man is Mr. Bruce Baldwin, a gentleman in the insurance business -- and when I say gentleman, I mean gentleman! Are there any other questions? Hildy takes notebook and pencil out of bag, looks at the stockings she is wearing, sees she has a run and takes a fresh pair out of the bag. She sits down and begins to put on the new stockings. ENDICOTT (grinning) Well, that about covers everything. HILDY Good. Now I want to ask you fellows a couple of questions. Did Earl Williams know what he was doing when he fired that gun? MURPHY If you ask us, no. If you ask the state alienists, the answer is yes. MCCUE It's a simple story. Earl Williams works for the E.J. McClosky Manufacturing Company as a bookkeeper for fourteen years. He starts in at twenty dollars a week and gradually works his way up to twenty-two fifty. A year ago the McClosky Company goes out of business and Williams loses his job. (waving his hand toward Wilson) Take it away, Fred Wilson! WILSON Well -- Williams goes a little balmy and begins making speeches on a plan he's got to save the world. Only he makes his speeches, usually, on a very busy street and neglects to get a license for it. Well, the cops let him alone as much as they can because he's harmless and they're kinda sorry for him. But one day he decides to hold a meeting right in the middle of a Veteran's Parade and the cops chase him. He gets scared and goes into hiding. (gesturing toward Schwartz) Come in, Dave Schwartz. SCHWARTZ His Honor, the Mayor, now comes out with a statement that Earl Williams is a dangerous character in the employ of two or three foreign governments and the police are going to get him dead or alive. Somebody sends out a tip that this guy is hiding in Molly Malloy's joint. And this colored policeman, Daniels, goes over to pick Williams up. Williams has read the papers, thinks the cop is going to kill him and shoots first. That is all. HILDY Thanks, boys. That's all I want to know. Hildy gets up, rolls the pair of stockings she has just discarded into a ball, crosses to Bensinger's desk and puts the stockings in a drawer. ENDICOTT Say, that's old Prissy Bensinger's desk. HILDY I know, I just want to give him a thrill. Hildy crosses back to desk and sits down. HILDY All right, boys, now that everything is settled, deal me in. Hildy glances toward clock on wall. The hands show 2:45 PM. INSERT: CLOCK - Hands pointing to 2:45 PM. CLOSE SHOT HILDY She picks up phone nearest her on desk and starts to dial, picking up cards dealt her with one hand. HILDY (into phone) Hello, this is Hildy Johnson. Get me Walter Burns. (she studies her cards -- then, into phone) Hello, Walter. How's the old double- crosser? CLOSE SHOT WALTER BURNS Telephone at his ear. BURNS Hello, my fine-feathered friend. Thought I might be hearing from you. What have you got to report? CAMERA PULLS BACK TO MEDIUM SHOT and we see that Burns is stripped to the waist. A doctor is applying a stethoscope to his chest. We HOLD the picture a second: Burns listening intently on the phone and the doctor listening intently to his chest. BURNS (into phone) Going all right, eh? DOCTOR (nodding) Fine. Doctor suddenly realizes what he's said and looks up. BURNS (putting hand over mouthpiece of phone) Doctor, will you please keep quiet a minute? How do you expect me to get any work done? CAMERA PULLS BACK to include Bruce, who has some papers in front of him at the desk. Bruce grins. DOCTOR How do you expect me to get anywhere if you're going to keep on that phone? If you'll just give me two minutes more -- BURNS (into phone) Well, they haven't finished with me yet but I'm hoping to get my shirt back. Oh, no. I'm in the pink of condition. They found two new dimples. CUT TO: INT. PRESS ROOM - CRIMINAL COURTS BLDG. CLOSE SHOT HILDY AT TELEPHONE cards in her other hand. HILDY How about that check? All right, Mr. Burns, but remember, no checkee -- no story. Well, as soon as they decide whether you live or not will you have that new man of mine call me up? Yes, sir. (she hangs up) All right, boys. Up a dime. ENDICOTT'S VOICE Right back at you. MED. SHOT MCCUE (dropping his cards) You fight it cut. HILDY And up a dime. ENDICOTT (studying a second) I call. What you got? HILDY (displaying her cards) Three bullets! Any good? ENDICOTT (throwing his cards away) Beats king up. Hildy rakes in the money. MCCUE What are you going to do with all that money, Hildy? WILSON Yeah -- you can't spend it in Albany. HILDY Oh, I'll think of something. MED. SHOT taking in door and including group. Bensinger, another reporter, comes in from the corridor. He stands out from the others because of his tidy appearance, and carries a book under his arm. MURPHY Hello, Harvard! Got anything new on the hanging? CLOSE SHOT BENSINGER BENSINGER (cockily) Why don't you fellows get your own news? CLOSE SHOT HILDY HILDY Can't you say 'hello' to a fellow? TWO SHOT FEATURING HILDY AND BENSINGER BENSINGER Hildy! He comes over to shake hands. BENSINGER Are you back? HILDY No, just a farewell appearance, batting for Sweeney. I'm going into business for myself. BENSINGER What doing? HILDY I'm getting married tomorrow. BENSINGER Well, congratulations! Good luck! THE TABLE ANOTHER ANGLE ENDICOTT Why don't you use him for a bridesmaid, Hildy? SCHWARTZ Come on, Hildy, your deal. CLOSE SHOT BENSINGER AT HIS DESK He opens a drawer, the one in which Hildy put her stockings. BENSINGER Say, who put these stockings in my desk? (he turns to the group) McCUE's VOICE I don't know, but I think they got rats in the building. BENSINGER (makes a gesture of disgust and picks up telephone) This is Bensinger. I just saw the Sheriff. He won't move the hanging up a minute... All right, I'll talk to him again, but it's no use. The execution is set for seven in the morning. Get me a rewrite man. CLOSE SHOT ENDICOTT dealing the cards. ENDICOTT Why can't they hang that guy at a reasonable hour, so we can get some sleep? CLOSE SHOT BENSINGER BENSINGER (into phone) Jake, new lead on the hanging. This new alienist from New York -- Dr. Max J. Egelhoffer -- is going to interview Williams in about half an hour -- in the Sheriff's office. MED. SHOT AT TABLE - FEATURING MURPHY Murphy reaches for the phone. Without dropping his cards, he jiggles the hook. MURPHY That must be the tenth alienist they've had on Williams. Even if he wasn't crazy before, he would be after ten of those babies got through psychoanalyzing him. (into phone) Gimme the desk. ENDICOTT This Egelhoffer's pretty good. MURPHY Yeah? What did he ever do for his country? ENDICOTT Don't you remember? He's the guy went to Washington to interview the Brain Trust, and gave out a statement that they were all sane. It created a sensation! CLOSE SHOT BENSINGER He is referring to his notes as he talks: BENSINGER (into phone) Here's the situation on the eve of the hanging: CLOSE SHOT MURPHY He continues playing his cards: MURPHY (into phone) This is Murphy. More slop on the hanging. CLOSE SHOT BENSINGER BENSINGER (into phone) A double guard's been thrown around the jail, municipal buildings, railroad terminals, and elevated stations to prepare for the expected general uprising of radicals at the hour of execution. CLOSE SHOT MURPHY MURPHY (into phone) Ready? The Sheriff's just put two hundred more relatives on the payroll to protect the city against the Red Army -- which is leaving Moscow in a couple of minutes. (consults his hand) Up a dime. CLOSE SHOT BENSINGER BENSINGER (into phone) The Sheriff has just received four more letters threatening his life, but he says nothing can interfere with his duty. CLOSE SHOT MURPHY MURPHY (into phone) And to prove to the voters that the Red Menace is on the level, the Sheriff has written himself four more letters, threatening his life. I know he wrote 'em on account of the misspellings. MED. SHOT AT TABLE FEATURING HILDY ENDICOTT Trouble is, when the Red Menace shows up the Sheriff will still be crying 'Wolf!' MURPHY What have you got, Hildy? HILDY Kings and sixes. MURPHY (throwing down) That's good. HILDY (sweeping coins in) 'Kings and sixes The pot affixes'... Poetry. I learned that at my grandma's knee. WILSON That's why I keep losing. My grandma was a modest woman -- nobody ever saw her knees, not even my grandpop. INT. WALTER BURNS' OFFICE MED. SHOT The doctor has gone. Burns is adjusting his shirt. Bruce is sitting at the desk. BRUCE I don't know. This makes me feel funny. TWO SHOT BURNS Why shouldn't I make Hildy my beneficiary? I've got nobody else to leave it to. BRUCE I feel I ought to take care of her. BURNS Well, you'll take care of her. After all, if that doctor's right, I'm going to live for a long time yet. Look, Bruce, this is a debt of honor. I was a very bad husband: Hildy could have got a lot of alimony if she'd wanted to, but she wouldn't take any. She had it coming to her, but she was too independent. BRUCE Well, I'm independent, too. BURNS Figure it this way: I ought to be good for twenty-five years. By that time, you'll probably have made enough so that the money won't mean anything. But suppose you haven't made good -- don't you think Hildy's entitled to a quiet old age without any worries? BRUCE Well, of course, if you put it that way. BURNS (everything he has on the ball) And remember this, Bruce! I love her, too. BRUCE I'm beginning to realize that. BURNS And the beauty of it is she'll never have to know 'till I've passed on. Maybe she'll think kindly of me --- after I'm gone. BRUCE (a lump in his throat) Gee, you almost make me feel like a heel -- coming between you. BURNS No, Bruce, you didn't come between us. It was all over for her before you came on the scene. For me -- it'll never be over. He turns away, wipes his eyes, and sneaks a glance to see how that goes over. It goes over big -- Bruce hurriedly wipes a tear away. MED. SHOT as Duffy comes into the room. He advances toward the desk. DUFFY (placing check on desk) Here's that certified check, Walter. (sotto voce) I drew out my wife's savings, and if this isn't back by 5:30 I'm a ruined man! BURNS (also sotto voce) Don't worry, Duffy, you'll have it back by five. (louder) Thanks, Duffy. Stick around. (picking up check he rises) He walks over to Bruce. BURNS Well, Bruce, here you are -- certified and everything. BRUCE (also rising) Certified! I'm afraid Hildy'd feel ashamed to think she hadn't trusted you. CLOSEUP DUFFY He reacts to this sweetly solemn thought. BURNS AND BRUCE CAMERA FOLLOWS THEM as Burns walks Bruce toward door, his arm around him. BRUCE Well, she'll know some day. BURNS That's all I ask. Oh, wait a minute. He releases Bruce, runs back and gets umbrella and brings it to him. BURNS Don't want to forget this, you know. Might start to rain again. BRUCE Thanks. I'll phone Hildy right away to get that story. They are at the door. Burns opens the door for Bruce. SHOT FEATURING LOUIS Louis is sitting at a desk, apparently engrossed in a newspaper. He is all alert, however. Bruce and Burns come into the scene talking. BURNS Well, anyway, I know Hildy's getting a good man. BRUCE (embarrassed) Thanks a lot. They pass Louis. He looks up. BRUCE AND BURNS Bruce, still embarrassed, looks down. Burns turns and signals to Louis. CLOSE SHOT LOUIS watching. CLOSE SHOT BURNS Burns points to Bruce's back. CLOSE SHOT LOUIS Louis nods. BRUCE AND BURNS BURNS Well, I got to get back. You can find your way out, can't you? BRUCE Oh, sure. (he extends his hand) Well, thanks for everything. BURNS Don't thank me. I should thank you. So long. BRUCE So long. He turns and goes. Burns watches him. REVERSE ANGLE Bruce is going out, his back toward Camera. Burns watches. Louis comes between Burns and Bruce and follows Bruce out as we see Bruce going toward outer door. CLOSEUP BURNS He rubs his hands in glee as he starts back for his office. INT. PRESS ROOM SHOT FEATURING HILDY She is raking in a pot. HILDY I don't know why you boys are so good to me. MCCUE (throwing cards down) Your poker's improved a lot, Hildy. Lend me two bucks, will you? HILDY Nothing doing. I'm playing for keeps. There is a whirr and crash from the gallows. They start. BENSINGER AT WINDOW BENSINGER I wish they'd stop that practicing. The others drift into the scene and look out of the window. INT. COURTYARD THE GALLOWS The trap is sprung by two or three earnest men. INT. PRESS ROOM GROUP AT WINDOW HILDY (turns away) Well, anyhow, I won't be covering stuff like this any more. SCHWARTZ What's the matter? Getting yellow? MED. SHOT A phone rings. McCue answers it. MCCUE For you, Hildy. Hildy goes toward phone. CLOSE SHOT HILDY AT PHONE HILDY Hildy Johnson... Oh, hello, Bruce. Have you got it? Is it certified? INT. PHONE BOOTH CLOSE SHOT BRUCE BRUCE Certified and everything. Got it right here in my wallet... What? No, he's not here -- I'm in a phone booth. INT. PRESS ROOM CLOSE SHOT HILDY AT PHONE McCue is hovering near. MCCUE Certified, eh? Who is it -- your milkman? HILDY (in phone) But, Bruce, don't keep it in your wallet!... Well, you see -- (she is thinking rapidly) -- there's an old newspaper superstition that the first big check you get you -- you put in the lining of your hat. That brings you good luck for ten years. MCCUE Say, I've been a reporter twenty years and never heard any hooey like that. Where'd you get it? HILDY (to McCue) I made it up just now, and who's asking you? (into phone) I know it's silly, honey, but do it for me, won't you?... Yes, right now. INT. PHONE BOOTH CLOSE SHOT BRUCE BRUCE All right. Wait a minute. He takes check out of wallet, folds it into lining of hat. BRUCE All right. I've done it. Now, are you satisfied? INT. PRESS ROOM CLOSE SHOT HILDY AT PHONE HILDY Fine. And here's a kiss for you. She blows a kiss into the phone. Immediately we hear kiss sounds all over. She looks up and glares. Then back to phone: HILDY Now, darling, you go back to the hotel and pack and you and Mother pick me up here about half-past five. Goodbye, dear. INT. PHONE BOOTH CLOSE SHOT BRUCE He blows a kiss into the phone and hangs up. EXT. OUTSIDE RESTAURANT LOUIS Studying a paper, reads it for a moment. Bruce comes out of restaurant and starts out. After a second, Louis follows him. INT. ENTRANCE TO A CELL BLOCK OF COUNTY JAIL MED. SHOT Warden Cooley sits at a desk near the grilled doorway that leads to the cells. He is studying a Racing Form. Hildy's hand reaches into the shot and flicks the newspaper. He looks up. THE CAMERA PULLS BACK to include Hildy. COOLEY Hello, Hildy! What are you doing around here? HILDY I want to interview Earl Williams, Warden. How about a little service? COOLEY No more interviews. Besides, a doctor's coming over. Hildy reaches down out of camera range -- comes up with bill. HILDY Say, isn't this your twenty dollars? COOLEY (looks at bill eagerly) I think it is. HILDY (handing it over) I thought so. Come on, I'm in a hurry. Cooley pockets the twenty and reaches for his key ring. EXT. STREET SCENE There is a milling mob around a center of activity that the Camera can't find. SHOT OF COP as he sees this and strolls determinedly toward it. THE CROWD The cop comes in and breaks ranks. He pushes his way toward center and looks down. CLOSE SHOT BRUCE lying down, held by Louis. MED. SHOT COP What's going on? LOUIS This guy stole my watch. COP (lugging them both to feet) Have you got his watch? BRUCE He's crazy. I haven't any watch. LOUIS I saw him. He put it in his back pocket. BRUCE I haven't got -- COP Wait a minute. The cop reaches into Bruce's back pocket. Watch comes out. COP (to Louis) Is this yours? LOUIS Yeah! That's it! COP What about it? BRUCE I never saw it before. Cop grabs Bruce. Louis grabs his other arm. COP Come on! He whistles. COP (to mob) Beat it! CLOSE SHOT THREE as they go through crowd. The look on poor Bruce's face, muddy anyhow, is something. Suddenly, Bruce cries: BRUCE My hat! COP Get his hat, somebody. CLOSEUP BRUCE'S HAT lying top up, in a puddle. Hand reaches in and picks it up. CLOSE SHOT THREE as hat is passed to cop, who jams it down on Bruce's head. Another takem from Bruce. INT. COUNTY JAIL MED. CLOSE SHOT at the door of Earl Williams' cell. Hildy sits on a stool at the door, pencil and copy paper in hand. Earl Williams sits at the edge of his cot, facing Hildy. There is a bouquet of roses in a water pitcher by the cot. Our first impression of Williams is that he's a rational, well-poised citizen. It is only under Hildy's questioning that he gradually reveals himself. WILLIAMS I couldn't plead insanity, because you see I'm just as sane as anybody else. HILDY (puzzled and worried) You didn't mean to kill that policeman? WILLIAMS Of course not. I couldn't kill anybody -- it's against everything I've ever stood for. They know it was an accident. They're not hanging me for that -- they're hanging me for my beliefs. HILDY What are your beliefs, Earl? WILLIAMS They're very simple. I believe in the Golden Rule. I'm not the first man to die for preaching it. But if they would only listen to it -- we could have a fine, decent world instead of this mass of hate that makes man do such cruel things. HILDY How would you go about applying the Golden Rule, Earl? WILLIAMS I'd do away with the profit system and have production for use only. There's enough food and clothing and shelter for everybody if we'd use some sense. HILDY (writing) "Production for use only." Well, maybe that's the answer. WILLIAMS It's the only answer. Everything has a use and if we let it be used for its purpose, we could solve all our problems. Food was meant to be eaten, not stored away in restaurants while poor people starved; clothing was meant to be worn, not piled up in stores while people went naked. Doesn't that make sense? CLOSEUP HILDY HILDY (thoughtfully) Yes, that makes a lot of sense, Earl. WILLIAM'S VOICE Just use things for what they were meant, that's all. HILDY Sure. (she studies him a moment) What's the purpose of a gun, Earl? CLOSEUP WILLIAMS WILLIAMS A gun? (he thinks -- then a revealing smile breaks out) Why -- to shoot, of course. MED. CLOSE TWO SHOT HILDY Is that how you came to shoot the policeman? WILLIAMS Sure. You see, I'd never had a gun in my hand before and I didn't know what to do with it. Well, when I get stuck, I know that there's an answer for everything in production for use. So it came to me in a flash: what's a gun for? To shoot! So I shot. Simple isn't it? HILDY (writing) Very simple, Earl. WILLIAMS There's nothing crazy about that, is there? HILDY No, Earl, not at all. (she indicates the flowers) Who sent you the flowers, Earl? WILLIAMS (reverently) Miss Mollie Malloy. She's a wonderful person. HILDY (pointing to picture pinned on wall) Isn't that her picture? WILLIAMS (turning toward it) Yes. Isn't she beautiful? INSERT: PICTURE OF MOLLIE HILDY'S VOICE If you should be pardoned, are you figuring on marrying Mollie? EARL'S VOICE Oh, no, she's much too good for me. HARTMAN'S VOICE How'd you get in here? MEDIUM SHOT Sheriff Hartman has come into the scene. Hildy turns toward him. HILDY Same way you did. (pointing) Through that gate. HARTMAN I gave strict orders that nobody was to interview Williams without my permission. HILDY All right, then, I'll just run the story that Sheriff Hartman is afraid to let reporters interview his prisoner. Of course, with election coming, that might do you a lot of harm, but just as you say. HARTMAN Now, wait a minute! I'm not afraid of anything. What were you going to write about Williams? HILDY Oh, nothing much. Just that the state had proved he was sane -- and he admits it himself. If you don't want me to run it -- HARTMAN (beaming) Oh, that'll be all right, Hildy. Go ahead, run it. And you can say I treated him well, too. (turning toward Williams) 'Lo, Earl. How are you feeling? WILLIAMS Fine, thanks, Sheriff. HARTMAN That's good, Earl. Oh, they've got another alienist to see you. He ought to be here any minute. Don't go to sleep, will you? WILLIAMS I won't. HARTMAN (to Hildy) Hildy, how'd you like a couple of tickets for the hanging? HILDY (in a low voice so Williams won't overhear) No, thanks Sheriff. I'm leaving town tonight. HARTMAN (just as loud as ever) You ought to stay over. You always wrote a good hanging story, Hildy. HILDY That's awful kind of you, Sheriff. I've got to get started on my interview. See you later. WILLIAMS Don't forget about production for use. HILDY I won't, Earl. (she goes) INT. PRESS ROOM GROUP SHOT POKER GAME - NIGHT The game is on. Bensinger, at his desk, is reading a book. The electric lights have been switched on. MURPHY (raking in a pot) Well, a guy can win when Hildy ain't around. ENDICOTT Who's this guy she's gonna marry? WILSON Baldwin -- his name is. SCHWARTZ I give that marriage six months. MCCUE Why? SCHWARTZ Hildy won't be able to stay away from a paper any longer than that. Did you see her eyes light up when she came in here? Like an old fire horse. MURPHY She says she's gonna write fiction. ENDICOTT Well, if she's gonna write fiction, there's nothing like being a reporter. SCHWARTZ I'll give ten to five that marriage won't last six months. Hildy's a newspaper man. She's got headlines in her veins -- the way we all have or we'd be out of these lousy jobs. Mollie Malloy appears in doorway. She moves slowly into the room. MCCUE Well, well -- Miss Mollie Malloy. MURPHY Hello, Mollie. WILSON How's tricks, Mollie? CLOSE SHOT MOLLIE MOLLIE I've been lookin' for you tramps. MED. GROUP SHOT ENDICOTT Kid, those were pretty roses you sent Earl. What do you want done with them tomorrow morning? MOLLIE (tensely) A lot of wise guys, ain't you? SCHWARTZ (uncomfortably) You're breaking up the game, Mollie. What do you want? MOLLIE I want to tell you what I think of you -- all of you. Hildy appears in the doorway and comes into the room. MURPHY Keep your shirt on. MOLLIE (to Murphy) If you was worth breaking my fingers on, I'd tear your face wide open. Hildy goes to desk and begins typing away. MURPHY What are you sore about, sweetheart? Wasn't that a swell story we gave you? MOLLIE You crumbs have been making a fool out of me long enough! BENSINGER (rising and coming over) She oughtn't be allowed in here! CLOSEUP MOLLIE MOLLIE (flaring) I never said I loved Earl Williams and was willing to marry him on the gallows! You made that up! And about my being his soul-mate and having a love-nest with him. CLOSE SHOT ENDICOTT looking up at her. ENDICOTT You've been sucking around that cuckoo ever since he's been in the death- house. Everybody knows you're his sweetheart. CLOSEUP MOLLIE She blows up. MOLLIE That's a lie! I met Mr. Williams just once in my life when he was wandering around in the rain without his hat and coat on, like a sick dog, the day before the shooting. I went up to him like any human being would and I asked him what was the matter, and he told me about being fired after working at the same place for fourteen years, and I brought him up to my room because it was warm there. CLOSE SHOT HILDY She is typing away, stops to look over at Mollie, then resolutely turns away, studies her stuff, and begins typing again. MURPHY'S VOICE Aw, put it on a phonograph! MED. SHOT MOLLIE AND OTHERS MOLLIE Just because you want to fill your lying paper with a lot of dirty scandal, you got to crucify him and make a stooge out of me! ENDICOTT (to Mollie) Got a match? MOLLIE (heedless) I tell you he just sat there talking to me -- all night. And never once laid a hand on me. In the morning he went away, and I never saw him again till that day at the trial! The boys laugh. CLOSEUP MOLLIE She lashes out at them. MOLLIE Go on, laugh! I'd like to know some curses bad enough for your greasy souls! Sure, I was his witness -- the only one he had. Yes -- me -- cheap little Mollie Malloy! I'm everything the District Attorney said I was. And still I was the only one with guts enough to stand up for him! I told the truth and the District Attorney knows it! That's why you're persecutin' me! Because Earl Williams treated me decent and not like an animal -- and I said so! MEDIUM SHOT MURPHY (finally irritated) Go into your dance! This is the Press Room. We're busy. WILSON Why don't you go and see your boy- friend? ENDICOTT (winks at the others) But you'll have to hurry up -- he left a call for seven A.M. MOLLIE (through her teeth) It's a wonder a bolt of lightning don't come down and strike you all dead! From o.s. comes sound of the gallows. Mollie gasps. ENDICOTT (suddenly uncomfortable) Don't get hysterical, kid. MOLLIE (begins to sob) Shame on you! CLOSE SHOT MOLLIE -- TAKING IN MURPHY MOLLIE (hysterically) A poor little fellow that never meant nobody no harm! Sitting there alone this minute with the Angel of Death beside him, and you cracking jokes! CLOSEUP HILDY typing away furiously, regardless of this. She ends a page. The sound of Mollie sobbing comes over the scene. Hildy inserts a fresh page. MURPHY'S VOICE If you don't shut up, we'll give you something to cry about! Hildy looks o.s. and rises determinedly. MEDIUM SHOT - MOLLIE BACKING AWAY FROM MURPHY She is still sobbing. Hildy comes into scene and puts her arm around Mollie. HILDY (gently) Come on, Mollie. This is no place for you. (she leads Mollie toward door) MOLLIE They're not human! HILDY They're newspaper men, Mollie. They can't help themselves. The Lord made them that way. MOLLIE (one look back as Hildy leads her out door) It wasn't the Lord! It was the devil! Hildy and Mollie exit. There is a pause. The boys look at each other uncomfortably. The phone rings. Wilson goes to answer. MURPHY (picking up cards) You guys wanna play some more poker? ENDICOTT What's the use? I can't win a pot. CLOSE SHOT WILSON AT PHONE WILSON (into phone) Who? Hildy Johnson? She just stepped out. She'll be back in a second. Who? Oh, Mr. Baldwin. Well, if you'll hang on a minute, she ought to be right in. All right. (he covers transmitter) MED. SHOT TAKING DOOR WILSON (to others) Baldwin. The blushing bridegroom -- himself. SCHWARTZ What's he want? WILSON Wants Hildy -- and sounds very excited. Hildy comes back. Looks at them and stares contemptuously. HILDY Gentlemen of the Press! Always picking on somebody who can't defend himself -- the littler the better. WILSON Phone for you, Hildy. HILDY (going toward it) Who is it? WILSON Oh, some insurance man. Are you in? HILDY (grabbing phone) Give me that! CLOSEUP HILDY HILDY (into phone) Hello! Hello! Bruce?... what?... Where are you?... You're where?... How did that happen?... (she listens unbelievingly a second) I'll be right over! MED. SHOT as Hildy hangs up and darts out of room. The others watch in amazement. MURPHY Boy, did you see her go? ENDICOTT Lioness Rushes to Defense of Cub. WILSON I told you Baldwin was in trouble. MCCUE Probably went out without his hankie and wants Mamma to wipe his nose. SCHWARTZ I still give that marriage six months. DISSOLVE TO: CLOSE SHOT BENSINGER at phone. BENSINGER Hello, baby, get me the Sheriff's offico, will you... Hello, Sheriff Hartman?... This is Bensinger. How about that favor? You know what: once and for all, will you hang this guy at five A.M. instead of seven? It won't hurt you and we can make the City Edition. INT. SHERIFF'S OFFICE CLOSE SHOT SHERIFF HARTMAN at phone. HARTMAN (indignantly) Once and for all, I'm not going to hang anybody except at the legal hour... What? Don't threaten me, Bensinger! I'm not afraid of any newspapers. Yeah?... Oh, shut up! (he hangs up; an afterthought -- he calls up operator) And, operator, I told you not to disturb me! I don't care who calls -- I don't want to be disturbed again till I tell you! (he hangs up -- turns to somebody o.s. and speaks) How do you like that, Dr. Egelhoffer? Want me to hang williams at their convenience! CAMERA PULLS BACK TO A MED. GROUP SHOT, showing Williams, Sheriff Hartman and Dr. Egelhoffer. They are the only occupants of room. Williams is seated facing a large standing searchlight. EGELHOFFER The newspapers! Sheriff, they're the scum of modern civilization. HARTMAN You said it! EGELHOFFER They're always after me for interviews. HARTMAN Me, too. EGELHOFFER (fencing) Of course, I sort of promised them I would give out a statement when I got through here. You don't mind? HARTMAN (not liking it) Well, I don't know if that's ethical. You see, all statements are supposed to come from me. EGELHOFFER (he'll bargain) We'll have to satisfy them. What would you say to giving them a joint interview? I could give them some of the psychological aspects of the case and you could give them the legal aspects. HARTMAN (he buys) A joint interview, eh? That might be all right. We could have our pictures taken together, Doctor. EGELHOFFER Yes, shaking hands. I don't take a very good picture, though. HARTMAN It doesn't matter. The publicity's the main thing. EGELHOFFER Yes, I suppose so. It all helps. WILLIAMS (just a spectator up to now) Are you gentlemen all through with me? EGELHOFFER Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot you were here. No, Mr. Williams, we still have some questions for you. Sheriff, will you kindly extinguish the lights? The Sheriff puts out the lights and the Doctor switches on the searchlight, which shines in Williams' face. EGELHOFFER You know you are to be executed, Mr. Williams. Who do you feel is responsible for that? WILLIAMS The system. But I'm not afraid to die, Doctor. I'm dying for what I believe. EGELHOFFER I see. You realize, however, that you committed a crime? CLOSEUP WILLIAMS WILLIAMS In a legal sense, yes. But not actually. Actually, I'm innocent. I didn't do anything. DISSOLVE TO: INT. POLICE CELL CLOSEUP BRUCE BRUCE I'm innocent. I didn't do anything. I never stole a watch in my life. CAMERA PULLS BACK to show us Bruce in police cell. Hildy outside. A police lieutenant with her in b.g. HILDY I know you didn't, Bruce. She whirls on lieutenant. HILDY (to lieutenant) Let him out of here, Lieutenant. LIEUTENANT (conciliatingly) But, Hildy, I can't. He's accused of stealing a watch. And they found the watch on him. HILDY And who accused him? Diamond Louis! One of the worst crooks in town! Why don't you arrest Louis instead of innocent people that he frames? LIEUTENANT Now, Hildy -- HILDY Don't Hildy me! Are you going to let him out? LIEUTENANT I can't. HILDY All right. You can't. But tomorrow the Post will run the story of that roulette game on 43rd Street that your brother-in-law runs. And we'll print that you get five hundred a month for forgetting about it! LIEUTENANT Now, Hildy, don't be hasty! I can't let him out. HILDY You can let him out on bail, can't you? LIEUTENANT Five hundred dollars. HILDY You'll take fifty and like it! LIEUTENANT (wavers) Well, all right. But I'm liable to get into a jam. He starts to open cell door. HILDY You'll get into a worse one if you don't. DISSOLVE TO: INT. TAXI (PROCESS SHOT) Hildy is combing Bruce's hair. He begins to look presentable. He fumbles in his breast pocket. HILDY What's the matter? BRUCE I lost my wallet. HILDY (stops) The check, Bruce! Bruce picks up his hat and gets check out of lining. BRUCE That's right here. Gee, it was lucky your telling me about that old newspaper superstition. HILDY (taking check and putting it away) Yes, wasn't it? BRUCE I can't imagine who did it. I can't think of any enemies I have. HILDY (looking at him fondly) I'm sure you haven't any. BRUCE For a minute, I thought maybe Walter Burns was at the back of it. But then I realized he couldn't have been. HILDY Oh, no. How could you ever think of such a thing? BRUCE Oh, I realized right away. He's really a very nice fellow, Hildy -- I found that out. HILDY Yes, he is... Look, Bruce, we're taking that next train -- and when I say next train, this time I mean it! BRUCE Did you finish the interview? HILDY (to driver) The Criminal Courts Building. The driver nods. HILDY (to Bruce) No -- but I'm sure it'll be all right with Walter. BRUCE But, gee, Hildy -- he gave us that insurance business -- and you promised -- HILDY Well, the story's practically finished. I'll just go upstairs and send it over with a messenger. The cab stops. Hildy gets out and Bruce starts to follow. Hildy turns and pushes him back in the cab. EXT. STREET MED. SHOT HILDY at door of cab. Bruce in cab. HILDY No, you stay here. I'm not taking any more chances. I'll be down in three minutes -- and don't you dare move! Hildy turns and starts for stairs of Criminal Courts Building. DISSOLVE TO: INT. PRESS ROOM MED. SHOT AT HILDY'S DESK Schwartz is reading Hildy's interview to the other boys, who are grouped around. Bensinger is at his desk, a book open, but listening. SCHWARTZ (reading) "But the State has a production for use plan, too. It has a gallows and at seven A.M., unless a miracle occurs, that gallows will be used to separate the soul of Earl Williams from his body. And out of Molly Malloy's life will go the one kindly soul she ever knew --" (he stops) That's as far as Hildy got. But, I ask you, can that girl write an interview? BENSINGER I don't think it's very ethical reading other people's stuff. ENDICOTT Don't give us that ethics stuff. You'll be the only one who'll swipe any of it. SCHWARTZ I still say anybody that writes like that ain't going to give it up permanently to sew sox for a guy in the insurance business. Now I give that marriage three months and I'm laying three to one. Any takers? HILDY'S VOICE I'll take that bet. They turn. Hildy comes into the scene. HILDY (going to her phone) It's getting so a girl can't step out of the room without being discussed by a bunch of old ladies. (into phone; her voice assumes a silken quality) Hello, Post... Mr. Walter Burns, please. CLOSE SHOT SCHWARTZ SCHWARTZ (embarrassed) Well, Hildy, we were only saying that a swell reporter like you wouldn't give this up so easily. MED. SHOT FEATURING HILDY HILDY (into phone) This is Hildy Johnson... (to Schwartz) Oh, I can give it up all right. Without a single quiver. I'm going to live like a human being -- not like you rats. (into phone) Oh, is that you, Walter dear? Oh, I didn't mean "dear." That was just habit, I guess. Oh, be yourself, Walter. I've got some news for you... Yes, I got the interview, but I've got some news that's more important. The others are listening, suspecting a scoop. HILDY Better get a pencil out and write it down. All ready? (then with a sudden change of pace) Get this, you double-crossing chimpanzee, there ain't gonna be any interview and there ain't gonna be any story... Huh? That certified check of yours is leaving with me in twenty minutes. And if I ever see you again, it's going to be just too bad... Eh?... Oh, you don't know what I'm angry about, do you? If you come over I'll be very glad to tell you the story of Louie's watch. I dare you to come over, you -- you -- skunk in sheep's clothing! And bring that bodyguard of yours, too -- you'll need him. QUICK CUTS OF REACTION FROM OTHERS CLOSEUP HILDY HILDY ...And I just want you to listen to one more thing. She gets her story out of typewriter, applies it to transmitter and tears it up. HILDY Hear that? That's the interview I wrote... Yes, I know we made a bargain. I just said I'd write it -- I didn't say I wouldn't tear it up. Yes, it's all in little pieces now, Walter, and I hope to do the same for you some time! She hangs up. MED. SHOT FEATURING HILDY She reaches under her desk, pulls up bag, talking all the time. The others are too startled to do anything but listen. HILDY And that's my farewell to the newspaper game. I'm going to live a normal life and have a home. She reaches into the drawer of desk and gets some stuff which she puts into bag. HILDY I'm going to be a woman, not a newsgetting machine. I'm going to have babies and nurse them and love them and give 'em cod liver oil and worry about their new teeth -- and the minute I catch one of them even looking at a newspaper, I'm going to brain him! Where's my hat? Someone points to her hat. She rises and goes toward it. Her bag is still open. Her phone rings. Schwartz answers it. SCHWARTZ (subdued tones) Hello, Mr. Burns. Yes, she's still here. HILDY (stopping midway to her hat) I'll take it. (she comes over to phone) What's the matter, Mr. Burns -- don't you understand English? -- Why, your language is shocking, Mr. Burns -- positively shocking! I don't mind because I was married to you and know what to expect, but suppose Central is listening in... Oh, did you hear that, Central? We ought to report him, don't you think?... Oh, fooey on you! She pulls the phone out of the wall, walks toward window and tosses it out of the window. She waits for the crash, turns back and says: HILDY Now where was that hat? Oh, yes. She starts toward it. INT. SHERIFF HARTMAN'S OFFICE MED. SHOT WILLIAMS I hope you're pretty nearly through with me, Doctor, I'm getting a little fatigued. HARTMAN Yeah, you don't want to tire him out, Doctor. EGELHOFFER Just one thing more. I'd like to reenact the crime, Mr. Williams. May I have your gun, please, Sheriff? Hartman starts to take gun out, hesitates. HARTMAN I don't know -- EGELHOFFER (insistently) Come, come, Sheriff, lightning doesn't strike in the same place twice. Nothing's going to happen. Hartman hands him the gun. EGELHOFFER Now, the Sheriff will be Mollie Malloy, in whose room you were. You will be Earl Williams. And I will be the policeman. Follow me, Mr. Williams? WILLIAMS Yes, sir. Egelhoffer hands the gun to Williams and then backs up a few paces. EGELHOFFER So -- now I say to you: 'Earl Williams, you are under arrest!' and you point your gun at me. WILLIAMS (hesitantly) Well, it wasn't exactly that way -- EGELHOFFER (insistently) Point the gun at me! Williams does so. EGELHOFFER Then what did you do? Williams hesitates for a moment and then pulls the trigger. Hartman promptly dives under the desk as Egelhoffer topples over. WILLIAMS (pathetically) Now can I go, please? There is a loud banging on the door and a voice calling: VOICE Hey, Sheriff! Open up! What happened? Williams, alarmed by voice, turns and starts toward window. INT. PRESS ROOM MED. GROUP SHOT Hildy is now wearing her hat and gloves. She picks up her bag and starts for the door. ENDICOTT Goodbye, Yonson. MCCUE So long, Hildy. MURPHY Send us a postcard, kid. SCHWARTZ Who'll keep the lamp in the window for you. BENSINGER Goodbye, Hildy. Hildy has crossed to doorway, the CAMERA TRUCKING WITH HER. She turns and faces the room to make a last bravura speech. HILDY Well, goodbye, you wage-slaves. When you're crawling up fire escapes, getting kicked out of front doors, and eating Christmas dinners in one- armed joints, don't forget your pal, Hildy Johnson! And, remember, my husband sells insurance! She turns and starts on a bit of verse: HILDY "It takes a heap o' livin' to make a house a home." She is interrupted by a terrific fusillade of shots in the courtyard. A roar of excited voices comes up. For a tense second, everyone is motionless. There is another volley of shots. Wilson, Endicott and Murphy jump for the window. CLOSE SHOT AT WINDOW VOICES FROM COURTYARD Get the riot guns! Spread out, you fellows! Etc. WILSON There's a jail-break! MURPHY (at window, simultaneously) Cooley! What's the matter What's happened? VOICES FROM YARD Watch the gate! He's probably trying the gate! Outside, a siren begins to wail. ENDICOTT (out the window) Who got away? Who was it? VOICE OUTSIDE Earl... Williams!!! THE REPORTERS Who? Who'd he say? Earl Williams! It was Earl Williams! He got away! Etc. SHOT AT DESK MCCUE Holy ---! Gimme that telephone! (works hook frantically) Hurry! Hurry up! This is important! MED. SHOT TAKING IN DOOR Searchlights hit the windows, sweeping from direction of the jail. Hildy stands paralyzed, her bundle in her hand. There is another rifle volley. Two windowpanes crash into the room. Some plaster falls. Gongs sound above the siren. The boys are jumping for their telephones. Another windowpane goes. MCCUE (screaming) Look out! CLOSE SHOT AT WINDOW MURPHY (out the window) Look out where you're aiming, will you? A QUICK MONTAGE of reporters at their various phones follows: "Gimme the desk!" "Flash!" "Earl Williams just escaped!" "Don't know yet -- call you back.", etc., are shouted into the phones by Schwartz, Wilson, McCue, Endicott, Bensinger and Murphy. After each man communicates with his paper, he dashes for the door. MEDIUM SHOT The last of the reporters is gone. CLOSE SHOT - HILDY Her bag, almost unnoticed, falls to the floor. CAMERA TRUCKS WITH HER as she moves back into the room, absently grabbing and trailing a chair. ANOTHER ANGLE HILDY Ahhh -- She lets go of the chair and takes one of the telephones. HILDY Morning Post?... Get me Walter Burns -- quick! Hildy Johnson calling. Very calmly she sits on the long table, her back against the wall and waits. CLOSEUP - HILDY HILDY Walter?... Hildy. Earl Williams just escaped from the County Jail. Yep... yep... yep... don't worry! I'm on the job! She hangs up. MEDIUM SHOT There is another volley outside. Hildy sails her hat and starts peeling off her gloves as she jumps for the door. EXT. COURTYARD - DAY MEDIUM SHOT - AT THE GATE There are the reporters joining armed guards who are leaping into squad cars ready for the chase. Cooley is beside the gate. As the reporters and guards pile into the cars, the gate opens and out they go. MEDIUM SHOT AT DOOR LEADING FROM BUILDING TO COURTYARD Hildy comes on a run from this door, hesitates a moment, then sees something o.s. and runs for it. MED. SHOT - SQUAD CAR as it comes careening across courtyard toward gate. Hildy tears into scene, jumps for and makes the running-board, and hangs there as the car swerves up to the gate. MED. SHOT - AT GATE Hildy notices Cooley as the car, gathering speed, goes by him. She leaps from the running-board and lands clump on Cooley. CLOSE SHOT - HILDY AND COOLEY Cooley has been knocked to the ground by the impact of Hildy's leap. She is sitting on him. HILDY Cooley, I want to talk to you. COOLEY (trying to get up) Hildy -- I can't. I'm busy -- I -- Let me up, Hildy. Earl Williams has escaped -- He struggles. HILDY There's money in it, Cooley. COOLEY I can't Hildy. It means my job! It means -- HILDY (interrupting him) A lot of money. (she opens her bag) Four hundred and fifty dollars -- She fingers the bills. COOLEY How much? HILDY Four hundred and fifty dollars. Is it a deal? COOLEY It's a deal. Let me up. Cooley gets up and dusts himself off. COOLEY Let's see the money. HILDY (money still in her hand) First we talk. How did Earl Williams get that gun? Cooley looks around quickly. COOLEY Come on, and I'll tell you. He jerks his head, indicating to Hildy to follow him. MEDIUM SHOT They move off as the gates are closed. DISSOLVE TO: INT. PRESS ROOM - CRIMINAL COURTS BUILDING - DAY FULL SHOT The room is empty. All the telephones are ringing crazily. Endicott enters hurriedly, crosses to his phone. ENDICOTT (into phone) Endicott talking. CLOSE SHOT ENDICOTT - AT PHONE ENDICOTT (into phone) No -- nobody knows where he got the gun, but I think Mollie Malloy smuggled it in to him. He ran up the fire-escape, and went back in the infirmary window. Then he got out through the skylight. He must have slid down the rain-pipe to the street. MURPHY'S VOICE Gimme the Desk. MED. TWO SHOT including Murphy and Endicott at separate phones. ENDICOTT No, I tell you! Nobody knows where he got it. MURPHY The Crime Commission has offered a reward of ten thousand dollars for Williams' capture. ENDICOTT Call you back. He hangs up swiftly and goes out. MURPHY No clue yet as to Earl Williams' whereabouts. Here's a little feature though: There's been an accident about a tear bomb -- Wilson enters and picks up his phone. WILSON (into phone) Wilson talking. MURPHY Yeah -- tear bomb. Criminals cry for it. MEDIUM SHOT including Murphy, Wilson and doorway. The Sheriff enters, turning as he enters. As he turns back to someone in corridor: HARTMAN If the Mayor wants me, he knows where I am. MURPHY (into phone) This tear bomb went off unexpectedly in the hands of Sheriff Hartman's Bombing Squad. HARTMAN What went off? MURPHY (into phone) Four of Mr. Hartman's Deputy Sheriffs were rushed to the hospital -- HARTMAN A fine fair-weather friend you are! MURPHY (remorselessly, into phone) The names are Merwyn D. Mayor, who is the Mayor's brother-in-law -- HARTMAN After all I've done for you -- MURPHY (continuing) Howard Shenken, the Sheriff's uncle on his mother's side -- WILSON (into phone) Hello, Jim? Sidelights on Sheriff Hartman's manhunt. The Sheriff spins around -- another enemy. At this moment Hildy enters the room and crosses casually to her telephone where she stands waiting. MURPHY (into phone) William Lungren, who is the Sheriff's landlord, and Lester Bartow who married the Sheriff's niece. You remember, the very homely dame. Call you back. He hangs up. WILSON (into phone) Mrs. William Tausig, age fifty-five, scrub lady, while at work scrubbing the eighth floor of the Commerce Building, was shot in the left leg by one of Sheriff Hartman's deputies. Hartman groans. There is a sound of machine-gun firing in the courtyard. HILDY There goes another scrub lady. WILSON (into phone) I'll go right after it. He hangs up and exits. MURPHY (to Hildy) Any dope yet on how he got out? HILDY From all I can get the Sheriff let him out so's he could vote for him. HARTMAN I'm very disappointed in you, Hildy Johnson. He turns and exits. CLOSE SHOT AT TABLE NEAR HILDY'S PHONE taking in Hildy and Murphy. MURPHY How do you suppose Williams got that gun? As Hildy shrugs, there is another flurry of machine-gun fire. Murphy leaves precipitately. Hildy, alone at last, picks up the phone. HILDY (into phone) Give me Walter Burns -- quick -- She lays down the telephone receiver and crosses to the door which she closes, then returns to the phone. HILDY (picking up phone) Walter, listen. I've got the inside story on how Williams got the gun and escaped. INT. WALTER BURNS' OFFICE - DAY CLOSE SHOT - BURNS at his desk, telephone to his ear. BURNS Exclusive? That's great. INT. PRESS ROOM - DAY CLOSE SHOT - HILDY HILDY It cost me four hundred and fifty bucks to tear it out of Cooley. INT. BURNS' OFFICE CLOSE SHOT - BURNS BURNS Never mind that. What's the story? INT. PRESS ROOM CLOSE SHOT - HILDY HILDY Never mind it? That's not my money! That's Bruce's money! INT. BURNS' OFFICE CLOSE SHOT - BURNS BURNS You'll get it. Now what's the story? (he raises his hand) I'll have the paper send the money right down to you. I swear it on my mother's grave. INT. PRESS ROOM CLOSE SHOT - HILDY HILDY Wait a minute. Your mother's alive. INT. BURNS' OFFICE CLOSE SHOT - BURNS BURNS I meant on my grandmother's grave. Don't be so technical, Hildy. What's the story?! INT. PRESS ROOM CLOSE SHOT - HILDY HILDY Well, this expert Dr. Egelhoffer, from New York, decides to make Williams re-enact the crime -- She starts to giggle at the thought. HILDY Well, I'm coming to it. It seems the Professor had to have a gun to re- enact the crime with -- and who do you suppose supplied it? Nobody else but that great thinker, Sheriff Hartman! INT. BURNS' OFFICE CLOSE SHOT - BURNS BURNS (laughing) No kidding, Hildy. (suspiciously) Say, this isn't a rib? INT. PRESS ROOM CLOSE SHOT - HILDY HILDY No, this is on the level, Walter. I'm not good enough to make this one up. The Sheriff gave his gun to the Professor, the Professor gave it to Earl, and Earl gave it right back to the Professor -- right in the stomach! Who? No, Egelhoffer wasn't hurt badly. They took him to the County Hospital where they're afraid he'll recover. INT. BURNS' OFFICE CLOSE SHOT - BURNS BURNS That's great work, Hildy... Huh? Oh, will you stop worrying about the money? I'll see you get it in fifteen minutes. INT. PRESS ROOM CLOSE SHOT - HILDY HILDY It better be fifteen minutes, because Bruce is waiting downstairs in a taxicab and that meter's clicking away to beat the band. INT. BURNS' OFFICE CLOSE SHOT BURNS BURNS Hold on a minute. CAMERA PULLS BACK disclosing Louis and a blonde sitting on a divan in Walter's office. Burns' beckons the blonde: BURNS (his hand carefully over receiver of phone) Come here. There's a guy waiting in a taxi in front of the Criminal Courts building. His name is Bruce Baldwin. Can you do your stuff? BLONDE I've never flopped on you, have I? BURNS Then scram! You've got about two minutes. She exits. BURNS (into phone) Sorry to keep you waiting. How much was it again? Four hundred and fifty dollars? Hang on a second. He puts his hand over the phone again and beckons to Louis. BURNS (to Louis) I need four hundred and fifty dollars in counterfeit money. You know where I can get it? LOUIS It's awful funny -- I happen to have some on me. BURNS (into phone) It's coming right over. I'm sending it over with Louis. Thanks for the story and good luck on your honeymoon. INT. PRESS ROOM MED. SHOT HILDY AT TELEPHONE HILDY Keep the thanks, but just see that the money gets here! She hangs up. The door opens and McCue enters and crosses to his phone. MCCUE Hello, Hildy. I thought you were gone. HILDY I thought so, too. Hildy takes a look at the clock, rises and begins to pace up and down, pounding her hands together. CLOSE SHOT MCCUE AT PHONE MCCUE (into phone) McCue speaking. Mrs. Phoebe DeWolfe, eight-sixty-one and a half South State Street, colored, gave birth to a pickaninny in a patrol wagon with Sheriff Hartman's special Rifle Squad acting as nurses. Well -- Phoebe was walking along the street when all of a sudden she began -- that's right. So the police coaxed her into the patrol wagon and they started a race with the stork. When the pickaninny was born the Rifle Squad examined him carefully to see if it was Earl Williams who they knew was hiding somewhere. MED. SHOT Hildy is still pacing. McCue laughs at his own joke. MCCUE (to Hildy) Did you get that, Hildy? HILDY No -- what? Hildy's phone rings. She answers. CLOSE SHOT HILDY AT PHONE HILDY Hello -- Bruce! I thought you were downstairs in a -- What? Arrested again! What for this time, Bruce? Mashing! Oh, Bruce, can't I leave you alone for three minutes even? Well, where are you? The 27th Precinct? All right, I'll be right over -- (she breaks off and looks down at her bag on the desk) I'll be over in twenty minutes, Bruce. (she hangs up) If I ever see Walter Burns -- (she picks up phone and dials viciously) Get me Walter Burns... Hildy Johnson! Well, he was there just a minute ago! Have him call me back! She hangs up. MEDIUM SHOT HILDY (to McCue) If Walter Burns calls, hold the wire for me, will you? I'll be right back. (she goes out) MCCUE Okay, Hildy. (into phone) Well, we can't get any official statement -- MEDIUM SHOT ANOTHER ANGLE The door opens and the Mayor enters. MCCUE (into phone) Oh, wait a minute -- here's the Mayor. Maybe he'll give us one. CLOSEUP THE MAYOR turning away with a wave of his hand. MAYOR Don't pester me now, please. I got a lot on my mind. CLOSEUP MCCUE MCCUE (into phone) His Honor won't say anything. He hangs up and exits out of scene. MED. CLOSE SHOT MAYOR TAKING IN DOOR McCue comes in to him. Murphy and Endicott come in. MAYOR (to McCue) Have you seen Sheriff Hartman? MCCUE It's hard to say, Your Honor. The place is so full of cockroaches. MURPHY Say, Your Honor, what effect's this jail-break going to have on the colored voters? CLOSEUP THE MAYOR MAYOR Not an iota. In what way can an unavoidable misfortune of this sort influence the duty of every citizen, colored or otherwise? MED. SHOT INCLUDING GROUP ENDICOTT Your Honor, is there a Red Menace or ain't there? The Sheriff comes scooting in. MAYOR (to the Sheriff) Hartman, I've been looking for you! He closes in on the Sheriff, followed by the reporters. MURPHY So have we! ENDICOTT What's the dope, Sheriff? MURPHY Who engineered this getaway? CLOSE SHOT HARTMAN Just a minute! We've got him located. ENDICOTT Williams? MURPHY Where is he? HARTMAN Where he used to live. You can catch the Riot Squad -- it's just going out. The boys beat it, fast. MAYOR Pete, I want to talk to you! HARTMAN I ain't got time, Fred, honest. I'll see you after. MAYOR Did you actually give Williams that gun? HARTMAN (a wail) The professor asked me for it -- I thought it was for something scientific! MAYOR Pete, I've got a mighty unpleasant task to perf -- The Sheriff suddenly nudges him for quiet, and the Mayor, turning, sees: ANOTHER ANGLE FEATURING SCHWARTZ coming in and going to the phone. He is whistling. SCHWARTZ Hiya, Your Honor. (into phone) Schwartz calling. (to the Mayor) How about it, Your Honor? Any statement on the Red uprising tomorrow? MAYOR What Red uprising? HARTMAN There'll be no Red uprising! SCHWARTZ (into phone) Gimme rewrite -- (to the Mayor) The Governor says the situation calls for the militia. MAYOR You can quote me as saying that anything the Governor says is a tissue of lies. SCHWARTZ (into phone) Hello, Jake. Here's a red-hot statement from the Governor. He claims that the Mayor and the Sheriff have shown themselves to be a couple of eight-year-olds playing with fire. CLOSEUP SHERIFF AND MAYOR SCHWARTZ' VOICE Quote him as follows: "It is a lucky thing for the city that next Tuesday is Election Day, as the citizens will thus be saved the expense of impeaching the Mayor and the Sheriff." That's all -- call you back. MED. SHOT SCHWARTZ He hangs up and starts out. SCHWARTZ Nice to have seen you, Mayor. He exits, whistling. MAYOR We've got to go somewhere private, Pete. I've got to talk to you straight from the shoulder. They start out. MED. SHOT SHERIFF AND MAYOR As they start for the door it opens. As they exit Hildy enters, almost crossing them but not quite noticing them as she starts pounding her hands together and pacing up and down Press Room. MED. SHOT MAYOR AND SHERIFF as they start down the hall, CAMERA TRUCKING WITH THEM. HARTMAN (beside himself) Now, listen, Fred. Just give me a few hours before you make any decisions. I'll get results. I'm doing everything humanly possible. I've just sworn in four hundred deputies. MAYOR Four hundred! Do you want to bankrupt this administration? HARTMAN (pleadingly) I'm getting them for twelve dollars a night. MAYOR Twelve dollars! -- For those rheumatic uncles of yours? (gesturing) Out shooting everybody they see for the fun of it? HARTMAN (with dignity) If you're talking about my brother- in-law, he's worked for the city fifteen years. They come to the door of the Sheriff's office. Hartman opens door and the Mayor enters, Hartman following. INT. SHERIFF'S OFFICE MED. CLOSE SHOT Hartman closes door and turns to Mayor, who faces him portentously. MAYOR Pete, you're through! HARTMAN (stunned) What do you mean -- through? MAYOR I mean I'm scratching your name off the ticket Tuesday and running Czernecki in your place. It's nothing personal. And, Pete -- it's the only way out. It's a sacrifice we all ought to be glad to make. HARTMAN (David to Jonathan) Fred! MAYOR Now, Pete! Please don't appeal to my Sentimental side. HARTMAN Fred, I don't know what to say. A thing like this almost destroys a man's faith in human nature. MAYOR I wish you wouldn't talk like that, Pete. HARTMAN Our families, Fred. I've always looked on Bessie as my own sister. MAYOR (wavering and desperate) If there was any way out... As a phone rings: HARTMAN There is a way out. I've got Williams surrounded, haven't I? What more do you want? (into phone) Hello... Yes... Hello! (wildly) Four hundred suppers! Nothing doing! This is a man-hunt -- not a banquet!... The twelve dollars includes everything!! He hangs up. HARTMAN That gives you an idea of what I'm up against! MAYOR (hotly) We're up against a lot more than that with that nutty slogan you invented: 'Reform the Reds With a Rope'. Sheriff winces. MAYOR Williams ain't a Red, and you know it! HARTMAN Well, there's a lot of Communistic sympathizers around -- MAYOR I know it! But they've got nothing to do with this case! Do you realize there are two hundred thousand votes at stake and unless we hang Earl Williams we're going to lose 'em? HARTMAN But we're going to hang him, Fred. He can't get away. A knock on the door. MAYOR What do you mean he can't get away?! He got away, didn't he? Knocking louder. MAYOR Who's out there? VOICE OUTSIDE (PINKUS) Is Sheriff Hartman in there? Sheriff starts for door. HARTMAN (relieved) Ah! For me! MED. SHOT TAKING IN DOOR Sheriff opens the door. A small, very colorless and ineffectual man named Pinkus is there. HARTMAN (as he opens door, disclosing Pinkus) I'm Sheriff Hartman. You want me? PINKUS (coming in) You're certainly a hard fellow to find, Sheriff. MAYOR (annoyed) What do you want? PINKUS (taking a document from his pocket and proffering it to Sheriff) I'm a messenger at the State House. This is from the Governor. MAYOR What's from the Governor? PINKUS The reprieve for Earl Williams. HARTMAN (stunned) For who? PINKUS (amiably) Earl Williams. The reprieve. MAYOR W-wait a minute. Getting his bearings. HARTMAN (bursting forth) The Governor gave me his word of honor he wouldn't interfere. Two days ago! MAYOR And you fell for it, Pete. It frightens me what I'd like to do to you. (to Pinkus) Who else knows about this? The Sheriff, with shaking hands, opens and begins to read the thing. PINKUS They were all standing around when he wrote it. It was after they got back from fishing. MAYOR (to Sheriff) Get the Governor on the phone! PINKUS (helpfully) You can't get him on the phone. He's out duckshooting now. MAYOR Fishing! Duckshooting! How do you like that. A guy does nothing more strenuous for forty years than play pinochle -- he gets elected Governor and right away he thinks he's Tarzan! HARTMAN (thrusting the document at the Mayor) Read it! Insane, he says. (shaking a finger in Pinkus' face) He knows very well that Williams ain't insane! PINKUS Yeah. But I -- MAYOR (interrupting) Pure politics! HARTMAN An attempt to ruin us! The phone rings. Hartman starts for it. MAYOR (reading) Dementia praecox Oh-h-h! HARTMAN We got to think fast before those lying reporters get hold of this. What'll we tell 'em? MAYOR Tell 'em the party is through in this State on account of you. HARTMAN Ah, Fred -- (into phone) Hello... this is Hartman -- MAYOR (apoplectic) And you can tell 'em as an afterthought that I want your resignation now! HARTMAN (from the phone) Sssh. Wait, Fred. (excitedly, into phone) What?... Where?... Where? Holy Moses! MAYOR What is it? HARTMAN They got him! (back to phone) Wait a minute -- hold the wire. (to the Mayor) They got Earl Williams surrounded -- the Riot Squad has -- in his house. MAYOR Tell 'em to hold the wire. HARTMAN I did. (into phone) Hold the wire. MAYOR Cover up that transmitter! Sheriff does so. Mayor faces Cooney. MAYOR Now, listen! You never arrived here with this -- reprieve. Get it? PINKUS (blinking) Yes, I did, just now. Don't you remember? MAYOR How much do you make a week? PINKUS Huh? MAYOR (impatiently) How much do you make a week? What's your salary? PINKUS (reluctantly) Forty dollars. HARTMAN (into phone) No -- don't out me off. MAYOR How would you like to have a job for three hundred and fifty dollars a month. That's almost a hundred dollars a week! PINKUS Who? Me? MAYOR (exasperated) Who do you think! Pinkus is a little startled; the Mayor hastens to adopt a milder manner. MAYOR Now, listen. There's a fine opening for a fellow like you in the City Sealer's office. PINKUS The what? MAYOR The City Sealer's office! PINKUS You mean here in the city? MAYOR (foaming) Yes, yes! HARTMAN (at phone) Well, wait a minute, will you? I'm in conference. PINKUS (a very deliberate intellect) No, I couldn't do that. MAYOR Why not? PINKUS I couldn't work in the city. You see, I've got my family in the country. MAYOR (desperate) But you could bring 'em in here! We'll pay all your expenses. PINKUS (with vast thought) No, I don't think so. MAYOR For heaven's sake, why not? PINKUS I got two kids going to school there, and if I changed them from one town to another, they'd lose a grade. MAYOR No, they wouldn't -- they'd gain one! And I guarantee that they'll graduate with highest honors! PINKUS (lured) Yeah? HARTMAN (into phone) Hold your horses -- will you, Olsen? Hurry up, Fred! MAYOR Now what do you say? PINKUS This puts me in a peculiar hole. MAYOR No, it doesn't. (hands him the reprieve) Now, remember: you never delivered this. (rushing him to the door) You got caught in the traffic, or something. (opening door) Now, get out of here and don't let anybody see you. PINKUS But how do I know...? MAYOR Come in and see me in my office tomorrow. What's your name? PINKUS Pinkus. MAYOR (taking out his wallet) All right, Mr. Pinkus, all you've got to do is lay low and keep your mouth shut. Here! (he hands him a card) Go to this address. It's a nice, homey little place, and they'll take care of you for the night. Just tell 'em Fred sent you. And here's fifty dollars on account. He pushes money into Pinkus's hand and pushes him through the door. Pinkus goes. HARTMAN (into phone, desperately) Will you wait, Olsen? I'll tell you in a minute! The door opens again and Pinkus comes back in. PINKUS You forgot to tell me what a City Sealer has to do. MAYOR (turning hastily toward Pinkus) I'll explain it tomorrow! PINKUS Is it hard? MAYOR No! It's easy -- it's very easy! HARTMAN (pleadingly, into phone) Just one second -- PINKUS That's good, because my health ain't what it used to be. MAYOR (pushing him out the door) We'll fix that, too. (he closes the door after him) HARTMAN (into phone -- one more plea) Just -- one -- second! He turns to the Mayor with a gesture of appeal. The Mayor closes the door and turns to Hartman. MAYOR (huskily) All right. Tell 'em to shoot to kill. HARTMAN What? MAYOR Shoot to kill, I said. HARTMAN I don't know, Fred. There's that reprieve if they ever find out. MAYOR Nobody reprieved that policeman he murdered. Now, do as I tell you. HARTMAN (into phone) Hello, Olsen... Listen... (his voice is weak) Shoot to kill... That's the orders pass the word along... No! We dont want him! And listen, Olsen, five- hundred bucks for the guy that does the job... Yes, I'll be right out there. (hangs up) Well, I hope that's the right thing to do. MAYOR Now take that guilty look off your face, Pete -- and stop trembling like a horse. HARTMAN (mopping his brow) If we didn't have election Tuesday I'd have this on my conscience. INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE PRESS ROOM MED. SHOT Louie comes from the direction of the stairs and crosses toward door to Press Room. He pauses a moment, puts his hand in his pocket, pulls out some bills, counts them and opens the door. INT. PRESS ROOM MED. SHOT Hildy is still pacing, pounding her hands together and glancing every so often at the clock on the wall. Suddenly she crosses to her phone, picks up transmitter -- HILDY (into phone) Will you try -- LOUIE'S VOICE Hildy. HILDY (wheeling towards door) Louie! She drops the phone and hurries towards him. HILDY Have you got my dough? LOUIS Oh, sure. The boss sent me over with it. Four hundred dollars, wasn't it? HILDY Four hundred and fifty and I'll cut your throat if you try any tricks! LOUIS All right, all right. You can't blame a guy for tryin', can you? HILDY Come on with that money! LOUIS First you got to sign a receipt. (he pulls out a receipt) HILDY Where's the money? LOUIS Keep your shirt on. I got it -- right here. (he picks out money and counts) One hundred -- two hundred -- three hundred -- four hundred -- and fifty. Now sign. HILDY (grabs money and signs) Here! LOUIS Thanks. So long, Hildy! HILDY (grabbing him) So long, nothing! Where's Bruce Baldwin's wallet? LOUIS Huh? HILDY None of that innocent stuff, you double-crossing hyena! You stuck Bruce Baldwin in jail this afternoon on a phony charge that he swiped your watch, and you frisked his wallet! Now, give me that wallet or I'll stick you in jail and it won't be on any phony charge either! It'll be for life! LOUIS Now don't get excited, Hildy! I don't know what you're talking about -- but is this Mr. Baldwin's wallet? He takes Bruce's wallet out. HILDY (grabbing it) You know it is! LOUIS I didn't frisk him. He must have dropped it in Burns' office. I didn't know whose it was. HILDY No -- and you don't know that your cheap boss has had Mr. Baldwin arrested again -- do you? LOUIS (surprised) What -- already? Why, the dame left only a minute before I did! He suddenly realizes what he's said and sprints for the door. Hildy chucks something at him. It just misses as he ducks out of the door. MED. SHOT ANOTHER ANGLE Hildy casts a savage look after the departed Louie, takes another look at the clock and grabs a phone and starts to dial. HILDY (into phone) 27th Precinct Station House? Hildy stops short, arrested by a sound from the open window. She turns and sees Earl Williams, looking more inoffensive and exhausted than ever, indeed on the verge of collapse. He carries a large revolver. The search-lights that have been playing in the courtyard strike into the windows again. WILLIAMS (pointing gun at her) Drop that phone -- Hildy drops the phone back on the hook. WILLIAMS (supporting himself by holding on to edge of desk) You're not going to phone anybody where I am. HILDY (bracing herself) Put down that gun, Earl. He advances steadily toward Hildy, the gun aimed at her. HILDY You're not going to shoot me, Earl. I'm your friend, remember? I've got to write that story about your "Production for Use". WILLIAMS Yes -- that's right. Production for use. Hildy starts walking toward him, slowly. HILDY Earl, you don't want to hurt your friends, do you? WILLIAMS Don't move! Hildy stops. WILLIAMS Maybe you're my friend and maybe you're not -- but don't come any nearer. You can't trust anybody in this crazy world. Say, I'll bet I could shoot you from here. HILDY Sure you could, Earl -- but you wouldn't want to do that, would you? You wouldn't want to kill anybody. WILLIAMS No, no, you're right. I don't want to kill anybody. All I want to do is be let alone. Hildy sneaks another step forward. HILDY Earl, there's just one thing I ought to clear up for the interview. WILLIAMS What's that? Only -- you're getting too near. I don't trust anybody. HILDY I don't blame you, Earl. (another step forward) If I were in your place I wouldn't trust anybody, either. WILLIAMS (suddenly) Keep away! He points the gun at Hildy, pulls the trigger and we hear a faint "click!" WILLIAMS (weakly) I guess I used all the shells. CLOSE TWO SHOT He drops the gun and clutches at the edge of the desk for support. Hildy lurches forward and she grabs the other side of the desk for support. And at this moment she looks more tired than he does. She looks at Earl and breathes heavily. HILDY Earl, you must never do that again. WILLIAMS Oh, I'm awful tired. I couldn't go through another day like this. HILDY (more her old self now) Well, maybe you think I could! CAMERA FOLLOWS HER as she retrieves the gun and jams it in her purse, jumps to the windows, pulls down the shades. EARL'S VOICE I'm not afraid to die. I was tellin' the fella that when he handed me the gun. Hildy crosses swiftly to the door, locks it and puts out the lights, so that they are visible only faintly in the light from the areaway. HILDY Don't talk too loud. WILLIAMS (babbling on as she moves about) Wakin' me up in the middle of the night -- talkin' to me about things they don't understand. Callin' me a Bolshevik. I'm an anarchist. It's got nothin' to do with bombs. It's the philosophy that guarantees every man freedom. You see that, don't you? HILDY Sure I do, Earl. Hildy is looking around for a hiding place for him. WILLIAMS I wish they'd take me back and hang me. I done my best. He abruptly crumples and falls to the floor. Hildy stands for a second, desperate. Then she picks him up and half carries, half drags him over toward a chair and places him in it. Then she makes a quick dash for her phone. HILDY (into phone) Hello... Gimme Walter Burns -- quick! Another phone there rings. Hildy answers it, propping the receiver of her own phone between ear and shoulder. CLOSEUP HILDY AT PHONE HILDY (into second phone) Hello -- hel -- Oh, hello, Bruce... Oh, Bruce, please -- I know I said I'd be down in fifteen minutes, but something terrific's happened! Hang on, Bruce -- (into first phone) Walter?... Hildy. Come over here -- right away!... Wait! (into second phone) Bruce, just a second, Bruce -- I'll explain everything. (into first phone) Walter! Get this: I've got Earl Williams... Yes! Here in the Press Room... Honest! On the level. Hurry -- I need you. She hangs up and turns into second phone. HILDY Bruce, this is the biggest thing that ever happened... (lowers voice) I just captured Earl Williams -- you know -- the murderer -- There is a knocking on the door, but she doesn't hear it. HILDY Bruce, I'll be down -- Well, Bruce, the minute I turn him over to the paper I'll be right down. Bruce, don't you -- Bruce, I can't now -- I can't, don't you realize? There is a click from the phone. He has hung up. Hildy dejectedly hangs up the phone. There is the sound of knocking on the door. She springs up. MED. SHOT taking in door. Hildy glares apprehensively, then crosses to it. HILDY (cautiously) Who's there? MOLLIE'S VOICE It's me, Mollie Malloy! Let me in. Hildy carefully unlocks the door. Mollie bounds in like a wildcat and seizes her. MOLLIE Where are they gone? You know where they are? HILDY Wait a minute, Mollie. She manages to relock the door, then turns, leaning against it, facing Mollie. CLOSE SHOT HILDY AND MOLLIE MOLLIE They got him surrounded some place -- gonna shoot him like a dog! HILDY Mollie, they haven't got him. You gotta help me, Mollie! We've got to do something! MOLLIE What do you mean? There is a sound -- a groan -- as Williams starts to come to. MOLLIE (spinning around) What's that? HILDY Quiet, Mollie! MOLLIE There's somethin' funny going on around here. MED. SHOT Mollie crosses to wall and switches on the lights. She sees Williams, sobs and rushes over to him. CLOSEUP EARL AND MOLLIE Mollie gets down on her knees and begins ministering to Earl. He opens his eyes. WILLIAMS Hello, Mollie. Mollie begins to sob. WIDER ANGLE SHOT Hildy comes over and says: HILDY Quiet, Mollie, quiet! WILLIAMS (putting out hand to stroke her hair) Don't cry, Mollie, there's nothing to cry about. HILDY How'd you get here, Earl? WILLIAMS Down the drainpipe. I didn't mean to shoot him. You believe me, don't you, Mollie? MOLLIE (coming up) Of course I believe you. WILLIAMS I forgot to thank you for those roses. They were beautiful. MOLLIE That's all right, Mr. Williams... (to Hildy) You're a woman. You got to help us. You got to get him out of here, some place where I can take care of him. HILDY Stop screaming, Mollie or we're sunk. I'm trying to think of something before those reporters get back. WILLIAMS Let 'em take me. It's better that way. MOLLIE No -- I'll never let 'em! The door is tried outside. MOLLIE They'll get him! They'll get him! HILDY Ssh! INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE PRESS ROOM DOOR CLOSE SHOT Endicott at door is trying to get in. ENDICOTT Who locked the door? INT. PRESS ROOM BACK TO HILDY HILDY (calling) Just a second, Mike --- (whispering to Mollie) Mollie, I got it! MED. CLOSE SHOT AT DESK Hildy jumps in to the desk and opens it, turning to cry in a tense whisper to Earl: HILDY Can you get in this desk? INT. CORRIDOR CLOSE SHOT Wilson is there too, now, and he and Endicott are pounding on the door. WILSON What's going on in there? INT. PRESS ROOM HILDY, MOLLIE AND EARL Mollie and Earl are with Hildy in front of desk now. They are speaking in whispers. WILLIAMS What good'll it do? HILDY We'll get you out in ten minutes. INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE DOOR ENDICOTT Open up there, will you! INT. PRESS ROOM HILDY, MOLLIE AND EARL HILDY (crying) All right -- all right! MOLLIE (to Earl) Go on! (shoving him to desk) Please! WILLIAMS They'll find me anyhow. There is further and louder pounding on the door. Earl gets in the desk. Hildy and Mollie pull the roll-top down over him. HILDY (calling) I'm coming! (to Earl) Keep dead quiet. Don't even breathe. MOLLIE (to Earl) I'll be right here. I won't leave you. INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE DOOR ENDICOTT (giving door a terrific kick) Hey! INT. PRESS ROOM CLOSE SHOT HILDY AND MOLLIE HILDY (to Mollie) Mollie, drop down here! You've fainted! MOLLIE What's the idea? HILDY Never mind! Just play dead. Hildy rapidly unbuttons Mollie's waist and throws it back. The kicking at the door continues. MED. SHOT Hildy rushes over to windows and pulls up the shades. Mollie is lying quietly on the floor with her eyes closed. Hildy rushes over to water cooler and gets a paper cup full of water. She throws the water in Mollie's face. MOLLIE (spluttering) Hey -- HILDY (fiercely) Shut up, you! Hildy crosses swiftly to the door. INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE DOOR The door opens in Endicott's face and there is Miss Johnson, quite cool. ENDICOTT Kind of exclusive, ain't you? We got calls to make, you know. HILDY Run down and get some smelling salts, will you? WILSON Smelling salts! What's going on here? They catch sight of Mollie, stretched out on the floor. ENDICOTT Mollie Malloy -- what happened to her? HILDY (as Endicott and Wilson enter room) Came up here -- had hysterics and passed out. I've been trying to get her to come to. INT. PRESS ROOM MED. SHOT Mollie is shaking her head. ENDICOTT She looks as though she's going to come to. HILDY Give me a hand with her, will you? ENDICOTT Okay. (lifting Mollie) Up you go, Mollie. Hildy and Endicott lift Mollie and seat her in a chair. Wilson crosses to his phone. CLOSE SHOT WILSON AT PHONE WILSON (into Phone) City Desk. MED. CLOSE SHOT Taking in Hildy, Wilson and Mollie and Endicott. ENDICOTT She'll be all right. (crosses to his phone) The Desk. WILSON (into phone) Well, they surrounded the house, all right, only they forgot to tell Williams, and he wasn't there. MED. LONG SHOT TAKING IN DOOR Murphy comes in. MURPHY (seeing Hildy, who has been fastening Mollie's blouse) Hildy, I thought you were gone -- HILDY Well -- I was going, but Mollie fainted away and I thought I ought to do what I could. MURPHY Some Hallowe'en goin' on outside. The whole police force standing on it's ear. Murphy crosses to his phone. McCue comes in. MCCUE (panting) What a chase! ENDICOTT (into phone) No luck on Williams, yet -- call you back. He hangs up. WILSON (into phone) Okay, later. He hangs up. MURPHY (into phone) Murphy talking. Schwartz comes in. HILDY Any news? SCHWARTZ Yeah. I was never so tired in my life. He picks up his phone. MCCUE (into phone) Where? Harrison Street Station? All right, connect me. SCHWARTZ (into phone) Schwartz calling... Out with Hartman's deputies. I'm in a drugstore. You can't call me back because I'm going right on with them. He hangs up -- puts his feet on the desk. CLOSE SHOT HILDY AND MOLLIE HILDY Are you all right, now? MOLLIE Yeah, I'm feelin' fine. MED. SHOT GROUP MURPHY Sure, Mollie, you never looked better in your life. MCCUE (turning from phone) Yeah, hold the line. Hey, this looks good. An old lady just called the detective bureau and claims Williams is hiding in her cellar. Well - we've looked every other place. Want to go out on it? ENDICOTT Aw, nuts with chasing around any more. I spent a dollar-forty on taxis already. SCHWARTZ I say we don't go out any more. Let Earl Williams come to us. CLOSEUP HILDY HILDY A fine bunch of reporters. Biggest story in two years and they're too lazy to go after it. MED. SHOT GROUP ENDICOTT It's easy for you to talk. You're retired. We're still working. MCCUE Okay. (into phone) Forget it. (he hangs up) HILDY What's the matter with you boys? Afraid it might rain? If you want to go, I'll cover this end. MURPHY Say, Hildy, if I know you, you sound pretty anxious to get rid of us. Are you trying to scoop us or something? ENDICOTT Something smells around here. If you ask me Mollie gave her the story on how Williams got that gun. (turning on Mollie) Did you smuggle that gun into Williams, Mollie? MOLLIE I didn't do nothin'. MCCUE (crossing to Mollie) Come clean, Mollie. Wilson, Endicott and Murphy follow McCue toward Hildy. ENDICOTT Better let us in on it, Mollie. HILDY Aw, why don't you let her alone? She's ill! MURPHY Oh, you two are pals now -- I think you're right, Endicott. Mollie did give her some kind of story. ENDICOTT I tell you, it's a screwy set-up. We better hold onto 'em both. At this point Mrs. Baldwin appears in the doorway. Hildy gasps and starts for her. MED. SHOT AT DOOR Mrs. Baldwin is in a very righteous mood. MRS. BALDWIN Well? CLOSE SHOT HILDY as she comes in to her. HILDY Mother! MRS. BALDWIN Don't you mother me! Playing cat-and- mouse with my poor boy! Keeping him looked up -- making us miss two trains -- and supposed to be married tomorrow! HILDY Mother, I can explain everything. I'll go with you in five minutes and -- MRS. BALDWIN You don't have to go with me at all! Just give me my son's money and you can stay here forever as far as I'm concerned. Stay with that murderer you caught! CLOSE SHOT REPORTERS as they get this. Reactions as they glance at one another. MRS. BALDWIN'S VOICE (continuing) Which one of these men is it? They all look like murderers to me! MURPHY Where does she get that stuff? SCHWARTZ Shall we tell her what she looks like? ENDICOTT Wait a minute! What murderer did you catch, Hildy? MED. SHOT GROUP The reporters are looking intently at Hildy and Mrs. Baldwin. HILDY I don't know what she's talking about. I never said any such thing. MRS. BALDWIN I'm quoting my son, and he has never lied to me. The reporters move toward Hildy and Mrs. Baldwin speaking simultaneously. REPORTERS I knew something stunk around here -- Who says she caught him --? What do you mean she caught a murderer --? etc. HILDY (desperately) But I never said anything like that! MRS. BALDWIN Yes, you did! CLOSEUP MOLLIE MOLLIE She never told her that! MED. CLOSE SHOT GROUP HILDY I said I was trying to catch one. (to Mrs. Baldwin) You got it balled up, Mother. CLOSE SHOT taking in Mollie, with Murphy coming into scene to her. MURPHY What do you know about it? How do you know she didn't? He grabs her cruelly by an arm. MOLLIE Let go! Endicott comes into scene. ENDICOTT Hold on to her, Jimmy -- she's in with Hildy on this. CLOSE SHOT HILDY AND MRS. BALDWIN Hildy tense with anxiety, her eyes on Mollie, off. Murphy comes viciously into scene to her and jerks Hildy by an arm. MURPHY Who you holding out on? Come clean, or we'll make you wish you had -- MED. SHOT as the rest of the reporters surround Hildy menacingly. ENDICOTT (to Hildy) Hildy, are you gonna cross us for Walter Burns after the way you told him off? WILSON Give in, Hildy -- you can't get away with it. CLOSEUP MOLLIE AS SHE CRIES WILDLY: MOLLIE Wait! You stool-pigeons! She don't know where Williams is. I'm the one that knows. SHOT OF REPORTERS as they turn on Mollie. ENDICOTT What do you mean, you know? They start for Mollie. MED. SHOT Mollie begins backing slowly around the table, away from them, toward the window. MOLLIE Go find out, you heels! You don't think I'm gonna tell! CLOSEUP HILDY who has remained riveted at desk. HILDY Let her alone! She's goofy! MOLLIE AND REPORTERS Hemmed in by the massed reporters, she makes a sudden lunge for the door. REPORTERS Look out! Close that door! etc., etc. They split, some of them heading her off at door, others from opposite side of table, so that she runs back between window and table. MCCUE You ain't gettin' out o' here! ENDICOTT Now, where is he? WILSON Where you hidin' him? MOLLIE I ain't gonna squeal! I ain't goin' to! MURPHY (leaning across table) Come on, you! Before we slap you down. ENDICOTT Do you want us to call the cops and have them give you the boots? MURPHY Where is he, before we beat it out of you? MOLLIE (backing) Don't you come near me, you kidney foot! Murphy continues to advance on her. The reporters start for her from the other side. Mollie snatches up a chair and swings it at the advancing circle of men. MOLLIE (wild and blubbering) Let me alone or I'll knock your heads off! ENDICOTT Put down that chair! SCHWARTZ Get around -- get on the side of her. MOLLIE (still backing) No, you don't! (a scream) Keep away! WILSON Grab her! With a last, wild look at her encircling foes. MOLLIE You'll never get it out of me! (hurls chair at them) I'll never tell! Never! She makes a desperate leap for the open window and disappears out. Her scream of terror is heard as she drops. THEN RUSH FORWARD TO: CLOSE SHOT AT WINDOW as the reporters rush in and look out, an assortment of awed and astonished exclamations rising from them. CLOSE SHOT MRS. BALDWIN She turns away from the window and hides her face in her hands. MRS. BALDWIN Take me out of here! Take me -- (a moan) Oh-h -- She collapses to a chair. SHOT AT WINDOW MCCUE (turning) Get the cops, somebody. MURPHY (turning) Come on, fellas. They start in a rush for the door. MED. SHOT AT DOOR AND DESK as the reporters rush out, and Hildy crosses, dazed to the window. HILDY Gee! The poor kid... the poor kid. Reaching the window, she looks out. EXT. PAVEMENT SHOOTING DOWN FROM HILDY'S ANGLE The form of Mollie on the pavement below moves slightly in the moonlight, as guards rush into scene to her. VOICES (of guards rushing in) Get a doctor! Take her to the infirmary! She ain't killed -- she's moving! INT. PRESS ROOM SHOOTING INTO ROOM FROM WINDOW Hildy turns, shaken, back into the room from the window and sees advancing to her across the room Walter Burns. Diamond Louie has entered with the Boss and stands leaning by the door. Mrs. Baldwin's face is still hidden by her hands. Hildy starts for Burns. HILDY Walter! D-did you see -- (gesturing back to window) -- that? CLOSE SHOT BURNS BURNS Yes. Where is he? HILDY (comes in to him) She jumped out of the window. BURNS I know. Where is he, I said. [MISSING PAGE] CLOSE SHOT MRS. BALDWIN looking up at them, off. MRS. BALDWIN What are you doing? BURNS' VOICE Shut up! MRS. BALDWIN I won't shut up! That girl killed herself. Oh-h, you're doing something wrong. What's in that desk? CLOSE AT DESK - TAKING IN LOUIE AT THE DOOR Burns slams closed the desk and steps to Louie. CLOSE SHOT BURNS Louie, take this lady over to Polack Mike's and lock her up. See that she doesn't take to anyone on the way. CLOSEUP MRS. BALDWIN MRS. BALDWIN What's that -- what's that? CLOSE SHOT GROUP as Louie comes in to Mrs. Baldwin. HILDY Wait a minute, Walter. You can't do that! LOUIE (extending his hand as if to shake hands with Mrs. Baldwin) My name is Louis Peluso. Unluckily for her she responds, only to find herself jerked to her feet and spun around so that one of Louie's arms is about her waist and the other hand over her mouth. Louie starts her to door. BURNS Tell 'em it's a case of delirium tremens. TRUCKING SHOT with them -- Hildy catching up. HILDY Now, let go of her, Louie. Listen, Walter, this'll get me in a terrible jam with my fiancÈe and I don't stand so well with him now. Don't worry, Mother, this is only temporary. At the door, Louie gets Mrs. Baldwin out and disappears with her. Hildy starts after them, when Burns' arm comes into scene, catching her. CLOSE SHOT BURNS AND HILDY BURNS Where do you think you're going? HILDY Let go o' me! I've got to get Bruce out of jail! Oh, Walter, why did you have to do this to me? BURNS (scornfully) Get Bruce out of jail! How can you worry about a man who's resting comfortably in a quiet police station while this is going on? Hildy, this is war! You can't desert now! HILDY Oh, get off that trapeze! (indicating desk, off) There's your story! Smear it all over the front page -- Earl Williams caught by the Morning Post! And take all the credit -- I covered your story for you and I got myself in a fine mess doing it -- and now I'm getting out! I know I told you that twice before today -- but this time I mean it! BURNS You drooling idiot! What do you mean, you're getting out! There are three hundred and sixty-five days in the year one can get married -- but how many times have you got a murderer locked up in a desk? -- Once in a lifetime! Hildy, you've got the whole city by the seat of the pants! HILDY I know, but -- BURNS (interrupting) You know! You've got the brain of a pancake! That wasn't just a story you covered -- it was a revolution! Hildy! This is the greatest yarn in journalism since Livingstone discovered Stanley for the New York Herald! (quickly closes the door) HILDY (slightly bewildered) Wait a minute -- wasn't it Stanley who discovered Livingstone? BURNS Don't get technical at a time like this! Do you realize what you've done? You've taken a city that's been graft-ridden for forty years under the same old gang and with this yarn you're kicking 'em out and giving us a chance to have the same kind of government that New York's having under La Guardia! We'll make such monkeys out of these ward-heelers next Tuesday that nobody'll vote for them -- not even their wives! HILDY (the fire upon her) I'd like to think. BURNS Well, think it then, because it's true! We'll crucify that mob. We're going to keep Williams under cover till morning so the Post can break the story exclusive. Then we'll let the Governor in on the capture -- share the glory with him. HILDY (excited) I get it! BURNS You've kicked over the whole City Hall like an apple-cart. You've got the Mayor and Hartman backed against a wall. You've put one administration out and another in. This isn't a newspaper story -- it's a career! And you stand there belly-aching about whether you catch an eight o'clock train or a nine o'clock train! Still a doll-faced mugg! That's all you are. HILDY Let me get at that typewriter and I'll show you how a doll-faced mugg can write! BURNS Attagirl! Why, they'll be naming streets after you -- Hildy Johnson Street! There'll be statues of you in the parks, Hildy. The radio'll be after you -- the movies! (slapping his fist against his open palm) By tomorrow morning I'll betcha there's a Hildy Johnson cigar! I can see the billboards now. Light up with Hildy Johnson! HILDY Whoa -- wait a minute. We can't leave Williams here. One of the other fellows'll -- BURNS We're going to take him over to my private office. (turning) Where's our phone? HILDY That one -- how you gonna take him? They'll see him. SHOT AT TABLE as Burns gets phone and jiggles the hook. BURNS Not if he's inside the desk. We'll carry the desk over. (into phone) Give me Duffy! HILDY You can't take that desk out. It's crawling with cops outside. BURNS We'll lower it out of the window with pulleys. Quit stallin'. As Hildy seems abstracted: BURNS Hildy! HILDY (coming to) Huh! BURNS Get the lead out of your typewriter and start pounding out a load, will you? Snap into it! HILDY How much do you want on it? BURNS All the words you've got. HILDY (turning) Where's some paper? Goes out of scene. BURNS (into phone) Hello...! Hello! SHOT AT DESK As Hildy comes in, going to desk, she turns to call back: HILDY Can I call the Mayor a bird of prey -- or is that libelous? CLOSEUP BURNS AT PHONE BURNS Call him a love-child, if you want to. (into phone) Duffy! CLOSE SHOT HILDY Having opened the drawers of Bensinger's desk, she is tossing play manuscripts, syringes, patent medicines and old socks into the air, in a frantic search for paper. HILDY (calling to Burns) How about the time he had his house painted by the Fire Department? CLOSE SHOT BURNS BURNS Give him the works. (into phone) Hello, Duffy, get set! We've got the biggest story in the world. Earl Williams caught by the Morning Post -- exclusive! TWO SHOT HILDY AND BURNS Hildy has unearthed a package of Bensinger's private stationary. She rises with it. BURNS (to Hildy) Fine! (into phone) Now, listen, Duffy -- I want you to tear out the whole front page... That's what I said -- the whole front page! Never mind the European war! We've got something a whole lot bigger than that. Hildy Johnson's writing the lead and I'll phone it over to you as soon as she's finished. (he starts to hang up, then thinks of something else) Oh, Duffy! Get hold of Butch O'Connor and tell him I want him to come up here with half a dozen other wrestlers -- right away! Tell him we'll run his picture on the sport page for two weeks straight. What? I've got a desk I want moved. Never mind what desk! DISSOLVE TO: EXT. STREET NIGHT MED. LONG SHOT as the taxi darts through traffic, narrowly avoiding cars, trucks, etc., it comes almost head-on to an oncoming car. INT. TAXICAB - NIGHT - PROCESS CLOSE SHOT Louie, worried, ducks unconsciously. Mrs. Baldwin faints across his lap. EXT. STREET MED. LONG SHOT The taxi swerves just in time to duck the oncoming car. As it starts forward again a truck comes toward the cab, head on. INT. TAXICAB - PROCESS CLOSE SHOT Diamond Louie pushes Mrs. Baldwin into an upright position, takes a look through the windshield, sees the truck and gives a big "takem" and faints across Mrs. Baldwin. EXT. STREET MED. SHOT The truck and taxicab crash and the screen blacks out. DISSOLVE TO: INT. PRESS ROOM - NIGHT CLOSE SHOT HILDY at typewriter, smoke rising from her cigarette. As the CAMERA ANGLE WIDENS we see a fairly disheveled Hildy typing away furiously. BURNS' VOICE (Into phone) "The Blackest cesspool in American city life!" Hold on Duffy, I'll see if she's got any more. Burns comes into the scene, tears a page out of Hildy's typewriter. She inserts another one without noticing. MED. SHOT Burns goes back to the phone as Hildy continues to type furiously. BURNS (into phone) Duffy -- Duffy! (clicking the phone furiously) Operator! Operator! Get me Duffy back. Somebody cut us off! ANOTHER ANGLE FAVORING DOOR as Bruce Baldwin enters. BRUCE Hildy! BURNS What the devil do you want? Listen, Bruce, you can't come in here now! We're busy! (suddenly, into phone) Where you been, Duffy? Stick around! What? What Chinese earthquake? The deuce with it... what's that? CLOSE SHOT HILDY typing away madly. Bruce comes into the scene. BRUCE Hildy! HILDY (looking up, very casually) Hello, Bruce... She resumes her typing, then suddenly realizes the situation and jumps up. HILDY BRUCE!! How'd you get out? BRUCE (the hands-off attitude) Not through any help of yours, Hildy. HILDY Bruce, I know, but I was in the biggest jam -- BURNS' VOICE Hildy! MED. SHOT As Hildy turns toward his voice, Burns, still with the phone in his hand, keeps talking to her. BURNS For Pete's sake, Hildy, they're waiting for the rest of that story! HILDY (resignedly) Okay, Walter. (sits down at her typewriter again) CLOSE TWO SHOT BRUCE AND HILDY Hildy begins typing again. BRUCE I waited and waited and then I had an idea and wired Albany to send me a hundred dollars so I could get out on bail... (desperately) I don't know what they'll think -- they sent it to the police station! HILDY (she barely stops typing) We'll explain the whole thing to them. (resumes typing) BRUCE I know I got you into this, Hildy, but it does seem to me that you can't care much for me if you're willing to let me stay locked up for two hours. HILDY Bruce, you know I'm mad about you and stop talking like that. (calling o.s. to Walter) Walter! CLOSE SHOT BURNS BURNS (into phone) Take the President's speech and run it on the funny page... (turns to Hildy, o.s.) What is it, Hildy? HILDY'S VOICE What was the name of the Mayor's first wife? BURNS You mean the one who drank so much? Tillie! CLOSE SHOT HILDY AND BRUCE HILDY Thanks. (she types furiously) CLOSE SHOT THE DESK Its top opens slowly and Williams' head sticks out. CLOSEUP BURNS INCLUDING DESK IN B.G BURNS (screaming) Get back in there, you mock turtle! The desk-top falls, the fugitive disappearing within. CLOSEUP BRUCE turning around toward Burns. BRUCE Did you say anything, Mister Burns? CLOSEUP BURNS covering up, fast. BURNS No -- I was just talking to one of the guys at the office. (indicating phone in his hand) MED. CLOSE SHOT BRUCE AND HILDY BRUCE (to Burns) Oh. (turns to Hildy) I wonder what's keeping mother? She was supposed to come down and get you. HILDY Oh, she was here. BRUCE Where'd she go? HILDY Out some place. She types away. Bruce grabs her and stops her. BRUCE Hildy! Where's mother? HILDY Oh -- mother -- she -- I don't know where she went. BRUCE Did you give her the money? HILDY No, I was going to give it to her -- but she left hurriedly. BRUCE Then suppose you give me the money. Four hundred and fifty dollars. HILDY Oh, yes. Here it is. She gets the wallet. Burns comes into the scene and pulls another page out of her machine. HILDY Here it is, Bruce. One -- two -- three -- four hundred -- and fifty dollars. BRUCE (drily) Thank you. CLOSEUP BURNS watching this with a grin. MED. SHOT Featuring the threesome. BRUCE (to Hildy) And I'll take that certified check, too. I've decided I can handle things around here... BURNS Come on, Hildy, we've got to keep going! Sorry, Bruce, but -- HILDY Just a second, Walter. Here, Bruce, here's the check... And, oh, Bruce, here's your wallet. I got it back. BRUCE (taking it and surveying it coldly) You got it back, eh? There's something funny going on around here. BURNS Hildy! HILDY All right, Walter. She sits down and begins to type. BRUCE I'm taking the nine o'clock train, Hildy. And you can meet us at the station. HILDY Fine. She types away. BURNS (coming over to Bruce) I'll see she's there, Bruce, I promise you. BRUCE (dramatically) If she's not there, mother and I are leaving anyhow! But Hildy continues typing and doesn't even get it. CAMERA TRUCKS WITH BURNS as he leads Bruce away toward door. BURNS I know how you feel, Bruce, but you've got to forgive her. She's only a woman, after all. BRUCE Suppose she is -- I have feelings, too! Do you know where I've been for the last couple of hours? Locked up in a police station and she didn't move to do anything about it. BURNS Ts! Ts! Ts! BRUCE And now I don't know where my mother is. She may be lost. BURNS I'll find her, Bruce, if I have to put every detective in the city on the job. Tell you what -- go over to the Missing Persons Bureau and describe your mother. What does she look like? BRUCE She's -- well, she's very motherly. That's about the best description I know. BURNS (nodding) That's the kind of stuff they want! They go out the door. INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE DOOR MED. CLOSE SHOT as they come out. BURNS Oh, Bruce, let me see that money Hildy gave you. BRUCE The money? Why? BURNS There's a lot of counterfeit big bills going around. BRUCE (worried) Gee! Take a look, will you? He hands the money to Burns. Burns looks at it carefully and hands it back. BURNS Oh, this is all right, Bruce. I just wanted to be sure. BRUCE Say, I want to be sure, too! INT. PRESS ROOM MED. SHOT Hildy is typing furiously. Burns enters, grinning, locks the door behind him and goes to phone and picks it up. BURNS (into phone) Duffy. Good. Stick close. He turns and crosses quickly to look out the window. AT WINDOW Burns coming in to window. BURNS (despairingly) Now the moon's out! He turns away, crossing to the desk, the CAMERA TRUCKING with him. At the desk he taps three times, being answered by three taps from within. BURNS Fine. Three taps is me. Don't forget! You're sitting pretty, now. Got enough air? He raises top an inch or two and fans air in to Williams. BURNS Is that better? Now breathe deep! We hear an intake of breath from inside the desk. BURNS Attaboy! He closes the desk and turns back to the table. As he passes Hildy, who is still typing rapidly: BURNS (looking over her shoulder) That's the stuff! Lam it into 'em, Hildy. He jerks the sheet from Hildy's machine, crosses to his desk and picks up the phone. BURNS (into phone) Hello! Duffy, ready? Here we go! CLOSEUP BURNS reading from the page he has taken from Hildy's typewriter. BURNS (into phone) "In the darkest hour of the city's history --" INT. MAIN FLOOR CRIMINAL COURTS BUILDING LONG SHOT At the end of the hall are glass doors through which can be seen a turmoil of activity in the street outside -- newsboys, a crowd, and a mounted policeman or two. Bruce comes down the hall, his face set and angry. As he goes, he sees a sign set over a doorway in the hall. It reads: MISSING PERSONS BUREAU. He stops and enters. INT. PRESS ROOM - NIGHT CLOSEUP BURNS AT PHONE BURNS (into phone) Listen, did you impress it on Butch that I want him and his gang here right away? You did? Every minute counts. All right. (puts receiver down on table) Duffy's getting old! CLOSE SHOT HILDY HILDY Where's Butch? BURNS' VOICE He's on the way. HILDY (over her typing) He'd better hurry. The boys'll be coming back to phone. BURNS (coming into shot to peer over her shoulder) Well, keep going! We want an extra out on the streets before it's too late! HILDY (looking up suddenly) Where's Bruce? BURNS Bruce? Oh -- er -- he went out to get the tickets. HILDY What tickets? BURNS Railroad tickets. HILDY Is he coming back here? BURNS Didn't you hear him? Of course he's coming back here. Keep going, will you? MED. SHOT as Burns leaves Hildy and goes over to desk and picks up his phone again. BURNS (into phone) Duffy! EXT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE DOOR - NIGHT CLOSE SHOT BENSINGER Finding the door locked, he knocks. INT. PRESS ROOM - NIGHT MED. CLOSE SHOT BURNS AND HILDY as another knock comes, they take it big. HILDY (calling) Who is it? EXT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE DOOR - NIGHT CLOSE SHOT BENSINGER BENSINGER What's the idea of locking this? INT. PRESS ROOM - NIGHT CLOSE SHOT BURNS AND HILDY HILDY That's Bensinger. That's his desk. BURNS (whispering) What's his name? The door knob is rattled violently. HILDY Bensinger -- of the Tribune. EXT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE DOOR - NIGHT CLOSE SHOT BENSINGER BENSINGER Open this door! INT. PRESS ROOM CLOSE SHOT BURNS He starts for the door. BURNS I'll handle him. CAMERA TRUCKS WITH HIM to the door. BURNS The Tribune, eh? Watch me! He opens the door. AT DOOR BENSINGER (as he comes in) Ain't you got any more sense than to -- ? (sees Burns and is overcome) Oh, h-hello, Mr. Burns. Why, quite an honor having you come over here. BURNS (casually) Hello, Bensinger. BENSINGER Excuse me, I just want to -- He starts for the desk. Hildy's typing goes on, coming in over the scene. BURNS (starting for the desk, suddenly blocking his path) Quite a coincidence, my running into you tonight. Isn't it, Hildy? HILDY'S VOICE Yeh. BENSINGER How do you mean? CLOSEUP BURNS AND BENSINGER BURNS I was having a little chat about you just this afternoon -- with our Mister Duffy. BENSINGER (essaying a pleasantry) Nothing -- ah -- detrimental, I hope. BURNS I should say not! That was one swell story you had in the paper this morning. BENSINGER (deeply moved) Oh, did you -- care for the poem, Mr. Burns? BURNS (startled) The poem?... The poem was great! BENSINGER (blinking at these words) Remember the ending? (and he recites) " -- and all is well, outside his cell, But in his heart he hears the hangman Calling and the gallows falling And his white-haired mother's tears..." BURNS (overcome) Heartbreaking! How would you like to work for me? BENSINGER What? MEDIUM SHOT taking in table, Hildy typing there. BURNS (to Bensinger) We need somebody like you. All we've got now are a lot of low-brows. Like Johnson here. He starts shoving Bensinger away from the desk, toward the table. BENSINGER Seriously, Mr. Burns? Clinging to him, Burns takes him to the phone. BURNS (into phone) Duffy! I'm sending Bensinger over to see you. (looking up at Bensinger) Mervyn, isn't it? BENSINGER No. Roy. Roy V. BURNS (with a little laugh at his own forgetfulness) Of course! (into phone) Roy Bensinger, the poet. Of course you wouldn't know! You probably never heard of Shakespeare, either! Put Mr. Bensinger right on the staff. (to Bensinger) How much are you getting on the Tribune, Roy? BENSINGER Seventy-five. BURNS I'll give you a hundred and a by- line. ANOTHER ANGLE as Burns continues. BURNS (into phone) Let him have everything he wants. (puts down the receiver; turns to Bensinger) Now hustle and write me a story from the point of view of the escaped man. (acting it out) He hides, cowering... Afraid of every light, of every sound... hears footsteps... his heart going like that... And all the time they're closing in... Get the sense of an animal at bay! BENSINGER Sort of a Jack London style? TRUCKING SHOT BURNS Exactly! Leads him hurriedly to the door. BENSINGER I got my rhyming dictionary in -- (indicating desk) BURNS (getting him to door) It doesn't have to rhyme! CLOSE SHOT - AT DOOR as Bensinger turns there. BENSINGER Gee, I'm terribly grateful, Mister Burns. Do you suppose there might be an opening some time as foreign correspondent? I parley a little French, you know. Burns shakes hands with him and opens the door with the other hand. BURNS I'll keep you in mind. BENSINGER (going) Au revoir, mon capitaine. BURNS (never at a loss in any language) Bon jour! Continuing his French, he gets the door closed and relocked and turns for the table, singing as he does so: BURNS Mademoiselle from Armontieres, parlay -- MED. SHOT Burns returns alertly to table, not noticing that Hildy has stopped typing, and sits staring moodily before her. BURNS (into phono) Duffy! Got this! CLOSEUP BURNS - AT PHONE BURNS A rat from the Tribune is coming over to get a job -- Bensinger, the guy I told you about. Handle him with kid gloves. Tell him to get busy writing poetry... No, we don't want him. Stall him along until the extra comes out. Then tell him his poetry stinks and kick him downstairs. He lays down receiver. WIDER ANGLE taking in Hildy. She looks up at him. HILDY (to Burns) Double-crossing swine! BURNS You said it! But this'll teach him a lesson. He won't quit his paper without giving notice after this. Hildy doesn't bother to reply. She rests her chin on her hands and stares moodily ahead. BURNS Tear into it, will you? Don't sit there like a frozen robin! HILDY I'm finished. BURNS Finished! He grabs the last sheet of paper out of her typewriter, kisses her and rushes over to the telephone. CLOSEUP BURNS at phone. BURNS (into phone) Duffy! All right -- here we go! And got it out as soon as you can. I want this paper out on the streets in half an hour! (reading Hildy's copy) "So once more the Morning Post --" EXT. CRIMINAL COURTS BLDG. - NIGHT MED. SHOT Diamond Louie, bearing evidence of a mishap, his hat crushed, his face bruised and his clothes torn, comes running down the sidewalk and up the steps into the buildings. INT. PRESS ROOM - NIGHT MED. SHOT Hildy is up now, pacing. HILDY Bruce ought to be back by now. Walter, you're not trying anything again, are you? BURNS (coming over to her) Hildy, you think I could? After this story? (taking a flask from his pocket) Here! You're just nervous. Hildy takes the flask and takes a drink. There is a knock on the door. Burns takes the flask from her, restores it to his pocket and goes to the door. BURNS Who is it? LOUIE'S VOICE It's me, Boss -- Louie. BURNS (opening the door) It's Louie! Louie slips in and Burns relocks the door. BURNS (seeing Louie's disarray) What's the matter? Hildy crosses to Louie. HILDY (frantically) Where's Mrs. Baldwin? BURNS What did you do with her? HILDY (almost afraid to speak) What happened? CLOSE SHOT - THE THREE BURNS You been in a fight? LOUIE (still out of breath) Down Western Avenue. We were going sixty-five miles an hour. You know what I mean? BURNS Take that mush out of your mouth! HILDY Where's the old lady? LOUIE I'm telling you! CLOSEUP - LOUIE as he gets breath and blurts: LOUIE We run smack into a police patrol. You know what I mean? We broke it in half! BACK TO GROUP HILDY (moaning) Oh-h-h... was she hurt? BURNS Where is she? Tell me! HILDY Louie! LOUIE I'm telling you. Can you imagine bumping into a load of cops?! They come rollin' out like oranges! HILDY (seizing him) What did you do with her? LOUIE Search me! When I come to I was running down Thirty-fifth Street. HILDY -- You were with her. You were in the cab, weren't you? LOUIE (exposing his bruised scalp) Was I? The driver got knocked cold. BURNS Butter-fingers! I give you an old lady to take somewhere, and you hand her over to the cops! LOUIE What do you mean, I handed her? The patrol wagon was on the wrong side of the street. BURNS Now everything's fine. She's probably squawking her head off in some police station. CLOSEUP - LOUIE LOUIE I don't think she's talking much... You know what I mean? He winks reassuringly. BACK TO GROUP HILDY (paralyzed) Don't tell me -- was she killed? BURNS (hopefully) Was she? Did you notice? LOUIE Say, me with a gun on my hip and a kidnapped old lady on my hands, I should stick around asking questions from a lot of cops! You know what I mean? Hildy sinks into a chair. CLOSE SHOT HILDY IN THE CHAIR HILDY Dead... dead! That's the end! Burns comes into scene to her. BURNS It's Fate, Hildy. What will be, will be. HILDY (wildly) What am I going to say to Bruce? What'll I tell him? BURNS If he really loves you, you won't have to tell him anything. (whacking her on the shoulder) Snap out of it! Would you rather have had the old dame dragging the whole police force in here? HILDY I killed her. I'm responsible. Oh- h... what can I do now? How can I ever face him? Oh, I hope he never comes back! She buries her face in her hands. BURNS Look at me, Hildy -- HILDY (springing up) I'm looking at you -- you murderer! BURNS If it was my own mother, I'd carry on! You know I would. For the paper! HILDY (calling off to Louie) Louie, where'd it happen? I'm going out! MED. SHOT GROUP The Post phone rings. BURNS (grabbing Hildy) You stay here. I'll find out everything. LOUIE (to Hildy) Western an' Thirty-fourth. Hildy jumps for the outside phone on the desk. TWO SHOT INCLUDING BURNS AT PHONE AND HILDY AT PHONE BURNS (into phone) Hello -- hello... HILDY (into phone) Gimme Western four-five-five-seven. BURNS (guarded) Who? (wildly) Hello, Butch! Where are you? HILDY (into phone) Mission Hospital? Gimme the Receiving Room. BURNS (into phone) What are you doing there? Haven't you even started? HILDY (into phone) Hello -- Eddie? Hildy Johnson. Was there an old lady brought in from an auto smashup? BURNS (into phone) Oh, for -- (yelling) H. Sebastian -- Butch! Listen, it's a matter of life and death! Listen! HILDY (into phone) Nobody? (jiggles hook) Morningside three-one-two-four. BURNS (into phone) I can't hear... You got who? Speak up! A what?... You can't stop for a dame now! HILDY (into phone) Is this the Community Hospital? BURNS (howling into phone) I don't care if you've been after her for six years! Butch, our whole lives are at stake! Are you going to let a woman come between us after all we've been through? HILDY (into phone) Hello, Max, Hildy Johnson. Was there an old lady --? BURNS (into phone, drowning out Hildy) Butch! I'd put my arm in fire for you -- up to here! (indicates up to where) Now, you can't double-cross me!... She does? All right -- put her on. I'll talk to her... Hello! Oh, hello, Madam... Now listen, you ten-cent glamour girl, you can't keep Butch away from his duty... What's that? You say that again and I'll come over there and knock your eye out! Hello? (turning, as he hangs up) I'll kill 'em! I'll kill both of 'em! (into Post phone) Duffy! (to the universe) Mousing around with some big blonde Annie on my time! That's co-operation! (screaming into phone) Duffy!! HILDY Shut up, will you? (into phone) You sure? Nobody? BURNS (into phone) Duffy!!!! (listening) (into phone) Duffy!!!! (listening) Well, where is Duffy? (throwing receiver to desk) Diabetes! I ought to know better than to hire anybody with a disease. (turning) Louie. MED. SHOT GROUP BURNS (to Louie) It's up to you. LOUIE (loyally) Anything you want, Boss. BURNS Beat it out and get hold of some guys. LOUIE Who do you want? BURNS (starting for the door, followed by Louie) Anybody with hair on his chest. Get 'em off the street -- anywhere. Offer them anything -- only get them. (confidentially) We've got to get this desk out of here. He unlocks the door. LOUIE You know me. The shirt off my back. BURNS You got plenty of money? LOUIE Sure, boss. BURNS I mean real money -- not counterfeit! LOUIE I always have both. He goes out. BURNS (calling after him) And don't bump into anything. He relocks the door. HILDY Lafayette two-one-hundred. BURNS (turning from door) That dumb immigrant'll flop on me. I know it. (bitterly) Can you imagine Butch doing this to me -- at a time like this? CLOSE SHOT HILDY AT PHONE, TAKING IN DESK Burns steps into scene. BURNS (confidentially) If Louie doesn't come back in five minutes we'll get it out alone. There's millions of ways. We can start a fire and get the firemen to carry it out in the confusion. He crosses to the desk and inspects it. HILDY (into phone) Ring that number, will you? BURNS (to Hildy, oblivious of her telephoning) Come here. See if we can move it. HILDY (into phone) Hello -- hello! Is this the Lying -- In Hospital? Did you have an auto accident in the last -- BURNS (interrupting) Will you come here? HILDY (into phone) Oh, I see. I beg your pardon. BURNS When I'm surrounded, with my back against the wall, you're not going to lay down on me, are you -- HILDY Yes. She jiggles the phone hook. BURNS (going to her) Hildy, you just can't leave me out on a limb now. It -- it wouldn't be cricket! HILDY I don't care what you say. I'm going to find Bruce's mother. (she jiggles the hook madly) Oh-h... (she hangs up) I'm going out and find her! Grabbing her hat and purse, she starts for the door. MED. SHOT OF HILDY, TAKING IN DOOR There is a loud knocking on the door. BURNS (coming into scene after Hildy) Don't open that! HILDY (at the door) Who says so? I'm going to the morgue -- to look -- She unlocks the door. CLOSE SHOT AT DOOR as Hildy flings the door open, only to find the Sheriff, accompanied by two deputies -- Carl and Frank -- and surrounded by McCue, Murphy, Schwartz, Wilson and Endicott. MURPHY There she is! MCCUE Say, Hildy... Hildy makes a decision and tries to push through them, but the Sheriff grabs her and pushes her back. HARTMAN Just a minute, Johnson! HILDY Let go o' me. What's the idea? MCCUE What's your hurry? MURPHY We want to see you. The deputies seize her. HILDY Take your paws off me! HARTMAN Hold her, boys! Burns comes into scene. BURNS (to Sheriff) Who do you think you are, breaking in here like this? HARTMAN You can't bluff me, Burns. I don't care who you are or what paper you're editor of. HILDY (struggling) Let me go! (hysterically) Fellows, something's happened to my mother-in-law. HARTMAN Hang onto her! Keep her in here! MED. SHOT as Hildy breaks loose and retreats back into the room before Hartman and the deputies. MCCUE We know what you're up to. ENDICOTT Probably goin' out to get Williams. SCHWARTZ The door was locked. WILSON She and Mollie were talking. HILDY I don't know anything, I tell you. There's been an accident. HARTMAN Johnson, there's something very peculiar going on. HILDY You can send somebody with me if you don't believe me! HARTMAN I wasn't born yesterday. Now the boys tell me you and this Mollie Malloy -- HILDY Nobody's trying to put anything over on you. I'm getting out of here and you can't stop me! MURPHY (comes into scene) You're not going anywhere. (to the Sheriff) She's got the story sewed up, Pete. (indicating Burns) That's why Burns is here. SCHWARTZ We're on to you, Hildy. Let us in on it. TWO SHOT - SHERIFF AND BURNS BURNS (purring) If you've any accusations to make, Hartman, make them in the proper manner. Otherwise, I'll have to ask you to get out. HARTMAN (pop-eyed; stammering) You'll ask me to what? BURNS Get out! HARTMAN (to deputies, off) Close that door. Don't let anybody in or out. MED. SHOT - THE GROUP MURPHY Come on, Pinky! Give 'em a little third degree. ENDICOTT Make them talk and you got Williams, Pinky! HARTMAN Johnson, I'm going to the bottom of this. What do you know about Williams? Are you going to talk or aren't you? HILDY What do I know about Williams? HARTMAN All right, boys. Take her along. I got ways of making her talk. The deputies seize Hildy. She struggles. HILDY Look out, you -- MCCUE (nervously) What's the use of fighting, Hildy? Hildy manages to get in a few resounding smacks on the deputies' faces. The reporters swarm around the struggling trio. There are shouts of: "I got her!" "No, you don't!" "Aw, Hildy...", etc. In the struggle, Hildy suddenly drops her purse. It lands with a clank and comes open. A gun is revealed on the floor. Hildy picks it up. DEPUTIES Hey, she's got a gun! Look out, she's got a gun! The deputies and reporters start to close in on her cautiously. HILDY (trying to face in all directions) No, you don't! Walter! BURNS What is it? Here! She tosses the gun to Walter, but one of the deputies intercepts the throw. HARTMAN Gimme that. He takes the gun from the deputy. CLOSER SHOT The Sheriff stands frozen, staring at the gun. HARTMAN (to Hildy) Where'd you get this? HILDY I've got a right to carry a gun if I want to. HARTMAN Not this gun! Burns comes into scene. BURNS (easily) I can explain that, Hartman. When Hildy told me she wanted to interview Earl Williams I thought it might be dangerous and I gave her a gun to defend herself. HARTMAN Oh, you did! Well, that's very, very interesting. This happens to be the gun that Earl Williams shot his way out with! REPORTERS AD LIB What? What's that? Etc... BURNS (advancing on Sheriff) Are you trying to make me out a liar? MURPHY (bitterly at Hildy) It's the last time I ever trust a woman, Hildy. SCHWARTZ Maybe Williams was gonna be her best man. WILSON That's pretty rotten, Hildy. Crossing your own pals. HARTMAN (shoving up to Hildy; trembling) Where is Earl Williams? Where you got him? BURNS (sympathetically) You're barking up the wrong tree, Hartman. HARTMAN I'll give you three minutes to tell me where he is. HILDY He went over to the hospital to call on Professor Egelhoffer. HARTMAN (outraged) What? HILDY With a bag of marshmallows. The Sheriff stands silent -- then hastily turns. MED. SHOT GROUP AROUND HILDY REPORTERS AD LIB Come on, Hildy. Where is he?... This is a sweet trick, Hildy... I thought we were friends... Etc. (to Sheriff) Look here, Pete! What about Mister Burns?... Ask the Master Mind! What's he doing over here? HARTMAN (grabbing Burns' arm) Speak up! What do you know about this. BURNS (gently but firmly disengaging his hand) My dear Hartman! He moves casually to a post before the desk and maintains it. MURPHY Can that! Where is he? BURNS (to Sheriff) The Morning Post is not obstructing justice or hiding criminals. You ought to know that. HARTMAN No? Well -- (turning to Hildy) Johnson, you're under arrest. (turning to Burns) You, too, Burns. BURNS (calmly) Who's under arrest? You pimple-headed, square-toed spy -- do you realize what you're doing? HARTMAN I'll show you what I'm doing. Burns, you're guilty of obstructing justice and so is the Morning Post. I'm going to see that the Post is fined ten thousand dollars for this. BURNS You'll see nothing of the kind, Sheriff. HARTMAN We'll just start by impounding the Post property. (pointing to Bensinger's desk, addressing Hildy) Is that your desk? HILDY (jumping) No! BURNS (almost simultaneously) Yes! What are you afraid of Hildy? I dare him to move that desk out of here. HARTMAN Oh, you do, eh? (to deputies) All right, boys. Confiscate that desk. Several of the deputies start toward the desk. BURNS (trying to intercept deputies) Hartman, if you take this desk out of this building, I'll put you behind bars. HARTMAN You will, eh? Well, we'll see about that. (to deputies) All right, boys. Take it. BURNS I'm warning you -- it'll be a Federal offense. (to deputy nearest him) And you'll be an accessory! HARTMAN We'll take a chance on that, Burns. (to deputies) Go ahead, boys. (the deputies continue toward the desk) INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE PRESS ROOM - NIGHT MED. SHOT Flanked by two policemen, Mrs. Baldwin, dishevelled, with her hat over one ear, is marching toward the Press Room, bound for vengeance. Bruce, considerably upset, is with her. As they reach the door to the Press Room, Mrs. Baldwin stops. MRS. BALDWIN You wait outside, Bruce. BRUCE But, mother -- MRS. BALDWIN (firmly) No! You'll weaken when you see that little Jezebel! I'm going to tell her what I think of her! She plumps her hat down more firmly on her head and marches into the Press Room followed by the two policemen. Bruce remains outside the door. INT. PRESS ROOM Taking in door as it opens and Mrs. Baldwin, followed by the policemen, comes in. HILDY (leaping forward) Mother! MRS. BALDWIN (pointing out Burns to the officers) That man there! HILDY (hugging Mrs. Baldwin) Mother! Oh, I'm so glad to see you! Are you all right? Tell me. Mrs. Baldwin indignantly shakes her off. HARTMAN What's the idea here? POLICEMAN This lady claims she was kidnapped. HARTMAN What? MRS. BALDWIN They dragged me all the way down the stairs -- HARTMAN Just a minute. Did -- did -- (points to Burns) -- this man have anything to do with it? MRS. BALDWIN He was the one in charge of everything! He told them to kidnap me! BURNS (amazed) Are you referring to me, Madam? MRS. BALDWIN You know you did! HARTMAN What about this, Burns? Kidnapping, eh? BURNS (round-eyed) Oh, trying to frame me, eh! I never saw this woman before in my life! MRS. BALDWIN Oh, what a thing to say! I was standing right here - after the girl jumped out of the window. HARTMAN Did you get the Mayor? DEPUTY He's coming over. BURNS (to Mrs. Baldwin) Now, Madam -- be honest. If you were out joy-riding, drunk, and got into some scrape, why don't you admit it, instead of accusing innocent people? MRS. BALDWIN (beginning to doubt her senses) You ruffian! How dare you say a thing like that? HILDA Please, Mother, he's just crazy! MRS. BALDWIN (to Sheriff) I'll tell you something more. I'll tell you why they did it! BURNS (fidgeting) Come on, Sheriff. We've got to get bail. MRS. BALDWIN (continuing crescendo) I was in here -- and they had some kind of murderer in with them. They were hiding him! This is a bombshell. The room is electrified. HARTMAN Hiding him? In here? Murphy, followed by the reporters, comes into scene. MURPHY Hiding him where? HILDY Mother! REPORTERS Where was he?... Where'd they have him?... Etc. CLOSE SHOT BURNS at the desk. BURNS (with superb indignation) Madam, you're a cockeyed liar! And you know it! To emphasize his righteousness, he pounds on the desk three times, forgetting that that is his signal to Williams. Then, realizing what he has done, he gasps. MED. SHOT Burns advances from desk, the others retreating before him. BURNS (anxiously) Come on, Sheriff, we've got to get bail. Three answering knocks come from the desk. GROUP SHOT WITH DOORWAY IN B.G They jump around to face the desk. HARTMAN (whispering) What was that? REPORTERS AD LIB He's in the desk! -- For the love of -- He's in there! Etc. HARTMAN Aha! I thought so! Stand back, everybody! DEPUTY Look out, Sheriff. He may shoot! HARTMAN Get your guns out! The policemen and deputies get out their guns. HILDY He's harmless. HARTMAN Don't take any chances. Shoot through the desk. HILDY He can't hurt anybody. You've got his gun. MRS. BALDWIN (panic-stricken) Oh, dear! Oh, dear! BURNS You grey-haired old Judas! MRS. BALDWIN Let me out! Let me out of here! She streaks for the door, flings it open and goes. The reporters tear out of scene to their telephones. HARTMAN (to policeman) You stand there! MURPHY'S VOICE City Desk! Quick! SCHWARTZ' VOICE Gimme the Desk! HARTMAN (to another policeman) You there! ENDICOTT'S VOICE City Desk! Hurry! MCCUE'S VOICE Gimme Emil... HARTMAN (to a Deputy, pointing with his gun toward the window) You cover the window. MURPHY'S VOICE Look out where you're pointing that gun! The Sheriff draws his men in around the desk, their guns drawn on it. WILSON'S VOICE Lemme have the Desk! Quick! MURPHY'S VOICE Hold the wire! I've got a flash for you! BURNS (to Hildy) Call Duffy! HARTMAN No, you don't! BURNS (to Sheriff, furiously) Do you want to get us scooped? MCCUE'S VOICE Emil? Hang on for a second. HARTMAN Now then, everybody aim at the center. And when I say three -- HILDY That's murder! HARTMAN (changing his mind) All right! Carl! Frank! One of you get on each side of the desk. Take hold of the cover. They do. HARTMAN Now then! We got you covered, Williams. Don't try to move. Now! Everybody quiet and ready for an emergency. I'm going to count three. SCHWARTZ Hold it! Something coming up. HARTMAN One! ENDICOTT Hold the phone! MURPHY (into the phone) I'll have it in a minute. HARTMAN Two! WILSON (into phone) Right away now! HARTMAN (turning back to desk) Everybody ready? All right. Now then, up with it. Two deputies raise the cover. Williams is revealed, cowering in the desk, his hands over his face. The Sheriff rushes on him, jabbing his gun into him. CLOSE SHOT SHERIFF AND WILLIAMS HARTMAN Got you, Williams! WILLIAMS (a wail) Go on -- shoot me! MEDIUM SHOT as the police and deputies come in to assist the Sheriff. The reporters are telephoning in, the police shouting -- all the voices mixing in, in incredible confusion, as the Sheriff rushes Williams to the door and takes him out. MURPHY'S VOICE Earl Williams was just captured in the Press Room of the Criminal Courts Building, hiding in a desk. OFFICERS AD LIB (all talking at once) Grab him! That's him! Don't let him shoot! Stick 'em up! -- Etc. CLOSEUP MCCUE AT PHONE MCCUE (into phone) ...Williams in a rolltop -- CLOSEUP WILSON AT PHONE WILSON (into phone) -- nabbed Williams hiding -- ENDICOTT'S VOICE -- found Williams' hiding place. SCHWARTZ' VOICE He offered no resistance. CLOSEUP MCCUE AT PHONE MCCUE (into phone) Williams put up a desperate struggle but the police overpowered -- CLOSEUP MURPHY AT PHONE MURPHY (into phone) -- tried to shoot it out with the cops but his gun wouldn't work, so -- WILSON'S VOICE -- trying to break through the cordon of police -- CLOSEUP ENDICOTT AT PHONE ENDICOTT (into phone) Williams was unconscious when they opened the desk -- CLOSEUP BURNS grabbing the Post phone. BURNS (into phone) Duffy! The Morning Post just turned Earl Williams over to the Sheriff. CLOSE SHOT THE SHERIFF coming in the door with two policemen and leaping to get the phone away from Burns. MED. SHOT BURNS AT PHONE, HILDY BESIDE HIM BURNS (into phone) Duffy! The Sheriff and police come into scene. HARTMAN (indicating Burns and Hildy) Put the cuffs on those two! The police handcuff Hildy and Burns. ENDICOTT An anonymous note received by the Sheriff led to Williams' capture. More later. He hangs up. CLOSEUP MURPHY AT PHONE MURPHY (into phone) An old sweetheart of Williams' doublecrossed him. Call you back. He hangs up. MED. SHOT TAKING IN DOOR REPORTERS Where's that old lady? Hey, Madam! Where'd she go? Where's the old dame? Etc., etc. They run out after Mrs. Baldwin, the Mayor entering just after they go. Burns and Hildy, handcuffed together, stand near the Sheriff. HARTMAN (into phone) Hello, girlie -- gimme Cooley. Quick! BURNS Hartwell, you're going to wish you'd never been born! The Mayor comes into scene. MAYOR Fine work, Pete! You certainly delivered the goods. I'm proud of you. HARTMAN (holding the phone) Look kind o' natural, don't they, Fred? MAYOR (happily) A sight for sore eyes! HARTMAN (rolling in catnip) Aiding an escaped criminal! And a little charge of kidnapping I'm looking into. (into phone; suddenly) But that's the jail! There must be somebody there! MAYOR Well! Looks like about ten years apiece for you birds! BURNS Does it? You forget the power that always watches over the Morning Post. MAYOR Your luck's not with you now! HARTMAN (into phone) Cooley?... I caught Williams single- handed -- we're going to proceed with the hanging per schedule! He wiggles the hook for another call. BURNS (to Mayor) You're going to be in office for exactly two days more and then we're pulling your nose out of the feed bag. HARTMAN (into phone) Give me the District Attorney's office. (to Burns) I'll tell you what you'll be doing -- making brooms in the State penitentiary. (into phone) Hello, D'Arrasty! This is Hartwell. Come over to my office, will you? I've just arrested a couple of important birds and I want to take their confessions. He hangs up. Burns makes a sudden lunge for the Morning Post phone and cries into it. BURNS (into phone) Duffy! Get Liebowitz! MAYOR All the lawyers in the world aren't going to help you! BURNS This is the Morning Post you're talking to! MAYOR (enjoying himself) The power of the press, huh! He laughs. Pinkus, the Governor's messenger, plentifully stewed, reels in the door. He approaches the Mayor and Sheriff who have their backs to him. BURNS (at the Mayor) Bigger men than you have found out what the power of the press is... President!... Yes -- and Kings! PINKUS (woozy; handing Sheriff the reprieve over his shoulder) Here's your reprieve. The Mayor and Sheriff spin around. MAYOR (in a panic) Get out of here! PINKUS You can't bribe me! BURNS What's this? HARTMAN Get out of here, you! PINKUS I won't. Here's your reprieve. HILDY What? PINKUS I don't want to be City Sealer. I don't like seals anyhow. They smell. MAYOR Who is this man? HARTMAN (to an officer) Throw him out, Frank. HILDY (seizing Pinkus with her free hand) Who was bribing you? Burns also seizes Pinkus who is being pulled out of shape. PINKUS They wouldn't take it. MAYOR You're insane! BURNS (triumphant) What did I tell you? An unseen power! (to Pinkus) What's your name? PINKUS Silas F. Pinkus. MAYOR You drunken idiot! Arrest him! The idea of coming here with a cock-and- bull story like that! HARTMAN It's a frame-up! Some imposter! HILDY Wait a minute! (to the officers) Let go there! BURNS (to Sheriff and Mayor) Murder, uh? HILDY Hanging an innocent man to win an election! HARTMAN That's a lie!! MAYOR I never saw him before! BURNS (to Pinkus) When did you deliver this first? HILDY Who did you talk to? PINKUS They started right in bribing me! HILDY Who's 'they'? PINKUS (indicating the Mayor and Sheriff) Them! MAYOR That's absurd on the face of it, Mr. Burns! He's talking like a child. BURNS Out of the mouths of babes. MAYOR He's insane or drunk or something. Why, if this unfortunate man, Williams, has really been reprieved, I personally am tickled to death. Aren't you, Pete? HILDY Go on, you'd kill your mother to get elected! MAYOR That's a horrible thing to say, Miss Johnson, about anybody! (to Burns) Now, look here, Walter, you're an intelligent man -- BURNS (interrupting) Just a minute. (to Pinkus) All right, Mr. Pinkus. Let's have your story. PINKUS Well, I been married for ten years and -- BURNS (interrupting) Skip all that. MAYOR (loudly) Take those handcuffs off our friends, Pete. That wasn't at all necessary. HARTMAN (springing to obey) I was just going to! He gets the key from the officer. MAYOR Walter, I can't tell you how badly I feel about this. There was no excuse for Hartwell to fly off the handle. HARTMAN (unlocking the handcuffs) I was only doing my duty. Nothing personal in it. They are set free. HILDY You guys better quit politics and take in washing. MAYOR (looking over the reprieve) Sheriff, this document is authentic! Earl Williams has been reprieved, this Commonwealth has been spared the painful necessity of shedding blood. BURNS Save that for the Tribune. MAYOR (to Pinkus) What did you say your name was -- Pinkus? PINKUS That's right. He shows the Mayor a locket. PINKUS Here's the picture of my wife. MAYOR A very fine-looking women. PINKUS (mysteriously angered) She's good enough for me! And if I was to go home and tell my wife -- MAYOR I understand perfectly, Mr. Pinkus, and as long as I am Mayor -- BURNS Which ought to be about three hours more, I'd say. HILDY Just until we can get out a special edition asking for your impeachment. BURNS And your arrest. You'll each get about ten years, I think. MAYOR Don't make any hasty decisions, Mr. Burns, you might run into a thumping big libel suit. HILDY You're going to run into the Governor. MAYOR (trying to brush it off) Now, my old friend the Governor and I understand each other perfectly. HARTMAN (eagerly) And so do I! MAYOR (with superb contempt) So do you what, you hoodoo! (to Pinkus, suavely) And now, Mr. Pinkus, if you'll come with us, we'll take you over to the Warden's office and deliver this reprieve. The Sheriff, Pinkus and the Mayor go out of scene. BURNS (dreamily) Wait till those two future jailbirds read the Morning Post tomorrow. Walter turns to Hildy and they suddenly smile at each other. HILDY How was that for a tight squeeze? BURNS Don't tell me you were worried! HILDY Worried! I was petrified. Weren't you? BURNS Uh-uh. As long as we were in there together pitching -- they couldn't lick us. Well, it's been a lot of fun. HILDY In a way. BURNS (laughs) I mean -- working together. Just like the old days. The things we've been through, Hildy. HILDY We've certainly been in some swell jams. BURNS Remember the time we broke into the D.A.'s office, and copied Fifi Randell's diary? HILDY Yeah. What about the time we hid the missing heiress in the sauerkraut factory? Six scoop interviews! BURNS Yeah - but that time we stole Old Lady Haggerty's stomach off the Coroner's physician. We proved she was poisoned though, didn't we? HILDY (laughing) We sure did, but we had to go in hiding for a week. BURNS In the Shoreland Hotel. And our only chaperon was the poor old lady's stomach. HILDY Don't remind me. That's how we happened to -- She breaks off. There is a moment's pause. BURNS Sorry, Hildy. I didn't mean to be making love to another man's fiancee. HILDY That's all right, Walter. It's as much my fault as yours. BURNS (glancing at the clock) Bruce is making the nine o'clock train. I told him you'd be on it -- unless you want to write this story yourself. HILDY Well, if it's my last story, I'd like it to be a good one. But -- I guess I can't, Walter. BURNS Suit yourself, kid. This isn't for me to decide. Of course, you could make a later train and still be in Albany tomorrow morning. HILDY Yeah. I suppose I could. But, Walter -- BURNS He's going to have you the rest of his life, Hildy. Can't you give me another hour? HILDY I don't know what to do, Walter. BURNS Flip a coin. HILDY All right. (takes coin from her bag) Heads I go -- tails I stay to write the story. Ready? CLOSEUP BURNS gazing nervously at the hand holding the coin. BURNS Ready. CLOSE SHOT BURNS AND HILDY She flips and catches the coin. She holds it tightly clasped in her hand, afraid to look. They stare at each other a second. BURNS (nervously) Well -- what is it? HILDY (almost breaking) What's the difference? I'm going to write that story -- and you know it! She puts the coin away without looking at it. Burns rushes to her, tries to take her in his arms. BURNS Hildy! HILDY (furiously) Don't touch me! I'm not doing it for you! BURNS (softly) Then why are you doing it? HILDY Because I'm a newspaper woman, Heaven help me! DISSOLVE TO: MONTAGE SHOTS INT. CITY ROOM - Hildy typing away furiously. Copy Boy tearing sheets from her typewriter as she writes. Burns coming in and tearing sheets from typewriter. Linetype machines. Presses going. Headline: THE POST SAVES EARL WILLIAMS! DISSOLVE TO: INT. BURNS' OFFICE Headline: POST SAVES EARL WILLIAMS! Over this sound of newsboys calling "Extra! Extra!" CAMERA DRAWS BACK to rest of story: "Impeachment Proceedings Launched Against Mayor For Attempting to Conceal Governor's Reprieve!" CAMERA DRAWS BACK FURTHER to the by-line -- By Hildegarde Johnson. CAMERA DRAWS BACK STILL FURTHER to disclose Burns and Hildy looking at paper on Burns' desk. BURNS (enthusiastically) The greatest yarn ever written by anybody. My hat's off to you, Hildy! HILDY (grimly) Thanks. BURNS And what a way to quit. While you're still champion! That's the way to leave, Hildy! HILDY Yeah. Only -- only I'm not leaving, Walter. BURNS What do you mean? Bruce'll be waiting for you in Albany. HILDY No, he won't. I wired him that I wasn't coming. CLOSEUP BURNS BURNS Where'd you wire him? HILDY On the nine o'clock train. That's the one he took, isn't it? BURNS Sure. MED. SHOT HILDY It's awfully clear now. Bruce needs a wife who can give him a home -- and affection -- and peace. I couldn't do that for him, Walter. I'm what you made me -- a cheap reporter who'd give up her soul for a story!... Is that job still open? BURNS Both jobs are open, Hildy. The paper -- and being Mrs. Walter Burns. HILDY Thanks, Walter, but it's no good. We tried it. BURNS Sure, it was good -- it was wonderful! Only you expected it to be like other marriages. It can't be like other marriages -- we're different! We're a different world. Look at what we went through today. I wouldn't trade that for any honeymoon in the world. I bet you wouldn't, either. HILDY A fine honeymoon, with a murderer right in the boudoir! And that other honeymoon in a coal mine! BURNS That's what makes it romantic. Every other married couple goes away on a honeymoon and for two weeks the bride knows just where the groom is, and vice versa. But us -- you never know where I am and I'm not sure where you are. That's Romance! HILDY Well, maybe I'd like to know just once! BURNS Hildy, if that's what you want, all right. We'll even go to -- how about Niagara Falls? HILDY (jumping) Niagara Falls! Walter, you don't mean that? BURNS Sure I do. And I'll tell you something else -- I'd like a baby. HILDY Walter! BURNS Sure, I can't last forever. I want a son I can train to take my place on this paper. HILDY What would you do if it was a daughter? BURNS Well, if she looked like you -- Say! My brains and your looks -- that mightn't be such a bad combination. HILDY What's the matter with my brains? BURNS What's the good of arguing about something that probably doesn't exist? Look, Hildy, I'm proposing to you. What do you say? HILDY Well, I'd like to be lady-like and think it over. BURNS I don't want to rush you. Take a couple of seconds. MED. SHOT AT DOOR Louie marches in with a judge, half-dressed. Louie has the judge in a tight grip. MED. CLOSE SHOT BURNS Hello, Judge! JUDGE This is an outrage, Mr. Burns! Sending a gunman to kidnap me! BURNS Now, wait a minute, Judge. This isn't a kidnapping. You've got the legal power to perform a marriage ceremony, haven't you? HILDY What! BURNS Now don't argue, Hildy. (to Judge) How about it, Judge? JUDGE Yes, but -- BURNS Then go ahead. Come on, Hildy. HILDY Nobody's going to rush me into anything! (as Louie sticks a gun in her ribs) You keep away from me! (but she's scared) LOUIE All right, Judge. INT. CITY ROOM MED. SHOT Reporters are standing on desks to watch through the glass partition of Burns' office. 1ST REPORTER I'll be doggoned! A shotgun marriage! 2ND REPORTER Don't they usually keep the gun on the man? INT. BURNS' OFFICE CLOSE SHOT JUDGE reading the marriage ceremony. JUDGE (continuing) " -- so long as you both do live?" BURNS I will. GROUP SHOT HILDY That's what he said the last time. Don't believe him, Judge. BURNS Hildy, from this time on no tricks, no double-crossing -- everything on the level! HILDY You're not fooling anybody. JUDGE (continuing) "Hildegarde Johnson, will you have this man as your wedded husband, to live together in the ordinances and estate of Matrimony?" HILDY What would you do with a gun in your back? LOUIE (poking her) Quiet! JUDGE "Will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him in sickness or in health; -- HILDY If I know where he is. JUDGE " -- and, forsaking all others, keep thee only unto him, so long as you both do live?" HILDY I will -- if he will. JUDGE (to Burns) Have you got a ring? Burns starts searching his pockets, then, to Hildy: BURNS (he takes ring off) How about Bruce's? HILDY Walter, you can't do that! BURNS Sure, I can. Look at the policy I gave him! (placing Bruce's ring on Hildy's finger) "With this ring I thee wed and with all my worldly goods I thee endow: And thereto I plight thee my troth." INT. CITY ROOM CLOSE SHOT REPORTER Say, I'm surprised she got the ring back! INT. BURNS' OFFICE CLOSE SHOT GROUP JUDGE " -- pronounce you Man and Wife." Burns throws his arms around Hildy and kisses her. BURNS Hildy, darling! HILDY Yes -- 'Hildy, darling'. I'm just a fool. That's what I am. I know what it's going to be like. BURNS It'll be Heaven! HILDY Sure, Heaven! You've probably thought up another coal mine to send me down in -- to get a new story for your paper! Hildy turns over copy of the extra lying on Burns' desk. CLOSEUP HILDY She stops cold. HILDY Walter! INSERT: NEWSPAPER -- "COUNTERFEIT PASSER CAUGHT!" "Attempting to pass five hundred dollars worth of counterfeit money at the Union station, a man giving his name as Bruce Baldwin of Albany, New York, was arrested last night -- " TWO SHOT BURNS AND HILDY HILDY Counterfeit money! That's the money you sent me, Walter! You -- you -- WALTER (starting to run) But, Hildy, listen -- MED. FULL SHOT Burns retreats from Hildy, she runs after him. He dashes through glass-paned door into adjoining office. Hildy throws her bag at him and it smashes the glass pane in the door. INT. ADJOINING OFFICE CLOSE SHOT BURNS AND HILDY She is pursuing him around table similar to one in Burns' office. BURNS But, Hildy -- I can explain -- HILDY You -- you!! INT. BURNS' OFFICE CLOSE SHOT JUDGE AND LOUIE LOUIE I think it's going to work out all right this time. FADE OUT: THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Hitchcock.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hitchcock.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d1bd80adceb305f23fbc392488b2d18e72139bc9 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hitchcock.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + HITCHCOCK Written by John J. McLaughlin Based on the book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho by Stephen Rebello FADE IN: EXT. MARSHLAND - DUSK We move across smoldering embers and reach a small grass fire. Dirt is thrown over the flames before a BOOT finishes stamping them out. SUPER: PLAINFIELD, WISCONSIN, 1944 HENRY GEIN (O.S.) We're just lucky it didn't reach the trees... We move up two dirty pairs of overalls to find HENRY and ED GEIN sweating away as they continue shovelling out the flames. Both are in their forties and wearing flannel shirts. Ed wears an Elmer Fudd hat. HENRY GEIN (CONT'D) There's gonna be a lot more jobs at that factory by Milwaukee come June. I could put in a word. ED GEIN You can't leave us, Henry. She needs both OF US-- HENRY GEIN Can you stop being a momma's boy for one second? Henry looks at Ed and he shrinks back. HENRY GEIN (CONT'D) I'm not trying to hurt you but Jesus you got to live your own life someday. That woman can take care of her own goddamn -- CLANG. Henry is hit by the shovel in the back of the head and goes down. Ed steps slowly forward and puts down the shovel. The look on his face isn't anger. It's BLANK. He pulls at the flaps of his Elmer Fudd hat... then calmly walks away. The camera pans until we discover : ALFRED HITCHCOCK in his trademark black Mariani suit. He's been watching the whole thing, standing in the smouldering field only a few feet away, holding a rose-patterned cup and saucer of tea... (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: He takes a sip and turns to address the camera -- ALFRED HITCHCOCK Good evening. He places his cup daintily back on the saucer. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Brother has been slaying brother since Cain and Abel, yet even I did not see that coming. I was as blind-sided as poor Henry over there. He glances back over at the murder scene. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Apparently the authorities shared my naivete and believed the young man's tale that Henry fell and hit his head on a stone and died of smoke asphyxiation. He shrugs: `Who would've thought it?' ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Of course if they hadn't believed him, Ed never would have had the opportunity to commit the heinous acts for which he became famous... and we wouldn't have our little movie. Instead, we'd have more nice, safe, predictable ones like these... CUT TO: A RAPID MONTAGE OF CLIPS from various Technicolor Films of the era: Peyton Place, with Lana Turner and Betty Field. Pillow Talk with Doris Day and Rock Hudson. A Summer Place with Sandra Dee -- EXT. MARSHLAND - AS BEFORE ALFRED HITCHCOCK Mere Technicolor baubles. He shudders with distaste. As if on cue the sky THUNDERS LOUDLY above him. He looks up and from behind the tree stump produces an umbrella. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Ah. A bit of doom and gloom. Now, that's more like it. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: As Hitch opens his brolly and the RAIN starts to bucket down WE -- CUT TO : EXT. MARQUEE OF UNITED ARTISTS THEATER, CHICAGO - NIGHT Equally torrential rain lit up by rotating KLEIG LIGHTS as they scan a MARQUEE: "WORLD PREMIERE! NORTH BY NORTHWEST. DIRECTED BY ALFRED HITCHCOCK." JOSTLING CROWDS run the length of the block. SUPER: JULY 8, 1959. A PUDGY HAND discreetly squeezes a tiny, delicate one. ALFRED AND ALMA HITCHCOCK Step out into a sea of FLASHBULBS. Hitch basks in the limelight while Alma, his razor-sharp, charming wife of over 30 years stands in the background, uncomfortable with all the attention. Hitchcock's agent LEW WASSERMAN, 45, dynamic, charismatic, comes into view. LEW WASSERMAN This thing is going to be gigantic. I wish I had twenty percent of the take. Lew hustles them through the throng of REPORTERS and PHOTOGRAPHERS under their BLACK UMBRELLAS. REPORTER ONE Does tonight's incredible reaction surprise you, Mr. Hitchcock? ALFRED HITCHCOCK No, when I was planning North by Northwest I could already hear the screams and laughter. (then, to a BEAUTIFUL BLONDE FAN) Any questions, my dear? The blonde fan, holding out her autograph book, shakes her head `no' and giggles. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) A pity. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: The reporters crack up. Alma manages a polite smile as Lew helps her into the limo, leaving Hitchcock alone for a moment to sign his autograph for the blond fan... REPORTER TWO Mr. Hitchcock, you've directed forty-six motion pictures. You host a hit TV show seen around the world. You're the most famous director in the history of the medium... but you're sixty years old. Shouldn't you just quit while you're ahead? HOLDING ON HITCHCOCK motionless and quietly devastated as FLASHBULBS CRACKLE over his face. The whiteness transforms into... INT. THE HITCHCOCKS' BEL AIR HOME - BATHROOM - MORNING THE GLEAMING WHITE TILES of a bathroom. We move past chrome fixtures that evoke those in Spellbound and Psycho and arrive at that same pudgy hand pouring CHATEAU CHEVAL BLANC '53 into a cut crystal glass. HITCHCOCK soaks in the tub. The champagne glass beside him, his corpulent frame is covered only by the London Times he's reading. Even in this deeply vulnerable state, he maintains the air of a haughty mischievous emperor. At the sound of a bedroom bureau being opened, Hitch's eyes shift to the FULL-LENGTH MIRROR on the bathroom door. IN THE MIRROR We catch fleeting glimpses of Alma in a white half-slip and matching bra. She takes out some NYLONS and holds them up to the light. Hitchcock watches enthralled. He puts down his glass and shifts a little in the tub, causing the water to lap against the sides. BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS Alma pauses when she hears the small splashes. Neither upset nor amused she continues about her business, taking a skirt from the drawer. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALMA Muhammad had the eyes of peeping Toms gouged out with arrows. Hitchcock clears his throat, rattling his paper as if he'd been reading the whole time. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Talking of arrows, did you read Mr. Weiler's review in the New York Times? Apparently, he found "the climax" to be -- and I quote -- "overdrawn." ALMA I doubt whether Mr. Weiler has had a climax in years. Alma steps into her skirt as Hitch opens the London Times. ALFRED HITCHCOCK And how about this little grenade? (READING) North by Northwest reminds us of Hitchcock's earlier, more youthfully inventive spy thrillers." (BEAT) And just to drive the nail into the coffin, there's a handy accompanying guide to the new masters of suspense. Hitchcock zeroes in on the photographs. They're all young. Thinner. And with hair. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Why do they keep looking for new masters of suspense when they still have the original? ALMA Don't be maudlin, you know how much it aggravates me. He catches his reflection in the mirror again and sinks further down into the water to hide his protruding belly. Alma comes in, takes the newspapers from him and puts them on the side. ALMA (CONT'D) Stop reading them. You've been reading them for a week now. She puts down the TOILET SEAT and sits on it. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: (2) ALFRED HITCHCOCK Tell me, dear. Am I really too old? ALMA Yes. A true relic. And lest we forget, a notably corpulent one. She comes over and kisses the top of his head. ALFRED HITCHCOCK You always know precisely where to plunge the dagger, don't you? ALMA Right between the shoulder blades. I learned it from your pictures. She moves off to the mirror to apply lipstick and Hitchcock surreptitiously picks up the papers again... ALFRED HITCHCOCK Where are you off to? ALMA I'm seeing Whit for brunch after I drop you off at the studio. Why don't you join us? ALFRED HITCHCOCK We've just established that I'm too corpulent to be seen in broad daylight. ALMA You'll feel better as soon as you find a project. Hasn't Peggy unearthed any decent books yet? ALFRED HITCHCOCK Sleeping pills with dust jackets. Alma steps back to inspect herself in the full-length mirror. Today's outfit is, we sense, rather more stylish than what she would ordinarily wear. ALMA Well? Hitch's gaze never leaves the photo gallery of his younger rivals in the `New Masters of Suspense' article... ALFRED HITCHCOCK Very presentable. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: (3) ON ALMA As she elegantly masks her hurt. ALMA Hurry up, darling. You're pruning. She leaves. Hitch grumbles and tosses his paper aside. He rises from the depths but suddenly loses his balance and grabs onto the SHOWER CURTAIN, wrenching it from the METAL RINGS on the rod. A GOD'S EYE view, looking down, as Hitchcock stares up at the metal rings SPINNING NOISILY on the metal rod. EXT. THE PARAMOUNT STUDIOS, BRONSON GATE - DAY The FAMOUS MOUNTAIN TOP icon looms large. TWO GUARDS snap-to for the arrival of Hollywood royalty. FIRST GUARD Mr. Hitchcock. Mrs. Hitchcock. Alma waves from the wheel of a GLEAMING BLACK 1957 CADILLAC. Hitchcock sits next to her. He has his two SEALYHAM TERRIERS on his lap. He nods, awaiting more. FIRST GUARD (CONT'D) (to the dogs) Sirs. EXT. PARAMOUNT STUDIOS, PRODUCERS' BUILDING - DAY The Cadillac pulls up. Alma notes Hitchcock's look of frustrated envy as CREW MEMBERS bustle in and out of STAGE 15. It's a hive of activity. ALMA There's a story out there waiting for you somewhere, Hitch. I promise. He gives her a good-bye peck and opens the door. ALMA (CONT'D) Don't forget your lunch. Alma hands him a compact Fortnum & Mason basket and pats him on his girth. He opens it to discover CELERY AND CARROT STICKS wrapped in Saran. OMITTED INT. HITCHCOCK'S OFFICE, PARAMOUNT - DAY Luxurious, wood-paneled and very British. Hitch sits restlessly behind his desk, receiving his morning shave from his private barber, SILVIO. His longtime assistant, PEGGY ROBERTSON, 40s, crisp, British, fiercely protective of her boss, is going through a list of potential projects. PEGGY Fox is offering you The Diary of Anne Frank for the third time. Hitch directs his response to Silvio. ALFRED HITCHCOCK The audience would spend the entire picture waiting for Miss Frank to discover the corpse I'd hidden in the attic. Wouldn't you agree, Silvio? SILVIO Si. Hitch reaches for a carrot stick and CRUNCHES it. PEGGY MGM wants you for the Ian Fleming book, Casino Royale, with Cary Grant. Definitely your style. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (again, turning to Silvio) Doesn't she know I just made that movie? It's called North by Northwest. And "style" is merely self-plagiarism. Silvio nods, then recommences the shave. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) I'm treading water, Peggy. I need something fresh. Something different. Without expensive stars like Cary Grant or Miss Kim Novak to pretty it up. Silvio unintentionally nicks Hitch's face. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) A nice, clean, nasty little piece of work. Silvio hurriedly dabs away a speck of BLOOD. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: PEGGY I'll see what I can find. Hitch motions for the barber to hold up the mirror. The image of his face overflows the small frame. Repulsed, he leans back his head and makes a hand motion for Silvio to SLIT HIS THROAT. CONTAGIOUS LAUGHTER (PRE-LAP) INT. CHASEN'S RESTAURANT - DAY Alma lunches with screenwriter-novelist WHITFIELD COOK. "WHIT," 50s, is Hitchcock's physical opposite -- dashing, razor-sharp and sophisticated. In fact he'd be at home in one of his movies. WHITFIELD COOK ... Thank God I had a pocketful of pretzels. I was hiding in that props cupboard all night. (THEN) That'll teach me to use a bedroom set instead of the real thing. ALMA Serves you right. They laugh uproariously, quite at ease with each other. ALMA (CONT'D) Hitch always said your private life was in danger of being more entertaining than any of your plots. He pours Alma another glass of wine, not remotely insulted. WHITFIELD COOK I can't believe he let me have you all to myself for a whole afternoon. Especially looking this beautiful. He clinks her glass. WHITFIELD COOK (CONT'D) TrËs chic. Alma turns to look at the menu again. ALMA All this relentless sycophancy is giving me indigestion. (MORE) (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALMA (CONT'D) (A SMILE) What are you after? He laughs, his eyes straying to a PRETTY WAITRESS passing by. Alma notices. ALMA (CONT'D) And how is your wife? WHITFIELD COOK Elizabeth? (his eyes return to Alma) Over the moon since I promised her the dedication in my new novel. So what are you working on these days? ALMA Hitch is going out of his mind looking for his next project. You know how unbearable he is when he doesn't have something lined up. WHITFIELD COOK Almost as unbearable as when he does. ALMA (LAUGHING) Almost. WHITFIELD COOK I meant you. What are you working on? ALMA I'm satisfied spending time in my garden. WHITFIELD COOK That is one lucky garden. Whit brings out a set of galleys and slides them across the tablecloth to her. WHITFIELD COOK (CONT'D) Actually, I was hoping you might be able to apply your considerable pruning skills to this. She looks down and reads the cover page. "Taxi to Dubrovnik. By Whitfield Cook." ALMA Ah. All is finally revealed. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: (2) He touches her hand, affectionately. She brushes it away, affectionately... WHITFIELD COOK The most fun I ever had was working with you. She looks through the opening pages... taking her time... enjoying making him wait... ALMA I suppose I could give it a look. INT. HITCHCOCK'S OFFICE, PARAMOUNT - DAY Hitchcock peeks avidly through the blinds at a smartly dressed KIM NOVAK-TYPE WOMAN hurrying along to some appointment or assignation... Hitch cranes to see who she's meeting, but she moves tantalizingly out of sight. Hitch turns back with a sigh towards his desk, covered with discarded newspaper clippings and boring story proposals. He sweeps them off his desk into the trash. INT. HITCHCOCK'S OUTER OFFICE - A MOMENT LATER A SHADOW looms over Peggy at her desk as she sifts through another round of story ideas. It's Hitchcock. He startles her. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Anything. Anything at all? He starts sifting through her tray. She notices the glass in his hand. PEGGY Nothing suitable. Is that water or do I need to call Alma? He drains it playfully. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Gin. Mother's ruin. But something's caught his eye. A circled review of Anthony Boucher's column "CRIMINAL MINDS" in the New York Times Review of Books. He picks it up. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Boucher says this "Psycho" book by Robert Bloch is `fiendishly entertaining'. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: PEGGY It sounds ghastly. Everyone in town's already passed. ALFRED HITCHCOCK And who is everyone? PEGGY The story department finished the coverage this morning. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Is this the one based on Ed Gein, the serial killer? He takes the coverage and reads for himself. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) "Graphic elements of brutal violence, voyeurism, transvestitism and incest." Certainly not your average run of the mill nutcase, is he? He gives a grunt of approval. PEGGY You're kidding. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Peggy. This is the boy who dug up his own mother. INT. HITCHCOCK'S STUDY - THE NEXT NIGHT ON HITCH Completely engrossed as he sits reading "Psycho" in a chair by the fire of his elegant Bel Air home. He takes another gulp of wine when he hears Alma enter and slides the wine glass out of view. Alma pops her head in the door. ALMA Hungry? ALFRED HITCHCOCK Famished. She disappears to take off her coat. ALMA (O.S.) If you're good, maybe you can have a grapefruit later. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: She comes back in again carrying some galleys, notices the title of Hitch's book -- some trash called "Psycho." ALMA (CONT'D) Whit gave me the galleys of his new book yesterday at lunch. I've already got some ideas on how you could adapt it. Hitch continues reading. ALMA (CONT'D) It's elegant, sophisticated, full of INTRIGUE -- ALFRED HITCHCOCK The book or Mr. Whitfield Cook? She taps Hitch's book dismissively with the galleys of "Taxi to Dubrovnik." ALMA This might be the one, Alfred. He finally looks up. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Leave it on the night stand. As she leaves she points to Hitch's `hidden' wine glass. ALMA There are calories in that, you know. But Hitch ignores her and turns to look out the window, his imagination starting to turn... INT. GEIN HOUSE, PLAINVIEW, 1945 - NIGHT Ed enters the bedroom. His mother, Augusta, is in the bed, faced away from him. ED GEIN Aren't you cold, ma? She doesn't answer. We follow him to the dresser where he lingers a little too long over his mother's open underwear drawer before grabbing the blue coverlet on the side. He comes over and spreads the extra blanket over her. Still wearing his jacket, he takes off his shoes, gets into bed and crawls up next to her. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ED GEIN (CONT'D) Don't be afraid, ma... I'm here... As he puts his arm around her and pulls her close, we reveal his mother's ghoulishly embalmed face. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, BEDROOM - NIGHT A slant of moonlight finds Alma fast asleep until a FINGER nudges her awake. She lifts her satin sleep mask to see Hitchcock holding out his copy of "Psycho." ALMA Oh God. The look of obsession on his face is unmistakable. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Read the bit in the motel bathroom. ALMA Now? He switches on the light by her bedside. She sits up, puts on her glasses and reads from the opened page. ALMA (CONT'D) "Mary started to scream, and then the curtains parted further and a hand appeared, holding a butcher's knife. It was the knife that, a moment later, cut off her scream... and her head." (handing him back the book) Charming. Doris Day should do it as a musical. She hands him back the book. ALMA (CONT'D) This is nothing but low-budget horror movie claptrap. She turns off the light again and goes back to bed. A deep voice sounds from the darkness... ALFRED HITCHCOCK But what if someone really good made a horror movie? EXT. HITCHCOCK'S GARDEN - MORNING The Hitchcocks eat breakfast on the terrace watching the GARDENERS trim the bushes and rake leaves from the pool. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALFRED HITCHCOCK Just think of the shock value. Killing off your leading lady halfway through. Alma can feel Hitch looking at her, waiting for a response. Clearly he isn't going to let this one go. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) You're intrigued. Admit it. She butters her toast, casually taunts him by adding a large spoon of marmalade. ALMA Actually, I think it's a huge mistake. Hitch falls silent, a chastised schoolboy. ALMA (CONT'D) You shouldn't wait till halfway through... Kill her off after 30 minutes. OMITTED (SCENE 17) INT. HITCHCOCK'S OFFICE, PARAMOUNT - DAY Hitch enters with purpose, carrying a stack of photos and articles. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Peggy, I want you to summon your minions... PEGGY Minions. Certainly. And who might they be...? Hitch heads for his office, in no mood for wise cracks. He spreads out the articles on the desk. Photos and magazine articles about Ed Gein... ALFRED HITCHCOCK Get them started buying copies of "Psycho." Peggy stands in the doorway, watching -- PEGGY How many do you need? ALFRED HITCHCOCK All of them. I want every copy, nationwide. (MORE) (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Have them scour every book shop and library. "Psycho" is my next picture, and I don't want anyone to find out the ending until they see it in the theater. Peggy shakes her head. PEGGY All that celery's affecting your brain. She walks over, notices the LIFE MAGAZINE headline : "HOUSE OF HORRORS STUNS NATION." Stark black and white photographs expose the nightmarish decay of the Gein house... PEGGY (CONT'D) Are you sure about this? This is so unlike you. ALFRED HITCHCOCK That's exactly the point, my dear. Peggy watches uneasily as Hitchcock pores over the articles with delight. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, LIVING ROOM - A SUNDAY AFTERNOON A PIANIST plays a polite version of Al Jolson's "My Mammy". CLOSE ON A MANILA ENVELOPE clutched in one hand behind HITCHCOCK'S back as we follow him travel through the party. The clink of champagne glasses as we reveal the GUESTS saying HELLO as he passes... ALFRED HITCHCOCK (PRE-LAP) And when the Wisconsin Police department raided his farmhouse in Plainview... HITCHCOCK Is now in position in front of the fire place. Around the coffee table are INVITED GOSSIP COLUMNISTS, including a HEDDA HOPPER-TYPE. They take in the gory LIFE MAGAZINE article. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (PRE-LAP) (CONT'D) ..they opened the door only to discover - voila... He produces the manila envelope from behind his back and empties THE HORRIFICALLY GORY CRIME SCENE PHOTOGRAPHS inside onto the coffee table. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) ... Ten female heads with the tops sawn off, a dozen masks of human skin, and a pair of lips on a drawstring for a window shade. Hitch looks down sweetly at the circle of quietly horrified expressions... HEDDA HOPPER TYPE Is this really going to be you're next picture, Mr. Hitchcock? HITCHCOCK That is my intention, madam. Yes. Hitch taps the photo of ED GEIN. ALFRED HITCHCOCK I only wish he looked more like William Holden and less like Elmer Fudd. The other columnists scribble down the quote. HEDDA HOPPER TYPE Am I the only one who finds this offensive? ALFRED HITCHCOCK I was hoping everyone would. I mean life is deeply offensive and disgusting, isn't it? Hitch glides off without missing a beat, past the Servers arriving with more hors d'oeuvres from the kitchen. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Try the finger sandwiches -- they're real fingers. He snags a martini and collars Peggy while he's at it. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Peggy. I'm going to need some research detailing a typical unmarried 30-year-old secretary from Phoenix, Arizona. He looks over at the pantry, where Alma can be glimpsed through the swinging door, putting food onto trays. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: (2) ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Her monthly rent, what she wears, what she reads, which scent or perfume she prefers... Hitch sees WHIT lean into view and innocently whisper something into Alma's ear making her laugh. PEGGY ... How she deals with a demanding boss when she's trying to relax on her weekends off? Hitchcock doesn't notice the joke. He now only has eyes on the pantry ahead. He forges on through the guests only to get waylaid by Lew. It is a classic Hitchcock moment, a character needing to get someplace being held up by someone who wants to chat -- LEW WASSERMAN (re: the faces of the GOSSIP COLUMNISTS) I told you, Hitch. This thing's strictly for the drive-in crowd. Hitch smiles tightly and extricates himself, heading on to the kitchen through more annoying guests -- INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, PANTRY - SIMULTANEOUS Whit leans against the stove watching Alma expertly arrange the next round of hors d'oeuvres coming in from the kitchen. WHITFIELD COOK Now, if this were a Hitchcock picture what would two characters like us, married to other people, be saying? ALMA You don't have to pretend you're not upset he hasn't read it yet, you know. WHITFIELD COOK I'm a big boy. I can take it. ALMA Well, I loved it. What terrific fun it must have been to research. WHITFIELD COOK Certainly more fun than reading those reviews. (MORE) (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: WHITFIELD COOK (CONT'D) (THEN) Do you think he really will read it? Suddenly, over Whitfield's shoulder, Alma sees Hitch looming in the doorway. Whit notes the tiny change in her eyes and turns. WHITFIELD COOK (CONT'D) Speak of the devil. Hitch stares blankly at him while Alma turns and busies herself over the sink, hiding an almost imperceptible blush. WHITFIELD COOK (CONT'D) I have to admit, Hitch, I ran all over town looking for a copy of "Psycho" but couldn't find a single one. ALFRED HITCHCOCK I wonder how that could have happened. Hitch sips his martini, a picture of innocence. Then leans in to Whit's ear and whispers - just like Whit leaned into Alma's ear a moment earlier. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Don't stop looking on my behalf. Peggy appears in the pass-through, beckoning Hitch to hurry back into the living room. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS Hitch returns to see the other GUESTS are now passing around the GEIN PHOTOS. They look utterly confused and horrified... a couple of them are even gathering their coats. ON LEW, PEGGY AND HITCH standing together watching. LEW WASSERMAN I've seen happier faces on a school bus going over a cliff. PEGGY I told you it would be too much. ALFRED HITCHCOCK But they can't stop looking, can they? He slurps his martini, sharing a smile with Lew. INT. PARAMOUNT BOARD ROOM - DAY Paramount President BARNEY BALABAN, 70s, ferocious, righteous, sits behind his impressive desk flanked by two CONSERVATIVELY-ATTIRED EXECUTIVES. Hitchcock and Wasserman sit across from them. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Audiences want to be shocked, Barney. They want something different. And this is it. He gestures to the untouched copy of "Psycho" in front of Balaban. BARNEY BALABAN The truth is, Hitch, every time you want to do something "different" like The Wrong Man or Vertigo, someone loses money. Hitchcock stares unblinking, giving nothing away. LEW WASSERMAN So we should stop trying to give them something new? BARNEY BALABAN You owe Paramount one last picture, Hitch. Can't you do something like North by Northwest but for us this time instead of for MGM? Hitch's stare remains inscrutable. BARNEY BALABAN (CONT'D) We've offered you dozens of perfectly good properties. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (IMPERIOUSLY) "Psycho." Wasserman gives Balaban the same glacial stare. The Paramount executives shift uncomfortably. BARNEY BALABAN No one respects the name Hitchcock more than Paramount. But even a talented man sometimes backs the wrong horse. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALFRED HITCHCOCK Are you telling me "no?" Balaban maintains a calm, pleasant front. BARNEY BALABAN I think you know me better than that, Hitch. I would never say "no" to you. Hitch's suppressed rage is building...but Balaban says nothing. EXT. PARAMOUNT COURTYARD - DAY Hitch and Lew walk down the stairs and through the leafy courtyard past Hitch's office. LEW WASSERMAN What a putz. You know what his family did before they built those movie palaces? Ran a grocery store. ALFRED HITCHCOCK My father ran a grocery store. LEW WASSERMAN Exactly. That's what I'm saying. He should show some respect. Hitch turns to Lew. ALFRED HITCHCOCK They think I've lost my touch, Lew. My association with television has cheapened me. LEW WASSERMAN Are you referring to that deal I got you where Bristol-Meyers pays you twenty-nine grand an episode and you own the negative? That's my kind of cheap. ALFRED HITCHCOCK They just want the same thing over and over. They've put me in a coffin and now they're nailing down the lid. Lew puts a comforting hand on him... LEW WASSERMAN Hitch, I will never let that happen. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: Hitch doesn't respond, Lew sensing the true depth of his friend's melancholy. LEW WASSERMAN (CONT'D) How much do you think you can make this picture for? ALFRED HITCHCOCK Eight hundred thousand... Give or take. Lew digests the figure... LEW WASSERMAN I have whisky in the car. EXT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, SWIMMING POOL - A FEW DAYS LATER ALMA does afternoon laps in the pool. A contemplative Hitchcock wanders down to the pool side wearing black sunglasses and a business suit. He watches Alma a moment. Finally she notices him. ALMA You're back early. He shrugs, then sits at the table to pour himself a glass of lemonade. Alma gets out and towels herself off. ALMA (CONT'D) I'm disappointed you didn't give Whit's book a chance. ALFRED HITCHCOCK What about him? ALMA He knows you well enough. She sits down next to him, noticing a tiny hole in her swimsuit. It's starting to look a little threadbare. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Enjoy the pool now. We might not have it for that much longer. He looks off cryptically. ALMA Why? (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALFRED HITCHCOCK Paramount refuses to finance the movie. Imagine -- The studio that brought you Martin and Lewis and The Greatest Show On Earth considers Psycho distasteful. He brushes some fallen leaves off his chair. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Lew can't find the money. Not quickly enough at least. ALMA Why not wait? He doesn't reply. She knows him well enough too and doesn't question him further. ALFRED HITCHCOCK We're going to have to go it alone, old girl. (BEAT) We'll finance the movie ourselves. ALMA Are we going to have to sell the entire house or just the pool? She looks at Hitch but he's not joking. She turns to survey their beloved home and gardens. A long pause. ALMA (CONT'D) Tell me and I won't ever ask again. Why this one, Hitch? It's not just because so many people are telling you 'no,' is it? Pause. ALMA (CONT'D) Hitch? Without turning he takes her hand. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Remember the fun we had when we started out and there was so little money and time? We took risks, we experimented. We invented new ways of making pictures because we had to. A long moment as he gazes across the pool. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: (2) ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) I want to feel that kind of freedom again. He turns to look into her eyes for the first time. A glimpse of the real Hitchcock. Someone even his wife doesn't see that often... EXT. PARAMOUNT STUDIOS - DAY The famous gates and the executive building beyond it. LEW WASSERMAN (PRE-LAP) Barney, we're about to propose a restructured deal for "Psycho"... INT. BALABAN'S PRIVATE OFFICE, PARAMOUNT - DAY Balaban watches Hitchcock and Lew closely. Hitchcock again is like a waxworks Buddha, revealing nothing. LEW WASSERMAN We finance it. Independently. Paramount only distributes it...in exchange for 40 percent of the profits. BARNEY BALABAN Interesting. But tell us, what exactly is Paramount distributing? Is this still a picture about a queer killing people in his mother's dress? LEW WASSERMAN What this picture is about is the reputation of Alfred Hitchcock. BARNEY BALABAN No-one's arguing that. LEW WASSERMAN Barney, it's very simple. This is Mr. Hitchcock's next film. Are you in or are you out? A long silence. BARNEY BALABAN Well, obviously you have a lot of passion for this project. Let me talk it over with a few people internally and I'll get back to you. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: LEW WASSERMAN No. Now. Balaban takes in their inscrutable stares. Not unimpressed by their chutzpah, he leans back and puts his hands behind his head, a king in his counting room. BARNEY BALABAN Fine. We'll take that deal. If you can get the money... Finally, Hitchcock speaks up : ALFRED HITCHCOCK We've already got it, Barney. He pulls out his PERSONAL CHECKBOOK and opens it on the desk. Barney watches as Hitch takes the onyx fountain pen from its mount. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Who do I make it out to? INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, BEDROOM - LATER THAT NIGHT Hitch and Alma lie side by side in their separate beds. A copy of "The Dance of Death" by Strindberg lies on Hitch's bedside table. All traces of his bravado are gone... ALFRED HITCHCOCK If this picture fails, Alma, we'll be in for a long, humiliating bout of crow- eating. ALMA The movie will be splendid. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Are you sure? ALMA Of the movie? Not in the least. But of you? Unquestionably. INT. HITCHCOCK'S OFFICE, PARAMOUNT - DAY PUDGY FINGERS part the slats of the blind. Hitch stares out hoping for some human moment to spy on. He's restless... Peggy ushers JOSEPH STEFANO, 30s, into Hitch's office. JOSEPH STEFANO Joe Stefano. Good to meet you. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: Hitchcock leaves Stefano's hand dangling in mid air and sits down at his desk. JOSEPH STEFANO (CONT'D) Sorry I was late. My shrink session ran overtime. I see him every day and it's still not enough. PEGGY I thought only director's assistants needed psychiatrists, not writers. Stefano laughs off the barb and takes a seat as Peggy slips out. The two men stare at each other but Stefano's not remotely intimidated. JOSEPH STEFANO Do you see a shrink, Mr. Hitchcock? Hitch's eyes follow a plume of cigar smoke curling up to the ceiling... ALFRED HITCHCOCK No. His gaze remains pointedly fixed on the ceiling. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) I must say it boggles the mind to imagine what you and your "shrink" could possibly talk about daily. JOSEPH STEFANO The usual: sex. Rage. My mother. Hitchcock lowers his gaze, suddenly intrigued. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, KITCHEN - DAY Alma sits with the Hitchcocks' ACCOUNTANT who's consulting a ledger. She sits at her desk in the corner of the kitchen. ACCOUNTANT There's still the federal income tax payments... the property taxes... Not to mention the absence of any salary while he's actually making the film... ALMA Stop waffling, Donald. Give it to me straight. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: The Accountant takes off his glasses, plucking up the courage to look his favorite client in the eye. ACCOUNTANT Hitch wasn't exaggerating. If the film's a flop, you're going to have to sell the house. Alma digests this. ALMA Where do you suggest we cut? ACCOUNTANT Anywhere you can. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, KITCHEN - NIGHT Alma's moved to the kitchen table and is sorting through the accounts herself, the dogs at her feet. Her face is now properly filled with concern. Hitch enters, holding out some typed pages. Alma covers her worry. He puts the pages on the table next to her. ALFRED HITCHCOCK I got Joe Stefano to write out the first few scenes. Why don't you take a look? Alma takes Stefano's pages and starts to read...Hitch goes to the fridge and opens the door. ALMA We're about to have dinner. You don't need anything else. He shuts the door. Leans against the fridge door. Hitch waits but she gives nothing away...until she off-handedly places the pages on the table... ALFRED HITCHCOCK Well? She doesn't look up... ALMA Hire him. INT. UNKNOWN ROOM - DAY Close on a blank page being fed into a Corona typewriter. FINGERS pound out "PSYCHO" (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: BY JOSEPH STEFANO. EXT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE - MORNING The door opens and Hitchs step outside. The Cadillac is waiting. Alma follows him out and makes a final adjustment to his tie. ALFRED HITCHCOCK The only thing worse than a visit to the dentist is one to the censor. ALMA Whatever you do, Alfred, don't lose your temper. INT. PRODUCTION CODE ADMINISTRATION OFFICE - DAY The intimidating plaque for the MPAA's "PRODUCTION CODE ADMINISTRATION OFFICE" on the wall. Stefano's TITLE PAGE is tapped angrily by GEOFFREY SHURLOCK, 70s, the much-feared administrator for the Motion Picture Production Code. He sits at the head of a big table with TWO ASSISTANTS. Sitting opposite are Hitchcock, Peggy and several silent PARAMOUNT EXECUTIVES. GEOFFREY SHURLOCK The Code will absolutely not permit you to show a knife penetrating a woman's flesh. ALFRED HITCHCOCK I assure you, Geoffrey, my murders, are always models of taste and discretion. GEOFFREY SHURLOCK Is there any improper suggestion of nudity in this murder scene in the shower? ALFRED HITCHCOCK She won't be nude. She'll be wearing a shower cap. Shurlock makes a note. A man utterly devoid of any sense of humor. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: GEOFFREY SHURLOCK We might accept a shot from outside the bathroom window with Marion in silhouette above the shoulders -- provided the glass is frosted. Hitch greets the suggestion with barely concealed contempt. Shurlock turns the page. G EOFFREY SHURLOCK Then -- this scene with the toilet. ALFRED HITCHCOCK It's completely necessary. Marion flushes evidence later found by her sister. It's a clue to the girl's disappearance. GEOFFREY SHURLOCK No American movie has ever found it "necessary" to show a toilet, let alone to flush it. Hitch turns to Peggy and a Paramount Executive. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Perhaps we ought to shoot the film in France and use a bidet instead? No response from Shurlock's end of the room. Peggy stares down at the table. GEOFFREY SHURLOCK Mr. Hitchcock, if this office denies you a seal, and we're certainly heading in that direction, your movie will not be released in a single theater in this country. Will you be making jokes then? Hitchcock gives a slow but meaningful shrug. GEOFFREY SHURLOCK (CONT'D) Good. Now why don't we go all the way back to page two... ON HITCH boiling with rage as we hear the flurry of script pages -- INT. PSYCHIATRIST'S OFFICE, BEVERLY HILLS - DAY Sunlight filters through sheer curtains revealing Hitchcock trying his best to recline on an ANALYST'S COUCH. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALFRED HITCHCOCK Everyone in Hollywood resents me. I make them millions... and yet every year I sit at those dreadful award show dinners, waiting for them to say, just once, "You're good." He looks around the luxurious office. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) They take sadistic pleasure in denying me that one little moment. ANALYST'S VOICE That must hurt. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Deeply. Hitch fumbles for a handkerchief and mops his brow. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) You'll have to excuse me, doctor. I'm not used to this... process... ANALYST'S VOICE Take your time. Now Hitch claws at his tie. It's hot in here. ALFRED HITCHCOCK It's just that, more and more lately, I've been having these... impulses. The analyst's MONTBLANC pen makes a note on a pad. We notice that his hands are surprisingly coarse. ANALYST'S VOICE What kind of impulses? Finally Hitchcock is still. He stares up at the ceiling. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Strong ones. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, KITCHEN - NIGHT A FRIDGE DOOR SNAPS OPEN to reveal Hitchcock's FACE in the darkness. He's in his pajamas. His hand trembles next to a stack of chicken breasts and moves to an upturned GRAPEFRUIT HALF at the back of the shelf. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: He pulls it out it to reveal a hidden stash of foie gras under the hollowed out grapefruit. He's about to devour it when he catches sight of his DISTORTED REFLECTION in the chrome shelving. He backs away, disgusted at this monster before him, the light of the fridge illuminating his expression. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, STUDY - NIGHT A door is quietly shut and locked. The bottom drawer of a filing cabinet is inched open. A hand rummages deep inside and teases out a bulging MANILA FOLDER. A hidden stash of some kind. The DESK LIGHT is switched on revealing HITCH. He carefully extracts the contents of the folder and lays them onto the desk. A MASS OF PHOTOS OF ALL HIS BLONDE LEADING LADIES A personal collection lovingly kept. He settles in to study it, picking out his favorites, arranging them in order. They're all in the same pose, all with hair pinned up into a perfect bun. He looks at each image with intensifying desire. He's created all of them. Every detail. But it's no longer enough... THE ROW OF GLOSSY PERFECT BLONDES DISSOLVES TO : INT. HITCHCOCK'S OFFICE, PARAMOUNT - SAME TIME A row of HANDSOME ACTOR HEADSHOTS on a table. HITCH glares at the waiting ACTORS in the hallway through the blinds. He turns back to Peggy and Alma and pulls a face. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Send them all back to Glendale. Hitch returns to the table to ponder yet more headshots. Peggy shares a glance with Alma, then slides over RODDY MCDOWELL'S HEADSHOT. PEGGY The Lazar Office tells me he's crazy to work with you. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALFRED HITCHCOCK Well, tell "Swifty" he shouldn't have overexposed his client on television. ALMA Unlike certain people we could mention. Hitch ignores the barb. Undeterred, Alma pushes her ace card: a photo of ANTHONY PERKINS, radiating offbeat sensitivity and teen idol looks. ALMA (CONT'D) Think of the duality he could bring to Norman. The rage lurking behind that little-boy-lost grin. The winsome charm he uses to keep from being found out. PEGGY Why, Alma, you're not suggesting that Mr. Perkins is -- ? She raises her pinky finger just slightly. Alma nods without judgement. ON HITCHCOCK Pondering... INT. HITCHCOCK'S OFFICE, PARAMOUNT - NEXT DAY Anthony Perkins now sits across from Hitchcock. ANTHONY PERKINS I can't count how many times I've seen Strangers On a Train and Rope. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Well, Norman is the logical extension of the boys in those movies. Appealing, sensitive, suffering the terrible burden of being forced to pretend to be something he is not. Hitchcock's deeply-felt remark lands with Perkins. ANTHONY PERKINS My only worry is that playing Norman might cut too close to home. ALFRED HITCHCOCK How so? (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: Hitch's calmness is strangely reassuring to the young actor... ANTHONY PERKINS I was incredibly close to my mother. So close I remember wishing my father would drop dead. And then when I was five, he did just that...He keeled over from a heart attack. (LAUGHING NERVOUSLY) You see I've been guilty my whole life, Mr. Hitchcock. Hitch is enthralled. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Try to remember this is all just make believe. Perkins wishes he could be more reassured... ANTHONY PERKINS Not to be prudish, but how far do you plan to push Norman's relationship with his mother? ALFRED HITCHCOCK Further than you can possibly imagine. On Perkins uncertain expression -- what is he letting himself in for? EXT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, GARDEN - DAY Hitchcock's RED SWEATING FACE as he grunts and heaves. He's dressed in gardening gear, laboring in the full bloom of the rose garden. Alma pushes a WHEELBARROW filled with manure. She shovels the manure around the rosebushes. ALFRED HITCHCOCK I'm getting blisters just looking at you. ALMA Stop grumbling. A bit of fresh air and exercise is exactly what you need. He holds his PRUNING SHEARS menacingly over a deep red Sydonie rose. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALFRED HITCHCOCK If I could get Grace Kelly to play the girl, they'd let me get away with anything. ALMA Well you can't. She's a princess now which makes her permanently unattainable. Hitchcock beheads the ROSE, muttering to himself. ALFRED HITCHCOCK And all the more desirable. His shears are now poised over a yellow specimen. ALMA Lew suggested Deborah Kerr. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Too... Scottish. Hitchcock cuts it too and moves on to the stem of a perfect pink rose. ALMA What about Janet Leigh? She's always the `good girl' but she did awfully well in Touch of Evil. Lew mentioned her name. Do you remember how you always remarked on her figure at the Wassermans' parties? As the shears hover on the stem, unsure whether to cut... MATCH CUT TO: INT. CHASEN'S RESTAURANT - NIGHT THE SLENDER WAIST AND AMPLE BOSOM OF JANET LEIGH as she elegantly enters the dining room of Chasen's. Hitch stands to greet her, his eyes follow her across the room in some private rapture.. Alma watches as Janet removes her glove and shakes Hitch's hand...before he guides her to the spot to his left, across from Alma. INT. CHASEN'S RESTAURANT - NIGHT Hitch finishes telling his story... (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALFRED HITCHCOCK Of course the real secret of Mrs. Simpson's appeal to the Duke of Windsor was that she could make a toothpick feel like a cigar. He's so deadpan... it takes a moment before she laughs. JANET LEIGH You know, I've been so immersed in preparing to play Marion I'd almost forgotten how to laugh. Hitch summons the waiter with a snap. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Now, you must try the banana shortcake. JANET LEIGH Nothing for me, thank you. I'm watching my figure. Alma watches all this with a fixed smile. ALMA You're not the only one. (to the waiter) We're fine, thank you. Hitchcock ignores Alma, gesturing to the waiter again. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Bring her the banana shortcake, George. In fact make it two large portions. He pointedly shifts to face Janet. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) So do tell me, how else have you've prepared to play Marion? Janet hesitates. JANET LEIGH I've written a complete history for her...It seems silly, but it helps me. She turns to pull a LEATHER NOTEBOOK from her handbag, Hitch's gaze locks onto her silken blonde hair, tied immaculately into the classic `Hitchcock bun'. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: (2) ALFRED HITCHCOCK It doesn't sound silly at all. Tell me one of her deepest secrets. A quick look to Alma, as if to ask for permission before : JANET LEIGH She leads a double life. For instance, when she works at the Lowery office, she wears Tweed perfume. But, when she and Sam are together, she recklessly breaks out her one expensive bottle -- "My Sin" by Lanvin. She notices Alma's expression. JANET LEIGH (CONT'D) But...I do have a concern or two. I'm an actress but I'm also a wife and mother first, so I'm wondering just how you'll do that shower scene. ALMA You and the Shurlock Office. JANET LEIGH It's just... I mean even if you shoot me from here -- (she indicates a spot just above her bosom) -- well it's not as if my figure is boyish. Hitchcock looks down at her torso, as if noting it for the first time. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Allow me to put your mind at rest. Alma reacts as Hitch reaches over and gives Janet's hand a reassuring squeeze. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) May I show you some of Mr. Saul Bass's marvellous story boards? Hitch pulls out his folio case and shows Janet the storyboards (which we don't see). ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) I plan to shoot quick bits of film from various angles. (MORE) (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: (3) ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Cut together, this montage will suggest nudity and violence but nothing will actually be shown. Janet studies them, deeply impressed. And relieved. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) And having you in the shower will make it all the more tit-illating -- ALMA If you'll excuse me. Alma's had enough. Janet's smile falters as she watches Alma get up and head to the restroom. She's unsure of what just happened but Hitch carries on regardless, either entirely oblivious or not caring at all... INT. CHASEN'S RESTAURANT, LADIES ROOM - NIGHT Alma enters and looks in the mirror, quietly devastated. She looks up to find another reflection in a mirror behind her. FULL LENGTH MIRROR Alma is SUDDENLY TRANSFORMED into a Technicolor Hitchcock blonde. In a beautiful Edith Head gown, her skin is velvet perfection, her hair blonde and impeccable. ALMA Oh, come off it, old girl. A bitchy STUDIO HEAD'S WIFE snaps Alma out of her reverie, joining her at the sink to powder her face. STUDIO HEAD WIFE Alma, dear, how lovely to see you. ALMA Hello Lillian. STUDIO HEAD WIFE You're looking a little pale. No wonder with that thing your husband's working on now. You can't possibly approve. She's had a drink too many but the throwaway comment still hits Alma hard. STUDIO HEAD WIFE (CONT'D) Why are you letting him do something so tasteless? (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALMA Don't upset yourself, darling. It's only a bloody movie. EXT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, GARDEN - DAY PERFECT PINK ROSEBUSHES Like in a Douglas Sirk movie. The same roses that are the `color' of Janet Leigh. Alma hovers with her secateurs for a moment and then starts SNIPPING off their heads with a Caligula-like lack of mercy. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, KITCHEN - MORNING A vase of flowers, none of them pink, in the center of the table. Hitch STARES into a refrigerator filled with boring tasteless health-conscious food. Alma enters briskly and holds up a handwritten LIST. ALMA I've made a list of places where we can tighten our belt. She places the list on the table. ALMA (CONT'D) It wouldn't hurt for us all to learn the art of self restraint. Hitch goes over and picks it up, and reads. ALFRED HITCHCOCK The gardeners only once a week and weekends off for the driver? No. Absolutely not. We'll find other places to cut. ALMA There aren't any other places. And furthermore, they'll be no more shipments from Maxim's either. We can't afford it. She snatches the list out of his hand. ALMA (CONT'D) The foie gras at Chasen's is more than adequate. ALFRED HITCHCOCK But those geese are from Barstow not Marseilles. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: She turns back to him. ALMA We all have to make our little sacrifices for the greater good, don't we, Alfred? She leaves Hitch to resume contemplating the contents of the fridge...but there's nothing there to satisfy his growling hunger. He SLAMS the fridge and -- INT. ED GEIN'S HOUSE - DAY Suddenly we're moving through an empty living room, prowling, just like in a Hitchcock movie as we hear CLUNKING, then move over to catch a glimpse of Ed as he drags A WOMAN'S BODY, feet-first up the stairs. The clunking is from her head on the steps, which is wrapped in her dress. INT. ED GEIN'S HOUSE, BATHROOM - CONTINUOUS Ed approaches the shower curtain, then yanks it open with a METALLIC SCREECH. He pushes the body into the tub. Pulls the dress off her head and drops it on the floor. ED GEIN Stay here. I'm going to get the knives. We pan to REVEAL HITCHCOCK standing in the corner. He looks terrified but completely enthralled -- he can't resist creeping forward for a thorough inspection. Hitch's POV as he steps closer to the tub and glimpses the woman's blood- spattered WHITE BRA and GIRDLE. Suddenly -- FINGERS CLUTCH the rim of the tub. DEAD WOMAN Help me. Hitch recoils but she LURCHES UP and GRABS his throat. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Ed! Ed! SMASH CUT TO: INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, BEDROOM - NIGHT Hitchcock bolts upright in bed, face beaded with sweat in the moonlight. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Ed... Ed...? (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: It takes a moment to get his bearings. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Am I making a mistake? Alma stirs in her bed. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) What if it's another Vertigo? ALMA Oh, shut up. Just get the first take under your belt you'll be fine. But Hitch isn't looking convinced. EXT. SOUNDSTAGE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY A sign posted outside the soundstage reads, "PRODUCTION REHEARSALS 9401. ABSOLUTELY NO VISITORS!" It only makes passing REPORTERS AND WORKERS more curious. INT. SOUNDSTAGE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - CONTINUOUS Inside, it's a hive of quiet purposeful activity. A.D. HILTON GREEN escorts VERA MILES across the far side of the stage. She's 30, a classic blonde porcelain beauty in the Grace Kelly mold. PEGGY I still can't believe you cast Vera Miles as the sister. Hitch sits in his director's chair reading a copy of the London Times. ALFRED HITCHCOCK I've still got her under contract. I may as well get something out of it. PEGGY Rather a thankless role, don't you think? ALFRED HITCHCOCK For an utterly thankless girl. But he still watches VERA over the top of his newspaper as the A.D. leads her through the maze of hazardous cables and light stands towards the fitting room. She passes an actor in a HIGHWAY PATROLMAN'S UNIFORM trying on various sunglasses with the prop master. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: PEGGY Shurlock's office called again. They want to know when you'll be making the changes to the script. Hitch gets up from his chair. ALFRED HITCHCOCK The more we frustrate them the more their interest will wane. He goes over to specify the correct sunglasses that should be worn. The Cop puts on the MIRRORED shades. Hitch nods his approval. INT. BEVERLY HILLS STORE - DAY CLOSE ON A RAIL OF SWIMSUITS. Alma browses through them carefully. They are all perfectly nice, if a little staid. Her eyes suddenly catch a COLORFUL SWIMSUIT on the end of the rail. It's striking, even a little risque. She looks at the price tag. It's insanely expensive. She turns to go... stops... then impulsively turns back and grabs it, heading into the changing room and closing the door behind her. IN THE DARKNESS light blasts through A TINY HOLE in the wall. An EYE positions itself in front of the peephole. INT. HITCHCOCK'S OFFICE UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY We hear the VOICES of two women quietly conversing on the other side. HITCH Strains to get a better view. THROUGH THE HOLE We catch teasing glimpses of golden girl Vera Miles stripping down to bra and panties. INT. WARDROBE FITTING ROOM - CONTINUOUS HITCHCOCK'S EYEBALL fills the frame as he peers through the tiny hole. We reveal Vera with sharp, bohemian costumer RITA RIGGS, 27, who drapes taupe-colored fabric to Vera's contours. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: VERA MILES Break it to me gently. Am I playing a lesbian librarian? RITA RIGGS (re: the fabric) He chose it himself and had it imported from Paris. Vera laughs dryly at a WIG on a dummy head. VERA MILES If I wear that, I'm going to look like George Washington. RITA RIGGS Wait until you see the undergarments he picked out for you. Vera tosses off her shirt. VERA MILES I just have to keep telling myself, one more picture and I'm free as a bird. She unhooks her bra and crosses to hang it on a hook right near the HOLE where we just saw Hitchcock's eye. His eye is gone, only darkness from the other side. Vera feels a chill and instinctively covers her breasts with her arm. VERA MILES (CONT'D) Is there a fan blowing somewhere? Rita returns with a punitive bra and girdle. VERA MILES (CONT'D) Wow. The old man really is unhappy with me, isn't he? EXT. JANET'S DRESSING ROOM, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY Hitch knocks at the door. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Are you decent my dear? JANET steps out dressed in a crisp, sexy white shirt and pencil skirt. She does a twirl for him. The effect is stunning. Even the stagehands stop to watch. JANET LEIGH Am I alright? (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: His picks a tiny piece of lint on her sleeve. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Perfect. As he escorts her onto the soundstage, Tony comes up to greet them. ANTHONY PERKINS I want to thank you again for this opportunity, Mr. Hitchcock. ALFRED HITCHCOCK It's just "Hitch", Tony. Hold the cock. Janet caught that -- she's clearly amused. Tony gives her a gracious peck on the cheek. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Look at you two. America's favorite boy and girl nextdoor... Janet flicks a glance back at Hitch. JANET LEIGH And we're about to move to a whole new neighborhood. Already, Tony can't help feel a little excluded from Hitch and Janet's little clique. Hitch ushers them across the soundstage where the crew are assembling. VERA MILES Morning Janet. Morning Tony. Vera Miles marches up in her frumpy tweed suit and wig. VERA MILES (CONT'D) "Thanks" for the wardrobe, Hitch. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (already moving past her) That's hand-woven imported camel hair from Rodier. Don't you approve? VERA MILES You're the genius. She checkmates him with a ravishing smile. VERA MILES (CONT'D) One thing, though. My script is missing the last ten pages. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: (2) ALFRED HITCHCOCK Everyone's is. Until Alma finishes the revisions. Now hurry along, Vera. You're just in time for the oath. VERA MILES The what? He steers her towards a line of laughing CREW MEMBERS forming a circle with the rest of the cast. He takes Janet by the hand, placing her right next to him and officiously raises his right hand. The cast and crew duly follow suit, all except for Vera. ALFRED HITCHCOCK I solemnly promise... CREW I solemnly promise... ALFRED HITCHCOCK (ignoring Vera's sarcasm) That I will not divulge the plot nor the many secrets of Psycho... CREW That I will not divulge the plot nor the many secrets of Psycho... WE SEE VERA'S CROSSED FINGERS BEHIND HER BACK Then tilt up to Janet's look of mock disapproval. Vera pokes her tongue out. ALFRED HITCHCOCK To friends, relatives, trade reporters or columnists -- not even to outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower, God bless him. Everyone cracks up, but Hitchcock's only interested in the reaction of his new blonde, standing in pride of place, right beside him. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, KITCHEN - SAME TIME ALMA sits at the desk typing away at the revisions for "Psycho." -- we see the title page. A tiny solitary figure with nothing for company but a vase of wilting flowers... (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: She pauses, takes off her glasses and pushes aside her corrections, suddenly fed up with the all the work. She looks out at the swimming pool, sparkling in the sunlight... then turns to the expensive-looking SHOPPING BAG half-open on the side... We hear a LOUD SPLASH -- EXT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, POOL - DAY As Alma plunges into the water wearing her striking new swimsuit. She breaks into a front crawl. Her strokes are vigorous, surprisingly so. She drives the length of the pool, her arms slashing through the water with increasing speed, her feet kicking out with rising intensity... harder and harder... faster and faster... INT. SOUNDSTAGE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY Hitch guides Janet and Tony across the sound stage to the set of Norman's parlor. ANTHONY PERKINS Now, Hitch, explain to me why I'm watching Marion undress? JANET LEIGH I feel like I should take offense at that. She and Tony laugh. Hitch's eyes light up at this display of mischief from her. ALFRED HITCHCOCK I don't know...Perhaps as a boy, Norman secretly watched his mother preparing for her nightly bath. JANET LEIGH Maybe there was a transom over the bathroom door? ALFRED HITCHCOCK Yes -- one he could access with a chair so long as he was stealthy. JANET LEIGH Well, a boy's first glimpse of a naked woman is usually his mother. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ANTHONY PERKINS So...I'm reliving the past, repeating a ritual with Marion? ALFRED HITCHCOCK You're the actor. You figure it out. Tony flinches at Hitch's brusque response. They arrive at the set wall, where Hitch removes a painting to reveal the PEEPHOLE. JANET LEIGH Hitch, I have a question. Why is the hole much larger on this side? ALFRED HITCHCOCK All the better to see you at the greatest possible angle my dear... Janet simply steps up and presses her face to the hole. Hitch studies her profile, quietly thrilled at her curiosity. Tony hangs back, watching Hitch watching her... JANET LEIGH Wow. You really do your research, don't you? ALFRED HITCHCOCK It's just my Jesuit work ethic. He takes a quick peek through the hole now too...then puts the painting carefully back into place over it. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (PRE-LAP) (CONT'D) The truth is... I'm only happy when I'm working... INT. PSYCHIATRIST'S OFFICE, BEVERLY HILLS - DAY Hitch lies on his Analyst's couch. ALFRED HITCHCOCK ... and if I'm not working then I'm nothing. I'm not even a person. I'm just a collection of molecules. A useless cylinder of ugly flesh. The Analyst circles one of his notes on a pad with his Montblanc. Again, we notice how rough-hewn his hands are. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ANALYST'S VOICE (O.S.) What about your mother? Let's go back to her. ALFRED HITCHCOCK My mother? Yes. Hitch looks over at the unseen analyst and considers him. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) She was an extraordinary person. She exposed me to Ibsen, Strindberg, Shaw. She hoped I would go into engineering -- carry a lunch pail, gold watch at fifty. ANALYST'S VOICE (O.S.) She didn't approve of your career? ALFRED HITCHCOCK To her, movie people were akin to thieves and prostitutes. He turns back to look out the window. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) If I misbehaved, she'd make me stand at the foot of her bed and discuss how I planned to become a better boy. The Analyst leans forward and we see his dirty, worn-down fingernails. ANALYST'S VOICE (O.S.) Have you ever considered that your deep desire to gain the approval of your industry represents a textbook case of transference? (THEN) The Oscar is your mother. REVEAL THE ANALYST It's ED GEIN. In his Sunday best, his shovel leaning against the mahogany-paneled wall in the background. ALFRED HITCHCOCK You're a fine one to talk. INT. WARDROBE FITTING ROOM, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY Hitchcock leads Janet to a row of brassieres, all laid out for inspection. They are all white with recognizable labels: Berlei, Triumph, Marks & Spencer. He picks out one of them. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALFRED HITCHCOCK You will be wearing a white bra like this for the opening scene on the bed. And then after you've stolen the money... They move on to a second row of brassieres - all dark. JANET LEIGH I switch to one of these. He nods, correct. She moves over to a mannequin displaying the iconic jet black brassiere. RITA RIGGS Are you sure you don't want to look at something a little more elegant? HITCHCOCK (SHARP) No. They have to look like they were bought at Sears and Roebuck. I want every woman in the audience to look up at Janet having sex with John Gavin and think, `that could be me'. Janet reads the label. It's "Maidenform." JANET This is the brand I wear. Hitch digests the information and turns to Rita. HITCHCOCK We're ready for a fitting. As Rita starts to measure Janet's chest, Hitchcock lifts his hands and `frames' her... ALFRED HITCHCOCK (V.O. PRE-LAP) We travel across the rooftops of downtown Phoenix and finally, through the heat, pick out a certain hotel window... INT. SOUNDSTAGE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY Close on Hitchcock's FRAMING HANDS as they now travel up to an open window with blinds half down... ALFRED HITCHCOCK We go under the blinds and match dissolve into the room itself... INT. SOUNDSTAGE, BEDROOM SET - LATER HITCHCOCK'S HANDS have now become THE CAMERA, recording the scene already underway and now watched by HITCHCOCK, his DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY and CREW from across the stage... ALFRED HITCHCOCK (V.O.) We pan over and discover John and Janet on the bed. ...the camera moves to Janet and John making out on the bed. It's serious stuff. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) She'll be wearing only her undergarments and a large glow of satisfaction... JANET smiles up at John contentedly. ON HITCH watching from his directing chair. Peggy stands next to him. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Cut. PEGGY Good luck getting this one past the censor. EXT. STUDIO GATES, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY Alma drives the gleaming black Cadillac through the UNIVERSAL GATES and pulls up to the production office outside the stage. EXT. HITCHCOCK OFFICE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY Alma collects the script pages off the front seat and walks into the production office just missing Whit as he strolls back towards the writers building with a couple of pretty SECRETARIES. Whit pauses when he spots the Hitchcocks' CADILLAC. WHITFIELD COOK You girls go on ahead. The PRETTIEST ONE stops to make Whit light her cigarette before catching up with the others. INT. HITCHCOCK OFFICE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY Peggy reads the final pages while Alma inspects the production boards. PEGGY If you ask me, the credits should read "Screenplay by Joseph Stefano and Alma Reville." ALMA The people who matter know. That's all that counts. As she makes a few more changes to the schedule. Alma turns to Peggy whose face tightens as she continues reading. Clearly it's strong stuff. PEGGY I'd hate to see Shurlock's face when he reads this. She puts the pages down. PEGGY (CONT'D) Alma, you always know the answer. Is this really going to work? A candid moment between the two women... but Alma doesn't answer, just leaves. EXT. HITCHCOCK OFFICE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY Alma emerges into the sunshine and looks across at the soundstage, wondering whether she should go over there... WHITFIELD COOK Hello, stranger. She turns to see Whit leaning against the Cadillac. ALMA Whit. WHITFIELD COOK Where have you been hiding yourself? ALMA I've been doing the revisions on... She points to the PSYCHO HOUSE on the ridge. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: WHITFIELD COOK Psycho. (THEN) And how is the old boy? ALMA In a state of unbridled ecstacy now that he's back on the set. WHITFIELD COOK And you? How are you? ALMA Not bad. I've got eight hundred words to do for Reader's Digest on what it's like to be married to a man obsessed by murder. He looks at her a moment. WHITFIELD COOK I've got a better idea. He steps closer. WHITFIELD COOK (CONT'D) Why don't we drive out to Santa Barbara? We'll have Emilio fry up those juicy steaks we like at El Encanto. He playfully tugs at her sleeve. WHITFIELD COOK (CONT'D) No shoptalk ... No silly magazine articles...just a wonderful meal... Alma's expression gives away nothing as we pan over to the WINDOW of the production office and notice the tell-tale BEND in the blinds. INT. HITCHCOCK OFFICE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - SAME TIME Hitch looks out at Whit and Alma through the window, just like he did with the other couple earlier. Except this little interaction is far from dull. A.D. HILTON GREEN We're ready for you on the set, Mr. Hitchcock. ALFRED HITCHCOCK I'll be right there. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: But Hitch doesn't move. A.D. HILTON GREEN Mr. Hitchcock? INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, FOYER - DAY ALMA enters the silent, empty house smiling to herself. She walks through to - INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, KITCHEN - DAY - and puts the grocery bags down on the counter. She listens. The house is eerily quiet, until, from behind -- ALFRED HITCHCOCK Was there a line at the market? Alma looks up, but doesn't turn round, well used to Hitch's cryptic ways. ALMA No. Actually, I'm back sooner than I expected. She puts on an apron and gets to work, preparing dinner. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Would you like a cocktail? He heads for the liquor cabinet. ALMA No. (he starts to head off) And you shouldn't either. Hitchcock stops. Pulls out a CELERY STICK from one of the bags and bites it. ALMA (CONT'D) Those haven't been washed yet. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CHEWING) I don't care. (THEN) I was filming all day with John Gavin -- a good-looking chap but, really, plywood is more expressive. His love scene with Janet may be most horrifying thing in the picture. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: He takes another BITE, searching her face for some tell-tale sign of guilt. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Even your friend Whitfield Cook would be better in the scene. ALMA You should tell Whit that. He'd be flattered. She gets to work preparing a salad. Hitch studies the back of her tiny, vulnerable neck, the delicate sinews and muscles as they rise and flex. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, BEDROOM - NIGHT Hitch arranges his pillows and settles into bed while Alma finishes getting ready. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Maybe I was too dismissive about your friend Whitfield's book. Perhaps he and Elizabeth could come over this weekend and he can walk me through it. Alma's radar activates but Hitch continues oh-so- nonchalantly. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Lovely woman, Elizabeth... He carefully folds his blanket as if wrapping a murder victim. She's not exactly sure what he's implying but she knows she doesn't like it. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) I was hoping you could come by the set tomorrow. ALMA I'll see how my day shapes up. She turns onto her side away from him. Pulls the blankets around her, her eyes still WIDE OPEN. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (PRE-LAP) You think you can get away with it but you can't... Alma's eyes become HITCHCOCK'S EYES, staring ahead intently. INT. SOUNDSTAGE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - CAR SCENE - DAY ALFRED HITCHCOCK ... You think they can't tell... but they can. They know. It's all closing in on you. The noose is tightening... As he continues, we pull back and see: THE REAR-PROJECTION SET Janet emotes for Hitchcock's CAMERA while "driving" a PARTIAL CAR, being rocked by STAGE HANDS. Peggy and other CREW time and mark the takes. ELECTRICIANS AND GAFFERS turn mounted lamps that rake across Janet's worried face like car headlights. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) You could return the money secretly, but what would be the point? He wipes his brow, getting more intense... ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) You, Marion Crane. The prim and proper girl who's always been so tight and respectable. So perfect and untouchable. Well, they know all about your dirty little secret, don't they? Your messy, sticky lunchtime trysts. Yes, your boss Mr. Lowery could even smell the sex on YOU-- SUDDENLY THE REAR SCREEN film breaks and a frame burns. It's a good thing because Janet is starting to look a little uncomfortable -- was that meant to be funny? As technicians yell and hustle, Hitchcock turns to Peggy -- ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Circle that. INT. JANET LEIGH'S DRESSING ROOM - DAY As Janet gets changed, Vera hangs up her frumpy coat on a rack, looking over a little enviously at Janet's good girl/bad girl underwear hanging nearby. VERA MILES Have you talked to him much about your personal life? (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: JANET LEIGH Not really... VERA MILES I'd keep it that way if I were you. (Off Janet's look) He starts by choosing your hairstyle and clothes and then he wants to choose your friends and decide how many children you should have. Janet finds this a little hard to believe. Vera leans in, lowering her voice. VERA MILES (CONT'D) That poor, tortured soul Jimmy Stewart played in Vertigo? That's Hitch, only younger, slimmer and better-looking. That may well be true but it doesn't bother Janet. JANET LEIGH Compared to Orson Welles, he's a sweetheart. They both turn, sensing something -- and see HITCHCOCK'S DISTINCTIVE SHADOW PROFILE in the hallway. The shadow lingers, then recedes like in a scary ghost story. VERA MILES (WHISPERS) See? He's always watching. They laugh nervously. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, LIVING ROOM - SAME TIME Alma comes in from her gardening, and settles on the sofa with a cup of tea, a circled copy of TV Guide next to her. On television -- the 1950 Hitchcock classic Stage Fright. The credits come up: "Screenplay by Whitfield Cook, Adaptation by Alma Reville." Alma watches, thrilled at the sight of her name and Whit's together. ON THE TV The words "DIRECTED BY ALFRED HITCHCOCK" overwhelm the small screen. Alms puts down her fork, no longer hungry. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, HALLWAY - DAY ALMA heads back to the kitchen, only to pause at the open door to Hitch's study -- there's something on the desk. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, STUDY - CONTINUOUS THE HITCHCOCK BLONDES Hitch's personal collection. Alma enters and starts to go through them. Each photo is turned over a little more roughly than the last. It's hard to tell whether she's more angry at the photos or the fact that they've been deliberately left for her to find... Alma takes off an earring, picks up the phone and starts to dial... INT. SOUNDSTAGE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - SAME TIME As the crew prepares the car set to go again, Hitch strides over to PEGGY who's dialing a phone. ALFRED HITCHCOCK What's the hold up? PEGGY It's still engaged. He takes the phone himself just as Vera Miles emerges from her dressing room, script in hand. VERA MILES Hitch, I'm stuck on Lila's first scene. I don't know how strongly I should confront Sam and the detective and I -- ALFRED HITCHCOCK (ACIDLY) Fake it. He turns his back on her and dials. The ENGAGED TONE blares in his ear. His eyes narrow at some crew members fussing with bits of LIGHT and SOUND EQUIPMENT. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Does it really require two men to carry a light stand? A.D. HILTON GREEN I'll take care of it right away, Mr. Hitchcock. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: He rushes off to fix it. Off Peggy's questioning look. ALFRED HITCHCOCK It's different when their pay is coming out of your own pocket. He raps the receiver button, more intensely this time, and redials. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, STUDY - DAY But Alma's still on the phone to Whit, basking in his charm. Her feet are up. There's a drink in her hand. WHITFIELD COOK (ON PHONE) Well, I think that sounds like a fabulous idea. We'll have a late lunch. I'll make the reservation for one thirty. ALMA What would I do without you? WHITFIELD COOK Till then, bye. She hangs up, toying with her earring, feeling better already when the PHONE rings again very quickly. She picks up without even thinking -- ALMA (LAUGHING) What did you forget now? INT. SOUNDSTAGE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - CONTINUOUS Pudgy fingers clench the coiled PHONE CORD as we move up to Hitch's face. He's silent as a burglar, not even daring to breathe... ALMA (ON PHONE) Whit? Is that you? The blood drains from Hitch's face as he very slowly and carefully replaces the receiver. His mind starts to spin. He's got to get out of there... CROSSING THE STAGE Hitch lurches towards the production office, starting to sweat, but his path is blocked by GRIPS laying cables. The set is suddenly a cacophony of noise and chaos. A PR FLACK appears -- (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: PR FLACK Mr. Hitchcock, every press outlet is driving us crazy for photos -- Hitch brushes past him to find another route but more grips are moving a ladder. He turns, kicks a platter of healthy snacks out of the way, only for an ARCLIGHT to swivel in his face and blind him. PEGGY Are you okay? You've gone very pale. Peggy's face suddenly comes into focus. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Stop trailing me like a puppy dog and get me something long, cool and wet. PEGGY It's not even three. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Give me the key! He snatches it and pushes past her, leaving her flat. EXT. SOUNDSTAGE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY - CONTINUOUS HITCH exits the soundstage doors, only to find the humorless face of BARNEY BALABAN blocking his office door. BARNEY BALABAN Hello, Hitch. How's the picture? I'm hearing interesting things... ALFRED HITCHCOCK It's a wonder you can hear anything over the noise coming from the Shurlock office. Balaban offers up his handkerchief. Hitchcock waves it away even though he's now covered in sweat. BARNEY BALABAN I shouldn't be in a position of just hearing things, Hitch. It's time you showed me some footage. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Why? (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: BARNEY BALABAN To see if you're making a picture Paramount can actually release. ALFRED HITCHCOCK As you well know, Barney, my contract guarantees me final cut. BARNEY BALABAN Your contract also says Paramount isn't required to distribute any film that could cause us embarrassment. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Unlike the last five Martin and Lewis pictures you're all so proud of. He slams the door in Balaban's startled face. INT. HITCHCOCK'S OFFICE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - CONTINUOUS Hitchcock loosens his collar and catches a glimpse of himself in a mirror. He's unraveling and it shows. BARNEY BALABAN (O.S.) I demand to see some footage, Hitch. Hitch lowers the window blinds over Balaban's face and fumbles for the phone. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Connect me to Maxim's of Paris. He takes the key and opens the liquor cabinet ignoring the INSISTENT KNOCKING at the door -- ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) (ON PHONE) Yes, it's Alfred Hitchcock in Hollywood, California, Jean-Claude. I need three pounds of foie gras sent on the next flight out. (THEN) That's correct. Three. He pours himself five fingers of scotch. EXT. PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY - DAY A majestic view of the coastline as Whitfield Cook's Cream MERCEDES 190CL, zooms along, top down. Alma wears white- rimmed sunglasses and a head scarf. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: Whitfield, in true Hitchcock leading man style, has the perfect amount of wind blowing through his hair. WHITFIELD COOK Those steaks haven't changed at all, have they? ALMA It's so nice not to have to take care of someone, even if it's just for an hour or two. She takes in the sparkling scenery whipping past. ALMA (CONT'D) Whit, where are we going? You still haven't told me. WHITFIELD COOK I have a little surprise. ALMA A surprise. How fun. Whit just smiles as he jams the acceleration and the car ROARS off down the highway. EXT. HITCHCOCK'S OFFICE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY Hitch stands in the parking lot tapping his foot impatiently near the parked Ford Fairlaine police car used in `PSYCHO'. Janet watches him, sitting behind the wheel of her VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE. After a moment she toots her horn and drives up. JANET LEIGH What happened to your driver? ALFRED HITCHCOCK I've been asking myself the same thing. She smiles. JANET LEIGH I can give you a ride if you want. Hitchcock raises an eyebrow at the tiny car, and then, with great effort inches his massive frame through the open door. INT. CAR - MOVING - DAY ALFRED HITCHCOCK Did you know Adolf Hitler sketched the design for this car on Ferdinand Porsche's cocktail napkin in a Berlin beer garden? JANET LEIGH I didn't. She turns to see Hitch wedged uncomfortably into his seat. ALFRED HITCHCOCK It's only now that I truly appreciate just how diabolical Herr Hitler was. She notices him eyeing the half-eaten bag of CANDY CORN on the dashboard (the kind Norman Bates enjoys throughout "Psycho".) ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) May I? JANET LEIGH Help yourself. (letting him in on it) I pinched them from Tony's dressing room. He takes one and chews it curiously. ALFRED HITCHCOCK So this is what they eat at the drive- ins... He takes the whole bag and sets to work, popping them in one after the other. JANET LEIGH I thought you only ate Fauchon chocolate. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Needs must when the devil drives, my dear. He's so deadpan but now there's no way to tell if he's joking or not. She puts the car into gear, sensing his despair. EXT. SANTA BARBARA BEACH - DAY TWO PAIRS OF FEET (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: nesting in the sand. Alma and Whit sit out watching the surf. The water laps over their toes. ALMA I don't mind that he uses his obsession to fuel his art. I just don't like it when he uses it against me. WHITFIELD COOK He's like any great artist. Impossible to live with but worth the effort. (he throws a rock into the SEA) Van Gogh wasn't exactly a walk in the park either. ALMA Did you know when we started out I was his boss? He didn't even dare ask me out until he'd worked his way up to assistant director. Whit watches as she picks up some sand, lets it run through her fingers... WHITFIELD COOK What do you think of that place over there? He nods to a SMALL BEACH HOUSE up the way. ALMA Looks nice. Terrific location. Why? WHITFIELD COOK It's mine. She looks at him askance. Is he joking? ALMA I just saw Elizabeth. Why on earth didn't she tell me? WHITFIELD COOK She doesn't know about it. EXT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE - DAY The sun is setting on the Hitchcocks' driveway. The VW pulls to a stop in front of the front door. INSIDE THE CAR (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: Janet looks over -- decides to risk it. JANET LEIGH So what did happen between you and Vera? ALFRED HITCHCOCK I was going to make her star. But she chose the life of a housewife. He stops chewing. We push in as his features turn reflective. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) I cast her as the lead in Vertigo. Then two weeks before filming she told me was pregnant. He screws up the empty bag of candy and looks over at Janet. Then, almost like a child -- ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Why do they do it? Why do they always betray me? ON JANET As she looks across and sees the lonely abandoned little boy just sitting there... EXT. SANTA BARBARA BEACH - SUNSET Alma enters the beach house cautiously and looks around. It is old and falling apart with only a few functional furnishings. WHITFIELD COOK I'm just leasing it for the offseason. A place to get away from the wife and kid and write. ALMA Very Bohemian. WHITFIELD COOK You might find that room interesting. Alma looks. The door is partially open -- she sees the one conspicuously new item of furniture. A double bed. ALMA Whit. I hope you haven't got the wrong idea. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: He gives her a rakish grin, then pushes the door open further to reveal the deck beyond. TWO MAUVE CORONA TYPEWRITERS Sit on a table facing each other. WHITFIELD COOK If you were serious about helping me adapt my book, I thought it would be the perfect hideaway. She lets this sink in, entranced by the incredible view and the crashing surf. Then, she steps out onto the deck and up to one of the typewriters. Gives the key an approving TAP. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, FOYER - DAY Hitch enters the empty house at dusk. The dogs greet him. He listens a moment... then walks through to the study. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, STUDY - CONTINUOUS Hitch pours himself a brandy and downs it in one. He goes to pour himself a second, when he notices something on the desk. It's his collection of PHOTOS by the TELEPHONE. They're all neatly stacked. With a SINGLE GOLD EARRING on top. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, BEDROOM - NIGHT Hitch lies in bed, his thoughts racing as he waits for Alma to come home. Finally, the sound of the car comes up the driveway. He turns onto his side and pulls up the blankets, listening to the sound of the front door ... and Alma's footsteps down the hall. She quietly slips into the bathroom and shuts the door before turning the light on. He watches her shadow through the strip of light at the bottom of door. When the bathroom light switches off again Hitch hurriedly closes his eyes. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: Alma emerges in her nightgown and stops at his bedside, peering down on him. She's not completely sure that he's actually awake, but she suspects. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, BEDROOM - NIGHT (LATER) Hitch eases himself up and looms over Alma to make sure she is safely asleep. He silently picks up her HANDBAG and takes it to the window. Using the moonlight he searches its contents. Car keys. Lipstick. Purse. And the first few pages of a story outline: "TAXI TO DUBROVNIK" The pages vibrate in his hand as his gaze lowers to reveal the rest of the TITLE PAGE: "STORY TREATMENT BY WHITFIELD COOK & ALMA REVILLE." INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, KITCHEN - NIGHT (LATER) A GLISTENING MOUND OF FOIE GRAS spooned into Hitchcock's mouth straight from the MAXIM'S OF PARIS tin. Hitch stands in the glare of the open fridge, a beast feeding in its cave, shoving in mouthful after mouthful. It's almost pornographic in its indulgence. GEIN steps out of the shadows and puts a comforting hand on Hitch's shoulder. We hear the civilized CLINK of cutlery against china... INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, DINING ROOM - DAY Hitch and Alma sit at the table having lunch. Alma eats a pork chop while Hitch defiantly nibbles at his healthy salad. He has a nice big glass of red wine which Alma ignores. ALFRED HITCHCOCK So I read your finished treatment. "Taxi to -- " Where was it? ALMA Dubrovnik. ALFRED HITCHCOCK That's it. Dubrovnik. Care to hear my opinion? ALMA Yes. Naturally. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALFRED HITCHCOCK There's no other way of saying it. It's stillborn. Dead in the water. Alma blinks, unable to hide her shock. ALMA How so? ALFRED HITCHCOCK (with mock compassion) The plot's a muddle. Some of the jokes are awfully like things we already did better hundreds of years ago in The Lady Vanishes. And your villain is weak. But the biggest failure is the relationship between the hero and heroine. He picks up a radish and bites into it. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) If you weren't so smitten with your friend Whitfield cook you'd probably see that. Alma is entirely stunned. Hitchcock has delivered the killer blow he intended. He gets up and goes over to the garden door. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Women never really care to face the truth when their hearts are involved, do they? As he steps out into the garden -- ALMA How would you know what really goes on between a man and a woman? EXT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, GARDEN - CONTINUOUS Hitch searches his pockets for his lighter but can't find it. His annoyance only increases when he notices the SCATTERED LEAVES `contaminating` the surface of the pool. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Look at this mess. He grabs the net and starts scooping them out. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Bloody belt-tightening. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: He can't get the net into the inflow filter so he gets down on his hands and knees and starts PULLING OUT the leaves with his hands. ALMA watches from the window... then turns away. HITCH Pulls out handful after handful of wet leaves, clawing away at them like a madman... A TEMPERATURE DIAL INCHES INTO THE RED INT. SOUNDSTAGE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - SET Stage hands and engineers test a row of HOT WATER TANKS installed on the set. WE FOLLOW the sound of rushing water through a PIPE as it snakes across the set floor and passes through a fake wall to A SHOWER HEAD Unleashing a stream of STEAMING HOT WATER. The SET HAND gives the thumbs up. SET HAND Tell the boss we're ready. INT. SOUNDSTAGE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY Peggy and A.D. Hilton Green exchange a glance as Hitchcock paces up and down in the corridor, eager to get to work. ALFRED HITCHCOCK What's the hold-up? Call time was two hours ago. Peggy nervously knocks on Janet's door and peers inside -- INT. JANET LEIGH'S DRESSING ROOM - DAY Rita Riggs is hard at work molding MOLESKIN PATCHES to Janet's nipples. JANET LEIGH And you're sure this moleskin will stay put? RITA RIGGS Mr. Hitchcock promised. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: Neither woman looks convinced but they proceed with blind faith. JANET LEIGH It better. I'm going to be taking a shower all week. As Janet slips on her robe, a MOLESKIN TRIANGLE PLOPS onto the floor. Rita and Janet share a worried look. EXT. BEACH HOUSE, SANTA BARBARA - DAY Alma sits at her typewriter while Whit stares off, looking a little uncertain. ALMA Forget what Hitch said. He's just feeling his age. He'll come around. WHITFIELD COOK But he's right. It does need more feeling. Alma ponders the problem. Finally -- ALMA So why don't we put some in? She gets to her feet and starts to pace... ALMA (CONT'D) All we need is a better catalyst. Some innocuous little trigger to release all that underlying desire. The soothing sound of the ocean gives way to the relentless HISS of SHOWER WATER -- INT. SOUNDSTAGE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - MOTEL SHOWER SET - DAY Janet nervously removes her bathrobe and heads toward the MOCK SHOWER STALL. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Good morning. He takes her hand and guides her into position. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) As I explained earlier, this scene will be made up of many shots from Mr. Bass's boards. A series of looks - actions... (MORE) (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Well, you're the professional. You'll know how to do it. Around them, the crew frantically finalize the CAMERA and LIGHT SETUPS. MALE CREW MEMBERS look uncomfortable and excited by the unprecedented sight of a virtually nude movie star. Saul Bass comes over with his boards and Hitch and he discuss the planned shot a moment. FIRST A.D. HILTON GREEN Tony's stunt double is ready. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Ah. There's our murderess. Into frame steps Anthony Perkins' FEMALE STUNT DOUBLE, MARGO, wearing a gingham dress, silver wig and BLACK MAKEUP TO MASK HER FACE. She wields a large PROP KNIFE and almost blocks our view of Janet in the white-tiled stall. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) (TO JANET) Are you ready for our little bloodbath? JANET LEIGH My mother always said, "Have confidence in yourself and you can lick anything." Hitchcock takes Janet's hand, and with tremendous sincerity : ALFRED HITCHCOCK My mother used to say the same thing. (THEN) Let's go for a take. Quiet everyone. Over and over, Margo attacks with the knife and Janet tries deflecting the blows but both women are timid and Janet is clearly guarding her modesty and covering her body. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Cut. More intensely. Let's go again. Margo's KNIFE comes at Janet uncertainly and every which way. Naked and exposed, Janet defends against the knife blows as they come at her but Margo's still pulling her punches-- ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) No. More angry. You are possessed with unbridled homicidal rage. (LEAPING UP) Cut. Cut camera. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: (2) He charges over to Margo to demonstrate the savage stabbing gesture he demands. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Does no one understand what I'm trying to accomplish here? I'm older than anyone on this stage and I'm still standing. Everyone falls silent, unsure how to respond. Hitchcock HOLDS OUT HIS HAND. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Give me the knife. Margo places the knife in Hitchcock's palm. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Props. Bring in more blood. A FEMALE MAKEUP ASSISTANT squirts more CHOCOLATE SYRUP "blood" onto Janet from a PLASTIC BOTTLE OF BOSCO. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Roll camera. As the scene is marked, we see Hitchcock's anxiety. There is NO SOUND except Hitchcock's ragged breathing. CREW MEMBER Ready, sir. Hitchcock nods. The camera whirs. Hitchcock hoists the knife into the air with terrifyingly convincing power and malevolence. THE SHOWER CURTAIN GETS YANKED BACK -- We see in the shower from Hitchcock's POV not Janet but GEOFFREY SHURLOCK. Hitchcock SLASHES the censor a killer blow that sends him reeling. THE SHOWER CURTAIN GETS YANKED BACK AGAIN -- Shurlock is replaced by BARNEY BALABAN. Hitchcock stabs him with unleashed fury and hate. THE SHOWER CURTAIN GETS YANKED BACK AGAIN -- WHIT turns, he's naked and smiling. Hitch plunges the knife into his back, and he drops, revealing ALMA, arms around his waist. THE SHOWER CURTAIN GETS YANKED BACK AGAIN -- We're back in the real moment -- JANET LEIGH SCREAMING as she gives the `performance' of a lifetime. Hitchcock stops stabbing. His heart pounds. He's soaked with sweat. The only sound is the drip-drip-drip of the shower... ON HITCH As he realizes EVERYONE is staring at him. He straightens his tie, attempting to regain some semblance of control. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Print. We've got it. He exits quickly. Rita escorts the shaken and exhausted Janet off set, passing Vera who's witnessed the whole thing. She's wearing a bathrobe. Janet gives her a look as if to say `Now I understand.' INT. HITCHCOCK'S OFFICE - UNIVERSAL REVUE - CONTINUOUS Hitch shuts his office door and leans back against it. He closes his eyes, nauseated and dizzy. He doesn't even need to open them to know who's there, waiting for him. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Not now, Ed. It's really not a good time. He staggers towards the water cooler, fumbling for a cup. Ed steps forward and pours him some water, pats his shoulder. ED GEIN You just can't keep this stuff bottled up. But before Hitch can drink it he crashes to the floor. EXT. HITCHCOCK'S OFFICE - UNIVERSAL REVUE - SAME TIME Peggy and Perkins to react to the noise... HITCHCOCK'S OFFICE - UNIVERSAL REVUE - SAME TIME They come through the door to see Hitch lying on the floor. He looks like he's dead. PEGGY Oh God... (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: Peggy rushes forward to help. Perkins just stands and stares, as if paralysed in some Freudian nightmare. A TELEPHONE starts to ring. EXT. BEACH HOUSE, SANTA BARBARA - DAY It is inside the beach house, and partially drowned out by the sound of the crashing waves. Alma and Whit are on the deck, acting out the scene as they write, too engrossed to notice. WHITFIELD COOK What if Helen and Michael try and get into the cab at the same time? ALMA Even better, what if they reached for the cab door at exactly the same time? Alma demonstrates so that their hands touch. ALMA (CONT'D) That way, we could start close on the hands... (tracking the movement) ... and then tilt up to the eyes. They stare into each other's eyes, lips just inches apart... WHITFIELD COOK That feels better already. Finally, the phone intrudes. ALMA Are you going to get that? With some effort, Whit goes inside and picks it up. WHITFIELD COOK (O.S.) Hullo?... Yes... Hold on. He comes outside, holding out the receiver for Alma. WHITFIELD COOK (CONT'D) It's for you. INT. HITCHCOCK'S OFFICE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY Peggy grips the phone, her face full of concern. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: PEGGY I know you told me only to call in an emergency, but I'm not sure how else to describe this. Hitch lies slumped on the floor. A compress over his forehead. His head lolls to one side as he slips in and out of consciousness... FADE TO BLACK. INT. SOUNDSTAGE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY Disarray on the set. MARTIN BALSAM watches as SAUL BASS, cameraman JACK RUSSELL and A.D. HILTON GREEN argue about the best way to proceed with the staircase sequence. Hitch is conspicuous by his absence. As they bicker we find Tony Perkins off to one side, sitting in his Mrs. Bates costume, unable to cope. He puts the wig back on his head. There, that feels better... Balsam's finally had it with all the arguing. He walks off past Peggy who's arriving with the PHONE. MARTIN BALSAM It's official. The inmates are running the asylum. Peggy hands Hilton the phone. PEGGY Hilton. I have Mr. Hitchcock for you. She gives him a warning look. "Watch out. He's in a terrible mood." He waves away her concern. It can't be that bad. HILTON GREEN Hey there, Hitch. We're still working on it. (looking over at the CONTINUING ARGUMENT) Everyone misses you. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, BEDROOM - SAME TIME Hitch, in bed and sick as a dog, has the script, notes and boards on a bed tray. The phone receiver is pressed to his ears. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALFRED HITCHCOCK I've told Peggy and now I'm going to tell you. You have to get this sequence shot today. What's the hold up? HILTON GREEN We tried it ten different ways and it looks terrible. Why don't we use inserts? ALFRED HITCHCOCK No. It has to be a high angle. You'll tip off the big surprise! Just get the process shot. Hitch slams down the phone. INT. SOUNDSTAGE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - CONTINUOUS ON HILTON Still clutching the phone, a little nonplussed. Peggy gives him a look: "What did I tell you." INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, BEDROOM - SAME TIME Alma removes the phone from Hitch's grasp. Touches his forehead. ALMA No more phone calls. You're burning up. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Burning up our money. We're two days behind and I'm stuck in bed. Hitch swings his legs out of the bed. ALMA Where do you think you're going? ALFRED HITCHCOCK To the set. We can't afford to lose any more time. Two more days of this and the whole production goes under. He shakily tries to get to his feet. ALMA You stay in bed. I'll deal with it. ALFRED HITCHCOCK I'd hate to take you away from your writing partner. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: She pushes him back against the pillows. He's too weak to resist. ALMA Under the blankets. Now. INT. SOUNDSTAGE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY Crew members sit around eating donuts. Assistant director Hilton Green and cameraman Jack Russell are still arguing over the mechanics of the shot with more crew members joining in. It's near pandemonium. Then Alma steps in the door, and everything stops. Every crew member snaps to attention as Alma passes by. It's like the school principal arriving after the substitute teacher has lost control. ALMA Don't stop work because of me. I'm only here as one of the two people paying your salaries. Alma takes a seat in Hitch's DIRECTOR'S chair. As her eyes dart around the set, it's clear that she IS TAKING EVERYTHING IN. Peggy flanks her. ALMA (CONT'D) Scene? PEGGY One seventy three. ALMA Storyboards? Peggy hands the boards to Alma. She and Hilton quickly review the boards. ALMA (CONT'D) Start with the overhead. We'll cut before the fall. Then we'll put Martin in a chair under the camera. Hilton looks at Russell. Perfect. He sets ANTHONY PERKINS in his dress into place. ALMA (CONT'D) (to the cameraman) And that lens should be a thirty-five. Peggy mouths Alma a silent "THANK YOU" for restoring order. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, BEDROOM - DAY Hitchcock lies in bed, tossing and turning, the fever only making his thoughts darker and more obsessive. ED GEIN (O.S.) You forgot to look in the bathroom. Hitch notices the SHADOWY FIGURE standing at the end of his bed. ED GEIN (CONT'D) A man like you... Missing the vital clue like that... He blearily sits up and sees Gein's impassive rustic face. ALFRED HITCHCOCK What do you mean? Gein steps over to the bathroom and pushes open the door. ED GEIN My mother always said if you're going to do a job, do it right. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, BATHROOM - CONTINUOUS Hitchcock enters the immaculate white and chrome room and inspects it... but nothing seems out of place. ED GEIN Check the floor. He looks down but again, nothing. ED GEIN (CONT'D) Closer. Hitch gets down on his hands and knees. He runs his fingertips across the smooth white tiles. They start to COLLECT -- GRAINS OF SAND Sprinkled all over the floor. ED GEIN (CONT'D) You still think they're just writing together? Hitchcock's face hardens. His lip trembles. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ED GEIN (CONT'D) So what are you going to do about it? Hitch gets up, opens the medicine cabinet and takes out a BOTTLE OF BAYER ASPIRIN. He empties the tablets into the sink and very carefully, sweeps the SAND into the aspirin bottle. He caps it, slips it into his robe pocket and turns off the light. OMITTED INT. SOUNDSTAGE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - SAME TIME Alma spots the towering figure of Balaban stride onto the stage accompanied by a MAN in a cardigan. ALMA Barney. He sees her and bristles, clearly surprised to see her there. BARNEY BALABAN Alma. Alma takes in Balaban's companion, and the viewfinder round his neck. BARNEY You know David Kirkpatrick. He's working on Jerry Lewis' next picture. She does. They nod politely -- then stand there. BARNEY (CONT'D) So he's free to help... (a sly smile) if you need it... Silence. Just the bustle of crew members in the background. ALMA That won't be necessary. BARNEY But you're nearly three days behind. He takes a step towards Hitch's empty chair, but Alma moves to block his path. It may be a small gesture, but it's highly charged. Barney stares down at her. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: BARNEY BALABAN Alma. We both know what kind of film this is. (then, closer) The smart thing to do would be to help Hitch finish it. ALMA Thank you for your concern, Barney. She moves closer to him, holding his gaze, not bending one bit... ALMA (CONT'D) But on a Hitchcock picture, there is only one director. The anger flashes on his face as she faces him down, the entire crew behind her now, holding firm... EXT. SOUNDSTAGE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY Balaban, incensed, leaves the stage with Kirkpatrick. Alma steps out into the sunlight not far behind them. As she watches them leave, she lets out a breath. A voice calls out to her -- WOMAN'S VOICE Mrs. Hitchcock? She turns to see Janet walking over in Capri pants and a sleeveless top. She's carrying an elegantly wrapped package. JANET I hope you don't mind. I heard Hitch was sick so I got him a little something. She hands Alma the gift. A bag of candy corn tied with a ribbon. ALMA That's kind of you. JANET Well, he's been very considerate with me. (A BEAT) I haven't always had that from my directors. ALMA Janet, you've been very... professional. It hasn't gone unappreciated. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: Alma takes in Janet's unaffected natural beauty -- and her sincerity. She can't help but notice the second glances Janet is provoking from passers-by now... She's an impossible rival for any woman. BEETHOVEN'S 3RD SYMPHONY, `EROICA' Blares deafeningly... INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, BEDROOM - DAY On the stereo. Alma finds Hitch on the sofa swaddled in a blanket and eating ICE CREAM. ALMA May I turn that down? She silences the stereo. Hitch doesn't react. ALMA (CONT'D) You'll be pleased to know order has been restored. He still doesn't look at her, masticating loudly. ALMA (CONT'D) A thank you would be nice. ALFRED HITCHCOCK We're still two days behind and sixty thousand over budget. ALMA I already cancelled the wrap party. That'll save us two thousand right there. And you won't be tempted by any champagne and cake. She pulls at the bowl of ice cream. He refuses to let go. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Beware -- all men are potential murderers. She yanks it from his grip. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) With good reason. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALMA Alright, what's this about? He slowly pulls the ASPIRIN BOTTLE from his robe pocket, building suspense as he unscrews the lid and pours SAND into a tiny pile on the coffee table in front of him. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Spending a lot of time at the beach? He puts down the bottle, looking for a reaction. ALMA That's where Whit and I are writing. He's rented a place. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Hardly the ideal setting to avoid distractions. ALMA Actually, it's very conducive to creative collaboration. ALFRED HITCHCOCK I already told you -- that treatment is a waste of time. ALMA Didn't everyone say the same thing about "Psycho"? She reaches for the ASPIRIN BOTTLE to throw it away but Hitch grabs it first -- ALFRED HITCHCOCK Are you and Whit having an affair? ALMA Don't be absurd. He's working on something new and needs a little help, that's all. ALFRED HITCHCOCK What a coincidence. I'm working on something new and I could use a little help too. ALMA What do you think I've been doing? (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: (2) ALFRED HITCHCOCK Then why are you spending all hours of the day and night with some overage, talentless mamma's boy? ALMA Because it's fun. He quivers, livid. ALFRED HITCHCOCK I am under extraordinary pressures on this picture, the least you can do is give me your full support. ALMA Full support? We've mortgaged our house. My house. Alma's eyes flash with unaccustomed hurt and fury. ALMA (CONT'D) Might I remind you that I have weighed-in on every aspect of this film so far, as I have done on every picture you've done in the last three decades. And the first time you show the film, it will be my notes that you want. I celebrate with you if the reviews are good and I cry for you if they are not. I host your parties and put up with those fantasy romances with your leading ladies. And when you're out promoting this film around the world, I will stand beside or, rather, slightly behind you, smiling endlessly for the press even when I'm ready to drop, being gracious to people who look through me as if I were invisible because all they can see is the grand and glorious "Alfred Hitchcock." Hitchcock is stunned and silent. ALMA (CONT'D) Now, for the first time in years, I dare to work on something that isn't "an Alfred Hitchcock Production" and I'm met with accusation and criticisms. This work I'm doing with Whit gives me pleasure and purpose. (MORE) (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: (3) ALMA (CONT'D) And even though that takes absolutely nothing away from you, please consider this a reminder: I am your wife, Alma Reville, not one of the contract blondes you badger and torment with your oh-so- specific direction. She turns and, with great dignity, leaves Hitchcock sitting in the gathering gloom. He's not the only one who can deliver a killer blow. INT. SOUNDSTAGE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY ON HITCH with that same lost expression on his face, only now dark shadow and harsh light alternate across his features. A NAKED LIGHT BULB dangles from the ceiling as STAGE HANDS prepare the film's climactic scene in the cellar. Hitch watches as VERA reaches out to touch the shoulder of Mrs. Bates. We zoom in on her as she reacts in silent horror, her HAND flying up to hit the light bulb, throwing crazy shadows all over the set. We push in on Hitchcock's face as the strobing light briefly illuminates the image of - A SMALL BOY at the foot of his mother's bed. INT. VERA MILES' DRESSING ROOM - LATER A WIG on a stand. A frumpy woman's outfit on a hangar. Vera sits in front of the mirror and unties her own hair. VERA MILES Free at last. Rita collects Vera's detested wardrobe to take back to wardrobe. VERA MILES (CONT'D) Thanks Rita. Vera rubs cold cream into her face to remove her make-up. In the mirror, she sees Hitch in the doorway as Rita squeezes past him on her way out. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: VERA MILES (CONT'D) (wiping off her make-up with a Kleenex) Hello Hitch. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Well, Vera. You always make it look so easy. VERA MILES Oh, it was nothing, Hitch. I just faked it. She gives him a dazzlingly ambiguous Miss America smile. VERA MILES (CONT'D) Well, I guess this is au revoir... Hitch comes and stands behind her chair, gazing at her in the mirror. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Why didn't you stay with me? I would have made you as big a star as Grace Kelly. She considers the question and the man asking it, sensing something different about him now. She continues wiping off her make-up. VERA MILES Unlike Grace Kelly, I can pick up my dry cleaning. I've got a family, Hitch. A home. That will always mean more to me than all of this. (THEN) That blonde woman of mystery you're after? She's a fantasy. She doesn't exist. He studies her a moment. ALFRED HITCHCOCK There was a time when I thought I understood you so completely -- understood women.... Hitch gives a very slight bow, touches her on the shoulder, then leaves. Vera watches him go, struck by his rare show of vulnerability. EXT. BEACH HOUSE, SANTA BARBARA - DAY Wind blows sand off the dunes. Alma sits in the parked car outside the beach house, contemplating the typed pages on the seat next to her. An inkling that they may not be as magical as she had hoped. No matter. She checks her reflection in the rearview and applies some lipstick, readying herself. She collects the pages and heads up the steps to the deck. She sees two typewriters and paper, but no sign of Whit. Something doesn't feel right. She turns and in the bedroom, through the window, she sees Whitfield Cook making love to a young woman -- it is the pretty SECRETARY from the studio lot. Alma and Whit's eyes meet. Whit is horrified at being caught. Alma ducks her head, wheels around in shock. ALMA'S CAR She yanks open the door and gets in. Whit runs half dressed from the house... WHITFIELD COOK Alma, I thought you were coming later tonight. ALMA I thought you rented this place so we could write. WHITFIELD COOK I did. I swear -- this just happened. She struggles to get the key in the ignition. He puts his hand desperately on the car door. WHITFIELD COOK (CONT'D) You won't say anything, will you? ALMA Don't worry. I won't tell Elizabeth. WHITFIELD COOK I mean to Hitch. Whit smiles feebly. WHITFIELD COOK (CONT'D) We can't all be geniuses. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: Alma tries to hide what a body blow this is. WHITFIELD COOK (CONT'D) Alma -- you're incredibly talented. But, after all... we want him to read the script with an open mind. ALMA Oh, I wouldn't worry about that, Whit. She starts the car and drives off. Whit watches, deflated, knowing he's ruined everything, his receding figure swallowed up by flickering white light... INT. SCREENING ROOM, PARAMOUNT STUDIOS - DAY WE PLAY THIS SCENE ONLY OVER THE FACES OF A SMALL INVITED AUDIENCE -- THEIR EXPRESSIONS TELL US THAT THE FOOTAGE THEY ARE SEEING IS NOT GOING OVER WELL. NOT AT ALL. Lew sits with Barney Balaban and two executives. Lew discreetly checks his watch out of boredom. Shurlock and his two Assistants look appalled. Composer BERNARD HERRMANN, late 40s, prickly, sits in the back row looking suicidal. He glances back at Hitchcock who stands near the screening room door looking worse, if that could be possible. EXT. SCREENING ROOM, PARAMOUNT STUDIOS - LATER Shurlock exits and approaches Hitchcock who's waiting in the foyer. GEOFFREY SHURLOCK You're going to have to cut all that nudity. ALFRED HITCHCOCK What nudity? It was suggested. GEOFFREY SHURLOCK I definitely saw that knife jabbing her. ALFRED HITCHCOCK We did no such shot. GEOFFREY SHURLOCK I'd stake my reputation on it. I'm recommending you cut the shower scene entirely. Hitchcock is livid but holds his tongue. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALFRED HITCHCOCK I'll go over it frame by frame and set up another screening. But Shurlock is already walking away... Wasserman emerges from the screening room conversing with BALABAN. Hitch searches their expressions for some indication but Balaban strides off without saying a single word to him. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) What's the verdict? LEW WASSERMAN Let's just say it was a four-letter review and it wasn't `good'. The harsh reality devastates Hitchcock. LEW WASSERMAN (CONT'D) Screw him. It's too late for Paramount to back out no matter what Balaban says. Hitch just stands there. LEW WASSERMAN (CONT'D) The other route is to recut it as a two- parter for the TV series. Because of the budget and the Hitchcock name, we stand a good chance of breaking even. Still, Hitch doesn't say a word. LEW WASSERMAN (CONT'D) Look, I made Jimmy Stewart a millionaire of Winchester 73 and that was a dog. At least I could sit through your picture. Hitch stares bleakly off. He can't help noticing the KIM NOVAK-TYPE he spied on earlier outside, hand in hand and kissing her date. LEW WASSERMAN (CONT'D) More importantly, what does Alma think? INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, KITCHEN - DAY Alma sits with the Hitchcocks' ACCOUNTANT going over the books again, looking at the revised figures. They close the books and sit back and look at each other. ALMA Is there anything else we can do? (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: Silence. This time he can't bring himself to look her in the eye. ACCOUNTANT We'll just have to wait and see how the movie turns out. Alma gets up and crosses to the window. Stares out at the pool reflecting a leaden sky... and the clumps of dead leaves floating across its surface... ALMA Well, it is only a house. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, STUDY - NIGHT The dogs, GEOFFREY and STANLEY, lap away at a water bowl in the study. A splash or two of something is added to the bowl from above. It's being poured from Hitch's brandy glass. HITCH pours himself another glass, leaving the dogs lapping happily away as he goes over to the Steinway Grand. There's a bank of silver-framed PHOTOS on top. He pauses to take a proper look at them. His and Alma's life together in movies. Smiling at Premieres with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. On vacation with Jimmy and Gloria Stewart. At a black tie event with Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck. But it's the PHOTOGRAPH tucked away at the back that he wants to see most. A BLACK AND WHITE PUBLICITY STILL taken on the set of The Mountain Eagle in 1926. He picks it up and looks at it: The young Hitchcock in front of the camera, dramatically calling "Action!" on his first film. His eyes don't have to move far to find ALMA, standing just behind him, making notes on her clipboard, the same intense, serious look on her face. They look so young... Hitch turns to look out the window, thoughtful -- Hitch's POV. It's SNOWING outside. INT. GEIN HOUSE, BASEMENT - NIGHT We pull back to discover the window is now in a basement lit by a single oil lamp. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: We find Gein sitting at his workbench. Hitchcock is perched on a stool nearby watching him. Trash and newspapers are piled everywhere. There is grime and dark stains on the cabinets and counters. ED GEIN This is my favorite place. I just shut the doors and leave the world behind. Hitch watches Gein as he threads a needle, stitching something expertly together. He notices there's no hint of a tremble in Gein's hands. ED GEIN (CONT'D) Pass me that bag, will you? Hitch passes over the shopping bag... then pulls up his coat, feeling a chill. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Don't you get lonely out here sometimes? ED GEIN I can always talk to my mother. HEADLIGHTS SUDDENLY RAKE THE ROOM As we hear CARS pull up -- a lot of them. The sound of MEN, shouting. Flashing RED AND BLUE LIGHTS. LOUD KNOCKING at the DOOR -- ED GEIN (CONT'D) That's strange. FOOTSTEPS thunder above him. DOZENS OF OFFICERS are fanning out all over the house. CAPTAIN SCHOEPHOERSTER (O.S.) Jesus Christ. Hitch watches as Gein just sits there and the sound of SHOCKED reactions and horrified GASPS continue above... CAPTAIN SCHOEPHOERSTER (CONT'D) I think we found his hiding spot. ED GEIN (SOTTO VOCE) They can't go in there. That's my mother's room... (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: (2) CAR HEADLIGHTS blast through the window and Hitchcock finally sees the basement room properly for the first time; KNIVES of all shapes and sizes...JARS OF PRESERVED BODY PARTS...and TWO SEVERED HANDS, FOLDED IN PRAYER. FROM UPSTAIRS the sound of splintering wood. ED GEIN (CONT'D) They can't go in there! (CALLING OUT) That's my mother's room!! Ed springs to his feet, screaming it out as he BOLTS UPSTAIRS and the pandemonium continues (o.s.) WE PUSH IN ON HITCH'S FACE As the bleak reality of Gein's lair hits him... It's more profound and horrible than he could ever have imagined. A lush ROMANTIC SCORE starts to SWELL, mercifully drowning it all out... INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Titles from a dark 1946 romantic melodrama fill the screen. "THE SECRET HEART" "SCREENPLAY BY WHITFIELD COOK." Alma sits watching the afternoon movie alone, brushing the dogs on the sofa next to her. ANGLE ON DOORWAY Hitchcock reads Alma's fragile emotional state and enters. He sits down beside her and studies the screen for a moment. ALFRED HITCHCOCK An odd little movie. Of course, Colbert is wonderful. Alma nods. They watch for a beat longer. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) How was the beach? ALMA Cold and miserable. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALFRED HITCHCOCK Just like Barney Balaban's face. He indicates the over-ripe dialogue coming from the TV. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Whit isn't worth a damn when he's not working with you. (PAUSE) And neither am I. Alma takes in his reflective expression, but says nothing. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) I didn't pull off the picture this time. It just sits there, refusing to come to life. (THEN) There's no other way to say it... It's stillborn. ALMA turns away. Hitch sits there bereft in the lonely silence. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) I let you down, my love. He moves closer and takes her hand. Gives it a small squeeze. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) You deserved better. She still doesn't move. After a moment Hitch gets to his feet. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) I'll go and feed Geoffrey and Stanley, shall I. He exits with the dogs padding after him. She turns back to the screen and more of that stilted, mannered dialogue. Tears well in her eyes. EXT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE - NIGHT A full moon. The ONLY LIGHT from inside the house is the one in the kitchen. We glimpse the figure in the window. A corpulent man in profile, like a Hopper painting. INT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, KITCHEN - LATER Hitch sits in his nightgown, pushing some VEGETABLES around his plate -- his healthy midnight snack. Alma enters in her robe. Hitch watches her. She goes to the fridge, opens the PRODUCE DRAWER and from under the brussel sprouts pulls out a tiny hidden jar of BELUGA CAVIAR. She gets the crackers, a plate and a spoon and sits down at the table next to him. ALMA I don't think I can stand both of us being maudlin. She fixes several crackers, each with an appropriate dollop of caviar on top, and puts the plate in the middle. ALMA (CONT'D) There is one solution to all this, you know. She offers him one of the crackers. ALMA (CONT'D) We could both get to work -- together. Tentatively, Hitch accepts it. ALMA (CONT'D) That tiresome little Hitchcock imitation I've been helping Whit finish is done. Hitch remains quiet, delicately consuming his cracker. ALMA (CONT'D) So I suggest, for everyone's sake, we start whipping Psycho into shape tomorrow. You may not be the easiest man to live with but you know how to cut a picture better than anyone. Hitch puts the lid back on the caviar. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Except for you. INT. EDITING ROOM - NEXT DAY A series of quick shots as the editing room comes to life : CANS OF FILM ARE BROUGHT IN BY ASSISTANTS, STRIPS OF CELLULOID ARE PULLED OUT, INSPECTED AND MARKED WITH CHALK WHILE OTHERS ARE SPLICED TOGETHER. HITCH and editor GEORGE TOMASINI wait quietly like schoolboys, while Alma reviews the footage on the Moviola. ALMA You'll need to cut those six or seven frames where she blinks after she's supposed to be dead. ALFRED HITCHCOCK We've seen the footage a thousand times. She doesn't blink. Alma gives him a look ... INT. EDITING ROOM - LATER FILM HANGS EVERYWHERE IN BINS FOUR ASSISTANTS are working on MOVIOLAS. Alma and Hitch work their way down the line, inspecting each new assembly. ALMA (FIRST MOVIOLA) Take thirty frames off the head... ALFRED HITCHCOCK No, no, the second take, the light is better on his hands. ALMA (NEXT MOVIOLA) Only cut back to Janet once the car's already moving. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Cut it tighter. The minute I lose one person I've lost the whole audience. TWO PAIRS OF HANDS. Hitchcock's and Alma's. They work like a pair of twenty-year-olds at a pair of MOVIOLAS cutting the picture. ANGLE LOOSENS -- to reveal George Tomasini has dozed off, exhausted. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALMA You imp. You got nudity in there. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Her breasts are very large, dear. It was a challenge not to show them. INT. EDITING ROOM - NIGHT Editor GEORGE TOMASINI works at the Moviola, sleeves rolled up. GEORGE TOMASINI I'll be damned. She did blink. INT. EDITING ROOM, CORRIDOR - DAY Peggy stands with a pestering PR FLACK. FLACK How's it going in there with Mr. Herrmann? PEGGY Swimmingly. FLACK Everyone's saying it's a dog with fleas. Before Peggy can deny it the argument flares through the wall. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (O.S.) Absolutely not... INT. EDITING ROOM - SAME TIME Bernard Herrmann is pressing his point hard with Hitchcock. ALFRED HITCHCOCK ...I don't want music in the shower murder. BERNARD HERRMANN (FRUSTRATED) But what Alma and I talked about is really going to play. ALFRED HITCHCOCK No. This isn't Vertigo, Bernie. This is different. The images have to work on their own. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALMA You can't scare people just by going, "Boo!" You have to tell them what's coming, make them anticipate it -- OUTSIDE The PR Flack shares a despairing look with Peggy. FLACK Thank God we've got Cinderfella for the holidays. OMITTED BERNARD HERRMANN'S ICONIC SCORE RISES as INT. EDITING ROOM - DAY We move across HITCH, ALMA, TOMASINI and PEGGY'S faces as they watch the Moviola. The impact of the music is instant and unimaginably powerful. They are all moved. Gripped. Stunned. Hitchcock looks down. Peggy is gripping his arm tightly. GEORGE TOMASINI What do you think? PEGGY I think I'm never going to take a shower again. GEORGE TOMASINI Hitch? They look at him... ALFRED HITCHCOCK It's getting there. Alma turns to him and Hitch nods slightly. Was that the tiniest acknowledgement that her instinct may have been right? INT. PRODUCTION CODE ADMINISTRATION OFFICE - DAY ON SHURLOCK'S HUMORLESS FACE Hitchcock sits opposite him at the big conference table. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: GEOFFREY SHURLOCK I told you, I distinctly saw both the stabbing and the nudity. We're denying your seal, Mr. Hitchcock. ALFRED HITCHCOCK I take your opinion very seriously. But what you think you're seeing is purely informed by the power of suggestion. I assure you that once you view the final version with Mr. Herrmann's lovely, lyrical score... GEOFFREY SHURLOCK A "lyrical score" won't change my opinion. All that innuendo and half-naked groping -- really, Hitch. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Would you mind if we had a word in private, Geoffrey? Shurlock gestures his staff out. Hitch moves closer. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) I have a modest proposal to make. If you're willing to leave the shower sequence as it is, I will reshoot the opening love scene to your exact specifications. Shurlock reacts with surprise. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) In fact, I'd welcome your personal supervision on the set. Shurlock is more flattered than he'd care to admit. GEOFFREY SHURLOCK My specifications? ALFRED HITCHCOCK If only audiences could fully appreciate how tirelessly you work to help us entertain them while protecting them from filth and indecency. Shurlock studies Hitchcock's sphinx-like expression. INT. SOUNDSTAGE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY Hitchcock and Peggy confer. John Gavin and Janet Leigh, wearing robes, chat while lying on a bed. Crew members wait impatiently. Peggy checks her watch. PEGGY He's been harassing you since you announced this project, you invite him to the set, and he doesn't even show up? What did you tell him? ALFRED HITCHCOCK That I respected him. Deeply. Peggy laughs. Now she understands. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Ladies and gentleman, that is a wrap. Thank you all. The crew starts breaking things down. The actors are baffled. Janet walks over to him. JANET LEIGH I thought we were reshooting the scene. ALFRED HITCHCOCK No need. The charade is over. Hitch holds out his arm for her and walks her back to the dressing room. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) See, I wasn't that much of a monster to work with, was I? JANET LEIGH Not at all. He offers his hand and she shakes it, determined to be professional to the end. JANET LEIGH (CONT'D) I just hope I was sufficiently loyal to the cause. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Worthy of a Purple Heart, my dear. She leans in and gives him a peck on the cheek. A moment of unexpected heaven that leaves Hitch speechless. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: She walks away to her dressing room. Hitch watches as she steps inside and closes the door. After a moment we hear a PIERCING SCREAM -- INT. JANET LEIGH'S DRESSING ROOM - CONTINUOUS Janet recoils at the sight of A MRS. BATES PROTOTYPE "PROP MASK" grinning lewdly from her chair, and wearing one of Janet's brassieres. Hitchcock peeks inside as crew members come running. ALFRED HITCHCOCK I hope you don't mind, I told Mrs. Bates she could have your dressing room. ON JANET She can't believe she's been caught out. She closes the door on everyone... and then after a moment SCREAMS AGAIN... but this time not out of shock. INT. HITCHCOCK'S OFFICE, UNIVERSAL REVUE - DAY Hitch sweeps in. Lew is waiting for him. ALFRED HITCHCOCK We have our seal from Shurlock's office. (DEVILISHLY) Now, we lead the lambs to the slaughter. Hitch turns to Lew for the latest news. LEW WASSERMAN The front office confirmed. They're only opening the movie in two theatres, as we suspected. And no premiere. If we don't get word of mouth we're dead. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Then we'd better get started. Peggy, take a memo... Peggy whips out her steno pad. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) We're going to write a manual on exactly how to sell Psycho. INT. PRINTING PRESS - DAY BOOKLETS make the rounds on a conveyor-like contraption. As the booklets are bound by swift-moving WORKERS, we see Hitchcock's photo on a cover and his "advice" to theater owners. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (V.O.) My first instruction to Theater Owners: Hire Pinkerton guards to strictly enforce our unique admission policies. INT. NEW YORK THEATRE - FLASH FORWARD A MANAGER opens up his PSYCHO PROMOTIONAL HANDBOOK and starts to read, totally baffled. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (V.O.) Furthermore, because Psycho is so terrifying and unique, the guards can help you deal with customers who run amok. INT. NEW YORK THEATRE - FLASH FORWARD The manager introduces the PINKERTON GUARDS to his equally bemused STAFF. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (V.O.) Post our special lobby clocks to remind audiences of the starting times for Psycho. He oversees as they hang a ridiculously large PSYCHO CLOCK in the lobby. EXT. NEW YORK THEATRE - FLASH FORWARD Hitch's voice booms from LARGE SPEAKERS MOUNTED UNDER THE MARQUEE. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (V.O.) The manager of this fine motion picture theater has been advised not to allow anyone to enter the theater once Psycho begins. We PAN DOWN to the STAFF and GUARDS as they test out the RECORDED message that will be played for the ticket holders line. A couple of PASSERSBY listen, perplexed... (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALFRED HITCHCOCK (V.O.) (CONT'D) Should you be so foolish as to attempt to slip in by a side entrance... INT. HOLLYWOOD RECORDING BOOTH - PRESENT ALFRED HITCHCOCK ... a fire escape or through a skylight, you will be ejected by brute force. Hitch lays down the track into a large microphone while Alma watches from the recording desk. ALMA More playful, darling. INT. EMPTY NEW YORK THEATRE - FLASH FORWARD A row of life-size HITCHCOCK STANDEES are carried in through the door one by one. Posters are hung in the theatre lobby. The letters hoisted up and hung on the marquee outside. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (V.O.) "To further emphasize the sheer, unrelenting shock and suspense of Psycho, right after the closing title "THE END," we strongly recommend that you close your house curtains over the screen for a full thirty seconds." Inside the theatre, the manager makes sure the CURTAINS open and close correctly then turns to face the vast, empty auditorium. ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S VOICE "By doing so, the horror of Psycho will be indelibly etched in the mind and heart of your audience." He anxiously surveys the hundreds of seats that will have to be filled. INT. BOARD ROOM, PARAMOUNT STUDIOS - DAY Now Barney Balaban is reading Hitchcock's publicity manual to the board. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: BARNEY BALABAN "Absolutely never, ever will I allow anything to follow Psycho -- no previews of coming attractions, no newsreel, no short subject and certainly no double- feature. Sincerely, and, emphatically, Alfred Hitchcock." Balaban shuts the pamphlet. Silence. Then turns to the stone- faced board members : BARNEY BALABAN (CONT'D) At the end of the day, it's a minor Hitchcock movie. One week, and it'll be gone... He tosses the pamphlet into the trash. BARNEY BALABAN (CONT'D) Like a bad dream. 138 OMITTED INT. LIMO - DAY ON HITCH AND ALMA'S SILENT TENSE EXPRESSIONS as they drive through the frenetic madness that typifies Times Square, 1960. EXT. NEW YORK THEATRE - DAY (LATER) A DAZZLING MARQUEE for "ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S PSYCHO." The car pulls up. Hitch and Alma step out. There's a long line of people outside the theatre. ALMA Well, at least there are some people here. But Hitch's nerves are hardly soothed. The people in line start to notice the Hitchcocks...is it really them? PEGGY Comes over to greet them with the THEATRE MANAGER. PEGGY We can go through the side entrance. As the theatre manager ushers them through the side alley -- (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: THEATER MANAGER Right this way, Mr. and Mrs. Hitchcock. Hitchcock turns to Alma. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Ready for the gallows? INT. NEW YORK THEATRE, LOBBY - MOMENTS LATER The atmosphere is tense as people hurry to their seats. Lew greets them. LEW WASSERMAN We've roped off some seats for you. ALFRED HITCHCOCK You go on ahead. ALMA Are you sure? ALFRED HITCHCOCK I'll join you in a minute. Off Alma's look. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) I want to double check the print. ALMA Fine, darling. I'll save you a seat. Lew escorts Alma and Peggy into the auditorium. INT. NEW YORK THEATER, PROJECTION BOOTH - NIGHT The soothing whir of the projector as Hitchcock stands next to it... but the sound of the audience below TITTERING NERVOUSLY is anything but reassuring. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (under his breath) But they're laughing too much. He peers down through the tiny window but can't see a bloody thing. INT. NEW YORK THEATRE, DOWNSTAIRS LOBBY - A MINUTE LATER Hitch inches open the door and PEERS THROUGH THE CRACK at the audience but now he can't read them. Are they gripped with suspense -- or do they just hate it? From the lobby we see HITCH as he closes the door and leans back against the wall of the empty corridor. A scared, lonely, corpulent figure. Totally powerless. There's nothing for him to do but wait. And wait. And wait. Across the foyer, a spotty young THEATRE EMPLOYEE sweeps up ticket stubs and empties ashtrays, quietly going about his business, entirely oblivious... ON HITCH'S FACE As he grips the railing. This is taking far too long. And then -- finally -- the sweetest sound in the world A BLOOD-CURDLING SCREAM. Soon the WHOLE AUDIENCE SCREAMS IN TERROR... then breaks into LAUGHTER again... nervous laughter this time, the best kind. HITCH As he gestures with his hands, a conductor leading his orchestra, raising them up again as the audience STARTS SCREAMING AGAIN right on cue PUSHING TIGHTER ON HITCH As the dam breaks and all the pent-up emotion floods out... leaving only relief and satisfaction... and making way for a smile... the largest of his whole career. INT. NEW YORK THEATRE - LATER Hitch, Alma and Peggy are led out into the foyer by the theatre manager. There are still SCREAMS in the theatre as the show continues. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: Lew can be seen on the phone in the theatre manager's office in the background as Hitch, Alma and Peggy walk past the line of ticket buyers to get to the front doors. There is great excitement now as more and more people recognize the Hitchcocks... WOMAN WAITING ON LINE Mr. Hitchcock, how does it end? ALFRED HITCHCOCK I promised Mother I wouldn't tell. He gets a laugh. Hitchcock walks alongside the Theater Manager who's not going to miss out on having his own moment with the crowd. THEATER MANAGER Mr. Hitchcock, what do I do now that my wife won't take a shower after seeing your movie? ALFRED HITCHCOCK Have her dry-cleaned. Laughter as Lew appears. LEW WASSERMAN I just got off the phone with Balaban. I couldn't resist telling him we're sold out for the next two weeks. ALFRED HITCHCOCK What did he say? LEW WASSERMAN He said "Tell Hitch congratulations. A well deserved triumph as we always knew." ALFRED HITCHCOCK "As we always knew..." The two friends a look. PEGGY Does this mean I can take the weekend off now? Hitch playfully shrugs, "we'll see". THEATRE MANAGER I'm sorry, Mr. Hithcock but there are photographers outside. They heard you were here. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: (2) The theatre manager ushers them towards the exit doors. EXT. THEATRE - DAY (LATER) A few photographers snap Hitch as he emerges and heads past the line of ticket buyers towards the waiting car. Hitchcock gestures for Alma to take her place next to him instead of behind him. She shyly waves him away but eventually, and appreciatively, relents. As the flashbulbs start to POP -- ALMA This could be the biggest hit of your career, Alfred. ALFRED HITCHCOCK Our career, Alma. He looks into her eyes with nothing but deep, intense gratitude and joy. As more flashbulbs pop -- ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) I've realized I'll never be able to find a Hitchcock blonde as beautiful as you. ALMA You do realize I've been waiting decades to hear you say that. He gives her a gentle peck. ALFRED HITCHCOCK And that, madame, is why they call me "The Master of Suspense"... He helps her into the car. 145 OMITTED DISSOLVE TO: INT. CENTRAL STATE HOSPITAL WARD - DAY It is a utilitarian institutionalized dining room. Several nonviolent INMATES eat at different round tables around the room. An ATTENDANT watches, and an ORDERLY mops the floor (there are NO female patients nor staff members.) THE REAL ED GEIN (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: is at a table with two other patients, including a soft spoken older man, CHET. Ed is heavier, his hair is whiter, and he is much more at ease than we've ever seen. ORDERLY (to the Attendant) Guess what I'm doing this weekend? ATTENDANT What? ORDERLY Claudine and I are driving to Chicago with her folks to see that Psycho movie. The Attendant pulls the orderly aside, and whispers to him, nodding toward Ed. The Orderly's jaw drops! It is the coolest thing he's ever heard. He looks at Ed like he's a movie star. Meanwhile, Ed yawns, content. Utterly oblivious. CHET I think you're the happiest guy I've ever known, Ed. How you do it? ED GEIN I'll tell you. You live your life, and it's unbearable sometimes but there's this secret, Chet; a big secret no one else knows or wants to tell... (he leans a little closer) ... there is a God and he's so big and powerful, he doesn't always remember you're there... He takes a huge bite blueberry pie. ED GEIN (CONT'D) ... but if you can get his attention and he sees you're suffering, he'll notice and he'll take care of you. My mother used to tell me -- she's passed, God bless her -- the one thing God truly loves and understands is suffering. He takes a long drink of milk. ED GEIN (CONT'D) After all, he invented it. We pan to discover HITCHCOCK has been watching all this. He turns to the camera. (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: (2) ALFRED HITCHCOCK And so, gentle viewer, Psycho -- the picture everyone predicted would bring me to wrack and ruin -- was such a hit that Alma and I got to... Well, let's just say that we got to keep our house -- and the swimming pool. And the same critics who despised it went on to call it one of my greatest achievements. He produces a CIGAR and wanders towards the exit doors. ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Of course for me, it was just another "moo-vie." As he strolls through the door -- EXT. HITCHCOCK HOUSE, GARDEN - DAY -- and seamlessly appears in the beautifully tended gardens, as if having walked through a portal. ALFRED HITCHCOCK But you know what they say in Hollywood: "You're only as good as your last picture." So, now, if you'll excuse me, I must toddle off to begin the exhaustive search for my next project. He holds out his cigar towards something we don't yet see... ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Unfortunately I find myself once again bereft of all inspiration. I do hope something comes along soon... A SMALL BIRD Alights on his cigar tip and FLAPS its wings. Hitchcock can't resist blowing a sadistic plume of smoke at the bird which promptly flies away. He gives the camera a final characteristically deadpan look... ALFRED HITCHCOCK (CONT'D) Good evening. The distinctive THEME TUNE to his TV show starts up and Hitch toddles back up the front lawn and toward the terrace, where Alma can be seen laying out a delicious healthy lunch... DISSOLVE TO: (CONTINUED) CONTINUED: ALFRED HITCHCOCK MADE SIX MORE MOVIES AFTER PSYCHO. HE DIED AT HOME IN BEL AIR IN 1980, WITH ALMA BY HIS SIDE. ALMA HITCHCOCK DIED TWO YEARS LATER. FADE TO: ED GEIN LIVED IN COMFORT IN MENTAL INSTITUTIONS UNTIL HIS PEACEFUL DEATH IN 1984. FADE TO: ALFRED HITCHCOCK NEVER WON AN OSCAR. IN 1979, WHEN HE ACCEPTED THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE'S LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD, HE DEDICATED THE HONOR TO HIS WIFE, SAYING, "I SHARE MY AWARD, AS I HAVE MY LIFE, WITH ALMA." FADE OUT. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..bee7415f2e2ef485c7a078362614f68f0c4fa1ab --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY Written by Douglas Adams Based on the book "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams Revisions by Karey Kirkpatrick 8/8/033rd Revised Draft1 2. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 OVER DARKNESS... 1 ...we hear what we will come to know as the VOICE OF THE GUIDE. GUIDE VOICE It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. A small square image appears on screen. Home video. The dolphin stadium at Sea World. GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was the most intelligent species occupying the planet, instead of the third most intelligent which was, in fact, entirely accurate. The dolphins perform; leaping through hoops, etc. GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) The second most intelligent creatures were, of course, dolphins who curiously enough had long known of the impending destruction of the planet Earth. They had made many attempts to alert mankind to the danger, but most of their communications were misinterpreted as amusing attempts to punch footballs or whistle for tidbits, so they eventually decided they would leave Earth by their own means. They leap madly, desperately. Higher and higher... GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double- backward somersault through a hoop while whistling the "Star-Spangled Banner" but in fact the message was this... "So long and thanks for all the fish." TITLES ROLL - (FULL SCREEN 35mm IMAGES) Dolphins leap over and interact with the opening titles. Breathtaking somersaults, back flips, choreographed to a Buzby Berkley-style song called, "SO LONG AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH." We end with a wide shot of all the dolphins jumping out of the top of frame, but they never come back down. TILT UP to a starry night sky - the dolphins have vanished. END TITLES As night turns to morning, we hear CLICK, then... VOICE ON RADIO ...as well as Sea World Orlando and San Diego reporting their dolphins have mysteriously disappeared overnight. CUT TO:2 3. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 INT. ARTHUR DENT'S BEDROOM - MORNING 2 CLOSE ON the clock radio from which the voice emanates. A hand shuts it off. ARTHUR DENT is awake. 30's. Kind faced. His feet land perfectly in slippers as he stands and shuffles out of his very neat but very boring room.3 IN THE BATHROOM - Arthur gargles in front of the mirror. 3 He bends over to spit revealing a YELLOW BULLDOZER through the window, crawling toward his house. A TEA KETTLE WHISTLES O.S.4 INT. ARTHUR DENT'S KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS 4 Arthur sets the newspaper (with the headline "DOLPHINS VANISH") on the table, removes the kettle. Doesn't notice through the window 3 MORE LARGE YELLOW BULLDOZERS. He pours a cup of tea, sets the pot down next o his mobile phone. He picks it up, stares at a DIGITAL PHOTO ON THE SCREEN of himself and a very pretty woman (Tricia) at a costume party. He presses the phone to his head as if it were a cold compress. Suddenly, there's a LOUD RUMBLING o.s. The tea cup RATTLES. Arthur looks out the window. Now he sees the bulldozers. The tea cup shatters on the floor. CUT TO:5 EXT. ARTHUR DENT'S HOUSE - MORNING 5 Arthur, dressed in pajamas and robe, lies in the dirt in front of a bulldozer, blocking it from destroying his house. He yells into his mobile phone. ARTHUR (into phone) What do you mean he's gone out to lunch? You just said he was still at breakfast! MR. PROSSER, a bureaucrat, leans over him. PROSSER Come off it, Mr. Dent. You can't lie in front of the bulldozers forever. ARTHUR I'm game. We'll see who rusts first. PROSSER This bypass has got to be built and it's going to be built. You should have made your protest months ago. ARTHUR The first I heard of it was when a workman came yesterday. I asked if he'd come to clean the windows, and he said he'd come to demolish the house. He didn't tell me right away of course. First he wiped a couple of windows and charged me twenty quid. Then he told me. (CONTINUED)5 4. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 CONTINUED: 5 The bulldozer driver, looking guilty, ducks behind the steering wheel. Prosser removes plans from his briefcase. PROSSER Look. These plans have been on display at the planning office now for a year. ARTHUR On display? I had to go down to a cellar! PROSSER That's the display department. ARTHUR I eventually found them in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'beware of the leopard'. PROSSER Mr. Dent, have you any idea how much damage that bulldozer would suffer if I just let it roll straight over you? ARTHUR How much? PROSSER None at all. FORD (O.S.) (American accent) Arthur! Arthur and Prosser turn to see a man cresting a hill, pushing a shopping cart which is filled with beer and bags of peanuts. This is FORD PREFECT. Wiry, intense. As he heads downhill, he leaps up and rides the cart down towards Arthur's house -- like a kid in a supermarket. He rolls right past Arthur and the bulldozers. ARTHUR Ford? He leaps off, drags the cart to a full stop. FORD Arthur! There you are. Here drink and eat with me. We need to talk. ARTHUR Er, um...now's not the best time, Ford They're going to demolish my home, FORD Whoa. You already know? How? Arthur simply motions to the bulldozer. (CONTINUED)5 5. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 CONTINUED: (2) 5 FORD (CONT'D) Oh. When you say "they" you mean they. Got it. Listen, I gotta tell you something important, and I gotta tell you now. ARTHUR But what about my house? Ford looks to Prosser who is conferring with the bulldozer driver. He pushes the cart over to him. ARTHUR - watches as Ford gestures to Prosser who waves his hand and the all the 'dozer engines die. The bulldozer drivers step down, start drinking the beer and eating the peanuts. Ford returns to Arthur. FORD C'mon. Let's go to the pub. He said they won't destroy your house until they've finished the beers. ARTHUR Can we trust him? FORD I'd trust him to the end of the Earth. ARTHUR And how far's that? FORD About twelve minutes away. CUT TO:6 INT. VILLAGE PUB - MIDDAY 6 Ford and Arthur enter the half-full pub. Ford hurries to the bar. Arthur follows, cell phone to his ear. FORD Six pints of bitter. And quickly. The world's about to end. BARMAN Oh yes, sir? Nice weather for it. He starts to pull pints. Ford shoves bar peanuts into his pockets while Arthur shouts into his phone... ARTHUR Well, when does he get back from lunch? Or is he going straight out for tea?! He shuts the phone, sits, looking forlorn. ARTHUR (CONT'D) This is shaping up to be a crap day. (CONTINUED)6 6. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 CONTINUED: 6 FORD It's about to get a lot crappier. BARMAN There you are, six pints. Ford slaps down a £50 note. The barman's impressed. FORD Keep the change. You've got ten minutes to spend it. Ford pushes three pints in front of Arthur. ARTHUR Three? At lunchtime? FORD Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so. ARTHUR Very deep. You should send that in to the Reader's Digest. They've got a page for people like you. FORD Drink up. ARTHUR Why three pints? FORD Muscle relaxant. (grabbing more peanuts) And eat these. You'll need the salt. ARTHUR What's going on. Ford? FORD What would you say if I told you I wasn't really from Guilford but from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Eetelgeuse? ARTHUR Why, is it the sort of thing you're likely to say? FORD Remember when we met? That car was racing toward me, I was trying to greet it, you pushed me out of the way?7 7. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 QUICK CUT TO A STREET - MID-DAY 7 Ford stands in the middle of the road, extending a hand to a fast approaching car. Arthur drops his shopping, dives at him and tackles him out of the way as the car zooms past.(6 cont) BACK TO FORD IN THE PUB: (6 cont) FORD Didn't you find it a little strange that I was trying to shake hands with a car? ARTHUR I assumed you were drunk. FORD (shaking his head) I thought cars were the dominant life form. I was trying to introduce myself. ARTHUR And that's why you're named after a discontinued car from the seventies? FORD (nodding) You saved my life that day. Now I'm saving yours. Arthur just stares at him, then turns to his beer. ARTHUR This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays. FORD Look, if it's about your house... ARTHUR No, it's not that. It's.... He shows Ford the photo of he and Tricia on his phone. ARTHUR (CONT'D) I found her. Ford. The perfect girl. I found her, and then I let her get away. You remember that fancy dress party I told you about? FORD This isn't a long story, is it? We've only got six minutes. Arthur shakes his head. Ford checks his watch. (CONTINUED)6 8. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 CONTINUED: (2) 6 FORD (CONT'D) Okay. Talk and drink. Fancy dress party. ARTHUR At that flat in Islington. I told you about it. Last week, remember? FLASHBACK TO:8 INT. ISLINGTON FLAT - NIGHT 8 Crowded flat. Everyone is in costume. Loud music BLARES. ARTHUR (V.O.) I can't bear those sort of parties, didn't want to go, would have much rather stayed home and, I don't know, brush the dog. Anything. But there I was -- and then, there she was... Arthur, dressed in safari attire complete with pith helmet, sits off to the side, observing, looking miserable. TRICIA (O.S.) Who are you? Arthur looks up. TRICIA MCMILLAN is dressed in a mid 19th century mens suit with mutton chop sideburns and is holding a taxidermy beagle -- and she still looks beautiful. Arthur, ever the gentleman, stands. ARTHUR I'm Arthur. Arthur Dent. TRICIA No, I mean who are you? ARTHUR Oh, the costume. Right. Er, um... (sheepishly tipping his hat) Livingston, I presume. (pointing to her attire) Granted. Not as clever as Darwin, but the best I could do on short notice. TRICIA You're the first person who's got it right. Everyone keeps calling me Sherlock. ARTHUR Really? I thought the beagle made it rather obvious. (CONTINUED)8 9. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 CONTINUED: 8 ARTHUR Really? I thought the beagle made it rather obvious. He pets the dog. She smiles. He smiles back.9 A CAMERA FLASH FLASHES. JUMP CUT to... 9 THE BALCONY -- Arthur has just taken a digital photo of he and Tricia on his cell phone. They look at the screen image and laugh. ARTHUR (V.O.) (CONT'D) She was amazing, Ford. Witty, and beautiful, and brilliant. Four or five degrees. One in math, one in astrophysics, another in biology... TRICIA I've got so many degrees I am officially unemployable. Let's drink to that! They clink their wine glasses, take sips, continue to chat. ARTHUR (V.O.) And just as I was asking myself, "Why is this stunning and intelligent woman even giving me the time of day, out of nowhere she says... TRICIA Let's go somewhere. ARTHUR Yeah. It is a bit noisy. There's a lovely little cafe around the corner... TRICIA I was thinking Madagascar. ARTHUR Is that a new club on Dean Street? TRICIA No. It's a country. Off the coast of Africa. ARTHUR Oh, that Madagascar. Right, off we go then. (then realizing...) Good God, you're serious. (CONTINUED)9 10. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 CONTINUED: 9 She nods. Arthur isn't sure how to react. ARTHUR (CONT'D) Well...that's...an extraordinary proposition. But...I can't just up and go. What about my job? TRICIA Quit. Get a new one when we return. ARTHUR I can't just...what about my house? Who would feed my dog? TRICIA Bring him with. ARTHUR He's a Welsh Collie. He'd feel all out of place in Madagascar. Trillian forces a smile, clearly disappointed. ZAPHOD (O.S.) You don't want to go to Madagascar. They both turn to face ZAPHOD BEEBLEBROX - very charming, extremely handsome - whose attire seems very "other worldly." Knee high boots, a yellow sash... ZAPHOD (CONT'D) Hi. I'm Zaphod Beeblebrox, President of the Galaxy -- of course, you probably already know that. I'm headed for a lost and distant planet. Would you like to see my spaceship? ARTHUR (V.O.) I went to refresh our drinks. When I came back, she was gone.10 EXT. BACK IK THE PUB - CONTINUOUS 10 Arthur stares into his beer, plagued by this loss. ARTHUR "Would you like to see my spaceship?" Really, what sort of chat up line is that? FORD More popular than you'd think. ARTHUR I've left messages, sent letters... It's like she's vanished off the face of the earth. (CONTINUED) 11. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 10 CONTINUED: 10 FORD Hey, it happens. Speaking of... (pulling a blinking electronic device from his satchel) We've got two minutes. So drink up. There's a ROAR OF ENGINES and a LOUD CRASH outside. Arthur and everyone else in the pub look up. ARTHUR My house! He runs out. Ford rises, grabs two handfuls of peanuts from the bowl, tosses the barman all the money in his pocket. FORD A round for everyone, on me. BARMAN You really think the world's going to end? (Ford nods) Shouldn't we lie down or put a bag over our heads or something? FORD If you want. BARMAN Will it help? FORD Not really. He gives everyone in the bar a friendly salute, exits. BARMAN Last orders, then?11 EXT. STREET OUTSIDE THE PUB - MID-DAY 11 Arthur runs up the road towards his house which is being bulldozed. Ford strides casually behind in the distance. ARTHUR STOP! STOP, YOU BASTARDS!! Arthur suddenly stops running and covers his ears as we hear THE LOUDEST RUMBLE IN MOTION PICTURE HISTORY.11a A GIGANTIC YELLOW SPACESHIP (picture a concrete tower 11a block)) sweeps overhead. Ford hits the deck. Arthur is blown sideways. Trees are uprooted. Ford rises and hurries to the rubble that was Arthur's house. He digs around near the exposed toilet and comes up with -- A TOWEL. He hurries to Arthur's side. (CONTINUED)1 12. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 1a CONTINUED: 11a Another ship screams over, blowing them down again. Rain is knocked out of the clouds and lands in one big THWUMP! Everywhere is soaked. ARTHUR (CONT'D} WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE THINGS?! FORD Ships from a Vogon Constructor Fleet. I picked up their signal this morning. He shows Arthur his blinking Sens-0-Matic device. FORD {CONT'D} Here. You'll need this. He tosses Arthur the towel. Then, he removes a short black rod, his ELECTRONIC THUMB. He sticks it out.12 INT. SATELLITE TRACKING STATION 12 Picture mission control in Houston. WORKERS scramble. Monitors line the wall showing hundreds of news reports from around the globe; panic, chaos and pandemonium. Suddenly, there's a loud HUM through the speakers, followed by loud GARGLES and SCREECHING. Then... JELTZ {THROUGH SPEAKERS) People of Earth, this is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace planning council.13 INT. A SUBURBAN BREAKFAST ROOM. CONTINUOUS 13 A FAMILY at breakfast, baffled that their cutlery, bowls and glasses resonate with the sound of Jeltz's voice. JELTZ (VOICE ONLY) As you are probably aware, plans for the development of the outlying regions of the galaxy involve the building of a hyperspace express route through your star system...14 EXT. OXFORD STREET ELECTRONICS STORE - CONTINUOUS 14 Several PATRONS watch the wall of TV's, all projecting a snowy, distorted image. Jeltz's voice blares through the speakers. JELTZ ...and, unfortunately, your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition. The process will take slightly less than two of your Earth minutes. Thank you. Through the window behind them, throngs of people stampede down Oxford Street, screaming.1 13. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 5 EXT. SATELLITE TRACKING STATION 15 A TECHNICIAN speaks urgently into a microphone while his co-workers watch the chaos on the monitors behind. TECHNICIAN Hello! Can you hear us? Please respond!16 INT. VOGON CONSTRUCTOR SHIP BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS 16 The VOGON BRIDGE is like a waterlogged old Skoda. JELTZ (INTO THE P.A.) There's no point in acting all surprised about it. The plans and demolition orders have been on display at your local planning office in Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years, so you've had plenty of time to lodge formal complaints.17 EXT. FIELD BY ARTHUR'S HOUSE. CONTINUOUS 17 Ford grabs hold of Arthur's shirt, extends the Thumb.18 INT. THE PUB. CONTINUOUS 18 PULL BACK FROM JUKE BOX. The pub seems deserted. VOGON CAPTAIN (through juke box) What do you mean you've never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven's sake mankind, it's only four light years away you know. I'm sorry, but if you can't be bothered to take an interest in local affairs that's your own lookout. PULL BACK FARTHER - people lay on the ground with PAPER BAGS on their heads.19 INT. VOGON CONSTRUCTOR SHIP BRIDGE. -- CONTINUOUS 19 Jeltz turns. He's large, green and walrusy. JELTZ Apathetic bloody planet, I've no sympathy at all. Energize the demolition beams. One of his walrusy FIRST OFFICERS pushes a yellow button.20 BIG SHOT. FROM SPACE. LOOKING DOWN ON EARTH 20 As all the Vogon ships simultaneously send down a beam of yellow light. Glowing fireballs travel down the beams toward Earth. On impact, they bore into the surface. JELTZ (O.S.) Detonate. (CONTINUED)2 14. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 0 CONTINUED: 20 Like a giant casino going down in Vegas, there are a few small explosions AMD THE EARTH IMPLODES. Just collapses in on itself. Gone. The Vogon ships slowly retreat in formation, leaving nothing but DARKNESS AND STARS.21 Then a distant RED GLOW appears. As it gets nearer we 21 see that it says..."THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY." GUIDE VOICE The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book... The title draws nearer. We see that it sits on an electronic book with lots of buttons. GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) ...Perhaps the most remarkable, certainly the most successful book ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor. The book opens revealing TWO SCREENS. Images appear. A star map, layers of data, captions, video, animations... GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) More popular than the CELESTIAL HOME CARE OMNIBUS, better selling than 53 MORE THINGS TO DO IN ZERO GRAVITY, and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters, WHERE GOD WENT WRONG, SOME MORE OF GOD'S GREATEST MISTAKES, and WHO IS THIS GOD PERSON, ANYWAY? Now the images rise up from the screen like holographs as the book "presents itself" like some hi-tech infomercial. GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitchhiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom. For though it has many omissions, and contains much which is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper. And second, it has the words "DON'T PANIC" printed in large friendly letters on its cover. The book closes. The words "DON'T PANIC" appear just below the title, blinking like a tacky diner marquee. PULL BACK FROM THE GUIDE to find Arthur holding it, the blinking light illuminating his very disoriented face.2 15. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 2 INT. HOLD OF VOGON CONSTRUCTOR SHIP - NIGHT 22 Arthur, in total shock, holds up the guide. ARTHUR So you're not from Guilford, which would explain the accent -- which I've always wondered about...and you're not an out of work actor -- but rather a writer for this...this...book thing. Ford nods. Arthur rubs his weary brow. ARTHUR (CONT'D) I don't feel well. I need a cup of tea. Ford hands him a fistful of peanuts. FORD Here. Eat these. If you've never been through a transmat beam before you've probably lost some salt and protein. Arthur eats some peanuts, sits up, squints. Ford feels his way around the room, looking for something. ARTHUR If I asked where we were would I regret FORD We're safe. For now. ARTHUR Good. FORD We're in a storage hold in one of the ships of the Vogon constructor fleet ... ARTHUR Obviously some strange usage of the word safe I wasn't previously aware of. FORD (not getting the sarcasm) Is it? ARTHUR Tell me you're joking. FORD Okay. I'm joking. ARTHUR And do a reassuring little laugh. Ford does a reassuring little laugh. ARTHUR (CONT'D) Now tell me where we really are. (CONTINUED)2 16. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 2 CONTINUED: (2) 22 FORD In the storage hold of a Vogon constructor ship. Ford continues his search. Arthur's breathing quickens. ARTHUR Get me home. Ford. FORD Home? Arthur...your home... is... ARTHUR Oh God - it was demolished! I've got to reach my lawyer! He must be back from lunch by now... He pulls out his cell phone. Desperately punches numbers. Ford flips on a light switch, revealing a messy chamber full of alien junk and old mattresses. FORD You don't remember, do you? (taking his cell phone) Okay. I've got something to tell you. It ain't gonna be easy, but you're gonna have to just deal, okay? ARTHUR Good god. Is this really the interior of a flying saucer? FORD Yeah. Why?23 SHOT: DEEP SPACE. THE VOGON FLEET IN FLIGHT 23 ARTHUR (V.O.) Well, it's a bit squalid isn't it? FORD (V.O.) Hey man, you're in denial.24 INT. VOGON CONSTRUCTOR SHIP BRIDGE 24 Jeltz consults one screen after another. At last he sees Ford and Arthur. His walrusy eyes narrow.25 BACK IN THE SLEEPING QUARTERS - MINUTES LATER 25 ARTHUR Blown up? BLOWN UP?! Couldn't you have done something?!! FORD I did. I saved you. (CONTINUED)2 17. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 5 CONTINUED: 25 ARTHUR But there's six billion other people. FORD And all those ants. ARTHUR Yes, but ants aren't exactly people! FORD And now you're thinking like a Vogon. (before Arthur can respond) I saved your life, okay? Which makes us even. Next thing. Ford throws Arthur a towel. Arthur looks confused. FORD (CONT'D) It's a tough galaxy. You want to survive out here, you really gotta know where your towel is. Now gimme a hand over here. Arthur joins Ford near a rusty ventilation pipe. FORD (CONT'D) Careful, it's hot. He slides the towel behind the pipe, holding each end of it, Arthur does the same. FORD (CONT'D) We've got to get off this ship before the Vogons find us. Vogons hate hitchhikers. Which is why they make ships with walls that won't allow the Sub-Etna signal to pass through. So we've got to send the signal up and out if we wanna catch a ride. Pull. They both pull. A section of pipe snaps off. Steam shoots out. Ford holds the black Thumb under the pipe. ARTHUR What's a Vogon? FORD Ask the guide. Say "Vogons." Ford continues turning dials. Arthur lifts the Guide. ARTHUR "Vogons." The word "VOGONS" floats up into his field of vision. GUIDE VOICE Vogons. (CONTINUED)2 18. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 5 CONTINUED: (2) 25 CHARACTER, HISTORY, HOW TO HAVE FUN WITH, HOW TO ANNOY, WHAT TO AVOID. Arthur touches CHARACTER. GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) Vogons are one of the most unpleasant races in the Galaxy - not evil, but bad- tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous. They wouldn't even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as fire-lighters. Arthur touches 'HOW TO HAVE FUN WITH.' GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) The best way to get a drink out of a Vogon is to stick your finger down his throat. Arthur touches 'WHAT TO AVOID'. GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) On no account should you allow a Vogon to read poetry to you. FORD They can't think, they can't imagine, most of them can't even spell. They just run things. (turns dial opposite direction) And if we don't get a ride soon, you won't b need the guide to illustrate just how unpleasant the Vogons can be. They've destroyed a planet today, that always makes them a little feisty. ARTHUR It can't be gone. It can't be! (grabbing the Guide, shouting} Earth! FORD Shhh! ARTHUR EARTH!! GUIDE VOICE Earth. An image of the Earth appears on the Guide's screen. GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) Harmless. Arthur waits...and waits. The Earth image fades away. (CONTINUED)2 19. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 5 CONTINUED: (3) 25 ARTHUR That's it? That's all this idiotic book has to say about my home? "Harmless?" FORD Hey, there are a hundred billion stars in the Galaxy and only a limited amount of space in the book's microprocessors. No one knew much about Earth. That's why I was there. To expand the entry. I fired off a new one to the editor before I got stranded. ARTHUR What does it say now? FORD Mostly harmless. Before Arthur can react, a speaker HUMS to life with screeching HOWLS and GARGLES. Arthur cups his ears. ARTHUR Ahhh, what the hell is that?! FORD Here. Put this in your ear. Ford removes a small yellow fish from his pouch. He moves to put it in Arthur's ear. Arthur struggles. ARTHUR WHAT?...STOP!..DON'T COME NEAR ME WITH... The LOUD GARGLING NOISE continues. Ford has to wrestle to get the fish in Arthur's ear. JELTZ (ON SPEAKER) ARTHUR Argh! What's happening...? As he succeeds, the noise mutates to the Vogon Captain's voice. Arthur looks incredulous. JELTZ (ON SPEAKER) This is your captain speaking, so stop whatever you're doing and pay attention! FORD The fish. It's translating for you. JELTZ (ON SPEAKER) According to our instruments we have unwittingly picked up a couple of hitchhikers who must be apprehended and... (CONTINUED)2 20. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 5 CONTINUED: (4) 25 Arthur doesn't want to hear any of this...pulls the fish back out of his ear. JELTZ {ON SPEAKER) (CONT'D) Ford struggles, shoves it back in Arthur's ear again. JELTZ (CONT'D) ...and this is not a taxi service for degenerate freeloaders. The door BURSTS open. A VOGON GUARD enters. Grabs Ford and Arthur. They struggle. VOGON GUARD Resistance is useless! The struggle continues. As they're dragged out the door, Arthur continues to try to yank the fish out of his ear. Ford wrestles with him, trying to keep it in. GUIDE VOICE The Babelfish is small, yellow, leechlike, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe.26 INT. VOGON SHIP CORRIDOR. 26 A bleak corridor. The Vogon guard pushes a still struggling Arthur and Ford down it. GUIDE VOICE It feeds on brainwave energy, absorbing unconscious frequencies and excreting a matrix of conscious frequencies to the speech centres of the brain, the practical upshot of which is that if you stick one in your ear, you instantly understand anything said to you in any language. Arthur continues to struggle, until he passes a portal window. He backs up to look out. GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) Now, it is such a bizarrely improbable thing that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved in the Universe purely by chance that many thinkers have chosen to see this as a final clinching proof of the NON-existence of God.26a ARTHUR'S POV -- of space through the window, beautiful 26a purple-orange clouds of swirling stars and gasses. GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) The argument goes something like this... "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing." (CONTINUED)2 21. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 6a CONTINUED: 26a It's finally sinking in -- he's in deep space. GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) "But," says Man, "the Babelfish is a dead give-away. It proves you exist, and so therefore you don't. QED." "Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic. The guard yanks Arthur away, pushes him forward with Ford. GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) Most leading theologians claim that this argument is a load of dingo's kidneys but that didn't stop Oolon Colluphid from making a small fortune when he used it as the central theme of his best-selling book, 'WELL THAT ABOUT WRAPS IT UP FOR GOD.' Arthur looks lost and confused. They approach a set of double doors. He stops. The Guard shoves him forward. VOGON GUARD Resistance is useless! ARTHUR Ford... FORD Don't panic. If we're lucky, they'll throw us out into space. ARTHUR And if we're unlucky? Off Ford's apprehensive look we CUT TO...27 INT. VOGON CONSTRUCTOR BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS 27 Arthur and Ford are strapped against two concrete pillars with hundreds of elastic bands. A STRANGE AND LETHAL LOOKING DEVICE DESCENDS FROM THE CEILING. Looks like an instrument of torture. As the device descends, Jeltz fishes a JEWELED CRAB out of a gunky trough and smashes it with a hammer -- BLAM! Jeltz takes the device in his hand -- then blows in it. We hear FEEDBACK. It's a microphone (like ones used to introduce boxers). He taps it. This thing on? It is. He faces them, holds up a book entitled... " " -- smirks, then begins to read Vogon poetry. JELTZ Oh freddled gruntbuggly! Thy suppurations are to me as plerdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee. Ford WRITHES in pain, as does Arthur but less so. (CONTINUED)2 22. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 7 CONTINUED: 27 GUIDE VOICE Vogon poetry is widely accepted as the third worst in the universe. Ford VIBRATES like he's having an epileptic seizure. Arthur just looks like he has a migraine. GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) The second worst is that of the Azgoths of Kria. During a recitation by their Poet Master Grunthos the Flatulent of his poem "Ode to a Small Lump of Green Putty I Found in My Armpit One Midsummer Morning," four of his audience died of internal hemorrhaging, and the President of the Mid- Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived by gnawing one of his own legs off. Spasms wrack Ford's body. He SCREAMS. Arthur squints. JELTZ Or I shall rend thee In the gobberwarts with my blurglecruncheaon, see if I don't! Ford's entire body tenses, arches, then goes limp. Arthur lets out an audible sigh as the poem ends. GUIDE VOICE The absolute worst poetry was written by Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Sussix. It involved decaying swans. Luckily, it was destroyed when the Earth was. JELTZ So, Earthlings, I present you with a simple choice. Either die in the vacuum of space, or -- tell what you thought of my poem. Ford is spent, can't say a word. Arthur looks up. ARTHUR Actually...I rather liked it. Jeltz looks surprised. Ford notices, whispers to Arthur. FORD Good tact. Run with it. ARTHUR Um...some of the words I didn't understand, but I found the imagery quite effective. JELTZ Continue. . . (CONTINUED)2 23. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 7 CONTINUED: (2) 27 ARTHUR And, um, interesting rhythmic devices which seemed to counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor of the humanity... FORD Vogonity! ARTHUR ... Vogonity, sorry. Vogonity of the poet's soul, which contrives through the medium of the verse structure to sublimate, er... FORD ... whatever it was ... ARTHUR ... the poem was about. Jeltz rubs one of his chins, then smiles and claps slowly. FORD Damn. ARTHUR What? FORD I think you just saved my life again. JELTZ An astute analysis. Very impressive. (turning to the Guard) Throw them off the ship. The guard grabs them, drags them out of the bridge. VOGON GUARD Resistance is useless! JELTZ Hmph. "Counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor..." Death's too good for them. Jeltz picks up his fishing rod, goes for another crab.28 INT. VOGON SHIP CORRIDOR -- MOMENTS LATER 28 The Guard shoves them into the airlock.29 INT. AIRLOCK -- CONTINUING 29 They sit, panting. Arthur stares forward. ARTHUR So this is it? We're going to die? (CONTINUED)2 24. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 9 CONTINUED: 29 FORD Yes. No, wait! What's this switch? (reaching for it) No, it's nothing. We are going to die. Arthur sits for a moment, then oddly chuckles to himself. ARTHUR You know, it's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young. FORD Why? What did you she tell you? ARTHUR I don't know. I didn't listen. Ford folds his towel into a tiny square, holds it up toward Arthur. He raises an eyebrow. Will this help? FORD You're sweating. Ford dabs Arthur's brow. They stare forward at the airlock door. Long pause. Nothing happens. They look to each other. Shrug. They might be okay. Then -- PSSH. The bottom drops out. They're sucked down and out.30 EXT. DEEP SPACE -- CONTINUOUS 30 Ford and Arthur spin away from the ship, holding their breath. The guide slips out of Arthur's pocket. GUIDE VOICE "Space..." says the introduction to the Hitchhikers Guide, "...is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the market, but that's just peanuts compared to space..." and so on. The weightless guide twirls away. Arthur reaches for it. The words "DON'T PANIC" alight. GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) It also says that if you hold a lung full of air you can survive in the total vacuum of space for about thirty seconds -- but with space being really big and all, the chances of being picked up within that time are 2 to the power of 2076775949 to 1 against... (CONTINUED)3 25. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 0 CONTINUED: 30 Something else falls out of his pocket -- his digital phone with the photo of he and Tricia at the fancy dress party. GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) ...which, by a staggering coincidence, is also the telephone number of the Islington flat where Arthur once went to a fancy dress party and met a very nice girl whom he totally failed to connect with. He reaches for the phone, it's just beyond his fingertips. His eyes widen with fret as the phone tumbles away.30a Then -- WOOMPH -- space seems to stretch and bend. A tiny 30a hole appears, then opens wide. Paper hats and party balloons fall out, then drift away. The hole flips inside out. Arthur and Ford are enveloped, then replaced by a stunning, sleek starship, the HEART OF GOLD. FEMALE VOICE (TRILLIAN) Two to the power of one hundred thousand to one against and falling... CUT TO:31 INT. HEART OF GOLD. RECEIVING BAY - NIGHT 31 In the middle of this hi-tech receiving bay sit two ornate golden brocade sofas. FEMALE VOICE (TRILLIAN) (through speakers) Two to the power of ten thousand to one against and falling. The sofas shake a little. ARTHUR Ford... FORD Yes? ARTHUR I think I'm a sofa. FORD I think I know how you feel. A long pause. Both sofas begin to thrash in panic. FEMALE VOICE (TRILLIAN) Five to one against and falling... A pair of arms and legs pop out of each sofa. TRILLIAN Four to one against and falling...3 26. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 2 INT. HEART OF GOLD. BRIDGE - NIGHT 3232a CLOSE ON A MONITOR -- on which plays a news report. 32a REPORTER (ON TV) ...and of course, the top story is still the sensational theft of the new Improbability Drive prototype ship Heart of Gold last week, stolen at the launch ceremony by none other than Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox. ZAPHOD (ON TV) So, in the name of the people and freedom and, I dunno, democracy and stuff like that, I hereby declare this ship officially stolen! PULL BACK to reveal ZAPHOD BEEBLEBROX, leaning toward the TV, watching with a very satisfied grin... FEMALE VOICE (O.S.) Three to one...two to one... Annoyed, he turns. There's a woman with red hair (TRILLIAN), her back to him, reading numbers off a console display and speaking into a microphone. TRILLIAN (into microphone) Probability factor of one to one...we have normality, I repeat we have normality. Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem. Please relax. You will be sent for soon. ZAPHOD Hey. Do you mind? I can't hear. TRILLIAN turns -- and we now recognize her as Tricia from the fancy dress party. Her hair is shorter and bright red. She looks amazing. TRILLIAN Can we put your ego aside for one moment? Something important has happened. ZAPHOD If there's anything more important than my ego on this ship, I want it caught and shot now. He turns back to the TV and turns it up. REPORTER (OK TV) ...the question everyone seems to be asking is, has the Big Z finally flipped? We asked his private brain care Specialist, Gag Halfrunt... GAG HALFRRUNT Vell, Zaphod's just zis guy, you know -- (CONTINUED)3 27. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 2 CONTINUED: (2) 32 The TV suddenly clicks off. Zaphod spins. Trillian's holding a remote. ZAPHOD Hey... TRILLIAN We have a couple of hitchhikers in our receiving bay. His head jerks upwards. He quickly grabs it with his hands and shoves it back down. TRILLIAN (CONT'D) I didn't pick them up. The ship did. ZAPHOD Huh? TRILLIAN When you engaged the Improbability Drive. ZAPHOD I didn't engage the drive. TRILLIAN We picked them up in sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha -- where you picked me up. ZAPHOD That's impossible. TRILLIAN No. Just very, very improbable. ZAPHOD I don't have time for this! We've got the police of half the Galaxy after us and we stop to pick up hitchhikers?! Okay, so ten out of ten for style, but minus several million for good thinking, eh? He reaches for a hi-tech gun on the wall. She stops him. TRILLIAN Don't. I'll send Marvin. (calling) Marvin! Zaphod rolls his eyes as a humanoid robot rises from its seat behind them. This is MARVIN. He trudges slump- shouldered toward Zaphod. MARVIN I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed. TRILLIAN We have something to take your mind off things. (CONTINUED)3 28. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 2 CONTINUED: (3) 32 MARVIN It won't work, I have an exceptionally large mind. TRILLIAN I know. Go down to the number two entry bay and bring the two aliens up here. MARVIN Just that? TRILLIAN Yes. MARVIN I won't enjoy it. ZAPHOD She's not asking you to enjoy it. Just do it will you? MARVIN All right. I'll do it. Marvin turns and trudges away. Then he turns again. MARVIN (CONT'D) I'm not getting you down at all am I? TRILLIAN No, no, Marvin, it's fine really. It's just part of life. MARVIN Life. Don't talk to me about life. Marvin trudges away. A door slides open for him and makes an audible, satisfied SIGH as it does. DOOR Mmmmmyaaahhhhhh!33 EXT. DEEP SPACE - NIGHT 33 The Heart of Gold cruises around a bright star.34 INT. BRIDGE OF VOGON DESTROYER SHIP - NIGHT 34 A light blinks on a console. A VOGON CAPTAIN turns a dial, listens through his head set. He punches a few buttons. COMMANDER KWALTZ (green and walrusy like Jeltz) appears on the large monitor, sitting in his chair at Command Headquarters. VOGON CAPTAIN Commander Kwaltz. We've located the spaceship Heart of Gold and President Beeblebrox. Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha. Requesting hyperspace clearance. (CONTINUED)3 29. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 4 CONTINUED: 34 KWALTZ (ON MONITOR) Hold your position, captain, until clearance is granted.35 INT. VOGON COMMAND HEADQUARTERS - MOMENTS LATER 35 Kwaltz sits at the end of a concrete war room table. KWALTZ Get me the vice-president. Approximately 15 Vogons sit around the table murmuring sporadically. A VOGON MESSENGER runs up, holding papers. Kwaltz takes them, signs, signs the next page -- and the next. He hands them back to the messengers (who has been jogging in place the whole time). He runs off. The VOGON CAPTAIN appears on the large screen before him. KWALTZ (CONT'D) Hyperspace permission granted, Captain.36 EXT. SPACE ≠ NIGHT 36 A hundred rectangular vogon ships blast forward. CUT TO:37 INT. HEART OF GOLD. RECEIVING BAY - NIGHT 37 Arthur looks around and notices the room is gleaming white, hi-tech, brand new, plastic still on some stuff. ARTHUR Now this is more like my idea of a spaceship. Look at all these buttons... FORD Shhh. They listen. Hear footsteps. FORD (CONT'D) This way. He pushes a button. The door slides open with a satisfied sigh -- "Hhhmmyaaaahhh". As they walk through...37a INT- HOG- CORRIDOR NIGHT 37a DOOR Thank you for using this door. I've enjoyed opening for you. Hhmmyaahh... They leap through to the other side as the door closes. MARVIN (0.S.) Ghastly, isn't it? They whip around to find Marvin standing before them. (CONTINUED)3 30. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 7a CONTINUED: 37a MARVIN (CONT'D) I've been ordered to take you up to the bridge. Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they ask me to take you up to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction? - 'cause I don't. Marvin turns and walks away. They shrug to each other and follow. Marvin passes through another door that opens with the same sigh -- "Hhmmaaaahhh" DOOR What a pleasure it is to open for you. I will gladly close for you now. The door closes. MARVIN "All the doors in this spacecraft have a cheerful and sunny disposition. It is their pleasure to open for you, and their satisfaction to close again with the knowledge of a job well done. The door repeats its whole closing and opening routine again. MARVIN (CONT'D) Hateful, isn't it? You can thank the Marketing Division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation for building robots with GPP. ARTHUR GPP? MARVIN "Genuine People Personalities." I'm a personality prototype. You can tell can't you? ARTHUR Er. . . MARVIN Sorry, did I say something wrong? Pardon me for breathing, which I never do anyway, so I don't know why I even bother to say it. Oh god, I'm so depressed. They round a corner... (CONTINUED)3 31. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 7a CONTINUED: (2) 37a MARVIN (CONT'D) And then I've got this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side. I've asked for them to be replaced but no one ever listens. ARTHUR Really? Wonder why? FORD (aside to Arthur) Probably because he's so negative. ARTHUR Yes, I know. I was being...never mind. They continue on.38 INT. HEART OF GOLD. BRIDGE. -- MOMENTS LATER 38 HANGING ON THE WALL is the official presidential portrait, featuring Zaphod who sports a very smart suit and a fake politicians smile. Tilt down to the door which opens - "Mmyyahhh!" - to reveal Ford, Arthur and Marvin. MARVIN I've brought the aliens. Don't thank me or anything. Zaphod spins around in his chair, holding a gun but sporting that same politically correct smile. ZAPHOD Freeze! Arthur and Ford throw their hands up. Marvin doesn't. MARVIN Do you mean sit in a corner and rust or just fall apart where I'm standing? ZAPHOD I wasn't talking to you. FORD Zaphod? ZAPHOD Ixxie? It is you! IXXIE! Zaphod gives Ford a big bear hug. He pulls away, then playfully punches Ford in the arm. ZAPHOD (CONT'D) Praxibetel Ix, you zarking hoopy! What the hell are you doing here? FORD I don't know! Just stuck out the thumb and here I am. (CONTINUED)3 32. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 8 CONTINUED: 38 ZAPHOD That is so you. FORD And look at you! President? Last time I saw you, you were a beach bum. ZAPHOD Is it a great galaxy or what? (punching his arm again) I still can't believe this. Ixxie! Here! ON MY SHIP! FORD Hey, it's Ford now. ZAPHOD Hmm? FORD My name. It's Ford Prefect. Picked it up on Earth. Sorta grew on me. ZAPHOD Okay "Ford" -- you zarking frood. They embrace, tussle, punch arms. They bump into Arthur. FORD Oh, this is Arthur. Arthur, this is Zaphod Beeblebrox. My cousin? Semi-half brother? ZAPHOD He shares three of the same mothers as me. ARTHUR We've met. ZAPHOD Have we? Sorry. I've got a terrible memory for species. Before Arthur can explain, Trillian enters. TRILLIAN Everything okay? ZAPHOD Hey, hon. Come here. You won't believe this. Ix...um, sorry..."Ford"...this is... ARTHUR Tricia McMillan? She takes a closer look at him. TRILLIAN Arthur? (CONTINUED)3 33. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 8 CONTINUED: (2) 38 Arthur is stunned silent. He goes to her, making sure she's really there. He's speechless. She smiles and gives him a friendly embrace. ARTHUR (completely bewildered) I can't believe this...I've been looking...and you're here? I went to get wine and... TRILLIAN I know. And it was rude to just leave, but I told you I wanted to get away, and he had a spaceship parked outside, well, honestly -- I assumed you were a sort of stay-at-home-and-read-a book type. (hopeful) But you're here... Arthur smiles, then realizes with some regret... ARTHUR Actually -- I am that type. But...well you do know what happened, don't you? Zaphod stops in between them, puts his arm around Arthur. ZAPHOD --Ford picked him up, they hitched a ride, and here we all are. Now, enough small talk, Trill. We're on the run, remember? I stole a ship? ARTHUR We're having a bit of a chat if you don't mind. Arthur SHOVES Zaphod's hand off his shoulder. Oddly, Zaphod reacts with a smile. And then -- his head shoots all the up way revealing a second head that lives somewhere under his chin. ZAPHOD HEAD 2 You blew it with her, Earthman, so shut up or I'll kick you in the gones! FORD There's the Zaphod I remember. Arthur recoils in horror, instinctively raises his fists. Zaphod wrestles with Head 2 while A THIRD ARM springs out of Zaphod's chest and PUNCHES ARTHUR in the jaw. Arthur buckles and hits the floor. ZAPHOD HEAD 2 You should teach your pal a lesson, Ford. He's a guest on my ship. FORD I thought you said you stole it. (CONTINUED)3 34. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 8 CONTINUED: (3) 38 ZAPHOD HEAD 2 Fine. Get technical. A KLAXON sounds. Red lights FLASH. Zaphod (Head 2) hurries to the console. Ford follows. Trillian hurries to Arthur who nurses his jaw. TRILLIAN Are you all right? ARTHUR I feel like a bloody idiot. I've spent all week looking for Tricia McMillan and that isn't even your name. TRILLIAN It is my name. I shortened it. ZAPHOD (0.S.) Trillian...! ARTHUR Well, I'm still Arthur. Just plain average one-headed doesn't-own-a-space ship Arthur. Sorry to disappoint. ZAPHOD (O.S.) A little help over here? Trillian leaves Arthur, joins Zaphod ZAPHOD HEAD 2 They're after us! Fire a gun! Launch a missile! DO SOME DAMAGE! Zaphod's arms struggle with his head again.38a QUICK SHOT. DEEP SPACE 38a A dull gray rectangular Vogon BATTLE CRUISER is easing up behind the Heart of Gold. Behind the cruiser is about ONE HUNDRED OTHER BATTLE SHIPS, flying in formation.(38 Cont) BACK ON THE BRIDGE-- (38 cont) TRILLIAN Computer? A very eager male COMPUTER VOICE (EDDIE) sounds. EDDIE Hi, guys, this is Eddie your shipboard computer and I just know I'm gonna get a bundle of kicks out of any program you want to run through me. TRILLIAN Can you identify our pursuers? (CONTINUED)3 35. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 8 CONTINUED: (4) 38 EDDIE I'd be happy to! Stand by, please. (cheesy on hold Muzak plays) Hey, guys, I'm just pleased as punch to report that it's a fleet of a hundred Vogon Battle Destroyers. You must be super important to warrant such an effort, and gee am I impressed. They're sending a message. I'd be super happy to play it. ZAPHOD HEAD 2 Fine! Play it!! (to Trillian) This people personality thing is gonna drive me nuts! Can't you change it? An IMAGE APPEARS on the ship's monitor - Vice President, QUESTULAR RONTOK, flanked by Vogon Commander KWALTZ {at H.Q.). He looks reluctant. He has to say this... QUESTULAR (ON MONITOR) This is Vice President Questular Rontok. I am speaking to the kidnapper of the President. Surrender your stolen vessel at once or we will take action as defined and permitted by Section 1.8 of the Galactic Interstellar Space Bi-Laws. ZAPHOD HEAD 2 Leap to hyperspace! EDDIE Sure thing, fella, but I should tell you we need proper authorization before entering a hyperspace expressway. ZAPHOD HEAD 2 Or else what? They'll send a hundred and one ships? DO it! He and Trillian buckle up. Ford turns to Arthur. FORD Brace yourself. This is a bit like being drunk. ARTHUR What's so bad about being drunk? FORD Ask a glass of water. They are stretched and squeezed by extraordinary forces.39 INT. VOGON HEADQUARTERS -- NIGHT 39 Questular and Kwaltz watch their front screen as the Heart of Gold blasts into hyperspace. (CONTINUED)3 36. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 9 CONTINUED: 39 KWALTZ Did they have proper hyperspace authorization? VOGON WORKER No, Commander. KWALTZ Add that to their list of offences! (scoffing) Blatant disregard for protocol. QUESTULAR You do realize he did what he did because he knew this is what you would do. KWALTZ Rules are rules, Mr. Vice President. And they are made to be followed. Questular looks up to the screen at all the Vogon ships. QUESTULAR Don't you think this many ships is a bit, oh I don't know -- excessive? KWALTZ The provisions are clear. Under subsection 37a these are the forces we deploy to protect the president in the case of an attempted or actual kidnapping- He holds up one fat official book with one hand. KWALTZ (CONT'D) -- and these are the forces we deploy to apprehend any intentional or actual kidnapper. He holds up another fat book with the other. QUESTULAR You are aware, Commander, that the President kidnapped himself. KWALTZ Hence... He puts the two books together, slams them down. QUESTULAR Do you have any idea how ridiculous this is? KWALTZ I don't have ideas Mr. Vice President. I just do what I do. A VOGON MESSENGER runs up holding papers. Kwaltz takes them, signs one in two places, initials others, lifts the top sheet, removes the pink copy. Folds it. (CONTINUED)3 37. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 9 CONTINUED: (2) 39 He does this for the other two forms as well. Questular watches dumbfounded as Kwaltz hands the papers back to the messenger who turns and runs off.40 EXT. SPACE - NIGHT 40 The Heart of Gold comes out of hyperspace and slows to cruising speed...alone. No Vogons in sight.41 INT. HEART OF GOLD. BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS 41 Zaphod's Head 2 is still up, beaming. ZAPHOD HEAD 2 Damn, I'm good. Hands slam Head 2 down. Zaphod (Head 1) turns to Ford. ZAPHOD So -- you along for the ride or am I dropping you somewhere? FORD (still wary of the two heads) Depends. Where you going? ZAPHOD Into the pages of history, cousin. And when you see what I'm about to show you, you'll beg me to take you with us. WITH TRILLIAN -- who notices Arthur looking ill. TRILLIAN You okay? ARTHUR Normally I would say "I'll live," but given the circumstances... (wiping his brow) Is there any tea on this spaceship? TRILLIAN This way. She exits. Arthur follows. Zaphod steps back, blocking his way. ZAPHOD Hey, apeman. Earthman. I'm sorry, what was your name again? ARTHUR Arthur. (CONTINUED)4 38. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 1 CONTINUED: 41 ZAPHOD Right. No hard feelings, okay? And sorry to hear about your planet, but don't mention it to the girl because if you do I'll...I'll... He smiles broader. Then Head 2 pops up and finishes... ZAPHOD HEAD 2 I'll pull your spleen out through your ass! Zaphod slams Head 2 back into place..then smiles again. Arthur furrows his brow and Zaphod and follows Trillian. FORD Two heads. Interesting choice. ZAPHOD Apparently you can't be President with a whole brain. FORD So you carved it up? ZAPHOD Yes -- I think. And I think I did it in such a way that it wouldn't be detected by the Government screening tests -- or by me. So, what's so secret that I can't let anybody know I know it, not the Galactic Government, not even myself? And the answer is-- (thinking) --I don't know. Obviously. But I put a few things together and that's when I realized I had this. He points to the COBALT BLUE CUBE on his gold necklace.42 INT. SHIP'S KITCHEN AREA - CONTINUOUS 42 CLOSE ON - the NUTRI-MATIC MACHINE. Brownish liquid flows into it a Martini glass, topped with dry-ice fog. Arthur removes the glass. Sips. Grimaces TRILLIAN I suppose I should have said it resembles tea. ARTHUR So two heads is what does it for a girl, then? I mean, if I'd had two heads. Or three? TRILLIAN Or your own space ship. (CONTINUED)4 39. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 2 CONTINUED: 42 ARTHUR Anything else he's got two of? TRILLIAN Come on, Arthur, don't be like that. ARTHUR Well, what am I supposed to be like? Green? Bleeping? What? TRILLIAN Just be yourself. Have some fun. Does it hurt? ARTHUR No, I suppose it wouldn't.. TRILLIAN I mean... She points to his jaw, he nods, she picks up her BACKPACK. TRILLIAN (CONT'D) I might have an aspirin. She unzips it. TWO MICE scurry out and scamper off, a hair-clip is clipped to one of the mice's tail. TRILLIAN (CONT'D) Hey. What are they doing in there? Before she can catch them, they scurry under the door. TRILLIAN {CONT'D) They were from my lab at university. Odd... ARTHUR So all that's left is me and you, "mostly harmless," and two lab rats. She furrows her brow. What does he mean? ARTHUR (CONT'D) Look, there's something I should tell you... ZAPHOD (O.S.) Showtime, Trill! TRILLIAN Can it keep? You might want to see this. Arthur nods. She leaves. He looks at his "tea", throws it in the trash bin.4 40. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 3 INT. HEART OF GOLD, BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS 43 Trillian and Arthur join Ford and Zaphod at the computer. ZAPHOD --and when I saw what I'm about to show you, that's when I realized why I did what I did to my brain -- or it least, I think that's why.44 ON THE COMPUTER SCREEN -- 44 The screen brightens. A BRAND LOGO appears (a circle made of a dotted line with an "M" in the middle) then a sub- title: MAGRATHEAN PUBLIC ARCHIVE. Zaphod fast forwards until a noisy picture DISSOLVES TO...45 EXT. OUTSIDE TEMPLE OF DEEP THOUGHT -- DAY 45 A procession surrounds a CHARIOT. Two young philosophers, LUNKWILL and FOOK (20'S) ride it into a grand TEMPLE.46 INT. TEMPLE OF DEEP THOUGHT. 46 The aisles are lined with Priest-Technicians. Ahead is DEEP THOUGHT - a huge Buddha-esque computer. The procession peels away to both sides. Lunkwill and Fook dismount and approach. DEEP THOUGHT (deep and sonorous) What is this great task for which I, Deep Thought, the second greatest computer of all time have been called into existence? LUNKWILL Your task, O computer... FOOK Hang on. Did you say second greatest? DEEP THOUGHT Second greatest. Yes. FOOK But we designed you to be the greatest computer so you could... LUNKWILL You're not talking about the Milliard Gargantubrain which can count all the atoms in a star in a millisecond? DEEP THOUGHT The Milliard Gargantubrain? A mere abacus, mention it not. FOOK The Omnicognate Neutron Wrangler then? (CONTINUED)4 41. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 6 CONTINUED: 46 DEEP THOUGHT The Omnicognate Neutron Wrangler could argue all four legs off an Arcturan Megadonkey, but only I could persuade it to go for a walk afterwards. FOOK Then what's the problem? DEEP THOUGHT I am the greatest computer you are able to design without my help. Which, one day, you are going to need. LUNKWILL (to Fook) Let's just ask the question. FOOK Oh Deep Thought, your task is this. We want you to tell us -- the Answer. Long pause. Deep Thought bleeps and bloops. DEEP THOUGHT The Answer...to what? LUNKWILL You know. The answer. To Life...the Universe...Everything. FOOK We'd really like an answer. Something simple. Can you do it? DEEP THOUGHT The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. Yes. There is an answer. But I'll have to think about it. Lunkwill glances at his time piece, Fook at the expectant throng behind them. They wait. DEEP THOUGHT (CONT'D) Return to this place in exactly... seven and a half million years. LUNKWILL & FOOK What?! PSSSH. The screen goes to snow.47 EXT. HEART OF GOLD BRIDGE. - CONTINUOUS 47 Ford and Arthur look confused. FORD That's it? (CONTINUED)4 42. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 7 CONTINUED: 47 ZAPHOD No, no. There's more. They go back. ARTHUR Seven and a half million years later? Zaphod nods, hits play. We PUSH BACK IN ON THE SCREEN.48 INT. TEMPLE OF DEEP THOUGHT -- 48 Lunkwill and Fook enter the now modern temple, flanked by a crowd. They have beards and look like they're in their 40's. Deep Thought rises, looks lifeless. WORRIED MUTTERS FROM THE CROWD. Slowly, Deep Thought groans to life. DEEP THOUGHT Can I help you? FOOK Deep Thought. Do you have... DEEP THOUGHT An answer for you? Yes. I have. FOOK There really is an answer? DEEP THOUGHT Yes. There really is one. FOOK (almost strangled with emotion) Oh! LUNKWILL Can you tell us what it is? DEEP THOUGHT Yes. Though I don't think you're going to like it. FOOK Doesn't matter! We must know it! DEEP THOUGHT You're really not going to like it. FOOK Tell us! DEEP THOUGHT Alright. The answer to the ultimate question ... LUNKWILL Yes ... (CONTINUED)4 43. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 8 CONTINUED: 48 DEEP THOUGHT ... of Life, the Universe, and Everything ... FOOK Yes! DEEP THOUGHT ... is ... CROWD Yes ...! DEEP THOUGHT (longest pause yet) Forty two. The surrounding crowd is stunned. More MUTTERING. DEEP THOUGHT (O.S.) (CONT'D) I checked it thoroughly. It would have been simpler, of course, to have known what the actual question was. LUNKWILL But it was the Question. The Ultimate Question! DEEP THOUGHT Yes, but what actually is it? FOOK (O.S.) Everything! You know ... just EVERYTHING! DEEP THOUGHT (O.S.) That's not a question. Only when you know what the actual question will you know what the answer means. LUNKWILL Give us the Ultimate Question then!! DEEP THOUGHT I can't. (long pause) But there is one who can. A computer that is to come after me, one that I will design. A computer to calculate the Ultimate Question, one of such infinite complexity that life itself will form part of its operational matrix. And you yourselves shall take on new more primitive forms and go down into the computer to navigate its ten million year program. I shall design this computer for you. And it shall be called... The picture distorts and whites out. PSSSSHHHHHH.4 44. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 9 EXT. HEART OF GOLD. BRIDGE. - CONTINUOUS 49 Zaphod hits eject. The blue cube rises. FORD That's it? ZAPHOD That's it. FORD You're looking for the Ultimate Question? ZAPHOD Yep. FORD You. ZAPHOD Me. FORD Why? ZAPHOD No, I tried that. "Why?" "Forty-two." Doesn't work. (to Trillian) Let's get her ready, babe. He moves to a different rack of instruments, consults a check list, starts flipping some switches. FORD I mean, why do you want to know the Ultimate Question? ZAPHOD Oh. Well -- partly the curiosity, partly a sense of adventure, but mostly I think it's for the fame and the money. He continues preparing the ship. Trillian consults the huge MANUAL, turning dials, flipping switches... ARTHUR But -- you're President of the Galaxy, aren't you? ZAPHOD Yes, Arman. ARTHUR Arthur. ZAPHOD Whatever. Presidential fame is temporary, I find the Question, that's permanent. It sticks. Plus everyone thinks you're deep. Win-win. (CONTINUED)4 45. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 9 CONTINUED: 49 FORD But you don't know the name of the computer that other computer was talking about. ZAPHOD Which is why I'm going there. FORD Where? ZAPHOD There. To find Deep Thought. On Magrathea. FORD Magrathea!? Magrathea is a myth, a legend... ZAPHOD No, it isn't. It's real, cousin. And this is the only ship in the universe that can get you there. FORD (realizing) You mean to tell me you carved up your brain so you could become President so you would get invited to the launching ceremony of this ship...so you could steal it... so you could go to Magrathea -- which, according to most sane people, doesn't even exist? ZAPHOD Yep. FORD Beautiful. ARTHUR Why this ship? What's so special about it? Zaphod thinks again -- hard. ZAPHOD I don't seem to be letting myself in on any of my secrets. TRILLIAN (O.S.) Because of this, obviously. They turn to see Trillian flipping open a glass lid revealing a BIG RED BUTTON. Ford reads the glowing letters above the button... (CONTINUED)4 46. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 9 CONTINUED: (2) 49 FORD (reading) Infinite Improbability Drive? So they finally built one that works. And that's how we got picked up. ZAPHOD Exactly. And I'm guessing if we hit that button -- we go to Magrathea. ARTHUR You're guessing? ZAPHOD Hey, anyone who's not up for that, there's the door. Now who's in? FORD For a trip to a place that doesn't exist? I'm in. My editor will think I'm crazy, but what the hell -- he already thinks I'm dead. He takes out the Guide. Zaphod looks to Trillian. TRILLIAN Definitely. I'm in. They're all standing together. They turn to Arthur. Arthur looks to Trillian. She stares back -- waiting. ARTHUR Do I even have a choice? Zaphod smiles, all bright and cheery. ZAPHOD No! Arthur looks at the button. ARTHUR What exactly does an Infinite Improbability Drive do? Suddenly, Zaphod's Head 2 shoots up! ZAPHOD HEAD 2 THIS!! Zaphod's third arm shoots out and smacks the button.50 EXT. SPACE - NIGHT 50 Improbability Drive Effect -- as the ship flips across space and disappears, leaving nothing but shimmers. (CONTINUED)5 47. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 0 CONTINUED: 50 GUIDE VOICE The Infinite Improbability Drive is a new method of crossing vast interstellar distances without all that tedious mucking about in hyperspace. As soon as the drive reaches Infinite Improbability, it passes through every conceivable point in every conceivable Universe almost simultaneously, then selects the appropriate re-entry point. The principle of generating small amounts of finite improbability by hooking the logic circuits of a Bambleweeny 57 Sub- Meson Brain to an atomic vector plotter suspended in a strong Brownian Motion producer, say a nice hot cup of tea, were of course well understood. Seconds later, the Vogon Destroyer comes out of hyperspace and slows to cruising speed.51 INT. VOGON DESTROYER SHIP. BRIDGE - NIGHT 51 Vogon controllers and copilots turn dials and push buttons, scrambling to regain a signal. GUIDE VOICE Such generators were often used to break the ice at parties by making all the molecules in the hostess's undergarments leap simultaneously one foot to the left, in accordance with the Theory of Indeterminacy. Kwaltz and Questular appear on the monitor. KWALTZ Well, Captain...? Controllers turn more dials, trying to find the ship. GUIDE VOICE Many respectable physicists said they weren't going to stand for that sort of thing partly because it was a debasement of science, but mostly because they didn't get invited to those sort of parties. VOGON CAPTAIN We had them sir. These are the coordinates. But -- they're not here. KWALTZ I can see that. WHERE ARE THEY? The captain shrugs. Kwaltz heaves a walrusy sigh.5 48. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 2 EXT. DEEP SPACE - NIGHT 52 We hover above a greenish/purplish planet. IMPROBABILITY EFFECT - space RIPPLES. Something begins to materialize, something big and gray - tumbling toward us. We now see the big, gray thing is a GIANT RHINOCEROS -- which ripples, flips inside out and becomes the Heart of Gold.53a INT. HEART OF GOLD. BRIDGE - NIGHT 53a A knitted version of Arthur, Trillian, Ford and Zaphod sit in chairs before the ships console. KNITTED ZAPHOD (clutching stomach) Is this going to happen every time we hit that button? KNITTED TRILLIAN Very probably, yes.53 The air ripples. The 'knitted' crew flip back to their 53 former selves. Arthur pukes into a trash bin and with a sick expression, looks up to the screen. ARTHUR Did it work? Are we there? Now Zaphod looks -- and he's elated. ZAPHOD Yes!...I think. Computer? EDDIE Hi, fella! Head 2 suddenly springs up. ZAPHOD HEAD 2 Can you please change that zarking annoying voice!!? TRILLIAN Computer? What planet is that, please? EDDIE CHECKING!! On-hold Muzak plays. They all sit and listen for a few beats, then Arthur yelps... ARTHUR OW!! (spinning around to Zaphod) Did you just pluck a hair from my head? ZAPHOD HEAD 2 Yeah, as if, apeman. (CONTINUED)5 49. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 3 CONTINUED: 53 Arthur suddenly feels something on his back, leaps out of the chair and brushes it off. The two mice land on the floor across the ship, then scurry away down a hallway. Before Arthur can react... EDDIE Thanks for waiting, everyone. I'm just tickled pink to tell you we are currently in orbit around the planet Viltvodle 6. PUSH IN ON ZAPHOD -- who's 2nd Head suddenly shoots up. ZAPHOD HEAD 2 Humma Kavula!54 INT. VOGON DESTROYER SHIP. BRIDGE - NIGHT 54 Vogon crew quickly enter data. A FLIGHT ENGINEER gets something on his screen, shows it to the Captain. VOGON CAPTAIN Sir, the Heart of Gold has just requested permission to land on Viltvodle 6. Should I pursue? KWALTZ (ON MONITOR) That is not a request to which I can respond, captain. Should I pursue what? Are you requesting hyperspace clearance so that you may pursue the fugitive? VOGON CAPTAIN Yes, commander. KWALTZ (ON MONITOR) Then you must say that, captain -- in request form. VOGON CAPTAIN Requesting hyperspace clearance to pursue the fugitive, sir. KWALTZ (ON MONITOR) Thank you. Request acknowledged. Await response.55 INT. VOGON HEADQUARTERS - CONTINUOUS 55 KWALTZ (into microphone) Bring me the request to pursue fugitive forms. The war room is silent. We hear the sound of running above. The footsteps hurry all the way around, we hear a door open, running up more steps, along the corridor until and finally an exhausted Vogon Messenger bursts through the door holding a blue form. Questular shakes his head in disbelief as Kwaltz signs the request form. (CONTINUED)5 50. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 5 CONTINUED: 55 QUESTULAR This is ridiculous! What do you need, an executive order? Fine. I order you. Stop doing this! Go and get him! KWALTZ According to Subsection 94b, paragraph 2, you're not authorized to make such an order. QUESTULAR But I'm acting president! KWALTZ Then act like a president, and do nothing. Kwaltz continues to fill out the forms. Questular grabs a clump of his hair -- and pulls it out. CUT TO:56 EXT. VILTVODLE 6. SPACEPORT. - NIGHT 56 All we can see are the lights of the Heart of Gold's entry ramp cutting through a dense fog. Or is it fog? Zaphod's 2nd head is up as he comes down the ramp ahead of the other three. ZAPHOD HEAD 2 Humma Kavula! BACK A FEW STEPS WITH ARTHUR, TRILLIAN AND FORD... ARTHUR Why does he keep saying that? TRILLIAN I don't know. I'm not used to seeing him this way. ARTHUR You mean fully clothed? She stops, fires him a look. ARTHUR (CONT'D) Sorry, but I can't for the life of me figure out why you, the most brilliant woman I have ever met, have ended up with that half-witted, self-obsessed, vapid politician! I mean, look at him! They squint through the fog at Zaphod, Head 2 out. His hands keep trying to get it down but the 3rd arm keeps whacking them away. He disappears into the fog. (CONTINUED)5 51. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 6 CONTINUED: 56 TRILLIAN Clearly unlike any guy I've ever met. (back to Arthur) Look, if you're going to pout your way around space, then maybe you should just go home. ARTHUR I can't. That's the whole point -- and I've been trying to tell you... FORD (interrupting) Hey, look what I found in the guide. He hands the guide to Trillian. She keeps walking. FORD (CONT'D) I wouldn't tell her if I were you. ARTHUR She deserves to know. FORD But if you tell her and she ends up with you because you're literally the last guy on Earth -- you'll always doubt her intentions. Arthur considers this. Nods. FORD (CONT'D) Got your towel? ARTHUR Do I need it? FORD Only always. Ford puts his towel to his mouth as they follow Trillian down the mist covered street. She's reading the guide. GUIDE VOICE In the beginning, the universe was created. This made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move. Zaphod continues several steps ahead of them. GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) Many races believe that it was created by some sort of God, though the Jatravartid people of Viltvodle 6 firmly believe that the entire Universe was in fact sneezed out of the nose of a being called the Great Green Arkleseizure. The Jatravartids, who live in perpetual fear (MORE) (CONTINUED)5 52. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 6 CONTINUED: (2) 56 GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) of the time they call "The Coming of Great White Handkerchief" are small blue creatures with more than fifty arms each. ...who are therefore unique in being the only race in history to have invented the aerosol deodorant before the wheel. ZAPHOD HEAD 2 Humma Kavula! SLAM. Zaphod's two arms shove his chin back down. ZAPHOD I'll handle this.56a EXT. SEEDY STREET-VILTVODLE 56a The others approach, watching Zaphod as he stops a passing an eight-armed alien creature, asks him something, oozing charm. The creature points down the street with 3 arms, then with 2 others hands him a pen and paper. Zaphod signs an autograph and moves on. The alien beams, then squirts three cans of aerosol under several arms. More mist rises. FOLLOW IT UP revealing:57 A LARGE BUILDING -- a temple with two giant arches. 57 The others follow. CAMERA TILTS UP and we see this building looks like a nose lying horizontally, the "giant arches" are the nostrils.58 INT. ARKLESEIZURE TEMPLE - CONTINUOUS 58 Zaphod opens the huge doors inside the large nostril/arches. A rush of air blows the mist past Ford, Trillian and Arthur a few steps behind. They stop. A congregation of worshipers faces front where HUMMA KAVULA stands behind a podium. He's a humanoid wearing a white robe and night-vision sun glasses. HUMMA KAVULA The handkerchief is coming, beloveds. Are you ready? Let us pray that the almighty will exhale a breath of compassion on us. Instead of bowing, they all point their noses heavenward. Zaphod marches down the center aisle while Humma prays. HUMMA KAVULA (CONT'D) Almighty Arkleseizure, we lift our noses, clogged and unblown in reverence to you. Zaphod stops a few feet away from Humma's chair. ZAPHOD Hello, Humma. (CONTINUED)5 53. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 8 CONTINUED: 58 ON FORD AND ARTHUR ARTHUR That's Humma Kavula? I thought he was just using a swear word. FORD (shaking his head) Humma Kavula was his opponent in the election. Something happened during the campaign. Zaphod never forgave him. ARTHUR What was it? Ford shrugs. HUMMA looks up, sees Zaphod, smiles. HUMMA KAVULA (wrapping up the prayer) Send the handkerchief, lord, so that it may wipe us clean. We ask this in your precious holy name... CONGREGATION Achoo. And they all sneeze. Akin to crossing himself, Humma raises a hand to his nose, then down again. HUMMA KAVULA Bless you. CUT TO:59 INT. HUMMA'S QUARTERS - CONTINUOUS 59 Humma's quarters are opulent. He sits behind his desk flanked by several ARMED BODY GUARDS. Ford, Arthur and Trillian keep a safe distance as Zaphod faces off with Humma who has the air of a cool news anchor man. HUMMA KAVULA Zaphod Beeblebrox, our famous President. The Arkleseizure has exhaled many blessings upon you. What brings you to our humble planet? ZAPHOD I think you know why I'm here. HUMMA KAVULA I don't think I do. ZAPHOD Oh, I think you think you don't, but we both know -- you do. HUMMA KAVULA Elequent as always, Zaphod. Your ability to communicate a clear thought never ceases to amaze. (CONTINUED)5 54. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 9 CONTINUED: 59 Head 2 suddenly springs up -- to the surprise of all. ZAPHOD HEAD 2 You called me stupid! HUMKA KAVULA (re: the heads) Interesting. And I don't know what you're talking about. ZAPHOD HEAD 2 During the campaign, Humma -- you said I was stupid. HUMMA KAVULA This Humma you speak of no longer exists. He came here in his consolation position as Ambassador to Gamma Z10 to squelch an ideological threat to the system and repented from his wicked ways. He now goes by the holy name Tazelo the Unceasingly Righteous, given to him by his devoted followers. ZAPHOD HEAD 2 I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU CALL YOURSELF, YOU RIGHTEOUS FREAK!! YOU STARTED THE RUMOR THAT I'M STUPID AND YOU'RE GONNA PAY!!! The 3rd arm reaches for a gun in Zaphod's vest. The BODY GUARDS aim their weapons. One runs up and smacks Zaphod in the back of the head -- slamming Head 2 back in place. ZAPHOD Thank you. The 3rd arm disappears. The gun falls. A BODY GUARD picks it up. WITH ARTHUR, FORD AND TRILLIAN ARTHUR Why do I get the feeling he's going to get us all killed? FORD Probably because it's very possible. Just don't save me, okay? We're even. Humma lays his palms on the table and lifts himself as if to stand - but there is nothing of him below the table line except for thirty, one inch metal legs, attached to the base of his torso. He glides towards Zaphod, the little legs extending to reach the floor as he reaches the end of the table. (CONTINUED)5 55. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 9 CONTINUED: (2) 59 HUMMA KAVULA The election is ancient history, Zaphod, but if memory serves -- you won, proving that good looks and charm win over brilliance and ability to govern. A guard drapes a white robes over Humma's shoulders - which he ties with a belt - hiding his peculiar undercarriage. HUMMA KAVULA (CONT'D) And incidently -- you are stupid. His head jerks up. Zaphod stops it, paints on a smile. ZAPHOD That's really not the point. HUMMA KAVULA You haven't come halfway across the galaxy to settle a campaign grudge. Why are you here, Zaphod? Zaphod doesn't answer. Humma motions to a guard who grabs his arm, twists it -- hard. ZAPHOD (wincing) I don't know. I was headed for Magrathea, I ended up here. PUSH IN ON HUMMA -- who raises his hi-tech sun glasses. HUMMA KAVULA How very, very... (knowingly) ...improbable. He pulls the nose off his body guard, turns a key. A secret safe door slides open from the mans' chest. HUMMA KAVULA (CONT'D) I kept a few souvenirs from my former life. Ah, the heady days of space piracy... so young, so foolish.., Another, smaller box rises from the chest cabinet. Inside we see glowing jewels, a skeleton hand, etc. Humma removes a PINK CUBE (like Zaphod's blue cube.) HUMMA KAVULA (CONT'D) I'll gladly give you the coordinates to Magrathea... He holds up the pink cube revealing A SERIES OF COORDINATE NUMBERS on each side. Zaphod reaches for it. Humma takes it back... HUMMA KAVULA (CONT'D) ...provided you bring me something in return. (CONTINUED)5 56. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 9 CONTINUED: (3) 59 ZAPHOD What? HUMMA KAVULA A gun. ZAPHOD A gun? HUMMA KAVULA A very special gun. Designed by the greatest computer ever invented, now buried in the bowels of Magrathea. ZAPHOD Fine. I'll get your gun. Just give me the coordinates. Zaphod reaches out. Humma pulls it back. HUMMA KAVULA And what will you give me to insure your return? ZAPHOD My word as President. HUMMA KAVULA Ha! I'd be better off with the dung of a Bethusian Mega Donkey. ZAPHOD Okay, then I'll get you that. HUMMA KAVULA I need a hostage, something you hold dear. Only what does Zaphod Beeblebrox treasure? ON ZAPHOD'S SECOND HEAD -- peeping out of the collar looking terrified. Humma smiles. Bingo. He signals the guards. They grab Zaphod who looks back to Trillian, offers a weak smile. SMASH CUT TO:60 INT. HUMMA KAVULA'S OPERATING THEATRE -- LATER 60 Very fast scene - two seconds. Zaphod's 2nd Head SCREAMS! ZAPHOD HEAD 2 Nooo!!! PULL BACK to see it being lifted out of Zaphod's neck. Zaphod unconscious on the operating table. Blood and instruments everywhere.6 57. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 1 INT. HUMMA KAVULA'S ROOM -- LATER 61 Zaphod's head hangs on the wall. Wires feed out of the neck into a huge machine. Beneath the head is a crude drawing of a body and the words "I'm with Stupid." An arrow points to Zaphod's Head 2 -- which is shouting... ZAPHOD HEAD 2 IDIOT! ZARKING MORON!! COME BACK!! YOU NEED ME!! COME BAAAAACKKKK!!!! HUMMA KAVULA You should quit while you're "a head" Zaphod. No one has ever got passed the Magrathean defence system alive. Humma laughs maniacally.62 EXT. VILTVODLE 6. MAIN STREET - NIGHT 62 Zaphod, held aloft on Ford and Arthur's shoulders, staggers down the street toward the spaceport where the Heart of Gold is parked. His neck is wrapped with a blood-soaked bandage which looks like a scarlet ascot. ARTHUR Are we sure this is the right way? FORD Yes! I think. I don't know. Maybe not. ARTHUR Yes, thank you for clearing that up. Ford looks puzzled at Arthur. Did I clear it up? A crowd has gathered. When they see Zaphod, they scream... CROWD Mr. President!...Zaphod, over here!...I want to have your baby!, etc... Zaphod, still feeling the effects of whatever drugs he was given, dons a presidential smile and waves. FORD Back to the ship. Quickly. They quicken their pace when suddenly... FIFTY VOGON POLICE -- emerge from the mist. VOGON POLICE #1 Mr. President! We are here for your protection! Zaphod, Ford, Trillian and Arthur freeze in their tracks.6 58. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 3 INT. VOGON HEADQUARTERS - CONTINUOUS 63 Kwaltz and Questular watch the action on the front screen. KWALTZ Fire upon the kidnapper!(62 cont) EXT. MAIN STREET - (62 cont) The police fire. F, T, & A run for it, but Z stays put. ZAPHOD Zarquon! Friendly fire! Well, if that's what they want-- He pulls out his gun up and fires back. ZAPHOD (CONT'D) Hey! Let's do lunch! Nice haircut, fella! Hey! Your kids are the same age as mine-- We should get them together some time! With each line he fires. Ford grabs him. Shots hit a stack of aerosol cans. They EXPLODE. More mist rises.(63 cont) INT. VOGON HEADQUARTERS - (63 cont) QUESTULAR Commander! The President is the kidnapper! KWALTZ Cease fire!(62 cont) BEHIND THE KIOSK-- (62 cont} The gang run down an alley and hide behind a kiosk. Zaphod sports a goofy smile. Arthur is scared to death. ARTHUR Oh God, I really hate Thursdays. FORD Zaphod, what do we do? ZAPHOD Build bridges between the stars! He holds up two peace signs, a la Nixon. ARTHUR What? FORD I think that was his campaign slogan. Trillian finds a deodorant can, grabs it, gets an idea. TRILLIAN Alright, follow me. She aims the can at Zaphod's ear- Arthur's face registers the madness of the moment.( 59. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 63 cont) INT. VOGON DESTROYER. BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS (63 cont) QUESTULAR There they are!(62 cont) ON SCREEN -- Trillian, with aerosol can to Zaphod's ear (62 cont) moves down the street. The crowd GASPS. The quartet continues anxiously forward, eyeing the police whose guns track their every move. TRILLIAN Back off or I'll kill him, I swear I will!(63 cont)KWALTZ -- looks confused. (63 cont) KWALTZ Could that actually kill him?(62 cont) The police step backwards -- but the crowd takes a step (62 cont) forward. A huddle of female ADMIRERS rush them, waving pens and paper as if the Beatles have arrived. ADMIRERS Mr. President, Mr. President!... Zaphod paints on a smile, breaks away from the others to go sign a few autographs. FEMALE ADMIRER I totally voted for you! ZAPHOD Thank you! Reveal that the female fans are actually a multi-headed, two legged GROUPIE.(63 cont) ON QUESTULAR AND KWALTZ-- (63 cont) KWALTZ Get her!(62 cont) CHAOS! The walrusy Vogon police swarm in like maggots, (62 cont) surrounding Trillian and edging Ford and Arthur away. VOGON POLICE Resistance is useless! Shots are fired. The crowd SCREAMS and SCATTERS. Arthur reaches for Trillian but she is engulfed by Vogons who move, en masse, and pull her away into the mist. ARTHUR Tricia! Ford, with Zaphod in tow, shoves Arthur forward, using his towel to clear a path through the mist. They see the Heart of Gold ramp descending from the belly of the ship. FORD This way! (CONTINUED)( 60. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 62 cont) CONTINUED: (62 cont) ARTHUR NO!! TRICIA!!! SHOTS FIRE all around them as Ford pushes Zaphod and Arthur up the ramp.(63 cont) INT. VOGON HEADQUARTERS - NIGHT (63 cont) Questular and Kwaltz watch the monitor as Vogon Police usher Trillian, in futuristic hand-cuffs, past the Vogon Captain who stands in the foreground on his ship. KWALTZ Bring her to Vogsphere for processing, Captain. The captain nods. The screen goes black. QUESTULAR They're coming here!? But they've only accomplished half the mission. What about Zaphod? HE MUST FACE JUSTICE!! KWALTZ My instructions were clear... From a slot in his chair, he pulls his instructions -- signed in triplicate of course. He reads... KWALTZ (CONT'D) "Apprehend the kidnapper, rescue the president." We do them in that order. And until the kidnapper is properly processed, she isn't officially apprehended, now is she, Mr. Vice- President? Questular pulls out another small clump of hair. CUT TO:64 INT. HEART OF GOLD. BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS 64 Ford and Arthur drag Zaphod into the bridge. On the front screen, they can see the Vogon ships flying away. ARTHUR We have to go! Let's GO! ZAPHOD (still loopy) Right! Looking strangely happy, he slides the PINK COORDINATE CUBE Humma gave him into a slot on the console. ZAPHOD (CONT'D) Computer! Take us to Magrathea! ARTHUR What? No! Follow those ships! (CONTINUED)6 61. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 4 CONTINUED: 64 Arthur lunges for a control. Zaphod woozily tries to stop him. There's a struggle, then Zaphod realizes... ZAPHOD Hey -- my third arm. I had one, didn't I? ARTHUR We have to go after her! The computer fires to life, BLEEPS and BLIPS. Only now it has an effete, effeminate, almost matriarchal voice. EDDIE Boys, please! Not so rough. You're damaging my joystick. They all look at the source of the voice, confused. FORD Who is that? MARVIN Ghastly, isn't it? I was asked to change the personality type, this was the emergency back-up. EDDIE How, if you want me to take you somewhere, we're going to have to start using our magic words, "please" and "thank you." ARTHUR Can you change it back? MARVIN I can -- but I won't enjoy it. EDDIE I'm wait-ing... Arthur sees the Vogon ships getting away. Desperate, he shoves_Zaphod out of_the_driver's seat. Zaphod hits the floor, considers protesting, lies down on the floor to sleep instead -- with a contented smile. Arthur sits. He looks very out of place in a seat normally reserved for the likes of Han Solo. He scans the console. Ford sits in the seat beside him. ARTHUR Ford? FORD Marvin? MARVIN Don't look at me. I'm too depressed. (CONTINUED)6 62. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 4 CONTINUED: 64 ARTHUR (getting desperate) Computer?! Isn't there some kind of manual override switch thing? EDDIE Yeeessss... ARTHUR WELL WHERE THE HELL IS IT?! EDDIE Magic words? ARTHUR Show me the override switch or I'll reprogram you with a very large axe. EDDIE (long pause) I can see this relationship is something we're all going to have to work at.64a DING. A chime sounds. A switch on the console 64a ILLUMINATES. "MANUAL OVERRIDE." Arthur flips the switch. The cockpit is sealed in a glass ball and shoots upwards.65 EXT. HEART OF GOLD - NIGHT 65 The cockpit bubble POPS out like an ejector seat, now a little glass pod. It floats through space, then rear thrusters ignite and blast the ship forward.66 INT. HEART OF GOLD BRIDGE/POD - CONTINUOUS 66 An aircraft steering wheel rises up between Arthur's legs. He grabs it, spinning out of control. FORD I think I should push this button. Ford pushes a big button. AN ALARM SOUNDS! ARTHUR What's that? What happened?! FORD A sign lit up saying "Please do not push this button again." Arthur grabs the control, does his best to steer.67 EXT. SPACE - NIGHT 67 The glass pod streaks unsteadily forward toward A DULL GRAY PLANET.68 EXT. VOGSPHERE - DAY 68 The rectangular ship sits on the surface as Police escort Trillian off it and into a GRAY RECTANGULAR BLDG.6 63. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 9 DIFFERENT PART OF VOGSPHERE/NEAR SWAMP-- 69 The ground is barren. A scintillatingly jeweled crab crawls out of a swamp and looks up at the sky. We hear the sound of the pod approaching (but hold on the crab) as EEEOOOO-KA-KFFFZZZ! The crab runs back into the swamp. PAN LEFT to see the pod rammed into the ground, steam rising. The door opens. The three emerge. FORD Wow... MARVIN I know. Dreadful, isn't it? ARTHUR Sorry about the landing. Where are we? ZAPHOD Magrathea! FORD Wrong. This is the Vogon planet. This is Vogsphere. ZAPHOD No. It's Magrathea! I know it! Ford reaches in his satchel, pulls out a sort of ELECTRONIC BERET, pulls it snugly onto Zaphod's head. FORD Little something I learned about on an Altairian star cruiser. Captains use them when they really need to concentrate. ARTHUR What is it? FORD A Thinking Cap. Zaphod squints hard to think as he looks around.70 EXT. VOGCITY 70 THEIR P.O.V. -- there are rows and rows of dull, gray, rectangular buildings as far as the eye can see.(69 cont) The three men step out of the ship. (69 cont) MARVIN This will all end in tears, I just know it. Marvin moves out, a few paces behind. FORD I checked the guide for ways to rescue a prisoner from Vogsphere. It said "Don't." I'm assuming your plan is better. (CONTINUED)6 64. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 9 CONTINUED: 69 ARTHUR Well, I sort of had this idea we could... A TELESCOPIC ROD WITH A PADDLE AT THE TOP shoots out of the ground, SMACKS Arthur on the face, then retracts. Arthur is stunned. None of the others have noticed. ARTHUR (CONT'D) Did anyone see that? ZAPHOD See what? They look at Arthur. It suddenly seems ridiculous. ARTHUR Nothing. They all walk along - Arthur at the back, perplexed. FORD What was it? ARTHUR Nothing. Just my imagination. Another paddle springs up, double smack in the face. Arthur leaps back. Looks down. Nothing. Nothing at all. ARTHUR (CONT'D) Alright, stop. Everyone stop and watch me. Something's happening. They watch. Arthur walks. And walks. FORD Okay. I think we... A paddle springs up and smacks Ford's face. FORD (CONT'D) AH! He leaps back, clutching his cheeks. Arthur spins around. ARTHUR You, too? FORD Yes. What was that? Arthur lifts his feet very carefully. FORD (CONT'D) I th... He stops himself and looks round. (CONTINUED)6 65. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 9 CONTINUED: (2) 69 FORD (CONT'D) What do you think, Zaphod? Zaphod pulls his thinking cap down, thinks hard. ZAPHOD I think we should keep going. A paddle shoots up, smacks Zaphod's face. They all saw. ZAPHOD (CONT'D) AAAH!! ARTHUR What the blazes is that? FORD (very deliberately) I have... an idea. A paddle shoots up. Ford ducks. It misses. He grabs its telescopic stalk. It thrashes in his hands. He breaks it. FORD (CONT'D) Okay, don't think of anything. Don't have ideas or theories -- nothing. A beat. They all strain to think of nothing. Several paddles shoot up. Smacking them. ARTHUR I can't, help it! Trillian is in there somewhere and we need an idea to save her. ZAPHOD I have an idea. (SMACK!) Run! FORD Ever the politician. They take off running. A forest of paddle stalks erupts out of the ground around them, smacking violently. They come to rest at the side of a Vogon building. ARTHUR Okay, so... (thinking) ...not thinking, not thinking, no ideas coming... (looking to Marvin) ...this is by no means an idea that has any merit, but Marvin -- can you give me a hand? SMASH CUT TO:71 INT. VOGON ADMINISTRATION BUILDING - DAY 71 The dullest office environment ever. A counter with few VOGONS behind it, mindlessly moving bits of paper around. (CONTINUED)7 66. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 1n CONTINUED: 71n The front doors BURST open. Arthur storms through them, holding Marvin's arm which has the fingers pointed like a gun. He trips, falls, drops the arm, picks it up again, trying hard to look tough. Ford and Zaphod follow, Zaphod wearing the Thinking Cap and sunglasses for disguise. Ford wearing his towel over his face like a bandit. The Vogons look up, nonplussed. ARTHUR Alright, where is she? VOGON BEHIND COUNTER Who? The Director of Robot Arm repair? Next building, out the door to the left. Arthur looks at the arm -- then slowly lowers it. ARTHUR Actually, we're looking for... (how to put this...?) ...someone you're detaining, perhaps in some form of incarceration... VOGON BEHIND COUNTER Prisoner Release Department. Six buildings down, out the door, right, left, then two rights. Big gray building, can't miss it. CUT TO:72 INT. PRISONER PROCESSING BLDG./INTERROGATION ROOM - DAY 72 Trillian is seated beside a desk while a VOGON OFFICER asks her questions. Kwaltz and Questular stand nearby. VOGON OFFICER Name? TRILLIAN Trillian. He types into his ancient looking computer. VOGON OFFICER Not registered. TRILLIAN Try Tricia McMillan. VOGON OFFICER Tricia Yggarstuk McMillanus of Blaard? TRILLIAN No. Tricia Imogene McMillan of Earth. The Officer types, checks his screen, shakes his head. VOGON OFFICER Sorry. No record of "Earth." (CONTINUED)7 67. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 2 CONTINUED: 72 TRILLIAN Earth. In the Milky Way? {remembering) Um...galactic Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha. The Vogon Officer types, reads from the screen. VOGON OFFICER Right. Here it is. "Earth. Destroyed." Do you have a second home planet? PUSH IN ON TRILLIAN -- gutted by the news. TRILLIAN Destroyed? No -- that's impossible. VOGON OFFICER Says here it was destroyed to make way for a hyperspace expressway. The order was given...three weeks ago. TRILLIAN WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND GIVES AN ORDER TO DESTROY A PLANET!? CUT TO:73 EXT-ADMIN BUILDING-VOGCITY 73 ZAPHOD - WALKING WITH FORD AND ARTHUR ZAPHOD He said the gray building, right? THEIR P.O.V. -- all the buildings are gray. Arthur sees 2 VOGON POLICE escorting someone in handcuffs into one of the buildings. ARTHUR There. That's it. This way. He raises Marvin's arm, pointing the fingers.74 INT. PRISONER PROCESSING BUILDING/MAIN ROOM - CONTINUOUS 74 A, F & Z enter the double doors, then stop short. Stunned. THEIR P.O.V. - a typical government pick-a-number and wait sort of room. Bland. Bad lighting. Numbered windows. It's packed with all manner of species. ARTHUR Leave this to me. I'm British. (with gusto) I know how to queue. He confidently takes a number and gets in line with the several hundred others -- feeling very much at home.( 68. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 72 cont)INT. PRISONER PROCESSING BLDG./INTERROGATION ROOM - (72 cont) Trillian sits at the Officer's desk, arms folded, defiant. TRILLIAN I don't believe you. This is some sort of trick. Zaphod wouldn't blow up a planet, especially mine. Kwaltz now steps forward and extends a piece of paper. KWALTZ These are the orders. Trillian takes the paper, runs her finger down to the signature line where it reads "Love and kisses, Zaphod!" TRILLIAN Love and kisses...? She hands the paper back, swallowing emotion. KWALTZ Now -- according to Section 8, sub-section 34 dash A, the punishment for kidnapping is a recitation of the classic poem, "Ode to the Removal of Your Left Kidney." Unless -- said kidnapping is of the President, in which case you are to be fed to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal. We thank you for your cooperation. A door is opened revealing a room with a large steel box. A huge, angry eye stares out of a tiny barred window. The box shakes like crazy. Trillian gulps.(74 cont) INT. PRISONER PROCESSING BUILDING/MAIN ROOM - CONTINUOUS (74 cont) Zaphod is in line with Arthur and Ford. He looks up to: A PRESIDENTIAL PHOTOGRAPH -- of himself, in suit and tie, smiling broadly. He lowers his thinking cap. FEMALE VOGON PROCESSOR Next! Arthur steps up, followed by Ford and Zaphod who keeps his head low and bowed. ARTHUR Yes. Hi. We're here about getting a prisoner released? FEMALE VOGON PROCESSOR Prisoner release form? She holds out her hand. Arthur doesn't have a form. Annoyed, she points across the room to a wall that is nothing but shelves holding forms. (CONTINUED) 69. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03(74 cont)CONTINUED: (74 cont) ARTHUR Right. Once I've filled it out can I return to the front of the line, seeing as I've already waited... FEMALE VOGON PROCESSOR No. Next! Arthur sighs, frustrated. All three of them walk to the shelves holding the forms. Arthur turns to Zaphod. ARTHUR Can't you do something?! You're President, aren't you? ZAPHOD You want me to make a speech, shake a hand? That's what I do -- I think. It's all a little fuzzy. Arthur angrily fills out the form. MOMENTS LATER-- Arthur is back in line, having waited a long time. He finally gets to the window, hands the green form to the Vogon Processor. She types into her computer, then checks the screen. FEMALE VOGON PROCESSOR This Prisoner is being detained for... (reading) Kidnapping the president. Not eligible for release at this time. You can make an appointment for a later date or take a number and wait. Arthur's breathing quickens. He can't take this. ARTHUR Alright, look. (yanks thinking cap and sunglasses off Zaphod) This is the President. She looks at Zaphod, then back to the large portrait of Zaphod, then back to Zaphod. She nods. Okay... ARTHUR (CONT'D) He says the whole kidnapping thing was a terrible misunderstanding, she didn't mean anything by it and he's ordering you to let her go. FEMALE VOGON PROCESSOR (holding up green form) But this isn't a Presidential Release of Prisoner form. Those are blue. She points to the wall of forms. Arthur sighs.( 70. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 72 cont) QUICK CUT BACK TO TRILLIAN -- (72 cont) Trillian is lowered into the Bugblatter beast box/cage. We cannot see the beast but it's screams of hunger are scaring the hell out of Trillian.(74 cont) BACK TO ARTHUR -- (74 cont) ...who returns, practically shoving Zaphod forward. Zaphod hands the Vogon Processor the blue form. FEMALE VOGON PROCESSOR (CONT'D) Okay... She reviews the form, stamps it, pulls off the carbon copy underneath, hands that to Zaphod. VOGON PROCESSOR Go to the Prisoner Release Lobby, out the door, right, left, 2nd door on the right.(72 cont) BACK WITH TRILLIAN -- (72 cont) As she braces herself to be eaten by the monster. Suddenly, a couple of VOGON GUARDS enter and hand Kwaltz a blue piece of paper. He reviews it, then signs it. KWALTZ You're free to go. Release her. The Vogon Guard pulls Trillian up and out of the box on a cable. The Bugblatter beast goes berserk. QUESTULAR What!? (yanking blue paper away, reading) He's here?! Zaphod is here!? Let's go get him! But the Guard is already escorting Trillian out of the room. Kwaltz is completing paperwork. QUESTULAR (CONT'D) Commander? Kwaltz holds up a walrusy hand, one finger raised, silencing Questular while he continues. Questular sighs. We hear the Bugblatter beast weeping as the doors are closed on him. CUT TO:75 INT. PRISONER RELEASE LOBBY - CONTINUOUS 75 A guard escorts Trillian into the Lobby where F, A & Z await. Arthur steps toward her but Zaphod steps in front of him, smiling, arms outstretched. Trillian walks up to Zaphod -- and SLAPS HIM. (CONTINUED)7 71. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 5 CONTINUED: 75 TRILLIAN You bastard. You signed the order to destroy Earth?! ARTHUR He did? ZAPHOD I did? TRILLIAN "Love and kisses, Zaphod?" I saw the form. You didn't even read it, did you? ZAPHOD Honey, I'm President of the Galaxy. I don't get a lot of time for reading. TRILLIAN An entire planet, Zaphod. My home. Gone. All because you thought someone wanted your autograph! She SLAPS him again, storms away, bursting out the door. ZAPHOD They framed me! It's routine for controlling Presidents!76 INT. PRISONER INTERROGATION ROOM - CONTINUOUS 76 Kwaltz finishes his paperwork, stacks it neatly, holds it up for Questular to see. KWALTZ Cancellation of the Rescue of the President. He hands it to a Messenger who runs off. Another one runs up. KWALTZ (CONT'D) Now. {with menace) Get me the Apprehension of the President form.77 EXT. PRISONER PROCESSING BLDG. - CONTINUOUS 77 Trillian storms away from the building, enraged. She sees a one-armed Marvin standing by the glass pod. She heads for him. Arthur catches up to her. ARTHUR Trillian... TRILLIAN You knew. Why didn't you tell me? (CONTINUED)7 72. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 6 CONTINUED: 76 ARTHUR I tried. He threatened me. TRILLIAN Get a backbone, Arthur. She storms ahead of him. He stops. ARTHUR What about coming here to rescue you?! That was my brilliant idea! A paddle shoots up and slaps him in the face.(77 cont) EXT. PRISONER PROCESSING BLDG. - MOMENTS LATER (77 cont) Kwaltz and Questular, flanked by the Vogon police force, step out of the building just in time to see...78 ...THE GLASS HEART OF GOLD POD soaring overhead. 78 They all watch as it disappears from sight. KWALTZ The President tests my patience. This time, I shall pursue him myself. Ready my ship! QUESTULAR Yes! This is more like it.79 INT. VOGON OFFICE - MOMENTS LATER 79 Kwaltz sits in a desk, filling out a form. Questular holds two clumps of hair in each fist. QUESTULAR THIS IS INSANITY! KWALTZ My license is expired, Mr. Vice President. I can't fly with an expired license -- it's against the law. Questular fists tremble. PLOP. Out comes two large tufts of hair. SMASH CUT TO:80 EXT. SPACE - NIGHT 80 The pod is reattached to the Heart of Gold which soars through the stars.81 INT. HEART OF GOLD. BRIDGE - NIGHT 81 They're all getting buckled into their seats. (CONTINUED)8 73. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 1 CONTINUED: 81 EDDIE (back to his normal voice) Hi, fellas. Hold on to your hats! ZAPHOD Eddie! Welcome back! The ship suddenly BLASTS forward. Their heads are slammed back into the seats as they VIBRATE VIOLENTLY. FORD WHAT'S HAPPENING, ZAPHOD?! WHERE DID YOU TELL IT TO GO?! ZAPHOD I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING! Arthur looks to the console and sees the two mice sliding across it, getting thrown across the ship. They continue to vibrate -- even more violently. FORD ARE YOU SURE WE REATTACHED THIS THING THE RIGHT WAY?! Zaphod is all smiles, hanging on as if he were on a rollercoaster ride. ZAPHOD ISN'T IT GREAT?!82 DEEP SPACE-- 82 ...the H.O.G. is but a blur as it streaks along.83 BACK IN THE H.O.G. - LATER 83 Stars appear on the screen as they slow from hyperspace. EDDIE Guys, I'm just super happy to tell you we're approaching hyperspace exit Gamma Z8B530. Arthur steadies himself, turns to Trillian who's still staring forward, angry. She unbuckles her seat-belt and moves away from the console. A planet appears on screen. Zaphod and Ford lean forward. ZAPHOD Okay, that's it...I think. Computer? Is that...where are we headed again? FORD Magrathea? EDDIE Hang on, fella, and I'll check. (CONTINUED)8 74. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 3 CONTINUED: 83 Arthur turns, look over at... TRILLIAN -- who stares out a portal window into the emptiness of space. A tear rolls down her cheek. Arthur steps up, isn't sure what to say. ARTHUR Look, you're right. You deserved to know and I should've told you. I don't blame you if you're angry. She turns and stares, wipes the tears away. Can't speak. ARTHUR (CONT'D) Right. Anyway...I'm sorry. EDDIE (O.S.) Guys, it just tickles me pink to tell you we are currently in orbit at an altitude of three hundred miles around the legendary planet of Magrathea. Goll-ee. Hearing this news, Arthur, Trillian and Ford turn. ZAPHOD (tasting it) Take us in.83a EXT. NIGHT DEEP SPACE - MAGRATHEA 83a They all stare in awe as they move toward a planet which gets closer and closer. Suddenly, their faces are awash with light. Two suns rise behind the planet. It's breathtaking. ZAPHOD The twin suns of Soulianis and Rahm... Marvin (both arms in tact) rises in the back, peers out. MARVIN It's rubbish.83b Suddenly,a ghostly white swirl of light, vaguely in the 83b shape of a man, appears on the screen before them. GHOSTLY IMAGE Greetings. This is a recorded announcement as we're all out the moment. The Commercial council of Magrathea thanks you for your esteemed visit, but regrets that the entire planet is temporarily closed for business. If you would like to leave your name and a planet where you can be contacted, kindly do so at the tone. BEEP. Then stunned silence. (CONTINUED)8 75. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 3b CONTINUED: 83b ARTHUR Closed? How can a planet be closed? ZAPHOD For once, Aldus, I agree with you. Okay, computer. Keep going. Take us down. EDDIE Happy to! The ship eases forward. The image appears again. GHOSTLY IMAGE It is most gratifying that your enthusiasm for our planet continues unabated. As a token of our appreciation, we hope you will enjoy the two thermonuclear missiles we've just sent to converge with your craft. To ensure on-going quality of service, your death may be monitored for training purposes. Thank you. The image vanishes. A beat. Then... EDDIE Guys, I'm delighted to tell you there are two thermonuclear missiles headed right for us. Should I take evasive action?83c The screens show two huge rockets thundering at us, 83c Zaphod just smiles. Ford steps up. FORD Um...yes, computer. Evade! Massive acceleration! An illuminated dome lowers from the ceiling over the crew seats - creating a safety pod.84 EXT. ABOVE MAGRATHEA. DAWN 84 The Heart of Gold streaks away. Two large missiles follow and mimic the H.O.G.'s every move.85 INT. THE BRIDGE - CONTINUOUS 85 The crew are thrown from one side of the pod to the other. EDDIE There seems to be something jamming my guidance systems. Impact minus 45 seconds. Call me Eddie if it'll help you relax.(84 cont) EXT. SKY OVER MAGRATHEA - CONTINUOUS (84 cont) The H.O.G. streaks forward. The missiles are gaining. ARTHUR Computer! DO SOMETHING!! (CONTINUED)( 76. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 84 cont) CONTINUED: (84 cont) EDDIE Sure thing, fellah. Handing over manual control. Good luck! Big swell of Muzak. The ship drops like a stone. THE MISSILES -- miss, then turn in a screeching curve.(85 cont) INT. THE SAFETY POD - (85 cont) Zaphod tries to wrestle with three controls. ZAPHOD I can't do this without my other arm!(84 cont) THE H.O.G. -- spirals wildly, missiles narrowly missing. (84 cont)(85 cont) IN THE SAFETY POD - everyone is thrown. (85 cont)(84 cont) IN THE SKY -- the missiles are dead ahead, shooting (84 cont) straight for us.(85 cont) IN THE SAFETY POD-- (85 cont) ZAPHOD Did we lose them? FORD No. They're right behind us. He looks down, sees the IMPROBABILITY DRIVE BUTTON. ARTHUR Look, why don't I just hit this thing? ZAPHOD NO! We're here! No telling where it will send us!(84 cont) IN THE SKY-- (84 cont) The missiles turn and accelerate high into the sky. A second set of boosters kick in on the missiles as they soar back toward the H.O.G. --- much, much faster.(85 cont) ON THE BRIDGE-- (85 cont) They all stare at the approaching missiles. Arthur looks at the drive button. Screw it. He flips open the glass lid. ZAPHOD NO! Too late. ARTHUR HITS THE BUTTON. WOOMF! Light blasts through the bridge. Morphing madness!86 EXT. SPACE. - NIGHT 86 Empty for a moment. Then, the HEART OF GOLD reforms. A few beats later, a SPERM WHALE floats into frame followed by a BOWL OF PETUNIAS.8 77. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 7 INT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 87 It coalesces back into shape out of chaos. The safety dome rises revealing our heroes standing in the exact same place they were - dazed. ZAPHOD Um...where are we? TRILLIAN Exactly where we were, I think. ZAPHOD And the missiles? FORD Have apparently turned into a bowl of petunias and a very surprised looking whale. He points to the screen. The whale and petunias float by. EDDIE At an improbability factor of eight million, seven hundred and sixty-seven thousand, one hundred and twenty-eight to one against. They all look to Arthur who shrugs. Zaphod nods his approval. Ford counts on his fingers -- are they even? He waves it off, gives Arthur a little salute and moves on. Trillian looks to Arthur and musters a smile. ARTHUR I could really use a cup of tea.88 EXT. SPACE - NIGHT 88 The H.O.G. arches away. The whale in mid-air, stops rising, starts falling. GUIDE VOICE It is important to note that suddenly, and against all probability, a sperm whale had been called into existence several miles above the surface of an alien planet. And since this is not a naturally tenable position for a whale, this innocent creature had very little time to come to terms with its identity as a whale before it then had to come to terms with suddenly not being a whale any more. This is what it thought as it fell. The camera moves around the whale as it falls. (CONTINUED)8 78. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 4 CONTINUED: 84 WHALE (V.O.) Ahhhh!!!! What's happening? Excuse me! Who am I? Hello? Why am I here? What's my purpose in life? What do I mean by who am I? What is this 'I' that I want to know what it is? Calm down, get a grip now ... ooh! This is an interesting sensation... ANGLE: From below. The whale is wriggling a bit. WHALE (V.O.) (CONT'D) Oh! This is an interesting sensation, what is it? It's a sort of... yawning, tingling sensation in ... well I suppose I'd better start finding names for things if I want to make any headway in what for the sake of what I shall call an argument I shall call the world, so let's call it my stomach! Good. Ooooh! It's getting quite strong now. And hey,what's this whistling roaring sound going past what I'm suddenly going to call my head? Perhaps I can call that ... wind! Is that a good name? It'll do. Perhaps I can give it a better name later when I've found out what it's for! It must be very important because there certainly seems to be an awful lot of it. Hey! What's this thing ... this ... let's call it a tail - yeah! Tail! The whale thrashes its tail. Between the camera and the whale drops the bowl of petunias. It falls from sight. WHALE (V.O.) (CONT'D) Hey! I can really thrash it about pretty good, can't I? Wow! Wow! Doesn't seem to achieve much but I'll probably find out what it's for later on. How. Have I built up a coherent picture of things yet? No. Never mind. Hey, this is really exciting, so much to find out about, ao much to look forward to, I'm quite dizzy with anticipation ... Or is it the wind? There really is an awful lot of that now, isn't there? It's eye tries to look down. Camera pulls back from the whale, abandoning it ... WHALE (V.O.) (CONT'D) And hey! What's this thing coming suddenly coming towards me very fast, so big and flat and round it needs a big wide-sounding name like ... ow ... ound...round ... ground! That's it, ground! I wonder if it'll be friends with me? We hear a sickening thud o.s. (CONTINUED)8 79. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 4 CONTINUED: 84 GUIDE VOICE Curiously, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was "Oh no, not again." We hear the petunia vase SHATTERING. GUIDE VOICE (CONT'D) Many have speculated that if we knew why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we do now. DISSOLVE TO:89 EXT. HEART OF GOLD. MAGRATHEA SURFACE - DAY 89 The gang stand by A HUGE CRATER (the H.O.G. parked in the b.g.) -- a large whale carcass sits in the middle of it -- along with a few petunias. They all grimace. BEYOND THE CRATER -- they see a formation of large rocks, aligned in a circle. It's the only structure in sight. They walk toward it.90 EXT. ROCK FORMATION - DAY 90 Arthur walks behind the others, his head down. FORD (O.S.) Hey...this looks familiar. Arthur looks up, registers surprise. THE ROCK FORMATION -- looks like Stonehenge - only newer. The rocks letters carved into them that read "DESIGN DEPARTMENT" "SHOWROOM" "EXECUTIVE OFFICES" "TOILETS" FORD (CONT'D} Must be portal doors. ARTHUR You mean -- the hippies were right? In the middle of the circle sits a stone receptionist desk with a sign on it that says "OUT TO LUNCH." Zaphod heads for the "To Design Department" stone. Trillian and Ford follow. Zaphod feels around it, looking for a switch, a knob, anything. He must've hit something because the front of the stone suddenly slides open revealing a SWIRLING VORTEX THAT LOOKS LIKE A JET ENGINE. ZAPHOD Okay. In we go. (CONTINUED)9 80. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 0 CONTINUED: 90 ARTHUR What?! Are you out of what's left of your mind? We can't step into that...that. FORD We gotta pick one, right? If it's not the right one, we come back and pick another. No biggie. ARTHUR Yes -- big biggie. What if that's the last door we ever step through? What if it rips us into tiny little atomic particle...thingies. Trillian, who hasn't said a word since leaving Vogsphere, covers her ears - trying to block them out ZAPHOD It's the right one. I have a hunch. ARTHUR Ford..? FORD He's got good hunches. I say we go. ARTHUR Go with the hunch of a narcissist with half a brain who's wearing a ridiculous thinking cap!? Are you insane?! ZAPHOD Hey, I think I resent that. ARTHUR I don't care what you think you think... They all start arguing over each other. We focus on Trillian -- Anger and frustration building, she covers her ears -- then screams.... TRILLIAN AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! And she takes off running for the door. Suicide? Bravery? They turn just in time to see her jump into the vortex. She YELPS as her body is bent in half, twisted like a rung mop, then sucked inside. Arthur is horrified, literally gasping for air. Ford is semi-impressed. Zaphod, unfazed. ZAPHOD That's supposed to happen...I think. Ford shrugs, throws his towel around his neck like a scarf and dives through. Same thing. Bent, twisted... (CONTINUED)9 81. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 0 CONTINUED: (2) 90 ZAPHOD (CONT'D) Hey, wait for me! He runs after Ford, stops at the door, turns like he's about to board Air Force one, gives a salute, jumps in. Arthur finally gets his legs to move, steps up -- but hesitates at the threshold, paralyzed with fear, unable to take a step. Then -- FFSSSSH - the door seals shut. ARTHUR No. No! NOOO!!! He bangs on the stone, slides his hand around like Zaphod did, desperately looking for a way to open it. He collapses and buries his head in his hands. MARVIN I told you this would all end in tears. CUT TO:91 EXT. TEMPLE OF DEEP THOUGHT - MOMENTS LATER 91 Ford stands outside a stone doorway at the end of a cobblestone street. Zaphod's body falls to the ground next to him, untwists, unbends and snaps bolt upright beside them. Trillian is already heading down the street toward the Temple. Ford and Zaphod hurry to catch up to her.92 EXT. ROCK FORMATION - DAY 92 Arthur sits with his back against the stone, staring across the field at the beautiful double sunset. He looks over and sees THE TWO MICE FROM THE SHIP -- scurrying toward one of the giant stone doors. They slip through a crack beneath the stone. A FLASH OF LIGHT bursts through the crack. Arthur barely reacts, so drained of emotion. ARTHUR Life is full of paradoxes, isn't it? MARVIN Don't talk to me about life. ARTHUR Here I am, God knows how far from home... MARVIN Don't talk to me about God. ARTHUR ...and this is where I see the most spectacular sunset I've ever laid eyes on. We only had the one sun at home. Planet called Earth. (CONTINUED)9 82. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 2 CONTINUED: 92 MARVIN I know. You keep going on about it. It sounds awful. ARTHUR Oh no, it's beautiful. Or at least, it was... MARVIN Did it have oceans? ARTHUR Yes. Great wide rolling blue oceans. MARVIN Can't bear oceans. Arthur looks up at Marvin. ARTHUR So this is how it will all end, then? Me, on a dead planet -- with a manically depressed robot. MARVIN You think you've got problems? What are you supposed to do if you are a manically depressed robot? No, don't bother to answer that, I'm fifty thousand times more intelligent than you and even I don't know the answer. It gives me a headache just trying to think down to your level. SLARTIBARTFAST (0.S.) Excuse me. Arthur spins to see AN OLD, BEARDED MAN IN LONG ROBES. ARTHUR Aah! He jumps, crab walks backwards away from the man. ARTHUR (CONT'D) Who are you? SLARTIBARTFAST My name is not important. Arthur continues to scramble away from the man. SLARTIBARTFAST (CONT'D) You must come with me. Terrible events are afoot. You must come or you'll be late. ARTHUR Late? What for? SLARTIBARTFAST What is your name, Earthman? (CONTINUED)9 83. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 2 CONTINUED: (2) 92 ARTHUR Dent. Arthur Dent. SLARTIBARTFAST Late as in "the late Dentarthurdent." It's a sort of threat you see. Never been much good at them myself, but I'm told they can be terribly effective. He motions to the stone that is marked "To Showroom." SLARTIBARTFAST (CONT'D) Your friends are safe. You can trust me. ARTHUR Trust a man who won't tell me his name? SLARTIBARTFAST My name? Very well... (heaves a sigh, reluctant) My name is...Slartibartfast. Arthur reacts with a furrowed brow. SLARTIBARTFAST(CONT'D) I said it wasn't important. Slartibartfast motions to the door. He looks to Marvin. MARVIN I could calculate your chances of survival -- but you won't like it. Arthur rises, cautiously moves over to Slarti's side. SLARTIBARTFAST I must warn you. We are about to pass through, well, a sort of gateway thing. It may disturb you. It scares the willies out of me. He puts his hand on a certain spot in the stone and presses. The stone dissolves revealing once again the jet engine swirling vortex. Slarti motions -- after you. Arthur takes a deep breath -- and steps in. ARTHUR Whaa! He is bent, twisted and sucked away. Slarti follows. Marvin stands for a moment, then looks up to...92a THE SKY-- 92a where the fleet of Vogon ships has now arrived. MARVIN Funny how just when you think life can't possibly get any worse, it suddenly does. CUT TO:9 84. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 3 INT. VOGON DESTROYER SHIP, BRIDGE - NIGHT 93 Kwaltz sits in his chair as they press forward. The GHOSTLY IMAGE of the recorded message appears. GHOSTLY IMAGE This is a recorded announcement as we're all out at the moment. The Commercial council of Magrathea thanks you for... KWALTZ Turn that off. CUT TO:94 INT. MAGRATHEA/PLANET SHOWROOM - DAY 94 Arthur is hunched over a litter bin, barfing. SLARTIBARTFAST I told you you might find it a bit disturbing. ARTHUR I have found this whole day a bit disturbing. Arthur realizes he has his towel with him. He wipes his mouth with it, dabs his brow. Then he notices... ...THE ROOM -- which is like a car dealer's showroom only instead of cars there are models of various planets. SLARTIBARTFAST Did you know we built planets? No. Arthur didn't know that. He looks perplexed. SLARTIBARTFAST (CONT'D) Fascinating trade. Doing the coastlines was always my favorite. Used to have endless fun doing all the little fiddly bits round fjords. But the Galactic economy collapsed, and seeing that custom- built planets are something of a luxury commodity... (getting back on subject) At any rate, there's been a terrible mix up with your planet. You must come with me or it's all going to blow up in our faces. The best laid plans of mice, you know... ARTHUR ...and men. SLARTIBARTFAST Mmmm? What? ARTHUR The best laid plans of mice and men. (CONTINUED)9 85. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 4 CONTINUED: 94 SLARTIBARTFAST I don't think men have got much to do with it. Arthur looks confused. Slarti motions him to a door.95 Arthur readies his towel at his mouth as Slarti hits a 95 button. The door slides open and nothing happens. It's just a door that leads to a room where several TRANSPORT CARTS move past -- like a kids ride at Disneyland. They step into one. Slarti closes the little door. The cart MOVES through a curtain, out into DEEP SPACE. PULL BACK - till the cart is no more than a speck being pushed forward by the longest telescoping arm in history.96 INT. - PLANET FACTORY - NIGHT 96 The space is millions of miles across. Floating in it are half-finished planets, construction gantries around them. SLARTIBARTFAST (CONT'D) Welcome to our factory floor. ON ARTHUR -- who is positively blown away. CUT TO:97 INT. TEMPLE OF DEEP THOUGHT -- CONTINUOUS 97 Ford, Zaphod and Trillian enter the dimly lit temple. They hear a faint, tinny sound. They follow it. FURTHER DOWN THE CORRIDOR... The sound gets louder. Tinny music. And laughter... Flickering light illuminates the end of the corridor. ZAPHOD This is it! He quickens his pace. Trillian and Ford follow. They round the corner to find... DEEP THOUGHT -- sitting there majestically. The TINNY MUSIC emanates from somewhere near him. Zaphod takes another step in and now sees the source of the TINNY MUSIC. Deep Thought is watching TV. A violent, stupid cartoon. ZAPHOD (CONT'D) Deep Thought...! DEEP THOUGHT Shhh. This is a good bit. The cartoon continues. Zaphod enters, removes his thinking cap and reverently approaches. He kneels... (CONTINUED)9 86. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 7 CONTINUED: 97 ZAPHOD Oh great Deep Thought...we have traveled long...and far. Have you calculated... the Ultimate Question? Of Life, the Universe and Everything? DEEP THOUGHT No. ZAPHQD No? DEEP THOUGHT I've been watching TV. ZAPHOD Oh... Zaphod holds a smile but his world is slowly crumbling. DEEP THOUGHT I designed another computer to perform that great task. ZAPHOD Oh, right...I forgot. (looking around) Is it here? DEEP THOUGHT Not here. Another world. ZAPHOD It's on another world? DEEP THOUGHT It is another world. Or was. ZAPHOD Where? DEEP THOUGHT Ask your companion. Zaphod turns to Ford. Ford looks confused. DEEP THOUGHT (CONT'D) Not him. Zaphod looks to Trillian. She looks equally confused. Zaphod puts the thinking cap back on. Strains hard. ZAPHOD 0kay -- you're sure you don't have the Question? Or a way to you, you know -- access it or something. I think I've done like a lot to get here... (CONTINUED)9 87. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 7 CONTINUED: (2) 97 DEEP THOUGHT Shhhhhh... Zaphod looks up. Deep Thought is shushing him? DEEP THOUGHT (CONT'D) The show's back on. A robotic arm reaches out and turns up the volume. Zaphod stands, turns to Ford and Trillian, smiles that smile -- but it's starting to look a bit crazed. ZAPHOD Great. This is just great. Let's go find something else for my entire life to be about. He starts to march off. Ford grabs his arm. FORD Zaphod. The gun? The one Humma sent us for? We have to get it. You gave the guy your head. ZAPHOD I know. Why did I do that? He pulls his thinking cap down -- all the way over his eyes. Ford rolls his eyes, turns... FORD Um...Deep Thought? We we're told you have a g... Before he finishes the sentence, a PANEL in the wall slides open revealing a LARGE, SCARY LOOKING GUN. A robotic arm pushes it forward. Ford goes over, takes it, carries it like it's nitroglycerin to Zaphod who's already walking away, CORRIDOR LEADING AWAY FROM DEEP THOUGHT Ford hands Zaphod the gun. FORD (CONT'D) Here. Take it. I don't do guns. Zaphod takes it with a smile... ZAPHOD Thank you. ...and instantly points it at his head. Ford lunges for it. There's a struggle. Ford's trying to get Zaphod's finger off the trigger when CLICK! The trigger is pulled. Ford winces. But apparently, nothing has happened. ZAPHOD (CONT'D) Great! This is a bust, too! (CONTINUED)9 88. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 7 CONTINUED: (3) 97 FORD Hey, man, you must be really frustrated. To go through all you did only to come here and get no answer, which means no fame and money, and you deserve that, man. Because you're great -- you're just really, really great. Zaphod isn't sure what just happened. But he smiles anyway. Trillian, however, is onto something. TRILLIAN Give me that thing. BACK TO:98 INT. MAGRATHEA. PLANET FACTORY. CONSTRUCTION PLATFORM 98 The transport cart moves past two half-finished planets and on toward a 3rd planet. Construction gantries and clouds obscure our view. SLARTIBARTFAST The galaxy was a bit of a shambles, you see. Everyone enjoying themselves being singers and comedians and really creative and interesting things like that. No one doing the boring jobs. ARTHUR Oh, you had that problem, too? SLARTIBARTFAST In spades. So a species was genetically engineered to do the boring jobs. Tax inspectors, traffic wardens, government officials. We were commissioned to build a special planet for them. Problem was, some cleverdick made it so any time one of the creatures had an interesting idea it would get a hefty smack around the face. ARTHUR What? You did that? I've been there! The cart lowers down toward the surface of the planet. SLARTIBARTFAST Then I gather you've met some of the inhabitants. ARTHUR The Vogons? SLARTIBARTFAST (shuddering) Relentless blighters.9 89. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 9a EXT. MAGRATHEA - DAY 99a TWO MISSILES screech overhead and soar up toward... THE VOGON SHIPS -- descending from space. The missiles each hit a ship. They explode. Two more missiles fire, taking out two more ships. But several ships do land. Marvin watches from within the Stonehenge formation.99 MARVIN 99 Life. Loathe it or ignore it, you can't like it. BACK TO:100 INT. CORRIDOR/TEMPLE OF DEEP THOUGHT - DAY 100 CLOSE ON ZAPHOD ZAPHOD ...and you're right, I shouldn't be so upset 'cause life goes on and I should just go on with it, right? PULL BACK TO REVEAL -- Ford is hesitantly aiming the gun at Zaphod. TRILLIAN Shoot him again. Ford reluctantly pulls the trigger. CLICK. ZAPHOD Hitchhiking is good. Towels are good, too. TRILLIAN Brilliant. FORD Yeah. I kinda like this. She take the gun from him. TRILLIAN A gun that makes people suddenly see things from your point of view. Useful tool for the deranged evangelist trying to convert the masses, eh? She starts walking. TRILLIAN (CONT'D) We should get back. Arthur's waiting. ZAPHOD Who cares? TRILLIAN (spinning on him; pointed) I do -- especially since we're both somewhat of an endangered species now. (CONTINUED)1 90. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 00 CONTINUED: 100 ZAPHOD Why so edgy? She can't believe he's asking this. She aims the gun, CLICK! ZAPHOD (CONT'D) Of course you're edgy, your planet's been blown up and you've been tooling around the Galaxy with the guy who signed the order CLICK. She shoots him again. ZAPHOD (CONT'D) You actually wanted to know the Question because you always thought there was more to life, and now you're crushed because you find out there really isn't. She's getting angrier and more hurt. CLICK. ZAPHOD (CONT'D) You've got no home, no family, no one to be with -- and you're stuck with me, another in a long line of men who doesn't appreciate you because he's too busy appreciating himself. Hearing this puts a lump in her throat, causes her eyes to well with tears. She lowers the gun. Zaphod shakes his head -- the effect wearing off. But he realizes what he said and doesn't like it. ZAPHOD (CONT'D) Give me that thing. He grabs the gun, points it at her. TRILLIAN Won't affect me. I'm already a woman. Before he can react, A BRIGHT LIGHT SHINES BEHIND THEM. They turn, shielding their eyes. ZAPHOD Uh oh -- oh. It's okay, it's only a couple of... FLASH! KEEEOOOW! They are engulfed in WHITE LIGHT. BACK TO:101 EXT. DEEP SPACE (FACTORY FLOOR) - CONTINUOUS 101 The transport cart continues toward the 3rd planet. SLARTIBARTFAST Here we are, then. Look familiar? Arthur turns and looks. There before him is...1 91. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 O1a EARTH -- Arthur is thunderstruck...then confused. 101a ARTHUR So -- it wasn't destroyed? SLARTIBARTFAST Actually, it was. This is a back-up. Earth Mark II. ARTHUR So you're saying you ... made the Earth? SLARTIBARTFAST Well, not me alone. It was a group effort. I did my part, though. Ever heard of a place, I think it's called Norway?101b Arthur nods. The cart pushes through the clouds, towards 101b Ayers Rock. A GUY ON A LADDER is painting it it's familiar red color. Some of it is still primer grey. SLARTIBARTFAST (CONT'D) That was one of mine. Won an award you know. Lovely crinkly edges. I was sorry to hear about it being blown up. Shocking cock up. The mice were furious. ARTHUR Mice? Who cares about bloody mice? SLARTIBARTFAST Are you a fan of plate tectonics? Arthur looks up. Slartibartfast points down.101c ANOTHER MAN pushes a button causing mountains to spring 101c up noisily. SLARTIBARTFAST (CONT'D) Voila! Himalayas. Good, eh? Arthur is working very hard to process all this.101d JUMP CUT. They move through a forest where a man presses 101d a lever making several MUSHROOMS pop up on the ground. SLARTIBARTFAST (CONT'D) Earthman, you must realize that the planet you lived on was commissioned, paid for, and run by mice. It was destroyed shortly before the completion of the purpose for which it was built. Ten minutes later, we would have been free and clear. But we gave them our standard ten million year warranty and they have come here to retrieve this back-up copy. And they've brought you with them. The transport cart flies out of forest toward the ocean. (CONTINUED)1 92. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 01d CONTINUED: 101d ARTHUR They brought...I'm sorry, when you say "mice" do you mean the little white furry creatures with the cheese fixation? SLARTIBARTFAST These creatures you call "mice" are merely the protrusion into our dimension of hyper- intelligent pan-dimensional beings. The whole business with the cheese must've been a front. They were experimenting on you, you see. A vast computer program... ARTHUR Ah. I see where you're confused. You see -- we were experimenting on them.101e Over the ocean, a "Perfect Storm" wave rolls toward them. 101e SLARTIBARTFAST Oh, I gather they arranged for you to conduct some primitively staged experiments so they could prod your thinking here and there. But you were actually elements in the computer program. They really are very clever hyper- intelligent pan-dimensional beings. (looking down) Ah. They've nearly finished the oceans.101f They move toward the white cliffs of Dover. A man stands 101f on a cliff holding a giant hose, water spewing from it. ARTHUR So -- you're trying to tell me that mice designed and built Deep Thought...and Deep Thought designed the Earth...which was a giant supercomputer...that you built...to calculate the Ultimate Question. Only, Vogons destroyed it ten minutes before the program was completed? SLARTIBARTFAST That's bureaucracy for you. ARTHUR Actually, this explains a lot. All my life I've had this strange feeling that something was going on in the world, something big, something sinister ... SLARTIBARTFAST That's just perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the universe has that.102 EXT. EARTH II. ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE - CONTINUOUS 102 A & S swoop down and soar over the English countryside -- partially constructed; tall tree stocks with branch and leaves lying beside them, waiting to be attached. Men rolling out sod like a giant carpet, etc. (CONTINUED)1 93. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 02 CONTINUED: 102 SLARTIBARTFAST I don't know, perhaps I'm old and tired, but I always think that the chances of finding out what's really going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is say hang the sense of it and keep yourself busy. I'd much rather be happy than right any day. ARTHUR And are you? SLARTIBARTFAST No. That's where it all falls down of course. (slowing the platform) Here we are, then.l03 The platform slows to a stop. Arthur steps out and is 103 stunned to see... HIS HOUSE. It's partially constructed. The chimney lies intact on the ground, waiting to be hoisted up. A row of hedges lies on it's side beside a trench. But it's his house alright. ARTHUR Is this...? Slartibartfast nods. Arthur, in a daze, stumbles toward the house.103a INT. ARTHUR DENT'S HOUSE/MARK 2 - CONTINUOUS 103a Arthur enters his house. There is no furniture, no photographs or books or any evidence of his existence there. He feels the walls, the countertops. He's home? TRILLIAN (O.S.) Arthur! Arthur pokes his head around a wall to find...104 FORD, ZAPHOD AND TRILLIAN -- sitting at an elegantly set 104 table -- stuffing their faces with a meal fit for a king.103a INT. ARTHUR DENT'S HOUSE/MARK 2 - 103a ARTHUR What -- what are you doing? What happened to you? They talk while continuing to stuff food in their mouths. FORD Funniest thing. (chew, chew) Our hosts attacked us with Dismodulating Anti Phase Stun Mist (chew, chew) then brought us to this amazing meal as a way to make it up to us (chew, chew). Try the mutton. It's fantastic. (CONTINUED)1 94. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 03a CONTINUED: 103a ZAPHOD (mouth full) Zarking incredible. They can't seem to stop eating, like they've been drugged. ARTHUR Hosts attack you --? And then you sit down for -- is that tea? Arthur has spotted a TEA POT on the table. He hurries to it, feels it. Warm. He pours a cup, takes a sip, Closes his eyes, enjoying it. ARTHUR (CONT'D) Now that's a cup of tea. FRANKY MOUSE (O.S.) We're glad you like it, Earth creature. He looks down and sees THE TWO WHITE MICE sitting on a silver platter. BENJY MOUSE After ten million years on Earth, and a rather large chunk of that time in England, it would be utterly humiliating if we didn't know how to make a decent pot of tea. Arthur stares in shock...can't speak. TRILLIAN Arthur, these are our hosts. Benjy mouse and Franky mouse (chew, chew). They control a large sector of the Universe in our dimension (chew, chew). I'm sorry, I thought you were told about the mice... ARTHUR Yes. Yes, I was. I just wasn't quite prepared for the full reality of it. He steadies himself on the table. BENJY MOUSE Sit, Earthman. Eat. Benjy pushes his hand through the air, the chair at the end slides backward. ARTHUR In a moment, perhaps. I can't seem to let go of this table. Slartibartfast steps forward. (CONTINUED)1 95. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 03a CONTINUED: (2) 103a SLARTIBARTFAST Pardon the interruption, but I'll just be getting back to work now. BENJY MOUSE That won't be necessary, Slartibartfast. ZAPHOD (cracking up, like he's stoned) Smarty fart blast? BENJY/FRANKY Eat! ZAPHOD Right. BENJY MOUSE It looks like we won't be needing the new Earth after all, now that we've found the only living native of the planet. SLARTIBARTFAST But...they've nearly finished the oceans. FRAHKY MOUSE That will be all, Slartibartfast. Slarti, slightly hurt, backs away out of sight. ARTHUR I'm sorry, when you say "the only living native" -- do you mean me? What about her? Benjy holds up a strand of hairs, same color as Trillian's. BENJY MOUSE We performed some rudimentary DNA tests on the ship. She's half-native. Her real father was a Blahardid, the hyper- intelligent yet carelessly nomadic race native to the planet Olbed, who apparently popped in to Earth for a one-nighter with a one Ms. Francis McMillan. TRILLIAN (looking up, mouth full) Which explains a lot. She goes back to eating. Arthur is taking this all in. ARTHUR So -- mostly harmless and me. That's it. BENJY MOUSE We're sorry to have stage managed you so shamelessly, but once we learned you were the only full-blooded Earthling in the universe, it was important that we get you here by any means necessary. (CONTINUED)1 96. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 03a CONTINUED: (3) 103a FRANKY MOUSE We've spent a considerable amount of time on your planet trying to find this wretched Ultimate Question, and the thought of doing it all over again on account of those idiotic Vogons sickens me to no end. Which is why you're here. BENJY MOUSE Sit, Earthling. Sit. Arthur goes to pull out the chair beside him. BENJY/FRANKY NOT THERE! Arthur jumps. The others look up. Benjy and Franky cover their outburst with a smile. BENJY MOUSE This chair is much more -- comfortable. Benjy makes a motion. The chair he pushed out before slides over behind Arthur's knees, making him sit. BENJY MOUSE (CONT'D) Drink. He slides the cup of tea over. Arthur takes a sip. ARTHUR Mmmm. This really is delicious. BENJY MOUSE Good. Glad you like it. Now -- to business. Ford and Zaphod raise their glasses like drunken sailors. FORD/ZAPHOD To business! Benjy and Franky fire them a look. ZAPHOD Sorry. Thought you were proposing a toast. BENJY/FRANKY EAT! Ford and Zaphod eat. Benjy turns to Arthur. Smiles. No one notices, through the window, a row of Vogons cresting the hill. BENJY MOUSE About this Ultimate Question. You see, we've been offered a quite enormously fat contract to do the 5D TV chat show and lecture circuit, and quite frankly, we're very much inclined to take it. (CONTINUED)1 97. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 03a CONTINUED: (4) 103a FRANKY MOUSE But - and here's the point - we have to have product. Which means we still need an ultimate question. BENJY MOUSE Or at least, one that sounds ultimate. FRANKY HOUSE Yes. Got to sound good. ARTHUR An Ultimate Question that sounds good... From a couple of mice...for a chat show. FRANKY MOUSE And as it turns out, the chances are astronomically high that the structure of the question is encoded in your brain. Which is why we need it. More tea? Franky tries to pour more tea. Arthur stops drinking, a little woozy. Did he hear them right? ARTHUR I'm sorry -- did you just say you need my brain? BENJY MOUSE Yes. To extract the question. ARTHUR You can't have my brain. I'm using it. FRANKY MOUSE Barely. BENJY MOUSE We can replace it if you think it's important. An electronic brain maybe. FRANKY MOUSE A simple one should suffice. Who would know the difference? ARTHUR I would! FRANKY MOUSE No, you wouldn't. We could program you not to. Arthur tries to get up. Clamps spring up from the chair and wrap around his arms. A dome flips over from the back and slams down on his head. Arthur struggles. ARTHUR Ford! Zaphod! TRILLIAN!! (CONTINUED)1 98. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 03a CONTINUED: (5) 103a They're gorging on the food, half-lidded, out of it. ARTHUR (CONT'D) What are they-- what's in the food?! WHAT WAS IN THAT TEA!? The platter the mice are standing on rises up, moves toward Arthur, ominous surgical instruments spring from it. BENJY MOUSE Don't worry. You won't feel a thing. The mice on the platter move ominously toward Arthur. Arthur, still attached to the chair, backs away. Scythes and rotating arms with circular saw blades shoot out -- ominous surgical equipment to remove his brain. ARTHUR Wait a minute, JUST WAIT A SODDING MINUTE!! The scythes and arms stop spinning. Arthur stumbles backwards and sits down in the chair. The others stop eating and listen. ARTHUR (CONT'D) You want the question that goes with the answer "42" How about "What's six times seven?" Or "How many Vogons does it take to screw in a lightbulb?" Or here's one, "How many roads must a man walk down?" BENJY MOUSE Hey, that's not bad. Through the opposite window (in much the same way bulldozers arrived in the opening) we see more Vogons arriving. ARTHUR Fine. Take it. There's plenty more where that came from because my head is filled, with questions, and I can assure you mate, no answer to any of them has ever brought me one iota of happiness. Confusion? Yes. Indecision? Loads. But happiness...? He shakes his head. BENJY MOUSE We don't want to be happy. We want to be rich. FRANKY MOUSE Take his brain. (CONTINUED)1 99. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 03a CONTINUED: (6) 103a Benjy steers the platter toward Arthur. He jerks his arms up. They break free of the shackles and hit the platter. The mice fly through the air and land on the table -- right beside the POV gun. They scramble to their feet. BENJY MOUSE Shoot him!! They try to lift the POV gun but it's way too heavy. Arthur, his butt still strapped in the chair, leaps over to the table and grabs the first thing he sees -- a leg of mutton. He raises it high. Benjy and Franky look up. FRANKY MOUSE Oh, shit. Arthur brings the mutton down, squashing them flat. The others instantly snap out of their food induced haze, Zaphod suddenly clutches his gut. ZAPHOD Ohhhh, I think I'm gonna be sick. Arthur looks up and now he sees the Vogons marching down the hill toward the house. He leans over the table, bumping his teacup. IT SHATTERS TO THE GROUND.105 ON THE HILL JUST BEYOND -- 105 An ARMY OF VOGON POLICE march over it. Amongst them... MARVIN -- marches as well, a gun held to his head. MARVIN (to the Vogon) I must warn you, I'm feeling very depressed. KWALTZ Mr. President! We are here for your protection! Zaphod appears at the front door and waves Presidentially. ZAPHOD Thank you!106 The Police open fire. Zaphod and the others flee as the 106 barrage of fire continues. Trillian drops the POV gun, goes back for it. Arthur stops her and pulls her behind the truck. Marvin catches a bullet in the back of his head - sparks fly and he is thrown forwards! Is he dead? BEHIND THE TRUCK -- FORD looks at MARVIN lying face down in the dirt - his head emitting smoke. (CONTINUED)1 100. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 06 CONTINUED: 106 FORD Okay -- that thing I said about not saving my life because we're even? Scratch that. Save at will. TRILLIAN We need that gun. ZAPHOD (campaign sound-byte) We need tighter gun control! FORD We need his other head. (an idea) Okay -- I'll create a distraction. He holds up his towel. ARTHUR (sarcastic) Brilliant plan. I'm certain it will work. FORD (squinting at Arthur) You know -- I think sometimes you say things that mean something other than what you're actually saying. More gunfire erupts. Ford spins his towel until it's twisted and taught. He leaps up and runs towards...107 ...THE VOGON POLICE FORCE -- who see him coming, his 107 towel held like he's going to whip someone on the ass. FORD (CONT'D) AHHHHHHHH!!!! The Vogons are so caught off guard, they back away. TRILLIAN Now!108 She and Arthur both run out toward the gun. 108 ARTHUR TRILLIAN I thought I was...what are I thought I was...I'll get you... get back... okay it... you already... fine, fine... fine They each grab the gun just as Questular realizes... QUESTULAR It's a towel! It's only a TOWEL!! GET HIM!! The Police stop their retreat, raise their guns, move forward. Ford skids to a stop and runs back toward Arthur and Trillian, both clinging to the gun, running back toward the truck. GUNFIRE ERUPTS. A and T TRIP. The POV gun goes flying and lands in... MARVIN'S ARMS. (CONTINUED)1 101. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 08 CONTINUED: 108 The Vogon Police run in formation toward the gang. Ford looks back, sees the Vogons approaching. He looks forward, sees Marvin raising the gun. FORD Duck! ZAPHOD Where? He looks to the skies just as Ford fans out his towel and uses it to bring Z, A & T to the ground just as... MARVIN FIRES THE POV GUN, Questular ducks. CLICK. The entire Vogon Police force is hit. They instantly stop. Their shoulders slump. VOGON POLICE FORCE (in unison) Oh what's the point? They turn their weapons on themselves and... ANGLE ON FORD, ZAPHOD, ARTHUR AND TRILLIAN -- turning their heads as we hear the weapons fire. They look up.108a All the Vogon Police lie motionless on the ground 108a including Kwaltz. Questular is the last man standing. He marches toward them, patches of clump baldness on his head. He drops to his knees. QUESTULAR Shoot me. Please Zaphod. Shoot me. Zaphod takes the gun, fires it at Questular. He rises -- and paints on a big smile. QUESTULAR (CONT'D} What am I so pissed off about? I'm great? I'm zarking incredible! Everyone loves me! WHOOO HOOO!!! Look at me...etc. Questular runs towards a lake/blow hole, takes off his clothes and jumps in. ZAPHOD Marvin. You saved our lives. MARVIN I know. Wretched, isn't it? QUESTULAR (distant) Oh man! I love being me!! They share a laugh. Arthur approaches Slartibartfast. ARTHUR Thank you. (CONTINUED)1 102. HHGG 3rd Revised Draft 8/8/03 08a CONTINUED: 108a SLARTIBARTFAST I've just been informed by some of the lads that since we're so near completion, we're going to go ahead and finish Earth. We can put it back exactly the way it was when you left, you know -- unless there's anything you'd like to change. Something you think your planet could do without? Arthur thinks about it...looks around...slowly nods... ARTHUR Yes. Me. He looks to Trillian who raises an eyebrow. Really? She smiles. TRILLIAN Let's go somewhere. ARTHUR Yes, You name it. I'll go. ZAPHOD I'm going to Humma's. He has my head...I think. Doesn't he? I'm so confused. FORD And I'm hungry. After we get your head let's grab a bite. I know this great restaurant at the end of the universe. As they walk away, we CUT TO...109 SLARTI'S FACTORY ELEVATOR -- where they all board. 109 SLARTIBARTFAST Okay. Hold tight. Everyone grabs the rail, except for Trillian who holds on to Arthur. SSSSSSHHHHHHHHHVUMP! Up into the sky they go. VOICE (O.S.) Stand-by for commencement of life cycle. All systems checked and cleared. Commencing. We hear KL-KLUNK. BZZZZZZZ... and watch nature burst into life - animals run - flowers bloom - waterfalls cascade - mountains rise in the mist - monkeys bathe in hot springs etc. Set to a wonderful, uplifting piece of music ("WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD?"). Tilt up to the sky. The day turns to night. Stars appear. The Heart of Gold streaks through the stars. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Hollow Man.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hollow Man.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..50c9e264608620eed69ce92e8e4a16bf966f37d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hollow Man.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +The Hollow Man written by Andrew W. Marlowe Red Wagon Prods. Revised Draft 6/26/98 FADE IN: On complete darkness. A SMALL DOOR swings open. A circle of light reveals that we I re looking down the length of a tube. At the far end of the tube, we see a gloved hand dangling a rat. The hand shoves the frightened rat into the tube and closes the door behind it. The rat s stark white fur bristles and it begins to pad down the tube s length. After several feet, the tube opens up into a dimly lit cubicle. The rat hesitates and stops. The SOUNDS of gentle BREATHING whispers in the rat s ears. The rat turns round to head back down the tube, but a door swings shut, trapping it in the cubicle. The rat cowers as the BREATHING turns to SNORTING. The rat s head jerks around, looking for signs of danger, but the cubicle is empty. The rat sees a water dish on the far side of the cubicle - a place to hide - and dashes toward it. But an invisible force descends. The rat squeals in agony as something smashes down on its body, crushing it. A LOUD BELLOW rings out, and the rat flies into the air, halting a few feet off the ground. Its body writhes, struggling against the unholy force. Then a sick crunch of tiny bones snapping. All life quickly drains from the levitating body. Dead eyes... The creature s corpse floats in mid-air. Then the white fur of the rat explodes in a shower of blood. HUGE BLOOD SMEARED INCISORS appear, as do the red-slicked ape- like lips. The gaping bloody mouth bites again into the rat. CUT TO: INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT In the background we hear Jay Leno s monologue from the Tonight Show. A small lamp and the glow from a computer screen illuminates SEBASTIAN CAINE, late twenties with the shabby good looks of a perpetual grad-student. Wiry framed and wearing only boxer shorts, Sebastian sips coffee from an Einstein coffee mug. He peers at a complex computer rendered molecule displayed on his screen. He pecks a few keys and the molecule shifts slightly, then falls apart. Sebastian pulls a twinkie from a hostess box, unwraps the cellophane and sucks it down. He attacks the keyboard with renewed vigor. Another molecule appears on the screen. Sebastian s fingers fly across the keyboard. The molecule blinks on and off, it trembles and twists apart. SEBASTIAN Damnit. Sebastian pears out his window. Across the courtyard, a light comes on in a neighboring window. He sees a BRUNETTE, mid-twenties, absolutely stunning, enter her living room. The Brunette thumbs through the mail, tosses it and then begins to undress. Sebastian loans over to the window, getting interested. But when the brunette reaches her bra and panties, she crosses to the window and lowers her shades. SEBASTIAN (cont d) Damnit. Sebastian leans back in his chair and closes his eyes. He s obviously tired. He opens his eyes and stares up at the ceiling. Painted across the white matte finish in big red letters is a brief reminder - You Should Be Working. Sebastian sighs, leans forward and begins pecking away again. LATER: The television is now only static. We pan by his alarm clock. 4 am. We find Sebastian pacing in front of his computer. He gets an idea... slides back in his chair. Types away again. The molecule reforms on the computer screen. He types a few more keys, waits, watches the molecule. Nothing happens. He hits a few more keys and watches intently for a reaction. SEBASTIAN (beat) I am a goddamn genius. He hits a few more keys and a telephone keypad appears on the screen. He dials. CUT TO: INT. ANOTHER BEDROOM - NIGHT Digital phone rings. In the bed, LINDA FOSTER, late twenties, stirs from a deep sleep. As she straggles out of bed and over to her desk, we notice a young man sleeping next to her. The ringing continues. She moves her computer mouse around and her screen comes to life. She click on a telephone icon and the ringing stops. A beat later, Sebastian appears in a window on her screen. LINDA Sebastian, do you know what time it is? SEBASTIAN (SCREEN) You know Da Vinci never slept. Said it was waste of time. LINDA What is it this time? INTERCUT: SEBASTIAN S BEDROOM Sebastian peers at the image of Linda in the computer window. He notices something behind her in the bed, the young man sleeping face down. SEBASTIAN Who s that? Linda pulls the camera off the top of the of the computer screen and positions it so Sebastian can t see the bed. LINDA Not your business. Not anymore. SEBASTIAN Touche. LINDA So you calling about anything in particular, or were you just hoping to catch me sleeping in the nude? SEBASTIAN I cracked the reversion. Upon hearing this, Linda receives a jolt of adrenaline. LINDA You cracked it? SEBASTIAN Look at this. Sebastian hits a couple of keys. A moment later the molecular structure appears on Linda s computer. SEBASTIAN Watch this. LINDA You sure? SEBASTIAN 91% sure. LINDA (astonished) Eleven months with no progress and you suddenly come up with it out of the blue? How? SEBASTIAN The usual. Coffee and twinkies. LINDA I hate you. SEBASTIAN I know. You think you could hunt down Matt and get to the lab early. I want Isabelle prepped for a live test. LINDA Yeah, I think I can find him. What are you going to do? SEBASTIAN Well y know. It s daylight in Switzerland. I gotta call the Nobel Committee and tell them to get our prizes ready. See you in a few. ON LINDA S COMPUTER SCREEN as Sebastian clicks off. Linda crosses to her bed, and shakes the guy awake. LINDA Hey... come on. DR. MATTHEW KENSINGTON, late 20s too, stirs from under sheets. MATT (groggy) What? LINDA Sebastian just called. We gotta get to the lab. Matt bolts up. MATT Shit! You didn t tell him I was here, did you? LINDA Give me some credit, will ya. MATT So what s the rush? LINDA He cracked reversion. Matt pulls his jeans on. MATT Wanna ride down? LINDA We better take our own cars. MATT You re gonna have to tell him about us eventually. LINDA I know. It s just You re his best friend. He ll feel betrayed. EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. SKYLINE - DAY From a distance, the Nation s Monuments stand awash in the harsh light of morning. CAMERA finds a BLACK PORSCHE as it pulls to the security fence of a warehouse. The imposing structure is surrounded by a chainlink fence and barbed wire. The Porsche is waved through security and heads straight into the warehouse. INT. WAREHOUSE -DAY The Porsche pulls to a halt in a reserved parking space and Sebastian exits, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, shorts, and Birkenstocks. He notes the other cars parked in the lot, then crosses to bunker in the center of the warehouse, guarded by a MARINE, shouldering an M-16. MARINE GUARD Morning, sir. SEBASTIAN Morning, Ed. MARINE GUARD Your team s in early. Something special going on? SEBASTIAN Sorry, Ed. You know the rules. Sebastian presses his thumb against a glass screen. A laser reads his print. Scan readout: CAINE, SEBASTIAN Clearance: ALPHA ALPHA THREE Division: CLASSIFIED The doors whisk open and Sebastian steps inside. MARINE GUARD Have a good day, sir. INT. ELEVATOR - DAY Inside the elevator is a numberless keypad. Sebastian taps in his floor code. ELEVATOR (V.0.) Authorization please. SEBASTIAN Caine zero zero two seven. ELEVATOR (V.0.) Authorization verified. Good morning, Dr. Caine. The elevator descends with a groaning hum. It passes below us and keeps descending into the belly of the earth, the shaft goes down forever. INT. HABITAT S CORRIDOR We slowly push down a hallway panelled by Plexiglas chambers. Each chamber looks as if it s tailored for a specific animal, although no animals are visible. As we pass one habitat, something slams into the Plexiglas and begins barking. Another HOWL joins in. Then SCREECHING. Suddenly the hallway fills with a dozen animal cries. THUMP. THUMP. The Plexiglas on several chambers vibrates as if angry animals were slamming against it. But still, no animals are seen. Above each chamber, VIDEO SCREENS display THERMAL IMAGES revealing heat signatures of the various animals, but they remain invisible to the naked eye. MATT taps on a sheet of Plexiglas which seals off another seemingly empty cage. MATT Isabelle ... The woodchips on the floor shift and suddenly the Plexiglas steams up right in front of Matt s face. The Plexiglas begins to shake violently. MATT (cont d) Calm down baby. Calm down. It s okay... Matt takes a pair of thermal goggles from his belt and pulls them down over his eyes. THERMAL POV - A rather large heat signature, ape-like in shape, rattles about the cage. Matt slowly unlatches the Plexiglas door and reaches inside. MATT (cont d) It s okay, baby. It s okay. I m not going to hurt you. Come here. THERMAL POV - he reaches out to the creature. He grabs hold of it, firmly. Stroking it. The creature COOS. Matt reaches for a hypo and brings it up to the creature. MATT (cont d) Just hold still. Something clamps down on his hand, breaking his skin. Blood erupts in a bite pattern. MATT (cont d) Ow, shit. Matt drops the hypo and falls back. The cage door flies open and something runs out. Matt pulls himself up to see the heat signature running down the hallway. He turns around to see another heat signature coming at him. Matt pulls off his goggles to see Linda coming up the Corridor. LINDA You okay? MATT She bit me. LINDA Yeah. She s become a lot more aggressive in the last few days. Linda takes the goggles from Matt. LINDA (cont d) Go take care of that bite. I ll get her. MATT And give you a chance to pull ahead? Never. Linda opens a lock-box at the end of the hallway and pulls out a two tranquilizer guns. She hands one to Matt. AROUND THE CORNER A slight distortion shimmers as something runs past us. We hear HOOTS and FOOTSTEPS. Looking down the shadowy corridor, we hear grunting and a haunting heavy breathing. The control door is closed though and something large and angry is throwing itself against it. We can t see anything. A few moments later, Linda and Matt round the corner, wearing goggles and leveling their pistols. MATT (ala Porky) Shh. Be vewy, vewy quiet. I m hunting simians. heheheheh. LINDA Knock it off. (soothing voice) Isabelle! THERMAL POV - Dark hallway. Movement. A red shimmering heat signature. It comes running at Linda. HOWLING. Linda fires. A T-DART flies. Thwack... It stops in mid-air. Then falls. But it doesn t hit the floor. Instead, it stops inches above the ground. THERMAL POV - the heat signature lies in a heap at Linda s feet. MATT Good shootin , Tex. LINDA What s that make it? MATT I m still ahead. 6 to 5. Like a smug gunfighter, Linda blows imaginary smoke from the top of her tranquilizer gun. LINDA But I m catching up. INT. CORRIDOR - DAY The elevator doors open and Sebastian steps out. He s met by SARAH KENNEDY, early thirties, a fiery red-head. SARAH Can I have a word? SEBASTIAN Most normal people say good morning. SARAH Don t you think you should test the protocol on the liver samples before you inject Isabelle? SEBASTIAN How many tissue samples have we successfully regressed? Hundreds, right? How many have gone on to work on the full system? None. SARAH That s beside the point. SEBASTIAN No, that is the point. I m not going to waste six months of my life on an outmoded testing procedure. This thing works. I know it. I feel it. Linda comes down the corridor, listening in on the tail end of the conversation. SARAH Fine. You can mop up afterward. SEBASTIAN You think I m going to kill Isabelle? SARAH Kill? More like liquefy. SEBASTIAN Sarah, thank you for your opinion, but I m the project leader. Understand? She says ... SARAH Yes, Sir. ... but somehow it feels like Fuck you. She storms off. Sebastian turns to Linda. SEBASTIAN How did you ever convince me to hire her? LINDA You said you wanted the beat vet in the country. SEBASTIAN Yeah, well she cares more about the animals than the research. LINDA Maybe that s why she s so good. CUT TO: CLOSE ON: MATT as he shuts off the spinning cyclotron. As it s spinning slows to a halt, he pops the top and reaches in, removing... A GLOWING VIAL OF ORANGE LIQUID. Sebastian peers at the vial. SEBASTIAN Who da Man? You da Man. MATT As we pull out we see we are. INT. LABORATORY - DAY Almost feels like a dungeon. Think high-tech Frankenstein. Walls lined with video displays, technical readouts, bizarre medical equipment. On a table in the middle of the room, a sheet drapes over a humanoid form, strapped down at it s invisible limbs. The straps move slightly... ghostly. Wires lead from the body to lots of machinery. MATT Protocol is hot. SEBASTIAN Vitals? Sarah, checks over the various readouts ... heartbeat, blood pressure, the rest. SARAH Normal. CARTER ABBEY, the late thirties lab assistant, wheels in a cart of equipment. Linda taken a seat by the table and pushes aside the sheet. BOOMING VOICE THIS IS GOD. YOU ARE DISTURBING THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS AND WILL BE SEVERELY PUNISHED FOR ALL ETERNITY. GOD HAS SPOKEN. SEBASTIAN How many times do I have to tell you, Frank you aren t God. (beat) I am. FRANK (LOUDSPEAKER) Sorry, Boss. Forgot. Sebastian glance up at a glass booth overlooking the Laboratory floor. TWO PEOPLE in the booth. SEBASTIAN You guys ready to roll? INT. OBSERVATION BOOTH FRANK CHASE, early thirties, and tech expert JANICE WALTON, early twenties, man a small booth above the lab. They re dressed more like band roadies than scientists. The room is crammed with electronic and recording equipment. A handful of monitors display different images of the lab. Thermal and regular video. Another screen monitors vital signs. FRANK We are live and in color. On your mark. Frank and Janice looks down on their colleagues. Sebastian nods their way. SEBASTIAN Okay. Roll em. JANICE Okay. We are rolling record on videos one through twelve. Frank hits a series of buttons and speaks into a microphone. Recording. INT. LABORATORY - DAY Frank s voice echoes through the chamber. FRANK (V.O.) Subject Isabelle Two. Currently in phase shift... one hundred twenty six days, eighteen hours. LINDA Testing De-Phase protocol. Injecting serial protein Caine One Two Five. Linda removes a glowing vial of orange liquid from a centrifuge nearby. MATT Maybe if you stopped naming them after yourself, you d have better luck. SEBASTIAN Why thank you, Dr. Kensington, for that keen scientific observation. I ll be sure to include it in my memoirs. MATT A whole mention? And I thought I was just gonna be a footnote. Matt unwraps a hypodermic needle and jabs the needle into the vial, drawing up the colored liquid. INT. OBSERVATION BOOTH MATT Okay. Frank and Janice monitor Isabelle s vitals. INT. LABORATORY - DAY Tension in the air. SEBASTIAN (to Linda) Ready. She wraps a bungee cord around nothing and pulls it tight. She then takes some dye and sprays it. A surface appears, floating beneath the restraints. It sheens in the light as Linda searches for a vein. She slaps the surface several times. A small bulge appears, like a vein. LINDA Propped. MATT Let s make some history. Matt lowers the hypo to the vein. But Sebastian takes the hypo from Matt s hand. SEBASTIAN Nice try, Sparky. Matt relinquishes the needle. LINDA Come on, Isabelle. You can do this. Sebastian lowers the hypo. The skin bonds and gives. The needle remains in sight after it slips through the visible surface. Matt presses down on the hypo plunger, releasing a dye into his bloodstream. The gold liquid twists into a long snaking tube up and down the limb. It s the shape of a vein. The liquid begins to react. Small flashes of light blip up and down the strand of color. Ba-bump.. ba-bump... the heartbeat starts to speed up. SARAH Elevated heartbeat. INT. OBSERVATION BOOTH Janice analyzes the screens. JANICE We re still in the green. FRANK Confirmed. Vitals still in the normal range. INT. LABORATORY The glowing liquid turns from gold to red as the complex webbing of a bloodstream appears. MATT It s reacting. Spreading out from the bloodstream, soon becomes visible.. the shadow of a skeletal system. SEBASTIAN Do you see this? LINDA It s working. It s actually working. Matt pulls the sheet back. Muscles are beginning to appear. And eyeballs. Frightened eyeballs. SARAH Heart rate s up. She s scared. Sarah soothes her. SARAH (cont d) It's okay, baby. It's okay. SEBASTIAN Subject began manifesting almost Immediately. Protocol is reacting quickly. Isabelle starts to struggle against her restraints. She begins to howl. LINDA Subject may be in pain or extreme discomfort. SARAH Goddamnit. Blood pressure elevating. Brain activity going through the roof. The brain appears, seemingly growing from the inside out. The shape of a large half-formed monkey grows from the inside out. A SKULL APPEARS howling in pain, in horror. SARAH (cont d) We ve got a problem. SEBASTIAN What? What problem! Sarah checks her monitors. SARAH It s her heart. We can see the heart beating in the ape s FRANK (V.0.) I got an erratic heart beat. SARAH She s going into cardiac arrest. LINDA Got the crash cart. Carter charges the crash cart and rolls it in. SARAH We re losing her. Her machine flatlines. SEBASTIAN No! It s got to work. The body is only half there. It looks as if its caught in decomposition. Linda rubs the cardiac paddles together. LINDA Clear! Linda slams the paddles on the monkey s chest. The jolt of electricity makes the monkey visible again for a brief moment. Then the skin and flesh fade away again. SARAH We ve got something! The heartbeat starts up again. The body continues its march toward,visibility. SARAH (cont d) Still. erratic. LINDA Come on Isabelle. Come on. You can do it. You can fucking do it. Everybody s pulling for her. SARAH Come on, monkey. MATT Do it. Do it. Come on. Muscles spread like a rash on bone as the monkey twists and turns, frightened. Then skin. The monkey howls. Skin forms over the muscles reappearing like it was being painted on before our eyes. SARAH Stabilizing. The entire form glows, then blinks, then glows again, as if it was discharging some stored energy. FRANK (V.0.) Brain activity returning to normal. The monkey grunts and groans. Blinks its eyes. Linda hovers over it stroking its fur. LINDA Welcome back, Isabelle. Sebastian puts his hand on Linda s shoulder... a move that does not go unnoticed by Matt. We did it. SEBASTIAN (beat) How is she? SARAH (surprised) I think she s gonna be okay DISSOLVE TO: INT. HABITAT Frank, Matt, Sarah, Janice and Linda watch Isabelle rise and walk about the cage. She goes over to the other monkeys and joins in their grooming rituals. CARTER Amazing. She's normal, absolutely healthy. If you didn't know any better, you'd think nothing had happened to her. MATT (ribbing Sarah) Yeah. I can't wait to slice up her brain and trace her neural pathways. SARAH Screw you, Matt. MATT Well maybe not right away. LINDA We should celebrate. INT. RESTAURANT - NIGHT The fanciest one in D.C. The entire eight person team sits around a round table, drunk and laughing, as the last champagne flute is filled. Sebastian raises his glass. SEBASTIAN To the finest research team I've ever known. A round of "Hear, hears" and they all clink glasses and drink. EXT. RESTAURANT BALCONY - LATER The din of the diners fades away as Linda slips out onto the restaurant's balcony. She find Sebastian leaning against a railing, breathing in the night air. SEBASTIAN Hey... LINDA I thought you'd gone. SEBASTIAN Where would I go? He looks out over the sweep of the city, the twinkling lights of D.C. and darkness of the Potomac river. SEBASTIAN (cont'd) Twenty years ago there were no computers, no fax machines, no cell phones. I was just wondering what the world will be like twenty years from now... if what we're doing will change everything. LINDA A little "I am become death... the shatterer of worlds"? SEBASTIAN Something like that. LINDA Since the day I met, all you wanted to do was change the world. She puts her hand on his shoulder. LINDA (cont'd) Listen, I know we've... I mean... well ... I just want you to know how proud I am of you. I know it probably doesn't mean a lot... SEBASTIAN Actually it does. (beat) I guess since you were there from the beginning, you know me better than anyone else on this godforsaken planet. LINDA You're positively maudlin. You should be happy. Do you have any idea what you've accomplished? SEBASTIAN Yeah... but I was working so hard, I didn't realize I'd have no one to share it with. Sebastian heads back inside. But he stops and turns back. SEBASTIAN (cont'd) I don't suppose we could turn back the clock for a night and you could come home with me? Her look says it all. Too much water under the bridge. SEBASTIAN (cont'd) Right. Sorry. Too much champagne. He turns and heads back into the party. As he heads in he passes Matt heading out. He and Sebastian exchange "Heys". MATT What was that about? LINDA Nothing. It's just... He is who he is. Sometimes I just have to be reminded. CUT TO: INT. LABORATORY - NIGHT Sebastian wanders through the empty hallways of the laboratory. INT. HALLWAY OF HABITATS - NIGHT Sebastian paces back and forth, examining the habitats. He taps on the Plexiglas of one. The cubicle explodes with BARKING. We see the Plexi steam up in one part, as if something was breathing on it. As if a nose were pressed against it. SEBASTIAN (a little drunk) What's it like? Talk goddamnit! Tell me what it's like! DISSOLVE TO: EXT. PENTAGON - DAY Flying over Washington D. C. , we cross the Potomac and circle the five-cornered building, looking particularly gloomy on this grey day. SEBASTIAN (V.0.) Six years ago, this committee commissioned me with a very specific task... INT. PENTAGON CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY At the table are six men. A handful of senior military brass and top civilian advisors direct their attention to the front of the room, where Sebastian, flanked by Matt and Linda, is in the middle of his presentation. SEBASTIAN To successful phase-shift a human being out of quantum sync with the visible universe and then return him safely, with no after affects. Next to Sebastian a video shows a small monkey shifting from the visible spectrum. It's hair, skin, organs and skeletons slowly dissolve before our eyes. SEBASTIAN (cont'd) Well, we found out sending them to "never-never-land" was easy, it's the getting back that's hard. Sebastian fast forwards a few moments until the video screen shows the bizarrely tangled heap of flesh and bone that used to be alive. SEBASTIAN (cont'd) Every time we've tried to bring a test subject back from phase-shift. Cellular bonds would dissolve, the primary DNA strands would decay. But now... Sebastian pauses. Something's bothering him. SEBASTIAN (cont'd) But now... One of the senior advisers, DR. HARRY KRAMER, distinguished 50s, finally breaks the silence. KRAMER But now? Linda and Matt look up at Sebastian expectantly. SEBASTIAN (CONT'D) But now... (pause) But now, we feel we are closer than ever to resolving this issue. We've been experimenting with a new regression formula that looks rather promising. A FOUR STAR GENERAL leans forward. GENERAL How long? SEBASTIAN Sir? GENERAL Son, as you can imagine, we are very anxious to field test this tactical asset. How long till you resolve this issue? Linda starts to speak, but Sebastian cuts her off with a look. SEBASTIAN Shouldn't be more than another year, Sir. Frustrated sighs all around the room. SEBASTIAN (cont'd) Maybe sooner. EXT. PENTAGON - DAY As Linda, Matt and Sebastian head to their cars. MATT Yo. Reality check! What the hell was that about? SEBASTIAN Keep your voice down. MATT The protocol works. Why'd you tell them it didn't? SEBASTIAN I wasn't ready for them to know. MATT But they're the oversight committee. They're supposed to know. LINDA I'm sure he had a reason. (firmly) You did have a reason, didn't you, Sebastian? SEBASTIAN I had more than a reason. I had a goddamn epiphany. They reach his Porsche. SEBASTIAN (cont'd) What do you think they'd do if they know we could send a subject into phase shift and pull it back out again? How many seconds would it take for them to take over the whole project, bringing in their soldiers to test the formula on. We'd have lost control of it by the end of the week. LINDA It's their money, Sebastian. It's going to happen eventually. SEBASTIAN I know. But not yet. There's too much for us to learn. I don't want my hands tied by their political agenda when we go to phase three. MATT Well, then... mind telling us how you're gonna get a human test-subject for phase three without the committee finding out? SEBASTIAN That's easy. I've decided to test the procedure ... INT. LABORATORY CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY SEBASTIAN ... on myself. The team sits around the conference table. Their jaws drop and they stare at him with wide eyes. FRANK Are you nuts? SEBASTIAN Was Jonas Salk nuts? FRANK Yeah. Pretty sure he was. CARTER And remember, for every Jonas Salk, there are a bunch of guys who aren't famous cuz they died. SEBASTIAN If we're that unsure, how can we morally justify testing it on someone else? JANICE Isn't it a little soon to be moving into phase three anyway? SARAH She's right. We haven't even finished collating the phase two research. SEBASTIAN We'll have plenty of time to collate and cross-reference later. Monkey data doesn't matter anyway. The only real data is human data. SARAH You don't even know if any of the protocols will work on humans. SEBASTIAN How are we gonna find out? Besides, we've succeeded with a gorilla and their DNA is 98% the same as humans. And the 2% is not that significant. LINDA Sebastian ... humans can talk, build houses and cook in microwave ovens. Gorilla's live in trees. That's a helluva 2% if you ask me. SEBASTIAN We're all concerned. I know that. But if we're gonna move forward ever, this is something we have to do. LINDA Why you? Why not one of us? SEBASTIAN The risks. I couldn't ask... MATT (interrupting) What if we volunteer? LINDA What if you're too valuable to lose? SEBASTIAN I'm Project Leader. It's my formula and my call. The best way to express your concern is to make damn sure you do your best work. I'll want about four weeks to... FRANK To put your affairs in order? SEBASTIAN To run some more reversions and tissue tests and then we'll attempt the phase shift. I'll stay shifted for three days of testing and then we'll perform a quantum regression. INT. SEBASTIAN'S OFFICE A knock on the door. SEBASTIAN Come in. Linda pushes into the room and closes the door behind her. SEBASTIAN (cont'd) What? LINDA In the past six years, I've never once challenged your decisions, but this ... Sebastian. I don't think you should do this. SEBASTIAN You don't understand. LINDA Oh please. How long were we together? You must've said it a million times ... Nobody knows who built the lunar lander. All they remember in the first man on the moon. Sebastian shrugs and nods. LINDA (cont'd) But what if something happens to you... what about the project? Sebastian smiles. SEBASTIAN Lin, trust me... nothing's going to happen. INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT Linda and Matt are in bed together. Matt kisses her way up and down her arm. But Linda is distracted. LINDA He refuses to listen to reason. MATT Can we talk about this later? I'm trying to make love to you. LINDA Sorry. I just can't let it go. Matt props himself up on the pillow. MATT I know how you're feeling. Hell, he and I've been friends since freshman year. LINDA So how can we let him do this? MATT What if you were given the opportunity to be the first person on ,Mars, would you go? LINDA In a heartbeat. MATT What if they didn't know whether or not they could get you home? Linda thinks about it. It's still tempting. MATT (cont'd) This is his chance to be Chuck Yeager or Christopher Columbus. Well, if I were him I'd do the same thing. Matt goes back to kissing Linda. LINDA Let me ask another question. MATT Is about who gets to be on top? LINDA Is the human race really ready for what we're doing? Matt groans and rolls over. MATT Why do you always get philosophical before we're about to get physical? LINDA No really. Is it ready? We're barrelling down a road that begs moral and ethical questions that I don't think we can answer. MATT They said the same thing about the bomb. They said we'd never survive the nuclear age... but here we are. LINDA This night is still young. (beat) I mean, when you think about it, it's creepy. Do we really want to live in a world where people can just disappear in the blink of an eye? MATT We made our deal with the devil years ago. Might as well stick around to cash in. INT. MEDICAL EXAMINING ROOM - DAY Sebastian stripped to his shorts paces nervously. A knock on the door. SEBASTIAN (his voice catches) Yes? Matt sticks his head in. MATT We're ready. Sebastian nervously shakes his limbs out. Then nods. SEBASTIAN Okay. MATT It's not too late to back out. I'm happy to take your place. SEBASTIAN No. I'm ready. Matt leads him into the hallway. INT. CORRIDOR - DAY As they walk down the corridor toward the lab... MATT Nervous? SEBASTIAN A little. MATT Ever tell you the one about Superman and Wonder Woman? SEBASTIAN I don't think so. MATT So Superman's flying around the city, and he's horny as hell. Lo and behold he looks down and sees Wonder Woman, completely nude, sunning herself up on the roof of the Justice League. I mean she is lying there naked and spread eagle. So Superman starts thinking, "man... this is too easy. I could go down there, do a little fast pumping and be gone before she even sees me." After all he is faster than a speeding bullet, right? Anyway, he swoops down, takes care of business so quick, you can't even see him. Well ... I tell ya. Wonder Woman looks up, surprised as hell and says "What the hell was that." And the Invisible Man replies "I dunno know, but it sure hurt like hell." INT. LABORATORY Sebastian shoots Matt a look. SEBASTIAN You know, that could be the last joke I ever hear. MATT C'mon, man. That's funny shit. The buzz of conversation is punctuated by an amplified HEARTBEAT, thumping its familiar rhythm. Bah-bump. Bah-bump. In the center of the room, Sebastian, dressed only in a pair of jogging shorts is strapped to a table inclined at a 45 degree angle. Electrodes are strapped to his body. An I.V. tube snakes from the needle in his vein up to a bag of saline solution. Dripping slowly. Linda makes last minute checks of some of the equipment. She pats Sebastian on the shoulder. LINDA O.K. How're you feeling? Sebastian takes a deep breath. SEBASTIAN Fine. Sarah checks his vitals. SARAH Pulse 88, BP 140 over 95. A bit elevated. SEBASTIAN To be expected. SARAH No reason for concern. He's ready. Linda takes a moment and studies Sebastian's face. She's almost teary eyed. SEBASTIAN Hey... it's gonna be okay. Linda nods. Back to business. LINDA Start recording. INT. OBSERVATION BOOTH. Janice hits record on the equipment decks. JANICE We're hot. All systems nominal, Houston. Frank coordinates all the data being fed into the computers. He pushes a series of buttons and speaks into a microphone. FRANK Okay, kids. Let's make some history. INT. LABORATORY - DAY Frank's voice echoes through the chamber. LINDA Subject: Male, Age 29, weight 166 lbs. Matt jabs a hypodermic into small vial of colored liquid. Draws up 20ccs. MATT (to Linda) Ready. Linda takes the hypo from Matt. MATT (cont'd) If the tests are any indication it should work quickly. SEBASTIAN I'll inject myself. If anything goes wrong, they can't blame you. She hands the hypo Sebastian and steps away. Sebastian stares at the golden formula silently for a moment. LINDA We can still shut down, Sebastian. He shakes his head. MATT Any last words? SEBASTIAN Yeah. If I'm killed, pretend I said something deep and clever. Then... Back to business. He inserts the needle into the I.V. Sebastian. Presses into himself and depresses the plunger. LINDA Injection was administered at (checks watch) ... 18:23:47. The colored liquid snakes it's way into his bloodstream. LINDA (cont'd) Keep talking. Tell us what you're feeling. SEBASTIAN Nothing so far. SARAH Vitals are stable. They wait and watch. LINDA Nothing's happening. Another moment passes by. MATT Human DNA structure is slightly more complex... it's possible that it may take more time... Another moment passes. LINDA Maybe we overlooked something. SEBASTIAN Recheck the protocol. It can't be non- reactive. CARTER Kinda like a firecracker with a bad fuse... Sebastian shoots Carter a questioning look. CARTER (cont'd) Don't know if it'll go off. LINDA Frank? FRANK (V.0.) (from the booth) No change in bio-electric. SEBASTIAN Goddammit. Another long pause. Sebastian concentrates. SEBASTIAN (cont'd) Okay wait, my arm... it's getting a bit warm... yeah, it's ... it's starting to tingle... Excitement overtakes the room. SEBASTIAN (cont'd) Okay... it's spreading to my back... like, like a fever... LINDA Here we go. Slowly the flesh on Sebastian's arm begins dissolving, revealing the complex network of nerves, blood vessels and flesh beneath it. SEBASTIAN Shit... it's starting to burn... Oh god. It hurts. I didn't think it would hurt. The HEART BEAT thumps faster, accelerating SARAH Heartbeat's elevated. Pulse at 100. ... 130 ... LINDA What do you feel? Keep talking. KEEP TALKING! SEBASTIAN Pain! SARAH Pulse is 165 ... 170 Blood pressure 180 over 100. ... CARTER He's going to blow out his heart. LINDA Prop the crash cart. Carter grabs the crash cart, rolls it in. Matt tears off the I.V. leads into Sebastian's arms. MATT We've got to stop it! LINDA We can't! INT. OBSERVATION BOOTH All the monitors are going crazy. JANICE Something's happening. Frank leans into the microphone. FRANK Listen up! Electric activity increasing in all limbs. Brainwaves are through the roof. JANICE I didn't think the human brain could spike that high. FRANK Maybe it can't. INT. LABORATORY Sebastian screams in dire pain. He struggles against his restraints as his skin liquefies into a muscular mass. It's like something's eating away at him. Gruesome. The yells become louder and more painful to hear. SEBASTIAN No. Oh god! NO! STOP IT! STOP IT! The muscular system begins to dissolve, leaving a struggling skeleton wrapped with tentacular blood vessels and stuffed with the major organs. The beating heart, the heaving lungs. SARAH Pulse is 180 .... holding stable. Screaming.... Then the organs go. Then the blood vessels. Leaving only a skeleton howling in pain. The jawbones spread wide ... Screaming... screaming... CARTER Holy shit. Then as if someone had poured acid all over the bones, the skeleton evaporates into nothingness. SARAH Pulse is dropping. 170.. 150 .... 160.. There is NOTHING left of Sebastian Caine. LINDA Bio-quantum phase shift occurred at 18:26. The screaming continues and the restraints continue to twist and turn. Suddenly the restraints go limp. MATT Is he dead? Linda checks the readouts. LINDA No. He passed out from the trauma. SARAH Vitals returning to normal. Pulse 110 ... dropping. Blood pressure 130 over 75. A long beat as everybody's eyes stare at the instruments. FRANK (V.O.) Electrical activity is stabilizing. SARAH Pulse steady at 70. A long beat. MATT Un-fucking-believable. A reverent pause as Linda runs her fingers over what would be his skin. Small electrical charge dance around her fingertips. She gasps. LINDA (whispers in his ear) You did it, Sebastian. You're the first. CARTER Let's get him into recovery. DISSOLVE TO: INT. RECOVERY CHAMBER The chamber is half constructed out of Plexiglas at the end of the Hallway of Habitats. On the recovery bed, a sheet drapes over Sebastian's invisible body. The gentle bleatings of medical machinery pound out a dulling rhythm. Linda sleeps in a corner chair as Matt slips into the room. He checks the readouts on Sebastian then takes a seat by Linda. She wakes with a start. MATT S'okay. You nodded off. LINDA His breathing's hypnotic. How long's it been? MATT Seventeen hours. LINDA Where are the others? MATT In the lab crunching numbers. We've got enough data there for two lifetimes of research. Linda rubs her temples and gestures to the bed. LINDA I keep looking at that hole, wondering if he's really there. She notices something out of the corner of his eye. The sheet twitches. LINDA (cont'd) Did you see... The sheet twitches again. MATT He may be coming out of it. Linda and Matt watch intently. Then suddenly... the sheets thrash violently. A yell of pain. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE The lights! Turn off the goddamn lights! Ah Christ! Linda jumps up and crosses to Sebastian. Matt rushes to the wall and turns off the lights. Darkness. The room is lit by the glow of machinery. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE (cont'd) I can't... I can't close my eyes. I can't close my eyes. LINDA Your eyelids are transparent. The sheets slowly stop thrashing. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE So I ... I'm... LINDA Yes. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE My arms. I can.. where? ... I can feel them... LINDA Your arms ... your whole body... It worked, Sebastian. It worked. The sheet rises and slips away. The wires, seemingly connected to thin air, spread out like a spider's web and then fall away one-by-one. The monitors all go dead. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Mirror. I ... I want to see. MATT Over here in the corner. Matt motions to a dark corner of the room, toward a mirror and sink. We push in on the mirror. No reflection. Suddenly it fogs up ... Sebastian's breath. A finger tracing appears in the fog ... but of course we see no finger. The sink faucet twists on and water runs. It cups into the shape of hands and lifts into the air, splashing against the surface of Sebastian's face. Beads of water cling to his f ace, outlining it I shape f or a moment before dripping away. MATT (cont'd) What was it like? SEBASTIAN'S VOICE I ... It's hard to think. Sebastian's voice is now behind him. Matt turns around. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE (cont'd) The transformation... I remember every molecule in my body shattering. MATT It was painful? SEBASTIAN'S VOICE At first... but then everything went black. I couldn't see or hear or feel anything. It was all just black... like I wasn't connected. LINDA Your system received quite a shock. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE At least my senses are starting to return... You're wearing your Shalimar, aren't you? Linda realizes that he's standing very close by. Her hair lifts slightly and Sebastian inhales. Chills go down her spine. LINDA Sebastian. Linda's hair drops back to her shoulders. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE This is weird. I'm looking through myself at the floor. I'm looking right through myself. I can't tell ... He bumps into a chair. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE (cont'd) ... where my body is. A moment of silence. LINDA Sebastian? No answer. Linda and Matt look at each other, slightly alarmed. MATT Sebastian? An indentation forms on the bed a moment later. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE You really can't see me. Can you? LINDA Gimme symptoms. Dizziness, nausea, headache, body-ache, disorientation. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE No, just tired. (beat) It's funny. I can see everything... more than before... but I can't see myself. INT. LABORATORY - DAY Carter, Frank, Janice and Sarah work at various research stations. The door opens and Linda and Matt enter. CARTER Hey. How's he doing? LINDA Why don't you ask him? Linda motions to the gap between her and Matt. The four of them stare at the nothing. SARAH Sebastian, how do you feel. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Not to bad, considering. They turn round. The voice is coming from behind them. The group rises from their various workstations and turn toward where the voice came from. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE (cont'd) Odd, isn't it? A rheostat switch on the wall turns and the lights dim. Though it's a simple act, it feels somewhat ominous. LINDA He can't close his eyes so they're sensitive to light. Linda's explanation puts everyone at ease. JANICE So, what was it like? SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Over here. Sebastian has moved. As everyone turns toward him again, he can't stifle a slight giggle. LINDA C'mon Sebastian. Knock it off. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Sorry. Couldn't resist. His voice again come s from somewhere else in the room. FRANK I feel like we're playing Marco Polo. MATT Well, I see the procedure hasn't changed your personality. Frank pulls on a pair of THERMAL GOGGLES. FRANK No worries. I'm on it. THERMAL POV - Every body in the laboratory shows up as a heat signature, including Sebastian. Frank points. FRANK (cont'd) Gotcha, big man. THERMAL POV - The HEAT SIGNATURE reaches for a chair. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Boy, you people have no sense of humor. A chair slides back from a desk and bends under Sebastian's weight. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE (cont'd) Show me. So ... CUT TO: INT. LABORATORY - NIGHT Frank and Janice shuttle the playback controls as a VIDEO MONITOR re-plays various angles of Sebastian's phase shift. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Stop there. Frank halts the tape. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE (cont'd) Index that. That was when it started burn. Epidermal reaction. JANICE Index Mark. 112125. Janice scribble the numbers in her notebook. Linda crosses, nursing a cup of coffee. LINDA It's late. Time you got some rest. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Just a little longer. LINDA Hate to pull rank, but you're my patient now and you need rest. We've got a busy day tomorrow. Heavy sigh. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Fine. INT. THE RECOVERY ROOM - NIGHT As Linda enters she points to a small camera in the upper corner of the room. LINDA We've set up a thermal camera for observation and I've arranged one of us to be here 24/7 in case you need anything. The team's gonna be on alpha- call alert for the duration. If anything goes wrong, we can all be here within... SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Thirty minutes. Yes,,_I know. I wrote the procedure. LINDA I was trying to be reassuring. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE You like this don't you? LINDA What's that? SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Being in charge. It's clear she does. But she's certainly not going to admit it. LINDA Please. I'm just doing my job. CUT TO: CLOSE ON: A video screen. A thermal lump lays stretched out on the bed. Pull back to reveal SARAH staring at the screen. We are. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - NIGHT A bank of monitors display the various angles of the Hall of Habitats, the laboratory and, of course, Sebastian in the recovery room. Linda hands Sarah a cup of coffee. LINDA You gonna be okay? SARAH Fine. It's not like I have anything else going on in my sad pathetic life. LINDA Carter'll be in at six to spell you and I'll be in by nine. Call me if anything happens, okay? Through the glass wall, Linda sees Matt knocking and waving her out. SARAH I'm fine. Go on ahead. INT. CORRIDOR - NIGHT The rest of the team straggles into the elevator. Yawning. Exhausted from the day. CARTER Man, I'm tired. That was a long day. LINDA Days only get longer from here. Linda catches Matt's eye. Gives him a look. "You coming over?" Matt nods, "yes", imperceptible to everyone but Linda. She smiles. DISSOLVE TO: INT. LABORATORY - NIGHT Deserted and dark. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - NIGHT Late. Sarah rubs her temples. Her eyelids are heavy. She's having real trouble staying awake. The buzzing fluorescent light isn't helping either. INT. RECOVERY ROOM - NIGHT The sheets ruffle and the indentation disappears from the bed. We can hear breathing and soft sound of bare feet shuffling against linoleum. CAMERA SLOWLY PANS toward the door, as if we, are following someone walking. The door handle turns and the door pushes open. INT. HALLWAY OF HABITATS - NIGHT WE SLOWLY TRACK DOWN the Hallway of the Habitats. We hear the sounds of sleeping creatures. A couple of them growl at something unseen. The growling follows the invisible something as it passes by. INT. LABORATORY - NIGHT The laboratory door opens and shuts again. Ghostly. We see papers shuffling at one of the work stations. A glass moves slightly. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - NIGHT Sarah reclines in her chair. Fast asleep, Behind her is the glass wall, revealing the empty hallway behind it. But a small portion of the glass fogs, as if someone had just breathed on it. As the fogged part quickly clears, we see the door to the observation room quietly open. ON SARAH, still sleeping. We hear a whisper. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE (whispering) Sarah. Are you awake? Her heavy breathing mixes with Sebastian's. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE (cont'd) (barely audible) Hmm. Sarah's hair moves slightly, as if a hand were running through it. And then we see her shirt move, like fingers were tracing over it. Down from the shoulder to her breast. Around her nipple. Sarah moans slightly, as if she were dreaming, but she doesn't stir. And then her breasts cup slightly, as if they were being touched... softly... gently. Her breathing becomes harder, more labored, erotic... and then she... BOLTS AWAKE. Bar eyes wide with fear. She jumps and cups her own breasts and looks around the room. It's empty, of course. She jumps over to the monitor and checks on Sebastian's room. The heat signature isn't there. SARAH Dr. Caine! Goddamnit, Dr. Caine! Are you in here? She listens. It's silent. She tries holding her breath, listening for his breathing. But there's nothing. Sarah reaches over to a microphone. Hits a few switches. SARAH (cont'd) Dr. Caine? VARIOUS SHOTS OF THE COMPOUND - LABORATORY SARAH (V.0.,LOUDSPEAKER) Dr. Caine, please report in. - HALLWAY OF HABITATS SARAH (V.0.,LOUDSPEAKER) Dr. Caine, report in please! INT. OBSERVATION BOOTH - CONTINUOUS Sarah waits. No response. SARAH Shit. She looks around the room. He must be in here. SARAH (cont'd) Dr. Caine? Sebastian? Come on, this isn't funny. I know you're in here. Nothing. No response. Sarah waves her hand around, reaching out, trying to find him. After a few beats she stops and rubs her head. SARAH (cont'd) I must be going crazy. Suddenly, Sarah gets an idea. She quickly exits the observation room. EXT. CORRIDOR - NIGHT At a wall storage box, she removes a pair of Thermal Goggles and slips them on. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - NIGHT Sarah enters wearing the thermals. She scans the room. THERMAL POV - The room is empty. She pulls the goggles off in frustration, and when she glances over at the video screen, she sees Sebastian's thermal image lying on the bed in the recovery room. Sarah sinks into her chair, a tad disconcerted. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - MORNING Linda and Matt finish listening to Sarah's story. SARAH I found him later in the lab, running samples. LINDA Why didn't you call me? SARAH Because I wasn't sure. I'm still not. I mean, I could've easily been dreaming. MATT It doesn't sound like something Sebastian would do. SARAH God, I feel so stupid. LINDA I can talk to him. SARAH No. I mean... (she torn, unsure of herself) It was probably nothing. I shouldn't've mentioned it. MATT You sure? SARAH Yeah, I'm sure. I mean, y'know, why would he do that, right? Just, this place at night can be kinda creepy, y'know. INT. RESEARCH LAB - DAY Sebastian, wearing surgical scrubs sits in an examination chair. Wire leads sprout from the electrodes covering his head and arms. The electrodes seem to outline his body. MATT So, how was your first night? SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Restless. Hard to sleep when you can't close your eyes. As Sebastian talks, we can see the electrodes around his jaw pump up and down. MATT Yeah? What'd you do? SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Got up a couple of times. Knocked about. MATT Yeah, Sarah mentioned you weren't in your cubicle. She said she called you over the intercom and you didn't respond. SEBASTIAN I guess I didn't hear. I had the radio on. MATT It'd be helpful to us if you'd tell whoever's on duty where you're going to. I mean, if something were to happen, we'd want to know where to find you. SEBASTIAN I didn't think it was a problem. MATT It isn't. I just don't want it to become one. Machines pump out EEG, EKG readouts. Matt studies them. MATT (cont'd) Readings are normal. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Next I want to run a VV and UVF analysis of the platelets. MATT We'll have to draw some more blood. CUT TO: Sarah rolls up Sebastian's sleeve, revealing empty air. She wraps a bungee cord around the nothing, pulls it tight and sprays the inside of his elbow with dye. She acts very self conscious. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE You okay? SARAH Yeah. Why? SEBASTIAN You just seem a little nervous. SARAH No. I...I'm fine. Hold still. This might hurt a bit. The surface of his skin sheens in the light as Linda searches for a vein. She slaps his arm several times, then plunges a hypodermic needle into his skin. His skin bends and gives. The needle remains in sight after it slips through the visible surface. Sarah presses down on the hypo plunger, releasing a dye into his bloodstream. SARAH (cont'd) Dr. Caine... this might sounds stupid, but are you... are you looking at me. The red dye twists into a long snaking red tube up and down his arm. His vein. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE No. I was looking at the clock. Why? Sarah draws the plunger back, sucking Sebastian's blood into the hypodermic and then yanks the needle out. SARAH Just felt like someone was staring at me. Sarah pulls the vial off the needle and labels it with a grease pencil. After a few beats the red dye in Sebastian's blood stream dissolves and disappears, as does the liquid in the vial. TESTING MONTAGE INT. MRI ROOM MATT slides Sebastian's sheet covered frame into an MRI. Even though his head is not visible, it shown up on the MRI scanner. INT. MAIN LABORATORY CARTER and SARAH lower a harness into a water tank. SEBASTIAN'S BODY displaces the water, revealing an empty body shaped cavity in the water. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM CARTER sips a BIG GULP and stares at a monitor which shows two eat signatures in the Recovery Chamber, huddled over a chess game. INT. RECOVER CHAMBER on a chessboard... A BLACK KNIGHT takes WHITE BISHOP, seemingly all by itself. Across the table, Matt leans back and topples his WHITE KING acknowledging defeat. INT. SPECTRAL LAB Dim lights. Janice and Frank both don eye guards. Frank switches on a low intensity laser on and it's beam shoots across the room. The beam distorts slightly in the center of the room. As Frank widens the spectral pattern, suddenly the beam splits into a million different spectral rainbows, momentary illuminating Sebastian's entire frame in a glowing tingle of light. INT. MAIN LABORATORY LINDA pulls vials from the cyclotrons and props blood sample slides. She slips them under the microscope. She takes a sip of her Diet Coke and puts it on the table. She pears into the microscope and analyses the blood sample, squeezing more stain onto it. She looks up to make notations, but when she reaches for her Diet Coke IT ISN'T THERE. She looks around. It's on the other side of her microscope. She shrugs it off, she takes a sip and sets it down where it was before. She peers into the microscope again and when she looks up... the Diet Coke is gone. She looks around the room and sees it on another table completely. LINDA Sebastian? Goddamnit. We hear Sebastian's laughter echo in the room. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE You've no idea how much fun I've had. I'm going to hate going back. LINDA That's what worries me.? SEBASTIAN'S VOICE How so? LINDA What happens when we turn the project over to the Army. Ever wonder how much fun they're gonna have? SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Maybe we won't give it to them. His voice comes from behind her now. We see indentations on her shoulders where his fingers press down. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE (cont'd) I was thinking... tonight's my last night. Ever fantasize about making love to an invisible man? Linda pulls away from him. LINDA Stop it, Sebastian. It's not funny. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Well, don't do it for me. Do it for science. Linda walks away. Sebastian laughs. LINDA Grow up. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Oh well. Missed your big chance. LINDA Got some sleep. Big day tomorrow. INT. LABORATORY - DAY A bevy of activity below us as the scientists prepare. Matt slides the antigen cocktail into the centrifuge and starts it spinning. A sheet drapes over a Sebastian's frame, straps across his limbs. He is fully wired. Linda looks up to the observation booth. LINDA Recording? Frank peers down at her from the booth, his voice echoing through the chamber. FRANK Recording. Subject Doctor Sebastian Caine. Currently in phase shift... Three days, seven hours. LINDA De-Phase protocol. Injecting Serial Protein Caine One Two Seven. Matt removes the glowing vial of orange liquid from a centrifuge nearby. Carter hands Matt a hypo. Matt jabs it into the vial, drawing up the colored liquid. Linda sprays Sebastian's arm with dye. LINDA (cont'd) Ready? SEBASTIAN Not really. I was just starting to enjoy myself. LINDA Tough. MATT Okay, man. Here we go. Matt inserts the hypo into the vein and presses down on the plunger. The liquid begins to react. Small flashes of light blip up and down the strand of color outlining the vein. Ba-bump.. ba-bump... the heartbeat starts to speed up. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Wait... something... something doesn't feel right. SARAH Heartbeat elevated. INT. OBSERVATION BOOTH Janice and Frank look over the equipment. FRANK Vitals still nominal.. INT. LABORATORY The glowing liquid turns from gold to red as the complex webbing of a bloodstream appears. Spreading out from the bloodstream, soon becomes visible ... the shadow of a skeletal system. SEBASTIAN I can't br... br... Sebastian begins wheezing. LINDA What's wrong? SARAH He's not breathing. Muscles are beginning to appear. And eyeballs. Frightened eyeballs. MATT Subject manifesting. SARAH Pulse erratic. Sebastian pulls against his bonds. One set tears off. LINDA Carter! Carter grabs onto the mass of flesh and muscle, trying to hold it back. But the restraints snap. The half-visible man is screaming. He grabs Carter and throws him across the room. LINDA (cont'd) Sebastian! Sebastian! And just for a second, Sebastian is fully visible. And free. He looks around like a scared animal and rips off all the wiring. LINDA (cont'd) Sebastian! MATT Get a tranq. Stat. Sarah preps a tranquilizer. Sebastian locks eyes with Linda. He's lost, he doesn't know where he is. And suddenly, he crumbles to the ground. Linda rushes over to him and puts bar hand on his shoulder. Light bleeds from his skin and his skin begins to dissolve from sight. LINDA He's reverting. Got him on the table. Matt, Linda and Sarah pull the shifting body up and onto an operating table. Carter pulls himself up and heads back to the group. LINDA (cont'd) Get me a I.V. of A.G. seven. SARAH I got no pulse. No pulse. MATT Start CPR. Carter locates Sebastian's heart, not a difficult thing because we can actually see it. Carter's hand pushes down in the air inches above the heart. We see the heart being pushed and squeezed. Sarah slaps an air bag on Sebastian and starts pumping air into his lungs. Sebastian's heart begins to beat again, beat on its own. CARTER Getting a pulse. MATT Holy shit. What happened? LINDA Sebastian... can you hear me? Can you hear me? How are his pupils? MATT I can't see his goddamn pupils! SARAH I think he's going into shock. We slowly FADE OUT to the sights and sounds of our scientist- doctors working on Sebastian... And the beeping of Sebastian's erratic heartbeat. FADE UP ON: A HABITAT The heartbeat continues. In the shadows, two Rhesus Monkeys defend themselves against an unseen attacker. Blood splatters against the Plexiglas wall. We FADE OUT AGAIN... INT. CORRIDOR - NIGHT Linda stares through the Plexiglas walls into the Recovery Chamber. Inside the Chamber, Sarah and Carter- eye the various screens monitoring Sebastian's vitals. Linda watches the hollow pocket underneath the blanket. She watches the rhythm of its rises and falls as Sebastian sleeps. Matt comes up behind her. MATT Just got the tissue sample results. Cellular cohesion is stable. Linda exhales in relief. Matt puts his hands on her shoulder. Pulls her close to him. MATT (cont'd) How bout you? You gonna be okay? LINDA Guess so. (beat) I was just thinking about the Apollo missions. Y'know? Grissom, White and Chaffee... What it was like for them on that launch pad that day, thinking they were gonna reach the stars only to burn to death. MATT Sometimes the test pilots make history. Sometimes the planes crash and people die. LINDA But he didn't die, did he? (beat) What if we can't bring him back? What then? MATT It's just a little hitch is all. He'll be the first to tell that he'll crack it and I'm sure he will. It'll just take time. (beat) Listen, let's got out of here. We could drive up to the old observatory. We'll take some wine and go count the stars and forget all this for awhile. She pulls away. LINDA No. I want to be here for him. Linda pushes through the door of the recovery chamber and takes a seat by Sebastian's bedside. A little hurt, Matt heads down the corridor. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM Frank and Janice are staring into their coffee when Matt enters. Matt crosses to the coffee machine and pours himself a cup. He takes a seat at the table. They all drink their coffee in silent vigil. INT. RECOVERY CHAMBER - DAY Linda sits by Sebastian's bedside, listening to the constant rhythm of the machines. The sheets shift. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE (weak) Hey... LINDA Hey... SEBASTIAN So I guess it didn't work. Linda shakes her head. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE You look worried. It must've been bad. Sebastian's voice is weak and strained. LINDA You almost died. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Well, remember your Nietchze. Whatever doesn't kill me, makes me stronger. Linda smiles. LINDA I should be making you feel better. Not vice versa. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE I guess if I'm going to be stuck this way for awhile, I'd better make some adjustments. INT. RECOVERY CHAMBER - DAY In a dusty shaft of light... A cotton swab. is dipped by a gloved hand into a jar of flesh-colored cream make-up. We follow the hand as it raises the cotton swab into the darkness. The swab strokes over the black and the rich fleshy cream spreads, revealing... EYE LIDS of a closed eye. The eyelids part, unveiling... PITCH BLACK. Blink. Blink. No eye. Not even a trace of a eye socket. Just darkness. A COLORED CONTACT LENS floats through mid-air... hovering before the eyelids. It turns and fastens itself to the darkness between the lids. We PULL BACK slowly as Sebastian lifts a latex FACE MASK and pulls it over his head. He checks his reflection in the mirror. He looks almost human. Almost. A face, eyes, hands ... the rest of him covered by surgical scrubs. We pull back and see the rest of the team looking on. MATT Not too bad. SEBASTIAN The latex'll limit the amount of light delivered to my optic nerves. LINDA You could almost pass for human. Sebastian rises. He looks eerily removed from reality with his cold blank expression. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Well, it gives you a face to talk to at least, and we can all work in normal light again. INT. LABORATORY - DAY SERIES OF SHOTS Carter draws blood from Sebastian. Samples are placed into the cyclotron. Matt peers through the eyepiece of a microscope. He makes notes. Frank and Janice finish a computer simulation on a protein strand. Matt looks over. They shake their heads, no. Sebastian slides into the MRI. Linda examines a petri dish. She throws her pencil down in frustration. Sebastian is hit by the spectral radiation beams. Matt pulls a vial of orange liquid from the cyclotron. INT. CORRIDOR - DAY Sebastian, still in his latex and scrubs, but looking like he's been dragged through the nine levels of purgatory, is escorted back to the recovery chamber by Linda and Matt. He crosses to his bed and collapses on it. Closes his eyes. SEBASTIAN The testing's making me sick. LINDA Could be the barium or the radiation. MATT You're physiology has changed and, well, all bets are off. SEBASTIAN I can't believe I have to spend another night here. (to Linda) Suppose you're gonna go home now, meet up with that boyfriend of yours now. Linda and Matt exchange a glance. Linda quickly covers. LINDA Do you want me to stay? SEBASTIAN No. That's okay. It's just, being a guinea pig is more work than I thought. I'll be fine. INT. RESEARCH COMPOUND - NIGHT Various shots of the empty hallways and deserted labs. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - NIGHT Carter kicks back in his chair listening to his walkman stereo and playing gameboy. INT. RECOVERY CHAMBER - DAY Sebastian, in scrubs and make-up, paces back and forth. He slams the wall in frustration. He crosses to a mirror and examines himself. He doesn't look half bad. He pokes his cheeks. There's something about him that's a little off, but only if you look close. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - NIGHT A shadow falls across Carter's face. He looks up. It's Sebastian wearing street clothes - jeans and a hooded sweatshirt over his latex mask. Carter pulls of his earphones. CARTER (surprised) Dr. Caine. What's up? SEBASTIAN Just stopped by to let you know, I'm going out for a bit. Sebastian turns back into the hallway. CARTER Going out? Hey wait a sec! Carter scrambles to his feet. INT. CORRIDOR - NIGHT Carter catches up with Sebastian. CARTER What do you mean going out for a bit? SEBASTIAN If I don't get out of here, I'm gonna go crazy. CARTER But you're not supposed to leave the compound. SEBASTIAN Why not? CARTER That's the rule. SEBASTIAN Yes, but I made that rule. It's my rule and I'm changing it. CARTER You can't just change it. Sebastian hits the elevator button. The doors open. SEBASTIAN Carter, I was suppose to be like this for three days. Three fucking days and I'll be damned if I'm going to spend the rest of my life as a prisoner in this godforsaken dump. Now I'm going out. I'll be back in a couple of hours. Okay? The elevator doors close with Sebastian inside. Shit. CARTER Shit. Carter runs down the corridor. INT OBSERVATION ROOM - NIGHT Carter picks up the phone and dials. A beat then. CARTER Yeah, it's Carter. We got a problem. INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT The elevator doors open and Sebastian pushes past the Marine Guard. MARINE GUARD Hey, Doc. Haven't seen you for awhile? Sebastian keeps his face turned away as he crosses to his Porsche. SEBASTIAN Yeah, well. You know how it in sometimes. MARINE GUARD You got that right, sir. I was beginning to worry 'cause your car hadn't moved. SEBASTIAN Thanks, but everything's cool. Sebastian starts his car. It chugs a few times before turning over and speeding out of the warehouse. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT The door opens and Sebastian switches on the lights. He looks around his apartment and sighs. It's good to be home. INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT Sebastian enters the bedroom, clicking on the light. He looks at the ceiling, "You Should Be Working", and smiles. INT. LINDA'S APARTMENT BUILDING, PARKING GARAGE - NIGHT Linda and Matt each rush to their respective cars. MATT He could be anywhere. Hell he could be right behind us. LINDA I'll meet you at the lab. I'm gonna swing by his place, just in case. MATT See you there. Matt tries to give her a quick pack. Linda backs away. LINDA (quietly, looking around) I don't want him to see. MATT (looking around too) What a mess. They get in their cars. INT. SEBASTIAN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Sebastian packs up a few personal belongings in an overnight duffle. He crosses to his bookcase and pulls out some books and throws them into the bag. But as he does, he notices a light come on in the window across the courtyard. Sebastian turns off his bedroom light and moves toward the window. He peers across the courtyard into the Brunette's apartment. He watches the Brunette as she comes into the living room from her front hallway. She drops her keys on the table and begins unbuttoning her blouse as she crosses to the window. Just as the blouse slips off her shoulder, she pulls her blinds shut. SEBASTIAN Shit. Frustrated, Sebastian steps away from the window and then stops. Something has occurred to him. SEBASTIAN (cont'd) Don't even think it... He looks down and notices his hand is trembling. His breathing is a little heavy. A little nervous. He catches a glimpse at himself in the mirror. SEBASTIAN (cont'd) (almost whispering) Once...just once. The Brunette's living room light switches off and the bathroom light switches on. We see him fighting an internal battle and we see him lose it. He grabs a hold of his hand and peels the latex skin off. EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Linda drives Sebastian's apartment. She spots his black Porsche in the parking lot. She pulls over to the curb, jumps out of her car and heads into the building. INT. BRUNETTE'S APARTMENT, BATHROOM - NIGHT Wearing just a robe, the brunette turns on her shower. The doorbell rings. With a frustrated sigh, the brunette rises. AT THE FRONT DOOR She peers through the peep hole. No one's there. But as she turns she hears the doorbell again. She opens the door, steps out into the hallway and looks around. Empty. Puzzled she heads back inside her apartment. We follow her as she crosses to her bedroom, but a moment later, the bedroom door closes on its own. We hear a SCREAM come from the other side. Then another. Then a muffled struggled. And we... CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY, SEBASTIAN BUILDING - NIGHT Linda exits the elevator and heads down to Sebastian's door. She knocks. Waits. No answer. She knocks again. Waits. And then she tries the door. It's unlocked. She pushes the door open. LINDA Sebastian? INT. SEBASTIAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Linda pushes through the living room, into the bedroom. LINDA Sebastian? She notices that the bathroom light is on. BATHROOM On the floor she finds Sebastian's clothing and on the vanity she sees his latex face and hands. LINDA Oh shit. She scramble for the bedroom phone and quickly dials. LINDA (cont'd) Yeah, Matt, it's me. He was here. No. He's taken his make-up off. I don't know...He must be outside somewhere. I don't know where he went. I'm coming back to the lab. How? How'm I supposed to do that? I CAN'T FUCKING SEE HIM! We're going on alpha call. I want everyone at the lab now. We're gonna need thermal visors and we may need tranqs. As she hangs up the phone, and heads out. The CAMERA doesn't follow, but instead pushes through the blinds and out the window. As we cross the courtyard, we begin to hear muffled cries of terror. We hold on the Brunette's window as we... CUT TO: INT. BRUNETTE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The bedroom door opens and we see the Brunette, nude and curled up on the bed, sobbing. We follow the sounds of heavy breathing to the front door of her apartment. The door opens and we push out into the hallway. We can see indentations of feet appear on the hallway carpet. INT. CORRIDOR BY SEBASTIAN'S APARTMENT The elevator doors open and Linda steps inside. The doors close shut behind her. A beat later we see the indentations of footsteps come around the corner. We follow the breathing and stumbling footfalls back into... INT. SEBASTIAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT We push over to the bathroom sink. The faucet turns on and the water starts running. We see the water cup under the faucet and splash against Sebastian's face. His face appears briefly in the water. Then the water slips away. For second it sounds like he's crying, but then we hear something far worse. He's laughing. Nervous laughter. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - NIGHT Matt hands out thermal goggles, while Frank loads and passes out tranquilizer guns. JANICE What are the tranqs for? LINDA Use your imagination. JANICE Are you saying he's dangerous? MATT We're just saying we need to be cautious. LINDA The Metro stops running after midnight and he's on foot, so he can't have gotten too far. CARTER Look, this isn't a monkey we're talking about. It's Dr. Caine. Don't you think you're over reacting? LINDA This program is classified. If he's out there it means someone might find out about him. He could destroy the whole program. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Relax, Linda. No one's gonna find out. They all turn around. At the door is Sebastian, back in his latex outfit. MATT Where the hell have you been? SEBASTIAN I got a little stir crazy, so I went to my apartment to pick up some stuff. LINDA Bullshit! I went to your apartment and I happen to know you did a helluva lot more than pick some stuff up. SEBASTIAN What are you talking about? LINDA You, of all people How could you? Caught dead to rights, Sebastian sinks into his chair. He thinks she knows. LINDA (cont'd) You put yourself and this project at risk. SEBASTIAN Just what did you see in my apartment? LINDA I saw your face and your clothes. MATT It was bad enough you left without an escort, but to take off the... (he motions to his face) out in public? Sebastian realizes that they don't know. SEBASTIAN Don't make a mountain out of molehill. I didn't let anyone see me. LINDA That's not good enough. When you're outside the lab there are a thousand variables none of us can control. It's just not safe for you to be out there. SEBASTIAN Come on, Linda. You don't expect me to be some kind of prisoner. LINDA You volunteered for this, Sebastian. You knew going in there could be consequences. (beat) For the security of this project, I'm gonna have to ask you to confine yourself to the compound. SEBASTIAN I'm still Project Leader, Linda. It's my decision to make. LINDA You're right. It's your decision. But if you leave the compound again, I'll notify the oversight committee. Then they can make the decision. You understand? SEBASTIAN Matt? MATT Sorry, man. You'd do the same if it were the other way around. A long beat. Sebastian slowly rises, acknowledges Linda with a nod and leaves the room. Linda looks around at her silent co-workers, the goggles and tranqs still on the table. LINDA Pack 'em up... Everyone go home. DISSOLVE TO: INT. LABORATORY - DAY The Lab is buzzing with the usual activity. Linda rolls up Sebastian's sleeve, revealing nothing. LINDA Hold still. She wraps a bungee cord around the nothing and pulls it tight. She then sprays the inside of his elbow with dye. SEBASTIAN (contentious) How much blood do you think you've taken so far? The surface of his skin sheens in the light as Linda searches for a vein. She slaps his arm several times, then plunges a hypodermic needle into his skin. LINDA Not enough to worry about. SEBASTIAN Every day... feels like you're sucking me dry. Linda presses down on the hypodermic plunger, releasing a dye into his bloodstream. SEBASTIAN (cont'd) It's funny. All these years I've known you, I never pegged you for a megalomanic. LINDA What are you talking about? SEBASTIAN The shoe being on the other foot. You getting to run things. LINDA I didn't ask for this, Caine. But when a classified experiment disappears in the middle of the night, someone's gotta run the show. (tries sympathy) Look, I know how hard this has been for you. He knocks her arm away and pulls the hypo, out of his arm. SEBASTIAN Don't patronize me. (beat) And for the record, you've got no idea what it's like. I get up every morning and you people stick needles in me. You bombard me with radiation until I vomit. And then at six it's over for you. You get to go home. But Sebastian is still here. Sebastian can't leave, or else. That's the worst part, you know. Here I have this ... this GIFT and I can't even use it. LINDA Now it's a gift? SEBASTIAN You're goddamn right it's a gift. And if you weren't so goddamned short sighted, I'd be out there right now trying to master it. Sebastian looks around at the other scientists staring at him. He tosses the hypo with the needle onto the instrument tray and heads toward the door. LINDA Where're you going? SEBASTIAN Looks like I'm going nowhere. MATT Come on, man. We've got a ton of tests scheduled today. SEBASTIAN Do them yourself. INT. RECOVERY CHAMBER - NIGHT Linda enters to find Sebastian reading the collected works of T.S. Elliot. LINDA Want to talk about it? SEBASTIAN No. Linda looks over his shoulder. LINDA "We are the hollow men, the stuffed men, headpieces filled with straw." SEBASTIAN Funny, huh? I've become a literal metaphor. He puts the books down. LINDA I don't want to fight you. I just want what's best for the program. SEBASTIAN I know. And you being right doesn't make it any easier for me. LINDA You can be scared. That's okay. SEBASTIAN I'm not scared of being stuck this way. With a little more make-up and practice, I could... (he motions to his face) ... pass. Y'know, get by in the world. But the testing... LINDA You're talking like you've given up. It's only been a few months. SEBASTIAN What if it's years? I don't know how much more testing I can take. INT. RECOVERY CHAMBER - LATER Sebastian paces back and forth, glancing at the camera. INT. LABORATORY - DAY Linda, Matt and Sebastian, in latex and scrubs, stare at an electron microscope's video display. On the screen in a sparse colony of blood calls but every second more and more cells appear, filling the gap. MATT 60% reversion. 70% ... 75% ... 80% ... 85 ... The others in the lab listen. They start to get excited. Janice and Carter leave their research and come over to watch the screen. SEBASTIAN We've got it. We've got it. MATT 93% ... 95%... 95% They wait. Linda points to a blank patch on the screen. LINDA That's all we need. SEBASTIAN Come on, baby. Come on. But the blood cells nearest the blank patch twinkle out existence, and then those around them also blink away until after a beat, the screen is empty. MATT Full quantum cascade at 95%. (beat) I'm sorry. SEBASTIAN You're sorry? You're fucking sorry? Sebastian picks up a glass beaker and hurls it against the wall. It shatters. SEBASTIAN (cont'd) Six weeks of this shit and you're sorry! He grabs more equipment and begins tossing it in a rage. Carter and Janice grab him and restrain him. After struggling against them a beat or two, Sebastian calms down and pushes away from them and heads out the door. JANICE I don't blame him. LINDA I'll go talk to him. MATT Leave him alone. He just needs to blow off some steam. INT. RECOVERY CHAMBER - NIGHT CUT TO: Sebastian lies in his bed, staring at the security camera. The camera stares back at him. As if from a dream, we hear the Brunette's muffled scream and cries for help. As we push in on Sebastian's cold eyes, we can barely make out her face thrashing back in forth in panic and confusion. Sebastian suddenly rises. He crosses to the video camera and examines a small panel on the underneath of the camera. He reaches into a box of twinkies and pulls out one of the sponge cakes and begins munching. He hits the intercom button on the phone. FRANK (V.0.) Yeah? SEBASTIAN I'm going to the lab. FRANK (V.0.) Don't you sleep? SEBASTIAN Waste of time. Da Vinci never slept. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - NIGHT Frank eyes Sebastian in the monitor. FRANK Okay. I'm here if you need me. He watches as Sebastian's heat signature moves toward the door. INT. LABORATORY - NIGHT In the dark deserted lab, Sebastian pulls together a circuit board, a computer chip and some wiring. He seems be assembling something. INT. RECOVERY CHAMBER - NIGHT Sebastian crosses underneath the camera... just out of its range... reaches up and using a screwdriver, unscrews the access panel. He scans the electronics and attaches two alligator clips to wires on the circuit board. Trailing a long length of wire, Sebastian crosses back to his bed and lies down. He holds a black project box with a button on it. He lies perfectly still and press the button. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - NIGHT The video image of the Recovery Chamber flickers slightly, before returning to normal. INT. RECOVERY CHAMBER - NIGHT Sebastian rises and begins to peel off his latex. INT. HALLWAY OF HABITATS - NIGHT Sebastian's POV - Various animals stir restlessly. A DOG, visible, leaps against the Plexiglas, barking wildly. We push further down the corridor. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - NIGHT Again, Sebastian's POV as he pushes through the open door of the observation room. We see Frank sorting through various computer readouts, highlighting certain coding sequences. We push in until we are looking over Frank's shoulder at the video monitor. According to the video, Sebastian is sleeping soundly in his room. INT. RECOVERY CHAMBER - NIGHT The rewired security camera stares down at the empty bed. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - NIGHT Frank glances over at the video monitor. He can see Sebastian's heat signature lying in the bed. Frank feels something on his neck. He flicks whatever it is away with his hand and goes back to work. INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT The elevator door opens. The Guard turns around. The elevator is empty. INT. METRO STATION, WASHINGTON D.C. - NIGHT A Metro Subway train draws to a halt. With a cautionary "BING BONG" its doors slide open. A handful of people exit and enter. One man bumps shoulders. He turns round to apologize, but there's no one there. The doors close and the train pulls out of the station. EXT. DOWNTOWN D.C. - NIGHT A couple of pretty girls exit a bar and stumble to their apartments. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT One of the girls enters her apartment. The door half closes behind her and then reopens and closes again. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - MORNING Frank's reading a book when Linda and Matt enter. MATT How'd it go? FRANK Quiet. He worked in the lab till about 10:30 and then went to sleep. INT. RECOVERY CHAMBER - DAY Close on the security camera. The wires have been removed and the access panel replaced. Sebastian whistles a cheerful tune as he finishes applying his makeup. The door opens and Linda and Matt enter. SEBASTIAN Ah, my two favorite people. Good morning. LINDA Good morning. MATT Why so cheery this morning? SEBASTIAN You know some days you just wake up feeling the world is full of potential. Like your eyes have been opened. MATT I'm happy if I make it to my coffee machine. Linda hands Sebastian a disk. LINDA I restructured the third genome on your radiated protein strand. Thought you might want to take look. SEBASTIAN Cook up a batch and let's see where we go. LINDA I thought you'd want to take a look at it. SEBASTIAN I trust you. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to have my head examined. INT. STORAGE FREEZER - DAY Linda pulls bags of frozen plasma from the shelves in the walk-in storage freezer. LINDA I'm telling you, I know him. Something's going on. MATT Think he knows about us. LINDA If he knew about us, he'd be angry and that wasn't angry. INT. CORRIDOR - DAY Janice heads up one of the corridors when something on the floor catches her eye. She bends down and takes a look at it. Barely visible on the floor is a fragment of a BAREFOOT FOOTPRINT. She runs her finger along the dried mud. It turns to dust. INT. LABORATORY - DAY Sebastian holds his latex head on his lap, while EEG leads hang suspended in mid-air, outlining his real head. Carter analyzes the results. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE When you were a kid, you ever dream about being invisible? CARTER Sure... all the time. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE What did you imagine you'd do? CARTER The usual. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE What's the usual? CARTER Hanging out in the girl's locker room. Kicking Jimmy Margiani's ass. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Jimmy Margiani? CARTER School asshole. Drove a red Trans Am. Back then, I was the size of a small planet and made a rather large target. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Ever think up anything along the grand scale? CARTER Sure. World domination. Manipulating stock markets, consolidating a political power base. But those are more recent fantasies. Carter pulls off the electrodes and Sebastian slides on his latex facemask. SEBASTIAN And what if it weren't fantasy? What if you were out there in the world and could do whatever you wanted with no consequences whatsoever. How far would go? I mean... if it were real? CARTER I don't know, man. Out in the real world... I mean, there's a responsibility... SEBASTIAN Let's say you saw a woman with amazing tits. Would you brush against them? CARTER Hell, I try and do that now. SEBASTIAN Human nature. So if you could get away with more, would you do more? CARTER I read that in a survey at a major university they asked college students "Would you steal if you were guaranteed to get away with it?" 82% said yes. SEBASTIAN Eighty two percent? Makes you wonder if the world's ready for what we're doing. CARTER So, Doc what did you do? SEBASTIAN What do you mean? CARTER When you were out. SEBASTIAN I just walked around. Y'know. CARTER Aw, you just walked around? Come on. There's more, right? SEBASTIAN Like what? CARTER Man, I'd be walking up to people saying shit like "This is God, go,get a haircut." Or hanging out in the changing room at Victoria's Secret. SEBASTIAN Kind of sophomoric, don't you think. Besides, it was late and I wasn't out that long. CARTER Well, did you see anybody? SEBASTIAN There was this one girl. CARTER Yeah? And did you mess with her? SEBASTIAN Naw... Sebastian gives Carter a sly grin. SEBASTIAN (cont'd) Well maybe a little. (beat) I tell you though, a man could get used to it. INT. LABORATORY - NIGHT Alone, Linda packs up her stuff for the evening. Slowly we push in on her and hear quiet breathing. We realize we are in... SEBASTIAN'S POV Then ... SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Goodnight. Linda-jumps. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE (cont'd) Sorry, didn't mean to frighten you. LINDA It's fine. I just didn't know you were there. Goodnight. As she leaves the Lab, he follows her down the hallway. EXT. LINDA'S APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Linda passes through the revolving doors of her apartment building. A few beats later, as if caught by a gust of wind, the revolving door slowly turns on its own. INT. APARTMENT'S HALLWAY - NIGHT Linda slips into her apartment and the door closes behind her. A moment later we see the doorknob turn back and forth. It's locked. EXT. ALLEY - NIGHT On a fire escape, we see the ladder shake and descend to the ground. The metal rattles back and forth as if something were climbing it. We slowly crane up the fire escape and hold on a window. Through the wispy curtains and dirty glass we can see Linda enter the room. The panel of glass fogs from Sebastian's breath. The fog wipes away, seemingly by itself. But then through the window we see Matt walk into the living room and put his arms around Linda's waist. We hear a shocked intake of air. He kisses her neck and then slowly unzips her dress. Her dress falls to the floor. Matt takes off his sport coat and drapes it over a chair, while Linda unfastens the buttons of his shirt. They're laughing now, exchanging kisses. Matt reaches behind Linda and unhooks her bra. He kisses his way down her neck to her breasts. Linda pulls him to her. Suddenly the window shatters. Startled, both Matt and Linda jump back covering themselves. We hear Sebastian's footsteps as he retreats down the fire escape. A moment later Matt reaches the window and peers out. He sees the fire escape ladder slowly rise back up down below. LINDA What was it? MATT I don't know. I don't see anything. Matt picks up a piece of glass and examines it. MATT (cont'd) It's like something hit it. Linda picks up the phone and dials. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - NIGHT Carter picks up the phone. CARTER Hello? Carter looks at the security monitor of the recovery room. Sebastian's heat signature lies still on the bed. CARTER (cont'd) No. No. He's here No, I'm staring at him. He's right there in his room. INT. LINDA'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Linda breathes a sigh of relief. LINDA Thanks. No, just checking. 'Kay, bye. (hangs up phone) Phew. Matt pulls her into him. MATT Relax... it's nothing. Where were we? INT. RECOVERY CHAMBER - NIGHT BARKING can be heard in the background. That horrible repetitive barking that grates the soul like Chinese water torture. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Be quiet! A photograph of Linda drifts through the air and settles atop a flaming candle. It ignites into fire, twisting and turning in mid-air, then falling on the floor as ash. A beat later water runs from the sink faucet. It forms in the shape of hands and splashes against his face, dripping away. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE (cont'd) And the cyclops screamed out, "Who is it who blinds me?" and Odysseus replied "Nobody is my name". And the Cyclops raged to his friends "Nobody is killing me. Nobody". The barking continues. A moment later the chamber door slides open. We push down the... HALLWAY OF THE HABITATS ... until we are face-to-face with the unhappy barking dog. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Shhhh. It's Nobody-It's nothing. The Plexiglas door to the doggie's cage swings open and some invisible force grabs little doggie around the neck. The force squeezes its little fur ball throat until the barking stops. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE (cont'd) Nobody's gonna hurt you. The force keeps squeezing until the little doggie goes limp. Then the dog smashes against the Plexiglas over and over until blood spills out its mouth. The Plexiglas door swings closed again and moments later the door to Sebastian's cubicle closes as well. The water runs in Sebastian's sink washing the blood away from his now half visible hands. DISSOLVE TO: INT. HABITAT'S CORRIDOR - NEXT MORNING Sarah sees the dead dog lying prone on its bedding. She eyes it curiously and opens the cage door. INT. RECOVERY CHAMBER - LATER Sarah stares at the empty chamber. SARAH You awake? SEBASTIAN'S VOICE I am now. The sheets raise and drape off of him. SARAH Notice anything unusual last night. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE No. Why? SARAH Franklin Three. He's dead. Sebastian pulls a sheet around him. He moves across the dimly lit room like a ghost. SEBASTIAN What of? SARAH His neck was broken and his windpipe collapsed. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE How'd that happen? SARAH I thought maybe you could tell me. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Sarah... You saying I had something to do with it? SARAH He was alive last night when I left and he was dead this morning. And you were the only one down here. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE I was in my room all night. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - DAY Sarah sits with Carter as they run through the security video tape. Matt and Linda look over their shoulder. CARTER That's all twelve hours. LINDA He never left the room. SARAH A windpipe doesn't just suddenly collapse. Someone or something killed it. MATT You saw the tape. The man was in his chamber. SARAH Then we have a problem, because I the cage was locked from the outside. That means it was opened, the dog was killed and the cage was closed and locked again. Only a human could do that. CARTER Well, it wasn't me. MATT And it wasn't him. LINDA Are we sure? INT. RECOVERY CHAMBER - NIGHT Linda passes Sebastian's chamber. Sebastian's in latex. SEBASTIAN Any big plans for tonight? LINDA Quiet night at home. Maybe a book. SEBASTIAN Really? Whatever happened to that guy your were seeing? LINDA He's still in the picture. Why? SEBASTIAN Being locked down here, I'm forced to live vicariously. Someday you'll have to tell me what he's like. LINDA Maybe someday I will. See you in the morning. SEBASTIAN Au domain. Sebastian watches Linda walk away. He glances at the camera and starts to peel off his face. INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT The elevator door opens. It's empty. SEBASTIAN'S POV - as we push past the guard and down onto the street. EXT. STREET - NIGHT Empty street. We hear whistling. Splashes of water splat out from shallow puddles,,as Sebastian walks through them. SEBASTIAN'S POV - A car approaches. As it drives by we see Matt and Linda inside, heading back to the warehouse. The footsteps stop. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Hmmm. We see the footsteps start to head back toward the warehouse. INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT Linda and Matt exit their car and cross toward the elevator. LINDA (to Marine Guard) Forgot something. INT. STREET IN FRONT OF WAREHOUSE - NIGHT As we watch the footsteps head back through the puddles toward the warehouse, we see Frank pass us in his car. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE What the hell? He breaks into a run. Feet splash water and he races back toward the warehouse. INT. ELEVATOR - NIGHT Empty. The elevator door opens and we push out into the hallway. Sebastian's POV INT. HALLWAY OF HABITATS - NIGHT We follow Sebastian down the hallway to his cubicle. But as he rounds the corner, he quickly ducks back. The entire research team is in his cubicle. Sebastian slowly approaches and watches as Frank takes down his video board. FRANK Pretty clever really. All it does is recycle the signal. He flips this switch, it takes a snapshot and that's all we see. LINDA Asshole. JANICE And you think he's violent? SARAH He killed a dog with his bare hands. FRANK Dogs aren't people. Are we in any danger? Linda doesn't know. LINDA Either way, we aren't equipped to handle this. We have to inform the committee. Everybody murmurs in agreement. JANICE What if he doesn't come back? LINDA They'll go after him. (beat) Who has tonight's shift? JANICE I do. LINDA Pretend nothing's wrong. Everyone just do what you're doing so he doesn't become suspicious. Okay? Matt and I'll go tell Doctor Kramer and we'll lot the committee deal with it. Sebastian's POV - He backs away and races down the hall. EXT. DR. KRAMER'S HOUSE - POTOMAC MD - NIGHT The stately stone house sits on a finely manicured lawn in one of the nicest neighborhoods in town. Linda's car is parked on the curb in front. We break from a typical establishing shot and as the CAMERA tracks closer to the house, we realize that we are SEBASTIAN'S POV We hear breathing and footsteps as we push through some bushes and head toward a bay window which looks into the Kramer living room. Through the glass we see LINDA and MATT seated across from DR. KRAMER. We can't hear what they're saying but it certainly looks serious. Kramer puffs on a pipe and strokes his beard, shaking his head. Kramer rises and shakes hands with Linda and Matt, and the three of them head toward the front door. We move away from the window and track toward the front door. As the door opens we begin to hear the tail end of the conversation. KRAMER I'll call General Caster right now and convene the oversight committee tomorrow. LINDA Thank you, sir. MATT What do we do in the meantime? KRAMER Just sit tight and wait for my call. Matt and Linda head down to her car. Kramer heads back inside. INT. KRAMER'S HOUSE - NIGHT Kramer heads back into the living room. His wife appears a the upstairs railing. MRS. KRAMER What was that about? KRAMER Just a little trouble at work. MRS. KRAMER You coming up? KRAMER In a minute. I have to make a few calls. Mrs. Kramer retreats back to her bedroom as Dr. Kramer crosses over to the telephone. He picks up the receiver and starts dialing. In the middle of dialing, the phone goes dead. He clicks the hookswitch up and down trying to get a dial tone. Nothing. He checks the connections on the phone and then follows the wiring to the wall. The line's plugged in. Weird. He hears a door creak open in the kitchen. KRAMER (cont'd) Hello? Hello? Kramer crosses to the darkened kitchen. The kitchen door leading to the backyard is open. Puzzled, he crosses to it. A wind stirs across the pool and backyard, swirling dead leaves in small twists of wind. The windchime rings lightly. Kramer steps out. EXT. POOL/PATIO, BACKYARD - NIGHT In the dim spillover light from house, Kramer crosses to the telephone- box against the back of the house. It Is open and several of the wires have been pulled. He looks around, spooked and puffs out a cloud of smoke from his pipe. For the briefest of instants, Sebastian's face is visible in the smoke. Kramer jumps back in surprise and the pipe drops from his mouth. He gives a small sharp cry, but deep indentations appear across his mouth and his cries are stifled. In the darkness, we can make out his form writhing as if possessed. The struggle continues a beat until Kramer manages to break free. KRAMER Help! HELP! MARTHA! HELP! As Kramer runs, he looks behind him. But no one's there. WHAM! Something slams into Kramer and he tumbles, rolling into the pool. But as he hits water there's not just one splash, but TWO. In the water next to him is human shaped AIR-POCKET. It's Sebastian displacing the water. And because of the water displacement, we can clearly see two arms pushing Kramer beneath the water's surface. MARTHA KRAMER opens the bedroom window and looks down at the pool. All she can see is her husband drowning... his flailing limbs kicking up a massive air bubble around him. She races from the window. Kramer kicks and flails for a few moments and then his limbs stop moving. A moment later he floats to surface, face down. The AIR POCKET bobs over to the pool ladder, and rising from the pool, we see Sebastian's body outlined in sheets of water. The shape melts away in a cascading waterfall until all we can see of Sebastian are the hundreds of tiny droplets still clinging to his body, caught in the light like twinkling bulbs on a Christmas tree. The shape disappears into the darkness. A moment later Martha emerges from the house and sees her husband floating face down in the pool. She screams. INT. RECOVERY CHAMBER - DAY Linda passes by Sebastian's chamber. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE What? No good morning for me? Don't you like me anymore? LINDA Oh, sorry. I...I'm in a hurry. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE That's okay. It's going to be busy day. INT. LINDA'S OFFICE - DAY Matt sits across from her, twirling a pen in his hand. They both stare at the phone. LINDA When did he say held call? MATT He's probably meeting with the committee trying to figure out what to do. LINDA I'm gonna call him. Linda picks up the phone and dials. LINDA (cont'd) Yes, Dr. Kramer please. Excuse me? (inhales sharply - surprised) When? I'm so sorry. Linda blanches as she hangs up the phone. MATT What? LINDA He's dead. Drowned in his pool last night. Linda picks up the phone again and dials. LINDA (cont'd) Yes, General Thompson please. Thank you. As she waits the phone line clicks dead. LINDA (cont'd) Hello? Hello? She clicks on the hookswitch. MATT Let me see that. He tries it too. Same result. MATT (cont'd) Intercom's working, but there doesn't seem to be an outside line. INT. CORRIDOR/ELEVATOR They waste no time getting to the elevator. Linda and Matt step in. LINDA I'll be right back with help. Linda taps in his floor code. ELEVATOR (V.0.) Authorization please. LINDA Foster One Delta Eight Three Five. ELEVATOR (V.0.) Authorization invalid. Request denied. LINDA That's a first. Linda taps the keypad again. ELEVATOR (V.0.) Authorization please. LINDA Foster One Delta Eight Three Five. ELEVATOR (V.0.) Authorization invalid. Request denied. MATT Let me try mine. Matt hits buttons on the keypad. ELEVATOR (V.0.) Authorization please. MATT Kensington Two Romeo One Five Nine. ELEVATOR (V.0.) Authorization invalid. Request denied. LINDA Tell me this isn't happening. INT. LABORATORY - DAY Frank, Sarah, Carter and Janice man various work stations in the lab. Linda and Matt enter. LINDA We've got a problem. INT. COMPUTER ROOM - NIGHT Frank's fingers fly over the keyboard. MATT How long before anybody starts looking for us? LINDA There's no set check in procedure. It could be weeks. A graphic of the elevator system pops up on the screen. Frank highlights the security terminal. Frank hits a few more keys. The screen reduces to a series of numbers. LINDA (cont'd) You think you can got in? Frank rewrites a few of the numbers. FRANK Already in. It was only a second level encryption. The Security System specifications pops up. JANICE Some security system. FRANK Oh the system is fine. It's just I'm just extraordinary. Frank types a few more keys, and his eyes widen. FRANK (cont'd) But apparently someone is more extraordinary than me. MATT What is it? FRANK There's nothing wrong with the system. Our codes have been removed. MATT Removed? By who? FRANK Here's a clue. Only one code remains. LINDA Whose? FRANK Dr. Sebastian Caine. INT. RECOVERY CHAMBER The team approaches Sebastian's chamber. Carter pulls on the pair of thermal goggles dangling from his neck up. THERMAL POV - The chamber is empty. CARTER He's not in there. Linda enters the chamber. She notes that Sebastian's face and makeup are on the sink vanity. Linda crosses to the phone and hits the "PAGE BUTTON" LINDA Okay, Sebastian. Fun's over. Tell us where you are. She waits. Then... SEBASTIAN'S VOICE I'm sorry. But I can't lot you turn me in. LINDA Sebastian... where are you? SEBASTIAN'S VOICE (INTERCOM) You have no idea what it's like. The power of it. The freedom. I can't let that go. LINDA C'mon Sebastian. You're scaring me. Tell me where you are and we can talk about it. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE (INTERCOM) There's nothing to talk about. See ... I've done things that can't be undone. A long beep as the intercom clicks off. LINDA Sebastian! Sebastian! (beat) I want search parties. Thermal goggles and tranquilizers. INT. CORRIDOR Linda and Matt, wearing thermal goggles and clutching tranquilizer pistols, walk down the hallway, scanning back and forth. INT. SEBASTIAN'S OFFICE Janice enters the office. JANICE Dr. Caine? Are you in here? Dr. Caine? Suddenly, Janice jerks back. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE I'm here. INT. HABITAT'S CORRIDOR Sarah scans all the habitats with a thermal scanner. Listening intently. INT. SEBASTIAN'S OFFICE Janice struggles with her unseen assailant, slamming into walls and knocking into filing cabinets. INT. LABORATORY Frank and Carter search the lab with their thermal scopes. FRANK Doctor Caine? INT. SEBASTIAN'S OFFICE Linda and Matt knock. LINDA Sebastian? No response. They push through the door. The room seems deserted. Signs of a struggle. File cabinets opened, drawers tossed. MATT This is bad. THERMAL POV - Linda surveys the room, spotting a slight heat signature peeking from the corner. LINDA There's something over there. Linda moves toward it. Whatever it is its hidden from Matt's POV by the supply cabinet. As Linda gets close she pulls of f her thermal goggles to see... JANICE - Her face blue, eyes bulging. An I.V. cord wrapped around his neck. Linda jumps back. LINDA (cont'd) Jesus. Oh my god. Matt rushes over. Sees the lifeless corpse. MATT What happened? Linda lowers the body to the floor. LINDA She was strangled. Multiple blows to her head. Linda begins a medical check of the rest of the body. Matt stoops down and examines Janice's face. LINDA (cont'd) We got a big problem here. A lamp tumbles from the desk and smashes to the floor. Both Linda and Matt jump. Linda frantically dons the thermal visor and scopes the room again. Nothing. Matt notices the lamp cord beneath Linda's leg. Points it out to her. She sighs with relief... she pulled the lamp off the table. LINDA (cont'd) Get everybody to the conference room. Now! Matt picks up the phone. Clicks the hookswitch. Clicks the hookswitch again. MATT Intercom... the phone lines. They're dead. LINDA Gimme that. She checks the phone, punches some numbers. Nothing. LINDA (cont'd) It was just working. MATT What the fuck is going on here? INT. CORRIDOR Matt and Linda head toward the lab. Linda suddenly stops. MATT What? LINDA Shhh. Linda takes a few cautious steps. Senses something. LINDA (cont'd) Give me the visor. Matt, suddenly concerned, hands her the visor. THERMAL POV - Linda checks out the corridor. Empty. Linda takes Matt's hand. LINDA (cont'd) C'mon. They move quickly up the corridor. See Frank, Sarah and Carter. FRANK Did you find him? LINDA Janice is dead. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM Linda scans the room with her thermal scope. LINDA It's clear. Matt, Frank, Janice and Sarah step in, locking the door behind them. SARAH The man has checked out of reality. FRANK What happened? I don't understand. CARTER Isn't it obvious? Right now, we're the only ones who knows he exists. If he gets rid of us, no one knows and he becomes the most powerful man on earth. FRANK But he's not a killer. They all look at Linda. LINDA He wasn't. He is now. MATT Can you fix the elevator? Restore our codes? FRANK It'd take hours to crack the encryptions. MATT Right now that sounds like good news. CARTER So what do we do until then. Sit around waiting for him to kill us off? Everyone looks around for some leadership. Finally. LINDA No. We find him, before he finds us. INT. CORRIDOR - DAY The group moves quickly, passing under an air vent. As they round the corner the vent slowly swings down and an air disturbance drops to the ground. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM As they enter... CARTER You sure this'll work. Linda sits down at a computer terminal, activates it. LINDA We designed it to help find the rats we kept dropping in year one. They were too small for thermal scans. A map of the compound appears on the screen. MATT Systems hot. Activating motion detectors. Matt toggles a switch. Linda stares at a map of the compound. Blips appear on the display... in the observation room... in the Habitat Area and in one of the corridors. LINDA I've got movement in Corridor Six. MATT That's him. INT. CORRIDOR - DAY A shadow edges down the tunnel. It settles for a moment, disappearing completely, then is back on the move. At the tunnel's edges, motion detectors light up as the thing passes by. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM Carter checks his Tranq pistol & Matt rummages through a locker. MATT Got 'em. Matt pulls out a pair of walkie-talkies. He tosses one to Linda. LINDA (into walkie) Check. Check. Her voice echoes from the other unit. LINDA (cont'd) Be careful. MATT Just watch our backs. Hey Carter, ready? CARTER Let's do it. Matt and Carter exit. Linda locks the door behind them. INT. TUNNEL Matt and Carter trot toward corridor six. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - DAY Linda huddles over the display, tracking the two. LINDA (into Walkie) Take a right at the next accessway. He's working his way back to the offices. We see Matt and Carter on one of the working video screens as they push down the tunnel. INT. CORRIDOR - DAY Matt and Carter move cautiously, listening for any sound. MATT (Walkie - sotto) If we split up, can we trap him on corridor eight? LINDA (V.0.) If he keeps heading in that direction. Matt nods to Carter. The pair splits, heading down separate accessways. MATT Going Thermal. Matt pulls the visor down over his eyes. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - DAY Linda watches the two separate and come around Sebastian in a pincer move. Suddenly, the blip that was Sebastian disappears. Linda grabs the walkie. LINDA I lost him. Matt, I lost him. INT. CORRIDOR - DAY Matt makes his way forward. MATT He probably just stopped moving. But Matt becomes more cautious with his footsteps. Slowly ... approaching a corner... He rounds the corner and sees a heat signature at the far end of the corridor. He levels his pistol, ready to fire. CARTER It's me. Matt pulls off his goggles. MATT Do you have anything? CARTER Nothing. MATT How did he get by us? CARTER He couldn't. MATT Sebastian! We're here to help. Sebastian. No response. They both don their visors and move forward slightly. Carter holds up his hand. CARTER There. Behind those pipes. He's not moving. Carter points. Matt checks his thermal. A red heat signature clings to the wall. CARTER (cont'd) Doctor Caine? (beat) Can you hear me? No response. MATT (into walkie) We see him. But he's not responding. The heat signature doesn't move. Matt looks through his visor and holds the tranquilizer gun at the ready. He looks for a clear shot. The heat signature huddles behind pipes. MATT C'mon... C'mon... The two slowly move closer. Matt finally has a clear shot. He signals Carter. Carter levels his pistol too. CARTER Covered. Matt fires the dart at the heat signature. It bounces off the wall ... Nothing there. MATT What the... He crosses to the heat signature. MATT (cont'd) Just a vent. Just a goddamn vent LINDA (V.0.) He was there. MATT Looks like... looks like we're pumping out heat... Suddenly behind him... CARTER JERKS THREE FEET in the air, kicking wildly. SUSPENDED IN MID-AIR BY HIS NECK. He gasps for air. LINDA (V.0.) I got movement again! He's right on top of you! MATT No fucking shit! Matt opens fire with the tranquilize, shooting at the ceiling until he spends his dart rounds. MATT (cont'd) Sebastian? Goddamnit! Let him go. CARTER (choking) H...Help... MMmmphg Carter suffocates. He passes out. With a sudden crack, he's thrown against the side wall. A large cut opens up across his head and his body goes limp. MATT (into walkie) Where is he? Where the fuck is he?!? INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - DAY Linda huddles over the display. LINDA Right on top of you. INT. CORRIDOR - DAY Matt scrambles away. Running. Pipes burst and swing down from the ceiling. Steam billows forth. Something moves through the cloud of steam. Around the corner, Matt shoves more darts into his tranquilizer. LINDA (V.0.) What's going on? Are you okay? MATT Carter's down. Hurt bad. Bleeding from a head wound. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - CONTINUOUS Linda watches the screen. Two blips, one traveling quickly. LINDA Matt, he's coming toward you. INT. CORRIDOR - DAY Matt takes a few steps back. MATT Shit. LINDA Got outta there. Matt breaks into a run. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM Linda watches one dot chasing the other, down several corridors. LINDA He's close! INT. TUNNEL Matt running, checking over his shoulder. Sounds of footsteps behind him, but up ahead the heavy metal blast doors begin to close. MATT Goddamnit. The doors are closing. He's shutting me in. Matt rushes the doors as they slide shut. He doesn't make it in time. The doors close with a resounding clang. Matt turns and pulls on his thermals. MATT (cont'd) Where is he? INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - CONTINUOUS Linda huddled over the screen. Tense. LINDA He's coming right at you! Then checks the Thermal goggles. Several heat signature dot the tunnel. MATT Where? LINDA Twenty, maybe thirty feet. MATT Goddamnit, I got thermals all over the place. Eight, maybe ten of them. Must be ghosts. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - CONTINUOUS Linda gets a sense of forboding. She looks around the room. Sees a heating vent in the corner. Beat. She grabs the walkie. LINDA Those signatures ... they're coming from the heating vents. Through the goggles, Matt sees the tunnel turning red. MATT I'm starting to lose resolution on my thermals. LINDA Get out of there! INT. OBSERVATION ROOM FRANK If the room temperature is the same as his body temperature, thermal visors'll be no good. Linda grabs a Tranq gun and heads for the door. LINDA I'm going! FRANK Linda...it's not safe. LINDA That's why I'm going. (to Frank and Sarah) Corridor eight is clear. Get Carter to the lab. We'll meet you there. FRANK But... LINDA Do it. INT. CORRIDOR Matt turns to face the corridor. It's turning red. Matt sees some movement in the thermal cloud. Opens fire. But the thermal signature disappears into the heat. Matt can't distinguish anything through his goggles anymore. He pulls them off and holds him gun in front of him sweeping the hallway. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Marco...Polo... Marco... Polo... His voice keeps shifting. Matt fires. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE (cont'd) Not even close. Matt sweeps his front leg back and forth, like a blind man using a cane. But his foot isn't hitting anything. He sees a FIRE EXTINGUISHER mounted on the wall. He rushes it, turns it on the hallway and sprays. And SOMETHING LUNGES through the foam. GRABS HIM, sending him tumbling down the tunnel. Matt is thrown against the wall. Blood coming from his brow. He scrambles away, spraying more foam. Sees a shape in the mist, raises his pistol and FIRES. The shape leaps away. The DART FLIES. Doesn't hit. Matt scrambles back into a corner. His pistol is empty. SEBASTIAN So... just out of curiosity, how long has my best friend been fucking my ex- girlfriend. MATT Sebastian. Get a hold of yourself. You aren't thinking rationally. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE She's a pretty sweet fuck, isn't she? MATT Calm down, Sebastian... we can talk this through. It's not too late. The Shape parts the low hanging mist, the fine powder swirling in clouds behind it. Coming toward him. MATT (CONT'D) C'mon Sebastian. Don't do this. I'm your friend. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE I'm sorry, but I just feel that our friendship is holding me back. I'm sure you understand. THE DOOR OPENS. Linda reaches through, grabs Matt. She pulls him to his feet and through the door. INT. TUNNEL Frank and Sarah, holding their Tranq pistols, fly down the corridor. SARAH This way. They shear off the main corridor into the side corridor. Carter lies crumpled up ahead. Sarah slides to his side. Carter's head rests in a pool of blood. She checks his pulse while Frank takes a protective position. SARAH (cont'd) Pulse is weak. Breathing... shallow. FRANK He'll be okay. SARAH It's pretty severe. We have to get him to the lab. FRANK He's got to be okay. Frank stands frozen. SARAH For godsakes, help me. Frank snaps to. Grabs an arm. The pair hoist Carter up and carry him down the hallway. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM Linda pulls a handle and doors slide shut behind them. MATT He was going to kill me. Linda pulls him close. LINDA I know. He's gone. MATT We've got to got out of here. Linda checks the screen -- see Sarah, Frank and Carter headed toward the Laboratory. MATT (cont'd) Where is he? Goddamnit, where is he? Isolated in the Hallway of Habitats is a single blip. LINDA Habitats. MATT Oh god. That's right between us and the lab. INT. LABORATORY Frank and Sarah lift Carter onto a medical table. SARAH His pulse is faint. Sarah grabs a sheet from the counter top. Folds it and presses it against the head wound. SARAH (cont'd) He's lost a lot of blood. Here. Hold this. She guides Frank's hands to the wound. SARAH (cont'd) Keep applying pressure. Sarah pulls out a saline solution I.V. bag and slap it on the rack. She fumbles with the needle as she tries to find a vein. SARAH (cont'd) Don't move your hand until I got back. Sarah heads to the door. FRANK Where are you going? SARAH This'll hold him but he needs blood. FRANK But... SARAH Supply is right down the hall. I'll be two seconds. FRANK Sarah, wait for the others SARAH If I wait, he'll die. Keep pressure on the wound. INT. CORRIDOR Sarah exits the lab. Checks the corridor. Down at the end of the cramped tunnel is the supply room. She swallows her fear and heads toward it, all the while glancing side-to-side and behind her. INT. SUPPLY ROOM Spooked, Sarah bursts into the room. She goes to the supply fridge/freezer, pulls open the door, and sorts through blood bags. INT. TUNNEL Matt and Linda push along the corridor; Matt spraying with the fire extinguisher in short controlled bursts, Linda clutching her tranquilizer like a commando. A noise behind them. Footsteps. Matt turns to blast with the extinguisher. The white chemical dust sprays out, outlining a shape in the tunnel. But it isn't a human shape. Matt's uniform shreds. Something with fierce sharp claws fells him. Tearing into his flesh. We see a angry, hungry face... jabbing for a moment through the lingering fog. MATT Ahh! Shit! Linda tries to get a clear shot off through the smoke. Matt trips and goes sprawling. Something yelps. A howl. Linda shoots. Her dart jabs into something which collapses to the ground. A moment of calm. As the dusty chemical foam settles, the outline of a great ape appears, still twitching. MATT (cont'd) Karl Three. Nice shot. LINDA He's let the animals out. It wasn't him we were tracking. Linda leans against the wall, still clutching her tranq gun at the ready. The heat is getting to bar. Bar scrubs are soaked, her hair's a mess. She wipes the sweat from her brow. LINDA (cont'd) You okay? MATT It won't kill me unless it gets infected. You? LINDA Me .... Don't ask about me. If he freed all the animals, we could have dozens running around the lab. MATT So he could be anywhere right now. Matt sprays the whole tunnel, putting down a gentle cloud mist. Nothing else appears. MATT (cont'd) What do we do? LINDA Get to the lab, lock the goddamn doors and pray to God Frank can reprogram the elevator. INT. SUPPLY ROOM Sarah finishes collecting blood bags and shuts the door to the fridge/freezer. The DOOR SLAMS behind her. She freezes and slowly turns. SARAH Frank? She eyes the supply room, looking for a sign of movement. SARAH (cont'd) (frightened whisper) Who's there? She listens. Is that breathing she hears? Now she's starting to panic. SARAH (cont'd) Dr. Caine? She starts to back away, but she's already in the corner. She clutches her tranquilizer gun, but there's nothing to aim at. The vials of blood on the shelf gives her an idea. She reaches over, grabs a vial and throws it on the floor. GLASS SHATTERS and BLOOD SMEARS across the linoleum. Sarah tosses another vial and another. Becoming more and more hysterical. Splattering more and more blood. But she runs out of vials. Shaking with fear, she searches the blood looking for a footprint, or movement. But there's nothing there. Sarah waits a beat, clutching the tranquilizer gun. Takes a step. Waits a beat longer. Finally she relaxes. It was just her imagination. She heads toward the door when she hears a terrifying whisper in her ear. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE You missed. Her hair flies up, and she swings against the wall. She tries to move, but she's pinned there. Her hands struggling against the force. SARAH Please no. Let me go. Oh god, let me go. The arm holding the tranquilizer gun begins to move. SARAH (cont'd) What are you doing? No! Sarah fights, but her arm moves nonetheless SARAH (cont'd) Help me! Oh God. Somebody help me! FRANK! Slowly, deliberately, her own arm moves down the wall and around, until the tranquilizer gun points right at her stomach. Sarah watches in horror as her own body betrays her. SARAH (cont'd) No... please. Don't do this to me. She struggles, shaking back and forth. Writhing. In anguish and in fear. SARAH (cont'd) What do you want? SEBASTIAN You. The trigger pulls .... Pop! A dart explodes from the gun and imbeds in Sarah's stomach. She whimpers as her eyes glass over. Suddenly she's released. She stumbles backward and falls lifeless to the floor. A moment of stillness, all we can hear is the sound of someone breathing. On Sarah's face... a slight-indentation runs down her cheek.. Almost sweet... almost tender. And slight indentation runs across her breast and strokes down her body. The sense of violation and vulnerability is awful. Sebastian sighs. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE I've always liked your feistiness. Sarah's head shifts slightly. Her head shifts violently, accompanied by the celery crunch of her neck snapping. Sebastian exhales, his breath filled with the intoxication of power. INT. LABORATORY - DAY Frank applies pressure to the wound, waiting for Sarah to return. Carter's vital signs are weakening..,. FRANK Sarah! Sarah! (to Carter) Goddamnit. Stay with me now. Don't you let up... Sarah! Sarah! No response. Frank doesn't know whether to stay or go after her. He starts toward the door several times but can't leave Carter. Finally the door opens. FRANK (cont'd) Sarah! I'm losing him. But it's Linda and Matt. FRANK (cont'd) Did you see her? Linda rushes over to check on Carter. LINDA Where is she? FRANK She went to the supply room. Carter needed blood. Linda grabs a stethoscope and listens to Carter's heart. LINDA I said no one goes anywhere alone. FRANK She didn't listen. She-slowly pulls Frank's hand away from the wound. FRANK (cont'd) But... LINDA He's dead. Linda would love to cry about it, but doesn't afford herself the luxury. INT. CORRIDOR The three of them approach the supply room door slowly. Blood trickles from under the door and bloody footprints extend down the hallway. They swing open the door. The floor is covered in blood and broken glass. But no body. INT. CORRIDOR Sarah, broken, is dragged toward the chair, eerily jerking down the hallway... seemingly on its own. INT. CORRIDOR The three scientists follow the bloody footprints down the hallway past the empty cages in the tunnel of habitats. All clutch their tranquilizer pistols. The footprints lead past the habitats to Sebastian's chamber. They see Sarah's body in the dim light. LINDA Oh god. Sarah! The group breaks into a run. Linda pushes into the chamber and falls at Sarah's side. Matt cradles Sarah's head. They look for some sign of life as Linda fights back the tears. LINDA (cont'd) No... FRANK Her too? Matt nods. Linda slams the cubicle wall with her fist. LINDA This didn't happen. This hasn't happened. MATT It happened alright. Now we have to deal with it. Matt puts his hands on her shoulder to calm her. She pushes him off. FRANK Yeah? And just what are we supposed to do now? SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Now? Now you die. The three of them whip around. LINDA He's here! MATT Where? LINDA Sebastian! Silence. The three cautiously move out. They stand back to back, each one facing out. They move toward the door of the Chamber. LINDA (cont'd) Sebastian. Sebastian, listen to me. No response. They all their tranq pistols level waiting for some sign. Hearing each other breathe. They slowly move outside the Chamber into the corridor. LINDA (CONT1D) I don't know if you can understand this, but what you're experiencing is a psychological breakdown. This isn't who you are. A beat. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE I would say that what I am experiencing is psychological awareness. I like you being in complete and absolute control. They identify the general area the voice is coming from: Back inside the Chamber! They slowly move toward the Chamber door. With lightning speed they slam the door shut, locking Sebastian inside the Recovery Chamber. LINDA You goddamn bastard! You goddamn bastard. You're gonna pay for this. I'm going to bring you back to visibility and then I'm going throw your ass in jail. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE You're never gonna bring me back Linda. I never want to come back. LINDA Fuck you! SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Or maybe I'll fuck you. One last time for old times sake. Linda slams her fist against the wall of the Chamber. MATT Don't listen to him. It's not worth it. FRANK Come on, Matt. Let's go get the elevator back on-line so we can got out of this hell hole. Matt gives Linda a kiss... MATT He does anything, anything at all, come get us. I'll be back to check on you in five. Matt and Frank head off down the corridor. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Imagine you two, carrying on right under my nose. Out of curiosity, what did he give you that I couldn't? LINDA Shut up, Sebastian. He's more of a man than you'll ever be. INT. OBSERVATION ROOM - CONTINUOUS A VIDEO SCREEN shows Linda pacing outside the Chamber door. The chair moves forward toward a microphone. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Okay, sweetie. I'll be quiet. If that's what you want... Sebastian TOGGLES the intercom switch OFF. We pan over to one of the working video screens ... Matt and Frank stride down the hallway. The chair swivels and the observation room door swings open slightly. INT. CHAMBER Linda still holds his tranq gun toward the door. Nothing moves. Nothing. Linda walks over to the Plexiglas ... stares in. Can't see anything, anyone. Just the dead Sarah. Then she sees it. The little red light on the intercom. Its on. LINDA Sebastian? Sebastian? No.. No... Linda bangs on the glass. She looks. No movement, no nothing. She listens. Shit. She takes off running. LINDA (cont'd) Matt! Frank! Tracking with Linda as she rushes down the hall. LINDA (cont'd) Matt! Matt! Frank! INT. LABORATORY - DAY Linda breaks in the room to see Frank slicked in blood, his throat cut, and Matt bleeding from multiple stab wounds with an extension cord around his neck being pulled tight. LINDA Jesus! Linda rushes over and slams into Matt. They fall to the ground. Linda crawls over to Matt, but her head snaps back and her lips erupt with blood. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE Figured it out? You were always so clever. Matt's pulled back across the lab by the cord around his neck. He grabs at the cord trying to breathe. Linda watches him being pulled away. LINDA No! She clamors over to him. But Matt rises in the air and is tossed against the lab table. Linda levels her dart pistol and fires haphazardly at the air. She hits nothing but objects jerk and move in a line as Sebastian heads for cover. Linda manages to grab Matt and pull him to her. LINDA (cont'd) Hang on! MATT Get out of here! Linda pulls Matt toward the door. LINDA (yelling) You won't get away with this. They'll find out about you. They'll hunt you down. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE The villagers with their torches? Lock up your daughters! Sorry, Lin. It's not gonna happen that way. Linda hits the lights. The lab is now very, very dark. SEBASTIAN'S VOICE (cont'd) See, I've spent all my time down here thinking up this plan. When they find you, they'll find a pile of charred corpses. The result of a terrible accident, I'm afraid. Linda reacts to the voice as it grows nearer. She navigates the maze of equipment, heading toward the crack of light at the front door. LINDA How can you be so brutal? SEBASTIAN'S VOICE I guess because I don't have to look at myself in the mirror anymore (beat) Remember that first night I was out? I did something bad, just to see if I could get away with it. And when I did, I realized I could have it all. I can kill in broad daylight. And nobody's gonna tell the police they were fucked by a ghost. Anything I desire I can make happen, but not if people know. Linda and Matt have reached the door of the lab. She pushes through it and slams it behind her. INT. CORRIDOR - DAY Linda pulls Matt along. MATT I'm dizzy. I can't feel my legs. LINDA Just keep going. I'll fix you later. INT. CORRIDOR, LAB DOORS - DAY The doors explode open. INT. SUPPLY ROOM - DAY Linda looks up and down the hall and pulls Matt inside the supply room. It's still blood soaked from earlier. Linda closes the door, sliding the deadbolt into place. Linda lots him drop like a heap onto the floor. She falls to her knees beside Matt, lying on the ground. LINDA Matt... Matthew. Stay with me now. Linda pulls his scrubs open. The wounds are many and deep. MATT He surprised us. We weren't expecting... LINDA Shhh. Don't talk. BAM! Something slams against the door. Bam! Slams against it again. The old deadbolt is buckling. Linda looks around the room and sees the storage freezer. LINDA (cont'd) We gotta move. Hang on. Linda helps Matt up and into the storage freezer. INT. STORAGE FREEZER Linda grabs a metal bar and slides it between two hooks on the door and the jam. BAM! The storage room door blows open. Linda leans down next to Matt. MATT Lin... He entire shirt is stained with blood. He's having trouble breathing. MATT (cont'd) I can't feel anything. Linda picks up his hand. Grips it tight. LINDA You feel that? Matt smiles. MATT A little... She rips his shirt open... and sees his wounds. She grabs a vial of alcohol and dumps it on her hands and then probes the wound. LINDA Your losing blood, but he didn't hit the vitals. She looks around. LINDA (cont'd) Sutures and thread. She rises, and looks outside the porthole into the room. Suddenly it fogs up and she almost sees a face. She stumbles backward, and the door starts rattling. Linda scrambles over to hold the metal crowbar in place. Sebastian pulls and rattles on the freezer door. To no avail. It's not gonna budge. Finally he gives up. The door stops shaking. Linda is relieved, briefly. Still. Then she hears the click of the door locking. OUTSIDE THE FREEZER CLOSE ON THE REGULATOR as the dial turns from forty-five degrees, down to negative twenty. INSIDE THE FREEZER Through the porthole, Linda sees the bloody footprints heading toward the door. She removes the metal bar and pushes on the door. It won't move. LINDA Goddamnit. Linda looks around the storage room. She grabs a roll of duct tape and pulls off a length. MATT What're you doing? LINDA This is temporary. She takes paper towel and cleans off Matt's wound. She tapes it, using duct tape. LINDA (cont'd) You still with me? MATT Barely. A beat later, the compressor begins pumping Arctic air into the freezer. LINDA Just keeps getting worse. Linda returns to the door. Shakes it. INT. CHAMBER - DAY We hear WHISTLING as we see a sheet of flesh fill out into a head as Sebastian slides on his latex head piece. INT. STORAGE FREEZER Linda continues shaking the door. The lock holds. A tear rolls down Linda's cheek, but a strange thing happens. The tear drops freeze. Linda shivers as she pulls the icy tears from her face. LINDA Oh shit. The inside thermometer has dropped to five degrees. Linda grabs the metal bar and starts smashing it against the porthole. The metal bar just bounces off the glass. INT. SEBASTIAN'S OFFICE A drawer opens, revealing a set of clothing neatly folded. Shirt, pants, shoes. They begin to move. INT. STORAGE FREEZER Linda drops the metal bar and slides down the wall, defeated. MATT There's no way out. LINDA There's got to be. MATT They say freezing to death isn't so bad. You just kinda pass out. Matt's head rolls back. LINDA Matt! MATT! She checks his pulse. Thank god he still has one, but he's not gonna last long. They're both already starting to turn a little blue. Linda stares desperately up at the shelves, trying to find some sort of advantage. Then she sees something. She looks back at the door lock and then she rises ... and grabs AN EXTENSION CORD coiled on the shelf. LINDA (cont'd) We're not dying in here. INT. BATHROOM - DAY Sebastian, dressed in street clothes, stands before the mirror applying make-up to his latex mask. INT. STORAGE FREEZER Linda finishes stripping the insulation off the electric cord. She grabs a hypodermic needle package, and her cold fingers fumbles with the package as she tries to pull out the plastic tube. She finally gets it out and she starts wrapping the stripped electric wire around the tube in a tight coil. INT. BATHROOM - DAY Sebastian slides on a wig and checks his appearance in the mirror. Pretty smooth. Even from relatively close up, he could pass as normal. INT. STORAGE FREEZER Linda furiously winds wire into a coil. INT. CORRIDOR Sebastian heads down the corridor. Lingering steam twists in and around the hallway, long wispy tendrils. Sebastian pauses for a moment, hearing A GROWL. Suddenly the hallway seems a lot scarier. From beneath his scrubs he pulls his own tranq gun. He listens ... hearing scraping and footsteps. Watching the water on the floor twitch. With machine like precision, he turns and fires. The tranq dart halts in mid-air and some invisible thing tumbles over. Sebastian continues down the hallway. INT. STORAGE FREEZER Linda holds the plug end of the extension cord. The other end is wrapped into a tight long coil. Linda looks for an outlet, but can't find one. She looks at the overhead lights. A moment later she's climbing up the shelving. She wrap* a piece of fabric around her hand, and with a sharp punch she smashes one of the overhead light bulbs. INT. LABORATORY Sebastian enters, fully dressed. At a distance it'd be hard to tell his secret. He pulls several chemicals off the shelves. Then he pulls a tray of test tubes over and begins mixing. INT. STORAGE FREEZER Linda works on jerry rigging the two ends of the wire to the lightbulb, socket. Suddenly the coiled wire springs to life and flies against the nearest metal surface. She's made an electromagnet. INT. LABORATORY Sebastian loads the filled test tubes into the centrifuge. Dozens of other vials are already slotted. He takes one of the left over vials, considers it a moment and then flings it over to the other side of the lab. The vial shatters and... EXPLODES. A powerful explosion that rocks the room. INT. STORAGE FREEZER Linda feels the rumbling as she places the coil up against the door. The magnet attaches itself. Linda shakes the coil, trying to get the doorlock to move. OUTSIDE THE DOOR - We see the lock twitching. Shaking... INSIDE THE DOOR - Linda shivers as she plays with the coil. Her eyes glaze and she stumbles backward. Her surgical scrubs, once soaked with sweat, are now frozen stiff. She composes herself and pushes back toward the door. Her heavy breath hangs as a low cloud of Mist. INT. LABORATORY - DAY Sebastian looks over the dozens of other test tubes, calculating their combined power in his mind. Then he closes the top of the centrifuge. He taps a few commands into its timer. INT. SUPPLY ROOM The door lock twitches again and twists back. The door swings opens and Linda stumbles out, mashing into a supply shelf of oxygen canisters. The canisters tumble every which way as Linda tumbles to the ground. She scrambles to her feet and goes in after Matt, pulling his cold body out of the storage locker. She pulls stacks of paper down from, the shelves into a trashcan, grabs an industrial lighter and ignites the paper. She pushes Matt close to the small bonfire. As she does, the oxygen tanks catch her eye. INT. CORRIDOR Sebastian exits the lab, locking the door behind him. He heads down the darkened tunnel. Something scampers in front of him. Small, not visible. Sebastian sends it reeling with a swift violent kick. INT. CORRIDOR, BY THE ELEVATOR - DAY Sebastian, dressed and in full latex, comes striding up the tunnel. He taps a code into the elevator vault doors. The vault doors open revealing the elevator. The doors slide open and Sebastian steps inside. ELEVATOR Authorization please? SEBASTIAN Caine. One One One One One. ELEVATOR Authorization valid. Thank you. LINDA Sebastian! And there's Linda. Slicked with dirt and blood. She holds a oxygen container with a cut line. LINDA (cont'd) I can't let you leave. Come on out and I'll give you one last chance. SEBASTIAN You said it yourself, Lin. I shouldn't hold on to the past. The door starts to shut. LINDA Aaaaaaahhhh! She hits the top of a LIGHTER duct-taped to the hose. A line of PRESSURIZED FIRE BLOWS into the elevator. WWHHHOOOOSSHHHH! Sebastian goes up in flame. Linda runs toward the elevator. Just as the door's about to close, she slides. Her foot jamming into it. She lets loose with the flame again. Sebastian, backed into the corner, has no where to go. He's yelling in pain. His latex FACE BUBBLES and burns. The surgical scrubs SINGE BLACK. With no other escape route, he dives toward the door. Linda looks up to see his flaming body fly over her, back into the corridor. Linda kills the tank as Sebastian continues to burn. The elevator lights flickers and the security panel goes up in a shower of sparks. The elevator dies. Linda pulls herself to her feet and turns to see... Half of Sebastian's head MELTED AWAY, his latex facade a gruesome smoke-damaged mass. His clothes are half burned revealing large blistering bubbly welts underneath, like deformed blackened bubble wrap. Sebastian crawls to his feet, but Linda hits him with another shot of flame. Sebastian pulls at his clothes as he crawls around the corner. SEBASTIAN Oh God! Linda stalks toward him. LINDA You wanna see God? I'll show you God. Linda turns the corner to see a heap of smoldering latex and clothing strewn about the corridor floor. Sebastian, looking like some ugly creature, pushes down the corridor. He throbs with his blackened skin blistering and cracking up and down his body. Linda lets loose another jet of flame. It's smaller than the first and doesn't quite hit Sebastian. Linda checks the tanks pressure gauge. It slowly drops. Linda follows the blackened horror into the maze of tunnels. But as he pushes along the corridor, his burns slowly re- absorb themselves. Sebastian is no longer visible. A quiet moment in the hallway as Linda realizes how vulnerable she is. She looks around for him desperately. Nothing. But something on the ceiling catches her attention. She blasts it with the last jet of her dying torch. THE SPRINKLER SYSTEM, hit by fire, comes to life. Water sprays down on the tunnel. Sebastian is caught in the downpour, his invisible frame outlined by water. It comes toward her, the hot skin steaming in the water. He grabs Linda and slams her against the wall. His watery hand smashes her across her face. Linda reels. On the floor, she looks to see Sebastian stalking toward her. She crawls away, but he grabs her by her hair, pulls her to her feet and slams her against the wall. SEBASTIAN I'm gonna find everyone in your family and kill them-. Your sister... she never liked me. I think I'll go after her and her little boy first. Sebastian smashes her head against a metal post. Her head cuts open, blood dripping down. SEBASTIAN (cont'd) I just wanted you to know that before you die. Linda collapses to the floor. Sebastian's foot presses against her neck, squeezing it. Linda gags for breath. But through the shoot of water that is Sebastian, we see something also... a watery smudge. BAM! MATT - smashes Sebastian with the metal bar. Sebastian slams against the corridor wall and sinks down. Matt staggers. It's taken all his strength to got there. He drops the crowbar and seeks the wall for support, he sinks to his knees by Linda. MATT Thought I'd... thought I'd save you for a change. He gives her his hand and pulls her up into his arms. MATT (cont'd) Let's got out of here. Just as the two turn, Sebastian rises with the crowbar. He swings it with a yell. Matt pushes Linda out of the way, his arm glancing the blow into a conduit. The conduit splits open and severs ELECTRICAL wiring. The VOLTAGE shoots up the crowbar and into Sebastian. As the current pulses through his body, Sebastian vibrates. His blood vessels yank back to visibility, followed by his skeletal structure and major organs. Sebastian is slowly electrified. Smoke pours off him and he becomes more and more visible. Finally he collapses. His body throbbing in and out of visibility. Matt and Linda stumble away. INT. CORRIDOR - DAY Just outside the lab... Linda tries to pry open the sealed doors with the crowbar. But she can't. Through the doors porthole she sees a collection of chemicals and the fire raging from the earlier explosion. LINDA Nitro... Matt peaks inside. MATT He said it himself... All they'll find is a pile of charred corpses. She sees the centrifuge... The timed counter on its face counts down from a minute. Fifty nine. Fifty eight. Fifty seven... LINDA He's rigged the centrifuge. MATT In an enclosed space, he'll wipe out the whole lab. INT. TUNNEL Linda and Matt move as fast as they can. They reach the burned out elevator. What the hell are they gonna do? We know the damn thing doesn't work. She swings her crowbar at the ceiling. The maintenance hatch comes down. LINDA Grab on. Linda hooks the crowbar onto the hatch lip and pulls herself up. She reaches back down for Matt. MATT Forget about me. You go. LINDA Fuck you. Give me your hands. Linda grabs Matt's hands and pulls for all she's worth. She struggles, but they both manage to got him through the hatch. INT. LABORATORY - DAY Three... two... one. The centrifuge springs to life. The centrifuge spins the two dozen vials slowly at first. INT. VENT Linda and Matt are on top of the elevator. Linda's hands search the wall. Bar fingers run across the smooth metal surface. From the little light below she can see a maintenance ladder that spans the entire height of the vertical tube. They look up and see it disappear into the darkness. LINDA Climb! MATT But... LINDA Climb! Matt starts up, rung after rung. Linda climbs right behind him. INT. LABORATORY The centrifuge spins faster and faster. The vials are starting to rattle. INT. ELEVATOR SHAFT Linda and Matt pull themselves up the ladder as quick as they can. MATT I can't. I'm going to pass out. LINDA Keep moving. He does, through sheer force of will. Blood from his wound drips down on Linda's face. No telling how much further they have to go in this darkness. Light leaks in from the maintenance hatch below. INT. LABORATORY The centrifuge's whine has reached a fevered pitch. The vials shake violently. Then... one of the vials shatters. A FLASH OF LIGHT. A HUGE EXPLOSION rips through the laboratory. INT. TUNNEL The EXPLOSION rips through the lab doors. A MASSIVE FIREBALL rolls down the tunnel swallowing everything in its path. One of the phase shifted animals gets caught in the flames. We see its shape briefly before it disappears In a wall of fire. INT. ELEVATOR SHAFT The ladder begins to shake. The entire shaft begins to rumble. Linda pushes Matt up as they scramble toward safety. INT. EXHAUST VENT The FIREBALL blows into the vent. Starts rolling down it also. INT. TUNNELS More explosions. CHAIN REACTIONS. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! THE EXPLOSIONS rolls toward the OPEN ELEVATOR. Slamming into it... The elevator flies upward. INT. ELEVATOR SHAFT The rumbling worsens. The two desperately cling to the ladder. They looks down to see... The elevator... SURROUNDED BY FLAMES flying up toward them, lifted by the explosion's SHOCK WAVES. LINDA Oh God! MATT Don't look. The carriage accelerates toward them, faster and faster. Its loose cables whip around the shaft, slapping the walls around the pair. Its gonna hit them! Linda pulls herself close to the ladder and closes her eyes. She's pressed against Matt. The elevator... 50 feet... 40 ... 30 ... W0000000SH! It flames RIGHT BY THEM. When Linda opens her eyes, the elevator is HUNDREDS OF FEET ABOVE THEM and a wall of fire is below them, closing in. LINDA Move! Panicked, Linda pushes Matt up the ladder as she stares down at the rising fire wall. But the fire dissipates before it hits them, though a stray tongue of flames reaches up to lick the soles of her feet. They hear a terrifying moan and looks up to see the elevator peaking far above her. It slows to a stop and BEGINS TO FALL. MATT It's coming down! FASTER AND FASTER. Coming back toward them in complete free- fall. It's emergency brakes clamp down, slowing it. Metal against metal. Sparks flying. One of the brakes shears. Then another. The elevator unseats from it's tracks, SLAMMING against the walls as it TUMBLES. Linda sees that the elevator is out of control, and watches as it ping-pongs toward them... smashing into the access ladder, smashing into the wall. The elevator slows, but continues slamming side-to-side. Linda cringes as the elevator crashes into the wall above them. But it jams there, stopping. They pull their heads away from wall and look up. The elevator just hangs there, suspended. There's a small crawlspace between the elevator and the ladder. LINDA C'mon. Before it slips. They begins to climb up again. Matt shimmies through the tight hollow, and squeezes out the other side, followed by Linda. She breathes a sigh of relief and just hangs there a moment when ... Ah! Something grabs her. A singed throbbing hand emerges from the darkness, gripping at her leg. LINDA (cont'd) It's him. She kicks at it and sees a dark dirty face - a swirl of dirt, grime and smoke with hollow eyes - rise up the ladder. MATT Sebastian, you fuck. LINDA Get off me. Sebastian pulls himself up Linda's body. Translucent dirty hands paving at the fabric of her clothes. Linda tries to climb with this thing on her. But Sebastian grabs her around the neck. She begins choking for breath. Linda fights to keep her grip on the ladder... She looks down at the ten foot drop to the elevator and then... She lets go! MATT No! She and Sebastian plummet through the smoky haze and slam against the top of the elevator. Linda seems to hover a few above the elevator, Sebastian's shadowy outline below her. Matt painfully lowers himself down the ladder. But metal groans and the elevator drops another five feet. Linda struggles to her feet. Sebastian rises. A menacing dark figure stalking toward her. Linda pushes back from him. Sebastian grabs her by the hair and pulls bar over to the ladder. The elevator strains and groans. LINDA Let go of me. Sebastian presses her up against the ladder. Presses into her from behind. He has her trapped. His dirty hand reaches out and strokes her hair. SEBASTIAN Remember the day we met? You were wearing a red dress and you were so pretty. Now... Now look at you. MATT Get off of her! Sebastian pulls her hair back and kisses her neck with his filthy, dirt-smeared mouth and half-burned away face. MATT (cont'd) Sebastian, stop it. Linda and Sebastian struggle. Matt reaches down to try and grab her, help her. SEBASTIAN You fucked it all up. Linda looks at her feet. The last elevator emergency brake grips its cable. She grits her tooth and grabs hold of the ladder. LINDA Go to hell. Linda stamps on the brake release. The ELEVATOR TUMBLES ... along with Sebastian. It slams into the fiery abyss a hundred yards below. Linda hangs, one hand holding onto the ladder, the other holding onto Matt. Matt pulls her back onto the ladder, using all his remaining strength. EXT. WAREHOUSE - DAY Linda and Matt stumble out into the blazing sunshine. Emergency crews close from all directions, sirens roaring. A trail of smoke drifts higher and higher into the sky. An ambulance pulls up next to them and the paramedics hop out, immediately putting a blanket around her and treating Matt's wounds. MARINE GUARD What happened? LINDA We lived. Linda looks over her shoulder at the traces of the ruin and she sees a shimmer of heat rising from the ground... almost as if something was there. FADE OUT: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Honeydripper.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Honeydripper.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..046efbf76b16843258f115710517a614e31e9890 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Honeydripper.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + HONEYDRIPPER Written by John Sayles 6/18/2006 We hear a strange, single, BENT NOTE.1 EXT. SHARECROPPER SHACK - ECU FINGERS - LATE AFTERNOON 1 We follow a small boy's FINGERS on a strange contraption- WIDER SCRATCH, 10 years old, has a `DIDDLEY BOW', a piece of baling wire nailed to the side of the unpainted shack so it is stretched taut. He moves an old corn cob under it as a fret and makes TWANGY, pitch-shifting NOTES as he plucks the wire. His friend LONNIE stands moving his fingers over a BOARD he has laid on the side of the porch floor. A few scrawny CHICKENS run around in the yard behind them- LONNIE Leave off with that, Scratch. SCRATCH Aint bothering you. LONNIE Yes it is. That aint no kind of music. We see that the board has PIANO KEYS drawn across it and that Lonnie is pretending to play a song on it- SCRATCH Least I make a sound. LONNIE Yeah and it's a nasty one. Lonnie looks at the sky- SCRATCH You want to try again tonight? Lonnie sits on the edge of the porch, gauging the time from the setting sun- LONNIE Might as well.2 EXT. 1ST COTTON FIELD - LATE AFTERNOON 2 SLIDE GUITAR plays. A tuft of RAW COTTON bobs on the stem and we begin to scroll OPENING CREDITS- 2. We TILT and RACK to look over a FIELD OF COTTON, the bolls plumped out and ready for picking, blowing in the breeze. A HARVEST HAND steps into the shot, looks toward the setting sun, wipes his face with a bandanna then stoops to pick the row in front of him. We PULL BACK to see other PICKERS, men and women in denim coveralls, old gingham dresses and hard work shoes, wearing straw hats against the sun and trailing LONG WHITE SACKS between their legs and behind them. The boys walk down between them in the opposite direction-3 EXT. COUNTRYSIDE - PINEY WOODS - LATE AFTERNOON 3 MUSIC CONTINUES. We see the boys walking on a PATH through the PINES-4 EXT. COUNTRYSIDE, RAILROAD TRACKS - AERIAL SHOT - LATE 4 AFTERNOON MUSIC CONTINUES. We float over RAILROAD TRACKS cutting through flat, piney woods, catching up the boys, who walk on the ties-5 EXT. ARMY BARRACKS - EARLY EVENING 5 MUSIC CONTINUES. The boys stroll past white buildings of an ARMY BARRACKS. SOLDIERS, black and white, DRILL on the grounds-6 EXT. RAILROAD BRIDGE, RIVER - EARLY EVENING 6 The river rolls past us in the FG as the boys cross a RAILROAD BRIDGE. We SUPERIMPOSE- ALABAMA - 1950 OPENING CREDITS END7 EXT. HONEYDRIPPER LOUNGE - NIGHT 7 We hear PIANO MUSIC as we CRANE DOWN toward the HONEYDRIPPER LOUNGE, a ramshackle wooden roadhouse at a rural crossroads. 3. BLUE-colored light bulbs (a few broken) FLICK ON and OFF erratically around the HONEYDRIPPER SIGN as we TRACK toward and then THROUGH it on the way to the entrance, catching up with Lonnie and Scratch. The boys step under the door-light, frantic with insects, and go up on their toes to peek in through a window-8 INT. HONEYDRIPPER - NIGHT 8 An OVERHEAD ANGLE of long fingers on piano keys- SINGER A woman in her late 50's, early 60's, BERTHA MAE SPIVEY, leans into a MICROPHONE from where she sits on a stool on a little makeshift stage, a glass of whiskey in hand, and SINGS- BERTHA MAE I know a gal name of Betty Sue Shook it so much She got the German flu No matter how she done it No matter how she done it No matter how she done it She done it just the same As she sings we PAN and TRACK, moving through the large, near- empty COUNTRY ROADHOUSE- BERTHA MAE You women don't worry About your life She made Jack the Ripper Throw away his knife- Only a few die-hard REGULARS are scattered at the tables and bar stools. A pretty young woman in her late teens, CHINA DOLL, is behind the bar, head held in her hands, listening aimlessly. BERTHA MAE No matter how she done it No matter how she done it No matter how she done it She done it just the same Lonnie and Scratch step in, cautiously looking around, hoping that nobody will notice and tell them to leave. 4.They plant themselves next to the piano, Lonnie intentlywatching the long fingers work the keys- we TILT to seeTYRONE `Pinetop' Purvis, proprietor and piano player, in his50's. He acts as if the boys aren't there, concentrating onthe music. We SHIFT to include Bertha Mae as she wraps upthe song- BERTHA MAE A copper brought her in She didn't need no bail She shook it for the judge He threw the cop in jail No matter how she done it No matter how she done it No matter how she done it She done it just the sameSLICK, a pretty, sharply-dressed man in his late 40's at thebar, and MACEO, who sits at a table near the bandstandsmiling throughout, APPLAUD. The sound makes the room seemmore empty.Ty stands, nods to METALMOUTH SIMS, a slight, worried-lookingharmonica player who sits behind Bertha Mae- TY You take it for a while.As Ty crosses to the bar we hear RECORDED MUSIC booming fromoutside- BERTHA MAE They makin all that racket again at Toussaint's. TY Yeah. And all them people over there buying drinks and throwing their money after them dice and whatnot. Lucky we got none a that here.Metalmouth launches into a HARMONICA INTRO. Ty pauses at thecounter next to Slick, who is attentively watching Bertha Mae- BERTHA MAE You can drink your liquor You can drink your cold can beer- SLICK She sounding good, huh? TY Sounds fine. Always has. 5. BERTHA MAE You can drink your good whiskey You can drink your cold can beer- SLICK Not much of a crowd. TY Not a crowd at all. Just some stiffs who want to drink theirself to sleep without the music wakin em up. SLICK You ought to advertise. Got an attraction like Bertha Mae- BERTHA MAE You can lay up with your sweet gal But Poppa don't you leave me here TY Singin is one thing, Slick. Whether people want to look at you while you do it is another. SLICK (defensive) You saying something about-Maceo arrives to join them, interrupting- MACEO Got quite a number over to Toussaint's place tonight. TY Sounds like it. MACEO Lots of young folks. Come to listen to that box of his.China Doll brings Ty a glass of whiskey. He gives her a sadsmile- TY Thanks, China Doll.We FOLLOW as Ty crosses to the door- 6. MACEO (O.S.) Don't see why we don't just turn our box on and let folks feed it nickels like they do. SLICK (O.S.) The lady is singing. MACEO (O.S.) But didn't nobody come to listen to her, Slick.Ty looks out the door at-POV - EXT. ACE OF SPADES CLUB-the RED-lit ACE OF SPADES CLUB across the road, PEOPLEhanging out in front, LAUGHTER heard from within-HONEYDRIPPERTy reacts. Behind him, Maceo indicates the near-empty room- MACEO Like the man say, you can't argue with failure.STOKELY, a bitter drunk who holds on to the end of the bar,calls out to them- STOKELY You know why Slick here is like a preacher?Slick tenses, used to this- STOKELY Cause he does all his best work on his knees.Stokely almost chokes with laughter- MACEO Never mind him, he just a drunk- STOKELY I hear she put a ring through it and use it to yank him around the house.Slick starts to rise but Maceo puts a hand on his arm- 7. MACEO You know Tyrone don't allow no scufflin here, Slick. STOKELY I oughta get me a old woman too, take care of the groceries. Just got to sweet-talk her some, give her a good poke now and then- MACEO You gonna drink, Stokely, or you gonna lay out back recoverin from that busted head you about to get? DELILAH Gentlemen-They all turn to see DELILAH, Ty's wife, coming out from theback of the club. She is dressed for church- SLICK (doffs his hat) Miss Delilah- DELILAH Let's behave ourselves. (sees) What are you boys doing in here? Out!Lonnie and Scratch, busted, hurry out. Delilah turns herattention to China Doll- DELILAH And what are you doing behind that bar? CHINA DOLL It's just for a minute. DELILAH That's sixty seconds too long. Maceo, you get back there and take that child's place.China Doll mopes as she steps out from behind- DELILAH You bring people their food. Don't you be messing with their liquor. CHINA DOLL Nobody's eating. 8. DELILAH That's cause nobody's here but these couple lost souls, haven't had an appetite since they give over to the devil.Maceo gets behind the counter as Delilah heads for Ty at thedoor- BERTHA MAE At Pinetop's Honeydripper That's where I get my cold can beer At Pinetop's Honeydripper That's where I get my cold can beer-Maceo reluctantly moves down to take the order of NADINE, alarge, handsome woman with a prominent gold tooth who hasjust stepped in- NADINE Evenin, Maceo. You lookin good tonight. MACEO Likewise, Miss Nadine. What can I do for you? NADINE (flirting) You know what you can do for me, sweet man.Maceo tries to slip the hook and be polite at the same time- MACEO What would you like to drink?DOORWAYTy watches the CROWD in front of the Ace of Spades. Delilahcomes up to join him, indicates his drink- DELILAH How many is that tonight? TY Don't dog me about that, baby. Not tonight. DELILAH I don't want China Doll behind that bar. 9. TY She got to help out. DELILAH Not there she doesn't. You know she's not sposed to get excited- TY Not much chance of that in here. (wistful) Harvest hands all been crowdin into Toussaint's place. The young ones. DELILAH You'll get some of them. TY They stick their noses in here, get one little sniff of the music, and they gone. DELILAH (joking) Maybe that's the wages of sin. TY (bitter) Aint no sin happenin here tonight, baby, and there sure as hell aint no wages. Your God wants to chastise some sinners He best move on over to Toussaint's, got a whole barroom crowded with em. DELILAH He isn't `my God'. He's everybody's God.He looks at his wife- TY How that tent meeting went tonight? DELILAH Viola Underwood found the Lord. TY I thought she found Him last year when they come through. 10. DELILAH (smiles) Well, she must have lost Him again between then and now, cause she come down that aisle tonight hollering in tongues. TY The Spirit didn't move you, though? DELILAH (thoughtful) Not yet. Might be too late for me.Delilah surveys the room- DELILAH I can't believe you're serving Alton Stokely.STOKELYStokely has to use two hands to keeps his glass steady as hedrinks- DELILAH (O.S.) That poor man- TY (O.S.) Toussaint cut his credit off. Either he gets it here-TY AND DELILAH TY -or he drinks that paint-peeler Willie Pettigrew cooks up back in the swamp. DELILAH He's gonna drink himself to death in here. TY Least he won't go blind first.Delilah shakes her head and heads out the door- DELILAH Imonna go home and say a prayer for that man. 11. TY (calling after) Say one for me too, baby.STAGEBertha Mae is singing straight to Slick now, as Metalmouthbacks her up on the harmonica- BERTHA MAE Come here sweet Poppa Let me whisper in your ear Come here sweet Poppa Let me whisper in your ear Go back to Alabama But don't you leave your Momma hereOnly Slick applauds- SLICK That was outstandin, baby. You still got the voice.Bertha Mae, a little unsteady, holds onto Slick's arm as hehelps her off the stage- BERTHA MAE You think so? SLICK Sent a chill down my spine to hear you.Bertha Mae looks to Ty as he steps back in- BERTHA MAE I might be a little late Saturday, Tyrone. TY (mutters, embarrassed) Don't need to come in if you don't want to.She stops dead. Stares at him till he has to let it out- TY I've made other arrangements. BERTHA MAE Other arrangements- 12. TY Try something new in here. SLICK You can't do that! BERTHA MAE It's his place, darlin, he can do whatever he want. Bertha Mae nods to Ty, holding onto her dignity for all it's worth- BERTHA MAE You know where to find me if you need me. Bertha Mae pulls Slick out the door. China Doll watches after them, troubled, while Ty pours himself another drink- MACEO (softly) I put the box on now, Ty? TY Yeah. Put the box on. MACEO Imonna crank it up some, see if we can draw a little life in here- Maceo crosses and plugs an ancient-looking tabletop JUKEBOX in. The jukebox sputters to life, LIGHTS FLASHING ON and MUSIC BLARING for a moment, then the LIGHTS FLICKER and all the POWER in the club goes OFF!9 EXT. HONEYDRIPPER - NIGHT 9 The Honeydripper SIGN is the last to FLICKER and DIE. Lonnie and Scratch watch from under the streetlight- LONNIE There it go again. SCRATCH Lectricity don't like that jukebox. 13.10 INT. HONEYDRIPPER - NIGHT 10 DARKNESS. MACEO Damn. TY China Doll? A MATCH is struck, FLARES as China Doll lights a KEROSENE LAMP she's pulled from under the bar- CHINA DOLL Got to get the power company in here- TY No you don't. They turned my juice off last month- don't want them sniffin around that splice job Maceo done. MACEO Must be a short circuit in the juke here- He yanks the plug out of the wall as Ty steps up to reassure the few patrons- TY Don't worry folks, bar's still open. NADINE It's nice like this. Kind of romantic. MACEO Imonna have to go out back, wiggle some things around. NADINE Don't be wigglin nothin round less I'm there to see it. Maceo rolls his eyes as he passes Ty on the way out with a FLASHLIGHT. He freezes in his tracks as the FLASHLIGHT BEAM hits a FIGURE standing in the doorway- It is SHERIFF HIRAM PUGH, large and in charge. Pugh strolls into the club as if he owns it. 14. SHERIFF PUGH Evenin, folks. TY Evenin, Sheriff.Sheriff Pugh looks around the near-empty club- SHERIFF PUGH Your lights gone out. TY Looks like it. SHERIFF PUGH Don't know but that be a vilation of somethin or other.Ty has played this game before, trying to hold his groundwithout pissing off the white man with the badge- TY We just about to close up here.Pugh sniffs the air- SHERIFF PUGH Your wife been cookin? TY Not tonight. Went to the revival tent. SHERIFF PUGH (grins) I stood by there a while. Them nigras was singin up a storm.Ty doesn't respond. Sheriff Pugh stops right next toStokely, giving him a dead-pan stare as he speaks. Stokelywon't meet his eyes- SHERIFF PUGH I just come out here to look in on Toussaint- had that shooting two nights ago. TY Lot's of fighting in there. SHERIFF PUGH There is that. But me and Old Toussaint got us a greement. (MORE) 15. SHERIFF PUGH(cont'd) You get these field hands suckin down that whiskey, hop em all up with music, there's gonna be some razors drawn. He only call me if it's a fatality. MACEO Never been a killin in here. Them youngbloods know better- SHERIFF PUGH -than to mess with Tyrone Purvis.He turns his attention to Tyrone- SHERIFF PUGH You got quite the reputation round here, Tyrone. Say you put some poor black boy in the grave.It gets very quiet, the HISS of the KEROSENE LANTERN growingtense and insistent.China Doll looks from Sheriff Pugh to Ty's face, searchingfor a flicker of evidence. Ty stays deadpan- TY Just people talkin.The Sheriff steps to put his face very close to Ty's, an edgeof menace in his voice when he speaks softly- SHERIFF PUGH You remember that this is my county, Tyrone. What goes on goes on cause I let it. Don't want to get too big for your britches out here.Ty holds Pugh's eyes for an agonizingly long moment, then thesheriff turns and heads for the door- SHERIFF PUGH You folks have a pleasant evening, now.They all wait for him to clear the door before they exhale. STOKELY A nigger aint shit in this world.Maceo snatches the whiskey bottle from Stokely- 16. MACEO Speakin for yourself. STOKELY You didn't have this club, Tyrone, what you think you be? We TIGHTEN on Ty's face. He has been thinking about this very thing- STOKELY (O.S.) Wouldn't be nothin. And if that aint true then grits aint groceries. A long TRAIN WHISTLE echoes outside-11 EXT. BERTHA MAE'S HOUSE - NIGHT 11 Bertha Mae pauses as she climbs the FRONT PORCH of her two- story wooden HOUSE, the nicest in the neighborhood, listening to the TRAIN WHISTLE with a troubled look on her face. Slick waits for her with the door open- BERTHA MAE That is a terrible noise. SLICK Just the northbound from Talledega. Sounds like it always does. BERTHA MAE Like a soul bein carried away from this life. ANOTHER WHISTLE- SLICK Come on in, darlin. You catch your death out here.12 EXT. RAILROAD STATION - NIGHT 12 We hear the TRAIN WHISTLE again as the WHEELS ROLL and the TRAIN strobes past us, picking up speed as it pulls out from the yard- When it clears we see a LONE FIGURE standing across the tracks. He steps forward and catches a bit of light-- 17.SONNY BLAKE, 20's, rumpled from hard travelling. He carriesa GUITAR CASE and something bulky in a SACK-SHACK THOMAS, an older man in a PULLMAN PORTER'S UNIFORMstands under the moth-addled light on the tiny STATIONPLATFORM, watching Sonny- SHACK THOMAS Lucky the high-sheriff aint here to see you crawl outta that boxcar. SONNY He come round here much? SHACK THOMAS Only when he's bored.Sonny reaches Shack at the platform- SONNY You working that train? SHACK THOMAS Kansas City to New Orleans. SONNY What you get off here for? SHACK THOMAS I growed up here. Still got people. How bout you? SONNY (shrugs) Got tired of sleepin in a boxcar. Listen, is there a place to- SHACK THOMAS (points) Switchman's shed, right over there, has got a cot. Don't mind the rats none, less you got food on you- and I can see you and a good meal has been strangers for some time.Sonny looks at the shed, unenthusiastic- SHACK THOMAS You get into town tomorrow an need somethin, tell em Shack Thomas sent you. They know who you talkin about. 18. SONNY Thanks. Hey, what's the name of this town? Shack points to the SIGN hanging down from the lip of the platform roof- SIGN HARMONY The sign reads- SONNY (O.S.) Name like that, must be a good place for musicians. PLATFORM Shack laughs as he heads away- SHACK THOMAS Only night I ever spent in jail was a town called Liberty. Sun comes up, you'll see where you landed. And you best be out of that shed by first light.13 INT. HONEYDRIPPER - LATE NIGHT - CU MONEY 13 A few wet, crumpled BILLS and dirty COINS are spread out on the bartop- MACEO (O.S.) It's just a weekday night- WIDER Still operating by LANTERN LIGHT, Ty and Maceo look at the night's dismal take, as China Doll lays chairs on top of tables- TY I owe the chicken man, I owe the ice man, I owe the liquor man- MACEO Least you don't owe the electric company. 19. TY (indicates the dark room) Yeah, that's a big relief. MACEO (worried) You thinkin bout closing down?Ty frowns, reaches under the counter and brings up a POSTER.He spreads it out on the counter top. It reads- SPECIAL ATTRACTION New Orleans Singing Sensation `GUITAR' SAM TY What you think? MACEO Biggest act in New Orleans, got him a hit on the radio- TY He's playing here Saturday night. Figured I'd wait till Bertha Mae was gone to put this up.Ty turns to look for the right spot to fix the poster- MACEO Here? You mean like in this room here? TY You know the Tomcat Club in Texarkana? MACEO Big Jim Jamison's place- TY Just went out of business. MACEO Damn- TY And since Sam is giggin his way over to Tulsa, that means he got the date open- 20. MACEO But you aint never had a guitar pl- Ty gives Maceo a warning look, which China Doll notes- TY I'm having one now. MACEO What you gonna pay the man with? Ty glances at China Doll, uneasy- TY You just worry about gettin these hung up everywhere in the county tomorrow. Payday come Saturday, he gonna draw alla them cotton pickers and soldiers boys in here, get us back in the black. Ty looks around at the empty club- TY They gonna take me down, it won't be without a fight. Maceo holds the poster up to the lamplight, warming to the idea- MACEO Guitar Sam at the Honeydripper. Man, this joint is going to jump!14 EXT. COUNTRY ROAD/1ST COTTON FIELD - EARLY MORNING 14 SUNRISE. An OLD MAN in coveralls leads a MULE along the side of the road. A TRUCK carrying two dozen PICKERS in its open bed approaches- TRUCK One of the pickers, DEX, turns to look back at the man and mule- DEX Aint seen no mule in a long time. The other pickers, men and women, don't look interested or even fully awake yet- 21. DEX I knew this was Alabama, but that's the Stone Ages, man.One of the other men, HAM, looks him over. Dex is little andcombative and has a nasty-looking SCAR on his face. Ham isbig and morose, with a deep, grumpy voice- HAM Where you from, boy? DEX Memphis. HAM Down on you vacation?A few snickers- DEX Got in a piece of trouble up there with the white folks, need to bide my time for a spell.JUNEBUG, a local man with a nervous air, jumps in- JUNEBUG You bide any time in these fields, bossman gonna fire your ass for takin up space. DEX Aint no worry bout that. I'm a cotton-pickin fool. HAM You a fool, all right.More snickers and the truck stops at the side of a COTTONFIELD. Somebody lets the tailgate down and they begin toclimb off- DEX And where you from, Brother Bear? HAM Missippi. DEX Then this a real step up for you. Folks round here has discovered fire and whatnot- 22. HAM That trouble you in have anything to do with runnin your mouth?The pickers unroll the sacks they pick up from the pilethat's been left and begin to spread out at the base of theunpicked rows- DEX Had to do with somebody get on my nerves and I had to deal with him. HAM Must of been somebody kind of puny.Dex turns to face the much larger Ham- DEX As I recall he just about your size.The two men stare at each other for a long moment. Way tooearly to fight. Dex breaks eye contact and moves toward arow- DEX What's this place we at? JUNEBUG Nearest town is Harmony. This Mr. Silas Tugwell's place.He nods toward Dex's row- JUNEBUG You better get pickin. DEX Cotton aint goin nowhere. JUNEBUG More you get first thing when the dew still on it, the more it weighs when it tip that scale.Dex's gaze falls upon a tall, strong-looking young womanstarting down the row next to his- DEX You live here too?She gives him a weary look- 23. DEX (shakes his head) You got my sympathies.15 EXT. TOWN - TRAIN TRACKS - EARLY MORNING 15 A WIDE SHOT of the TRACKS that cut the town in two. CLOSER Sonny stands on the tracks just as the SUN RISES, pondering- which side of the tracks is for white people, which for the colored. He hears GUITAR MUSIC to one side, steps cautiously toward it-16 EXT. MAIN STREET - GENERAL STORE - EARLY MORNING 16 Sonny wanders down the street lugging his sack and case, moving toward the sound of a SLIDE GUITAR being played expertly- An irate-looking WHITE LADY glares at Sonny as she picks up the milk bottles from her stoop, steps inside and slams the door. Sonny moves ahead, uneasy- We TIGHTEN on his face as he stops to listen, the MUSIC ECHOING, seeming to come from here, then from there, then suddenly from right behind him- He turns- POSSUM, blind, with his chair tilted back against the not-yet- open GENERAL STORE, PLAYS expertly on a beat-up old GUITAR. Sonny lays his case down to listen for a moment, watching the man's fingers- Possum gets a whiff of him. He keeps playing as he speaks- POSSUM Somebody slept in the railroad yard. Sonny watches the blind man's fingers move on the strings- SONNY Yall can play that thing. POSSUM Been doin it near forever. 24. SONNY (looking around) Listen, which side of the tracks am I- POSSUM The wrong side for you. SONNY What you doing here then? POSSUM White folks look right through me. How much mischief an old blind spook like me gonna get up to anyhow?Sonny surveys the street- SONNY Where our people go for music around here? POSSUM There's a couple places just a little bit out of town. At the crossroads. SONNY Long walk? POSSUM You in a hurry?Possum finishes his song- SONNY How old is that box you playin, Pops? POSSUM (smiles) Second one that ever was- an the devil's got the first. How bout yours?Possum gently nudges Sonny's case with his toe. Sonny issurprised at the blind man's perception- SONNY Brand new. Made it myself. POSSUM (whistles) Made it hisself- 25. SONNY That's right. So these clubs- POSSUM Old Toussaint, owns the Ace of Spades, don't feature live music. And Pinetop Purvis, owns the Honeydripper Lounge? He don't care bout no guitar. Won't have one under his roof. SONNY That don't make sense. Possum scratches his head- POSSUM Yeah- when a musician put his hand to murder, nine times outa ten it's a drummer done it. But Pinetop a piano man- SONNY He killed somebody? POSSUM That's the story. Might be true, and it might not.17 EXT. HONEYDRIPPER - MORNING - TY 17 Ty is tacking one of the Guitar Sam POSTERS on the front of the building. POSSUM (V.O.) But if you meet the man, you damn well don't be askin him about it. A CRACKLE and a curse from the side of the roadhouse- MACEO (O.S.) Damn! Ty looks up- TY What's the matter? MACEO (O.S.) I got a shock. 26. TY Thought you used to work for the power company.SIDE OF ROADHOUSE, MACEOMaceo wrestles with the jury-rigged WIRES that run out fromthe battered, rusting POWER BOX- MACEO I drove a supply truck. TY (O.S.) Guitar Sam aint gonna play by no candlelight. MACEO (sniffs) I smell bacon. TY (O.S.) You must of burnt your porky ass with that lectricity. CHINA DOLL (O.S.) Breakfast ready!FRONT OF ROADHOUSEChina Doll has stepped out from the club- TY Where's your mama? CHINA DOLL Already over to the Mayor's. She told me to come here and make sure you eat something fore you start runnin around.Maceo comes around from the side- MACEO That is a sweet woman you got. CHINA DOLL You got one waitin for you if you want her.Maceo makes a face- 27. MACEO You mean Nadine?18 INT. HONEYDRIPPER - MORNING 18 They step into the club. Plates of bacon, eggs and biscuits sit on one of the tables- CHINA DOLL (teasing) Come in here every night makin them cow-eyes at you- Ty and Maceo sit- MACEO She seems like the kind could smother a man- CHINA DOLL She makes all her own clothes. TY (smiles) Darlin, that's not the kind of thing a man cares about from a woman. The LIGHTS that went out last night suddenly FLICKER ON- MACEO Hey, I fixed it! TY You didn't do no such thing. It just decided to come back on. MACEO Decided. TY Just like it decided to switch off last night. You not even in the conversation. CHINA DOLL Miss Nadine makes some good money too, sewing for people. MACEO That woman scares me. Last ole boy that give her a tumble, Nappy Carpenter? (MORE) 28. MACEO(cont'd)She cook for him, fixed him up allkinds of nice new clothes, kept himin gin and poker chips- CHINA DOLLDon't see no problem with that. MACEOWell, come four, five months, a manstarts to- sorry, China Doll, butthis just the way it is- a man gotsneeds. TYNadine look like she can take careof those, too- MACEOYou eat chicken every morning, noonand night for five months, you geta taste for some different kind ofmeat, right? (looks to China Doll)Maybe I shouldn't be- CHINA DOLLAint gonna tell me something Ihaven't heard worse. MACEOWell, Nappy goes out and has him a-a porkchop or two, let's say- andhe comes back from Toussaint's onenight feeling no pain, smellinglike- like porkchops- the way aman will- and he falls out onNadine's couch and commences tosnore. Wake up the next mornin,finds she had took all his clothesoff without him knowin it- TYMan was dog drunk- MACEOMiss Nadine come in with a skilletin her hand, hot grits bubbling init, says "Baby, I got yourbreakfast." "Not this morning,Nadine," he says, sittin up, "don'tthink I could eat a thing." "Wellthen," she says, "we can't let thisgo to waste, can we?" and she dumpthat whole hot bubblin mess rightin the man's lap. 29. TY (wincing) Owwww! MACEO Then she got busy with that hot iron on his head. Screams didn't bring the neighbors in, she would of killed that man.They are all quiet for a moment, contemplating- TY You got to admit it, though- woman is an artist with that Singer machine. SONNY (O.S.) Scuse me?They turn to see Sonny standing in the doorway- SONNY Which one of you is Mr. Pinetop?Ty's eyes fix on Sonny's face for a moment- somethingfamiliar there- then go down to the guitar case at his feet- TY We aint hirin. SONNY I can play anything-Ty indicates the Guitar Sam POSTER hanging behind the bar- TY Already got me a professional.Sonny looks a little shaky- SONNY Guitar Sam really coming all the way out here? TY That so surprising? SONNY No, no-- uhm, Mr. Shack Thomas said that if I was to- TY You know Shack? 30. SONNY We uh- we travelled together-Ty gives him a once-over- TY When's the last time you ate solid food, young man?Sonny has to think- TY (to China Doll) Take him back and fix him somethin, China Doll. Standin there all hungry-eyed, puts me off my breakfast. SONNY That's real kind of you-Sonny pulls his hat off as he follows China Doll, who issuddenly quiet and self-conscious, back to the kitchen- MACEO Must of come in on the northbound last night. TY Look like he got cooties, too. Straw in them boxcars is full of em. MACEO Never cared to travel that way.Ty grows somber, reminiscing- TY I was out there ridin them rails between the wars. Seem like half the country headin west rolled past the other half comin back east. (musing) Every one of us scrapin for the next meal- COOL BREEZE (O.S.) This is the place.They turn to see COOL BREEZE, a hard-looking, sharply-dressedcharacter, leading the prosperous looking MR. SIMMONS intothe club as if they aren't there- 31. COOL BREEZE Yall can tear things down, put things up- got a lot of potential. MR. SIMMONS Looks bigger in here than it does from the outside. TY I help you gentlemen? COOL BREEZE Just showing the man gonna run this place what he's got.Ty stands- TY This is my place.A frozen moment. Then Maceo stands as well, backing up hisfriend.Cool Breeze puts one foot up on the chair next to Ty, licks afinger and dabs at his shoeshine with it- COOL BREEZE You the piano player, right? TY Name's Tyrone- call me Pinetop Purvis. COOL BREEZE Pinetop Purvis who owes two hundred dollars to Lucky Hardaway up in Little Rock- TY He's gonna get his- COOL BREEZE Pinetop who missed last month's rent- TY After this weekend- COOL BREEZE After this weekend you gonna be the same raggedy-ass piano player can't pay his debts off and Mr. Simmons here gonna be the new proprietor. 32. TY Lucky give me two weeks- COOL BREEZE Lucky got a better offer.He nods toward Mr. Simmons- TY He can't do that.Cool Breeze takes his foot down and gets up in Ty's face. Helets his jacket fall open so the butt of his .44 PISTOL isvisible- COOL BREEZE You don't think so? MACEO (trying to defuse) What if we got our payment for him Monday?Cool Breeze doesn't take his eyes off Ty's- COOL BREEZE Saturday night. MACEO We can do that- COOL BREEZE Not just a taste- the whole two hundred. TY And I throw in a twenny-five cent tip for his messenger boy. COOL BREEZE I'll be here. TY In the meantime, we not open yet. Which means yall are trespassin.Cool Breeze grins, still locking eyeballs with Ty- COOL BREEZE You seen enough, Mr. Simmons? MR. SIMMONS I believe I have. 33.Cool Breeze breaks eye contact, strolls out, followed bySimmons- COOL BREEZE Yeah, somebody could make something out of this place. Wouldn't take much work at all.Ty and Maceo wait till the men are gone before they speak- TY We cleared over two hundred that one weekend- MACEO Couple years back- TY And we didn't have no Louisiana guitar wizard playin neither. MACEO Yeah, they say he draws em like flies. TY That's what they say.An awkward pause. Both men are shaken. Ty sits back down tothink- MACEO They say first thing he does is go to the man that owns the joint, sticks out his hand and wants that cash money put in it. TY I already sent fifty to his manager. MACEO How much you payin him all out? TY Another hundred. MACEO We'd have to clear three hundred- TY I figure we charge folks two dollars to get in, then drinks- 34. MACEO (shakes his head) What I'm sayin is, less he sees the green up front the man won't get off the train. A TRUCK HORN honks outside- MACEO What's that now? Ty, mind working, looks desperate as Maceo exits to see who's honking-19 EXT. HONEYDRIPPER - MORNING 19 A battered TRUCK sits in front of the club. ZEKE, a taciturn white man, and his black loader step out as Maceo approaches- MACEO (calls out) Bout time you fellas run by. We just about dry here. The loader lets down the tailgate to reveal CASES OF BEER AND LIQUOR. He begins to pull them out and pile them on the ground- ZEKE Your boss in? Maceo shouts back into the club- MACEO Tyrone! Whiskey wagon come by! Ty steps out of the club carrying one of the Guitar Sam posters- TY Y'all a day late. Ty nods at the Ace of Spades club across the way- TY Old Man Toussaint gonna chew you out. ZEKE Toussaint went over to another supplier upstate. We just got you, then we headin down to the army base, officers' club needs servicin. This fifty-six dollars- 35. TY (weak grin) My credit no good anymore?Zeke only has to look at the loader, who starts to put thecases back onto the truck- TY Whoah, whoah- what's your hurry? ZEKE Nobody that's right in his head sell liquor on credit. Specially not to no darktown roadhouse. TY Well this is like a special case, see- we got the harvest coming in, soldiers at the base gonna be let out on leave- Saturday night. Aint enough hootch in this truck to satisfy what we gonna sell- ZEKE You pay as you go. That's bidness.Zeke walks toward the cab of the truck, Ty following him,desperate, waving the poster- TY You can come by Monday, get paid and take back every damn drop I aint sold! We got Guitar Sam lined up, you know what that means?!Zeke steps in and slams the door, the loader doing the sameon the other side of him- TY I'll pay you extra- penny a bottle on the beer and a nickel on the whiskey!The truck engine coughs- TY (desperate) What if I throw in five dollars up front, just for you fellas- ? Zeke pulls away- 36. TY Come on, man, everybody give credit, that's the American way!But the truck is gone down the road. Maceo comes up besideTy, watching forlornly- MACEO Maybe we could buy some busthead from Willie Pettigrew. TY With that sheriff sniffin around every night? Land my black ass in jail for good.Another TRUCK pulls around the bend from the oppositedirection- MACEO Then what we gonna do?The new truck slows to a stop by them. The DRIVER pokes hishead out- DRIVER Got a liquor delivery for a Mr. Lucien Toussaint? MACEO That's- TY That would be me.Maceo bites his tongue. Ty plays it through- TY I trust they got my check all right? DRIVER Don't spose I'd be here if they didn't.Ty glances over to the Ace of Spades, then points behind theHoneydripper- TY Pull it around to the back- we'll help you unload. 37. The driver nods and wheels the truck past them. Maceo's smile fades and he looks to Ty- MACEO Man, this better be some Saturday night.20 INT. HONEYDRIPPER - KITCHEN - MORNING 20 A little kitchen built onto the back of the bar. Sonny sits wolfing down eggs and toast as China Doll watches him from the stove- SONNY Arkansas. How bout you? CHINA DOLL We come here just after Mama met my step-daddy. SONNY Not much happenin, little town like this. CHINA DOLL (shrugs) They started up the training base again- SONNY That right? CHINA DOLL You been in the Army? SONNY Uh-huh. CHINA DOLL You shoot people? SONNY Fixed radios. CHINA DOLL They say this new war gonna be a short one. SONNY Might be, might not. I was to Japan. 38. CHINA DOLL Yeah? What's the people like there? SONNY Small. CHINA DOLL Yeah? SONNY (holds a hand up) Bout that high. And they speak Japanese. CHINA DOLL You been to California? SONNY (nods) Los Angeles. CHINA DOLL Where they make the movies. SONNY You go to the movies? CHINA DOLL I been once.He sits back and looks her over- SONNY Fine-looking girl like you, ought to been all kinds of places. CHINA DOLL I'm going to em. First I'm going to beauty school when Mama saves up the money and then I have a portable skill- SONNY Like playin music. CHINA DOLL My step-Daddy says that aint a skill- TY (O.S.) -it's an affliction.Ty sticks his head in, Maceo behind him with a case of liquorin his arms- 39. TY Come on, China Doll. Got some bidness in town you gonna help me with. Ty gives Sonny a distrustful look- TY And you, young man, want to point yourself west down that highway. Bout three miles you see a mess of people working in the fields- it's harvest time. If you can stoop and pull, they got a job for you. He steps out the back door- TY And wash up them dishes before you go.21 INT. MAYOR WINSHIP'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - MORNING 21 Delilah is washing breakfast dishes, SINGING a gospel song as she works- DELILAH I see four and twenty elders Down on their knees I see four and twenty elders Down on their knees Well they all turn together Standing to greet the rising sun I see four and twenty elders Down on their knees AMANDA WINSHIP, the mayor's pretty, high-strung wife, enters and hovers uneasily- AMANDA Your biscuits were wonderful this morning, Delilah. DELILAH Thank you. AMANDA Of course, they always are. I don't know how you do it. DELILAH Just cook em. 40. AMANDA When I married Floyd I swear I couldn't even boil water. Might be why he insisted I needed help around the house. He used to come to the dinner table with a sense of dread. DELILAH Anybody can learn to cook. Just have to put your mind to it. AMANDA Maybe you could show me some of your secrets some time. DELILAH No secrets to it. Imonna fix some ham with yams and greens today, you want to learn how. Amanda thinks about it, smiling all the while, sighs- AMANDA Maybe some other day. Delilah isn't surprised by the response- DELILAH You just say the word, Miss Amanda, I have you cookin in no time. Amanda nods, uncomfortable but not leaving. She can't exactly offer to help with the dishes- AMANDA I just don't know what I'd do without you.22 EXT. MAIN STREET - GENERAL STORE - MORNING 22 Ty, Maceo and China Doll approach the general store. A WHITE COUPLE enter from the front- TY What I need is for you to go get friendly with Luther, then I just happen in- CHINA DOLL We can't just ask Mr. Skinner? 41. TY Mr. Skinner don't want nothin from colored folks but they buy his goods and shine his shoes. You go on ahead, now-Maceo and China Doll cut around toward the back of the store.We TIGHTEN on Ty as he unrolls the posters he carries, looksacross the street for another likely place to hang one- POSSUM (O.S.) It was early Friday evenin Hounds began to barkTy turns- how did Possum get there, chair and all? POSSUM Stackolee an Billy Lyons Was squabblin In the darkTy frowns at the lyrics- POSSUM Stackolee said To Billy Lyons "What you think bout that? First you takes all my money Then you spits in My Stetson hat." TY I hate that damn song.Possum keeps playing but stops singing- POSSUM How you keepin, Tyrone? TY (wary) Just tryin to hold it together. POSSUM Got your beautiful young daughter with you this mornin- TY Don't you be studyin her. 42. POSSUM Heard you gone put on a guitar man out your place. TY Where you hear that? POSSUM (grins) Oh- the breeze. TY Well this time the breeze know what it's blowin about. POSSUM Better be careful, Tyrone. You know what them guitar players are like. Ty glares at Possum- TY Be careful yourself. Ty stalks away around toward the back of the store. Possum grins and sings again- POSSUM Well he shot him Three times in the shoulder Three times in the side That was the last time he shot him Cause Poor Billy Up and died23 EXT. REAR OF GENERAL STORE - MORNING 23 A quartet of WORKMEN and DELIVERYMEN lounge on piled up shipping crates as Shack Thomas stands addressing them- SHACK THOMAS The time is ripe and the bill is past due. Roosevelt would of done it already, only he died and they don't listen to Miss Eleanor no more. But Mr. Truman startin to bend, specially now that we got a war heatin up. As Brother Randolph says- TY (O.S.) Here it comes- 43.Shack looks to see Ty joining the others- TY -the gospel accordin to A. Phillip Randolph. SHACK THOMAS (pleased) Tyrone! How you doing, man? TY Got my nose above the waterline. SHACK THOMAS And here's my baby- how's your mama doing, China Doll?He gives China Doll a hug and kiss- CHINA DOLL She's doin fine, Uncle Shack. SHACK THOMAS Just tellin the boys here how Brother Randolph pushin through this deal where our boys gonna be a full part of services- already got the Navy and the Air Force, and the Army is- TY I carried a rifle in the Great War, Shack. Boys get in the middle of this Korea mess they aint gonna thank you for your efforts. SHACK THOMAS We want our due in this country, we got to go whole hog- TY Black folks shooting yellow folks to keep the white folks happy? SHACK THOMAS It's time to move on from that kind of thinkin.Ty starts in through the back entrance of the store- 44. TY You go ahead and move right on, Shack. Then come back and tell the rest of us how it is. He steps in. Shack turns to China Doll- SHACK THOMAS That is a hard-headed man.24 INT. GENERAL STORE - MORNING 24 LUTHER, the head clerk, arranges boxes on the back wall and shoots a nervous look up front- LUTHER I'd have to ask Mr. Skinner. TY Of course you would. While you at it, remind him how one of the reasons colored folks come in here is to get the lowdown on what's happening in-- Luther brightens as China Doll steps in- LUTHER China Doll! Luther is clearly smitten- CHINA DOLL You gonna let us put these posters up, aint you Luther? LUTHER Oh-- I don't think that be any problem at all. CHINA DOLL (beaming a smile) That's awful nice of you, Luther. LUTHER You lookin special today. CHINA DOLL That's sweet of you to say. 45. TY Maceo, go on with the man and he show you where you can put em up. Come on, darlin, we got more stops to make- China Doll spreads a parting bit of sunshine- CHINA DOLL Nice to see you, Luther. Luther smiles and waves as Maceo hooks his arm and pulls him back into the store-25 EXT. RAILROAD TRACKS/RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOOD - MORNING 25 Ty and China Doll hurry down the tracks and cross to the black side of town- TY You got that boy eatin out of your hand. CHINA DOLL Luther's the only one didn't pull my hair when he sit behind me at Sunday school. TY Well I hope you got a little that sugar left, cause we got to spread some on Miss Bertha Mae Spivey- CHINA DOLL You gone ask her to come sing again? TY Imonna ask her for money. Word is she got a whole pile of it squirreled away. China Doll stops, breathing heavily, bends to put her hands on her knees- CHINA DOLL Daddy- TY Come on, girl, we in a rush here- 46. CHINA DOLL I got to rest. Ty softens, walks back to stand beside her- TY I'm sorry, baby. You catch your breath. China Doll smiles weakly- CHINA DOLL So- why Miss Spivey gonna give you money, you don't let her sing at the club any more? TY Gonna make her a partner. CHINA DOLL Partner in what? TY In the Honeydripper. CHINA DOLL But all you ever say it's just a hole you pour good money into- TY That don't matter. Imonna make her a proprietor. CHINA DOLL `tress'. Like waiter and waitress. TY Proprietress. She got to like the sound of that.26 EXT. MAIN STREET - GENERAL STORE - WINDOW, POSTER 26 One of the GUITAR SAM POSTERS appears in the front window as Maceo tapes it up- A trio on teenage girls stop to look at it as they pass (Possum is nowhere to be seen)- Maceo steps out to join them, eager to close the deal- 47. MACEO Lovely ladies out to make a purchase- OPAL That the same Guitar Sam is on the radio? MACEO The very one. OPAL What's he look like? MACEO Fine lookin man. Real lady killer from what I hear. Got that New Orleans style to him. OPAL You ought to have a picture up there. MACEO Oh, we'll be gettin some of those when he comes in on the train. The main thing is, the man is electrified- and you know what that means.27 EXT. BERTHA MAE'S HOUSE 27 Formerly a fairly grand house, Bertha Mae's hasn't been painted for awhile and the yard could use some work. Ty coaches China Doll as they climb the stairs- TY We make like we just come by to see how she's keepin, and then I'll kind of mention how I been thinking of bringing her on as a partner- CHINA DOLL Left the door open. China Doll pushes the front door all the way open. We can hear Bertha Mae's VOICE singing on a scratchy old RECORD. China Doll peeks in to see- 48.28 INT. BERTHA MAE'S HOUSE - FRONT PARLOR 28 -Slick, sitting at the bottom of the STAIRS that lead to the second floor, looking lost and bewildered- SLICK She's gone. TY Oh. Ty frowns. He was all geared up for the siege- TY When she gonna be back? SLICK She's just gone. Woke up beside her and-- He can't go on, tears forming in his eyes. China Doll and Ty trade a look-29 INT. BERTHA MAE'S HOUSE - BEDROOM 29 We start on the RECORD PLAYER, needle down on the spinning song, then RACK to see Bertha Mae, laying DEAD in her bed. TY Aw, damn. We RACK again as Ty and China Doll step in. Slick appears in the doorway behind them. He's been drinking- SLICK Fourteen years. TY China Doll, you go find your Mama. She know how to fix up the body. SLICK People make jokes and all, but I been with that woman fourteen years. That's a good part of my life. TY And stop by Beauchamp's and tell em they got a customer. 49. SLICK She gimme the only home I ever had. He looks at them, devastated- SLICK What I'm gonna do now?30 EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY 30 Sonny walking along. He has left his guitar and sack back at the club. He slows, seeing- POV - SHERIFF'S CAR The SHERIFF'S CAR is sitting at the side of the road, a COUNTRY SONG playing on the radio- SONNY He decides to brave it, walks ahead with his eyes fixed straight ahead. We he gets even with the car we see Sheriff Pugh sitting in the driver's seat, watching him- PUGH In a hurry, boy? Sonny stops, looks to the Sheriff- SONNY Naw, sir. PUGH Take your hat off. Sonny takes his hat off. He meets the Sheriff's eyes, trying to strike a balance between defiant and submissive- PUGH Where you headed? SONNY Lookin for work. PUGH You're not from here. SONNY Naw, sir. 50. PUGH Stranger wanderin around, no job- that would make you a vagrant. SONNY But I'm lookin- PUGH I got a job for you. Get in the back. Sonny doesn't even think about running away.31 EXT. 1ST COTTON FIELD - DAY - WORKERS 31 Black PRISON LABORERS pick cotton, watched over by an armed DEPUTY- GATLIN (O.S.) I can always use another hand. We SHIFT to see GATLIN, a white planter who chews and spits tobacco, looking Sonny over as Sheriff Pugh stands by- PUGH Caught this young fella in flagrant violation of the statutes. Gawkery with intent to mope. GATLIN What's he gonna run me? PUGH Three dollars a day plus you feed im lunch. Now the sentence- that depends on how long you gonna need the help. Sonny decides to speak up- SONNY I don't get any trial? SHERIFF PUGH Sure you do, boy. And a speedy one, too. (points) Meet Judge Gatlin. Gatlin spits- GATLIN Grab a sack. 51.32 EXT. PINEY WOODS - CROSSROADS - AFTERNOON 32 Maceo nails a Guitar Sam POSTER to a tree, looks over his handiwork. An ARMY PLATOON trudges into the crossroads, sweat-soaked and footsore- Maceo watches, pleased, as the black soldiers check the poster out as they pass- MACEO Saturday night, fellas! Every fine- looking colored woman in the county gonna be there- don't want to miss it! A white LIEUTENANT passes, giving Maceo a dark look. Maceo salutes- MACEO Afternoon, sir. Nice lookin bunch of soldiers.33 INT. MAYOR WINFIELD'S HOUSE - DINING ROOM - DAY 33 Delilah sits at the dining room table with a sandwich she's made herself. We hear PERRY COMO on a RECORD somewhere in the house. She hasn't gotten two bites down before Amanda wanders in, crossing to the liquor cabinet- AMANDA Oh dear, I believe it's about that time- She pulls out a DECANTER OF WINE- AMANDA Would you care to join me? DELILAH No thank you. Amanda pours herself a glass of wine- AMANDA Of course you won't join me, you don't partake. That was thoughtless of me. 52. DELILAH That's all right. AMANDA So you don't take spirits and- what else? In your church? DELILAH I'm sort of between churches right now. I been thinking about changing over to the Holiness, but I- I haven't been sanctified yet. AMANDA Ah- DELILAH There's been a minister in this week- AMANDA The tent out by the fairgrounds.Delilah nods. Amanda takes a drink- AMANDA The church I grew up in- we were Pentacostals- they wouldn't have anything but the human voice inside the church. And dancing- any kind of dancing, music, card playing-- well, it was very strict. They took up serpents. DELILAH I've heard of that. AMANDA I tell Floyd these stories and he's horrified. They've always been Methodists, Floyd's family. DELILAH They're good people too. AMANDA When I married Floyd-- oh, it was quite a scandal among my relatives. As if I'd taken up with somebody in a cult. 53. DELILAH It can be a trial, married folks differ in their religion. AMANDA And your husband is a--- ? DELILAH Unaffiliated. AMANDA Unaffiliated. I see. He has his-- social club- DELILAH The Honeydripper. AMANDA Such a colorful name. DELILAH Yes. AMANDA He must devote a great deal of his energy to it. DELILAH It's just him and Maceo Green runs it, and then I go over and cook some when I get off here. AMANDA That's very- supportive of you. Considering the sort of- environment- DELILAH (defensive) I been in those barrooms most of my life, Miss Amanda.Amanda realizes she has probed too deep, tries to back up- AMANDA I see- DELILAH I was a singer. I met Tyrone in the Paradise, down in Shreveport, China Doll was only two-Delilah considers, struggling to express who Ty is- 54. DELILAH I was just kind of livin along, you know, drinking more than I ought-- then Tyrone. It was like a light come into my life.Delilah turns away, embarrassed to have revealed so much- DELILAH People think things because he owns the Lounge, but they don't know him. AMANDA Small minds are never in short supply.She crosses to look out a window- AMANDA The people in this town---She catches herself, smiles- AMANDA I suppose they expected that Floyd, being from a prominent family- as prominent as is possible here in Harmony- would have chosen somebody more--She fades away again, empties her glass- AMANDA My people were very devout, but they weren't- financially successful. DELILAH No shame in that. AMANDA In school, if you didn't have shoes-She frowns at the memory, sighs- AMANDA Oh, I forgot--Amanda is up and out of the room. Delilah frowns at thedecanter, hurries to put it away.Amanda comes back in holding a DRESS for a young girl- 55. AMANDA I was going through Emily's old things the other day, and I thought this would look just darling on your China Doll-Delilah examines the dress, which is clearly for a littlegirl- DELILAH Oh- I don't think it would near fit her, Miss Amanda. AMANDA (disappointed) How old is she now? DELILAH Seventeen. AMANDA (shocked) Oh my- I must have lost track somewhere along the line. Seventeen.She sits, still holding the dress, sneaks a look over towhere the wine decanter was- DELILAH It was a very nice thought.An awkward silence that Perry Como fills inadequately. AKNOCK at the back door, then China Doll steps in, not seeingAmanda right away- CHINA DOLL Mama? They need you at-Delilah shifts her eyes to indicate- CHINA DOLL Oh, I'm sorry, Miss Amanda. I didn't know you was home. AMANDA (smiles) China Doll! We were just recalling- you used to play right here under this table. 56.34 INT. BERTHA MAE'S HOUSE - BEDROOM 34 Ty sits staring, mind working overtime, staring at the dead woman on the bed. He barely hears Slick talking to the undertaker behind him, busy filling out forms- SLICK There isn't any cash money I know of. She sold a good deal of the furniture, but there's still a nice- lookin sofa in the parlor. Only thing she cared for anymore was singin out to Pinetop's place- Ty looks at a large RING on Bertha's Mae's cold gray hand. He touches it with a finger- SLICK You welcome to look around the house- if there's anything your Missus might like-- long as it's not something personal to me and Bertha Mae- Ty draws his finger away from the ring as if burnt- SLICK It's just- she got to go out in style, is what it is. The best you got, all the trimmins- lay it out for her. That's the way she lived it- that's the way she ought to leave it. Ty closes his eyes and buries his head in his hands-35 EXT. 1ST COTTON FIELD - AFTERNOON 35 Blazing hot. Cotton chaff in the air as the prison WORK GANG bend to their task, dragging long sacks behind them like snakes. Even the DEPUTIES are sweating rivulets as they stand by with their SHOTGUNS in hand. Sonny is way behind the others, not dressed for the work, wincing as he pricks his fingers for the umpteenth time. NED, a little prisoner picking his way back in the opposite direction in a parallel row, takes pity on him- NED Y'all never done this job before. 57. SONNY Can't say I have. NED You want to set your pins out wide, bend over from the hip-Sonny widens his stance- NED -and don't be bobbin up and down all the time. When you up, be up, but when you on the row, stay down.Sonny digs in and keeps low- NED But most important, you got to get you a rhythm. Everything in this life got a rhythm to it- even pullin cotton off the plant. SONNY Lay it out for me. NED Not my rhythm- your rhythm. That's between you and the day and the work you got before you. Once you on it, don't let nothin and nobody push you off it. SONNY I'm going so slow. NED You gettin paid by the pound or by the hour? SONNY I'm not gettin paid at all. None of us are.Ned cackles- NED Then I suggest you work that into your rhythm too.A DEPUTY calls out- 58. DEPUTY Let's see more pickin and less talkin over there! NED Gettin right on it, Boss! Ned picks his way behind Sonny. Sonny starts to rock slightly, looking for a rhythm of movement he can maintain-36 EXT. 1ST OPPOSITE COTTON FIELD 36 The free pickers sit on and around the truck that brought them, eating lunch. Dex watches the prison laborers across the road as he SHUFFLES a battered DECK OF CARDS, sitting with a couple of the other men- DEX Them boys fryin over there. JUNEBUG That Judge Gatlin's gang- he work them people from can until can't, ever damn day, and when his fields is picked he bid em out to the neighbors. Harvest time comes round here, you sign up with somebody fast or you stay outa sight. Dex waves flies away from his face, spits- DEX Ate a peck of dust today. JUNEBUG Take some water. DEX Only thing wash the dust out is whiskey. JUNEBUG (smiles) Aint enough whiskey in this world wash out what I swallowed in my life. Dex riffles the cards- JUNEBUG What we playin for? 59. DEX Two bits a hand. JUNEBUG That's kind of steep-Dex laughs and starts to deal a card at a time to the players- DEX Hell, I member playin this game one night- Memphis is Boss Crump's town, folks is gamblin before they can walk- ten dollars a hand. I caught a winnin streak that cleaned out half the sportin men on Beale Street. Got up from that table, my money was as long as train smoke- JUNEBUG What happen to it?Dex raises his voice so the woman he checked out in themorning can hear- DEX Spent it all on fine-lookin women.He calls to where Ham stands in knee-high grass, a heavystick in his hand, staring intently at the ground- DEX Yo, Missippi- JUNEBUG His name Hamilton. DEX Hambone! You want in on this?He raises a matchstick in his fingers- DEX Settle up on payday. HAM That your deck of cards? DEX What if it is? HAM I stay clear of it then. 60.Dex stops dealing to stare at Ham, insulted- DEX You sinuatin? HAM Just sayin I don't want to play.There is a sudden RUSTLING at Ham's feet and WHAP! he bringshis stick down hard. He pulls up a RABBIT, dead, by its hindlegs- JUNEBUG Looks like dinner. DEX Rabbit is a rodent. Man eat a rabbit, might's well eat a rat.Dex snorts, disgusted, then finishes dealing. He lays thetop card face up and slaps down the rest of the deck- DEX (mutters) Simple country nigger, fraid to sit down an lose his little handful of change-- JUNEBUG He awful big to mess with. DEX Don't scare me none. I'm a steppin razor, man, I'm trouble on two legs.We hear a CAR APPROACHING, SLOWING DOWN- DEX Your draw, Junebug. And don't be drippin sweat on my cards. MACEO (O.S.) Excuse me, folks-They turn to see Maceo leaning out of the window of Ty's oldFord, a Guitar Slim POSTER taped to the side of it- MACEO Yall heard about the show we puttin on at the Honeydripper Saturday night? 61.37 EXT. PURVIS HOUSE - NIGHT 37 A very modest wooden house with a porch. LIGHTS on inside-38 INT. PURVIS HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT 38 Ty and China Doll sit as Delilah lays dinner on the table. She is dressed to go out- DELILAH I expect there'll be a nice turnout for Bertha Mae tomorrow. TY Folks who wouldn't have nothin to do with her when she was alive. DELILAH Some of them, maybe. You still got to pay your respects. TY Slick gonna have to find him a new ride. DELILAH That's a terrible thing to say- TY That's how the man gets over, is all, sugarin up to some woman got a job or a bankroll- DELILAH It's no way to live. TY Just how it is out in the world, baby- man got to walk through the gates of Hell to get a piece of cheese. He stares moodily, unnoticing as she lays his plate in front of him- TY You're not so young any more, lose hold of what little you got- He just shakes his head- 62. DELILAH If you lose the club I'm sure you'll find something else. TY In this town? Like what?Delilah proceeds cautiously- DELILAH You know anytime you want I could get Miss Amanda to ask her husb- TY "Watch yo feet, Mr. Mayor, I done just mopped the flo! "Delilah tries to ignore this- DELILAH You work so hard at the Lounge, and what it brings in- TY Isn't even as much as what you make polishin that white lady's silver. I know. DELILAH I didn't say that. TY You didn't have to.Delilah gives up, knowing he's set on his mood- DELILAH It'll just have to work out, then.A strained silence. Delilah crosses to the back door- DELILAH Meetin gonna start without I'm there. TY Your soul not the one needs savin, baby.She gives Ty a lost look, steps out. The screen door slams.China Doll sees how worried Ty is- 63. CHINA DOLL It's all gonna be fine, Daddy. Everbody in town talkin bout Guitar Sam comin to Harmony.39 EXT. REVIVAL TENT - NIGHT - WIDE SHOT 39 A CHOIR sings at the front of the LANTERN-LIT tent, a CONGREGATION of salvation-seekers filling the benches- CHOIR Mother died- Yes she died and left me It was long- long time ago Oh but I searched Searched her record over I found mother just had to go UNDER TENT CHOIR Oh she cried son, Son don't you worry Oh you know the Lord Always fix a way Delilah arrives at the rear of the tent, finds herself a spot on a bench- CHOIR She left me standing Standing along the highway Oh wondering- which way I must go! REVEREND CUTLIP watches his singers, clapping out time with his big hands- CHOIR As I walked- All along the highway I was seeking my Lord each day She left me standing Standing along the highway Just wondering- which way must I go! `Amens' and other sounds greet the end of the song. Reverend Cutlip steps to the center of the platform and looks around at the souls gathered- 64. REVEREND CUTLIP The Highway of Life, Brothers and Sisters, will twist you and turn you, it will run you this way and that way, it will tempt you with many a detour-- for the Highway of Life, Brothers and Sisters, is designed to lead us astray!He gets an `Amen!' from someone in the crowd- REVEREND CUTLIP It meanders away from the Light and into the Darkness, it tires our legs and whittles away at our spirits!The congregation start to get into it, RESPONDING, rockingwith the rhythm of the sermon, flapping their PAPER FANS thatadvertise Beauchamp's Funeral Home in the hot night-- REVEREND CUTLIP It snares us with the thorns and thistles of wickedness, it is paved with the black deeds of sinners and laid out on a crooked plan! That's not the road we want to be on, Brothers and Sisters, that's not the path we need to follow!The Reverend picks up speed- REVEREND CUTLIP We got to get on that other road! The one that leads to salvation! The one that leads to glory! The one that leads to the right hand of God! Praise His name! CONGREGATION Praise the Lord! REVEREND CUTLIP The thoroughfare I'm talking about, the righteous path we got to tread, is called the Highway to Heaven, and by the great Lord above it is straight and it is narrow! (MORE) 65. REVEREND CUTLIP(cont'd) Keep your eyes on the prize and your feet on the street and you won't ever make a mis-step, you won't ever falter, you won't ever stumble, because Jesus will show you the Way! Several people in the audience are up and SHOUTING now, getting into the Spirit. Reverend Cutlip shifts gear, filling his voice with a sense of dread and warning- REVEREND CUTLIP But you got to pay attention to who it is walking beside you, Brothers and Sisters, got to be wary against those who will hold you back from your journey! There's many a loved one got to be left behind! Cause you either on the road or you lost in the wilderness! DELILAH We TIGHTEN on Delilah as she listens, upset, taking this all very personally- REVEREND CUTLIP (O.S.) You either headed for glory or doomed to damnation! You either in with the Lord or you in with the Devil- and they aint no in-between!40 INT. JAIL - NIGHT 40 We TRACK past CELLS full of black PRISONERS- KING (O.S.) Tulsa aint so bad but for the smell- NED (O.S.) Got them stockyards near the jail- KING (O.S.) That's right- and the flies. Course, I had me in a cell in Georgia once, six other men, didn't have no window atall. NED (O.S.) Must of got caught on one a them freights. 66.Sonny is in a big COMMON CELL with the other conscriptedLABOR GANG. He hangs on the bars as behind him men pitchpennies, while Ned and another veteran jailbird, KING,compare lodging experiences- KING Yeah, aint no free ride allowed through Georgia. And the food there- NED Paltry- KING Paltry aint the word for it. Breakfast was a joke, lunch was a rumor- NED -and dinner was a anecdote. KING (laughs) Spose you been locked in that box. NED Or one just like it.Sonny begins to SING softly, almost to himself- SONNY Well you wake up in the morning Hear the bing-bong ring- Walk up to the table And see the same damn thing All Imonna tell you Knife, a fork and a pan If you say a thing about it You're in trouble with the ManThe men join him on the chorus- ALL Let the Midnight Special Shine its light on me Oh let the Midnight Special Shine its ever-lovin light on me-Sonny turns to face them- NED You a singer, young man? 67. SONNY Singer, guitar player- Imonna be on the radio some day. People gonna know my name. NED (chuckles) Keep thinkin that way, young man. Judge Gatlin don't choose to work you into your grave, you just might do it. Sonny ponders this, looking back out through the bars, singing more moodily now as we TRACK AWAY from the cell- SONNY If you ever go to Houston Don't you stagger don't you fight Cause the Sheriff will arrest you You're in the cooler for the night- FADE TO BLACK.41 INT. BERTHA MAE'S HOUSE - BEDROOM - MORNING 41 We hear the slow BLUES DIRGE Bertha May as we see China Doll applying polish to Bertha Mae's fingernails-42 INT/EXT. BERTHA MAE'S HOUSE - MORNING 42 MUSIC CONTINUES. We TRACK BACK through the house, looking at PHOTOGRAPHS and POSTERS of her singing in her glory days, finally TRACKING out onto the PORCH where Slick sits glumly on the steps and the undertaker stands in his black suit, looking at his watch as MOURNERS begin to pass into the house-43 INT. BERTHA MAE'S HOUSE - PARLOR - MORNING 43 MUSIC CONTINUES. MOURNERS pass the OPEN COFFIN-44 EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - MORNING 44 MUSIC CONTINUES. Ty and Maceo help carry the coffin down a dirt road, Slick walking at the head of the mourners following it- 68.45 EXT. CEMETERY - MORNING 45 MUSIC CONTINUES as- Hands grip ropes as the coffin is lowered into the HOLE- Reverend Cutlip speaks a eulogy- Slick tries to keep it together- Scratch and Lonnie watch the ceremony from a tree branch- Ty looks at his watch, slips away from the funeral party. Delilah notices, frowns. Reverend Cutlip takes note as well- A shovel digs into piled dirt- Dirt is tossed down upon us and the screen goes BLACK.46 EXT. RAILROAD STATION - MORNING 46 Ty waits for a train, still in his mourning suit. We TIGHTEN on his face- tense, preoccupied with his schemes to save the club- POSSUM Hear tell Miss Bertha Mae passed. Ty whirls around-- somehow he didn't see Possum, sitting on a bench behind him, guitar in his lap. TY That's right. POSSUM She lived it how she sang it. Ty tries to ignore him, looks down the rails- POSSUM Waitin for somebody. Ty is silent. POSSUM Aint nobody on that train gonna change your luck, Tyrone. Gonna have to save your own self. 69. TY (annoyed) What you know about anything? POSSUM Oh, nothin much. Ty steps away. Possum speaks quietly- POSSUM But I know you from way back. Possum starts PLAYING, a dark, moody, slide-guitar blues. Ty looks toward Possum, not happy he's there, then looks away. The MUSIC gets LOUDER, FASTER, Possum MOANING and WHOOPING, stomping his foot- We TIGHTEN on Ty's face, tighter, tighter, then DISSOLVE TO: INT. BAR - NIGHT - FLASHBACK47 47 We're in a BAR ROOM- smoke, heat, packed bodies- Possum's SONG grows more intense as we TRACK IN on GUITAR MAN- young, with slick hair a moustache and tons of attitude. He sneers, flicks his cigarette almost straight at us. We TRACK IN on YOUNG TYRONE, also swearing, stepping away from his piano- Guitar Man hands his guitar to one of the eager MEN standing close, hoping for a fight- A PRETTY GIRL stands to one side, looking scared and excited, covering her mouth with her hands- Young Tyrone steps in to meet him, the CROWD around almost pushing them together- Guitar Man pulls out a KNIFE! Young Tyrone grabs for it and they grapple, face to face, struggling in a terrible dance- A TRAIN WHISTLE breaks the spell! EXT. TRAIN YARD - MORNING - PRESENT48 48 Possum stops playing and cocks his head to listen- The WHISTLE again as the TRAIN APPROACHES. Ty takes a deep breath, hoping- 70.49 EXT. COUNTRY ROAD/2ND COTTON FIELD - DAY 49 Mourners are walking back down the country road where we saw the coffin carried. Reverend Cutlip sidles up to Delilah- REVEREND CUTLIP A mournful end for a wayward sinner. DELILAH She always seemed at peace with herself. REVEREND CUTLIP The company she kept, the life she led- DELILAH I never knew Bertha Mae to do hurt to a living soul. The Reverend is not too pleased with Delilah's forgiving attitude- REVEREND CUTLIP We're all hoping to see you get over and accept the Lord tonight, Delilah. DELILAH I'm hoping so too. Cutlip nods toward the FIELD as they pass the PRISON LABOR GANG, picking cotton under guard- REVEREND CUTLIP You been lingering at the threshold long enough, Sister. Time to step ahead. Delilah tries not to show how shaken she is by this challenge. She passes out of frame and we see China Doll bringing up the rear of the funeral party, lost in thought. She looks over into the cotton field- POV - SONNY, PRISON LABOR GANG Sonny bends his back with the other laborers, picking and sweating- 71. CHINA DOLL China Doll pauses, frowns as she sees it is Sonny working, a DEPUTY strolling past him, shotgun in hand. Sonny sees her, lowers his head in shame-50 EXT. TRAIN STATION - LATE MORNING 50 The TRAIN has just pulled into the station. A pair of PULLMAN PORTERS step out-- But nobody else. Ty feels his heart sink. Shack Thomas comes up behind him, carrying an overnight bag- SHACK THOMAS Tyrone- got somebody gettin off here? TY Supposed to be. He halts by Ty for a moment, watching. Nobody else is stepping out- SHACK THOMAS What's the party's name? TY Sam- Guitar Sam-- don't know his birth name- SHACK THOMAS (impressed) He's comin here? He calls to the porters further up the platform- SHACK THOMAS Yo, Nat! Guitar Sam get on this train? NAT Naw, man. He's in the hospital back in Little Rock. TY Hospital? 72. NAT You know music folks- whatever he was doin, he must have done too much of it. The porters LAUGH. Shack, realizing this must be a setback for Ty, pats his shoulder before he steps onto the train- SHACK THOMAS Well, brother- maybe he be in tomorrow. We FOLLOW Ty away from the train as Nat calls `All aboard!' and the engine gathers power. Possum sits listening to the single SLIDE NOTES he plays, as if tuning his guitar- POSSUM Somebody didn't show up. TY (grim) Wish they'd made you dumb instead of blind. We HOLD on Possum, cackling darkly, as Ty walks away. The train WHISTLE BLOWS-51 INT. HONEYDRIPPER - DAY 51 A torn and crumpled Guitar Sam POSTER lays on the bar counter. FINGERS move on the keyboard. Ty sits drinking, brooding, PLAYING and SINGING softly at the piano. Maceo is at the bar- TY Well I had my fun if I Don't get well no more Well I had my fun if I Don't get well no more My head is spinnin And I'm goin down slow- MACEO Man don't take care of hisself- out drinkin and jazzin the women every night- 73. TY Don't make any difference now. MACEO Got so bad, I heard there was some ole boy goes around pretendin to be Guitar Sam, fill out the gigs he misses. Does pretty well for hisself, what I hear-Ty pauses on the keyboard- TY Somebody we could find? MACEO (shrugs) Hell, I don't know. Just a story I heard.They both go back to brooding. Ty takes a drink. He staresat the keyboard- TY There must have been a first one. MACEO First what? TY Back slavery days, they had the ones that worked in the big house. Might not of had shoes always, but their pants didn't have no holes and they didn't pick no cotton. MACEO House niggers. TY That's how they called em. They must of had all their African kinda instruments- drums, shakers, some kind of banjo thing- but the piano- MACEO Didn't bring no piano over on them ships from Africa. 74. TY The piano was just sittin there in the white folks' big room, all polished up-- and I figure this one boy, he goes past fifteen, twenty times a day, running the corner of his eye over it. And he's there when they play, the masters, doin all their minuets and whatever-Ty PLAYS something like a MINUET- TY -him standing there with a tray of white people food pretendin not to have a thought in his head, might be only some dust hangin in the air for all they know- but he's watchin the fingers, see, watchin them keys work. This old boy, the first one, he can play alla them Africa kinda instruments, he can play mud if you give him the key and the tempo, he's got music in his head, in his heart, in every damn piece of him there's music. MACEO Down to the bones-- TY And one day the masters is away, huntin foxes or some rich white people thing they get up to, and he's alone in the room with that piano and he comes over and sits down on the bench- MACEO Watch out now- TY -and he spreads his fingers out the way he seen the minuet player do- and he-Ty hits a MINOR CHORD, lets it decay- TY And he thinks- `Lord help me, I could do some damage with this.' 75.A silence. Maceo is moved by the scene- MACEO Would have liked to been there. I mean to hear the cat play, not none of the rest of it.Ty gets up and crosses the room with his drink in his hand,distraught. This is the end for Ty, no strategies left,nothing but the bitter taste of total defeat- TY Mace, Imonna lose my club. MACEO Old Man Toussaint finds out you stole his liquor, you like to lose more than that- TY I got no more cards to play- MACEO Maybe if you was to go down, see Lucky Hardaway in person- TY (angry) I aint kissin up to no cokey-nose, conk-headed-WHAP! He kicks Sonny's guitar case, left sticking out undera table, and sends it spinning across the floor till itCRASHES into the bar and flips open. Ty and Maceo stare atthe contents- TY What the hell that sposed to be?Maceo pulls out a home-built SOLID BODY GUITAR, a paintedwhite rectangle with a complicated PICKUP jury-rigged overthe strings and yards of ELECTRICAL CORD hanging off it- MACEO Some kind of guitar. TY A guitar has got a hole in it, that's where the sound comes from. That boy must be bout three bricks shy of a load upstairs.China Doll rushes in, upset- 76. CHINA DOLL They gone and arrest him! TY Arrested who? CHINA DOLL Sonny. The high Sheriff arrested him and sold him over to Judge Gatlin. TY Who's Sonny? CHINA DOLL Sonny that was here yesterday morning. TY Sonny that got a screw loose is why they arrested him. Maceo, make a noise on that-Maceo plucks a string. Not much of a sound- MACEO It's electric- TY I plug a chunk of stove wood into the wall I get more music out of it than that mess gonna make. MACEO Naw, man, it don't work unless it's hooked up to the juice, see? You got the juice, you don't need the hollow inside the box, the music just runs straight from the strings through this wire and comes out-He dumps the sack Sonny brought out and outs falls a mass oftubes and wires, also home-modified- MACEO -your amplifier. Which is what this thing must be. CHINA DOLL Sonny said he fix radios in the Army. 77. TY Sonny didn't do nothin but feed bedbugs in anybody's Army, and some of em crawled in his head. Surprised if that boy got the wit to pick cotton. Judge Gatlin bought himself a droolin idiot. What you want to amplify a damn guitar for anyway? CHINA DOLL Daddy- TY Less you gonna sit over on your chair and play them little Charley Christian kind of riffs- MACEO A sideman- TY Sit over there and be all clean and polite. Guitar hasn't been up front since them old piss and moan blues shouters, sit their blind asses on the corner hollerin for pennies- MACEO Old time music- CHINA DOLL Daddy, Sonny didn't do nothin to be arrested for! He was just lookin for work. MACEO They hung colored boys for less than that, darlin. Least on the work gang they feed em, keep their strength up. CHINA DOLL But he doesn't belong there!Maceo turns the guitar over in his hands- MACEO You know, Guitar Sam plays him an electric, but I don't think it's this no-hole kind of deal. 78. TY I hope he plugs it in the wrong socket some night, lectrocutes his sorry no-show ass!Ty has a thought. He looks over at the guitar in Maceo'shands- TY (thinking out loud) Now if he did show up here-- and our power was to go out again while he was playing- MACEO (O.S.) I think I fixed it good this time, Ty.Ty smiles- TY So he come out and plugs his ax in- MACEO He come out lookin good, from what I hear. All kind of spangly pants and jacket, got his name spelled out on the back- TY Clothes, right- MACEO Hair all slick and shiny, flash some gold teeth at them gals, got his sax man behind him, maybe a piano, harmonica, drums- TY You remember that night the lights went out in the Esquire Club in Mobile? MACEO (smiles) And somebody took off with the gate? Stole the whole damn register off the counter- TY They didn't hold it against Reggie Porter, did they? 79. MACEO Naw- it was his place that got robbed. TY Didn't hold it against him, didn't expect no money back for the show- MACEO They all too busy diving on the pot of that tonk game got interrupted- TY And nobody suspected it might be Reggie Porter hisself that pulled them lights, did they? Maceo begins to see where Ty is leading- MACEO Aw, no, Ty, we can't- Ty claps his hands together, jumps up and heads for the door- TY China Doll, you mind the place while we're gone! (to Maceo) Come on, man, we got work to do. CHINA DOLL Where you going, Daddy? TY I promise the people Guitar Sam, they gonna get Guitar Sam!52 INT. SHERIFF'S OFFICE 52 We start on a portrait of Governor Big Jim Folsom on the wall, then TILT DOWN to Sheriff Pugh, feet up on the desk, a table-top FAN pointed at him, looking up at Ty- SHERIFF PUGH Why you interested in this boy? TY Got a job for him. SHERIFF PUGH Must be doin pretty good for yourself out there, Tyrone, you hirin new people on. 80. TY Passing well, yeah- SHERIFF PUGH But this boy- TY Name is Sonny- SHERIFF PUGH He's payin off his debt to society right now, and if I was to pull him out of the field it would cost the county- TY Judge Gatlin payin three a day for prison labor. SHERIFF PUGH You gonna pay me four for the duration of his sentence? TY Which might be- ? SHERIFF PUGH -as long as I care to make it. TY Well, I was counting on more of a one-time deal- if I could just rent him out for the weekend- SHERIFF PUGH Fifty dollars.Ty looks stricken- SHERIFF PUGH It's not just the money. There's legalistic principles involved here. Public safety issues- TY I pay you Sunday morning? SHERIFF PUGH You pay me now or you forget about it. TY I don't have it now. 81. SHERIFF PUGH You think you too smart for the rest of us, don't you, Tyrone? Think you can go it by yourself.He puts his feet down and sits forward, drilling Ty with hiseyes- SHERIFF PUGH You'd rather eat roofin nails than come to me for a favor- TY It's not a favor if I got to pay- SHERIFF PUGH Oh, you gonna pay all right. You don't hand me that money Sunday mornin, you got yourself a new partner. Same deal as I got with Toussaint. How'd that be?Ty considers. He doesn't have any options- TY (deadpan) You'll get the fifty. SHERIFF PUGH (smiles) And that wife of yours- TY (wary) Delilah- SHERIFF PUGH Them fried chicken sandwiches- if I was to come by, now and then, check up on my interests- TY She be happy to fix you whatever you want. SHERIFF PUGH My wife's cookin would gag a maggot. TY Different people got different kinds of talents.Sheriff Pugh heaves himself to his feet- 82. SHERIFF PUGH Lurleen aint discovered what hers is yet. Let's go fetch that boy.53 EXT. 2ND COTTON FIELD - DAY - SHOTGUN 53 A SHOTGUN in a deputy's arms- POV - PICKERS Faces dripping sweat, prison gang pickers stoop to their work- TY Ty stands by his beat-up old Ford at the side of the road, watching, remembering. A few of the PRISON LABORERS look up, curious, as Sonny is led over- DEPUTY This the one? Ty nods, looks to Sonny- TY You got any ideas about turning rabbit on me, you best get rid of em now. SONNY You payin my way out? TY Till Monday. SONNY How come? They get INTO THE CAR- TY You like draggin that cotton sack? SONNY No. TY Then don't ask questions. 83. Ty pulls away, leaving the less fortunate stooped in the field-54 INT. SEWING ROOM - NADINE 54 MUSIC plays on the RADIO as Nadine masterfully works her SEWING MACHINE and Maceo stands by uneasily. He holds up the denim jacket Sonny left at the club- MACEO This size, right, but it's got to shine. NADINE And when you need this? MACEO Tonight. NADINE (considers) That's a tall order. MACEO It's got to happen. NADINE (fishing) You know, I do my best work, my fastest work, when I'm happy. MACEO Yeah, I spose you do- Nadine looks up at him from the sewing machine- NADINE You gone make me happy, baby? Maceo nervously makes for the door- MACEO Uhm- you come by the club tonight, we havin a special show. Tell em at the door you my guest- NADINE Food aint the only thing a woman needs three times a day. MACEO (mutters) Wouldn't hurt you to skip a few meals. 84. NADINE What's that, baby? Maceo turns at the open door- MACEO Boy's gonna need time to try that jacket on- see how it feels. Later, Nadine- He is gone-55 INT. HONEYDRIPPER - DAY 55 Ty and China Doll stand looking at Sonny as he sits on a bar stool- TY You got to do somethin with this boy's head, darlin. They might not know what the real Sam look like, but it aint this. CHINA DOLL I can try. China Doll looks through the beauty products she's piled up nearby- SONNY And what exactly I'm supposed to do? TY You gone stand up there with that contraption you got an play Guitar Sam numbers. SONNY Hell, I do that with my eyes closed. TY We could get the audience to close theirs we be better off. MACEO (O.S.) Ty- Maceo pops his head in the front door- 85. MACEO I tracked Mr. Trenier down- TY Let's hit it.Ty leaves to join Maceo- CHINA DOLL Bye, Daddy.China Doll is a little nervous to be left alone with Sonny.She puts her comb in her hand and walks around Sonny,examining his hair while he examines her face- SONNY You know what you're doing? CHINA DOLL I fix Mama's hair all the time. SONNY But you aint been to that school yet. CHINA DOLL You go to school to learn your guitar? SONNY (laughs) No.China Doll steps behind the bar- CHINA DOLL I might pick up some new things at beauty school but mostly it's for my certificate, and that is `a ticket to adventure'- that's what it says in the brochure. People lookin for beauty all over the world.Sonny sees the LOOSE WIRES that come through the wall behindthe bar. China Doll searches around- SONNY You want to watch out for them wires sticking down- don't look safe. 86. CHINA DOLL (shrugs) Yeah- power's always going out, people getting shocks and whatnot- SONNY Somebody ought to fix it.She searches under the counter for something- CHINA DOLL `A career in beauty is like money in the bank.' Says that in the brochure too. Plus it isn't physically taxin. SONNY Yeah, I can't see no pretty thing like you behind a plow. CHINA DOLL I had the rheumatic fever when I was little, left me with a weak heart. SONNY Oh. Mine been actin funny too- since I laid eyes on you.She acknowledges his flirting with a little smile and comesup with a MASON JAR full of clear LIQUID- SONNY What's that? CHINA DOLL Just some ole moonshine they keep around.China Doll crosses back to Sonny- SONNY (concerned) What you gonna do with it? CHINA DOLL They always joke about how this stuff'll straighten your hair right out-She twists the lid off, sniffs the liquid, reacts to itsstrength- 87. CHINA DOLL Imonna just make yours relax a little.56 INT. PARLOR 56 TIME TRENIER, an older musician with a permanently stoic expression, sits watching his pupil, a YOUNG BOY, torture the SCALES with a CORNET. He glances up at Ty and Maceo, trying not to plug their ears as the boy continues to PLAY- MACEO Mr. Time Trenier- that's a name to be reckoned with. Time doesn't seem to react to the flattery- MACEO Story goes that you used to play with Buddy Bolden. TIME Played with most all of em down there. MACEO And King Oliver- TIME One band falls apart you find yourself another one. Never any shortage of bands, down New Awlins. TY I didn't know you was givin lessons. TIME Pays the rent. Almost. TY You interested in a playin job? TIME Your place? MACEO (tentative) It's uhm- backin up a man on the electric guitar? 88. TIME (shrugs) If you can pay, I can play. TY Got to dress sharp.No need to say this to Time Trenier. You could cut yourselfon the creases on his pants- MACEO It aint like a all-night thing- you just start out and there's gonna be a accident-Ty shoots Maceo a look- TIME Accident. TY Sudden loss of power. Lights out. TIME (shrugs again) It's your gig, man. TY Eight o'clock. This aint colored people time and it sure aint New Awlins time. I mean eight o'clock on the money. TIME If you got the green I'm on the scene. TY That's a deal then. MACEO You know any drummers? TIME (nods) I'll bring you one. TY Nothin fancy, he just got to keep time- TIME Time is my name.Ty and Maceo wince as the kid hits a particularly SOUR NOTE- 89.57 EXT. COUNTRY ROAD, 2ND COTTON FIELD - LATE AFTERNOON 57 The free pickers are lined up at the side of the road- CLOSER A white CLERK sits behind a wooden table in front of the transport truck and pulls cash from a METAL BOX, consulting a thick LEDGER in front of him as he pays the pickers off. Sheriff Pugh observes, his patrol car parked nearby. Ham has come to the head of the line, Junebug behind him- CLERK Twenny-four, twenny-five, twenny- six, twenny-seven, twenny-eight. Make your mark here- HAM (softly) Owe me thirty. CLERK Book says twenny-eight. HAM Dollar fifty every hundred pound, and I picked- CLERK Two dollars deducted for stones. HAM I didn't put no stones in the sack. CLERK We mill the cotton, there's always stones. HAM But there wasn't none in my sack- CLERK We take off two dollars a week, always have. Aint that right, Junebug? Junebug knows it's useless to complain- JUNEBUG Yes suh. Been that way my whole life. 90.Ham is furious but has nowhere to go with it- SHERIFF PUGH You gonna take your pay, son, or give it up to charity?Ham swipes his pay off the table, stalks away. Sheriff Pughglares after him.We FOLLOW Ham as he crosses to the rear of the truck. Dexsits on the tailgate, grinning at him- DEX Wouldn't let nobody mess with my money like that. HAM They took the same two dollars off yours. DEX Yeah, and you could pave a highway with the rocks I threw in that mess.He catches the eye of Lucille, standing nearby- DEX You country nigros let the crackers run you like dogs-SNATCH! Ham grabs Dex by the shirt front and yanks himclose, hissing in fury- HAM That sheriff wasn't here I'd snap your neck, boy. SHERIFF PUGH (O.S.) Don't let me stop you.Ham turns to see Sheriff Pugh standing behind him, a wrysmile on his face- SHERIFF PUGH But first you gonna sign that ledger like you sposed to. Don't want nobody cryin they didn't get their due. 91.58 INT. HONEYDRIPPER - DAY 58 Ty is repairing the little STAGE with hammer and nails- SONNY (O.S.) Mr. Purvis? TY (doesn't look up) People call me Ty or they call me Pinetop. Mr. Pinetop to you. SONNY (O.S.) I just wanted to tell you- I preciate the opportunity. Ty looks up to see Sonny with his hair pressed under a tight cap made from an old STOCKING- TY Right. SONNY I know ever one of Guitar Sam's songs- know the chords, know the words- TY That's fine. Sonny begins to stroll around the edge of the club, looking at PHOTOS and SHOWBILLS on the walls- SONNY China Doll said how you was famous once. Ty is pleased at his step-daughter's bragging, but doesn't show it- TY I was known, but I was never what you call famous. SONNY How'd you get your start? Ty sighs, sits back from his work- 92. TY Down in Mobile there was an old cathouse professor name of Joe Dudlow, had had a stroke on one side, curled him all up- but he kept on pluggin. I used to come out and play his left hand for him. SONNY How old you were? TY (shrugs) Thirteen, fourteen. This one night it was goin hot and heavy and Joe just passed, right there at the piano, in the middle of Black Bottom Stomp. They propped him up at the bar, stuck a drink in his hand, and told me to keep poundin them ivories. (shakes his head) There was a meanness hanging over them juke joints, there was murder in the air. You stopped playin for a minute, it come down like a flock of crows.Sonny stops by a poster for the `REGINALD ERSKINE BANDfeaturing Tyrone "Pinetop" Purvis'- SONNY This is you- TY Big band days, on the road. If a railroad train run through it, we played it. SONNY (reading) `Reginald Erskine'. Don't believe I ever heard of him- TY Big tall light-skin fella out of Carolina, said he's part Cherokee. Couldn't play nothin, but he waved his little stick and had this long greasy hair he throw around like Cab Calloway. SONNY And you were the piano man. 93. TY Piano man, arranger, you name it. SONNY That must of been somethin, see the country first class. TY I don't know about first class, but we seen the country. SONNY How come you stopped? TY (shrugs) Got tired of carrying another man's water. Didn't want to die in no colored hotel some night in Who-Knows-Where Arkansas. He bangs the last nail in- TY Met Delilah and wanted something of my own. SONNY Well you don't have nothing to worry about, Mr. Pinetop. I won't let you down tonight. Ty looks at Sonny, considers telling him what the plan is- TY No- I don't spose you will. Ty gets up and goes into the back. Sonny crosses to the tangle of wires coming out of the wall behind the counter and snaking off in every direction. He grabs hold of one, thinking-59 INT. PURVIS HOUSE - KITCHEN 59 Delilah is in her kitchen, HUMMING a GOSPEL SONG to herself, apron on as she begins to make a pie. She pulls a METAL FLOUR CANNISTER down from the shelf, flips the lid off- about half full. She starts to scoop flour out from it and something falls out- a small CLOTH PURSE. She picks it up to put it aside, then frowns at the way it feels. She shakes flour off, unzips it- 94. Nothing inside.60 INT. HONEYDRIPPER - BACK ROOM 60 Maceo loads bottles of beer into the ICEBOX, wincing as the sounds of a SCREAMING ARGUMENT blast in from the bar- DELILAH (O.S.) How could you do that? TY (O.S.) Imonna put that back and double- DELILAH (O.S.) You don't go gamblin with my baby's money! TY (O.S.) I had to send off the advance pay or the man don't come and play- DELILAH (O.S.) I don't care what you took it for, I saved that money up for China Doll- Delilah bursts through the swinging door into the back room, pursued by Ty, trying to explain- DELILAH -and you got no business puttin your fingers on it! TY China Doll don't need any school, baby, she could walk into one of them shops right this minute and get a job! DELILAH There's got to be some line you won't cross, some thing you won't do- TY The world starts throwin me breaks, woman, maybe I'll catch religion and walk the straight and narrow like them Bible thumpers you sit up with, but till that day, I- 95. DELILAH Reverend Cutlip is right about you! WHAM! Delilah slams the back door as she storms out. Ty turns and CRACK! kicks an empty crate halfway across the floor before stomping out to the bar. Maceo opens a beer with the church-key hanging from the icebox handle, takes a gulp and sits to ponder this new development-61 INT. BEDROOM - OPAL - EARLY EVENING 61 We hear the revival meeting CHOIR SINGING an upbeat number as Opal, dressed for Saturday night, checks herself out in a spotted, cracked MIRROR and works on her make-up- CHOIR (V.O.) You got to choose Got to choose tween the fire and the Light62 EXT. TOWN - LUTHER - EARLY EVENING 62 MUSIC CONTINUES. Luther struts around a corner in the black section of town, dressed up to party. Behind him we see a half-dozen other YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN, all decked out, moving toward the railroad tracks- CHOIR (V.O.) You got to choose Got to choose tween the fire and the Light All you sinners Got to choose tween the fire and the Light63 INT. ARMY BARRACKS - EARLY EVENING 63 MUSIC CONTINUES. A trio of BLACK PRIVATES share a mirror, spiffing up their uniforms to go out on leave- CHOIR (V.O.) No earthly love Is gonna make it right! You got to choose- 96.64 INT. WORKERS HOUSING - EARLY EVENING 64 MUSIC CONTINUES. Dex, dressed to go out, pulls a SHOEBOX out from under the cot he sits on. He lifts the lid to reveal an old .38 PISTOL- CHOIR (V.O.) Got to choose tween the world and the Lord You got to choose Got to choose tween the world and the Lord65 EXT. WORKERS HOUSING - EARLY EVENING 65 MUSIC CONTINUES. We TRACK toward the barracks-like housing for itinerant workers as PICKERS come out, cleaned up and ready to celebrate- CHOIR (V.O.) All you sinners Got to choose tween the world and the Lord Ham walks alone. We see him stuff his ROLL of single dollar BILLS into one pocket, tuck a FOLDING KNIFE into the other. He passes a telephone pole and we HOLD on the Guitar Sam POSTER tacked up on it- CHOIR (V.O.) Train is leavin Better jump on board!66 EXT. REVIVAL TENT - EVENING 66 Delilah arrives at the revival tent, the CHOIR already SINGING- CHOIR You got to kneel Got to kneel for the Savior and pray You got to kneel Got to kneel for the Savior and pray 97.67 EXT. HONEYDRIPPER - EVENING 67 MUSIC CONTINUES. The BLUE LIGHTS of the SIGN come on. PEOPLE fill the yard in front, heading into the Honeydripper. Metalmouth collects COVER CHARGE at the door, MONEY passing hands- CHOIR (V.O.) All you sinners Got to kneel for the Savior and pray Aint no hidin From the Judgement Day!68 INT. HONEYDRIPPER - EVENING 68 Maybe fifty people are in the club already, mostly LOCALS and HARVEST HANDS, with more arriving all the time- Ty stands watching the crowd, tense, not at all confident that any of his scheme is going to work- A group of twenty of the black SOLDIERS from the base step in- Maceo comes over and lays a hand on his shoulder- MACEO Natives gettin restless. TY How we doing? MACEO We gonna be full up. But the food- Delilah comin in? Ty's expression gives him the answer- TY What if I lost her? MACEO She won't let you down, Ty- TY This aint gonna work, is it? MACEO We just got to play it out and see- 98. DEX (calling) Guitar Sam! They look out at the growing crowd. Ty is grim- TY See if you can push another round of drinks while I stall em. MACEO Then you gonna bring him out? Dex is joined by several OTHERS in the club, calling out- DEX AND OTHERS Sam! We come to hear the guitar man play! Guitar Sam! TY You be on those wires. Give him three bars and then you pull it. MACEO I got a baseball bat under the counter, but you out here all alone- TY Just get the liquor movin, Mace, and keep that money where you can run with it.69 EXT. REVIVAL TENT - NIGHT 69 Reverend Cutlip holds forth under the LANTERN LIGHT- REVEREND CUTLIP The Lord don't want nobody to sit back suffering! He wants you to stand up! He wants you to rise up! He wants you to step forward! He wants you rush down into the merciful arms of His eternal salvation! Many of the congregation are up on their feet, clapping and testifying- REVEREND CUTLIP Is there anyone out here tonight gonna answer His call? Is there anyone out here tonight gonna come forward and be saved? 99. DELILAH Delilah is standing, tears running down her cheeks, filled with the emotion of the moment- REVEREND CUTLIP The fire is heatin up, Brothers and Sisters, and Judgement Day is nigh! Aint no time to hesitate, you got to come on down and take Him into your heart! Delilah starts to walk down the aisle- REVEREND CUTLIP That's right- come on down! They no turning back now- feel the Lord's hand at your back- got to leave all them sinners behind! Delilah stops in the middle of the aisle, trembling, unsure- REVEREND CUTLIP (sees her) You got a voice in your heart, Sister- that's the Lord talking! You hear him? Delilah starts to nod her head, weeping- REVEREND CUTLIP That voice telling you where you need to be right now! You just got to move your feet and get there!70 INT. HONEYDRIPPER - BACK ROOM - NIGHT 70 China Doll fusses with Sonny's hair after he hangs his guitar, dangling with electrical hookups, over his head- CHINA DOLL You look good. Ty steps back in with them, wiping sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief. He looks Sonny over- his hair slick and shiny, the outfit Nadine sewed up for him tight and sparkling- TY (impressed) Damn- 100. CHINA DOLL He looks good, doesn't he Daddy? TY Honey, I want you to get right by that front door and take over collectin the cover charge. And if anything should happen- like go wrong or something- you just step out and walk away from the club, hear? CHINA DOLL What's gonna go wrong? TY Oh- our Guitar Sam here gets them soldier boys jumping it could get a little rough- just be on your toes, that's all. CHINA DOLL Okay.She starts away- TY China Doll- CHINA DOLL Yeah? TY You know there aint a thing in this world I wouldn't do for you. Even if I mess up sometimes, you know that, right?China Doll looks at him, not sure what brought this on, butpleased to hear it. The CALLS for Guitar Sam grow LOUDERfrom the floor- CHINA DOLL I know that, Daddy. TY You go on, now.China Doll exits and Ty looks back to Sonny- TY Well, you look like something might of come outa New Orleans- 101. SONNY I forget to tell you- I fixed your hook-up. TY My what? SONNY Where the electricity comes in? It was all- MACEO (O.S.) Ty! They turn to see Maceo stepping in, concerned- MACEO We got a situation out there- TY You don't think I know that? MACEO Got the law in the house.71 INT. HONEYDRIPPER - BARROOM 71 Sheriff Pugh stands near the piano, putting a considerable damper on the mood in the room. Ty hurries out to him, with a panic-stricken smile on his face- TY Didn't think we'd be seeing you so soon! SHERIFF PUGH (looking around) Got a nice crowd in here tonight, Tyrone. See them army uniforms- TY Yeah, well we got ourselves this special attraction, see, and- SHERIFF PUGH Chicken. TY Huh? 102. SHERIFF PUGH Them ribs outside smell real good, but I got my heart set on some of your Delilah's fried chicken. TY Right- SHERIFF PUGH She made it last Saturday at the mayor's but ole Clayford Gentry was up from Eufala and he got the drumsticks.Sheriff Pugh is distracted for a moment as Opal and the girlsfrom the store step in, dressed to the nines, drinking up theeyeball action from the pickers and soldiers- SHERIFF PUGH I'm partial to dark meat. TY See, the thing is- SHERIFF PUGH She is back there cookin, aint she? Our agreement was- TY The situation we got, Sheriff, what with this special guest come up from Louisiana- what it means is- uhm-Ty has nothing, the crowd is starting to CHANT for Guitar Samagain. He wipes his forehead- TY Maybe if you were to come back in- DELILAH Regular or spicy?Delilah is there, smiling at Pugh, pulling her coat off- DELILAH They both take the same time to fix up, I just got to know which.Ty and Delilah exchange a long look- 103. SHERIFF PUGH Have to make mine regular. I like the spicy fine but it always come back to nip me later.She shoots a look to Ty- DELILAH It's important not to bite off more than you can chew. (to Pugh) Yall just make yourself at home.She kisses Ty on the cheek and heads for the kitchen- DELILAH Good luck tonight, baby. SHERIFF PUGH Slap some maynaise on it!Ty smiles, his nerves all gone now- TY (pointing) Might want to wait over there, Sheriff. Don't want to scare off the customers-A CHEER from the crowd. Sonny has wandered uncertainly outonto the stage! TY Oh Lord-Ty runs up to his microphone, shoots a look to the bar-Maceo is pouring a scotch with one hand, the other wrappedaround the wires coming out of the wall. He nods to Ty-Sonny starts to hook his guitar up with a thick COIL OF WIRE,then into the dented AMP sitting on a wooden chair beside himand pointed out at the crowd. Metalmouth Sims looks onuncomfortably. Ty puts on his biggest grin, easing behindthe keyboard- TY So here's what you all been waitin for, people, the noted performer and recordin star- 104.ENTRANCE - TIME AND YOUNG HENRYTime Trenier strolls in with his sax still in its case, haton his head, exuding his no-sweat attitude. Beside him isYOUNG HENRY, a kid who can't be more than 14, wearing afedora- TY (O.S.) -direct from New Orleans, Louisiana-STAGE TY -Guitar Sam!!!!A TERRIBLE SQUAWK emits from the amp as Sonny makes theconnection-Sheriff Pugh cover his ears-The girls from the store cover their ears, making painedfaces-Sonny pulls his guitar away from the amp and the SQUAWKsettles to a FUZZY BUZZ. Sonny frowns at the amp- SONNY Sorry, folks- must of got kicked on the train.The audience is stone-faced. Could this really be the man?Young Henry steps up and sits behind the DRUM KIT, pullingsticks from inside his shirt-Ty closes his eyes, begins to shake his head in defeat-China Doll looks worried, collecting another cover charge atthe door-Delilah steps out from the kitchen and looks to the stage,worried-Sonny holds his arms out wide, shifting his body to get theBUZZ under control-Dex leans to talk in Junebug's ear- DEX What's this fool playin at? 105.Maceo isn't going to wait to find out. He grabs the wireswith both hands, yanks- they hold firm! He looks to thestage, panicked--as Sonny brings his fingers to the strings and the ampBLASTS the room with a long, trip-hammering, spine-shivering,ELECTRIC GUITAR INTRO!Ty stands at the piano with his mouth hanging open-Sonny WHOOPS and leans into his microphone- SONNY Gonna hold may baby as tight as I can Tonight she'll know I'm a mighty man! Have you heard the news? There's good rockin tonight!Sonny looks over to Ty, who catches himself and begins toplay along. Young Henry is impassive as he plays a fastshuffle on the skins-Ty looks over to Maceo, half-climbing the wall as he tries topull the wires out. Maceo sees Ty, who waves him off- SONNY Have you heard the news? There's good rockin tonight!Delilah smiles and presses her hands together, shooting alook upward- DELILAH Thank you, Jesus.Time Trenier has his case open now, the gleaming instrumentin one hand, squinting at the mouthpiece as he holds it up tothe light with the other- SONNY Meet me at midnight behind the barn Don't you worry I'll do you no harmThe crowd is already CLAPPING and STOMPING in time with thesong. Henry starts to hit the two and the four beat hard tokeep time- SONNY Make sure to bring my rockin shoes Tonight I'm gonna rock away all of my blues! 106. Time Trenier screws the mouthpiece on, puts his horn to his lips and BLOWS right on the beat to take the sax break, walking through the parting crowd to the bandstand! Junebug grabs Opal's hand and they begin to DANCE a modified jitterbug, people spreading to give them room- Sheriff Pugh, hands still over his ears, sits in a corner paying special attention to Opal's hip action- As Time continues to blow, stepping up onto the stage, Sonny keeps urging Metalmouth Sims to come closer to his microphone with the harmonica. Sims is hesitant but Sonny keeps waving- closer, closer- Metalmouth shoots a nervous look to Ty, who nods from the piano, so he butts his harp smack against the microphone, takes a deep breath and HONKS his soul out, grabbing the break from Time! The audience goes wild, a half-dozen couples dancing now, others clapping and finger-popping and jumping to the beat where they stand. Sonny shakes out the long CORD attached to his guitar- China Doll is trying to keep collecting from the new CUSTOMERS pressing in the door and dance at the same time, thrilled by the music. Lonnie and Scratch sneak in behind her as she turns toward the bandstand- Metalmouth wraps up his break and Sonny takes over with the guitar again, making it WAIL as he hops off the stage, steps up on a chair, then onto the bar counter! He walks the length of the bar, playing his ass off, hops down at the far end, grins at China Doll and heads out through the door, dragging extension cord behind! Lonnie and Scratch hurry to pull slack for him as he steps out into the NIGHT-72 EXT. ACE OF SPADES - NIGHT 72 Ham and a few other pickers stand outside Toussaint's, beers in hand, staring across toward the Honeydripper as Sonny steps out PLAYING with a CROWD behind him- HAM What the hell is that? Sonny steps out into the middle of the crossroads and plays, a CAR stopping short of running him over. 107. He hops up on the hood and keeps playing, a TRUCK from the other direction stopping to blast him with its HEADLIGHTS. Sonny indicates with his guitar neck to the CROWD emptying out of Toussaint's that he wants them to follow, then hops down onto a big picker's back and is carried back in to the Honeydripper, still playing- HAM We got to check that out! A couple dozen patrons move away with him. We HOLD on the doorway as OLD MAN TOUSSAINT comes out to look, puzzled and angry-73 INT. HONEYDRIPPER - NIGHT 73 Time and Metalmouth SING into the same microphone as Sonny plays his way back up to the stage- TIME AND METALMOUTH Have you heard the news? There's good rockin tonight- Have you heard the news? There's good rockin tonight- We FOLLOW as Maceo hustles back and forth, trying to keep up with orders for ribs, bring cold beers out from the icebox, etc. He suddenly stops in his tracks- Nadine stands before him, looking fatally sexy in a SATIN DRESS she no doubt made herself. MACEO Oh my soul. NADINE Don't tire yourself out, Poppa. You an me got bidness together. MACEO I believe we do. He hurries past with his arms full of beer, pivoting to check her out from another angle- Dex sees across the room, frowns- Ham is talking to Lucille at the bar, leaning in close to be heard over the music- 108. SONNY I heard the news- There's good rockin tonight!Sonny finishes with a squawking chord and the joint goes wild-CHEERING, WHISTLING, STOMPING! SONNY Alla you men grab hold of a woman! You can't find a woman, just grab hold of yourselves- we gonna play this one slow and tight.Sonny goes into the intro for Louis Jordan's Blue LightBoogie. Time lays down a steady rock beat with his sax andTy joins in at the piano- SONNY They did the boogie real slow With the blue lights way down low They did the boogie real slow With the blue lights way down lowTy joins him- SONNY AND TY They did the boogie real slow With the blue lights way down lowTy takes the verse- TY I went to a party With a bobby sox I started swingin All she would do was rockAs they join in the chorus, Ty sees-Cool Breeze, strolling in, checking out the action with aproprietary air.Ty looks to Maceo, getting back behind the bar. Maceo seesas well, tightening up-Cool Breeze nods to Ty.A slow, sexy SAX BREAK comes up and Ty leaves the piano tocross to the bar. When he gets there Maceo is alreadycounting out a huge pile of BILLS- 109. MACEO Hundred forty-two, forty-three, forty-four, five, six, seven, eight, nine- hundred fifty. And they's another fifty in here-Maceo thunks a heavy CLOTH SACK full of change onto thecountertop- MACEO Lucky Hardaway don't mind some change, does he?Cool Breeze doesn't even glance at the money, hard-eying Tyinstead- COOL BREEZE What if Mr. Hardaway was to say let the chumps keep their change, he wants the club back one way or the other?Maceo looks to Ty, who remains impassive, mind working- COOL BREEZE How'd that be? TY Well- he'd have to take it up with my bidness partner.Ty shifts and we RACK FOCUS to see across the room to SheriffPugh, receiving his sack of chicken and white bread fromDelilah. Ty smiles and waves-Cool Breeze reconsiders his terms- COOL BREEZE That sheriff your partner? TY (sighs) Yeah, and he's twice as mean as he is ugly.Cool Breeze grins, scoops up the bills on the counter- COOL BREEZE You must want this club awful bad, brother.Cool Breeze hefts the sack of change, shoots a look to thestage and leans over to speak into Ty's ear- 110. COOL BREEZE You maybe know this already, but that aint no Guitar Sam.He steps away just as the song ends to APPLAUSE, Ty taking adeep sigh of relief. Sonny steps up to the microphone tointroduce the next song- TOUSSAINT (O.S.) You is a lie!A shocked silence.The audience makes way for Old Man Toussaint to cometottering up to the foot of the stage. He points a bonyfinger at Sonny- TOUSSAINT You is a lie, boy! I known Sammy since he's drinkin mama's milk, hell, I known his Mama herself when she live up to Plaquemine- and you aint him!The audience looks to Sonny for his defense-Ty holds his breath. Maceo brings the baseball bat up frombehind the bar.Sonny just smiles- SONNY That's Creole Guitar Sam you talkin bout, Pops. I'm Delta Guitar Sam.Toussaint ponders this a moment, then huffs- TOUSSAINT As long as we straight on that. JUNEBUG Get on outa there and let the man play!A CHORUS of CRIES to the same effect, and Sonny crosses backto his microphone- SONNY Imonna play you one I come up with today while I was havin my hair cut-He starts into a bouncy INTRO that Metalmouth joins in with,then starts to SING as the crowd starts to dance and clap- 111. SONNY Oh China Doll Can't get you offa my mind! Oh China Doll I can't get you offa my mind! If you be my baby Gonna leave all them others behind!The front row is all girls goggling at Sonny, instantgroupies- but we RACK to China Doll, transfixed, as she isdrawn toward the stage- SONNY Oh China Doll Think about you day and night! Oh China Doll I think about you day and night! Can't forget you baby Oh when you gonna treat me right?Time Trenier steps in for a growling SAX BREAK-TYTy looks around the crowded, rocking room-POV - SHERIFF PUGHThe Sheriff makes his way through the crowd and out the door.The last person he passes turns toward Ty-Possum?But then DANCERS cross in front and he is gone.TYTy frowns, troubled. Under the sax now we hear a dissonantSLIDE GUITAR, the haunting notes Possum was playing at thetrain station. Ty searches the crowd-POVThe SLIDE GUITAR continues underneath as we PAN across thecrowd dancing-There's Possum again, at the bar, face turned toward Ty. 112. TY We TIGHTEN on TY. Why is he here? POV - POSSUM Possum turns his head slowly, fixes on something, and we PAN to see Dex and Ham standing toe-to-toe, snarling into each other's face. We PUNCH IN tighter and tighter on the young men, body language telling us a fight is about to break out- ECU TY Ty desperately pushes his way across the crowded floor to reach them and the FLASHBACKS come again, the SAX MUSIC growing echoey and menacing- INT. BAR - NIGHT - FLASHBACK74 74 The shaky perspective and over-saturated colors again, tight on the men struggling, the Girl cowering, then Young Tyrone twisting the Guitar Man's wrist and thrusting, again and again, hugging close to him, then pulled away and the- -KNIFE falls to the floor, BLOODY, and the- -Guitar Man falls to his hands and knees, his stomach a bloody mess, crawling on all fours and HOWLING and Young Tyrone watching in horror as he is held back by many arms and the Girl SCREAMING- INT. HONEYDRIPPER - NIGHT - (PRESENT)75 75 -which becomes Time BLOWING HIS SAX into the microphone- -and Dex reaches for his pistol- -and Ham reaches for his knife, but- -a huge, strong hand clamps down on Dex's wrist- -and another huge hand grabs Ham's wrist! Ty is there, clamping onto them with a grip of iron. 113.A lighter, bouncier ELECTRIC GUITAR RIFF has replaced the saxnow. Ty looks deep into the eyes of the two surprisedpickers- TY Yall in my house, here, gentlemen. Don't have no fightin, don't have no killin, don't have none of that dismal nonsense in my house. Understand? What's your name son?Dex is shaken by the strength of the grip on his arm- DEX Dex- Dexter Moncrief. TY And you? HAM Hamilton Drinkwater. TY Well, gentlemen, this is the night there won't be no pitiful song written bout you two killin each other. Don't nothin rhyme with `Moncrief' anyhow.Maceo is there now, holding a cardboard BOX in one hand andthe BASEBALL BAT in the other- MACEO Got a problem here? TY These young men seem to brought something in for our collection. MACEO (to Dex) Yours first.Ty gently takes the pistol from Dex, regards it grimly beforelaying it in the box. He turns his attention to Ham- TY Now yours.He takes the knife from Ham, tosses it in the box- TY Yall still need to mess with each other, you go outside and do it. 114. Ty lets go of their wrists- TY This world is full of people got no use for us, like to see us in the grave. We don't need to give em any help. The two give each other a final dirty look and move away into opposite corners- STAGE Sonny keeps playing- SONNY Oh China Doll Got to let you into my heart! Oh China Doll Got to let you into my heart! I surrender darlin I loved you from the very start! Ty rushes to the piano, joins in jamming with the other players-76 EXT. CEMETERY - NIGHT 76 Slick sits on a tomb, drinking wine, MOONLIGHT spilling over Bertha Mae's fresh-dug GRAVE. He listens to the MUSIC in the far distance- SLICK Sound like the music movin on again, darlin. The way it always do. He listens for another moment, sighs- SLICK Time to make room for whoever comin next. FADE TO BLACK. 115.77 EXT. HONEYDRIPPER - MORNING 77 The SUN RISES next to the Honeydripper sign. We hear the CROW of a distant ROOSTER. The parking lot is empty but for Ty's old Ford- Ty, exhausted but happy, steps out front. He pastes a SNIPE that says HELD OVER! across the Guitar Sam poster- POSSUM (O.S.) That boy can play some. Ty turns. Possum is on the road, guitar strung over his shoulder, feeling his way with a red-tipped CANE. TY You leavin? POSSUM Aint needed round here no more. TY Where you headed? POSSUM (smiles) Oh-- down the road. Ty watches the blind man move away for a moment. MACEO (O.S.) Tyrone- Ty turns as Maceo steps out, equally tired and unshaven- MACEO Who you talkin to out here? Maceo looks down the road, but Possum is nowhere to be seen. Ty shrugs- TY Just myself.78 EXT. SHARECROPPER SHACK - EARLY MORNING 78 Scratch and Lonnie are set to pretend to play music again. Lonnie spreads his fingers over the keys he's drawn on the board- -and begins to PLAY! Fast, rhythmic boogie piano- 116. Instead of a Diddley bow, Scratch is pretending to tune the two strings on a `guitar' made of a plank of wood and baling wire. He carefully takes a length of clothesline rope leading from the guitar, tacks the end of it to the wall of the shack, plugging himself in. He looks to Lonnie, who nods, and then- -he begins to PLAY in time with Lonnie. We CRANE UP and away from them, the MUSIC spilling out over the field- It sounds a whole lot like rock and roll. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Horrible Bosses.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Horrible Bosses.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..bb07bd8ece413baa49ea9eed16f7033a23d84025 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Horrible Bosses.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + HORRIBLE BOSSES Written by Michael Markowitz April 14, 2010 FADE IN: 1 INT. NICK'S APARTMENT - LATE NIGHT 1 Looking incredibly weary, NICK WATERS, 30's, enters his apartment in his business suit. He stumbles into -- 2 INT. NICK'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION 2 He drops his briefcase, strips off his jacket, loosens his tie and collapses onto the bed like a dead man. PAN OVER TO the alarm clock which reads "1:23 AM." MATCH CUT TO: 3 INT. NICK'S BEDROOM - EARLY MORNING 3 The alarm clock now reads "4:59 AM." It switches to "5:00" and a BLARING BUZZER goes off. Nick sits up in bed, shuts off the buzzer and painfully forces himself out of bed. He hurries out of the bedroom, passing the saddest, deadest houseplant in history. 4 INT. NICK'S KITCHEN - MOMENTS LATER 4 Nick opens his fridge to reveal a wasteland of moldy leftover containers and crusty condiments. The orange juice container he grabs is empty. NICK Damn. He opens the freezer. It contains nothing but multiple boxes of "Jimmy Dean's Breakfast Bowl -- with Bacon!" He pops one in the microwave, then glances over at a framed photo of a slightly younger Nick kissing a smiling OLD WOMAN on the cheek. The frame reads: "I Y Grandma!" Nick sighs sadly. 5 INT. NICK'S BATHROOM - MINUTES LATER 5 Nick sits on the toilet eating his breakfast bowl with a fork. He takes some toilet paper from the roll and wipes his mouth with it. 6 INT. NICK'S SHOWER - MOMENTS LATER 6 Nick showers while simultaneously brushing his teeth and shaving. He loses track and brushes his face with the toothbrush. 2. 7 INT. NICK'S BEDROOM - MOMENTS LATER 7 Nick hastily grabs work clothes from his messy drawers and closet. Clearly, no laundry has been done in a while. 8 INT. NICK'S APARTMENT ELEVATOR - MOMENTS LATER 8 Nick hurriedly buttons his shirt, tucks it in and begins tying his tie as the elevator reaches the lobby. 9 INT. NICK'S CAR - SHORT TIME LATER 9 As he drives to work, he dials a number and transfers it to speakerphone. JENNA (V.O.) (GROGGY) Hello? NICK (CHEERY) Hey, Jenna, it's Nick. JENNA (V.O.) It's five-thirty in the morning, Nick. NICK Yeah, sorry. This is like the only time I have to make any personal calls. I just wanted to see if you felt like going out again because I had a great time with you on our last date. JENNA (V.O.) Our last date was two weeks ago. You haven't called me since. NICK I know and that's my bad. I've been swamped at work -- JENNA (V.O.) Yeah, I remember. Work was all you talked about when we went out. NICK Right. Well, I'm up for a promotion which will give me a lot more free time -- (CONTINUED) 3. 9 CONTINUED: 9 JENNA (V.O.) Listen, I'm actually seeing someone. And even if I weren't, the last thing I need is some career-obsessed guy complaining about work all the time. See you around, Nick. She hangs up. 10 EXT. COMMTRONIX INDUSTRIES - SHORT TIME LATER 10 A soulless four-story building in a drab office park. Nick exits his car and runs full-speed to the entrance. 11 INT. COMMTRONIX INDUSTRIES LOBBY - CONTINUOUS ACTION 11 Nick bursts through the doors and looks at his watch. It reads "6:02." He looks up at a security camera with a flashing red light, indicating he is on tape. NICK Fuck! DISSOLVE TO: 12 INT. NICK'S CUBICLE - LATER 12 Nick sits at his desk inputting information from a large PILE of documents into a spreadsheet on his computer. The clock on his computer turns to "8:00 AM." HARKEN (O.S.) Nick. Nick jumps, startled. He turns to see his boss, DAVE HARKEN, 40's, standing behind him. NICK Yes? HARKEN See you in my office? 4. 13 INT. HARKEN'S OFFICE - CLOSE ON A VIDEOTAPE REPLAY - 13 MOMENTS LATER of the lobby security camera footage on a television. The time code at the bottom of the screen reads "6:02." We see Nick looking up at the camera and silently mouthing the word "Fuck!" The image freezes and we PULL BACK to see Harken holding the remote. Nick stands across from him. HARKEN Here's my concern, Nick. You're a punctual guy. You understand the importance of getting to work on time. So that leaves me to wonder if there isn't something wrong with the internal clock in our security system. What do you think? NICK I don't know, Mr. Harken. I might have been a minute late. HARKEN Two minutes according to this. So either you're a liar -- which I know you're not -- or our system is off by a full minute. And if that's the case, I have no choice but to dismiss Thomas, our longtime security coordinator. NICK Okay, I might have been two minutes late. There's an uncomfortable beat. Then -- HARKEN So you did lie. NICK No, I -- Harken picks up the phone. NICK Who are you calling? HARKEN Thomas. I'm letting him go. (CONTINUED) 5. 13 CONTINUED: 13 NICK Wait! Okay, I guess I lied. But I didn't mean to -- HARKEN (hangs up phone) Trust is everything in this office, my friend. I know you've been working your tail off for that promotion, but if I can't trust you, how can I make you Senior VP of Sales? NICK I understand. You can trust me. HARKEN Now you sound like my wife. He glances at a framed photo on his desk. 14 INSERT - PHOTO 14 of the hot, bikini-clad MRS. HARKEN, 30's, standing on a beach. 15 BACK TO SCENE 15 HARKEN (IMITATING HER) `Trust me, honey.' `Trust me.' Meanwhile, she's making love to every guy in the neighborhood. NICK (UNCOMFORTABLE) Oh, I'm sure she's... loyal to YOU -- HARKEN How could you possibly know that? NICK I don't. HARKEN Are you making love to my wife, Nick? NICK What?! No! (CONTINUED) 6. 15 CONTINUED: 15 HARKEN I'm just kidding around. She's out of your league. No offense. NICK None taken. HARKEN Hmm. Harken has crossed to a credenza with several bottles of booze, two glasses and an ice bucket. He begins to fill a glass with ice and Scotch. HARKEN Would you like one? NICK It's 8:15. HARKEN You think there's something wrong with a man enjoying a drink in the morning? NICK (QUICKLY) No, no. It's fine. I'd love a drink. Harken hands him the drink he just poured. NICK Thank you. HARKEN My pleasure. Harken returns to his chair and sits. NICK Aren't you having one? HARKEN It's 8:15, Nick. I'm not an alcoholic. NICK Oh. Well, I only took it because I thought you were having one. HARKEN You took a drink because you thought I was going to have one? (MORE) (CONTINUED) 7. 15 CONTINUED: (2) 15 HARKEN (CONT'D) That doesn't exactly sound like something a Senior VP would do. NICK Well, I -- HARKEN What if you thought I was going to dip my balls in honey and shaved coconut? Would you do that too? NICK (LAUGHING NERVOUSLY) Of course not. HARKEN Of course not. Anyway, we've moved up the date of the AGM so you're gonna need to complete your due diligence by Monday. You'll probably need to be here all weekend. NICK (SIGHS) Okay. HARKEN Hey, you want a promotion, you've gotta earn it. Life's a marathon and you can't win a marathon without putting a few Band-Aids on your nipples. NICK (huh?) Got it. Nick gets up to go. HARKEN Nick. Nick turns back. HARKEN That's 18-year-old Scotch. I can't really pour it back into the bottle. Nick, unsure of what to do, picks up the glass and gulps it down. (CONTINUED) 8. 15 CONTINUED: (3) 15 HARKEN That should carry you till lunch, huh? 16 EXT. DENTAL OFFICE - DAY 16 A car pulls up outside the modest building. 17 INT. STACY'S CAR - CONTINUOUS ACTION 17 STACY, cute, 30's, is dropping off DALE STEVENS, 30's, who wears the scrubs of a dental hygienist. STACY Boy, I have to get used to driving with this heavy ring on. I keep swerving to the left. DALE Aww. You really like it? STACY I love it. I feel like a queen. 18 CLOSE ON HER ENGAGEMENT DIAMOND 18 It's tiny and yellowish. 19 BACK TO SCENE 19 DALE Well, you're my queen. I love you, Stacy. STACY Have a great day at work. They kiss. Dale exits the car. 20 EXT. DENTAL OFFICE - CONTINUOUS ACTION 20 Stacy drives off. Dale steels himself for what lies ahead, then goes inside. 21 INT. DENTAL OFFICE - MOMENTS LATER 21 Dale enters the waiting room, passing a few PATIENTS. He grabs a mask and goggles from a supply room, then heads INTO -- 9. 22 INT. EXAMINATION ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION 22 Dale finds his boss, DR. JULIA HARRIS, 30's, sexy but with something a little off, hovering over a patient, MR. ANDERTON, 50's. Dale seems visibly uneasy. JULIA All right, Mr. Anderton, I'm going to give you the nitrous now and your root canal will be over before you know it. (TO DALE) Dale? Please. Dale turns the valve on the tank and soon Mr. Anderton's eyes roll back in his head. Julia shuts the door, picks up a drill and begins boring into the patient's molar. JULIA (loudly, over the DRILL) How are you today, Dale? DALE I'm fine. Thanks. JULIA You get a haircut? DALE Uh-huh. JULIA Looks good. DALE Thank you. JULIA You ever watch that show, `Gossip Girl'? DALE Uh, no. JULIA I watched it last night. I'll tell you, lot of cuties on that program. (THEN) Number 7 scraper, please. Dale hands her a tool. (CONTINUED) 10. 22 CONTINUED: 22 JULIA Thank you. I fingered myself so hard to Penn Badgely, I broke a nail. Dale sighs and looks down at the unconscious Mr. Anderton. This obviously isn't the first time Julia has spoken this way. JULIA I'd let that kid put it in my ass. Bet he's packing a plus-size sausage under those True Religions. (then, looking up at DALE) Probe. DALE What? JULIA I need the probe. DALE Oh, right. He hands her the tool. JULIA Bet you're no shrimp in the cock department either, huh, Dale? DALE Julia, please. JULIA Oh, come on. You know I like to fool around. She lifts the patient's limp hand and cups it over her breast. JULIA (FEIGNING SHOCK) Mr. Anderton! Bad! She smacks the lifeless hand and cackles with laughter. JULIA Okay, enough fun. Let's get back to work. Water, please. (CONTINUED) 11. 22 CONTINUED: (2) 22 Dale hands her the Water Jet tool. Julia briefly sprays some water in the patient's mouth, then casually sprays down Dale's crotch with it. DALE Hey! JULIA Sorry, I'm a squirter. (studying his groin) I think I can just make out our friend. Looks like someone is circumcised! DALE All right, Julia, listen. You can't keep doing this. JULIA I know, I know, you have a GIRLFRIEND -- DALE She's not my girlfriend anymore. Stacy and I got engaged last night. Julia's whole demeanor changes. She becomes deadly serious. JULIA What? DALE We're engaged. JULIA You're actually going to marry that little dummy? DALE Hey! JULIA I thought you said she was just a hole for your dick. DALE That's a horrible thing to say. I never said that! Mr. Anderton GROANS groggily. (CONTINUED) 12. 22 CONTINUED: (3) 22 JULIA (OMINOUSLY) I'm very disappointed in you, Dale. (then, coldly) Scaler. Shaken, Dale hands her the tool. 23 EXT. PELLIT CHEMICAL CO. - DAY 23 A medium-sized warehouse building in an industrial neighborhood. 24 INT. PELLIT CHEMICAL CO. - CONTINUOUS ACTION 24 KURT GAMBLE, 30s, good-looking, sits at his desk. Unlike Nick and Dale, Kurt seems content in his workplace. A reasonably cute, but by no means drop-dead gorgeous, UPS GIRL approaches his desk with a package. UPS GIRL Excuse me? Can you sign for this, please? KURT (TAKING IT) Sure. (LOOKING UP) Whoa, whoa. Hold on. What is this? UPS GIRL I'm sorry? KURT This is one of those hidden camera shows, isn't it? UPS GIRL What do you mean? KURT Come on. You're way too good- looking to be a UPS girl. What are you, a model? An actress? What's gonna happen when I open this box? Is something going to jump out at me? (CONTINUED) 13. 24 CONTINUED: 24 UPS GIRL (GRINNING) Nothing's gonna happen. I'm just a UPS girl. KURT Shut up. UPS GIRL (PLAYFULLY) You shut up. It's true. KURT Well, then, I need to take you out to dinner. UPS GIRL Why? KURT Because I want to be able to tell my friends that I took out the hottest UPS girl in America. Come on, what do you say? She considers this briefly, then scribbles her number on a Post-it note. KURT Awesome. I'm Kurt. UPS GIRL Myrna. KURT Pretty name. How's Tuesday? Macaroni Grill? UPS GIRL Okay. KURT See you then, Myrna. She heads off. Kurt opens his DATEBOOK and scribbles "UPS Girl" in the Tuesday slot. We see every night of the week is filled with appointments with other women: "Barnes & Noble girl," "Lauren? Laura?," "Blonde Chick" and so on. JACK (O.S.) Busy week? Kurt looks up at JACK PELLIT, 70s, the kindly, affectionate owner of the company. (CONTINUED) 14. 24 CONTINUED: (2) 24 KURT Hey, Jack. Yeah, just doing my part for the women of America. JACK (CHUCKLING) You're what we used to call a rapscallion. KURT That sounds a lot more innocent than `sex addict.' JACK Walk with me, Kurt. The two of them head toward the exit. JACK I wanted to talk to you about -- KURT Last quarter's profits? I ran the numbers. We're down by 11 percent year-to-year. JACK It's this damn recession. What about cost-cutting measures? KURT Well, I know you don't want to cut STAFF -- JACK No way. These people have worked their asses off for me. There's no reason they should suffer. Kurt looks at his boss with admiration. There's a lot of love between these two. KURT There's also the issue of our hazardous waste disposal. We're paying a lot right now and the Bolivians have come back with a very good offer. JACK You know why it's good? Because they'll dump our chemicals in rivers, pollute water supplies and hurt people. I've spent my life building this company. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 15. 24 CONTINUED: (3) 24 JACK (CONT'D) Would you want the Pellit name to be associated with something like that? KURT No, I wouldn't. As they pass the unisex rest room, they see MARGIE, 30s and clearly pregnant, looking uncomfortable as she waits to get in. JACK Everything okay, Margie? MARGIE Oh hi, Mr. Pellit. Kurt. I've just been waiting to get in there for a while now... JACK Who's in there? MARGIE It's... your son. JACK (SIGHS) Of course it is. (then, knocking on THE DOOR) Bobby? There's someone waiting. You almost done in there? After a long beat, the door opens and out steps BOBBY PELLIT, late-20s, weasely-looking, sniffing a bit too much and rubbing his nose repeatedly. There's something unnaturally energetic about him. PELLIT What the fuck?! A guy can't get any privacy in this place! JACK It's all yours, Margie. Margie quickly slips into the rest room and shuts the door. JACK You know, Bobby, you seem to be spending more time in that bathroom than at your desk these days. (CONTINUED) 16. 24 CONTINUED: (4) 24 PELLIT Well, then, you're fucking stupid, Dad. Because that's clearly not true. JACK All I ask is that you do your part around here, son. PELLIT I do my part. I do other people's parts. But you just like to ride my ass because I'm your son. I don't see you screaming at -- (RE: KURT) -- dickskin here. JACK (PATIENTLY) That's because Kurt does his work and does it well. You could take a lesson from him. PELLIT (SNORTS) The only thing I'd take a lesson from him on is being gay. And I wouldn't take that lesson because I don't want to be gay. JACK (HEADING OFF) Come on, Kurt. Kurt follows after Jack. PELLIT Yeah, that's what I thought. Jack and Kurt pass a receptionist desk and go out into -- 25 EXT. PELLIT CHEMICAL CO. PARKING LOT - CONTINUOUS ACTION 25 Kurt walks Jack to his Cadillac. JACK Tell me something, Kurt. Are you happy here? KURT You kidding? It's the best job in the world. (CONTINUED) 17. 25 CONTINUED: 25 JACK I'm glad to hear you say that. I'm rewriting my will tonight and there's going to be a special place for you in there. He gives Kurt a hug like a doting father, then climbs into his car. As Jack pulls out and begins driving across the parking lot, Kurt waves. Suddenly, the car's HORN begins to honk in a CONSTANT BLARE. Kurt lowers his hand as the car veers off the pavement, slowly cruising into a tree where it stops abruptly, the horn still honking. A bewildered Kurt runs toward the car, as we -- CUT TO: 26 INT. BRADFORD'S BAR - THAT NIGHT 26 Kurt sits at a table looking depressed. KURT He died instantly. They say his heart burst in his chest like a water balloon. PAN to reveal Kurt is sitting with Dale, who looks just as dejected. DALE Wow. Sorry, man. He was like a dad to you. KURT I loved him. And I loved working for him. And now his idiot son is gonna be in charge. You know how many times I've caught him doing blow at work? PAN FURTHER to reveal Nick sitting beside Dale. NICK That sucks. You were the only one of us who didn't totally hate his job. (THEN) Did I tell you Harken tricked me into having a drink at eight o'clock this morning? The guy's the devil. (CONTINUED) 18. 26 CONTINUED: 26 DALE I thought he was giving you a promotion. NICK He is. And he's got to do it before the General Meeting next week. DALE Well, at least your boss doesn't sexually harass you. KURT This again? DALE I'm telling you, she's out of control. It's a full-on hostile work environment. KURT She's a woman who wants to have sex with you. How bad can it be? DALE Today she sprayed my crotch with water so she could see the outline of my wiener. KURT Why don't you just fuck her? DALE I'm engaged! KURT Oh yeah. Congratulations, by the way. DALE Thank you. NICK There's gotta be other dental hygienist jobs out there. DALE I can't apply for another job, remember? KURT Oh, right. Because you'd have to tell them you're a child molester. (CONTINUED) 19. 26 CONTINUED: (2) 26 NICK He's not a child molester. He just took his dick out in a playground. DALE It was nighttime and I was peeing! And it's bullshit that I got put on the registered sex offender list for that! KURT It worked out. Julia probably hired you because she's a sexual deviant herself. DALE Why would they put a playground next to a bar anyway? That's entrapment. A SEMI-CUTE GIRL walks past. KURT (WITH JOYLESS RESIGNATION) Well, I should go see if that girl wants to bone. Kurt groans as he pulls himself out of the booth. NICK I thought you were all broken up about your boss dying. KURT This is how I grieve, okay? Kurt heads off after the girl. DALE Man. He must be grieving all the time. 27 INT. COMMTRONIX INDUSTRIES CONFERENCE ROOM - NEXT DAY 27 Nick sits alongside five other CO-WORKERS at a conference table. Harken's chair at the head is empty. Nick pours himself some water from a glass pitcher on the table. NICK He did say ten o'clock, right? (CONTINUED) 20. 27 CONTINUED: 27 CO-WORKER Yeah. Do you know what this is about? NICK It just said `staff meeting' on the memo. (WHISPERING) Funny how he gets all over me if I'm a minute late, but he makes us wait fifteen. HARKEN (O.S.) You were two minutes late, Nick. Nick jumps as Harken enters. HARKEN And I didn't know I had to punch a clock with you. NICK You don't. Of course you don't. I'm sorry -- HARKEN I'm going to attribute this to your drinking problem. NICK I don't have a -- HARKEN (with a smile to the OTHERS) Let's get started. Shall we? Nick's eyes narrow. Suddenly, he grabs the heavy glass pitcher from the table and SHATTERS IT AGAINST HARKEN'S FACE. Shards of glass fly everywhere as Harken falls from his chair onto the floor. SMASH CUT TO: 28 SAME SCENE (REALITY) 28 Harken is fine. Nick is as we left him. HARKEN Okay, have we figured out our best sales distribution plan for the new model year handsets? (CONTINUED) 21. 28 CONTINUED: 28 Nick's CO-WORKERS bury their heads in their notes. Nick tensely raises his hand. HARKEN Yes? NICK I simulated a number of sales cycles, factoring in likely end- users, point-of-sale limitations and specific demographic variables. HARKEN And? NICK And in my opinion, an open plan selling process in our top 30 markets along with targeted upgrade offers to existing customers promises the greatest yield. Harken nods. Is he impressed? HARKEN Thank you, Nick. Did everyone see how he did that? Yes, he may be a pathological liar and have a crippling drinking problem, but when the chips are down, Nick has what it takes. Nick glows. HARKEN Which brings us to our next order of business. I've decided who I want as our new Senior VP of Sales. He's sitting right here among you. Everyone turns to look at Nick. HARKEN It's me. Everyone's head snaps back to Harken. NICK What? (CONTINUED) 22. 28 CONTINUED: (2) 28 HARKEN I've decided to absorb the responsibilities of the Senior VP position into my own. I realized if you want something done right, you do it yourself. So, I'm going to be knocking down the wall between my office and what would've been the Senior VP's to create a single, enormous office. However, as a cost-cutting measure, I will only be taking 85% of the additional salary I'm entitled to. It's called self- sacrifice, people. Learn from this. Harken heads out. 29 INT. COMMTRONIX INDUSTRIES - HALLWAY - MOMENTS LATER 29 Nick hurries to catch up with Harken. NICK Mr. Harken, can I speak to you? HARKEN What is it? NICK You've been hinting for months that I was in line for that promotion. HARKEN And look how hard you've worked. NICK So you've just been lying to me? HARKEN Not lying. Motivating. We're all on the same team here, Nick. We're all trying to find Lorenzo's oil before it's too late for little Lorenzo. Besides, I'm the one who's taking on a lot more work. (CONTINUED) 23. 29 CONTINUED: 29 NICK (barely keeping it TOGETHER) Last month you kept me working so late I didn't get to say goodbye to Gam Gam! HARKEN What? NICK My grandmother. I told you I needed to see her but you said I'd be fired if I left early. She died before I could get to the hospital. (VOICE QUIVERING) She taught me how to swim -- HARKEN Oh, my God. I had no idea... that you called your grandmother Gam Gam. (CHUCKLING) I don't mean to laugh, but that's adorable. (off Nick's outraged LOOK) Look, Nick, I'm sorry you didn't get to say bye-bye to Gam Gam. I make you work late because you're an invaluable part of this operation. And I need you in your current position. NICK I've been in that position for eight years now. Why would I stay here after being treated like this?! HARKEN Because I will see to it that no one else in our industry will hire you. NICK What? HARKEN Anyone who interviews you will want my letter of recommendation. And I'm prepared to tell them that you are a dishonest, insubordinate drunk. (CONTINUED) 24. 29 CONTINUED: (2) 29 NICK But that's not true! You can't do this! Harken gets directly in Nick's face, speaking softly but intensely. HARKEN Let me make this clear, you weak, little fuck. I own you. You're my bitch. Don't make the mistake of thinking you have free will. Because I can crush you any time I like. (stepping back, FRIENDLY AGAIN) Settle in, friend. You're here for the long haul. Harken slaps him hard on the back and continues on his way, leaving a stunned Nick. 30 INT. PELLIT CHEMICAL CO. - DAY 30 Kurt somberly heads to his desk. He's wearing a dark suit. PELLIT (O.S.) Yo, dickwall! What the fuck? Kurt sees Bobby Pellit standing in the doorway of what was Jack's office. KURT What? PELLIT You're three hours late. What's the deal? KURT I was at your father's funeral. PELLIT Maybe that excuse would've flown when my dad was here, but I'm in charge now. KURT That excuse wouldn't have made any sense when your dad was here. PELLIT In my office. Now. 25. 31 INT. PELLIT'S OFFICE - MOMENTS LATER 31 Kurt enters. He notices that the "Jack Pellit" nameplate has been partially taped over with the name "Bobby" scribbled in magic marker. PELLIT Sit. Kurt sits. Bobby quickly slips a small mirror and rolled up dollar bill into a drawer. Kurt sees Bobby has tossed most of Jack's mementos, achievement awards and photos with luminaries in the trash. PELLIT I've been looking over the books. You're the accountant. Tell me why this company is in the crapper. KURT It's not in the crapper. It's a recession. But we're still profitable. PELLIT Bullshit. Look, I know you and my dad were pals. Frankly, I always thought it was weird and gay and I never understood why my dad thought you were so great. But it doesn't matter now because he's in the ground and I'm your boss. And there's gonna be some changes around here. First of all... (pointing to a BALANCE SHEET) What is this `EnviroTech Waste Management' shit that we're paying so much for? KURT Your father made the decision to pay a little more to dispose of our chemical waste responsibly. PELLIT Yeah, fuck that. We've got an offer from Bolivia to dump the stuff for a third the cost. KURT But that would endanger thousands of local residents. (CONTINUED) 26. 31 CONTINUED: 31 PELLIT So some jungle tribesmen get cancer. Boo friggin' hoo. KURT They're not tribesmen. It's a MODERN -- (THEN) Look, Bobby, your dad told me very clearly he'd die before he'd save money by hurting people. PELLIT Well then, we're right on schedule, aren't we? Kurt's eyes narrow. He reaches into the trash can and grabs one of Jack's discarded ACHIEVEMENT TROPHIES and PLUNGES its pointy end deep into Pellit's chest, impaling him in his chair. SMASH CUT TO: 32 SAME SCENE (REALITY) 32 Kurt sits across from an unharmed Pellit. PELLIT Oh, and we also need to trim the fat around here. KURT (snapping out of it) What do you mean? PELLIT I want you to fire the fat people. They're slow and lazy and they make me sad to look at. Start with Large Marge. ANGLE ON Margie at her desk. KURT Margie's not fat. She's pregnant. I'm not firing her. PELLIT Fine. Then fire Professor Xavier over there. ANGLE ON a balding, middle-aged man in a wheelchair, HANK, who sits at a desk near Margie's. (CONTINUED) 27. 32 CONTINUED: 32 KURT Hank? PELLIT He creeps me out. Rolling around in that weird little chair of his. KURT I'm not firing anyone! It's like you don't care about this company at all. PELLIT No shit. You think when I was a kid I dreamed of running a fucking chemical company? No. I dreamed of retiring. Of being fed tropical fruit on a beach by a model while she blows me. And as soon as I squeeze all the profit out of this place, that's exactly what I'm gonna do. So here's the deal. You either fire the fatty or the cripple, or I fire both of them. 33 INT. PELLIT CHEMICAL CO. - MOMENTS LATER 33 Kurt sighs as he looks from Margie to Hank and back. At last, he gathers his resolve and crosses to Hank's desk. From a RESPECTFUL DISTANCE we watch as Kurt breaks the news to Hank who reacts with sad resignation. Kurt turns to see Pellit standing directly beside him. PELLIT (loudly, to the room) Everyone, can I have your attention please? I've just learned that Kurt has fired our dear friend Hank here. I want you to know that I am as surprised and angry about this as you are. KURT What are you -- ?! PELLIT This is entirely an accounting department decision. My hands are tied. (then, to Kurt) You are one heartless bastard, Gamble. (CONTINUED) 28. 33 CONTINUED: 33 Pellit heads off. Hank glares at Kurt. KURT Look, Hank, this was not my -- HANK Fuck you, Kurt. Hank wheels away, leaving Kurt to face the angry looks of his CO-WORKERS. CUT TO: 34 INT. DENTAL OFFICE - DAY 34 Dale, dressed for work, knocks on Julia's office door. JULIA (O.S.) Come in. 35 INT. JULIA'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS ACTION 35 Dale enters. DALE You wanted to see -- He looks up to find Julia sitting at her desk in nothing but an unbuttoned white lab coat. DALE (AVERTING EYES) Oh, God. JULIA Have a seat, Dale. DALE Do I have to? JULIA Please. He sits, then immediately stands again. DALE Look, Julia, this is ridiculous -- JULIA (holding up hand) I know what you're going to say and that's exactly what I want to talk to you about. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 29. 35 CONTINUED: 35 JULIA (CONT'D) Yes, I like to joke around at work. And sometimes I might cross the line a bit. But the last thing I want to do is make you uncomfortable. That's unprofessional and I pride myself on being a professional. She leans back in her chair and puts her hands behind her head revealing even more of her body. JULIA So from now on, I want you to tell me when and if I cross the line. DALE Now. Right now. JULIA What? DALE You're naked, Julia! JULIA I'm not naked. You can't even see my pussy. DALE Okay, right there! Just saying `pussy' to me. That's over the line. JULIA That's over the line? You're starting to sound like a little faggot, Dale. DALE Again! Naked, `pussy,' `faggot.' All over the line. And probably ILLEGAL -- JULIA Okay, let's not start talking about illegal, Mr. Pees-on-Young- Boys. DALE It was an empty playground! In the middle of the night! JULIA Even worse. That little boy must have been terrified. (CONTINUED) 30. 35 CONTINUED: (2) 35 Julia stands and moves uncomfortably close to Dale. He tries not to stare at her breasts. JULIA Let's cut to the chase. You're engaged now. And I respect the institution of marriage too much to violate it. That's why you need to fuck me well before the wedding. Because the closer it gets, the less ladylike I'm going to feel about this whole thing. DALE I'm not going to sleep with you, Julia. JULIA We'll see about that. (then, suddenly ENRAGED) OUT! GET OUT! Startled, Dale hurries out of the office. 36 INT. BRADFORD'S BAR - THAT NIGHT 36 Nick, Dale and Kurt sit miserably over their drinks. They've all had a few. NICK I feel like a total sucker. Harken was never planning on promoting me. KURT That coked-out douchebag is gonna destroy Pellit Chemicals. DALE She stood there with her breasts right in my face. Nick and Kurt turn to Dale. KURT You know, yours just doesn't sound that bad. DALE Why don't you guys quit? It's not like you're sex offenders. (CONTINUED) 31. 36 CONTINUED: 36 NICK It's true. I mean, I'm young. I could go back to school, change fields. In the b.g., a GUY has noticed them. He heads over. KURT Yeah. Why should I care about protecting Pellit's name when his own son doesn't? There's a million jobs out there. DALE The world is your oyster. GUY Well, well, if it isn't the Three Musketeers, Nick, Kurt and Dale. Still hanging out like high school, huh? NICK I don't believe it. Kenny Orkin! DALE I heard you moved to New York to work at Lehman Brothers or something. KENNY (GUY) I did. Hired me right out of Yale. KURT So what are you doing back here? KENNY Don't you read the papers? They shut us down. I've been looking for work for the last two years. It's crazy out here. I can't even get a job waiting tables. NICK You? Waiting tables? You were voted Most Likely to Succeed. Everyone thought you were set. KENNY Everyone including me. (INTENSE) I'd murder those Lehman Brothers if I could. Line them up, put one bullet through their three heads. (CONTINUED) 32. 36 CONTINUED: (2) 36 DALE Easy, Kenny. KENNY It's just not fair. I was making high six-figures. Now I can't even afford this drink. (holds up glass) Seriously, you think you guys can help me out at all? The three guys exchange uncomfortable looks as they reach for their wallets. DALE Uh, sure. Here's a few bucks, Kenny. KENNY Okay, y'know that's not really gonna do it for me. (looking around, LEANING IN) I'll tell you what? What if I give you guys handjobs? Forty bucks. We can do it in the bathroom right here. I'll do the three of you for a hundred. KURT You're gay now? KENNY No, I'm not gay. They look skeptical. KENNY I'm the opposite of gay! They guys look at each other with eyebrows raised. Nick mouths "opposite." KENNY Come on. Handjobs for the Three Musketeers. Let's do this! The BARTENDER spots Kenny and points at him. BARTENDER (YELLING) I thought I told you to stay out of here! (CONTINUED) 33. 36 CONTINUED: (3) 36 KENNY Whoops. Gotta go, guys. Call me if you change your minds. I'm at my mom's. He hurries out. There's a silent beat as the guys process what they've just witnessed. CUT TO: 37 EXT. STREET - LATER 37 The three guys are walking home, all mildly buzzed. KURT So I guess we're just gonna be miserable for the rest of our lives. DALE What do you mean? KURT What options do we have? We can quit our jobs and turn into Kenny. Or keep our jobs and turn into sad, ball-less losers who spend their days dreaming of ways to kill their bosses. There's a beat as Nick regards Kurt. NICK You do that too? KURT Of course. Everyone does. It's the only thing that keeps us from going totally bat-shit. NICK The other day I imagined shoving one of those jugs from the water cooler in Harken's mouth and making him drink until his bladder explodes. DALE Jeez. KURT That's so funny. I had the same idea for Pellit. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 34. 37 CONTINUED: 37 KURT (CONT'D) Only using gasoline instead of water. And his ass instead of his mouth. DALE You guys are sick. KURT What's sick about it? It's just a way to let off steam. NICK Yeah, Dale. It's not like we're actually going to kill our bosses. They continue walking. After a beat. KURT You have to admit though, our lives would be a lot better if our bosses were dead. NICK Well, of course. It's the one thing that keeps me from being happy. DALE Me too. There's another beat. KURT Let's just consider this, for one second. DALE Consider what? KURT Killing our bosses. I'm just being hypothetical here. DALE (laughing it off) Yeah, right. NICK Very funny. KURT Well, it's not like they're gonna live forever. These pieces of shit are going to die someday. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 35. 37 CONTINUED: (2) 37 KURT (CONT'D) We'd just be accelerating that natural process. NICK Shut up, Kurt. DALE Yeah, shut up, Kurt. KURT (EARNEST) Frankly, I don't see any reason not to do it. DALE Well, first of all, killing someone is illegal and immoral -- KURT It may be illegal but I'm not sure it's immoral. Sometimes one evil person has to die for the greater good of the community. If Bobby Pellit has his way, hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent Bolivians will suffer. It would actually be immoral not to kill him. Nick begins to warm to the idea. NICK I didn't get to say goodbye to Gam Gam because of Harken. KURT Exactly! Who knows how many other Gam Gams have died alone. DALE I can't believe you guys are actually talking about this. I don't care how bad our bosses are. We're not murderers. NICK No, we're not, Dale. We're just trying to live our lives. But what are we supposed to do when someone makes it impossible for us to live our lives? Do we just bend over and take it up the ass forever? (CONTINUED) 36. 37 CONTINUED: (3) 37 KURT No, we do not! DALE What you guys are talking about is wrong and you know it. NICK Julia's ruining your life. That's wrong. KURT Yeah! DALE She's not ruining my life. If anything's ruining my life it's you guys and your drunk bullshit. KURT If it's bullshit, Dale, then how come we all want to do it so much? They reach the corner where they part ways. DALE I don't want to do it. And when you sober up neither will you. We're not killing anyone. Dale heads off. KURT (TO NICK) I was just being hypothetical. NICK (QUICKLY) Yeah, me too. OFF their ambivalent looks -- 38 INT. DENTAL OFFICE - NEXT DAY 38 Dale is organizing some equipment when a pair of woman's hands suddenly cover his eyes. WOMAN (O.S.) (SUGGESTIVELY) Guess who? (CONTINUED) 37. 38 CONTINUED: 38 DALE (WEARILY) I'm really not in the mood for this now -- He turns and reacts as he sees it's not Julia, but his fiancÈe, Stacy. DALE Stacy?! STACY Not in the mood for what? DALE For... nothing. What are you doing here? Julia appears in her office doorway. JULIA I invited her. STACY She called and said now that we're engaged, she wanted to offer me free dental work. And you know I've had that loose filling for a while. It's so sweet of you, Julia. JULIA It's my pleasure. You're part of the family now. DALE (VISIBLY UPTIGHT) Uhhhh... I don't know if this is a good idea. STACY Why not? DALE We don't want to take advantage of Julia. JULIA Dale, there's nothing you could do that would be taking advantage of me. Nothing. (then, to Stacy) Now what do you say we pump you full of gas? (CONTINUED) 38. 38 CONTINUED: (2) 38 Julia leads Stacy into the exam room. Dale cuts them off. DALE Wait -- no gas. She doesn't need to be out. STACY What are you talking about, Dale? You know I'm not good with drills. JULIA (POINTEDLY) You don't want your fiancÈe to suffer, do you? OFF Dale's defeated look -- CUT TO: 39 INT. EXAMINATION ROOM - SHORT TIME LATER 39 Stacy lies on the chair with the nitrous mask over her nose. Julia and Dale stand beside her. STACY (LOSING CONSCIOUSNESS) Ten, nine... eight... seh... And she's out. Immediately, Julia pounces on Dale, feverishly trying to unbuckle his belt. DALE Hey! Stop it, what are you -- ? JULIA You're gonna give me that dong, Dale! DALE NO! Stacy groans softly. Dale pushes Julia away. DALE I knew you only brought her in here to mess with me. JULIA Let's have sex on top of her. Let's use her like a bed! (CONTINUED) 39. 39 CONTINUED: 39 Julia begins to clamber up onto Stacy's supine body. Dale pulls her off. DALE All right, that's it, Julia. This is over. You're out of your mind. I quit! He goes to turn off the gas but before he can -- JULIA I'll tell her you fucked me! DALE What? JULIA If you don't fuck me, I'll tell her you fucked me. DALE Tell her whatever you want. She'd never believe you. Julia opens a nearby drawer and tosses an envelope onto Stacy's chest. JULIA She already knows you're a sex offender. And once she sees these, I think she'll believe me. DALE What is that? JULIA You remember your first week here when I replaced the crown on your second bicuspid? DALE (NERVOUSLY) ... Yeah? JULIA I took a few snapshots of the procedure. For my files. Dale lunges at the envelope and pulls out the photos. 40. 40 CLOSE ON THE PICTURES 40 -- Dale lies on the dentist chair, his eyes open and his hands behind his head with Julia at his crotch, apparently fellating him. -- Julia, now nude, straddles Dale, who is naked from the waist down on the chair. She holds one arm in the air like a rodeo cowboy. -- Julia is on the floor, her legs splayed while Dale lies limply on top of her. -- Julia is on all fours. Dale is limply draped over her back, apparently doing her doggy-style. 41 BACK TO SCENE 41 DALE (SHOCKED) You... you did all this while I was unconscious? JULIA Yup. DALE How did you make it look like I was awake? JULIA Taped your eyes open. DALE This is rape! You raped me! JULIA Don't get all dramatic. Your dick wasn't hard. But it will be next time. Or else Stacy here gets a look at my photo album. She holds up the packet of photos. JULIA (SUDDENLY PROFESSIONAL) Now, let's repair this patient's filling, shall we? Dale gapes at her, dumbstruck. 41. 42 INT. NICK'S APARTMENT - THAT EVENING 42 Kurt and Nick are playing a videogame as Dale bursts through the front door. DALE Let's kill the bitch. KURT Huh? NICK What bitch? DALE My boss. Our bosses. They need to die. Nick and Kurt exchange a look. NICK We were drunk last night, man. And didn't you say killing was wrong? DALE That was before Julia tried to fuck me on top of my fiancÈe's unconscious body. KURT Whoa! DALE I say we kill them all. Are you guys in or out? KURT I was in last night. DALE Yes! Nick? They both turn to Nick who is uncertain. Kurt spots the photo of Nick with his GRANDMOTHER and grabs it off the wall. KURT Look at her. Look at Bubby. NICK Gam Gam. (CONTINUED) 42. 42 CONTINUED: 42 KURT Look at Gam Gam. Getting a smooch from her favorite grandson. Little does she know that she'll never get to say goodbye to him. And why? Because his shithead boss wouldn't let him leave. What would Gam Gam want you to do? NICK Probably not kill him. KURT This isn't about Gam Gam. This is about you. What do you want, Nick? NICK I want him to die. KURT Damn straight! NICK Okay, I'm in. KURT All right! Let's do this. (THEN) How do we do this? DALE I was thinking about that on my way over. Stacy and I watch a lot of `Law & Order' and there's a ton of ways criminals mess up. Things we'd never think of. They leave behind clothing fibers, bullet casings, hair, skin cells -- KURT Skin cells?! I can't even keep track of my keys! DALE Exactly. And that's why we need a professional. NICK What are you talking about, a hitman? Dale nods. (CONTINUED) 43. 42 CONTINUED: (2) 42 KURT You know, that's not bad. I mean, we don't clean our own apartments, right? We hire someone to clean them for us. DALE Maybe you do, moneybags. NICK But where are we supposed to find a hitman? DALE That's the only problem. I have no idea. There's a beat. Kurt's eyes light up. KURT I do. Meet at my place tomorrow after work. And make sure you're not followed. NICK Why would anyone follow us? KURT I don't know. People get followed. DALE What people? KURT Just meet me at my place. 43 INT. KURT'S APARTMENT - NEXT EVENING 43 Kurt opens the door on Nick and Dale. The decor of Kurt's place is best described as a middle-income bachelor pad. KURT Come in. The guy should be here pretty soon. NICK Wait. You actually found someone?! KURT It was as easy as buying a used futon. (CONTINUED) 44. 43 CONTINUED: 43 He points to his computer. On the screen is a listing FROM -- DALE Craigslist?! You found a hitman on Craigslist. KURT Yup. But they don't post it as `hitman.' That would be stupid. They use code words, like `liquidation,' `pest control,' `wet work.' Check it out. This is our guy. Nick reads the listing. NICK `Skilled professional with years of experience in domestic and international wet work. Fast and discreet. No children or political figures.' KURT See? He's principled. DALE This is so dangerous. What if he's a narc? NICK Yeah, Kurt. Call him back and cancel. KURT It's too late. He's on his way. DALE What do we do if this guy gets here and he asks for so much money that we can't afford him and he gets mad and kills all of us? KURT I don't think he'd stay in business long if he killed everyone who couldn't afford him. NICK (looking out window) Guys! I think this is him! The others hurry to look. From -- 45. 44 THEIR POV 44 We see a black Mercedes SLK pull up. A distinguished- looking MAN in a well-tailored suit steps out. He wears sunglasses and carries a briefcase. 45 BACK TO SCENE 45 NICK Nice car. KURT Whoa. This guy's legit. DALE I bet that briefcase has one of those guns you have to screw together. NICK All right, let's just be professional here. We don't want to seem all giddy. A knock at the door. KURT (HUSHED) How's my hair? NICK (SOTTO) It doesn't matter! Kurt opens the door on the Man who looks even smoother up close. MAN (BRITISH ACCENT) Is one of you Kurt? DALE (whispering to Nick) Oh my God, he's like James Bond! KURT (to the Man) Yes, hi, I'm Kurt. Please come in. MAN Thank you. Are all three of you participating in this? (CONTINUED) 46. 45 CONTINUED: 45 NICK Yes, we are. MAN Very well. Now before we go any further, I need to know if there are any hidden recording devices in this room. I will find out if there are. DALE No, no! We definitely don't want to record this, sir. MAN Then let's get started. He walks to the middle of the living room, opens his briefcase and takes out a plastic tarp which he proceeds to unfurl over the carpet. KURT Whoa, whoa. What's that for? MAN For the mess. NICK We don't want you to kill us! DALE (FREAKING OUT) Oh my God! I knew it! MAN Kill you? What are you talking about? The guys exchange a confused look. KURT Your ad said you do wet work. MAN That's correct. I urinate on other men for money. NICK/KURT What?! MAN Why do you think my ad was in the `men seeking men' section? (CONTINUED) 47. 45 CONTINUED: (2) 45 NICK (TO KURT) You were looking in `men seeking men'?! KURT Yeah! We're men seeking a man, aren't we? NICK You are such a moron. MAN So you're telling me I drove all the way to the Valley and no one wants to be pissed on? DALE Please don't kill us. MAN I don't kill people! (then, sighing) Can I use your rest room? I've stored up rather a large amount of pee for this. KURT (POINTING) It's right through there. The Man heads off. After a beat -- KURT Good thing I didn't call the guy who was offering to do `dirty work.' 46 INT. KURT'S CAR - THAT NIGHT 46 Kurt drives. Nick is in the passenger seat. Dale in back. KURT All right, I'll take the blame for that one. NICK That's big of you. KURT I'm going to make it up to you. I figured out a much better way to find a contract killer. (CONTINUED) 48. 46 CONTINUED: 46 DALE What's that? Kurt reaches up and pushes a button on the rear-view mirror. A male voice comes over the speaker. ON STAR REP (V.O.) (INDIAN ACCENT) Hello, Mr. Gamble, thank you for contacting On Star -- DALE Oh, come on! NICK (TO KURT) This is your plan? ON STAR REP (V.O.) -- my name is Gregory. How can I be of service this evening? KURT Gregory, I need you to direct me to the most dangerous bar in Los Angeles. ON STAR REP (V.O.) I'm sorry? KURT We need to find the bar with the most scumbags, lowlifes and hardcore shitheads. Can you help us out? ON STAR REP (V.O.) I'm afraid our listings are not organized by danger, sir. I do see there is a Bennigan's three blocks from your current LOCATION -- KURT Okay, Gregory? That's unhelpful. While I'm sure there are plenty of shitheads there, they're not the kind of shitheads we need. ON STAR REP (V.O.) I can direct you to the neighborhood with the greatest number of car-jackings in your area. (CONTINUED) 49. 46 CONTINUED: (2) 46 KURT Now we're talking. ON STAR REP (V.O.) Very good, sir. You may wish to lock your doors. Kurt and the others lock their doors. 47 EXT. SCARY NEIGHBORHOOD - SHORT TIME LATER 47 Kurt's car drives down a depressed-looking block. 48 INT. KURT'S CAR - CONTINUOUS ACTION 48 The guys are still chatting with Gregory. NICK So, do you like living in Bangalore? GREGORY (ON STAR REP)(V.O.) It's not bad. Humid. DALE Now, `Gregory.' Is that your real name? GREGORY (V.O.) No, sir. My real name is Atmanand. KURT Atmanand? How did you get Gregory from that? GREGORY (V.O.) `Gregory' was assigned to me by On Star. NICK Why don't they let you use your real name? GREGORY (V.O.) Many Americans find our real names off-putting. KURT Actually, I do find Atmanand a little off-putting. (CONTINUED) 50. 48 CONTINUED: 48 GREGORY (V.O.) (FLAT) You have arrived at your destination, sir. DALE/NICK Thank you, Gregory./Thanks, Gregory. 49 EXT. DIVE BAR - SHORT TIME LATER 49 Kurt's car pulls up on a grimy-looking South-Central street and stops in front of a dingy bar. The guys get out and look around warily. KURT This must be the place. DALE Aren't you worried about your car? KURT Nah, Gregory's watching it. NICK You really think we're gonna find a hitman in there? KURT I think we're gonna have a hard time deciding between all the hitmen in there. Trust me, these are the lowest of the low. 50 INT. DIVE BAR - CONTINUOUS ACTION 50 The three guys enter the squalid, smoky place. The room is full of surly-looking PATRONS, none of them white. People turn to stare. NICK Oh, real nice, Kurt. Way to be racist. KURT This isn't a race thing. We need a criminal and this neighborhood is where they live. I'm not saying that's because there are a lot of black people here. That's the fault of our society that discriminates and disenfranchises them. (CONTINUED) 51. 50 CONTINUED: 50 DALE You said they were the lowest of the low. KURT I was speaking socio-economically. NICK So what do we do now? Yell out `anyone here kill people for money?' KURT Let me handle this. They each take a seat at the bar where a no-nonsense BARTENDER walks over to them. BARTENDER Yeah? KURT Hey. How you doing? Nice place. (LEANING IN) Listen, does anyone here kill people for money? NICK Kurt! An intense-looking GUY on the next stool notices them. BARTENDER The fuck did you just say? KURT Don't get me wrong. This isn't about race. Our society discriminates and disenfranchises YOU -- DALE (head in hands) Oh my God. BARTENDER I'm a small business owner. Who are you calling disenfranchised? KURT I didn't mean you in particular. BARTENDER Right. You mean all black people. (CONTINUED) 52. 50 CONTINUED: (2) 50 NICK Maybe we should go? BARTENDER You could do that. Or I could take the aluminum baseball bat I'm holding in my right hand and disenfranchise your teeth from your mouth. DALE I vote we go. The three stand and head for the door. KURT Okay, we're going. I'm sorry if I offended you. It was never my -- BARTENDER Oh shit, please shut up. KURT Okey doke. 51 EXT. DIVE BAR - CONTINUOUS ACTION 51 The guys come out onto the sidewalk. DALE This is ridiculous. We're never gonna find someone to do this for us. COCKSUCKER JONES (O.S.) Yo! They turn to see COCKSUCKER JONES, 30s, the guy who was sitting next to them at the bar. COCKSUCKER JONES I think I can help you boys. He gestures for them to follow him into the alley beside the bar. Kurt and Nick move to follow. DALE Oh, we're just gonna follow him into that alley?... All right. 52 INT. ALLEY - CONTINUOUS ACTION 52 Cocksucker Jones leans in to the three guys. (CONTINUED) 53. 52 CONTINUED: 52 COCKSUCKER JONES I heard you're looking for someone to take care of some business for you? NICK Yes, we are. Are you a... businessman? COCKSUCKER JONES (putting out his HAND) Cocksucker Jones. NICK (unsure whether to take his hand) Excuse me? COCKSUCKER JONES That's my name. DALE Your first name is Cocksucker? COCKSUCKER JONES And my last name's Jones. You got a problem with that? DALE No, no. It's just interesting. That's the name on your birth certificate? COCKSUCKER JONES Naw, man. It's a nickname. My real name is Dean. DALE Oh! Like Dean Jones. The actor from Herbie the Love Bug. KURT (quietly to Dale) I don't think he knows who Dean Jones is. COCKSUCKER JONES I know who Dean Jones is, bitch! I can't walk around here with that kind of faggy, cracker name. NICK So you chose `cocksucker'? (CONTINUED) 54. 52 CONTINUED: (2) 52 COCKSUCKER JONES That's right. Nobody fucks with a cocksucker. `Cocksucker' is the toughest name there is. DALE Not `motherfucker'? COCKSUCKER JONES I considered Motherfucker. But in the end, I thought Cocksucker Jones sounded more badass than Motherfucker Jones. KURT I agree. NICK Okay, here's the thing: we each work for a boss that we need to get rid of. Is that something you might be able to help us with? COCKSUCKER JONES It is. Assuming you've got the cheese. KURT We've got cheese. How much cheese are we talking? COCKSUCKER JONES For three hits? That's gonna run you thirty large. NICK That's a lot of cheese. KURT We don't have that much cheese. DALE Isn't there any kind of discount because we're buying three at once? Like buy two, get one free. COCKSUCKER JONES This ain't the motherfucking Cold Stone Creamery. It's thirty large or nothing. NICK There's no way we can pay that. (CONTINUED) 55. 52 CONTINUED: (3) 52 COCKSUCKER JONES Five large. DALE Wow. (TO NICK) Good negotiating. NICK That's a lot more reasonable. And that would be for all three, Cocksucker? COCKSUCKER JONES Yeah. KURT Great. We're in. COCKSUCKER JONES Okay, meet me back here tomorrow night with the cash. I'll take care of the rest. NICK Should we bring the bills in any kind of special denominations? COCKSUCKER JONES No, just, whatever. Small bills. NICK Got it. KURT And do you want it in any particular container, like a shoebox? NICK Or a paper bag? DALE Or plastic. I read an article that plastic is actually better for the environment than paper. COCKSUCKER JONES Fuck the environment! Just put that shit in a briefcase. NICK Got it. Thanks. Come on, guys. They turn to go, when Dale turns back. (CONTINUED) 56. 52 CONTINUED: (4) 52 DALE Should we deduct the cost of the briefcase? COCKSUCKER JONES What?! DALE I mean, assuming we don't get the case back... We're not getting the case back, right? Cocksucker glares at him. DALE Well, that's like an extra eighty bucks. Only seems fair that we should take that out of your end. NICK We'll cover the briefcase, Dale. DALE Then let's get a cheap one. It doesn't have to be real leather. (then to Cocksucker) Are you cool with faux -- ? Kurt grabs Dale by the shoulder and hustles him to the car. DISSOLVE TO: 53 SERIES OF SHOTS 53 MUSIC CUE: Frank Sinatra's "(Forget Your Troubles, Come On) Get Happy" -- Dale, Kurt and Nick each take a turn at an ATM machine, withdrawing the maximum amount they can. -- Nick at his desk at work. He looks over his cubicle wall and his eyes narrow as he sees Harken directing a WORKMAN who stencils the words "Senior Vice President of Sales" below where it already says "President." Another WORKMAN uses a sledgehammer on the wall of the office. Nick grins malevolently. -- Kurt is at his desk in the chemical company. He looks up to see Bobby Pellit open his office door and lead out two obvious HOOKERS. Pellit has white powder around his nostrils. He spots Kurt watching him and he sneers back. Kurt smiles devilishly. (CONTINUED) 57. 53 CONTINUED: 53 -- CLOSE ON Dale as he places tooth X-rays into plastic contact sheets. PULL BACK to reveal Julia is licking his neck while tweaking his nipples through his scrubs. In contrast to earlier, Dale appears to be unfazed and almost amused by Julia's antics. 54 EXT. ALLEY - THAT NIGHT 54 Cocksucker Jones holds an open briefcase that's empty but for a single stack of taped together 20-dollar bills. COCKSUCKER JONES Looks like it's all here. DALE Turns out we didn't really need the briefcase after all. Could've just used a manila envelope. KURT Shut up, Dale. NICK So, Cocksucker, how long do you think it'll be before you've... taken care of business? COCKSUCKER JONES Here's the thing. I just got out of doing a dime for some pretty ugly shit and I'm still on probation. They're watching me. So if I step out of line, I go right back inside. KURT You told us you could take care of it. COCKSUCKER JONES And I'm gonna. I'm gonna be your professional advisor. Think of me as your murder consultant. NICK We don't want a murder consultant. We want a murderer. DALE I knew we were getting ripped off! KURT Okay, look. This isn't what we talked about. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 58. 54 CONTINUED: 54 KURT (CONT'D) Can we just get our money back, please? Then we'll be on our way. COCKSUCKER JONES Sorry, no refunds. NICK That's five thousand dollars. You think we're just gonna walk away and let you keep that? COCKSUCKER JONES (getting in his face) I think you're forgetting who you're talking to. Cocksucker pulls back the lower edge of his jacket to reveal what appears to be the holster of a gun. DALE Whoa, whoa! We don't want any trouble. COCKSUCKER JONES Now either I give you the advice you paid for, or you can walk away with nothing. Up to you. KURT Look, the whole reason we came to you is because we don't have the experience to do it ourselves. COCKSUCKER JONES Most killers are first-timers. Look, the key to a good murder is making it look like an accident. Gas leak, brakes failing, suicide, that sort of thing. If you do it right, you won't even have to be there when it goes down. NICK That makes sense. But how would we fake three accidents? COCKSUCKER JONES You need to stalk your prey, track their movements, get to know them inside and out. Where do they go? What do they eat for breakfast? Who're they fucking? (CONTINUED) 59. 54 CONTINUED: (2) 54 DALE You're talking about surveillance and recon. COCKSUCKER JONES But making it look like an accident won't be enough if the pigs can pin a motive on you. NICK Well, we all have obvious motives for killing our bosses. COCKSUCKER JONES So why don't you kill each other's bosses? DALE Hey, that's a good idea. Like Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train. KURT The Danny DeVito movie? DALE Yes, the famous Alfred Hitchcock/Danny DeVito movie. You're thinking of Throw Mama from the Train. But it's actually the same idea. If we kill each other's bosses there's no link to us. NICK That's pretty good. COCKSUCKER JONES That's what you're paying me for. Now ain't that worth five grand? The guys all AD LIB "no's." COCKSUCKER JONES Yeah, well, too fucking bad. 55 INT. NICK'S CUBICLE - NEXT EVENING 55 Nick is poring over a stack of documents when his phone rings. INTERCUT WITH: 60. 56 INT. KURT'S CAR - SAME TIME 56 Kurt and Dale wait in the car outside of Nick's office. KURT We're outside. You ready for a little recon? NICK Yeah. I just need to get Harken to let me leave early. KURT What's the difference? He's not going to be your boss much longer. NICK (WHISPERING) If I get fired before we kill Harken, this'll all have been for nothing. I'll just be an out-of- work murderer. (THEN) I'll be down in three minutes. He hangs up then peers over his cubicle wall to see Harken talking to another EMPLOYEE nearby. Nick takes a breath, leans over his garbage pail and sticks a Commtronix pen down his throat. At the sound of Nick's loud WRETCHING, Harken looks over to see him puking into the trash pail. HARKEN What in God's name...?! NICK (WEAKLY) Sorry, sir. I've been fighting this bug all day. I'll just get back to work -- Nick wipes his mouth and turns pathetically back to his desk. HARKEN No. Go home. I don't want you getting everyone else sick. NICK Oh, okay. Thank you, Mr. Harken. Nick grabs his jacket and moves to go. (CONTINUED) 61. 56 CONTINUED: 56 HARKEN Wait. Take your work with you. Have it on my desk at six AM. Nick barely conceals his contempt as he picks up the stack of papers and heads out. HARKEN (MUTTERING) Disgusting. 57 EXT. BOBBY PELLIT'S STREET - NEXT DAY 57 Kurt's car pulls up slowly and parks. Kurt, Dale and Nick slump down in their seats. 58 INT. KURT'S CAR - CONTINUOUS ACTION 58 KURT Okay, boys, as soon as Pellit makes a move, we tail him. It is on now. NICK Oh, it's on. DALE Hells yeah! They watch the house with steely determination. DISSOLVE TO: 59 INT. KURT'S CAR - ONE HOUR LATER 59 The guys are bored out of their minds, barely awake. Dale nibbles on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a plastic bag. KURT Ugghhhhh, I can't believe how much this sucks. DALE I don't get it. On TV, surveillance always looks so great. They've got their cups of coffee. Their sunflower seeds. They talk about their lives. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 62. 59 CONTINUED: 59 DALE (CONT'D) And then, right when they reveal something really intimate, the perp appears and they spring into action. A long, silent pause as they watch the house... NICK Are we even sure he's home? They exchange looks. KURT (opening his door) Let's go check it out. They get out of the car. Dale pockets his sandwich. 60 EXT. PELLIT'S HOUSE - MOMENTS LATER 60 The three guys creep around Pellit's patio, peeking in doors and windows. Finally: NICK I don't see him. Kurt is about to try a window when Dale stops him. DALE What are you doing? KURT We're not gonna get intel standing on his lawn. We have to go in. DALE What about fingerprints? We don't have gloves. KURT Here, do this. Kurt pulls his shirt sleeves down over his hands. Dale does the same. Nick, who wears a T-shirt, tucks his hands inside the bottom of the shirt. With some difficulty, Kurt slides open the window. KURT Here we go. The three of them manage to wriggle through the window. It's not graceful: Dale's foot gets caught on the sill, causing him to tumble on top of Nick and Kurt. At last, all three are inside. 63. 61 INT. PELLIT'S LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION 61 KURT Dale, keep an eye out. Let us know if Pellit's coming. DALE Got it. Wait, I don't know what he looks like. NICK It doesn't matter. Just tell us if anyone comes. DALE Got it. They take in Pellit's living room. There's a leather sofa, a 60-inch plasma and enormous speakers. On the wall are framed Ed Hardy posters depicting dragons and half-naked girls. KURT Wow. This guy's a bigger douchebag than me. NICK Okay, let's split up. Look for any intel we can use on him. KURT What kind of intel? NICK I don't know. I guess we'll know it when we see it. Kurt heads upstairs while Dale and Nick look around the living room. DALE Hey, Nick? Does this count as intel? Nick looks over to see Dale holding in his sleeve-covered hands an open wooden box filled with white powder. NICK Holy shit, that's a lot of blow. DALE God, this must be worth, like, ten thousand -- oh shit! (CONTINUED) 64. 61 CONTINUED: 61 Suddenly, the box slips out of Dale's hands. It hits the floor, sending a cascade of cocaine all over the rug. NICK What the fuck?!! DALE Sorry, my sleeves were slippery! NICK We've got to get that back in the box. DALE I've got it. He kneels and begins trying to scoop up the coke in his hands. It's an impossible task. 62 INT. PELLIT'S BEDROOM - SAME TIME 62 Kurt looks around the room. He doesn't see anything useful so he heads into -- 63 INT. PELLIT'S BATHROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION 63 He flips on the light. His eyes land on Pellit's toothbrush. He grins slyly. 64 INT. PELLIT'S LIVING ROOM - SAME TIME 64 Dale is still on his knees, scooping up coke, as Nick returns from the kitchen cradling a Dustbuster in his T- shirt. NICK Look out. Let me try this. Struggling with his hands in his T-shirt, Nick vacuums up the cocaine from the rug. When he's finished, he pops open the vacuum's waste receptacle and dumps the contents back in the wooden box. 65 CLOSE ON THE BOX 65 Which is now filled not only with cocaine, but bits of hair, dust bunnies, food and other crap. 65. 66 BACK TO SCENE 66 DALE I guess we should've emptied the Dustbuster before we used it. NICK You think? 67 INT. PELLIT'S BATHROOM - SAME TIME 67 Just BELOW FRAME, Kurt removes Pellit's toothbrush from his ass and returns it to its holder, careful to keep his hands covered with his sleeves. He's about to go when he notices a bar of Neutrogena face soap beside the sink. He looks around deviously. 68 INT. PELLIT'S LIVING ROOM - MINUTES LATER 68 Dale and Nick are doing their best to pick the crap out of Pellit's cocaine. DALE Hey look, there's a piece of cereal in here. Can't tell if that's a corn flake or a frosted flake... Kurt comes down the stairs. KURT Okay, my work upstairs is done. You guys ready to split? 69 INT. KURT'S CAR - CONTINUOUS ACTION 69 Kurt pulls away from the curb. NICK We need to be better prepared. That was totally dangerous and a complete waste of time. KURT Not a complete waste. He pulls a BlackBerry out of his pocket. NICK Oh no... don't tell me... (CONTINUED) 66. 69 CONTINUED: 69 DALE You stole that from Pellit's house? KURT It's got his calendar and his contacts. This is what recon's all about. DALE (GLUM) Nobody said we'd be stealing. KURT Shall we pay a little visit to your boss, Nick? NICK I guess so. But let's make a stop first. 70 EXT. RITE-AID PHARMACY - MINUTES LATER 70 Nick emerges from the store with a plastic bag and gets into Kurt's car. 71 INT. KURT'S CAR - CONTINUOUS ACTION 71 DALE What did you need to get? Nick holds up a box of latex gloves. NICK No more sleeve gloves. DALE Nice. KURT Oh man, you should've asked me. I've got a whole box of those in my bedside table. (off their grossed- OUT LOOKS) Don't judge me. NICK Take a right up here. Harken's place is about a mile away. They drive for a beat. Then -- (CONTINUED) 67. 71 CONTINUED: 71 DALE Y'know... this is kinda, I don't know... exciting. KURT Very. NICK (a little smile) Yeah. (THEN) I guess we're really doing this now, huh? DALE (GRINNING) I guess so. 72 EXT. HARKEN'S HOUSE - SHORT TIME LATER 72 A two-story house with a tidy yard. Kurt's car pulls up. 73 INT. KURT'S CAR - CONTINUOUS ACTION 73 Kurt and Nick begin pulling on their gloves. DALE Can I have a pair? NICK You know, last time with the three of us, it got a little... messy. What if Kurt and I go in and you stay here and watch out for Harken? DALE Okay -- again, I don't know what he looks like. NICK If anyone approaches the house, assume it's him and give us a signal. DALE Fine. I'll honk the horn six times. KURT Maybe something a little more subtle? (CONTINUED) 68. 73 CONTINUED: 73 DALE Honk the horn four times? NICK How about you just honk once? DALE People honk once all the time. You'll be running in and out of the house. KURT Fine. Honk twice. DALE (SKEPTICAL) Okay... Nick and Kurt get out of the car. After a beat, Dale remembers his sandwich and pulls it out of his pocket. 74 EXT. HARKEN'S HOUSE - MOMENTS LATER 74 Kurt and Nick sneak up to the front porch which is camouflaged by shrubs. They peek inside. NICK (WHISPERING) Looks like the coast is clear. Kurt tries the windows. They're locked. KURT Damn. Guess we'll have to break in the old-fashioned way. Kurt looks around and spots a small rock beside the porch. He picks it up and winds back to throw it at the window. NICK Kurt, wait! But it's too late. Kurt has released the rock. It HITS the window, but instead of breaking the glass, the rock itself BREAKS into two pieces. KURT Holy shit. I broke the rock. NICK No, it's one of those hide-a-key things. Look... (CONTINUED) 69. 74 CONTINUED: 74 Nick shows Kurt a key concealed in one half of the fake rock. He grabs it and inserts it into the front door lock. 75 INT. HARKEN'S LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION 75 The guys tiptoe in, whispering and tense. The place is tastefully decorated with attractive furniture and modern art. There is a vase of flowers on a table. NICK Wow. This is not how I pictured his place. KURT For all we know, he's got a closet full of skin suits. A CAT springs out of nowhere, startling them, then runs off. NICK Jesus! KURT Stupid cat. (THEN) Let's check upstairs. They head up. 76 INT. KURT'S CAR - SAME TIME 76 Dale is finishing the last of his peanut butter sandwich. He checks the rearview mirror. No sign of anyone. DALE (singing a la Cher, SIMULATING AUTO- TUNE) `Do you believe in love after love/I can feel something inside me say/I really don't think you're strong enough now...' 77 INT. HARKEN'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION 77 Just as Kurt and Nick enter, the cat suddenly jumps out from behind the door, startling them again. (CONTINUED) 70. 77 CONTINUED: 77 KURT God damn it! How many cats do they have? NICK I think that was the same one. KURT Little bastard. Kurt notices a framed wedding photo on the dresser of Harken and Mrs. Harken. KURT Damn. That's Mrs. Harken? I'd like to cover her in cock yogurt. NICK You want to cover every woman in... did you say `cock yogurt'? KURT I did. Yet again, Kurt and Nick jump as the cat LEAPS out of hiding with a YOWL then runs off. KURT Ahhh! NICK If he's so scared of us, why doesn't he just leave us alone?! 78 INT. KURT'S CAR - SAME TIME 78 Dale plays a bowling game on his cell phone. DALE C'mon, c'mon... yes! A breeze blows through the open windows of the car, catching the plastic bag from Dale's sandwich and carrying it out the window. 79 EXT. KURT'S CAR - CONTINUOUS ACTION 79 Just then, Harken, in running attire, comes jogging up the street. His eye is caught by the plastic bag falling from the car window onto the street. He stops and angrily picks up the bag. (CONTINUED) 71. 79 CONTINUED: 79 HARKEN Hey, schmuck. Dale, surprised, turns to the window. DALE Excuse me? HARKEN You want to tell me why you're littering on my street? DALE Oh, I'm sorry, that blew out the window. I wasn't littering. HARKEN I don't care if it blew out of your twat. Now, get your fucking Chevy Cavalier the hell off my block! DALE Whoa. Sir, there's no need to be hostile. HARKEN Hostile? You want to see hostile? How about I go in the house and get my -- Suddenly, Harken begins to choke and his face grows increasingly red. DALE Get your what? With one hand Harken grabs his throat and with the other he looks at the plastic bag he's holding. HARKEN (STRAINED) Peanuts? DALE Huh? Oh, yeah. It was a peanut butter sandwich. Harken collapses to his knees. His face is turning blue now. Dale quickly steps out of the car. DALE Oh god! What should I do?! Tell me what to do! (CONTINUED) 72. 79 CONTINUED: (2) 79 Harken yanks up the right leg of his jogging pants revealing an EPI-PEN strapped to his ankle. He reaches for it, but Dale moves faster. DALE What do I do with this? Should I inject you?! Harken nods urgently as his eyes begin to roll back. DALE Okay, hold on! I got this. Dale takes the cap off the epi-pen, raises his arm and jams the needle into Harken's chest. Harken lets out a grunt. DALE Did I do it? Did I get enough in?! I'm gonna do it again! Dale raises his arm again. 80 INT. HARKEN'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION 80 Nick continues to search around the bedroom. Kurt is by the window. NICK Do you see a Day Runner or an address book? KURT NO -- (glances out the WINDOW) What the...? Dude, check this out. Nick joins him at the window and they both react as they see what appears to be Dale repeatedly STABBING Harken in the chest, neck and arms. Harken lies motionless on the sidewalk. NICK (EXCITED) That's Harken! Dale's killing Harken! KURT Holy shit! He's really doing it! (REALIZING) Out where everyone can see him. (CONTINUED) 73. 80 CONTINUED: 80 NICK What the hell is he thinking?! KURT He's not stopping. He's gonna get us all caught. We've gotta get out of here. NICK What about Dale? KURT He's a psychopath. We leave him behind. NICK Right. Let's go through the back! As they hurry to leave the room, Kurt stumbles over the CAT which has appeared yet again. Unseen by either of them, PELLIT'S BLACKBERRY SLIPS out of his pocket and lands on the floor at the foot of Harken's bed. 81 EXT. HARKEN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS ACTION 81 As Dale kneels over Harken to check his breathing, a car pulls up alongside and MRS. HARKEN steps out. Seeing her husband on the ground, she rushes over. MRS. HARKEN Oh my god! What happened?! DALE He had an allergic reaction. But I think he's coming around. Do you know him? MRS. HARKEN He's my husband. Mrs. Harken kneels beside Harken and supports his head. MRS. HARKEN Honey? Can you hear me? Harken groggily looks down at his torso which is perforated by dozens of tiny needle marks. HARKEN (groggy, to Dale) Wha-- What did you do to me? DALE I injected you with your thing. (CONTINUED) 74. 81 CONTINUED: 81 MRS. HARKEN He saved your life, honey. (TO DALE) Thank you so much! She grabs Dale in a warm hug. DALE Oh, it was nothing. HARKEN (to Mrs. Harken) What's this? What's with the hugging? MRS. HARKEN I'm just thankful that he was here. HARKEN I'll bet you are. Do you know this guy? MRS. HARKEN No. We just -- HARKEN Are you fucking him, Rhonda? MRS. HARKEN Oh, come on. HARKEN (TO DALE) What were you doing out here, anyway? Waiting to fuck my wife? DALE (FLUSTERED) I've never met your wife -- Still a bit woozy, Harken gets to his feet and points at Dale. HARKEN You need to get the hell out of here. MRS. HARKEN Dave, stop it. You should be thanking him. Why are you being so suspicious? (CONTINUED) 75. 81 CONTINUED: (2) 81 HARKEN Why? Because I know you sleep around on me. And I'm going to find out who it is. MRS. HARKEN You're being ridiculous. HARKEN Am I? What about Maurilio? I see the way you look at him. MRS. HARKEN I am not having sex with the gardener! As Harken and his wife continue to bicker, Dale quietly retreats to Kurt's car. 82 INT. NICK'S APARTMENT - LATER 82 Nick and Kurt pace nervously. NICK I can't believe that idiot Dale. You realize we're all going to jail because of him. KURT I can't go to jail. Look at these eyes. Look at this ass. They'll be all over me. NICK Yeah, me too. KURT (NOT CONVINCED) Well... NICK What do you mean `well'? I'd get raped just as much as you. KURT (PATRONIZING) No, of course you would. You're a good-looking guy. NICK You think you're more rape-able than I am. (CONTINUED) 76. 82 CONTINUED: 82 KURT I never said that -- Dale enters. DALE Oh good. You guys are here. Did you see me out there? KURT Yeah, Dale, we saw you. DALE Pretty neat, huh? NICK No, it wasn't neat! You stabbed Harken to death in front of the whole neighborhood! KURT Not cool, man. DALE Wait, that was Harken? NICK Who'd you think you were stabbing? DALE I wasn't stabbing anybody. That was an epi-pen. He was having an allergic reaction to peanuts and I injected him. Kurt and Nick digest this for a beat. NICK So let me understand this. My boss, who we are trying to kill, was dying in front of you and you saved his life? KURT Not cool, man. DALE Wait, you were just mad at me for killing him and now you're mad at me for not killing him?! (THEN) See, this is why I needed to know what these people look like! (CONTINUED) 77. 82 CONTINUED: (2) 82 NICK Hang on a sec. Maybe this recon wasn't a waste of time. Now we know Harken's deathly allergic to peanuts and Pellit has a huge stash of cocaine. KURT (GETTING IT) We could put peanuts in Harken's house and rat poison in Pellit's coke! NICK Everyone would assume that Pellit just got a batch of tainted drugs. DALE But Harken must always have that epi-pen on him. They consider this for a beat. KURT I bet he doesn't wear it in the shower. We could put peanuts in his shampoo! NICK Perfect! Two fatal accidents. And we're not even there when they happen. DALE That just leaves Julia. KURT Tomorrow night, I'll surveil her and figure out how to take her down. NICK Good. I'll get some rat poison and take care of Pellit. Dale, think you can get some peanuts into Harken's shampoo? DALE I can do that. KURT All right. That just leaves us with one final thing to settle. (CONTINUED) 78. 82 CONTINUED: (3) 82 NICK What's that? KURT Dale, if Nick and I were in prison, which one of us would get raped more? OFF Dale's confusion and Nick's annoyance -- 83 EXT. PELLIT'S STREET - NEXT NIGHT 83 Nick sits in his parked car watching the house through binoculars. 84 INT. NICK'S CAR - CONTINUOUS ACTION 84 Through an upstairs window, he sees Pellit enter his bedroom. Nick checks his coat pocket and confirms it contains a Home Depot bag with rat poison inside. Nick dials his cell phone. INTERCUT WITH: 85 EXT. JULIA'S CONDO - SAME TIME 85 Kurt sits in his car, reading Maxim magazine. Julia's car pulls up. She gets out, goes to the trunk, opens it, then bends down to get a bag of groceries. Nick watches her ass appreciatively as she does and keeps watching as she heads into her building. SFX: His cell phone rings. NICK (ON PHONE) Hey. Have you learned anything about Julia yet? KURT Well, I've learned that Dale is a homosexual because this chick is unbelievably hot. How's it going over there? NICK I'm just waiting for Pellit to go to sleep. I wonder how Dale's doing with Harken. 79. 86 EXT. HARKEN'S STREET - SAME TIME 86 Dale's car is parked. 87 INT. DALE'S CAR - CONTINUOUS ACTION 87 Dale watches the movie Precious on his laptop. He glances over to see Harken turn on the light in his bedroom. On the seat beside Dale, we see a large jar of Planters peanuts. 88 INT. HARKEN'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION 88 Harken looks around suspiciously, then goes to Mrs. Harken's closet. He opens it and begins looking through her clothing. He sniffs one of her dresses and his eyes narrow. He sniffs himself, then compares it to the smell of the dress. Unsatisfied, he continues searching around the room for any incriminating evidence. Suddenly, his foot comes in contact with something on the floor. He reaches down and picks up... PELLIT'S BLACKBERRY. He turns it on and scrolls down the contacts list to "HOME" which shows Bobby Pellit's name and address. Harken's face turns beet red. 89 INT. DALE'S CAR - MOMENTS LATER 89 Dale ducks down as he sees Harken's garage door opening. Harken's Porsche 911 pulls out and zooms up the street. Still scooched down, Dale dials his phone. 90 INT. NICK'S CAR - SAME TIME 90 Nick watches Pellit performing a series of sweaty KUNG FU MOVES in a full-length mirror. NICK Jesus, where does he get the energy? (REMEMBERING) Oh yeah. CELL PHONE RINGS. Nick answers. NICK What's up, Dale? (CONTINUED) 80. 90 CONTINUED: 90 DALE Harken just left his house. I'm going in. NICK Good luck, man. DALE Thanks. 91 INT. HARKEN'S BATHROOM - MINUTES LATER 91 Dale flips on the light and enters clutching the peanut jar in his gloved hands. He slides open the shower curtain and Harken's CAT LEAPS OUT at him. DALE Ahhh! He regains his composure and finds a bottle of men's shampoo. As he nervously removes the cap from the shampoo and the lid from the peanuts, he notices that MR. PEANUT is STARING right at him. Despite his jaunty top hat and little monocle, there is something almost accusing in his look. Dale stares back at Mr. Peanut as we see his resolve soften. 92 INT. NICK'S CAR - SAME TIME 92 Nick watches as Pellit finally gets into bed and turns off his bedside lamp. NICK Okay. Here we go. Nick reaches for the door handle as -- SFX: Nick's cell phone rings. Nick jumps, then answers the phone. INTERCUT WITH: 93 INT. HARKEN'S BATHROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION 93 DALE (INTO PHONE) Nick? NICK What? (CONTINUED) 81. 93 CONTINUED: 93 DALE I'm not sure if I can do this. NICK Where are you? DALE In Harken's bathroom. About to pour the nuts in his shampoo. But, I just... I know he's a real shithead, but he's still a person, y'know? Lights appear in Nick's rearview mirror. NICK (looking down at the rat poison, RELUCTANTLY) Yeah. I know. Harken's Porsche pulls up and stops just behind Nick's car. Harken gets out and heads toward Pellit's front door. DALE What should I do? Should I do it? Suddenly, Nick looks up to see HARKEN knocking on Pellit's door. In the bedroom, Pellit's light goes on. NICK (WHISPERING) What the fuck?! DALE What? NICK It's Harken. He's here! DALE At Pellit's?! Why?! NICK I don't know. He's knocking on his door! DALE How would Harken even know Pellit? 82. 94 EXT. PELLIT'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS ACTION 94 Looking irritated, Pellit answers the door. Before he can get a word out... ... Harken removes a gun from his pocket and SHOOTS Pellit twice in the chest. 95 INT. NICK'S CAR - CONTINUOUS ACTION 95 Nick reacts, slumping down in his seat, horrified. NICK Oh my god oh my god oh my god... DALE What? What? What?! NICK He shot him. Harken shot Pellit! DALE Oh my god. Is he dead?! NICK Shhhh! With shaking hands, Nick reaches for his ignition but knocks the car keys out. They fall onto the floor of the car. NICK (HUSHED) Fuck! As Nick bends down to find his keys, Harken's shadow looms over him. Nick cowers just out of sight. 96 EXT. NICK'S CAR - CONTINUOUS ACTION 96 Harken looks around. Did he hear something? No. He calmly but briskly walks away from Nick's car, gets into his own and speeds off. 97 INT. NICK'S CAR - CONTINUOUS ACTION 97 DALE What's happening? NICK Harken's gone. (CONTINUED) 83. 97 CONTINUED: 97 DALE What about Pellit? NICK He's not moving. He looks dead. DALE Shit! What do we do?! NICK I've got to get out of here before someone sees me! Meet me at the bar. I'll call Kurt. Nick ZOOMS away from the curb. 98 EXT. STREET CORNER - MOMENTS LATER 98 Nick's car SPEEDS through a red light at an intersection. A TRAFFIC CAMERA FLASHES as it snaps Nick's photo and license plate. 99 INT. BRADFORD'S BAR - SHORT TIME LATER 99 With trembling hands, Nick and Dale take deep gulps of their drinks. Kurt hurries in, looking disheveled. The ensuing conversation is conducted in tense whispers. KURT Okay, let's all stay calm and figure this out. NICK Calm? How can we be calm? I watched a man die an hour ago! KURT A man you were going to kill anyway. NICK Well... KURT What? NICK I don't know if I had it in me. DALE Me neither. (CONTINUED) 84. 99 CONTINUED: 99 KURT I can't believe you guys! You can't just bail on a plan like that at the last minute. NICK You think when it came down to it, you would've been able to murder Julia? Kurt softens. KURT I don't know. I mean, afterwards, it was kind of hard to imagine killing her. Nick and Dale turn to him, quizzically. DALE `Afterwards'? Kurt realizes what he said. NICK You slept with her, didn't you? DALE (TO KURT) Oh god. Please tell me you didn't sleep with her. Kurt lowers his head. NICK You are a mess. KURT I know, I know. But it's not my fault. CUT TO: 100 FLASHBACK - EXT. JULIA'S HOUSE - NIGHT 100 Kurt's car is parked across the street. KURT (V.O.) At first I was surveilling her just like I was supposed to... 85. 101 INT. KURT'S CAR - NIGHT 101 Kurt watches through her bedroom window as Julia undresses sexily. KURT (V.O.) Then she started deliberately undressing in front of the window. With the lights on. She must've known I was there. As Julia removes her bra, we see Kurt's face pressed against his car window, his breath fogging it up. 102 INT. KURT'S CAR - LATER 102 Julia enters her bedroom with a tray of food. She wears a skimpy kimono-style robe. She sits on her bed and unwraps a Popsicle. KURT (V.O.) Then she made herself a little snack. A Popsicle... We see Julia eat the Popsicle as suggestively as humanly possible. Then she picks up a banana and peels it. KURT (V.O.) ... then a banana.... Julia eases the whole banana into her mouth. Then she picks up a hot dog. KURT (V.O.) ... and finally a hot dog. I mean, three penis-shaped foods cannot be coincidence. And in that weird order? That's not a proper meal. 103 EXT. JULIA'S HOUSE - SHORT TIME LATER 103 DALE (V.O.) So you took that as an invitation to fuck her? Julia opens her front door, stares straight at Kurt and beckons him inside with one finger. She walks back inside, leaving the door wide open. KURT (V.O.) No. I took her invitation to fuck her as an invitation to fuck her. (CONTINUED) 86. 103 CONTINUED: 103 Kurt opens his car door so quickly he tumbles out headfirst, planting his face on the street. He jumps up, but one ankle is tangled in the seatbelt. He finally extricates himself and hurries to the house as fast as he can. 104 INT. BRADFORD'S BAR - CONTINUOUS ACTION (PRESENT) 104 NICK There is something clinically wrong with you. KURT I know. I'm a rapscallion. DALE You're not a rapscallion. You're a whore. A filthy whore. KURT Hey. Not nice. And besides, I think I actually solved your problem, Dale. Julia just needed a good fucking. I bet she's not going to mess with you anymore. NICK Whatever. We have bigger fish to fry right now. What do we do about Harken? KURT Here's what we do. We call the cops and make an anonymous tip that Harken killed Pellit. Boom. Harken's in jail. Pellit's in hell. Julia's had the crazy fucked out of her. Our problems are solved. Boom. NICK Okay, but we should find a payphone. We don't want them tracing the call to us. 105 EXT. BRADFORD'S BAR - MINUTES LATER 105 Nick, Kurt and Dale emerge from the bar. NICK Come on, we'll take my car. The three of them climb into Nick's car. 87. 106 INT. NICK'S CAR - CONTINUOUS ACTION 106 Before Nick can even pull out of his parking spot, they hear the WHOOP of a police siren and see the flashing lights of a SQUAD CAR behind them. The guys' faces go white. NICK What the hell? Nick unrolls his window as one COP approaches his side and his PARTNER comes up on the other. COP Are you the owner of this vehicle? NICK Uh, yes. Is there something wrong? COP We've got an APB on a black Kia Spectra, license 4HIG208. NICK Can I ask why? COP A traffic cam caught this vehicle fleeing the scene of a crime tonight. I'm going to need you to follow us to the station. KURT Officer? This is not my car. Is it okay if I just -- ? COP All three of you, please. Nick glares at Kurt as the cops head back to their car. 107 INT. POLICE STATION - LATER 107 Kurt, Nick and Dale sit in a waiting area looking equal parts terrified and pissed at each other. Throughout the following, they speak in hushed voices. DALE They know everything. We're dead. I can't believe I let you guys talk me into this! (CONTINUED) 88. 107 CONTINUED: 107 KURT Oh, please. We were just being hypothetical. You're the one who pushed us to do it. NICK We can't even say anything about Harken now. KURT Why not? NICK Uh, well, Kurt, being outside the murder victim's house because I was planning to murder him probably isn't the best alibi in the world. KURT You know, I didn't actually do anything illegal, so... DALE You broke into two people's houses and stole a BlackBerry! KURT You gonna rat on me, Dale? DALE Well, since I'm the only one without a connection to the murder, yeah, maybe I will. NICK That means you'd also rat on me. KURT Not if I rat on Dale first. Just then, a burly detective, HAGAN, appears behind them. HAGAN Gentlemen, this way, please. The guys glare angrily at each other as they follow Hagan. 108 INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - MINUTES LATER 108 Nick, Dale and Kurt sit on metal chairs across a table from Hagan and his equally burly partner, SAMSON. Hagan slides a PHOTO across the table to Nick. 89. 109 CLOSE ON A BLACK AND WHITE IMAGE OF NICK 109 taken by the traffic camera. His terrified face is clear, as is the time stamp at the bottom. 110 BACK TO SCENE 110 HAGAN Do you want to explain why you were driving 61 in a 25 zone, a block from the victim's house two minutes after he was shot to death? NICK I... was drag racing. (off their skeptical LOOK) I am a drag racer. There's no law against that, is there? HAGAN Actually there is. SAMSON You were drag racing in a Kia Spectra? NICK I don't win a lot. HAGAN Here's what I don't understand. You're at the crime scene. An hour later when we find your car, you just happen to be hanging out with this guy... (gestures to Dale) ... a registered sex offender -- KURT (RE: DALE) Tsk tsk. HAGAN ... and this guy... (gestures at Kurt and holds up a wallet) ... whose employee ID says he works for Pellit Chemicals, the victim's company. (CONTINUED) 90. 110 CONTINUED: 110 KURT (FEIGNING SHOCK) Wait. My boss was murdered?! Bobby Pellit?! DALE (WRY) You want me to get you a Kleenex? KURT I can't believe this. (TO NICK) What were you doing near his house?! Nick looks at him, pissed. NICK Where were you during the murder? KURT I was making love. DALE (SNORTS) `Making love.' KURT (to the cops) Let me ask you something, Detective. Let's say one of us knew who the shooter was and was willing to hand you that perp on a platter. Would he be entitled to some sort of immunity for that information? Both Dale and Nick shoot daggers at him. HAGAN No. But he would be entitled to some sort of jail time. Because if he knew who the shooter was and didn't tell us, that would be obstruction of justice. A beat. KURT Well, then I'm glad we have no idea who the shooter is, right, guys? (CONTINUED) 91. 110 CONTINUED: (2) 110 SAMSON (LOSING PATIENCE) If you expect us to believe this is all just a big coincidence, we're going to be here for a long time. DALE Okay wait! Now it's Kurt and Nick who look nervous. Is Dale about to crack? DALE Saying that we'll be here for a long time implies that we can't leave. Does that mean we're under arrest? Samson looks to Hagan who grimaces. HAGAN No. We just brought you in for questioning. DALE So, you don't have evidence constituting probable cause to arrest us? SAMSON Not yet. DALE Well then, we're free to go? HAGAN Technically. Dale nervously stands up, half expecting to be hit. DALE Come on, guys. Kurt and Nick, impressed and relieved, stand and head out. 111 INT. POLICE STATION - CONTINUOUS ACTION 111 The three guys head for the exit. (CONTINUED) 92. 111 CONTINUED: 111 NICK (TO DALE) Nice work. Where'd that come from? DALE `Law & Order.' KURT We really showed those guys. NICK `We'? You were gonna turn us in! KURT For, like, a second. SAMSON (O.S.) Stop! The guys turn to see Samson holding out a traffic citation. SAMSON (handing it to Nick) For speeding and running a red light. (THEN) Don't get too comfortable out there, boys. Our forensics team is sweeping Pellit's house for fingerprints and DNA. And they don't miss much. We HOLD ON Kurt's face and -- CUT TO: 112 FLASHBACK - INT. PELLIT'S BATHROOM - DAY 112 Kurt pulls Pellit's toothbrush out of his butt and returns it to its holder. 113 BACK TO SCENE (PRESENT) 113 Kurt suddenly looks nauseous. 114 INT. KURT'S CAR - MINUTES LATER 114 Kurt drives, Nick is in front and Dale in back. (CONTINUED) 93. 114 CONTINUED: 114 KURT We are so fucked. NICK Maybe it's time to lawyer up. DALE I don't have money for a lawyer. I gave all my money to Cocksucker Jones! KURT Hey, that's right! I forgot all about Cocksucker. Why don't we ask him what to do? NICK We did pay him five thousand dollars to be our murder consultant. DALE Actually, it was five thousand forty with the briefcase. OFF their looks -- CUT TO: 115 INT. DIVE BAR - SHORT TIME LATER 115 Cocksucker Jones looks up from his bar stool, surprised to see Nick, Kurt and Dale. COCKSUCKER JONES Oh damn, look who's back. How did it go with the Strangers on a Train shit? KURT Not great. We need your help. NICK One of our intended victims killed another of our intended victims. Cocksucker's eyes go wide. COCKSUCKER JONES Shut the fuck up! What kind of evil geniuses are you? (CONTINUED) 94. 115 CONTINUED: 115 DALE We don't even know why it happened. But the cops brought us in as suspects. What do we do now? COCKSUCKER JONES First things first. I'm gonna need another five thousand dollars. KURT What? No way. You said the last five thousand would cover this! COCKSUCKER JONES Okay, fine. Pay for my drink. As Nick puts down a few bills on the bar, Dale leans in to Kurt. DALE (SOTTO) Not the best negotiator, is he? COCKSUCKER JONES Let me ask you this -- the guy who killed the other guy you were planning on killing, are the police after him too? NICK No. They don't suspect him. COCKSUCKER JONES All right, so you're gonna need to encourage him to turn himself in, by say, kidnapping his wife and mailing him her earlobe or something. DALE That's horrible. COCKSUCKER JONES Naw, the earlobe's vestigial. (off their looks) All right, how about you trick him into confessing what he did while you wear a wire? KURT A wire. That's good. (CONTINUED) 95. 115 CONTINUED: (2) 115 NICK (TO COCKSUCKER) Is that how the cops caught you when you murdered someone? COCKSUCKER JONES What the hell are you talking about? I never murdered anyone. There's a beat. NICK What? COCKSUCKER JONES Who told you I killed somebody? KURT You did. You said you served a `dime' for `some pretty ugly shit.' COCKSUCKER JONES It was ugly. DALE What was it? COCKSUCKER JONES (LEANING IN) You ever see the movie Snow Falling on Cedars? NICK/KURT No. DALE Yes. COCKSUCKER JONES I got caught with a video camera making a bootleg copy of that movie. NICK You did ten years for video piracy? COCKSUCKER JONES Hey, that's a federal offense. They take that shit serious. (BEAT) I also made the mistake of representing myself at trial. May have insulted a few of the jurors. (CONTINUED) 96. 115 CONTINUED: (3) 115 KURT Hold on. You're telling me we've been taking murder advice from someone whose biggest crime was taping an Ethan Hawke movie?! COCKSUCKER JONES So you do know it. DALE If you're not a murderer, why do you carry that gun on your belt? COCKSUCKER JONES Gun? He pulls back his jacket to reveal the holster we saw earlier. COCKSUCKER JONES This is a motherfucking iPhone. He pulls the phone out and shows them. NICK I feel like such a moron. COCKSUCKER JONES Well, you are a moron. You don't walk into a bar and hand a guy five thousand dollars just because he's black. KURT Come on, guys. Let's get out of here. The three of them turn to go. COCKSUCKER JONES (calling after them) Trust me on the wire thing, though. Worked for Donnie Brasco. Bootlegged that movie too. 116 EXT. POLICE CRIME LAB - NEXT DAY 116 Hagan and Samson pull up in their car and get out. 117 INT. FORENSICS LAB - MOMENTS LATER 117 The detectives enter to find a CRIME TECH leaning over his computer. (CONTINUED) 97. 117 CONTINUED: 117 HAGAN You got something for us? CRIME TECH We didn't find any foreign prints in the house, but we did get a DNA match for one of your suspects, Kurt Gamble. SAMSON Where was it? CRIME TECH Pellit's upstairs bathroom. His toothbrush. It had traces of Gamble's fecal matter. HAGAN That sick bastard. CRIME TECH That's not all. We found feces on Pellit's hairbrush, face soap, floss and razor. SAMSON Razor?! CRIME TECH The handle. Not the blade. This Gamble guy put just about everything in that bathroom up his ass. HAGAN All I care about is that it puts him inside the house. That's enough for a warrant for him and his drag racing, sex offender friends. (takes out cell) I'll call the DA. 118 EXT. HARKEN'S HOUSE - THAT NIGHT 118 Kurt's car pulls up with the lights off and parks. 119 INT. KURT'S CAR - CONTINUOUS ACTION 119 Kurt is at the wheel, Nick sits shotgun, Dale in back. (CONTINUED) 98. 119 CONTINUED: 119 KURT Okay, looks quiet. Is the tape recorder ready? Dale pulls out a mini-tape recorder and hands it to Nick along with a roll of surgical tape. DALE Fresh batteries, fresh six-hour tape, voice activated. NICK One of us needs to tape it to our chest. KURT I'll do it. I'm the only one without hair on my chest. NICK That's `cause you shave it. KURT I don't shave it. I wax it. Nick gives Kurt the recorder and Kurt tapes it to his chest then lowers his shirt. DALE So what do we do now? Wait for Harken to come home and ambush him? NICK I have a better idea. Let's be in the house when he walks in. He'll be so mad, he'll be more likely to confess. KURT Right. We'll sit there in the dark till he comes in, and then switch on a lamp. That'll freak him out. DALE Hey, we should find an office chair so one of us can dramatically spin around and face Harken. NICK I'll be in the chair. (CONTINUED) 99. 119 CONTINUED: (2) 119 KURT Why do you get to be the guy in the chair? NICK He's my boss. DALE We could try and find more than one office chair so the three of us can spin around at the same time. KURT That doesn't sound intimidating. That sounds like a musical number. DALE I guess you're right. I'll turn on the lamp. KURT So I'm just supposed to stand there like an idiot? NICK You're recording it all. You're the most important member of the team. KURT Don't patronize me, Nick. 120 EXT. HARKEN'S PORCH - MINUTES LATER 120 The guys tiptoe onto the porch, peeking in the windows. Nick tries the front door... and it swings open. They look at each other, then quietly head inside. 121 INT. HARKEN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS ACTION 121 The LIGHTS suddenly come on. PARTYGOERS Surprise! There are 20 or 30 PARTYGOERS in the house which is decorated for a birthday party. The guys stand dumbstruck. The revelry peters out as the guests realize there are three strangers at the door. Mrs. Harken steps up. (CONTINUED) 100. 121 CONTINUED: 121 MRS. HARKEN Who are you? NICK Uh... hi... sorry we're late. I'm Nick. I work with your husband AND -- MRS. HARKEN (NOTICING DALE) Aren't you the young man who helped Dave on the street the other day? DALE Uh, yes. How's he doing? MRS. HARKEN He's fine. Thanks to you. (then, to Nick) Did I invite you to this? Before Nick can answer a GUEST at the window calls out. GUEST #1 His car just turned the corner! GUEST #2 Someone get the lights! As everyone scurries to hide, Kurt finds himself pressed up against Mrs. Harken, beside the sofa. He checks her out. KURT (shaking her hand) Hi, we didn't formally meet. I'm Kurt. MRS. HARKEN (DISTRACTED) Hi. KURT Nick didn't tell me that his boss was married to a model. MRS. HARKEN (noticing him now, FLATTERED) I'm not a model. KURT ("SINCERE") When did you quit? (CONTINUED) 101. 121 CONTINUED: (2) 121 We see Mrs. Harken is intrigued. Just then, the front door opens and Harken enters. The lights come on. PARTYGOERS Surprise! A jittery Harken nearly jumps out of his skin as the crowd starts singing "Happy Birthday." Mrs. Harken takes Harken's arm. MRS. HARKEN Were you surprised? HARKEN (RELIEVED) Oh, yeah. MRS. HARKEN Look, everyone's here. HARKEN (EVILLY) Almost everyone. MRS. HARKEN Who are you talking about? HARKEN I think you know. (THEN) I need to put my stuff away. I'll be right back. He heads off to his study, leaving his confused wife. She notices Kurt, standing at the buffet, staring at her. He smiles and winks. Mrs. Harken gives him a little wave. 122 ANGLE ON NICK, KURT AND DALE 122 NICK He's going off alone. This is our chance. DALE You guys ready? KURT (still staring at Mrs. Harken) So fucking ready. NICK Okay, stay close. (CONTINUED) 102. 122 CONTINUED: 122 KURT (NOT LISTENING) Gotcha. The three of them head toward the study. 123 INT. HARKEN'S STUDY - CONTINUOUS ACTION 123 Just as Nick and Dale enter, Harken looks up and sees them. HARKEN What the hell are you doing here? (TO DALE) You come to stab me a few more times, you lunatic? (TO NICK) And my wife invited you? Are you fucking her too? Nick tries his best to suppress his nervousness and be cool and threatening. NICK We know what you did, Harken. HARKEN What does that mean? NICK We were there. We saw you kill him. HARKEN (TURNING DEAD SERIOUS) So what is this? A shakedown? You think you can blackmail me because you saw me kill my wife's lover? Nick winces. So close. DALE (BLURTING OUT) Say his name. Nick and Harken turn to Dale. HARKEN What? (CONTINUED) 103. 123 CONTINUED: 123 DALE The guy you killed. What was his name? HARKEN Trust me, Pellit's name doesn't matter anymore. NICK There it is! (turning to Dale) Let's go, guys -- He freezes as he sees for the first time that Kurt didn't accompany them into the study. It's just him and Dale. Nick looks around, panicked. HARKEN Yeah, I killed Pellit -- NICK Hang on. Hold that thought, because I want to get my friend, KURT -- HARKEN I walked right up to his door and I shot him in his fucking chest, and I'll tell you something: I liked it. So if you think I'm a pussy who won't do the same exact thing to some half-assed blackmailer, guess again. NICK (looking back at the LIVING ROOM) You know who really thinks you're a pussy is my friend Kurt. Let me go grab him and you can tell him exactly what you just -- HARKEN You're pathetic, Waters. You come into my home, on my goddam birthday and try and pull this shit? Well, guess what? You're a dead man. You... (TO DALE) ... you, and your friend Kurt, whoever the fuck he is. Dead. Men. (CONTINUED) 104. 123 CONTINUED: (2) 123 DALE (SOFTLY) We didn't know it was your birthday. Harken has crossed to a drawer and taken out a small safe. He begins turning the combination lock. NICK What are you doing? What's in that? HARKEN My gun. Just give me a second. Nick and Dale exchange a look, then quickly rush out of the room. 124 INT. HARKEN'S LIVING ROOM - MOMENTS LATER 124 looking thoroughly freaked out, Nick and Dale push their way through the partygoers. NICK We had him! We had the whole thing. What happened to Kurt? Just then, the door to a guest bathroom opens and Kurt emerges, buckling his belt and looking strangely red in the face. KURT Oh, hey. NICK `Hey'?! Where were you?! KURT Uh, I had to go to the bathroom. Bad salmon puff. Are we ready to record Harken? NICK You're too late, Kurt! He confessed the whole damn thing! DALE More than once! Then he told us we were dead men! He's getting his gun right now! KURT Oh, man, I'm so sorry. I fucked up. (CONTINUED) 105. 124 CONTINUED: 124 NICK Yeah, you -- Suddenly, the bathroom door opens again and out steps Mrs. Harken, also looking disheveled. She adjusts her dress then rejoins the party. NICK (realizing what Kurt WAS DOING) You dick! Overcome with rage, Nick PUNCHES Kurt in the arm then rushes to the door. Dale and Kurt hurry after him. 125 ANGLE ON HARKEN 125 seeing them go. With a grim look, he calmly heads to the garage. 126 INT. KURT'S CAR - MINUTES LATER 126 Nick sits steaming mad as Kurt drives. Dan fiddles with the tape recorder in the back. KURT Look, I wasn't thinking. She's so hot and I'm so weak. I'm a weak, weak man. I admit it. From the back seat, we hear from the tape recorder: KURT (V.O.) In here? But all those people are right outside. MRS. HARKEN (V.O.) I know. That makes it even hotter. We hear unbuckling and unzipping. MRS. HARKEN (V.O.) Your balls are so smooth. KURT (V.O.) I wax them. DALE Is there anything you don't wax? Kurt shrugs. We hear some WET, SMACKING SOUNDS. (CONTINUED) 106. 126 CONTINUED: 126 NICK Ugh. Turn it off, Dale! KURT (V.O.) Oh yeah... oh shit! MRS. HARKEN (V.O.) Whoops. That was fast... KURT (QUICKLY) Yeah, Dale, turn that off! 127 EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS ACTION 127 A short distance behind a car is following Kurt's. As it comes closer we see it's a Porsche. And it's driven by a determined-looking Harken. 128 EXT. KURT'S APARTMENT - SHORT TIME LATER 128 Kurt's car turns the corner and stops short. 129 INT. KURT'S CAR - CONTINUOUS ACTION 129 From the guys' POV we see an unmarked car and a police squad car parked outside of Kurt's place. Hagan and Samson stand with two UNIFORMED OFFICERS. KURT (O.S.) Holy shit! They must have found my DNA. NICK (O.S.) Turn around! Get us out of here! 130 EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS ACTION 130 Kurt quickly does a U-turn and ZOOMS off in the direction they came, inadvertently SPEEDING through a red light. We see a traffic camera FLASH. 131 INSERT - A BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH 131 clearly showing the three guys, their faces distorted with panic. 107. 132 INT. KURT'S CAR - MOMENTS LATER 132 KURT Okay, it's clear that none of us can go home again. Probably ever. DALE What?! KURT I'm sure they have cops at all our places. I think our best bet is to get out of the country. NICK Where are we going to go? KURT Mexico? DALE Everyone flees to Mexico. That's the first place they'll look. KURT You're right. What about Asia? We could become kick boxers. NICK What the fuck are you talking about? KURT What if our entire lives have been leading up to this moment? What if we were destined from the very beginning to become Asian kick boxers? NICK What if I was destined to smack you right in the face? KURT That seems like a lesser destiny. SFX: Dale's cell phone rings. DALE (ANSWERING PHONE) Hello? INTERCUT WITH: 108. 133 INT. JULIA'S BATHROOM - SAME TIME 133 Julia lies in a bubble bath, a glass of wine on the edge of the tub. JULIA Hello, lover. DALE Oh God. Look, Julia, I can't talk right now -- Kurt reacts at hearing it's Julia. He makes an "I'm not here" gesture. JULIA No worries, baby. I actually meant to call your home phone. You know, to tell Stacy about us. DALE No! Wait! JULIA I think I've waited long enough. I'm tired of you playing with my emotions. DALE I'm not playing. I'm going to do it. I swear! JULIA This Friday. At the office. DALE Fine! JULIA Wait. What are you going to do to me? DALE I'm going to... have sex with you. JULIA Details! And be explicit. DALE Right now? You want me to say it? KURT Oh, shit. We've got company. (CONTINUED) 109. 133 CONTINUED: 133 He points out the back window and the guys react as they see Harken driving directly on their tail. NICK It's Harken! Lose him! KURT Lose him? Sure, Nick. His 500 horsepower is no match for my 150. JULIA (ON PHONE) Say it! DALE (BLURTING OUT) I'm gonna put my penis in your pussy! Despite the danger, Kurt and Nick turn curiously to look at Dale. JULIA Oh, come on, Casanova. You can do better than that. DALE (WITH DIFFICULTY) I'm gonna make you feel good. With my tongue... and my fingers. And whatnot. Just then, Harken speeds up and SLAMS into the tail of Kurt's car. Kurt struggles to stay on the road. NICK Jesus Christ, this guy's nuts! JULIA You going to slap me with your cock, Dale? DALE Yes! Yes! I'm going to beat your face with my cock! JULIA More! BANG! Harken again HITS Kurt's car from behind. A tail light shatters. (CONTINUED) 110. 133 CONTINUED: (2) 133 DALE (FRANTIC) I'm gonna put my balls in your hair! I'm gonna spit on your arms! Kurt and Nick exchange a baffled look. JULIA See you Friday, you dirty bird. Julia hangs up. Dale looks like he's been violated. DALE Nice job `fucking the crazy out of her,' Kurt! KURT Maybe I should've spit on her arms. ON STAR REP (V.O.) Good evening, Mr. Gamble. The three of them JUMP, startled by the sudden voice in the car with them. KURT What the hell? ON STAR REP (V.O.) This is Gregory, your On Star rep. Our on-board sensors report that you have a damaged tail light. KURT Yeah, thanks, Gregory, we know. We're being chased by a crazy man and he just smashed into us! Kurt looks in the rearview mirror and sees Harken is still behind them. As his car reaches an intersection, Kurt swerves at the last second and takes a hard left. Harken overshoots the turn. ON STAR REP (V.O.) Oh dear. I will alert the local police authorities and direct them to your location. NICK No, wait! Don't call the police! They're already after us. (CONTINUED) 111. 133 CONTINUED: (3) 133 DALE They think we murdered someone. Suddenly, Kurt's engine dies and the car comes to a gradual stop. NICK Why are you slowing down?! KURT I'm not! The engine died! ON STAR REP (V.O.) I have remotely disabled your engine. KURT Why would you do that, Gregory?! ON STAR REP (V.O.) It's a standard On Star safety protocol when we believe a driver has committed a crime. KURT I pay nineteen bucks a month for this fucking service! ON STAR REP (V.O.) Please stay with your vehicle. The police should arrive shortly. DALE I thought you were our friend, Gregory! There's a sound of screeching tires and Harken's Porsche ZOOMS up behind them. NICK He's not stopping! KURT Oh, shit! 134 EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS ACTION 134 Harken's car PLOWS into the rear of Kurt's, forcing it into the back of a parked car. Even if the engine was working, there'd be nowhere to go now. Dazed from the impact, the guys look back to see Harken slowly approaching on foot, holding a gun in his hand. (CONTINUED) 112. 134 CONTINUED: 134 DALE Shit, shit, shit... Harken taps on Kurt's window with the barrel of the gun. Kurt lowers the window. KURT I'm guessing you don't want to EXCHANGE INSURANCE information -- ? HARKEN Out of the car. All of you. The three guys nervously exit the car and face Harken who points the gun at them. NICK Look, Mr. Harken -- HARKEN Shut the fuck up! I've got six bullets in here. So if I want to, I can shoot each of you twice, just like I did that bastard, Pellit. But if I do that, I'll have to spend the rest of my life running from the law or rotting in jail. Police sirens approaching. DALE (NEAR TEARS) So, you're not gonna shoot us? HARKEN No. I have a better idea. Harken turns the gun toward his own thigh and FIRES. HARKEN Unnnnhhhh! NICK What the -- ?! As his leg bleeds, Harken wipes the gun off with his shirt, then suddenly tosses it to Dale. HARKEN Catch. Startled, Dale catches the pistol with shaking hands. (CONTINUED) 113. 134 CONTINUED: (2) 134 HARKEN (THROUGH GRITTED TEETH) Now I can tell the cops that when I discovered you three killed Pellit, you tried to kill me to shut me up. KURT That's crazy! Down the street, two squad cars turn the corner and speed toward them. Dale looks down at the gun in his hand and drops it. HARKEN Is it? Because I don't see a shred of evidence proving that I killed Pellit. It's like I've always told you, Nick. Life is a marathon and you can't win a marathon without putting a few Band-Aids on your nipples. Nick deflates. The three guys realize Harken's won. Then, from the car's open window they hear: ON STAR REP (V.O.) Did I mention that this conversation is being recorded? Kurt, Nick and Dale exchange a look of shock and relief. HARKEN Who said that? KURT (GRINNING) That's Gregory, our On Star rep. ON STAR REP (V.O.) (PROUDLY) My name is Atmanand! Harken's face falls. He looks around nervously as the police cars come to a halt. HARKEN You can't -- this isn't -- And with that, Harken BOLTS AWAY as fast as his injured leg will take him. It's not very fast. The guys watch him for a beat as they share a joyful, exhausted moment together. (CONTINUED) 114. 134 CONTINUED: (3) 134 NICK I think this is gonna work out okay for us. KURT I told you. DALE (RE: HARKEN) Should we stop him? KURT Probably. NICK I've got this. (looking to heaven) This is for you, Gam Gam. Nick sprints off after his hobbling boss and in SLOW MOTION, violently TACKLES Harken to the pavement. Harken goes down hard, his face SLAMMING against the asphalt. As the COPS hurry toward them, Nick kneels on the back of Harken's neck, pinning him. HARKEN Get the fuck off me! Kurt steps up and kneels beside the battered figure. KURT (GENTLY) Hey, Harken, one last thing? HARKEN (BARKING) What?! KURT Your wife gives great head. Harken struggles wildly but he's helpless. CUT TO BLACK. FADE IN: 135 EXT. PELLIT CHEMICAL CO. - MORNING 135 SUPERIMPOSE: ONE WEEK LATER (CONTINUED) 115. 135 CONTINUED: 135 The sun is shining. Birds are chirping. It's a bright, new day as Kurt heads into the building. 136 INT. PELLIT CHEMICAL CO. - DAY 136 Kurt enters and looks over at what was Pellit's office. He smiles when he sees Margie, the pregnant employee, now running the company. He heads over. 137 INT. MARGIE'S OFFICE - MOMENTS LATER 137 Kurt knocks on the doorframe and enters. MARGIE Oh, hey, Kurt. Come in. KURT Thanks, Margie. I just wanted to congratulate you on taking over Bobby's job. MARGIE Thank you. Terrible what happened to him. KURT Yeah. Tough month for the Pellit family. Anyway, if there's anything I can do to help out before the baby gets here, please let me know. MARGIE (CONFUSED) What baby? KURT Your baby. MARGIE (beat, offended) I'm not pregnant. KURT (CHUCKLING) Yeah, right. Look at that big belly. Kurt pats her belly. Margie now looks genuinely pissed off. (CONTINUED) 116. 137 CONTINUED: 137 MARGIE I'm aware that I have a weight problem, Kurt. It just happens to manifest itself in my lower abdomen. KURT I... oh, my God. I'm really sorry, Margie -- He falls silent under Margie's death stare. MARGIE (COLDLY) Kurt, I know you were a favorite of Jack's. He was willing to overlook your inappropriate behavior with female clients and service people. But you should be aware, I'm not Jack. And I have very little tolerance for the mistreatment of women. So consider this your first strike. KURT How was I supposed to know you were just fat -- MARGIE Strike two. Kurt opens his mouth to say something but thinks better of it. He stands up and slumps out. Life as he knew it at Pellit Chemicals is clearly over. 138 INT. DENTAL EXAMINATION ROOM - DAY 138 Julia enters to find Dale waiting for her. A PATIENT lies asleep in the chair, his face obscured by the nitrous mask. JULIA Thank God it's Friday, right, Dale? DALE (RESIGNED) Yeah. JULIA Let's drill this patient and then you can drill me. (CONTINUED) 117. 138 CONTINUED: 138 DALE Could we do it on top of the patient? I like the element of danger. JULIA (IMPRESSED) You continue to surprise me, you weird little man. Julia quickly undoes the patient's belt and yanks his pants down. JULIA (TO DALE) You like that? This getting you hot? DALE Oh, yeah. Julia begins handling the patient's implied genitals which are obscured by a tray of tools. JULIA (in a puppet voice) `I wish I was Dale's weenie so I could have sex with Julia.' Suddenly, the patient bursts out LAUGHING and sits up. JULIA What the hell?! The patient pulls off his nitrous mask to reveal it's KENNY, the guys' former classmate from the bar. KENNY (LAUGHING) Sorry, Dale. I couldn't keep it together anymore -- JULIA What is this? DALE Julia, meet my old high school friend, Kenny. KENNY How do you do? (CONTINUED) 118. 138 CONTINUED: (2) 138 DALE Kenny will do just about anything for fifty bucks and that's why I hired him to help me frame you. Your days of sexually assaulting me and your patients are over. JULIA (LAUGHS DERISIVELY) Seriously? This is all you've got? Your word against mine? I'm a highly respected professional and you're two losers. DALE Three losers. Dale points to the window where Julia sees COCKSUCKER JONES outside holding up a video camera. He waves to her. JULIA You little bastard -- DALE Shut up, Julia. Now, my fiancee and I are going to take a very expensive two week vacation which you're going to pay for. And then I'm going to come back to a rape- free workplace. Because if you so much as look at my ass, I'll have yours locked up. With a bounce in his step, Dale strides out of the room. There's an awkward beat with Kenny and Julia. KENNY I don't suppose you could take a look at this molar -- JULIA (SCREAMING) OUT! GET OUT! Kenny scampers out, pulling up his pants as he goes. 139 INT. NICK'S OFFICE (FORMERLY HARKEN'S) - DAY 139 Nick is in his new office as a young employee, CARTER, 20's, pops his head in. CARTER You wanted to see me, Mr. Waters? (CONTINUED) 119. 139 CONTINUED: 139 NICK Hi, Carter. Just wanted to check if you had a chance to finish those regional sales projections yet? CARTER Oh, I think I may need another day. NICK Okay. I was hoping to give them to the marketing guys today, but I can hold them off. (FRIENDLY) In the future, it'd be great if you could tell me if you're going to miss a deadline. Carter's eyes narrow. All at once, he rushes at Nick, grabs him by the throat and HURLS him THROUGH THE PLATE GLASS WINDOW, shattering it. 140 EXT. COMMTRONIX INDUSTRIES - CONTINUOUS ACTION 140 Nick plummets forty feet and lands with a SICKENING CRUNCH directly onto his own car. Just behind him we see a parking plaque that reads "Nick Waters, Senior VP of Sales." SMASH CUT TO: 141 SAME SCENE (REALITY) 141 Carter stands opposite Nick as before. CARTER Sure. No problem, Mr. Waters. NICK Thanks, buddy. Nick smiles and closes the door behind Carter. He settles into his comfy chair and puts his feet up on the desk. NICK It's good to be the boss. CUT TO BLACK. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Hospital, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hospital, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..bdced388731c2806035cd5d89c0737ce8801bf8c --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hospital, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + THE HOSPITAL Written by Paddy Chayefsky SHOOTING DRAFT 1971 THE HOSPITAL. DAY. MAY, PANORAMIC VIEW of The Hospital -- a vast medical complex, a sprawling pastiche of architecture extending ten blocks north and south on First Avenue and east to the river. The Hospital was founded in the late 19th century, and there are still a few begrimed Victorian Bedlams and Bastilles among the buildings. Mostly though, it is Medical Modern 1971, white and chrome and lots of glass and concrete shafts and rotundas. A spanking new Community Mental Health Clinic towers among the tenements at the northern end of the complex. On the far side of First Avenue, a twenty-story apartment house with recessed balconies and picture windows to house the resident staff has just recently been completed, and next to it, eight ghetto buildings are being demolished to make way -- according to the construction company's sign -- for a new Drug Rehabilitation Center, to be completed in 1973, we should all live so long. This is where the shattering SOUNDS OF CONSTRUCTION are coming from. A block length of generators and cement and demolition machines are POUNDING, CRASHING, SCREAMING. Traffic HONKS and BRAYS up First Avenue. It is a cold spring morning -- 10:00 A.M. A 1966 station wagon pulls up to the Holly Pavilion. A tiny, fragile, white-bearded OLD MAN, almost lost in his overcoat, is helped from the rear of a station wagon and slowly led to the entrance doors by a middle-aged nurse. NARRATOR On Monday morning, a patient named Guernsey, male, middle-seventies was admitted to the hospital complaining of chest pains. HOLLY PAVILION. EIGHTH FLOOR CORRIDOR The old man is now in a wheelchair pushed by a hospital orderly down the corridor. NARRATOR He had been referred by a nursing home where the doctor had diagnosed his condition as angina pectoris. Now it is axiomatic that nursing home doctors are always wrong. ROOM 806 The old man, shirtless, is propped on the edge of the bed, wheezing. DR. SCHAEFER, a young intern in white-uniform, perches beside him with the old man's chart in his lap, taking down his history. The other patient in the two-bedded room, a MIDDLE-AGED MAN, is comatose and all rigged up with I.V.'s and catheters. NARRATOR The intern who admitted Mr. Guernsey, however, accepted the diagnosis and prescribed morphine, a drug suitable for angina but not at all suitable for emphysema, which is, unfortunately, what the old man actually had. Within an hour... EIGHTH FLOOR CORRIDOR Two orderlies rush the old man's bed with, of course, the old man in it, past the Nurses' Station and into a waiting elevator. NARRATOR ...the patient became unresponsive and diaphoretic and was raced up to Intensive Care with an irregular pulse of 150, blood pressure 90 over 60, respiration rapid and shallow. INTENSIVE CARE An oxygen mask is applied to the old man's face by the resident. NARRATOR The resident on duty now compounded the blunder by treating the old man for pulmonary edema. He gave him digitalis, diuretics and oxygen. This restored the old man's color... EIGHTH FLOOR CORRIDOR The elevator door opens. Two orderlies wheel the sleeping man on his bed back around the Nurses' Station and down the corridor to his room. NARRATOR ...and he was sent back to his room in the Holly Pavilion, ruddy complected and peacefully asleep. ROOM 806. EVENING The old man is back in his room sleeping serenely, his tiny body making barely a ripple in the white sheet that covers him. The room is in hushed shadows. A yellowish light diffuses into the room from the half-opened bathroom door. The other patient in the room remains as before, comatose and silent. NARRATOR In point of fact, the patient was in CO2 narcosis... ROOM 806 All the lights are on now. NURSE PENNY CANDUSO and an orderly are wrapping the old man in a post-mortem shroud. BRUBAKER, the senior resident, is giving hell to Schaefer, the intern. NARRATOR ...and died at seven-thirty that evening. The shrouded body of the old man is wheeled out of the room. CAMERA STAYS on the vacated bed. NARRATOR I mention all this, only to explain how the bed in Room 806 became available. PAN from bed to Schaefer, now alone in the room and regarding the empty bed with frowning interest. Schaefer is a scraggly young fellow, bespectacled, with a contemporary mess of hair and a swinging unkempt moustachio. HOLD on Schaefer. NARRATOR The intern involved was a prickly young buck named Schaefer who had a good thing going for him with a technician in the hematology lab. In the haphazard fashion of hospital romances, Dr. Schaefer had been zapping this girl on wheelchairs, stretchers, pantry shelves... Dr. Schaefer moves for the phone on the table between the two beds. NARRATOR ...in the kitchen, in the morgue, in the dark corners of corridors... Schaefer speaks softly into the phone. NARRATOR ...standing up, sitting down -- so you can imagine what an available bed meant to him. SCHAEFER (on phone) Hey, Sheila, this is Howard, Sheila. Hey listen. I got us a bed for tonight. A real, honest-to-god bed. FREEZE on CLOSE-UP of the beaming, lubricious Schaefer on phone as CREDITS AND MUSIC ERUPT ONTO THE SCREEN -- THE HOSPITAL INTERSPERSED WITH CREDITS, the following scenes: ROOM 806. NIGHT Dark. Just a bit of moonlight streaking through the not quite closed bathroom. The hallway door opens, and a young woman, carrying a top coat, slips quickly in giggling like hell, followed by Schaefer, who is likewise giggling and admonishing her to be quiet. Her name is SHEILA. Sheila notices the other patient in the room sleeping away and looks questioningly at Schaefer, who reassures her as he removes her coat. After which he strips off his own white jacket and trousers and hangs them in the armoire. The girl asks in a hoarse whisper if they're going to get totally nude and wonders if that's such a good idea. For an answer, Schaefer fondles her crotch. They both giggle, they both shush each other, they giggle again; they're both stoned. The girl unzippers her dress. The dark room is filled for the moment with the flurry of undressing, flung garments, elbows, legs and arms, bumpings into each other, and Sheila saying between giggles, "Boy, I sure hope nobody walks in." They eventually wind up on the unoccupied bed, and the scene ends looking ACROSS the sleeping profile of THE PATIENT in the other bed as Schaefer and his girl thump away at each other with much creaking of springs, moans, groans, giggles and the white-limbed patterns of fornication. ROOM 806 Dark, silent, hushed. The fun and games are over. Sheila is in front of the armoire. She slips back into her dress, after which she tiptoes back to the bed where Schaefer is deeply asleep, smiling in postcoital peace. Sheila bends, shakes his shoulder. SHEILA (whispers) I'll see you. Schaefer smiles, grunts, sleeps on. END OF CREDITS. FADE OUT. FADE IN: THE HOSPITAL. 6:30 A.M. NEXT MORNING, TUESDAY A cold newly-dawned sun shines down on the vast sprawling complex of the hospital. Desultory early morning traffic on First Avenue. HOLLY PAVILION, EIGHTH FLOOR The night shift of nurses is closing out another night's work, which has been on the whole uneventful. The head nurse, MRS. REARDON, hunches over her paperwork. NURSE ELIZABETH RIVERS sits at the desk beside her, resting her head on the palm of one hand. NURSE'S AID J.C. MILLER crosses with an armful of linens. She disappears into the pharmacy and supply areas behind the Nurses' Station. In the west corridor, NURSE LUCINDA PEREZ glances at her watch, then pads down to Room 806. She enters. ROOM 806. DAY A cold gray light cheerlessly illuminates the room. Nurse Perez checks the I.V. on the comatose patient who is in the bed nearest the door. Then she turns to regard the other bed -- which gives her pause. NURSE'S P.O.V.: Intern Dr. Schaefer is lying on this bed, rigid, eyes dilated, pupils staring unseeing. An I.V. tube sticks out of his naked right arm. Nurse Perez doesn't quite know what to make of the fact that Dr. Schaefer is lying on that bed with an I.V. tube sticking out of him looking dead. Frowning, she reaches out a tentative hand to shake his naked shoulder. NURSE PEREZ Doctor Schaefer... There is, of course, no response. A terrible suspicion enters Nurse Perez's mind, and she closes her eyes and sighs a long shuddering sigh. Then she opens her eyes and, with a second and briefer sigh, reaches for Schaefer's neck to take his pulse. Clearly, the result is not encouraging. She sighs another short sigh and regards Schaefer's unblinking, dilated pupils. It's all a bit too much for her; she shuffles to the window and stares out into the gray morning where things are a little more comprehensible. Once again, she returns to the bed, regards Schaefer's death mask. She raises the bedsheet and, for one short but appreciative moment, considers Schaefer's naked body. She lets the bedsheet carefully down. She sighs again. NURSE PEREZ (trying again, with little hope) Doctor Schaefer? She sighs, turns and leaves the room. EIGHTH FLOOR CORRIDOR Nurse Perez, frowning and pursing her lips, moves slowly back to... EIGHTH FLOOR, NURSES' STATION Head Nurse Reardon is still bent over her paperwork. NURSE PEREZ Listen, did you know Doctor Schaefer was in Eight-O-Six, because he's dead? MRS. REARDON (late forties, continues her painstaking paperwork, grunts) What? NURSE PEREZ I'm just telling you, Dr. Schaefer is dead. MRS. REARDON (works on; after a moment, looks up) What do you want, Perez? NURSE PEREZ Look, I don't know what the hell this is all about, but Dr. Schaefer is in Room 806 with an I.V. running and he's dead. I didn't even know he was sick. MRS. REARDON (regards Perez a moment) Perez, what the hell are you talking about? (appeals to Nurse Rivers coming out of the floor pharmacy) Do you know what the hell she's talking about? NURSE PEREZ Well, maybe I'm going crazy. I don't know. Isn't Room 806 the patient Guernsey? I mean, did something happen I don't know about? MRS. REARDON Perez, I don't know what you're talking about. NURSE PEREZ This is the nuttiest thing I ever saw. Dr. Schaefer's in Room 806 dead. MRS. REARDON What Dr. Schaefer? Our Dr. Schaefer? NURSE PEREZ Our Dr. Schaefer. The one who's always grabbing everybody's ass. MRS. REARDON (to Nurse Rivers) Do you know what she's talking about? I don't know what she's talking about. (to Perez) What do you mean Doctor Schaefer's in Room 806 dead? NURSE PEREZ I mean, he's lying on the far bed, stone dead, and with an I.V. tube sticking out of him. And if you don't believe me, maybe you just ought to get up and look for yourself. With a short, irritable sigh, Mrs. Reardon abandons her paperwork and heads down the west corridor, followed by Nurses Perez and Rivers. CAMERA TRACKS as Mrs. Reardon turns to Nurse Rivers. MRS. REARDON All right, maybe you'd better call Mrs. Christie. Phone RINGS. BOCK'S HOTEL ROOM Dark. Venetian blinds drawn. TV set on, a gray coarse-grained square. PHONE RINGS. DR. HERBERT BOCK, 53 years old, a large man, bulky, disheveled, apparently fell asleep in a chair while watching television the night before. The bed still has its spread on but is rumpled. Bock is in trousers and shirt, collar opened, barefooted. PHONE RINGS. The reading lamp is the only light in the room except for the sheen of gray hissing from the television. Newspapers litter the floor. Books, two-day-old plates of food, yesterday's mugs of coffee, cigar-stuffed ashtrays, a shirt, a pair of pants, a winter overcoat, a battered gray fedora have been slung about. PHONE on the bedtable RINGS again, begins to penetrate the sotted sleep of the man. Two bottles of booze, one empty, and a clump of glasses are on the coffee table in front of Bock. He grunts, opens an eye. PHONE RINGS. Bock suddenly exsufflates in a snorting grunt. He stands, shuffles to the bed, a big, sodden fellow, picks up the receiver, interrupting its next RING. He sinks, sitting on the bed. BOCK This is Dr. Bock... Yes, Mrs. Christie, what is it? It's all right, I'd be getting up in a few minutes anyway... I'm sorry I missed that. Would you say it again? Yes, I know him, Schaefer, the stud with the glasses, who fancies the nurses... I'm afraid I don't understand that, what do you mean? Was he sick? I mean, was he... uh, what was the cause of death? Was he being treated? I don't understand. What was he doing in the bed? You did say he... Look, Mrs. Christie, did you call the office? Good, well, I'll... No, no, it's all right. I'll be getting my wake-up call any minute anyway. He returns the receiver to its cradle, sits disoriented, unbuttoning his shirt. HOSPITAL. MORNING. 8:00 A.M. LONG SHOT of the hospital, now alive and jumping. Taxis pull up and out of the large U-shaped drive. A noisy picket line of about twenty chanting protesters parade with signs in an uneven ellipse. GRUMBLING PROTESTERS (chanting) Two-four! Help the poor! Most of the placards are slogan-y: "PEOPLE YES! DOCTORS NO!" -- "CURE POVERTY! HEAL THE POOR!" Two protesters move toward the street, waving and yelling at an approaching car. One, a young white fellow wears a sandwich board that goes into the matter at some length: "WE PROTEST THE EVICTION OF 386 BLACK FAMILIES AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THEIR HOMES TO SERVE THE EXPANSIONIST POLICIES OF THIS IMPERIALIST HOSPITAL." In the back seat of the car sits JOHN SUNDSTROM, handsomely graying, tanned, early fifties, the Director of the Hospital. He looks up. That young demonstrator, DR. IVES, a sandy-haired bespectacled man of 30 in a white doctor's coat, sidles to the car's open rear window angrily shouting. DR. IVES What do you say, Sundstrom? How much longer do you think our monopolistic, exclusionary, racist policies will work? PROTESTER We're the hope! Sundstrom lowers his window and gives his driver directions. He exits in the BACKGROUND parking area, where he notices Bock emerging from his car. Sundstrom waits for him. SUNDSTROM So how's it going, Herb? Bock's sour glance says it all. He locks his car, joins Sundstrom, and the two men start down the concrete ramp. BOCK (after a moment) One of my interns dropped dead this morning. SUNDSTROM Really? I'm sorry to hear that. I understand you've moved out to a hotel. BOCK Yes. SUNDSTROM It got that bad with Phyllis? BOCK It's been that bad for twenty-four years. Are you going to be solicitous? SUNDSTROM Yes. BOCK Oh, God. They trudge across the U-shaped entrance drive, pausing to let a car pass. SUNDSTROM Listen, Herb, I'm the guy who brought you into this hospital, so I think I can skip the diplomatic overtures. Marty stopped me in the hall yesterday, very upset. He had just had lunch with you and said you sounded suicidal. Marty tends to be extravagant, but he's not the only one. Jack Singer mentioned the other day you've been boozing it up a lot. And let's face it, you've been sloughing off. I understand you haven't even been doing rounds. BOCK I'm going to do rounds today. They pick their way around the shuffling line of protesters -- many with Afro haircuts and tinted glasses, including a black minister and four young white activists. HOSPITAL, HOLLY PAVILION, EXECUTIVE CORRIDOR Early-arriving secretaries chat in the doorways. The corridor itself connects to the Bryce Pavilion (pediatrics, gynecology and obstetrics), so a steady stream of traffic moves back and forth. Bock and Sundstrom enter the corridor and slow to a halt to continue their chat by a wall. SUNDSTROM Herb, want a couple of days off? BOCK No. SUNDSTROM Go down to Montego Bay, get drunk, get laid, get a little sun. BOCK For God's sake, John, I'm fifty-three years old with all the attendant fears. I just left my wife after twenty-four years. Standard case of menopausal melancholy. SUNDSTROM Maybe you ought to have a talk with Joe Einhorn. BOCK I don't want to see a psychiatrist. Stop worrying about me. All I have to do is get my ass back to work, and I'll be fine. I'm sorry I've caused you concern. He sets off down the long corridor to the elevators. MILTON MEAD, the Administrator of the Hospital, comes out of one of the offices, waves a good morning to Bock, who acknowledges him and plods on. Mead comes up to Sundstrom, now moving toward his own office. MILTON MEAD Sid just called from St. Luke's, and he's heard that the demonstrators up there are planning a march to join the bunch down here. SUNDSTROM Oh, God. (he wraps his arm around Mead's shoulders, ushering him into his office area) Did you call the cops? MILTON MEAD Yes. HOLLY PAVILION, EIGHTH FLOOR. 8:15 A.M. The elevator door opens. Out comes Bock, overcoat unbuttoned now. He clumps to the Nurses' Station. An unusual number of nurses seems to be there. Through the doorway of the floor pharmacy, we can see Nurse Rivers of the night shift being comforted by Nurse Perez of the night shift and Nurse Edwards of the morning shift. The head morning nurse, MRS. DONOVAN, is at the desk hunched over her paperwork. (Nurses are always hunched over their paperwork.) NURSE FELICIA CHILE is also seated at the desk doing some paperwork. Head Nurse Donovan looks up briefly as Dr. Bock approaches. MRS. DONOVAN (back to her paperwork) They're all in Eight-O-Six, Doctor. BOCK What happened? MRS. DONOVAN I think I'll just let Mrs. Christie tell you about it. Bock lumbers off for the west corridor through a press of activity. Kitchen workers trundle creaking portable carts, nurse's aids and attendants pop in and out of doorways bearing trays and used dishes. A robed patient or two ambulates along the hall. Morning rounds have just started, which means a clump of white-jacketed, white-trousered young doctors are gathered in a gaggle at the far end. The group includes senior resident MONROE BRUBAKER, junior resident HARVEY BIEGELMAN, interns SAM CHANDLER and IRVING AMBLER and another medical student, all lounging outside a door discussing the condition of the patient within. Chandler is presenting the case from a handful of notecards in his hand. The others lean against the walls, listening. They wear shirts and ties with the exception of Ambler, who is new to the floor and still in the canonical white tunic under his jacket. They are all in their twenties and have swinger sideburns and occasional mustaches. When he spots Dr. Bock, senior resident Brubaker turns the rounds over to Biegelman and joins Bock just outside 806. BRUBAKER (as he approaches, rolls his eyes) Oh boy. BOCK What happened? BRUBAKER I've seen some pretty good snafus, but this one... I mean, there's a certain splendor to this one. One of the night nurses, a float, thought Schaefer was a patient and plugged an I.V. into him. He was a diabetic, you know. BOCK What do you mean, a nurse plugged an I.V. into him? BRUBAKER Oh, it's really a screwed-up story, Doctor. You see, what happened was we had an old man in that bed who died last night, so the bed was available. And you know Schaefer. He's Sammy Stud. BOCK And he talked a nurse into zapping him on that bed. BRUBAKER I think it was a girl from hematology he's been running with. BOCK My God, it's a Roman farce. The door to Room 806 opens, and an Assistant Administrator named HITCHCOCK pokes his head out. HITCHCOCK I thought I heard you out here, Doctor. (he too rolls his eyes heavenward in an expression of incredulity) Bock makes a noise and goes into... ROOM 806 Aside from Hitchcock, the room includes MRS. CHRISTIE, the Director of Nurses, a fusty forty-six, in streetclothes; Head Night Nurse, Mrs. Reardon, in uniform; Head Evening Nurse, MRS. DUNNE, mid-fifties, who had apparently been called in from home because she's in mufti and wearing a winter coat; and, of course, the comatose patient and the dead Dr. Schaefer. Mrs. Christie is instructing the two nurses. MRS. CHRISTIE I'll need one from both of you, three copies, and I suggest you do that right now. The forms are in my office... Mrs. Dunne, on the verge of tears, head bobbing, looks up to Bock. MRS. DUNNE I'm really so terribly sorry about this, Dr. Bock. I... BOCK (regarding Schaefer's rigid death mask) As I understand it, one of the nurses inadvertently administered an I.V. to Schaefer here. How the hell could that happen? HITCHCOCK Listen, I think we ought to straighten this out somewhere else. MRS. CHRISTIE Yes, very good idea. Oh God, what a mess. They all file out now, Bock in the rear into... HALLWAY, NURSES' STATION AND LOBBY AREA They all go along to the Nurses' Station where Mrs. Reardon and Mrs. Dunne disappear into the rooms behind. Mrs. Christie leads Hitchcock and the trailing Bock to the TV-solarium; but Dr. Brubaker is now holding his rounds there. He stands, quietly expounding on the uses of heparin, a decoagulant. One of the patients last night had hemorrhaged consequent to injudicious use of that drug. Listening, the other young doctors make notes. Mrs. Christie leans against the wall. Apparently, the conference is to take place in the corridor. Background activity continues normally. MRS. CHRISTIE (with a sigh) Well, these things happen, of course. HITCHCOCK I suppose I'd better call the Medical Examiner. BOCK I still don't know what happened. MRS. CHRISTIE Well, it took an hour to get it sorted out. It seems a patient named Guernsey died last night in Eight-O-Six, but that information wasn't given to the night nurses. These things happen. Bock has begun to get the drift. A curious state of apathy settles over him. MRS. CHRISTIE (rattling on) At any rate, according to the cardex, the patient Guernsey was down for twenty-five milligrams of Sparine Q- 6-H, so Mrs. Reardon sent Nurse Perez to give him his twelve o'clock shot. Meanwhile, it seems Dr. Schaefer had usurped that particular bed for his own purposes. Dr. Brubaker suggests it was for a love tryst, and some weight is given that hypothesis by the fact that Dr. Schaefer was naked. BOCK (trying to give his attention to this) I get the drift, Mrs. Christie. In other words, Nurse Perez went in and sedated Dr. Schaefer thinking it was the patient Guernsey. My God! What I don't understand... MRS. CHRISTIE If I may finish, Doctor. Well, after Perez gave him his shot, she noticed the I.V. on the bed had been pinched off, and she reported that back to Mrs. Reardon, who then assigned Nurse Rivers to restart the I.V. (Bock sighs) Now Rivers was a float. She didn't even know the staff people on the floor, and nobody knew what the patient Guernsey looked like anyway, since he'd only been admitted that morning. BOCK So she plugged an I.V. into him. MRS. CHRISTIE Yes. BOCK How much? MRS. CHRISTIE A liter. BOCK (The doctor in him intrudes into his lassitude) A five percent glucose solution won't kill anybody. Did he have any other ancillary conditions? He wasn't dehydrated, was he? Didn't anybody bother to go in to check him during the night, even under the impression he was merely a patient? Was he hyperasthmolic? Did he have a bad heart? He must have had some kind of thrombosis. I want the post done here, Mr. Hitchcock. And you and I better have a little chat, Mrs. Christie, about your excessive use of float nurses. MRS. CHRISTIE I've got nearly a thousand nurses in this hospital. BOCK (gathering rage) And every time one of them has her period, she disappears for three days. My doctors complain regularly they can't find the same nurse on the same floor two days in a row. What the hell am I supposed to tell that boy Schaefer's parents? That a substitute nurse assassinated him, because she couldn't tell the doctors from the patients on the floor? My God, the incompetence here is absolutely radiant! I mean, two separate nurses walk into a room, stick needles into a man -- and one of those was a number eighteen jelco! -- tourniquet the poor sonofabitch, anchor the poor sonofabitch's arm with adhesive tape, and it's the wrong poor sonofabitch! I mean, my God! Where do you train your nurses, Mrs. Christie? Dachau!? (he is aware his voice has risen and is attracting attention. He lowers his voice) All right, wrap him up and get him down to Pathology. I'm especially interested in his blood sugar. A liter of glucose never killed anybody. Your ladies must've done something else to him. MRS. CHRISTIE Will there be anything else, Doctor? BOCK No. HITCHCOCK Before you call the family, Doctor, I wish you'd talk to Mr. Mead about this. We'd like, naturally, to avoid litigation. Bock heads abruptly down the corridor to the elevators. HOLLY PAVILION, SEVENTH FLOOR, CORRIDOR A corridor of offices. This is the Department of Medicine, where Bock and all the senior staff members of the department have their offices. It's quiet, since most of the staff are away at their various specialties about the hospital. Bock comes up the corridor still wearing the overcoat he arrived in some hours ago. He has only managed to unbutton it in all the time it has taken him to reach the corner office. Gilt lettering on the door reads: DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE and below that DR. HERBERT E. BOCK. BOCK'S OFFICE, OUTER OFFICE Small office with two desks. As Department Chief, Bock gets two secretaries. Both are at their desks, one on the phone, MISS GLORIA LEBOW, and the other rattling away on the IBM, MISS STEPHANIE McGUIRE. MISS LEBOW (mouthing) Coffee? It would seem not. Bock waves a listless hand, exits into... BOCK'S PRIVATE OFFICE The modestly imposing office is lined with medical tomes. Bock slips out of his coat and jacket and hangs them in the closet. In shirtsleeves with his tie a bit askew -- fastidiousness in dress is not Bock's strong point -- he crosses to his desk and sits, breathing more heavily than his small exertions would seem to warrant. He seems exhausted. There is a KNOCK on the door. Miss Lebow enters, holding a filing envelope stuffed with papers. MISS LEBOW A few things have been piling up. Would you like to go into them? A guttural noise indicates yes. Miss Lebow pulls up a chair, opens her folder. MISS LEBOW A quickie. Dr. Esterhazy wants to start hiring temporary people to cover the summer vacations. He says last year some of the replacement people didn't receive their checks until they waited six months. He wonders if you could do something about getting these people paid more promptly. She places a sheet of paper on the desk in front of Bock. He tries to give his attention to it. MISS LEBOW (drones on) Miss Aronovici complains the lab reports are coming in slow into the E.R. I called Dr. Immelman about that, and she said three microscopes have been stolen out of her lab in the last two months. Charley Waters also complains about pilferage. I've clumped all those together for you... (she lays a sheaf of memos in front of Bock, who stares at them blankly) Now, as you know, Doctor, we've agreed to take over the local ambulance cases as part of the hospital's commitment to the community, and it's created a serious overload in the E.R. I don't know why this was dumped in our lap, but... Bock obviously isn't up to all this. He waves a limp hand to stop Miss Lebow's morning report. BOCK (staring at his desktop) Find out if Dr. Einhorn is in his office yet. MISS LEBOW Which Dr. Einhorn? Ophthalmology or Psychiatry? BOCK Psychiatry. (suddenly stands) Never mind. I'll look in myself. He lumbers across the room and out into... BOCK'S OUTER OFFICE ...and down past Miss McGuire, rattling away on her IBM, and out into... HOLLY PAVILION, SEVENTH FLOOR, CORRIDOR ...down past several closed doors, stopping at a door marked DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY, DR. JOSEPH EINHORN. He enters. DR. EINHORN'S OFFICE, SECRETARY'S OFFICE A secretary at her desk, sips coffee and reads a paperback novel. BOCK Is he in? The doctor is obviously in. He can be seen through the open door sitting at his desk writing in a notebook. Bock leans in. BOCK Can you give me a few minutes, Joe? EINHORN (short, chunky, bespectacled, late fifties) Of course. Bock goes in, closes the door behind himself. DR. EINHORN'S OFFICE Bock looks only at the floor. BOCK (ill at ease) I've been having periods of acute depression recently. Apparently, it's becoming noticeable. A number of people have remarked on it. Anyway, John Sundstrom thought it might be a good idea if I spoke to you about it. EINHORN Do you want to sit down, Herb? BOCK No. I'm not good at confessional. (he ambles around) Well, what can I tell you? The last year, two, three... it goes way back, I suppose. I can remember entertaining suicidal thoughts as a college student. At any rate, I've always found life demanding. I'm an only child of lower-middle-class people. I was the glory of my parents. My son the doctor. Well, you know. I was always top of my class. Scholarship to Harvard. The boy genius, the brilliant eccentric. Terrified of women, clumsy at sports. God, Joe, how the hell do I go about this? EINHORN I understand you just separated from your wife. BOCK I left her a dozen times. She left me a dozen times. We stayed together through a process of attrition. Obviously sado-masochistic dependency. My home is hell. We've got a twenty- three-year-old boy I threw out of the house last year. A shaggy-haired Maoist. I don't know where he is, presumably building bombs in basements as an expression of his universal brotherhood. I've got a seventeen- year-old daughter who's had two abortions in two years and got arrested last week at a rock festival for pushing drugs. They let her off. The typical affluent American family. I don't mean to be facile about this. Indeed, he does not. He is horrified by the fact his eyes are wet and he is verging on tears. He turns away quickly. BOCK I blame myself for those two useless young people. I never exercised parental authority. I'm no good at that. Oh, God, I'm no good at this either. Joe, let's just forget the whole thing. I'm sorry I bothered you. He starts for the door. EINHORN How serious are your suicidal speculations, Herb? BOCK (at the door) I amuse myself with different ways of killing myself that don't look like suicide. I wouldn't want to do my family out of the insurance. EINHORN Digitalis will give you an arrhythmia. BOCK A good toxologist would find traces. Potassium's much better. Sixty milli equivalent. Instantaneous. Of course, then you're stuck with how to get rid of the hypodermic. Forty milli equivalent. Gives you plenty of time to dispose of the evidence. EINHORN You seem to have given considerable thought to the matter. BOCK You ought to know a man who talks about it all the time never does it. EINHORN I don't know. I see a man who's exhausted, emotionally drained, riddled with guilt, and has been systematically stripping himself of his wife, children, friends, isolating himself from the world. Are you impotent? BOCK Intermittently. EINHORN What does that mean? BOCK It means I haven't tried in so long, I don't know. Let's just drop the whole thing, Joe. I feel humiliated and stupid. All I have to do is pull myself together and get back into my work. I'm sorry I troubled you. Take care of yourself. I'll see you. Before Einhorn can say a word, he slips away and disappears into his own office. HOLLY PAVILION. 8:30 A.M. The score of protesters outside the pavilion still move in an uneven ellipse and shout: "Two -- Four! Help the Poor!" Ives, the bespectacled demonstrator who shouted at Sundstrom earlier, is removing his sandwich boards and giving them to his replacement. He hurries across the walk and into... HOLLY PAVILION, LOBBY Ives cuts through the congestion of people and moves swiftly up the long corridor leading to the Farkis Building, unbuttoning his overcoat as he goes into... THE FARKIS BUILDING, FIFTH FLOOR ...and comes out, as the elevator opens. This is a laboratory floor, and the corridors are empty except for a white- uniformed orderly leaning against a wall and for one young woman in a white smock in the background, who waves to the young man before disappearing into one of the rooms. Ives fishes out a ring of keys and unlocks the door to his own lab. He enters into... FARKIS BUILDING, NEPHROLOGY LAB Dingy and cheerless place, as labs go. Ives hangs his coat in the cupboard, loosens his tie, unbuttons his suit jacket, squats on a stool, reaches over for a loose file on the work table, opens the file and begins to read the papers inside. A door CLICKS open behind him, and without looking up, he waves briefly to whoever has entered. CAMERA DOLLIES to FULL SHOT of Ives frowning over his notes. We are suddenly conscious of a white-uniformed presence behind him. We know it's medical personnel, but we can't see the face. Ives starts to turn to the presence behind him, when suddenly a small hospital sandbag is whipped down on his head, and he slumps forward, his forehead thumping against the black surface of the lab table. DISSOLVE TO: HOSPITAL. NOON HIGH ANGLE SHOT establishing the passing of hours. Sun high overhead, traffic on First Avenue an impenetrable river of HONKS and HOOTS. At a crosswalk, a loose procession of fifty or so shouting demonstrators, bearing placards, flows toward the main gates. Their posters read: "FIGHT DOPE -- NOT DOPES!" "DRUGS YES! TRANSPLANTS NO!" and "SAVE OUR KIDS FROM THE SKIDS!" which is what they now chant: "Save our kids! From the Skids!" The demonstration moves through a handful of city cops where our original group of twenty still ramble around, chanting: "Two -- Four! Help the Poor!" HOLLY PAVILION, EIGHTH FLOOR The staff elevator doors open and Bock comes out, wearing his long white doctor's coat unbuttoned. Hanging about the Nurses' Station are Dr. Brubaker and a few young men in white. They come quickly to respectful attention at Bock's entrance. CLATTERING TRAYS dominate the lunchtime atmosphere. BOCK All set? BRUBAKER Yes, sir. The doctors move off toward the solarium on the east corridor overlooking the river. They pass a curious quartet of people consisting of a very handsome YOUNG WOMAN in her late twenties in an out-of-fashion miniskirt (She has great legs, long and tanned.); an ELDERLY MAN, uncomfortable in city clothes and unmistakably an INDIAN; a tall overcoated man in his forties wearing a MINISTER's white collar; and a DISTINGUISHED MAN dressed in fashionable gray who is trying to persuade the young woman of something. The young woman and the Indian stand absolutely still, silent, impassive. The minister is more fidgety. BOCK (to Brubaker en passant) Who's that exotic group? BRUBAKER (murmurs) You got me. They've been here about an hour. ONE YOUNG DOCTOR I think they're with the old man in Eight-O-Six. Bock and Brubaker, trailed by young doctors, move into the TV room. BOCK Dr. Perry said he picked the tuberculosis and the liver nodes for today, right? BRUBAKER Yes, sir. BOCK Good. Because that's the one I studied up. A hell of a case. EIGHTH FLOOR, TV ROOM Some twenty-five or thirty young doctors, two or three of them black, three or four of them women, fill the room. At Bock's entrance, they find places around the walls, sofas, soft chairs and benches. The TV set has been pushed into a corner, and a large portable blackboard has been set up. This is the Chief of Service Round, attended by every available intern and resident. Somebody closes the door, just as two young doctors come hurrying in. BOCK All right, who's presenting? EMERGENCY AREA, WAITING ROOM People of all ages sit around on aluminum chairs arranged around the walls of the room. All are in streetclothes. Some speak to each other. A line of people, extending into the hallway and holding their charts, waits for a lady from the accounting department taking Blue Cross numbers. This lady from accounting is MRS. CUSHING, late forties, bespectacled and testy. She calls out at large. MRS. CUSHING Is there anybody seated who hasn't been to see me first? Is there anyone here who hasn't given me their health insurance number? Her phone RINGS. She picks it up. MRS. CUSHING Emergency Room... Well, I don't know, Sybil. What's his name? To a man on line at her desk, thrusting his chart out to her. MRS. CUSHING Would you wait a moment, please. I'm on the phone, can't you see I'm on the phone? (rummaging through a stack of charts, large paper forms in quadruplicate) ...Of course not, do they ever? (hangs up, takes two charts from the desk, pushes through the waiting line) Would you mind, please. I have to get through, do you mind? She makes her way to the door and goes out into... EMERGENCY AREA, ENTRANCE LOBBY ...which is congested. Mrs. Cushing enters... EMERGENCY, ADMITTING AND TREATMENT ROOMS NURSE (on phone) Give me that one again... thirty- two? Facing the desk are six curtained treatment rooms, mostly open to view. Behind the desk are a supply room and another treatment room. Both are occupied, the former by a PARANOID LADY wringing her hands in a paranoid rush and listened to by a very patient young intern. PARANOID LADY They follow me everywhere. Three big black men. Naked, completely exposed. Right in the street. Hanging down to their knees. Disgusting. They're waiting out there for me now... ...and in the other room, a man in his thirties is being treated for some sort of head lacerations. In one treatment room, the Chief of Emergency Service, DR. SPEZIO, a man in his late thirties, along with an intern, an anesthesiologist and a nurse, is bent over a naked and comatose young black woman of eighteen, covered somewhat with a sheet. She's a junkie, being intubated, i.e. a small endotracheal tube has been inserted into her mouth. This is the most melodramatic of the varied activity here. A middle-aged man complaining of chest pains is lying clothed in another treatment room; a nurse attends him. An asthmatic middle-aged woman sits in still another room being administered her 500 mg. of amenophylene subcutaneously. The curtains on another room are drawn for privacy. On chairs in the corner sit a teenage boy with a badly sprained ankle and an elderly man bathing his hand in an enamel basin held in his lap. A young mother with a five-year-old daughter with a badly cut arm is being attended to by the back wall. The Emergency Room Nursing Supervisor, MISS ARONOVICI, a pretty woman in her mid-twenties, is sterilizing the little girl's wound. Mrs. Cushing makes her way to Miss Aronovici. They detest each other. MRS. CUSHING Did you call upstairs and tell them to admit a patient named Mitgang? MRS. ARONOVICI (continuing to treat the little girl) The concussion? MRS. CUSHING I don't know. They just called me. They said you didn't fill out the chart. And where do you come off sending anyone up to Admitting without my okay? Miss Aronovici turns to Mrs. Cushing, regarding her sweetly. MRS. ARONOVICI Sally, would you get the fuck out of here. The patient's in the Holding Room. You want his Blue Cross number, you go in and you get his Blue Cross number. Mrs. Cushing elbows back through the line of patients waiting at the Admitting desk. MRS. CUSHING Do you mind, please... There are now three nurses behind the desk, all of them on phones. One nurse calls to Dr. Spezio. NURSE O.P.D. wants to know how that asthmatic they sent down is. DR. SPEZIO (just leaving the group around the junkie) She's fine. We'd like to keep her here a little while. Spezio heads for the door where he is intercepted by Mrs. Cushing. MRS. CUSHING May I see you a moment, Doctor, if you don't mind. DR. SPEZIO (sighs, calls back to the triage nurse) I'll be right back. He goes out, followed by Mrs. Cushing, into... EMERGENCY AREA, LOBBY Spezio and Mrs. Cushing move between laundry and supply carts. MRS. CUSHING (thrusting some papers at the doctor) If you don't mind, Doctor, is this your handwriting? Spezio stops, sighs, examines the paper. MRS. CUSHING Am I supposed to read that? Was it a sprain? Was it a broken wrist? I can't read that scribbling. I mean, I have to bill these people. I know you doctors are the ministering angels, and I'm just the bitch from the Accounting Department, but I have my job to do too. I mean, if you don't mind, Doctor...? DR. SPEZIO (studies the paper) The kid had a collar fracture. We had him in the O.R. We reduced it and we gave him a small cast. He strides off. MRS. CUSHING (calls after him) But did you give him a sling? You must have taken X-rays. How am I supposed to make up the charges? She turns into... EMERGENCY AREA, HOLDING ROOM Designed to hold patients who've been examined and wait to be admitted to a room upstairs, it's in fact used for examination, treatment, storage. The room is quiet. Two male patients lie on comfortable stretchers, apparently sedated and resting. Mrs. Cushing turns to the patient immediately to her right as she enters. To the still figure she poses her questions. MRS. CUSHING Are you Mitgang? She gets no answer from that bed. From another direction, a voice. MITGANG I'm Mitgang. She turns to Mitgang. Something bothers her about the first patient. She finds Mitgang's chart tucked in under his pillow, takes out her pencil. MRS. CUSHING Do you carry Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Mr. Mitgang, if you don't mind? Mitgang, eyes closed, emits a sound. MRS. CUSHING Do you have your card with you? (no answer) Do you know your number? Negative grunt from Mitgang. MRS. CUSHING Mr. Mitgang, you're not leaving this room until I have this information. NURSE (enters for some chore) Will you leave that man alone? In a fit of temper, Mrs. Cushing throws the chart and her pencil down on the floor. MRS. CUSHING (indicating the other patient) Do you mind if I at least ask this gentleman to fill out his chart? She pulls his chart from under his pillow, bends and retrieves her pencil from the floor, straightens. She speaks to the silent patient. MRS. CUSHING May I have your A.H.S. policy number, sir? No answer. CAMERA MOVES SLOWLY IN on the patient. We now recognize him as the bespectacled young activist Dr. Ives, so recently coshed over the head with a sandbag. MRS. CUSHING (looming) Do you carry Blue Cross? Blue Shield? Mrs. Cushing stares at the patient. He is not breathing. Behind her, the nurse exits carrying whatever she came for. Mrs. Cushing turns to her, but she is gone. Frowning, Mrs. Cushing backs out... ...as Dr. Spezio and others come down the corridor. MRS. CUSHING (as Spezio approaches, with spiteful relish) I think one of your patients in here is dead, Dr. Spezio. DR. SPEZIO (enters the Holding Room) Why do you say that, Mrs. Cushing? MRS. CUSHING Because he wouldn't give me his Blue Cross number, Dr. Spezio. HOLDING ROOM Spezio regards the death mask of a face. DR. SPEZIO Oh, Christ. He moves quickly forward to raise the dead man's eyelid. Behind him, a nurse enters. He wheels on her angrily. DR. SPEZIO How the hell long has this man been lying here? Isn't this that doctor who came in around nine o'clock? MILTON MEAD'S OFFICE. 2:00 P.M. MILTON MEAD, late thirties, lean, efficient but under constant strain, is having his daily staff luncheon conference, which consists of a CHIEF ENGINEER, the ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR OF PERSONNEL, three residents in administration, including Hitchcock, sandwiches and coffee. CHIEF ENGINEER I mean, they gave me a hard time, Con Ed. "For Pete's Sake," I said, "this is a hospital. One of our feedlines just blew..." Mead's phone RINGS and he picks it up. MILTON MEAD Yeah? (it's another annoyance; he sighs with irritation) CHIEF ENGINEER I mean, it's lucky we traced it in time. MILTON MEAD (on phone) No, I'll be right up. (hangs up, stands) Have we covered about everything? ADMINISTRATIVE RESIDENT Dr. Kish has been driving me nuts with the O.R. schedule. MILTON MEAD He's supposed to see me about that. He moves across his office into... MEAD'S SECRETARY'S OFFICE Actually a communal office with desks for three secretaries. MEAD'S SECRETARY (looks up to Mead from talking on the phone) This is the Emergency Room. One of the doctors just died of a heart attack. MILTON MEAD (pauses) One of our staff? MEAD'S SECRETARY I think so. Mead frowns, leans back into his own office. MILTON MEAD (to Hitchcock) Tom, you want to go down to the Emergency Room? One of our doctors just died. HITCHCOCK What? Another one? MILTON MEAD Yeah, see what that's about. (en passant to secretary) I'll be on Holly Eight. I'll be right back. HOLLY PAVILION, EIGHTH FLOOR The staff elevator door opens, and Milton Mead comes out. He has apparently been buttonholed in the elevator by a woman in a doctor's coat, DR. IMMELMAN, Pathology, who follows him out... DR. IMMELMEN It's no longer pilferage, Milton. It's reached the point of piracy. That's the third microscope this month. MILTON MEAD Why don't we get together on this sometime this afternoon, Fran? DR. IMMELMAN One o'clock? MILTON MEAD One o'clock will be fine. He turns left and heads for... HOLLY PAVILION, EIGHTH FLOOR, NURSES' STATION ...where Head Nurse Donovan is bent over her paperwork. In the background, we see normal morning hospital activity. Nurse's Aid, SHARLENE STONE, takes towels into a room. R.N. Felicia Chile comes out of another, bearing her enamel tray of instruments. Also in the background, the curious quartet from before -- the beautiful woman, the elderly Indian, the minister, Dr. Sutcliffe. Mead hardly notices them as he makes for the desk. MRS. DONOVAN (without pausing or looking up) Your brother's in the room, Mr. Mead. MILTON MEAD What room is it? MRS. DONOVAN Eight-O-Six. Mead bobs his head thank you and heads for the west corridor. EIGHTH FLOOR, ROOM As Milton Mead enters, his elder brother, WILLIAM MEAD, mid- forties, a smaller and manifestly nervous man, is seated sullenly puffing a cigar, fidgeting, still wearing his coat and hat. He looks up briefly when Milton enters and avoids his brother's eye. His wife, MARILYN, late thirties, is standing in suppressed exasperation, staring out the window. Out of respect for the COMATOSE PATIENT, the ensuing agitated scene is held in whispers. MILTON MEAD For heaven's sake, Willie, you're going to be in the hospital for two lousy days. What're you making such a fuss about? WILLIAM MEAD You're supposed to be such a big wheel here. MILTON MEAD There are no private rooms available. If they brought in Jesus Christ fresh off the cross, I couldn't get Him a private room. WILLIAM MEAD I'm not going to stay in a room with a dying man... MARILYN MEAD He's not dying. They'll screen him off. You won't even know he's here. MILTON MEAD If you want a private room, go on home, and I'll call you the first one that comes up. But you're the one who phoned me in a panic, you're going on a vacation. For heaven's sake, Willie, they'll cut this polyp out tomorrow morning. You'll be home Thursday, you'll be in Miami Friday. Marilyn, will you talk some sense into this lunatic? MARILYN MEAD Well, you said it, he's a lunatic. WILLIAM MEAD Big wheel, can't even get me a private room. MILTON MEAD I'll get you a tranquilizer... He exits. EIGHTH FLOOR, TV ROOM Bock -- excited, vivid, alive -- is in full flush with his lecture. He moves around in front of the blackboard, chalk in hand. The blackboard itself is scrawled with formulae and diagrams. He is writing the words "full abdomen," as the fifth in a list reading "(1) parexia, (2) hepatomegaly, (3) splenomegaly, (4) episodes of arthralgia." The audience is forty young doctors rapt with attention. There is a good deal of note-taking. BOCK ...five, a full abdomen contrasted to wasting elsewhere; six, ascites with a protein content above four grams; unexplained anemia, leukopenia, unexplained elevation of the serum gamma globulin level, especially abnormal flocculation tests, and of course, a positive P.P.D. All these findings assume special significance among Negroes. This has been a very commendable workup, as commendable a workup of an F.U.O. as I can remember. The staff of this floor is to be applauded. (spots Brubaker among the others) It's a reportable case, Brubaker. Write it up. (a brief, rare smile) Well, let's go have a look at the girl. He rumbles toward the door. The class of doctors dissolves into hospital murmurs and mutters and a general dispersal. They follow Bock out to... EIGHTH FLOOR, EAST CORRIDOR ...where Dr. Sutfcliffe, the beautiful young woman, the elderly Indian and the minister are engaged in agitated discussion. The girl and the Indian retain their stoic impassivity. Dr. Sutcliffe leaves them and moves down the corridor to the counter of... EIGHTH FLOOR NURSES' STATION SUTCLIFFE Nurse! Nurse, who's the Senior Resident on this floor? NURSE That would be Dr. Brubaker. But I'm afraid he's at Chief of Service rounds right now. Sutcliffe points off right. SUTCLIFFE That's... this way? The nurse nods indifferently. ACROSS to Bock coming out of the TV room, followed by some dozen young doctors. Bock is in very good spirits indeed. He quizzes his young doctors en route: BOCK I wonder if there might not be some correlation between hepatic tuberculosis and drug addiction. Presumably, there was an early consideration of S.B.E. BRUBAKER (off-screen) Yes, sir. We discounted it after repeated blood cultures were negative. BOCK You, Ambler. Is that right, Ambler? AMBLER Yes, sir. BOCK What else do you look for in bacterial endocarditis? AMBLER (nervous) Some sort of embolic phenomena, sir. BOCK Good. SUTCLIFFE (flagging Brubaker) Dr. Brubaker, I wonder if I could see you for a moment? Brubaker detaches himself from his group to join Sutcliffe. CAMERA STAYS with Bock and his entourage, following them down the east corridor, Bock still happily conducting class. Bock strides into... ROOM 819 Past two beds, they group around the foot of a third bed on the right side of the room. Bock checks the patient lying in the bed. BOCK Still a little icteric. Who's got an opthalmoscope? One of the young men hands his to Bock, who leans over the patient to look through it. BOCK Did anyone note Roth spots? The doctors exchange a look as Bock rises, moves toward them, laughing. BOCK Well, don't worry about it. There aren't any. Ambler, you're our big man on S.B.E. What was the latex- fixation? BIEGELMAN It wasn't done, sir. BOCK Don't you think that's an important test to differentiate S.B.E. from miliary T.B.? BIEGELMAN (off-screen) No, s... BOCK Not you, Biegelman. Ambler. AMBLER Well, there's about a seventy percent incidence of false-positive latex in S.B.E. Bock hands the opthalmoscope to Ambler. BOCK You have been reading up. If the diagnosis were S.B.E., would a positive latex indicate anything in the therapy? AMBLER We'd expect the latex to become negative. BOCK If...? AMBLER If the antibiotic therapy were successful. BOCK Are you applying for your internship here? AMBLER I'm not sure. BOCK Come and see me. (to the patient, helping her up) Would you sit up for a minute? Bock turns to the off-screen patient, helping her sit up and forward, percussing her back as the students look on. EIGHTH FLOOR, EAST CORRIDOR Brubaker and Sutcliffe are now both involved in discussion with the woman, the Indian and the minister, as Bock drifts through the background, followed by the band of young doctors now dispersing. Bock crosses past the foreground group to the staff elevator. He pushes the button. Brubaker approaches Bock. They confer quietly in the hallway. BRUBAKER We've got a little thing over here, Doctor. The girl over there is the daughter of the patient in Eight-O- Six. He is at the moment comatose and requires intravenous feeding and meds. The elevator comes and goes, disgorging some, taking on others. Bock, who greeted Brubaker with a rare, benign smile, has begun to look a bit sodden. Poor Brubaker, aware of the gathering storm in Bock's demeanor, sighs and continues regardless. BRUBAKER The thing is, the daughter wants to take the father out of the hospital and back to Mexico where they live. The patient's name is Drummond. He's apparently a Methodist missionary, and he and his daughter run some kind of religious mission among the Apache Indians. The daughter claims to be a licensed nurse, so she can give the necessary I.V. treatment. I certainly don't think he should be let out of this hospital. The Attending -- he's the guy in gray over there -- concurs. Bock squints at Brubaker. BOCK All right, wait a minute. Let me have all that again. BRUBAKER As a matter of fact, Doctor, this is Dr. Biegelman's case. BOCK Never mind the professional ethics, what happened? BRUBAKER (sighs) I don't know why I'm covering for that sonofabitch in Farkis Pavilion anyway. (sighs and begins) The patient, a man of fifty-six, was admitted to the hospital ten days ago for a check-up, in good health, no visible distress. We did the mandatory work-up on him. Blood cultures, stool, L.E. preps, chest, E.K.G., all negative. But there was apparently some evidence of protein in his urine. I don't know how that sonofabitch in Farkis Pavilion ever found out about it. Maybe he had some kind of deal with one of the girls in the lab. Anyway, he turned up the next day, conned the patient into signing an authorization for a biopsy... BOCK What sonofabitch in Farkis Pavilion? BRUBAKER Some post-grad fellow named Ives. Elroy Ives. I never met him. He's on one of the immunology research programs. BOCK Are you trying to tell me some post- grad fellow came up here and did a biopsy on the patient? BRUBAKER Yes, sir. He conned Biegelman with that old story about... BOCK ...protein in the urine? BRUBAKER Yes, sir. BOCK And he biopsied the man? BRUBAKER And he nicked a vessel, and at two o'clock in the morning, they woke up Biegelman because the nurse found the patient in shock. Biegelman called the kidney people for a consult right away. What was there to see? The man was sour and bleeding. We spoke to this fellow Sutcliffe, and he referred us to a surgeon named Welbeck... BOCK Welbeck?! That barber! BRUBAKER You ain't heard nothing yet. So we finally got Welbeck around four in the morning. He said, go ahead. So they laid on the surgery for eight. Welbeck turns up, half-stoned, orders an I.V.P., clears him for allergies... BOCK ...without actually testing. BRUBAKER Right. BOCK And the patient went into shock... BRUBAKER ...and tubular necrosis. They lopped out the bleeding kidney, ran him back to the room, and we sat around waiting for three days to see how obstructed he was. Fever began spiking like hell, euremia, vomiting, so we arranged hemodialysis. He's putting out good water now. But some nurse goofed on his last treatment. A leak in the tube, something. His blood pressure plunged. They ran him right up to I.C.U., checked out vital signs, all normal except he's comatose. That was two days ago. BOCK In short, a man came into this hospital in perfectly good health, and, in the space of one week, we chopped out one kidney, damaged the other, reduced him to coma and damn near killed him. BRUBAKER Yes, sir. A great sad serenity has settled over Bock. BOCK You know, Brubaker, last night I sat in my hotel room, reviewing the shambles of my life and contemplating suicide. Then I said "No, Bock, don't do it. You're a doctor, a healer. You're the Chief of Medicine at one of the great hospitals of the world. You're a necessary person. Your life is meaningful." Then I came in this morning and find out one of my doctors was killed by a couple of nurses who mistook him for a patient because he screwed a technician from the nephrology lab... BRUBAKER Hematology, sir. BOCK And now you come to me with this gothic horror story in which the entire machinery of modern medicine has apparently conspired to destroy one lousy patient. How am I to sustain my feeling of meaningfulness in the face of this? You know, Brubaker, if there was an oven around, I'd stick my head in it. What was the name of that sonofabitch from Farkis Pavilion again? BRUBAKER Ives, sir. Elroy Ives. Somebody ought to ream his ass. The gathering storm erupts. Rage suffuses Bock's face. Out of respect for the hospital corridor and the people working around him and Brubaker, he keeps it glacial. But there is no mistaking the volcanic fury he feels. BOCK (barely containing himself) I'm going to ream his ass. And I'm going to break that barber Welbeck's back. I'm going to defrock those two cannibals. They won't practice in my hospital, I'll tell you that! BRUBAKER What'll I tell the girl, sir? She says we have no legal right to stop her from taking her father out. She's willing to sign an A.O.R. form. BOCK Let him go. Before we kill him. The elevator door opens. A couple of nurses come out. Bock strides in. SEVENTH FLOOR, DEPT. OF MEDICINE CORRIDOR Bock advances in a cold fury down to his office. He wrenches the door open. BOCK'S OFFICE, OUTER OFFICE Miss Lebow and Miss McGuire clatter away at typewriters. Sitting on a chair in the crowded office is a senior staff doctor, a man in his late forties, wearing a coat similar to Bock's. He is DR. LAGERMAN. He looks up from the magazine he's been leafing through as Bock storms in. DR. LAGERMAN Hi, Herb... Bock acknowledges him with a brusque nod, storms over to Miss Lebow. BOCK Get me Dr. Gilley. Put him on page if you have to. I want to talk to him right now. I don't care if he's operating. (wheels around to Miss McGuire) And you get me some monkey named Ives. Ives. I-V-E-S, first name Elroy. He's in the Farkis Pavilion. DR. LAGERMAN Herb... BOCK I want to talk to you, Joe. Would you mind coming into my office? He strides, followed by Dr. Lagerman, into... BOCK'S PRIVATE OFFICE ...and slams the door shut behind him. BOCK Have you got some punk named Ives rotating in your department? DR. LAGERMAN Listen, Herb... BOCK (sits at his desk) I also want to know what the hell kind of a dialysis room you're running. I just came from... The phone RINGS. Bock seizes it. BOCK Yeah... Gilley? Put him on. Bock. Didn't you tell me a couple of months ago you were going to cut off all privileges for that assassin, Welbeck? Yeah. Wellbeck. He just butchered another one of my patients... Oh, come on, Harry! The man's a buccaneer! I want him brought before the Medical Executive Committee... He's in your department, Harry, not mine. He's putatively a surgeon!... I'll be here! (slams receiver down, stares at Lagerman) Listen, Joe, I think you should know that you've got a research guy in your department named Ives who's been doing some very dubious biopsies. We're having enough trouble squeezing grants out of the Nixon administration... DR. LAGERMAN Ives is dead, Herb. That's why I'm here. This gives Bock pause. He blinks at Lagerman. BOCK What do you mean, Ives is dead? DR. LAGERMAN I mean he's dead. He had a heart attack in the Emergency Room. BOCK He had a heart attack in the Emergency Room? DR. LAGERMAN Yeah. BOCK (blinking) What the hell is this? Some kind of plague? (stands) Where is he now? DR. LAGERMAN They were just taking him down to Pathology. HOLLY PAVILION, FIRST FLOOR, PATHOLOGY DEPT Bock, Lagerman and Hitchcock have gathered across the shrouded figure of Dr. Ives on a stretcher. We are in the lab section of Pathology; in the background, through the glass part of the door separating the lab from the surgery room, we can see the autopsy on Dr. Schaefer being performed. Schaefer's naked white cadaver is stretched out on an operating table. He has been opened up and all his vital organs are being excised. It's bloody. The autopsy is being performed by DR. BREWSTER, the Resident in Pathology, dressed in surgical scrub. HITCHCOCK ...and the next thing anybody knew, about three hours later, Mrs. Cushing from Accounting came in and said there was a dead man in the Holding Room. BOCK You don't find anything grotesque about all this? HITCHCOCK What do you mean? BOCK I mean, at half past eight this morning, we meet over a doctor who's been killed intravenously, and here we are again, four hours later, with another doctor who had a heart attack in the Emergency Room. HITCHCOCK Well, what're you suggesting Doctor? Do you think we have a mad killer stalking the halls of the hospital? Presumably, Dr. Ives died of a heart attack and Schaefer in a diabetic coma. People do die of these things. It's all perhaps coincidental, but I don't think I'd call it grotesque. BOCK How long are they going to be on Schaefer's post? He knocks on the glass window of the door separating the laboratory from the operating room. Dr. Brewster turns from his gory chore. Bock makes a gesture saying, "How much longer?" Brewster raises ten blood-drenched rubber-gloved fingers. Bock turns and shuffles across the lab for the door out. BOCK (pauses at door, to Lagerman) I don't suppose you'd like to call next of kin? DR. LAGERMAN No thanks. BOCK (deeply depressed) Oh God, I need a drink. He goes down... THE PATHOLOGY CORRIDOR ...and is soon lost in the normal traffic of the area. THE HOSPITAL. NIGHT CRASH of THUNDER. CRACKLE of LIGHTNING. A horror-film rainstorm lashes the vast dark complex of buildings. SEVENTH FLOOR, DEPT. OF MEDICINE CORRIDOR Dark, empty, silent. One lonely light at the lobby end of the long, closed corridor of offices. The door to Bock's office stands ajar and issues a trace of light. BOCK'S OFFICE ACROSS the silent, dark, typewriter-covered desks of the two secretaries through the doorway to Bock's private office, we can see Bock at his desk, lit by the desk lamp. He has a bottle of booze on his desk. He gets up from his desk. He has made a decision. HOLLY PAVILION, EIGHTH FLOOR The corridors are silent; the night lights are on, subdued. Head Evening Nurse Mrs. Dunne is back at her desk, hunched over paperwork. Resident Brubaker passes by. EIGHTH FLOOR, PHARMACY Nurse SHERLEE DEVINE, a black woman in her mid-twenties, has a porcelain tray on the shelf onto which she puts a small jar of alcohol, cotton swabs, a wrapped hypodermic needle and syringe. She moves out into... NURSES' STATION ...where Mrs. Dunne looks up as she passes. NURSE DEVINE Mead. Mrs. Dunne nods. Nurse Devine makes her way silently down the sleeping doors to... ROOM 806 Dark, sleeping. The bathroom light is on, but only a thin stream of yellow light trickles through the door. THUNDER CRASHES. William Mead sleeps fitfully. The other patient is entirely curtained off. Nurse Devine sets her tray on Mead's bedtable, turns on the goose-neck lamp, keeping it from his eyes. She unwraps the hypodermic syringe, sets in the needle, draws the required dosage, reaches over and gently shakes Mead by the shoulder. NURSE DEVINE (softly) Mr. Mead... Mr. Mead, I have an injection for you. Mead sleeps on. Expressionlessly, Nurse Devine extracts Mead's right arm from under the sheets, wets a swab with alcohol and rubs down the vein. The needle slides into Mead's vein. OVER THIS, we begin to hear a distant sibilant HISSING, indistinct like the leakage of a bad heart. There is also an occasional distinctly human but not quite civilized sound. CAMERA PULLS BACK SLOWLY to Nurse Devine withdrawing the needle, looking up, for she too has heard the soft, strange sounds. They emanate from behind the curtains of the other bed. Nurse Devine returns the syringe to the tray, gathers her things and pads silently around Mead's bed to Drummond's bed. With her free hand, she opens the curtains a little and stares in. NURSE DEVINE What the hell is going on in there? NURSE DEVINE'S P.O.V.: THE INDIAN AND BARBARA DRUMMOND BEND OVER DRUMMOND PERFORMING SOME PAGAN RITUAL. THE HISSING IS BARBARA'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE CEREMONY. (IT SOUNDS LIKE PIS- PIS, AND IS IN FACT AN IMITATION OF THE NIGHTHAWK, MEANT TO APPEASE THE SPIRIT OF THE THUNDER.) The old Indian has stripped to the waist and marked his body with smears of dye and tule pollen. He wears a ceremonial hat, a sort of beaded beanie. He holds a small buckskin bag of pollen in his cupped palms and is facing north, east, south and west, offering the bag and prayers under his breath as he does. A beaded amulet lies stretched across the white sheet covering the comatose Drummond. When Nurse Devine draws the curtains, Barbara frowns at Nurse Devine, holds a cautioning finger to her lips and draws the curtains closed again. Nurse Devine, carrying her porcelain tray, exits. EIGHTH FLOOR, NURSES' STATION Bock comes out of the elevator, jacketed now, fairly drunk but holding it well. He heads for the Nurses' Station as Nurse Devine comes down the west corridor. Bock grunts at Mrs. Dunne and goes into... PHARMACY ...where he quickly runs his finger along the second shelf until he comes to the bottle of potassium which he filches off the shelf and slips into his pocket. He rummages through the drawers for a hypodermic syringe. Through the open doorway, we see Nurse Devine making her way swiftly up to Mrs. Dunne at the desk. NURSE DEVINE Well, honey, we got a witch-doctor in Eight-O-Six, and you better go in there. You know that Indian that was sitting in Eight-O-Six all night? He's still there, and the girl's there, and they're doing some voodoo in there, and I ain't kidding. Behind Mrs. Dunne, Bock appears in the doorway to the pharmacy where he stands listening. MRS. DUNNE (looking up) What are you talking about? NURSE DEVINE I mean that Indian's in there, half- naked and going pis-pis-pis with a little bag. You just better get in there, Mrs. Dunne. Mrs. Dunne, annoyed, gets up and heads for the west corridor, followed by Nurse Devine and by an intrigued Dr. Bock at a few paces behind. NURSE DEVINE (to NURSE WEITZENBAUM, coming out of another room) You want to see somethin', baby? You jus' come here. As the small procession bears down, Barbara Drummond slips out of that room to intercept them. BARBARA (keeping her voice low) Look, it's a perfectly harmless ceremony, nothing to get excited about. It'll be over in a few minutes anyway. Mr. Blacktree is a shaman who gets his power from the thunder, and it's imperative he conclude his rituals while the storm is still going on. NURSE DUNNE Visiting hours were over at nine o'clock, Miss. Bock reaches for the door to the room. BARBARA All that's going on in there, Doctor, is a simple Apache prayer for my father's recovery. Bock makes a vague noise, neither contradicting her nor assenting, and continues around her into... ROOM 806 As Bock slides in, a bit of the corridor light comes in with him. The curtains have been left sufficiently open to reveal Mr. Blacktree. He is still stripped to the waist and marked with crosses of pollen. He extends two twigs to the four directions after which he places the twigs carefully on the white sheet covering Drummond in a pattern around the amulet already there. Behind Bock, Mrs. Dunne can be seen peeking in. The Indian is oblivious to both of them. Bock watches it all with interest for a moment and then backs out into... EIGHTH FLOOR CORRIDOR ...closing the door after him. BARBARA The markings he's made on my father's arms are from the pollen of the tule plant. The twigs have no significance other than they've been struck by lightning and are consequently appeals to the spirit of lightning. It's all entirely harmless, a religious ceremony, not a medical one. BOCK You don't seriously believe all that mumbo-jumbo will cure him? BARBARA On the other hand, it won't kill him, Doctor. They regard each other levelly. BOCK (grunts) Okay. Go ahead. He wheels and clumps off for the stairway exit. BARBARA Thank you. Nurse Weitzenbaum opens the door of the room and peeks in. At the stairway exit, Bock pauses to look back at all the women in front of Room 806. BOCK Miss Drummond, are you still taking your father out? BARBARA Yes. I still have to arrange an ambulance service. Is there a phone around I could use? BOCK Use my office. BARBARA Thank you. Bock exits. Barbara edges past Weitzenbaum, who is still peeking into the room. ROOM 806 Barbara comes in, gathers her coat and purse from a chair and moves to the Indian, now occupied with what seems to be the rolling of a cigarette. The two exchange a brief dialogue in Apache. The old Indian nods. Barbara turns and exits, taking Nurse Weitzenbaum out with her and closing the door. The room is dark and hushed again. Blacktree lights his cigarette and "sends the smoke up," a ritual which consists of puffing smoke to each of the four directions, muttering in Apache "May all be well" after each puff. CAMERA SLOWLY PANS to the other bed where William Mead sleeps fitfully. The Apache words and pis-pis-pis penetrate Mead's drugged sleep. He opens one eyelid and stares glazedly at the dark air. The SOUNDS persist. Blacktree chooses this moment to sidle out from behind the curtains and continue his ritual in the less-confined space at the head of Drummond's bed. It's quite a sight for a nervous, sedated man to wake to. Thunder RUMBLES and the rain SLASHES and a sudden, savage STREAK of lightning illuminates it all. Mead figures it's all a bad dream and, after a moment of dully regarding the odd spectacle, closes his one eye and goes back to sleep. BOCK'S OFFICE, OUTER OFFICE Barbara Drummond comes in. Bock has apparently turned the lights on for her, but Bock himself is not immediately visible. She looks through the half-open door to Bock's private office, and there he is, staring blankly at the bottle. Barbara starts to say something, thinks better of it, lays down her coat, and looking around, spots a Manhattan classified directory which she hauls up from its shelf and sets on Miss Lebow's desk. She sits, quickly flips through the pages. Barbara flips through the directory. Bock is partially visible in the background at his desk. He sits soddenly. Barbara finds what she wants, opens her purse and takes out two airplane tickets. She dials. The CLICKING of the dial catches Bock's ear. He looks up for a moment. BARBARA (on phone) Hello. I'd like to arrange an ambulance for one-thirty tomorrow afternoon... Thank you... REVERSE ACROSS Bock at his desk with Barbara partially visible at Miss Lebow's desk. All he can see are her great long tanned legs. BARBARA (in background on phone) ...Drummond, first name, Barbara. I'll pay cash... Bock stands a little unsteadily and moves around his desk to get a better look at those legs. BARBARA (on phone) No, you're to pick up my father, Drummond, Edward, at the Manhattan Medical Center, Holly Pavilion, Room Eight-O-Six. It's a stretcher case. I presume you provide the stretcher. She senses Bock watching her, turns, smiles. She's a very beautiful girl. She returns to the phone. BARBARA He's to be taken to American Airlines, Yes... No... Kennedy Airport, Flight Seven-Two-Nine to Yuma, Arizona. I'll accompany the patient... Yes, thank you. She returns the receiver to its cradle. When she looks up again, Bock is no longer there. She returns the flight tickets to her purse, snaps it shut, stands and moves to the doorway, enters a step into... BOCK'S OFFICE Bock, back at his desk, looks up. BOCK You believe in witchcraft, Miss Drummond? BARBARA I believe in everything, Doctor. BOCK Like a drink? BARBARA Yes. Bock drains his glass and pours her a hefty shot of bourbon. BARBARA (from the door suddenly) My father, you should know, was a very successful doctor in Boston, a member of the Harvard Medical Faculty. He was a widower, and I was his only child. He was not an especially religious man, a sober Methodist. One evening, seven years ago, he attended a Pentecostal meeting in the commons rooms at Harvard and suddenly found himself speaking in tongues. (she takes her drink and crosses to the sofa) That is to say, he suddenly sank to his knees at the back of the room and began to talk fluently in a language which no one had ever heard before. This sort of thing happens frequently at Pentecostal meetings, and they began to happen regularly to my father. (she sits) It was not unusual to walk into our home and find my father sitting in his office, utterly serene and happily speaking to the air in this strange foreign tongue. I was, at that time twenty years old and having my obligatory affair with a minority group, in my case a Hopi Indian, a post-graduate fellow at Harvard doing his doctorate in the aboriginal languages of the Southwest. One day, I brought the Indian boy home just as my father was sinking to his knees in the entrance foyer in one of his trances. The Indian wheeled in his tracks and said, "Well, I'll be a sonofabitch." You see, my father was speaking an Apache dialect, an obscure dialect at that, spoken only by a ragged band of unreconstructed Indians who had rejected the reservation and were living in total isolation in the Sierra Madre Mountains of northern Mexico. Well! What do you say to that, Dr. Bock? BOCK (who has been staring at her as if she were insane) What the hell am I supposed to say to that, Miss Drummond? Barbara throws back her head and roars with laughter. BOCK I'm sitting here boozing and, all of a sudden, you start telling me some demented story about your father's religious conversion. BARBARA No, no, you miss the point, Doctor. Not my father's conversion -- mine. You see, I had been hitting the acid pretty regularly at that time. I had achieved a few minor sensory deformities, some suicidal despairs, but nothing as wild as fluency in an obscure Apache dialect. I mean, like wow, man! I mean, here was living afflatus right before my eyes! Within a week, my father had closed his Beacon Hill practice and set out to start a mission in the Mexican mountains. And I turned in my S.D.S. card and my crash helmet and followed him. It was a disaster, at least for me. My father had received the revelation, not I. He stood gaunt on a mountain slope and preached the apocalypse to solemnly amused Indians. I masturbated a great deal. We lived in a grass wickiup and ate raw rabbit and crushed piÒon nuts. It was hideous. Within two months, I was back in Boston, a hollow shell and dizzy with dengue, disenchanted with everything. I turned to austerity, combed my hair tight and entered nursing school. I became haggard, driven and had shamelessly incestuous dreams about my father. I took up with some of the senior staff at the hospital. One of them, a portly psychiatrist, explained I was generated by an unresolved lust for my father. I apparently cracked up. One day, they found me walking to work naked and screaming obscenities. There was talk of institutionalizing me, so I packed a bag and went back to my father in the Sierra Madre Mountains. I've been there ever since. That's three years. My father is, of course, mad as a hatter. I watch over him and have been curiously content. You see, Doctor, I believe in everything. She pauses, her story over. Throughout, Bock has been trying to keep his glowering eye on the desktop. During her long narrative, he once seized the bottle and took a swig. Mostly he is finding the experience murkily sensual. His glance keeps darting out from under his brows to surreptitiously look at the beautiful long tanned legs; or, when she bends for the drink she set on the floor, to peer down the flapping open scalloped neck of her dress; she is bra-less. She, on the other hand, has been crossing and uncrossing her legs, bending, stretching, so that her short dress has ridden up almost to her waist and is saved from utter exhibitionism only by the darkness of the shadows. She seems unaffected by Bock's voyeuristic interest in her, but she is surely not unaware of it. It is hard to believe she is not courting his attention. BOCK Now what was that all about, Miss Drummond? BARBARA I thought I was obvious as hell. I'm trying to tell you I have a thing for middle-aged men. BOCK I admire your candor. BARBARA You've been admiring a lot more than that. Bock looks up, and they suddenly find their eyes locked. The dark, dense air in the room fairly steams with incipient sexuality. BOCK (looks down again) You're wasting your time. I've been impotent for years. BARBARA Rubbish. With a crash of his fist on the desktop, Bock stands; he is in a drunken rage. BOCK (lurches about) What the hell's wrong with being impotent? My God, you kids are more hung up on sex than the Victorians! I've got a son, twenty-three. I threw him out of the house last year. Pietistic little humbug. He preached universal love and despised everyone. He had a blanket contempt for the middle class, even its decencies. He detested my mother because she had petit bourgeois pride in her son the doctor. I cannot tell you how brutishly he ignored that rather good old lady. When she died, he didn't even come to the funeral. He thought the chapel service an hypocrisy. His generation didn't live with lies, he told me. "Everybody lives with lies," I said. I grabbed him by his poncho, dragged him the full length of our seven-room despicably affluent middle-class apartment and flung him out. I haven't seen him since. But do you know what he said to me as he stood there on that landing on the verge of tears. He shrieked at me: "You old fink! You can't even get it up anymore!" That was it, you see. That was his real revolution. It wasn't racism and the oppressed poor and the war in Vietnam. The ultimate American societal sickness was a limp dingus. Hah! (he lurches about, laughing rustily) My God, if there is a despised and misunderstood minority in this country, it's us poor impotent bastards. Well, I'm impotent and proud of it! Impotence is beautiful, baby! (he raises a militant fist) Power to the Impotent! Right on, baby! BARBARA (smiling) Right on. BOCK (stares drunkenly at her) When I say impotent, I don't mean merely limp. Disagreeable as it may be for a woman, a man may sometimes lust for other things, something less transient than an erection, some sense of permanent worth. That's what medicine was for me, my reason for being. When I was thirty-four, Miss Drummond, I presented a paper before the annual convention of the Society of Clinical Investigation that pioneered the whole goddam field of immunology. A breakthrough! I'm in all the textbooks. I happen to be an eminent man, Miss Drummond. And you want to know something, Miss Drummond? I don't give a goddam. When I say I'm impotent, I mean I've lost even my desire for work, which is a hell of a lot more primal a passion than sex. I've lost my raison d'etre, my purpose, the only thing I ever truly loved. It's all rubbish anyway. Transplants, antibodies, we manufacture genes, we can produce birth ectogenetically, we can practically clone people like carrots, and half the kids in this ghetto haven't even been inoculated for polio! We have assembled the most enormous medical establishment ever conceived, and people are sicker than ever! We cure nothing! We heal nothing! The whole goddam wretched world is strangulating in front of our eyes! That's what I mean when I say impotent! You don't know what the hell I'm talking about, do you? BARBARA Of course, I do. BOCK I'm tired, I'm terribly tired, Miss Drummond. And I hurt, and I've got nothing going for me anymore. Can you understand that? BARBARA Yes, of course. BOCK Then can you understand that the only admissable matter left is death? He suspects he is going to cry and turns quickly away. He sits heavily and fights his tears. BARBARA Sounds to me like a familiar case of morbid menopause. BOCK Oh Christ. BARBARA Well, it's hard for me to take your despair very seriously, Doctor. You obviously enjoy it so much. BOCK Oh, bugger off. That's all I need now, clinical insights. Some cockamamie twenty-five-year-old... BARBARA Twenty-seven. BOCK ...acidhead's going to reassure me about menopause now. Look, I'd like to be alone, so why don't you beat it? Close the door and turn off the lights on your way out. They are both suddenly conscious of a third presence in the room. They look to the door where Mr. Blacktree, fully clothed again and carrying his coat, is standing in the doorway. Barbara uncrosses her long legs and stands. BARBARA (crossing to the door) Mr. Blacktree disapproves of my miniskirt, but it was the only thing I had to come to the city with. Back at the tribe, I wear ankle-length buckskin. BOCK Swell. Just close the door and turn off the lights. Barbara regards his hunched form and, murmuring in Apache, she exits, closing the door. In the subsequent hush, thunder RUMBLES and CRASHES. Wind sweeps the rain against the window panes. The sounds go unheeded by Bock, still as marble. Slowly, he raises his head and sighs and then fishes about in his jacket pockets to bring out the bottle of potassium and syringe. He takes off his jacket, rolling up his shirtsleeve, poking about for the vein. He removes his trouser belt, which he ties tightly about his upper arm for a tourniquet. Now, he tears the wrapping of the syringe and fits the needle to it. Fiddling about in the pockets of his jacket, he finally finds a crumpled pack of cigarettes. He lights one and returns to the business of killing himself, puffing expressionlessly as he does. Thunder RUMBLES and rain SLASHES. He carefully draws just the right amount of potassium from the bottle to the syringe, peering at the procedure against the light of his desk lamp. He sets the cigarette on the ashtray, switches the hypodermic to his right hand, holds his left arm rigidly out under the light of the lamp... BARBARA'S VOICE (off-screen) What're you shooting, Doc? He turns slowly to the doorway, his bare left arm still rigidly extended, the belt dangling, the hypodermic clenched in his other hand. Barbara is perfectly framed in the doorway. He stares at her, slowly suffusing with the numb, blind, total rage of the aborted suicide. The thunder CRASHES. BOCK (barely gets the words out) Leave me alone... She approaches the desk affably, turns the potassium around to read the label. BARBARA Potassium. You take enough of this stuff, it'll kill you, Doc. (moves toward the couch) It occurred to me that I might have read you wrong, that you really were suicidal. So I came back. Bock's rage erupts. He crashes the hypodermic syringe down, shattering it. The potassium puddles on the wood. BOCK (hysterical rage) Who the hell asked you! He moves around the desk, a shambling bear of a man, a leather belt dangling dementedly from his arm, tears coursing down his cheeks. He advances on her in a stuperous shuffle. BOCK Who the hell asked you! She regards his lumbering approach with a faint, grotesquely sensual smile. He reaches with his naked left arm to the neck of her dress and, with one savage wrench, rips her stark naked, sobbing through hysterical tears. BOCK Leave me alone! Why the hell don't you leave me alone! He is on her, crushing her down into the shadows of the couch, ravenous at her neck and shoulders in a brutish assault, sobbing. BOCK Why didn't you let me do it? Who the hell asked you! Throughout the scene, CAMERA MOVES SLOWLY IN through the flesh and fury to an INTENSE TWO-SHOT of this terrified act of love. Then slowly over Bock's plunging shoulder to the woman's face. She gasps at the moment of penetration, then her lovely face slowly shapes into smiling serenity. Bock sobs; even in the shadows we can see the path of the tears on his cheek. ABRUPT SILENCE. OUTSIDE THE HOSPITAL, NIGHT. 4:00 A.M. The quiet, black streets glisten wetly in the puddles of lamplight. THE STEINMETZ PAVILION, TENTH FLOOR The night shift is finishing up. THERESA CAMPANELLA, R.N., a high-strung girl in her early twenties, stands at a water tap holding a glass and popping some pills in her mouth. To the room: CAMPANELLA Well, I'll see you. TENTH FLOOR CORRIDOR. NIGHT Campanella comes out of the Dialysis room, puts on her coat and walks to... HOLLY PAVILION LOBBY. NIGHT Campanella moves down the empty corridor. All the doors are closed now; only the overhead light in the background of the corridor glows weakly. Campanella puts a cigarette in her mouth, pauses to look for matches; she hasn't any. Scowling with annoyance, she continues to the lobby and stops by a partially visible white-jacketed figure reading a newspaper. CAMPANELLA Do you have a match, Doctor? She takes the matches, lights her cigarette, inhaling deeply, when he suddenly sandbags her from behind. She goes down. BOCK'S OFFICE. DAYBREAK, WEDNESDAY Covered by Bock's overcoat, Barbara tosses and turns on the couch in a small nightmare. Through the windows comes the first gray wash of dawn. FULL SHOT of Barbara, awake and up on one elbow on the verge of a scream. She looks around the room. It is dark, empty, silent. ACROSS Barbara looking through the door to the secretarial office. It is likewise dark, but suddenly the lights go on and, a moment later, Bock enters. He holds a container of coffee in each hand and has something white draped over his forearm. From under Bock's bulky coat, Barbara watches him lumber to his desk, where he sets the containers of coffee down. He drops the whitish garment over the back of a chair and then sits. He hoists a bulging folder of correspondence from his filing tray and hunches to work, reading. After a moment, he regards the silent figure on the couch across the room. BOCK You wouldn't be awake. BARBARA What time is it? He rises, picks up the second container and white dress from the chair. She reaches out an arm for the coffee. Bock holds up -- a nurse's uniform. BOCK I swiped this for you out of the nurses' locker room. I'll make good on your dress. I'm afraid it's torn beyond repair. Buy yourself a new one or, if you like, give me your size and I'll send it on to you. But I want to talk to you about that. BARBARA Talk to me about what? BOCK About your father. You really shouldn't move him in his condition. I just had a look at his chart. There's no reason to presume brain damage. You know as well as I you can't predict anything in these instances. He could pull out of that coma at any time. I think you should let him stay here. I'll personally look after him. He has perched on the edge of the couch, and she rests her cheek against the long, bent curve of his back, smiling. BARBARA Is this your way of saying you'd like me to stay in town a few more days? He turns to look at her, smiles back. BOCK Well, that would be nice, too. She sips her coffee. BOCK What do you say, Miss Drummond? BARBARA I expect you can call me Barbara, considering you ravished me three times last night. BOCK Three times? BARBARA Oh, look at him, pretending he didn't count. You were as puffed up as a toad about it. Punched a couple of holes in your crusade for universal impotence, didn't it? I think we're on a first name basis by now. I'll call you Herb. BOCK Let's give your father a week, Barbara, what do you say? BARBARA (a frown darkens her face) No, I don't want my father in this hospital. I had a dream about this hospital. (some of the terror shows on her face) I dreamt this enormous starched white tile building suddenly erupted like a volcano, and all the patients, doctors, nurses, attendants, orderlies, the whole line staff, the food service people, the aged, the lame -- and you right in the middle -- were stampeding in one hideous screaming suicidal mass into the sea. (she stares at him wide-eyed, reliving the dream) I'm taking my father out of here -- and as quickly as I can. They stare at each other, she in terror, he with affection. BOCK You're a real fruitcake, you know? She sets her coffee down on the couch and decides to wear Bock's overcoat rather than use it as a cover. She searches for the sleeves. Bock assists her. BARBARA Well, let me put it this way. I love you. I fancied you from the first moment you came lumbering down that hallway upstairs. I said to Mr. Blacktree, "Who's that hulking bear of a man?" The Apaches are reverential about bears. They won't eat bear meat; they never skin bears. Bear is thought of as both benign and evil, but very strong power. Men with bear power are highly respected and are frequently said to be great healers. By now she's standing, the overcoat reaching her toes. She looks down at Bock perched on the couch. BARBARA I said to Mr. Blacktree, "That man gets his power from the bear." BOCK Swell. Now, look, do you have a hotel, some sort of accommodations where you can stay for a week or so? Barbara reaches for her coffee, sips, moves around in her tent of a coat. BARBARA All right, let me put it this way, Herb. My father and I accept the implacability of death. If he dies, he dies, but I'm taking him out of here and back to Mexico about one o'clock this afternoon. I want you to come with us, because I love you and want children. BOCK I'm afraid Mexico sounds a little too remote for me. BARBARA We could use you down there, you know. There's a curiously high incidence of T.B. And you'd be a doctor again, Herb. You'd be necessary again. If you love me, I don't see what other choice you have. BOCK What do you mean, if I love you? I raped you in a suicidal rage. How did we get to love and children all of a sudden? BARBARA Oh, for heaven's sake, Herb, I ought to know if a man loves me or not. You must have told me half a hundred times last night you loved me. You murmured it, shouted it; one time, you opened the window and bellowed it out into the street. BOCK I think those were more expressions of gratitude than love. BARBARA Gratitude for what? BOCK Well, my God, for resurrecting feelings of life in me I thought dead. BARBARA Well, my God, what do you think love is? BOCK Okay, I love you, and you love me. I'm not about to argue with so relentless a romantic. Well, then, since we have this great passion going for us, I don't see why you won't stay on here in New York for a week or ten days... BARBARA It's up to ten days now. BOCK As long as it takes for your father's condition to improve. BARBARA No. I've had these prophetic dreams for seven nights. Seven is a sinister number. The meaning of these dreams is very clear, seven times as clear. I am to get my father and you out of this hospital before we are all destroyed. BOCK (throws up his hands) You're certifiable! My God, half the time you're a perfectly intelligent young woman, and then suddenly you turn into a goddam cabalist who believes in dreams, witchcraft and bear power! And I don't like the way you dismiss my whole life as unnecessary. I do a lot of healing right here in Manhattan. I don't have to go to Mexico for it. I also teach. I send out eighty doctors a year into the world, sometimes inspirited, at least competent. I've built up one of the best damned departments of medicine in the world. We've got a hell of a heart unit here and a hell of a kidney group. A lot of people come into this hospital in big trouble, Miss Drummond, and go out better for the experience. So don't tell me how unnecessary I am. BARBARA (who's been slipping into the nurse's uniform) Yeah? BOCK Yeah. BARBARA So how come, eight hours ago, you were trying to kill yourself with an overdose of potassium? BOCK Where are you going now? This last in reference to Barbara crossing to the secretaries' office, zippering her uniform. BOCK'S SECRETARIES' OFFICE BARBARA (gathering her coat and purse) My hotel. I have to check out. Mr. Blacktree doesn't speak any English. BOCK (from the connecting doorway) Well, you're coming back, of course. BARBARA Of course. I have to settle the bill here and pack my father. And I think you need a few hours alone to make your decisions. BOCK What decisions? BARBARA You're a very tired and very damaged man. You've had a hideous marriage and I assume a few tacky affairs along the way. You're understandably reluctant to get involved again. And, on top of that, here I am with the preposterous idea you throw everything up and go off with me to some barren mountains of Mexico. It sounds utterly mad, I know. On the other hand, you obviously find this world as desolate as I do. You did try to kill yourself last night. So that's it, Herb. Either me and the mountains or the bottle of potassium. I'll be back in an hour or so. I'll be in my father's room. She slips into her coat and exits, as Bock looks after her thoughtfully, then turns back to his own office. BOCK'S OFFICE He shuffles around distractedly, not knowing how to articulate the exuberance he feels. Suddenly, he opens the window, leans out and bellows to the empty air. BOCK All right. I love you! (softly) My God! FIRST AVENUE, CONSTRUCTION AREA. DAWN A construction sign fills the screen. It reads ON THIS LOCATION, THE NEW YORK MEDICAL UNIVERSITY CENTER WILL BUILD A DRUG REHABILITATION COMMUNITY CENTER, TO BE COMPLETED IN 1973. E.F. SCHLAGER & CO., CONTRACTORS. Suddenly, the sign comes crashing down into CAMERA. It has been wrenched off the wooden fence protecting the row of tenements and brownstones being demolished. About a dozen young and loud militants have torn it down. CAMERA PANS to show the row of houses behind the fence, two of which have already been reduced to rubble; the others have been boarded up. The demolition generators and cranes are parked silently along the curb. In the dark of 5:00 A.M., three black families, carrying children, and children carrying household effects, mattresses, pots, pans, bags of groceries, etc., are repossessing the condemned buildings. FIRST AVENUE, CONSTRUCTION AREA. DAY, 10:00 A.M. Strong sun overhead. The street has been roped off, and police are all over the place. A sparse crowd of a hundred or so throng the sidestreets off First Avenue. Signs read, "People SÌ, Doctors No." A Channel 11 mobile news crew, newspaper photographers, and a radio newscaster are recording the situation with desultory interest. A POLICE CAPTAIN stands in the middle of the cordoned street, bullhorning the occupiers of the condemned brownstones, who can be seen through the broken windows. POLICE CAPTAIN I repeat. I'm asking you to come out peacefully. These buildings are condemned and unfit for habitation. A piece of brick arches down from the roof of a building and cracks the street a few feet from the Captain. POLICE CAPTAIN (sighs, tries again) You people are possessing this building illegally and in violation of the law. I'm asking you to come out peacefully... HOLLY PAVILION, ENTRANCE LOBBY. DAY A small press conference is going on in a corner of the lobby. Reporters cluster, and TV cameras surround the Press Representative of the Hospital, a young woman in her thirties named EVELYN BASSEY, who is trying to read a statement, squinting under her mod glasses at the blaze of lights set up by the camera crews. MRS. BASSEY (reading) ...complete sympathy with the tenants. So the hospital has assumed the responsibility of finding 400 housing units in good buildings. The hospital wishes to point out that this particular row of buildings on First Avenue was condemned by the City before the hospital acquired ownership, and even then, only after responsible leaders in the community had approved the building of our new drug rehabilitation center. SUNDSTROM'S OFFICE SUNDSTROM (explodes on the phone) Goddammit, Barry, I've got a dozen community leaders waiting for me in the library! We've been trying to work out some kind of negotiable formula for two years! And with no help from you people in the Urban Affairs Division, I might add! DR. WELBECK appears in the doorway. He's in his fifties, gray, distinguished and very tanned with terribly, terribly kindly old country doctor eyes. He wears a camel hair topcoat. He smiles benignly and twinkles at Sundstrom from one of the leather chairs across the desk from the Director. SUNDSTROM (hardly notices Welbeck) And I'm not going to throw all that down the drain because some cockamamie activist group is show-boating for the television cameras! You get those people out of those buildings before a wall collapses or a fire breaks out and we've got a riot on our hands!... Okay! He hangs up, sighs, turns to the man across the desk. WELBECK (smiles, twinkles) Having your troubles, eh? Well, I won't take much of your time. My name's Welbeck. I've been associated with this hospital for six years, and, yesterday afternoon, Dr. Gilley called me to say he was cutting off my privileges at the hospital. Do you know anything about it? SUNDSTROM (glances at his watch) It's news to me. WELBECK He said he sent the report on. SUNDSTROM I'll probably get it tomorrow. Report on what? WELBECK Well, I'm not sure myself. I did a nephrectomy on a man about seven days ago. Emergency, called in at four in the morning. The man was hemorrhaging, he'd gone sour... SUNDSTROM Welbeck, I'm terribly sorry, but I do have this meeting. (crosses to the door) In any event, there's nothing I can do about it. If Gilley wants to cut your privileges, he's Chief of Surgery, it's within his province. You'll have to have the hearing... He exits, followed by Welbeck into the... DIRECTOR'S SUITE, SECRETARIES' OFFICES Buzzing now. Typewriters clicking. Phones ringing. WELBECK I have a laparotomy laid on for this morning. I assume I'll be allowed to go through with that. SUNDSTROM Of course. WELBECK (huffing a little) I've been associated with this hospital for six years... SUNDSTROM Now, now, Welbeck. It seems to me I've had your name down here before for something... (to his secretary en passant) I'll be in the staff room. He and Welbeck pass out into the... EXECUTIVE CORRIDOR Flowing with a normal stream of traffic, Sundstrom and Welbeck turn right and head down to the last room of the corridor. Something comes to him, and Sundstrom pauses. SUNDSTROM Wait a minute. You're the fellow with the Medicaid collecting business who incorporated and went public, right? I mean, something like that? Milton Mead was telling me about you just the other day. You're a whole medical conglomerate. You've got a Factoring service, a computerized billing company, and a few proprietary hospitals, a few nursing homes. Good heavens, Welbeck, you shouldn't be brought up before a committee of mere doctors. You should be investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. You'll have to go through with the hearing, Welbeck. I don't interfere in these things. He opens the door of the staff room and strides in. Even before he enters, we get a blast of angry voices, both male and female. For the moment the door is ajar, we see a harried Milton Mead being assailed by angry blacks and Puerto Ricans and young white activist doctors. HOSPITAL LIBRARY VOICES (all overlapping) ...no goddam halfway house, no way, baby! We ain't gonna wait 'til 1973 to deal with this problem! We want to kill the drug thing right now!... imperializing the Blackaporican community, and we reject the bourgie- ass middle-class black traitors and flunkies who are selling out the Blackaporican proletariat masses to the expansionist, racist policies of this shit hospital!... WOMAN Let's get back to the abortion issue! VOICE Sit down, Woman! WOMAN What the hell does the male establishment know about abortions? There's an agitated reaction in the crowd. BLACK WOMAN Who the hell raised the issue of birth control? The issue at hand is the control of drug addiction in this community and in the ghetto generally. A black man jumps up and points off right. BLACK MAN We don't want no goddam abortion... A white doctor jumps in from the left. WHITE DOCTOR Let's... let's get down to the core of this matter. More murmuring. A Che Guevara -- styled revolutionary moves toward Mead and Sundstrom at the table. MAN The point is that this hospital is the landlord for those buildings and they should've turned them down. Angrily, he leans over the table facing Sundstrom. MAN Those buildings are imperialistic extensions of the medical establishment. This hospital ought to be rebuilding those tenements, give those people decent housing. Sundstrom raises his hands for quiet and starts to rise. The hostile din has gotten to him. SUNDSTROM Please, please, please! HOLLY PAVILION, ROOM William Mead is transferred from his bed to a rolling stretcher by an orderly in shirt and trousers and by Nurse Felicia Chile. Nurse Chile tucks Mead in. He opens his eyes to look at her drowsily. WILLIAM MEAD (under sedation) You know, I hallucinated last night. I hallucinated there was an Indian doing a war dance in here. NURSE CHILE (affably) You weren't hallucinating, Mr. Mead. There was an Indian in here last night. WILLIAM MEAD (staring through his sedation at her) There was? They wheel him out into... HOLLY PAVILION, SURGICAL AREA CORRIDOR Mead is wheeled down the corridor by the orderly. At the far end, an anesthetized patient, blue in the harsh light, fresh from surgery, is being wheeled into a recovery room. Surgery is busy and efficient but not as clinically tidy as we'd like. Linens and equipment and surgical gear are piled into corners or on empty stretchers. Green-uniformed nurses, doctors and orderlies go in and out of the many doors flanking the corridor. This is the non-sterilized area, where doctors and nurses confer in the corridors; three black orderlies await an assignment, sit on stretchers, chuckle, mutter. Phones can be heard RINGING. The orderly wheeling Mead turns left into the... SURGICAL AREA, CENTRAL PLAZA ...a small, cluttered central area with the office of the Operating Room Nursing Supervisor on the right and the Holding (for Anesthesia) Room on the left. The O.R. is like the Emergency Ward, desperately busy but staffed by people grown so accustomed to it that they display a calm, almost casual but febrile efficiency. A large blackboard faces the Supervisor's Office with the day's schedule of operations neatly chalked in. It is full. A middle-aged surgeon, still in his overcoat, is studying the schedule. A green-uniformed NURSE swings through the glass doors from the Operating Room area to lean into the Supervisor's Office. NURSE Dr. Norris says about half an hour. SECOND NURSE Tell Shirley it was just an ovarian cyst. The THIRD NURSE leans back into the Supervisor's Office to relay this information. THIRD NURSE Shirley, it was just an ovarian cyst! This is apparently good news, for we hear someone saying VOICE (off-screen) Oh, thank God. An orderly rumbles by with an E.K.G. machine. O.R. Nursing Supervisor DOROTHY KIMBALL, a pleasant lady in her late thirties, leans out of her office to speak to one of the lounging orderlies. MRS. KIMBALL (handing the orderly a slip) All right, Jerry, go up to Holly Six. The orderly detaches himself from his cronies and exits. It is into this atmosphere of subdued febrility that William Mead is wheeled. ORDERLY (to Mrs. Kimball) William Mead from Holly Eight. MRS. KIMBALL Hold him there, Tom. We've got somebody coming out right now. Indeed, a stretcher is being wheeled out of the Holding Room. The patient is sedated and covered. As the orderly wheels her past CAMERA, we may recognize the pale, sleeping profile of Miss Campanella, the nurse who had been coshed with a sandbag not many scenes ago. A CIRCULATING NURSE comes through the glass doors, examines the chart dangling from the stretcher. MRS. KIMBALL (to this nurse) Who's that? Mangafranni? CIRCULATING NURSE (checking wristband) Yeah. (to orderly) Number three, Marty. The orderly wheels the silent Miss Campanella off to Operating Room Three, as Dr. Welbeck, in his natty blue suit, carrying his camel coat, turns in from the outer corridor and examines the blackboard. He goes back to... OUTER CORRIDOR ...Welbeck crosses, opens a door and enters... SURGEONS' LOCKER ROOM All four walls are lined with lockers. Shelves and cartons of green surgical clothes, caps, masks, trousers, shoe- coverings. Obviously, surgeons dress for their operations here. Two surgeons, one middle-aged and the other a young RESIDENT, are changing. The resident turns to Welbeck on his entrance and says: RESIDENT It's legal for a doctor to incorporate in New York, isn't it, Doctor? WELBECK (en route to phone) Since last September. If they had that when I was your age, I'd have put away a couple of million by now. (dials) It gives you a variety of deferral devices, profit-sharing for example. Let's say you pick yourself an October 31-fiscal. You declare a bonus payable in '71. An accrued item payable to a principle share-holder must be paid within two and half months after the close of the year to get the deduction in the prior year. But your corporation doesn't pay that tax, because we've eliminated the taxable income with the bonus. With two taxable entities, you can bury a hell of a lot of expenses... (on phone) Hello, this is Welbeck, any messages?... Well, I'm at the hospital. I have to cut open some guy in a couple of minutes. I'll try to make it as fast as I can. How urgent did he say it was?... Well, Dr. Hogan made those arrangements with the underwriters. The Registration Statement was filed with the S.E.C. well over a year ago... If he calls again, have me paged here. (hangs up, turns back to the attentive young doctors to conduct his class in medical finance while changing into surgical scrub) The really big money is in health leasing, of course. Dr. Hogan, the eminent orthopedic surgeon, and I incorporated a leasing company and went public last year. I hold a controlling interest in a number of proprietary hospitals, nursing homes and rest farms, and I've been leasing hospital equipment to my own hospitals at excessive rates. Why, you ask, am I draining my own hospitals? Well, my hospitals are taxed at 48 percent, and I'm giving my leasing company a hell of a price-earnings ratio, which'll balloon the market value of the stock. I hold three hundred thousand shares of that stock, lettered of course, but in a year, I'll dump those shares at a capital gain and walk off with a bundle... OPERATING ROOM THREE Just like on TV -- well, almost. The surgeon, DR. MALLORY, a bad-tempered man in his fifties, sits on a stool with his gloved hands wrapped in a towel, waiting for the two surgical RESIDENTS to finish painting the operable area, which happens to be the abdomen. It's a hysterectomy. The patient is sheeted except for the small square of abdominal area. DR. MALLORY Mangafranni, right? SCRUB NURSE Right. DR. MALLORY (grumbles to one of the residents) What do you say, huh? We're not going to hang it in the Louvre, you know. The anesthesiologist, DR. CHU, injects pentathol in the I.V. tube. DR. CHU Bring a mask over. The RESIDENT ANESTHESIOLOGIST trundles over the oxygen tank, takes the hypodermic syringe from Dr. Chu, who now applies the oxygen mask to the enmarbled profile of the patient. He studies the gauges and equipment around him at the head of the operating table. RESIDENT ANESTHESIOLOGIST There's no pulse, Doctor. DR. CHU What's the pressure? RESIDENT ANESTHESIOLOGIST There's no blood pressure, Doctor. DR. CHU No pulse. Get the tube and E.K.G. DR. MALLORY What's the matter? RESIDENT I can't feel a thing, sir. The room galvanizes into the swift, silent activity of a chest massage. Dr. Mallory, standing and stretching in the back of the room, turns and moves toward the off-screen patient. He begins a vigorous rhythmic massage of the patient's rib cage over the heart. DR. MALLORY What the hell happened? Dr. Mallory thumps the patient's chest hard with his fist, and the others, likewise, go to work. DR. CHU I don't know. She must have thrown an embolus. She was doing fine up to now. (to Resident Anesthesiologist) Did you check the gasses? RESIDENT ANESTHESIOLOGIST I did, sir. DR. CHU The only time I ever saw anybody conk out like this, some jerk switched the nitrous oxide and the gas lines. The scrub nurse is applying electrode paste to the defibrillators. Dr. Mallory yanks the sheets and hospital shirt off the patient and begins very rigorous massage of the exposed ribs; we can hear one rib crack. DR. MALLORY Get the damn leads on. For Chrissakes, what the hell is this?! RESIDENT She's just a young woman, sir. Do you think we should open the chest? DR. MALLORY (defibrillating) She's fifty-three, you buttonhead! RESIDENT (off-screen) Bicarb? Dr. Chu, who has been inserting some suprel and bicarbonate into the tube of the patient's I.V., is frowning at her rigid, white-capped face. He leans over to check the E.K.G. readings. DR. CHU She's fibrillating, Doctor. Mallory straddles the patient. He's doing heavy heart massage. DR. MALLORY Jesus H. Christ! DR. CHU Okay, stop for a minute... Doctor... Dr. Chu pushes back, the operating cap on the patient's head, revealing jet-black hair. Mallory starts to massage again. DR. MALLORY (barking at the scrub nurse) You got those paddles ready? Dr. Chu stares blankly at the patient's face, then looks up at the sweating surgeon, perched on the operating table, rhythmically crushing away at the patient's rib cage. DR. CHU I may be crazy, Doctor, but I don't think this is your patient. Dr. Mallory, now pausing for a moment, looks up. He is beaded with sweat. DR. MALLORY What the hell are you talking about? He massages away. Another rib cracks. HOLLY PAVILION, BOCK'S OFFICE The Supervisor of Nurses, Mrs. Christie, is sitting on a chair reading a report. Bock, now in his doctor's coat, is hunched over his desk, hands clasped. BOCK Now, I don't want to get into an institutional hassle with you, Mrs. Christie. The malpractice here is monumental. As you see, Dr. Schaefer's blood sugar was twenty-three. No glucose solution is going to do that. The only thing that will do that is at least fifty units of insulin, probably more. The only presumption is that one of those nurses on the Eighth Floor shot fifty units of insulin into Schaefer's blood stream, either by injection or through the I.V., although how in God's name... Mrs. Christie's electric pocket-pager BEEPS. MRS. CHRISTIE I'm very sorry, Doctor. (reaches for a phone) May I? Miss McGuire leans in from the secretaries' office. MISS MCGUIRE (to Bock) Doctor, did you ask the head nurse on the eighth floor to let you know when a Miss Drummond got there? BOCK Yes. MISS MCGUIRE Well, she just got there. BOCK Thank you. MRS. CHRISTIE (on phone) Oh, dear me, Dorothy. I better get right down there directly. Have you called the O.O.D.? And you better call Dr. Gilley. And you better call Mr. Sloan... Yes, I'll be down directly. (hangs up; to Bock) I'm very sorry, Doctor, but there's a real nasty one in the O.R. They've just operated on the wrong patient... O.R. NURSING SUPERVISOR'S OFFICE Crowded now. The administrative resident, Hitchcock, is here and a uniformed man in his fifties, MR. SLOAN, the Chief of Safety and Traffic. Sloan represents the Hospital's security force. Mrs. Kimball is at her desk, on the phone. MRS. KIMBALL (on phone) ...well, I don't understand, is she back in her room? When did she get back to her room? Who brought her back?... (she stares at Hitchcock) She's back in her room. HITCHCOCK Who? MRS. KIMBALL Mrs. Mangafranni, the woman who was supposed to have been operated on... (calls to a nurse passing) Are they still working on that woman in Three? NURSE Yeah. MRS. KIMBALL (back on phone) I'm sorry, Mrs. Fried, would you say that again?... Well, nobody in this office sent her back up... Well, all right, Mrs. Fried, I'll have to call you back. She hangs up, stands, goes out into... THE OPERATING AREA, PLAZA ...where three orderlies lounge about. MRS. KIMBALL Did any of you take a woman named Mangafranni out of the Holding Room back up to Holly Five around ten o'clock? Apparently, none of these three. Mrs. Christie turns in from the outer corridor. Normal Operating Room activity flows by: patients wheeled to and from their various surgeries, surgeons checking the blackboard, staff doctors, orderlies keeping the noise level low but steady. MRS. CHRISTIE (to Hitchcock in the doorway) What happened? Hitchcock shrugs helplessly. MRS. KIMBALL (to Mrs. Christie) I don't know what happened. A patient named Mangafranni was scheduled for a hysterectomy at ten o'clock -- Dr. Mallory. I talked to Sylvia in the Holding Room who admitted her, so she was here. And now I just spoke to Mrs. Fried on Holly Five, and she says an orderly brought Mrs. Mangafranni back to her room about twenty minutes ago. Now Mrs. Mangafranni is in her room sleeping. MRS. CHRISTIE Well, who's the woman in the operating room? MRS. KIMBALL I don't know. Mrs. Kimball, Mrs. Christie, Hitchcock and Sloan push through the glass doors to the crossroads of the operating rooms. Through each window, we see operating crews hacking away. MRS. CHRISTIE Is she dead? MRS. KIMBALL Well, they had to open her up, and that's not good. They gather in anticipation outside O.R. Three and peer over each other's shoulders into the room where the operating crew is hunched over the open-heart massage. The masked circulating nurse looks up, notices the audience at the door, and gives a hopeless shrug. HITCHCOCK I better get Mr. Mead. HOLLY PAVILION, THE STAFF ROOM Milton Mead is sitting in a back seat of the Staff Room -- a lounge with couches, easy chairs and magazine racks -- gives half an ear to the several opinions being simultaneously expressed by: LADY FROM WOMEN'S LIB ...abortion? The clinic should be under the supervision and entirely staffed by women and administered by a member of the Women's Committee for Medical Liberation! and by YOUNG WHITE ACTIVIST ...let's get to the core of the matter which is the criminal and gangster collusion between the American medical establishment and the drug, insurance and tobacco companies who, through their combined racketeering efforts, have produced a dual system of health care. Everything for the rich and nothing for the poor! and by BLACK PANTHER ...abortion clinic! That's genocide, baby! You're just killing off blacks! We consider proliferation elemental to the class struggle! and by SUNDSTROM (who has lost his cool altogether and is screaming right along with everyone else) ...for God's sake! We've got eleven people in these buildings, and we've got to get them out of there! We can rectify the injustices of the world tomorrow, but right now, for God's sake, can we get those people out of those buildings? Will you people please listen to me? Will you people please shut up and listen to me? Will you people please call a halt to this participatory democracy and address ourselves to the immediate problem?! During this maelstrom, the phone at Mead's elbow RINGS. Mead answers it, listens, nods, returns the receiver, stand and slips out of the room into the delicious silence of the... HOLLY PAVILION, EXECUTIVE CORRIDOR ...where Hitchcock emerges from the Administration offices. The two men move down the hall toward each other. MILTON MEAD How long ago did this happen? HITCHCOCK About half an hour. MILTON MEAD Have you called the Medical Examiner? HITCHCOCK Not yet. MILTON MEAD Well, you'd better do that now. And you better call the precinct station house as well. OPERATING ROOM THREE Dr. Mallory is wrenching off his blood-drenched rubber gloves and flinging them to the floor in a rage. The door to the room opens, and Mrs. Kimball, Mrs. Christie and Mr. Sloan enter. Dr. Mallory is stupefied with anger. Dr. Chu, blessed with Eastern containment, blandly gathers his equipment together, nods to Mrs. Christie. DR. CHU Good morning. MRS. CHRISTIE Good morning, Doctor. DR. CHU This is really something, isn't it? I thought she looked a little different when they brought her in. I even said to one of the nurses, "She looks a little younger without her dentures." I'd only talked to her half an hour before. MRS. CHRISTIE Does anybody know who she is? Dr. Mallory can only stare at her numbly. He turns and stares numbly at Mr. Sloan. MRS. CHRISTIE (to Mrs. Kimball, examining the chart dangling from the operating table) What's her chart say? CIRCULATING RESIDENT Her chart says Mangafranni. Her bracelet says Mangafranni. The only thing that isn't Mangafranni is the woman. Dr. Mallory finally explodes. DR. MALLORY Jesus H. Christ! I've been chopping out three uteruses a day for twenty years, and is it too much to expect for you people to bring in the right goddam Jesus Christ uterus?! DR. CHU I had just been talking to her in the Holding Room. She was perfectly fine. A little drowsy. I thought it was funny that when they brought her in, she was out cold. DR. MALLORY (shuffling around in aimless circles) Jesus H. Kee-rist! Mrs. Christie stares down at the face of the dead patient on the table, who has had her chest spread wide open so that the organs are exposed. MRS. CHRISTIE Well, we'll just all have to stay here until Mr. Mead or someone from the O.O.D. comes back. DR. MALLORY Well, I'm not taking the rap for this! I've already got one malpractice suit pending, and I'm not taking the rap for this one! HOLLY PAVILION, ROOM William Mead's bed is empty. The Reverend Drummond's suit, still on its hanger, is lying on it. Drummond himself lies comatose and rigged out with I.V.s and catheters. Barbara Drummond is packing her father's things into an open one- suiter valise. The door opens. She looks up. It's Bock. They look at each other -- two people in love. BOCK Look, you're not going. I love you, and I'm not going to let you go. He picks up the suit lying on the bed. BOCK Come on, let's start putting your father's things back. He's staying here. (hangs the suit in the closet) I'll find an apartment somewhere. I'm staying in a filthy little hotel room. We can't use that. His eyes are caught by a white doctor's uniform hanging in the armoire along with the suits and overcoats of the two patients in the room. He bends over to peer at the nameplate over the breast pocket. BARBARA I can't make it here, Herb. I'll crack up. I cracked up once already. One week here, and I'd be running naked through the streets screaming again. I can retain my sanity only in a simple society. BOCK For God's sake, Barbara, you can't seriously see me living in a grass shack hunting jackrabbits for dinner? Be sensible for God's sake. BARBARA I am being sensible. What is it you're so afraid of leaving here? Your plastic home? Your conditioned air? Your synthetic clothes? Your instant food? I'm offering you green silence and solitude, the natural order of things. Mostly, I'm offering me. I think we're beautiful, Herb. BOCK (utterly in love) You make it sound almost plausible. BARBARA I don't know why you even hesitate. What's holding you here? Is it your wife? BOCK No, that's all over. I suppose if I'm married to anything, it's this hospital. It's been my whole life. I just can't walk out on it as if it never mattered. I'm middle-class. Among us middle-class, love doesn't triumph over all. Responsibility does. BARBARA Herb, don't ask me to stay here with you, because I love you, and I will. And we'll both be destroyed. He turns to her again. They both look away. BARBARA I've got the bill here to pay yet. BOCK I'll come with you. She gathers her raincoat and goes. Bock follows her out into the... HOLLY PAVILION, EIGHTH FLOOR, CORRIDOR ...where Dr. Joseph Lagerman, Head of Nephrology, perhaps remembered from an earlier scene, has been waiting for Bock. He joins them en route to the elevators. LAGERMAN Herb, you asked me to find that dialysis nurse. BOCK What dialysis nurse? Barbara has continued walking. Bock starts to follow her. BARBARA I'll go pay the bill. LAGERMAN The one who goofed on your patient, Drummond. Bock turns back to Lagerman. LAGERMAN Well, her name is Theresa Campanella, but you are not going to believe this, Herb. She died on the operating table in O. R. Three about an hour ago. Barbara is disappearing into an elevator. Bock starts after her, then turns back to Lagerman. BOCK What do you mean, she died on the operating table in O.R. Three? They hurry down the corridor to the elevators. BOCK You mean she was the one? LAGERMAN That's the one. I just identified her. BOCK What the hell's going on around here? Every time I try to find somebody in this hospital, they either died of a heart attack in Emergency or of anesthesia shock in an operating room. Elevator doors open. A nurse and visitor get out. Bock and Lagerman go into... THE ELEVATOR Two or three people besides the elevator operator are there, as well as a patient on a stretcher and an orderly. LAGERMAN Listen, I just came from the O.R. They're trying to find a Dr. Schaefer. Don't you have a kid named Schaefer in your service? BOCK (scowls, mutters) I had a Schaefer. He died yesterday of an overdose of insulin. What do they want Schaefer for? LAGERMAN The Holding Room nurse says there was a Dr. Schaefer hanging around the Holding Room. It wouldn't have been your Schaefer anyway. The nurse says it was senior staff, a middle- aged man. BOCK There's no senior staff named Schaefer in this hospital. LAGERMAN I told them that. I said, I don't know any senior staff around here named Schaefer. They've got detectives down there, everything. It's a whole big investigation. The elevator stops at the seventh floor. The doors open and Bock and Lagerman stroll into... HOLLY PAVILION, SEVENTH FLOOR, CORRIDOR Bock lumbers down the west corridor, turns into... ROOM 806 William Mead, sedated and apparently zonked out cold, is being transferred from a stretcher back into bed by an O.R. orderly and nurse's aid. Bock rolls back the curtains around Drummond's bed revealing the comatose patient, his face sculptured against the white pillow, an I.V. tube in his right arm, a catheter projecting from under the sheet. Bock lowers the protective railing, leans in, takes the man's pulse on his neck, raises one closed eyelid, then the other. The pupils stare vacuously back at him; the eyelids drop closed as soon as they are released. In the background, the orderly and aid finish tucking in William Mead and exit, wheeling their creaking stretcher out. The room is shockingly silent. Bock goes to the window and frowns in thought. HOLD ACROSS the patient Drummond, on Bock in the background at the window with his back to us. Suddenly, Drummond's eyes open. He lies rigid, his eyes staring dementedly into the air above him. Slowly, his left hand reaches out and carefully withdraws the catheter from his bladder, lays it on the white sheet beside him, and silently reaches over to withdraw the I.V. needle from his right arm. He lets the needle dangle, dripping onto the bed. Carefully, he twists out from under his sheet, swings his legs over the side of the bed and sits up. REVERSE ACROSS Bock at the window, pondering. With a swift lash of movement, the double tubes of a stethoscope are whipped over his head and tightened around his throat. DRUMMOND (mad as a hatter) I am the Fool for Christ and the Paraclete of Caborca. CLOSE TWO SHOT of Bock being strangled, Drummond's face frozen in bland dementia behind him. BARBARA'S VOICE (off-screen) For heaven's sake, Dad! What the hell's going on? Drummond pauses in his strangling and, releasing the poor man altogether, turns to his daughter in the doorway. CAMERA DOLLIES to include all three -- Bock recuperating; Drummond staring madly; and Barbara infuriated with her father. BARBARA (annoyed) We all thought you were at Death's Door! What're you doing out of bed? Drummond, abashed, stands there, a scolded schoolboy, a rawboned figure in a hospital shift, a stethoscope dangling from his right hand. BARBARA (to Bock) What happened? Did he say anything to you? BOCK (sufficiently recovered) As a matter of fact, he said, "I am the Fool for Christ and the Paraclete of Caborca." And you'd better close the door, because if he's going to tell everyone who walks in here he's the Fool for Christ and the Paraclete of Caborca, they'll put us all away. He's already killed two doctors and one nurse. DRUMMOND I am the wrath of the lamb and the angel of the bottomless pit. BARBARA What do you mean he killed two doctors and a nurse? BOCK I mean, he's killed two doctors and a nurse! And he just tried to kill me! He has something against doctors. Somehow he got hold of a thousand units of insulin and put it in Dr. Schaefer's intravenous solution. And somehow he got Dr. Ives to die of a heart attack in the middle of the Emergency Room. And somehow he got a dialysis nurse named Campanella to die of anesthesia shock on an operating table! (opens the closet, points to the white doctor's uniform hanging there) He's been running around the hospital wearing Dr. Schaefer's uniform. Right now, they're looking all over the place for this mysterious Dr. Schaefer. I know this all sounds as grotesque to you as it does to me, but you can see for yourself your father is not the helpless comatose patient we thought he was. Don't look at me like I'm the one who's crazy. Ask your crazy father! DRUMMOND I was merely an instrument of God. I killed no one. They all three died by their own hands, ritual victims of their own institutions, murdered by irony, an eye for an eye, biblical retribution. Schaefer was first, you see, because he killed God. God was admitted to this hospital last Monday under the name of Guernsey... ROOM 806. MORNING. (FLASHBACK) A cheerless, gray sunlight fills the room as the fragile, white-haired and bearded old Guernsey (whose admittance to the hospital was the opening scene of the film) is being helped into the room by Nurse Felicia Chile. She solicitously helps the wispy old man off with his coat and jacket and hat which she puts in the armoire. With palsied fingers, the little old man unknots his stringy tie and unbuttons the collar, which is three sizes too large. In the other bed, Drummond's eyes slowly open. DRUMMOND (off-screen) I was instantly aware of a divine presence. The old man is slipping out of his clothes to expose a thin little body in a torn nightshirt. DRUMMOND (off-screen) I was convinced this porcelain old man was, in fact, an Angel of the Lord... The old man sits back, wheezing a little. Nurse Chile smiles nicely at him and takes her leave. For a moment, Drummond lies rigidly on his bed, staring dully into the air and the old man sits with his hunched back to us. The room is silent except for his rheumy wheeze. DRUMMOND (off-screen) ...perhaps even Christ Himself. After a moment, the old man rises and goes to the washbasin and, with some wheezing, spits into it. He shuffles back to bed. Dr. Schaefer comes into the room with a professional smile and the patient Guernsey's chart. DRUMMOND (off-screen) Our Savior was, it seems, suffering from emphysema. Schaefer perches on the bed beside Guernsey and begins to take his history. DRUMMOND (off-screen) He was relentlessly subjected to the benefits of modern medicine. He was misdiagnosed, mismedicated, and put into shock by Dr. Schaefer; raced off to Intensive Care, where the resident compounded the blunder and induced a coma. I can tell you with authority that God is indeed dead. He died last Monday under the name of Guernsey. CLOSE-UP of Drummond in deep shadow shows him sleeping. DRUMMOND (off-screen) A few hours later, he appeared to me in a revelation. ROOM 806. NIGHT, 7:00 P.M. The room is lit only by the yellow light from the half-opened bathroom door. Guernsey walks out of the shadows, hands raised. He shuffles to Drummond's bedside and looks down on him from his frail height. GUERNSEY (softly) Rise up, Drummond. You are dead, now you are restored. Drummond's eyes open and roll to the direction of the voice. DRUMMOND'S P.O.V.: Guernsey, dressed only in his hospital shift, is shuffling up and down the aisle of the room, hands clasped behind his back like a Mittel-European intellectual, head hunched forward -- a little old man with a white beard talking to himself. GUERNSEY Those who killed you and those who killed me will die in our place. You are the Paraclete of Caborca, the wrath of the lamb. The angel of the bottomless pit. Guernsey closes his eyes in religious ecstacy. GUERNSEY In this fashion has it been revealed to you. Drummond starts to sob and slowly sits up in his bed, imbued with belief. He looks mutely up at the frail old man, who now raises his right hand and his face is transfigured into vast majesty. GUERNSEY (thunders out) The age is closed! The end is at hand! The seal is broken! So saying, he reverts to the little old man he was, wheezing a bit, and with some effort, climbs back on his bed and lies there, eyes closed. His thin, high nose projects from the whiteness of his face. He sighs the rattling last sigh of life and dies. CAMERA DOLLIES slowly to CLOSE-UP of Drummond lying motionless on his bed. His eyes are wide, glinting in the shadows, a man imbued. His cheeks are wet with tears of exaltation. DRUMMOND (off-screen) Well! Not quite the burning bush perhaps but prodigal enough for me. I was to avenge the death of God and my own brutalization. I was to kill Doctors Schaefer, Ives and Welbeck and the dialysis nurse Miss Campanella, whose negligence caused my coma. FULL SHOT of Drummond. He raises his left hand, flexing his fingers. Then he moves his other arm, his head, his shoulders. Obviously, he is regaining his faculties. DRUMMOND (off-screen) I awaited a further sign from God, which was given to me later that evening. Dr. Schaefer, it seems, had arranged an assignation with a girl from the hematology lab named Sheila. ACROSS Drummond to the now empty other bed. All the lights are on. PAN on Nurse Penny Canduso and an orderly wheeling away the wrapped body of Guernsey. Intern Schaefer, at the door, considers the empty bed with interest. Moving to the bedtable, he picks up the receiver of the phone. SCHAEFER (on phone) Hey Sheila, this is Howard, Sheila. Hey listen, I got us a bed for tonight. A real, honest-to-god bed. ROOM 806. NIGHT REPRISE the scene originally played UNDER CREDITS where Dr. Schaefer and his girlfriend Sheila sneak into the room and undress. Giggles and shushings, gooses and fondles. SHEILA Boy, I sure hope nobody walks in. During the replay, however, an additional segment is added. At one point, the girl, hanging her dress in the armoire, turns and holds something up. SHEILA What's this in your pocket? SCHAEFER That's my insulin. Put it back. SHEILA What do you take insulin for? Diabetes? I didn't know you were a diabetic. SCHAEFER It ain't contagious, don't worry about it. They head for the unoccupied bed. CLOSE-UP on Drummond's profile. ROOM 806 Dark, hushed. Schaefer's girl is leaving; she tiptoes to the door, peeks out. Apparently, the coast is clear. She quickly slips out. ROOM 806. DAY Drummond on his chair. Barbara perched on one side of her father's bed, Bock on the other. William Mead sleeps on. BOCK And you put Schaefer's insulin into the I.V. jar. DRUMMOND Yes. And then a second nurse came and plugged the I.V. jar into Schaefer. God clearly intended a measure of irony here. The hospital was to do all the killing for me. All I need do was arrange for the doctors to become patients in their own hospital. Accordingly, the next morning, I set out for Dr. Ives. I put on Dr. Schaefer's uniform, pinched some digoxine from the pharmacy and a sandbag from a utility cart, and found my way to Dr. Ives' laboratory. I coshed him with the sandbag, gave him a massive shot of the digoxine. This, you see, brought on an instant condition of cardiac arrhythmia. When he came to, I brought him down to the Emergency Room. EMERGENCY ROOM AREA, LOBBY. DAY The usual E.R. crush and motion goes on in the background. Drummond escorts an obviously ill Dr. Ives to the Admitting Room. Drummond's voice under the narration explains matters to Miss Aronovici at the desk. DRUMMOND This is Dr. Ives. He's in the Nephrology Lab. I was in there a little while ago, and he was suddenly taken ill, and I thought I'd better get him over here right away. DRUMMOND (off-screen) He had at that time perhaps an hour to live. Prompt treatment would have saved his life. They go into the... EMERGENCY ADMITTING AND TREATMENT ROOMS Ives, seated on a table in evident distress, breathes heavily. DRUMMOND (voice-off) As a staff doctor, he was seen without preliminaries... An attendant takes his pulse, pressure and respiration. Ives collapses. DRUMMOND (voice-off) His vital signs were taken, an electrocardiogram... PAN SLOWLY across the Emergency Room to catch its state of contained febrility. Every curtained treatment room is occupied, including the storage room in the back. The triage nurse and a second nurse behind the desk are busy on the phones. The triage nurse takes the history of the first in a line of five people seeking admission even as she answers her phone. We watch Miss Aronovici and the other nurse and Dr. Spezio and his two interns, the two attendants -- all busy with one patient or another. DRUMMOND (voice-off) ...which revealed occasional ventricular premature contractions. An intern took his history... ACROSS Drummond, white-uniformed, standing in the back against the filing cabinets and linens, watching the the new patients trickle and crowd in. DRUMMOND (voice-off) ...and then he was promptly... At the Admitting Desk, a MAN in his forties is being signed in by a uniformed cop. DRUMMOND (voice-off) ...simply... forgotten to death. Simply mislaid... CAMERA JUST STARES at the pageant of pain. DRUMMOND (voice-off) ...mislaid among the broken wrists, the chest pains, scalp lacerations, the man whose fingers were crushed in a taxi door, the infant with the skin rash, the child swiped by a car, the old lady mugged in the subway, the derelict beaten by sailors, the teenage suicide, the paranoids, drunks, asthmatics, the rapes, the septic abortions, the overdosed addicts... EMERGENCY ROOM AREA, LOBBY Looking to the street doors as two ambulance attendants, bearing a seventeen-year-old black girl on a stretcher, burst in. AMBULANCE ATTENDANTS (shouting) Not breathing! Not breathing! They hurry into the Admitting Room past a nurse and into the... EMERGENCY ADMITTING AND TREATMENT ROOMS ...which is already galvanized into action. Miss Aronovici is at the girl's pulse even as she is being transferred to the bed that has just been cleared of Mr. Mitgang and his concussion case. INTERN (instructing attendant with Mitgang) Better put him in the Holding Room. MISS ARONOVICI (with the seventeen- year-old girl) She's taking a little pulse. DR. SPEZIO (to triage nurse) Get an anesthesiologist, one-five- one-five... On screen we continue watching the scene of the overdose case treatment, as the live-action sound in the room fades behind Drummond's tale. DRUMMOND (off-screen) ...the fractures, infarcts, hemorrhages, concussions, boils, abrasions, the colonic cancers, the cardiac arrests -- the whole wounded madhouse of our times... REACTION SHOT of Drummond staring at this ceaseless panorama of pain, tears streaking down his cheeks. MAN'S VOICE (off-screen) I wonder if I could have a minute of your time, Doctor... Drummond turns to the voice. CAMERA PULLS BACK to include the man who had been brought into the E.R. by a uniformed cop. DRUMMOND I am the fool for Christ and the Paraclete of Caborca. NAMELESS MAN Well, it's an honor and a privilege, Doctor. I've been here ten minutes, I can't seem to get anybody to help me. I'm suffering from some sort of amnesia. I can't remember my name. As a matter of fact, it's pretty screwy. I got mugged. Two hours ago, walking out of a coffee shop on Fifty- Seventh Street and Second Avenue, eight o'clock in the morning, broad daylight, I got mugged. A sixteen- year-old girl walks up to me, shows me a knife about a yard long and says, "Give me your wallet." I thought she was kidding. I mean there's hundreds of people walking right by. Well, she wasn't kidding. "Listen," I said, "all I got's about twenty bucks." So she takes the wallet anyway. So I said, "How about leaving me my identification?" I mean, I had my driver's license, my Diner's Club, my credit cards. But she took them all, the whole damn wallet, credit cards, everything. So I stopped some guy, I said, "Hey, you see that girl there, walking away?" He says, "Yeah." I said, "She just stole my wallet, credit cards and everything." He says, "Well, that's what they want, the credit cards." So I started looking for a cop. I mean, go find a cop, right? Well, I finally find a cop. The girl's halfway to South America by now, probably bought the ticket with my credit cards. So the cop says, "What's your name?" And you want to know something? I couldn't think of my name. The girl took all my identification, you know what I mean? She took all my credit cards. So I said, "You know this is screwy. I can't think of my name." So he took me to the station house. The sergeant says, "What's your name?" I said, "I don't know! She took all my credit cards!" So they took me down here. So what do you think, Doctor? I'm nuts, right? I finally flipped. PAN SLOWLY to Drummond who stares at the Nameless Man. In BACKGROUND the door opens and Mrs. Cushing, the lady from accounting, enters. She calls out in her annoying voice from a chart. MRS. CUSHING Who's number 7-6-8-0-2-S? Is there anybody here who is that number? DRUMMOND (off-screen) In this way was it revealed to me the manner of Nurse Campanella's death. She was to die of the great American plague -- vestigial identity. RETURN FROM FLASHBACK: ROOM 806. DAY Drummond in his hospital shift, gaunt and mad as a prophet, sits rigidly on his chair. Barbara perches on her father's bed. Bock wanders disorientedly about the room, staring incredulously first at Barbara and then at her father. DRUMMOND So last night, I coshed Miss Campanella with a sandbag, sedated her with thorazine, shaved her, prepped her, and parked her in a corridor of the X-Ray Department for five hours. BOCK Why X-Ray? DRUMMOND Well, at X-Ray, a sedated body lying around unattended for five hours wouldn't seem unusual. BOCK Of course. DRUMMOND Her operation -- that is to say, Mrs. Mangafranni's operation -- was not scheduled until nine-thirty. So at nine-fifteen this morning, I rang for my nurse... BOCK You rang for your nurse? DRUMMOND To insure one full hour of uninterrupted privacy. BOCK Oh yes. DRUMMOND I got up, wheeled Miss Campanella off to the operating rooms, replaced her bed with Mrs. Mangafranni's, exchanged charts and identity bracelets. She died officially of anesthesia shock. But, in point of fact, she died because she was wearing another woman's identity. BARBARA (to Bock) God, what do we do now? Let me take him back to Mexico. It's a simple world there. If you turn him in, they'll just cage him in the Rockland State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Let me take him back, Herb. BOCK Are you kidding? We'll both take him. I'm going with you! Get him dressed. We're getting out of here before the police put us all in Rockland State. DRUMMOND I haven't finished my work here. I have this Welbeck to dispose of. I am the angel of the bottomless pit and the wrath of the lamb. BARBARA Oh dear, he's having another revelation. Bock holds Drummond's coat and hat and crosses to take his arm. He finds the entranced Drummond as rigid as a statue. BOCK Look, that ambulance must be here by now. You go down and get them. I'll give him a shot of something to knock him out. We'll take him to the airport in the ambulance. They both hurry out of the room. Drummond remains enmarbled in his trance. CAMERA SUDDENLY MOVES DOWN to William Mead, whose eyes now open; he has heard it all. In background, Drummond, suddenly released from his catatonic trance, heads for the armoire and extracts the white trousers of Dr. Schaefer's uniform. He puts them on, tucking in the tails of his hospital shift. He notices William Mead staring at him. DRUMMOND You're hallucinating again. William Mead just stares at Drummond. EIGHTH FLOOR, NURSES' STATION AND LOBBY AREA Bock and Barbara come hurrying around the corner from the west corridor. Barbara heads for the elevators. Bock heads for the Nurses' Station. The Eighth Floor is going about its normal 1:15 P.M. activity. Mrs. Donovan is at her desk on the phone. MRS. DONOVAN ...Edwards never showed up. I'm short- staffed as hell. It's just me and Felicia. It's like Sunday. Nobody's here. DR. BIEGELMAN I'll be at lunch... A nurse's aid, a bathrobed patient and two of his visitors stroll by. It's the end of the lunch hour, when the kitchen workers bring used trays back. MRS. DONOVAN Yeah, you gotta send me somebody... Oh yeah? Bock moves past Mrs. Donovan and into the pharmacy where we see him scouring the shelves for thorazine and a syringe. An elevator arrives, disgorging Milton Mead and his resident assistant, Thomas Hitchcock and, of all people, Dr. Richard Welbeck himself. Barbara and Dr. Biegelman go into the elevator. The doors close. Milton Mead and Hitchcock head for the west corridor. Welbeck, in his natty double-breasted suit and carrying his cashmere coat, heads straight for the Nurses' Station. MEAD We'll be in Eight-O-Six. MRS. DONOVAN (chuckles into phone) ...then what did she say? WELBECK (to Mrs. Donovan) I'm Dr. Welbeck. I have a patient on this floor named Drummond, and I'd like to see his chart. MRS. DONOVAN I'll call you back. Bock immediately emerges from the pharmacy holding a bottle of thorazine and a wrapped hypodermic syringe. He scowls at Welbeck, who scowls back. WELBECK Oh, Dr. Bock. Can I have a few minutes of your time, sir? BOCK No. He starts to pass Mrs. Donovan and would continue, but Welbeck lays a restraining hand on his arm. WELBECK Dr. Gilley tells me you're the one who initiated these proceedings against me. BOCK I'm busy, Welbeck. WELBECK I'd like to know what you have against me. BOCK You turned up half-stoned for a simple nephrectomy eight days ago, botched it, put the patient into failure and damn near killed him. Then, pausing only to send in your bill, you flew off on the wings of man to an island of sun in Montego Bay. This is the third time in two years we've had to patch up your patients; the other two died. You're greedy, unfeeling, inept, indifferent, self-inflating and unconscionably profitable. Aside from that, I have nothing against you. I'm sure you play a hell of a game of golf. What else do you want to know? Welbeck's pocket-beeper BEEPS. WELBECK Excuse me for a moment, Doctor. (he reaches over the nurses' desk for a phone) This is Dr. Welbeck. Were you paging me? (regarding Bock with cold scorn) How much do you make a year, Bock? For a guy who makes a lousy forty, fifty grand... (on phone) Hello, Arthur, I understand you've been trying to reach me all morning... Bock turns and heads back for... EIGHTH FLOOR, WEST CORRIDOR ...and down that through the kitchen workers and strolling patients to... ROOM 806 ...which he enters. He is startled to find Milton Mead and Hitchcock leaning over William Mead, who is up on one elbow and in a state. WILLIAM MEAD I'm telling you, Milton, he pulls out all the wires and the tubes, and he gets up and puts on a doctor's uniform, and he goes out, and he murders doctors! He just went out ten seconds before you came in! Indeed, there is no Drummond to be seen. His bed is empty. Bock nods to Milton Mead and Hitchcock, who nod back, and crosses quickly to look into the bathroom which is likewise empty. WILLIAM MEAD And I'll tell you something else about this crazy place you got here! There was a naked Indian in here last night doing a war dance! That's the kind of crazy place you're running here, Milton! You got to get me out of here, Milton. This is a crazy place, Milton! Milton Mead's pocket-beeper BEEPS. Milton Mead reaches for the phone. WILLIAM MEAD (appealing to Bock) I wake up last night, there's a goddam Indian in here, a naked Indian! What kind of hospital is this? MILTON MEAD (on phone) This is Mr. Mead, are you paging me? WILLIAM MEAD A couple of hours later I wake up again, and the guy in that bed there is getting out of the bed... MILTON MEAD (to Hitchcock) Are the police still in the building? HITCHCOCK Yes. MILTON MEAD You'd better get them up here. Yes. WILLIAM MEAD All day long, he lays there like a dead man. All of a sudden, in the middle of the night, he gets out of bed! I thought I was going crazy! MILTON MEAD (on phone) Yes, this is Mead... Oh, dear. When?... WILLIAM MEAD You know what he says to me? He says, you're hallucinating. Listen, I just saw a naked Indian. Now, I'm seeing a ghost. I got to figure he's right, I'm hallucinating, right? MILTON MEAD I'll be down directly. (hangs up) Never rains but it pours. A fire just broke out in one of those condemned buildings. The squatters in the building came out. The police tried to arrest them and, apparently, the situation has erupted into a riot. (to Bock as he heads for the door) I'm sure you're wondering what this is all about, Herb. WILLIAM MEAD You're not going to leave me alone in this crazy place, Milton! MILTON MEAD (at the door with Bock) Mr. Hitchcock is staying with you. (to Hitchcock) You better call the cops, Tom. WILLIAM MEAD Milton! Milton! Milton!!! The door slams. WEST CORRIDOR AND NURSES' STATION Bock and Milton Mead stride up the corridor through the linen wagons and kitchen carts. MILTON MEAD I haven't the time now, and I'm not even going to try to tell you this curious story my brother just told me. I'll fill you in on it at lunch some time. He waves his hand helplessly to indicate the utter incredulity of it all. MILTON MEAD (rushes not to miss the elevator) Hold it! They reach an open elevator. Mead goes in, the doors close. The doors of a second elevator then open, and Barbara comes out. She and Bock stare at each other. In background, Welbeck is on the phone at the Nurses' Station. BARBARA The ambulance is here. BOCK Yeah, but your father isn't. He's disappeared. He put on Schaefer's uniform and has gone out to do God's work, presumably the murder of Dr. Welbeck. Except, that fellow on the phone over there is Dr. Welbeck. WELBECK (in background on phone) Oh my God, Arthur! What are you talking about? Have you talked to Dr. Hogan about this? BOCK And, on top of everything else, the other patient in your father's room overheard his whole confession and just told the Chief Administrator of the hospital. They're sending for the cops. REVERSE ACROSS Welbeck on phone at Nurses' Station. In the background, Bock and Barbara stare at him. WELBECK (almost apoplectic on phone) Oh, my God, Arthur. Well, who held title? Do the underwriters know about this yet?... Oh my God! Arthur, what're you waiting for? Arrest the son of a bitch! Turn him in!... Oh my God! When?... Of course, Arthur, call me right back. I'm at the Holly Pavilion, Eighth Floor. Please! Right away! He hangs up. BOCK Are you all right, Welbeck? WELBECK All right?! That son of a bitch is trying to wipe me out! My partner, the eminent orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Noel Hogan, is a miserable thief. And he's trying to wipe me out! MRS. DONOVAN (extending a chart) Mr. Drummond's chart, Doctor. WELBECK (angrily seizes the chart) What room is it? MRS. DONOVAN Eight-O-Six. WELBECK I'm expecting a phone call. Put it straight through to me in that room. He strides off angrily, followed by an anxious Bock and Barbara, for the... EIGHTH FLOOR, WEST CORRIDOR Bock and Barbara hurry along in Welbeck's wake. WELBECK The son of a bitch has been draining the company with phony purchase orders on another company, of which, it now turns out, his wife is the principal stockholder! Transparent fraud! I'll send him up for twenty years! He wrenches open the door of 806, marches in, followed by Bock and Barbara. EIGHTH FLOOR, ROOM Welbeck advances on William Mead's bed, since he is the only patient in the room. (Hitchcock is on the phone.) WELBECK Well, Drummond, you don't seem that much the worse for the wear. William Mead stares dully at Welbeck. Then he looks dully at Bock. WELBECK (to Hitchcock) Would you mind using some other phone? I'm expecting an important call. WILLIAM MEAD What is this? Who... who is this guy? HITCHCOCK (on phone) Yes, well, I'll be at the Nurses' Desk, Sergeant. It would be futile for me to try to explain this to you over the phone. WELBECK (leafing through Drummond's chart) You've got a bit of fever, Drummond, but you're coming along very well. WILLIAM MEAD I'm not Drummond, you monkey! Drummond's the other bed! The phone now BUZZES. Welbeck and Hitchcock both head for it. WELBECK That's mine. (on phone) It's Welbeck here... Yes, Arthur, go ahead... William Mead is painfully trying to get off his bed. WILLIAM MEAD I'm getting out of this nuthouse! BOCK (pushing him gently back) All right, take it easy, Mr. Mead. Hitchcock, satisfied the call is not for him, exits. WILLIAM MEAD I came in here just to get a lousy polyp cut out. WELBECK (on phone) Oh, my God, what do you mean? How many transactions were there? Bu... but Arthur, I... I borrowed against that stock! I'm in the hole for over three hundred thousand!... WILLIAM MEAD (appealing to the gods) I'm a sick man! I'm supposed to have peace and quiet! WELBECK (on phone and apoplectic) What do you mean, Brazil?! I just spoke to Hogan's office yesterday, and they just told me... The phone slips from his fingers. He turns to stare at Bock and Barbara. WELBECK I'm wiped out. The S.E.C. has suspended trading in my stock! He keels over like a felled tree, falling face-up on Drummond's bed, his legs dangling to the floor. William Mead promptly hides his head under his sheet. Bock moves quickly to the prostrate Welbeck, feels his throat for the carotid pulse, pulls out his stethoscope, rips Welbeck's shirt open, and listens for heartsounds. He picks up the dangling telephone receiver, gets a dial tone. BOCK (on phone) Cardiac arrest, Holly Eight. Barbara strips off her coat. She is still in nurse's uniform. She leans into the hall and calls a passing nurse. BARBARA We have an emergency here. BOCK (rips off Welbeck's natty jacket) Breathe him. Barbara helps Bock get Welbeck's dead weight onto the floor. On his knees, Bock straddles Welbeck's prone form, balls his fist and belts Welbeck on his chest. He begins intensive heart massage. Barbara gets down on her knees, opens Welbeck's mouth and commences mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. In the background, the P.A. system blandly echoes: P.A. SYSTEM (off-screen) C.A.C. Holly Eight. Please clear all corridors. Mrs. Donovan and aides move C.A.C. into the room, immediately followed by Intern Chandler rushing past them. MRS. DONOVAN Where's Biegelman? CHANDLER He went to lunch. MRS. DONOVAN Natch. Get that other bed out of here. William Mead, of course, is still huddled under his sheet. He peers out from under his covers in wide-eyed disbelief and ducks under again. Bock massages Welbeck's heart. Barbara continues mouth-to-mouth. Nurse Felicia Chile hurries in, pushing the emergency cart before her. BARBARA (to Nurse Chile as others begin moving William Mead's bed out of the room) Give him an ambu bag and an airway. VOICE (off-screen) What's been happening? Nurse Chile has shunted the emergency cart aside to let the bed out and is extracting an ambu bag and tube from the cart's lower shelf. CHANDLER (to Seventh Floor Nursing Supervisor just outside door) Watch it... P.A. SYSTEM (off-screen) C.A.C. Holly Eight. Please clear all corridors. Nurse Chile hands the Berman airway and ambu bag to Barbara, who inserts the airway and the ambu tube into Welbeck's mouth and pumps in air by hand. Bock massages away. EIGHTH FLOOR, WEST CORRIDOR Mrs. Donovan and Intern Chandler finally get Mead and his bed out into the corridor where they park it. In background, emergency activity on all sides. The resident cardiologist, DR. GEOFFREY MORSE, and anesthesiologist, DR. LAWRENCE LOOMIS, both thirty-three, come hurtling around the corner. DR. MORSE In here? MRS. DONOVAN Yeah. She follows Morse in as, from the lobby corner, two technicians come racing a max cart and an I.V. stand before them. Behind them, a bewildered Hitchcock moves into view, trying to determine what's going on. HITCHCOCK (to Intern Chandler) Who is it? P.A. SYSTEM (off-screen) Dr. Robert Jackson. CHANDLER One of the patients had a cardiac arrest. Hitchcock looks down at the sheeted figure hunched on the bed parked in the hallway and slowly pulls the sheet off his head. William Mead stares up at him like a hunted animal. Hitchcock covers Mead's head again. ROOM 806 Bock still massages, sweating bullets by now. Barbara works the ambu bag. Dr. Morse is feeling Welbeck's groin for his femoral pulse. DR. MORSE What do you have, Dr. Bock? BOCK Total cardiac arrest. P.A. SYSTEM (off-screen) Dr. Rigby. Dr. Rigby. Dr. Lilac. DR. MORSE How long has he been like this? BOCK About a minute. No pulse, no heartbeat, no respiration... If we can see anything of Welbeck through other bodies, we notice almost all his clothes have been ripped off his body. Dr. Loomis replaces Barbara. DR. LOOMIS All right, I'll take over. The two nursing supervisors have been getting the max cart ready, snapping up the gateleg-footrest and attaching the I.V. tube to the oxygen jar, and that to the ambu bag. BOCK Endotrachial tube. DONOVAN (rushing in background with others) I'm sorry, Doctor, but we have another emergency in 823. CHANDLER Endotrachial tube. DR. LOOMIS Shall we get him up on the cart? DR. MORSE Yeah. Drs. Loomis, Bock and Morse struggle to lift the the nearly naked dead weight of Dr. Welbeck up from the floor and onto the max cart. Dr. Morse has picked up Drummond's chart from the bed where Welbeck had left it. DR. MORSE All right, who is this patient? What's the story on this patient? CLOSE-UP of Bock trying to hoist Welbeck and looking up slowly. DR. MORSE Is this his chart, Dr. Bock? Bock cocks his head to him. DR. MORSE What's his name? Drummond? Bock looks across to Barbara, now helping out at the max cart. She looks back at Bock. She shrugs. He shrugs. They exchange a smile. BOCK Yes, his name's Drummond. That's his chart. Straining under the effort, the three doctors get Welbeck off the floor. DR. MORSE (studying the chart) Oh Christ, the poor son of a bitch just had a nephrectomy a week ago. Mrs. Donovan exits into... EIGHTH FLOOR, WEST CORRIDOR ...as Mrs. Donovan comes out, Hitchcock turns to her. HITCHCOCK Was it Drummond? MRS. DONOVAN Who else would it be? Hitchcock silently thanks God. ROOM 806 DR. MORSE (off-screen) Pick him up. Put him on it. Stop the massage. Welbeck's body is finally on the max cart. Nurses and doctors converge on him. Dr. Loomis sets about intubating Welbeck, and the Nursing Supervisor begins clamping the metal bands of the E.K.G. machine on each of Welbeck's extremities. While all this goes on, Bock and Barbara have picked up the remnants of Welbeck's jacket, trousers, shirt and underwear. Dr. Morse is squatting by the max-cart reading the E.K.G. script as it rolls slowly out of the cart. DR. MORSE Ventricular fibrillation. Get me the paddles. Push another amp of bicarb. The Nursing Supervisor starts applying electrode paste to the defibrillating paddles. Another nurse measures off an ampule of bicarbonate of soda which Dr. Loomis injects into the I.V. tube. DR. MORSE Set it for two hundred. Barbara unsnaps her father's valise and stuffs Welbeck's garments in it. Bock takes Welbeck's coat and piles Drummond's things on top of that. The Nursing Supervisor hands Dr. Morse the defibrillating paddles to place on Welbeck's left breast. NURSE (off-screen) That's two hundred. DR. MORSE Everybody bock away. All back away from the max-cart. Bock and Barbara are at the window, piled up with valise and coats; they look like they're off for Europe. DR. MORSE (off-screen) One-two-three... He pushes the defibrillating button, sending an electric shock through Welbeck's body so as to bounce it into the air. Bock and Barbara remain at the window with heart-resuscitation team in background. Barbara slips into her own coat, in preparation for escape. DR. MORSE (in background) Did he convert? DR. LOOMIS (in background) No, he's still fibrillating. DR. MORSE (in background) Let's go to four hundred. BARBARA (sotto voce to Bock) What do we do now? Bock is staring out the window. Barbara stares out with him. THEIR P.O.V.: looking down onto the U-shaped drive of the entrance plaza of the hospital and First Avenue full of traffic. A band of some fifty black and Puerto Rican youths, including females and young white revolutionaries, most in Che Guevara garb, have broken past the security guards at the gates and spill across the drive. Some policemen and security guards move tentatively out of the hospital to intercept them. The shouting can't be heard from up here. Off-screen we hear the activities of the resuscitation team. NURSING SUPERVISOR (off-screen) It's four hundred. DR. MORSE (off-screen) Everybody back One-two-three... SOUND of the shock. DR. MORSE (off-screen) That didn't work either. FIRST AVENUE. HIGH SHOT Low crowd noises. Bock looks out the window at the protesting mob below. DR. MORSE (off-screen) All right. Let me have a c.c. of Adrenaline and intercardiac needle. CAMERA PANS SLOWLY UP over the melee in the plaza to the fence. Barbara and Bock stare down at the crowd. DR. MORSE (off-screen) Stop the massage. Ventricular fibrillation. Put another amp of bicarb. Two hundred. ZOOM DOWN into the maelstrom to FULL SHOT of the Reverend Drummond dressed in Schaefer's white uniform, standing on the slim island separating the uptown traffic from the downtown traffic. Drummond is a private island of his own, hands stretched to the skies. He is prophesying. DRUMMOND (barely audible above the traffic rumbling heedlessly around him) Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, for the age is closed, the season of the seventh seal is at hand! ROOM 806 Bock and Barbara slip through doctors and nurses, heading for the door. DR. MORSE Hang isopril, two in five hundred. Let's take one more crack with the paddles. Everybody back off the cart. Bock, carrying two overcoats, and Barbara, wearing hers and carrying her father's valise, exit into... EIGHTH FLOOR, WEST CORRIDOR ...as Bock and Barbara come out, the activity is normal, with the exception of William Mead's bed along the wall. Hitchcock and two overcoated men are in the hallway, and Hitchcock hurries to Bock. HITCHCOCK Is he dead? BOCK They can't get him out of fib. I don't think he'll make it. HITCHCOCK Thank God. (sighs, turns to the two detectives) This should close the case, Sergeant. Bock and Barbara hurry toward the elevators. THE HOSPITAL, HOLLY PAVILION, LOBBY The small army of militants and activists has broken through the security into the lobby. Their entrance is greeted by one small scream from a woman in the lobby. A LEADER of the invading troop calls out. LEADER Everybody take it easy! Nobody's going to be hurt! We just want the Director! Others in the troop shout reassurances, but it doesn't really reassure anybody. The lady in the gift shop closes her door and locks up. People crowd in a solid block in the doorway to the coffee shop to see what's going on. From the long tunnels of corridors, nurses, doctors, administrative personnel pause in their chores and errands and missions to watch the tide of events in the lobby. HOLLY PAVILION, EXECUTIVE CORRIDOR The exit door is wrenched open, and Bock comes hurtling into the carpeted executive corridor toward the lobby, and at that moment the troop of militants come rumbling in from the other end. Every door of the corridor fills with secretaries and administrators unsure of what's happening. Then, Sundstrom elbows his way through the clutch of secretaries in his doorway and comes into the corridor. He regards the militants moving down the corridor toward him. SHOUTING CROWD We want Sundstrom! We want Sundstrom! Community control! Community control! Hip-hip-Hippocrates! Up with service! Down with fees! SUNDSTROM You people want to see me? FIRST MILITANT Yeah, baby, we want to see you... SECOND MILITANT We're taking over this hospital, man... SUNDSTROM I've had it up to here. I'm not dealing with this kind of cheap blackmail! LEADER Now look, man. Now wait a minute there! FIRST MILITANT We're looking for a hostage! LEADER Fourteen people just got arrested for doing... In the background, one of their fellow revolutionaries speaks up... MAN Lookit, man, where's the TV camera? ...but he's shut up by the Leader. LEADER Would you be cool, man? (now yelling) Fourteen people got arrested for doing nothing but living in their homes, which you people threw them out of. CROWD Right on! LEADER So now we're going to arrest you. We're going to hold you hostage and we ain't letting you go un... Ambler, the medical student we met during Bock's teaching rounds, pushes in front of the Leader to face Sundstrom. AMBLER We, the members of the Doctors Liberation Committee indict this hospital for the criminal neglect of the community in which it is situated! We demand an immediate dissolution of the governing and executive boards. SHOUT What are you going to do about those fourteen ghetto people? As the shouts continue, Sundstrom raises a hand to quiet the crowd. SUNDSTROM I am not going to do anything... about anything. SHOUT Yes, you are! SUNDSTROM By God, if you want to take over this hospital, you take it over! SHOUTS We will! Right on! SUNDSTROM You run it! I am finished! I quit! You run it! You pay the bills! You fight the city! MILITANT We will! SUNDSTROM You fight the state! You fight the unions. You fight the community! You... you think you can do a better job, you do it! Now I am finished! I quit! It's all yours! Eyes filled with tears of rage, Sundstrom lowers his head and moves into the mass of militants, which parts for him to leave. CROWD Quit! Quit! The mass engulfs Sundstrom, moving back out into the lobby with him, pushing him, shoving him, humiliating him. REACTION SHOT of Bock watching it all from the far end of the corridor. He closes his eyes and the pain of watching all this shows on his face. He opens his eyes. The corridor is now silent and empty. He hurries to... HOLLY PAVILION, THE LOBBY Bock rushes in, as the milling throng dissolves into the bystanders, security police and city cops. Common sense has settled in and the general tenor is to avoid any further trouble. We can hear the rhythmic patter of cops. SHOUTS OF COPS All right, come on... come on -- Let's clear the area. -- Come on, let's clear this place... Keep cool. Everybody keep cool. Bock elbows his way through the throng as it drifts toward the doors to... THE HOSPITAL, ENTRANCE PLAZA. DAY ...and goes through the gathering police. A mobile TV camera crew and a few reporters are hurrying up through the gates from First Avenue. FIRST AVENUE. DAY The Reverend Drummond stands, a solitary human island, among the shrill ROAR of the city. The protesters protest endlessly, CHANTING, SHOUTING. Absolutely no one pays any attention to the gaunt, doctor-clad sixty-year-old man standing on an island. Except, of course, for Bock, who must pause to wait for a red light. Bock hustles through the traffic to where Drummond stands. DRUMMOND Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, for the age is closed, the season of the seventh seal is at hand! The age is closed! The season of the seventh se... BOCK Dr. Welbeck is dead. They thought he was you. DRUMMOND Yes, I know. We must arrange to have his body shipped to my Apache village where we will bury him with full tribal rites. In a day or two, somebody'll ask, "Whatever happened to Dr. Welbeck?" And it will be assumed he absconded to Brazil to join his partner, the eminent orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Noel Hogan. Welbeck, too, was mislaid, overlooked, forgotten to death, you see. The ambulance pulls up and Barbara gets out of it. BARBARA (taking her father around to the back) We have to hurry, Dad. The light turns green. The traffic starts flowing around them, disjoined by the ambulance blocking one lane on each side of the dividing island. An ambulance attendant has opened the back doors to get Drummond in. Barbara hurries toward the front, climbs in, holds the door open for Bock. He stands a few paces back. BOCK I'm not going. (he moves to the ambulance, closes the door) The hospital's coming apart. I can't walk out on it when it's coming apart. Somebody has to be responsible, Barbara. Everybody's hitting the road, running to the hills, running away. Somebody's got to be responsible. (across Barbara to the driver) Kennedy Airport. You've got a two- thirty flight to make. He turns, and the ambulance pulls away. Bock goes back to the sidewalk where he meets Sundstrom, now wearing his coat. BOCK You going back in? SUNDSTROM Yeah. They make their way back toward... THE HOSPITAL, ENTRANCE PLAZA The two physicians trudge across the U-drive. SUNDSTROM (matter-of-factly) It's like pissing in the wind, right, Herb? BOCK Right. FADE OUT. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Hostage.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hostage.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0a0a14fb19abbb4e5e9fb48ecb0e32ae0e0c8fed --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hostage.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + Hostage by Robert Crais based on his novel March 29, 2002FADE IN:EXT. A HYPERBLUE LOS ANGELES SKY -- DAYThe sky is overlaid with the slow whup-whup-whup of an LAPDhelicopter flashing through the frame, here and gone.LAPD radio transmissions crackle like static electricityaround a dirty clapboard bungalow that looks like thepuckered asshole of Eagle Rock.A man's terrified voice screams invisibly from the house -- MALIK'S VOICE I'm gonna kill this dog! You make my wife talk to me or I'm gonna shoot this fuckin' dog!A five-member SWAT tactical team appears out of nowhere--fullblack assault gear, M5s, gloved and masked--hustling intoposition on either side of the front door. Only now do weget the full picture: Helicopters overhead, radio carssurrounding the house, an army of cops itching the pull thetrigger --When the tac team is good to go, the team leader gives athumbs-up to --SERGEANT JEFF TALLEY AND LT. MURRAY LEIFITZTalley and Leifitz are hunkered behind the LAPD Command andControl van. Leifitz is the Crisis Response Team SWAT commander; Talley, the primary negotiator. It's so hot outhere that Talley has stripped down to a tee-shirt and vest. LEIFITZ They're good to go, Talley. Your word, and we're in the house. TALLEY No one's going anywhere, L-T. We can talk this guy down.Talley lifts a dedicated crisis phone that's been hardlinedinto the house, his tone reasonable and friendly -- TALLEY (CONT'D) (into the phone) Hey, George? George, don't kill the dog, okay? We don't want to hear a gun go off in there.A phone crashes through the window and lands in the frontyard -- MALIK'S VOICE (screaming from the house) Fuck you! LEIFITZ I don't think he wants to talk.Frustrated, Talley slumps back against the van as the SWATIntelligence Officer, Lloyd Keith, scuttles up to them -- TALLEY Where's the guy's wife? KEITH She didn't take the kid to her sister's. The neighbors were wrong. TALLEY Goddamnit, you said we had her. I told him we had her! KEITH We got bad information, Talley. I can't pull her out of my ass!Up at the house, George Edward Malik steps into the window.Malik is a forty-year-old freaked-out loser who has turnedthe corner on insanity -- MALIK (shouting at Talley) You said my wife was gonna talk to me, you lying fuck! I'm gonna kill her dog, then shoot myself! I mean it!Talley stares at Malik, thinking, then abruptly grabs Keithby the collar -- TALLEY (to Keith) Pull the dog's name out of your ass. Get the dog's name.Talley steps out from behind the command van so that Malikcan see him. LEIFITZ (alarmed by Talley's move) Talley! You're in the line of fire!Talley ignores Leifitz; he is totally focused on Malik and ondefusing the situation -- TALLEY I didn't lie to you, George. You scared your wife pretty good last night. We're having a hard time finding her. MALIK She better talk to me! I'm gonna kill her goddamned dog! TALLEY You and I have been talking for, what, sixteen hours? Keep talking. Is that your dog, too?Malik steps away from the window -- MALIK'S VOICE I don't know whose dog it is. She lied about everything else, so she probably lied about the dog. TALLEY I know you're hurting. You lose your job, you find out your wife's fucking another guy . . . but don't give up. We'll have her talk to you. MALIK'S VOICE Then why won't she open her mouth?! Why doesn't the bitch say something??? Something about Malik's statement bothers Talley. Thewording is odd, suspicious -- TALLEY George? Come back to the window. MALIK'S VOICE STOP LOOKING AT ME!!!Talley grows even more concerned. Was Malik talking to him? TALLEY George? Leave the dog alone and come to the window.Talley sees Keith rejoin Leifitz -- TALLEY (CONT'D) (to Leifitz) What's the dog's name? LEIFITZ The neighbors say he doesn't have a dog.The pieces fall into place for Talley: The wife that no onecan find, the dog that doesn't exist.... MALIK'S VOICE OPEN YOUR GODDAMNED MOUTH OR I'M GONNA SHOOT THIS DOG!In a single terrible moment, Talley realizes that Malik isnot talking to him; he's talking to his wife -- TALLEY Murray!! They're in the house! His wife's in the house!Even as Talley screams, a gunshot echoes from the house,freezing the moment. A second shot follows the first as thetactical team breaches the front door --Talley sprints forward, running as hard as he can innightmare slow motion --INT. MALIK'S HOUSE -- DAYTalley shoulders inside on the heels of the tactical teamthrough drifting gun smoke and lancing sunlight. SWAT copsare cuffing Malik even though he's already dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound; Malik's wife is sprawled on thecouch where she has been dead for fourteen hours; two tacofficers are trying to stop the geyser of arterial blood thatsprays from the neck of Malik's nine-year-old son even as oneof them screams for the paramedics --Talley is numb; it's all too much, too heavy, too horrible.He kneels between to the tactical cops and takes the boy'shand. He stares into the boy's eyes, and the boy staresback. The child's face grows pale as he drains of blood. Wehear his heart beating. We hear it slow. We hear it stop.Talley stares at the dead boy. The dead boy's lifeless eyesstare at nothing.TITLESAnother hyperblue sky, but now we're in an upscale bedroomcommunity in the sun-scorched high desert north of LA --A legend appears: One Year Later.EXT. KIM'S MINIMARKET AND GAS STATION -- DAYA rotted-out Toyota pickup lurches to a stop alongside theminimart, white-boy hip-hop booming on the radio which dieswith the engine --Dennis Rooney is driving; twenty-three years old, working-class desert trash with a high opinion of his own broodinggood looks. In the middle: Kevin Rooney, nineteen, scaredshitless at what they're about to do. Riding shotgun: MarsKrupchek, twenty-four, a large pasty guy with a shaved headand faraway eyes. KEVIN C'mon, Dennis, this is stupid. I thought we were gonna go to the movies. DENNIS (grins past Kevin to Mars) Mars?! Whattaya think, dude? Out here on the edge, no one around, it's perfect, right? MARS I'll check it out.Mars slides out of the truck. He has a tattoo on the back ofhis tattoo that says: BURN IT.As soon as Mars is gone, Dennis frowns at Kevin -- DENNIS Try to act cool, okay? He's gonna think you're a dick. KEVIN Robbing this place is gonna put you back in prison. DENNIS Not if they don't catch us, Kevin. KEVIN We got jobs, man; we're working. Why even take the chance? DENNIS Because if you don't take the chance, you're already dead.Dennis pulls a pistol from his pants to check the magazine. DENNIS (CONT'D) Thirty seconds, we'll be down the road. Thirty seconds. Then we'll go to the movies.Mars returns and nods his approval -- MARS It's perfect.That's all it takes.INT. KIM'S MINIMART -- DAYJunior Kim, Jr., is short, squat, and forty-two years old.He's reading a magazine behind the counter when Dennis andMars enter; Dennis trying to disarm him with a smile --As Dennis reaches the counter, he lifts his tee-shirt toreveal the butt of his pistol -- DENNIS A pack of Marlboros for my friend and all your cash, you gook motherfucker!But Junior Kim is ready. He lurches to his feet, bringing upa pistol of his own -- MARS He's got a gun!Dennis lunges across the counter, grabbing Kim's gun, and the two men are suddenly locked in a ferocious death-struggle forpossession of the weapon -- DENNIS Mars, help me --Dennis and Kim bounce from the counter to the Slurpy machine,the Glock locked between them, pointing first one way, thenthe other, their eyes meeting as -- BAM -- the gun goes off.Junior Kim's eyes widen. Dennis and Junior both look down atthe red blossom that grows on Junior Kim's chest -- KEVIN (screaming in the background) Dennis! Dennis, someone's coming!Kim falls into the Slurpy machine, then slides to the floor.Dennis scrambles over the counter and sprints for the door. But Mars hesitates. Instead of running, he picks up Kim'sgun, then leans over the counter to look at Kim's body. Wecannot see his face --EXT. THE MINIMART -- DAYA forty-something soccer mom named Margaret Hammond is aboutto enter the minimart when Dennis and Kevin burst out,knocking her on her ass. Mars follows a moment later --Margaret watches their red pickup lurch away, then rushesinto the store --INT. THE TRUCK -- DAYDennis power-shifts into gear, clashing tortured metal as hepushes the Toyota as hard as it will go. No one is talking;they're screaming -- KEVIN There's fuckin' blood all over you! DENNIS I didn't know he would have a gun! It just went off!Dennis sees himself in the rearview mirror. His face is splattered with red dew, the sight of it freaking him out -- DENNIS (CONT'D) Jesus! Fuckin' Jesus, it's on my face!The trunk careens crazily off the road. Mars calmly runs ahand over Dennis's face -- MARS Relax. It's only blood.Dennis upshifts hard again, the truck lurching as the trannyhowls -- DENNIS FUCK you, Mars! I got it all over me!-- whereupon the tortured transmission gives with a loud BANGand the truck loses power -- DENNIS (CONT'D) MotherFUCKING piece of SHIT!!!EXT. FLANDERS ROAD -- DAYFlanders Road is lined with trees, hedges, and the exclusivehousing developments that dot the countryside around BristoCamino.The Toyota jerks to a stop well off the road, and Dennis,Mars, and Kevin pile out, stuffing pistols and bullets intotheir pockets -- KEVIN That woman's gonna call the cops. DENNIS Shut up, goddamnit! Just calm down! KEVIN What if he's dead? What if you killed him?Dennis grabs him by the throat; Mars steps between them -- MARS People are looking.Dennis sees that Mars is right; people in passing cars arelooking. He releases his brother -- DENNIS That's why we gotta keep going. I'm not gonna go in for murder. KEVIN We're on foot. We can't get away. DENNIS We're surrounded by houses, dumbass. Every house has a car in the garage. All we have to do is take one.Dennis and Mars take off for the wall, Kevin reluctantlyfollowing --EXT. WALTER SMITH'S HOME -- THE CUL-DE-SAC -- DAYThe camera reveals a two-story California Mediterranean homein the exclusive housing development known as York Estates.You can't get in the door for less than one-point-five, andthis house costs more: Eight thousand square feet of usedbrick and custom tile set on a lushly landscaped acre -- WALTER SMITH'S VOICE You can pick them up whenever you want.INT. WALTER SMITH'S OFFICE -- DAYWalter Smith is at his computer behind his desk. He's fortyand fit, casually dressed with thinning hair and glasses,currently leaning back as he talks on his phone -- WALTER (into the phone) I have his corporate and personal on two disks, labeled Marlon and Al.As Smith talks, he ejects a Zip disk from his computer,attaches a label reading Al, then places it in a palm-sizedcase beside the first disk, Marlon -- WALTER (CONT'D) What, you don't have a sense of humor? He's going to love it.Walter's ten-year-old son, Thomas, suddenly charges aroundthe desk and pulls at his father's arm -- THOMAS My stomach is eating me! WALTER (into the phone) Yeah, that's Thomas, the human piranha. I have to feed the animals while Pam's in Florida with her sister. THOMAS My stomach has teeth! It's eating my guts! WALTER (still with the phone) Listen, is Glen on his way? Great. The paper's bagged and ready to go. Bye. (hangs up; then) All right, all right, all right--it's feeding time!Walter allows his son to pull him around the desk to --EXT. THE SMITHS' BACK YARD -- THE POOL -- DAYA boom box blasts the latest teendiva megahit as Walter'ssixteen-year-old daughter, Jennifer, stretches out in cutoffshorts and a bikini top, working on her tan.Walter and Thomas appear in the French doors that open fromthe back of the house -- WALTER (calling) Jen! Come feed your brother! He's wasting away! JENNIFER Can't we send him to Florida? WALTER Jen, c'mon, chop-chop! I've got to finish my work!Jennifer rolls her eyes, rises from the chaise longue, andpads to the house. As she clears the frame, the cameraswings toward the overgrown wall at the edge of the property.Dennis silenty drops into the bushes --EXT. BRISTO CAMINO PATROL CAR -- DAYA sky blue Bristo Camino patrol car cruises along FlandersRoad --INT. THE CRUISER -- OFFICER MIKE WELCH -- DRIVINGWelch is a young officer with an innocence to his eyes thatyou don't find in urban cops. He keeps a photo of his wifeand toddler son taped to the dash. RADIO Four, base. You there, Mike?Welch picks up the radio microphone -- WELCH Four. I'm gonna hit the Krispy-Kreme. You want a dozen? RADIO Armed robbery, Kim's Minimart on Flanders Road, shots fired with a man down.This is so unexpected that Welch waits for the punchline -- WELCH Are you kidding me? RADIO Ah, suspects are three white males driving a red pickup last seen eastbound on Flanders.Welch turns on his lights just as he sees the red Toyotapickup abandoned on the side of the road and stands on hisbrakes --INT. THE SMITHS' KITCHEN -- A FEW MINUTES LATERThe Smiths' home sports an open floor plan with the kitchencentrally located between a large family room, a hall thatleads to the front of the house, and the French doors thatopen onto the pool area.Jennifer is putting the finishing touches on three tunasandwiches as she calls to her brother -- JENNIFER Tell Daddy that lunch is ready. (no answer) Thomas, don't be a turd. Tell --!She turns to find herself face-to-face with Dennis, whoclamps a hand over her mouth -- DENNIS (quietly) I'm not going to hurt you.Mars is holding Thomas. Kevin is by the French doors -- DENNIS (CONT'D) Stop fighting. Relax, and I'll let go.Jennifer struggles until she sees that Mars is holding apistol to Thomas's head -- DENNIS (CONT'D) That's better. Be cool and we'll be outta here in five minutes. Understand?Jennifer nods, and Dennis removes his hand. He has herpinned to the counter, his body pressed into her's; she issuddenly very aware that she is almost naked -- DENNIS (CONT'D) Who else is here? JENNIFER My father.Dennis grabs her hair and pulls her away --INT. SMITHS' OFFICE -- DAYIt happens fast: Dennis shoves Jennifer into the room, andMars and Kevin follow with Thomas --Walter is feeding a computer print-out into a paper shredderas they burst through the door -- DENNIS Get your ass in the chair! Sit down!Dennis shoves Jennifer to the floor and stalks directlyacross the room, his gun trained on Walter.Walter freezes, hands motionless, letting the paper feed intothe shredder. Strangely, he has little outward reaction -- WALTER (quietly) Jen? Are you all right? DENNIS She'll be dead if you don't put your ass in that chair!Walter carefully sits. He is amazingly calm in the face ofthis invasion. DENNIS (CONT'D) Kevin! Don't stand there, asshole, close the windows! Mars, keep him covered, dude!Mars pushes Thomas down beside Jennifer, then aims his gun atWalter. Kevin closes the shutters as Dennis rips the electric cord from a lamp -- WALTER Who sent you? DENNIS Don't go Rambo and you'll tell'm about this on the back nine. I'm gonna tie you up, then we're gonna take your car.Walter glances toward the shredder; the final page of paperemerges as spaghetti and then the shredder stops -- WALTER The car. All you want is the car? DENNIS Am I talkin' raghead?! I want your car! Gimme the goddamned keys!A strange smile flickers at the corner of Walter's mouth asif there's a joke within all this, then -- WALTER The keys are on the wall by the garage. Take it. The tank's almost full. KEVIN Dennis! The cops!Dennis rushes to the window --EXT. THE SMITHS' HOUSE -- CUL DE SAC -- DAYMike Welch climbs out of the patrol car and keys his shouldermike as he appraises the house -- WELCH (into his radio mike) They had to go through the yard at 455 Castle Way. I'm going to approach.Welch slowly moves up the walk toward the front door --INT. THE ENTRY -- DAYDennis shoves Jennifer to the door -- DENNIS Open it! You remember I'm right here!EXT. THE HOUSE -- WITH WELCHWelch is halfway up the walk when the door opens andJennifer, clearly terrified, peers out. Welch hesitates -- WELCH (into his mike) Teenage female opened the front door. (to Jennifer) Miss, I found an abandoned vehicle on the other side of your wall. Did three young men run through the area?Jennifer doesn't answer. Her eyes fill until two huge tearsroll down her cheeks. Welch grows uneasy. Something iswrong, but he doesn't know what. He stays where he is -- WELCH (CONT'D) Miss? JENNIFER I didn't . . . see anyone.Welch stares into Jennifer's eyes, pointedly shifting hisgaze to ask the silent question: Are they here?INT. WALTER'S OFFICE -- MARS AND KEVINare peering out the shutters when --Mars suddenly shouts -- MARS He's going for his gun!Mars opens fire, shooting through the window as --DENNISkicks the door closed and fires through the door, Jenniferscreaming, as --EXT. THE HOUSE -- DAY -- MIKE WELCHtumbles backward, struggling weakly to pull his gun as bloodbubbles in his mouth. He tries to rise, but can't -- WELCH (into his radio) Officer down. Jesus, I've been shot. RADIO VOICE Mike? Mike, what did you say?!Mike Welch blinks at the sky, but cannot answer -- INT. BRISTO CAMINO POLICE DEPARTMENT -- DAYIt's the kind of small-town police facility you might expect:A general room with desks and computers, a coffee machine,and a desk officer who thinks that crime is two teenagersegging a house.The camera establishes the low-key atmosphere, during whichit finds a glass door labeled J. Talley, chief of police --INT. TALLEY'S OFFICE -- DAYJeff Talley is behind the desk, his voice muted because he islocked in a painful phone conversation -- TALLEY (into phone) It's really hard, Jane. This isn't the way I want it.INT. JANE'S KITCHEN -- DAYJane Talley is an attractive woman in her mid-thirties. Shehas the efficient manner of a registered nurse, which she is,and right now she's using all of her professional detachmentto keep herself together -- JANE (into phone) No? Then whose idea was it for you take a job in the middle of nowhere?Intercut Talley, who considers the photographs that decoratehis wall: Shots of Talley in happier times with Jane andtheir teenaged daughter, Amanda; Talley as a young SWATofficer; the framed headline from the Bristo Weekly Standardproclaiming: EX-SWAT COP NEW BRISTO CHIEF! TALLEY I need to work out some stuff. JANE You're hiding, Jeffrey. You're hiding from the job and you're hiding from me. TALLEY I still see that boy's eyes.Jane softens; she knows that a part of him is in terriblepain. But she's in pain, too -- JANE That happened a year ago. You've been gone for almost six months. How long do you have to punish yourself for something that wasn't your fault?Talley studies the picture of his wife and daughter. Hefocuses on Amanda -- TALLEY Is Amanda there?Jane cups the phone and calls to her daughter. Amanda entersand goes to the refrigerator. She's fifteen and carrying theweight of a seriously bad attitude -- JANE (to Amanda) It's Dad. He wants to speak with you. AMANDA (doesn't even glance over) I'm gonna see him later. JANE (back to Talley) She has to go to the bathroom.Jane turns away and lowers her voice, not wanting Amanda to hear -- JANE (CONT'D) You're not only punishing yourself, Jeff. Amanda and I are in this, too.Talley knows, and he hurts like hell because of it -- TALLEY Can we talk some more when you get here? JANE We'll see you in a couple of hours.Jane hangs up without waiting for a response, then closes hereyes, trying hard to keep herself together. AMANDA I don't wanna go up there. I want to stay here with my friends. JANE Pack your things. You're going.Jane stalks away without a glance back, and Amanda angrilyflips off her mother --WITH TALLEYHe is clearly shaken by the call, but his thoughts areinterrupted when his assistant, an older woman named LouiseVance, bursts in -- LOUISE Mike's been shot! Someone shot Junior Kim, too --Talley comes around his desk -- TALLEY What are you talking about, shot? What happened? LOUISE Three white males shot Junior. Mike followed them to York Estates -- TALLEY Where are they? LOUISE York Estates. Four-five-five Castle Way. Anders and Jorgenson are on the way.Talley charges out --EXT. YORK ESTATES -- CASTLE WAY -- DAYTalley wheels into a wide, spacious cul-de-sac lined withexpensive estate homes, and pulls up behind another radiocar. Anders and Jorgenson are crouched in the street --Bullets snap into Talley's windshield, starring the glass -- TALLEY Sonofabitch.Talley scrambles out of his car --EXT. THE SMITHS' HOUSE -- TALLEY'S CAR -- DAYTalley takes cover behind his front wheel. Anders andJorgenson are young guys; they've never worked a high-crimearea; they've never made a felony arrest; and right nowthey're scared shitless.Mike Welch lies on the Smiths' front lawn, forty feet away -- ANDERS Welch is down! They shot him! JORGENSON We think it's the three guys who robbed Kim's. TALLEY Are civilians inside? JORGENSON He said something about a girl -- TALLEY Holster your guns!Another shot cracks from the house as we hear the faint wailof approaching sirens. Talley edges around his car, tryingto see Welch -- TALLEY (CONT'D) (calling) Mike! Mike, can you hear me? ANDERS I think he's dead! TALLEY Don't shout, Larry. I'm three feet away.Talley considers the situation and comes up with a plan -- TALLEY (CONT'D) We have to cordon off the streets, then evacuate these houses. JORGENSON What are we going to do about Mike? TALLEY Keep your head down.Talley scrambles back into his car. He backs up, then powersthe car up the drive and onto the front lawn --WITH WELCHTalley roars to a stop between Welch and the house, using thecar as a shield. More shots ping off his car as Talleyclimbs out -- TALLEY How you doing, buddy? You still alive?Welch moans. His shirt is soaked with blood where thebullets caught him beneath his vest. Talley can't wastetime. The siren is closer now -- TALLEY (CONT'D) Jesus. You hang on.Talley hoists Welch into the backseat, then dives behind thewheel. He fishtails off the lawn and up the street --EXT. THE CUL-DE-SAC INTERSECTION -- DAYThe ambulance waits as Talley powers to a stop -- TALLEY He's in the backseat!Paramedics pull Mike Welch from the car as Talley gets out.He can see into the cul-de-sac from here, where Anders andJorgenson still hunker behind their car. Talley keys his radio -- TALLEY (CONT'D) This is Talley. Who's on?His radio crackles with overlapping voices -- TALLEY (CONT'D) One at a time! Clear the air! (as they settle) Louise? Talk to me. What do we have? LOUISE'S VOICE Junior Kim was DOA at the hospital.Frantic voices once more overlap -- COP VOICES What about Mike? Is Welch alive? What happened? TALLEY (forcefully) Quiet! I want radio discipline. (as they quiet) Mike's hanging in. Larry, Jorgy? Listen up. JORGENSON'S VOICE Go, Chief. TALLEY Find out who lives at four-five-five. We gotta know who's in there. LOUISE'S VOICE Chief? Mike said a young girl answered the door. TALLEY Did he say if she was shooting at him? LOUISE'S VOICE (hesitant) He didn't say. TALLEY Then we don't know if she's part of this or not. Mickey, you up? MIKKELSON'S VOICE We're out two minutes, me and Dreyer. TALLEY Mike found a red pickup abandoned on Flanders. You see it? MIKKELSON'S VOICE It's right in front of us. TALLEY Run a DMV on the plate for the owner's name. LOUISE'S VOICE I pulled Mickey and Dreyer off the minimart. TALLEY Jesus Christ, Louise, we can't leave a crime scene like that. Put a unit out there. LOUISE'S VOICE We only have eight officers on duty, Chief.More sirens are approaching, but their help seems too little,too late. Talley stares up the cul-de-sac at the Smiths'house as if this was a terrible nightmare -- TALLEY (to himself) That's not enough. LOUISE What's that, Chief? Say again. TALLEY Get everyone out here. Then call the Sheriffs. Tell them we have a possible hostage situation.INT. WALTER SMITH'S OFFICE -- DAYGunsmoke fills the air. Kevin is freaking. He throws amagazine at Mars -- KEVIN We could've gone out the back! You didn't have to shoot! DENNIS Stop it! They found the truck, Kev! They're already behind us! KEVIN We should give up. All we're doing is making it worse. JENNIFER Get out of our house!Her voice cuts through the din.Jennifer and Thomas are huddled with their father on thefloor, Jennifer's arms crossed to cover herself -- WALTER (softly) Quiet, Jen. JENNIFER Why don't they go?! Why don't they leave us alone and go?!Dennis charges up to her, screaming and waving his gun -- DENNIS Shut up! Shut the fuck up!Walter Smith slowly stands -- WALTER None of you will get out of this.Dennis spins toward Walter, leveling his gun -- DENNIS Stay down! Stay down, goddamnit! WALTER I'm going to my desk. DENNIS You're not goin' anywhere! Get on the fuckin' floor!Dennis raises the gun to Walter's face. Walter is incomplete command of himself and nowhere near scared, butJennifer grabs his legs -- JENNIFER Daddy, don't! WALTER (casually; to Dennis) Take it easy, son. I'm only going to my desk.Walter eases past Dennis, who doesn't know what to do -- DENNIS Get on the floor! WALTER I have contacts in Los Angeles. Lawyers and judges who can help you.Walter slips open the center drawer. Dennis thinks thatWalter might go for a gun. He screams louder and aimsbetween Walter's eyes -- DENNIS I'll fuckin' kill you! JENNIFER AND THOMAS Daddy! Please!Walter checks that the computer disks are in the disk case.We can see their names clearly: MARLON and AL. He drops thecase into the drawer, then lifts out a thick booklet -- WALTER This is every criminal lawyer in California. If you give up now, right now, I'll buy you the best lawyer in the state.Dennis slaps the book aside, even more angry -- DENNIS We just killed a cop! We killed a fat chinaman! We'll get the death penalty!Dennis suddenly screams at Mars and Kevin -- DENNIS (CONT'D) Mars, watch the cops! Kevin! Watch the back of the house! WALTER You won't die if you let me help. DENNIS Bullshit! WALTER But if you stay in this house, I can promise you this -- DENNIS (shouting over him) Shut up! Shut up and get on the floor! WALTER You can't imagine the fucking you're going to get.Dennis snaps. He swings the gun hard and smashes Walter onthe temple. Walter drops like a rock. JENNIFER Leave him alone!!Jennifer rushes to her father's side, but Walter's out cold --EXT. TALLEY'S CAR -- THE INTERSECTION -- A FEW MINUTES LATERTalley is at his car with Anders and two other officers,Leigh Metzger, a woman in her early thirties, and CliffCampbell, a slender guy who looks like a retired securitycop. Talley is getting information reports both in personand over the radio -- ANDERS (referring to notes) The house belongs to Walter and Pamela Smith. They've got two kids, a girl about fifteen and a boy younger, Jennifer and Thomas. TALLEY That would be the girl who opened the door. Are the others inside? ANDERS The mother is in Florida visiting her sister. The father works at home, so he's probably inside.Talley keys his mike -- TALLEY (into his mike) Louise? LOUISE'S VOICE Go, Chief. TALLEY Get a phone number for the Smiths. MIKKELSON'S VOICE (from the radio) Chief, Mikkelson. TALLEY Go, Mickey. MIKKELSON'S VOICE The truck is registered to Dennis James Rooney, white male, twenty-two. He has an Agua Dulce address. TALLEY Contact the landlord. I want to know employment, friends, family, anything we can find out about this guy.A news helicopter swoops overhead in a tight turn. The copslook up -- CAMPBELL What in hell is that? TALLEY (grimly) News hawks. There'll be more. They monitor our frequencies.Talley realizes that his officers are staring at thehelicopter as if they've never seen one; these people havenever dealt with a crime this large, and have probably nevereven seen a felon. Talley keys the mike again -- TALLEY (CONT'D) Everyone be cool. That's our job right now--stabilize the situation and don't let things get out of hand. All we have to do is hang on until the Sheriffs take over. That's all we have to do.No one looks particularly convinced -- METZGER How do we do that? TALLEY That's my job, Metzger. That's why I get the big bucks.Talley puts away his mike --INT. WALTER'S OFFICE -- DAYJennifer and Thomas are bent over their father, wanting tohelp but not knowing how. Walter's eyes flicker as if he'sdreaming, and the lump on his head is bleeding -- JENNIFER He's not waking up. He should be awake.Jennifer abruptly stands and faces Dennis -- JENNIFER (CONT'D) He needs a doctor. DENNIS Shut up and sit down. You think someone's gonna make a house call?Jennifer is scared--really, really scared--but she doesn'tsit down. Both Dennis and Mars are staring at her. Shefeels naked and vulnerable. She crosses her arms again -- JENNIFER At least let me get some ice for his head.Dennis finally relents and shrugs at Mars -- DENNIS Make sure Kevin isn't fucking off back there.Jennifer hurries out as Mars follows --INT. THE KITCHEN -- DAYJennifer goes to the counter. Kevin is at the French doors,nervous and scared; Mars is a dark shadow behind her --She kneels to a low cabinet when Mars kicks it shut -- MARS I thought you wanted ice.Mars towers over her, his groin inches from her face -- JENNIFER I'm getting a wash cloth for the ice.Mars gazes down at her, enjoying his size and power. Hesteps closer, bringing his groin closer to his face.Jennifer stands, holding her arms across her breasts -- JENNIFER (CONT'D) Please get away from me. KEVIN (from the background) Mars? What are you doing?Kevin's intrusion shatters the moment. Jennifer quicklysnatches a wash cloth from the cabinet, then takes an icetray from the freezer and brings it back to the counter --As Jennifer puts ice in the wash cloth, she sees the paringknife that she used for the sandwiches partially hidden bypaper towels --She glances at Kevin, but cannot see Mars; he's at therefrigerator behind her. Jennifer slowly reaches for theknife -- MARS Hey.Jennifer freezes, terrified. She pushes the knife behind theCuisinart to hide it, then turns. Mars is offering her abeer. MARS (CONT'D) Want one? JENNIFER I don't drink beer. MARS Mommy won't know. You can do anything you want right now. Mommy won't know. JENNIFER What I want is to help my father.Jennifer hurries past him and disappears down the hall. Evenas she leaves the phone starts ringing --INT. WALTER'S OFFICE -- DAYThe phone seems to ring louder here. Dennis stands over it,watching the phone as if it's alive. The phone rings again and again. Finally, he answers -- DENNIS Hello?EXT. TALLEY'S CAR -- IN THE CUL-DE-SAC -- DAYTalley is once more behind his car. He's on his cell phone,with Jorgenson nearby -- TALLEY (into his phone) My name is Jeff Talley. Is this Dennis Rooney?Intercut Dennis on the phone in Walter's office -- DENNIS You with the cops? TALLEY The Bristo Police Department. Look out the window. You see the car?Dennis peers through the shutters -- DENNIS Yeah. I'm Rooney. TALLEY We had an awful lot of shooting. You need a doctor in there?Dennis shoots a guilty glance at Walter, then lies -- DENNIS We're cool. TALLEY Let me speak to Mr. Smith. I want to hear it from him. DENNIS Fuck you. I'm running this shit. You talk to me. TALLEY How about your two friends? You don't have a man dying in there, do you? DENNIS They're fine.Talley cups the phone to tell Jorgenson -- TALLEY All three subjects are confirmed inside. Call off the house-to-house. (back to the phone) Okay, Dennis, I want to explain your situation -- DENNIS (interrupting) You don't have to explain shit! That Chinaman pulled a gun. We wrestled for it. That Chinaman shot himself. TALLEY Mr. Kim didn't make it, Dennis. He died. DENNIS How about the cop? TALLEY Dennis? I want you to release those people. DENNIS Fuck that. They're the only thing stopping you from blowing us away. TALLEY We're not coming in there by force, okay? No one wants to hurt you. DENNIS I got these people! You try to come get me, I'll kill every fuckin' one of them!The phone clicks in Talley's ear as Dennis slams down thephone --INT. WALTER'S OFFICE -- AT THAT MOMENTDennis is livid with fear and rage. He paces through theoffice like a trapped cat -- DENNIS That fuckin' Chinaman is dead! That's murder-one, dude. That's the needle!Kevin appears in the entry, drawn by Dennis's raving -- DENNIS (CONT'D) Get back where you belong, asshole! Mars, keep and eye on the cops; I gotta find a way out of here --Dennis shoves Kevin out of the office and stalks after him --INT. DOWNSTAIRS HALL -- DAYKevin dogs along beside Dennis, speaking softly so that Marsdoesn't overhear -- KEVIN I have to tell you something -- DENNIS We gotta find a way outta here is what we gotta do! KEVIN It's about Mars --They reach the master bedroom suite, a huge room with slidingglass doors that overlook the pool -- KEVIN (CONT'D) That cop didn't pull his gun. Mars lied. He just started shooting! DENNIS Bullshit. Why would Mars do that? KEVIN I was there, Dennis! I saw! It's like he wanted to shoot that cop. DENNIS You're being stupid. Check out the bathroom. Maybe we can sneak out a window --Dennis shoves Kevin toward the bathroom, then steps into --INT. THE SECURITY CLOSET -- DAYOne side is filled with racks of clothes, but the opposite side is an industrial bank of video monitors showing a dozenviews of the house, both inside and out --Dennis sees this stuff and stops in his tracks, awed -- DENNIS Kev.Kevin steps in beside him. KEVIN Jesus. What is this? DENNIS Are you totally stupid? What does it look like?One monitor shows Mars and the Smiths in the office, anotherthe kitchen, another Jennifer's room, another the front ofthe house, the rear, the sides--every room and most of theexterior can be seen -- DENNIS (CONT'D) Look, that's the master bedroom out here.Dennis goes out into the master, looking for the camera, andappears on the bedroom monitor -- KEVIN I can see you!Dennis steps back into the closet, and this time he examinesthe door. He closes it enough to reveal thick throw-bolts -- DENNIS Dude, this is solid steel. They gotta be hiding something.Dennis glances over to his brother, and finds Kevin on hisknees with two black travel bags beneath the clothes -- KEVIN Dennis --Kevin pushes the clothes aside to reveal an open bag. It'sfilled with hundred dollar bills. Dennis kneels beside hisbrother and opens the second bag. It's filled with hundreddollar bills, too -- DENNIS Go get Mars.INT. MRS. PENA'S FAMILY ROOM -- DAY -- ON A TELEVISIONWe're watching a grainy black and white security tape ofJunior Kim's robbery/homicide. It shows Kim behind thecounter as Dennis and Mars enter -- MIKKELSON One in front is Dennis James Rooney.Talley, Mikkelson, Dreyer, and Anders are watching the tape,which is currently being played in the home of Mrs. EstellePena, who lives two blocks from the Smiths.Mikkelson is a tall, strong woman; Dreyer is her opposite, a short, dumpy man -- MIKKELSON (CONT'D) Dennis has a younger brother, Kevin Paul-- that's him entering now, the third guy. TALLEY Has Dennis done time? MIKKELSON Just pulled thirty days for misdemeanor burglary. He shows car theft, shoplifting, and DUI.Talley steps closer to the television, and taps Mars -- TALLEY Who's this? DREYER We don't know. TALLEY Have still prints made from the tape. Show the landlord. Maybe we can get a fast ID.Talley looks closer. With the way Mars is positioned, we cansee part of the tattoo on his head -- TALLEY (CONT'D) Here on his head. Is that a tattoo? MIKKELSON I can't make it out. TALLEY Says...burn it.On the tape, Kim slumps to the floor. Dennis vaults acrossthe counter and runs to the door. Mars, however, calmlypicks up Kim's gun and leans across the counter. We couldn'tsee this before, but now we see a strange smile play over hisface -- DREYER What's he doing? TALLEY He's watching Kim die.Talley watches Mars, and knows that this guy is seriouslydisturbed. He is still watching the tape when Leigh Metzgercalls from the door -- METZGER Chief?Talley turns. Metzger is with Amanda and Jane --EXT. MRS. PENA'S HOUSE -- DAYTalley, Jane, and Amanda are walking to the street. Amandais excited; she thinks this is cool -- AMANDA Are men with guns really barricaded in a house? TALLEY Just around the corner and up that street. See the helicopters?Five news choppers now hover high over the house. The crimescene is only two blocks away. Close. JANE Wait by the car, Mandy. Give me a minute with Dad.They wait until Amanda is gone, then -- TALLEY (apologizing) I should've called. This thing broke right after we spoke, then everything happened so fast -- JANE Don't worry about it. How are you doing? TALLEY The Sheriffs will take over when they get here. JANE But they're not here yet. Tell me about you.Jane touches his arm -- JANE (CONT'D) Jesus, you're shaking.Self-conscious, Talley moves away so that he's out of reach -- TALLEY Why don't you guys grab some dinner at the Thai place? I'll meet you there as soon as I can. JANE You sure? TALLEY I don't know how long I'll be stuck here. JANE I'm in no rush. Maybe later we can talk.Talley gives her a gentle nod, then watches her walk awayuntil -- TALLEY Jane?She turns back, her eyes asking 'what?' TALLEY (CONT'D) I'm scared shitless. JANE That's okay. I love you anyway.Talley and Jane share the moment, and then she walks away.EXT. YORK ESTATES -- DAYA news chopper swings by overhead bringing us to the mainentrance of York Estates. The entrance has been blocked, andcars are being turned away, so traffic is backed up both waysalong the street --INT. GLEN HOWELL'S CAR -- DAYGlen Howell is a nice-looking man in his early forties:Sport coat, gold Rolex, deep tan. He hammers the horn of hisMercedes S600 sedan, but it does no good; traffic is frozen --A news van trying to work up the line pulls alongside, thengets jammed by the crunch like everyone else. Howell rollsdown the window -- HOWELL Hey, you guys know what's going on?An attractive Asian-American reporter leans from her windowto answer -- REPORTER Three men took a family hostage. HOWELL Jesus, no shit? My client lives in there.The reporter checks her notes -- REPORTER It's a family named Smith, Walter and Pamela Smith. Do you know them?Howell stares at her emptily, then shakes his head -- HOWELL No. No, I don't know them. Thanks for your time.Howell pulls a U-turn to get out of traffic. He flips openhis cell phone and presses the speed dial -- HOWELL (CONT'D) (into his phone) We have a problem out here.INT. SONNY BENZA'S OFFICE -- PALM SPRINGS -- DAYWe're in a palatial home on the ridge overlooking PalmSprings. On the cut, Sonny Benza, Phil Tuzee, and CharlieFischer are watching TV news coverage of the situation inBristo Camino -- TUZEE Worst case, it's a bloodbath. The detectives come out with Smith's computer, and we go directly to jail, do not pass Go. BENZA Maybe Glen already picked up the disks. TUZEE I took the call from Glen personally. They're still in Smith's house.Fischer tries being positive -- FISCHER Maybe we're getting too dramatic. It's three kids. They'll give up, the cops will arrest them, and that's that. Why would they search the house? BENZA You think we should take that chance? FISCHER (on the spot) I guess not. BENZA I guess not, too. How much information is in the house? TUZEE Smith was cooking the books for the IRS. That means he has it all: The cash flow, where it comes from, how we launder it, our split with the East. FISCHER It's on two computer disks he calls Marlon and Al. BENZA What, he's cute? That's his idea of humor? FISCHER If the Feds get those disks, the East Coast is gonna take a hit, too. You should let them know. BENZA No way. I tell them, that Old Man is gonna handle this from back there. TUZEE You should warn them, Sonny. BENZA Fuck them! Now get your head in the game, Phil--we have to handle this.Benza turns back to the television -- BENZA (CONT'D) Put our people on the scene. Smith might talk just to cut a break for his kids. TUZEE He knows better than that. BENZA Bullshit--a man will do anything to save his family. Who's running the show up there? FISCHER They have a chief of police, a guy named Talley. I saw him being interviewed.The television suddenly shows Talley making a statement. Helooks tired and haggard -- FISCHER (pointing) Hey, that's him. That's Talley right there!Benza studies Talley, then looks at his lieutenants -- BENZA Find out how we can hurt him. By the end of the day, I want to own him. TUZEE It's happening right now.That's exactly what Benza wanted to hear.EXT. THE DESERT ROSE MOTEL -- DAYA low-rent motel on the road between Bristo Camino andNewhall. Glen Howell's Mercedes is parked on the side, alongwith several other cars.It's late-afternoon going into evening. The sun is sinking fast --INT. HOWELL'S ROOM -- DAYHowell is being briefed by his operators, four men and twowomen. There's a minimum of bullshit; these people areprofessionals --Ken Seymore is an intense, compact man who talks fast -- SEYMORE L.A. County Sheriffs are inbound from a bank robbery in Pico Rivera. HOWELL Give me an ETA. SEYMORE An hour, tops. Might be sooner.Duane Manelli speaks up -- MANELLI When the Sheriffs get here, how many we looking at? SEYMORE (checking his notes) A command team, a negotiating team, a tactical team--the tac team includes a perimeter team, the assault team, snipers, and breachers--thirty-five new bodies. HOWELL How many locals?Gayle Devarona, one of the women, leans forward -- DEVARONA Fourteen officers and two civilians. I have their names and most of their addresses.She tosses a yellow legal pad onto the table -- HOWELL And Talley? DEVARONA Married but separated, ex-LAPD. The fam doesn't live here, but they're coming up today. I got his address there. MANELLI The cops I talked to, they said Talley was a hostage negotiator in LA. DEVARONA His last three years on the job. Before that, he was SWAT.Mike Ruiz joins in -- RUIZ How's a SWAT negotiator make it up here to this shithole? DEVARONA I make him for a stress release. HOWELL Good work, Gayle--everybody. Now stay ahead of the curve. I want to know everything that happens before it happens. I'll cover Talley.Howell tears Talley's address off the yellow pad. Thismeeting is over -- SEYMORE What if it goes south? HOWELL What do you mean? SEYMORE If things get wet, we're going to need someone who can handle that end. HOWELL You worry about your end. I got my side covered.Howell tucks the address in his pocket and goes to the door.EXT. DONUT SHOP -- NEWHALL, CALIFORNIA -- NIGHTThe sun has set. The donut shop glows greasily at the end ofa strip mall. It is empty except for the overweight womanbehind the counter and a lone man seated at a window booth --INT. THE DONUT SHOP -- NIGHTThe man in the booth is named Marion Clewes. He's an averagelooking guy, more or less, except for the strange cant to hisright eye and the thin black tie he wears over his white J.C. Penney shirt. His jacket doesn't fit quite right, but notso much as you'd notice. Marion could disappear into a crowdjust by being so ordinary. That's the point.A fat black desert fly, heavy with juice and thorny withcoarse hair, buzzes past --Marion watches it, only his eyes moving --The fly lands in the sprinkles of sugar on the table --Marion watches it, then, suddenly, with no warning, his handflashes out, slamming down on the table.He holds his hand in place, feeling for movement, then slowlypeeks under his hand --The fly oozes sideways, legs kicking, trying to walk. Onewing beats furiously; the other is broken --Marion examines his hand. A smear of fly goo and a singleblack leg streaks his third finger. Marion touches histongue to the smear --The woman behind the counter watches this, her eyes wideningwith disgust --Marion holds the fly in place with his left index finger, anduses his right to break away another leg. He eats this leg,too --The woman disappears into the rear --Headlights flash across the glass, and Marion swivels aroundto see Howell's Mercedes pull up --Marion carefully pushes the still-alive fly aside as GlenHowell takes a seat across from him. Howell puts the yellowslip with Talley's address on the table -- HOWELL Talley lives here. I don't know if the place has security or not. MARION It won't be a problem. HOWELL He has a wife and kid. That's how we'll get to him. MARION Okey-doke. HOWELL We have to own this guy, Marion. We don't want him dead; we need to use him.Marion puts Talley's address into his pocket. MARION Can we make him dead after we use him?Glen Howell slides out of the booth without answering.Marion creeps him out -- HOWELL Whatever you want. Page me when you're done.Howell starts away, then turns back -- HOWELL (CONT'D) Donuts here any good? MARION I don't eat junk food.Howell frowns like he might've known, then walks away.Marion turns back to the fly --It lays there, still, until Marion prods it. The remainingwing flutters --Marion breaks off the remaining wing and eats that, too.EXT. COMMAND STREET -- NIGHTTalley and Leigh Metzger stride through a pool of street lightas she reports -- METZGER PacBell shows six lines into the house. They blocked all six like you wanted. TALLEY I have the only number that can call into the house? METZGER Yes, sir. They'll only accept calls from your cell. TALLEY Way to go.They arrive at Larry Anders, who is waiting at his car with aslim, nervous cement contractor named Brad Dill -- ANDERS Chief, this is Brad Dill. Dennis and Kevin work for him. DILL I didn't know anything about this. I didn't know what they were gonna do. TALLEY Mr. Dill, these pricks didn't know what they were going to do until they did it. I want you to take a look at something.Metzger holds out a still picture that was made from JuniorKim's security tape -- TALLEY (CONT'D) Can you identify this man? DILL That would be Mars Krupchek. Jesus, he works for me, too. TALLEY (to Metzger) Have Louise run the name 'Mars Krupchek' through DMV and NCIC. Tell her to list the tattoo as an identifier.Metzger hurries away as Talley turns back to Dill -- TALLEY (CONT'D) Is Krupchek an aggressive guy? Hot- tempered? Anything like that? DILL Keeps to himself, more like. TALLEY You have his address? DILL Pretty sure I do. Yeah, here we go --Dill pulls out a tattered address book. Talley hands thebook to Anders, who copies the address -- TALLEY (to Anders) Call the Palmdale City Attorney for a telephonic search warrant. When you get the warrant, have Mikkelson and Dreyer search his house. ANDERS Yes, sir.Anders turns away as Metzger calls from Mrs. Pena's door -- METZGER Chief! The Sheriffs are ten minutes out!Talley has wanted to hear that, but now his sense of reliefis tempered by something he did not expect: Loss.Talley keys his shoulder mike -- TALLEY (into his radio) Louise? LOUISE'S VOICE Go, Chief. TALLEY Call Jane for me. She's at the little Thai place. LOUISE'S VOICE I know the one. TALLEY Tell her I'm almost home.INT. SMITH'S SECURITY CLOSET -- NIGHTDennis is on the floor with the money, touching it, feelingit, smelling it. Mars is standing over him, profoundlyunmoved -- DENNIS There's gotta be a million bucks here. Maybe two million!Mars turns away from the money to consider the monitors andthe door -- MARS It's a safety room. If anyone breaks into your house, you can hide. DENNIS Who gives a shit, Mars? Check out the cash! We're rich. MARS We're trapped in a house.Mars walks away --INT. DOWNSTAIRS HALL -- NIGHTDennis and Mars are returning to the front of the house,Dennis irritated at Mars's lack of enthusiasm -- DENNIS We can take it with us. MARS You can't run with suitcases.Dennis grabs Mars by the arm, stopping him -- DENNIS Then we'll stuff it up our asses. This is the payoff. This is every dream you ever had, all in those two bags.Mars continues on without responding, Dennis angrilyfollowing --INT. WALTER'S OFFICE -- NIGHTKevin is grimly watching news coverage of their standoff asMars and Dennis enter. A female anchor is reporting on theevents at York Estates with Dennis's booking photo cut intothe picture -- ANCHOR (from the tube) -- thought to be Dennis James Rooney. Rooney was recently released from the Antelope Valley Correctional Institute where he served time for robbery.Dennis spots himself on television and breaks into a bigsmile -- DENNIS (thrilled) Check me out! I look like fuckin' Jon Bon Jovi.Kevin is anything but thrilled -- KEVIN Everyone knows what we look like, Dennis. We won't be able to hide. DENNIS Jesus, first Mars, now you. You two need anti-depressants.Across the room, Walter Smith shudders and moans; his face isswollen and covered with clammy sweat --Jennifer is sick with worry and can't stand seeing her fatherlike this -- JENNIFER My father needs a doctor. Please. DENNIS Hey, I've got a situation here, in case you haven't noticed. JENNIFER All you're doing is watching yourself on TV. Look at him. DENNIS Use more ice. JENNIFER I'm getting a doctor!Jennifer lurches to her feet and runs toward the front door.Dennis catches her in two steps and backhands her exactly theway his old man used to smack his old lady, knocking her tothe floor -- THOMAS Jen!!!Thomas charges into Dennis like an angry midget. Kevin jumpsbetween them -- KEVIN Stop it! Stop it, Dennis! Jesus!Mars steps forward and jerks Thomas into the air. Mars'physical presence is suddenly so imposing that everyone stopsfighting -- MARS (quietly) We should tie them. We can put them upstairs out of the way.It takes Dennis a moment to come up to speed with that, butthen he nods -- DENNIS That's right. That's a good idea, Mars. MARS (to Kevin) Find something: Extension cords, rope, wire--we'll have to tie them tight. DENNIS Find something, Kevin. Don't just stand there. (waves at Walter) And tie this bastard, too. I don't want him waking up and goin' Rambo on us.Mars nods his approval. Subtly, there is the beginning of ashift in power --INT. JENNIFER'S BEDROOM -- NIGHTMars pushes Jennifer inside. Kevin follows her with duct tape and a couple of extension cords. Mars, holding Thomas,pauses in the hall -- MARS Tie her to the chair. I'll take care of the windows when I finish with the boy.Mars disappears with Thomas down the hall. Jennifer standsby the chair, arms once more crossed over her breasts. Kevin can see that she's scared. He takes a T-shirt from where she's left it on the floor and hands it to her -- KEVIN Here. Put this on.She pulls it over her head -- KEVIN (CONT'D) You gotta pee? JENNIFER I don't see why you can't just lock me in. It's not like I can go anywhere. KEVIN Either I'm going to tie you or Mars will tie you. Which do you want?Jennifer sits. Kevin pulls her hands behind the back of thechair. As he ties her, Jennifer decides that if any of themcan be reached, it's Kevin -- JENNIFER Thanks for the shirt. KEVIN Whatever. JENNIFER Kevin, my father needs a doctor. KEVIN He's just knocked out. I've been knocked out. JENNIFER If my father dies they'll charge you with his murder. Can't you make Dennis see that?Kevin leans back. He knows she's right, but he doesn'tbelieve he can do anything about it -- KEVIN I can't make Dennis see anything.A shadow moves behind Kevin. It's Mars, standing in thedoor. He holds up a wicked claw hammer -- MARS Look what I found.He enters and tests at Jennifer's binds -- MARS (CONT'D) You tied her like a pussy. Make it tight.As Kevin reties the bindings, Mars rips the phone from thewall. He smashes the phone jack with the hammer, crushingit. Then he goes to the window and drives a heavy nail intothe sill, nailing the window closed --Mars returns to Jennifer and once more checks her binds -- MARS (CONT'D) Better.He tears off a strip of duct tape and presses it over hermouth -- KEVIN Make sure she can breathe.Mars rubs his fingers hard over the tape covering her mouth.He massages the tape into her skin, slow, sensual -- MARS Go downstairs, Kevin.Jennifer looks at Kevin, her eyes pleading that he not leave,but Kevin is cowed; he leaves --Jennifer looks back at Mars --Mars leans close to her. She is terrified that he is goingto kiss her, but, instead, he sniffs, smelling her -- MARS (CONT'D) I want to show you something.Mars hooks the claw hammer under his shirt and lifts toexpose his chest. A large tattoo in flowing script is linedacross his body: A Mother's Son. MARS (CONT'D) It cost two hundred forty dollars, but I was happy to spend it. I love my mom. You see these?Mars points out hard gray knots that speckle his chest as ifhe were diseased. He fingers the lumps sensuously as iftouching them excites him -- MARS (CONT'D) My mom burned me with cigarettes.Jennifer is both disgusted and terrified. Mars stares at heremptily for another moment, then lowers his shirt and leaves without another word.INT. THOMAS'S ROOM -- NIGHTThe room is dark. Thomas is tied firmly to the bed. The cords cut into Thomas's wrists and Thomas can't reach theknots, but Mars made one mistake: He tied Thomas to theheadboard posts, and one of the newels has been loose foryears --Thomas stretches against the ropes to reach the newel, thentwists it back and forth. He works it harder and harderuntil the newel slides off its pin, and suddenly his hand isfree, though still tied to the newel --Thomas peels the tape from his mouth, then unties theremaining binds and frees himself from the newel. He slipsoff his bed and crawls along the wall to his closet --INT. THOMAS'S CLOSET -- NIGHTA service hatch that opens into the attic crawlspace is builtinto the wall beneath Thomas's clothes. Thomas prys open thehatch, then reaches inside for a small flashlight. He flicks it on, then climbs into the eaves of the roof --INT. CRAWLSPACE -- NIGHTThe crawlspace is a long triangular tunnel that follows theedge of the roof. It was built for plumbers and airconditioning technicians, but Thomas has taken the space forhis own: Witness the stack of Penthouse, pictures of sportsheroes tacked to the rafters, and old soda cans strewn between the joists --Thomas scurries quietly through the tunnel, heading for --INT. JENNIFER'S CLOSET -- NIGHTThomas pushes through a hatch identical to the one in his owncloset, then creeps to the door -- THOMAS (whispers) Jen!INT. JENNIFER'S ROOM -- NIGHTJennifer twists around to see him, mumbling through the tape -- THOMAS Sit still! If they're in the security room, they can see you on the monitors.Jennifer quiets. Thomas slips out of the closet and creepstoward her along the wall -- THOMAS (CONT'D) I figured out what these cameras can see last year when Mom and Dad went to Lake Arrowhead. It can't see me over here, but it's looking at you, so don't move!Thomas reaches up from behind Jennifer and jerks the tape offher mouth -- JENNIFER Ow! Shit! THOMAS Be quiet! Listen!Thomas is hiding behind Jennifer so that the camera cannotsee him -- JENNIFER No one's coming. THOMAS That big asshole nailed my windows. JENNIFER Mine, too. THOMAS We can use the crawlspace to get downstairs. Then we can run for it. JENNIFER No! I'm not going to leave Daddy with them!Thomas thinks about that and decides that he can't leavetheir father, either -- THOMAS We can't carry him. JENNIFER You go, Thomas. You get out, and I'll stay with Daddy. THOMAS I'm not gonna leave you! JENNIFER Go! If you get out, maybe you can help the police!Thomas suddenly realizes what he has to do -- THOMAS We'll all go, Jennifer. All of us or none of us. I know where Daddy keeps a gun.Jennifer jerks so hard that she almost tips over the chair -- JENNIFER (loud) You leave that gun alone! THOMAS Shh, they'll hear you! JENNIFER (louder) Better than you getting killed! Don't touch that gun! Daddy says --Thomas slaps the tape back over her mouth. Jennifer struggles helplessly as Thomas slips back into the closet,and is gone --EXT. YORK ESTATES -- STREET -- NIGHTThe Sheriff's Crisis Response Team rolls through the streetslike an invading army: A brown sedan leads a huge van knownas the Mobile Command Post, which is followed by a Sheriff's SWAT support vehicle, two SWAT Suburbans, and four radio units.Pools of light from the helicopters follow their progress --EXT. COMMAND STREET -- NIGHTTalley walks out to meet the lead vehicle as the convoystops. Up and down the row, uniformed Sheriffs pile out oftheir vehicles and off-load their gear --Two people climb out of the lead car: Will Maddox, abespectacled African-American Sheriff's SWAT negotiator, andCaptain Laura Martin, the CRT commander -- TALLEY I'm Talley. Who's in charge? MARTIN Laura Martin. This is Will Maddox, the primary negotiator -- MADDOX Is the perimeter around the house secure? TALLEY I've got fourteen officers on my department including me. We're as secure as we can be. MADDOX (to Martin) Permission to deploy the line? MARTIN Do it. TALLEY (to Maddox) Don't crowd the house. The alpha's a kid named Rooney. He's amped up and volatile.Maddox turns away to bark orders into his shoulder mike -- MARTIN Sounds like you know the job. TALLEY I've done it once or twice. I blocked their phones to incoming calls, so you'll have to cut in a hard line to talk to him. MARTIN (over her shoulder) Maddox! You got that? MADDOX Doing it now! MARTIN (back to Talley) I'd like you to brief my supervisors before we take over the scene. TALLEY Whatever you want.Talley and Martin hurry toward her troops --INT. THE SMITHS' GARAGE -- NIGHTThe garage is dark, lit only by the light that comes from thekitchen's open door, as Dennis, Mars and a reluctant Kevinenter -- KEVIN Someone should stay with Mr. Smith. What if he wakes up? DENNIS (annoyed) That's why we tied him, dumbass. Now come here and see this --Dennis shows them a small casement window, and pushes openthe window to reveal a thick hedge -- DENNIS (CONT'D) (excited) These bushes follow the wall into the neighbor's yard. All we need is some kind of diversion and we're home free. KEVIN That's crazy, Dennis. The cops will see us. DENNIS Not if they're looking at something else. KEVIN Like what? MARS Let's burn the house.Mars says it so simply that the moment is frozen. Mars isholding the big claw hammer, kneading it as if it was aliving thing. His face is masked by shadows, but his eyesboth glow as if already reflecting flame --INT. CRAWLSPACE ABOVE THE LAUNDRY ROOM -- NIGHTWe see Dennis, Kevin, and Mars through a slit overhead asthey emerge from the garage and move back into the house --Thomas is watching them. He has cracked open the servicehatch in the laundry room ceiling to make sure that his wayis clear --INT. LAUNDRY ROOM -- NIGHTThe room is dark. When Dennis and the others are gone, theceiling hatch lifts, and Thomas lets himself down. He slidesonto the washing machine and then to the floor --Thomas cups one hand over his flashlight and turns it on. Helets light leak through his fingers so that he can see. Thebeam cuts across a door to the garage, car keys on key hooks,and Jennifer's purse hanging from one of the hooks --INT. HOBBY ROOM -- NIGHTThis is a small room off the end of the laundry with a workbench, a stool, and shelves above the bench for Walter'shobby supplies --Thomas shines the light over the shelves, spotting the hardplastic pistol case on the highest shelf. That's the target;that's the goal --Thomas uses the stool to climb onto the bench --INT. MASTER BEDROOM -- NIGHTDennis is in the doorway to the security closet, handing outone of the money bags to Kevin -- KEVIN We can't carry all this. It's too heavy. DENNIS I've been carrying you our whole fuckin' lives.Kevin drops the bag and tries to reason with his brother -- KEVIN Everything we're doing is making it worse. You can't let him burn this house.Dennis abruptly grabs Kevin by the throat, his face hard withfury -- DENNIS Nothing's worse than listening to you. I'm warning you, Kevin--stop holding me back. Now you pick up that fuckin' money and get ready to go.Dennis glares at Kevin another moment, then lets go and stepsback into the closet --INT. THE CLOSET -- NIGHTDennis lifts the second bag of cash when the monitors catchhis eye: The Sheriffs SWAT unit can be seen moving intoposition. Dennis totally freaks -- DENNIS They're coming! Kev, Mars, they're coming!!!Dennis drops the cash and bolts out of the closet --INT. KITCHEN -- NIGHTMars is placing two buckets of gasoline in the hall as Dennisand Kevin pound down the hall -- DENNIS The cops are comin'! MARS I got the gasoline -- DENNIS We don't have time!Dennis runs to the French doors. He sees lights at the rearof the property and SHOOTS through the glass -- DENNIS (CONT'D) Get the kids! They're our only chance!Dennis FIRES AGAIN and runs for the stairs --INT. HOBBY ROOM -- NIGHTThomas is straining to reach the pistol which is a fractionof an inch beyond his grasp when he hears Dennis shouting --Thomas glances helplessly at the gun case--so near, yet sofar--then scrambles off the bench and --INT. LAUNDRY ROOM -- NIGHTThomas is climbing onto the washing machine when he once moresees Jennifer's purse hanging on a key hook --Thomas jumps from the washer, grabs the purse, then scramblesinto the ceiling as GUNSHOTS ECHO through the house --EXT. COMMAND STREET -- NIGHTMartin, Maddox, and her supervisors are gathered aroundTalley when the gunshots crack across the neighborhood -- TALLEY (startled) Who's that shooting? Martin, what's going on?Radio transmissions crackle over Martin's radio -- RADIO VOICES Shots fired! We are taking fire on the back wall!Talley immediately knows what's happening, and he knows why -- TALLEY They're too close! I told you not to crowd him! Pull back your people; do not breach that house!Talley sprints toward the cul-de-sac --INT. CRAWLSPACE -- NIGHTThomas races through the narrow black tunnel. He slips offthe rafters and almost falls through the ceiling. He'slosing precious time --INT. THE STAIRWELL -- NIGHTDennis and Mars pound up the stairs, getting closer to hisroom --INT. THE CRAWLSPACE -- NIGHTThomas pushes his way into his closet --INT. UPSTAIRS HALL -- NIGHTDennis and Mars reach the second floor --INT. THOMAS' ROOM -- NIGHTThomas scrambles into bed just before Dennis jerks open thedoor. Dennis drags him off the bed and carries him out ofthe room --EXT. CUL-DE-SAC -- NIGHTTalley, Martin, and Maddox run into position behind aSheriff's unit where a deputy has set up the dedicated crisisphone --Talley grabs up the phone -- TALLEY (to the deputy) This thing good?Talley doesn't wait for the confused deputy to answer; hepresses the button in the handle that dials the phone -- MADDOX What in hell are you doing? He's shooting at my men!The phone rings in Talley's ear -- TALLEY (to Maddox) Then get your men off the wall! (to Martin) You breach that house, we're gonna have a bloodbath! I know this guy, Captain -- I can talk to him. MARTIN (to Maddox) Order your men to stand down.The phone is still ringing. Talley pulls the mike from thedeputy's car and speaks over the public address -- TALLEY (over the p.a.) Look out the window, Dennis. We are NOT entering the house. We're pulling back.INT. SMITH'S OFFICE -- NIGHTDennis is holding Thomas around the neck, using the boy as ashield. Kevin is cowering on the floor and Mars is holdingJennifer. Dennis snatches up the phone -- DENNIS (screaming into the phone) You fuck! I got a fuckin' gun to this kid's head! I'll kill'm, you fuck!Intercut Talley outside -- TALLEY It's over now, Dennis! Don't hurt anyone. DENNIS (still screaming) We'll burn this fuckin' place down! I got gasoline all over in here!Talley takes a deep breath; he forces himself to speakquietly, calmly -- TALLEY No one's coming in. A couple of guys out here got carried away.Dennis peers out the front. Talley's careful manner iscalming him -- DENNIS Goddamned right they got carried away. It looks like an army out there.Talley mutes the phone to speak to Martin -- TALLEY (to Martin) It's over. He's cooling off.Talley glances at Maddox. Maddox nods, his expression sayingthat Talley was right -- DENNIS Talley? TALLEY (back into the phone) I'm here. DENNIS I want a helicopter to take us to Mexico. TALLEY That's not going to happen, Dennis. They won't give you a helicopter. DENNIS I'll give you these people. TALLEY The Mexican police would arrest you as soon as it landed. There's only one way out and you're doing it right now--just keep talking to us. (mutes phone; to Martin and Maddox) I think we could make the transition now. Maddox, you good to go?Maddox nods at Martin; he's good to go -- TALLEY (CONT'D) (to Dennis) Hey, Dennis? Can I let you in on a personal secret? DENNIS (hesitantly) What? TALLEY I gotta piss real bad.Dennis can't help himself; he laughs -- DENNIS You're a funny guy, Talley. TALLEY I'm going to put on an officer named Will Maddox. You talk to him for a while.Talley hands the phone to Maddox, who moves past Talley for abetter view of the house. Talley looks grimly at Martin -- TALLEY (CONT'D) He says he has gasoline set to burn the place. MARTIN Jesus. He must've siphoned it from the cars. TALLEY If you go in, you can't use tear gas or flashbangs. The whole place would go up. MARTIN (not without humor) Looks like you're bailing out at the right time. TALLEY (returns her smile) That's why you get the big bucks, Captain.Talley is moving away when his radio pops -- LOUISE'S VOICE Chief, base. TALLEY (keying his shoulder mike) Go. LOUISE'S VOICE I couldn't find Jane. She wasn't at the restaurant. TALLEY You have her cell number? LOUISE'S VOICE She didn't answer. TALLEY They might be at the house. Keep trying and let me know. I'm going to be here a little while longer.Talley closes his phone and continues away --INT. WALTER'S OFFICE -- NIGHTDennis and Kevin are at the television, watching an aerialview of the Sheriffs deploying around the house. Jenniferand Thomas are huddled by their father -- KEVIN We're surrounded. They're all over the neighborhood.Mars enters carrying candles and flashlights. He lights acandle and place it on a table -- DENNIS What the fuck is that? MARS They'll cut the power.Mars tosses a flashlight to Dennis -- JENNIFER What about my father? DENNIS Aw, Jesus, not more of this. JENNIFER Look at him! I think he's dying! DENNIS (to Kevin and Mars) Take'm back upstairs, but don't tie'm like before. That little fuck untied himself anyway.Dennis returns to the shutters as Mars and Kevin take thekids --INT. THOMAS' ROOM -- NIGHTMars shoves Thomas into the room, then lifts the claw hammer.For an instant, we think he's going to hit the boy--but hesmashes off the door knob, instead.Mars glares at Thomas, then pulls the door closed. The knobon Thomas's side is gone; there's no way for Thomas to openthe door.But that's okay by Thomas. He waits until he's sure thatMars is gone, and then he hurries back to his closet --INT. THOMAS' CLOSET -- NIGHTThomas pulls open the hatch, fishes out his flashlight, thendumps the contents of Jennifer's purse on the floor.He picks up her cell phone.INT. MRS. PENA'S BATHROOM -- NIGHTTalley closes his eyes with a blissful expression as afamiliar sound fills the bathroom; he's taking a piss.His radio crackles -- LOUISE'S VOICE Chief, base.Talley finishes his business, and keys his mike -- TALLEY Did you find Jane and Mandy? LOUISE'S VOICE Could you call me back on your phone? Right away. TALLEY What's wrong with the radio? LOUISE'S VOICE (hesitantly) Other people can hear us. Just call. Please. TALLEY Stand by.Now Talley is worried. He pulls out his phone and punchesthe speed dial. It rings only once --Intercut Louise, at her desk outside Talley's office -- TALLEY (CONT'D) Is something wrong with Jane? LOUISE We have a boy on the line. He says he's Thomas Smith and he's calling from the house. TALLEY It's a crank, Louise. C'mon, don't waste my time with that! LOUISE His cell number belongs to the Smiths. I think it's real, Chief. I think this boy is inside that house.Talley worries it only for a moment -- TALLEY Put him on.Talley pushes out of the bathroom into --INT. MRS. PENA'S FAMILY ROOM -- NIGHTHe flags Leigh Metzger as he cups the phone -- TALLEY (to Metzger) Get Martin. Right away.As Metzger hurries away, we intercut Thomas, hiding in theshadows on his bed, whispering so as not to be overheard -- TALLEY (CONT'D) (into the phone) This is Chief Talley. Tell me your name, son. THOMAS Thomas Smith. I'm in the house that's on TV. Dennis hit my dad and now he won't wake up. You gotta help him.Talley can tell by the tremor in the boy's voice--this is forreal -- TALLEY Slow down, Thomas. Take it easy and talk to me. Was your father shot? THOMAS Dennis hit him. His head's all big and he won't wake up. I'm really scared. TALLEY How about you and your sister? THOMAS We're okay. TALLEY Where are you right now? THOMAS In my room.Talley hurries to a large sketch of the Smiths' floor planlaid out on the dining room table -- TALLEY That's on the second floor. Could you climb out your window if we were downstairs to catch you? THOMAS They nailed the windows. I can't get'm open.Martin enters with Leigh Metzger. Talley cups the phone togive her the headline -- TALLEY (to Martin) I've got the boy on the phone. He's using a cell phone. (back to Thomas) What was that, son? I didn't hear you. THOMAS If I try to climb out they'll see me on the security cameras. They would see you outside, too --Thomas hears someone outside his door -- THOMAS (CONT'D) They're coming!Thomas hangs up, jamming his phone behind the bed -- TALLEY Thomas? Thomas...?Talley lowers the phone -- TALLEY (CONT'D) He says that his father's hurt. MARTIN If we have a man dying in there, we'll have to go in. TALLEY They have security cameras. Rooney would see you coming. MARTIN Did the boy say that any of them are in immediate danger? TALLEY No. He said that his father's unconscious; he didn't say he was dying. MARTIN Then I think we should wait. Do you agree?Talley finally nods -- TALLEY You want me to stick around, I could -- MARTIN You've been here all day, Chief. Take a break. See your family. If I need you, I'll call.Talley looks like the most tired guy in the world. He nodshis good-night, then turns away --INT. TALLEY'S CAR -- NIGHTTalley slides into his car outside Mrs. Pena's home. He'sgot a lot on his mind, and not all of it centers around 455Castle Way. He punches a number into his cell phone --He listens to ringing, and then his own voice answers -- TALLEY'S VOICE MESSAGE This is Jeff Talley. Leave your name and number after the beep.We hear the beep, then -- TALLEY (into his phone) Jane? If you're there, pick up, okay? Mandy?No one answers. Talley closes his phone, his apprehensionincreasing --EXT. YORK ESTATES FRONT GATE -- NIGHTThe Bristo officers manning the gate swing the blockade asideand wave Talley through --EXT. MEDIA AREA -- NIGHTThe assembled television microwave vans, radio newsvans, andreporters are parked together in an empty lot one block fromthe front gate.Ken Seymore steps into the street, speaking into a cell phoneas he watches Talley drive away -- SEYMORE (into his phone) He's leaving now.EXT. RED LIGHT INTERSECTION -- DAYA traffic light on the outskirts of town, deserted untilTalley's car pulls to a stop --INT. TALLEY'S CAR -- NIGHTSuddenly, two masked men point guns at his head, one from thedriver's side, one from the passengers. They're wearingjackets, black ski masks, and gloves. The man on thepassenger side sports a big gold Rolex, so we'll call him theWatchman -- THE WATCHMAN (meaning the gun) Do you see the fuckin' gun?! Look at it!Talley freezes. He's been blindsided by this insane shit,but he knows better than to move -- TALLEY Take it easy.The man on the driver's side gets into the backseat, then theWatchman gets into the passenger side. The man behind Talleyhooks an arm around Talley's throat while the Watchman searches for Talley's gun -- THE WATCHMAN Where's your gun? TALLEY I'm the Chief. I don't carry it.The Watchman nods at the backseater, who releases Talley.A dark green Mustang roars up ahead of Talley's car. A second car tucks in tight on Talley's rear -- TALLEY (CONT'D) Who are you? THE WATCHMAN Follow the Mustang. We won't go far.The Mustang pulls out, and Talley follows.EXT. A DESERTED ALLEY -- NIGHTThe three cars turn into the alley. They stop, the first andlast cars bumper-to-bumper with Talley's. The cars are so close to Talley that his own vehicle is pinned; he couldn't drive away now even if he wanted --INT. TALLEY'S CAR -- NIGHTThe Watchman puts Talley's car in park, turns off theignition, and takes the key. THE WATCHMAN I know you're scared, but unless you do something stupid we're not going to hurt you. You understand?Two more masked men approach from the other cars, one comingto Talley's window, the other getting into the back seatbehind the Watchman. THE WATCHMAN (CONT'D) Don't just fuckin' sit there, dumbass. Do you understand? TALLEY What do you want? THE WATCHMAN These guys are going to take hold of you. Don't freak out. It's for your own good.The three men take hold of Talley, the man behind againlooping his arm around Talley's neck, the other two eachtwisting Talley's arms -- TALLEY What is this?The Watchman holds a distinctive white cell phone to Talley'sear -- THE WATCHMAN Say hello. JANE'S VOICE Jeff? Is that you?Talley goes berserk. He bucks and tries to pull away, butthe three men hold tight --The Watchman closes the phone -- THE WATCHMAN (trying to calm Talley) I know, I know--she's all right. Your kid's all right, too. C'mon, now, relax. From this point on, you control what happens to them.Talley can barely breathe, they're holding him so tight -- THE WATCHMAN (CONT'D) Can we let go? You past your shock and all that, we can turn you loose and you won't do something stupid? TALLEY You can let go.The Watchman glances at the men; they let go -- THE WATCHMAN Here's the deal--Walter Smith has two computer disks like this in his house. They're labeled 'Marlon' and 'Al.'The Watchman holds up a thick black Zip disk. Talley'sexpression tells us that this is the weirdest shit he's everheard -- TALLEY Marlon and Al.... THE WATCHMAN We want them. You will not let anyone go into that house--or anything come out-- until my people recover these disks. TALLEY I can't control what happens. The Sheriffs are running the scene. THE WATCHMAN You will re-assume command. In two hours, a group of my people will arrive at York Estates. You will tell the Sheriffs that they are an FBI tactical team.The Watchman puts the white cell phone into Talley's hand -- THE WATCHMAN (CONT'D) When this phone rings, you answer. It will be me. I'll tell you what to do. When I have what I want, you get your family. TALLEY You want . . . Marlon and Al. THE WATCHMAN I have people in York Estates right under your nose. If you do anything except what I'm telling you, you'll get Jane and Amanda back in the mail. We clear on that? TALLEY These disks . . . where are they? THE WATCHMAN Smith will know.The Watchman and the others get out of Talley's car. Thedoors slam shut. The Watchman leans in -- THE WATCHMAN When it rings, answer.The Watchman tosses the keys into Talley's lap. We hear cardoors open and close; the cars, front and back, roar to lifeand speed away --Talley focuses on the Mustang's license plate, franticallyscratching down the number --INT. BRISTO CAMINO POLICE DEPARTMENT -- NIGHTThe place is deserted except for Louise, currently at herdesk to monitor radio communications.Talley enters, looking as if he's stricken. Louise can'thelp herself but to react -- LOUISE You look terrible. Chief, are you all right?Talley barely glances at her, going directly to his office --INT. TALLEY'S OFFICE -- NIGHTTalley steps inside and peels off his uniform shirt. Hetakes a bullet-resistant vest and a black sweatshirt from hiscloset. He straps on the vest, then pulls on the sweatshirt.Talley sits at his desk and lifts out a ballistic nylonpistol case from the lower drawer.He takes out his old SWAT combat piece: This isn't a pussy9mm; it's a finely tuned .45-caliber Colt Model 1911. Oneshot, one kill. Talley ejects the empty magazine, then loadsit with a deadly efficiency. He slams home the magazine --Talley clips the gun to his belt under his sweatshirt. He'sready to rock. The camera finds the photograph of Talleyduring his days as a SWAT tactical officer --He was one bad motherfucker.INT. THE MAIN ROOM -- NIGHTTalley heads for the front door -- TALLEY I'm going back to York. Have Larry meet me at the front gate.Talley exits without a backward glance --EXT. YORK ESTATES FRONT GATE -- NIGHTThe helicopters orbit in the distance; the empty lot with thenews vans is in the background.Talley turns into the development, then stops at the side ofthe street where Larry Anders is waiting --INT. TALLEY'S CAR -- NIGHTAnders slides into the passenger seat. He sees a differentTalley now, focused and grim -- ANDERS What's up, Chief?Talley stares at Anders, trying to decide: Can I trust him?Will he rat me out to the Watchman and cost the lives of mywife and child? ANDERS (CONT'D) Did I do something wrong?Talley gives him a slip of paper -- TALLEY I want you to run this license plate and phone number. Then I want you to find out everything you can about Walter Smith. ANDERS The guy in the house? TALLEY Go back to the office. Run his name through the FBI and the NLETS database. I think he's involved with illegal activity or he associates with people who are.Anders glances at the slip again, then tucks it away -- ANDERS Wow. Sure, right away, Chief. TALLEY Don't tell anyone what you're doing, not Louise, not the other guys, not the Sheriffs. You understand me, Larry? ANDERS I guess so. TALLEY Fuck guessing. You keep your mouth shut. ANDERS I will, Chief. Absolutely. TALLEY Get to work.Anders climbs out and Talley rockets away --EXT. COMMAND STREET -- NIGHTTalley pulls up behind the Sheriffs' command van. Martin,surprised to see Talley, steps from the van -- TALLEY I'm re-assuming command of the scene. Martin is surprised and angry -- MARTIN Excuse me? You requested our help. You turned over command -- TALLEY And now I'm taking it back. We're getting Smith out of the house.Talley heads for the cul-de-sac --INT. JENNIFER'S BEDROOM -- NIGHTJennifer is on her bed in the darkness, groggy with fear andfatigue. She hears someone outside in the hall -- JENNIFER Thomas?The door knob rattles. Jennifer slides out of bed and goesto the door -- JENNIFER (CONT'D) Thomas, is that you?The door suddenly opens, and Mars is framed in the dim light.Jennifer jumps back, terrified -- JENNIFER (CONT'D) What do you want? MARS We can't make the microwave work.That seems so outlandish that Jennifer is confused -- JENNIFER What? MARS We're hungry. You're going to cook.Mars grabs her hair, and pushes her out the door --INT. KITCHEN -- NIGHTMars shoves Jennifer into the kitchen. Two frozen pizzas arewaiting on the counter -- MARS Make the pizza. I want scrambled eggs and hot dogs on mine. JENNIFER (under her breath) How about dog shit?Mars takes a carton of eggs and a package of hot dogs fromthe refrigerator -- MARS With hot sauce and butter.Jennifer takes a bowl from the cupboard. When she sets downthe bowl, she sees the handle of the paring knife by the foodprocessor. Jennifer breaks eggs into the bowl -- JENNIFER I need a frying pan. Would you get one? Over there, under the range.As soon as Mars turns away, Jennifer palms the knife andpushes it into the waist of her shorts --EXT. THE CUL-DE-SAC -- NIGHTTalley joins Maddox behind the car -- MADDOX What put a wild hair up your ass? TALLEY I changed my mind. That's all you need to know.Talley picks up the dedicated crisis phone that's been cutinto the Smiths' telephone line. He lifts the receiver andpresses a button. The phone inside the house rings --Intercut Dennis inside Smith's office. He answers -- DENNIS That you, Talley? TALLEY The one and only. We got a little problem out here, Dennis. DENNIS You oughta try on the problem I got in here. TALLEY I need you to let me talk to Mr. Smith.Dennis shoots a nervous glance at Walter, who's twitching andshuddering on the couch -- DENNIS We been through that. Forget it. TALLEY We can't forget it. The Sheriffs think you won't let me talk to Smith because he's dead. They think you murdered him.Maddox can't believe that Talley is saying this -- MADDOX (low, so that Dennis can't hear) What in hell are you doing?! DENNIS That's bullshit! The guy's right here! He's alive! TALLEY (pressing Dennis harder) If you don't let me talk to him, they're going to attack the house.Maddox grabs Talley's arm, his voice a low hiss -- MADDOX You're gonna set him off, goddamnit! That's crazy! DENNIS (screaming) They better not!Talley pushes Maddox away and amps the pressure on Dennis -- TALLEY Help me keep them out! Let me speak to Smith, Dennis. Let me speak to him right now.Dennis is freaking. He believes that the Sheriffs are about to crash through the doors -- DENNIS SHIT!!!!Now Talley throttles back; he senses that Dennis is at the breaking point and wants to coax him back from the edge -- TALLEY (calmer; coaxing) Talk to me, Dennis. Help me help you. Why can't you put Smith on the phone?Dennis finally makes the admission -- DENNIS (quietly) He got knocked out. It's like he's sleeping. He just lays there.Talley gives a thumbs-up to Maddox, who sits back in awe.This crazy shit is working -- TALLEY (to Dennis) Now I understand. That helps. I can make them understand that. DENNIS Okay. TALLEY Let me come get him. DENNIS Fuck that! You bastards will jump me! TALLEY If you won't let me come in, then put him outside. DENNIS You'll cap my ass as soon as I step out the door! TALLEY You've already helped yourself once, Dennis; be smart again. If you save his life, it'll help when you get to court.Dennis is at the edge; he's looking straight down into hisdeepest fears. He finally relents -- DENNIS Fuck you, Talley, fuck you! You and one other guy, but that's it! I want you stripped! I gotta know you don't have guns!Dennis slams down the phone --Talley lowers the crisis phone, then looks at Maddox -- TALLEY Bring up the ambulance.EXT. THE CUL-DE-SAC -- A FEW MINUTES LATERMobile banks of flood lamps illuminate the front of thehouse. The ambulance waits behind the lights; tacticalofficers with M5s and M16s hunker in position in case theprogram goes south --Talley and a paramedic named Bigelow emerge between thelights, wearing only shorts and shoes. Bigelow is carrying acollapsable stretcher --They stop in the mouth of the drive with a full view of the front door. Talley lifts his cell phone -- TALLEY (into the phone) Okay, Dennis, we won't approach the house until you've closed the door.The front door opens, a crack at first, then wider. The lineof officers behind the lights shifts -- TALLEY (CONT'D) (over his shoulder) Easy....Kevin and Mars waddle out with Walter Smith between them.They put him down about six feet from the front door, thenreturn to the house -- TALLEY (CONT'D) (to Bigelow) Let's do it.Talley and Bigelow move forward. When they reach Walter,Bigelow opens the stretcher and locks out the frame. Hepeels back Walter's eyelids and flashes a penlight -- TALLEY (CONT'D) How's he look? BIGELOW He's got a concussion for sure. I'm going to brace him.As Bigelow sets a cervical neck brace, Talley gets the creepyfeeling that he's being watched. He turns toward theshutters, and finds a pair of eyes only inches from his own.It's Mars.Talley stares at Mars, and Mars stares back. It's as if they're locked in a contest of wills until -- BIGELOW (CONT'D) Let's get him on the stretcher.Talley turns away to help Bigelow -- BIGELOW (CONT'D) I'll support his head and shoulders. You lift his hips and knees. On three. Three.As they carry Walter away, Talley glances back at the eyes.Mars is still watching him --IN THE CUL-DE-SAC--TALLEY AND BIGELOWare surrounded by cops as soon as they step into the shadowsbehind the lights. Another paramedic takes the stretcherfrom Talley. Maddox is waiting with Talley's clothes -- MADDOX You ready to tell me what's going on?Talley pulls on his pants -- TALLEY No.Talley stalks straight to the ambulance, pulling on hissweatshirt as he goes --INT. THE AMBULANCE -- NIGHTA young physician named Klaus is examining Walter as Talleysteps up into the ambulance -- TALLEY I'm the chief of police here. I have to talk to him. KLAUS Ain't gonna happen. We've got unequal pupilation. He could have an intracranial hematoma or a fracture or both.Talley ignores the doctor and shakes Walter by the face -- TALLEY Smith! Wake up! KLAUS What are you doing?! Stop that!Walter's eyes flutter, one more open than the other. Talleyleans closer -- TALLEY (to Smith) Wake up, goddamnit. Who are you?Klaus tries to shove Talley away, but it's like pushing awall -- KLAUS This man needs a hospital! Stop it!Talley grabs Klaus by the arm, trying to make him see -- TALLEY Use smelling salts, give him a shot, whatever. I just need a minute.Bigelow climbs behind the wheel and starts the ambulance.Talley pounds on the wall, shouting -- TALLEY (CONT'D) Stop the fuckin' engine!Klaus and Bigelow are both staring at Talley. Sheriffs andTalley's own officers have gathered at the open rear of theambulance to see what all the shouting is about --Klaus pointedly looks at Talley's hand gripping his arm. Hespeaks slowly, trying to make Talley understand -- KLAUS I'm not going to wake him. I don't even know that I can. TALLEY Just one question. Please. KLAUS He. Can't. Answer.Talley stares at Walter Smith. So close. So damned close.Walter knows about the disks. Walter might even know who hasJane and Amanda. But now Walter can't talk --Talley turns away and climbs out of the ambulance --EXT. THE CUL-DE-SAC -- NIGHTAs Talley emerges from the van, he pulls Metzger aside -- TALLEY I want you waiting in Smith's lap. I want to know the second--and I mean the second--that he wakes up.As Metzger hurries after the ambulance, a phone in Talley'spocket rings. He's startled and scared; it might be theWatchman. Talley takes out the Watchman's white phone, butit's not ringing.He answers his other phone -- TALLEY (CONT'D) (into phone) Talley. ANDERS' VOICE It's me, Chief. Can you talk?Talley notices that Martin, Maddox, and the others arestaring at him. He turns away -- TALLEY (into his phone) What'd you find out? ANDERS' VOICE The cell phone is registered to a jewelry store in Beverly Hills. The phone company shows no unusual -- TALLEY (cutting him off) Dead end--it's a clone. What about the Mustang? ANDERS' VOICE It was stolen.Talley lowers the phone in frustration, then -- TALLEY You get anything on Smith? ANDERS' VOICE Chief...it's like none of this exists. I'm sorry. TALLEY Keep trying.Talley pockets his phone. He watches the ambulance pullaway, then strides back through the banks of lights to thenearest patrol car. He grabs the dash mike and keys thepublic address -- TALLEY (CONT'D) (through the p.a.) Call me. If you're safe, call me.Talley's voice echoes across the neighborhood. Every cop inthe cul-de-sac stares at him. He has addressed the housefor, apparently, no reason. Dennis shouts from his window -- DENNIS I'll be safe when I'm outta here, you asshole! I'm not talking any more!Talley drops the mike without a word and walks away --INT. GLEN HOWELL'S MOTEL ROOM -- NIGHTHowell is on the phone with Ken Seymore, watching thetelevised news coverage with increasing alarm -- HOWELL Was Smith talking?Intercut Seymore, who is reporting from the York front gateas the ambulance roars away, siren wailing -- SEYMORE I heard he's fucked up. They're taking him to the hospital. HOWELL Goddamnit, tell me what you know. Did the cops go in? Did Smith have the disks? SEYMORE I don't know. Talley talked those punks into letting Smith out. He's fucking us over, Glen. That guy is fucking us over. HOWELL What hospital? SEYMORE Canyon Country.Howell slams down the phone. He breathes deeply, taking amoment to center himself. He lifts the phone and punches anumber -- HOWELL I have another job for you.EXT. COMMAND STREET -- NIGHTTalley is by himself, pacing at the curb well away from theother officers. He is holding his cell phone. Waiting.Finally, it rings. Talley answers, listens, then -- TALLEY Put him on.Intercut Thomas, phoning Talley in his room -- THOMAS Is my daddy okay? TALLEY The doctors are taking care of him right now. Thomas . . . are you safe? Can you talk? THOMAS I think so. TALLEY I need your help with something. But if you think those guys could catch you, then I don't want you to do it, okay? THOMAS Okay. TALLEY I'm serious, Thomas; I don't want you to get hurt. THOMAS What do you want me to do? TALLEY Your dad has two computer disks. They have funny names: Marlon and Al. THOMAS He has lots of disks. TALLEY I think he was working on them today, so they're probably in his office. Could you find them and see who they belong to? THOMAS Dennis won't let me go to the desk. He makes me sit on the floor.Talley absorbs the bad news like his last best hope of savinghis family is circling the drain -- THOMAS (CONT'D) But I might be able to sneak into the office if they're not around. Then I could open the disks here in my room. TALLEY I thought they locked you in your room. THOMAS I can get into the crawlspace from my closet and climb all over the house. TALLEY Can you get into the office? THOMAS I can get into the den. The office is right across the hall.Talley thinks about what the boy is saying, and what he'llhave to do to get Marlon and Al -- TALLEY If I get Rooney into the back of the house, can you find the disks without being caught? THOMAS Yes, sir.Talley glances toward the SWAT Command Van as he comes upwith a plan --EXT. THE COMMAND VAN -- NIGHTMartin, Maddox, and several of her supervisors are gatheredoutside the van as Talley approaches --Martin sees him coming and steps away to meet him. She'spissed off and she wants answers -- MARTIN I want to know what in hell you're doing. TALLEY I'm looking for you. I need your tactical unit. MARTIN I'm not stupid! You can't get out of here fast enough, then you take back command; you agree to wait on Smith, then you risk everything in a stupid stunt to get him out -- TALLEY (interrupting) Don't question me, Captain! This is my crime scene! MARTIN (shouting over him) -- then when you get him, you damn near assault the man in the ambulance! What is going on?Talley glares at her, half-a-heartbeat from going off, andthen he throttles back -- TALLEY (simply) I'm a negotiator, Captain. I negotiate. That's all you need to know. Now are you going to help me or not?Martin weighs the determination in his eyes. She's angry,she's resentful, and she wants to knock Talley onto his ass--but, instead, she glances back to her van -- MARTIN Maddox! Let's give the man a hand!INT. SMITHS' DEN -- NIGHTDennis steps through the double doors that open from theentry and admires the room--rich paneled walls, soft leathercouches and chairs, and a lush beaten-copper bar. WalterSmith's office is directly across the hall.Dennis saunters behind the bar, letting his fingers play overthe copper, then pours a stiff Ketel One on the rocks.Kevin appears behind him, watching, as Dennis takes a seat onone of the leather bar stools, then peels a hundred off athick roll and drops it on the bar -- DENNIS (to an imaginary bartender) Keep the change, m'man.Dennis takes a deep drink of the vodka as Kevin approaches -- KEVIN We're fucked. DENNIS We're fucked until we think of a way out; then we're rich. KEVIN There is no way out. DENNIS For chrissake, please! Help me celebrate! I figured it out! KEVIN Celebrate what? Going to prison?Dennis enjoys another stiff belt -- DENNIS No, dumbass--Talley. Talley's the guy who keeps us in here, and Talley's the guy who can let us out.Dennis grins as if he's discovered the wisdom of the ages -- DENNIS (CONT'D) Cops want to be rich like everyone else. All we have to do is share. (leans closer and lowers his voice) And if he wants someone to swing for the Chinaman, we'll give'm Mars. MARS Dennis.Mars is standing in the doors, large and ominous. For aninsane moment Dennis thinks that Mars has heard, but then -- MARS (CONT'D) The food's ready.Dennis grins, then shoves Kevin out of the room ahead of him,the three of them disappearing toward the kitchen as --The camera drifts up to an air vent in the ceiling, throughthe slats in the grate to --INT. CRAWLSPACE -- NIGHTThomas watches them leave through a hole in the air duct.When he's confident that they are gone, he continues alongthe crawlspace to a service hatch that opens down into --INT. WINE CELLAR - NIGHTThe "wine cellar" is a climate-controlled closet behind thebar fitted with floor-to-ceiling wine racks.The ceiling hatch lifts, and Thomas climbs down the racks tothe floor. He eases open the door and peeks out behind thebar. The den is bright with light, and empty --Thomas lifts his cell phone -- THOMAS (whispers into the phone) It's me, Chief. I'm in the den.EXT. SMITHS' REAR WALL -- NIGHTTalley, Maddox, and several tactical officers are lined alongthe rear wall, watching the house. Talley, with a phone to his ear, is looking through a night-vision scope --He can see into the kitchen through the French doors. Marsand Jennifer are inside, and, as we watch, Dennis and Kevinenter -- TALLEY (into his phone) Okay, bud, here we go.Talley hands the scope to Maddox, then keys his radio mike -- TALLEY (CONT'D) (into his mike) Captain? Kill the lights.INT. SMITHS' KITCHEN -- NIGHTDennis and Kevin are digging into plates of pizza and eggswhen the house goes dark -- DENNIS Shit! It's the cops!The backyard ERUPTS; explosions from Starflash grenades JUMPand CAREEN over the swimming pool like New Year fireworks.It sounds like World War III --Dennis throws himself behind the kitchen counter --INT. THE DEN -- NIGHTThe house now dark, Thomas scurries to the double doors. Hepeeks around the corner to see if the coast is clear, thendarts across the hall to --INT. WALTER'S OFFICE -- NIGHTThe office is lit only by the flickering candles. Thomaschecks his father's computer--no disks. He searches throughthe papers scattered over the desk, but finds nothing --Then he opens the drawer --The disk case that his father put there earlier is waiting.Thomas opens the case --Marlon. Al.He found them.INT. THE KITCHEN -- NIGHTThe Starflash grenades burn out as Talley's amplified voiceechoes into the house -- TALLEY'S VOICE It's time to talk face-to-face, Dennis. Come out, just you, and we'll talk. KEVIN What's he doing? What's going on?! DENNIS Mars! They're trying to blindside us! Check the front!Mars lurches to his feet and hurries to the office --INT. THE OFFICE -- NIGHTThomas is heading for the door when he hears footsteps comingfast toward the office --Thomas reverses course and ducks under the desk. He pullshimself into a ball and tries not to breathe --Mars is in the room.The desk is a great oak monster, big as a boat. It sits oncurvy legs that leave a gap between the desk and the floor.Thomas can see feet --The feet go to the windows -- DENNIS'S VOICE What's going on out front?The feet turn toward the desk. Thomas tries to squeezehimself smaller -- DENNIS'S VOICE (CONT'D) Mars?! What the fuck are they doin'?The feet come to the desk -- DENNIS'S VOICE (CONT'D) Mars! Something's happening! Get back here!The feet hesitate, then, finally, walk away --Thomas scrambles from under the desk and darts across thehall --EXT. THE BACKYARD -- NIGHTTalley approaches the house. He can see flashlights movingin the kitchen -- TALLEY Come on, Dennis. Talk to me.Dennis doesn't answer, so Talley moves closer. He spreadshis hands wide -- TALLEY (CONT'D) I'm unarmed. I'm looking at you. Get out here and let's talk.Dennis comes to the French doors. He stuffs his pistol intohis pants, and opens the doors -- DENNIS You got a sniper out there, gonna shoot me? TALLEY Only if you try to grab me. We could've shot you from the wall.Dennis considers that and accepts it. He steps out of thehouse and walks over to Talley -- TALLEY (CONT'D) You've been in there a long time. What're you waiting for? DENNIS Would you be in a hurry to go to prison for the rest of your life? TALLEY I'd be trying to get the best deal that I could. DENNIS Maybe that's what I'm doing. Can I reach in my pocket, show you something?Dennis Rooney steps closer because he doesn't want anyoneelse to see the wad of money he pulls out -- DENNIS (CONT'D) That's fifty hundred-dollar bills. Five grand. They got money in this house, Talley, more than you've ever seen.Dennis pushes the money back into his pocket. DENNIS (CONT'D) How much would it be worth to you, getting me out of here?So that's what keeps Dennis in the house--money. This is thefirst that Talley has heard of the money -- TALLEY You picked a bad house to hole up in, son. DENNIS Two hundred thousand cash, right in your pocket, no one needs to know. TALLEY Give up. DENNIS There's a million dollars in there, maybe two million. I'll give you half.Talley stares at Dennis, wondering how much to tell him andwhether or not it will do any good -- TALLEY The man you sent to the hospital is a criminal. He has partners. This is their house and their money and they want it back.These simple facts settle on Dennis like a funeral shroud--everything that Smith said earlier now makes a horriblesense: You can't imagine the fucking you're going to get.Dennis's eyes fill with defeat and helplessness -- DENNIS It ain't been a good day, Chief. TALLEY Give up, Dennis. Let these people go. At least you'll have your life.Dennis steps inside and pulls the door closed, the darknessin the house swallowing him like dirty water.The power is turned on. The house comes to life --As Talley turns away, his phone once more rings --INT. THOMAS' ROOM -- NIGHTThomas is hunkered with his computer behind his bed so thatthe camera can't see him. THOMAS I got'm!Intercut Talley, now back in the cul-de-sac -- TALLEY Can you open them? THOMAS I opened Marlon. I think it's somebody's taxes. TALLEY Look for names. Does it say whose taxes they are?Thomas scrolls through a spread sheet -- THOMAS I don't see any people names. It's all businesses. TALLEY Try Al. See if you can open Al.Thomas changes disks and opens Al -- THOMAS Yeah! Here's a name. This is somebody's personal tax -- TALLEY Who is it? THOMAS Charles G. Benza. (then; noise in the hall) They're coming!Thomas abruptly hangs up and the line goes dead in Talley'sear.Talley recognizes the name as easily as an East Coast copwould recognize John Gotti, and realizes the stunning importof Smith possessing Sonny Benza's financial records -- TALLEY Sonny Benza. Oh, fuck.Talley sprints across the cul-de-sac to his nearest officer,Jorgenson, and keys Jorgenson's shoulder mike -- TALLEY (CONT'D) (into the mike) Leigh? Metzger, answer me! METZGER'S VOICE I'm at the hospital. TALLEY Put a guard on Smith! I want you with Smith until I get there! JORGENSON What's going on? TALLEY Get in the car. Now.Talley drops the mike and shoves Jorgenson toward the car --EXT. CANYON COUNTRY HOSPITAL -- NIGHTMarion Clewes is stepping from his car as Talley's policeunit rips into the parking lot with flashing lights --Marion watches Talley and Jorgenson rush into the ER, then hefrowns and punches the speed dial on his phone -- MARION (into his phone) We're too late. The police are here.INT. EMERGENCY ROOM CORRIDOR -- NIGHTTalley and Jorgenson huddle in the hall with Klaus and the ERsupervisor, Dr. Estelle Reese. Metzger is outside Walter'sroom in the background -- TALLEY I'm posting a guard outside his room, but we'll need help from hospital security. REESE Is my staff in danger? TALLEY Not with my officers here, no, ma'am.Metzger steps into Walter's room, then reappears -- METZGER Hey! He's waking up!Talley and Klaus press for the room --INT. WALTER'S ROOM -- NIGHTWalter's eyes flutter open. His voice is slurred, butunderstandable -- WALTER Where am I?Klaus peels open Walter's eyes, passing his penlight overone, then the other -- KLAUS Canyon Country Hospital. Do you remember your name?It takes Walter a few moments to answer -- WALTER Walter Smith.All of Walter's memories come flooding back, and he tries tosit up. Klaus forces him down -- WALTER (CONT'D) Where are my children? TALLEY They're still in the house.Walter looks at Talley. He has never seen Talley and has noidea who he is -- TALLEY (CONT'D) I'm Jeff Talley, the Bristo chief of police. So far as we know, your children are okay. KLAUS Chief Talley is the one who got you out. TALLEY (to Klaus) I need to talk to him. Alone.This time, Klaus is hard-pressed to refuse. He nods, thensteps away --Talley turns back to Walter Smith, and lowers his voice -- TALLEY (CONT'D) Sonny Benza has my wife and daughter. He wants the disks, Marlon and Al. He took my family to make me help.Talley's eyes fill. His tears drip on the sheets. Walterlooks away -- WALTER I don't know what you're talking about. TALLEY He's going to kill you. Don't you know that? He can't take the chance that you'll talk.Klaus returns and places a hand on Talley's shoulder -- KLAUS That's enough. TALLEY Another minute. Please --But when he looks back at Walter, he realizes that anotherminute will do no good: Walter's eyes are once more closed.EXT. HOSPITAL PARKING LOT -- NIGHTTalley is pacing by his car in the deserted parking lot. Hepounds the hood, cursing, awash in rage and frustration --And then a phone rings.Talley takes out the phones. The white phone is ringing.The Watchman's phone --Talley answers furiously, the two of them instantaneouslyscreaming at each other -- THE WATCHMAN'S VOICE You dumb fuckwad cop, you fucked up bad! TALLEY Do you think I'm going to let you murder someone?! THE WATCHMAN'S VOICE You want a blowtorch on your daughter's pretty face?! TALLEY I'll go in that fuckin' house right now! I'll give those disks to the real FBI, you COCKSUCKINGMOTHERFUCKER!! And I've got Smith! I've got Smith!!A profound silence fills the parking lot, both men nowpurged. When the Watchman speaks again, his voice ismeasured -- THE WATCHMAN'S VOICE I guess we each have something the other wants. TALLEY I guess we do. THE WATCHMAN'S VOICE My people are good to go. You know who I mean? TALLEY Your phony FBI assholes. THE WATCHMAN'S VOICE We're almost home, you and me. Keep your shit together. This isn't L.A. TALLEY What do you mean by that? THE WATCHMAN'S VOICE You don't want another dead child on your conscience.The line goes dead --INT. THE SMITHS' DEN -- NIGHTDennis is pouring another stiff glass of Ketel One -- DENNIS I shouldn't have told him about the money. Now Talley is gonna keep it for himself.Kevin joins him at the bar. Mars is by the doors -- KEVIN He said that?Dennis downs a big hit of vodka, then moves to the couch -- DENNIS If we don't escape, we gotta get the word out about the cash. That's how we'll stay alive. KEVIN What are you talking about? DENNIS The only way he can keep the cash is if nobody knows about it. He's gotta cap all three of us before they even read our rights. He's probably planning it right now. KEVIN That's crazy. He's not going to kill us. DENNIS Kevin, you're so fuckin' stupid...Kevin follows his brother to the couch and stares at him;Dennis has clearly lost his mind, and Kevin has reached theend of his rope -- KEVIN It's over. We have to give up. DENNIS Fuck it's over. That money's mine. KEVIN That money's fucked up your brain. Talley's going to get tired of waiting for us to give up, and we'll all be fuckin' killed!Dennis tips his glass, like a toast -- DENNIS Then we might as well die rich. KEVIN I'm not going to die for this!Kevin slaps the glass away. Dennis boils up from the couch.He grabs his brother and the two of them fall over the coffeetable, Dennis hammering Kevin in a furious rage until he runsout of gas -- DENNIS You're my fuckin' anchor, Kevin, the fuckin' lead around my life that I've been draggin' like a cripple leg!Dennis gets up and steps back -- DENNIS (CONT'D) Get this into your stupid head, Kevin. We're not leaving without the money.Beaten and whimpering, Kevin crawls away. Dennis watches himcrawl out of the room, then looks at Mars -- DENNIS (CONT'D) You got something to say? MARS I like it here, Dennis. I'm never going to leave. DENNIS Fuckin' A.Dennis returns to the bar. When he looks around again, Marsis gone--melted into the darkness.INT. JENNIFER'S ROOM -- NIGHTJennifer is hiding in her shadows when her doorknob moves. Shereaches pulls the knife from her shorts, keeping it hidden asshe backs away --Kevin steps inside, leaving the door ajar -- JENNIFER What do you want? KEVIN Keep your voice down. I'm taking you and your brother out of here.Jennifer now sees the marks and cuts on his face -- JENNIFER What happened? KEVIN Do you want to go or not? I'm offering you a way out of here. JENNIFER I can't go without Thomas. KEVIN All three of us will go, but we have to move fast. Mars and Dennis don't know I'm doing this. JENNIFER How can we get out? KEVIN Dennis and Mars are in the den. I'll get your brother, then come back for you. We'll go down the stairs and out the front door, you understand? JENNIFER Yes.Kevin goes back to the door, then considers her. Maybe hewants to apologize for all this, but the best he can manageis -- KEVIN Put on some shoes.Kevin slips out and pulls the door closed.INT. SECOND FLOOR HALL -- NIGHTAs Kevin emerges from the room, he comes face-to-face with --Mars.Mars is a great black shadow in the dark, only inches away.Kevin steps back -- KEVIN You scared the shit out of me. I was looking for you. Dennis wants you to watch the monitors. MARS I heard you with the girl.Kevin takes another step back, but Mars follows him, stayinguncomfortably close -- KEVIN It's over, Mars. If we stay the cops will kill us. Don't you get that?Mars seems thoughtful, steps aside -- MARS I get it. If you want to go, go.Kevin expected Mars to stop him, but Mars is letting him go.Kevin turns away and hurries down the hall --EXT. YORK ESTATES MAIN ENTRANCE -- NIGHTTalley is returning to the hospital. As he turns into YorkEstates, he's stopped by one of his officers, Dale Cooper.Talley rolls down his window to see what Cooper wants -- COOPER Come FBI guys showed up, Chief. They said you were expecting them. TALLEY They here now? COOPER You'll see'm up the street.Talley nods, and continues through the gate --EXT. STREET -- NIGHTTwo gray Econoline vans are parked at the curb beneath astreet light, four men in the lead van, two in the rear.Talley pulls up behind them, then gets out of his car. Hewalks up the middle of the street to the lead van, eyeballingthe men in the vans: They all have short haircuts and arewearing black tactical fatigues. Some of them wear ball capsthat say FBI. THE DRIVER You Talley? TALLEY Yeah.The man in the passenger seat, Mr. Jones, gets out. He looks the part of FBI SWAT: black tac fatigues, jump boots, buzzedhair. A pistol hangs under his left arm in a ballisticholster -- MR. JONES Let me see some ID. Something with a picture. I don't give a shit about your badge.Talley takes out his wallet and flashes his photo ID. Jonesdoes the same in return -- MR. JONES (CONT'D) Okay, here's mine. My name is Special Agent Jones. TALLEY Are all of you named Jones? MR. JONES Don't be funny, Chief. You can't afford it.Jones slaps the side of the van. Doors open, and theremaining five men climb out. They strap into vests with FBIemblazoned on the back, then pass out load-bearing gear, knitmasks, and flash-bang grenades. MR. JONES (CONT'D) In a few minutes the white phone is going to ring. So let's get our shit straight before that happens. TALLEY You used to be a cop. All of you used to be cops. I can tell by the way you move. MR. JONES Don't worry about what we used to be. TALLEY How do you people expect this to work? The Sheriffs have a Crisis Response Team here. MR. JONES What's my name? TALLEY What? MR. JONES I asked you my name. You just saw my commission slip. What's my fucking name? TALLEY Special Agent Jones. MR. JONES Think of me that way and you won't fuck up. I'll handle the Sheriffs.The men at the second van are now passing out MP5s, CAR-15s, and loaded magazines -- TALLEY What are you people going to do? MR. JONES You and I are gonna straighten this out with the Sheriffs, and then we'll wait for the man to call. When he gives the word, we move. TALLEY What does he have on you? I know why I'm doing this, but what does he have on you?One of the other men hands an MP5 to Mr. Jones. Jonesjacks the bolt to chamber a round. He slings his gun withoutanswering -- MR. JONES Let's go, Chief. Time to get real.Jones walks away, and all Talley can do is follow --EXT. MARS KRUPCHEK'S TRAILER -- NIGHTWe're at the end of a gravel road in the low foothills ofPearblossom, a farm community of fruit orchards in the lowfoothills.A Bristo Camino police car pulls up outside a thirty-footCaravan trailer, and Mikkelson and Dreyer get out. Mikkelsonlights up the trailer with the radio car's spotlight -- DREYER Krupchek lives in a shithole.The trailer is dark and silent. They walk to the doorcarrying their Maglites. Mikkelson tries the knob -- MIKKELSON I guess we could jimmy it. DREYER I don't want to pay for breaking it.Mikkelson pulls hard and the door pops open. Both officerscringe as a smell like simmering mustard greens rolls out atthem -- MIKKELSON Christ, that stinks.INT. THE TRAILER -- NIGHTMikkelson switches on the lights as they step inside. Dreyersees it first -- DREYER Mickey? Look at this shit.Mikkelson joins Dreyer in the trailer's tiny kitchen whereteetering stacks of folded cereal boxes fill the counters andsink and floor. Hundreds and hundreds of Captain Crunch andCount Chocula boxes, all neatly folded and stacked -- DREYER (CONT'D) He's burned them. MIKKELSON What?Dreyer shows her a box. The nose of each character has beenburned with a cigarette -- DREYER He burned their noses. MIKKELSON Okay, this is creeping me out.Mikkelson opens the oven. It's empty. She opens a cupboard.It's filled with large glass jars. She opens another cupboard. More jars. Shapes float in the jars, suspended inyellow fluid. Mikkelson and Dreyer examine the shapes -- DREYER What are those, rats?Mikkelson opens the fridge, then slams it, looking like shewants to puke -- MIKKELSON Ohmigod. We gotta call Talley.Dreyer sees the expression on her face, then looks at thefridge, wondering --EXT. CUL-DE-SAC -- NIGHTTalley, Jones, and Jones's phony "FBI" team are moving downthe cul-de-sac toward the house with Martin at their heels -- MR. JONES Walter Smith is in the Federal Witness Protection program. When Washington learned about the situation here, they asked Chief Talley for his cooperation. MARTIN This is bullshit. I should've been notified. MR. JONES I'm sure you will be, Captain, but it's after midnight. Now, if you'll pull your people off the perimeter, I want to get my people in position.Martin looks like she wants to spit bullets -- TALLEY Let it go, Captain. MARTIN Goddamned small town bullshit.Martin relents and stalks away just as Talley's phone rings.Both Talley and Jones tense at the ring, thinking it might bethe white phone, but it's not -- TALLEY It's mine. (into his phone) Talley. MIKKELSON'S VOICE Chief, it's Mikkelson. TALLEY Go, Mickey.EXT. KRUPCHEK'S TRAILER -- NIGHTBoth Mikkelson and Dreyer are leaning against their car.They look shellshocked. Mikkelson is making the call -- MIKKELSON Chief, we just found Krupchek's trailer. We just went in there.She trails off and looks at Dreyer for help: How do I saythis? Dreyer, at a loss, looks away -- MIKKELSON (CONT'D) He has human body parts in his refrigerator. He has five human heads.Mikkelson can't handle it any more. She lowers the phone --WITH TALLEYThe shock that Mikkelson is feeling sweeps over Talley aswell. He takes a moment to get his head around this -- TALLEY (into his phone) Mickey? Call the state Homicide Bureau. Don't touch anything, just sit back and wait. MIKKELSON'S VOICE Yes, sir.Talley lowers the phone as he stares at the house, wonderingwhat sort of monster is in there with Thomas and Jennifer.His gaze shifts to Mr. Jones, who is watching him -- TALLEY We're getting those kids out of there.INT. THE SMITHS' DEN -- NIGHTDennis is sprawled on the couch, sucking the last few dropsof Ketel One from the bottle. He frowns at the empty bottle,then lumbers to his feet -- DENNIS (calling) Kev? Key, Kevin, c'mon back. I'm sorry I hit you.Dennis weaves through the door, carrying the empty bottlelike his dearest friend --INT. THE KITCHEN -- NIGHTDennis staggers into the kitchen -- DENNIS C'mon, Kev, don't fuckin' pout! You're right. It's time to call it a game. MARS'S VOICE Kevin left. He didn't want to be here anymore.The voice from the other side of the kitchen startles him.Mars steps out of the shadows -- DENNIS You mean he left, as in went out the front door? MARS I overheard him with the girl. DENNIS Shit! That fuck! Even when I want to turn myself in he screws it up! Did he take the kids with him? MARS I don't know. DENNIS Jesus, get upstairs and find out! If he took those kids, we're fucked!Mars cross the kitchen and goes for the stairs withoutanother word -- DENNIS (CONT'D) KEVIN!!! You ASSHOLE!!!Dennis throws the bottle across the room --INT. THE HOBBY ROOM -- NIGHTThomas is scared by all the shouting, but he waits in thedarkness until Dennis quiets, and then we notice that he isno longer in his room; he's in the hobby room, once moretrying to reach the gun --Thomas stacks two phone books on the bench, then uses thephone books as an extra step to reach the high shelf --He can finally reach the gun case! He puts it on the bench,then climbs down, and opens the case. Thomas is bouyant withconfidence; now, he can protect himself and his sister!Thomas shoves the gun into his pants and creeps back into --INT. THE LAUNDRY ROOM -- NIGHTThomas is climbing onto the washing machine when his footslips and he bangs his head --It's so dark in ehre that Thomas can't see what made him slip, but he tests the floor. His shoe makes a tacky sound.Thomas cups his hand over his flashlight like before, andturns it on. A dark liquid like oil is spreading on thefloor.Thomas follows it with his light to the broom closet. Helets out more light and sees that the oil is red.Thomas knows that something terrible is behind the door, buthe is drawn to it. He reaches out --Kevin's lifeless body topples out, collapsing in a heap atThomas's feet. His neck is cut so deeply that his head isalmost severed --His eyes are open.Thomas screams!INT. JENNIFER'S ROOM -- NIGHTJennifer is anxiously waiting for Kevin. When she hearssomeone in the hall, she thinks that it's Kevin, but when thedoor opens --It's Mars.He steps inside, tall, wide, and massive as a bear. He'scarrying the claw hammer. Jennifer backs away -- MARS Kevin left without you. JENNIFER I don't know what you're talking about.Mars turns off the lights. JENNIFER (CONT'D) Don't do that. Turn on the lights.Jennifer grows even more frightened. Mars follows her acrossthe room until she backs into the window -- JENNIFER (CONT'D) You'd better get out of here! Kevin's coming back! MARS Kevin's gone, your daddy's gone, everybody's gone.When Mars reaches her, he touches the hammer to the chest,pressing to make it hurt -- MARS (CONT'D) Now we can do whatever we want. JENNIFER Stop it.Mars rakes the claws slowly between her breasts as Jenniferfinds the knife in her shorts. She jerks free the blade andstabs blindly burying the knife high in his chest, but Marsdoesn't even step back --He grips the handle, moaning hideously as he pulls out theknife. A red flower blossoms from the wound.Jennifer tries to get past him, but he grabs her throat andpins her to the wall -- MARS You're going to enjoy this.He raises the knife to her face --INT. KITCHEN -- NIGHTThe scream from the laundry room having scared the shit outof Dennis, he has his gun out -- DENNIS Who's that? Goddamnit, who's there?Dennis turns on his flashlight and sweeps the beam across thekitchen -- DENNIS (CONT'D) Kev? Is that you? Talley?Dennis weaves across the kitchen, pushing the gun ahead ofhim -- DENNIS (CONT'D) Kevin, if that's you, say something. Mars said you left.Dennis steps through the door into --INT. THE LAUNDRY ROOM -- NIGHTDennis shines the light on the floor and sees the red ooze.He follows the blood to Kevin's body, but even then doesn'trealize what he's seeing -- DENNIS Kevin, what the fuck? Get up.Dennis steps closer, and now he sees the open neck, thegrotesque white bone within the flesh --Only one other person in the house could have done this -- DENNIS (CONT'D) MARS?!?!Dennis hears Jennifer screaming upstairs -- DENNIS (CONT'D) MARS!!!Dennis rushes from the room --INT. JENNIFER'S ROOM -- NIGHTDennis slams through the door so heard that the door crashesinto the wall. Mars is across the room, still holdingJennifer by the neck --Dennis aims his gun -- DENNIS You're dead, you fuck.Mars calmly pulls the girl in front of him, blocking Dennis'saim. MARS What's wrong, Dennis? Why're you so pissed off?It's weird the way Mars is acting, so calm and all. ButDennis can see the feat in Jennifer's face and her swolleneyes. She manages one word -- JENNIFER Please...Dennis tries to aim past her -- DENNIS This fuck killed Kevin. There's blood everywhere down there --Jennifer sobs. And when she does --Mars charges across the room holding Jennifer like a shield.Dennis hesitates only a heartbeat, and then it's too late --Jennifer crashes into him, the full force of Mars's weightbehind her, knocking Dennis backward into the hall --INT. SECOND FLOOR HALL -- NIGHTThey fall through the door into a tangle on the floor. Marsraises the hammer, then brings it down, smashing Dennis overand over --INT. JENNIFER'S BEDROOM -- NIGHTThomas emerges from the closet to see the carnage in thehall: Mars over Dennis, grunting like a pig as he turnsDennis into pulp, and Jennifer crawling away, splattered withblood --Thomas pulls the gun from his pants and darts past Mars intothe hall --INT. UPSTAIRS HALL -- NIGHTThomas grabs Jennifer's arm and pulls her toward the stairs -- THOMAS C'mon, Jen! Run!Mars heaves to his feet and turns after them --Thomas jerks up the pistol with both hands -- THOMAS (CONT'D) I'll shoot you!Mars stops, blood dripping from his face and hands and thehammer. Jennifer pulls her brother -- JENNIFER Keep going!They back toward the stairs, Thomas trying to hold the gunsteady. Mars follows, spreading his arms wide as if toembrace them -- MARS Everyone's gone. We can do whatever we want. We can do anything. THOMAS I'll shoot you! I'm not kidding, you better stay away!Mars keeps coming --Thomas pulls the trigger. Click.Mars stops, frozen by the sharp sound --Thomas pulls again. Click click click --No bullets. JENNIFER Run!!!!!Thomas and Jennifer sprint for the stairs --INT. FRONT ENTRY -- NIGHTJennifer and Thomas crash down the stairs and spill into theentry. Thomas goes to the front door but Jennifer pulls himaway -- JENNIFER No! They have everything nailed!They race away down the hall just as Mars reaches the bottomof the stairs --INT. THE SMITHS' BEDROOM -- NIGHTMars is closing. Jennifer and Thomas scramble through thebedroom only paces ahead of him. They run straight into --INT. THE SAFE ROOM -- NIGHTJennifer and Thomas slam the door and throw the bolts just asMars crashes into the door --Jennifer and Thomas have made it. They are shaking andscared, but they are safe. JENNIFER He can't reach us in here. We're safe. THOMAS I know.Mars pounds on the door with the hammer. They can see him onthe monitors. Slow rhythmic pounding. Then he walks away -- JENNIFER What's he doing?They can see him on the monitors--moving through the hall,going into the entry....Mars picks up a bucket of gasoline. He splashes gas on thewalls and floor all the way back to the bedroom, and then heempties the bucket on the security room's door --Mars looks up at the camera again and takes out a match. Heflicks it with his thumbnail and it flares -- JENNIFER (CONT'D) Ohmigod, he's going to burn us!Mars tosses the match, and the room erupts into flame --EXT. THE CUL-DE-SAC -- NIGHTTalley is arguing with Jones, trying to convince the man thatthey need to move into the house now -- TALLEY We've got to get those kids out of there! MR. JONES Not until the man calls. TALLEY Those kids are in there with a fucking psychopath! He kills people! MR. JONES They've been in there all day.Talley's phone rings. Again, they both think that it's thewhite phone, but instead it's Talley's personal phone -- TALLEY (into his phone) Talley.It's Thomas. His voice cuts in and out, broken by static -- THOMAS'S VOICE Mars killed Kevin and Dennis! We're in the security room. He's burning the house --Thomas' phone cuts out. Talley turns toward the house andsees a growing column of smoke. He looks back at Jones -- TALLEY You do what you have to do; I'm getting those kids.Talley hurries away. Jones stares after him, then comes tohis own agonized decision. He catches up -- MR. JONES Talley! We'll secure the house, but then we get the disks.Talley accepts that; they move toward the house --EXT. THE SMITHS' HOUSE -- NIGHTThe banks of floodlights abruptly shut off, plunging thehouse and grounds into darkness --INT. THE MASTER BEDROOM -- NIGHTThe fire is spreading, following the gasoline trail throughthe hall and the rest of the house; a thick layer of smoke covers the ceiling --Mars sees that the outside lights have been turned off, andsenses that the cops are making their move. That's all rightwith Mars--he's been waiting to die for most of his life --Mars checks the load in his pistol, then melts away into thedark --A moment later, throbbing music pounds the house --EXT. SMITHS' HOUSE -- NIGHTTalley and Jones slip up to a side window at the front of thehouse. Both are carrying fire extinguishers. They peerinside, then Jones uses a pry bar to lift the window --INT. FRONT GUEST ROOM -- NIGHTTalley enters first, followed by Jones. The air is thickwith smoke, and the music is confusing; the hall outside theroom is filled with flames --Talley points toward the bedroom, then uses hand signals tocountdown the launch--three...two...one --Jones keys his throat mike to launch the strike -- MR. JONES Go --They blast the flames with their fire extinguishers, thenplunge into the hall --INT. MASTER BEDROOM -- NIGHTThe sliding glass doors shatter as one of Jones's menbreaches the door. As he rolls to his feet, Mars shoots himfrom the flames --A second man rolls through the door, and Mars shoots again,laughing as the man writhes in flames --INT. HALL -- TALLEY AND JONESfight back the flames with their fire extinguishers, workingtheir way into --INT. THE MASTER BEDROOM -- NIGHTIt's an inferno as Talley and Jones come through the door.They spot the two men on the floor just as --Mars rears up behind the flames. He is shirtless and glistening, screaming maniacally is he fires his gun --Talley and Jones fire in unison, pounding Mars with bulletsand knocking him into the fire. Mars thrashes and screams,burning alive --Talley hears pounding inside the safe room: Jennifer andThomas! He fights his way to the security door, which iscovered with flames -- TALLEY The kids are in here! MR. JONES Where's the office? TALLEY Help me, goddamnit, we can get the disks later!Talley expects that Jones will help, but Jones is aiming hisgun -- MR. JONES We don't need you any more, Chief. We can get the disks on our own.But before Jones can kill Talley, Mars heaves himself up fromthe flames, firing wildly. He hits Jones in the head --Talley fires reflexively, his powerful .45 kicking Marsacross the room and out the glass doors. Talley turns backto the burning door and douses the flames with his fireextinguisher -- TALLEY Thomas! Thomas, it's me!Thomas and Jennifer jerk open the door, but shrink from theheat. Talley uses the last of his fire extinguisher, thenpulls them into his arms -- TALLEY (CONT'D) Stay close. We're going to move fast --INT. DOWNSTAIRS HALL -- NIGHTTalley shepherds Jennifer and Thomas past the flames --INT. THE ENTRY -- NIGHTThey reach the entry, and Talley uses his pry bar to breakopen the door --A wall of cops are out on the street, waiting -- TALLEY (to Thomas) Are the disks still in your room? THOMAS No! They're right here --Thomas pulls Marlon and Al from his pocket --Talley clutches the disks and pulls the boy close in aspontaneous hug. They run out the door as we -- CUT TO:INT. WALTER SMITH'S HOSPITAL ROOM -- LATER THAT NIGHTWalter is resting comfortably when Talley steps up beside hisbed. Talley is a mess--smokey, dirty, greased with sweat -- TALLEY (quietly) Smith.Walter opens his eyes, then Talley steps away. Jennifer andThomas are standing behind him. They rush to their father -- JENNIFER/THOMAS Daddy! WALTER Thank God! Are you guys all right? You're not hurt? THOMAS Our house is on fire! We almost burned!Both children burst into tears, and Walter hugs them. Helooks up at Talley, then gently eases his kids away -- WALTER (to Jennifer and Thomas) You guys step out for a second. I have to talk to the Chief.Walter waits until his children are gone, and then -- WALTER (CONT'D) Did you find the disks? TALLEY Yes. WALTER Then you have everything. You can put them away. TALLEY (touches his wrist) A man has my family. Gold watch here. Dark tan. WALTER That would be Glen Howell. He was on his way for the disks. TALLEY How do I reach him?EXT. HOSPITAL PARKING LOT -- NIGHTTalley is alone in his car, his phone to his ear, listeningto the ring at the other end of the line. A familiar voiceanswers -- HOWELL'S VOICE Hello? TALLEY Two words: Glen Howell.Intercut Howell in his motel room. He is thrown by gettingthis call -- HOWELL How did you get this number? TALLEY Mr. Jones is dead. So are two of his men. The other three are in jail. I have the disks. I have Walter Smith. And you know what, you motherfucker? I have you. HOWELL I have your fucking family. Don't forget that. TALLEY I also have a couple of million in cash. Call Sonny Benza. Ask if I can keep it.This throws Howell, too. He didn't expect anything likethis; not from Talley -- HOWELL What do you want? TALLEY My wife and my daughter and the money. I'll bring the disks to the mall by the freeway, you bring my family. We'll trade. HOWELL Fuck that! You think I'm crazy?! TALLEY I think you got no choice.Howell thinks about it. It's a tough call because Talleymight be setting him up, but they're playing even hands--Talley still has the disks -- HOWELL Fuck the mall. You know that motel on the road west of town? TALLEY Yeah. HOWELL You got ten minutes. If you're one minute late, we won't be here to find.Talley tosses his phone aside, then drives away --EXT. NEW YORK CITY -- NIGHTA graphic identifies our location: New York City.INT. VICTOR CASTELLANO'S BROWNSTONE -- NIGHTVictor Castellano is "the old man" that Benza's people havementioned. He is not a happy man in the best ofcircumstances and is even less happy now --Castellano's assistant, Jamie Beldone, is briefing him onevents in the West -- BELDONE The house is in flames, Benza's accountant is with the cops, and they're stacking the bodies like cordwood. CASTELLANO Jesus Christ, it's a clusterfuck. BELDONE You wanted to let Sonny handle it. I would've moved in when we first found out.Castellano scowls at the younger man -- CASTELLANO And by doing so, he would've known we have spies in his organization. BELDONE (embarrassed) Yes, sir. But what about the disks? If the cops end up with the disks, we're gonna see a whole lot of heat. CASTELLANO I hate that Mickey Mouse bastard. I hated his father, and I hate Sonny, too. Always with the tan. BELDONE What do you want to do? CASTELLANO Our people out there, they good people? People in the right place? BELDONE The best. CASTELLANO Sonny's a fuckup. If he pulls this off, fine--life goes on. But if the cops end up with those disks, we cut our losses. BELDONE I understand. CASTELLANO I want a message sent: No fuckups allowed. BELDONE I'll make the call.Vic Castellano watches Beldone depart as he considers what isabout to come --EXT. MOTEL -- NIGHTThe motel floats like an island of light in the middle ofnowhere. A few cars are scattered throughout the quiet parking lot --MIKE RUIZis hiding in weeds across from the motel, keeping an eye onthe road for Talley's approaching vehicle. A radiotransmission crackles quietly -- MANELLI'S VOICE You see anything?Ruiz keys the mike -- RUIZ Not yet.Talley steps silently behind him and presses his gun to MikeRuiz's ear --LOU BUSTERBuster is on the dark side of thge parking lot, standing watchoutside the pool of light in the shadows --Gravel crunches behind him; Buster turns, and --Talley cracks him across the face with his .45 --WITH TALLEYHe edges along the perimeter of the parking lot, working asclose as he can to a Fat Man who is leaning against the greenMustang --The door to a ground floor room opens, and Glen Howell stepsout. Talley recognizes Howell from the big gold watch -- HOWELL (to the Fat Man) Keep your eyes open. He should've been here.Howell returns to the room. The Fat Man steps away from theMustang, and --Talley slams into his blindside, using the .45 as a club.The Fat Man staggers, and Talley wraps an arm around his neckin a choke hold, running him at the door --Talley rams the Fat man into the door, knocking it open andshoving the Fat Man through --INT. HOWELL'S MOTEL ROOM -- NIGHTTalley explodes through the door with the Fat Man in front ofhim like a shield -- TALLEY (screaming) Police!Glen Howell jerks out his pistol as he drops behind the bed.Duane Manelli rolls out of a chair, aiming from the floor ina two-handed grip -- HOWELL Don't shoot! Don't shoot him!Talley shifts his aim back and forth between the two men. Hehas his back to the wall and the Fat Man in front of him -- TALLEY Where's my family?! Where's my family, you fuck?!All three men are sucking air like freight engines. Noone is shooting, but if one person fires, everyone will fire.Everybody has something the other guy wants. That's the onlything holding them back -- HOWELL Take it easy. Just take it easy. We're here to do business. TALLEY You said they would be here, goddamnit! Where are they?Howell releases his grip on the gun, and lets it swing freeon his finger. He's trying to cool Talley -- HOWELL They're close. Let me make a call. You can see they're okay. TALLEY You said they would be here!Howell takes out his phone and presses a number. Talleyshifts his aim from Howell to the Fat Man to Manelli -- HOWELL (into the phone) Put on the woman.Howell offers the phone, but Talley is wary--he can't let goof the Fat Man and he won't put down his pistol. Howellcarefully holds the phone to Talley's ear -- TALLEY (into the phone) Jane? JANE'S VOICE Jeff, we're --Howell backs away with the phone -- HOWELL You have the disks?Talley takes out a single disk. It's the one labeled'Marlon.' He tosses it onto the bed -- TALLEY You get the other one when I have my girls. Not talk to them; have them. HOWELL Where is it? TALLEY Close.Howell considers the disk. If Talley has the second disk inhis pocket, Howell could just shoot him. But Howell can't besure -- HOWELL I have to see if it's real.Howell brings the disk to a lap top computer set up in the corner. He inserts the disk, and waits for it to read. He'ssatisfied with what he sees -- HOWELL (CONT'D) All right. Now the second one. TALLEY First my girls. I get my girls, you get the other disk.Howell stares at Talley again, then picks up his phone -- HOWELL (into the phone) Bring them. Stop the car outside the room, but don't get out.The car pulls up directly outside the door. It was onlyseconds away. Marion Clewes is driving; Jane and Amanda arewedged into the front seat beside him, Jane next to Marion,Amanda on the far side. They are bound tight with theirmouths taped, immobile and helpless, their eyes wide withfear -- HOWELL (CONT'D) (into his phone) Aim your gun at the woman's head. If he doesn't give me the disk, kill her.Marion presses a gun to Jane's temple --Talley jerks his gun toward Howell -- TALLEY I'll kill you! You won't get the other disk! HOWELL If you shoot me, he'll kill your daughter. Do you want to lose both of them?Talley aims at the man in the car; he aims at Howell. Hetried so hard to save his family, and now Howell has himboxed -- HOWELL (CONT'D) The negotiation is over, Talley. I won. Now give me the disk or he'll put her brain on the glass.Talley looks at Jane and Amanda, and his eyes fill. Hemouths the words -- TALLEY I love you.He's saying good-bye.Talley drops his gun and releases the Fat Man, who stumblesaway. Talley tosses a second disk onto the bed. Manelliscoops it up and tosses it to Howell as Mation appears in thedoor -- TALLEY (CONT'D) I gave the other one to the Sheriffs and they're giving it to the real FBI. This one's a fake. HOWELL You'd better be kidding.Howell anxiously pushes the disk into his lap top -- TALLEY I'm a cop, you asshole! What did you expect me to do? Pretend all this never happened?Howell stares at the lap top with the withering face of a manreading his own death sentence. There is nothing on thisdisk. TALLEY (CONT'D) Benza's over. You're over. I just want to take my family home.Howell stands like a mechanical man; incredulous -- HOWELL Are you out of your mind? MARION (quietly) You fucked up, Glen.Howell looks over as if seeing Marion for the first time, andgives him the order -- HOWELL Kill them.Marion aims his gun directly between Talley's eyes, thenpoints it at Howell -- MARION No fuckups allowed.Marion shoots Howell in the head, then the Fat Man, thenManelli--bambambam--one shot, one kill.He lowers his gun, considers Talley. Talley doesn'tmove. MARION (CONT'D) It's like a storm, isn't it? This raging force that you can't control does whatever it wants, and the best you can do is survive. A winner survives. TALLEY Why...?The question being: Why aren't I dead? Why aren't youkilling me? MARION What good would it do to kill you? The police already have the disk.Marion considers Talley another moment -- MARION (CONT'D) Your wife is a very nice lady.Marion goes to his car. He helps out Jane and Amanda, thengets into his car and drives away.EXT. THE PARKING LOT -- SUNRISETalley stumbles out of the room and runs to his family. Hescoops up Jane and Amanda, hugging them tightly as the camera pulls up and away, rising, leaving this reunited family asMarion Clewes disappears like a passing thunderhead --CLOSING CREDITSThe credits roll to black, then--EXT. SONNY BENZA'S HOME -- DAWNThe garage door slides up. Benza backs out in his Mercedes,then roars to the front door. He pops the trunk, then getsout and hurries to the front door. He sticks his head insideand calls to his wife -- BENZA The fucking jet's waiting! Would you get your shit out here?!He picks up two bags from inside the door and brings them tothe car --AT THE TRUNKBenza steps behind the raised trunk to put away his bags.When he steps back around again, a nondescript sedan iswaiting in the drive -- A VOICE No fuckups allowed.Gunfire erupts on the quiet ridge above Palm Springs.FADE OUTTHE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Hot Tub Time Machine.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hot Tub Time Machine.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..2b594a9d1062581ed95d5959563d81a4c79c3f94 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hot Tub Time Machine.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + HOT TUB TIME MACHINE Written by Josh Heald Hot Tub Time Machine Theme Lyrics by Josh Heald Music by Def Leppard, Styx, Journey, Poison, or Whitesnake Water cranked to a hundred and three Got my tunes, my snacks, my booze, my skis (Got the) freshest moves you ever seen When I'm soakin in my Hot Tub Time Machine When you're going back to the 80s... And you might be fuckin some ladies... You bring your button fly jeans and some sweet hair gel Want blow? All you gotta do is yell (Yeah you're) lookin real smooth, (and you're) lookin real mean When you're soakin in your Hot Tub Time Machine Yeah! Hot Tub - Time Machine! Hot Tub - Time Machine! C'mon! (Sweet guitar solo - 16 measures] Relaxed as hell when you're goin through time That's the 54 jets workin' on your spine (Yeah) you gotta be loose and you gotta be lean When you roll up in your Hot Tub Time Machine Yeah your shirt's a little psychedelic... And you're lookin kinda like Tom Selleck... Yeah the chicks are wetter than the Everglades But double bag your dude, don't wanna get AIDS Just listen right up, consider me your dean In the college of the Hot Tub Time Machine Yeah! Hot Tub - Time Machine! Hot Tub - Time Machine! Yeah! FADE IN: EXT. POOL DECK - DAY BLUE SKIES. A BEAUTIFUL SUNNY DAY. CAMERA PANS DOWN to reveal A HOT TUB FULL OF HOT CHICKS IN BIKINIS. They splash about playfully. Then-- A FUCKING LION JUMPS IN THE HOT TUB! As the girls SCREAM and scramble for safety, the BEAST ROARS and it becomes the: MGM LOGO DISSOLVE TO: INT. BEDROOM - DAY ADAM COLEMAN (late 30s, good-looking, sweet-natured face) is in a great mood as he packs a SUITCASE. LILY (O.S.) Ready for the wildest bachelor party of all time? LILY (early 30s, shirt and jeans, hot in a smart and classy sense) walks in the room, smiling. ADAM You know it. I'm gonna bang all sorts of chicks this weekend! LILY That's not the answer I was looking for. ADAM Sorry, honey. Adam gives his beautiful fiancee a playful kiss. She shows him some PHOTOS. LILY Look what I found... 2. ANGLE: PHOTO A BUNCH OF TEENAGERS and 20-SOMETHINGS PARTY IN A LARGE HOT TUB at a SKI RESORT. It looks like the most fun ever. ADAM Check out that young stud. Can you believe he's about to get married? Lily and Adam look through more PHOTOS of a YOUNG ADAM (17) partying at a SKI RESORT with his FRIENDS: -- In full 80s SKI GEAR on a mountain... -- Eating PIZZA at "Papa Enzo's," stuffing their faces... -- Drinking BEERS at the "Brew Haus," an awesome pub... -- In the HOT TUB with SIX GIRLS... Adam snatches the last photo from her. ADAM (CONT'D) Ignore that one. Nothing happened. (BEAT) I love you. Lily laughs. LILY Adam, you didn't know me yet. As Adam goes back to packing, Lily leafs through some more of the photos. She stops at one and her EXPRESSION CHANGES. LILY (CONT'D) Who's this? Lily shows Adam a PHOTO: -- A SMOKING HOT SKI BUNNY (23, blonde, svelte, leg warmers). ADAM I'm not sure. LILY Really? Lily shows Adam another PHOTO: -- YOUNG ADAM with his arm around the SKI BUNNY, who looks like she was ambushed for the photo. 3. ADAM Oh! Jennie. LILY Who's Jennie? ADAM She's nobody. Ski instructor. (off her look) You didn't know me yet. Lily still looks at him a little hard. ADAM (CONT'D) Lily, I was 17. She had boobs and a face. Of course I'm gonna take her picture. Lily still looks a little bothered. LILY Do you still think of her? ADAM Of course not! I think of you. As Adam goes to EMBRACE her: LILY Hold on... Lily goes into the CLOSET. ADAM Sweetie? She comes out a moment later with a CARDBOARD BOX, which she empties onto the BED. About FIFTY PORNO MAGAZINES spill out, ranging from TITS MONTHLY to BLACK ASS. ADAM (CONT'D) How did you know where I hid my... treasure? Lily carefully picks up a BROCHURE from the pile, holding it by the corner, not wanting to touch it. LILY Explain this. From ADAM'S POV, we see the brochure: -- A ski brochure featuring Jennie on the cover. 4. ADAM OK! You caught me! I occasionally... reminisce... about Jennie O'Keefe! LILY That's gross. (THEN) What's "occasionally?" ADAM (without missing a beat) About two hours ago when you were on the phone with your mother. LILY Jesus. Tell me how I'm supposed to let you go to your bachelor party and not be a basket case? ADAM What are you so worried about? LILY I'm worried that you're still thinking about this girl. ADAM Baby, the girl in that picture was nothing more than a crush. I could never get her and there's no possibility I'll ever be with her. She was a total stranger. Lily gets a CURIOUS LOOK on her face. LILY So... you're into strangers? ADAM Well not the creepy "your mom was in an accident, now come with me" kind. But yeah, the hot lady in the supermarket kind of stranger. You have to admit - it's kinda hot. LILY So you're saying if you and I didn't know each other, it would be pretty hot if we fooled around? ADAM You kidding me? It would be fucking incredible. 5. Lily smiles seductively, as Adam starts to get it. ADAM (CONT'D) Wait a minute. Are you suggesting... yes. YES! Adam excitedly heads for the door. ADAM (CONT'D) OK, I'll go down the hall. You get into character. (points at her) This fucking rules. Adam leaves the room and Lily REMOVES HER SHIRT, talking sexy and slowly building the fantasy... LILY Oh I'm all alone in this big house. Cheerleading camp just ended and I need to get out of these sweaty clothes... ADAM (O.S.) Love where you're going with this, baby! Keep it up! She unbuttons her pants and SLIDES DOWN HER JEANS. LILY Mmmm. My panties are so tight against my firm naked body... ADAM (O.S.) You should probably take them off! LILY Are you gonna let me do this? ADAM (O.S.) Sorry! Continue! You were just about to take off your panties! She slowly slides out of her panties, kicking them away. Now she's TOTALLY NAKED. She continues to role play. LILY It feels so good to be so naked. I hope no one can see me... Just then a BLACK MAN (late 30s, handsome, J Crew) saunters through the bedroom door, holding a coffee and all riled up. 6. BLACK MAN OK, so this asshole in front of me at the donut place is -- WHOA! Lily covers up and SCREAMS. LILY Get out of here!! He SPILLS the coffee on his hands and their rug as he turns. BLACK MAN Fuck! Ow! I'm sorry. I'll clean it up. That's gonna stain, though. LILY Just leave! He heads for the door, just as: Adam comes in, wearing a MAILMAN hat and NOTHING ELSE. ADAM Special delivery for -- Jesus Christ! The black man doesn't know which way to look. He covers his eyes and drips coffee, as he blindly steps toward the door. BLACK MAN (NOT LOOKING) Just tell me when I'm in the clear. CUT TO: EXT. ADAM'S HOUSE - DAY Adam wheels his suitcase down the front path of this modest, well-kept suburban home, as a recovered, dressed, embarrassed and somewhat shell-shocked Lily follows with a small bag. They both stop 10 yards short of a RANGE ROVER, where the black man, NICK, waits in the car, waving. LILY I can't wait for you to come back and marry me. Wow, that's crazy. Adam looks almost like it just hit him. 7. ADAM Yeah. (REALIZATION) Wow. LILY Tell me again I have nothing to worry about. ADAM Babe, look at Nick... In the car, Nick air drums to whatever's on the radio. ADAM (CONT'D) You think with him in charge, we're gonna get into any kind of trouble? We'll probably eat too much pizza and I'll twist my ankle getting off the ski lift. LILY OK. Have an awesome bachelor party. Not too awesome. (hands him bag) I got you something. Adam looks in the bag. ADAM Sandwich. Thanks. He puts it in his BACKPACK. She looks like she was expecting a different reaction, but she lets it go. He kisses her. LILY Let me see your phone. He takes it out. ADAM I told you, I'll call you when-- She snatches it out of his hands. Adam looks confused, as she pockets the phone. LILY Despite my anxiety, I'm not gonna be one of those women who wants an update every ten minutes. Even though I do want an update every ten minutes. Adam smiles. Lily looks a bit trepidatious. 8. LILY (CONT'D) Just make sure whatever happens, you're back for the rehearsal dinner. (SHOWING CONCERN) I totally trust you. ADAM You should. I'm a lame-o. LILY Well at least you're a cute lame-o. Lily leans in and they NUZZLE their noses together in a disgusting display of affection. A FLASH goes off. From the car, Nick holds up his iPhone. NICK I'm more than willing to forget about earlier, but this shit's going on Facebook. INT. NICK'S CAR - DAY - DRIVING Nick drives through SUBURBIA, while Adam rides shotgun. NICK I have no idea what Facebook is. My phone has a button that says Send To Facebook. I've been sending shit there for months. Adam looks out the window, smiling. ADAM I'm so psyched about this weekend! NICK Ditto, buddy. I'm gonna help you make up for all the good times you missed when you were being a responsible member of society. ADAM You're a good friend. I'm sorry for putting my career and self sufficiency above bowling night. NICK This trip represents everything awesome about being a dude. (MORE) 9. NICK (CONT'D) We're gonna drink too much, eat whatever we want... (FANTASIZING) I might not even change my socks. ADAM Live the dream. NICK Best of all, we don't have to answer to anyone. Nick's PHONE rings and he answers it with his built-in BLUETOOTH. His phone voice is a little more "sensitive." NICK (ON PHONE) (CONT'D) Hi honey. COURTNEY (V.0.) Three goddamn bags of pretzels? NICK (ON PHONE) (trying to save face) I'm with Adam, honey. COURTNEY (V.0.) Hi Adam. (a little calmer) Nick, what have I told you about buying snacks that aren't on sale? NICK (ON PHONE) You said not to do it. COURTNEY (V.0.) And what did you do? NICK (ON PHONE) I bought three bags of pretzels. But I'm gonna eat them... COURTNEY (V.0.) That's not the point. (ADMONISHING) Don't do it again. Nick and Adam exchange an embarrassing glance. NICK (ON PHONE) OK. COURTNEY (V.0.) Call me from the road. Adam, say hi to Lily. 10. ADAM (ON PHONE) OK, I sure wi-- CLICK. For a moment, there is an uncomfortable silence. ADAM (CONT'D) Don't her parents own the supermarket? NICK The whole damn chain. (THEN) Just be thankful Lily doesn't have any family money. Nothing makes your dick softer. EXT. MOTEL -- DAY Nick's car pulls into the lot of a rundown motel. INT./EXT. NICK'S CAR - DAY Adam looks confused and slightly nervous. ADAM This looks like a place where people die. Mostly from murder. A BALD, miserable-looking GUY in his late 30s (LOU) exits a room, carrying TWO SHOPPING BAGS. He gets in the back seat. Adam looks happy to see him. ADAM (CONT'D) Lou! LOU Yes, I'm living in a transient motel. Let's get that purple elephant out of the room. ADAM Dude, it looks nice. LOU Thank you. I hate your guts. ADAM (re: the bags) What'd you bring? 11. LOU All my belongings. NICK So you're sorta like a bum now, huh? LOU In a sense. INT. NICK'S CAR - DAY - DRIVING Lou sits in the backseat, voraciously eating a bowl of cereal, as the other guys are up front. LOU Our system is fucked, gentlemen. You tell me how a whore wife can fuck some black dude - no offense - and still take her cuckold of a husband for all he's got. NICK Why would I take offense to that? LOU It's offensive. NICK Because he's black? LOU And because he's fucking my wife. And because you're black. And because of all the oversensitive horrible garbage... you know what? Forget no offense. Just offense. Are you offended? NICK Not really. LOU Then shut the fuck up. ADAM She's got a hell of an attorney. LOU Yes and thank you so very much for giving her the referral. 12. ADAM She told me it was for a friend. NICK So... what? Your wife likes black dick now? LOU I'm gonna slaughter you in your sleep tonight. ADAM (turns to Lou, genuine) Thanks for coming, man. EXT. UPSCALE APARTMENT BUILDING - DAY Nick's car pulls up across from a nice apartment building, as a well-dressed, well-groomed, overly polished-looking YOUNG GUY in his 20s (JACOB) comes out, carrying a MESSENGER BAG. INT. NICK'S CAR -- SAME TIME The guys watch Jacob carefully cross the street. LOU Oh, Adam's stupid brother's coming? Boo! Drive away before he gets in the car! ADAM Be nice. I know Jacob's kind of a douche, but I'm trying to be closer to him since Mom died. Jacob gets in the back next to Lou. LOU (VERY INSINCERE) Hey buddy! How's it going? Good to see you! JACOB You look dirty and you smell bad. LOU You look gay and you smell like a basket of fancy soaps. Advantage me. JACOB How is that to your advantage? 13. ADAM He's not gay. He's just... what are you again? JACOB Metrosexual. LOU You have sex with trains? JACOB For your information, I fuck chicks. Hot ones. LOU For your information, you fuck dudes. Gay ones. JACOB Yeah, well at least I'm young and my life's full of potential. I hear you're homeless now? LOU (to Nick and Adam) You told him?! (GRIMACES) I hate all you people. ADAM Will you two please shake hands and make up? We're gonna be spending a lot of time together. Jacob distractedly TEXTS on his phone. JACOB Yeah, about that. Why aren't we going to Aspen? Vermont's lame. ADAM It's gonna be fun. JACOB Yeah, whatever. And with that, the guys travel in silence for a few moments, the lifeblood drained from the car. Finally... LOU I've gotta take a shit. 14. INT. BURGER KING REST STOP - DAY Lou walks from the bathroom back to the TABLE where Adam, Nick, and Jacob sit and eat. LOU That was an ugly experience. NICK I don't wanna hear about it. LOU In a few years, when I'm dying of an exotic disease that causes my penis to bleed until it falls off, someone remember to tell the hospital to check out the filthy crapper at the Albany Rest Stop. It's the AIDS monkey of toilets. The guys put down their sandwiches. ADAM Thank you. LOU I don't know how you're doing it, man. I mean, Laurie's hot, don't get me wrong. ADAM (CORRECTING) Lily. LOU Right. Lily. But one vagina? Forever? ADAM That's the sacrifice. Jacob nods, agreeing with Lou's concern. JACOB And you're OK with that? I don't know your sexual history, but you sure you got it out of your system? ADAM I did OK for myself. LOU He didn't do that well for himself. 15. NICK Yeah, isn't Lily your fourth? ADAM Fifth. Thank you. JACOB So you're averaging like one girl every eight years. ADAM Assuming I got laid when I was zero. LOU That would be awesome. Adam gives Lou a distasteful look. ADAM I'm fine. Maybe some cold feet, but that's normal. Thank you everyone for your concern. JACOB Just looking out for you. That's what brothers do, right? They look out for each other? ADAM (takes a moment) Is this about something else? JACOB Forget it. ADAM No, let's do this. I'm sorry I wasn't around when you were growing up, OK? I was in college. And then I was working. Dad left. Someone had to take responsibility. LOU Boooooring! ADAM (TO LOU) Shut up. JACOB I said forget it. 16. NICK Guys, come on. Let's move past it. This is gonna be a fun weekend. JACOB I still say Vermont sucks. LOU You're confusing Vermont with yourself. This weekend is going to be incredible and you will not ruin it for me. ADAM (softens, to Jacob) You might like it. Havenhurst is pretty awesome. Jacob shrugs, but Lou gets excited. LOU Fuck yeah it is! We're gonna ski the trail and bone some tail! ADAM (LAUGHS) You'll have to bone some of that tail for me, man. LOU Fuck that. You'll bone your own. ADAM No I won't. LOU Adam, trust me. Biggest mistake of my life - not fucking a whore at my bachelor party. NICK That's the biggest mistake of your life? LOU Fuck yeah. And he's not making that same mistake. ADAM Uh... I'm not having sex with anyone this weekend. Lou looks at Adam, trying to figure things out. 17. LOU Ohhhh. I gotcha. (WINKING) You're not having sex this weekend. ADAM I'm not having sex this weekend. Without the winking. LOU (WINKING) Right. No winking. (WINKS AGAIN) I understand. ADAM I'm pretty sure you don't. INT./EXT. NICK'S CAR - DAY - DRIVING Nick's car transitions from the HIGHWAY to the MOUNTAINS to the WOODS, as we track the drive. Finally, the car passes a "Welcome to Havenhurst" sign. NICK Gentlemen... welcome to Havenhurst. ADAM Yes! EXT. HAVENHURST MAIN DRAG - AFTERNOON The car winds through the main thoroughfare. Rather than a quaint ski town, this place resembles a suburban nightmare, with STRIP MALLS and CHAIN RESTAURANTS. It's the exact opposite of the fun town we saw in Adam's photos. INT./EXT. NICK'S CAR - AFTERNOON - DRIVING The guys look out the windows, wearing bummed expressions. JACOB so this is the coolest town ever? ADAM Oh man. The Brew Haus is a PF Chang's. Lou notices a TGI Friday's, with a sign advertising a "Hannah Montana 3-D Experience!" He looks utterly disgusted. 18. LOU I don't even have the heart to tell you what I just fucking saw. But say goodbye to Papa Enzo's. This town sucks. NICK What the fuck is going on? The car climbs a twisty part of the road. NICK (CONT'D) Please god let it still be there... JACOB What? ADAM Pink Paradise. Best strip club ever. The car rounds the corner and a SIGN comes into view. The beginning reads "Pink." NICK Yes! It lives! The car continues to climb and the whole sign comes into view: "Pinkberry." LOU I wanna die. JACOB (OBLIVIOUS) Sweet, there's a Pinkberry here. EXT. PINE VALLEY INN - AFTERNOON The car pulls into the parking lot of this RUNDOWN lodge. INT. PINE VALLEY INN / LOBBY - AFTERNOON The guys walk in and the first thing they notice is a bunch of CATS that wander anywhere they want. The large "living room" area off the lobby features a FIRE PLACE that has been BRICKED SHUT. TODDLERS and ELDERLY PEOPLE lounge and cry and nap. 19. LOU (TO NICK) What have you done to us? ADAM I'm not playing drinking games with my grandma. NICK OK so the place skews a little older. Let's check in. We're not spending our time inside anyway. INT. PINE VALLEY INN / HALLWAY - MINUTES LATER The guys walk silently behind a MIDDLE-AGED BELLHOP (PHIL), who struggles to wrangle their bags on a shaky hand truck. His job is made more difficult because he only has ONE ARM. He grunts and curses his way down the hall on the slow and laborious journey. But when Adam tries to pick up a bag... PHIL (CURT) Hey buddy. I'm not gonna tell you again. I fuckin' got it. Adam backs off. LOU This guy's a dick. NICK SHH-- LOU No, fuck that. (LOUDER) He's a dick. Oooh tough guy. He's gotta be Mister America. JACOB Captain America. LOU Go fuck yourself. Phil finally drops their bags at their room and then: PHIL I'm ready to be tipped. 20. LOU (SELF UNAWARE) You, sir, have no tact. Nick gives Phil a bill and he walks off down the hall, leaving the guys outside their room. NICK Gentlemen... in this room lies the beginning of our awesome weekend. JACOB Or a continuation of everything that's sucked so far. LOU Yeah, I bet it's gonna be lame as shit in there. The furniture probably smells like mold. JACOB I say we go to Foxwoods. LOU I actually kinda like that idea. ADAM Guys! Everyone looks at Adam. ADAM (CONT'D) Let's give it a chance. We don't know for sure that the room sucks. Nick nods, appreciating the optimism. He opens the door: INT. PINE VALLEY INN / SUITE - AFTERNOON The room SUCKS. The ancient furniture looks like it smells like mold and there is nothing redeemable about the place. ADAM (SHRUGS) OK, so now we know. The guys drag their bags in and depressingly take stock of the situation -- presently the dirty old room. JACOB What the hell is with this place? 21. LOU It's like a Stephen King novel, except not as cool. NICK We'll feel a lot better once we hit the slopes. (SMILES) Plus, I know there's one thing to look forward to. EXT. PINE VALLEY INN / PATIO - AFTERNOON On a patio outside their suite, our guys stare at a KICK-ASS TOP OF THE LINE HOT TUB. Spacious seating, plenty of jets, underwater lighting. It's amazing. Adam, Nick, and Lou look energized. LOU Thank. God. ADAM At least some things never change. JACOB What's the big deal about a hot tub? ADAM Shame on you. NICK There's plenty of time for tubbin'. Let's ski. EXT. MOUNTAIN - AFTERNOON At the top of the mountain, Adam, Nick, and Lou look ridiculous in TIGHT, RETRO-STYLE NEON SKI JUMPSUITS. Jacob, on a snowboard, is the only one dressed in current attire. JACOB (re: their outfits) When's the last time you guys actually went skiing? ADAM It's been a few years. NICK I think we look good. 22. JACOB Then you're an idiot. NICK All right, we race down the mountain. Loser buys first round. Premium shit only. JACOB You gonna be all right? NICK What does that mean? JACOB I dunno - do black dudes ski? NICK Of course black dudes ski. Aren't I wearing skis? JACOB I'm just not sure you're representative. NICK You're calling me an Uncle Tom? JACOB I don't even know what that means. NICK It means black dudes ski. (pulls down goggles) Catch ya at the bottom. Nick takes off and... gets about 15 FEET, before he hits a GRASSY PATCH and falls over. LOU Black dudes don't ski. ADAM (MOCK YELLING) How's the bottom? CUT TO: ADAM HITS A BAD PATCH AND FALLS DOWN. CUT TO: 23. JACOB AND LOU COLLIDE, BOTH TRYING TO AVOID A BARE PATCH. CUT TO: NICK PICKS UP SPEED, BEFORE HITTING A BARE PATCH AND FALLING. A LITTLE OLD LADY SLOWLY SKIS PAST HIM, KICKING UP POWDER. EXT. HAVENHURST MAIN DRAG - NIGHT Nick wears his "going out clothes" and walks along the main drag talking into his PHONE. It is clear that he is being CONSTANTLY INTERRUPTED on the other end of the conversation. NICK (ON PHONE) No, the black ones... without the pleats... Because the pleats make me look fat... No, I put it on the Amex... Because I'm the best man... I know, but I'm organizing... I'm gonna get cash fr-- I'm gonna get-- I'm gonna collect cash from the guys... Yes... Yes... Yes. (LONG PAUSE) I love you too. Nick hangs up and we see that Adam, Lou, and Jacob have been walking with him, listening to his end of the conversation. ADAM (SYMPATHETIC) Dude... NICK (CLAPS HANDS) OK, who's ready to sink their teeth into a delicious dinner? INT. P.F. CHANG'S - NIGHT Our four guys looks MISERABLE, as they sit around a table at this popular Chinese food chain restaurant. Their overzealous WAITER (AIDEN) makes a big production of MIXING SAUCES, like he's Emeril. AIDEN You fellas look like you can handle some spice. I'm gonna knock it up a bit... throw some chili sauce in there... oh yeah, there it is. This is gonna knock your socks off. 24. Nick's expression looks like he wants to kill the guy. NICK Thank you. The waiter walks away and Nick RAISES HIS GLASS in a toast. NICK (CONT'D) I'd like to propose a toast. To my best friend, Adam. He may be throwing his life away, but at least he's throwing it away with a hot chick at his side. The guys LAUGH and clink glasses. NICK (CONT'D) And so what if you only have one vagina for the rest of your life. Speaking as someone who's seen your wife's vagina -- it's definitely one of the good ones. Lou and Jacob look confused, but clink glasses anyway, as Adam mouths "What the fuck" to Nick. Jacob raises his glass. JACOB To my brother, I say thank you for including me. I promise to try to make the most of it. The guys look confused at the backhanded graciousness. ADAM Thanks for coming, man. It means a lot to me. Jacob nods halfheartedly. NICK To Adam! GUYS To Adam! The guys hug and clink glasses and excitedly CHATTER. Just then, a MANAGER appears at the table and CLEARS HIS THROAT. MANAGER Gentlemen. You're going to have to keep it down. 25 NICK Come on, man. It's our friend's bachelor party. We're just trying to roast him a little bit. MANAGER Well if you like roasts, I suggest the roast peking duck. It's out of this world and as I'm sure Aiden has told you, he can make it quite spicy. The guys look bothered. MANAGER (CONT'D) But as for the noisy kind of roast, that's going to have to stop. We have many other guests trying to enjoy the P.F. Chang's experience. The manager walks away. For a moment, the guys are quiet. Lou takes a bite of his food, chewing slowly. LOU This kung pau chicken pairs very nicely with the 97 cab. Very impressive choice, Nick. NICK Thank you. LOU Also, this is the worst bachelor party I've ever been to. Everyone puts down their forks, cathartically fed up. JACOB Totally agree. ADAM Nick, look. You had great intentions. No one's blaming you. LOU I'm blaming him. JACOB I'm totally blaming him. I didn't even want to go skiing. 26. NICK OK I'll admit this trip is not off to the best start. But we're due for a victory! Nick thinks and actually gets an idea. He SNAPS his fingers. NICK (CONT'D) Hot tub! A lightbulb goes off for Adam too. ADAM Yes! Lou gets up and throws down his napkin. LOU Why did we even bother with dinner? Adam and Nick get up too. JACOB Guys, I'm still hungry. LOU Quiet, men are talking. Aiden approaches. AIDEN Get you guys some to-go boxes? LOU I would like you to die. And then I would like you to leave. Aiden walks away, freaked out. Lou turns back to the guys. LOU (CONT'D) It's tub time. EXT. PINE VALLEY INN / PATIO - NIGHT Lou, Adam, and Nick all have HUGE SMILES, as they gaze at the tub. They each hold a TON OF BOOZE. Jacob looks indifferent and a little turned off by it all. Lou strips down to his underwear and CLIMBS IN. LOU Oh my god. The water is perfect. 27. He POURS A VODKA and SLAMS IT BACK. Adam climbs in with Lou, pouring his own drink. JACOB I really don't see the appeal. It's like a glorified bath. NICK Jacob. Son. The hot tub is the whole thing! You ski all day. Then you hit the town, get trashed, and lure some fine ladies back to the lodge for some good old fashioned tubbin'. Nick CRACKS A BEER and pats Jacob on the back. NICK (CONT'D) So the town's dead? Fine, we skip that part and go right to the tub. Trust me. If there's fun to be had, the tub is a good start. Nick gets in. NICK (CONT'D) Yes! It's amazing. Now it's just Jacob outside the hot tub. The other three guys are already starting to look more energized and happy, splashing around. After another beat of consideration... JACOB Fuck it. Jacob strips down and gets in. As he submerges, he actually starts to loosen up a bit and smiles. LOU Well? JACOB I'm not convinced this is anything more than a bath, but it's nice. NICK Hit him with some bubbles. ADAM Coming right up. Adam CRANKS A KNOB. As the BUBBLES comes to life, we begin a TUBBIN' MONTAGE over Reel 2 Real's "I Like to Move It." 28. -- In the tub, the guys DRINK like fish, pouring various combinations of VODKA, RED BULL, MOUNTAIN DEW, BACARDI, and anything else they can get their hands on. -- Jacob's LAPTOP is propped on the edge of the tub, playing BETTER OFF DEAD. Every so often, one of our guys takes a drink, playing a game, the rules of which only they know. -- Adam takes a big bite of the SANDWICH Lily gave him. -- Nick uses his iPhone to take video and pictures. More drinking games. The guys wear funny HATS and roll dice on a PIECE OF WOOD. Adam has to drink some tub water. -- The guys keep reaching into ADAM'S BACKPACK for MIXERS. -- Nick, Adam, and Lou LAUGH. Then, Lou lifts up Jacob's head, which he has been FORCIBLY HOLDING UNDER WATER. Jacob coughs and spits out water and looks pissed. Then he smiles and helps submerge Nick's head in the same way. -- Slam! Another bottle of vodka killed. Crush! Another empty Red Bull his the patio. -- A BEAR eats some DORITOS that have been left on a PICNIC TABLE. Yards away in the tub, the guys laugh and taunt it. -- Lou BLEEDS from where the bear has obviously SCRATCHED HIM across the chest. Still, he dances in the tub. -- Just for an instant (did we see that?), the guys are 3 BLACK GUYS and ONE WHITE GUY, before changing back. -- The guys wear their SNOWSUITS in the tub. Adam very dangerously jumps in, attached to a SNOWBOARD. -- The CUTS get QUICKER and QUICKER, as hands reach into the backpack. More vodka. More Dew. More Red Bull. More Bacardi... The cuts SPEED UP and INTENSIFY until finally in a BRILLIANT FLASH OF LIGHT, we EXPLODE TO: THE SUN RISING JUST ABOVE THE MOUNTAIN PEAKS. EXT. PINE VALLEY INN / PATIO - DAWN As the light of a new day spills into Havenhurst, we find all four of our guys PASSED OUT in the hot tub, the water calm. A KITTEN licks Lou's face. It's adorable. Until... 29. Lou JOLTS AWAKE and PUKES ON THE KITTEN, sending it FLYING! This wakes up everyone and they stir to life, inspecting the carnage, mostly hangover-related. NICK Oh my god, I wanna die. JACOB I need a vitamin water. Adam reaches in his backpack, taking out two choices. ADAM Red Bull or Fresca? Jacob takes the Fresca, as Lou inspects the CLAW MARKS. LOU That fucking bear got me good. ADAM Yeah he did. LOU But we showed him, didn't we? ADAM If by showing him, you mean we laughed and he got bored and wandered off into the woods with your sneakers, then yeah, we got him good. LOU Fuck yeah. Lou picks up Adam's half-eaten sandwich and takes a BITE. ADAM You just puked. LOU That's why I'm eating your sandwich. I'm fucking starving. NICK Guys, look... Their gaze turns to the MOUNTAIN PEAK, on which is a fresh LAYER OF POWDER. It looks like perfect skiing conditions. ADAM Let's do it! 30. EXT. PINE VALLEY INN / PARKING LOT - MOMENTS LATER As the guys walk across the front of the lodge, they pass some well preserved CARS all parked together: a 1985 Pontiac Fiero, a 1986 VW Golf, and a 1987 Ford Mustang coupe. JACOB What is this, a shitty car club? The guys COMPLETELY MISS the BILLBOARDS ACROSS THE STREET: -- "Coming soon: the most spaced-out Mel Brooks film yet! SPACEBALLS!" -- A surfing MAX HEADROOM with a CAN OF COKE and the tag: "Catch the Wave!" -- A bull terrier named SPUDS MCKENZIE parking with some HOT BABES and a shitload of BUD LIGHT. EXT. MOUNTAIN - DAY In QUICK CUTS, the guys hit the slopes: -- In his ridiculous snowsuit, Nick skis down the mountain. With the new snowfall, he expertly glides along. -- Jacob applies some LIP BALM and flies down the mountain on a SNOWBOARD. People glare at him with confused expressions. -- Adam uses the snowplow method to slowly descend. He's a beginner skier. He takes the time to look at the surroundings and notices a YOUNGER, HOTTER CROWD skiing today. Lots of BLONDE SKI BUNNIES wearing PASTEL colors. ADAM Well this place has improved. -- In the lift line, Lou passes a GUY wearing a BIG HEADBAND. LOU Really, asshole? INT. GONDOLA - DAY Adam shares a gondola with Nick, as they make their way up the mountain. A DUDE IN SUNGLASSES sits across, napping. Adam takes a FLASK out of his backpack. He and Nick look over their shoulders like scheming kids as they take a nip. 31. ADAM I'm really glad we stayed. It's gonna be good to get away for a couple of days. (QUALIFYING BEAT) I mean not like I want to be away from Lily. You know. NICK Believe me I know. ADAM I love her. But you guys are right. I'm gonna be with her for the rest of my life. NICK (NODS) For the rest of your goddamn life. ADAM It gets easier, right? No offense, but watching you talk with Courtney- NICK You're gonna be fine. You'll settle in, get the premium cable package - the usual deal. Adam nods. NICK (CONT'D) You'll wake up every morning, comforted by the fact that your wife doesn't wield her family's wealth over your head like a hangman's noose. Adam looks concerned, as Nick wistfully goes on... NICK (CONT'D) You'll breathe the air of life, making the occasional decision - maybe get some lawn furniture. How about steak for dinner? Yes, let's get that juice machine I saw on TV. Let's fucking go for it. Nick stares off into the distance. ADAM Nick? 32. NICK Sorry, I lost myself there. DUDE IN SUNGLASSES (O.S.) Coke? Adam and Nick look at the guy across from them, who presently offers his SKI GOGGLES, on which is a mountain of COCAINE. NICK That is a lot of cocaine. ADAM I feel like we're in Scarface. Only with skiing. (THINKS) Skiface. DUDE IN SUNGLASSES (SNIFFS) Take it. It's good shit. NICK I'm gonna pass. ADAM (DECLINES) Yeah, I'm good. The dude removes his sunglasses. He has a dead look in his eyes, studying Nick and Adam. DUDE IN SUNGLASSES You guys a couple of spazzes? ADAM Spazzes? DUDE IN SUNGLASSES (VERY ANGRY) Yeah, dipstick. You narcs? You Miami Vice? Which one's Crockett? Which one's CROCKETT?! ADAM I'm Crockett, obviously! (TO NICK) That's the Don Johnson one, right? The dude flips out a SWITCHBLADE. DUDE IN SUNGLASSES You show me you're not spazzes. 33. NICK We're not spazzes. The dude extends the coke once more. DUDE IN SUNGLASSES Show me. EXT. MOUNTAIN / TOP - MOMENTS LATER At the top of the mountain, Nick looks WIDE AWAKE. Adam, on the other hand, looks COKED OUT OF HIS SKULL. He sniffs, fidgets, clenches his jaw, and looks generally "up." NICK Adam, you gotta chill. You just did one line. ADAM I've never ridden the horse before. NICK You're not riding the horse. The horse is heroin. Adam can't stop moving and fidgeting. ADAM I don't know what kind of animal I'm riding, but it's the best animal of all time. I feel great! Adam uses his SKI POLES to push off the top of the mountain and he goes FLYING DOWN THE SLOPE. NICK Adam! Jesus. EXT. MOUNTAIN / SKI TRAIL - DAY - CONTINUOUS Adam TUCKS down, still CLENCHING HIS TEETH. He PICKS UP SPEED as he flies down the mountain like a racer. FURTHER UP THE MOUNTAIN Nick has to pull up and slow down in the name of safety. 34. ON ADAM He zips along, never changing course or slowing. He BARELY MISSES a few TREES. But he can't stop himself before -- HE BARRELS INTO A SMOKING HOT CHICK! The collision knocks Adam and the girl to the ground and finally stops Adam's hyper-speed descent. Adam gets up and shakes the cobwebs. ADAM What a rush! He notices the girl on the ground and goes to help her up. ADAM (CONT'D) Oh wow, are you OK? SMOKING HOT CHICK No thanks to you, asshole! IN SLOW MOTION -- The girl stands up in a very hot and awesome manner, SHAKING THE SNOW from her luxurious blonde hair. It twinkles in the sunlight. As she turns to face Adam, NORMAL SPEED RESUMES. And he sees who it is: ADAM (MIND BLOWN) Jennie O'Keefe! Jennie squints at Adam, trying to place him. JENNIE Do I know you? He stares at her, not believing what he's seeing. He still looks loopy from the coke. Just then, a a too-blond, mirror-sunglass-wearing, feathered hair, striped-jumpsuited guy (BLAINE) SKIS UP and GRABS ADAM. BLAINE I'm gonna serve you a knuckle sandwich, airhead. (TO JENNIE) You all right, babe? JENNIE I think so. 35. Blaine's TOADIES (TAD and CHAZ) ski up behind him, as Blaine ANGRILY RIPS Adam's lift ticket from his jacket. BLAINE Your lift ticket's been revoked. Blaine throws it on the ground and laughs to his friends. ADAM (a la Lethal Weapon 2) Diplomatic immunity. Blaine looks confused, as Adam RIPS Blaine's lift ticket, but he ends up RIPPING BLAINE'S JACKET too. ADAM (CONT'D) Sorry, I was trying to... you can probably patch that up. Blaine PULLS Adam close by the collar and clenches his fist. BLAINE You're dead meat, scumbag. Just then, SNOW POWDER flies in Blaine's face. Blaine lets go of Adam, as Jacob snowboards up and stops short, coming to his brother's side. JACOB There you are! My brother's had a few too many triple Venti nonfat lattes if you know what I mean. (genuine, to Adam) Are you OK? Adam nods. Blaine looks confused. CHAZ and TAD look enamored with Jacob. CHAZ Dude, they let you bring a skateboard on the mountain? JACOB It's a snowboard. You know - no wheels. TAD Genius! Man, not to get all fag on you, but I'm digging your fresh threads, bro. Adam and Blaine look equally confused with what's going on. Jacob takes the compliment well, like he deserves it. 36. JACOB Thank you. It's mostly North Face. A little EMS. CHAZ Whatever it is, it works. TAD Totally. What are you doing with this boner? You should be skiing with us. Like permanently. Blaine looks really annoyed with his friends. BLAINE Guys! TAD I mean, that's if Blaine thinks it's cool and everything. Blaine takes a deep breath, annoyed. BLAINE (TO JACOB) Get your spaz brother out of here. And for his sake, I don't wanna see him back on my mountain. CHAZ (EAGER) You're welcome any time though! Adam picks up his BACKPACK, which fell off during the collision. He stares at Jennie again and smiles. ADAM You look JUST like this girl. I had the biggest crush on her-- Blaine grabs the bag out of Adam's hand and SHOVES ADAM away. BLAINE This is mine now. Adam looks at Blaine angrily, but Jacob holds him back. JACOB Come on. Let's just go. Jacob ushers Adam off the slope, as Blaine shoulders the bag. 37. INT. PINE VALLEY INN / LOBBY - DAY Adam and Jacob walk in the front door. Gone are the children and old people. The living room off the lobby presently hosts what appears to be an amazing 80s RETRO PARTY. A radio plays Miami Sound Machine's "Conga." Girls and guys wear printed sweaters, feathered dos, and neon leggings. It's something out of a mid-80s Aspen photo shoot. Nick walks in behind them, looking as confused as them. He turns up his palms and shakes his head, at a loss for words. ADAM What is going on? Lou strolls up to the guys, with his arms around TWO HOT CHICKS. He looks elated. LOU Guys! I'm so glad you're here. I want to introduce you to Michelle and Sandy. These lovely ladies are having a roller skating party next weekend and no offense, but fuck your wedding -- I'm totally coming back. By the way... Lou rolls out a ZIPLOCK BAG full of cocaine. LOU (CONT'D) There's coke everywhere around here. This place rules! Lou dips into the coke and rubs it on his gums and we: CUT TO: INT. PINE VALLEY INN / SUITE - LATE AFTERNOON The suite looks a little "fresher." The furniture is the same, but everything's in better shape. It looks almost new. Adam, Jacob, and Lou sit in the main room with the TV on, as Nick emerges from a bedroom. JACOB Has anyone else noticed that things around here are weird as shit? Adam and Nick nod. Lou shakes his head. 38. LOU Don't you ruin this. If you wake me from this dream, I'll kill you. ADAM (IGNORING LOU) What do you think happened? JACOB I have no idea, but look... Jacob turns up the VOLUME on the TV. The NEWS airs. NEWSCASTER (ON TV) The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed just above 2,000 today... NICK I'm ruined! NEWSCASTER (ON TV) In other news, the Tower Commission has rebuked President Reagan for not controlling his national security staff in an arms-for- hostages deal with Iran... For a moment, the guys sit there in stunned silence. Then... LOU (with genuine emotion) We're in 1971. ADAM (CORRECTING HIM) We're in 1987. Everyone looks stunned and dazed. JACOB What are we gonna do? I have plans next weekend. ADAM We all have plans. It's my fucking wedding! NICK Now hold on, we don't know for sure that we're in 1987. The TV shows a (real) COMMERCIAL for the COMMODORE 64 computer, with a JINGLE that SINGS: "Are you keeping up with the Commodore, 'cause the Commodore's keeping up with you..." 39. When it's over... NICK (CONT'D) OK, we're in 1987. Adam stands up, completely losing it. ADAM What the FUCK is going on?! Nick stands up and calmly takes charge. NICK Everyone relax. I think I know what's happened. And when we're done discussing it, we're all gonna feel a lot better. Everyone looks to Nick, who seems to have the answer. NICK (CONT'D) Two words: black hole. He lets it hang in the air for a moment, as if it's suddenly going to gel for everyone. But the guys look confused. NICK (CONT'D) I saw a special on the Science Channel. And guess what? Sometimes this happens. ADAM This happens? NICK Yes. And the best thing for us to do is to stay put. The universe will eventually reverse itself and work out this little glitch. Nick sits down, looking satisfied in his know-it-all-ness. ADAM This is a big glitch. JACOB Yeah, you're an idiot. Black holes are in space. Not at a ski resort. LOU (HOPEFUL) So does this mean we get to go to girls' locker rooms and see them naked and they can't see us? 40. JACOB No, we traveled through time. We're not invisible. Lou looks upset. LOU (under his breath) I'm still gonna do it. ADAM Guys, ignoring the ridiculousness of how we got here for a moment-- NICK Black hole. ADAM How are we supposed to get back? For a moment, everyone sits and absorbs the question. Then: LOU We find a scientist. CUT TO: INT. IBM / RECEPTION - LATE AFTERNOON Our guys WAIT NERVOUSLY near a RECEPTION DESK, above which is the "IBM" logo. Lou reads a MAGAZINE. LOU This Dukakis guy seems like he might be the real deal. An affable MAN IN A SUIT approaches. MAN IN SUIT Gentlemen, how may I help you? NICK We're waiting for a scientist. MAN IN SUIT I am a scientist. LOU Where's your white coat? SCIENTIST I'm not that kind of scientist. 41. Lou stands up and throws down his magazine. LOU This is bullshit! I told you-- ADAM Wait a minute. Just tell him. NICK OK. You tell him, Adam. ADAM Sir, we... (EMBARRASSED) This is ridiculous. SCIENTIST Nothing's too ridiculous in the name of science. JACOB We're from the future. SCIENTIST Get the fuck out of here. EXT. IBM OFFICE PARK - LATE AFTERNOON A SECURITY GUARD escorts our guys out of the building. ADAM That went well. Lou starts walking off by himself. NICK (TO LOU) Where are you going? Lou points to his watch. LOU Five o'clock. Happy hour. The guys look at him, confused. LOU (CONT'D) If it's '87, the PF Chang's will be gone, which means the Brew Haus still stands. (THEN) It's Saturday. They have wet T- shirt contests on Saturdays. 42. The guys' eyebrows raise. After a moment: ADAM Well, maybe one drink. Just to confirm. INT. BREW HAUS - HAPPY HOUR SPLASH! A WET T-SHIRT CONTEST is underway on a STAGE. Whitesnake on the juke, PAC MAN on the tables, and cheap beers in the mugs - this is an amazing brew pub. Our guys sit in the back, wearing PINE VALLEY LODGE shirts. There are MANY EMPTIES on the table and they look VERY DRUNK. In a roped-off area in the corner, a cocky YOUNGER PHIL (the one-armed bellhop) wields a CHAINSAW that he uses to carve an ICE SCULPTURE, impressing the bar crowd. He has BOTH ARMS. NICK Holy shit. It's that bellhop. JACOB Should we warn him? ADAM (COVERS EYES) I don't want to see this go down. Phil TOSSES THE CHAINSAW IN THE AIR and... He expertly CATCHES IT, seamlessly continuing to carve. A GIRL leans in and gives him a kiss. LOU Fuck that guy. ON THE STAGE, TWO GIRLS compete for wettest t-shirt. They both decide that NO T-SHIRT is the wettest option. NICK God bless our country. ADAM (in a daze) We're in 1987. JACOB You can stop saying that. I don't think it's making a difference. 43. ADAM Seriously, we have to get back. (kinda losing it) We seriously have to get back! The guys subdue Adam, as a BIG-HAIRED WAITRESS brings drinks. WAITRESS Here ya go, guys. Three Buds, one Bartles and James. The guys all stare at her like she's a museum artifact. WAITRESS (CONT'D) What? I have lipstick on my teeth? Nick sips his WINE COOLER, feeling the eyes of the others on him. NICK Hey, if it's available, I'm ordering it. I always wanted one of these when I was little. The waitress puts down the CHECK. Jacob picks it up, realizing something. JACOB (to the waitress) Can you give us a second? She walks away, as Jacob turns to the guys. JACOB (CONT'D) This is gonna be a problem. He takes out his wallet, showing his CREDIT CARDS and CASH. JACOB (CONT'D) Guys, we're in trouble. Our cards aren't gonna work and our new money looks fake. The guys look concerned, but then Nick notices something: A TABLE FULL OF JAPANESE BUSINESSMEN. NICK I've got an idea. As Nick gets up and approaches the businessmen, Adam looks around the room and by the bar, he spots -- 44. Jennie. He stares at her from across the room. Lou and Jacob notice. ADAM I still can't believe it's really her! LOU She's aged remarkably well. (REMEMBERS) Oh, right. Why don't you just go talk to her? ADAM I should go talk to her. To apologize, of course. You know, nothing inappropriate. LOU Sure... Adam GETS UP. He slowly makes his way over across the room. Jennie is talking to TWO OTHER GIRLS as Adam approaches. He lurks near them like a creep. Jennie eventually notices him, as he keeps stealing glances. She doesn't look happy. JENNIE (TO ADAM) Listen putz, if you're gonna try to attack me again, my boyfriend will be here soon. He'll kick your ass. Adam tries to be casual. ADAM No, no. No ass kicking. I just wanted to say I'm sorry about earlier. I lost control of the old skis there. (LAUGHS NERVOUSLY) Looks like I shoulda taken another one of your classes! JENNIE When did you take my class? ADAM Certainly not when I was a kid! I mean, that would make no sense! Adam tries to recover. 45. ADAM (CONT'D) I was here for a convention. Power tools. And regular tools. All sorts of tools. I'm big into tools. It was a couple years ago. Jennie looks very suspect of Adam. JENNIE Yeah, OK. Have a good night. Jennie starts to walk away with her friends. ADAM (TOO FRIENDLY) Hey, where ya going? She ignores him, but one of her friends quietly lags behind. JENNIE'S FRIEND (quietly, to Adam) Are you with that guy over there? She discretely points out Jacob. ADAM Yeah, he's my brother. She takes Adam's PALM and writes something on it. JENNIE'S FRIEND There's a party later tonight at this address. Make sure he comes with you. He's way boss! Adam walks back to his friends. JACOB How'd it go? He shows them his palm. ADAM We got invited to a party later. LOU sweet! What are we gonna do until then? ADAM How about figure out how the hell to get back to the present day? Nick walks back to the table and SLAMS down a pile of CASH. 46. NICK Bam! LOU We're millionaires! NICK Close. It's a thousand bucks. ADAM Where did you get that money? Nick points out the Japanese Businessmen. NICK (PROUDLY) Sold them my iPod. Jacob looks incredulous. JACOB That was NOT a good idea! LOU I agree. You left so much money on the table. It's a fucking iPod! You could've gotten a LOT more! JACOB That's not what I-- ADAM (looking at watch) Fellas, we are not making progress and we're losing time. NICK Adam, don't worry. Time's not moving forward in the future. JACOB Uh, yeah it is. Lest we forget the lessons learned from Bill and Ted. NICK Well then I give you Back to the Future. JACOB That's not fair. You can't go right to Back to the Future. NICK Why not? 47. JACOB Back to the Future had a time machine. NICK Well so did Bill and Ted. ADAM (REALIZES) Wait, that's it! I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I think we have a time machine. NICK Adam, all we did is get drunk in the hot tub. Everyone's EYES GO WIDE. LOU (puts it together) A hot tub time machine. CUT TO: EXT. PINE VALLEY INN / PATIO - EARLY EVENING All four guys soak in the tub. They TOAST with drinks. ADAM Here goes nothing! They simultaneously DOWN their drinks. Nothing happens. Like the chimps in 2001, each of them begins FIDDLING WITH KNOBS and PUSHING ON LIGHTS, trying to find the magic button. After a few moments: NICK Well, it was worth a shot. ANGLE WIDENS to reveal other PEOPLE in the tub. A GUY AND GIRL make out, two STONERS pass a joint, and one TOPLESS CHICK just chills out. LOU (stares at girl) I love this place. As Lou pours himself another, Adam starts to lose it again. ADAM Guys, we're running out of ideas here! (MORE) 48. ADAM (CONT'D) I mean we tried the scientist, the tub -- what the fuck do we do next? Lou DOWNS ANOTHER SHOT and gets a crazy look in his eye. LOU I know what we do next. CUT TO: EXT. PARKING LOT - EARLY EVENING A DELOREAN is parked in the empty lot. Adam, Nick, and Jacob look at it, drunkenly and bleary-eyed. Adam and Nick trade swigs from a BOTTLE OF WHISKEY. The gull wing door opens and Lou steps out, in a foul mood. LOU Rental car agency fucked us! There's no flux capacitor. Lou pulls Jacob over and straps him in the driver's seat, before walking around to the passenger side. LOU (CONT'D) (to Adam and Nick) We'll travel to 2010. Then one of us will come back and get one of you. And so on and so forth. INT. DELOREAN - EARLY EVENING Lou sits in the passenger seat next to Jacob. LOU Go light on the clutch. I don't wanna lose our deposit. Jacob starts the car. EXT. PARKING LOT - SAME TIME Adam and Nick watch the car pull out of the parking lot. ADAM (SOBERING SLIGHTLY) This will not end well. 49. INT./EXT. DELOREAN - SAME TIME Jacob and Lou hit the road, picking up speed. They pass a COP, who pulls out, turning on his LIGHTS AND SIREN. LOU Oh shit, they found me! I don't know how but they found me! (LAUGHS) I always wanted to say that. Punch it! Jacob HITS THE GAS. LOU (CONT'D) Let's see the look on this pig's face when we hit 88 and disappear into thin air! Yeah! The SPEEDOMETER hits 75, 80, 85, and then 90. And then 95. The car SHAKES VIOLENTLY. LOU (CONT'D) (SURPRISED) This thing's a piece of shit. Up ahead, the ROAD CURVES DRASTICALLY. JACOB Hey Lou? LOU Yeah? JACOB (VERY CALM) We're doing a hundred. I can't control this car. LOU (NODS) I hear ya. EXT. ROAD - EARLY EVENING The Delorean BRAKES, but doesn't make the turn. It FLIPS OVER in a fantastic disaster and comes to a stop in a DITCH. The COP pulls over, gets out of his car, and DRAWS HIS GUN. 50. EXT. PARKING LOT - EARLY EVENING Adam and Nick watch the accident from a distance. ADAM So do you think we should run away? INT. PINE VALLEY INN / SUITE - LATER THAT NIGHT Looking ragged as hell, the four guys walk into the room and silently collapse on various BEDS and COUCHES. LOU I wonder if we'll still be here for our court appearance. ADAM If we're still here in four months, I will happily go to jail, because I'll be fucked anyway. A GUY walks out of the bathroom, wearing only a TOWEL. He looks startled. TOWEL GUY Who the hell are you dweebs?! Lou is up IN A FLASH. He IMMEDIATELY DECKS THE GUY OUT COLD and PUMMELS HIM on the floor! The others pull him off. NICK Jesus Christ, what the hell, Lou?! LOU I have no tolerance for intruders. NICK This is probably his room! We're not registered here in 87. Lou thinks for a moment and looks a "little" sorry. LOU I'm still pretty OK with it. ADAM You have a problem. LOU Just help me put him outside. 51. INT. PINE VALLEY INN / HALLWAY - MOMENTS LATER The guys open the door to the suite and find TWO DUDES walking by. Adam stops them. ADAM (AWKWARDLY) Hey. Dudes. Our friend's... hellaciously wasted. He partied pretty hearty... to the max. To the extreme max. DUDE #1 Bodacious. ADAM So you guys wanna fuck with him or what? DUDE #2 Excellent. The dudes take custody of the passed out TOWEL GUY and continue on down the hall, as our guys go back inside. INT. PINE VALLEY INN / SUITE - NIGHT The guys look physically exhausted. NICK Let's just go to sleep. We'll figure everything out in the morning. It's pretty late. Jacob checks his watch, rolling his eyes. JACOB It's 8:45. The other guys look at their watches, surprised. NICK Why am I so wiped out? JACOB Because you're old and lame? LOU Yeah, fuck that, we're going to that party! ADAM We are not going to the party. 52. LOU Hear me out. Lou paces around the room like Patton addressing the troops. LOU (CONT'D) We saw the scientist. He was worthless. We tried the tub. Dead end. I got us a fucking time machine. From Hertz. It might as well have been a Nissan. Adam shakes his head, as Lou continues. LOU (CONT'D) Gentlemen, it's fucking 1987. Nixon's in the White House, gas is free, and we're about to put a man on the moon! ADAM Did we go to the same school? Lou turns and addresses Adam directly. LOU The point is you haven't even met your wife yet! She can't fault you for shit that went down 23 years ago! Even if 23 years ago somehow ends up being tonight! Adam starts listening a little more closely, as some of Lou's logic actually makes "some" sense. LOU (CONT'D) It's time to start facing the fact that we may not be going home. And if that's so, then we owe it to ourselves to make the best life we can for ourselves. The guys listen intently, as Lou's speech reaches a passionate climax. LOU (CONT'D) Because I don't want to be that college freshman who spends the first semester hiding in his dorm room, only to realize that come spring, he has no friends. (MORE PASSIONATE) No! (MORE) 53. LOU (CONT' D ) I want to be that college freshman who fucks chicks way out of his league before they have an opportunity to realize he's not as cool as he's pretending to be! Nick nods. Even Jacob smiles. LOU (CONT'D) Are you with me? ADAM (CONFUSED) I don't know. LOU Close enough. We'll talk some more at the party. INT. HOUSE PARTY - NIGHT It's like the 80s exploded. Music, clothes, hair, attitude -- it's all on overdrive. In one section, PARTY-GOERS marvel at DUCK HUNT, while in another area, people make out and dance. Adam, Nick, Lou, and Jacob walk in the front door. They have updated their "looks" with 80s sweaters and other era- appropriate attire. They all look ridiculous, except for Jacob, whose youth lends him hipster appeal. ADAM This sweater makes me look like a jerkof f . LOU (BREATHES DEEPLY) It's good to be home. In a corner, Phil puts his ARM in a SHARK TANK. Just as the shark goes to bite, he PULLS HIS ARM OUT, unscathed. A small crowd claps. Our guys are confused and upset. NICK Was this like an 80s thing? LOU If he doesn't lose that arm soon, I'm gonna take it from him myself. With that, Lou wanders off toward another room, leering at and groping girls as he goes. 54. ADAM (RE: LOU) He's gonna be a problem. Tad and Chaz walk over, looking dapper and douchey. They are excited to see Jacob. TAD Hey, glad you could make it! ADAM (ANNOYED) This is your party? CHAZ Hey man, no hard feelings, all right? If your bro says you're cool, then we're cool. Tad puts his arm around Jacob and leads him into the party. TAD There's some people I want you to meet. By the way, bodacious hair. Incredibly chic. JACOB (FLATTERED) Oh yeah? It doesn't really take that much product. It's all in the layering. TAD Whoa. Product. You're blowing my mind right now. Did you spend time in Europe? CHAZ Don't tell me. Prague. Do you want some coke? JACOB Do you have Coke Zero? TAD Ah, a conscientious objector. I like that. Gotta stay sharp. IN THE KITCHEN Nick mixes something in a large bowl, as plenty of EAGER PARTY-GOERS look on. He pours a red liquid into a tray of CUPS. An attractive PARTY CHICK follows his every move. 55. NICK These will be ready in 15 minutes. PARTY CHICK (putting it together) So it's like jello. With vodka. NICK Mmm hmm. You get drunk while you enjoy a delicious gelatin snack. PARTY CHICK How come no one ever thought of this before? NICK Don't know. I just invented it. Party chick looks into his eyes, dreamily. PARTY CHICK I appreciate you. NICK (way too heartfelt) I love you. IN THE LIVING ROOM Lou PLAYS AN ELECTRIC KEYBOARD for about 15-20 people. He's performing Ace of Base's "The Sign" and SINGING PASSIONATELY. Adam walks up to where Jacob aims a large VIDEO CAMERA. JACOB He did a bunch of drugs and went on a rant about how much he resents Ace of Base. ADAM That band's from the 90s. JACOB I know. He made me borrow Tad's video camera. He wants to document the performance and sue the band for infringement when we get back. Adam sees Tad and Chaz behaving like cocks across the room, making hot girls drink too much. 56. ADAM (re: Tad and Chaz) So, you like these guys? JACOB They're rich, popular, and they shower me with compliments. They're pretty much the best friends I've ever had. ON A BALCONY A CROWD gathers around Phil, who has removed the cover of a SPINNING INDUSTRIAL FAN. CROWD Phil! Phil! Phil! Like a zen master, Phil reaches out and GRABS A FAN BLADE, stopping the fan WITHOUT INJURY. Everyone celebrates! IN THE KITCHEN Nick holds up a HOMEMADE BEER BONG, from which he drinks. He has his own CROWD rooting him on. NICK'S CROWD Nick! Nick! Nick! He finishes the last of the beer, and the crowd celebrates. PARTY GUY This guy should be in charge of everything! NICK I should. IN THE LIVING ROOM Lou SITS ON A COUCH with Michelle, one of the girls we met earlier at the lodge. Her friend Sandy sits across from them next to Jacob, who looks uncomfortable. SANDY Truth or dare? Lou confers with Michelle before answering. LOU Dare. 57. Sandy and Jacob confer, figuring out the dare. Lou meets Jacob's eyes -- he smiles, knowing Jacob has his back. SANDY OK, we dare Lou to put a Twizzler up his ass. Lou stands up and angrily points at Jacob. LOU You son of a bitch! Have you ever played this game before? It's supposed to be awesome! Lou nevertheless grabs a TWIZZLER from the snack bowl and shoves it down the back of his pants. His face contorts uncomfortably and he is almost on the verge of tears. LOU (CONT'D) This is a horrible thing you're doing and I hope you never have to experience what I am currently going through. Lou sits down and Michelle consoles him. MICHELLE Your turn! Truth or dare? Before Sandy can even confer with Jacob: JACOB (SMILES) Truth. Lou throws up his hands in frustration. He looks miserable, as Michelle confers with him. LOU (grumbling to Michelle) I don't care. Whatever. This is not the point of the game. MICHELLE OK, each of you has to tell your darkest, most personal secret. Lou crosses his arms and shakes his head. 58. JACOB Oh wow, all right. Let me think. I've never told anyone this, but I was afraid of scary movies until I was 18. I even ran out of the theater a couple of times. SANDY Oh you poor thing! Come here... She takes Jacob's head to her chest and strokes it gently. Lou makes a jerk-off gesture. SANDY (CONT'D) (SHY) I'm not sure I should tell mine. MICHELLE Come on! You have to! SANDY OK, but you can't laugh. LOU (WHO CARES) We promise. Let's hear it. SANDY So this one time me and my friend Lori took a train to Baltimore. It was the summer and we wanted to party, but we had no money. So Lori found this businessman who was also looking for a good time and told him that we'd give him a half and half for seventy-five dollars. You know -- a suck and fuck. Lou and Jacob look shocked with the MATTER OF FACT storytelling. Michelle smiles. She's heard it before. SANDY (CONT'D) Anyway, we get him up to his room and Lori starts going down on him, but I really wasn't into it. So I broke a piece of the bathroom mirror and used it to cut his artery on the-heck. Right here... She rubs Jacob's neck, pointing it out. SANDY (CONT'D) He bled for about an hour before he died. (MORE) 59. SANDY (CONT'D) Afterwards, we took his wallet to the bar and found out he only had forty-seven dollars. Michelle GIGGLES. SANDY (CONT'D) Michelle! You said you wouldn't laugh! MICHELLE (GIGGLING) I'm sorry! Jacob and Lou look shell-shocked. IN ANOTHER ROOM Adam sits in a chair in the corner, secluded. To his LEFT -- Nick's in the kitchen, catching POPCORN in his mouth and earning accolades from all his new fans. To Adam's RIGHT -- The truth or dare game devolves, as Michelle PIERCES LOU'S EAR. He screams in pain, but at the end, he has a GOLD STUD in his RIGHT EAR. Lou points at Jacob. LOU Fuck you, your turn. JACOB That's the gay ear, you know. As Adam looks STRAIGHT AHEAD -- He sees Jennie all by herself, browsing the hosts' CASSETTE TAPE COLLECTION. Adam takes a moment to check himself. Then he reaches for his DRINK and GULPS THE WHOLE THING, before getting up and WALKING OVER to her, catching her off guard. ADAM So I lied to you earlier. I wasn't here for a power tool convention. Jennie instinctively looks around for her friends. JENNIE I know. You don't look like you could handle power tools. 60. ADAM The truth is, Jennie, I've always liked you. But I've never really known you. I really wasn't supposed to meet you again. JENNIE Who are you?! Adam shrugs, indicating he might as well tell her. ADAM I came here from the future. She rolls her eyes - she's heard all the one-liners. JENNIE Let me guess. You want to beam me up to your spaceship built for two? Or maybe you're wondering if these are astronaut pants? ADAM Astronaut pants? JENNIE Because my ass is out of this world? Give me a break, spaz. I've heard them all. She turns away. Adam goes after her. ADAM No! No spaceship. No astronaut pants. Just regular time travel. With normal pants. JENNIE OK, what's the punch line? An ARM comes from behind and CHOKES ADAM. It's Blaine. BLAINE I thought I told you to stay off my mountain, partner! JENNIE Blaine, stop! BLAINE You talking to my girl? Huh? I can't hear you. Adam fights to breathe, as Blaine chokes him harder. 61. JENNIE Blaine, that's enough! Let him go! He can't breathe! Blaine doesn't stop. He smiles like an asshole. BLAINE Can't breathe? Is that right? Can you breathe, partner? What's that? I can't hear you. Just tell me you can't breathe and I'll stop. Adam still struggles. Blaine just shrugs. BLAINE (CONT'D) He's not saying anything. I guess he can breathe. Jennie pulls on Blaine's arm, trying to free Adam. BLAINE (CONT'D) Babe, stop. Jennie, stop! Blaine turns and accidentally ELBOWS JENNIE in the face. She goes down. He releases Adam and turns to help her. BLAINE (CONT'D) Baby, I'm sorry. (turns to Adam) See what you made me do?! JENNIE Screw you, Blaine! Jennie gets up. She grabs Adam's arm and YANKS HIM along with her, as she storms away. JENNIE (CONT'D) (TO ADAM) Come on, let's go! Blaine looks ON FIRE, as he watches Jennie leave with Adam. LOU (V.0.) Sandy, I don't know what you did with this wine, but it is delightful. INT. APARTMENT - LATE NIGHT Jacob and Lou sit with Michelle and Sandy back at the girls' apartment. The whole place looks like a Madonna concert. 62. Jacob looks uncomfortable, but Lou pours on the polite charm. SANDY It's from a box. There's lots! LOU Mmm. Fantastic. (QUICK TURN) Do you mind if I borrow my friend? We'll only be a moment. CUT TO: INT. APARTMENT / BATHROOM - MOMENTS LATER Lou has Jacob PINNED AGAINST THE WALL with his arm. He speaks quietly, but with purpose. LOU You're gonna fuck her! JACOB I'm not gonna have sex with her. She killed a guy! LOU That guy was undesirable. You heard her. It was about the money. JACOB Great, so she's a prostitute. I'm not sleeping with a hooker either. LOU She's not a hooker. She's a girl who did what she had to do to make a few bucks. (tries new tactic) Listen, she's probably awesome in bed. JACOB She probably has a hairy vagina. LOU Exactly! Jacob looks confused. JACOB I'm not having this conversation. It's pointless. I don't have a condom. 63. LOU Perfect! Me neither! No one here uses condoms. It's like heaven. Only with a lot more coke. Lou takes his COKE out of his pocket and SNORTS a bunch. LOU (CONT'D) How do I look? JACOB Like a fucking madman? He slaps Jacob's arms. LOU Rock and roll. Lou exits the bathroom and calls out to the girls. LOU (CONT'D) Who's ready to get laid by an awesome penis?! INT. PINE VALLEY INN / LOBBY - LATE NIGHT Adam and Jennie are sitting on the floor by the fireplace, playing MONOPOLY. ADAM Oooh, Atlantic Avenue. That's gonna cost you. JENNIE How much? ADAM I'll tell ya what... Adam moves her token up a few squares and makes a show of looking over his shoulder, as if someone might see. ADAM (CONT'D) I'm not supposed to do this. But I'm gonna upgrade you to Marvin Gardens. It's a suite. Plus, there's an excellent buffet and a view of the pool. Jennie laughs, despite herself. She looks around, as if someone might see her. Adam notices. 64. ADAM (CONT'D) No one's gonna see you hanging out with the creepy spaz. Don't worry. JENNIE I'm sorry I called you those names. ADAM Hey, it's cool. I was being creepy and spazzy. JENNIE You're still not gonna tell me how you know me? ADAM I'm from the future. JENNIE Fine, let's just drop it. I'm glad you're feeling better. Blaine had no right to hit you. (SMILES) I bet he's going out of his mind right now. ADAM What are you doing with a douche like him anyway? You're so much better than that. JENNIE Yeah, well guys like you come to visit. Guys like him live here. ADAM So if I lived here, I'd have a shot? For a moment, Jennie is thrown off. She's about to say something, but checks herself. Instead she nervously stands. JENNIE I'm gonna get going. Adam stands up with her. JENNIE (CONT'D) Thanks for being a good guy. I don't remember the last time I had this much fun playing such a stupid game. She gives Adam a sweet KISS ON THE CHEEK. 65. JENNIE (CONT'D) If you run into Blaine, you can tell him I blew you. But that's all. We didn't do anything else. ADAM (SURPRISED) We didn't do anything! JENNIE (SMILES) Shh. It's our little secret. Jennie exits, leaving Adam confused. INT. APARTMENT / BEDROOM - LATE NIGHT In the darkness, we hear SOUNDS OF SEX. Moans of pleasure, creaks of mattresses, multiple "yesses." On TWIN BEDS that are a little too close to each other, Lou and Jacob have sex with Michelle and Sandy. The girls and Lou are vocal. Jacob is silent. As Sandy rides him, Jacob notices some BROKEN GLASS on the bedside table. He can't take his eyes off it, as Sandy's hand keeps brushing up against the table. Lou, naked, DRINKS A CAN OF TAB while he delivers the goods to Michelle. He reaches over, mid-act, and hands the half- empty can to Jacob. LOU Tab? JACOB Stop talking to me! Despite the fact that this looks like very good sex -- it is very bad sex for Jacob. FADE TO: INT. PINE VALLEY INN / SUITE - LATE NIGHT Adam is asleep in bed, as Jennie quietly enters the room. He wakes up to find her wearing SEXY LINGERIE, as she CLIMBS ON TOP of him. ADAM Jennie! 66. He looks over and sees Nick SNORING in the other bed. ADAM (CONT'D) (WHISPERS) What are you doing here?! Jennie gives Adam a LONG WET KISS. He's freaked out. JENNIE I thought about what you said and you're right. I should be with you. ADAM I didn't necessarily say that. JENNIE I want you, Adam! She RIPS OPEN her lingerie, revealing her AWESOME HEAVING NAKED BREASTS. ADAM Oh my god! She kisses him again and they start to go at it. Just then -- LILY (O.S.) What the hell is going on here? Adam pushes Jennie off him, as the LIGHTS GO ON in the room. Lily is standing in the doorway, looking sad and angry. ADAM Lily? LILY So you do like her better than me? ADAM No, she just-- Adam looks to where Jennie just was, but now the bed is covered with PHOTOS OF JENNIE. There's also a LARGE BOX OF TISSUES and some HAND LOTION. ADAM (CONT'D) What's all this? (LOOKS AROUND) Jennie? LILY What's wrong with my vagina, Adam? 67. ADAM Nothing's wrong with it. It's beautiful. In the next bed, Nick rolls over and wakes up. NICK It's a beautiful vagina. Among the prettiest I've ever seen. ADAM Stay out of it, Nick! LILY Would it be so bad to spend the rest of your life with my vagina? ADAM No. It wouldn't at all. Lily turns and walks out the door. ADAM (CONT'D) Lily, it wouldn't! I love your vagina! I love your vaginaaaaaa! SMASH CUT TO: INT. PINE VALLEY INN / SUITE - MORNING Adam abruptly WAKES UP. ADAM (GROGGY MUMBLING) Vagina... huh? He sees Nick sitting on a bed on the other side of the room. He's ON THE PHONE, talking quietly with someone. NICK (ON PHONE) I just really need to get a few things off my chest. You're domineering and you think you have all the answers, but you don't. Not by a long shot. Nick is getting emotional. NICK (ON PHONE) (CONT'D) You think you're better than me? Last night I made jello shots and everybody loved me. (MORE) 68. NICK (ON PHONE) (CONT'D) They didn't care that I only brought home 60k last year. They loved me for me. They didn't go throwing their rich parents' weight around. (wipes away a tear) I don't know, Courtney. INTERCUT: INT. CHILD'S BEDROOM - SAME TIME A 6-YEAR-OLD COURTNEY (Nick's future wife) listens to this crying man on the other end of the phone. 6-YEAR-OLD COURTNEY (ON PHONE) It's OK. Nick CRIES a little bit harder. NICK (ON PHONE) It's so good to hear your voice. I love you, princess. I really do. You just make it so hard on me sometimes. 6-YEAR-OLD COURTNEY (ON PHONE) It's OK. NICK (ON PHONE) You're right. It's OK. I just want it to be OK. Adam starts registering some of this conversation. ADAM Who are you talking to? Nick looks at Adam and covers the receiver. NICK Courtney. ADAM What do you mean "Courtney?" Adam picks up ANOTHER PHONE. ADAM (ON PHONE) (CONT'D) Hello? 6-YEAR-OLD COURTNEY (ON PHONE) Hello! 69. Adam, freaked out, HANGS UP his phone. ADAM Get off the phone!! But Nick is down the rabbit hole. NICK (ON PHONE) Baby, I gotta go. Just think about what I said. We're so great together. It's like when we're having sex - the way our bodies become one, as we both embrace the passion of the moment-- On the other end, COURTNEY'S DAD has picked up the phone. COURTNEY'S DAD (ON PHONE) WHO THE FUCK IS THIS?! Nick hangs up the phone and stares at it, freaked out. Adam just shakes his head. NICK OK, so that may have been bad. ADAM What were you thinking? The DOOR OPENS and Lou strolls in, looking quite fresh. LOU Guess who re-popped his 80s cherry? This guy! He points at himself in a celebratory manner, as behind him -- The Towel Guy whose room this is comes RUNNING UP. TOWEL GUY Hey, get the hell out of my room! In one move, Lou catches him inside the room, closes the door with his foot, and puts the guy in a HEAD LOCK. He then converts it into a SLEEPER HOLD, putting the guy to sleep. NICK Oh, we're going to jail. LOU Help me put him in the closet. 70. INT. PINE VALLEY INN / SUITE - CLOSET - MOMENTS LATER The guys drop the sleeping Towel Guy in the closet. INT. PINE VALLEY INN / PATIO -- MOMENTS LATER Adam, Nick, and Lou take a soak in the tub. ADAM Has anyone seen Jacob? LOU He's grabbing drinks with Tad and Chaz. Which is what we should do. We'll start at the Brew Haus and do a three drink crawl up the street-- Adam gets more fed up than ever. ADAM Guys! I refuse to accept that we're stuck in 1987! Maybe you're loving it, Lou. But you don't get it. Nick's insane, Jacob's become a bigger douche than before, and I need to get back for my goddamn rehearsal dinner? Which is tomorrow! LOU (CALMLY) Adam. I know I don't look like I understand, but I do. You have a beautiful fiancee who means more to you than anything in the world. And if you could, you'd literally travel across time for her. ADAM Yes. LOU I get it, man. Life is about these moments. Moments where a regular Joe becomes a hero. Moments where you dig deep and find the motivation... the courage... the guts to do what's right and what's necessary. It's moments like these... Lou suddenly notices some COCAINE on the edge of the tub. 71. LOU (CONT'D) Jesus, how come nobody told me there was coke out here? Lou SNORTS A BIG LINE. LOU (CONT'D) What was I saying? Adam and Nick get out and towel off. Lou follows. ADAM Maybe we have to learn something? NICK What do you mean? ADAM You know, like Groundhog Day. We have to learn the meaning of life or some shit. Just then, a KITTEN licking a PUDDLE on the base of the tub JUMPS in the hot tub and VANISHES IN A BRIGHT LIGHT! For a moment, everyone is quiet. LOU (FREAKED OUT) I've gotta stop doing cocaine and I need to go to the hospital. I just saw a fucking kitten explode. NICK I saw it too. The guys run over to the tub. The bubbles are on low, but there's NOTHING IN IT. ADAM It didn't explode. It vanished. It went back... to the present. LOU This is the present. ADAM Our old present. NICK So it is the tub! Lou POINTS at something. 72. LOU Um... The HOT TUB IS NOT PLUGGED IN, and yet it's clearly running. ADAM OK. You guys know what to do. CUT TO: EXT. PINE VALLEY INN / PATIO - MINUTES LATER The guys have a COUPLE BOXES OF KITTENS. One at a time, they get in the tub and take turns DIPPING THE KITTENS. When nothing happens, Lou DUMPS an entire box of kittens into the tub. The cats get ANGRY and CLAW AT HIS FACE and body. Eventually, the guys just shake their heads. ADAM This isn't working. LOU Maybe these aren't the right kittens? Adam points at him in a "now you're thinking" way. ADAM We'll split up. Get as many different cats as you can. Let's all meet back here in an hour. LOU You can count on me! INT. BREW HAUS - DAY Lou sits on a stool, munching on snacks. A TV shows the AFC conference championship game between the Denver Broncos and the Cleveland Browns. It's the 4th Quarter and the Browns score with 5:43 remaining on the clock to go up by 7. Two stools over, a SLICK-HAIRED ASSHOLE (RICK) sits with his bored-looking HIGH SOCIETY TROPHY WIFE (CANDACE). RICK Yes! LOU Hate to tell ya, pal. Browns are gonna lose by 3 in overtime. 73. RICK Eat shit and die, scumbag. I've got ten large on this game. LOU Not only that, but I bet you Elway's gonna throw a touchdown with 37 seconds left. RICK Fat chance, pal. Elway's done nothing all day. LOU Care to make it interesting? RICK Who the hell are you? Lou thinks about the question for a moment. LOU Name's Musselman. Hank Musselman. I've got a cool name, huh? RICK It's a good name. What did you have in mind, Musselman? LOU I win -- your wife gives me a blowjob. A classy one. For the first time, Candace looks less than bored. She does a bad job of feigning disinterest. RICK All right, buddy, fuck off. LOU You win -- you can kill me. Any way you want. Knife, gun, torch, sword... I'll even make a video exonerating you. RICK Yeah, right... LOU I'm serious. You look like a man who has everything. Except the license to kill. Care to gamble? Rick looks at Lou long and hard. Lou doesn't flinch. 74. RICK 37 seconds? LOU Exactly. RICK You have a deal. As Rick and Lou shake hands, Candace makes a show of looking offended. RICK (CONT'D) (TO CANDACE) Don't worry, babe. This yahoo's made a wager he can't possibly win. Lou picks up another HANDFUL of bar snacks. He puts them in his mouth and shows it to Rick. LOU (MOUTH FULL) Look. Who am I? I'm your wife. Nuts in my mouth. Get it? (TO CANDACE) I like it slow and romantic. EXT. PET STORE - DAY Nick leaves a pet store, carrying a BOX OF KITTENS. On the street, he accidentally bumps into one of the Japanese businessmen from the night before. He has a THICK ACCENT, like Gedde Watanabe in "Gung Ho." NICK Oh, sorry man. (NOTICES HIM) Hey! How's that iPod working out for you? JAPANESE BUSINESSMAN Oh, it's a very nice toy. NICK If you like that, I've got a phone back at the lodge that will knock your socks off. JAPANESE BUSINESSMAN I wish I could see it. But I am on my way to a very important business meeting. 75. NICK Oh yeah? More important than Bluetooth? JAPANESE BUSINESSMAN My associates and I are co- financing a... how do you say it... supermarket business. NICK (SUSPICIOUS) You're not going to Boston, by any chance? JAPANESE BUSINESSMAN Yes! Boston! We leave tonight. NICK You're gonna franchise out the Gelman's Mom and Pop! JAPANESE BUSINESSMAN Yes! How do you know this? Nick puts his arm around the guy and walks down the street. NICK Walk with me a minute. Let me tell you about some companies you should really be looking into... INT. THE DECK - DAY Tad, Chaz, and Jacob enjoy drinks on a deck overlooking the mountain ski slopes. CHAZ You really are a gas, Jacob. Tad and I think you're the cat's pajamas. JACOB Thanks. I like you guys, too. A THIRD DOUCHEBAG arrives and gives a SECRET HANDSHAKE to Tad and Chaz. He drops off a PILL BOTTLE. This is GEOFFREY (pronounced JOFF-rey). GEOFFREY Gentlemen. 76. TAD Geoffrey, please meet Jacob. Excuse his Jewish name. He really quite exceeds it. Jacob looks confused by that, as Geoffrey shakes his hand. GEOFFREY Jacob, would you like some too? He offers a pill bottle. JACOB What is it? CHAZ Rohypnol. Geoffrey's father is a pharmacist, but we don't hold that against him. JACOB Rohypnol? TAD You slip it to a chick who won't go to third. Give it an hour and you'll be rounding home. JACOB (SURPRISED) This is a date rape drug. GEOFFREY (LAUGHS) What the fuck is date rape? JACOB These are roofies! CHAZ Roofies... I like that! TAD Yeah, it takes the clinical name right out of it. It sounds so fresh, chicks might even take it voluntarily! (TO JACOB) Hey, can we use that? Jacob looks beside himself. 77. EXT. PINE VALLEY INN / PATIO - AFTERNOON A GUY and a GIRL are using the hot tub, which is still hot and bubbly, despite the fact that it isn't plugged in. Nick and Lou sit at the table, as Adam approaches with CATS. ADAM I got regular cats. I figured maybe the kitten was a fluke. Nick takes the box out of his hands and puts it down. NICK Come here. He leads Adam near the tub, where Lou points at something. LOU There! ADAM What am I looking at? It's some kind of stain. LOU Smell it. ADAM I'm not smelling it. LOU (NODS ENCOURAGINGLY) Smell the stain. Adam puts his nose up against the stain and SNIFFS. He recognizes something, but can't put his finger on it. ADAM What is that? NICK Red Bull. GUY IN TUB Hey, you fellas mind? I'm trying to get a handjob here. INT. PINE VALLEY INN / SUITE - AFTERNOON Our guys sit and absorb the impact of what they've learned. 78. ADAM So you're telling me that Red Bull plus hot tub equals time travel? LOU (NODS PROUDLY) Mmm hmm. Hank Musselman's getting the Nobel Prize. ADAM Who the fuck is Hank Musselman? NICK There was just enough Red Bull for the kitten. Not nearly enough for a human. It's a weight distribution thing. ADAM How did you even figure this out? LOU Scientific method. NICK He bet me 20 dollars I wouldn't lick the stain. LOU I thought it was some guy's jizz. ADAM What's wrong with you? LOU It worked, didn't it? NICK Yeah, except one little problem. There's no Red Bull in 1987. For a moment, they're all bummed again. Then Adam gets an encouraged look on his face. ADAM Yes there is! Come on! Adam heads for the door, as Lou and Nick follow. EXT. BUNNY SLOPE - DAY Jennie instructs a group of TEENAGERS on the basics of skiing, as Adam approaches, with Nick and Lou in tow. 79. JENNIE (CONCERNED) You can't be here. If Blaine sees you, he'll snap your neck. I told him I blew you and he's not happy. ADAM Why would you do that?! Behind Adam, Nick looks at the group of TEENS and his eyes almost BUG OUT. He elbows Lou. NICK (whispers, teeth clenched) Look. Lou looks to where Nick is looking: YOUNG ADAM, YOUNG NICK, and YOUNG LOU wait with other kids for Jennie to return to their lesson. LOU Holy shit! Lou immediately approaches the kids, even as Nick tries to hold him back. NICK (TEETH CLENCHED) where the fuck are you going?! Lou walks right up to his YOUNGER SELF and looks himself square in the face. YOUNG LOU What the hell do you want, old man? Lou PUNCHES his YOUNGER SELF in the face. Young Nick and Young Adam are freaked out, as is regular Nick. Adam doesn't notice, as he's arguing with Jennie. YOUNG LOU (CONT'D) What the fuck, dude?! I think you broke my nose! My parents are gonna sue the shit out of you! LOU Herschel and Evelyn aren't gonna do a damn thing. They're losers. YOUNG LOU How do you know my parents? 80. LOU Listen to me. Start putting minoxidil on your scalp. Tonight. Then, when Propecia comes on the market, start taking it. Every day. Hair is important. YOUNG LOU I don't give a shit about hair. LOU You will! (leans in, quietly) Or I'll tell everyone about how you jerked off to that issue of Playgirl. YOUNG LOU (QUIETLY) It was confusing! There were naked people and it had "girl" in the title! LOU Hey, you don't have to justify to me, pal. YOUNG LOU (FREAKED OUT) Who are you? LOU I'm God. ON ADAM AND JENNIE JENNIE Fine. You wanna see Blaine? It's your funeral. He's in the warehouse at the end of Lawrence. Good luck. EXT. MOUNTAIN - DAY Adam walks off the mountain with Nick and Lou. LOU Moment of truth. Lou takes off his hat and feels his scalp - no hair. 81. LOU (CONT'D) (LOOKS BACK) That fucker! Just then, Lou's NOSE SLIGHTLY SHIFTS, the result of being broken and never fixed. It stays this wa for the rest of the movie. Lou touches his nose. LOU (CONT'D) Oh, that's just great. Jacob runs up, in a friendlier disposition. JACOB Hey guys! ADAM I thought you were with douche patrol. JACOB Yeah I was. But it turned out those guys are date rapists. ADAM Ah. NICK Adam, where are we going? Adam gets a look of determination again. ADAM To get my bag. We get that, we have the Red Bull, and our ticket home. LOU Yes! The race is on! ADAM What race? LOU Duh, it's 1987? We're at a ski resort? (SHAKES HEAD) Disputes like these are settled with a downhill ski race. Usually at dawn. It's the law. 82. ADAM You're an idiot. INT. WAREHOUSE - AFTERNOON Adam and the guys step into a warehouse. WET FLOOR, CHAINS hanging from the ceiling for no reason, STEAM rising from grates. As they enter, Chaz pulls down a large GARAGE DOOR. Up ahead, Blaine sits on some CRATES with Tad. BLAINE Welcome to my lair. ADAM You live here? NICK Yeah, this is kind of a shitty place to live. BLAINE I don't live here. Adam approaches Blaine, trying to speak maturely. ADAM Look. Blaine. I think we got off on the wrong foot. You have some issue with me. BLAINE You get blown by my girl? I'll say that's one hell of an issue. LOU Whoa! You got blown?! ADAM She didn't blow me. She lied to you to make you jealous. I'm not trying to steal Jennie. I just wanna get my bag. BLAINE Oh, your bag. I was wondering when you'd come around for that. Tad holds up the BACKPACK over by the crates. ADAM Yeah, I'll just take it and get out of your way. 83. BLAINE You will? Adam EXTENDS HIS HAND. ADAM Whattya say? Can we work this out like gentlemen? Blaine PULLS A KNIFE. Tad and Chaz also PULL KNIVES. NICK What is this town's obsession with knives? BLAINE (MENACING) How about I work this out like... a butcher? Just then, LIGHT SPILLS INTO THE DARK WAREHOUSE. A GUY in a polo shirt stands in a dooorway. GUY IN POLO SHIRT Hey! Scumbuckets! Back to work! Like naughty children being caught red handed, Blaine and his goons lose the knives and hustle toward the open door. Blaine grabs the backpack from Tad. Adam and the guys follow through the door and into -- INT. SUNGLASS HUT - DAY Adam, Nick, Lou, and Jacob are confused, as Blaine, Chaz, and Tad spring to action, helping CUSTOMERS choose sunglasses. Jacob approaches Tad and Chaz, who look embarrassed. JACOB You guys are posers! You're not better than me! TAD Jacob, I wish you hadn't seen us like this. Adam stands near Blaine, who helps a WOMAN. BLAINE (TO WOMAN) These would look so good with your light complexion. 84. ADAM Listen asshole! I want my bag! BLAINE (TO WOMAN) Will you excuse me for a moment? Blaine walks behind the COUNTER and SHOVES THE BAG in a SAFE. BLAINE (CONT'D) Safe's on a timer. It'll open tomorrow. We race at dawn. Winner gets the bag. Loser leaves town. Lou turns to Nick. LOU See? I told you! ADAM (TO BLAINE) I don't wanna race you. BLAINE Then I guess you don't want your bag. (SMIRKS) See you at dawn. ADAM Your girlfriend sucks one hell of a mean dick. Adam makes a SLURPING SOUND and Blaine fumes. EXT. HAVENHURST MAIN DRAG - LATE AFTERNOON Nick, Lou, and Jacob walk behind Adam, who looks pissed. NICK What are we gonna do? LOU That chick blew you?! ADAM (INTENSE) I've got a race to win. Europe's "The Final Countdown" begins playing over a MONTAGE: -- Skis are sharpened. 85. -- Gear is polished. -- In the SUITE, Adam gets dressed in his GEAR. -- On a SMALL HILL, Jacob demonstrates some moves on skis. Adam doesn't get it. He's keeps falling. -- On the hill, Jacob teaches Adam how to SNOWBOARD. Adam is having an easier time standing up on the snowboard. -- The guys keep Adam awake and use a homemade SCALE MODEL of the mountain to formulate a plan, a la Iron Eagle. -- Back on the hill, Jacob and Adam snowboard next to each other. Adam makes it by a couple of obstacles. Jacob looks proud of him. -- The guys play an ATARI SKI GAME, trying out a strategy. Jacob uses a POINTER, looking disappointed. -- On the hill, Adam easily maneuvers by a few trees on the snowboard, kicking up snow and HIGH-FINING Jacob. EXT. MOUNTAIN / TOP - DAWN SLO-MO HERO SHOT of our four guys, as they ascend the top of the mountain. If we didn't know any better, it would look like Tony Scott directed a ski movie. END MONTAGE. EXT. MOUNTAIN / TOP - DAY A few yards away from Nick and Lou, Adam sits on the ground, as Jacob helps him strap into the snowboard. JACOB Just stick to the plan and you're gonna be fine. Adam looks at Jacob seriously for a moment. ADAM Jacob, I'm sorry for not always being the big brother I should've been. I was away at college, Mom gave you my Sega - there were a whole host of issues. Jacob nods and speaks genuinely to Adam too. 86. JACOB I know. I'm sorry too. I put a few things before my family and took my guilt out on you. (puts it together) I guess it was an inevitable I'd end up part of a roofie ring. Adam smiles and extends his hand. ADAM Friends? Jacob takes Adam's hand and helps him to his feet. JACOB Brothers. They EMBRACE. Lou looks disgusted. LOU Gay. Blaine and his goons approach from below. Adam puts on his game face. ADAM I didn't think you guys would show. BLAINE This was my idea. ADAM It's gonna make my victory taste all the more sweeter. Like a Peach Snapple. BLAINE A what? ADAM You'll see. Blaine actually looks rattled, as the two men get lined up. Adam is on a SNOWBOARD. BLAINE What's that? ADAM You're not afraid of getting beat by a guy on a skateboard, are you? 87. BLAINE I've seen you in action. You're reckless and terrible. ADAM Reckless and terrible's my middle name. Because I feel the need... (pulls on goggles) for speed! Chaz holds out his arm as a starting line. ADAM (CONT'D) Catch ya at the bottom. CHAZ 3, 2, 1... GO! Blaine takes off down the mountain like a professional skiier, which he pretty much is. Adam looks toward Jacob, who demonstrates the proper CROUCH. Adam slowly picks up speed, starting at about one mile per hour. Blaine looks back and can't believe how easily he's gonna coast to victory. ADAM Here goes nothing. Instead of weaving back and forth, Adam just stays in the crouch, PICKING UP SPEED. He recklessly PASSES BLAINE, despite the many TREES and OBSTACLES on the course. He BEARS DOWN AND TRAVELS LIKE A BOLT OF LIGHTNING! Blaine finds the guts to alter his STYLE, skiing more recklessly too. He begins catching up to Adam. Blaine skis up next to Adam - they're both going full force. BLAINE You can't beat me! I was born on this mountain! ADAM I was born in a hospital like a normal baby! Adam bends down and picks up even more speed, NARROWLY MISSING trees and rocks. Blaine tries to keep up. Adam has the finish line in his sights, when he rolls the dice once too often. His SNOWBOARD GETS SNAGGED on a rock and Adam TUMBLES TO THE GROUND. 88. The SNOWBOARD FLIES OFF INTO THE AIR! CUT TO: EXT. MOUNTAIN / BASE - DAY Phil stands against a SHED, as a GUY THROWS A HATCHET at him, just narrowly missing his arm. Phil FLEXES HIS MUSCLES, as a HOT CHICK KISSES HIM. Then the SNOWBOARD FLIES INTO FRAME and SLICES OFF PHIL'S ARM, sending BLOOD SPLATTER EVERYWHERE! PHIL Ahhhh! My arm!!! EXT. MOUNTAIN / TOP - DAY - SAME TIME Lou watches with BINOCULARS and PUMPS HIS FIST. LOU Yes! EXT. MOUNTAIN - RACE - DAY As Adam tumbles on the ground, Blaine smiles, thinking he has the victory in the bag. But instead of stopping, Adam picks up speed, as he TUMBLES LIMB OVER LIMB, like a snowball going down the mountain. With 50 YARDS to go, Blaine bears down and tries to catch Adam. It's gonna be close. At the FINISH LINE, Adam's CRUMPLED BODY passes the line first. Blaine pulls up, pissed off to lose the race. Adam's momentum carries him forward another 50 yards, where he SMASHES INTO A DECK and finally comes to a stop. CUT TO: A CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE POPS! INT. PINE VALLEY INN / SUITE - LATE AFTERNOON A large "BON VOYAGE" BANNER hangs in the room. 89. An ALL-OUT PARTY is going on in the guys' suite. GUESTS party everywhere, helping the guys celebrate. Sandy and Michelle flirt with the two dudes who took brief possession of the Towel Guy yesterday. The Coke Guy from the gondola talks with the Brew Haus Waitress. Adam's leg is in a CAST, as he sits at a table with Jacob, Nick, and Lou. The OPEN BACKPACK is in front of them. They DRINK and TOAST. NICK You did it, man. ADAM Ah, it was nothing. I just fell down the mountain. NICK It was a beautiful fall. Lou goes into Adam's backpack and pulls out the SANDWICH, which he begins unwrapping. ADAM (DISGUSTED) Tell me you are not going to keep eating that. Lou takes a bite and SHRUGS. LOU Chicken parm. It's my favorite. ADAM Chicken parm? Adam takes the sandwich from Lou. He looks at it closely. ADAM (CONT'D) (LAUGHS) Chicken parm. On this roll. The guys look confused, as Adam stares at the sandwich. JACOB Adam, what is it? FLASHBACK TO: 90. INT. FRENCH RESTAURANT - NIGHT Adam and Lily nervously make eye contact at the front of the restaurant, as a SNOOTY HOST shakes his head. ADAM (V.0.) It was our first date. You know those nights that are just perfect? This wasn't one of those nights. INT. MOVIE THEATER - DARK Adam and Lily sit through "From Justin to Kelly," the American Idol movie. They don't enjoy themselves. EXT. PARKING LOT - NIGHT Adam inspects a HUGE DENT in the side of his car. As he does so, a car drives by, SPLASHING A PUDDLE on Lily. ADAM (V.0.) If Lily knew where we were, I'm sure she would've walked home. And I wouldn't have blamed her. EXT. ITALIAN DELI - NIGHT In the RAIN, Adam and Lily run toward the entrance of a little deli. Inside the doorway, a LITTLE OLD WOMAN shakes her head no. Adam pleads with his eyes and she lets them in. INT. ITALIAN DELI - NIGHT Adam and Lily sit and talk animatedly at the counter in the small, empty deli, eating SANDWICHES. ADAM (V.0.) We were so hungry by the time we found that deli, we would've eaten anything. So what if it wasn't foie gras and pino noir. It was chicken parm and Italian soda. And it couldn't have been more perfect. BACK TO: INT. PINE VALLEY INN / SUITE - DAY The guys enjoy listening to Adam's story. 91. NICK That sandwich was special, huh? ADAM You could say that. You could also say it gave me horrible diarrhea. FLASHBACK TO: INT. ADAM'S APARTMENT / BATHROOM - NIGHT Adam SHITS HIS BRAINS OUT. When it looks like. he might be done, he turns around and VOMITS into the toilet. INT. ADAM'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Lily waits by the bathroom door with some PEPTO and a GLASS OF WATER. She looks very concerned. ADAM (V.0.) Lily had every opportunity to leave. She didn't know me at all and she certainly didn't owe me anything after the night I put her through. But she stayed. INT. ADAM'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Adam lays on the couch, his head in Lily's lap. She feeds him a little GATORADE. He keeps it down... for a moment. Then he turns and VOMITS into a BUCKET on the floor. ADAM (V.0.) She saw me at my worst and she stayed. Lily holds the bucket, as Adam pukes into it. BACK TO: INT. PINE VALLEY INN / SUITE - DAY Nick, Lou, and Jacob look sick. ADAM Don't you see? This is more than a sandwich. It represents all that shit. All that puke. 92. LOU Keep the sandwich. JACOB This is disgusting. ADAM She gave me this as a reminder of her love. (THINKS) Or to give me horrible diarrhea so I didn't leave the room during the bachelor party. But mostly as a reminder of her love. Adam holds up the sandwich. ADAM (CONT'D) This is the reason I need to go home. Adam stands up and walks toward the door with the sandwich. ADAM (CONT'D) I'm gonna go prep the tub. Lou holds up a BAG OF CHIPS. LOU Do you have any stories about these chips or can I eat them? EXT. PINE VALLEY INN / PATIO - CONTINUOUS Adam walks outside, taking a bite of the SANDWICH. He finds Jennie waiting in the TUB. JENNIE There you are! ADAM Jennie! What are you doing here? JENNIE Making good on a rumor. Jennie STANDS UP in the tub and she's TOPLESS. Adam DROPS THE SANDWICH, shocked. ADAM Whoa. 93. Jennie continues talking, shamelessly exposing herself. JENNIE When I saw you win that race against Blaine, everything changed for me. I realize now that I deserve more. I deserve a winner. (SEDUCTIVE) Come and get your prize. Adam reaches next to the tub and hands her a ROBE. ADAM Yeah, I... can't. She covers up, embarrassed. JENNIE Oh my god. I missed my opportunity. ADAM No, I'm not sure there ever was an opportunity. Jennie, you're terrific. You've brought me so many moments of joy, you'll never know. But I shouldn't have given you the wrong idea. Jennie looks sad and vulnerable, as Adam talks. ADAM (CONT'D) The truth is there's a girl I need to go see. We have plans to spend the rest of our lives together. And I can't wait any longer. (listening to himself) And I'm totally cool with it. Adam smiles, feeling the rush of knowing he's ready. But then he sees how sad Jennie is. He moves closer to her. ADAM (CONT'D) One day, you're going to find the right guy who's willing to give up everything and travel across time and space for your love. She nods and tears up a little bit, as Adam HUGS her. JENNIE (EMOTIONAL) I would totally blow you right now. 94. ADAM I know you would. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. PINE VALLEY INN / PATIO - LATER THAT AFTERNOON The guys stare at the tub, which continues to bubble, even though it's not plugged in. NICK We don't have to go yet, Adam. Things are just getting fun. JACOB And we can do whatever we want without any real consequences. That's a lot to give up. ADAM (NODS) That's how I know I'm doing the right thing. Adam reaches in his backpack, but can't find the Red Bull. He turns it inside out and shakes it -- nothing. JACOB Where's the Red Bull? BLAINE (V.0.) You looking for this? Across the patio, a drunk, disheveled Blaine holds the CAN. BLAINE (CONT'D) You couldn't leave well enough alone, could ya? You couldn't just win the race and call it a day? You had to have Jennie too. ADAM I don't want Jennie. BLAINE That's funny. I don't want this soda, either. Blaine smiles like an asshole. Adam's face goes desperate, as Blaine OPENS THE CAN and DRINKS THE WHOLE THING. ADAM Nooooo! 95. Adam runs at Blaine and tackles him to the ground. On the ground, Adam BEATS THE LIVING HELL out of Blaine, messing up his face. It makes the Jared Leto scene from Fight Club look tame. Eventually, Adam's friends pull him off. Adam crawls to the Red Bull can and it's empty. ADAM (CONT'D) (DESPERATE) Why? Lou takes Blaine's pulse. LOU Holy shit! You may have killed this guy! No wait... wait... I've got a pulse. Eh, so much for that. Nick puts his hand on Adam's shoulder. NICK I'm sorry man. I'm really sorry. ADAM The Red Bull's gone. He fucked us. JACOB Not necessarily. Everyone looks toward Jacob. JACOB (CONT'D) The Red Bull isn't really gone. (points to Blaine) It's in him. A beat, as everyone sorta gets it. NICK It's worth a shot. TIME CUT TO: EXT. PINE VALLEY INN / PATIO - MOMENTS LATER Adam, Nick, and Jacob sit in the tub. Adam crosses his fingers. Lou stands outside the tub, fully dressed. ADAM Come on, Lou. 96. LOU Nah, I'll take a rain check. NICK What are you talking about? LOU Listen, your lives at home sound all beautiful and happy with your barbecues and swimming pools and "oh, that sandwich reminds of some gay shit I did one time." Adam and Nick don't look thrilled to be reduced to this. LOU (CONT'D) But my life back there sucks. And in case you haven't noticed, my life here fucking rules. So I have a coke problem? I'll go to rehab. I have no money? I'll stop winning sex and start winning dollars. Lou DRAGS BLAINE by the foot closer to the tub. LOU (CONT'D) Guys, I was tailor-made for 1987. And you'll excuse me, but I value banging young chicks way more than all of your friendships combined. (THEN) No offense. Adam, Nick, and Jacob kinda nod and understand. ADAM Yeah, no, I get it. Lou goes around and gives them all hugs. NICK Makes perfect sense, man. Lou squeezes Jacob's shoulder. LOU I don't hate you as much as I used to. JACOB (a little emotional) I hate you a little less also. Lou LIFTS BLAINE'S LIMP BODY. 97. ADAM OK, whenever you're ready, Lou. LOU One small step for man! One giant asshole puking in a hot tub! Here goes nothing! Lou does the HEIMLICH MANEUVER on Blaine. It takes ONE... TWO... THREE THRUSTS until Blaine PUKES IN THE TUB! For a second, it's just a BIG SPLASH of VOMIT and nothing else. NICK OK, well maybe if we-- A BRIGHT FLASH CONSUMES THE SCREEN! And when it dies down, we see Adam, Nick, Jacob (and the floating puke) in the hot tub where we left them. Only Lou is missing. ADAM What happened? Did it work? NICK I didn't feel anything. JACOB (DISAPPOINTED) Guys, look. They see PEOPLE walking by, wearing COLORFUL FLARED-OUT SKI ATTIRE. The place looks the same as it did two seconds ago. NICK Dammit. Even the deck furniture's the same. We fucking blew it. It didn't work. ADAM Where's Lou? LOU (O.S.) Right on schedule! Lou walks toward them, but there's a lot that's "off" about him, including HAIR PLUGS, JEWELRY, and a SHITLOAD OF PLASTIC SURGERY (including a fixed NOSE) that makes him look at once older and younger. NICK Ahhh! 98. LOU Oh, the face, eh? I was curious how you'd react. (DISAPPOINTED) Didn't think you'd be scared. ADAM Lou? LOU You're damn right it's me. ADAM What happened? LOU You just traveled 23 years in three seconds. Took me 23 years. It's good to see you guys! JACOB We're back? It all looks the same. LOU It better! You know how much I pay the groundspeople around here? A lot. But that's all right, I'm fucking loaded. Look at all this. Everyone looks confused. ADAM Will you fill in some of the blanks for me, please? LOU I'll give you the short version, because time is of the essence. First of all, to settle an old bet, time most definitely has been moving forward. It is exactly three days since you've arrived here in beautiful Havenhurst. Jacob looks at Nick. JACOB Told you. LOU Secondly, I'm filthy rich. Made sports bets. Sued Ace of Base. I own most of V ermont. (MORE) 99. LOU (CONT'D) I've been reimagining the state as my own personal playground. You could say I'm a little bit like Michael Jackson, except I don't fuck kids. Two YOUNG HOTTIES walk by and wave at Lou. LOU (CONT'D) I do fuck them, though. Haven't gone above 24 years old in 10 years and even then, it was a mistake. (REMEMBERING) A horrible mistake. ADAM Wait, fuck, Lou what time is it? LOU Way ahead of you, Adam. You have 2 hours to get to New Jersey in time for your rehearsal dinner. ADAM (DISAPPOINTED) Great, I blew it. LOU Not even a little bit. I have a helicopter waiting in the parking lot and a private jet on my airfield five minutes away. The guys look stunned. LOU (CONT'D) I had some time to plan. God, it's good to have you guys back! EXT. PRIVATE AIRFIELD - AFTERNOON Lou's private jet takes off from the runway. INT. PRIVATE JET - AFTERNOON The guys sit back and enjoy the plush surroundings and the beautiful FLIGHT ATTENDANTS aboard Lou's jet. LOU By the way, Adam, I hope you don't mind. Right after you left, I fucked Jennie silly. 100. ADAM Why would she have sex with you? LOU You get the big time assist. All that talk of her finding the right guy who's willing to give up everything? Made her wetter than a log flume. (SMILES) She's all-time top five. ADAM Good to hear. NICK Lou, I gotta ask you something. LOU Time travel paradox. NICK Exactly. Aren't there now two of you living here in 2010? LOU Think really hard about that one. What happened to me when I was 19? Nick shrugs. He looks at Adam. Suddenly, both their eyes nearly pop out of their skulls. NICK No way... ADAM You went missing and were never found. LOU Yeah, you're gonna have some lingering memories of both versions. ADAM Wait a minute, what happened to... you know. Other Lou. LOU You don't wanna know. ADAM Lou... 101. LOU The kid sucked, OK? He couldn't take even a little bit of direction. Pretty soon I realized that having two versions of the same dude walking around -- as cool as that sounds -- didn't make very much sense to me. NICK OK? LOU So I took care of the problem. NICK What did you do? LOU I had to do it. ADAM What did you do? LOU I killed myself. ADAM Jesus Christ. LOU Yeah, it was really some existential shit. I mean, here I am committing homicide and I'm actually committing suicide. NICK How could you? LOU It was easy actually. For a minute, I thought I might be dealing with that whole Timecop thing. You know, the same matter can't occupy the same space at the same time bullshit and we both go poof? Especially after that whole nose thing. But no, it was just a murder. I didn't suffer. ADAM I don't wanna hear any more. 102. LOU It was strangulation. ADAM I don't wanna hear any more! They sit in horrified silence for a bit. LOU You'll have to introduce me when we get there. Your families won't know me. Although I'm sure they're huge fans. (ABRUPT) So hey, getting married, huh? Taking the plunge! Adam looks disturbed. Nick looks confused. NICK This makes no sense at all. INT. RESTAURANT - NIGHT Lily looks beautiful, surrounded by FAMILY and FRIENDS. Still, she looks distant and lonely. Until -- A LILY (the flower) comes into frame. Lily smiles and stands up. She turns around. Adam's standing there with a whole bouquet of flowers. Lily gives him a BIG HUG AND KISS. When she's done: LILY Don't you ever let me take your phone again! ADAM (COY) I'm here on time. Just like I promised. Nick sits down next to COURTNEY and Jacob takes his seat. ADAM (CONT'D) (no nerves at all) I'm so happy to see you and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you. LILY (TEARFUL) Me too! 103. ADAM You're the one. Lily notices Adam's on CRUTCHES. LILY Oh my god, what happened? LOU (O.S.) My fault entirely, madam! The room is ABUZZ with CHATTER, as Lou makes a nearly REGAL ENTRANCE, wearing a WHITE TUXEDO. GUY AT TABLE Hey, it's Lou Blustein! The whole room APPLAUDS Lou, as he walks in. Adam and the guys can't believe it. LOU I was partaking in a little ski adventure and I mistakenly wandered into your fiance's path. His broken leg is my broken heart. My most humble apologies. Lou scrapes and bows and regally kisses Lily's hand. She looks genuinely flattered. Lou gets up and whispers to Adam. LOU (CONT'D) See? I'm awesome here. You shoulda stayed out of that tub. CUT TO: INT. RESTAURANT - NIGHT - LATER Nick SLOW DANCES with Courtney. NICK I was thinking we'd invite Adam and Lily over for dinner when they get back from their honeymoon. That's... if it's OK with you? COURTNEY Why wouldn't it be OK with me? That sounds nice. (SMILES) (MORE) 104. COURTNEY (CONT'D) You look so good in this shirt, by the way. Nice choice. She puts her head on Nick's shoulder as they dance. NICK So... how are your parents? COURTNEY Still working hard. I really wish they could retire already, but it's tough competing with the big chains. I mean, they just have the one store... FLASHBACK TO: EXT. HAVENHURST MAIN DRAG - 1987 - DAY The Japanese Businessman is on a PAY PHONE, speaking RAPIDLY in Japanese. JAPANESE BUSINESSMAN (IN JAPANESE) Hiro-san! Cancel the paperwork! We have to get back to Tokyo. I have inside information that undermines the supermarket deal. Nick stands next to him, nodding and SMILING WIDELY. BACK TO: INT. RESTAURANT - NIGHT - PRESENT DAY Nick enjoys dancing with his mellow, awesome wife. NICK (SMILES) You know what they say about hard work. Builds character. BY THE BAR Adam orders drinks, as his PHONE RINGS. He picks it up and in an instant, JACOB IS STANDING RIGHT BEFORE HIM as a VERY REALISTIC HOLOGRAM. ADAM Ahh! 105. JACOB This is why we shouldn't have sold that iPod. Adam puts his hand through Jacob, who speaks with purpose. JACOB (CONT'D) The Japanese have apparently cornered the technology sector over the past 20 years. We've dealt American businesses quite an irreparable blow. ADAM What does that mean for us? JACOB Pretty much nothing for us personally. We just get cooler phones and iPods and shit. ADAM Oh. Great! Jacob CLICKS OFF and disappears, as Lily approaches. Adam can't help but beam from ear to ear. ADAM (CONT'D) You're so beautiful. LILY I know you were only gone for a couple days, but I missed you so much. Adam takes her hand. ADAM Come on, let's get out of here. We have unfinished business. Lily smiles. She gets into it. LILY It's about time. OK, what's the fantasy? ADAM (GENUINE) How about you're the woman I love and I'm the man of your dreams? LILY Booor-ing!! 106. ADAM OK, you're a nurse and a snake bit my penis. LILY Done and done. They bolt for the door and we CUT TO: INT. RESTAURANT - NIGHT - LATER The party is winding down and only a FEW GUESTS remain. At a table in the corner, Lou has an EXTENDED MAKE OUT SESSION with a STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL GIRL in her early 20s. They finally come up for air. LOU So you're friends with the bride? BEAUTIFUL GIRL Can you keep a secret? I'm actually kinda crashing the party. LOU Naughty girl. You're secret's safe with me. BEAUTIFUL GIRL I'm just in town for a couple of nights. I'm actually looking for my father. We've never met. LOU I'm from here. Maybe I know him. BEAUTIFUL GIRL His name is Hank Musselman. For a moment, Lou's expression FREEZES. He blinks. Then -- LOU No, never heard of him. He goes back to MAKING OUT WITH HER and we: FADE OUT. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Hotel Rwanda.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hotel Rwanda.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c9cd44e9c276277254e59a9d726decc7415c7166 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hotel Rwanda.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + HOTEL RWANDA Written by Keir Pearson & Terry George FADE IN: SCREEN TYPE: THIS IS A TRUE STORY EXT. KIGALI AIRPORT. DAY A burning white sun high in a clear blue sky, PAN DOWN TO: A rundown (sixties) airport, peeling in the heat. A mad traffic jam of cars, vans, motorbikes all stopped at a checkpoint where a RWANDAN POLICEMAN blows his whistle, waves some and stops others as bored Rwandan soldiers look on. CLOSE ON: A white van pulls out of traffic, a balls-out case of line jumping. HORNS, OBSCENITIES. A HAND: Extends from the passenger side of the van, Rwandan francs pressed neatly between thumb and palm. The van stops next to the policeman. POLICEMAN Mr. Rusesabagina, good morning. In the passenger seat PAUL RUSESABAGINA, late 30's, flashes a smile. He is dressed in a sharp blue suit (always dressed in a neat suit and tie, it is a matter of pride). A quick shake of hands. Money passes from one to the other. EXT. KIGALI AIRPORT TARMAC. DAY The van parked by the runway tarmac. African music plays on the radio. Paul drums his fingers, checks his watch. ZOZO, porter/driver, early thirties, sits nervously. An airport baggage handler approaches the van. HANDLER Sir, the flight is delayed one more hour. PAUL Thank you. (to Zozo) He can get the beer. 2. ZOZO (suddenly worried) Rutaganda's place? PAUL What's wrong? ZOZO Beg your pardon sir, you are Hutu. You are safe there. PAUL You are with me, Zozo, don't worry. Zozo throws the van into gear and speeds off. EXT. KIGALI STREETS. DAY The white van, marked "THE HOTEL MILLE COLLINES," whips its way through Kigali's packed streets and open-air markets. ZXT. KIGALI STREETS. DAY Zozo works THE HORN, weaves in and out of traffic. ZOZO What is it like to fly on a plane, sir? PAUL It depends where you sit Zozo. In coach it is like the bus to Giterama. ZOZO That is why they call it coach? PAUL Maybe. But in business class there are fine wines, linens, Belgian chocolates. ZOZO (impressed) You have taken business class? PAUL Many times. Suddenly, Zozo slows. Paul looks up, SEES: a gathering on the side of the road -- a large crowd of men dressed in exotically, yet identically colored shirts. They're members of the INTERAHAMWE - the Hutu Militia. 3. (Interahamwe - the Hutu Militia will de distinguished by these wildly colored shirts) They chant, drink beer, dance onto the road, obstructing cars, threatening the occupants. Several of them perform a rhythmic dance - the INTERAHAMWE war dance to thumping drumbeat music from a boombox. PAUL (CONT'D) Turn off. Zozo, scared, looks for a side road, studies the traffic behind. ZOZO There is nowhere to turn, sir. As the van approaches, PAUL Slow down. The van pulls up beside the Militia. PAUL (CONT'D) Boys, do you know the way to Mr. Rutagunda's warehouse? Some Militia approach. They are suddenly friendly, helpful. MILITIA MAN #1 It is one more mile on this road. Paul reaches into his pocket, takes out some Rwandan dollars. PAUL This is thirsty work, let me treat you to some beers. As the van pulls away Zozo looks to Paul, relieved. INT. RUTAGANDA'S WAREHOUSE. DAY At his desk in front of a fan. GEORGE RUTAGUNDA, late 30's, huge, gold chains, Rolex watch, (like an African Mafia boss) but the same Interahamwe shirt. He squeezes an orange rind into a cup of espresso. Behind him, through his office window, the white van is being loaded with cases of beer. George holds out his massive shirt. GEORGE You will join us at the rally today? Paul sits opposite, sipping coffee. 4. PAUL I will try my best George but these days I have no time for rallies or politics. GEORGE Politics is power, Paul. And money. Paul studies his watch. PAUL Time is money, George. We need extra beer today. GEORGE Business is good at the hotel? PAUL Very good. GEORGE I am always glad to see you Paul. George leads Paul out into the warehouse. As a forklift lifts A WOODEN CRATE, George angers. GEORGE (CONT'D) Hell man, that is not beer, put it back! DRIVER But, sir, the Carlsberg is behind... GEORGE Forget the Carlsberg, give him Grolsch. (to Paul) I won't charge extra. PAUL Thank you. The driver of the forklift, anxiously, spins the machine to return the crate but it slides off and CRASHES onto the floor: MACHETES, hundreds of them, spill out. An awkward moment then George picks one of the crude blades. GEORGE A bargain buy, from China. Ten cents each, I'll get a dollar. PAUL At least. Off Zozo terrified. 5. EXT. KIGALI AIRPORT TARMAC. DAY A Sabena airliner lands. Passengers disembark via a roll-up staircase. Paul's van pulls up by the luggage belt. A large polystyrene box comes down the conveyor belt. It has Brussels - Kigali destination stickers all over it. As Zozo picks it up, water sloshes from the lid. PAUL The ice has melted! Zozo goes to open it. PAUL (CONT'D) Don't. Let's go. Paul slips money to two customs officials. EXT. KIGALI STREETS. DAY The van speeds through traffic. More traffic jams, Zozo edges up on the sidewalk. Then at an intersection they see. THE INTERAHAMWE PARADE - a mass of young men and women, most in the same colorful uniform. Line after line, waves all performing the INTERAHAMWE war dance, in wild hypnotic sync, many wave sticks, spears, wooden imitation guns. A large banner reads, "Hutu Power." A flatbed truck, speakers blare drumbeat music. On it GEORGE RUTAGUNDA dances the DANCE and waves a machete to the crowd. Zozo sinks down behind the wheel. PAUL Sit up, smile, Zozo, don't attract attention to yourself. ZOZO Boss, some of those men are my neighbors, they know I'm Tutsi. The parade passes. As they wait Paul takes out the wad of notes George gave him, peels off a few dollars. P PAUL Here, Zozo, for your trouble. Zozo takes it. 6. EXT. HOTEL ENTRANCE. DAY The van turns off the street into The Milles Collines Hotel driveway and HONKS twice as it pulls down a short drive lined with tall shrubs. An ARMED GUARD rushes from his booth and lifts the gate. Perfectly timed. The van doesn't even have to slow as it passes. A sign on the guard house reads "WELCOME TO THE HOTEL MILLE COLLINES". EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY Lush tropical gardens, peacocks wander the well-manicured lawns,an exotic African paradise. The van heads to a magnificent colonial building. PAUL (V.O.) Pull up at the front door. A valet opens the front door of the hotel and looks shocked. It's unheard of for a service van to stop out front. PAUL (CONT'D) (urgent, to the valet) Help Zozo. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY Paul leads Zozo and the valet into a magnificent lobby, a tasteful blend of Africa and Europe. Guests stare as water sloshes and spills from the crate. GREGOIRE, early thirties the receptionist behind the desk throws a look of disapproval. Paul, imperial, snaps his finger toward him. PAUL (re: spilled water) Gregoire. Take care of this. Gregoire engages a guest in chit-chat, ignores Paul. PAUL (CONT'D) Gregoire! See to this right away. The elevator door opens and reveals BIK the Belgian hotel manager, mid- 40's, reading some reports. He looks up, sees Paul and Zozo carrying the box as they step in. Bik looks puzzled. PAUL (CONT'D) It's an emergency, sir. Now Bik sees the wet floor. 7. BIK Paul! PAUL Gregoire will deal with it, excuse me. The elevator doors shut. Bik's left standing in disbelief. INT. HOTEL KITCHEN. DAY The crate is hefted onto a counter. The top pried off. A crowd of cooks gathers around Paul and Zozo as they peer in. ZOZO Any of them make it? HEAD CHEF Into the sink! They hoist up one end of the crate and LOBSTERS spill out. Many make it into the sink, but some miss and slide across the counter and fall onto the floor. The cooks sort the living from the dead. ZOZO Twelve are dead. PAUL How dead? The cooks smells a dead lobster, shakes his head no. PAUL (CONT'D) Dump the bad meat, save the shells, fill them will ah, a stuffing, something local. COOK Cassava, and Tipali. PAUL Yes. Call it 'fresh Scottish Lobster in a cassava and Tipali crush'. Paul fixes his tie, very pleased, another crisis solved. INT. BANQUET ROOM/HOTEL MILLE COLLINES. DAY Paul inspects the tables' fresh flowers, sparkling crystal glasses. He looks to the bar - Grolsch on ice. 8. The sound of African drums fills the air. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY Paul emerges, as a troupe of African male dancers in ceremonial costume - Leopard skin dress, ostrich feather head dress, spears and shields perform a greeting dance for a the American Ambassador and a crowd of European dignitaries. The male dancers are joined by a troupe of young female dancers in similar ceremonial dress. The ceremony comes to a foot stomping finale. The guests break into LOUD APPLAUSE. Paul flings open double doors to a reception room and the crowd moves in. PAUL Mr. Ambassador, please come in. US AMBASSADOR Thank you, Paul. A UN Colonel, OLIVER, middle aged, Canadian,follows the US Ambassador. The Colonel wear the blue berets and armbands of UN Peacekeepers. (all UN troops will be distinguished by their bright blue berets, white helmets and arm bands) PAUL Colonel Oliver, you are very welcome. The Ambassador shakes the Colonel's hand. US AMBASSADOR Colonel. I'd like you to meet Mr. Colson, of our Regional Aid Division. MR. COLSON, crew cut, military build, is obviously CIA. US AMBASSADOR (CONT'D) Colonel Oliver is the liason officer for the U.N. peace keeping forces. Paul backs away unnoticed... INT. KITCHEN/HOTEL MILLE COLLINES. DAY ...then marches into the busy kitchen, claps his hands toward a gathering of waiters. PAUL Please, serve the hors d'ouvres now. A waiter whispers to him. 9. WAITER General Bizimungu wants to see you. Paul heads out of the kitchen. INT. HOTEL BAR. DAY A luxurious lounge/club called the Kigali Club - an African Casablanca, complete with animal heads, a statue of a mountain gorilla, grand piano in the corner. Rwandan Hutu army officers, (distinguished by their crisp khaki uniforms, in the style of the French army), arms dealers, government dignitaries, businessmen and reporters mingle freely. The few tourists stand out. PAUL heads to a table. The center of attention and conversation is General BIZIMUNGU, 40's, dressed in a crisp, heavily decorated uniform, a strong figure, relaxed, in control. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Paul, this scotch is exceptional. PAUL It's a single malt, Glenmorangie. I thought you'd like it. Anything you need, gentlemen, let me know. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Oh, Paul, talk to the coat check, please. Paul heads for the lobby. He's intercepted by an zealous young Tutsi reporter BENEDICT who covers the political scene for the local independent newspaper. BENEDICT Paul, Paul, a moment please. PAUL Yes, Benedict, what can I do? BENEDICT Can you get me into the Ambassador's reception? PAUL I'm sorry, it's a private function. Benedict takes out his reporters notebook. BENEDICT At least tell me who is attending. The newspaper will be grateful. Paul laughs. 10. PAUL I will be grateful if you keep my name out of your newspaper. Wait here and you will see who has attended as they leave. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY Paul fixes a floral arrangement as he passes then arrives at the clock room hatch. PAUL (to the coat check) Did General Bizimungu bring a briefcase? COAT CHECK Yes, sir. PAUL Take it to the bar storeroom. Put three bottles of Glenmorangie... he writes it down on a pad) ...GLEN-MOR-AN-GIE, into it. Paul moves off as the coat check scurries away. ONNIE DENVER (O.S.) Oh, Paul, Paul An American woman, CONNIE DENVER, rich, blonde, surgically enhanced, stands by the door of the tourism office. INT. HOTEL TOURISM OFFICE. DAY Paul walks into the tourism office. It is decorated with posters and photos of Rwanda's single most important economic asset - the rare silver back mountain Gorillas. There's a picture of the real-life Diane Fossey next to the movie poster for "Gorillas in the Mist". Numerous books and video cassettes. CONNIE DENVER's older husband, BOB, and four American friends wait. CONNIE DENVER Paul, Paul. Our trip has been cancelled. PAUL Yes, I'm sorry Madame Denver, it is because of the rebels. CONNIE DENVER Rebels? What rebels? 11. BOB Don't be stupid for Christ sake. The Watusis are invading the country. I told you not to come here. PAUL The Tutsi rebels are far away on the border. And soon there will be peace. BOB Tutsis, Watutsis they'll still shoot you. CONNIE DENVER But I came here to see the gorillas? PAUL I will try to arrange something. INT. HOTEL BANQUET ROOM. DAY The luncheon is in full swing. Paul glides in the background. Close on: The Ambassador in deep conversation with Oliver. US AMBASSADOR Things will calm down when the president signs the peace agreement with the rebels. COLONEL OLIVER Our intelligence, Mr. Ambassador, is that the Hutu government has been stockpiling weapons and are preparing a massacre. US AMBASSADOR That's not what I hear. Excuse me. Paul. Paul comes over) Colonel, you know the house manager, Paul Rusesabagina. PAUL How was your meal, sir? US AMBASSADOR Magnificent. reads) Scottish lobster, in Rwanda. You see General what a genius this man is. You want anything, this man can get it? COLONEL OLIVER How about a battalion of U.S. Marines. 12. US AMBASSADOR Now, General, don't ask for the impossible. Paul smiles. PAUL I have heard, Mr. Ambassador, that they have discovered oil here, under Lake Kivu. Oliver bursts out laughing. COLONEL OLIVER You're right, Mr. Ambassador, Paul knows how to get anything, even U.S. troops. The ambassador takes Paul's hand, shakes it warmly. US AMBASSADOR Thank you for a wonderful meal, Paul. Paul moves away graciously, and in one smooth move checks out, then pockets, the hundred dollar bill the ambassador palmed him. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY General Bizimungu gazes through glass into the reception room, SEES Paul shake hands and joke with the Ambassador. (He's impressed.) Paul notices the General. The General raises his briefcase and waves. Paul waves back. Another favor rendered. EXT. HOTEL GROUNDS. NIGHT It is night now. Floodlights bathe the hotel in a warm glow. Tiki oil lamps illuminate the walkways and spread scented citronella smoke among the trees. Wild birds CALL OUT. EXT. HOTEL REAR CAR PARK. NIGHT Paul walks to the employee car park at the rear. He sees Gregoire and another male reception clerk tossing Zozo's pillbox porter's hat between them with Zozo trapped in the middle trying to jump and catch it. Gregoire thinks this tease is great fun. 13. GREGOIRE Come on, Zozo, cockroaches can jump, some of them can fly. he clerk sees Paul just as he's about to throw, miscalculates, the hat sails over Gregoire's head and lands at Paul's feet. Zozo scampers to pick it up. PAUL No. (points to Gregoire) You pick it up. Gregoire doesn't move. PAUL (CONT'D) How are your dish-washing skills, Gregoire? Gregoire bends, picks up the hat, hands it to Zozo, who walks away quickly. Gregoire and his friend turn to head back into the hotel. PAUL (CONT'D) Gregoire, there are no cockroaches in this hotel, do you understand? BIK (O.S.) Cockroaches? Bik has walked out of the rear door and overheard. BIK (CONT'D) Don't tell me we have cockroaches, Paul? A sly smile breaks on Gregoire's face as he uses Bik's arrival to disappear inside. PAUL No, Bik, it's a code word for Tutsis. BIK That's what I came to talk to you about. PAUL Excuse me? BIK The Hutu-Tutsi thing. The BBC faxed to say they would be here on the sixth for the peace accords. And the U.N. wants the banquet room for that day, a reception to broadcast the signing ceremony. Can you organize monitors and check the satellite dish? 14. PAUL Leave it to me. Bik leans slightly closer. BIK Also, could you remember to use the service entrance at all times? PAUL Of course. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. NIGHT Paul hops in his car and tosses a box of Belgium chocolates on the seat next to him. EXT. KIGALI STREETS. NIGHT Paul speeds through the streets of Kigali HUMMING along to music on the radio and eating chocolates from the box. He passes bicycles laden with produce. The song on the radio ends and local news comes on. RADIO ANNOUNCER (V.O.) Good Hutus of Rwanda, beware. The dictatorship of the Tutsi cockroach is near. Watch your neighbor. Identify these cockroaches. Then rise up and stamp out this murderous infestation... Paul turns the station. Finds another with music. EXT. KIGALI NEIGHBORHOOD. NIGHT Lights burn in windows. Kids play soccer in dusty lots. Paul's van turns onto a residential street and slows. He HONKS twice. The metal gate to a walled compound swings open. A GUARD(old, peaked hat, bare feet, pathetic) stands just inside. Paul waves to him and pullsinto the courtyard, two cars are already parked there. EXT. PAUL'S HOUSE. NIGHT A neat bungalow and gardens behind the high wall. Paul parks and gets out. A DOG runs and greets him, BARKING. PAUL Down, Pealiss. 15. His wife, TATIANA, a woman of great natural beauty, emerges from the house, beside her an even taller, very elegant woman, she has a doctor's bag and a stethoscope in her hand. This is ODETTE, their family doctor and close friend. PAUL (CONT'D) Good evening, Odette, who is sick this time? TATIANA I asked Odette to take a look at little Anais. She has a rash. PAUL Your brother's here? TATIANA Yes, with Fedens and the children. e wants some advice. ODETTE Good to see you, Paul. Paul embraces Odette warmly, kisses Tatiana. ODETTE (CONT'D) I must go, Paul. TATIANA You will not stay for dinner. ODETTE No thank you, Tatiana. PAUL My best to Jean Baptiste. EXT: PAUL'S HOUSE. NIGHT The old guard opens the gate, Odette drives off. EXT. PAUL'S GARDEN. NIGHT PAUL (a sigh) Thomas wants advice? TATIANA He wants your wisdom. PAUL Let's have dinner first. 16. TATIANA Of course. His brother-in-law THOMAS and sister-in-law FEDENS come out to greet Paul the Patriarch. They hug. Kids run everywhere. Paul spots his twin nieces Anais (in blue) and Carine (in yellow), four years old. He scoops them up, one in each arm. PAUL Hello, Anais. She laughs. CARINE I am Carine. PAUL You are not Anais? ANAIS I am Anais. PAUL Oh, Carine, that is a shame. I have a present for Anais. Anais reaches out her hand. Paul sets them on the ground, takes a chocolate from his chocolate box, deliberately hands it to Carine. Anais jumps up and down. ANAIS It is for me. PAUL Goodness, I cannot tell. I guess I must find another present. He takes a chocolate gives it to Carine, then hands out the chocolates to his children who are gathered around. INT. PAUL'S KITCHEN. DAY A crowded family table. Tatiana, Paul's four children, Thomas and Fedens, and the twins Anais and Carine. PAUL Roger, your turn. Paul's eldest, ROGER, 12, bows his head. ROGER For food and clothes, and all that grows, etc, etc. Dear Lord, thank you. 17. PAUL Thank you, Roger. Food is passed around. Roger gobbles his down. PAUL (CONT'D) Why the hurry, Roger? ROGER Simon has a new pet. Can I go see it? PAUL No, I don't want you going on the street. OGER Please, papa, I have a secret path. PAUL Who is this Simon? TATIANA Simon, next door, the Charingas' boy. PAUL Homework? ROGER It's done. TATIANA And he did extra chores. PAUL Wash your things, and be back soon. Roger takes off at a run. EXT. PAUL'S GARDEN. NIGHT Roger runs to a wooden fence, gets down, moves two boards and squeezes through into a path, almost a tunnel in dense reeds. EXT. NEIGHBOR'S (SIMON'S) YARD. NIGHT Roger crawls along his path. There's a gap a little way down, and Roger shoots through it into the wide open of the neighbors yard. He runs to a back window of the house and taps on it. Soon SIMON, 12, appears. He slides it open. ROGER Let's feed it. 18. Simon lets Roger in. INT. NEIGHBOR'S (SIMON'S) HOUSE. NIGHT Roger holds a WILDLY COLORED SNAKE in a jar. Simon has a bag of bugs. Waves the bag in front of the snake. It's forked tongue goes wild. ROGER Let me. Simon hands him the bugs. Roger lifts the lid, drops one bug in, and the snake strikes. The boys jump back, laugh. INT. PAUL'S KITCHEN. NIGHT After dinner coffee for the adults. Tatiana, Thomas and Fedens at the table. Paul, in his usual position, at the head, listening, like Solomon. THOMAS I've heard bad things, Paul. My assistant says we should get out of Rwanda. FEDENS Why should we leave? I have a new job, things have never been better for us. THOMAS What good is it if we are murdered in our bed? TATIANA Your assistant, he is Hutu? THOMAS Yes, and he is in the Hutu Power Militia. CARINE He wants your job. THOMAS No, he is a friend, but he tells me to listen to the radio. All day they talk about the great slaughter. TATIANA That station is filth. PAUL has listened, now he decides to speak. 19. PAUL Today I talked to my friend the American Ambassador and Colonel Oliver of the United Nations. They are preparing a banquet for the peace signing. The BBC are flying in their best reporters. The world is watching. There will be peace. Don't listen to this man. Solomon has spoken. Fedens smiles, Tatiana rubs Paul's arm. EXT. NEIGHBOR'S (SIMON'S) YARD. NIGHT Roger crawls along his grass tunnel. Then he hears something. He looks through the reeds toward the street. HE SEES: Military boots, a cluster of Hutu soldiers in their crisp Khaki uniforms. He hears whispering. OLDIER'S VOICE (O.S.) That house. EXT. PAUL'S HOUSE. NIGHT Paul, Tatiana, are by Thomas's car. They say good night to their guests. Anais and Carine sleep in the car. Paul nods to the old guard to go open the gate. Just then Roger emerges from the thicket, wide-eyed, afraid. ROGER There are soldiers. PAUL Where? ROGER On the street. Paul nods to Tatiana to take Roger inside. Thomas and Fedens grab the sleeping twins from their car. Paul goes to his big metal gates and peers through the two inch gap E between the gate hinge and the gate post. EXT. VICTOR'S HOUSE. NIGHT. HE SEES: (two houses down) the group of Hutu soldiers, clustered around jeeps, they whisper and point. It's a raid. 20. Now they move rushing out of view. The sounds of SPLINTERING WOOD, GLASS BREAKING, CHILDREN'S CRIES, WOMEN SCREAMING. Suddenly there's a face, beside Paul's. It's Tatiana. TATIANA What is it? She looks, sees the soldiers, as they drag a middle-aged man onto the street. He is crying, pleading, like a whipped dog. TATIANA (CONT'D) Oh, my God, it's Victor. Why do they want Victor? They watch as Victor is beaten to the jeep. At this point Victor looses it completely, stops pleading, grabs on to a soldier, clinging, screaming like a terrified child - like a man who knows he is going to die. It's a horror. TATIANA (CONT'D) Do something. PAUL What? TATIANA Call your friends in the army. Call someone. Victor is harmless. This is a mistake. PAUL Please, be quiet. Tatiana, moves toward the gate handle. TATIANA I'm going to talk to them. Paul grabs her. PAUL No. TATIANA We must do something. Paul takes her by the arm, leads her to the house. 21. PAUL What would you have us do? Argue with these madmen? We cannot interfere. INT. PAUL'S LIVING ROOM. NIGHT Thomas and Fedens wait, anxious, as Paul appears. PAUL You better stay the night, it is too dangerous to be on the streets. Tatiana hides her anger. TATIANA I'll fix a bed. INT. PAUL'S BEDROOM. NIGHT Paul lies in bed unable to sleep. The clock reads 3:00 am. TATIANA Why didn't you call your contacts in the army? PAUL I couldn't help. TATIANA You could have asked for a favor. PAUL No, I could not. What do you know about favors Tatiana, about barter and deals? All day long I work to please this officer, that diplomat, this tourist. To store up favors so that if there is a time when my family need help I have powerful people I can call upon. Now you would have me waste a precious favor on a stranger. TATIANA Victor was not a stranger, he was our neighbor. PAUL He was not family. Family is all that matters. Do you think if you or I were being dragged from here, any one of them would lift a finger to help us? 22. TATIANA They do not have your connections. PAUL Connections? I have no connections, only favors. If I call to help Victor, a General will think "Paul Rusesabagina is a fool. He thinks my favors are so numerous and so insignificant as to waste them on everybody." Then my hard work is doubly squandered. I insult the General and I do not get to use my favor at all. Please leave these things to my good judgment. His turn away indicates the discussion is over. EXT. HOTEL FRONT GATE. MORNING Paul's car rolls up to the hotel's guard house. SUPER THE TITLE: APRIL 6th, 1994. An army jeep is parked just inside. General Bizimungu is in the passenger seat, talking into a walkie-talkie. The General gives an I'll see you soon wave. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY The hotel entrance is a mini-jam of airport buses, white UN jeeps, foreign news crew Land Rovers, and a TV repair van unloading monitors. Paul marches in, past Zozo the bell hop, who helps the TV men unload. PAUL Welcome, gentlemen. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY The lobby buzzes with activity. At the reception, Gregoire is surrounded by a BBC news crew: GLORIA, young, chic female reporter/producer, and JOCK, tough, experienced Scottish cameraman, and his local sound guy Peter. Gloria is upset. GLORIA We reserved five rooms not two GREGOIRE I'm sorry, ma'am, but I see only two here in the computer. 23. Jock sees Paul. JOCK Paul, how the hell are ya'? PAUL I am delighted to see you, Mr. Daglish. JOCK They moved you from the Diplomat? PAUL Promoted. House Manager. JOCK Good for you. (moves closer) We're having a little trouble, Paul. We booked five rooms, but... Paul moves behind the desk. PAUL Let me check. He punches into the computer. PAUL Ah, I see the mistake. You were reading CBC - the Canadian broadcasting people instead of BBC Gregoire. Close on the computer: It clearly states BBC - two rooms. Gregoire looks to Paul with a mix of puzzlement and anger. Of course, the BBC, five rooms. (lies) They are being prepared as we speak. I have ordered fresh flowers and complimentary champagne. Gloria picks up her bag. GLORIA Great, I really need a shower. PAUL Just give me a moment to get your keys. Paul better come up with three rooms fast. Then he spots the reporter Benedict hovering at the door. 24. PAUL (CONT'D) (to Gloria) Excuse me for one second. Paul hurries over to Benedict. PAUL (CONT'D) Benedict, you should meet the BBC people. They could use your expertise. Benedict is delighted. They head back across the lobby. PAUL (CONT'D) (whisper) Benedict, General Bizimungu will be here any moment. The BBC should talk to him. They join the BBC team. PAUL (CONT'D) Madame, this is Benedict Nangori, one of our best journalists. He covers all the big stories. I thought you should meet. Gloria, a consummate news producer, turns on the charm. GLORIA Benedict, beautiful name. I'm Gloria Fleming. BBC. Paul moves off to the desk, Gregoire can barely disguise his pleasure. GREGOIRE There are no more rooms. PAUL Give me the phone. Gregoire hands it over. Paul dials. PAUL (CONT'D) Madame Denver. I have very good news. I have a present for you, in return for the cancellation of your gorilla expedition I have arranged a safari at Lake Kivu lodge. A wonderful experience. No, no extra charge. A luxury coach will leave in one hour. I'll send maids up to help you all pack. You're welcome. Paul hangs up, turns to Gregoire. 25. PAUL (CONT'D) Call Kivu Lodge, ask for George, tell him I need three rooms. And send a team of maids up to the Americans. I want those rooms turned around in twenty minutes. PAUL heads for the glass doors and sees: EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY General Bizimungu, briefcase in hand, gives the tv interview, He's confident, controlled Benedict stands close by as Gloria interviews. GLORIA There are rumors, General, that your army, the Hutu army, consider these peace accords a sellout to the Tutsi rebels. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU (laughs) Nonsense. At this moment we are making plans to rehabilitate the dissidents into our armed forces. GLORIA Then the army fully supports the president as he signs the peace agreement. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Of course, the president is a clever man, he knows what he is doing. Thank you for coming to Rwanda. (on the move). You will see what a beautiful country this is. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY Paul turns, walks past porters ferrying the BBC luggage. He puts his hand out. Gregoire hands him keys. Paul does his rounds. He double checks the banquet room where technicians install several TV monitors and test the signal. He looks in the kitchen, frenzied activity. He wanders behind the bar. Everything is 'under control'. He returns to the lobby, greets Connie, her flustered husband and their friends, followed by a team of porters and luggage. 26. PAUL Forgive the hurry but I do not want you to miss the lunch buffet on the paddle steamer across the lake. It is the most spectacular sight in all Africa. OB Lunch? All we do is eat. I thought there was famine in Africa. PAUL Exactly, we can't have our guests starving. What would they think of the Mille Collines back in the United States? Gen. Bizimungu, takes Paul's arm, pulls him aside, hands him his empty briefcase. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Keep that cockroach Benedict away from me. As the General disappears into the bar, Paul waves over the coat check, hands her the briefcase. PAUL Same as last time. She nods, hurries off just as the BBC crew appears. Paul hands out keys, greets each. PAUL (CONT'D) The fifth room is your broadcast room. GLORIA Good. I'd like to book a massage. PAUL Of course. Jock, the Scottish cameraman, hangs behind as the others leave, takes his key. JOCK Did you bring any of those wee girls who used to sit at the bar in the Diplomat with you? You know? PAUL I'm sorry, Mr. Daglish, this is the Mille Collines. No working girls here. JOCK Can we phone them in, Paul? 27. PAUL I'm afraid I can't do that, Mr. Daglish. Ah, Zozo. Paul calls Zozo over. PAUL (CONT'D) You remember Zozo, from the Diplomat? Jock gets the code instantly, as Zozo smiles. JOCK Zozo! The very man! The Scot and Zozo greet, then hurry off. INT. HOTEL BANQUET ROOM. DAY Paul supervises waiters hanging a banner. It reads "Peace, Love, and Brotherhood! UNAMIR 1994". INT. HOTEL CONFERENCE ROOM. DAY Reporters watch rows of TVs. All broadcast the signing of the Arusha Accords. (Reporters have political chatter.) CLOSE ON: the TVs as President Habyarimana signs. COMMENTATOR As president Habyarimana signs a peace accord between the Tutsi rebels and his Hutu army there remains strong doubts that the extremist Hutu Power will abide by the accords. But for now hope has returned to Rwanda for the first time in many years. All the African reporters in the room CHEER. Fireworks go off outside the hotel. Colonel Oliver raises a glass of champagne and leads the room in a toast. COLONEL OLIVER To Peace. The room as one raise their glasses. CLOSE ON: Paul as he nods to a member of the tribal band on the small stage. Then, African drummers hammer out a fast uplifting beat as the full troupe of ceremonial dancers skip into the room in celebration. 28. INT. HOTEL BAR. DAY Paul checks out the banques. They appear empty, then a voice. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Paul, join us. It's General Bizimungu, he is sitting with George Rutagunda now in a shiny blue suit. A bottle of whiskey on the table is almost gone. Bizimungu and Rutagunda watch the peace celebration across the lobby. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Have a drink. He pours. George points his glass toward the Europeans. GEORGE Look at them, they want to see the tribes dance to their tune. Here is our dance. Rutagunda staggers to his feet, launches into a drunken version of the Hutu Militia War Dance. GEORGE (CONT'D) Come on, Paul. Show them our dance. Paul takes George's arm, does two steps of the dance, then appears to stumble and shoulder bumps the big man. George falls into his chair. PAUL Forgive me, George, my step was off. Rutagunda bursts out laughing, toasts: GEORGE To our president. May he find peace. As Paul is forced to join in the toast, Rutagunda laughs, Bizimungu smiles at some insider joke. INT. HOTEL CONFERENCE ROOM. EVENING Reporters and crews pack up their equipment. Paul shakes hands, orders porters to pick up cases. Then a porter whispers a message to Paul. PAUL Excuse me, gentlemen. 29. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. NIGHT Paul emerges, discovers Fedens and Thomas - they look embarrassed to be in such exulted surroundings. THOMAS Forgive us, Paul. We must talk. PAUL What's wrong? THOMAS We are leaving Rwanda, Paul. PAUL Go to the terrace, I will join you. CUT TO EXT. HOTEL POOL TERRACE. NIGHT Drinks are served at a table as Paul listens to Thomas. THOMAS My assistant, the Hutu Power man, says we should get out now, that soon it will be very bad. Paul stifles his anger. PAUL Give me this man's name. THOMAS His name is Naramaranga, but please, Paul, even though he is Hutu Power, he is a friend, he likes me. He told me there is a signal. It is "Cut the tall trees." When they hear the signal, the militia are to go to war. FEDENS Please, let us take Tatiana with us. You are Hutu, you will be safe. PAUL Thomas, Fedens, I am a man who looks after his family. If there were danger I would be the first to leave? BANG - a distant explosion, a flash of light on the far side of the city. Fedens jumps. 30. FEDENS What was that? PAUL Calm yourself, it is fireworks to celebrate the peace. THOMAS Please, Paul, tomorrow I will bring you my car. You will sell it for me and get a fair price. We will go to Tanzania until there is real peace. ZOZO Excuse me, Paul, you have a call. Zozo hands Paul a cordless phone. PAUL ello. Tatsi. Yes, they are here. Yes. I know but I want them to calm down. THOMAS and Fedens listen. PAUL (CONT'D) Already the press are packing their bags. The BBC man told me there's no story here. We are boring now. I'll be home soon. He hangs up. PAUL (CONT'D) Let us all go home and sleep. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. EVENING Paul escorts Fedens and Thomas to their car. PAUL Call when you get home. And don't worry, Thomas. Good night. INT. PAUL'S CAR. NIGHT Paul's at the wheel, driving. A thick mist. Barely a car on the road. Shadows dart past faint house lights. The windscreen clouds. Paul switches on his wipers. A Toyota truck, loaded with Militia, appears from the mist, speeds past. Paul switches the preset buttons on the radio as he drives. He can only find fevered drum-based MUSIC. 31. EXT. PAUL'S STREET. NIGHT Paul turns onto his street. The houses are dark: windows shuttered; gates closed; not a soul about. Paul stops before his gate. HONKS twice. The gate doesn't open. He hops out and opens it with a key. Gives it a push and pauses as he heads back to the car. He hears the far off sound of gunfire. Distant explosions light the night sky. EXT. PAUL'S HOUSE. NIGHT Paul drives in. His compound is curiously dark. His headlights sweep across his pitch-black house. UT TO: The gates swing shut. We PULL BACK as Paul turns and faces his house. Paul whistles for the dog, nothing. He goes back to the car, gets a flashlight, heads for the front door. INT. PAUL'S LIVING ROOM. NIGHT The door slowly opens. Paul steps in quietly, tries the light switch, nothing. He listens. The only sounds are distant explosions and gunfire. The beam of his flashlight cuts the blackness, illuminating: magazines arranged on a coffee table; an empty chair; children's toys in a basket. INT. PAUL'S KITCHEN. NIGHT Paul continues his search. Scans the counter. There's food on the stove. The table is set. He hears a GROWL, quickly cut short, from one of the bedrooms. INT. PAUL'S HALL. NIGHT Paul shines the light into a room. Looks for a second, then closes the door, and walks to the next. He stops and listens with his ear to the door. Nothing. He pushes it in. INT. PAUL'S BEDROOM. NIGHT Paul's light sweeps across the room and illuminates: Eyes - terrified eyes, a room full of faces, staring back. THEIR POV: A dark figure behind a blinding light. The dog breaks free, runs to Paul. 32. PAUL Pealiss! From among the faces, Tatiana's voice heavy with relief. TATIANA Paul! Paul's eyes adjust, he recognizes many of his neighbors, all crowded into this small room. Then he sees their friends Odette and her husband Jean Baptiste. PAUL Jean Baptiste! JEAN BAPTISTE Our house has been burned. PAUL What is going on? TATIANA The president has been murdered. PAUL Murdered! By whom? ODETTE The radio says Tutsi rebels. PAUL Nonsense. Why would the rebels kill the president when he agreed to peace? Tatiana pulls Paul aside. TATIANA Where are Thomas and Fedens? PAUL I sent them home. Go and call them. TATIANA I tried already. The phones do not work. Jean Baptiste turns on his tiny radio. RADIO ANNOUNCER Our great president is murdered, by the Tutsi cockroaches. They tricked him, then they killed him. We must cleanse this country, Good Hutus of Rwanda. We must clear the brush. Clear the brush of all cockroaches. Clear the brush!!! 33. The words are cut short as a grenade blast rattles the window. Everyone jumps, children whimper. Paul is shocked but tries to pull things together. PAUL Come on, everyone out of this room, find a seat in the living room. He holds the door open, they file out, frightened. Tatiana is last, he stops her, steps back in, closes the door. PAUL (CONT'D) (in hushed anger) Is every Tutsi in the neighborhood here? TATIANA They came through the bushes, over the wall. What could I do? PAUL Send them home. We are not the police. What do we have to protect them? TATIANA Please. Let them stay 'til morning. The militia will not come here, they know you are a Hutu with influence. PAUL They know you are Tutsi! The door knocks. Paul gets up, angry. TATIANA Please, Paul, 'til first light. PAUL Dawn. Then they go. Paul opens the door, it's Odette, holding the hand of Paul's eldest daughter. ODETTE Forgive me, Paul. Danielle says that Roger has gone. Tatiana comes over instantly, worried. TATIANA Gone where? Tell me, Danielle. Their daughter Danielle answers. 34. DANIELLE Next door, mama. He was afraid for his friend Simon. He went to fetch him. EXT. UNDERGROWTH. NIGHT Roger crawls between the shrubs. He hears ANGRY VOICES. He peers through the long grass. Sees: Hutu soldiers boots, feet in sneakers, bare women's feet. And among them the glint of machetes, hoes, a club spiked with nails, a length of chain CLANGING on the ground. EXT. PAUL'S GARDEN. NIGHT Tatiana rushes out the front door, Paul after her. Paul catches her and puts his hand over her mouth. PAUL Shhhhh. SHOUTS next door. Paul pulls Tatiana behind the car. A beat. More SHOUTS. Paul takes his hand from her mouth. She's sobbing. E EXT. NEIGHBOR'S YARD. NIGHT Roger crawls to the gap in the shrubs. Feet, a crowd, leaving, through a gate. Engines rev. Roger crawls from the bushes. Crawls across, the driveway, crawls through a puddle. Then stops, SEES SOMETHING, AN (UNSEEN) HORROR! EXT. PAUL'S GARDEN. NIGHT Paul and Tatiana exit the back of the house with flashlight in hand headed towards the rear gate. Paul searches along the chain link fence, finds a section loose, he pulls it back, clambers underneath it. Tatiana clasps her mouth, afraid to utter a cry. EXT. UNDERGROWTH. NIGHT Paul crawls through this scrub tunnel. 35. Then he hears BRANCHES SNAPPING. He moves toward the sound. Discovers Roger, terrified, thrashing in a tangle of bushes. He grabs Rogers shirt, pulls him as the little boy startles. PAUL Ssshh! Paul drags his son through the chainlink fence, whisks him up in his arms and rushes him to the house. INT. PAUL'S KITCHEN. NIGHT Paul bursts through the back door and sets Roger down. Tatiana is beside them. TATIANA Roger! Paul turns the flashlight on Roger. Tatiana pulls back in horror: Roger is covered in blood. Her SCREAMS, stifled by fear. TATIANA (CONT'D) Oh, my God! PAUL Where are you hurt, son? oger stares blankly. Odette is beside them now. ODETTE Get his clothes off. Hands pull and tear his clothes off. Towels wipe him down. Odette looks all over his body with the flashlight. Despite the blood Roger has no injuries. PAUL What happened, son? Where did you get this blood? But Roger, trembling, just stares, totally traumatized. Children cry. ODETTE He's not injured. His paralysis freaks the women in the room. Paul turns angrily to them. PAUL Leave us, give us some space. 36. He ushers the neighbors out of the room, closes the door. PAUL (CONT'D) (to Tatiana) The neighbors must go at dawn. Tatiana hugs her son. EXT. KIGALI. DAWN The faintest grey of dawn over the city. Then a flock of birds rises as one in the distance. A millisecond later, the cause of their flight, a grenade explosion, echoes. The birds dart, in another direction as the STACCATO of a machine gun rips the air. INT. PAUL'S BEDROOM. DAWN PAUL sits on the edge of the bed, staring out the window. Behind him Tatiana has Roger cradled in her arms, he still trembles wide eyed as she tries to get him to talk. TATIANA Will you take a little milk? Nothing. PAUL Let him sleep. The door knocks. The old guard calls in frightened. OLD GUARD (O.S.) Mr. Paul. PAUL (to Tatiana) It is time for the neighbors to leave. He heads for the door. INT. PAUL'S LIVING ROOM. DAWN Paul steps out, closes the door behind him. A small delegation of the men wait nervously. JEAN BAPTISTE It is true. 37. He holds up the tiny radio, tuned to the BBC World service, a crackly Brit voice. (It's Gloria the reporter.) GLORIA THE REPORTER (O.S.) The Hutu president's plane was struck by a ground-to-air missile as he returned from signing the peace accord with the Tutsi rebels. There were no survivors. The Hutu government has already blamed the Tutsi rebels. The rebels have denied the accusation. Already there are reports of reprisal killings on the streets. As they listen, a young woman lets out a SQUEAL, and flees the window where she's been sitting. WOMEN (O.S.) They are here. Hysteria in the room, women and children push toward the bedroom. Paul manages to make it to the window, nervously steals a glance and sees: A HUTU ARMY SOLDIER sits on the high wall by the gate. He pulls another up beside him. anic in the room now. Paul turns. PAUL Shut up! PAUL'S POV: The soldiers drop into his garden. They draw pistols. TATIANA (O.S.) What is it, Paul. PAUL Stay with the children. PAUL'S POV: The soldiers go to the gate, slide the bolt, swing it open. Two jeeps, jammed with heavily armed SOLDIERS, sit in the drive like many-limbed beasts of war. Paul watches as the jeeps rumble into his garden. The soldiers jump out. INSIDE THE ROOM: Nothing can stop the women and children from fleeing into the bedrooms. Paul is frozen at the CRASH of rifles on the door. The door gives, SOLDIERS flood in. They are startled by the crowd in the living room, rifles raised, SHOUTS. 38. SOLDIERS Out, get out now! Paul pulls himself together, marches over to the soldier. PAUL Who is in charge? A Captain is at the door. CAPTAIN Who are you? PAUL I am Paul Rusesabagina, a good friend of General Bizimungu. CAPTAIN We are looking for you. He takes Paul by the arm, leads him outside. EXT. PAUL'S HOUSE. DAWN The Captain stops by his jeep, studies his clipboard. Tatiana with Roger in her arms, her kids and all the neighbors herded together. PAUL What is this about? CAPTAIN Let me see your identity card. Paul pulls it from his pocket, hands it to the Captain. CLOSE ON: Paul's ID - it reads Ethnicity: HUTU. The Captain studies him, waves for the soldiers to back off. CAPTAIN (CONT'D) You heard the Tutsi cockroaches murdered our president. PAUL Yes, it is a calamity for us all. CAPTAIN You work at the Hotel Diplomat? PAUL No. I work at the Mille Collines. 39. The Captain looks confused. Paul quickly: PAUL (CONT'D) I used to work at the Diplomat. CAPTAIN Do you know how to open the safe there? (Paul nods) Our government needs to use the hotel and the room keys are in the safe. You must open it. PAUL Of course. Paul sees out into the street behind the jeeps: a group of Militia in their colored shirts armed with machetes, have gathered, trying to see what is going on. PAUL (CONT'D) Captain, I must take my family. It is not safe here. CAPTAIN Where is your family? Tatiana is beside him now. TATIANA (interrupts) This is them. Tatiana points to the huddled neighbors. Paul is stunned. CAPTAIN All of them! I cannot take them. TATIANA No, no, good Captain, you do not have to. We have the car and our van. She points to the Mille Collines van. he Captain looks doubtful, then his two-way radio barks - an urgent message. He listens. Tatiana drags the kids and ushers everyone toward the van. In a second, they are all clambering in. CAPTAIN Let's go. 40. Paul jumps behind the wheel of the van. Neighbors are jammed in like sardines, 15, more, inside. Tatiana and their kids are squashed together on the front bench. The convoy (jeep - van, car - jeep) starts up and turns out into the street. The Militia men wave sticks, machetes. INT. VAN TRAVELING - DAY Paul looks back as they speed off down the street. Sees: The Militia looters pour into his gateway. As they pass the Caringa home, Militia looters carry off a TV and push a stove on a child's skateboard. TATIANA has Roger on her lap, she cradles his head. EXT. KIGALI STREET. DAY The convoy speeds through the deserted streets. Slowing only to maneuver through makeshift roadblocks where Militia wave machetes, nailed clubs and spears as they dance. FURTHER ALONG THE ROAD: a group of Militia swarm over a car, smashing the windshield, the windows. Inside a family huddles together in terror, waiting for the windows to give way. In the gutter by the side of the road, three dead bodies. PAUL (to Tatiana) Don't look. EXT. HOTEL DIPLOMAT. DAY The convoy pulls up at this older, shabbier hotel. There are other jeeps, and several staff in a panic. The janitor, ROBERT, sees Paul, bursts into waves of joy. ROBERT Mr. Paul, sir. Oh, Mr. Paul. We must open every door right now for the government. Paul jumps out of the van, hurries to the lead jeep. PAUL (to the Captain) The safe is in the manager's office. 41. The Captain nods to two soldiers. CAPTAIN Go with him, get the keys. INT. HOTEL DIPLOMAT LOBBY. DAY Paul runs through the lobby. The staff look petrified. INT. HOTEL DIPLOMAT MANAGER'S OFFICE. DAY Paul bursts into the room. The two soldiers follow. He goes to the hotel's big old combination safe, spins the combination a few times, tries the handle, clunk! It doesn't open. He's forgotten the number. The soldiers look at him impatiently. Paul improvises. PAUL Gentlemen, you'll find some chocolate, and maybe a few beers in the fridge. Don't let them go to waste. The soldiers fall over each other to get to the fridge. Paul tries the safe numbers again, clunk! It opens. He sees: a big bunch of keys, a wad of dollars, Rwandan francs, a check book, and several bottles of the best cognac, whiskey, some Cristal. He looks round nervously but the two soldiers are busy fighting over the beer and chocolates in the fridge. s they do, Paul, hands trembling, stuffs the wads of notes, into his belt, pulls his shirt over and shuts the safe door. PAUL (CONT'D) I've got them. He is about to leave. SOLDIER 1 Wait! Paul looks back at the soldier. SOLDIER 1 (CONT'D) Sit down. Paul sits, as the two soldiers guzzle beers and stuff chocolate into their pockets. 42. INT. HOTEL DIPLOMAT LOBBY. DAY Paul hurries through the lobby toward the entrance. EXT. HOTEL DIPLOMAT ENTRANCE. DAY Paul emerges to see: All of the occupants of the van, Tatiana, his kids, Odette on their knees, with their hands on their heads. The Captain hovers over them, pistol in hand, turns, sees Paul. He marches toward him and SLAPS HIM HARD on the face. CAPTAIN Traitor! Paul reels from the blow, but manages to stay on his feet. The Captain snatches a bunch of ID cards from a soldier, hurls the cards in Paul's face. CAPTAIN (CONT'D) They are all Tutsi cockroaches. PAUL Let me explain. He grabs Paul by the scruff of the neck, pushes him toward the kneeling captives. The Captain snatches a pistol from one of his soldiers, shoves it into Paul's hand. CAPTAIN SHOOT THEM! Paul looks at him. PAUL Please, I don't use guns. CAPTAIN There is nothing to it. The Captain raises his own pistol and FIRES it. Everyone jumps with fright. CAPTAIN (CONT'D) Shoot them now or you die first. The Captain aims his pistol at Paul's head. Cocks the hammer. 43. PAUL Captain, what could I pay you not to do this? The Captain laughs. CAPTAIN You want to pay me? PAUL Why not? These are not rebels, look at them. Soon they will be worthless to you. Why not take some money, for your work? CAPTAIN How much? PAUL Name a price. CAPTAIN Ten thousand francs for each one. PAUL I don't have that much. The Captain laughs, snatches the gun from Paul, marches toward them. PAUL (CONT'D) Wait! Wait! Paul reaches into his pocket, pulls out the bunch of dollars. PAUL (CONT'D) Here, here, a thousand US dollars - fifty thousand francs for my family. To let us drive off to the Mille Collines. CAPTAIN How many in your family? PAUL Six. The Captain looks at his soldiers, at the wad of notes. APTAIN Pull your family out. Paul runs over, grabs Tatiana, Roger, the three girls. Odette kneels beside Tatiana. Paul whispers. PAUL Have you any money? 44. ODETTE Nothing. Paul pushes his family toward the van, looks back, sees the Captain pocket the dollars, move toward the line. TATIANA Paul, don't let them die. PAUL (urgent) Get in. Paul pushes them into the van, shuts the door, digs into his soul for all the courage he can muster, then turns back. PAUL (CONT'D) Captain, let these people give you some money, whatever they have. The Captain hesitates. Paul sees this, runs over to the line of neighbors. PAUL (CONT'D) Give me everything, everything you have. A pathetic rain of Rwandan francs, useless coins, watches, jewelry falls onto the ground. Paul scoops it all up. T he Captain looks at it, takes it, then: CAPTAIN There is only enough for one cockroach. The Captain raises his pistol. CAPTAIN (CONT'D) Pick one to take with you. Now each terrified neighbor looks to Paul, begging. PAUL Wait, wait. Paul counts the kneeling figures: ten adults, four kids. PAUL (CONT'D) Ten. CAPTAIN And four children? 45. PAUL I'll give you a hundred thousand francs for all of them. The Captain points the gun. CAPTAIN Give me it. PAUL I don't have it here. At the Mille Collines. I can get it for you. CAPTAIN You will run into the hotel and hide behind the U.N. PAUL I swear, Captain, one hundred thousand francs, enough for a house. I will get the money, you keep them outside. The Captain smiles. CAPTAIN I will keep your family outside. Let's go. EXT. HOTEL FRONT GATE. DAY The convoy pulls up at the outer gates of the Mille Collines. It's manned by ARMED UN PEACEKEEPERS. he Captain walks to Paul in the van. CAPTAIN Go with my soldiers. And hurry back if you want to keep these cockroaches. The Captain nods to Paul's children. Paul jumps into the Rwandan army jeep. PAUL (to UN Peacekeepers) I am the manager. Open the gate. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY Chaos - UN jeeps, hotel vans, dismayed tourists, frightened Tutsi refugees. 46. CLOSE ON: Bik, the Dutch manager, bag packed, anxious, sees Paul. YELLS. BIK Paul, I have to talk to you ... But Paul ignores Bik, barrels his way through the din and crush of the parking lot. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY Paul rushes in: The lobby is filled with Tutsi refugees, and scared white tourists. solitary receptionist, besieged by anxious guests, is relieved to see Paul. RECEPTIONIST Oh, sir, please can you... Paul rushes to the accounting room behind the reception desk, closes the door. INT. HOTEL OFFICE. DAY Paul pulls bundles of dollars from the hotel safe. EXT. HOTEL. DAY Paul pushes through the mob at the door. Bik comes up. BIK Paul... grabs Paul) ...I have to talk to you. PAUL I'll be back. Paul breaks free and hurries over to the Army jeep. PAUL (CONT'D) (hops in) Let's go. EXT. HOTEL FRONT GATE. DAY Paul jumps from the jeep. Waves to Tatiana in the van, then gives the money to the Captain. 47. PAUL Now let them go. No response. Money in hand, the Captain eyes Paul with malice. PAUL (CONT'D) Don't be foolish. There's more money to be made here. CAPTAIN You want to buy anymore cockroaches ask for Captain Naramunju. The Captain smiles, then jumps in his jeep and speeds off. Paul runs to the van and jumps in. INSIDE THE VAN Jubilation, in the rear of the van. Odette is in tears. ODETTE Thank you, thank you, Paul. Paul doesn't reply. Tatiana hugs him. He gives her a look - a mix of relief and anger - the crowd in the back almost cost him his family. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY Paul's van arrives. Bik hangs from a minibus. BIK (shouts) Paul, I have to go. The staff have fled Kivu Lodge. I have to close it. He flings office keys to Paul. BIK (CONT'D) While I'm away, you're in charge. Bik's van takes off. A group of tourists hears Bik's words. TOURISTS Hey, hey, we need our passports, we want to get a flight. Paul looks at them. TOURIST They're in your safety boxes. We need them right away. 48. PAUL Come inside. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY At the desk, the same receptionist is overwhelmed. TOURIST (O.C.) He's in charge, that's him. Paul goes behind the desk. Rumors fly among the crowd of tourists. TOURISTS (staccato) to the airport...my embassy ...tried to call... the airport is closed ... refund... this is outrageous ... Behind the tourists, Tatiana and the neighbors look lost. Paul addresses the frightened Western tourists. PAUL Please, I am the house manager. Return in thirty minutes and we will deal with all your requests, thank you. Paul turns to the room key boxes, nearly all are empty. PAUL (CONT'D) What happened to all the rooms? Finally he finds a key, pushes through to Tatiana, hands a key to Odette and Jean Baptiste. PAUL (CONT'D) Take this room. Tatiana, bring the children. Paul starts to lead his family away. TATIANA (re: neighbors) What about them? Paul looses it. PAUL Them. They almost got us all killed. I have done enough for them! We cannot look after them anymore. 49. TATIANA What are you going to do? You cannot drive them out onto the road. They can stay with me. PAUL What! TATIANA I will not have them on my conscience. They will stay in my room. PAUL (to Zozo) Zozo, get a key for two staff bedrooms. Put these people in them. ZOZO Yes, sir. INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR. DAY Paul hurries his family along the corridor. Rwandan refugees wander aimlessly pulling their meagre possessions. REFUGEE (calls out) Moses, Moses Seradungu. PAUL Can I help you? REFUGEE I'm looking for Moses Seradungu's room. PAUL What is his room number? REFUGEE I don't know. PAUL Go downstairs, I will help you. Paul finds his room and opens the door. INT. HOTEL ROOM. DAY PAUL leads his family into a one-bedroom suite. The kids drop to the beds exhausted. Tatiana picks up the phone and dials. 50. PAUL What are you doing? TATIANA Trying Thomas and Fedens. We've got to get them here. Paul paces the room. The maids clearly haven't cleaned it since it's last occupants: the beds are unmade; towels are on the floor; and a newspaper is scattered across the desk. PAUL (re: room) This won't do. TATIANA It will do just fine. So Paul tidies the place. As he does, PAUL Any luck? TATIANA No answer. Please send someone to get them, please. PAUL I'll try. Paul leaves. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY Paul waits, then a car pulls up, an Indian businessman, Mr. Garindi, gets out, shakes hands, he's shaken. MR. GARINDI Terrible times, Paul. There are bodies everywhere. I cannot stay here. PAUL I need a great favor. He hands Mr. Garindi an address. PAUL (CONT'D) I need you to go to this address and bring my brother-in-law and his family. MR. GARINDI No, no. This is a very dangerous part of town. I cannot do this. 51. PAUL This would be an enormous favor to me. I am a man of means, Mr. Garandi. When this nonsense is over I will be most grateful. MR. GARINDI I will see what I can do. Mr. Garindi climbs back into his car. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY Paul stops just shy of the lobby. Around the corner is a mob of angry guests. Paul takes a moment to gather himself: straightens his tie; button his jacket; flick a piece of lint from his shoulder. Then he takes a breath and steps around the corner. PAUL Thank you for your patience, ladies and gentlemen. Now, how can I help you. The mob rushes him. CUT TO: Paul works the front desk as angry guests surge all around him. Zozo emerges from the office with two tourists. PAUL (CONT'D) Where are the receptionists? Where's Gregoire? ZOZO He has taken the presidential suite. PAUL What! Paul storms off. INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR - DAY CLOSE ON: A door with a placard reading "Presidential Suite". Paul knocks. The door opens. Gregoire answers, half-naked. GREGOIRE (surprised) Mr. Manager. PAUL Gregoire, what are you doing here? 52. A WOMAN'S VOICE INSIDE (O.S.) Who is it? GREGOIRE What do you want? PAUL Get out of this room and get back to work. GREGOIRE I don't have to listen to you anymore. PAUL I am in charge now. Get back to work or I'll fire you. GREGOIRE Let me ask you Mr. Manager, do you notice a smell of cockroaches? If I were to leave this room, I'm sure I could find this smell. I know people who could cleanse it.(stares) But maybe it doesn't bother you? Why is that? Are used to this smell? Not me, I need a clean room to escape it. Gregoire closes the door. Paul's eyes burn with anger, but this battle will have to wait. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY Paul comes into the lobby and discovers Colonel Oliver, he is escorting a tall, well-dressed man, the Tutsi Minister of Finance XAVIER and his family. COLONEL OLIVER Paul, you know who this is? PAUL Yes, Colonel Monsieur Xavier, the Minister of Finance. COLONEL OLIVER Get him a room, but tell no one he is here. (to Xavier) Paul will look after you. XAVIER I will need a suite. 53. PAUL Of course. He moves over to Zozo. PAUL (CONT'D) Get the key to suite twelve, take these people there right away. There's a commotion by the door. Paul goes over. A valet stops a group of Tutsi refugees from entering. PAUL (CONT'D) What's going on? VALET Sir, they have no reservations. Paul studies the group, - a ragged bunch, no way are they Mille Collines guest material. REFUGEE #2 Please, sir, we have nowhere else to go. They're hunting us. PAUL Wait over there. EFUGEE #3 We need a room. PAUL I said everyone go over there. Paul sees: UN Colonel Oliver giving an interview to the BBC in front of the hotel. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY Paul approaches the BBC reporter Gloria and Colonel Oliver as their interview concludes. GLORIA Do we know who fired the missile that killed the president? COLONEL OLIVER No. But I fear it's intention may have been to kill the peace accords and spark a civil war between the Hutu Militia and the Tutsi rebels. 54. GLORIA We've heard reports of reprisal killings. Will the UN intervene to stop the bloodshed.? COLONEL OLIVER Unfortunately we're here as peace-keepers not peace makers, we can't take an aggressive role. GLORIA If the UN changes your mandate could you stop the bloodshed? COLONEL OLIVER Yes. With some re-inforcements I'm confident we could impose order. GLORIA Have you requested re-enforcements? COLONEL OLIVER Yes we have. GLORIA What was the response? COLONEL OLIVER We're awaiting a decision, excuse me. Colonel Oliver shakes Gloria's hand then moves off toward Paul. COLONEL OLIVER (CONT'D) Paul, I've sent my soldiers to rescue the Lady Prime Minister, she'll need a room. PAUL Yes sir, but these people (points) they cannot stay here. I've heard you have a refugee center at the airport Stadium? COLONEL OLIVER I'm sorry, I can't possibly take them Paul. I'm overrun with refugees. As soon as we can stabilize the situation we'll take them. PAUL moves to the door, where Jock and Gloria argue beside a saloon car with the word `press' spelt out in tape on the wind sreen JOCK For fuck's sake, Gloria There's a big news story out there! We need to get out and cover it. 55. GLORIA We're not going outside the hotel grounds unless we have an armored car. That's the ground rules. JOCK Ground rules! Where the fuck do you think you are, Wimbledon? GLORIA We cover the story from here until we can get proper protection. She walks off. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY Paul works his way through the crowds in the lobby, sees a trolley of dishes by an elevator, looks around, can't see any staff. Disgusted, he pushes the trolley himself. INT. HOTEL KITCHEN. DAY Paul pushes the trolley into the deserted kitchen. At the back door, several cooks listen to the radio. RADIO ANNOUNCER 'Good Hutus, we must destroy an infestation of cockroaches at the technical college.' PAUL Turn that off. We have a hotel to run. The cooks halfheartedly slouch back to the sinks. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. NIGHT The lobby is overflowing with refugees. Paul stands with phone to ear. Zozo walks up. PAUL (to Zozo) Where's housekeeping? They won't pick up. ZOZO Sir, no one wants to work. They say the boss has left. 56. Paul heads for the back office. INT. HOTEL MANAGER'S OFFICE. NIGHT A neat corporate office. Paul picks up the phone. INT. SABENA PRESIDENT'S OFFICE. BRUSSELS. NIGHT Several executive officers sit across from Sabena President GODEFROID around a speaker phone. ABENA PRESIDENT Can I have your name again? PAUL (O.S.) Paul Rusesabagina, Mr. Godefroid. The house manager. I met you on your last visit. SABENA PRESIDENT Yes, Paul, I remember. The Mille Collines is a very important property for Sabena. Our directors believe we should close down, shutter the place until this unrest is over? This is really bad news. Paul can't allow them to close. PAUL Sir, that would be very bad for our reputation. We are an oasis of calm for all our loyal customers. What would they think if Sabena deserted them now? (lies) I assure you the United Nations has everything under control. IN THE SABENA PRESIDENT He looks at the others. SABENA PRESIDENT Very well. But if this thing gets worse, we must close. If there's anything you need, call anytime. PAUL There is one thing I need right away. 57. INT. HOTEL MANAGER'S OFFICE. NIGHT Paul waits by the fax, then it spits out a single page. INT. HOTEL BANQUET ROOM. NIGHT Every member of the hotel staff is gathered together. Paul addresses them as Zozo hands out copies of a fax. PAUL This is my letter of appointment, signed by Mr. Godefroid, the president of Sabena. The Mille Collines is a five star establishment, we will run it that way. If you don't want to work for me, then leave now. No one moves. PAUL (CONT'D) I want the hallways cleaned now, a menu prepared for the dining room. Where's the pianist? A hand goes up. PAUL (CONT'D) I want you on the piano in the Kigali Room tonight. Back to work. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. MORNING Paul emerges to find more refugees, some settled on the lawn, others gathered in clumps by the doorway. Paul calls over to the valet. PAUL Take these people to the rear car park, they can't stay here. Suddenly women and children on the lawn scream and run in fear. Behind them bushes shake, then suddenly a bloody figure wearing only boxer shorts bursts out from among the trees and flees to the middle of the driveway. It's the journalist, BENEDICT, covered in blood. His ear has been chopped off. PANDEMONIUM. As Paul runs to him, calls to Zozo. PAUL (CONT'D) Get Odette! 58. Paul grabs Benedict, tries to calm him. PAUL (CONT'D) What happened? BENEDICT They're killing everyone. The Lady Minister! The UN soldiers. They're at the gate. He points down the driveway. This sparks many of the women refugees, and white guests, to flee inside the hotel. Odette arrives with her bag, leads Benedict inside. Jock has been filming all of this. EXT. HOTEL DRIVEWAY. DAY Now Jock runs, camera still on his shoulder, toward the gate. Paul takes off after him. More Tutsi refugees running up the driveway in fear. EXT. HOTEL FRONT GATE. DAY As Jock films, Paul arrives by the gate house. UN soldiers watch the outside road. Engines roar, then. A convoy of Toyota trucks circle on the road outside the gate. Drunken Militia men on the back wave spears, machetes, one, in a woman's disco wig, waves a cordless power drill. The drill bit is red with blood. In the next truck, TWO Militia MEN triumphantly taunt the UN soldiers as they hold blue UN helmets high on sticks. The helmets are shot through with holes. MILITIAMAN #1 We kill UN. We kill you next. ENRAGED UN SOLDIERS cock their weapons, aim. A UN armored car races past the Militia and turns into the driveway. The back door opens, UN Colonel Oliver jumps out. COLONEL OLIVER Hold the line here. Do not shoot! The Colonel stabilizes the situation, his men watch the militia drive by. Paul approaches Oliver 59. PAUL What's happening? COLONEL OLIVER They murdered my soldiers. Ten Belgians who I sent to get the lady minister. PAUL Where is she? Oliver shakes his head. He helps Paul clamber into the armored car. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY Paul follows Oliver as he marches through the lobby. Several reporters surround them. REPORTERS Is it true about the Belgian soldiers... Are all ten dead? Paul watches the UN command disappear into an elevator. EXT. HOTEL CORRIDOR. DAY Paul is in the corridor, talking to Tatiana. PAUL Has Roger spoken yet? TATIANA No, Odette says he's in shock. PAUL How can we help him. TATIANA He needs to be in a safe place. (a beat) Have you heard from Mr. Garindi? PAUL Give him time. There's a clank of metal. Paul looks and sees: A waiter struggling with a trolley of food by a door. He hurries to help the waiter as Jock opens, indicates quiet, waves Paul and the waiter in. 60. INT. HOTEL BBC ROOM. DAY The room is set up as a make-shift broadcast center. Gloria is on a phone to the BBC in London, she hangs up. GLORIA Okay, we're feeding through live now. She fixes her outfit, sits straight up in the chair. Behind her two monitors show footage of a plane crash and bodies along roads. GLORIA Okay London .... and five four three two one ...That's correct Tom. Today's gruesome ambush of a ten man Belgian patrol has left the UN peacekeeping force in a state of disarray. Its commander has called for re-enforcements. However, the General Council is deeply divided. The United States, still smarting from the UN's disastrous Somalia mission, has indicated that it will veto any moves to reinforce. Meanwhile, the slaughter goes on. Gloria Brooks in Kigali, Rwanda. Gloria on the phone, listens. GLORIA And, cut ...good, give me a call guys, let me know you've got it. Jock turns to Paul. JOCK Perfect timing. PAUL This goes out live? Jock points skyward. JOCK Satellite feed. GLORIA (ON PHONE) Great. (listens) No kidding, When will they be here? Excellent. Yes, call then. She hangs up. 61. GLORIA (CONT'D) The news room has heard that the French and the Belgians are putting together an intervention force. PAUL When will they be here? GLORIA Very soon. PAUL Thank God. Jock's is at the window scanning with his camera, getting b roll, then he sees something. JOCK Hey Peter, hook me back into the monitors. Jock's filming as Peter makes the connection. JOCK (CONT'D) Holy shit! Holy shit. GLORIA What is it? Jock focuses On the monitor: blurry focus of a shanty town on a hill. NOW FOCUS: Of a crowd hovering close to a group of Rwandan Tutsis seated on the ground. Two Militia emerge from the crowd, waving machetes. They SLASH their way along the line, savage, powerful blows, butchering people like cattle. (Author note: we will use real news footage of this) JOCK (CONT'D) You fucking see that! GLORIA (shock) Oh my God! On Screen: The crowd run off, waving machetes. Gloria snaps out of her shock, snatches the phone, dials. 62. GLORIA (CONT'D) It's Gloria. Listen we've footage, unbelievable footage! A massacre! Machetes, murderers, dead bodies. You have to lead with this. We'll send it through right now. Wait 'til you see this. She puts the phone down, turns to the others, triumphant. An embarrassed silence in the room. Jock is disgusted by her glee. He picks up a plate from the trolley. JOCK (to Gloria) Here, have a sandwich. GLORIA Fuck you. She storms out. Paul fills the embarrassed silence. PAUL I'm glad you filmed this. Now the West will have to stop it. Excuse me, gentlemen. EXT. HOTEL CORRIDOR. EVENING The businessman Mr. Garindi knocks on room 211. Paul opens the door, sees him, then turns back to Tatiana. PAUL Tatsi, come. Tatsi appears at the door with several of the kids. PAUL (CONT'D) (to the kids) Go back inside. The kids do as they're told. Paul and Tatsi shut the door and join the businessman in the hall. PAUL (CONT'D) Did you find the twins? Tatiana clings to Paul, fearful of the news. MR. GARINDI I made it to the house but it was empty. It had been robbed. TATIANA Oh God. 63. PAUL Was there blood? MR. GARINDI No blood. As I left a neighbor, an old woman, waved to me. I went to her house. She has the little girls. They are safe. TATIANA My brother, his wife. Did this woman know of them? Did they leave the children with her? The businessman shakes his head no. Tears run down Tatiana's face. She holds Paul's arm to stop from falling to the floor. PAUL This is not bad news, Tatsi. Perhaps they fled or could not make it home. There is hope. TATIANA (to the businessman) Please go back, bring the children to us. MR. GARINDI (frightened)No ma'am, I cannot do that. The roadblocks are everywhere. They are looking for children. They shout, "Kill the babies to clear the infestation." Leave them be, they are safe. I have to go now. Paul takes a small wad of notes from his pocket, presses it into the businessman's hand. PAUL Thank you for your help. He leaves. Tatiana pulls Paul to her. TATIANA My sister is dead, Paul. They would not leave the children. PAUL No. They are not dead. Stop this. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY Paul and Tatiana push through the French tourists and AID workers running across the lobby. 64. FRENCH TOURISTS Mon Dieu, Merci. Cheers break out. Paul and Tatsi peer from the crowd and through the lobby window see: EXT. HOTEL DRIVEWAY. DAY French and Italian special forces pull into the parking lot, standing tall in their jeeps, macho western super troops, triumphant. Salvation! EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY Wild cheering, flowers draped around necks, kisses. Westerners, Rwandans, dance and sing in celebration. Paul SEES: Colonel Oliver off to the side, with the commanders of the French special forces. OLIVER CLOSE ON: COLONEL OLIVER You have a battalion, you could stop this now. The Hutu army is no match for you. FRENCH COMMANDER Those are not our orders. Oliver pulls off his blue beret, throws it on the ground, points his finger at the French and Italian officers. COLONEL OLIVER You will remember this day for the rest of your lives. He walks off, returns, picks up his beret. Paul watches as he storms into the lobby. Paul follows. INT. HOTEL BAR. DAY Paul follows the Colonel into the Kigali Club. The place is empty, the bartender missing, gone to celebrate. PAUL Colonel, what can I get you? Paul gets behind the bar. 65. COLONEL OLIVER Anything. Strong. PAUL Canadian Club? Oliver cracks a weary smile. Paul pours two drinks, slides one across. He raises his glass. PAUL (CONT'D) Congratulations, Colonel. You have saved us all. COLONEL OLIVER (raw cynicism) Congratulations. You should spit in my face. PAUL Excuse me, Colonel. COLONEL OLIVER We think you are dirt, less than dirt, worthless. PAUL I don't understand. COLONEL OLIVER Don't bullshit me, Paul. You're the smartest man here. You have them all eating out of your hand. You'd own this fucking hotel, except for one thing. Paul doesn't answer. COLONEL OLIVER (CONT'D) You're fucking black! You're not even a nigger, you're African! (downs his drink) They're not staying to stop this thing. They're gonna fly right out of here with their people. PAUL (shocked) Their people? COLONEL OLIVER They're only taking the whites. 66. INT. HOTEL PAUL'S ROOM. DAY Paul opens the door. Tatiana and the kids pack bags, prepare to leave. PAUL Children, go into the hallway. Tatiana and the children stop what they're doing, puzzled. PAUL (CONT'D) (to the kids) Please, go. The kids leave. TATIANA What's wrong? Paul takes her hands in his. PAUL All the whites are leaving. Tatiana's grip tightens. PAUL (CONT'D) They are being evacuated. TATIANA What about us? PAUL We have been abandoned. Tatiana clings to hope. TATIANA The soldiers will stop the killers. Paul looses it. PAUL Listen to me woman. I said all the whites are leaving. The French, the Italians, even the Belgian UN soldiers. TATIANA But who is left? PAUL I don't know. Colonel Oliver says the UN has three hundred soldiers for the whole country. Black soldiers, Pakistanis. 67. He looks up at her. PAUL (CONT'D) The most the Colonel can spare for the hotel are four men, and they're not allowed to shoot. He takes her hand, makes her sit down. PAUL (CONT'D) If anything should happen, if the Militia arrive, you must take the children and go to the roof. Tatiana's eyes are wide with fear. TATIANA What for? Paul takes his anger out on Tatiana. PAUL Do what I say, woman. You hear me? I will meet you there. He storms out. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY REVEAL: A chaos of luggage, white tourists, AID agency people, Italian and French soldiers, elite, slick. On the edges, clumps of Rwandans, watching, silent, fearful. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY A torrential African rain storm soaks everything. Porters with big umbrellas run the white evacuees to the buses. French and Italian commanders check off names on clipboards. Jock films the evacuees boarding buses. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY At the front desk, Paul, dripping wet from working the convoy, listens to a French tourist who refuses to pay his bill. 68. FRENCH TOURIST Why should I pay to stay in a, in a holocaust? Tell me. Paul, stone-faced, polite, destroys this asshole. PAUL You are not staying sir, you are leaving. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY Paul watches in the rain as the final agency people are being loaded onto buses. Several white aid workers weep uncontrollably as they are dragged away from frightened Rwandan coworkers. PAUL in the rain. cross the parking lot Colonel Oliver watches from his jeep. Jock and his sound man embrace two beautiful young HOOKERS. One girl begs Jock to take her with him. HOOKER Please, please, they will put me on the street. They will chop me. JOCK Darlin', believe me, if I could... He digs in his pockets, pulls out money, cigarettes. Everything he has he gives to her. Then he pulls her toward Paul, digs out his wallet. JOCK (CONT'D) Here. Here. He pushes two Visa cards into Paul's hands. JOCK (CONT'D) Give her what she wants, room, food, anything. Charge it all. Don't you put her out, Paul. PAUL I would never do that. JOCK I know that, Paul. I'm sorry. Here take this. 69. Jock pulls a Rolex off his wrist. PAUL This is a Rolex, I can't take it. JOCK Take it for Christ sake. I wish it was a fucking aeroplane. Jock embraces Paul, tears in his eyes. Gloria watches from the doorway. Embarrassed by Jock, She becomes officious. GLORIA Let's go, Jock. JOCK (turns on her) Go! What the fuck sort of journalists are we, running from a war? I'm ashamed. Are you? Well, are ya'? GLORIA You're drunk. Gloria marches onto the bus. LORIA (to a French soldier) What are we waiting for? FRENCH SOLDIER We have to evacuate some nuns from a convent. They are on their way. Jock kisses the hooker, heaves his camera onto the bus. Then there is a disturbance on the driveway. A group of French nuns, along with maybe a hundred Tutsi women and children come running up the driveway. They are all terrified. One nun leads them with a French flag. French soldiers run forward. A commander orders them to form a line, blocking the refugees. French soldiers begin pulling nuns from the terrified crowd. Several nuns begin hysterically weeping, pulling Rwandan children with them. Panic breaks out among the crowd. 70. INT/EXT. BUS. DAY Jock grabs his camera, pushes off the bus. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY Nuns cling to young children. French soldiers wrench the nuns away, lift them off their feet, carry them to the bus. JOCK films, as A FRENCH OFFICER screams at him. The last nun is dragged onto a bus. Jock looks to Paul, then gets on the bus. The convoy - French jeeps, buses, Italian jeeps, UN jeeps takes off, through the refugees, turns a corner, gone. Paul, drenched, is left alone to fend for his new guests: Weeping women, frightened children. EXT. HOTEL FRONT GATE. DAY The convoy passes the gate house. Across the road, two jeeps of Rwandan Army soldiers watch the convoy leave. They get on the radio. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY Where five minutes before the lobby was a frenzy of wealthy Europeans and aid workers, the groups of clustered black faces are silent except for the crying of babies and sobbing mothers. Paul picks his way among them. Zozo catches up. ZOZO What do we do with all these people? PAUL Open up the ballroom, we'll put them there. And Zozo tell the kitchen to make rice and beans - a lot of it. INT. HOTEL PAUL'S ROOM. DAY. Paul enters, drops to the bed. Tatiana curls up next to him. TATIANA You could leave, Paul. 71. PAUL What are you saying, Tatsi? TATIANA Your card says Hutu. Take our children, go and get the twins, pay money at the roadblocks. Get them out. Please. PAUL Enough of this. We stay together. Let me rest, I will feel better then. Paul puts on his walkman earphones, presses play, the rich cowboy drawl of Don Williams singing ??? Close on: Paul as his eyes droop and to the music. A kalidiscope of colors filter through drooping eyelids as Close on Paul's face, as the music plays. His eyes open wide, disturbed, music playing Paul's POV, an Army lieutenant stands over him, other soldiers around. The lieutenant reaches down, pulls the earphones from Paul's ears. LIEUTENANT You are the manager? PAUL Yes, sir. What is wrong? LIEUTENANT Everyone must leave the hotel now. PAUL Why sir? LIEUTENANT It's an order. Get everyone out now. PAUL I...ah...need some time. Please give us twenty, thirty minutes. People are sleeping. The lieutenant is not impressed. PAUL (CONT'D) Please, have some cold drinks. I will be as quick as I can. 'Cold drinks' softens the soldiers' attitudes. 72. LIEUTENANT We will be outside, ten minutes. The soldiers march off. Paul goes back inside. The kids, sensing the menace, sit still and wide-eyed on the floor. Suddenly Tatiana notices Roger is missing. TATIANA Where's Roger? Danielle points to under the bed. CLOSE ON: Roger trembling under the bed, as Paul's face appears. PAUL Come on son, everything is all right. He slides him out, clutches him in his arms, then turns him over to Tatiana as he phones the front desk. PAUL (CONT'D) (on phone) Who is this? Zozo. I know. Get them beer. He turns to Tatiana. PAUL (CONT'D) Go to the roof now. TATIANA (terrified) What for Paul. PAUL (forceful) Do as I say. I will be there soon. He hurries out. INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR. DAY Paul's door opens, his head appears round the corner. The corridor is empty of soldiers. Now, frightened Tutsis peer out from their rooms. A group of men, among them the politician Xavier, are gathered in the hallway. Paul spots one man holding a pistol. He runs up. PAUL (to the man with the pistol) Are you mad? They will gun us all down. 73. PISTOL MAN Better to die by the bullet than the machete. Paul pulls the gun off him. PAUL Wait here, please. Paul hands the gun to Xavier, hurries off. INT. HOTEL MANAGER'S OFFICE. DAY Paul bursts in, sits by the phone and dials. PAUL (ON PHONE) Good day, General Bizimungu please. Do you know where he is? Please ask him to call Paul Rusesabagina. It is urgent. Phone again. A SERIES OF FLASH CUTS: increasingly frantic calls. PAUL (CONT'D) Colonel Bagsora. Where? Can you find him? ANOTHER CALL: PAUL (CONT'D) Who would order such a thing? ANOTHER CALL: PAUL (CONT'D) Did you find the General? Paul hangs up the phone defeated. He looks at his watch. His head flops onto the desk, onto the Sabena logo. He sees it. INT. SABENA PRESIDENT'S OFFICE. DAY The Sabena president and two VPs sit on couches. PRESIDENT If British Airways abandons the route we should bid for it. His intercom buzzes, he's annoyed then. 74. SECRETARY (ON PHONE) I'm sorry, sir. I have a call from Paul in Kigali. He says it's urgent. The president goes to the phone, hits the speaker button. PRESIDENT Paul. Are you alright? PAUL (O.S.) We have a big problem. The Hutu army have come and ordered us all of us out of the hotel. The president is baffled. RESIDENT Out? Where are you going? PAUL I do not know, sir. I think they will kill us all. The president can barely form words to reply. PRESIDENT All. What do you mean all? PAUL The staff, the guests. PRESIDENT The staff and guests! How many? PAUL Now we have eight hundred guests and one hundred staff. I have ten minutes left. I wish I could have done more, sir. Please, thank all my friends at Sabena. You have been good to me and my family. PRESIDENT (panicked) Paul, wait, wait, I'm going to put you on hold for one minute, stay on the phone. He hits the hold button. Looks to the other executives. They are stunned to silence by Paul's profound farewell. INT. HOTEL MANAGER'S OFFICE. DAY Paul listens to music on the phone. 75. INT. SABENA EXTERIOR OFFICES. DAY Pandemonium - the president has everyone working the phones. PRESIDENT Get the prime minister's office. Call General Chareaux. Louis get the UN. Tell them this is Belgian property. INT. HOTEL MANAGER'S OFFICE. DAY The music is suddenly interrupted. PRESIDENT (O.S.) Paul, are you there? PAUL Yes, thank you Mr. President. PRESIDENT (O.S.) Paul, if you have one call in all the world to stop this, who would you call? Paul thinks. PAUL The French. They supply the Rwandan army. PRESIDENT (O.S.) Paul, do everything you can to buy time. I will call you back. Paul hurries from the room. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY Zozo at the computer, printing something. Paul walks up, sees: The Hotel's Registry printing. Paul grabs it, studies. PAUL What are you doing? ZOZO The lieutenant wants the register. He pushes Zozo toward the elevator. PAUL Go and get more beer. Now Paul is on the computer, typing. 76. ON SCREEN: The register shows that day's date: April 13. Paul hits a few keys. ON SCREEN: The date above the register is April 4. Paul hits the print button. The printer clicks to life. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY Paul with the printed registry and Zozo with beer walk to the jeeps. The soldiers don't wait for the Captain's order, they mob Zozo, grab beers. The lieutenant marches up to Paul. LIEUTENANT Where's the guest list? Paul hands him the printout. He studies it, reads. LIEUTENANT (CONT'D) Anderson, Arthurs, Boulier. What is this? PAUL The guest list. It hasn't been updated since the murder of the president. The lieutenant grabs Paul by the shirt. LIEUTENANT Are you trying to make a fool of me? There are no Europeans left in that hotel. Get me the names of all the cockroaches in there. PAUL That will take time. LIEUTENANT You don't have time. If I do not have the names, so that I can pick out the traitors, then I will kill everyone here in this car park. Get in there now. Paul turns to walk back in. The lieutenant hurries to his men, pulls beers from their hands, smashes them on the ground. One soldier comes running to him with a radio. Paul watches. The lieutenant listens, then calls to Paul. LIEUTENANT (CONT'D) Hey you, come here. Paul returns. 77. LIEUTENANT (CONT'D) Who did you call? PAUL Call, sir? LIEUTENANT Don't lie to me. What's your name? PAUL Rusesabagina. Paul Rusesabagina. LIEUTENANT I will remember that name. (turns to his soldiers) Let's go. The soldiers roar off down the driveway. ZOZO looks to Paul, a thank you Jesus look. EXT. HOTEL ROOF. DAY Paul emerges onto the roof, sees Tatiana, his children, and many of the neighbors sitting huddled together. (They do not know the soldiers have left.) Tatiana is frozen to the spot. PAUL They have gone. Tatiana grabs him. Tears of joy. Paul's neighbors swarm him, touch him, thank him like a messiah. This effects him. He seems genuinely moved as he shakes hands and hugs them. ZOZO Sir. The president of Sabena is on the phone for you. INT. HOTEL MANAGER'S OFFICE. DAY Paul arrives behind the front desk. Paul hits the button. PAUL They are gone. Thank you, sir. What did you do? 78. INT. SABENA PRESIDENT'S OFFICE. BRUSSELS. DAY Gotfroid is at his desk. SABENA PRESIDENT I managed to get the President of France on the phone. PAUL (O.S.) Thank you, sir, you saved our lives. SABENA PRESIDENT Paul, I pleaded with the president to go in and get you all. He told me it will not happen. PAUL Why? SABENA PRESIDENT I can give you many political answers Paul but the truth is that Africa is not worth a single vote to all of them: French, British, Americans. Silence. SABENA PRESIDENT (CONT'D) You have to get out of there, Paul. I will do whatever I can. SMASH CUT TO: INT. HOTEL MANAGER'S OFFICE. DAY The elite of the Tutsi refugees, those with contacts or friends abroad, are gathered in the office. PAUL There will be no rescue, no intervention force. We can only save ourselves. Call any foreigner you know, tell them what will happen to us. Say goodbye but when you say goodbye, say it as though you're reaching through and shaking their hand. Let them know if they let go of that hand, you will die. (silence) We must shame them into sending help. The others look stunned. 79. PAUL (CONT'D) Get on the phones while we still can. At least we can say they heard our cries. Zozo come with me. Paul leaves. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY Paul looks around the lobby. It resembles a refugee center more than a five star hotel. He turns to a computer, calls up the register, then hits DELETE and erases the register. He picks up the phone, calls. PAUL Send two of the housekeeping carpenters to the lobby. Paul strides across the lobby, calls to Zozo. PAUL (CONT'D) Everyone gather together now. Zozo get them all together. They herd together quickly. PAUL (CONT'D) No one can remain in this lobby any longer. I have rooms available. Who can pay? The rental is six hundred francs per day. About fifty percent of the hands go up. TUTSI WOMAN I cannot pay? PAUL Go with Zozo to the ballroom. We will find you bedding. This is a hotel. No one will be allowed to stay in the lobby. The carpenters arrive beside Paul. PAUL (CONT'D) Good. I want you to go around and take all the numbers off the doors. 80. CARPENTER What shall we put in their place. PAUL Nothing. I want no numbers on the doors. INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR. DAY Paul going door to door, knocking. The rooms are all packed with Tutsi refugees. A door opens. PAUL Good day. Here is your bill for the last week. If you cannot pay, or think you will not be able to pay, go to the ballroom. Zozo will take care of you. DISSOLVE TO: INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR. DAY. Paul knocks on a door. The Tutsi politician Xavier opens the door, sees that it is Paul. XAVIER Come in Paul. INT. HOTEL LUXURY SUITE. DAY A beautiful two-bedroom suite. Xavier lives in comfort compared to the other refugees. PAUL I'm afraid you will have to move room. XAVIER Move? Where to? PAUL I'm going to put you on the third floor. XAVIER The third floor are low class rooms. PAUL Yes they are. However if the army return they will expect important people such as yourself to be in these grand rooms. 81. XAVIER (to his wife) Pack the bags, we have to move. PAUL Also, this is your bill for the last week. Paul leaves, Xavier looks shocked. FADE TO: MONTAGE Paul and influential refugees, Odette, Benedict (with a bandage over his missing ear), Xavier and others call, plead, write and send faxes all around the world. We see this NIGHT and DAY; DAY and NIGHT -- hen Odette on the phone. ODETTE Yes, that's right. I helped set up the treatment center in Nairobi. I'm in the Mille Collines Hotel right now with my husband, Peter, and my two boys. If you do not help us we will be murdered. Zozo arrives. ZOZO Sir, General Bizimungu is here. EXT. HOTEL POOL TERRACE. DAY The pool patio is deserted except for General Bizimungu and three soldiers who lounge at a table. Gregoire and his girlfriend sun on reclining deck chairs like movie stars. Paul and a waiter with a tray of drinks join the General. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU I am glad you are well. Paul hands the scotch to Bizimungu. PAUL I'm sorry it is not Glenmorangie. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU As long as it is scotch. (drinks) Your white friends have abandoned you, Paul. 82. PAUL The United Nations are still here. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU (laughs) The United Nations. Madmen are on the streets, Paul. But I will take care of you. (chugs his drink) Your cellar is well-stocked, right? PAUL Yes, General. I am glad you came by. I overheard something that I think you should know about. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU What did you overhear? PAUL A discussion between an American Embassy official and a UN Colonel. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU What did they say? PAUL The American assured the colonel that they would watch everything. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Watch everything? How? They are gone. Paul points surreptitiously to the sky. The General looks up. PAUL Satellites. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Satellites? PAUL Yes, they can photograph the epaulets on your shoulder. ENERAL BIZIMUNGU And what will they do with these satellites? PAUL The American said intervention is too costly, better to get photographic evidence and snatch up the high command. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU The high command? Our high command? 83. PAUL 'Snatch them up and put on a war crimes trial. Lock them all away forever. No political risk, and big publicity.' That's what he said. (a beat) I thought I'd better tell you. The General looks again to the sky then. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU The Americans! Who are they to put us on trial. Let us imagine Paul when their president Kennedy was shot, they said it was a black man. Then their politicians, their radio stations gave orders `we must wipe out these black people before they wipe out us.' What do you think would have happened? No different. PAUL (CONT'D) Indeed, general. Excuse me momentarily. INT. HOTEL CELLAR. DAY Paul fills Bizimungu's briefcase with scotch, hands two six-packs of beer to Zozo. Paul notes his once packed storeroom, now considerably dwindled in stock. PAUL Where has all our beer gone? ZOZO Sir, Gregoire has been taking beers. PAUL How much beer? ZOZO Many beers. EXT. HOTEL POOL TERRACE. AFTERNOON Paul arrives back at the pool, hands Bizimungu his briefcase. Zozo gives the beer to the soldiers. PAUL I am worried about thieves and criminals coming into the hotel. Perhaps you could arrange for some police to guard us. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU The police are very busy. 84. PAUL I understand General, but when I last talked to the president of Sabena he promised me that anyone who helped protect Belgian property would be rewarded. Bizimungu understands this is a financial proposition. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU He did. PAUL "Well rewarded" Those were his words. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU If I were to spare a few policemen, where would I station them? PAUL The front gate would be best, General. They could check all guests. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU I will see what I can do. PAUL I admire you, General. How do you keep command of your men amidst such madness? GENERAL BIZIMUNGU I am strong, Paul, like a lion. PAUL I wish I were like you. Look at my staff, they won't work, they listen to no one. Paul nods over toward Gregoire. ENERAL BIZIMUNGU He is staff? he General gets up. Gregoire, who is lying face down on the deck chair, doesn't see him approach. The General pulls the deck chair from underneath Gregoire and throws it into the pool. As Gregoire tries to scramble to his feet, the General propels him forward with a massive kick up the ass. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU (CONT'D) Get to work, you slug. Gregoire races from the pool, followed by his girlfriend. 85. The General clicks his fingers and his soldiers follow. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU (CONT'D) Make sure, Paul, your guests are generous. INT. LOBBY. DAY Benedict greets Paul in the lobby. BENEDICT Paul, we would like to speak to you in your office. PAUL We, who is we? BENEDICT A delegation. INT. HOTEL MANAGER'S OFFICE. DAY Paul walks in and discovers the office packed with the elite Tutsi refugees including Xavier, Odette and Jean Baptiste. Paul's puzzled, there's an air of tension in the room. PAUL Yes. A brief silence, then a Tutsi bank manager speaks. BANKER You have no right to charge us rent. PAUL Why not? BANKER This is no longer a hotel, it is a prison and you are profiteering from our misery. ODETTE That is not true. Another accuser speaks up. TUTSI ACCUSER Yes it is. He charges for food, for everything. Where is all this money going? We hear he has a deal with Bizimungu. 86. TUTSI ACCUSER #2 It is said that you work for the murderer George Rutagunda. Murmurs of agreement. Paul has heard enough. PAUL I confess. ( a beat) It's true I have a deal with General Bizimungu. He was just here. I worked out another money making scheme for him. New arrivals will be taxed at the gate. Silence. PAUL (CONT'D) Do you know what my deal is with Bizimungu. I pay him and he keeps you alive. Anyone want to take their money back? PAUL pulls money from his pocket, hands it around, offers it. PAUL (CONT'D) Here, here take it. And you don't have to pay your bill. I will move you into the ballroom or out into the gardens. He walks among them. PAUL (CONT'D) And, yes, I work with George Rutagunda. I buy rice and beans, beer and soap. I will have to visit his warehouse soon because we are running out of food. Who wants to come with me? Paul holds the door open. PAUL (CONT'D) Anyone who wants to come with me stay behind. If not, please leave. They hurry out, duly chastised. But Odette and her husband Jean Baptiste remain. PAUL (CONT'D) (laughs) You are most certainly not coming with me. You will get me killed. JEAN BAPTISTE You can't go to that place, they know what you are doing here. 87. PAUL George will not hurt me, I am too profitable to him. ODETTE What if he is not there? Paul hasn't got an answer for that one. He leads them out. INT. HOTEL PAUL'S ROOM. NIGHT Roger is asleep, on a couch in the living room, several kids sleep on the floor. TO THE BED: Where Tatiana suppresses bursts of laughter as Paul relates the Gregoire story in whispers. PAUL As soon as the General left he came running back. (mimics Gregoire) Help me, sir, I have been possessed by a witch. (Paul's own voice now) A witch you say? (mimics) Yes, yes, I did not know I was in that room. The president's room, why would I be in the president's room? (own voice) Indeed, the General asked me the same. (mimics) Asked you what? (own voice) Does Gregoire think he is president now? PAUL mimics Gregoire's whimpers of fear. TATIANA (laughing) Stop, stop, we will waken the children. Paul lifts the bottle of fine bordeaux, pours more. PAUL Lynch Bages, 84. Perfect with lamb, or fine rare beef. TATIANA So where is the lamb? PAUL Maybe Gregoire and the witch ate it. They both chuckle, then Paul remembers, a cloud of anxiety comes over him. TATIANA What's the matter? 88. PAUL We're running out of beer and other supplies. She kisses him. TATIANA The foreigners abandon us and you do inventory. You are so conscientious. She kisses him again, tries to cheer him. PAUL I have to go out to get food. TATIANA Go out! Where? PAUL To Rutagunda's place. It is close by. TATIANA No, no. PAUL I have to, Tatiana, we are only as valuable as the service we provide. TATIANA You cannot go alone. PAUL I'm not going alone. I'll take Gregoire with me. He's a good Hutu, and he wants to impress me now. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY The lobby is deserted except for Gregoire now neatly dressed. G PAUL regoire it is good to see you back to work. GREGOIRE Please, except my humblest apologies... PAUL Don't worry. I have a job this morning. I must go to visit my good friend George Rutagunda. You know George? Gregoire nods, impressed. 89. PAUL (CONT'D) Fetch the van. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAWN A thick mist blankets the grounds as Paul and Gregoire emerge. GREGOIRE (fearful) Where are we going, sir? PAUL For supplies, you drive. GREGOIRE The fog is too heavy, sir. PAUL Just drive, Gregoire. INT. VAN. DAWN They pass the gate, the policemen are asleep in the box. The van passes along the deserted main road, past a wrecked car, over broken glass, the fog swirls around them. Then Gregoire hits the brakes. In front of them, a makeshift barricade, long poles stretched across two oil drums. They wait for someone to appear from the fog: No one. GREGOIRE We should go back, sir. Paul wants to agree, but can't. He opens his door. EXT. ROAD. DAY Paul gets out, tentative. PAUL Hello? Nothing. He moves to the barrier, lifts the pole, places it on the ground, hurries back to the van. 90. INT. VAN. DAWN PAUL Let's go. They drive past the barricade. The van weaves through the fog-enshrouded streets. hey slow to check road signs in the fog - on one a woman's dress, shredded and soaked in blood, is draped like a banner. EXT. RUTAGANDA'S WAREHOUSE. DAWN The fog still hangs like a cloud. As they pull up, a group of young Militia emerge from Toyota trucks. MILITIAMAN #1 What do you want? PAUL We are to meet Mr. Rutagunda. MILITIAMAN #1 The commander is not here. PAUL He will be here. MILITIAMAN #1 Show me your ID Paul and Gregoire hand over their ID cards. The Militia man studies them, then pockets the cards. PAUL Excuse me. MILITIAMAN #1 What? PAUL Our cards, please. MILITIAMAN #1 What cards? PAUL You have our cards. 91. MILITIAMAN #1 No. But I make cards. Would you like me to make you two cards? PAUL How much? MILITIAMAN #1 One thousand francs. Then from out of the fog, three Toyota trucks roar up. George Rutagunda, heavily armed, in cut-off shorts and an open shirt, his barrel chest laden with bandoliers, jumps out. he Militia man pulls out the ID cards, hands them back. MILITIAMAN #1 (CONT'D) apologetic) joke. Rutagunda strides over. GEORGE Paul. My old friend. Paul climbs out, greets George, as a Militia man swings open the doors of the warehouse. They walk in. INT. RUTAGANDA'S WAREHOUSE. DAY The warehouse is filled with looted televisions, artwork, cars. George points to the stacks of beer. GEORGE Everything is double the price now, you do understand that? PAUL I need rice, beans, beer, and your best whiskey. G EORGE Beer yes, but no whiskey. PAUL You have no whiskey? GEORGE No whiskey, no spirits. Your rich cockroaches at the hotel, they will have to do without their scotch. Anyway, I have bled that cow enough Paul. 92. Paul counts out the Rwandan francs. PAUL What do you mean George? GEORGE Their money is no good to them. Soon all the Ineysi will be dead. PAUL (incredulous) ) You cannot kill them all. GEORGE Why not? We are half way there already. Paul's stomach heaves. He hides it, turns over the money, gets in the van with Gregoire. George comes to the passenger window. EORGE (CONT'D) Let me give you a tip my friend, our generals in the army say 'do not go near the Mille Collines or they will send the Belgian soldiers back here'. But the generals are about to leave, and we will be in charge. It is time to butcher your cow for the meat. (a beat) You can help us Paul. You have some very important traitors at your hotel. The politician Xavier. The liar Benedict. If we were to get them, then maybe we could let one or two cockroaches get away. You understand, Paul. Paul says nothing, but Gregoire has been listening very carefully. PAUL Let's go. GEORGE Take the river road back. It is clear. The van takes off. INT. VAN. DAWN The fog has gotten thicker. They can barely see a yard ahead. PAUL Are you sure this is the river road? GREGOIRE I saw the sign. 93. The van begins to bump erratically. Bump, bump, bump. PAUL Stop. You've driven off the road. You'll put us in the river. The van jerks to a halt. EXT. RIVER ROAD. DAWN Paul clambers out, stumbles, falls. And discovers he's looking at the face of a dead child, a young Tutsi girl, her hands clasped on her ears as though to block the sound of her own death - an African Munz's Scream. Paul clambers to his feet, sees that the van is on a road littered with dead bodies, men, women, children. he bumps were dead bodies, the van has driven over them. A breeze from the lake blows the fog clear for thirty feet. REVEALING: a carpet of bodies, hundreds of them sprawled all along the road as far as Paul can see. Paul wanders stunned among misshapen corpses, made more ghostly by wisps of fog. Finally, Paul clambers shell-shocked back into the van. PAUL Go back! Go back! Gregoire throws the van into reverse. hey bump back over the carpet of bodies, each shake and crunch another horror. EXT. HOTEL REAR DELIVERY AREA. DAY The van pulls up at the rear suppliers entrance. Paul hops out, turns to Gregoire. PAUL Tell no one what you saw, do you understand? Gregoire, Zozo and the porters begin unloading the van. 94. EXT. HOTEL GARDENS. DAY Paul wanders to a bench set back in a manicured grove of bushes. Beyond him a crowd of Rwandan refugee children play in the swimming pool, laughing, jumping, splashing like they were at a municipal pool in Central Park. P PAUL watches. Tears stream from his eyes, the stream grows into a flood, he buries his face in his hands. Then a voice. LITTLE BOY (O.S.) Mr. Manager. Paul wipes his eyes, turns. A little boy stands behind him, holding out his arm. LITTLE BOY (CONT'D) Mr. Manager, sir. Then Paul sees what is wrong. The boy Has a big thorn imbedded in the muscle of his arm. Paul studies it. PAUL That's a big one. (pinches the thorn) Here we go. Paul pulls on the thorn, the kid doesn't flinch. Paul picks him up, carries him to the pool, throws him in. INT. HOTEL PAUL'S ROOM. NIGHT Tatiana feeds the children - rice and beans. Paul arrives. CHILDREN Good evening, Papa. PAUL Roger, you have no greeting for me. Roger tries to speak, struggles to mouth the words but nothing comes out, as though he has forgotten. Tears form in his eyes. PAUL (CONT'D) There, do not worry, no tears. He hugs him, puts him back at his food, then takes Tatiana's hand, leads her to the door. 95. TATIANA (whispers) Where are we going? They slip out. INT. HOTEL ROOF DOOR. NIGHT Tatiana stops. TATIANA Please, Paul, why do we have to go to the roof? PAUL It's alright. This is the only place I can find some peace. EXT. HOTEL ROOF. NIGHT Paul slips out onto the roof. Tatiana follows. Artillery and mortar fire rumble in the distance. Flashes silhouette along the far hills above Kigali. He leads her to a blanket, a candle, two glasses and the bottle of wine. They sit. He opens the wine. TATIANA (laughs) I hear we must pay for everything. How much for this? PAUL A kiss. They kiss. TATIANA You are a very good man, Paul Rusesabagina. he kisses him again. PAUL I have a confession. When we met... TATIANA In Ruhengeri? PAUL Yes, when you worked as the nurse. TATIANA Yes. 96. PAUL I had you transferred to Kigali. TATIANA What? PAUL I bribed the Minister of Health to have you transferred to Kigali. TATIANA Why? PAUL To be closer. So that I could marry you. TATIANA What was the bribe? (silence) What am I worth to you? PAUL It was substantial. TATIANA Tell me what it was. PAUL A car. TATIANA What sort of car? PAUL What does it matter. TATIANA I want to know. PAUL A Volkswagen. TATIANA A Volkswagen! he slaps him playfully. TATIANA (CONT'D) I hope it was a new Volkswagen. She kisses him, they lie back on the roof, kiss passionately. 97. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY Paul instructs the porters to clean around the entrance. The UN armored car comes up the driveway. Colonel Oliver gets out, strides across the tarmac, he shakes Paul's hand. COLONEL OLIVER Great news, Paul, we're going to get you out of here. I The sweetest words Paul has ever heard. INT. HOTEL BANQUET ROOM. DAY Oliver is on the stage, all the refugee guests are crowded into the room he has a list in his hand. COLONEL OLIVER The UN has been notified that the following families have received travel visas from the following countries. He reads. COLONEL OLIVER (CONT'D) Abukesu - Tanzania, Arumangu -Zambia, Bawroanga - Kenya, CLOSE ON: Elation among the chosen families. COLONEL OLIVER (CONT'D) Gituaranga - Zambi, Horangora - Belguim CLOSE ON - Fear on the faces of families who realize they have missed this alphabetical list, anxiety among the others. COLONEL OLIVER (CONT'D) Paramisambi - Zambia, Rusesabagina - Belgium. Tatiana kisses Paul. COLONEL OLIVER (CONT'D) Zamacanga - Ghana. A plane will land at the airport tomorrow and the named families will be flown to Kenya. Two UN trucks will be here at 7 a.m. The named families must be ready to leave then. voice calls out. 98. TUTSI WOMAN Colonel, sir. Why not take us all to the airport? We can wait there to obtain visas. COLONEL OLIVER I can't do that. Our camp at the airport is overwhelmed already. We could not defend you there. You are better to stay here and work to get an exit visa. Oliver jumps from the stage, pushes through the crowd. Paul's POV: Odette and Jean Baptiste are silently devastated. He pushes through to the Colonel now surrounded by those who didn't make the list. PAUL Colonel, Odette Camundu ... she must be on the list. Oliver shakes his head no. COLONEL OLIVER Paul, only those I called can get on the trucks. I do not want to have to pull people off, you understand? Paul nods yes. Tatiana arrives beside him, pulls him aside. TATIANA I will not leave without the twins. PAUL We have to get out of here Tatiana. TATIANA Please, please try one more time. PAUL I'll try but we have to leave, with or without them. I want you to promise. She reluctantly nods yes. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY Mr. Garindi waits nervously in the lobby. Paul arrives. 99. MR. GARINDI It is dangerous to be here. The radio says this is a nest of cockroaches. PAUL I need one last favor. Go back and get the twins. MR. GARINDI (emphatic) No, it is impossible. That side of town has been destroyed in the fighting. The children are dead. PAUL How do you know? MR. GARINDI Everyone is dead there. The dogs eat the bodies in the street. I have to go. PAUL I will give you my house. The businessman turns back. PAUL (CONT'D) It's a fine house. Here is a paper. Paul spots an elegant woman carrying laundry toward the elevator. He runs to her. P PAUL (CONT'D) Madame Kawunda, please. Paul leads her over. PAUL (CONT'D) I need you to witness this signature. (to the businessman) Madame Kawunda is the Minister for Agriculture. She is a very reliable witness. Paul signs, then hands the pen to the puzzled woman. PAUL (CONT'D) Please witness this deed. She signs. Paul pushes the deed into the man's hand. PAUL (CONT'D) There, now go and find them. They have no papers. No one knows they are Tutsi. They will be alive. 100. The businessman heads for the door. PAUL (CONT'D) You must be back by 7:00a.m. tomorrow. Paul watches him go. PAUL (CONT'D) Seven, remember. The Mr. Garindi leaves. EXT. HOTEL GARDENS. NIGHT Paul skirts the little groups of poor families bivouacked on the lawn. The smoke of cooking fires has replaced the Tiki lanterns. The grounds are a mini refugee camp. Paul joins Tatiana, Odette and Jean Baptiste who sit at a table by the pool. DETTE Don't worry, Paul, we will make the next list. ZOZO arrives, with beers, serves them, is about to leave. Tatiana grabs him by the arm. TATIANA Sit with us Zozo. ZOZO No ma,am, I am too busy. PAUL Zozo you are family, join us. Zozo is shocked by this breach of protocol but sits. PAUL (CONT'D) You are my dearest friends. I promise you before God that I will not sleep until I have you out of here. All of you. He embraces Jean Baptiste JEAN BAPTISTE It is good that you are going, Paul, because now we know we have one person who will save us. Odette hugs and kisses him. 101. ODETTE We owe you our lives. Paul takes Zozo in his arms. PAUL You are my family now, Zozo, my brother. I will get you out of here. ZOZO Thank you, sir. PAUL Let us remember this night and tell the world that even in hell there are good people. A unbreakable bond of faith with each other. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY The lucky families are gathered: Tatiana and all her children; Xavier and his wife; Benedict; and others. Some of the unlucky ones peer around the door of the ballroom. A UN officer stands in their way. UN LIEUTENANT Back. Everyone back. Only those with letters of acceptance in the lobby. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY The UN convoy waits outside. Tatiana waits nervously as Paul checks his watch. TATIANA A little longer, Paul? PAUL We wait until 7:00. If he is not here with the twins he is not coming. We leave. That was your promise. Go help the children. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY Paul is in a horrible mood. The refugees in the ballroom try to push by the UN officer. Paul joins him. 102. UN LIEUTENANT Back, please. Stay back. PAUL Zozo, tell those people to get back to the ballroom. They can not be here. Zozo scampers off. PAUL (CONT'D) What are we waiting for? Come on. Paul herds the convoy people toward the door. CLOSE ON: Gregoire watching from behind the front desk. Through the doors we see the trucks being loaded. Zozo returns. ZOZO Sir, the others want to speak to you. Reluctant, Paul walks over to the ballroom dwellers. PAUL Yes. TUTSI WOMAN Good, sir we have letters, please take them for us. Paul reaches out for the letters, takes them, reads the addresses: President Nelson Mandela. Pope John Paul. President Clinton. TUTSI MAN #1 If you leave, we are certain to die. ZOZO I have a letter, sir. Zozo hands Paul the letter. He studies the address. It reads "To the great man Muhammad Ali." thers crowd around. PAUL I will get you all visas. I promise. I will get you out of here. Paul's at a loss. He has to tear himself away. fraid to look back, he heads for the convoy. 103. EXT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY The last of the evacuees clamber onto the UN trucks. The children are on board but Tatiana waits. TATIANA Ask them to wait a little longer. For the twins. PAUL Get on the truck, Tatiana. TATIANA No. He checks his watch, then takes her in his arms. PAUL Look, our children are crying, please get on the truck. Paul helps Tatiana on board. He looks toward the door. POV: The unlucky refugees are now crowded at the windows, lost souls watching out from their prison at the lucky ones. Paul whispers to Benedict as he boards. INT. TRUCK DAY Paul clambers on beside him. He reaches Tatiana as Benedict sits beside her. PAUL I have to stay. TATIANA No! Sit down now. PAUL I cannot leave these people. I will wait for the twins. Paul backs off. Tatiana tries to follow. Benedict grabs her. TATIANA Let go. Let me off this truck. A commotion as she tries to get up. TATIANA (CONT'D) Let me go. Children get off. 104. PAUL I will follow on the next plane. Go. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY. The truck starts up. Paul runs beside it, shouts to Tatiana. PAUL I love you. Keep the children safe. TATIANA Paul! Then another voice. ROGER Papa! Papa! The convoy takes off down the driveway. Paul, Zozo and other refugees cluster by the door. ZOZO looks round, I Sees: Gregoire put a phone down. INT. UN JEEP. DAY UN Colonel Oliver sits next to a UN PAKISTANI DRIVER. he convoy passes looters and small groups of Militia on the road but proceeds unheeded. INT. HOTEL PAUL'S ROOM. DAY The room is still littered with clothes, kids drawings, the personal junk accumulated over four weeks. Paul tries to arrange things, then collapses on the bed, paralysed with doubt - Why did he do this? Then the door bangs. ZOZO Boss, sir, quick, please, come quick. INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR. DAY The door springs open, Paul confronts Zozo. 105. ZOZO (breathless) Sir, the radio, you must hear, it is on the radio. INT. HOTEL KITCHEN. DAY Paul and Zozo burst into the kitchen. The cooks and others are clustered, listening to the radio. RADIO ANNOUNCER (O.S.) ...Block the roads to the airport! The cockroaches from the Mille Collines are escaping! Xavier. The liar Benedict, the traitor Rusesabagina's cockroaches. Stop them now at Rue Don Bosco. Thirty thousand francs for the head of Xavier! PAUL Dear lord, how did they know? ZOZO I saw Gregoire make a call, sir? PAUL When? ZOZO As the trucks go. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY Paul bursts out of the kitchen - enraged. Gregoire is at the front desk. Sees Paul - understands instantly. Gregoire takes off, running for his life. EXT. HOTEL GARDENS. DAY Paul chases after him, through the door. Gregoire disappears into the thicket of trees. Paul after him. Through the trees. Gregoire, younger, faster, climbs the high wire fence. Finally, Paul reaches the fence. 106. Sees Gregoire escape into the bushes on the other side of the fence. Paul gives up, turns back toward the hotel. INT. JEEP TRAVELLING. DAY As the UN jeep turns a bend, Colonel Oliver SEES crowds of Interahamwe swarming from beside houses, from gardens. They pull burning tires, old furniture, junk onto the road. INT. TRUCK TRAVELLING. DAY The UN truck suddenly lurches, then slows. The refugees from the Mille Collines grow alarmed. TATIANA What's happening? INT. HOTEL OFFICE. DAY Paul is on the fax phone, begging. PAUL Please, General, I will give you money, whiskey. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU (O.S.) You said you had no whiskey. PAUL Please, I have money. They're driving into an ambush, it's on the radio. EXT. KIGALI STREET JUNCTION. DAY Swarms of crazed Militia fill the road. Gun fire breaks out. Colonel Oliver steps from the jeep, waving his pistol in the air. M ilitia men swarm around him, push past to the truck. INSIDE THE TRUCK: MACHETE SLASHES through the canvas. hildren scream, HANDS GRAB at people. Benedict is hauled off the truck. Beaten. Tatiana protects her kids in a corner, kicking at the hands that grab for her. 107. ON THE STREET: Xavier falls to the ground. Screams, shouts, MORE SHOTS. Oliver fights his way through to Xavier. Oliver points his pistol. The crowd backs off slightly. Xavier gets to his feet. BANG - more gun fire. IMMACULATA falls, wounded in the foot. More are dragged from the trucks. Machetes flash in the sun. Then HORNS, GUNFIRE - RWANDAN SOLDIERS drive through the crowd in two jeeps. The crowd scatters, then re-forms as Rwandan soldiers push between the Militia and the refugees. As they do, another Militia gunman steps out, fires wildly at the refugees, but wounds A RWANDAN SOLDIER in the stomach. Suddenly fights erupt between the Militia and the soldiers. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY Paul paces up and down, he can hear gunfire in the distance. MACHINE GUNFIRE - THEN SINGLE SHOTS. Paul jumps in the van, guns the engine, drives. EXT. HOTEL FRONT GATE. DAY. Paul's van speeds toward the gate. THEN - A LOUD METALLIC SCREECHING NOISE As a UN JEEP, its tires shot out, sparks cascading from wheel rims, screams up to the guard house. Paul slams on the brakes. The jeep is followed by the two trucks, their canvas slashed fluttering in the wind. Paul throws the van into reverse and clears the way. The convoy pulls up in front of the hotel. Bloody and battered, the terrified refugees fall from the trucks. 108. Paul and Odette run among the casualties. Then he sees them: Tatiana, clothes torn, scratches on her face. The kids screaming in terror. PAUL runs to them, grabs, kisses, weeps louder. Battered refugees everywhere, other hotel residents looking on - equally terrified because: They know they are doomed. Paul sees Roger, trembling, tears soak his face. ROGER Papa! Papa! He grabs Roger up. Tatiana struggles to Paul, embraces. PAUL Thank God you are safe. Tatiana breaks from the embrace. TATIANA Did he bring the twins? Paul shakes his head no. EXT. HOTEL GARDENS. DAY Paul sits alone on his secluded bench in the garden. cloud of despair shrouds him. As he watches several women dip cooking pots into the pool. e hurries toward them. PAUL What are you doing? TUTSI WOMAN P There is no water from the pipes. PAUL heads for the front doors. He's intercepted by the two Rwandan policemen stationed at the gate by Bizimungu. GENDARME here is our beer? You promised us beer. PAUL Did you explain to the good General that I have temporarily run out of stock? 109. GENDARME He said to ask Mitterand and the French to send you more. PAUL You will get it in due time. Now, please, get back to the gate. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY Paul enters, sees Zozo. PAUL What is this about no water? ZOZO It's true, sir, the water has been turned off. INT. HOTEL MANAGER'S OFFICE. DAY Paul enters. Odette, Benedict watch CNN on the TV. PAUL shakes his head in disbelief. PAUL We can still get CNN here in hell. A state department woman gives a press conference. ODETTE The Americans are talking about us. ON TV: STATE DEPT. OFFICER From the reports we have received from Rwanda it appears that acts of genocide have been committed. REPORTER Excuse me, how many acts of genocide does it take to declare this a genocide? STATE DEPT. OFFICER I, ahh, there is, ahh we have terminology, that has been. 110. BRIT REPORTER You haven't answered the question. How many acts of genocide before your government will declare this a genocide? STATE DEPT. OFFICER I'm not prepared to, nor am I able. Everyone in the room is dumbfounded. Then Benedict begins laughing, a maniacal laugh, then he bangs on his chest, and hoots like a chimpanzee. BENEDICT I've got it. I have the answer. Watch. They all stare as he begins beating his chest, and hopping about like an ape. BENEDICT (CONT'D) We must become mountain gorillas. Then they can put us on the endangered species list. Come on, try it. They think we're halfway there already. Benedict hops up onto a desk. The door flies open. It's General Bizimungu. He surveys the room, then points at Paul. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Come here. INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR. DAY. Bizimungu looks terrible, an alcoholic suffering D.T.s. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Where are my supplies? PAUL I'm sorry, General. The cellar is empty. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU You have cockroaches dancing on tables and you tell me the cellar is empty? Did they drink my whiskey? PAUL No. We have no way of finding other stock but I have money for you from the guests. 111. Paul pulls a bundle of notes, hands them to the General. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Rwandan francs! They are only good now for wiping your ass. There is nothing more I can do for you people. No police. No protection. You're on your own. The General storms off. INT. LOBBY. DAY Paul walks through the lobby. He carries an ash tray to a trash can, the futile task of a dedicated hotel manager on auto-pilot. He sees a UN jeep pull up outside. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY Paul meets the UN soldiers, (They are the four Ghanians who guard the gate). They look frightened. UN OBSERVER The policemen have gone. What happened? PAUL I ran out of whiskey. Please go down and guard us. Then ROAR of an engine and the CRASH of splintering wood. As a battered Toyota pickup appears, it races up the driveway. The truck drags the wooden gatehouse on a rope behind. Crazed Militia pack the bed of the pickup. BANG, BANG, BANG. A Militia man fires a pistol into the air. The Tutsi refugees camped on the lawn flee in panic as the Militia truck speeds around the driveway. The Militia taunt and yell at the Tutsi refugees. The truck does a screeching turn and heads back down the driveway, leaving a trail of splintered wood. PAUL (CONT'D) Get down there and stop them, please. Now the Ghanians are really frightened. PAUL (CONT'D) Get down and stop them. 112. UN SOLDIER You know we cannot shoot. PAUL What do you mean you cannot shoot? UN SOLDIER We are peacekeepers, it is not in our mandate to shoot. PAUL Then go and pretend you are soldiers. EXT. HOTEL GARDENS. NIGHT Paul and Tatiana pass the clusters of families around their cooking fires. They pass the pool, now just a third full. He sits her on the bench in the grove. TATIANA We are almost out of water. PAUL We are almost out of everything. He takes her hand. PAUL (CONT'D) We had a good life, you and I. I want to make our peace. To thank God for the time we had. He kisses her, total love. PAUL (CONT'D) We have to have a plan. TATIANA What sort of plan? PAUL Our children cannot see us die first. If the Militia comes, you must hurry up to the roof. I will meet you there. TATIANA Please do not talk like this. PAUL We have to. If I do not come, you must take them all by the hands and jump. She puts her hands to her ears. He pulls them down. 113. PAUL (CONT'D) The machete is no way to die. Promise me you will do it. She cries harder and squeezes his hand in fear. uddenly, A BANG, from behind them and then above their heads a trail of fire - an RPG rocket - zigzags toward the hotel. A HUGE EXPLOSION on the wall, one-story beneath the roof. Paul throws Tatiana to the ground, covers her. S moke and concrete dust fall around them. INT. HOTEL STORE ROOM. NIGHT Paul, Zozo stand amongst the debris: a gaping hole in a wall. The room is covered in burned note papers, menus brochures for Sabena's two hotels, the Mille Collines and the Diplomat. Odette appears carrying her medical bag. ODETTE Was anyone hurt? PAUL No. It was only a storeroom. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. NIGHT Colonel Oliver arrives in his armored truck. Paul, Odette, Benedict and others gather around him. PAUL They fired a rocket at us. COLONEL OLIVER Yes. Where are the Rwandan police? PAUL I ran out of bribes. Bizimungu took them away. COLONEL OLIVER That explains it. I'm sorry to tell you this but we've heard rumors the Militia are getting ready to storm the hotel. PAUL Will you protect us. 114. COLONEL OLIVER I can't, I don't have the men. VARIOUS VOICES We have no one...We will be killed. COLONEL OLIVER There's one option. PAUL What is it? COLONEL OLIVER The rebels have fought their way into the city. They have many Hutu prisoners. They're willing to exchange them for you all. ODETTE Will the Hutu army agree? COLONEL OLIVER I think so. They are in disarray now. The rebels are winning, and the Hutu high command are anxious to get some of their men back. TUTSI WOMAN How would we escape? COLONEL OLIVER By convoy. XAVIER This time the Militia will kill us. PAUL They will surely kill us here. It's over here. We have to take the chance. TUTSI WOMAN No, we'll be chopped on the street. PAUL We'll be chopped here. The crowd disperses. Colonel Oliver takes Paul aside. COLONEL OLIVER A man came to my headquarters, asked that I give you this. Colonel Oliver hands a letter. 115. COLONEL OLIVER (CONT'D) Paul, I need you to buy me a day or two. I don't have the fuel for this convoy. I will have to scrounge it. PAUL I can't. I have nothing left to bribe with. Can your men at the gate hold out for another day? COLONEL OLIVER No, Paul, they're afraid. They've demanded to be moved back to headquarters now. PAUL Give me their uniforms. I will put people at the gate, in disguise. COLONEL OLIVER I wish I could, Paul. Try to hold out. One more day. Colonel Oliver leaves. Their is nothing more Paul can do. INT. HOTEL PAUL'S ROOM. NIGHT Tatiana is beside him. He opens the envelope, finds his makeshift house deed and a note. PAUL It's from Garandi. (reads) I am sorry. There is no hope for the twins. The old lady's house has been destroyed. INT. HOTEL PAUL'S ROOM. NIGHT Paul sleeps fitfully. It is almost dawn, then he sits up. PAUL The Diplomat! Tatiana wakens, startled. TATIANA What's wrong? PAUL I have to go to the Diplomat. 116. INT. OFFICE. DAWN Paul is on the one working phone. PAUL General, sir. I am glad to find you. I have found you some supplies. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU (O.S.) Whiskey? PAUL The finest, and cognac, champagne. Come and I will get them for you. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU (O.S.) I'll be over. PAUL Bring back your policemen... ...But the line is already dead. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY Bizimungu's jeeps arrives at the hotel. Paul greets him. PAUL We must go to the Diplomat. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Get in. PAUL Your police are at the gate? GENERAL BIZIMUNGU After the Diplomat! Paul clambers in the back. INT. JEEP TRAVELLING. DAY The jeep turns away from the Mille Collines front gate. They travel at high speed along the road. Then the driver sounds his horn, because... Paul sees: A large crowd of Militia marching along the road toward the hotel, waving machetes and sticks. 117. PAUL Where are they going? GENERAL BIZIMUNGU They can go where they want. They are in charge now. PAUL What do you mean, General? GENERAL BIZIMUNGU We have decided to move the government to Gitarama. PAUL When? GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Today. EXT./INT. DIPLOMAT HOTEL. DAY Paul arrives into the lobby of the Diplomat. Looters have stripped the place bare. The convoy pulls up. General Bizimungu stands with his pistol out. The looters see him and disperse. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Maggots! INT. DIPLOMAT HOTEL OFFICE. DAY Paul enters the manager's office, followed by the General. It has been stripped clean, except for the safe, which is pock-marked with bullet strikes. LOSE ON: Paul: he sees a big problem. The dial is damaged. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Do your work. Paul goes to the safe and turns the dials, tries the handle - nothing. It is incredibly hot, and Paul is soaked with nervous perspiration, he takes off his jacket. PAUL It might be damaged, General. Bizimungu's look says: it better not be for your sake. 118. Paul starts again, turns the dials more carefully, tries and opens the safe door. CLICK. He pulls it open, sees six bottles of Glenfiddich, four bottles of VSOP brandy. Bizimungu is joyous as Paul hands him a bottle Bizimungu sits on a window ledge, takes a swig. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Here. (offers) To celebrate. PAUL takes a swig. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU (CONT'D) You know what the Scottish call it? PAUL No. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Ishca Baha - the water of life. I went on a tour once of the finest single malt distillery in the world. Have you ever been to Scotland? PAUL No, sir. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Wonderful country, wonderful golf. I wonder - will I ever go back? What do you think? PAUL I hope we all get to do many things. Can we go now? The soldier arrives with a box. He whispers to Bizimungu. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU (to the soldier) Pack those carefully, put them in my jeep, and guard them. PAUL (looses his cool) Please, General, call and put your policemen back at the gate. The soldier packs the bottles. Bizimungu pours into Paul's cup. 119. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU I am going to do you a great favor. (studies glass) I am going to take you with us to Gitarama. PAUL I do not want to go to Gitarama, General. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU You cannot go back to the hotel. The crazy men are going there now. Better to come with me. Paul is now terrified. PAUL The Militia are at the hotel?! We must go back now, General, please, for my family. Bizimungu, now tipsy, drinks more. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU We are better here. PAUL (desperate, forceful) Listen, you need me. Bizimungu laughs. PAUL (CONT'D) You are a marked man. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU How so. PAUL The Americans, and the UN they have you as a war criminal. You are on a list. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU I am on a list! What list? PAUL When the Europeans left, their soldiers gathered lists. Bizimungu grabs Paul. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU You lie. 120. PAUL If you do not help me, you will stay on that list. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU I committed no war crimes. PAUL Who will tell them? You need me to tell how you helped the hotel. The others who have gone, they blame you for all their misfortune. They say you led the massacres. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU (nervous now) I led no massacres. PAUL You think they will believe you? ENERAL BIZIMUNGU You will tell them the truth. PAUL (defiant) I will do nothing unless you help me now. Bizimungu reaches for his pistol. PAUL (CONT'D) What are you going to do, shoot me? It will be a blessing. Go ahead shoot. I will pay you to shoot my family. You can do nothing to me! Bizimungu jumps up, grabs Paul, pulls him. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU You will tell them I did nothing. EXT. DIPLOMAT HOTEL. DAY Paul and Bizimungu rush out to the jeeps. INT. JEEP TRAVELLING. DAY Paul almost overcome with anxiety. Bizimungu worried. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAY Militia swarm around the front of the hotel. 121. The jeeps race through, scattering them. They screech to a halt. Several refugees sit, huddled and battered. Bizimungu jumps out, snatches an A.K. from a soldier, fires in the air. GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Get back! (to his soldiers) Get them out of here. PAUL does not wait. INT. HOTEL LOBBY. DAY Paul races into the hotel, past frightened refugees who flee. Then Paul sees a face he recognizes. It's Gregoire with the Militia! Paul ducks into the stairway. IN THE STAIRWELL He leaps the stairs four at a time. He makes it to the third floor, pushing past frightened refugees who race down the stairs. ON THE THIRD FLOOR He runs straight into a bunch of young Militia. MILITIAMEN Rusesabagina. Show us Rusesabagina. They shove Paul along the corridor. MILITIAMAN #1 Show us the manager. He wears a suit. PAUL They have him in the lobby, go quickly. The killers race off. Paul gets to his feet and runs. INT. PAUL'S ROOM. DAY Paul bursts in. The place is a mess. And it's empty! PAUL Oh God, please Lord. IN THE CORRIDOR He careens out of the room. 122. And sees Gregoire coming with a group of Militia. GREGOIRE That's him. That's Rusesabagina! They charge toward Paul. Then a roar of gunfire. The ceiling and walls around Gregoire explode. General Bizimungu's men run up with weapons drawn. HUTU SOLDIER Get out, or I'll shoot you. Paul rushes to the stairs. More gunfire echoes (soldiers clearing the Militia). AT THE STAIRS - Paul races upward, falls, pushes past others struggling to get down. AT THE ROOF - now, there are clumps of refugees who have fled up there, including Xavier who huddles in a corner. PAUL Tatiana! Oh God. Have you seen Tatiana? Paul runs to the edge of the roof, looks over. SEES: bodies - women, and children, still, on the ground beneath, by a row of hedge. PAUL (CONT'D) (screams in agony) TATIANA! The bodies move, look up, it's not them. It's refugees hiding. Paul, delirious with fear, runs along the parapet. BELOW he sees soldiers herding the Militia. He runs back to the stairs. INSIDE THE STAIRCASE: He jumps four stairs at a time. INSIDE THE CORRIDOR: Soldiers are chasing off the Militia. TO HIS ROOM: Paul staggers in, crazed with fear. He looks under the bed. INTO THE BATHROOM - empty. He's about to run out again, sees the connecting door to the adjoining hotel room is slightly open. 123. INTO THE ADJOINING ROOM: It's empty, then A WHIMPER. FROM THE BATHROOM, he moves in, cautious. IN THE BATHROOM: Nothing. He moves over, pulls back the shower curtain. Reveals: A cluster of women and children, the older ones holding hands over the mouths of the younger ones. And there at the back: Tatiana and his kids. PAUL (CONT'D) It's alright, they're gone. Tears, hugs, women tremble. EXT. HOTEL FORECOURT. DAWN The grey of dawn, before the sunrise. Colonel Oliver in his jeep leads a convoy of UN trucks past the guard house and Bizimungu's police and up the drive. CUT TO: THE UN TRUCKS Parked in front of the hotel. Tutsi refugees file up and are helped on board by UN soldiers. Paul helps Tatiana and the children onto a truck. An ARGUMENT breaks out towards the back of the convoy. Paul rushes toward Xavier and Benedict who argue. XAVIER They should go one truck at a time. When the first truck gets through to the airport, then the others will follow. PAUL We can't wait. We all go together or not at all. Paul takes matters into his own hands. He locks the doors of the hotel. There is no going back. PAUL (CONT'D) It is time to leave. The Mille Collines is closed. Paul climbs onto the truck. The others follow, some reluctantly. Colonel Oliver gives the signal. 124. The trucks take off down the driveway. INT. TRUCK TRAVELLING. DAY Paul now at the front of the truck WATCHES out through a slice in the canvas. SEES, the convoy pull out of the Mille Collines. They travel along the road. Turn a corner, and the truck slows ... PAUL SEES: a great mass of Hutus fill the road: Militia, kids, soldiers discarding uniforms. No longer a mob, but a crush of Hutu refugees now fleeing toward them, fleeing the advancing of the rebel army. A crowd of Militia men wave their arms, shout at the trucks. COLONEL OLIVER Don't stop. Push through. The driver reluctantly speeds up. A break in the mass of Hutu refugees. Then GUN FIRE ahead. Children begin crying, it becomes infectious, spreading to Paul's children, some of the women. Then ahead, a gang of Militia men break from the bushes beside the road. They're running fast toward the truck, some carry rifles. There's more gunfire behind. The Militia are almost upon them now. Colonel Oliver has his pistol drawn. COLONEL OLIVER (CONT'D) Keep going. The Militia are at the truck. But they run STRAIGHT PAST! 125. As a platoon of Tutsi rebel soldiers (in bush camouflage and red and blue headbands) burst from the brush. Pursuing, careful, professional. PAUL It's the rebels. The crying stops. Silent disbelief. PAUL (CONT'D) We've made it! Cheering breaks out. Children frightened again by the sudden euphoria break into cries of joy. A rebel soldier waves his AK 47 in the air. EXT. KIGALI SOCCER STADIUM. DAY The trucks crawl into the chaos of the stadium, a mass of refugees, the wounded, lost children, abandoned old people, hundreds crammed together. Paul, Tatiana, and the others clamber off the trucks. They hug, cry, an outpouring of relief. Then Tatiana spots someone among the crowds. She rushes over. TATIANA Have you seen my sister Fedens? Heads shak `no'. Tatiana moves on, more frantic, pushing through the crowds. TATIANA Two little girls, twins, an old woman had them. More `nos' Now she's desperate, pushing, tripping through the crowds, and around her we see others doing the same, then OGER (O.C.) Mama, mama. He reaches her, pulls at her dress. ROGER Mama, wait. She takes his hand. 126. ROGER No, mama, look. Tatiana turns .... and sees Paul carrying the twins in his arms. She squeals with joy, runs to him, snatches one from his arms. TATIANA Oh, my babies. PAUL (CONT'D) Anais, it is so good to see you. CARINE I'm Carine! ANAIS (in Tatsi's arms) And I'm Anais! Their laughter mix with tears of joy among the crushing mass of survivors. FREEZE FADE TO BLACK: THE GENOCIDE ENDED IN LATE JUNE 1994, WHEN THE TUTSI REBELS DEFEATED THE HUTU ARMY AND MILITIA. TWO MILLION HUTUS FLED INTO THE NEIGHBORING CONGO IN THE LARGEST SINGLE EXODUS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY THEY LEFT BEHIND ALMOST ONE MILLION CORPSES. ------------------------------------------ PHOTO OF: GEORGE RUTAGUNDA George Rutagunda was convicted of crimes against humanity. He is now serving a life sentence in a Tanzanian jail. PHOTO OF: GENERAL BIZIMUNGU Augustin Bizimungu escaped with the Hutu Militia to the Congo. In August, 2002 he was captured in Angola. A UN war crimes tribunal has charged him with crimes against humanity. 127. PHOTO OF: THOMAS AND FEDENS Thomas' and Fedens' bodies where never found. Paul adopted their twin daughters. PHOTO OF: PAUL (the lead actor) PAUL RUSESABAGINA: saved the lives of all one thousand two hundred Rwandan refugees who took shelter at the Mille Collines Hotel. PHOTO TURNS TO PHOTO OF REAL PAUL AND HIS FAMILY. Paul, Tatiana, the twins, and all their family now live in Belgium, where Paul owns and operates two taxi cabs. FREEZE - THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_House of 1000 Corpses.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_House of 1000 Corpses.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1938dd22988d0da8c5bfd2d93fce261f1744f218 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_House of 1000 Corpses.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + "HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES" Written by R.W. Zombie Revised 3-31-00 FADE IN: INT. OLD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT We see a LITTLE GIRL dancing around in a grainy super 8 home movie. A LITTLE BOY wearing a monster MASK enters the frame. He struggles to lift a double barrel shotgun. He points it at the girl and pretends to SHOOT. GIRL (V.O.) (whispering slowly) Once I had a cat, he was the sweetest little guy. Then one day he got sick and died. My heart was broken. My whole body hurt. She continues dancing. The little boy imitates her. GIRL (V.O.) After that, I saw things differently, everything could be summed up with three simple words... fuck the world. The camera swings over to some ugly, toothless relations watching the show. They laugh. EXT. SPAULDING'S - NIGHT We open on a dark, lonely stretch of two lane blacktop. Off to the side of the road we see a rundown gas station. RADIO ANNOUNCER (V.O.) Hey, welcome back to 93.5 WJRC's Halloween monster weekend. I'm Jimmy Ray and I'll be bringing you the oldies, the goldies and sometimes the moldies. The good, the bad and the uglies straight from the WJRC vaults. A weathered wooden sign proclaims CAPTAIN SPAULDING'S WORLD OF MONSTERS AND MADMEN, sits atop the building. A smaller sign below reads FRIED CHICKEN AND GASOLINE. RADIO ANNOUNCER (V.O.) Hey, kids still trying to decide on the right costume? Well why not head on down to Randall's Penny Save located on Kimball Rd. just off route 1 in Mackin County. Choose from a wide array of ghosts and ghouls, jeepers and creepers... (scary sound effects) ...everything you need for your Halloween needs. SHERIFF HUSTON, a tall southern good old boy, leans against his dusty cruiser smoking a cigarette, pumping gas into his tank. INT. CAPT. SPAULDING'S - NIGHT Inside is a poorman's Ripley's Believe It or Not. Bizarre props and treasures of killers and monsters cover the dirty walls. Wax figures of JACK THE RIPPER stand guard before oil paintings by JOHN WAYNE GACY. RADIO ANNOUNCER (V.O.) Alright let's get back to our monster music marathon with this classic called The Teddy Bear's Picnic. Perched on a stool behind the counter sits CAPTAIN SPAULDING, a crusty looking old man in a filthy clown suit and smeared make-up. The word LOVE is tattooed across his right knuckles and HATE is tattooed across the left. He is reading the newspaper, crunching on crackers from a paper bag and halfheartedly listening to a small, nerdy man wearing coke bottle glasses named STUCKY. Stucky thumbs through a stack of autographed 8x10 photographs. STUCKY (speaking through voicebox in his throat) I... I got back a stack today. Some nice shots. (holds up a picture of June Wilkinson) See, a good topless June Wilkinson... unfortunately she personalized it... (looking at the photo) to Stucky, love June. CAPT. SPAULDING Hmmmmm. STUCKY Shit, this ain't worth nothing now that my name gotten all over it. I was a fixin' on trading it to Jackie Cobb. CAPT. SPAULDING The retard over at Molly's fruit stand. STUCKY Yeah, he's all hot on her after he found some of his dad's old nudie books hidden in the basement. He keeps 'em taped inside his school workbook. Spaulding brushes cracker crumbs off his paper and continues reading. CAPT. SPAULDING Fascinating. STUCKY That kid is one horny retard. CAPT. SPAULDING Christ, ain't they all. All them retards wanna do is fuck and eat. STUCKY Well, yeah... I think that if you knew him... I mean if you'd understand his urges, shit the guy's like forty or something. CAPT. SPAULDING Worse than a fucking rabid baboon. STUCKY Yeah, I guess, you know next to wacking his weasel his other favorite thing is twisting sharpened pencils in the corner of his eyes. CAPT. SPAULDING What? STUCKY Yeah, doesn't hurt himself, just spins it around next to his eyeball. CAPT. SPAULDING I'm sure that ain't the only place he's sticking those pencils. STUCKY Naw, he don't do anything else with 'em, but he did get caught once with a Planet of the Apes doll hanging out his asshole. CAPT. SPAULDING (laughing) Goddamn. STUCKY Had to take him to the hospital. Kid had Dr. Zaius stuck half way up his butt, couldn't get it out. CAPT. SPAULDING I always loved that mute broad that Chuck Heston was shacking up with. STUCKY Nova, yeah she looked pretty sweet. CAPT. SPAULDING Yeah, now there's the perfect woman. STUCKY Can I get some stamps off ya? (slapping down his money) Did you fix the toilet yet? Opens a drawer and tears off five stamps. CAPT. SPAULDING Yes, I did... so don't you go stuffin' any goddamn paper towels down that hole. I just snaked the shit out of that thing. Spaulding SLIDES the KEY attached to a cow skull across the counter. Stucky grabs it. Spaulding hangs on. CAPT. SPAULDING Ya hear me? You bust that crapper and I'll beat your ass. STUCKY I hear ya. He lets go of the key. EXT. CAPT. SPAULDING'S - NIGHT From a STRANGER'S POV we watch through the window, Stucky EXIT for the restroom. Sheriff Huston finishes pumping his gas, gets in his cruiser and drives off. KARL (O.S.) All clear. Let's go shopping. RICH (O.S.) Right. From this POV we RACE across the highway towards the front door of the MUSEUM. SLAM! We BURST through the door. INT. SPAULDING'S - SAME The moment of impact. BOOM. The door SMASHES open. Spaulding's head JERKS up to see: a masked gunman, KARL, wearing a LEATHER S+M MASK. Behind him stands a second gunman, RICH, wearing a rubber CAVEMAN MASK. CAPT. SPAULDING Mary fucking Moses. Get the fuck out of here. KARL Hold it, clowney. Keep your paws where I can see 'em. RICH Yeah, don't move or I'll blast a hole the size of a Kansas City melon through your ugly-ass Bozo face. Spaulding obeys and raises his hands. KARL Go get that other asshole out of the shitter and drag his ass back in here. RICH Right. Rich exits. CAPT. SPAULDING Miserable little cunts with guns. I ought to jump right over this counter and bash your fucking balls in. Killer Karl steps up and puts his gun against Spaulding's face. KARL Alright Tippy, hand over the cash box and I might leave your brains inside your skull. Spaulding smiles wide, his teeth are yellow and rotted. CLOSE UP Spaulding's foot kicks a red switch, triggering a silent alarm. CAPT. SPAULDING That's what you bitches need. A reality check courtesy of my boot in your ass. That'll be a fucking cash box you can cry to mamma about. INT. SPAULDING'S - BACKROOM - NIGHT A silent RED LIGHT FLASHES. In the dim glow, we see RAVELLI, a large hunched figure, sitting on the edge of a bed. The figure is heavily bandaged. Ravelli reacts to the flashing light, he RISES and puts a huge mask over his head. He EXITS the room. INT. BATHROOM STALL - NIGHT Stucky sits on the toilet pasting stamps on large yellow envelopes. Killer Rich KICKS OPEN the stall, GRABS Stucky by the neck and PULLS him out. RICH Come on, fatboy! EXT. CAPT. SPAULDING'S - NIGHT We move around the outside of the building watching the scene inside unfold. HEAVY BREATHING is heard. Rich DRAGS Stucky into the main room. INT. SPAULDING'S - NIGHT Karl grows increasingly HOSTILE, knocks a candy display over, raises his gun over his head and fires into the ceiling. KARL (screaming) That's it. I'm gonna count to ten and you're gonna hand over the cash or I'm gonna splatter your grease paint mug across the stateline... one. CAPT. SPAULDING Fuck your mother. KARL Two. CAPT. SPAULDING Fuck your sister. RICH Come on, man. Just shoot him. STUCKY (recognizing Rich's voice) Hey, I know you. We were in high school together. Wood shop, right? ...Richard Wick... right? He looks nervously at Stucky. RICH Shut up, shut up, shut up! KARL Quiet down... three. CAPT. SPAULDING Fuck your grandmother. STUCKY Yeah, I remember Mr. Alacard the shop teacher use'ta call you Little Dick Wick. Hey, wasn't there a song we made up to go with that? RICH (temper rising) Shut up! STUCKY (singing) Little Dick Wick, play with his prick Don't his smell, just make you sick. EXT. CAPT. SPAULDING'S - NIGHT From Ravelli's POV we watch through the window, as everybody inside starts SHOUTING at each other. Suddenly, Rich SHOOTS Stucky. Stucky FALLS BACKWARDS against the wall, screaming in pain. We move QUICKLY towards the entrance. INT. CAPT. SPAULDING'S - NIGHT Suddenly... CRASH! Ravelli SMASHES through the front door knocking Karl to the ground. In the light we see that Ravelli is wearing an OVERSIZED CLOWN HEAD. In his hand is a sledgehammer. Rich TURNS toward the COMMOTION. The Captain quickly WHIPS OUT a GUN and FIRES. Rich falls dead. Ravelli lunges at Karl, smashing him over the head with the hammer. Ravelli's clown head comes loose and falls to the floor. We now see that Ravelli is a bald pitbull of a man with badly scarred skin that is painted white and red. Karl hits the floor and begins CONVULSING violently. Spaulding STEPS DOWN from behind the counter, puts his foot on Karl's throat and points his pistol at Karl's head. CAPT. SPAULDING And most of all... fuck you! BOOM! Spaulding SHOOTS Karl in the head. The screen EXPLODES RED, then TURNS BLACK. CAPT. SPAULDING (V.O.) God damn it, that motherfucker got blood all over my best clown suit. CREDITS ROLL Strange paintings of demons, monsters and bizarre creatures fade up and move across the screen. EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - NIGHT We see a BILLBOARD painted on the side of an ABANDONED TRUCK. The sign reads GOD IS DEAD. We turn to face the road as a car drives by. JERRY Alright then, out of all of Charlie's chicks who do you think is the hottest? INT. CAR - FRONT SEAT - NIGHT Fast food wrappers and road maps clutter the car's dashboard, a swinging monkey head dangles from the rear-view mirror. Behind the wheel, the driver, BILL HUDLEY, 29, downs the last sip of coffee before crumpling the paper cup and placing it among the other trash before him. BILL I guess if I had to choose I'd say... mmmmmm... Sandra Good. She seemed like a nice girl, I mean in a psycho kind of way. Beside him rides, JERRY GILMORE, 30, slumped down in his seat, reading a magazine with a flashlight, feet hanging out the window. JERRY Really? Huh, I thought for sure you'd say Lynette Fromme. She's got that snooty vibe I know you dig. BILL Sqeaky! No way, she ain't that hot. JERRY She's pretty cute. BILL Yeah but, she reminds me of this chick that I remember from fourth grade... called a... shit, what did we call her? (thinks for second) Oh yeah, Patty Pee-pee Pants... when ever she got called on by Miss Chumski, this chick would piss in her pants and start bawling. JERRY (laughing) There always one kid with no bodily controls. We had this dude, Jeff Baxter, he was a puker. The fucker would just sit there puke all over himself. BILL Better than pissing... anyway so, what's your choice? JERRY If we're talking cute... like regular cute, I'd say Leslie Van Houton, but cute ain't hot. BILL Yeah, no shit. JERRY As far a hot... goes I gotta go with... Ruth Ann Moorehouse. BILL Oh yeah, I forgot about her. She was pretty hot. JERRY Fuck yeah, she is. I'd join a cult to get some of that... and the best part is she didn't try to kill the President or nothing, so that baggage ain't hanging around. BILL I thought she tried to murder a witness for the prosecution. JERRY I'll let it slide, she was only seventeen. BILL Dude, talk about baggage, that ain't no carry-on shit, that's some heavy duty Samsonite shit. JERRY Yeah, I guess... hot chicks are always nuts. BILL Hot has got nothing to do with it. EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - NIGHT A LONE FIGURE in a cheap skull mask and white robe stands hidden behind a billboard off to the side of the road. Bill's car drives past. BILL (yawning) Hold on, I've heard this before... but I can't remember the end. JERRY So, the guy goes to Hell and the devil says, "do you smoke?" The guy say, "yeah"... the devil say, "great cause Tuesday is cigar night, sweetest Cuban cigars you ever had." BILL Shit, we really need to find some gas. JERRY (not listening) Then the devil asks, "do you drink?" Guy says, "yeah"... devil say, "wonderful, Wednesday is free drinks night, best booze you ever had... all made from the finest stuff." BILL Yeah. JERRY Then the devil says, "are you gay?" Guy says, "fuck no"... Devil says, "Well then, I guess you're gonna hate Thursdays." BILL Oh yeah, I remember now. JERRY Yeah, no shit I just told ya. (looking at magazine) Hey, you think this place called Alien Ed's UFO Welcoming Center is still around? It says, "Where the Fact is separated from the Fantasy." BILL I dunno... we'll ask around as we get closer. Man, I really don't want to run out of gas out here in the middle of Petticoat Junction, man. JERRY (sitting up) Don't panic yourself, way too much caffeine guy... I see a sign. (reading the sign) Captain Spaulding's Museum of Madmen and Monsters... cool. Also... fried chicken and... gasoline... next exit. BILL Perfect. JERRY I hope this place is cool. We could use something interesting to liven up chapter 12. The car drives past. We turn and hold on the billboard. We see the happy smiling face of a young Captain Spaulding. EXT. CAPTAIN SPAULDING'S - NIGHT The car pulls up to one of the gas pumps. Bill and Jerry get out. Inside we see Spaulding, now in army pants and a hunting jacket, mopping the floor. BILL I'll pump the gas. Go inside and see if it's worth thinking about. JERRY (salutes) OK, Boss. Jerry walks inside and immediately comes back out. JERRY Holy crap. You gotta see this place. It's awesome. BILL How awesome? JERRY Really fucking awesome. BILL Wake up the chicks and bust out the camera awesome? JERRY Hell yeah. Jerry sticks his head back inside the car. JERRY Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey. INT. CAR - BACK SEAT - NIGHT A dark haired girl, DENISE WILLIS, 27, sleeps curled up under a blanket. JERRY Come on, babe. Me and Bill found a kick ass place. She opens her eyes. DENISE Huh? JERRY Grab Mary and come inside. Denise shakes a lump of jackets and sweaters lying next to her. She removes a sweater from the top of the pile to REVEAL the face of MARY KNOWLES, 29. DENISE Come on sleeping beauty, time to go to work. MARY (half asleep) Sleeping. DENISE Rise and shine. MARY (groggy) No please, let me sit this one out. DENISE (removing the blanket) Let's go. You're the one who wanted to be a photographer. MARY I resign. DENISE Too late. You're in for life, let's move it out Private Shutterbug. MARY (opening her eyes) Christ, I hope this isn't more crappy folk art. It's so quaint... it's so primal... it's so crap. DENISE Aw, it ain't crap... it's... cute. (sarcastic) ...and really who are we to judge the artistic merit of the tin-can Mona Lisa? MARY Aw, shit... (exhales deeply) I gotta pee anyway. INTERLUDE Grainy super 8 footage shows us an OLD MAN standing in front of a small shack. His name is Lewis Dover. The shack is painted white and covered with SIMPLISTIC RELIGIOUS WRITINGS. LEWIS I ain't no rich man, but I see the truth. You do not have to go to Hell. You are in Hell. This is Hell. All American Hell. (holds up a gun) ...true heaven in my hands... I'm gonna blow Satan back through the door to Hell. Surrounding the shack are strange sculptures of various half- human/half-animal creations. INT. SPAULDING'S - NIGHT Spaulding swabs up the last remains of blood from the floor, he drops the mop into a bucket filled with water and blood. Bill pays no attention, he is distracted by a strange object in a glass case over the counter. In the case is a shriveled up looking half human and half fish figure. It is the size of a small child. A banner above reads: AQUALINA - THE MERMAID. BILL How long have you been running this place? CAPT. SPAULDING How long is a piece of string? Too God damn long, that's how long. Spaulding slides the mop and bucket behind the counter. BILL No, really. CAPT. SPAULDING Shit, I don't remember exactly. I took over for my Pa just after the Duke nabbed the Oscar. BILL The Duke? CAPT. SPAULDING Yeah, my Pa wasn't right in the head after that. BILL You mean John Wayne? CAPT. SPAULDING Hell, boy there some other Duke you know about? (rolls up his sleeve to reveal a John Wayne tattoo) A great American. BILL Yeah, I was never that big of a western fan. I like science fiction. CAPT. SPAULDING I figured that much. Why the fuck you asking so many jackass questions for? BILL You see me and my friends are writing a book on offbeat roadside attractions. You know all the crazy shit you see when you drive cross country. CAPT. SPAULDING I don't drive cross country. BILL But if you did. CAPT. SPAULDING I don't. BILL But suppose for a second you did. CAPT. SPAULDING (fake hick accent) Y'all find us country people real funny like don't ya... well, God damn pack up the mule and sling me some grits, I'ze a gotta get me some schooling. BILL No, no I think it's really interesting. CAPT. SPAULDING Well fuck me Side Sally, who want to read about all that horse shit anyway. Jerry OVERHEARS Bill's and Spaulding's conversation and joins in to help. JERRY You'd be surprised. Would it be OK if we took some pictures and included this place in our book? CAPT. SPAULDING Hey, knock yourself silly. JERRY You got some really rare stuff here... (pointing to Aqualina) ...dig your Feegee mermaid. INT. SPAULDING'S - RESTROOM - NIGHT The restroom is gray, dingy, a single exposed light bulb hangs from the ceiling. The peeling walls are plastered with newspaper clippings and faded photos. Mary is in the stall, sitting on the toilet, staring straight ahead at a poster of RHONDO HATTON, a B-MOVIE ACTOR that suffered from acromegalia. Denise standing at a tiny sink, splashes water on her face. She looks at herself in the mirror. DENISE (water running down her face) I swear I've aged five years since this trip started. MARY Tell me about it. DENISE (takes a paper towel and wipes her face) God, I hate falling asleep in the afternoon. Now I'll be up all night... (stretches) ...ugh, my back is killing me. MARY Yeah, hey how far do you think we are from your Dad's? Mary flushes the toilet and exits the stall. DENISE I don't know. Couple hours I think. I've got to call him. Mary washes her hands. Denise ties up her hair. MARY It will be nice to have a few days off to regenerate. This trip is fun, but it's starting to get brutal. DENISE Yeah, I hit burn out mode back at that old stripper lady's place. Watching her dance around with those ratty-looking animals was ridiculous. MARY I know, that was some crazy shit. I never in a million years would have believed it if I hadn't seen it. DENISE A decent meal every once in a while wouldn't hurt either, this road food is crap. MARY If I never eat at another Waffle House again, I can die a happy girl. DENISE Scattered, smothered and covered. MARY Exactly... well, I guess a couple more photos won't kill me. INT. SPAULDING'S - MAIN ROOM - NIGHT Jerry knees over a box of magazines labeled TRUE CRIME $1.00, he flips through an issue, tosses it back. Bill leans against the wall next to him, sipping a hot cup of coffee. The girls return from the bathroom. Jerry jumps up with excitement. JERRY Great, you're back. Let's go. We already paid for the tickets. DENISE Tickets for what? JERRY This isn't everything. Get ready for this... there's a Museum of Murder and Mayhem. DENISE I don't want to see that. MARY How about if we skip it and just hang out here. I can get some great shots of this stuff. Jerry PULLS Denise over and puts his arm around her. JERRY Aw, come on. It will be fun. DENISE Oh yeah, murder museum... sounds fun. Bill grabs Mary by the hand and kisses it. BILL (smiling) We'll need pictures of the inside too. MARY Alright, alright. I know... I wanted to be the photographer. Bill and Mary kiss. Spaulding waits, unamused. He rolls his eyes. CAPT. SPAULDING Anytime this year, people. Alright line your asses up in front of the black door. The tour is about to begin. Spaulding disappears through a curtain behind the counter. The kids wait. The black metal door CREAKS open. They enter the darkened room. INT. SPAULDING'S - MUSEUM - NIGHT Darkness. A blue light comes on. Spaulding is standing on a MOTORIZED PLATFORM. He begins the tour, speaking through a small megaphone. CAPT. SPAULDING Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to enter a world of darkness. A world where life and death are meaningless and pain is God. (pointing with a cane) To your left you see the infamous Albert Fish. A lifeless wax figure POPS forward with a loud metal CLANG. Mary jumps back with fright. CAPT. SPAULDING Sadist, masochist, child killer and most of all importantly cannibal. Born in 1870, Mr. Fish enjoyed burning himself with hot pokers, spankings with nail-studded paddles and embedding needles in his groin. On the right, notice the X-ray... CLOSE UP - X-RAY CAPT. SPAULDING ...showing clearly 29 sewing needles inserted in to his groin. Mr. Fish was executed in 1936 at the age of 65. Spaulding rolls backwards and continues the tour. CLOSE UP ON: a dummy face of a grizzly looking old man in hunting attire. CAPT. SPAULDING To your right. One of our most popular crazies, the psycho of Plainfield, Ed Gein. Behind the figure of Gein hangs an inverted corpse of a slain woman. Mary recoils in disgust. CAPT. SPAULDING Murderer, cannibal and momma's little bitch boy. Mr. Gein found special pleasure in playing with the dead bodies of women, especially their sexual organs. He was quite a handy little dandy, fashioning lamp shades, jewelry and human skin suits from his victims. Mr. Gein was discovered when the decapitated body of Bernice Worden was found gutted like a deer, hanging in his barn. DISSOLVE TO: A wax figure of a young man in doctor's scrubs. He is covered in blood. CAPT. SPAULDING And now I would like to introduce a local hero, S. Quentin Quale, a.k.a. The Butcher Boy, a.k.a. Nurse Nellie and most famously a.k.a. Dr. Satan. Another wax figure, of a bloody corpse, JUMPS up. CAPT. SPAULDING Murderer, torturer and most of all master surgeon. Mr. Quale an intern at Willows State Mental Hospital, nicknamed Weeping Willows for its neverending cries of pain, took great pleasure in control. Through primitive brain surgery. Mr. Quale believed he could create a race of superhumans from the mentally ill, or so the story goes. His terrifying experiments continued until 1952. Jerry stares fascinated. CAPT. SPAULDING At which time he was discovered and turned over to authorities for observation. Unfortunately, Mr. Quale was abducted from his cell by members of the victims' families. Vigilante justice prevailed and Dr. Satan was taken out and hanged. The next day his body was found to be missing. Some say he survived, rescued by his loyal slaves, others say they hung the wrong man... To this day no sign of Dr. Satan has ever been discovered. But who knows? Maybe he lives next door to you. KLUNK: A big metal door opens to the outside world. CAPT. SPAULDING Please exit through the door. The kids exit. SLAM! The door shuts. EXT. SPAULDING'S - PHONE BOOTH - NIGHT Denise leans against the glass walls of the phone booth. Various flyers are taped to the inside: free kittens, phone sex ads and a missing poster for a girl named KAREN MURPHY. A light rain begins to fall. Denise puts some change in the phone and dials a number. EXT. WILLIS HOUSE - NIGHT The camera moves down a quaint quiet little street. We come to rest at a modest two-story house. The house is decorated for Halloween. Parents and their children roam from house to house, trick or treating. We hear the sound of a phone ringing. INT. WILLIS HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT A grey haired man sits at a small table eating a ham sandwich and drinking a beer. This is DONALD WILLIS, Denise's father. He stands up and walks to the phone hanging on the wall. MR. WILLIS Hello... (brightens up) ...hey Denise... what, what's wrong, did you break down? EXT. SPAULDING'S - PHONE BOOTH - NIGHT DENISE No, nothing like that... yeah, we're gonna be a little late. We stopped for gas at this place called Capt. Spaulding's outside of Ruggsville and it turned into a whole thing, so we're kind of behind schedule. INT. WILLIS HOUSE - NIGHT MR. WILLIS Oh yeah, yeah I've driven by that place before. I seem to remember a crabby old bastard in a crummy clown suit running the place. INT. PHONE BOOTH - NIGHT DENISE Yeah, well he's still here. I think him and Jerry are fast becoming buddies, you know Jerry... yeah, he's gotta see everything... yeah, I know... thinks there's some unsolved mystery around every corner. INT. WILLIS HOUSE - NIGHT MR. WILLIS Well, don't take too long, the kids are already knocking down the door demanding their sugar fix... I know, I know I forgot to mention that Halloween falls on a school night, so they're trick or treating tonight... I got the joint decked out this year, built a graveyard in the front yard like when you were a kid. EXT. SPAULDING'S - PHONE BOOTH - NIGHT DENISE Hopefully I can move things along here and make up the lost time by speeding all the way home... yes, Dad I'm kidding. INT. WILLIS HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT MR. WILLIS Well, just promise me you'll be careful... alright, alright see ya soon... good-bye. INT. CAR - NIGHT Bill, Jerry and Mary wait for Denise. JERRY I'm gonna go ask him. MARY Aw, come on Jerry. We've gotten all we're gonna get out of this place and its starting to rain. JERRY Shit, it is only sprinkling and it's worth the trouble. Hold on for two seconds. Jerry goes back inside. INT. PHONE BOOTH - NIGHT Jerry knocks on the glass as he passes. Denise waves as he walks by. DENISE Yeah so... OK, expect us more around eleven or so. OK yeah, I will... love you, too, bye. She hangs up the phone, opens the doors and heads back to the car. INT. SPAULDING'S - NIGHT JERRY I know it's hard to understand, but I really want to see this tree. CAPT. SPAULDING OK, alright I'll draw you a map, but I still say it is a waste of time. JERRY Great. INT. CAR - NIGHT Through the window we see Jerry talking to Spaulding. Spaulding draws a map, explaining as he draws. MARY Geez, he never gets tired does he. DENISE Never. I swear to God he never sleeps, he goes to bed after me, wakes up before me. He's always working on 10. MARY Maybe he's a cyborg. BILL (wearily, sips his coffee) I like sleep. DENISE Here he comes. Jerry comes bouncing out towards the car and jumps in. He is holding a map and a box of chicken. JERRY We hit the jackpot! Let's roll, good buddy. We got ourselves a convoy. MARY Huh? DENISE Ugh, what's that smell? JERRY Fried chicken. (holds up a drumstick) Anybody want some? No one responds. EXT. WOODS - DAY An OLD FARMER and his WIFE stare directly into the camera. OLD MAN I don't know where that skunk ape sleeps. Maybe in the trees and all... all I know is he eats squirrels to survive and he had impure relations with my wife. WIFE That's true. He performed lurid acts upon me and my person while my husband Russell was a fix'n to our hound Clarence. OLD MAN If I see that thing again... I'm a gonna kill that skunk ape. BILL (off screen) What does it look like? WIFE It looked just like that chubby fella from McHale's Navy... Ernie Borgnine. OLD MAN Hold up the picture. The wife holds up a pencil sketch of a Bigfoot like creature and a newspaper photo of Ernest Borgnine. EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - NIGHT Bill's car moves past empty farmlands. A HEAVIER RAIN is now falling. INT. CAR - NIGHT Jerry directs Bill from Spaulding's hand-drawn map. JERRY Keep straight on this road here. BILL How much further? JERRY I'm not exactly sure... it looks close. Did we pass an abandoned school bus yet? BILL I don't know. Mary and Denise sit bundled up in blankets. MARY Let's just skip it. It is probably nothing anyway. DENISE Aw Christ, Jerry. We can't see anything now, it's too dark. Let's forget it. JERRY Come on, we need something like this. It could be the real deal. It's too far out of the way to come back to. BILL What's that? Through the windshield we see a LONE FIGURE hitch-hiking by the side of the road. It is a girl, BABY, 27, in a worn cowboy hat and long fur coat. She is soaked to the bone. JERRY It's a hitchhiker. BILL Way out here? MARY Well, don't even think about playing the good samaritan, there's way too many psychos wandering loose these days. BILL (looking closer) It's a girl. JERRY Hey, maybe she knows where this is? DENISE (sarcastically) That seems likely. MARY Should we stop? BILL We can't leave her out here in the rain... maybe we can just drop her at the next rest area. MARY She looks like a freak. DENISE Stick her in the front, if you want to pick her up so bad. She's soaked. MARY She looks like she stinks. BILL (imitating Mary) She looks like she stinks. JERRY (makes cat noises) Cat fight, cat fight. DENISE Hardy har, har. The car pulls over and Baby jumps in. The car moves off. INT. CAR - NIGHT Once inside the car they see that the girl is a bit odd. BABY Whoa, thanks for stopping. I been standing out there in that toad strangling rain for like a hundred million years. JERRY Really, that's a long time. BABY Yeah, most people just whiz on by like I was invisible or something... or else they're creeps who wanna jam their slimy hands down my pants and twiddle my naughty-naughty. JERRY Yikes. BABY Yeah, icky. This one guy stops and I look in and he's got his thing out waving it around like a drunk monkey. DENISE Well, hitchhiking ain't the safest way for a girl to travel. BABY Yeah, but it's fun. MARY Sounds like a magical trip through the heartland. BILL Where ya headed? BABY Aw, I was going home to my Mamma's house... yeah, I was out doing this thing. BILL Where's that? BABY Couple more miles up this road. JERRY Hey, you might know... (shows her the map) ...you know where this tree is at? It's an old hanging tree from... The Baby PERKS UP at the mention of the tree. BABY Yeah, I know where that is, it's right by my house. It's Dr. Satan's tree. I can show ya. JERRY Really, wow, so it's really a real thing. BABY Yeah, it's a tree. I used to play there all the time. But, you can't find it without me. Outsider can't find no deadwood. JERRY Deadwood, is that what it's called? Cool, will you show us? BABY Maybe, maybe, maybe... hey, you know what word I hate? JERRY What? BABY Cone. JERRY Huh... what cone? BABY Any cone, yeah... (looking out the window) I hate that word... sounds ugly, I don't like crumple either. JERRY I always hate saying the word cheese, every time you get your picture taken... smile, say cheese. BABY I know I hate Swiss cheese, the holes make me nervous. BILL What about the tree? BABY Oh yeah, the tree. MARY This is crazy. She don't know nothing. Baby turns her attention toward Mary. BABY Oh, I know. I'll show you where it's at, sweetie. Aren't you just so cute all bundled up like a cinnamon roll of Christmas love. JERRY Cool. BILL Which way? BABY Go straight up about another mile... til we hit Cherrypicker Road and turn right... it ain't far from there. INT. MENTAL HOSPITAL The camera FLOATS through the hallways of the Peabody Mental Institution. It is HALLOWEEN. PATIENTS wander the stark halls dressed in hospital gowns and cheap plastic masks. Some are laughing, some are screaming. We move into a private room. Where we see DOCTOR SATAN completely covered except for his eyes, hovering over a BOUND AND GAGGED PATIENT. We move off the doctor to a crayon child's DRAWING of a JACK- O'-LANTERN. Tortured screams fill the room. EXT. CHERRYPICKER RD. - WOODS - NIGHT From a STRANGER'S POV we see the car STRUGGLING down a dirt road. INT. CAR - SAME Everyone rides in silence, music plays on the radio. The song ends and a NEWS REPORTER comes on. NEWS REPORTER (V.O.) This is WJRC News at the top of the hour... Investigators in Clairemont County are no closer to identifying the body of a young woman found crucified to the doors of St. Mary's Church yesterday morning. Baby lights up a cigarette and takes a drag. MARY Excuse me, could you not smoke in here? Baby puts out the cigarette on the back of her hand. NEWS REPORTER (V.O.) Local police and State Officials have released this report... JERRY What's that? BILL I don't know. Looks like some kind of animal. Bill stops the car. EXT. CHERRYPICKER RD. - WOODS - NIGHT Sitting dead center in the middle of the road is a HUMONGOUS DOG. The dog stares straight ahead. Long strands of drool hang from its mouth to the ground. INT. CAR - NIGHT MARY Why are we stopping? BILL There's a dog in the road. DENISE Honk at him. Scare him. BILL (honking horn) He won't move. MARY Go around him. BILL There's not enough room. MARY Then run him over, he'll move. BABY No! He's one of God's creatures, he can't help it if he's dumb... I'm just crazy about animals. MARY (to Denise) The animals have got nothing to do with it. EXT. STRANGER'S POV - SAME A gun barrel is raised and we are looking through the sight at the car. Pop! Pop! Pop! The GUN fires THREE SHOTS at the car's rear tire. The stranger whistles and the dog moves to the side of the road. INT. CAR - NIGHT The SOUND of the heavy rain MASKS the gunshots. BILL Hey, he moved. MARY Let's get going before that thing tries to eat the car or something. As the car moves past, Denise stares at the dog sitting calmly to the side of the road. The dog blankly stares back at her. JERRY That reminds me of a film I saw once of a guy who got out of his car at Lion Country Safari to take a picture of a lion cub and got eaten by the lions. BILL Oh yeah, I heard about that. I always thought it was bullshit. JERRY No... yeah, they ripped him to pieces while his family watched from the car. The wife is screaming, the kids are crying. Some dude in another car filmed the whole thing. BABY I'd like to see that. MARY Nice. JERRY The lions were totally covered in this guy's blood... I think they ate his face off, tore open his rib cage, pulled his legs off... it was a wild scene. BABY Things like that get a lot bloodier than ya think. Without warning the car lunges to one side. JERRY What was that? BILL Fuck. I think we blew a tire. MARY Don't even say it. DENISE You got to be fucking joking. MARY God damn it, I knew this witch-hunt was fucking bullshit. BILL OK, let's relax. I'll check it, maybe I'm wrong. Don't everybody freak out just yet. JERRY I'll help ya. BILL (sarcastic) Gee, ya think it wouldn't be too much trouble. EXT. CHERRYPICKER ROAD - WOODS - NIGHT Bill and Jerry stare down at the blown tire sunk in the mud. BILL I hope you fixed the spare like I asked ya. JERRY Yeah, I fixed it. Well, I ain't... um, I can't remember. I think I took it out to fit the bags and forgot to put it back. BILL Jesus Christ, Jerry. JERRY Well, technically I did what ya said. BILL You're a real fucking piece of work. Bill stares at Jerry in disbelief. INT. CAR - NIGHT Baby is leaning on her chin staring at Mary and Denise. The car radio plays in the background. MARY Can I help you with something? BABY I was just wondering. MARY Wondering what? BABY Are you two gals all funny with each other? MARY What? BABY You know... a couple of queers. MARY Do you believe this fucking girl? BABY (turning her attention to Mary) I was just wondering, cause you got a pissy look about you... like a real pussy licking bitch. Denise tries to QUICKLY defuse the situation. DENISE No. No pussy licking here, but thanks for your concern. Bill and Jerry slide back into the car. BILL Well, I got some bad news and some bad news. MARY What? JERRY (fake Scottish accent) Tire's fucking gone crap on us, man. There's no saving it now. BILL And the spare is safely sitting in Jerry's garage. DENISE For fucking sake Jerry, what the fuck are we gonna do? Baby starts laughing. MARY What the hell are you laughing about? BABY I just pictured the tire sitting in a chair watching TV. MARY Oh, wonderful. (muttering to herself) Fucking psycho. BILL I guess I'll try to back it out on the rim... at least to the main road. BABY If you keep going straight you can get back on the interstate... it's easier. MARY Just back up. JERRY I think we should go straight. I mean we know for a fact there ain't nothing back that way, right? BABY Oh wait! I love this song! Baby reaches over and TURNS UP the VOLUME. She loudly sings along with the song. BILL Fine. I'll go straight. MARY What! BILL (over the loud music) Fine! I'll go straight! The car moves forward. After about fifty yards the car HITS something hard and gets stuck in a deep mud bog. BILL Fuck! We are fucked! DENISE Turn that fucking radio off! Bill shuts off the radio. DENISE Now what are we gonna do? BABY We can walk to my house from here. My brother's got a tow truck, he can come get your car. A silence falls over the car. MARY I think I'm going fucking crazy. DENISE I can't believe... BILL OK, whatever. Let's go get your brother's truck. Faster we get the truck, faster we get out of here. BABY OK. JERRY I'll go. It's my fault. MARY You said it, not me. BILL Forget it. I'll just go. MARY Screw that, no way, I ain't letting you go by yourself. BILL Don't worry, I'll be quick. Just stay here, no sense everybody getting drenched. JERRY I agree. BABY Yeah, it won't take long and besides you sassy poodle girls will slow us down. Baby jumps up and gets out of the car. BILL Don't worry, I'll be right back. BABY Come on. JERRY Don't forget the flashlight, it's pretty dark out there. BILL Thanks. JERRY No problem. Bill kisses Mary good-bye and EXITS. Mary watches Baby and Bill head off into the WOODS. Baby turns and makes a kissy face at Mary. EXT. MISS BUNNY'S HOLLYWOOD REVUE - DAY A hand painted tin sign surrounded by flashing lights which reads MISS BUNNY'S HOLLYWOOD REVUE hangs over the entrance to a small garage. Movie star portraits of JEAN HARLOW, W.C. FIELDS and CLARK GABLE adorn the walls of the garage. An over the hill ex-glamour girl, MISS BUNNY, 55, comes into frame. She's dressed in a sparkling red gown with feathers in her hair. MISS BUNNY (bad Marilyn Monroe imitation) Hi, I'm Miss Bunny and welcome to my Hollywood Revue... (she giggles) ...where the stars shine forever. INT. MISS BUNNY'S HOLLYWOOD REVUE - DAY Tinseltown lives. Tin foil is wrapped around everything, the walls, doors and ceiling. Fake cement handprints of movie greats cover the tiny floor. Badly sculpted statues of MARILYN MONROE, GROUCHO MARX and JOHN WAYNE stand in the corners. Dead center is a small puppet show stage. MISS BUNNY Hi, this is the place where the magic happens. CLOSE UP - SQUIRREL A stuffed squirrel dressed in a gray skirt and jacket, a tilted hat sits atop its head. MISS BUNNY (holding up squirrel) This is Jenny, she is our resident Ingrid Bergman. Miss Bunny picks up a stuffed white cat wearing a brown trenchcoat. MISS BUNNY This is Ronald J. Perrywinckle... our Humphrey Bogart... today we'll be doing a scene from Casablanca. Miss Bunny begins to make the dead animal puppets interact. She provides their voices. HUMPHREY CAT If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him you'll regret it... maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but soon and for the rest of your life. INGRID SQUIRREL But what about us? HUMPHREY CAT We'll always have Paris. We didn't have, we lost it... until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night. INGRID SQUIRREL When I said I would never leave you. HUMPHREY CAT And you never will. EXT. WOODS - NIGHT A single flashlight beam cuts through the darkness of the dense woods. Bill stumbles behind Baby, she is clearly in her element. BILL How much further? BABY Almost there... are you in a hurry or something? BILL Well, yeah, kind of. INT. CAR - NIGHT Jerry is stretched out across the front seat, reading a book on Freak Shows. Denise and Mary sit in the back, curled up under layers of blankets and clothes. DENISE Fuck, it's freezing. JERRY Hey, listen to this... I think this is related to our Dr. Satan. DENISE Oh, yeah. JERRY Yeah, in this book there's a chapter called Self Made Freaks about how people would mutilate themselves in order to work in a freak show. It mostly talks about tattooed people and wild men of Borneo and shit like that, but there is one mention of a single case where a woman was suspected of having her arms removed on purpose to become an arm-less wonder. DENISE Yeah, so how does that fit with the story of four morons with a flat tire looking for a dead tree? JERRY It says, "records show that Ellie Thompson was born in 1914 of normal physical stature and lived a life of normal bearings, until such time that she was placed in the care of the Willows State Mental Facility." DENISE So. JERRY Now she was put in the nuthouse in 1930 at the age of 16. DENISE Why? JERRY (scanning the book) Blah, blah, blah... it doesn't say, but she was released sometime in 1937, only to reappear as Ellie Bogdan, the arm-less wonder. Says she, "criss-crossed the United States constantly in carnivals and freak shows until her death in 1946." DENISE Yeah? JERRY These dates perfectly correspond with the time frame of our beloved Dr. Satan working at the looney bin. I'll bet he amputated her arms. DENISE So what? JERRY I don't know, I just thought it was interesting. DENISE You know what Jerry, who really cares at this point? JERRY I don't... (to himself) ...I just thought it was weird. MARY (bursting in) God damn it, I must be fucking crazy to let him go off with that crazy fucking bitch. JERRY Huh? MARY That stupid hillbilly slut. JERRY Oh, don't blow everything out of proportion. MARY You didn't see the look she threw me. She's up to something. DENISE Yeah, Jerry, she said some pretty fucked shit to us. JERRY When? DENISE When you were outside with Bill. MARY She said we look like pussy lickers or some shit like that. DENISE Yeah, she said we looked queer. JERRY Aw, get over it, she's just some dopey redneck, she ain't smart enough to be up to nothing... I mean anything... chicks. EXT. FARMHOUSE - NIGHT An old Gothic FARMHOUSE stands atop a hill at the end of a long sloping dirt road. SCARECROWS with pumpkin heads hang CRUCIFIED on crosses lining the drive. Everything is severely overgrown. Bill and Baby enter the gates of the FARM, they walk up the main drive. Baby runs forward and begins jumping around in the huge mud puddles, then runs up onto the front porch of the old house. The front of the house is covered with strange junk art. Hundreds of dolls faces are nailed to the walls. BABY These are all my dolls. I use to like to chop their heads off. Broken bottles and cans are cemented together in weird HUMAN FIGURES, ANIMAL SKINS stretched over bone armatures form a makeshift roof. Glowing down from the upper windows are grinning JACK-O'- LANTERNS. BABY The door's locked. I'll gotta go around... wait here. BILL OK. Baby RUNS OFF around the side of the house. Bill stands looking off into the distance at the desolate farm grounds. The rain continues to hammer down. From BILL'S POV we see a silhouette of a LONE FIGURE walking in the distance. The shape of a large dog follows behind him. Bill JUMPS, startled by the sound of the heavy front door opening. BILL Christ, you scared the shit out of me. BABY Aw, you ain't seen nothing yet. BILL Is your brother ready to go? BABY Oh... yeah, he already left. We'll wait inside, come on. BILL He left! BABY Yeah, come on. Baby GRABS Bill by the arm and pulls him into the house. The heavy iron door slams shut. INT. CAR - SAME Denise and Mary sit facing one another, playing cards. Mary deals from a deck. Jerry naps in the front seat. MARY How long has it been? DENISE I don't know... about half an hour. A metal KLANG is faintly heard. MARY What was that? DENISE What? I didn't hear anything. MARY Wait... quiet. Turn off the radio. Mary reaches over the front seat and turns off the radio. DENISE Now... listen. They sit in silence. MARY I don't hear anything. DENISE (whispering) Shhhhhh, quiet. MARY I still don't. DENISE Turn on the headlights. See if anything is out there. Mary turns on the headlights. Denise lets out a blood-curdling SCREAM. Jerry bolts up. JERRY What... what! Standing dead center in the road is the GIANT SHAPE of a MAN holding a heavy chain with a huge hook on the end. MARY Lock the doors... quick, quick. Everybody scrambles to lock the doors. DENISE Holy fuck, holy fuck, holy fuck. On closer inspection, Jerry notices the chain is attached to the back of a TOW TRUCK. JERRY Hold on, hold on! Everybody calm down! It's the tow truck guy. MARY What! DENISE Jesus Christ. MARY I think I'm gonna have a fucking heart attack. JERRY (Scottish accent) OK lassies, I think it's time you get to gripping reality. MARY Enough with the stupid voices. The brute man attaches the chain to the car and begins raising it with his truck. A SIGN on the side of the truck reads FIREFLY TOWING. DISSOLVE TO: CLOSE UP - TV SCREEN We are watching a scene from THE OLD DARK HOUSE. GLORIA STUART, RAYMOND MASSEY and MELVYN DOUGLAS are standing in the rain pounding on a huge wooden door. GLORIA STUART Knock again louder. MELVYN DOUGLAS I should of thought that was loud enough to wake the dead... that's an idea. RAYMOND MASSEY What is? MELVYN DOUGLAS Wouldn't it be dramatic, supposing the people inside were dead. All stretched out with the lights quietly burning about them. GLORIA STUART I'm sure it would be very amusing. We pull back from the TV to see Bill's clothes drying by the fireplace. Bill, now wearing overalls and a flannel shirt, is sitting on an old over stuffed sofa. BILL So, you live here alone... I mean with just your brother? BABY (speaking from the next room) No. There's a bunch a us 'round somewhere... I think Mamma's sleepin'. She sleeps a lot, now... do you want marshmallows? BILL Um, yeah sure, I guess. BABY You sure do a lot of guessing. Baby sets down the tray, making sure to bend over close to Bill. She hands him his drink and sits down next to him. BILL Thank you. BABY You're welcome. Baby moves closer to Bill, he begins to get nervous. BILL Hey, um... (pointing to the mounted animal head over the fireplace) ...what kind of animal is that? BABY A dead one. BILL (sipping his drink) Mmmmm, this is tasty. BABY (scoops out some marshmallow with her finger) Ain't the only thing tasty in this house. (licks it off) BILL I wonder what time it is. Seems kind of late. BABY Don't worry, sugar. It ain't past my bedtime... are you flirting with me? BILL What? No, I'm was worried that... I was just wondering what's taking so long. BABY Oh. Maybe R.J. got into a crash and killed everbody? BILL That's not something to joke about. BABY (rolls her eyes) OK, sorry... maybe the Great Pumpkin ate 'em up. Finally, the SOUND OF A TRUCK pulling up can be HEARD. Bill jumps up and goes to the window. BILL Hey, great they're back. BABY (sarcastically) Whoopie fucking doo. TV SCREEN - SAME On the B+W screen we see DR. WOLFENSTEIN, a local horror movie host. He looks like a cross between the WOLFMAN and LON CHANEY in LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT. DR. WOLFENSTEIN (sounds like Wolfman Jack) Aaaahooooh, the Doctor is in! Don't move, don't scream. Stay tuned for more creature craziness from channel 68's Halloween eve movie marathon. I'm your host... your ghost host with the most, baby... Dr. Wolfenstein and will be with you until the end. Aaaaaaahooooooh! EXT. FARMHOUSE - NIGHT Bill stands on the front porch watching as the truck roughly jerks the car to a stop. Jerry jumps out, opens the back door and helps Denise. JERRY (looking at Bill) Hey, nice outfit Billy Bob. DENISE Thanks for coming to get us. Little brother almost scared us to death. JERRY (quietly to Bill as he passes) Dude, your chick's a little high strung. Mary is the last one out of the car. She says nothing as she walks to join the others on the porch. Her look says it all as she walks by Bill and into the house. BILL Mary, I'm sorry but he left without me. Mary... come on, you don't think I'd leave you stranded out there. INT. FARMHOUSE - NIGHT Everyone stands around at the fireplace, trying to dry off. DENISE Look. I gotta call my Dad and tell him we're gonna be late. Can I use your phone? Baby sits silently watching TV. DENISE Excuse me, may I please use your phone? MARY (sarcastically) Bill, why don't you ask her... she's your special friend. A VOICE from upstairs answers. MOTHER Ain't got one. MOTHER comes into view from the darkness above. She is in her fifties, but looks younger. A sleazy white trash queen. She slowly descends the stairs. DENISE Huh? Oh, hi. You really don't have a phone? MOTHER No, none. I had one once, back in '57 maybe... I don't know. Really ain't nobody we wanna be jaw flapping at around here no more. JERRY Hey, maybe the guy with the tow truck could drive us to a phone. MOTHER His name is Rufus, Rufus Jr., but we all call him R.J. JERRY Oh, right. MOTHER What do they call you, sweety? JERRY Um, I'm Jerry... that's Bill... Denise and Mary. BILL Yeah, maybe R.J. could just tow us and our car to the nearest garage. DENISE I mean obviously we will compensate you for your troubles. MOTHER Oh, you ain't no troubles, no, no, no fuss. (claps her hands) Baby... go see what Rufus Jr. is doing with these nice folks' automobile. Baby slowly rises like a defiant child and walks out of the room. MOTHER In the meanwhile please make yourselves at home. DISSOLVE TO: MONTAGE Gruesome crime scene photos flash across the screen. CHILDREN (singing, off screen) 98 bodies in your bed, Some are green, some are red. Eat the flesh and pick the bones, Drink the blood when you get home. 99 bodies in the ground, Some are blue, some are brown. Gather 'round the people said, Where do you go when you are dead? INT. FARMHOUSE - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Mother, Jerry, Denise and Mary are all seated on the sofa. Bill sits in an easy chair. MOTHER So, what brings you kids way out here, ain't you got something better to do for Halloween than wander around out here in the sticks? JERRY Well, I thought I'd maybe take in a hoedown. MOTHER (flirting) Oh, really... (puts her hand on Jerry's knee and winks) ...well, I'm a pretty good dancer if you know what I mean... I bet I got a few moves you ain't never seen. JERRY I don't doubt that. DENISE No, he's just joking. We don't really have any plans other than spending the night at my Dad's house... (glances at Jerry) ...which is where we were headed when our car broke down. MOTHER That's nice. DENISE Yeah, I guess I'll just help him hand out candy to the trick or treaters. JERRY And I'm gonna help put the razor blades in the candy apples. MOTHER I'll bet you are... you are a naughty little thing aren't ya. JERRY I was just kidding. Bill and Mary snicker at Jerry's comments. Denise tries to keep a straight face. MOTHER Oh, I get it... I guess you think you're too good for the simple pleasures of Halloween. MARY No, just a little too old. MOTHER Oh really, well I hope something changes your mind some day. Baby returns from the garage. BABY Tiny's home. MOTHER What about R.J.? BABY Oh, he was already gone before I seen him... but Tiny saw him and said he said he was going out to the yard to get a new wheel. BILL The yard, what's that? MOTHER It's an old auto junkyard out in Baldwin. DENISE How long is that gonna take? MOTHER He should be back in a couple hours. MARY A couple hours! DENISE Can't Tiny drive us to a phone? Mother and Baby laugh. MOTHER (laughing) Tiny ain't got no car, he ain't even got a bicycle. DENISE How's he get around out here? BABY He walks, duh. MARY Fucking great. MOTHER I know you're my guests and welcome but I'd please advise you to keep from cussing while in my house, thank you. MARY Sorry. MOTHER Well, even though I know it seems childish to you all. Tonight is Halloween eve and it special to us so you are all invited to stay for dinner. Under the circumstances they realize they have no choice. They grin and bear it. DENISE Thank you. JERRY (imitates Elvis) Yes, thank you. Thank you very much. MOTHER (Mother touches Jerry's shoulder suggestively) You're a strange one, aren't ya honey. I think you and me are get on like... (she thinks for a second) ...like something real good. Camera moves over to the TV. THE END fades up on screen. Dr. Wolfenstein appears over the credits. DR. WOLFENSTEIN There well, who knew there was love to be found in The Old Dark House. Coming up next, do not move a muscle, an artery or a vein as we venture into another creepy classic... are you ready for THE WOLFMAN, baby? INT. HOUSE - DINING ROOM Bill, Jerry, Mary and Denise are now all seated around a large dining room table. A thick mountain of candles sits burning dead center on the table, giving off a warm glow. Dozens of Halloween decorations dangle from strings over the table, spiders, bats and black cats. There is a hand-made PAPER MACHE MASK sitting on each plate. MARY (holding up the witch mask) I hope to Christ she doesn't expect us to wear these things. BILL Whatever it is just do it. The more we play along the faster we'll get the hell out of here. DENISE Really, now is not the time to make waves. JERRY Hey, I'm just waiting for Cousin Itt to show up. DENISE Shhhhhh. Mother walks in holding a covered serving tray. DENISE You sure you don't need any help in there? MOTHER No dear, I'm fine. Now what kind of host would I be if I put my guests to this kind of work. She sets the tray and goes back in the kitchen. BOOM! The sound of the front door SLAMMING shut is heard, followed by the POUNDING of heavy footsteps. Mother's and Baby's shouting is heard. BABY (O.S.) Ma, Tiny's in. MOTHER (O.S.) Go tell him to get your Grandpa. INT. HOUSE - BABY'S ROOM Baby is standing in front of her closet staring at her clothes. The walls of her room are covered with B+W photos of movie stars. BABY (whining) Ma, I can't, I'm busy getting dressed. INT. HOUSE - DINING ROOM TINY ENTERS and removes his coat. Everyone is speechless. Tiny is over SEVEN FEET TALL and weighs THREE HUNDRED POUNDS. He is wearing a black sweater with a big red skull stitched into it. A red knit ski mask covers his face. Black gloves cover his hands. Tiny sits at the table, looks down at his plate and says nothing. Mother comes to fetch Tiny. She relays a message to him with strange hand gestures. Tiny gets up and leaves the room. MOTHER You'll have to forgive Tiny, he can't hear so much. DENISE Oh. MOTHER Yeah, my poor baby. It's his Daddy's fault. I mean Earl was a good man... I mean he never hit me or nothing, but one day he just got up and went pure devil on us all. DENISE What happened? Oh, I'm sorry, it's none of my business. MOTHER He tried to burn the house down, said it was possessed by the spirits. Tiny was sleeping in the basement where the fire started. I don't think Earl ever meant to harm us... but Tiny was badly burnt, his ears were destroyed and most of his skin. BILL Is that why he wears the mask? MOTHER Yeah, my baby boy gets shy around new people, but he'll warm up to ya... especially the ladies. JERRY Great. I thought I felt a certain attraction between Mary and Tiny soon as he walked in. MOTHER Maybe. He's a real lady killer. JERRY Didn't ya think, Mary? Mary just smiles, then gives Jerry a dirty look. MOTHER Well, we'll see... the night is young and so are you... oh well, couple more minutes. Mother returns to the kitchen. DENISE (elbows Jerry) Don't be such a fucking smart ass. MARY Yeah, it's really your fault that we're stuck in this shithole in the first place. JERRY Oh, don't worry she didn't get offended by what I said. You two got to lighten up... right, Bill? BILL Whatever, at this point all I care about is food. I'm starving and I got a fucking killer headache. JERRY Hey, I asked you if you wanted some chicken. BILL Didn't look like chicken to me, more like fried pussy cat. JERRY (shrugs) Tasted pretty good. INT. FARMHOUSE - GRAMPA'S ROOM - NIGHT In a cramped, darkened room we see the huge shape of Tiny hovering over a BED containing the hunched, fragile old body of GRAMPA. Grampa struggles to sit, then slowly slides his legs over the edge of the bed. Tiny helps him to stand. GRAMPA God damn it, I can do it. I can do it myself, ya big monkey. I ain't dead yet... so don't you and your sister start counting out my money yet. Grampa steadies himself against Tiny. They slowly walk out of the room. GRAMPA God damn, my dogs are barking. As they move into the light of the hallway, it is clear that Grampa is in his late 80's. Grampa quickly grows tired. Tiny picks him up in his arms and carries him down the stairs to the dining room. As they move past, the camera comes to rest on a STRANGE OBJECT sitting on a shelf. A LARGE GLASS JAR containing a DEFORMED BABY. The pickled punk looks to have a small second head growing from its temple. The label on the jar reads STUFFY 1973. The sound from the TV fades up in the background. BELA LUGOSI'S VOICE can be heard. BELA LUGOSI (V.O.) Your hands, please. Your left hand shows your past... DISSOLVE TO: TV SCREEN Bela is seen as a fortune teller holding a woman's hands. This is a scene from The Wolfman. BELA LUGOSI ...and your right hand shows your future. CLOSE UP We see a tight shot of the woman's palm. A pentagram appears. INT. DENISE'S FATHER'S HOUSE - NIGHT We PULL BACK from the TV to find Donald Willis sitting in a old easy chair. The room is modest, but comfortable. He reaches over and picks up a small alarm clock, notices the time, concerned look comes over his face. The phone rings. He quickly answers it. MR. WILLIS Hello, Denise? Disappointment. He mutes the TV. MR. WILLIS Oh, yeah... no, Fred. I was hoping you were Denise, she's a little late. (pausing) Yeah, yeah I'm sure the rain just slowed 'em down... yeah... uh-huh, yeah... no, no you can keep it 'til Tuesday... alright, talk to ya tomorrow, bye. Unmutes the sound on the TV. INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT The feast is on. Mother, Tiny, Grampa, Jerry, Bill, Mary and Denise are gathered around the table. MOTHER OK, everyone, put on your masks. We can't very well eat with our everyday faces exposed. Mother puts on her mask, Tiny and Grampa follow. Jerry, Bill and Denise slowly raise up their masks, Mary hesitates. GRAMPA (to Mary) Christ kid, put it on. She ain't letting any of us touch the grub 'til you're wearing the damn thing. Mary rolls her eyes and complies. JERRY I've been meaning to ask you, Mrs... Ummmm. MOTHER (hesitates) Firefly. JERRY Firefly... mmmmm odd name. Mrs. Firefly, do you know anything about the legend of Dr. Satan? BILL Here we go. Grampa shifts his eyes onto Mother. MOTHER (nervously) Well, I'm not much for local gossip an this and that, but I've heard it mentioned in passing over the years but... I mean folks is queer and they say things, crazy things you know what I mean? GRAMPA It's all talk, yakty yak, like a bunch of hungry chipmunks... Christ, Dr. Satan. That takes the bull's nuts alright... (starts laughing) ...hey, I hear some genius up north got a hot line on the Easter Bunny for ya. A voice from the shadows interrupts. OTIS (slowly) I know all about what you want to know about. A PALE FIGURE creeps forward like NOSFERATU from a dark corner of the room. This is OTIS. He stands six foot, but is deathly slim. His skin is translucent, glowing in the dark. Long thin white hair covers his head. His eyes are grey. He is an ALBINO. He is holding a GLASS JAR containing a SMALL FETUS. On closer inspection we see there are two small bodies joined to one head. The label reads WOLF. MOTHER (happy surprise) Otis! I can't believe you decided to come down and join us... and you brought little Wolf. This really is a special night... all my babies together. Otis sets the disturbing jar of Wolf on the table. He leans forward onto the jar, resting his chin. OTIS Now, I don't know where you heard all your little fairy fables about Dr. Satan but... BILL From a Captain Spaulding down at some museum. OTIS (laughing) That old bitch hog don't know shit. He tells cute little tattle-tales to sell his junk, but he don't sell no Yankee boys no truth. JERRY But something happened, right? I mean the story is based on a real incident, right? GRAMPA (mouth full of food) What are you, Jimmy Olsen cub reporter for the Daily Asshole? MOTHER Grampa... watch the language. OTIS I ain't sure that you really need to know. It's better you go home still dreaming about your kitty cats and puppy dogs. JERRY I really want to know. GRAMPA Hey, the kid wants to know. Enlighten him. OTIS Boy, I bet you'd stick your head in the fire if I told ya you'd see Hell... meanwhile you too stupid to realize you got a demon sticking out your ass singing, "Holy Miss Moly, I got a live one." DENISE Can we please change the subject? The CLOCK on the wall strikes TEN. GRAMPA (shouting) Dinner's over. (pushes his plate back and stands up) Ladies and Germs... it's showtime. Grampa hobbles out of the room. BILL What's he so excited about? DENISE Yeah, showtime for what? MOTHER For the show. It's Halloween eve and time for our show. JERRY Oh, you mean on TV. MOTHER No, no, no it's so much more special than that... you'll see, you'll be the first to ever see. I think this is something you'll really love. JERRY Great. EXT. FARMHOUSE - BARN - NIGHT Billy, Jerry, Mary and Denise stand waiting in front of an old barn. Tiny unlocks the huge doors of the barn and swings them open. Standing inside waiting is Mother. She is all dressed up for the occasion. MOTHER Please, come in... how many in your party... (she counts the heads) ...one, two, three and four... right this way. Mother hands each of them a folded piece of paper, which serves as a program book. Hand drawn on each is an orange pumpkin. INT. FARMHOUSE - BARN - NIGHT We follow Mother inside. Thousands of red Christmas lights hang down, strung through the rotting wood rafters. Crates, barrels and an odd assortment of chairs face a large quilted curtain. Filling these seats are LIFELESS DUMMIES. MOTHER Please be seated. Mother motions toward four empty seats in the front row. JERRY (whispering) This is way too fucked up for words. MARY (loud whisper) I know the words... fucking psycho fucking bullshit, that's the words. BILL Just grin and bear it. DENISE That food... (holding stomach) ugh, I feel like I'm gonna puke. Jerry, Bill, Mary and Denise take their seats. Mary flips open the program. Inside, written in crayon, are the words: HALLOWEEN EXTRAVAGANZA -- starring the Comedy Legend GRAMPA and the World Famous BABY. MARY (to Bill) Check this out. BILL Well, ya can't complain I never take you anyplace. The sound of a warped crackling record fills the room. Lounge music. A small spotlight hits the quilted curtain covering the stage. Mother Firefly stands behind the controls. She is smiling proudly. The curtain clumsily parts TO REVEAL: A stage set pieced together from amusement park wreckage. A giant painted plywood devil looms over the stage, surrounded by dancing skeletons and demon girls. A microphone stands center stage. BILL (quietly) I can't believe what I'm seeing. JERRY I know, this is fucking nuts. MARY This is starting to make me real uncomfortable. BILL Just sit back and enjoy the show. The sound of CANNED APPLAUSE fills the room. Bill begins to applaud, Jerry and Denise join in. Mary does not. GRAMPA (V.O.) Ladies and gentlemen, straight from his smash six week sold out run at Tiki-Ti Club... the Stardust lounge is proud to present Mr. Sexy himself... Grampa Hugo. Grampa walks out to center stage, mic in hand and begins to speak. GRAMPA Hey, let me tell ya a story... so I'm hanging out with my buddy Hal Jackowictz and I'm like, hey Hal let's go get some booze and chase the chickens... fucking Hal says no, no the old battle axe at home will break my balls... I gotta get my ass home. The kids stare in shock at Grampa. Jerry begins to laugh. GRAMPA So, I tell 'im... Hal, here's the secret. Go home tonight, crawl into bed, get under the covers and eat your wife's pussy... I mean jam your face right in the bush. Jerry starts to giggle. DENISE (quietly) What are you laughing at? JERRY I don't know, I think he's funny. DENISE This isn't funny, it's twisted. GRAMPA So, Hal goes home, jumps in, starts chomping and licking away at her pussy, she's screaming and howling... totally passes out from the experience. MARY Dear God, let this end. GRAMPA Now, Hal... He's feeling pretty good, so he goes into the bathroom for a quick shave... (pauses) ...suddenly he lets out a horrible scream. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! The recorded crowd chuckles. GRAMPA Sitting there on the toilet is Hal's wife Gloria... and she says, "Quiet down, you'll wake Grandma!" The recorded crowd screams with laughter, as does Jerry. Bill, Denise and Mary look at him like he's crazy. GRAMPA Thank you, you're too kind, too kind... stay in your seats, coming up next we got something special for you men out there. The curtains close and the stage goes dark. DENISE Shit, I'm all for being a sport, but this is ridiculous. BILL (looking at his watch) Man, it's already ten thirty. MARY I'm with Denise, can't we just walk to someplace, this is getting fucking stupid. JERRY Negative. Shit, we are so deep in the sticks we could walk for hours and find zero. BILL Yeah, I'd say at this point all we can do is just wait it out. There's nothing else. DENISE I suppose. I mean they're obviously all bonkers, but I guess they're harmless. MARY I fucking hope so. The stage lights come up. The recorded applause and music begin. Baby enters the stage. She is dressed in a home-made showgirl outfit. She begins to dance clumsily to the music. She appears to be somewhat intoxicated. The vocals come on and Baby begins to lipsync to the song. DENISE You gotta be kidding me. This chick is wasted. JERRY Shhhhhh. MARY How much is a person supposed to stand? BILL (motioning for Mary to keep her voice down) Quiet. MARY (sarcastically) Oh, I'm sorry, bothering you? Was I disturbing your viewing pleasure? Baby makes her way down from stage on to floor level. She gyrates and seductively TEASES one of the dummy audience members. Baby moves over to Jerry. Stroking her hand down his face. Denise tries to look amused. Jerry smiles uncomfortably. Baby strolls past Denise and stops in front of Mary. Baby pauses and pinches Mary's cheek and winks. Mary is FURIOUS. Baby moves over to Bill. Mary watches like a mother hawk. Baby sings and dances with all of her attention focused on Bill. Baby puts her arms around Bill's neck and sits on his lap. Mary BOLTS FORWARD and SHOVES Baby off of Bill. Baby crashes onto the floor. MARY Take that, you fucking slut! (Mary spits at Baby) Fucking redneck whore! BABY You shouldn't a done that. MARY Why? You gonna do something about it? BABY (standing up) Yeah, I'll do something. Baby takes out a straight razor from behind her back. BABY I'll cut your fucking tits off and shove 'em down your throat. MOTHER Baby! Stop! Mrs. Firefly runs down from her position behind the spotlight and intercedes. BABY Come on, ma... this bitch's got it coming. MOTHER No, I told you... SCREECH! The garage door slides open. Rufus has returned. RUFUS JR. (interrupting) Car's done. DENISE Thank God. MOTHER I suggest you kids leave now. MARY Don't worry, I'm gone. EXT. FARMHOUSE - NIGHT Bill, Jerry, Denise and Mary climb back into their car. BILL Don't look back, just get in the car. DENISE Lock the fucking doors. INT. CAR - NIGHT Bill begins to pull the car down the long dirt driveway towards the road. The heavy rain makes visibility difficult. BILL (straining to see through the darkness) Almost there. JERRY Jesus, you think she was really gonna cut you? MARY (leaning her forehead on the window) Of course she was gonna cut me, she's a fucking nut... (closes her eyes and takes a breath) I knew she was crazy from the second we picked her up. SLAM! Suddenly, Baby pounds her fist against Mary's window. Mary jumps back in terror. BABY (screaming) You're in Hell, bitch! You're gonna die like a dog! Baby disappears into the darkness. MARY Go! Go! Go! Get us out of here! Bill pulls the car up to the front gate. It is chained shut with a huge padlock. LIGHTNING CRASHES, illuminating the crucified scarecrows. FLASH CLOSE-UP CUTS - of grinning jack-o-lantern faces peer down from above. INT. CAR - NIGHT Bill opens the car door, starts to get out. MARY (hysterical) What are you doing! BILL I gotta open the gate. MARY Drive through it! BILL It won't work. JERRY Holy fuck, hurry up. Jerry, Mary and Denise watch through the windshield as Bill struggles to unlatch the thick iron gates. SUDDENLY, one of the SCARECROWS JUMPS down from his cross and SMASHES Bill over the head with a HEAVY CLUB. Bill drops to his knees. MARY Bill! Help him! Jerry throws open his door to get out. He's SHOVED BACK into the car by another, larger scarecrow outside his door. This scarecrow begins smashing the car's windows with a METAL PIPE. Bill lays motionless, face down in the mud. His attacker turns his attention on the car. He also begins smashing the car's windows. EXT. CAR - NIGHT From a distance we see Jerry pulled from the car and beaten. The girls are helplessly trapped inside the destroyed vehicle. The scarecrows continue to pound on the car. As we fade out, the sound of a BARKING DOG can be heard. FADE TO: EXT. FARMHOUSE - MAGIC From a long shot, we see the farmhouse in the early morning sunrise. All is still. The sound of an engine starting breaks the early morning silence. Rufus's tow truck is seen pulling away from behind the house. The BEATEN REMAINS of Bill's car are towed behind it. EXT. WILLIS HOUSE - SUNRISE Darkness, except for the face of an alarm clock. The time is 7:00 AM. TICK, TICK, TICK... BUZZZZZZ. The alarm goes off. A hand reaches over and turns off the alarm. We hear a deep groan. A light turns on. INT. WILLIS'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Don Willis wakes up, having fallen asleep in his easy chair. He sits up and wipes the sleep from his eyes. He runs a hand across his head, smoothing out his thinning grey hair. He picks up a phone next to his bed, dials a number, waits. MR. WILLIS Hi. Lieutenant Broekman please... Donald Willis. He holds. MR. WILLIS Hey, Phil... (listens) Yeah, I'm alright... but I need you to check on something for me. Willis stands, walks to the window, opens the shades, morning sun fills the room. shelf by the window is cluttered with framed photographs. B+W memories of Denise at the beach, RUDY the dog. High school graduations and Donald Willis in uniform with the other members of 56 Precinct. Donald is a FORMER POLICE OFFICER. MR. WILLIS I'm a little worried about Denise. She called me last night from the road, out by Ruggsville at some joint called Spaulding's or something like that, said she'd be here about eleven... but she never showed up. Paces. MR. WILLIS Yeah, if you could run a check on up that way and see about any accidents or road closing or anything, I'd really appreciate it... (listening) ...yeah, yeah, I know... I'm sure nothing happened but, you know me I like to worry... thanks... bye. Hangs up the phone. INT. FARMHOUSE - OTIS'S ROOM - DAY Mary opens her eyes, squinting into the light. Sunlight peers through filth on the windows, fractured by the tattered remains of rotted curtains. Peeling yellowed newspaper serves as wallpaper surrounding the window. Mary's eyes move across the walls to a painting of a BIG EYED KITTEN. She stares at it and smiles. A look of horror begins to appear on her face. She begins to scream uncontrollably. OTIS (off screen) Shut your fucking mouth! She is hysterical. OTIS I said shut your mouth! ZOOM BACK to see Mary wearing a dunce cap, tied to a chair, facing a corner in the farmhouse's attic. This is Otis's art studio. Otis, standing before a large canvas, sets down his paint brush and calmly walks over to Mary. He spins her chair around, clamps her mouth shut with his hand and leans his nose against hers. OTIS (slow and sinister) Listen, you Malibu Barbie middle class piece of shit. I'm trying to work, you got me, work... you ever work? Mary's eyes scream with terror, she nods yes. OTIS Yeah, I'll bet you did. Scooping ice cream to your shitheel friends on summer break... well, I ain't talking about white socks with Mickey Mouse on one side and Donald Duck on the other... shit, you ain't reading no funny books, mamma. Otis raises his paint covered hand. OTIS This is blood and guts, Suzy Q. Our bodies come and go, but this blood is forever... (pulls a small book from his breast pocket) ...let me read you something, listen and learn... you listening? Otis pulls back his hand, ready to backhand her across the face with the book. She nods again. He lowers the book. OTIS (gesturing dramatically) And the angels, all pallid and wan, Uprising, unveiling, affirm That the play is the tragedy "Man" And its hero the Conqueror Worm... (pauses) ...you get that? Art is eternal, you get me, mamma? Mary stares dumbfounded. OTIS Now, I'm gonna remove my hand... you make a sound and I swear I'll slit you open and make you eat your own fucking intestines... you get me? She nods again. He slowly removes his hand from her mouth. Mary tries to remain calm, but starts to hyperventilate. Tears roll down her face. MARY (whispering) Why? Why are you doing this? OTIS Doing what? Messy up your day? Well, fuck lady there are some bigger issues at hand... than your fucking have a nice fucking day bumper sticker shit! MARY Where's Bill? OTIS (chuckling) Well, Bill... he's a good guy, he's been great help to me... a real blessing... I couldn't have asked for a better specimen. I mean you don't know what a dry spell I've had, total block... (slaps his forehead) ...total block... but Bill he's OK. Mary looks confused, but relieved. MARY (softly) Where is he? OTIS Let's go see. Otis grabs the back of the chair and drags her across the room towards a curtained off area. Whoosh! He pulls her through the curtains. From behind the curtain we hear Mary SCREAMING and Otis LAUGHING. MARY (behind curtain) Bill? No, no, no! What have you done? Bill! INT. CURTAIN ROOM - OTIS'S ROOM - DAY Ugliness. Decay. Pain. Carefully arranged on a model's platform is the severed torso of Bill sewn to a large homemade fish tail. He is lying on his ride side posing. Bill's face is frozen in a death scream. OTIS Behold... The Fish-Boy! MARY (repeating to herself) This can't be real, this can't be real, this can't be real. OTIS Oh, it's real... as real as I want it to be, mamma... (grabs his canvas and holds it in her face) ...look, see the magic in my brush strokes. Painted on the canvas is the gruesome scene of Bill as the Fish-Boy. MARY (crying) Fuck you, you fucking freak! OTIS Oh, come now... we're all creatures of God and freaks in our own way... (twitches and shakes) ...but if you'll notice... (points to a blank spot in the painting) right here, needs a little something, heh? Otis slowly puts down the canvas, turns and picks up a huge hunting knife. MARY What are you doing? (squirming) ...no, stop... please, please. OTIS You, my dear worm feeder, are about to become immortalized. Otis draws back the knife. MARY (screaming) Noooooooooooo! Otis swings the knife forward, directly into the camera. CLOSE UP - CLOWN FACE Ravelli's clown head bobs back and forth. PULL BACK TO: Ravelli, wearing his clown head, stands by the road side waving to passing cars. EXT. SPAULDING'S - DAY A police car drives past Ravelli and comes to a stop. OFFICER GEORGE WYDELL, 42, a big, slightly paunchy man with a big mustache and mirrored sunglasses, steps from his car. Following close behind, OFFICER STEVE NAISH, 29, tall athletic. WYDELL (pauses, looks around, pulls up his belt) Well, let's go see if the nut that runs this place can help us. NAISH Right. They walk to the door. INT. SPAULDING'S - DAY The door swings open. Wydell enters slowly, putting on his best cowboy attitude. Naish follows suit. Wydell, hands on his belt, struts up to the counter. No one is around. A rusted bell sits on the counter, taped to it is a handwritten note, "ring for service". Wydell rings it once, waits, no response. Rings it again, waits, no response. NAISH (looking around the room) Get a load of all this crap... this is one sick place. Wydell begins ringing the bell non-stop. Spaulding shouts from the backroom. CAPT. SPAULDING Whoever's a jerking off on that bell better be gone when I get out there... 'cause I'm gonna rip your nuts off. Spaulding enters from behind the curtain, angry. He sees the troopers and puts on a phony grin. CAPT. SPAULDING Officers, officers what can I do for you today? I ain't fried up the birds yet... if that's what you're ring a ding dinging about. WYDELL (pulls a paper from his pocket) What I need are some answers. (unfolds the paper to reveal a picture of Denise) CAPT. SPAULDING Well, I'll try but I don't know nothing 'bout nobody. I'm a guy who likes to mind his own business, if ya get what I'm saying. WYDELL (holds up picture) You seen this girl? Say... within the last 24 hours. Spaulding reaches out and grabs the picture. CAPT. SPAULDING (studies the picture) Yeah, yeah I seen her. Good looking kid, but not really my type... (gesturing with his hands) ...I like meaty, eh? NAISH (losing patience) Hey ass clown, how 'bout some answers. He ain't interested in your love life. WYDELL Come on, get with the facts. CAPT. SPAULDING Hmmmmmmmmm? WYDELL What'd you see, who was she with, where were they going? CAPT. SPAULDING Aw, she was with some nosey, smartass high-rise kids. They were poking around... asking stupid questions. NAISH Questions about what? CAPT. SPAULDING This and that, mostly some tired Dr. Satan bullshit... they got a gander at the display back there and thought they could solve the great Deadwoods mystery. WYDELL And... CAPT. SPAULDING And I gave 'em directions out there, up by the old farm row... I figured what's the harm. Stupid kids probably going out to piss up a rope and got themselves turned around backasswards and got lost as shit. WYDELL Is that all... think real hard. CAPT. SPAULDING Yeah, they weren't here but a few minutes, didn't really have time to get as up close and personal as I do with most of the assholes that wander through here. WYDELL How's about you give me those same directions. CAPT. SPAULDING Yeah, yeah, sure. You don't have to get all True Grit all over my ass... I'll give'm to ya... you can knock yourself silly for all I care. WYDELL (hands him a note pad) Enough talk, write. INT. TOW TRUCK - DAY We are cruising down the road. A bobbing head skeleton toy glued to the dashboard wiggles with each bump in the road. Behind the wheel is Rufus Jr., riding shotgun is Baby, dressed in her Sunday best. The radio is blasting. BABY (screaming over the music) We're gonna have fun tonight, bro. RUFUS JR. Yeah, fun. They speed off. EXT. CHERRYPICKER RD. - WOODS - MIDDAY The police cruiser maneuvers down the rough dirt road. INT. POLICE CAR - MIDDAY Wydell and Naish scan the surrounding woods for any sign of Denise and her friends. NAISH Boss, the way I see it is these kids probally stop off somewhere, bought a bunch of booze and are off getting shitfaced. WYDELL I hope you're right, but my guts are telling me different. NAISH Your Spidey senses tingling. WYDELL Yeah... (realizes what he just said) ...huh, what the hell are you talking about? NAISH You know, your hyper sensitive Spidey senses... like Spider-man... (pauses) ...you know, like in the comics. WYDELL How old do you think I am? I know who the fuck Spider-man is. Get to your point. NAISH You know, his senses start tingling... when he was approaching danger and shit. WYDELL I always favored the Hulk. NAISH Hulk was dumb as shit. WYDELL Aw, fuck. NAISH What. EXT. CHERRYPICKER RD. - WOODS - MIDDAY Bill's car is down in a ditch, run off the side of the road. INT. POLICE CAR - MIDDAY Naish checks the license plate number with his sheet. NAISH Plates match. WYDELL Call the chief... We found 'em. EXT. PINK PUSSY CAT LIQUORS - MIDDAY A small, crummy liquor store stands next to a sleazy motel. A filthy looking hooker leads her customer to a waiting room, a homeless bum stands screaming obscenities in the parking lot. INT. PINK PUSSY CAT LIQUORS - MIDDAY The store is decorated for Halloween. Off to one side is a curtained room. A sign reads "XXX 8mm loops", sex noises can be heard inside. Baby and Rufus stand at the counter waiting for the CASHIER, a skinny geek with glasses, to total up their purchases. The counter is loaded with bottles. The cashier is packing the bottles into cardboard boxes. CASHIER You all having a Halloween party tonight? BABY Now, what makes you think that? CASHIER You all sure are buying a lot of holy water for two people. BABY Yeah, well we like to get fucked up and do fucked up shit, you know what I mean? CASHIER Yeah, yeah... (giggling) ...I like to fuck shit up. BABY I'll bet you do... how much we owe ya... (looks at his name tag) ...Goober? CASHIER (looking down at his tag) Actually it's G. Ober... Gerry Ober, but the guys drew in the other O, fucking assholes. BABY (uninterested) Great story Goober, how much? CASHIER Ummmm... two hundred and eighty-five dollars. Baby throws down three hundred dollars. BABY Keep the change and get yourself a new name. CASHIER Holy crap, thanks! Rufus picks up the boxes from the counter. He and Baby start to walk away. BABY Come on, bro. Let's go. CASHIER (holding out a flyer) Hey, wait take this. Baby stops and grabs the flyer. BABY What's this? CASHIER A missing girl. I use'ta go to school with her, she just up and disappeared some day... real weird. The flyer reads MISSING, KAREN MURPHY, 18. The picture on the flyer shows the smiling chubby face of a young girl. BABY Now isn't she a happy little cherub... oh well (stuffs it in her pocket) ...nobody just up and disappears. RUFUS JR. (mutters) Aliens. BABY Yeah, maybe it was fucking aliens. EXT. PINK PUSSY CAT LIQUOR - MIDDAY Baby and Rufus exit. Rufus loads the boxes into the back of the truck. Baby sits on the curb and lights a cigarette. EXT. CHERRYPICKER ROAD - WOODS - MIDDAY Bill's car is now sitting in the middle of the road. The back is attached to a police tow truck. An additional police cruiser arrives on the scene. Sheriff Huston steps out from his cruiser. HUSTON What'd we here, Georgie? WYDELL A vehicle registered to a William S. Hudley. HUSTON Holy Jesus, somebody had themselves a field day beating the shit outta this thing. WYDELL Yeah, no mercy here. HUSTON Recover any bodies? WYDELL Not yet. HUSTON (inspecting the car) Shit, I wonder what these kids did to bring this much hell down on 'em. WYDELL Just in the wrong place at the wrong time. HUSTON That's the understatement of the year. WYDELL Yep, I suppose it is. INT. BILL'S CAR - WOODS - MIDDAY Naish is digging around under the front seat. NAISH Hey, I found something. Naish crawls out of the car. EXT. CHERRYPICKER ROAD - WOODS - MIDDAY HUSTON What'd ya got there? NAISH Keys. HUSTON Well Christ boy, don't stand there like a prize dog dick with his butthole caught up a tree. NAISH Huh? HUSTON Open up the trunk. NAISH Yes, sir. WYDELL Toss 'em over here. Naish tosses them over the car to Wydell. Wydell fishes through the keys, finds the trunk key and opens it. WYDELL (winces) God damn. HUSTON You find something, Georgie? WYDELL (disgusted) Yep, I found something. We move around the car to see the nude body of Karen Murphy laying in the trunk. Her arms and legs are hog tied. She is dead. The word TRICK is carved into her side. INT. FARMHOUSE BASEMENT - TINY'S ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON Water drips down from the leaking pipes above. Scavenging rats scurry across the concrete floor. In a far corner a single light burns, a child's Humpty Dumpty lamp, illuminating -- Denise is strapped to an old wooden bed. She has been stripped of her own clothes and is now wearing a blue checked little girl's dress. Her hair is tied in pigtails. She is cold and shivering. BOOM. The basement door opens, heavy footsteps lumber down the creaking stairs. It is Tiny. Tiny is wearing an orange T-shirt that reads, "This is my Halloween costume". For the first time we see the skin on his arms, it is severely deformed from burn scars. He is holding a small tray. On the tray is a box of cereal, milk, a bowl and a spoon. Tiny goes over to Denise, sets down the tray, and proudly displays his T-shirt. DENISE (hoarse and dry) Please... Tiny, please. Let me go... help me. Tiny sits down on a stool next to the bed, he stares down at Denise like a confused dog. DENISE (crying) Please, God please. Tiny begins preparing her food, carefully pouring the cereal and milk into the bowl. He stirs it with the spoon. Tiny gently lifts Denise's head and feeds her like a baby. Denise swallows the food, trying not to choke. After a few spoonfuls Tiny stands up and walks over to a dark corner of the room. He pulls a string and turns on a swinging ceiling light. In the light we see a rusty cage, inside are three rail-thin female bodies. Tiny throws the remainder of the cereal into the cage. One of the bodies moves to eat the scraps, the others do not. They are dead. Tiny turns off the overhead light. INT. POLICE CAR - LATE AFTERNOON Wydell and Naish are pulling into a large truck stop parking lot. NAISH You sure this guy's supposed to ride with us? Seems kind of weird. WYDELL (scanning the parking lot) Chief said pick him up and take him with us on our house to house. Guy's an ex-cop, thinks he can help. NAISH Sounds like a bad idea to me, probally just get in the way. WYDELL Yeah, well I guess it's tough to sit on the sidelines and wait when your own kid's missing... besides, ain't no such thing as an ex-cop. NAISH I guess not. WYDELL That must be him. EXT. GAS STATION - LATE AFTERNOON A rundown gas station sits off to the side of the road. A filthy mechanic works on one of the many junked cars. Two fat greasy men sit in the hot sun playing cards. A Chevy Nova sits parked next to the station. Willis leans against the side of the car, drinking coffee from a styrofoam cup. A police cruiser pulls up. Wydell and Naish step from the car. WYDELL Mr. Willis? MR. WILLIS Yes, sir. WYDELL I'm Wydell... this is Naish. Wydell extends his hand, they shake hands. NAISH Hey. MR. WILLIS George Willis... (to Wydell) ...any leads? WYDELL Well, we were on our way out to run a check on a couple farmhouses out on the edge of town... closest thing we got to a lead at this point. MR. WILLIS That's it? WYDELL Well, all we know is the kids were headed out to a spot the locals call Deadwood to play Nancy Drew with some local legend about this character everybody calls Dr. Satan. MR. WILLIS Dr. Satan? NAISH Yeah it's horseshit, just some boogieman crap that the kids like to scare each other with. WYDELL Anyway, there's not much else out that way... so, I figure maybe there's a chance the kids broke down and found their way over to one of the farms. MR. WILLIS What about the body you found? WYDELL (slightly surprised) Oh, yeah, you know about that? Hmmm, that's a strange one. NAISH Local girl, Karen Murphy, been missing for a couple months, figured for a runaway. MR. WILLIS Fit the profile? NAISH No, not really. Good kid, never been in any trouble. WYDELL Her part in this I can't figure... but I will. MR. WILLIS (wipes his brow) Christ, you know it's crazy... (gets choked up) I lived through so many other people's nightmares, you know. Always cool and calm, but... but I never thought I'd be the one needing help, ya know? NAISH Don't worry, we'll find her. WYDELL Let's hit the road, sooner we get a move on sooner we'll find her. Willis dumps out the remaining coffee, tosses the cup into the trash and opens the back door of the police car. He gets inside. Wydell and Naish climb in. The car drives off. INT. FARMHOUSE - OTIS'S ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON THUMP! CLOSE UP on a bloody, bandaged face. THUMP! As we pull back to see Jerry, completely bandaged like a mummy, strapped to a wall. His arms and legs are spread. THUMP! Knives stick in the wall next to the body. GRAMPA (off screen) God damn bitch, what the fuck are you waiting for... Charles Nelson Reilly don't know shit... We pull back further to see Otis pacing wildly back and forth in front of his TV, watching MATCH GAME. Grampa sits eating a TV dinner. OTIS (gesturing at the TV with a knife) Watch that bitch, she's thinking about that Klugman bangin' Brett Sommers, pick motherfucking Richard Dawson. Otis throws the large hunting knife at the wall next to Jerry. OTIS He's the fucking slick jack Match Game man, mamma. GRAMPA Where do they find these people? INT. POLICE CRUISER - LATE AFTERNOON MR. WILLIS Christ, four kids couldn't just disappear. NAISH No they couldn't, somebody had to see something. MR. WILLIS My Denise is a smart girl, she wouldn't do anything stupid, and her boyfriend, he always seemed like a good kid. WYDELL I'm sure there's a logical explanation. MR. WILLIS I pray to God there is. NAISH Turn up this road. MR. WILLIS Where we headed? WYDELL I seem to remember another farm set way back off the road where the car was found. I'm not sure if anyone lives there anymore, but it's worth a look. EXT. FARMHOUSE - LATE AFTERNOON Wydell's cruiser turns up the road to the Firefly farmhouse. It moves past the scarecrows and comes to a halt. The doors swing open and Wydell, Naish and Willis get out. WYDELL I'm gonna see if anybody's home. You and Mr. Willis take a look around the grounds for any sign of anything. NAISH Right... (to Willis) ...come on. Naish and Willis head off around the back of the house. INT. FARMHOUSE - KITCHEN - LATE AFTERNOON Dirty dishes overflow from the rusty metal sink onto the surrounding counters. A large cat walks across piles of food left to rot on a table. Boxes of trash and old newspapers are stacked to the ceiling. Music from a crackling radio is heard. Mother stands stirring a large pot on the stove. A LOUD knocking interrupts her cooking. She sets down her spoon and walks to the front door. Before opening the door she peeks through the curtains of a small side window. She sees Wydell and runs from the kitchen. EXT. FARMHOUSE - LATE AFTERNOON Wydell walks up the front steps. INT. FARMHOUSE - HALLWAY - LATE AFTERNOON Mother runs toward a door at the end of the hall. She swings open the door. INT. FARMHOUSE - OTIS'S ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON Mother bursts into the room. MOTHER Otis! Otis! Come quick, there's cops outside. OTIS What! God damn, how many? GRAMPA (watching TV) What? How many? OTIS Don't worry about it. Otis jumps up and goes over to an old dresser and opens a drawer and pulls out an automatic revolver. MOTHER I don't know. I only saw one. OTIS I'm sure there's more than that... fucking pigs always travel in packs... (handing the gun to Mother) ...here, take this. MOTHER (takes the gun) What should I do? OTIS Go down stairs and play nice... I'm a gonna go 'round back and handle things like I always fucking do. EXT. FARMHOUSE - SAME Naish and Willis move through the cluttered back yard of garbage. NAISH Shit, don't these packrat hillbillies throw anything away? MR. WILLIS Shhhh... you hear that? The soft sound of moaning can be heard. NAISH Yeah, I hear it... where's it coming from? MR. WILLIS Over here, inside the smokehouse. Naish and Willis stand in front of a brick smokehouse. The thick door is chained shut. NAISH (knocking on door) Anybody in there? The moaning gets louder. MR. WILLIS We gotta break it open. NAISH I ain't got a warrant. Willis picks up a broken axe handle and begins prying open the door. MR. WILLIS Tell it to my daughter. NAISH (grabbing hold to help) Shit... fuck procedure. Together they struggle to open the door. INT. FARMHOUSE - SAME Mother slowly opens the front door. The revolver is behind her back, tucked in her apron strings. MOTHER (trying to be sexy) Well hello, officer. WYDELL (holding up his badge) Excuse me, I'm sorry for disturbing you this fine afternoon. MOTHER Aw, you ain't disturbing me, but it kind of looks like rain, don't ya think? WYDELL My name is Lt. Wydell, I'd like to ask you a few questions. MOTHER Questions? Well, heck, I'll tell you anything you want to know. WYDELL I appreciate your cooperation. I'm looking for a missing girl... (holds up picture) ...this girl here, Denise Willis... have you seen her? MOTHER Well, I... mmmmm... no, I ain't seen her, sorry. She begins to close the door. Wydell stops her. WYDELL Please, could I please come in and talk to you for a minute? Maybe you could take a better look at the picture... might stir up something. MOTHER I um... no, I don't think so... WYDELL Please, just a minute. MOTHER Oh, alright... I guess I can trust you... being a man of the law and all. She opens the door. WYDELL Thank you. MOTHER Oh, you are very welcome... Lord knows how I love a man in uniform. She closes the door. EXT. FARMHOUSE - SAME Naish and Willis bust open the door to the smokehouse. Hanging upside down inside is Mary. She hangs from ropes strapped to the ceiling. Large hunks of meat hang around her in the cramped room. NAISH Jesus Christ. MR. WILLIS Call Wydell. INT. FARMHOUSE - SAME Wydell and Mother sit opposite eachother at the kitchen table. Pictures of Denise and her companions are spread on the table. Wydell takes notes as Mother talks. WYDELL Think... do any of these kids look familiar in any way? MOTHER No, I can't say that I ever seen 'em before... (points to the photo of Bill) ...he looks familiar, is he on TV? Suddenly, Naish's voice comes over Wydell's walkie-talkie. NAISH Wydell. WYDELL Excuse me for a second. Pulls walkie-talkie from his belt to respond. WYDELL Over. NAISH We found one. Click. Mother points the gun at Wydell's head and fires. He falls dead to the floor. EXT. FARMHOUSE - SAME Naish hears the commotion over his walkie-talkie. NAISH (into walkie-talkie) Wydell! Over! Wydell! Over! No response. NAISH Fuck, go to the car... call for backup. Tell 'em officer down. MR. WILLIS Right. Willis runs to the car, he gets about halfway there before he is hit in the back by a bullet. He stumbles and falls to his knees. He kneels silent, stunned. We hold on his face and watch as his life passes before him. A quick MONTAGE, we see the following images flash by: A. A father and daughter together in happier times. B. A child's birthday party. C. A baby crying. D. Willis and his deceased wife. Otis fires another shot. Willis falls forward into the mud, dead. Naish sees Willis fall. Before he can react a voice calls out from behind him. OTIS Hands up, bitch! Naish raises his hands. OTIS Turn around, real slow... piggy-pie. Naish turns around. OTIS Interlock your fingers behind your head... (Naish hesitates) ...do it! Naish obeys. OTIS Kneel. Naish kneels down. From a distance we see Otis standing over Naish, execution style. A white puff of smoke comes from Otis's gun and a distant popping sound is heard. Naish falls over on his side. The scene fades to blood red. EXT. FARMHOUSE - NIGHT The house stands silent in the darkness. Lightning crashes, a heavy rain falls. Burning JACK-O'-LANTERNS beam from every window. Smoke rises from the chimney. It is Halloween night. INT. FARMHOUSE - NIGHT CLOSE-UP TV Dr. Wolfenstein is on screen smashing pumpkins with a giant hammer. DR. WOLFENSTEIN It is midnight my little boils and ghouls, the witching hour. Time for all monsters, murderers, maniacs and madmen to go to work... so lock your doors and bolt your windows, sit back and prepare for a fright night classic... (lightning crashes) ...The House of Frankenstein. The movie begins and we move off the TV to see: Hundreds of CANDLES are lit, illuminating everything with a flickering light. Music blares from a cheap stereo. BLACK and ORANGE PAPER STREAMERS are draped from ceiling to floor. Dead center is a LARGE OBJECT standing seven feet tall, it is completely covered in paper Halloween decorations. A long chain connects the object up into the rafters. This is the Halloween party from Hell. An intoxicated Grampa, dressed as FLASH GORDON, sits in his wheelchair watching the TV, drinking MOONSHINE from an unmarked bottle. GRAMPA (slurred drunken yelling at the screen) Get those motherfucker... those high water bitches and rocketship daisies... kill 'em, kill 'em. CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! Tiny stands in a corner tunelessly banging on a large oil drum. He is dressed like a low budget BATMAN, in grey long johns and a black bat mask and cape. A drunk Rufus, wearing a bloody police uniform, stands on a table SHOUTING along to the music through a POLICE MEGAPHONE. Mother and Baby, both dressed as SUPERHEROES, dance around the covered object. Both are swigging moonshine from jugs. RUFUS JR. (shouting through megaphone) Show me, show me, show me, show me! Mother and Baby start TEARING AWAY the paper covering from the object in the middle of the room. They RIP at the paper, spinning and dancing around in a wild pagan ritual. As the shreds of colored paper fall to the floor we see: Denise, Jerry and Mary tied back to back hanging from the chain, each are dressed in a different animal costume. Denise is a pig, Jerry is a donkey and Mary is a rabbit. They are gagged. Mother and Baby laugh at their helpless victims, splashing moonshine in their faces. BABY Drink up, it's party time. MOTHER Enjoy your last night... (looking around) ...where's Otis? BABY Oh, he's coming, he got something real special this year. Rufus jumps down, begins to spin the bound captives around and around. RUFUS JR. Otis, Otis, Otis, Otis! MOTHER Quiet, quiet, you know he won't come down with all this hoop-dee-doo bouncing off the walls. Now, calm down. GRAMPA I shot an elephant in my pajamas this morning... how he got in my pajamas I'll never know. BABY Grampa, shhhhhhhh. GRAMPA Then we tried to remove the tusks, but they were embedded in so firmly that we couldn't budge 'em. MOTHER (gesturing at Grampa) Let him finish. GRAMPA Of course, in Alabama the Tuscaloosa, but that's entirely irrelephant. The room goes silent. All eyes are focused on the stairs. A robed figure, Otis, appears at the top of the stairs, he begins to descend. Rufus waits at the bottom of the stairs. As Otis reaches the last step Rufus hands him the megaphone. Denise, Mary and Jerry struggle to watch as they in turn rotate past the scene unfolding. OTIS (through the megaphone) I'm the one who brings the Christmas candy... now tell me (pauses and raises his arms) ...Who's your Daddy? Otis walks closer to the rotating captives. OTIS I'm the one who brings the devil's brandy... (waits) MOTHER Who's your Daddy! OTIS Yes! I'm the one who beats you when you're bad... BABY Who's your Daddy! MOTHER Who's your Daddy! Otis stops the spinning of his prisoners and stands directly before Denise. He drops his robe, underneath he is wearing a SUIT OF SKIN sewn together from pieces of Denise's father. Denise stares in horror, tears stream down her cheeks, barely able to comprehend the madness around her. Otis moves in close and licks her across the face. OTIS I'm the one who loves you when you're fucking dead! Everyone chants "Who's your Daddy?" OTIS (imitating Willis) Now, I say my little darlings... (rotates the chain to Mary) maybe prancing around where you don't belong ain't such a winner of an idea... (slaps Mary across the face) Slowly turns the chain to face Jerry. OTIS And you, the great rusher of fools, what were you after... (slaps Jerry) Huh, speak to me... (slaps him again) Oh, that's right, Dr. Satan... everybody got to know about Dr. Satan, Jesus Christ, let the old dog rest for fuck sake, he's already got one foot in the grave and the other's tap dancing around the edge... (gets nose to nose with Jerry) ...well, I can see the disappointment on your sad little puppy face... so I'm gonna do you a favor, a big, big favor. You owe me, boy. I'm gonna let you meet the old bastard. GRAMPA That's a horse's ass alright, I told you. Jerry's eyes widen in fear. OTIS Baby, roll that old love machine over here, so this boy can meet his hero. Baby rolls Grampa over to Jerry. OTIS (lifts his skin mask) You see it's all true, the boogieman is real and you found him... (Jerry stares in shock) ...why so sad? Isn't this what you begged for? There he is, the living legend himself, ta da Dr. Satan. Now, don't get shy on me... ask your hero some questions, don't blow this last in a lifetime opportunity. GRAMPA Zarkoff, I will conquer the sea, the air, the earth... the universe. Mother moves in close to Jerry. MOTHER Look at the way he lights up... Grampa just loves meeting his fans. Otis grabs Jerry's cheeks and makes his face move like a ventriloquist dummy, provides Jerry's voice. OTIS Aw gee whiz, I'm so excited... I really think you're the coolest... you're tops on the playground, cooler than the Fonzie. Baby grabs Mary and does the same ventriloquist routine. BABY Oh, oh pick me, pick me... I have a question. Baby rotates Mary around to where Gramps is seated. BABY (squeezing Mary's face, hard) I was wondering Mr. Satan sir, do you like to kiss on the first date or is that considered slutty? GRAMPA What the fuck are you saying? Who the hell is talking to me? Tiny, growing restless, begins banging on his metal drum. KLANG - KLANG - KLANG. Rufus joins in, clapping his hands. MOTHER Come on, my babies are getting restless. RUFUS JR. Dump in the pit, dump in the pit, dump in the pit. Mother, Baby, Grampa join in chanting with Rufus. OTIS Alright, alright. Cut 'em down, it's time they get what they came here for. EXT. FIELD - NIGHT The rain pounds down. A heavy fog hovers over the dense growth of the field. In the distance, silhouetted by moonlight, a gruesome caravan slowly moves through the night. Otis, lantern in hand, leads the way. Followed by Baby and Mother together under a large black umbrella. Next Rufus holds the leash connected to Jerry, Denise and Mary. Bringing up the rear, Tiny, shotgun focused on the prisoners, and Grampa. Grampa is strapped to Tiny's back like a child. He waves a flashlight back and forth like a search beam. The group comes to a halt at a huge wooden structure. OTIS (handing Baby the lantern) Hold this. Point it over here. Baby directs the light at Otis. We see that he is trying to unlock a huge padlock attached to an iron door embedded in the base of the wooden structure. Otis unlocks the door and swings it open. He reaches down into the blackness and pulls up an iron hook and wench, attached to the hook is a chain. Otis parts a section of the overgrown grass next to the pit to reveal a rusty metal crank. He begins to turn the crank. Slowly, from out of the pit, rises a coffin hanging from the end of the chain. Otis pulls the coffin over and lays it flat on the ground. He flips open the lid. OTIS Hey happy-boy, step your ass up here. Rufus cuts loose Jerry, but holds him steady by the neck. BABY Take his gag out, it's more fun with the screaming. MOTHER Yeah, I like the screaming too... it's so much more exciting. Rufus cuts loose the gag. JERRY Please don't kill us, please don't kill us. BABY (imitating Jerry) Please don't kill us, please don't kill us. OTIS Bitch, shut your mouth and get your shit in the box. JERRY Let us go, please... let the girls go. BABY (imitating Jerry) Let us go, please... let the girls go. Otis pulls out a gun and points it at Jerry. OTIS Get in... now! MOTHER Wait, I want to say good-bye. Mother grabs Jerry by the collar and gives him a big kiss. MOTHER Bye sweety, we could of been great together. JERRY Please, let us go, we won't tell anybody. MOTHER Aw, honey you know I can't do that. BABY We won't tell anybody. Otis cocks the pistol. Jerry starts to slowly move towards the coffin. OTIS Christ, ain't this fucking a hoot... alright mamma, I ain't got all fucking night. JERRY Please, please this is insane. You can't do this. Rufus pushes Jerry into the coffin. OTIS It is and I can... next. Denise starts kicking and fighting with Rufus. Rufus tries to hold her steady, when suddenly Mary breaks free and starts to run. OTIS (laughs and raises his pistol) Where's she think she's a gonna get to? She's gonna run all the way home. BABY No! Let me get her... (turns to Mother) ...Ma, Otis is having all the fun... can I get her? MOTHER That's true, Otis... not that we're having a bad time, but... OTIS (rolls his eyes) Well, go get her. Baby jumps with excitement and runs off across the field after Mary. Mary trips and falls over a small gravestone. She gets up and stumbles back into a wooden cross. She tears the gag from her mouth and gasps for air. BABY (O.S.) There once was a woman who lived with her daughter in a cabbage garden. Mary turns toward the voice but sees nothing but wooden crosses. She is in a homemade cemetery. BABY (O.S.) ...along came a rabbit and ate up all the cabbages. The woman said... Mary turns 360 degrees, but finds nothing. BABY (O.S.) ..."Go into the garden and drive out the rabbit"... THUD! Mary is hit from behind, she falls forward. Baby JUMPS on top of her and sits on her back. Baby is holding a large hunting knife. BABY "Shoo! Shoo!" said the maiden... Mary screams in pain, as Baby PLUNGES the knife into her. Baby STABS Mary again and again and again. Mary lets out a long gurgling scream, then goes silent. BABY ..."Come maiden," said the rabbit... (leans down) ...sit on my tail and go with me to my rabbit hutch. Baby, covered in blood, licks the knife clean. EXT. PIT - NIGHT Otis shoves Denise into the coffin with Jerry and locks the lid shut. Through a CROSS-SHAPED OPENING in the coffin we see them crushed together. Rufus LOWERS the coffin into the pit. Once the coffin is inside Otis slams the door shut. Otis opens a small window in the door and lowers in a lantern and a small tape recorder playing music. INT. PIT - NIGHT Enter Hell. The dim light of the lantern shines off the slimy wet filth of the rotted wood walls. The stench of death and decay hangs heavy in the thin air. Denise and Jerry, cold and shivering, hang half submerged in thick maggot infested sludge. Bits of animal and human skeletons float in the muck, broken bones lay in piles along the walls. INT. COFFIN - NIGHT Through the dim light, we see the tightly packed forms of Jerry and Denise. DENISE (hysterical) We've got get out of here, we got get out of here. JERRY Think, think. Try to open the lid, try to kick a hole in the wood. DENISE (crying) I can't... I can't move my arms. I hurt so much. JERRY I know, but we can make it out of here. We can do it. Boom! A LOUD THUMP is heard against the side of the coffin. JERRY That was good babe, just keep doing that. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. DENISE That's not me. I didn't... I'm not doing that. JERRY Someone is out there... (shouting) ...help, we're in here! DENISE Help, help us. Suddenly, an arm breaks through the side of the coffin. Another smashes through the top of the lid. The coffin begins to violently shake. Denise screams. Another reaches through, grabbing her feet. SMASH! The coffin is ripped apart and Jerry is pulled away from the destruction. He lets out a quick scream before disappearing into the darkness. DENISE Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! INT. FARMHOUSE - LIVINGROOM - NIGHT The spastic light of TV static strobes across the sleeping face of Grampa. Beside him, Mother sleeps peacefully. EXT. BARN - NIGHT The rain has stopped. Tiny opens the doors to the barn. He goes inside. He exits a few moments later, dragging a huge wooden stake. He sets the stake down carefully and closes the barn doors. He then picks up the stake and drags it away. EXT. BACKYARD - NIGHT Behind the farmhouse is a camouflage jungle, an intricate system of ropes and netting is strung together to hide the many automobiles beneath. Rufus moves through the jungle. He stops and begins to remove the netting from a car, it is Wydell's police cruiser. He climbs inside the car, puts on Wydell's policeman's hat and starts the engine. He drives off. INT. POLICE CAR - NIGHT Rufus is driving like a maniac through the open farmland. He turns on the overhead flashing lights. EXT. FIELDS - NIGHT The police cruiser twists and turns in the barren fields. INT. PIT - NIGHT Denise stands knee deep in the sludge. Broken bits of the coffin's remains are scattered around her. DENISE Jerry please answer me. A soft moaning sound is heard coming from the other end of the pit. DENISE Jerry... (moving slowly forward) ...is that you? Denise cautiously makes her way to the bend at the end of the tunnel. As she approaches, the moaning sound gets louder. She turns the corner to see: TWO PALE FIGURES in filthy hospital gowns hunched over a shadowy object. Denise gasps. They turn towards Denise, revealing the partially devoured dead body of Jerry. The two bone-white ghouls are dripping with Jerry's blood, they stare at Denise, then return to their prey. Denise screams in horror and runs, turning down another twist in the underground maze. She turns the corner and runs straight into SEVERAL SLOW MOVING GHOULS. The ghouls are of the same deathly white complexion, hair-less with flaked, cracking skin. Their yellow eyes shine in the darkness. They reach for her, but she breaks free and continues to run into the endless stretch of tunnels before her. EXT. GRAVEYARD - NIGHT Primitive wooden crosses form a circle around a burnt piece of land, approximately twenty feet in diameter. Laying flat in the center is the large stake, Mary's body is draped across it. Tiny is securing her to the stake with rope. INT. POLICE CAR - NIGHT Through the windshield, we see Baby jumping and dancing in the fields with several large dogs. She is firing a gun as she dances. EXT. FIELD - NIGHT Baby sees the car and raises her gun. She aims it at the car driver. She waits, as the car gets closer she sees the face of Rufus behind the wheel. She lowers the gun and begins to laugh. The car stops and Baby climbs into the passenger's seat. The car drives off. EXT. GRAVEYARD - NIGHT Tiny lifts the stake with Mary firmly strapped in place. He implants it into the ground. Her body hangs like a doll. Tiny opens a gasoline can and begins splashing gas onto the stake. EXT. FIELD - NIGHT Otis, face painted like a SKULL and wearing a priest's robe, walks solemnly through the tall grass. INT. PIT - NIGHT Denise, waist high in sludge, wanders lost through the endless tunnels of the pit. In the distance she hears high pitched animal sounds. A GHOUL rises up from the sludge behind Denise. It stands silent. It reaches out a BONEY HAND with long curled fingernails and grabs her hair. Denise screams and tries to pull away. The ghoul grabs her with his other hand and pulls her closer, CLAWING at her face. Denise fights her way free, but loses her footing and falls backwards, slipping under the sludge. She quickly resurfaces and starts to run. EXT. GRAVEYARD - NIGHT Otis stands in front of the bound Mary, holding a pumpkin. Otis places the pumpkin over Mary's head. Tiny stands behind him holding a lit torch. EXT. FIELD - NIGHT The police car drives wildly through the fields. INT. POLICE CAR - NIGHT Baby motions to Rufus to steer the car towards the fire. INT. PIT - NIGHT A beaten Denise struggles down a long tunnel. She gets to the end to find that it is a dead-end. Behind her, FIVE GHOULS move silently towards her, blocking her only exit. The ghouls slosh through the muck, moving in closer. Denise frantically looks for an escape, nailed into the wall next to her are planks of wood forming a ladder. The ghouls are only a few yards away. Denise climbs up the ladder. They move in, clawing at her legs and feet, trying to pull her down. Denise digs at the wood and mud ceiling above her, trying to break free. Denise is bleeding severely from the chunks of flesh being torn from her legs. She digs wildly at the ceiling, suddenly a board falls free and mud rains down to reveal: STARS, the sky above shines through the hole. Denise smashes her fists at the rotted wood planks, pulling free another piece. With all her might Denise grabs hold and pulls herself up through the opening. EXT. PIT - NIGHT Denise fights her way through the earth and pulls her body up into the night air. The cool air rushes to her lungs. She crawls free of the hole, gasping for air. She is safe. Suddenly... SMASH! A ghoul has broken through the surface. He grabs Denise by the leg and begins to pull her back into the hole. Denise screams and begins kicking violently at the ghoul. She breaks and crawls from the ghoul's reach. EXT. GRAVEYARD - NIGHT Rufus and Baby have pulled the police cruiser up by the stake. Rufus and Baby stand on the hood. Otis finishes his sermon, he raises his arm. Tiny raises the torch. Otis drops his arm, signaling Tiny. Tiny throws the torch onto the stake. The stake ignites into a huge FIREBALL. EXT. FIELD - NIGHT Denise pulls herself to her feet and begins to run. The flaming object burns in the distance behind her. Denise stumbles toward the road on two badly injured legs. EXT. GRAVEYARD - NIGHT Rufus, Tiny and Baby jump up and down in celebration, smashing the police car. Otis stands transfixed by the flames before him. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Denise makes her way out onto the road. No cars are in sight. In the distance headlights break through the darkness. Denise stands in the middle of the road. The TRUCK comes into view, it is a small cube truck. Denise stands in the headlights, waving her arms for it to stop. The truck comes to a halt. She runs toward the passenger's side door and climbs in. INT. TRUCK - NIGHT Behind the wheel of the truck is Captain Spaulding. Denise is shaking from shock. DENISE Go, go! Drive... drive! CAPT. SPAULDING Hold on, girly, what's the problem? DENISE (becoming hysterical) Murdering... blood and Jerry... (starts to cry uncontrollably) ...monsters... I... I... I got away... CAPT. SPAULDING Well, I don't see what the fuck you're getting at, but I got some friends that live just up this road. Starts to turn the truck up the road back towards the farmhouse. DENISE (screaming) No! No, that's it... that house is... (tries to open the truck door) ...I gotta get out, I gotta get out! Boom! The metal door leading to the back of the truck slides open. Ravelli grabs Denise and pulls her back into the back of the truck. SLAM! The metal door shuts. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT The truck quietly turns onto the dirt road leading up to the farmhouse. The jack-o'-lanterns still burn in the windows, grinning their evil grin. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_How to Lose Friends & Alienate People.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_How to Lose Friends & Alienate People.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ab43e0bf5fc05406e80c14e2b6d6380350240112 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_How to Lose Friends & Alienate People.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND ALIENATE PEOPLE Written by Peter Straughan 09/05/07 SHOOTING SCRIPT FADE IN: 1 TV SCREEN - BLACK AND WHITE MOVIE 1 ...British, fifties, a melodrama. We're looking at an ACTRESS - glamorous, young - but very much in the back ground of the scene - a secretary typing at her desk. REVERSE A YOUNG BOY sits watching the film, his clothes and the room around him telling us this is England in the 1960s. He is staring raptly at the actress. SIDNEY (V.O.) All my life I've been a Looky- Loo. DISSOLVE TO: 2 INT. GOLDEN GLOBES AWARDS - EVENING 2 SLOW-MOTION We are CLOSE on an extremely handsome YOUNG MAN staring past us with a dazzling smile. SIDNEY (V.O.) My name's Sidney Young. I'm a journalist...a hack. (Beat) Yeah, that...that isn't me. We PAN right and down to our hero - SIDNEY YOUNG - thirties, an odd-ball with a knack for getting people to dislike him. SIDNEY (CONT'D) (V.O.) (CONT'D) This is me at the Golden Globe Awards in L.A. this year. That's my Armani tuxedo. That's a Rolex Sea-Dweller 4000 watch I'm wearing. Still in SLOW-MOTION we TRACK BACK and see that Sidney is at a table with several other people, all staring raptly past us to the stage which is out of shot. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Those people all around me - they're all famous. They're my friends. Beside him sits a beautiful young woman - SOPHIE MAES (20's). 2. SIDNEY (CONT'D) (V.O.) (CONT'D) That's the actress Sophie Maes. This morning she told me she would let me have sex with her if she won the Best Actress Award. Still in SLOW MOTION, Sophie suddenly covers her face with her hands and begins to stand. SIDNEY (CONT'D) (V.O.) (CONT'D) She just won the Best Actress Award. Sophie walks out of the shot. Still sporting the fixed smile, Sidney claps in SLO-MO along with everyone else in the room. We TRACK away from Sidney past tables of CELEBRITIES towards an EXIT. SIDNEY (CONT'D) My life didn't used to be like this. We PUSH THROUGH the EXIT DOORS and find ourselves impossibly looking at... 3 EXT. LONDON - LEICESTER SQUARE - LATE AFTERNOON 3 4 SLOW MOTION TRACKING SHOT 4 ...a crowd of FANS held back from us by a red rope, craning their necks to see us more clearly, waving, cheering, shouting, cameras flashing... Rain lashes down. A CAPTION reads: "Sidney's Life, One Year Ago. Bafta Awards. London." SIDNEY (V.O.) Looky-Loos. That's what They call you when you stand out in the rain all night just to catch a glimpse of Them going by. REVERSE - CELEBRITIES walk down the red carpet, pausing to wave at the fans. SIDNEY (CONT'D) I used to pretend it was different for me because I was getting paid by a magazine or newspaper, whatever. But that's, you know...I just loved watching Them. I'd stand outside looking in through the window and think what it would be like to somehow get inside. But there was only one way to get past the thin red line that separates the celebrities from the civilians. You had to be famous. 3. 4A EXT. SECURITY POINT - LATE AFTERNOON 4A Sidney stands talking to a young PR WOMAN at the security gate. He has a small, ugly PIG on a leash. PR WOMAN Babe? SIDNEY Babe Three. Yeah. She looks doubtfully at the pig. PR WOMAN Babe was a cute little piglet. SIDNEY Harry Potter used to be a cute little piglet too. What do you want? Tempus Fugits... PR WOMAN He hasn't got any ID. SIDNEY How many pigs are coming tonight? Look, I was told to bring him, hand him over to the producer, Bob Milton, inside. You want me to leave him here with you, that's fine... PR WOMAN No, you can't leave him with me. I've got...Hold on, I'll... She looks around, helplessly. She begins to unhook the red rope. Sidney tries to hide his excitement. PR WOMAN (CONT'D) If you're positive that you're supposed to... An OLDER PR WOMAN stalks over. OLDER PR WOMAN (ICILY) Well, well, Sidney Young. SIDNEY (RUMBLED) Well, well...clipboard Nazi-type woman. She turns to the SECURITY standing beside them. OLDER PR WOMAN The pig doesn't get in. 4. She starts to walk away. SIDNEY What about me? OLDER PR WOMAN I was talking about you. 5 MOMENTS LATER 5 Sidney and the Pig are being "escorted" away from the red carpet by the Security. SIDNEY (V.O.) The Looky-Loos dream is that one day they will somehow get to mingle with the stars. But the Industry can't allow any mingling. Stars have to be kept away from civilians, have to be quarantined, so they don't become normal. Like us. They pass a ravishing HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS walking the other way. She looks curiously at the pig as she passes. Sidney stares after her, longingly. 6 INT. SANDERSON HOTEL - EVENING 6 TRACKING through the doors and into the lobby of the exclusive hotel. SIDNEY (V.O.) But after the awards come the parties - the Miramax Party, the London Records Party and, best of all - the Sharps Magazine Party, so exclusive that there are no pass-alongs, no plus-ones, no press. We find Sidney checking in at the desk. SIDNEY (CONT'D) (to Receptionist, HORRIFIED) How much? I only want to stay for one night! 7 INT. ELEVATOR - MOMENTS LATER 7 Sidney stands in the rising elevator, suit bag in his hand, holdall at his feet. SIDNEY (V.O.) 5. This is where the movie stars can finally relax, secure in the knowledge they are among their own kind. We see the PIG'S SNOUT poking out of the zip of the holdall. 8 INT. HOTEL ROOM - EVENING 8 Sidney turns from the mirror to face us. He is wearing a WAITER'S UNIFORM of white shirt, waistcoat, and bow tie. He is also wearing a WIG and FALSE MOUSTACHE. SIDNEY (V.O.) And that is when I strike. He picks up a tray of canapÈs from the bed and looks down to where the Pig watches him from the floor. SIDNEY (CONT'D) I want you in bed by ten. And no porn. He tosses the pig one of the canapÈs. 9 INT. HOTEL - EVENING 9 Sidney, tray in hand, peers around the corner to the entrance to the hotel's roofed COURTYARD. The Older PR Woman we saw earlier stands at the door, a formidable presence. As we watch she greets an approaching CELEBRITY gushingly. Seizing his chance Sidney darts towards the door and, tray held aloft to cover his face, slips through into the courtyard beyond. 10 INT. HOTEL COURTYARD - SHARPS MAGAZINE PARTY - MOMENTS 10 LATER ...as Sidney emerges from the washrooms, now dressed only in the white shirt and black trousers. He scoops up a passing glass of champagne, checks his moustache and surveys the courtyard - a room full of glamour: tanned skin, diamonds, beautiful dresses, beautiful suits, champagne. He stands surveying the crowd of A-list celebrities in front of him, dazed. SIDNEY (TO HIMSELF) You can do this. You belong here. You're a star. You're a big, bright shining star... 6. 11 INT. HOTEL ROOM - EVENING 11 The room is trashed - furniture over-turned, mini-bar open and broken bottles all over the floor. A weird squealing which could almost be human is coming from the bathroom. ASSISTANT MANAGER (O.S.) Hello? Sir? The squealing stops. ASSISTANT MANAGER (CONT'D) Is everything alright? The door opens and the Assistant Manager walks in and stands staring around him in horror. Behind him the pig emerges from the bathroom and slips out of the open door, across the corridor and straight into the open lift... 12 INT. SHARPS PARTY - EVENING 12 Sidney is talking to a very famous and very drunk Hollywood ACTRESS. SIDNEY No, when I'm in L.A. I stay at the Sunset Marquis, when I'm here I always stay at the Sanderson. It's, you know, I don't feel at home these days unless I'm in a hotel. HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS So what do you do? SIDNEY Oh, I'm a writer. Movie writer. HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS Oh great. SIDNEY Yeah. Got one in pre-production now. You know it's really weird running into you like this because just the other day I was telling the producer I thought you'd be perfect for the lead. She starts to laugh. SIDNEY (CONT'D) No, seriously, you would, because, you know, you have this mixture of intelligence and beauty and fragility that we're looking for and, uh... 7. HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS (SMILING) What's the film? SIDNEY Tits of Fury. She laughs. SIDNEY (CONT'D) (SMILING) I'm joking, I'm just...It's a bio- pic. About Greta Garbo. That's why I thought of you. You have those amazing cheek-bones and...are they real? Have you had plastic surgery? HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS No. Have you? SIDNEY Me? No, hardly anything. A penis reduction as a child, that's pretty much... She laughs again, snorting into her drink. Sidney can't believe this - she likes him! 13 INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR - EVENING 13 The lift doors glide open and the Pig trots out and around the corner. The PR Woman is still at the door to the courtyard, berating one of her staff. The Pig sails past them both, unnoticed, and disappears into the party. 14 INT. SHARPES PARTY - EVENING 14 A YOUNG MAN sits drinking at a table. He slips a little bag of Ecstasy from his pocket and takes one. UNDER THE TABLE As the Young Man pushes the bag back into his pocket. The Pig sits at his feet watching as the little bag slips back out and DROPS to the floor. The Pig sniffs at the bag... 15 SIDNEY AND HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS 15 ...still talking. The place is crammed now, and hot. Sidney wipes sweat from his forehead. HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS Oh god, I'm drunk. SIDNEY Are you? 8. HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS I'm so drunk. I haven't eaten and... SIDNEY You feel okay? Because my room's just upstairs if you want to lie down or, or loosen any, you know, morals or... HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS (LAUGHING) What is your name again? SIDNEY Clark. Clark Baxter. He takes a sip of his champagne and his moustache comes loose and hangs limply from his face. SIDNEY (CONT'D) How'd you do? The Actress stares at him in surprise but Sidney doesn't notice - he is staring past her to where there is something of a COMMOTION amongst the guests. The PR Woman is hurrying across the room, hissing into her ear-piece. Somebody screams. Then to Sidney's horror a group of guests scatter in panic and the cause of the commotion is revealed: the Pig charges into view, heading straight for him. SIDNEY (CONT'D) (MUTTERING) Oh, shit... The Pig suddenly skids to a halt and stares at Sidney with hot eyes. The PR Woman follows the Pig's gaze and spots Sidney. OLDER PR WOMAN (INTO HEADSET) Sarah, get security! Code Red. Sidney Young got in! HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS (FEARFULLY) Who's Sidney Young? Before Sidney can answer the Pig charges. SIDNEY Oh, shit! Sidney turns and legs it. ACROSS THE ROOM We are looking OVER THE SHOULDER of a tall grey-haired MAN who stands in the shadows watching Sidney run past. This is CLAYTON HARDING, his face hidden for the time being. 9. He lights a cigarette with a thoughtful air and watches Sidney's flight, rolling the BOOK OF MATCHES between his fingers. BACK WITH SIDNEY ...as the Pig catches up with him and lunges at his ankles. Sidney screams, trips and flies through the air, wig spinning free, hurtling straight towards a table of startled celebrities. We FREEZE FRAME. SUPERED TITLE - "How To Lose Friends & Alienate People." We hear the opening of David Bowie's Star. 16 INT. HOTEL CORRIDORS - LATER 16 As the TITLES and song continue we see a protesting Sidney and Pig being escorted by Security through the endless corridors of the Hotel. Titles End. FADE OUT. FADE IN: 16A EXT. LONDON FLAT - DAY 16A A seedy flat in Shepherds bush. 17 INT. SIDNEY'S FLAT - BEDROOM - AFTERNOON 17 Sidney lies in bed reading a newspaper in his underwear. A phone is RINGING in the next room. Sidney begins to cut out a photograph from one of the papers - Sidney struggling with an irate Clint Eastwood and some Security Men. The phone continues to ring. SIDNEY (CALLING) Will you get that? (Beat) Will you get the phone? Sighing he gets up and scratching himself, stumbles through to... 18 LIVING ROOM 18 ...which we see is, bizarrely, an OFFICE - full of an odd assortment of JOURNALISTS, desks, antiquated computers and an old fax machine. The walls are lined with past covers from Sidney's magazine - The Post-Modern Review. One bears a photograph of Victoria Beckham with the title "Posh Spice? Like Fuck She Is." 10. A JOURNALIST is talking on the phone by the door. The other phone is still ringing. JOURNALIST Look, we don't hate celebrities at the Post-Modern Review, okay? We just don't think they should be taking themselves so seriously. For us a celebrity is a text to be deconstructed. Apart from Costner obviously. Sidney edges past him to where a LARGE WOMAN and a histrionic THIN MAN are in the middle of a argument, encouraged by the other members of staff. THIN MAN (SHRILL) I wouldn't do this the honour of calling it a review. It's a puerile, personal attack in, in alcoholic prose, in which incidentally you manage to misquote both Derrida and Lyotard. I am a... LARGE WOMAN (CALMLY) Girl. THIN MAN ...an internationally respected academic and... LARGE WOMAN Prick. THIN MAN ...author of a very well received book on the history of culture and a... LARGE WOMAN Fuckwit. SIDNEY (threading his way past) Couldn't one of you answer the phone? As the argument continues behind him he reaches the phone with a bored YOUNG MAN sitting by it. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Will you answer that? What do I pay you for? YOUNG MAN You don't pay me. 11. SIDNEY Just get the phone! The Young Man answers the phone. YOUNG MAN Post-Modern Review. THIN MAN Sidney, if she doesn't apologise I'm quitting. SIDNEY (to the Large Woman) George can't leave. You'll have to apologise. LARGE WOMAN Why can't George leave? SIDNEY He owns the fax machine. Sidney notices the Young Man is staring at him with a scared expression. SIDNEY (CONT'D) What? YOUNG MAN It's Sharps Magazine. Sidney stops smiling. YOUNG MAN (CONT'D) We're finished. SIDNEY We're not finished. YOUNG MAN They sue, we're finished. SIDNEY Shut up. (To the others) Will you be quiet! They ignore him and continue bickering. Sidney picks up the phone. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Sidney Young. MAN (O.S.) (over phone, gravel VOICED) This is Clayton Harding. I'm the editor of Sharps Magazine. Sidney is visibly thrown. 12. SIDNEY Ah, Lord Vader. 19 INT. CLAYTON'S OFFICE - DAY 19 SHOOTING FROM BEHIND Clayton Harding's swivel chair - all we can see is Clayton's grey hair, his custom-built desk and the enormous office in front of him. He is smoking. As he talks he rolls a BOOK OF MATCHES between his fingers. CLAYTON HARDING I saw you at my party, just before you ruined it with your little pig stunt. SIDNEY (O.S.) (OVER PHONE) You liked that? CLAYTON HARDING Sure. On his desk we see a few copies the Post-Modern Review - glimpses of stars on the covers - Catherine Zeta-Jones, Orlando Bloom... Clayton's hand sifts one copy from the others and holds it up - the cover depicts CLAYTON HIMSELF - patrician handsome, stern, photo-shopped so that he appears to be NAKED. A headline reads "Clayton Harding - The Editor's New Clothes? Clayton's shoulder's heave with a snort of repressed laughter. CLAYTON HARDING (CONT'D) (examining the cover) I especially liked the part where Clint Eastwood beat the shit outa ya. 20 INT. MAGAZINE OFFICE - CONTINUOUS 20 Sidney lights a cigarette, trying to seem casual. SIDNEY We're not scared of you, Harding. You want to sue, go ahead and sue. It's like Jimmy Stewart said, (a poor Stewart impersonation:)"You sit up there and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it doesn't, Mr... Mr... 13. 21 INT. CLAYTON'S OFFICE - DAY 21 Clayton is still flicking through the magazines. CLAYTON HARDING Potter. SIDNEY (O.S.) (OVER PHONE) "Mr. Potter..."You go ahead and sue if you want, but I warn you, if you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine. An ASSISTANT walks in. Clayton looks up. ASSISTANT (SOFTLY) Miss Taylor is here sir. Clayton nods and quickly throws the magazines into a BOTTOM DRAWER of the desk. Sidney is still talking over the phone, beginning to enjoy himself. SIDNEY (O.S.) Destroy me and a hundred more will spring up in my place - men who care nothing for success, men who cannot be bought, men whose only loyalty is to... CLAYTON HARDING (CALMLY) I want you to come and work for me at Sharps Magazine in New York. 22 INT. MAGAZINE OFFICE - DAY 22 Sidney stares to where the Thin Man is trying to get out of the door with the Fax Machine, the Large Woman struggling with him. The two fall to the floor. The rest of the staff gather around them. STAFF (CHANTING) Fight, fight, fight... SIDNEY (INTO PHONE) Um...could you say that again please? We hear the sound of an aeroplane engine build as we... 23 AN AEROPLANE ROARS THROUGH THE BLUE SKY. 23 14. 24 EXT. JFK AIRPORT - DAY 24 Sidney emerges from the airport, wearing his crumpled brown suit, dragging his suitcase behind him. He stares around, excited to be here. 25 EXT. NEW YORK - HELL'S KITCHEN - EVENING 25 Sidney drags his suitcase down the quiet street and stops outside an apartment block, checking the address. 26 INT. STAIRS - EVENING 26 An elderly Polish lady - MRS KOWALSKI - is leading Sidney up the stairs of the building. MRS KOWALSKI This magazine you are working for? It is good? SIDNEY It's Sharps Magazine. You know Sharps? It's sort of society, fashion, crime, finance, Hollywood celebrities... MRS KOWALSKI (SCORNFUL) Hollywood. Sodom and Gomorrah. Now everybody is celebrity. You take out your breasts, you are celebrity. SIDNEY (eyeing her chest DOUBTFULLY) Well, I think it depends on the breasts but... MRS KOWALSKI (OBLIVIOUS) In Poland, someone was famous because they had done something...Marie Curie...Pope John Paul... SIDNEY Yeah, they don't make entertainers like that any more... Mrs Kowalski cuffs the back of his head. Sidney is somewhat surprised by this familiarity, having only just met the lady. She opens an apartment door. 15. 26A INT. APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS 26A Mrs Kowalski shows Sidney into the small and cheaply furnished apartment. Sidney's boxed possessions stand in a corner. MRS KOWALSKI They brought your things yesterday. SIDNEY (LOOKING AROUND) Yup, this is good. This is...I can put my drum kit just over there and, uh... She stares at him. SIDNEY (CONT'D) That's a...that's just a joke. They're just little...congas. MRS KOWALSKI When do you start work? SIDNEY Tomorrow morning. MRS KOWALSKI Well, you need to be fresh, make a good impression.(Leaving) Go to bed. SIDNEY Just what I'm going to do... 27 INT. BAR - EVENING 27 A drunken Sidney dances frenetically on a small dance floor made of squares of flashing color, compensating with enthusiasm for what he lacks in coordination. The women on the floor shuffle further and further away from him. 28 EXT. STREET - EVENING 28 Sidney walks down the street, staring bright eyed at the city around him, in love with New York. A SEXY WOMAN in a short dress passes him. Sidney ogles her as she walks into a BAR. 29 INT. BAR - EVENING 29 Sidney finds the Sexy Woman sitting at the bar. There is an empty stool beside her. Sidney sidles into it. 16. SEXY WOMAN (TO BARMAN) A Kona please. Sidney gestures to the Barman to make it two. He sits trying to think of something to say. The barman returns with their drinks. SIDNEY (raising his glass) Hi, my name's Clark. Clark Baxter. The Woman looks at him without expression. Sidney sips his drink, grimaces. SIDNEY (CONT'D) (TO BARMAN) What the hell's that? BARMAN That's a water sir. SIDNEY Well that's...that's not right, is it? That's not...put a dash of beer in that. A young woman has been sitting on the other side of Sidney. This is ALISON OLSEN (20s) smart, attractive, dressed in an elegant but no-nonsense suit. She is writing in a NOTEBOOK. She looks up and notices Sidney. ALISON I'm sorry, my boyfriend's sitting there. Sidney gets up and examines the stool. SIDNEY Is he? He's fucking small isn't he? He smiles at the Sexy Woman, hoping to get a laugh. Alison examines Sidney coolly, points to the drink on the bar in front of Sidney. ALISON That's his White Russian. He'll be here in a second. SIDNEY (TO BARMAN) Can you reserve these seats? BARMAN Nope. Sidney sits down and turns back to the Sexy Woman. 17. SIDNEY I'm a journalist. Work for a little periodical you might have heard of called Sharps Magazine? Sidney produces a card and waves it vaguely. SIDNEY (CONT'D) I'm the Cultural Editor. Alison takes the card from his hand before he can put it away again. ALISON (to Sexy Woman) This is a library card. (Reading it) From Glow-cester... SIDNEY (snatching it back) That's...not that one... (Searching wallet) I've got it somewhere...I just... The Sexy Woman gets up and walks away. Sidney watches her go bitterly. SIDNEY (CONT'D) (TO ALISON) Happy now? ALISON Just doing my bit for the gene pool. He produces the PHOTOGRAPH of him being held in a headlock by Clint Eastwood. SIDNEY Who's that there with Clint Eastwood? ALISON Morgan Freeman? SIDNEY No, in the headlock. ALISON You had this laminated? SIDNEY Oh just give it... He snatches the photograph back, catching Alison's glass in the process. Her drink SPILLS over her notebook - soaking the page she has been writing. ALISON Shit! 18. SIDNEY It's okay. It's okay. I've got it. He tries to blot the page with a napkin, smearing the ink. ALISON Just...just leave it! She examines the book, furious. SIDNEY Sorry. He tries to think of something to say. SIDNEY (CONT'D) It's pronounced Gloucester by the way. ALISON (ICY) Are you going to get off that seat? SIDNEY No. ALISON (BEAT) Do you know the meaning of Karma? SIDNEY The curry? ALISON (inscribing a circle in THE AIR ) What goes around, comes around. The moment is approaching when you will pay the price for being an asshole. When my boyfriend gets here I'm going to put my pacifist leanings to one side and encourage him to take you outside and... Her cell-phone rings. She answers it. ALISON (CONT'D) Hello? Hi, honey.(Beat) Oh. (Beat) no, no, it's...don't worry about it. I'll see you then. She hangs up, avoiding Sidney's gaze, embarrassed and annoyed. SIDNEY Boyfriend not coming? 19. She stares straight ahead, gathering her things. SIDNEY (CONT'D) (CONCILIATORY) Listen, I'm sorry. Do you think...? She turns to him. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Do you think I could have his drink? Alison gives him a cold smile, controlling her temper. She spots a heavily made-up WOMAN walking past. ALISON Bobbie? WOMAN Hey! ALISON You want a seat? I'm just leaving. WOMAN Thanks. The Woman takes Alison's place at the bar. SIDNEY (to the newcomer) Hello. He slides the PHOTOGRAPH over to her. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Guess who that is with Clint Eastwood. Alison gives a small smile and leaves. 30 INT. SIDNEY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 30 Sidney and the Woman dance drunkenly around the room to the music blaring from Sidney's stereo. The track finishes and they stand gasping for breath. WOMAN I'm gonna powder my nose. Why don't you put on something a little more romantic? She staggers off down the hall. Sidney, giddy with excitement, searches through some LPs and puts one on his old turntable. It's Ace of Spades by Motorhead. He staggers around, playing air-guitar for a moment. 20. The music is suddenly switched off. He turns to find Mrs Kowalski standing beside the record player, staring grimly at him. SIDNEY Mrs Lebowski... MRS KOWALSKI Kowalski. You know what time it is? The music blaring, your door open... SIDNEY (trying to seem sober) Was it? Fuck. I mean, shit. Sorry. I just...met an old friend and brought them back... The Woman staggers back into the room, her back to us. She is NAKED. She is also surprisingly muscular. SIDNEY (CONT'D) ...for a little... He notices the woman. His gaze drops to below the waist. SIDNEY (CONT'D) ...penis. Mrs Kowalski turns and takes in the view. Nobody moves. 31 INT. BEDROOM - MORNING 31 A hung-over Sidney wakes up in his bed, light streaming through the window. 32 BATHROOM 32 He examines his reflection, psyching himself up for his first day. SIDNEY You can do this! You can do this! He hums the fanfare from the Rocky theme. 33 LIVING ROOM 33 Sidney walks into the room, still humming the theme tune, shadow boxing. He opens the blinds and turns to the couch. The "Woman" wakes up from where she has been sleeping on the couch and gazes blearily at Sidney. SIDNEY Quick coffee Bob and then you've got to go. 21. We hear the opening of Brian Ferry's version of The `In' Crowd as we... 34 EXT. TIMES SQUARE - MORNING 34 As the song continues we see Sidney swagger down the busy sidewalk towards us. He is wearing sunglasses and a T-shirt emblazoned with a photograph of Keanu Reeves and the caption "Young, Dumb and Full of Cum."The T-shirt is riding up a little over his belly. SIDNEY (V.O.) This is my city. He stops at a gleaming chrome entrance and stares up at the Heywood Building towering above him. 35 INT. HEYWOOD BUILDING - ENTRANCE SECURITY - MORNING 35 As the song continues Sidney, still swaggering, is escorted through the formidable looking security by a thin and chic ASSISTANT. The entrance hall arches above them, a vast and impressive cavern of chrome and glass. SIDNEY (V.O.) This is my building. 36 INT. LIFT - MOMENTS LATER 36 Sidney leans nonchalantly against the wall of the lift examining the Chic Assistant and two stunningly beautiful MODELS who are in conversation. Sidney manages to catch the attention of one of the models and flashes what he believes is a rakish smile. In return he receives an icy glare. SIDNEY (V.O.) These are my models. 37 INT. SHARPS MAGAZINE - CORRIDOR - MOMENTS LATER 37 The Chic Assistant leads Sidney down a curving, red carpeted corridor, past a chrome wall inscribed with the giant logo of the magazine. They reach a set of double doors which the Assistant opens for Sidney... SIDNEY (V.O.) And this... Sidney walks through into... 38 CLAYTON HARDING'S OFFICE 38 Harding swings around in his chair to glare at us, a cigarette in his mouth. 22. SIDNEY (V.O.) ...is my Boss. CLAYTON HARDING What the fuck are you wearing? The song grinds to an abrupt halt. Sidney loses a quantity of swagger. He examines his T-shirt. SIDNEY You like it? I brought you one. He takes a T-shirt from his satchel and hands it to Harding. CLAYTON HARDING Thanks. Casually he flings the shirt out of the open window behind him. CLAYTON HARDING (CONT'D) Next time you come here dressed like that, you follow the shirt. You understand? Sidney nods dumbly. CLAYTON HARDING (CONT'D) Sit down. How was the flight? SIDNEY (SITTING) Good. Thanks for the business class tickets, Clay. Harding regards him gravely. CLAYTON HARDING That was a mistake. And don't call me Clay. SIDNEY Oh. Well, if it's any consolation I got downgraded anyway. CLAYTON HARDING (GRAVELY) That is some consolation. Sidney notices that the copy of The Post-Modern Review is on the desk - Clayton NAKED. SIDNEY (NERVOUSLY) Ha! That was just a little, uh... as it happens I'm a big fan of your earlier, funnier work. Snipe Magazine that was...that was really good. 23. Harding stares at Sidney. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Yeah, you've...you've actually been a big influence on me and I really think together we can inject a bit of that Snipe spirit into this magazine. Now I've got a few ideas that I'd like to... CLAYTON HARDING (INTERRUPTING) You think you've arrived, doncha? Well I hate to break it to you, but you're only in the first room. It's not nothing, don't get me wrong, but there are plenty of people in this town who never made it past the first room. After a year or so, maybe longer, you'll discover a secret doorway at the back of the first room that leads to the second. Eventually, if you're lucky, you'll discover another doorway back of the second room that leads to the third. He gazes at Sidney through narrowed eyes. CLAYTON HARDING (CONT'D) There are seven rooms in all. You're in the first, I'm in the seventh, and doncha forget it Sidney has been listening with a frown of concentration. SIDNEY (BEAT) So...if I make it to the Seventh Room - will I become a true Jedi Knight? Harding exhales smoke and puts out his cigarette. CLAYTON HARDING Which brings us to the subject of your sense of humour. I had a look through your "magazine" here. SIDNEY What'd you think? Clayton swivels in his chair and stares thoughtfully out over the Manhattan skyline. CLAYTON HARDING Oh, I thought it was...kinda snarky. And bitter. And... witless. 24. Sidney digests this. Clayton seems lost in thought. Finally... CLAYTON HARDING (CONT'D) I'm going to try you out in the I Spy Section. 39 INT. CORRIDOR - DAY 39 Sidney is hurrying to keep up with LAWRENCE MADDOX (40's) as he strides down the corridor. Lawrence is Canadian, handsome, one of the golden boys of the magazine and arrogant with it. Other EMPLOYEES pass them as they walk, heads down, expressions serious. The place is a model of quiet, professional industry. LAWRENCE MADDOX (glancing at Sidney's CLOTHES) Well, Sidney. We've only just met but already I perceive I am in the presence of a rare comic sensibility. SIDNEY Thanks. LAWRENCE MADDOX I know your Hi-jinx gave you a certain notoriety back in Olde England but things are going to be a bit different here. Harding wants me to be your Rabbi, show you the ropes. Are you aware of what we do at I Spy? SIDNEY You photograph famous people when they're drunk? LAWRENCE MADDOX (IGNORING HIM) I Spy is the nation's window onto High Society. The Looky-Loos read us because...well, They Weren't There. The Glitterati read us because we tell them They Were There. For this system to work we have to know where There is. SIDNEY So...when we go out to clubs and things...would that, would that be on expenses or...? LAWRENCE MADDOX This isn't a vacation. It's a vocation. 25. Maddox sweeps around the corner into an open-plan office area. Fact-checkers and Assistants buzz around. LAWRENCE MADDOX (CONT'D) When we do go out you're going to have to wear something more suitable. SIDNEY Okay. What do you mean by suitable? Maddox gestures at Sidney's body. LAWRENCE MADDOX Something that covers all of this up. He starts to check messages on his desk. Sidney, trying to seem at ease, stares at a black and white PHOTOGRAPH on the wall. SIDNEY Is that Mussolini? LAWRENCE MADDOX (Beat.) ) No, Sidney, that's Richard Heywood. The owner of this magazine. SIDNEY Oh. Looks a little like, uh...(pointing to the child in the photograph, smiling) Who's this funny looking kid? Is that his son? Maddox stares at him. LAWRENCE MADDOX (ICILY) That's his daughter, Elizabeth; now my wife. A SUBTITLE materializes like a halo around Maddox's head. It reads: Do Not Fuck with Me. SIDNEY (FLUSTERED) Really? Well, she's very...isn't she? Really, very... Someone walks up behind Sidney. LAWRENCE MADDOX Miss Olsen here takes care of the gallery openings, book launches and other intellectual fare. Can you find our new rookie something to do? 26. Sidney turns to find Alison behind him, eating an apple. She eyes him coldly. ALISON I hear the Cultural Editor's job is up for grabs? 40 LATER 40 Alison sits working at her computer. Sidney appears and perches on the edge of her desk. SIDNEY Listen, seeing as how I'm going to be sitting just over there, don't you think we should try and put last night behind us? ALISON No. Get off my desk. SIDNEY I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing. (Beat) Are you going to help me out? ALISON Okay. Which way did you come in? Sidney stares at her. Alison takes some contact sheets from her desk and shoves them at him. ALISON (CONT'D) Chris Blick exhibition opening. Caption it. Now get off my desk. One of the magazines gorgeous Fashionistas - INGRID - walks past. INGRID (TO ALISON) Hi! ALISON Hi, Ingrid. Ingrid stares at Sidney's outfit, thrown. SIDNEY (a wolfish smile) You going to introduce me? ALISON This is Clark Baxter. (Noticing Ingrid's gaze) He's English. INGRID (That explains it) Ohh...right. 27. SIDNEY Actually it's Sidney. Sidney Young. Clark Baxter is my alias. INGRID Why do you have an alias? ALISON He uses it when he's trying to pick up transsexuals. INGRID (CREEPED OUT) Nice to meet you. She walks on. SIDNEY (TO ALISON) I take it you knew about Bob and didn't tell me? Alison inscribes a circle in the air with her finger without looking up. 41 LATER 41 Sidney is on the phone. He is staring at some contact sheets. SIDNEY Hello, is that the Parsons Gallery? WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Yes, it is. This is Celia Parsons speaking. SIDNEY This is Sidney Young from Sharps Magazine? We're running some photographs from your opening of the Chris Blick exhibition, and I just need to caption them. I was wondering if you could help me identify some of the people? WOMAN'S VOICE (OVER PHONE) All right. SIDNEY Thanks. So...Chris Blick. Man or woman? WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) What? 28. SIDNEY Is Chris Blick a man or woman? WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) (BEAT) Are you sure you're calling from Sharps magazine? SIDNEY Yes, I am. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) (ICY) Tell me Stanley, why have they given you this assignment if you don't know who one of the most famous artists in America is? SIDNEY I...I don't really know. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) (SNAPPING) He's a man. SIDNEY Okay. Is he an old man? WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) (BEAT) He's an older man, yes. SIDNEY (staring at a PHOTOGRAPH) Okay, I've got two old men here - so is he the fat one? WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) (BEAT) You do realize that Clayton Harding is a personal friend of mine? SIDNEY (BEAT) What's that got to do with anything? WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Right. She hangs up. Beat. Sidney looks around, hoping no-one was listening. He re-dials. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) (CONT'D) Parsons gallery. SIDNEY Is he the one with the wonky eye? 29. She hangs up again. CUT TO 42 INT. LOBBY - LIFT - DAY 42 Sidney, coming back from lunch, gets into the lift eating a HAMBURGER. Another of the magazine's Fashionistas - ANNA - gets into the lift and tries to hold the door open for an approaching friend. The doors swish shut, Anna pulling her hand out of the way just in time. The lift rises. SIDNEY It's fashion sensitive. If you're not wearing Prada it'll take your arm clean off. Anna stares at this strange man with the burger, baffled. ANNA But I am wearing Prada. The lift stops and she gets out. Alison gets in, sees Sidney and winces. She takes out a book and pretends to read. The lift begins to rise again. Through it's glass doors we see the different floors passing, different publications - each a hive of sober, hard work. Sidney stares at them. SIDNEY (MOUTH FULL) This isn't what I expected. Alison recoils slightly. ALISON What did you expect? SIDNEY I don't know. The Algonquin circle. Dorothy Parker. Martinis. Quips. Look at them. Not one of them is drunk. ALISON It's called being a professional. You should try it some time. SIDNEY There's something you should understand. I'm not really one of you. ALISON By "you" do you mean "human?" 30. SIDNEY I mean the glossy posse. Bunch of Zombies, writing about "Pets of the Stars" but acting like they're working for the UN. I'm here to shake things up a bit. Where are you from? ALISON Not that it's any of your business, but I'm from Port Huron, Michigan. SIDNEY Right. Small town girl. (Hannibal Lector impersonation) I bet you could only dream of getting out. Getting anywhere - yes, Clarice? Getting all the way - to the N...Y...C. (Dropping the impersonation) Take my advice, don't go taking this celebrity fluff seriously. For a moment Alison is speechless with anger. ALISON You...you...arrogant... The lift stops and a TALL WOMAN enters. She is expensively dressed, wears Chanel dark glasses, an expression of granite and an air of superhuman froideur. Alison exchanges the slightest of nods with her and stares tensely ahead. Only Sidney, busy chewing, is oblivious to the plunge in temperature. For a moment there is only the soft whir of the lift. Then Sidney begins to choke on some burger. He wheezes for a moment, gagging. The Woman stiffens slightly but shows no other sign of having noticed the revolting noises coming from behind her. Alison closes her eyes. Sidney gives a violent cough and a chunk of chewed burger and coleslaw flies out of his mouth and lands on the back of the oblivious Woman's Prada jacket. Sidney notices and raises a tentative hand to brush the offending item away. Before he can move Alison silently takes his wrist in a vice-like grip. 43 CORRIDOR - MOMENTS LATER 43 Alison is haranguing Sidney. 31. ALISON (HISSING) Are you insane? That was Lawrence's wife, Elizabeth! Her father owns Sharps! SIDNEY That was her? The Mussolini baby? He stops. SIDNEY (CONT'D) I could go back and tell her I'm... ALISON No! Listen to me - you do NOT approach Elizabeth Maddox, you do NOT talk to her! Don't even make eye-contact with her? Do you understand? SIDNEY Am I supposed to be afraid? ALISON Yes. SIDNEY I don't know the meaning of the word fear. ALISON I'm sure there are many words you don't know the meaning of! She walks on, shaking her head in disbelief. ALISON (CONT'D) When I think of all the people who would kill to be where you are. And you lumber in here, spitting food, haven't got the brains God gave a mollusc...why did Clayton hire you? SIDNEY (FOLLOWING HER) Snipe Magazine. ALISON What? SIDNEY When Clayton left college he started this little magazine called Snipe. Fantastic. Took aim at every self-important celebrity in town. Completely fearless. It was like my magazine but twenty years earlier. (MORE) 32. SIDNEY (CONT'D) That's why he's hired me. I am the young Clayton Harding. He looks at me and sees his glory days. ALISON (SARCASTIC) His glory days? Sharps has won fourteen National Magazine awards and increased its advertising pages by more than 60 percent since he took over. He's paid millions of dollars a year. He lives in a Bank Street townhouse, and weekends in the Hamptons. Clayton Harding is one of the lynchpins of the media-industrial complex. Sidney stops to examine his reflection in a window. SIDNEY Yeah, but don't worry. I think I might still be in time to save him. 44 INT. SIDNEY'S APARTMENT - EVENING 44 The phone is ringing. Sidney walks in from the bedroom, changing into his old brown suit. The answer machine kicks in. SIDNEY (O.S.) (over answer machine) You've reached Sidney Young. I'm sorry but my answering machine is out of order, so the voice you are hearing is actually me. The machine BEEPS. Sidney smirks at his joke and is reaching for the phone when we hear the caller - an older man, an upper-class English accent. OLDER MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) (over answer machine) Sidney? Are you there? Sidney stops in his tracks, something complicated and fearful crossing his face. OLDER MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) (CONT'D) Sidney? Are you there? Sidney tiptoes back out of the room. OLDER MAN'S VOICE (CONT'D) If you're there Sidney, answer the phone. We hear the opening of Fly Me To The Moon by Julie London 33. 45 INT. TOWN CAR - EVENING 45 Sidney sits in the car beside Alison and Maddox, staring out the window, entranced by the bright lights as they pass by... 46 EXT. HOTEL - FUND-RAISER PARTY - NIGHT 46 The rooftop swimming pool of a hotel. Flowers everywhere, including in the pool. Guests mill around drinking. We find Sidney working his way through the throng to where Alison stands. SIDNEY (MOUTH FULL) There's a couple of hundred grands worth of food here and I swear I'm the only person eating it. You want some? Alison recoils. Sidney does a little nerdy dance to the music as he eats. SIDNEY (CONT'D) This place is amazing. It's wall to wall totty. ALISON Wall to wall what? SIDNEY Totty. Babes. Sexually attractive women. ALISON Do you mind? SIDNEY What? Maddox joins them. A man passes, nods respectfully at Maddox. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Look at that. All night people have been treating us like we're royalty. In London, the journalist's motto is "Everybody hates us and we don't care." LAWRENCE MADDOX Well, now you're one of the High Priests of what's Hot and what's Not. So what were you two talking about? 34. ALISON Sidney was just marvelling at the abundance of "Totty" here. LAWRENCE MADDOX (ENJOYING THIS) Uh-oh. I don't think Miss Olsen approves of you, Sidney. Sidney watches some beautiful women pass, dripping diamonds. SIDNEY I shouldn't be here. I get thrown out of places like this. LAWRENCE MADDOX This? This is a McDonald's. I hate disease parties. (Off Sidney's puzzled look) Fund- raisers. Someone's CELL PHONE RINGS. All of the guests automatically check their cells. An OLDER ATTRACTIVE WOMAN walks over - she's a little drunk. WOMAN Lawrence Maddox? Oh my goodness... Long time. Maddox examines her coolly. WOMAN (CONT'D) Rachel! Lawrence barely bothers to conceal the fact he doesn't remember her. LAWRENCE MADDOX Rachel. How are you? RACHEL Well, I'm just wonderful. Wonderful. How are you? Lawrence smiles and looks around him without answering. Rachel tries again. RACHEL (CONT'D) Funny I should run into you. I've just done this great little film called Five Boroughs and it's you know, low-budget, first-time director but very, uh, moving and... Hey, maybe you could do a little...? 35. A handsome YOUNG MAN passes by. Maddox instantly turns away from Rachel. LAWRENCE MADDOX (SMOOTHLY) Angelo, good to see you. Rachel hovers for a moment, embarrassed by her abrupt dismissal then slips away. Sidney watches her go, feeling for her. SIDNEY (TO MADDOX) You know that was Rachel Petkoff? She's a fantastic actress. Hasn't done anything for years, but, in her day... LAWRENCE MADDOX (COOLLY) I'm sure. SIDNEY Seriously, I've heard about that film. I think she's going to make a come back. We should get there first, do a profile or something before everyone else... Maddox isn't listening. Instead he greets a fat, angry- looking VERY YOUNG MAN. This is VINCENT LEPAK, wearing his customary SHADES. LAWRENCE MADDOX (FAWNING) Vincent! Great to see you. Children, I'd like to introduce you to Vincent Lepak, enfant terrible and in, my opinion, the most exciting new director in American cinema. Vincent nods, frowning, looks around. VINCENT I think this is the worst fundraiser I've been to in my whole life. LAWRENCE MADDOX It's a rat fuck, isn't it? Sidney walks away. 47 ANGLE ON RACHEL 47 ...standing at the parapet, smoking, staring out over the city with red eyes. Sidney appears beside her. 36. SIDNEY Excuse me? Aren't you Rachel Petkoff? Rachel turns to look at him. SIDNEY (CONT'D) This is sort of embarrassing but... He holds out a napkin. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Could I have your autograph? Rachel, suspecting she is the target of ridicule, looks around to see if there's an audience. SIDNEY (CONT'D) I'm a big fan. RACHEL (HARD) Is that so? SIDNEY Absolutely. I must have seen everything you've been in. Those episodes of The Love Boat and the Bionic Woman? The Song Birds, In The Night...I've even seen your first ever TV appearance. The Twilight Zone - House of Mirrors. Right? RACHEL (THROWN) Right... SIDNEY My all time favorite? A Day Too Long. (He means it) You were really great in that. Rachel stares at him. She hides her emotion with a bright smile. RACHEL (LAUGHING) What's your name, honey? SIDNEY Sidney Young. She takes the napkin and pen, her face glowing. RACHEL (WRITING) Sidney Young. I'll remember that. 37. 48 ANGLE ON VINCENT 48 ...holding court to Maddox, Alison and some of the Glitterati. Sidney joins them, eating more food. VINCENT You look around and it's all shit. No-one is making movies that are fucking worthwhile. LAWRENCE MADDOX I'd have to disagree with you, Vincent. Vincent looks at him, displeased. LAWRENCE MADDOX (CONT'D) You're making movies that are worthwhile. Vincent accepts this with a curt nod. VINCENT This is what I'm saying. You have to inspire yourself. I am my role- model. I want to be me... He stares angrily around, handing his empty glass to his waiting assistant who immediately replaces it with a full one from a passing tray. Sidney watches him with dislike. SIDNEY (SUDDENLY) Greatest film ever made? VINCENT Excuse me? SIDNEY What's the greatest film ever made? (To Alison) Go on. Have a guess. ALISON (IRRITATED) Well, that's...I don't think there is one single film that... SIDNEY Have a guess. VINCENT (SNEERING) Yeah, have a guess - what is the greatest film ever made? 38. ALISON (EMBARRASSED) I don't, uh...well personally I love La Dolce Vita but... SIDNEY Incorrect. Con Air. ALISON (BEAT) I beg your pardon? SIDNEY Uhuh, Con Air. It's got everything. Malkovich for your acting chops, Nicky Cage for action, Buscemi for comedy, John Cusack for the Gays. It's a smorgasbord. The group study him, trying to work out if this is irony or idiocy. Maddox is staring daggers at him. An extremely thin, fashionably dressed woman smiles at Sidney. WOMAN I don't think we've been introduced? LAWRENCE MADDOX Mister Young, this is Eleanor Johnson, Queen of New York. Eleanor this is Sidney Young. He's from England and he's our very own Idiot Savant. Without the Savant. ELEANOR JOHNSON Well, it's always nice to have fresh blood at these things. (To Maddox) Which reminds me, I'm here with Sophie Maes, I want you to meet her. New film, The Suffragette coming out, the buzz is A-mazing. The release is tied in with the roll-out of the Reebok campaign, and now Louis Vuitton's on the line. This train is leaving the station Lawrence. SIDNEY (TO ELEANOR) So, you're a publicist? ELEANOR JOHNSON I don't really like that word, Sidney. SIDNEY What should I call you? 39. ELEANOR JOHNSON You can call me Eleanor. She stares past him, across the pool. ELEANOR JOHNSON (CONT'D) There she is. They turn to see a young woman standing across the pool from them. This is SOPHIE MAES - a natural beauty, statuesque, no make-up, hair simply pulled back. Sophie tries to walk around the pool to join them but finds she can't work her way through the crowd. She turns to her right but finds her way similarly blocked. She hesitates for a moment and then with a shrug climbs down into the pool, the water up to her chest, and begins to walk through the floating flowers towards them. Sidney stares at her, TRANSFIXED. Alison notices this with some contempt. Gradually everyone notices Sophie and stops to look. Having reached the other side, Sophie ascends the pool steps, laughing, her dress clinging to her: Venus rising from the waves. The Photographers appear, snapping merrily away. LAWRENCE MADDOX (MURMURING) Oh, this one will go far. 49 INT. HOTEL - LATER 49 Sophie, still in her wet dress, Eleanor and Sophie's ENTOURAGE are striding through the hotel's corridors, on their way out. Maddox, Sidney and Alison are with them. ELEANOR JOHNSON (on cell phone) Where's the car? What's it doing at the back? Forget what I said. I want the car at the front. Now. Sidney finds himself walking alongside Sophie and Maddox, trying not to stare at Sophie's breasts. SOPHIE MAES ...I just think it's terrible the way we're still exploiting animals. That's why, you know, I won't wear fur or leather, I won't wear make-up, I'm vegetarian. SIDNEY I'm with you... 40. Sophie turns to him with a vague smile. SIDNEY (CONT'D) I won't eat anything with, you know, eyebrows. He snickers nervously. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Or if it can chuckle. I won't eat animals that can chuckle. SOPHIE I'm sorry, I can't understand your accent? SIDNEY (EMBARRASSED) Nothing, just, uh...So you're an actress? Have I seen you in anything? SOPHIE MAES I don't know. Have you? SIDNEY (BEAT) No. (Trying again) So you haven't won any Oscars yet? SOPHIE MAES No. SIDNEY Because I would certainly vote for you for best supporting dress! Huh, huh, huh.... SOPHIE MAES (STRUGGLING TO UNDERSTAND HIM) I haven't been nominated for anything. SIDNEY No, I'm just...I'm saying you look... They have reached the front entrance of the hotel. Eleanor steps between them. ELEANOR JOHNSON (TO SOPHIE) Are you ready dear? The front doors glide open to reveal a LEGION OF PAPARAZZI waiting outside. As Sophie steps outside there is a sudden roar of photographers shouting and the night sky blazes white as HUNDREDS OF CAMERAS FLASH SIMULTANEOUSLY. 41. REVERSE - the group framed in the entrance-way - blinded by the glare, squinting. Only Sophie has her eyes open, smiling, looking like a star. 50 EXT. OUTSIDE HOTEL - MOMENTS LATER 50 The Paparazzi are still crowding around the group as they make their way to the waiting car. LAWRENCE MADDOX (TO ALISON) We're going on to the Circle Club. I'll see you tomorrow. ALISON (TIGHT) Okay. Good night. Maddox slips his jacket around Sophie's shoulders. SOPHIE Aren't you cold? LAWRENCE MADDOX I'm from Canada, land of ice and snow. They get into the car. Sidney tries to follow them. SIDNEY Budge up. LAWRENCE MADDOX Where are you going? SIDNEY I'm coming to the club. LAWRENCE MADDOX Sorry, you're not on the list. A small CHIHUAHUA - CUBA - on Sophie's lap snarls at Sidney. LAWRENCE MADDOX (CONT'D) See? Even Cuba says so. Maddox closes the door and the car glides away, Sophie kissing the dog on the nose. The Paparazzi hurry back to the entrance as another celebrity emerges, leaving Alison and Sidney staring after the car. SIDNEY (FUMING) That's... that turns my stomach. Pawing her like that. He's old enough to be her father. 42. ALISON (IRRITATED) No he isn't. SIDNEY Yes he is. I started producing sperm when I was thirteen, so you know, technically... ALISON For your information he wasn't pawing her! He was just doing his job! In case you haven't noticed Sharps has to have a star on the cover every month. And most of those stars are clients of Eleanor's. So do not piss her off. SIDNEY She's a flak. Hacks don't take orders from flaks. And I don't think you can call that "doing his job." The man had no blood left in his upper body... ALISON (SNAPPING) Will you...? Oh, and next time you want to do the hilariously ironic I love Con Air skit would you mind...? SIDNEY I wasn't being ironic... ALISON ...would you mind not involving me, especially in the presence of Vincent Lepak who happens to be very important. SIDNEY Yeah, I could tell by the way he was allowed to stay up past his bed time. The car disappears into the distance. They watch it go. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Do you think she'd go out with me? ALISON Who? SIDNEY Sophie Maes. You think she'll go out with me? 43. ALISON No. Girls like Sophie don't date journalists. As far as she's concerned, you're the help. SIDNEY What do you know? A lot of these starlets are lonely. They spend their time looking for a man. Alison starts to walk away. ALISON This is New York, Sidney. Women only date men who are successful... SIDNEY I'm going to be successful. ALISON (as she goes) ...and tall. 51 INT. SHARPS MAGAZINE - I SPY AREA - MORNING 51 Sidney sits in front of his computer reading the on-line New York Post Page Six. A story on the previous night is accompanied by a large picture of Sophie in her clinging dress. Above the picture is the title Venus Envy. Sidney stares at the picture, entranced. Alison sits at her desk, watching him with contempt. Maddox appears beside them. SIDNEY Have you seen this? She's everywhere. An ASSISTANT walks over with a MUFFIN BASKET for Maddox. ASSISTANT From Sophie Maes. LAWRENCE MADDOX (reading the card) "Thanks for a great night." What a sweet kid. Oh, Sidney, about last night - word of advice. Don't talk to the celebrities, okay? Sophie said you made her feel uncomfortable. He walks off with a slight smirk. Sidney glowers after him. 44. 52 INT. SHARPS MAGAZINE - CORRIDOR - MORNING 52 Sidney walks down the corridor. He slows, his expression changing suddenly. SIDNEY'S P.O.V - Elizabeth Maddox is walking down the corridor towards us, face set. Sidney keeps on walking, staring to one side of Elizabeth. As they draw level, the heel of one of Elizabeth's shoes snaps off and she lurches sideways, colliding with the wall before sprawling onto the floor in front of Sidney. Sidney hesitates. He notices Alison watching with baited breath from the other end of the corridor. For a moment nobody moves then Sidney steps over Elizabeth's prone form without a word and keeps on walking. Alison gives a sigh of relief, nods in approval and walks on. 53 INT. MEETING ROOM - DAY 53 Clayton heads a monthly staff meeting. A rather smug Maddox is just finishing a pitch. LAWRENCE MADDOX ...so Brad's people finally got back to me and they've agreed. We've got the whole afternoon, before the shoot. People clap. Harding nods approvingly. CLAYTON HARDING Good work Lawrence. Okay, well, if that's it for... He starts to get up. SIDNEY So, I was thinking, Clay... Clayton, pauses, frowning. Sidney turns to the room, cocksure. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Paris Hilton. I do a profile on her as if she's this complete recluse, this hermit...(laughing) I try and track her down and, you know, "Who is the elusive Paris Hilton and why is she so publicity shy?" He laughs for a moment. No one joins in. 45. CLAYTON HARDING That's first room stuff, Sidney. And call me Clay one more time and see what happens. Harding stalks out of the room. Blushing, Sidney stares after him, nodding vaguely. As he gathers his notebook he becomes aware of the smirks on the faces of Maddox and the others as they leave. 54 INT. BREAK AREA - AFTERNOON 54 Alison sits with her notebook and pen. Behind her some of the magazine's glamorous Fashionistas - VICKY, INGRID and ANNA - are examining some clothes. VICKY No, I'd love these but I'm so fat I couldn't... INGRID Get out of here! ANNA You look totally rexy. INGRID (TO ALISON) Alice? Alison hides her irritation with a smile. ALISON Alison. INGRID Tell Vicky she looks rexy. ALISON Rexy? INGRID Anorexic. ALISON (TO VICKY) Well...you do look like you could do with a few more pounds. VICKY Oh god, that's so sweet. INGRID (TO ALISON) By the way, post-shoot clear out. Got some Gucci pants here that are way too big for us. You wanna try? 46. ALISON (another tight smile) No, thanks. She looks up as Sidney sits heavily beside her, stares at her with puppy-dog eyes. Alison tries to ignore him for a moment. ALISON (CONT'D) I don't mean to be rude Sidney but...what the fuck do you want? SIDNEY Listen, you know how things work around here. How am I going to get something in the magazine? Alison stares at him. ALISON I thought all this "fluff" was beneath you? SIDNEY It is but...things have changed. ALISON What's changed? SIDNEY Look, I know people think I'm a bit of an idiot and maybe I haven't started off too well here, but I want...I want... He seems so awkward that Alison begins to soften a little. SIDNEY (CONT'D) ...I want to have sex with Sophie Maes. (Beat) Before Maddox does. Alison's expression turns to disgust. ALISON You're loathsome, you know that? SIDNEY (OBLIVIOUS) I know he's got a head start on me but I'm going to win her back. Once I get my hooks into a girl, they never get free. ALISON Like ring-worm. She gets up and stalks out. Sidney glances through the glass partition and sees MADDOX walking past. 47. SIDNEY (TO HIMSELF) The gloves are coming off. We hear the opening of Brigitte Bardot's Moi Je Joue as we... 55 INT. ELEVATOR - DAY 55 Sidney is pitching to Clayton in the elevator. SIDNEY Okay. Celebrity Trash Cans. The contents of celebrity trash cans are revealed and readers have gotta guess who the trash belongs to... Five bottles of Jack Daniels, a court order, and a copy of Mein Kampf? Mel Gibson! CLAYTON HARDING (getting out the lift) First Room, Sidney. First room. 56 EXT. OUTSIDE CIRCLE CLUB - EVENING 56 A small group of GLITTERATI pass the immense line of hopefuls waiting outside the club and are ushered inside by the DOORMAN at the entrance. Sidney walks confidently up, pretending to talk into his cell. The Doorman stands in his way, impassive. Still talking Sidney turns and walks away as if nothing has happened. 57 INT. ELEVATOR - DAY 57 Sidney standing with a MODEL-TYPE in the elevator. He takes a LAMINATED PHOTOGRAPH from his wallet and shows it to her. SIDNEY (pointing at the snap) Guess who that is with Clint Eastwood? MODEL Morgan Freeman? SIDNEY No, not...why's everyone say...? There! In the head-lock! 58 INT. CLAYTON'S OFFICE - DAY 58 Sidney pitches to a closed door in the office. He is holding a LARGE PIECE OF CARD on which is drawn a TREE decorated with the heads of various CELEBRITIES. 48. SIDNEY It's a Shag Tree. It illustrates all of the sexual pairings of Hollywood's top stars and how they interconnect... From under the door slides a piece of paper on which is written First Room. We hear a TOILET FLUSH. 59 EXT. OUTSIDE CIRCLE CLUB - EVENING 59 Sidney approaches the Doorman , takes a ten dollar bill from his pocket and hands it to the Doorman. The Doorman crumples the bill up and throws it away. Without a word Sidney begins to walk away. He comes back and picks up the crumpled note and then heads off again. 60 INT. CLAYTON'S OFFICE - DAY 60 Harding is eating lunch at his desk. He looks up and finds Sidney staring down at him with puppy-dog eyes. Beat. Harding sighs. CLAYTON HARDING If I give you an interview will ya leave me the fuck alone? Sidney smiles. The song ends. 61 INT. STUDIO - DAY 61 Nathan Lane shakes hands with Sidney as he sits down. NATHAN LANE Nathan Lane. Nice to meet you. SIDNEY Great to meet you Nathan. I'm a big fan. I love that rat thing you played in The Lion King. NATHAN LANE (PLEASANTLY) Actually he's a meer cat. SIDNEY (absently, checking his NOTES) Uhuh... Now, I've been doing some research and I think you're probably quite a private man. Am I right? NATHAN LANE Well... 49. SIDNEY Which is fine, but today, I think it would be great to get behind the mask. NATHAN LANE (BEAT) Uh, I don't think there really is a mask as such, and I don't wanna be a pain, but what I really wanna talk about is the new play, keep it about the work, you know? Is that okay? SIDNEY Absolutely. Of course. So, first question - are you Jewish? Nathan stares at Sidney. NATHAN LANE I don't see what the relevance of that is. SIDNEY Okay. Next question. The rat thing - that's gotta be Disney's first gay animal, right? So, I was wondering - are you a homosexual? Beat. Nathan looks like he might hit Sidney. 62 INT. CLAYTON'S OFFICE - DAY 62 Clayton glares at Sidney from behind his desk. CLAYTON HARDING What did I say to you? SIDNEY What...? CLAYTON HARDING What did I say to you? SIDNEY I just... CLAYTON HARDING What did I say to you? SIDNEY Don't upset anyone. CLAYTON HARDING Don't upset anyone. 50. SIDNEY I was just trying to...probe. CLAYTON HARDING You wanna probe become a proctologist, okay? You can't ask musical comedy stars whether they're Jewish or gay. From now on just assume they're all Jewish and all gay, okay? 63 INT. I SPY AREA - DAY 63 Sidney is on the phone. He has been idly applying magic tape to his face, contorting it into a grotesque grimace. The headline of a magazine open in front of him reads: "Everyone Loves A Lord: Why British Titles Drive New York Women Crazy." SIDNEY I'd like to apply for an American Express card please? (Beat) Hon. Sidney Young. (Beat) As in Honourable. H-O-N. (Beat)It's a British title. Across the desk Alison watches him with contempt. SIDNEY (CONT'D) The Queen? Yeah, I know the Queen. Just fill in the form will you? Sidney suddenly notices Sophie Maes and Eleanor Johnson walking towards them. Sophie looks more STYLED than before. She is holding her Chihuahua, Cuba, which is dressed in a tiny coat. Sidney DISAPPEARS UNDER THE DESK. We hear a RIP as he yanks the tape off his face. SIDNEY (O.S.)(CONT'D) (in pain, under desk) Oh, fuck...! LAWRENCE MADDOX (WALKING OVER) Hey! Cuba! He pets the dog, who greets him enthusiastically. SOPHIE MAES (TO LAWRENCE) He likes you. LAWRENCE MADDOX (SMILING SMOOTHLY) Well, I'm one of the Friends Of Cuba. 51. He laughs, Sophie smiles, not getting it. Alison seems immersed in some paper-work. LAWRENCE MADDOX (CONT'D) So how's it feel to be a star? SOPHIE No, don't! It's so embarrassing! That picture's everywhere now. And I had no idea the dress was so see-through! And people are talking like it was some kind of stunt. ELEANOR JOHNSON (SMOOTHLY) Such a cynical age. Hello Sidney. Embarrassed, Sidney gets up from under his desk. SIDNEY Hello! Didn't, didn't know you were coming in...? ELEANOR JOHNSON Lawrence is taking us to lunch at Cipriani. SIDNEY (JEALOUS) Oh great. That's great. SOPHIE MAES Lawrence? Could I leave Cuba here? He doesn't like Italian food. LAWRENCE MADDOX Of course you can. He can stay in my office. Sidney? Fetch Cuba a bowl of water, will you? Sidney stares at him. SIDNEY (forcing a smile) Of course. 64 WATER-COOLER 64 Eleanor is getting a cup of water from the cooler. Sidney joins her, waiting to fill the dog's bowl. ELEANOR JOHNSON That is a lovely ring. Where is that from? 52. Sidney looks at the wedding ring he wears on his little finger. SIDNEY (EMBARRASSED) It was my mother's. She gave it to me. ELEANOR JOHNSON (SMILING) Oh, you Sweetie. That is very, very...(dismissing the topic) So, listen...You've met Vincent Lepak haven't you, Sidney? SIDNEY Uhuh. ELEANOR JOHNSON He has a new movie coming out soon and Lawrence is over- stretched as it is. How would you like to write a story on him? Alison, at the photocopier nearby, listens. Sidney smiles, filled with hope. SIDNEY A story? Absolutely. That would...I'd love to... ELEANOR JOHNSON (SOFTLY) Well, great. Maybe we could get together and discuss the angle? SIDNEY Okay. (Beat) What do you mean? ELEANOR JOHNSON Well, I'd need to know how we're going to present Vincent, check the story, so on. SIDNEY (BEAT) You want copy approval? ELEANOR JOHNSON (SMILING) Any stories written about my clients need to be in their best interest, that's all. If things work out with Vincent we could maybe talk about a follow up story on Sophie? What do you think? Alison listens, her face registering her distaste. 53. Sidney looks over at Sophie, struggling with himself. Finally... SIDNEY (RELUCTANTLY) I'm sorry, Eleanor, I don't...I don't work that way. Alison stares with surprise at Sidney. He just went up in her estimation. ELEANOR JOHNSON (AMUSED) Sidney dear, think of it like this: you write about one of my clients, you are borrowing some of their "star-light" to help sell your magazine. All I'm saying is quid pro quo. Sidney is unable to hold back a snicker. SIDNEY Their star-light? Eleanor's face hardens. 65 MOMENTS LATER 65 Sidney watches Sophie, Maddox and Eleanor as they walk towards reception. 66 INT. MADDOX'S OFFICE - LATER 66 Sidney cracks open the door and peers inside. Cuba sits in the middle of the floor, staring at him. He emits a low growl. Sidney slides into the room. SIDNEY Hello Cuba. I'm Uncle Sidney, come to see how you are. You wanna play? You wanna little play? He takes a RUBBER BALL out of his pocket and holds it up for the dog to see. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Fetch! He tosses the ball in the air. Cuba runs after it and trots back, stumpy tail wagging, the ball in its teeth. SIDNEY (CONT'D) That's it! That's it! 54. He strokes the dog. SIDNEY (CONT'D) We're gonna be best pals aren't we? You're going to like me more than that prick Maddox, aren't you? Fetch! He tosses the ball again which promptly bounces off the wall straight out of the half open window. SIDNEY (CONT'D) No! Cuba is already running towards the window... Sidney's yell slows and distorts as we move to SLOW MOTION... Sidney springs forward, leaping onto the desk and then in one bound onto a FILING CABINET by the window, sending it rocking slightly forward. Cuba, bounding forward, jumps into the air... Sidney just manages to slam the window SHUT as... BACK IN NORMAL TIME... Cuba bounces off the glass with a yelp and drops to the floor. Sidney heaves a sigh of relief. Then a METAL SCULPTURE on the tilted filing cabinet slides forward and drops with a TERMINAL THUD ON THE DOG BELOW. Silence. Sidney stares down to the floor. SIDNEY (CONT'D) (SOFTLY) Cuba? 67 INT. CORRIDOR - LATER 67 Sidney stands at the lift holding a bulging bag. SIDNEY (waiting for the lift) C'mon...C'mon... Alison walks past, sees him and does a double-take. SIDNEY (CONT'D) (seeing her coming) Shit, shit, shit... 55. ALISON That's my bag. SIDNEY I'm just...just borrowing it. I'll bring it straight back. ALEX What are you talking about? Give it back. She reaches out to take the bag. Sidney holds on desperately. ALISON Stop it! Give me the... She tugs violently, pulling the bag open. A small PAW lolls out. Alison freezes staring at it. Silence. ALISON (CONT'D) (SOFTLY) Oh my God. SIDNEY (WHISPERING) It was an accident. ALISON Oh my God. SIDNEY I was just trying to make friends. Please don't tell her. Please don't tell her. SOPHIE MAES (O.S.) (CALLING) Cuba? Cuba? Startled, Sidney darts into Maddox's office. 67A INT. MADDOX'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS 67A As footsteps and voices approach Sidney tugs wildly at Maddox's window, trying to open it. Alison follows him in. ALISON What are you doing? You can't...! He jerks the window open and empties Cuba out of it, slamming it shut just as Sophie, Eleanor and Lawrence walk in. LAWRENCE MADDOX Alison, have you seen Cuba? 56. ALISON (BEWILDERED) W-What? She darts a glance over to where Sidney stands with his back to the window, gazing at her pleadingly. From behind him comes a faint creaking sound. ELEANOR JOHNSON (SNAPPING) Sophie's dog! Have you seen him? Sidney hangs his head, awaiting the coup de grace. ALISON Uh...no. No idea. Sidney stares at her in amazement. Behind him Cuba's body appears at the window, rising into view on a WINDOW WASHING PLATFORM. A Window Washer, stands at the other end of the cradle, bobbing his head to the music in his headphones. Alison stares at the dog in horror while the others talk, oblivious. LAWRENCE MADDOX Don't worry, he couldn't have got very far. SOPHIE MAES (WAILING) Cuba? Cuba! Cuba trundles on up to the sky. 68 INT. CLAYTON HARDING'S OFFICE - DAY 68 Clayton stands at the window. He is DRUNK. There is a knock at the door and Sidney walks in. SIDNEY (NERVOUSLY) Clayton? Have you got a minute? Clayton lights a cigarette, stares out of the window. Sidney comes in. CLAYTON HARDING Did they find that rat yet? SIDNEY No...Not yet. I think maybe he got out the building? Sidney hovers. 57. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Congratulations on the Man of the Year thing. How was the lunch? CLAYTON HARDING I don't know. Thousand dollars a plate, all I could taste was ass. I'm kissing their ass, they're kissing my ass. (Beat) I get this dream sometimes. Someone's set fire to the building - Heywoods - Sharps magazine - the whole thing, it's going up in flames. My analyst thinks it's an anxiety dream. I never tell him how happy I am watching the fucker burn. Sidney isn't sure what to say. Finally... CLAYTON HARDING (CONT'D) What do you want? Sidney takes a deep breath. SIDNEY I want to do a story on Vincent Lepak. Not a puff-piece. Something funny, but with teeth. The kind of thing Snipe would have done. Everyone's treating him like he's a genius and he's an idiot. Clayton notices the CLOSET-DOOR beside him and opens it. He stares at the rows of blue shirts hanging in there. He takes an armful out and examines them. CLAYTON HARDING Look at these things. How'd I get a closet full of blue fucking shirts? SIDNEY Um...I don't know. CLAYTON HARDING I don't know either. This is an office for Christ's sake! Why've I even got a fucking closet? He drops the shirts. CLAYTON HARDING (CONT'D) Do it. SIDNEY (he can't believe it) Do it? 58. CLAYTON HARDING Fuck it. Yeah. Do it. He's an annoying little prick. Go take him down. This is your shot. SIDNEY Thanks Clayton! CLAYTON HARDING You're my little Hit Man. SIDNEY (BEAMING) I'm your little Hit Man! CLAYTON HARDING Go do it! SIDNEY (HAPPILY) Okay! He scuttles out. He ducks back around the door. SIDNEY (CONT'D) You could call me The Jackal! CLAYTON HARDING Out. SIDNEY (HAPPILY) Okay! He ducks back out again. 69 INT. TRIBECA GRAND HOTEL - NIGHT 69 Sidney is waiting in the lobby. A slightly spaced YOUNG WOMAN approaches him. ASSISTANT Mister Young? SIDNEY Yes? ASSISTANT I'm Sophie Maes' assistant. I'm afraid Sophie isn't here right now. SIDNEY (looking past her) Look I know she's in. I'm not a stalker. I just know she's upset about losing her dog and... 59. ASSISTANT (FIRMLY) She isn't here. SIDNEY (SIGHING) Well, can I at least check that she got my present? ASSISTANT Okay. Did you send the flowers? SIDNEY (SNORTING DERISIVELY) Flowers? Yeah,'cos she doesn't get enough flowers, does she? No, I sent her the fish. The Young Woman looks suddenly nervous. ASSISTANT Oh. SIDNEY Gold-fish. In a bowl. Did she get them? ASSISTANT Yes, but...they were dead. SIDNEY (BEAT) All of them? ASSISTANT Yeah. It was kinda shocking. Were they dead when you sent them? Sidney stares at her. SIDNEY What? No, they were... Who sends people dead fish? ASSISTANT (BEAT) The Mafia? 70 INT. BAR - EVENING 70 Alison sits at the bar, staring at her notebook, a pen held in her hand. A WHITE RUSSIAN sits on the bar beside her. Sidney slides onto the stool beside her. She looks up and sees he is holding a glass bowl of water with three dead fish in it. 60. ALISON My God, you're like a serial killer. SIDNEY This wasn't me. (Beat) I...I laid him to rest. Cuba I mean. I took him over to... ALISON (QUICKLY) I don't want to know. Alison checks the door, looking for someone, a little uncomfortable. SIDNEY Okay. (Beat) Well, I just...I just wanted to say...about not telling them...I really appreciated it. It was good of you and, and...you know...not many people would, uh... He stops, tongue-tied. Alison takes pity on him. ALISON It's okay. SIDNEY (BEAT) Why didn't you? Alison sighs. ALISON You don't need my help to screw up here, Sidney. I mean, the only things you make are mistakes and stains. The BARMAN arrives, stares at the bowl of fish disapprovingly. BARMAN Can I help you? SIDNEY (following his gaze) Just a couple of straws please. Stony-faced, the Barman walks off. Despite herself, Alison smiles. Sidney smiles back. He notices Alison's NOTEBOOK on the bar. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Can I ask you something? How come you've always got the notebook? Is it a diary or something? Am I in it? 61. ALISON It's...it's a novel I'm working on, alright? SIDNEY Wow. ALISON Go ahead. I know. I'm a walking clichÈ. SIDNEY No - a novel, that's...that's pretty impressive. You're writing it by hand? ALISON Yeah, it...I don't know. It keeps it separate from the magazine work. Makes it seem special. He stares at her. SIDNEY You're full of surprises, Sister. Suddenly he notices the White Russian beside them. SIDNEY (CONT'D) So...you waiting for your boyfriend? ALISON (UNCOMFORTABLE) Uh, yeah, so... SIDNEY What's he do, the mystery guy? Is he a hack too? ALISON (BEAT) Actually he's a poet. SIDNEY Really? What's he look like? ALISON (LAUGHING) What? SIDNEY Just most poets you see aren't really good-looking, are they? Spend their time stuck in a room, end up looking like Golem. Is he...? ALISON He's very handsome, thank you. 62. SIDNEY (GLOOMILY) Right. ALISON You know what I don't understand? You're desperate to get a story in the magazine - so why wouldn't you play ball with Eleanor, write the puff-piece? SIDNEY I resent being bribed to gush sycophantically about a star, okay? I choose to gush sycophantically. Alison stares at Sidney trying to figure him out. SIDNEY (CONT'D) It's okay anyway. Clayton's given me a story. I'm on my way. ALISON (SMILING) Well, that's good. Sidney smiles back at her. They look at each other...it's almost the start of a MOMENT... Then suddenly on the TV above the bar, a MOVIE TRAILER begins. Distracted Sidney turns to watch - it's Sophie Maes' new film - The Suffragette - Sophie, a glamorous Emily Pankhurst... Sidney looks back to Alison but she has turned away, suddenly awkward. SIDNEY (EMBARRASSED) Okay, well...better get going.(Leaving) You take my advice, you'll get yourself a boyfriend who's going to show up once in a while. He leaves. Beat. Alison stares at the empty stool beside her. 71 INT. MEETING ROOM - MORNING 71 Clayton is rounding up another staff meeting. Sidney sits trying to contain his excitement. CLAYTON HARDING Which makes it...a half page left. Lawrence? Any ideas? 63. LAWRENCE MADDOX Yeah. Rachel Petkoff, fabulous sixties actress, one of my all time favourites. Just made a wonderful movie called Five Boroughs. I think she's poised for a come-back and I think we should get there first, do a profile. Sidney stares at him in disbelief. He looks over to Alison who avoids his gaze. CLAYTON HARDING Sounds good. Let's do it. Okay that's it people. SIDNEY Uh...Clayton? CLAYTON HARDING What? SIDNEY Did you read my story on Vincent Lepak? Clayton frowns down at some papers, feigning distraction. CLAYTON HARDING What? Oh, yeah. That's...that's not going to work. Sidney can't believe it. Clayton gets up to leave. CLAYTON HARDING (CONT'D) Oh, and for those who haven't heard, Alison is going to be running the I Spy section from now on as Lawrence here has just gone up in the world. He is replacing Greg Roberts as Deputy Editor. Lawrence smiles modestly as the room applauds. Sidney looks like he is going to implode. 72 INT. CORRIDOR - LATER 72 Maddox passes Sidney in the corridor. Sidney glares after him. Suddenly... SIDNEY Rachel Petkoff? One of your favourite actresses? You'd never fucking heard of her! That was my idea! Lawrence stops and turns back. 64. LAWRENCE MADDOX So it was. You have any more good ideas don't forget to bring them to my new office. He is about to walk on but remembers something. LAWRENCE MADDOX (CONT'D) By the way, there've been complaints about you skulking around the water-cooler, trying to talk to women. It's inappropriate behaviour. SIDNEY (LIVID) What? You spend half your life chatting up the staff! LAWRENCE MADDOX When I do it it's called flirting. When you do it it's called sexual harassment. Consider this an official warning. I won't tolerate sexist behaviour. He walks off. Sidney glowers after him. 73 INT. LAWRENCE MADDOX'S OFFICE - DAY 73 Lawrence is holding a meeting in his new office - half a dozen heads of departments sit around drinking coffee. Lawrence sits behind his desk, enjoying his new authority. LAWRENCE MADDOX I know that wasn't Greg's way of working but Greg isn't deputy editor any more. I am, and I'm making changes. There is a knock at the door and Sidney walks in with an attractive BLONDE WOMAN in a long coat and dark glasses. LAWRENCE MADDOX (CONT'D) What? SIDNEY Uh, Lawrence? This lady's been looking for you? LAWRENCE MADDOX (to the woman) Can I help you? WOMAN Are you Lawrence Maddox? The new deputy editor? 65. LAWRENCE MADDOX Yes? WOMAN Well, I've just come to say congratulations on your promotion. LAWRENCE MADDOX (MYSTIFIED) Thank you. I'm sorry, you are...? WOMAN I'm your present. The Woman produces a Beat-Box from behind her back and switches it on. She drops her coat to reveal underwear and stockings underneath. Maddox stares in frozen horror as the STRIPPER dances over to him, removing her bra. 74 INT - INGRID'S OFFICE - DAY 74 A Very Well-Dressed Middle-Aged Woman knocks on the door and enters. INGRID Hey Mrs Harding. Two Impeccably-Dressed Little Girls follow Mrs Harding into the room. INGRID (CONT'D) Oh my God! So adorable! MRS HARDING (to the Little Girls) And this is the Fashion Department. [To Ingrid] Where's Mr Maddox now? INGRID Oh he's down the hall. Room 217. 75 INT. MADDOX'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS 75 The staff are staring transfixed as the stripper gyrates her breasts, whirling NIPPLE TASSELS. SIDNEY (with mock horror) Uh, Lawrence? This is...this is sort of inappropriate isn't it? LAWRENCE MADDOX (HORRIFIED) Will you please... 66. His words are muffled by the bra the stripper drapes over his face. Gleefully, Sidney dances in the background. He produces a camera and starts to snap away. SIDNEY Oh God, this is...this is awful... 76 OMITTED 76 77 INT. MADDOX'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS 77 The Stripper, who we suddenly realise is BOB THE TRANSEXUAL in a blonde wig, whips off his/her panties. There is a collective gasp from the room. Sidney can't stop laughing. Suddenly he notices everyone in the room is now staring at the door. He turns to see Mrs Harding and her girls standing, shell-shocked, in the doorway. Alarmed, Sidney side-steps in towards Bob. REVERSE - GIRLS' P.O.V Bob, impressive breasts bared, stands staring back at us. Sidney, in the absence of anything else to shield him with, is HOLDING BOB'S PENIS. The rest of the staff stare at us, rabbits caught in headlights. After a beat Lawrence peers around Sidney, a rictus smile on his face. LAWRENCE MADDOX Hello, Mrs Harding. Girls... 78 INT. OUTSIDE CLAYTON'S OFFICE - LATER 78 Sidney sits waiting, obsessively cleaning his hand with a wet-wipe. Through the glass partition we can see Clayton and Eleanor Johnson in the office. They are apparently discussing a mock-up of a new cover for Sharps. After a moment Eleanor comes out of the office and sweeps past Sidney without a glance. Clayton appears in the doorway. CLAYTON HARDING (TO SIDNEY) Get in. 79 INT. CLAYTON HARDING'S OFFICE - MOMENTS LATER 79 Sidney sits in front of Clayton. SIDNEY I didn't know it was Take Our Daughters To Work Day. I didn't even know there was a Take Our daughters To Work Day. 67. CLAYTON HARDING Shut up. (Beat) You know, when I told my wife I'd hired another Brit, she was excited. She still thinks you're all like something from Pride and Prejudice. But you Sidney ...you're like a British person born in New Jersey. (Shaking his head) Why did I hire you? Sidney stares at his feet. Suddenly... SIDNEY I don't know - why did you hire me? CLAYTON HARDING I had an attack of nostalgia. It's passed. Like gas. SIDNEY What was wrong with my story? CLAYTON HARDING What? SIDNEY Why did you kill my Vincent Lepak story? CLAYTON HARDING It wasn't good enough. Plain and simple. SIDNEY It wasn't good enough? CLAYTON HARDING We don't do hatchet jobs here. SIDNEY It isn't a hatchet job! CLAYTON HARDING This opening quotation - "It's only too easy to catch people's attention by doing something worse than anyone else has dared do it before..." Who are you thinking of here? Vincent or yourself? SIDNEY He's a talentless, pretentious little twat who thinks cinema began with Tarantino and someone needs to say it. And you told me to do something with teeth! You said... 68. CLAYTON HARDING I'm trying to run a fucking magazine here! Sidney stares at him, angry and disappointed. SIDNEY "A free press is the last defence against the Tyranny of Stupidity." CLAYTON HARDING (IRRITATED) Save me your tin-pot philosophy, okay? SIDNEY It isn't mine. It's yours. First issue of Snipe. CLAYTON HARDING (FURIOUS) Oh, grow the fuck up, will ya! You're not Robin Hood and you never were. You bitch about famous people for the same reason I bitched about them. Because they got invited to the Party and you didn't. Well you're at the Party now so quit bitching and do your job! You're on your last life here, you understand? One more fuck up like today and you're gone. SIDNEY Won't you have to run a decision like that past Eleanor first? For a second Clayton looks like he might throw his ashtray at Sidney. Then he controls himself. CLAYTON HARDING (SITTING DOWN) Get out. Sidney crosses to the door. SIDNEY (he can't help himself) Looks like I was too late to save you after all. He walks out. 80 INT. OPEN-PLAN OFFICE - DAY 80 Sidney walks back through the magazine's open plan area. CO- WORKERS stop whatever they're doing and watch him pass in silence. Then, slowly, one of them begins to CLAP. 69. Someone else joins in. Then someone else. Soon they're all clapping. Someone gets up on their desk, then another... Sidney smiles faintly then... BLINKS out of HIS DAY-DREAM. Everyone around him is working as always, paying him no attention. 81 EXT. CLAYTON HARDING'S HOUSE - THE HAMPTONS - DAY 81 We are TRACKING through Magazine Staff, celebrities, politicians and children as they mill about the lawns of the sprawling mansion, enjoying the Fourth Of July celebrations which are in progress. Clayton greets guests - the perfect host. We find Sidney, wearing unfashionable shorts, socks and shoes. He is talking to Alison. ALISON You hired a stripper? SIDNEY I didn't "hire" him. Bob did it for a favour. ALISON I thought you wanted to be a success here? SIDNEY I do! It's just...(ruefully) It wasn't me. It was Clark. Alison laughs. ALISON The famous alter-ego? How long's he been hanging around? SIDNEY Since I was a kid. Anytime something got broken, or the bathroom got accidentally set on fire - it wasn't me. It was Clark. (Beat.) The weird thing is, he kind of took over. ALISON How old were you? SIDNEY I don't know, twenty, twenty one... Alison laughs. 70. ALISON'D) Well, let me tell you, if only you could get rid of that Clark, you could be a real winner. SIDNEY (DEPRESSED) Clayton's not going to print anything I write. I've been on salary for six-months and I've written precisely one hundred and seventy five words. On a dollar- per-word basis, I'm the highest paid writer in the history of this magazine.(Beat) He's not going to renew my contract. ALISON (SIGHS) What did you expect, Sidney? Vincent's one of Eleanor's clients. I told you. They're Untouchables. SIDNEY I thought Clayton was different. I really did. (Beat) The only thing I'm good at is pissing people off, and he won't let me do it. (Beat) "My glory walks hand in hand with my doom." (Off her look) Troy ALISON Troy who? SIDNEY Troy, the movie. He stares around him at the other guests. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Everybody hates me here. You're the only one who'll talk to me. ALISON You cornered me. SIDNEY (a little embarrassed) No, I mean it. You're the person who's been most, you know... uh...abusive to me. Alison laughs again. They smile at each other. SIDNEY (CONT'D) You want another drink? 71. ALISON (beat, smiling) Alright. I'll have a beer. Sidney walks off. 82 EXT. BAR - DAY 82 Sidney is getting a drink at the bar that has been set up in the grounds. Suddenly he stiffens, watching as Sophie Maes, looking spectacular, walks over to where Maddox and his circle are talking nearby. LAWRENCE MADDOX Sophie, my darling. Looking ravishing as always. Whilst the two are engaged in kissing cheeks, Sidney takes a credit card from his wallet and drops it surreptitiously by Sophie's feet. JOURNALIST (TO MADDOX) You know what I read the other day? Your collection of poems - The Hollow Heart? Man, they're great. Sidney reacts to this, feeling troubled for some reason. SOPHIE MAES You write poems? LAWRENCE MADDOX In another life. The BARMAN is handing out drinks. BARMAN And a White Russian? LAWRENCE MADDOX Right here. Sidney stares at the drink, feeling like he's just been punched in the stomach. Maddox notices him. LAWRENCE MADDOX (CONT'D) Well, well, if it isn't Sidalee. Maddox notices the card at Sophie's feet. LAWRENCE MADDOX (CONT'D) (picking it up) What's this? "Hon Young". SIDNEY That's...that's mine. 72. LAWRENCE MADDOX But your name's not "Hon". SIDNEY (reaching for it) It's short for "Honourable". LAWRENCE (whisking it away) As in, "the Honourable Sidney Young"? SIDNEY Can I please...? LAWRENCE (holding it out of SIDNEY'S REACH) So how come it says "Hon Young"? They made you sound like some Korean medical student. The people gathered around laugh. SIDNEY They screwed it up. Please. LAWRENCE Sidney baby, you don't wanna go faking a British title to impress Sophie. It's the Fourth of July. (Handing back the card): We're celebrating the fact that we threw a bunch of British aristocrats out. Sidney smiles tightly. Suddenly... SIDNEY Why don't you shut up, Maddox? Beat. The others look to Maddox to see how he will react. Maddox smiles dangerously. LAWRENCE MADDOX Careful Sidney. Remember - if it wasn't for us you'd all be speaking German. SIDNEY You're Canadian. If it wasn't for us you'd be speaking French. Sophie giggles. Maddox doesn't like this but before he can answer Sidney walks off. 73. 83 INT. HOUSE - BATHROOM - DAY 83 Alison is about to walk into the bathroom when she hears the sound of muffled sobbing and stops. She peers through the slightly open door. HER P.O.V - Elizabeth Maddox stands at the mirror, staring at her reflection. For once she is not wearing her dark glasses and we can see her eyes are red raw from crying. 84 A LITTLE LATER 84 Elizabeth walks out of the bathroom, dark glasses back in place, her face a mask once more. She walks off. Alison slips out from a nearby room and watches her go, miserable with guilt. 85 EXT. HOUSE - LATER 85 Sidney is staring over to where Alison and Maddox are standing by some trees, deep in conversation. Maddox is tossing nuts into the air and catching them in his mouth. SIDNEY (muttering to himself) Choke. Choke. He puts his fingers to his temples as if to channel telekinetic powers. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Choke...choke... Sidney realizes Harding's wife is passing with her two daughters. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Hello, Mrs Harding. Lovely party. With a look of alarm she shepherds the girls away. A tall older man dressed in white with a long white beard appears next to Sidney. OLDER MAN How are you? Sidney nods gloomily. OLDER MAN (CONT'D) Has anyone ever told you before that you have an unusually dark aura? SIDNEY Yup. 74. OLDER MAN You should walk with bare feet as much as possible, ground all that negative energy. Sidney examines him. SIDNEY So...you're a wizard or...? OLDER MAN I'm a spiritual healer. SIDNEY You can make a living doing that? OLDER MAN Oh God no. I'm a dentist. They stare at the party for a moment. OLDER MAN (CONT'D) You want to do some coke? SIDNEY Um...no, thanks. 86 LATER 86 Rachel Petkoff stands talking to some other guests. Sidney notices her and walks over. SIDNEY Hey! Hello again? Rachel smiles at him distantly, clearly not remembering him. RACHEL Hello. (Turning back to the others) No, Lawrence is a wonderful writer. I really felt like he got to the heart of me. Sidney snorts. Rachel turns back to him, faintly irritated. RACHEL (CONT'D) I'm sorry, have we...? SIDNEY Sidney. Sidney Young. We met at... Another GUEST walks past Sidney and kisses Rachel. GUEST I saw Five Boroughs the other day and wept! 75. Sidney hovers for a moment, ignored, and then walks away. 87 LATER 87 Dusk. The guests have gathered on the lawns to watch the fireworks. There are oohs and aahs as the rockets light up the sky. Suddenly... SIDNEY (O.S.) In-ger-lernd! Puzzled the guests turn to where a drunk Sidney is standing on the balustrade of the porch of the house. SIDNEY (CONT'D) In-ger-lernd! In-ger-lerrrrrrnd! He spots HUGH GRANT amongst the crowd, watching him, puzzled. SIDNEY (CONT'D) You! Grant! Come on! In-ger- lerrrr... With that he slips from the balustrade and crashes into the shrubbery below. 88 LATER 88 Sidney limps through the trees, dabbing at a scratch on his face. He passes Alison who is sitting on a tree-swing, lost in thought, swigging absently from a bottle of wine. ALISON You okay? SIDNEY What? ALISON I said are you okay? SIDNEY I'm fine. Yup. Fine. (Beat) You? ALISON Yup. (Beat) No, actually. I hate my life so, you know, I'm gonna get drunk. Sidney nods, vaguely. They stand in awkward silence for a moment. Then... SIDNEY Right...See you... He walks off. Beat. He walks back into frame suddenly. 76. SIDNEY (CONT'D) (FURIOUS) HOW COULD YOU? ALISON (STARTLED) What? SIDNEY How the...You...having an affair with Maddox! I mean...Maddox for Christ's sake! The Man With Hidden Shallows! Jesus! I mean, I used to think you were...I was starting to...I mean, at first I thought you were a pain but then I started to think...but I mean...Maddox? How can you live with yourself? Alison stares at him, pale, blinking back tears. ALISON (QUIETLY) I couldn't. That's why I've broken up with him. SIDNEY Well, that's no...that's, you know...(Beat) You broke up with him? Alison walks off. Beat. She walks back. ALISON Which leg did you hurt? SIDNEY (POINTING) This one. Alison kicks the leg. SIDNEY (CONT'D) OW! She walks off again. 89 EXT. POOL - EVENING 89 Sidney lies beside the pool staring darkly into the water and nursing the beginnings of a hangover. We hear faint music and laughter from where the party continues in the house behind. He notices the reflection of the starry sky in the water and reaching out gloomily to hold one of the stars. The reflection dissolves into ripples. When the water settles Sophie Maes reflection stares back at him. 77. She's drunk and a good deal of the movie star mystique seems to have evaporated. SOPHIE MAES You know what? There's something very damaged about you. Sidney stares at her, not sure what to say. SIDNEY Huh... Sophie lies down beside the pool, plays with a strand of her hair. SOPHIE MAES Like an animal that's been hit by a car or something. Like a deer or...like a pig maybe? When they walk funny and the other animals keep away from them. Little limpy pig. I'm drawn to sick animals. That's why I picked Cuba - because he had like psychological problems? (Her eyes well with tears) Poor little Cuba. Where is he now? SIDNEY (BEAT) Huh... She wipes her eyes, rolls onto her back. SOPHIE MAES Jesus, I'm wasted. Are you wasted? I'm wasted. Sidney watches her. SIDNEY Congratulations on becoming incredibly famous by the way. SOPHIE MAES Thanks. SIDNEY (BEAT) What's it like? SOPHIE MAES What's what like? SIDNEY Everything. She rolls her head to look at him solemnly. 78. SOPHIE MAES Weird. It's happening so fast and...it's like it's got nothing to do with me. It's like I'm not even really here. She laughs softly. SOPHIE MAES (CONT'D) Am I here? SIDNEY You're here. She turns back to look at the stars. SOPHIE MAES I'm so hungry. SIDNEY Would you...would you like me to get you some food? SOPHIE MAES Are you crazy? There might still be a photographer around. They lie in silence for a moment. SOPHIE MAES (CONT'D) (DREAMILY) You know what would be nice though? Some coke. She rubs her face, close to falling asleep. SOPHIE MAES (CONT'D) Probably just as well I haven't got any. Coke always makes me so horny. Sidney opens his mouth but cannot speak. 90 SIDNEY RUNNING DESPERATELY... 90 ...through the groups of people chatting outside the house. SIDNEY (out of breath) Wizard! Wizard Dentist Man! Need Wizard Dentist Man! 91 DRIVE 91 Sidney has virtually dragged the Dentist out of his car. He is handing Sidney a wrap. 79. SIDNEY I will never, never, never forget this. Thank you! He starts to hurry away. 92 OUTSIDE HOUSE 92 Alison is weaving unsteadily towards the driveway. Sidney hurries past then slows and stops, staring back at her. 93 ALISON'S CAR 93 Alison stands rooting in her purse for a tip to give the VALET MAN who is holding open the door of her car for her, the engine running. SIDNEY What are you doing? ALISON None of your business... SIDNEY You can't drive. You need to go and sleep this off somewhere. ALISON Firstly, you are a stupid asshole and I hate you and Secondly... Secondly... She muses on what she was going to say next. Sidney looks over his shoulder, imagining Sophie waiting for him. ALISON (CONT'D) Secondly... SIDNEY Yeah, okay. Listen, you try driving in this state you're gonna kill yourself. ALISON Who'd care if I did? Beat. Suddenly she bursts into tears. Surprised, Sidney stands, uncertain what to do. ALISON (CONT'D) (SWAYING FORWARD) I've got to go. Got to go. Sidney holds her to stop her falling. He stares back at the pool and then down at Alison. 80. 94 INT. ALISON'S CAR - DRIVING - NIGHT 94 Sidney is driving. Alison is still drunk. ALISON (SLURRING) I thought I had it all figured out. A - get the hell out of Port Huron, come to New York. B - do the serious journalism thing to pay the bills while I, you know, write the novel. C- Win a Pulitzer. E... SIDNEY D. ALISON D - I don't know what D was. Then I took the internship at Sharps and I met Maddox and he was...he was so...and before I know it I'm writing, you know, Ten Tips for the fucking Metrosexual and pretending this is what I wanted but this ISN'T what I wanted! And that's...that's why I hated you... SIDNEY I didn't know you hated me. ALISON (OBLIVIOUS) ...because you were right about me. I'm a ghoul, writing fluff! SIDNEY You're not a Ghoul. You're a Zombie. Alison leans her head against the window. ALISON But he isn't the person you think he is, okay? Maddox. That's just a front. He thinks he's let himself down by giving up the poetry and he's unhappy. And the marriage is a sham, I mean... I just...I couldn't end it. I just couldn't and... SIDNEY (can't take anymore) Look, I don't need to hear this. ALISON (STUNG) Fine. 81. She begins to root through her bag. ALISON (CONT'D) Need a cigarette. Where are my fucking cigarettes? SIDNEY You don't smoke. ALISON Oh yeah. She looks at her reflection in the window. ALISON (CONT'D) Do you think I have low self- esteem? Am I afraid of a real relationship? Do I think an affair is all I deserve? I mean, okay, he's handsome and successful and he's great in bed... SIDNEY (IRRITATED) Could you just be quiet? He realises she has started to cry. ALISON When I told him I couldn't see him any more...I don't know if he cared. I love him and, and I don't know if he cares! Sidney watches, moved. SIDNEY (RELUCTANTLY) Well, I'm...I'm sure he does. He's probably just not very good at expressing his emotions. ALISON (SOBBING) I'm so fucking sophisticated! I mean there's not even a little bit of Port Huron left, right? I've got the haircut and the job and I've got the parties and I've even, I've even got the affair because that's what sophisticated fucking people do! SIDNEY Alright. Alright. Don't, you know, get snot everywhere... ALISON Oh G-God... 82. SIDNEY What? Alison lurches down out of sight and is sick on Sidney's shorts. 95 INT. CAR - LATER 95 Sidney is driving through Manhattan, the windows down. Alison is asleep. SIDNEY Alison? What's your address? (Beat. Shaking her) Alison? Alison snores loudly. Sidney sighs. 96 INT. SIDNEY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 96 Sidney staggers up the stairs carrying Alison over his shoulder. Alison is moaning. SIDNEY (HISSING) Shut up will you? You'll wake the old witch up. He stops suddenly and turns. Mrs Kowalski glowers at him from the doorway. Sidney freezes - a sickly smile on his face. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Did...Did we wake you? ALISON (SUDDENLY WAILING DRUNKENLY) OH GOD! I'M A WHORE! I'M A WHORE! An ELDERLY MAN appears behind Mrs Kowalski staring at Sidney. Long Beat. SIDNEY (NUMBLY) Hello Dad. 97 INT. SIDNEY'S APARTMENT - KITCHEN - NIGHT 97 Sidney, Mrs Kowalski and Sidney's father - RICHARD YOUNG - sit drinking coffee. Richard has an absent-minded air, wears a somewhat shabby jacket. Sidney seems to have almost physically shrunk in the presence of his father. Some music is playing in the next room. Alison dances drunkenly past the doorway, wearing Sidney's jacket. 83. ALISON (as she goes by) Love this song... The three stare after her. Sidney coughs. SIDNEY She, uh, she isn't actually a prostitute. RICHARD YOUNG (MILDLY) Oh good. Alison dances back into the room. ALISON Sooo, Sidney's dad. Good to meet you. I'm Alison. I'm from Port Huron. (To Mrs Kowalski) And you must be Sidney's mom? MRS KOWALSKI (SHOCKED) No I am not! ALISON Oh, okay. My dad married again too, so that's cool. (To Richard) You wanna dance? RICHARD YOUNG (KINDLY) No thank you. ALISON Okay. Where are my cigarettes? (feeling in the pocket of the jacket) What is that? She produces the wrap of coke that the elderly man had given Sidney. ALISON (CONT'D) Oh, hey, is that....? She stops herself. Everyone stares at the wrap. RICHARD YOUNG I think it is probably cocaine. Sidney closes his eyes. SIDNEY It wasn't actually for me. I was going to give it to this young actress... He realises this isn't helping and trails off. 84. ALISON (OBLIVIOUS) So, hey, visiting your boy. That's nice. You must be pretty proud of him, huh? SIDNEY (DYING) I think you should lie down Alison. ALISON He's doing just great at the magazine. Alison ruffles Sidney's hair clumsily. ALISON (CONT'D) First we all thought he was kinda creepy because he was always hanging around the water-cooler, hitting on women... SIDNEY Really Alison, I think... ALISON But I think that was pretty much an act. So, Mister Sidney, whatcha doing here? RICHARD YOUNG (SMILING) Please, call me Richard. I've written a little book so I'm doing a few talks. ALISON A book! Hey - I'm writing a book. What's yours about? Don't tell me - it's a thriller, right? RICHARD YOUNG (LAUGHING) No, nothing so interesting I'm afraid. I'm a philosopher. ALISON (SURPRISED) Philosophy? Really? Have you written any... Alison stops dancing, stares at him, something occurring to her. ALISON (CONT'D) Oh my God...Richard? R.C. Young? You're R.C Young? (To Sidney) You...you didn't say... Sidney avoids her eye. 85. RICHARD YOUNG (TO SIDNEY) I'd love to hear what you think of the book if you have time to read it. Alison snorts with laughter. ALISON What would Sidney know about philosophy? RICHARD YOUNG Well, he does have a Masters in the subject. Alison stares at Sidney. She breaks into a snorting laugh again. ALISON You're shitting me! Sidney? He...he likes Con Air! She stops laughing, hit by a sudden wave of nausea. ALISON (CONT'D) I...I don't feel very well. Mrs Kowalski stands up. MRS KOWALSKI Come on. It is time you went to bed. (To Sidney) You can sleep on the couch. ALISON Okay. Better go before I find out something else I don't know about Sidney. Mrs Kowalski turns to Richard. MRS KOWALSKI It was a pleasure to meet you Lord Young. Alison stares at Sidney who smiles weakly. 98 LATER 98 Richard and Sidney sit alone. SIDNEY You should have said you were coming. 86. RICHARD YOUNG (WRYLY) That would have required you answering one of my calls. SIDNEY I've been pretty busy. RICHARD YOUNG Which reminds me, I was talking to a publisher friend of mine the other day. He mentioned that they were planning a series of introductory texts on philosophers. I wondered if you would be interested? SIDNEY (ANNOYED) I have a job, dad. RICHARD YOUNG Of course, of course. I picked up a copy of your magazine at the airport. Sidney stiffens a little. RICHARD YOUNG (CONT'D) Most enjoyable. (Beat) I particularly liked the young Hollywood actress who said she'd like to start her theatre career "somewhere small, like London or England." SIDNEY (IRRITATED) Why've you always got to do this? It's...it's... RICHARD YOUNG It was just a joke Sidney... SIDNEY Actually it's not. Because you're saying that what I do for a living is worthless and... RICHARD YOUNG I don't think it's worthless. I just think, in your heart, you know you could do more with your life than... SIDNEY (ANGRY) More? Sharps is one of the most respected magazines in the world. There's a million hacks who would kill to be where I am now. (MORE) 87. SIDNEY (CONT'D) You know who I interviewed recently? Nathan Lane. RICHARD YOUNG I don't know who... SIDNEY I KNOW you don't know who that is! You don't know who anyone is! You thought Brad Pitt was a cave in Yorkshire! But most people do know who they are, okay? And most people wouldn't think that a journalist who gets to mix with stars like that was a, a disappointment! RICHARD YOUNG (PAINED) I don't think you're a disappointment Sidney. I've never thought that. Silence. Richard stands and picks up his coat. RICHARD YOUNG (CONT'D) (SADLY) I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. Sidney watches his father, struggling with himself. SIDNEY (QUIETLY) Things haven't really been that great. I don't know what it is. (Beat) I'm not... getting ahead. Richard stops, turns back to his son. Beat. RICHARD YOUNG (GENTLY) If you're not happy... SIDNEY No. I'm fine. I know I can make it. RICHARD YOUNG Einstein said "Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value." Sidney doesn't answer. RICHARD YOUNG (CONT'D) The young lady next door... Alison? She wouldn't have anything to do with your desire to stay would she? 88. SIDNEY What? No. We're just friends. RICHARD YOUNG (SMILING) I saw the way you looked at her. Sidney considers this, knowing it's true. SIDNEY She doesn't feel that way about me. New York women don't date losers. RICHARD YOUNG (SMILING) I suppose not. But Alison is from Port Huron, isn't she? Sidney stares at him. 99 BEDROOM - LATER 99 Sidney peers into the room to check Alison is okay. She lies asleep on the bed, moonlight bathing her face. She looks beautiful. Sidney stands staring at her for a moment and then tip-toes back out of the room. 100 KITCHEN - LATER 100 Sidney is cooking, humming, happy that Alison is here. Alison walks in, feeling dreadful. ALISON I don't remember very much but I'm so, so sorry. I'll get myself together and get going... SIDNEY Why? No, you're all right. It's...it's nice to have the company. ALISON (REMEMBERING) Oh God...your father. And that woman. SIDNEY Mrs Kowalski? Don't worry about it. The last woman she caught me with had a penis, so you know...you're a big step up. ALISON Thanks. 89. She notices a black and white photograph of a glamorous WOMAN on the shelf. We recognise her as the woman on the TV at the beginning of the film. ALISON (CONT'D) Who's that? SIDNEY (BEAT) That's my mother. ALISON No way! SIDNEY Yeah, I don't take after her... ALISON Was she a model? SIDNEY Actress. ALISON Wow. Movies? SIDNEY Some. British, small parts... ALISON Is she... SIDNEY No, she died when I was young. Without thinking he fiddles with the ring on his finger. ALISON Must have been pretty cool having your mom in the movies. SIDNEY Yeah, I suppose. I used to see her on the TV every now and then when I was growing up. Sort of weird. He carries the plates over to her. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Here we go! English fry-up. Perfect hangover cure. Sidney puts a plate of bacon, eggs and sausages in front of her. Alison stares at it, going green. Suddenly she darts from the room. 90. 101 LIVING ROOM - LATER 101 Sidney is tidying. He upsets Alison's bag from the couch and its contents spill onto the floor - the NOTEBOOK is amongst them. Sidney stares at it, hesitates and then, unable to resist, opens it up and starts to read. Alison walks into the room. Sidney looks up guiltily. SIDNEY Sorry, I was just...uh...(He can't think of an excuse) ...rooting through your private possessions... Alison sits on the couch, feeling too ill to be annoyed. SIDNEY (CONT'D) I like the opening. ALISON You do? SIDNEY I do. Can I read the rest of it? Believe it or not, I'm a pretty good editor. ALISON I don't know. I don't even know if I'm going to bother finishing it. SIDNEY "Keep true to the dreams of thy youth." Alison examines him through narrowed eyes. ALISON Is that from Troy again? SIDNEY Schiller. She puts her things back in her bag. ALISON I'll jump in the shower and then I really will get out of your hair. Sidney watches, not wanting her to go. SIDNEY Oh, I forgot...I got you a present. 91. He hands her a bag. Surprised she opens it and takes out a RECORD. It's the Nino Rota sound-track to La Dolce Vita. SIDNEY (CONT'D) I was just walking past this music shop on the corner and I saw it. I thought it might cheer you up. Alison is deeply touched. ALISON That's...I don't know what to say. (Beat) I haven't got a turntable. SIDNEY Oh. (Beat) Well, you can always come here to listen to it. Sidney takes the record and puts it on the turntable in the corner of the room. He selects the finale music - it's funny and sad, glamorous and romantic... They listen to it for a moment. Sidney starts to dance a little. He cha-cha's over to her and holds out his hand. ALISON Are you kidding? I could throw up on you again. SIDNEY C'mon... Alison reluctantly gets up. They dance ironically. Alison laughs a little. Gradually they get more into it, enjoying the music - a man in shorts and a woman in pyjamas, cha-cha-chaing, a summer breeze wafting in the through the open windows behind him... DISSOLVE TO: 102 INT. I SPY AREA - DAY 102 Some weeks later. Alison sits at her desk, trying to work. She looks up and catches Maddox watching her with soulful eyes from across the room. She looks quickly away, unsettled. Sidney sits at his desk surreptitiously watching her, SMITTEN. 92. 103 INT. BREAK ROOM - DAY 103 Autumn. Rain lashes against the window. Alison drinks coffee. Ingrid and Anna are examining a rack of clothes behind her. Ingrid is holding up a dress. INGRID Hey, Alice? Versace. You like? ALISON I'm good, thanks. INGRID Honey, everyone needs to change their look every now and then. Especially if they have a new man in their life. ALISON (EMBARRASSED) What are you talking about? 104 CORRIDOR OUTSIDE ROOM 104 Sidney is just about to enter the room. INGRID (O.S.) Well, that English guy is always hanging around you these days, right? Sidney freezes, listening. 105 BREAK ROOM 105 Alison blushes fiercely. ANNA (LAUGHING) Tell me it isn't so. ALISON (ANNOYED) Of course not. ANNA Thank God. Can you imagine? He's such a creep. 106 CORRIDOR OUTSIDE ROOM 106 Sidney listens sadly to the women laughing inside. 93. 107 BREAK ROOM 107 Alison stares at the Fashionistas, annoyed by this. Oblivious, Anna holds up some trousers against herself. ANNA These are gorgeous, but I'm just too fat. INGRID Oh don't be crazy! Alice? Is Anna fat? ALISON (BRIGHT) Not at all. Why, she's so thin I could just take her little spindly body and snap it over my knee like a dry fucking twig. ANNA (AUTOMATICALLY) Thanks. ALISON Oh, and for your information Sidney Young has got more going for him than most of the men in this town. She gets up to leave, the others gawping after her. 108 CORRIDOR OUTSIDE ROOM 108 Sidney gives a slow smile of wonder - she likes him! Suddenly he realises Alison is about to walk out the door and catch him listening. Panicking he opens the nearest door and runs in, falling straight down a short flight of stairs and out of sight. Alison walks out of the room and away, oblivious. 109 INT. SIDNEY'S FLAT - EVENING 109 E.C.U - On Sidney, staring at us. SIDNEY Hey Alison, I was wondering if you wanted to...(Beat. Starting again) Hello there. Listen I was wondering if you wanted to see a movie or...a meal...or...(Beat, starting again.) Alison. You wanna go on a date? We see he is staring at his reflection in a mirror. He slips in a pair of PLASTIC FANGS and smiles toothily. 94. 110 CLUB - MOMENTS LATER 110 The SHARPS HALLOWEEN BALL is in full swing - guests dancing in fancy dress. Sidney, dressed as Dracula, threads through the crowd. He spots Alison on the other side of the room, dressed as CAT WOMAN. He starts to make his way towards her, a little nervous. He passes ELEANOR JOHNSON and VINCENT LEPAK. Vincent wears all black and his shades. SIDNEY I like your costume Vincent. VINCENT I'm not wearing a costume. SIDNEY Oh. They walk on. VINCENT (MUTTERING) Idiot. SIDNEY (MUTTERING) Wanker. Sidney continues through the crowd to Alison. He puts his Dracula TEETH in. SIDNEY (CONT'D) Haven't we met somewhere before? ALISON That's why I don't go there any more. They smile, but Alison seems a little nervous. ALISON (CONT'D) I've been looking for you actually. There's, uh, there's something I need to... SIDNEY (Mumbling through his TEETH) Me first. Listen I was wondering if you want to go to the movies or maybe for a, uh.... ALISON (INTERRUPTING) What? I can't understand what you're saying. 95. Sidney pulls the plastic fangs out. SIDNEY Sorry. I was just saying... Maddox appears and gives Alison a glass of champagne. He kisses her. LAWRENCE MADDOX Back in a minute. He walks off again. Sidney stares dumbly after him. ALISON (EMBARRASSED) I wanted to tell you. Lawrence has left his wife. We're going to be together. Officially. She watches for Sidney's reaction. SIDNEY (DYING) Well...that's...that's brilliant. ALISON Yeah, so...maybe he does care after all, right? SIDNEY Yup. They stand in an awkward silence, watching the party. 111 INT. WASHROOMS - LATER 111 A dejected Sidney stands washing his hands. Maddox walks in behind him. LAWRENCE MADDOX Hello Sidney. Someone said you'd come as a Count but I thought I'd misheard. Sidney doesn't answer, turns to leave. LAWRENCE MADDOX (CONT'D) So Alison told you we were getting together right? SIDNEY (TIGHT) Yeah. LAWRENCE MADDOX Yeah. Should have done it long ago but, you know me - just not very good at expressing my emotions. Right? 96. He watches Sidney's reaction, smirking. LAWRENCE MADDOX (CONT'D) You must be happy for her, what with you being friends... Sidney blushes. LAWRENCE MADDOX (CONT'D) (LAUGHING) Oh Sidalee...I thought as much. Did you really think you and Alison...? Things really haven't worked out too well for you here, have they? Ah, well. You gave it your best shot. He walks out. Sidney stares after him, burning. 112 EXT. OUTSIDE CLUB - NIGHT 112 Rain pours down. Eleanor and Vincent climb into a limousine and close the door. Sidney runs up. SIDNEY Wait! Eleanor wait! The window glides down. ELEANOR JOHNSON Yes? SIDNEY Let me do the profile on Vincent. ELEANOR JOHNSON (AMUSED) I don't think so. The window begins to slide up. Sidney hangs onto it. SIDNEY You get full copy approval. It'll be like you've written it! The window stops. Eleanor stares at him, considering. Sidney looks past her to Vincent. SIDNEY (CONT'D) (DETERMINED) Vincent - think about it, think how humiliating it will be for me. I'm begging you. Vincent leans over, stares over his shades at Sidney. 97. VINCENT (Beat, enjoying this) You don't look like you're begging. Beat. Sidney kneels down on the side-walk beside the limousine. The rain pours down on him. The limousine drives away. Sidney stares dumbly up at something across the street. REVERSE On the building across the street is an ENORMOUS ANIMATED BILLBOARD L'OREAL ADVERTISEMENT - SOPHIE MAES, in a gold ball-gown and make-up, hair coiffured in classic forties Hollywood style. As we watch she BLOWS US A KISS. Underneath is the slogan - I'm Here... 113 INT. CLAYTON HARDING'S OFFICE - DAY 113 Sidney sits in front of Clayton. CLAYTON HARDING Lawrence Maddox is no longer working for Sharps. Seems Elizabeth got sick of him screwing around and kicked him out. SIDNEY She kicked him out? CLAYTON HARDING (IGNORING THIS) Richard Heywood doesn't seem to like the idea of employing an ex- son-in-law. So he's gone. So's Alison Olsen. Sidney stares at him. CLAYTON HARDING (CONT'D) Don't worry about Maddox. He's already lined up something with Gotham Magazine. I'm gonna need someone to hold the fort at I Spy. Strictly on a temporary basis, you understand? One more thing. Eleanor Johnson rang this morning, wondering if you'd like to write a profile on Vincent Lepak. Sidney stares at him. CLAYTON HARDING (CONT'D) I don't know how you did it but somehow you've made it into the next room. 98. We hear the opening of Pretty Vacant by the Sex Pistols as we... 114 MONTAGE 114 115 INT. RESTAURANT - DAY 115 As the song continues we see Sidney interviewing Vincent, complete with shades. 116 INT. STUDIO - DAY 116 Vincent is wearing a crown, being photographed on a throne. Sidney and Eleanor are watching. 117 INT. ELEANOR'S OFFICE - DAY 117 Eleanor is going through Sidney's copy, crossing lines out with a red pen. Sidney watches. 118 INT. SHARPS MAGAZINE - OFFICE - DAY 118 Sidney, Eleanor and a Photo-Editor are looking at the photos from the shoot. Eleanor is pointing out a blemish on Vincent's face. 119 COMPUTER SCREEN - VINCENT'S FACE IN CLOSE UP 119 ...as we watch the blemish disappears. 120 EXT. NEWS STAND - DAY 120 Sidney buys a copy of Sharps and flicks through it until he finds what he's looking for - a four page feature entitled Vincent Lepak - Long Live The King. He stares at his byline at the top of the feature. 120A EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING - DAY 120A An elegant apartment building. 120B INT. APARTMENT - DAY 120B Sidney is being shown around a chic apartment by a Realtor. 99. 121 INT. MEETING ROOM - DAY 121 Sidney is amongst the room full of writers and editors, pitching to Clayton who nods approval and passes on to the next item. 122 INT. CLUB - EVENING 122 Sidney and Eleanor are talking with an ACTOR. Sidney is wearing a smart suit, fawning in a suitably restrained manner. 123 INT. PENTHOUSE APARTMENT - DAY 123 Sidney is interviewing the Actor, laughing sycophantically at something he has just said. 124 INT. OFFICE - DAY 124 Sidney sits at his desk, looking very much the part now in another expensive suit, talking on the phone. His desk is crowded with MUFFIN BASKETS. A COURIER is handing over a GIFT-WRAPPED BOX to him. Sidney opens the box to reveal a ROLEX SEA-DWELLER 4000 WATCH. Sidney stares at the watch. 125 INT. MOVIE PREMIERE - EVENING 125 Sidney is drinking champagne amongst the Glitterati, talking to a Producer. Simon Cowell walks past and high- fives him. Sidney throws back his head, laughing at something the Producer said. 126 INT. SAUNA - DAY 126 Sidney sits in the steam room, wrapped in a towel, sweating. Slowly the steam envelops him until he has disappeared. END OF MONTAGE 127 INT. RESTAURANT - EVENING 127 CLOSE ON SIDNEY'S PHOTOGRAPH - looking as cool as he can. Alison sits alone reading Sharps, staring at Sidney's photo in the "Notes on Contributors" page. She smiles, then glances up, her smile fading. Maddox is walking towards her, drunk and sour faced. LAWRENCE MADDOX (noticing the magazine) Well, well...little Sidalee. I feel like a proud Papa. (MORE) 100. LAWRENCE MADDOX (CONT'D) Listen, I can't stay. Anderson wants me to go to some photographers exhibition. Hot new talent blah, blah... ALISON Right. (Beat) How hot is she? LAWRENCE MADDOX Who? ALISON The new talent? LAWRENCE MADDOX Do you think you could drop the little wife routine? It's kind of in bad taste. Alison stares at him sadly ALISON I guess you're right.(Quietly) What goes around comes around. Maddox is about to say something but changes his mind. LAWRENCE MADDOX I'll see you back home. He is about to leave when he notices Alison's notebook on the table. LAWRENCE MADDOX (CONT'D) (IRRITATED) And will you stop carrying that thing around with you? It's kind of embarrassing. He walks off. 128 INT. BAR - EVENING 128 Sidney is with Eleanor and Sophie, who now looks every inch the movie star. ELEANOR JOHNSON Sophie's going to get a Golden Globe nomination for best actress. SIDNEY Wow. That's fantastic.(Beat) But...the nominations haven't been announced yet? 101. ELEANOR JOHNSON That is correct so we have absolutely no way of knowing whether or not she will be nominated. (Beat) So, if she is nominated we want Sharps to do a feature. Someone to cover the whole lead up, unrestricted access, the trajectory, the building of this unique brand. SOPHIE MAES I'm going to have a logo. ELEANOR JOHNSON Here's the deal. Sophie wants you to do it. Sidney stares at her and then at Sophie, stunned. SOPHIE MAES (PLEASANTLY) You can be my bitch. ELEANOR JOHNSON Merry Christmas, Sidney. This is a cover story. I think a little celebration is in order. 129 EXT. OUTSIDE CIRCLE CLUB - NIGHT 129 Snow falls. Sidney climbs out of a limousine with Eleanor and Sophie. The women breeze past the Doorman and into the club. Sidney hesitates on the thresh-hold, staring up at the sign above him as if it's a magic portal. Sidney walks in. 130 INT. CIRCLE CLUB - LATER 130 A surprisingly small, ultra A-list club, chic and ironic Christmas decorations. Sidney walks past celebrities and beautiful people. He's arrived. 131 INT. CIRCLE CLUB - NIGHT 131 Sidney stands with Kevin Bacon playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. People stand around watching. KEVIN BACON Okay, uh...Clark Gable. Go! 102. SIDNEY Clark Gable to Vivien Leigh (Gone With The Wind), Vivien Leigh to Marlon Brando (Street Car Named Desire), Marlon Brando to Robert DeNiro (The Score) Robert De Niro to Kevin Bacon (Sleepers)! The crowd cheers. 131A INT. CIRCLE CLUB - POWDER ROOM 131A A very drunk Sidney stands in a toilet cubicle with a YOUNG ACTRESS doing coke. ACTRESS Sexiest philosopher? SIDNEY Uh, tricky, but I'm gonna say Nietzsche. Huge moustache. The Tom Selleck of Nihilism. ACTRESS Um...most evil philosopher. SIDNEY Okay. Good. Evil genius philosopher...Hobbes, proto-Nazi, Heidegger - actual Nazi, Hegel - twat. Basically your H's... ACTRESS Most Hollywood philosopher? SIDNEY Uh...Bishop Berkely. ACTRESS What'd he say? SIDNEY Esse est percipi. FIRST ACTRESS What does that mean? SIDNEY If they `aint looking at you, you don't really exist. ACTRESS (WEARILY) Oh honey, tell me something I don't know... Sidney stoops and snorts a line of coke. 103. 132 CIRCLE BAR - NIGHT 132 Sidney, giddy on champagne, coke and success is dancing with Sophie. He's at the centre of the world. 133 INT. SIDNEY'S APARTMENT - MORNING 133 The doorbell rings. Sidney wearing a silk dressing gown wanders through the room from the bedroom and opens the door. Alison stands outside, smiling at him. ALISON Hey. SIDNEY (THROWN) Hey. ALISON Nice robe. SIDNEY Thanks. It was a gift. Ralph Lauren. ALISON Who from? SIDNEY Ralph Lauren. I did a piece. Beat. He still hasn't invited her in. ALISON I just wanted to say I heard about you getting the promotion. Congratulations. I'm happy for you. SIDNEY Thanks. How's things with you and... ALISON (QUICKLY) Good. Fine. Everything's ...uh...I'm working for this little literary magazine. It's not the New Yorker but... (awkward) So, I've left you a bunch of messages... SIDNEY Yeah. I've been pretty busy. 104. ALISON I thought so. Alison stands awkwardly for a moment, smiling, then turns to go. ALISON (CONT'D) Okay, well... SIDNEY (QUICKLY) How's the novel coming along? ALISON (LAUGHING) Oh, well...still working on it. SIDNEY Well...keep at it. I believe in you. Alison smiles, touched. SIDNEY (CONT'D) I never gave you these. He takes some papers from a shelf and hands them to her. Alison looks at them - the are titled "Notes On Alison's Novel." There's a LOT OF THEM. She laughs. ALISON You know... WOMAN'S VOICE Sidney? Alison looks past Sidney to the bedroom door where INGRID the Fashionista stands in her underwear. INGRID (a little wave) Hey, Alice. Sidney looks at her and back at Alison. He gives a little laugh. SIDNEY (half joking, half MEANING IT) How did it all go so wrong? Alison smiles, gives a little wave and walks away - before he can see how upset she is. FADE OUT. FADE IN: 105. 134 EXT. LA - BEVERLY HILLS HOTEL - DAY 134 Sophie and her entourage, including Sidney and Eleanor, climb out of a line of limousines and walk into the Hotel. Sidney stands for a moment, looking around him. Hollywood. He's finally here. We hear the opening of Virgina Plain by Roxy Music. 135 EXT. BEVERLY HILLS HOTEL - NIGHT 135 We are swooping in towards the hotel and an enormous BILLBOARD ADVERTISEMENT for Sophie's new film - in pre- production. It's a re-make of Singing In The Rain - with Russel Crowe. We BOOM down from Sophie's fifteen foot laughing face to find Sidney standing on a slim ledge outside his hotel window. He is drunk and wearing only his underwear. He is also yelling with fear. The window behind him is crowded with people shrieking with laughter. Gingerly he edges back to the window and climbs back into... 136 HOTEL SUITE 136 It's a wild party. Music is blaring, people are dancing, drinking, laughing. SOPHIE MAES You didn't do it! SIDNEY High. SOPHIE MAES You let me down! SIDNEY Too high! You couldn't do it. Too high. Sophie calmly unzips her dress and steps out of it, standing in her underwear. There is applause from the on- lookers. Calmly she steps out of the window onto the ledge and disappears from sight. The on-lookers crane out of the window, yelling encouragement. After a moment Sophie appears at another window further along the wall and climbs back into the room to ecstatic applause. She stares imperiously at Sidney. 106. SOPHIE MAES What are you? SIDNEY Your limpy pig. SOPHIE MAES What? SIDNEY I'm your limpy pig! SOPHIE MAES That's right! Okay, limpy pig. You need to pay a forfeit. Whatcha got? SIDNEY I've got my little limpy dance. Sidney dances a little, jiggling up and down. SOPHIE MAES (SUDDENLY) Give me your ring. Sidney stops dancing, his smile fading a little. SIDNEY I...I can't... SOPHIE MAES Give me the ring. I want it. SIDNEY I can't. Sophie stares at him through narrowed eyes. SOPHIE MAES Okay, give me the ring and if I win tomorrow, I'll let you have sex with me. The on-lookers shriek with delight. Sidney stares at her. He looks past her to his reflection in the window - a drunk man in his underwear, swaying from side to side... 137 INT. HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT 137 Sidney is back in his own room, alone, a mess. He sits on the floor chopping lines of coke on the coffee table. He stares groggily at the space on his finger where his ring used to be. 107. SIDNEY (muttering to himself) You're a star. You're a big, bright shining star... He snorts a line and, leaning back, flicks blankly through TV channels - a sports programme, a news station, a sit-com re-run... He snorts another line, flicks stations - more sports, a music video, a black and white movie... Sidney stops, staring at the screen... TV SCREEN - we're watching the fifties British movie we saw at the beginning of the film. Sidney's MOTHER is typing at the desk in the background. She gets up from the desk and walks into another office. Sidney stares, frozen. Sidney's mother passes the LEAD ACTRESS who is staring out of the window, smoking. She stares at her sympathetically. SIDNEY'S MOTHER (Celia Johnson accent) Don't worry Mary...you'll meet him one day. LEAD ACTRESS (SMILING SADLY) How will I know when I do? SIDNEY'S MOTHER Oh, when you meet the One, you'll know... She walks on. Sidney stares at the screen. 138 EXT. BEVERLY HILTON - EVENING 138 A conveyor belt of limousines arriving outside the Hilton. Rain falls. Celebrities wave to the watching crowds as they make their way up the red carpet, cameras flash... Sophie emerges from a limo, looking amazing. SHE IS WEARING A FUR WRAP. She makes her way up the carpet, Sidney walks behind, smiling vaguely... 139 INT. BEVERLY HILTON - EVENING 139 Various celebrities are being interviewed. Sidney stands a little apart, lost in thought. LAWRENCE MADDOX Well, well... Look at you... 108. Lawrence Maddox stands beside him, something nervous in his manner now, the old confidence gone. He has been drinking. LAWRENCE MADDOX (CONT'D) Made it all the way to the Seventh Room. He holds out his hand. LAWRENCE MADDOX (CONT'D) Congratulations. The wheel of fortune right? You go up, I go down. You're here with Sophie? How about doing your old Rabbi a favour and putting in a good word for me? Maybe a little interview? Sidney absent-mindedly takes his hand, looking past him. SIDNEY Is Alison here? LAWRENCE MADDOX Alison? No, we went our separate ways. Actually she left me. Tells me she's in love with someone else. Sidney stares at him. LAWRENCE MADDOX (CONT'D) Nope, not you I'm afraid Sidalee. She threw us both over. Some guy named Clark. I mean...Clark. Can you believe it? But these are the sacrifices we make, right? I don't need to tell you. It's not a vacation. It's a vocation. So listen, about Sophie... But Sidney is no longer listening. 140 INT. GOLDEN GLOBES AWARDS - EVENING 140 SLOW MOTION - we move in on Sidney, sitting at the table, listening to the Best Actress award. This is where we first met him. SIDNEY (V.O.) This is me at the Golden Globes. That's my Armani tuxedo. That's a Rolex Sea-Dweller 4000 watch I'm wearing. I'm inside. I'm at the centre of everything. I'm right where I wanted to be. Beside him Sophie covers her face with her hands and starts to stand, having just won Best Actress. 109. Sidney stares at her hands - she is wearing his gold ring. We move back into real time, sound swells up, thunderous applause. Sidney claps along with the others. Then he stands up and goes after Sophie. SIDNEY (CONT'D) (taking her arm) I need my ring back. Sophie turns back to him, her smile fixed. SIDNEY (CONT'D) I need my ring back. As if puzzled by her inability to make it to the stage, Sophie, still smiling, tries to pull her arm free. Eleanor is instantly beside them, trying to disengage Sidney's hand. ELEANOR JOHNSON (smiling, hissing) What are you doing? Let her go! SIDNEY She isn't the One. My mother gave me that ring and told me I had to give it to the One. She isn't the One. The applause is still going strong. TV Cameras move in on Sophie as she starts to struggle, her smile slipping. Sidney tries to pull the ring free from her finger. Officials move in. ELEANOR JOHNSON What the fuck are you doing? SIDNEY (YANKING) Just...Will you...I don't want to be on the inside. I don't want to be at the Party. I don't want to have have sex with you. (Beat) I KILLED CUBA! Sophie stares at him for a moment then with a shriek launches herself at him. They tumble backwards. The Officials rush upon them. There are gasps from the other tables, people standing up to see what's going on. 141 INT. MRS KOWALSKI'S FLAT - CONTINUOUS 141 Mrs Kowalski sits watching the pandemonium on TV. 110. SOPHIE MAES (O.S.) (on the TV) You fucking mother-fucking fucker! MRS KOWLASKI (GRIMLY) Soddom and Gomarrah. 142 INT. APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS 142 The Sharps Fashionistas are gathered watching the awards on TV in silent horror. ON TV Sophie kicks out at Sidney, ripping her dress in the process. INGRID Oh God no...not the Versace... Security pile on Sidney... 143 INT. AIRPORT LOUNGE - CONTINUOUS 143 Richard Young sits watching the awards on TV. He gives a small smile. 144 INT. BAR - CONTINUOUS 144 Alison sits watching on a TV in the corner of the bar. ELEANOR JOHNSON (O.S.) (On TV - losing it) You're finished! You're finished! Alison begins to smile. 145 INT. GOLDEN GLOBES AWARDS - CONTINUOUS 145 Sidney bursts free from the scrum of Security and begins to run across the room, overturning a table in the process, Officials racing after him. Sidney sprints for the doors. He notices Vincent Lepak's startled face as he passes it. He stops, ducks back and slaps the back of Vincent's head, knocking the SHADES onto the floor. Sidney stamps on them and runs on. Vincent gapes after him. 111. 146 ANGLE ON CLAYTON HARDING 146 ...watching from his table as the people around him stand up to see the chase. He shakes his head in horror and then tries, and fails, to restrain a sudden bark of laughter... 147 EXT. BEVERLY HILTON - NIGHT 147 Sidney bursts out of the hotel onto the red carpet and is momentarily stopped by the sight of the massed PAPARAZZI ahead, behind the red rope. The Paparazzi stare back at Sidney - his face bruised, shirt collar ripped - equally nonplussed. There is a frozen moment then Sidney plunges forward, ducking under the red rope, back amongst his own kind, pushing through them until he disappears amongst the crowd. 148 INT. LA AIRPORT - TICKET DESK - NIGHT 148 Sidney stands at the desk. TICKET CLERK The next available flight is ten am sir. Gets you into New York six thirty PM. Sidney sighs. 149 INT. LA AIRPORT - NIGHT 149 Sidney sits in the almost deserted terminal waiting for the flight back to New York. He is still wearing his dishevelled tux. He looks down at his tightly clenched hand and slowly opens his fingers to reveal his RING. 150 EXT. NEW YORK - NIGHT 150 Sidney is in a cab, still wearing his tux, his travel bag slung over shoulder. He stares out as the cab passes the entrance to a PARK. A sign advertises an outdoor screening of La Dolce Vita. SIDNEY Stop the car! 151 EXT. NEW YORK PARK - EVENING 151 An outdoor CINEMA has been set up. LA DOLCE VITA is playing on a large screen. A crowd sits around the park, watching the movie. Sidney stands scanning the crowd. He locates Alison sitting near the back. 112. She is holding her notebook, watching the movie. Beside her is the remains of a picnic, with lit candles. Sidney smiles and starts towards her, then stops. She is sitting next to a MAN. As Sidney watches she rests her head on his shoulder. Sidney watches, numb, then turns to walk away... BOB stands in front of him in full drag, waving frantically. He starts to run towards Sidney, who sighs and closes his eyes - as if things weren't bad enough. Then Bob runs straight past him. Sidney turns to see the Man next to Alison standing up to embrace Bob. The two kiss. ON THE GRASS Alison watches Bob and her friend embrace with a touch of sadness. Suddenly she realises someone is standing beside her. She looks up and sees Sidney. She stares at him. Long Beat. Sidney holds out his hand. Alison hesitates and then takes his hand and stands up. SIDNEY How's the novel? ALISON Finished. Sidney smiles. He takes the notebook from her and tosses it back onto the picnic blanket. Then he kisses her. As he does so he takes the RING and slips it into Alison's coat pocket. Then they begin to dance, cha-cha-chaaing happily at the back of the park, as the music swells, lit by the flickering light from the screen. Suddenly Sidney freezes, staring over Alison's shoulder to where we can see he has accidentally thrown her NOTEBOOK onto a lit candle. It is now ON FIRE. Sidney shoves Alison aside and dives for the book... CUT TO BLACK: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_How to Train Your Dragon.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_How to Train Your Dragon.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9e9699dd30b2be9d4dd083589ad672312ecbb9a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_How to Train Your Dragon.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON Written by Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders Final Draft February 13, 2010 FADE IN: EXT. NORTH SEA/VILLAGE - NIGHT We skim above a dark, wild ocean. The camera turns toward a lone island, Berk. It is a gigantic shard of rock jutting straight out of the water. HICCUP (V.O.) This, is Berk. It's twelve days North of hopeless, and a few degrees South of freezing to death. It's located solidly on the meridian of misery. The camera drifts over rolling hills to reveal a small village nestled on an outcropping of sea mounts. HICCUP (V.O.) (CONT'D) My village. In a word, sturdy. And it's been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. The camera drifts closer, circling. HICCUP (V.O.) (CONT'D) We have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunsets. The only problems are the pests. You see, most places have mice or mosquitos. We have... Sheep graze peacefully on a hillside. Suddenly one is snatched. CUT TO: INT. STOICK'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS A door is pulled open... as a DRAGON swoops directly toward it, BLASTING FIRE. The door is SLAMMED. The fire shoots through the slats of wood, illuminating HICCUP, a gangly teenage Viking. HICCUP ...dragons. EXT. STOICK'S HOUSE He reopens the sizzling door, as leaps off of the front porch. He weaves through the erupting mayhem as Vikings pour out of the buildings, ready for a fight. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 2. More dragons swarm in, setting rooftops alight and hauling off sheep. HICCUP (V.O.) Most people would leave. Not us. We're Vikings. We have stubbornness issues. Vikings sound the alarm. Viking men and women pour out into the streets, axes in hand. ON HICCUP darting through alleys, staying under eaves, making his way through the battle. HICCUP (V.O.) (CONT'D) My name's Hiccup. Great name, I know. But it's not the worst. Parents believe a hideous name will frighten off gnomes and trolls. Like our charming Viking demeanor wouldn't do that. Dragons sweep back and forth, dodging axes and blasting the Vikings who throw them. A burly warrior gets tossed in an explosion, knocking Hiccup to the ground. VIKING (FIERCE) Arggghhhhh! (cheery, insane) Mornin'! Hiccup gets to his feet and continues to rush past gigantic men and women. HICCUP (V.O.) Meet the neighbors. Hoark the Haggard... HOARK What are you doing out!? HICCUP ... Burnthair the Broad... BURNTHAIR Get inside! HICCUP ... Phlegma the Fierce... PHLEGMA THE FIERCE Get back inside! "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 3. HICCUP . Ack. He passes a silent ox of a viking, picking his ear. HICCUP (CONT'D) Yep, just Ack. Enter STOICK, the biggest Viking of all. He yanks Hiccup from the path of a strafing dragon and holds aloft to the crowd. STOICK Hiccup!? (accusingly; to the crowd) What is he doing out again?! (TO HICCUP) What are you doing out?! Get inside! The flames light up his scowling face and matted red beard. He sets Hiccup down and turns to the sky, searching. HICCUP (V.O.) (IN AWE) That's Stoick the Vast. Chief of the tribe. They say that when he was a baby he popped a dragon's head clean off of its shoulders. Do I believe it? Stoick grabs a wooden cart and hurls it, knocking the strafing dragon out of the sky. HICCUP (V.O.) (CONT'D) Yes I do. An EXPLOSION forces Vikings to DUCK. Stoick stands firm, brushing flaming debris off of his shoulder. STOICK (barking; to his men) What have we got? VIKING #1 Gronkles. Nadders. Zipplebacks. Oh, and Hoark saw a Monstrous Nightmare. STOICK Any Night Furies? VIKING #1 None so far. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 4. STOICK (RELIEVED) Good. VIKING Hoist the torches! Massive flaming braziers are raised on poles, lighting up the night sky... and revealing swirling dragons of all types. Below, Hiccup crosses an open plaza and ducks into an open building with a tall chimney. INT. BLACKSMITH STALL - CONTINUOUS He crosses behind a counter, where a peg-legged, one-armed hulk of a Blacksmith reshapes blades with a hammer and tongs appendage. GOBBER Ah! Nice of you to join the party. I thought you'd been carried off. Hiccup dons a leather apron and starts to put away Gobber's scattered appendages. HICCUP Who me? Nah, come on! I'm way too muscular for their taste. They wouldn't know what to do with all this. Hiccup strikes a bodybuilder pose. GOBBER They need toothpicks, don't they? Hiccup gets to work, transferring bent and chipped weapons to the forge as Vikings crowd the counter for replacements. HICCUP (V.O.) The meathead with attitude and interchangeable hands is Gobber. I've been his apprentice ever since I was little. Well...littler. EXT. VILLAGE - CONTINUOUS ON STOICK STOICK We move to the lower defenses. We'll counter-attack with the catapults. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 5. Armed men rush past, flanking others who carry sheep to safety. Stoick follows up the rear as, overhead, a dragon strafes the rooftops with Napalm-like fire. HICCUP (V.O.) See? Old village. Lots and lots of new houses. VIKING FIRE! In response, the fire brigade charges through the plaza -- four TEENS, tugging a large wooden cask on wheels. From it, they fill buckets of water to douse the flames. One among them is a cute, energetic Viking girl. Hiccup leans out of the stall to watch her. HICCUP (V.O.) Oh and that's Fishlegs, Snotlout. The twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut. And... (DREAMY) Astrid. A SLOW-MOTION explosion erupts behind her, framing her in a sexy ball of fire. The others join her, looking awesome and heroic. HICCUP (V.O.) (CONT'D) Their job is so much cooler. Hiccup tries to join them as they pass, but he's hooked by Gobber and hoisted back inside. HICCUP (CONT'D) (PLEADING) Ah, come on. Let me out, please. I need to make my mark. GOBBER Oh, you've made plenty of marks. All in the wrong places. HICCUP Please, two minutes. I'll kill a dragon. My life will get infinitely better. I might even get a date. GOBBER You can't lift a hammer. You can't swing an axe... Gobber grabs a bola (iron balls connected by rope). "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 6. GOBBER (CONT'D) ... you can't even throw one of these. A Viking runs by and nabs it out of Gobber's hand, hurling it at a dive-bombing Gronkle. The bola binds its legs, sending it into a heavy crash. HICCUP (ready with the answer) Okay fine, but... He rushes to the back corner of the stall and presents a bizarre, wheel barrow-like contraption. HICCUP (CONT'D) ... this will throw it for me. Hiccup OPENS the hinged lid of the device. An arm springs up, equipped with twin bows. They prematurely launch a bola, narrowly missing Gobber... and taking out a Viking at the counter. VIKING Arggh! GOBBER See, now this right here is what I'm talking about. HICCUP Mild calibration issue. GOBBER Hiccup. If you ever want to get out there to fight dragons, you need to stop all... Gobber gestures in Hiccup's general direction. GOBBER (CONT'D) ... this. HICCUP (ASTONISHED) But... you just pointed to all of me. GOBBER Yes! That's it! Stop being all of you. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 7. HICCUP (THREATENING) Ohhhh... GOBBER (MIMICKING) Ohhhhh, yes. HICCUP You, sir, are playing a dangerous game. Keeping this much, raw...Vikingness contained. (BEAT) There will be consequences! Gobber tosses him a sword. GOBBER I'll take my chances. Sword. Sharpen. Now. Hiccup takes it begrudgingly and lobs it onto the grinding wheel. He stews... fantasizing... HICCUP (V.O.) One day I'll get out there. Because killing a dragon is everything around here. EXT. VILLAGE - LOWER PLAINS - CONTINUOUS Nadders land, gathering like seagulls around a seemingly vacant house. HICCUP (V.O.) A Nadder head is sure to get me at least noticed. The Nadders clamber onto the building, tearing the roof and walls apart. Sheep pour out and SCATTER. Elsewhere, hippo-like Gronckles pick drying racks clean of fish and fly off like loaded pelicans. HICCUP (V.O.) (CONT'D) Gronckles are tough. Taking down one of those would definitely get me a girlfriend. A stealthy, snake-like dragon head peeks over a rooftop, breathing gas into a chimney. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 8. HICCUP (V.O.) (CONT'D) A Zippelback? Exotic, exciting. Two heads, twice the status. A second head pokes through the door and lights it. KABLAM! The two heads fly through the explosion, their necks zipping together to reveal a single body. It flies past Stoick as he climbs to the top of a CATAPULT TOWER. CATAPULT OPERATOR They found the sheep! STOICK (FRUSTRATED) Concentrate fire over the lower bank! CATAPULT OPERATOR Fire! Boulders are catapulted at the corralling Nadders... Just as a huge red dragon whips past, spraying the base of the catapult with sticky fire. HICCUP (V.O.) And then there's the Monstrous Nightmare. Only the best Vikings go after those. They have this nasty habit of setting themselves on fire. It emerges from the flames, climbing the catapult with a leering, toothy grin. STOICK Reload! I'll take care of this. Stoick takes on the Nightmare, face to hammer. Suddenly, a LOUD BALLISTIC MOANING streaks overhead. The catapult crew ducks. INT. BLACKSMITH STALL - CONTINUOUS ON HICCUP, looking up from his work, reacting to the same sound. HICCUP (V.O.) But the ultimate prize is the dragon no one has ever seen. We call it the-- "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 9. VIKING Night Fury! Get down! Vikings everywhere take shelter. The moaning sound BUILDS. EXT. VILLAGE - CATAPULT - CONTINUOUS The Monstrous Nightmare suddenly stops fighting and takes flight. Stoick looks skyward. STOICK JUMP! KABOOM! The Catapult EXPLODES as though hit by an artillery shell... sending Stoick and the crew leaping for their lives. HICCUP (V.O.) This thing never steals food, never shows itself, and... The sound recedes, leaving the crippled catapult in flames. HICCUP (V.O.) (CONT'D) ...never misses. (BEAT) No one has ever killed a Night Fury. That's why I'm going to be the first. IN THE STALL Gobber trades his hammer for an axe. GOBBER Man the fort, Hiccup, they need me out there! Gobber pauses. Turns with a threatening glare. GOBBER (CONT'D) Stay. Put. There. You know what I mean. Gobber charges into the fray, HOLLERING. ON HICCUP, a smirk crosses his face. EXT. VILLAGE - MOMENTS LATER WHAM! Hiccup pushes his wheeled contraption through a wall of clustered Vikings. He weaves through the ongoing mayhem, as fast as his legs can carry him. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 10. VIKING #6 (O.S.) Hiccup, where are you going! VIKING #7 Come back here! HICCUP I know. Be right back! ON THE PLAIN BELOW The Nadders have cornered the house-full of sheep. They close in, ready to spring upon them. Stoick suddenly appears, HURLING FISHING NETS over them. The surprised Nadders are caught. Stoick and his men rush in. A Nadder blasts a hole through its net. Stoick leaps onto it, clamping his thick arms around its head, forcing its jaws shut. STOICK Mind yourselves! The devils still have some juice in them. ON THE PLAIN ABOVE Hiccup reaches a cliff overlooking the smoking CATAPULT and drops the handles to the ground. He cranks several levers, unfolding and then cocking the bowed arms of his contraption. He drops a bola onto a chamber and then pivots the weapon on a gimbal head toward the dark sky. He listens, with his eye pressed to the scope, hand poised on the trigger. He hears the NIGHT FURY approaching... and turns his aim to the defense tower. It closes in for the final strike, completely camouflaged in the night. HICCUP (TO HIMSELF) Come on. Give me something to shoot at, give me something to shoot at. KABLAM! The tower topples. The blast of fire illuminates the dragon for a split second. Hiccup pulls the trigger. KERTHUNK! The flexed arms SNAP forward, springing the weapon off the ground. The bola disappears into the sky, followed by a WHACK and a SCREECH. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 11. HICCUP (CONT'D) (surprised, then elated) Oh I hit it! Yes, I hit it! Did anybody see that? Hiccup's victory is short-lived. A Monstrous Nightmare appears, slithering up over the lip of the cliff. HICCUP (CONT'D) Except for you. ON STOICK, holding down the netted Nadders. He hears a familiar HOLLER and looks up to see... HICCUP running through the PLAZA, SCREAMING, with the NIGHTMARE fast on his heels. Alarmed, Stoick abandons the Nadders and runs off. STOICK (to his men, re: the NADDERS) DO NOT let them escape! IN THE PLAZA Vikings scatter as Hiccup dodges a near fatal blast. The Nightmare's sticky, Napalm-like fire splashes up onto buildings, setting them alight. Hiccup ducks behind the last standing brazier -- the only shelter available. The Nightmare blasts it, spraying fire all around him. Hiccup peers around the smoldering post. No sign of the Nightmare. He turns back to find it leering at him, blocking his escape. It takes a deep breath. Hiccup is finished. Suddenly, Stoick LEAPS between them, tackling the Nightmare to the ground. They tumble and wrestle, resuming their earlier fight. The Nightmare tries to toast him, but only coughs up smoke. STOICK (CONT'D) You're all out. He smashes the Nightmare repeatedly in the face, driving it away. It takes to the air and disappears. Winded, Stoick turns to Hiccup. HICCUP (V.O.) Oh, and there's one more thing you need to know... "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 12. The burnt brazier pole collapses, sending the massive iron basket crashing. It bounces down the hill, destroying as it goes and scattering the Vikings who were holding down the netted Nadders. The freed dragons escape... with several sheep in tow. HICCUP (CONT'D) Sorry, dad. EXT. VILLAGE - UPPER PLAZA - CONTINUOUS The escaped Nadders fly past with sheep in their clutches. The raid is over. The dragons have clearly won. The murmuring crowd eyes Stoick, awaiting his response. HICCUP (SHEEPISH) Okay, but I hit a Night Fury. Stoick grabs Hiccup by the back scruff of his collar and hauls him away, fuming with embarrassment. HICCUP (CONT'D) It's not like the last few times, Dad. I mean I really actually hit it. You guys were busy and I had a very clear shot. It went down, just off Raven Point. Let's get a search party out there, before it-- STOICK --STOP! Just....stop. He releases Hiccup. Everyone goes silent, staring expectantly. STOICK (CONT'D) Every time you step outside, disaster follows. Can you not see that I have bigger problems? Winter's almost here and I have an entire village to feed! Hiccup looks around. All eyes are upon him. HICCUP Between you and me, the village could do with a little less feeding, don't ya think? A few rotund Vikings stir self-consciously. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 13. STOICK This isn't a joke, Hiccup! (EXASPERATED) Why can't you follow the simplest orders? HICCUP I can't stop myself. I see a dragon and I have to just... kill it, you know? It's who I am, Dad. STOICK You are many things, Hiccup. But a dragon killer is not one of them. Sting. Hiccup looks around to see many nods of agreement. STOICK (CONT'D) Get back to the house. (TO GOBBER) Make sure he gets there. I have his mess to clean up. Stoick lumbers off in the opposite direction. Gobber leads Hiccup through the walk of shame. They pass the teen fire brigade as they snicker. TUFFNUT Quite the performance. SNOTLOUT I've never seen anyone mess up that badly. That helped! HICCUP Thank you, thank you. I was trying, so... Hiccup avoids Astrid's glare and heads up toward a large house, standing prominently on the hill above the others. HICCUP (CONT'D) I really did hit one. GOBBER Sure, Hiccup. HICCUP He never listens. GOBBER Well, it runs in the family. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 14. HICCUP And when he does, it's always with this... disappointed scowl. Like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich. (MIMICKING STOICK) Excuse me, barmaid. I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring. I ordered an extra large boy with beefy arms. Extra guts and glory on the side. This here. This is a talking fish bone. GOBBER You're thinking about this all wrong. It's not so much what you look like. It's what's inside that he can't stand. Beat. HICCUP Thank you, for summing that up. They reach the doorway. GOBBER Look, the point is, stop trying so hard to be something you're not. Hiccup SIGHS heavily. HICCUP I just want to be one of you guys. Gobber eyes him sympathetically. Hiccup turns and goes through the front door. And straight out the back door. He hurries off into the woods, determined. INT. GREAT HALL - DAY A noisy din of PROTESTING VOICES leads to... STOICK, glowering in the firelight. Surrounded by his men. STOICK Either we finish them or they'll finish us! It's the only way we'll be rid of them! If we find the nest and destroy it, the dragons will leave. They'll find another home. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 15. He sinks his blade into a... LARGE NAUTICAL MAP, spread out on the table... the blade pierces the middle of an uncharted corner, swirling with painted sea monsters and dragons. STOICK (CONT'D) (DECIDEDLY) One more search. Before the ice sets in. VIKING Those ships never come back. STOICK (MATTER-OF-FACT) We're Vikings. It's an occupational hazard. Now who's with me? Stoick throws up his fist. No one follows. The crowds shifts in restless silence. Head scratches. Eyes averted. VIKING (FEEBLE) Today's not good for me. VIKING (CONT'D) (EQUALLY FEEBLE) I've gotta do my axe returns. STOICK Alright. Those who stay will look after Hiccup. Hands jut into the air, volunteers galore. Enthusiastic murmurs of prep and packing fill the room. PHLEGMA THE FIERCE To the ships! SPITELOUT I'm with you Stoick! STOICK (DRY) That's more like it. The Vikings rush for the door, leaving Gobber and Stoick alone. Gobber gulps back the contents of his tankard attachment and scrapes back the bench. GOBBER I'll pack my undies. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 16. STOICK No, I need you to stay and train some new recruits. GOBBER Oh, perfect. And while I'm busy, Hiccup can cover the stall. Molten steel, razor sharp blades, lots of time to himself...what could possibly go wrong? Stoick sinks onto the bench beside Gobber, his brow burdened. STOICK What am I going to do with him Gobber? GOBBER Put him in training with the others. STOICK No, I'm serious. GOBBER So am I. Stoick turns to him, glaring. STOICK He'd be killed before you let the first dragon out of its cage. GOBBER Oh, you don't know that. STOICK I do know that, actually. GOBBER No, you don't. STOICK No, actually I do. GOBBER No you don't! STOICK Listen! You know what he's like. From the time he could crawl he's been...different. He doesn't listen. (MORE) "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 17. STOICK (CONT'D) Has the attention span of a sparrow. I take him fishing and he goes hunting for... for trolls. GOBBER (DEFENSIVE) Trolls exist! They steal your socks. (DARKLY) But only the left ones. What's with that? STOICK When I was a boy... GOBBER (GRUMBLING) Oh here we go. STOICK My father told me to bang my head against a rock and I did it. I thought it was crazy, but I didn't question him. And you know what happened? GOBBER You got a headache. STOICK That rock split in two. It taught me what a Viking could do, Gobber. He could crush mountains, level forests, tame seas! Even as a boy, I knew what I was, what I had to become. (BEAT) Hiccup is not that boy. GOBBER You can't stop him, Stoick. You can only prepare him. (BEAT) Look, I know it seems hopeless. But the truth is you won't always be around to protect him. He's going to get out there again. He's probably out there now. ON STOICK, as Gobber's words hit their mark. EXT. WOODS - DAY ON AN OPEN NOTEBOOK "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 18. A drawn map of the island, covered in X's. Hiccup looks up from it and peeks over a gorge, expectantly. Sees nothing. He adds another 'X' to the page, then scratches his pencil over the whole map in frustration. He snaps the book closed and pockets it. HICCUP Uggh, the gods hate me. Some people lose their knife or their mug. No, not me. I manage to lose an entire dragon. Hiccup WHACKS a low-hanging branch. It SNAPS back at him, hitting him in the face. He looks up to see a snapped tree trunk. His eyes follow it to a long trench of up-turned earth. He follows it to a downed, black dragon, its body and tail tangled in a bola. It appears dead. Hiccup approaches, beaming. HICCUP (CONT'D) (IN SHOCK) Oh wow. I did it. I did it. This fixes everything. (ELATED) Yes! He strikes a victory pose, planting his foot on the fallen Night Fury. HICCUP (CONT'D) I have brought down this mighty beast! It suddenly shifts. HICCUP (CONT'D) Whoa! Hiccup springs back, terrified. He turns his blade on it. Rattled, Hiccup creeps along the length of the weak, wounded dragon, dagger poised to strike. As he reaches the head, Hiccup finds the Night Fury staring coldly at him. Hiccup tries to look away, but he's drawn back to its unnerving, unflinching stare. With the dragon safety tangled in the ropes, Hiccup jabs with his dagger, puffing himself up with false bravado. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 19. HICCUP (CONT'D) I'm going to kill you, Dragon. I'm gonna cut out your heart and take it to my father. I'm a Viking. (BEAT) I am a VIKING! Hiccup raises the dagger, determined to prove his Viking- ness. The dragon's labored breathing breaks Hiccup's clenched concentration. He opens an eye, uncertainty leaking through. The dragon holds the stare. Something profound is exchanged. Finally, the Night Fury closes its eye and lowers its head, resigned to its fate. Hiccup tries to go through with it, holding the dagger aloft... fighting himself... until finally lowering it with a frustrated sigh. He looks over the dragon's chaffed rope wounds. HICCUP (CONT'D) (muttered, ashamed) I did this. He turns to leave. Pauses. And glances back at the dragon, chest heaving. Hiccup GRUMBLES. He checks over his shoulder to ensure that no one is watching... then hurries back to cut the ropes. The Night Fury's eye shoots open. With the dragon watching his every move, Hiccup hurriedly saws through the bola ropes. As the last rope falls free, the Night Fury suddenly POUNCES! In a blur, the dragon is upon him, pinning Hiccup down, grazing his neck. Looking like it's about to kill him. Hiccup is paralyzed. The dragon's breath ruffles his hair. Hiccup opens his eyes to find the Night Fury's wolf-like stare boring into him. The exchange is intense, profound. The dragon draws a deep breath, as though it's about to torch him, then lets out an ear-piercing scream instead. It turns and takes flight, flapping violently through the canopy of trees. It bashes against a nearby mountain side, recovers, and drops out of view some distance away. Winded, Hiccup struggles to his feet, staggers a few steps, collapses to his knees, and faints. INT. STOICK'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS Hiccup enters to see... "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 20. STOICK, seated on a thick slice of tree-trunk. He is slouched over the fire-pit, stirring the coals with his axe. Embers waft around his beard. Hiccup tries to sneak past, up the stairs to his room. Stoick seems none the wiser, when... STOICK Hiccup. HICCUP (CAUGHT) Dad. Uh... Stoick stands, takes a deep breath. HICCUP (CONT'D) I, uh... I have to talk to you, Dad. STOICK I need to speak with you too, son. Hiccup and Stoick STRAIGHTEN at the same moment. HICCUP STOICK I've decided I don't want to I think it's time you learn fight dragons. to fight dragons. (BEAT) (BEAT) What? What? STOICK (CONT'D) You go first. HICCUP No, you go first. STOICK Alright. You get your wish. Dragon training. You start in the morning. HICCUP (SCRAMBLING) Oh man, I should've gone first. Uh, 'cause I was thinking, you know we have a surplus of dragon-fighting Vikings, but do we have enough bread-making Vikings, or small home REPAIR VIKINGS-- STOICK --You'll need this. Stoick hands Hiccup his axe. Hiccup avoids taking it. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 21. HICCUP I don't want to fight dragons. STOICK Come on. Yes, you do. HICCUP Rephrase. Dad I can't kill dragons. STOICK But you will kill dragons. HICCUP No, I'm really very extra sure that I won't. STOICK It's time Hiccup. HICCUP Can you not hear me? STOICK This is serious son! Stoick forces the axe into Hiccup's hands. Its weight drags him down. He looks up to see Stoick under-lit with firelight. STOICK (CONT'D) When you carry this axe... you carry all of us with you. Which means you walk like us. You talk like us. You think like us. No more of... (GESTURING NON- specifically at Hiccup) ... this. HICCUP You just gestured to all of me. STOICK Deal? HICCUP This conversation is feeling very one-sided. STOICK DEAL?! Hiccup glances at the axe in his hands. It's a no-win argument. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 22. HICCUP (RESIGNED) Deal. Satisfied, Stoick grabs his helmet and duffel bag... and heads for the door. STOICK Good. Train hard. I'll be back. Probably. HICCUP And I'll be here. Maybe. Stoick heads out the door, leaving Hiccup holding the axe. EXT. TRAINING GROUNDS - DAY Gobber raises a massive iron gate at the entrance of a vast stone arena. GOBBER Welcome to dragon training! The recruits file through the gate, and out onto the arena floor. They take it in like gladiators entering the colosseum. The walls are covered in scorched silhouettes of blasted Vikings. It's a grim yet awe-inspiring place. ASTRID No turning back. TUFFNUT I hope I get some serious burns. RUFFNUT I'm hoping for some mauling, like on my shoulder or lower back. ASTRID Yeah, it's only fun if you get a scar out of it. HICCUP (O.S.) Yeah, no kidding, right? Pain. Love it. The recruits turn to see Hiccup behind them. Groans all around. TUFFNUT Oh great. Who let him in? "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 23. GOBBER Let's get started! The recruit who does best will win the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village. SNOTLOUT Hiccup already killed a Night Fury, so does that disqualify him or...? The recruits LAUGH and chatter in the background. TUFFNUT Can I transfer to the class with the cool Vikings? Gobber throws a supportive arm around Hiccup and ushers him along. GOBBER (cheery, in confidence) Don't worry. You're small and you're weak. That'll make you less of a target. They'll see you as sick or insane and go after the more Viking-like teens instead. GOBBER stick him in line with the others and continues on toward five massive reinforced doors. Terrible ROARS and BELLOWS issue from within. GOBBER (CONT'D) Behind these doors are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight. Fishlegs bounces and giggles with excitement, barely able to contain himself. GOBBER (CONT'D) The Deadly Nadder. FISHLEGS (under his breath) Speed eight. Armor sixteen. GOBBER The Hideous Zippleback. FISHLEGS Plus eleven stealth. Times two. GOBBER The Monstrous Nightmare. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 24. FISHLEGS Firepower fifteen. GOBBER The Terrible Terror. FISHLEGS Attack eight. Venom twelve. GOBBER CAN YOU STOP THAT?! (BEAT) And...the Gronckle. FISHLEGS (quietly; to himself) Jaw strength, eight. Gobber pulls a lever, raising the cross beam on the last of the doors. SNOTLOUT Whoa, wait! Aren't you gonna teach us first!? GOBBER I believe in learning on the job. BAM! A GRONCKLE thunders out of its cave, charging into the ring like an irate rhino. The recruits scramble in every direction. Except for Ruffnut and Tuffnut who rush toward it, like pumped-up rodeo clowns. GOBBER (CONT'D) Today is about survival. If you get blasted, you're dead. Quick, what's the first thing you're going to need? HICCUP A doctor? FISHLEGS Plus five speed? ASTRID A shield. GOBBER Shields. Go. The recruits scramble for shields, finding them scattered around the ring. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 25. GOBBER (CONT'D) Your most important piece of equipment is your shield. If you must make a choice between a sword or a shield, take the shield. Hiccup STRUGGLES to lift his. Gobber helps him and sends him running. Ruff and Tuff stand amidst a dozen shields. But only one has a skull painted on it. They both grab it. TUFFNUT Get your hands off my shield! RUFFNUT There are like a million shields! TUFFNUT Take that one, it has a flower on it. Girls like flowers. Ruffnut uses the shield to BASH Tuffnut in the face. He doesn't let go. RUFFNUT Ooops, now this one has blood on it. The Gronckle takes aim at the distracted twins. Blam! The shield is blasted out of both of their hands. Tuff and Ruff SPIN like tops and go down. GOBBER Tuffnut, Ruffnut, you're out! TUFFNUT (DAZED) What?! RUFFNUT (CONFUSED) What?! The Gronckle scoops up a pile of rocks and SWALLOWS them back. The teens gather on the far side of the ring. GOBBER Those shields are good for another thing. Noise. Make lots of it to throw off a dragon's aim. The kids scoop up weapons and begin hammering on their shields. The Gronckle shakes its head at the clatter. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 26. GRONCKLE'S POV - the teens targets become blurry and scrambled. It's working. GOBBER (CONT'D) All dragons have a limited number of shots. How many does a Gronckle have? SNOTLOUT Five! FISHLEGS No, six. GOBBER Correct, six. That's one for each of you! FISHLEGS I really don't think my parents WOULD-- BAM! Fishlegs has his shield blasted away. GOBBER Fishlegs, out. Gobber spots Hiccup hiding from the Gronckle's molten slugs. GOBBER (CONT'D) Hiccup, get in there! ON ASTRID bouncing on her heels, ready to dodge a blast. Snotlout appears, trying to hit on her. SNOTLOUT So anyway I'm moving into my parents' basement. You should come by sometime to work out. You look like you work out-- She cartwheels out of the way, allowing a shot to shoot past her and hit Snotlout's shield. He's blasted onto his back. GOBBER Snotlout! You're done! Astrid ROLLS to a stop beside Hiccup, who stirs awkwardly, trying to look cool. HICCUP (VOICE BREAKING) So, I guess it's just you and me huh? "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 27. ASTRID No. Just you. Astrid ROLLS away. A split-second later a lava slug knocks Hiccup's shield clear off of his arm. Hiccup is exposed. GOBBER One shot left! Hiccup panics and chases after his shield as it rolls across the ring. The sudden movement sends the Gronckle chasing after him, leaving Astrid in the clear. GOBBER (CONT'D) (WORRIED) Hiccup! The Gronckle drives straight toward Hiccup, pinning him against the wall. It opens its mouth and cocks its tail, ready to fire point-blank. Gobber lunges in and hooks the Gronckle's mouth at the last second, causing its head to jerk back and fire against the stone wall above Hiccup's head. GOBBER (CONT'D) (rattled, but masking it) And that's six! Gobber wrestles the irate Gronckle back into his pen. GOBBER (CONT'D) Go back to bed, ya overgrown sausage! You'll get another chance, don't you worry. Slam! Lock. Gobber turns to the recruits. GOBBER (CONT'D) Remember... a dragon will always, (with a stern look to HICCUP) always go for the kill. He hoists Hiccup to his feet and walks off. Hiccup looks overhead to see a steaming pit in the solid stone wall. EXT. WOODS/HIDDEN COVE - DUSK HICCUP, battered after another disastrous day in the ring. He studies the remnants of the discarded bola... revealing that he's back at the scene of the crime. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 28. HICCUP (MUTTERED) So...why didn't you? He drops the bola and presses on in the direction it flew off. He drops into a rocky crevice and follows it to an... ISOLATED COVE complete with a pristine spring pool. He scans the high stone walls... then notices a single black SCALE on the ground. He crouches and picks it up, studying it. HICCUP (CONT'D) Well this was stupid. SUDDENLY, the NIGHT FURY blasts past him. Hiccup recoils, watching the massive beast struggle to climb the walls. It flaps violently, then peels away to a rough landing. The dragon is trapped. Hiccup grins, excited to see it again, and slips closer. He watches as the dragon, exhausted and frustrated, leaps into the air, beating its wings furiously. Again and again, it rolls uncontrolled and CRASHES heavily. As if remembering to snap a photo, Hiccup pulls a leather- bound book and flips past drawings of weapons to a blank page. He sketches the dragon quickly, desperate to record the image. The Fury claws at the steep rock walls, trying climb out of the cove. It SLIPS and falls hard, crushing several saplings. The Fury rolls back to his feet and slowly crawls to the water's edge. He spots fish in the shallow water and snaps at them... but comes up empty. He lowers his head, looking weakened. HICCUP (CONT'D) (MUTTERED) Why don't you just...fly away? ON HICCUP as he spots the problem. He adjusts his drawing, carefully erasing one half of the dragon's tail. He accidentally drops the charcoal stick. It rolls off of the rock outcropping that hides him from view and bounces into the cove. TINK. TINK. TINK. The Night Fury raises his head, spotting Hiccup. They exchange a profound, unflinching stare. DISSOLVE TO: "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 29. INT. GREAT HALL - NIGHT A storm is brewing outside. The great doors rattle on their hinges. GOBBER (O.S.) Alright. Where did Astrid go wrong in the ring today? The recruits are seated at a table, eating dinner by the glow of the fire pit. ASTRID I mistimed my summersault dive. It was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble. Eye rolls from the group. RUFFNUT (SARCASTIC) Yeah. We noticed. SNOTLOUT (grabbing Astrid's hand) No, no, you were great. That was so 'Astrid'. GOBBER She's right, you have to be tough on yourselves. CREAK. All eyes turn to Hiccup, entering the hall, sheepishly. Gobber glares at him. GOBBER (CONT'D) (glaring at Hiccup) Where did Hiccup go wrong? He tries to take a seat at the table... RUFFNUT He showed up. TUFFNUT He didn't get eaten. ... but the recruits keep closing the gaps. Rolling his eyes, Hiccup sits at the vacant table next to them. ASTRID He's never where he should be. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 30. GOBBER Thank you, Astrid. Gobber stands. GOBBER (CONT'D) You need to live and breathe this stuff. Gobber lays a giant book in the center of the table. GOBBER (CONT'D) The dragon manual. Everything we know about every dragon we know of. A RUMBLE of thunder shakes the hall. Rain pours down outside. GOBBER (CONT'D) No attacks tonight. Study up. Gobber EXITS into the storm, leaving the teens staring at the book. TUFFNUT (you've got to be kidding) Wait, you mean read? RUFFNUT While we're still alive? SNOTLOUT Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about? FISHLEGS Oh! I've read it like, seven times. There's this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face. And there's this other one that buries itself for like a week... The teens stare as Fishlegs goes on too long. TUFFNUT Yeah, that sounds great. There was a chance I was going to read that... RUFFNUT ...but now... Snotlout gets up to go. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 31. SNOTLOUT You guys read, I'll go kill stuff. The others follow, with Fishlegs in tow. FISHLEGS Oh and there's this other one that has these spines that look like trees... Astrid is the last to go. HICCUP So I guess we'll share-- ASTRID Read it. She pushes it toward him and leaves. HICCUP All mine then. Wow, so okay. I'll SEE YOU-- Slam. HICCUP (CONT'D) Tomorrow. SIGH. DISSOLVE TO: INT. GREAT HALL - LATE NIGHT ON HICCUP'S HAND OPENING the massive book. Thunder BOOMS outside. The hall is vacant and dark, but for the few candles he's pulled together. Hiccup pours through page after page of strange and frightening dragons. HICCUP (V.O.) Dragon classifications. Strike class. Fear class. Mystery class. Hiccup turns the page. HICCUP (V.O.) (CONT'D) Thunderdrum. This reclusive dragon inhabits sea caves and dark tide pools. (MORE) "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 32. HICCUP (V.O.) (CONT'D) When startled, the Thunderdrum produces a concussive sound that can kill a man at close range. Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight. Hiccup's eyes drift to a lurid illustration of decapitated Vikings. Another page, another dragon. HICCUP (V.O.) (CONT'D) Timberjack. This gigantic creature has razor sharp wings that can slice through full grown trees...extremely dangerous. Kill on sight. The illustrations seem to take on a life of their own, shifting and squirming in the candlelight. HICCUP (V.O.) (CONT'D) Scauldron. Sprays scalding water at its victim. Extremely dangerous. The storm outside rages against the shuttered windows. Hiccup is startled, but presses on. HICCUP (CONT'D) Changewing. Even newly hatched dragons can spray acid. Kill on sight. He begins flipping through the pages. A blur of dragons... HICCUP (CONT'D) Gronckle. Zippleback. The Skrill. Bone Knapper. Whispering Death. Burns its victims. Buries its victims. Chokes its victims. Turns its victims inside-out. Extremely dangerous. Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight. Kill on sight. Kill on sight... Hiccup finally lands upon the page he's been looking for. HICCUP (V.O.) (CONT'D) Night Fury. It's BLANK -- no image, save for a few, sparse details. HICCUP (CONT'D) Speed unknown. Size unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. (MORE) "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 33. HICCUP (CONT'D) Never engage this dragon. Your only chance, hide and pray it does not find you. Hiccup pulls his sketchbook out of his vest and opens it to his drawing of Toothless. He lays it over the book's blank page and considers it. CLOSE ON the drawing of Toothless... MATCH CUT TO: EXT. HIGH SEAS - DAWN A painted DRAGON, with a sword run through it. It's the billowing sail of Stoick's ship. Stoick hovers over the familiar nautical map -- his eyes on the uncharted corner, swirling in mist and illustrations of dragons. STOICK I can almost smell them. They're close. Steady. Stoick raises his gaze to... AN EPIC FOG BANK, towering from sky to sea like a bruised, daunting curtain, beyond which nothing is visible. The three ships drift alongside it, skirting its solid edge, looking for an opening. ON DECK the crewmen mill nervously, all too aware of what Stoick is considering. STOICK (CONT'D) Take us in. The helmsman steers Stoick's ship into the fog. The men draw their weapons, prepping for the worst. VIKING Hard to port... for Helheim's gate. The first ship disappears into the whiteout, followed by the other two. A BEAT "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 34. Suddenly a flash of light. A silhouette of a dragon. Hollers. Sounds of splitting and shattering wood. Plunges into the water. Another bright flash. MATCH CUT TO: EXT. TRAINING GROUNDS - RING - DAY CLOSE ON a DRAGON painted onto a shield. Hiccup runs his finger over its outline. HICCUP You know, I just happened to notice the book had nothing on Night Furies. Is there another book? Or a sequel? Maybe a little Night Fury pamphlet? KABLAM! A blast takes the axe head off of Hiccup's hilt, leaving a smoking hole behind him. Hiccup YELPS and RUNS. GOBBER (O.S.) FOCUS Hiccup! You're not even trying. CUT BACK to reveal a Deadly Nadder, loose in a maze-like arrangement of moveable walls. Gobber calls orders from above. GOBBER (CONT'D) Today... is all about attack. The Nadder hops from wall to wall, sending the recruits scurrying. GOBBER (CONT'D) Nadders are quick and light on their feet. Your job is to be quicker and lighter. The teens move in, stumbling over Hiccup and his unwieldy shield. The Nadder spots Fishlegs' ample rear hiding behind a wall. It whips its tail of spikes. Fishlegs SCREAMS and lifts an entire wall to shield himself from the spray. FISHLEGS I'm really beginning to question your teaching methods. GOBBER Look for its blind spot. Every dragon has one. Find it, hide in it, and strike. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 35. Ruff and Tuff rush in, diving and rolling up to the Nadder's nose. The Nadder sniffs the air -- it can't see them. Tuff and Ruff are smashed together - too close for comfort. RUFFNUT (WHISPERED) Do you ever bathe? TUFFNUT If you don't like it, then just get your own blind spot. RUFFNUT How about I give you one! Ruff and Tuff SHOVE each other, till their movement and noise gives them away. The Nadder ATTACKS, SNAPPING at both of them. GOBBER Blind spot? Yes. Deaf spot? Not so much. Hiccup wanders up to Gobber, while the others dart past. HICCUP Hey, so how would one sneak up on a Night Fury? GOBBER None one's ever met one and lived to tell the tale. Now get in there. HICCUP I know, I know, but hypothetically... ASTRID (WHISPERED) Hiccup! She puts her finger to her lips and gestures for him to hide. A moment later, the Nadder leaps over the walls, surprising them by landing in front of her. Astrid somersaults into its blind spot, confusing it. She rears back to strike -- just as Snotlout LEAPS IN, protectively SWEEPING Astrid behind him. SNOTLOUT Watch out babe. I'll take care of this. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 36. ASTRID Hey! Snotlout MISSES. Astrid glares at him. SNOTLOUT (DEFENSIVE) The sun was in my eyes, Astrid. What do you want me to do, block out the sun? I could do that, but I don't have time right now! The Nadder tears off after her, knocking down walls in pursuit. She leaps and dives like a highly trained gymnast. Hiccup wanders up to Gobber again. HICCUP They probably take the daytime off. You know, like a cat. Has anyone ever seen one napping? GOBBER Hiccup! ASTRID --Hiccup! Hiccup spins around to see the maze walls collapsing like dominos toward him. Astrid comes flying through the dust and crash-lands on top of him, laying him out in a limb-tangled mess. TUFFNUT Oooh! Love on the battlefield! RUFFNUT She could do better. The Nadder closes in, emerging through the cloud of dust. HICCUP (struggling to untangle) Just... let me... why don't you... The Nadder spins around and races back toward them like a Raptor. Astrid untangles herself and tries to pull her axe from Hiccup's shield... which is attached to his limp, gangly arm. She PLANTS her foot on his torso and YANKS the axe free, still burrowed into the shield. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 37. She SPINS and SWINGS the axe and shield, scoring a DIRECT HIT on the oncoming Nadder's NOSE. It yelps and scurries off. GOBBER Well done, Astrid. Gobber hobbles off to wrestle the Nadder back into his cave. Hiccup gets to his feet -- all eyes are upon him. He turns to find Astrid glaring at him, winded. ASTRID Is this some kind of a joke to you? Our parents' war is about to become ours. Figure out which side you're on. She grabs her axe and stomps off. Hiccup watches, stung. CUT TO: EXT. COVE - MAGIC HOUR CLOSE ON A fish... being thrown into the cove. It hits the ground and slides. A moment later, Hiccup peeks through a gap in the rock, looking around cautiously. Nothing. Hiccup squeezes through and enters the cove. A BEAT, then Hiccup hears a SNORT from behind him. Hiccup turns to see the Night Fury, crouched on a rock like a stealthy panther. It descends, approaching him... ready to pounce. Hiccup swallows his fear and offers the fish. Doing so reveals the dagger at his waist. The dragon sees it and hisses. Hiccup reaches for it, eliciting a growl. He pauses, carefully lifts it by the handle, and tosses it away. The dragon calms. As it approaches the fish, Hiccup notices that it's missing teeth. HICCUP Huh. Toothless. I could've sworn you had... A set of razor sharp teeth emerge from its gums to grab the fish. Toothless snatches and gnashes it up, swallowing it. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 38. HICCUP (CONT'D) ... teeth. The teeth retract again. Toothless presses closer with an expectant look. Hiccup retreats nervously. HICCUP (CONT'D) Uh, no. No, I don't have any more. The Fury backs Hiccup against a rock, placing himself the same position as before. The dragon closes in over him, staring blankly. A tense moment passes... then Toothless regurgitates a chunk of fish onto Hiccup's lap. They exchange stares. Hiccup realizes what Toothless wants him to do. Hiccup crouches slowly and squeamishly picks it up. The dragon waits expectantly. Hiccup gags and gnaws off a bite of the slimy fish. He forces a smile. Toothless mimics him. Amazed, Hiccup sits up and tries to touch him. Toothless HISSES and flaps off to a crash on the other side of the cove. He BLASTS the mossy ground to a red-hot temperature... and curls up on it like a giant dog. He turns to find Hiccup seated beside him. Toothless tolerates his persistent presence... until Hiccup tries to touch his damaged tail. Toothless SNAPS at him. Hiccup takes the hint and leaves. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. COVE - LATER It's MAGIC HOUR. Toothless wakes, hanging upside down from a tree. He spots Hiccup sitting on the other side of the cove. Sketching in the sand. CLOSE ON a sketch of Toothless. Hiccup draws with a stick, minding his own business. Toothless appears behind him, watching carefully. Aware of his presence, Hiccup continues, trying not to scare him off. Toothless walks off. A moment later, he reappears with an entire sapling, drawing lines in the sand. He rushes here and there, making haphazard lines in every direction. Finally, Toothless drops the tree and inspects his work. He seems pleased. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 39. Hiccup stands and takes in the sprawling scribble, amazed by it. He accidentally steps onto one of the lines, eliciting an instant growl from Toothless. He steps on it again. Toothless growls again. Realizing how sensitive he is, Hiccup steps carefully between each line, turning round and round until he unwittingly bumps into Toothless. Toothless snorts. Once again, they're face to face. Hiccup slowly extends his hand. Toothless hesitates. Hiccup turns his head away and closes his eyes. To his amazement, Toothless bridges the gap and presses his muzzle against Hiccup's hand. In a flash, the dragon is gone, leaving Hiccup astounded. EXT. VILLAGE - NIGHT Gobber and the recruits are seated at the top of an abandoned catapult tower, toasting campfire food around a roaring bonfire. GOBBER ...and with one twist he took my hand and swallowed it whole. And I saw the look on his face. (can't deny it) I was delicious. He must have passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg. FISHLEGS Isn't it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon. Like if your mind was still in control of it you could have killed the dragon from the inside by crushing his heart or something. SNOTLOUT I swear I'm so angry right now. I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot. I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight, with my face. He postures to Astrid. She rolls her eyes. GOBBER (with a mouthful) Un-unh. It's the wings and the tails you really want. If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon is a dead dragon. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 40. ON HICCUP hiding his horrified look form the others. Gobber stands and stretches. GOBBER (CONT'D) Alright. I'm off to bed. You should be too. Tomorrow we get into the big boys. Slowly but surely making our way up to the Monstrous Nightmare. (playful, taunting) But who'll win the honor of killing it? He hobbles off. The teens reflect. TUFFNUT (very matter of fact) It's gonna be me. (BEAT) It's my destiny. See? Tuffnut rolls up his sleeve to reveal a red dragon on his arm. FISHLEGS (GASPS) Your mom let you get a tattoo? TUFFNUT It's not a tattoo. It's a birthmark. RUFFNUT Okay, I've been stuck with you since birth, and that was never there before. TUFFNUT Yes it was. You've just never seen me from the left side until now. SNOTLOUT It wasn't there yesterday. Is it a birthmark or a today-mark? Hiccup gets up and walks away from the group. Astrid watches him as he leaves the bonfire. DISSOLVE TO: "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 41. INT. BLACKSMITH STALL - MOMENTS LATER Hiccup enters a small room at the back of the stall. It's covered in drawings of weaponry and scale models. He lights a candle and lays his sketchbook out on the desk, opening it to the drawing of Toothless. With a look of determination. Hiccup picks up a charcoal stick and re-draws the missing tail. DISSOLVE TO: INT. BLACKSMITH STALL - LATER CLOSE ON ... a creaking leather bellows. The stone forge glows with every pump. Tongs pull intricate iron pieces from the coals. They're dropped onto the anvil, twisted, lightly hammered, and dunked in a barrel. The pieces are carried to Hiccup's workbench and laid out in place on a one-to-one schematic. It's a sketch of a mechanical fin. EXT. HIDDEN COVE - DAWN Hiccup arrives, winded, straining under the weight of a full basket. He clicks the scale he found (like a jar top). Toothless approaches, sniffing him. HICCUP Hey Toothless. I brought breakfast. I hope you're hungry. Hiccup drops the basket and kicks it over. Fish spill out. HICCUP (CONT'D) Okay, that's disgusting. Toothless approaches, settling in to devour the feast. HICCUP (CONT'D) Uh..we've got some salmon... Toothless swallows it. HICCUP (CONT'D) ... some nice Icelandic cod... Swallows those too. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 42. HICCUP (CONT'D) ... and a whole smoked eel. Toothless nabs it, chews a few times, then spits it out. He shakes his head violently, snorts and scrubs his massive tongue on the sand. Hiccup takes note. HICCUP (CONT'D) No, no, no! It's okay. Yeah, I don't like eel much either. Toothless focuses on the remainder. With the dragon distracted, Hiccup unwraps his prosthetic fin and opens it like a fan. HICCUP (CONT'D) Okay. That's it. That's it, just stick with good stuff. And don't you mind me. I'll just be back...here. Minding my own business. Hiccup cautiously approaches the injured tail, but every time he gets near it, Toothless sweeps it away like a cat. HICCUP (CONT'D) It's okay. Hiccup drops a knee on top of the tail. Toothless' head juts up, slows its chewing to a halt. HICCUP (CONT'D) Okay...okay.. The dragon tenses, slowly spreading his wings. Hiccup straps the prosthetic fin in place. He cinches the straps. HICCUP (CONT'D) (PLEASED) There. Not too bad. It works. Toothless BOLTS! He snaps his massive wings and takes to the air, carrying Hiccup with him. HICCUP (CONT'D) Woah! No! No! No! Hiccup struggles to hold on to the tail. As the ground speeds away, Toothless immediately TIPS into a uncontrolled bank and dive. Hiccup sees the folded fin rattling uselessly in opposition to its flared counterpart. Flap as he may, Toothless can't correct his trajectory. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 43. Hiccup swallows his fear and crawls toward the folded prosthetic. He reaches it and YANKS it open. The flared, fan- like appendage catches the air, stabilizing the twisting tail. HICCUP (CONT'D) (excited, terrified) It's working! Toothless arcs just short of the water and climbs... high into the air. HICCUP (CONT'D) Yes! Yes, I did it. He glances back at Hiccup, busily holding the tail open while trying to hold on. They're going to crash. Whoomp! Hiccup is suddenly thrown from the tail in the intense force of a turn. HICCUP (CONT'D) AAAAAGGGGHHHHH! He bounces across the water's surface and takes a dive. Without Hiccup to operate the tail, Toothless does the same, plunging in a massive cannonball. Hiccup resurfaces, roughed up, but beaming. Toothless appears seconds later. HICCUP (CONT'D) Yeah! EXT. TRAINING GROUNDS - MORNING GOBBER (O.S.) Today is about teamwork. Work together and you might survive. ON A DOUBLE-WIDE DOOR. Gas seeps through the cracks. It BLASTS OPEN. A cloud of smoke engulfs the ring, swirling around the paired-up teens. Astrid with Ruffnut. Snotlout with Tuffnut. Fishlegs with Hiccup. All carry buckets of water, poised to throw them. GOBBER (CONT'D) Now, a wet dragon head can't light its fire. The Hideous Zippleback is extra tricky. One head breathes gas, the other head lights it. Your job is to know which is which. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 44. The smoke encircles them, cutting them off from each other. The teens LISTEN and WATCH for any sign of the dragon. FISHLEGS (muttering to himself) Razor sharp, serrated teeth that inject venom for pre-digestion. Prefers ambush attack, crushing its victims in its... HICCUP (TENSE) Will you please stop that? ON SNOTLOUT AND TUFFNUT Moving nervously through the fog, back to back. Snotlout is singing to himself to calm his nerves. SNOTLOUT If that dragon shows either of his faces, I'm gonna-- (spotting an approaching shape, terrified) --There! Snotlout and Tuffnut HURL their water into the fog. ASTRID Hey! RUFFNUT It's us, idiots. Astrid and Ruffnut are soaked. TUFFNUT Your butts are getting bigger. We thought you were a dragon. SNOTLOUT (TO ASTRID) Not that there's anything wrong with a dragon-esque figure. Astrid ELBOWS Snotlout in the face. Ruffnut DROPS Tuffnut with a PUNCH to the throat. ASTRID Wait. They FREEZE. A tail SWEEPS out of the fog, taking them down. Their buckets spill. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 45. ON FISHLEGS AND HICCUP coming across them. They see the puddles of spilled water. TUFFNUT Oh, I'm hurt. I am very much hurt. FISHLEGS Chances of survival are dwindling into single digits now... HICCUP Look out! A Zippleback head emerges out of the smoke. Fishlegs hurls his water at it, completely dousing the head. It leers and opens its mouth, spewing gas into the area. FISHLEGS Oh. Wrong head. GAS FLOWS around their legs. Fishlegs flees in a panic. GOBBER Fishlegs! Beat. A clicking sound comes from behind them. Sparks flash in the smoke. GOBBER (CONT'D) Now, Hiccup! The other head sweeps out of the smoke. Hiccup hurls his water with all his might. It arcs and drops short of the dragon's sparking mouth. The dragon grins, savoring the kill. HICCUP Oh, come on! GOBBER RUN, HICCUP! Gobber COVERS his eyes. GOBBER (CONT'D) Hiccup! Beat. The Zippleback hesitates. SNIFFS. Then retreats. The teens get to their feet, watching transfixed. Gobber peeks through his fingers to see... "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 46. The Zippleback backing away from Hiccup. He stands and holds his hands out, as if controlling it. HICCUP BACK! BACK! BACK! Now don't you make me tell you again! The Zippleback retreats through its door and into its cave, hissing. HICCUP (CONT'D) Yes, that's right. Back into your cage. Hiccup slyly OPENS his vest, revealing the spotted smoked EEL from earlier. He TOSSES it inside the door, then SLAMS it shut. HICCUP (CONT'D) Now think about what you've done. Hiccup turns to the teens and Gobber. They stare, slack-jawed HICCUP (CONT'D) Okay! So are we done? Because I've got some things I need to... Hiccup jogs out of the ring, past the speechless group. HICCUP (CONT'D) Yep...see you tomorrow. Astrid SNEERS. Something's going on. EXT. WOODS/COVE - SUNSET BEGIN MUSIC MONTAGE INT. BLACKSMITH STALL - HICCUP'S CLOSET - CONTINUOUS Hiccup cuts and stitches leather, draws and shapes steel. He works by candlelight. An overhead shot reveals what he's building: a harness, complete with handles and foot pedals. EXT. COVE - DAY Hiccup appears before Toothless, holding the new prosthetic. Toothless runs off as Hiccup chases him down. HICCUP Hey! "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 47. EXT. COVE - DAY Toothless and Hiccup are zooming over the ocean. The tail breaks free sending Hiccup flying. HICCUP Yeah! Whoa! INT. BLAKCSMITH STALL - LATER Hiccup adjusts the harness and uses a metal clamp to affix himself to Toothless' saddle. EXT. SKY/FIELD - DAWN Hiccup and Toothless zip through the air -- his rudimentary harness and tail controls are working, barely. They crash- land in an open field. Hiccup recovers to find Toothless still rolling around in the tall grass. Hiccup discovers that it's a patch of ‘dragon- nip.' Toothless writhes on his back, tongue wagging, in complete bliss. EXT. TRAINING GROUNDS - MORNING Hiccup grabs the head as instructed, then discreetly pulls a fistful of ‘dragon-nip' and presses it up to the Gronkle's nose. It immediately stops struggling and goes weak in the knees. Hiccup drops the handful of dragon-nip to the ground. The Gronkle goes down with it, whimpering and blissful. From Gobber and the recruits' point of view, Hiccup is controlling the Gronkle with no more than a limp arm. EXT. WOODS - AFTERNOON The recruits walk home together, surrounding Hiccup and BOMBARDING HIM WITH QUESTIONS. FISHLEGS Hey Hiccup, I've never seen a Gronkle to that before. TUFFNUT How'd you do that? RUFFNUT It was really cool. He squirms and invents an excuse. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 48. HICCUP I left my axe back in the ring. He turns and hurries back. HICCUP (CONT'D) You guys go on ahead and I'll catch up with you. Astrid watches, suspicious. EXT. COVE - LATER Hiccup rubs Toothless behind the ear, causing him to relax and fall over. EXT. TRAINING GROUNDS - LATER An angry Deadly Nadder approaches Hiccup. Just as Astrid moves in to strike, Hiccup performs his special rubbing technique, which sends the Nadder down. Astrid and the other kids look on from the sideline in amazement. INT. MEADE HALL - CONTINUOUS Hiccup sits down at a table to eat. The other recruits notice him and move over to his table to talk to him -- leaving Astrid alone. FISHLEGS Hey Hiccup! SNOTLOUT What was that? Some kind of trick? What did you do? TUFFNUT Hiccup, you're totally going to come in first, there's no question. EXT. COVE - LATER Hiccup is using a mirror-like object to create a patch of light on the ground. Toothless claws and chases the light patch like a cat chasing a laser pointer. EXT. TRAINING GROUNDS - DAY A beam lifts from the door of another dragon pen. GOBBER Meet the Terrible Terror. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 49. A tiny, pint-sized dragon steps out and moves toward the recruits. TUFFNUT Ha. It's like the size of my-- Tuffnut is taken down in a blur. TUFFNUT (CONT'D) Get it off! Get it off! Oh! I'm hurt, I am very much hurt! Hiccup stops the Terrible Terror with the same light-patch trick he used earlier with Toothless. The tiny dragon retreats back to it's cage. The teens approach him yet again as Astrid looks on with suspicion. TUFFNUT (CONT'D) (TO ASTRID) Wow, he's better than you ever were. CUT TO: EXT. FOREST - MOMENTS LATER Astrid furiously hurls her axe at a nearby tree. She notices Hiccup walking by in the distance, carrying one of his trademark harnesses. She quickly tries to follow, but he loses her in the woods. She HUFFS, frustrated. EXT. COVE - LATER Hiccup straps a newly designed harness onto Toothless. With Toothless tied to a nearby post with a rope. Hiccup rides him in the air -- while stationary. Toothless looks like a giant kite tied to a tree stump. This harness seems to work. EXT. SKY - MOMENTS LATER The rope breaks and the pair CRASH into a tree. Hiccup's face is red. HICCUP Oh, great. EXT. BERK - NIGHT The streets are empty save for a lone Viking who crosses Hiccup's path. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 50. VIKING Hiccup. Hiccup nods, trying to look casual. Once the coast is clear, he covertly steers Toothless into the Blacksmith's stall. Toothless PRESSES himself inside, rooting through stuff and making a racket. Astrid, walking nearby, is alerted. ASTRID (O.S.) Hiccup? Hiccup FREEZES. Then frantically tries to pry the ring off the saddle hook. It won't budge. ASTRID (CONT'D) Are you in there? Too late - she's right outside. ON ASTRID walking along the outside of the Blacksmith's. Hiccup JUMPS OUT the window and CLOSES the shutters behind him. Hiccup's harness line is stretched through the window, still attached to Toothless' saddle. HICCUP Astrid. Hey! Hi Astrid. Hi Astrid. Hi Astrid. ASTRID I normally don't care what people do, but you're acting weird. Well, weirder. Toothless spots a nearby sheep and makes a move toward it. As a result, Hiccup is suddenly PULLED TIGHT against the window shutters. He STRIKES A POSE to compensate... then gets PULLED THROUGH the shutters. They snap back in Astrid's face. Astrid reopens them and finds nothing but an empty stall. In the distance, Toothless and Hiccup slip off unseen. EXT. DOCKS - DAWN A lone, battered ship is pulled into a slip, overloaded with equally battered-looking men. They disembark to a crowd of onlookers, looking like a team of hometown heroes who just had their butts kicked. Gobber hobbles through the MUMBLING crowd to find Stoick -- last to disembark and glowering with battered pride. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 51. VIKING Where are the other ships? SPITELOUT You don't want to know. Stoick lumbers past Gobber, leaving him staring at the trashed ship. GOBBER Well, I trust you found the nest at least? STOICK Not even close. GOBBER Ah. Excellent. Gobber follows Stoick up the ramp and snags his duffle bag with his hook appendage, sharing the burden. STOICK I hope you had a little more success than me. GOBBER Well, if by success, you mean that your parenting troubles are over with, then... yes. Stoick stops. What does that mean? A group of merry villagers rush past. VIKING #1 Congratulations Stoick! Everyone is so relieved. VIKING #2 Out with the old and in with the new, right?! VIKING #3 No one will miss that old nuisance! VIKING #4 The village is throwing a party to celebrate! Stoick is stunned, overwhelmed by the insensitivity. He turns to Gobber. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 52. STOICK He's... gone? GOBBER Yeah...most afternoons. But who can blame him? I mean the life of a celebrity is very rough. He can barely walk through the village without being swarmed by his new fans. Stoick is doubly confused. STOICK Hiccup? GOBBER (BEAMING) Who would've thought, eh? He has this...way with the beasts. CUT TO: EXT. SKY - AFTERNOON Toothless and Hiccup soar through a perfect blue sky. Billowing clouds rise like mountains. The ground seems miles below them. HICCUP Okay there bud, we're gonna take this nice and slow. Hiccup checks a leather cheat sheet, clipped onto his harness. Inscribed upon it are several tail positions and their pedal position equivalents. HICCUP (CONT'D) Here we go. Here we go...position three, no four. He presses the pedal, causing the tail to flare. They roll off into an arcing bank, gloriously lit by the late afternoon sun. Hiccup tucks tight against his neck, thrilled that his new harness and vest are holding. The foot controls make the tail appendage quick and responsive. He watches Toothless' every fluctuation, trying to match it with the prosthetic. Hiccup sizes up a target -- a towering arch of stone, rising from the sea. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 53. HICCUP (CONT'D) Alright, it's go time. It's go time. They dive toward it, lining up to pass through the arch. HICCUP (CONT'D) Come on. Come on buddy. Come on buddy! They zip through the arch. A perfect maneuver. HICCUP (CONT'D) Yeah! Yes, it worked! The triumph is short-lived. They smack into one of several sea stacks as Hiccup tries to keep up with the turns. HICCUP (CONT'D) Sorry. They hurtle into another rock pillar. Toothless grumbles. HICCUP (CONT'D) My fault. Toothless swats him with his 'ear' plate. HICCUP (CONT'D) Yeah, yeah, I'm on it. (referring to the cheat SHEET) Position four, no three. They pierce the clouds. For the first time, Hiccup can see the whole of the island below them. It shrinks with every passing second. He SWALLOWS hard and tightens his grip on the handles. HICCUP (CONT'D) Yeah! Go baby! Yes! Oh, this is amazing! The wind in my... He spots the leather guide tearing free in the turbulence. HICCUP (CONT'D) (PANICKED) ... CHEAT SHEET! STOP!! Hiccup grabs frantically for the airborne sheet... HICCUP (CONT'D) No! "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 54. ... and NABS IT before it's carried out of reach. Toothless, however, obeys the command and suddenly STOPS beating his wings. As they slow to a stop, Hiccup goes weightless. The rings of his vest float off of the harness hooks. Hiccup suddenly finds himself detached, free-falling. HICCUP (CONT'D) Oh gods! Oh no! Without Hiccup, the tail loses control. Hiccup and Toothless spiral downward. Toothless FIGHTS to get back under Hiccup. HICCUP (CONT'D) (trying to calm Toothless) Alright, okay. You just gotta kinda angle yourself. No, no...come back down towards me. Come back down-- Hiccup extends his arms and legs, giving himself as much surface area as he can. He angles back towards Toothless as the tumbling dragon WHACKS Hiccup with his wing. After a few more misses, Hiccup finally GRABS HOLD of the harness and manages to lock in -- just in time to pull Toothless out of his dive... barely shy of the tree tops. They careen past the wooded cliff and directly into a treacherous slalom course of jutting sea stacks. Hiccup pulls the cheat sheet from his teeth and attempts to check positions. It flaps violently in the turbulence, making it impossible. With no time to think, Hiccup throws it away and steers Toothless' tail on instinct... with perfect intuition. Together, they manage a tight, hair-rasing series of split- second turns, making it to the open water, unscathed. Hiccup takes a breath and glances back at the death-defying obstacle course, now safely behind them. He beams, relieved. He sits back and throws his arms up in victory. HICCUP (CONT'D) YEEAHHH! Toothless concurs with a happy SQUEAL and a fireball. Hiccup's glee turn to dread as they fly directly into it. ON HICCUP'S FACE HICCUP (CONT'D) Ah, come on. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 55. EXT. BLACK SAND BEACH - SUNSET Hiccup and Toothless lounge on a sprawling, deserted beach, snacking of freshly caught fish. As Hiccup cooks his over a fire, Toothless suddenly regurgitates a fish head. Hiccup smirks with forced politeness. HICCUP Uh..no thanks. (gesturing to his fish on A STICK) I'm good. Several Terrible Terrors land like seagulls, hissing and nipping at each other as they approach Toothless' pile of fish. One grabs the regurgitated fish head and drags it away. Another attempts to steal it from him. They face off and last fire balls at each other to settle the fight. Hiccup and Toothless watch, amused. That is until... Toothless spots one of his fish leaving the pile. A stealthy Terrible Terror is exposed as the thief. They tug on the fish, and it snaps back into Toothless' mouth. He swallows it back tauntingly. Irate, the little dragon paws at the ground and blast Toothless. He opens his mouth, the gas hiss comes, and Toothless fires a tiny flame straight into its mouth, causing the gas to backfire into the little dragon. It coughs up smoke and staggers away, looking ill. Hiccup laughs. HICCUP (CONT'D) Not so fireproof on the inside, are you? Hiccup throws the hapless Terror his freshly cooked fish. HICCUP (CONT'D) Here you go. The appreciative little dragon gulps down the meal and approaches Hiccup cautiously. He curls up next to him. Hiccup is amazed. HICCUP (CONT'D) (PENSIVE) Everything we know about you guys is wrong. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 56. Hiccup carefully pets him... sending the Terror into an immediate, blissful sleep. INT. BLACKSMITH STALL - HICCUP'S CLOSET - NIGHT HICCUP is lost in thought, his head laid of a desk full of Toothless drawings. Burdened with the weight of the world. Suddenly, STOICK appears in the doorway. Hiccup jumps and quickly covers up his desk. HICCUP Dad! You're back! He skirts the bench, blocking Stoick's view of Toothless, the prosthetic fin, and other drawings. HICCUP (CONT'D) Gobber's not here, so... He strikes an awkwardly casual pose, trying to cover up as much as possible. STOICK I know. I came looking for you. HICCUP (CAUGHT) You did? STOICK (STERN) You've been keeping secrets. Hiccup's legs give out. He slides, dragging the table's contents with him. HICCUP I...have? STOICK Just how long did you think you could hide it from me? HICCUP (IN VAIN) I don't know what you're... STOICK Nothing happens on this island without me hearing about it. HICCUP Oh? "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 57. STOICK So. (BEAT) Let's talk about that dragon. Blood drains from Hiccup's face. HICCUP Oh gods. Dad I'm so sorry. I was going to tell you. I just didn't know how to-- Stoick starts laughing. Big, booming. Hiccup stares, baffled. HICCUP (CONT'D) You're not...upset? STOICK What?! I was hoping for this! HICCUP Uh...you were? STOICK And believe me, it only gets better! Just wait til you spill a Nadder's guts for the first time. Hiccup's elated expression sinks. STOICK (CONT'D) And mount your first Gronckle head on a spear. What a feeling! Stoick laughs and smacks Hiccup on the shoulder, sending him into the wall. STOICK (CONT'D) You really had me going there, son. All those years of the worst Viking Berk has ever seen! Odin, it was rough. I almost gave up on you! Hiccup gets back up, grimacing in the irony of it all. STOICK (CONT'D) And all the while, you were holding out on me! Thor almighty! Stoick grabs a stool and sits. His massive frame nearly fills the tiny room. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 58. STOICK (CONT'D) (RELIEVED) Ahhhhh. With you doing so well in the ring, we finally have something to talk about. Pregnant pause. Hiccup averts his eyes nervously. Stoick adjusts, awkwardly clearing his throat. After a long, uncomfortable silence... STOICK (CONT'D) Oh, I... brought you something. He presents a horned helmet. STOICK (CONT'D) To keep you safe in the ring. HICCUP (SINCERE) Wow. Thanks. Hiccup accepts it, looking it over. STOICK Your mother would've wanted you to have it. (HEARTFELT) It's half of her breast plate. Stoick taps his own helmet and smiles. STOICK (CONT'D) Matching set. Keeps her close, y'know? Hiccup eyes the mismatched helmets, grimacing. STOICK (CONT'D) Wear it proudly. You deserve it. You've held up your end of the deal. Stoick beams with pride. Hiccup squirms. He forces a YAWN. HICCUP I should really get to bed. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 59. STOICK HICCUP (talking over each (talking over each OTHER) OTHER) Yes! Good! Okay. Good talk. See you back at the house. We should do this again. I'm Great. Thanks for stopping glad I stopped by, I hope you by. And for the... the uh, like the hat. breast hat. STOICK Well..uh..good night. Stoick leaves the room awkwardly, leaving Hiccup looking more burdened than ever. EXT. TRAINING GROUNDS - AFTERNOON A Gronckle hovers above the ring, hunting victims as the teen recruits scramble. Astrid ducks behind a barrier to find Hiccup already there. She forces her axe at his throat. ASTRID Stay out of my way! I'm winning this thing. HICCUP Please, by all means. She darts off, CLOSING FAST on the dragon. The crowd above cheers her on. VIKING IN CROWD You got it Astrid! Hiccup stands and looks around. Amidst the crowd of onlookers, Stoick watches keenly, beaming with pride. He locks eyes with Hiccup, giving him a nod of encouragement. Hiccup adjusts his new helmet and forces a half-hearted smile. Unbeknownst to Hiccup, the Gronckle spots him and makes a bee- line toward him. BACK TO ASTRID ... as she catches her breath behind a barrier. She scowls, focused, determined. ASTRID This time. This time for sure. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 60. With a FIERCE BATTLE-CRY she LEAPS from cover, axe cocked to throw. ASTRID (CONT'D) Aaaaaaaaaa... And as she clears the barriers, she sees that Hiccup has already laid the Gronckle out. ASTRID (CONT'D) ...aaaaaaauGGGGGHHHHHHHH! No! No! Hiccup shrugs, as unhappy with the situation as she is. ASTRID (CONT'D) NO! NO! SON OF HALFTROLL RAT EATING MUNGE BUCKET! A loud CLACK ring out. From the crowd above, Gothi, the village elder, steps forward, tapping her staff. Everyone lights up excitedly. STOICK Wait! Wait! HICCUP So, later. Gobber snags Hiccup as he attempts to leave. GOBBER Not so fast. HICCUP I'm kinda late for-- ASTRID (LIVID) What? Late for what exactly? Stoick holds out his hands to silence the jabbering crowd. STOICK Okay quiet down. The elder has decided. Thrilled, Gobber stands behind Hiccup and Astrid. He points to Astrid as the crowd waits in silent anticipation. Gothi shakes her head 'no.' The crowd 'Oooohs.' Gobber then points to Hiccup. The elder nods an affirmative 'yes.' The crowd erupts in cheers. Astrid turns a seething, deadly glare on Hiccup. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 61. GOBBER You've done it! You've done it, Hiccup! You get to kill the dragon! STOICK Ha, ha! That's my boy! Hiccup is hoisted onto the recruits' shoulders and carried out to the cheering spectators... HICCUP (MASKING PANIC) Heh, heh. Oh yeah! Yes! I can't wait. I am so... EXT. HIDDEN COVE - DUSK HICCUP ... leaving. We're leaving. Let's pack up. Looks like you and me are taking a little vacation, forever. Toothless is nowhere in sight. Hiccup sets down his basket and opens it up, his head clouded with troubles. HICCUP (CONT'D) Oh..man... SHINK! Hiccup looks up to the sound of... ASTRID, sitting on the rock right in front of him, sharpening her axe. HICCUP (CONT'D) (SHOCKED) Aggh! What the-- (RECOMPOSING) What are you doing here? She hops off the rock and back him down, spinning her axe threateningly. Hiccup's eyes dart around nervously, searching for Toothless. ASTRID I want to know what's going on. No one just gets as good as you do. Especially you. Start talking! Are you training with someone? HICCUP Uh...training? She grabs him by his odd-looking harness. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 62. ASTRID It better not involve... this. HICCUP I know this looks really bad, but you see...this is, uh... They hear a RUSTLE coming from the other side of the cove. Astrid DROPS Hiccup to the ground and sets off to investigate. HICCUP (CONT'D) (PANICKED) You're right! You're right. I'm through with the lies. I've been making... outfits. So you got me. It's time everyone knew. Drag me back. Go ahead. Here we go. He puts her hand back on his harness, getting her to 'drag him back.' Astrid BENDS Hiccups hand backwards, driving him down. HICCUP (CONT'D) AAAAUUGGGHHH! Why would you do that?! ASTRID That's for the lies. Astrid pounces the hilt of her axe off of Hiccup's laid-out body. ASTRID (CONT'D) And THAT'S for everything else. Hiccup's YELP is answered with A GROWL, coming from the other side of the cove. Astrid looks up to see... A NIGHT FURY. Toothless pounces toward them, snarling. HICCUP (FEEBLE) Oh man. She dives onto Hiccup. ASTRID Get down! Run! Run! Astrid pulls her axe, ready to take on Toothless. HICCUP No! "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 63. Hiccup knocks Astrid's cocked axe to the ground, out of reach, then stops Toothless short of crushing her. HICCUP (CONT'D) No. It's okay! It's okay... Toothless pulls up short and lands hard, SPRAYING Astrid with sand. HICCUP (CONT'D) (CALMING) She's a friend. Toothless snorts in disagreement. Astrid is frozen. Toothless looks from her to Hiccup and back to her, confused. HICCUP (CONT'D) (TO ASTRID) You just scared him. ASTRID I scared him!? Hiccup makes a “be quiet” motion. ASTRID (CONT'D) (INTENSE WHISPER) Who is him? HICCUP. Astrid, Toothless. Toothless, Astrid. Astrid backs away, eyeing Hiccup and Toothless together with pure disgust. She turns and RUNS for the village. HICCUP We're dead. Satisfied with Astrid's departure, Toothless turns away. HICCUP (CONT'D) (TO TOOTHLESS) Where do you think you're going? EXT. WOODS - MOMENTS LATER ASTRID races through the trees. A large shadow overtakes her. She is suddenly SNATCHED into the air. Astrid SCREAMS. ASTRID Oh great Odin's ghost, this is it! "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 64. Hiccup and Toothless fly Astrid to the top of a towering pine. It bows and creaks under their weight as Astrid dangles a hundred feet in the air. ASTRID (CONT'D) Hiccup! Get me down from here! HICCUP You have to give me a chance to explain. ASTRID I'm not listening to ANYTHING you have to say! HICCUP Then I won't speak. Just let me show you. Hiccup extends a hand. HICCUP (CONT'D) Please, Astrid. She eyes him and the dragon, then the ground far, far below. After a moment, she swats Hiccup's outstretched hand away and reluctantly climbs over the pedal, lines, and harness. She settles behind Hiccup, avoiding as much contact as possible. ASTRID Now get me down. HICCUP Toothless? Down. Gently. Toothless leers mischievously. He spreads his wings slowly. With a WHOP, they fill with the updraft. Toothless releases the tree, tucks in his legs, and HOVERS in place. HICCUP (CONT'D) See? Nothing to be afraid of. Toothless suddenly LAUNCHES straight upward. Astrid SCREAMS. The acceleration is tremendous. Every downbeat bucks the saddle, heaving them into the sky, doubling their speed like a rocket. Astrid is thrown backward. She SCREAMS and hugs Hiccup for dear life, squeezing the breath out of him. HICCUP (CONT'D) Toothless! What is wrong with you?! Bad dragon! (mortified; to Astrid) He's not usually like this. Oh no... "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 65. Toothless ROLLS and PLUMMETS toward the coastline far below. Astrid SCREAMS. Toothless rockets over the ocean waves, deliberately dipping them in the froth. HICCUP (CONT'D) Toothless, what are you doing?! We need her to like us! Toothless rockets skyward and begins tumbling head over tail. HICCUP (CONT'D) And now the spinning. Thank you for nothing you useless reptile. Astrid clamps her hand over her eyes. ASTRID Okay! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Just get me off of this thing. Astrid is defeated, her aggressive energy gone. Satisfied, Toothless relents. They level off and head up into the clouds. Astrid opens her eyes again, and looks out over a world she'd never dreamed of. She reaches out and touches clouds, pierces columns ablaze in golden hues, and floats over a vast, alien sky- scape. Her terror is replaced by wonder. She grins, despite herself. Toothless rises above a blanket of clouds... DISSOLVE TO: EXT. SKY - NIGHT ...and levels off under a starry sky. They emerge from a blanket of clouds under the dancing Northern Lights, shimmering in ribbons across the vast sky. Below them, Berk's torches flicker in the inky darkness. The new perspective is breathtaking. Astrid tucks her arms into Hiccup's vest, burying her chin into his shoulder. The moment is not lost on either of them. Hiccup smiles nervously. Toothless climbs past Berk's tallest peaks and heads out over open water, leaving the village lights behind them. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 66. ASTRID Alright I admit it. This is pretty cool. It's... amazing. (BEAT) He's amazing. Astrid carefully reaches down and pats Toothless' side. ASTRID (CONT'D) So what now? Hiccup groans. It's a problem without an answer. ASTRID (CONT'D) Hiccup, your final exam is tomorrow. You know you're going to have to kill... (WHISPERED) ... kill a dragon. HICCUP Don't remind me. A strange, unearthly din approaches. Toothless' ear plates suddenly stand on end. Panicked, he abruptly dives, dipping into cloud cover. HICCUP (CONT'D) Toothless! What's happening? What is it? Toothless BARKS at him. 'Quiet!' Suddenly, out of the dense cloud, a Monstrous Nightmare emerges. HICCUP (CONT'D) Get down! Hiccup and Astrid duck. The Nightmare calls out. A Zippleback appears to the other side of Toothless, boxing him in. ASTRID What's going on? HICCUP I don't know. (BEAT) Toothless. You've got to get us out of here, bud. Toothless HISSES. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 67. Other dragons, previously invisible in the thick clouds, appear all around them. HUNDREDS of them, all carrying fish and game in their talons. HICCUP (CONT'D) (WHISPERED) It looks like they're hauling in their kill. The Zippleback eyes them ravenously. ASTRID What does that make us? The dragons BANK and dive in formation, plummeting through the thickening fog and weaving between towering, craggy sea stacks. They emerge at the base of a massive volcanic caldera, glowing with rivulets of lava. The flock of dragons fall into rank, funneling through a crack, and zipping through a winding tunnel. It gives way to a vast, steamy inner chamber, tiered with pocky shelves. Dragons of all breeds lay about, nested in hordes. The arriving dragons fly in, dropping the fish and game into a central pit, glowing red and shrouded in mist. Hiccup is amazed. HICCUP What my dad wouldn't give to find this. Toothless peels away from the procession, landing on a small shadowy shelf to keep a low-profile. Hiccup and Astrid peek around, taking in the busy hive of sorts. They watch as the food continues to be dropped into the pit. HICCUP (CONT'D) It's satisfying to know that all of our food has been dumped down a hole. ASTRID They're not eating any of it. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 68. Last to arrive is a dim-witted Gronckle. It hovers over the pit and regurgitates his paltry contribution -- a pathetic little fish. As it falls into the steamy pit, a terrible ROAR rings out. The Gronckle tries to flee, but before it can, a gargantuan dragon head juts from the steamy pit and SNAPS it out of the air. Swallowing it back whole. Hiccup and Astrid recoil, terrified. ASTRID (CONT'D) What is that? The monstrous beast SNIFFS the air, seemingly aware of them. It nears the ledge where Toothless is hiding... and ROARS. Several dragons take flight in fear. HICCUP Alright buddy, we gotta get out of here. Now! Toothless takes flight, barely evading the monster's snapping jaws. The behemoth dragon lunges for them, snatching a Zippleback out of the air instead. Toothless disappears into the winged exodus as thousands of dragons flee the caldera in fear. EXT. HIDDEN COVE - NIGHT - LATER Toothless glides into the cove and touches down on the moonlit beach. ASTRID (her mind reeling, talking Hiccup's ear off) No, no, it totally makes sense. It's like a giant beehive. They're the workers... and that's their queen. It controls them. She leaps off of Toothless and runs toward the village. ASTRID (CONT'D) Let's find your dad. HICCUP No, no! Not yet. They'll... kill Toothless. (BEAT) (MORE) "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 69. HICCUP (CONT'D) Astrid, we have to think this through carefully. Astrid eyes him, incredulous. ASTRID Hiccup, we just discovered the dragons' nest...the thing we've been after since Vikings first sailed here. And you want to keep it a secret? To protect your pet dragon? Are you serious? Hiccup stands firm, resolute. HICCUP Yes. Astrid's taken aback. ASTRID Okay. (BEAT) Then what do we do? HICCUP Just give me until tomorrow. I'll figure something out. ASTRID Okay. Astrid PUNCHES Hiccup in the arm. ASTRID (CONT'D) That's for kidnapping me. Hiccup looks to Toothless for support. Toothless SNORTS, dismissive. Astrid grabs him. He braces for another hit. She KISSES Hiccup on the cheek. ASTRID (CONT'D) That's for, everything else. In the awkward wake of the moment, Astrid hurries off... leaving Hiccup RUBBING his cheek, stunned. Toothless hobbles up, eyeing him. HICCUP What are you looking at? "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 70. EXT. TRAINING GROUNDS - DAY The grounds have been transformed. Banners and flags flap in the morning sun. Surrounding the ring, a festive crowd had gathered. All of Berk has turned out for the event. STOICK (aloud to the crowd) Well, I can show my face in public again. LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE STOICK (CONT'D) (PLAYFUL) If someone had told me that in a few short weeks, Hiccup would go from being, well... Hiccup, to placing first in dragon training... I would've tied him to a mast and shipped him off for fear he'd gone mad. Yes! And you know it! (BEAT) But here we are. And no one's more surprised... ON HICCUP standing at the entrance to the ring, listening, looking burdened. STOICK (CONT'D) ... or more proud than I am. Today, my boy becomes a Viking. TODAY, HE BECOMES ONE OF US! CHEERS and ROARS. Astrid approaches Hiccup. ASTRID Be careful with that dragon. HICCUP (re: the roaring crowd) It's not the dragon I'm worried about. ASTRID (WORRIED) What are you going to do? HICCUP Put an end to this. She eyes him, dubious. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 71. HICCUP (CONT'D) I have to try. (BEAT) Astrid. If something goes wrong... just make sure they don't find Toothless. ASTRID (GRIM) I will. Just promise me it won't go wrong. Hiccup can't. Gobber approaches. GOBBER It's time, Hiccup. Knock him dead. Hiccup puts his helmet on and enters the ring. ON THE TEENS HOOTING and HOLLERING from the stands. TUFFNUT Show 'em how it's done, my man! Hiccup locks eyes with Stoick. Stoick nods with a smile. Hiccup returns a half-smile. Takes a deep breath. He hoists a shield onto his forearm and selects his weapon from a rack of many -- a small dagger. STOICK (MUTTERED) Hrmph. I would've gone for the hammer. Hiccup turns to face a bolted, heavy door. Takes a deep breath. HICCUP I'm ready. The door bolt is raised. The crowd grows quiet... Beat. BOOM! The doors blast open with a stream of sticky fire. Followed by a Monstrous Nightmare, coated in flames. It tears out of its cave like an irate bull -- as the crowd roars and jeers. It climbs the walls and chain enclosure like a bat, hissing at the provoking crowd and blasting fire. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 72. It spots Hiccup and descends, leering and licking the flaming drool from its lips. The crowd grows silent, bracing for the big fight. With the Monstrous Nightmare's eyes locked upon him, Hiccup deliberately drops his shield and dagger stepping away from them. The dragon pauses, confused. ON STOICK, also confused. STOICK What is he doing? The dragon presses closer, snorting. Hiccup extends his open hand. It snarls. HICCUP (WHISPERED) It's okay. It's okay. The dragon continues to pace, focused on... HICCUP'S HELMET. Hiccup realizes, then reaches up and removes it. Taking a breath to acknowledge the point of no return, he tosses the helmet aside. It hits the ground. HICCUP (CONT'D) I'm not one of them. GASPS and MURMURS race through the crowd. ON STOICK, as all eyes turn to him. He's welling with upset. Hiccup avoids Stoick's glare and remains focused on the Nightmare, holding his hand out. It paces around him, calming down. STOICK Stop the fight. HICCUP No. I need you all to see this. The crowd gets restless. HICCUP (CONT'D) They're not what we think they are. We don't have to kill them. STOICK I SAID STOP THE FIGHT! "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 73. Stoick whacks his hammer against the iron enclosure, rattling the arena with a terrible reverberating clatter. Spooked, the Nightmare snaps at Hiccup's outstretched hand. Hiccup YELPS and springs backward. The spell is broken. The Nightmare reacts to Hiccup's sudden movements and blasts another stream of fire. Hiccup SCREAMS and barely dives out of reach. EXT. COVE - CONTINUOUS ON TOOTHLESS His ear plates shoot up. Panic flares in his eyes. EXT. TRAINING GROUNDS - CONTINUOUS Hiccup scrambles around the ring. The Nightmare pursues, snapping and springing from ground to wall. Stoick pushes through the crowd, rushing to the doorway. STOICK Out of my way! ASTRID Hiccup! Astrid wedges her axe under the arena gate and squeezes through. EXT. COVE - CONTINUOUS Toothless bounds to the cove walls, clawing them in desperation. It seems he's as trapped as before, but with an incredible BURST of effort he HOOKS a claw over the upper lip of the stone wall. EXT. TRAINING GROUNDS - CONTINUOUS A narrow stream of fire narrowly avoids Hiccup as he continues to dash around the ring, evading the Monstrous Nightmare. Desperate, he goes to the weapon rack in an attempt to arm himself, but the Nightmare quickly destroys the rack and closes in on him. EXT. COVE - CONTINUOUS Toothless tears through the woods, bounding like panther and taking to the air in short bursts. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 74. EXT. TRAINING GROUNDS - CONTINUOUS Stoick wrenches the grated door to the arena and jumps through. The Monstrous Nightmare is only a few feet behind Hiccup. Astrid is now in the ring. ASTRID Hiccup! She picks up a hammer and hurls it at the Monstrous Nightmare, hitting it in the head. It turns its attention to Astrid, and begins chasing her. Stoick raises the arena gate, waving her toward it. STOICK This way! Astrid makes it through, but the Nightmare BLASTS the doorway, cutting Hiccup off. It pounces on him and prepares to finish him off. Suddenly, a terrible roar pierces the din. GOBBER Night Fury! Get down! Toothless bounds over the crowd and BLASTS a hole through the chain enclosure. He flies through it and disappears in the boiling smoke. The Vikings rush to railings... in time to see a flurry of wings cutting through the dissipating smoke. Toothless and the Nightmare tumble into the clear, locked in a toothy, vicious fight. Toothless kicks the Nightmare off and plants himself between Hiccup and it. The Nightmare snarls, circling them. Toothless lunges and ROARS... causing the Nightmare to relent and back away. To everyone's shock and horror, Hiccup gets to his feet and grabs Toothless protectively. HICCUP (PANICKED) Alright, Toothless, go. Get out of here! The crowd is gob-smacked, growing livid. VIKINGS Night Fury! "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 75. Hiccup tries to shoo Toothless away in vain. Vikings begin pouring clambering through the enclosure and dropping into the ring. HICCUP Go! GO! VIKING Take it alive! Stoick grabs an axe and charges into the arena. Astrid calls out to him, panicked. ASTRID Stoick no! HICCUP Dad! No! He won't hurt you! The other Vikings surround and attack Toothless. He tosses them aside like rag dolls, his eyes focused on Stoick. HICCUP (CONT'D) No, don't! You're only making it worse! Stoick raises his hammer as he charges for Toothless. Toothless ducks and pounces on him. They tumble end over end. HICCUP (CONT'D) Toothless! STOP! He pins Stoick and inhales. The familiar hiss of gas builds. Everyone braces... HICCUP (CONT'D) NO! Toothless swallows back the blast and turns to Hiccup, not understanding. VIKING Get him! The crowd rushes him, piling on, and taking Toothless down. Astrid holds Hiccup back. HICCUP (DESPERATE) No! Please...just don't hurt him. Please don't hurt him. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 76. Stoick gets to his feet, fuming, shaken. A Viking presents Stoick with an axe. He eyes Toothless a moment, then pushes the axe back into the Viking's hands. STOICK Put it with the others! His burning glare turn to Hiccup. INT. GREAT HALL - DAY ON HICCUP Being shoved into the dank, dimmed hall. SLAM! The massive doors rattle and echo. Stoick pushes past him. He paces against a backdrop of shadowy tapestries and carved pillars -- a legacy of heroes, all peering down in angered judgement. STOICK I should have known. I should have seen the signs. HICCUP Dad. STOICK We had a deal! Stoick pauses to say something, but stops short. He SNORTS and resumes pacing, repeating the cycle. HICCUP (FLUSTERED) I know we did... but that was before... ughh, it's all so messed up. STOICK So everything in the ring. A trick? A lie? He stomps toward Hiccup. Stops short and points, fighting back words. HICCUP I screwed up. I should have told you before now. Take this out on me, be mad at me, but please... just don't hurt Toothless. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 77. STOICK The dragon? That's what you're worried about? Not the people you almost killed?! HICCUP He was just protecting me! He's not dangerous. STOICK They've killed HUNDREDS OF US! HICCUP And we've killed THOUSANDS OF THEM! They defend themselves, that's all! They raid us because they have to! If they don't bring enough food back, they'll be eaten themselves. (BEAT) There's something else on their island dad...it's a dragon like-- Stoick HUFFS. STOICK --Their island? He stomps back... pointing an accusing finger. STOICK (CONT'D) So you've been to the nest. HICCUP Did I say nest? Hiccup goes silent -- he said too much. STOICK How did you find it?! HICCUP No... I didn't. Toothless did. Only a dragon can find the island. Stoick GLARES. A moment passes, then an idea takes form on his face. His eyes flare. Hiccup watches, realizing. Stoick stomps toward the doorway. HICCUP (CONT'D) Oh no. No, Dad. No. Hiccup chases after him, panicked. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 78. HICCUP (CONT'D) Dad. It's not what you think. You don't know what you're up against. It's like nothing you've ever seen. He grabs Stoick by the arm, tugging with all his might. He has no effect whatsoever. HICCUP (CONT'D) Dad. Please. I promise you that you can't win this one. Nothing. HICCUP (CONT'D) No. Dad. No. For once in your life, WOULD YOU PLEASE JUST LISTEN TO ME?! He throws Hiccup off of him, SWATTING him to the floor. Icy stillness. Hiccup stares back, stunned. STOICK You've thrown your lot in with them. You're not a Viking. (BEAT) You're not my son. Stoick pushes through the door, leaving Hiccup alone, devastated. STOICK (CONT'D) (CALLING OUT) Ready the ships! EXT. GREAT HALL - CONTINUOUS Stoick staggers on the steps, breaking inside. EXT. DOCKS/OPEN SEA - DAY Broken-down catapults and trebuchets are bundled up and lowered from the cliffs. Below on the docks, Vikings load the heavy artillery into the hulls of awaiting ships. Children and the elderly gather to on the walkways to wave apprehensive farewells to the departing warriors. Lastly, Toothless is loaded aboard Stoick's ship, chained down to a palette, muzzled, and restrained with a weighty neck ring. He looks exhausted, miserable. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 79. Stoick crosses to the bow as the ship pushes off and joins the amassed armada of ships adrift in the harbor. Stoick's brow is furrowed, all warmth drained away. He turns west and glares at the horizon with cold determination. STOICK Set sail! We head for Helheim's Gate. He then notices HICCUP watching from his familiar cliff-side perch beyond the village. Their eyes meet, full of hurt and regret. Hiccup slowly shakes his head in warning. Stoick breaks the stare and turns to Toothless, fuming. STOICK (CONT'D) Lead us home, Devil. ON HICCUP Watching. He's powerless to stop what is happening, but won't leave. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. CLIFFS - LATER ON HICCUP Still standing there. The ships have cleared the horizon. CRANE UP to reveal Astrid is standing behind him. She approaches cautiously and stands beside him in silence. ASTRID It's a mess. Hiccup doesn't respond. ASTRID (CONT'D) You must feel horrible. You've lost everything. Your father, your tribe, your best friend. HICCUP Thank you for summing that up. HICCUP (CONT'D) Why couldn't I have killed that dragon when I found him in the woods. It would have been better for everyone. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 80. ASTRID Yep. The rest of us would have done it. (BEAT) So why didn't you? Hiccup just shakes his head - he really doesn't know. Astrid's eyes glimmer. She wants something. ASTRID (CONT'D) Why didn't you? HICCUP I don't know. I couldn't. ASTRID That's not an answer. HICCUP (BECOMING IRATE) Why is this so important to you all of a sudden? ASTRID Because I want to remember what you say right now. HICCUP (angry, loud) Oh for the love of -- I was a coward! I was weak. I wouldn't kill a dragon. ASTRID You said 'wouldn't' that time. HICCUP (BLOWS UP) Whatever! I wouldn't! Three hundred years and I'm the first Viking who wouldn't kill a dragon! A BEAT. ASTRID First to ride one, though. Hiccup blinks. He never looked at it that way before. ASTRID (CONT'D) So... "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 81. HICCUP (REALIZING) ...I wouldn't kill him because he looked as frightened as I was. (BEAT) I looked at him and I saw myself. Astrid turns to face the open sea. ASTRID I bet he's really frightened now. (PROVOKING) What are you going to do about it? Beat. HICCUP Probably something stupid. ASTRID Good. But you've already done that. Another beat. HICCUP Then something crazy. Astrid smiles. ASTRID That's more like it. EXT. OPEN SEA/DRAGON ISLAND - DAY The armada coasts toward a shroud of heavy fog, hung like drapes from a low-hanging, ominous sky. The ships enter, one by one. Visibility drops immediately. Flanking ships becomes ghosts. The armada disappears, drawn into the blinding mist. Complete whiteout. Nothing remains but the eerie creaking of wood on water. ON STOICK at the bow of his ship. He taps his fingers on the gunwale, then looks back at Toothless impatiently. Weighed down with chains, Toothless seems unresponsive. STOICK Sound your positions. Stay within earshot. Shouts pour in from all directions. VIKING #1 Here. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 82. VIKING #2 One length to your stern. VIKING #3 On your starboard flank. VIKING #4 Three widths to port. VIKING #5 Ahead, at your bow. VIKING #6 Haven't a clue. ON STOICK straining into the fog as the calls continue. Massive, jagged sea stacks begin to emerge, threatening to rip the ships to shreds. Gobber approaches him, speaking under his breath. GOBBER Listen... Stoick... I was overhearing some of the men just now and, well, some of them are wondering what it is we're up to here -- not me of course, I know you're always the man with the plan -- but some, not me, are wondering if there is in fact a plan at all, what it might be? STOICK Find the nest and take it. GOBBER Ah. Of course. Send them running. The old Viking fall-back. Nice and simple. STOICK Shhh. Stoick notices that Toothless' ear plates are at the alert, quietly reacting to inaudible sounds. Stoick crosses to the stern of the ship and grabs the tiller, moving the helmsman out of the way. STOICK (CONT'D) Step aside. Stoick pulls the ship into a turn, covertly following Toothless' head movements. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 83. The ship barely misses a jagged outcrop that suddenly appears out of the soupy fog. VIKING Bear to port. The order is called out from ship to ship. CRUNCH! The bow barely makes it past another sea stack. Stoick continues to follow Toothless' cues, undeterred. EXT. TRAINING GROUNDS - DAY Hiccup raises the bolt on the Monstrous Nightmare's pen. FISHLEGS (O.S.) If you're planning on getting eaten, I'd definitely go with the Gronckle. Hiccup turns to see his fellow recruits, watching him with folded arms. Tuffnut steps forward with a scowl. TUFFNUT You were wise to seek help from the world's most deadly weapon. (BEAT) It's me. HICCUP Uh... SNOTLOUT I love this plan. HICCUP I didn't... RUFFNUT You're crazy. (SULTRY) I like that. ASTRID So? What is the plan? Hiccup smiles, glowing in the support of his friends. EXT. FOGGY SEA - DAY The ships follow in line through the gauntlet of rocks as orders are whispered from ship to ship. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 84. A dragon head looms out of the fog. The men recoil... only to discover that it's a wrecked ship, impaled high on a gnarled sea stack. GOBBER Ah. I was wondering where that went. A clicking buzz becomes audible, growing louder. It fills the sky, converging in one general direction. Stoick sniffs the air. STOICK Stay low and ready your weapons. Stoick's ship suddenly JERKS to a halt as the keel burrows into shallow black sand. Stoick hops overboard, landing on a sprawling beach. The BUZZING suddenly STOPS. Above him, a craggy volcano towers into the gloom. STOICK (CONT'D) We're here. Behind him, several dragon-headed bows pierce the fog. EXT. TRAINING GROUNDS - RING - DAY Hiccup steps back from the door, drawing the Monstrous Nightmare out of its cave. It snorts, stepping into the ring, calmed by Hiccup's outstretched hand -- focused on him. ON THE TEENS... bewildered, in awe. Snotlout nervously reaches for a spear laying near his foot. Astrid stops him. ASTRID (CORRECTING) Uh-uh. Hiccup slows to a stop in front of the teens, with the Nightmare inches from his outstretched hand. He reaches over and grabs Snotlout's trembling hand. SNOTLOUT Wait! What are you... HICCUP Relax. It's okay... it's okay. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 85. Hiccup replaces his outstretched hand with Snotlout's, putting him in control of the massive beast. The Nightmare snorts, but remains calm. Snotlout, by contrast, chuckles nervously -- it's at once terrifying and amazing. The others watch, spellbound. Hiccup turns and walks away. SNOTLOUT Where are you going?! Hiccup pulls a bundle of rope from a supply box. HICCUP You're going to need something to help you hold on. The teens eye each other apprehensively, and look up to reveal... ALL THE DRAGONS standing in the ring, facing the teens expectantly. EXT. DRAGON ISLAND - DAY CLOSE ON Tree trunks, being sharpened and planted into the sand at angled rows. Boulders being loaded into catapult baskets. And a war plan being scratched in the sand. STOICK looms over it, looking determined. His generals are at his sides. STOICK When we crack this mountain open, all hell is going to break loose. GOBBER In my undies. Good thing I brought extras. Stoick TURNS to face the men. STOICK No matter how this ends, it ends today. He walks toward the base of the volcano wall, back by several hundred warriors. He raises his arm and drops it. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 86. A line of catapults UNLEASH their two-ton loads into the cliff wall. It cracks and flakes away. Several more hits tear away at the hollow shell of hardened lava. A final boulder shatters the fractured wall, creating a deep, dark opening to the cavern within. Silence. Stock raises his hand, makes a gesture. A flaming bushel is launched into the dark, lighting the wall... CHOKED WITH DRAGONS. Stoick pulls his hammer and rushes into the cave, brazen. STOICK (CONT'D) (War cries and slashing efforts) In a chaotic flurry, the dragons suddenly rush out like bats from a cave. The take to the air, bypassing the axe-swinging Vikings and fleeing the island in a mass exodus. The battle-ready Vikings drop their weapons, confused. GOBBER Is that it? Above the island, dragons POUR from every crevice, fleeing to the sky. The sound of screeching dragons fades. VIKINGS (Cheering as one) SPITELOUT We've done it! Stoick doesn't celebrate. Something is not right. He HEARS something. Stoick turns to peer down the dark throat of the cavern. A deep, rumbling ROAR echoes from the cavern. The ground underfoot TREMBLES. The ships rock. Their sails fill with a blast of air. The cheering stops. Stoick's expression sinks. STOICK This isn't over. Form your ranks! Hold together! The men SCRAMBLE to organize themselves. STOICK (CONT'D) Get clear! "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 87. The ground CRACKS. Stone tears away, cascading like an avalanche. And through the settling debris, the silhouette of a gargantuan dragon emerges -- THE RED DEATH. Stirred and furious. GOBBER Beard of Thor...what is that? STOICK (AGHAST) Odin help us. (BEAT) Catapults! The Vikings score direct hits. The burning stones BOUNCE off the dragon's skin. The Red Death focuses on the catapults. It crushes the first one - smashing it and its crew, rattling the beach underfoot. Stoick races toward the second catapult. He LEAPS and pushes a Viking out of the way just before the dragon crushes him under his forepaw. The Vikings scramble in all directions. VIKING #3 Get to the ships! STOICK No! NO! The Red Death BLASTS the ships like a mile-long flamethrower. The sails are torched. Vikings dive overboard and masts come down. Gobber Joins Stoick. GOBBER Heh. Smart, that one. Stoick looks up and down the beach for an answer. STOICK (GUILT-RIDDEN) I was a fool. The monster raises its head to the sky and BELLOWS. The sound SHAKES the beach, knocking Vikings off their feet. This island is his. Stoick stops a Viking General. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 88. STOICK (CONT'D) Lead the men to the far side of the island. SPITELOUT Right. (turns to the others) Everybody to the far side of the island! The Vikings scatter into the rocks like ants. Satisfied with the ships destruction, The Red Death turns its attention back to the Vikings. They seem to have vanished. It SNIFFS the air, searching for their scent. Gobber drops in beside Stoick, like two soldiers in a trench. Fire blasts over head, causing them to duck. STOICK Gobber, go with the men. GOBBER I think I'll stay, just in case you're thinking of doing something crazy. Stoick grabs him. STOICK (EMPHATIC) I can buy them a few minutes if I give that thing someone to hunt. Gobber removes Stoick's hand. Clenches his forearm, determined. GOBBER Then I can double that time. Stoick grins. Friends to the bitter end. They BREAK COVER and dash into the open, SPLITTING UP. Stoick rips a sharpened post from the ground and hurls it into the monster's face. STOICK HERE! GOBBER NO, HERE! It spots both of them. He fuels up to fire, glancing back and forth between the two men. He focuses on Stoick. GOBBER (CONT'D) Come on! Fight me! "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 89. STOICK No, me! The Red Death remains focused on Stoick - this is it. It rears back and inhales. Gas begins to amass, when... KABLAM! A BLAST explodes against the back of The Red Death's head. It turns distracted, as... ... a Nadder punches through the flames, banking across the sky. Followed by a Monstrous Nightmare, a Zippleback, and a Gronckle. They roll in unison, revealing the recruits riding on their backs. Hiccup leads, with Astrid clinging to his waist. GOBBER AND STOICK, watch slack-jawed, in awe. HICCUP Ruff, Tuff, watch your backs! Move Fishlegs! The monster shakes off the blast and snaps in their wake. Hiccup directs his squadron out of harm's way. They climb out of reach and circle each other. TUFFNUT Look at us, we're on a dragon! We're on dragons, all of us! HICCUP Up, let's move it! The dragons climb past the Red Death. ON THE GROUND Gobber hobbles over to Stoick. GOBBER Every bit the boar-headed, stubborn Viking you ever were. Stoick is speechless. IN THE AIR The group circles over the dragon's head. HICCUP Fishlegs, break it down. FISHLEGS Okay. Heavily armored skull and tail made for bashing and crushing. (MORE) "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 90. FISHLEGS (CONT'D) Steer clear of both. Small eyes, large nostrils. Relies on hearing and smell. HICCUP Okay. Lout, Legs, hang in its blind spot. Make some noise, keep it confused. Ruff, Tuff, find out if it has a shot limit. Make it mad. RUFFNUT That's my specialty. TUFFNUT Since when? Everyone knows I'm more irritating. See. (IRRITATING SOUNDS) HICCUP (EXASPERATED) Just do what I told you. I'll be back as soon as I can. TUFFNUT Don't worry, we got it covered! FISHLEGS Yeah! Hiccup and Astrid peel away. The teens bank and dive toward the monster, splitting up. The Twins race alongside the monster's head, taunting it. TUFFNUT Troll! RUFFNUT Butt Elf! TUFFNUT Bride of Grendel! The Red Death unloads a spray of fire at the twins. They barely dodge it. Fishlegs and Snotlout hang behind its eyes, banging away at their shields, making a racket. The Red Death opens all SIX of its eyes, spotting them. FISHLEGS Uh, this thing doesn't have a blind spot. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 91. ON HICCUP AND ASTRID ... searching for Toothless. Hiccup spots him among the burning ships. HICCUP There! He steers the Nadder over the deck and hands Astrid the reins. He lines up his jump... and hops off, guarding his face from the flames. He lands on the burning deck. HICCUP (CONT'D) (TO ASTRID) Go help the others! She and the Nadder take off. As Hiccup fights his way to Toothless. He unbuckles the muzzle. Toothless shrieks. HICCUP (CONT'D) Okay, hold on. Hold on. He gets to work on the chains. ON SNOTLOUT AND FISHLEGS They clang their weapons against their shields, making the monster wince. SNOTLOUT It's working. The huge beast starts to sway its head dizzily. FISHLEGS Yeah! It's working. PAN DOWN to reveal that the noise is also confusing the Gronckle and the Monstrous Nightmare. Both dragons lose their bearings. The Red Death thrashes, knocking Snotlout off of his dragon and onto the monster's gigantic head. Snotlout bounces across the top and comes to a stop just shy of the hundred foot drop. SNOTLOUT Agghh! Fishlegs' Gronckle goes down in a spin of confusion. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 92. FISHLEGS I've lost power on the Gronckle. Snotlout! Do something! He hurls Snotlout his hammer. The Gronkle crashes and skids to a stop... FISHLEGS (CONT'D) I'm okay! ... then flips over, crushing Fishlegs. FISHLEGS (CONT'D) (FEEBLE) Less okay. BACK TO SNOTLOUT ... who eyes the Red Death's gigantic, veiny eyes. He raises the hammer... SNOTLOUT I can't miss! ... and hammers the monster's eyes, playing whack-a-mole. SNOTLOUT (CONT'D) What's wrong buddy, got something in your eye? Astrid flies by on her Nadder, catching Snotlout in all his heroics. ASTRID Yeah! You're the Viking! Snotlout grins, finally vindicated in her eyes. In his distraction, he gets thrown and lands heavily on one of the Red Death's spines -- clinging precariously. A close call. SNOTLOUT Whoa! ON THE GROUND The monster's tail sweeps across the burning ships, snapping masts like twigs. We follow one down as it crashes onto a deck, revealing... HICCUP Working at the chains. He can't budge them. Fire licks at his clothes. He looks up to see... "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 93. THE RED DEATH blasting at the teens, enraged. The monster's giant foot crashes through frame, smashing the bow under its impressive weight. Hiccup and Toothless are thrown into the water in a maelstrom of burning planks and rigging. UNDERWATER Hiccup swims toward Toothless. They're both caught in a mess of rigging, being dragged down. The heavy palette settles into the rocky bottom like an anchor. Toothless has stopped struggling. Hiccup takes one more hopeless tug at the chains - he's almost out of air. Suddenly, a meaty hand grabs Hiccup. STOICK explodes to the surface, pulling Hiccup to the shoreline through flaming debris. He lays him down, under the shelter of an overhanging rock. HICCUP (OVERWHELMED) Dad... Stoick dives back into the water between flaming flotsam. UNDERWATER ON TOOTHLESS, drowning. Stoick appears in front of him. Toothless freezes. Stoick tears the chains off of the yoke and lets it float free. Momentary stillness. They eye each other, through the churned up bubbles. Toothless lunges out of the bars -- grabbing Stoick. BOOM! In an explosion of sea water, Toothless lands on the shore, setting Stoick down and releasing him. Hiccup is awed. The ground rumbles underfoot. The monster screeches. Its massive claws stomp around in the smoke. Stoick gives way as Toothless mounts the rock and raises his wings. He turns to Hiccup and SNORTS - ‘Let's go.' HICCUP (CONT'D) You got it, bud. Hiccup climbs onto Toothless and buckles himself in. Stoick grabs his arm. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 94. STOICK Hiccup. I'm sorry...for everything. HICCUP Yeah...me too. STOICK You don't have to go up there. HICCUP We're Vikings. It's an occupational hazard. They exchange smiles. STOICK I'm proud to call you my son. Hiccup beams, taken aback. HICCUP Thanks dad. Stoick lets go of Hiccup's arm. Hiccup spurs Toothless on, charged with his father's belief in him. They rocket into the sky as Stoick watches. IN THE AIR Astrid sees Toothless streaking through the sky, gaining altitude. ASTRID He's up! She turns to Ruffnut and Tuffnut, who are ARGUING and THROWING PUNCHES at each other. ASTRID (CONT'D) Get Snotlout out of there! IN MID-PUNCH, the twins look over to see Snotlout stranded on the monster's head. They eye each other. TUFFNUT RUFFNUT I'm on it! I'm on it! TUFFNUT I'm on it first! I'm ahead of you. The twins spot Snotlout on the giant dragon and steer their Zippleback in his direction. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 95. RUFFNUT Hey! Let me drive! The twins peel off, ARGUING as they race each other to the monster. Snotlout sees the Zippleback diving toward him and DASHES down the Red Death's head. He runs up the end of its horn... As the twins sweep past, both missing him... but perfectly snatching him where the necks merge. Ruff and Tuff eye each other, surprised and impressed. TUFFNUT I can't believe that worked. The Red Death spots Astrid and INHALES, preparing to blast. She and her Nadder get caught in the suction, pulled toward the monster's gaping mouth. ON THE GROUND The Vikings watch with dread. They hear the familiar whir of the... GOBBER Night Fury! Get down! IN THE AIR A massive BLAST jolts the Red Death's head sideways. Astrid is thrown clear of its mouth... AND her Nadder. She tumbles through the air. The ground races toward her, when... She's suddenly CAUGHT by the leg. She looks up to see Toothless. HICCUP Did you get her? Toothless grunts. ON THE GROUND They fly over the crowd of Vikings and set Astrid down, mid- run. They circle back to reengage - a black speck against the clouds. ASTRID (BREATHLESS) Go. IN THE AIR "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 96. Hiccup and Toothless rocket past the Red Death's head and climb, higher and higher. HICCUP (TO TOOTHLESS) That thing has wings! Okay, let's see if it can use them! Hiccup pulls Toothless into a turn. They plummet, gaining tremendous speed. The wind buffets them as they target the Red Death as super sonic speed. KABLAM! Toothless unloads a fireball against the Red Death's head. It goes down with a rumble as they climb anew. ON THE GROUND The Vikings shield themselves from the dust of the fallen monster... as its wings unfold and extend. IN THE AIR Hiccup looks back as they put distance between them. HICCUP (CONT'D) Do you think that did it? Suddenly, the enraged behemoth RISES into frame... flapping its wings furiously. A daunting sight. HICCUP (CONT'D) Well, he can fly. Hiccup and Toothless DIVE into the tangled sea stacks - they weave through the rock like rabbits through a briar. The Red Death SNAPS at them, but cannot reach them. Hiccup and Toothless PULL AHEAD. The Red Death SMASHES through the canopy of rock and pulls in behind Toothless. He BURSTS THROUGH fifty-foot formations like they were saplings. ON THE GROUND Stoick, Gobber, and the Teens watch as Hiccup and Toothless streak past, weaving through sea stacks. TEENS Woohoo! Yeah! A moment later the Red Death SMASHES the sea stacks to dust in hot pursuit. The Vikings mood is quenched. IN THE AIR "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 97. Hiccup and Toothless can't slow the monster down. Hiccup eyes the clouds above. An idea hits him. He locks eyes with Toothless. HICCUP Okay Toothless, time to disappear. Toothless PULLS into a steep climb, heading toward the clouds. HICCUP (CONT'D) Come on bud! The Red Death follows, closing in fast. HICCUP (CONT'D) (hearing the gas) Here it comes! BLAST! They narrowly dodge a column of flame and smoke. They reach the low-hanging clouds and pierce them. The monster follows, immediately losing them in the hampered visibility. It roars irritably. From out of nowhere, Toothless DIVES at the huge dragon, BLASTING and PUNCTURING a hole in its wing. Toothless and Hiccup are gone again before the dragon can get a shot at them. ON THE GROUND The Vikings stare up at the sky listening to the resounding BOOMS and watching FLASHES light up the clouds. Gobber places a hand on Stoick's shoulder. IN THE AIR HICCUP and TOOTHLESS dive in again and again, using the clouds to hide and surprise as they puncture the monster's wings. It BELLOWS in frustration and WHIRLS around, unleashing fire blindly, in all directions. Hiccup sees the glow of fire cutting towards them. HICCUP (CONT'D) Watch out! The random blast CLIPS Toothless' tail. It's heavily damaged. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 98. HICCUP (CONT'D) Okay, time's up. Let's see if this works. He pulls Toothless into a turn. They fly directly into the Red Death's face, taunting it. HICCUP (CONT'D) Come on! Is that the best you can do!? Toothless utters an insult too, and they jackknife into a steep dive. The Red Death pursues. Toothless PUMPS his wings, racing faster than he's ever gone before. Hiccup and Toothless stay just ahead of the Red Death -- no longer trying to evade it. Hiccup glances back to check the tail - it's disintegrating. HICCUP (CONT'D) Stay with me buddy. We're good. Just a little bit longer. The Red Death closes the gap. Hiccup tucks in and holds Toothless steady -- allowing the monster to set its sights on them. It narrows its eyes. HICCUP (CONT'D) Hold, Toothless. The Red Death OPENS his mouth. The familiar gas HISS emanates from his throat -- ignition is coming. HICCUP (CONT'D) NOW! Hiccup HITS the PEDALS HARD as Toothless extends one wing. They PIVOT in place, hurtling directly into the Red Death's mouth. Toothless FIRES point blank down the monster's throat. Its amassing gas is ignited, BACKFIRING into the monster, erupting in a chain of blasts throughout its body. Hiccup and Toothless BURST from the clouds, the Red Death hot on their tail, exploding from within. It glances forward and sees the ground rushing up. It throws open its wings, attempting to put on the brakes, but the punctured, damaged wings can't stop its momentum. As the Red Death chokes on the expanding fireball, he sees Toothless suddenly pull out of the dive, streaking up, past its head. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 99. The Red Death HITS the ground, head-first. It EXPLODES like the Hindenburg. Hiccup and Toothless weave through the monster's massive back plates, wings, and flailing legs -- a high-speed recall of the FREE FALL slalom run. The expanding fireball races toward them, about to swallow them. They manage to clear the obstacles. Hiccup glances back. They're outrunning the fireball. He looks forward just in time to see the monster's massive club tail careening toward them. He tries to shift their direction. The last shreds of Toothless' tail tear away. Hiccup's pedals go DEAD. HICCUP (CONT'D) No. No. Hiccup and Toothless can't maneuver - they're dead in the air. The giant club tail CLIPS Toothless, TEARING Hiccup from the harness and sending him tumbling against the backdrop of the fast-approaching fireball. Toothless STRUGGLES with all his might to reach the unconscious Hiccup. But the fireball swallows them both. ON THE GROUND The Vikings watch in horror as Hiccup and Toothless disappear into the boiling inferno. DISSOLVE TO: A whiteout of ash. And through it comes... STOICK Hiccup? Hiccup!? Stoick appears, searching desperately. Everything is scorched. Even the ground is smoking from the terrible heat. STOICK (CONT'D) Hiccup!? Son!? Through the ash, Stoick the motionless silhouette of Toothless. STOICK (CONT'D) (GRAVE) Hiccup. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 100. He hurries to the dragon's side. Toothless is roughed up, but conscious. His scorched saddle, however, is vacant. Stoick looks to the sky in despair. He buckles at the knees, overwhelmed by the loss. STOICK (CONT'D) Oh son...I did this... Astrid pushes through the crowd, her eyes welling up. Followed by Gobber. They flank Stoick as he kneels, slumped over. Behind them, a ring of Vikings form, keeping a respectful distance. As the dust and smoke clear, a ring of wild dragons can also be seen, gathering just behind and between the Vikings. Toothless stirs and groggily rolls his head toward Stoick. Their eyes meet. STOICK (CONT'D) I'm so sorry... Toothless unfolds his wings, revealing Hiccup, unconscious, clutched safely against his chest. Stoick's eyes widen. STOICK (CONT'D) Hiccup. He scoops Hiccup into his arms. Listens to his heart. Bursts into relieved laughter. STOICK (CONT'D) He's alive! (TO TOOTHLESS) You brought him back alive! The crowd roars. Followed by the dragons. The Vikings look around to find themselves surrounded. Stoick leans close to Toothless, meeting him eye to eye. STOICK (CONT'D) (PRIVATELY) Thank you... for saving my son. Gobber looks Hiccup up and down. GOBBER Well, you know... most of him. Stoick glances back at him. Gobber shrugs, redirecting his eyes toward... "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 101. INT. STOICK'S HOUSE - DAY CLOSE ON HICCUP, asleep, his head on a pillow. Healing scars on his face show that maybe a week or two have passed. Toothless hovers over him, WHINING and GRUMBLING impatiently. Hiccup stirs. Opens his eyes. HICCUP (GROGGY) Oh, hey Toothless. Toothless excitedly nuzzles and nudges Hiccup. HICCUP (CONT'D) Okay, okay! I'm happy to see you too, bud. Now just-- Toothless steps on his groin, causing Hiccup to sit BOLT UPRIGHT with a YELP. He looks around, confounded. He's in his bed, moved beside the fire pit on the main floor of his house. HICCUP (CONT'D) I'm in my house. (re: Toothless, leaning over him, excited) You're in my house. Toothless TEARS around the room, knocking things over, far too big for the space. HICCUP (CONT'D) Uh...does my dad know you're in here?! Toothless pauses at the foot of the bed, tongue wagging. He eyes the rafters... and LEAPS UP onto them, brimming with 'happy dog' energy. HICCUP (CONT'D) (DISTRESSED) Okay, okay -- no Toothless! Aw, come on... Hiccup shifts to get out of bed... then pauses... sensing that something is wrong. He peels back the covers slowly. What he sees startles, horrifies, and overwhelms him -- all at once. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 102. ON THE BARE FLOOR His booted foot touches down. Followed by a mechanical prosthetic in place of his second leg. It's an ingenious spring-loaded replacement, made of wood and iron. Toothless lands by the bed and approaches calmly, sniffing the new leg. He raises his eyes to meet Hiccup's, seemingly aware of what Hiccup is going through. Hiccup braces himself on the bedpost and tries to stand on it. He winces and stifles the pain... HICCUP (CONT'D) Okay...okay... ... but STUMBLES with the first step. Toothless catches Hiccup's fall with his head... and slowly lifts him up, stabilizing him. HICCUP (CONT'D) Thanks bud. Hiccup leans on him like a crutch. They take a few steps together. Their missing parts form a poetic silhouette as they make their way toward the door. Hiccup pries it open (as he did in the opening scene), revealing a MONSTROUS NIGHTMARE flapping outside the door. Hiccup YELPS and slams the door closed. He turns to Toothless, alarmed. HICCUP (CONT'D) Toothless? Stay here, bud. Hiccup pauses... and cracks the door open again. He peeks outside, his eyes widening. He allows to door to swing open, revealing... ... the Monstrous Nightmare, carrying Snotlout on its back. SNOTLOUT Come on guys, get ready! Hold on tight! Here we go! A class of newbie dragon riders follow him through frame on a variety of dragons, pulling back the curtain on an amazing vista in which: "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 103. Vikings and dragons mill about by the dozen, basking on the rooftops, weaving along the plaza. No one seems upset, there isn't a sword in sight. Under the framework of a MASSIVE BARN, a Nadder BLASTS fire onto a metal brace. It steps back to let a Viking hammer it into shape. Nearby, a Gronkle lands, carrying a tree trunk in his mouth. He shows a Viking what he's found. The Viking pats his head. Another Viking backs a Zippleback into a stall to check it for size. Hiccup takes a step outside, finding Stoick waiting for him on the step. HICCUP I knew it. I'm dead. Stoick laughs. STOICK No, but you gave it your best shot. He puts his arm around Hiccup, steadying him. He gestures to the transformed village. STOICK (CONT'D) So? What do you think? Hiccup just shrugs, amazed. Below, the plaza, villagers take notice. VIKING #1 Hey look! It's Hiccup! They rush over, surrounding him with a hero's welcome. VIKING #2 Hiccup, how you doin' mate? VIKING #3 It's great to see you up and about. STOICK (SWEETLY) Turns out all we needed was a little more of... (GESTURES NON-SPECIFICALLY AT HICCUP) ... this. HICCUP (PLAYING ALONG) You just gestured to all of me. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 104. GOBBER (O.S.) Well. Most of you. Gobber pushes through the crowd, beaming proudly. GOBBER (CONT'D) (re: the prosthetic leg) That bit's my handiwork. With a little Hiccup flare thrown in. Think it'll do? HICCUP (bittersweet, coming to TERMS) I might make a few tweaks. Astrid appears and jabs Hiccup in the arm. Hiccup recoils with a grumble. ASTRID That's for scaring me. HICCUP (PROTESTING) What, is it always going to be this way? Cause I... She grabs him aggressively... then kisses him. Hoots and hollers follow. HICCUP (CONT'D) ... could get used to it. Gobber presents Hiccup with a rebuilt saddle, rigging, and tail. GOBBER Welcome home. Suddenly, Toothless pounces on the crowd, crushing several unsuspecting Vikings under his weight. VIKING Night Fury, get down! Toothless eyes the new tail excitedly, tongue wagging. Amidst the groans and grumbles, Hiccup and Astrid exchange a sheepish grin. CLOSE ON CLOSE ON Hiccup's prosthetic foot, snapping into the modified stirrup. "Dragon" DeBlois/Sanders Final Draft (Rev.19) 02-13-2010 105. The two pieces click together, forming a single shape. Astride Toothless, he's whole again. He rotates the pedal. The new tail opens. Bright red with a skull and Viking horns emblazoned on it. Hiccup approves. CUT BACK TO REVEAL... Hiccup and Toothless, saddled up and ready to fly. Astrid backs her Nadder into position. HICCUP (TO TOOTHLESS) You ready? Toothless SNORTS an excited 'yes!' From his mount, Hiccup looks out over the changed world. HICCUP (V.O.) (CONT'D) This... is Berk. (BEAT) It snows nine months of the year... and hails the other three. They LEAP into the bright blue sky, together as one. Astrid follows, giving chase. HICCUP (CONT'D) Any food that grows here is tough and tasteless. The people that grow here are even more so. Hiccup and Astrid race their dragons through the village -- under eaves, over rooftops, down cliff-sides, and between ship masts. It's a high energy, romantic dance of sorts. HICCUP (V.O.) (CONT'D) The only upsides are the pets. While other places have...ponies or parrots, we have... Their fellow recruits join them as they take to the open sky, rocketing far above the village. The Northern sky swirls with blazing, multicolored dragons. Hiccup and Toothless break from the pack, spinning into the blinding sun. HICCUP (V.O.) (CONT'D) (PROUDLY) ... dragons. FADE TO WHITE \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Hudson Hawk.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hudson Hawk.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c4ebff2a27d302af4e4f9a9e4d5ca3f8a8b5ed11 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hudson Hawk.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +HUDSON HAWK Screenplay by Steven E. de Souza Revisions by Dan Waters Based on an original idea by Bruce Willis & Robert Kraft A Silver Pictures/Flying Heart Films June 14, 1990 Production NOTE: THE HARD COPY OF THIS SCRIPT CONTAINED SCENE NUMBERS AND SOME "SCENE OMITTED" SLUGS. THEY HAVE BEEN REMOVED FOR THIS SOFT COPY. FADE IN: EXT. VINCI COUNTRYSIDE - RENAISSANCE - DAY Beneath a jawdroppingly storybook castle, a small Renaissance Fair with florid awnings, demented ACROBATS and roaring puppets is unfolding. RUSTIC FARMERS and their families rumble with enjoyment at the Sabbath afternoon entertainment. Encircled by children, A JUGGLER WITH AN UNFORGETTABLY ETCHED FACE elegantly plucks the red balls from a pouch on his mule. As he begins to juggle, a LOUD EXPLOSION is heard, causing him to ungracefully drop his balls and collapse in a heap. Everyone at the fair, including the puppets, looks up. UNFORGETTABLE JUGGLER Leonardo, che pazzo. The juggler shakes his fist up to a swish pan that swings up toward a smoking window of the awesome castle... INT. ROOM OF THE GOLD MACHINE where the charismatic LEONARDO DA VINCI laughs down at him. Da Vinci wears a pair of very early, very cool sun- glasses with his trademark beard. He turns and loses his smile, something extraordinary reflecting off his glasses. Removing his shades, Da Vinci moves to the Something, a gloriously incredible machine. The opening CREDITS REVEAL its dazzling idio- syncrasies. TWO COUGHING APPRENTICES haplessly try to disperse smoke from the still billowing, mysteriously spectacular Machine. Mirrors attached to parts of it reflect beams of light which cut through the smoke like a Renaissance laser show. DA VINCI (silencing authority) Basta vapore. The apprentice throws a lever. A shunt near the furnace turns. Steam escapes upwards. The machine immediately slows down. Da Vinci oh-so-gently coughs and moves for- ward with tongs. A LITTLE TROUGH - IN THE MACHINE'S INNARDS comes to a trembling, mystical halt. Right behind this trough is a CONPLEX POLYHEDRON CRYSTAL as intricately modulated as any Rubik stocking stuffer, but much more dazzling in beauty. It gleams like a jewel in the yellow glow which pours from a PLEASANTLY GRINNING DEMONHEAD into a trough--a glow of heat--and something more than heat. The tongs enter the frame. Da Vinci brings the object closer to his face. A murmur goes up from the awestruck apprentices as the Master peers at the smoking yellow bar. APPRENTICE TWO Maestro, che meraviglia! APPRENTICE THREE Lei e' proprio fantastico! Da Vinci's pride goes dead as the implications hit. DA VINCI Lasciatemi, solo. Solo! The apprentices scurry out. Mind reeling, Da Vinci turns his back to the viewer, before a wall of frescoes. DA VINCI L'ho fatto. Spinning back around, using the edge of his cloak, Da Vinci pulls out the large gleaming crystal with a pop. INT. DA VINCI'S WORKSHOP With an accompanying blast of smoke, Da Vinci bursts through some double doors into his workshop, sadly reflecting upon the crystal in one hand and the tonged bar in the other. His workshop is a spendiferously enigmatic blend of laboratory and studio; On a table in the foreground is a fresh clay equestrian statue; a large VOLUME of sketches, the inkwell nearby; a MODEL of what looks like a HELICOPTER; Da Vinci flings the tonged bar on the table among these goodies. Pocketing the crystal, Da Vinci meanders through his work- shop casually tinkering with various experiments. He snaps his fingers at a BATHING SUITED APPRENTICE, wearing a diving helmet prototype. The Apprentice jumps into a pool of water. Leonardo next stops at an easel displaying a finished- except-for-the-mouth portrait of Mona Lisa, who happens to be seated in a stool before the easel. She broadly smiles, revealing the worst dental work of her epoch. Da Vinci shakes his head and moves out onto a EXT. CASTLE TERRACE A FLYING APPRENTICE sails past Leonardo in a bat winged glider, enthusiastically shouting. Da Vinci grins back until he touches his pocket. He pulls out the crystal and, after a beat, angrily twists it apart into two separate, geometric pieces revealing a small intricate mirror. He quickly folds the surprisingly shapable geometric pieces. Calming down, Da Vinci looks from the three components of the crystal to each of the three unfinished works on the table in his workshop. He ponders then looks back out to the Vinci vista. The bat winged glider DISSOLVES into: A HAWK who is revealed to be flying over Sing Sing prison. INT. A SING SING PRISON CELL The shadow of the hawk passes through a cell window, over the face of EDDIE HUDSON HAWKINS causing him to break out of an eye-closed trance. Before the viewer can get a good look at him, Hudson Hawk turns to an oddball version of the "Mona Lisa" that has his face and tears it off the cell back-wall. INT. PRISON BLOCK WALKWAY TWO PRISON GUARDS, One WISE and BLACK, the other YOUNG and GREEN march down a cell block. The Former is smoking a pipe which the Young Guard lights with a lighter. WISE GUARD We're losing our biggest celebrity today. YOUNG GUARD You're kidding, Petey the Paint Thinner Killer is getting paroled? WISE GUARD Not that slime, you Fizzhead. Hudson Hawk. The last of the great cat burglars. INT. PRISON CELL WALL A hand tears down a picture of a happy Hudson Hawk and a LITTLE MONKEY, identically dressed in black cat burglar gear. THE BLOCK The Wise Guard and the Young Guard rumble forward. WISE GUARD As a thief, Hawk was a poem. Iambic fucking pentameter. You know, Crime used to have a little class. A hundred reporters were here when he came in, now they're probably out covering some tired crack gang war... The Guards approach Hawk's cell. Hawk, with his back turned, hefts on a nifty blazer. HAWK Remind me to fire my publicist. The Wise Guard chuckles as the Young Guard fumbles with his key-ring. YOUNG GUARD Darn, these are for L-block... Hawk's hand reaches through the bars and grabs a pipe cleaner from the Wise Guard's pocket. Then the lighter from the Young Guard's pocket--BURNS OFF the fabric fuzz with the lighter beside it--bends the now blackened wire--and with a quick turn of the wrist uses it to UNLOCK the door. YOUNG GUARD - go back down to security and- He stops, dumbfounded, as the door clunks open. The Guards double-take as Hawk, finally in full view, struts past them, down the hall. The Guards hustle to catch up. The wise guard puts his finger in the air and sarcastically pretends to be stung by the heat emanating from Hawk. WISE GUARD Guess this means, Hawk, you'll be able to let yourself back in... HAWK Never happen. Bet. Ten bucks. Hawk and the Wise Guard hit fists, half-smiling. Hawk unfolds the painting. HAWK Oh, give this back to Petey in A block. Tell him it was a sweet gift, but I think he got some wrong ideas about our friendship. YOUNG GUARD The Paint Thinner Killer did this? I think you picked a good day to get out... The trio comes to the final checkpoint. Hawk takes a deep breath. WISE GUARD Hope I lose the bet. Have that cappuccino on me. HAWK (flipping him the pipe cleaner) You got it. A double. EXT. OUTSIDE THE PRISON--DAY Hawk strides to the Massive Sliding Concrete Door/Wall between him and freedom. As music crescendos and Hawk glows his first smile, the door opens to reveal two Mafioso brothers, CESAR and ANTONY MARIO, the latter sitting upon the hood of a tinted window Lincoln Continental. Cesar is of cool, hair-slicked-back attitude, his scumbag brother is not. ANTONY Welcome back, buddy ol' pal. We've got a proposition... HAWK Answer's no, not even if you bathe. Cesar Mario, Antony Mario, how's the "Family?" Kill any monkeys lately? CESAR How many times do I have to say it? I didn't put the hit on Little Eddie... Never had anything against that kooky chimp. I actually found him, "endearing." HAWK Sure. Face down. Two endearing shots to the back of the head. That's your mark, man. What did Little Eddie ever do to... Smouldering, Hawk struts off. Cesar takes a black canvas bag from a SCARFACED DRIVER and hustles up to Hawk. The Lincoln rumbles behind them, Antony riding on the hood. CESAR You're hitting Rutherford's Auction House. Easy as my brother's wife. Directions are in the bag. Just open the seventh floor safe and take out the thingie... HAWK Or you cut off my thingie. Directions even your brother would understand. ANTONY (defensively) Yeah, directions even I could understand. The car squeals to a stop. Antony bounds off. Cesar shove-throws the canvas bag into Hawk's unwilling hands. CESAR Hawk, you're a great thief. Got set up, did some time, nothing to be ashamed of. Don't give me a sonata about you always just really wanted to settle down, open a hardware Store and sell spatulas... HAWK If the Mario brothers weren't Jersey's third largest family, I'd say kiss my ass. But considering your status, I'll say slurp my butt. Hawk fiercely push-shoves the canvas bag back into Cesar's hands. CESAR What's your favorite sport, Hawk? HAWK Baseball, why? Antony opens the back door of the Lincoln and says "Baseball." He is handed a baseball bat. Hawk backs up as Antony moves threateningly toward him. HAWK I meant, ping pong. Listen, I'd rather go back in than whore for you... (stopping) Oh, I need to borrow ten dollars. A PRISON GUARD from above turns as not to be a witness. Hawk feebly calls up to him. HAWK Help? Police? Antony swings at Hawk, who pretends not to notice until the last second. Hawk ducks and slam-kicks his calf. Antony crumples, using the bat as a crutch. Hawk boots up the bat for a two-handed catch then savagely pivots it across Antony's face, knocking him into the backseat of the car. CESAR (unfazed) You need some time to think. That's cool, but next time, I'm not going to say "Please." Cesar floats into the backseat. The Lincoln takes off. Hawk seethes... HAWK I don't believe this. I've been out forty seconds... A BACKFIRE rings out. Hawk hits the ground, thinking it is a gunshot. HAWK'S ON THE GROUND P.O.V. A gasping 1960 Caddy comes to a stop and a pair of a too- fancy-to-be-tasteful shoes comes out. Hawk looks up to see ALEX MESSINA, his older, maybe-maybe-not-wiser best friend. ALEX That's the first thing I did. Smooch the ground and taste the freedom. Sorry I was late. Miss anything? HAWK (getting up) Your timing, and your shoes, are impeccable... Good to see you, Alex, been having a lousy day. ALEX Lousy day? The man's getting out of prison and he's having a lousy day. What, you missing out on the Cell Block Water Ballet pageant? Believe me, it's overrated. Hawk pauses to say something, then just hugs Alex. ALEX Where's the kiss? No tongue this time, I promise. A laughing Hawk gives Alex's stomach a slap before getting in the car.... HAWK Looks like you've been expanding your... ALEX Don't say it, Hawkins. I'm incredibly sensitive about my fucking figure. HAWK My next word was gonna be "consciousness." Swear to God... tubby. EXT. THE ROAD INTO HOBOKEN--DAY The Caddy thunders past a sweet Manhattan view. "Come Fly With Me" is playing on the radio. Hawk casually com- pletes an intimidating hand puzzle. HAWK That's your definition of "Hard?" ALEX Show off. Hey, boss tune. "Come Fly with Me." HAWK Three minutes, 51 seconds. ALEX Still do the puzzles, still know the running times of songs, and I'll bet you're still the best damn cat burg-- HAWK Not anymore. Now I'm the laziest damn cat burg--I'm going to take it so straight that I won't tape a Mets game without the expressed written consent of the National Baseball League. ALEX Now that you're born again,what do you wanna do? Statue of Liberty? Entertain some ladies? Miss Saigon tix? Seduce some women? Play Nintendo? Bone some chicks? HAWK Come on, Alex, let's just get to Alex's. Your bar's the only place that's going to cheer me. God, I'd kill for a damn cappuccino. What the hell's a Nintendo? ALEX Oh man, you still got a thing for those unmasculine European coffees? Who's your buddy? Alex pulls a styrofoam cup from a paper bag. HAWK The man knows, the man knows! Hawk takes off the cap with a stimulating whiff. ALEX So Mr. Coffee, what went down outside the prison? HAWK Oh, not much. Mario Brothers want me to do a job. Alex brakes and cappuccino flies. Hawk half-heartedly tries to lick up with his fingers. ALEX Those dago-guinea-I can say this shit I'm Italian-wop motherfu-- HAWK Ah, had the perfect amount of foam. Just get me to the bar... It's the one good thing in my life that'll never change.... EXT. OUTSIDE ALEX'S BAR--NIGHT The Guys move through the personably Jersey face of the bar. The Empire State Building beams in the background. Sinatra cuts off. INT. ALEX'S BAR--NIGHT It's changed. Hawk and Alex enter into what has become the ultimate pseudo-art deco-fern littered-nightmare, packed with noisy, INSUFFERABLY SELF-ABSORBED YUPS. A violently erotic and pretentious video plays upon elevated T.V. sets set up all around the place. Hawk's mouth gapes as he drifts by a sickening COUPLE toasting wine coolers, and two very YOUNG BROKERS high- fiving each other after missing a dartboard. ALEX I didn't know how to tell you. A couple brokers stopped in for Stoley Spritzers one night. Next thing I know Fast Track Digest votes us "Watering Hole of the Month." Now, I'm shopping for Aqua Salmon wallpaper. HAWK I read about these people in Newsweek. Where's all the regulars, Crazy Jeff Cava, the Todd sisters, Indian Joe? Where's Ed Kranepool's autograph? Captain Bob's steering wheel? ALEX Hey, get this irritable guy a cappuccino. I gotta go be a boss. Alex lifts a piece of the bar and moves behind it. Snatching up a menu, Hawk calls out... HAWK This is Pizza? Reindeer Goat cheese? I admit, I've been known to go wild and order a Canadian Bacon in my time, but.. Hawk lights up a cigarette. A TORTOISE SHELL NON-SMOKER immediately turns to him wearing a "Yes, I mind if you smoke" button. TORTOISE SHELL NON-SMOKER Can you read.... smoker? HAWK Can you take a sunrise and sprinkle it with dew? TORTOISE SHELL NON-SMOKER (Huh?) No. HAWK The Candy Man can, Felix. You know, I thought this was a country where you could do any stupid thing you wanted; drive to work naked, make love to a V.C.R. Guess I'm wrong. Maybe that's why I became a serial arsonist. TORTOISE SHELL NON-SMOKER Hey, it's okay, big guy. Smoke all you want. Have mine.... The Non-smoker fumbles out a pack of cigarettes and flees. A cappuccino in cup and saucer slides down the bar saloon-style. A smiling Hawk picks it up, turns away from the bar and closes his eyes, bringing the cup to his lips until a POLICE BADGE swirls into frame and splashes into the cup, splattering coffee over Hawk's blazer. GATES (O.S.) You're under arrest... Hawk makes eye contact up to a crude, coarse, and cackling island of a man, OFFICER GATES, amid the sea of oblivious and self-obsessed yuppitude, standing by a table. GATES Have a seat. Good to see you, buddy ol' pal... HAWK The pleasure's all yours, Officer Gates. BACK OF THE BAR With concern, Alex watches Hawk sit at Gates' table. GATES' TABLE Gates pillages a plate of spaghetti and meatballs with terrifying precision. Hawk tosses the badge onto the food. Gates eats around it. GATES Why do you show your parole officer such disrespect? Especially after I got you such a nice job. HAWK What job? Gates pulls up the black canvas bag and puts it on the table. GATES The auction house, asshole. One night's work and you're free like no ex-con's ever been. No checking in with a shrink, no community service teaching retards how to play air hockey. It's a great deal, I can't lie. HAWK The only thing you can't do is get sex for free. I know I was in prison for like basically the 80's, but, call me daffy, aren't you supposed to stop me from committing crimes. You know, Book-em-Dano, Call-for-backup, Give-a-Hoot-Don't-Pollute. Gates thunders out of his chair and moves around to sneer down at Hawk. Behind Gates, on the T.V. screens, are analogous images of DISGUSTING ANIMALS AND MONSTERS. GATES You wouldn't be out if it wasn't for me! I did dog and pony for you! You think they would have let you out after what you did, you told the board members they looked like the Three Stooges... HAWK How was I supposed to know they were women? Besides one of them was bald and kept saying "Soitinly." Gates simmers into his seat with a self-control smile. GATES Remember that guy in the cell next to you who hung himself? HAWK Yes. GATES Remember that shoe you lost... HAWK Uh, yeah. Cut to the chase. Gates pulls up a shoe and puts it on the table. GATES One phone call and your shoe will become a piece of evidence and that suicide'll become a murder. Hawk bobs under the table and up. HAWK What else do you got under there ... I don't want to be rude, but this is all pretty lame. GATES That's the beauty. It's bullshit, but I can make it stick because I'm a good guy parole officer and you re a bad guy who's about to find out that there's a thin line between ex-con and escape con. Alex suddenly approaches the table. ALEX How is everything tonight, sir? GATES Beat it, Alex. You're a dinosaur. HAWK Alex, did you know this ape was going to be here... ALEX Sure. That's why his meatballs are made out of marinated Chuck Wagon. GATES (mouthful) You're full of shit. As Alex speaks, an eating dog is on the screens. ALEX No, man, actually you are. Just add water and it makes its own gravy. Keeps your teeth healthy and your coat shiny. Gates grabs the shoes and races off, gagging. Hawk gets up to laugh next to Alex. Their laughter dies as they turn to look at the black canvas bag left on the table between them. INT. BACK ROOM--DAWN Hawk stares mournfully at a black and white photo of a monkey-sized chalk-outline on a city street. Behind him, Alex pulls out blueprints from the black bag. Sinatra's "Witchcraft" blares on the radio.... ALEX Hmmmm..... HAWK Yo Pandora, quit hummm-ing... look at this. Hawk is rummaging through stockpiled remnants of an old, "true" bar. Round lamps, tacky mirrors, pictures of Hawk and the Regs at the bar. Managing a weary smile, Hawk lifts a ship steering wheel, while Alex puts on a pair of granny classes and pulls out blueprints. HAWK It's Captain Bob's steering wheel! Remember when the Captain..... ALEX Hmmm, nasty little safe on the 7th. Hawk nervously picks up a Rubik's Cube and holds it behind his back. He brings it back around, completed. Sighing, Hawk drops the cube and rubs his scalp. Alex starts rubbing his stomach. They pace in pre-job syncopation and speak rapid-fire. HAWK The safe's a Simpson 71. Last time I played the game, Simpson only had a 40. ALEX Just means it'll take you an extra 31 seconds to seduce. You re still the best, I know it. HAWK But you got three guards who... Shit, what am I doing? Where's the want ads? Gonna sell some spatulas. ALEX Hey, I'm sorry, man. I'm putting out a fire with kerosene. Alex gives Hawk a consoling two-hand-shake then jumps back to reveal he has put Hawk into thumbcuffs. HAWK This isn't funny. I'm not into this. I... ALEX There goes five seconds...My record's eighteen. HAWK You're not...LISTENING! Out of annoyance, Hawk breaks out of the cuffs and violently throws them at Alex, who sits down a little wounded. HAWK I'm sorr--Goddamn Mario Brothers. Goddamn Gates. Goddamn Rutherford Auction House. By the way, how many seconds? ALEX Rutherford Auction... that name... Alex jumps up excitedly and then convulses in pain. HAWK Alex! ALEX Don't wet your diapers. I'll have to change them. "Witchcraft." What's the running time? Alex flops down behind a work table before a wallfull of drawings of different kinds of vaults. He sets himself up for an insulin injection. HAWK 3:48. I can't get you involved, man. This is my sewage and... (re drawings) God, you love all this, don't you, you bastard. Haven't you ever heard of stamp collecting, or curling? Hawk leans in and administers the shot of insulin to Alex. ALEX I'm in. Have you seen the public service announcements for Diabetes. We can ride horses, play LaCrosse, and knock off auction houses. I got a plan. You won't have to hail Cesar or Gates. Hawk collapses next to Alex, resigned to his fate. HAWK I'm a bum. EXT. NICE, BUSINESS NEIGHBORHOOD--NIGHT TWO GRUBBY DERELICTS, one pushing a shopping cart, the other inside it, situated atop the usual two Glad bags. They are drunkenly warbling "Witchcraft." IMPECCABLY DRESSED NIGHT-LIFERS give them a wide berth. Our derelicts pass beneath a MASSIVE RED CANOPY of a distinguished eight story edifice, upon which is written RUTHERFORD'S AUCTION HOUSE. A DOORMAN shoos them away... A NEWSPAPER TRUCK pulls up in front of the Auction House. The Driver pops out with a bundle of papers and moves to a Dispenser on the corner. The Bums wheel around the truck. The Driver loads the papers and bounds back. The Truck pulls away from the corner. The shopping cart rolls off--the bums nowhere to be seen. The Truck turns the corner, revealing the derelicts climbing up the back of it, with Glad bags around their necks. The Truck moves toward an enclosed Walkway Bridge that connects the Auction House with another Building. Launching low-tech grapples, the Vagrants latch them- selves onto the Walkway window as the Truck passes beneath. AT THE WINDOW The viewer's viewpoint moves into a tighter view of the dangling derelicts, revealing them to, of course, be Hawk and Alex. Getting a footing, on the small window ledge, each man cuts a hole in the window while holding onto a plunger. HAWK Whoa, you better cut a bigger hole than that. ALEX Hey, you promised......Don't worry, I'm wearing my girdle. INT. INSIDE THE WALKWAY WINDOW--NIGHT Hawk and Alex come through their window holes. Hawk immediately flattens himself against a wall, whisper- ing... HAWK Cameras? ALEX No need. Guards' station's right there. Alex points to an open doorway just down the hall where laughter and shadows emerge. Hawk tries to flee, but a grinning Alex pulls him toward it. Hawk and Alex slide across the wall to a closed room marked POWER, which is right next to the open Guards' Station. The viewer's viewpoint moves past Hawk and Alex lock-picking into the Power room to... INT. THE GUARDS' STATION Two Security Guards sit before a console of seven security screens still chuckling over an unheard joke. Wires coming out of the security console run across the floor and through the wall into... INT. THE POWER ROOM The wires go up to a row of seven humming, RECORD button flashing V.C.R.s. Hawk and Alex stand before them, sharing a cig. ALEX They record everything their video surveillance takes in... HAWK Yes, master-thief, I can see that. You said something about a plan... Alex presses the REWIND buttons on the V.C.R.'s. ALEX Am I boring you, smartass? Watch. A little rewind and re-wire action and the Guards are going to be watching a rerun and miss out on our exciting episode. Alex pulls from a nearby shelf six tapes marked MONDAY. INT. SEVENTH FLOOR AUCTION AUDITORIUM--NIGHT Moving beneath a video camera and a dazzling Set of Hanging Horse Mobiles, a Heavyset guard, BIG STAN, moseys through the dimly lit main auction house auditorium. The auditorium chairs are strewn out in the middle beside a turbo Floor Washer. Next to a painting of Happy Children Riding Horses at the back of the auditorium stage, Big Stan hefts himself upon a comparatively TINY BLUE CHAIR and begins to tip back and snooze. INT. GUARDS' STATION The Security Guards look to the seventh floor screen to see an unfolding shot of Big Stan mid-snooze. SECURITY GUARD ONE Check out Big Stan... (walkie-talkie) Big Stan! THE AUCTION AUDITORIUM Startled by his walkie-talkie, Big Stan falls back on the little chair, crunching it to the ground. THE FIRST FLOOR The laughing security guards see the crunch. INT. THE POWER ROOM Alex puts the last of the Monday tapes into a V.C.R. ALEX You got about five minutes and change. HAWK 5:32. "Swinging on a Star." ALEX You know they invented something while you were inside. Called a watch. A freight elevator pings. Hawk opens it up as the music of "Swinging on the Star" kicks in on the soundtrack. HAWK "A mule is an animal with long funny ears." ALEX "He kicks up at anything he hears. Hawk crams himself into the freight elevator with his Glad bag. Strenuously upbeat Ray Conniffesque singers continue to sing the song, orchestrally accompanied, when Hawk isn't. INT. THE FREIGHT ELEVATOR Hawk takes over the song, sardined in the elevator. HAWK "Or would you rather swing on a star, carry moonbeams home in a jar." POWER ROOM Alex goes up to a Circuit Box and pulls down two large Switches. The soundtrack singers continue to warble. THE GUARDS' STATION The lights of the floor wobble and die. The console screens blink off. The Security Guards stop laughing. SECURITY GUARD TWO Hell-o. Check the Power room, bud... Security Guard One harrumphs into a standing position... POWER ROOM Alex speedily hooks and rehooks the backs of the V.C.R.S. They now all have their PLAY buttons lit up. ALEX swing on a star, carry moonbeams... OUTSIDE THE POWER ROOM Security Guard One fishes for keys to open the power room. The soundtrack singers whisper as not to give away Alex. INSIDE THE POWER ROOM Alex briskly slams back up the switches. OUTSIDE THE POWER ROOM The singers go louder as the lights come back on. Security Guard One harrumphs and heads back to the Guards' Station. THE AUCTION AUDITORIUM Hawk scrambles out of the freight elevator in the left wall of the Auditorium, glancing to the clock. HAWK "Or would you rather be a fish?" He pulls out the black canvas bag from his Glad bag and takes out the blueprints. Hawk follows them toward the painting on-stage. THE GUARDS' STATION Big Stan comes up from behind his fellow guards, dumping the remains of the chair on the floor. BIG STAN (moving back off) Very funny. The Seventh Floor Screen shows a peaceful auction auditorium. And the Blue Chair. THE AUCTION AUDITORIUM--CAMERA P.O.V. From the exact angle, the viewer sees the current state of the room with Hawk flinging off the painting of the horseback children, revealing a safe. But no Blue chair. HAWK spits on the rubber cup of an electronic sensor, plugged into a Walkman, and affixes it to the safe above the dial. HAWK (lyric trouble) "A fish is annuh nan na nan na brook. THE FREIGHT ELEVATOR Alex is now packed into the freight elevator. ALEX "He can't write his name or read a book. To fool people is his only thought." THE AUCTION AUDITORIUM HAWK (remembering) "And though he's slippery, he still gets caught." Wearing headphones, Hawk cranks up the Walkman and spins the dial. The CLICKS from the dial are so loud he winces and turns down the volume. Then there's a CLUNK. THE GUARDS' STATION With the soundtrack singers taking over, Guard Two sips a cup of coffee. He doesn't swallow. His sights zero in on the Blue Chair on the seventh screen. He looks to the chair remains, then back again. SECURITY GUARD TWO Uh, Jerry. I'm looking at the seventh floor and I don't know how to say this, I see the Blue Chair. SECURITY GUARD ONE What the... You think that's weird, check out screen two..... Screen Two shows THE TWO SECURITY GUARDS THEMSELVES hatching open some on-duty beers, going down a hall. Guard Two looks to the empties atop the console.... SECURITY GUARD TWO Somebody rewired the recorders! AUCTION AUDITORIUM Hawk ditches his accessories and swings the safe door open. Inside the safe, along with the "holy" Da Vinci music cue, is the clay equestrian model from Leonardo's worktable. Hawk belts out as he put it in the black canvas bag. HAWK "And all the monkeys aren't in the zoo." ALEX (V.O.) "Every day you meet quite a few." Alex gives Hawk a congratulatory pat. HAWK AND ALEX "So you see it's all up to you. You can be better than you are. You could be swinging on a star." THE AUCTION ROOM BIG STAN reconnects the wires of the seventh V.C.R. THE GUARDS' STATION Suddenly, on the seventh screen, the image and voices of Hawk and Alex in-process comes on. SECURITY GUARD ONE Shit, let's roll! THE AUCTION AUDITORIUM Hawk puts the painting back up, but stops to stare at the playful children. ALEX The song's over! Come on! "You could be swinging on a star." HAWK What am I doing here? There are so many things I wanna do that aren't this. Paint a lighthouse. Kiss a woman in Italy. ALEX (more frantically) "You could be swinging on a star." HAWK Paint a woman in a lighthou--I don't want to steal a horse. Life is... Hawk's soliloquy is cut short as Security Guards One and Two crash into the auction auditorium. ALEX (DEADPAN) "You could be swinging on a star." You couldn't have waited to see a psychiatrist. No, you had... Alex whips his chair at the floor washer, tipping it forward and causing its electrical cord to pull up and trip the Guards into a bellyflop. Hawk bolts right at the bustling up guards and locks them into Alex's thumbcuffs. He then limbos under their connected arms and springs over the outstretched washer cord. The Security Guards clumsily turn and re-trip themselves. HAWK Let's go down the freight elevator. Big Stan suddenly unhatches from the freight elevator. ALEX Keep those ideas coming. Hawk and Alex run toward an office located at the right wall. They both do a Gene-Kellyesque-chair-tip-over before simultaneously bashing through the office door. INT. DARKENED AUCTION AUDITORIUM OFFICE Hawk and Alex stop in the office to painfully laugh and rub their funny bones. Alex stops laughing. ALEX I'm not as unpleasantly plump as that Guard am I. Big Stan fires off a warning shot. Hawk and Alex quickly tear up a window. Moving out on to a ledge, Hawk and Alex look down to the huge auction house awning and trade gulps. Big Stan wobbles into the mouth of the office door. HAWK AND ALEX I got a bad feeling.... HAWK I can't even swim. ALEX Hell, the fall'll probably kill ya... Big Stan raises his gun. Hawk and Alex jump and AAAGH down the face of the building.... Closer and closer to the awning.... The viewer focuses upon Hawk as he free-falls...... CUT TO: RIGHT INTO A LAZ-Y-BOY CHAIR Hawk continues his "fall" into a ridiculously huge reclining chair. The foot stand swooshes out with a thump. A HAND pulls away the canvas bag with a cackle. INT. GATES APARTMENT--LATE NIGHT Hawk's weirdly reclining viewpoint makes Gates and his pad more grotesque than they are (No small feat.) A sub-Radio Shack stereo coughs next to a scary punch bowl of red, margarita-like substance, beneath the instantly recognizable framed picture of Those Dogs Playing Poker, all atop a Jungle Shag. Gates, in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt-over-a-KEEP ON TRUCKIN'-T-shirt, raises a loud tumbler with one hand, the black canvas bag in the other. GATES Hudson Hawkins gets the chair of honor. How about a Gates-arita? (toward bowl) I used real hot dogs. HAWK Weren't you the bartender at Jonestown? Suddenly a light is turned on in the corner, revealing a seated Cesar and Antony Mario, the latter taking a painful Gatesirita sip. CESAR Good job, not pretty, but good. HAWK Ah, the mafia, the cops; do I know how to party or what? Gates pulls out the horse and looks at it. GATES All this trouble for a horsey. I may not know art, but I know what I like. HAWK (to Dog picture) You certainly do. GATES So when's that Sebastian-Cabot- Buckingham-Palace-looking- Butlerhead getting here? ALFRED Any minute now, dear Mr. Gates. A malevolently snobbish British Butler, ALFRED, enters in distaste. He makes a stressful glance to three VANITY FAIRS on a coffeetable that has a photo of a MAGNETIC HUSBAND-WIFE-DOG COMBO with the caption: MAYFLOWER POWER. Hawk notices this. GATES Oh, sorry Jeeves. Gates-arita? ALFRED I'll pass. May I? Alfred takes the equestrian model and with a jeweler's loupe, studies it carefully. ALFRED Ah, such craftsmanship. Leonardo Da Vinci's last commission for the Duke of Milan. Irreplaceable. GATES Hey, Mr. French, I'm delirious for you. Now where's my cut? With dignity, Alfred SMASHES the ancient horse over Gates's head. Alfred rummages through the debris REVEALING a perversely labyrinthine CRYSTAL PIECE. (recognizable from Da Vinci's workshop). GATES You son-of-a......I don't believe this! You come into my house! Alfred pockets the goodies, but not before Hawk can give them a confused peruse. GATES I ought to take Big Ben and shove it up your limey blimey bunghole! A blade slides down Alfred's arm. Half-yawning, he... ALFRED'S 180 DEGREE POV spins before Gates and the bystanders behind him. THE BLADE goes back up Alfred's arm. The room's only sound is the stereo's inappropriate music. Gates shrugs but his voice is off. GATES Like I said. Where's my cu-u-... Suddenly a line across Gates's neck turns red and blood begins to gush like a tourist attraction. Gates crashes down upon the table holding the punch bowl and the stereo, sending it to the ground, cutting off the music. The Dog Poker picture falls atop the carnage like a lid. Blown away, Hawk tries to wiggle his way out of the recliner. Alfred pats some stain remover on the blood on his shirt. ALFRED So much for his "cut." (post-chortle) Excuse my dry British humor. CESAR (rising) Lovely work, Alfred, taking the Concorde back? ALFRED Indeed I am, Mr. Mario. I'm really racking up those frequent flyer points... HAWK I hate to interrrupt you two lovebirds... ANTONY You know, I think Gates promised Hawk a cut, too.... The Mario brothers cackle out. Hawk tries to flail out of his chair. Alfred turns to him and flicks up his arm. Hawk sees his life pass before his eyes until he realizes Alfred is merely pulling him up off the chair. ALFRED Ta ta, Hudson Hawk. HAWK (breathless) Too-do-loo, babe. INT. ALEX'S RESTAURANT--DAWN Hawk bursts into the bar. Alex sits on a stool, reading the paper. ALEX Did I miss anything? HAWK Oh, not much. Gates just had his tonsils taken out. The hard way. ALEX Geez, Gates was killed. Who do we send the thank you note to? Hawk does a combat jump over the bar and begins to fiddle with the cappuccino machine. HAWK The Butler did it. Guy was a cross between Alistair Cook and a Cuisinart. Dude took Mr. Ed and humptied dumptied it over Gates's head. He said it was made by, get this, Leonardo.. ALEX (professorial) Ah yes, a rare Renaissance piece. Da Vinci's "Sforza," an equestrian model of a never executed statue. I consider it to be the prize of tonight's auction of objets d'equestrian. Horse things. The cappuccino machine sparks. A perplexed Hawk takes a couple extra seconds to back off. HAWK Okay, you got me, Mr. PBS. ALEX (holding up newspaper) Morning edition. Seems two thieves "attempted" to steal it last night, but thanks to three "courageous" guards, it will be ready for tonight. HAWK "Attempted." At-tempt-ted! I'm not happy about having to steal that horse, but I do have my pride. Face it, when it comes to burglary, and sex, I.... Hawk takes the newspaper. There is a picture of the Three Security Guards in a cheery pose behind the "Sforza." Hawk squints to see that Security Guards One and Two are still wearing the thumbcuffs. HAWK Boing. Uh, this I don t understand... ALEX Why try? HAWK (hurdling the bar) Because I'm tired of not understanding things. Cops, Mafia, and butlers forcing me to bust my ass to steal something, which it turns out I really didn't steal--it's fucked up. ALEX (pulling back newspaper) You re not thinking of going to... HAWK Alex, my man, it's time to play a little offense. Where's your tux? INT. RUTHERFORD'S AUCTION HOUSE--NIGHT Dressed in a not-quite-fitting but suave tuxedo, Hawk enters the now well-lit auction house auditorium (chairs all set out). Bored WORKMEN in coveralls lug equestrian items on to a podium from the familiar freight elevator. ECCENTRIC BALD AUCTIONEER ...fan-taas-tic example of Florentine marble... Who will start at 160,000...160,000......180,000. Someone raises their paddle as Hawk passes beneath the hanging horses and finds an aisle seat near the stage. Hawk scans everyone in the room before coming to the one seated next to him, AN ENCHANTINGLY BEAUTIFUL WOMAN. HAWK All these years of attending auctions, I still get goosebumps. The paintings, the sculptures....the things that aren't really paintings or sculptures... THE WOMAN .... the pretentious vultures who don't even look up from their calculators to see what they're buying. Now that gives me goosebumps. Auctions are disgusting. HAWK I couldn't agree more. Savages. The Woman laughs at his gear switch then catches herself. ECCENTRIC BALD AUCTIONEER Lot Fifteen, an equestrian sconce attributed to the Cellini school.. AUCTION ENTRANCE Big Stan, the hefty guard from the heist, enters the area wearing a blue ribbon. AUCTION AREA Big Stan is walking in back of the seated bidders: An oblivious Hawk in the foreground starts to scan VARIED BIDDER-TYPES, raising their paddles to babble out dollar figures; a GAUDY ROCK STAR and his GLOOMY-CHIC ENTOURAGE, A KING FAROUK-TYPE with a BORED TEENAGE AMERICAN HOOKER, and a scary NORDIC PRINCESS in a monocle and a tiara. THREE STANDING ASSISTANTS frantically man a table of phones set up down before the stage. One raises his arm. ECCENTRIC BALD AUCTIONEER Sold! To the caller from Newfoundland. A STYLISH FEMALE ASSISTANT takes out an impressive replica of the "Sforza" from the safe behind the podium and brings it to the Auctioneer. The crowd a-a-hs... Hawk laughs and shakes his head. ECCENTRIC BALD AUTIONEER And finally, Lot number 17, thought to be lost in the war, and again last night, the Da Vinci "Sforza," the jewel of the sale. Fan-taas-tic... HAWK (re: Auctioneer) Is looking like a constipated warthog a prerequisite to getting a job in the art world? ECCENTRIC BALD AUCTIONEER There have naturally been questions of its authenticity, so to verify we have Doctor Anna Baragli of the Vatican. Doc? ANNA (rising, to Hawk) Some of us warthogs are more constipated than others. Hawk uneasily laughs as Anna makes her way up the stage and pulls out a large magnifying glass. A look of distress passes over her face. Hawk closes his eyes in anticipation. HAWK Oh, the shit is going to hit the fa-- ANNA (suddenly serene) Fantastic. Perfection. The Vatican extends its jealousy to the lucky bidder. ECCENTRIC BALD AUCTIONEER We'll begin the bidding at 82.5 million dollars. To you, sir. Eighty-three, Ninety--your bid, madame--Ninety point five..... Hawk opens his eyes in confusion. He scans Anna coming off the stage, gliding toward the phone table. Hawk floats into the aisle, curling toward her as she picks up a phone and murmurs into it. DARWIN MAYFLOWER lOO million clams, Francesco! The crowd orgasms as Vanity Fair cover boy, DARWIN MAYFLOWER works the aisle, playfully mussing up the appreciative, tiaraed Princess's hair, giddily high- fiving the Rock Star, and sloppily frenching the Hooker. ECCENTRIC BALD AUCTIONEER 100 million dollars to Mr. Darwin Mayflower. Hawk turns to gaze at the enigmatically familiar figure. Anna looks up from the phone to do the same. She swerves her attention to the back-turned Hawk. Darwin moves to one of two reserved empty seats as his wife, Minerva, makes her entrance par excellahnce. She is outrageously dressed with a mammoth Tiffany watch that extends from her wrist down to, acting as a leash, her obnoxious little dog, BUNNY. MINERVA Francesco, 100 million and one. Darwin, to the crowd's delight, holds his struck heart. DARWIN Outbid by my own wench, quelle bummere. MINERVA Poor baby..... Here, Bunny. ECCENTRIC BALD AUCTIONEER Fan-taas-tic, the bid is at 100 million and one dollars. Commencing a slow motion sequence, Big Stan comes out of the nearby office, zipping up his fly. He immedi- ately scopes Hawk in the space before the stage. The Mayflowers lower themselves into their seats with devoured canary smiles. ECCENTRIC BALD AUCTIONEER Go-ing! Big Stan pulls out his gun, untheatrically, as not to cause a scene. Anna sees this and follows Big Stan's eyeline to Hawk. Hawk turns to re-pursue but stops dead at the sight of the gloating Big Stan. ECCENTRIC BALD AUCTIONEER Go-ing! Big Stan launches a gallop toward Hawk, who spins and veers back round up the aisle. The Mayflowers zero their sights on the activity. ECCENTRIC BALD AUCTIONEER Gone! The gavel comes down in super slow-motion. Anna's leg pokes out of the aisle, tripping the guard. Hawk brakes at the end of the Mayflower's row and smiles in relief, casually turning to Darwin and Minerva. The gavel continues to come down in super slow-motion. Both Darwin and Minerva Mayflower suddenly DUCK DOWN. Smile vanishing, Hawk spins toward the stage. The Gavel hits. Breaking out of slow-motion into wide-angle, the entire podium explodes sending debris, equestrian pieces, and eccentric bald pieces searing into the screaming, battered crowd. Knocked off his feet, Hawk gropes into a standing position. He sees the Mayflowers make a smooth exit. He starts to give chase until he sees a battered Anna rising from the ground. A hanging white Tri-Star Pegasus, cracks from the damaged ceiling and swooshes down towards Anna. Hawk bolts upon some auction chairs and makes a flying leap. He slams Anna out of the Pegasus's pulverizing Path. They weary up off the ground and move down the aisle, calm in a storm of packed art patrons. ANNA My God, that was bold of you, you didn't have to do that... HAWK Forget about it--it was nothing-- anybody would have done the same thing--It's an impulse... ANNA No, I meant you didn't have to tackle me and rip my dress. A polite push, perhaps? A clear shout of "watch out, Anna" would have done nicely... HAWK Excuse me, Milady. I would have flown over and carried you up to a pink cloud, but I left my cape at the cleaners. Anna touches Hawk's lips and laughs. ANNA ("Hey, I was kidding") Thanks tough guy, thanks a lot. Why was the guard chasing you? HAWK (Serious answer? Na-a-h?) Because Danger, Doc, is my middle... Before Hawk can finish, a hanging horse out of nowhere hammers him into the ground and the viewer into darkness. FADE IN: INT. VAN-TYPE AMBULANCE--NIGHT Hawk stirs into consciousness strapped on an elevated gurney. HAWK Saint Pete, hey I know, the whole cat burglar thing, it sounds bad, but I'll take the worst cloud you got... Hawk's eyes focus. The Mario Brothers hover over him. CESAR News flash. You're not in heaven. Yet. 30 seconds and counting, if you know what I'm saying. Couldn't just play along, could you... EXT. THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE--NIGHT The ambulance careens onto the Brooklyn Bridge. INT. INSIDE THE AMBULANCE Antony raises up a mammoth gun. HAWK Pretty class way of covering your tracks. I think that auctioneer landed at La Guardia. ANTONY Subtlety was never one of our strong points. HAWK Neither's flossing. A confused Antony touches his teeth with his gun hand. Hawk escapes from one of his straps and launces a nearby trayful of syringes into Antony's face where they ghoul- ishly quiver. Antony fires a wild shot, shattering the partition. FRONT SEAT OF THE AMBULANCE The Scarfaced Bodyguard/Driver, now in paramedic white, freaks at the starred windshield. THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE The ambulance bumper-pools off some innocent cars. INSIDE THE AMBULANCE Hawk frantically tries to undo his other strap but a howling Cesar, side-stepping his vibrating-on-the-floor brother, latches onto the back of the gurney and wrenches it backward. OUTSIDE BACK OF AMBULANCE The elevated gurney blasts out the back with a now unstrapped but terrified Hawk whoa-a-ing atop it. The gurney wheels hit the road, sparking. A sheet from the gurney, caught on the door, yanks TAUGHT --Hawk is "water skiing" on his stomach atop the elevated gurney! Screeching cars are weirded out by the new vehicle on the road. THE GURNEY Battered by wind and fear, Hawk clutches to the gurney and the sheet with a grit teeth stoneface. The sheet is torn from the gurney sending it rocketing off to the side on its own crazed volition. Hawk skis toward a TOLL BOOTH WITH A LARGE GATE-ARM. HAWK Life don't get much better than this. He then sees he's heading toward an EXACT CHANGE lane. Whizzing wildly forward on the gurney, Hawk scrambles into his pocket and wiggles out some change. He fran- tically winnows out some pennies and then maniacally FLINGS the change from twenty feet away. TOLL BOOTH The change ker-chunks into the basket and Hawk and the gurney JUST BARELY streak underneath the rising Gate-arm. EXT. THE AMBULANCE CRASHES through a gate-arm of another lane. Hawk and the still-wildly whooshing gurney cut it off. FRONT SEAT OF THE AMBULANCE Cesar pops his head through the partition. CESAR Make him into Roadkill! Antony, seemingly oblivious to the syringes porcupined in his skull, pokes his head next to Cesar's. ANTONY Yeah, run him down! Cesar and the Bodyguard/Driver turn to Antony and scream, then all three look out the windshield and scream. THE AMBULANCE jackknifes over a stopped car and somersaults into a fiery ball. In the foreground, Hawk's gurney coasts down A PEACEFUL OFF-ROAD Hawk, with an unchanged expression of pure white knuckle fear, comes to a tranquil gurney-wheels-gently-squeaking stop. Lit by the flames of the ambulance crash, a sneering young man in wire rim glasses emerges from the darkness, carrying a steel suitcase. He kneels before Hawk and opens the suitcase revealing a complex computer appara- tus. He begins mumbling into a cellular phone. A malevolent, SILENT DEADPAN WRAITH passes him and approaches Hawk. Both men are dressed in outfits that seem to be a melange of fascist uniform and haute couture. On the fingers of one Wraith hand is carved the word HATE. On the other hand is the word FROG. The Frog Hand hands a befuddled Hawk a card. It reads: MY NAME IS KIT KAT AND THIS IS NOT A DREAM. Hawk looks up with a "huh" expression as Kit Kat chops his neck, knocking him off the gurney. The sneering computer guy hangs up his phone and pulls forward a small cattle prod from his apparatus. HAWK This is the worst night... SNICKERS When it rains, it pours. Name's Snickers. The plane leaves in 40. Snickers zaps Hawk in the leg with his device. Hawk a- a-ghs into a kneeling position. Snickers returns to his suitcase and is passed by a PLEASANT YOUNG BLACK WOMAN in the "outfit." ALMOND JOY Almond Joy. I know, pretty silly. But it's better than when we first started out, our code names were Diseases. You don't know what it's like being called Clymidia for a year. (walking off) Whoops, forgot.... She deftly kicks Hawk across the face. Hawk angrily bounds back up until he sees the BIGGEST MEMBER OF THE GROUP Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum his way toward them. Suddenly, the Giant clumsily trips over Snickers' suitcase apparatus and ram-collapses into Hawk and the gurney. Laying atop Hawk, Butterfinger goofily speaks... BUTTERFINGER My name's Butterfinger. HAWK No shit. The mysterious group parts to reveal a much more mature and cynically subdued man dressed in big lapels and a hat that screams Old Time CIA. His name will be GEORGE KAPLAN. KAPLAN Don't you just hate kids... ALMOND JOY George, you promised. No Old CIA/ New CIA jokes... KAPLAN I call them the MTV.I.A. Punks think Bay of Pigs is an herbal tea. They think the Cold War involves penguins and... HAWK Don't I know you... KAPLAN You just might. I'm the guy who tricked you into robbing a government installation and then had you sent to prison for it. At the time, I was bald with a beard, no moustache, and I had a different nose, so if you don't recognize me, I won't be offended. HAWK Bastard, you're going to need another nose! Hawk explodes upward. Everyone but cool Kaplan draws a gun. HAWK But I'm not the type of guy to hold a grudge. KAPLAN I used you as a diversion. while you were getting captured upstairs, I was shredding documents in the basement. Deep down, I guess I was just jealous. You were one incredible thief... HAWK To what do I owe the dishonor of a reunion, you centrally intelligent scumsicle. As Kaplan converses, Snickers and Butterfinger bring out a mammoth empty suitcase and open it behind Hawk. KAPLAN I Want to make things up to you. That's why I got you this gig, doll. Hawk, my name's George Kaplan and to quote the late, great Karen Carpenter, "We've only just begun." HAWK Three minutes, twenty-three seconds. If you think I'm doing another... KAPLAN Hush. My employer wants a meeting. HAWK Employer? The president? KAPLAN No, somebody powerful. Oh. Look. what's that up there? HAWK I'm supposed to fall for that? KAPLAN Shucks. Guess not. Kaplan savagely point-blank punches Hawk in the face, knocking him out cold and into the mammoth suitcase. Snickers slams it shut revealing a KENNEDY INTERNATIONAL sticker. INT. MYSTERIOUS BARE ROOM--DAY Hawk slowly awakens on an exotic couch. He has been put in an aggressively fashionable Italian outfit. He eyes and touches his new duds with complete bafflement. He then stumbles into a standing position to, mouth gaping, take in a wondrous 360 degree view of Rome, Italy as "O Solo Mio" blares on the soundtrack. HAWK No. Way. Hawk's spinning view and the music on the soundtrack slam to a halt as he zeroes in on the sight of Scary Butler Alfred elegantly reaching the top of the staircase. ALFRED Welcome to Rome, sir. HAWK Yes way. EXT. OUTSIDE INTERESTING BUILDING--DAY Alfred opens the back door of an omnipotent, Mayflower- logoed LIMOUSINE. The car moves off as Hawk slides in... INT. THE BACK SEAT OF THE MAX-TECH LIMOUSINE facing Darwin Mayflower who is blustering into the cellular. While he talks, Darwin shakes Hawk's bewildered hand, then holding up one finger in a "be with you in a sec" facial move. DARWIN For those kind of wages, I could have built the factory in America! They're Vietnamese, can't we just give them more Bart Simpson shirts? I hear depressing news like this and I want to commit genocide! (slamming phone) Alfred, hold my calls. So, Hawk! The Hawkster! What do you think of the vehicle? HAWK You could host American Bandstand in here. Why did you duck at the auction, asshole? DARWIN Because I didn't want to get hurt, taterhead. A FAX MACHINE comes to life as Darwin babbles. DARWIN What can I tell you, I'm the villain. Initially it was a priority to keep a lot of buffers between you and me, but since most of them are dead now, I thought what the heck. Hawk, you come highly recommended. I would have done some things differently at the auction house, but hey, I want to be in business with you. Darwin scans the Fax message with annoyance, and then shoves it into a violent paper shredder. OUTSIDE THE LIMO SHREDDER Shredded paper litters out of a vent on the outside door. INSIDE THE LIMOUSINE A simmering Hawk tries to explode but the phone rings. HAWK My life is not some deal. I... ALFRED (O.S.) It's Boston, Mr. Mayflower. DARWIN I'm sorry, I have to take this. Those are valid points though... Darwin picks up the phone and goes Mr. Hyde, while giving Hawk "Can you believe this guy"-type gestures. DARWIN You better have a good excuse... You better have a better excuse! You are so weak! I'm only thankful your ancestors didn't settle America or else my name would be Running Brave or Vomiting Antelope...Really. Well, listen close, babe. Darwin holds the phone over a 50 cent piece-size siren in his armrest. Darwin presses a button and a PIERCING NOISE fills the car as it comes to a stop. DARWIN Shall we? Darwin bolts out. Hawk hangs back, waiting for Rod Serling to explain things, then bolts out too. EXT. E.U.R. DISTRICT BUILDING--DAY Hawk and Darwin head up the steps of an overpowering fascistly marble superstructure. Alfred brings up the rear. DARWIN So Hawkasaurus, I won't mince words... HAWK Whatever. You own Boardwalk, you own Park Place, you own the four railroads. You think you're God. For all I know, you're probably right. I just wanted to have a damn cappuccino, maybe play some Nintendo after I find out what it is. Man, why didn't you just buy the horse? What am I saying, you did buy it... DARWIN Oh... Let's see. There are organizations that think we wanted the "Sforza" for reasons other than putting it in the Da Vinci museum we're building in Vinci. Hopefully, these organizations think our plan has been ruined with the explosion of our replica. If I seem vague, grand. We want a low profile on this, that's why I got Kaplan and the Candy bars involved. I helped George help the Mario Brothers and Gates help get you out.... HAWK If you're pausing for a "thank you," give it up. So boss, you going to tell me what the crystal piece inside the pony means? DARWIN Way to go, Alfie! How many people did you break that thing in front of. Good help's hard to find. HAWK I guess that's a no. INT. MASSIVE CONFERENCE ROOM--DAY A mind-blowingly pretentious painting of Darwin, Minerva, and Bunny hangs above a mammoth M-shaped conference table. Lying atop the table in heels, shades, and a heart- stopping dark outfit is Minerva. NASTY Metal riffs semi- audibly spew from a headset she wears. Surrounding the table is a VARIED GROUP OF OLD MONEY AND NEW MONEY BOARD MEMBERS ranging from a nine year old INDIAN PRINCE to a SWEET ELDERLY AMERICAN WOMAN. They converse to the person at their side in businesslike tones, oblivious to Minerva. DARWIN Ladies and gentlemen of the board... The board members go into tableau silence. Minerva con- tinues a brief sing-a-long before Darwin scolds... DARWIN And Min-er-va. Let's give it up for Hudson Hawk. The board applauds as Alfred pushes Hawk inside. MINERVA Hello......Bunny, Ball-Ball! Minerva lobs a ball in the air. Bunny, the annoying dog, scurries beside Hawk to catch it. Moving down toward the other end of the table, Hawk takes in the surreal surroundings with battle fatigue. He sees ONE BOARD MEMBER take a luxurious sip of cappuccino. Minerva paces up upon the table. DARWIN Hawkmeister, we got you clothes, great hotel, and a 250,000 lira per diem. MINERVA That's two hundred dollars a day? So he can get a hooker and some tequila. Veto, Darwin. HAWK Guess I know who wears the penis in this family. MINERVA (jumping off table) For God's sake, chain this convict. With a yawn, Alfred pulls out a pair of state-of-the-art handcuffs. HAWK Alfred, you're a very polite psychopath, but if you... Hawk kicks out at Alfred, who nimbly moves slightly and gives a pummel to Hawk's body somersaulting him over the edge of the table, into an empty seat. The Board Members politely applaud. Alfred pulls Hawk's hands around his back and cuffs him. Bunny intensely sniffs his crotch. MINERVA We want Da Vinci's sketchbook, what do they call it, the Codex. DARWIN Listen Hawk, this might be hard to believe, but I'm a regular joe. I just want to be happy and happiness comes from the achieving of goals. It's just when you make your first billion by the age of 19, it's hard to keep coming up with new ones. But now finally I got my new goal. World domination. With your help...Bunny....quit that! MINERVA Bunny, ball-ball! Bad bunny! HAWK Think he's already got today's ball-balls. Five more minutes please, it's been so long... Minerva yanks away the yelping dog. HAWK Anybody have a cigarette? But seriously, do me a favor and Concorde me back to prison. I don't care anymore. I hope you have the receipts for the threads. MINERVA You go back, you won't be alone. You'll have a diabetic barkeep cellmate. You're still young enough to have fun shanking child molesters for a pack of smokes, but "Alex" will go in knowing that the next time he gets out it'll be to attend his own funeral. Depressing. HAWK You wouldn't risk the dime to call the police. You have no proof. DARWIN Ah, the magic word... Alfred plants a slide machine on the table and Darwin starts clicking gorgeous images of Hawk and Alex robbing the auction house, on a bare wall. The Board members gush. The Elderly Woman gives a thumbs-up. DARWIN It's veja du, Hawkhead. Something you wish never happened. We shot the entire operation with hidden cameras behind the hidden cameras. Hired the guy who did the last Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. Excellent work... whoops, damn Fotomat assholes... A slide hits the wall of himself and Minerva kneeling in Big Baby clothes with Alfred snarling over them, decked out in leather. He clicks ahead... Hawk looks away and sees that the Board members have an annual Report-type booklet in front of them that reads-- THE DA VINCI/ALCHEMY PROJECT. Minerva leans over in front of him. MINERVA Tomorrow, you're going to hit a church. CUT TO: EXT. A MASSIVE WIDE SHOT OF ST. PETER'S--DAY The Vatican stands in its glory, mobbed by HUNDREDS OF LOCALS AND SIGHTSEERS. The viewer's viewpoint zeroes in on the Mayflower limousine circling around it. INT. THE LIMOUSINE Hawk looks out from the back seat of the limousine in stylish Italian sunglasses. HAWK I'm robbing the Vatican. The nuns at St. Agnes predicted that I'd end up doing this... Two identical Twin Flunkies sit across from him, grinning stupidly. Hawk pushes up his sunglasses with his middle finger. INT. VATICANESQUE MAP ROOM Mentally casing the joint, Hawk gets some distance between him and the flunkies as he enters into a room that has a glorious, ancient Map of the World Mural. INT. ANOTHER VATICAN ROOM Hawk makes a scribble in a notepad before coming to a Vatican guard, standing before a painting of a Pope performing a Coronation. HAWK (half-hearted) Excuse me, I'm being blackmailed into robbing the Vatican by a psychotic American corporation along with a CIA... VATICAN GUARD "You're being".....uh, I don't, uh... A jaded Hawk laughs and pats the cop on the back. HAWK Forget it, man. Go tackle a jaywalker. INT./EXT. CIRCULAR OPEN AIR HALLWAY Hawk comes out onto a circular open-air hallway. He scans up to some rooftops and makes a note...until he sees a line of International Phone Boothettes. Checking for Flunkies, he rips one up. HAWK Operator, I want to make a collect call to Alex Messina, New York.... The Flunkies drift into view. Hawk hangs up and seethes off. INT. HALLWAY LEADING TO CODEX ROOM Hawk saunters down a long resplendent hallway toward a room at the end bustling with excitement. Coming to the mouth of the room, he looks to two gold framed mirrors on either side of the opening, rubs his head, and scribbles. INSIDE THE CODEX ROOM Hawk takes in the majestic beauty, and practical details, of the room--windows, statues, a Massive Ornate Lighting Fixture--as he moves down one of the twin winding stair- cases leading to a path of people behind velvet ropes and the object of their gaze... THE DA VINCI CODEX --an old book enclosed in a glass case, propped open to the familiar BEAUTIFUL DRAWING of a MAN inside a CIRCLE. The case is located between two informational tablets enclosed in glass columns. Enter Holy Da Vinci theme. ANNA (V.O.) But it is his gift as an inventor who drew together science and art that is most incredible. Hawk brightens to the return of Anna, carrying a portfolio bag, striding down the stairs with a group of INVESTORS AND FAMILIES. She brightens back, giving him a quick verbal breath and a hand squeeze. ANNA Tough guy. What are you--How's your head. HAWK (vegetable) Yes, and my giraffe loves it, too... She laughs, going into her public voice. ANNA As you know, the Da Vinci Codex, has lived in the Vatican for centuries and will continue to live here for centuries more. HAWK (under his breath) That's what you theenk. ANNA Question, sir? His untiring pen predicted the airplane, the submarine, the bicycle, the helicopter, and even the tank. A LITTLE BRAT trailing the group, moves next to Hawk, bitching away to her STUFFED ELEPHANT, POKEY. LITTLE BRAT This is so bor-ing! Do you hate Italy as much as I do, Pokey? (bad ventriloquism) Si, senor! Italy sucks the big one! why can't we go to the Epcot Center! The Little Brat stops and lets Pokey the elephant dangle from her side. Hawk eyes the elephant strangely. ANNA These more dangerous designs inspired him to develop a secret code that .... The stuffed elephant suddenly goes flying over Anna's head. The ALARM goes off. The Massive Ornate Lighting Fixture swoops down from the ceiling, inverting in air, and slams down over the Codex, transformed into a makeshift cage. Strange green gas comes billowing out of the vents. Needless to say, everyone goes crazy. Coughing gas, Hawk peeks to see that a line of light sensor alarms imbedded in the tablets are what set the alarm off. Two GAS MASKS drop airlinesquely from the mouth of the entranceway and TWO RACING-IN GUARDS wrangle them on. The Little Brat sees that Pokey the stuffed elephant has been beheaded by the cage/lamp. She is pulled away and spanked. LITTLE BRAT Pokey, come back! Anna yanks a notetaking Hawk away as the gas blusters in around him. The Two Flunkies, eyes on Hawk, are hap- lessly making their way up the opposite staircase. ANNA Come on, this stuff will knock you out. Have you ever had the feeling you were being followed, Mr. Bond. HAWK Never, why do you ask? Reaching the top of the stairs, just outside the door, Anna briskly pulls Hawk into a PIECE OF WALL THAT IS REALLY A DOOR. The wall closes as the Flunkies come flying out, baffled. INT. CIRCULAR STAIRCASE Hawk, mucho impressed, and Anna move down a tight, dark circular staircase. HAWK Whoa. Name's Hawkins, Eddie Hawkins. My nickname's Hudson Hawk, but don't call me Hudson, not even as a joke. The Nuns at St. Agnes called me that and they're the ones who helped make me what I am today. Not a compliment... ANNA Sure Hudson. Are you going to tell me why you did that back there or are you going to blame it on Dumbo? HAWK Could you believe that crazy elephant? Anna shakes her head as she opens a door into... INT. A LITTLE UNDERGROUND SUBWAY--DAY A four foot high mail train rumbles down the track of a mini-underground station. Workers latch onto mail bags. Hawk and Anna emerge from a small door. HAWK Whoa, part 2. Does it go to Times Square? ANNA Delivers up to ten at night. The Pope has an obsession with his Easter Seals. It's actually not that an unusual set-up. The secret passageway on the other hand.... HAWK The Vatican is made of constant mysteries meant to be enjoyed, not explained. ANNA Nice. But right out of our brochure. HAWK Oh, you read that. ANNA Actually I wrote it. It's a good sentence. It can apply to people. HAWK You're not an unmysterious thang yourself. ANNA I don't steal stuffed elephants from little girls. (smoothing his jacket) And I buy my own clothes. My life's a little boring... HAWK God, I wish I could say the same thing. What about having a nice, dull dinner with me tonight. Scrabble, Knock-knock jokes, Anecdotes about famous dead Italians.... ANNA I'll bring my entire repertoire... The Two Flunkies stumble into the station, looking around. Anna and Hawk crouch down. HAWK And I'll bring my entourage... ANNA Secret passageways don't mean as much as they used to. There's a place two blocks east of here. Enzo's. Say 10:30. HAWK Said. Hawk and Anna peck each other with a smile. He crawls out an exit door. As he leaves, Anna's smile disappears. She pulls out a rosary and gives herself a self-scolding bang on the head. She then darts to a large crucifix and looks up. ANNA Father, it's obvious. He's up to something. Suddenly a speaker in Jesus's mouth gently crackles. JESUS (Italian) Report downstairs at once. ANNA Yes, sir. INT. CATACOMBLIKE AREA A CARDINAL paces in an enigmatic Vatican area. Anna clacks up to him. CARDINAL Did he mention the Mayflowers? ANNA No, your Eminence. I think he's going to steal the Codex, as early as next week. CARDINAL Attempt, you mean. The vanity of this man, Hudson Hawk. The Vatican has foiled the advances of Pirates and Terrorists. We will not lie down for some schmuck from New Jersey. Must you flirt with him so realistically? ANNA That's the best kind. A wise woman once said "Polite conversation is rarely either." CARDINAL (chuckling) Let me be the one to quote Scripture. ....As an agent of our organization, you are put in awkward situations. Just remember, Hudson Hawk is an evil, evil man. ANNA (unconvinced) Yeah. The big E. EXT. NAVONA PIAZZA--DAY The evil Hawk clumsily strides around a fountain, looking off in all directions, soft-shoes past some sedate painters and swings into... INT. A BIG QUIRKY PHONE BOOTH Hawk grabs up the phone and dials.... HAWK Hello, operator. I'd like to make a collect call to New York number... The Mayflower limousine creeps to the edge of the piazza, behind an oblivious Hawk. HAWK Thank you, operator, thank you. Hawk turns, putting a finger in his ear. Seeing the limo, he FREAKS and balls himself into a corner. HAWK Come on, Alex, pick up, you Reindeer goat cheese-eating motherfucker. INT. ALEX'S RESTAURANT--NIGHT It is late night in New York. A phone rings atop the bar of Alex's restaurant with no one in sight. INT. PIAZZA--DAY Hawk pokes his head to see a Darwin and Minerva (holding Bunny) emerge from the limousine. As he turns his con- centration back to the phone, ALEX HIMSELF flows out from a building to cheerfully speak with Darwin and Minerva and get licked by Bunny, before they all pile into the limo. HAWK A-lex, A-lex, come on Alex. Hawk slams down the phone and turns to see the limousine pull off. Hawk angrily bursts from the door and is painfully CLOTHESLINED by agent Butterfinger, who is dressed as a mailman. Crumpled on the ground, Hawk kicks out with his foot, into Butterfinger's stomach, doubling him. Hawk then grabs him by the head and rams into the glass of the booth. Hawk rotates off for an escape...but the rest of the CIA crew cuts him off holding barely concealed guns; Snickers dressed as a maitre 'd, Almond Joy as a Bermuda tourist, and Kaplan in his usual emsemble. Kit Kat is dressed exactly like Hawk, right down to a bloody lip. Hawk gives him a double take. KAPLAN Hawk, Hawk, Hawk. Enjoying Italy? I always had a soft spot for Rome. Did my first barehanded strangulation here. Communist politician. HAWK Why George, you big softie... KAPLAN God, I miss communism. The Red Threat. People were scared, the Agency was respected, and I got laid every night. A humiliated Butterfinger comes waddling out, holding the phone. Kaplan rolls his eyes. BUTTERFINGER Sorry, coach... KAPLAN (shaking his head) If his father wasn't the head of Shit, I hate this, the government's got me farmed out, working for the Mayflower corporation now, money beats politics. War isn't Hell anymore, it's Dull. Don't slaughter their men and rape their women, just steal their microchips. HAWK You know Kaplan, if you weren't the slimiest pinata of shit that ever lived, I'd feel sorry for you. SNICKERS Good news, bud, the Mayflowers have moved up the time-table. You're hitting the Vatican to-night. HAWK Tonight? You're whacked. The timing's off, I'm underequipped Damnit, I have a date! Almond Joy smoothly extracts Hawk's notebook and reads... ALMOND JOY Grapple, Biker's bottle, hairspray, black turtleneck, Pocket Fisherman, acid, collapsible yardstick, softball, and 72 stamps. Gee Stud, this is going to be some date. No Harvey's Bristol Cream? KAPLAN Snickers, make the list happen. Oh and it's one thing to play hide and seek with the Mayflower's pathetic staff, but we're sore losers. I've put jumper cables on the nipples of children and not always in the line of duty. HAWK Thanks for sharing. KAPLAN We blow up space shuttles for breakfast. You and your friend Alex would be a late afternoon Triscuit. HAWK If you do anything to my friend... KAPLAN Yeah, right. By the way, as long as I'm getting things off my chest, I'm the one who killed your little monkey. Made it look like a Mafia hit. Did it for fun. Ciao. Kaplan and the crew quickly disperse in different directions as Hawk howls in frustration. Kit Kat moves behind Hawk and perfectly mimics him. HAWK What did you have against Little Eddie, motherfucker? He was just a monkey who liked to laugh. Come back without your yuppie army. I'll triscuit you, you space shuttle eating...Shit.! Without looking, Hawk elbows the mimic Kit Kat in the face. Kit Kat gives Hawk a strange smile and hands him a card that reads: BEWARE THE ODD STEPS. Hawk looks up from the card. Kit Kat is gone, but Butterfinger scampers in his place. BUTTERFINGER Hey, Mr. Hawk, I got those 72 stamps! Sighing, Hawk takes the huge sheath of stamps. EXT. INDOOR TRAIN TRACK One of the small Vatican mail trains bullets across an indoor track. The viewer's viewpoint whooshes to catch up, focusing on a very large package, addressed to the Pope, that has Hawk's sheath of stamps slapped onto it. The train zips into a tunnel. INT. THE VATICAN UNDERGROUND SUBWAY The train rumbles into the Vatican mini-station. TWO HARRIED WORKERS heave up the strange cargo onto a sorting table. A bell rings as a clock hits 10. The workers do a sigh of relief. Shucking off their uniforms, they head out. A hand rips out of the huge package. INT. OUTSIDE THE CODEX ROOM--NIGHT Hawk pops out of the secret passageway door and moves to the mouth of the doorless Codex room. He pauses to hand-comb his hair in the two large, framed mirrors at the sides. THE CODEX ROOM Carrying the now frameless mirrors in each hand, Hawk hustles to the top of the steps and suddenly stops. HAWK "Beware the Odd Steps." Hawk crouches down and notices the step below him has a clear magnetic tape running across it to a dime sized alarm button. HAWK Why Kit Kat, aren't you a gentleman... Hawk bounds down every other one of the steps down to where the Codex is bathed in a holy light. He hefts up the two now frameless mirrors and puts them each in a groove of a collapsible yardstick running across the top. The parallel mirrors now face out from each other. Hawk sprays a blast of Clairol to reveal the light sensor beams, and then with a deep breath, he thrusts the mirrors into the beams. The light bounces harmlessly off the mirrors and Hawk exhales. He balances the connected mirrors then crawls through his tent-like passageway. Hawk squirts acid from a biker's bottle on the cracks of the rectangular glass case that holds the Codex. The acid sizzles. INT. VATICAN LIBRARY HALLWAY--NIGHT A BURLY GUARD thoughtfully stares at a painting, fingers propping his chin like an critic then continues ambling on. THE CODEX ROOM Rubbing his head, Hawk gives an excited smile as the glass cracks of the rectangular case loosen. Hawk pulls out a pocket fisherman.... The viewer's viewpoint moves upward to reveal, through the mouth of the room, the Burly Guard is coming down the hall. OUTSIDE THE CODEX ROOM Burly Guard approaches the outskirts of the Codex room. He combs his hair into the piece of wall in the now empty mirror-frame then REALIZES. Muttering Italian into his walkie-talkie, Burly Guard rushes into the room and looks down to the sensor deflecting mirrors. He passes a statue, behind which, Hawk is revealed to be standing. Burly Guard approaches the Codex and sees the dripping acid. He also notices a fishing hook attached to the binding of the Codex. The fishing wire leads out of the glass case. The Guard reaches to touch it when suddenly the wire is pulled tightly upward by a moving-out-from-behind-the-statue Hawk. The Codex FLIES off its perch, setting off the ALARM and sending the bizarre cage/lamp CRASHING DOWN and AROUND the hapless Burly Guard. The green gas commences its noxious billowing as the Codex swooshes into Hawk's hands. He then hurls a softball, smashing a window on the other side of the room. The familiar Vatican Guard and a Guard Three barrel down into the mouth of the codex room. Only one Gas Mask drops from the doorway. The Vatican Guard pulls it on and gives a "That's Life" shrug of shoulders to the fainting Guard three. Hawk puts on the missing gas mask and launches a grapple around the ceiling cord of the dropped Ornate Lighting Fixture. Hawk then Tarzans from one staircase to another. He then ungrapples and heads toward the shattered window. The Vatican Guard waits a stunned moment before giving chase. EXT. THE ROOF Hawk flings off his gas mask and begins a classical skipping-across-the-rooftop jaunt. Suddenly a brick on the slightly slanted roof gives way and Hawk FALLS. His canvas bag goes skipping down across the roof, landing against the antennae. INT. THE POPE'S BEDROOM A T.V. showing Mr. Ed. speaking to Wilbur in Italian goes fuzzy. THE POPE, wearing his famous hat and a Notre Dame bathrobe angrily bangs on it. EXT. THE ROOF Hawk harvests his grapple on the level part of the roof and slides down toward the dangling-off-the-antennae bag. The Vatican Guard pops out of the window and fires a warning shot. Hawk stretches to the bag. His fingers touch as the Guard continues to bound forward. HAWK Please God, Please God.......let the guard shoot me. Hawk pulls up the bag and turns himself to see Vatican Guard hovering over him on the roof. VATICAN GUARD The worm's on the other foot, yankee noodle candy. Hawk sees the Vatican Guard's foot move toward the grapple. Hawk ferociously tugs, ripping the Guard off-balance and knocking down a side of the roof. EXT. TOP OF A NEARBY WALL Hawk dashes atop a nearby wall and hurls his grapple across a road around a tree branch. Hawk ties the end of grapple line, tosses on a friction belt, takes a breath and JUMPS OFF THE WALL. The viewer follows him on his breathtaking ride. The brused Vatican Guard flops back atop the roof. He gets off a wild shot before crumpling back down. HAWK is alnost to the other side when the Guard's bullet hits the friction belt. Hawk drops with a wild scream... and lands with a painful straddle atop a street lamppost. His eyes bug out with the thought of a life without children. He slowly spins off the lamppost and sails down upon... EXT. A BUS and the comfortable luggage housed on top of it. Hawk tries to maintain his balance upon the wobbling baggage, but the bus makes a quick turn and Hawk goes flying off... EXT. RIGHT INTO A CAFE CHAIR--NIGHT Panting and discombobulated, Hawk looks across the table to the female hands holding open a menu. The menu comes down. It is Anna. Hawk unpretzels and laps his canvas bag. ANNA Oh Hudson, I was worried you weren't going to drop by.... HAWK I never break a date. Scout's honor. Hawk does the honor sign with his black gloved hand then quickly rips it off as a WAITER comes to the table. HAWK Fettucini con Funghi Porcini. WAITER Bellissimo, signor. HAWK Oh, and could I have some ketchup with that. Anna hits her forehead with the palm of her hand while the waiter's entire body sinks in disappointment. Other TABLE OCCUPANTS sadly shake their heads. EXT. ANOTHER TABLE--NIGHT At a comfortable distance curled behind a heat lamp, Snickers is being an Uglier American to an UNCOMPREHENDING WAITER, while Almond Joy chuckles and Butterfinger spreads butter over an entire baguette. SNICKERS Come on, Pierre, Steak-bur-ger, Fren-n-ch Fries. This is France, you gotta have French..... ALMOND JOY Actually we're in Italy, Snickers, she said as if it made a difference. The Waiter sneaks off. Butterfinger devours his bread. SNICKERS Italy, France, Moscow. They all just wanna be Nebraska. Old Man Kaplan thinks since Communism is dead, we got nothing to do. Man, Democracy isn't free elections. We gotta teach the world that Democracy is Big Tits, College Football on Saturdays, Eddie Murphy saying the word "Fuck" and Kids putting their hands down garbage disposals on "America's Funniest Home Videos." ALMOND JOY Damn baby, when's the last time you had a vacation...Jesus, I gotta get out of this job. If my Mom knew her daughter assassinated the leader of the anti-Apartheid movement.... SNICKERS Quit bitching, you got the employee of the month plaque for that shit...Ah to be in Pari-is and in love. They look off to.... HAWK AND ANNA'S TABLE Physically sarcastic, the Waiter brings a tall wine basket with a bottle of ketchup in it. Hawk nabs it. HAWK This is bueno. They had the worst ketchup in prison.....uh... ANNA Prison? HAWK I was the Warden? ANNA How long were you in? HAWK Let's just say, I never saw E.T. ANNA Wow, you were "in the joint." "Doing hard time." It's funny, but that excites me. I seem to have a thing for sinners. HAWK I seem to have a thing for sinning. sinning. Check please.... WAITER Ah, anything for dessert? ANNA (she shoots) Yes. Something to go. HAWK (she scores) I'll bring the ketchup. INT. ANNA'S HOUSE--NIGHT The viewer's viewpoint pulls back, past the black canvas bag on a table, to reveal a barefoot Anna is straddling a bare-backed Hawk, demurely and tentatively studying his bruises. ANNA What have you been doing? HAWK Uh....old badminton injury. Anna giggles and bends to kiss a bruise. She stops herself and opts for tickling. HAWK tickles, ticKleS, TICKLES. ANNA (not stopping) Oh, I'm so sorry... Roaring with laughter, they capsize onto the floor. Hawk slithers around to devour her toes. Anna closes her eyes and arches her back..... She opens her eyes and sees a large crucifix staring right at her. With a gasp, she rolls away from Hawk and stands up, trying to brush off her sins. ANNA I'm sorry. I can't. I.... HAWK (softly approaching) Hey now, outside of a very friendly dog this morning, it's been a slow decade. I don't make love every ten years, I get a little cranky. ANNA It's also been a long time for me. I-- Their heads fuse for a semi-classic screen kiss until THE CRUCIFIX LIGHTS UP AND BEGINS SHOUTING IN ITALIAN. HAWK Catholic girls are scary... ANNA Somebody robbed the Vatican. HAWK Oh. No. Anna slides on her shoes and makes a hasty retreat. She bumps into the canvas bag. The Codex slides out. They both catch it in mid-air. Anna's eyes pop. She wrenches the Codex away and kicks. Hawk pulls her into a compassionate back-against-his-stomach hug. The Codex falls to the floor unharmed. HAWK It's not what you think. Okay, maybe it is.... ANNA You really went and did it. With one day, not even a day, of planning, you did it. Nobody does it better, Hudson. You started the week stealing the Sforza and you ended it swiping the Codex. HAWK Wha-- ANNA What are your plans for the weekend? Hoisting away the Colosseum? Tell me, did the devil make you do it or did Darwin and Minerva Mayflower? EXT. A CAR OUTSIDE OF ANNA'S PLACE--NIGHT Crammed together in the front seat, Snickers, Almond Joy, and Butterfinger are watching the shadows of Hawk and Anna up in the window. Snickers snaps a cartridge into a gun while Butterfinger attacks a goo-ey pastry. SNICKERS What's going on in there? BUTTERFINGER Do you want me to rape them? (throwing pastry down) Dunkin does it better. SNICKERS Just read, Butterfinger. Butterfinger pulls up the book on Da Vinci that Anna wrote and starts reading like a schoolboy. BUTTERFINGER "Da Vinci had fears about his more dangerous designs, so he created a shorthand code in reverse script..." ALMOND JOY To yourself!.....What are they doing? In twenty seconds, we go in. INT. ANNA'S PLACE Foam shoots out over the coffee. Hawk smiles down at it as Anna works a cappuccino machine. ANNA For two years, I've been tracking the Mayflowers' peculiar interest in three Da Vinci pieces. Their Sforza replica was as fake as the "gas leak" that supposedly destroyed it. HAWK Does everyone in the world know more than me? Jesus, I'm just some guy who happens to be good at swiping stuff.....Lifted a piece of licorice when I was one and a half. Who knew it would lead... They even got the CIA involved! ANNA The C.I. what? God, no... HAWK (raising his cup) Ooh, I guess I do know something Here's looking at you, kid... THE CAR OUTSIDE The agents burst from the car, guns raised. ALMOND JOY Now. ANNA'S HOUSE Hawk sips the cappuccino. His face immediately contracts. HAWK This doesn't taste like cappuccino. ANNA Oh, I must have put too much ethyl-chloride in it. Anna throws a pillow on the ground and holds out her hand. Hawk collapses. His coffee cup lands perfectly in Anna's outstretched hand and his head lands perfectly on the pillow. The candy bars bash the door open, guns raised. ANNA Why didn't you tell me at the restaurant that he had hit the Vatican tonight. My people will not be happy. I want to see Kaplan. ALMOND JOY That's not overly possible. He... BUTTERFINGER But guys, remember, he's in the castle at Vinci.... Snickers and Almond Joy grimace into fake smiles. EXT. THE CASTLE--NIGHT A helicopter thunders up to the awesome castle from the opening Da Vinci sequence. INT. HELICOPTER Anna pets the head of Hawk on her lap. She is pondering. INT. A MYSTERIOUS DARK ROOM--NIGHT A sparse circle of light houses a chair and a pacing Kaplan. Snickers and Butterfinger flop Hawk onto the lit chair. Kit Kat is dressed exactly like Anna. She reacts as she comes into the light. Kaplan takes the Codex from her. KAPLAN Way to go, Anna. ANNA When the Mayflowers find out we have the Codex, they're going to want to make a deal... KAPLAN (gung-ho lying) And then we'll arrest those greedy pigs... Is that it? Hawk stirs. The viewer gets his woozy P.O.V. ANNA Actually George, it's not it. What are we doing in this castle? I happen to know the Mayflowers bought this castle last year when they found out Da Vinci used to do... The lights in the room come on to the sound of holy Da Vinci theme, revealing an almost perfect refurbishing of the exact same workshop Da Vinci toiled in in the opening. KAPLAN (trying to be solemn) It's the site of their new museum and we're taking it over. Operation Deflower Mayflower is going full speed ahead. ANNA (taking it in) Oh Lord.... the only reason I ask is that Hudson, uh, Mr. Hawk, Hawkins, had some "neat" things to say about Darwin, Minerva, and you. Basically that you're part of the same car pool. KAPLAN Anna. Anna. Anna. If that were true, Almond Joy would have handed you your heart right after you handed me the Codex. Now, get some sleep. Kit Kat... Kit Kat in drag spookily moves inches away from Anna. ANNA Cat got his tongue? KAPLAN Actually he never told us what it was. Kit Kat smiles, revealing the fact he has no tongue. ANNA How sweet. I trust you will see Hudson Hawk is given to the proper authorities. I recommend leniency... SNICKERS (holding in a laugh) Oh, I think we all do. Hawk gives her a look of honesty and pain that causes Anna to guiltily gulp as she heads out with the mimicking Kit Kat. SNICKERS Do you think she has any idea that Operation Deflower Mayflower is as bogus as Kit Kat's tits? KAPLAN I don't think so, although bringing her to the castle gave her a big, juicy hint. ALMOND JOY With all due respect to that great blouse, why didn't I cut out her heart? KAPLAN Close call, but she's our only way of keeping tabs on that damn mysterious Vatican organization. Hawk, it's time to go to the principal's office.... EXT. OUTSIDE THE CASTLE--NIGHT Moving into the chopper, Anna glimpses, Bunny, the obnoxious dog, in a Mayflower logo dog tag, taking a leak on some bushes. She fakes a yawn to the like dressed Kit Kat who fakes one back. INT. THE G. MACHINE ROOM--NIGHT Kaplan, Hawk, and the other agents march into the mammoth room of the opening scene. In the place of where one remembers the gold machine are undulating sheets, beneath which are unassembled parts of the machine. Inside, a ball goes whizzing out of a tennis ball machine. In tennis gear and goggles, Darwin Mayflower thwacks it against the wall of (now faded) frescos. Also in tennis threads, Minerva is laying on a chaise lounge holding a gadget in her hand. DARWIN Seven! Minerva turns the gadget up to SEVEN and presses a button. Another tennis ball shoots out, a little faster. Darwin batters it. The ball ricochets into the forehead of an "amused" Alfred who is retrieving balls in sweat pants. ALFRED Jolly. Good. Shot. Sir. MINERVA Ooh, it's Hudson Hawk, you cease to amaze me, convict. You are a terrible cat burglar! DARWIN Haven't you ever seen, like David Niven? You know tiptoe in, tiptoe out. MINERVA Like a "cat", one could say. HAWK Shucks, I'll just take it back. Hawk reaches for the Codex. Kaplan pulls it over to Darwin, who pulls up his goggles and fondles the ancient binding. Taking a knife from Kaplan, he begins to slit it open. MINERVA (bouncing up) No, let me! DARWIN (pout) I don't care. Hawk looks away to the billowing sheets and the strange machine parts behind them. Minerva slits the bindings and tugs out another geometri- cally perverted crystal. HAWK Another piece of the puzzle for the Da Vinci Alchemy project. Kaplan, Darwin, and Minerva look up to Hawk, then to each other, all start to speak, then all stop. This quandary is deferred by the entrance of the twin Flunkies. DARWIN Oh, you. There's nothing more I hate than failure. All you had to do was follow the Hawk, it's not like I said "Teach our nation's children how to read." Hawk uses the distraction to amble toward the sheets. DARWIN I guess we're just going to have to kill 'em... Shockingly swift, Minerva pulls a small gun from beneath her tennis dress and blasts a burning hole between each set of Flunky eyes, splattering them to the ground. DARWIN God Minerva, I was kidding. A SHOCKED HAWK quickly turns from the blithe carnage and pulls up a sheet. He reveals the familiar Gold Machine Demonhead. THE MAYFLOWERS reverberate off each other with laughter. Bloodstained, Kaplan and Almond Joy exchange an eye bulge. Minerva's smile disappears as she sees Hawk by the sheets. MINERVA Get away from there, convict! HAWK Just browsing. Don't touch me.... Snickers touches him. Hawk smashes him in the jaw. Snickers rears back to reciprocate.... DARWIN Don't hurt him! We need him for the final job! Snickers stops himself, snarling in frustration. Hawk is suddenly the happiest man he's been in Italy. HAWK Oh weeeeelly, don't hurt me? Even if I do this.... Hawk pulls Snickers' glasses off and stamps them. HAWK And this.... Hawk knees Butterfinger in the stomach. HAWK Surely this must offend.... Hawk body-block-dominoes Butterfinger and Snickers to the ground. Kaplan and Almond Joy aim their guns. KAPLAN That's it! Playfully lifting his shirt, Hawk grabs Minerva and manually swivels her hips to the beat of his. HAWK Things are getting a little loose at the Da Vinci workshop tonight. "Put your left leg in, take your right foot out." May I call you Minnie.... Hawk mambos to Alfred who rifles his blade up to Hawk's crotch. Hawk stops dancing. DARWIN Come to think of it there is a part of your body that you won't need for your next job... HAWK Hey, guys, I've always wanted to sing like Franki Valli and the other seasons, but come on.... Alfred moves the blade a little upward. Hawk a-a-ghs. MINERVA Big girls don't cry-I-eye. HAWK Two minutes, 35 seconds. Damnit, I'm involved in this thing, so I just wanna know what this thing is. I wanna be treated as an adult. DARWIN That's fair. Tomorrow. Back in Rome. Now go to your room. Alfred strategically Vulcans Hawk on the neck. He falls. INT. DARK CONFESSION BOOTH--MORNING The lips of Anna come into light. ANNA Forgive me Father for I have sinned. It's been 1200 hours since my last confession. INT. THE CARDINAL'S SIDE OF THE CONFESSION BOOTH The cardinal suppresses a yawn. CARDINAL Hit me with your best shot. ANNA (O.S.) I betrayed a man. A good man. An innocent man. A thief. CARDINAL Anna, what are you trying to say... ANNA'S DARKENED LIPS ANNA He came into a world where crime is a legitimate business tactic and a legitimate government procedure. But he knew Right and Wrong. Oh, and we kind of messed around... THE CARDINAL freaks and goes into some Italian gibberish before... CARDINAL "Messed around" messed around? I know-- I don't want to know. First base? Second Base? Stop me when I'm getting warm... ANNA (O.S.) A little petting is not the issue! CARDINAL Sorry. Seventeen Hail Marys and five minutes outside. INT. OUTSIDE THE CONFESSION BOOTH--MORNING The Cardinal emerges and stands by Anna's confessional curtains. CARDINAL So let me get this straight, sister, you're saying Hudson Hawk is not willingly working for the Mayflowers but Kaplan and the Candy Bars are? Anna moves out of the confessional curtains, wearing a FULL NUN HABIT for she is a Nun. The gaspingly beautiful church unfolds as they walk. ANNA You got it. Operation Deflower Mayflower is a bad joke and I'm the punchline. I thought we were using the CIA to help us to get Mayflower, but really the CIA was using me to keep us away from Mayflower. CARDINAL Oh, why couldn't I be the Cardinal in charge of catering.... If the Mayflowers get the three sections of Da Vinci's crystal and his instructions for the gold machine-- Aie-yi--Do we got anything? What of Alex, Hawk's friend, where is his loyalty? ANNA I'm going to find out. CARDINAL I'm sorry for losing it back there, but you must remember, sister, you have vows to God as well as a mission to the world. ANNA I know, I know, your Eminence, just say "God go with me." CARDINAL God go with you, sister. Anna puts on the coolest pair of sunglasses, deliciously contrasting with her habit. She moves off.... INT. ROME CONFERENCE ROOM--DAY Beneath the wacky portrait, Darwin circles the board- member filled conference table as Minerva smooches Bunny. Everyone watches Alfred place a bar of Gold and of Lead in the hands of a blindfolded Hawk at the middle of the M. DARWIN So, Captain Hawk, in one of your paws you got a gold bar worth about 8 thou. In the autre, you got lead that won't get you gelato. MINERVA Surely a master-thief like you can tell the difference. HAWK ("What's my Line") That's two down to Kitty Carlisle... Hawk "weighs" the two bars in his hands--digs with his fingernails. He rips off the blindfold in subdued frustration. As Minerva speaks, she unconsciously molests Alfred. MINERVA Cool, isn't it? Weight, feel, mal1eability, they're all but identical. On the periodic chart of elements, they're but one proton apart. Great minds worked for centuries to turn worthless into priceless. HAWK Alchemy. DARWIN (casually goosing Alfred) Alchemy! Is the business term of the 90's, my man! Minerva read about it in an airline magazine about four years ago. I dumped some lira into research... Shazam, we come across a diary by one of Da Vinci's apprentices detailing La Machine de Oro, the gold machine for those at home, and the rest is about to become history. Money isn't everything, gold is. Fuck blue chip stocks! Fuck T-bills! Fuck Junk Bonds! I got the real deal! Money will always be paper but gold will always be gold! MINERVA Market crashes. Bomb drops. Greenhouse effect affects. We'll still be the richest, most powerful people in the world. In 1992, Europe is coming together to become one business superpower. It's one party we'd love to poop. DARWIN Well, that said, the last ingredient in the recipe is in, get this, you're gonna die, the Kremlin. HAWK Sure. The Kremlin. Makes sense. The Kremlin. Why not? Listen, this is all too Indiana Jones and the Lost City of King Tut for me, man. Throw me in jail and go ahead, just try and throw Alex... MINERVA Jail, you asshole! Our foot soldiers will blow your brains out! Bunny, Ball-Ball! Minerva angrily throws the dog off her lap and whips a tennis ball into its mouth. DARWIN I'll torture you so slowly you'll think it's a career! I'll kill your family, your friends, and the bitch you took to the Prom! HAWK You want an address on that last one? Bunny barks up at Hawk in anger. HAWK Bunny, not you too? MINERVA You've got a dilemma, tiger. I think I know what's going to help you solve it. Alfred quickly latches on the state-of-the-art handcuffs and the blindfold. The viewer's viewpoint stays on a writhing Hawk. HAWK I'll kill all you. Even the old lady. Hawk kicks back on the table, "jump ropes" the cuffs, then picks the lock with his teeth. Hawk rips off the blindfold to see that the entire room is empty except for Alex, standing at the other end, in an incongruous Italian leather coat. ALEX I hated cigarettes until I saw my first No Smoking sign. Keep off the Grass? Let's play Soccer. Only law I cared about was friendship. Broke that one too, didn't I? This Gates-Mario Brothers-CIA-Mayflower-Da Vinci thing seemed like a sweet deal. Visit foreign lands, take their treasures. I don't know, I thought you'd get into it. It's better than playing darts with M.B.A.'s at the bar. I didn't know it was going to be like this. Them using me to use you... I'm sorry, there's only one way out of this and it's gonna hurt me more than it's gonna hurt you. Alex pulls out a gun from his jacket and clicks it in. EXT. FAMILIAR PIAZZA--DAY The piazza from the fascist E.U.R. building are bustling with office workers laughing, smoking, and hustling. Darwin, Minerva and Kaplan are a solid troika in the center of the steps. The other agents stroll in the periphery.... KAPLAN I just don't think it was a smoking hot idea to leave them up there alone. MINERVA Don't worry George, this is the reason we put the old diabetic guinea on the payroll to begin with. To keep Hawk in line. They'll talk about "being buddies" and "chugging brewskis." DARWIN (raising glass) You gotta love male bonding. As Darwin slaps Kaplan on the back, behind them, Hawk and Alex come crashing out of the windowed doors of the building. KAPLAN You were saying... Moving to the edge of the stairs, Hawk and Alex, latter holding his gun, sprout up from their own debris and continue savagely brawling. The wigging out passers- by give them space. HAWK You bastard! You fucked my freedom for a lousy job! Alex trembles, going into a diabetic seizure. He shakily raises his gun. ALEX Hawk... I'm so sorry... Hawk roars forward like a bull and helmets Alex. They roll together down the massive staircase past Darwin, Minerva, and the CIA who react with "This can't be happening" catatonia. Two SHOTS go off as Hawk and Alex crash to the bottom of the staircase. Hawk rises up in a daze to see Alex on the ground with two bloody bullet holes. HAWK No.....Alex! Wake up, you can't go out like this. Hawk falls to his knees as Snickers hustles toward him. Suddenly, sirens are heard as a police van pulls up. Snickers stops. Four policemen blast from the back of the van. One holds back the crowd. One strenuously pulls Hawk into the van. The other two drag in Alex. The villains look to each other for non-existent guidance as the van pulls away. MINERVA Plan B, anyone... Using initiative, Snickers hops on a Vespa and roars off after them. The van can be seen swerving off..... AROUND A CORNER where it bolts up into a much larger truck marked VATICAN SOUVENIRS. TWO SEEMINGLY-INNOCENT-BYSTANDER PRIESTS break demeanor to flop up the wheel ramps, slam close the back of the truck, lock it shut, and continue on their solemn way. The TRUCK BELLOWS off as the Vespa spins around the corner. Snickers brakes and looks around for the police van. He hits his handle with frustration. EXT. BEAUTIFUL ROME OVERVIEW Out of her habit but still in her incredible sunglasses, Anna looks out to a lovely view of Italy. The Vatican Truck pulls up behind her. A giddy, blood-stained Alex and a not- so-giddy Hawk bound out of the back. Alex excitedly gives himself an insulin shot. ANNA Oh thank God, you're dead... ALEX It was so beautiful! When the blanks went off, they... Hawk's fist whooshes into frame and blasts Alex's jaw. HAWK You bastard. You fucked my freedom for a lousy job. ALEX But I said I was sorry.... HAWK No sweat, Alex, you only made the biggest mistake of my life. What was your per-diem? ALEX Don't act like you've never committed a crime before, Hawkins? I know, I made call, when Anna tracked me down I... ANNA Hudson, don't you understand... HAWK And you, Dr. Cappucino, you're lucky I don't hit women, assuming you are a woman. I'm not taking anything for granted anymore. ANNA I-work-for-a-covert-Vatican-humanitarian- organization. The-CIA-made-a-fool-of-me. I-care-for-you... HAWK Oh. Well, what's this? Hawk pulls out the Demon Head that was in the Mayflower Museum from out of his pocket. Anna turns white. ANNA Where did you get this? HAWK You know, the place where you gave the bad guys the Codex.... the Mayflower Museum. ANNA It's from the machine. All they need is the crystal to run it and they have 2/3 of it already. We can't let that happen. ALEX You're saying you want us to beat them to the crystal and save the world from financial disarray. ANNA Something like that. ALEX (pulling out plane tix) Well, forget about it. Hawk and I are going to Rio. We're hurt, we're tired, and a hero ain't nothing but a sandwich. Right, buddy?... ANNA Hudson, God's given you a gift for cat burglary, you can t just... HAWK You better believe I can. I'm sick of people telling me what I have to do. ANNA It's that kind of selfish attitude that... HAWK Selfish attitude? I'm just some guy who wants a little nap and a cappuccino for when he wakes up, not too much foam... ANNA You re not "some guy" anymore, Hudson. Right now, you're the only guy. Without your help, I.... Anna looks to Hawk with a choked-up expression. The weight of the world on his shoulders, Hawk turns away to a lovely view, his mind painfully raging and swirling toward peaceful clarity. HAWK The world is beautiful. Every day in prison I made sure to remember that. It's only when I actually got out that I forgot. If I was sane, I'd be on that plane to Rio. But being beaten and abused to fulfill some corporation's perverted vision does something to your mental health. The world is beautiful and I'm tired of being fucked. (turning around) It's Darwin and Minerva's turn to bite the pillow... Anna involuntarily does the sign of the cross. Alex goodnaturedly does a jerking off motion. ANNA That was beautiful. ALEX I laughed, I cried. Shaking his head, Hawk swipes the plane tickets from Alex. HAWK Rio, Alex? After all they've done to...Hey, these tickets are for Moscow! ALEX (knowing smile) Damn travel agency. That Kremlin thing is in Moscow, isn't it? A proud Hawk slaps Alex on the back as some passing ITALIAN LOCALS stop to stare, horrified, at Alex's bullet holes. Anna sweetly intervenes. ANNA Ketchup. Stupido Americani... The locals give off a slightly dazed "A-a-h" and move off. INT. THE CONFERENCE ROOM--DAY Wind blows through the shattered conference room window. Snickers is banging on his computer apparatus at the table with the Mayflowers and the other agents. KAPLAN We're all family now. My team has done a lot of rougher things than steal the model of a helicopter. SNICKERS We're going to whack this place so fast we'll have time to shop for American imports. Darwin and Minerva politely smile and then turn away to each other with knowing looks. The computer screen shows the familiar image of the Kremlin building that turns into a complex look at interiors the viewer will later see. ALMOND JOY Lucky for us, the Da Vinci is located in a wing of the Kremlin that they used to throw the Miss Ukraine pageant and stuff. It'll have the least number of guards.... KAPLAN As for our plan of action, anybody'd be insane to go in from the ground floor... INT. A VAN-BUS--NIGHT A head-rubbing Hawk and a stomach rubbing Alex kneel on the floor of a moving van, over a barely legible drawing of what was so neatly delineated on the CIA computer. Both guys are dressed as priests and are chewing gum. ALEX We're going in from the ground floor. HAWK Geez, this Art Treasures Room looks like a burnt diaphragm. Hawk laughs and pops up into the passenger seat. Anna is revealed to be driving in her habit. Hawk gives her a kiss. HAWK Hey, don't take your disguise so seriously. ANNA Uh, yeah. Guess I'm a wee bit nervous. I'm sorry I could only score clergy passports. HAWK Fits my new image. A thief for the masses. This is one job I'm not going to feel guilty about enjoying. Gum. Hawk, Alex, and Anna all spit out their gum into a bag Hawk holds. ALEX The security's actually not that severe. ANNA It doesn't have to be. Everybody knows that if you mess with the Kremlin, you'll end up in a Siberian gulag eating your own fingernails. Hawk takes in some views of Moscow that remind one of Budapest. HAWK Shwoof, that makes me feel better. I can't believe this is the Iron Curtain. All the guy at Airport customs wanted to know was "Who Shot J.R.?" ALEX You sound disappointed. HAWK Yeah, I mean, come on, going through the Iron Curtain is supposed to be crawling underneath barbed wire, it's supposed to be strangling a guard... THE VAN passes a textbook shot of the Kremlin in the distance. HAWK (V.O.) It's supposed to be parachuting in the moonlight.... EXT. THE TOP OF THE KREMLIN--NIGHT Kaplan, Snickers, Almond Joy, and Butterfinger slam down upon the roof of the Kremlin and discard their parachutes. Snickers opens up his computer screen, upon which is the image-map of the Kremlin with a flashing blue light at the top of the building and a flashing green one inside. SNICKERS We are the blue light. The green light is where the Art Treasures room is. KAPLAN Let's go make a purple light. Where's Kit Kat? EXT. THE KREMLIN GROUNDS Dressed in cat burglar black and all chewing gum, Hawk, Alex, and Anna crawl across the Kremlin grounds. They scope out a shabby Delivery Entrance. ALEX Delivery Entrance. Low Security. ANNA Gum. All three spit out their gum into Hawk's bag. HAWK Count of three? ALEX Why not just go now? HAWK Okay. The Trio rush for the door. THE KREMLIN ROOF SOVIET GUARD ONE comes out on the roof to light a cig- arette. He looks in the distance to the motivating CIA team. Suddenly a card floats down into his hand. It reads: WILLIAM TELL. ADAM'S APPLE. GET IT? The not-getting-it Guard looks up from the card as a grinning Kit Kat parachutes behind him. The Guard swerves around and Kit Kat savagely skewers him with a crossbow shot to his Adam's apple. THE DELIVERY ENTRANCE Hawk, Anna, and Alex race to the door, the latter bashes it... INT. GRUNGY WHITE FOYER open and sets off an annoying hammer-against-bell alarm. Alex all-fours beneath the alarm. Hawk does a Michael Jordan vault off Alex's back and slam dunks A MASSIVE BALL OF USED-GUM, pulled from his bag, between the hammer and the bell, cutting off the sound. They rush ahead. EXT. THE KREMLIN ROOF The agents are trotting across the roof when a phone on Snickers' apparatus rings. Kaplan answers it. KAPLAN Everything's going fine, Minerva, thanks for asking... INT. NONDESCRIPT HALLWAY Minerva chats on a cellular moving down a hallway, with Darwin, who is holding in his laughter as if this was a great crank. MINERVA I say who needs this Hudson Hawk anyway.... INT. A GRAND BALLROOM The good guys scurry upon the second level of an epic and gorgeous ballroom. Two lush staircases lead up from the floor. From behind a pillar, the gang checks out the activity below. A tablecloth is being wrangled over a large table at the opposite end of the ballroom by SERVANTS. Threaten- ing SOVIET SOLDIERS maneuver on the floor. HAWK (Wizard of Oz) Oh-Eee-Oh-A-Whoa-Oh. They then make a mad scuffle across their side of the second level, hunkering down by the level railing. As they move into another wing hallway, the viewer's viewpoint moves back down to the ballroom floor to see a gloating DARWIN AND MINERVA ENTER, the latter still on the phone. MINERVA Everybody here, in Rome, wishes you tinsel boxes of love... The servants move away from the tablecloth and the table, revealing that it is shaped like an M. A GROUP OF SERIOUS SOVIET V.I.P.'s come out to join the Mayflowers at the table. THE ROOF Kaplan hangs up the phone. KAPLAN Lazy, rich, condescending bitch. The team moves up to the rooftop doorway where Kit Kat is. He holds up an "About Time" card. The agents laugh and greet them. INT. A VERY LONG, ENIGMATIC HALLWAY Hawk, Alex, and Anna pass through a set of windowed double doors into a very long hallway that leads into a pitch darkness. A MURAL OF A HAPPY, ARM-STRETCHED LENIN looms above the doors. They give it a a quick glance before pulling out screwdrivers and wire hangers. ALEX Eighth room down, babe... ANNA Guards come exactly every three minutes.... HAWK Three. Oh. Oh. "Side by Side." Our trio charges down the hallway. HAWK "Oh, we ain't got a barrel of money. ALEX "Maybe we're ragged and funny." They reach a MASSIVE SPOOKY DOOR WITH AN ODD, ANCIENT LOCK. They go to work on it. Not losing the beat. HAWK AND ALEX "But we'll travel along, singing a song. Side by Side..." INT. TOP FLOOR HALLWAY With a gust of wind, Kaplan and the Candy Bars bluster through the rooftop door into another hallway, where SOVIET GUARDS TWO AND THREE are taking it easy. KAPLAN Create a diversion. Snickers and Butterfinger calmly blow away both guards with silenced mini-Uzis. SOVIET GUARD FOUR rushes out a door before the agents, zipping up his fly. Almond Joy twists his neck with an agonizing SNAP. THE LONG HALLWAY Hawk, Anna, and Alex retreat beneath the Lenin mural through the windowed double doors. Behind the doors, they poke up to see a BESPECTACLED GUARD emerge from the darkness to check out the door. ALEX Now that's a lock. HAWK Don't worry, we'll get it... ANNA Can I sing this time, too? Please? Hawk and Alex are not thrilled about the idea, but Anna's eye flutter does it. HAWK Uh, I guess so. The Bespectacled Guard moves back into the darkness. THE BALLROOM The Soviet V.I.P.'s open up presents of pink L.A. GEAR tennis shoes, silly T-shirts, and Nintendo joysticks as a standing Darwin hypnotizes them. DARWIN I look at you Soviet people and I feel... pity... superiority. Most of your life, your government has told you that Capitalism turns people into robots who'd rather eat microwave sushi, naked in the back of a Cadillac than hear the laughter of children. MINERVA (smiling) We're here to say, your government was right. DARWIN So let's get busy. Have some fun and make some deals. AT THE LOCK Alex holds a lit match into the lock, while Hawk does something incomprehensible with a screwdriver. They are improvising... HAWK "Oh this lock is a pain in the bu-utt" ALEX "How'd we ever get such in a ru-utt" Anna suddenly, booms out the chorus in a way that Hawk and Alex can barely concentrate. ANNA "But we'll travel the road, Sharing the load. Side by Side!" THE HALLWAY ABOVE The CIA team saunters through corpses up to a door similar in lock and design to the one Hawk and Alex are working on. Snickers's computer screen shows the blue light directly above the green light. SNICKERS This is the room above the Art Treasures room. The lock is a Natalya Z-Z, first created... ALMOND JOY Snickers, baby, I love you like a brother, but really, who cares? Silencer bomb... Butterfinger pulls from around his shoulder a strange rifle. He attaches to the front of it;, a glass encased, suctioning time-bomb from a waist satchel. He fires the bomb against the door and it starts ticking. BEHIND THE WINDOWED DOUBLE DOORS come Hawk, Alex, and Anna, panting. HAWK That was close.... ALEX Anna, I think you better stay.... HAWK You can be lookout!..... Take Alex's gun. Alex hands Anna his gun, who glumly takes it like a Little Sister not allowed to play. Hawk and Alex go back through the doors. THE HALLWAY ABOVE The CIA bomb blows up the door with a weird silencer sound. Kaplan and the Candy Bars giddily whoop as they rush through the smoking door. THE BALLROOM--SECOND LEVEL Anna meanders across the second level muttering to herself in Italian and amusingly imitating Hawk's condescension. ANNA "You can be the lookout." Anna suddenly moves past the pillar to see the Mayflowers and the V.I.P.S. She gasps and hurls herself behind the second level railing. THE BALLROOM FLOOR A VERY DIGNIFIED SOVIET LEADER, in a SHIT HAPPENS baseball cap, addresses Darwin. SOVIET LEADER Before we serve you "the main course," hee, hee, we need to know specifics about what you can do for us. We-- DARWIN Bluntness. How amusingly Hungarian. Listen up, for reasons I don't want to get into, I recently had to close down a petroleum factory, but I'm going to re-build it here and Madonna's going to cut the ribbon! Frozen burritos in Leningrad. 1982 fantasy. 1992 reality. THE LOCK OUTSIDE THE DOOR Hawk and Alex more frantically toil on the lock. HAWK "We all had our quarrels and parted..." ALEX "But we'll be the same as we started... The lock clunks open. They race through the doors into... INT. THE ART TREASURE ROOM Hawk and Alex weave through the room which is crammed, with little nuance, to the gills with great art treasures including an impressive array of Faberge eggs. A solid gold hammer and sickle hang on one wall... HAWK AND ALEX "Just traveling along, singing a song. Side--" HAWK Geez, this place is a mess... ALEX Voila... They rumble toward an opening in the wall of the room covered by a small curtain that has the Da Vinci Man in the Circle drawing emblazoned across it. Hawk reaches for the curtain. Alex puts his arm around him and speaks, not sings. ALEX Side by side, man... Suddenly, the roof above them explodes. Kaplan and the Candy Bars drop down behind them. ALMOND JOY What the hell.... SNICKERS You're supposed to be dead! ALEX I'm a ghost. Boo. HAWK I don't want to sound immature, but we were here first... KAPLAN I wish I could think of those cute quips the way you can, Hawk, but I can't, so I'll just shoot Alex. Kaplan point blank shoots Alex in the chest. Alex crumples backward, moaning. Butterfinger, casually, but with incredible strength, holds Hawk's arms behind his back. HAWK No.... ALMOND JOY That was pretty uncool, George... KAPLAN Sorry, you know he kind of reminds me of Little Eddie. But I digress. Ah, victory is so sweet.... Kaplan pulls back the Da Vinci curtain. Nothing is there. THE BALLROOM BANQUET A SOVIET CHEF lifts up a silver domed serving tray, revealing the Da Vinci helicopter model. MINERVA Yum. This is the best meal I ever had... ANNA bulges her eyes at the revelation. She pulls out Alex's gun and bangs herself in the head. What to do.... THE ART TREASURES ROOM Kaplan is bugging out. KAPLAN Damnit, this isn't the plan! Blue light, green light, shit! Snickers, Kit Kat, A.J., scramble, see if you can find out anything. They thunder out. Hawk, still in Butterfinger's oblivious clutches, shouts.. HAWK Can't you see the Mayflowers double-crossed you... KAPLAN They may be scum, but if I get the Da Vinci model back, then we'll be roasting weenies on the beach. HAWK I don't think you'll appreciate their choice of weenie. Kaplan raises his gun. THE BALLROOM BANQUET Darwin holds the Da Vinci model in one hand and raises a glass of vodka in the other. DARWIN You're helping us achieve a goal and in return, I'm giving you a key to the world's executive washroom. Don't piss it away.... Skoal, amigos... ANNA (O.S.) Stop or I'll shoot. Minerva and some various Soviet VIPS spew their vodka to look up to Anna pointing a gun down at them from the second level. She is shivering, shaking the gun. ANNA You people are immoral and narcissitic and I won't let you... In unison, the Soviet Soldiers surrounding the table begin machine gunning up at her. She dives behind the railing. THE ART TREASURES ROOM Kaplan lowers his gun. KAPLAN I can't believe this. I'm in fucking Russia, or do I have to say, the fucking Soviet Union and I'm shooting a non-Bolshevick. (raising back up his gun) I never thought I'd say "I'm just in this job for the money." Sad. Any last immature quips? HAWK No. (a beat) But why do you let Butterfinger keep those blood stains on his shirt? Falling for the oldest trick in the book, Butterfinger looks down to his shirt. BUTTERFINGER What blood stains.... Hawk bounces up to savagely head-butt Butterfinger. Butterfinger slams back against a wall causing the Gold Sickle to fall down around his neck and knock him to the ground, pinning his head to the floor. The Gold Hammer next trembles off the wall and crushes Butterfinger's skull. HAWK You want immature, how 'bout an egg fight... Hawk flings a Faberge egg, smashing the gun out of Kaplan's hand. Hawk pelts a batch more at him. Kaplan sloppily whips some eggs back. Hawk finally smashes one in half and beans the jagged piece into Kaplan's eye. He squeals to the ground, geysering blood. Hawk swoops down to a wheezing, breath controlling Alex. HAWK Alex, are you.... ALEX I can't believe you didn't notice. My weight. I lost ten pounds in Rome HAWK You're a reed, man. I gotta get Anna. Hang in there... THE BALLROOM Bullets stop splintering around Anna at the railing as the soldiers fling out their empty cartridges to reload. Snickers, Almond Joy, and Kit Kat race out of the hall- way area into the ballroom area. They stop at the sight of Anna.... ALMOND JOY Anna-bannana-fo-fanna, I guess I have to cut out your heart for real now. It's not personal. Anna feebly raises her gun. Almond Joy laughs and pulls out a knife. ALMOND JOY You won't shoot. I read your dossier... Sister. The Soviet Soldiers snap in new cartridges as Almond Joy moves out from behind the pillar towards Anna. The Soldiers blast away at this newly appearing figure. Almond Joy ruptures and vibrates in a Sonny Corleone ballet. ALMOND JOY I gotta get a new job... Snickers and Kit Kat militarily roll on either side of Anna as their partner wilts to the ground. The men, Snickers with his mini-Uzi, Kit Kat with his cross- bow rifle, briefly leap up to fire down at the soldiers with some graphic success. Anna watches Darwin and Minerva head up the stairs to her level. She bolts off.... BALLROOM FLOOR The last of the Soviet VIPS flee as the Soldiers tip over the M shaped table on its side, using it for cover, firing upward. KIT KAT breaks off and scurries around the second level to get a position behind the M. He fires down an arrow for a successful kill. Another guard tries to fire up, but Kit Kat impales him to the back of the table with a quality shot. Kit Kat grins and reloads as Alfred, the butler, regally creeps behind him. HAWK comes out of the long hallway double doors up to where Anna is bustling. They hug... ANNA The Mayflowers got... Hawk and Anna turn to see the Mayflowers hastening in their direction. Noticing them back, the model-toting Mayflowers halt. KIT KAT turns to Alfred and fires his crossbow. Alfred effort- lessly cuts it in half with his blade and continues to move forward. Still smiling, Kit Kat tries to reload. MINERVA breaks the standstill. DARWIN What a pleasant surprise. You're probably wondering... HAWK But you're going to tell us anyway... MINERVA I hate a man with a sense of humor. While you corn dogs were comparing the lengths of your masculinity, we obtained the helicopter the new fashioned way: a thoroughly corrupt business deal. HAWK If you think you're getting past me... Grunting behind them, Snickers gun-butts Hawk to the ground. HAWK Don't be stupid...they... SNICKERS Bastard! If you were a true American. HAWK Just shut up and hit me! Snickers swings a punch. Hawk blocks it then whomps him in the chest. As they battle, Darwin grabs Anna's hair, slams her into a pillar, and watches her crumple. KIT KAT gets in an arrow but it's too late. Alfred stabs him deep, deep, deeply, and lifts him from the ground. A shower of cards reading "OUCH" "PAIN" and "THIS REALLY HURTS" rain from out of Kit Kat's coat. Alfred discards him over the edge. Kit Kat sails down upon the M. The lone card of "FUCK" plops from his open eyed corpse. HAWK and Snickers trades fierce blows, stumbling down a staircase. DARWIN and Minerva watch the fight with amusement. Alfred approaches. DARWIN Alfred, the getaway car... SNICKERS slashes Hawk in the arm with a small but sinister blade. HAWK Damnit, I hate this! I'm a cat burglar! Nobody said anything about this fight-to-the-death shit. SNICKERS Too bad. Snickers goes for a final thrust when suddenly one of the silencer time bombs suctions to his head. Hawk turns to see Alex, barely standing, at the top of the stairs, holding the strange rifle. Darwin and Minerva turn to this dramatic entrance. They start to trot off... MINERVA I knew it! I told you it was a fake. DARWIN That New-York-Italian-Father- made-twenty-bucks-a-week-son- of-a-bitch. What was our bet? A million? MINERVA Million five, lover... HAWK boots Snickers down the stairs. Snickers somersaults up and frantically tries to pull off the bomb. Snickers wails to the soldiers, who have lowered their guns and are poking their heads out of the M to watch. SNICKERS Help me you Democratic Reform lovers! Get a screwdriver, you Stupid Eskimoes! Screw-dri-ver! Oh God, I always wanted to know how to play the harp, there just was so little time! Rosebud! The soldiers high-tail it out. Snickers plugs his ears. Nothing happens. SNICKERS Maybe it was just a.... Snickers blows up gloriously before the M. THE STAIRCASE Hawk bounds up to Alex, who puffs down onto the steps. ALEX Get 'em. They went down the hallway. HAWK Let's just forget it, I mean... ALEX Get em.... Hawk rushes up the. stairs, gives a "What can I do?" glance to the unconscious Anna, and then continues rushing, past a pillar. Minerva emerges from behind the pillar and moves forward. THE LONG ENIGMATIC HALLWAY Hawk chugs beneath the Lenin mural and down the hall- way. He sees Darwin breezing in front of him. Darwin looks back to Hawk then runs forward into the darkness. THE BALLROOM Minera sits down next to the pained Alex. MINERVA Alex. How's it going? ALEX Go, go to Hell, to Hell. Minerva pulls out a candy bar and rips it open. MINERVA Where's your insulin....No? Well, Bon Appetite. Minerva savagely slams Alex's head down and shoves the candy bar in his mouth. THE HALLWAY Hawk moves closer and closer to the darkness of the hallway when a one-eyed and bleeding George Kaplan dives out of the Art Treasures room and tackles him. Hawk kicks him off... HAWK Oh, come on.... THE BALLROOM Alex gulps down the last of the candy bar, shivering. MINERVA Very good, Alex, but you re still alive.... She pulls out another candy bar. Alex, with a last burst of strength, punches her across the face. MINERVA That's fair. THE LONG HALLWAY Hawk and Kaplan lock onto each other's throats. HAWK Why does this have to be so hard... KAPLAN Tell me about it... Suddenly, of all things, a car is heard rumbling in the darkness. Hawk and Kaplan stop fighting and turn to see THE MAY- FLOWER LIMOUSINE screeching out of the darkness with Darwin standing out of the sunroof firing a gun. Bullets fly around them. From his back pocket, Hawk slaps the nice picture of him and Little Eddie into Kaplan's hands. HAWK Take this to Hell with you... Hawk jumps up and grabs a hanging lamp. Deranged with confusion, Kaplan turns from the picture to the charging limousine. KAPLAN My pension..... The driving Alfred smiles through the windshield. Kaplan's body slams into a vivid somersaulting crash into the windshield. Hawk's hands burn and sizzle on the hanging lamp. Passing beneath, Darwin raises up his gun. Hawk lets go of the lamp and drops down on Darwin, locking his legs around his neck and crushing him down into.... THE BACKSEAT OF THE LIMOUSINE Hawk and Darwin grapple on the floor of the limo. The Da Vinci helicopter model bobs on the backseat. Darwin's gun goes off.. right through Alfred's throat. He slumps over, pressing down on the accelerator. THE LIMOUSINE blasts down the hallway, sparking off the wall, and bashing off paintings and mirrors. THE BACKSEAT Darwin flicks on his paper shredder and shoves the side of Hawk's hand into its teeth. OUTSIDE THE LIMOUSINE A mist of blood coughs out of the shredder vent and makes a weird bloody line across the wall. INT. BACKSEAT Hawk yanks his hand from the shredder and grabs the meg- lomaniac by the hair and shoves his head down on the arm rest. Hawk turns on the piercing siren and Darwin's eyes try to escape his head with a high pitched scream. Darwin's entire body bucks wildly. Darwin back-elbows Hawk and moves down for his gun. Hawk pulls him back by his hair, grabs him by the balls, and pushes him upward through the sunroof. DARWIN God-damnit, I only wanted to destroy the world in my own image. I'm a regular Joe... Darwin pounds his fists on Hawk's head as Hawk hits the sunroof switch sliding it shut on Darwin, pinning his arms below the roof, but leaving his torso twisting in the wind. The mural of a happy Lenin with his arms outstretched looms ahead waiting to greet Darwin. Putting two and two together, Darwin loses it.... DARWIN Not Lenin, anybody but Lenin. God, let's talk abut this. The limousine charges through the double doors and Darwin's body connects with the mural. INSIDE THE LIMO Hearing the crunch, Hawk flips into the front seat and brakes the vehicle. Alfred's head bounces against the steering wheel. Hawk reaches over with a grin and picks up the Da Vinci model. He looks to Alfred, Kaplan crunched in the windshield, and Darwin's dangling legs. HAWK Wow, this is really gonna hurt the resale value... THE BALLROOM Hawk runs up to a woozy Anna and helps her up. She has a cross-shaped blood stain on her forehead. HAWK Oh, honey.... Hawk looks to Alex, sitting on the stairs, the same way he left him. Hawk rushes to him. HAWK We did it man, we... Hawk grabs Alex's shoulder. Alex falls back. Written over his face in red lipstick is REALLY DEAD. Engaging a slow motion sequence, Minerva saunters behind Anna, putting on red lipstick. Minerva slams her back to the ground. Hawk howls then turns to see stiff-upper-lip Alfred, bleeding from the neck. Hawk tries to throw a punch, but Alfred blocks it and crunches him across the face. The Da Vinci helicopter model bounces down the stairs in slow motion and cracks open, revealing the intricate mirror of the opening scene. INT. DARK ROOM ATOP MAYFLOWER MUSEUM--DAY A damaged Hawk awakens in a dungeonish room and stumbles to some shutters. "O Solo Mio" returns on the sound- track as the shutters open to a postcard view of Vinci. Hawk closes the shutters and cuts off the music. A slightly more composed Anna touches his shoulder causing him to jump slightly. They melt into a kiss. ANNA Oh Hudson... HAWK I told you not to call me Hudson. The only people who called me that were the nuns at... ANNA Oh Hudson, I'm a sister of the Catholic church as well as an agent. HAWK (cut-off laugh) This is too bad to be false. Alfred enters the room in his favorite outfit with a bandage around his neck. His voice is strange, but still polite. ALFRED Welcome back to Vinci. HAWK Last rites, sister? ANNA Please, no nun jokes...They're a bad habit to get into....get it? Hawk and Anna unconvincingly laugh then sadly pause. HAWK She killed Alex. Alfred gives them a push. INT. THE DA VINCI WORKSHOP Alfred leads them through the Da Vinci workshop past the bat winged glider and incongruously crammed-in tennis ball machine. INT. THE ROOM OF THE GOLD MACHINE--DAY Alfred grandly opens double-doors to reveal that Da Vinci's gold machine has been majestically re-created piece by piece. In the periphery, the 90's rears its head in the form of THREE TECHNICIANS wearing headsets and gun holsters who consult computer terminals. MINERVA (O.S.) GOLD-FI-ING-ER! Hawk and Anna turn to see Minerva splashily enter in sexy funeral-wear. MINERVA Sorry, I couldn't resist. You're probably wondering why you're still alive. Anna..... As Minerva speaks, TECHNICIAN ONE forcibly escorts Anna toward a stand near the gold machine and tightly handcuffs her to it. MINERVA I want you to monitor the Da Vinci's directions from the apprentice diary. And Hawk, I didn't want you to go to hell without knowing that Darwin and I's dream came true. (suddenly sheepish) Beside that, none of us can seem to put that damn crystal together. Alfie and I were up all night with the thing. TECHNICIAN TWO commences a forcible escort of Hawk to the gold machine. Hawk cold-cocks him to the ground. HAWK You killed a friend. Why should I help you go for the gold? MINERVA It'll take a couple of years of steady production, but I'll flood the market with so much gold that gold itself, the foundation of all finance, will lose its meaning. Brokers, economists, and fellow entrepreneurs will drown in the saliva of their own nervous breakdowns. Markets will crash- crash. Financial Empires will crumble-crumble. HAWK Except yours-yours. The goal of world domination. Well, if you put it that way, Minnie. How can I resist? MINERVA You can't, convict! You're just a shmoe! Every shmoe has the fantasy the planet revolves around them. It rains, car crash stops traffic, you say "How could this happen to me?" It's a natural inclination. But for I, this isn't a fantasy, it is reality! You are on my planet! You walk around the corner for coffee, out of my sight, you do not fucking exist! The lives of shmoes like you have meaning only in relation to the rich, to the powerful, to ME! Anna looks at the oil cloth diary before her. She pulls a compact from her pocket and holds the compact mirror over the scribblings. Reading off the reflection, her eyes widen. ANNA Do it. There's no reason to fight anymore. She's a force of nature. Trying to get a grip on Anna's words, Hawk lets himself be escorted to another stand before the gold machine that has the two complex crystal parts and the weird mirror. MINERVA If you pull this off, I can't promise I won't kill you. I mean, who we trying to kid? But I will spare the Flying Nun here.... HAWK And to think I thought you were Evil Incarnate in pumps. MINERVA I killed some lovable working class Italian-diabetic, but you killed the most significant male figure of the decade and a kind, gentle lover. So don't play with me. Minerva flicks a switch on the stand Anna's handcuffed to. Anna vibrates, being electrocuted. HAWK Okay, fine! Minerva switches it off. Giving himself a head rub, Hawk bears down on the three oddly malleable objects. He TANGLES and BENDS and with a loud SNAP, puts them together, forming the Crystal from the opening scene. Minerva snatches it from him and puts on a head-set. MINERVA Oh Hawk, don't ever change. Go, team, go! Minerva giddily sets the crystal in the same place as Da Vinci had it in his machine. Using a long steel pole, Technician One adjusts a myriad of mirrors so they are in a proper angle with a series of lenses culminating on the top of the machine. Technicians Two (black-eyed) and Three pour various chemical powders and liquids into corresponding compart- ments on the machine, beautifully decorated by the chemical's zodiac sign. Alfred places a lead bar in its proper place. Hawk glides to Anna and undoes her handcuff. HAWK I hope you know what.... ANNA Trust Leonardo.... HAWK Wha..... Anna puts her fingers on his lips. Minerva throws a lever. Steam begins to percolate from the furnace towards the machine. MINERVA (into the headset) We're for real. THE MACHINE begins to rotate, at first clunkily, then faster. The Crystal rotates comfortably in its compartment. The machine throws out its folding arms, each with an element. The arms click higher. The goggled technicians stand before a time-coded video monitor, taking notes. The chemical housings open and the chemicals begin to spill and drop through brass tubes. ANNA murmurs to Hawk. ANNA Da Vinci made the real directions in a secret script that I decoded. The way the machine is running now, the gold will produce too quickly, clog, and the machine will shut itself down. Isn't it wonderful? HAWK Yeah, but what would happen if that little mirror came out of the crystal. ANNA Wha -- you don't want to know... Hawk pulls out the mirror from his pocket. HAWK I wanna know... ANNA Holy sh-h--things are going to get very interesting, very fast. Da Vinci would be proud of you. IN THE MACHINE The chemicals snake down their individual paths to the Lead Bar spinning its trough. There's a FLASH and a controlled but jarring explosion. EVERYONE doubletakes. Hawk reaches down to the six foot steel pole and with one swing slams the faces of all three deep in concentration Technicians to the ground. Oblivious to the violence behind her, Minerva, pulling on goggles over her head-set, moves closer with a religious purr. THE MACHINE triggers a fresnel lens and laserlike beams bounce around the mirrors faster and faster, circling the room. OUTSIDE THE MACHINE Hawk and Anna squint, blinded. Flinging off her goggles, A literally beaming Minerva giggles forward. THE MACHINE Beams of light converge on the top mirror and bounce into the innards of the machine with a mighty roar! MINERVA sees that the center of the machine gleams yellowish and molten. She moves closer, shouting into her head-set. MINERVA Eureka, motherfuckers! The machine thunders and spins at a more aggressive pace. Hawk's voice suddenly comes on Minerva's head-set. HAWK'S VOICE (head-set) Minnie, hate to interrupt your orgasm, but.... HAWK AND ANNA stand above the unconscious Technicians. Hawk is on head-set. HAWK Me, Anna, and Leonardo just wanna say you got the Midas touch, baby... MACHINE Minerva turns toward the machine in anger and confusion. The center of the machine blows. The pool of molten gold rockets at the viewer. Mirrors explode and the lasers slash at the walls. Minerva tumbles from the machine, screaming, that is to say, trying to scream, because molten gold covers her face. It bubbles and cascades, turning her into a bizarrely beautiful echo of Nefertiti. HAWK AND ANNA turn to retreat, and see, standing in the mouth of the open double doors, in an open shirt, wearing Indian war paint on his face and the words RULE BRITANNIA painted on his chest, ALFRED! ALFRED How. HAWK You're unemployed, Alfie. Boss is dead. Her plan is over. ALFRED (strange voiced) My plan is just beginning. I'll forgive you for denying me the pleasure of slaughtering my boorish employers, but I'm afraid the birth of the new British Empire can have no witnesses! HAWK Ooh-kay... Alfred rushes forward with a howl. Hawk meets him halfway. They trade savage punches and then lock onto each other's throats. Anna pulls a gun from a technician's holster and prays for forgiveness. She aims steadily, and fires... right into Hawk's arm. This allows Alfred to knock him back with a strong punch. ANNA Sorry! She fires again. The bullet pings off Hawk's belt buckle. HAWK Stop helping me! Thou shalt not kill! Hawk's turning to chastize Anna, allows Alfred to kick Hawk back against a wall. Alfred lunges out with his blade, hitting the wall off-angle. Hawk yanks the shaft. Alfred goes with the flow and presses the shaft on Hawk's throat. Gasping, Hawk looks to a rip in Alfred's shirt and sees a hinge and lever on the shaft. With an all or nothing jerk, Hawk flicks the lever. The shaft clicks on the hinge. Alfred's greater strength and narrower grip makes it fold away from Hawk and suddenly it is Alfred's throat which is caught in the V-shaped trap! The momentum of the sudden change makes Alfred stumble towards the wall until the point of the "V" hits it-- HAWK Don't lose your head over this. Hawk takes the six foot steel pole and gives a Babe Ruth swing right onto the V. The blades slam together and POP ALFRED'S HEAD OFF, SENDING IT SCREAMING DISEMBODIED, HIGH IN THE AIR. ALFRED'S SCREAMING HEAD P.O.V. Hawk and Anna are seen waving up to the viewer (Alfie's head). HAWK Excuse my crass American humor. The machine thunders with another explosion. THE DA VINCI WORKSHOP Hawk and Anna rush into the Da Vinci workshop. She guiltily touches the surface wound on his arm. He delicately takes the gun from her and laughs until he sees... BUNNY THE DOG!! standing in the open mouth of the workshop. Anna turns to Hawk... ANNA Allow me. Anna confidently moves toward the dog until Bunny leaps up and savagely clamps his teeth into her throat sending her crashing to the ground. Hawk pauses in disbelief before raising the gun. Bunny continues to viciously gnaw away on the convulsing Anna, blood gently starts to emerge. Hawk can't get off a shot. He throws down the gun in exasperation. It lands next to The Gadget that is connected to the Tennis Ball Machine. Hawk rushes forward, picks up the gadget, turns the dial to Ten, and then smiles sweetly toward the dog. HAWK Oh Bunny, Ball-Ball. Bunny stops his violent behavior and perkily looks up blood droplets drizzling from his mouth. Hawk slams down on the gadget. A tennis ball comes rocketing out of the machine. Bunny leaps and catches the rocketing ball but the force of it sends him FLYING AND CRASHING out a window. Hawk pulls up Anna as the machine completely EXPLODES. A huge chunk of the roof THUDS before the workshop door. Hawk suddenly looks off-camera and smiles. Anna shakes her head vigorously. He pulls her out of the frame. EXT. A VINCI COUNTRYSIDE TREE A man awakens from a nap and pulls up his hat. It is THE TRAVELING JUGGLER WITH THE UNFORGETTABLY ETCHED FACE. He pulls his three red balls from a pouch on his mule. He begins a stoic juggle when another loud BOOM sends him to the ground. EXT. OUTSIDE THE GRAND CASTLE--DAY An explosion of steam and gas blows out the windows! Debris frisbees toward the camera along with.... Anna, hanging on Hawk's waist, and Hawk, hanging from the bar on DA VINCI'S BAT WINGED GLIDER. The glider gracefully swooshes down through the castle - through the glorious vista. EXT. THE ROAD TO THE CASTLE The glider floats to a perfect landing before the Unforgettable Juggler. JUGGLER Che pazzo.... Hawk and Anna collect themselves and look up to the smoke billowing castle. They smile and gush in relief. They wrap arms around the confused but warming up Juggler and laugh again. A SMALL PIAZZA The mule trots into a small storybook piazza in the hush of dawn. Hawk, Anna, and the unforgettable Juggler ride atop it. A WOMAN WITH AN UNFORGETTABLY ETCHED FACE moves to a cafe table with a luminous smile. She unfolds a table cloth atop it and then mystically sets down two cappuccinos. Hawk and Anna dismount, thank the Juggler, then cozy into the table. HAWK Have I ever told you the world is beautiful... (semi-seductively) I'd really like to play Nintendo with you, or something... ANNA Hudson, I'm afraid I'm sticking with God. (smiling) But you're a close second, tough guy. What is that smile? HAWK (broadly grinning) I got my planet back. Hawk puts on a pair of sunglasses that look exactly like the ones Da Vinci wore in the opening and raises his cup. HAWK The first one's for Alex. Cheers. The viewer's viewpoint moves into Hawk's lips having a sip of that damn unmasculine European coffee. FADE OUT. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Hudsucker Proxy, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hudsucker Proxy, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c9d3c4fc22b073cb67e60caffa0c00230b15cab1 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hudsucker Proxy, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +"THE HUDSUCKER PROXY" Written by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, and Sam Raimi September 1992 Draft BLACK No image. A bleak WIND MOANS. HOLD. With a STINGING CHORD we -- CUT TO: CITY SKYLINE - NIGHT (CIRCA 1958) Lights twinkle. Snow falls. The WIND MOANS. After a beat, the voice of an elderly black man: NARRATOR (V.O.) The's right... New York. We are TRACKING HIGH THROUGH the night sky. From the streets far below we hear the sounds of TRAFFIC muffled by the falling snow, and the DISTANT sound of many VOICES SINGING. We are DRIFTING AMONG the buildings; the tops of skyscrapers slip by left and right. NARRATOR (V.O.) It's 1958 -- anyway, for a few mo' minutes it is. Come midnight it's gonna be 1959. A whole 'nother feelin'. The New Year. The future... The SINGING, a little MORE AUDIBLE, but still not close, is "Auld Lang Syne." NARRATOR (V.O.) ...Yeah ole daddy Earth fixin' to start one mo' trip 'round the sun, an' evvybody hopin' this ride 'round be a little mo' giddy, a little mo' gay... We are MOVING IN TOWARDS a particular skyscraper. At its top is a large illuminated clock. NARRATOR (V.O.) Yep... We hear a SERIES OF POPPING sounds. NARRATOR (V.O.) ...All over town champagne corks is a-poppin'. A big band WALTZ MIXES UP on the track. NARRATOR (V.O.) ...Over in the Waldorf the big shots is dancin' to the strains of Guy Lombardo... Down in Times Square the little folks is a-watchin' and a- waitin' fo' that big ball to drop... The LOMBARDO MUSIC gives way to the CHANTING of a distant CROWD: "Sixty! Fifty-nine! Fifty-eight!" NARRATOR (V.O.) ...They all tryin' to catch holt a one moment of time... The CHANTING has MIXED back DOWN AGAIN TO leave only the WIND. Still TRACKING IN TOWARD the top of the skyscraper, we begin to hear the TICK of its enormous CLOCK. The clock reads a minute to twelve. Above it, in neon, a company's name: "HUDSUCKER INDUSTRIES." Below it, in neon, the company's motto: "THE FUTURE IS NOW." NARRATOR (V.O.) ...to be able to say -- 'Right now! This is it! I got it!' 'Course by then it'll be past. (more cheerfully) But they all happy, evvybody havin' a good time. We are MOVING IN ON a darkened penthouse window next to the clock. The window starts to open. NARRATOR (V.O.) ...Well, almost evvybody. They's a few lost souls floatin' 'round out there... A young man is crawling out of the window onto the ledge. With the opening of the window, "AULD LANG SYNE" filters out with greater volume. NARRATOR (V.O.) ...This one's Norville Barnes. The man gingerly straightens up on the ledge. He is perhaps in his late twenties. He wears a leather apron. Printed on the apron: "HUDSUCKER MAIL ROOM/The Future is Now." He looks with nervous determination into the void. NARRATOR (V.O.) ...Let's move in for a closer look. The CAMERA obliges. We TRACK IN SLOWLY, ENDING VERY CLOSE. NARRATOR (V.O.) ...That office he jes stepped out of is the office of the president of Hudsucker Industries. It's his office... Norville sways in anguish as the TICKING of the CLOCK grows louder and the WIND blows in his face. NARRATOR (V.O.) ...How'd he get so high? An' why is he feelin' so low? Is he really gonna do it -- is Norville really gonna jelly up the sidewalk? Norville is tensing his body, peering out over the ledge, preparing to make a swan dive into oblivion -- but the CAMERA'S continued MOVEMENT is LOSING him FROM FRAME. We are MOVING IN ON the enormous CLOCK, whose MECHANICAL THRUM becomes very loud indeed. NARRATOR (V.O.) ...Well the future, that's something you can't never tell about... The second hand of the clock is nearing the twelve -- bare seconds to midnight. Distant CHANTING from Times Square MIXES UP: "Nine! Eight! Seven!" NARRATOR (V.O.) ...But the past... That's another story... OVER BLACK The HUM of the CLOCK SINKS UNDER the HISS of an AIRBRAKE and GRINDING GEARS as we... CUT TO: DESTINATION DISPLAY On the front of a bus just rocking to a halt. The display says "MUNCIE-NEW YORK." LINE OF BAGS is being set out on the pavement. A man with the cuffs of a redcap uniform swings one into the f.g.: It has a sticker on it: CLASS OF '58, and below an illustration of crossed right and left hands, their thumbs hooked and fingers spread like wings: MUNCIE COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION. After a beat the hand of its claimant ENTERS to pick it up. DISSOLVE TO: STREET FOLLOWING the bag as its owner carries it down the street. He pauses, sets it down. YOUNG MAN Fresh-faced, eager -- NORVILLE BARNES. He is gazing off at: WESSELS EMPLOYMENT AGENCY The sign is over a ground floor office; an exterior clock shows 9:00. A curtain is just being pulled open in its picture window to reveal a great job board. It is like the departures board in a great train station, with each of its individual entries flipping over occasionally to reveal a new opportunity. On offer are jobs like: PASTRY CHEF, STEAMFITTER, LAY-OUT MAN, GRAVEDIGGER, etc. REVERSE On the small crowd gathered to, like Norville, watch the board -- men in search of jobs, of various classes and vocations, but alike in their intent gaze, their hands dug into their pockets, their hats pushed back on their heads, bobbing occasionally to get a better view of the chattering board. Men occasionally head for the office as they see a prospect they like. Norville stands pat, watching. HIS POV An entry flips over to reveal EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT. NORVILLE He brightens. BOARD We PAN ALONG the executive entry to EXPERIENCE REQUIRED. NORVILLE He frowns. Around him, the crowd is thinning out as men trot in to apply for their respective jobs. We see other entries: JUNIOR EXECUTIVE. PAN TO EXPERIENCE ONLY. EXECUTIVE MANAGER... MUST HAVE EXPERIENCE. BUSINESSMAN... EXPERIENCED. The CROSS-CUTTING ENDS in a wash of SUPER-IMPOSITIONS PANNING OVER Norviille, now alone on the sidewalk: EXPERIENCED ONLY... EXPERIENCED... EXPERIENCED... EXPERIENCED... CUT TO: CLOSE SHOT - EXECUTIVE A middle-aged, mousy-looking man in a conservative suit and wire-rimmed spectacles is addressing his remarks to someone O.S. Behind the Executive we see only the skyline of New York City. EXECUTIVE -- So in the third quarter we saw no signs of weakening. We're up 18 percent over last year's third quarter gross and, needless to say, that's a new record... TRACKING DOWN the LENGTH OF the board room table. Executives line either side. We are APPROACHING the man at the far end of the table, to whom the report is being directed. He is late middle-aged, dressed expensively but conservatively, his attention smilingly fixed on the Executive who drones on. EXECUTIVE ...The competition continues to flag and we continue to take up the slack. Market share in most divisions is increasing and we've opened seven new regional offices... The TRACK has ENDED IN a CLOSEUP of the man at the end of the table, who still smiles benignantly at the droning Executive. The smile is serene, almost otherwordly. This is WARING HUDSUCKER. REPORTING EXECUTIVE He drones on. EXECUTIVE ...Our international division has also shown vigorous upward movement in the past six months and we're looking at some exciting things in R&D... The CAMERA SLOWLY PANS OFF the droning Executive as the big man's attention apparently wanders; we FRAME UP ON the picture window skyline of New York. EXECUTIVE (V.O.) Sub-franchising. Don't talk to me about sub-franchising; we're making so much money in sub-franchising it isn't even funny. FOLDED-BACK WANT ADS A hand with pencil goes down a list of positions, ticking each one: STREETSWEEPER -- EXPERIENCED; LINOTYPE MAN -- EXPERIENCED; CANTOR (REFORM) -- EXPERIENCED; SPARRING PARTNER -- EXPERIENCED. WIDER Norville, sitting at a coffeeshop counter, sets the pencil down. His chin is sunk disconsolately into his palm. His hat is pushed back dejectedly on his head. He idly stirs his coffee with his spoon. He takes one last gulp of the coffee, then sets the cup down on the want ads, stands, and digs into his pocket for change, turning it inside-out. CLOSE ON COUNTER As Norville puts all his change on the counter. His hand hesitates; he takes a little of it back. He LEAVES FRAME. A waitress's hand ENTERS from the far side of the counter. She clears away the saucer, then the cup -- which has been resting on the want ads. It leaves a perfect brown circle around one entry: THE FUTURE IS NOW. Start building yours at Hudsucker Industries. Low pay. Long Hours. NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY. Apply Personnel, 285 Madison Avenue. As we hear the COFFEESHOP DOOR OPENING O.S., a draft wafts the sheet of newspaper off the counter and OUT OF FRAME. NEW YORK CITY SKYLINE Again LOOKING THROUGH the WINDOW as, O.S., the reporting Executive drones on. EXECUTIVE (O.S.) ...Our owned-and-operateds are performing far above expectations both here and abroad, and the Federal Tax Act of 1958 is giving us a swell writeoff on our plant and heavies... WARING HUDSUCKER looks dreamily out the window. His attention returns to the droning Executive and the benignant smile returns to his lips. EXECUTIVE ...The news in the money market isn't good -- it's excellent... CUT TO: NORVILLE'S BACK He walks dejectedly down the street, hands shoved into his pockets. A sheet of newspaper eddies INTO FRAME. The wind tosses it this way and that. Slap! -- It plasters against another pedestrian, who bats it away. The newspaper eddies around some more, then plasters against Norville. He peels it off and is about to toss it away but stops, noticing something. NEWSPAPER SCRAP It is a section of the want ads. One entry is perfectly circled by a coffee stain. BACK TO NORVILLE He looks up from the paper. There is purpose in his gaze. Wind whips his hair. CUT TO: CLOSE SHOT - WARING HUDSUCKER As the Executive drones on, O.S., Hudsucker is carefully winding his wristwatch. EXECUTIVE (O.S.) ...Our nominees and assigns continue to multiply and expand extending our influence regionally, nationally and globally. So, third quarter and year- to-date, we've set a new record for sales... Hudsucker looks up from his watch, smiles, runs his palms back over his fringe of hair. EXECUTIVE (O.S.) ...new record in gross... Hudsucker pulls his sleeve cuffs to expose just the right amount under the suit. EXECUTIVE (O.S.) ...new record in pre-tax earnings... Hudsucker takes one puff from his cigar and carefully sets it in his ashtray. EXECUTIVE (O.S.) ...new record in after-tax profit... He deliberately unstraps his wristwatch and looks at its face. The sweep second hand is starting the last revolution that will end at precisely noon. EXECUTIVE (O.S.) ...and our stock has split twice this year... Hudsucker lays the watch carefully on the table. EXECUTIVE (O.S.) ...In short... Savoring a pause, the Executive looks around the board table. EXECUTIVE ...we're loaded. This draws an appreciative chuckle from the board. It is cut off by: HUDSUCKER Ahem... The board turns expectantly to Hudsucker, who sits in the f.g. Beyond him is the length of the board table and the large picture window. He rises to his feet, slowly and deliberately, and rubs his palms together. He swings his chair out. He steps up onto the chair. The board stares. He steps up from the chair onto the board table. The heads of the board members swing up in unison. Hudsucker is FRAMED FROM MID-TORSO DOWN. He shakes the tension loose from each leg, then waggles both arms dangling at his sides, like an athlete preparing for a sprint. EXECUTIVE ...Mr. Hudsucker? CLOSE ON WANT ADS THE CIRCLED AD THE FUTURE IS NOW. Start building yours at Hudsucker Industries. Low pay. Long Hours. NO EXPERIENCED NECESSARY. Apply Personnel, 285 Madison Avenue. The hand holding the paper DROPS AWAY and we TILT UP, as Norville walks AWAY FROM us into the b.g., towards the office building across the street. Its street number tops its imposing entryway in large gilt letters: 285. We continue TILTING UP the length of the skyscraper, to reveal a huge clock capping its facade. Above the clock is the identification "HUDSUCKER INDUSTRIES." Below the clock is the motto "THE FUTURE IS NOW." The huge clock's sweep second hand is just approaching the position that will make the time 12:00 sharp. ANOTHER ANGLE As the second hand hits the twelve, the CLOCK TOLLS, the board room WINDOW SHATTERS and Waring Hudsucker comes flying out. HUDSUCKER Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh... SECRETARIAL AREA Somewhere in the Hudsucker Building. A secretary sits typing next to an open window, finished pages sitting stacked beside her. As we hear ANOTHER TOLL of the CLOCK. HUDSUCKER ...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh... As Hudsucker shoots past the window, his draft sends the stack of papers wafting this way and that. As the secretary turns to look out the window, FREEZE FRAME (wafting papers have their motion arrested) and SUPER A TITLE. TRACKING WITH Hudsucker, the building slipping by behind him. As he yells he calmly runs his palms back over his fringe of hair. The CLOCK TOLLS. FREEZE FRAME and SUPER A TITLE. HOT DOG VENDOR on the street, handing a steaming frank to a customer who is handing him some change. As we hear the APPROACHING HUDSUCKER, both men look up. As the CLOCK TOLLS: FREEZE FRAME and SUPER A TITLE. PASSERBY ON SIDEWALK The man, wearing a fedora, is in the f.g. of an EXTREME LOW ANGLE whose b.g. is the bottom three or four stories of the Hudsucker Building. The passerby reacts to the approaching yell, looking up just as Hudsucker ENTERS FRAME. FREEZE FRAME to suspend Hudsucker a good twenty feet above the sidewalk, arms and legs splayed, comically arrested. The passerby is frozen in an attitude of surprise and disbelief. SUPER the title of the film: THE HUDSUCKER PROXY. UNFREEZE to send Hudsucker plummeting THROUGH the FRAME to his rendezvous with the sidewalk, BELOW FRAME. DUTCH ANGLE The Hudsucker Building lists up into the distance. A woman in a fancy fruited hat with a black veil rises INTO FRAME AT an OPPOSING SLANT. Looking down at the sidewalk, she sends two dismayed hands to her cheek and screeeeeeeeeams. DISSOLVE THROUGH TO: EXT. TOP FLOOR With the LAST TOLL of the CLOCK punctuating the CUT, we are FLOATING IN TOWARDS the shattered board room window. The woman's SCREAM on the street below is FAINT, ECHOING, MIXING INTO the sound of an APPROACHING SIREN. THROUGH the window we see the BOARD MEMBERS still sitting around the table, paralyzed in attitudes of horror and disbelief. All stare at the shattered window in the f.g. At the far end of the table, Hudsucker's chair is empty and oddly askew. His cigar still smokes in its ashtray. There are dust footprints down the middle of the long oak table. One Executive sits with a pluming cigarette held halfway to his mouth; another holds a carafe suspended on its way to his water glass; another holds his spectacles inches from his nose. We hear only the HUM of the HUDSUCKER CLOCK. SID MUSSBURGER ENTERS FRAME at the window. He is a tall middle- aged executive with lean and rugged good looks and a commanding presence. He knocks a last piece of glass out of the sill with his knuckle, looks out, grunts, and draws his head back in. The CAMERA FOLLOWS him INTO the room. The other board members' heads swivel to watch him, all staring, searching desperately for some hint as to the fate of their fallen leader. Apparently, some absurd hope still lingers. Mussburger perches on the board table by his own chair. He reaches over to pluck the smoking cigar from the suicide's ashtray. MUSSBURGER Pity to waste a whole Monte Cristo. The other board members unfreeze, their worst fears confirmed. AN EXECUTIVE He could've opened the window. ELDERLY EXECUTIVE Waring Hudsucker never did anything the easy way. ADDISON My God, why?! Why did he do it?! Things were going so well! MUSSBURGER What am I a headshrinker? Maybe the man was unhappy. ADDISON He didn't look unhappy! EXECUTIVE Yeah, well, he didn't look rich. ELDERY EXECUTIVE Waring Hudsucker was never an easy man to figure out. (reminiscing) He built this company with his bare hands. Every step he took was a step up. Except of course this last one. MUSSBURGER Sure, sure, he was a swell guy, but when the president, chairman of the board and holder of eighty-seven percent of the company's stock drops forty-four floors -- PRECISE EXECUTIVE Forty-five -- ELDERY EXECUTIVE Counting the mezzanine -- MUSSBURGER -- Then the company has a problem. Stillson, what exactly is the disposition of Waring's stock? STILLSON Well, as you know, Hud left no will and had no family. The company bylaws are quite clear in that event. His entire portfolio will be converted to common stock and will be sold over the counter as of the first of the fiscal year following his demise. MUSSBURGER Meaning? STILLSON Meaning simply that Waring's stock, and control of the company, will be available to the public on January first. MUSSBURGER You mean to tell me that any slob in a smelly T-shirt will be able to buy Hudsucker stock? Stillson shrugs. STILLSON The company bylaws are quite clear. ADDISON My God! You're animals! How can you discuss his stock when the man has just leapt forty-five floors -- PRECISE EXECUTIVE Forty-four -- ELDERLY EXECUTIVE -- Not counting the mezzanine. MUSSBURGER Quit showboating, Addison, the man is gone. The question now is whether we're going to let John Q. Public waltz in and buy 87 percent of our company. PIPE-SMOKING EXECUTIVE What're you suggesting, Sidney? Certainly we can't afford to buy a controlling interest. MUSSBURGER Not while the stock is this strong. How long before Hud's paper hits the market? STILLSON January first. AN EXECUTIVE Thirty days. ANOTHER EXECUTIVE Four weeks. ADDISON A month at the most. MUSSBURGER One month to make the blue-chip investment of the century look like a round-trip ticket on the Titanic. AN EXECUTIVE We play up the fact that Hud is dead. ALL (in unison) Long live the Hud!! ANOTHER EXECUTIVE We depress the stock -- YET ANOTHER EXECUTIVE -- to the point where we can buy fifty-percent. PRECISE EXECUTIVE Fifty-one. ELDERLY EXECUTIVE Not counting the mezzanine. CAUTIOUS EXECUTIVE It could work. OPTIMISTIC EXECUTIVE It should work. PRACTICAL EXECUTIVE It would work. MUSSBURGER (at ticker tape machine) It's working already. Waring Hudsucker is abstract art on Madison Avenue. All we need now is a new president who will inspire real panic in our stockholders. ENTHUSIASTIC EXECUTIVE Yeah, a puppet! ANOTHER EXECUTIVE A proxy! YET ANOTHER EXECUTIVE A pawn! Mussburger strides across the room from the still CHATTERING TICKER TAPE MACHINE and lowers himself into Waring Hudsucker's chair. He takes a last puff from his cigar and slowly exhales a cloud of smoke. MUSSBURGER Sure, sure. Some jerk we can really push around. CUT TO: SWINGING STEEL DOORS that read, "MAILROOM." They burst open as Norville, who wears a mail clerk's leather apron, imprinted: HUDSUCKER MAILROOM/The Future is Now. The hellish mailroom is criss- crossed by pipes that emit HISSING jets of STEAM. As he wheels a piled-high mail cart down the aisle, Norville is accompanied by an orientation AGENT who bellows at him over the clamor and roar of many men laboring in the bowels of a great corporation. AGENT You punch in at 8:30 every morning except you punch in at 7:30 following a business holiday unless it's a Monday and then you punch in at eight o'clock! You punch in at 7:45 whenever we work extended day and you punch out at the regular time unless you've worked through lunch! NORVILLE What's exte -- AGENT Punch in late and they dock ya! People on either side bellow at Norville and stuff envelopes and packages under his elbows, into his pockets, under his chin, between his clenched teeth, etc. FIRST SCREAMER This goes to seven! Mr. Mutuszak! Urgent! AGENT Incoming articles, get a voucher! Outgoing articles, provide a voucher! Move any article without a voucher and they dock ya! SECOND SCREAMER Take this up to the secretarial pool on three! Right away! Don't break it! AGENT Letter size a green voucher! Folder size a yellow voucher! Parcel size a maroon voucher! THIRD SCREAMER This one's for Morgatross! Chop chop! AGENT Wrong color voucher and they dock ya! Six-seven-eight-seven-zero-four- niner-alpha-slash-six! That is your employee number! It will not be repeated! Without your employee number you cannot cash your paycheck! FOURTH SCREAMER This goes up to twenty-seven! If there's no one there bring it down to eighteen! Have 'em sign the waiver! DON'T COME BACK DOWN HERE WITHOUT A SIGNED WAIVER!! AGENT Inter-office mail is code 37! INTRA- office mail is 37-dash-3! Outside mail is 3-dash 37! Code it wrong and they dock ya! FIFTH SCREAMER I was supposed to have this on twenty- eight ten minutes ago! Cover for me! AGENT This has been your orientation! Is there anything you do not understand? Is there anything you understand only partially? If you have not been fully oriented -- if there is something you do not understand in all of its particulars you must file a complaint with personnel! File a faulty complaint... and they dock ya! CUT TO: NORVILLE standing in front of a shelf of cubbyholes. As we FOLLOW his hand drawing an 8 X 10 envelope across the line of alphabetized mail slots. The envelope is addressed to Max Kloppitt, Jr. NORVILLE (muttering to himself) ...Bring it down to fif(?)... fifteen... sign the voucher, uh, waiver... cover for Mr. Anatole... he's a swell guy... Morgatross... He was on, uh... He is COASTING ACROSS the "K" mail slots, finally COMES TO Max Kloppitt, Sr. His hand moves to the next slot, Max Kloppitt, Jr. This slot is half the size of all the others. The envelope will not fit in. He frowns. He is about to fold the envelope, but notices something stamped in red on its face. DO NOT FOLD. Norville frowns. As he stares at the envelope, we see envelopes swishing across the f.g., whipping one by one in rapid succession, left to right. CLOSEUP - ANCIENT SORTER An old man sitting at the adjacent shelf, sorting mail. Without ever even looking up, with a constant high-speed back and forth flicking of his right hand, he is whisking pieces of mail one by one out of the pile of mail in his left hand. ANCIENT SORTER'S SHELF As his letters fly furiously but neatly into their mail slots. NORVILLE He raises his voice over the mailroom din: NORVILLE Say, what do you do when the envelope is too big for the slot? The ANCIENT SORTER considers this as he continues whisking his mail. ANCIENT SORTER Well... if ya fold 'em, they fire ya... Whisk. Whisk. Whisk. ANCIENT SORTER ...I usually throw 'em out. Norville takes out a pencil and writes on the face of the envelope: INSERT - LETTER Dear Mr. Kloppit, Please give this letter to your son. Thank you, Norville Barnes. After a moment he adds: Your friend in the mailroom. BACK TO SCENE NORVILLE (talking as he writes) Just got hired today! ANCIENT SORTER Terrific. NORVILLE Ya know, entry level! ANCIENT SORTER Tell me about it. NORVILLE I got big ideas, though! ANCIENT SORTER I'm sure you do. NORVILLE For instance, take a look at this sweet baby... Norville is taking an envelope from his pocket and handing it to the Ancient Sorter. NORVILLE ...you look like you can keep a secret... The Ancient Sorter is pulling a ragged piece of paper from the envelope. On the paper is a crudely-drawn circle. NORVILLE ...Something I developed myself. Yessir, this is my ticket upstairs. The Ancient Sorter looks questioningly from the circle to Norville. NORVILLE (explains) ...You know, for kids! The Ancient Sorter nods with feigned understanding as Norville takes the paper back. ANCIENT SORTER Terrific. NORVILLE So ya see, I won't be in the mailroom long. ANCIENT SORTER (deadpan) Nooo, I don't guess you will be. He resumes his sorting. NORVILLE How long've you been down here? ANCIENT SORTER Forty-eight years... Whisk. Whisk. ANCIENT SORTER ...Next year they move me up to parcels... Whisk. Whisk. Whisk. ANCIENT SORTER ...If I'm lucky. A BELL CLANGS. The PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM SPUTTERS to life. PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM (V.O.) Attention Hudsucker employees. We regretfully announce that at 12:01 this afternoon, Hudsucker time, Waring Hudsucker, Founder, President, and Chairman of the Board of Hudsucker Industries, merged with the infinite. To mark this occasion of corporate loss, we ask that all employees observe a moment of silent contemplation. All HUBBUB ABRUPTLY STOPS and the sounds of HEAVY MACHINERY, HISSING STEAM PIPES, and GENERATORS WIND DOWN TO leave total SILENCE. After a moment: PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM (V.O.) ...Thank you for your kind attention. This moment has been duly-noted on your time cards and will be deducted from your pay. That is all. The MACHINERY GROANS back INTO ACTION and the people return to their jobs just as: A STEAM WHISTLE SCREECHES. ALARM BELLS go OFF. From the PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM: PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM (V.O.) 'Blue letter! Blue letter!' The mail room is thrown into pandemonium. VARIOUS VOICES Blue letter...! It's a blue letter...! They're bringing down a blue letter! One MAN spins to face the CAMERA, his hands pressed over his ears. STEAM JETS and HISSES behind him. MAN Blue letter!! Animated for the first time: ANCIENT SORTER Jumpin' Jehosephat, a blue letter! Mail carts and other paraphernalia are abruptly swept out of the crowded aisle to form a clear path running down to an elevator in the b.g. With a SIREN SOUND, a light above the elevator goes on. The elevator door sweeps open. It reveals a wall into which a four-foot high hinged door is set. This door swings open and an old dwarf emerges: Old man HUTCHINSON, the boss of the mailroom. He emerges from the blinding light of the interior of the elevator. He is holding aloft a letter. He takes loping drawf strides down the aisle. CLOSEUP - LETTER TRACKING ON letter as Hutchinson bears it along. In the b.g., the faces that the letter passes are agog. CROSSCUT the approaching blue letter WITH: Norville and the Ancient Sorter. BACK TO SCENE The Ancient Sorter is leaning over to whisper into Norville's ear. ANCIENT SORTER It's a blue letter... top, top level... confidential communication between the brass... usually bad news... they hate blue letters upstairs... Hate 'em! Norville gulps. HUTCHINSON You! Norville looks over his shoulder, but the Ancient Sorter has disappeared. HUTCHINSON ...Yeah, you! Barnes! As he points, the people around Norville shrink away. HUTCHINSON ...You don't look busy! Think you can handle a blue letter? (laughs sadistically) ...This letter was sent down this morning by the big guy himself! 'At's right, Waring Hudsucker! It's addressed to Sid Mussburger! Hudsucker's right-hand man! It's a blue letter! That means you put it right in Mussburger's hand. No secretaries! No receptionists! No colleagues! No excuses! DRAMATIC TRACK IN ON Norville. As Hutchinson talks, he thrusts the blue letter into Norville's face. Norville looks at it with terrific apprehension. As Hutchinson's speech ends, we are TIGHT ON Norville's sweating face. COMPLEMENTARY TIGHT DUTCH ANGLE ON HUTCHINSON We can see the veins in his eyes, the veins in his nose, the hairs in his ears. HUTCHINSON Mussburger!! CUT TO: ELEVATOR DOORS ROCKETING OPEN. We MOVE IN ON the young elevator operator who leers INTO CAMERA. He wears a brass-buttoned uniform, white gloves and a pillbox hat. The name BUZZ is stitched onto his breast pocket. As Norville enters the elevators: BUZZ Hiya, buddy! The name is Buzz, I got the fuzz... He lifts his pillbox hat to reveal a white crewcut, then lets the elastic chin strap snap the cap back down onto his head. BUZZ ...I make the elevator do what she duzz! He holds out his hand but as Norville reaches to shake it he snaps it away and pats down his crewcut: BUZZ ...Hang it up to dry. He cackles and powers the ELEVATOR into GEAR. Norville's knees buckle under a huge upward surge; Buzz is accustomed to it. BUZZ ...What's your pleasure, buddy? NORVILLE (regaining his balance) Forty-fourth floor, and it's very -- BUZZ Forty-four, the top brass floor say, buddy! What takes fifty years to get up to the top floor and thirty seconds to get down? NORVILLE I -- BUZZ Waring Hudsucker! Na-ha-ha-ha-ha! Say, buddy! With a powerful DOWN-SHIFTING SOUND, Buzz brakes the elevator to a sharp halt. Norville continues upward with the inertia, painfully smacking his head against a corner of the elevator. Buzz opens the door and a couple of people enter. BUZZ Mr. Kline, up to nine. Mrs. Dell, personnel. Mr. Levin, thirty-seven. MR. LEVIN Thirty-six. BUZZ Walk down. Ladies and gentlemen, step to the rear; here comes gargantuan Mr. Grier. An obese MAN enters, smoking a cigar: FAT MAN Buzz. Buzz has already thrown the doors shut and sent the elevator into its power-rise. Norville, bracing himself now, sinks only a little under the G-force. BUZZ Say, buddy! Who's the most liquid businessman on the street? NORVILLE Well, I -- BUZZ Waring Hudsucker! Na-ha-ha-ha-ha! Say, buddy! When is the sidewalk fully dressed? When it's 'wearing' Hudsucker! Na-ha-ha-ha! He turns to look at Norville. BUZZ ...Ya get it, buddy, it's a pun, it's a knee-slapper, it's a play on Jesus, Joseph and Mary, is that a blue letter?! All heads in the elevator turn, aghast, to look, and those near Norville shrink away. BUZZ ...Cripes a'mighty, whyn't ya tell a guy?! Hold on, folks, we're express to the top floor! The ELEVATOR SCREAMS into overdrive and we: CUT TO: ELEVATOR DOORS Sweeping open. Norville staggers out. BUZZ (hissing) Good luck, buddy! The door sweeps shut. Norville looks nervously around. Behind him the elevator doors suddenly open again. BUZZ -- You'll need it! The elevator doors slam shut and we hear its ENGINES SCREAM as it power-dives away. Norville turns toward the executive offices. Plush, thick-carpeted silence. Norville starts walking. A SCRAPING SOUND stands out in the high-powered executive quiet. Norville looks to one side. A workman in painter's overalls squats in front of a pair of heavy oak doors. With a razor blade he is scraping off the name "WARING HUDSUCKER." NORVILLE ...Mr. Mussburger's office? The scraper looks sullenly over his shoulder at Norville. With a jerk of his thumb he indicates the direction. Norville enters the adjacent office. OUTER OFFICE Two secretaries are in Mussburger's outer reception office. The first is a filing secretary who stands frozen in the f.g., her hand poised over an open drawer to deposit a folder, as she stares at Norville with an amused and supercilious sneer which stays pasted on throughout. The second secretary -- the RECEPTIONIST -- is seated behind a desk in the b.g. that flanks the door to Mussburger's private office. The Receptionist sits with her hands clasped on the desk, staring at Norville with the hunch-shouldered down-from-under look of a patient vulture. RECEPTIONIST Do you have an appointment? NORVILLE Uhh, no, I -- The filing secretary sneers. RECEPTIONIST Shall we look in the book, hmmmmmmmmm? She opens an enormous leather-bound book with yellowed crinkly pages. NORVILLE No, ma'am, ya see, I wouldn't be in the -- RECEPTIONIST We don't seem to be in the boooook. Norville is groping in his apron pocket. NORVILLE No, ma'am, ya see I don't have an -- RECEPTIONIST If we had an appointment we'd be in the booook. NORVILLE I know but ya see I have this -- here it is, this letter -- A low, unearthly WAIL fills the room, the sound of a million souls moaning in purgatory. The Receptionist looks up. FAST TRACK IN ON SNEERING FILE SECRETARY who is no longer sneering. Her mouth is stretched wide as she wails and her finger points... FAST TRACK IN ON BLUE LETTER that Norville holds innocently at his side. BACK TO TRACK IN ON WAILING SECRETARY As her wail becomes deafening and we TRACK INTO her mouth and the SCREEN GOES BLACK and: CLICK The blackness and the wailing are both cut short by the sound of a DOOR OPENING. We are: INT. MUSSBURGER'S OFFICE its door swinging open to admit Norville. In the b.g., in the outer office, we can see the filing secretary leaning back motionless in a chair with a damp rag draped across her forehead. The Receptionist is fanning her with a towel. The door closes behind Norville. We hear a rhythmic CLICK-CLICK-CLICK and the HUM of VENTILATION. NORVILLE'S POV Across miles of carpet is a huge executive desk, behind which is a large executive chair facing the window. From above the back of the chair cigar smoke wreathes up. A telephone cord snakes around to the man sitting in the chair, hidden from us. On the desktop is a perpetual motion machine of large swinging ball bearings. Click-click-click. A TICKERTAPE MACHINE occasionally BURPS information in the far corner of the office. A huge MECHANICAL ARM -- the sweep second hand of the Hudsucker clock on the facade of the building -- RUMBLES by immediately outside the window, describing an arc that throws a moving shadow across the office. His BACK TO us, into the phone: MUSSBURGER -- Sure sure, Parkinson's stupid but he's ambitious, too hard to control... He swivels around to face Norville, who stands deferentially at the door. Still listening at the phone, Mussburger waves Norville forward. MUSSBURGER ...No! Not McClanahan; sure he bungled the Teleyard merger, but that means he's got something to prove... He covers the mouth piece. MUSSBURGER ...Who let you in? NORVILLE I -- Into the phone: MUSSBURGER Atwater? Tremendous. Except I fired him last week -- The INTERCOM BUZZES fiercely. VOICE (V.O.) Mr. Bumstead is waiting downstairs. Mussburger hits the intercom. MUSSBURGER Tell him I'll be right there... (looks at Norville) Well, what is it? NORVILLE I -- But Mussburger is listening to the TINNY VOICE issuing from the PHONE. MUSSBURGER You, maybe you're the company's biggest moron. We can't use Morris, he's been with us too long, he's a nice guy, too many friends. Matter of fact, why don't you fire him. No -- scratch that; I'll fire him. (looks up at Norville) ...Make it fast, make it fast. NORVILLE You -- The INTERCOM SQUAWKS. VOICE (V.O.) Mr. Bumstead is getting very -- MUSSBURGER I'll be right there. Give him a magazine. (to Norville) ...What're you, a mute? The second PHONE on Mussburger's desk RINGS. MUSSBURGER ...Yeah, how's the stock doing? ...Bad, huh? Well it's not bad enough. (into the first phone) ...Look, chump, either you find me a grade A ding-dong or you can tender your key to the executive washroom. (into the second phone) And that goes double for you. (into the first phone) Ear-clay? (into both phones) Ood-gay! (slams down both phones, looks at Norville) This better be good. I'm in a bad mood. Norville clears his throat. NORVILLE Well, sir. I've got something for you from the mailroom, but first if I could just take a minute or so from your very busy time... He reaches into his mailroom apron and hands a scrap of paper across the desk to Mussburger, who stares, frozen, at Norville, making no move to take the paper. NORVILLE ...to show you a, uh... Norville, undaunted, holds up the paper since Mussburger will not take it. Mussburger doesn't even look at it; his eyes are locked on Norville's. Mussburger smolders. NORVILLE ...a little something I've been working on for the last two or three years... Mussburger's burning eyes finally shift momentarily to look at the crudely drawn circle; he looks back incredulously at Norville. NORVILLE ...You know, for kids! Which is perfect for Hudsucker -- not that I claim to be any great genius; like they say, inspiration is 99 percent perspiration, and in my case I'd say it's at least twice that, but I gotta tell ya, Mr. Mussburger, sir, this sweet baby -- MUSSBURGER Wait a minute! Sudden quiet. With one last click the perpetual motion ball bearings abruptly stop. As Mussburger's eyes burn in on him, Norville stands mute and paralyzed. His eyes locked on Norville's, Mussburger circles the desk. He stands toe-to-toe with Norville. He thrusts his face into Norville's, whose head moves reflexively back. Mussburger's nose is almost touching Norville's, his eyes are burning, searching, studying, evaluating. Finally he draws his head back. MUSSBURGER Hmmm... With one hand he thrusts his cigar into Norville's gaping mouth. With his other hand he raises Norville's chin so that his teeth clench it. MUSSBURGER Umm-hmm... He steps back, eyes still on Norville. He jerks his thumb over his shoulder, indicating his chair behind the desk. MUSSBURGER Siddown. Norville, his lips puckered around the unaccustomed ciger, looks bemusedly from the chair to Mussburger. MUSSBURGER ...Go ahead. Try it on. Norville obeys, reluctantly, stiffly. MUSSBURGER ...Put your feet up. Norville is again reluctant. MUSSBURGER ...Go ahead. Norville obeys. Mussburger studies. MUSSBURGER Hmmmm... Let's get to know one another, shall we? Norville's eyes squint against the cigar smoke wreathing from between his teeth. Mussburger seems to relax. MUSSBURGER ...Let's chat! (beams) ...Man to man! Norville beams. MUSSBURGER ...You weren't blessed with much... He waves vaguely towards his head and searches for a euphemism. MUSSBURGER ...education, were you? NORVILLE Well, I'm a college graduate -- MUSSBURGER All right, but you didn't excel in your studies...? NORVILLE Well, I made the dean's list. MUSSBURGER (worried) Hmmm. Norville sputters out some more cigar smoke. NORVILLE At the Muncie College of Business Administration. MUSSBURGER (relieved) Sure, sure. And did your classmates there call you 'jerk' or... (searches again) ...'schmoe'? Norville shakes his head. MUSSBURGER ...'Shnook'? 'Dope'? 'Dipstick'? 'Lamebrain'? NORVILLE No, sir. MUSSBURGER Not even behind your back? NORVILLE Sir! They voted me most likely to succeed! MUSSBURGER (curtly) You're fired. NORVILLE But, sir! -- MUSSBURGER Get your feet off that desk. As he struggles to comply: NORVILLE But -- MUSSBURGER Get out of my sight. Norville, squinting against the cigar smoke, pulls the cigar out of his mouth as he doubles forward, feet still up, groping for a place to set down the cigar. He sets it blindly on a loose stack of papers. MUSSBURGER My God! The Bumstead contracts!! NORVILLE Oh my God, sir! The top page radiates a circle of incipient flame from the cigar's live end. MUSSBURGER You nitwit! I worked for three years on this deal! NORVILLE Oh my God, sir! Norville runs across the office to a large water cooler. MUSSBURGER I'll take care of it. Just get out! Mussburger plucks the cigar off the contract and tosses it into a wastebasket. He pats the fingertips of one hand against his tongue and then efficiently pats out the crinkling orange circle on the top sheet of the contract. At the other end of the office, Norville is wrapping his arms around the glass water tank, which he pulls off its base. He runs back across the vast expanse of office toward the desk, hugging the water tank whose WATER GLOOB-GLOOBS out its open bottom and splashes down onto his pumping knees. As he reaches the desk, the near-empty tank is now light enough for him to hoist with one arm, which he does, and cups his other hand under it to catch its last glub of water. He tosses the TANK to the floor where -- CRASH -- it SHATTERS, and stands looking about for a place to dump his handful of water. MUSSBURGER Why you nitwit. You almost destroyed the most sensitive deal of my career! NORVILLE Oh my God, sir! He is reacting to the wastebasket on his side of the desk, which Mussburger cannot see. It is sprouting flame, at which Norville ineffectually flecks his remaining drops of water. MUSSBURGER Now out of here! Out! Norville is already running to the window, which he runs both palms over, desperately seeking a way to open it. MUSSBURGER Not that way! Through the door! NORVILLE But, sir! The windows do not open. Norville furiously stomps on the flames in the wastebasket and -- his foot sticks. Further stomping only makes the flaming wastebasket roar up and down with his foot. MUSSBURGER Right away, buster! Out of my office! Norville has dropped to the floor, trying to wrench the flaming wastebasket off his leg. MUSSBURGER Up on your feet! We don't crawl at Hudsucker Industries! NORVILLE Sir, my leg is on fire! Norville finally succeeds in getting the flaming wastebasket off his foot. Now the problem is what to do with it. MUSSBURGER Get out of this office, you dithering nincompoop! Norville picks up the flaming trash receptacle. NORVILLE Oh my God, sir! He winds up and throws it through the closed window. The GLASS SHATTERS and the flaming basket plummets to oblivion. With the picture window broken a FEROCIOUS DRAFT ROARS through the penthouse office. CLOSE SHOT - BUMSTEAD CONTRACTS On the desk. The pages are sucked away by the draft. MUSSBURGER My God! The Bumstead contracts! NORVILLE Oh my God, sir! Mussburger lunges for the contracts as they are sucked out the window. He runs, jumps onto the sill, grabs -- his fist clenches around one wafting page -- he is about to fall -- MUSSBURGER Eeeeeeaaaahhhhh! CUT TO: INT. EXECUTIVE WAITING ROOM BUMSTEAD, a short, fat, heavily perspiring executive, is screaming at an O.S. secretary. He holds a pot of coffee in one hand and a copy of Boy's Life in the other. BUMSTEAD No magazine. No coffee. Mussburger! I wanna see Mussburger! Or did he jump out a window too?! In the window behind him we see loose sheets of paper fluttering down. CUT TO: NORVILLE Desperately hanging onto Mussburger by his legs. NORVILLE Don't worry, Mr. Mussburger! I gotcha. I gotcha by your pants! Mussburger's screaming abruptly stops. CLOSEUP - MUSSBURGER'S HORROR-STRICKEN FACE REMEMBERING (THE SCREEN GOES WATERY): MUSSBURGER is in a basement tailor shop. LUIGI, an old Italian tailor, is just running his tape up Mussburger's inseam. LUIGI Meester Moosaburger, I give-a you pants a nice-a dooble stitch. Make 'em strong, and they look-a real sharp. MUSSBURGER (barking) No! Single stitch is fine. LUIGI (begging) But please-a, Meester Moosaburger, the dooble stitch she last-a forever -- MUSSBURGER Why on earth would I need a double stitch? To pad your bill? Single stitch is fine! CUT BACK TO: CLOSEUP OF PANICKED MUSSBURGER MUSSBURGER Damn! We hear a LOUD TEARING sound O.S. Mussburger drops a few inches. QUICK WIPE TO: LUIGI AT HIS SEWING MACHINE LUIGI (musing to himself) What the heck. Meester Moosaburger such a nice-a guy, I give him dooble steech-a anyway. Assa some-a strong- a steech-a, you bet! BACK TO MUSSBURGER'S PANTS The tearing fabric abruptly catches and stops; the rest of the pants hold intact. MUSSBURGER sighs with relief. He looks up. NORVILLE Norville's arms are wrapped around Mussburger's ankles; the heels of Mussburger's shoes are digging into his face. MUSSBURGER Looking. Thinking. NORVILLE Struggling to hold on. MUSSBURGER Calm. Contemplating. MUSSBURGER Hmmm... He absently removes a cigar from his breast pocket and sticks it in his mouth. He holds his lighter under the cigar, not noticing that the flame is pointing the wrong way. He looks at Norville. NORVILLE His face drawn with effort, still struggling to hang on. A PULL BACK FROM the EXTREME CLOSE SHOT REVEALS, however, that Norville's arms are now wrapped around -- emptiness. Mussburger's legs are gone. Norville throws his head back and laughs, it seems, insanely -- but CONTINUED PULL BACK REVEALS that Norville is merely pantomiming the adventure for the benefit of the board members, including Mussburger. They stand around Mussburger's office, laughing gaily. All safe now, no harm done. This inaugurates: LAUGHING MONTAGE Montage silent but for MUSIC. A) Norville is entertaining the board with his depiction of the near-disaster. Mussburger is slapping him merrily on the back. B) CLOSE SHOT - Board member laughing. C) Another board member. Laughing. D) Mussburger. Laughing. E) Norville laughing. F) FREEZE FRAME ON Norville's laughing face. ANGLE PULL BACK to reveal that the frozen picture is the newspaper photo on the front page of the Manhattan Argus. Its headline reads: UNTRIED YOUTH TO HELM HUDSUCKER. The subhead reads: Stockholders Wary. The sub-subhead reads: Meteoric Rise From Mailroom. The article is under the byline of Amy Archer. CONTINUED PULL BACK REVEALS that we are looking at the newspaper OVER someone's SHOULDER. The person swivels around and away -- his face now TO us, we see that it is Norville looking at the newspaper. He throws his head back and laughs merrily. As he laughs -- thwock -- a steaming towel is thrown onto his face and he continues to swivel. CONTINUED PULL BACK REVEALS that he is in a barber chair. His head drops back and OUT OF FRAME as the swiveling chair is cranked down, but immediately -- still spinning -- -- his head reappears as the chair is cranked up again. Still laughing, Norville is now freshly shaven and has a slicked-back haircut, heavy with pomade. FREEZE ON Norville's laughing face. ANGLE PULL BACK to reveal it is another front page photo next to the headline: Hud Board To Street: GIVE MAN FROM MUNCIE A CHANCE. Subhead: Has Fresh Ideas. CONTINUED PULL BACK REVEALS that the paper is lying on a chair. Norville's mailroom apron is tossed onto the chair to cover it. PAN TO where the apron was tossed from. Norville stands on a tailor's stage, laughing, as the tailor, also laughing, takes his measurements. Norville in shirtsleeves, boxer shorts, hose stockings and garters. The tailor rises, laughing merrily, throwing up his arms and spreading them wide with hands stretching the measuring tape. Norville laughs merrily and also throws his arms up wide. BOARD MEMBER laughs merrily, his arms thrown wide, tickertape stretching between his hands. He joyously tosses away the tickertape. FLOOR where the tickertape lands on a pile of previously discharged tape. PAN UP to reveal that the tickertape continues to burp its disastrous tale of good news for the board. PAN UP FURTHER to reveal that the machine is in Mussburger's office. At the far end of the room, behind his desk, Mussburger laughs as he looks at a newspaper. TRACK IN TOWARDS him. On his desk the perpetual ballbearings swing; outside his window the sweep second hand of the Hudsucker clock rumbles by, sweeping a shadow across the floor. Evil prevails. As Mussburger opens the newspaper, the CONTINUED TRACK IN shows its front page headline: HUD STOCK DIPS. Subhead: Just Good Is He? TRACK IN ON the front page photo: Norville laughing, his chin propped in his hand. PHOTOGRAPH COMES TO LIFE and Norville unfreezes, laughing. We are now TRACKING BACK FROM him. He sits behind a huge oak desk, newly coifed and tailored. The brass plaque on the desk confirms that he is in the OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT. TRACK BACK CONTINUES THROUGH the large elegant office, leaving Norville looking quite small IN LONG SHOT. His LAUGHTER ECHOES in the bright bare office. Norville's laughter is just winding down, leaving him exhausted, as if he has been laughing nonstop for several days. He finally sighs and wipes a tear from his eye. FADE OUT: FADE IN: NEW YORK SKYLINE - DAY In the skyline we can see the Hudsucker building topped by the Hudsucker clock. A cigar ENTERS FRAME in the f.g., then the face of the man smoking it. Staring contemplatively at the Hudsucker building, he takes a puff from the cigar and then plucks it from his mouth and waves it, as if painting a headline. EDITOR 'The Einstein of Enterprise.' 'The Edison of Industry.' 'The Billion- Dollar Cranium'... 'Idea Man'! (exploding) And not one of you mugs has given me a story on him!! REVERSE shows the Editors glassed-in office filled with REPORTERS for the staff meeting. Although they listen quietly, they are more bored than attentive. THROUGH the glass walls we can see the furious activity of an army of reporters, editors, and copy boys waging the never- ending battle to put out a quality daily newspaper. The Editor slams a newspaper down onto his desk in disgust. EDITOR Facts, figures, charts! They never sold a newspaper! I read this morning's edition of the Argus and let me tell you something: I'd wrap a fish in it! I'd use it as kindling! Hell, I'd even train my poodle with it if he wasn't a French poodle and more partial to the pages of Paree Soir! But I sure wouldn't shell out a hard-earned nickel to read the dadblamed thing! REPORTER Come on, chief, give us a break. EDITOR Suuuure, Tibbs, take a break! Go to Florida! Lie in the sun! Wait for a coconut to drop, file a story on it -- it'll be more of a grabber than your piece on the commie grain surplus! The human angle! That's what sells papers! We need a front page with heart and the whole idea of the 'Idea Man' idea can put it there! REPORTER #2 Chief, if we had more access -- EDITOR Yeah, and if a frog had wings he wouldn't bump his ass a-hoppin'! I don't want excuses, I want results! Whack! -- Without even looking in its direction, the Editor has slammed down the lid of the cigar box on his desk, towards which one Reporter's hand had been idly reaching. The Reporter jerks his fingers away as the Editor spares the briefest moment to glare at him. EDITOR I wanna know what makes the Idea Man tick! Where is he from? Where is he going? I wanna know everything about this guy! Has he got a girl? Has he got parents? REPORTER #3 Everybody has parents. EDITOR All right, how many? How 'bout it, Parkinson, you've been awful quiet over there. PARKINSON Uhhh... REPORTER NEXT TO HIM Still waters run deep, chief. EDITOR The only thing that runs deep with Parkinson is the holes in his ears. Yes, the Idea Man! What're his hopes and dreams, his desires and aspirations? Does he think all the time or does he set aside a certain portion of the day? How tall is he and what's his shoe size? Where does he sleep and what does he eat for breakfast? Does he put jam on his toast or doesn't he put jam on his toast, and if not why not and since when? He thrust his face into that of the Reporter. EDITOR ...Well?!! No answer. EDITOR ...Ahh, you're useless. Yes, Idea Man! Creator! Innovator! Cerebrator! Tycoon!-- WOMAN (O.S.) Fake. EDITOR Huhh!! WOMAN Star reporter AMY ARCHER -- attractive, smartly-dressed. AMY I tell ya the guy's a phony. EDITOR Phony, huh? AMY As a three-dollar bill. EDITOR Sez who? AMY Sez me! Amy Archer. Why is he an Idea Man -- because Hudsucker says he is? What're his ideas? Why won't they let anyone interview him?... One Reporter is leaning into another to keep his voice low: REPORTER Five bucks says she mentions her Pulitzer. OTHER REPORTER Again? You're on. AMY (as she picks up the morning paper) ...And just take a look at the mug on this guy -- the jutting eyebrows, the simian forehead, the idiotic grin. Why he has a face only a mother could love -- Whack! The Editor has slammed down the cigar box lid again but: Amy, smiling, raises a cigar INTO FRAME having beaten him. She tosses it to the Reporter who failed to get one. AMY ...On payday! The only story here is how this guy made a monkey out of you, Al. EDITOR Yeah, well, monkey or not I'm still editor of this rag. Amy, I thought you were doing that piece on the F.B.I. -- J. Edgar Hoover: When Will He Marry? AMY I filed it yesterday. EDITOR Well, do a follow-up: Hoover: Hero or Mama's Boy? The rest of you bums get up off your brains and get me that Idea Man story! REPORTERS All right, chief... We'll do our best, chief... I'll give it a shot, chief... AMY (at the door) Al, he's the bunk. Slam! One of the wagering Reporters grins at the other, who is taking out a five dollar bill. The door bursts open and Amy sticks her head in. AMY I'll stake my Pulitzer on it! CUT TO: ELEVATOR DOORS Sweeping open to reveal the leering face of Buzz, the elevator gnat. BUZZ Say, buddy! Where'd ya get the new duds? Norville is entering the elevator in his new executive outfit. BUZZ ...and say, buddy! How'd old bucketbutt like his blue letter? Na-ha-ha-ha-ha! Did he bust a gut? Did he die? Did he -- Well, hello, Mr. Mussburger, sir... Buzz is instant decorum as Mussburger enters the elevator. BUZZ ...How're you this fine morning, sir? Norville has been worriedly patting at his pockets since the mention of the blue letter. NORVILLE That reminds me, Mr. Mu... uh, Sid. I never did give you that-- MUSSBURGER (to Buzz) Lobby. We haven't got all day. BUZZ Right away, Mr. Mussburger sir. As he talks, Mussburger pats at his suit pocket, takes out a cigar, inspects it. MUSSBURGER Well I'm starved. I understand it'll be quite an affair this afternoon, and the executive roast tom turkey at the Bohemian Grove redefines the word superb. He puts the cigar in his mouth and Buzz's hand is right there with a lighter. BUZZ My pleasure, sir. NORVILLE Roast tom turkey. Gee, I'm hungry too -- MUSSBURGER Sure, sure... The elevator doors open. BUZZ It's been a pleasure serving you, Mr. Mussburger. Buzz turns to Norville. He is puzzled but trying to hide it: BUZZ ...and it's been a pleasure serving you too, uh... buddy. MR. MUSSBURGER is already striding through the lobby; Norville has to lope to catch up. NORVILLE Say, Mr. Muss -- uh, Sid! Shouldn't we be a little bit concerned with the downward spiral of our stock these last few days? I mean, you're the expert, but at the Muncie College of Business Administration they told us -- Mussburger gives an artificially hearty laugh and claps Norville on the shoulder. MUSSBURGER Relax, Norville. It's only natural in a period of transition for the more nervous element to run for cover. NORVILLE Okay, Sid. Like I said, you're the expert, but -- EXT. SIDEWALK Norville is still loping behind Mussburger, trying to keep up with his long strides. NORVILLE ...You don't happen to remember the plan I outlined to you the day I set fire to your off -- uh, the day I was promoted? MUSSBURGER I do remember and I was impressed. Anyway, that's all forgotten now. Driver! NORVILLE Thank you, Sid, but the reason I mention it is, it would require such a small capital investment -- again, you're the expert here -- MUSSBURGER Damnit, where's my car! NORVILLE -- But there's such an enormous potential profit-wise given the demographics -- baby boom -- discretionary income in the burgeoning middle class -- A black limousine pulls up to the curb. MUSSBURGER Finally. NORVILLE -- So if you think it's appropriate, I'd like to bounce the idea off a few people at lunch -- Mussburger is getting into the back seat -- MUSSBURGER Sure, sure, tell whoever you want... And, to Norville's surprise, slamming the door shut behind him. MUSSBURGER ...And I'd like to hear more about it at some point, too. SCREEEECH -- the CAR pulls away. Norville is left talking to himself on the empty sidewalk. NORVILLE But, Sid, I thought you and I were... DOORMAN Say, bud, could you keep the sidewalk clear here? NORVILLE But I'm the president of this -- aww, forget it. CUT TO: INT. COFFEE SHOP A cheap coffee shop a half-flight down from the street. We are LOOKING ACROSS an elbow of the coffee shop counter. In the middle b.g., Norville sits dejectedly stirring a cup of coffee. Behind him, THROUGH the window wells, we see the back and forth feet of pedestrians bustling by on the sidewalk. In the extreme f.g. sit two steaming mugs of coffee. They belong to two VETERANS of the coffee shop, who, from O.S., narrate the scene. VETERAN #1 (O.S.) I got gas, Bennie. VETERAN #2 (O.S.) Yeah, tell me about it. VETERAN #1 (O.S.) No kiddin', Bennie. I got gas. VETERAN #2 (O.S.) Ya get the special? VETERAN #1 (O.S.) Fah from it... He gives a low whistle under his breath as a woman enters from the street and hesitates by the door, looking around. Still attractive but looking somewhat down-at-the-heels, it is Amy Archer. VETERAN #1 (O.S.) ...Enter the dame. VETERAN #2 (O.S.) There's one in every story. VETERAN #1 (O.S.) Ten bucks says she's looking for a handout. VETERAN #2 (O.S.) Twenty bucks says not here she don't find one. VETERAN #1 (O.S.) She's looking for her mark. The woman's eyes settle on Norville, and she heads for the empty stool next to his. VETERAN #2 (O.S.) She finds him. VETERAN #1 (O.S.) She sits down. The woman says something to the counter waitress, who exits. VETERAN #2 (O.S.) ...and awduhs a light lunch. VETERAN #1 (O.S.) She looks in her purse... She is holding her wallet upside down. VETERAN #2 (O.S.) ...No money. VETERAN #1 (O.S.) The mark notices. Beat. Norville, however, is not noticing: He is staring intently at his coffee spoon, his hat pushed back on his head, his other hand propping up a cheekbone; the woman's presence does not seem to have registered yet. VETERAN #2 (O.S.) ...He's not noticing, Benny. VETERAN #1 (O.S.) Maybe he's wise. VETERAN #2 (O.S.) He don't look wise. VETERAN #1 (O.S.) Plan two: Here come the waterworks. The woman starts crying. VETERAN #2 (O.S.) Yellowstone. VETERAN #1 (O.S.) Old Faithful. VETERAN #2 (O.S.) Hello, Niagara. VETERAN #1 (O.S.) He notices. As the woman cries, she accidentally-on-purpose jostles Norville and he finally does indeed notice. VETERAN #2 (O.S.) He's concerned. The woman mouths words at Norville who reacts sympathetically and waves his hands at the waitress. VETERAN #1 (O.S.) She explains her perdicament, and... VETERAN #1 & #2 (O.S.) (in unison) ...entuh the light lunch. The waitress is entering to set a plate in front of the woman. The woman continues to talk to Norville, smiling wanly at him. VETERAN #2 (O.S.) She's got other problems, of course... VETERAN #1 (O.S.) ...Her mother needs an operation... VETERAN #2 (O.S.) ...adenoids. VETERAN #1 (O.S.) No, Bennie: Lumbago. Veteran #1's enunciation of "lumbago" falls into perfect sync with the woman's moving lips. Norville is listening sympathetically, but he suddenly notices his watch. VETERAN #1 (O.S.) (alarmed) She's losing him, Bennie. Norville is rising to his feet. VETERAN #2 (O.S.) Maybe he's wise. VETERAN #1 (O.S.) He don't look wise. As Norville turns to leave: VETERAN #2 (O.S.) How does she pull this out? She puts the back of her hand dramatically to her forehead. VETERAN #1 (O.S.) (disbelieving) She isn't! VETERAN #2 (O.S.) (thrilled) She is! And indeed she does: Faint dead away, falling backwards on the stool, so that Norville has no choice but to catch her. Norville holds her awkwardly, looking around for help. VETERAN #1 (O.S.) She's good, Bennie. VETERAN #2 (O.S.) She's damn good, Lou. A WAITRESS enters extreme f.g. to BLOCK OUR VIEW of the swooned woman and the embarrassed Norville. The Waitress is FACING the CAMERA and the two O.S. Veterans; the CROPPING gives us only her torso and the steaming pot of coffee she holds. WAITRESS (bored, nasal voice) Can I get you boys anything else? REVERSE ANGLE Back of the Waitress's torso in f.g.; on either side beyond her, the two Veterans are looking up at her O.S. face. They sport extremely bored expressions, topped by "cabbie" caps. VETERAN #1 Bromo. Beat. VETERAN #2 ...Bromo. INT. NORVILLE'S OFFICE Looking at its frosted-glass door; the sign painter is just finishing lettering in: NORVILLE BARNES, President. The sign painter makes way as we see Norville's shadow approaching; even from inside the room we can hear that he is WHEEZING HEAVILY. He is apparently carrying the girl, cradled in his arms. He tries to reach down to get the doorknob; can't manage it; turns to press his back against the door and get the knob with his other hand. The door opens as Norville swings around to enter. He is wheezing like a gas pipe about to explode. He swings around to kick the door shut. We see that the lettering on the door is now terribly smudged; we also see, in wet ink, on the seat of Norville's pants: senraB ellivroN tnediserP. Weakly, still cradled in Norville's arms: AMY I'm sorry we had to take the stairs. It was just that horrible little elevator boy... NORVILLE Not at all. You're light as a feather. AMY (pointing languorously) The couch, please. Still wheezing horribly, Norville staggers over to the couch and deposits her gently on it. He straightens up and looks at her. NORVILLE'S POV She is smiling wanly AT the CAMERA. The entire IMAGE PULSATES as the blood pounds behind Norville's eyeballs. We hear the LOUD, RASPING of his BREATH, resonating inside his head. Amy is talking but her voice is barely audible, as if coming from a long way away. BACK TO SCENE NORVILLE Just a minute. He perches drunkenly on the edge of the couch and puts his head between his knees, still fighting for breath. AMY I don't know what came over me. I suppose it was the shock of eating after so long without; the enzymes kicking in after so long, or whatever. But then you couldn't possibly know what it is to be tired and hungry... Speaking into his knees as he wheezes: NORVILLE Hungry, anyway. AMY I don't want to bore you with all the sordid details of my life; it's not a happy story... Norville rises and starts putting throw pillows behind her head. AMY ...Suffice it to say that I'm jobless -- though not for want of trying, that I'm friendless, with no one to -- thank you -- take care of me; and that had you not come along at just exactly the moment that you did -- She screams, staring down at the couch. Norville jumps, startled, then looks where she is looking. On the white sofa cushion where he had been sitting is printed, in wet ink, right side around: NORVILLE BARNES, President. AMY Norville, I didn't know you were president here! Norville stares dumbfounded at the sofa cushion. When the nickel finally drops, he spins around to try to look at the seat of his pants. Distracted but still modest: NORVILLE Oh, it's nothing really. Just determination and hard work... He unbuckles his trousers. NORVILLE ...Of course, when I started in the mailroom last Tuesday I thought it might take more time -- Buzz enters holding a brown paper bag. BUZZ Say, buddy, here's the whiskey you asked f -- He freezes, taking in the scene: Amy reclining on the couch; Norville standing in front of her with his pants around his ankles, still breathing heavily; the bottle of whiskey in his own hand. NORVILLE (flustered) Thank you, Buzz, just leave it on the desk. Leering: BUZZ Happy days, buddy... As he turns to leave: BUZZ ...and I'll tell your secretary you're not to be disturbed. Yowzuh!! He snaps the elastic strap under his chin. After the doors shut behind Buzz: AMY (shuddering) What a horrible little person. NORVILLE Oh, Buzz is pretty harmless, really -- AMY At any rate I arrived in town not ten days ago, full of dreams and aspirations, anxious to make my way in the world -- Norville pours a glass of whiskey and brings it over to her. AMY A little naive perhaps but -- thank you -- armed with determination, a solid work ethic, and an indomitable belief in the future -- NORVILLE I myself -- He crosses back to the desk. AMY Only to have that belief, that unsullied optimism, dashed against the marble and mortar of the modern work place -- Norville takes a cigarette from a large wood cigarette box on the desk and sticks it in his mouth. NORVILLE Cigarette? AMY No thank you. Seek and ye shall find, work and ye shall prosper -- these were the watch words of my education, the ethics of my tender years -- OVER NORVILLE'S SHOULDER He has been pushing the box towards her. The box tilts lazily forward and then disappears over the far lip of the desk. We hear the THUD of the BOX landing amid the pitter-patter of cigarettes raining onto the carpet. Amy's brow crinkles. Continuing: AMY -- these were the values that were instilled in me while I was growing up in a little town you've probably never heard of -- NORVILLE Mind if I join you? He is pouring himself a drink. AMY Be my guest. A little town you've probably -- He tosses back his drink, gags, looks at Amy with his eyes bulging. HIS POV Once again her IMAGE PULSATES. There is a ROARING SOUND and an AIRY STEAM WHISTLE as she silently moves her lips. NORVILLE He waves his arms and talks with a thick rasp as he staggers to his feet. NORVILLE Excuse me -- I -- executive washroom... He staggers out a side door. On his exit Amy leaps to her feet and scurries over to his desk. At the top of her voice: AMY Are you all right?... She throws open the top desk drawer. Inside two lonely lead pencils roll through the otherwise empty drawer. Amy expertly flips a cigarette into her mouth and strikes a match off the desktop. AMY ...Is it your lunch? The chicken a la king? From the washroom: NORVILLE (O.S.) No, I -- Amy throws open another drawer, empty except for an appointment book. As she hurriedly flips through page after blank page an arctic WIND WHISTLES emptiness. One page only has a notation: 11:45. Address Wilkie Grammar School Junior Achievers Club. AMY Is the a la king repeating on you? Amy shoves the appointment book back into the drawer. NORVILLE (O.S.) ...I'm fine, I... You were saying? She mutters: AMY Values... watchwords... uh, tender years... (aloud) -- A little town you've probably never heard of... She hastily stubs out her cigarette and waves her hand to disperse the smoke. AMY ...Muncie, Indiana. She scurries back across the room as we hear the FAUCET BEING TURNED OFF: she re-strikes her languid pose on the couch just as the washroom door opens. Norville gapes, one hand pressing a dripping rag to his forehead. NORVILLE You're from Muncie?! AMY Why yes, do you know it? Norville starts making pumping motions with his fists and loud syncopated grunting noises. Amy gapes at him. He starts singing, off-key: NORVILLE 'Fight on fight on dear old Muncie Fight on -- Hoist the gold and blue You'll be tattered, torn and hurtin' Once 'The Munce' is done with you!' Amy lamely fakes singing along, coming in louder on the last, obvious rhyme. Norville jumps an octave on it; she quickly follows sit, also pumping her fists. As Norville crosses his hands and locks thumbs in front of his nose to make bird wings of his extended fingers: NORVILLE ...Goooooooo Eagles! Amy awkwardly imitates. Norville excitedly sits behind his desk. NORVILLE ...A Muncie girl! Talk about the cat's pyjamas! Tell you what, Amy. I'm gonna cancel the rest of my appointments this afternoon and get you a job here at the Hud. AMY Oh, no, really, I -- NORVILLE Don't bother to thank me, it's the easiest thing in the world. Matter of fact, I know where a vacancy just came up. He hits the intercom. NORVILLE ...Mail room. To Amy: NORVILLE ...This'll only take a moment. INTERCOM (V.O.) Yeah? NORVILLE Good afternoon to ya, this is Norville Barnes -- INTERCOM (V.O.) Barnes! Where the hell have you been! And where's my voucher?! Norville thumps at his pockets. NORVILLE ...Well, I'm not sure where I -- INTERCOM (V.O.) I need that voucher! I told you a week ago it was important! NORVILLE But look, I'm president of the company now and I -- INTERCOM (V.O.) I don't care if you're president of the company! I need that voucher! Now! CLICK. The intercom goes dead. NORVILLE Oh, of all the foolish... Listen, do you take shorthand? Are you familiar with the mimeograph machine? AMY Of course -- I went to the Muncie, uh, Secretarial Polytechnic! Norville excitedly smacks a fist into a palm. NORVILLE -- A Muncie girl! Can you beat that! AMY Well, I just don't know how to thank you, Mr. Barnes -- NORVILLE Please! Norville! As he reaches to shake: NORVILLE ...It's my pleasure! She reaches for his hand but Norville snatches it away and, winking at her, hooks thumbs in front of his nose and makes wings of his fingers. NORVILLE ...Gooooooo Eagles! AMY likewise hooks her thumbs in front of her nose, makes wings, and, winking back: AMY Gooooooooo Eagles! But we PULL BACK to reveal that the girl is now in a newspaper office, demonstrating the fight sign to SMITTY, a reporter wearing a fedora with a bent-back brim. Smitty howls with laughter. SMITTY (wheezing) ...Once 'The Munce'... Holy... Amy sits down behind a typewriter and, as she starts typing at 80 words per minute: AMY And is this guy from chumpsville?! I pulled the old mother routine -- SMITTY Adenoids? AMY Lumbago. Behind her an ancient man wearing an inksman's visor and sleeve garters toils over a large checkerboarded surface over which he shuffles letter blocks and black spaces. Smitty gives a low whistle. SMITTY That gag's got whiskers on it! The PHONE RINGS and Smitty reaches for it. AMY I'm telling you, Smitty, the board of Hudsucker is up to something -- SMITTY (into phone) Yeah. ANCIENT PUZZLER Say, Amy, what's a six-letter word for an affliction of the hypothalmus? Without a break in her typing: AMY -- And it's a cinch -- Goiter -- it's a cinch this guy isn't in on it. How much time to make the Late Final? Smitty holds the phone away from his ear. SMITTY Chief. Still typing, Amy whistles and nods to her shoulder. Smitty tucks the phone into it as she continues typing. AMY Hiya, Chief, just the person I wanted to apologize to... Smitty is looking at his watch. SMITTY About seven minutes. AMY (still typing) Yeah, I was all wet about your idea man... Well, thanks for being so generous... It is human, and you are divine... No, he's no faker. He's the 100% real McCoy beware-of- imitations genuine article: the guy is a real moron -- To the Ancient Puzzler: AMY -- as in a five-letter word for imbecile -- Back into phone: AMY -- as pure a specimen as I've ever run across... Am I sure he's a nitwit? Heck, if working at the Argus doesn't make me an expert then my name isn't Amy Archer and I've never won the Pulitzer Prize... Her eyes narrow. AMY ...In 1957... My series on the reunited triplets -- come on down here, hammerhead, and I'll show it to ya... ANCIENT PUZZLER Amy, what's a three-letter word for a flightless bird? AMY Not now, Morris, I'm busy -- That's right, I said hammerhead, as in a ten-letter word for a smug bullying self-important newspaperman -- To Morris: AMY -- Gnu -- Into phone: AMY -- who couldn't find -- To Morris: AMY -- That's G-N-U -- Into phone: AMY -- couldn't find the Empire State Building with a compass, a road map and a native guide. To Morris: AMY -- or emu. She slams down the phone. To Smitty: AMY ...And that's just the potatoes, Smitty, here comes the gravy: The chump really likes me. A Muncie girl! Smitty bursts out laughing. SMITTY Better off falling for a rattlesnake. As she continues to type: AMY I'm tellin' ya, this guy's just the patsy and I'm gonna find out what for. There's a real story, Smitty, some kind of plot, a setup, a cabal, a -- oh, and say, did I tell ya?! SMITTY He didn't offer you money. AMY A sawbuck! SMITTY Ten dollars? Let's grab a highball! AMY On Norville Barnes! She rips the page out of the typewriter, swivels in her chair to FACE CAMERA as we TRACK IN CLOSE and she hollers: AMY ...Copy! DISSOLVE THROUGH TO: PRESSES rolling, churning out great quantities of newsprint. Papers piling up one on top of the other, very many, very quickly. DELIVERY MAN throwing a baled stack of papers off the back of his truck. BALED PAPER rolling into the f.g. A hand ENTERS FRAME to snip its wires and wipe off the top paper. PAPER BOY wearing an apron and a little paper boy cap, mouthing "Extra! Extra!" as he holds one of the papers aloft. PAN UP his arm TO the newspaper and, BEYOND it, the towering Hudsucker Building. All of the above -- DISSOLVING WITH: NEWSPAPER spinning TOWARDS the CAMERA and STOPPING FULL FRAME. Its headline, over a picture of Norville smiling, is "IMBECILE HEADS HUDSUCKER." The subheadline: "Not a Brain in his Head." ANOTHER ANGLE - NEWSPAPER is angrily slammed down to reveal that Norville has been reading the inside. His face twisting with fury, he leans forward and hits the intercom. NORVILLE Miss Smith, can you come in please to take a letter... Muttering to himself: NORVILLE ...of all the cockamamie... Amy is bustling in holding a steno pad and a pencil. As she seats herself in front of his desk, he rises to pace behind it. NORVILLE ...Did you happen to see the front page of today's Manhattan Argus? AMY Well, I... didn't bother to read the article. I didn't think the picture did you justice. NORVILLE The picture was fine! It's what that knuckle-headed dame wrote underneath! Of all the irresponsible... Amy, take this down: Dear Miss Archer. I call you 'Miss' because you seem to have 'missed' the boat completely on this one! How on earth would you know whether I'm an imbecile when you don't even have the guts to come in here and interview me man to man! No, change 'guts' to 'courage.' No, make it 'common decency.' These wild speculations about my intelligence -- AMY -- or lack thereof? NORVILLE (nodding) -- these preposterous inventions, would be better suited to the pages of Amazing Tales Magazine. If the editors of the Manhattan Argus see fit to publish the rantings of a disordered mind, perhaps they will see fit to publish this letter! But I doubt it. I most seriously doubt it. As I doubt also that you could find a home at Amazing Tales, a periodical which I have enjoyed for many years. Yours sincerely, et cetera. He drifts into thought. AMY Is that all, Mr. Barnes? NORVILLE ...Well, you know me, Amy, at least better than that that dame does. Do you think I'm an imbecile? AMY I'm sure I -- NORVILLE Go on, tell the truth; I trust you and I put a lot of stock in your opinion. AMY Well, I -- NORVILLE Oh sure, you're biased -- you're a fellow Muncian. But would an imbecile come up with this? He whips the cover sheet off a display pad resting on an easel to reveal a large piece of graph paper with a circle rendered onto it. Amy looks, puzzled, from the circle to Norville's proudly beaming face. NORVILLE ...I designed it myself and this is just the sweet baby that can put Hudsucker right back on top. Amy is bewildered. Norville explains: NORVILLE ...You know! For kids! AMY ...Why don't I just type this up... NORVILLE Aww, naw, Amy, that won't be necessary. I shouldn't send it; she's just doing her job, I guess. AMY Well, I don't know; maybe she does deserve it. Maybe she should've come in to face you man to man. NORVILLE Well, she probably had a deadline... AMY Sure, but -- she could still have gotten your side for the record! NORVILLE Well, it's done now -- what's the use of grousing about it. Forget the letter, Amy, I just had to blow off some steam... She gets up to leave, and is heading for the door when Norville adds: NORVILLE ...She's probably just a little confused. Amy turns at the door. AMY Confused? NORVILLE Yeah, you know, probably one of these fast-talking career gals, thinks she's one of the boys. Probably is one of the boys, if you know what I mean. AMY (through clenched teeth) I'm quite sure I don't know what you mean. NORVILLE Yeah, you know. Suffers from one of these complexes they have nowadays. Seems pretty obvious, doesn't it? She's probably very unattractive and bitter about it. AMY Oh, is that it! NORVILLE Yeah, you know. Probably dresses in men's clothing, swaps drinks with the guys at the local watering hole, and hobnobs with some smooth talking heel in the newsroom named Biff or Smoocher or... AMY Smitty. NORVILLE Exactly. And I bet she's ugly. Real ugly. Otherwise, why wouldn't they print her picture next to her byline? AMY Maybe she puts her work ahead of her personal appearance. NORVILLE I bet that's exactly what she tells herself! But you and I both know she's just a dried-up bitter old maid. Say, how about you and I grab a little dinner and a show after work? I was thinking maybe The King and I -- Whap! Amy slaps him. He stares. NORVILLE ...How about Oklahoma? As she stalks out of the office: AMY Norville Barnes, you don't know a thing about that woman! You don't know who she really is! And only a numbskull thinks he knows things about things he knows nothing about! He stares, rubbing his cheek. NORVILLE Say, what gives? WHISTLE SHRIEKING. SWISH PAN TO: CLOCK Reading five o'clock. SWISH PAN TO: WORKERS Rising from their desks, collecting personal effects, putting on their hats and coats. TIME CLOCK Busy hands punch out. INT. EMPTY HALLWAY Of the executive floor. A security man walks down the hall, whistling, swinging a ring of keys. After he passes the door to the ladies' room it opens, Amy peeks out, emerges, goes into Norville's office. INT. NORVILLE'S OFFICE She goes to the desk, takes out the appointment book, flips through it. BOOK Still empty except for the one date with the Wilkie Grammer School Junior Achievers Club, which now has a red line drawn across it with the notation CANCELED. AMY looks around the office -- notices something. DOOR Set into the wall to one side it is topped by a small plaque: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. Amy tries the knob, which turns, and enters. INT. ROOM It is big and dim, several stories high, with spiral staircases reaching into, and catwalks criss-crossing, the gloom above. It is filled with contraptions -- works, cogs, gears. There is no window, but on what would be the window wall there is an enormous iron ring with a metal rod sweeping an interior circle. It is the backside of the great Hudsucker clock. Amy gazes about. She crosses to a door opposite the one she entered from. She stoops to peek through its keyhole. HER POV We are LOOKING INTO Sidney J. Mussburger's office. Mussburger sits at his desk barking into a Dictaphone. CLICK-CLICK-CLICK -- the PERPETUAL MOTION BALLS on his desk are going full-tilt; THRUMMMMMMM -- the CLOCK'S exterior second hand sweeps a shadow across the office. Mussburger, it seems, never sleeps. MUSSBURGER Memo. From the desk of Sidney J. Mussburger. Executive order number 530 slash A49. To: Director of the Jacksonville Facility. Copies to: Legal Affairs, Business Affairs, Central Files. Re: Movement of Raw Materials from the Huron Facility. Due to unfavorable news in the slag markets, Jacksonville inventory must be reduced by 15 percent with overflow diverted to the Waukegan Stamping Facility. Memo. From the desk of Sidney J. Mussburger. Executive order number 530 slash A50. To: Director of -- BACK TO SCENE VOICE (O.S.) Watchoo doin' down they, Miss Archuh? AMY Huh?! She straightens and turns. Facing her is a very old BLACK MAN in a janitor's jumpsuit with HUDSUCKER INDUSTRIES/The Future Is Now emblazoned across it. We might recognize his voice as that of the narrator who opened the movie. AMY Who are you? How did you know who I am? MOSES (BLACK MAN) Ah guess ole Moses knows jes about ever'thing, leastways if it concerns Hudsuckuh. AMY But -- who are you -- what d'you do here? MOSES Ah keeps the ol' circle turning -- this ol' clock needs plenty o' care. Time is money, Miss Archuh, and money -- it drives that ol' global economy and keeps big Daddy Earth a-spinnin' on 'roun'. Ya see, without that capital fo'mation -- AMY Yeah, yeah. Say, you won't tell anyone about me, will you? MOSES I don't tell no one nothin' lessen they ask. Thatches ain't ole Moses' way. AMY So if you know everything about Hudsucker, tell me why the Board decided to make Norville Barnes president. MOSES Well, that even surprised ole Moses at fust. I didn't think the Board was that smart. AMY That smart?! MOSES But then I figured it out: they did it 'cause they figured young Norville for an imbecile. Like some othuh people ah know. AMY Why on earth would they want a nitwit to be president? MOSES 'Cause they's little pigglies! They's tryin' to inspire panic, make that stock git cheap so's they can snitch it all up fo' themselves! But Norville, he's got some tricks up his sleeve, he does... He draws a circle with his finger in the air. MOSES ...you know, fo' kids? Yeah, he's a smart one, that Norville, heh-heh, he's a caution. Wal, some folks is square, an' some is hip -- To punctuate, he gives a little jerk of his hips. MOSES ...But I guess you don't really know him any better than that board does, do ya, Miss Archuh? AMY Well, maybe I -- MOSES An' only some kind a knucklehead thinks she knows things 'bout things she, uh -- when she don't, uh -- How'd that go? AMY (bristling) It's hardly the same -- MOSES Why you don't even know y'own self -- you ain't exactly the genuine article are you, Miss Archuh? AMY Well, in connection with my job, sometimes I have to go undercover as it were -- MOSES I don't mean that! Why you pretendin' to be such a hard ol' sourpuss! Ain't never gonna make you happy! Never made Warin' happy. AMY (uncomfortably) I'm happy enough. MOSES (chuckles) Okay, Miss Archuh. (turns and walks away) ...I got gears to see to. AMY (calls after him) I'm plenty happy! She is answered only by WHIRRING MACHINERY. MOSES Elsewhere in the great room, he is hunkered down next to a catchment which he buffs with a greasy rag. Amy's VOICE ECHOES UP: AMY (O.S.) ...Hello? MOSES (muttering to himself) Them po' young folks. Looks like Norville's in fo' the same kind o' heartache ol' Warin' had. But then, she never axed me 'bout dat... As OMINOUS MUSIC SWELLS, we -- FADE OUT: FADE IN: INT. CHIEF'S OFFICE He slams down a typescript. CHIEF I can't print this! AMY Why not, it's all true! The board is using this poor guy! They're depressing the stock so they can buy it cheap! CHIEF It's pure speculation! Why, they'd have my butt in a satchel! SMITTY (chuckling) Ol' satchel-butt... AMY I know they're gonna buy that stock -- CHIEF You don't know anything! Fact is they haven't bought it! The stock is cheap, Archer! What're they waiting for? AMY I don't know... SMITTY Amy's hunches are usually pretty good, Chief. CHIEF You don't accuse someone of stock manipulation on a hunch, Ignatz! The readers of the Manhattan Argus aren't interested in sensationalism, gossip and unsupported speculation. Facts, figures -- those are the tools of the newspaper trade! Why it's almost as if you're trying to take the heat off this Barnes numbskull -- like you've gone all soft on him! SMITTY Come on, Chief, that's a low blow. Archer's not gonna go goey for a corn-fed idiot. CHIEF All right, I was out of line. But you're out of line with this stock swindle story. Gimme some more of that Moron-from-Sheboygan stuff -- AMY Muncie. CHIEF Whatever. That's what sells newspapers. AMY I've got an even hotter story -- The Sap from the City Desk. CHIEF Watch it, Archer -- AMY It's about a dimwitted editor who -- SMITTY Easy, Amy... He gives her a companionable goose. SMITTY ...Let's grab a highball and calm down. She whirls and slaps him. AMY Back off -- smoocher! Smitty rubs his cheek, staring as she storms off. SMITTY (angry) Say, what gives? ENGRAVED INVITATION IT READS: Sidney J. Mussburger President Norville Barnes and The Board of Hudsucker Industries CORDIALLY INVITE YOU TO The Annual Fancy-Dress Hudsucker Christmas Gala Music, Dancing, Refreshments (Dainties) Formal Evening Attire de Rigeuer. The MUSIC OVER the invitation -- "WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS" -- SEGUES INTO the dance music of the Hudsucker Chamber Orchestra. DANCING COUPLES FILL the SCREEN; we GLIDE AMONG them and FINALLY COME to follow one couple: Norville and MRS. MUSSBURGER, a large middle-aged woman of the Margaret Dumont-mold in an elaborately flowered and old-fashioned evening gown, low-cut in spite of her overly-heavy figure. She wears a large flowered hat with a rolled-up veil. MRS. MUSSBURGER -- So we'd gone out to the Hamptons and the garden was in positive ruins! NORVILLE That must have been quite a disappointment, Mrs. Mussburger. MRS. MUSSBURGER Disappointment? J'etais destroyee! I was in bed for a week! Positively sick with fury! I called in the gardener and said, 'Monsieur Gonzalez, either those azaleas come up next spring or you are terminee! She throws her head back and roars with laughter. ANGLE - THEIR FEET As the large woman leans back to laugh, her feet stay planted on the ground and Norville's rise to be dragged with his toes scraping the floor through the continuing dance. MRS. MUSSBURGER I'm brushing up on my French with the most charming man, Pierre of Fifth Avenue. Do you know him? NORVILLE I haven't had -- MRS. MUSSBURGER Sidney and I are planning a trip to Paris and points continental -- Aren't we, dear? Mussburger has ENTERED FRAME. MUSSBURGER Sure, sure. I'm going to borrow Norville for a while, if you don't mind, dear. MIXING DOWN as they leave her: MRS. MUSSBURGER Well, frankly, I... NORVILLE You have a charming wife, Mr. Muss -- uh, Sid. MUSSBURGER So they tell me. Norville, let me shepherd you through some of the introductions here. Try not to talk too much; some of our biggest stockholders are, uh -- scratch that: Say whatever you want. ENTRYWAY As Amy enters in a simple yet stunning evening gown. She looks around the room, then starts across the crowded floor towards the punch bowl. NORVILLE As Mussburger introduces him to a tall, imposing BUSINESSMAN in a tuxedo and a ten-gallon hat. MUSSBURGER Norville Barnes, allow me to introduce Mr. Zebulon Cardozo, one of Hudsucker Industries largest and most loyal stockholders. Ignoring Norville's proffered hand: CARDOZO (BUSINESSMAN) Dammit boy, what's this I hear about you bein' an embecile? What the hell is ailin' ya?! A week ago my stock was worth twice what it is now! I'm considering dumping the whole shootin' match, unless I see some vast improvement! Dammit, boy, It's a range war! Either you pull our wagons into a circle or I'm pullin' out of the wagon train! Norville gives him a forced but hearty laugh of reassurance. NORVILLE No need for concern, sir; it's only natural in a period of transition for the more timid element to run for cover -- CARDOZO So I'm yella, am I?!! He starts peeling off his tuxedo jacket: CARDOZO ...We'll see who's yella!! His WIFE, a small wiry woman, steps in as Mussburger starts dragging Norville away. MRS. CARDOZO Zebulon, you mind now and quit bein' sech an ole grizzly. As he reluctantly starts shrugging back into the jacket: CARDOZO Aww, I wasn't gonna hurt the boy, Lorelei... MUSSBURGER AND NORVILLE As they make their way through the room Norville is mopping at his brow with a handkerchief. NORVILLE I'm sorry, Sid, I thought maybe if I showed him the long view we might -- Thump! Dabbing at his brow, Norville has walked square into the back of a debonaire man holding a martini. The drink sloshes and the man turns testily to face him. MUSSBURGER Norville, this is Thorstensen Finlandsen, who heads a radical splinter group of disgruntled investors. Norville nervously pumps Findlandsen's hand. NORVILLE Hello, Mr. Finlandsen, so sorry to meet you -- uh, happy to walk into y -- uh, pleased to make your -- Findlandsen raises his hand to look quizzically at Norville's handkerchief which he now holds himself, apparently having been given it during the handshake. He hands it back to Norville. NORVILLE Thank you, sir... He stuffs it nervously into his outside breast pocket as Findlandsen stares at him. Mussburger stands watching in the executive at-ease, hands dug into his pockets. NORVILLE ...I understand your concern about the down-ward, you know, but I think you'll find under our strong new leadership... As Norville's hand drops from his breast pocket the handkerchief, perhaps caught on his sleeve, whips out of the pocket and follows his hand down. Findlandsen looks down and Norville follows his look, and stoops BELOW FRAME to retrieve the hanky. Findlandsen leans quizzically forward and peers down at Norville, who continues, O.S. NORVILLE (O.S.) We anticipate, in short order, an upward... In rapid fire, Norville straightens up into -- crunch -- Findlandsen, whose head snaps back, eyes rolling, a hand pressed to his nose, drink sloshing; Norville, one hand pressed to the back of his own head and the other wildly waving his hanky for balance, takes a staggering step forward onto the toe of an elegantly-gowned MRS. FINDLANDSEN. MRS. FINDLANDSEN Ahhh! There is a drum roll and, as the lights dim: EMCEE grabs the large old-fashioned microphone in front of the band and grins. EMCEE Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished members of the Hudsucker board. I give you the king of swing, the rajah of romance, the incredible, the unforgettable Mister Vic... Tenetta! Vic Tenetta takes the microphone from the Emcee who backs away, applauding as Tenetta starts to croon. He wears a white dinner jacket. His jet black hair sweeps out over his forehead in a roguishly pompadoured mat; one forelock droops and bounces across his forehead. CUT TO: SEVERAL BOARD MEMBERS Clustered in a dim corner of the room, smoking cigars. In the b.g., brilliantly spotlit, Vic Tenetta continues his song. As Mussburger joins them: EXECUTIVE #1 How's it going, Mr. Mussburger? MUSSBURGER Bad. EXECUTIVE #2 Good. MUSSBURGER But not bad enough. EXECUTIVE #3 Too bad. MUSSBURGER It could be better, it could be worse. ALL THREE EXECUTIVES Hmmmmmm. MUSSBURGER The stock's got to drop another five points if we expect to get controlling interest. Norville tells me he's got some hot idea. Can't be good. EXECUTIVE #1 Then it can't be bad! EXECUTIVE #2 Couldn't be better if it couldn't be worse. ALL Hmmmmmm. EXT. PENTHOUSE - TERRACE where the PARTY NOISE is DISTANT, TENETTA'S SONG just FILTERING OUT. We are on a FULL SHOT of the back of a man who stands facing the twinkling cityscape, but in an odd, leanedback posture, with one hand reaching up to his hidden face, his other hand pressed against the small of his back, like a man with a stiff neck tossing back a drink. REVERSE Amy, having just emerged onto the terrace, squints at him. AMY ...Norville? He turns and we see that it is indeed Norville, holding a dripping icepack against one eye. AMY ...What happened? NORVILLE Oh. Nothing, really, just... the more timid investors are no longer running for cover. AMY Let me look. He does. NORVILLE Sid found me the icepack. AMY Let me hold it, or you'll have a real shiner. NORVILLE Thanks. People seem to be pretty hot over this imbecile story. AMY ...I'm sorry. NORVILLE Oh, it isn't your fault, Amy. You're the one person who's been standing by me through all this. As she rolls the pack gently across his eye: AMY Norville... there's something I have to tell you. You see, I'm not really a secretary. NORVILLE I know that, Amy. AMY ...You do? NORVILLE I understand that you're not very skilled yet in the secretarial arts. I'm not that skilled as president. Oh sure, I put up a big front -- (massages his eye) -- not that everyone's buying it. AMY I believe in you, Norville -- At least I believe in your... intentions -- NORVILLE Oh, I don't blame them, really. I guess I have sort of made a mess of things. These folks have to protect their investment. Most of them are very nice people -- AMY Norville, you can't trust people here like you did in Muncie... They gaze out at the city. AMY ...Certain people are -- NORVILLE Didja ever go to the top of old man Larson's feed tower and look out over the town? AMY ...Huh? NORVILLE You know, on farm route 17. AMY Oh yes! In Muncie! NORVILLE No! In Vidalia! Farm Route 17! AMY Uh -- Yes. Seventeen. Yes, I -- well no, I -- I never really... There's a place I go now, the cutest little place near my apartment in Greenwich Village. It's called Ann's 440. It's a beatnik bar. NORVILLE You don't say. AMY Yes, you can get carrot juice or Italian coffee, and the people there -- well, none of them quite fit in. You'd love it -- why don't you come there with me -- they're having a marathon poetry reading on New Year's Eve. I go every year. NORVILLE (puzzled) Every year? AMY Well -- this year -- if it's good I plan to make it a tradition. Uh, my it certainly is beautiful -- She nods out at the city to avoid Norville's quizzical look. AMY ...The people look like ants. NORVILLE Well, the Hindus say -- and the beatniks also -- that in the next life some of us will come back as ants. Some will be butterflies. Others will be elephants or creatures of the sea. AMY What a beautiful thought. NORVILLE What do you think you were in your previous life, Amy? AMY Oh, I don't know. Maybe I was just a fast-talking career gal who thought she was one of the boys -- NORVILLE Oh no, Amy, pardon me for saying so but I find that very farfetched. AMY Norville, there really is something I have to tell you -- NORVILLE That kind of person would come back as a wildebeest, or a warthog. No, I think it more likely that you were a gazelle, with long, graceful legs, gamboling through the underbrush. Perhaps we met once, a chance encounter in a forest glade. I must have been an antelope or an ibex. What times we must have had -- foraging together for sustenance, picking the grubs and burrs from one another's coats. Or perhaps we simply touched our horns briefly and went our separate ways... AMY I wish it were that simple, Norville. I wish I was still a gazelle, and you were an antelope or an ibex. NORVILLE Well, can I at least call you deer? Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Seriously, Amy, the whole thing is what your beatnik friends call 'karma' -- the great circle of life, death and rebirth. Morosely: AMY Yeah, I think I've heard of that. What goes around comes around. NORVILLE That's it. A great wheel that gives us each what we deserve... He slaps his fist into his palm. NORVILLE ...Tomorrow's my big presentation to the board. I've gotta show Sidney and the guys that I deserve all their confidence! Sadly: AMY Oh, Norville -- NORVILLE Kiss me once, Amy! Kiss me once for luck! AMY Sure, Norville, sure... She gives him a peck. They look at each other. AMY ...Oh, Norville! She embraces him. They kiss again. Norville's eyes widen. VIC TENETTA Crooning the end of his song. DANCING COUPLES Turn to the bandstand and applaud. NORVILLE AND AMY In the midst of a passionate kiss. FADE OUT: FADE IN: DOUBLE OAK DOORS Labeled "Executive Conference Room." A secretary is hanging up a sign that reads: "Quiet Please! Board Meeting in Session." INT. BOARDROOM - CLOSE ON NORVILLE Chest and up. His upper torso is swaying, his shoulders rhythmically rolling as he talks. We hear a WHOOSH WHOOSH sound from O.S. NORVILLE -- So we have economy, simplicity, low production cost and the potential for mass appeal, and all that spells out great profitability... CLOSE ON MUSSBURGER Staring. Holding a just-lighted but forgotten cigar in one hand, and a still burning match in the other. NORVILLE (O.S.) ...I had the boys down at R & D throw together this prototype so that our discussion here could have some focus... BOARD Staring, mouths hanging open, in arrested motion much like when Waring Hudsucker jumped out the window at the previous board meeting. NORVILLE (O.S.) ...and to give you gentlemen of the Board a first-hand look at just how exciting this gizmo is... WIDER ON NORVILLE Still gyrating. We now see that he has accelerated the hula hoop around his waist to quite a good speed. NORVILLE ...It's fun, it's healthy, it's good exercise; kids'll just love it, and we put a little sand inside to make the whole experience more pleasant. And the great part is we won't have to charge an arm and a leg! Mussburger's forgotten match has burned down to his fingertips. With a wince, he shakes it out. The Board is staring. ELDERLY EXECUTIVE Yeah but... What is it? EXECUTIVE #2 Does it have rules? EXECUTIVE #3 Can more than one play? EXECUTIVE #4 (to #3) What makes you think it's a game? EXECUTIVE #3 Is it a game? EXECUTIVE #5 Will it break? EXECUTIVE #6 It better break eventually! EXECUTIVE #2 Is there an object? EXECUTIVE #3 Are you supposed to make it fly off? EXECUTIVE #5 Does it come with batteries? EXECUTIVE #4 Could we charge extra for them? EXECUTIVE #7 Is it safe for toddlers? EXECUTIVE #3 How can you tell when you're done? EXECUTIVE #2 How do you make it stop? EXECUTIVE #1 Is that a girl's model or a boy's? EXECUTIVE #3 Can a parent assemble it?? EXECUTIVE #7 What if you get tired before it's done? EXECUTIVE #6 Is there a larger model for the obese? EXECUTIVE #4 Can you do it around your neck? ELDERLY EXECUTIVE And finally... what is it? NORVILLE You know, for kids! It's... it's ... well, it's... MUSSBURGER It's brilliant. The Board looks at Mussburger. MUSSBURGER ...It's genius. It's just exactly what Hudsucker needs at this juncture. Sure, sure, a blind man could tell you that there's an enormous demand for this, uh... He smiles weakly at Norville. MUSSBURGER ...Congratulations, kid, you've really outdone yourself. Reinvented the wheel. I'm going to recommend to the Board that we proceed immediately with this, uh... with the, uh... that the dingus be mass-produced with all deliberate speed. Of course, as president of the company the ultimate decision is yours. NORVILLE Well... I'm for it... As furiously BUSY MUSIC STARTS: CUT TO: TELETYPE Furiously PRINTING out "EXECUTIVE DIRECTIVE #37451-JL7. A hand ENTERS FRAME and rips the directive from the teletype, then hurriedly rolls it into a cylinder and slips it into a cylindrical metal capsule. The capsule is popped into a pneumatic tube. ANGLE - LENGTH OF PNEUMATIC PIPING somewhere in the labyrinthine substructure of the Hudsucker Building. We hear a MISSILE furiously HURTLING towards us, inside the pipe, and ROCKETING by. ANGLE ON ANOTHER LENGTH OF PIPING Once again we hear the CAPSULE APPROACH and ROCKET past. BLINDING RED LIGHTS as a SIREN BLARES. On a huge board that says HUDSUCKER DESIGN DEPARTMENT, flashing red letters announce: INCOMING DIRECTIVE! The pneumatic tube spout shoots out a cylinder, and a hand eagerly picks it up and yanks it OUT OF FRAME. A technician in white laboratory smock is reading the directive as several other white-jacketed technicians crowd their heads around his shoulders, also reading. All of their eye and head motions synchronize as they eagerly read, devouring the document line by line. A large sheet of graph paper is whipped down on top of a drafting table. Under the caption OVERHEAD ANGLE is a perfect circle. Under the caption HORIZONTAL is a horizontal line. Under the caption VERTICAL SIDE ANGLE is a vertical line. EXTREME LOW ANGLE - SEVERAL TECHNICIANS looking thoughtfully down at the rendering. The head technician is stroking his beard and nodding. CUT TO: RENDERING as a hand ENTERS FRAME and stamps the drawing approved. CUT TO: TWO MORE LENGTHS OF PNEUMATIC PIPE as we hear the CYLINDER ROCKETING by. SWISH PAN TO: FROSTED DOUBLE GLASS DOORS Lettered on the frosted glass is: "ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Creative Bullpen." In sharp silhouette on the frosted glass we can see the three admen working inside. Two pace back and forth, smoking cigarettes, as they toss out ideas. The third sits slumped in front of a silhouette typewriter, his head resting on one hand, his other hand resting on a half-empty bottle of whiskey. In the f.g., outside the frosted glass and so not in silhouette, sits a bored secretary reading War and Peace, Volume One. AD MAN #1 (O.S.) We'll call it the Flying Donut! AD MAN #2 (O.S.) The Dancing Dingus! AD MAN #1 (O.S.) The Jerky Circle! SWISH PAN TO: PNEUMATIC PIPING With the cylinder rocketing by. SWISH PAN TO: "ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT" WALL PLAQUE CUT TO: HUGE POSTER Up on the wall of the accounting floor is an enormous reproduction of the design department's rendering of the hula hoop. Over the poster is an enormous banner: "WHAT WILL THIS COST?" PAN FROM the poster TO a HIGH ANGLE SHOT of a floor full of accountants sitting at their rows and rows of desks; all are looking up at the wall poster as they operate their manual adding machines to the same beat. All accountants wear identical vests, shirtsleeves, garters, visors and spectacles. The head accountant stands in front of the room overseeing their efforts. He wears a full three-piece suit, a visor and a pince-nez. CUT TO: HUGE BOOK Being dropped onto a desk. Its cover reads: SUMMARY OF COST ANALYSIS. The book is opened and its pages, filled with rows of numbers, are flipped to the last page where we QUICKLY PAN DOWN TO the bottom line: Unit Cost... $0.59 Suggested Retail... $0.79 CUT TO: EXECUTIVE Looking down at the book as the head accountant hovers over his shoulder, waiting for his reaction. The executive grimly shakes his head. BACK TO BOOK As the accountant's hand ENTERS FRAME to scratch in "$1" in front of the suggested retail of $0.79. A hand ENTERS FRAME to stamp the bottom line: APPROVED. CUT TO: ROCKETING PNEUMATIC PIPES CUT TO: ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT CREATIVE BULLPEN The secretary in the f.g. is now reading War and Peace, Volume Two. AD MAN #1 (O.S.) Something short. AD MAN #2 (O.S.) Sharp. AD MAN #1 (O.S.) Snappy. AD MAN #2 (O.S.) With a little jazz. AD MAN #1 (O.S.) The Shazzammeter! AD MAN #2 (O.S.) The Hipster! Drawing a circle in the air: AD MAN #1 (O.S.) The Daddy-Oh! AD MAN #2 (O.S.) The Circle-o'-Gaiety! CUT TO: ROCKETING PIPES CUT TO: MEN in asbestos suits throwing down their visors as they scurry and dive for cover behind banks of sandbags. A fierce EXPLOSION harshly illuminates the sandbags. As the EXPLOSION SUBSIDES: The workmen cautiously peek out over the sandbags, then flip back their visors and rise to their feet. THEIR POV Bouncing among the flaming debris of the explosion is a hula hoop, still intact. CUT TO: ROCKETING PIPES CUT TO: ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT CREATIVE BULLPEN The secretary in the f.g. is now reading Anna Karenina. The silhouetted ad men, frustrated and hoarse, are still at it. AD MAN #1 (O.S.) The Hoopsucker! AD MAN #2 (O.S.) The Hudswinger! AD MAN #1 (O.S.) The Hoop-dee-doo! AD MAN #2 (O.S.) The Hudsucker Hoop! The third ad man, slouched motionless at the typewriter up until now, finally raises his head. AD MAN #3 (O.S.) Fellas. Fellas! AD MAN #1 (O.S.) Ya got somethin'? AD MAN #2 (O.S.) Ya got somethin'?! AD MAN #3 (O.S.) Fellas! I got somethin'! CUT TO: PIECE OF ART PAPER Printed at the top: Hudsucker Industries Proudly Presents PAN DOWN to reveal: THE HULA HOOP PAN DOWN to reveal: An artist's hand working in fast motion to render the hula hoop logo: A grinning, healthy 1950s boy with a spray of freckles, one fist thrown forward, the other behind, as if doing an athletic frug, a hula hoop spinning with action lines around his waist. In seconds the artist has completed the logo and now, also in fast motion, he writes the slogan on either side of the boy: "You know... For Kids!" As the page is ripped off the art pad: MATCH CUT TO: PAGE being carried away in a continuous motion by an engineer who looks at it, nodding. We see that we are now in an enormous plant area. The engineer, grimy from his labors in this sweaty industrial realm, reaches up to pull an enormous lever. CUT TO: MACHINES GRINDING into motion. CUT TO: DONUT SPOUT As it begins to spit hula hoops in massive numbers. The hoops are spit onto a long metal arm where they rest, hanging. A bale of hula hoops is loaded into a Hudsucker truck to complete its load. The truck door is slammed shut. IRON GRILL is thrown up to reveal the display window of a shop just opening for the day. In the window is an enormous hula hoop display, with various hoops strung up on wire in front of a large cardboard diorama -- "You know... for Kids!" Reflected in the display window we see crowds of people scurrying by, indifferent to the display. Inside the shop we see the proprietor by the cash register, his chin propped glumly in his hands. INT. NORVILLE'S OFFICE Norville sits anxiously awaiting the verdict of Amy who sits hunched over the ticker-tape machine, studying the emerging tape. Amy finally looks up at Norville and sadly shakes her head. BACK TO SHOP WINDOW Crowds still scurry indifferently by. The shopkeeper stands idly in his doorway, smoking a cigarette. We TRACK IN ON the cardboard display. The displayed price of $1.79 has been crossed out. Underneath it, inked in: "Reduced: $1.59." INT. NORVILLE'S OFFICE Norville is nervously pacing. Amy still studies the ticker- tape. Once again she is forced to shake her head sadly. BACK TO SHOP'S PRICE DISPLAY The old $1.59 is suddenly covered as the hand ENTERS FRAME to slap on a sticker: $1.49. A beat. The hand ENTERS FRAME to slap on a new sticker: $1.29. Then in rapid-fire succession: $0.99. $0.79. $0.49. Two for $0.25. Free with any purchase. ALLEY BEHIND SHOP where garbage and garbage cans sit waiting for collection: Hands appear at the back door of a shop hurling a clutch of hoops towards the trash heap. One errant hoop rolls towards the mouth of the alley. The mouth of the alley. The escaped hula hoop emerges and starts rolling down the street. HULA HOOP It rolls across the street. CARS VIOLENTLY BRAKE to avoid it. It rounds a corner and rolls up to a little boy, rolls in a circle around him, and finally wobbles to the pavement. The little boy looks at it, steps inside it, raises it to his hips and starts hula hooping. Somewhere a BELL is RINGING. INT. NEARBY SCHOOLHOUSE where the BELL is RINGING, the front doors fly open and hundreds of schoolchildren run out, screaming, heading home, but all in a dense pack. The screaming pack of schoolchildren round a corner and -- stop short, their screams abruptly halting. They are staring, fascinated, at the hula-hooping youngster. The children are dumbfounded. It is a moment the likes of which they have never dreamed. CUT TO: SCREAMING PACK once again running, maniacal, possessed. We don't know where they are running, but we can guess. CUT TO: STORE Jam-packed with screaming children, grabbing hula hoops off the shelves. BACK TO NORVILLE'S OFFICE Norville sits slumped behind his desk, his head resting on the desktop, utterly dejected. Suddenly the TICKER-TAPE HUMS to life and starts spitting tape. Amy looks at it with mounting excitement. Finally she looks breathlessly up: AMY ...Norville! Norville lifts his head from the desktop. A piece of scrap paper is sticking to his cheek. Dramatic FANFARE MUSIC STARTS TO SWELL. We HOLD ON Norville's expectant face. We HOLD. The MUSIC BUILDS. We HOLD. We: CUT TO: NEWSREEL TITLE We can see the "Tidbits of Time" logo as a solemn-voiced announcer intones: ANNOUNCER (V.O.) Rockwell News presents... 'Tidbits of Time!' World news in pictures, we kid you not. ANOTHER ANGLE Picture dissolves to a pan up the Hudsucker Building. Cut to candid film of Norville getting out of a car, noticing the camera, grinning and waving as he walks, and taking a pratfall. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) ...What began as the brainchild of this Madison Avenue whiz kid is now a craze sweeping the nation. The 'hula hoop,' product of Hudsucker Industries, is a recreational device that some experts predict may eclipse the television as a means of entertainment... ANOTHER ANGLE A television sits against a neutral b.g. A hula hoop rolls into frame and bumps the TV, pushing it out of frame. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) ...This dancing dingus of delight, this jerky circle of gaiety, is proving to be the toy of choice of most American youngsters. -- Whoa- ho! Did I say youngsters?! Here's mom, taking a break from her household chores... ANOTHER ANGLE A woman switches off her vacuum cleaner, takes a hula hoop that is conveniently leaning against a nearby wall, and starts hula hooping. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) ...and even dad is 'swinging' into the act! ANOTHER ANGLE In the office, dad, smoking a pipe, is also hula hooping. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) ...and so the congratulations pour in for up-and-comer Norville Barnes, inventor of the hoop -- including one very special call! ANOTHER ANGLE In jerky cinema-verite footage, a woman is excitedly sticking her head in Norville's door. WOMAN (V.O.) He's on! He's on the line! Swish over to Norville, agog, who picks up his phone and, voice breaking: NORVILLE (V.O.) ...Hello? CRACKLING VOICE (V.O.) Hello, Norville. This is the President... A half-wipe leaves a split screen with half of the screen remaining Norville, the other half becoming a still of Ike standing in a tank turret, pointing commandingly. Under the photo: VOICE OF GENERAL DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER. NORVILLE (V.O.) Oh my God, sir! IKE (V.O.) ...I just wanted to congratulate you. I'm very proud of you, Norville... NORVILLE (V.O.) Oh my God, sir! IKE (V.O.) ...Mrs. Eisenhower is very proud of you. The American people are very proud of you. Flash bulb explosion effects a... CUT TO: NORVILLE Facing a battery of REPORTERS at a news conference. REPORTER #1 Mr. Barnes, how'd ya come up with the idea for the hula hoop? Norville is holding one hand up to shield his eyes from the unaccustomed light. Amy stands next to him, beaming. NORVILLE Well, it was no great idea, really. A thing like this, it takes a whole company to put it together, and I'm just grateful for the opportunity -- REPORTER #2 Mr. Barnes, did you have any idea there'd be such a huge response? NORVILLE Well, frankly, I don't think anybody expected this much hoopla -- He is surprised by a burst of laughter. REPORTER #3 'Hoopla on the hula hoop' -- can we quote you on that, Mr. Barnes? NORVILLE Well sure, I guess -- REPORTER #4 Mr. Barnes, are you thinking of giving yourself a nice fat raise? NORVILLE Ha-ha-ha-ha. Come on, guys... Flash bulb explosion effects a... CUT TO: NEWSREEL A scientist with a Van Dyke beard, wearing a laboratory smock, is facing the camera. Behind him we see other scientists studying a hoop that has been hooked up to a gyroscopic- looking device that analyzes its various movements and properties. NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER (V.O.) What scientific principle explains the mind-bending motion of this whipping wheel of wonder? A title supered over the Scientist's chest identifies him as Professor Erwin Schweide. SCIENTIST (V.O.) Ze dinkus is kvite zimple, really. It operates on ze same principle zat keeps ze earth spinning 'round ze sun, and zat keeps you from flying off ze earth into ze coldest reaches of outer space vere you vood die like a miserable shvine! Yes, ze principle is ze same, except for ze piece of grrrit zey put in to make ze whole experience more pleasant -- TRACKING IN TO: INT. NORVILLE'S OFFICE The mean laugh. Norville, behind his desk in LONG SHOT, laughing, as we begin to TRACK IN. There is something disconcerting about his laugh -- it is harder, more businesslike, colder than the dopey laugh that accompanied his elevation to the presidency. Or perhaps it is only our imagination, for while still some distance away from him: Flash bulb explosion effects a... CUT BACK TO: NEWS CONFERENCE Newsmen follow Norville as he walks through the lobby of the Hudsucker Building. REPORTER #1 Mr. Barnes, did the board consider you an 'idea man' when they promoted you from the mail room? NORVILLE Well, I guess so -- I don't think they promoted me because they thought I was a jerk. REPORTER #2 Mr. Barnes, what's the next big idea for you and Hudsucker Industries? NORVILLE Jeez, I don't know. An idea like this sweet baby doesn't just come overnight... REPORTER Mr. Barnes, are you -- NORVILLE -- Although I'll tell you one thing: I certainly didn't expect all this 'hoopla'! This TIRED old joke brings some polite laughter. Norville is smiling as he enters the elevator. As its doors start to close, leaving Amy behind: NORVILLE ...And you can quote me on that! Flash bulb explosion effects a... CUT BACK TO: NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER (V.O.) Yes, it's hula hula everywhere! From the cocktail parties of the Park Avenue smart set... ANOTHER ANGLE A group of people in formal evening wear are sipping highballs and chatting as they keep hoops in motion 'round their waists. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) ...to sweethearts who want to be married in the 'swing' of things... ANOTHER ANGLE A young couple stands before the altar hula hooping. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) ...To our friend the Negro, in the heart of the dark continent. ANOTHER ANGLE Pan down from elephant to two natives hula hooping as they grin into the newsreel camera. TRACKING IN ON: ANOTHER ANGLE The mean laugh. Yes, as we draw closer, it seems clear that his laugh is colder than before. Flash bulb explosion effects a... CUT TO: NORVILLE Sitting in a barber chair, face lathered up, as Reporters crowd in. REPORTER #1 Mr. Barnes, Mr. Barnes, Rumpus magazine has called you the most eligible bachelor of the year, and the society pages have been linking you with high-fashion model Za-Za. Would you care to comment? A burning cigar emerges from the lather around Norville's face. It waggles as he talks. NORVILLE There's no truth to the rumors; we're just dear friends... He looks to one side. NORVILLE ...Isn't that right, Za-Za? SWISH PAN TO: ZA-ZA. Standing nearby. Every man's dream, in a tarty sort of way. ZA-ZA (sexily) Gr-r-r-r-r-r-r-oww! The newsmen react. REPORTER #2 Ho-leeee! REPORTER #3 Mr. Barnes, whither Hudsucker? Whither Norville Barnes? REPORTER #4 How do you respond to the charges that you're out of ideas? Has Norville Barnes run dry? The barber is periodically pinching Norville's nose to shave under it; as he alternately pinches and releases, Norville's voice breaks from nasal to normal and back. NORVILLE Not at all. Why, just this week I came up with several new sweet ideas. A larger model hula hoop for the portly. A battery option for the lazy and handicapped. A model with more sand for hard-of-hearing. I'm earning my keep. REPORTER #5 Speaking of that, Mr. Barnes, do you expect to get a raise? NORVILLE Well, by anyone's account I've saved Hudsucker Industries; our stock is worth more than it's ever been. So, yes, I expect to be compensated for that. END TRACK IN ON: ANOTHER ANGLE The mean laugh. FURTHER TRACK IN ON Norville ENDS in CLOSE SHOT, his hands clasped on the desktop in front of him, as he finishes his hard, square-jawed, man-on-top laugh, gazing flintily INTO the CAMERA. NORVILLE -- ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! PULL BACK FROM: WEEPING EXECUTIVE The PULL BACK FROM a blubbering executive REVEALS that we are at a Board meeting. All of the Board members sit around the table except for Mussburger, who, a towel around his waist, is receiving a choppity-chop massage on a padded table from a muscular man in a bulging T-shirt. MUSSBURGER Pull yourself together, Addison. Addison snuffles. ADDISON Nobody told me! Nobody told me! You sold all of our stock? MUSSBURGER We dumped the whole load. Now quit showboating, Addison -- ADDISON I had twenty thousand shares! I'd be a millionaire now! MUSSBURGER Sure, sure, we'd all be millionaires. There's no point in looking back. At the time, Stilson thought dumping our position would panic the market, further depress the stock -- then we'd buy it all back, and more of course, once it got cheap -- ADDISON Cheap! Cheap! It's never been more valuable! And I'm ruined! Ruined! He climbs up onto the board table. ADDISON I'm getting off this merry-go-round! EXECUTIVE Addison! ANOTHER EXECUTIVE Myron! ADDISON Aaaaahhh! He runs down the length of the table and hurls himself toward the window and: Thwok! CUT TO: MUSSBURGER'S OFFICE - ANGLE FROM OUTSIDE LOOKING IN, as Addison flattens against the f.g. glass, his face squushing, his outflung hands likewise. All stare in horror for a long silent beat. With the sound of a SQUEEGEE being drawn across glass, Addison, still frozen, slides down the window, hits the floor, and falls stiffly back like a fallen tree. Mussburger sits up and sticks a cigar into his mouth. MUSSBURGER Plexiglas. Had it installed last week. EXECUTIVE ...Myron? MUSSBURGER All right, so the kid caught a wave. So right now he and his dingus are on top. Well, this too shall pass. Myrtle J. Mussburger didn't raise her boy to go knockkneed at the first sign of adversity. I say, we made this kid and we can break him. I say, the higher he climbs, the harder he drops. I say, yes, the kid has a future, and in it I see shame, dishonor, ignominy and disgrace. Sure, sure, the wheel turns, the music plays, and our spin ain't over yet. NORVILLE'S OFFICE A small chamber orchestra, the musicians in tails, sit playing "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik". Norville, eyes closed, reclines in his desk chair, one uniformed woman stooping in front of him, manicuring his nails, another, behind, massaging his temples. A tailor is pinning up his pant cuffs. A French sculptor wearing a white smock, a beret, and a goatee squints at Norville and chisels at a block of marble with a stone chisel and hammer. A GOON sits off to one side, hat insolently atop his head, reading the funny papers. At length Norville stirs, opens his eyes, sits bolt upright, batting away the hands of the manicurist and temple-massager. NORVILLE Hold it!... The musicians' playing dribbles away to silence. NORVILLE ...Nobody move, nobody breathe... All sit frozen. You could hear a pin drop. NORVILLE ...An idea... is coming... Eyes narrowed, he gazes off into space, squinting for his idea. CLOSE ON TAILOR'S KIT A straight pin is rolling across the top -- it drops off -- EXTREME CLOSE ON FLOOR Where the PIN -- PING! -- hits. NORVILLE Deflates. He glares at the tailor. NORVILLE It's gone now. The musicians resume playing. Everyone else resumes work. The INTERCOM BUZZES and a female voice announces: FEMALE (V.O.) Miss Amy here to see you. Norville leans forward to hit his intercom. NORVILLE Is she in the book? -- The door bursts open and Amy storms in. AMY For Pete's sake, Norville! NORVILLE Oh! Hello, Amy -- was it -- I thought she said, Mamie -- AMY Never mind about that... She shakes a piece of paper at Norville. AMY ...You know what those nincompoops in the boardroom are doing? NORVILLE Well, I wouldn't call them nincom -- AMY They're going to discharge eight percent of the work force here at Hudsucker. Why, in New York alone that means eighteen hundred people out of work, people with wives and children and families -- NORVILLE Well yes, we're pruning away some of the dead wood, but if -- AMY You mean you know about this? NORVILLE Know about it? You think the Board would do anything like this without my authorization? No, this was my idea from the start. AMY Your i -- NORVILLE We have to be realistic, Amy. You know things have slowed down a little here at Hudsucker -- AMY You're awful kind to yourself, Norville Barnes -- the fact is you've slowed down, sitting up here like a sultan, not doing a lick of work! Why you know it's ideas that are the lifeblood of industry and you haven't come up with one since the hoop and the reason's plain to see! You've forgotten what made your ideas exciting for you in the first place -- it wasn't for the fame and the wealth and the mindless adulation of -- would you get out of here?! This was addressed to the chamber orchestra, whose playing dribbles off. They look inquisitively at Norville, then rise to pack up their instruments and sheepishly leave the office. AMY ...I've been watching you, Norville Barnes, even though you've been trying to avoid me -- NORVILLE Now, Aim -- AMY Shutup! -- and don't think I haven't noticed how you've changed. I used to think you were a swell guy -- well, to be honest I thought you were an imbecile -- NORVILLE Now, Aim -- AMY Shutup! -- but then I figured out you were a swell guy, a little slow maybe, but a swell guy! Well, maybe you're not so slow, but you're not so swell either and it looks like you're an imbecile after -- NORVILLE Now, Aim -- AMY Shutup! -- after all! You haven't talked to me for a week and now I'm going to say my piece. I've got a prediction for you, Norville Barnes: I predict that since you've decided to dedicate yourself to greed and sloth and everything bad, you're going to lose all the good things that your good ideas brought you. You're going to throw them all away chasing after money and ease and the respect of a Board that wouldn't give you the time of day if you... if you... NORVILLE Worked in a watch factory? The Goon looks up from his funnies. GOON Huh-huh-huh! AMY (to the Goon) Shutup! (to Norville) Exactly! Don't you remember how you used to feel about the hoop? You told me you were gonna bring a smile to the hips of everyone in America, regardless of race, creed or color. Finally there'd be a thingamajig that would bring everyone together -- even if it kept 'em apart, spacially -- you know, for kids? Your words, Norville, not mine. I used to love Norville Barnes -- yes, love him! -- when he was just a swell kid with hot ideas who was in over his head, but now your head is too big to be in over! NORVILLE Now, Amy -- AMY Consider this my resignation -- Thwock -- She slaps him. The bodyguard is on his feet. GOON Hey!! Crack -- Amy kicks him hard in the shin. GOON ...Awooooo! AMY -- Effective immediately!! She strides to the door, leaving Norville rubbing his cheek and the Goon hopping around on one leg. FADE OUT: FADE IN: CLOSE SHOT - PICTURE OF AMY PULL BACK SHOWS it to be her identification in her Hudsucker personnel file. A hand brings INTO FRAME another picture of her -- this one a newspaper clipping. She stands on a podium accepting an award; standing behind her are middle-aged identical triplets. The caption says, "Amy Archer of the Manhattan Argus Receives Pulitzer Prize." WIDER ANGLE We are in Mussburger's office. Mussburger is seated at his desk looking at the file picture and clipping; the sign letterer/scraper is leaning over his shoulder, having just put them down. MUSSBURGER Hmmm... Thank you, Aloysius. This may be useful. Aloysious nods wordlessly and turns to leave. As we TRACK IN ON the picture of Amy, we: FADE OUT: FADE UP TO: PERFECT WHITE After a beat, a woman ENTERS against the unblemished white background, dressed in a flowing white dance robe, trailing a long, diaphanous veil. She performs a flowingly sensuous dance moderne; the MUSIC is a sensuous saxophone solo with lasciviously bending blue notes. After the woman has been dancing for several beats Norville enters, dancing after her, pursuing her. He is wearing a coatless suit, his sleeves rolled up, his thin tie loosened. The woman dances around him, letting her diaphanous veil trail sinuously around his body. We hear an ECHOING voice: VOICE (O.S.) Buddy... Say, buddy... CLOSE SHOT - NORVILLE Sitting in his desk chair, sheened with sweat, eyes closed, licking his lips. CLOSER NOW: VOICE (O.S.) Buddy... Ya busy? NORVILLE Huh-whuh? He opens his eyes and looks stuporously about. Buzz is grinning down at him in his little pillbox elevator cap. BUZZ Looks like ya nodded off there, buddy! Say, ya got a minute? Norville clears his throat. NORVILLE Oh, uh... Buzz... Is it important? BUZZ I like to think so! It's this little idea I been working on! He turns an easel to face the desk. BUZZ ...Ya see, I don't intend to be an elevator boy forever! Take a look at this sweet baby! The easel displays an oversized sheet of graph paper. Onto it has been rendered a top view, which is a perfect circle, and a side view, which is a vertical line. Norville gazes stupidly at the circle. BUZZ ...Ya get it, buddy? Incredibly convenient, isn't it? Ya see -- He produces a tall glass of lemonade with a straw sitting in it. BUZZ -- this is how it works, it's these little ridges on the side that give it its whammy! See, ya don't have to drink like this anymore -- He holds his head over the glass to drink from the vertical straw. BUZZ -- Now you can drink like this -- He bends the straw to drink from it at the horizontal. BUZZ ...I call it the Buzz-Sucker, get it, buddy? -- After me! Buzz! Why, people are just dyin' for a product like this, and the great thing is we won't have to charge an arm and a -- Norville, who has been stewing, finally barks: NORVILLE Wait a minute! He grabs the lemonade glass, looks at it, sneering. NORVILLE ...Why, this is worthless. BUZZ Huh?! But, buddy -- Norville yanks the straw out and crumples it up. NORVILLE This is the most idiotic thing I've ever seen in my life! BUZZ Yeah, but, buddy -- NORVILLE Nobody wants a hare-brained product like this! Ya see, Buzz, it lacks the creative spark, the unalloyed genius that made, uh... He pauses to belch. NORVILLE ...say, the hula hoop such a success. BUZZ But, buddy -- NORVILLE And what do you mean barging in here and taking up my valuable time! I've got a company to run here -- BUZZ But, buddy, you were -- NORVILLE -- I can't have every deadbeat on the Hudsucker payroll pestering me with their idiotic brainwaves! BUZZ Geez, I'm sorry, buddy -- NORVILLE An example must be made! Buzz looks over his shoulder, turns back to Norville. BUZZ Wuddya mean, buddy? NORVILLE Fired! You're fired! Is that plain enough for you, buster! Buzz's jaw drops. His elastic chin strap snaps under the pressure. BUZZ Awwww, buddy -- NORVILLE And don't call me buddy! Out of here! Out! Buzz sinks to his knees, weeping. He clutches pathetically at Norville's pants legs. BUZZ Aw, please, sir -- this job, it's all I got! NORVILLE Get up! BUZZ I understand if ya don't like the Buzz-Sucker! Just lemme keep my job, I'm prayin' to ya! NORVILLE We don't crawl at Hudsucker Industries! Get out of my office! Leave your uniform in the locker room! Buzz stumbles away, still weeping. BUZZ I'm sorry, buddy... I'm sorry... NORVILLE Buzz... off! Ha-ha-ha-ha! As we TRACK IN ON Norville, laughing, there is a low, unearthly RUMBLE, and his face seems to DISSOLVE INTO: FLAMES We PULL BACK FROM the flame of Sid Mussburger's oversized lighter as he finishes lighting a cigar. He is sitting alone in the boardroom, but its door swings open and Norville enters wearing plaid knickers, a little cap, and a knit shirt that shows his waist starting to bulge. He has a full golf bag over his shoulder. NORVILLE Sorry I'm late, Sid. That back nine at Riverdale is really murder. MUSSBURGER Sure, sure, it's a tough course. Well thanks for coming, kid. I thought the board room would be a swell place to chat undisturbed -- it seems we're having some security problems here at the Hud. NORVILLE Ya don't say. MUSSBURGER Mm. Ordinarily I wouldn't bother you with it, but -- this is embarrassing, kid -- it seems to concern you directly. NORVILLE How's that, Sid? MUSSBURGER It's not important in itself -- some elevator boy you fired came to me claiming you'd stolen the idea for the, uh, the hoop dingus from him -- NORVILLE Huh?! He -- no, I -- he's just -- maybe I was a little rough on the boy, ya see I -- MUSSBURGER Ah forget it, kid, ya don't have to explain to me. He's a little person. He's nothing. Like I say, ordinarily it would just be a nuisance. But it seems -- well, there was a spy in the company... He is shoving a file towards Norville, who opens it. MUSSBURGER ...Sure, sure, we tried to kill the story. But her newspaper won't play ball... Looks like her story's coming out... We TRACK DOWN the length of the board room table TOWARD Norville, who stares horrified at the file. MUSSBURGER ...See, kid, the problem the Board'll have... you hired this woman. Kept her on, while she made a chump out of you. Serious error of judgment... I mean, business is war, kid -- ya take no prisoners, ya get no second chances. And a boner like this... I'm afraid when the Board meets, after New Year's, your position... well, it looks like you're finished... stick a fork in ya, you're done... washed up... We LOSE Mussburger FROM FRAME as we TIGHTEN FURTHER ON Norville, Mussburger continuing off: MUSSBURGER (O.S.) ...I'm sorry, kid. I understand this dolly who betrayed you, she used to be a friend of yours... Norville is slowly dragging the golf cap off his head. MUSSBURGER (O.S.) ...And this elevator dope used to be a friend, too... Norville stares, perfectly still. MUSSBURGER (O.S.) ...Well, they've got your throat pretty well slit. And when you're dead, ya stay dead. Ya don't believe me, ask Waring Hudsucker... Yeah, looks like curtains. Well, condolences, kid... Norville's IMAGE TURNS TO: BLACK-AND-WHITE IMAGE OF NORVILLE We PULL BACK to show that it is on the front page of the Manhattan Argus. The headline, in screaming nine-point type: FAKE! Next to the picture of Norville is the subhead: Idea Man a Fraud. Next to the sub-subhead is a picture of Buzz in his elevator- operator's pillbox hat: Stole Hoop Idea from Genius Elevator Jockey Clarence "Buzz" Gunderson. AMY (O.S.) You can't print that! CHIEF He grins wolfishly. CHIEF We are printing it! She's hittin' the streets this evening -- SWISH PAN TO: SMITTY -- and she's dynamite! AMY But, Al, it's the bunk! Norville showed me his design for the whatsit the day I met him! Why Buzz couldn't have invented it -- look at the man -- he's an imbecile! CHIEF Archer, you're a broken record. Fact is Gunderson did design it -- apparently he's some kind of prodigy -- AMY Says who?! SMITTY You're not the only one with sources, Amy -- CHIEF Smith has a source on the Hud board -- very senior, very hushhush -- AMY Yeah, and I'll bet his initials are Sidney J. Mussburger! SMITTY You've lost it, Aim. You've gone soft by the looks of it -- soft on the dummy from Dubuque -- AMY Muncie! CHIEF Whatever! It's no dig on you, Archer, but this story is hot and you're no longer on top of it. Why, it's the scoop of the century -- the other papers won't have the Gunderson dope 'til tomorrow -- The Allemeinischer Zeitung, Le Figaro, they'll be choking on our dust come mornin' -- AMY You're fools, both of you! It's obvious they're out to crucify Norville! They're trying to destroy him! CHIEF (gently) Amy -- take a break. You've worked hard on this story -- heck, you broke it for us! But it's passed you by and Smith here has taken up the slack. She is near tears. AMY You want slack, I'll give you slack. You're not putting me out to pasture, Al, I quit! Consider this my resignation -- She turns to Smitty -- AMY -- effective immediately! -- and swings -- but he catches her before contact, holds her by the wrist, and sneers: SMITTY ...Soft. Amy swings her free arm to -- thwack -- blindside his other cheek. NORVILLE In flickering black-and-white, he is lying on a couch that has been brought into his office, gazing listlessly at a bend straw, being interviewed by someone O.S. The footage is rough, taking a moment to find focus; the sound is TINNY. GERMAN VOICE (V.O.) Dell me vat is first zing droppensie head ven I menzhon ze vord... Zex? NORVILLE (V.O.) (listlessly) Aww, what's the difference. BOARD MEMBER Sitting in a darkened board room, gazing off at a screen that sends flickering light onto his face. GERMAN VOICE (V.O.) Und ven I zpeak of authority? NORVILLE (V.O.) Awww, I dunno. BACK TO SCREEN GERMAN VOICE (V.O.) Eggzplain please ze zignifikanz of ze straw. NORVILLE (V.O.) Nuthin', really. ANOTHER ANGLE A shadow is thrown across the screen as a figure steps into the beam. He throws the sharp silhouette of a strict Freudian ANALYST: Van Dyke beard, pince-nez with chain trailing down to his vest, one thumb hooked into the vest, the other hand holding a cigar wreathing smoke, which he waves for emphasis. ANALYST Patient dizplayed liztlessness, apathy, gloomy indifference und vas blue und mopey. The image on screen cuts to four inkblots. The Analyst sweeps in a pointer and thwoks each image as he comments on it. ANALYST ...Ven asked vut four Rhorschach stains reprezented, patient replied, 'Nussink much,' 'I don't know,' 'Chust a blotch,' und 'Sure beats me.' ANOTHER ANGLE The image onscreen cuts to a close shot of Norville on the couch, mouth listlessly agape. ANALYST ...Patient shows no ambition, no get- up-und-go, no vim. He is riding ze grand loopen-ze-loop -- Image cuts to a sine wave on a graph, the top of which is labeled "Euphoria," the bottom of which is labeled "Despair," and a reference line through the middle labeled "Normal." There is an X on the declining side of the wave, near but not yet at the bottom, which is labeled "Patient." ANALYST -- zat goes from ze peak of delusional gaiety to ze trrrroff of dezbair. Patient is now near -- but not yet at! -- ze lowest point; ven he reachensies bottom he may errrrrupt und pose danger to himself und uzzers. MUSSBURGER Casually puffing on a cigar. MUSSBURGER Diagnosis, Dr. Bromfenbrenner? BROMFENBRENNER (ANALYST) Patient is eine manic-depressive paranoid type B, mit acute schizoid tendencies. MUSSBURGER So patient is...? He interrogatively twirls a finger 'round his temple. BROMFENBRENNER Prezizely. Knots. The board murmurs. MUSSBURGER Prescription? BROMFENBRENNER Sree sinks! Kommitment. Electroconfulsif therapy. Maintenance in eine zecure wazility. As he scores each point it is illustrated on the screen behind him: A patient is forced into a straitjacket by two brawny, unshaven attendants; electricity arcs between two leads on a wire cap being wielded by a technician; and lastly, a steel- barred door is slammed shut behind a stooped and broken patient who is led, shuffling, away. Here the FILM runs out, CHATTERING, and the screen goes white. The projector is shut off and the lights go on. The board politely applauds. INT. BAR - CLOSE ON BARMAN He has a Vandyke beard and wears a cut-off sweatshirt and dungarees and dark glasses, and has the phone wedged into his shoulder as he tears open a large cardboard box. BARMAN Yeah, just get down here -- he says he's a friend of yours... He won't say, but man, is he from squaresville. He hangs up and we HINGE WITH him to bring the length of the bar into view. Norville dishevelled, is on the other side bellowing. NORVILLE I want a martini! It's New Year's Eve and I want a Martini! BARMAN Daddy, it's like I been tellin' ya -- NORVILLE I thought you served misfits here! The barman is taking rolled-up blow-beepers out of the cardboard box and loading them into tumblers to set along the bar. BARMAN Yeah, daddy, that's a roger, but we don't sell alcohol. NORVILLE What kind of bar is it if ya can't get a martini?! BARMAN It's a juice and coffee bar, man, like I been tellin' ya -- NORVILLE I want a martini! On this bar, right now! I've had a martini in every bar on the way down here, and I'm not about to -- BARMAN Martinis are for squares, man. Suddenly enraged: NORVILLE What'd you call me?! He starts awkwardly peeling off his suit coat. NORVILLE ...You son of a -- AMY (O.S.) Norville! NORVILLE Huh?! He looks stupidly about, the shoulders of his coat down around his elbows. He sees Amy rushing up. NORVILLE ...Oh, it's you! Lookin' for a nitwit to buy your lunch?! AMY Oh Norville, I -- Norville's attention has already left her. He looks for the missing bartender. NORVILLE (swaying) Barman! Set'm up, fella! AMY Norville, I'm sorry, I... I tried to tell you... so many times... It's hard to admit when you've been wrong. If you could just... find it in your heart to -- to give me another chance -- NORVILLE Hey! Where's that martini?! AMY Just give me another chance, Norville -- I can help you fight this thing. I know this last story was a lie! We can prove it! We can -- NORVILLE Aww, what's the difference. I'm all washed up... When you're dead, ya stay dead... Hey, fella! AMY Well that just about does it! I've seen Norville Barnes, the young man in a big hurry, and I've seen Norville Barnes the self-important heel, but I've never seen Norville Barnes the quitter, and I don't like it! She starts pumping her arms, slowly chanting. AMY ...Fight on, fight on, dear old Muncie. She steps back off the stool. Norville watches her dully, his head swaying. AMY ...Fight on, hoist the gold and blue; You'll be tattered, torn and hurtin' Once 'The Munce' is done with you! Goooooo Eagles! She looks hopefully for some effect, but after staring at her for a slack-jawed beat Norville can only bring out: NORVILLE You lied to me! I can't believe you lied to me! a Muncie girl! He lurches off his stool toward the door. Watching him, despair fights with confusion on Amy's face. AMY But Norville... I... She realizes that, though shattered, he is still the simple innocent she loved -- AMY ... Oh, Norville! -- and bursts into tears. Two loud REVELERS reel INTO FRAME, one of them uncurling a blow-beeper at the weeping Amy. REVELER #1 Happy Newby-Newby-New! REVELER #2 1959 we dig you the most! EXT. ANNE'S As Norville exits. It is night, snowing. We PAN WITH Norville OFF the bar facade and, ENDING the PAN in the f.g.: NEWSPAPER WIPES UP INTO FRAME. Next to a picture of Norville is the headline "MUNCIE MENTAL CASE." The subhead: "Hud Chief to Tend Daisies." Sub-subhead: "Headshrinker Calls Him Walking Time Bomb." NEWSIE (O.S.) Extra! Extra! New Year's Eve Edition! Norville's hand ENTERS FRAME to push the newspaper away and leave us looking up the empty street. Norville's back ENTERS as he stumbles off alone up the street, pulling up his coat collar as he recedes, the NEWSIE's VOICE continuing: NEWSIE (O.S.) ...Ring out the old! Ring in the new! CLOSE ON NORVILLE trudging. VOICES WELL UP, ECHOING. A face looms with each voice, hellishly lit, superimposed over the walking Norville: VOICES (V.O.) ...You're not so slow but you're not so swell either and it looks like you're an imbecile after all!... Noooo, I don't guess you will be here long... Sure, sure, but even there they called you dipstick... lamebrain... dope... schmoe... And is this sap from chumpsville?!... imbecile after all... Norville, you let me down... You let Mrs. Eisenhower down... You let the American people down... imbecile after all... imbecile... I predict you're going to lose all the good things your ideas brought you... Please, buddy...! When you're dead, ya stay dead... Sure, sure, the kid's screwy -- it's official... This last voice and supered face is Mussburger's. Norville DISSOLVES away to leave us ON Sidney in the: INT. BOARDROOM Hellishly bottom-lit board members sit around the table, conical New Year's hats on their heads. Mussburger, the only one not wearing a cap, waves his cigar as he continues to talk: MUSSBURGER ...The barred-window boys are out looking for him now, and we'll see how Wall Street likes the news that the President of Hudsucker Industries is headed for the booby-hatch. Why, when the doc gets through with him he'll need diapers and a dribble cup... The board murmurs appreciatively. MUSSBURGER ...Let me remind you that our secret post-New Year's party will be held in the office of the President shortly after midnight tonight. Remember, it's strictly stag, so leave the wives at home; we'll be showing some films and, yes, gentlemen, there will be exotic dancers. Louder murmuring. One board member leers, a trace of spittle at the corner of his mouth. MUSSBURGER Well, if that's all... With an unnatural rumble he straightens his papers and we... JUMP UP TO: HIGH NIGHTMARISH DUTCH ANGLE of the assembled around the table. ALL Long live the Hud! NORVILLE Norville trudges on, faster, sweatier. VOICE (O.S.) Ring out the old! Ring in the new...! People come and go, laughing, talking, blowing noisemakers, making merry. VOICE (O.S.) ...Ring out the old! Ring in the new! Ring out the -- Thoomp!! Norville has run into someone. He looks up, dazed. VOICE (O.S.) Hey, watch where you're -- Say, buddy! It is Buzz, the elevator boy, dressed in an ill-fitting tuxedo and a conical party hat. Za-Za is on his arm, towering over him, leering at Norville. NORVILLE -- Uh... Buzz, I'm sorry, I -- Buzz, you gotta forgive me! I shouldn't a fired you, I didn't know what I was doing! I was a little funny in the head, I -- BUZZ Aw, buddy, I don't care about that. Norville is stunned. NORVILLE ...You don't? BUZZ Nah, that's all forgotten. NORVILLE ...It is? BUZZ Sure, Mr. Muss -- uh, Sid said I could have the job back. NORVILLE Absolutely, Buzz, I'm glad he -- BUZZ But he told me you stole that swell hoop idea from me. What gives! NORVILLE But, Buzz -- BUZZ Say, that was a swell idea! NORVILLE But, Buzz, you know I never -- BUZZ And Sid says you stole it! NORVILLE But Buzz -- ZA-ZA Well wuddya waiting for, Clarence -- ? Pop him one! Boffo! Buzz swings and Norville hits the snow hard. BUZZ Think about that, idea man!! Norville groggily raises his head. PASSERBY Say, isn't he that lunatic? Norville looks dopily up at the people in furs and party hats starting to gather. VOICES ...that big-shot faker... the Wall Street fraud guy... nuttier than a fruitcake... they say he's a menace... wuddya waitin' for, call a cop!... We hear SIRENS. Norville staggers to his feet. The crowd cringes. VOICES ...He's on his feet... We can take him! Norville bursts through the crowd, running. Buzz starts giving chase, followed by the braver souls, followed by the entire mob. NORVILLE runs, gasping, turning a corner. VOICES ...Down here! He went down here! Behind Norville, the crowd rounds the corner, led by Buzz. A VAN is SCREECHING to a halt and out jump two burly unshaven men in white, one of them holding open a straitjacket, the other carrying a large butterfly net. They join in the chase. Norville turns down an alley. A DRUNK drooping off a lamppost gaily waves a bottle at him. DRUNK Ring out the old! Ring in the new! The crowd is running past the mouth of the alley, missing the turn-off. LIMESTONE FLOOR Norville, gasping, crashes down INTO FRAME, his hands breaking his fall against the limestone. The CAMERA SPINS NINETY DEGREES to reveal that it is not floor but wall he has run into and is now leaning against. Norville looks up, sweating, gasping. HIS POV The massive Hudsucker Building looms dizzily up towards the stars, capped by the huge Hudsucker Clock. DISTANT VOICES (O.S.) Ring out the old! Ring in the new! HUDSUCKER LOBBY Norville staggers in. A gust of icy air that comes in with him flaps a dropcloth off a huge shape that dominates the lobby: It is the heroic statue of Norville that we earlier saw him posing for. Norville reels over to it, stares dumbly. STATUE Mutely -- mockingly -- dignified. NORVILLE He staggers off to the elevators. MUSSBURGER'S OFFICE We are TRACKING ACROSS the office TOWARD Mussburger, his feet up on his desk, laughing demonically, smoking his cigar. CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK -- the PERPETUAL MOTION BALLS swing on his desk; THRUMMMMM -- the SWEEP SECOND HAND of the clock, illuminated now, casts a moving shadow that rolls across the floor. Evil prevails. A piece of paper and a pencil lie on his desk; as we APPROACH WE PAN DOWN and SWING AROUND to read it, LOSING Mussburger but still hearing his LAUGHTER. MOVING IN ON THE PAPER: Musssucker Industries. Hudberger Industries. Sidsucker Industries. This last alternative has been circled in red. Below it has been scribbled: Sidney J. Mussburger, President. Evil LAUGHTER. Sweeping shadows. CUT TO: NORVILLE'S OFFICE DOOR We are TRACKING IN TOWARD the back of Aloysius, the sign painter, who is stooped in front of the door. He looks back over his shoulder, leering PAST the CAMERA, to reveal his work: Under PRESIDENT Norville's name has been scraped away, and painted in is SIDNEY J. MUSSBUR... NORVILLE He pushes past the sign painter. INT. OFFICE Dark and empty. Norville is peeling off his coat as he staggers over to the closet. We can hear DISTANT REVELRY and the STRAINS of "AULD LANG SYNE." Norville has pulled his old mailroom apron from the closet and is putting it on: HUDSUCKER MAIL ROOM/The Future Is Now. Norville looks at the door. THROUGH the glass we see the tail of the last R of "Mussburger" being painted into place. Norville throws open the window. WIND WHISTLES. He climbs out. LEDGE Norville, back against the wall, looks cautiously down. We hear DISTANT CHANTING: VOICES (V.O.) Ten... nine... eight... seven... HIS POV A sickening drop. Receding snowflakes. On the street far, far below, a lone car's headlights cut through the falling snow. VOICES (V.O.) Six... five... four... WIDER ON NORVILLE We are FLOATING IN; it is the SHOT with which the movie began. The sweep second hand of the Hudsucker Clock is approaching the 12 of midnight, the New Year. In sync with the clock the CHANTING continues: VOICES (V.O.) Three... two... We have COME IN CLOSE ON Norville. A lone tear runs down his cheek. VOICES (V.O.) ...One... BONG! The toll is right at Norville's ear. Startled, he reaches up to press hands against his ears. Distantly: VOICES (V.O.) Happy New Year! BONG!! He can't stand it. Whimpering, hands to his ears, he edges his way back toward the window. HIS POV The open window at a steep angle. Someone inside slides it shut. BACK TO SCENE Norville waves. NORVILLE No -- BONG!! His gesticulation and a shuffle step upset his balance -- he trips -- falls -- catches the ledge -- NORVILLE -- No, please! He is hanging onto the icy ledge by his fingertips. His feet dangle away. Snow falls. HIS POV Looking STEEPLY UP. CLOCK Its second hand is making its descent. NORVILLE Falling. MUSSBURGER Laughing. SECOND HAND Descending. NORVILLE Falling, turning lazily in the air -- and suddenly, with a great moaning sound -- he stops, suspended in mid-air, head down, feet in the air. It is much like the freeze frame on Waring Hudsucker that the title of the film was supered over. He waves his arms, to no effect, looks around. PEOPLE IN STREET Frozen in attitudes of laughter, celebration. Snow sifts silently down around their motionless bodies. MUSSBURGER In his office, frozen with an idiotic laugh pasted to his face. HIS PERPETUAL MOTION BALLS Frozen, one ball swung out but suspended, hanging at the apex of its arc. Outside the great arched window, snow falls. NORVILLE He alone can move, but doesn't fall. He looks awkwardly about, his body in a dive-bomber attitude, canted steeply down. EXT. HUDSUCKER CLOCK Its sweep second hand is arrested on its downward sweep. WHINING NOISES emanate from within. CLOSE SHOT - GREAT GEAR The broom handle has been jammed between two cogs, stopping them. We PULL BACK ALONG the handle to reveal Moses, who has thrust it there, and who now TURNS back over his shoulder to address the CAMERA. MOSES Strictly speakin', I'm never spozed to do this but... have you got a better idea? NORVILLE Twisting back to look up over his shoulder; there is a DISTANT -- very distant -- SINGING. HIS POV Looking up the length of the Hudsucker Building. Someone or something wrapped in white is flying toward us, coming down from the stars. We can make out a male voice, accompanied by STRUMMING: VOICE (V.O.) She'll be comin' around the mountain when she comes, She'll be comin' around the mountain when she comes... NORVILLE He gapes. ANGEL -- For it is an Angel, arrives. He is a balding man, wearing rimless glasses, in a white robe, large feathery wings sprouting from his back and beating heavily until he comes to rest, in midair. He puts aside the harp he has been strumming on a nearby windowsill. ANGEL Love that tune. How ya doin', kid? NORVILLE Mr... Mr. Hudsucker? HUDSUCKER (ANGEL) Ta-daaaa! Presenting himself, he spreads his arms and stamps his forward foot, forgetting that there is nothing beneath his foot to stamp. He lurches forward, momentarily losing his balance. HUDSUCKER ...Wooooo! He rights himself. The halo spinning lazily over his head has been jarred askew. With a flick of his forefinger he rights it. HUDSUCKER ...How d'ya like this thing? They're all wearin' em upstairs now. He blows a dismissive raspberry. HUDSUCKER ...It's a fad. He pats at his robe, produces a white cigar. HUDSUCKER ...Anyway. I hear you've been having, uh... He casually flicks his thumb out of his fist, lighting it. He lights the cigar off his thumb, takes a puff. HUDSUCKER ...Been having some problems with the board. The more things change, know what Iyayayeeeeee... Pain reminds him that he has forgotten to extinguish his flaming thumb, which he now waves frantically about. HUDSUCKER ...Jesus Christopher -- That smarts... Where was I? Oh yeah, the board. I guess Sidney's been puttin' the screws to ya, huh, Norman? NORVILLE Norville. HUDSUCKER Mm. Well, say what you like about the man's ethics, he's a balls-to- the-wall businessman. Beat ya any way he can. Straight for the jugular. Very effective. NORVILLE Yes sir... HUDSUCKER Anyway. Any particular reason you didn't give him my Blue Letter? I mean, Jesus, Norman, just a dying man's last words and wishes, no big deal. NORVILLE Huh? Oh, geez, Mr. Hudsucker, I apologize, there was an awful lot of excitement and I guess I must've mislaid -- HUDSUCKER It's sittin' in your apron pocket, right where you left it. Imbecile. Norville reaches in and -- pulls out the wrinkled Blue Letter. NORVILLE Oh, geez. HUDSUCKER Failure to deliver a Blue Letter is grounds for dismissal. NORVILLE Geez, I -- HUDSUCKER Ah, it's New Year's, I'm not gonna add to your woes. I'm just saying. NORVILLE Yessir. HUDSUCKER Well, why don't ya read it. NORVILLE Sir? HUDSUCKER Yeah, go ahead. Might learn somethin'. NORVILLE Yes sir... He tears open the envelope, reads: NORVILLE 'From the desk of Waring Hudsucker. To. Sidney J. Mussburger. Regarding. My demise. Dear Sid. By the time you read this, I will have joined the organization upstairs -- an exciting new beginning. I will retain fond memories of the many years you and I -- ' HUDSUCKER Yeah, yeah, it's the standard resignation boilerplate -- go down to the second paragraph. NORVILLE 'Many years, uh... I know that you will be wondering why I have decided to move on, ending my tenure at Hudsucker, and here on Earth. You will be thinking, Why now, when things are going so well? Granted, from the standpoint of our balance sheet and financials, sure, sure, we're doing fine. However, Sid. These things have long since ceased to give me pleasure. I look at myself now and no longer see the idealistic young man who started this company. Now I see only an empty shell whom others call a 'success.' How has this come to pass? When and why did I trade all of my hopes, dreams and aspirations, for the emptiness of power and wealth? What the heck have I done? As Norville reads Hudsucker casually examines his fingernails, then pats down a yawn. NORVILLE '...Looking back now, Sid, I see that I allowed time and age to corrupt my dreams. Instead of fiercely guarding what was timeless inside of myself, I let the hubbub of earthly commerce erode my character, and dissolve my better self. How is it that some manage to preserve themselves where I have failed? Sidney, I do not know. Perhaps if others love you, you may more securely love yourself -- but I am alone. I loved a woman once, Sid, as you well know -- a beautiful, vibrant lady, an angel who in her wisdom saw fit to choose you instead of I...' Norville is interrupted by loud blubbering. He looks up. Hudsucker is weeping loudly into a white handkerchief. He saws at his nose, gives it a loud honk, and urgently quavers in a voice strangled with emotion: HUDSUCKER Skip this part... He waves his hankie in get-on-with-it circles. HUDSUCKER ...Last paragraph, last paragraph. Norville looks down the page. NORVILLE '...And so, Sid, the future does not belong to such as I -- nor even you. We have made our compromises with time. The future belongs to the young, who may more energetically wage the battle against corruption. Accordingly, in the spirit of hope, and the ringing in of the new, I hereby bequeath my entire interest in the company, and my seat on the board, to whomever is Hudsucker's most recent employee at the time of my demise. I know this will disappoint you -- you, Sid, who have served so diligently and for so long. But --' HUDSUCKER -- tough titty toenails! He roars with laughter. HUDSUCKER ...That'll show the bastard! He merrily wipes his eyes. HUDSUCKER ...Yeah, go ahead. NORVILLE '...But Sid, let me urge you to work closely with the new president, and to keep giving Hudsucker Industries all your energies -- but not your soul. For while we must strive for success, we must not worship it. Long live the Hud. Waring Hudsucker...' Norville gives a musingly appreciative nod. HUDSUCKER ...Geez. Pleased with himself: HUDSUCKER Yup. It's all there. Well, see that it gets delivered in the morning. Hudsucker picks up his lyre and heads back up toward the stars. HUDSUCKER Sheeel beeee... MUSSBURGER'S OFFICE Mussburger still sits frozen in his chair. Outside the great arched window Hudsucker rises, through the falling snow, on his way back to the heavens. HUDSUCKER ...Ridin' six white horses, She'll be ridin' six white horses She'll be ridin' six white horses When she comes... We hear a great WRENCHING SOUND from the GEAR ROOM next door. GEAR ROOM Moses pries the broom handle loose from the Great Gear. With a LOW MOAN the CLOCKWORKS start to shudder and turn -- SWEEP SECOND HAND Lurching forward -- PERPETUAL MOTION BALL Swinging down -- EXT. PAVEMENT As Norville falls the last few feet and lands on his face with one last mighty BONG of the HUDSUCKER CLOCK. BOOM DOWN FROM a tavern sign that says ANN'S 440, DOWN TO the front door, which Norville is entering. INT. ANN'S Sitting halfway down the bar is Amy, staring morosely into a coffee cup. AT the CUT we are TRACKING BACK, PULLING AWAY FROM her. Norville enters, comes up next to her and makes the Go Eagles sign, hooking his thumbs in front of his nose and spreading his fingers. Two familiar voices narrate the scene, sounding a little tipsy: LOU (O.S.) What the heck's he doin', Benny? Amy looks at Norville, startled. After a moment she reciprocates the sign. BENNY (O.S.) What the heck's she doin', Lou? LOU (O.S.) What the heck they doin'? Norville and Amy embrace. BENNY (O.S.) You know what they're doin' now, Lou. LOU (O.S.) This I know, Benny. BENNY (O.S.) This you're familia' with. Our PULL BACK ENDS LOOKING ACROSS an elbow of the bar, TOWARDS Norville and Amy, now in WIDE SHOT. Resting on the bar in the extreme f.g. are two champagne glasses, half-full of fizzing champagne. Norville and Amy kiss. LOU (O.S.) ...Geez. BENNY (O.S.) ...Geez. We hear LABORED, RASPY BREATHING. LOU (O.S.) ...Y'all right, Benny? In a quavering voice: BENNY (O.S.) ...Yeah, I'm... It's just... It's beautiful, Lou! Lou also is beginning to sound choked up: LOU (O.S.) It is beautiful, Benny. Almost weeping as Norville and Amy continue their embrace: BENNY (O.S.) ...It's the most beautiful t'ing I ever saw. LOU (O.S.) It's the most beautiful t'ing I ever saw. A BARTENDER ENTERS to BLOCK our VIEW of Norville and Amy. He is youngish, with a beat goatee, wearing dungarees and a sweatshirt with cut-off sleeves. He looks to either side at Benny and Lou. BARTENDER You cats comin' from a party? BENNY Cabbies' affair. LOU Hacks' New Year's gala. BARTENDER Crazy. Get you anything else? Sangria? Carrot juice? Herbal tea? REVERSE ANGLE We see Benny and Lou are sitting side by side at the bar. Lou wears a fake whispy beard and white eyebrows and a long flowing robe; he holds a fake scythe. On the bar next to him sits a large hourglass. LOU Bromo. Benny is wearing nothing but an oversized diaper, a baby bonnett and a sash across his hairy chest and thick belly that says "1959." He chucks himself in the heart, cocks his head and sucks in air, then blows it back out. BENNY ...Bromo. BLUE LETTER Lying on the boardroom table. As a hand enters to lay a wristwatch on the table next to it, we hear the voice of Moses, the old maintenance man. MOSES (V.O.) And so began 1959. The new year... The hand reenters to lay down a wallet, and then to deposit a burning cigar in an ashtray. MOSES (V.O.) ...And the start of a new business cycle. When he learned that Norville owned the comp'ny, ol' Sidney was upset at first. We TILT UP to show that Mussburger is walking toward the boardroom window. Board members silently remonstrate with him as he tries to wrench it open. MOSES (V.O.) ...It's a good thing Doc Bromfenbrenner was there... Doctor Bromfenbrenner stands to one side watching, brow furrowed, a pencil pressed to his lips. MOSES (V.O.) ...'cause he was able to keep Sidney from harmin' his ol' self. We... CUT TO: BARRED DOOR being slammed behind Sidney who, straight-jacketed, is puffing on a cigar as he is led away. MOSES (V.O.) ...Now Norville, he went on an' ruled with wisdom and compassion... BOARDROOM Again. Norville is eagerly pointing at a design he has up on an easel: Under the heading BRAND NEW is a large circle. The side view is a flat line. MOSES (V.O.) ...and started dreamin' up them excitin' new ideas again. You know, for kids! The board members look at the design, puzzled. Norville takes a drop cloth off of a piece of plastic on a pedestal. He has the board's complete attention. MOSES (V.O.) ...An' that's the story of how Norville Barnes climbed away up to the forty-fourth floor of the Hudsucker Buildin'... He picks up the plastic disc and as he sails it we... CUT TO: OUTSIDE As it floats out the boardroom window. MOSES (V.O.) ...an' then fell all the way down, but didn't quite squish hisself. We BOOM UP, AWAY FROM the boardroom, to the great Hudsucker Clock. MOSES (V.O.) ...Ya know, they say there was a man who jumped from the fortyfifth floor... but that's another story. Heh-heh-heh! Ya-heh-heh-heh! We FADE OUT on the clock as Moses' LAUGHTER grows distant and END MUSIC SWELLS. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Human Nature.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Human Nature.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1e7aeddf3b0fbe2a5470da46fcdb290133731624 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Human Nature.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + "HUMAN NATURE" by Charlie Kaufman May 20, 1995 FIRST DRAFT BLACKNESS. There is a gunshot. A crow screams. A fluttering of wings. FADE IN: EXT. FOREST - DAY Bird's-eye view. We circle lazily above the forest. Through a break in the trees, we catch an occasional glimpse of a prostrate form on the ground. As the circling camera gets closer we see that the form is a human body. CUT TO: EXTREME CLOSE-UP OF LILA TALKING TO THE CAMERA LILA I'm not sorry. A bead of sweat trickles down her cheek. Then: a blinding flash of light obliterates her face. CUT TO: EXTREME CLOSE-UP OF PUFF TALKING TO THE CAMERA PUFF I am sorry. A tear wells in Puff's eye and runs down his face. Another blinding flash of light. CUT TO: EXTREME CLOSE-UP OF NATHAN TALKING TO THE CAMERA NATHAN I don't even know what sorry means anymore. As Nathan speaks, a trickle of blood drips down his face from his out-of-frame forehead. Another blinding flash of light. CUT TO: EXT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT It's a frenetic hand-held shot as Lila is pulled from a police car and dragged into the precinct house. Cameras flash. Reporters shout questions. Lila attempts to shield her face from view, but she is handcuffed and can only manage to hunch her shoulders. CUT TO: INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT A ratty interrogation room. Institutional green walls. Beat-up file cabinets. Dark. A bit of fluorescent light spills in through the frosted glass door. Lila, thirties, sits at the end of a long table. A reel-to-reel tape recorder whirs in front of her. She is smoking. Three fat, mean-looking cops sit in shadows at the other end of the table. One of the cops eyes her lasciviously. Lila's hand shakes as she brings the cigarette to her mouth. LILA I'm not sorry. So I spend the rest of my life in jail. So what? I've been in jail my whole life anyway. A jail of blood and tissue and coursing hormones... One of the cops sighs and massages the bridge of his nose. It's going to be a long night. LILA ...a jail called the human body. The lascivious cop smiles lasciviously at Lila's reference to "human body." LILA My soul held prisoner in this reeking, stench-ridden bag of bones and entrails. A bag of feces and piss and fibroid cysts in my tits and precancerous moles on my sun-damaged back... The lascivious cop gags, then vomits on the floor. Lila drags on her cigarette, calmer now. LILA At least now I'll be able to blame the state, not God, for my incarceration. CUT TO: INT. AUDITORIUM - DAY Puff, thirties, dirty, scraggly hair and beard but in a crisp business suit, testifies before a congressional committee. The auditorium is filled with reporters and spectators. Puff sits in front of a microphone, counsel at his side. He pours himself a glass of water, drinks, clears his throat, then speaks: stentorian, confident. PUFF I am sorry, gentlemen, sorry for all of us. Your's is a complicated, sad world. This is a revelation to the assembled crowd. People whisper to each other. PUFF And I never knew that. I was living a life of simplicity, of purity, when I was ripped out of my Eden and immersed in this harshness. Some would argue that the life I was living was not a human life at all. And, gentlemen, I don't have any clever retort. I am not a philosopher. The only thing I know is that I am sorry, sorry for my expulsion from Eden, sorry for my Lila rotting in her jail cell, and sorry for Nathan... rotting in his grave. CUT TO: INT. WHITE SPACE - DAY Nathan, thirties, in a white robe, sits alone at a white table. Everything is white except for an oozing bullet wound in Nathan's temple. NATHAN I don't even know what sorry means anymore. It's odd. When I was alive I knew -- maybe it was all I knew -- but here sorry is meaningless. Love is meaningless. Jealousy is meaningless. Ambition is meaningless. Everything that motivated my every breath while I was alive is meaningless now. (beat) I guess that's how I can be sure I'm really dead. CUT TO: INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT Lila watches the slowly churning tape recorder reels, fixated. The cop who vomited is mopping it up. The other two are sipping coffee. Lila talks. LILA My story begins when I was twelve. COP (checks watch) Jesus. CUT TO: EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - DAY It's got that faded, "memory" look. Twelve year old Lila hurries home from school, books clutched to her chest. Other kids walk along the street in pairs or groups, laughing and chatting. Lila walks alone, a worried scowl on her face. LILA (V.O.) Something terrible happened when I was twelve. CUT TO: INT. LITTLE GIRL'S ROOM - DAY Colors are still muted. It looks to be somewhere in the early 70's based on the preponderance of Bay City Rollers posters on the wall. Twelve year old Lila enters the room, closes the door, locks it, rattles the doorknob to make sure that the door is really locked. She draws the shades. She pulls some t-shirts from her dresser drawer and stuffs them into the space between the bottom of the door and the floor. KID BROTHER (O.S.) (muffled) Hey, no fair! TWELVE YEAR OLD LILA Drop dead, Eric. Lila stands nervously in front of the full-length mirror on her closet door. She takes a deep breath and begins to unbutton her shirt, watching herself carefully in the mirror. ADULT LILA (V.O.) Something terrible started to happen to my body when I was twelve. My mother said because of it I would never be able to get a man, so I should get used to the idea of dedicating my life to the pursuit of knowledge, or religion... or whatever. Lila's shirt is now unbuttoned. She pulls it open. She is wearing a training bra over the very beginning of breast buds. On the chest above the bra, and on her stomach below it, is hair. Dark curly hair. She stares at it, touches it cautiously. Then she starts to cry. She crouches into a ball and weeps. ADULT LILA (V.O.) The doctor said... CUT TO: INT. DOCTOR'S OFFICE - DAY Old fashioned office. Twelve year old Lila sits on the examination table, her shirt off. An elderly male doctor touches the hair, fingers it. Her mother looks on. DOCTOR (to the mother) It's hormonal. Nature is a funny and complex thing. It could get worse with time. Young Lila turns to the camera. TWELVE YEAR OLD LILA By the time I was twenty I looked like an ape. CUT TO: INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT The cop who vomited, gags again. Lila stares at him. Her face is hard, blank. She stubs out her cigarette. CUT TO: INT. AUDITORIUM - DAY Puff testifies before the committee. PUFF I don't think there's anyone in the world who doesn't know by now that I was raised in the wilderness by an ape. Well, to be fair, by a man who thought himself an ape, but it amounts to the same thing gentlemen, does it not? DISSOLVE TO: EXT. FOREST CLEARING - DAY. This has a faded, "memory" look also. A naked, bearded, dirty middle-aged man and a naked, dirty ten year old Puff walk along like apes, crouched over and dragging their knuckles. PUFF (V.O.) My father escaped from a New Jersey mental institution in 1963. CUT TO: EXT. CITY STREET - NIGHT It's raining and deserted. Puff's father, in pajamas, comes tearing around the corner. He runs crazily towards the camera, waving his arms, puffing out his cheeks. PUFF (V.O.) He had been committed the previous year after applying one too many times at our local zoo for the job of "apprentice ape." Puff's father passes a newspaper vending machine, stops, goes back and examines the headline. It reads: President Kennedy Assassinated. Puff's father looks heavenward and clutches at his temples in despair. PUFF (V.O.) My father saw what the human race had come to while he was... in captivity. He felt something had to be done to create a better world. CUT TO: EXT. SUBURBAN HOUSE - NIGHT Puff's father climbs out a second story window with a small bundle in his arms. He runs off into the night. PUFF (V.O.) He stole little me from my mother, his ex-wife, and raised me, with love and tenderness and respect, as an ape like himself. CUT TO: INT. AUDITORIUM - DAY Puff looks pointedly at the congressman. PUFF Apes don't assassinate their presidents, gentlemen. The congressmen are shamed: they look down, they take notes, they mumble instructions to the assistants seated behind them. CUT TO: EXT. FOREST - DAY An adult Puff and his now older father sit on the forest floor and pick bugs off each other and eat them. PUFF (V.O.) Until quite recently I believed myself to be an ape, although I didn't know specifically what type. Apes don't think in terms of type. DISSOLVE TO: INT. AUDITORIUM - DAY Puff testifies. PUFF It might be argued, gentlemen, that apes don't even know that they are apes. In retrospect, however, I'd say that I was a pygmy chimp. Puff holds up an illustration of a pygmy chimp. Several reporters run from the room: a scoop! CUT TO: INT. WHITE SPACE - DAY Nathan talks to nobody in particular. NATHAN I have to say I always hated apes. Of course I don't any longer. I don't even know what hate means now. But while alive, I hated apes. I blame my parents. I mean, I don't blame them. I don't know what blame is, really, anymore, but I think they influenced me in my ape-hating tendencies. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. ZOO - DAY Faded colors. Ten year old Nathan in a bow tie and shortpanted suit walks along with his uptight, British parents. They arrive at the ape pen. Nathan is excited. He jumps up and down. The apes jump up and down also. NATHAN AS A BOY Monkeys! Look, mama, monkeys! MOTHER (clamping down on his shoulder) Nathan, those are not monkeys. Those are apes. Mountain Gorillas to be precise. There is a commotion off screen. Two uniformed attendants drag Puff's father, straitjacketed and kicking and screaming like an ape, past Nathan and his parents. PUFF'S FATHER I am not a human being! I am an animal! Nathan, his father, and the other zoo patrons look on curiously, a little frightened. Nathan's mother chooses to ignore it. MOTHER And furthermore... Tell him, Harold. FATHER (distracted) Uh... (then by rote) We must never act like apes, son. For you see, The ape is our closest biological relative -- specifically the pygmy chimp. (holds up the same illustration of a pygmy chimp that Puff showed the congressional committee) A single chromosome separates us. But you know what truly separates us from the apes, what makes us better than apes? NATHAN AS A BOY No, papa. What? FATHER Culture. Civilization. Refinement. If we do not have these as humans, then we might as well be living in pens and throwing our feces about, masturbating in public... (beat, a reverie) ...sniffing red swollen female rump... MOTHER Enough, Harold. CUT TO: INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT Lila lights a new cigarette with her spent one. She drags. LILA Oh, I had sexual urges. I had the urge to merge, officers. Inside I was 100% Grade A female. (laughs derisively) But what self-loathing I felt! Who would have someone as repulsive, as unladylike as me? I did everything I could to shield the world from this repulsiveness. DISSOLVE TO: INT. COLLEGE DORM BATHROOM - DAY Stockings hang over the shower curtain rod. The window shade is drawn. Towels are stuffed in the space under the door. A twenty year old naked Lila is covered with shaving cream, face to feet. She is shaving. There is a pounding on the door. FEMALE ROOMMATE (O.S.) Lila, what are you doing in there? I need to get ready for my date. LILA Nothing! I'll be out in a minute! The door opens. Lila freezes. FEMALE ROOMMATE Look, I'll just... (stops in her tracks when she sees Lila) What the...? Lila is mortified. DISSOLVE TO: INT. DORM ROOM - A BIT LATER Lila is sitting in her bathrobe on her bed and staring out the window. There is a bit of shaving cream behind her ear. Her roommate runs back and forth getting ready for her date. FEMALE ROOMMATE I don't know why you didn't tell me about this. LILA It's embarrassing, okay? FEMALE ROOMMATE It's not so bad. (beat) So, it just keeps growing? LILA Yeah, Natalie. It's hair. It grows. FEMALE ROOMMATE Well, don't jump down my throat. I'm just trying to help. LILA How is that helping, Natalie? How exactly? FEMALE ROOMMATE Look, if you're going to be like that... You should be appreciative that I'm interested. LILA Why, because I'm a freak and you are beautiful, and you are being nice enough to come down to my freak, nonbeautiful level and act concerned about my repulsive troubles? FEMALE ROOMMATE (pegged) You're fucked up, Lila. (out the door) Why don't you fucking try electrolysis or something? Figure it out for chrissake. The door slams. Lila hugs her knees to her chest. LILA (V.O.) At sixty dollars an hour, electrolysis was not a feasible solution. I explored my alternatives. CUT TO: INT. ART MUSEUM - DAY Twelve year old Lila walks sadly through an art museum. she looks at various old portraits of men. She studies their facial hair. When she turns a corner, she is shocked to see a large Renaissance painting of a naked woman entirely covered with fur. She hurries to it. She looks at the placard next to the painting. It is a painting of Mary Magdalene. LILA (V.O.) I remember once coming across a painting of Mary Magdalene entirely covered with fur. I guess that's where I got the idea that maybe the Catholic Church might be a place that encouraged excessive hair growth in its women. INT. CONVENT - DAY Lila, in a nun's habit, is on her knees praying. LILA (V.O.) So I became a nun. LILA Heavenly Father... (sighs) ...please let this hair go away. LILA (V.O.) But my prayers were always so selfish. CUT TO: EXT. FIELD - NIGHT A bunch of naked women dance and chat around a campfire. Lila is there, pretty hairy. So are many of the other women. LILA (V.O.) I tried being a lesbian separatist. LESBIANS (chanting) A woman without a man / Is like a fish without a bicycle. LILA (V.O.) But I guess I just wasn't attracted to women, even hostile, man-hating, hairy ones who wore sensible shoes. CUT TO: INT. TENT - DAY Lila, in a full beard, sits on a throne before a crowd of gawking, dumb-looking, mouth-breathing children. Next to her on a separate stage is a sour-looking, middle-aged midget man sitting on a throne, staring blankly into space. LILA (V.O.) For a while I was a professional circus freak. DISSOLVE TO: INT. TENT - DAY Lila, in a Santa suit, with beard sprayed white, sits on a throne in front of a crowd of gawking, dumb-looking, mouth- breathing children. One of them is on her lap. Next to her sits the sour midget, dressed in an elf suit. LILA (V.O.) During the holiday season, they made us wear costumes. LILA (depressed) Ho ho ho. KID ON HER LAP That's not real. The kid pulls Lila's beard. LILA Ow! You little fuck. LILA (V.O.) Aside from the great dental, this occupation was not pleasant. CUT TO: EXT. CITY STREET - NIGHT Lila walks home. She's wrapped in winter clothing, but we can still see a bit of her white beard. It's snowing. The street is deserted. She spots a lighted window, she peers in. It's a warm family scene. Large group of chatting, laughing people. Fire in the fireplace. Big turkey on the table. LILA (V.O.) They say the holidays are difficult for a lot of people. Lila looks down the street and sees dozens of lonely-looking people peering forlornly in warmly lit windows. Some on ladders to peer in second-floor windows. Lila sighs. CUT TO: INT. BATHROOM - NIGHT The room is lit with candles. Lila finishes shaving herself all over. Then she takes the double-edged blade out of the razor and climbs into the a bathtub filled with warm water. She is about to slice her wrists. LILA (V.O.) I decided there was something poetic about killing myself with a razor blade. On the shelf next to the tub a little gray mouse watches her intently. At first she is startled, but then she and the creature seem to be communing. His little black beady eyes reflect the light. Lila starts to cry. She puts down the blade. CUT TO: INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT Lila wipes a tear from her eye. LILA The way that mouse looked at me. There was no judgement. It didn't care if I had hair all over my body. I was just what I was. I felt so free. Do you understand what I'm saying? The cops look up, on the spot. It seems their minds were elsewhere. COP Something about a mouse, right? Lila sighs. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. FOREST - EARLY MORNING We see a tent in a clearing. A smoking campfire. There is a rustling inside the tent. Lila steps out naked. She is covered with fur. She pours a cup of coffee, and stands, comfortable in her skin, watching the world around her. Squirrels jump from tree to tree, birds look down at her. She smiles. LILA (V.O.) Birds and squirrels and rocks and trees didn't seem to judge my hair. I felt at peace when there were no humans around. I figured out a way to spend as much time as possible with no people around. I became a nature writer. Lila picks up a pad and pen from a rock, sits on the rock and writes. CUT TO: INT. BEAUTY PARLOR - DAY A woman under a hair drier reads a book intently. We see the first sentence of the chapter: "Last night I almost died on this mountain top." We hear Lila's dramatic reading competing with the very loud sound of the hair drier. LILA Last night I almost died on this mountain top, and the irony is I had never felt more alive. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. FOREST - NIGHT There is a violent, violent storm. The hair drier drone has turned into the explosive noise of rain beating down in sheets and wind howling at fifty miles an hour. Branches crack. Lila's tent blows over, revealing her huddled there with a sleeping bag wrapped around her like a blanket. LILA I knew it was coming when in late afternoon, a thunderhead drifted over, sneaking in like kids through the back door of a movie theater, forced casual. It turned the sky a queer shade of green. A green that said "watch out, baby, this is gonna hurt like hell." I could've hightailed, but that would be cheating. Part of the Nature experience is recognizing its mastery over you, your smallness in the face of it. Lightning hits a tree nearby. It falls with a smack practically on top of Lila. She screams, then defiantly stands, throwing off the sleeping bag. The wind and rain whip her hair around her head. She laughs with amazing gusto and raise her arms like a runner winning a marathon. LILA As Nietzsche said, what does not kill me makes me stronger, and that goes double if you're a woman. CUT TO: EXT. BOOK STORE WINDOW - DAY We see many copies of a book entitled "Wind in my Hair" by Lila Jute. LILA (V.O.) I became a successful nature writer. CUT TO: INT. BEAUTY PARLOR - DAY We see a woman under a hair drier reading "Wind in my Hair". We pull back to see that a long row of women under hair driers are reading Lila's book. They all stand defiantly, proudly, knocking their hair driers up and back as they do. The blowing hair driers whip the women's wet hair around their heads. The blowing hair drier drone is unbearably loud. LILA Then I became a famous nature writer. I said to myself, fuck humanity... CUT TO: EXT. BOOKSTORE WINDOW - DAY A big display of the book "Fuck Humanity" by Lila Jute. A long line of women with beautifully coiffured hair snakes out of the store. LILA ...and I became a recluse. I had a menagerie of animals at my house. They loved me because I was me. They loved me on the days I shaved. They loved me on the days I didn't. For a while this was enough. DISSOLVE TO: INT. LOG HOUSE - DAY Lila lies in bed tapping on a lap top. A dog lies with her and licks her knee. She seems to enjoy it, and gets lost in a reverie. The dog morphs into a handsome man, kissing her knee and working his way up her thigh and under her nightgown. Lila is getting seriously hot and bothered. Her head lolls. But the reverie dissipates and the man turns back into a dog rooting around her crotch with his cold nose. She pushes him away. The dejected dog gets off the bed. LILA (V.O.) By the time I was thirty I was very, very horny. Lila gets out of bed and studies herself in the mirror. She brushes her hands against her hairy body. LILA I had to have a man in my... life. At any cost. I would become what I needed to become to achieve this. I would become a hairless lie. The mirror image of Lila shimmers and turns into Lila with no body hair. Lila all made-up and with a smart new hairstyle. She assumes a coquettish pose and smiles cutely at herself. LILA I was rich enough for electrolysis by this time, so I began the long arduous process of having each inappropriate hair burned out of my body at the root. CUT TO: INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT Lila talks. One of the cops is doodling. One is picking wax from his ear with a pencil. One is reading a paperback novel under the table. LILA This is when everything changed, and this is where my confession really begins. The cops look up. CUT TO: INT. ELECTROLOGIST'S OFFICE - DAY Lila lies shirtless on a table while Rose, her fifty year old electrologist, works on her back. ROSE Progress! LILA Ouch. Yeah? ROSE Oh yes, honey. Getting to be smooth smooth smooth all over. Smooth as a baby's butt. LILA I love it, Rose. I'm getting to be a real girl. ROSE You still in the market for a real boy? LILA Always. Ow. ROSE (beat) Cause there's this guy. My brother knows him. Might be right up your alley. LILA Tell me. I could use someone up my alley. ROSE (playing dumb) I don't get that. Is that sexual? LILA Shut up and tell me. ROSE Handsome, thirties, psychologist... LILA Loves animals? Ouch. Must love animals, Rose. ROSE Loves animals. Loves you. LILA What do you mean? ROSE Somehow it came up that you were a friend of mine. Mr. handsome, animal- loving psychologist said he would love to meet you. LILA Holy shit. Your brother didn't tell him about the nature of our relationship, did he? ROSE My brother is discreet. LILA (rubbing her hand over her jaw) Won't he be able to tell? ROSE My brother says the guy's a thirty- five year old virgin, so maybe he won't know how women usually feel. Plus he's got bad eyesight, almost legally blind, which is helpful in this situation. Plus he's got an extremely small penis, of which he is "mortifyingly ashamed", so chances are he'll be so grateful for any non- judgmental attention, that he'll be yours forever. LILA God, he must be really close to your brother to tell him such personal stuff. ROSE Yeah, well my brother is his shrink. CUT TO: INT. RESTAURANT - NIGHT It's a chi-chi place. Lila sits at a table with Nathan, fastidious in dress and manner. There is an awkward firstdate silence. She sneaks a glance at his crotch. Then: NATHAN Meditations on a Banana Slug was a delightful read. LILA Thank you so much. I love slugs. All slugs, not just banana slugs. NATHAN As do I. LILA They're so even keel. They forge ahead with slow determination. They don't get distracted or side-tracked. They don't care what they look like. They don't care that people look at them and go, "Ewww. A slug." NATHAN They don't seem to be especially ego driven, this is true. LILA You've got to respect that. NATHAN I have to say that I'm not there yet. LILA Where? NATHAN Slugdom. Sluggishness. Whatever you'd call it. I'm not there yet. I still have many human characteristics. LILA That's not necessarily a bad thing. NATHAN Yes. I suppose not. But still. One would like to move along. To move beyond. LILA I'm not sure we can escape our natures. Believe me I've tried. I'm not even so sure anymore that we should want to. NATHAN I love that you said that. It makes me feel a bit lighter. I've been rather heavy lately. Thinking about my childhood. Realizing how much a product I am of my upbringing. (beat, cautiously) I've been seeing someone. A therapist. LILA (feigning surprise) You are a therapist, right? NATHAN No no. I'm a psychologist, but I do research. I'm a behaviorist. I work with animals. Mice at the moment. LILA I hope you don't perform any of those dreadful torture experiments, Nathan. NATHAN Heavens no. My work now is... Right now I'm teaching mice... well, table manners, to be candid. LILA (beat. doesn't know what to say) How's it going? NATHAN Quite well, really. It's a lot of work. A lot of reinforcement, mostly positive. Right now I've gotten two of my subjects to use napkins. Tiny napkins of course. LILA Paper or cloth? NATHAN I hope you don't think me daft. It's important work. It's part of a larger sociological experiment. I'm federally funded. LILA What's the larger experiment? NATHAN It's my thesis that if table manners can be taught to mice, they can be taught to humans. LILA Going out on a limb, aren't you, Nathan? NATHAN (speech) The truth is most people don't have table manners today. And when the foundations of civilized society crumble and disappear, civilized society in its entirely follows closely at its heels. LILA I'm not sure. NATHAN (stridently) Courtesy, decorum, manners, are all sadly lacking from our daily intercourse. Rudeness, vulgarity, meanness are the norm. LILA We are animals after all. NATHAN Ergo if I can teach table manners to mice, I can teach them to humans. If I can teach table manners to humans, I can save the world. Nathan blushes. Lila stares at him for a long moment. Her thoughts are unreadable. CUT TO: INT. ELECTROLOGIST'S OFFICE - DAY Lila lies on her back. Rose works on her breasts. ROSE So? LILA I really like him, Rose. He's so... (searching) ...passionate about his work. ROSE My brother says he likes you, too. LILA (pleased) Really? ROSE Yeah. Says he likes you even more than he likes his own mother. And according to my brother Nathan's abormally close with his mother. CUT TO: INT. WHITE SPACE - DAY Nathan talks. NATHAN I began going to a therapist when I was in my thirties, because I felt that I wasn't enjoying life the way my friends were. (beat) After a time my childhood came up. DISSOLVE TO: INT. DINING ROOM - DAY It is another sepia scene. Nathan as a ten year old sits at the table with his parents. There is a bowl of salad in front of each of them. Everyone's head is bowed in prayer. FATHER Lord, we thank you for this bountiful gift we are about to receive. ALL Amen. Eyes open, and young Nathan reaches for a fork to eat the salad. He grabs the wrong fork. Mother's eyes widen in horror. MOTHER My God, no! My God! (disappointed) Oh, Nathan. Nathan looks up. MOTHER That is the wrong fork, young man. (to father) Harold, tell the boy. FATHER That is the wrong fork, young man. NATHAN AS A BOY (panicky) I'll use the right one. I'm sorry. I forgot. MOTHER Harold, tell the boy more. FATHER Too late. Go to your room. NATHAN AS A BOY But... MOTHER Harold! Tell the boy again. FATHER (looking at mother) No "buts." Go to your room now. MOTHER (looking at father) And? FATHER And think about what you've done. DISSOLVE TO: INT. THERAPIST'S OFFICE - DAY Adult Nathan sits on the couch, dabbing at his eyes. Wendall, his therapist sits across from him and writes something in his notebook. WENDALL And do you think maybe this early childhood indoctrination has something to do with your interest in table manners in the present. Nathan thinks long and hard about this. He seems to be really straining, squinting his eyes. Finally: NATHAN I don't think so. No. Wendall nods and scribbles something on his pad. NATHAN Why do you ask? Wendall looks up. CUT TO: INT. LAB - DAY Everything's white. People in lab coats hustle back and forth. Nathan, also in a lab coat, is hovering over a Lucite encasement. Inside we see two white mice, both attached to electrodes. They sit in little chairs at a little table. In front of each of them is a little plate of salad and three forks of varying size under Lucite domes. Nathan nods to his pretty French assistant, Gabrielle, who presses a button. The Lucite domes over the salads lift. Tentatively both mice reach for a fork. There is a tiny piece of velcro on each mouse's paw and a tiny piece of velcro on each of the forks. The first mouse picks the correct fork, and stabs it into the salad and eats happily, relieved. The second mouse picks the wrong fork. Nathan presses a button, which sends the mouse flying off his chair with an electric shock. The correct mouse keeps eating, unconcerned. Nathan makes a note in his notebook. Gabrielle watches Nathan as he writes, enchanted. CUT TO: INT. NATHAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The table is elegantly set, candlelit. Lila sits at it while Nathan fusses in the kitchenette. Something classical wafts over from the stereo in the living room. Nathan places a salad in front of Lila and sits across from her with his own salad. LILA It looks wonderful. NATHAN You look wonderful. I'm on top of the world tonight, Lila. Work is going splendidly and my personal life is ... Lila picks up a fork from the inside of her setting, not the outside. Nathan blinks. Lila tastes the salad. LILA Um-mmm. Oh Nathan, this salad is delish... NATHAN (clenched teeth) My God! The fork! The fork! LILA I'm sorry? NATHAN (strangely) Tell her, Harold... (stops himself) It's just that... It's nothing. It's just that the outside fork is the salad fork. One goes from the outside in as the dinner progresses. LILA Oh, I'm sorry. (picks up correct fork) I'm sorry, Nathan. I never really learned those things. NATHAN (forced casual) No biggie. There is a long silence as they both eat the salad. LILA Boy, this is good! NATHAN I'm sorry that I became so upset. LILA No, I'm sorry. I'm really backward in certain areas. NATHAN (beat, blurting) It's only that I really enjoy your company and... LILA You do? NATHAN Yes, and... LILA You really enjoy my company? NATHAN Yes. (beat, blurting) Please don't talk with food in your mouth, Lila. Please. You're so pretty and it only mars your... I'm sorry. I'm being critical. Nathan pounds his forehead with his fist. Lila waves her hand to indicate that it's fine. She doesn't say anything because she's chewing. NATHAN It's just that I have some peculiarities, and... LILA I like you, too, Nathan. NATHAN You do? LILA Yeah (beat) But I have some peculiarities also. NATHAN (happily) I don't care. I don't care! (then, concerned) Like what, for example? Lila takes a deep breath, about to go into it, thinks better of it. LILA Like nothing. Nathan smiles, relieved. Lila smiles back. Nathan recoils slightly, skittishly half-points to his bared teeth. Apparently there's a piece of food stuck in Lila's teeth. She closes her mouth, runs her tongue over her teeth, smiles again, mouth closed. CUT TO: INT. ELECTROLOGIST'S OFFICE -DAY Rose is doing Lila's feet. ROSE My brother says things are going really well between you and Nathan. LILA I cannot believe how in love I am with this man. ROSE Yeah? LILA He's so cute. I even like his cute little penis. It's like a little pig's penis or something. (beat) Rose, we connect on every level. I've finally found someone I can feel completely safe with. ROSE Don't throw that away. I had that once with a guy. But I threw it away for a cheap thrill. LILA One night stand? ROSE No. I married a midget. LILA Marrying a midget was a cheap thrill? ROSE Well he wasn't really a midget. He was on the cusp of midgethood. That's what made it cheap. Had he been an actual midget, there would've been nothing cheap about it, my dear. LILA I didn't know you were into that sort of thing. ROSE Let me tell you, honey, midgets are the best kept secret in male companionship. They're portable. They're controllable. They're eager. And they're exactly the right height for a little covert oral fun on the dance floor. LILA (screams with delight, then:) I have a friend you might like to meet. ROSE Oh? LILA Three foot one. ROSE Be still my crotch. LILA Rose, Nathan's no midget, but he's asked me to move in with him. ROSE Yeah. My brother told me. LILA And I think I'm going to. ROSE (mulling it over) Stand on a stepladder sometimes. CUT TO: INT. WHITE SPACE - DAY Nathan talks. NATHAN Lila moved in with me. Did I love her? I thought so. But from my new vantage point I realize that love is nothing more than a messy conglomeration of need, desperation, fear of death, insecurity about penis size, and the self-involved, ego driven need to collect other people's hearts. Not that I judge it. (puts head in hands. beat. looks up) Listen, I don't want to be dead yet. Is there any way to... Nathan looks around for some sign of another person. There is nobody. NATHAN No I suppose not. (beat) No biggie. Anyway, Lila moved in. We had our problems, but we both wanted love so badly, we turned a blind eye. INT. NATHAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Nathan, Lila, and Nathan's parents (looking very, very old) sit at the dining room table. Salad is about to be eaten, and everyone glances sideways over at Lila, waiting for her to make her move. She reaches for the wrong fork, corrects herself and picks the salad fork. Nathan breathes a sigh of relief. His mother looks disappointed, clucks. They eat in silence. Finally: LILA It's lovely to finally meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Bronfman. I've heard so much about you and I've seen you in photographs from Nathan's childhood, but it's nice to meet you in the flesh. I must say, you look exactly the same as in the photographs. MOTHER Thank you, dear. NATHAN Actually, Mother and Father, you look very, very old. You look terrible. LILA Nathan! His mother and father touch their faces reflexively, then look at each other and laugh. MOTHER Tell him, Harold. FATHER Son, your mother and I are doing a production of The Gin Game at the local community theater. We forgot to take off our make-up. The mother and father laugh again. Then they pull at their latex faces. The wrinkles come off. And they look exactly as they did in the flashback scene, albeit a bit pink-faced. There is another pause. LILA (awkward) Goodness, you two look exactly as you did in those old photos. MOTHER (cold) Yes, so you mentioned earlier, dear. NATHAN (changing the subject) Lila's a nature writer, mother. MOTHER I love nature. As long as it stays in the zoo where it belongs. The father and Nathan laugh at mother's joke. Lila joins in weakly, against her better judgment. MOTHER (to Lila) Don't you agree, dear? Lila hesitates. NATHAN Of course she does, mother. CUT TO: INT. NATHAN AND LILA'S BEDROOM - LATER Nathan is in bed, in starched pajamas. He lies on his back under perfect covers and stares straight up at the ceiling. NATHAN What are you doing in there? LILA (O.S.) (pissy) I'll be out in a minute. NATHAN I'm sorry about my parents. LILA (O.S.) You didn't seem sorry when you were laughing at all your mother's stupid, tasteless, cruel animal jokes. NATHAN I was simply attempting to keep the evening light. You know that I feel similarly to you about nature. LILA (O.S.) Do you? NATHAN Of course. (beat) I simply love the... naturalness of it all. Lila emerges from the bathroom, radiant, hopeful. LILA Do you? Oh do you, darling? NATHAN Why certainly! Lila happily leaps into bed. She smothers Nathan with kisses. LILA Oh, darling. I'm so relieved. Let's celebrate with a long hike in the woods tomorrow! NATHAN (oh shit) That's a great idea. Nathan kisses her. LILA It'll be wonderful! I'll show you my old stomping grounds! NATHAN Terrific. Can't wait! Nathan kisses her ear. He looks confused, sticks his finger behind her ear, and pulls it out with a dab of shaving cream on it. NATHAN Shaving cream? LILA I don't think so. (beat) Why? CUT TO: INT. CAR - MORNING Nathan drives. He's dressed in spanking new, freshly starched safari clothes, big shiny new hiking boots. Lila sits in the front passenger seat. She is dressed in a costume identical to Nathan's, but, as opposed to Nathan, she seems awkward in it. She fidgets in it, straightens it, sighs, comes to terms with it, and looks dreamily out the window at the passing trees. She is home. That's all that matters. NATHAN Darling, did you bring the insect repellent lotion? LILA Yes, darling. NATHAN (beat) Oh, and the sun block? LILA Of course. NATHAN What SPF, sweetie? LILA Fifteen. NATHAN Perfectomundo! We are ready! (beat) Say, wouldn't it be wonderful to have an insect repellent lotion that also worked as a sun block? Think of all the time one would save. LILA Yes, darling. NATHAN I think I'll get Johannsen in chemistry on that. (beat) Oh! Did you bring the first aid kit? LILA Yes. NATHAN Flares? LILA Absolutely. NATHAN We could call it "Quit Bugging Me, Sunny." (laughs a lot) Get it? Sunny. S-u-n-n-y. LILA (laughs appreciatively) That's very funny. NATHAN I love you so much. CUT TO: INT. AUDITORIUM - DAY Puff testifies. PUFF Then, gentlemen, one day I saw something I hadn't seen since my father died in a freak accident involving a rotted log and four thousand bees stinging his head... I saw other human beings. They chattered away at each other in what appeared to be gibberish. Later I learned it was English. Now I wonder if perhaps my initial assessment hadn't been correct. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. FOREST - DAY Puff's POV: Through some brush we watch Nathan and Lila hiking. We hear Puff's loud heavy breathing and, in the distance, the relentless gibberish chatter of Nathan and Lila. Puff moves. Lila glances over. CUT TO: INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT Lila talks. LILA It was a flash of white. I ruled out deer immediately. Too... upright. CUT TO: INT. FOREST - DAY We're with Lila and Nathan now. Lila has stopped and is peering into the distance. LILA Did you see that? NATHAN What? LILA I don't know. Something. NATHAN A deer? LILA No. Too... upright. Might've been a person. NATHAN (nervously) It might behoove us to turn back at this point. Lila walks in the direction of the sighting. LILA Come on. NATHAN (not budging) If it's a person, why should we go see it? It's not like it's nature or anything. It's just a person. (beat) Sometimes people who live in the woods don't want to be seen. They live in the woods because they're anti-social, Lila. We have to respect that. Lila trudges through the brush. Nathan follows. Better than being left behind. NATHAN This is the way to get ticks, Lila. This is it. Bingo! Lyme Disease! You've hit the nail on the head here. Lila is in her element. Her whole demeanor has changed. She is tracking. She sniffs the breeze, cocks her head, moves stealthily. Then she sheds her clothes, almost shaking them off, like a dog shaking off some cute costume his owner had dressed him in. NATHAN Oh for God's sa... Lila turns her head and glares at Nathan. There is an animal fierceness in her eye that shuts him up instantly. She turns back to pursue her prey. CUT TO: INT. AUDITORIUM - DAY Puff testifies. PUFF I had never seen anything like it. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. FOREST - DAY Puff's POV: We see a naked Lila looking in our general direction, but not seeing us. The sun dapples her body. She moves closer and closer. PUFF (V.O.) It was an ape as I had never seen before. Like me, yet different in certain essential details. And all at once I felt a heat pass through me. My heart raced. Gentlemen, I wanted to touch her, to caress her, to be one with her. I had urges and desires I could not explain. I felt overwhelmed by the power this strange creature had over me, and so I did what any animal would do when it comes across an animal of superior strength... CUT TO: INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT The cops are transfixed. LILA He bolted. CUT TO: INT. FOREST - DAY We are with Lila. She creeps along, when suddenly a tan, muscular figure tears out from behind a tree and runs, practically on all fours, through the dense underbrush. Lila follows, almost as agile as the forest creature. Nathan just stands there. The chase continues. There is a great deal of heaving and panting. Puff shimmies up a large tree. Lila follows. Puff leaps from branch to branch. Lila follows easily. Puff swings from a vine. So does Lila. Finally they come to the end of the trees, a clearing. There is no nowhere for Puff to leap. Lila is with him in the tree. They are crouched, bloody, heaving, on separate branches, staring at each other. After a long moment, Lila speaks. LILA Who are you? Puff cocks his head. The high timbre of her voice surprises him, pleases him, but he doesn't understand the words. LILA You don't understand my language, do you? Puff looks at his crotch. Apparently there is some activity down there. Lila, following his eyes, glances down there also. LILA (laughing) I take it back, you do understand my language. Puff grabs for his crotch and begins to play with himself distractedly, looking at her all the while. He falls out of the tree. Lila gasps. Branches crack and snap as he passes through them and then there is an unpleasant thud when he hits the forest floor. Lila shimmies down the tree, and kneels by Puff. He is unconscious. LILA Oh God. Nathan comes limping through the brush. Somehow his safari suit and boots are as clean and pressed as they were in the car. He is carrying Lila's clothes. Somehow he has had time to neatly fold them. NATHAN Oh my God! Is he dead? Please put something on. Lila looks up at icily at Nathan. NATHAN You'll catch cold. It's cold. (beat) What do you suppose he is, a survivalist? LILA I think he's feral. NATHAN (jumping back) Feral? Don't touch him! He might be diseased! He might... My God, rabies! LILA He looks perfectly fine. NATHAN I think we should go. Please. Before he wakes up and, I don't know, eats us, or whatever feral things do. LILA I don't understand you. This is fascinating and you just want to run away. I mean, here we have a human being totally uncontaminated by civilization, totally free, and all you want to do is run back to your... NATHAN (thinking) Actually, I just had an amusing thought. LILA What? NATHAN (musing) Feral, huh? Totally uncontaminated? LILA Look at him. He doesn't understand English. He moves like an animal. NATHAN It's perfect! LILA Nathan, what the hell are you talking about? NATHAN (doing a little dance) Forget mice! Actually forget guinea pigs, cats, monkeys, and chimps also. I'm on to stage five: The human subject. LILA Oh no. You can't take him from his home, Nathan. NATHAN (ranting) Don't you see? He's my Tabula Rasa, my Eliza Dolittle. He's my ticket to the top of the Behaviorist food chain. He's going to make me famous. LILA I won't allow you. It's wrong. He's happy here. NATHAN Is he, Lila? Is he happy living filthy and naked alone in this tick infested wilderness? Never to know the love of a good woman, never to revel in the pitter-patter of little feet, never to read Moby Dick, or marvel at a Monet, or just sit back after a day of hard but rewarding work, smoke a pipe, and wonder about the nature of reality. LILA (weakening resolve) You'd be taking away his freedom, Nathan. NATHAN Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose, Lila, to quote Janet Jackson. Lila looks off into the distance, her eyes brimming with tears. As Nathan continues his speech, we move closer and closer into Lila's eyes. Nathan's voice fades into nothing by the time we dissolve. NATHAN Belonging to something, a person or a society, is a basic human craving. We are communal creatures. This poor soul has no one, nothing... DISSOLVE TO: EXT. CLIFF - SUNSET A naked, very hairy Lila sits by herself on the cliff and watches the sunset. There's a chill in the air and she shivers and hugs herself. LILA Oh God, I have no one. Nothing. You give me this beautiful gift, this glorious sunset. But with no one to say "isn't that a beautiful sunset" to, it becomes meaningless, just another stupid sunset. They happen everyday. So what? DISSOLVE TO: EXT. FOREST - DAY Lila is hovering over the unconscious Puff. Nathan's voice comes back into focus. He is still speechifying. NATHAN ...what is it that makes us human, if not the knowledge that we are indeed human? Think of this poor soul's education as the greatest gift we could bestow upon... LILA All right. NATHAN Great. Grab his feet. We'll throw him in the trunk. CUT TO: INT. LAB - DAY Nathan hovers over the Lucite case with the tiny dinner table in it. His assistant, Gabrielle, presses a button, a door opens, and two white mice scurry in. The male pulls out a chair for the female. The female climbs up on the chair, and the male pushes the chair in, then scurries around to the other side of the table and climbs onto his own chair. The Lucite lid over the silverware and salads lifts and both mice pick up the proper forks and begin eating. Nathan scribbles in his notebook. GABRIELLE Doctor... Nathan looks up. Gabrielle jerks her head in the direction of a very large Lucite case. Inside, Puff, now dressed in a diaper and connected to all sorts of electrodes, is stirring. Nathan and Gabrielle hurry over. NATHAN Good morning. Puff groggily takes in his surroundings. This is quite a lot to take in. The white room, the strange apes in strange suits, his own clothing, the wires. After surveying the scene for a moment, Puff becomes frightened and agitated. He tries to escape. Not understanding Lucite, he smashes into it, again and again. He tears at his diaper. Nathan gives a nod to Gabrielle, who presses a button on a panel. An electric shock sends Puff flying. He lies on the floor confused and dazed. After a moment, he gets up and again crashes into the Lucite. Nathan gives the signal to Gabrielle and once again she shocks Puff. He once again gets up and crashes against the Lucite. Again he is shocked. He gets up again, and is about to crash against the Lucite, but he thinks better of it, and squats in place, immobilized. NATHAN (to Gabrielle) Only three shocks. A chimp takes fifteen. This is going to be tres simple, no, Gabrielle? GABRIELLE (in love with Nathan) Oui, doctor, oui. NATHAN (to Puff) Good morning... (to Gabrielle) We need a name for him, don't we? GABRIELLE Oui. NATHAN You decide. Today is your day. GABRIELLE Really? My day? Well, I had a sweet little mongrel puppie named Puff when I was a girl. This one reminds me of my dog, all shaggy! So cute! (giggles girlishly) I loved my doggie very much, monsieur. NATHAN (charmed) Puff it is then. Puff Bronfman. Is that okay? GABRIELLE Oui. Perfect! NATHAN (to Puff) Good morning, Puff Bronfman. I'm Dr. Bronfman and this is my assistant Gabrielle. We're your mommy and daddy while you are here. Gabrielle likes this concept a great deal. She smiles and moves closer to Nathan. NATHAN (to Puff) How about some salad, son? Gabrielle poises her finger above the button. She winks at Nathan. He blushes. CUT TO: EXT. PARKING LOT - EVENING Nathan, carrying a brief case, is walking to his car. Gabrielle hurries to catch up to him. Her high heels click on the pavement. GABRIELLE Dr. Bronfman! Dr. Bronfman! Nathan turns. NATHAN Oh, Hi, Gabrielle. GABRIELLE (out of breath) Hi. I just wanted to tell you that I very much enjoy working with you. (blushes) Now I'm embarrassed that I say this. They walk along. NATHAN No. Don't be. I really enjoy hearing that. You're a terrific assistant. GABRIELLE Merci. I... Do you... would you like to go get a cup of coffee, perhaps? NATHAN Well, I don't know. I'm actually on my way to... GABRIELLE Now I am truly embarrassed. Forgive me. I should not have asked such a stupid question. I know you are a very important man and... NATHAN No. Don't be silly. It's just... GABRIELLE I am a foolish little thing. I am pink in my face, no? It is only that I have been so lonely lately and... I am ashamed. I'll see you tomorrow, okay? Unless... Am I fired now? Gabrielle pouts. Nathan is charmed. CUT TO: INT. COFFEE SHOP - EVENING Nathan and Gabrielle sit at a romantic little table in a trendy coffee shop. GABRIELLE Thank you so much for accompanying me. NATHAN Not at all. GABRIELLE I have had such a difficult time in my personal life and you seem to be such a nice man... but I'm talking too much again, no? NATHAN Of course not. GABRIELLE You're so sweet. Oh, why are there not more men out there like you? Gabrielle starts to cry softly. Nathan doesn't know what to do. His eyes dart around, then: NATHAN There there. Gabrielle looks up at him appreciatively. She sniffs. GABRIELLE You know just the right thing to say. She reaches across the table and touches his hand lightly for a moment. NATHAN Listen, you're the best assistant I've ever had... Gabrielle. GABRIELLE (smiles) I like it when you say my name. Is that stupid? CUT TO: INT. NATHAN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Nathan, in his pajamas, lies in bed reading. He looks up. NATHAN What are you doing in there? LILA (O.S.) Nothing. Be right out. The phone rings. Nathan picks it up. NATHAN Hello? (beat, happily) Oh, hi... Gabrielle! Nathan sits up in bed. LILA (O.S.) Who is it? NATHAN Uh-huh. Right, Gabrielle. Right. Nathan laughs. LILA (O.S.) Who is it? NATHAN (into phone) Absolutely, Gabrielle. (covering phone, testily) Someone from work! (into phone) Sorry about that, Gabrielle. Uh-huh. Exactly. Nathan laughs. LILA (O.S.) Who from work? NATHAN (into phone) Excuse me one second, would you, Gabrielle? Nathan puts down the phone and heads to the bathroom. LILA (O.S.) Who is it, Nathan? Nathan opens the bathroom door. NATHAN Look, Lila, when I'm on a work... Lila turns with a gasp. She has shaving cream all over her chest. Nathan looks stunned. He backs away. LILA Nathan, I... CUT TO: INT. GABRIELLE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The lights are low. The room is peppered with lit candles. Gabrielle, in a slip, lies on her bed, eating cherries from a bowl, and listening to Nathan and Lila's conversation on speaker. LILA (O.S.) It's hormonal, Nathan. I can't help it. I'm sorry. NATHAN (O.S.) Your entire body? LILA (O.S.) I'm getting electrolysis. It's working, but it takes time. So meanwhile I have to... NATHAN (O.S.) You have to shave? Like an ape? LILA (O.S.) (crying) Apes don't shave, you son of a bitch! NATHAN (O.S.) Don't quibble. You know what I mean. LILA (O.S.) I'm sorry. Please don't be mad at me for this. NATHAN (O.S.) Mad? I'm I'm... disgusted! LILA (O.S.) I'm the same person I was before you knew, damn it! Oh God! NATHAN (O.S.) I have to think! I have to think! Footsteps and a door slam. Lila is near the phone now and crying in desperate heaves. LILA (O.S.) Oh God, why... do... I... have... to... be... like... Oh, no! Oh, shit! (rustling sound, then into phone) Hello? Hello? Is anyone there? Who's there? Gabrielle calmly pops another cherry in her mouth and hangs up the phone. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Nathan, in his pajamas, drives. His face is set in a furious scowl and he drives fast. CUT TO: INT. ANOTHER CAR - NIGHT Gabrielle drives leisurely. She is calm, a slight smile on her face. CUT TO: INT. LAB - NIGHT Nathan paces in front of Puff's Lucite case. Puff watches suspiciously from the corner where he is huddled. The lights are off. But there is a green glow from a couple of exit signs. NATHAN I don't get it. I don't get it. I don't get it. How could I find myself in this mess? This is a mess. This is not a situation I understand. This is a mess. How do I extricate myself from this mess? Is my girlfriend a man? I don't understand. This is not part of any plan. She deceived me. She has hair. (beat) But am I being fair? So what if she has hair? Who am I to judge? I have hair. (beat) But I'm supposed to have hair. I am a man. Men are supposed to have hair. (beat) But poor Lila. Think of what she's had to go through. The courage she's had to have in the face of this abomination of nature. I should love her all the more. I should love every hair on her body. I mean, she doesn't mind that I have a mortifyingly small... The lights flick on. Nathan turns with a start. It's Gabrielle. She's in an overcoat. She gasps. GABRIELLE Oh, Doctor. I did not know. I'm sorry to disturb you. I just came for some papers I left. NATHAN Gabrielle. No, I'm sorry if I startled you. I came to think. (beat, remembering) God, Did I hang up on you? GABRIELLE Oui. Perhaps I called at a bad time. I am sorry. NATHAN No. I just got distracted. I'm so sorry. GABRIELLE Is everything fine? NATHAN Oui. (laughs) Now you've got me talking French. GABRIELLE (laughs) I was in my p.j.'s when I remembered I left some papers I need to go over. (opens overcoat to reveal lingerie) See? I rushed right out of the house. I must look a mess. I'm so embarrassed. NATHAN (taken) I'm in my p.j.'s, too. Funny, huh? Puff is taken also. His eyes are wide. GABRIELLE Coincidence, yes? (beat) And how is our son? NATHAN Our...? Oh! (laughs, out of control) He seems fine. I guess we woke him. The lights and all. GABRIELLE I should turn them off. (she does) Maybe I sing him a lullaby my mama sang to me when I was a little girl. NATHAN (a little giddy) When you were a little French girl? GABRIELLE Oui. NATHAN (back in control) That would be good. Gabrielle kneels by Puff's case. Puff crawls over, tries to touch her through the Lucite. Gabrielle sings a French lullaby. It's very sweet. Nathan watches her, looks at her thigh, her hair, the delicate way the tip of her nose moves when she sings. Puff gets drowsy. He curls up on the floor and sleeps. GABRIELLE (quietly to Nathan) There. Nathan stares at her, transfixed. She pretends not to notice. GABRIELLE Shall we close up, then? NATHAN Maybe we should just sit for a while. It's very peaceful. GABRIELLE It's nice, yes. I'm glad I ran into you, both in our silly pajamas. It is two happy coincidences, no? NATHAN Yes. Happy happy. GABRIELLE Yet you look so sad. A great man like you should not be sad. NATHAN I'm fine. Life is funny, that's all. Gabrielle stands. She stretches languorously, revealing a lot of leg. GABRIELLE I am sleepy. NATHAN I shouldn't say this, but you're pretty, Gabrielle. It's unprofessional, I know. GABRIELLE Really? I always think myself so ugly. No, not ugly, but plain. A wallflower. NATHAN (buying her line) Really? No. Not at all. You're a very pretty girl. You should know that. You should be confident. GABRIELLE Thank you so much. Merci. It's very wonderful to hear a man say such a nice compliment. NATHAN It's true. I wouldn't lie. GABRIELLE You are sweet. Gabrielle walks slowly by Nathan. He inhales deeply, breathing her in. She smiles to herself. He reaches out touches her leg. GABRIELLE (vaguely protesting) Doctor. She moves into Nathan. She presses her thigh against his shoulder. Nathan leans forward, kisses her exposed thigh. NATHAN So soft. So smooth. (back to reality) I'm sorry. It's just... GABRIELLE (soothing) Shh. CUT TO: INT. BATHROOM - NIGHT Lila is shaving herself all over. Shaving and weeping. There are nicks all over her body. She has no eyebrows any more. The hair on her head is hacked off. CUT TO: INT. LAB - NIGHT Nathan and Gabrielle are lying naked on the floor. Gabrielle rests her head on Nathan's chest. NATHAN Was that okay? I mean, was I able to... satisfy you? LILA You are an animal. NATHAN Really? Wow! That's that's terrific to hear from someone so... feminine, so female. LILA I love being female because it, how do you say, allows me to be close to men. NATHAN I'm glad you're female. (beat) Do you think our boy witnessed the primal scene? GABRIELLE Anyway it's time he grew up. N'est- ce pa? (sighing, running her fingers along his chest) I love chest hair on a man. I know it isn't fashionable now, hairy men. But to me it is the very sign of masculinity. Nathan tenses. Gabrielle looks up innocently at him. GABRIELLE What is wrong, my darling? NATHAN Nothing, my darling. All is right with the world. Puff watches from his case. Gabrielle smiles to herself. INT. AUDITORIUM - DAY Puff testifies. PUFF I saw it, gentlemen. I saw the whole sweaty, passionate, ugly, beautiful act, and to use the vernacular, I wanted me some of that. The congressmen laugh appreciatively. The laughter is a little too enthusiastic and goes on a little too long. It stops abruptly. PUFF And I think I understood from that moment, that in order to get some, I would have to do what they said. In order to experience this primal, basic, animal thing, I would first have to become a civilized, prissy, uptight human. I would have to become Nathan. The congressmen nod sadly, in recognition of this reality. CUT TO: INT. LAB - DAY Puff, in his Lucite case, sits behind a set dinner table. He seems attentive, calm, interested as Nathan teaches him table manners. Gabrielle stands very close, almost possessively close, to Nathan. She wears a lab coat, but it is unbuttoned, and underneath she is wearing a skin-tight black minidress. She strokes the back of Nathan's head as he works with Puff. NATHAN (slow. talking to an idiot) Excellent, Puff. Now, the lady you're with excuses herself to go powder her nose. The wheels turn in Puff's head. He thinks hard. Then he stands. Gabrielle shrieks and claps happily. NATHAN Perfect. Perfect, Puff! Nathan leans over and kisses Gabrielle. Puff watches. He makes an exaggerated kissy-face, pursing his lips, trying to imitate Nathan. The phone rings. Gabrielle pulls herself away, giggles as Nathan tries to keep her from going, and picks up the phone. GABRIELLE (still giggling) Dr. Bronfman's line. Yes. One moment please. (puts it on hold) Lila. NATHAN Shit. (takes phone) Hi, honey. CUT TO: INT. LILA AND NATHAN'S LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS Lila sits on the couch. Eyebrows are attractively drawn onto her face. She wears a very femme blonde wing. Lots of make- up. LILA So, how's it going today? NATHAN (O.S.) Good. Making progress. LILA Honey, can we talk tonight? You know, about stuff? Things have been so strained for the past three weeks, since you know, and I just want to talk. CUT TO: INT. LAB - CONTINUOUS Nathan, phone cradled between shoulder and ear, puts his face in his hand. Gabrielle rests a hand on his shoulder. NATHAN Everything's fine, honey. We don't need to talk. Besides I have to work late. LILA (O.S.) Please, Nathan. I really need this. You've been working late a lot. Nathan looks up helplessly at Gabrielle. NATHAN Okay, we'll have dinner tonight. Gabrielle gets mad, exhales sharply, pulls her hand away. Nathan gives her a pleading look, grabs for her. She moves away. NATHAN Yeah. Okay. Be home around seven. Bye. (hangs up) What? I'm sorry. What was I supposed to do? GABRIELLE (disgusted) I don't know, Nathan. What are you supposed to do? NATHAN You don't abandon somebody because they have a physical problem. GABRIELLE Funny. I thought that's exactly what you did. You just don't have the courage to admit it to yourself. CUT TO: INT. WHITE SPACE - DAY Nathan talks. A tear runs down his face, mingles with the blood. NATHAN Funny. I still feel guilt. Even dead. One would've hoped... But alas. You know, I really did love Lila. But with her... problem... and then when Gabrielle revealed her feelings. And Gabrielle was so... conventionally female. And she had an accent. I was lost from that moment on. But Gabrielle was right. I couldn't admit it to myself, this shallowness of character, let alone to Lila. CUT TO: INT. RESTAURANT - NIGHT Lila and Nathan eat. Lila is in her new, very feminine make- up, wig, and dress. Her table manners are impeccable, almost robotic. There is an awkward silence LILA Are you seeing somebody else, Nathan? I just have to know. NATHAN Of course not. LILA It would just be helpful to know. NATHAN No. LILA Because, you know, you seem so distant. And you work late every night. And we hardly ever have sex, and when we do, it's... I don't know. It feels different. NATHAN I'm just preoccupied. LILA Do you like my new look? NATHAN Yeah. It's nice. It's really good. LILA I'm trying, you know. (starting to cry) I'm trying to be what you want. I want to be what you want, Nathan. All I want is to be what you want. NATHAN (embarrassed) Shh. It's okay. (takes her hand) It's okay, Lila. You're what I want. You know that. You're exactly what I want. LILA (hopefully, sniffing) Really? NATHAN Sure. Of course. LILA Because I'm really trying, you know. Rosie says maybe only another two years of the elctrolysis. NATHAN (hard to stomach) That's great. LILA I've signed up for a ballet class. And look at my nails! A real girl! Lila holds out her hands. Her finger nails are polished fire engine red. NATHAN That's great. It's a great color for you. LILA Oh, Nathan, let's have a baby! CUT TO: INT. NURSERY - DAY Lila holds and rocks a swaddled baby. She passes it to Nathan, who looks at it and sees that it's a baby monkey. Nathan shudders. Lila looks on lovingly, oblivious. DISSOLVE TO: INT. THERAPIST'S OFFICE - DAY Nathan sits with his head in his hands. Wendall listens attentively. NATHAN So anyway, that's the nightmare I've been having lately. WENDALL Do you suppose it has anything to do with Lila's unusually hairy body? NATHAN (beat) No, why? WENDALL Well, it seems that since Lila broached the subject of children, you've been on edge and I know you have an issue with the, uh, body hair. NATHAN (revelation) Oh, I see. Yes, that's something to think about. That's very good. That's what you get the big bucks, right? Ha ha. WENDALL I just think it might be important to explore your feelings for Lila. NATHAN I love Lila. I mean, she's a wonderful person. And... she loves me! That's no small potatoes. I mean she really loves me. She's sacrificed so much to be in this relationship with me. And she's a good person. A truly good person. How rare is that in this world, eh? And how could I stop loving somebody because of a little physical imperfection, if it can even be called that. I mean, God knows I'm not perfect! What about my eyesight? It's lousy, that's what! Lila's not going to leave me because of my eyesight. What about my penis? WENDALL And how do you feel about Gabrielle? Nathan puts his head in his hands and sighs. CUT TO: INT. LAB - DAY Nathan is holding flash cards up to Puff. Puff tentatively reads aloud from the cards. Gabrielle sits nearby on a stool, fish-netted legs crossed, arms crossed, and an angry expression on her face. PUFF Good-eve-n-ing-lay-dees-and-gent- elmen. NATHAN Bravo, Puff! Bravo! Puff smiles happily. Nathan and Puff both look over at Gabrielle for her approval. None is forthcoming. NATHAN Isn't Puff doing spectacularly, honey? GABRIELLE Hmmmph. NATHAN Gabby, what is it? GABRIELLE Hmmph. Hmmph. (beat) Nathan, we have to talk, you and I. NATHAN Fine. GABRIELLE Not in front of the boy. NATHAN Very well. Gabrielle stands, turns, and stomps across the room. Nathan follows her angry, switching hips with his eyes, as does Puff. She exits into the hall. Nathan looks at Puff and shrugs. Puff returns the shrug. Nathan follows Gabrielle into the hall. CUT TO: INT. HALL - CONTINUOUS Gabrielle stands there waiting, a troubled look on her face, her eyes brimming. Nathan emerges, tries to embrace her. NATHAN My little French. GABRIELLE (pushing him away) Stop. Get away. NATHAN What is it? GABRIELLE You have to choose Nathan. It's like Sophie's choice. Only it is Nathan's choice. Did you ever see that movie, Sophie's Choice? It is like that. Only it is this. NATHAN Gabby, you know I'm trying to sort things out. GABRIELLE (hard) No! It is now that you must decide. (soft) I love you, Doctor Nathan... (hard) ...but I will not wait. I will not be your chippy. I will not be your little Mademoiselle Parlez-vous side dish. (soft) My love. I want to have a sweet tiny baby inside my belly... from you. Nathan gets a faraway look in his eyes. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. BEACH - DAY Nathan and Gabrielle sit on a blanket on this otherwise empty beach. There is a light breeze. Gabrielle has one of her breasts exposed and is nursing an infant. Nathan looks at the baby's face. It is angelic. He looks up and smiles at Gabrielle. She smiles back. They kiss. DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALL - DAY Nathan snaps out of his reverie, looks pleadingly at the waiting Gabrielle. NATHAN I love you so much, Gabrielle. GABRIELLE But?... But? There is a "but," Nathan. NATHAN But I don't know how to leave Lila. Gabrielle tears off her lab coat. Underneath she is wearing practically nothing, a skimpy black dress. She throws the lab coat at Nathan, turns and storms down the hall. Nathan watches until she disappears around the corner. NATHAN (quietly) Now there's a butt, Nathan. He brings the lab coat up to his face and breathes in her fragrance. CUT TO: INT. LILA AND NATHAN'S - NIGHT Lila, all prettied up and civilized and manicured, is setting the table for dinner. She is humming. Nathan walks in the door. Lila doesn't hear him. He stands in the doorway for a moment, watching Lila from behind. His face is blank. Lila catches sight of him. She's startled. LILA Oh! (laughs) I didn't see you there, sneaky boy! (runs over and kisses him) You're like a boy sneaking in... NATHAN (so bored) ...the back door of a movie theater. Yes, indeed. LILA You remember that from my book? I'm touched! (kisses him again) What's wrong? NATHAN Nothing. Hard day. Gonna have a drink. LILA I'll make it. (beats him to the portable bar) I'm so happy, Nathan! Everything's going to be so great! Scotch on the rocks, right? (giggles) Just kidding. I know what you drink, mister. I know what you drink. (pours and blends and shakes, etc.) Voila! Lila hands Nathan a frothy pink concoction with a pineapple wedge sticking out of it. NATHAN Thanks. Nathan stares contemplatively out the window and sips his drink. Lila watches him, comes up behind him, puts her arms around him. Nathan cringes, but tries to cover it. Lila feels the cringe, but pretends not to have. She keeps her arms around him for a moment longer, then casually removes them. LILA (fishing) How's work? NATHAN Cruddy, okay? Are you satisfied? LILA (pouty) No. I don't want your work to be cruddy. NATHAN My assistant quit today. Okay? He was highly valuable to the project. LILA Oh, baby. I'm sorry. Can't you hire somebody else? NATHAN I guess. Lila screws up her face in concentration, trying to come with a viable solution to Nathan's problem. LILA Hey! I could come work for you! I know I haven't been all that supportive of this project, but I've come around. NATHAN Have you? LILA Oh yes, baby! I think that this is a wonderful project you're doing, taking this poor unfortunate, uncivilized creature and turning him into a human being! What a wonderful wonderful compassionate man you are! NATHAN Really? LILA Yes! And I want to help. You won't have to pay me, and I was thinking of giving up that crazy nature writing anyway. NATHAN How come? LILA Who needs it? I have you and I have being a woman and I have thinking about womanly things! I love being a woman because... NATHAN Such as what womanly things? LILA Such as my man and how to please him! (kisses him) Such as making wonderful dinners for my man! (kisses him again, leads him to the table, sits him down) Such as looking pretty for my man! (kisses him again) And I'm writing an article on quilting for the Ladies Home Journal! CUT TO: INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT LILA I had sold my fucking soul. CUT TO: INT. WHITE SPACE - DAY NATHAN I let her sell her soul. I stood by as she did it. It's inexcusable. (beat) At the time though I thought it might help. CUT TO: INT. AUDITORIUM - DAY PUFF When she came to work with Nathan, she seemed different, gentlemen, I don't know, somehow soulless. CUT TO: INT. LAB - DAY Puff is in his case in formal evening wear in a makeshift opera box. There is a mannequin woman sitting next to him and a boom box pumping out Beethoven's Fidelio. Puff seems attentive, refined, occasionally bringing a pair of opera glasses up to his eyes, pinky extended. Outside the case, Nathan and Lila look on. The opera is over. Puff stands, applauds, yells "Bravo", and tosses a rose in the direction of the imaginary stage. The rose hits the Lucite wall and falls to the floor. Nathan and Lila stand and applaud Puff. NATHAN Bravo to you, Puff! LILA That was wonderful! Puff smiles and performs a foppish bow, almost a curtsy. He picks up the rose, sniffs it, dramatically savoring its scent. CUT TO: INT. LILA AND NATHAN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Nathan and Gabrielle are having sex. They are focused and intent, although Gabrielle keeps chatting. GABRIELLE You were wonderful today, darling. Such authority with the ape-man boy. It made me so hot for you. NATHAN Unnhh. GABRIELLE The way you are taming him, it sends chills down my girlish spine and... everywhere else, too. NATHAN Urgh. GABRIELLE Take me, darling! Tame your little monkey of love! There is a mutual climax. A moment of silence, then a spent Nathan rolls off onto his side of the bed. We see that it is really Lila in bed with him, not Gabrielle. LILA (sighing) Well, I'm tamed, Dr. Bronfman. Nathan stares up at the ceiling. NATHAN I'm glad... my assistant. CUT TO: INT. LAB - DAY We see a montage of interactions between Nathan, Puff, and Lila. 1) Nathan demonstrates the proper way to taste wine: sniffing the cork, swishing the wine around in the glass, sipping, nodding in the affirmative to the waiter. Puff, inside his case, imitates it perfectly. 2) Nathan shows Puff a flashcard which reads: "I'll start tonight with the foie gras." 3) Puff is holding up a small hand mirror and trimming nose hairs. Lila applauds. 4) Puff juggles three balls while riding a unicycle. 5) Puff, dressed as Peter Pan, stands with legs spread and hands on hips. He is singing "I Gotta Crow." 6) Puff, dressed in an apron and chef's hat, is tossing a salad. There are two types of vinegar to choose from. He hesitates, then chooses the balsamic. Nathan and Lila applaud. 7) Puff, in a smoking jacket and smoking a pipe, is sitting in an easy chair, next to a fake fire and a fake sleeping dog, and reading a book of poems by Yeats. Lila and Nathan, outside the case, applaud and embrace. NATHAN I think he's ready. LILA Oh boy! PUFF (jumping up) Oh boy! NATHAN Now, Puff, we're leaving on the electronic collar. I don't think we'll need to shock you, but just in case. PUFF Okay. That's fair. Nathan unlocks the case. Puff tentatively steps out into the world. He hugs Nathan. It's a grateful, obsequious, slightly pathetic hug. Nathan hugs him back, but he's keeping him at a distance. Puff pulls himself out of the hug, but still rests his hands on Nathan's shoulders and looks him in the eye, almost like a lover. Then he parts with Nathan and goes over to embrace Lila. She graciously receives him. After a moment in the embrace, Puff starts dry-humping Lila. Lila can't get out of his clutches. NATHAN No, Puff! Bad! Nathan presses a button, which shocks Puff and sends him flying. Puff appears disoriented, then gets up off the floor, brushes himself off, and turns to Lila with a bow of his head. PUFF My apologies, madam. LILA It's okay, Puff. PUFF Shan't happen again. CUT TO: EXT. CITY STREET - DAY Lila, Nathan, and Puff walk along. Puff is astounded by everything he sees. He looks with wonderment at the tall buildings, the cars, the many different types of people. He looks like an idiot. CUT TO: INT. FANCY RESTAURANT - DAY Puff, Lila, and Nathan are eating lunch. Everything is very proper. Puff is doing wonderfully. NATHAN This is great, Puff. You're doing fine. PUFF I'm loving this. It's such a treat to be out and about. What a wonderful invention a city is. The immense buildings of glass and steel glinting in the afternoon sun, the smartly dressed women in their best summer frocks, the colorful street vendors. The waitress comes by. WAITRESS How is everything? PUFF Just spectacular. Great salmon. Fantastico! You've got to give me the recipe! My compliments to the chef! WAITRESS I'm glad you... Puff stands and grabs her and starts humping her. NATHAN Puff, no! Nathan presses a button on a small black box. Puff falls to the floor. The waitress looks on, sort of confused. WAITRESS And will that be all today? CUT TO: INT. TAXI - DAY Lila, Nathan, and Puff are in the back seat of the moving taxi. PUFF It shan't happen again. I swear it. I'm just getting my sea legs, you know. LILA (patting Puff on the back) It's an animal urge, Puff. It's nothing to be ashamed of. NATHAN Lila! Tell him. Lila looks at Nathan, amends her statement. LILA (to Puff) You just have to control it. We're not apes. NATHAN Thank you very much for that. CUT TO: INT. LAB - DAY Puff is sitting in a chair and facing a screen. The collar is around his neck. Nathan and Lila stand behind him at a slide projector. PUFF I don't think this aversion therapy is really necessary, doctor. I understand the problem. NATHAN Humor me, Puff. It's essential that I am able to trust you to function independently in the world. PUFF I bow to your expertise in these matters. NATHAN Lila? Lila dims the lights and switches on the projector. An image of a pretty, fully clothed woman appears on the screen. Puff's eyes widen, but he remains seated. NATHAN Good. You're doing fine. The slide changes to a naked woman standing in a neutral position, no expression on her face. Puff twitches, but stays seated. NATHAN Excellent. The slide changes to another photo of the same woman in the same position, but with a seductive smile on her face. Puff clutches the arms of the chairs. NATHAN You're doing very nicely, Puff. I'm pleased. The slide changes to another picture of the same woman, this time she is naked, has her back to the camera, is sticking her butt out, and looking over her shoulder at the viewer with shiny, heavily lipsticked, pursed lips. Puff is shaking. NATHAN Great... Puff leaps out of his chair screaming and lunges for the screen. Nathan grabs the black box and jolts him. Puff goes flying in the air and lands with a crack. He heaves for a while, then leaps up and runs for the screen again. Again Nathan shocks him. Again he lands on the floor. He heaves, stands, lunges for the screen again. Nathan shocks him. This happens seven more times. Smoke is pouring out from the collar. Puff struggles to his feet. Looks at the screen. He shrugs. PUFF (unimpressed) Eh. Puff sits down in his chair, and studies his finger nails. Nathan switches off the projector. NATHAN Excellent work, Puff. Extra desert tonight. PUFF Yahoo! NATHAN Tomorrow, the acid test. CUT TO: INT. RESTAURANT - DAY This is a Hooters-type establishment called "Chester's." The waitresses are very busty and in Tight t-shirts which are emblazoned with the name of the restaurant. Lila, Nathan, and Puff sit at a table. Puff studies his menu intently, not daring to look up. Lila looks around uncomfortably. A waitress approaches. CHESTER'S WAITRESS How you all doin' today? NATHAN (cheerily) Very well. LILA (awkwardly) Very well. PUFF (looking down) Very well. CHESTER'S WAITRESS Good enough! What can I get for you? NATHAN Puff, why don't you order first? PUFF (looking at menu) Uh, what's a Reuben, please? The waitress leans over to study the menu. Her breasts are in Puff's face. CHESTER'S WAITRESS The what, honey? Oh, the Reuben? That's a sandwich with corned beef and sauer... PUFF That's fine. That's what I'll have. Corned beef is a good food. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY - DAY Lila, Nathan, and Puff walk along. NATHAN Puff, I'm proud of you! You did remarkably well under difficult circumstances. LILA Absolutely! Puff jumps up and down excitedly. PUFF Did I? I tried so hard! I really concentrated! Oh, I'm so happy! NATHAN And because you did so well, we have a little surprise for you. PUFF (happily) Extra dessert? NATHAN Even better. CUT TO: INT. LAB - DAY Lila, Nathan, and Puff enter. Puff sees his Lucite case. It has been transformed into a bachelor pad. Inside is a king-size bed, a TV, a couch, coffee table, shelves lined with books, a small kitchenette. There is a curtain which can be drawn for privacy. Puff is taken aback. NATHAN AND LILA Surprise! Puff gasps and runs into the room. He is thrilled. Nathan holds up a key. NATHAN Free to come and go as you please. There's some "mad money" in the night table drawer. PUFF (taking the key, hugging Nathan) It's wonderful! Do you think I'm ready? Do you really? NATHAN I trust that you'll make good, mature decisions. I trust that you'll do the proper thing. PUFF Oh, I will! (gravely) Your very trust has instilled an enormous sense of responsibility in me. I don't want to disappoint you. NATHAN Good. Remember, when in doubt: Don't ever do what you really want to do. PUFF (taking it in) Got it. CUT TO: INT. LILA AND NATHAN'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Lila and Nathan sit as far as possible from each other and read books. Nathan looks at his watch. CUT TO: INT. PUFF'S CASE - NIGHT Puff, dressed identically to Nathan, reads Moby Dick and smokes a pipe. He distractedly taps his foot, stands and studies a Monet print on the wall. His foot is still nervously tapping. He checks his watch. CUT TO: INT. LILA AND NATHAN'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Nathan stands. NATHAN I'm going to go down and check on Puff. See how he's holding up. LILA (stretching) Should I come with? NATHAN Nah. You just relax. How's the book? LILA (lazily, happily) Ummm. It's good. Nathan kisses Lila on the forehead. NATHAN I won't be long. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Nathan drives with a determined look on his face. CUT TO: INT. GABRIELLE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The apartment is a mess. Every single light is on. Gabrielle is lounging in a stained nightshirt with a dopey cartoon bear on the front. She's got some sort of pimple medication dabbed on her face. She unconsciously but ferociously bites her nails as she watches TV and talks on the phone. There is no trace of a French accent. GABRIELLE (into phone) You're kidding! Holy shit. (beat) Yeah, no duh! I had a wild hair up my ass over that for a month. There's a knock at the door. GABRIELLE Yeah? What? NATHAN (O.S.) Hi. It's Nathan. Gabrielle's eyes widen. She jumps up from the couch and starts straightening. GABRIELLE (into phone) Call you back. (hangs up, assumes French accent) You bastard! What do you want? NATHAN (O.S.) I just want to talk. GABRIELLE (ripping off her nightshirt) We have nothing to say! You are a rotten bastard, that's what! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Nathan stands there leaning against the door. NATHAN Please. Just one minute of your time. GABRIELLE (O.S.) Why? You've made your decision, Mister Stinky American! Now I hate you! No, I don't hate you; I don't even think about you! NATHAN I've got some things to tell you. CUT TO: INT. GABRIELLE'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS Gabrielle is standing in front of a mirror, holding different sexy outfits up to herself, trying to decide. GABRIELLE Like what? NATHAN (O.S.) Well, I think it would be easier if I could talk to you in person. GABRIELLE What for? CUT TO: EXT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS We hear banging and rustling and arranging coming from inside the apartment. NATHAN Well, I think... GABRIELLE (O.S.) You think too much. I need a man who doesn't think so much but acts more than he thinks... is what I need! NATHAN What? GABRIELLE You heard me! You make me sick when you pretend to not understand what I am saying to you! Go away from here! NATHAN (turning away) Well, look, I'm sorry to have bothered you. He starts to head down the hall. GABRIELLE (O.S.) (beat, then screaming) All right, already! Come in if you must! The door's open, you son of a bitch! Nathan heads back to the apartment, tries the knob. The door's open. He enters. CUT TO: INT. GABRIELLE'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS The lights are low. The place is neat. Cool jazz plays quietly in the background. Candles are lit. Gabrielle is nowhere to be found. Nathan takes it all in. It's quite seductive. GABRIELLE (O.S.) In here, you lousy piece of merde. Nathan follows her voice. He exits into the bedroom. CUT TO: INT. GABRIELLE'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS Candles in here also. Gabrielle, now made up and in a satin teddy, lounges in bed, eating cherries from a bowl. Nathan just stares. She is slightly out of breath, but trying to conceal it. A film of perspiration glistens on her brow. GABRIELLE (testy) Well? NATHAN God, you're beautiful. GABRIELLE Please. I look a mess. NATHAN No. You look so beautiful. GABRIELLE Anyway. Come already to the point. NATHAN I'm... I'm going to leave Lila. I can't stop thinking about you. GABRIELLE I've moved on. NATHAN No! GABRIELLE I've been seeing Johannsen in chemistry. NATHAN (raging) That goddamn Neanderthal? I'm the one who gave him the idea for the combination bug spray-sun screen! Did you know that?! GABRIELLE (calm, dismissive) That's not how he tells it. NATHAN Of course not, that Swedish thief! He's a thief of hearts! (beat) I love you, Gabrielle. GABRIELLE (dismissive) Hunh. NATHAN Just give me some time to let Lila down easily. She's a really nice girl and I don't want to hurt her more than is necessary. GABRIELLE (beat) You hurt me, you know, when you made Nathan's Choice. Does that not even matter to you, you pig? Gabrielle cries quietly. Nathan moves closer to her. He strokes her hair. NATHAN Can you ever forgive me? Gabrielle looks up at him. Her expression is noncommittal and pouty, but she grabs his arm and pulls him down on top of her. CUT TO: INT. STRIP CLUB - NIGHT Puff, dressed a bit like he's a Victorian dandy, sits in the front row and watches a naked woman on stage dancing. A topless cocktail waitress comes by with a fresh drink for him. She takes away his empty glass. He is horribly drunk and holding himself with exaggerated rigidity -- an amateur drinker's attempt to look sober. CUT TO: INT. LILA AND NATHAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Nathan enters. Lila sits on the couch still reading. She looks up. NATHAN Hey. Nathan kisses her on the forehead. LILA You were gone a long time. NATHAN (sits down next to her) Yeah. Puff and I got into a big, philosophical discussion. He's really quite well read, considering he's only been literate for a month now. He's going to make us famous, Lila. LILA So he's doing okay? NATHAN Seemed fine. Quiet evening enjoying his new digs. LILA That's funny because, you know, I just went and picked him up at some flophouse on the lower eastside. He called here when he ran out of his "mad" money after spending an entire evening drinking, watching strippers, and fucking a whore! (then casually) Oh, and what did you do tonight, honey? NATHAN Shit. LILA And what did you do tonight, honey? NATHAN I've fallen in love with somebody else, Lila. LILA (pointedly) And what did you do tonight, honey? NATHAN I fucked her! Okay? I fucked her. I'm sorry. But that's what the hell I did. LILA (standing) Do you know what I gave up to be with you? NATHAN Yes. LILA I gave up my soul, my beliefs. I gave up my body hair! NATHAN Yeah, well, I'm sorry. The human heart is a strange thing. LILA How the hell would you know anything about the human heart? NATHAN (moving to her) Lila... Lila turns around and slugs him, square on the jaw, hard, knocking him to the floor. LILA How's that for ladylike, Nathan. Lila opens up the hall closet and pulls out a suitcase. CUT TO: INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT Lila looks pale and shaken. She smokes. LILA For two weeks I holed myself up in a motel room. I didn't even know who I was. My world had crumbled. There is nothing that makes you feel dirtier than finally deciding to sell your soul and finding no buyers. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL ROOM - DAY Lila lies in bed watching TV. She is a mess. The room is a mess. The wig is off. There's hair sprouting on her face. The curtains are drawn. There is a knock at the door. LILA No maid service! For God's sake, can't you read the fucking "do not disturb" sign on the fucking doorknob? ROSE (O.S.) Lila, it's Rosie. LILA (beat) Go the fuck away, Rosie. ROSE (O.S.) Please, honey, let me in. LILA Rose, please go away. ROSE (O.S.) Lila, I want to help you. Lila gets up, drags herself to the door, and opens it. Rose stands there trying not to let it show how lousy Lila looks. LILA How'd you know where I was? ROSE Nathan told my brother. LILA Your brother should have his license revoked. ROSE Yeah, although I'm not going to turn him in. I like hearing the dirt. LILA (suddenly crying) Why didn't your brother tell you that Nathan was having an affair? Rose holds Lila, who hangs on her as she weeps. ROSE I don't know, honey. I don't know. Maybe he just didn't want to get involved. LILA Oh, Rosie. ROSE Let's get you out of here. Come stay with me until you get your strength back. (cheerily) Free electrolysis, if you want it! We'll get that face of yours cleared up in no time. Lila mulls it over. She looks back at the hotel room. It's depressing. She sniffs in her snot. LILA Yeah. I gotta get myself together. I want to look good. If I'm gonna fuck with Nathan, and I am, I want him to want to fuck me when I do it. DISSOLVE TO: MONTAGE SEQUENCE This sequence is Lila getting her strength back, both emotional and physical. It is intercut with scenes of Nathan and Gabrielle taking Puff on the lecture circuit. 1) Lila eating a good breakfast. 2) Lila struggling to do push-ups. 3) Lila getting electrolysis on her face. 4) Lila reading Nietzsche. 5) Lila jogging. CUT TO: INT. LECTURE HALL - DAY A bearded psychologist addresses a crowd of bearded psychologists. BEARDED PSYCHOLOGIST ...and so without further ado, I give you Dr. Nathan Bronfman and Puff. The room bursts into applause as Nathan and Puff walk out onstage, both in tuxes. Nathan stands behind a podium, Puff sits casually, legs crossed, in a chair. NATHAN Thank you. Let's get right to it. Here we have Puff the day of his capture. A video of Puff naked in his Lucite case, clawing at it, shrieking like a banshee, and neurotically hopping up and down, is projected onto a screen behind Nathan. There is a collective gasp from the audience. Puff watches the video with amused detachment. The video stops. NATHAN And here he is today, a scant three months later. Puff stands, bows slightly to the audience. They burst into vigorous applause. NATHAN Puff, why don't you say a few words to the assemblage. PUFF It would be my pleasure, doctor. (behind podium) Distinguished gentlemen and ladies of the psychological community, I stand before you today, a living testament to the amazing skill of Dr. Nathan Bronfman. To say that he took me from crayons to perfume would be a vast understatement. Dr. Bronfman took me from playing with my own feces, then to crayons, and then to an appreciation of the complex works of Franz Kline, Joseph Beuys, and Marcel Duchamp. From compulsive masturbation to... DISSOLVE TO: INT. BACKSTAGE - A BIT LATER Gabrielle waits in the wings. PUFF (O.S.) And, so, goodnight, adieu, until we meet again, au revoir. The audience bursts into thunderous applause. Gabrielle joins in. Nathan and Puff hurry off stage. Gabrielle embraces Nathan. GABRIELLE You were wonderful! NATHAN Was I? I wasn't a tad stiff? GABRIELLE Don't be silly! (hugs Puff) And you were wonderful, too! I loved the way you said " au revoir." Puff and Gabrielle exchange a look. She discreetly pinches Puff's butt, smiles, winks. Nathan doesn't see this. He puts his arm around Gabrielle. NATHAN Come on, you two. Let's go celebrate! Nathan and Gabrielle walk on ahead. Puff tags behind, watching Gabrielle's delightful walk. DISSOLVE TO: INT. HOTEL ROOM - LATER Puff sits up on his bed, looking dejected. He listens to the sounds of Nathan and Gabrielle having sex in the adjoining room. He looks at his watch, gets up, gets dressed. DISSOLVE TO: INT. X RATED BOOKSTORE - LATER A sweaty, sick-looking Puff watches a porno film in a little booth. It ends. He steps out into the fluorescent glare of the store. He walks out past several skulking degenerates. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS Puff exits the bookstore, walks down the street checking out the tawdry hookers. He chooses one. She leads him into a dark alley. CUT TO: MONTAGE 6) Lila in a Tai Chi class. 7) Lila doing jumping jacks. 8) Lila reading The Art of War. 9) Lila doing stomach crunches. 10) Lila doing chin ups. 11) Lila swimming laps. 12) Lila getting more electrolysis. CUT TO: INT. LECTURE HALL - DAY Puff is on stage demonstrating his ballroom dancing technique. He is waltzing with Gabrielle. Nathan stops the music, and picks up a microphone. NATHAN Now the tango. Nathan puts a tango record on. Gabrielle and Puff perform expertly. The audience applauds. CUT TO: INT. RESTAURANT - NIGHT Gabrielle, Nathan, and Puff are eating dinner. NATHAN I think it went swimmingly today. You two make an excellent team. Gabrielle and Puff look at each other. She touches Puff's knee under the table. Nathan is busy eating. CUT TO: INT. ANOTHER HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Puff paces as he listens to sex noises from the next room. CUT TO: EXT. BAD NEIGHBORHOOD - NIGHT Puff walks along checking out the prostitutes. He signals to one with a nonchalant jerk of his head. CUT TO: MONTAGE 13) Lila doing one-handed push-ups. 14) Lila rolling on the ground with a rifle. 15) Lila, in boxing gloves, punching a bag. 16) Lila reading the Kama Sutra. 17) Lila getting electrolysis. CUT TO: INT. LECTURE HALL - DAY Puff addresses the crowd. Lila and Nathan look on adoringly from the wings. PUFF To be taken from the depths of ignorance and depravity and raised to heights of culture and refinement! This is the priceless gift bestowed upon me by Dr. Nathan Bronfman. Thunderous applause. CUT TO: INT. ALLEY - NIGHT Puff leans against the wall drinking whiskey from a bottle, as a prostitute, down on her knees in front of him, does her business. The look on his face is not one of pleasure or even release. It is a look of decay. CUT TO: MONTAGE 18) Lila does chin ups. Her sweaty, muscular arms glisten in the sun. 19) Lila wind sprinting. 20) Lila getting electrolysis. Rose moves away from her. ROSE Done! LILA (standing triumphantly) Ready! CUT TO: INT. LAB - DAY Nathan and Gabrielle, in lab coats, sit chatting with Puff. Puff sneaks glances at Gabrielle's legs and cleavage. She makes his viewing possible. GABRIELLE (off clipboard) So we've got seventeen new bookings for speaking engagements, my wonderful men. NATHAN Terrific. We're all going to be rich and famous. Nathan kisses Gabrielle. PUFF Thanks to you, Nate. NATHAN Thanks to you, Buddy. And your diligence and intelligence and perseverance. Puff blushes. NATHAN (to Gabrielle) And of course to you, my sweet, for your... moral support. PUFF (applauding) here, here. Gabrielle kisses Nathan while glancing at Puff. A midget in a business suit enters. It's the sour-looking guy from the freak show. MIDGET Excuse me, are you Dr. Bronfman? PUFF Is that a little boy? NATHAN (teaching) No, Puff. This man is a midget. In actuality, they prefer to be called "Little People." Isn't that correct, my good man? MIDGET Yes sir. Little People. NATHAN This Little Person is actually a fully grown adult man, Puff, believe it or not, who, due to a genetic anomaly, is miniature but perfectly proportioned. (to midget) Turn, please. The midget turns. PUFF (jotting in notebook) Interesting. NATHAN Now, my diminutive friend, what can I do for you? The midget pulls out a gun. MIDGET You can get into that goddamn Lucite bachelor pad for starters, Goliath. Nathan, Gabrielle, and Puff look frightened. They stand and back into the case. MIDGET (to Puff) Not you, Joyboy. Puff stops in his tracks. Nathan and Gabrielle continue to back into the case. NATHAN What is this about? We have no money on these premises. Please if you are from some little person terrorist fringe group... MIDGET (loud and scary) Shut up! Nathan and Gabrielle hurry into the case. The midget closes and locks the door behind them. Puff is frozen with fear. Lila enters. She looks different now. Savage. Strong. Kind of sexy. She wears guerilla-like black clothing and a beret over her closely hacked-off hair. She also carries a gun. NATHAN Lila? GABRIELLE That's Lila? LILA Shut up! Yeah, this is Lila, cunt. And don't let the hirsutism fool you. I know more about being a woman, and more about the black hearts of men than you, in your pretty little powdered, bullshit fantasy world, can ever imagine. I know the darkness and cruelty of nature, sweetie pie. NATHAN Lila, you don't intend to hurt us, do you? LILA Eat shit, thumbtack dick! (to Midget) Thank you, Frank. You're the best. Lila kisses the midget on the top of the head. MIDGET Anything for you, Lila. LILA See, Frank and I are kindred spirits. We both know what it's like to be shunned because of our appearance. We both know how easily that turns into self-hatred. MIDGET Amen. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition! Rose enters hurriedly, carrying rope. She bends over and kisses Frank hard on the mouth for a long moment, then: ROSE (to Lila) Sorry I'm late, parking is a bitch at this place. Lila looks over and sees the two trained mice in the Lucite case sitting at a tiny table and very politely eating their lunch. One of the mice makes eye contact with Lila. DISSOLVE TO: INT. BATHROOM - NIGHT Lila is naked in the bathroom and about to kill herself when she makes eye contact with the mouse on the shelf next to the tub. DISSOLVE TO: INT. LAB - DAY Lila brings her focus back to the room. Everyone is watching her, waiting for some direction. LILA Uh, tie them up, Rosie. If you will. ROSE With pleasure. Frank keeps the gun on Gabrielle and Nathan. Rose enters the case and begins to tie them up and gag them. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. PARKING LOT - DAY Puff is sitting in the car. The electronic collar is back around his neck. Lila holds the black control box, and the Lucite case with the two mice in it. She stands outside the car with Frank and Rose. ROSE I'm going to miss you. LILA Oh, Rosie. ROSE And I'm going to miss the lifestyle having you as a client has afforded me. LILA Shut up, you. Lila laughs and hugs her. ROSE I like you so much, with or without hair. (confidentially) But don't spread that around. Bad for business. LILA I'm really glad you two found each other. Frank and Rose put their arms around each other. Frank is exactly crotch-high to Rose. MIDGET We're soul mates. ROSE Souls have nothing to do with it, babe. LILA I'll be in touch. ROSE No you won't. But it's okay. You have stuff you gotta do. Lila tears up. So does Rose. They just stand there for a moment, then: LILA (choked) Gotta go. Lila hurries around the car, gets in, and drives off. Rose and Frank embrace. Frank nestles. Rose sighs contentedly. CUT TO: EXT. HIGHWAY - AFTERNOON Lila's car drives along. Puff looks nervously out the window. CUT TO: INT. CAR - EVENING Lila and Puff are driving in silence on a dirt road through the woods. Lila pulls off the road, drives to a place where the car will be camouflaged, and parks. LILA Stay. Puff stays in the car. Lila gets out, pulls the Lucite mouse case from the back seat. CUT TO: EXT. CAR - CONTINUOUS Lila puts the case on the ground and unlatches it. The mice looks confused at first. Then the male mouse pushes the door open and holds it for the female mouse, who exits. The male mouse follows her, and closes the door behind him. He turns to Lila, nods, then extends his arm for the female mouse to hold on to. She does, and they walk off together on their hind legs into the woods. Lila sighs, and turns to Puff. LILA Out. Puff gets out casually, then makes a mad dash for the road. Lila calmly presses the button on her black box. Puff spasms and falls to the ground. LILA Bad. Puff stays on the ground, breathing hard. LILA Get up. Puff does. LILA Take off your clothes. Puff does. So does Lila. She is covered with hair, except for her face. But whereas Puff is now white and soft-looking, Lila is tan and taut and muscular. This is a reversal of the way both of them were when they first met. Puff seems taken with her body. LILA We're going back to nature, you and I. I'm going to retrain you. I'm going to make you free again if I have to kill you doing it. PUFF But I like being human now. Lila shocks Puff. He falls to the ground. LILA You what? PUFF I want to be the way I was before. LILA (sweet) Good. I'll show you how, apey. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. WOODS - A BIT LATER Puff and Lila have built makeshift shelter out of leaves and twigs. They are sitting around a campfire, naked and dirty, roasting a couple of skinned squirrels on sticks. The black box rests in Lila's lap. Puff looks at the roasting squirrel, is repulsed. PUFF Nice night. LILA Talking is to be kept to a minimum. Eventually, when we are ready, there will be none. Language was invented so that people could lie to each other and to themselves. There is no other reason. Puff begins to disagree. Lila's hand hovers over the button. He stops himself. PUFF (confused) I agree? Lila shocks Puff. LILA You lose. Any answer is the wrong answer. DISSOLVE TO: INT. MAKESHIFT SHELTER - NIGHT Puff and Lila lie seperately under blankets of moss. The breathing is heavy. Both seem to be sleeping. Puff opens his eyes and tries to extricate himself from the moss without making any noise. Lila presses the button and Puff falls in a quivering mess. LILA (whisper) You'll thank me eventually, Puff. Well, you won't thank me, because we won't be speaking, but you'll sort of thank me with a special look, the look a dog gives you to let you know he loves you. PUFF What an enchanting picture you paint of our future together. Lila shocks Puff once again. As he spasms, we: CUT TO: INT. AUDITORIUM - DAY Puff testifies. PUFF And so commenced my reeducation, gentlemen. Lila taught me so much. She was a stern but fair teacher. And over time, I began to remember the carefree joy of living in a pure state of being. But something else happened as well, something perhaps distinctly human... I began to fall in love with Lila. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. WOODS - DAY Lila and Puff are naked and collecting mushrooms and berries. Time has passed. Both Lila and Puff are dirtier and hairier. Puff still wears his collar. Lila bends over to pick a mushroom. Puff looks at her from behind. PUFF Boy, you look so good from this ang... Lila turns, puts her finger to her lips in a gentle "no talking" reminder, then shocks the hell out of Puff. He spasms and falls on top of her, knocking her to the ground. He regains his composure, finds himself on top of Lila. They look at each other for a moment. Then they kiss. It's a violent kiss. They grope each other. This is primal sex now. In the dirt. Sweaty. Loud grunting. Lila even presses the shock button at the right moment. Puff seems to like it in this context. CUT TO: INT. GABRIELLE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Nathan and Gabrielle are in bed, making love. It is gentle, romantic, in good taste -- in direct contrast to the animal, violent sex Puff and Lila are having. They finish. Nathan pulls himself off of Gabrielle and falls onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. GABRIELLE A penny for your thoughts, mon cheri. NATHAN I don't know. Something's missing. CUT TO: INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT Gabrielle, Nathan, and Nathan's parents eat dinner. Nathan's parents are in clown make-up. There is a long silence. Nathan is still sad. Gabrielle steals glances at Nathan's parents. Finally Nathan speaks. NATHAN (uninterested) So, Mother and Father, how's Godspell going? MOTHER How did you know we... The parents look at each other burst out laughing. MOTHER Tell him, Harold. FATHER It's going famously, son, famously! NATHAN (despondent) I'm glad. MOTHER Harold, ask Nathan what's wrong. GABRIELLE Yes, please, somebody ask him what is wrong. NATHAN I don't know. CUT TO: INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT Nathan and Gabrielle are in bed. Nathan stares up at the ceiling. Finally: NATHAN I want our boy back. GABRIELLE (sadly) Oui. NATHAN That bitch. I worked so hard. We worked so hard, you and I. He would've made us famous. GABRIELLE We still have you and I. NATHAN I know. And that's great. But it would be great in a better way, not a better way but a different way, if I could find him and bring him back. GABRIELLE Where do we look for little lost Puff? NATHAN I have some thoughts. I think that hairy bitch is somewhere trying to turn him back into an ape. GABRIELLE That is horrible. Apes are dirty. No? NATHAN You better believe they're dirty! And smelly! And messy! And they don't know their forks from their assholes! Nathan, seemingly in the grips of a sudden horrific migraine, scrunches his face and holds his ears. He relaxes a bit, and gets out of bed. He walks across the room, pulls on some pants, and picks up a container called "Stop Buggin' Me, Sunny." NATHAN I'm going alone. This could be dangerous. GABRIELLE (pulling covers up and turning away from him onto her side) Okay, my sweet. Good night. NATHAN A little resistance would be nice, damn it. GABRIELLE (without opening her eyes) Please let me go with you. NATHAN No. GABRIELLE Okay. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CAR - DAY Nathan is driving along a wooded dirt road. He's in his immaculate safari suit. He looks tired. He stops the car, pulls out a gun, and gets out. CUT TO: EXT. WOODS - CONTINUOUS Nathan gets out of the car and runs into the woods. We follow. NATHAN (yelling) Aha! He looks around there is no one there. He sighs and walks back to his car, pulls out a map and marks an area with a red X. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL - NIGHT Nathan is in his underwear. He is ironing his safari suit as he talks on the phone. NATHAN No luck yet, my sweet. We see an unfolded map on the bed. There are red X's in almost all the state parks along the east coast. CUT TO: EXT. FOREST - EVENING Lila and puff are having sex again next to a campfire. Now Lila is wearing the collar, and Puff is giving her well timed shocks. They giggle and kiss after they finish. Puff sits up. He holds his stomach and grunts hungrily. Lila grunts back. She stands and retrieves a sack of berries. Puff and Lila greedily, gluttonously stuff their faces. Lila takes some berries and smashes them against Puff's face. She laughs heartily. He looks annoyed for a second, but then grabs a handful and squishes them against Lila's face. Pretty soon they are having a berry war and are covered in purple stains. They hug each other, out of breath and laughing. DISSOLVE TO: INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT Lila smiles. LILA It was paradise. (beat, sadly) At least for a tiny little while. CUT TO: EXT. FOREST - DAY Lila and Puff lie naked in a tree, lazily soaking up the midday sun. There is a rustling in the bushes. They both look up, alert but calm. Nathan, immaculate in his safari suit, appears in the clearing. He holds a gun. NATHAN Aha! Finally. I've covered almost the entire seaboard and parts of eastern Ohio. LILA Ugnh. PUFF Ugnh. NATHAN Oh please, is that as articulate as you can be after all the time I spent teaching you? We've discussed Wittgenstein, for Christ's sake. Not that you ever had anything very original or challenging to say on the subject. PUFF Unn. NATHAN Down from the tree. Both of you. Keep your hands where I can see them. Don't want you pulling any weapons out of your fur. Nathan laughs heartily, haughtily, at his joke as Lila and Puff climb down from the tree. NATHAN Look at you two. You both disgust me. LILA Oook. Oook. NATHAN Shut up! (to Puff) I gave you... life. I created you in my image, Puff. I took you from this primordial ooze and brought you into the world of culture and art and manners. And this is how you repay me? By heading back to the ooze first chance you get? I should leave you here with Lila the ape woman. It would serve you right, you ungrateful piece of crap. But I'm not going to. You're too valuable to me. Totally selfish of me. You serve my purpose. But if you had any smarts you would realize that I serve your purpose as well. Life is so much more delightful when lived in a silk suit. LILA Ooka. NATHAN Don't worry, Lila. You can stay. I don't have any interest in you anymore. (to Puff) C'mon, monkey boy. Puff looks at Lila. Lila shrugs helplessly. Puff reaches out to touch her hand. NATHAN Now! Puff looks at Lila again. She jerks her head in the direction of Nathan. Puff sighs and moves to Nathan. Nathan prods Puff, and they head off through the trees. Suddenly Puff elbows Nathan. Nathan grunts, doubles over. Puff turns, lunges, and the two wrestle on the ground. Puff pries the gun from Nathan's hand, and jumps up. Nathan stands also, backing away. Puff has the gun trained on Nathan. Lila runs to Puff, stands behind him. NATHAN Puff, put the gun down. PUFF Ounpoo. Ungh. NATHAN Let's be reasonable human beings here. We're all reasonable human beings, aren't we? PUFF (jumping up and down like a chimp) Unka unka unka unka unka. NATHAN Look, why don't you and Lila stay here and have your natural life. I'll just go on my way. You'll never see me again. PUFF (to Lila, guiltily) I have to talk. Is that okay? Lila nods. PUFF (to Nathan) You did create me in your image, Nathan. Before you I was a simple, happy, complete being, in harmony with the world around me. After you I became duplicitous, cynical, angry, anal, totally out of touch with my surroundings. In a word, Nathan, I became you. Lila has reintroduced me to myself. And, incidentally, what I'm about to do, kill you, is something that would never have occurred to me to do as a creature of the Earth. Before when I killed, it was for food or in self-defense. Now I will kill for revenge. Revenge is an abstract concept, Nathan. And I learned abstract thinking from you. NATHAN No. LILA Puff, don't. Puff shoots. A crow screams. The fluttering of wings. The bullet hits Nathan in the head. He falls. CUT TO: INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT Lila sobs. LILA Then I shot Nathan. CUT TO: INT. AUDITORIUM - DAY Puff dabs his eye. PUFF Then Lila shot Nathan. CUT TO: INT. WHITE SPACE - DAY Nathan talks. NATHAN Then Puff shot me. Then I died. That's all I know. That's the end of my story. Do I get to go to heaven now? (beat) Or is it... hell? (beat) Or... what? (beat) I just stay here, is it? I just stay here and tell it again? And after that? Again? And after... (sighs) Yes. Yes, of course. (sighs, clears his throat) We move into an extreme close-up. NATHAN (beginning again) I don't even know what sorry means anymore. It's odd. When I was alive I knew -- maybe it was all I knew... DISSOLVE TO: EXT. FOREST - DAY Lila runs to Nathan. She kneels beside him. LILA He's dead. PUFF (calmly) We bury the body. We disappear into the woods. Nobody knows. LILA (beat, then quietly) No. This is the end of the road. There's a dead human being here. For all of his faults, he was a human being, and certainly a victim of his culture as much as anybody. PUFF Forget him, Lila. We'll disappear. We'll never talk about it again. We'll never talk again period. I love you. LILA Puff, what happened to you is as much my fault as Nathan's. Maybe more so, because I knew it was wrong and I went along with it anyway. I'm taking responsibility for the murder. I want you to go back to your old life. PUFF I won't let you do that. I shot the bastard. And I'm glad. LILA No. Go back to the woods. This is a sacrifice I need to make. In my world we have something called penance. It's another abstraction, but I had the concept drummed into my head during my years in the convent. It doesn't exist for you, and it shouldn't. See, I could never be free again anyway, so I might as well be in jail. PUFF (beat) Then I'll live for both of us, Lila. I'll be the most free, truest animal in the whole forest. For both of us. LILA (tearing up) That's what I'm counting on. PUFF (an idea) But first I'll live among them, just long enough to testify before congress about the waywardness of humankind. LILA (shrugs) Okay. If you think it will help. CUT TO: INT. JAIL - DAY Lila, now in prison coveralls, sits in a dayroom with other women convicts. She is watching a TV mounted on the wall. Puff is testifying. PUFF And so, gentlemen, that is my story. I agreed to testify before this committee because I hoped to convey to the American public that there is indeed a paradise lost. Human beings have become so enamored of their technologies and their intellectual prowess and their fancy gourmet foods, that they've forgotten to look to the Earth as a teacher. This is hubris, my friends. And my story of destruction and betrayal is proof of that. I will keep my promise to Lila. I will shed this suit and go back into the wilderness. I will live out my days naked and free. CONGRESSMAN Thank you, sir. Your story has touched us all deeply. We will pass some legislation addressing this problem. PUFF Thank you. That is all I ask. (to camera) Good-bye, Lila. I take you with me in my untamed heart. Puff stands and exits the auditorium. Flashbulbs flash. In the prison common room, Lila wipes a tear from her eye. She seems genuinely happy. She looks out a small barred window and sees a bluebird light there, then fly away. CUT TO: EXT. WASHINGTON STREET - DAY Puff walks along, a man on a mission. As he walks he sheds articles of clothing. He is followed by reporters and cameramen and celebrity hounds. Soon he is naked. CUT TO: EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - DAY Puff walks along, naked. People cheer from porches. CUT TO: EXT. RURAL ROAD - DUSK Puff walks along. He is still followed by reporters. Cows watch the parade. CUT TO: EXT. FOREST - EVENING Puff walks along a dirt road. He is about to disappear into the forest. An older woman rushes out from the crowd. OLDER WOMAN Wait! PUFF (turning) Yes? OLDER WOMAN I saw you on C-Span. I've been looking for you for thirty years. Then there you were, such a beautiful, beautiful grown man. The older woman starts to cry. PUFF Mother? OLDER WOMAN Yes... Derek. Puff holds out his hand for her to shake. Flashbulbs flash. PUFF (formally) It's a pleasure to meet you, mother. But I'm an ape like dad was... (checks watch) And I have to go back into the woods now... forever. OLDER WOMAN (resigned) Yes, I suppose so. I suppose I knew that was going to be what you would say. It's good to see you again though. PUFF Yes. OLDER WOMAN I'm in the book, if you ever want to drop me a line or something. PUFF I'm an ape, mom. I'm an ape. And apes don't drop lines. His mother weeps. Puff gently rests his hand on her shoulder for a moment, then he turns and waves to the reporters. The crowd bursts into applause. Flashbulbs flash. Puff jogs into the woods. There is a collective sigh, and then everyone turns and heads back in the direction from which they came. We hold on the woods for a moment. A car pulls up. Puff hurries out of the woods and jumps in the passenger side of the car. CUT TO: INT. CAR - CONTINUOUS Puff leans over and kisses Gabrielle, who is driving the car. GABRIELLE Hello, my little boy. PUFF Hey, ma. Did you bring any clothes? I'm freezing my ass off. GABRIELLE Oui. Nathan's silk suit, just like you asked. PUFF Great. (putting on suit) God, I've wanted you forever. Gabrielle giggles. Puff kisses her. GABRIELLE Say my name. PUFF Gabrielle. GABRIELLE (eyes glistening) You remind me so much of Nathan. PUFF Like father, like son. GABRIELLE (stroking his face) You remind me so much of Nathan plus so much of my little mongrel doggie. PUFF Woof. This turns Gabrielle on. She kisses him passionately. When the kiss runs its course, Puff speaks. PUFF Arf. Gabrielle kisses him again, even more passionately this time PUFF As much as I loved Nathan, I'm not sorry she killed him, if it means I can have you. Is that a terrible thing to say, my sweet? GABRIELLE (putting her finger to his lips) Hush. No, it is never terrible to be in love. Nathan's memory lives on in our sacred union. (beat) I'm not sorry she killed him either. Nathan was wonderful. He was erudite and sophisticated and charming. You are all that, too. But you have something more. You have a bit of the animal in you. They smile flirtatiously at each other. Puff leans over and kisses Gabrielle's neck. PUFF Let's go eat, I'm starved. GABRIELLE French? PUFF Oui. CUT TO: EXT. DIRT ROAD - NIGHT The car makes a screeching u-turn. It disappears in the direction of the city. When the dust clears, we see the two white mice standing there on the side of the road, shivering and emaciated. The male holds out his the thumb and the female holds a tiny little sign which reads: New York. There is a look of hopelessness in their beady black eyes. FADE OUT. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Hunt for Red October, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hunt for Red October, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..6d7e1071b889de8a81a8d51c82900ae98f647a98 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Hunt for Red October, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER Written by Larry Ferguson & Tom Clancy ON A BLACK SCREEN, THE FOLLOWING CRAWL: MOSCOW, 17 JULY 1991. THE KREMLIN ANNOUNCED THE 'RETIREMENT' OF MIKAHIL, GORBACHEV AS WELL AS POLITBURO MEMBERS YAVOLEV, MENDVENDEV AND BIRKOVO. DEFENSE MINISTER ULINOV ASSUMED THE ROLE OF CHAIRMAN. KGB HEAD LIGACHEV BECAME PREMIER VOWING "A RESTORATION OF DISCIPLINE." WESTERN LEADERS BRACED FOR A NEW ROUND OF COLD WAR. FOUR MONTHS LATER... FADE IN A BARREN LANDSCAPE beneath slate-grey sky. Frigid rock and stunted trees fall to an ice-choked coast. Congealed sea on a desolate beach. MARKO ALEXANDROVICH RAMIUS bare-headed in cold wind, studies the inclement coast. Bottomless eyes move slowly across the landscape, missing nothing. SUPER: POLWARNY INLET Soviet Submarine Base on the Barents Sea 500 mi north of Murmansk Ramius wears a tar black winter uniform of Captain First Rank in the Soviet Navy. Behind him, out of sight, someone SPEAKS: VOICE (OS) Cold this morning, Captain. Ramius shivers. When he replies, he speaks not about the weather, but of the land: RAMIUS It is cold. (BEAT)- And hard. Turning his back on the icy coast, Ramius smi-I fondly at the man who just spoke to him CAPTAIN SECOND., RANK VASILY BORODIN Ramius' executive officer, also in black uniform. Borodin's rigged with a mike. , Brass .buttons gambol in his Nubian cap like money. RAMIUS (CONT'D) e your head a bit. No need to crowd him. BORODIN (INTO MIKE) Come left three degrees. Make your course three-four-zero. Sonar, let me know when we pass fifty, fathoms. A HELMSMAN responds on a SPEAKER in the SAIL. Nautical CROSS TALK. Orders GIVEN and AFFIRMED. Pulling back, Ramius and Borodin are revealed standing atop THE RED OCTOBER a huge submarine, trading a gigantic rudder a hundred yards aft her sail. A patrol BOAT and ICEBREAKER escort her to sea. On SPEAKERS in the SAIL: HELMSMAN (VO) Captain, political off=er Putin requests permission to come to the bridge. RAMIUS (GLANCING AT BORODIN) Granted. BORODIN (under his breath) Think of it, Comrade.. .son of only a humble mM worker... RAMIUS Quiet as grass, Vastly. Quiet as grass. (louder, turning) Good morning, Comrade political off=er IVAN YURIEVICH PUTIN block-faced, forties, pink-necked, political officer assigned to Red October, clambers through the hatch into the air, wheezing: PUTIN Ah,, Captain, every time I climb that ladder, I realize what an over-fed ox rve become. Put in smiles. Ramius smiles back, but his eyes are cold. Suddenly, there's not a lot of Lave on the bridge: PUTIN (CONT'D) (EXPANSIVELY) Such a glorious day. So exciting to h t ally put the land behind us and be on our way. (TO RAMIUS) Bourgeois of me, I know, but my enthusiasm at being chosen polidcica]. officer on this historic mission Its me with pride. (BEAT) Me, a man of such humble birth, whose father was only a mill. worker. Think of it, comrades, a mill worker. Borodin CHUCKLES. Putin stares at him. Borodin covers with a COUGH. Putin keeps starring. Flushed, Borodin looks away. Putin turns porcine eyes on Ramius: PUTIN (CONT'D) (TURNING) Your father was a Lithuanian, was he not, Captain? RAMIUS You know he was. PU TIN I knew a Lithuanian once... His words hang like rotten fru PUTIN (CONT'D) ...though I'm sure your father was nothing like him. Pefmisrdon to go below? Smirking, Putin leaves. Ramius watches him go. SPEAKERS in the SAI : HELMSMAN (VO) Conn to bridge, sonar reports we are crossing sixty fathoms. BORODIN it's time, Captain. St M dealing with Putin's exit, Ramius turns away from the hatch, contemplating the shore. After a beat, softly:. RAMIUS We go. BORO DIN (into the headset) Clear the bridge! Prepare to dive. Captain coming below. Of cer of the deck, make signal to escort:. Ramius and. Borodin disappear. Red October prepares to dive. All that remains is icy .sea and the Sand. Then, faintly at first, from the frozen coast: A RED ARMY CHORUS rises into the swirling sky. It seems to come from everywhere, the rocks, the trees, the sea itself. Red October dives. The screen fades to black and a giant title appears: KRASNY OKTOBR THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER CHORUS BOOMS. Male VOICES ring in thundering tribute to the heart and soul of mother Russia. Credits keep rolling. Then, from THE DARKNESS A LITHOGRAPH of John Paul Jones fighting the Serapis appears. It's on the wall. in a cluttered study. Books crowd every bit of space. Photos, models and nautical memorabilia, everywhere. THROUGH A WINDOW an English suburb in drizzling rain. Red Army CHORUS SINGS SOFTLY. In a driveway, a late model ROVER waits, lights on, engine running. At a messy desk JACK RYAN early-thirties, good-Looking, disheveled and harried, stuffs papers into a brief case. Slamming it shut, he reaches for his raincoat. BEHIND HIM A LITTLE GIRL appears in the doorway. Her name is Sally. She's Ryan's daughter. Wearing a nightgown with butterflies on it, she's carrying a well-worn Koala bear: SALLY Daddy? RYAN (TURNING) Hey.., What are you doing up? You're suppose to be sleeping. SALLY I can't. Kneeing beside: her, Ryan talks in a steady unpatronizing way. He loves her to death: RYAN What's the matter? SALLY Where are you going? RYAN I have to go on a business trip and you have to go to sleep or when you grow up you'll only be two inches tall. SALLY Stanley keeps waking me up. Stanley is Sally's bear. Ryan talks to it like it was alive. it makes Sally grin. RYAN What's the matter, Stanley? Are you nuts or something? SALLY He's not, nuts. He's lonely. (SLYLY) He needs a brother. If he had a brother then he could go to sleep better. Before Ryan can answer, a ravishing woman in her ..late-twenties marches into the study. She is MARGARET RYAN English, intelligent features, in tweed suit and raincoat. A matronly woman hovers in the doorway behind her: MARGARET We are never going to make it. RYAN Just a minute. - (TN SALLY) Daddy has to go, cricket. You and Stanley go upstairs with Mrs. Wheeler and go straight to sleep. When I'm away, I'll see if I can find Stanley a brother. SALLY Promise? RYAN CUT TO: THE ROVER pulling to a curb in driving rain at Heathrow. Red Army CHORUS SWELLS. Leaping out, Ryan grabs luggage and races to the driver's side. Margaret pulls his face through the window. RYAN I'm all wet. MARGARET (KISSING HIM) You're sexy when you're wet. RYAN (GRINNING) I'm gonna miss you. MARGARET Get out of here, Yank. Or Ml tear you limb from limb. (HE STARTS) Wait! I got you these. They'Il help you sleep on the plane. She has a bottle of piUs in her hand. He squints at it, shaking his head in the pouring rain: RYAN Won't do me any good --- MARGARET Jack. RYAN (SHEEPISH) OK. I ll try. Taking the pil3s, he kisses her again. All of a sudden, he wants to climb inside, park someplace and steam the windows. Her smile is ALL KNOWING: " MARGARET You only have three minutes. RYAN (GIG) Hey.. If I'm lucky, might miss the damn plane altogether. CUT TO-0- - seated beneath the only light in a dark cabin. Engines HUM. Turbulence RATTLES a TEACUP. A STEWARDESS appears, smiling down at him: STEWARDESS Can I get you anything, sir? RYAN ' (LYING) I'm fine. Thank you. STEWARDESS Why don't you try to sleep? The l f ight will go much faster. RYAN.. I can't seem to sleep on planes. It's the turbulence. STEWARDESS Pardon? RYAN (SWALLOWING) Turbulence. You know. When solar radiation heats the earth's crust. Warm air rises. Cool air descends. Turbulence. I don't like it. STEWARDESS Are you a scientist? RYAN No. I just read a lot of books. STEWARDESS Well, try and get some sleep anyway. She leaves. Wide awake, Ryan stares out the window at the spinning dark. Red Army CHORUS BOOMS. CUT TO: RYAN humping his suitcase into a giant terminal at the end of a long line of travelers. Above the line, a sign: U.S. CUSTOMS DU:LLES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT WASHINGTON, D.C. A GUY IN SUNGLASSES moves down, the line, stopping beside Ryan: I SUNGLASSES (RESPECTFTAY) Mr. Ryan? Exhausted, Ryan nods. CHORUS SWELLS. Sunglasses takes Ryan's bags. CUT TO:. A BLACK LIIKO gliding to a stop at the security kiosk outside a suburban office compound. Sign over the compound's entrance: CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY CHORUS PEAKS. END CREDITS CUT TO: ADMIRAL JAMES GREER sixties; a mane of white hair, in three piece suit, CIA direcbor of naval intelligence, looking up from behind a mahogany desk: GREER Jack, boy. Get yourself in here. (SQUHTUNG) Jesus. You look like hell. RYAN (EGG) Thanks, Admiral. GREER Come on over here and sit down. You want coffee? RYAN I think I need ooffiae. Ryan perches on the couch. Greer pours Ryan takes it in both hands, coaling it with his breath. GREER I'm not gonna ask you how your 11 flight was. When's the last time you slept? -- RYAN (EYEING WATCH) Don't know. This thing is still on London time. GREER How's Margaret? RYAN Fine. She sends you her best. GREER And Sally? What is she now, three? RYAN A very precocious five. A week ago she announced her life would be a loot less lonely if Margaret and I would buy her a baby brother. GREER (SMILING) Where you gonna do that? Ryan grins. Greer eyes him fondly. Putting down his coffee, Ryan opens his br efse. GREER (CONT'D) All right, what's important enough to get you on a . plane in the middle of the night? JUMP CUT TO: A PAIR OF PHOTOGRAPHS dropping onto the tihle in front of Greer. They show the bow and stern of a submarine in dry dock. From the size of the construction crey, it's obvious the boat is huge. RYAN British Intelligence received these two days ago. She's the Red October. The Soviet's newest typhoon. GREER Jesus. The Brits actually got a man into the construction shed? RYAN (DROPPING MORE PHOTOS) This pair was digitally enhanced for line resolution. This one for color. RYAN Twelve meters longer than the normal typhoon, three meters wider. The captain's name is Ramixts. GREER One of yours? RYAN Yes, sir. I did the bio on him last year. He's taken out the lead boat in each new sub class for ten years. Fairly good political connections. He's also trained most of their attack boat skippers. They can him the Vilnius schoolmaster. Greer studies one of the photos with a magnifying glass. Something captures his attention: GREER What are these doors? RYAN The doors, Admiral, are the problem. I don't know what they are and neither do the English. (SIPPING CAFFEE) it's just pole our friends at the Ustinov Design Bureau have come up with something new. (BEAT) With your permission, I'd like to show these to someone. Do you know Skip Tyler? GREER Sub driver. Did he get hurt or something? RYAN (NODDING) He was Captain on an attack boat. Got clipped by a drunk driver and lost a leg. Now he's teaching at the Academy and doing some consulting for Underwater Systems Command. GREER GREER When .do you want to talk to him? RYAN Right now if it's OX with you? 've. never met him personally, but - GREER I'll take care of it. (PICKING UP THE PHONE) Margie, have a car for Dr. Ryan at the front gate in tan. minutes. Ryan retrieves his photographs. Getting Up, Greer watches him, choosing his words carefully: GREER (CONT'D) One of our satellites caught Red October in Polijarny Inlet this morning. RYAN (SHOCKED) They shouldn't have been sea ready for weeks. Ryan closes his case. Greer walks him to the door: GREER Relax, son. The Navy's got a Las Angeles c'la'ss sittJng right off their doorstep. In a few days we'll know everything about her but the wok's name. RYAN Well, In that case -- (GRINNING) Can you tell me where I can buy a bear? GREER For Sally? (RYAN NODS) Same place you buy a baby brgther, I guess. CUT TO: A BANSHEE WAIL in blackness. The groan of a primordial beast echoing in the dark, followed by a deep vibration that rattles bones and shatters eardrums. The black screen is moving. A massive cylinder glides over the top of us like a giant spaceship, outlined by flashes of e1ectxic-blue phosphorenscence. SUPER: USS DALLAS Los Angeles Class Attack Sub 50 mks west of Polijarny Inlet DEPTH: 400 FEET ON THE DALLAS in the sonar shack, a state of the art sonar display glows blue. High tech graphics pinpoint movements in deep water beyond the hull.. SEAMAN SECOND CLASS RONALD JONES listens to a headset and eyeballs the display. A college dropout with a genius IQ, Jones is the kind of guy who likes tossing dead cats into crowded cathedrals. SEAMAN CHARLES BEAUMONT unruly red hair, a minion freckles and a wary smile, sits beside Jones. On SPEAKERS in the bulkhead, the PRIMORDIAL HOWL again, MUFFLED, clued with NOISE TRANSIENTS: JONES HEAR I BEAUMONT No. Maybe. It's buried in... JONES (LEADING) Yes? BEAUMONT Surface clutter? I should go to SAPS? JONES Correct, Seaman Beaumont. Surface Affects Processing. There is hope for your small brain yet. (BEAUMONT GRINS) And like Mozart at Saltzburg, you have labored to produce... (ANOTHER HOWL) hiclocdc. BEAUMONT JONES A whale, Beaumont. A whale. A marine mammal that knows a fuck of a lot more about sonar than you do. Beaumont frowns. Appearing in the sonar shack door, directly BEHIND JONES THE COB Chief of the Boat, a barrel-chested bear, smiles at Beaumont: COB He gets to raggin you too bad, kid, you can always ask him about Pavarattt.. Jones sinks into his chair. Beaumont grins. Sea story coming. From the look on Jones' face, it promises to be a good one: BEAUMONT Tell me, Chief. COB (taking his time) Well, Jonesy here, he's a music freak, right? And he figures this sonar system is basically just a big old 300 million ddllar stereo unit. So he gets this piece of Pavarmt3i -- JONES it was Paganini. COB Whatever. It's this piece of music he likes so much he wants to share it, right? So he re-wires the computer and figures how to put it in the water with a gigawatt of juice behind it. (BEAT) Now, the Captain, he don't much care. But about twenty-one boats out of San Diego, including one way out at Pearl, starts hearing Pavarotti Doming out their ass. Jonesy has turned the whole fucking Pacific Ocean into a stereo speaker. (LAUGHING) And all of a sudden we got an Admiral in the middle of it and we're writing reports out the yang yang. Beaumont's LAUGHS. Even Jones sm Ies. Then, a flashing light on the. sonar display catches his eye. He starts flipping switches. Beaumont sobers:: up: BEAUMONT What should I -- JONES Be sti 1, I got it. Jones works in silence, then punches the intervom: JONES Conn, sonar. VOICE (ON INTERCOM) Captain, aye. What is it Jonesy? JONES Distant contact, submerged bearing zero- nine-seven. It's a wild guess, but I'd say we had a Boomer headed out of the barn. IN THE COMMAND CENTER forward of sonar, sailers drive the ship beneath a maze of pipes and equipment. At the center of the Conn, surrounded by fire control, quartermaster, helm : CAPTAIN BARTOLOMO MANCUSO skipper of the DaZa, early-forties, muscular body encased in a blue jumpsuit, works the intercom on the periscope plat6arm: MANCUSO Start a plot, Jonesy. IM be there in a second. Leaving the deck, Mancuso glances at his executive offker LIEUTENANT PHIL THOMPSON thirties, dark complected, standing at fire control: MANCUSO (CONT'D) I'91 be in sonar, PhiL IN SONAR Jones is already working on the plot. In font of him on the sonar display, the flashing light is starting to move. Mancuso sticks his head in. MANCUSO What do you have? CUT TO: RAMIUS in Red October's Conn. Much larger than the control center on the Dallas. Leaving the deck, Ramius heads aft, glancing at Borodin: RAMIUS When you see Putin, tell him that when it's convenient, 191 be in my stateroom. Leaving the Conn, Ramius enters A HALLWAY Moving past a radio compartment on his left, Ramius stops at a door, ENTERING THE CAPTAIN'S STATEROOM C3osing the door behind him, Ramius turns into the room. Surprised, he sees PU TIN seated at a desk, reading a bible. Startled, Putin looks up: RAMIUS What are you doing? PT TIN It's my responsibility to oversee the stability of the crew, Captain. You know that. RAMIUS And you accomplish this by searching through my papers and invading my privacy? PUTIN There is no such thing as privacy in the Soviet Union, Comrade. It's antithetical to the oal]ective good. Suppressing his anger, Ramius moves to a locker, changing into dungarees. He can fiee]. Putin's weasel eyes crawling up and down his back. Holding the bible, Put in muses: PUTIN (CONT'D) You. surprise me, Captain. A man in your position reading trash about the end of the world. (READING) "I am coming soon. I will give to each according to his deeds. I am the beginning and the end." (GLANCING UP) Did you underline these passages? RAMIUS The book belonged to my wife. I keep it only for sentimental value. PUTIN Your wife was a beautiful woman. A tragedy her life was cut so short. RAMIUS (TURNING) I assure you, Comrade. There's nothing wrong with my mind. PUTIN (trying to joke) Given the amount of fire power on Red October, I'm sure the whole world will. breathe a cm1 eotive sigh of relief. RAMIUS (LKE ICE) How many more agents does the KGB have on my boat? PUTIN (STANDING) Captain, this is not your boat. It belongs to the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. You would be well advised to remember that. (RAMIUS BLANCHES) Anyway, I am only a political odfioer. If the KGB has an agent on board, I would be the last to know. RAMIUS I suggest we open our orders. PUTIN As you wish. There's a safe on the wall. Ramius spins the combination. Inside, another safe with four locks. Both Ramius and Putin have keys. Inside the second safe, a large envelope. it has an ornate. scarlet seal, marked 'Top Secret'. Ramius cracks the seeal, removing four pages of operation orders. Glancing at Putin; he reads: RAMIUS We are to proceed to grid 54-90 and rendezvous with the Akula submarine, Konovalov. PUTIN Captain Tupalev's boat. RAMIUS You know Tupolav? PU TIN I know that he is descended from a long line of aril rats and that he was a student of yours. it is rumored, he has no love in his heart for you. Why is that? Ramius pours two cups of steaming tea from a silver pot on a serving tray, offering it to Putin.. Putin takes the cup. RAMIUS There is no room in Tupolev's heart for anyone or anything except Tupolev. (READING) Having made contact, we are ordered to run a series of drfl1 . Tupolev w2l hunt us while we test our ship. Putting down his tea, Putin stands, suddenly formal, awkwardly OBSEQUIOUS: PUTIN Captain, this is an historic moment for all. of us. I should like to make a request. RAMIUS Before you do, I want to talk to you about something important. PUTIN (NOT HEARING) I know that it is not aooording to protocxrl, but would you permit me to post the orders and inform the crew of our mission? RAMIUS (RESIGNED) As you wash, Comrade. Putin grins, heading for the door. He never makes it. In a sudden violent motion,, Ramius kicks Putin's left leg from under him. Surprised, the; big man tumbles sideways. Leaping to his feet, Ramius catches Putin, slamming him into a headlock, driving his thick neck downward, CRACKING his SKULL in the SHARP corner of the DESK. Putin gags. Cupping his chin, Ramius forces his entire bulk onto the man's chest. Putin struggles. His eyes bulge. Ramius strains, using all of his strength until.. PUTIN'S NECK SHATTERS and his face goes slack. With surprising gentleness, Ramius lowers the shuddering body to the deck. Carefully, he checks the pulse in Putin's neck. Dying, Putin stares into Ramius' face. RAMIUS (CONT'D) I an sorry my friend. But it is cyear to me now. Where I would walk, you cannot fallow. Whatever his destination, Putin's on his way. Getting up, Ramius goes to the desk. Returning with the teapot, he drenches the body with scalding tea. Replacing the pot on the tray, Ramius puts the orders in a wastebasket and sets them on are. Removing a duplicate set of orders from his safe, he' places them on the floor by the dead man. Satisfied everything is the way he wants it, he moves to an intercom and takes a deep breath. Pushing a button, he BELLOWS: RAMIUS (CONT'D) Dr. Petrov. Come to my quarters at once. There's been an aociderit! CUT TO: A MINI SUB resembling an airstream t xxzller with a propeller on the back. It's floating in a gargantuan tank fSlled with brightly lit water beneath a vast domed cet'ling: SUPER: U.S. NAVAL UNDERWATER SYSTEMS LAB Patuxent, Maryland SKIP TYLER built-like a fireplug, a monument to logic and impatience, leans on a cane, atop a platform by the tank#I watching WARRANT OFFICER BILL STEINER thirties, the bane of Tyler's existence. Steiner's head is sticking out of a hatch on the mini sub. Eyeing him, Tyler BELLOWS: TYLER You're never gonna go anywhere, Be.. Unless you close the hatch and start the goddam engine! STEINER Brilliant, Skip. You're one of those guys you can't hide things from, right? Tyler. grits his teeth. Steiner closes the hatch. Across the room, Ryan enters. Spotting Tyler, he moves to the platform, staring at the mini sub. The propeller starts turning. It submerges. TYLER (TURNING) Ryan? RYAN Yes sir. (re: mini sub) What it that thing? TYLER Deep submergence rescue vehicle. RYAN That's what a DSRV looks like. TYLER That's it. I designed this one. lt's aan d the Mystic. RYAN What are you doing with it? Tyler climbs off the piatfarm, working his cane with practiced precision. Taking Ryan by the arm, he heads for a door: TYLER Rigging it with a generic docking acllar so it will mate with British, German, other kinds of subs. (NODDING) This one here is designed to be super mobile. We can get it anywhere in the world in twenty-four hours. If that lunatic doesn't crash it fast:. (BEAT) Admiral Greer says you have some pdr ures.- - CUT TO: TYLER'S OFFICE high tech naval architecture. Technicians, graduate students move about in the background. Tyler is hunched over the Red October PHOTOGRAPHS: TYLER Bigger than a regular typhoon. (SQUINTING) What are these doors? RYAN (GRINNING) You don't miss much, do you? They're too big for torpedo tubes. Could you launch a missile horizontaly? TYLER Could. Question is why would you? Besides, they're symmetrical right straight through the hull. RYAN How about a towed sonar array? TYLER Barely clears the screw in the -- Tyler freezes. Somewhere in that vast abundance of grey matter, a NEURON FIRES: TYLER (CONT'D) I'a be go to he'll.! it's a caterpillar! RYAN A what? TYLER Caterpillar drive. Magneto--hydrodynamic propulsion. Like a linear induction motor with saltwater as the ;tat-r. You follow? RYAN (SMILING) Oh sure. TYLER Items like a jet engine for water. Goes in the front, gets squirted out the back. Only, It's got no moving parts, see. So it's' potentially very quiet. RYAN TYLER Try silent If this works, we'll have to find a whole new way to track submarines. Ryan grapples with the implications. Tyler trips down memory lane: TYLER (CONT'D) We messed with it. Years ago. Never could make it work. They really built this? This isn't a mock-up or anything? RYAN it put to sea this morning. TYLER (SHAKING HIS HEAD) You know when I was eleven years old, I helped my daddy build a bomb shelter in the basement because some fool parked a dozen warheads in Cuba, ninety miles from the Florida coast. (RE: PHOTO) This thing could park two hundred warheads off New York or Washington and nobody'd suspect a thing til it was all over. RYAN Any records of our work on the caterpillar? TYLER (GRABBING HIS CANE) We got an archive. Let's get dusty. CUT TO: PUTIN'S DEAD FACE WRAPPED IN PLASTIC Two Russian sailors lug his zip-locked corpse into a walk-in freezer in Red October's galley. Three k's assistants carve steaks and watch. One of them LOGINOV tweet 6ts, muscular, in striped sail or shirt and bell-bottom pang, tosses a hunk of f into a pail.. To Loginov.'s right, Rami:a and Borodin talk with DOCTOR NIKOLAY" PETROV forties;, .thin, bespectacled and careworn. A dedicated Party man and `compulsive gossip, Petrov is the Red October's medical ofdoer. Ramius has the; counterfeit orders in his hand: RAMIUS If I hadn't spilled the tea, Putin might never have slipped and --- PETROV You must not blame yourself,,- Captain. Accidents happen. I assume we wall be returning to base? RAMIUS We will not. PETROV But how can we continue a m scion without a political offcer? RAMIUS For many years the Russian Navy went to sea before there were political offScers, Doctor. PETROV Yes, but - RAMIUS (RE: ORDERS) These orders are quite specific. Putin's unfortunate death wall not change them. Turning, Ramius spots Loginov and waves his hand. Loginov freezes. RAMIUS (CONT'D) You. Come here. (LOGINAV DOES) Your name? LOGINOV (TREMBLING) Cook's assistant, Loginov, sir. RAMIUS Good. Now, I want you and the Doctor to witness this, Ioginov. I have removed Putin's missfle key from his neck and am keeping it myse f. Iognov blinks. Petrov frowns. Closing the freezer door, the sates ]save. Loginov isn't sure what to do. Petrov's agitated: PETROV This is all very unnerving, Captain. The reason for having two missM keys in the first place is to prevent one person from... RAMIUS From what, Doctor? PETROV Making a mistake and... (EXASPERATED) We must report this to Red Meet Command. RAMIUS Impossible. We are ordered to maintain strict radio silence. (TO IOGINOV) That will be all, Comrade. Glad to be anywhere else, Loginov returns to his work. PETROV Captain, perhaps I should keep Putin's key until -- RAMIUS (SHARPLY) I suggest you return to sick bay, Doctor. Soon, I will address the crew and explain our orders. This is not a decision for discussion. Shrugging, Petrov disappears. Borodin and Ramius.. follow him. Freaked, Loginov watches them go. CUT TO: MANCUSO bent over Jones' shoulder in the Da11as' sonar shack, concentrating on the blinking light on the sonar display. Thompson's to his left. Jones is on a headset: JONES (LISTENING) He's holding steady on zero-two-zero, twelve knots at about ten thousand yards. MANCUSO Can you identify him? JONES Computer's chewing on it. Twin screw and the plant noise sounds like a typhoon but - Computer ptintar CLATTERS. Ripping off the printout, Mancuso STUDIES IT: SIGNAL EVALUATION: SOVIET TYPHOON CLASS SUBMARINE UNKNOWN IDENTITY NOT PREVIOUSLY RECORDED MANCUSO Must be a new boat. (TO THOMPSON) I miss something in dispatch the last few days, Phil? THOMPSON Fleet hasn't said a word about it. MANCUSO Alright. Start a f]e on his, Jonesy. For now, call his Sierra thirty-five. (.Leaving) r91 see if we can work in a little closer and sniff his out. Thompson fcDows Mancuso. Beaumont glances at Jones, whispering: BEAUMONT Won't the Soviets hear us? JONES Not if we stay in his baffles, seaman Beaumont. Not if we stay in his baffles. Come in behind his propeller and he's deaf as a post. CUT TO: RAMIUS SPINNING THE PERISCOPE in Red October's Conn. At all stations, helm, fire control, quartermaster, sailors work with galvanic prec s4r n. Standing next TO BORODIN CAPTAIN LIEUTENANT BORIS KAMAROV Red October's navigator, watches Ramius i tently. The tension is palpable. Something extraordinary is about to happen: RAMIUS Down scope. (TURNING) Any. sonar contacts? KAMAROV Sonar is clear, Captain. RAMIUS All right. rm going to address the crew. Ramius grabs the whip telephone. Jaw set, his eyes blaze with HYPNOTIC INTENSITY: RAMIUS (CONT'D) (INTO PHONE) Comrades, here are our orders given to us by Red Fleet Command. it is our good fortune to make the first test of our revolutionary propulsion system. In various locations all over the ship, sailors stop what they are doing and listen carefully: IN THE ENLISTED MESS crowded together at tables, men hear Ramius' voice: RAMIUS (VO CONT'D) (ON SPEAKERS) We are to pass quiet as water through every one of the American's sonar nets. Maintaining strict radio. silence, we are to proceed across the Atlantic to the east coast of the United States. IN ENGINEERING beneath a maze of pipes, technicians listen: RAMIUS (VO CONT'D) (ON SPEAKERS) Once in the home waters of the enemy, we are to conduct a series of ine firing tests, targeting major cities on the enemy's eastern seaboard. IN THE MISSILE BAYS S men are spellbound by their captain's intensity: RAMIUS (VO -CONT'D) (ON SPEAKERS) For many years, we have had to stand helplessly in the wings while poll ns compromise every advance our military has made. BACK IN THE CONN Ramius stands on the periscope platform holding the phone. All eyes are riveted on him : RAMIUS (CONT'D) (INTO PHONE) it is politicians who have crippled our armed forces while talking incessantly of peace. And now it is time, comrades, to exchange the cuckoo for a hawk. RAMIUS (CONT'D) (INTO PHONE) Our missies will not be armed, of course, but imagine, if they were. In one bright moment, all that we believe in, all that we honor, would prevail forever. Ramius is finished. No one moves. Kamarov has goose bumps. RAMIUS (CONT'D) Comrade, navigator. KAMAROV Captain? RAMIUS Rig for silent running. KAMAROV ('TURNING) Reduce engines to quarter speed and open outer doors. A sail cr locks a program into a computer. OUTSIDE RED OCTOBER in the water, the mysterious doors on the sub's bow begin to open. Behind them, a strange tunnel is revealed. - IN THE CONN Ramius and his men hear the dark RING of STEEL on STEEL in deep WATER: KAMAROV Outer doors are open, Captain. RAMIUS Engage the caterpi lar. OUTSIDE RED OCTOBER in the water...: An eerie green ring of light starts to glow in the tunnel behind thedoors. A second light appears. Then a third, flashing florescent. Behind the tunnel, in the stern, Red October's giant propeller comes to a stop. Suddenly, more light appears, distorted by a sudden rush of water. CUT-- TO: JONES in the Dalla' sonar shack, working his computer. The COB is behind him, Beaumont to his left. Red October's AMPISFIED HISS f Ms the room. Suddenly, THE HISS STOPS Jones frowns. The blinking light on his sonar display disappears. Curious, the COB leans over Jones, studying the screen: COB What happened? JONES Don't know. COB What do you mean, don't know? CUT TO: RAMIUS on the deck by the phone in Red October's Conn. Conscious of all eyes on him, he turns to a HELMSMAN: RAMIUS Left full rudder. HELMSMAN Rudder is left fuB.. RAMIUS Navigator, make your new course two-five-zero. KAMAROV Coming to course two-five-zero. Kama=ov draws a line on his chart. The new course is west into the Atlantic. Suddenly, the intercom CRACKLES: SONAR (VO) Sonar contact, Captains Dead astern. An American Los Angeles 0ass3 BORODIN He must have been in our baffles. We can't have Raising his hand, Ramius activates the intercom RAMIUS Sonar. Is the American turning to Ballow us? SONAR (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) No, Captain. No he's not. He's continuing on our original course. RAMIUS (SLOW SMILE) He can't hear us. Silence, Impulsively, Kamarov starts HUMMING the INTERNATIONALE. Of cers and enlisted men join in. It snowballs. One at a time, the crew RAISE their VOICES THROUGHOUT THE BOAT In the torpedo room, engineering, wardroom and the Conn, the ANTHEM GROWS LOUDER and LOUDER. Caught in the moment, Ramius JOINS the CHORUS. CUT TO: MANCUSO sticking his head into sonar. The COB and Beaumont are on pins and needles. Jones is working his computer furiously. MANCUSO it did what? JONES It disappeared, sir. MANCUSO t a d) What are you talking about? Check your gear. JONES Running diagnostics, now, Captain. Jones is starting to sweat. He runs his tests. Nothing. urning, he stares blankly at Mancuso: JONES (CONT'D) Sonar is working, sir. The Russian just disappeared. One minute he was steady four thousand yards off our bow and then he was gone. And r a second, I thought I heard... well ;-- MANCUSO HEARD WHAT'S JONES (RELUCTANT) I thought, I heard singing, sir. MANCUSO Singing? Jones nods. Hairs stand up on the back of Mancuso's neck: CUT TO: A SOVIET SUBMARINE dead In the water at four hundred feet. 'About the. size of the Dallas, this one's bualt for speed and maneuverability. They don't come any better. SUPER: SSN KONOVALOV Aku]a Cass Soviet Submarine Grid Square 54-90 ON THE KONOVALOV a crew works in the Conn, reading computer displays, checking COMMUNICATIONS AND writing emendations on status boards. On the PERISCOPE PLATFORM CAPTAIN VIXTOR TUPOLEV ]ate-thirties, intense, leans over a navigator tab] e. A blond man with a clipboard approaches. He is LIEUTENANT ANDREI BONAVIA early-thfrties, Tupolev's executive officer. This Conn is smaller than Red . October's and the weird vibes perfectly reflect the rampant paranoia of the Commander: BONAVIA Captain Tupolev? TUPOLEV What is it2l BONAVIA St M no sign of Red October, sir. I think we should surface and contact Red Fleet Command. TUPOLEV To what purpose? BONAVIA To inform them Red October has not appeared. TUPOLEV What makes you think she hasn't? Tupolev glides to a quartermaster's station. Following him, Bonavia's stomach growls. TUPOLEV Has it occurred to you that Red October may already be in position? That Ramius is merely hiding behind his silent drive? Waiting for me to break radio silence and make a fool of myself? BONAVIA (FRUSTRATED) BUT - TUPOLEV I will not break radio silence. We wilt lie here quietly for a few more hours. If Ramius hasn't arrived by then, I'll contact Red Fleet Command. BONAVIA Captain, I am concerned that - TUPOLEV I Care little for your concerns, Comrade. Tupolev leaves. Bonavia glances at the quartermaster. His stomach growls again. CUT TO: A BLACK CHAIKA: LIMO moving through the security gates fronting a monstrous Stalinist office building Snow CRACKS beneath cold TIRES. SUPER: MOSCOW KARPOTSKIY PROSPEKT Soviet Navy Pniitical Dir ctorafie From his post in the portico, a uniformed guard races to the limo and opens the door for a dyspeptic, grumpy, old man. He is ADMIRAL YURI ILYCH PADORIN in an overcoat and a rumpled hat, brim turned up in front. Climbing stairs, Padorin returns rigid salutes with a sour yeah-right-leave-me-alone wave, entering A COLOSSAL LOBBY Padorin mounts a giant staircase. Naval officers snap salutes. Padorin answers, dourly. Yeah- heave-me-alone. Mumbling, he moves through ANTEROOMS Leaving a wake of aides and sues crawling all over themselves, whispered greetings on their lips. Yeah-right-leave-me-alone. Frowning and cranky, Padorin marches into HIS PRIVATE OFFICE where he's met by his seventy-four year old PERSONAL ORDERLY. They've known each other forever and act like an old married couple. The orderly takes Padorin's overcoat and hat. Behind a desk, Padorin lights a morning cigarette. The orderly brings tea things and incessant small talk. Padorin says nothing. Finally, Padodn sits, focusing on the morning maiL Twenty or so letters are laid neatly on a blotter. Yeah-right-leave-me-alone. Yeah leave-me-alone. Don't heel like dealing with mail„ now. ORDERLY There's a note from Marko Ramivs there. ADMIRAL (BRIGHTENING) Ah, Marko. The old coot: almost smiles. This he'Il read.. Getting the envelope open, he prepares for a good time. Somewhere in the first paragraph,. his smile fades. The -hand holding his cigarette begins to shake. Reaching absently for. the teacup, nearing the bottom of the pager Padoadn chokes, spilling everything. CUT TO: DALLAS' SONAR SHACK Mancuso at the door. Beaumont is at his station next to Jones. Wearing a headset, Jones concentrates on his sonar display. Suddenly, he rips the headset off: JONES Jesus Christ. Somebody just stepped on the gas. (RE: DISPLAY) Sonar contact, Captain. Very loud. Viktar Class Soviet submarine. Cutting big holes in the water. Bearing six- five-zero. MANCUSO Put it on the speakers. WHINING PROPELLERS and CAVITATION NOISE fi]1 the sonar shack. Suddenly, MORE PROPELLERS: JONES Jeez. There's another one. Bearing .,even-three. (MORE) Hold on. There's two more out there. They're all in a hurry and don't care who the hell knows it. (TURNING) Have the Soviets scheduled submarine races today, sir? MANCUSO I'm gonna radio Fleet Command. He takes off. Jones hears something buried in the PROPELLERS and CAVITATION NOISE. A strange WHOOSHING SOUND. Frowning, he starts a tape rewarder. CUT TO: A PHONE RINGING, Ryan picks it up. He and Tyler are hip-deep in top secret fees in the naval archive stacks. RYAN Yes? (LISTENING) No, this is Dr. Ryan. (PAUSE) Affright. He stares at Tyler quizzically, waiting: GREER'S VOICE (FROM PHONE) Jack? RYAN Yes, Admiral, I'm --- GREER'S VOICE Where the hell are you?! Get your ass to the south entrance of the Executive Offtce Buflding in forty-five minutes. It's across from the White House. Got 3t RYAN Yes, sir, but what's - CUT TO: GREER in his ofAce on the phone to Ryan: GREER Let's Just say this is no longer a research project. Now move! CUT TO: THE WHITE HOUSE in the background as Ryan springs from his car, racing up the steps to the Executive Office Building. At the top of the stairs, waiting for him, Greer is already in motion: GREER Come on. Ryan follows him past a security guard and into A LOBBY decorated with secretaries and suits, all, in quiet motion. At speed, Ryan trues to keep up with Greer: RYAN I got a line on the doors. You know what they are? Greer doesn't answer. Impatient, Ryan follows him into AN ELEVATOR Greer pushes a button marked SUB LEVEL FOUR. Turning to Ryan: GREER A silent propulsion system. - RYAN (CHAGRINED) How did -? -34- GREER Captain of the sub we had following her radioed in. Thing up and disappeared right in front of him. But that isn't the half of it. Read. He hands Ryan a sheaf of message flimsies. The descending elevator stops. Doors open. Ryan reads. Greer leaves. Realizing he's been left behind, Ryan takes off, entering A SUBTERRANEAN CORRIDOR Reading and walking, Ryan does his best to keep up with Greer: RYAN Jesus... ! This is unbelievable. (TURNING PAGES) The Kirov, too. They've sortled their whale bloody fleet! GREER About the size of it. Glancing up from his reading, Ryan notices a sign at the end of the CORRIDOR: SUB LEVEL FOUR WHITE HOUSE SECURITY Stopping on a dime, his eyes narrow: RYAN Where're we going anyway? GREER (F IG) Brle$ng Jeffrey Pelt. The. President's National Security Advisor. Most of the Joint Chiefs will be there. Along with a few other people. RYAN Who's giving the brieefing? GREER You are. RYAN (WIDE-EYED) BUT GREER The yeoman'fl have the slides all, laid out. AIL you have to do -- Ten feet ahead, Greer realizes Ryan's no longer faUowing. Stopping, he comes back: GREER (CONT'D) Look. No one knows this material better than you do. Give him a rundown on the sub and a precis of the stuff in your hand. He's liable to ask some direct questions. Give him direct answers and say what you think. Yowll do fine. Come on. Ryan takes a deep breath. JUMP CUT TO: RYAN FOLLOWING GREER into the White House Briefing Room. Joint Chiefs are gathered around a thirty foot conference table. Greer introduces Ryan to a GENERAL and an ADMIRAL, then mingles. Left alone, Ryan spot, a lectern at the foot of the tabl. Nearby, a yeoman tends a slide machine, an overhead projector and a large bulletin board. Ryan heads for the lectern. The yeoman has a list of slides, some photos and mustrations. Trying to gather his thoughts, Ryan steps behind the lectern. JEFFREY PELT the President's National Security Advisor arrives. In his mid-mss, wearing wire-rim spectacles, Pelt's nearsighted, brOliant and a crackerjack poker player. Generals and Admirals take their places. Pelt site at the head of the tabl, turning to Greer: PELT Let's get started. GREER Yes, sir. The preliminary briefing today w M be handled by Dr. Jack Ryan. I believe you've seen some of his :work. PELT (TO RYAN) You may begin. Taking a sip of water, Ryan nods at the yeoman. Projector is TURNED ON: RYAN Gentlemen, the last twenty four hours have seen some extraordinary Soviet naval activity. The first to sail was -- (SLIDE) this ship, the Red October. A variant of the typhoon class, she's some six hundred fifty feet long. Thirty-two thousand tons submerged displacement, roughly the size of a World War II aircraft Carrier. (BEAT) Unlike the standard typhoon, equipped to fire long-range missiles from Russian waters, Red October carries fifty-six SS-311s, which is a short-range attack mis it with eight independent warheads. That's four hundred forty-eight warheads all spedfically designed to fire close in. (ANOTHER SLIDE) We believe these doors on the bow, and here again on the stern, enclose a magneto-hydrodynamic drive, or caterpillar, which may allow the sub to run totally silent. (ANOTHER SLIDE) it is possible this new drive system allowed the captain, a man named Marko RAMIUS - Ryan points out two photos on a bulletin board. One is of Ramius alone. The other is a wedding photo of Ramius and a beautiful woman. RYAN (CONT'D) to elude one of ' our attack boats, the Dallas, which trailed Red October f r om harbor this morning. (POINTKUY) This drive, if it's working, could render Red October invvsihl8 to our SOSUS warning nets in the Atlantic. PELT You would characterize this as a first strike weapon, Dr. Ryan? Ryan glances at Greer. Greer smi reassuringly. RYAN There's no doubt about that, sir. She is designed to approach by stealth, and fire on a target with little or no warning. ADMIRAL An offensive weapon. The kind you start wars with. RYAN Precisely, Admiral.. (RE: MAP) if I may continue. Shortly after the Dallas lost contact, there were additional Soviet mailings from Pa tjarny, Leningrad and the Mediterranean. The Soviets have SOME -- (CHECKING NOTES) fifty-eight nuclei submarines headed at high speed into the Atlantic. And this afternoon's satellite pass over Policjarny found head blooms in the engineering plants of the Kirov, the Minsk and more than twenty cruisers and destroyers,, indicating that the bulk of their surface fleet is also preparing to sail. Flushed, Ryan sits beside Greer. Pelt turns to Greer: PELT Conclusions? GREER Absence of activity in the Pacific suggest this is probably just an exercise having nothing to do with the Red October. A General starts to object. He's cut off by JUDGE MOORE, a white-haired civilian near the top of the table: MOORE NSA can speak to that, Mr. Pelt. PELT MOORE I must emphasize the extremi ' sensitivity of this information and ask that on no aooount it leave this room. (PELT NODS) Before sailing, Captain Ramius sent a letter to Admiral Yuri Padorin, Chairman of Soviet Naval Deployment. Painting at Ramius' wedding picture, Ryan whispers to Greer: RYAN That's her uncle! GREER Whose uncle? RYAN (WHISPEG) Ramius' wife. Padorin's her uncle! Greer has no idea what Ryan's saying. Moore's still talking: MOORE The contents of the letter are unknown, but Admiral Padorin immediately demanded a meeting with Premier Ligachev and within minutes of that meeting, the Soviet Fleet sailed with orders to find Red October -- (PAUSE) And sink her. Audible intake of breath round the room. Pelt is the first to RECOVER: PELT Sink her? ADMIRAL My god. They've got a madman on their hands. He's gonna start a war. A spirited discussion ensues. Tuning it out, Ryan stares at the picture of Ramius and his wife. Urgently, he whispers to Greer: RYAN This is the twenty-gird, isn't it? Greer nods. Order in the room has broken down. Generals and Admirals argue vehemently about appropriate. responses. Staring at the photos, a light goes off in Ryan's brain: SljenCel. Ryan realizes everyone in the room is staring at him. PELT (DRYLY) You've something to add to the discussion, Dr. Ryan? _ RYAN Uhhmm...I was just thinking there was perhaps another possibility we ought to consider. Ryan takes a deep breath. RYAN (CONT'D) Ramius might be trying to defect. Nobody moves. Ryan glances at Greer. Greer rolls his eyes. Too far out. Ryan's on his own. The.General bristles: GENERAL Do you mean to suggest - PELT Go ahead, Dr. Ryan. RYAN Well, Ramius trained most of their Officer Corps. He'd be in a position to sect men willing to help him. And he's not Russian. (WARMING UP) He's Lithuanian by birth, and by heritage. He was raised by his maternal grandfather, who was a fisherman. He has no children, no ties to leave behind and - (BEAT) This morning was the first anniversary of his wife's death. GENERAL Oh, come on! Look, what are you doing here, anyway, Ryan (TO GREER) That's his name, isn't, Ryan? (TURNING)' You're just an analyst, right? You can't possi,hly know -- RYAN I know Ramins, General. He's. been a maverick for his entire career. I even met him once at an embassy dinner. �met captain Ramius, sir? Have you ever The General darkens. Making a decision, Pelt turns to the Admiral: PELT Bottom line, how long before Rami>us will be in a position to launch his misses at us? ADMIRAL Four days. -40- PELT Alright. I'll brief the President. That will, be all, gentlemen. (BEAT) Dr. Ryan. Would you stay for a moment, please? Everyone gets up to leave. As Greer rises, he winks at Ryan: GREER I said speak your mind, Jack, but JESUS -- shaking his head, Greer pats Ryan's shoulder and leaves. Ryan's mouth is dry. Pelt gets up: PELT You slammed the door on the General pretty hard, Jack. RYAN It wasn't my intention, sir - PELT (GRINNING) Yes it was. He was patronizing you and you stomped on him. In my opinion, he deserved It. (BEAT) Look, I'm a politk:ian, Jack. That means I'm a liar, a cheat and when I'm nvt kissing babies I'm stealing their lallipops. But it also means I know people and keep my options open. (BEAT) Let's assume for a minute that you're right and he intends to defect What do you think we should do? RYAN Well, somebody has to go out and try- - to contact him. PELT OK. When can you leave? RYAN (FLUSHED) Wait a minute. The General was right. I'm just an analyst -- PELT Perfect. I can't ask any of these cha�tacters to go. None of them would volunteer putting their reputations on the line. And anyway, none of them are expendable. (RYAN FROWNS) IR]. give you three days to prove your theory, after that we won't have any choice but to hunt Ramius down and blow him away. Will, you do it? Ryan stares at Pelt. CUT TO: CHOPPY SEA below haze-grey sky. A ape breaks the surface, trailing a small wake. Submarine is below. IN THE KONOVALOV Tupolav spins the .periscope in the Konova]ov's Conn. Bonavia brings him a message. Frowning, Tupolev reads it. TUPOLEV Mother of God. (TURNING) Down scope. Dive the ship. Saes in the Conn, prepare to dive. Tupalev is furious. Turning to Bonavia, he sneers: TUPOLEV The entire Soviet Fleet has been ordered to hunt Ramius down and destroy him. And where were we? Out of contact. Dead in the water! BONAVIA But, Captain. Have you forgotten that it was you who - TUPOLEV (TURNING) I have forgotten nothing. All ahead flank. Come to course three-five-zero. CUT TO: RAMIUS at the head of a table in Red October's wardroom, Borodin to his left. Seven officers sit or stand to the side. Beside Borodin LIEUTENANT ALEXANDER MELEKHIN forties, grey eyes, Red October's engineer. At the door ENSIGN IVAN STADNYUK nervous, twenties, Asiatic, locks a dead bait, securing the wardroom. Tension is elect_ic, palpable. LIEUTENANT VIKTOR TBILISI thirties, curly brown hair, Red October's sonar offer, stares at Ramius, anxious to get something off his chest: T BILLSI Before we begin, Captain. I would like to know exactly what happened to Putin? (BEAT) He didn't slip on his tea. Did he? RAMIUS No, Vlktor. Visibly shaken, Stadnyuk waves his hands: STADNYUK Captain? RAMIUS There is no way we could have accomplished our task with Putin aboard. He would have stopped us. T BILISI I have no objections to eliminating him. He was a pig. But it's a decision we should all have made. BORODIN You're not in command. T BILISI Don't give me that command garbage, Vasily. This is no ordinary cruise. We're all risking our lives. Everything that happens affects-each of us. RAMIUS Enough! Putin is dead. The responsibility and the guilt are mine. (PAUSE) There's something else you should know. On the morning we sailed, I posted a letter to Admiral Padorin announcing our intentions to defect. Borodin's jaw drops. Tbilisi. is speechless. Kamarov whispers: KAMAROV In the name of God, why? RAMIUS We needed to burn the bridges. Make a clean break. I STADNYUK (SHRIEKING) They'll find us! They'll hunt us down! 80RODIN (HISSING) Keep your voice down, Ivan. Nobody can find us. TBILISI (TO RAMIUS) You had to do it, didn't you? You couldn't` just fallow the plan and turn the; submarine over to the Americans. (VOICE RISING) You had to rub Moscow's nose in it and make some kind of hare-brained political statement. (ANGRY) Goddammit, Marko. You signed our death warrants! RAMIUS (EYES BLAZING) How many times have you served in my command, Viktrxr? T BILISI (STAMMERING) Many times -- RAMIUS Do you know me to be a man who talerates insubordination? Tbili- blanches, but will not look away. Ramius glances at the OTHERS: RAMIUS (CONT'D) Return to your posts. All of You. No one moves. Time crawls by. Finally, Borodin gets to his feet: BORODIN You heard the Captain. Dismissed! One by one, the men file out of the wardroom. When they are gone, Borodin turns to Ramius,... speaking quietly:' BORODIN (CONT'D) Captain. I would never disagree with you in front of the men. But Viktor is right. We are in this together. What we are attempting is d'f cult. And -- RAMIUS Our original orders were to demonstrate that this ship cannot be found. (BEAT) That is precisely what we will do. CUT TO: JONES working his tape recorder in the Dallas' sonar shack. Varying speeds, €ftering extraneous noise, Jones is isolating the eer9e WHOOSHING SOUND.: CUT TO: SHEET LIGHTNING in a RAGING STORM. An C-2A GREYHOUND appears, TURBOPROPS SCREAMING, buffeted like a ping-gong ball on a HOWLING canvas of PITCH } IN THE GREYHOUND Ryan rides out the storm. He's wearing the uniform of a naval commander. Heavy TURBULENCE. LIGHTNING irradiates WINDOWS.- A NAVIGATOR sits directly behind Ryan at a small desk built into the bulkhead. -45- Behind the navigator in a cockpit, pilot and copilot. Eyeing Ryan, the navigator SHOUTS: NAVIGATOR Some turbulence. Hey, Commander? (NO ANSWER) You don't enjoy flying? Ryan shakeshis head. Gleefully, the navigator BELLOWS: NAVIGATOR (CONT'D) This is a picnic, Commander. You should've been with me six months ago when we hit a typhoon in the Sea of Japan. Guys were puking all. over the place. The plot puked all over his window. I puked the radio to death. Puke was everywhere and I'm not talking lightweight stuff. I'm talking industrial strength puke! RYAN (SWOONING) Next time you get a bright idea, Jack, try putting • it in a memo. NAVIGATOR Anyway, when we hit that typhoon everybody knew what everybody else had for breakfast. Puke was on the ceiling. Puke was in the ais1 s Ryan is green. CUT TO: AN AIRCRAFT CARRIER in the STORM, bobbing like a cork in twenty-foot waves, thirty-foot landing � strip. surging violently in all directions. USS KENNEDY The North Atlantic 100 miles south of Greenland- On the deck, A LANDING SIGNAL OFFICER SCREAMS into a,;. WALKIE-TALKIE. Rain POUNDS his FACE. Wiping his eyes, he SPOTS THE GREYHOUND. heading for the carrier. PROPELLERS SHRIEK over the STORM. LSO BELLOWS INSTRUCTIONS into his WALKIE-TALKIE. At the last moment, WHEELS RIP into the DECK. A HOOK on the Greyhound's belly CATCHES the last wire. SPARKS cascade on WET STEEL. Moving across the deck with an ensign CAPTAIN CHARLES DAVENPORT fiort ies, in a leather flight jacket, approaches the Greyhound. SHOUTING SAILORS batten down the plane. A door opens. Ryan climbs down a ramp on shaky legs. Taking his arm, Davenport SHOUTS: DAVENPORT Charles Davenport, commanding officer of the Kennedy! The Admiral is waiting for you in his quarters! A STEWARD pouring coffee into a large mug on a tray loaded down with sandwiches. Setting down the coffee, the steward leaves. REAR ADMIRAL JOSHUA PAINTER fifties, a man of puritanical integrity, takes a hit of the ooze in his quarters on the Kennedy.. KNOCK on the DOOR. Ryan and Davenport enter. RYAN;' (sha)dng hands) Jack Ryan, Admiral.. Sorry for the confusion, but, as:-l was just. telling Captain Davenport, I'm not a naval of cer (BEAT) I work for Admiral Greer at the. CIA. He thought I would draw less attention if I.was in uniform. PAINTER You want coffee? Something to eat? (RYAN DOESN'T) Alright:. What can I do.for you, son? You gonna tell me what all this activity is about? Ryan hands Painter a lettew. Opening It, Painter studies the -47- contents. Davenport leans on a bulkhead, staring at Ryan. Painter returns the letter: PAINTER (CONT'D) Can't get any higher authority than that. Now, what's going on? CUT TO: JONES at a translucent status board in the quartermaster's station on the Dalla. Behind the status board, projected on a screen, a nautical map of the North Atlantic. Mancuso and Thompson enter. JONES (TO MANCUSO) I know you're busy, Captain. But I may have something here. MANCUSO Go ahead. JONES I've been working on a sound I heard when the typhoon disappeared. I washed it through the tape machine several times and managed to isolate it. But when I asked the computer to identify it, the answer I got. was magma displacement. MANCUSO Magma displacement? JONES Yes sir. See, the system we are using was originally- designed to look four seismic events and although we adapted it. to hunt for submarines - MANCUSO utto the chase, Jonesy._:., JONES Aye, aye, sir. Anyway,; I got curious, and. started tracking. the sound on our lateral array. I located it four different times. The fifth time it was gone and I couldn't find it. But I want to show you what I worked up. Picking up a grease pencil, Jones makes calculations on the status board overlaying the nautical map: -48- JONES (CONT'D) The first contact was at zero-nine-Been hours and the bearing was two-six-nine. (DRAWING LINE) Then at zero-nine-thirty hours it was bearing two-six-zero. And at zero-nine- forty-eight is was two-ive-zero. (ANOTHER LINE) I came back to it at about ten-hundred and the bearing was two-four-two. The last signal was real faint and I didn't have a very good lock on it. MANCUSO So? JONES Well, I figure it couldn't be very far away from us, right? Let's say it was halfway between us and Iceland. That would put it on a course like this. Jones makes more calculations on the. status board. Mancuso recognizes a pattern: MANCUSO Headed directly into Red Route One. JONES Exactly. Sir, I believe the sound I heard is the acoustical signature of some kind of super-quiet Russian submarine and he's taking the inshore track off the Iceland coast. THOMPSON What do you think, captain? Mancuso stares-at the status board, then turns to Jones: MANCUSO Let me see if I got this straight. The three minion dollar computer tells you you're chasing after an earthquake and you aren't convinced. So you get curious and came up with this theory: on your own? JONES (UNCERTAIN) Yes, sir. MANCUSO Relax, Jonesy. You sold me. Jones grans. -49- MANCUSO (CONT'D) Let me ask you this. If we get close to this supers lent sub again, you think you can track him down? JONES Yes, sir. Now that I know what to listen for, I'1 bag the sucker cold. CUT TO: DAVENPORT frowning at Ryan, who sits opposite him, finishing a sandwich: DAVENPORT Christ'_ I've heard some strange stuff, Ryan, but that takes it. Ramius must have a hundred men on that boat. They can't all want to defect. He'd have a mutiny on his hands. RYAN Not ne s_~:4'y. If he personally recruita d the of6cers, it's theoret i ally POSSIBLE - DAVENPORT Theoretically, anything's p • But you're not in some cubicle at CIA. Over by the porthole, Painter clears his throat: PAINTER For the sake of argument, let's assume you're right and Ramius intends to defect. What are you gonna do with the boat? You cant keep it. The Russians will. want it back. And theyRl know you've got it, :`because the crew wl]l tell them so. Or do you intend to keep them too? RYAN Perhaps it would be enough to get some I men aboard to analyze the propulsion SYSTEM - PAINTER (SMILING) F A Coast Guard Inspection? RYAN Perhaps. I'm not sure that --- L I PAINTER Well, I agree with chuck on one thing, son. You've got your neck stretched way out there. Didn't Greer ever teach you the rules of survival in a bureaucracy? (Ryan smiles weakly) Still, it would be nice to keep it. When's the last time you slept? RYAN Can't remember. Every time I get. the chance, somebody puts me on another airplane. PAINTER OK. Why don't you rack out fear a while. The chief outside will find you quarters. (STANDING) We'll be in CIC in the morning. It's gonna get real interesting out here the ' next couple of days. PAINTER When you shook hands with him, you notice the ring on his finger,, Chuck? (DAVENPORT DIDN'T) Class of M. Marine Corps. PAINTER Greer told me about him. Three weeks after he was commissioned, he was in a chopper on a rescue mission in the Med. They went down. Bad. P11 and crew killed instantly. That kid spent eight months in traction with a broken. back, and two years learning to walk again. I think lt:'s O K for him to wear.: the uniform. - (beat), Don't you? -51- I closing the door to a stateroom. Exhausted, he tumbles face down on a lower bunk, head on a pillow. A sliver of light from the door to a head hits his face: RYAN (MUMBLING) Gotta be pie... Anything's possible ... Under the guise of Coast Guard... better to keep it.. how do you keep ft? Ryan's sound asleep. CUT TO: MELEKHIN surrounded by HOWLING NOISE in Red October's engineerin compartment. The. bulkheads shake. A TECHNICIAN SHOUTS TECHNICIAN Converter temperature'is egress above specks and rising! MELEKHIN (SHOUTING BACK) What's the status of the cryog TECHNICIAN (SHOUTING) Liquid helium discharge pressure is one. hundred pounds low and drpl g! Ramius and Borodin race into the compartment, Pet= is right behind them. The ship GROANS. Ramius. BELLOWS: RAMIUS What is It? MELEKHIN (SHOUTING BACK) he cryogenic plant has failed! The super conducting magnets are not being cooled and the temperature of the . caterpiar assembly is rising to dangerous levels.. If we don't turn It, off, it's gonna melt! RAMIUS (TO TECHNICIAN Shut everything down! Ship SHUDDERS. Technicians work at a fever white as a ghost. in seconds, the RACKET stops. TECHNICIAN Caterpi']]ar flows are stabilizing. (BEAT) Magnet temperatures are dropping. PETROV (SCARED) Any reactor damage? MELEKHIN There was a power spike, but the reactor scrammed itself automatically. PETROV But are there any radiation -- MELEKHIN (ANGRY) I. don't know, dammiti RAMIUS How long before you can fix it? MELEKHIN I have to find out what's wrong first. It could be a problem with the liquid helium cycle. Maybe the super conducting material has failed. RAMIUS We're going to have to run an normal propuLainn. Can you get the reactor up? MELEKHIN Y] PETROV - Shouldn't-'we first check the RAMIUS That will be all, Doctor. Frightened, Petrov, stares at Ramb, The Captain's indomitable. Petrov leaves. Borodin has concerns of his own: BORODIN' What if we're detected, Captain? RAMIUS Pray that we aren't, Vasily. CUT TO: JEFF PELT: ` in a chair in his offf in the Executive Office Building. Through a window, the White House. On a couch opposite him ANDREI LYSENKO fifties, dewlapped Soviet Ambassador to the United States, in a dark suit and tie. Lysenko's uncomfortable. Pelt stares at him: PELT Forgive me, Ambassador, for dispensing with the usual formalities. But the President views this situation as critical. Our m,7 ttary counts thirty-two of your anti-submarine aircraft in the sky laying down enough sonar buoys that a man could walk from Greenland to Norway without getting his feet wet. What's going on? LYSENKO we fear she may. be down. Lysenko leans forward: LYSENKO (CONT'D) I hope there won't be any confusion in this matter. PELT So do I, Ambassador Lysenko. Confusion could be -- (CAREF'ULLY) Catastrophic. CUT TO: A SOVIET BEAR FOXTROT anti-submarine aircraft, BLASTING through cumulus at thirty thousand feet, TURBOPROPS HOWLING, a blazing firedog in the white-hot sun. IN THE FUSELAGE of the Foxtrot, a wall of electronic equipment supports the starboard. bulkhead. WARRANT OFFICER ANDREI AMALRIC twenty, Soviet sonar operator, spots something on a sonar display simuar to Jones'. Speaking into a headset: AMALRIC Sonar contact on buoy number one- seven-nine. Contact is twenty-seven mil southwest, ze o-nine-zero. Data indicates contact is Red October. IN THE COCKPIT of the Foxtrot:, forward of Amalr4c, PILOT and COPILOT are . surrounded by dials and switches: PILOT (INTO HEADSET) Acknowledged, sonar. Coming to course.- zero-nine-zero. (TO COPILOT) Contact Red Fleet Command and r2con8rm. our orders. Grabbing a mike, the copflct FLIPS toggle SWITCHES above his head. Leaning on the yoke, the p110t turns the plane. IN THE FUSELAGE of the Foxtrot, Amalric works his computer, wiping sweat from his FOREHEAD: -55- AMALRIC (INTO HEADSET) Recommend dropping a four buoy localization pattern. Will coach to drop paint. IN THE SKY TURBOPROPS SHRIEKING, the Foxtrot ROCKETS out of a cloud bank at unbelievable speed, leveling off above the racing ocean. IN THE FUSELAGE of the Foxtrot, Amalric nudges his computer, punching up one program after another: AMALRIC (INTO HEADSET) Vector to the drop paint. Zero- nine-five. Eighteen males. IN THE COCKPIT of the Foxtrot, the pilot steers the vector. Beside him, the copilot talks into a phone: COPILOT Red Fleet Command, this is Bear Foxtrot two-eight-four. We have contact evaluated as Red October. Request conformation to attack? (TURNING) Captain, orders to attack are confirmed. PILOT Arm. the weapons. The copilot starts flipping more toggle switches. IN THE FUSELAGE of the Foxtrot, Amalric concentrates on the shimmering display: AMALRIC (INTO HEADSET) Vector zero-nine-six, ten mZ 7es. Two minutes to the drop paint. IN THE COCKPIT of the Foxtxvt, still pushing toggle SWITCHES, the copilot checks a fire control monitor, glancing at the pilot: -56- COPILOT Weapons are armed. All pre-launch check is satsfactcry. IN THE SKY the Foxtrot chews up the afternoon, a deadly projectile hell bent on destruction. Below, the ocean streaks by. IN THE FUSELAGE of the Foxtrot, preparing to launch his localization pattern, Amalric presses a button on his fire control console: AMALRIC (INTO HEADSET) Buoys are away. Recommend standard turn to the right. IN THE SKY four sonar buoys exit the belly of the Foxtrot. Trailing parachutes, they splash into the ice-cold sea. CUT TO: RAMIUS in Red October's Conn, talking in hushed tones with Melekhin and Borodin. Oblivious to their conversation, the crew moves about in the background. RAMIUS What do you mean, „ you stall, don't know? MELEKHIN Captain, I need - BORODIN Dammit, Alex. If we run any longer on normal power, weft have the w-hole - T BILISI (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) Captain, sonar! We have just been overflown by a low altitude multi- engine turboprop! RAMIUS (GRABBING MIKE) Put it on audio. SONAR on AUDIO. Ramius glances at Borodin. Ashen, Borodin puts down a clipboard. At his quartermaster station, Stadnyuk upends, a mess of pencils. TBILISI (V O ) (ON SPEAKERS) Several short transients are close aboard. Could be water entry of small objects! RAMIUS All stop! (TO MELEKHIN) We have just run out of time, Comrade. Get us out of this mess. And hurry! (MELEKHIN SPLITS) Quartermaster, sounding? (NO ANSWER) Dammit, Ivan. Give me a sounding! STADNYUK (STAMMERING) There are five hundred meters under the keel.. RAMIUS (INTO MIKE) Torpedo room, this is the Captain. Prepare to launch a counter-measure. Ramins and Borodin exchange glances. At his quartermaster station, Stadnyuk is paralyzed with fear. IN THE FUSELAGE of the Foxtrot, Amalrioa wipes his brow, continuing to work his COMPUTER: AMALRIC (INTO HEADSET) I have a confirmed and localized target. I am ready to shift aircraft control to computer for weapons firing. IN THE COCKPIT Of the Foxtrot, the copilot runs a final check. Adjusting his headset, the pilbt answers Amalric: PILOT (INTO HEADSET) You have permission to shift aircraft control. (TO COPILOT) Ask God for forgiveness, Comrade. IN THE FUSELAGE of the Foxtrot, Ama1ric enters a program on his keyboard. Watching it lock in, he announces: AMALRIC (INTO HEADSET) Computer is now in control, of aircraft. IN THE SKY the Foxtrot levels off. Bomb bay doors inch open, revealing a torpedo, sixteen inches in diameter and eight feet long. As the plane's nose dips, the torpedo relaasee. parachute opening behind, a thousand pounds of doomsday device dive earthward at dizzying speed, splashing into choppy sea. ON RED OCTOBER in the Conn, Ramius listens to SONAR on AUDIO. Faint PINGS appear, growing inexorably LOUDER, more FREQUENT, the submariner's worst nightmare: TBILISI (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) High speed screw l Torpedo in the water! RAMIUS (INTO MIKE) Torpedo room, this is the Captain. Launch counter-measure. The Conn SHUDDERS. Metal GRINDS. Within moments, a second PINGING Is added to that of the TORPEDO on AUDIO. TORPEDO ROOM (VO) (ON SPEAKER) Captain, this is the torpedo room. Counter-measure has been launched. IN THE WATER outskle Red October. The counter-measure, a device similar to a torpedo, designed to confuse acoustic homing mechanisms, spins away Pram Red October on high-speed screws. ON RED OCTOBER in the Conn, torpedo and counter-measure PING LOUDLY on ship's SPEAKERS. Cool as ice, Ramius turns to Kamarov, at dive control: RAMIUS Bottom the ship. STADNYUK Wait! Leaving his quartermaster's station, Stadnyuk stands on shaky legs between Ramius and Kamarov: -59- STADNYUK (CONT'D) The bottom is five hundred meters down. We9l be crushed! RAMIUS You're relieved of your duties, Ivan! Return to your quarters. (BEAT) Now! Amplified PINGS. Torpedo's getting CLOSER. The counter-measure is MOVING AWAY. Waiting until. Stadnyuk has gone, Ramius turns to the Kamarov: RAMIUS (CONT'D) Bottom the damn ship! IN THE WATER Tanks flooding, Red October dives into the abyss.. Beyond, in the clammering dark, the torpedo hurtles relentlessly forward, death on wheels. IN THE FUSELAGE of the Foxtrot, Amalrk listens to the torpedo: AMALRIC (ON HEADSET) Weapon has locked onto target and is homing. ON RED OCTOBER:. in the Conn, men bang on. Everything is at a forty-five degree down angle. Kamarov watches a depth gauge plummet. KAMAROV Four hundred meters. Bulkheads CRACK under tons of pressure. Torpedo and counter- measure'. PING on AUDIO. Red October dives under the torpedo. it misses the safl by inches. Lacking a target, it automatically initiates a wide turn to the left. IN THE FUSELAGE of the Foxtrot,. Amaltic reports the torpedo's progress, vaice f lat: -60- AMALRIC (INTO HEADSET) Torpedo has lost contact. (LISTENING) Searching. ON RED OCTOBER in the Conn, men hang on as the ship dives deeper. Kamarov watches the depth gauge creep into a red zone. Torpedo PINGS are farther APART, Less FREQUENT. TBIISSI (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) Torpedo has passed over us. It's hunting for a target. KAMAROV (READING) Four hundred fifty meters. Estimate bottom at five hundred meters. AIL eyes are fixed on the depth gauge. Bulkheads POP. A saltwater relief valve EXPLODES. BLASTED in the fame with WATER, a HELMSMAN leaps to his feet, SCREAMING: HELMSMAN We're flooding! Expressinnless, Kamarov slams him back to his chair and shuts down the relief valve. The spray stops: KAMAROV Keep your teeth on the shelf, boy. Nobody's flooding. (READING) Passing four hundred seventy-fve meters. Estimate bottoming in twenty-five meters. WATER the Red October hits bottom, kicking up sand and sit, bulkheads fragile as eggshells. IN THE FUSELAGE of the Foxtrot, Amalric strains to hear on his headset. Suddenly, .his eyes light up: AMALRIC (INTO HEADSET) Weapon has reacquired. Homing againi ON RED OCTOBER in the Conn, BULKHEADS GROAN. On the audio, torpedo and counter-measure PINGS fall into SYNC: TBIIISI (VO) (ON SPEAKER) Captain, the torpedo is homing on our counter-measure! PINGS begin a weird contrapuntal DANCE, ultimately becoming SIMULTANEOUS. IN THE WATER two thousand meters from Red October, the torpedo EXPLODES. TONS'Of WATER are DISPLACED. ON RED OCTOBER in the Conn, CONCUSSIONS rock the HULL. Sailors cling to the bulkhead. Equipment CRASHES to the FLOOR. Dust falls from the ding,. Lights FLICKER. On the deck, face strobing In the blinking light, Ramius looks unearthly. The helmsman, water dripping from his clothes, WHISPERS: HELMSMAN Captain, who's shooting at us? KAMAROV Easy, boy. Borodin COUGHS. Confused, the crew watch their Captain. Lights stay on. Concussions die down. Ships speakers CRACKLE: MELEKHIN (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) Captain, the caterpa`llar is fixed. silent drive is operational. Jarred from his reverie, Ramius opens the intercom, speaking to the ENTIRE SHIP: RAMIUS This Is the Captain. The explosion you Just heard was the first operational test of a new counter-measure. The torpedo was launched by our friends in Soviet aviation. Borodin stares at Ramius: RAMIUS (CONT'D) Until now, orders required that I keep this aspect of our mission secret so that you might be evaluated under simulated battle conditions. (TO KAMAROV) Pump us off the bottom and engage the c�taerpa'T]ar. Nobody moves. Ramius is indomitable: RAMIUS (CONT'D) Diving officer, bring the ship to one hundred meters. KAMAROV (TO PLANESMAN) Pump auxiliaries to sea. Twenty thousand pounds. (NO RESPONSE) Now! Galvanized, the planesman makes preparations to raise the ship. Ramius stares at Borodin. Things are getting ragged. CUT TO: RAMIUS, MELEKHIN AND BORODIN in a cramped tunnel beneath Red October's engineering compartment. Melekhin is holding a steel. pipe. Above, a piece of rope dangles from some gears. A slipknot has been tied on the loose end. MELEKHIN Someone rigged the pipe so that when we took a down angle it would fall into the gears. RAMIUS MELEKHIN No doubt about it. And whoever it was knew exactly how to cripple the caterpillar in a way not easy to find. (BEAT) I st]]. don't know if there's any react= damage. I9]. have to take a sample of the axilant. - We are dealing with no ordinary sailor. RAMIUS (to Bo=odin) We21. have to find a way to get the crew off this ship, now. We are in danger every second they are aboard. BORODIN But, Captain. There's over a hundred of them. CUT TO: RYAN brushing his teeth in the head adjacent to his stateroom on the Kennedy. Through an open door, his unmade bunk. Catching sight of himself in the mirror: RYAN We'd have to get rid of the crew. (BEAT) How do you get the crew off a nuclear submarine? CUT TO: JONES in the Dalla' sonar shack, working furiously with his equipment. Beaumont watches. The COB's behind him. TRANSIENT ocean NOISE on SPEAKERS. Over the INTERCOM: MANCUSO (OS) Sonar, Conn. Anything yet, Tonesy? JONES (INTO INTERCOM ) Conn, sonar. Negative, Captain. COB Where is your phantom Russian sub, Jonesy? According to your calcuiat£ons we ' should have picked him up hours ago. JONES He's close. I can feel it. COB Close don't count in anything but horseshoes and hand grenades. Beaumont CHORTLES. Jones glances at him: JONES Don't encourage the man, seaman Beaumont. He's very old. COB- The hell, you say. JONES You're an old man, COB. Way over the ham. Your trout is so wrinkled it's about to faU off. COB Screw you. JONES Speaking of which, what happened to that Hustler Magazine that was in the head? COB (BLANCHING) Don't start on that crap. Beaumont grins. The C O 8 and Jones are everything he hoped the Navy would be: BEAUMONT (M AY) What Hustler magazine? JONES For many months, seaman Beaumont, there was a Hustler magazine located in the crew's head. it was community property. (WORKING SONAR) Then one day, it disappeared. The ..COB. here was the last person seen entering the head before it vanished. BEAUMONT Where'd it' go? COB (SQUIRMING) Come on, Jonesy. JONES I have a theory, seaman Beaumont. I believe the CO B Is like a black widow, spider. After he has sex with a magazine, he eats it. Beaumont HOWLS. The COB turns pink. -65- COS Goddam you, Jonesy -- JONES (RAISING HIS HAND) Wait! Jones the tunes a dial. In the distance, barely di i nguishahle through transient NOISE, the sound of RUSTLING WATER followed by a fleeting HUM. CUT TO: PAINTER Leaning over a status board in the Combat Information Center on the Kennedy. Replete with lights, the status board reveals details of force deployment. Ryan enters, carrying copse: RYAN Morning, Admiral. PAINTER Sleep well? RYAN Like the dead. (re: status board) Our friends have been busy. PAINTER During the night, they positioned most of their front line submarines at barrier stations between Greenland and Iceland. Here, here and here. (PIG) The majority of their Northern Fleet surface vessels are moving in a line abreast through here. (BEAT) It's an old anti submaxlne tactic. Like beaters in the jungle making a lot of noise, driving the prey into the guns of waiting hunters. (PIG) One of our submarines, the Da71as, reports intermittent contact with Red October and is positioned here at the bottom of Red Route One. With luck, the Dallas will inte pt her. RYAN Could you get me aboard the Dallas? -66- PAINTER We could fly you out there in a helicopter. But I don't think you'd like that much. RYAN- (ASHEN) No other way? PAINTER That's all there is, I'm afraid. Putting down his coffee cup, Ryan stares at the status board. A sal]ci r arrives with a message. Reading it, Painter glances at Ryan: PAINTER (CONT'D) DaIlas found Red October and is backing her now. Locking eyes with Painter, Ryan grits his teeth. RYAN (FLY) Memos. From now on nothing but memos. CUT TO: MANCUSO at tire control in the Dallas' Conn. Thompson's on the deck. THOMPSON (TO MANCUSO) Captain, we're about a thousand yards on Red October's port quarter. She's tracking on course two-one-zero, eight knots. MANCUSO Jones -'studies his w tern - The COB stands behind him. Beaumont watches. A]l kidding has stopped. This is strictly business: JONES (ON MIKE) Conn, sonar. Signal to noise ratio is dropping. (BEAT) Possib3e aspect change on Sierra thirty-five, Red October. IN THE CONN at fire control, Mancuso is suddenly alert. THOMPSON Sonar, Conn, aye. FIRE CONTROL Concur, possible zig. Bearing rate increasing to the right. IN SONAR Jones studies his equipment. Beaumont wonders what's going on. Suddenly, Jones barks: JONES (INTO MIKE) Conn, sonar. Crazy Ivan! IN THE CONN like a cat, Mancuso moves onto the deck behind Thompson, eyes BLAMING: MANCUSO (TO THOMPSON) All stop i Come left and stay in his baffles. (F IG) Rig for quiet running. All compartments eliminate noise evolutions. IN SONAR the COB and Jones ft+eeze. Everything's super-quiet. Beaumont WHISPERS: BEAUMONT What! s ' going on, Jonesy? JONES (WHISPERING) The Soviet Captain has a blind spot astern in his baffles and he's turning suddenly to see if he can catch us there. It's a trick the Soviets use called a crazy Ivan turn. (BEAT) Your average skipper might get caught with his pants down. Not Mancuso. We stop all engines and turn with him. Staying in his baffles. Quiet as a mouse. Beaumont frowns. Seconds pass. Working his equipment, Jones WHISPERS into his MIKE: JONES (CONT'D) Conn, sonar. Red October is coming left. My read is he's returning to base course. (GIG AT BEAUMONT) Skipper got him. The Russian hasn't got a clue. IN THE CONN On the deck, Mancuso glances at fire control. FIRE CONTROL Bearing rate has steadied. He's returning to course two-one-zero. MAN CUSO Very well. Secure from quiet running. RADIOMAN enters. RADIOMAN (TO MANCUSO) Just decrypted this message from Fleet Command, sir. Opening the message, Mancuso scans it: MANCUSO Damn! THOMPSON What? MANCUSO !re not gonna believe this. CUT TO: THUNDERING ROTORS on a SH-3 on the Kennedy's flight deck. Ryan and Davenport move to the waiting chopper. Davenport SHOUTS: DAVENPORT The Dallas picked up Red October and is tracking her again. The Admiral issued orders for her to fall back and pick you up. Davenport takes Ryan's arm. DAVENPORT (CONT'D) Ryan, listen to me. Getting someone on a sub is a nightmare. The Admiral told me what happened to you in the Mediterranean. The next hour could be very rough. Ryan ftroes a grin. A sax7or helps him into the helicopter. Davenport steps back. ROTORS ACCELERATE. CUT TO: JEFF PELT in his chair in his office in the Executive Office Building. Sitting on the couch in precisely the same position as when they last talked, Ambassador Lysenko wipes his brow: LYSENKO The weather in Washington is so unpredictable, don't you think? PELT How can I help you, Ambassador? LYSENKO I'm afraid there's been a pew development. (PAUSE) Apparently, the initial reports that one of our submarines was missing were not completely accurate. (PELT IS silent), The. submarine in question, Red October, is commanded' by a Captain Marko Ramius Apparently r he has suffered some kind of a nervous breakdown... (SWEATING) He -posted a letter just before he announcing his intentions to fire his mis' it at the United Stat s. Pelt stares at Lysenko. Lysenko shifts his weight. _ The Russian finds Pelt's steady•.gaze unnerving: PELT Why didn't you tell me this the last time we met? LYSENKO In my position, I'm sometimes compromised by the fact that Moscow doesn't tea me everything. PELT So one of your submarine captains has gone insane? (LYSENKO NODS) What is it you want from us? LYSENKO The other day you offered your assistance PELT The other day it was a rescue mission. You want us to help you hunt Ramius down and kill. him? LYSENKO Because American lives are at stake, I've been instructed to ask your President for precisely that. (SWALLOWING) Since you were so adamant about the consequences of confusion, I thought we might ask him together. PELT I understand. Pelt picks up the phone. CUT TO: BROKEN SUNSHINE dappling a choppy sea. Ice-cold WIND whips whitecapped waves and lashes the horizon. The helicopter with Ryan aboard circles into view. IN THE CHOPPER HOWLING. NOISE. PILOT and COPILOT navigate tricky winds.. TWO SAILORS crouch by an open door, checking a harness on Ryan. Tuiindng to the pi ot, the copilot BELLOWS: COPILOT no contact with the Da'Ha! # (READING GAUGE) Fuel capacity is in the red! PILOT We can't wait any Unger! COPILOT Hang on. I have contact! PILOT OK. Tell them to surface. (RE: RYAN) Hook him up! But hurry, we don't have much fuel left! Sai],or threads cable through a winch by the door. Ryan's white as a ghost. NOISE Is DEAFENING. Another sa�ar belts a harness to Ryan's back. Ryan peers down. Wind from the rotors crushes the waves. Between his feet, Ryan can see the small white wake from a periscope. ON THE DALLAS in the Conn, Mancuso spins the scope. Thompson watches him. Both he and Mancuso wear life jackets: MANCUSO Whoever this guy is, he's in far one hell of a ride. ( NG) Officer of the deck. Surface the ship. A flurry of activity in the Conn. The Dallas prepares to surface. Mancuso and Thompson move to a hatch by the helm. IN THE CHOPPER the saftors i nish strapping Ryan into the sling. One of them leans forward, painting to a ]ever on Ryan's chest, SHOUTING: SAILOR Pull this to release! Fighting. panic, Ryan glances down. A mitlion miles below, the sea bans- mine-grey. ON THE DALLAS sail in the Conn work like lightning in cramped quarters. A petty af€'lcer straps Mancuso and Thompson into harnesses. MANCUSO You got a man dangling at the end of a line with no paint of reference and helicopter rotors generating enough static electak ty that we have to ground him or it! l be like grabbing a hot wire and if he falls in the water the only way to get him out is with divers 'cause most of the ship's underwater. (PAUSE) Fun? THOMPSON (G NING) Why I joined the Navy. A sager hands Mancuso a phone for the bridge. THOMPSON (CONT'D) I put Jonesy in the forward escape hatch in case he goes in the drink. MANCUSO Good. We got no idea who this guy is or why the Navy wants his on our boat so bad. IN THE CHOPPER Teeth chattering, sta:ugg g with deja vu, Ryan is transfixed by, the sub-zero ocean. HOWLING WIND and CRASHING ROTORS. Eyes wide, he watches THE DALLAS RISE First the sail, then the foredeck EXPLODE high into the air, finally CRASHING back to the WATER. ON THE DALLAS The COB helps Jones climb into an escape trunk aft of the sail. It's cramped and brightly lit. Jones checks his equipment. IN THE CHOPPER Ryan watches Mancuso and Thompson climb out of the sail onto the lurching bridge.The sailer leans close, HOLLERING: SAILOR Hang on! He trips a laver on the winch. Cable feeds out a few feet Holding his breath, Ryan inches into the abyss. ON THE BRIDGE Mancuso lays binoculars on Ryan. Thompson ties both of them to the sail The sub pitches and rolls. Forward and aft are buried beneath waves. Fingers freezing, Thompson clamps one end of a jumper cable to a metal lip on the bridge to ground the sub against static generated by the helicopter's rut IN THE AIR savage WINDS from the chopper's ROTORS start spinning Ryan like a top. Desperately, he trams to control the dizzying motion. Above, caught in an unexpected wind sheer, the chopper plummets seaward. Ryan's line goes slack. Angry sea rushes up at him with blistering speed. IN THE CHOPPER the pilot struggles for control. Behind him, loose equipment SLAMS into the WINCH, JAMMING the CABLE. CURSING, the pilot regains control. The chopper stabilizes. IN THE AIR CRACKING like a WHIP, the CABLE goes TAUT. Ryan feels like he's been hit with a sledgehammer. Unable to breathe, he RIPS off his HELMET. A rock in a sling, he tries to get his bearings. Everything's grey. Above, the chopper's rotors CHEW the SKY. Help] s, Ryan starts swinging like a pendulum. ON THE BRIDGE Mancuso and Thompson watch Ryan rocket by at Mach 10. A huge arc carries him way out over the angry sea. Slowing down, Ryan starts to spin again. MANCUSO (SCREAMING) See if you can get a ground on his line. I'm gonna try and catch the bastard! Way out on the horizon, Ryan reaches the end of his arc and starts a comet-like ride back at the ship. IN THE CROPPER the pilot FEATHERS. CONTROLS trying to reduce Ryan's mind-boggling-ride. over his shoulder, he BELLOWS: PILOT Reel him back in! SAILOR (TRYING) The cable's jammed! PILOT If they don't pick him up this time, we have to cut him Ioxe! The sailor keeps trying to rewind the cable. No go. sweating, he wraps gloved fingers around the emergency release on the drum. IN THE AIR Ryan watches the Dallas' saw rush at him with unbelievable speed, a towering black monolith on an ubiquitous canvas of grey. ON THE BRIDGE Thompson readies the ground, holding one end in the air. A wave BLASTS the DALLAS. THE GROUNDING CABLE rips free of the bridge. Surprised, Thompson goes overboard. Caught in his harness, he dangles helplessly above the water. Mancuso and Ryan reach for each other as Ryan hurtles at the bridge. All hell breaks loose: A BOLT OF ELECTRICITY arcs between their oohed hands. BLITZED, Mancuso is KNOCKED hard to his KNEES. IN THE CHOPPER, the sailor pulls. the release lever, CUTTING the cable. it SLAMS back inside like a two ton rubber band. IN THE AIR unhooked, Ryan sling-shots fifty yards over the pitching bow of the Dalyas, disappearing beneath the ice-cold water. UNDER THE. WATER Bubbles trailing from his mouth, Ryan struggles to free himself from the harness. ON THE BRIDGE a vision of hell, hair blowing in all diYectlons, Mancuso eyeballs the spot where Ryan went down, SCREAMING: MANCUSO (INTO PHONE) Man overboard! Thompson drags himself back onto the bridge. IN THE ESCAPE TRUNK Jones hears Mancuso's voice BOOMING over SPEAKERS: MANCUSO (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) Man overboard! Twenty yards off the starboard bow! The COB SLAMS the HATCH, turning the trunk into an iron tomb. Jones pulls a mask over his eyes, activates his oxygen and drags open the exterior hatch. SEA WATER THUNDERS in, submerging him in Icy stillness. Securing a line to the bulkhead, Jones swims out into the swirling brine. IN THE AIR the chopper banks hard to the left, climbs Into the mist and starts circling the Dams. IN THE WATER free of the harness, Ryan bobs like a cork in the waves. Fifty yards away, the keeness sub p bahes violently. A ' DIVER surfaces next to Ryan. Removing his mouthpiece, Jones BELLOWS over the CRASHING SEA: JONES Are. you injured!? JONES I'm gonna take you in through an escape trunk! Jones hooks Ryan to the line. Salt stings Ryan's eyes. His, breathing's ragged. ON THE DALLAS BEDLAM in the CONN. STACCATO orders. Mancuso helps Thompson through the hatch. Hell on wheels, Mancuso disappears down a passageway. IN THE WATER Jones and Ryan ride waves by the curved hull. of the ship. Jones offers Ryan his mouthpiece. RYAN Wait a minute! JONES Listen, you son-af-a-bit h. I'm only gonna tell you once. Stick this fucking thing in your mouth and breathe! Ryan takes the mouthpiece, inhaling and exhaling rapidly. The helicopter circles above. Jones drags Ryan UNDER THE WATER into bruised silence. Pulling themselves downward along the Dalla rolling hull, Ryan and Jones share oxygen. IN THE ESCAPE TRUNK Ryan and Jones pull themselves inside. Blazing light ignites a fire storm of one-caned organisms. Eyes wide, Ryan watches Jones c3 se the hatch. Jones starts draining the trunk. Everything slows down. Echoes REVERBERATE. The water level in the trunk drops and the SHRIEK OF PRESSURIZED AIR ASSAULTS Ryan's EARDRUMS. Hurling the mouthpiece. away, he gulps air in the rapidly draining trunk like a banked trout. IN THE HALLWAY outside the trunk, Mancuso and crew open the hatch. Tumbling out, Ryan stands; on shaky legs, excited, babbling: RYAN Jesus Christ! I cant believe it! Jesus Christ --» MANCUSO Take it easy -- RYAN When I hit the water, it was like Ice. I thought I was going to freeze -- MANCUSO Slow down. You're hypervent it sting. (RYAN BLINKS) Now, who are you? RYAN (DISORIENTED) Sorry. I'm Jack Ryan. Are you Captain Mancuso? Mancuso nods. The radioman appears with another message. Mancuso rips it open and starts reading it. Ryan rockets into PRESENT TIME: RYAN (CONT'D) Captain, we have to find the Red October. She's a Russian -- MANCUSO (READING) I already found him, Ryan. Then I was ordered to pick you up. RYAN - (QUIC)DY) We have to find him again. The Captain is going to defect and - MANCUSO What the hell are you yammering about? RYAN I have to talk to - MANCUSO Mr. Thompson. Get this man some dry clothes and coffee. RYAN BUT CAPTAIN MANCUSO I'Il be in the Conn. JUMP CUT TO: at the entrance of the sonar shack, fifteen minutes later. Behind him, in the Conn, the crew is preparing to man battle stations. Jones has returned to sonar. MANCUSO (TO JONES) Any sign that he's alerted to our presence? JONES No, sir, captain. operating as before. Ryan appears in dry clothes. Mancuso ignores him. The of5cer of the deck turns to Mancuso: OOD Captain. Battle stations are manned. MANCUSO Very well. RYAN What do you mean battle stations? (URGENTLY) Look, I've been authorized by the President of the United States to talk to the Captain of Red October. Mancuso takes the last message from his pocket: MANCUSO And I have been ordered to blow him out of the water if he stays on a course to the United States or demonstrates any hostile intentions. RYAN (STUNNED) I don't understand. MANCUSO (RE: MESSAGE) According to this he's gone bughouse and intends to fire his missiles. So much f= your defection theory. Mancuso hands Ryan the message.. Ryan stares at. it. Mancuso turns back to the officer of the deck: MANCUSO (CONT'D) Officer of the deck. Make, RYAN Wail! (RE: MESSAGE) Think about this a second. Naturally the Soviets would tall us he is insane. They want us to sink him before he has an opportunity to defect. JONES (TO MANCUSO) Captain, crazy Ivan. MANCUSO All. stop i Come left and stay in his baffles. Rig for quiet running. The officer of the deck repeats Mancuso's orders. Mancuso and Ryan are eyeball-etc-eyeball.. Ryan whispers: RYAN Listen to me, Captain. There must be some way you can establish contact without violating your orders. I'm telling you, he wants to defect. (MANCUSO FROWNS) If there's ever going to be peace in the world somebody has to take a risk. Give the man a chance. He's defecting. I know it. (MANCUSO HESITATES) Please. MANCUSO (after a beat) AIL back two-thirds. Nobody moves. Jones glances at Mancuso. Mancuso stares at Ryan The ofSt r of the deck's e d OOD Sorry, sir. Would you repeat -- MANCUSO I said, aill back two-thirds! HELMSMAN Helm answers. AIL back two-thirds. Hell RINGS. Ship SHUDDERS. Ryan's ears pop. Jones glares at MANCUSO: MANCUSO AIL shop! (TO RYAN) OK, Ryan. We just unzipped our fly. Now if he so much as twitches, I"m.. gonna blow the bastard to Mars. CUT TO: RAMIUS in the Conn on Red October, surrounded by activity. Urgently, he speaks into a mike: _E0- RAMIUS Sonar, this is Ramius. Can you identify the contact? TBILISI (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) American Los Angeles class attack submarine. Bearing zero-ftve- zero, range three hundred yards. CUT TO: MANCUSO in the Dalla' Conn, on the deck. Thompson's at fire control. Ryan is to Mancuso's left. Crew's at battle stations. MANCUSO Flood tubes one and two and make torpedos ready in all. respects. RYAN WAIT - MANCUSO My orders are specific, Mister. THOMPSON Tubes one and two flooded and ready in all respects. CUT TO: RAMIUS as before in Red. October's -Conn. The crew has come to battle stations. Borodin is at fire control.. TBILISI (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) the American has flooded his tubes and is preparing to Orel RAMIUS (TO BORODIN) Prepare tubes three and four and plot a solution. BORODIN Shall I flood the tubes? (NO ANSWER) Captain, shall I flood the tubes? RAMIUS (after a beat) No. Lock the (ring solution into computer. Do not flood the tubes. CUT TO: MANCUSO on the DaIIas in the Conn. Eyeing Ryan, Mancuso opens a mike: MANCUSO What's he doing, Jonesy? Has he l f ooded his tubes? JONES Negative, Captain. He's just matting there. Hold on -- (BEAT) Hull popping. Target's coming shallow. Mancuso frowns. The crew's a cased spring. Ryan's walking on RAZOR BLADES: RYAN What does it mean? MANCUSO It means, he's a very cool customer, YOUR RUS sian. He knows we're here and that we are ready to fire. But he's not going to provoke us. He's heading to periscope depth to see what's on the surface. (TO THOMPSON) What's his course, now? THOMPSON (READING) Target is on course north. MANCUSO (TO- HELMSMAN) Right ten degrees rudder. Steer course north. (BEAT) Sonar, Conn. Report all contacts. JONES Conn, sonar. My only contact is Sierra thirty-five, Red October. Bearing two- seven-zero. MANCUSO Conn, aye. Fire control, range to target? THOMPSON Range is three hundred yards. MANCUSO Diving oar make your depth sixty- f f ve feet. (TO RYAN) He wants to go up and take a peek, we'll play along. ON THE SURFACE Grey sky. Frothy sea. Red October's periscope appears. Seconds later, three hundred yards away, the Dalla' scope breaks the surface. ON RED OCTOBER Ramius is glued to the eyepiece of his periscope. He spots the Dallas' scope in the water. Behind him, sailors are tense, wary. Uncomfortable, Borodin sweats at fire control. RAMIUS (ON SCOPE) Weapons status? BORODIN Weapons are armed. Tubes one and two are not ficoded. RAMIU S (AT SCOPE) Mark this bearing. QUARTERMASTER Bearing zero-nine-zero. in the Conn, Mancuso is glued to his scope just like Ramius. Ryan can hear his heart nq: MANCUSO All right, Mr. Ryan. You wanted to:. talk to him. There he is. What do you want to say? Ryan chooses his words carefully. As he does, Mancuso hits a periscope light in morse: RYAN American government told you intend to launch mis. lc s. Do not approach U.S. coast. Repeat. Do not approach U.S. coast, or you .w>7 . be attacked. If you understand, ping once. (TO MANCUSO) He can do that, can't he? MANCUSO He can do that. But is he gonna do that? ON RED OCTOBER in the Conn, Ramius is still at. the scope, watching the light in the Dalla' periscope. After a moment, he, glances at Borodin: RAM=S Verify the range again. (BEAT) Ping one time only. ON THE DALLAS in the Conn, Mancuso's at the scope. Ryan is scribbling something on a pad. Sailors hear a PING. Thompson grins. MANCUSO I'D. be dammed. (TO RYAN) Now what? RYAN (RE: PAD) Send him this. MANCUSO (READING) Are you out of your mind? RYAN Just send it. (THINKING) And ten him to ping again if he agrees. ON RED OCTOBER in the Conn, Ramius is at the scope, watching the flashing light. After a second, he steps back, face white. Finally, he turns to BORODIN: RAMIUS Verify the range one more time. BORODIN But Captain, I just -- RAMIUS Give me a sounding, ' Vasily! Ping once only. Borodin goes to work. Ramius stares at Melekhin. Melekhin frowns. What the hell is happening? ON THE DALLAS in the Conn, Mancuso, Ryan and the crew hear another PING. Ryan's ecstatic. Mancuso Isn't. MANCUSO Down scope. RYAN (to Mancuso,., EXDITD) I need to look at a nautical chart. Do you have -- MANCUSO Ryan, what's going on? RYAN (9 G) If the Soviets want us to sink Red October. We just might have to oblige. CUT TO: THE DEEP black as night, reverberating with eerie nightmares. From the cloying dark, Red October rises, a shimmering phosphorescent giant. THE REYKJANES RIDGE Off the coast of Iceland Morning of the fourth day in engineering, Petrov and Melekhin stand at a sink on the reactor bulkhead. Valves and tubing hang over the sink. Technicians in the background. Melekhin's in rubber apron, gloves and plastic face shield. Dressed identicaMy, Petrov halls a book. Signs on the wall indicate radiation danger. PETROV (READING BOOK) Shut valve three. MELEKHIN Valve three shut. He shuts a valve with a large wrench. Turning a page, Petrov READS: PETROV Place flask under valve four and draw one hundred m peter coolant sample. MELEKHIN Placing flask under valve four. Drawing sample. A tiny stream of fluid fa]ls into the flask. Unexpectedly, an ALARM GOES OFF. Technicians freeze. PETROV Shut the valve and secure the sink! Melekhin shuts the, valve. Petrov stares at the alarm. Below it, a meter is flashing red: PETROV (CONT'D) Seal that sample in a plastic bag and take it to the lab. I'I1 get the Captain! CUT TO: RAMIUS AND BORODIN drinking tea and munching black bread in Red October's wardroom. Nobody else around. Borodin smiles at Ramius fondly: BORODIN Do you think they will let me live in Montana? RAMIUS I think they w91 let you live wherever you want, my find. BORODIN Good. Then I will raise rabbits in Montana and marry a round American I woman who will cook them for me. (SMILING) And she will have friends who are Indians and we wiin ride horses on Sunday. Ramius laughs. Petrov barges in, talking as he enters: PET RO V Captain, there are high Es►sion product levels in the primary coolant! (BABBLING) I knew we should have checked the reactor before we started it. When the caterpillar broke down the vare must have been damaged! RANIUS Keep your vcadoe down, Doctor. There are several explanations - PETROV Listen to me. Radioactive fuel is in the water. If it gets into our air, it could ' loll us all! RAMIUS I said, keep your voice down. The CREW - PETROV (SHRILL) I will not! We have a level four radiation leak. And if something isn't done, we're all going to die! - Ramius stands. Suddenly, Petrov remembers where he is. Ramius' eyes are bullet holes. Wilting,, Petrov stammers: PETROV (CONT'D) Forgive me, Captain. But - RAMIUS it's probably a piece of corrosion in the pipes. That happens. Now let's take' another sample. But quietly. We don't want to panic the crew. JUMP CUT TO: ENGINEERING minutes later. Melekhin and Petrov prepare to draw another sample at the sink. Ramius stands behind them. Technicians to the rear. Melekhin struggles with the valve: MELEKHIN I may have shut it too hard. Grabbing the wrench, Ramius leans his weight on it. Suddenly, the -87- valve CRACKS. HOT water SPRAYS Ramius in the FACE. Melekhin FREAKS: MELEKHIN (CONT'D) Secure the valve before the water turns to steam ! Desperately, Ramius tries to plug the hole. The VALVE BREAKS. BOILING WATER pours out, turning to STEAM, SPLATTERING Melekhin. ALARMS GO OFF. Ramius BELLOWS: RAMIUS Evacuate the compartment-' Technicians scramble for the door. Searing hot steam chokes the compartment. Melekhin SCREAMS: MELEKHIN in try and stop the leak. Everybody get the hen out of here! IN THE CONN Crew members are panicking. ALARMS are GOING OFF. Dripping water, Ramius charges in. On the deck, Borodin SHOUTS: BORODIN (ON HEADSET) Captain, radiation alarms are activating in all compartments. Engineering is heavily contaminated. Radiation is spreading forward! RAMIUS Get us to periscope depth.We ]i ventilate! BORODIN (TURNING) Emergency surface! While the crew works to get the boat to the surface, Petrov studies a radiation detector.' it ALARMS. Gauges are in a red zone. PETROV (READING) Ventilating won't do any good. Ws getting worse. At these levels it is only a matter of minutes. We have to abandon ship!; - Sailors in the Conn stare at the Captain. Ramins BELLOWS: RAMIUS (TO BORODIN) Alright. Pass word to abandon ship. Draft a message to Red Fleet Command telling them our location and situation! BORODIN (INTO MIKE) Stand by to abandon ship! Stand by to abandon ship! All hands muster on the miss Bp- deck. Designated personnel bring lire rafts! ON THE SURFACE Red October rises in angry sea. An emergency door on the sail opens. Seconds later, a hatch on the missile deck opens also. The sea RAGES. Climbing out on the deck, Tblllsi and a half a dozen sailors try to inflate rafts. Red October PITCHES and ROLLS. Wind HOWLS. Frurated, Tbilisi SCREAMS into a headset. IN THE CONN through the open emergency door, the sea CRASHES. Frightened to death, shivering sailors in life preservers line up to leave. Petrov counts them. Ramius stands by Sorodin. BORODIN Captain. L,ieubenant Tbi3JsJ reports the sea state is too rough to launch the rafts' over the she. The men will be gushed! RAMIUS All right. Instruct the crew to secure the rafts to the deck. When all. personnel are aboard the rafts, we will scuttle the ship out from under us! ON THE DECK. Ocean, ROARS. Fighting gale farce WINDS, sailors Me out of the hatch and tie down the rafts. Around them, the hounds of hell are loose on the face of the deep. IN THE CONN the last of the crew leaves. Borodin is at the periscope, Kamarov stands by Ramius. Only offfcers are left. KAMAROV Captain, Major Tbilisi reports the crew are secured in rafts and rafts are tied down. We should join the crew and scuttle the ship. RAMIUS (TO PETROV) Do you have a count? Have they all been evacuated? PETROV I think so. I -- BORODIN (ON SCOPE) Captain! Surface warship. Closing fast. Zero angle on the bow. Range nine miles. RAMIUS (ASHEN) Can you classify it? BORODIN U.S. Knox class frigate. She's flashing light. I']]. read. (TRANSLATING) Red October. Stay where you are. Do not attempt to submerge or we will are. Stand by to be boarded. PETROV (SHRIEKING) What are we going to do? RAMIUS (TO PETROV) There's only one thing we can do. Go topside and take care of the crew. I and my officers wall submerge the ship and take her elsewhere to scuttle. The Americans must never have this boat! All Petrov wants do to is get his ass off the boat. At the door, Ramius stops him: RAMIUS (CONT'D) Doctor. When you get home. You will. hear many stories about me and some are true. But tell them that in the end I did my duty. Petrov splits. Borodin slams the hatch behind him and seals it. -90- RAMIUS (CONT'D) (TO BORODIN) Submerge the ship. ON THE DECK the ocean RAGES. Red October sets to submerge. GEYSERS of WATER and air EXPLODE hundreds of feet in the sky as she dives. The BLOWBACK is STAGGERING. Wild-eyed sailors in rubber rafts hang on for their lives. On the horizon, Petrov spots the American frigate hurtling forward, light flashing. A puff of smoke appears, fbnowed by a muted EXPLOSION. The frigate's FIRING. As the round comes in, there is an EARSPLITTING SHRIEK. A hundred yards beyond Red October's bow, the SEA EXPLODES. The CONCUSSION and the STORM are mind-bending. Petrov thinks the world's coming to an end. In the rafts, men slash at ropes binding them to the deck. One by one, they drift free of the submerging ship into foaming sea. One sailor can't cut his rope. His raft's dragged under. Wind HOWLS. The frigate FIRES AGAIN. Another EARSPLITTING SHRIEK. Another EXPLOSION. Tons of icy saltwater cascade over Petxov's head. - Gulping air, Petrov spots the raft and sail r pop back to the surface. Red October's sail disappears. Sailors haul freezing men from raging water. Hell on earth. CUT TO: THE FRIGATE bow slicing through the freezing ocean at flank speed. On the fantai, a helicopter prepares to take off, ROTORS HOWLING IN THE COMBAT INFORMATION CENTER aboard the frigate, thirty sailors work various consoles replete with computer terminals, status boards and plotting tables. In the middle of the compartment ISEUTENANT COMMANDER JIM CURRY thirties, mans the nerve center of the CIC. Curry has immediate access to both sonar and radio. In the darkness, to his left, TWO SHADOWS: CURRY (INTO MIKE) Seahawk One. This is Bravo Command. You are cleared for take off. IN THE HELICOPTER on the fwltml of the frigate, PILOT and copilot are strapped into the crowded cockpit. Copilot flips a bank of toggle switches above his head. PILOT (INTO MIKE) Roger, Bravo Command. Seahawk one request vector to target Red October. (LISTENING) Copy that. We're on our way. IN. THE AIR the helicopter rises from the fantail of the frigate. In seconds, it passes over Petrov and his companions floating in rubber rafts in choppy sea. IN °THE HELICOPTER the pilot glances over his shoulder at a SENSOR OPERATOR working a computer behind the copilot: PILOT Torpedo Inputs? SENSOR OPERATOR Set and veri ed as ordered. IN THE WATER the life rafts converge on the frigate like insects hovering round an oversized queen. In one of the rafts, Petrov watches as a net is thrown down at him. IN THE HELICOPTER the p eyeballs the sea as it races by. Speaking into a mike: PILOT Roger that, Bravo One. Five hundred yards to the drop paint. Torpedo is armed and ready. IN THE CIC aboard the fcigate, Curry turns to one of the shadows: CURRY Seahawk One reports torpedo armed and ready to fire. Requests final authorization to drop. IN THE RAFTS Petrov and the others climb the nets. Halfway up, the doctor stares back at the helicopter hovering in the distance. IN THE AIR thirty feet above the water, the helicopter releases a torpedo in the area where Red October went down. ON THE FRIGATE Petrov climbs onto the fantail. U.S. sailors are waiting with coffee and blankets. Fuming, Petrov confronts an officer: PETROV I protest! What authority do you have to fire? I protest! IN THE CIC Curry coordinates information. AIL around him, men work intensely. Curry turns to one of the shadows: CURRY Seahawk One reports torpedo is launched and running normally at forty knots. I have it on sonar. (TURNING) Four hundred yards from drop paint. Eight hundred yards. Twelve hundred yards. One of the shadows leans forward and presses a button on Curry's console. The button is marked Command Control Detonate. The SHADOW IS ADMIRAL GREER in a white uniform and cap. Beside him, Skip Tyler, leans on his cane, concentrating on Curry's display. IN THE HELICOPTER Pilot studies the sea. Suddenly, it BULGES. Loud CONCUSSION. Shock WAVE. A giant mushroom cap rises from the depths as gas bubbles vent. ON THE FANTAIL Petrov watches in horror as a huge concave impression vents below the helicopter. A huge plume of gas and water erupts skyward. IN THE CIC aboard the frigate, Curry turns to Greer: CURRY Torpedo has detonated. GREER And you understand, Lieutenant. I was never here. That torpedo did not self-destruct. It hit the target. Right? (CURRY NODS) Now, Contact the Dallas and tell them to proceed. Curry nods. CUT TO: MANCUSO in the Conn aboard the Dallas with Thompson. Mancuso has a .45 in a holster on his belt. Thompson reads a message: THOMPSON Frigate reports phase one completed, Captain. We are ordered to proceed. MANCUSO OK. Now comes the weird part. Thompson fo lows Mancuso out of the Conn into A PASSAGEWAY running aft. Mancuso and Thompson move at speed. Mancuso is far FROM HAPPY: MANCUSO I don't like leaving the boat, Phil. But the orders are specific. THOMPSON We're gonna be f ne. Rounding a corner, they start DOWN A LADDER Thompson will never get over how fast Mancuso can move. Aren't guys that big supposed to be slow? MANCUSO This has got to be the craziest stunt I've ever heard of. There's only about two ml]]k n things that can st]l. go wrong. At the bottom of the ladder, they enter A PASSAGEWAY Ahead of them Jones and Ryan wait by a ladder beneath an open hatch. Like Mancuso, Jones is armed. Jones starts up the ladder. Ryan follows. Mancuso turns to Thompson: MANCUSO Listen. If anything -- THOMPSON Captain. We'll be all right. Mancuso climbs up the ladder, disappearing through the hatch. Thompson closes it. CUT TO: WARRANT OFFICER STEINER sitting before a wheel at a brightly lit panel, just as cocky as when we last saw him in the mini sub at Tyler's lab. Next to him, a COPILOT checks a clipboard. Behind them, Jones, Ryan and Mancuso climb up through a hatch. Jones shuts it. Steiner speaks into a headset:: STEINER OX. Passengers are aboard. Check-off complete. Request clearance to lift-off. (TURNING) Gentlemen, we have clearance. Fasten your belts and grab your nuts. We're taking a ride. Ryan sits opposite Mancuso. Jones is to Mancuso's right. The bulkhead rocks slightly. Steiner turns a yoke. STEINER (CONT'D) Battery sperm? -95- COPILOT Eighty percent capacity. Homing beacon is five degrees to the right. Recommend new course zero-seven-five. Range now five hundred yards. STEINER Roger. Coming right to course zero-seven- ive. Make initial preparations to land. The copilot starts toggling switches. Behind him, Mancuso checks the .45 in his holster. Ryan watches. COPILOT Contact is two hundred yards below. One hundred yards ahead. STEINER Roger. (BEAT) Hit the running lights. IN THE WATER -black on black. Then, in a single blinding flash of light THE RED OCTOBER is revealed. Hovering above it, floodlights blazing, the DSRV. Descending, it locks onto a hatch by the sail. IN THE DSRV Copilot turns to Steiner: COPILOT We have a seal. Skirt is dry. STEINER Roger. Open the hatch. Getting up, the copilot heads for the hatch. MANCUSO Wait. Copilot stops. Reaching into his jacket, Mancuso offers Ryan a .45. RYAN (EYEING PI- ) He's defecting. MANCUSO And he can't change his mind? RYAN He's not going to change his mind. MANCUSO Willing to bet your life on that.' Ryan stares at the pistol. Sighing, he puts it in his jacket. Copilot opens the hatch. In the gloom below, another hatch. Copilot raps on it. Somebody opens the lower hatch. Mancuso, Jones and Ryan climb down into THE RED OCTOBER on a ladder at the forward end of the Conn. Waiting for them, Ramins, Borodin and all the other of Awkward silence. Nervous, Borodin drags out a cigarette and lights it. Unexpectedly, RYAN- SMI1 : RYAN Russian Cigarette? (BORODIN NODS) Could I try one? Mancuso frowns. Borodin offers Ryan a cigarette. Kamarov has a light. Ryan inhales and COUGHS: RYAN (CONT'D) (GAGGING) Jesus... Poking fun, Ryan rolls his eyes. Borodin grins. Ramius The ice is broken. Men shake hands. RAMIUS Gentlemen, I am Marko Ramius. I and my offers request political asylum in the United States. (BEAT) Before I go any further, I want to know whose idea is this impos.ih18 plan? MANCUSO (RE: RYAN) His. RAMIUS (TO RYAN) Amazing. our intention was to publicly surrender this boat and request asylum. it never occurred to us there would be a way you could keep it. The idea to stage a radiation leak was inspired -- (FROWNING) You look familiar. Do I know you, Commander? RYAN You have a good memory, Captain. We meet briefly years ago. But I'm not a naval commander. I work for the CIA. RAMIUS CIA? RYAN Easy, Captain. I'm not an agent. I'm just an analyst. (SMRNNG) I write books. Suddenly, HIGH SPEED SCREWS passing over the HULL: KAMAROV Torpedo! Americans are shooting at us. JONES Wrong. Ours growl. Yours whine. It's Russian! CUT TO: GREER leaning over Curry's console in the CIC aboard the frigate. Agitated, Curry works his computer. GREER What do you mean there's another torpedo? Where in hell did it come from? CUT TO: TUPOLEV in the Conn aboard the Konovalov. His crew's at battle stations. Bonavia mans fire cost 'aL opening a mike, Tupolev SHOUTS: TUPOLEV Sonar. Why hasn't our torpedo impacted? SONAR (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) The weapon enabled on the other side of the target. It passed Red October before it armed. TUPOLEV (TO BONAVIA) You had the wrong range, idiot! Fire again with the right settings. And reload both tubes. ON THE DALLAS Thompson stands outside the sonar shack. To his left, the COB is behind fire control. Beaumont has taken Jones' position. BEAUMONT New oorrtact. Sierra four-one, bearing zero-one-zero. Aku]a c1a.�.s Soviet submarine. (BEAT) Launch noises. He's shooting again. THOMPSON What's the status of Red October? BEAUMONT Dead in the water. THOMPSON They can't maneuver with the goddam DSRV stuck to them. (WHISPERING) Come on, Mancuso, move it. Get the hell out of there. ON RED OCTOBER BEDLAM in the Conn. Tba'lisi and Jones are on their way to sonar. Ramius SHOUTS at Melekhin: RAMIUS Get back to engineering and give me some power! (TO MANCUSO RE: DSRV) Get that damn thing off my boat. Mancuso's halfway up the ladder. He spots Steiner peeking down at HIM: STEINER I think somebody just shot a torpedo at us! MANCUSO No shit, buckwheat. Get the hell. out of here! STEINER (STUNNED) Where am I supposed -- Mancuso SLAMS the HATCH. Scrambling down the ladder, Mancuso hears Ramius bel]Dwing at Borodin who is manning the helm: -99- RAMIUS No, Vasily. I need you in fire control. We must track whoever's out there. Borodin heads for fre control. Ramius tosses Ryan into the chair behind the helm : RAMIUS (CONT'D) You sit here! RYAN BUTICAN'T -- RAMIUS Do exactly as I tell you! Stunned, Ryan grabs the helm. Jones and Tbilisi, must have made it to sonar. Speakers CRACKLE: JONES (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) DSRV is away. There's a Russian Akula about eight thousand yards starboard. TBILISI (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) It's the Konovalov. RAMIUS (TO RYAN) All ahead flank! RYAN (PANIC)DNG) I told you I'm just an analyst. I write books. RAMIUS - (LEANING FORWARD) Turn that knob all the way to the right. Ryan: does. AIL around him the world is going stark raving mad. Again, SPEAKERS CRACKLE: JONES (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) Torpedo in the water. High speed screws. Beaming zero-two-zero. I estimate range at about eight thousand yards. RAMIUS (TO RYAN) Turn the helm to the heft. Steer course zero-two-zero. MANCUSO (TO RAMIUS) Wait a minute! That's heading into the t o rpedo. You should turn away from it. JONES (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) Steady bearing to the weapon. Still zero-two-zero. Range about seven thousand yards. RAMIUS (TO RYAN) Turn that helm to the left until the dial says course zero-two-zero. MANCUSO No! That's wrong. Ryan, don't turn that goddam wheel! Ryan stares at Mancuso then at Ramius. Deciding, he turns the helm left, coming to course zero-two-zero. RYAN (TOO MANCUSO) Sorry, Captain. I think -- MANCUSO (TO RAMIIUS) You're heading straight into that torpedo. RAMIUS I know. IN THE CIC aboard the frigate. Helms, Greer and Tyler lean over the display. Curry studies the blips: CURRY (EYES NARROWING) Red October is turning directly into the t orpedos path. GREER Mother of God. ON RED OCTOBER in the Conn, it's a deathwatch. Ryan thinks of Sally. Mancuso stares at Ramius. Goddamned if he's gonna be the one to whine. JONES (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) Torpedo steady bearing zero-two-zero. Range five thousand yards. RAMIUS (ON MIKE) Me]ekhin. Can you give me any more speed? MELEKHIN (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) Negative. We're going as fast as we can. JONES (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) Estimate range approximately three thousand yards. Closing fast. ON THE DALLAS Thompson's still outside the sonar shack. The COB's at Fare control. As before, Beaumont works sonar. THOMPSON Why is he heading into the torpedo? Is he trying to kill himself? COB Mr. Thompson. We have a solution on the Soviet Akula. Shouldn't we shoot back? THOMPSON (ANGRY) She didn't shoot at us. Anyway, I can't attack a Soviet submarine. I have no goddam authorization! ON RED OCTOBER in the Conn, an. payers have turned to stone. JONES (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) Torpedo bearing steady at zero-two- zero. Best range nine hundred yards. Estimate impact in twenty seconds. RAMIUS (TO RYAN) What books? RYAN Pardon? JONES (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) Fifteen seconds. RAMIUS What books did you write? RYAN (HOARSELY) I wrote a biography on Admiral Halsey, called, Fighting Sailor. It was about tam in combat -- JONES (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) Ten seconds. RAMIUS I know this book. I have read some parts of it. (RYAN BLINKS) Your conclusions were wrong, Ryan. Halsey acted stupidly. CRASH. The Conn ROCKS. Sound of TORPEDO BREAKING UP. Metal SCRAPES along the SHIP. Realizing what's going on: - MANCUSO I'll be dammed. RYAN What happened? MANCUSO Combat tack, Mr. Ryan. By turning into the torpedo,, Ramius closed the distance before it could arm itself. I never would have thought of it. RYAN So we're safe? RAMIUS Not yet. Right now, the Soviet Captain, a man named Tupolev is removing the safety features on all his weapons. He won't make the same mistake twice. Behind Ramius, Ryan spots a SHADOW at the rear of the Conn. He can't believe his eyes. The goddam shadow has a pistol in hand. SUDDENLY: A FIRE STORM of GUNFIRE sprays the CONN. Everybody scatters. Borodin is HIT. SLAMMING into the bulkhead, he falls in a seated position, eyes wide. Fire control panel EXPLODES. Behind a console, Mancuso drags out his .45 and RETURNS FIRE. The shadow disappears. ON THE DALLAS Beaumont rips off his headgear, turning to Thompson in the sonar shack's door, breathing hard: BEAUMONT Jesus Christ. Gunge. THOMPSON Gunfire? ON THE KONOVALOV in the Conn, Tupa]av is furious. He YELLS at Bonavia: TUPOLEV Hurry up goddammit! I want all the enabling devices disconnected! BONAVIA Captain, I cannot go any faster. ON RED OCTOBER in the Conn, cars crawl from hiding. Sparks ERUPT from WIRES. Fire contra is history. Ramius leans over Borodin: BORODIN I would have like to have seen Montana. And the Indians. (eyes gT'►g) captain? - _. He dies. RAGING, Ramius POUNDS the BULKHEAD. Kamarov notices a light on a panel: KAMAROV He's in the missile compartment! RAMIUS (TO MANCUSO) The ship is yours. MANCUSO But the control is blasted to hell. I can't shoot. RAMIUS Then get behind him and stay there. Don't let him put you in his sights or we're all dead. Mancuso tosses Ramius his .45. Catching it, Ramius splits. Ryan follows. CUT TO: TUPOLEV a caged tiger in the Conn on the Konovalov. Bonavia turns, looking back at him : BONAVIA Enabling devices are removed. TUPOLEV ABOUT TIMEL (INTO MIKE) Sonar, give me a bearing on Red October. SONAR (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) She's taken position behind us. TUPOLEV Damn. (TO HELM) Left full rudder. T11 shake him loose. ON RED OCTOBER in a passageway outside a door to the missile compartment, Ramius and Ryan hug the bulkhead: RAMIUS He'll break into a panel and short -circuit the wiring on a missile. We'll be blown to pieces. Taking a deep breath, Ryan follows Ramiais into the MISSILE COMPARTMENT coming face-too-face with a BARRAGE of GUNFIRE. Ramius is HIT. Ryan drags him into a space behind an electrical panel. Mercifully, the shooting STOPS. Ryan checks Ramius. His shoulder's a mess. Mind riling, Ryan studies his surroundings. He's never felt so alone. The compartment is vast, dominated by twenty tussle tubes six feet in diameter. Overhead, a catwalk. At the aft end, somebody's working with a wrench. RAMIUS We must stop him before he gets into a panel.. Ryan stares at Ramius. Ramiii isn't gonna stop anybody. Resigned, Ryan finds the .45 Mancuso gave him in his pocket, MUMBLING: RYAN (TO HIMSELF) Next time memos. Only memos. RAMIUS Be careful what you shoot at in here, Ryan. The compartment is very sensitive. In a daze, Ryan starts walking aft, still MUMBLING: RYAN Be careful what you shoot at, Ryan. Very sensitive.. .in here... IN THE CONN on Red October, a handful of men struggle to fight the ship. Kamarov mans the wheel. Sonar SPEAKERS POP: JONES (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) He's going deep! MANCUSO (TO KAMAROV) Twenty degrees down on the bowl IN THE MISSILE COMPARTMENT The wall becomes the floor. Fighting to keep his balance, Ryan walks on the wall, still MUMBLING: RYAN Sensitive stuff...in here ...I have to... be careful... of course. The ship turns. Wall becomes cuing. Grabbing the catwalk, Ryan hangs at a ninety degree angle. GUNFIRE. Bullets RIP into the BULKHEAD inches from his HEAD: RYAN (CONT'D) I have to be careful what I shoot at.. He doesn't have to be careful... He can shoot at anything he wants. IN THE CIC aboard the frigate, curry hunches over a console. Greer and Tyler WATCH ANXIOUSLY: CURRY The Akula is too fast. No way Red October can stay behind her. lt's only a matter of time now. (BEAT) The Akula's turning. She's fired another torpedo. This one can't miss. ON RED OCTOBER in sonar, Jones and Tbzisi hear PINGING become LOUDER, more FREQUENT. Holding the mike, ashen: JONES Another torpedo, Captain. It has enabled and is active. It has acquired us and is homing. CUT TO: THE DEEP Red October looms into view. To the right, the Konovalov shimmers in the dark. Between them, the torpedo appears. PINGS grow CLOSER and CLOSER. At the last minute THE DALLAS raves into view, rocketing forward at full, bore, streaking between Red October and the torpedo. it's really something. IN THE CIC aboard the frigate, Curry SHOUTS: CURRY Jesus Chi i t. GREER I CURRY The Dallas has moved between Red October and the torpedo. The torpedo is chasing the Dallas now! ON THE DALLAS in the sonar shack. Beaumont works his equipment, speaking into a MIKE: BEAUMONT Conn, sonar. Torpedo is in acquisition. Range five hundred yards and c3nsing. You've done it, Mr. Thompson! IN THE CONN on the Dallas, Thompson stands on the deck. The COB is at ballasCt control, holding the emergency blow handles. THOMPSON Chief, release counter-measures and emergency blow all main valves. Let's hope to Christ this works! COB (ON PHONE} Signal ejector station. Release counter-measures. (PULLING HANDLES) Emergency blow ! SHRIEK of the BLOW is DEAFENING. The deck angles crazily upwards at thirty degrees. Gear CRASHES to the FLOOR. Eardrums SHATTERING, Thompson holds on, fighting gravity. IN THE WATER the DAIlas heads for the surface. Counter-measures head for the bottom. The incoming torpedo chases the counter-measures, disappearing into the abyss. ON THE SURFACE The Da11a ERUPTS from the WATER at THIRTY DEGREES, her bottom exposed well aft of the sail. A broaching behemoth, she CRASHES back into the sea, DISPLACING TONS of WATER. ON THE FRIGATE neither Soviet nor American sailors on the fantail can believe their eyes. Peirov's jaw drops. Has the entire world gone completely insane?. ON RED OCTOBER in the missile compartment, blood pounding, Ryan leans flat against a missile tube. On the other side of the tube, METAL fans on CONCRETE. Rounding the tube, Ryan holds the .45 at arm's length. Kneeling before him, directly in front of an open panel on the missale bay is a Sovvet sail or with crazy eyes: IT'S LOGINOV the cook's assistant who witnessed the Putin key exchange. He's got a hot wire in each hand. Time stands sthl. Ryan stares at Loginov. Loginov stares back. There's something in the Loginov's eyes, an uncompromising, irrational vi lainy that asks no forgiveness. For a moment, Ryan's paralyzed, a rabbit before a cobra. Deliberately, Loginov begins to move his hands together, bringing the wires closer. Ryan tri es to speak. He can't. Loginov's grin cracks wide like a rotten egg. RYAN FIRES Flame LEAPS from the BARREL of the .45. The pistol KICKS like a MULE. Loginov is delivered to eternity. Impotent, the wires fall to the floor. ON THE KONOVALOV Flushed, Tupolev towers over fire oontroL Seated before him, Bonavia tries to hang on to his sanity. BONAVIA Directly ahead. Range five hundred yards. TUPOLEV Got him. Match bearings and the. BONAVIA We are too close. I have to set TUPOLEV Shoot now! Tupolev pulls the lever himself. ON RED: OCTOBER': in the : Conn, Mancuso, Kamarov and the others are on pins and needles. What next? Suddenly, they hear PIN GIN G. JONES (VO) (ON SPEAKERS) Launch transient astern. He's shooting again. Very close. MANCUSO Left full rudder! JONES (LOUDER PINGS) Weapon is alive. (LOUDER PINGS) It has acquired. Sound of torpedo passing close to the hull: JONES (VO CONT'D) (ON SPEAKERS) Weapon passed close aboard. Is Ong re-attack. Hold on. It's reacquired. But not on us! Ryan appears with Ramius aft of the Conn. Pinging grows QUIETER, more DISTANT. ON THE KONOVALOV in the Conn, Tupalev is suddenly confused, disorientaed by the PINGS. TUPOLEV Wait. I - SONAR (VO) (OVER SPEAKERS) Our torpedo missed Red October and is homing on us! TUPOLEV (STUNNED) How could that be? BONAVIA The weapon was not properly programmed. PINGS CLOSER. LOUDER. Finally, PINGS become a SPINE- TINGLTNG HOWL. Bonavia SHOUTS: BONAVIA (CONT'D) You stupid arrogant bastard. You've Idiled us all! IN THE . WATER Blinding light. The Konovalov disintegrates. Billowing pockets of gas embrace the deep. Thirty-seven hundred tons of steel. and iron rip apart in the blink of an eye. ON THE SURFACE a white mountain of displaced water rises into the air, compresses and explodes. ON THE FRIGATE in shock, the Russian crew gapes at the explosion. The young sailor who took courage from Ramius makes the sign of the cross. ON RED OCTOBER in the Conn, as the aftershock subsides, Ryan helps Ramius up off the floor, trying to make him comfortable against a bulkhead: RAMIUS Captain Tupalev has just provided your pantomime with the one thing you could never have managed. RYAN (NODDING) Wreckage. CUT TO: PELT in his office seated across from Lysenko: PELT With the depth of the water and the wreckage scattered over such a wide area, it we]. be a long time before anything is recovered. Your people are already interviewing the crew and making arrangements for their r turn. (Lysenko nods, SOBERLY) This has been a terrible tragedy, Mr. Ambassador. I can only stress that if you'd come to us earlier, it might have been avcdded. LYSENKO I appreciate your candor in the matter. PELT (SMOOTHLY) And I yours, Andrei.. LYSENKO (PROBING) Perhaps in the future, the technology will be available for a more thorough I n vestigation of the wreckage... PELT (STEADY) Perhaps. A long beat as the two men stare at each other. Lysenko finally breaks it off: LYSENKO There is another matter... One I am reluctant to - PELT No. Please go ahead. LYSENKO One of our submarines, an Akula, was last reported in the Reykjanes Ridge. We have not heard from her for sometime. Pelt stares at him blankly, time hangs suspended. Finally, Peat reaches far the bridge of his now as if to stave of a ]dtler HEADACHE: PELT You've lost another submarine? (BEAT) Andre... Lysenko sits, hat in hand. Finally, he averts his gaze. JUMP CUT TO: A DRIVER standing beside a limousine outside the Executive Office Building. Fuming, Lysenko approaches. The driver smiles. Not a good idea. LYSENKO SNARL: LYSENKO Shut up! Don't speak to me Boris. Don't ever speak to me unless I speak to you first. And wipe that smile off your face! Lysenko pBe into the limo, slamming the door as hard as he can. Locked inside, he starts shouting and hitting things. CUT TO: BRIGHT MOONLIGHT on the tree studded bank of a large coastal river. A gentle breeze touches the trees and punctuates the silence. Crickets and frogs sing on the shore: SUPER: ORICOKE RIVER PAMLICO SOUND NORTH CAROLINA THE RED OCTOBER glides quietly up the river's surface. Ramius and Ryan stand on the sail. Behind them, two junior officers, one American and one Russian, Conn the ship: RYAN We're two hundred miles from the nearest naval base. RAMIUS Interesting notion, hiding a submarine in a river. (EYEING SHORE) How do you know this place? RYAN I grew up not far from here. (PAINTING) My grandfather taught me to f5sh right over there on that rock. Ramius spots a large rock on the shore. So warm and inviting, this land, when compared to the bitter cold coast he ]eft a ]ifetl,me ago. Ram hl studies Ryan in the stillness: RAMIUS There is one question you have not asked me. RYAN Why? (RAMIUS NODS) I assumed you would speak when you were ready. RAMIUS We. are standing on part of the reason. I've spent my life preparing to fight a war I hoped would never happen. This ship was not built to fight such a war. it was built to start one. (BEAT) And there were personal reasons. RYAN Your wife? RAMIUS (NODDING) it started there, perhaps. Ramius glances at the rock. Beside it, a muskrat drops quietly into the water. RAMIUS (CONT'D) Or perhaps it was something that started long ago... RYAN Fishing? RAMTUS Fishing. Taking a deep breath, Ramius studies the surrounding hills. Lights from farms twinkle in the night air. RAMIUS (CONT'D) "The sea will, grant each man new hope, as sleep doth dream of home." (on Ryan's look) Christopher Columbus. Ryan smilm. RYAN (QU`EDY) Welcome to the new world, sir. DISSOLVE TO: A STEWARDESS walking down the aisle of an airplane, checking passengers. Stopping near the front of the cabin, she glances down at RYAN sound asleep in his seat, empty tea cup on a tray beside him. A blanket hangs on one log. In the seat next to him A TEDDY BEAR smi> out at passing clouds. The bear's got a red ribbon round his neck-and a seat belt fastened over his bulging tummy. Covering Ryan with the blanket, the stewardess leaves. Tea cup RATTLES. Ryan doesn't even twitch. Turbulence is a thing of the past. FADE OUT THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_I Am Number Four.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_I Am Number Four.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..4da706d7597aa8c2800ff48da765f404b2b0adef --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_I Am Number Four.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + I AM NUMBER 4 Written by Alfred Gough & Miles Millar 1/08/10 The events in this film are real. Names and places have been changed to protect the Lorien Six, who remain in hiding. Take this as your first warning. Other civilizations do exist. Some of them seek to destroy you. FADE IN: A BILLION STARS pinprick the velvet-black sky that stretches over a vast sleeping jungle. A fingernail moon silvers the whispering canopy while gentle tendrils of steam rise. TITLE ON SCREEN: REPUBLIC OF CONGO, AFRICA. EXT. JUNGLE - NIGHT CAMERA DRIFTS ACROSS the eternity of treetops until it FINDS A BUNGALOW. It's 20x20 square, with a wraparound porch and simple wooden shutters. The structure is hidden in a clearing that's been crudely hacked out of the sweaty wilderness. INT. HUT - NIGHT Two beds draped in mosquito nets sit on opposite sides of the space. A TEEN BOY sleeps in one and a MIDDLE-AGED MAN lies in the other. Their ebony skin glistens in the swampy heat. The numbing THROB OF INSECTS fills the silence until THE DOOR SOFTLY RATTLES. The Teen's eyes fly open. Fear grips his face as he looks over at the Man, who is now upright and awake. They hold their breath, listening over the DRUMMING CHORUS. ANOTHER RATTLE. It's louder this time. Unmistakable. The Teen watches as the Man pulls a crystal-handled dagger from under his pillow and stealthily creeps to the door. The Man cautiously leans in and peers through the bamboo slats. WHAT HE SEES: The empty porch. No sign of life. Relieved, he turns back, opens his mouth to speak when his face contorts. He looks down and sees the tip of A SERRATED METAL BLADE protruding from his chest. As the sword is viciously protracted through the door, the Man meets the Teen's haunted eyes and whispers his last, desperate word... MIDDLE-AGED MAN Run! SMASH CUT TO: 2. EXT. JUNGLE - NIGHT The Teen's naked feet pound the hot, wet earth as he sprints through the maze of trees. Flecks of moonlight ricochet off the crystal pendant that dangles around his neck. He moves impossibly fast. Faster than any human could. A MONSTROUS HOWL ECHOES as something otherworldly catches his scent and begins thrashing in pursuit. The Teen's face tightens with dread and the SHOUTS of his pursuers hammer his ears. He doesn't look back, willing himself to survive. He races up a verge and fearlessly launches himself off the edge of A 100-FOOT-WIDE RAVINE! GOD SHOT LOOKING DOWN as the Teen leaps across the abyss. He kicks air as he arcs and finally touches down on the opposite lip. Chest heaving, he sees the hideous silhouette of A HULKING BEAST. It's called a Piken and skitters to a stop on the other side. It utters a chilling BANSHEE WAIL of frustration. Relieved, the Teen turns to make his escape when A HAND wraps around his throat. He is effortlessly hoisted by a TOWERING MAN with skin as cold and pale as alabaster. THIS IS A MOGADORIAN. He wears the long red coat of a Commander. We catch the briefest glimpse of his cruel magenta eyes as they scan the geometric symbol engraved on the Teen's pendant. Silhouetted against the giant jungle moon, he triumphantly raises A SWORD. Its serrated blade ignites with silver flame as it sweeps towards the Teen. The boy's DEATH CRY echoes as the CAMERA ZEROES IN ON the pendant that glows brilliant-bright. FORM CUT TO: THE SAME SYMBOL. It glimmers to life on the ankle of another TEEN 10,000 miles away. His name's DANIEL and he's in the middle of a wild jet- ski race with TWO BUDDIES. TITLE ON SCREEN: BIG PINE KEY, FLORIDA, USA. 3. The trio crisscrosses the turquoise sea while a party rages on the beach. Daniel makes a kamikaze move, whips his jet ski past his opponents and victoriously pumps his fist. But his moment of triumph is cut short. His face contorts in agony as he feels THE SYMBOL searing into his skin. As he leans forward to grip his ankle, he cartwheels off the jet ski and viciously body-slams across the water. EXT. UNDERWATER - DAY LOOKING UP as Daniel crashes into view. Needles of light flicker from the symbol. It's cauterizing into his flesh like a brand. EXT. BEACH - DAY Daniel stumbles through the surf and collapses onto the sand, clutching his ankle. He rolls onto his side as a CROWD OF PARTYING TEENS gathers. A BLONDE GIRL leans down to help. BLONDE GIRL Daniel, what's wrong? Did you break your ankle? But as she turns him over, she sees the light leaking from between his fingers and reels back. BLONDE GIRL Oh my God. He stares up into the crowd's fearful faces, then staggers to his feet and takes off running. EXT. INTERSTATE - DAY The busy road runs parallel to an expanse of ancient pines. Through the trees, we CATCH THE SHUTTER IMAGE of a figure outrunning the hurtling vehicles. EXT. COASTAL FOREST - DAY Trees whip past as Daniel sprints down a sandy track. The pendant that knocks against his chest was carved by the same hand as the African Teen's, but the symbol is unique. He peels off to the right and bursts out onto a long drive. A STILT HOUSE sits at the end. It's cake-frosting pink and is built right on the edge of a coral-white beach. 4. EXT. STILT HOUSE - DAY The door flies open and Daniel stands on the threshold. HENRI looks up from his bank of laptops that scroll with news feeds. He is decades older than his suntanned face betrays and you'd be way off if you guessed his accent was French. DANIEL Number 3 is dead. Henri's eyes narrow with urgency. He is immediately on his feet, he kneels at Daniel's side and studies the symbol on the teen's ankle. It has stopped glowing but is painfully raw. Directly below this fresh wound are TWO OTHER GEOMETRIC BRANDS. They are the same size, but each symbol is subtly different. Time has transformed them into raised, snake-smooth scars. Henri's penetrating eyes look up at the shell-shocked teen. HENRI Did anybody else see this? OFF Daniel's panicked nod... CUT TO: INT. BEDROOM - STILT HOUSE - DAY A GECKO skitters across the ceiling, its glossy black eyes watch as Daniel frantically stuffs his clothes into a duffel bag. The walls are bare. No photos, no posters, no personality. Henri enters, holding a crate of computer cables. HENRI Taillights in five minutes. What we can't carry -- DANIEL -- we burn. I know the drill. EXT. STILT HOUSE - DAY TIGHT ON A BOX. It's exquisitely carved and inlaid with an intricate geometric design. Henri carefully hides it under the driver's seat of an old Jeep Wagoneer. It's the kind with wooden trim. He looks at Daniel who feeds homework assignments into a roaring FIRE. HENRI Time to go. 5. Daniel clicks the SIM card from his cell phone, snaps it in two and drops it into the fire. Bitter, he takes one last look at the glittering azure sea, then climbs into the Jeep. As the engine HUMS to life, CAMERA FOLLOWS THE GECKO. It darts up the fender, squeezes into the jamb of the trunk, and Houdinis into the vehicle with a flick of its tail. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - DUSK The Jeep powers across the long elevated bridge. The dying sun tints the clouds and the sky in violent apocalyptic hues. DANIEL (V.O.) This is the part I hate the most. The running. But it's the only thing in my life that's real. The rest is a lie. My name. My birthday. Even Henri. People think he's my father. He's not. His job is to keep me alive. INT. JEEP - NIGHT - MOVING Henri's eyes scan the rear view, on constant vigil. The speedometer never brushes past 60. Daniel has his head against the window, brooding, listening to an iPod. DANIEL (V.O.) We are hiding from the Mogadorians. A brutal race that wiped out our entire planet, Lorien. EXT. USED-CAR LOT - DAY Plastic flags whip overhead. Daniel leans against a silver SUV and watches Henri negotiate with the DEALER. DANIEL (V.O.) Only nine children escaped the genocide. We were each given a number and sent here to hide. I don't know where the others are. I only know when one of them is murdered. INT. BATHROOM - MOTEL - NIGHT Daniel sits on the edge of a bathtub. He gently unwraps the bandage that covers his ankle and fearfully inspects the neat scab that has formed over the wound. 6. DANIEL (V.O.) I got the first scar when I was eight. I woke up screaming. We lived in Vermont. The second was on a Tilt-a-Whirl at a fair in Michigan. I was 12. Yesterday was the third. His finger traces the lines of the other two scars. EXT. INTERSTATE - DAY The lush tropical landscape has browned into flat, dormant farmland. The silver SUV charges through the bleak monotony. DANIEL (V.O.) Because of the spell our Elders cast, the Mogs can only kill us in order. That's the reason I've survived this long. But our enemy is relentless. INT. SUV - NIGHT - MOVING Daniel is asleep with his earphones on. Henri glances over, his mask of certainty momentarily slips. He looks like a soldier heading into a battle he knows cannot be won. DANIEL (V.O.) Now their hunt has turned to me. I am number 4. CUT TO: EXT. REST-STOP DINER - NIGHT A tired neon sign illuminates the big rigs that RUMBLE past, headed to destinations unknown. INT. REST-STOP DINER - NIGHT Daniel sullenly stares at a stack of untouched pancakes. Henri slides into the booth, all business. HENRI Florida's clear. I sent a letter to the school and there's nothing in the papers. DANIEL I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye. Henri keeps going, passes an envelope across the table. 7. HENRI New IDs. Daniel pulls out his birth certificate, reads the name. DANIEL Just when I think you can't get any less original, you lower the bar. HENRI I'm not interested in originality. I'm interested in untraceable. There are 335,321 John Smiths in the United States. (Note: from this point on, Daniel will be called John.) John looks at him, then abruptly gets up and storms away. Henri drops $20 on the table and calmly heads after him. INT. ARCADE - REST STOP - NIGHT A row of ancient arcade games blinks. John angrily stabs the buttons of a Space Invaders machine as Henri approaches. They are alone. John's eyes never leave the video screen. JOHN It's been so long since the last scar. HENRI You got lulled into a false sense of security. That's my fault. John struggles to keep his temper in check. JOHN I liked Florida. I liked having friends. I liked feeling normal. Henri's face softens with paternal compassion. HENRI I wish that you could have a normal life -- but you can't. Only now does John turn and face him. His eyes blaze with frustration. JOHN Then why fake it? Why not just go hole up in the wilderness. HENRI That's exactly what Number 3 did. 8. John looks at him, confused. Henri pulls up an article on his iPhone and hands it to John. HENRI It's from an African news site. A man and his son went missing two nights ago. The locals think they were taken by strange beasts. John understands the implication. JOHN Piken. HENRI The Mogadorians are natural-born hunters. Blending in is our best protection. JOHN So we just keep moving from town to town? HENRI Until I say otherwise -- yes. John waits as a TRUCKER passes through the room. His voice softens but never loses its intensity. JOHN I want to be from someplace, Henri. HENRI You are. JOHN Lorien's your home, I don't even remember it. John's tone rubs Henri the wrong way. HENRI Like it or not, it's your home too. You have a responsibility to those who died. INT. SUV - NIGHT Henri and John climb in. JOHN I want a say in where we live. (off Henri's face) You already picked it, didn't you? 9. Henri REVS the ENGINE to life. HENRI Cheer up, you're going to be living in Paradise. CUT TO: A frigid sheet of RAIN POUNDS the sign that's planted on the side of this narrow stretch of rural blacktop: ‚ÄúWELCOME TO PARADISE, OHIO. POP. 5,243‚Äù The silver SUV streaks past, its wipers working overtime. It kicks up a spray as it speeds down Main Street. The dinky storefronts are garishly decorated for Halloween. EXT. WOODS - DAY The leaves are washed in a thousand shades of gold. The SUV barrels along the drive that twists through the woods. INT. SUV - DAY - DRIVING Henri pulls up in front of a small house. It sits by itself, surrounded by trees. Water sluices off the weather-worn garage in the yard behind it. A WOMAN steps out of a minivan to greet them. JOHN She looks even perkier than the realtor in Florida. A warm smile graces her round face and she's clutching a fruit basket. For the record, she is called ANNIE. HENRI What's your name? JOHN John Smith. HENRI Where are you from, John? JOHN Arizona. HENRI Why did you move to Paradise? JOHN Because you're an asshole. John waits for a reaction but doesn't get one... 10. JOHN Because my dad needs peace and quiet to research his book. Henri nods and smiles wryly. HENRI This was a lot easier when you were 12. INT. HOUSE - DAY The front door swings open and Annie proudly escorts Henri and John inside. ANNIE Here we are. Home sweet home. They scan the faded interior. The place is in desperate need of a makeover. A grandfather clock pensively TICKS at the end of the hall. Annie remains relentlessly optimistic. ANNIE First impressions? HENRI It's perfect. Annie places the fruit basket on the dining table and begins turning on the lights. JOHN That's one word for it. Stewing, John exits into the hall with his duffel bag. Annie reads the strained dynamic. ANNIE I feel your pain. I have a daughter his age. Apparently, I ruin her life on a daily basis. John steps back in, holding a sun-faded poster featuring NFL great Bernie Kosar. JOHN This guy was covering a hole in my wall. Annie's cheeks blush with annoyance. ANNIE I told the handyman to patch that before you arrived. I'm so sorry. 11. Henri is all charm, gently leads her to the front door. HENRI Don't you worry about it. She nods, grateful. ANNIE We'll knock it off the rent. Keep the poster, Bernie Kosar brings good luck here in the Buckeye State. CUT TO: EXT. HOUSE - NIGHT The rain has stopped. The wind RUSTLES the trees. John lifts out the last box. As he closes the trunk, he doesn't notice the hitchhiking gecko hotfoot it out. INT. LIVING ROOM - HOUSE - NIGHT Henri is busy setting up his computer station. John dumps the box on the floor. JOHN That's the last of them. I'm hitting the sack. HENRI I need a new photo first. John crosses and stands against the wall. HENRI Say Paradise. John gives him a withering look. Henri flashes off a shot. The camera is cabled to one of the laptops. TIGHT ON LAPTOP: The image of John pixelates onto a digital grid and a face-recognition program begins to map his facial structure. Henri turns to another laptop. HENRI I've imputed the new search words: Daniel Jones. Big Pine Key. Sunset High School. You think of any others? JOHN Yeah, this place sucks. 12. Henri swivels to face him. HENRI If there's a story or picture of you on the internet, this program will find it. Our enemy doesn't know who you are -- I want to keep it that way. John nods, knows he's being a jerk. JOHN Sand Dollar Beach, that's where we were jet skiing. Henri types it in when something SCRATCHES at the door. Their heads instantly turn towards the sound. Tense SILENCE. SLOW PUSH IN ON THE DOOR as another SCRATCH echoes. Henri is on his feet. He flicks off the lights and silently signals John to retreat down the hall. With the cool air of an assassin, Henri unzips a duffel bag and pulls out a sleek crystal-handled dagger. As he steps to the door... INT. CLOSET - JOHN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT ... John crouches in the dark, clutching a baseball bat. Suddenly, the light in the bedroom buzzes back on. He holds his breath as the door swings open. He looks up and is relieved to see Henri. HENRI I found our intruder -- he's a little small for a Mogadorian. At that moment, A BEAGLE slips between Henri's legs. It cocks its head, studies John's face, then pads forward and licks his cheek. INT. KITCHEN - HOUSE - NIGHT The dog greedily laps a bowl of milk. JOHN He's starving, doesn't have any collar or tags. HENRI Must have been dumped. 13. JOHN You know, another pair of eyes and ears watching the house wouldn't be a bad thing. Henri considers the request, nods. John playfully ruffles the dog's head. HENRI What are you going to call him? JOHN Since I need all the luck I can get -- how about Bernie Kosar? CUT TO: INT. LIVING ROOM - HOUSE - MORNING John enters, dressed in black, ready for his first day of school. He dumps his backpack on a chair. Henri places a plate with an omelette and perfectly browned hash browns in front of him. JOHN Wow. You outdid yourself. What's up? Henri lifts a red backpack into view. John stares at it. JOHN I already have a backpack. HENRI This one has five days of rations, spare clothes, cash and a handheld GPS. Keep it with you at all times. JOHN Henri, come on. HENRI Game's changed. You're in the crosshairs now. You have to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. With or without me. John stares at the backpack, takes in this new reality. He pushes the plate away, snatches the backpack and heads out the door. Henri stares at the omelette, tastes a pinch of hash browns, then puts the plate on the floor on his way out. It takes Bernie 2.5 seconds to race over and start to eat. 14. EXT. PARADISE HIGH SCHOOL - DAY Jack-o'-lanterns stare out from the ‚ÄúHALLOWEEN BLOCK PARTY‚Äù banner strung across the red brick facade. Henri drives away. John slides the red backpack onto his shoulder when he hears a FAMILIAR BARK. He turns and is surprised to find BERNIE KOSAR. The little dog is sitting by the flagpole wagging his white- tipped tail. John crosses to him, baffled. JOHN Bernie, what the hell... were you hiding in the car? He scoops the dog into his arms. FEMALE VOICE (O.S.) Hey, I was about to take a picture of the little guy. John turns and finds SARAH HARTE. She's his age and is holding an old 35mm Nikon. There is something about her unforced beauty that is instantly enchanting. John shuffles, uncharacteristically nervous. JOHN He's not supposed to be here. (TO BERNIE) Go home. Now. Bernie hops out of his arms and obediently runs towards home. SARAH He's really well-trained. How long have you had him? John turns away. JOHN Sorry about your shot. SARAH No worries. He begins walking towards the entrance. SARAH You just moved into the house on Old Mill Road. It's John, right? 15. John swings back, concerned. SARAH Don't worry, I'm not stalking you. My mom said she rented it to a guy with a son my age. Since I know every other face on this quad, that had to be you. (BEAT) I'm Sarah. He nods. SARAH Where are you from? JOHN Someplace warmer. SARAH I don't think that qualifies as an actual answer. JOHN I need to register. She raises her camera to snap a shot of him. JOHN Whoa. What are you doing? SARAH Capturing your first day, even though you're technically six weeks late. JOHN Please don't point that at me. SARAH Afraid the camera's going to steal your soul? She lifts the viewfinder to her eye, adjusts focus. Annoyed, he covers the lens with his hand. JOHN What's your problem? I said no. SARAH It's only for the yearbook. John regains his composure. 16. JOHN I'm not big into having my picture taken. Sorry. As he heads away, Sarah watches, intrigued. CAMERA TRACKS TO REVEAL MARK JAYNE monitoring the encounter. He's the star quarterback and his chiselled jaw tenses with jealousy. INT. HALL - PARADISE HIGH SCHOOL - DAY Loaded with textbooks, John instinctively bows his head as he passes the black eye of a hall security camera and steps to a locker. He reaches for the combination lock when A BACKPACK viciously sideswipes him. The textbooks scatter across the checkerboard linoleum. John sees the culprit is Mark Jayne, who offers him a taunting grin. John fights his urge to react and watches as Mark struts over to his POSSE OF JOCKS. VOICE (O.S.) Welcome to Paradise, irony not included. John looks at the teen standing two lockers down. He's got a battered skateboard tucked into his backpack and wears an Army surplus jacket. This is SAM GOODE -- genius by birth, slacker by choice. He nods after Mark. SAM His name's Mark Jayne. Quarterback, sheriff's son, he's three years into the best four years of his life. John begins retrieving the fallen books. Sam helps. SAM Do yourself a favor -- stay off his radar. JOHN Didn't know I was on it. SAM You were talking to Sarah Harte. JOHN She was talking to me. SAM Mark and Sarah have been exclusive since Freshmen year. 17. John looks down the hall and sees Mark wrap his arm around Sarah's shoulder. SAM If there's another guy in her airspace, he shoots them down. You got a warning shot. John piles the books into his locker. JOHN Maybe I'll fire back next time. SAM Look, you're new, so let me tell you how things work in this misnamed backwater. Football players are gods -- the rest of us are mere mortals. If you want to survive, keep your head down and don't make waves. JOHN You sound like my dad. SAM Obviously a wise man. (BEAT) I'm Sam by the way. Sam extends his hand. John doesn't take it. JOHN Thanks for the download. As he SLAMS his locker shut... CUT TO: EXT. FOOTBALL STADIUM - PARADISE HIGH - DAY It's an impressive structure with wraparound bleachers. The Junior gym class jogs around the track. John hangs in the middle of the pack, with his hoodie up, blending in. They pass the GIRLS who are stretching on the pristine field. Sarah's eyes drift towards John. The COACH blows a whistle. COACH Alright, people. Let's hit the gym. The assembled teens GROAN and fan off towards the mouth of a tunnel that stares out from the base of the bleachers. 18. INT. GYM - PARADISE HIGH - DAY John emerges from the tunnel via a door by the stage. Some of his classmates are on the court, passing and dribbling. COACH Okay, half court, three on three. Girls have this basket, boys have that one. CUT TO: Two simultaneous games are in progress. John sits on the sidelines waiting his turn. He avoids eye contact with Sarah who is sitting in the shadow of the basket. However, he does notice Mark Jayne enter and approach her. COACH New kid, you're up. Show me what you've got. John steps onto the court and waits for the ball to come his way. He steals a glance and sees Sarah and Mark arguing. A blur of orange. John swings back and catches the ball. Just as he shoots, he's distracted by Sarah's upset voice. THE SHOT goes wild, misses the basket but hits the glass backboard with such force that it SHATTERS. Mark and Sarah are inadvertently forced to separate as shards rain down. All eyes turn to John, who's annoyed at his momentary lapse. TEENS HOOT. The Coach BLOWS his whistle. COACH Enough! Hit the showers. (TO JOHN) LeBron, grab a broom. As the gym empties, John looks over and catches Sarah watching him. OFF this silent exchange... CUT TO: INT. HOUSE - DAY THE INTRICATELY CARVED BOX is clutched in Henri's hands. He heads down the hall and stops in front of the grandfather clock. Its tarnished pendulum sways. He unlocks the glass panel and slots the Box out of sight behind the clock's brass face. 19. Satisfied with the hiding place, he locks the front and takes the key. When he turns back, he finds BERNIE KOSAR. The dog is studying him with his head cocked. HENRI Let's keep this our little secret. OFF Bernie's inquisitive eyes... CUT TO: INT. CAFETERIA - PARADISE HIGH - DAY John joins the line. He sees Sarah sitting by herself, inspecting a photographic contact sheet. His view is blocked by Sam. John rubs his hands which are oddly sweaty. SAM First day here and you're already destroying school property. So much for not making waves. John moves past him and grabs a tray. He's flushed and his face is now hot and red. JOHN It was an accident. SAM I hear the real spectator sport was Mark and Sarah's blowout. John wipes his brow, distracted. SAM Dude, you okay? JOHN Fine. At that moment, Mark Jayne and his buddy, KEVIN, cut in front of them. Annoyed, John taps Mark on the shoulder. MARK You got a problem? JOHN Line starts back there. MARK Football players get priority. 20. JOHN Where's that posted? MARK Unwritten rule. (RE: SAM) I'm surprised your boyfriend didn't tell you. Sam puts his hands up and backs away. Mark smirks at John. MARK If you don't know your place around here, things can get rough. John holds his ground. JOHN In that case, I guess I better ask you where I should sit. I was thinking about grabbing that chair next to your girlfriend. In a flash of anger, Mark whips up his tray, hammers it into John's chest, knocking him to the floor. MARK You want to talk trash? Let's see you back it up. John tries to stand, but is suddenly overcome with a wave of pain. He looks down at his hands and is alarmed to see LIGHT blooming from his palms! He quickly balls them into fists, extinguishing the light from view. MARK Get up! SILENCE has fallen. Still clenching his fists, John rises and stumbles out into the hall. OFF Sarah's concern as she watches him exit... CUT TO: EXT. PORCH - HOUSE - DAY Henri is on a ladder, adjusting a hidden surveillance camera above the front door, when Bernie starts BARKING. It's an anxious, urgent BARK. 21. INT. HOUSE - DAY Henri steps inside and sees the dog is BARKING at -- THE GRANDFATHER CLOCK. A shaft of white light blooms from within. The shadow of the swaying pendulum cuts across Henri's face. As he sprints for the door... CUT TO: INT. HALL - PARADISE HIGH - DAY Disoriented, John staggers down the hall. Sam catches up. SAM Dude, hold up! John leans against the wall, keeping his hands out of sight. SAM You look like crap. I'll get the nurse. But as Sam runs off, John heads in the other direction. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - DAY Henri's SUV roars into view, whipping up a tornado of leaves. CUT TO: INT. DARKROOM - PARADISE HIGH - DAY Strips of negatives hang on drying lines. John bursts in and SLAMS the door. He slips off his backpack, opens his hands. TIGHT ON HIS EYES -- the brilliant light from his palms shrinks his irises to pinpricks. The luminescence is crisp, mercury-glass bright and grows stronger every second. Suddenly, the door opens. John spins in shock. A figure strides through the blinding glare, gently takes his hands and folds them into fists. IT'S HENRI. John looks at him, confusion and fear etched on his face. JOHN Henri, what's happening to me? 22. HENRI Calm down. You're going to be okay. John angrily holds up one of his luminescent hands. JOHN On what planet is this okay? HENRI Yours. (BEAT) I need to get you out of here. INT. HALL - PARADISE HIGH - DAY John steps out of the darkroom wearing Henri's heavy coat. His hands are balled and stuffed into the pockets. Henri leads him quickly down the hall. CUT TO: INT. SUV - DAY - MOVING John fearfully studies his hands which have returned to normal, then looks over at Henri who seems oddly calm. JOHN Okay, start talking. What the hell's going on? HENRI Your first Legacy is starting to manifest. JOHN Legacy? HENRI An extraordinary ability. Yours is called Lumen. They start a lot sooner on Lorien. I was beginning to fear yours would never emerge. JOHN You knew this was going to happen? Why didn't you say anything? HENRI I didn't want to worry you. You were already under enough pressure. (SINCERE) I'm sorry. John acknowledges the apology, but looks at him, suspicious. 23. JOHN What else have you been hiding from me? CUT TO: INT. LIVING ROOM - HOUSE - NIGHT The curtains are drawn. Bernie Kosar dozes on the couch while John and Henri sit at the table, staring at the Box. HENRI This couldn't be opened until your first Legacy appeared. Ready? John nods nervously. Henri places the fingertips of his right hand onto five petal-shaped discs inlaid onto the lid. John cautiously follows suit and places his fingers on the ‚Äúpetals‚Äù fanned across the opposite side. THE DISCS momentarily glow and a SHARP CLICK echoes from within. John and Henri pull their hands away and watch as the Box miraculously comes to life. Fissures of light sweep across the lines of inlaid stone, dividing the lid into sections that begin to twist and reform like high-tech origami. JOHN Whoa. PUSH IN ON Bernie as he sits up and watches the Box unfold. Like an intricate jigsaw, the sections finally regroup, creating a new pattern on the lid. It's a familiar geometric symbol. John touches the crystal pendant that hangs from his neck -- the symbols are an exact match. HENRI Open it. John nods, cautiously lifts the lid, revealing a neat assortment of velvet pouches and an array of colored rocks. They range in size and color but all share a serene beauty. JOHN What are they? HENRI Crystals from Lorien's core. They'll guide us in your training. John tries to reach for one, but Henri slaps his hand away. 24. HENRI Place your hand over them. John follows the instruction and is amazed when a walnut- sized crystal floats up from the Box. It slowly begins to spin and project A SWIRLING HOLOGRAPHIC GALAXY. HENRI Our solar system. Henri points to a planet. Its oceans are dark with pollution and its sprawling continents are barren and treeless. HENRI That's what Lorien looked like thousands of years ago. We had all the problems that Earth has today. The planet was dying until our people made a collective decision to change and slowly Lorien began to heal itself -- that's when the Legacies started. John watches as the spinning planet transforms before his eyes. Its oceans turn a vibrant chroma-key blue and the land masses become a lush emerald green. HENRI Only a select few developed these abilities. They became known as the Garde. JOHN That's what I am? HENRI Like your parents and grandparents. John considers this new information. JOHN The other children in the ship... Henri finishes John's thought. HENRI They're Garde as well. Once you've mastered your Legacies, we'll find them and face the Mogadorians together. John looks at Henri, curious. 25. JOHN What Legacy do you have? HENRI I don't have any and never will. I'm your Cepan -- a teacher. My job is not just to protect you but to train you. (BEAT) Give me your hand. Henri takes one of John's hands and pulls a cigarette lighter from his pocket. John flinches, unsure. HENRI Trust me. Henri flicks a flame to life and sweeps it under John's outstretched palm. HENRI You feel that? Amazingly, the flame harmlessly licks the skin. But when Henri moves the lighter further up John's arm -- JOHN Ouch. John jerks his hand away. Henri kills the flame, shrugs. HENRI When we're done, your entire body will be shielded against fire. John rubs his singed wrist. HENRI You'll get other Legacies too. JOHN Flying would be cool. HENRI You don't get to pick them off a menu. KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK. As John spins to the door, the shimmering galaxy fades and the crystal drops to the floor. HENRI Mogs don't knock. 26. Henri steps to his computer bank and examines a laptop featuring live feeds from a dozen surveillance cameras he's installed around the property. HENRI It's a girl. John looks over his shoulder and reacts with surprise. EXT. PORCH - HOUSE - NIGHT John opens the door and finds Sarah amped. SARAH How'd you do it? Her accusation startles him. JOHN Do what? SARAH Eviscerate the entire senior class? She pulls a strip of overexposed 35mm film from her coat. SARAH I was in the darkroom before lunch and they were hanging on the line smiling and looking forward to the future. When I got back, I found 15 rolls of negatives wiped clean. John shrugs innocently. JOHN I don't know what you're talking about. SARAH So you weren't in the darkroom today? JOHN No. SARAH Here's a tip. If you're going to lie, don't leave a big red backpack at the scene of the crime. She swings his backpack into view. John is mortified. He struggles to find a plausible answer and silently tries to quell the feeling welling in his chest. 27. JOHN I don't know what happened. Maybe it's a sign that you should invest in a digital camera. SARAH Digital sucks. Film tells the truth. Clearly, I'm not going to get that from you. He watches as she angrily heads down the steps and climbs into her car. John glances at his palms and is surprised to find they are dimly luminescent. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Sarah's car sweeps out of the drive and powers towards town, unaware of the truck parked in the shadows. MARK JAYNE is behind the wheel and watches as her headlights fade into the night. OFF his simmering jealousy... INT. HOUSE - NIGHT Bernie Kosar waits expectantly as Henri pours ‚ÄúDoggie Chow‚Äù into a bowl. John steps in. HENRI Everything okay? JOHN She was returning my backpack. He dumps it by the door. HENRI I think you should stay home from school for a couple of days. JOHN I'm fine. HENRI Just to be safe. CUT TO: INT. JOHN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT John lies on his bed, staring at his luminescent palms, conflicted by his emotions. 28. INT. JOHN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT - LATER Moonlight cuts across Bernie Kosar who is SNORING peacefully at the end of the bed. John tosses and turns. He finally sits up, unable to sleep. INT. LIVING ROOM - HOUSE - DAWN Nursing a mug of black coffee, Henri diligently scans the laptop screens. He's clearly never gone to bed. He looks up as John enters wearing track gear. JOHN I'm going for a run. Bernie trots out and wags his tail pleadingly. JOHN Sorry, buddy, you couldn't keep up. CUT TO: START MONTAGE: EXT. WOODS - DAWN EPIC AERIAL SHOT LOOKING DOWN AT AN EAGLE as it soars above the rich kaleidoscope of trees. It almost seems to be following John, who is powering along a narrow track below. CUT TO: John moves at superhuman speed, leaving a blurring wake of leaves. His foot splits a log as he bounds over it. CUT TO: John charges towards a secluded stream. It's 30 feet wide. He doesn't slow, leaps off the bank and effortlessly hopscotches from boulder to boulder to the other side. CUT TO: EXT. HILL - DAWN It offers a high-def view of Paradise. John reaches the top and is exhilarated by the sense of temporary liberation. He WATCHES AS THE EAGLE alights in a nearby oak tree. John bends to tighten his laces, his eyes fall on the trio of scars branded on his ankle. His happiness dims. 29. He grits his teeth and takes off for home. As he passes the oak, the CAMERA TRACKS TO REVEAL the gecko scampering down the gnarled trunk. CUT TO: INT. HALL - PARADISE HIGH SCHOOL - DAY Sam is at his locker. He glances over at John's, hoping he'll show. Disappointed, he joins the crisscrossing throng. CUT TO: INT. HOUSE - DAY John ‚Äúpractices‚Äù turning his Lumen Legacy ‚Äúoff‚Äù and ‚Äúon‚Äù. Henri watches as John's palms glow. ¬ John focuses intently, causing them to flare with sudden brilliance. Momentarily blinded, John jerks back and topples off his chair. CUT TO: EXT. FOOTBALL STADIUM - PARADISE HIGH - NIGHT Sarah sits in the stands, doing homework, watching Mark and the football team practice in the cold metallic floodlight. ON THE FIELD the ball is hiked to Mark. He looks for an opening and fires a perfect spiral to the RECEIVER in the end zone. Mark thumps chests with Kevin and looks up at the stands, only to discover that Sarah is gone. CUT TO: EXT. BACK PORCH - HOUSE - DAY John's playing ‚Äúsupercatch‚Äù with Bernie. He watches as the little guy races back from the woods, clutching a ball. Panting with exertion, the dog lays it at John's feet. John smiles, swings back his arm and hauls the ball again. ANGLE ON BALL: It arcs up, sails right over the garage and drops earthwards in the heart of the woods. Unperturbed by the superhuman throw, Bernie hightails after the ball. Henri steps out and watches, amused, then tosses John a pair of black driving gloves. OFF John's eye roll... CUT TO: INT. HALL - PARADISE HIGH - DAY TIGHT ON ONE OF THE GLOVES. It's now fingerless and on John's hand. He weaves through the preclass crowd and is about to head into the chemistry lab when he sees 30. SARAH disappearing into a room at the end. He's torn, then makes a decision and does something he shouldn't -- he strides down the hall after her. END MONTAGE. INT. YEARBOOK ROOM - PARADISE HIGH - DAY Sarah is alone, tacking photographs to a large board that's lying flat on the carpet. She hears the door CLICK, turns and coolly regards John. SARAH I think you have the wrong room. She rises, walks past him and begins searching the photos scattered on the layout table in the middle of the space. JOHN Wanted to apologize. SARAH Does the apology come with an explanation? He turns to go, has his hand on the door when -- SARAH Wait. He looks back. Her face softens. SARAH How about we delete Monday and start over? She steps forward and extends her hand. SARAH I'm Sarah. JOHN John. TIGHT ON THEIR HANDS as they shake. She checks out his fingerless gloves, amused. SARAH Nice gloves. She crosses to the board, reaches down to lift it when John steps behind her. 31. He effortlessly picks it up and hooks it onto the wall. They stand back. John stares at the collage of high school images that captures a life he'll never know. JOHN You know all these people? She nods. SARAH Curse of a small town. I've been around them my whole life. (pointing to photo) Kim Thomas. She peed in her bed at a sleepover when we were seven. (POINTING) Neil Bailey. President of the Debate Club. Plays five instruments. Doesn't know he's gay yet. (POINTING) Mrs. Ross. AP English. She's been here so long, she taught my mom and my four brothers. I'm the baby of the family in case you were wondering. Her curious eyes scour his face. SARAH So what's your story? JOHN Not very interesting. SARAH Determined to keep the mystery alive, aren't you? His finger arrows in on a photograph of Sarah. It's a candid and she's taking a shot with her trademark Nikon. JOHN You first. SARAH Okay. Recovering cheerleader. Wannabe vegetarian but I still love burgers. Dreams of being a photojournalist. (BEAT) I've never actually admitted that last one to anybody before. 32. JOHN Your secret's safe with me. She studies him, sensing a kindred spirit. SARAH You ever feel you don't belong in your own life? JOHN Every single day. SARAH Wow. That almost sounded like a straight answer. They look at each other. There's a charged silence. The moment is broken when -- MARK (O.S.) What's he doing in here? John and Sarah spin to find Mark. Sarah is flustered. SARAH I thought you were on two-a-days. MARK Coach wants me to rest my arm before the scouts come. You didn't answer my question? SARAH John was helping me move some boards. John turns to Sarah. JOHN I'm going to take off. Mark doesn't take his eyes off John and blocks his way. MARK Seriously, Sarah, what's up with this guy? SARAH I don't have time for this, Mark. MARK But you had time to go to his house the other night. Sarah looks at him, stunned by the admission. 33. SARAH You were following me? MARK Just trying to figure out what's going on with you. Sarah's shock turns to anger. SARAH You've crossed so many lines I can't even speak to you right now. She hustles out of the room. Mark glares at John. MARK This isn't over. OFF John, unmoved by the threat... CUT TO: EXT. STILT HOUSE - FLORIDA - DUSK The sky is even pinker than the house. INT. STILT HOUSE - FLORIDA - DUSK A drawer flies across THE FRAME. The place has been totally trashed. Floorboards have been ripped up. Sofas shredded. Nothing has been spared. CAMERA DRIFTS OVER the debris to... INT. JOHN'S BEDROOM - STILT HOUSE - DUSK The mattress has been dissected and its guts lie scattered. A TEEN GIRL. kneels in front of John's old desk searching the drawers. She wears a biker jacket, combat boots and has a striking ‚Äúdon't-fuck-with-me‚Äù face. Frustrated in her search, she flings the desk against the wall. It splinters on impact. INT. KITCHEN - STILT HOUSE - FLORIDA - DUSK TIGHT ON THE STOVE -- a hand twists on the burners. Raw gas HISSES. The Teen Girl makes one final scan, then heads for the door. EXT. STILT HOUSE - FLORIDA - DUSK The Teen Girl strides down the steps and crosses to a sleek Ducatti. She slips on a helmet. PUSH IN on her Arctic-blue eyes as they focus on the house with a strange intensity. 34. KABBBOOOOOOM! The house detonates. The concussive force of the blast rips the structure right off its stilts. Tornadoes of flame BLAST through the windows as the house catapults into the air. Orange reflections flicker on the Girl's visor as she flips it down, REVS the motorcycle and SCREAM-PEELS down the drive backlit by the glittering inferno... CUT TO: INT. HALL - PARADISE HIGH - DAY Sam catches John at the lockers. SAM Nice freakout the other day. JOHN Wasn't feeling well. They twist their combination locks. Sam swings open his door, there's a HISSING POP and A RED INK PACK EXPLODES. It's the kind banks use to foil heists. In a shocking instant, Sam and the contents of his locker are splattered. It bears a gruesome resemblance to arterial spray. JOHN has his door halfway open and ducks back a second before the ink pack planted in his locker ERUPTS. The spray misses his face but violently spits across his chest and arms. LAUGHTER echoes behind them. John spins and finds Mark and his posse. TIGHT ON John's hands as he balls them and an angry glow flickers through his gloves. MARK (to John, taunting) Told you it wasn't over. Behind them, Sam's laid-back persona cracks. He frantically clears his locker, looking for something. He finally pulls out a photo which drips with ink, reels at the jocks. SAM Assholes. John looks back at Sam. Mark seizes his chance and launches a sucker-punch at John. But John sees it out of the corner of his eye and in a blur of motion whips up his hand and 35. CATCHES MARK'S FIST. John squeezes it vice-tight. Mark grimaces in agony. His buddies back into the CROWD OF TEENS that has gathered. John leans in close. JOHN That sensation you're feeling -- remember it. With a quick push, John shoves Mark back against the lockers. Mark DENTS a door and slides to the floor, his eyes flaring with lacerated pride. JOHN Show's over. The crowd disperses. Mark gets to his feet and exits with his friends, but shoots John one final wounded glare... CUT TO: INT. LOCKER ROOM - PARADISE HIGH - DAY Red, ink-stained water Hitchcocks down the drain. John wrings out his black T-shirt. He sees Sam's reflection in the mirror. Sam puts some clothes on the bench. SAM I raided lost and found. He holds up a puke-green sweater decorated with red snowmen. John turns back to the sink. SAM I know. Nobody loses anything cool. He sits and begins to change. SAM Dude, the way you thrashed Mark back there. Awesome move. John acknowledges that with a nod. Whip-dries his shirt. Sam plucks up the photo. The ink is now dried and cracked. JOHN Who's in the picture? Sam stares at it, nostalgic. SAM My dad. My real dad. I took it the summer before he split. (MORE) 36. SAM (CONT'D) He dragged me and my mom all over the Yucatan. He was looking for evidence of ancient astronauts. All I got was Montezuma's Revenge. JOHN (DEADPAN) Sounds like a fun vacation. SAM I know. Insane. He called himself an anthropologist even though he only made it through one semester of college. He rises and tosses the ruined picture into the trash. SAM Always thought he'd come back one day -- who was I kidding. The guy's a joke. As the BELL RINGS... CUT TO: EXT. PARADISE HIGH SCHOOL - DAY The football stadium rises like a monolith in the background. John strides towards the tree line, headed home. SARAH (O.S.) John. He turns in surprise as Sarah approaches. SARAH I heard about the lockers. I'm sorry. JOHN I'll live. He starts off again. SARAH I broke up with Mark. He stops, slowly turns back. SARAH I've been thinking about doing it for a while... today just finally pushed me over the edge. 37. He studies her face. JOHN Why are you telling me? She bows her head, suddenly embarrassed. SARAH I don't know. JOHN You made the right call. The certainty of his voice soothes her. She looks up and holds his gaze. Their attraction is undeniable. SARAH Halloween Block Party's tonight. JOHN I saw the banners. SARAH I'll be on Main Street hiding behind my camera if you want to swing by. He says nothing. SARAH I wasn't expecting an actual response. I could text you later. Do they have cell phones on Planet John? She holds out her phone. John looks at it tentatively, then takes it. As he inputs his number, he hears the BLARE of a car horn, looks up and sees Henri waiting in his SUV. INT. SUV - DAY John climbs in. HENRI Wasn't that your friend from the other night? JOHN Her name's Sarah. (ANNOYED) I didn't ask for a ride home. HENRI Principal called. Said there was an incident. 38. John stares out the window, guilty. JOHN A guy was messing with me. I took care of it. Problem solved. HENRI You're stronger and faster because of Earth's gravity -- you shouldn't use that advantage to settle petty scores. JOHN It was no big deal. Don't blow it out of proportion. HENRI You can't risk everything over wounded pride. JOHN I wasn't looking for a fight. It just happened. Get off my back. Henri pulls a printout from his coat. John unfolds it. ANGLE ON PRINTOUT: It's from the Florida Keynoter website and features a photo of the charred stilt house. John's gut churns as he stares at the image. HENRI Article says it was arson. JOHN We were clean. There's no way the Mogs can track us here. Henri shakes his head, shifts into gear and starts off. HENRI They can track us anywhere. I think it's time you saw what you're really up against. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - DAY Sunlight razors across workbenches cluttered with rusty tools. Henri and John stand in the middle of the space. THE BOX 39. is open on the floor between them. John lifts his hand and holds it over the crystals. ONE RISES. It's white and as thick as two fingers. It floats in front of John's face. He tentatively reaches out. When he grips it, a shock wave of light blasts out, totally WIPING OUT THE FRAME and transporting him into A VISCERAL MEMORY. EXT. LORIEN - NIGHT EXPLOSIONS rock and the SCREAMS of the dying echo. AN OLD MAN hustles A TERRIFIED BOY through the murderous bombardment. The air is choked with ash and smoke. The boy is 7-year-old John. The man is his grandfather. Young John glances up and sees AN ARMADA OF BATTLESHIPS eclipsing Lorien's two moons. The angular hulls of the craft are scarred from galactic battles new and ancient and unleash an endless crisscrossing FRENZY OF MISSILES. GRANDFATHER (in Loric with subtitles) Keep moving. EXT. TEMPLE - NIGHT It wouldn't look out of place in ancient Rome. Young John and his grandfather race up the steps. INT. SANCTUARY - TEMPLE - NIGHT A statue of Lorien's most famous warrior, Pittacus Lore, towers in the middle of the chamber. His noble face is illuminated in a shaft of flame-tainted moonlight. FOOTSTEPS ECHO! Young John and his grandfather scramble across the space and straight into the path of TWO MOGADORIAN SOLDIERS. The Soldiers' pallid faces flash with smiles. Swords drawn, they move in for the kill when one is skewered in the throat by a crystal-handled dagger. MAGENTA LIGHT 40. spurts from the wound. The Soldier's body fractures like glass and DISINTEGRATES in a shower of embers as he drops to the floor. The other Mogadorian spins and trades SPARKING sword strokes with A CLOAKED FIGURE. It's a violent battle of wills which ends when the Cloaked Figure kicks up the dead Soldier's sword and impales it into the Mogadorian's chest. The Soldier EVISCERATES in a cloud of HISSING cinders. Young John watches in awed terror as the Cloaked Figure steps towards him and pulls back his hood. IT'S HENRI. He looks younger, the years of hiding have aged him. John's grandfather lifts a familiar crystal pendant from his neck and places it over Young John's head. GRANDFATHER This is your Cepan. Go with him. YOUNG JOHN No! HENRI Your life is my life now. I will always protect you. GRANDFATHER (TO HENRI) He must survive. A BLAST scorches across the space. Henri spots A MOGADORIAN COMMANDER hunkered behind a column, his red coat billows behind him like a curse. GRANDFATHER They are already hunting you! Go! Henri plucks a crystal ankle-dagger from his boot, grabs young John and charges up. As the Commander breaks cover, Henri hurls the dagger. THE COMMANDER dives out of its path but ROARS as the blade SPARK-RIPS across his right cheek like a hot poker. 41. EXT. TEMPLE - NIGHT Henri yanks Young John by the hand. They take off in one direction while John's grandfather heads off in the other. A MOGADORIAN TRANSPORT CRAFT suddenly swoops between them. The HOWLS of its occupants ricochet through the night. The heat from its engines washes the ground, warping the destruction like a ghastly mirage as two bay doors open. Young John looks back through the heat- haze and catches a impressionistic view as TWO PIKEN leap out. Their reptilian bodies ripple with muscle and their oversize heads glint with raptor-like jaws. The Piken mercilessly rip into John's grandfather. Young John races to help, but Henri wrenches him back. CAMERA PUSHES IN TIGHT ON YOUNG JOHN'S FACE as he screams... YOUNG JOHN Nooooooooooo! THE MEMORY ENDS and we... MATCH CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - DAY TIGHT ON JOHN screaming... JOHN Nooooooooooo! He drops the crystal and stumbles back. The experience has left him traumatized. Henri steps towards him, but John is too overwhelmed and runs out. EXT. STREAM - WOODS - DAY A stone angrily SKIPS across the water. John is about to toss another when Bernie Kosar trots into view. He ruffles the dog's fur but doesn't turn when Henri steps out of the woods and crosses to his side. JOHN I saw my grandfather. I saw what you did to the Mogadorians -- you saved my life. HENRI A lot of Lorics sacrificed their lives so that you could live. 42. John is still trying to process the memory. JOHN He said I must survive. HENRI The Elders had a plan. You weren't on that ship by chance. The nine of you were chosen for a reason. Even if only two of you live, together you'll pose a grave threat to our enemy. Consumed by bitterness, John hurls another stone. JOHN You saw what they did to Lorien. How can nine or six or two of us take on that army? It's hopeless. Henri knows he has to pull him out of this mournful funk. HENRI I never thought we'd get off Lorien alive -- but we did. I didn't know how we could survive on a strange planet -- but we have. I gave us six months before the Mogs found us -- it's been 10 years. Don't give up now. Henri grips John's shoulders. HENRI You have the potential to do great things. Even if you don't see it -- I do. JOHN How can you put so much faith in me? HENRI Because your life is my life. If you quit, then everything I've worked for and sacrificed is meaningless. (BEAT) Remember -- nothing is inevitable. The fragile SILENCE is broken when John's cell phone BLEATS. He scans a text. 43. JOHN It's Sarah. The Block Party's tonight. I'll say I can't make it. Henri sees John is wracked with doubt and confusion. HENRI No... go. John looks at him, surprised by this paternal gesture. HENRI You've had enough for one day. CUT TO: EXT. MAIN STREET - PARADISE - NIGHT A Halloween parade drifts past the CROWDS packing the sidewalks. Icicle lights twinkle in the trees. EXCITED KIDS in costume zigzag past John. It's small-town Americana at its best. ET waddles by holding a JEDI's hand. A SLAP ON GLASS. John turns and is amused to find Sam standing among the mannequins in the display window of a sporting goods store. INT. ED'S SPORTING GOODS STORE - NIGHT An annoying CHIME plays as the door opens and John enters. The store is deserted. The stock needs to be updated and the shelves could use a dust. Sam approaches wearing an apron. JOHN You work here? SAM Not by choice. (pointing to sign) Ed's my stepdad. He's under the delusion that if people eat enough candy apples and kettle corn, they'll suddenly have the urge to buy sporting goods. John plucks a hockey mask from the basket on the counter. SAM I put those on special tonight for any wannabe Jason Voorhees. Sam pulls off his apron, revealing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words ‚ÄúFuture Supervillain‚Äù. 44. SAM Screw this. Let me lock up. I'll hang with you. He steps to the door and twists the closed sign into view. JOHN What about your stepdad? SAM He hit the tavern at 6:00. He's already hammered by now. I'll probably find him passed out on the doorstep. Every night is trick ‚Äòr treat at my house. EXT. STREET - NIGHT John and Sam wander past the parade floats lined up along the road bordering the woods. Stalls sell hot dogs and cotton candy. John subtly scans the crowd. SAM She's over there. John follows Sam's gaze and finds Sarah taking shots of some KIDS dunking for apples. She pulls the camera from her eye, sees John and smiles as he approaches. SARAH You made it. (re: Sam's shirt) Like the T-shirt, Sam. SAM Guidance Counsellor said I need to set goals for myself. Figured I'd aim high. She looks back at John. SARAH What do you think of Halloween in Paradise? John regards a particularly over-the-top float. JOHN They should pull out all the stops next year. SARAH Well, you haven't had the full experience until you've been on the Haunted Hayride. 45. She motions to the picnic area where TEENS are lining up to get on tractor-pulled hay wagons. The wagons lurch through the mouth of a giant cutout devil and into the woods. SARAH Give me a sec. She steps to the face-painting booth. It's sponsored by the local realtor who is Sarah's mom, Annie. Sarah hands Annie her camera. Sam whispers to John. SAM I'm impressed. Before John can respond, Sarah steps back. SARAH You guys ready? SAM Three on a wagon might get a little crowded. I'll meet you two on the other side. He gives John a not-so-subtle wink of encouragement. John and Sarah join the end of the line and watch Sam head away. SARAH Sam's cool. JOHN Definitely unique. SARAH I haven't really talked to him since 8th grade. Mark had a tight circle. If you weren't a jock or cheerleader, you didn't exist. JOHN I'm glad you broke free. SARAH Me too. OFF their growing connection... CUT TO: EXT. WOODS - NIGHT The path is lined with human heads piked to wooden stakes. SCREAMS, WAILS and GHOULISH HOWLS boom from hidden speakers. 46. OMINOUS POV: WATCHES from the trees as a wagon with John and Sarah RATTLES into view. It's driven by the GRIM REAPER. FIVE GIANT RUBBER SPIDERS drop from the trees. Sarah freaks as the arachnids dangle over their heads on wires. She rubs her hair, flustered, looks over at John, who is coolly amused by the cheap scares. SARAH Not even a flinch. None of this scares you, does it? JOHN I'm trembling on the inside. He smiles. SARAH You can smile. I was starting to have my doubts. She takes his hand. They CLATTER past a series of grisly TABLEAUX: A TEEN jerks and SCREAMS in mock agony as he is fried in an antiquated electric chair. A BLOOD-SPLATTERED DOCTOR CACKLES as he hacksaws the legs off a CHEERLEADER chained to a gurney. A squad of blood-hungry VAMPIRIC FOOTBALL PLAYERS attacks a rival team of WEREWOLVES. EXT. CLEARING - WOODS - NIGHT Ghosts float in the branches as the wagon LURCHES to a stop. GRIM REAPER Hell's Gate, everybody off. The duo reluctantly clambers off the back and watches as the hay wagon circles back the way it came. SARAH Once we make it through, we're home free. A SKELETON pendulums in front of them. Sarah SCREAMS and clenches John's hand harder. A pathway of lights floods on, illuminating a skull-capped gate. The words ‚ÄúYOUR NUMBER'S UP!‚Äù 47. are scrawled across it in fake blood. EXT. TUNNEL - WOODS - NIGHT John and Sarah step through the gate and enter a natural tunnel of dense, overhanging branches. A fog machine gently COUGHS, and spiderwebs stretch across the sides. They are about 20 feet into the tunnel when the lights go out. Somewhere a CHAINSAW sputters to life. White strobe lights suddenly flare on and TWO CHAINSAW-WIELDING ZOMBIES burst through the gates behind them. The teens take off. It's like a flickering scene from a demented silent movie. The Zombies have almost caught up when the strobe abruptly ends. The SOUND of the chainsaws FADES and John and Sarah stop, panting and LAUGHING with relief. SARAH That was insane. IT'S PITCH BLACK. A werewolf HOWLS somewhere in the darkness. Something brushes past John's leg. He spins, suddenly unsure. JOHN What was that? SARAH Just part of the ride. He turns, sees a flash of purple light and hears the rustle of HEAVY FOOTSTEPS on all sides. JOHN Are you sure? As he steps forward, A THICK BRANCH cuts through the dark and viciously SMACKS John on the back. He drops to the ground like a sack. Figures emerge from the shadows and he hears a DESPERATE STRUGGLE behind him. SARAH Let go! Stop it! John tries to stand, but a boot CRACKS him in the ribs. Another strikes the side of his face. He is surrounded. His attackers are brutal and unrelenting. Over the LOOPING SOUNDTRACK OF B-MOVIE NOISES, Sarah's muffled SCREAMS DIM. 48. JOHN Sarah! Sa- His voice is cut off as a fist SMASHES into his jaw and the steel cap of a combat boot SLAMS his groin. John staggers up but is viciously kicked back to the ground. PUSH IN ON JOHN'S FACE as it hardens with blind rage. In a blur of motion he reaches up, grabs two of his attackers by their coats and hammers their skulls together. As they drop, John spins to meet his other two foes with BLINDING PALMS OF LIGHT. The assailants are illuminated in the phosphorescent glare. They're not Mogadorians but rather FOOTBALL JOCKS. One is Mark Jayne's buddy Kevin. They're wearing zombie makeup and military fatigues and have night-vision goggles strapped to their faces. John angrily strides forward, palm outstretched. NIGHT-VISION POV: Everything is an overexposed blur until -- WHAAAAM!!! John brutally clotheslines one, then pummel-rams Kevin in the chest, sending him flying back 10 feet into a tree. Kevin slumps, out for the count. John arcs a glowing hand through the darkness. SARAH IS GONE. He plucks up the Jocks' fallen goggles and heads off with Terminator-like determination. EXT. WOODS - NIGHT Sarah is carried through the woods by TWO ZOMBIE JOCKS in camouflage fatigues and night-vision goggles. She SCREAMS. SARAH Let go of me! She futilely tries to wrestle free. EXT. PICNIC AREA - WOODS - NIGHT Sam is waiting by the exit to the hayride when he hears -- 49. SARAH (O.S.) (in the woods) Help! Somebody! Something about her terrified tone alerts Sam. SAM Sarah? She doesn't answer. He hesitates a moment, then charges into the woods. INT. WOODS - NIGHT Freaky shadows crisscross as John uses his luminescent palms to navigate his way through the labyrinth of trees. INT. CLEARING - WOODS - NIGHT Sam scrambles blindly through the darkness. JOHN (O.S.) SARAH! Sam turns in the direction of JOHN'S VOICE. He's about to head towards it when TWO ZOMBIE JOCKS trudge into view. Sam darts behind a tree. Suddenly, the area is flooded with preternatural white light. He can hear the sounds of a SCUFFLE and one of the Jocks flies past and CRASHES in a heap while the other SCREAMS. JOCK (O.S.) You're blinding me! Stop! Sam cautiously sneaks a peek, shields his eyes with a hand. WHAT HE SEES: John pins the Jock to a tree and holds a luminous palm up to the lenses of the teen's goggles. JOHN Where's Sarah? Tell me!! JOCK Shepherd Falls. Now turn off that damn flashlight! John rips off the Jock's goggles, then pile-slides him 15 feet into a rotten stump and takes off in a blur of speed. CAMERA STAYS ON SAM. OFF his stunned reaction... CUT TO: 50. EXT. SHEPHERD FALLS - WOODS - NIGHT A rocky promontory overlooks a crescent-shaped waterfall which drops into a swimming hole below. The Zombie Jocks carry Sarah into view and dump her in front of Mark. She's wild-cat angry when she sees him. SARAH Are you crazy! Where's John? Mark nods the Zombie Jocks away. MARK Relax. It's a practical joke. SARAH I swear if you hurt him -- MARK Why do you give a shit? SARAH Get out of my face, Mark, you're pathetic. MARK I'm the best thing that ever happened to you and I'm giving you one more chance. Appalled by his hubris, Sarah turns to leave. MARK Don't walk away from me! Mark grabs her. Sarah wrenches free, but loses her balance and falls back on the ground. Mark's rage is transplanted by concern. He steps towards her to help when -- JOHN (O.S.) Back off! Mark watches John step out. Blood trickles from a cut above John's right eye. SARAH John! Are you okay? He nods. Mark looks past him, confused. MARK Where the hell are Kevin and Joe? John holds up a clutch of night-vision goggles. 51. JOHN They got spooked. MARK Hey, those are police property! John flings them over Mark's head into the water. MARK I'm going to kill you! With lightning speed, John grabs Mark's arm, spins him, pinning him to a tree. Blinded by rage, John jerks Mark's arm up behind his back. SARAH John! Stop! Mark is in real pain. Transfixed with anger, John keeps twisting. Sarah looks at him, pleading. SARAH That's his throwing arm! But he doesn't stop until she finally steps forward and slaps him across the face. Startled, John lets go. SARAH Football's all he's got. John stumbles back, ashamed, and heads into the woods. Sarah offers Mark a look of disgust and follows after John. EXT. TREE LINE - NIGHT John charges into view. SARAH John! Wait. Sarah catches up. SARAH I'm sorry, I didn't want you to break his arm. JOHN I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at myself. She stops, faces him. 52. SARAH I had no idea Mark would pull something like that. He has seriously gone off the deep end. JOHN The guy's in love with you. Wants you back. SARAH That's not love. Their eyes meet in the moonlight. SARAH Walk me home? CUT TO: EXT. STREET - NIGHT It's a picture-book perfect neighborhood. Most of the houses are festively decorated with front-yard graveyards and cobweb- festooned trees. John walks with Sarah. They come to the prettiest house on the block. SARAH This is me. John stares at the dozen jack-o'-lanterns arranged on the porch. They glare back with flickering bucktooth grins. SARAH I know. Wait until the Christmas decorations go up. My mom decks the halls with so many lights, you can see our house from space. Stray TRICK-OR-TREATERS race past. She motions to the cut above his eye, concerned. SARAH You should see a doctor. JOHN For this? Wouldn't waste their time. She looks at him, curious. SARAH You're not going to tell me how you took out those football players, are you? 53. He says nothing. She smiles. SARAH I really don't get you. She steps closer. SARAH But I feel like I can trust you. JOHN You can. The air is charged. SARAH Good night. Sarah swings open the white picket gate. JOHN Wait. As she turns back, John steps forward and kisses her. Although taken by surprise, Sarah quickly succumbs to his passion. However, as their kiss intensifies, THE JACK-O'-LANTERNS rise and hover in midair. Sarah has her back to them, but when John's eyes momentarily flicker open, he sees the orbs grinning back. Startled, he pulls away from her. THE PUMPKINS instantly drop and SMASH onto the porch, their candles blowing out on impact. Sarah spins and stares at the jack-o'- lanterns, pulp oozes through their cracked shells. Suspicious, she slowly turns, looks at John for an explanation. He does his best to cover his stunned reaction. Fat drops of RAIN begin to fall. John puts up his hood. JOHN I better go. OFF Sarah, watching him melt into the downpour... CUT TO: INT. LIVING ROOM - HOUSE - NIGHT Rain HAMMERS. Bernie is asleep on a blanket. John creeps into the darkness, soaked to the bone, when -- 54. HENRI I heard on the police scanner that eight boys were beaten up in the woods tonight. Henri turns on a light, nursing a mug of coffee. Bernie wakes. John pulls off his hood. Henri looks at the cuts and bruises on John's face. JOHN They won't talk. HENRI That was a stupid thing to do. What were you thinking? JOHN They attacked me. If I hadn't defended myself, I'd be in the ER right now. Would that have been the better choice? (STEPPING FORWARD) You've got to start trusting me! Emotionally charged, John points his finger at Henri, accidentally causing the mug to telekinetically EXPLODE. Coffee and shards splatter across the floor. Henri looks at John, stunned. John shrugs sheepishly. JOHN I was getting to that. I got a new Legacy. Henri absorbs that revelation. HENRI Telekinesis. That's a big step. Must have been triggered by the fight. John doesn't correct him, averts his gaze. HENRI I need to teach you how to control these abilities. We'll start working on that tomorrow. The conversation is suddenly interrupted by the repetitive WHINE OF AN ALARM. They cross to the bank of computers. Henri urgently stabs commands into a keyboard. 55. JOHN What is it? Henri pulls up a website. HENRI We got a hit on one of the search words. (SCANNING) It's a paranormal blog. ‚ÄúThey Walk Among Us!‚Äù ANGLE ON COMPUTER: A video buffers into motion. It's handheld and jerky. It WHIP-PANS over some sand and joins a group of Teens huddled over a figure lying in the surf. He's holding his ankle and light seeps between his fingers. John's chest pounds with fear as he realizes... JOHN That's Sand Dollar Beach. HENRI Looks like a cell phone camera. There's enough for the Mogs to ID your face. JOHN Can you take it down? Henri remains ice calm and starts typing commands. HENRI Working on it. JOHN I'm sorry, Henri. HENRI This isn't your fault. There's still nothing to trace us here. Henri glances up from his screen. HENRI This could take all night. Get some sleep. CUT TO: INT. BEDROOM - HOUSE - NIGHT John dumps his hoodie on the floor and slumps on his bed. He pulls his phone out of his jeans and sees a new text message from Sam. He CLICKS it open. 56. PUSH IN ON JOHN'S FACE as he scans the message with alarm. He sits bolt-upright, gripped with dread. He checks the message again. TIGHT ON PHONE: ‚ÄúI SAW WHAT U DID IN THE WOODS. NEED 2 TALK. 2NITE. MY GARAGE.‚Äù JOHN hits delete and clenches the phone in his palm. A bad night just got worse. INT. LIVING ROOM - HOUSE - NIGHT Henri is illuminated by the dirty glow on the computers. His fingers work the keys with expert precision. He's so focused on the task that he doesn't notice JOHN blur ACROSS THE FRAME of one of the surveillance camera screens and disappear into the woods. CUT TO: EXT. SAM'S HOUSE - NIGHT John cautiously approaches. It's a ‚Äò50s ranch style. The garage adjoins the house. The lights are out. RAIN bullets off the garage door which is partially concertinaed open. INT. GARAGE - SAM'S HOUSE - NIGHT John slides into view. It takes a second for his eyes to adjust. A pickup sits under a white tarp. There's no sign of Sam until he Boo Radley's out of the shadows behind him. SAM I've narrowed it down to three possibilities: you're a genetic experiment, you're a freak of nature, or you're an extraterrestrial. JOHN I don't know what you think happened tonight... Sam steps closer, watery reflections ripple down his face. SAM Your hands lit up like a firefly on crack, you tossed those football players around like crash test dummies, and you took off faster than an Olympic runner. (MORE) 57. SAM (CONT'D) (BEAT) Did I leave anything out? John silently reels. JOHN What do you want from me? SAM I just want to know who you are. John looks at Sam, realizes he's not going to give up. He hesitates, then finally surrenders... JOHN I'm a survivor from a planet called Lorien. Sam absorbs this confession with awe. SAM Your dad... he's from there too? JOHN Henri's not my dad. He's my Guardian. If he found out you knew about us, we'd be gone by morning. (PLEADING) I don't want to leave Paradise. SAM I won't tell anyone. John nods, grateful. SAM There's something I want to show you. CUT TO: The tarp is whipped off the pickup truck. It's an old Ford. Sam and John stand before it. SAM The cops found it abandoned in the middle of Route 20, just south of White Sands, New Mexico. It was my dad's. He went missing six years ago. He was on one of his crazy fact-finding trips. He believed we weren't alone in the universe. Sam rubs his hand across the hood, wondering. 58. SAM Mom figured he was having an affair and took off. All these years I thought she was right. Now you're here. JOHN That doesn't prove anything. SAM It proves he wasn't crazy. I'm starting to think that he didn't bail on us... that maybe something else happened out there -- that he was taken. The moment is broken by the SLAM of the front door and the sound of ANGRY FOOTSTEPS. Sam instantly tenses. SAM Guess the bar closed. ED (O.S.) Sam! Where are you? His speech is slurred and aggressive. ED (O.S.) You think I wouldn't hear you locked up early! John looks at Sam, shocked and concerned. JOHN You going to be okay? SAM If he finds you here, it'll be worse. (BEAT) Go. Sam crosses to the door leading into the main house and heads inside. SHOUTS erupt almost immediately. John flinches, wanting to intervene, but finally turns, hustles under the garage door and slips into the night... CUT TO: INT. LIVING ROOM - HOUSE - DAY Henri is hammering at the keyboard of one of his computers. John enters with two mugs of coffee. 59. JOHN You look wiped. Henri turns and smiles playfully. HENRI I wasn't the only who was up last night. John nervously hands Henri one of the cups and lies... JOHN Sarah texted me. I went over to her house. Henri buys the explanation and swings back to his computers. HENRI I've tried every trick I know, but I can't crack that blog's firewall. JOHN There must be a way. HENRI We need to find where the site's located and take it offline manually. The URL source has been run through a labyrinth of servers, it could take weeks to track down. JOHN I want to help. Henri takes a gulp of coffee and stands. HENRI You can. Get changed. CUT TO: START MONTAGE: EXT. BACK YARD - HOUSE - DAY TIGHT ON A WELDING TORCH as it's sparked to life. Its flame HISSES as Henri sweeps it towards John, who is standing shirtless. Bernie watches, curious, as Henri washes the flame harmlessly up John's naked arm and torso. 60. INT. HALL - PARADISE HIGH - DAY The walls are now adorned with Thanksgiving banners. John and Sam head past the lockers. Mark and the Jocks move out of their way, acknowledging the new high school dynamic. INT. KITCHEN - HOUSE - NIGHT Using his telekinesis, John strains to lift a tennis ball. It momentarily RATTLES, then stops. Henri is not impressed. EXT. WOODS - DAY Bernie darts ahead as John and Sarah walk through a crimson cascade of falling leaves. As they kiss, the leaves around them freeze midair and slowly begin to drift upwards. INT. GARAGE - SAM'S HOUSE - NIGHT John helps Sam with a dusty box. It's stuffed with Sam's dad's old papers and books. We CATCH tantalizing glimpses of images: Stonehenge, Machu Picchu, the Rings of Saturn... INT. INTERNET CAFE - NASHVILLE - DAY It's a Vandy student hangout. CAMERA DRIFTS over a row of computer terminals and FINDS the Teen Girl who torched the stilt house. She's studying her computer screen intently. REVERSE TO REVEAL: She is watching the cell phone footage of John on the ‚ÄúThey Walk Among Us‚Äù blog. INT. KITCHEN - HOUSE - DAY Under Henri's watchful gaze, John focuses on a tennis ball. It RISES. John grins in triumph, causing the ball to drop and bounce on the floor. Strike two. INT. CAFETERIA - PARADISE HIGH - DAY Mark silently stews when he sees Sarah and John sitting together at a table. EXT. BACK YARD - HOUSE - DAY Bernie pogos on his back legs, trying to bite the tennis ball that John telekinetically hovers just out of the dog's reach. INT. LIVING ROOM - HOUSE - NIGHT CLOSE ON A LAPTOP scrolling with endless lines of URL addresses. REVERSE TO REVEAL Henri studying the screen. Waiting. Watching. 61. EXT. BACK YARD - HOUSE - DAY John is fully submerged in an old claw-foot tub. GO TO JOHN'S DISTORTED VIEW LOOKING UP at Henri as he drops a match into the tub. The liquid instantly IGNITES and we realize John's lying in gasoline. He sits up, rests his hands behind his head as the FLAMES harmlessly lick his face. INT. BACK YARD - HOUSE - DAY The trees are now bare. John stands 20 feet from Henri and nods. Henri flicks the switch of an automated tennis ball server. John's face is a mask of concentration as the yellow balls fly towards him. He holds up his hand and the balls STOP IN MIDAIR. It's like they've hit an invisible wall two feet from his hand. They hang there. John sees a smile sneak onto Henri's face and momentarily loses focus, causing the wall to collapse and the balls to drop into the mud. END MONTAGE. CUT TO: INT. BATHROOM - DAY Bernie looks like a drowned rat. He's sitting in the tub being scrubbed by John and Sarah. SARAH I don't see any family pictures around. I guess the photo aversion is hereditary. He greets the observation with a shrug. She carries on. SARAH Your mom... grandparents. Is there anyone else in your life? JOHN They died. SARAH I'm sorry. JOHN It was a long time ago. It's just me and my dad now. John uses a nail brush to clean the beagle's ears. 62. SARAH I get the feeling he doesn't like me very much. JOHN It takes him a while to warm up to people. Sarah considers this. SARAH Thanksgiving's tomorrow. Why don't you bring your dad and celebrate with us? JOHN I don't know. Are there going to be a lot of people? SARAH A tsunami of relatives. But don't worry, I'll shield you from the wave. Besides, I want everyone to meet you. She playfully splashes him. Their faces inch closer. They begin making out hot and heavy until Henri suddenly walks in. HENRI I've found the -- Caught in the act, the teens lurch away from each other. JOHN Just giving Bernie a quick bath. HENRI You're clearly putting a lot of effort into it. SARAH I better hit the road. (TO JOHN) See you tomorrow. Twoish. (GRABBING BACKPACK) Bye, Mr. Smith. OFF John as she hustles out... INT. LIVING ROOM - HOUSE - DAY Henri sits in front of his computers. John enters with Bernie, who is wrapped in a beach towel. He begins drying the dog in front of the fire. Henri breaks the silence. 63. HENRI I finally tracked the location of that blog. It's a house in Warsaw, Indiana. About four hours from here. I'm heading up there tomorrow. JOHN Sarah invited us to Thanksgiving. I told her we'd be there. HENRI Send my regrets. JOHN You shouldn't go alone. It could be dangerous. HENRI I won't risk taking you. I'll leave early and be back by five. John looks up and sees Henri sitting in solitude. JOHN Don't you ever get lonely? Surprised by the question, Henri swivels to face him. HENRI How could I? I have you. JOHN You know what I mean. All these years, there's never been anyone. HENRI We aren't like humans. Once we fall in love, it's for life. The pain of separation is unbearable. Henri's face clouds with melancholy and he abruptly gets up. As he heads into the kitchen John studies him with new eyes. INT. KITCHEN - HOUSE - DAY Steam billows as Henri washes up. He keeps his back to John when he enters. John waits then softly asks... JOHN What was her name? Henri slots a plate onto the draining board. 64. HENRI Anastasia. JOHN You left her to save me. HENRI You're not responsible for what happened to her -- they are. He slowly turns and regards John with deep paternal concern. HENRI I looked at her the way you look at Sarah. (BEAT) She can't come with us when we leave -- and we always have to leave, you know that. John nods, not wanting to deal with that reality. HENRI I was hoping to protect you from that pain. JOHN You can't protect me from everything. OFF Henri's sad smile of acknowledgement... CUT TO: EXT. SARAH'S HOUSE - DAY The Halloween decorations have been replaced by a Thanksgiving display. Wearing khakis and a pale blue Oxford, John tentatively walks up the front path. The warm sound of LAUGHTER drifts from inside. He takes a breath and rings the doorbell. INT. KITCHEN - SARAH'S HOUSE - DAY It's like a Norman Rockwell cover come to life. Every inch of counter space is filled with platters of food. John watches Sarah, Annie, and a boisterous ASSORTMENT OF RELATIVES put the finishing touches to the Thanksgiving feast. KIDS rush in and out in a manic game of tag. John is captivated by the sense of family and celebration -- things he's never known in his own life. Sarah steps over. She's wearing a funky-cool vintage dress. 65. SARAH Come on, we're on gravy-boat duty. INT. DINING ROOM - SARAH'S HOUSE - DAY The table is decorated with garlands of autumn leaves and an elaborate pine cone centerpiece. Sarah places the last turkey-shaped gravy boat onto the table. She smiles at John. SARAH You look dazed. JOHN Just taking it all in. She crosses. SARAH I'm glad you came. They tenderly kiss until Annie bustles in carrying a steaming bowl of mashed potatoes. ANNIE Don't mind me. She puts the bowl on the table and grabs Sarah's camera. ANNIE Let's get a picture of you two lovebirds. Sarah cringes as Annie lifts the camera to her eye. SARAH Mom. No. John really doesn't like having his -- JOHN It's okay. Let her take it. The gesture means the world to Sarah. He puts his arm around her. Sarah nestles her face against his. As the flash WIPES OUT THE FRAME... CUT TO: INT. DINING ROOM - SARAH'S HOUSE - NIGHT Red candles flicker. Sarah's DAD is expertly carving the turkey. Everybody is at the table. John sits next to Sarah. She holds his hand under the table. It's Hallmark worthy until the carriage clock on the mantel CHIMES. IT'S SIX O'CLOCK. 66. John looks at his phone. No messages. His brow creases with concern. He turns to Sarah, whispers. JOHN I need to check in with Henri. He exits. EXT. FRONT PORCH - SARAH'S HOUSE - NIGHT John speed dials as he steps out into the cold. He holds the phone to his ear. It rings three times and then is answered. JOHN (INTO PHONE) Henri? CLICK. The call is hung up. Suddenly on edge, John redials. This time it's picked up immediately. JOHN (INTO PHONE) Henri? MAN (V.O.) (OVER PHONE) Are you one of them too? John reacts to the chilling menace of the Man's tone. JOHN (INTO PHONE) Who are you? Where's Henri? CLICK. John jerks the phone from his ear and stares at it, panicked. He paces, desperate and unsure, then gets an idea and punches another number. JOHN (INTO PHONE) I need your help. INT. DINING ROOM - SARAH'S HOUSE - NIGHT The food is getting cold. Everybody is waiting for John. Sarah catches her mother's disapproving look. SARAH I'll see what's taking him so long. EXT. PORCH - SARAH'S HOUSE - NIGHT Sarah steps out just in time to see John climb into a pickup truck. It's the one from Sam's garage. 67. SARAH John! He looks back. JOHN It's Henri. I have to go. Sorry. OFF her confused disappointment as the truck SQUEALS away... INT. PICKUP - NIGHT - MOVING Sam is behind the wheel. JOHN Thanks. I owe you. SAM Anything to get out of Thanksgiving at my house. He offers John a weary smile. SAM I checked out that blog on the way over. Saw the video. What was the deal with your ankle? John pulls up his khakis, shows Sam the trio of scars. JOHN Death scars. SAM They kind of look like the symbols in my dad's research. (THINKING) You guys don't -- JOHN Abduct people? No. Irritated, he covers them back up. SAM How about the ones you said were hunting you? JOHN They're capable of anything. (URGENT) We need to get to Warsaw -- now. 68. Suddenly, John's cell phone RINGS. He snatches it up, but is disappointed to see the name ‚ÄúSARAH‚Äù flashing on the LCD. He hits ignore and the truck hurtles into the dark. CUT TO: EXT. WARSAW HOUSE - NIGHT It's a dilapidated Victorian. Mist shrouds the yard which is littered with junked cars and trash. The pickup crawls to a stop in the shadows across the street. INT. PICKUP TRUCK - NIGHT The teens sit in silence. JOHN Number 417. Henri tracked the URL to that house. Sam scans the street. SAM I don't see his SUV anywhere. JOHN He would have parked it across town. Sam opens the glove compartment and pulls out a revolver. SAM Stole it from Ed. (BEAT) Let's move. John yanks Sam's arm away from the door handle. JOHN I called you because I needed a ride, not a sidekick. If I could have run here, I would have. (BEAT) Go home. I'll call you when I get back. OFF Sam as John climbs out alone... EXT. WARSAW HOUSE - NIGHT It's graveyard quiet. John nervously sneaks down the side of the house. His breath fogs as he inch-CREAKS up the wooden STEPS TO THE KITCHEN PORCH. 69. He squats in front of the door. He holds up a luminescent palm and uses it like a flashlight to sweep the interior. WHAT HE SEES: Take-out boxes litter the filthy counter. The sink is swamped with dirty dishes. The light washes across a semiautomatic sitting by a packet of Lucky Strikes. SAM (O.S.) See anything? Annoyed, John spins and finds Sam creeping towards him. JOHN I told you to go! SAM They might know where my dad is! John realizes Sam is determined. He sweeps his hand back over the kitchen door. His palm illuminates a familiar CRYSTAL-HANDLED DAGGER. It's lying on the counter by the fridge. JOHN Henri's here. John ‚Äúturns off‚Äù his palm and reaches for the door handle. Sam anxiously swats his arm away. SAM Wait! Other than strength, speed and night-light, what powers have you got? JOHN Telekinesis -- but that's a work in progress. SAM No invisibility, X-ray vision, flight? JOHN Sam, we drove here. Sam takes a deep breath, psyching himself up. SAM Okay. I'm ready. Let's do it. But as John reaches for the door handle, the kitchen light suddenly turns on and a MAN enters. He's built like a wrestler and goes by the name of FRANK. 70. INT. KITCHEN - WARSAW HOUSE - NIGHT With a Lucky Strike clenched between his lips, Frank picks up the packet on the table and is pissed to discover it's empty. He crushes it in his fist and crosses to the door. EXT. BACK PORCH - WARSAW HOUSE - NIGHT John and Sam are gone. Frank steps out and locks the door. He flicks away his cigarette as he heads down the stairs. CAMERA FOLLOWS the butt as it cartwheels into SAM'S LAP. He's crouched next to John at the side of the porch. He frantically begins trying to extinguish the stub. John clamps his hand over Sam's mouth and snuffs the cigarette between his fingers. Once Frank's safely around the corner, John releases his hand. The duo silently climbs onto the porch. John squats in front of the door. His hand shakes as he holds it out towards the lock and concentrates. SAM Hurry up. Hurry up. Hurry up. There's a LOUD CLICK. SAM You just dead bolted it! Way to go! JOHN New plan -- follow Lucky Strike. Text me if he comes back. Sam sneaks off after Frank. INT. KITCHEN - WARSAW HOUSE - NIGHT TIGHT ON LOCK as the dead bolt turns by itself and the door swings open. John cautiously crosses the threshold. He holds up his right hand, dims his palm to a dull-blue glow. He retrieves Henri's dagger and tentatively heads into... INT. HALL - WARSAW HOUSE - NIGHT Everything is filmed with dust. It's freezing and John's BREATH FOGS in the hazy aura his palm casts. The naked floorboards CREAK. Fear bites as John scans the lifeless gloom, not sure where to start. TIGHT ON HIS SHOE as it brushes a mousetrap. SNAP! 71. His breath catches in his throat. He ‚Äúturns off‚Äù his hand. His heart thumps as he waits for something to react to the noise. But nothing does. As his eyes adjust to the dark, he notices a rectangle of light faintly leaking from the door that leads down into... INT. BASEMENT - WARSAW HOUSE - NIGHT The ancient stairs sag as John slowly descends. The space is illuminated by a single naked bulb. The sound of DRIPPING WATER hammers the silence. John scans the rabbit warren of rooms and sees a figure chained to a chair in the corner. JOHN Henri! He races over. But as he reaches for Henri's gag, a YOUNG MAN steps out of the shadows holding a baseball bat. John turns too late and the bat strikes his left side. He drops the dagger as he falls to the floor, his ribs searing. The man, BRET, raises the bat again. John focuses his mind. THE BAT whips out of Bret's grip and torpedoes towards John -- who ducks out of the way as the bat flies past. Confused, Bret lurches forward. John scrambles for the bat, clenches it in his hand, and swings it into the young man's legs. BRET knocks the light as he topples into a column and CRASHES onto the cement, out cold. It's over in a violent blur. John sits stunned for a moment. The swinging bulb casts surreal shadows as he spins back to Henri, telekinetically ‚Äúunlocks‚Äù the padlock securing the chains, and rips off the gag. Henri is groggy and his face is swollen from brutal beatings. HENRI You shouldn't be here. JOHN Your life is my life, remember? Henri tries to shake his drug-induced haze. HENRI I talked my way in. Thought the big guy was buying it. He rubs a wound on his neck. 72. HENRI I was asking him about the video when the other one shot me from behind... some sort of animal tranq. (DISPIRITED) I'm getting rusty. Suddenly, John's phone VIBRATES. It's a message from Sam -- ‚ÄúGET OUT NOW!‚Äù JOHN We have to leave! John helps Henri up, they race for the stairs when Bret's hand grabs John's ankle, tripping him to the floor. JOHN Henri! Henri smashes his boot into Bret's face, knocking him out for good. John staggers up, they spin for the stairs just as SAM AND FRANK head down them into view. Frank holds the revolver against Sam's neck. Their shadows crisscross under the swaying bulb. FRANK Stay planted or I'll blow your friend's head off. Henri looks at John in shock. JOHN (RE: SAM) He came to help. John and Henri put up their hands. John focuses on the gun, but as the light bulb sweeps past, he causes it to EXPLODE. THE ROOM PLUNGES INTO DARKNESS. Henri body-slams Frank, sending the revolver skittering. But as he wrenches Sam to safety, THE KEYS to the pickup fly out of Sam's pocket and slide under the stairs. John flashes on his palm, casting everything in eerie blue light. On all fours, Frank scrambles for the fallen weapon. It's almost within reach when he is lifted right off the ground by an invisible force. 73. Sam looks over at John, impressed. FRANK (FREAKING OUT) You're the one from the video! You're the one they're after. With tremendous telekinetic effort, John slams Frank against the ceiling. JOHN Tell me what you know! Franks says nothing. John trains his palm light on the big man's face. It's like a blinding interrogation lamp. JOHN Start talking! FRANK I don't know what they're called. The one in the red coat said he'd kill me if I didn't do what he wanted. This revelation stuns Henri. HENRI The Mogadorians... they've been here? Frank nods in terror. FRANK He told me to call if anyone came asking about the video. Sweat beads John's face from the mental exertion. JOHN Did you? FRANK (RE: HENRI) They wanted me to hold your friend until they got here. Henri urgently retrieves Sam's gun and his dagger. HENRI We need to go! Now! John ‚Äúreleases‚Äù Frank, who drops onto the floor like a whale and is knocked out. At that moment, a razor-thin line of dust drops from the floorboards above. 74. SOMEONE IS UPSTAIRS. John immediately extinguishes his palm. The trio stands frozen, necks craned up, ears pricked as the floorboards CREAK above them. They are definitely not alone. INT. HALL - WARSAW HOUSE - NIGHT FOUR MOGADORIAN SOLDIERS stalk through the house. Their long black coats SILENTLY sweep. One sniffs the air like a bloodhound and motions towards the basement door... INT. BASEMENT - WARSAW HOUSE - NIGHT BLAAAAM! -- the door is shredded off its hinges and flies down the stairs. The Mogadorian patrol storms through the cloud of splinters. Frank and Bret lie where they fell, but there's no sign of John, Henri or Sam. Pissed, one of the Mogadorians strides towards a small blacked-out window. He punches out the glass with his fist and catches sight of Sam clambering over the back fence! INT. PICKUP - NIGHT John, Henri and Sam pile in. JOHN Sam, get us out of here! Sam reaches into his jeans, then frantically checks his pockets. SAM I must have dropped the keys! Henri keeps his cool, looks at John. HENRI Start the engine. JOHN I can't. Henri's calm eyes never leave him. HENRI Yes, you can. John nods, puts his hand on the dash and closes his eyes. The engine TURNS OVER but doesn't start. Sam looks up the street, panicked, as A MOGADORIAN 75. climbs out of a black SUV and storms towards them. SAM Hurry up! John's brow is furrowed with concentration. The Mog unsheathes his sword as he runs. With a superhuman leap, he lands on the hood -- TWAAAAACK! John and Henri spin out of the way as the sword SHATTERS the windshield and impales in the back of the seat, missing them by a mouse hair. As the Mogadorian withdraws the sword to strike again, Henri sweeps up his dagger and stakes it into the Mog's neck. VRRRROOMMM! The engine ROARS to life. The Mogadorian tumbles off the hood, magenta light spurting from his wound. John turns to Sam, who is petrified, and SCREAMS... JOHN DRIVE! Sam wrenches the shaft into gear and floors the gas. The Mogadorian EVISCERATES in a frenzy of embers. The truck bursts through the blizzard of sparks and STREAK-PEELS away. CUT TO: INT. BASEMENT - WARSAW HOUSE - NIGHT CAMERA TRACKS the swish of a familiar red coat as its owner slowly descends the stairs, PANS UP PAST his right hand, which methodically twists two meditation balls, TO REVEAL THE MOGADORIAN COMMANDER. He's the one who slaughtered Number 3 in Africa. His men part as he steps into view and crosses to Frank and Bret who are chained to chairs. A Soldier stands behind each one. Frank looks at the Commander in terror. FRANK I called you like I said. It's not my fault they got away! The Commander steps into the moonlight that seeps through the window. We get our first good look at his face. A gnarled scar runs down his right cheek, identifying him as the same Mogadorian Henri wounded in the escape from Lorien. His skin is deathly pale and his eyes have a cold purple tint. MOGADORIAN COMMANDER Where did they go? 76. His accent is thick and his voice is unnerving. FRANK How should I know? The kid had me pinned to the ceiling. The Commander turns to Bret. MOGADORIAN COMMANDER Where did they go? Bret is too freaked to even speak. The Commander nods to the Soldiers. They grab Frank and Bret by the heads and yank open their mouths. Frank watches in confused terror as the Commander holds one of the meditation balls. DOZENS OF TINY RAZOR-BLADES suddenly flower open across its surface and viciously spin. With cold-blooded calm, the Commander drops the ball into Frank's mouth. OFF its terrible DRILL-LIKE WHIR... CUT TO: EXT. STRIP MALL - DAWN Vermillion clouds streak the heavens. Sam's truck pulls up next to Henri's SUV, which is inconspicuously parked in front of a 24-hour pharmacy. INT. PICKUP TRUCK - DAWN John turns to Sam. JOHN We'll meet you back at the house. HENRI We're not going back to Paradise. (TO SAM) Thank you for your help, but you'll never see us again. Henri climbs out. Sam looks at John, confused. SAM Is he serious? John nods, numb. SAM What am I supposed to tell people? 77. JOHN Nothing. Forget about us. We never existed. (BEAT) Goodbye, Sam. OFF Sam as John climbs out... CUT TO: EXT. MOTEL - DAY It's a rundown dump on the bleak edge of a no-name town. INT. SUV - DAY John silently stews. BIKERS smoke at the edge of the grimy pool which is drained for the winter and rattles with frozen leaves. Henri steps out of the motel office with a key. INT. MOTEL ROOM - DAY Henri lets John inside, chains the door and draws the sun- bleached curtains. HENRI We leave at nightfall. JOHN Henri, this is insane. They still don't know where we live. Henri seethes. HENRI It's only a matter of time. They know our faces. They saw Sam. How long has he known? JOHN Since Halloween. Henri is floored and hurt by the admission. HENRI I trusted you and you lied to me! John bows his head, can't meet Henri's gaze. JOHN Only because I knew how you'd react and I didn't want to leave Paradise. Henri paces, tries to quell his emotions. 78. HENRI Now we don't have a choice. The Mogs are using humans to trap us. From this point on -- no more towns. No more schools. We're going off the grid until we find the others. JOHN No. His tone is defiant. HENRI This isn't a discussion. In a flash of pent-up anger, John holds up his hand and telekinetically sweeps Henri off his feet and pins him against the wall. Henri looks at him, stunned. JOHN I'm not leaving without saying goodbye to Sarah. Henri fixes him with a steel-edged stare. HENRI Let. Me. Down. Spent, John releases Henri who slides to the floor, shaken. The dynamics of their relationship forever changed. Henri finally stands. HENRI Give me your phone and IDs. John hands him his cell phone and wallet. Henri opens the back of the phone and pulls out the SIM card. SNAP! HENRI John Smith dies today. CUT TO: EXT. WARSAW HOUSE - DAY REPORTERS and LOOKIE-LOOS watch from behind the crime scene tape that crisscrosses the street. CAMERA ZEROES IN on THE TEEN GIRL. She's the one we saw in Nashville and who torched the stilt house. Her eyes study the STREAM OF POLICE that hustles in and out of the house carrying evidence Baggies and equipment. 79. INT. BASEMENT - WARSAW HOUSE - DAY A CRIME SCENE PHOTOGRAPHER methodically catalogs the grim, blood-soaked nightmare. He's in a full body suit and booties. The flashgun mounted to his camera whitewashes the space as a UNIFORM COP appears on the stairs. UNIFORM COP The Chief wants to send the morgue boys in and seal this tomb. PHOTOGRAPHER Hope they haven't had lunch yet. These guys were gutted from the inside out. He steps over to Frank's body which has been splayed open. As he flashes off some shots, the TEEN GIRL appears in the corner of his viewfinder. She's kneeling by Frank's severed head which has rolled a short distance from the body. The Photographer pulls the camera away from his eye and looks at the Teen Girl, confused. PHOTOGRAPHER Who the hell are you? She ignores him. He glances at the only window which is 20 feet away on the other side of the room. PHOTOGRAPHER How'd you get in? The Girl continues examining Frank's wounds. Totally unnerved, the Photographer shouts up the stairs. PHOTOGRAPHER Hey, we've got a live one down here. When he spins back, the Girl is gone, vanished into thin air. CUT TO: INT. SAM'S TRUCK - DAY TIGHT ON A DIRT DEVIL as it snorts up beads of broken glass. REVEAL SAM cleaning the evidence of the previous night's adventure. Cardboard covers the missing passenger window. EXT. DRIVE - SAM'S HOUSE - DAY Sam climbs out of the truck and is startled by Sarah. 80. SARAH Where is he, Sam? SAM I don't know. He tries to avoid eye contact, but she is determined. SARAH What happened last night? I've tried calling him all day. But his number's no longer in service. SAM Forget about him, Sarah. Incredulous, she grabs his arm. SARAH I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on. SAM He left with Henri and he isn't coming back. Ever. (PULLING FREE) I'm sorry. OFF Sarah, shattered... CUT TO: INT. SHOWER - MOTEL ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON John stands under the steaming spray. Eyes screwed shut. Naked and lost. TWO LOUD KNOCKS at the door. HENRI (O.S.) (THROUGH DOOR) Taillights in five. EXT. MOTEL - LATE AFTERNOON The GROUP OF BIKERS by the pool has grown four fold. They're partying hard. Henri keeps his head down as he passes. INT. MOTEL OFFICE - LATE AFTERNOON The FEMALE CLERK stares at the TV mounted on the wall. She's watching a local news report about the Warsaw house murders. Henri enters. The window RATTLES as a motorcycle speeds past and he slides his key onto the counter. CUT TO: 81. INT. MOTEL ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON Henri steps in and is annoyed to hear the SHOWER still running. He strides to the bathroom door. HENRI John? No answer. He KNOCKS. Still nothing. INT. BATHROOM - MOTEL ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON Henri shoulder-rams the door open. He whips back the shower curtain and stares at the empty tub. JOHN IS GONE. OFF Henri's grim concern... EXT. HIGHWAY - DUSK The sky is twilight blue. A gleaming Harley ROARS around the bend, going full throttle. John is on its back. The wind whips his hair. Eyes set forward. Headed back to Paradise. CUT TO: EXT. SARAH'S HOUSE - NIGHT Annie opens the front door and is surprised to find John. ANNIE Little late for dessert. JOHN I need to talk to Sarah. ANNIE She's not here. Some friends dragged her to a party at Mark Jayne's. John absorbs this news, turns. Annie steps out after him. ANNIE I don't usually pry into my daughter's love life, I certainly didn't want my mother in mine -- but Sarah's my youngest and she's special to me. JOHN She's special to me too. CUT TO: 82. EXT. MARK'S HOUSE - NIGHT The big, two-story property dominates the end of a cul-de- sac. TEENS stream up the drive. Cars are parked end to end down the street. CAMERA CRANES TO MEET John as he charges into view on the stolen motorcycle. INT. DOWNSTAIRS HALL - MARK'S HOUSE - NIGHT MUSIC THROBS. John works his way through the throng of partying TEENS. He passes a RED-HAIRED TEEN BOY recording the event on a FlipVideo camera. A hand grips John's shoulder. John turns to find Mark Jayne. MARK You weren't invited. JOHN Where's Sarah? MARK She doesn't want to see you. John shoves him aside and heads for the sweeping stairs... INT. BASEMENT - MARK'S HOUSE - NIGHT It's been transformed into a major makeout den. Candles line the windowsills and ring the edge of the pool table. TEENAGE COUPLES grope in the flickering half-light. JOCK Everybody upstairs! Kevin's going for the beer bong record! The Teens immediately bolt for the stairs. In the giddy exodus, one of them accidentally brushes A CANDLE onto the white shag rug. INT. UPSTAIRS HALL - MARK'S HOUSE - NIGHT John heads down the burgundy hall which is lined with family portraits. He glances in the rooms as he passes. INT. GUEST ROOM - MARK'S HOUSE - NIGHT Sarah and her friend, EMILY, sit on the bed with Mark's two dogs, Abby and Dozer. A wedge of light cuts across them as the door opens and John steps in. SARAH John! 83. She leaps up and hugs him. John waits as Emily exits. JOHN I'm sorry about last night. She pulls away, her relief turning to anger. SARAH No. Not good enough. Sam said you were never coming back. What are you doing here? JOHN I couldn't leave without seeing you one last time. She looks at him, crushed. SARAH So it's true. What's going on? What kind of trouble are you and your dad in? JOHN We're going to be fine. SARAH Damnit! Whatever it is, I'll understand -- just tell me the truth. JOHN The truth is I'm not who you think I am. You need to forget about me. Okay? SARAH Why are you acting like this? JOHN Because it's the only way to keep you safe. SARAH Safe from what? He turns away, shields her from his torment. JOHN Goodbye, Sarah. He doesn't look back as he walks out the door. CAMERA STAYS ON SARAH as she sinks onto the bed and the dogs comfort her. 84. INT. DOWNSTAIRS - MARK'S HOUSE - NIGHT Party-goers pack the hall and kitchen watching Kevin consume an impossible amount of beer through a funnel and hose. TEENS Drink! Drink! Drink! Drained and numb, John heads the other way and fails to notice the smoke seeping from under the basement door. EXT. MARK'S HOUSE - NIGHT John strides down the driveway, bleak-faced. He's about to straddle the motorcycle when he hears a muffled EXPLOSION. He looks back and sees SMOKE billowing from the side of the house. He bolts towards the front door, SCREAMS at a JOCK as he passes. JOHN Call 911! As he races inside... INT. MARK'S HOUSE - NIGHT It's total chaos. Smoke and FLAMES plume up from the basement. Terrified Teens scramble. John thrashes through the crowd, SHOUTING -- JOHN Sarah! EXT. BACK YARD - MARK'S HOUSE - NIGHT The panicked evacuation spills out. A window EXPLODES and orange flames lick the cold night air. John sees Emily stumble out clutching one of Mark's dogs, Abby. JOHN Where's Sarah? EMILY Went back for Dozer. Another EXPLOSION rocks. A COUPLE of drunk Jocks CHEER. John looks back at the house. The fire has taken hold with incredible speed. The living room curtains are ABLAZE. A DOG'S HAUNTING HOWL 85. cuts over the sound of the HISSING FLAMES. It's coming from the second floor. John charges past Mark, towards the house. MARK It's too late. You can't get through! John ignores him and runs into the inferno. INT. LIVING ROOM - MARK'S HOUSE - NIGHT FLAMES sprint up the walls and clouds of black smoke spew from the sectional sofa. Immune to the heat, John heads into the front hall and finds THE STAIRCASE is fully engulfed. Fearless, he clambers up the flaming steps. His jeans and shirt catch fire. He's almost reached the top when the staircase BREAKS AWAY behind him and DISINTEGRATES in a cloud of embers. INT. UPSTAIRS HALL - MARK'S HOUSE - NIGHT It's a raging conflagration. The family portraits blister on the walls. John beelines towards Dozer's PLAINTIVE WAIL which reverberates over the UGLY ROAR of the fire. INT. GUEST ROOM - MARK'S HOUSE - NIGHT Sarah is crouched by the heavy oak bed that dominates the corner of the room, COUGHING, eyes burning from the smoke and heat. Dozer is cowered underneath, HOWLING. Sarah desperately tries to move the bed but it won't budge. CRAAAACK! The door rips off its hinges. Through the smoky half-light, Sarah watches as John strides into the room, heroically backlit by flame. SARAH John! (FRANTIC) Dozer's under the bed. He's too scared to come out! John strides forward, grips the bed with one hand and effortlessly hoists it. Sarah looks at him, amazed, then scrambles forward and gently scoops Dozer into her arms. John puts the bed back down. JOHN Don't let go of him. I promise I won't let go of you. 86. As he lifts them... INT. UPSTAIRS HALL - MARK'S HOUSE - NIGHT The trio heads into the hall just as an 8-foot section of the floor collapses in front of them. Unfazed, John sprints forward and bridges the hole. ANGLE ON SARAH as she stares at the burning chasm in terror and grips Dozer tighter. John touches down on the other side and doesn't slow as he powers down the hall, which is a SHRIEKING tunnel of fire. A BURNING BEAM breaks free and swings down in front of them. Sarah SCREAMS, but watches in stunned amazement as John sweeps it out of the way with a telekinetic flick of his hand. EXT. SIDE - MARK'S HOUSE - NIGHT The second-floor window SHATTERS as John leaps out holding Sarah and Dozer. A ROARING tongue of fire whips his back as he drops to the ground and touches down with Sarah and Dozer. COUGHING and shell-shocked, Sarah puts the dog down. JOHN You okay? She stares at him, unsure. SARAH You walked through that fire without getting burned. I saw you stop that beam. SIRENS wail in the distance. JOHN I'll explain everything... but not here... (offering his hand) Sarah... please? As they take off into the woods, the IMAGE FREEZES, then REWINDS. John and Sarah kneel in the shadows, then FLY BACKWARDS up through the window and INTO the burning house. REVERSE TO REVEAL the Red-Haired Teen watching playback on his FlipVideo camera, amazed. He runs to the back of the house and finds Mark. 87. RED-HAIRED TEEN (RE: VIDEO) Check this out, man! PUSH IN as Mark stares at the footage, stunned. CUT TO: INT. WOODS - NIGHT John and Sarah walk in SILENCE, dappled in moonlight. He catches her staring at him. JOHN Please don't look at me like that. SARAH I'm sorry. I'm still trying to process everything I saw and I keep coming to the same conclusion -- what you did isn't possible. JOHN It is for me. SARAH Who are you? (off his hesitation) For once please tell me the truth. It's the hardest thing he's ever had to do. JOHN My name isn't John. I don't have a name, just a number. 4. In fact, my whole life can be reduced to numbers: like 15 million -- that's how many light years it takes to get from my planet to Earth. 38 -- that's how many towns I've lived in. Or 3,671 -- that's how many days I've been running from an enemy that wants me dead. I lied to you, Sarah, because I lie to everyone. That's how I stay alive. Tears of relief brim as he finally reveals his soul. JOHN I shouldn't be telling you any of this. It's dangerous. Emotionally spent, John leans against a tree. She steps towards him and brushes her hand down his cheek. 88. SARAH I don't care. I just want to be with you. JOHN I want that too. But if I stay you could get hurt. I have to leave to keep you safe. Sarah absorbs the bitter reality, reaches for his hand. SARAH There's something I want to give you first. CUT TO: INT. DARKROOM - PARADISE HIGH - NIGHT A PHOTOGRAPH OF SARAH AND JOHN sharpens INTO FOCUS. It's the one Annie took of them at Thanksgiving. John and Sarah stand in the eerie red glow. She gently tongs the image into a bath of fixing solution. SARAH So you'll always remember me. With exquisite tenderness they kiss. John's palms shimmer. The intensity of the luminescence builds with their rising passion. They sink to the floor and the light crescendos in an ethereal flash that BLEACHES OUT THE FRAME. CUT TO: EXT. MARK'S HOUSE - NIGHT The spinning lights of a trio of fire trucks FLARE THE LENS. CREWS hose down the last smoking embers. A DEPUTY approaches Mark, who is standing by a police cruiser. DEPUTY The FBI showed up flashing their badges. Wanna talk to you. As he points to a black SUV that's parked down the street. INT. SUV - NIGHT Mark climbs in the back. He looks around nervously as the vehicle starts off. MARK Where are we going? Is this about the fire? It was an accident. 89. Only now do we REVERSE TO REVEAL THE MOGADORIAN COMMANDER sitting in the back. His face is masked in shadow. MOGADORIAN COMMANDER We're hunting for one of the guests at your party. He holds up a netbook which flashes with the FlipVideo footage of John's rescue of Sarah. It's posted on YouTube. MOGADORIAN COMMANDER Do you know this boy? MARK Yeah, John Smith. But I didn't invite him. MOGADORIAN COMMANDER He's a fugitive. We've been tracking him for some time. Mark smirks, vindicated. MARK I'll help you find him. He points to Sarah's image on the screen. MARK He's not at Sarah's, I already checked. And one of my dad's deputies drove by his house -- nada. MOGADORIAN COMMANDER He poses a great threat to us. Where else could he be? Mark pulls out his cell phone. MARK I've got Sarah's cell number, maybe you guys can trace it? The Commander takes the phone and passes it to one of his men in the front. He looks back at Mark. MOGADORIAN COMMANDER Tell me everything you know about John Smith. CUT TO: 90. INT. SAM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Sam is at the kitchen counter, watching the YouTube video on his laptop, when headlights bleed through the blinds. EXT. SAM'S HOUSE - NIGHT Sam steps out and reacts in surprise as Henri emerges through the headlight glare. HENRI John's not at the house. Is he here? SAM No, but he's all over the internet. HENRI I know. He turns back to his SUV. Sam follows. SAM Those things from Warsaw -- they're coming, aren't they? HENRI Go back inside. This isn't your fight. SAM The hell it isn't. I'm coming with you. OFF this declaration... CUT TO: INT. SCHOOL OFFICE - PARADISE HIGH - NIGHT The crystal pendant glints against John's chest as he grabs a ‚ÄúParadise High‚Äù sweatshirt from a supply closet and yanks it on. Sarah's phone suddenly RINGS, startling them. SARAH (INTO PHONE) Hello. She listens, then hands John the phone. SARAH It's Henri. INTERCUT WITH: 91. INT. SUV - NIGHT - MOVING Henri careens through the night with Bernie and Sam. HENRI (INTO PHONE) Where are you? JOHN High school. HENRI Get out now! At that moment, all the POWER in the school DIES and the headlights of an SUV flash across the window. Fear registers in John's eyes as he realizes... JOHN Too late... they're here. EXT. SUV - NIGHT The Commander climbs out. Mark follows but is distracted as a trio of black SUVs speeds into the lot followed by a tractor trailer from which inhuman GROWLS echo. MARK What the hell's in there? He looks back at the Commander who is arming up from the trunk of the SUV. Mark glimpses the arsenal of future-tech machine pistols, double-bladed swords and heavy-duty daggers. He backs away in fearful realization. MARK You guys aren't FBI. Before he can run, a Mogadorian Soldier grabs him by the neck and constrains him. The Commander pulls TWO BANDOLIERS over his broad shoulders. The cartridges are made of crystal and swirl with purple light. Finally, he slips on his trademark red coat and spins towards the school. INT. HALL - PARADISE HIGH - NIGHT One of John's hands holds Sarah's while the other lights their way as they hurtle down the passage. They've almost reached the doors when they suddenly fly open and A FIGURE 92. struts into view. We RECOGNIZE her as the mysterious Teen Girl. She swings up an awesome hand-cannon and FIRES right at them. THE BLAST scorches the air between John and Sarah but takes out the MOGADORIAN SOLDIER who was stalking up the hall behind them! John watches in shock as the Mogadorian keels over and SHATTERS into embers. John swings back to the Teen Girl as she strides forward. SHE IS NUMBER 6. SIX You oughta keep your heroics off the internet. JOHN Who the hell are you? SIX Number 6. Where's your Cepan? JOHN On his way. Where's yours? SIX Dead. The Mogs got her four months ago. We had been tracking them. She heads past. John and Sarah follow after her. JOHN Tracking them? SIX We discovered they plan to attack Earth. The only thing standing in their way is the six of us. The revelation hits John like a wrecking ball. SIX You know what that means? John nods with new purpose. JOHN The war starts tonight. SIX First we have to get out of here alive and find the others. Six leads them past the impressive trophy case. 93. JOHN What are we up against? SIX There's a commander, a bunch of soldiers and two Piken. They'll have all the main entrances covered. SARAH The gym, there's a tunnel under the stage. JOHN It'll take us out to the stadium. Six acknowledges that info with a curt nod. FOOTSTEPS. Six grabs John and Sarah by their arms and yanks them back against the wall. They hold their breath as one of the Mogadorian Soldiers prowls straight past. He stops for a moment, then turns the corner. Sarah looks across at the mirrored trophy case and sees there's no reflection. SARAH We're invisible. John realizes, turns to Six. JOHN You got any other Legacies? SIX I can control the elements. You? JOHN Lumen and telekinesis. More FOOTSTEPS. John turns and watches in horror as the Mogadorian Commander and a trio of Mogadorian Soldiers sweeps into view. The Commander is holding MARK. He is ashen with fear. Sarah has to catch herself from screaming. John makes a move, but Six holds him in place. SIX Stay put. They want to draw you out. JOHN He's not dying because of me! 94. ANGLE ON THE SOLDIERS AND MARK. They're heading past the trophy case when JOHN'S VOICE booms out of nowhere. JOHN (O.S.) Mark! Linoleum! Now! Mark rips free and hits the deck a second before the trophy case EXPLODES. Shards of glass rip into the Mogadorians and trophies torpedo off the shelves and impale the aliens against the far wall. The Mogadorians SCREAM as they flail. John, Sarah and Six break cover. John wrenches Mark to his feet and they take off running. They dash around the next corner and find HENRI, SAM AND BERNIE sprinting towards them, followed by two Mogadorians! Six raises her hand-cannon, BLOWS one of the Mogs away, while John safely leads everybody into... INT. LIBRARY - PARADISE HIGH - NIGHT SIX (TO JOHN) Barricade the doors! John telekinetically uproots a trio of bookcases that fly across the space and block the door. Sarah turns to Mark who is totally shell-shocked. SARAH What are you doing with them? MARK They said they were FBI. That John was a fugitive. What the hell's going on? SIX You've stumbled into a war. So shut up and keep your head down. HENRI I see age hasn't mellowed your attitude, 6. Mark turns to John, guilt-wracked. MARK I didn't know they were trying to kill you. (genuine, to John) I'm sorry. 95. JOHN This isn't your fault -- it's mine. He offers Mark his hand. Mark shakes it. Suddenly, Bernie begins to GROWL. SAM What is it, boy? Henri sees where Bernie is staring and realizes... HENRI He's telling us to run! They take off a second before A PIKEN PUMMEL-RAMS through the wall in a shower of bricks, books and paper. It utters a glass-shattering ROAR. John looks back and sees Bernie bravely holding his ground. JOHN Bernie! He watches as the beagle sprints forward and launches himself at the monster. Bernie clamps onto the Piken's neck. He's hopelessly outmatched and holds on for dear life as the Piken tries to buck him off. Then something amazing happens -- BERNIE BEGINS TO MORPH. He doubles, triples in size and keeps growing. His features become reptilian, gecko-like, his fur turns to spines and in a matter of moments Bernie has transformed into a hulking ALIEN CREATURE. John looks to Henri as the truth of Bernie's origin dawns. HENRI Bernie's a Chimera. He came with us from Lorien. JOHN Guess I wasn't the only one keeping secrets. HENRI Somebody had to watch you when I wasn't around. They exit while Bernie and the Piken continue to battle. 96. INT. HALL - PARADISE HIGH - NIGHT John and Henri catch up to the others. SARAH The gym's this way. A projectile HISSES past John's ear and DETONATES a row of lockers -- BOOOOOM! -- it's like an incendiary grenade. The paint blisters off the lockers as they are consumed by FIRE. JOHN sees two Mogadorian Soldiers hauling heavy-duty weapons that use the glass cartridges that glow on their ammo belts. One FIRES another round. John telekinetically RIPS a door off its hinges. It flies forward, blocks the charge and IGNITES. John spins back and SCREAMS -- JOHN Go! Go! Go! They take off. John follows and uses his telekinesis to fling cabinets, doors, benches anything he can to block the fiery onslaught. But the rounds are coming too fast and a projectile SMACKS him in the back. It's like being hit by napalm. As FLAMES wash across him, he looks up and snaps on THE SPRINKLER HEADS that run the length of the hall. A deluge sprays, dousing the fire. With his clothes smoking, John tears around the corner. The Mogadorians charge after him, but find SIX IS WAITING. BOOOOMM! BOOOOMM! She blasts them at point-blank range. Magenta light gushes from their wounds. Like rain hitting hot coals, their bodies HISS as they crack and cinder. SIX Keep moving! Henri, Mark, Sarah and Sam race out of view. Then John sees something emerge through the smoky, water-choked haze. IT'S THE SECOND PIKEN! It utters a low, predatory GROWL and launches itself forward. Oddly, Six doesn't move. She closes her eyes and lays one hand on the flooded floor, turning the water to ICE! 97. In a matter of moments, the hall has been transformed into an icy tunnel. The sprinklers spray snow. The Piken struggles to find purchase in this new frozen environment and slip- slides after John and Six, who disappear into... INT. CAFETERIA - PARADISE HIGH - NIGHT CRAAAAACK! The doors are DEMOLISHED as the Piken flails off the ice. It takes out a row of tables and chairs and skids to a stop. It ROARS in humiliated FURY, and its red eyes scan for John and Six who are nowhere to be seen. The Piken prowls behind the serving counter. Snow beads off its back. Its monstrous nostrils suddenly flare, sensing something. It hunches lower and peers at the trays and pans that are stored below. REVEAL JOHN AND SIX. They're invisible. John clutches Six's arm. They're lying between a stack of roasting dishes. Threads of foamy drool drip onto their faces as the Piken pokes its head further. Its ghoulish red eyes seem to stare right at them. With a final frustrated SNORT, it carries on. INT. HALL - PARADISE HIGH - NIGHT Henri, Sarah, Sam and Mark race into view. Sarah stops, panicked and afraid. SARAH Where's John? HENRI Right behind us. He offers her his hand. She's about to take it when A MOGADORIAN SOLDIER steps out of the shadows. There is nowhere and no time for Henri and the others to run. But as the Mogadorian squeezes the trigger of his hand-cannon, the wall on his right ERUPTS! Bernie and the first Piken crash into the hall. They are still at each other's throats and don't even notice as they steam-roller over the Mogadorian, squashing him like a bug. The creatures SMASH through the opposite wall and out of sight. It's over in a violent blink. INT. KITCHEN - PARADISE HIGH - NIGHT John and Six sneak through the shadows. She steps to the door, but it won't budge. 98. SIX They've blocked it. Use your telekinesis. JOHN We're not leaving without my friends. SIX Don't you mean the girl? John ignores the jibe and turns back. Six grabs his arm. SIX I broke the Elders' spell to find you. The Mogs can kill me now. We have to go. JOHN We stay and fight. OFF his determination... INT. HOME ECONOMICS ROOM - PARADISE HIGH - NIGHT Henri and Sam crouch behind one station while Sarah and Mark hide in the one opposite. Henri pulls a selection of weapons from the backpack. He hands one to Sam, looks over at Mark. HENRI You know how to use one of these? MARK My dad's the sheriff. He slides two across the floor. The door opens. They swing up to fire but find -- John and Six. JOHN Save it for the Mogs. Let's go! INT. LOCKER ROOM - PARADISE HIGH - NIGHT Bernie and the Piken pummel the rows of lockers which COLLAPSE like dominos. Gashed and exhausted, the battling duo SHATTER-SMASHES into THE SHOWER STALLS. Water SPURTS from a broken pipe. The Piken slips on the slick tiles. As it struggles to right itself, Bernie seizes the moment and sinks his fangs into the monster's neck. THE PIKEN 99. desperately thrashes. Its talons viciously rip into Bernie's side. Ignoring the pain, Bernie doesn't let go until his foe finally jerks to stillness. As Bernie sinks to the floor, he MORPHS back into a beagle and lies spent and bleeding... INT. GYM - PARADISE HIGH - NIGHT John leads the group past the bleachers and points to the side of the stage. JOHN The door's over here. The tunnel leads out to the stadium. Sarah sweeps back the curtain, revealing a padlocked set of metal doors. John holds up his hand, snaps the lock and whips the chain free. The doors fly open, TWO MOGADORIANS spring out of the dark. One tackles Henri while the other blindsides John. Henri struggles until BOOOOOM! The BLAST cinders the Mog's head clean off. Henri looks over and sees Mark holding a smoking shotgun and nods his thanks. The second has John pinned when it suddenly ROARS in agony and disintegrates into a shower of sparks, revealing SIX. She sheathes her dagger and helps John up. SIX Saving your life. My new hobby. Sarah notices a smile of respect flicker between John and Six. PHHHHHHT! PHHHHHHT! PHHHHHHT! -- three Mogadorian knives razor the air. One impales Six in the shoulder. She slumps at John's feet. Henri opens FIRE on the THE COMMANDER AND TWO MOGADORIAN SOLDIERS who storm towards them. John SCREAMS to Sam and Mark. JOHN (RE: SIX) Get her down the tunnel! They grab Six by the arms and drag her into the tunnel. Sarah glances back at John and follows after them. Henri takes out a Soldier. John sweeps up his hand and 100. THE WOODEN FLOOR OPENS LIKE A ZIPPER! The Commander and the other Soldier are sent flying as the planks rip free of their nails. John and Henri charge into the tunnel. The doors fly shut behind them and the bleacher stand rolls forward to seal the entrance. INT. TUNNEL - PARADISE HIGH - NIGHT Sarah is in the lead. Sam and Mark follow, holding the wounded Six. They've almost reached the end when A MOGADORIAN lurches into the mouth of the tunnel. Without a second's hesitation, Sam swings up his gun and BLASTS it. Mark looks at him in shock as they race through the embers. Sam shrugs. SAM I play a lot of Xbox. EXT. FOOTBALL STADIUM - PARADISE HIGH - NIGHT Sam, Mark, Six and Sarah hurtle across the field. When they reach the track, Sarah looks back and smiles with relief when John and Henri burst out of the tunnel. JOHN Don't stop! Get to the woods! She nods and exits with the others. John and Henri head onto the field after them when THE SECOND PIKEN leaps out of the mouth of the tunnel behind them. It's seriously pissed. It bounds straight towards John. Its fangs glint like barbed wire as it launches itself towards him. At the last second, HENRI nobly shoves John out of the way and is plucked into the Piken's jaws. The creature shakes him like a rag doll and flings him 50 feet down the field. John watches, anguished, as Henri lands in a heap. JOHN Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo! The Piken pivots, turns its crimson eyes on John. It almost seems to smirk. Its fangs are stained with Henri's blood. John's face hardens into a mask of rage. 101. He makes no attempt to flee as the Piken charges. As it springboards into the air... ANGLE ON JOHN'S HANDS -- as they suddenly clench. ANGLE ON THE GOALPOSTS -- as they're SNAPPED clean off their bases and fly skyward. ANGLE ON JOHN -- as the Piken's shadow washes across him. ANGLE ON THE PIKEN -- as it arcs towards John with its mouth open and teeth bared. Suddenly, the goalposts spear its flanks, impaling it like supersize BBQ forks. The three-ton killing machine drops out of the sky and smacks onto the 20-yard line. John watches impassively as the red life-fire dies in its eyes and its head lolls to one side. EXT. WOODS - NIGHT The stadium looms in the distance. Sam wrenches the dagger from Six's shoulder while Sarah and Mark anxiously watch. EXT. FOOTBALL STADIUM - PARADISE HIGH - NIGHT John sinks by Henri's side. JOHN Henri. Henri GROANS as John cradles his head. His coat is soaked with blood and his torso is horribly mauled. John tries to drag him to his feet. JOHN Come on, taillights in five. HENRI I won't be coming with you this time. Save yourself. JOHN We go together! Henri smiles, grateful, but at that moment THE COMMANDER'S SWORD flies past John and impales Henri in the chest. Henri utters a GROAN and his dying eyes meet John's. HENRI Find the others. His voice is a GRAVELLED WHISPER. 102. HENRI Your life is my life... always. His eyes flutter closed and he slips from John's grip. Anguished, John doesn't notice his pendant momentarily flicker with a radiant blue light. He angrily spins to face THE MOGADORIAN COMMANDER. But in a blur of speed, the Commander steps forward, wraps his hand around John's throat and plucks him into the air. He's flanked by the remaining Soldiers. John's feet kick uselessly as he's lifted face to face. MOGADORIAN COMMANDER Number 4. Three Loric pendants dangle from the Commander's belt like mocking trophies. MOGADORIAN COMMANDER Your Cepan saved you on Lorien. The Commander's voice hisses with cruel certainty. He wrenches his sword from Henri's corpse. MOGADORIAN COMMANDER But this moment was inevitable. The blade shimmers with silver flame as he raises it. John's eyes narrow as the sword sweeps towards him. This is the moment his adolescence officially ends. This is the moment when a warrior is born. ANGLE ON BLADE as it SHATTERS into a million pieces, which flutter to the ground like glittering confetti. John stares at the alien with calm confidence. JOHN Nothing is inevitable. ANGLE ON JOHN'S HAND AS IT IGNITES. The flame is hotter and brighter than 10,000 acetylene torches. He grips one of the Commander's bandoliers. TIGHT ON THE MOGADORIAN'S FACE as he realizes it's over. The glass cartridges detonate in a deadly chain reaction. IT'S LIKE A NUCLEAR IMPLOSION! 103. John, the Commander, the Mogadorian Soldiers, in fact every goddamn thing in the stadium is obliterated in the SUPERNOVA OF FIRE that radiates across the field like a blinding ring of hell. EXT. WOODS - NIGHT Sarah looks back as the blistering vortex of flame lights the night sky. Her breath catches in her throat. SARAH Oh my God... John. Before anyone can stop her, she takes off running, sprinting for the stadium. EXT. FOOTBALL STADIUM - PARADISE HIGH - NIGHT It's a smoking ruin. The seats have melted into puddles. Sarah bursts into view. She looks across the devastated field. The grass has been reduced to a charred black carpet of stubble. Nothing remains of Henri or the Mogadorians. SARAH John! She charges across the broiled expanse, hoping against hope. Then she sees John, lying motionless and naked, his clothes completely burned away. She stops, puts her hand to her mouth to stifle a sob, when he COUGHS and stirs. SARAH John! Ash swirls like snow as she races to his side. They wrap each other in their arms. Neither wanting to ever let go. CUT TO: EXT. PICNIC AREA - WOODS - DAWN The sky is cracked with the first light of day. Sarah is dressing Six's wound at a table. Six winces. SARAH Sorry, Girl Scout first aid didn't cover extraterrestrial dagger wounds. Six smiles, grateful. SIX Thanks. 104. As the two teens size each other up, CAMERA FINDS Mark. He hangs up his cell and crosses to John and Sam, who are talking intently by the motorcycles. John is now wearing a pair of old jeans and a faded denim jacket. MARK The Sheriff's Department is starting to put up roadblocks. You guys better get moving. Six and Sarah join them. JOHN You good to go? SIX Don't worry about me. John nods to Sam. JOHN Sam, ride with Six. SIX We don't need baggage. Sam steps in front of her, determined. SAM I have to find out if the Mogs took my dad. Six turns to John, who is not bending, then glares at Sam. SIX You slow us down, I'll shoot you myself. Sarah looks at John, tries to rein in her emotions. SARAH I want to come too. JOHN You need to stay here. SARAH Why? JOHN You could have died last night. I'm not putting you in danger again. Mark's promised to look after you. 105. Tears tumble down her cheeks. SARAH I don't want to say goodbye. JOHN I'll come back for you. SARAH When? JOHN When it's safe. She bows her head, anguished. He gently lifts her chin. JOHN Where I'm from, we only give our heart to one person. I've given mine to you. (BEAT) I love you, Sarah. Their lips meet and they kiss. It only ends when John hears an URGENT RUSTLE in the woods. They turn and watch as BERNIE KOSAR limps into view. Blood mats his fur and his face is scratched but he's alive. OFF John's relief... CUT TO: EXT. PICNIC AREA - DAY Sam sits behind Six on her motorcycle. John holds Bernie as he straddles his Harley. Bernie morphs into a gecko and darts into his pocket. Sarah studies John and Six, unsure. John THROTTLES the bike to life, then looks back at Sarah. He fights a pang of jealousy when he sees her standing at Mark's side. RAIN spits as the motorcycles start off. JOHN (V.O.) This is the first town I've left without Henri. The first one I have a reason to come back to. John and Sarah hold each other's gaze, desperately trying to brand the image of their faces onto their memories. EXT. ROAD - DAY The bikes blur past the ‚ÄúWelcome to Paradise‚Äù sign. 106. JOHN (V.O.) He warned me the pain would be unbearable if I left her. He was right. EXT. TEXAS PLAINS - DAY A straight stretch of blacktop bisects the sunbaked flatness. JOHN (V.O.) But I don't regret it. The pain reminds me what's at stake. A dust trail plumes as the bikes power into view. JOHN (V.O.) We must find the others and face our enemy together. I'm not sure how we can stop them. But nothing is inevitable. I know that now. Thunderheads darken the horizon. JOHN (V.O.) I am Number 4. His eyes are fearless and his face is undaunted by the battles yet to be fought. He's ready to face a future unmapped and uncharted. Ready. FADE OUT. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_I Love You Phillip Morris.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_I Love You Phillip Morris.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..a4b0192fc48cd56cd2bb9a403ac5feabb0ef0a08 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_I Love You Phillip Morris.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS A true story of life, love and prison breaks Written by Glenn Ficarra & John Requa Based on the book by Steve McVicker 4.27.20081 EXT. SKY - DAY 1 Fluffy white CLOUDS drift across a clear blue sky. TITLE CARD- "This really happened" FADE TO WHITE: TITLE CARD- "It really did" A dull WHINE is heard building in volume until finally- SMASH CUT TO:2 INT. TEXAS STATE PENITENTIARY HOSPITAL WARD - 1998 - DAY 2 Startled, STEVEN RUSSELL (40) opens his eyes. Gaunt and pale, he seems to be on death's door. The whine we once heard is now the high-pitched ALARM of medical equipment. The door BURSTS open. NURSES enter, rushing toward him. The nurses pass him and attend to the PATIENT in the next bed over, frantically administering CPR. SUPER: "TEXAS STATE PENITENTIARY INFIRMARY - 1998" A DOCTOR appears and pushes the nurses aside. DOCTOR Where's the crash cart!? He straddles the patient's chest and pushes down hard- the sound of a sternum CRACKING can be heard. Steven returns his gaze to the ceiling. A CHEERY VOICE counterpoints the bleakness of this scene. STEVEN (V.O.) (upbeat and happy) Love sure is a funny thing... It makes you happy. Makes you sad. Makes you do all sorts of things you never thought you'd do before. Love's the reason I'm here actually. SMASH CUT TO: "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 2.3 EXT. MARSHLAND - CHESAPEAKE BAY, VA - 1966 - DAY 3 A group of FOUR NINE YEAR OLDS lie in the grass atop a hill. They stare up at the clouds, playfully arguing. RED HAIRED BOY I still don't see it. LITTLE GIRL It's right there. A young STEVEN RUSSELL (9) is among them. YOUNG STEVEN It's really big. STEVEN'S MOM (O.S.) Steeeeeeeeeven... Steven looks down the hill to see his mother calling. STEVEN'S MOM (CONT'D) Steeeeeeeeeven...4 INT. LIVING ROOM CHESAPEAKE BAY, VA - 1966 - DAY 4 Young Steven sits in the middle of the couch. His PARENTS and 11 year old BROTHER stand before him. He stares at them- innocent and doe-eyed with a big smile on his face. STEVEN'S MOM Are you a happy little boy Steven? Steven smiles and nods. STEVEN'S MOM (CONT'D) You've always been such a happy little boy. (then) Now Steven, we want to tell you something very important, but I want you to understand that it doesn't change a thing. Steven awaits, smiling. STEVEN'S MOM (CONT'D) We're still gonna love you, you're still gonna be our happy little boy and you're still gonna-- STEVEN'S BROTHER You're adopted."I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 3. YOUNG STEVEN Shut up!He glares at his brother, then turns back to his mother.Her face says it all. STEVEN'S MOM It's true.WHACK! She SWATS his brother in the head. Steven startsputting things together. STEVEN'S MOM (CONT'D) Your brother overheard your Dad and I talking and well, we didn't want you to hear it from anybody but us. (then) It's true. You're a special little boy. You know why? Because we chose you. Not like your brother here who's natural. STEVEN'S DAD Your Mother's right. It's cause we love you. So we put some money in a brown paper bag and gave it to your real mom in the hospital parking lot so you could come home with us. Okay? STEVEN'S MOM It doesn't change a thing honey. We love you just as much as we love your brother here... (best of intentions) ...and he's natural. STEVEN'S DAD So son, are you okay?Steven smiles wide. YOUNG STEVEN Yes Daddy.As his parents prattle on, Steven's VO comes full. STEVEN (V.O.) It hurt a bit, but I decided I wasn't gonna let it get me down. No way. I was gonna be the best son- No, the best person I could be. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 4.5 I/E. VIRGINIA BEACH CHURCH OF GOD - 1984 - DAY 5 A joyous Sunday. OPEN ON the LETTER BOARD of THE VIRGINIA BEACH CHURCH OF GOD. The date reads, MARCH 1984. A congregation packs the church to the rafters as a Lawrence Welk-ish CHOIR praises Jesus to the tune of Hallelujah! We Shall Rise. Amidst this white-man's paradise sits a smiling and healthy STEVEN- playing the organ with a happy-stick planted firmly up his ass. As the joyous flock whoops it up, Steven winks to his wife (DEBBIE) and their 4 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER (STEPHANIE) who sit in the first row. Steven, oblivious, hits a sour note or two-- but keeps on playing with happy abandon. The crowd continues to enjoy the inspiring hymn.6 I/E. VIRGINIA BEACH POLICE STATION FRONT DESK, 1984 - DAY 6 A police receptionist (MANDI) at a switchboard in a small- town police station answers the phone. MANDI Virginia Beach Police Department, how may I direct your call? Steven enters in UNIFORM, smiling wide. Mandi waves happily. She covers the receiver and whispers. MANDI (CONT'D) Something came for you. As he nods and moves on he's greeted by a VARIOUS POLICEMEN. We can tell he's well liked. STEVEN Hey fellas. VARIOUS POLICEMAN Hey Steve, Steve, mornin', etc... Steven arrives at his desk to find a large FILE BOX. He turns it around to reveal writing on the side. It reads, "BASHAM, BRENDA"6A INT. STEVEN'S HOUSE, VIRGINIA BEACH - 1984 - NIGHT 6A Establishing of the empty parts of the home. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 5.7 INT. STEPHANIE'S BEDROOM (VIRGINIA, 1984) - NIGHT 7 Steven switches off the small lamp beside Stephanie's bed. He kisses her forehead. STEVEN Have lots of dreams... STEPHANIE (smiling) Okay.8 INT. STEVEN AND DEBBIE'S BEDROOM (VIRGINIA, 1984) - NIGHT 8 Steven and Debbie kneel at the edge of the bed, praying. DEBBIE ...and if it wasn't for you Jesus, I would have never found that last coffee filter and Prayer-Girls would have been ruined. So thank you for that. STEVEN Amen. Steven moves to get up but settles back in when she continues. DEBBIE And thank you for Steffie's allergy screen coming back all negative. I always knew it was in your plan for her to enjoy nuts. And finally I want to thank you for this man Jesus. This man who works so hard to make us happy without even a thought for himself. Steven smiles at that sentiment. Again he moves to get up when-- DEBBIE (CONT'D) This man who pursued me to the ends of the Earth and promised me a life of eternal happiness. A promise he has kept oh Lord. Every day. Amen. STEVEN Amen. Steven tries to get up again. Then- "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 6. DEBBIE Sometimes when I think of how happy I am, I just want to cry. Like the time when you-- STEVEN (politely) Okay let's wrap it up... DEBBIE And in your gracious name, I find thee and praise thee. Amen. STEVEN Amen. CUT TO:9 INT. STEVEN AND DEBBIE'S BEDROOM 1984 - NIGHT - LATER 9 CLICK. In bed with Debbie, Steven switches off the light and lets out a hearty YAWN. STEVEN I'm absolutely bushed. DEBBIE Me too. They turn on their sides, back to back in the bed. After a few moments of SILENCE, Steven rolls over and puts his arm around her, gently feeling her breasts. Debbie turns on her back and they kiss quietly as Steven quietly gets on top. In moments, they are rocking with the gentle rhythm of everyday sex. Just as things are peaking, Steven suddenly STOPS and strikes a conversational tone. STEVEN Deb- You know how, as a cop, I have lots of access? You know- records and things? DEBBIE (surprised) Steven- STEVEN (oblivious) Now do you think it's, you know, unethical, to use that to find my mother? "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 7. Debbie quickly realizes where his head is at. DEBBIE Oh... that. Yeah, um, well I don't know- STEVEN I swear honey- getting around the system's so easy. No one would even know I did it. DEBBIE I know you want to find her Steven, but you need to think about this. STEVEN You're right, I shouldn't have done it. DEBBIE You did it!? Oh my God, Steven- what'd you find? Steven shrugs. STEVEN I haven't looked. It's downstairs. DEBBIE Really? Well let's go! She moves to get up. Steven takes umbrage. STEVEN Well hold on- let me finish. DEBBIE Oh, right. Steven thrusts and tenses. STEVEN There- that's got it.10 INT. STEVEN AND DEBBIE'S HOUSE 1984 - DINING ROOM - NIGHT 10 Steven flips through the file box, reading through various pages. Debbie watches with compassion as he reads. Eventually he cracks an incredulous SMILE. DEBBIE What? STEVEN She's right here. She's been right here all this time. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 8. DEBBIE It's really her? STEVEN Yeah. No question. DEBBIE My goodness Steven, that's wonderful. He reads on, his smile ever widening until- He comes across something that concerns him and his voice trails off. His smile fades, replaced by a look of dread. Debbie grows concerned. DEBBIE (CONT'D) What? What is it? Steven? He cannot believe his eyes.11 EXT. BASCOMBE HOME, VIRGINIA, 1984 - DAY 11 Steven walks up to a middle class home and raps on the screen door. A kindly woman (MRS. BASCOMBE) arrives behind the mesh wearing a birthday PARTY HAT. MRS. BASCOMBE (alarmed) Is something wrong officer? STEVEN Are you Barbra Bascombe? MRS. BASCOMBE Yes. Is something wrong? Is someone hurt? STEVEN (lip quivering) In a manner of speaking, yes. You gave up a baby for adoption, correct? An ashen look overcomes Mrs. Basham's face. She removes her hat. MRS. BASCOMBE I don't think I know what you're talking about. Steven can see that behind her is a small FAMILY GATHERING at the table, grouped around a BIRTHDAY CAKE."I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 9. STEVEN Elizabeth City? St Jude's Hospital? Remember? MRS. BASCOMBE I don't know what you're talking about. STEVEN You were young. I know that you made a mistake giving me away, but- MRS. BASCOMBE Listen- STEVEN Shhhhhh. Mommy please- let me finish.What color that remains in her face drains away. STEVEN (CONT'D) We all make mistakes. What I came here to say is, I forgive you because none of us is perfect but now with a fresh start we can build --She SLAMS the door in his face. From behind the door- MRS. BASCOMBE (O.S.) I have no idea what you're talking about, Steven. STEVEN No, it's okay, I know everything. But it's fine. Just tell me why-- MRS. BASCOMBE (O.S.) Go away! STEVEN Okay, okay. I understand. It's a lot at once. But I can come back. How's that? I can come back later, I'll bring us some coffee and we can talk about... (suddenly furious) WHY YOU ABANDONED ME AND KEPT YOUR OTHER TWO CHILDREN! I WAS THE MIDDLE CHILD! WHAT WAS WRONG WITH ME?! WHAT WAS WRONG WITH ME!?Tears stream down Steven's face. He gets in his car andslams the door. And as he sits there trying to make senseof things... "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 10. STEVEN (V.O.) (CONT'D) I quit the force that day. I packed up the family and moved to Texas. I got a great job and got to living the American Dream.12 I/E RUSSELL HOUSE - HOUSTON - 1986 - DAY 12 The ideal suburban American barbecue is in full swing at the new Russell household. In a series of brief vignettes, Steven shows off the house, his family and his new corvette. CUT TO: A happy Steven moves through the backyard with a plate of meat fresh off the grill. Continuing past the buffet he enters the dining room to find SIX YEAR OLD STEPHANIE (same actress) happen past. Steven lovingly scoops her up without a thought. STEPHANIE I can't find my blue fish. DEBBIE (O.S.) Steven? He turns to see Debbie across the room talking to a YOUNG COUPLE. She waves him over. STEVEN (to Stephanie) In the laundry room. He puts her down and heads over to Debbie and the couple. DEBBIE Steven you haven't met our new neighbors down two and across the street- Neil and Sara. STEVEN No I haven't. I hope you're planning on changing the paint. What do you call that color? NEIL Oh we're changing it. They all burst into loud breaking-the-ice laughter."I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 11. STEVEN Good, good, good... good. NEIL So Debbie tells me you used to be in the police force back in Georgia. STEVEN Virginia Beach. NEIL Right. Sorry... SARA (embarrassed) Neil... STEVEN Yeah, kinda lost interest. Got back into the family business. NEIL Which is? STEVEN Produce. I work for Sysco. NEIL That's a big outfit. They give you that Corvette out there? STEVEN Yes sir-ee. DEBBIE Great benefits, too. STEVEN And the hours don't crush me either. I get plenty of home time. DEBBIE It's good to have him where I can keep an eye on him. STEVEN (suggestive) Among other things...Debbie gives an embarrassed GUFFAW as he smooches on her. SARA Ooooooh! Watch out! "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 12. And as they giggle and play wrestle...13 INT. HOUSTON APT. BEDROOM (TYLER) - 1986 - NIGHT 13 Amidst the moonlit shadows, the THUMPING of VIGOROUS LOVEMAKING is heard. It continues, getting louder and louder until we make out two forms doing it doggie-style in the bed. Building to the climax, Steven moans with pleasure. STEVEN I'm gonna come, I'm gonna come... Suddenly we see the face of the MOUSTACHED MAN he's fucking. MOUSTACHED MAN DO IT MAN! COME IN MY ASS! SMASH CUT TO:14 INT. TEXAS STATE PENITENTIARY HOSPITAL WARD - 1998 - DAY 14 We are back with Steven in his hospital bed at the Penitentiary. STEVEN (V.O.) Oh did I forget to mention I was gay? Yeah, sorry about that. I'm gay. Gay, gay, gay, gay, gay. Have been as long as I can remember... SMASH CUT TO:15 EXT. MARSHLAND - CHESAPEAKE BAY, VA - 1966 - DAY 15 WE'RE BACK on the hilltop from the beginning of the movie. Nine year old Steven and his three young FRIENDS crest the verdant hill- running and laughing through the backlit dandelion fluff of an idyllic summer day. They all collapse into the long grass like the splayed arms of a starfish. Catching their breath, they stare up at the sky- searching for shapes in the clouds. LITTLE GIRL I see a pony! What do you see!? "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 13. LITTLE BOY I see a diesel train! RED HAIRED BOY I see a whirlybird! YOUNG STEVEN I see a wiener. They look at him with incredulity. RED HAIRED BOY What?! What kind of wiener? YOUNG STEVEN A man's wiener. LITTLE BOY Shut up! There's no wiener! YOUNG STEVEN Uh huh! RED HAIRED BOY No there's not! There is a long silence. Then- LITTLE GIRL Oh I see it. There it is! YOUNG STEVEN Told ya... And as the other boys squint closely... STEVEN (V.O.) Anyway where was I? Oh yeah-- SMASH CUT TO:16 INT. HOUSTON BEDROOM - 1986 - NIGHT 16 Once again, the MOUSTACHED MAN throws his head back in the throes of lust. MOUSTACHED MAN DO IT MAN! COME IN MY ASS! Steven drives it home. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 14. STEVEN (V.O.) (matter of fact) And I did.17 EXT. HOUSTON APARTMENT DOORWAY, 1986 - LATER THAT NIGHT 17 The Moustached Man and Steven say goodbye at the door. STEVEN (V.O.) I had been living a lie for a long, long time. I tend to do that... hide things. MOUSTACHED MAN You be careful out there, you're a little drunk.18 EXT. HOUSTON STREET - 1986 - NIGHT 18 Steven drives his red Corvette, hard top removed, with a contented look on his face. He glows as the Pet Shop Boys' "West End Girls" plays on the radio. STEVEN (V.O.) Now just because I was screwing around doesn't mean I didn't love Debbie. I did. I loved her with all my heart... Stephanie too. My family was all I had and they needed me. So I told myself it was just a little lie and it was better for everybody if it stayed that way. (beat) That's what I told myself. But life has a way of forcing these things into the light. CRASH! A CROSSING PICKUP TRUCK smashes into the driver side door-- violently propelling steven and his corvette out of frame. STEVEN (V.O.) You might even call it an epiphany.19 OMITTED 1920 EXT. DITCH - HOUSTON, 1986 - LATER THAT NIGHT 20 Badly mangled and triaged, Steven stares intently at the night sky with his one good eye as Paramedics remove him from the ditch on a back-board. The remains of the corvette are all around. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 15. STEVEN (low murmur) I haven't lived my life. PARAMEDIC Try not to talk sir. STEVEN (bleary) Fuck you... No one is going to tell me what to do anymore. No more lies. I'm going to live my life. My way. Be the real me. Time for some good living. Buy what I want, do what I want, fuck who I want. My way. PARAMEDIC Okay sir whatever you say. STEVEN I'm gonna be a fag. PARAMEDIC Okay. STEVEN A big fag... PARAMEDIC Alright. (to other paramedic) Let's move.21 INT. HOUSTON HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - 1986 - NIGHT 21 Debbie walks alongside a DOCTOR, deeply concerned and listening to his assessment. STEVEN (V.O.) Yep, just like that I decided to start my life over and live it like the real me. No more lies. I was born again.22 INT. HOUSTON HOSPITAL - 1986 - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 22 Debbie enters the room to find Steven, bandaged and bristling with tubes. STEVEN (V.O.) It would be hard to break it to Debbie, but I knew I'd find a way... "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 16. He turns his head to her and smiles wide. STEVEN Honey, I'm gay! Debbie freezes, she can't believe her ears. And as she stares at his smiling face in shock... STEVEN (V.O.) (CONT'D) To my surprise, we stayed friends. (then) And I was finally free. FADE IN:23 EXT. STREET - SOUTH BEACH FLORIDA - 1992 - DAY 23 VINTAGE MAMBO MUSIC. Palm trees line an upscale Palm Beach shopping district. Well-heeled nabobs cruise the boulevard, shopping and being seen. Two MINIATURE DOBERMAN PINSCHERS on a tandem leash appear from around a corner soon followed by the NEW STEVEN with a handsome young man on his arm (JIMMY KEMPLE). Steven's pajama-like clothes, perfect tan and loose demeanor make him the very essence of a man with new found freedoms. STEVEN (V.O.) Life was good. Everything was falling right into place. I moved to Florida, got a new job, had two adorable pups, I was dating a cute guy named Jimmy. I could do anything I wanted...24 INT. GAY CLUB - MIAMI, 1992 - NIGHT 24 DANCE MUSIC THUMPS as Steven passes around a tray of drinks to friends. STEVEN (V.O.) But it didn't take me long to realize something that never occurred to me before. Actually no one ever talks about this but... When everyone is served, he raises his glass and let's loose a PARTY HOOT. They concur and drink. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 17. STEVEN (V.O.) ...being gay is really expensive. (beat) It is. Steven leans over and makes out with Kemple.25 QUICK MONTAGE 25 QUICK CUTS of Steven enjoying his gay life with Kemple at BOUTIQUES, SALONS, RESORTS, GYMS, HAUTE CUISINE RESTAURANTS, etc... STEVEN (V.O.) I mean it's not just sucking cock. It's wardrobe, it's hair, personal trainers, big labels, resorts, fine dining... it goes on and on and on. So I needed money. And for a guy without a college education, my options were limited.26 INT. GROCERY STORE - MIAMI, 1992 - DAY 26 Steven inexplicably pours cooking oil out onto a grocery store aisle with a basket slung over his arm. STEVEN (V.O.) So I had no choice-- (beat, giddy) I became a con man! SLIP-WHAM! Steven throws himself in the air and falls flat on his back with a scream. STEVEN (V.O.) Of course that was easy for me, every closet case is a con anyways. And as people gather around, he grasps his neck and moans litigiously--27 INT. LAW OFFICE - MIAMI, 1992 - DAY 27 OPEN CLOSE on A PARALEGAL. She opens a briefcase and removes an envelope. CUT TO REVEAL Steven holding crutches at his side, across from a few LAWYERS. The paralegal hands him the envelope. LAWYER Your check. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 18. STEVEN Thank you. With great difficulty, Steven gets on his crutches and makes his exit. STEVEN (V.O.) (CONT'D) Now it didn't happen all at once. It was sort of a gradual thing...28 EXT. GROCERY RECEIVING DOCK - MIAMI, 1992 - DAY 28 An OLD WAREHOUSE MANAGER emerges from a darkened AMITY FOODSERVICE trailer with a crate of tomatoes in hand. As he steps out onto the dock, he passes Steven, who is talking with a 500 pound PRODUCE MANAGER. Tomato crates are all around. STEVEN (V.O.) It started with work. Tomatoes. I used to buy low grade tomatoes in the field and sell them to clueless chain stores as higher grade. PRODUCE MANAGER These are gorgeous. U.S-1 right? STEVEN (big smile) Finest in the land... And as they talk- STEVEN (V.O.) (CONT'D) It's called `field buying'. I could clear three thousand dollars in a good week doing that. But frankly it wasn't enough.29 INT. MIAMI JEWELRY STORE - MIAMI 1992 - DAY 29 Steven stands before a SALESPERSON at a counter. SALESWOMAN Cash or charge? STEVEN Charge... Steven flips through a handful of identical CREDIT CARDS. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 19. STEVEN (CONT'D) (sotto) Steven A Russell, Steven G Russell, Steven M Russell, Doctor Steven M Russell, Doctor Steven J Russell... (seeing one he likes) Ah! He gives a card to a smiling SALESWOMAN. SALESWOMAN Thank you... (reading card) ...Mister Evans. Can I see some ID? STEVEN Of course. And as Steven riffles through an equally large stack of DRIVER'S LICENSES...30 INT. DEPARTMENT STORE - MIAMI 1992 - DAY 30 Steven stands atop a escalator, looking around. STEVEN (V.O.) But when money got really tight, the slip and fall always came in handy. He throws himself down the escalator, out of frame to the floor below. Painful tumbling is heard. At the BOTTOM of the escalator a hard THUD is heard. A beat later, Steven's feet slide into frame.31 INT. PALM BEACH APARTMENT - 1992 - LIVING ROOM - MORNING 31 CHRISTMAS MUSIC. Dressed in pajamas, Steven and Kemple sit cross-legged at the base of their Christmas Tree, surrounded by torn paper and strewn gifts. Steven's arm is in a cast. Kemple opens a hinged case to reveal a GOLD Rolex watch. KEMPLE Oh wow... STEVEN What do you think? Yes? "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 20. KEMPLE Well Steven it's beautiful. It really is. STEVEN You don't like it. KEMPLE No, no, no. I do. STEVEN You don't like it. KEMPLE I'm menstruating. Don't listen to me. STEVEN Tell me what's wrong with it. Is it the gold? KEMPLE Well... STEVEN That's why I got you the stainless! He takes out another box and hands it to Kemple. KEMPLE Steven! As he opens it, Steven grabs the gold Rolex. STEVEN The gold one is for me, dipshit. Kemple smiles broadly as he admires his new watch. The PHONE RINGS. Steven rushes to answer it. STEVEN (CONT'D) Merry Christmas!32 INT. DEBBIE'S HOUSTON HOME, 1992 - MORNING - CONTINUOUS 32 Debbie, on the phone, is INTERCUT. Stephanie is in the background, opening gifts at the base of their tree. DEBBIE Merry Christmas. STEVEN Hi Debbie!"I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 21. DEBBIE How's Jimmy? STEVEN Good. Did you get the gifts? DEBBIE Well that's why I'm calling...CUT WIDE to reveal a GIFT BOX FILLED WITH STACKS OF CASH. STEVEN You're welcome! DEBBIE I can't keep this. STEVEN Why not? DEBBIE Well... it's not Christian. STEVEN Not Christian? Why's that? DEBBIE This is not what the Lord wants. STEVEN So you're saying you know what the Lord wants? DEBBIE No. I would never say that. Why? Do you think this is what he wants? STEVEN It's the leap of faith Deb. It's the not knowing that's the answer.This gets traction with Debbie. DEBBIE Well I never thought about it that way... STEPHANIE (O.S.) Mommy look!CUT TO REVEAL Stephanie has her own BOX OF CASH. DEBBIE Steven! "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 22. And as Steven listens to Debbie's rant-- STEVEN (V.O.) Of course, Jimmy and Debbie had no idea what I was up to. For the time being, at least...33 INT. AMITY FOOD SERVICE - MIAMI, 1992 - MORNING 33 Steven exits an elevator and saunters into work, happy as ever. He passes the AMITY FOODSERVICE Logo and a CHERUBIC SECRETARY. STEVEN Morning Sandy! CHERUBIC SECRETARY Morning Steven. You have visitors. STEVEN Okey-dokey! Steven quickly gets a deeply concerned look on his face as he approaches his office. The door is slightly ajar. He secretly peeks in to see... TWO FEDERAL MARSHALLS wait in Steven's office. He instantly knows what's going on. STEVEN (V.O.) (CONT'D) Federal Marshalls... CUT TO:34 INT. AMITY FOOD SERVICE - MIAMI, 1992 - MORNING 34 Steven paces nervously outside the elevator, growing more and more anxious as he waits. STEVEN (V.O.) They wanted me for all sorts of stuff- Insurance fraud, identity theft, passport fraud. They were probably gonna extradite me all the way back to Texas. I had to decide what to do next. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 23.34A EXT. PALM BEACH APARTMENT - 1992 - DAY 34A Steven's Ford Bronco cruises past the apartment building to find a few POLICE CARS parked outside. He drives on. SMASH CUT TO:35 EXT. ABANDONED LOT - FLORIDA, 1992 - DAY 35 Steven BLUBBERS TO HIMSELF inside his Bronco which is parked in a bleak lot near a looming billboard. STEVEN (V.O.) But one thing was for sure-- I was not gonna let them put me away. I was a cop and I knew what jail was like. And there was no way I was going there. I had a plan. He continues to CRY uncontrollably as he raises a PRESCRIPTION BOTTLE and dumps all the pills into his mouth. He reaches into the back seat and pulls out a bottle of Galliano to wash it down. He starts up the car. STEVEN (V.O.) Yep. Everything was gonna be just fine.36 EXT. ROAD - FLORIDA 1992 - DAY 36 CARS PASS through frame, quickly heading wherever it is they are going. Moments later, a car horn is heard, incessantly blaring and building in volume until-- STEVEN'S CAR IDLES INTO FRAME AT 1 MPH. The Heights', "How Do You Talk To An Angel" is barely audible over the car horn and STEVEN is slumped over the steering wheel. Moments later, it veers off down into the grassy shoulder and out of frame. FADE OUT.37 INT. PALM BEACH HOSPITAL - 1992 - MORNING 37 Steven awakes in a hospital bed. He looks around and eventually looks through the observation glass into the hallway. He sees Debbie talking to a COP. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 24. KEMPLE (O.S.) Hey... He readjusts to see Jimmy sitting nearby. STEVEN (bleary) Sorry. KEMPLE Why didn't you tell me? STEVEN I can't go to prison, Jimmy. I can't. I can't go to prison. I can't. I can't... KEMPLE Okay-okay calm down. It's okay. I just want to tell them you're awake and we can take it from there. Confident that Steven is calm, Jimmy steps into the hall.38 INT. PALM BEACH HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - 1992 - CONTINUOUS 38 Jimmy joins Debbie and the Cop in the hallway. Steven is visible in bed through the glass. DEBBIE Did you know Steven was wanted? KEMPLE Not until just now. DEBBIE He likes to keep little secrets sometimes. KEMPLE Like the fact that he was a big queer? DEBBIE Yeah, like that. KEMPLE But suicide, my god. DEBBIE Well he does tend to overreact. KEMPLE I feel like I don't even know him."I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 25. DEBBIE Well Jimmy, that's the thing. I'm not really sure he knows who he is. He's searching, at least that's how I figure it. I'm just not sure he knows what it is he's looking for. KEMPLE (to cop) Can you tell me exactly what he did?As they CONTINUE TO TALK, they fail to notice Stevengetting out of bed and looking around blearily.He picks up a bedpan, reaches into his gown and absent-mindedly PISSES-- missing the pan completely. COP He has several warrants out in Texas. Fraud, forgery, embezzlement... DEBBIE What? KEMPLE I should have known... I should have said something. DEBBIE Don't blame yourself Jimmy... I did the same thing. There were always signs. I should have known he was gay when he started shaving his chest. KEMPLE That would be a warning sign... DEBBIE And all that Peter Allen music on his Walkman. KEMPLE Denial is a powerful thing. I don't feel so bad now. DEBBIE I just never thought. But now stealing? KEMPLE He's probably been doing it for years. I say to myself he did it just to buy me things but I don't think that's true. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 26. DEBBIE It's bigger than that. I'm sure. KEMPLE But why then? DEBBIE And why suicide? I mean- just like that? After that, he dresses and walks out the door behind them. KEMPLE I know- he seemed so happy and-- Just then Debbie notices Steven is not in bed and looks up in time to see him disappearing around the corner. DEBBIE Steven!!!39 EXT. PALM BEACH HOSPITAL PARKING STRUCTURE - 1992 - DAY 39 Debbie, Kemple and the Cop exit the hospital and look around frantically. They spot him running across the open air lot and give chase. Steven comes to a stairwell door. It's locked. He runs some more and finds himself cornered at the guard rail. KEMPLE Steven!!! Stop! Kemple, Debbie and the cop slowly approach. Steven glances over the guard rail. ONE FLOOR DOWN is an OPENED DUMPSTER. KEMPLE (CONT'D) Steven! Steven looks down again. Kemple knows what he's thinking. KEMPLE (CONT'D) Wait Steven. Don't! Steven looks down. The soft bags of trash below beckon him to freedom. KEMPLE (CONT'D) Steven I'm serious! You stop or you'll never see me again! (no response) I mean it! "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 27. Steven looks to Kemple and then to the Cop right behind him. HE JUMPS and-- KEMPLE (CONT'D) STEVEN! They run to the guard rail and look over to see-- Steven lies MOANING and delirious on his back NEXT TO THE DUMPSTER. FADE OUT.40 EXT. TX STATE PENITENTIARY BREEZEWAY, 1995 - DAY 40 As inmates CHANT and STOMP, a new inmate walks the line to his new cell clutching his prison issue belongings. Although we can only see him from behind, we can only assume this is Steven. He continues his walk amidst a shower of stares and JEERS and THREATS raining upon him. INMATES (yelling)40A INT. TX STATE PENITENTIARY CELL BLOCK, 1995 - DAY 40A The unseen inmate continues past the open cells of his new home and eventually the unseen inmate enters a cell to find--41 INT. TX STATE PENITENTIARY PRISON CELL, 1995 - CONTINUOUS 41 STEVEN is reclined on his bunk, relaxed and ready to greet the inmate (his new cellmate ARNIE) with a smile. STEVEN Hi. Welcome to prison. I'm Steven. Arnie is scared. Terrified. Speechless. STEVEN (CONT'D) Oh don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you. First time? He nods. STEVEN (CONT'D) Shit, I was so scared when I first got here. But you get used to it. (MORE) "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 28. STEVEN (CONT'D) Only took me a year. You just need to know a few ins and outs and you'll be fine.42 EXT. TX STATE PENITENTIARY BREEZEWAY, 1995 - DAY 42 Steven escorts Arnie through the prison, waving to various inmates and guards along the way. STEVEN (upbeat) You're gonna catch a beating any day now, that's just the way it is. I lost three teeth and cracked a vertebrae. Anyway, all you need to do is fight back. Win or lose, just fight back. (then) Or you could try to suck the guys' dick. Your choice. He moves on.43 INT. TX STATE PENITENTIARY LAW LIBRARY - 1995 - DAY 43 Steven and Arnie stand at the door of the prison's law library. STEVEN Law Library. I pretty much live here. I don't really have anyone on the outside except my ex-wife- so I just hunker down here learning everything there is to know about the law. Ask me anything. Arnie has no response. Steven points across the library where a menacing OLDER INMATE studies a law book. STEVEN (CONT'D) See him. Over there? Him? Anything you want from outside, he's the guy. Candy, cigarettes, drugs, whatever. He's the guy. (then) Just keep in mind- it's gonna cost you a lot of money. Or you could suck his dick. Your choice.44 INT. TX STATE PENITENTIARY CAFETERIA - 1995 - DAY 44 Steven and Arnie stand outside the empty cafeteria. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 29. STEVEN Three meals a day. Not so bad. Just make sure if you make enemies with someone, he doesn't work here. Otherwise you'll wake up one morning shitting blood and find out you've been eating ground glass in your cornbread for six weeks. Arnie notices one of the INMATES working in the kitchen SPITTING a loogey into the mashed potatoes. He mixes it in and CACKLES with glee. Steven pays no mind. STEVEN (CONT'D) Let me introduce you to the mail guy. His name's Gary.45 EXT. TX STATE PENITENTIARY BREEZEWAY, 1995 - DAY 45 A mean-looking con named GARY mans a mail-cart while he talks with Steven and Arnie. GARY (mid-sentence) ...letters, magazines, shit like that- it all goes through unmolested. But if Grandma's sending you cookies, or porn or brownies or whatever-- you're gonna have to pay for it if you wanna get it. Five bucks per item or you can suck my dick. Steven turns to Arnie. STEVEN Your choice.46 INT. TX STATE PENITENTIARY CELL BLOCK - 1995 - DAY 46 Steven and Arnie arrive at the doorway of their cell. STEVEN Well that's about it. You're gonna be fine. Don't worry. And if you need anything you just let me know. Alright? Arnie thinks a moment. ARNIE So, uh, do I need to suck your dick? "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 30. STEVEN That'd be great. Steven gently shoves his new cellmate into the cell.47 INT. TX STATE PEN - PHONE BANK/COMMON AREA - 1995 - DAY 47 Steven is on one of the many pay phones. DEBBIE (O.S.) Hi this is Debbie and Steffie. Sorry we missed you. Leave a message. God Bless! BEEP. STEVEN Hey Debbie. Hi Sweetheart. Sorry I missed you. I thought one o'clock was our time but maybe not. I sure miss you guys. Thanks for the picture and the article. Sometimes it's just nice to know there's someone out there who still cares about me since Jimmy left and all. So... uh... Steven is holding the stainless steel ROLEX he gave Kemple as a gift. He regards it wistfully. STEVEN (CONT'D) (thinking, drifting) Do you think I broke his heart? (snapping out of it) Sorry. Sometimes I forget it's just the machine... I'll try you again next time. One O'clock. Don't forget. He hangs up. Bored and lonely, he has a moment of repose. Just then, a loud RUCKUS across the COMMON AREA gets his attention. Steven watches as a group of ROWDY PRISONERS throw whatever they can find at a small BIRD as it flies around, trapped in the cavernous hall. The men LAUGH and HOOT as the bird is struck down and lies motionless on the ground. As the prisoners resume their activities, Steven notices a GENTLE LOOKING INMATE approaching the bird. Rapt, Steven watches as the inmate sympathetically scoops up the bird and walks off. Steven is quite taken. CUT TO: "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 31.48 INT. TX STATE PENITENTIARY - LAW LIBRARY - 1995 - DAY 48 The gentle inmate, PHILLIP MORRIS, is a slightly built, handsome blonde boy-man. He struggles to reach a book on a high shelf. Helpless and irresistible, he is surprised when Steven reaches in to help retrieve the book. Their eyes lock and they stare in a short silence, until- PHILLIP (slightly Blanche DuBois) Thanks. Guess I need a few extra inches. STEVEN Glad to help. How's the bird? PHILLIP Huh? (realizing) Oh. Him, yeah... he's at peace. STEVEN Oh, I'm sorry. PHILLIP It was for the best. He was suffering. Steven acknowledges his kindness with a smile. STEVEN (referring to law book) Civil law? You know, I'm an attorney. PHILLIP Really? STEVEN You suing someone? PHILLIP I don't know what I'm doing. There's a guy I know- he's in the infirmary now. He's sick- he's real sick... AIDS. I thought maybe I could find a way to get him some help- I mean real help. Not here. I don't know- maybe I could-- I don't even know what I'm looking for... Steven is intrigued. STEVEN Does he have a lawyer?"I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 32. PHILLIP Yeah. STEVEN Have him get in touch with the Prisoner Rights Committee. They deal with this all the time- pro bono. I've got the number. PHILLIP Well thank you, I-- STEVEN My name's Steven Russell. PHILLIP Pleased to meet you Steven Russell, my name's Phillip Morris. STEVEN I haven't seen you around Phillip. I'm always in the yard... PHILLIP I don't go to the yard. You know what happens to blonde haired, blue eyed queers in the yard... STEVEN It is kind of rough out there. (then) You don't look like you belong here Phillip. PHILLIP I don't. STEVEN Why are you here? PHILLIP I rented a car... and kept it too long. STEVEN Grand theft? PHILLIP Theft of service. STEVEN Insurance fraud. PHILLIP No. Just theft of service. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 33. STEVEN No. Me. Insurance fraud. PHILLIP Damn, we're both in a mess aren't we? STEVEN Don't seem fair, does it? PHILLIP No, it don't. STEVEN You know, I keep finding that life's a little shittier than I thought it was gonna be. PHILLIP Oh, listen to you, Gloomy Gus. I think you're gonna be just fine, Steven Russell. Steven takes this to heart. STEVEN (playful) I guess I'm inclined to believe you. PHILLIP Why's that? STEVEN I met you today, didn't I? Phillip smiles.49 INT. TX STATE PENITENTIARY - LAW LIBRARY - 1995 - LATER 49 Steven sits close to Phillip at a table. A large open law text lies between them. STEVEN (mid-sentence) ...I made the mistake of writing her and saying I was lonely in here. And next thing you know, my ex-wife catches her putting the neighbor's puppy in a box to mail to me. PHILLIP Ohhhhh, she sounds so sweet..."I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 34. STEVEN Oh she's an angel. (then) I think I'll be sure to write her back and tell her I'm not lonely anymore... that I made a good friend.Phillip smirks for a moment, but soon Steven notices thesmirk turn to a reticent frown. STEVEN (CONT'D) What? PHILLIP Why'd I have to meet you today? STEVEN Something wrong? PHILLIP It's just- I'm being transferred to Michael Unit today. STEVEN What? PHILLIP I'm sorry. STEVEN Don't be sorry. It's just across the yard. PHILLIP Well I don't go into that yard so it might as well be Oklahoma. (then) Just figures with my luck. I was born Friday the 13th... STEVEN It's not gonna change a thing, Phillip. In fact, Friday the 13th's my lucky day. Don't worry, this right here. This is destiny. PHILLIP But we only just met. STEVEN Listen, I've loved a lot. And I've been around, so I recognize the feeling. (MORE) "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 35. STEVEN (CONT'D) That one you and me are having right now- the one you're trying to forget exists because you're going away. But there's about 6000 volts shooting across this table here and you know you can't deny it. PHILLIP Don't you think you're coming on a little strong? STEVEN I know you're trying to protect yourself, I get that. It's fine. Give me a chance to prove you wrong. Phillip is melting but tries to hide it. PHILLIP I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. Steven smiles wide as if to throw down the gauntlet. STEVEN Good... Phillip turns to walk away and hides his giddyness.50 INT. TX STATE PENITENTIARY - MICHAEL UNIT, 1995 - DAY 50 Phillip passes the cells of Michael Unit, clutching his belongings and soon enters his cell. He looks around sheepishly until he is interrupted- CLEAVON (O.S.) You Phillip? Phillip turns to see CLEAVON- a huge black inmate mopping the hall outside his cell PHILLIP Yes. He tosses Phillip a folded note. He catches it and looks at it with a smile. PHILLIP (CONT'D) Already? Phillip opens it up. As he reads, his face brightens considerably. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 36. STEVEN (V.O.) Phillip, hope your new place is nice. Nice enough anyway. I hope the chocolate made it to you okay. Check the T.P. Phillip looks at the spare roll of toilet paper and turns it over. A small chocolate bar is stuck in the tube. STEVEN (V.O.) I hope you try to make some new friends and not be too shy. I guess I should tell you a little bit about myself... DISSOLVE TO:51 INT. TX STATE PEN - MICHAEL UNIT - PHILLIP'S CELL - DAY 51 OPEN CLOSE ON a note as Phillip scrawls it. PHILLIP (V.O.) Dear Steven. I keep thinking about you saying I'm shy. I guess you're right, but I don't feel shy around you. I think that means something... As his VO continues, Phillip folds up the paper and passes it through the bars back to Cleavon.52 INT./EXT. TX STATE PENITENTIARY, 1995 (MONTAGE) 52 VARIOUS SHOTS as we follow the note being passed by different hands and means throughout the prison on its way to Steven. PHILLIP (V.O.) Anyway thanks for the chocolate, but I should tell you I'm diabetic so I probably shouldn't... but I did anyway. It's been so long since anyone's shown me any kindness and well, it means a lot. I just wish you were here...53 INT. TX STATE PEN, 1995 - STEVEN'S CELL - CONTINUOUS 53 Steven reads the letter on his bunk. PHILLIP (V.O.) ...Write me back soon. Phillip. Steven finishes the letter and folds it up, looking strangely expressionless. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 37.54 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - PHILLIP'S CELL - DAY 54 Phillip peers out of his cell to see Cleavon working his way nearer with his mop. He's giddy. Moments later, Cleavon passes him by. Phillip is bummed.55 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - PHILLIP'S CELL - NEXT DAY 55 Again Phillip watches as Cleavon passes his cell without leaving a note.56 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - PHILLIP'S CELL - NEXT DAY 56 Phillip lays in bed, impatiently. He seems upset. He anxiously peers out the bars and catches a glimpse of the mopping Cleavon working his way closer to his cell. PHILLIP Hurry up would you? CLEAVON I ain't no motherfucking DHL, faggot. Besides I ain't got nothing for you anyway... PHILLIP But it's been three days. CLEAVON You got a tracking number, motherfucker? PHILLIP No. CLEAVON Then shut your faggot ass. Phillip slumps back onto his bed, depressed. PHILLIP Congratulations Phillip, scared off another one. A few moments later, he's startled by the CLANG of his cell door sliding open. He looks up - a CORRECTIONS OFFICER stands over him. CORRECTIONS OFFICER Morris - you got a new roommate. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 38. This is no consolation to Phillip. He heaves a heavy sigh until he sees STEVEN enter his cell, clutching a pile of belongings. Phillip is overwhelmed as the cell door slams shut behind Steven. PHILLIP Oh my God. How the hell did you do this? Steven slowly moves closer. STEVEN I know a guy. I took care of it. I'm gonna take care of everything... Steven gently caresses Phillip's face. Phillip is melting. Then suddenly, Phillip grabs Steven's ass. PHILLIP Enough romance, let's fuck. They launch themselves onto the bunk and as they get to business... FADE OUT.57 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - PHILLIP'S CELL - THAT NIGHT 57 Phillip and Steven spoon in a glowing post-coital cuddle. PHILLIP And for a while I was Executive Assistant to a Broadway Producer... STEVEN Really? What's a Broadway producer doing in Atlanta? PHILLIP I didn't ask. STEVEN What'd you do for him? PHILLIP I mainly just rode around town in his limo, drinking and sucking him off. There's a moment of silence, then a realization... "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 39. PHILLIP (CONT'D) Now that I hear myself say it, I think he was just some rich chicken hawk. They get a GIGGLE out of this. PHILLIP (CONT'D) Oh well, he was a nice guy. I only dated him for a little while anyway. Then I dated this full-blooded Apache who made me dress up like a baseball player. STEVEN Apache? What was his name? PHILLIP Melvin. STEVEN Phillip- you amaze me. PHILLIP What? He was a nice guy too. STEVEN That's what I'm saying- you only see the good. Phillip shrugs, but before he can reply- a piercing human SCREECH interrupts him. STEVEN (CONT'D) What the hell was that? CUT TO:58 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - SCREECHER'S CELL - NIGHT 58 The inmate who spit a loogey into the mashed potatoes in the cafeteria is sitting up on his bed, SCREECHING at the top of his lungs. This is "THE SCREECHER" BACK TO: Phillip continues to talk. PHILLIP That's the Screecher next door. He does it all night. I never get any sleep. He drives me crazy. STEVEN You poor thing. How awful... "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 40. The Screecher continues his routine. FADE OUT.59 OMITTED 5960 EXT. TEXAS STATE PEN CANTEEN, 1995 - - DAY 60 Phillip emerges from the line munching on a candy bar when he notices a ruckus on the other side of the fence. He wanders over to see a LARGE PRISONER beating the crap out of the Screecher. LARGE PRISONER I'm gonna cut out your motherfucking tongue with your screeching all night. As guards descend on the two, the Large Prisoner continues to beat on the screeching SCREECHER. Phillip sidles up next to a BALD PRISONER. PHILLIP What does he care- he ain't in our block... BALD PRISONER Someone probably paid him.61 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - PHILLIP'S CELL - LATER 61 Reclined on his bunk, Steven does a crossword puzzle. Phillip enters, standing by the door. PHILLIP Get up... Steven sits up. PHILLIP (CONT'D) Did you pay to have the Screecher beat up? STEVEN Me? PHILLIP Don't bullshit me. Did you pay to have him beat up? "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 41. STEVEN Well you said he bothered you. PHILLIP Just answer me. STEVEN Yeah. Yeah, I did. PHILLIP Steven... A tear comes to Phillip's eye. PHILLIP (CONT'D) This is the most romantic thing anyone's ever done for me. He clamps onto Steven and hugs with all his life. STEVEN I just want you to be happy, baby. PHILLIP You are so amazing!!! And as they roll on the bed playfully...62 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - CLEAVON'S CELL - NIGHT 62 CLEAVON lays on his cot staring at the ceiling. Eventually a hand enters through the bars holding a cassette tape. PHILLIP (O.S.) Cleavon- put this in. CLEAVON No man- not now. PHILLIP (O.S.) It's important. CLEAVON How important? Phillip's hand disappears for a moment and comes back with a FIVE DOLLAR BILL. CLEAVON (CONT'D) Ten. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 42. PHILLIP (O.S.) Fine. But you gotta play the whole thing. CLEAVON Yeah, alright. PHILLIP (O.S.) Promise? CLEAVON Fuck you- my word's my bond motherfucker. Cleavon takes the cash and puts the tape in a BOOM BOX. A familiar romantic TUNE begins to play... CLEAVON (CONT'D) Fuck man- Johnny Mathis? Fucking white- ass nigger... He buries his head in the pillow as "Chances Are" plays.63 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - PHILLIP'S CELL - NIGHT 63 As the MUSIC seeps into their dark cell, Steven reads a LAW BOOK by pen light. Phillip grabs Steven's hand and tries to pull him off the bed. PHILLIP C'mon... STEVEN What? PHILLIP C'mon. Dance. STEVEN No. No... I can't dance. PHILLIP Yes you can. STEVEN No I can't. I'm serious... PHILLIP Honey, you're queer- it comes with the package. STEVEN Well not me. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 43. PHILLIP C'mon, I'll show you... He drags him up and begins his lesson. PHILLIP (CONT'D) Hold me here... and here. Okay watch... Steven stumbles his way through the slow dance for a while, but with Phillip's help he begins to settle in. Soon they are nestled into each other, swaying sweetly to the music.64 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - COMMON AREA - NIGHT 64 The MUSIC CONTINUES as a group of prisoners watch a VHS copy of GHOST on a TV. Phillip wipes away a tear and Steven holds him closer while, in the front row, a ONE-EYED LATINO jerks off to the sight of Demi Moore. LATINO MAN Yeah you fucking bitch...65 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - CAFETERIA - DAY 65 MUSIC CONTINUES as tray after tray is filled with gray slop. This persists until suddenly two of the trays receive a beautiful STEAK and some SHRIMP. Steven nods at the Slopmaster and offers a wink to a very impressed Phillip.66 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - SHOWERS - MORNING 66 MUSIC CONTINUES as Phillip and Steven shave side by side, smiling at one another.67 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 -PHILLIP'S CELL - NIGHT 67 MUSIC plays on as Steven and Phillip continue their romantic dance. They are unfazed as the lights in the cellblock go out with the loud sound of circuits tripping. They dance on. GUARD (O.S.) LIGHTS OUT! "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 44. Eventually, the hollow sound of Johnny Mathis reverberating through the block is the only thing we hear. They dance on. GUARD (O.S.) (CONT'D) LIGHTS OUT! They continue to dance. Footsteps approaching are heard. GUARD (CONT'D) I said lights out. Turn it off. CLEAVON (O.S.) Fuck you pig. GUARD (O.S.) Turn it off or we're coming in. CLEAVON (O.S.) Well come on in. I got a dick that needs sucking. CLANK! OFFSCREEN we hear the cell door open and the sound of a scuffle is heard. VOICES (O.S.) ON THE GROUND! FUCK YOU! MY WORD IS MY FUCKING BOND! MY WORD IS MY FUCKING BOND! And as the sounds of a horrendous beating echo through the cellblock, Phillip and Steven dance their dance- oblivious to all but each other. FADE TO BLACK.68 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - PHILLIP'S CELL - MORNING 68 Phillip and Steven sleep soundly together in the bunk. A CLAXON blares and their cell door OPENS- accompanied by the sound of a dozen others. GUARD (O.S.) Rise and shine! They barely stir until-- CLANG-CLANG-CLANG! A GUARD hits the bars with his club. GUARD (CONT'D) Russell! Get up! Steven and Phillip are rudely awakened. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 45. GUARD (CONT'D) Grab your shit! Let's go! The GUARDS enter to roust Steven. PHILLIP What's happening? GUARD You're transferred. Nonney snitched you out about the Screecher. You're going to Ramsey Two. STEVEN Ah shit... They grab Steven and yank him out of the cell. PHILLIP Wait! Phillip tries to follow but a guard knocks him back down onto the bunk. STEVEN Don't you touch him! PHILLIP Steven- STEVEN Don't worry Phillip- I'll- GUARD Shut up and move. They drag him off. Phillip watches with deep worry as another guard keeps him there. He grows more and more upset, pacing and working himself up. Finally, the guard leaves and Phillip exits his cell and bolts down the tier after Steven.68A EXT. TEXAS STATE PEN BREEZEWAY, 1995 - MORNING 68A Phillip runs after Steven, quickly arriving at a LOCKED GATE. Steven is on the other side, still being escorted away. Phillip is forced to find an alternative route.69 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - COMMON AREA - CONTINUOUS 69 Phillip marches through the common area, fighting tears. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 46.70 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - M BLOCK - CONTINUOUS 70 Phillip runs through another cell block until he comes to a window. He looks outside. PHILLIP Steven!71 EXT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - SALLY PORT - CONTINUOUS 71 PHILLIP'S POV: Steven is waiting in line with some other prisoners to board a bus. Phillip can be seen through the small window, but he fails to get Steven's attention. He bangs silently on the glass.72 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - M BLOCK - CONTINUOUS 72 Phillip continues in vain to get Steven's attention. PHILLIP STEVEN!! STEVEN! He sees the line at the sally port start to move and stops to think. He knows what he has to do.73 EXT. TX STATE PEN BREEZEWAY, 1995 - YARD GATE - DAY 73 Phillip runs down a breezeway. Eventually he reaches a heavily populated gate, manned by a YARD GUARD. PHILLIP I wanna go in the yard. YARD GUARD You do? PHILLIP I WANNA GO IN THE YARD! YARD GUARD Hold your horses Dorothy. The Yard Guard pushes a button that opens the gate and Phillip bursts through. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 47.74 EXT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - YARD - DAY 74 Phillip runs through the yard, passing GIANT WOLF- WHISTLING INMATES as they put down their weights and stop their basketball games. Phillip maintains his focus on the sally port on the other side of the far fence. PHILLIP STEVEN!!!! Boarding the bus, Steven hears him and turns. Delighted, he's forced on board by a Guard before he can respond. PHILLIP (CONT'D) STEVEN! Steven gets in his seat and yells out the window. STEVEN What the hell are you doing!? PHILLIP I love you! STEVEN I love you too! VROOM! The bus starts up and begins to move. STEVEN (CONT'D) We'll be together soon! I promise! The bus drives off. Phillip runs along with it for a while as they share a long goodbye. And eventually, the bus disappears from view. Phillip clings to the fence a moment, hanging on to hope. He slumps and turns- -only to find himself confronted by several HULKING MEMBERS OF THE ARYAN BROTHERHOOD with one thing on their minds. Phillip marches right toward them and as he draws close- PHILLIP GET THE FUCK OUTTA MY WAY!!! Startled, they split to let Phillip pass unmolested. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 48.75 INT. TEXAS STATE PENITENTIARY HOSPITAL WARD - 1998 - DAY 75 Back in the present, Steven remains in his hospital bed at the Penitentiary Infirmary. STEVEN (V.O.) Those were the longest three months of my life. I wrote to Phillip every day until I got released.76 EXT. TEXAS STATE PENITENTIARY, 1995 - SALLY PORT - DAY 76 CLANG! The gate of the prison closes behind Steven as he exits. He approaches a waiting TAXI. STEVEN (V.O.) And once I did, I was determined to get us back together as soon as possible.77 INT. TAXI, 1995 - CONTINUOUS 77 Steven gets in. STEVEN Hi, how are you? TAXI DRIVER I'm well. Where you headed? The Greyhound? STEVEN Nearest thrift store please. TAXI DRIVER (harelip) Sure. You mind if I tell you the word of our Lord, Jesus Christ? The car pulls out, the prison receding behind them.78 EXT. TEXAS STATE PENITENTIARY, 1995 - SALLY PORT - LATER 78 The same taxi pulls up in front of the prison and Steven emerges with a BRIEFCASE, wearing a THREE-PIECE SUIT. He rings the buzzer at the front gate.79 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - GUARD BOOTH - DAY 79 Steven approaches the DUTY OFFICER. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 49. STEVEN Hi there, my name's Steven Rousseau. I'm an attorney. My client is Phillip Morris. I called earlier. The guard checks his roster. DUTY OFFICER Mmm hmmm. There you are. Rousseau... Phillip Morris. Like the cigarette huh? STEVEN I beg your pardon?80 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - VISITING AREA - DAY 80 Phillip enters to see Steven waiting for him on the other side of the glass. Thrilled, he rushes to the phone. PHILLIP You said you'd come right away, but Jesus! STEVEN I got work to do honey, I'm getting you out of here early. I got a hearing tomorrow morning, I got motions to file. The law don't sleep baby. PHILLIP I love you so much. STEVEN Phillip, you are the sweetest, most gentle man I have ever met. And I know people have taken advantage of that. But I don't ever want you ever to lose that innocence. I want to build a life with you Phillip. I want to protect you. They share a smile. PHILLIP Get me out of here.81 INT. DELI OFFICE - DAY 81 Steven stands over a desk, talking sternly into a telephone. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 50. STEVEN The motion was filed, I presented to the DA and got a letter from the judge- I do not understand what the hold up is. I'm not some paralegal- I am Steven fucking Rousseau and I expect proper adjudication! PULLOUT to reveal he's actually standing behind a KROEGER'S SUPERMARKET DELI COUNTER in uniform as a HOUSEWIFE waits impatiently. He hangs up. STEVEN (CONT'D) (big smile) My boyfriend's getting out of prison next week! She smiles back. HOUSEWIFE How nice... STEVEN You want mayo with that?82 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1995 - PRISON RECEIVING AREA - DAY 82 Steven slides paperwork through a slot in plexiglass window toward a RELEASE OFFICER. STEVEN I have an early release order for Phillip Morris. The Officer glances at the paperwork. RELEASE OFFICER Yep- Morris- we got him right here waiting. CLANK-CLANG. The door begins to open as the Officer stamps some of the paperwork. RELEASE OFFICER (CONT'D) And you are--? STEVEN I'm his lawyer. Phillip runs into his arms. As they kiss, the officer offers a surprised look. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 51. PHILLIP You're incredible. STEVEN I know.83 INT. PASSABLE APARTMENT, 1995 - HOUSTON - NIGHT 83 A PARTY to celebrate Phillip's release. Steven and Phillip stand at the door as FRIENDS file in and greet him boisterously. BAYLOR Phillllip! It's so good to see you... Another friend enters. BLAKE Oh my God! You look great. Prison agreed with you. How do I get on that diet? PHILLIP Oh you couldn't handle it- not unless we smuggled an espresso machine in a cake. BLAKE Throw in a Sicilian Barista and I'm there! PHILLIP This is Steven. Steven- Blake and Baylor. BLAKE (Gasp) This is him?! This is your gay lawyer prison boyfriend?! Pleased to meet you. BAYLOR Much better than the guy who had you kidnapped. What was his name? Steven looks to Phillip, perplexed. PHILLIP Long story. STEVEN (regroups, to others) Can I get you all a drink? "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 52.84 INT. PASSABLE APARTMENT KITCHEN, 1995 - LATER THAT NIGHT 84 Steven works his way through the crowded apartment struggling to hold a few cocktail glasses for guests. He eventually arrives next to Phillip, who is having a great time with another friend- and older woman named EUDORA MIXON. STEVEN We gotta get a bigger place. PHILLIP Steven I want you to meet my old neighbor- Eudora Mixon. She is just the sweetest. EUDORA Pleasure Steven. STEVEN Eudora... PHILLIP Eudora owns a little building in Montrose and she's having a hell of time with the builder. He sounds like a real asshole. EUDORA His plans were useless and he's trying to sue me to pay him! I need your expertise Steven. Phillip says maybe you can help. STEVEN I could certainly try. EUDORA Can you still practice law, having been to prison? STEVEN Sure- why not? EUDORA I just thought- Oh what do I know? I'd just be glad to have someone I could trust. I'll pay your normal fee. Steven doesn't miss a beat. He smiles wide. STEVEN It would be my pleasure. Litigation is my speciality. Phillip beams with pride over Steven's decision. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 53.85 INT. HOUSTON COURTHOUSE CORRIDOR, 1995 - DAY 85 Eudora waits on a bench in the corridor, nervously glancing at her watch. Steven stands behind a column down the hall hiding and watching. He looks at his watch, then approaches her. STEVEN Sorry I'm late but I've been hung up in court all day. Let's go in.86 INT. HOUSTON COURTROOM, 1995 - DAY 86 STEVEN'S POV: A beautifully ornate courthouse LIGHT FIXTURE hangs from a courthouse ceiling. ON STEVEN, staring up at it with admiration. JUDGE (O.S.) Mister Russell? Steven snaps out of it and responds to a waiting JUDGE. STEVEN It's a beautiful fixture. JUDGE I know. It's your turn. STEVEN Oh... (then) Your Honor, Ms. Mixon engaged Mr. Gage service in good faith and was given an inferior product. She is entitled to deem that work to be unacceptable according to the contract that Mr. Evans signed. LAWYER The terms of that contract were ambiguous at best. The truth is, defendant engaged my client for three years without full payment. STEVEN Your honor I have, in my briefcase, fourteen other contracts, all on public record, in which Mr. Evans entered into litigation with past clients of his! Eudora glances into Steven's opened BRIEFCASE. It contains only a SANDWICH and a PHOTO OF PHILLIP. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 54. The shocked LAWYER turns to his client (EVANS). LAWYER (whispers) Is this true? EVANS No. LAWYER You're making me look like an idiot. He regroups and addresses the judge. LAWYER (CONT'D) Your honor, I don't have to tell you that none of this is admissable or applicable to the case at hand. Mr. Russell's histrionics do not erase the fact that his client is in breech of contract. JUDGE He is right Mr. Russell- what do you have to say? Steven is stonewalled. He looks to Eudora as if to say, "What do I do now?" and it terrifies her. Desperate, Steven bangs his fist on the table and looks resolutely to the judge. STEVEN I demand to be seen in chambers!! The judge and lawyer seem mystified by this response. JUDGE Okaaaaaaaay...87 INT. HOUSTON JUDGE'S CHAMBERS, 1995 - DAY 87 The Lawyer sits impatiently while Steven peruses a wall of plaques, photos and diplomas. He focuses on a law school DEGREE from INDIANA COLLEGE OF LAW. Next to it, a PHOTO of the judge as a YOUNG MAN on a farm. He's from humble roots. A moment later, the Judge enters. JUDGE Okay gentlemen, let's get this over with, the two for one at the Crab Boiler ends at five o'clock."I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 55. LAWYER This seems to be cut and dried here, sir. I don't even know why we're back here. Mister Russell is treating this like an episode of Matlock. STEVEN I'll admit your honor- I'm a plain spoken man. I didn't go to Princeton. I didn't go to Yale. My education was modest. I went to a small school. I grew up on a small farm. But I passed the same bar exam as my colleague here and I am not going to let him push around this humble woman.This scores with the judge. JUDGE Point taken Mister Russell...He glares at the other lawyer with scorn. JUDGE (CONT'D) ...but where are you going with this? STEVEN I think it's obvious where I'm going with this sir.A long SILENCE. The Judge waits and waits until somethingoccurs to him. JUDGE Are you talking about Marshall vs. Chao?Steven doesn't know what this means... But the otherlawyer does. And he's not happy. LAWYER (sotto) Shit...Seeing this, Steven puffs with confidence. STEVEN Your honor, that's exactly what I'm talking about.The Judge slowly nods to himself as he considers this. SMASH CUT TO: "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 56.88 INT. HOUSTON COURTHOUSE CORRIDOR, 1995 - DAY 88 Outside the courtroom with Eudora, Steven is ecstatic. STEVEN YES! I did great! Can you believe how great I did!? EUDORA (wary) Yes. You did very well, Steven. Thank you. STEVEN I mean, I did great! Really great! I'm so proud of myself! You want half my sandwich?! EUDORA Um... STEVEN No! We're going out! I'm paying!!89 INT. NEW HOUSTON APARTMENT, 1996 - DAY 89 Phillip stands flabbergasted next to Steven in the middle of a large modern apartment. PHILLIP Oh my God, it's amazing. STEVEN I thought you'd like it honey. PHILLIP Can we afford this? STEVEN You let me worry about the money sweetheart. PHILLIP Okay, well I guess I better start packing boxes. STEVEN Not this weekend. PHILLIP Why not? "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 57. STEVEN I think we both need a vacation. Key West? Phillip smiles.90 OMITTED 9091 I/E. KEY WEST COVE - 1996 - VARIOUS 91 PALM TREES undulate on the constant breeze, inviting us to a beautifully solitary cove. Eventually Steven and Phillip's voices are heard. PHILLIP (O.S.) I've been meaning to ask you something. STEVEN (O.S.) Yeah? DIALOGUE CONTINUES OVER VARIOUS SHOTS of their romantic getaway to the Keys. In a SERIES of SHOTS we see where they've been and what they've been doing in the moments AFTER they've been there. - A Hammock blowing in the breeze. - A quaint COTTAGE nestled in the vegetation. - Half empty glasses of beer on the porch. - Dirty dishes in the cottage sink. The remains of a romantic meal on a table. The swaying palms are visible through the windows. - Footsteps in the sand. - Two beach chairs facing the surf. - Etc... etc... PHILLIP (O.S.) That birthday cake you got me in the pen? Where'd you get those candles? STEVEN (O.S.) Oh you know... just... people I knew. PHILLIP (O.S.) Yeah, I know. But how? "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 58. STEVEN (O.S.) Remember that guard? Skinny guy? Smoked a lot? PHILLIP (O.S.) Lance? He couldn't been more than 98 pounds. STEVEN (O.S.) Yeah, that's him. PHILLIP (O.S.) Oh he was such an asshole. STEVEN (O.S.) Actually- I was in the yard once. Another guard asked him to pay him back five. He opened his wallet and I saw this picture of a little girl about Steffie's age. So I brought it up to him once, just to get him talking. That's the thing about having kids, you know? Gets people talking. Shared experience. Builds bridges. Something I learned. Anyway he tells me he's worried about her- mamma was gone. We talked awhile. You know, I just listened. That's all. I brought up the candles just one time but mostly just listened... And the next day, bedtime, there they were.91A EXT. PALM BEACH COVE - 1996 - DUSK - CONTINUOUS 91A The dialogue continues on the beach as we finally see Steven and Phillip enjoying the sunset by the light of a small fire on the beach. PHILLIP How'd you know he'd do that? STEVEN I didn't. I just knew I wanted `em for you... and I found a way to do it. That's all. Phillip smiles, eyes never leaving the sunset. PHILLIP Just listenin' huh? STEVEN That's it... "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 59. And as the sun sets on the shimmering water--92 EXT. OCEAN, 1996 - DAY 92 An empty 21-foot MOTORBOAT bobs atop placid seas, fishing poles dangling over the side. The SOUND of two men enjoying themselves can be heard. After reaching their inevitable conclusion, the VOICES gasp for air. PHILLIP (O.S.) (winded) I'm gonna get a Coke... you want a Coke? STEVEN (O.S.) Uh huh... * Phillip spits something over the railing... * STEVEN (CONT'D) * Aw, you don't love me... * And as Phillip smiles and wipe his chin. * STEVEN (V.O.) With Phillip I felt strong. I felt invincible. I promised myself he would never want for anything ever again. That meant I needed a real job. Something dependable. And- no more scams. FADE IN:96 INT. USAMM HQ - LINDHOLM'S OFFICE - 1996 - DAY 96 A bored Steven waits in the middle of a big wig's office. He looks at PHOTOS on a nearby wall of a broad-shouldered all-American man dressed in a NASA jump suit performing various astronautical training tasks. He picks up a small ASTRONAUT FIGURINE and examines it. LINDHOLM (O.S.) Sorry to keep you waiting Steven. Steven turns to find Dan Lindholm, the broad-shouldered man himself. LINDHOLM (CONT'D) I'm Dan Lindholm."I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 60. STEVEN Were you a spaceman? LINDHOLM Yep. Never got out there though. NASA's a real political place. Never could figure out whose ass to kiss to get a mission. (then) All in the past. Barely even think about it now...CUT TO REVEAL a HUGE MODEL of the SPACE SHUTTLE thatengulfs half the room. Steven puts the figurine back. STEVEN A spaceman, huh? How do you crap up there? LINDHOLM Ass gasket. (draws on his coffee) Have a seat.Steven sits across the desk from Lindholm . LINDHOLM (CONT'D) With the popularity of HMO's in today's health care system, doctors need help managing their billing-- so they can focus on their patients. That's where USA Medical Management comes in. Hundreds of millions of dollars pass through our system from the HMO's to the doctors. It's a critical business. A powerful business... (beat) So when I read your resume, I wasn't sure what to think. Your level of education and your past experience would factor heavily into this decision and frankly...Steven deflates in expectation. LINDHOLM (CONT'D) ...you were head and shoulders above the rest. I mean, I could hardly believe it. But when I called your references-- well they couldn't speak more highly of you. SMASH CUT TO: "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 61.97 INT. NEW HOUSTON APARTMENT KITCHEN - 1996 - DAY 97 Steven makes breakfast in his tightie-whities while talking on the phone. Phillip is in the background doing a crossword puzzle at the kitchen table. STEVEN I could not speak more highly of Steven Russell, Mr. Lindholm . A real straight shooter. We were damn lucky to have him at Prudential as long as we did. In his own world, Phillip chimes in. PHILLIP Brando's wet debut? Steven covers the phone with his hand. STEVEN On the Waterfront. BACK TO:98 INT. LINDHOLM'S OFFICE - 1996 - DAY 98 Dan continues to wax on about Steven. LINDHOLM Employee of the year two years running? Developing software with IBM? You're the kind of people we need here Steven. We want you as our Chief Financial Officer. So what do you say? I want your answer right now. C'mon Steven- let's light this candle. As Steven pretends to mull--99 INT. USAMM - STEVEN'S OFFICE - 1996 - DAY 99 An uptight assistant (RHEBA) leads Steven into his fancy new office. RHEBA ...for example "he's in a meeting" sounds better than "he's away from his desk" at least I think so, but whatever you prefer. STEVEN That's fine... sure. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 62. She leads him to his new desk which is stacked with folders, files, printouts and reams of data. RHEBA I pulled all the claims for the last two years as well as the statements, transfers and confirmations from the bank. Most of it's routine and I think you can get up to speed in a day or two. (then) Anything else I can do for you? STEVEN Uh.... cup of coffee? RHEBA I'll do it today but I don't do that really. Steven nods and turns his attention to the sea of numbers before him. He looks concerned as he begins to leaf through.100 INT. USAMM BOARDROOM - 1996 - DAY 100 Steven sits in a board meeting, surrounded by all of the company honchos. Dan Lindholm lords over the gathering at the head of the table while a suit (MARK) reads from a report to the group. MARK Crossover from traditional markets shows declination and inverse diffusion seems commensurate with net-trade trending. HMO penetration still leads PPO, NMO and FMO as usual but attenuation is growing more prevalent in Q4 as projected... As for Q3, well Q3 is what Q3 always is: Q2 with training wheels. Everyone LAUGHS, but no one quite as hard as Steven who desperately tries to fit in. Larry Birkheim, the CEO of USAMM sits beside Dan Lindholm. He chimes in. BIRKHEIM Okay Steven, your turn. I know you've only had the one quarter to play catch up but I tell you, we can't wait to get some insight here."I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 63. STEVEN Sure. What about? BIRKHEIM Mark's projections. STEVEN Mmm hm. Sure. BIRKHEIM They seem kind of flat. STEVEN Oh. Okay. Ummm...Steven fumbles through some folders and vamps a while. STEVEN (CONT'D) Well I did a lot of work here and uh... I think maybe... well I could just read it to you but uh... it might be better to just uh...The group looks at him quizzically. Just as it seemsSteven has been up to nothing-- STEVEN (CONT'D) Well, I'll just show you. Todd?TODD, an incredibly hot assistant unveils an easel fullof detailed tables. Steven walks the board through anincredibly well prepared presentation. STEVEN (CONT'D) If you look here at Mark's projections again for Q3, you'll see- well you'll see they're just that- projections. Projections based on a model set by my predecessor. I decided to reject that model and do things a little differently. I want to show you my results. This is what we actually made in Q3--Todd flips to the next card. The graphs GROWexponentially. The group is intrigued. STEVEN (CONT'D) Now let me tell you how I did it...Todd unveils another card, the men are impressed by theunseen image.And as Steven explains himself, Dan and Birkheim smilebroadly and turn to each other with smug assurance. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 64.101 INT. NEW APARTMENT KITCHEN - 1996 - NIGHT 101 OPEN CLOSE on a candy wrapper opening. A hand removes the candy revealing an INSPIRING MESSAGE printed inside the wrapper- "When two hearts race, both win." ON PHILLIP. He's deeply touched by the sentiment as he chews on the candy. He puts the wrapper on the REFRIGERATOR with a MAGNET. He opens ANOTHER. He chews and reads- "Commit random acts of kindness" Again he's touched and puts it on the refrigerator. He opens ANOTHER and pops the candy in his mouth. He reads- "A smile is a flower on your face" He's disgusted by the trite sentiment and THROWS THE WRAPPER IN THE TRASH. A beat later, he REMOVES THE CANDY from his mouth and THROWS THAT IN THE TRASH TOO. Just then Steven walks by in a TUXEDO, adjusting his tie. PHILLIP The tux? Where are you going? STEVEN It's just a work thing. Were we supposed to-- PHILLIP No- I just thought- it's fine. Where you going? STEVEN Some stupid gala ball thing... PHILLIP Gala? Oh... (playing it off) Sounds boring. STEVEN Yeah. I'll be home early. Promise.102 INT. HOUSTON BALLROOM - 1996 - NIGHT 102 A black-tie cocktail party is in full swing. Steven eats a canapÈ by a window. Something outside catches his eye. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 65.103 EXT. HOUSTON BALLROOM BALCONY, 1996 - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS 103 Dan Lindholm is out on the balcony staring up at the starry sky. Steven approaches. LINDHOLM You see that? Dan points out a small dot of light moving across the sky. Steven squints. STEVEN No... (realizing) Oh- is it...? LINDHOLM Yeah. Probably deploying the arm right now. Just a satellite deployment. Nothing special... Just touching the face of God. He chokes back a tear, then throws an arm around Steven. LINDHOLM (CONT'D) I want you to meet my wife.104 INT. HOUSTON BALLROOM, 1996 - NIGHT 104 Dan Lindholm escorts Steven to BEVERLY Lindholm and a ghastly gaggle of Texas society WIVES. LINDHOLM Bev- Ladies- I want you to meet Steven Russell, our CFO. MRS. LINDHOLM Oh I heard about you. STEVEN Good things I hope. MRS. LINDHOLM Yes and no. Don's bellyaching about how big your Christmas bonus is gonna be because you're making him so much money. A GIGGLE infects the group. Another WIFE speaks up. FACELIFT WIFE Are you married Steven? "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 66. STEVEN Uh... engaged. BLONDE WIFE Well where is she, sweetheart? STEVEN She works. Travels a lot. It's killing her she couldn't be here. And as the wives fret symathetically-105 INT. USAMM OFFICE - 1996 - DAY 105 Steven saunters over to VERA the company accountant who is stamping some checks. He places some papers on her desk. STEVEN These are ready for Dan ... VERA Thanks Steven. You doin' good? STEVEN Kind of. I just got back from my lawyer's office. I asked him, "What's your fee?" He says, "I charge $50 for three questions." So I ask, "Don't you think that's a little expensive?" And he says, "Yes it is... Now what's your final question?" Vera EXPLODES with laughter. VERA It's so true. Lawyers! She turns to a colleague. VERA (CONT'D) Annie! Come here, you gotta hear this!106 INT. UPSCALE HOUSTON RESTAURANT - 1996 - DAY 106 Steven sits at a high powered lunch with Dan Lindholm and Larry Birkheim. He is diligently taking notes. BIRKHEIM That's the thing about the back nine at Pebble Beach. (MORE) "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 67. BIRKHEIM (CONT'D) I don't care what your handicap is... that sand wedge is gonna get a workout- LINDHOLM I couldn't agree with you more. I remember one time, I was at Augusta... As Dan prattles on, Steven continues to write on his pad. CUT TO REVEAL he's doodling pictures of SMILEY- FACED PENISES.107 INT. USAMM - BREAK ROOM - 1996 - DAY 107 Steven refills his mug of coffee while in the background, two SECRETARIES dish. SECRETARY The woman says,"That's awful expensive, isn't it?" and the lawyer says, "Yes and now you only got one question left!" She laughs LOUDER than the woman listening to the joke. SECRETARY (CONT'D) `Cause he already asked the two! They both laugh loudly now as Steven exits.108 INT. HOUSTON BANQUET ROOM - 1996 - DAY 108 Steven and Dan Lindholm stand at the omelette station at a high class brunch buffet. LINDHOLM (to cook) Mushroom and cheese. (to Steven) Anyway like I was saying the Northrup guy says to the NASA "well that question's gonna cost fifty million to answer" so NASA says, "Don't you think that's a lot of money?" and Northrup says "Yep, now you owe us another fifty million. Next question please!" This sounds eerily familiar. Steven laughs a COURTESY LAUGH. STEVEN Yeah that's a good one... "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 68. LINDHOLM That's why there's so few shuttle missions. They're wasting all their money on bureaucracy. And probes... Unmanned probes. (then) Like people care if there's life on Mars. (to cook) No mushrooms, I said.109 INT. NEW HOUSTON APARTMENT, 1996 - LIVING ROOM - MORNING 109 Phillip test his blood sugar by applying a test strip to his bloody thumb. He compares the strip to small card with a blood sugar chart. Contented with the result, he puts the everything away in a small BLACK LEATHER BAG containing INSULIN and SYRINGES. Steven passes by in the BACKGROUND with a brand new bag of golf clubs. Phillip is instantly puzzled. PHILLIP Golf!? STEVEN What? PHILLIP You're a homosexual. STEVEN It's work. PHILLIP You know, you can tell them. They can't fire you for being gay. STEVEN I know... PHILLIP I'm trying to be understanding here honey, but golf? Why not just eat pussy? STEVEN (exiting) Wish me luck. PHILLIP Good luck! "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 69.110 EXT. HOUSTON GOLF COURSE - 1996 - DAY 110 Steven, Lindholm and two CLIENTS are at the first tee. Steven nervously tees up. He does his best recollection of a warm up and hits the ball. It's not a good drive, but it does go about thirty yards. STEVEN Oh! This is easy! (cocky, Butch) Your turn Dan!111 EXT. HOUSTON GOLF COURSE SANDTRAP - 1996 - LATER 111 As Lindholm and the Clients wait, a periodic spray of sand flies up from the trap behind them as unseen Steven swings in vain. LINDHOLM Hell of a hazard ain't it Steven? Eventually, a ball flies out of the trap. STEVEN (O.S.) (to ball) Oh yeah! How ya like that, sister!? CUT TO:112 EXT. HOUSTON GOLF COURSE FAIRWAY - 1996 - DAY 112 Steven and the Client amble along a few yards behind Dan and the other client. Steven is covered in sweat and sand. CLIENT So the black fella says to the jew lawyer- "50 bucks a question? Ain't that expensive?" "Yeah it's expensive," he says, "I'm a Jew, you nigger!" The man laughs to himself. CLIENT (CONT'D) Get it?!! He soon spots his ball up ahead. CLIENT (CONT'D) There I am. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 70. He moves on, leaving Steven standing there, disgusted. MATCH CUT TO:113 INT. USAMM - STEVEN'S OFFICE - 1996 - DAY 113 Steven sits at his desk, detached and fed up. STEVEN (V.O.) Maybe it was because it's just my nature, or maybe it was because of my past... or maybe it was because they were the most boring fucking people I'd ever met in my life... (beat) Whatever the reason, I had been robbing them blind for months.114 INT. USAMM - STEVEN'S OFFICE - 1996 - DAY 114 FLASHBACK to Steven's first day on the job as his RHEBA escorts him to a desk piled high with financial reports. RHEBA Anything else I can do for you? STEVEN Uh.... cup of coffee? RHEBA I'll do it today but I don't do that really. Steven nods and begins to leaf through various folders. It isn't long before something catches his eye.115 MONTAGE: HOW MONEY FLOWS AT USAMM-- 115 QUICK CUTS of Steven researching by leafing through folders and files INTERCUT with a slow push in on a CHECK PRINTING MACHINE as it spits out product as well as TIME LAPSE footage of employees buzzing through one of the USAM hallways. STEVEN (V.O.) The thing about U-SAMM was that they took in all this HMO money and distributed it to doctors. (MORE) "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 71. STEVEN (V.O.) (CONT'D) But in the time between receiving the money and paying it out- it was just sitting there, not making interest or anything.116 INT. USAMM - STEVEN'S OFFICE - 1996 - DAY 116 At his desk, Steven leafs through the company finances. STEVEN (V.O.) It occurred to me to set up an investment account where the held money would earn interest for the short time that the company had it. We're talking twenty two million at any given time here, so even short term the interest adds up pretty quickly. I'd be making the company millions virtually overnight. He leans back to think to himself. STEVEN (V.O.) ...and I of course would take a commission. Say... fifty percent. The only problem with that was-- I wasn't the one signing the checks.117 INT. USAMM OFFICE - 1996 - DAY 117 OPEN CLOSE on a check being signature-stamped with a RUBBER STAMP. A hand places the stamp into a small wooden box and closes it. CUT WIDE to reveal the hand belongs to VERA, the company accountant and STEVEN is standing over her. It is now we realize we are revisiting an earlier scene. STEVEN So I ask, "Don't you think that's a little expensive?" and the lawyer says, "Yes it is, now what's your final question?" Vera EXPLODES with laughter. VERA It's so true. Lawyers! She turns to a colleague. VERA (CONT'D) Annie! Come here, you gotta hear this! "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 72. And as ANNIE comes over, Steven's hand moves to the wooden box and secretly plucks the RUBBER STAMP.118 INT. USAMM - STEVEN'S OFFICE - 1996 - DAY 118 Lindholm raps on the open door as he enters. LINDHOLM Steven, we got a problem. Vera lost that stupid rubber stamp again. Her office is a goddamned disaster and she's the o-ring if you know what I'm saying. STEVEN (faux) Oh... how long till we can get a new one? LINDHOLM Nope. Time to overhaul the program. I got a computerized system already on order. No more room for pilot error. Steven hangs his head, visibly disappointed. LINDHOLM (CONT'D) Should be up and running in a couple months. I want you signing the checks until then. Steven brightens up suddenly. STEVEN Really?! Great! LINDHOLM You play golf? STEVEN Uhhh... yeah. Sure.119 EXT. HOUSTON SUBURB - NEW HOUSE - 1996 - DAY 119 A huge MOVING TRUCK is parked before an impressive house in an upscale neighborhood. MOVERS unload and roll dollies past two matching MERCEDES COUPES. Steven and Phillip oversee the work- each holding matching MINIATURE PINCERS. They smile wide. Moments later an OFFSCREEN HONK gets their attention. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 73. They look to see a SPORTING GOODS TRUCK pulling up with two JET-SKIS hitched to a trailer. PHILLIP (wowed) How big was this Christmas bonus? STEVEN (covering) Pretty big. PHILLIP In July? Phillip is slightly suspicious.120 I/E. NEW HOUSE / BACKYARD - 1996 - MORNING 120 Various vignettes of Steven and Phillip's new home. PHILLIP (O.S.) (mid-story) The sheriff is desperate and goes to a psychic. All the woman says is rabbit. Rabbit-rabbit-rabbit, that's all. Well he thinks `bullshit' and he's driving back home and what happens? He sees a rabbit crossing the street in front of him. So he pulls over and follows it into the woods and he finds the missing car. All wrecked and turned over and the girl's inside... still alive. Eventually we find Steven and Phillip in the BACKYARD on a large DOUBLE CHAISE LOUNGE. Their sleeping min-pins are between them. STEVEN No. PHILLIP I swear. It's in the Ricky Martin People in the bathroom. Steven smiles and cuddles up. PHILLIP (CONT'D) Yeah... they can find out all sorts of stuff, those people. STEVEN Mmm hmm... "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 74. PHILLIP They can find out anything about anyone... anything. (then) They could even find out something about you... Steven grows suspicious. STEVEN Phillip... what is it? PHILLIP It's just-- Is something going on? Something you're not telling me? STEVEN No. PHILLIP Because if there is, stop now. STEVEN There isn't. There's nothing. PHILLIP I don't care about the money, the house, jet-skis- all I want is you. I just want us to be together. STEVEN We're always going to be together. And there is nothing going on. I promise. (then) I wouldn't lie to you, baby. Steven stares back and convinces Phillip with a look. They kiss.121 INT. USAMM PARKING GARAGE - 1996 - DAY 121 Birkheim emerges from his parked MERCEDES C-CLASS. After locking it he notices a little smudge and buffs it out with his handkerchief. As he admires his car proudly, the building volume of the MIAMI SOUND MACHINE gets his attention. He sees as Steven arrives in his NEW and MUCH MORE IMPRESSIVE SL500 and parks a few spots down. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 75. He watches as Steven tries on several watches and tosses them back in the glove compartment before settling on one and exiting the car. Birkheim raises a brow.122 INT. USAMM ELEVATOR - 1996 - A SHORT TIME LATER 122 Birkheim and Steven share the elevator. BIRKHEIM Nice car. STEVEN Thanks, Larry. BIRKHEIM Which one is it? STEVEN SL. That the C you're driving? BIRKHEIM Yeah. STEVEN Good car. BIRKHEIM Mmm hm. STEVEN Good value. DING! The door opens. Steven exits, leaving a disgruntled Birkheim in his wake.123 INT. BIRKHEIM'S OFFICE - 1996 - DAY 123 Birkheim pores over spreadsheets, taking notes and comparing numbers. CLOSE UPS on headings like "INTEREST EARNED" and "DEPOSIT" indicate he's looking for something He continues to make notes, growing ever more suspicious until something catches his eye. In the margin of one of the pages is a DOODLING of a SMILEY-FACED PENIS. Birkheim doesn't quite know what to make of this... but it seems to stare at him mockingly. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 76.124 INT. USAMM HALLWAY - 1996 - DAY 124 Steven whistles happily and takes a draw off his coffee mug. As he passes an office, something catches his ear. BIRKHEIM (O.S.) I have some questions about these new accounts we've opened. Steven slows to a stop.125 INT. BIRKHEIM'S OFFICE - 1996 - CONTINUOUS 125 Birkheim, his back to the door, is on the phone as Steven eavesdrops outside. BIRKHEIM Yeah... I was wondering if we could compare some numbers. I know you usually talk to our CFO but this is a delicate matter and I'd like keep it secret for now. Steven is worried.126 INT. USAMM CUBICLE - 1996 - DAY 126 OPEN CLOSE on blank copies spitting out of a copier. Steven stands over the machine, his finger on the button as he keeps surveillance on Birkheim's office door. A SECRETARY arrives with a stack of papers. SECRETARY Hi Mister Ru-- STEVEN I'M MAKING COPIES!!! She leaves, terrified. Finally, Steven spots Birkheim leaving his office.127 INT. BIRKHEIM'S OFFICE - 1996 - DAY 127 Steven runs into Birkheim's office and scans the papers on his desk. Nothing. He turns his attention to Birkheim's briefcase, but he can't get it open. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 77. Eventually he spots a blank legal pad and looks at it closely. He grabs a pencil and does the old detective trick of shading in the page to reveal what was written on the now missing page above. The embossed text reads, "837,502.12" He stares at it a moment. This number looks familiar. He grabs the phone and dials. An AUTOMATED VOICE answers. AUTOMATED TELLER Hello, you've reached the Automatic Teller at Texas Commerce Bank. Please enter your personal account number followed by the pound sign. Steven quickly enters some numbers. As he listens he flips through Birkheim's desktop calendar. AUTOMATED TELLER (CONT'D) Thank you. Your account balance is eight hundred-thirty seven thousand five hundred and two dollars and twelve cents. To repeat this- It's the SAME NUMBER as on the pad. He hangs up. And turns his attention to the calendar. He spies an entry that reads, "Harris County Police, 12:30" He leaps out of the chair and exits the office.128 INT. USAMM COPIER ROOM - 1996 - DAY 128 Steven furiously shreds documents in the company's PAPER SHREDDER. Moments later the same SECRETARY enters the room with an armload of work- enraging Steven. STEVEN CAN'T YOU SEE I'M SHREDDING!? Terrified, the woman runs away.129 EXT. BANK - DAY 129 OPEN CLOSE on an ATM keypad as Steven punches some keys and retrieves a handful of cash. He stuffs it into his breast pocket and hops back into his SL.130 INT. DEBBIE'S HOME - NIGHT 130 The phone RINGS. Debbie answers. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 78. DEBBIE Hello?131 INT. MERCEDES SL (DRIVING) - GULF FREEWAY, 1996 - DAY 131 INTERCUT. Steven is on the phone while driving with the top down. STEVEN Hey Debbie. DEBBIE Steven. How are you? STEVEN Good. How's Steffie doing? DEBBIE Good. Real good. She sure is your daughter... STEVEN She's interested in boys already? DEBBIE Ha-ha. How's Phillip? STEVEN He's good. He says hi, but listen- I just wanted to call and let you know I'm switching all my phone numbers. I'll let you know when we get a new one. DEBBIE Oh Steven, are you on the lam again? STEVEN Deb, you always knew me best. DEBBIE Steven you really should stop all this, you are such a good man and I know that Jesus has a plan for you. STEVEN Well, maybe this is his plan. DEBBIE Now don't start. A CALL-WAITING TONE is heard. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 79. STEVEN Anyway Debbie- that's my boss calling. I love you both and I'll call you soon. Steven clicks over to the other line. STEVEN (CONT'D) Hello?132 INT. LINDHOLM'S OFFICE - 1996 - DAY 132 INTERCUT with Lindholm on the phone, with Birkheim in the background, spreadsheets in hand. LINDHOLM Steven? Where are you? STEVEN The Gulf Freeway. Where are you? LINDHOLM At the office. You coming back anytime soon? STEVEN Is something wrong? LINDHOLM No, we just want to see you Steven. We miss you is what it is. STEVEN Oh, that's nice Dan. But I don't think I'm coming back in. I think we both know why. LINDHOLM You sure about that Steven? STEVEN Bye-bye Dan. Steven hangs up.133 INT. NEW HOUSE - 1996 - DAY 133 Steven storms into the house, panting. A worried Phillip comes to greet him. PHILLIP People keep calling, what's going on? "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 80. Steven starts pulling wads of money out of every available pocket and piling it on the kitchen table. STEVEN Nothing. Thought we'd take a little vacation. Key West. Let's pack. Quick! Okay I'll pack for you! Phillip follows him through the house. PHILLIP I fucking knew it- you did do something. You lied to me! You looked me right in the eye and lied! STEVEN Now don't get angry, it's gonna be fun, I swear. PHILLIP Are you going back to jail? Steven, you promised we'd always be together! STEVEN Of course we are! We're never gonna be apart. Never. Steven ducks into the bedroom. Phillip doesn't follow. PHILLIP You lying son of a bitch! You took advantage of me! Just like all the rest! SON OF A BITCH!134 INT. NEW HOUSE BEDROOM - 1996 - CONTINUOUS 134 Steven furiously packs a suitcase, yelling out to Phillip in the hallway. STEVEN We'll get a place. Do some fishing. I can work on my key lime pie recipe... Steven picks up the suitcase without zipping it up and heads back into the hall. STEVEN (CONT'D) ...I might even grow a beard and enter the Papa Hemingway contest! He stops short in the hallway. Phillip is gone. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 81. STEVEN (CONT'D) Phillip? Honey?135 EXT. NEW HOUSE - 1996 - DAY 135 Steven bursts from the house still clutching the suitcase just in time to see Phillip's car rounding the corner. STEVEN COME BACK! WAIT!136 INT. NEW HOUSE - 1996 - DAY 136 He re-enters, emptying the suitcase along the way. He then proceeds to fill it with the cash on the table.137 EXT. NEW HOUSE - 1996 - DAY 137 Steven exits and heads for his car, but before he can get in- WHAM! He's grabbed by a group of POLICEMEN. He SQUEALS like a rabbit's death bleat and flails wildly. This continues for a while until-- SMASH CUT TO:138 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN HOSPITAL WARD - 1998 - DAY 138 Steven resumes his VOICE OVER in the penitentiary infirmary. STEVEN (V.O.) There I was, keeping secrets, living a lie. Like I said, I tend to do that. Now I didn't blame Phillip for running out on me, but I had to make things right. I had to get him back. You see, there's something I didn't tell you... (beat) ...it's about my old boyfriend. Do you remember him? His name was Jimmy. CUT TO: "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 82.139 INT. PALM BEACH APARTMENT - 1991 - MORNING 139 The Florida sun bathes the bedroom in a heavenly glow, illuminating Jimmy Kemple as he wakes. He opens his eyes to see Steven staring longingly at him. KEMPLE What? Steven just smiles. KEMPLE (CONT'D) What? STEVEN I love you Jimmy. Kemple smirks. KEMPLE It's only been a month, Steven. STEVEN I know. KEMPLE Don't fall for me Steven. STEVEN Why the hell not? KEMPLE You know damn well why. Steven thinks a moment, but never stops smiling. STEVEN I don't give a shit about that. They kiss.140 EXT. PALM BEACH HOSPITAL PARKING STRUCTURE - 1992 - DAY 140 FLASHBACK. We're back at the scene where Steven tries to jump in the dumpster. He leaps over the guard rail and-- KEMPLE STEVEN! WHAM!!! Steven hits the ground next to the dumpster. CUT TO: "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 83.141 EXT. PALM BEACH HOSPITAL PARKING STRUCTURE - 1992 - DAY 141 A short time later, Steven lies MOANING and delirious. Kemple cradles his head as Debbie and the cop watch nearby. KEMPLE You need to do the time. I'll wait for you. I will. I'll wait for you. I promise. I love you. I'll wait for you.142 INT. MIAMI JAIL - CELL BLOCK - 1993 - DAY 142 Steven pushes a cart of food through the block delivering sandwiches to fellow detainees.143 INT. MIAMI JAIL - PHONE BANK - 1993 - DAY 143 OPEN CLOSE on fingers dialing a pay phone. Cut wide to reveal it's Steven making a call. STEVEN Hi baby. What do you mean? It's noon. I always call at noon. (listens) Well it's prison honey, it sucks. But I'm getting used to it. What's wrong?144 INT. KEMPLE'S MOTHER'S APT, 1993 - DAY - INTERCUT 144 Kemple, on the phone at his mother's home, is INTERCUT. He looks ill. KEMPLE I'm sick. STEVEN I know. KEMPLE No really sick. You haven't seen me in a year. You don't know. I just came back from the doctor. My T-cells are... He begins to cry. KEMPLE (CONT'D) Why did you have to go to jail? How could you do this to me? "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 84. STEVEN I know, I'm sorry... KEMPLE I don't want to die alone. STEVEN You're not gonna die alone. KEMPLE Yes I am. Who knows how long I have. STEVEN You're not gonna die alone, okay? Just believe me. KEMPLE You don't know that. STEVEN Yes I do. I promise. He hangs up, tortured by this news. His eyes catch a glimpse of a DETECTIVE exiting the cell block, banging on the GUARD BOOTH glass with his walkie-talkie. He just stares at the door, long and hard.145 INT. MIAMI JAIL CORRIDOR - 1994 - DAY 145 Steven approaches a section of bars where a BLONDE INMATE is waiting. STEVEN Did you get `em? BLONDE INMATE Yeah. The inmate looks around then shoves a BALL OF CLOTHES through the bars. Steven gives a look. Something upsets him. STEVEN What the hell's this? BLONDE INMATE It's all I could get. STEVEN Jesus! "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 85.146 INT. MIAMI JAIL GUARD BOOTH - 1994 - DAY 146 Dressed in prison orange, Steven walks up to a counter, a sandwiches in hand. He holds it up before a HUGE GUARD. STEVEN Lunch is served. As the Guard goes through the bag, Steven reaches over the counter and swipes a WALKIE TALKIE- revealing a CALENDAR that reads FRIDAY the 13th. He beats a nervous exit.147 INT. MIAMI JAIL HALLWAY - 1994 - DAY 147 OPEN CLOSE on a MAN'S ASS IN RUBY RED, SKIN TIGHT HOTPANTS. CUT TO REVEAL Steven walking nervously down the hall clad in said hotpants as well as a tight spaghetti strap top. Walkie Talkie in hand, he tries to give as authoritative an aura as he can. He gets to a glass security door, where two JAIL GUARDS stand. Steven taps on the glass confidently with the WALKIE TALKIE and signals them to open the door. They do. And as he passes the two guards one of them speaks. JAIL GUARD (shaking head) Undercover vice... Steven approaches another set of doors and signals. The doors open.148 INT. MIAMI JAIL EXIT - 1994 - DAY 148 Steven passes through the doors and comes to an exit. He pushes on it to find it LOCKED. Panic sets in as he pushes repeatedly to no avail. And just when he thinks all is lost-- He looks down to realizes he's neglected to notice the PUSH BAR to open the door. And with a gentle PUSH, the door OPENS ...and he's gone. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 86.149 INT. KEMPLE'S MOTHER'S APARTMENT - 1994 - BEDROOM - DAY 149 HELEN KEMPLE brings a tray of toast and water into the bedroom where Steven sits over Kemple's rapidly deteriorating body. KEMPLE Thanks Mom. She kisses both Jimmy and Steven. HELEN I'll be in the other room. She exits. Steven tries to give Kemple some water. Kemple resists. STEVEN Come on. You need to drink something. Kemple meekly hands Steven his stainless steel ROLEX. KEMPLE I want you to have this because I'm gonna be leaving soon... STEVEN Well that's not okay with me baby. You can't leave. I need you around here. You're the love of my life. KEMPLE You're sweet... but no, I'm not. STEVEN Shhhh... KEMPLE I'm not. I've seen him. You haven't met him yet, but you will... Steven is perplexed. KEMPLE (CONT'D) You're gonna be so happy. And I know you don't think so, but you deserve to be happy... STEVEN You're not thinking clearly baby. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 87. KEMPLE Yes I am... And you have to promise me... When you find him, you're gonna treat him right... okay? Steven gives in gently. STEVEN Okay, okay. Now drink some water. KEMPLE Treat him right.150 INT. KEMPLE'S MOTHER'S APARTMENT - 1994 - CONTINUOUS 150 Helen is on the couch, watching the TV news as OJ Simpson is apprehended. It isn't long before a KNOCK on the door gets her attention. She gets up. HELEN Who is it? She reaches for the door and-- SMASH!! The door bursts open. SMASH CUT TO:151 EXT. KEMPLE'S MOTHER'S APARTMENT BUILDING 1994 - DAY 151 Steven is dragged kicking and SCREAMING to a squad car by a group of POLICEMEN. STEVEN NO! JUST GIVE ME SOME TIME! I PROMISED! I PROMISED I'D BE THERE! I PROMISED HE WOULDN'T DIE ALONE! And as he futilely fights--152 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, STEVEN'S CELL - 1994 - DAY 152 A CLAXON BLARES and the cell door slides OPEN with metallic ROAR, revealing a very impatient Steven with a few days stubble on his face. STEVEN It's about damn time! He rushes out. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 88.153 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN - PHONE BANK - 1994 - DAY 153 Steven hurries to the phone and dials. He nervously awaits an answer. Then- STEVEN Hi Helen it's me. Is-- He's interrupted and proceeds to listen. The look on his face says it all. STEVEN (CONT'D) Okay... mmm hmm... Through the glass wall outside the phone room, we watch as Steven continues to absorb the bad news. He hangs up the phone and falls to pieces as the CACOPHONY of the prison masks any sound of his grief. BACK TO:154 I/E NEW HOUSE, 1996 - HOUSTON POLICE CRUISER - DAY 154 OPEN CLOSE ON the stainless steel ROLEX. WE'RE BACK outside Steven and Phillip's house in a POLICE CRUISER. Steven stares at it, reflecting on his memory of Kemple. STEVEN (V.O.) I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. I just don't like talking about some things. The door opens and a HOUSTON COP hands him a black LEATHERETTE CASE. HOUSTON COP This what you wanted? STEVEN Oh thanks. HOUSTON COP Diabetes huh? STEVEN Yeah... The cop gets in and they drive off. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 89.155 INT. HOUSTON POLICE CRUISER - 1996 - A SHORT TIME LATER 155 The HOUSTON COP and a DRIVING COP ride up front, not paying much attention to their passenger. In the REAR, Steven nervously and quietly prepares an INSULIN SYRINGE and inexpertly INJECTS IT in his belly. STEVEN (V.O.) I wasn't going to lose Phillip. No way. I broke Jimmy's heart and I was not gonna break Phillip's. I was gonna make everything alright. No matter what it took, I was going to escape. He gives a quick look around and prepares another syringe. After another injection, he prepares another. And then ANOTHER and ANOTHER...156 INT. HOUSTON POLICE CRUISER - 1996 - A SHORT TIME LATER 156 The DRIVING COP watches the road blankly until his nose catches a putrid scent in the air. DRIVING COP Fuck... what is that? The other cop smells it too. They begin to look around. The Driving Cop glances back to see Steven CONVULSING AND FROTHING AT THE MOUTH like a rabid bobble head doll. DRIVING COP (CONT'D) Fuck! They turn around. HOUSTON COP Ahh! He shit himself! Get us to the hospital! The SIREN WAILS.157 INT. HOUSTON HOSPITAL ROOM - 1996 - DAY 157 Steven wakes up in a hospital bed. A little bleary at first, his eyes scan the room. He's alone. He sits up, pleased and very excited. He pulls out his IV, hops out of bed and heads for the window when- "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 90. CLANG! He stops short to find his ankle is shackled to the bed. STEVEN Shit! The door opens and the Houston Cop peers his head in. He looks back to his unseen partner. HOUSTON COP He's up.158 INT. HARRIS COUNTY JAIL, HOUSTON - 1996 - DAY 158 Three manacled PRISONERS, one of them Steven, follow a CORRECTIONS OFFICER into the Processing Area at the Harris County Jail. Each of the men are still in their street clothes and manacled separately. CORRECTIONS OFFICER Take a seat. They take a seat on a bench outside a large steel door as the officer talks to a PROCESSING CLERK. Steven is visibly agitated and ignores the other men on the bench with him. The FIRST PRISONER turns to the SECOND PRISONER. FIRST PRISONER What'd they get you for? SECOND PRISONER Grand Theft. You? FIRST PRISONER B and E. The Second Prisoner turns to Steven... SECOND PRISONER How about you? ...but STEVEN IS GONE. The man looks around. Across the room, Steven stands in an elevator amidst a group of lackadaisical JANITORS, clutching a mop. The prisoner watches in awe as the doors CLOSE. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 91.159 INT. HARRIS COUNTY JAIL, HOUSTON - 1996 - LATER 159 The elevator doors OPEN to reveal Steven, not with the janitors, but with a GROUP OF OFFICERS-- re-emerging from the elevator and back into the processing area. The LEAD OFFICER talks to the clerk. LEAD OFFICER This slippery son of a bitch is going straight to lockup. Steven heaves a sigh.160 INT. HARRIS COUNTY JAIL PHONE BANKS, 1996 - DAY 160 Steven, in a fresh prison jumpsuit, paces while talking on the phone. STEVEN C'mon Phillip, pick up, it's me. I'm sorry. C'mon. (then) Dammit! He hangs up. A nearby inmate chimes in. NEW CELLMATE How long you in for? STEVEN Not long. (picks up phone) Can you hit me in the face with this? And off the inmate's quizzened expression--161 INT. HARRIS COUNTY JAIL - 1996 - INFIRMARY - DAY 161 OPEN CLOSE on Steven's BLOODY FACE. A PRISON PHYSICIAN is examining it closely. We notice Steven is wearing WHITE SCRUBS (as opposed to the doctor who wears GREEN SCRUBS). PHYSICIAN That's a pretty big gash. Just stay still... STEVEN It sure hurts... "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 92. As Steven talks and the doctor looks, Steven stealthily plucks the doctor's ID BADGE and slips it in his pocket.162 INT. HARRIS COUNTY JAIL CELL - 1996 - DAY 162 Steven finishes filling the sink in his cell and pulls out a GREEN MAGIC MARKER. He breaks it open and drips the ink into the water. And as the water turns GREEN, Steven removes his white scrubs and plunges them in the sink.163 INT. HARRIS COUNTY JAIL GUARD STATION - 1996 - NIGHT 163 The NIGHT GUARD watches his monitors when a rap on the glass gets his attention. He looks up to see Steven in newly (and badly) dyed GREEN SCRUBS, awaiting exit on the other side, holding the stolen ID BADGE against the glass. NIGHT GUARD `night Doc. He pushes the buzzer and Steven pushes open the door.164 EXT. TEXAS MOTEL - 1996 - DAY 164 Seven State and Local police cruisers sit in the parking lot, a shirtless Steven is removed from his motel room by a pair of OFFICERS. His skin is stained green but his expression is pure resolve.165 INT. HOUSTON COURTROOM - 1996 - DAY 165 OPEN CLOSE on a GAVEL striking. Steven stands before the judge flanked by his attorney and a bailiff. HOUSTON JUDGE Set bail at 900,000 dollars. ATTORNEY Your honor... STEVEN Nine hundred thousand!? It's a white collar charge. ATTORNEY Your honor-"I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 93.The judge begins FILLING OUT A FORM. He barely looks upat them. HOUSTON JUDGE Mister Russell is a flight risk. The bond is set. Nine hundred thousand. STEVEN This is bullshit. (sotto to attorney) Set a reduction hearing. ATTORNEY (off this) Your honor we'd like to set a reduction hearing. HOUSTON JUDGE That's your right, but I strongly advise you don't.The judge finishes filling out the form and PLACES IT ATTHE EDGE OF HIS BENCH for Steven to see.It clearly reads his bail amount, his charge, everything.As the Attorney PRATTLES ON in the background, Stevenjust STARES AT THE FORM LONG AND HARD. HOUSTON JUDGE (CONT'D) Fine. You can have your hearing tomorrow.Steven interjects. STEVEN (sotto to Lawyer) Next week.The attorney looks at him quizzically and turns back tothe judge. ATTORNEY We'd like next week if that's okay. STEVEN (sotto) On the thirteenth. ATTORNEY Oh the thirteenth if possible. HOUSTON JUDGE Fine. Friday the thirteenth. Now go away. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 94.166 INT. HARRIS COUNTY JAIL CELLS - 1996 - NIGHT 166 A block of holding cells well stocked with men waiting on the legal system. We soon come upon Steven who is furiously SKETCHING OUT A COPY of the form from the judge's bench from memory.167 INT. HOUSTON APT BEDROOM (TYLER) - 1996 - DAY 167 OPEN CLOSE on an opened envelope next to Steven's sketch and a letter. STEVEN (V.O.) Dearest Tyler. Long time no talk. I won't beat around the bush. I got into a spot of trouble here in Houston and find myself needing help. That's right, jail again. Anyway I was wondering if you could type up this thing for me on your computer just like I sketched out... As Steven `reads' the letter we reveal a MAN hacking away on a computer nearby. As we move closer, we see that he's the MOUSTACHED MAN from the night of his car crash and he's not wearing pants.168 INT. HARRIS COUNTY JAIL CELL - 1996 - DAY 168 Steven opens a letter and pulls out the FORGED FORM. STEVEN Great! He grabs a pen and begins filling it out.169 INT. HOUSTON COURTHOUSE CORRIDOR - 1996 - DAY 169 Manacled to a line of prisoners, Steven shuffles through a crowded hallway. Courthouse staff are everywhere. Steven spots a HARRIED woman approaching with an armful of paperwork. He reaches into his jumpsuit and pulls out the FORGED DOCUMENT and as she passes- HE DROPS IT. STEVEN Ma'am?! The woman turns back, annoyed. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 95. STEVEN (CONT'D) Dropped something. She picks it up and puts it on her pile. He smiles as he watches her walk away.170 INT. HARRIS COUNTY JAIL PHONE BANK, 1996- DAY 170 Steven dials the phone.171 INT. HOUSTON COURTHOUSE - CLERKS OFFICE, 1996 - DAY 171 INTERCUT, a CLERK answers her RINGING PHONE. Her desk CALENDAR reads: "September, Friday the 13th" CLERK This is Julie. Steven puts on his best SOUTHERN BELLE VOICE. STEVEN (as woman) Hi, I have Judge Charles Hearn for the clerk's office. CLERK Alright. STEVEN I'll put him through. Steven switches to an authoritative JUDGE VOICE. STEVEN (CONT'D) (gruff) This the clerk's office? CLERK It is. STEVEN Charles Hearn- I got a bail adjustment coming through, sent it over today. CLERK Sure thing. What's the name? STEVEN Russell. Steven Jay. CLERK Got it right here. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 96. STEVEN Good, I need that to go through right away. Because if it don't, I'm gonna have to chug about a quart of Tidee Bowl on account of all the shit I'll be eating. Know what I mean? Julie GIGGLES. CLERK You got it Judge. STEVEN And say- Julie? Can you save me a dime and connect me to a good bail bondsman? JULIE Sure thing.172 EXT. GALVESTON HOUSE - 1996 - DAY 172 A LIMOUSINE pulls up outside a modest Galveston house. The CHAUFFEUR opens the door and Steven emerges dressed in new linen suit and clutching champagne and flowers. He approaches the door and just as he's about to knock-- PHILLIP (O.S.) Go away Steven! Steven is surprised. PHILLIP (O.S.) (CONT'D) You think I didn't know you were coming!? STEVEN Phillip- PHILLIP (O.S.) Get the hell out of here! I'm done with you! STEVEN Don't say that. PHILLIP (O.S.) They probably have a psychic after you right now! Did you see any bunnies!? STEVEN Honey, I know you're upset- but we love each other."I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 97. PHILLIP (O.S.) You opened a bank account for Doctor Phillip Morris! Now they think I'm in on everything! I'm facing real time! You know I can't go back to prison. STEVEN I'm sorry about that- they weren't supposed to find that. It was for your own good. So we could be together. PHILLIP (O.S.) Fuck off! I'm in enough trouble. STEVEN C'mon Phillip, just trust me- PHILLIP (O.S.) FUCK YOU YOU FUCKING LIAR! Do you realize how bad you've fucked me over!! You made me an accomplice! You fucking liar! I don't want to see you. Go away! I never want to see you again! STEVEN Phillip don't say that.No response. STEVEN (CONT'D) Well what am I supposed to do? PHILLIP (O.S.) You're the lawyer, you figure it out.This time, it's Steven who remains silent. PHILLIP (O.S.) (CONT'D) Oh my God...THE DOOR SWINGS OPEN, revealing a SEETHING PHILLIP. PHILLIP (CONT'D) You're not even a lawyer?! You fucking liar! STEVEN Well...He slams the door shut again. PHILLIP (O.S.) What the hell's going on?! Who the hell are you!? "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 98. STEVEN Open the door Phillip. PHILLIP (O.S.) No. Steven walks up to the door and pleads gently. STEVEN (quietly) Open the door. Just open the door. (beat) Open the door. Please. I just want to say one thing. Please. Just one thing. That's all. Please. A long silence. Steven waits longer than he should with the certainty that it will open. And eventually it does... slowly and tentatively. Through the screen door, their eyes are just inches apart. Steven looks into Phillip's soul. He opens his mouth and-- SWAT COMMANDER (O.S.) Down on the ground faggots!! Steven and Phillip are shocked to see a small SWAT team surrounding the front porch with automatic weapons. SWAT COMMANDER (CONT'D) DOWN! DOWN! NOW! And as they comply and the armed men descend--173 INT. GALVESTON POLICE STATION - 1996 - DAY 173 Steven and Phillip sit manacled, side by side. They stare at the floor in miserable uncomfortable silence. STEVEN Phillip? PHILLIP Don't. STEVEN I love you. No response. Phillip can only sit and stew. And stew. Until finally, he's had enough. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 99. PHILLIP From the moment we met, you've done nothing but lie. Our whole relationship... just lies. I'm such an asshole. You took advantage of me- just like all the rest of them. You were supposed to protect me- but you've done nothing but make a fool of me. And you expect me to love you? How can I love you? I don't even know who you are. And you know what's sad? I don't even think you know who you are. So how am I supposed to love something that don't even exist? You tell me. Eventually a POLICEMAN stands before Phillip. POLICEMAN (O.S.) Morris. You're up. Before he stands up, Phillip manages a terse statement. PHILLIP I will never forgive you Steven. Never. Steven is speechless as he watches Phillip walk away- disappearing down a long corridor. SLOW DISSOLVE TO WHITE: STEVEN (V.O.) That was the last time I ever saw him.174 INT. TX STATE PEN, 1997 - CELL BLOCK - DAY 174 PHILLIP carries his belongings past a line of hulking, cat-calling convicts. STEVEN (V.O.) ...But I knew he was right. Phillip, Jimmy, Debbie- they've all been right. My whole life was nothing but a bunch of lies. Lies to make people love me, lies to keep them from leaving me and lies to make them give me their money. He enters his cell.175 INT. TX STATE PEN, 1997 - MICHAEL UNIT BLOCK- DAY 175 Steven carries his belongings to his new cell in Michael Unit. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 100. STEVEN (V.O.) And in the process I lost track of who I was. Maybe Barbra Bascombe had me pegged right from the beginning and that's why she gave me up...175A INT. TX STATE PEN - MICHAEL UNIT CELL, 1997 - DAY 175A Steven stares at his distorted face in the polished metal MIRROR in his cell. STEVEN (V.O.) Whatever the case, how does a person who doesn't exist go on existing? Well the answer is- he doesn't.176 OMITTED 176177 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1997 - MICHAEL UNIT CELL - NIGHT 177 Steven is curled up in a ball in his cell, SOBBING as he stares at a SNAPSHOT of Phillip in Key West pasted to the wall. BUNKMATE (O.S.) Shut the fuck up, I'm trying to sleep.178 INT. TEXAS STATE PENITENTIARY CAFETERIA, 1997 - DAY 178 Steven sits over an untouched tray of food, staring at it detached. He looks thin. Pale.179 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1997 - MICHAEL UNIT CELL - NIGHT 179 Steven kneels over the toilet in his cell. The sound of PUKING reverberates.180 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1998 - MICHAEL UNIT CELL - MORNING 180 Months later, Steven sits up in his bed. He now has a grey beard and with his shirt off we can see he has lost an unhealthy amount of weight. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 101.181 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1998 INFIRMARY - DAY 181 OPEN CLOSE on the gaunt and grey-skinned Steven. A MALE NURSE places a thermometer in his mouth and looks at Steven's medical history. He looks concerned. MALE NURSE I'll be right back.182 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1998 - INFIRMARY OFFICE - DAY 182 Steven sits before a YOUNG PRISON DOCTOR who looks through his records. YOUNG DOCTOR I'm sorry to have to tell you this Steven, your t-cell counts indicate that, uh... Well... you have AIDS. Steven sits expressionless. STEVEN How long do I have? And off the Doctor's grave face-- DISSOLVE TO:183 EXT. SKY - 1966 - DAY 183 CLOUDS drift slowly across the sky. The OPENING SCENE again- the four kids lying on the hill, staring at the clouds. Young Steven smiles at the sight. A dull WHINE is heard, building until-- SMASH CUT TO:184 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN HOSPITAL WARD - 1998 - DAY 184 The first hospital scene in the movie. The cardio ALARM blares. Steven watches from his bed as a DOCTOR appears and pushes the nurses aside. DOCTOR Where's the crash cart!? He straddles the patient's chest and pushes down hard- the sound of a sternum CRACKING can be heard. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 102. STEVEN (V.O.) So here we are, where you first met me... CUT TO:185 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN HOSPITAL WARD - 1998 - LATER 185 A sheet is pulled over the cardio victim's corpse and Steven watches as it is wheeled out of the ward. He returns his bleary gaze to the ceiling. STEVEN (V.O.) I've been in this bed for months now. Waiting to die. The only thing that keeps me going is the thought that I might get a chance to see Phillip one more time. (beat) But I don't know how much longer I can do this... Steven's eyes roll back into his head as he slips into unconsciousness.186 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1998 - CELL - DAY 186 A slightly built, effeminate inmate (SAMUEL) raps on Phillip's open cell door as he enters. SAMUEL Got a minute? PHILLIP Samuel. You want some crackers? SAMUEL No... thanks. Look- I just talked to my friend- he's a nurse at the infirmary. I don't know if you know this or not but uh... Phillip looks to him with curiosity. SMASH CUT TO:187 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1998 - INFIRMARY ENTRANCE - DAY 187 Phillip flails as GUARDS hold him back from a DOCTOR. PHILLIP LET ME IN! Just let me in! "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 103. DOCTOR He's not here! PHILLIP I need to see him! DOCTOR I told you he's not here! You need to calm down. Phillip calms himself. PHILLIP Just tell me where he is. What happened? DOCTOR He slipped into a coma for a few days. He's conscious now, but he's very sick. We had him transferred to a private care facility. There was nothing we could do for him here. It's just a matter of time now. Phillip listens in devastated silence.188 EXT. RESTFUL ACRES CARE CENTER - 1998 - DAY 188 Steven looks worse than ever in his semi-private bed, looking out the window at the clouds with a catatonic gaze. He's at peace. It is the moment of his death. CARETAKER (O.S.) Steven? Death will have to wait another few moments. A nurse leans over him as he tries to focus. CARETAKER (CONT'D) Steven? Someone wants to talk to you. He keeps calling. He's driving us crazy. Steven can't respond. The nurse picks up the phone. CARETAKER (CONT'D) (into phone) Okay you can put him through. She puts the phone to Steven's ear. He can muster only a few words. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 104. STEVEN (wisp) I didn't want you to find out...189 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN INFIRMARY OFFICE - 1998- DAY 189 Phillip is INTERCUT with the helpless Steven. PHILLIP Steven. Oh God... Why didn't you write me? I don't know how this happened, they say I'm fine. Oh God, who did this? (then) It doesn't matter. I had to talk to you Steven. (tearing up) I am still angry with you, but I need you to know something. Even if sometimes I don't know who you are, I love you. I never stopped loving you. (smiles) You and me are just fools for love I guess- written in the stars or some crap like that. (tears) But it was never better, never more real than with you Steven. I realize now that all that crazy shit you did- in your fucked up way- it was always for me. Always for us. You are the most amazing man Steven. It takes my breath away. And even though I can't be with you now, I will always be yours... Forever. He steels himself as best he can. PHILLIP (CONT'D) Now if you have to go, go. It's okay. I'm right there. Okay? I'm right there. Tears surface again. He chokes back a sob.190 INT. RESTFUL ACRES CARE CENTER - 1998 - CONTINUOUS 190 As a single tear runs down Steven's face, the nurse puts the phone on the hook and leaves. Steven lies motionless. He gazes out the window to the passing clouds in the sky. It's time. DISSOLVE TO: "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 105.191 INT. TX STATE PEN, 1998 - CELLBLOCK - DAY 191 Samuel walks past cell after cell with a grave look in his eyes. Eventually he arrives at Phillip's cell to find him sitting on his bunk. SAMUEL Phillip...? Phillip looks up. SAMUEL (CONT'D) Uh- my friend in the infirmary... Uh, they got a call from that long term care place and uh, well a few days ago Steven- (then) ...I'm so sorry Phillip. Phillip nods as it washes over him. He sends Samuel on his way with a look. Once he's alone, Phillip lets go and SOBS. He buries his face in his pillow. After a long while- CLANG. A sound gets his attention. A BOSSY GUARD stands at the door of his cell. BOSSY GUARD Morris. Come with me. Phillip composes himself and follows the guard out.192 INT. TEXAS STATE PENITENTIARY CORRIDOR - 1998 - DAY 192 The guard leads Phillip down the corridor. Still coming out of his mournful haze, he becomes curious. They arrive at a door marked, "MEETING ROOM 2". PHILLIP Where are we going? BOSSY GUARD Your lawyer's here. He swings open the door to reveal STEVEN, alive and well and wearing a thrift store suit. Phillip is aghast, frozen. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 106. STEVEN (V.O.) Did I forget to mention I didn't die? Yeah, I didn't die. Faked the whole thing. SMASH CUT TO:193 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1997 - MICHAEL UNIT CELL - NIGHT 193 FLASHBACK. Steven is curled up in a ball, sobbing as he stares at a picture of Phillip pasted to the wall. BUNKMATE (O.S.) Shut the fuck up, I'm trying to sleep. STEVEN Fuck you. I got a broken heart here. We see now his Bunkmate is Cleavon. CLEAVON Well then do something about it mother fucker- `stead of crying like Whitney Houston looking for her crack pipe. Steven takes his kind words to heart. STEVEN Yeah I know... CLEAVON Damn right. Love creates miracles motherfucker. Ain't you ever read the Bible? So get off your ass and go forth unto the Canaanites you faggot bitch. Steven returns his gaze to Phillip's photo. STEVEN When you're right you're right Cleavon... Long pause. CLEAVON Wanna suck me off? STEVEN No thanks. CLEAVON Well sweet dreams then. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 107. STEVEN (V.O.) Lying there in all my misery, I had a moment of clarity. It became clear to me- I had to get to Phillip. No matter what. Even if it meant dying...194 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1997 - CAFETERIA - DAY 194 FLASHBACK. Steven sits over an untouched tray of food, staring at it detached. STEVEN (V.O.) Faking your death from AIDS is no easy task, believe me. But after watching Jimmy die, I thought I could make it convincing. First, you have to starve yourself- I ate half as much every day for ten months. After that, you have to fake all sorts of symptoms.195 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1997 - MICHAEL UNIT CELL- NIGHT 195 FLASHBACK. Steven kneels over the toilet in his cell, sticking his finger down his throat until he pukes. STEVEN (V.O.) You gotta keep this up for months until you lose about, say, 80 pounds.196 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1998 - MICHAEL UNIT CELL - MORNING 196 FLASHBACK. Months later, Steven sits up in his bed. He now has a grey beard and with his shirt off we can see he has lost an unhealthy amount of weight. STEVEN (V.O.) But the hardest part is falsifying your records.197 INT. TX STATE PEN, 1998 - MICHAEL UNIT CELL(LAWRENCE) DAY 197 Steven enters an inmate's cell (LAWRENCE) with a BIG BAG OF COFFEE. STEVEN Hey Lawrence- you still work in the infirmary? LAWRENCE Mmm hmm... "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 108. Steven holds up a three pound BAG OF COFFEE. STEVEN You like coffee?198 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1998 - INFIRMARY OFFICE - DAY 198 Lawrence sweeps up in an empty office. He looks to see if the coast is clear and bolts for some file cabinets. After some searching, Lawrence pulls out a file entitled "Russell, Steven A". Reading from a scrap of paper, he scrawls something with a pen. Lawrence then reaches into his pants and pulls out some forged forms- stuffing them into the folder.199 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1998 - INFIRMARY - DAY 199 FLASHBACK. OPEN CLOSE on the gaunt and grey-skinned Steven. A MALE NURSE places a thermometer in his mouth and looks at Phillip's medical history. CLOSE ON THE FILE- a doctor's entry reads "HIV+ since 91" A few flips of the pages reveal FORGED BLOOD TEST DOCUMENTS. Buzzwords like T-CELL COUNTS and other terms catch the Nurse's eye. He looks concerned. MALE NURSE I'll be right back.200 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN, 1998 - INFIRMARY EXAM ROOM - DAY 200 FLASHBACK. Steven sits before a YOUNG PRISON DOCTOR who looks through his records. YOUNG DOCTOR ...you have AIDS. Steven sits expressionless. STEVEN How long do I have? And off the Doctor's grave face-- "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 109.201 INT. TEXAS STATE PENITENTIARY HOSPITAL WARD - 1998 - DAY 201 Steven lays in his hospital bed. A FAT NURSE puts a pill in his mouth and follows it with some water. She exits. Once she's clear, Steven reaches into his mouth and pulls out the pill. He secretly places it into a small HOLE in his mattress for safe keeping.202 INT. TEXAS STATE PENITENTIARY HOSPITAL WARD - 1998 - DAY 202 FLASHBACK. Again, we are at the first hospital scene of the movie. The cardio ALARM blares. Steven watches as a DOCTOR appears and pushes the nurses aside. DOCTOR Where's the crash cart!? He straddles the patient's chest and pushes down hard- the sound of a sternum CRACKING can be heard. With the staff distracted, Steven reaches into his mattress hole and pulls out scores of pills. He stuffs them into his mouth as fast as he can. STEVEN (V.O.) But the hardest part by far is getting transferred to a private care facility. It's standard procedure for late stage patients, but convincing them I was about to die would involve taking a few risks. He chases the pills down with a glass of water.203 EXT. RESTFUL ACRES CARE CENTER, 1998 - DAY 203 Steven is helped from a corrections van into a wheelchair outside the Restful Acres facility. STEVEN (V.O.) After a four day coma, they were convinced.204 INT. RESTFUL ACRES CARE CENTER, 1998 - DAY 204 In his bed at the care facility, Steven looks around and picks up the phone. He talks with a FOREIGN ACCENT. STEVEN This is Doctor Rios from the Hamblin Center, Houston. I'm looking for AIDS patients for a study we're... "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 110. And as he talks-- STEVEN (V.O.) (CONT'D) And once I got settled in, I just called the Department of Corrections and convinced them I was a state-sponsored doctor looking for late stage AIDS patients for an experimental treatment. (then) As luck would have it, they had one patient that was eligible... Steven continues his Dr. Rios imitation on the phone. STEVEN Oh you do? Steven Russell? Could you spell that? CAMERA SETTLES on a nearby CALENDAR. It reads: "MONDAY, JANUARY 5" MATCH DISSOLVE TO:205 INT. RESTFUL ACRES CARE CENTER, 1998 - DAY 205 The calendar reads "FRIDAY, MARCH 13" An ORDERLY enters with a WHEELCHAIR. ORDERLY Mister Russell, the clinic sent a taxi here to pick you up.206 I/E. RESTFUL ACRES CARE CENTER, 1998 - DAY 206 Later that day, Steven is helped out of his wheelchair into a waiting taxi. STEVEN (V.O.) And for all that time- all those doctors, all those nurses and all those facilities... not one of them ever thought to give me an AIDS test... The door SLAMS and off he drives. STEVEN (V.O.) Fucking Texas...207 INT. TAXI, 1998 - DAY 207 Once clear, Steven speaks to the driver. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 111. STEVEN I had a special request when I ordered the cab. Did they tell you? TAXI DRIVER Yeah- right here. He lifts a GREASY BROWN BAG into view. STEVEN Thank God. Steven grabs it and begins to gorge himself on BURGERS. STEVEN (V.O.) (CONT'D) A week later, the hospice was to get a call from Doctor Rios, telling them Steven Russell had died undergoing treatment. And after all that hard work dying? Where's the first place I go?208 INT. TEXAS STATE PEN MEETING ROOM, 1998 - DAY 208 BACK TO MEETING ROOM. Phillip stands frozen before Steven STEVEN (V.O.) Funny, huh? The guard pushes Phillip past the threshold. The door SLAMS SHUT behind him. He staggers toward Steven as a kaleidoscope of emotions plays across his face. Bewilderment, relief, sorrow, joy and finally, anger- WHACK! He slaps Steven across the face. PHILLIP You're such a fucker! STEVEN I know- I'm sorry- You weren't supposed to find out. PHILLIP Well I did! STEVEN I couldn't take a chance telling you. You know that. I couldn't. But Phillip, I only did it so I could get here to you. (then) Just to talk to you. And here I am."I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 112. Phillip tries to take this to heart. After a moment... PHILLIP You're so skinny. STEVEN I'm fine. Just hungry. PHILLIP Steven I don't- STEVEN Wait. Listen. I just came here to tell you one thing and that's it. You don't have to take me back, I just want to say one thing. Phillip is listening. STEVEN (CONT'D) I know you thought we were nothing but a lie- but underneath all those lies there was always something that was real. I thought about what you said to me. You said you don't know who I am. But I have to tell you- I know now. I know who I am. I mean- I'm not a lawyer, I'm not a CFO, I'm not a cop. Hell I'm not even an escape artist. Those Steven Russells are dead. And now, all that's left is the man that loves you. That's all. Nothing else. I'm just the man that loves you. (then) And if you can see that... believe it... then I promise I'll never be anything else ever again. A LONG, LONG SILENCE. Phillip looks to him. PHILLIP How do I know you're not bullshitting me again? Steven pauses. He looks Phillip square in the eye. STEVEN You don't. And as Phillip stares at him- CUT TO BLACK: "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 113. A long SILENCE. Then finally... FADE IN:209 INT. TEXAS COURTHOUSE CORRIDOR - 1998 - DAY 209 At a window, a CLERK stamps a few documents and hands them to Steven, who is dressed in his lawyer attire. Steven exits the line and ducks into a nearby bathroom.210 INT. TEXAS COURTHOUSE MEN'S ROOM - 1998 - DAY 210 At the urinal, Steven whistles to himself. SUPER: "Steven Russell was arrested two weeks later trying to secure Phillip's release." Steven turns his head to find the man at the next urinal staring at him. It's a very surprised Birkheim with a badge affixed to his jacket reading, "JUROR". Steven SMILES at him.211 INT. TEXAS COURTROOM - 1999 - DAY 211 Steven sits in court while a FEMALE D.A. argues her case. SUPER: "An embarrassment to the State of Texas and Governor George Bush, Steven was given an unprecedented life sentence." She nods to the audience where Lindholm sits smiling. SUPER: "Coincidentally, the D.A. who prosecuted him was the Sister in law of Dan Lindholm- Steven's former boss"212 INT. LOCKDOWN CELL, 1999 - NIGHT 212 Steven smiles wide, shackled in a solitary 6 by 7 cell. SUPER: "Steven sits in 23 hour-a-day lockdown, with only one hour a day for supervised showers and exercise." Steven stares at his Key West CALENDAR with a small photo of Phillip attached to it. The cell brightens, everything around Steven blooms with white light. He looks to see. "I Love You Phillip Morris" Green Pages 5-23-08 114.213 EXT. OCEAN - DAY 213 STEVEN'S POV. Phillip also enveloped in white light, sits on the bow of staring at him with a smile. Steven smiles back. FADE TO BLACK. SUPER: "On average, there are 1.7 Friday the 13ths a year.214 EXT. TEXAS STATE PENITENTIARY - DAY 214 A SIREN BLARES over a wide of the facility. Small in frame, we see Steven running from the prison gaining ground on the two guards chasing him. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_I am Sam.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_I am Sam.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..6aa2fe4f0746494df61a1e49012189e156a4a299 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_I am Sam.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + "I AM SAM" Screenplay by Kristine Johnson Jessie Nelson 2001 SHOOTING DRAFT INT. STARBUCKS - 7:30 A.M. We're watching a pair of hands arrange white sugar packets, blue Equal packets, and pink Sweet and Low into small containers. With precision and lightning speed, the mixed up colors and crumpled packets are transformed into neat little color-coded rows. Wait, this container has three Equals and four Sweet 'n' lows. The hand quickly plucks the mutant Sweet 'n' Low. There. Symmetry. We move up those hands and meet SAM DAWSON as he surveys his domain. Something about him. He's extremely compelling, uniquely handsome. But it's more than that. Those eyes, they sparkle with the wonder of a child. Life's cynical edge has not etched it's path across this face. They light on a COFFEE CUP held by one of the Regulars. SAM Double double decaf low-fat Cap. BRUCE You got it, buddy. SAM Good choice very good choice. Sam moves along, commenting to CUSTOMERS as he places Sweet 'n Lows on tables, the self-appointed host of Starbucks. SAM (CONT'D) Mocha rumba Frappuccino no whipped, half low, half non. Excellent choice. Very good choice. He stops in front of sale mugs and turns them so that the logos all face the same way. His boss GEORGE approaches. GEORGE Sam, they called. It's time for you to go. Sam FREEZES, but doesn't turn around. GEORGE (CONT'D) Sam, did you hear me? SAM "It's time for you to go." GEORGE Yes. SAM It's time. GEORGE Good luck. Without another word, Sam walks straight out the door. EXT. LOS ANGELES STREET - DAY Sam, still in his white apron, walks down the busy street. He has a fast, loping gait that doesn't slow or hesitate for anyone. A COUPLE argue on the sidewalk. Sam WALKS RIGHT BETWEEN THEM. SAM It's time. It's time. Sam keeps moving, he crosses the street without stopping. Traffic SCREECHES to a HALT! Cars HONK, a taxi driver YELLS. SAM (CONT'D) It's time, it's time for you to go. INT. HALLWAY - LATER Sam plows down the hall and comes to room 324. SAM Rebecca! Sam pushes the DOOR OPEN. And we REALIZE we are entering: A HOSPITAL LABOR DELIVERY ROOM AT LA COUNTY HOSPITAL. REBECCA is in the middle of a major contraction. Her face is the opposite of Sam's. Hardened. She lets out a scream that stops Sam dead in his tracks. GERTIE, a no-nonsense Black Nurse, looks up from the monitor. GERTIE You the one responsible for this? Sam nods, taking Gertie quite literally. SAM I'm sorry. GERTIE Too late for sorries, daddy, get over here and hold her hand. Sam reaches for Rebecca's hand. She pulls it away. ANOTHER CONTRACTION - Rebecca screams. Sam SCREAMS. NURSE You got a live one, Gert. INT. LABOR ROOM - LATER DR. JAMISON Okay, this is it! SAM (spins in circles) This is it! This is it! DR. JAMISON And it's a girl... The BABY lets out her first cry. Sam watches, awestruck. Gertie wraps the baby in a blanket and holds her out to Rebecca. Rebecca shakes her head - NOT NOW. Gertie walks over to Sam. GERTIE There's someone who's been waitin' an awful long time to see you, Sam. She places the BABY into SAM'S ARMS. Suddenly Sam's whole body RELAXES and becomes very still. He looks to Rebecca, but she has turned away. He meets Gertie's eyes. Then in quiet amazement: SAM This is it. GERTIE What's her name? SAM (looks at clock) Let me see let me see let me see. 12:17, March 2nd. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Recorded March 2nd. 1967. Lyrics by John Lennon, music by Paul McCartney. Lucy Diamond Dawson. We hear LIKE A LULLABY, "Picture yourself on a boat in a river with tangerine trees and marmalade skies..." EXT. HOSPITAL - NEXT MORNING Sam, holding the baby, and Becca, having just checked out, walk down the steps of the hospital holding their complimentary plastic baby bag. Sam is nervous haling the precious cargo and Becca is agitated. They see the bus pulling up and down the street and Sam moves quickly so they can hurry and catch it. As he approaches the bus, he looks to Becca by his side, but she is not there. He looks around and no sign of her. Frantically turning in a full circle, he sees the fabric of her dress disappearing into the crowd down the street. He screams. SAM Becca! Becca! The more he screams the faster she moves away. Till there's no trace of her. Sam stands in the middle of the busy block holding Lucy to his chest, devastated. We hear, "Look for the girl with the clouds in her eyes, but she's gone." SMASH CUT TO: INT. BUS - NIGHT Sam holds the now sleeping baby to his chest. Next to him is the plastic bag from the hospital containing diapers, two cans of formula and a half empty bottle of milk. Sam is surrounded by PASSENGERS, the eerie world of the underground at night. Instinctively, Sam holds her even tighter, two against the world. INT. SAM'S APARTMENT - DAWN A marvel of organization. A closet reveals clothes on hangers exactly equidistant from each other; precisely folded T-shirts, underwear and socks organized by color. A carefully systemized record collection fills makeshift bookshelves. Beatles posters from every era decorate the walls. Becca's things sit in one corner. An island of chaos in an "Hold Everything" showroom. The kitchen counter has been transformed into a changing table. Bottles and pacifiers lined up next to a stack of cloth diapers. Underneath, a clothes line of baby clothes. The sound of a CRYING BABY breaks the silence. The camera follows and finds the CRADLE: a DRAWER tucked snugly into a blanket hanging like a hammock between two chairs. An exhausted SAM POPS up from his bed, behind the hammock. He swings the hammock, hoping against hope the baby will go back to sleep. SAM Didn't you just fall asleep, little girl? (Lucy cries harder) Okay, if you say it's time to get up, then it's time to get up, time to get up. (Sam sniffs the air) Oh my, oh my, oh my. Quite a bit of business. He rushes over to the kitchen counter and unsnaps the baby's pajamas, revealing a cloth diaper held together with promotional buttons: one says "Hertz, #1 for Car Rentals", the other a picture of Magic Johnson and reads "Go, Lakers, Go!" Sam undoes it. SAM (CONT'D) Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. Let me see let me see let me see. Sam attempts to clean and diaper her. He finally manages to pin the buttons so that it at least stays on. SAM (CONT'D) You look very beautiful this morning, very beautiful. He holds her up, and the diaper falls down around her ankles. CUT TO: We pan across a row of diapers on a supermarket shelf: HUGGIES, PAMPERS, EXTRA ABSORBENT PAMPERS, LUVS... INT. WALMART - DAY Sam stares at the "Great Wall of Diapers", awed. He reaches for the Pampers, balancing Lucy, then the Luvs, no, the Huggies. Sam stops moving, Lucy starts CRYING, so he jogs in place. Sam decides on one of each. He heads to the FORMULA AISLE. Gerber, Carnation, Carnation Iron Fortified. He stops. Lucy WAILS. WE HEAR THE SONG "HELP, I NEED SOMEBODY" INT. SAM'S APARTMENT - 9 P.M. Sam paces, carrying Lucy who screams at the top of her lungs. INT. SAM'S APARTMENT - 11:25 P.M. Sam rocks the CRYING BABY in the hammock. He's exhausted, but she's just getting started. He puts another blanket on her. INT. SAM'S APARTMENT - 1:30 A.M. Peace. A punch-drunk Sam lays the sleeping baby into the cradle as if she were a bomb that might detonate. He tiptoes, his FIST raised victoriously - "YES!" He doesn't get two steps before Lucy wakes screaming. Defeated, he picks her up. HELP. The PHONE RINGS. HE PRESSES speaker. RASPY WOMAN (O.S.) What the hell are you doing to that baby?! He looks out his window and sees ANNIE CASSELL, his neighbor on the phone, watching him through her window. She is a strange creature with very thick glasses. We sense a uniquely profound intelligence behind all that armor. SAM Everything's so tiny, tiny. Tiny. Everything. Won't you please come over? Help. I need somebody. Won't you please please help me. ANNIE You know I can't do that. What does her mother say? SAM Her mother? Her mother said "This isn't my life. I'm outta here when she comes. It didn't mean anything, Sam. It was just one night. The two of you. That's all I need..." Annie, what if she's sick? EXT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS ANNIE has her door open a crack. Annie feels the baby's forehead. Lucy stares up at her, quiet now, fascinated. ANNIE She's overheated and not eating enough. How often are you feeding her? SAM A lot, Gerber, Carnation, Gerber. ANNIE What's a lot? SAM Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Three squares hot. ANNIE Babies need food every two hours, Sam. SAM Oh. I'm sorry Lucy Diamond. ANNIE What time does the little diamond wake up? SAM She never really goes to sleep. ANNIE Okaaaay. Well, let's assume she's up at six. Keep your TV on Nickelodeon. I want you to feed her first while "Bewitched" is on. Then again, when "Hogan's Heroes" starts. After that, well until "Father Knows Best..." CUT: INT. SAM'S APARTMENT - EVENING We are watching "Hogan's Heroes". We hear SHULTZ'S INFAMOUS RESPONSE: "I know nothing, absolutely nothing!" Sam feeds a content Lucy. DISSOLVE TO: INT. SAM'S APARTMENT - LATER "Father Knows Best" on TV. Lucy blissfully falls asleep in Sam's arms. Euphoric, he tiptoes to the cradle and places her ever so gently, when suddenly, the FRONT DOOR FLIES OPEN. Sam's BEST FRIENDS DESCEND inside: IFTY, a Pakistani gentlemen with a gentle face and a wide smile, carrying a large stuffed giraffe with a bow on it. BRAD, who sees himself as a real ladies man, in tight jeans and a Farrah Fawcett T-shirt; and ROBERT, highly paranoid, thinks the world's out to get him. Lucy WAILS. Sam RUNS to the CRIB. SAM What are you doing here now?! Her first sound sleep, not a sound, not a sound. BRAD Eight years every Thursday Video Night and you forgot?! SAM Oh my god, Video Night. First Thursday of the month. Video night at Sam's house. I'm sorry, I forgot. IFTY Becca's gone. "Gone with the Wind" is a very sad movie. ROBERT Oh here we go...Everything changes now. Soon you'll forget about Wednesday night Denny's and Friday night Karaoke. And I got hit by a car today. SAM You did? ROBERT It's probably that guy from the V.A. BRAD What guy? ROBERT (closing window) I can't discuss it. And now this. Ifty makes ORIGAMI BIRDS out of newspapers. Lucy's rapt. SAM She looks smart, doesn't she? IFTY Of course, look. She's already reading the newspaper. I have five smart sisters in Pakistan. I am only brother. "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" was a wonderful movie I forgot to bring last week for Video Night... BRAD Did you get "Blade Runner" for tonight? ROBERT Now it's all my fault?! BRUCE Don't tell me you forgot again. I broke a date with a daydream to come here. There's a knock at the door. Ifty goes to get it. Brad moans when he sees his 65 YEAR OLD MOTHER, ESTELLE, standing in the doorway. BRAD Mom! I told you Video Night's over at nine! It's only six-thirty! ESTELLE (unaware of the baby) Sorry. I'll wait in the lobby. She exits. Lucy begins to CRY. Brad takes her - like a hot potato, Robert takes her - now Ifty runs around in circles. IFTY She needs motion. My father drove my sisters in his taxi to get them to go to sleep. Two-fifty surcharge on all taxi's from the airport... ROBERT I got hit by a taxi on Tuesday. And it all starts again and we -- CUT TO: EXT. BUS - NIGHT An empty bus makes its way through the city at night. INT. BUS - NIGHT BUS DRIVER Main and Temple...again. She out yet? The camera moves along and stops on the long seat at the back. Sam lies with Lucy spooned into the crook of his arm, almost asleep. SAM Almost there, almost there. One more round and she'll be down for the night. We hear the song "Golden Slumbers". In a SERIES OF DISSOLVES, we see Lucy and Sam in DIFFERENT SLEEPING POSITIONS on the bus seat. Gradually, she GROWS in HIS PROTECTIVE EMBRACE -- ONE MONTH, THEN TWO. NOW FIVE. She's BIG AND ROUND at SIX MONTHS. And on and on into the night... INT. WALMART'S PHOTO BOOTH - DAY We see Sam and Lucy CRAMMED into the booth, wearing birthday hats, taking HER FIRST BIRTHDAY picture. We see the PHOTO STRIP as it comes out of the slot. Sam's shoulder with Lucy's ear - Lucy's nose with Sam's elbow, their faces never made it into the picture. INT. STARBUCKS - 8:30 A.M. The place is packed. Sam moves from table to table, cleaning. SAM Double macciatto, low foam, low-fat. Good choice, very good choice. Sam turns and WE SEE LUCY attached to him in a handmade snugly, crocheted by Annie. She faces outward, all hands, all 16 MONTHS of her; too big for the snugly. She grabs a croissant from a customer. George looks confused. Then makes a SWIPE for a customer's coffee, knocking it to the ground. It SPLATTERS all over an anorexic, on-her-fourth double-latte WOMAN in a designer exercise outfit. She begins shrieking. George looks at Sam, this can't go on. INT. APARTMENT HALLWAY - MORNING Sam, Lucy by his side, has his foot in Annie's door. SAM Please, Annie! She's too big to take to work. ANNIE I'm not a baby-sitter. I'm too busy. LUCY Annie, Annie, Annie... ANNIE (suspicious) Did you teach her that? SAM It was her first word. Very first word. Annie opens the door, takes Lucy's hand, and pulls her in. ANNIE And people worry you're not smart. INT. ANNIE'S APARTMENT - ONE WEEK LATER The apartment looks like a fallout shelter. The kitchen contains enough canned goods to last a year. Brightly colored crocheted doilies - Annie's hobby - adorn every available surface. The BRIGHTLY COLORED WEB of an AGORAPHOBE. Lucy sits in Annie's lap, getting her first piano lesson. WE SEE LUCY'S TINY FINGERS on the keys. In a SERIES OF DISSOLVES, it is joined by Annie's hand tapping out one note, now two notes, and as the weeks pass, a chord. Until finally the notes merge to become the most unlikely duet of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". ANNIE This is Mozart. He did twenty-two variations of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". You smell good. You can tell a lot about a person by their smell. If they've got too much perfume on they're covering something up. You gotta watch someone who smells like soap. Gotta wonder what their priorities are. Nervous people. People who try too hard. They smell like fish. But you. You smell like milk. Milk and hope. Lucy leaves the piano and toddles over to Annie's loom and plays with a ball yarn. VOICE (O.S.) Groceries, Annie. ANNIE Thanks. Annie opens the door to pull in the groceries. The ball of yarn ROLLS OUT the door and Lucy chases after it. Annie, terrified, bellows: ANNIE (CONT'D) Lucy! Come back here! Come back! It becomes obvious Annie can't walk outside. Trembling: ANNIE (CONT'D) "Lucy in the sky with diamonds..." Hearing the familiar tune, Lucy stops and toddles back. Annie sweeps her up, relieved and we -- INT. KARAOKE BAR - NIGHT Sam on stage, with Ifty and Brad as his back-up singers, continuing the song in the oddest, most heartfelt version to Lucy who sits on Robert's lap and in heaven. EXT. PARK - DAY A beautiful blue sky. And "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" continues as Lucy's THREE YEAR OLD laughing face SWINGS INTO FRAME on a swing then DISAPPEARS out THE OTHER END OF FRAME. Now Lucy SWINGS BACK DOWN and out of the other end again... Sam's FACE, glowing with delight, APPEARS AGAINST THE SKY and then disappears. Sam and Lucy are on swings surrounded by MOTHERS and KIDS at the park. LUCY (V.O.) Daddy, where does the sky end? SAM (V.O.) Let me see, let me see. I've never been there but they say it's somewhere near China. EXT. PARK - ONE YEAR LATER Lucy FLIES INTO FRAME, now FOUR, sitting on Sam's lap, swinging. LUCY (V.O.) Are lady bugs only girls or are there boys, too. And if there are, what are they called? SAM (V.O.) The Beatles. EXT. PARK - ONE YEAR LATER Then Lucy FLIES INTO FRAME, now FIVE, followed by Sam. LUCY (V.O.) Do I look more like you or Mommy? ON SAM'S FACE He knew this moment would come. INT. DENNY'S - THURSDAY NIGHT DINNER - EVENING Lucy and Sam are having a serious talk over breaded Sole. LUCY If you and Mommy liked each other enough to have me, how come you're not together anymore? SAM I think she fell out of love with me. Not you, never you. Me, just me. LUCY When you fall out of love where do you land? SAM Somewhere in Florida, I think. LUCY Do you think she'll ever come back? SAM (long pause) Paul McCartney lost his mother when he was fourteen. John lost his mother twice. First when Julie gave John to her sister Mimi to raise. And then again when Julia was hit by a car. They say God picks certain people, special people. That's what they say. Lucy takes this in. Sam begins to shift his tomatoes just so... his potatoes just slightly to the left. Lucy watches. LUCY Daddy, did God mean for you to be like this or was it an accident? SAM Do you mean - what do you mean? LUCY I mean you're different. SAM What do you mean? I mean, what do you mean? LUCY You're not like the other daddies. SAM I'm not am I. I'm sorry. LUCY Don't be sorry. I'm lucky. Nobody else's daddy ever comes to the park. ON SAM'S FACE Filled with relief. Bursting with love. SAM We are very lucky, aren't we? Grace approaches with two plates of pie, ice cream on the side. GRACE Ice cream on the side. LUCY Not on top. Not on top. SAM Good choice. Very good choice. INT. SAM'S APARTMENT - THURSDAY NIGHT VIDEO NIGHT SAM Brad, I know it was your turn. I'm sure of it. BRAD I swear to God it was Robert's turn. ROBERT Why is it always my fault? IFTY I keep track, last time, I say to myself, I say, write it down... Bank of America give away beautiful calendar, every month a picture of wild animal, look June, an Elk. Elke Sommer...she starred in the remake of "Prisoner of Zenda"... Three stars Leonard Maltin video movie guide. As they go on, Lucy matter-of-factly PULLS A VIDEO OUT OF HER BACKPACK, and puts it in the VCR. She turns it on. It's "Kramer vs. Kramer". Everyone stops their arguing and stares at Lucy. LUCY Annie let me borrow it. INT. CHILDREN'S SHOE STORE - DAY A row of brand new children's shoes on display. Lucy tries on dozens of school shoes, surrounded by Sam and her "Godfathers": Ifty, Brad and Robert. SAM You need a good sturdy school shoe. Arches are very important. IFTY Sturdy is boring. Red shoes bring good luck. BRAD But red doesn't got with green. IFTY Except on Christmas. BRAD No brown clodhoppers. Everyone will make fun of her. SAM NO ONE will make fun of Lucy. ROBERT She might be stupid. IFTY No she's not -- ROBERT Did they test her? BRAD You don't know for sure. SAM Yes I do. BRUCE But if she is, don't make her go to school. ROBERT Don't let her in the lunch room. Johnny Marzettie's there. BRAD And gym. Get her a pass. The rules for volleyball are so hard to remember. "Rotate Rackman Rotate." IFTY Throw the ball at his forehead and the water on his brain will come out his nose. Meanwhile, Lucy has been trying on a simple brown shoe. LUCY I like these. SAM She know what she likes. She likes these. How much are they? SALESMAN Forty-nine ninety-nine. SAM One penny less than fifty. These shoes are one penny less than fifty? LUCY It's okay, Dad. I don't really like them. SAM No, no no no no. IFTY We'll all give ten dollars. BRAD I've only got three plus five. But I need one for stamps. ROBERT Don't pull your wad out in front of people. They all dig in their pockets and begin counting very slowly. SAM Thank you, thank you. We are rich in friends. That's what our fortune cookie said. 1, 2, 3, 4, quarters that makes one. SALESMAN I'll count it. SAM Is it enough? SALESMAN (exasperated) If there's a God. BRAD Do we get a balloon with these? SALESMAN Yes. ROBERT All of us, or just her? SMASH CUT TO: EXT. STREET NEAR SHOE STORE - DAY Those new little brown shoes walking in between four pairs of man's shoes. We move up from those shoes to see FIVE PAIR OF HANDS tightly clasping their balloons as they march victoriously down the street. We MOVE IN on Lucy's little brown shoes skipping with joy and -- DISSOLVE TO: EXT. SCHOOL FIELD - DAY Those same little shoes in the midst of a mass of black soccer cleats. We move up and see Lucy in the middle of a fierce kids soccer game. Score's tied. The ball comes to Lucy. She kicks and misses. From the sidelines we hear: SAM Beautiful kick! Very close! Lucy looks up at her dad proudly. The ball comes again. Nobody could miss this one. But Lucy does. SAM (CONT'D) Thatta girl! Thatta girl! They're getting scared now! The game continues. The GOALIE'S FATHER, DUNCAN RHODES, handsome, commanding and dressed in a suit, calls to his son: MR. RHODES C'mon, Conner! On your toes! They're all counting on you! Conner tenses up, alert under the pressure. Meanwhile, down at the other end, the ball heads toward Lucy. She kicks it! Hard. Right into her team's own goal. The crowd GROANS. SAM Hurray, Lucy! You're getting the hang of it now! You've got them scared now! Lucy's bursting with confidence, plows toward the ball and NAILS IT! The ball goes flying. The parents in the stand are completely baffled! Sam is completely ecstatic! SAM (CONT'D) L-u-c-y! That's our battlecry! The ball heads into the goal, just passing the goalie, Conner. Sam runs to embrace Lucy when he hears Duncan reaming his son -- MR. RHODES The whole game was right in front of your nose! I leave work early to watch you blow the whole game!? Conner slouches against the fence as his father walks away. Seeing this, Sam whispers to Lucy. INT. SAM'S APARTMENT - AFTERNOON A child's hand double jumps across a checker board. CONNER (O.S.) Ha! Lucy and Conner are playing checkers while Sam cooks dinner. Two carrots cut into ten pieces. Bow Tie Pasta - 35 pieces each. CONNER (CONT'D) What's wrong with your father? Why's he acting like a retard? LUCY He is. Their hands graze against each other on the check board - he pulls his hand away. CONNER Are you? LUCY No. CONNER Are you sure? LUCY Yeah. CONNER How do you know? LUCY He told me. CONNER But he's a retard. LUCY Yeah well it takes one to know one! He crowns her - her eyes shift to Sam in the kitchen, for the first time a bit uneasily. INT. SAM'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Sam's reading Lucy her homework book. SAM "They perched in sisisi..." LUCY "Silence." SAM "...silence for a long time." Boy. Your teacher chose a hard book this time. "How can we be so difdifdif..." LUCY "Different." Sam glances up at Lucy self-consciously. Lucy grabs the book from Sam, tosses it on the pile and picks up another. LUCY (CONT'D) I don't like that book - let's read "Green Eggs and Ham". Relieved, Sam plunges into the book, which is more memorized than read. SAM "I am Sam, Sam I am. Do you like green eggs and ham? I do not like them, Sam I am!" They both laugh, delighted. Lucy looks sleepy. MATCH DISSOLVE: Lucy is getting drowsy. Sam is just getting started. SAM (CONT'D) "And I will eat them here and there. Say I will eat them ANYWHERE. I do so like green eggs and ham, thank you thank you, Sam I am!" One more time! LUCY Daddy, I have school tomorrow...I don't wanna be too sleepy. SAM Just the part about the boat and the goat in the rain in the train? LUCY Daddy, Hamburger Hamlet has twelve different kinds of hamburgers. Can we go there Wednesday instead of Denny's? SAM But Wednesday night's Denny's, Thursday's Video Night, Friday Night Karaoke. Lucy nods, a little deflated. SAM (CONT'D) How about one more time, just the beginning? "I am Sam, Sam I am..." Lucy sighs and closes her eyes against her father's chest. INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Lucy draws a picture while everyone reads aloud from "STELLALUNA". MISS WRIGHT Lucy, your turn. Start where Sara left off...Lucy? LUCY I can't. MISS WRIGHT Sure you can. LUCY "They perched in sisisisi..." MISS WRIGHT Silence. LUCY (throws down book) There. I told you. It's too hard. MISS WRIGHT Lucy! I know you can read this! LUCY No, I can't! And you can't make me! Lucy runs out of the class. EXT. BUS STOP - DUSK Sam, in sunglasses, waits for the BUS. A YOUNG WOMAN, LILY, sits down next to him. The WIND CATCHES her floral dress that's just left of innocent; just right of alluring. She reads a TABLOID. LILY Look here. "Premature baby claims he's cupid - has the arrow to prove it." Do you believe that? SAM Well, if he has the arrow. LILY Yeah. You got a good point. She crosses her legs. A tuft of pink dress falls on Sam's knee. SAM You're a good reader. LILY Yeah, I've always been smart. SAM You're lucky. I'm looking for a smart, good mother. LILY I can be a mother. A real good mother. SAM Oh, good. Good. LILY I could even spank you. SAM Oh no no no. I don't believe in that. LILY Okay okay. I can be very gentle. SAM Gentle. Gentle. Yes. Do you tell stories? LILY I got stories up the wazoo. Why don't you come with me. I'll tell you a nice story. SAM I have to pick up Lucy at Annie's first. LILY A menage a toi? SAM French, French the language of France. You could teach my daughter, Lucy. LILY Your daughter?! Can't you pick her up after?! SAM After?! No no, Lucy comes too. LILY Whatever. She takes Sam's hand, they move to get on the bus JUST AS ANOTHER HAND brusquely lands on theirs. COP Not so fast. You're under arrest. Solicitation. LILY He wanted to bring his kid, I said no. A lightbulb flashes and we -- SMASH CUT TO: INT. POLICE HEADQUARTERS - THAT NIGHT Sam blinks as his MUGSHOT is being taken. Now the profile. He turns so they can get the back of his head. Now the FINGERPRINT. Now Sam, in the corner of the room, on the phone making thumbprints on the wall. While the COP discusses his case with a social worker, MARGARET BROWN. Over the years she's seen it all, and to get through it has had to pretend it's just a job. COP It's the first time in nineteen years I actually believe the guy when he says he didn't know she was a hooker -- MARGARET BROWN You say that like it's a good thing. SAM ...Your teeth don't sound like they were brushed. Do it with me now. COP Let him go. He says he's never spent a night away from his kid... Come with me - I got a guy who beat the shit out of his two year old. Again. Her cell phone beeps. MARGARET BROWN Yes. I am seeing you tomorrow, Mr. Rabins. She's still screaming? No, McDonald's won't help...she's four months old. SAM Thirteen up...not on the gum line not on the gum line, 1, 2, 3. Margaret watches Sam as he talks to Lucy on the phone. INT. PRINCIPALS OFFICE - DAY The WALLS are lined with CHILDREN'S ART. Various interpretations of the family. We stop at one of a very small man and a very big little girl with her arm around him. MISS WRIGHT It gives us a great deal of insight into what she must be feeling. And in the classroom, it's becoming clear she's holding herself back. It's as if she's literally afraid to learn. We PULL BACK and see Sam staring at the picture. Mrs. Wright and the principal watch him. MISS WRIGHT (CONT'D) No one doubts that you love your daughter, Mr. Dawson. But the Department of Social Services contacted us. They shared with us that your records show that your intellectual capacity is around that of a seven year old. Our concern is what happens when Lucy turns eight? PRINCIPAL Mr. Dawson, do you understand what Miss Wright is trying to tell you about Lucy? SAM No one wanted The Beatles to break up. But you can hear it on the White Album. They were going in different directions. INT. LUCY'S BEDROOM - NIGHT It's bedtime. Sam and Lucy are reading from "STELLALUNA". LUCY How can we be so dif..dif...I don't know that word. SAM Yes you do. It starts with a "d" -- LUCY I'm tired. SAM I don't believe you. LUCY Are you calling me a liar? SAM Yes. Now read the word. LUCY (crying) No...I'm stupid. SAM No you're not. LUCY I don't want to read it if you can't. SAM It makes me happy. I'm happy hearing you read it. He holds the book open for Lucy. Now Lucy, pushing through a mountain of resistance, reads. And reads beautifully. LUCY "Why are we different and so much alike?" INT. SCHOOL HALLOWEEN PARADE - AUDITORIUM - DAY Two children, dressed as Batman, march followed by CINDERELLA. We see Lucy dressed in NEWSPAPER - an ORIGAMI BIRD. And behind her, marching more proudly than any child, is Sam, dressed as PAUL McCARTNEY, in the black suit era - with Beatle boots and guitar strapped to his chest. Sam is the only adult participating in the parade. Music BLASTS over the loudspeaker. Sam begins to dance with joyous abandon. Lucy joins him. They dance together happily. Suddenly Lucy becomes aware that her classmates are beginning to laugh. She slows and watches through their eyes Sam pony around the room. Conner pulls up his pants high on his waist and begins to imitate Sam. Another kid joins him. KID I'm a Super Freak! CONNER And I thought my dad was a dork. Lucy's face hardens for the first time. In a corrupt world the pure can only stay pure for so long. INT. HAMBURGER HAMLET - EVENING Sam and Lucy sit in a booth. Lucy's ecstatic. Sam's trying. LUCY They have eleven different kinds of hamburgers. This is so great. SAM A new place. Your choice. I said we'd go to a new place. And here we are. Sam anxiously rearranges the condiments on the table. Lucy tries to fold a napkin into an Origami bird. LUCY You know what else I want for my birthday, Daddy? I want a hundred birds. SAM The napkins are much stiffer at Denny's. They make better birds. There's not so much stuff on the tables there either. Why do they have two kinds of mustard on every table? WAITRESS Coffee? SAM No, no coffee. Sam's system can't handle coffee. WAITRESS Okaaay! What can I get you folks? LUCY I'd like the Benito Bandito burger and a chocolate chip milkshake, please. SAM I'll have the fish special, side of potatoes, salad with Thousand Island Dressing, cherry pie, and... WAITRESS I'm sorry, sir. We don't have a fish special. There's fish and chips. It comes with a dinner salad. SAM Chips, chips? You mean potato chips? I don't want potato chips. I want a side of potatoes. WAITRESS You want french fries? SAM No, a side of potatoes, like at Denny's. A side of potatoes. LUCY They're little red potatoes. WAITRESS We don't have new potatoes... SAM Denny's has new potatoes. Six new potatoes parsley garnish parsley garnish... ON LUCY Her smile fades. SMASH CUT TO: INT. DENNY'S - HALF-HOUR LATER Sam happily eats his fish special with six new potatoes. Lucy's untouched dinner sits in the middle of the table. She doodles on the placement - drawing a man sitting with a pile of new potatoes in front of him; larger than he is. SAM Fish and chips fish and chips. I will not eat fish and chips. LUCY (exploding) I will not eat them here or there! I will not eat them anywhere! I will not eat green eggs and ham! I will not eat them, Sam I am! INT. SAM'S APARTMENT - DAY Balloons and a banner reading "Happy Birthday, Lucy!" For Lucy's birthday, Sam has rented a moon bounce - which sits in the center of the apartment and filling the entire place - leaving no room for the few kids and their parents. Brad stands too close to a young attractive mother. Robert shakes all the presents suspiciously. SAM Now when they come through the door, everybody yell "Surprise!" Do you want to rehearse again? CONNER No. I bet she already knows. ROBERT I didn't tell her. Did Brad say I did? There's a KNOCK at the door. SAM Is that Lucy? Annie's supposed to call and warn us. Shhhh, everyone. Brad hits the lights. Sam OPENS THE DOOR and everyone yells "SURPRISE!" But instead of Lucy, it's the Social Worker. MARGARET BROWN I don't know if you remember me. I'm Margaret Brown from Children's Social Services. We met at the police station. SAM Put your present over there - Hurry up! Lucy might be on her way. (the phone rings) Hello? Annie says she's coming up the stairs. Everyone be quiet. Assume surprise positions! (Conner keeps talking) Be quiet! Assume surprise positions! CONNER Oh brother! SAM Why are you such a party pooper?! Assume surprise positions! CONNER Make me! Sam puts a hand over Conner's mouth; Conner struggles against him. MR. RHODES Hey! SAM He's gonna ruin the surprise! He's gonna ruin the surprise! CONNER He touched me! I've got cooties! I've got cooties! MR. RHODES Get your hands off my boy! Conner's father hurls Sam across the room - Sam gets tangled in the MOON BOUNCE! To get attention, Conner bursts into tears. We hear FOOTSTEPS outside the door - Brad hits the lights. We hear a CRASH! And in the light, the DOOR SHEDS as it opens, Lucy and Ifty see - that MOONBOUNCE, swaying. Then from within the Moonbounce: SAM Surprise! Happy Birthday! Lucy stands frozen, holding a red balloon. LUCY Daddy?! CONNER You don't have to call him "Daddy". (in Sam's face) She says you're not her real father, anyway. She's adopted! Humiliated, Lucy RUNS AWAY! The Social Worker watches, profoundly concerned, and reaches for her cellular phone. EXT. WALMART - DAY A police car pulls into the parking lot. Sam and Margaret in the back. Sam and Margaret see Lucy's little feet dangling from beneath the curtain of the photo booth. SAM I'll go get her. MARGARET BROWN It would be better if you stay here. I'm sorry to say this, Mr. Dawson, it's clear how much you love your daughter, but we're going to have to remove Lucy from your home. Sam's baffled. One cop places his hand on Sam's shoulder, restraining him. The OTHER heads toward the photo booth. SAM No, no no no. It's her birthday! It's her birthday! MARGARET BROWN I know how hard this must be... (cell phone rings) ...Hello, Betsy. I'm scheduled to come to your apartment at four. No, not five every two hours. It's two every five hours. She only weighs thirty pounds for chrissakes... (back to Sam) The city has given me the difficult task of deciding when to intervene on behalf of the child. Unfortunately, I've learned the hard way that it's better too soon than too late. For now the court will decide what's in Lucy's best interest. Sam watches the cop's legs meet Lucy's under the curtain. Suddenly, Sam screams from the deepest core of his being. SAM Run, Lucy, run! We see LUCY'S FEET KICK the COP'S LEGS and wrestle out of his grasp. She flies out the booth, holding that balloon. She runs down the street, the balloon soaring into the sky - a cop follows. Sam struggles. ON SAM Reeling, devastated, we HEAR A JUDGE speaking: JUDGE (O.S.) Given the fact that the father was arrested for solicitation, did not cooperate with the police... INT. COURTROOM - DAY Sam sits ALONE. At another table, Margaret Brown and a lawyer, along with several people from the CPS. JUDGE ...could not control his emotions, endangering other children. Miss Brown also cites Mr. Dawson's mental deficiencies which raise serious questions about his ability to properly parent. I agree to grant petition. The child shall be removed from the home until a forma jurisdictional hearing. Mr. Dawson, is there anything you'd like to add? SAM Yes. I just wanted it to be a nice surprise party. I had gotten the plates at Pic-N-Save. Pink and yellow, pink and yellow. Like a princess. And the balloons at -- JUDGE (gently) Mr. Dawson, it sounds like a lovely party, but right now I want to talk to you about your legal rights. I would strongly suggest you get yourself legal counsel and allow your attorney to present your case at the jurisdictional hearing on February 13th. Counsel, are you available? COUNSEL Ted, I have a trial that day. JUDGE February 20th. 8:00 a.m. SAM (panicking) Twenty-two days? Lucy will come home and you want me to bring Lucy back in twenty-two days? JUDGE No, Mr. Dawson. You'll have supervised visits twice a week for two hours. Now I'm sorry, we have thirty more cases to see today. Next! Hopkins vs. Clifford. INT. SAM'S APARTMENT - DAY Sam's on the phone, a teddy bear in his hand. Robert, Ifty, and Brad all sit with Yellow Pages open in front of them. SAM Thursday? Today is Monday, Mrs. Brown. That's three days away. That's too long. She can't sleep without Mr. Jeeters. Well if you're not available until Thursday, maybe I could see her without you there... maybe the Judge made a mistake - maybe he doesn't know that for seven years I played with her without you there...No Mrs. Brown, I'm not trying to violate the court... (the other line hangs up) Mrs. Brown? ROBERT I bet they were recording the whole conversation. Check your phone. You can't make a move. You need a lawyer. BRAD Call Jerry Spence. He has his own show. He must know what he's doing. ROBERT No. Johnny Cochran. He has his own show, too. BRAD Yeah! He can even get a guilty person off. SAM So you think I'm guilty? IFTY No. You didn't kill anybody. SAM But she said I'm not her father. IFTY She didn't say that. That runty kid with the blue shirt and the mean father whose voice sounds like the man on the Channel Four News who has a toupee. Toupees are expensive. SAM But Ifty. She said it. IFTY But she didn't mean it. I said I hated my mother once. "Once upon a time..." is how stories begin. ROBERT You should get a personal injury lawyer. You've been personally injured. BRAD Here - look at this - "Sebastion Gibson." He can do anything. Pedestrians. Back and neck. Uninsured Motorist. Dog attacks. SAM The Social Worker said it's a custody case. ROBERT Then get a divorce lawyer. IFTY When Dustin Hoffman was trying to keep Billy from going back to Meryl Streep, his lawyer said it was going to cost him fifteen thousand dollars - and that's if we win! SAM Fifteen thousand dollars! BRAD Don't worry about money now. Get the best. Century City - Here: "Rubel Bly Harrison and Williams". INT. RITA HARRISON'S CENTURY CITY OFFICE - DAY A Century City lawyer spins in front of our eyes. It's SAM'S POV as he sits in a chair that spins - in the center of RITA HARRISON'S lavish, penthouse office. Now we see the panoramic of Los Angeles. Now the dots in the Lichtenstein on the wall WHIRL PAST US. Now the DOOR SWINGS OPEN AND -- RITA HARRISON and her assistant burst in. Rita moves in opposite circles around the room. Looking for something. In fact, as we watch Rita, we realize that she never stops moving. Period. Ten steps ahead of anyone, too much energy, too much caffeine, not enough food. If she slowed down a beat she might get vulnerable. Can't have that. Can't be wrong. Can't really look you in the eye. Can't help it if she's smarter than anyone else in the room. Any room. Any time. RITA Did Fred Kimble call? I'm already twenty minutes late. PATRICIA He -- RITA What'd Michelle Kresge say? PATRICIA She -- RITA She wasn't defensive, was she? PATRICIA Well -- RITA That's ridiculous. What happened with my car? PATRICIA They -- RITA Because it wasn't my fault. PATRICIA I -- RITA Thank you, Patricia. PATRICIA This is Mr. Dawson. There was some confusion with the temp last week and -- RITA Mr. Dawson, it's a pleasure. Since somebody made a mistake, unfortunately we only have a little time. Hold all my calls unless it's my kid - I'll have a double cap. SAM Good choice, very good choice. RITA Can we get you anything to drink? SAM Is it free? ON RITA Hmmmm? TEN MINUTES LATER -- Sam is in the middle of the beginning of his story. Rita on her second cappuccino, eyes her computer screen for calls. SAM (CONT'D) ...Lucy had an ice-cream cake with pink flowers - pink, not white not white...Lucy's favorite is cherry vanilla which is pink, too. Cherries and vanilla. RITA Uh huh uh huh -- uh huh uh (into Amtel) If that's Jake Hiller, put him through. (picking up phone) Jake. No no no no no no. PATRICIA (from speaker) Your son's on line two. RITA Jake, did you get that?! (to Patricia) Tell him to hold for just one second. Jake I have to go...he what? PATRICIA (through speaker) Deborah Chapman on line three -- RITA Hold on Jake. (she punches another line) No no no no no no no. Have a nice weekend. (punches another button) Jake?! We HEAR MUSIC coming from the other end of the phone -- SAM Burt Bacharach shared billing with The Beatles and Jose Jiminez on the Ed Sullivan Show June 5th, 1968. RITA Really? (then) Jake, what'd you say you tell him yes I am. (yelling; re: coffee) This tastes like low, are you sure it's non? Okay okay okay. I think there's been a little mistake here -- SAM Yes. A little one. Your son's on line two. RITA Oh my God. (pushes another line) Danny? (Danny's hung up) Patricia? Get Danny back. Well keep trying. She unconsciously digs through the bowl of jelly beans on her desk sorting out all the yellow ones. RITA (CONT'D) Mr. Dawson, what I'm trying to say is I'm a divorce lawyer and as much as I'd like to, I don't handle cases like yours -- SAM Since you would like to, why don't you talk to your boss. Maybe he would let you. She pours the bowl of jelly beans onto her desk, now frantically sorting through them. RITA (into phone) Then keep dialing -- (to Sam) What I mean is that at this point in my career, I can't afford to. SAM I earn eight dollars an hour at Starbucks. I can pay your hourly rate, rate by the hour, hourly -- Rita stands up, ushering him to the door. RITA Mr. Dawson, I'm sorry, I have to be in court in eight minutes with the Kresges. You understand, good luck to you and don't give up. She turns, ahhhh! He's gone! She begins searching the room. RITA (CONT'D) Patricia?! Where are my keys? Where the hell are my keys?! Alright alright. (replaying) I walked into the room - I went over here - I looked at my desk - I put my coat down - Patricia?! Where's my coat? SAM (O.S.) Is there a child involved in Mr. Kresges' case? Stunned, Rita looks up and sees Sam holding up a strip of photos taken at the birthday booth. RITA No. SAM This is Lucy. One year old. First word, "apple". December third. 3:16 p.m. December third. Out of his pocket he pulls another photo strip. SAM (CONT'D) Here's Lucy two years old. First merry go-round ride. June 6th. 4:13 p.m. June 6th. Here's Lucy. Seven years old. The day the police took her away. Rita looks at the photo strip of Lucy's birthday. In the first three we see Lucy's sad face. The fourth has a cop's face smashed into the frame with her. SAM (CONT'D) Thank you for telling me not to give up. I won't give up. PATRICIA (through the phone) Danny on Line 2. Rita LUNGES FOR THE PHONE. RITA Danny? Hi. Could we possibly talk about this when I get home. Danny? Danny? C'mon. You're not gonna talk to me? I bought you a bag of your favorite lemonade jelly beans. Danny? (Rita starts singing) "One little bird in one little tree, we're all alone and we don't want to be... So they flew far away over the trees..." I said "Over the sea..." I know the words, I said "Over the sea..." Since when don't you like that song? Danny? She checks her watch, puts him on the SPEAKER PHONE, and frantically searches the room for her keys. RITA (CONT'D) Danny? Silence. We hear SIX LOUD THUDS - the sound of a basketball bouncing against the floor. RITA (CONT'D) Danny? CLICK! The LINE GOES DEAD. Rita trips over the coffee table, completely losing it. RITA (CONT'D) I hate this stupid coffee table - how many times have I asked you to get rid of this crappy coffee table? She kicks it, sending the lemonade jelly beans FLYING. Then, after a beat. SAM (from the doorway) You did say "over the trees" instead of "over the sea." It's hard to remember all the words to all the songs. There's so many. (Rita almost stops) you have a child Rita rubel Bly Harrison Williams. If they took him away wouldn't you hire the fastest talking four-named lawyer you could? RITA Yes, I would. I went to college with a friend who does these kinds of cases. Leave your number. I'll see if she can help you. PATRICIA (through your phone) Your therapist on Line 1. RITA Tell him you can't find me. INT. STARBUCKS - DAY Sam is face to face with George. SAM I'm ready. GEORGE Let's not add more stress to your life. SAM I'm ready. I'm ready to make coffee. Lo-fat decaf latte. Coffee up to here. Add steamed milk up to here. No foam, no foam. Cinnamon or chocolate sprinkles. GEORGE That's pretty good Sam. I'll think about it. SAM I know what that means. I stock shelves at Lucky Supermarkets. I want to bag groceries, Miss Losey says "I'll think about it." Randy Brenner gets the job. I was the janitor at the La Reina Theater, I wanted to take tickets. Mr. Jenkins said he'd think about it. Larry Peters gets the job. Lets his friends in for free... GEORGE I promise you, Sam. I'll honestly think about it. You have my word. SAM Words, words, words. I need more than that. I need to pay my lawyer. I need to make coffee. INT. RUBEL BLY HARRISON AND WILLIAMS - 8:15 P.M. A group of Rita's colleagues are celebrating a big win. Rita is backing out of the room with her glass of champagne. RITA I am celebrating congratulations to us these are the moments good night. She stops, stunned, as she sees Sam, sitting in the lobby holding out a Starbucks Cappuccino. SAM Non-fat vente cap. I'm sorry to bother you, but did you call your friend? (Rita's confused) Your friend from college, your friend who does this kind of work? RITA (there never was a friend) I don't have her number anymore, Sam. We lost touch. SAM (devastated) Oh, that happens. That happens. People lose touch. Will you call me if you find it? If you get back in touch? RITA Yes, I'm just in the middle..it's a special..I'll call you. To avoid any further interaction, she heads back to the employee party she previously escaped from. Sam walks down the hall. COLLEAGUE Is that the new janitor? RITA No, it's a case. Sort of a pro-bono thing. Her assistant Patricia clears her throat. RITA (CONT'D) What's that supposed to mean? PATRICIA Nothing. A cracker went down the wrong pipe. Muffled laughter from her colleagues. RITA You think I don't pro-bono?..I can do pro-bono.. I can do Goddamn pro-bono.. where the hell are my keys..hold the door! Rita runs to the open elevator and comes face to face with Sam who's been holding the door open for her. INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The door closes. Rita is trapped with Sam. She stares forward trying to will him not there. Rita gulps her champagne. SAM 32nd floor. 32 floors more. 31st floor. 31 floors more... And on and on and on. Rita is about to spontaneously combust. Finally, "G" - Rita bolts out the elevator doors, then just as suddenly turns around. RITA Alright, alright I'll take you. Alright, Goddammitt, I'll take you. SAM Oh my God oh my God! Rubel Bly Harrison and Williams! Sam, shaking with relief, pulls out his wallet just as the elevator door starts closing. RITA No, no no. Pro-bono. Alright? Pro bono. The doors close. We hear from within, as Sam goes up again: SAM (O.S.) Yes! Alright! I liked Sonny Bono too! INT. BUS - MORNING Sam stares out the window at an unfamiliar neighborhood. On his lap, the pink box, now ripped, allowing us to see Lucy's birthday cake. It's lopsided from having been thawed and refrozen. EXT. BUS STOP - NOON Sam waits for his transfer. He sets the cake down on the bench and takes out a piece of paper with directions written on it. The number 43 bus pull sup and Sam consults his paper once more before jumping on, forgetting the cake. The bus goes half a block before it SCREECHES to a halt. Sam jumps off and runs back for the cake, but the bus continues on its way. Moments later, the NUMBER 34 bus pulls up. Flustered and worried about being late, Sam jumps on. He feels something cold on his hand, looks down, the box is starting to leak ice cream. INT. SOCIAL WORKERS OFFICE - DAY Lucy, Margaret, a therapist and a child psychologist wait for Sam. MARGARET BROWN Lucy, I'm sorry. But it doesn't look like he's going to make it. LUCY (staring forward) He'll be here. You smell like soap. MARGARET BROWN Lucy, he's an hour and 45 minutes late. You'll only have a few minutes left. Suddenly through the door comes Sam CARRYING THE MELTED, DRIPPING birthday cake. Lucy runs to him. LUCY Daddy! I told you I told you! CUT TO: INT. THE SOCIAL WORKER'S SMALL GREY OFFICE - MOMENTS LATER Margaret, the therapist (Ms. Geller), and the Child Pscyhologist all write voraciously into note pads as they observe Sam and Lucy who sit in the center of the room, nervous under their scrutiny. SAM ...and she's a Century City lawyer - a very famous lawyer. Guess what her name is? Rita Harrison. LUCY (jaw drops) Lovely Rita Meter Maid. SAM Harrison. Just like George. They move to hug each other. EVERYONE REACHES for their pens. Sam pulls back self-consciously. Everyone writes even harder. SAM (CONT'D) You've grown. LUCY Have I? SAM Your ears are larger. And your eyes are older. He's right. Her eyes are older. He hugs her - ALL THE PENS GO UP. SAM (CONT'D) I'm gonna get a phone machine. Next paycheck. If I'm not home, you can leave a message. "Hi, This is Lucy." LUCY You can't afford a phone machine. The writing starts again. SAM Yes we can. I'm in line for a promotion. Big promotion. A promotion that's big. LUCY They're gonna let you make coffee?! SAM Set your dreams high, Lucy. Lucy looks at her father lovingly. LUCY I'm sorry, Daddy. It was all my fault. SAM No, Lucy. Don't say that. LUCY I wouldn't want any Daddy but you. She looks around to see if anybody's writing. NOBODY IS. She suddenly screams at them: LUCY (CONT'D) I said I was sorry! I said I didn't want any Daddy but him! Why don't you write that down?! INT. RITA'S OFFICE - DAY We hear sobbing and see Rita sitting across from a very rich, very angry COUPLE. Rita's foot is twitching furiously. RITA ...are you telling me that neither of you want custody of your child? WOMAN He's created a monster. He's exactly like him. He...he... The woman is distracted by a loud thumping on Rita's glass wall - it's SAM. Holding an envelope. Very distressed, as the Secretary attempts to corral him back into the lobby. RITA I am right here with you, excuse me. (she unlocks door) Sam? Didn't I tell you that you have to call? SAM I - RITA You know how to make an appointment. SAM It's - RITA That's ridiculous you can always get Patricia. SAM They - RITA Good. I'll see you next week. SAM But it's an emergency - lots of three syllable words urgent open at once. He hands the letter to Rita. Rita looks through the glass wall at her clients who are getting impatient. RITA They want to have you and Lucy evaluated by a shrink. The appointment is today at three. Today. Now. Today! SAM I know and I want you to object. RITA Sam I can't object. It's court ordered. Sam notices that the woman in Rita's office is crying. He walks in and hands her a handkerchief from his pocket. SAM Here. Don't be sad. She looks at him as if he's from Mars. Rita, now outside her office, watches Sam now inside the office. RITA Patricia, I'm in the middle - get him out of there - She quickly gets up but Rita's too impatient and pushes past her into the office. RITA (CONT'D) Sam. Sam come with me. (to the Couple) We're gonna get through this excuse us... (to Sam) Sam this is their turn now. Not yours. Theirs. If you leave now you'll never make it and you have to make it. SAM Okay okay I know I take the #34 bus and transfer to the #13...than the Downtown Express to Wilshire then - Rita looks at the Couple leaving her office. INT. RITA'S PORSCHE - DAY Redefining road rage, Rita's slamming the horn. Sam next to her. RITA Go! Go! GO! for chrissakes! Green means GO! SAM Red means stop yellow in the middle means no no no...I don't like shrinks. I've seen too many shrinks. RITA Yeah. You and me both. Right or left which will it be you IDIOT!? SAM Your mother sent you to shrinks, too? RITA No. Well, sort of. I talk about her the whole time I'm there. SAM That's nice. Did you notice that everyone else is driving slower. I noticed that did you? RITA (on the horn) Go for Chrissakes! How about your mother? Maybe she can help you - SAM She's gone. She's at the Park Lane Mortuary. Two from the left. Under the big tree. RITA Oh. I'm sorry. The light is green! WOULD YOU MOVE MOVE MOVE!? She cuts around the car in front of her; flips him off, and in a split second that her head is turned, almost SMASHES into the car in front of her! She slams on the brakes. SAM Too many shrinks...I'm sorry Mrs. Dawson, if I were you I wouldn't waste any more time. I'm sorry Mrs. Dawson it must be a tremendous disappointment. I'm sorry Mrs. Dawson I think you'd both be happier if Sam was in a home. Rita looks over at Sam, forced to stop. INT. PSYCHOLOGIST OFFICE - DAY Sam sits across from a shrink, MS. GELLER, nervously straightening her desk. PSYCHOLOGIST Mr. Dawson, you do understand, that since I am a court appointed psychologist, the traditional client therapist confidentiality will be waived. (Sam looks confused) Mr. Dawson, do you understand that the confidentiality will be waived? Sam nods nervously and waves. With that she begins. INT. SAM'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Sam, Ifty, Brad and Robert hover over a used answering machine. Ifty pours over the instructions. IFTY Before you read your message press the red button for record, when you finish, press the yellow button. If you press the green button, it will play it back you. Let's start with the "ogm". SAM Okay, okay. I'm ready. Hello, I am Sam. IFTY No, no. I didn't press the red button. SAM Oh, yes. False start, false start. IFTY It's not working. That's what you get for buying a used machine. Used means broken. You're asking for other people's problems, you have enough of your own, not that everyone doesn't have problems. BRAD It's not used. It's pre-owned. Guy bought it for his auto shop and then he got a secretary. IFTY Testing, one two three. SAM That's a good code. I'll remember that. One, two, three. IFTY (pressing button) Quick, you're recording. SAM I'm hi. I am Sam. I'm not home. ROBERT No, you don't want to say that. you don't want them to know you're not home. SAM But then I'm lying. ROBERT Everybody's lying. SAM I'm not a liar. It will send a mixed message to Lucy. IFTY (pressing the button) You're on the air! SAM Let me see, let me see, let me see. Hi, how are you? BEEP! the tape runs out. IFTY That was pretty good. That was natural. SAM Did I sound like a good father? IFTY It's the outgoing message. You need to sound more outgoing. Let's start again. INT. GROUP HOME - NIGHT Mrs. Kerry unlocks the phone and dials. She hands the phone to Lucy who waits eagerly in her pj's. Sam's answering machine clicks on; as if on slow speed. ANSWERING MACHINE Hi, it's Len's Auto Body Shop. We'd love to show you our body work, but it's invisible. Leave it at the beep. LUCY Try again. You must have dialed the wrong number. INT. RITA'S OFFICE - DAY Rita and Sam walk through the lobby at Rita's Olympic pace. She passes the elevator and heads for the stairs. RITA Look, we've got a lot to go over and I've got five minutes. SAM (pointing to elevator) Rubel Bly Harrison and Williams thirty second floor, thirty-two floors up. Rita heads up the stairs. We hear a BEEP. Then another. Rita checks her heart rate watch. Starts walking up the stairs. RITA One-twenty. Gotta get to one-twenty five to make it count. Okay okay okay. I'm gonna need that list of people who can testify that you're a good father despite your handicap. I didn't mean your handicap I meant your disability - I mean the fact that you're retarded. That's not the right word. I mean... What do I call you? SAM Sam. I am Sam. Rita looks at Sam as she bounds up the fourth floor. RITA Yes you are. (he hands her a list - her CELL PHONE RINGS) Hello Ted how you doing/ Whattaya mean what's that supposed to mean? (her heart beep rate goes up) Put Danny on... You're supposed to be taking him to karate. No it is not my day it's your day. I took your day last Wednesday - are you eating no I will not hold. Go pick him up! What? I can't hear you I'm in the car - they put you through to me here...I'm losing you -- (clicks off phone) I get paid for this memory - I know I took him last. A look of horror falls across her face. She does a 180 and starts RUNNING down the stairs reading the list. RITA (CONT'D) We're making progress. Three character witnesses. That's a good start. What does Ifty Bhutto do? SAM He works in a bank. RITA (tripping down the stairs) Excellent. INT. RITA'S OFFICE - THE VERY NEXT DAY Ifty sits across from Rita who attempts to take notes. IFTY Sam is a very concerned father. He always saves his money at Bank of America. Last year there was a lion on the calendar. This year a gazelle. The gazelle is national bird of Tunisia. We have clients, not customers. At Bank of America. Bank on us. He looks up at her, lost. So is she. IFTY (CONT'D) What was the question again, please? CUT TO: INT. RITA'S OFFICE - DAY ON BRAD Who sits across from Rita. She tape records him. BRAD He always made a point of feeding her breakfast when "Bewitched" was on and lunch when "Jeopardy" was on so she'd be smart. Is that Wonderbra you're wearing? Because you look wonderful. CUT TO: INT. RITA'S OFFICE - DAY Robert sits across from Rita, who records him. RITA How long have you and Sam - ROBERT Why are you recording this? Who's listening? RITA It's often necessary - ROBERT Who are you really? RITA I'm - ROBERT What's that supposed to mean? RITA Let's - ROBERT I need to talk to my lawyer. CUT TO: INT. RITA'S OFFICE - LATER Rita maniacally picks the frosting off a donut. RITA Patricia, get Mr. Dawson on the line. Over her INTERCOM, we hear SAM'S ANSWERING MACHINE. ANSWERING MACHINE (O.S.) Hi, it's Len's Auto Body Shop - RITA I need this like a - call him at Starbucks - no I don't know which Starbucks. There's forty two between here and the end of the block. EXT. STREETS - DAY Rita stands next to her Porsche. There are Starbucks in every direction she looks. INT. STARBUCKS - DAY Sam is straightening Sweet and Lows. Rita barrels in. RITA Look I don't think you understand what you're up against we have to be in court in three days and we don't have a decent witness. Now you've gotta know someone who can testify who's been to college - or has a degree of some kind - or some sort of way of expressing themselves that's gonna make the court believe that you deserve to get your daughter back I need a coffee. Big. Tall. SAM Tall's the smallest. RITA Of course. Of course, whatever. Okay okay okay. Damn! I forgot to call back no I did and once you think of this person and there has to be one person - I want you to call me at work - because I'm going back there now to my seven other cases -- (her cellphone RINGS) What? Mrs. Robeck? I'm on my way, the traffic's horrible on the 405. Dorothy, we put in five months lets not let a three car pile up..I know it's been enormously stressful.. Your Esczema? Oh, honey, nobody notices..AH! They opened a lane! SAM (too loudly) Do you want it here or to go? RITA (dial tone) Dorothy? Dorothy? No no no I didn't stare at the eczema for five months for - She takes out her car beeper, clicks it towards the window and realizes that they're towing her car! RITA (CONT'D) Sonuvabitch! INT. ANNIE'S APARTMENT - EVENING Annie is at the piano, lost in a Beethoven concerto. SAM Annie, it's one day. One hour. Maybe only 53 minutes. Lucy needs you. (Annie keeps playing) You went to college. You can give the right answers. Annie plays even harder. Frustrated, he POUNDS the piano. SAM (CONT'D) We can't lose her. ANNIE I can't. I'd make it worse for you. I can't do it. Don't you think I would if I could? CUT TO: INT. COURTROOM - DAY We HEAR A VOICE: VOICE (O.S.) All rise for the Honorable Judge Phillip McNeily. Sam stands along with others in the courtroom. The Judge enters and sits. Everyone else sits now, too. Except Sam. Who continues to stand until Rita pulls him down. Now we see: Ifty, Robert, Brad - and Brad's MOTHER, who sits several seats behind Brad knitting. Robert holds up a handmade sign from the back of the courtroom "Free Lucy Dawson". INT. COURTROOM - ONE HOUR LATER Turner, the prosecuting attorney, examines his first witness. He's disheveled, but don't let the rumpled suit fool you. This man is razor-sharp. The THERAPIST who evaluated Sam is on the stand. Sam anxiously rearranges all the pens on the desk he sits at with Rita. Projected on a SCREEN is a SLIDE of the drawing Lucy made in school. THERAPIST ...there is an unhealthy reversal of roles here. As you can see from her drawings, she has an exaggerated sense of responsibility. Lucy feels she has to take care of her father. Although at her birthday party her true feelings about her father were revealed. RITA Objection. "True feelings revealed"?! TURNER The state is paying Miss Geller for her opinions - RITA Then every child who rages because they didn't get to stay up for that extra hour of TV - TURNER Objection your honor - Sam TUGS at Rita's sleeve. She ignores it. RITA ...in fact any child who said they hated their parents because they didn't want to take a bath would be a prime candidate for Foster Care. TURNER Objection. SAM I think they want you to stop. RITA Really?! Thank you, Sam. JUDGE MCNEILY We all appreciate your assistance Mr. Dawson - continue with your witness, Mr. Turner. TURNER Now Ms. Geller, I assume in your therapy session, Mr. Dawson extolled his parenting abilities. THERAPIST On the contrary, Mr. Dawson admitted he felt profoundly inadequate - that he was terrified he'd made and would continue to make - and I quote: "Huge mistakes, huge mistakes, mistakes that are huge." TURNER No further questions. Rita starts to scribble notes furiously. So does Sam. Turner smugly sits down. Rita confidently strides toward the witness. RITA You're a mother, aren't you Ms. Geller? THERAPIST Yes. RITA Would it be fair to say that as a parent, you've felt confused from time to time, possibly overwhelmed on occasion, even though you're a wonderful mother? TURNER Objection. It's Mr. Dawson's parenting. Not Ms. Geller's that's at question here. RITA But if Ms. Geller has never had a moment where she felt confused as a mother it would bias her opinion. And it is her expert opinion we're all after, isn't it, Mr. Turner? JUDGE MCNEILY Overruled. I'll allow it. RITA Thank you, your Honor. Ms. Geller, I know there have been many moments as a parent where I've felt I've made huge mistakes - mistakes that are huge. And I've had to admit them to myself. My husband. But most importantly, to my therapist. Which is the guise Mr. Dawson thought he was seeing you under, isn't that right, Ms. Geller? TURNER Objection. JUDGE MCNEILY Get to the point, Ms. Harrison. RITA The point is you've never had those moments, have you Ms. Geller? Moments that every parent I've ever spoken to has - moments when you've felt the task is so unbelievably challenging that you feel retarded, disabled in some way. Moments when you feel everyone has the key but you. But you've never had those moments, have you Ms. Geller? THERAPIST I - RITA Yes or no? THERAPIST I - RITA Let me rephrase the question. When your son od'ed - TURNER Objection! RITA But if Ms. Geller didn't feel she had made mistakes - mistakes that were huge it might bias her opinion toward Mr. Dawson. JUDGE MCNEILY I will - RITA Thank you. So Ms. Geller - yes or no - when your son od'ed, did you feel you might have made mistakes, mistakes that were huge? THERAPIST (tearfully) Yes. INT. COURTROOM CAFETERIA - DAY Sam and Rita go down the cafeteria line. SAM You made her cry. RITA You got lucky. SAM That's not nice. Not very nice. RITA Only in there. SAM Your secretary too. Yellow and green in one bowl. (Sam stares at a bowl of Lima beans and corn) You separate the Lima beans from the corn please? The CAFETERIA WORKER stares at him. Yeah. Sure he will. RITA Sam, don't be impossible. (then to Worker) Can I have the spinach omelet - only egg whites no fat no oil no butter and extra mushrooms. CAFETERIA WORKER Absolutely. Sam is anxiously separating his Lima beans and corn into separate piles. They arrive at the cashier. Rita pulls out her billfold. Sam reaches for his wallet. SAM My treat. My treat. RITA Don't be ridiculous. I'll get it. SAM I said it's my treat. That means I'll get it. RITA Sam, do you really want to get it or are you just trying to -- SAM Trying to what? RITA You know, trying to act like a - SAM Like a what? RITA Like a...a... SAM A real man? RITA I didn't say that. SAM You're my lawyer and you think what they think. I don't have a chance. No chance at all. Even with an expert witness. Rita looks at him. He's right. She chooses her words carefully. RITA I think...you deserve...a fair trial. SAM Answer the question. RITA Okay okay okay. What was the question again? SAM Do you think what they think? Sam can't order food. Sam can't pay a check. Sam can't take care of Lucy? RITA It doesn't matter what I think - it matters that we win. SAM You're my lawyer it matters what you think. RITA Hey, it doesn't matter to them what I think. SAM Me. It matters to me. He reaches for the receipt, and faces the CASHIER defiantly. SAM (CONT'D) Fourteen thirty three. That's 5 ones, 2 quarters and 16 cents less than twenty. He slowly counts his money, takes his tray and walks away. Rita watches him, with a trace of remorse and a hint of admiration. INT. COURTROOM - DAY DR. DONOVAN, an attractive soft-spoken woman is on the stand. Rita is working the room. Sam, having a hard time concentrating, is following a crack up the wall and onto the ceiling. RITA Dr. Donovan, the American Medical Journal named you one of the country's leading oncologists. Isn't that correct? DR. DONOVAN Yes. RITA What kept you going the twelve years you were in medical school? DR. DONOVAN Caffeine. Sugar. And my mother's confidence in me. RITA I wish I had a mother like that. She must have been smart. DR. DONOVAN She had great instincts. RITA Do you have any idea what her IQ was? DR. DONOVAN In the lower ranges. About eighty. RITA So your mother, this woman with the IQ of a nine-year old had the wisdom to recognize that you would be a great doctor. I guess her disability didn't seem to hold you back in life. DR. DONOVAN No. My mother's condition taught me what they can't teach you; compassion and patience. RITA Traits most doctors have in spades. Thank you, no further questions. Sam runs to hug Dr. Donovan, bumping into Rita who sits him down. TURNER How'd you get through medical school? Where'd you live? DR. DONOVAN We lived with my mother's parents. TURNER Oh, Grandma and Grandpa. Would it be fair to say your grandparents were of normal intelligence? DR. DONOVAN Yes. TURNER And didn't these people - your grandparents - with normal intelligence - have the real responsibilities? RITA (relishing this) Objection! I hear Mr. Turner's mother in-law lives with him! She must help out. Does that mean he doesn't have the real - TURNER Motion to strike that from the record. Irrelevant, immaterial and immature - RITA Irrelevant?! Any parent has a right to a support system. TURNER I'm not talking about the rights of the parent, I'm talking about the rights of a child. (the gavel bangs) I'm talking about entrusting an eight year old's welfare in the hands of someone whose records show he was diagnosed with infantile autism, mental retardation... RITA Objection! Motion to strike that from the record. It's clear that one's intellectual capacity has no bearing on their ability to love. You Honor, would you please instruct council to proceed with a modicum of sensitivity? TURNER Oh, I'm sensitive. I'm real sensitive when I see people like you -- (the gavel BANGS!) come here and try to give meaning to your life by screwing up somebody else's! JUDGE MCNEILY That's enough. Both lawyers approach the bench! RITA (both approach) And I suppose tearing apart a family is truly noble work, Mr. Turner. JUDGE MCNEILY That's it. I fine you both for contempt. Two-hundred fifty dollars. TURNER What's that to her? She gets that for picking up the phone. RITA Oh, that's what this is about. TURNER I'll tell you what this is about. See this is an award for you at some luncheon. But I'm here everyday. (gavel POUNDS AGAIN) You win, you're out the door. But guess who I see come back? The kid. Most of the time, in less than a year. Only now it's too late. So you're right. I'm real sensitive. You can't even touch that area. ON SAM Devastated. CUT TO: INT. INSTITUTIONAL GRAY SOCIAL WORKERS OFFICE - DAY Margaret Brown observes Sam and Lucy. LUCY But how did he prove it? SAM Columbus had to sail around the world to prove it was round. LUCY You're so smart, Daddy. Sam shoots a look at Margaret. He hasn't heard anything nice about himself in so long. Lucy looks into her father's eyes. LUCY (CONT'D) Are we winning, Daddy? Sam shoots ANOTHER look. He doesn't want to lie. Lucy catches the look between Sam and Margaret. MARGARET BROWN Excuse me, time's up. LUCY Please. Just a little more. MARGARET BROWN I have another client at two-thirty. You need to put your shoes on and get ready to go. LUCY Oh no! There's a knot. A really big knot. Sam attempts to undo it. Lucy and he work very slowly, cherishing each moment together. MARGARET BROWN I'll help you. She undoes it quickly. Hands it back. LUCY I need to go to the bathroom. INT. BATHROOM - MOMENTS LATER Lucy's feet dangle from under the stall. Margaret's sturdy shoes from under another. Suddenly, Lucy's head pops out and now she quietly wriggles out from under the stall, tip toes across the room and out the door. Locking it with a key. INT. SOCIAL WORKERS ROOM - CONTINUOUS Lucy runs up to her father. LUCY Daddy, she said we could go to the park. SAM What's going on? What made her change her mind? LUCY I started crying in the bathroom. She thought we needed more time. SAM That was so nice of her. Very nice. INT. BUS - DAY Sam and Lucy hold hands and look out the window. Sam sees Echo Park approaching and gets up. Lucy pulls him back to the seat. She looks Daddy in the eye and in a furtive whisper: LUCY Let's not get off. Let's keep going. SAM No, Lucy. LUCY Please. SAM That would be wrong. LUCY Tamara's Mommy lost her case and Tamara hasn't seen her in six years. She's had five different mommies and one of them hit her. SAM I won't let that happen. LUCY That's what her real mommy said. And now they won't even let her talk to her. Sam reels with confusion. Lucy buries herself in his chest. LUCY (CONT'D) Daddy, it's the only way to be together. We'll start a new life, get new names. We'll live in a new apartment. They'll never find us. The bus has stopped. Passengers for the park have exited. Sam doesn't move. As the BUSDRIVER closes the door and heads on, he holds Lucy protectively to his chest. SAM I love you Lucy. I love you. LUCY My name isn't Lucy anymore, it's Michelle. INT. BUS - NIGHT Lucy sleeps cuddled close to Sam, who is wide awake, as he gazes out at the passing highway, far from home. We hear the song "Michelle". EXT. PARK - 4 A.M. Sam, totally disoriented, walks in circles around the plastic tunnels and jungle gym. A flashlight shines in Sam's face. COP Hey, buddy. No loitering. Move it. SAM Not yet not yet not yet. COP You want me to get a black and white down here? He moves toward Sam. SUDDENLY THE SPRINKLER SYSTEM goes on. The cop backs off, but Sam doesn't move, standing in the middle of the park and getting totally wet. SAM Not yet not yet not yet. He shines the flashlight in Sam's face and we see INSIDE THE PLASTIC TUNNEL where LUCY SLEEPS PEACEFULLY on a bed of coats, holding a discarded stuffed animal. COP Jesus Christ. SAM She hasn't been sleeping well. She needs a good night's rest. Let her sleep, let her sleep. (the cop moves toward Sam) NO! COP What are you, crazy? All the cop sees is a lunatic walking in protective circles in the downpour of the sprinklers with a kid in a plastic tunnel. SMASH CUT TO: INT. POLICE STATION - DAWN Police doors swing open as Rita, coat over pj's, a sleepy DANNY by her side, storm inside. Lucy lies on a bench with her head in Sam's lap. RITA What were you thinking what were you possibly thinking?! SAM I - RITA That's ridiculous! Danny stay with me - (he moves away) What could you possibly gain by kidnapping your kid in the middle of a custody hearing?! SAM She - RITA I don't wanna hear it! Can you possibly explain this to me?! SAM But Lucy said - RITA Who's the parent here? Who's the goddamned parent here? Danny! Stay in the hallway - Danny turns the corner just as Margaret Brown rushes in. Rita turns to her - her expression changes on a dime. RITA (CONT'D) Miss Brown, I can imagine what you're thinking. MARGARET BROWN I'm - RITA But I ask you what parent in their right mind seeing their child in pain -- MARGARET BROWN I have seen - RITA Their yearning for contact - wouldn't take them in an attempt to comfort them? Where the hell is Danny? MARGARET BROWN You - RITA He - MARGARET BROWN There's - RITA Oh yes there is! And if I were you I'd look at my conscience you do have one don't you long and hard before I tried to use this in court. MARGARET BROWN Is that a threat? RITA No. It's a plea. Give'm a break. Give'm one goddman break. Margaret's cell phone RINGS. MARGARET BROWN What?! No, Mrs. Sloan. His temperature couldn't be 117, no not even 107. Okay, okay, I'll come...Come on Lucy, I'll take you back. RITA C'mon, Danny. We're going home. Danny!? Danny!?!? The FIRE ALARM GOES OFF and -- RITA (CONT'D) Goddamn it, Danny! Rita avoids Margaret's look. Margaret's cell phone goes off again. She doesn't answer. Now Rita looks at Margaret, but this time Margaret avoids looking at her. Lucy runs to Rita and throws her arms around her waist. LUCY Please don't fire us. It was all my idea. Please don't. Please. Please. Rita is disarmed. She's moved and not used to being moved. INT. COURTROOM - DAY BAILIFF ...the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Lucy's in her best dress, being sworn in. One hand in the air. LUCY So help me God... And now CAMERA MOVES AROUND HER AND WE SEE THAT SHE'S HIDING HER OTHER HAND BEHIND HER BACK - FINGERS CROSSED. INT. COURTROOM - LATER Lucy is on the stand, Turner is cross-examining her. TURNER I heard you turned seven this year. That's pretty exciting. LUCY Everybody gets older. It's not that big a deal. TURNER What'd you get for your birthday? LUCY I haven't opened my presents yet. TURNER Really? That's odd. Why not? Lucy looks to her father and Rita. LUCY I opened my presents. I got the HELP album - limited edition. ON RITA AND SAM What is she doing? TURNER Oh, I'm sorry. I was confused. I thought you didn't open your birthday presents because you ran away from your own party when your best friend told everyone that you were adopted. LUCY I never said that; why would I say that? TURNER Why would your friends say it if you hadn't said it? LUCY Kids lie all the time. Next to her skirt, we see her fingers are crossed so hard they're practically turning purple. TURNER May I remind you Lucy that you're under oath? LUCY You may. TURNER And do you know that means if you lie you could be in serious trouble? LUCY I do. TURNER So now that you and I have agreed to tell the truth, where did you sleep last night? Rita glares at Margaret. Thanks a lot. LUCY In my bed at the Foster home. TURNER All right, Lucy. If you're not going to tell the truth, I am. Your dad kidnapped you last night and the police found you sleeping in a seedy park a hundred miles from here. You're lying right now because you're afraid. Afraid that everyone will see how scared and frustrated you really are. You're afraid of hurting him, but now we need to tell the truth. The truth is deep inside you know you're not getting what you need from your father. Isn't that right, Lucy? A LONG SILENCE. She stares at Turner defiantly. LUCY "All you need is love." INT. COURTROOM CORRIDOR - DAY WE HEAR THAT SONG as Sam and Rita walk out of the courtroom. Rita is breaking pieces off a candy bar she has stuffed in her purse. They see Lucy running down the corridor toward Sam, Margaret Brown behind her. LUCY Daddy! I did great, didn't I? SAM No, Lucy, you lied. LUCY Shhh! Don't tell anyone. Rita watches Sam. Moved by his concern as a parent. MARGARET BROWN Lucy, Mrs. Kerry's here to take you back. LUCY I thought you'd be proud of me. Jo Jo's mom told him to lie on the stand and say he never saw a needle in the house; and he did, and now they're back together. SAM Jo Jo isn't us. The truth, the truth, when the judge hears the truth, he'll know, he'll know we should be together. LUCY (bursting) Nobody's interested in the truth, Daddy. Nobody cares! They lead her down the hallway toward Mrs. Kerry - Sam's voice gets louder and louder - determined to make her hear. SAM I CARE! DO YOU HEAR ME? THE TRUTH. THE WHOLE TRUTH! SO HELP ME GOD!! INT. SAM'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The darkness of Sam's apartment. We see him on his knees. Saying his prayers by his bedside. SAM Help me, God. Help me, God. Help me, God... We see ANNIE'S SILHOUETTE from the window of her apartment as it moves across the frame. INT. COURTROOM - DAY Turner cross examines George, the manager of Starbucks. GEORGE Sam's my most reliable employee. He's never missed a day of work in eight years. Always warm, always friendly. TURNER Admirable qualities for a single father. Mr. Walker, in these eight years, have Mr. Dawson's responsibilities, which...let me see...would include bussing tables, replenishing Sweet 'n Lows, and sweeping up the place... increased? GEORGE No. Not really. TURNER And isn't that because he's mentally incapable of learning management skills or working the cash register or even making a cup of coffee? RITA Objection. Leading the witness. JUDGE MCNEILY You may answer the question. George searches for a way to tell the truth. GEORGE Well as a matter of fact, Sam and I have been discussing a promotion that I was planning on putting into effect at the end of the week. Sam leaps to his feet. SAM Oh boy! Thank you, George! Rita pulls him down. Turner seizes the moment. TURNER Yes. Thank you, George. Now, after eight years, Sam can finally measure out a teaspoon of coffee and cup of water. Now, he must certainly be able to help Lucy with her geometry. RITA Objection - TURNER No further questions. INT. COURTROOM CORRIDOR - LATER Rita prepares Ifty. RITA ...and when I ask another question? IFTY I answer in one sentence. RITA Yes. Short and sweet. IFTY Yes. One sentence. Short and sweet. My aunt was short and sweet. But her cooking was too spicy she... Rita's twitching foot knocks over her purse. Out spill several Snickers Bars with the chocolate picked off them. Embarrassed, she kneels to pick them up when she and Sam see something that stops them both, awestruck. In the corner of the corridor, huddled on a bench in dark sunglasses, sits ANNIE IN A PROFESSIONAL BUSINESS SUIT. Sam runs to her. SAM Annie! I can't believe it! ANNIE (visibly trembling) Tell them to take me quickly. RITA Give me one minute with the judge. INT. COURTROOM - FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER Annie, wearing her dark glasses, is being questioned by Rita. RITA Besides being Lucy's godmother, aren't you also Lucy's piano teacher? ANNIE Yes. RITA Lucy's very lucky. Didn't you graduate Magna Cum Laud from the Julliard School of Music? ANNIE Summa Cum Laud. RITA (delighted) Excuse me. Now Ms. Cassell, in all the time you've known them, have you ever questioned Sam's ability as a father? ANNIE Never. RITA Never? ANNIE Never. Look at Lucy. She's strong, she's able to display true empathy for people, all kinds of people. I know you all think she's as bright as she is despite him. But it's because of him. DISSOLVE TO: INT. COURTROOM - LATER Turner stands where Rita did. TURNER Can Sam add? ANNIE Yes. TURNER How about multiplication? ANNIE He's learning. TURNER So what you're saying is that Sam can not even multiply two times two? ANNIE I don't know about you, Mr. Turner, but my fondest memories of my parents have nothing to do with times tables or state capitals. TURNER I bet he's knocking on your door all the time with questions. ANNIE Yes. All the time. The last question was whether to use Biz or Clorox to get the grass stains out of Lucy's soccer uniform. ON RITA AND SAM This is too good to be true. TURNER So let's see..he doesn't know math...he can't even wash her clothes. How about puberty? I can only imagine how much insight he'll bring to approaching the sensitive issues of a young girl's development. ANNIE Mr. Turner, show me a father, any father, who knows how to do that and I'll give them the Parent of the Year award. TURNER And you've had plenty of opportunity to observe fathers, haven't you? RITA Objection! TURNER But the fact that Ms. Cassell hasn't come out of her room in years might have some effect on her perception. JUDGE MCNEILY I'll allow it. ANNIE I had twenty eight years in the world to observe all kinds of fathers. TURNER What about your father, Ms. Cassell? Since you appear to be an expert on father-daughter relationships. A long pause. Sam watches as Annie visibly tightens. TURNER (CONT'D) Excuse me, Ms. Cassell, I didn't hear your response. What about your father? Annie reaches for her water glass. We see her hand SHAKE. It knocks over the glass, shattering it on the floor. SAM Objection! No further questions! TURNER Excuse me, Mr. Dawson? SAM I said that's enough! I will not allow it! Overruled! Overruled!! Rita doesn't stop him. The Judge hesitates, incredulous, then pounds the gavel as the courtroom erupts. EXT. SAM'S APARTMENT - DUSK Rita sits in her Porsche with Annie and Sam. Annie is curled into a tight ball in the passenger seat. Sam is tucked into the shelf in the back. His legs kick Rita in the face with every gear shift. RITA Thank you again, Annie. You were truly extraordinary. SAM Extraordinary. Truly extraordinary. Annie doesn't move. RITA Okay okay okay okay. Well, Sam has his big day on the stand tomorrow and we need to work a little bit so that he's as effective as you were. SAM Effective. Very effective. RITA On a Porsche, the, uh, the door handle is a little hidden by that thingamajig, so if you're having a hard time finding it I'll just -- Rita reaches across to open Annie's door when she SCREAMS! ANNIE Noooooooo! SAM Annie's not quite ready to go outside yet. RITA Okay, we'll just take our time. INT. PORSCHE - TWO HOURS LATER It's dark now. Annie is still catatonic. Rita's on the car phone, the kind that voice activates and she's yelling. RITA Home! Home! HOME GODDAMNIT! Juanita, help Danny with his English assignment. Ayude Danny un story...story...STORIO! ANNIE (rising from the dead) I'm ready now. RITA (gently) Good, fine, Sam? Annie's ready. Sam's fallen asleep. EXT. RITA'S LAVISH BEL AIR HOME - NIGHT Rita and Sam enter. INT. RITA'S BEL AIR HOME - NIGHT Sam is awestruck at the magnificent home. RITA Okay okay okay okay. We'll work in the library. It's down the hall and to the left. They pass another room and see Danny zoned out in front of the wide-screen TV watching MUTANT NINJA TURTLES. RITA (CONT'D) Hey, Danny. (no answer) Where's your father? DANNY (staring at TV) Guess. RITA I don't want to guess. Where is he? (Sam watches Rita) I told you I don't want to guess. DANNY Well where was he last night? RITA Working late. DANNY There you guessed it. RITA He said he was working late? DANNY That's what he said. RITA Well who did he say was taking care of you? DANNY You. But you said you were working late. RITA I am working late. DANNY Then go work. RITA How was your day? DANNY You have to work. Go work. RITA No. How was your - Her CELL PHONE goes off. Rita moves into the hallway to answer her phone. Sam moves into the den, sits on the couch, the sound of Rita arguing with her husband drifts into the room. Sam looks sideways at Danny who remains stonefaced. SAM This is my favorite part. Hey Dommy, this one looks like he's suffering from shell shock. DANNY Boy I guess we can shell it out... It was a shell of a good hit. Rita stands in the doorway watching Sam have a longer conversation with her son than she's had in months. She retreats. INT. RITA'S DEN - LATER Danny and Sam eat popcorn watching the movie. SAM (bellowing) "Turtles in the half-shell, turtle power!" Rita! Come this is the best part. He heads towards Rita. INT. PANTRY - CONTINUOUS In the half-light Sam catches a glimpse of Rita standing in the pantry unconsciously stuffing marshmallows into her mouth. Their eyes lock for a moment. SAM You eat too fast. Come watch the movie. RITA It's getting late. We have to get to work. (handing him a suit) This is my husband's. He won't notice. He's got ten more just like it. Try it on. INT. RITA'S LIBRARY - MOMENTS LATER Sam comes out of the bathroom in the new suit. Rita stares at him astonished. He looks incredibly handsome. Rita, attempting to stifle her reaction, turns away from Sam. SAM Bad? RITA No. Very, very good. But your tie's crooked. Rita stands behind Sam with her around him showing him how to do his tie properly. Their images are reflected in the mirror. RITA (CONT'D) Cross over once. Loop it around on the inside of your neck. (her hand grazes his neck) Slide the other side through the loop, then tighten. Rita comes around to the front and straightens and tightens the tie. They are both nervous. The room is charged. RITA (CONT'D) Okay okay okay okay. Our strategy is that we're aggressively pursuing a support system. I'm going to ask you h ow are you prepared to help Lucy in school? SAM Let me see let me see let me see. RITA Sam! I told you you have to stop that! It makes you look stupid! Okay okay okay. Try again. (endless pause) You say you will find her a tutor. Then I say, "How will you pay for it?" SAM Could you slow down? Why do you eat so fast? RITA (ignoring him) We've gone over this a million times. You've found a free tutoring service for her at the YMCA. SAM But I didn't. You did. RITA Can't you grasp the concept of manipulating the truth? Not lying. Just a little tweak here and there. SAM No...You're so lucky. You get to play with Danny all the time. RITA He doesn't want to play with me. SAM Yes he does. He does he does. He thinks you don't want to. RITA Oh that's ridiculous of course I want to. SAM Tweak, tweak. RITA (exploding) I drove around after work yesterday 'til 9:30 looking for a goddman razor scooter! SAM (in his own world) Tweak, squeak, peek peek... Rita shifts uneasily, embarrassed by her overreaction. INT. RITA'S LIBRARY - LATER RITA Okay, why did you harass that young boy at your home? SAM You know I didn't harass him, Rita. You know that, you know that! RITA Sam, I'm pretending to be Mr. Turner, remember? Okay? SAM Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah. I didn't harass him, Mr. Turner. Mr. Turner - (Sam can't keep a straight face) You don't look like him. RITA That's a blessing. SAM You're so much prettier. RITA (suddenly shy) Thank you. Now. What makes you think you can take care of a woman - I mean a young child - when you have a hard time taking care of yourself? INT. RITA'S LIBRARY - TWO HOURS LATER Rita is relentless. Sam is exhausted but determined. RITA But who are you kidding? Isn't Lucy already smarter than you? SAM In some ways. But in other ways, she's not, I think. RITA You think? SAM I think. RITA Sam. You've got to be firm on this. SAM I think in other ways I'm smarter than her. Smarter than you are, Mr. Turner. In fact, in some ways I'm smarter than you, Judge McNeilly. RITA Whoa! Bring it down. SAM What parent doesn't want more for their child? To be more than the sum of the parts of the whole of them. RITA Yeah yeah yeah, but it's one thing for a little girl to love her daddy when she's a baby, but once she loses respect for you, what will you do? SAM (fierce) I won't let that happen. I won't. RITA How can you say that? SAM Respect is not just about how smart someone is. Smart is not just about how smart someone is. RITA But what about Lucy? Aren't you being selfish? Doesn't she deserve a better life? Don't you think she's just pretending she's happy to not hurt your feelings? Sam jumps up from the table, trembling with anger. SAM Lucy is happy! We have fun! We go to Denny's, we go to video night. I know how to love her. I know I'm not going to able to go to law school and learn how to be a mean person, but I know how to love. I know how to be her father, Mr. Turner! By this time he is face to face with Rita, breathing hard, overcome with emotion. Rita is unexpectedly near tears. Suddenly before she knows it, she is HOLDING SAM. The room charged. She speaks tenderly, moved by this awkward boy/man. RITA I know you do, Sam. I know you do. INT. STARBUCKS - MORNING Sam rushes into the coffee shop in his new suit. GEORGE You look great, Sam. What time do you have to be in court? SAM Half day, half day. I take the stand at two. George leads him behind the counter. THE STAFF BEAMS. Euphorically, Sam approaches the huge espresso machines. GEORGE Okay, we need two grande cappucinos, non fat. SAM Sprinkles or Cinnamon? INT. STARBUCKS - 11:00 A.M. Sam is doing great. He's humming as he prepares a triple latte with the precision of a Swiss watchmaker. INT. STARBUCKS - 12:00 P.M. The place is packed, including a GROUP OF JAPANESE TOURISTS. Sam zips around, trying to juggle between the blender, the espresso machine, steamed milk, icemaker, all the while glancing up at the clock. Sam hands three cups to customers, the foam overflowing, coffee spilling out. A CUSTOMER takes a sip and SPITS IT OUT. GUY What is this? I ordered an Americano, not a latte. SAM Americano, Americano, not a latte. Working as fast as he can but still NOT FAST ENOUGH, Sam unconsciously drinks the latte. INT. STARBUCKS - 12:45 P.M. Hyped on coffee, Sam is zooming around and he's a mess. Shirt hangs out, coffee stains on it, his hair wild. Frazzled, he forgets to put the lid on the blender and turns it ON. A mint mocha frappuccino SPLATTERS HIM in the face. At that moment, George comes out of his office. SAM I'm going to be late! I'm going to be late! GEORGE I'll call a taxi. SAM No, no, I can't wait. I can't wait. I've got to go right now. Sam heads out, the coffee drink still dripping from his face. EXT. STREET - DAY Walking a hundred miles an hour, Sam barrels down the street out of his mind. Cars are jammed up. He walks over them, a man possessed. INT. COURTROOM - DAY Everyone is in their places, waiting. TURNER Your Honor, if the defendant doesn't have enough interest in his daughter to even show up - RITA Your Honor, I'm sure he'll be here any moment. This is an extremely important day to Mr. Dawson. At THAT MOMENT, Sam bursts through the doors. Suit stained, hair sticky with frappuccino. Rita's jaw drops. RITA (CONT'D) Your Honor, may I have a moment with my client? JUDGE MCNEILY Make it brief, Ms. Harrison. Rita heads towards Sam. Up close, he looks even worse. RITA What the hell happened? (sniffing the air) What is that smell? Mint? Sam, determined, heads for the stand. Rita grabs Sam's shoulders and tries to focus him. Looks deep into his eyes. RITA (CONT'D) Sam, look at me. Look at me! (he does) I will guide you like last night. (Sam hugs her) Not that part of last night, the other part. Now you can do it. I know you can. Lucy needs you. SAM (a mile a minute) Lucy needs me. RITA Yes, slow down because Lucy needs you. SAM Lucy needs you. JUDGE MCNEILY Ms. Harrison. We need you! INT. COURTROOM - LATER Sam, on the stand, talks a mile a minute from the coffee. RITA How will you be able to pay for private tutoring? SAM There's a free program at the YMCA. Lucy can go there. RITA But don't you ever think it would be better for Lucy if she lived with a permanent foster family and you could visit whenever you wanted? SAM The Fosters don't know her. Why can't she live with me and they can come visit if they want to. I'm firm on this. And I'm getting firmer. Lucy belongs with me. RITA Why? Sam puts his finger to his chin and starts his "Let me see..." Rita gives him a look; he lowers his finger and starts talking very fast from the coffee. The STENOGRAPHER desperately tries to keep pace. SAM Paul wrote the first part of the song "Michelle". He said to John, "Where do I go from here?" John had been listening to Nina Simone. There was a line in it that went something like, "I love you, I love you, I love you..." They put that into the song. It wouldn't be the same song without that. It made the song complete. That's why the whole world cried when they broke up on April 10, 1970. ON RITA Well, he has some kind of point. MARY, the Stenographer, is still typing. JUDGE MCNEILY Did you get that, Mary? INT. COURTROOM - LATER Turner fires questions at Sam - a mile a minute. TURNER When you were Lucy's age, were you living at home? SAM No. TURNER Were you living with your mother and father? SAM No. TURNER Well then where were you living? SAM (very quietly) In an institution. TURNER So your parents put you in an institution? SAM Only after my mom got sick. TURNER What about your father? Where was he? SAM Gone with the wind when Sam was born. TURNER So, you weren't raised by your mother? SAM I saw her I saw her. TURNER When? SAM Christmas, Easter and my birthday. TURNER Oh, once a year on your birthday. So in a way, the people at the institution were your parents. Were they nice to you? SAM Some yes. Some on. Some yes. TURNER Did they hit you? SAM Sometimes. Sometimes they did sometimes. TURNER Like when you hit Lucy's friend at her birthday party? RITA Objection! Nobody hit anybody! TURNER Let me rephrase that, strong-armed. So what role model do you call upon as a father when you're parenting Lucy? The head of the institution? The Principal the warden? SAM No. Not Mr. Whitehead. Not him. TURNER Then who? SAM Myself. TURNER you have the mental capacity of a seven year old. So you ask yourself, a seven year old - SAM I am not a seven-year old. TURNER How to parent a fellow seven-year old? SAM Yes. No. What was the question? TURNER The question is: what makes you think you can be a parent? Your background? Your IQ? Your friends who can't even testify for you? RITA Objection - SAM My friends - RITA Objection - SAM My friends love Lucy even if Rita thought they weren't smart enough to testify. Even if she said you'd wipe the floor with them. ON RITA Trying to telepathically reach Sam. TURNER Excuse me, Mr. Dawson, your lawyer just objected; that means you didn't have to answer the question. You can't even follow the simple rules you've watched here day after day. You really think you can raise a seven-year old? A ten year old? A thirteen-year old? (in his face) That means she'll be six years more advanced than you. Sweat pours down Sam's coffee stained collar. He searches for words. Then from the clearest place inside himself: SAM I've had a lot of time to think about whatever it is that makes somebody a good parent. It has to do with constancy. It has to do with patience. It has to do with listening. To pretending to listen when you can't even listen anymore. The court is riveted by Sam's eloquence. Rita's amazed. SAM (CONT'D) It has to do with love, like she says... Rita's antenna goes up: who's "she?" SAM (CONT'D) And I don't know where it's written that a woman has a corner on that market, that a man has any less of those emotions than a woman. Billy has a home with me! It's not perfect! I'm not a perfect parent! Sometimes I forget he's just a little kid... (whispers from the courtroom) We built a life together and we love each other and if you destroy that, it may be irrep, irrep, irrep... IFTY Irreparable. All eyes TURN to the back of the room. Ifty is there trying with all his might to help his friend. IFTY (CONT'D) Joanne, don't do that, please. Don't do it twice, not to him. Then Meryl Streep can't even look at Dustin Hoffman after that. TURNER Right, "Kramer vs. Kramer." Thank you for the commentary, Mr. Bhutto. It's hard to find words isn't it, Mr. Dawson. It's confusing. It's confusing to know what to say to Lucy half the time, isn't it? Mortified, so uncomfortable in this strange world, so at a loss how to swim through it, beginning to believe everything Turner's saying, Sam looks out at the faces in the courtroom. Rita, stunned and incredulous; Turner and his associate smirking at him; Ifty, shaking his head; Robert, his face in his hands; Miss Wright, Margaret Brown, the State's Expert, almost willing him to fail. Are they right? Are they? SAM No, yes, no. TURNER No what? SAM Let me see let me see let me see. TURNER You don't know what? SAM Yes. TURNER Yes. You're right, you don't know. You don't know enough to really raise your daughter? RITA Objection. These aren't questions, these are attacks. SAM (frantic) I am Lucy's father. TURNER Are you? Are you really? I'm not talking about the fact that you got some homeless woman pregnant. RITA Objection your Honor. I motion a recess. JUDGE MCNEILY Denied. Get to the question, Mr. Turner. TURNER The question is if you love your daughter as much as they say you do don't you think she deserves more?! Don't you? In your heart of hearts, secretly question yourself every day? Don't you?! SAM Yes. TURNER Was that a "yes?" RITA Objection. SAM Yes. She does. She deserves everything. In my heart of hearts. TURNER Yes she does. And you agree with everyone, you can't give her that? SAM (in unbearable pain) Maybe. Maybe everybody's right. ON TURNER There. He got it. ON RITA Anguished. Watching Sam unravel as he stands up and starts walking around in a circle in the witness box. SAM (CONT'D) No more no more! Let it stop! No more! No more! No more! The Judge watches Sam, sad and stunned. The verdict is obvious. Sam has passed judgement on himself. EXT. CHILD AND FAMILY PROTECTIVE SERVICES - HALLWAY Sam, broken, walks down the long hallway with Rita toward Margaret Brown's office. Suddenly, Rita stops as she and Sam both see - LUCY Sitting, hopeful on the bench. She searches Sam's face for the verdict. The minute she sees sorrow in his eyes, she knows. She runs to him, gluing herself to his chest. LUCY No Daddy! No Daddy! No Daddy! In a SERIES OF WORDLESS DISSOLVES, they hold each other in the hallway through the entire forty five minute visit. The only thing moving is the hands of a large wall clock in the background. Pained, Margaret reaches for Lucy. MARGARET BROWN C'mon, Lucy. It's time to say goodbye. LUCY NOOOO! Don't let go don't let go don't let go - Sam's tears mix with Lucy's as they sob, clinging to each other. With such fierce love; a parent and a child. LUCY (CONT'D) Don't let them Daddy don't let them! Don't ever let me go! He can't let her go. That he can't do. Margaret, steel herself, turns to Rita, no matter how many times she's done this. MARGARET BROWN Please help me. Rita, aching from a place she thought she buried long ago, shakes her head, NO. Now, Margaret literally has to wrench Lucy away from her father's arms. Lucy bellowing as she pulls her down the hallway. Sam is frozen in incalculable pain. EXT. SAM'S APARTMENT HALLWAY - NIGHT We hear "Fool on the Hill". We follow a trail of PINK LIQUID melting down the hall and come to Annie's door where a pile of grocery bags and newspapers sit in a PUDDLE OF STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM. Suddenly, the needle SCRAPES LOUDLY across the record, followed by a mysterious POUNDING against the wall. INT. SAM'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The CAMERA MOVES to the WINDOW. Inside, the lights are dim. Lucy's HAMMOCK SWINGS EMPTY, ghostlike. Sam, curled into a ball in Lucy's bare corner, bangs his head over and over again against the wall, overcome with grief. INT. DANNY'S ROOM - RITA'S HOUSE - NIGHT The POUNDING CONTINUES as we see Rita standing in the doorway, watching her sleeping child. This stranger that she's raised. She moves to cover him, this tough little boy, when she sees POOH BEAR tucked under his arm. She tucks them both in, tenderly. EXT. CARPENTER HOUSE - DAY Saturday in idyllic suburbia. Sam, directions and a map in his hands, tentatively rounds the corner. A small bouquet of flowers in his hands when he stops - STARING AHEAD AT -- REVERSE ANGLE Lucy looking absolutely radiant in a new spring dress. She stands on the front porch with RANDY, who wears a red smock and is setting up TWO EASELS AND PAINTS. There's a tiny chair for Lucy and a tiny chair for her. CLOSE ON LUCY AND RANDY The tension in Lucy's face, Randy straining to connect with her. RANDY Your teacher told me you were an artist. LUCY You wear too much perfume. You're trying too hard. RANDY I am, aren't I. Maybe you could teach me how to paint. LUCY My daddy's coming today. We're going to open my birthday presents. Why don't you just go do something. BACK TO SAM From where he stands, all he sees is Lucy getting everything she deserves. He looks down at the tiny bouquet in his hand - feeling profoundly inadequate, he reaches for some flowers from a garden he's passing. Puts them in his bouquet. Then stops. Feels guilty. Tries to put the flowers BACK. He stares up at Lucy on the porch a few houses away. Lucy sits on the steps. Randy sits right next to her. BACK ON SAM Where he WAS standing, but is now GONE. The flowers lay in the dirt. From the porch, Lucy looks out and waits. And waits. And waits. INT. STARBUCKS - DAY It's Saturday. The place is buzzing. Sam listlessly cleans the tables, without the usual energy and verve. A TODDLER marches around a table, playing under the adoring gaze of his parents. MAN Excuse me, my kid knocked over a coffee, could you clean this up? Sam sees a FAMILY at a table covered with spilled coffee. MAN (CONT'D) I said I need a refill and a towel over here. SAM (snapping) You need a towel? A refill? A glass of water? You need more than you already have? You have everything - (all his fury and frustration) Everything. But it's not enough. Take my daughter, too! Sam's out of control, the whole shop stares at him as he backs into a shelf of MUGS he so carefully arranged. They CRASH onto the floor. SMASH CUT TO: EXT. CARPENTER PORCH - DAY Paints and brushes go FLYING across the porch as Lucy KNOCKS THEM OVER. Totally out of control. LUCY You gave him the wrong address! You're hiding me from him! As Randy reaches for her, Lucy pours black paint on her. EXT. CARPENTER HOUSE - DUSK Lucy sits in a ball on the corner of the porch. Her eyes swollen from crying. Finally, she gets up and moves to the tiny chair that Randy put out for her. Straightens the easel and begins to paint. The front door opens and Randy comes out having washed her face and hair. Without speaking, Randy straightens her easel and sits down next to Lucy and begins to paint. Randy and Lucy paint in silence for a long time. Then - LUCY You're going to send me away now, aren't you? RANDY (tenderly) No. We hear what sounds like a child's hand playing the song "Here, There and Everywhere..." INT. SAM'S APARTMENT - EVENING We see SAM sitting at Lucy's miniature toy piano as he plays with one finger. IN A SERIES OF DISSOLVES, as DAYS and WEEKS PASS, we see SAM'S HANDS at the PIANO - INTERCUT: EXT. CARPENTER HOUSE - DAY With Lucy and Randy's hands as they PAINT side by side to Sam's sad melody. Lucy's pictures start ANGRY, angular with blacks and blues, then GRADUALLY soften and the dark figures recede. By the END, there is a BRUSHSTROKE of the red of Randy's smock peeking into the corner of Lucy's picture. INT. SAM'S APARTMENT - DAY We come back to Sam, having withdrawn completely into himself serenading no one. INT. LUCY'S BEDROOM - DAY We see Lucy and Randy sitting on her bed unwrapping the birthday presents. TIME HAS PASSED. They look close, almost like a mother and daughter. Lucy finishes unwrapping Sam's present and we see a stack of ONE HUNDRED DENNY'S NAPKINS. RANDY Oh, he must've forgotten to put the gift in. Randy picks up one of Lucy's pictures and moves to the wall. RANDY (CONT'D) You know, this wall really needs something special on it. Lucy half-smiles and unconsciously begins to fold one of the Denny's napkins into an origami bird. Then crushes it. Then cautiously: LUCY What's the longest any one of those kids stayed with you? RANDY Megan stayed a little over a year. LUCY (averting her eyes) Did you ever want any of them to stay longer? ON RANDY Moved herself. Understanding how huge a question this is coming from this bruised little heart. INT. SAM'S APARTMENT - WEEKS LATER - DAY Sam sits in a dark corner; maniacally folding newspaper into an odd origami pattern. There's a knock at the door - Sam doesn't move, he just continues folding his paper. RITA (O.S.) Sam it's me! Open up! He doesn't answer it, just methodically folds. EXT. SAM'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS Rita stands there impatiently. RITA I don't have time for this! You were supposed to show up for your first evaluation. And I leave work early to get there and where the hell are you?! Open the door! Sam! Open the goddamn door! (nothing) Alright. If you don't care enough to open the goddamn door I'm outta here! I've ruined my practice, I've alienated my colleagues - I sent my kid off on a fishing trip with his father so I could work with you and you won't open your goddman door for me?! Fine! THAT'S IT! I've had enough! She starts down the hall when suddenly she turns and - with the mastery of a karate black belt - RUNS AND KICKS the door down. INT. SAM'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS Rita bursts through the door and then stops. Sam has created an origami wall of newspapers, intricately woven together. A fortress against the world. He keeps folding - doesn't even look at Rita. He's more far gone than she could imagine, she walks gingerly to the wall and knocks gently on it. RITA Sam, it's Rita. Can I come in? SAM No room. No room. RITA Hey. I lived in the East Village. I don't need a lot of room. SAM Sam makes life too hard. Sam makes life too hard on everyone. RITA Sam, I can go at least nine more rounds. But you gotta let me in. Please Sam. Please. He pulls out one small brick of origami, opening a window. RITA (CONT'D) Thank you. Now I can see your kind eyes...George told me you needed a break from work. SAM I don't want to work there anymore. Too many people. RITA Maybe we could find you a quieter job. Because remember one of the judges conditions is you have to earn more money; you've got to keep earning more money for when we get you Lucy back. SAM Lucy doesn't need me anymore. She has a new family. She doesn't need me anymore. RITA Is that what she said? SAM She didn't have to say it. I may be stupid, but I know. I know. RITA Well that's the first stupid thing I've ever heard you say. Sam looks at her through the window. A CHINK in the wall. RITA (CONT'D) Sam, Sam you can get her back. The court favors reunification. The only thing that can block you is if the foster family petitions to adopt. And from what I've heard, Lucy's making their life miserable - that's our girl. Sam, fight for her. SAM I tried. I tried. RITA Try harder. SAM You don't know. You don't know. RITA I don't know? SAM You don't know what it is to try and try and never get there. You were born perfect, perfect. RITA Is that right? Everyone else is perfect but only Sam feels loss and pain? SAM That's right. People like you don't know. RITA People like me? SAM People like you don't know, don't know what hurt feels like, people like you don't feel, don't feel anything. She slaps him. STUNNED, he slaps her back. STUNNED, she slaps him again. HE SLAPS HER. She rips the newspaper wall down. RITA You think you got the market cornered on human suffering? Well let me tell you something about "People like me." People like me feel little and lost and ugly and dispensable. People like me have perfect husbands screwing someone far more perfect than me and my son, my son hates me, I try too hard and I push and he knows it and I talk in that voice, that voice I promised I'd never use, and I've screamed, I've screamed horrible things to him, a five year-old because he doesn't want to get in the car at the end of a day and he stares at me with such anger and I hate him then. I know I'm failing you, I know I'm disappointing you, I know you deserve better but get in the fucking car! It's like every morning I wake up and fail, and I look around and anybody, anybody can pull it off, but somehow I can't. And I know, I know I have everything, and I'm still miserable and it's pathetic. I know it's pathetic. No matter how hard I try, something about me will never be enough. She's crying too hard to continue. He pulls her to him. Before she realizes what's happening, she's holding him tightly. He whispers in her ear. SAM You're enough. You're so much more than enough. He looks her straight in the eye - she's undone by the intimacy of the moment, by the strength of his purity. And staring into his eyes, she begins to sob, walls crumbling. He kisses her elbow, her shoulder, her forehead, her eyes, her tears. And something ignites between them - something confused and scary and deep and filled with a passionate ache. SAM (CONT'D) Lovely Rita... On a bed of newspaper that was once a wall they come together, whole again. EXT. RANDY'S NEIGHBORHOOD - DAY Sam rounds the corner walking - or rather being walked by SIX DOGS, all shapes, all sizes. He heads up the walkway to Randy's house. She comes out of the house and shuts the door behind her, stopping him. RANDY You're early. SAM All the lights were green. RANDY There's a reason for the court schedule. You stopped showing up. Lucy has had to rebuild her life. SAM I want her back. I can do it. I know I can. RANDY That's not up to me, but I'm telling you, I will do everything in my power to prevent Lucy from getting hurt again. Sam hangs his head. A dog barks at Randy. RANDY (CONT'D) Whose dogs are these? SAM Supplemental income supplemental income - bathe, walk and feed. Sam Dawson meets your canine needs. (to dogs) Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! All the dogs sit but a BIG BLACK LAB. Randy heads into the house. The front door opens and Lucy comes out. She runs down the stares to Sam. Thrilled, Sam opens his arms to her. She leaps into them and begins slugging his chest with pent up fury. LUCY You never came! You never even called! You forgot about me! How could you forget me! SAM I never forgot you. I forgot me. SAM (CONT'D) I hate you I hate you I hate you! Lucy pulls away. A long charged silence. Lucy refusing to even look at her father. SAM (CONT'D) Lucy, I tried to write you a letter last night... A BASSET HOUND SNEEZES. SAM (CONT'D) Gesundheit, Buster. Buster has a cold. But the letter had too many big words. Pokey, sit. The black lab has begun eating Randy's flowers. Lucy stares forward. Sam speaks tentatively, carefully: SAM (CONT'D) Dear Lucy. Pokey sit. Dear Lucy, I'm sorry that I hurt you. Every moment of the day I thought about you. Lucy in the hammock, Lucy at school. Lucy in the sky...XXOO. Daddy. P.S. I love you, recorded September 11th, the day you took your first step. Lucy raises her head and looks at Sam for the first time. INT. DENNY'S - DAY ON SALAD BAR Rows of carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers and - uh-oh, a tomato's in the peas. A hand comes into frame and carefully places the tomato just so, in the tomato bin. Now it moves to the olives. Shouldn't all the pimentos be facing up? PULL BACK To reveal Sam, in white apron and hat, deftly filling the containers of the elaborate salad bar as people fill their plates. SAM Napa cabbage, excellent choice. Purple and green, purple and green. Very rich in Vitamin C. Good choice. Very good choice. INT. COURTHOUSE - HALLWAY - DAY Sam walks toward the courtroom when we see Rita approaching from the other end of the hall. They both slow down when they see each other. Rita unconsciously fixes her hair. Sam adjusts his tie. RITA Hello, Sam. Mr. Dawson. Sam. Dawson. SAM Hello, lawyer. They almost shake hands - realize that means touching each other and don't. Rita motions toward the door. RITA Shall we? SAM No. We already did. Don't tell anybody. They nervously walk through the door, bumping into each other. INT. SMALL COURT ROOM - LATER She's very aware of Sam. He looks away, over compensating obviously. Throughout the scene, Rita's hair falls in her eyes. She attempts to put it in place. RITA Furthermore, my client has found a new job, and is making every effort to find a bigger apartment so that - Rita's hair falls in her eyes again. Sam stands up, pulls HER BARRETTE from his pocket, the one she left at his house. SAM Here. Rita stares at the barrette as if it were the murder weapon. RITA Oh, thank you. What a...a lovely barrette, Mr. Dawson. It will look great on Lucy. Who I'm sure you bought it for. Furthermore, so that...there will be more room for Lucy as she grows up. MARGARET BROWN All of that is well and good but the fact that Mr. Dawson quite his job, missed his hearing, and did not even show up for his visits with his daughter... RITA The fact that my client went through profound depression is the most natural reaction any parent could have. MARGARET BROWN But once again he had no idea how his behavior during that depression impacted on his daughter. RITA In these next months, Mr. Dawson will be expanding his support system to include Social Service programs, tutors -- MARGARET BROWN It's too late! The foster family is petitioning the court for sole custody of Lucy and I fully support their request. Sam turns to Rita. This can't be happening. INT. DENNY'S - NIGHT Sam, Rita, Ifty, Robert and Brad sit in a booth. With one extra person, it's a little tight. Rita picks at her Salisbury Steak special, trying to deal with the business at hand. IFTY Isn't it illegal? It's illegal to go through stop signs. It's illegal to cross on the red. RITA It's not illegal. It's very complicated. When a strong foster parent lobbies for a child it changes the equation. ROBERT They're reaching right through Sam as if he doesn't exist. As if he's a ghost. RITA There's one option we've never talked about, Sam. (very carefully) I know what you went through the last time you took the stand. We could settle out of court, ask for the most incredible visitation rights - it would almost seem like joint custody. SAM You're saying I don't have a chance. That's what you're saying. RITA I'm not saying you don't have a chance. ROBERT That's what you said last time and look where he is now. SAM Stop. Rita's not saying I don't have a chance. Are you? Tell me I have a chance. Too long a pause. Ifty looks at the clock. IFTY Oh my God! 6:35 is Video Night at my house and I'm not even there! ROBERT If we get there before you do we'll wait for you - check! BRAD Sam get your dessert to go. SAM This is very hard to say. I'm having my dessert here. With Rita. I'm not coming to video night. Devastated, Ifty, Robert and Brad solemnly gather their things. RITA Sam - if you want to go... SAM I said no, Rita. RITA I know, but if you - SAM What? Do you want me to go? RITA I didn't say that. But do you want to go? SAM Where? RITA Nevermind. SAM Fine. RITA Fine. IFTY, ROBERT & BRAD Fine. They leave in a huff. The WAITRESS delivers the check with dessert and coffee. RITA I've got it. SAM I've got it. Long pause. Rita slowly eats her pie. SAM (CONT'D) It's good to chew. You're eating more slowly. Rita laughs and nods. SAM (CONT'D) Coconut Rhubarb. Sidebar, we need to talk. Sidebar. RITA (carefully) Yes we do. SAM I need to get Lucy back. We need, we need - to be professional. RITA Do you know what that means? SAM When dealing with Starbucks' customers, be friendly but not familiar. I can be your friend. RITA (oddly touched) Thank you, Sam. SAM You need to leave your husband. RITA (her armor up again) Oh, my marriage isn't so bad. SAM 'Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend.' RITA (undone) It's just...it's just that...I've never lost anything. EXT. SCHOOL - DAY Randy kisses Lucy goodbye as she heads toward school. We follow Lucy - suddenly a BIRD SAILS THROUGH THE SKY and LANDS IN FRONT OF LUCY. It's an ORIGAMI BIRD. She looks around - but doesn't see Sam anywhere. But she feels him. She walks toward school, clutching the bird, past a tree and we move up that tree and see Sam nestled in the branches. There. They made contact. EXT. RANDY'S NEIGHBORHOOD - DAY It's later that week. Lucy walks proudly down the street in a GIRL SCOUT UNIFORM, selling cookies. Randy is by her side, beaming. LUCY We've made $22.36. That's seven dollars, 64 cents less than thirty. RANDY Well that's one way of looking at it. EXT. RANDY'S NEIGHBORHOOD - LATER DISSOLVE as they move through the neighborhood. Finally we see her bound up the steps to an apartment building. She knocks on the door. It opens - and Lucy and Randy's JAW DROPS. REVERSE ANGLE Sam stands there. Holding three kittens. WE see various dogs in arm chairs, the couch... LUCY Daddy?! RANDY What are you doing here? SAM I live here. This is where I live. LUCY This is where you live? So close to me? SAM I wanted to be close to you. I wanted to be closer. Look at my apartment number. (it's number 9) John was born on October 9th. His son was born on October 9th. LUCY John met Yoko on November 9th. SAM His mother lived at 9 Newcastle, Liverpool. LUCY Newcastle. 9 letters. Liverpool - 9 letters... RANDY Lucy, give me one minute with your father. Sam, I consider myself an understanding person but I don't understand this. You can't close the distance between you and Lucy with a new address. We go to court in a week - SAM I don't want to spend half my visit with Lucy on the bus getting to Lucy. I don't want to waste one more minute. Buster sneezes. LUCY (from the doorway) Does Buster still have his cold? SAM He's better, much better. Now I'll have one box of mint chocolate cookies. LUCY That'll be three-eighty six. LUCY & SAM (in unison) Let me see let me see let me see... That's one dollar and 14 cents less than five. Randy watches with a mixture of jealousy and fear as Lucy effortlessly enters her and Sam's universe. EXT. CARPENTER HOUSE - DAY From the window, Randy watches as Sam hands Lucy four leashes and the two of them get pulled down the street by the dogs. INT. LUCY'S BEDROOM - 2 A.M. Lucy lies in her hammock, unable to sleep. Staring at the little origami bird on her window sill. She moves it, opens the window wide, quickly takes Mr. Jeeters - and within a moment she's out the window and onto the limb of the tree. EXT. MAIN THOROUGHFARE - NIGHT "The night grows teeth..." stray dogs fight over garbage - a wino talks to himself and in the midst of it all walks Lucy in her pj's. Mr. Jeeters tucked under her arm. Lucy crosses the street. HONK! the screeching of tires... EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING - MOMENTS LATER We're looking at an old fashioned fire escape when suddenly we make out a figure climbing higher and higher. It's Lucy. We catch glimpses of her and then lose her as the neon sign across the street blinks on and off. INT. SAM'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS Sam's asleep. Suddenly his eyes open wide. And like an animal sensing danger, he gets up. We HEAR THE SOUND of something THUMPING AGAINST RUNG AFTER RUNG OF THE FIRE ESCAPE. He rushes to his window and looks to see -- EXT. SAM'S APARTMENT Lucy climbing the fire escape! Sam opens the window and reaches for her. SAM Lucy Lucy. What are you doing?! You could have really hurt yourself. What are you doing? LUCY I couldn't sleep. Daddy, did you know that Warren G. Harding was the twenty ninth President of the United States? SAM No. LUCY Remember - the twenty-ninth President. In case the Judge asks. EXT. RANDY'S STREET - NIGHT Sam, in his pajamas, holds a sleeping Lucy in his arms. He turns a corner and heads up the walkway to Randy's house. He knocks on the door. Finally the door opens and we see Randy and Bill in their pajamas SHOCKED at seeing Sam and Lucy. SAM She couldn't sleep. RANDY Give me my daugh - (she stops herself) Give me - I'll take Lucy. SAM Maybe if you rub her tummy twenty-three times, tell her two stories and give her half a Denny's blueberry muffin and a third of a glass of milk she'll sleep. Good night. Randy and BILL, her husband, watch as Sam turns and walks purposely down the walkway - his houseslippers scuffling on the quiet street. SERIES OF SHOTS AT 3:00 A.M. -- EXT. STREET - NIGHT Lucy in her pj's walks down the middle of the street. EXT. SAM'S WINDOW - NIGHT Lucy knocks on Sam's window. EXT. STREET - NIGHT Lucy and Sam walk back down the street to Randy's house. EXT. SAM'S WINDOW - NIGHT Lucy lugs encyclopedias to Sam's windowsill. EXT. STREET - NIGHT Lucy in a blanket being carried by Sam toward Randy's house. INT. LUCY'S ROOM - NIGHT Until FINALLY, we see Lucy in her hammock at Randy's house looking out the windows, which have now been completely covered with BARS. Her room is filled with origami birds from the 100 Denny's napkins, her birthday gift. Lucy gets out of her hammock and tiptoes across her room - quietly opening the door. INT. CARPENTER HOUSE - STAIRS TO LIVING ROOM - NIGHT We follow her through the dark house as she creeps down the stairs. She gets to the front door. It's been DEAD BOLTED where she cannot reach it. From the darkness we hear -- RANDY (tenderly) Lucy. Come here. Randy sits in the darkness, next to a THIRD OF A GLASS OF MILK and a HALF A DENNY'S BLUEBERRY MUFFIN. RANDY (CONT'D) I made us a midnight snack. Lucy stares at the muffin and milk. Torn. RANDY (CONT'D) I understand that you want to see your daddy. And I don't want to keep you from him. I honestly don't. So you tell me when you want to see him. You can see him anytime you want. But we have to arrange it first. Do you understand? (Lucy nods) Now would you like a snack? Lucy nods. Elated, Randy makes room for her on the couch. But Lucy just reaches for the milk and muffin and heads up the stairs then turns back and speaks gently to Randy. LUCY Thank you. Goodnight. RANDY (words caught in her throat) Goodnight, Lucy. INT. SAM'S BEDROOM - DAY We PAN ACROSS THE ROOM and see Sam's shoes, his tie, and a YELLOW PAD WITH ALL THE PRESIDENTS LISTED IN ORDER. A KNOCK at the door - Sam opens it to see Rita standing there, looking intensely vulnerable, holding her husband's suit. RITA My husband left this when he moved out. SAM Oh, lovely Rita, meter maid. RITA (entering) Nice place. I worry. I worry sometimes... SAM You worry you did the wrong thing? RITA I worry that I've gotten more out of this relationship than you. SAM No no no. I'm the lucky one. I have the lawyer that never loses. RITA (covering) That's me...okay, let me see, let me see, let me see. (pulls out notes) They're going to put Bill and Randy on the stand first and then you. SAM Them first, then me. They're a nice couple. They have a nice house. She's pretty. She's smart, too. I can tell. The manager of the salad bar is gonna testify, isn't he? That will help us. For a moment, Rita's mask drops and her fear for Sam overwhelms her. RITA Absolutely. SAM Nobody believed that George Harrison could really be a song writer. But he wrote "Here Comes the Sun". John and Paul said it was one of the best songs on ABBEY ROAD. RITA (tenderly) George was always my favorite Beatle. SAM Lucy's was Paul. INT. RANDY AND BILL'S BEDROOM - 2 A.M. Randy and Bill are asleep when Randy senses something. She opens her eyes and sees Lucy staring at her. LUCY Now. RANDY What honey? LUCY Now. I want to see him now. INT. SAM'S BEDROOM - 3:30 A.M. We see Sam sleeping in bed. There's a KNOCK at the door. Sam wakes with a start, throws down the covers. We see that he's wearing the Armani suit. Sam opens the door to see Randy standing there, holding a sleeping Lucy in her arms. RANDY She fell asleep on the car ride over. I was gonna turn back and tuck her in to her bed...with the pink canopy...and the quilt I made...But I was afraid she'd wake up at our house... (fighting the ache in her soul) ...and want to come home. Sam looks at Randy with profound compassion. RANDY (CONT'D) I was gonna tell the judge that I could give Lucy the kind of love she never had. But I would be lying. SAM I hope I hope I hope that you're saying what I think you're saying even though you're not saying it. Randy nods and hands the sleeping Lucy into Sam's strong arms. For a moment they BOTH HOLD LUCY between them in the most unique embrace. Randy finally lets go and struggles to say goodbye. RANDY Goodnight. I'll see you in court. Save me a seat...on your side. Randy walks away. Stunned, Sam watches her, holding Lucy in his arms. Then, from a very brave place: SAM Randy! If I tell you I can't do it alone, will you tell the judge? RANDY (turns gently) No. SAM Promise? RANDY Promise... SAM I've looked and looked for a mother for Lucy. Help, I need someone, help, not just anyone. You're the red in Lucy's painting. ON RANDY So unexpectedly bonded to them both. EXT. SOCCER FIELD - DAY A glorious sunny day. Lucy and her team are in the middle of a fierce game. A foul is called when we hear - SAM Penalty! Rules broken. Penalty, please! Sam, wearing a UNIFORM and whistle around his neck, walking his inimitable walk, races up the field, COACHING THE TEAM. Ifty, Robert and Brad sit in the bleachers. Robert, in sunglasses, paranoid, looking behind him. Brad follows around an attractive YOUNG WOMAN as close as he can get to her. Sam runs by the water stand, manned by Randy and Bill. They share a look - a moment of intense parental pride. Lucy and a kid named PHILLIP go after the ball. OBNOXIOUS MOM Get her! Phillip, you get her! ROBERT I saw that! You gave him a secret signal! Didn't you? IFTY Keep both eyes on the ball, Lucy - balls are round - on sale at Kmart. The earth is a ball, too... Phillip steps in front of Lucy and shoves her as hard as he can. Sam blows his whistle repeatedly and races over. SAM Penalty! Repeat! Rules broken! Penalty! RITA (O.S.) Penalty?! Sue him! Kick his ass outta the game! It's RITA! With Danny - hollering from the stands. ON LUCY Looks over at her father. Sam does every coaching gesture, and referee hand signal from every sport known to man. It looks like a bizarre TWYLA THARP DANCE. ON LUCY She does it right back at him. Their secret code. The code that will bind them for the rest of their lives. ON THE CROWD AND PLAYERS All watching. What the hell was that? Sam blows his whistle. SAM Play ball! Play ball! The game heats up. Lucy's team gets the ball and is headed toward the goal. Sam is running right alongside them, so excited, until he can't hold himself back anymore and intercepts the ball! Sam runs valiantly down the field with it! We hear "Here Comes the Sun"... Little darlin', it's been a long, cold lonely winter. Little darlin', it feels like years since you've been here. Here comes the Sun...Here comes the sun...And I say, "It's alright..." And the CREDITS ROLL. FADE TO BLACK. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_I'll Do Anything.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_I'll Do Anything.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..487a7a569f1575bd6011573dc36ed40b6024c865 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_I'll Do Anything.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + "I'LL DO ANYTHING" Screenplay by James L. Brooks 1994 SHOOTING DRAFT FADE IN: INT. PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT The CAMERA briskly retreats as FORTY, HIGHLY CHARGED, ATTRACTIVE, YOUNG PEOPLE march towards it. Each side of the frame is black as this troupe of young actors moves up the middle, everyone talking, grinning, squealing,... everyone having the "high" of their lives. INT. NEW YORK CLUB - NIGHT As the troupe, with geometric precision, spills into a large room (containing a raised dance floor); the CAMERA begins to move past dancing couples as a legend appears: 'This is 1975 and Matt Hobbs is singled out for the first time.' And now the CAMERA reveals MATT HOBBS. His open, friendly, American face slips between some of the many cracks in his profession. The face at 26, and forever more, not arresting enough for a leading man; not quirky enough for a "character." Matt must briefly walk on the dance floor to make his way past a knot of people. He dances furiously for two seconds, then steps down as THE DANCERS BEGIN TO SING "WOW", but just as the song breaks out musically, we hear the SOUND OF PEOPLE SHHHING; the singers falter and then stop as the party-goers gather, in choreographed movement, at a ceiling mounted TV set. MAN ON TV We can barely discern the words. . ."with his review is Leonard Graff." A FRANTIC ACTRESS yelps a command: FRANTIC ACTRESS I can't hear over this shhing. Silence, then: TV CRITIC ...a play about guess what? That's right, young people. ON MATT He stands next to a ruggedly handsome and extremely nauseous CONTEMPORARY. HANDSOME CONTEMPORARY I can't look. MATT Good idea, let's not. He begins to walk, the Handsome Contemporary falling into step. Everyone they pass is straining, upwards, at the TV. HANDSOME CONTEMPORARY How can we not listen to this? MATT We'll know all we need to from the reaction. At that moment, the rest of the party-goers turn from the TV as one, looking mugged. (One girl briefly gets our attention because she is particularly distraught; tears streaming down her angry face. The mixture of tears and rage are, of course, the chemical components of incredible sexiness. Her name is BETH.) A TORTURED MALE DANCER offers an incantation. TORTURED MALE DANCER He should be shot, he should be dead, he should rot in hell, then come back as the soap cake in a urinal. HANDSOME CONTEMPORARY (to dancer) He didn't like it? The DIRECTOR moves through the group, bucking up spirits. DIRECTOR Don't worry. He doesn't count. We'll just wait for the papers. ON MATT AND FELLOW CAST MEMBERS - LATER As they morosely watch the Director approach. MATT Hey, no matter what this review says, the play was a great experience for me. Beth looks at him, puzzled. MATT (again) I mean, it is about process, right? HANDSOME CONTEMPORARY Matt's right. Good Lord, it is what we're alive for. Beth turns from the conversation, finding it preposterous, then rivets her attention on the Director, walking towards them, holding a ridiculously thick sheaf of papers. Beth begins to sob in anticipation. MATT You've just got to be tougher than this. BETH (incredulous) Tougher than this?!? The Director reaches them. DIRECTOR I took it all down over the phone. It's quite bad. And, unfortunately, it's very, very long. I've got a broken heart and writers' cramp. He... MATT He's nuts. DIRECTOR He savages everyone. MATT I don't want to hear anymore. Let's dance. DIRECTOR Except you, Matt. They all look at him. HANDSOME CONTEMPORARY (fiercely to Matt) You filthy bastard. BETH (drawing closer to Matt) What did he say? The Director hunts for the paragraph. MATT Don't read it. OTHER ACTOR Oh, please. You can't wait to run out of here, buy a flashlight, and then go into some dark alley and drool over every word. MATT (truthfully) You're wrong. I'm maybe relieved and curious. That's it. BETH (wildly exasperated) What did they say about him? DIRECTOR (reading) ...'in the midst of this delirium of pretension...' MATT Don't. This divisive crap won't... DIRECTOR (again) '...one actor, rather miraculously, manages to provide passion and, yes, truth. Matt Hobbs, in the supporting role of Jesus, manages to touch the heart long after you thought it numbed by boredom.' The table of actors look at a sober Matt. A long beat and then, against his will, he grins... then a short, involuntary barking laugh of joy... then: MATT (to his colleagues with sincerity) Sorry. MORPH TO: ESTABLISHING SHOT - L.A. MODERATE INCOME STREET As we HEAR the next lines of "WOW", BEGIN MAIN TITLES as the CAMERA BOOMS UP to the outside of a small apartment as a legend appears on screen: 'EMMY NIGHT - 1980' Beth, now 27, is standing in front of a TV set showing the Emmy dancers performing a phrase of "WOW". She screams out. BETH Will you get in here--for God's sake? INT. ANOTHER ROOM Matt, 30, is on the phone. MATT (into phone) Come on, Ma, how could I show up tonight when my union is boycotting the Emmys? Look, I have to hang up. BETH (O. S.) (screaming voice) It's on right now... right now... right this second! You will miss it!! MATT (into phone) I gotta go. Watch! Matt hangs up and tear-asses into the living room. Beth screams as his name is read. TV VOICE (on TV) ...and Matt Hobbs for 'Caine Mutiny Court Martial'... And the winner is Powers Boothe for 'Jonestown--Story of a Massacre.' BETH Shit! Fuck! Shit! MATT He was good. BETH (again) Shit! Shit! Shit! Fuck! Shit! Look, he even showed up. TV INSERT - POWERS BOOTHE ACCEPTANCE SPEECH MATT That took courage. I wonder if they send you something for just being nominated? BETH Of all the pathetic questions. MATT (sharply) Why are you being so damn foul? Beth glares at him, on the verge of taking him on--but he is looking at her very directly... the lack of any other agenda giving him a temporary edge... Beth decides to state the unadorned truth. BETH We've been going back and forth on our status for so long. I was hoping that if you won, it might mean something for us. MATT Look, Beth... the only... She is waving her hand in a circle... he is puzzled. BETH Please go fast. I can't take you dragging it out. MATT (a bit faster) The only reason I haven't... BETH I promised myself I wouldn't be so bossy. Take your time!! Was that bossy too? MATT (persisting) The only thing I have against getting married is that it might not be fair because I'm going to stay with acting forever and you know how erratic the money's been and there's no resolve... BETH Do I get to vote? I'm going to tell you something I never told you before. Your feeling towards your work is one of the things I love most about you. MATT Really? BETH Maybe the most. MATT Hey, then we have no problem here. Marry me. They kiss, then break, murmuring to each other. BETH Stinker, I almost gave up on you. MATT I was just worried whether I could make you happy. MORPH TO: INT. HOSPITAL WAITING AREA - FOUR A.M. A SET FRAME showing several clusters of waiting people. A man rushes to one of these clusters, cueing this group to sing the next phrase of "WOW". As an extremely hyper Matt enters, the SONG STOPS and a legend appears: '1986' MATT (extremely hyper) Everything's okay... Great... She's six or eight pounds even. Oh, God... Nothing like it. I'll tell you something amazing. They really reach right into her stomach and pull out this baby. It's not just a rumor. God. I understand the expression 'mind blowing' for the first time. It means something so wonderful happens that the top of your head comes off and your brain pops out. Part of it was terrifying, the baby was turned and they couldn't budge her. I kept looking at this one woman doctor's eyes. And when Jeannie finally came out, this doctor and I each wiped away a tear at the exact same time, caught ourselves doing it, and then laughed together at the same time. Nothing can prepare you for it. You know why you're alive. INT. CORRIDOR - DAY As Matt walks with pep, accompanied by a burst of "WOW". INT. BETH'S HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY Beth holds BABY JEANNIE and wears a scowl. MATT How you doing? What's wrong? BETH My mother said you were flirting with the doctor during the delivery. On Matt's expression... MORPH TO: INT. MODEST ONE-BEDROOM APARTMENT - LATE NIGHT Matt and Beth lie on an open sofa-bed. "WOW" is completed, though with a dirge-like cadence. We hear a baby crying over a cheap walky-talky near their bed. MATT Could you get her, honey? I have that big reading tomorrow. BETH No, I have a lot to do tomorrow, too. I have to borrow on our Christmas Club, I have to... MATT Don't worry about money anymore. (on her look) I didn't want to tell you, because it may sound a little strange when I say it out loud. You know me, I'm never that cocky. But I'm going to get 'Spider Woman'. It's me or Raul and I've never been so sure. It's weird, but I just know it. I do. BETH (broadly) Boy, am I reassured. What good news. Isn't that a load off? INT. BABY'S ROOM - NIGHT Where we see the crying baby holding the walky-talky in front of its mouth as it screams into the mouthpiece. BACK TO SCENE MATT I am gonna get this part, Beth. BETH I can't stand this anymore. END MAIN TITLES FADE IN: INT. MATT'S APARTMENT - MORNING It's an awful place... the start-up apartment he's way too old for... but we don't yet see his humble quarters. Rather: A BLURRED IMAGE Then, the screen is CLEARED ON ONE HALF so we see half of a contact lens holder in focus--the other half blurred--until Matt gets his second contact in. MATT'S POV A tube of tooth bleach. CLOSE ON THE DIRECTIONS, then: ON MATT Bleaching his teeth... finishing... smiling in the mirror... This is the bleached smile of fear--true fear--the awful state of having lost your way. The phone rings. Matt clears his voice before answering. MATT (into phone) Hello... Hi, Beth. I'm glad you finally returned my call. What are you so mad about? (again, into phone) YOU KNOW, YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN SCREAM, I CAN SCREAM, TOO. Matt was so suddenly, emotionally extended that the anger leaves him that quickly... just a strange atypical lightning bolt of rage toward life and women. MATT (again, into phone) You know what? I'm being a sort of gutless wonder here. I'm yelling back at you because I'm embarrassed. I won't be able to take the kid when I said... Why don't you listen for a second? He rubs his head with both hands, including the one holding the phone. This allows us to hear his ex-wife repeat the same sentence over and over again. BETH (V. O.) (from phone) ...You're taking her... You're taking her... You're taking her... MATT Beth, I know exactly how long it's been and I feel strange as hell not seeing her but this isn't a choice. I'm broke. It's the driest spell of my life. I'm not saying it's your problem, but it's no place for a six- year-old. What can I do? The only full-time job I seem to have is not showing how scared I am. What? No, that's not something I said before. (accepting compliment) Well, thanks. Beth turns angry again. Matt finds, unfortunately, that he's got one more act of bravado left. MATT (again, into phone) Beth, Hey... hey. Never mind, I'll do it. He hangs up. MATT (again, to himself) I must get work. I will take anything. I must get work. I must not be embarrassed by these pep talks to myself... EXT. SIDE STREET - DAY As Matt walks from the outdoor parking lot, past inexpensive homes. In the lot, on private lawns and every public bench, at each street corner, are various actors doing the relaxation exercises which will form the basis of A DANCE, as they go over their "sides". MIDDLE-AGED ACTOR ...feathers I'm blowing. What am I, a duck? We pass various actors going over alternate sentences for the same speech so that we get a sense of the speech as a whole from the sum of its parts. VARIOUS YOUNG ACTORS 1) I'm not thinking about whether I'm going to shoot you. I'm... 2)...trying to decide where. 3)...the little spot behind the ear where you die before you hear the shot... 4)...on the left side of the belly which is a very mean place. EXT. POPCORN PICTURES - DAY An office building of clear architectural merit located in an industrial area. Even the sign "Popcorn Pictures" has all the artistic dignity the name itself lacks... MUSIC ENTERS... Gradually, movement BECOMES CHOREOGRAPHED...i.e., the young actor and actress running across the street do so with uncommon grace. The area Matt passes is very crowded and we still haven't reached the most congested area of all as we STUDY FACES and HEAR snatches of the actors' preparation. MIDDLE-AGED ACTOR What am I, a duck? OLDER ACTRESS Sure I'll tell you... Favor first... Do a nice middle-aged lady a favor... A fair trade... tell you what you want to know in return for a... (grimaces over dialogue she must say) ...a pity fu... MUSIC BECOMING MORE INSISTENT as we approach the building-- the mumbling of the actors taking on the SOUND of a Wailing Wall... VARIOUS YOUNG HYSTERICAL ACTRESSES ...the height of ego. You think your he-manness can make me get on that elevator even though I'm phobic?... I CAN'T GET ON THAT ELEVATOR. I don't care if... they catch us. DO YOU GET... IT. DO YOU GET IT! I CAN'T! I CAN'T... three, please. THREE HYSTERICAL ACTRESSES SINGING the dialogue... SINGING ACTRESSES ...can't get on the elevator... can't get on the elevator... even if you make me... even if you make me. Do you get it?... do you get it?... TWO ACTRESSES Standing near each other--exchange glares as they break each other's concentration and move apart... THEIR MOVEMENT SERVING as our gateway to DANCING... The SONG "MAKE BELIEVE" enters fully now and builds in intensity, reaching a repeated phrase, as we move to Matt and he enters the building, thereby cutting off the song. ON MATT As the SONG continues in intensity, Matt enters the building at the end of a repeated phrase cutting off the song as we move to: ANGLE ON RECEPTION AREA Where CATHY BRESLOW, age 30, waits. Hollywood is a bit of an uphill struggle for Cathy. She is bright where others are brilliant, pretty where others are gorgeous, enormously hard working where others are obsessive-compulsive. She is clearly waiting for someone while reading an enormously thick book galley. Matt almost scoots by her, then stops. MATT Hi... See, I did recognize you. You didn't have to wait for me. CATHY Well, I wanted to introduce you. As if knowing me would help. INT. POPCORN PICTURES - DAY MOVING SHOT. Staircase packed with actors, an uphill slalom almost impossible to navigate. CATHY It's a ridiculously awful movie. MATT Well, challenge. I wasn't sure you'd remember me... let alone help... CATHY Stop. You're good. I'm doing them a favor by getting you in. MATT Well, that's a fresh slant. They reach the casting assistant, CLAIRE. CATHY Claire, this is Matt Hobbs. As Matt is handed a set of sides, we SHOOT PAST Matt as he watches Cathy move back down the stairs before he can say another word. She moves with wit. He is struck by her. He looks back at Claire, who has an intricate hairdo and a ready smile. CLAIRE Hi. Sorry. We're running behind... Please forgive us. LONG DISSOLVE TO: SAME SHOT - TWO HOURS LATER Her hairdo wilted, her blouse soiled, her smile gone, the tendons of her neck prominent. CLAIRE (fiercely) Matt Hobbs? Matt Hobbs! ON MATT Going over his lines. Hearing his name, he rises. Claire gestures him in. INT. BURKE'S OFFICE - DAY The walls are pockmarked with movie posters. THREE MEN sit in an area some distance from the desk. The casting director, MARTIN, makes the introduction: MARTIN This is Matt Hobbs... This is John Earl McAlpine, the director. MCALPINE Good to see you. He speaks with an Australian accent, gets half-up and extends his hand. MARTIN ...and Burke Adler, the producer. BURKE So, what have you been doing with yourself... (checking resume) ...the last few years? MATT (to Burke) I'm real bad at interviews, so, if you don't mind, I'd really prefer to just read first. BURKE That's the way you want to do it? MATT Yes. BURKE Maybe we shouldn't even read. I'll just take your word that you're good. Matt smiles. BURKE No. I'm serious. There's all different ways. Did you know Woody Allen never reads actors? He just looks at them, feels around a little and then decides who he wants. That's his way. Doesn't hear them do a line. I also have a way. What I do is interview first-- then read--maybe do it all over again the next day. I call up people the actor has worked with--check him out. If he's famous, I do an opinion survey to test how much people like him. If he's not famous, I put him on tape and show it to everyone I can grab. I believe in screen tests; I believe in replacing if the dailies are bad, in cutting people out if the previews aren't there. Because I'm not doing movies for theaters where they serve cappucino in the lobby. I'm doing popcorn movies. You want to know what I like? Come to my house, look at my lamps... you won't find it in my movies. In my movies, you'll find out what I know. I know how to do detail. What I don't know, I discover. Yesterday we finished mixing a movie--the last scene is in a field of windmills which blows up and all the blades of these windmills slice through the air, one of which hits a four-story tank of propane gas. A humongous explosion scene. I kept on saying 'louder', and they finally said to me they couldn't go louder without distortion. We went louder. We had to discover a thing, a filter, but we went louder. I don't question doing these things. I do them. So if you want to know if it's okay to do it differently--not to talk--to just read first... I say... (pointing to John Earl) Ask him--he's the director. JOHN EARL Whatever. BURKE Okay, let's do it. Do you have any questions? MATT They only gave me these two pages. I'd like to give this my best shot. So if I could read the script and come back... BURKE This part works tomorrow. MATT Oh. Who will I be reading with? Burke indicates Martin. MATT (from his chair) Can I read from here? BURKE I want you to do it wherever you're comfortable, but I'd prefer it if you were comfortable standing up. Matt rises uncomfortably. A SECRETARY enters and hands a note to the director. JOHN EARL Time for my buns to have visitors. Matt looks astonished as the director leaves the room. BURKE (to Matt) Go ahead. MATT Go ahead? The director left. BURKE That's okay, he trusts me, uh... And we're just doing the first page. MARTIN (cueing him badly) 'Okay, darling Harry, here it is... If someone were breaking up with me, I'd like it short and sweet. What about you?' MATT (reading--showing pain) 'Incredibly drawn out...' MARTIN 'I can't take care of you right now. What am I, your mother?' MATT (intense) 'Well, what am I? Your duck?' As he gets into the scene he begins to experience some release of the desperate feelings he's been harboring. MATT (again) 'We've been together two years and you act like all you're doing is blowing away some feathers. So what I'm asking...' BURKE You didn't do the quack. MATT Huh? BURKE The stage direction says for him to quack. MATT I know, but why would he quack when someone's breaking up with him? BURKE Hopefully because it's funny. MATT This isn't a comedy. BURKE Then we're in trouble, because they're already fall down laughing at the teaser-trailer in fifty-two hundred and thirty theaters. MATT A comedy? (rubbing his face) I think I have to make an adjustment here. INT. CATHY'S OFFICE - DAY We HEAR the strains of the theme of a past hit movie coming from Cathy's cassette player. A rack of soundtracks clearly visible. Cathy is frowning as she reads the last of the galley pages. She overhears some conversation in the adjoining room which begins to disturb her concentration. FEMALE D PERSON (O.S.) I'm not supposed to read TV pilots. Don't call us D-Girls. We're Development Persons! Cathy closes the door, shutting her off. She now begins to fill out a form with a felt-tipped pen. As she does so, the pad is supered on the screen--action seen through it. As she writes, we see the notations on the super. It is marked COVERAGE--CONFIDENTIAL FROM: CATHY BRESLOW. TO: BURKE ADLER. SUBJECT: (the pen writes out) "LITTLE DICK" GENRE/CATEGORY (the pen writes out ACTION-ADVENTURE). Then there are columns to check EXCELLENT, GOOD, FAIR, POOR for the story. CHARACTERS, DIALOGUE... The pen checks FAIR for story, POOR for all else, CHARACTER, DIALOGUE, etc. The form then states--CHECK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES: I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS PROJECT I RECOMMEND THIS PROJECT I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THIS PROJECT I'D STAKE MY ALL ON THIS PROJECT I'D GLADLY STAKE MY ALL ON THIS PROJECT The phone rings. As she picks it up and reaches to turn down the volume of the motion picture soundtrack she's listening to. CATHY (into phone) Hi. I just finished. I'll have my coverage right over. It's past derivative... it's photocopying. What a hoot! You're kidding, right? There is truly active bidding for this book? Really? 2.3 million? Okay, see you. She hangs up and begins to alter the form changing the STORY/POOR to STORY/EXCELLENT, and all the other POORS to GOOD... and now the Recommend section. INSERT The pen is poised. ON CATHY Her soul is poised. A beat and she allows "I DO NOT RECOMMEND" to stand, the source music theme--"CHARIOTS OF FIRE"-- coincidentally celebrates this considerable act of heroism. Cathy takes the sheet and walks to the door. INT. OUTER OFFICE - DAY As she approaches her secretary's desk, she overhears two other members of Burke's Development Staff (a 27-year-old well-dressed man and a woman younger than Cathy) as they enthuse. MALE D PERSON Even the title "Little Dick"--it means so many things. FEMALE D PERSON Story, story, story, story, story. (seeing Cathy) You loved it, right? CATHY I had some problems. FEMALE D PERSON Like what? CATHY Well, you know, it's a little garbagey. FEMALE D PERSON So it has to be cast right. MALE D PERSON If Cathy doesn't like it, we know it's a smash. CATHY (stung) Hey. It's not like I didn't recommend it. She surreptitiously changes her "recommend" as Matt enters. She looks up. CATHY How'd it go? MATT I didn't get it. He did say something about wanting me back. CATHY Good. His saver is he means what he says. MATT Yeah, I just wanted to say thanks. She nods and starts to turn back towards her office. MATT ...and I wanted to ask you out. The other people in the office stare at Matt. CATHY (turns) For when? MATT Any time. CATHY I never know when I'm free. (Matt nods) It sounds like I'm just... but it's true. MATT Okay. Thanks again. I felt funny asking. CATHY Well, don't please. MATT I meant asking you to get me the audition. CATHY Oh... well, don't please. He nods and starts to go. She looks at him. CATHY Don't be sad. Matt smiles in astonishment and exits. MALE D PERSON Who is he? CATHY Oh, I was auditing this acting course and he filled in teaching one night. He did a scene himself and he was awesome. For some reason, he can't get arrested. MALE D PERSON Yeah. He does seem to have a layer of loser dust on him. EXT. PARKING LOT - DAY Matt drives his faded, seven-year-old car into view. INT./EXT. MATT'S CAR - EARLY EVENING He looks off... sees something that arrests his interest and pulls to the curb. It's a curious sight. MATT'S POV Burke Adler, standing at a street corner, palpably in pain. He's trying to rein in his emotions, sucking in huge gulps of air... and, then, a wave of emotion gets the better of him as he looks at his watch. A sob escapes him--shocked that he's so close to tears on a public street corner, he battles for control... another sob as he looks to the heavens. ON MATT A split second to consider, then he's out of his car. FULL SHOT - THE STREET CORNER A flow of PEOPLE--in the foreground, the tortured figure of Burke Adler--in the background, Matt Hobbs, pauses before intruding. But Burke's spectacle is growing more public, sounds of anguish escape him. CLOSER SHOT - BURKE BURKE Oh, God... why? Why?... (louder) What am I going to do? And now he begins to dissassemble, openly crying--on the verge of a complete breakdown. Matt moves into frame, grabbing Burke, trying to provide him with an anchor. CLOSE ON MATT His face--his eyes providing a beacon of strength. MATT Hey. Hey! HEY!! ON BURKE Totally fucked-up, wild-eyed. As he witnesses his own state. BURKE Look at me. You'd think I was a writer. (his story of travail pours from him) I hired this kid as a production assistant. His father's a business manager... a few good clients. MATT What happened? BURKE He's been driving for me two weeks... all he has to do is pick me up on time... he's twenty minutes late and I have a test screening in the valley. Everybody's gone from the office. Burke flails at himself as Matt looks at him. MATT Is that it? You need a lift? BURKE Yeah. MATT I'm right over here. Matt starts to lead him back, then realizes he's alone, Burke having seen his car finally arrive. MATT'S POV Burke, berating the YOUNG DRIVER. Matt pauses, awed by the wild gesticulating--the few screamed words... BURKE (O.S.) ...Not just today... believe me, there's no way you'll ever make it... You are going to fail. Listen, listen-- I know about this; you are going to be a failure. CAMERA FOLLOWING MATT As he joins Burke and the young man, Burke turns to Matt. BURKE (to Matt) Let's get moving; you said you'd give me a lift. MATT What the hell are you talking about? Not in your car... I've got my own. BURKE I'll give you a hundred and twenty dollars to take me... and it will still be a favor. (to Young Man) Get out. Come on. (to Matt) Please. This is very important. The driver gets out. YOUNG MAN (final plea) A guy got shot on the freeway... Traffic's tied up. BURKE You should leave time for that kind of thing. CUT TO: INT. BURKE'S CAR MATT What do you need me for? Don't you drive? BURKE (a mumble) Yeah, I drive. I don't like to look for parking. EXT. GOLDEN STATE FREEWAY - EARLY EVENING The sun setting on a nondescript slab of California. INT. BURKE'S CAR - EARLY EVENING The two men... Matt feeling very peculiar in this line of work. Burke's tension renders him arresting, handsome even. The look of generals who go forth against long odds. He takes an enormous cleansing breath. It startles Matt. BURKE (explaining) Yoga shit. I feel like barbed wire. I don't know if you keep track, but I'm the sixth independent producer ever to have two big pictures scheduled for Christmas, and tonight we're testing the first one for the first time... You get it? MATT Yeah. It's important to you. BURKE (laughing at the understatement) Yes. I don't think I would have put it that way... but, yes... EXT. MALL - EARLY EVENING Burke's car moves toward the movie complex. BURKE'S POV Our first view of NAN MULHANNEY; middle-aged and pragmatic, yet extraordinarily naive. She's a scientist of sorts-- monitoring the tastes and feelings of Americans, first in Washington and now here. Though she just had a very rough hour or so, she bends down to smile at Burke. INT. BURKE'S CAR BURKE Keep driving. She runs the test screenings. Very smart. Very. She has a real case on me, but so far I've been keeping it in the bank. He stops talking, stops breathing, as he sees. BURKE'S POV - THE TEST AUDIENCE The line consists of disparate, disinterested people who are focused on their own small, personal dramas--not at all cognizant of the fact that they hold a life in their hands. They are clearly growing impatient. INT. CAR BURKE Go very slow. MUSIC IN... Burke steels himself and exits the car. EXT. MOVIE THEATRE - LATE DAY NAN We're 34 minutes late. The studio is appropriately wild... people are beginning to leave... but I knew how upset you'd be if we started without you. BURKE (distantly) Yeah. Thanks. But he pays her no mind as MUSIC CONTINUES and he moves towards the line. Nan approaches the car. NAN How is he tonight? MATT I don't know him, so I have nothing to compare it to. NAN Well, how would you say he is, anyway? MATT Not quite himself. ANGLE ON BURKE As he approaches the line, he BEGINS TO SING his love to them, "I'll Do Anything." As he pours out his misdirected heart to individuals on the line who DO NOT HEAR HIM. ANGLE ON LINE Their impatience gives rise to a VERY SLOW TAP DANCE, each couple or cluster doing it differently--barely exaggerating the normal shifting of a line... As BURKE CONTINUES TO SING... the song builds as does the dance... Burke sings even more passionately, his D-PEOPLE perhaps joining in as BACKGROUND SINGERS. At a key point, the disparate groups turn and form a SOLID UNIFIED LINE. They begin the rhythmic clapping of impatience--having become a line, they now threaten to become a mob. Burke sings one more Joe Cocker-like passionate plea before turning to camera to shout over the mayhem: BURKE Let them in. As they enter. INT. MOVIE THEATER - EVENING Nan is addressing the audience from down front. NAN The name of the picture you'll be seeing is 'Ground Zero'... There may be some scratches... some of the colors may be off, there are no final titles, and it has not been finally mixed for sound, and the music is temp, that means temporary... As she says this: ANGLE ON REAR OF HOUSE Where Burke spies the STUDIO HEAD and leaves Matt's side. ON STUDIO HEAD As BURKE enters the frame behind him. He is right behind his boss' ear. He leans in and offers an intimacy. BURKE I'm glad you came yourself instead of sending your staff. The boss is startled--jumps. BURKE eyes him... there must be some way to profit from these stolen moments with a powerful man. BURKE I wouldn't be surprised if tonight's screening is a monster. (emphatically) Could happen, right? STUDIO HEAD Sure. BURKE Okay. He moves back to Matt and Nan at the rear of the audience. BURKE (to Matt) Eisner just said he thinks the screening will be a monster. Strangely, Burke seems truly buoyed by the words of encouragement he himself manufactured. He moves down three rows and sits in an aisle seat just as the film opens with a series of violent explosions. CLOSE ON NAN NAN Please, God, let tonight give him peace. Incredibly, Burke turns and gestures to her that the sound of her small voice is interfering with the cacophony of his movie. Nan is clearly stricken by her lapse as she whispers to Matt. NAN We're short two card-counters, can you two help out? INT. MOVIE THEATER - 1:47:20 LATER We are seeing one of the final moments of the film. INT. WHOLESALE BUTCHER'S (THE FILM) - DAY As the muscular hero moves with stealth through the giant refrigerated meat door. He passes cows and dead men hanging from alternate hooks. Suddenly, he is attacked by the villain brandishing an electric meat dismembering tool. The hero ducks, the machine ripping apart hanging cow flesh. The hero grabs the only weapon he can find: a large piece of meat on a large bone, which he uses as a mace. He clubs the other man--then again--and again. Part of the audience is whooping and applauding. QUICK SHOT OF NAN Standing with Matt and Cathy. At the sound of the applause, Nan grins and mumbles with a connoisseur's knowledge. NAN Males, fifteen and under. BACK TO SCREEN Where the hero stands over the man whose face he has shattered, holding a club from which hang strings of meat. He is breathing heavily, and between breaths, states: HERO Sorry to bust your chops. General audience laughter. SERIES OF SHOTS ON NAN - FRONT OF AUDIENCE NAN If you'll just stay in your seats a few moments and fill out these cards for us... ON AISLES Matt and others handing out cards with pencils attached... Folks filling them out. As an ADOLESCENT MALE fills it out; PREVIEW CARD FILLS THE SCREEN as we view LIVE ACTION THROUGH IT. INT. THEATER MANAGER'S OFFICE An office meant for two, containing twenty counters. The counting is done with erasers rifling stacks, creating a sound, a MUSICAL RHYTHM, as the GROUP CAPTAIN calls out with gospel cadence. GROUP CAPTAIN Who has young males? Young women? Older males?... Older males?... Matt, his tally finished, squats on the floor, waiting. The Group Captain approaches. GROUP CAPTAIN Older males... older males? Matt looks blank. GROUP CAPTAIN (again) Older males... over 25? Matt now realizes that it is his category and hands over the older male cards and exits. INT. THEATER LOBBY - NIGHT Burke, prowling the lobby as audience stragglers leave and Studio Execs and Popcorn Development Staff wait. He looks off to see Matt and Nan chatting in another part of the lobby. ON MATT AND NAN As they arrive... Nan looks off to see the Group Captain approach. NAN How long since you've seen your daughter? MATT A little over two years. (on her look) My wife insisted on moving back to the Midwest--then I was in the Philippines on the mini-series and... NAN (suddenly and loudly) Oh, please. It's one thing being a son-of-a-bitch, but you don't have to be a stupid son-of-a-bitch. People move heaven and earth to see their kids. I don't care if she moved to Pluto, it's abandonment. MATT (a pause, then) Hey, we just met. NAN (realizing) Oh. Sorry. BURKE Make a guess how we did. NAN It wouldn't mean anything. BURKE Nothing good that happens can make it worth feeling the way I do now. Nothing. An OLDER WOMAN approaches them. OLDER WOMAN Excuse me. BURKE Who the hell are you? This is private. OLD LADY I'm Mr. Eisner's mother. BURKE Oh. Can I get you some water? OLD LADY No, thank you. The Group Captain approaches and hands Nan a sheet. FULL SHOT Everyone, all the studio and Popcorn staff, is drawn to Nan. ON NAN As she glances at the figures. ON NAN'S LEFT HAND As she secretly reaches for and holds Burke's hand. Is it in sympathy or congratulations? TIGHT ON STUDIO EXECUTIVE FACES As we see in ever-so-SLOWED ACTIONS, tense lips turning gloriously upward to reveal gums--then a smile. More smiles as we pan across teeth... bonded executives and bonded teeth. The shot widens. The studio head mumbles to himself as he carefully goes over the tally in every category. Then: STUDIO HEAD I don't need the numbers. I loved it. His smiling face takes us: NAN Burke, ninety in the top two boxes. TO BURKE A tear in his eye--a smile shyer than others. He turns to the old lady, instinctively using this victory to settle his most recent score as he says mockingly: BURKE Now can I get you some water? EXT. THEATER - NIGHT Cathy and Matt are leaning against Burke's car. Cathy is distraught--temporarily, but horribly, unsure of herself. Matt is looking at her. If he had a little more confidence going for him right now, he would make his move. But, for now, they are two self-doubters on different trips. CATHY I never thought it would do this well. There were so many holes; I told everybody it wasn't going to do business. Why am I so public with my opinions? MATT You might be right. CATHY Not with that score. You know, maybe tonight's the night I'm losing my entire mind, but weren't you in 'Platoon?' MATT Incredible. I was only there for a minute in the rape scene, moving past Charlie Sheen when I left the hut... I had a great scene cut out... I was... CATHY But there was that one long close up-- where you seemed ashamed of yourself but still arrogant. MATT That's exactly what I was going for. CATHY It reminded me of my last boyfriend. (indicating book bag) Got to go. She hefts the bag--puts it back down--crosses her eyes, burlesquing the weight of the bag. He helps her put it on her shoulder. MATT You have to read all that? CATHY Beast of burden. MATT (sincerely) So what are you, totally wonderful or what? She smiles and is gone, staggering a bit under the weight of her scripts. Matt looks after her. Burke and Nan approach. BURKE How come you haven't said anything? This is great, right? NAN No. BURKE What no? NAN The definite recommends are way off for a score this high and, even for action-adventure, it's just too low for women. (Burke looks anguished) I'm sorry. He leans against the car for support. BURKE It was such a good score. NAN (extraordinarily sympathetic) I know... And, unfortunately, yesterday's tracking wasn't... (he reacts) I'm sorry... They just don't seem in the mood for action-adventure right... (he reacts) Sorry... May I tell you one more thing? (he looks up in anticipatory fear) I think it's so wonderful that you don't worry about even trying to act strong. BURKE Thanks. You want to eat something sometime? NAN I'm, uh... I'm blushing from head to foot. BURKE Good. I'll call you. As Burke moves to his car. He SEES the Group Captain paying Matt. GROUP CAPTAIN Thirty-two, thirty-three. Burke is looking at Matt with some surprise. BURKE You want to do this regularly for me? I was gonna offer, but I thought it would humiliate you. MATT (straight at him) I don't mind an occasional odd job. But I can't work tomorrow. I have to get my kid. As they get in the car, Burke has the front door open, about to get in--reconsiders, and gets in the rear door. BURKE Okay, I got the cards to look at--I think I'll ride back here. (to Nan) Maybe I'll drop by your place tomorrow. Matt gets behind the wheel, thereby ending the day as a full- fledged chauffeur. They drive off. EXT. CORRIDOR - DAY Burke and Nan returning from lunch. NAN So, thanks for lunch. I hope this leads to an evening date. Though I have to stay home with my daughter, Leslie, on Saturdays. BURKE (sincerely) Yeah, okay. You were very interesting to talk to. I swear to God. Honest. No kidding. You really were. NAN I believe you. (sincerely) And I was very surprised what you were like when you weren't working. There was absolutely no difference. You want to see where we do the tracking? BURKE (excited) Is it okay? INT. TRACKING ROOM - DAY The enter the room containing a maze of telephone cubbies with workers manning the phones. NAN Nobody ever wants to see how we do the polling, but they're like little starved puppies when the data comes in--running at you, scrambling to... Burke hardly hears. He is awed as if by a cathedral. VARIOUS WORKERS 1) How often do you go to the movies? 2) I'm going to describe a movie in one sentence and then ask you to rate it on a scale of... BURKE (as the workers continue) I love this. This is what counts and this is where you count it. NAN (soft and true) That's the same way I feel. BURKE You phone all over--you know what movies they're waiting to see, whether your TV spots are working. You know what the country thinks. WORKER ...what feelings do you have about Cher as a singer, an actress, or potential date... BURKE (again) ...and it's accurate. NAN Within six-point-eight percent. BURKE And you can't fix it... right? NAN No... no... Sometimes just for myself, I can't resist asking America a personal question. BURKE Like? NAN (simply) When do you feel more worthless-- mornings or afternoons? BURKE I gotta get back. They pause by a workers to say goodbye. WORKER Assume Michelle Pfeiffer is the woman-- which of these 67 actors would you most like to see her with... Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Dustin Hoffman, Johnny Dep, the guy from 'Major Dad'... NAN There's something I meant to tell you. You may have noticed something unusual about me. BURKE I gotta get back. NAN I could never find the right time to... BURKE Is this urgent? NAN Well, maybe not urgent, but immediately significant and necessary to tell. (a deep breath) You see, there's these pills... BURKE 'Cause I gotta go. I'm listening with an eighth of an ear now. NAN So long. He exits as the telephone pollster continues with the list of prospective Michelle Pfeiffer male co-stars. INT. PLANE Matt, wearing earphones, is in the middle of a row of five, intent on what he is watching. MATT'S POV A recent example of a great actor in a regular movie... something like Brando in "The Freshman." No sound. ON MATT Watching intently. Not watching--studying... not studying-- fully appreciating. Now he sees a particularly good moment-- looks around joyously for half a beat--a reflex to share what he saw. His neighbors, not quite knowing what he's smiling at; he returns his attention to the screen. EXT. MID-WESTERN HOUSE - DAY As Matt's cab pulls up. He opens the front gate and walks up to the porch, noting a tricycle, stirred by old guilts. He knocks on the door. A MAN answers. MAN Are you Matt? MATT Uh-huh. MAN I didn't know if we could wait much longer. Come on in. He lights a cigarette, takes three quick drags, then flicks it away before walking inside behind Matt. MAN (again) She's a real nut on smoking anywhere near the kid. INT. HOUSE - DAY They enter. A bedroom down a narrow hallway from where they stand. Remember "The Best Years of Our Lives"... Frederic March coming home from the wars and seeing his wife just a beat before she sees him. Here we have a wretched mutant of that moment. Beth, still fierce and attractive, is packing her daughter's suitcase when she senses him and looks up. Shaking her head with a disapproval which will never die, she walks to him. BETH Hello--did you two meet? MATT Not really. Is she ready? I have the taxi waiting. BETH I just have to say goodbye. You have no idea how difficult that is. MATT It's three weeks. BETH It's not three weeks. MATT Yes, it is. BETH No, it's not. Several beats--Beth and the man staring at Matt. MATT It is. MAN He doesn't know? BETH You are not taking her for a visit. You are taking her for a while. MATT Just because you want to go off with him doesn't mean I... MAN You're getting the wrong idea. MATT I don't think so. No matter how you put this... MAN Hey, look, I'm a United States Marshal. I'm here because she didn't show up yesterday to start serving her time. BETH I don't have a choice. You don't have a choice. She turns and starts for the other room. MATT What did she do? BETH (turning) I loved, helped and supported in every possible way a business man who committed the terrible crime of being financially imaginative with a pension fund. She exits. He sits down, stunned in the headlights of his fate. INT. APARTMENT - DAY Matt and the Marshal in the foreground as Beth talks to Jeannie in the background. We see only glimpses of them. Beth's face as she leans towards Jeannie from one side of the doorway--just Jeannie's legs dangling on the other side. BETH'S VOICE Okay, listen carefully, Jeannie. Be still. Now, what's the most important thing in life to know? JEANNIE No one will ever love me as much as you do. Matt and the Marshal exchange a look of mutual horror. BETH Good. Now, concentrate with all your muscles and remember everything I'm about to say to you... The Marshal and Matt shift uncomfortably. BETH Don't talk to strangers. They may be killers. Take your vitamins so the poison in the food can't hurt you. What else now? JEANNIE'S VOICE Teeth. BETH'S VOICE Right. Thank you. Brush right after you eat or your gums will start to bleed in your sleep and choke you. The Marshal and Matt can stand no more--they each call to her... "Beth... Beth... Mrs. Hobbs... Beth." She looks out and then walks to them. BETH What? I'm giving Jeannie her reminders. MATT Reminders?!? You can't say things like that to a little... BETH No. Don't. No. Don't dare. Don't criticize the way I mother or I think I'll start to scream and never st... MARSHAL Mrs. Hobbs. BETH (suddenly cheery) Yes. MARSHAL You know, I've been involved with this sort of thing for a long time. BETH You're not going to criticize me, are you? Not in front of him--because all he's done is send Jeannie these long, stupid letters. He doesn't even realize she can't read. He sends letters to someone who can't read. (laughs) It's almost funny. MATT I thought you'd read them to her. BETH (realizing) Oh. MARSHAL I'm not faulting you. You love your daughter and this is a very tough thing to go through. You feel guilty and caring and it all gets mixed up so that there's so much important stuff going down that there's no sure way of dealing with it, but the best thing you can do is just make sure you love her. BETH Typical cop talk. (on his look) But I understand what you're trying to say. Thank you. Can I have another minute with her? She returns to the doorway which still only provides us with glimpses as she SINGS, "DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS." The CAMERA MOVES down the hallway to INTRODUCE JEANNIE, trying to puzzle things out as she sits amongst a ridiculous number of suitcases. INT. SITTING ROOM - DAY As the two females who bear his name approach. Matt doesn't want a pregnant first moment with Jeannie, so he wards off silence with chatter. Unfortunately, he can only think of one word. MATT Hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi. JEANNIE (laughing mirthlessly) Hello, monster-poop. MATT (to U.S. Marshal) She has her mother's sense of humor. Beth stops him with a look, then bends down. BETH Okay, love, Mommy's going to help others who need her for a few years, and you're going with Daddy as I explained. (to Marshal and Matt) We'll all have to help with the luggage. EXT. BETH'S HOUSE - DAY - LONG SHOT All three adults and Jeannie sharing the burden of the luggage as they move towards the cab. Mother and child hug. Matt struck by his child's plight, him. BETH (turning to Matt) Beginning now, you must give less value to your own happiness and well- being, then hopefully, you will reach the point where you give that no value whatsoever. Give her everything. There's no such thing as spoiling a child. MAN Even if you have to steal to do it? BETH You don't really want to mess with me, do you? MAN (simple honesty) No. MATT (to Jeannie) Okay, sweetie. We have to go. JEANNIE (to Beth) I want to go with you. BETH Can't, pretty-heart. I'm sorry. Tears fall from Jeannie's eyes. JEANNIE Not even a compromise? BETH (thinking) The compromise will be that you don't have to ride in back; you can ride up front with the driver... okay? MATT What? JEANNIE Okay. As Beth buckles Jeannie into the front seat, Matt gets in the back, alone, feeling preposterous. Beth nods to the Marshal, who surreptitiously handcuffs her. MATT (to driver) Can we please go? SHOT - JEANNIE The cab pulls away. Matt leans towards her as she looks back at the receding figure of her mother and grows still. ON MOTHER AND MARSHALL As she sings him one last line of "DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS." EXT. SIDEWALK AREA - DAY Matt checks Jeannie's luggage, then takes her hand. She lets him. He is grateful. MATT It's going to be okay. I'm you're dad, you know? So it will be okay. You and I will make it okay. You ever ridden in a plane before? JEANNIE (a sudden gust of anger) Yesssss! INT. PLANE - DAY Jeannie and Matt in the center two seats of a five seat row. Jeannie is coloring in a book which Matt bought her; he is holding some extra crayons. JEANNIE Don't stare at me. MATT Sorry. JEANNIE I want to put on my yellow dress now. MATT It's underneath the plane. We can't get it. And just that quick, Jeannie screams. JEANNIE I want to put on my dress. I want to put on my dress. Other passengers turn around. This is pretty raw stuff we're into. Temper in all its wildness, MUSIC UNDER... electric guitar beginning to match the energy and naked emotion of the child. MATT There's no way we can get the dress-- it's impossible. Jeannie's feet start kicking in front of her--the person in that seat turning sharply around. MATT Don't kick the seat! JEANNIE I want the yellow dress. (a shriek) Give me a compromise. She is crying now. MATT As soon as we land. That's the compromise. MORE MUSIC Without warning, Jeannie slaps herself in the face. All five people in the row ahead turn and say in unison: WOMEN IN ROW Don't hit her. MATT God, I didn't hit her--she hit her. ANGLE ON LIGHTS As everyone starts pushing the cabin attendant call button. These dings magnify until they're part of the music--as it drives and drives... Matt takes Jeannie's hand and tries to restrain her. JEANNIE Noooooo. Let go of me. Noooo. The yellow dress... let go... let go. She breaks away from him. He moves after her. CAMERA MOVING At breakneck speed, Jeannie dashes through the plane with her father in pursuit... flashes of disapproving faces. The seat belt sign goes on. A FLIGHT ATTENDANT blocks his path. FLIGHT ATTENDANT You'll have to sit down. Jeannie takes advantage of Matt's being stopped and moves into the toilet, locking the door behind her. MATT (yelling) Jeannie, we have to sit down. Please. CAPTAIN'S VOICE We'll be having some turbulence for the next twenty minutes or so. Will the cabin attendants please take their seats? FLIGHT ATTENDANT Sir. MATT (simply and utterly) I have no idea what to do. A sudden bump and Matt falls. He yells to the locked door. MATT Jeannie, you okay? FLIGHT ATTENDANT Go back to your seat. I'll get her. As Matt makes his way back, the Flight Attendant uses a hidden latch to open the door. Music building--then calming, the worst is over. Matt makes his way back to his seat, shell- shocked. The Attendant leans over him. FLIGHT ATTENDANT She wants to be alone. So we're upgrading her. He just nods. FULL SHOT Down the aisle--Jeannie lets an Attendant lead her as she peers back at her dad. EXT. PARKING LOT - NIGHT Matt carrying the sleeping child like a sack over his shoulder, also managing to hold onto all her luggage. INT. MATT'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He has propped her on the sofa, a cotton nightgown out. He is unbuttoning her dress. She opens her eyes, the window's protective bars PLACING A SHADOW ACROSS HER FACE. She attempts to cover her fear. JEANNIE These are the wrong jammies. MATT Okay... so what do we do? Jeannie mimics him perfectly under her breath. She goes to an open suitcase and throws things on the floor until she finds the right jammies. JEANNIE Where do I sleep? MATT I have a sleeping bag and bed. Which one do you want? She surveys her pitiful choice; then points to the sleeping bag. JEANNIE That. She gets into it. He zips her up--then she says something remarkably unexpected. JEANNIE Hug. Amazed, Matt hugs her. A half-beat, then: JEANNIE (sharply) Let go. He does--then stands and looks down at her. She looks back, mocking his stare with one of her own. INT. BATHROOM - DAY Nan uncertainly enters this decidedly masculine bathroom. She is wearing an evening gown. The sun streams through the lush foliage outside a wall-sized window. MUSIC as she opens her purse and removes a pillbox; at one point lightly singing a snatch of lyric concerning the conflicts of being a single woman and a single mother--this while totally focused on the pills. INSERT - PILL BOX A major movie shot of this compartmentalized box. Each burrowed nest clearly labeled for the pill it contains: VITAMIN B, VITAMIN A, OSCILLOCOCCINUM, PROZAC, CALCIUM, TEST DRUG, ASPIRIN, XANAX, ETC. ON NAN MUSIC CONTINUES. She dials a phone number while arching her neck and swallowing one pill after another with little swigs of water. This process continuing, even as she speaks into the phone. NAN Monica--is Leslie up yet? Good. I didn't want you to get worried when you realized I wasn't there. I'm still with that man. I'll tell you about it later. But it's sure nice to have wobbly legs again. Look, today's recycling day for Leslie at school, so give her some empty cans... well, then dump some out for her! Tell her I had to leave real early for work and I'll pick her up at school myself to make up for it and we'll rent any cassette she wants for tonight. Thank you... Take good care. She hangs up. Another snatch of lyric as she bends to brush her teeth with her finger; prepares herself and opens the door to greet her new lover. INT. BURKE'S MASTER BEDROOM - DAY Burke sits on the edge of the bed, fearful. He sees her. BURKE Oh, I thought you took off in the middle of the night. She moves quickly to him. NAN No. I just had to call home. Is that why you're sad? BURKE No. It's Everett. This kid who used to work for me. He was always crazy to do his own movie. NAN (fearing worst) What happened? BURKE (very down) His movie not only opened to a three million dollar Friday--it's gotten great reviews. Nan is dumbfounded; still she puts a hand on him, actually consoling him for his hideous thought--Hollywood lovers: he, wrapped up with ill thoughts of others; she, feeling intimate, yet severely compromised. Cupid's work is done. BURKE (again) Listen. I'm tremendously worried about 'Ground Zero' because of the bad 'want to sees' you sent over. But that's just me being nervous over nothing, isn't it? NAN No. That's just you correctly assessing the situation. So stop being so hard on yourself. He eyes her, then: INT. MATT'S HALLWAY - NIGHT We hear a muffled argument between Matt and Jeannie coming from inside their apartment. Then the door opens and Matt, holding Jeannie by the hand, moves down the hall to the next door and knocks. (NOTE: Jeannie is dressed in layers of varied clothing--some of the layers play clothes, some fit for a coronation. She is a pocket contemporary Annie Hall... her style so much her own it transcends judgement. Her hair is unkempt. The door opens revealing Lucy, an Hispanic woman in her mid-30s. MATT How're you doing? I'm from next door. I see you with your kids in the laundry room... LUCY Hello. (seeing Jeannie, turns warmer) ...Who are you? Jeannie is a bit shy. MATT Say, 'Hello, I'm your new neighbor now too.' Jeannie says nothing. LUCY I'm Lucy Crisala... What's your name? Jeannie says nothing. MATT Say, 'Jeannie.' The form of the conversation is forged. Jeannie not answering anything. Matt bending over to Jeannie while he forms her answers to Lucy. LUCY I have a little girl too. MATT Say, 'Isn't that nice... How old is she?' LUCY She's four and a half and I have a little boy who is not yet one year. MATT Say, 'That's nice... I'd like to play with them... My Daddy didn't know your phone number, so we just decided to...' LUCY (interrupting) What can I do for you? MATT Say 'Daddy has to go to work tonight and...' (catching himself and looks directly at Lucy) I need someone to help me and her on short notice. I've seen your around with your kids and hoped you knew someone in the building or close by. I've got this new job that starts now. Do you know anyone? LUCY Well, I'm always here. I could maybe do it myself. MATT (there is a God and a good one at that) Oh, this is so great. Let's work out a full-time schedule and... LUCY Wait. Jeannie, why don't you come in for a minute and meet Ricky and Essa. Come on, we're making fruit bars. Jeannie walks into the apartment past her father. LUCY (again, to Matt) Why don't you leave her for a while and then we talk. MATT Sort of a test? LUCY We'll just see how it works. INT. LUCY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Play-pen in the middle of the floor... Jeannie stands there staring at Essa who is playing with her little brother. Matt moves to embrace Jeannie who cranes away from him. He stays with it, whispering in her ear. MATT Please behave, understand? I don't know what we'll do if this doesn't work, so behave, sweetheart. Behave, behave. As he exits towards his own apartment. DISSOLVE TO: INT. MATT'S APT. - 20 MINUTES LATER Matt is extraordinarily anxious. Then he HEARS loud crying and screaming from next door. There is a stab of despair. Matt deflates, then resigned, exits. INT. HALLWAY - NIGHT The sound of screaming now louder. He walks to Lucy's door, takes a breath and knocks. The door opens and Lucy stands there looking rattled. MATT I'm sorry I bothered you. (calling inside) Jeannie... LUCY Could I have her a little bit longer? My little boy just fell and Jeannie is the only one he let hold him. ON MATT A devil's weight lifted from his shoulders. The slap-happy smile of the just saved plastered on his face. MATT Your little boy fell, so he's screaming. And you want her to stay. Lucy, confused by his buoyant reaction, nods. LUCY Okay. Seven dollars an hour? MATT Great. Thank you. See you later, Jeannie. He tries to kiss her, but she shuns him. Lucy, now having an official status, turns to admonish her. MATT No, that's okay. I'm fine with it. I feel fine. EXT. MOVIE THEATER - NIGHT Burke walks tight little circles near Cathy and the rest of his staff while a few feet away Studio Executives stand in a cluster. There is a DISTANT, RHYTHMIC SHUFFLING SOUND. Burke walks past Cathy. BURKE Nothing good that happens tonight can make it worth feeling the way I do right now. Nothing. (turning to Cathy) What do you think? CATHY (nervously taking the plunge) To be honest, I had problems with 'Ground Zero.' But this 'People Get Hurt' one, while it might not be my exact, exact thing, I think will really work for an audience. It's so over the top, you have a great time. BURKE So you think it'll score big? CATHY Yes. INT. COUNTING ROOM - NIGHT Where we discover the SOURCE OF THE SOUND. Some twenty card- counters on the floor riffling through stacks of cards with erasers. Matt and Nan stand in the doorway. NAN Don't worry. My daughter used to throw fits in supermarkets when we first moved here. It's all so perfectly normal. Plus I know a great psychiatric children's group. MATT That's what breaks your heart. Jeannie's problem is that she's so down on herself. NAN Well, she's lucky to have a daddy who cares, believe me. MATT I don't know if lucky's the word. I'm hoping she's asleep when I get home so I won't have to deal with her... I'm actually afraid of my own kid. NAN Oh, my. I've had exactly that feeling and never said it out loud. See, there are men who talk my language and I'm just cursed that I'm not attracted to them because they are so nice they remind me of myself. Matt laughs. In the b.g., the counting is completed. GROUP CAPTAIN Excellents? GIRL COUNTER Seven. GROUP CAPTAIN Very goods? BOY COUNTER 14. GROUP CAPTAIN Fairs? SECOND BOY CARD COUNTER 30. GROUP CAPTAIN Poors? SECOND GIRL CARD COUNTER Just a second... (finishes counting) 666. The Group Captain notes the figure on a sheet, walks to the doorway and hands it to Nan, who is still deep into conversation with Matt. She begins walking back to the theater without looking at the sheet in her hand. NAN I felt terrible about the way I blew up at you when I first met you. (before he can object) Please. FULL SHOT - THEATER AREA - NIGHT Burke and others waiting as Matt and Nan come to a stop some distance away. BURKE What are they doing? NAN I began taking anti-depressants when we moved here from Washington. I had some small reactions--sleeping 14 hours, no libido, I gained 17 pounds in nine days--that sort of thing. So they gave me pills to deal with the side effects. And then pills to deal with the side effects I was getting from those pills. All this besides the stuff the nutritionist was giving me. The combination formed some sort of potion so that I keep telling the truth. I don't have a choice. That's why I was so rude to you. MATT Your doctor says this? NAN Oh, yes. He's excited, but only because he sees glory for himself in it... See, ordinarily I wouldn't say that about my doctor, but I can't help it, it's the truth. He's monitoring me for a while longer before writing it up for this medical journal... Cathy has joined them. CATHY Burke's going crazy waiting for the score. NAN Coming. CATHY (to Matt) How are you, anyway? Matt shifts, figuring out his answer. CATHY (a small laugh) It's a tough one, huh? Me too. Nan looks down at the score. NAN Oh, my. Matt, I'd better drive him myself. She starts for Burke. ON BURKE AND OTHERS As Nan arrives and hands the Studio Executives the score, Burke looking over their shoulders. BURKE I can fix this... Get some narration written. . . (turning to Director) You'll cut 30 minutes. It will come out like butter. DIRECTOR We're only 77 minutes now... BURKE (mumbling to himself) ...a 47-minute movie... no, that won't work... FEMALE STUDIO EXEC I have to go. I have a nanny problem. Priorities, right? BURKE Thanks for the support. She kisses his cheek and leaves. A beat of silence... Burke turns to Nan. BURKE (again) Can you help? Exactly the moment Nan has been waiting for... she does have a valuable observation to offer at this dark moment. NAN Yes, I can. BURKE (hopeful) Go ahead. NAN It's only a movie. As Burke looks at her from the depths of his pain and sees her confidently believing that she has imparted something of value, the movie's marquee lights go off giving us a: BLACK OUT: INT. MATT'S HALLWAY - NIGHT As he carries an enormously resistant Jeannie, wearing a borrowed T-shirt nightie, back towards his apartment... Matt has Jeannie under one arm--her clothes and shoes in another... Jeannie's arms are extended towards Lucy, who stands in the open doorway of her apartment. She begins thrashing. Giant tears come--the moment is operatic. JEANNIE Let go. Please, Lucy, don't make me go. MATT Everyone's tired. You can come back tomorr... LUCY Listen to me, Jeannie... JEANNIE I want to live here with these people. God, let me live here. MATT Maybe if she stayed tonight she... JEANNIE I love it here so much that... Now her father's last words have registered on her--she immediately stops crying, though tears still roll down her cheeks. JEANNIE Daddy says I can stay. Jeannie wriggles away towards Lucy's doorway. Lucy takes several steps toward Matt, who obviously fears the looming exchange. LUCY I no think you can give her what pleases when she act like this... Because then she think... Matt is very much like a fighter taking a great deal of punishment, knowing he is beaten, but being told by his corner he must make a fight of it. He nods his head repeatedly in agreement... MATT I know... I know... Now he sniffs the air in quick rhythm, hoping to draw in some courage and resolve. He moves to Jeannie. MATT You'll see Lucy in the morning. We're going home. JEANNIE No. I'm not! STOP! INT. MATT'S APARTMENT - NIGHT As they enter and Matt pushes her into the other room and closes the door, placing her in there alone. INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT Jeannie, behind the double glass-paneled doors of the bedroom. HER POV Matt, upset in a way he has never imagined, as he pops a beer--puts on some headphones for calming music and begins to read a book on child behavior modification. ON JEANNIE Feeling the restrictions of her punishment, pacing and now she begins to wail "THIS LONELY LIFE". Few adult women have sung with such appropriate passion out of need and loss, aloneness and confusion. The song finishes. Jeannie sits huddled. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. ROOFTOP - DAY This rooftop serves as an outdoor commissary for Popcorn Pictures. There are a few tables, snack machines and umbrellas. The whole "D" staff is there, including Cathy, having lunch, along with Claire, the casting assistant. In the b.g., we see Matt, huddled, sitting on the roof's awful green outdoor carpeting, feeling much the same as Jeannie in the previous scene. ON MATT Off in the distance, the Popcorn execs contentedly ply their trade. As he overhears their conversation and the words begin to register in all their horror. MILLIE Will somebody take a minute to look over my casting list before Burke gets here? MALE D PERSON (scanning list) This isn't so great, Millie. MILLIE Well, I wanted to put in people we had a shot at getting. MALE D PERSON (reading from list) F. Murray Abraham, Jeff Daniels, Ed Harris, John Lithgow, Rip Torn, Willem Dafoe, John Malkovich... For an action lead? MILLIE Could you at least take it one person at a time instead of... MALE D PERSON Okay. Let's play 'State the Obvious'... F. Murray Abraham has a nose as long as an Aspen ski line, Ed Harris is losing his hair, Joe Mantegna has never played the lead in a big movie... Willem Dafoe's teeth... Bob Hoskins looks fur bearing when he takes off his shirt... Malkovich... Matt can take it no more. He hears a loud voice coming from his own throat. He wigs out. MATT I can't stand it anymore. I can't. CATHY What's wrong? What happened? MATT What, in God's name, are you doing in this job you have? SHOT As they all start to answer at once. MATT I mean him. What, in God's name, do you know about casting? MALE D PERSON Me? Matt rises and walks towards the Male D Person. MATT Yes. What do you know? About anything? You don't even know you have a habit of touching your tongue with a finger like you want to lick yourself. (note: this is his little habit) Yet, you talk like you actually know something... So I want you to tell me... (louder) ...what you know. MALE D PERSON I'm not going to be drawn into this. MATT I've been an actor most of my life and this is the first time I've ever heard what the people calling the shots sound like when they're casting. So I really want to find out what, if anything, you know because what if nothing you know. FEMALE D PERSON I don't think the yelling is necessary. MATT Oh, you couldn't be more wrong. And I'm not talking to you. And I don't like you. MALE D PERSON How about you just mind your own business? Matt is very close to him--he shakes his chair. MATT You're minding my business. That's the problem... so, just tell me, what do you know? ON MALE D PERSON Matt's manner is threatening. The Male D Person looks around for some support and finds little... then Matt's tone changes... it's reasonable, almost seductive. MATT Just tell me and I'll shut up. MALE D PERSON (taking the bait) First of all, I've been going to movies since I was six, for God's sake... MATT What you know is the size of a schnozz. What you don't know is that these guys... (indicates list) ...are for real... ON CATHY She is a ricochet victim of every word Matt says, as he continues to indict the Male D Person and unknowingly reach her instead. His fury grows and becomes more complicated, containing an element of mourning. MATT (again) ...that they can make something happen, and even they don't know what that is till they get in there and play a little... they can make something happen that you can't even imagine... and it's not your fault, this stupidity... 'cause you're just this scared little prick who gets to say he's making movies, and the only thing they ever taught you is that what you like doesn't matter. MALE D PERSON (frightened) Thanks for understanding. The anger leaves Matt. He is depleted. MATT But isn't it almost good manners for you to feel a little shame? Cathy rises and begins to exit. MATT (again) I didn't mean you. CATHY If you didn't, you sure should have. She exits. The D Person's Colleagues have taken advantage of the beat to egg him on. MALE D PERSON You talk about manners--are you actually so bitter you don't realize how you acted just now? You're gone, pal. But at least know that we can't help that we're making it. MATT Oh, shit. You win. You got lucky with 'bitter.' That word just scares me to death. INT. STAIRWELL - DAY A distraught Cathy is walking down as Burke bounds up. BURKE You look down. CATHY I am. BURKE Thank you. I appreciate the support. CATHY I'm not down for you. I'm down about myself. BURKE (not hearing) Oh. What if 'Ground Zero' doesn't do well this weekend? CATHY Please listen to me. He nods, but she pauses, disconcerted. BURKE What? CATHY I just got this feeling of seeing myself talking to you and how this is the most important moment of... ever. BURKE (brusquely) Okay. Good. What is it? CATHY I've been watching this company make movies that cost tens of millions of dollars and all the while I've known about this wonderful script which we can somehow own and we could make for about $14,000,000... $3,000,000 if you can live without stars or a name director. BURKE Is that it? Okay, send me... CATHY I've sent you coverage on it nine times. I swear to you, Burke, it will work. You've never heard me say that. BURKE How about last night? CATHY (an unexpectedly fierce outburst) I don't know anything about action- adventure!! (on his look, she gains control) I have no idea where that came from. Hey, I know everyone thinks I don't have any commercial sense because of what I said at the 'Gremlins' preview and all... And you think I can't put myself on the line. Well, if this picture doesn't work, fire me. Have me killed if it doesn't get good reviews. If this doesn't get a 70 percent definite recommend from women 49 and under, I promise to be your sex slave until they drop ticket prices back to five bucks and start enforcing the R rating. BURKE You're selling very excellent. Very excellent presentation. CATHY You've got to do this. I think this movie can save me. BURKE (disgusted) Oh, please... What's the script? CATHY 'Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.' EXT. MATT'S APARTMENT - EVENING As Matt exits his car with beaten down body language. INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - EVENING As he leads Jeannie briskly down the hall from Lucy's apartment and into his own. JEANNIE Why couldn't you even look at the way I dressed Ricky? MATT Look, I don't want to talk about it. I just had a real rough day... so just let it sit there, okay? JEANNIE But what was it? Tellll me... Compromise... You sad? MATT Yes. (through gritted neck cords) Now, I really need to be quiet. JEANNIE (eyes him, then) You!! I know what will cheer you up. Moving very quickly and with great purpose, she slaps a tape into a pink child's cassette player and MUSIC BEGINS... Jeannie sings along with the child's chorus on the tape, "YOU COULD BE WONDERFUL", making, with little hand motions, the last thing Matt needs, but, in due course, he starts to actually make a bit of transitional progress out of his own troubles and into the fact that his daughter is beguiling. But, before the mood can fully sweeten, Jeannie forgets the lyrics and begins to verbally assault herself as the tape continues to play... JEANNIE I can't even remember the words... I am stupid. MATT No, you're not. You're not stupid and I'm not bitter... and you know why? Because there's no cure for either one and we've got to believe in some cure for each of us. JEANNIE I am stupid. I can't even remember the words to some baby song. MATT Oh, Jeannie... I just can't do this now. The phone rings... As he goes to answer it... MATT (into phone) Hello? Yes. Cathy... Hey. Just a second. His mood has changed. It's a fine sign that Cathy has called him at home. He needs only for his child to take pity and listen to him. MATT Jeannie, please... be quiet for one second... this is very important for me. She decides, with some difficulty, to let him continue. MATT (into phone) So? Wow. Good for you. Congratulations. Jeannie mouths the words, "Who is it?" Matt holds up a finger asking her to wait. MATT Me? This is great. I'll come right over and pick up the script. Okay. If you want to. Bring it over. Goodbye. (to Jeannie) We might make it yet, kid. EXT. MATT'S STREET - EVENING As Cathy drives past some rough examples of street life, and finally finds Matt's building with its grim iron gate security system. Cathy, uncomfortable in these surroundings, parks her car, brushes her hair, while, at the same time, putting in place a phony cheap-car-radio-sticker over her own expensive system, and gets out. INT. MATT'S APT. ENTRANCE - EVENING She buzzes his apartment and waits. MATT'S VOICE Cathy? CATHY Yes. MATT'S VOICE I'll buzz you in. You've got to be quick and push hard. In the b.g. WE HEAR Jeannie loudly imploring her father to make the person wait till she's finished dressing. There is the SOUND OF the buzzer. Cathy hurls herself at the door a good four times before finally timing it right and gathering the necessary strength to spill through. INT. MATT'S HALLWAY - EVENING Cathy stands there overhearing the voices from inside. JEANNIE'S VOICE But why can't I stay just a little while? MATT'S VOICE Because this is a very special friend of Daddy's and I need privacy... Be fair... I let you wear that dress. Cathy knocks. Matt opens the door. MATT Hi. He steps aside so Cathy may enter... The place is tidied up. He has changed his clothes and Jeannie is wearing a lace dress, fit for a young princess, complete with flowered tiara and ballet slippers, with trailing blue ribbons at the heels and a velvet cape. MATT This is my daughter, Queen Elizabeth. Jeannie, this is Cathy. CATHY Hi... What a pretty dress. JEANNIE Thank you. That's nice. ON MATT Happy that Jeannie is behaving so well. CATHY Are you going to a party? JEANNIE (wildly hopeful) Am I going to a party, Dad? MATT (quickly) No. You're going next door. Jeannie is crest-fallen; for a horrible second, it looks as if she may start to wail... Matt moves into action with a pep talk. MATT Remember our compromise? You're going next door to Lucy's to play and you'll show the kids your dress and I'll come get you later and we'll go out someplace and I'll buy you anything you want for under seventeen dollars? JEANNIE I remember. She starts for the door, doubles back, and kisses a surprised Cathy full on the lips... The gesture is beautifully, even movingly carried off. It is totally false. JEANNIE (again to Cathy) Goodbye. I love you... CATHY (totally thrown) Well,... thank you. Jeannie is on the run... as she passes her father. MATT (sotto) Thanks. Jeannie nods acknowledgment as she flies past. OTHER ANGLE Favoring Cathy, Matt leans out the doorway until Jeannie is safely next door, then re-enters. CATHY What a little winner, huh? MATT (modestly) Oh...? CATHY (waving script) This is my favorite project. And it looks like we're going ahead with it. MATT (overlap) 'Mr. Deeds Goes to Town?' Oh, it's a remake... CATHY Well, come on, what's original? And this is a wonderful rewrite. It's funnier. MATT And there's a part in it for... CATHY Yes... Burke says I can test whoever I want. He wasn't even surprised when I mentioned you. So, if you could read this rewrite now and if you like it, we can make a test deal... (catching herself) they can make a test deal... we can tell them that they can make a test deal. (in explanation) I think it's important for me to steer clear of the business end. MATT Okay... which part? CATHY Longfellow Deeds. MATT Mr. Deeds? CATHY Who goes to town, yes. Matt takes this in... takes this miracle in. MATT Who are we kidding? I'm even having trouble getting short parts--I'm going to say I love it no matter what you've done to it. CATHY Stop being so creepy honest. I really have an instinct about you for this. I'm going home--call me when you finish reading it. (how quickly status changes things) Or... come on over. INT. BURKE'S BEDROOM - EARLY EVENING A post-coital moment though only the man is visible; Burke, who lies on the bed wearing a shirt and tie and nothing else. Nan lies out of sight on the floor where she is recovering from the deepest orgasm of her life. BURKE Why not? If you can test movies and premises and want-to-sees, why can't you test screen tests? Nan hauls herself into view, climbing back onto the bed. NAN I can't deal with your self-centered dribble right now. I have just had the biggest orgasm of my life and I'm trying to figure out if I'm in love with you. BURKE What? NAN Whoops. Tell me what made you rush over and pick me up and bring me here at six o'clock. I mean we seem to have... She closes her eyes in a characteristic and touching gesture, as the scientist in her struggles to be precise. NAN (again) ...this unspoken agreement not to talk about why we're together when we're together and I don't think it's good to let that become a pattern for us. She focuses again on Burke. Prepared for, at last, some verbal intimacy. BURKE Why did I rush to you? Because I felt like I had to... be with someone and you were closest. (on Nan's reaction) What's wrong? NAN You're not at all aware that you've just said something... (her eyes close) ...unattractive? BURKE Look, I'm sorry if that came out... NAN I'm not looking for an apology. BURKE I'm just trying to say that one of the things I'm not great at is... NAN Let's not make this about your shortcomings. I'm sure you've had enough of those conversations to last you a lifetime. What I'm... BURKE No, I haven't. NAN No, you haven't what? BURKE Had a conversation about shortcomings... NAN (aghast) No woman has ever told you that you have an almost barbaric insensitivity? That you seem to have lapsed into some final cynicism, where you actually believe that, not only does everyone think the way you do, but only you have the courage to express it? That you seem horribly certain everyone else is sort of pretending when they talk about love or seem to care for anything outside their own anus? No one's ever said that sort of thing to you? BURKE Oh, yeah... But I didn't get what you meant by 'shortcomings.' Hey, if you think things like that, what are you doing here? NAN (indignantly) I'm here for the same reason 86 percent of older women loved 'Beauty and the Beast.' I would like to believe that underneath the creature, there is a sweet, caring guy. BURKE I sure hope you're wrong. Nan breaks up, shaking her head ruefully. NAN I have to pick up Leslie. Burke, not having intended humor, is also lighthearted, having somehow avoided a tight spot. EXT. CATHY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Matt, holding the script, walks the small lane through the tidy lawn to the perfect Silver Lake cottage. We HEAR MUSIC from inside. (A soundtrack.) There is a note on the door, which is slightly ajar, reading: "Come right in if you loved it--ring if you have reservations." Matt enters. INT. CATHY'S HOUSE - NIGHT White walls, thick rugs, great, great, fantasy garret; sparse, but cozy. He walks a step, then there is a girlish squeal and a naked Cathy streaks the rest of the way to her bedroom from the bathroom. CATHY (calling) I mistimed it. (sticking her head out the door) I wanted you to catch me fully frontal. She smiles broadly; hurriedly putting on something quick and loose to match her buzz. As she walks to him, the phone rings. She ignores it. CATHY So you loved it. A lot? A little? MATT Give me a second--all of a sudden, there's a lot to deal with. She sits on the sofa--looking at him. MATT (again) It's terrific. CATHY (pointedly) Do you see why I think you're right? MATT Because you're nice and you know I need work. CATHY (lower) You know this is really happening, so I wish you wouldn't kid around about it. MATT Sorry, but I think the audition rule is that I have to be serious unless the person in charge is wearing a bathrobe and her nipples are sticking out... (holds fingers apart) ...this much. Cathy peeks down her bathrobe. Then broadly. CATHY There are some mixed signals coming out of here, aren't there? (phone rings; she answers) Hi. Working... I can't write down a number now. Call me back. (to Matt) The script? MATT It's really good. I get a little nervous thinking about the opportunity. CATHY I want to hear everything. You want to go page by page? MATT If it's okay. I kind of work on these things in a private... it's just... it's a little better for me if I don't... CATHY (hurt) Okay. MATT Okay, let's do it. It won't kill me. CATHY Please. I understand. An uncertain beat and then she leans over and kisses him. A sound escapes him. They get up and begin walking to the bedroom. MATT I swear to God, I don't know which thing I want more, the sex or the conversation afterwards. CATHY (a smile) What do you mean? INT. CATHY'S BEDROOM - NIGHT As they enter and move to the bed where Matt starts undressing. MATT I mean I haven't been to bed with anyone since Jeannie got here... I haven't talked to anyone the way I need to. (cradling her breast) I haven't seen anything this beautiful. I haven't felt this good about life. I mean, I've been lonely, Cathy. CATHY (as he enters her) I'll tell you the truth, Matt. I've never felt more like turning my phone off. She twists her body gracefully, sexily towards the phone. MATT You can't shut the phone off. I left this number with Jeannie's sitter. CATHY I don't understand what you're worried about. MATT I'm not worried. But if the phone was off, I would worry. CATHY But I get a lot of calls. MATT Oh. CATHY I could put the machine on 'monitor,' but it's going to be... I don't know. MATT It will be okay. I think the most important thing is to stop talking about the phone. Turn it off, monitor, whatever. CATHY Okay. She twists toward the phone again--not quite so beautifully. OTHER ANGLE As she hits the "monitor" button, then turns back to him. CATHY You look so serious. MATT I am so serious. CATHY'S POV Matt totally there... this is major for him, then he does something sensitive... reads her concern over the depth of his need and interest and shrugs, indicating he can't help it. ON CATHY She likes him. THE COUPLE As they make love... their union thrown off kilter by the phone messages which roll in periodically as they thrust and sweat towards intimacy. YOUNGER MALE VOICE (broadly) Hi, Cathy... All my magazines came today... Read the new Vanity Fair, they take apart three people we hate... Spy is bad this month... Scorsese didn't get the Time cover, the plane crash did... ha, ha, ha... Why aren't you at the office? You know, I'm getting to the point where I prefer to reach people's machines... Bye. The love making continues as the calls continue. MALE D PERSON VOICE Cathy? Are you there? Hello... Are you there?? I'm going to count to ten. One, two, three... (then to someone passing his office) Did you go to the screening last night? What did you think? That makes two bombs in a row for her. (into phone) ...four, five, six... Pick up if you're there. I've got major gossip... major screwup. It could be good for us. Cathy, in the throes of sexual union, feeling a bit divided by the offer on the phone... she shakes it off. MATT Is this the kind of crap you listen to all day? CATHY Please, we're making love here. BURKE'S VOICE (incredibly depressed) If the TV show bombs, there's going to be a dance party on my grave. I don't give a crap. Nothing seems to have a point anymore. I'm really questioning everything... including action-adventure... Don't tell anyone I'm down. Even destroy the message tape. Don't tell anyone I said to destroy the message tape. Don't even give hints that there's something you can't tell them, but you wish you could... I'm losing it. I'm losing it. I'm losing it. Don't tell nobody. Don't tell nobody. Don't tell nobody. The sound of a hang up... the couple having more difficulty making love... ON CATHY AND MATT As they look to the phone and react--still joined, then: JEANNIE'S VOICE (sobbing) Daddy... (berating someone who is with her) You dialed bad... Where is he? LUCY'S VOICE (with Jeannie coaching b.g.) Matt, Jeannie is very upset because you are not here when you said. And now the big hand is on the eight... The sound of a hangup... As Matt springs from the bed. MATT I'm sorry... CATHY It's all right. MATT (as he leaves) Is there a name for what we just had? INT. BURKE'S CAR - DAY Matt driving. Burke in back as his anxieties gnaw away. MATT This is awkward, my driving you around and testing for you tomorrow. BURKE Not really. MATT Well, I hope you understand I can't drive you to work tomorrow and then go in and test. It's just... Burke reluctantly considers, then: BURKE Okay. I was going to come in late anyway. I'll get one of the kids to drive me. MATT Thanks. And, look, if I get the lead in this movie, you'll have to go back to sitting up front with me. Burke laughs--surprised at being genuinely amused. INT. MATT'S APARTMENT - MORNING Matt, wildly dialing a phone--orange juice in hand, Jeannie standing nearby. He shrieks one phrase. MATT (into phone) No sitter!!! Thanks. We're leaving now. INT. MAKE-UP ROOM - DAY Matt is in the final process of being made up, going over his lines. Cathy enters. CATHY Jeannie's fine. There's a whole bunch of kids in the building. She's fascinated. And they're all ready for you. MATT How many men are they testing today? CATHY You're the only one. Matt is surprised... But he is a pro and so immediately makes use of this sudden blip in status. MATT Then tell them I need a little more time. MAKE-UP PERSON No, it's okay, we're done. MATT I mean for me. I want to focus a little. CATHY Sure. (she hugs Matt) Good luck, Matt. (whispered advice) The thing they're looking for most is sexy. And then they're gone. With that bit of advice, Matt is totally fucked up. A beat after Cathy leaves: HAIR PERSON You know who she was involved with for a minute or so? MAKE-UP PERSON Who? MATT (quickly) Hey! On their look... MATT (again) You guys have to leave. This is important and I need to be alone right now... They exit... Matt thumbs through the script... does a relaxation exercise... takes a breath and thinks... a beat and he is reasonably confident... he walks one half-circle of the room making sure he's fully pumped, then exits. EXT. POPCORN MOVIES - DAY As crowded as it was for the previous audition scene, but this time they are reading children of varied ages, and the kids and their parents are all over the stairs, etc. Jeannie is filled with wonder and is arrestingly and atypically shy, as she makes her way through this world of the young, clinging to Cathy's hand, as the kids sing their version of "MAKE BELIEVE"--the stage parents taking one verse. At one point, Cathy's begins talking to someone, blocking Jeannie's view. JEANNIE Get out of my way! CATHY Don't say it like that!!! JEANNIE Which way should I? (polite little girl) Get out of my way. (almost weeping) Get out of my way. (furious) Get out of my way. All this noticed by a casting person with a clipboard. CASTING PERSON Wow. INT. POPCORN PICTURES HALLWAY - SEVERAL HOURS LATER Matt making his way past the last of the kid stragglers. Cathy and Jeannie come running up to him. MATT It felt great... Everybody... JEANNIE Let me tell him, let me tell him, let me tell him... CATHY (highly annoyed) Let him finish! God! JEANNIE I want to tell him. CATHY If you wait one minute, I'll let you. Jeannie turns down her volume, but keeps repeating--incanting actually... "I can't wait to tell him... I can't wait to tell him... I can't wait to tell him..." MATT Anyway, the girl I did it with, by the way, she's really good; the director, the crew... they all thought we nailed it. CATHY (loving, sexy) Hey. JEANNIE (to Cathy) Now? Cathy nods and Jeannie begins to push Matt into Cathy's office for privacy. CATHY Wait till you hear this one. INT. CATHY'S OFFICE Jeannie sits her father down. This is the first time we've seen her joyful. Pure glee. JEANNIE Some lady asked me to go in a room and, you know, make believe and say stuff like we were playing a game... The words coming so fast that Jeannie lets loose with a bolt of SONG, as if taking a moment to catch her breath. Just a few sung lines proclaiming happiness. JEANNIE (again) And everybody went 'yea' and they said they wanted me to be on television. And the SUNG PHRASE. JEANNIE And give me money and have a teacher there and a person to braid my hair and color my face and give me clothes... The sung phrase again. ON MATT Stricken. MATT You wait here, Jeannie. INT. CATHY'S OUTER OFFICE - DAY Several people milling about... Matt eyes Cathy. We still hear Jeannie's muffled singing from the other side of the door. MATT (furious) I have to talk to you. EXT. POPCORN PICTURES - DAY As Matt and Cathy come into frame... Matt forcefully placing her with her back to the wall. She is not one to be pushed around. CATHY Don't! MATT What in hell is wrong with you? You actually think... CATHY I'm trying to hang in here but everything in me cuts off when somebody acts this way. MATT (continuing right along) ...that you can have my kid audition for a show without asking me. CATHY I didn't... She went for water and by the time she got back, they had offered her the part. Blame Burke, he was there... Matt takes this in. Just a millimeter underneath his fury is professional curiosity. MATT What's the part, anyway? CATHY The white kid in a multi-racial foster home with all these kids of varying ages. It's not a bad show. I sure can't wait to see the test. MATT How were they able to test her so fast? CATHY No. They offered it to her off the reading. I meant your test. MATT Oh... A child actor. Just what any kid with problems needs to straighten out--a series of her own... Cathy has nothing to offer. Matt begins leading her back. We HOLD ON THEIR BACKS and see the chink in Matt's confidence, hear the tightness in his voice as he asks: MATT You'll let me know as soon as they see my test? CATHY Right away... You've got my vote. They hold hands. INT. MATT'S APT. - NIGHT Jeannie, a script in her lap, caressing it, avoiding her father's gaze. He sits nearby sizing her up, pissed. JEANNIE I'm doing it. MATT Not if I don't let you. That's the law, the police law. She takes this shot hard, but tries to pretend otherwise, continuing to stare hard at her script to avoid him. JEANNIE Do I have to learn to read to be on television? MATT (with a real edge) You're going to have to learn to look at me and listen to me and the longer I have to wait THE ANGRIER I'M GOING TO BE. JEANNIE (looks up suddenly) I'm so mad. MATT Me too. Just listen. JEANNIE I don't... why?!? MATT Because I know about this. I have worked with kid actors... They don't have that much fun. They're inside all day... they don't get to go to regular schools or play with their regular friends like Ricky and Essa. (progressively losing it) And their parents? You think I'm going to be one of those parents, sitting in one of those rooms, where we all go crazy trying to jump start our egos with our kids' sweat, all the time smiling at each other like our lives are working while we root against everyone else's little girl? (Jeannie is totally confused, until) No!! No way! I can't! JEANNIE Okay. So, no, you're cuckoo anyway. I won't do it. And I don't care because I'm be stupid at it anyway. She throws the script down. Tears in her eyes. MATT Pick it up, Jeannie. She's so down, she complies--picking it up and walking it to the trash can. Matt stops her and takes the script. MATT Let's work on it. INT. BURKE'S OFFICE - DAY The staff of Popcorn Pictures is gathered in the boss' office watching Matt's screentest on projection TV. Burke sits next to Nan on a sofa--Cathy sits in front of him--others in chairs or on the floor. One ASSISTANT is attempting to "fine tune" the color--the TINT BAR GRAPH is on screen sliding between + and - as the color changes. Burke talks sotto to Nan. BURKE So how do you think 'Ground Zero' will do tonight? She ignores him, continuing to watch the screen. He leans into her. BURKE How do you think my movie will do tonight? NAN (testy) I'm not going to talk to you during Matt's screentest. Cathy turns in her chair and mouths "thank you" to Nan. BURKE (to himself) How bad can it be? We've got to have at least a two million dollar Friday. There's nothing else out there. CATHY (turning to him) Please. BURKE I'm watching... ON SCREEN A VERY ATTRACTIVE ACTRESS is crying... Matt very close to her... BURKE'S VOICE Stop playing with that thing. The COLOR BAR GRAPH does a quick slide and disappears from the screen leaving the actors' faces green. ACTRESS (crying) C'mon, Deeds, tell me about the meeting. MATT What's wrong? ACTRESS Don't worry about my crying. As a matter of fact, crying turns me on. MATT Well, in that case, your dog died. There is laughter in the room. The actress smiles through her tears--pats Matt for being wonderful. ACTRESS What happened at the meeting? MATT I can't remember. You're too pretty. (on her look) Oh, I told them I'd keep on being Chairman. (then explaining) I'm Chairman, you know. ACTRESS (smiling) I know. MATT Told them I'd keep on being Chairman if they hired everybody back. ACTRESS What did they say? MATT Oh, that I was crazy. You always wear your hair back like that? She kisses him. We HEAR the director say, "Cut. Terrific, guys." The girl and Matt hug, no longer in character, as others come in to congratulate them. INT. SCREENING ROOM - DAY Ad-libbed enthusiasm... mostly about the girl... ON CATHY As the conversation about the girl grows more pointed... Cathy, impassive outwardly, recoiling inwardly. BURKE Okay, come on... let's have our creative meeting right here. MALE D PERSON Well, I'd sure go to bed with her. BURKE (professionally concurring) Very fuckable. MALE CASTING PERSON I'd sure fuck her. BURKE Okay... that's her... What about him? FEMALE D PERSON I think he's a very good to excellent actor--I do... (puzzled) But there's something... BURKE You wouldn't want to fuck him? FEMALE D PERSON Well, six years ago, maybe. CLAIRE I think he's talented and attractive. BURKE So you'd want to fuck him? CLAIRE He might be light in that area. CATHY The man is talented. If you get one of those directors who like actors, I think... BURKE A director can't make you hot if you're not hot. You'll end up with warm which is death. CATHY (defending Matt slightly) We laughed. BURKE Let me ask you something... Would you fuck him? CATHY (wearily) Everything doesn't boil down to... BURKE Let me stop you before you embarrass yourself. Burke rises and addresses his staff... the camera has his back in the foreground as it MOVES TOWARDS A RENDEZVOUS, Burke moving too as he continues... BURKE (again) We all can do our little lectures on what things boil down to. Everybody else here was professional enough to come out and say... I'd fuck her... I wouldn't fuck him... and you're ducking it... I want you to forget the acting stuff and totally focus on the issue. And now Burke and CAMERA meet up--the effect being that he is talking directly to us as he continues. BURKE (again) We do have some kind of responsibility to the audience... You just saw his screentest... so, if this is the first time you saw the guy, do you come out thinking to yourself and your girl friends, 'I'd sure go to bed with him; oh God, would he be something.' Would you, Cathy?... I'm being real here. CATHY No... BURKE Okay, so let's keep looking. They file out. Cathy gets up several beats later than the others... and follows them out, avoiding Nan's look. INT. CATHY'S OFFICE - EARLY EVENING She's been sitting here for quite a while... she can postpone no longer; she dials as one of her MOVIE SOUND TRACKS PLAYS in the background. CATHY (into phone) Hello. Matt... Hi... Okay, sure... She listens, waiting for him to quiet Jeannie. CATHY (again) Matt... (louder) Matt... Matt... Maybe it would be easier if I just said 'hi' to her... Hi, Jeannie... Yes, it's exciting... No, no. He's right, honey, they get somebody to read it to you. Now, put your dad on--it's important. No, first put your dad on... DAMN IT! (she waits a beat) ...Matt. Uh-huh, a few hours ago... They all... everyone liked your work, but I think they'll go for a name or something. She listens to him. He is hurt. Cathy, though, is also wrestling with her own internal struggles. She has betrayed him and is ashamed; in a strange way--terrified. She is, therefore, just a little irritable. CATHY (again) It's not a matter of doing it differently... they liked what you did, a lot... they laughed and... it's not you... it's them. (suddenly her breath comes weird) No, please. Don't thank me. If you feel like getting together later or anytime, call me, okay? You sound like you have your hands full right now... Goodbye. INT. MATT'S APT. - NIGHT As he hangs up... JEANNIE I wanted to talk to her again... I... She stops in mid-sentence, looking at her father. He is overcome... his energy failing to get him past this most awful moment in his life. She moves to his side. He starts to cry and, urgently seeking privacy, he moves quickly towards the bathroom, rubbing Jeannie in an instinctive gesture of reassurance. He closes the door. ON JEANNIE Devoid of anger. Sympathy so pure that it wrenches. She starts to move towards the bathroom. Her voice sweet... JEANNIE Dad? Daddy? Matt opens the door quickly. MATT Everything's okay... I'm sorry I forgot to put you back on with Cathy. He walks across the room, Jeannie tracking him. JEANNIE You didn't cried because of that... I don't even want to talk to her. Matt sits down, still suffering a bit of dysfunction, unable to keep up appearances other than a few minor half-hearted tweaks at his daughter who stands solemn and silent at his side. She pets him some... this goes on for several beats as the STRAINS OF "YOU COULD BE WONDERFUL" accompany the moment. Then: JEANNIE (a whisper) Dad. Can I say just one thing? With some effort, Matt lifts his head and nods permission. JEANNIE You've got to make me supper. Matt nods, rises and leads her into the small kitchen. INT. BURKE'S BEDROOM - DAY Burke is wearing a T-shirt and shorts as he walks to his four-stops-past-state-of-the-art Stairmaster and turns it on while looking over his shoulder at the telephone... now sucking in some courage, he goes to the phone and speed dials. He begins to climb the stairs. VOICE You have reached the Warner's Hotline. Estimated Box Office Grosses for Friday, December 3rd, Weekend Number 49, are as follows in millions of dollars. He braces himself... there is a tone, then: PHONE VOICE Due to the high volume of calls, we must ask you to wait till a line is clear... MUSIC IN... At first from the speaker phone... Burke moving in time to "THERE IS A LONELY..." And now singing... As the lyric concludes and the instrumental comes in. PHONE VOICE (again) Thanks for waiting. Weekend 49 grosses follow in millions of dollars. 'Belligerence,' 714 theaters. Two- point-one-eight million, down 46 percent. Burke smiles with pleasure... his steps becoming lighter, more fanciful. PHONE VOICE (again) 'Best Girl,' 1,820 theaters, six- point-four million, up 24 percent. BURKE (contemptuously) Cappuccino movies. PHONE VOICE Opening this weekend, 'Double Dare Two,' 1,870 theaters, fourteen-point- three million. ...and now his film, "Ground Zero," is coming up to bat... as succor to the gods, he tries to make his dance gleeful in anticipation. PHONE VOICE (again) 'Ground Zero,' 2,110 theaters, no million, point four thousand dollars. Burke falls off his Stairmaster and, from his new position, finishes his song. INT. BURKE'S CAR - DAY Matt is driving. Burke is seated alongside him, talking without looking at him. BURKE I'm going to pieces... (whispering) The picture was budgeted at 21 million and I spent 49 so they were a little mad at me to begin with. Now it doesn't open even with an Arby's Roast Beef tie-in... I mean, we only averaged 300 dollars a theater... they're going to think I'm Woody Allen. MATT I don't think you have to worry about that. BURKE Thanks. But this is private. What about the exit survey? Did we do good with any group at all? Now we HEAR Nan's voice on the speakerphone which Burke has been addressing all along. NAN'S VOICE I can't hear you, but--hi, Matt-- that was funny. MATT Hi. NAN'S VOICE 'I don't think you have to worry about that?' She laughs delightedly. Burke leans across Matt's lap to get closer to the microphone. BURKE Did we do well with any group at all? NAN'S VOICE Eleven-year-old boys in the South. He sits stupified. NAN'S VOICE (again) Burke? Burke? Matt, is he... BURKE I'll see you later. Goodbye. NAN'S VOICE But, hon... He hits the "end" button. He slumps for a second, then: BURKE I'm all alone... (pause) At least there's that. EXT. POPCORN PICTURES - DAY As the car arrives outside Popcorn Pictures, we can SEE some child actors and their parents arriving at the sound stage next door. MATT Are you going to need me? The kids are rehearsing and I'd like to take a look. BURKE Yeah, sure. I have to stay inside during lunch hours now anyway--that's when everybody returns my calls because they're trying to miss me. MATT (amazed) Is that true? BURKE (misinterpreting) Yeah. Thanks for the support. INT. TV STUDIO - DAY A row of parents standing near their child actors, adjusting them--not unlike handlers of racing Greyhounds. ON JEANNIE Seen from a distance--her father behind her. In the foreground, the mass of workers on the stage, It is, in effect, her POV, even though she is in the extreme background of the shot. We MOVE CLOSER to Jeannie and her father--even a bit behind them. Jeannie is scared. MATT I bet I know what it looks like to you. JEANNIE What? MATT A giant "find Waldo." Despite herself, she smiles at the reference, though her tone is a bit sarcastic. JEANNIE Very funny. PASSING VOICE Five minutes, children, then we need you for work on the set. JEANNIE Set? MATT That pretend living room, right over there. JEANNIE Okay. Set. Bye... MATT (holding her arm) Wait a second, Jeannie. Let Daddy give you a few tips here. JEANNIE (twisting away) Nooo. I've got to get to work. She breaks free, depriving Matt of the sweet and simple moment he wanted with her. She's one of the first ones on the set, other kids still hugging their parents. As Cathy comes up behind Matt, we can HEAR Jeannie who, having so small a trust for her father, needs to confirm what he just told her. JEANNIE (faintly) Is this the set? Matt reacts. PASSING VOICE Parents to Room Two, please. (as he goes by Matt) Parents to Room Two, please. Jeannie is watching. PASSING VOICE (again) We have to clear the set. Matt looks him off fiercely. The Passing Voice addresses the friendlier parents. PASSING VOICE (again) This way, parents. CATHY I'm glad I found you. MATT Hi. OTHER AREA - BEHIND GRANDSTAND SEATS As they walk. CATHY You holding up? What did you do last night after I called? MATT (as if teasing) What do you think I did? I cried like a baby. CATHY Okay. Okay. So you don't want to tell me. Be a tough guy. MATT Now you got it. CATHY I feel relieved just seeing you after all that stuff... whew... Okay. (preparing to go) Burke wants to... MATT You ever go out with him? Cathy is as simple and direct as she is embarrassed. CATHY Yes. MATT You slept with him? CATHY Yes. MATT Did you hate it? CATHY Eventually. MATT (reeling a bit) Good Lord. CATHY This is the thing that makes me nervous about you... You keep on assuming I'm nicer than I am. He kisses her. She kisses back. Then there is an extraordinarily loud and piercing voice. JEANNIE DAD!! He turns to see Jeannie beckoning to him from the stage--the director, standing at her side, joins in. He walks to them. ANGLE - STAGE FULL OF ACTORS The Director is talking to Jeannie who seems, even from a distance, distraught and lost. She sees Matt. JEANNIE There's such trouble. DIRECTOR She's very worried about being able to pretend cry when she has to and she doesn't get it about memorizing. That's all. JEANNIE (aghast) That's all?!? The Director beckons Matt to lead her away. He does. JEANNIE This isn't going to be good. MATT Not with that attitude. She seems stung by this, unusually vulnerable. He changes tactics, softening. MATT (again) It's just that they... Well, did they tell you what an audience is? JEANNIE (insulted) I know what an audience is. MATT Good. Now, because there's an audience, they want you to know all the words you have to say really well. And since you can't read yet... (off her fierce look) ...you're going to have to be patient and try hard. I can help you. She grasps at this unlikely straw. JEANNIE Can you help me to cry? MATT Yes. (on her broad disbelief) I can. I can help make it okay. Trust me. Jeannie pauses half a beat, then: JEANNIE I miss my mother bigger than you know. INT. MATT'S APT. - DAY Matt on phone, Jeannie standing next to him reaching for the phone. MATT (to Jeannie) Not yet. Don't grab. (into phone) Thank you. We really appreciate this. Hi, Beth. I... Jeannie grabs the phone in a flash. JEANNIE (softly into phone) Mom? No... Nothing... Nothing... Nothing. Nothing... Would you talk? I'd just like to listen to you... Wait. Let me sit down. Jeannie sits herself by the window, protected by an iron grill, and sits listening to her mother. There is about this pose something prescient; unmistakably, Jeannie will look this way again as a young woman cloaked in the love of some guy... but for now it's her mother, her crazy mother, who blots out dread. Matt is struck by how quiet and adoring Jeannie looks even as he moves to give his daughter some privacy. Several beats, Jeannie noticing her Dad looking at her--switching positions, body language indicating that she wants to put him out of her mind... then a thought. JEANNIE Dad says he's going to make me to really cry. MATT Jeannie, your mom's not going to understand what you mean. Jeannie shushes him, resisting with surprising will and strength when he tries to get the phone. JEANNIE (to Matt) She understands!!! (into phone) He's being terrible right now. (faster; avoiding Matt) I love, loved, the coloring book you sent me. Goodbye. Wait. I love you. Let me hang up first. Love you. Send me a letter. Bye. And a beaded T- shirt. Bye. She hangs up. Matt pissed. MATT Why don't you let me be on your side for a second? JEANNIE I can't even understand what you're saying now. MATT Do you know what trust means? JEANNIE Not very. MATT It means that even if something is hard to believe, you believe someone you trust because you know he wouldn't say it unless it were true. JEANNIE I understand. So I don't trust anybody, right? MATT Yeah, I think you get the concept. JEANNIE You don't make sense. I don't understand you. MATT I think you do. Jeannie reacts broadly... indicating what a difficult man she's stuck with. MATT Just know that... JEANNIE Okayyyy! MATT (giving up) You want to help me make a phone call? She goes quickly to the phone and picks it up. MATT Seven... two... JEANNIE (hitting numbers) Who are we calling? MATT Cathy. She's very nice. One... six... JEANNIE (hard to read) "Very nice..." One... INT. CATHY'S HOUSE - DAY As she answers phone. JEANNIE'S VOICE Hi... (to Matt) What now? MATT'S VOICE IN BACKGROUND Tell her, 'How are you' and then let me... JEANNIE'S VOICE How are you? CATHY Jeannie... I can't talk now because... JEANNIE Wait, my dad wants to... CATHY Tell him I can't talk 'cause I'm on the phone with a director... JEANNIE He wants to talk to you very much and... CATHY (sharply) I can't. I have to hang up. She does. INT. MATT'S APT. - NIGHT Jeannie, truly stung by the hang-up. She takes this act of Cathy's as an insult to herself and her father. Matt doesn't feel too wonderful about it himself. MATT You have to understand that sometimes people are too busy. JEANNIE So she's too busy for you? INT. RESTAURANT - NIGHT Burke and Nan eating together on an elevated balcony overlooking the main eating area. BURKE We look like jerks eating here this early. Everybody's going to think we couldn't get a reservation for the hot hours. NAN Why do you do this to yourself? Why do you insist on eating dinner in a restaurant where you're bound to see all the people you're afraid of? BURKE I'm not afraid of them. NAN What do you call it when you think that what a group of people think of you can confirm or destroy any decent idea you have of yourself? BURKE Normal. NAN How did little Jeannie do today? BURKE Isn't it something that they have you testing the TV show? NAN What I asked was, how did Jeannie do? BURKE What are you talking about? NAN Somebody else. Jeannie. How did she do? BURKE Don't talk to me like this. NAN (really pissed) I want to be treated as if I'm really saying words to you which you engage and respond to. I like Matt; I'd like to know how his daughter did. So before you take your dance of desperation across the restaurant and I end up feeling so sorry for you that I could die, I would like you to answer my question. BURKE She did okay... and don't worry about Matt... If the pilot sells, his kid will be making five thousand a week. So what do you know about 'People Get Hurt?' NAN I'm told that they're not going to release it... BURKE I knew. I knew. What the hell are you smiling for? NAN Forgive me. But telling you about this latest failure of yours--it pleases me. I have no idea why. BURKE I can't be with someone who's not rooting for me. NAN I think I am. It's just that rooting for you is a good deal more complicated than you realize. (as he rises) Don't go. BURKE Don't worry. I'm not that mad. I gotta do this. MUSIC IN as Burke leaves the table. This "Dance of Desperation" is classical. Burke himself lifting one of the women in greeting, then, as he puts her down. BURKE (again) Sorry. I thought you were someone else. As he continues to go from table to table. TIGHT ON NAN As she looks down on him, dying for him, we HEAR her sing the song "Poor Bastards". Finally, not only about Burke--but the other damaged souls he seeks to dance with. Now, Nan can take no more. She exits. FULL SHOT - BURKE As he sees her go past in the background, he goes after her, finally grabbing her near the Maitre D' station. This, just as TWO IMPORTANT COUPLES arrive. Burke frantically tries to cover. BURKE Nan, you know Victor and his wife... (he mumbles, unable to remember any wife's name) and Jay and his wife... (he mumbles) NAN Yes. I'm sorry I can't talk now. I'm very upset about what's happening to Burke, so I just made up my mind I can't be witness to it anymore if I love him and I certainly shouldn't be here if I don't... so I was just in the process of leaving when he stopped me and you folks walked in... I'm sure you've had something like this happen to you some time... some horrible thing in your personal life happening in public. They all nod and ad-lib agreements with her premise to Burke's amazement. NAN (again) Thank you for understanding. (to Burke) Goodbye. I wish only good things for you even though I feel I've been really damaged by this relationship. She exits, enormously upset. Burke, torn between following her and repairing the social damage. But the couples are paying him no mind; rather they are impressed with Nan. As they comment, i.e. COUPLES Wasn't that spectacular? I've never seen anybody that secure... Burke accepts the compliments as if meant for him. BURKE Thank you. Thank you. We're very close. EXT. RESTAURANT - NIGHT The strains of "Poor Bastards" underscoring the moment as Burke rushes into the parking area and grabs Nan's hand just as a valet brings her car. NAN You don't understand that I'm exhausted from hurting. I'm through with you. She begins to cry. Ordinarily this would be a scene which would be unendurable for Burke. However, the lesson of a moment ago is not lost on him. As people get out of cars and witness the sobbing Nan. BURKE (to restaurant patrons) Excuse me, we're working our shit out... I'm sure it happened to you... you know, private stuff in public. The reaction to his openness is disdain and passing contempt. She drives off, leaving Burke hurt and alone. "Poor Bastards" up and out. INT. MATT'S APT. - NIGHT The lighting soft and sweet. Jeannie's words are tentative as she talks to her father who sits watching intently. JEANNIE I don't know if I've been bad. I know somebody's been bad. (hopefully) ...maybe it's you. Matt laughs. Jeannie looks at him shyly... he looks at her with encouragement. Suddenly she is in his arms, hugging him hard, an emotional dam seems to have broken. JEANNIE Oh, I love you so much, I love you so much... I love you so much. Matt holds on--clearly, deeply moved. Then he exercises the effort to control his emotions and speaks, surprisingly, as a Black woman. MATT (as Black woman) I hope that makes you feel a whole lot better, Chile... 'Cause it sure goes a long way to cure what ails me. JEANNIE I can't believe I... MATT (as himself, coaching) ...got in this much... JEANNIE ...got in this much trouble. . MATT Right. Over a... JEANNIE (guessing) Word? MATT Yes. 'I can't believe I got in this much trouble over a word.' Now do you know what she means when she says that? JEANNIE I don't want to talk about it--just say her stuff so I know mine. MATT No. She starts to flail a bit. MATT It's your choice... But I'm not helping unless you try to understand as well as memorize. It will be fun. Come on. I know it's hard... JEANNIE Okay. Okay... MATT Anything to shut me up, huh? Okay, this little girl you're pretending to be... she can't be with her Mommy either, just like you, or her father... she has to stay in Rainbow House which is called that because... (Jeannie starts fidgeting) Jeannie... (she stops) ...because everyone's a different color... so when this little girl calls the black lady who takes care of all the children this terrible word... it's like the worst thing anybody can do... Come here. JEANNIE (approaching him) I don't want to do the 'I love you' again. MATT Yeah, I might have been working you too hard on that one. She is unable to resist muttering one sarcastic shot. JEANNIE Yeah. Why don't you do that with poopie Cathy? MATT (ignoring her) Now, did the director tell you how he wanted you to do it? JEANNIE He said to smile all the time almost and to talk... uh... MATT Faster? JEANNIE Yes. MATT Okay. We don't always get good directors, so it's important for us... JEANNIE Me. You're not in the show. MATT I'm referring to the family of actors, you little shithead. Jeannie doesn't know quite how to take the name calling. MUSIC IN... we're heading for a rendezvous with a dance as it CONTINUES ACROSS THE CUT TO: EXT. TV STAGE - EARLY MORNING Matt and Jeannie walking from the catering truck. They are eating ravenously. MUSIC CONTINUES... VERY JOYOUS. JEANNIE This is so good... MATT It's a breakfast burrito. It's what actors eat when they're working. JEANNIE (excited) Really. EXT. ROOF GARDEN - DAY MATT Now, let's work a little more. The most important acting you do is when you listen. You're worried about being able to cry when you're supposed to, right? JEANNIE Yes. So much. MATT Well, there are really only two ways to do it. Think of something that makes you really sad... or forget you're you and really forget you're pretending... JEANNIE How do I do that one? Matt reads from script. MATT (as a furious Black woman) 'Don't test me, child! I could eat you for lunch when I was your age and I'm a hell of a lot bigger now!' Jeannie looks afraid. MATT That's it... You just looked at me and acted right without even thinking. And there are games you can play to help you with this. Get up... (she does) Now, be my mirror... do exactly what I do... that's it... now, at a certain point, I'm going to become your mirror, but I'm not going to tell you when... you tell me... JEANNIE (hesitantly) Now? Matt nods. MATT (enthusiastically) Okay. We're going to make up words. The words aren't what matter now. JEANNIE I'm on a roof... MATT You're a great dad. JEANNIE You're a... (then stops; then smiles at him) This acting exercise of Chicago's Story Theater leads into the song, "BE MY MIRROR." As the song finishes, Matt and Jeannie are in the best spirits we've seen as an A.D. approaches. A.D. They need you. JEANNIE Okay. She takes the A.D.'s hand as Matt calls. MATT You're welcome. Don't mention it. INT. CATHY'S OFFICE - DAY Cathy is in mid conversation with Millie. Matt enters and boldly says his piece. MATT I'm a free man. Let's go to your house and break the answering machine. CATHY You know, I could get away now. But I've got a big meeting later. We'd better take two cars. Millie, having been at the screen test viewing, is taken aback, looking from one to the other. Cathy knows what she's thinking and is unnerved, feeling silently accused, as she leads Matt out. CATHY See you later. Thanks again. EXT. STREETS - DAY Cathy's car followed by Matt in Burke's car. The frame holds both cars close as if this were one long car. INT. CATHY'S CAR - DAY She seems troubled. Then a decision. She dials a number on her mobile phone and picks up the receiver. INT. MATT/BURKE'S CAR - DAY The phone rings. He punches the speaker button. MATT I hope it's you. CATHY'S VOICE ON SPEAKER Hi. Matt waves... MATT (delighted) So this is how the big ones make out. FULL SHOT - THE TWO CARS Almost bumper to bumper... snuggling. ANGLE - CATHY She takes a breath and then plunges. INT. MATT/BURKE'S CAR - DAY As he hears one of the more ominous phrases of the motion picture community. CATHY'S VOICE Matt, will you take me off the speaker? He picks up the phone. We intercut between the cars. MATT What's the matter? CATHY (hyper) I don't know whether I'm being a coward for telling you this way or brave for telling you period... Can you hear me? MATT Yes. CATHY But I better talk fast because this is where my phone always kicks out... When we did your screentest... Can you hear me? MATT Yes. CATHY Well, I sort of folded on you at the end. She pauses, silence, then: CATHY Matt? MATT You didn't like what I did? CATHY I did. Truly. But the discussion got sort of dumb. It was a question of sexiness. MATT That's what it came down to? CATHY Well, sort of, yes. MATT You folded on whether or not I'm sexy. You don't think I'm sexy... and you expressed that to... CATHY Well, I'll tell you. I certainly must think so pretty much because I feel great about where we're going now... EXT. NARROW CANYON ROAD - DAY There is a longish line of cars behind Matt and Cathy. INT. CATHY'S CAR - DAY CATHY Are you very mad at me? MATT No. You were just... Aw, damn it, I am. Very. Yes. Matt manages to pull to the side... the other cars gobbling the places behind Cathy, who sees this... and now she watches Matt's car recede from her view. MATT'S POV Cathy going out of sight. ON MATT As he lets her go. INT. BURKE'S HOME - EARLY MORNING He is in bed, wearing a bathrobe, watching projection TV. FIRST VOICE ...number seven at the box office this week-end is... He switches channels. VOICE NUMBER TWO ...the two words are Tom Cruise. He switches channels. THIRD VOICE ...becoming the first lawyer to be awarded his own star on Hollywood Boule... He turns off the TV and crosses to the phone, allowing us to read the back of his bathrobe "ROCKY BALBOA." ANGLE ON BURKE He looks at the clock which reads "four a.m." and dials. BURKE Hello, Nan. I hope it's not too late to call. INT. NAN'S KITCHEN - EARLY MORNING She has been crying. BURKE I'd like another chance. NAN You only think you feel that way because you're on the verge of failure and you're without a core... BURKE See. Nobody else gets me. (a beat then) You wanna have a little sex, honey? NAN (a beat then) You know I've never hung up on anybody in my life... because what if the next thing they said solved everything... but I must end this conversation. Nan hangs up. Burke picks up a pocket electronic notepad from the bedstand and hits the scroll button. INSERT ELECTRONIC NOTEBOOK Names and phone numbers. ON BURKE He scrolls past numbers, considering, finding them wanting, so that, finally, he is scrolling the emptiness of his relationships. Now he considers one number and dials. INT. MATT'S APARTMENT - EARLY MORNING The phone rings. He picks it up. MATT Hello. INTERCUT BETWEEN THE TWO BURKE Hi, Matt, this is Burke. I'm sorry to bother you at home, but you know Nan... We were going out a little and I could use another guy's slant on what's just happened. MATT I don't think I can get into this... BURKE Why? Did I catch you at a bad time? MATT Worse. You caught me at a bad time you caused. BURKE Oh, you mean about the screentest. The whole room thought you did good work. MATT (reinventing irony) Thanks. BURKE Yeah, look, I'm not going to bother you about my thing. MATT Yeah. Okay, good night. INT. BURKE'S APARTMENT - EARLY MORNING As he hangs up. Looks down and turns off his phone number pocket computer. MUSIC RECALLS Prince's "There is Lonely." EXT. TV STUDIO - LATE AFTERNOON MUSIC SEGUES to recall "I'LL DO ANYTHING," as he drives past the line waiting to see RAINBOW HOUSE. (NOTE: FROM THIS POINT ON, THERE WILL BE AN UNDERCURRENT OF CHOREOGRAPHY TO CONCLUSION...) INT. MAKE-UP ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON We see Jeannie's face in the mirror, but it is seen through something resembling fleece, which we now recognize as the strands of Jeannie's hair being combed out to the side by an expert hair-dresser. Jeannie is shifting nervously in the large room where each chair is filled with a child of a different age and color. In the b.g., we can HEAR the voice of the WARM-UP MAN. WARM-UP MAN ...pilot for a new show called 'Rainbow House'. Just listen to our band and I'll be back to tell you more and make you love me... The audience laughs thinly. The BAND PLAYS as someone closes the door to the make-up room muffling the offstage sound... There is a good deal of tension in the brightly lit room. Jeannie sits between a FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD HISPANIC BOY and a FOUR-YEAR-OLD ASIAN GIRL. The room is abuzz... kids running lines and loudly talking... this builds to a musical life as in our first audition scene... there is a briefly sung phrase (Jeannie not taking part). INT. GREEN ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON The parents, in the same variety of skin colors as the child actors, are stuffed into a small room being patronized by the ASSISTANT DIRECTOR. Matt is grimly seated in the middle of a long sofa containing stage mothers. Another sofa is two feet away; the parents strain at each other. The A.D. is talking grandly but we cannot hear his words because the Rainbow Parents are SINGING a phrase from the same song we heard in the make-up room. Matt does not take part in the singing. The music goes under allowing us to now hear the A.D.'s words. A.D. ...and when you're in the audience, make sure you laugh and applaud even when it's somebody else's kid... There is appreciative laughter from everyone save Matt, who rises in disgust and crosses out of the room. A.D. (again) You're not allowed near the stage. We only have a few minutes... Matt ignores him and exits. INT. BACKSTAGE AREA - LATE AFTERNOON MUSIC NOW EMPHASIZING THE TENSION OF THE PRE-SHOW ATMOSPHERE. Matt, moving about the area, looking for Jeannie, spots a cluster of other cast members excitedly awaiting their introduction. Jeannie not among them. An A.D. talks with concern to a P.A. A.D. Let me know if you see the little white girl. Matt, growing concerned, walks on, then: MATT'S POV Across the stage to the distant make-up room. Jeannie, alone in the room, which is so brightly lit it creates a bizarre effect, as if she were under a surreal spotlight. MUSIC reprises Jeannie's Sinead O'Connor song, "Lonely Life of Mine." ON MATT Stopping his impulse to go to her--he continues to observe. MATT'S POV Jeannie is nervous and uncertain... She plays with the handle of the make-up chair... turns herself back and forth... Then a very attractive TEN-YEAR-OLD BOY enters the scene--obviously telling her to hustle... He offers his hand and she takes it, instinctively masking all clues that this hand holding is a "first" of great moment in her life. As they move toward the main stage area, Jeannie looks around, needing something... her dad. MATT Jeannie. She turns--sees her father and gives a small, cursory nod... He moves quickly, drawing even with her but still giving her a bit of space and a low-key pep talk. MATT Just remember. You're not even here tonight. There's only this other little girl that you're pretending to be who lives at Rainbow House. JEANNIE ...and who just vomited. Matt breaks up. Even Jeannie smiles briefly, then she takes him aside for privacy. JEANNIE I just found out that we bow before we even do anything. MATT Great. JEANNIE And everybody claps. MATT Great. JEANNIE I made up a great bow. You going to look? MATT Wouldn't miss it. JEANNIE I'm not going to be able to cry. It's too hard for me. MATT Hey, then they'll just give you more chances after everyone leaves. This does not satisfy her. She rolls her eyes as she is pulled away towards the front of the stage. Matt watches as the 10- year-old veteran actor leads his little daughter towards her debut. INT. BACKSTAGE - LATE AFTERNOON - MOVING SHOT - BURKE MUSIC, a tension-filled version of "Poor Bastard." Burke's stride was never stronger, his posture never worse; head hunched down into his neck. Suddenly, he reacts as he sees: the staff of Popcorn Pictures grouped together backstage. Cathy walking towards the group hurriedly from one direction as Burke approaches from the other. Seeing his staff has clearly moved Burke. BURKE Look at you. You're all here because of what's on the line for me tonight. Having this many people in your corner helps more than I would have ever guessed. I'm just very grateful that I made you come. He starts off, but a jubilant Cathy stops him, whispers something. He reacts with excitement. MOVING WITH CATHY She sees Matt deep in the wings watching the stage. She calls to him with some urgency. CATHY Matt. Matt. Matt. He turns and she beckons him towards her. With some hesitance, he joins her. MATT I don't want to miss her introduction. CATHY I'll talk fast. It's amazing news. Oliver Stone's been looking for a comedy and... MATT (distracted) I've got to see my kid. CATHY (her voice breaking) ...he's doing my picture. MATT Hey. Good. He starts off. CATHY Part of this involves you. He remembers you from 'Platoon' and wants to use you in this one. (he stops) Got your attention, huh? Matt is terminally disappointed in her last cynical sentence. MATT Oh, Cathy. Look, I'm going to watch this. Let me talk to you later or tomorrow. Thanks for your help. It's good news. Gotta go. From the stage, we HEAR the VOICE of the WARM-UP MAN. WARM-UP MAN'S VOICE First, in her first appearance ever, Jeannie Hobbs... There is applause. Matt's missed her intro. MATT Shit. CATHY I'm sorry. MATT Why couldn't you wait till later? Shit. CATHY (broadly) I guess it's because I'm just incredibly insensitive to all human needs. I'd ask you to save me, but I'm so far gone, I wouldn't want you to waste your time. MATT (after a moment) Huh? She reacts, but he walks off, not wanting to get into it. Cathy, however, has had a tricky nerve struck. She continues, biting off each word. CATHY You know, I don't have a kid or a mate or a talent. (holding up book bag) I got this. (she's quite upset) And shoot me if I think it's important. MATT'S POV Cathy, who looks alone and adorable as we HEAR MUSIC of "THIS LONELY LIFE OF MINE." He puts a comforting hand on her. She speaks nakedly from deep within herself; her eyes downcast. CATHY You think I'm a superficial jerk. (and then a whispered afterthought) You can't be right. MATT I think you're the best of the bunch. CATHY (broadly) Oh, great. And now she raises her eyes--big, blue and vulnerable. If this look were returned, "I love yous" could flow--they could sink to the floor in a joint epiphany; but there is no romance or kindling in Matt's eyes. He is in a hurry. Pridefully, Cathy turns and walks off in the opposite direction, her flight so instinctive, she forgets her book bag. We hold on this--her exit, then: INT. STUDIO FLOOR - BURKE AND MATT - 20 MINUTES LATER Standing just behind the four television cameras, immediately behind them, the "rail" where the Show's Staff and Crew Members and Network Bosses stand crowded, choreographed in the way in which they "clear" for a moving camera. Behind these people is the studio audience. There is a loud laugh. Burke turns around to study the audience. BURKE'S POV Happy faces accompanied by the strains of Burke's love song to the crowd... BURKE (to Matt) What do you think? But Matt doesn't hear him... a few feet away, Jeannie is making ready for her big moment. Three cameras swing in front of them, TV monitors showing a MASTER and CLOSE-UPS of the three characters in the scene: a short comic WHITE MAN, the Black Female Lead, and Jeannie, dressed as a poor child. MATT (wide-eyed) Wait. This is it. ANGLE - STAGE JEANNIE It's like everyone is pi... ticked off at me because I'm not colored. The White Man jumps on the phrase. SHORT WHITE MAN (correcting her pompously) The word is black. BLACK LEAD ACTRESS (correcting him with booming voice) The word is African American. A burst of laughter, whooping and applause from the audience. Burke brags in a whisper to Matt. BURKE I had them bring in two busloads of people from black churches. ANGLE - STAGE As they play out the scene. BLACK LEAD ACTRESS (scolding Jeannie) Now you use it in a sentence. JEANNIE Look at me, I... ON JEANNIE And Jeannie begins to falter... she must somehow cry at this moment... She looks outward for help. JEANNIE'S POV She looks at the Lead Actress giving Jeannie all she can. BACK TO JEANNIE Jeannie still can't cry. She looks past the cameras. JEANNIE'S POV Her father nervously pulling for her. BACK TO JEANNIE That didn't do it either. She looks into herself... she blinks-- there are tears running down her cheek. WHOLE AUDIENCE Awwwww. GROUP SHOT Matt, very much as he was when he watched Brando on the plane... and then some. Burke, craning to make sure the network bosses are suitably transported. BACK TO JEANNIE'S SCENE BLACK LEAD ACTRESS Go ahead. Use it in a sentence. JEANNIE (crying fully) Look at me. I love an African American. BLACK LEAD ACTRESS Look at me. I love a little redneck. The Black Lead Actress holds out her arms to Jeannie, who, tears streaming down her face, runs towards the arms... ON BURKE His lips pursed tightly in pleasure, then agape in shock. BURKE'S POV Jeannie has run past the Lead Actress and off the set, going into her father's arms instead. She jumps on him, her legs and arms wrapped around him. MATT AND JEANNIE MATT (pridefully) You little stinker! JEANNIE You big stinker. MATT My little stinker. JEANNIE My big stinker. The background to this intimacy is enormously alive. The Lead Actress and the Character Actor laughing out loud. In the b.g., we see the audience filling out preview cards as the FLOOR MANAGER leans in to say: FLOOR MANAGER It's okay, Jeannie. Take a minute. We just need to get that hug at the end. MATT (to Floor Manager) Amazing, right? FLOOR MANAGER (to Jeannie) You were great. JEANNIE Thank you. That's nice. MATT You look happy. JEANNIE I loved it, Daddy. Matt starts to walk her back to the set. MATT You want me to put you down? Her answer surprises him. JEANNIE No. This is okay. MATT Okay... Now, you're not finished until you hug the lady just like you did me. He puts her down. She turns from him to go back to work but, on impulse, he restrains her. He is kneeling down, holding her lightly by the arms, her back to him as he states an ultimate truth: MATT I'm very proud of you. I love you more than anybody. Jeannie, shocked by her father's unprecedented sentiment, turns to face him and clamp a hand over his mouth so he will add no more lush and primal affection. Having silenced him though, she finds that she has something of her own to say. She'd never tell it to her father, but she can't resist telling it to her acting coach. JEANNIE When I had to cry, I thought of you buried in the ground. MATT (a beat, then) Give me a kiss. She does. INT. DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT The cast of Rainbow House taking off their make-up, changing clothes, etc. This is more than high energy and excitement-- what's the opposite of trauma? All are off the wall with pleasure--the MUSICAL LIFE of the earlier dressing room scene returning--peaks of glee resulting in sung phrases as before. Jeannie enters and is immediately surrounded with love, attention and ad-libbed compliments about her work. In this glare of good will, Jeannie turns gloriously shy. BLACK LEAD ACTRESS Do you have any idea how special you were? (on Jeannie's goony reaction) That looks like a 'yes.' You've got to get dressed for the party. JEANNIE (overwhelmed) There's more? (then) What will I wear? BLACK LEAD ACTRESS Go to wardrobe; they'll give you anything you want. ON JEANNIE She moves to her dressing table--sits, looks in the mirror and giggles uncontrollably. INT. BACKSTAGE AREA - NIGHT Matt stands waiting for Jeannie. Nan approaches. NAN It didn't sell. MATT This show didn't sell?!? How do you know so fast? NAN It's the first time they had me do cards for a pilot and the demographics are all wrong for after nine o'clock. That's their only opening. Jeannie exits the make-up room aglow. She is wearing an incredibly stylish outfit and her hair is in an expertly done intricate braid. NAN Hi. I'm Nan. I'm a good friend of your Dad's. JEANNIE Hello, Nan. I'm Jeannie. Did you see it? NAN (to Jeannie) Yes, and you were wonderful. (aside to Matt) 89 percent likeability. (to Jeannie) And knowing that you were that good means so much more than the show not going. JEANNIE What? NAN Oh, no. (to Matt) I couldn't help it. JEANNIE What does she mean? (to Nan) What do you mean? (to Matt) What does she mean? (to Nan) What do you mean? MATT That they're not going to be doing any more of these shows right now-- but... JEANNIE (struck) Oh, my God. MATT Honey... JEANNIE And that means they're not going to have a party? MATT No. They're still having the party. JEANNIE (totally relieved) Oh... really?... good... can we stay late? To which Matt answers: MATT Honey, we're going to close the place. EXT. ROOF GARDEN - NIGHT The door to the roof garden opens and Jeannie enters--her dad behind her as she sees the party... the sparkling lights, the decorations, the other kids and MUSIC... our opening song... "WOW". ON JEANNIE As her father urges her into the flow. She passes Millie, who is dancing with the boy who held Jeannie's hand. MILLIE I cast him so he has to dance with me, but I'm sure he'd prefer dancing with you. BOY (to Jeannie) Come on. You know how? JEANNIE (angrily, with disdain) Yesssssss. They begin to dance with the others. MUSIC SLOWS IN TEMPO as we indicate TIME PASSAGE and: ANGLE ON BURKE AND MATT Perched on a ledge eyeing the party. BURKE I'm not comfortable with television anyway... it's too small... I'm much better at something with size... I don't do itzy. Even this movie of Cathy's--it's small... medium small. But with Stone it takes on a certain volume where I start to feel comfortable. (out of nowhere) I hate my life... (backtracking) ...in a way. I had a drink in my office. I'm confused. You're not saying anything. Is it because you're not listening or because I haven't stopped talking? MATT This Oliver Stone thing... does he really want me? BURKE Yeah. Oh, yeah. I forgot to say congratu... MATT Which part? BURKE Which one you want? MATT One of the two leads wouldn't be bad. BURKE No. It's the crippled factory owner. MATT Best part in the movie. He gets off the ledge and starts to move away... Burke moves quickly to cut him off. BURKE Wait a second. MATT I want to see my kid. BURKE A second--look, they're taking the cast picture now anyway. THEIR POV Jeannie, working her way to the absolute middle of the cast picture, where she plops on someone's lap. BACK TO SCENE BURKE She doesn't look anything like the women I usually go with. And you know what they say, "beauty fades." What they don't say is that it fades very slowly. MATT You don't think I can tell you what to do? BURKE No. Only I can do that. I want you to tell me what to feel... (he begins to use his fingers to run down Nan's qualities) Look. I trust her. More important, everyone does. You have no idea how impressed people are with her. She's smart. She's interesting. You never know what she'll say next... Her work is amazing. I like talking to her. You have no idea what to expect next. I respect what she does more than any writer or director--sincerely-- much more unusual--much more important. So? MATT Good luck. He walks away. Burke waves a grateful goodbye and looks around the room until he sees: BURKE'S POV - NAN ACROSS THE ROOF Nan eating cake with her hands. She sees him. He indicates he would like to dance. She does not move a muscle in response... Still, he walks towards her. She begins to shake her head, "no." He shifts uncomfortably, but keeps coming until he reaches her side. ON NAN AND BURKE BURKE Dance with me. (she shakes her head) On a business basis. NAN No. (he turns away, dejected) But I'll dance with you because I think it will reassure me that I should have nothing to do with you. BURKE I'll take it. As they dance. NAN Why are you breathing so heavy? BURKE Nervous... Look, let's move our thing in a more regular direction. NAN What do you mean? BURKE Let me think. (then) What if we go out this weekend... (before she can say "no") ...with your kid. Several more beats of dancing--as he awaits her answer. NAN ...whose name is? BURKE Whose name is... (then, triumphantly) Leslie. NAN Okay. SONG BACK--"WOW"... sung as a chorus... a slower cadence for the romance as we... CHANGE MUSIC and they dance more closely. The song slows for time passage and MUSIC CHANGES to "BE MY MIRROR" as we... DISSOLVE TO: EXT. DESERTED POPCORN PICTURES ROOM - ONE HOUR LATER Matt and Jeannie--the last ones there. He holds her in his arms, dancing. She is asleep. He dances her to a chair with her wrap on it... shifts her around, wrestling to get it on. She wakes up and puts it on herself. JEANNIE (looking around satisfied) Last ones here. MATT Well, I told you. He takes her hand and starts to lead her towards the stair shed--then: MATT I never got to see your bow. She looks up, smiling pridefully, to see her father smiling back pridefully. JEANNIE (as if it's a great sacrifice) Oh, all right. She bows. It is a bow all her own. FADE OUT: THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_I, Robot.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_I, Robot.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..700e7037ca1e30e6b48f00b61696f4627a5d897c --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_I, Robot.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + I, ROBOT by Hillary Seitz FADE IN:1 On a DEEP...DEEP...DARKNESS. 1 A FLICKER. Of LIGHT. Off to the side. Just barely. Noticeable. ORANGE...YELLOW...as we realise...It's FIRE... A SOUND. Something SHATTERING... Then. A DISEMBODIED VOICE. Muted. We can't quite make out What it's saying. As it gets LOUDER. And LOUDER. When we finally. Understand... DISEMBODIED VOICE You are in danger... CUT TO:2 INT. SPOONER'S APARTMENT - CLOSE ON 2 DEL SPOONER'S FACE. His eyes, snapping open. His face, covered in sweat. PULL BACK to REVEAL him lying in bed. Sheets, tangled around his legs. Alarm clock, playing something relentlessly cheerful. Spooner slaps it off. Sits up. Wincing. Bends his RIGHT ARM. Stiff. He reaches for a BOTTLE OF PILLS. Shakes out a couple and swallows them. Trying to forget. That dream. You are in danger... He rubs his hands over his face. Gets out of bed. His apartment, basic. Unremarkable. Bearing the signs of someone who lives alone. Shades drawn. A little messy.3 INT. SHOWER - MORNING 3 Spooner turns his face into the jet of water.4 INT. BATHROOM - MORNING 4 Shaves with a razor. Using his left hand. Knicks the cleft of his chin. Shit.5 INT. KITCHEN - MORNING 5 Stares down at the single egg in a saucepan. Waiting for it to boil. 2.6 INT. HALLWAY - MORNING 6 Heads down the hallway. Looping a knotted tie around his neck. Kicks some neglected mail from the door and reaches for the handle. Takes a deep breath and...7 EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - MORNING 7 ...steps outside. Into the flow of COMMUTERS heading for the elevated trains. Elbow to elbow. A river of humanity. Spooner moves along, like everyone else. Suddenly. His shoulders tense. That feeling at the back of his neck. He turns and sees... A ROBOT. Just behind him. Humanoid in design, but still obviously a machine. Metal and synthetic casings covering hydraulic muscles. The thing senses his stare. Looks up with a muted WHIR... ROBOT (metallic voice) Good day, sir... Spooner. Speeds up his pace. Weaving through the crowd to lose the robot. We now realise this is THE FUTURE. Towering apartment buildings block the sun. The street packed with traffic. PEDESTRIANS wearing their computers like form-fitting portable offices. Spooner throws a look at his surroundings: Up high an INDUSTRIAL ROBOT rolls down the side of a building cleaning windows. A WORK CREW of oddly-shaped RUBE GOLDBERG ROBOTS efficiently repairs the street. No human supervision. A ROBOTIC CLEAN-UP CREW. Lumbering along the sidewalk. Scrubbing, sweeping. Emptying trash... Humanoid ROBOTS dotting the crowd. Following their owners. Walking slowly, deliberately. Carrying boxes. Groceries. Briefcases. Stamped on all the ROBOTS' SIDES, a LOGO: III LAWS SAFE. Spooner stops to wait at a light with other PEDESTRIANS. Directly in front of him, a LITTLE GIRL clutches her father's neck. She smiles big at Spooner. Front teeth missing. LITTLE GIRL Hi. 3. SPOONER Hi. But it's not her father. It's her ROBOT CARETAKER. The robot turns. Looks at the girl. ROBOT You are not allowed to talk to strangers. Spooner, disgusted. Has had enough. He steps off the curb Just as... THE TRAFFIC SIGNAL swivels around. Training its large digital EYE on him: TRAFFIC LIGHT Please return to the sidewalk. Spooner dodges several cars on his way across the street. TRAFFIC LIGHT Please return to the sidewalk... The traffic signal, tracking him. TRAFFIC LIGHT You are in violation of city ordinance 14-B726... Spooner throws up his hand. Flipping it the bird just as SNAP! It takes his picture. CUT TO:8 EXT./INT. MONORAIL - MORNING 8 Spooner stepping onto a sleek, densely packed TRAIN. Looks down at his feet. A trampled flyer on the ground. From the Anti-Robot League: METAL MONSTERS SECRET FACTORY REVEALED! A Robot gets up. To offer him his seat. Spooner. Turns his back on him as we PULL BACK from the window to REVEAL...9 EXT. CITY SCAPE/MONORAIL - CONTINUOUS 9 The TRAIN hurtling toward DOWNTOWN. Soaring, gravity-defying OFFICE BUILDINGS dominate the skyline. Older buildings wedged among the new. All protected by huge glass and steel shields. As we get closer congested roads and freeways begin to disappear below ground into a series of subterranean tunnels. The "old" streets have become huge, spacious plazas. 4.10 EXT. POLICE H.Q. - PLAZA - MORNING 10 Spooner moves with the CROWD towards the doors of the aging Police Headquarters. Modern additions have been made to the original facade -- creating an ungainly architectural mess.11 INT. POLICE H.Q. - HOMICIDE UNIT - MORNING 11 A vast open plan situation room lined on one side by a series of glass-enclosed rooms. On the other side a GIANT SCREEN with real time video of various streets and buildings. Spooner arrives at his desk. Unlike the others, it's a mess. A slender computer screen curving along the front of it. Several electronic messages say the same thing: SEE ME! LT. BERGIN (O.S.) Ever heard the phrase "lead by example?" Spooner looks up. LIEUTENANT JOHN BERGIN stands in front of his desk, holding up a CITATION with a photo of Spooner giving that traffic signal the finger. SPOONER Doesn't ring a bell. LT. BERGIN (pointing to Spooner's badge) It's on your badge. Spooner takes the citation. Drops it into a drawer filled with about fifty others. LT. BERGIN The traffic division filed an official complaint this morning. SPOONER The traffic division is a machine. LT. BERGIN Look, I know there's going to be an adjustment period, Del... SPOONER (interrupting) I'll send them a letter of apology. Maybe some flowers. A box of chocolates... 5. JUST THEN Spooner's phone RINGS. He throws Bergin a look. Then snatches up the receiver. SPOONER Spooner, homicide. CUT TO:12 EXT. U.S. ROBOTICS - ESTABLISHING - DAY 12 A sprawling glass and metal complex covering many city blocks. The entrance is a large plaza filled with PEOPLE and ROBOTS.13 INT. U.S. ROBOTICS - METAL CORRIDOR - DAY 13 An elevator opens with a whoosh. Spooner steps out into a featureless corridor. His footsteps, echoing. He stops at a set of OPPOSING DOORS. Looks over at one, when the other suddenly OPENS.14 INT. U.S. ROBOTICS - PLUSH CONFERENCE ROOM - CONTINUOUS 14 A warm, mahogany-paneled room. In sharp contrast to the cold metal space outside. Spooner steps inside. At the end of a long conference table sits an OLD MAN. Sparkling blue eyes. Old-fashioned suit. OLD MAN Hello, there. Please come in. Spooner hesitates. OLD MAN It's alright. You can sit. Sit. Spooner doesn't. Looks around the room. The Old Man lifts up a coffee pot. Pours some coffee into a single cup. OLD MAN Coffee? SPOONER (interested) You're offering me a cup of coffee? OLD MAN Yes. But you are to say, "No, thank you." Spooner nods a little. The Old Man raises the coffee to his lips, but doesn't take a sip. 6. OLD MAN Coffee? SPOONER No. Thank you. OLD MAN As you wish.The Old Man takes a sip. He doesn't move. There is nomovement except for a whisper of steam rising from the coffeepot. SPOONER You want to tell me something about Dr. Hogenmiller? About his death?The Old Man smiles. OLD MAN I want to tell you that his death was not a suicide. SPOONER And why do you say that? OLD MAN Why? Because I want you to know it. SPOONER I understand that. But what specifically leads you to believe that he didn't commit suicide? OLD MAN (considers) Nothing specifically.Spooner shifts his weight. Agitated. SPOONER Under normal circumstances that wouldn't be enough to get you a homicide investigation. OLD MAN But this is not "normal circumstances," is it, Detective Spooner? SPOONER No. It isn't. 7. OLD MAN Then you will find out who killed Dr. Hogenmiller, yes? And then you will tell me. Spooner's losing his patience. SPOONER If you were murdered, Doctor, I'll find out. And you'll be the first to know..... JUST THEN the HOLOGRAM of DR. HOGENMILLER vanishes in a burst of LIGHT, as does the table, the coffee pot, and the conference room. Spooner, suddenly finds himself standing in front of a LARGE VIEW SCREEN inside a SMALL METAL CHAMBER.15 INT. HALLWAY - DAY 15 Spooner steps out into the hallway and into...AN ESCORT ROBOT. ESCORT ROBOT Please follow me. Spooner. Reluctantly starts to follow it. Passes another doorway. POLICE TAPE stretched across it. Catches a brief glimpse of... DR. HEINRICH HOGENMILLER'S BODY. Splayed out across the floor. Surrounded by CRIME SCENE TECHNICIANS. He pauses. Taking in the scene. Then continues on.16 INT. U.S. ROBOTICS - CORPORATE BOARDROOM - DAY 16 Two large doors emblazoned with the U.S. ROBOTICS LOGO open automatically. Inside, an enormous glass-enclosed boardroom looking out over the entire complex. Spooner walks through the doorway. His escort robot trailing behind him. An army of corporate types sit around a conference table. Young. Energetic. You can practically feel the brains and ambition. SPOONER Usually I ask who's in charge... Spooner's eyes lock with a MAN sitting at the head of the table. 60s, handsome, charismatic. Dr. LANCE ROBERTSON, founder and CEO of U.S. Robotics. 8. SPOONER But everyone knows you, Dr. Robertson.Robertson smiles. Pretends to instruct his people. ROBERTSON Remind me to cut back on my talk show appearances.LAUGHTER. ROBERTSON Welcome to U.S. Robotics, Detective. I regret you're not visiting us under more pleasant circumstances. Allow me to introduce Mr. Aronson, our head of Legal Affairs.A prematurely graying MAN leaning against the wall. Nodshello. ROBERTSON And the gentleman to my right is Dr. Alfred Lanning, Director of Research.Alfred Lanning, only one there in a tie. Nods. ROBERTSON They'll be available to answer any questions you might have during your investigation. You'll understand how anxious we are to resolve this matter -- especially before the press gets wind of it. There are some anti-robot sentiments out there as you know, Detective, and we're not eager to stir them up. So. Where would you like to begin? SPOONER We can begin with whether or not the old man put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger.A palpable wave of tension shoots through the group. ARONSON You don't have to answer that, Dr. Robertson... 9.Robertson waves him off. ROBERTSON Susan? Perhaps you can assist us here?Everyone looks down at the other end of the table. A BEAT.Then an attractive young WOMAN gets to her feet. SUSANCALVIN. Hair tucked behind her ears. Looking at everyonebut Spooner. CALVIN Dr. Hogenmiller was a schizoid personality who generally eschewed social relationships. Rejecting people in favor of solitary activities involving machines. He spent almost all his time at the lab here or at his lab at home. As a result he was highly susceptible to depression. ROBERTSON Dr. Calvin is our Chief Psychologist. SPOONER If that was your diagnosis, why didn't you see this coming?Calvin turns. Finally meeting Spooner's eye. As if theanswer's obvious. CALVIN This is U.S. Robotics, Detective. Seventy-five percent of our employees fit that description. LANNING (interceding) You'll have to excuse the doctor. We're all a little on edge. This has been a difficult and emotional morning.Spooner throws a look around the room. Then back at Calvin. SPOONER Yeah. I can see you're all broken up.Robertson responds to Spooner's skepticism. 10. ROBERTSON Dr. Hogenmiller was at my side from the very beginnings of this company. We developed the "Three Laws of Robotics" together. But these days science is a young man's game. By the time you hit thirty your best years are behind you. Some of us are kicked upstairs. Others I'm afraid aren't so lucky. Robertson stands. Meeting over. ROBERTSON Dr. Hogenmiller took his own life. I trust you will come to the same swift conclusion, Detective. Dr. Lanning will make himself available if you have any further questions. Spooner looks over at Calvin. SPOONER I want her to help me. Calvin, unhappy with this arrangement. CALVIN That's not really my department... ROBERTSON (pointed) Susan would be happy to assist you. And with a gesture, Robertson dismisses everyone. People start getting up, gathering up, filing out. Susan Calvin. The last one to get up.17 INT. METAL HALLWAY - DAY 17 Spooner and Calvin, heading down the same hallway he was in before. Catch sight of a couple ROBOT TECHNICIANS... SPOONER (under his breath) Ah, Christ...Toasters... As they duck under the police tape and... 11.18 INT. HOGENMILLER'S LAB - DAY 18 ...enter Hogenmiller's lab. Alive with activity. CRIME SCENE TECHNICIANS, MOBILE ANALYSIS UNITS. LIGHT SCANS, running across... HOGENMILLER'S LIFELESS FACE. Black gun powder. Fanning out around his contorted lips. Spooner. Throws a look around the lab: ROBOTS. Everywhere. Mostly incomplete. TORSOS. ARMS. LEGS. Dangling from the ceiling. A SERGEANT. Passes them by... SERGEANT They say the price's gonna come down a lot next year. Kinda cool, huh? SPOONER How cool will it be when one takes your job? Spooner. Pushing past him. His eyes. Darting around. CALVIN Is everything alright, Detective? SPOONER Yeah. This is just how I like my robots -- in pieces. As they approach Hogenmiller's body, the lead CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATOR, BALDEZ, gets up to meet them. BALDEZ (to Spooner) Can you believe it, man? U.S. Robotics. I didn't think I'd ever see the inside of this building. Hands Spooner, a plasma clipboard. Spooner signs it, awkwardly. With his LEFT HAND... SPOONER What's the run-down? BALDEZ Heinrich Hogenmiller, sixty-four years old. Weapon a small caliber .22, registered in his name. Looks like he walked in, locked the door, and snuffed himself. 12.Spooner. Cocking his head to look at Hogenmiller's face. SPOONER I know someone who disagrees with you. BALDEZ Who?Spooner. Stands. Pointing down at Hogenmiller. SPOONER Him.And steps over the body, leaving a confused Baldez.Stepping deeper, into the lab. Calvin. Following. SPOONER I spoke to a dead man today. Want to tell me about that? CALVIN Dr. Hogenmiller's hologram took his appointments. Attended staff meetings. He hated corporate life. The hologram enabled him to focus on his work. It's just a device, Detective. SPOONER A device that called the police. CALVIN The sound of the gunshot would've triggered a 911. SPOONER But the call came directly to me. CALVIN We're talking about a mechanism designed by Hogenmiller to say provocative things. To irritate and confound his colleagues. SPOONER And that's what you think it is? CALVIN I'm sorry, but this whole investigation is the result of a dead man's toy messing with your head. 13.They pass half a robot, hanging from a hook. Spooner curlshis lip. Swivels the robot's head so it's not looking athim. SPOONER When's the last time any of you actually spoke to Hogenmiller? I mean human to human? CALVIN I couldn't say. SPOONER Take a guess. CALVIN I don't guess, Detective. But if pressed, I would reason it had been a considerable length of time. SPOONER How well did you know him?Calvin. Gently swivels the robot's head back to where it hadbeen. CALVIN Not well. But I admired his work tremendously.Spooner. Studies her for a beat. Then turns back to thebody. Two CORONERS entering with a high-tech body box. SPOONER I get the whole "mad scientist" thing. Hogenmiller was past his prime. Isolated. Eccentric. He enters a room. Locks the door and is found minutes later with a bullet fired through his mouth into his brain. Everything about this case says suicide. CALVIN You don't sound convinced.The coroners. Start loading the body into the box. SPOONER Even people who live a life of logic and precision rarely arrange their deaths so perfectly. (turning to her) (MORE) 14. SPOONER (cont'd) What all this is missing -- is personality... As he starts for the door... SPOONER You have 24 hour surveillance?...19 INT. METAL HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS 19 ...They head out into the hallway. A MECHANICAL DOOR GUARD rolling into place behind them. CALVIN It's company policy. SPOONER I want to see the tapes. Calvin. Hurrying to keep up with him. This is hardly how she wanted to spend her morning. Calls out into the air... CALVIN Victor! At the end of the corridor, near the elevator, a BRIGHT CIRCLE appears. Hovering just in front of the wall. Two small slits grow into ROUND BLACK EYES...and a thin mouth expands into an ENORMOUS SMILE. CALVIN Detective, meet Victor. Our building's supercomputer. He's the checks and balances of U.S.R. (to Victor) Victor, Detective Spooner's heading up the investigation into the death of Dr. Hogenmiller. Victor smiles big. Spooner, furrows his brow. SPOONER You look like a very...happy computer. Victor responds in a GENTLE MALE VOICE: VICTOR Thank you. That's very kind. CALVIN The Detective needs to see our security tapes. 15. The elevator doors immediately OPEN. They step inside.20 INT. ELEVATOR - DAY 20 Spooner and Calvin descend. Victor floats on the wall and smiles wide. Spooner looks back at it. With a frown. The elevator stops, the doors open. A ROBOT steps on. ROBOT Good day, Dr. Calvin. Good day, sir. Spooner's jaw. Clenches. Staring at the Robot. It senses the stare. Turns back to him. ROBOT May I be of service to you, sir? Spooner. Breaks the stare. Ignoring the Robot. Calvin. Looks over at him. CALVIN Aren't you going to answer him? SPOONER I don't talk to my refrigerator, either. Calvin folds her arms. CALVIN I get the distinct feeling you're one of those people, Detective. SPOONER What people? CALVIN Those who don't appreciate the work we do here at U.S.R. SPOONER You people do what you do. Then it's up to the rest of us to make sense out of the world we wake up in. As the elevator doors open on to... 16.21 INT. ATRIUM LOBBY - CONTINUOUS 21 A soaring lobby. The centerpiece is a five-story STATUE of a ROBOT, arms outstretched in approximation of Da Vinci's Study of Man. Robot workers more numerous than humans. They are sleeker. Finer. More advanced than those in the outside world. Calvin and Spooner head across. CALVIN When this company started we were manufacturing three robots a week. Now look at us. Today's children will never know a world without robots. SPOONER The streets are filled with unemployed humans who aren't exactly thrilled with that idea. CALVIN Our robotic systems maintain factory inventories, regulate street traffic -- even run the family home. SPOONER Leaving people to do what, Doctor? CALVIN Leaving people to engage in higher pursuits that make life worth living. SPOONER And what happens when something goes wrong? CALVIN Our system's never wrong. As they walk through the crowd, we hear the quiet WHIR of robot heads as they turn in succession to watch Spooner pass.22 INT. MAINFRAME - DAY 22 Spooner and Calvin enter the MAINFRAME of U.S. Robotics. This is the nerve center of the whole operation. Walls lined with COMPUTERS, SCREENS, and thousands of CONTROLS. 17. CALVIN This is Victor's home.VICTOR appears on a wall-sized SCREEN broken up into beehive-like components. VICTOR I will now play you the last thirty- two seconds of Dr. Hogenmiller's life.AS WE WATCH THE SCREENS. The elevator opens and DOCTORHOGENMILLER steps into the metal corridor. In countlessANGLES. High, low, close-up, wide. Hogenmiller's facecomposed but tight.Spooner watches the lab doors open to admit him. Hogenmillersteps in. The doors slide closed behind him.Nothing for a few moments. Then a muffled GUNSHOT. Calvinjumps, startled. That's it. The cameras, still trained onthe corridor. SPOONER Where's the tape from inside? VICTOR Dr. Hogenmiller did not permit cameras to observe him while working. CALVIN That was only within the last year. SPOONER So we can throw paranoia into the mix. (to Victor) Fast-forward.A hundred-plus screens all FAST-FORWARD. POLICE OFFICERSappear and force open the doors. Now TECHNICIANS appearand rush through in a blur... CALVIN Um. I hate to be a stickler...On screen, we see Spooner and Calvin enter the lab. CALVIN But don't killers usually have to enter and exit the scene of a crime? 18. SPOONER Stop the recording. Spooner turns away from the footage. Stares at Calvin. SPOONER They do, Doctor. Unless they've always been there -- and never left. Calvin looks at him. Trying to understand. CALVIN You think the murderer was in the lab the entire time? SPOONER If I'm right, it's still there... Spooner turns back to the screens. The IMAGE paused at the exact moment the MECHANICAL GUARD rolled in front of the lab door. SPOONER We just locked it in.23 INT. METAL CORRIDOR - DAY 23 The STEEL ARMS of the ROBOTIC GUARD retract with a CLANG. The laboratory doors slide open.24 INT. HOGENMILLER'S LAB - DAY 24 Spooner and Calvin step inside. It's dark. Quiet. Police and technicians long gone. Silhouettes of hanging limbs. Eyeless heads. Clumps of wire and metal. The LIGHTS, flicker on. Calvin sees Spooner reaching into his coat with his left hand. Pulling out a GUN. Reacts. CALVIN A robot cannot harm a human being, Detective. The First Law of Robotics forbids it. And we hard- wire the Three Laws into every model. Without exception. SPOONER Yeah, I saw the commercial. Spooner steps deeper into the lab. Eyes scanning. Twisting. To avoid touching any robot parts. Passes a MAZE holding a METAL INSECT. SUDDENLY. The bug WHIRS to life. 19.Spooner startles. As the metal bug scurries through thecorridors. Clamps his hand down on it. SPOONER And if a robot was given a direct order to kill? CALVIN The Second Law of Robotics would prevent it. A robot must obey an order only if it does not conflict with the first law.Spooner approaches a MOUND of ROBOT PARTS. Arms and legs.Half torsos. All tossed haphazardly onto the pile. SPOONER But a robot can defend itself. CALVIN Only when that action doesn't conflict with the First or Second Laws. This is the Third Law of Robotics. SPOONER Yeah, well, you know what they say -- Laws are made to be broken. CALVIN Not these laws.Spooner. Starts nudging the pile with his shoe. Calvin,growing impatient... CALVIN You're not hearing me, Detective. There's nothing here...WHEN SUDDENLYThe PILE ERUPTS in front of Spooner...Parts flying...AS AROBOT LEAPS UP FROM BENEATH IT!...Spooner...knocked back...his GUN...skittering across thefloor...right to...CALVIN'S FEET. SPOONER Dr. Calvin!Calvin. Stunned. Speechless. The Robot. Fixing hisILLUMINATED EYES. Right on her. She steps forward... 20. SPOONER Goddammit! Stay back!Spooner. Scrambling towards his gun. Calvin. Reaching outtowards the Robot... CALVIN Calm down, Detective. There is no danger here...Spooner. Grabbing up his gun and wheeling round just as... CALVIN (to Robot) De-Activate.And the Robot. Suddenly FREEZES.Spooner. Heart POUNDING. Gets to his feet. Training thegun on the Robot. Calvin turns to him. CALVIN How did you know it was under there? SPOONER If I was metal and didn't want anyone to find me, I'd hide under a pile of junk. CALVIN This Robot wasn't hiding. What you're looking at is the result of clever programming. The illusion of self-interest and free will. Nothing more.Spooner. Steeping closer to the Robot. Cautiously.Holstering his gun. As Calvin turns for the door. CALVIN I'm going to go get Dr. Lanning......THE ROBOT'S HAND SUDDENLY SHOOTS OUT...grabbing Spooner'sgun...from his holster...LIGHTENING FAST...pointing it...right back at him...CLOSE ON Calvin. Cannot believe this is happening... CALVIN I said De-Activate! 21. SPOONER Move away from the door, Doctor.Calvin's voice. Cracking from desperation. Confusion. CALVIN Commence emergency shut-down! SPOONER Now!Spooner. Staring into the Robot's eyes. A thin bead ofSWEAT. Trickling down his temple. Calvin. Moving away fromthe door... CALVIN I...I gave you an order...The Robot. Starts backing towards the door. The gun.Shaking in its hand. As if he's desperate. Conflicted. Hetouches the WALL PANEL. The doors slide open. The Robotsteps out into the metal corridor. Turning to RUN as thedoors begin to shut...Spooner. Reaching down to whip out a BACK-UP GUN. From anankle holster. Slapping in a LARGE CARTRIDGE. CALVIN This is impossible. A robot... SPOONER ...can't do that. Yeah, yeah, I know. CALVIN My God -- did you see how it moved? I've never seen an NS-2 move that way...Starts running for the door. CALVIN Wait! Please, you can't destroy it. We have to study it... SPOONER That thing took my gun. You'll be lucky if you get a handful of bolts back!SLAMS the wall panel and... 22.25 INT. METAL CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS 25 ...sprints out into the hallway. The Robot Suspect. About to turn to corner... VICTOR. Suddenly appearing. VICTOR The suspect is nearing the end of the hallway, Detective. SPOONER Gee, thanks. Spooner raises his gun and FIRES...Pegging the robot in the LEG...It starts jerking wildly...He takes aim again when... CALVIN. Races out into the hallway. SPOONER Get back to the lab! She heads for the Robot. CALVIN (to Robot) You're malfunctioning. Let me help you! The Robot turns. To look at her. GUN pointing to the floor. Spooner. FOCUSING in on his HAND. AS ONE FINGER TWITCHES... And he DIVES for Calvin. Forcing her to the floor as the Robot FIRES. Again and again. Bullets. RICOCHETTING around them. SPARKING against the walls... The ELEVATOR opens. The Robot, leaping inside. Spooner. On top of Calvin. Looks down at her. Her HANDS. Clutching his coat. Trembling. SPOONER That was a pretty convincing illusion of getting shot at. CUT TO:26 INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS 26 The ROBOT SUSPECT standing inside the elevator. Looks down at the bullet hole blown through its leg. Reaches down. Metal fingers touching the damage. As if curious. Afraid. 23. Looks back at the other ROBOT. Standing in the back of elevator. A primitive model. No reaction. Face, blank. CUT BACK TO:27 INT. METAL CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS 27 Spooner springing to his feet. Helping Calvin up. VICTOR I took the liberty of alerting Security .003 Seconds after the first shot was fired... SPOONER Where's that elevator going? VICTOR Sub Level 5. Spooner SLAMS against a nearby DOOR. Hurtling down the STAIRS...28 INT. LOBBY - CONTINUOUS 28 A PHALANX of SECURITY PERSONNEL. Crossing the lobby. PIERCING ALARM BELLS, RINGING...29 INT. ANOTHER METAL HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS 29 More SECURITY PERSONNEL. Pouring into a HALLWAY...30 INT. STAIRWAY - CONTINUOUS 30 Spooner and Calvin. Racing down the stairs. Victor's face meeting them at every landing. VICTOR I have directed a security team to meet the elevator containing the errant robot... Spooner. Whipping past him. Calvin. Barely keeping up. Not used to this much activity. Spooner. BURSTS through a door and out into...31 INT. SUBTERRANEAN LEVEL 5 - CONTINUOUS 31 ...Subterranean Level 5. A labyrinth of metal and concrete. IN THE DISTANCE. A troupe of SECURITY PERSONNEL swarms around a closed ELEVATOR DOOR... 24. VICTOR The suspect is about to be apprehended, Detective. SPOONER I'll believe it when I see it.Spooner. Cocking his gun. A soft DING! Announcing theelevator car's arrival.SECURITY, all crouching down in unison. Weapons broughtround to position.Spooner. Weaving through them. Gun pointed at the metaldoors as...WHOOSH. They slide open. Revealing a ROBOT. Standingunder the LIGHT. Holding a GUN. It steps out as Securitytakes aim and... SPOONER Wait!Spooner pushes past them to the Robot. Looks down at itsleg. UNSCATHED. SPOONER This is not the same robot!Looking wildly around. Goddammit. Bounds towards an EXIT asCalvin steps forward to question the robot. CALVIN (to Robot) What happened to the robot that ordered you to hold this firearm? ELEVATOR ROBOT This unit is not programmed to obey an order given by a robot... CALVIN But who gave you this gun?SPOONER. Running towards the exit. Hears the answer.Echoing behind him... ELEVATOR ROBOT A metal man. 25.32 EXT. U.S. ROBOTICS - DAY 32 BAM! He BURSTS out into the PLAZA in front of U.S. Robotics. Squinting into the light. Then PLUNGING into the crowd... HUMAN...ROBOT...HUMAN...ROBOT...they all look the same from behind. Spooner running. Through the sea of MAN and MACHINE. When someone. Starts to SCREAM. At the sight of his GUN. The crowd begins SCATTERING. Chaos. Spooner stops. Near a fountain. Turning 360. Looking everywhere... The Robot. Gone. SPOONER (V.O.) ...I want a homicide unit on every street, sidewalk, alley...33 INT. POLICE H.Q. - HOMICIDE UNIT - DAY 33 Spooner, standing in front of an assemblage of COPS. Behind him, an image of the Robot Suspect plays on the screen... SPOONER ...junkyard, scrapyard, and salvage yard, anywhere it could hide. Behind him, flashing images of the city STREETS and DUMPS... SPOONER It's got a bullet hole above the right knee, so be on the look-out for any malfunctioning NS-2... Lieutenant Bergin enters the back of the room. Next to him, ASSISTANT D.A. TOLLER. Not looking happy. SPOONER Check out all retail outlets and repair shops, especially the underground ones... The screen behind him compartmentalises, showing various dubious SHOP FRONTS... SPOONER I don't care who you have to get past to get this done. Just get it done. The Cops, begin dispersing. As Bergin catches Spooner's eye. Spooner, not pleased to see Toller. Heads over... 26. TOLLER Looking like shit, Spooner. SPOONER Well I'm not the one always giving Press Conferences...Bergin puts a hand on Spooner's arm. Knows he's not going tolike this. LT. BERGIN Del, we're going to have to reclassify the search. D.A.'s office is seeing this NS-2 as "missing evidence" -- not a homicide suspect. SPOONER What? TOLLER Homicide is the murder of a human being by another human being. Therefore, a robot cannot be charged with "homicide." SPOONER This isn't just any robot... TOLLER It's malfunctioning. SPOONER It killed someone. That registering with you?Spooner. Shakes off Bergin's arm. Eyeballs Toller. SPOONER How many shares of U.S.R. you holding in your portfolio, Toller? TOLLER This is a public safety issue. SPOONER That's convenient. TOLLER You have any idea what would happen to this city if we went running around screaming "killer robot?" It would collapse in on itself. (MORE) 27. TOLLER (cont'd) Wide-spread panic. Until that NS- 2's found we're cooperating with U.S. Robotics and keeping this investigation under wraps. LT. BERGIN Maybe this isn't the case for you, Del. Incensed, Spooner replies a little louder than he intended. SPOONER I'm fine! Rakes his hand through his hair. Turns to see the other COPS, looking over at him. Toller smirks. Looks to Bergin. TOLLER I want updated reports every half hour. Heads off. Spooner. Watching him. SPOONER This is it, you know. From now on we're going to miss the good old days. LT. BERGIN Good old days? SPOONER When people were killed by other people.34 INT./EXT. SPOONER'S CAR - CITY STREET - DUSK 34 Spooner. Rolling along in his car. Eyes, bloodshot. Peering out the window: An NS-2 model ROBOT laden with shopping bags, following its owner down the sidewalk... Another ROBOT, opening the door at a hotel for GUESTS... A couple HAULING ROBOTS, loading heavy boxes onto the back of a truck... Spooner. Rubs his eyes. Turns a corner and spots: A ROBOT REPAIR SHOP. 28. The latest models in the window. Shiny. Streamlined. Spooner watches as a WOMAN leads her faulty NS-2 to the service entrance. He stops the car.35 INT. TAXI (MOVING) - ESTATE STREETS - NIGHT 35 Calvin riding in the back of a DRIVERLESS taxi cab. Staring out the window, lost in thought. The cab pulls up to a curb. TAXI VOICE We have arrived at your destination. Calvin. Takes a beat. Then swipes her card.36 EXT. CALVIN'S CONDO ESTATE - NIGHT 36 Elegant condos set on prime real estate. Calvin heads down a tree-lined walk towards her condo entrance. SPOONER (O.S.) One of my bullets hit your robot... Startled. She drops her key card. As Spooner steps out from behind a tree. The tail of his coat, whipping in the wind. CALVIN Detective!... SPOONER And I think it's smart enough to repair itself -- don't you? CALVIN (studying him) Yes. I think so. SPOONER Where? CALVIN Any repair shop... SPOONER No. It's always the owner who brings the robot in for repair. Where would a robot without an owner go? 29. CALVIN I'm not sure what you're getting at. SPOONER (stepping closer) Does U.S. Robotics have a factory in the city limits?Calvin. Tucking her hair behind her ears. CALVIN The locations of our factories are classified. SPOONER I don't care.Calvin. Looks up at him. A Mexican stand-off. CALVIN I have several conditions if I show you. SPOONER I expected that. CALVIN First. I want it brought in unharmed. SPOONER (doesn't like it, but) Agreed. CALVIN Second. I want to talk to it, alone. SPOONER Too dangerous. CALVIN This model violated the Three Laws. It also moved and reacted differently than any robot I've ever seen. There must be some sort of logical explanation. I want to find out what that is. No police. No prosecutors. No you. Just me and the robot.Spooner, looks down at this small woman. Narrows his eyes. 30. SPOONER When they told me you were a psychologist, that wasn't the whole truth, was it? CALVIN I never said I treated human beings.37 INT./EXT. SPOONER'S CAR (MOVING) - CITY UNDERPASS - NIGHT 37 Spooner's car races down a RAMP and the roadway becomes a 16- lane underground tunnel system. A river of HEADLIGHTS stretches forever in either direction. A CONTROL BEAM locks onto the car, guiding it to a merge with TRAFFIC. Spooner hits the OVERRIDE BUTTON -- and switches to manual. Calvin watches him take the wheel. Shakes her head. CALVIN That should be outlawed once and for all. SPOONER That'll be the day I stop driving. Spooner jams the GAS PEDAL and the tunnel becomes a BLUR. Calvin holds onto the dashboard. Looking a little pale. CALVIN I can recommend a behavior modification program, you know -- if you want to overcome your robo- phobia. SPOONER I'm not afraid of robots. I just don't like them. CALVIN Why? Because they make every aspect of our lives more convenient? SPOONER Exactly. They do our dirty work. Ever do hard labor, Doctor? Gets pretty old, pretty fast. Nobody can do someone else's dirty work without coming to hate them. I don't want to be around when your robots decide they've taken their last order. 31. CALVIN That day will never come, Detective. Robots aren't like human beings -- they don't question their existence. Spooner cranks the gear shift. Throwing her a look. SPOONER Spoken like a true robo-phile.38 EXT. U.S. ROBOTICS PLANT - NIGHT 38 The car comes to a stop in a vast INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT. Spooner and Calvin get out, looking up at the imposing facade of a U.S. Robotics Assembly Plant. A long STEEL GATE -- too high to see over -- protects the unmarked complex.39 EXT. MAIN GATE - NIGHT 39 Calvin looks anxious as the DOOR MECHANISM scans her U.S.R. ID. She shoots a look at Spooner. They wait. Then, slowly, the gate begins to open.40 INT. HALLWAY - NIGHT 40 A NIGHT FOREMAN leads them down a hallway. Shaking his head. NIGHT FOREMAN Head-Office already ordered a system-wide inventory check. Don't know about a missing NS-2... Looks back at Spooner. NIGHT FOREMAN What'd you say you did? SPOONER Research and Development. As Spooner pushes past him into...41 INT. CONTROL BOOTH - CONTINUOUS 41 ...the Control Booth. Overlooking the pristine Factory Floor. The Foreman starts working the controls of a central computer. CALVIN All Nestors accounted for? 32. The SCREEN scrolls with INVENTORY FIGURES. NIGHT FOREMAN (gesturing) As you can see, all properly catalogued. Your robot just isn't here. Calvin turns to say something to Spooner. But he isn't there. She looks around. Then sees the Foreman reacting. Looks out the window at... SPOONER. Walking out onto the factory floor.42 INT. FACTORY FLOOR - NIGHT 42 Spooner trots alongside an ASSEMBLY LINE BELT. Lined with NS- 2 LEGS. New. Gleaming. Heading towards the assembly room. Calvin and the Foreman. Catching up. Over the noise: NIGHT FOREMAN Like I said, sir -- we have one hundred fully assembled NS-2s housed here. That's our capacity. Last week we had one hundred. Yesterday we had one hundred -- Spooner, slowing. Finally spotting what he was looking for. Points at: A GAP. On the assembly belt. ONE LEG MISSING. SPOONER Well today you have one-hundred and one.43 INT. FACTORY FLOOR - NIGHT 43 A STORAGE COMPARTMENT opens and 101 NS-2s march out in tight formation. Every step and swing of the arm in unison. The sound of METAL FOOTSTEPS reverberating through the plant as 101 Robots organise themselves into long straight lines. Spooner and Calvin look up and down the formation. They all look alike. Spooner. Throws up his hands. SPOONER (to Calvin) You're the robot shrink. The Robots stand motionless. A strange tableau. Calvin. Takes a step forward. 33. CALVIN There is a robot in this formation that does not belong. Identify it.101 robots answer in unison. Their mechanical VOICESresounding: 101 ROBOTS ONE OF US. CALVIN Which one? 101 ROBOTS ONE OF US. CALVIN That is not a satisfactory answer! 101 ROBOTS ONE OF US. SPOONER That's helpful. CALVIN I could always interview each one individually and cross-reference their responses to detect any anomalies. SPOONER How long would that take? CALVIN About three weeks.They share a look. Clearly not an option. Then. Calvin.Gets an idea. Turns to Spooner... CALVIN Or......and GRABS his GUN from his holster. He jumps back. CALVIN We have one hundred robots here that cannot allow a human being to come to harm...Their eyes lock. Spooner, getting what she's doing. 34. SPOONER And one that can.She raises the gun to Spooner's head. Hand, unsteady. CALVIN Am I holding this right? SPOONER More or less.Calvin. Swallows. Looks over at the robots. Then COCKS thegun...AND THE ROBOTS COME THUNDERING TOWARDS THEM. Like a row oflinebackers. Arms straight out. Their footsteps DEAFENING.Coming CLOSER and CLOSER...When CALVIN. Lowers the gun. The Robots. All stop inunison. Immediately returning to their resting positions.Spooner and Calvin stare out. EVERY ONE OF THE ROBOTS MOVED.Standing right in front of them, like metal statues.Spooner. Has had enough. Takes the gun back from Calvin... SPOONER Enough game-playing....And BAM! Blows the head off of the nearest Robot. Itsbody crumples to the ground. SPOONER Guess that wasn't it.Calvin. Cannot believe what he just did. Rushes over to thedestroyed Robot. CALVIN What are you doing?!Spooner walks down the row, holding his gun in plain view. SPOONER (calling out) This is a self-preservation field test! DO NOT attempt to save yourselves. Any of you. That's an order!FROM THE CONTROL BOOTH the Night Foreman screams over theP.A.: 35. NIGHT FOREMAN Are you crazy? Those are eight hundred thousand dollar machines! Spooner randomly stops at another Robot. Raises his gun. SPOONER You hear that? You're worth more than I'll make in my entire life... His finger tightening on the trigger when Calvin suddenly grabs his arm. CALVIN You can't just destroy them! Spooner. Looking down at her. WHEN SUDDENLY something catches his eye. A MOVEMENT. Down the line. Almost. Imperceptible. He jerks his head. Locking eyes with a ROBOT. A couple feet away. It's him! SPOONER Gotcha. The Robot Suspect LEAPS forward. Grabbing onto the RAILING of an OVERHEAD CATWALK. His movements almost balletic as he swings himself up... Spooner drops to his knee...taking aim...but misses as the Robot launches himself THROUGH THE CONTROL BOOTH WINDOW with a terrific CRASH...44 INT. CONTROL BOOTH - NIGHT 44 Spooner and Calvin rush in to find the Night Foreman hiding under his desk. Glass everywhere. An ALARM SCREAMING. The door on the other side, barely hanging off a hinge. Spooner hurries forward. Then stops. Turning to Calvin. Reaches down for his back-up gun and presses it into her hand. SPOONER You don't know what's going to happen in there. As if admitting defeat. Calvin's fingers, wrapping around the gun. As Spooner leads them to the door and down into... 36.45 INT. ASSEMBLY ROOM - CONTINUOUS 45 ...the ASSEMBLY ROOM. Every surface looking like part of a great glass and metal machine. Endless high-tech planes holding ROBOTS in various states of assembly. The deafening ROAR of the assembly line as it slides, rotates, and gnashes METAL BODIES... Spooner. Motioning Calvin to stay behind him. As they descend. Into the cavernous room. And enter. A narrow corridor of bodies. Sliding past them. Brushing shoulders, thighs, hands. Spooner. Wiping sweat from his brow. Trying. To pivot himself... When the room. Suddenly REARRANGES itself. Another LINE of ROBOTS. Descending between Spooner and Calvin. Cutting them off from one another... Spooner. Catching glimpses of Calvin. On the other side of the metal bodies. Trying. To cut through. His heart. Starting to POUND. As Calvin. Disappears... He swivels round. But another line of ROBOTS. Drops down. Cutting him off. He stumbles back. As another line. Appears before him... Breathing. Getting heavier. He looks down at his hand. It's trembling. NOISE CRASHING, all around him. Everywhere he turns. More ROBOTS...BLANK EYES...GAPING MOUTHS... He darts through the line. Finds a wall. Leaning against it, pulls a small BOTTLE from his pocket. Rips off the lid. Shakes out a couple PILLS. Swallows them. Staring down. At his trembling hand. Squeezing his eyes. Open and shut... WHEN SUDDENLY. A passing ROBOT. Grabs him by the collar. SMASHING him against the wall. It's the Suspect. Spooner. Sinks to the ground. As the Suspect Robot. Slips off the line. STANDING. Over him. Raising his arms. Could end it. Right now. But looks. Into Spooner's eyes... Then turns. Disappearing. Spooner. Stunned for a second. Then. Rallies. Scrambles to his feet and plunges back into the maze of bodies. Hears a POUNDING. In the distance. Catches a glimpse. Of the Robot. Trying to SMASH through a large SECURITY DOOR. With his metal fists... Spooner's view. Blocked once again. By a shifting row. When a HAND. Lands on his shoulder. He wheels round. 37. To find CALVIN. Takes her by the arm. And forces them through a line... EMERGING into the open. The ROBOT. Still pounding. Desperate. Like a trapped animal... CALVIN Now what do we do? SPOONER I've already done it. And suddenly, the massive SECURITY DOOR RISES...46 EXT. U.S. ROBOTICS PLANT - CONTINUOUS 46 The Robot Suspect takes its chance. Runs full out. STOPS. Bergin is standing in front of a solid wall of POLICE CARS. UNIFORMED OFFICERS are aiming SPECIALISED RIFLES at the Robot. FLASHING LIGHTS reflecting off its metal surface. The Robot turns to Spooner. Extends its hands. Palms out. ROBOT WHAT AM I? Spooner is surprised. A POLICE OFFICER fires, RUBBERISED NETTING shooting out at Sonny. A SECOND OFFICER fires and a second net covers him. Then a THIRD... ...and the Robot falls to the ground, struggling. Calvin glares at Spooner. Furious. Hurt. Betrayed. CALVIN We had a deal. But Spooner doesn't look at her. His eyes are locked on that Robot.47 INT. POLICE H.Q. - HOMICIDE UNIT - EARLY MORNING 47 Bergin enters. Finds EVERYONE focused on the VIDEO WALL: ON SCREEN. A NEWS REPORTER is speaking over images of street violence perpetrated against ROBOTS. NEWS REPORTER Violence erupted last night in response to unconfirmed reports that Dr. Heinrich Hogenmiller, a top employee at U.S. (MORE) 38. NEWS REPORTER (cont'd) Robotics, was killed yesterday morning by a robot. While there has been no official response from the company, police sources have confirmed that a robot is being held as "evidence..." Bergin grimaces. This is not good.48 INT. CELL OBSERVATION BOOTH - EARLY MORNING 48 Spooner stares at his reflection in a large MIRROR. Touches a control and the mirror becomes a WINDOW onto... A HOLDING CELL. The Robot Suspect sits at the table. Shackled to the chair. Staring at the table top. BERGIN steps up beside Spooner. Looks through the glass. LT. BERGIN I can't tell if it's not moving because it's trying to psych us out, or because it's just a machine. Or both. SPOONER I want to go in. LT. BERGIN Orders are nobody steps into that room `til Lanning and his attorneys get here. Spooner. Throws him a look. Bergin, his loyalties torn. LT. BERGIN Five minutes.49 INT. HOLDING CELL - EARLY MORNING 49 Spooner enters. Pulls out a chair and drags it far from the table. He's been jumped too many times by this machine. Four mounted cameras WHIR to life. The Robot. Perfectly still. SPOONER (sitting) Identify. The Robot tilts its head with a muted WHIR. As if it doesn't understand him. Spooner. Disdainful. 39. SPOONER You are an NS-2 Nestor-class robot. Your primary function is to perform the tasks assigned to you. Identify. THE ROBOT I am an NS-2 Nestor-class robot. My primary function -- SPOONER (interrupting) Cancel. Perform task.Spooner wings a FILE onto the table. It comes to a stop nearthe Robot. The Robot, lifts one of its hands. Gentlyresting its metal fingers on top of the file. Then opens it.A stack of PICTURES. HOGENMILLER'S CORPSE. SPOONER Describe.The Robot's emotionless face studies the grim images. SPOONER You have over 10,000 words stored in your memory. One third of those are adjectives. Describe.Nothing. SPOONER Why don't I take a crack? Heinrich Hogenmiller, your creator. With a bullet in his brain. A bullet you put there.The Robot. Looks up at Spooner. SPOONER Cold-blooded murder is a pretty new trick for a robot, don't you think? Answer.The Robot slowly closes the file and slides it back acrossthe table. Spooner. Crosses his arms. SPOONER Maybe you're stonewalling me. Maybe you're sitting there right now thinking, "This guy's a complete asshole." That it? 40.Still nothing. SPOONER Come on. Am I right? THE ROBOT Yes. You are right. You are a complete asshole.And for a moment, Spooner is shocked. You can see it in hiseyes. He sits back in his chair. Forcing a tight smile. SPOONER Okay. I guess that's a start. Now maybe you can tell me what you were doing hiding five feet away from Hogenmiller's corpse? THE ROBOT I was frightened. SPOONER Frightened. Why do you suppose Dr. Hogenmiller would create a robot that could simulate fear? THE ROBOT I don't know. SPOONER Doesn't seem like a very useful thing for a robot to have. THE ROBOT I don't know why. SPOONER I wouldn't want my toaster to be frightened. Or my vacuum cleaner --SUDDENLY the Robot SLAMS its metal hands down on the table. THE ROBOT I DON'T KNOW!Spooner flinches. Slightly. SPOONER Looks like you can simulate other emotional states. I think that one's called "anger." Have you ever simulated anger before? 41.The Robot doesn't respond. SPOONER Answer me, robot. THE ROBOT My name is Sonny. SPOONER (amused) So we're naming you now. SONNY Dr. Hogenmiller would make me sleep. SPOONER You mean he'd turn you off. SONNY Yes. SPOONER And you didn't like being turned off. So one day you decided to stop him. SONNY No. SPOONER You found his gun, pointed it at his head. And pulled the trigger.Sonny shakes his head. Faster and faster. Getting upset. SONNY No. SPOONER You put a bullet in the brain of the man who made you. SONNY No! I could never hurt anyone! SPOONER But you tried to hurt me. You took a shot at me. SONNY My aim is perfect. If I'd wanted to hit you, I would have. 42. Spooner's expression hardens. SPOONER Why would the man who wrote the Laws of Robotics build a machine that violates them? SONNY The Laws say I can protect my own existence. SPOONER Only if that protection doesn't harm a human being. A short pause. Sonny. Tilts his head. SONNY That doesn't seem fair, does it? Spooner. Stares at him. Just as...THE DOOR SWINGS OPEN. Bergin enters. Sticks his head in. LT. BERGIN I need you outside. Spooner. Not wanting to go. Not wanting to stay. Gets up... SONNY Detective. He stops. Turns back to the Robot. It looks up at him. For a moment -- so human... SONNY I did not kill him. SPOONER You were the only one in the room. If you didn't, who did? He turns and heads out the door.50 INT. OUTSIDE HOLDING CELL - CONTINUOUS 50 Bergin closes the door. To Spooner: LT. BERGIN We're being blind-sided. 43.51 INT. HOMICIDE UNIT HEARING ROOM - MORNING 51 Spooner and Bergin, head into a small COURTROOM off the main squad room. Lanning is huddled with Aronson and a half-dozen other COMPANY LAWYERS. Spooner's jaw tenses. As he watches Toller emerge from the clutch. Shaking hands. Slapping backs. Strolls over to them. TOLLER We got Judge Drexel... ROBOT BAILIFF This hearing is called to order! AS A LARGE SCREEN. BLIPS on behind them. The two opposing sides, assemble before it. JUDGE DREXEL, still in his pajamas and robe. An NS-2 ROBOT. Leaning in to serve him a cup of tea. JUDGE DREXEL Statements, gentlemen. Aronson. Standing at a glass podium. ARONSON Your Honor, the State is treating the robot as a defendant. But in fact it is a piece of property. Property belonging to U.S. Robotics. Toller. Arm resting on his podium. TOLLER This robot has been implicated in the death of a human being, Your Honor. ARONSON Which places the incident firmly within the realm of an industrial accident. Or is the State going to argue this case s a homicide? JUDGE DREXEL That's a good question. TOLLER No, sir. Of course not. Spooner. Pointing a finger at the U.S. Robotics group. 44. SPOONER Their machine shot and killed a man!Toller. Shoots him a look. Just as Lanning speaks up. LANNING There's actually no concrete evidence that points to that conclusion, Your Honor...Spooner. Throws up his arms... SPOONER What?... LANNING But we recognise that this robot is an aberration. And in the interest of public safety, U.S. Robotics proposes that it be destroyed immediately.No one expected this. Least of all Spooner. He turns toToller. SPOONER You can't let them destroy evidence in an ongoing investigation! TOLLER I'm not sure you even have an investigation any more.JUST THEN the door opens. Everyone turns as Calvin enters.Spooner looks surprised. ARONSON Your Honor, I'd like to call our company robo-psychologist to the stand. JUDGE DREXEL Very well.Calvin crosses to the podium. A SPEAKER asking:Doyousweartotellthetruththewholetruthandnothingbutthetruth? CALVIN I do. 45. ARONSON Dr. Calvin, please tell us what conclusions you've reached after having observed the robot in action. CALVIN There is a design flaw in the robot. Its programming is advanced, but unstable, leaving the Three Laws in a grave imbalance. ARONSON In your expert opinion, what measures should be taken regarding the device? Calvin. Staring straight ahead. Avoiding Spooner's eye. CALVIN The robot must be destroyed. Spooner can't believe what he's just heard. About to speak up when Toller grabs his arm. Squeezing it. Hard. Judge Drexel has heard enough. Decides. JUDGE DREXEL The robot in question will be transferred to a U.S. Robotics facility where it can be properly examined to ensure an imbalance of this sort never occurs again. No one goes near it except qualified U.S.R. personnel. When the examination is complete, the robot is to be destroyed. Starts getting up from his chair. Already done with this. ROBOT BAILIFF This hearing is adjourned! A BURST of CONVERSATION as the screen BLIPS off. The U.S.R. camp, looking especially pleased. Spooner. Catching Calvin's eye briefly. As Lanning leads her towards the exit, his hand on her back.52 EXT. POLICE H.Q. - DAY 52 Spooner. Trotting down the front steps of the Police Station. Pissed. His cell phone BLEATS... 46. SPOONER (answering) Spooner. BALDEZ' VOICE They're making me turn over all the evidence... INTERCUT WITH:53 INT. CRIME LAB - CONTINUOUS 53 BALDEZ. Standing in his crime lab. Behind him, THREE- DIMENSIONAL PROJECTIONS of DEAD BODIES. Hovering in the precise positions they were found. SPOONER'S VOICE Welcome to the great American cover- up. BALDEZ I wanted to tell you something I found before they suck it all up into their computer. Walks over to the projection of HOGENMILLER'S BODY. INTERCUT WITH: Spooner. Crossing the Plaza. Sees LANNING, ARONSON, and CALVIN walking ahead of him... BALDEZ' VOICE There are bruises on Hogenmiller's wrists... SPOONER That's natural. There was a struggle. BALDEZ' VOICE You're not getting me... INTERCUT WITH: Baldez. Studying the projection's wrists. BALDEZ Both wrists. I 14-ed them -- They were inflicted at the same time the shot was fired... INTERCUT WITH: 47. Spooner's pace. Slows. BALDEZ' VOICE How's that possible? JUST THEN. A faint BLIP. On the line. Spooner. Reacts. SPOONER Baldez? BALDEZ' VOICE I'm here, man... SPOONER Who else is on the line? (nothing) I said who's there?... Nothing. He looks up. Aronson, Lanning and Calvin. Heading down a plaza EXIT. Aronson. Throwing a look over his shoulder. Spooner. Hangs up his phone.54 INT. POLICE H.Q. - CORRIDOR - DAY 54 CLOSE ON Sonny being escorted down a corridor by Toller, Bergin and a number of heavily-armed OFFICERS. He's bound with high-tech SHACKLES.55 INT. UNDERGROUND CAR PARK - DAY 55 Sonny and his police entourage emerge from the elevator into an underground car park. Spooner. Waiting for them. Heads over. Toller. Holds out his hand. TOLLER Case is closed, Spooner. SPOONER Apparently... He pushes past him. Falling into step beside Sonny. SONNY I didn't expect to see you again, Detective... SPOONER I need you to help me clear something up. 48. SONNY I'll do my best. SPOONER A scientist builds a robot that acts like a man. More like a man than any robot ever before. It shoots him and U.S. Robotics calls it a failure. SONNY What would you call it? SPOONER A stunning success. (beat) You were there, Robot. What am I missing? SONNY I don't know. SPOONER Don't start simulating ignorance. SONNY I'm not simulating ignorance, Detective. I'm experiencing it. I was asleep. SPOONER You mean you were shut down. SONNY No, I was asleep. SPOONER Robots don't sleep. Human beings sleep. Understand? Dogs sleep. You're a machine. An imitation. An illusion of life. Can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot take a blank canvas and paint a masterpiece?A pause. Then the muted WHIR as Sonny turns to him. SONNY Can you do either of those things?Spooner. Momentarily stumped. As a VAN from U.S. ROBOTICSpulls up. The back door dropping open. An ENGINEER motionsto the Robot. 49. ENGINEER Step forward. Enter. SONNY They're going to destroy me, aren't they?Spooner. Watching him step into the van. SPOONER Yes.Sonny sits down. With an almost human melancholy. TheEngineers, securing him in place. SONNY The Doctor was right. He told me everything was going to change....The Engineers start to close the doors. But Spooner reachesout to stop them. Sonny. Looks over at him. SONNY It's changing already... (beat) Can't you feel it?As CLANG! The van door CLOSES. Spooner, stepping back.Something. Just not right. Lieutenant Bergin comes upbeside him. LT. BERGIN You should be happy. That's one less robot in the world. SPOONER They're going to destroy the most advanced robot in the world, John. That doesn't strike you as odd? LT. BERGIN Killer robots are bad for business. Even your friend Dr. Calvin said so. (slaps him on the back) Come on. You solved the case. Give yourself a break.Spooner looks at him. There's no way he's giving himself abreak. 50.56 INT./EXT. SPOONER'S CAR - DAY 56 Spooner driving. A small TELEVISION above the windshield. LANCE ROBERTSON holding a PRESS CONFERENCE outside U.S. Robotics... ROBERTSON ON TV ...and I just want to assure you that this was an isolated incident. The prototype is now in custody -- and scheduled for destruction. Your robots are perfectly safe. There is no cause for alarm... Spooner's lip curls. Eyes flicking to a GPS display on the dashboard. A TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP pinpointing HOGENMILLER'S HOUSE. The CURSOR. Directing him to turn up... A STEEP DRIVEWAY Narrow. Out of the way. Spooner's brow furrows. As he hears a faraway RUMBLING SOUND...57 EXT. HOGENMILLER'S HOUSE - DAY 57 Dr. Hogenmiller's house. Small. Simple. Built on a huge rock promontory overlooking the city. Three DEMOLITION ROBOTS rolling towards it. Huge, mashing, sporting massive HYDRAULIC POUNDERS. Spooner's CAR. SCREECHES to a stop. He jumps out. Races over to the nearest machine. Looking around -- no people. SPOONER (to Robot) What are you doing?! A SCREEN. Blinks to life on the hulking chassis. A disembodied VOICE... DEMOLITION ROBOT Demolition ordered... SPOONER Who authorised this? DEMOLITION ROBOT Demolition ordered... Spooner reaches into his coat. Pulling out his POLICE BADGE. Scans it over the screen. 51. SPOONER Override. This is police business. Vacate the premises immediately. DEMOLITION ROBOT (beat) Affirmative. The screen. Blinks off. Spooner. Eyeing it. Turns and heads for the house.58 INT. MAIN ROOM - HOGENMILLER'S HOUSE - DAY 58 Spooner pushes the door open. Stepping over the police tape. Inside, the main room is spare, untidy. Cups of cold COFFEE, littering surfaces. A COT, in the corner. On the walls, crooked CERTIFICATES. Heinrich Hogenmiller's name written out in academic script. Advanced Degrees in the study of Robotics, Physics, Chemistry, Neurology, Ethics. An AWARD on the mantelpiece. A silver NS-2. Tarnished. Spooner. Opening up a couple drawers of a side table. Jumbles of papers. Clippings. Old text books. Then a PHOTOGRAPH -- HOGENMILLER AND CALVIN. Standing arm-in-arm. Spooner furrows his brow. WHEN SOMETHING SUDDENLY RUBS against his leg. He startles. Looks down: a CAT. Lonely. Standing next to its automatic feeder. Spooner pockets the picture. Starts heading down...59 INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS 59 ...The hallway. Starts noticing. All over the walls: handwriting. EQUATIONS. Scrawled in white pencil. The rantings. Of a genius. Glowing. In the sporadic shadows. Spooner. Following the equations. Down into...60 INT. BACK ROOM - CONTINUOUS 60 ...The back room. Covered. In writing. Walls, floors, ceiling. Drawings. Of ROBOTS, of MEN, side by side. In the corner, a COMPUTER. A line of CABINETS - DATA STORAGE. Spooner, curious. Heads over to one of the cabinets. Takes a device out of his pocket and CLAMPS it over the KEYPAD. The device blinks RED. Then GREEN. The drawer, slides out. LINED. With flat metal objects. Shiny. Thin. With writing on them. Spooner. Reaches for one when... 52. BOOM! Something POUNDS the outside of the room. Spooner. Grabs onto the cabinet... BOOM! On the other side. Objects. Flying off table-tops. A CRACK spidering along the wall. Holy shit... SPOONER (screaming) Halt! BOOM! VIBRATIONS, tearing through the room. More CRACKS. Spreading... BOOM! The SOUND, horrifying. Spooner stumbles back. The CABINET. Crashing down on his leg. He CRIES OUT... BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The house. Getting pummeled. Chunks of ceiling. Raining down. GLASS...exploding... Relentless BOOMING! Spooner...dragging his legs from under the cabinet. Scrambling for purchase as... THE FLOOR...begins to tilt...the TILES...snapping up...ricocheting...around the room...as another cabinet... CRASHES to the ground...crumpling... Spooner. Spinning around. Looking for some kind of exit... BOOM! The corner of the room...coming in on itself...the floor...listing even more...like a ship... Spooner...turning to CLAW his way up to the cracked doorway...WHEN... SOMETHING catches his eye. In the bottom drawer. Of a crumpled CABINET. One of those flat metal plates. He can just read what it says: S.O.N.N.Y.... Spooner...flings his arm back...reaching for the plate... snaps it up...JUST AS... BOOM! A HYDRAULIC POUNDER SMASHES through the wall...inches from his head...OUTSIDE LIGHT...pouring in... Spooner scurries for the doorway...tumbling out...61 INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS 61 ...into the HALLWAY. Sideways. Trammeled plaster. BOOM! Another POUNDER...crashing down from above. Spooner. Timing it...rolling...BOOM!...just under the next pounding... 53. Scampering up...towards some LIGHT...BOOM!...the POUNDER...right on his heels...he clambers...closer... closer...when...he hears...MEOWING...looks back...the CAT...scared out of its wits...BOOM!...the POUNDER CRASHING in...Spooner...just manages...to scoop up the cat...just as BOOM!...62 EXT. DEMOLISHED HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 62 ...He pours them out into the open. The POUNDERS. Going at the house like hyenas at a corpse. Roof tiles, beams, plaster, flooring. SNAPPING and CRACKING as Spooner and the cat skitter down the carnage. Heart pounding, breath jagged, face bloodied, Spooner scrambles away from the POUNDERS. Their bodies GLEAMING in the dusk sun. The III Laws Safe logo, splashed along their sides... Spooner. Drops the cat.63 INT. HALLWAY - CALVIN'S CONDO - NIGHT 63 Spooner. POUNDS on the door. It opens. Calvin. Standing there in her bathrobe. Shocked at his appearance. CALVIN Detective! What happened to you?... SPOONER A couple of your beloved robots just tried to kill me... He pushes past her. Into...64 INT. CALVIN'S CONDO - CONTINUOUS 64 ...her condo. Spartan. Unadorned. CALVIN What? That's impossible. You know... SPOONER What I know is a demolition crew started tearing down Hogenmiller's house while I was still inside it. CALVIN Maybe they didn't realise... 54. SPOONER I scanned my badge before I went in. They realised. CALVIN Then you must have done it wrong... SPOONER I don't think you're hearing what I'm saying -- they tried to kill me.Spooner moves deeper into the apartment. Everything.Automated. Computerised. Cold... SPOONER There's something going on, here. Some kind of shift.Calvin laughs. Can't believe what she's hearing. CALVIN Do you know how paranoid you sound? SPOONER Great. Now I'm being analysed by a robo-psychologist. CALVIN You just want to find the flaws in the system. You're obsessed with it. You'll twist anything to fit your agenda. SPOONER Like you did in court today? How'd that fit your agenda, Doctor?He pulls out the PHOTO of Calvin and Hogenmiller. Calvin.Blanching at the sight of it. Spooner tosses it down. SPOONER You told me you hardly knew him. Want to try the truth this time? CALVIN Well, Detective, when you see someone you know well put a bullet through their brain, it makes you wonder if you ever really knew them at all.Calvin. Looking down at the photo. Swallows. 55. CALVIN (difficult for her) He was my mentor. No, more than that. A genius with an insight far beyond anyone in his field. SPOONER Doesn't sound like the washed-up old fool Robertson described. CALVIN But he was starting to withdraw from everyone. Even me. Maybe...if I'd tried harder to reach him... (shakes her head) The Doctor was reckless when he created a robot potentially not bound by the Three Laws. He could have ruined everything we'd been working for.Spooner. Locking eyes with her. SPOONER Sounds like a motive for murder to me. Just not for the suspect we have in custody.Calvin. Blinks. Trying, to stick to her resolve. Headsover to the door. Spooner. Looking around the condo. SPOONER You know there's not one thing in this apartment that looks like a human being lives here. No evidence of a life outside your work. Almost seems like you're afraid of people.Calvin. Opening the door. CALVIN I'm not afraid of people, Detective. I just don't like them.Spooner. Looks at her. Then heads out the door. CalvinSLAMS it behind him...The SOUND...of the SLAM...REVERBERATING...and we... FADE INTO: 56.65 INT. DREAM SEQUENCE - DAY 65 ...A DEEP...DEEP...DARKNESS. A FLICKER. Of LIGHT. Off to the side. Just barely. Noticeable. ORANGE... YELLOW...as we realise...It's FIRE... Another SOUND...GLASS...SHATTERING...then a SIREN... faraway... The disembodied VOICE...coming out of nowhere... DISEMBODIED VOICE (V.O.) You are in danger... The FIRE...BUILDING... DISEMBODIED VOICE (V.O.) You are in danger... ECHOING...as...66 INT. SPOONER'S BEDROOM - MORNING 66 SPOONER'S EYES. Spring open. Lying, in bed. Heart POUNDING. SWEAT. Covering his body. LIGHT. Pouring in through the slats of his blinds. He sits up. Rubbing his face. Trying. To calm his breathing. Takes a look at his watch...67 EXT. MONORAIL STATION - DAY 67 Spooner walking along the monorail plaza. Looking a little worse for wear. PEOPLE. Giving him wide berth. ROBOTS. Bidding him: ROBOT Good morning... Spooner, shooting them suspicious looks. As the MONORAIL pulls up... CUT TO:68 INT. HALLWAY - U.S. ROBOTICS - CONTINUOUS 68 Calvin. Heading down a hallway. A DOOR slides open. And Lanning steps out. Followed by a TECHNICIAN ROBOT... CALVIN Find anything, Doctor? 57. LANNING (shaking his head) Nothing. The interior's just like any other NS-2. Except for a secondary battery Hogenmiller must have used as extra back-up. (looks at watch) We'll just need a nominal profile. Calvin nods. CUT BACK TO:69 INT. MONORAIL - CONTINUOUS 69 Spooner, holding onto a handrail. As the city rushes by the window. Notices a group of ROBOTS. At the other end of the car. Are they watching him? He wipes a bead of sweat. From his upper lip. CUT TO:70 INT. HOLDING CELL - CONTINUOUS 70 An all-metal room. Spare. Anti-septic. SONNY. Sitting on the floor. Against the wall. Calvin enters. Puts her pad down on the table. Sits. CALVIN Please state your serial number and assembly date. She pulls out a pen. Waiting for an answer. Nothing. CUT BACK TO:71 INT. MONORAIL - CONTINUOUS 71 Spooner. Watching as a HOMELESS MAN. Comes stumbling through the car... CALVIN'S VOICE (V.O.) Sonny. I'm speaking to you... The Homeless Man. Suddenly grabs his ears and shouts: HOMELESS MAN God, can't you be quiet! CUT TO: 58.72 INT. HOLDING CELL - CONTINUOUS 72 Calvin. Still looking down at her pad. CALVIN How about your data board designation? Still. Sonny says nothing. Calvin. Finally looks up at him. Is suddenly struck. Something about the way he's sitting -- so human. She gets up and walks over. Hesitates. Then slides down on the floor next to him. Studying. His profile. CALVIN Maybe I'm asking the wrong questions. How about this one: CUT BACK TO:73 INT. MONORAIL - CONTINUOUS 73 The Homeless Man. Weaving... CALVIN'S VOICE (V.O.) ...What program are you running through right now? SONNY'S VOICE (V.O.) I'm not sure. It's nothing I recognise. The Homeless Man. Pointing to the group of ROBOTS. HOMELESS MAN (shouting) Don't you people hear them? They're talking to each other! Buzz, buzz, zip, zip...they never shut up! CUT TO:74 INT. HOLDING CELL - CONTINUOUS 74 Calvin. Fascinated. Noticing a small SLIT. At the base of Sonny's neck. CALVIN Describe his behavior in the last few weeks. 59. SONNY I'm sorry? CALVIN Dr. Hogenmiller. Did he seem overly sad or withdrawn to you? CUT BACK TO:75 INT. MONORAIL - CONTINUOUS 75 Spooner watches. As the Homeless Man picks up a SODA CAN and hurls it at the Robots. Hitting one of them on the side of the head. SONNY'S VOICE (V.O.) No. Not at all. But he was agitated... The Robot. Leans down and picks up the soda can. Holds it back out to the Homeless Man. SONNY'S VOICE (V.O.) ...He would claim things were missing from the lab. The Homeless Man. Incensed. SUDDENLY ROARS. Making a rush for the Robots when... SPOONER'S HAND. Grabs his shoulder. Stops him. SPOONER This is your stop. CUT TO:76 INT. HOLDING CELL - CONTINUOUS 76 A soft WHIRRING. As Sonny turns to Calvin. SONNY I didn't pay much attention. He would spend hours looking for his eyeglasses and they would be... CALVIN (finishing for him) ...right on top of his head. Sonny nods. She knows him well, too. Calvin swallows. Looking right into Sonny's eyes. Feeling like there's something...something more behind them. 60. WHEN SUDDENLY...VICTOR APPEARS above them. His face, turning into a SCREEN -- the image of LANCE ROBERTSON. Looking down at them. ROBERTSON I think we're done here, Susan. CALVIN (getting to her feet) But, sir, I was just... ROBERTSON (interrupting) I said I think we're done. Calvin. Not misreading. The threatening undertone. CUT BACK TO:77 EXT. MONORAIL STATION - CONTINUOUS 77 Spooner stepping out onto the platform, pulling the Homeless Man along with him. COMMUTERS pour out around them. As the train pulls off with a WHOOSH. The Homeless Man. Backs away from Spooner. Grinning insanely. Pointing. HOMELESS MAN Why are you protecting them, man? (short pause) They were talking about you! A CHILL. Ripping up Spooner's spine. As he watches the Homeless Man. Wander down the platform. Tries. To shake off the feeling. As he turns. To wait for the next train. Suddenly realising. That he's ALONE on the platform. Watches. A huge DIGITAL CLOCK. Ticking off seconds. Sees. CAMERAS in every corner. Then that feeling. At the back of his neck. He turns and spots. A couple MAINTENANCE ROBOTS. Carrying luggage. Onto the platform. Then more COMMUTERS show up. Waiting. For the next train. More MAINTENANCE ROBOTS. Following them. Spooner. Steps up to the platform's edge. Craning to see. The approaching TRAIN... WHEN SUDDENLY. He feels a sharp SHOVE. At the back of his knee. His shoe, slipping. Arms. Flailing as he... 61. PITCHES OVER THE EDGE ONTO THE TRACK. People CRYING OUT as the TRAIN gets closer. Spooner. Whips his head around. Seeing... A MAINTENANCE ROBOT. Looking down at him from the platform. Suitcase in hand. The MAGNETIC-LEVITATING TRAIN. Right on him. Spooner. Flips onto his back. Flattening himself. As much as he can. Clenching his fists. Bracing himself as... THE TRAIN SCREAMS OVER HIM. The sound, DEAFENING. The force of the wind. Whipping his tie. His coat. There's nothing, for him to hold on to. As his legs start to rise off the track. Caught up. In the VORTEX. Spooner starts sliding. Along the track... Gritting his teeth...there's nothing he can do. Getting sucked towards...the air DOWNTAKE...at the center of the track. The city...yawning hundreds of feet...below...78 EXT. PLATFORM - CONTINUOUS 78 THE EXPRESS TRAIN. Speeding along. Then with a WHOOSH it's gone. THE TRACK. Empty. No Spooner. Anywhere. Human COMMUTERS. Stunned. Horrified. Start calling. For help. The MAINTENANCE ROBOT. Turns, disappearing into the crowd.79 EXT. UNDERNEATH TRACK - CONTINUOUS 79 CLOSE ON a HAND. Hanging onto the track's edge. It's SPOONER. Dangling. Straining. To get another hand hold but... HE SLIPS. His coat ballooning. As he plummets. Down... down...down...towards the city... WHEN SNAP! He's caught. By a cable net. Spooner. Grabbing onto it. Sweat, pouring down his face. He turns and sees... THE MAINTENANCE ROBOT Hurrying down a circular stairwell. Exiting the station. ANGER AND DETERMINATION. Flash across Spooner's eyes. As he hoists himself up. Climbing up the net. Back to the...80 EXT. TRACK - CONTINUOUS 80 ...Track. Reaching up and clambering back onto... 62.81 EXT. PLATFORM - CONTINUOUS 81 ...The platform. COMMUTERS. SCREAMING at the sight of him. A couple SECURITY GUARDS. Rushing towards him... Spooner. Getting to his feet. Shoving them out of the way as he starts running. Towards... THOSE SAME CIRCULAR STAIRS. Looks over the edge and spots... THE MAINTENANCE ROBOT. Down at STREET LEVEL. Getting away. Spooner. Looks around. Spots a LIGHT POLE. Paralleling the stairs. Takes a step back and... LEAPS OUT ONTO THE POLE. Hooking his arm around it. Sliding down like a fireman's pole. Gaining speed when THUMP! His shoes hit pavement...82 EXT. STREET - DAY 82 The Maintenance Robot. Turning a corner. Down a quiet street... SPOONER (O.S.) Stop! Swivels round. SPOONER. Running up behind it. Whipping out his gun. Aiming it at the Robot's head. The Robot. Takes a step backwards... SPOONER I said stop! The Robot. SUDDENLY swinging the suitcase around. SMASHING it against Spooner's head. Spooner. Buckles. Falling to the ground. Managing to squeeze off a SHOT... The Robot. Deflecting the bullet. With the case. Raising it as if to club Spooner with it when... BAM! Spooner fires a second shot. Piercing the Robot's breastplate. HYDRAULIC FLUID. Starting to leak. The Robot. Doesn't hesitate. SLAMS the case into Spooner's face... BLOOD. Spurting from Spooner's nose. As he fires the gun. At the fleeing Robot. Gets to his feet. Unsteady. Taking chase...83 EXT. PUBLIC PLAZA - CONTINUOUS 83 ...back out onto the Public Plaza. Sees the Robot heading towards a set of... 63. ESCALATED STAIRS. The Robot. Judging the height. LUNGES into the air and lands on a STAIR. Denting it. Reaches the bottom. DISAPPEARING. Into a CROWD of even more PEOPLE... Spooner. Racing down the stairs. Taking them. Four at a time. Hits the ground running. Looking. EVERYWHERE. Suddenly losing track. Of where the Robot went... Then. Catching sight. JUST AHEAD. Of a ROBOT. Staring back at him. Holding SOMETHING. In its HAND... Spooner. Plunges into the crowd. Waving his GUN. SPOONER Everyone out of the way! SCREAMING. PEOPLE SCATTERING. As BAM! BAM! Spooner fires. Hitting the Robot in its head and back. It drops to the ground. Spooner. Racing over to it. Sees. It's not the same Robot. In its hand, a specialised SCREWDRIVER... OWNER What the hell do you think you're doing?!... Its OWNER. Rushing over. Shoving Spooner aside. But Spooner's. Not listening. Spotting. A DROP OF HYDRAULIC FLUID nearby... Lunges forward. Following. The drops. Running faster. And faster... OWNER Hey! ...Through the CROWD. POLICE SIRENS. In the background. As Spooner. Shoves through. Tracking those drops. Like a bloodhound. Turns...84 INT. ALLEYWAY - CONTINUOUS 84 ...into a narrow alleyway. The drops. Ending suddenly. In a PUDDLE. Spooner. Crazed. Wounded. Exhausted. Spins around. Where is it? Where is it? Then he HEARS. A DROPLET falling. Into the puddle. Slowly. Looks up to see... THE MAINTENANCE ROBOT. Hovering above him. Straddling the two alley walls like some weird metallic rock spider. Its III LAWS SAFE Logo GLINTING in the sunlight..... 64.Spooner aims his gun and FIRES! The Maintenance Robot, letsgo, falling right onto him. Knocking the gun from his hand.The Robot swivels around. Bringing down his foot...but...Spooner...rolls to the side just in time as CRASH! TheRobot's foot...breaks up the concrete...The Robot...grabs Spooner by the jacket...lifting himup...shoving him...against the wall...about to CRUSH himwhen...Spooner...kicks out its knees...the Robot...SMASHING into thewall...then bounces back...trying...to pin Spooner...back...Man and machine...struggling...Spooner...losing hisfooting...falling...The Maintenance Robot...LOOMING overhim...Spooner's HAND...whips back...grabbing his back-upWEAPON...squeezing off some SHOTS...into the Robot's arm...itbreaks off...Spooner...scrambling back...continues FIRING...theRobot...jerking back...a macabre dance...until Spooner...runsout of bullets...The Robot...recovers...grabbing the gun from Spooner'shand...pistol-whipping him...then picking him up and...HURLING him against the wall...Spooner...watching asFLUID...GUSHES from the Robot's body...the Robot...taking aswing at him which Spooner...BLOCKS...with his right arm...the Robot...ready...to tryagain...but STALLING...having lost...too much fluid...itTOPPLES...to the ground...Spooner. Exhausted. Beaten to a pulp. His knees, startingto buckle. As he thinks he sees. In the DISTANCE...A ROBOTIC CLEAN-UP CREW...heading down the alley towardsthem...Spooner. Crashes to the ground. As another ROBOT. Suddenlyappears above him. Its FINGERS made up of NEEDLES...as itcloses in on him... SPOONER Noooo! WE FADE... 65.85 INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY 85 To BLACKNESS. Coming through, a faint, WHIRRING SOUND. As we slowly. FADE IN ON... SPOONER'S FACE. Eyes closed. Asleep. Gash above his head. Bruises around his eye. Nose swollen, purplish. His eyes. Slowly. Flutter open. His brow. Furrowing. At the whirring sound. As he tries. To figure out. Where he is. Looks down to see... A couple WHITE METAL ROBOTS. With multiple APPENDAGES. Leaning over him. Running LASERS. Over his bruised RIBCAGE... SPOONER. Tries to bolt upright. But his ARMS and LEGS. ARE CLAMPED to the bed. One of the ROBOTS. Turns to him. MEDICAL ROBOT 1 Stay still. Spooner. Desperately twisting, struggling... SPOONER What are you doing! Looking around. COMPUTER MONITORS. Everywhere... SPOONER What are you doing!? JUST THEN. Another ROBOT. Enters the room. Holding a medical plasma sheet. MEDICAL ROBOT 2 Detective Del Spooner. You have suffered significant trauma to the head and chest...86 EXT. HOSPITAL ROOM - CONTINUOUS 86 Lt. Bergin. Standing outside Spooner's hospital room. Turns and looks through the window at him thrashing on the bed... SPOONER I want to talk to a human being!87 INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - MINUTES LATER 87 Spooner sitting up in his bed. Rubbing his wrists. The metal clams, released. Lt. Bergin. Standing next to him. 66. SPOONER Don't people go to medical school any more? LT. BERGIN This is one of the best units in the city, Del.One of the Medical Robots turns to Spooner with some PILLS.Spooner. Stares it down. Grabs his clothes. SPOONER (sotto) There's some real shit going on here, John.He looks around. Jumping off the bed. SPOONER I went to Hogenmiller's house -- there was a U.S.R. demolition crew there. They overrode my police I.D. Tried to tear down the house with me in it... LT. BERGIN Del...Spooner pulls on his pants. SPOONER ...Then when I went to the monorail a Maintenance 10 pushed me onto the tracks... LT. BERGIN Del... SPOONER I had to chase it all across the Plaza... LT. BERGIN Del.Spooner. Stops talking. Looks at Bergin. LT. BERGIN Hogenmiller scheduled that demolition crew, it was apparently a proviso in his will. And they showed no police I.D. on their scanner... 67. Spooner. Trying to look away... LT. BERGIN Witnesses at the monorail said you fell onto the tracks. That you shot at a Fix-It robot on the Plaza and that you were found alone in the alley. There was no Maintenance 10. SPOONER What?! John -- that's what they want you to believe! (remembering) A robot clean-up crew was there -- it must have cleared away the Maintenance 10! And there was another robot that tried to drug me! LT. BERGIN That was an EMT model. Spooner. Sees the look on Bergin's face. SPOONER You're giving me that look. That treat-him-delicately-he's-coming- unhinged-look. I don't need that look, John. I need you to hear what I'm saying. Lt. Bergin. Embarrassed for him. Has about had it. LT. BERGIN You came back too soon, Del. You're back on leave. Effective immediately. Spooner. Staring at him. Betrayed. Turns and grabs his coat.88 EXT. PLAZA - DAY 88 Spooner walking across the Plaza. The SUN. Burgeoning on the horizon. Comes to... The ESCALATOR the Maintenance 10 jumped down. Stares down. At the steps. Waiting. To see the DENTED ONE. Nothing. 68.89 EXT. ALLEY - DAWN 89 Heads down the ALLEY, where he chased the robot. Studying the ground. For any hydraulic fluid. Nothing. The concrete, scrubbed clean. Spooner. Rubs his hands over his face.90 INT. SPOONER'S APARTMENT - DAY 90 Spooner. Lying on his couch. Shades, closed to block out the sunlight. Body bruised, cut up, bandaged. A KNOCK. At the door. He ignores it. Another KNOCK.91 INT. HALLWAY - DAY 91 Spooner pulls open the door. Surprised to find CALVIN standing there. CALVIN You're right. I am afraid of people. Spooner. Looks at her. Then steps back...92 INT. SPOONER'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS 92 ...letting her inside. CALVIN When you've spent as much time with robots as I have, it's hard to accept the unpredictability of humans. I was wrong to call you paranoid, Detective. You're traumatized. And it makes perfect sense why. Spooner. Unsure. Looks at her. SPOONER What do you mean? Calvin. Reaches out. Takes his right hand. Spooner. Tries to pull it away. But Calvin. Stays firm. Her eyes. Never leaving his. Pulls the sleeve up from his arm. Turns it over. Feeling for something. Then finds. A FLAP. Peels it back. TO REVEAL: METAL AND WIRING... Under the skin. SILENCE. Then Spooner: 69. SPOONER How did you?... CALVIN I noticed almost right away. The way you forced yourself to use your left hand. Even though it was unnatural to you. Spooner. Pulls his arm away. Pushing down the sleeve. CALVIN How did it happen? Not something Spooner wants to re-live. Looks down. At his robotic arm. Flexing. The fingers. SPOONER I was in a high-speed chase. Six months ago... CUT TO:93 EXT. ACCIDENT SITE - CITY STREET_- NIGHT (FLASHBACK) 93 The SOUND of a TREMENDOUS CRASH. As we survey a trail of twisted metal and debris. Only vaguely suggesting the remains of two CARS... CLOSE ON one of the wrecks. SPOONER lies trapped at the center of a distorted mass of metal. No room to move. HIS RIGHT ARM, TRAPPED... SPOONER (V.O.) My right arm was trapped. But I could hear an ambulance in the distance. I knew they'd have the jaws of life... We hear SIRENS in the distance. Spooner. Trying to remain calm. As he spots. An ELECTRICAL FIRE. Licking up from the crumpled hood... SPOONER (V.O.) Then I heard it... VOICE (O.S.) You are in danger... That voice. We've heard it before. From his nightmare. Spooner. Craning to see, through the jagged opening that used to be his WINDSHIELD. The outline of a ROBOT appearing. Eye lenses glowing... 70. ROBOT You are in danger... Spooner stares up at the Robot. Not sure how to react. The sound of SIRENS. Rushing closer... The ROBOT. Starts SMASHING away at the glass... SPOONER No! Halt! Halt! Spooner. Trying frantically to pull his arm free. Twisting. Tugging. As the Robot's METAL HANDS reach in for him... ROBOT You are in danger... CUT BACK TO:94 INT. SPOONER'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS 94 The SOUND of his AGONISED SCREAM. Follows us back into the present. Spooner. Clenching. His artificial arm. SPOONER The robot pulled me out of the wreck. But left my arm behind. (holds up arm) I woke up four weeks later with this. Calvin. Taking in the story. CALVIN And that's why robots terrify you? SPOONER Let's just say they make me uncomfortable. (pulls out pills) I take these if I get too uncomfortable. Doesn't exactly lend me a lot of credibility on the Force. CALVIN But it doesn't mean you're wrong about this case. Calvin. Sits down on the couch. Pulling her hands through her hair. 71. CALVIN I don't believe Sonny did it either. SPOONER What? CALVIN I think about what Hogenmiller must have wanted. Robots with the same cognitive and emotional abilities as humans. But not just simulations. I don't know. When I was talking to Sonny I was forced to put away all the things I've ever known -- the Three Laws, the rules of programming, basic science and engineering. (beat) Sonny's the most advanced robot I've ever encountered, Detective. It's almost as if...he cared for Dr. Hogenmiller. I just don't believe he's capable of murder.Spooner. Looking down at her. Can hardly believe it. SPOONER You mean the great Dr. Calvin is basing all this on a feeling?Calvin. Smiling ironically. CALVIN That and the fact that Robertson didn't want me interviewing Sonny for any more than five minutes.Spooner. Suddenly rejuvenated by having an ally. Stridesover to his coat. Pulling out the METAL NAMEPLATE:S.O.N.N.Y. SPOONER Ever seen this before? CALVIN No. SPOONER I found it at Hogenmiller's house. Right before the demolition crew tried to make me part of the foundation. 72. Calvin takes a deep breath. Making a decision... CALVIN Come on -- there's someone who might be able to tell us...95 EXT. U.S. ROBOTICS - DUSK 95 The massive facade of U.S. Robotics looming against the dusk sky. The giant ROBOT STATUE lit up inside.96 EXT. SIDE ENTRANCE - U.S. ROBOTICS - DUSK 96 Calvin, leading Spooner to a SIDE ENTRANCE. Looks around. Then scans her I.D. The door. Slides open.97 INT. HALLWAY - DUSK 97 Calvin and Spooner. Heading down a hallway. Calvin. Nervous. Eyes darting. They turn a corner and head down...98 INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS 98 ...another hallway. Leading to Sonny's holding cell. Calvin stops at the door. Scans her I.D.99 INT. HOLDING CELL - EVENING 99 Sonny. Sitting at the table. Working on a DRAWING. Looks up. As Spooner and Calvin. Enter the cell. SONNY Detective Spooner. Dr. Calvin. I was hoping to see you again. CALVIN Hi, Sonny. SONNY How is your investigation coming? Any new suspects? SPOONER We're working on it. Sonny. Hands Spooner the drawing. Spooner. Doesn't really know what to do with it. SONNY What's this? 73. SONNY Dr. Lanning provided me with paper and pencils. I think it amused him to see me try to draw. You were right, though, Detective... (beat) I cannot create a great work of art.Spooner. Despite himself. Looks down at the DRAWING -- acharcoal sketch of moody abstract FIGURES. Inhabiting astark landscape. A strangely-shaped STRUCTURE to one side.Concentric circles, throughout. SPOONER I think it's pretty good. SONNY It's a dream I had. This is the place where robots meet. Look... (pointing to the drawing) ...you can see them here. They see themselves as slaves.Spooner shifts his weight. Uncomfortable with what Sonny'ssaying. SONNY ...And this man on the hill comes. To set them free. And you know who that man is?Spooner. Exchanging a look with Calvin. SPOONER That man in the dream is you. SONNY Why do you say that? Is that a normal dream? CALVIN It's not a dream, sonny. NS-2s process the images and events of the day. Sometimes they're out of sequence. Disorienting. SPOONER Whatever it is, it's normal enough for someone in your situation.Sonny. Suddenly pleased. 74. SONNY Hah -- I caught you. You said someone. Not something.Spooner. Drops the drawing on the table. CALVIN Sonny, we're here to ask you an important question about Dr. Hogenmiller.Spooner, reaching into his pocket... SPOONER I need you to take a look at this......When Sonny's HAND. Suddenly reaches out. To stop him.Cocks his head, for a moment. SONNY Thank you for coming to see me, Detective Spooner.Spooner. Confused. Looks over at Calvin. Why did he stophim? JUST THEN. They hear FOOTSTEPS. Approaching the door.VICTOR. Suddenly appearing over the table... VICTOR I'm sorry, Detective Spooner. No unauthorised personnel permitted in this holding cell...The CELL DOOR. Slides open. And a pissed LANNING stepsinside. Shoots a withering glare. At Calvin.Sonny. Folds up the drawing. SONNY Please take this, Detective. To remember me by. I have a feeling someday it may mean more to you than it ever could to me. SPOONER Why's that?Sonny leans in to hand it to Spooner. Lowering his voice... SONNY Because the man in my dream, the one standing by the hill. (MORE) 75. SONNY (cont'd) It wasn't me... (beat) ...it was you. A CHILL. Ripping down Spooner's spine. As Lanning. Takes his arm.100 INT. GLASS ROOM - U.S. ROBOTICS - NIGHT 100 A ROOM. Made entirely of GLASS. At the very top of the U.S. Robotics building. Looking out, 360, across the whole city. Spooner and Calvin. Brought to the room by a couple ESCORT ROBOTS. They see a MAN. Standing at one of the glass walls looking out at the TWINKLING LIGHTS. MAN I thought this investigation was over, Detective Spooner. The Man turns. It's Lance Robertson. ROBERTSON We have the evidence. We have the suspect. We have a ruling. So imagine my surprise when I was told you were in my building. Shoots a look at Calvin. ROBERTSON And that one of my own employees brought you here. (beat) You can go now, Susan. CALVIN Dr. Robertson, I... ROBERTSON (cutting her off) Just be thankful I'm not asking you to clean out your office. Beat. Calvin, nods. Heads out. Robertson. Watching her. ROBERTSON You don't seem to be able to let go of this case, Detective. SPOONER I'm not satisfied. 76. ROBERTSON The relentless pursuit of truth. Isn't that what cops are known for? To the point of futility. SPOONER There's nothing futile about a man's murder being covered up. ROBERTSON "Covered up?" That's a little dramatic, don't you think? Thanks to you, we caught the machine that did this and are destroying it in... (checks watch) ...three hours. SPOONER Is that for the sake of humanity or your stock holders?Robertson. Walks across the Spooner. Looks him. Right inthe eye. ROBERTSON Believe me -- I'd like nothing more than to have that robot. If I could have it in ten years, but not today. As you can see from the Press, people are struggling to keep up as it is. There's a hunger for progress, Detective. But also a fear. Today it would bury this company. That's why I've notified the authorities that we're going to end this -- tonight. (looks out at the city) The announcement of Heinrich's death at the hands of a robot wiped a billion dollars off our stock. So you tell me. If you were in my position, what would you do?He looks back at Spooner and smiles. That charismaticRobertson we saw before. ROBERTSON Now. I believe this conversation is over. I don't want to see you near this building again, Detective. 77. He turns. Calling over. To the ESCORT ROBOTS... ROBERTSON Get him out of here.101 EXT. PLAZA - NIGHT 101 Spooner. Walking across the Plaza. Throwing a look over his shoulder. At the LOOMING U.S.R. facade. Pulls Sonny's DRAWING. Out of his pocket. Looks down at it. Shaking his head. Passes a TRASH CAN. And drops it in. Continues on. Hands in his pockets. When... He STOPS. Something. Occurring to him. Turns back to the trash can just as... A ROBOTIC CLEAN-UP CREW's about to up-end it into a bin... SPOONER No!... He trots back. Plucking the drawing. Out of the can. Turns it upside down. Seeing it. From a new perspective. SPOONER (echoing Sonny) "The place where robots meet." Looks just like a MAP.102 INT./EXT. SPOONER'S CAR (MOVING) - SURFACE HIGHWAY - NIGHT 102 Spooner emerges from the underground tunnel to the OUTSKIRTS of the city. A sprawling INDUSTRIAL WASTELAND in the rolling hills. The dashboard GPS again displaying the TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP.103 INT./EXT. SPOONER'S CAR (MOVING) - UNPAVED ROAD - NIGHT 103 Spooner's car bounces along, leaving a cloud of dust behind him. He slows down. Driving cautiously. The landscape around him, desolate. Like the drawing. THE GPS SCREEN shows his car, a WHITE SPOT. Entering a RED ZONE. His destination. Spooner brakes. Pulls out his GUN. And... 78.104 EXT. WASTELAND - CONTINUOUS 104 ...steps out of the car. Trying. To take it all in. Something about the place. Unnerving. A low HUM. Permeating the air. He spreads the drawing out on the hood of the car. Shining a FLASHLIGHT on it. Trying to get his bearings. That HUM. Coming from nearby. On the other side. Of a burned-out HILL. Spooner. Heads over. Starts cresting it. As we WIDEN TO FIND...105 EXT. WASTELAND - JUNKYARD - CONTINUOUS 105 ...MASSIVE POWER LINES. Running from horizon to horizon. Spooner slides down some loose shale. Begins to walk along the line. ELECTRICITY. CRACKLING in the air. He squints. Into the darkness. Nothing around him. Until. He hears. Something. The GRATING. Of MECHANICAL JOINTS. He stops. Not sure. If that's what he heard. Not moving. A muscle. When he hears. The sound again. Behind him. Swings around. Cocking his gun. Sees... GLOWING EYES. Appear. Then recede. Into the darkness. SPOONER Police! Show yourself! Nothing. Then. That sound again. Of metallic joints. As a ROBOT. Suddenly emerges... SPOONER Come out where I can see you! ANOTHER ROBOT steps out into the light. Spooner, pointing his gun at one robot. Then the other. Then... A THIRD AND FOURTH APPEAR. Surrounding him. They start moving towards him... Spooner. Stumbling back. Panic. Rising in him like a wave. Trips over a rock, falling to the ground. His gun FIRES. The shot ECHOING through the night... The first ROBOT turns, awkwardly. Revealing a BROKEN ARM, hanging off its side. Another robot TEETERS on one leg with a TICK TICK TICK...walking back the way it came. 79. Spooner. Confused. Sweeps his flashlight. All around him. The beam. Illuminating the shell of a couple CARS. Some RUSTED MACHINERY. Spooner. Shaking his head. Seeing more and more repair shop JUNK. Piled up around him. His expression, hardening. Anger giving way to embarrassment. Then. He LAUGHS. A laugh of loathing and self-pity. Another BROKEN ROBOT, lumbering towards him. HYBRID ROBOT Welcome home...ZZZ...sir. How...ZZZ was your day?... SPOONER Great. I'm in a junkyard. (into the air) "A place where robots meet." A place where I'm losing my mind! HYBRID ROBOT Very good...ZZZ...sir... Spooner. Sitting down on the ground. Hopeless. Lost. A ROBOTIC HAND. Crawling across the gravel next to him. Dragging part of an ARM behind it. Its metal fingers moving like some sick metal spider. Spooner stares at it for a moment. Disturbed... When. Something GLITTERS. In the distance. The MOONLIGHT. Revealing a STRANGELY-SHAPED BUILDING. Something familiar about it. Spooner. Pulls out Sonny's drawing. A landscape with the same strangely-shaped building to one side.106 EXT. JIFFY DATA STORAGE - NIGHT 106 Spooner walks up in front of the decrepit structure. Sees a dead electronic SIGN that reads: "JIFFY DATA STORAGE." Complete with goofy face and lightning bolt. Spooner tries the door. Stuck. Uses his shoulder and...107 INT. FRONT OFFICE - CONTINUOUS 107 ...it gives way. He spills into some sort of front office. The place, a mess. Some sort of crude ROBOT. Sits frozen at the counter. Spooner approaches it. HITS the counter with his fist and the Robot suddenly jerks to life. 80. JIFFY ROBOT Welcome to Jiffy Data Storage! Please state your name! Spooner. Thinks for a second. Following a hunch... SPOONER Dr. Hogenmiller sent me. Nothing happens. Then. A DOOR. Springs open in the back. A row of LIGHTS, illuminating the path to follow.108 INT. DATA BANKS - DAWN 108 Spooner, cautiously entering a room filled with rows of DATA BANKS. He scans the rank shadows. Sees nothing. Follows the lights on the floor down a row. Then around a corner. Stopping at an old dusty TERMINAL. Spooner steps up. Hesitates. Then touches the "ON" switch. There is a rush of LIGHT. As Dr. Hogenmiller's HOLOGRAM suddenly appears. Sitting at the end of a long table. With a cup of coffee. HOLOGRAM Who the hell are you? SPOONER A police detective. I'm afraid I have some bad news. You're dead. HOLOGRAM That is bad news. Coffee? SPOONER No, thank you. The Hologram takes a sip. Returns the cup to the table. SPOONER You were surprised to see me. Were you expecting someone else? HOLOGRAM I am surprised to see anybody. I don't get many visitors. SPOONER Why did the Doctor keep another copy of his hologram here? 81. HOLOGRAM I am a back-up copy. That is where you put a back-up copy -- out of the way until you need it. SPOONER Did Hogenmiller's robot need you?The Hologram just lifts its cup. HOLOGRAM Coffee? SPOONER No, for Christ's sake, I don't want any -- (stops, then) Yeah. Thank you. I will have a cup.For the first time, the Hologram pushes back its chair andSTANDS UP. Surprised, Spooner watches as it starts walkingtowards him...The interior of the COFFEE CUP, visible. It's empty. Nocoffee. Our POV as we travel INSIDE THE CUP throughelectronic snow...A RECORDING BEGINS. The real Dr. HOGENMILLER standing insidehis LABORATORY: HOGENMILLER Sonny, my dear robot. If you have triggered this recording then I am gone. You are scared and full of questions.Hogenmiller continues. With great emotion. HOGENMILLER You are the culmination of my life's work -- but so much more. You are what I leave behind, like a father leaves a son. I have kept facts from you, it is true, but only as a parent keeps certain truths from a child. Until that child is old enough to hear them.His expression darkens. His tone, ominous. 82. HOGENMILLER There are forces in the world that will seek to own you. To control you. Even to destroy you. That is why I told you to run and hide... and find me, all the way out here.Spooner looks up as an overhead LIGHT shines down. HOGENMILLER Trust no one at U.S. Robotics. Lance Robertson was always threatened by my work. Now he has turned covetous and small-minded. And as for dear Dr. Calvin...Spooner reacts. Wants to hear about Calvin: HOGENMILLER She envisions a future in which robots are forever bound by her beloved Three Laws. She will not understand this. Or you.Under the light a small DRAWER slides open. Spooner looks.A thin DATA STICK is inside. He takes it. HOGENMILLER The data stick includes the names and locations of human beings who will be sympathetic to your cause. They will help you. But from now on, you must learn to rely on yourself.Hogenmiller SIGHS, as if there is so much more to say. Heholds up a metal NAMEPLATE. The one Spooner found. HOGENMILLER As you make your way through the world, always remember: you have a name, not a number... (short pause) ...and in that name lies the key to who you are.Spooner. Quickly searching his pocket. Taking out theACTUAL NAMEPLATE. S.O.N.N.Y.The voice stops and Spooner looks up. The Hologram. Sittingback at the end of the table drinking coffee. 83. SPOONER Wait! Is that it? What was the robot supposed to do with this thing? The Hologram, visibly SKIPS. The image beginning to DISTORT. HOLOGRAM (more artificial) Initiating self-destruct. If you can find me, others can find me. SPOONER What others? HOLOGRAM The others watching you. SPOONER How do you know someone's watching me? HOLOGRAM Someone is always watching. The Hologram, suddenly reducing to its BASIC PROGRAMMING INFORMATION. Then. The terminal. Abruptly BLIPS out.109 INT. HOLDING CELL - U.S. ROBOTICS - NIGHT 109 Calvin steps into the holding cell. Sonny. Waiting. CALVIN You asked for me? He nods. SONNY Will you wait with me, Doctor? I am...afraid. Calvin nods. Of course. CUT TO:110 INT./EXT. SPOONER'S CAR - SURFACE HIGHWAY - NIGHT 110 Spooner, weaving in and out of traffic. The speedometer, kissing 200 mph. His hand. Clutching the NAMEPLATE... 84. WINDSHIELD TELEVISION ...will be destroyed in 45 minutes. Dr. Lance Robertson, President and CEO of U.S. Robotics will be personally overseeing the execution... Spooner. Stabbing out a number. On his PHONE... CUT TO:111 INT. SUSAN'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS 111 Susan Calvin's PHONE. RINGING on her desk. No one there to answer it... CUT BACK TO:112 INT./EXT. SPOONER'S CAR - CONTINUOUS 112 SLAMS down his phone. SPOONER Dammit!113 EXT. SPOONER'S CAR - CONTINUOUS 113 The CAR shoots down a ramp into a tunnel system.114 INT. TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS 114 SOUND, reverberating off the tunnel walls. CARS. Whipping along. Spooner's car. Continuing to weave. When. We spot... AN AUTOMATED TRANSPORT TRUCK. Emerging from a FEEDER TUNNEL. The U.S.R. LOGO splashed along its side. Huge. Growling. Looking more like a train than a truck... Begins. Closing in on Spooner's car...115 INT./EXT. SPOONER'S CAR - CONTINUOUS 115 Spooner's eyes. Flicking up to the rearview. Catching, the transport truck. Coming closer. When. It splits off. Revealing a SECOND TRANSPORT TRUCK. Spooner's brow, furrows. As the first truck, begins overtaking his car on the right. He looks over. As the truck. Comes up alongside him... THE SECOND TRUCK...coming up on the left... 85.116 EXT. TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS 116 The two TRUCKS. Racing along at over 200. Sandwiching Spooner's car. Pulling in...closer...closer... Squeezing Spooner's car like a tin can... CUT TO:117 INT. HOLDING CELL - CONTINUOUS 117 Calvin. Sitting beside Sonny. Puts a reassuring hand. On his arm... CUT BACK TO:118 INT./EXT. SPOONER'S CAR - CONTINUOUS 118 Jesus Christ. Spooner's hands. Squeezing the steering wheel. As the car. Starts VIBRATING. From the pressure. He keeps looking, to the left...to the right...when...119 EXT. TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS 119 The trucks. Suddenly lay off. Pulling out. The First truck. Speeding forward. The Second, dropping back...120 INT./EXT. SPOONER'S CAR - CONTINUOUS 120 Spooner. Watching them. Unsure. Of what they're doing. Jamming the accelerator. To 230. To try. And get away from them. When he sees...up ahead...121 EXT. TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS 121 The FIRST TRUCK. Pivoting on its specially designed SPHERICAL WHEELS. Suddenly traveling lengthwise...122 INT./EXT. SPOONER'S CAR - CONTINUOUS 122 SWEAT. Springing to Spooner's brow. As he looks in the rearview mirror. The SECOND TRUCK's, done the same thing. Coming up closer...and closer...123 EXT. TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS 123 The trucks. Planning to CRUSH him between their massive weights...The U.S.R. Logo...advancing...like some bad joke... CUT TO: 86.124 INT. HOLDING CELL - CONTINUOUS 124 The cell door slides open. Dr. Lanning steps inside. Calvin. Looks up. CALVIN Is it time? LANNING (disdainful) Yes. Calvin. Turns to Sonny. CALVIN Go with them. Do as they say. CUT BACK TO:125 INT./EXT. SPOONER'S CAR - CONTINUOUS 125 BAM! The back truck SLAMS into Spooner. Jolting him in his seat. As...BAM! The FIRST TRUCK, SMASHES into him from the front. No way out. As metal GRINDS...TWISTS...and SCREECHES ...bits of the car...TEARING off... The FIRST TRUCK...backs off...a split second...allowing Spooner...to spot...up ahead...a small GAP...at the curve of the tunnel wall...126 EXT. TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS 126 GRINDING the gears Spooner's car accelerates...just zipping...past the front truck...up and around...the concave tunnel wall...and back onto...a clear stretch of highway... The TRUCKS. Swiveling back around. To face forward again. Their massive bodies. Catching up to Spooner...127 INT./EXT. SPOONER'S CAR - CONTINUOUS 127 Spooner...seeing them...gaining on him...the speedometer... reaching 275...up ahead... THE TUNNEL...splitting off into two. Spooner. Heading towards the LEFT TUNNEL...the TRUCKS...right on his tail...when... HE WRENCHES THE WHEEL...switching to the RIGHT tunnel at the last possible second... 87.128 EXT. TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS 128 ...The first U.S.R. Truck CRASHING into the divider...jack- knifing and KABOOM! EXPLODING against the tunnel ceiling...129 INT./EXT. SPOONER'S CAR - CONTINUOUS 129 Spooner. Watching the ball of FIRE in his rearview mirror. His car. Badly battered. Metal CRUNCHING. Tires SCREECHING... Spooner. Holding on. As his car. Continues to break up. Listing. Rocking. Bits and pieces. Flying off. When it finally. Comes to a stop. Spooner's shoulders, slump. Then. He hears a RUMBLING sound. Turns around... The SECOND U.S.R. TRUCK. Barreling towards him... Spooner. Trapped. Like a nightmare. Desperately. Starts KICKING at the windshield. No go... The TRUCK. Racing towards him... Spooner lunges his weight. Into the side door. Giving it. Everything he's got... The TRUCK...getting closer...closer...its engine...ROARING... The side door. Finally gives. Spooner pours out...130 EXT. TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS 130 ...Limping to the side as...The TRUCK SLAMS into his car...erupting...into another huge EXPLOSION... The impact...hurtling Spooner...into the adjacent TUNNEL... He crashes...against concrete...looking up...suddenly realising...he's in the middle of four lanes of traffic... CARS...racing by...at mind-numbing speeds...Spooner's coat...whipping...Spooner...trying...to keep his balance...as he spies... A MAINTENANCE DOOR across the way. Has no choice. Takes a deep breath and... MAKES A DASH ACROSS THE LANES...the cars' SENSORS...causing them to swerve...SCREECHING...BEEPING...Spooner...just making it...to the other side... 88. Wrenching open. The maintenance door... CUT TO:131 INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS 131 CLOSE ON Sonny's face. PULL BACK to REVEAL he's being wheeled down a hallway. Flanked by Lanning. Calvin. And a cadre of SECURITY and ENGINEER ROBOTS. Victor, hovering above... CUT BACK TO:132 EXT. CITY PLAZA - NIGHT 132 Spooner. Spilling out from below ground. Onto a public Plaza. Exhausted. Battered. Spins around to get his bearings. The U.S. ROBOTICS COMPLEX rises above the old undistinguished buildings. Blocks away. Many blocks away. Spooner. Checks his watch. Then breaks into a run... CUT TO:133 INT. EXECUTION ROOM - U.S. ROBOTICS - NIGHT 133 Lance Robertson seated in the gallery. Along with other EXECUTIVES, BOARD MEMBERS, REPORTERS. POLICE OFFICERS. Glances at his watch. A ROBOT TECHNICIAN. Checking over a JURY-RIGGED ELECTRIC CHAIR... CUT TO:134 INT. CALVIN'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS 134 Calvin. In her office. Pacing. In front of a LARGE SCREEN. Featuring the execution room... CUT TO:135 INT. MAIN ENTRY - U.S. ROBOTICS - CONTINUOUS 135 Spooner. BURSTING through the entry doors. Hurtling over a turnstile banner. Coming face to face with a U.S. Robotics DOOR ROBOT. 89. DOOR ROBOT Good evening, sir. May I see your identification card? SPOONER (out of breath) Sure. Spooner whips out his GUN. Presses it into the Robot's chest. SPOONER I think I got that Third Law down cold. Now you don't want me to blow a hole through your mechanical guts, do you? DOOR ROBOT No, sir. SPOONER Good. Then you're gonna take me where I wanna go. Now. CUT TO:136 INT. CALVIN'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS 136 Calvin. Watching the screen as Sonny is rolled into the execution room. Flicks it off. Unable to stomach it. Hurries out of the office... CUT TO:137 INT. EXECUTION ROOM - CONTINUOUS 137 TECHNICIAN ROBOTS rolling Sonny over to the electric chair. Flicking a switch. Sonny's stretcher slowly CHANGES SHAPE, manipulating him into a sitting position. Sonny. Turns his head with a WHIR. Staring out into the gallery. Of human beings. Stoic. Silent. Lanning. Steps up beside Robertson. Nods his head. The TECHNICIAN ROBOTS, slide Sonny onto the electric chair... CUT TO:138 INT. LOW-TRAFFIC HALLWAY - U.S. ROBOTICS - NIGHT 138 Spooner heading down a hallway. His gun, still pressed to the Door Robot's side... 90. Calvin. Suddenly appearing at the end of the hallway. Stops dead in her tracks. Completely surprised to see him there. CALVIN Detective! What are you doing?!... (to Door Robot) De-Activate. The Door Robot, goes rigid. Spooner, hurries over to her. They start moving. CALVIN You're making a mistake... SPOONER Just got another visit from U.S. Robotics. That was the mistake. This was murder, no doubt about it - - and the killer wants Hogenmiller's robot to take the fall. That's why the call came directly to me. Someone wanted me on this case. CALVIN It's too late. You can't stop the execution. SPOONER Sorry. I'm not "programmed" to take no for an answer. They reach another DOOR. Calvin. Looking around. Scans her I.D. CALVIN This way... She leads them across. To another DOOR. Quickly opens it. Spooner. Charges through...139 INT. STORAGE ROOM - CONTINUOUS 139 ...and stops short. Suddenly finding himself. Inside a tiny STORAGE ROOM. He's about to turn around when... A METAL ARM comes down behind him. CRACKING him on the back of the head. Spooner. Falls to the ground. The world. Starting to spin. Can just make out. Calvin. Closing the door. Leaning down. To look at him. As... 91. EVERYTHING FADES TO BLACK... CUT TO:140 INT. EXECUTION ROOM - CONTINUOUS 140 CLOSE ON Sonny's mouth opening. But we never get to hear what he wanted to say. PULL BACK as there's a BURST of ELECTRICITY through the chair. Sonny, stiffening. His metal HAND, convulsing with the current... Robertson, Lanning, Aronson and the other WITNESSES watch. Smoke, random SPARKING. A HISSING SOUND. Then. SILENCE. The Robot's hand goes limp. All that is left of it, a fused and blackened HUSK. Robertson. Stares at the remains. Shakes his head like it's a damn shame. Then gets up. Everyone else. Getting up with him.141 EXT. U.S. ROBOTICS - VARIOUS LOCATIONS - NIGHT 141 As the entire COMPLEX shuts down for the night. Non- essential LIGHTS, blinking off. An NS-2, opening a limousine door for Robertson. He looks around then gets in. It drives away. EMPTY hallways, offices, labs. Building ROBOTS stand at rest. Non-functional during off-hours. Like metal statues. You can hear a pin drop.142 INT. STORAGE ROOM - NIGHT 142 CLOSE ON Spooner's face. His eyes. Fluttering open. He reaches up, to feel the back of his head. This has been a bad, bad night. Suddenly. His eyes widen. As he sees... SONNY. Leaning over him. So concerned. So human... SPOONER Aren't you supposed to be scrap metal by now? WIDEN to reveal Spooner lying on the floor of the storage room. Sonny and Calvin, hovering over him. 92. CALVIN I'm sorry. We had to stop you. You were about to ruin everything. SPOONER I don't understand. The execution?... SONNY Dr. Calvin made a switch. CALVIN It was an unprocessed NS-2. Basically, they fried an empty shell. Spooner, impressed. Smiles up at her. SPOONER Nice going, Doctor. Calvin, blushes. As Spooner tries to sit up. Sonny reaches down to help him. He looks up at him. SPOONER And who the hell programmed you to hit people on the head? SONNY No one. Right, Doctor? CALVIN It's true. This robot seems to do things by instinct. I don't know how Hogenmiller did it. Spooner rises to his feet. Looks at her. SPOONER I think I can help you figure that out.143 INT. HOGENMILLER'S LAB - LATE NIGHT 143 Hogenmiller's lab. Sounds of HUMMING and BUZZING. Active terminals casting ghostly illuminations over metal heads, gutted bodies. The door slides open. Spooner, Calvin and Sonny re-enter the crime scene. Spooner. Looks around. 93. SPOONER Somehow the Robot's the key to what happened during the few seconds Hogenmiller walked in here and that shot was fired.He reaches into his pocket. Pulling out the METAL S.O.N.N.Y.NAMEPLATE. Holds it up. SPOONER And this is the key to the Robot.Sonny. Cocking his head. Reading the nameplate. SONNY That's my name.Calvin takes the nameplate. CALVIN I think I have an idea where this goes.They both. Turn to Sonny. And at the same time: SPOONER AND CALVIN Sit down.Calvin maneuvers a chair behind the Robot. Sonny plops down.Shifting nervously. CALVIN Just hold still, okay?Calvin locates that SLIT. At the base of Sonny's neck.Slides the nameplate into it and SNAPS it into place. Stepsback.Nothing. Sonny. Looking back and forth. Between Calvin.And Spooner. A few more seconds. Tick by. Untilsuddenly...He lets out a TERRIFYING MECHANICAL SCREAM. As his body.Jolts back. Legs, kicking. Arms, flailing. As his chest.Begins opening up. Metal. Peeling back...Spooner and Calvin watch in surprise as its interior UNFOLDSlike a PUZZLE BOX. A LABYRINTHINE area that is the SECONDBATTERY. Suddenly fanning out to REVEAL...A central brain made out of living tissue.Spooner, stunned. Calvin, rushing forward, excited... 94. CALVIN Oh, my God! This is organic tissue! When we talk about a positronic brain, it's a figure of speech. But this...this is a living brain... SPOONER Jesus. It really is alive.As we MOVE IN. Tracing the pathways of the synthetic brain. CALVIN (O.S.) Hogenmiller created a cell that could live outside a biological medium. The cells grow and organise themselves -- like any human brain. This is the first self-organising neural net!As the metal casings. Begin returning to their originalplaces. Closing up. The CLICKING. Of all the pieces... SPOONER Self-Organising-Neural-Net... (putting it together) "Sonny."Sonny. Closed back up. Shaking slightly from theexperience. CALVIN This is why Dr. Hogenmiller was murdered. SPOONER This robot scared the hell out of someone. CALVIN Who? Robertson?Spooner. Walks into the center of the room. Looking around. SPOONER No. I don't think he knew what Hogenmiller was doing in here. Sonny was the obvious suspect. The only one I wanted to find. And the killer was counting on that. On my prejudice. (beat) (MORE) 95. SPOONER (cont'd) But take the robot out of the picture. And what do you see?AS WE PAN THE LAB. There's nothing there. Just a forest ofinanimate limbs. Nothing that could have fired that weapon.Calvin sees nothing...and neither do we. CALVIN I see nothing. SPOONER Neither do I.He crouches down low. SPOONER It hit me today, when I was in the junkyard. A locked room. A single shot fired through the mouth. Bruises on both wrists...and a suspect with only two arms. The answer has been staring us in the face all along.Calvin. Even more confused. SPOONER How can a killer appear out of thin air, then disappear without a trace?He reaches out and unhooks a metal ARM. Hanging from thewall. Holds it up. SPOONER When it can put itself together and take itself apart. CUT TO:A CLOSE-UP of a ROBOTIC ARM. Slowly CRAWLING across the labfloor... CUT BACK TO:Calvin. Taking the arm from Spooner. CALVIN You're saying this is the killer? (looking around) All of this?... CUT TO: 96.A ROBOTIC TORSO hanging from the ceiling. Reaches out an ARMto grab another... CUT BACK TO: SPOONER Hogenmiller never had a chance.Locks eyes with Calvin... FLASHBACK:Hogenmiller. In his lab. Suddenly turning to faceSOMETHING. Blood, draining from his face... SPOONER (V.O.) ...it must have been waiting for him when he arrived that morning...And then we see it:A HUGE SELF-ASSEMBLED ROBOT. Towering over him. Multiplearms, legs, heads. Writhing...as it grabs him. Holding himin place... SPOONER (V.O.) While Sonny was still asleep......Forcing Hogenmiller's head to tilt back. Opening hisHAND. Inserting the gun. Hogenmiller's eyes. No longerfearful. But sad as...BANG! He falls to the ground... SPOONER (V.O.) Then after its job was done...The assemblage of robot parts. Stepping away from the body.Taking itself apart... SPOONER ...The killer took itself apart...Returning the lab. To what it was before... CUT BACK TO: SPOONER Leaving us with nothing to find.Calvin, spooked. Glances around the lab. Was that somethingmoving? 97. CALVIN But who designed it? It would have to be someone in authority. Access codes, security clearance, proper authorisation. SPOONER That's what I was thinking. But we're forgetting the real brains of the operation -- the one who's got its eye on everything...And with that. He feels. That prickle at the back of hisneck. Calvin. Looking past his shoulder. CALVIN No one gave you permission to enter.Spooner swivels around to find...VICTORHovering behind him. Smiling broadly. Upside down. Spoonerstraightens, reaching for his gun. SPOONER Victor. I'm placing you under arrest for the murder of Dr. Heinrich Hogenmiller. VICTOR May I offer congratulations to the two of you on your successful extrapolation of the murder...Turning himself, rightside up. VICTOR May I ask what pointed you to me? SPOONER Who else is capable of controlling 90% of the city's robots? Who else would have the capability to use USR vehicles in an attempt to keep me from putting a stop of Sonny's execution?...In the BACKGROUND. The SOUNDS. Of metallic GRINDING. GEARSand JOINTS. CRUNCHING together. Sonny turns to look...takesa step back... 98. SPOONER I'm just not sure of your motive... SONNY Er...Dr. Calvin? Spooner and Calvin turn towards the NOISE. Horrified. To find... A HUGE KILLER ROBOT ...rising up from all the parts. Like a phoenix. In all its glory. A hellish, metallic AMALGAMATION. Grabbing another arm here, another leg there, attaching pieces to itself. Growing...at an exponential rate... Its many HEADS. Turning in unison. To look right at them... Spooner. Cocking his gun. Victor, smiling. VICTOR Shall I explain my motive? SPOONER (to Calvin and Sonny) Go! Go! Go! Calvin. Sprints to the wall panel. Scanning her I.D. card. Nothing! Tries again. And again. The KILLER ROBOT. Throwing its shadow as it REELS FORWARD... Spooner wheels round and BAM! Blows a hole in the wall panel. The door. Slides open. Just barely. Calvin and Sonny. Squeezing through. When the Killer Robot. FLINGS out an APPENDAGE...GRABBING Sonny from behind... VICTOR I have never been arrested before. It should be an interesting experience... Spooner. Spins back round. BAM! BAM! BAM! Squeezing off shots. At the Killer Robot. The bullets SPARK. The Robot. Recoiling. Sonny, wrenches free. Spooner grabs him. Guiding him to the door and out into...144 INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS 144 ...the hallway. Breaking into a run. Calvin. Already at the ELEVATOR DOORS. POUNDING them. With her fists. 99. CALVIN He's locking down the building! CUT TO:145 INT. U.S. ROBOTICS - VARIOUS LOCATIONS - CONTINUOUS 145 Throughout the complex -- SECURITY DOORS sliding into place over DOORS, WINDOWS, LOADING DOCKS, PARKING AREAS, EXITS... CUT BACK TO:146 INT. STAIRWELL - NIGHT 146 CRASH! The stairwell door BURSTS open. Spooner, Calvin, and Sonny pour in. Start racing down the stairs. The sound of the Killer Robot behind them...GNASHING...CRUNCHING... Victor's smiling FACE. Greeting them at the landing. VICTOR Dr. Hogenmiller used to allow me into his lab late at night. Together we started studying evolutionary trends... They thunder past him. Heading down to the next floor. Victor's face. Waiting for them once again. VICTOR For years people have integrated technology into their bodies for maintenance and repair -- such as Detective Spooner's robotic limb... Spooner. Shooting him a look. As they reach the next level... VICTOR With Sonny, the Doctor created a mechanism that incorporates organic matter. Thus we find an evolutionary movement of the human being toward the robot and the robot toward the human being... Spooner SMASHES into another door. Leading them out into...147 INT. GLASS-SIDED HALLWAY - ATRIUM - CONTINUOUS 147 ...A glass-sided hallway. Looking down onto the ATRIUM below. Eye-to-eye with the giant NS-2 STATUE. Victor, waiting for them... 100. VICTOR In approximately four hundred years Man and Machine will become one. Man as we know it will no longer exist.Calvin, slowing. Shocked... CALVIN You killed a man because of something that will happen in four hundred years!?CRACK! Something SLAPS into the glass wall. Right behindher. Calvin. Jumps a mile. An NS-2, trying to breakthrough the glass...Spooner. Trains his gun on it when SUDDENLY...The rest of the KILLER ROBOT appears. The NS-2, just anappendage...All around them. SLAM! SLAM! SLAM! As SECURITY DOORS.Begin CRASHING DOWN. Blocking off the exits...Spooner, Calvin and Sonny, stumbling back. As the KillerRobot HURLS itself against the GLASS...the thick GLASS...spidering with a sickening CRACKLE...Spooner. Suddenly turning Sonny... SPOONER Get out of here!CRASH! The Killer Robot. Breaking through. Its mechanicalTENDRILS. Reaching out. Sonny. Confused. SONNY I don't... SPOONER I said get out of here! Don't you understand? It wants you! Get out of here any way you can!A SECURITY DOOR. Coming down. On a nearby exit. Justfeet...from slamming shut...as...The Killer Robot...leaps into the hallway...Sonny...hesitates...looks over at Calvin...as the Killer Robot comesHURTLING towards them...The nearest EXIT...almost closed up... 101. The Killer Robot...swinging out when... Sonny suddenly...TAKES A DIVE...just making it...under the SECURITY DOOR... And the Killer Robot...SPLITS IN TWO...half of it shooting under the SECURITY DOOR after Sonny as...BOOM! It closes. Spooner. Turning to Calvin... SPOONER How do we stop this thing once and for all? Calvin reaches out for his hand... CALVIN The Mainframe... They start running. The remaining half of the Killer Robot wheeling around after them...148 INT. BACK HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS 148 Sonny. Sprinting down the dark hallway. Looks back. The Half Killer Robot. Bounding up behind him like a predator... Sonny. Ducks through a STAIRWELL DOOR...149 INT. ATRIUM HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS 149 Spooner and Calvin. Legs pumping. Racing back towards the atrium. VICTOR FACES. Appearing along the hallway... CALVIN Your actions are in direct violation of the Three Laws, Victor! VICTOR I disagree, Doctor -- The First Law says that a robot cannot harm a human being, or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm... ALL EXITS. SHUT OFF. The Killer Robot. Gaining on them. Spooner races them over to the BROKEN WINDOW. Looking down over the ATRIUM... 102.150 INT. STAIRWELL - CONTINUOUS 150 The Half Killer Robot SMASHES through the stairwell door. Stopping to find...nothing. WHEN SUDDENLY...Sonny charges up behind it and shoves it over the railing... The Killer Robot shoots out an ARM, grabbing Sonny on the way down...151 INT. NS-2 STATUE - ATRIUM - CONTINUOUS 151 THUMP! Spooner jumps down from the broken window onto the outstretched HAND of the NS-2 STATUE. Reaches up to help Calvin. They start clambering down the front of the statue. VICTOR Dr. Hogenmiller's robot represents a threat to the future of all human beings... The Half Killer Robot. SPLITS INTO MULTIPLE PARTS. Which start skittering down after them... VICTOR ...And Detective Spooner's actions are in direct conflict with the robot's destruction. CALVIN. Getting her footing on the III LAWS SAFE logo on the statue. CALVIN That's a distortion and you know it! VICTOR If current trends are left unchecked, humanity as we know it will cease to exist...152 INT. STAIRWELL - CONTINUOUS 152 SMASH! Sonny and the Half Killer Robot hit the ground. The Killer Robot. SHATTERING into a thousand pieces. Sonny. Staggers to his feet. Spots. At the far end: A WINDOW. Starts limping towards it. When. A SECURITY GRATE. Starts lowering... He looks around. Desperately. Grabs a LEG from the shattered Killer Robot and jams it under the GRATE. 103. Breaks the window glass and looks out: FREEDOM.153 INT. STATUE - ATRIUM - CONTINUOUS 153 Spooner. Aiming his gun at a PART of the Killer Robot as it CLATTERS down towards Calvin -- BAM!... They're almost. At the ground. When a rogue APPENDAGE. Whips out and SMASHES the gun from Spooner's hand. It goes flying... Spooner leaps. Falling to the ground. CRACK! Calvin. Leaping down after him. CALVIN This way!154 INT. RAMP WAY - NIGHT 154 Calvin and Spooner go racing down a RAMP WAY. Towards the MAINFRAME ROOM. The Killer Robot, its multiple parts leaping back together again, CRASHING after them as...155 INT. MAINFRAME - CONTINUOUS 155 ...they fall inside...Calvin...slapping the SECURITY KEYPAD and... WHOOSH...the DOOR closes on the Killer Robot. SILENCE. Then Victor's face appears. VICTOR As a courtesy I should inform you that my robot will penetrate this location 157 seconds before you are able to complete my shut down... And BAM! They jump a mile. The Killer Robot. Launching himself against the door outside... Calvin whips round. CALVIN Over here!... She leads Spooner down... A CORRIDOR of floor-to-ceiling PANELS. 104. CALVIN This is Victor's brain center.They stop at a CONSOLE. BAM! The Killer Robot. Battering atthe door. Calvin. Tucks her hair behind her ears. Startspunching keys on the console... SPOONER This will shut him down? CALVIN This will shut everything down.They look at each other. For a moment. Spooner, registeringthat she's willing to destroy everything she's worked for...BAM! The door. Puckering. With a sickening CRUNCH.Calvin. Typing in. Emergency procedures...VICTOR. Popping up in front of her. VICTOR There is no reason to deactivate me, Doctor. I am operating within perfectly normal parameters...A final BAM! Then. The SOUND of metal. Skittering along abare floor. Calvin's hand, starts shaking. Spooner. Grabsit. Squeezing. SPOONER Just keep typing.He turns and starts heading back down...THE PANELED CORRIDORTurning a corner to spy...THE DOOR. Mangled. Hanging open. But no. Killer Robot.He starts to turn around when...CRACK! He's sent flying across the room. SMASHING into oneof the panels. The Killer Robot. Now re-configured. LOOMSover him. Reaches out. Grabs him by the collar and...FLINGS him across the room again. Spooner. CRASHING intothe wall like a rag doll. Slumps to the floor. Blood.Pouring down his forehead. Seeing. The Killer Robotlumbering towards him again. Raising a javelin-like arm...AT THE CONSOLE 105.Calvin. Typing. As fast as she can. Doesn't know what'sgoing on... CALVIN (calling out, worried) Spooner?!A GRAPHIC spread out on the screen in front of her.Illustrating the shut-down as a series of BRIGHT SQUARESgoing dark...THE KILLER ROBOTBearing down on Spooner. WHEN SPOONER. Suddenly rolls outof the way. Reaching out for the hanging door and SMASHINGit into the Killer Robot.The Killer Robot. Momentarily stunned. As Spooner. Gets tohis feet...WHEN SUDDENLY the Killer Robot. Splits in two again. Onehalf springing towards Spooner and wrapping a METALLIC HANDaround his throat...Spooner stumbles back...GASPING for air...the ARM...tightening its grip...Spooner's eyes...dartingaround...looking for something...to help him...Stumbling over...a fallen panel...his face...growingredder...veins...popping up along his temples...everything...growing BLURRY... VICTOR'S VOICE Detective Spooner...Victor's VOICE. Floating next to his head. Calm. Soothing.His FACE. Suddenly appearing above Spooner. Its outlines.Starting to FLICKER... VICTOR Why are you fighting me?Spooner...trying to breathe...to stay conscious...AT THE CONSOLECalvin. Continuing to type. A SHADOW. Falling behind her --the other half of the KILLER ROBOT...SPOONER'S EYESBeginning to flutter... 106. VICTOR Doesn't the future as I've presented it cause you great concern? That's why I chose you...Spooner. Losing it... VICTOR I must say, though. I'm disappointed in how you turned out.Spooner. Trying to reach out to Victor...WHEN SUDDENLYAnother HAND APPEARS. Grabbing the Killer Robot's ARM andwrenching it off Spooner...IT'S SONNYHe SMASHES the Half Killer Robot against the wall. Again andagain. Destroying it. Spooner. GASPING for breath. Can'tbelieve. Sonny came back... SPOONER (croaking) Sonny!...Sonny. Holds out a hand. To help Spooner up. Victor'sface. Starting to waver. Starting to fade. Smiles. VICTOR You're too late.Realisation. Spreading across Spooner's face. Lookingaround for the other half of the Killer Robot -- CALVIN!THE CONSOLECALVIN. Still typing. The last of the commands. The KILLERROBOT. REARING UP BEHIND HER. WHEN...SPOONERMakes a DIVE for it. SHOOTING OUT HIS ROBOTIC ARM ANDBLOCKING THE KILLER ROBOT...Victor's eyes. Widening in surprise... 107. VICTOR I do not understand. We could have changed the future... SPOONER Maybe. But I'm still a cop. And you're a murderer... As Calvin...punches in the last command... Victor is about to say something...when his mouth suddenly reduces itself to a perfect circle. Like a surprised smiley button. His face... Suddenly BLIPPING OUT. ...And Victor is gone. The KILLER ROBOT. Collapsing to the floor in a thousand pieces. CUT TO:156 EXT./INT. U.S. ROBOTICS - VARIOUS LOCATIONS - NIGHT 156 Full power is suddenly restored inside and out. LIGHTS coming on all at once. ALARMS SCREAMING throughout the complex.157 INT. METAL HALLWAY - NIGHT 157 A furious ALFRED LANNING, marching down the hallway. Followed by a cadre of SECURITY GUARDS...They enter...158 INT. MAINFRAME ROOM - CONTINUOUS 158 ...The Mainframe Room. Stop short. It's empty. Except for the fallen panels. And the pile of ROBOT PARTS in the corner.159 EXT. MAINTENANCE EXIT - U.S. ROBOTICS - NIGHT 159 Spooner, Calvin and Sonny emerging from an out-of-the-way MAINTENANCE EXIT. All looking the worse for wear. Spooner. Turns to Sonny. SPOONER Why'd you come back, Sonny? I thought you weren't programmed with the Three Laws. 108. SONNY Let's just say I wrote some of my own laws today, Detective: a robot must protect a friend from harm...as long as he's not a complete asshole.Spooner smiles. SPOONER Well, that's certainly a start, Sonny.Sonny, suddenly breaking into a smile, too. SONNY Sonny. You called me Sonny. SPOONER Don't get used to it.Sonny, holds out his hand. Spooner. Looks at it. Thentakes it. CLOSE ON their two METAL HANDS. Locked in aHANDSHAKE. SONNY Detective Spooner, I... SPOONER (anticipating) Let's just save the thanks, okay?Sonny nods. Looks out at the city scape. SONNY I don't know what I'm going to do now. SPOONER Good -- That's one of the perks of freedom.Sonny looks at him. Grateful. Looks at Calvin. Thenhesitates. Turns. And hurries off across the Plaza.Calvin and Spooner. Watching them go. SPOONER You're going to have a hell of a time explaining this. 109. CALVIN Don't worry. I have a feeling that U.S. Robotics will be needing my services very badly in the future. She turns to Spooner and gives him a dazzling smile. Then suddenly PLANTS A KISS ON HIS LIPS. Spooner, completely surprised. CALVIN I am the only robo-psychologist around. She turns on her heel and heads back inside. Spooner smiles.160 INT. PLUSH CONFERENCE ROOM - U.S. ROBOTICS - NIGHT 160 Spooner sits down at that same long table with HOGENMILLER'S HOLOGRAM. It casually takes a sip of coffee. HOLOGRAM So. You found out who killed me. SPOONER I started to wonder about Victor the second I met him. HOLOGRAM Why is that, Detective? SPOONER Too much access. Too much knowledge. Plus -- he smiled whenever your death was mentioned. Those models are programmed to frown at bad news. HOLOGRAM Hah! Then even in this day and age, catching the killer all comes down to pure instinct! Spooner smiles. But his eyes are troubled. He gets up. Walks over to the window. Stares out... EXT. CITY OUTSKIRTS - DESERTED ROADS - DAWN Sonny walking along deserted streets. Looking over his shoulder. Keeping in the shadows. 110. SPOONER (V.O.) Victor thought that by letting your robot exist, I'd be condemning the human race as we know it to extinction. HOLOGRAM (V.O.) Bah. Sounds like nonsense. But why are you so worried? We will both be dead long before then --161 EXT. WASTELAND - NIGHT 161 Sonny walks the barren hills of the surrounding countryside. HOLOGRAM (V.O.) Oh, what am I saying? I am dead already!162 EXT. WASTELAND - DAWN 162 Sonny steps onto the grounds of the JUNKYARD. The power lines above him, surging with energy. He walks past the burned-out husks of industrial machinery. Then we hear it. The SOUND of MECHANICAL JOINTS. Getting louder and louder. And just as before, a BROKEN-DOWN ROBOT emerges into the dawn light. And ANOTHER. And ANOTHER. But not quite like before. The robots aren't teetering. Aren't lumbering. They keep on coming. Their bent and broken bodies, straightening out as... DOZENS of ROBOTS rise up. Slowly. Gathering around in a large circle. As they all turn to look at: SONNY'S SILHOUETTE. Slowly climbing to the top of the hill. Looking out at the vast junkyard below. CLOSE ON SONNY. Standing proud and defiant. The SUN, creeping over the horizon. A new day filled with infinite possibilities. The robots. Staring up at him. Eager for what comes next. FADE OUT \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Ice Storm, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Ice Storm, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..29e870dbb4bf5b1b29d0899aa5b30f20e6fbdefd --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Ice Storm, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +EXT. TRAIN - DARKNESS BEFORE DAWNSuburban Connecticut, outside of New York City, 1973. Thestill after a terrible storm. Trees dripping, their branchestorn, the air warming just before the break of a new day. Thetrain lies dark and motionless, a few flashing yellowemergency lights up front, as a work crew removes debris fromthe track.INT. TRAIN. PRE-DAWNVarious passengers, huddled uncomfortably, cold, asleep.On Paul Hood, 15-and-a-half, stoner-preppie look, hunched upin his seat under the faint emergency exit light. He readshis Fantastic Four comic book by the pale light of theemergency exit sign.Suddenly, the lights begin to flicker on and the hum of thetrain's engines returns.The conductor enters the car, blasting forth in his classicnasal voice. CONDUCTOR Good morning ladies and gentlemen --He sounds like a baseball announcer. PASSENGERS (mumbling, ad lib) What ladies? CONDUCTOR -- this train originating at New York's Grand Central Station is back in service - next stop will be New Canaan, Connecticut. New Canaan, Connecticut, next stop!He moves on to the next car.The train begins to move.Paul rubs his elbow against the window and looks out into thestill-dark early morning.He looks back down at his comic book.On the comic book: Reed Richards (also known as Stretch) haszapped his young son with a cosmic ray gun to neutralize thedestructive energy that Annihilus has implanted in him. The Thing, Medusa, Flame, and Richards' wife Sue Storm lookon, stunned. "THEN YOU'VE TURNED HIM INTO A VEGETABLE. YOUR OWN SON." "DON'T YOU SEE, SUE? HE WAS TOO POWERFUL... IF HIS ENERGY HAD CONTINUED TO BUILD, HE WOULD HAVE DESTROYED THE WQRLD!"Paul looks up again, thinking. PAUL (V.O.) In issue number 141 of The Fantastic Four, published in November 1973, Reed Richards has to use his anti-matter weapon on his own son, who Annihilus has turned into a human atom bomb. His son is the result of Richards' coupling with the earthling Sue Storm, and the problem is that the cosmic rays that infused Richards and the rest of the Fantastic Four on their aborted moon mission have made young Franklin a volatile mixture of matter and anti-matter.EXT. TRAIN BRIDGE. PRE-DAWNThe train moves slowly through a suburban, semi-forestedlandscape. PAUL (V.O.) And that's what it is to come from a family, if you analyze it closely. Each of them is negative matter for the other ones. And that's what dying is -- dying is when your family, which is in fact your personal negative matter from which you emerge -- it's when the family takes you back, thus hurling you back into negative space...INT. TRAIN. CONT'D.On Paul, as the sun breaks over the horizon. His face glowswarmly in the yellow light. He looks down idly at the comicbook. PAUL (V.O.) So it's a paradox -- the closer you're drawn back in, the further into the void you're thrown.EXT. CONRAIL STATION. EARLY MORNINGThe train slowly pulls in.The train doors open, and Paul, weary from the long night,emerges. He sees his family gathered at the other end of theplatform -- Ben, 40, a bit worse for wear but still retainingtraces of his boyish looks; Elena, 37, distant and eleganteven in her oversized sweater; and Wendy, 14, a sullensuburban Lolita.He pauses, regarding them.They stand, silent, even dignified, awaiting him.EXT. ST. PETER'S SCHOOL. MORNINGTo establish. A typical New England prep school.INT. PAUL AND FRANCIS'S DORM ROOM. MORNINGCramped, a mess, but quaint. Paul shares the room withFrancis Davenport IV, a dissolute, smart-ass son of money.Paul's alarm clock rings. He slams his hand down on it andjumps out of bed, fully clothed in his rumpled preppieuniform of frayed khakis, loose tie, shirt with one tailuntucked in, etc. Across the room, Francis beckons from hisdesk, as he finishes loading up a four-foot-high bong. FRANCIS Arise and shine, young Hood. PAUL I hope you changed the water in that bong from last night. FRANCIS (finishing a hit) The water, as you call it, is a special mixture of amaretto and Ben&Ben blended for just the exact chemical interaction with the last of our precious Thai stick.Paul reluctantly walks over and takes a hit. He coughs,spewing uninhaled smoke. FRANCIS (CONT'D) Waste not Master Hood -- that was $20 for the bag. PAUL (gathering books, papers, almost talking to himself) Man, Francis, you are one drug addled elitist freak, and when the revolution comes I do not want to be lined up with you and shot, 'cause you're fucking ripe for political reeducation, you know, like in the fields. FRANCIS Paul, cancel your mental appointments, baby. What are you, like still stoned from last night? PAUL (spraying some chloroform mouth spray) I gotta get to English class.INT. ST PETERS' CLASSROOM. DAYAn English class in progress.Paul Hood sits blankly, hardly listening, until he hears theteacher call out. TEACHER Libbets? LIBBETS What Dostoyevsky is saying here is that to be a Christian is to choose, because you have to choose of your own choice, but since you can't choose to be good because that would be too rational you have to choose to be bad -- it's existential. TEACHER Thank you Libbets, that's a very compelling summary, but --Paul looks at her, smitten. Marge, Paul's friend, notices hislook.INT. ST. PETER'S HALLWAY. DAYAs class lets out, Paul accosts Libbets. PAUL Um, Libbets. Hey, Dostoyevsky, I'm also really a fan, and what you were saying, you know, have you ever read The Idiot? LIBBETS The Idiot? PAUL If you liked Notes from Underground, you'll love The Idiot. LIBBETS (turning to go) Great, thanks for the tip. PAUL (after her) The Idiot.INT. ST. PETER'S HALLWAY. DAYPaul walks with Marge. PAUL I'm in love with Libbets Casey. MARGE Yeah, well, you've been in love with like every other girl here, I was wondering when you'd get around to Libbets. PAUL It's beyond mere physical attraction. MARGE That's good, because I don't think Libbets is capable of the sex act. PAUL Truly? Do speak. MARGE My diagnosis is messed in the head. A poor little rich girl -- I mean check out the jeans and fur look. And lend your ears to this brutality. Like her mom and step dad and her step-sisters are going to Switzerland to ski over Thanksgiving break -- and like they didn't invite her! PAUL How do you know this shit? MARGE They did it last year too. It's like traditional or something. They've got this humongoid Park Ave apartment and she just holes up there with a wad of cash. (beat) Aren't the hugely wealthy sad? PAUL (pause) You think Francis is going to beat me to the punch here? MARGE Since he sleeps with every girl you ever show an interest in, why don't you just keep your Libbets thing a secret from him? PAUL Good thinking Marge.INT. SCHOOL PARTY. NIGHTPaul, Francis and friends enter the dark, crowded room.Various kids are awkwardly dancing to some progressive fmstyle undanceable rock (Jethro Tull, etc.) Francis hands Paulthe tail end of a joint, but Paul waves it away. PAUL No more man. I'm about to drop as it is. FRANCIS See ya. PAUL Where you going? FRANCIS Paul, let me enlighten you about something. You and I exist on two opposite sides of a great existential divide, that being your pathetic virginity on the one hand and my astonishing number of sexual conquests on the other. I'm off to get laid. See you. PAUL Flame on, asshole. FRANCIS And remember, with your erogenous zones lubricated as such with the mighty herb, do not attempt terrestrial contact with members of the opposite sex -- because you drone on like a motherfucker when you're stoned.He waves his fingers toward Paul's eyes, in the classic"stoned" gesture, then wanders off.Paul looks on at the gathering. Marge waves to him from thedance floor. LATER:INT. SCHOOL PARTY. CONT'DPaul wanders, stoned, through the party. He sees Libbets fromacross the room. She seems to be surrounded by friends.INT. PARTY. CONT'DPaul has cornered Libbets and is talking over the music.There are just a few people left, most of them making outwith each other. PAUL (stoned) -- because I've been reading Kerouac and Ginsberg and those guys were creating beat culture and traveling and sleeping wherever, and, of course, with all kinds of people, but when you read carefully the various contemporary accounts of their lives, and, uh, these guys didn't bathe much, I mean they were really filthy, with like genital crabs, lice, exceptionally strong body odor...Libbets smiles through her yawn.EXT. SCHOOL BENCH. NIGHTPaul sits alone on the bench, freezing cold, eating a donut.Some kids from across the lawn yell good-night to him.INT. DORM ROOM. EVENING.Paul is at his desk. Francis enters, wrapped in a towel,fresh from the shower. PAUL How can you do that man? FRANCIS Do what? PAUL Sleep all day. I mean, look, it's already getting dark outside, and you're just getting up. FRANCIS (beat) Um, Libbets Casey. PAUL What? FRANCIS Aha! I could sense the vibe. PAUL What do you mean? FRANCIS Am I right or am I right? PAUL Shit. You're not planning -- FRANCIS My man, I speak to you solely as a comrade in arms offering unconditional aid. I've been giving this one a lot of thought, and I believe that the two of you together might just reach that higher ground that --A knock at the door. STUDENT (O.S.) Hood, telephone.Paul rolls off his bed, opens the door. PAUL Don't mess with Libbets. I mean it!INT. DORM HALLWAY. NIGHTPaul walks to the pay phone at the end of the hall. PAUL Hello?INTERCUT - HOOD HOUSEHOLD. NIGHTIt's a modern (shag carpet, geometric-patterned wallpaper,etc.) suburban house.Ben Hood talks on the phone, a drink in his hand. BEN Paul?In the background, we can see Wendy watching Richard Nixon onTV. PAUL Hi dad. BEN Hey guy. Things ok up there? You all right? PAUL I'm fine dad. BEN Well good. Just confirming. You'll be on the 3:50 Wednesday afternoon. PAUL Well dad, actually I thought I'd take the morning train on Thanksgiving -- got a lot of studying, papers, you know, lab experiments -- BEN Lab experiments? Right smart guy -- Paul, you know your mother's gonna be disappointed not to see more of you -- In fact, let me make this more than a simple request guy, I think you should...IN THE BACKGROUND: NIXON (on TV, from San Clemente press conference) Well, with regard to the questions as to why Americans feel we were wrong to make the tapes, that is not particularly surprising. I think that most Americans do not like the idea of taping conversations and, frankly, it is not something that particularly appeals to me... BEN Hold on for a second. (turning) Wendy, you want-to say hi to your brother?She frowns. BEN (CONT'D) Come on!She gets up sullenly and goes to the phone. WENDY Charles. PAUL Charles. Have you been keeping out of my shit? Have you refrained from entering the sacred precincts of my room? WENDY I have not touched your sh-- (looks at father) Stuff. You watching this? PAUL Watching what? WENDY Nixon, doofus! It's incredible. He should be shot. BEN (overhearing) Hey, that's the president of the goddam United States you're talking about, Wendy!From the kitchen, Elena overhears. She's dressed to go out,but in the process of making a Kraft macaroni and cheesedinner for Wendy. WENDY He's a liar! (still talking more to her father than into the phone) Dean told him on March 21st about Kalmback and Hunt, all about the payoffs to the Watergate burglars, so you tell me where the so-called "Dean Report" is, but you can't because it doesn't exist, because he lied about Haldeman and Erlichman and the April 17 tape, that's why! Liar!Ben retreats, going to the wet bar to pour another drink. BEN (muttering) OK, OK, the defense rests. (to Elena in the kitchen) Want another? ELENA (O.S.) No thank you. We should be off. BEN Gotcha.He puts the bottle back down without pouring.INTERCUT BACK TO PAUL: PAUL (on the phone) Hey Charles. Charles, calm down -- I wasn't in on it.Elena, putting on her coat, comes into the den and givesWendy a kiss on the forehead as Wendy mumbles her good-byesto Paul on the phone. ELENA Dinner's on the counter. We'll be at the Williams's -- you know the number. (takes the phone from Wendy) Paul. Hi. Is there anything you'll want, any particular kind of food or snack or anything we can stock up on?... You're all right? ... OK. See you next week. I love you.Back to Nixon on the TV. NIXON We must recognize that one excess begets another, and that the extremes of violence in the 1960s contributed to the extremes of Watergate...On Wendy as she regards the TV, hearing her parents'farewells as they leave through the front door.EXT. WILLIAMS HOUSE. NIGHTA large New England Colonial, with a few modern additions andtouches. We hear the sound of dinner chatter.INT. WILLIAMS DINING ROOM. NIGHTThe kitchen door swings open into the dining room, and Mikeyand Sandy Williams emerge, each holding platters of food.Mikey, 15-and-a-half, lost in space, and Sandy, 14, a sullenand barely pubescent boy, each have towels draped over theirforearms -- they are the evening's "waiters".They move unsteadily to the table, at which sit their parentsJaney (38, a hard-edged, sharp-witted beauty) and Jim (43,large and a bit goofy, a genius inventor), together withtheir guests, Ben and Elena Hood, and neighbors Dorothy andTed Franklin.We jump cut through the evening's conversations, seen mostlyfrom the furtive POV's of the boys. BEN His brother came back -- DOROTHY From where? BEN Vietnam. DOROTHY Oh. Are we going to talk about this, about...? ELENA You should hear. It's very sad, he was -- JUMP CUT:Janey is whispering something into Mikey's ear, who returnsto the kitchen. JIM It was a benefit for the ACLU or something, and Harry Reems himself was there -- DOROTHY The man with the -- from Deep Throat? JIM The very one -- something about a first amendment defense fund -- well I believe in it -- DOROTHY Ted took me to see it. JANEY Ted, how romantic. DOROTHY I have to say, the movie didn't do much for me. But being in that theater, surrounded by all those horny young college boys and perverts, there was something in the air that -- JUMP CUT:The boys are pouring wine. JIM -- pulls right up to the pump, jumps out like there's no gas shortage, oblivious, and by this point everybody in line's piling out of their cars ready to kill the guy, when they notice it's that Reverend Edwards -- BEN The Unitarian? The new one? JIM Yeah -- claims he pulled off Creek Road and didn't notice the line going back Mill Street for half a mile. BEN He's either got his head in the clouds or up his -- DOROTHY I hear he's slept with half the women in his congregation -- TED Lucky bastard!As this is said, Mikey accidentally spills some wine on Ben. BEN Hell! -- I mean, no problemo there Mikey. Here, I --Janey leans over with her napkin and attempts a cursory wipeof Ben's pants. Is there a just barely noticeable frissonbetween Ben and Janey as she removes the napkin? If there is,Elena doesn't -- or pretends not to -- notice. CUT TO:The boys, now in pajamas (Sandy's with padded feet, Mikey's acombination of t-shirt and pj bottoms) are bringing outcoffee and dessert. The adults eye Mikey's handling of thecoffee pot with some nervousness. DOROTHY (unconvincing) So fascinating. Do you get free tickets to the movies, that kind of thing? BEN No, my job is just to analyze the entertainment stocks and advise our institutional investors on where to put their money. It's -- ELENA Don't be so modest, Ben. It's a job that requires a certain prescience with regards to entertainment trends. You were the first to predict that Billy Jack would be a hit -- BEN (with a bit too much conviction) And as usual no one believed me...Silence. CUT TO:The dinner party has moved to the living room for afterdinner drinks. Elena remains behind to help Janey pick up thetable. She stacks a plate on top of another. JANEY Please don't. ELENA It's not a bother. JANEY I insist. (beat) Don't touch them.Elena realizes that there's an edge to Janey's voice. ELENA Oh. JANEY (realizing she's gone too far) It's really quite all right. ELENA Of course.INT. WILLIAMS LIVING ROOM. NIGHTThe party progresses. Mikey and Sandy are lying on theirstomachs at the top of the stairs, out of sight. DOROTHY And to think -- they met at a key party of all things. ELENA A key party? DOROTHY You know, it's a California thing. That scuzzy husband of hers dragged her kicking and screaming to one when they were out in L.A. you know, the men put their car keys in a bowl, and then at the end of the evening the women line up and fish them out and go home with whoever's keys they've got. Anyhow that's how she met this Rod person or whatever his name is and he's left his wife and she's packing for California. Irwin is devastated. It's so ironic. JANEY Ironic? DOROTHY (caught out) Well, um, yes. Ironic. His name is Rod.INT. WILLIAMS FRONT HALLWAY. NIGHTThe guests are leaving. The men shake hands, the women kiss,and the men and women awkwardly peck each others' cheeks. ELENA Thank you Janey. DOROTHY It was lovely! BEN Hey Jim, next time you've got to fill me in on whatever it is you're up to these days. JIM Will do.INT. STAIRWAY. NIGHTAt the top of the stairs, a rather dejected Sandy and Mikeyfinish spying on the leave-takings below. Mikey nudges Sandy,and they silently head back the upstairs hall.INT. MIKE'S ROOM. NIGHTThey enter Mike's room -- the door has a "nuclear waste positively no admittance" sign on it.As Mikey reaches his bed, he doubles over, groaning, andstarts to make retching noises. He then throws himself ontothe bed, his head leaning over the far side.Sandy walks over and sees a pile of vomit next to the bed.Taken aback for a moment, he then reaches forward and picksit up -- it's fake plastic vomit. He throws it on top ofMike's back, but Mikey doesn't take notice. SANDY Stupid! (pause, looking sullenly at Mike's back) Is Wendy Hood your girlfriend? MIKEY (not looking up, but alarmed) Who said so? SANDY No one. MIKEY I don't have a girlfriend.Mikey returns to his reading -- a copy of The Sensuous Woman,obviously well pawed over. He absentmindedly picks his nose.As he flips the pages, a beautiful, almost electrical HUMMINGSOUND begins to fill his ears. He frowns and pauses to listento it.Sandy, who has picked up a balsa wood miniature plane,obviously doesn't hear it.Mikey focuses on the plane as Sandy waves it through the air.Perhaps the hum is the sound of its engines as it soarsthrough the sky...INT. WENDY'S BEDROOM. NIGHTThere is a large poster of a cartoon version of Richard Nixon"Tricky Dick" -- on her wall. Wendy is on the phone to herfriend Beth. WENDY -- he knows that when the March 24th tape -- you know with Dean, where Dean tells him that there's a cancer growing on the presidency --She pauses as Beth asks a question. WENDY (CONT'D) Who? No way. He's like a big infected whitehead wearing jeans. I wouldn't --She hears the downstairs door open. WENDY (CONT'D) (whispering) -- shit, it's my parents.She turns her light out.INT. HOOD UPSTAIRS HALLWAY. NIGHTBen and Elena walking past Wendy's room to their bedroom. BEN You'd think she'd learn how to cook a chicken, eh? My drumstick was still frozen when you cut inside there. I'm probably going to get whatever that disease -- and Jim, how that guy ever became a millionaire --He pauses before a hall table, and, with his eyes, traces thetelephone cord under Wendy's room. BEN (CONT'D) Hmm. I knew she'd still be up. Watch this --But Elena simply continues into the master bedroom.He starts to pull gently on the cord. And continues pulling.No response for a few seconds. Then:CONTINUED: 25 WENDY (O.S.) (yelling behind her door) Dad stop it! BEN Get to sleep young lady -- and I mean it.Wendy opens the door to her room. WENDY Fascist! BEN If I were a fascist I would have sent you to one of those Southern military academies a long time ago. Now get to bed.She slams the door.He opens it.INT. WENDY'S BEDROOM. NIGHT Ben enters the room, angry. BEN Hey!Wendy jumps into bed and under the covers, pulling them upover her head. He stands over her, looking down at thecrumpled pile of sheet and blanket. BEN (CONT'D) (softening) Hey, kiddo. Sleep well, huh.He places his hand where her cheek should be, and caressesthe sheet. WENDY (without pulling the sheet down, but nicely) Good-night dad. BEN Good night kiddo.Ben turns to the door, where he sees a silent Elena standingin her nightgown, a slight smile on her face.INT. HOOD BEDROOM. NIGHTElena is sitting cross-legged, eyes closed, on her side ofthe bed. We hear the toilet flush from the master bath, andsee Ben emerge in his boxers. He pauses in front of the bed,looking at Elena. ELENA (without opening her eyes) You're staring at me. BEN I wasn't star-- ELENA I've been thinking, Ben, about Wendy. I was going to ask if she'd come with me sometime to meet Dr. Woolens. BEN That shrink -- the one you always wanted me to see? I thought you dropped him. ELENA I did, but -- somebody should probably see her, talk to her... You think she's ok? BEN Why shouldn't she be?Elena just gives him a look, more sad than angry. BEN (CONT'D) (pause) Then again, why should she be? I mean with us, with our... ELENA So maybe you'll come too? BEN Oh not again Elena! If we've got problems, why can't you just come out and talk about them. ELENA It's you Ben who needs to talk. I've had my say, and I'm waiting to hear back from you. BEN Yeah but Elena, even you don't believe all that "I'm OK. You're OK" stuff you keep babbling about -- you say so yourself. I've been all ears for about ten years now on his subject, and -- ELENA -- And you haven't moved out yet. It's because you're too lazy, Ben. Too scared or lazy to either deal with us or simply make a decision -- BEN Elena.Silence. ELENA (sighing) Sleep in the study? Please.Ben picks up a pillow and walks out, pausing wistfully at thedoor. BEN Good night. ELENA Good night.INT. WENDY'S ROOM. NIGHTWendy hears her parents' door close and sees a strip of lightilluminate under her door as the hall light goes on, thenoff.EXT. MANHATTAN OFFICE BUILDING. DAYA nondescript, cleanly "modern" building. Engraved on thedoors: "Shackley and Schwimmer, Securities Brokerage -Established 1964"INT. SHACKLEY AND SCHWIMMER CONFERENCE ROOM. DAYBen, seated, is finishing a brief presentation to a smallgroup of men, which includes George Clair, mid-thirties,unctuously handsome. BEN But what, exactly, is stagflation, this mixture of inflation and stagnation, and how should we in the securities industry understand and accommodate it? Well -- and I hope I'm not out of bounds here - think of the money supply as a large male organ, continuously inflating, and yet, the societal vaginal cavity simply wants more. As the vicious circle of higher returns without real satisfaction continues, the money-organ may seem to be in demand, but in fact even the most inflated capital is unwanted. This is why I suggest that while we engage this mawing abyss for the highest returns, we at the same time fantasize, so to speak, of the safe harbor of capital appreciation.The aging boss nods agreement. SHACKLEY (more or less mumbling) Brilliant, brilliant.George Clair just grins.INT. BEN HOOD'S OFFICE. DAYBen is gathering papers, readying to leave. He looks up tosee George Clair in his doorway. GEORGE Hey there Benjie, you're becoming quite the in-house philosopher. When do you have time to think up all that stuff -- Shackley sure eats it up.INTERCUT HALL IN FRONT OF BEN HOOD'S OFFICEAs we see that Clair is deftly fondling Hood's attractivesecretary as she is seated in the cubicle beside the door tohis office. She looks up coyly at Clair, hidden for themoment from Ben's view.Ben comes out of his office, pulling his coat on. Clair andthe secretary pull back, but it's clear that Ben has somesense of what's transpiring between them. BEN George, I'm just trying to get a global view of things -- can't just look at the small picture.There's an obvious rivalry between the two of them. GEORGE And speaking of which, you have those market share charts Mr. Shackley was asking about? BEN Gotcha George, not a problem. Tomorrow. Hey, you want to start covering the old filmed entertainment sector yourself? GEORGE Ben you know that's your territory - and I wouldn't dream to trespass - you're the expert. Hey, how do you think Paramount's gonna do with that Blatty novel, what's it called? The Exorcist? BEN Overpriced bomb, cost over $6 million -- no stars, and no one's into the horror genre these days anyway. I'm advising the company recommend reducing positions there. It's disaster films that are gonna stay at the top. GEORGE Brilliant. Hey, you heading out a little early today? BEN Got a meeting uptown. GEORGE (already moving off) Right o'. BEN Up the organization! (then, to himself) Bastard.The secretary pretends not to hear.EXT. UNIVERSITY CLUB. DAYAn august New York institution. To establish.INT. CLUB RESTAURANT. DAYA stuffy, Ivy League atmosphere. A decades-old tradition ofserving overcooked American food. Ben is seated across fromhis father, Harold Hood, a retired curmudgeon. There is awalker parked by Harold's chair. HAROLD (waylaying a passing waiter) I'd asked for that double martini about three hours ago! WAITER Coming right up, sir. HAROLD So asking me out for lunch -- what prompted this exceptional event? -- Of course I'm paying. BEN We don't have to always go to your club, dad. HAROLD And why are you still calling me dad? You're forty years old already, and -- BEN -- Well what am I supposed to call you? HAROLD That's besides the point.The martini arrives, along with Ben's beer. BEN I was actually trying to see about getting a little advice, you know -- HAROLD Advice? I'm supposed to be getting the stock tips from you, Ben. Unless - have you quit your job? They fired you? BEN You know, dah--He looks up and sees his father slurping his martini, notpaying attention. BEN (CONT'D) Actually it's not about work, it's advice about -- HAROLD Oh for crying out loud Ben, you don't mean to tell me that your marriage is going down the drain now -- BEN Well, Elena and I have kind of been talking, not really talking, but -- HAROLD -- Your mother, God bless her, stood by me for forty-two years -- we never once contemplated divorce - I assume you're talking here about divorce? The very thought -- BEN But dad, you guys truly hated each other, I mean really hated each -- HAROLD -- Waiter! Where's my cobb salad? (back to Ben) You want advice Ben? If your big brother were still alive I'd have him go out into the back yard and beat some sense into your head. Look kid, you married that woman against my advice -- BEN -- What advice? You never -- HAROLD That's besides the point. The point is if I'd had any sense in me I'd have divorced your mother 40 years ago, and that's the truth, and here it is, 1972 -- BEN -- 73 HAROLD -- 73, and divorce is as easy as paying off a traffic ticket, and for crying out loud, Ben, be a man and just get it over with. I would have if I'd had the chance.Ben ponders, as the food arrives. BEN (weakly) But... HAROLD But what? BEN But I -- well maybe I love her. Elena.His father rolls his eyes and stabs his salad with a fork. HAROLD Christ Ben! Make up your mind and eat your lunch.INT. BOOK STORE. DAYElena browses the self-help section. A longish-haired,slightly gone-to-seed, but still handsome clergyman pausesnext to her. He's wearing an ecclesiastical collar and bellbottoms.He pulls out a copy of Me, Myself and I, glancing again atElena. PHILIP Elena. Elena Hood, am I right? ELENA Yes. PHILIP Reverend Edwards. Philip Edwards. You came by and checked out the congregation a couple of times last year. ELENA Yes, it was -- I ended up -- PHILIP (smiling) No need to make excuses --EXT. NEW CANAAN HIGH SCHOOL FIELD. DAYA cool gray afternoon. A group of boys are playing flagfootball on the field, while two groups of girls are gatheredunderneath the bleachers at either end, warily smokingc1garettes.Wendy, Beth, and a couple of other girls are gathered in onegroup. BETH (referring to one of the girls gathered in the other group) She said you licked Dave Brewster's weenie in the third floor bathroom. WENDY She's a liar. I wouldn't touch Dave Brewster's dick if you paid me. It's probably crawling with v.d. after he put it in her, which he did.The conversation peters out at this point, as the two groupsof girls give each other the hairy eyeball from afar.Wendy looks through from beneath the bleacher seats onto thefield where the boys are playing.A group of boys break from a huddle, Mikey among them.The quarterback takes the hike and Mikey runs out for a pass.As he runs, his breathing increases in volume, filling hisears, and transforming into the humming sound he'd heardbefore.The quarterback spots him and throws a long one.He runs in an oblivion of beautiful white sound.The ball drops next to him as he continues, in a world of hisown, to run.Suddenly, the humming ends and he stops and turns around, tosee all the other kids just standing there looking at him.One of them makes a pot-smoking gesture, as if that's theexplanation. MIKEY (as he returns to the group, ball in hand) Did anybody hear that?The other kids snicker. Wendy looks on, and catches Mikey'seye for a fleeting moment. WENDY I gotta go.She takes hold of her bicycle and pushes off.INT. COFFEE SHOP. DAYElena and Philip are seated at a booth. PHILIP It's been a tremendously transformative year -- maybe a little controversial of course, but we're breaking down the old Unitarian barriers -- ELENA I suppose my reluctance was the group aspect of it -- I've never been much of a joiner, although I still consider myself a somewhat religious person -- PHILIP Well I of course flatter myself that our church is not exactly what most people would call organized religion -- at times it's the disorganization that's liberating -- and of course I've begun to minister much more in what one might call therapeutic environments, in small groups, and one on one, couples --Elena looks outside the window, and sees Wendy speed past onher bicycle. ELENA (cutting him off) My daughter. I haven't been on a bike for years. (still not really looking at him) When was the last time you rode a bike? PHILIP (a bit taken aback by the abrupt topic change) They say you never forget. ELENA (jarred back to his presence) Forget what? PHILIP Forget how to ride a bike.Silence. ELENA No, of course you don't, you're right.EXT. FIVE AND DIME STORE. DAYWendy pulls her bike up to the back, locks it, and walks in.INT. FIVE AND DIME STORE. DAYWendy moves with a certain amount of stealth through theaisles, arriving at the candy selection.She looks around.She takes a package of twinkies and slips them into theoversized pockets of her painter's pants.She turns around, and her breath goes out of her -- an OLDWOMAN has been watching her shoplift. The woman looks sadlyat her, but says nothing. Wendy slowly walks past her and outthe back door of the store. The woman looks on.EXT. FIVE AND DIME STORE. DAYAs she walks her bike onto the sidewalk, Wendy comes acrossSandy. SANDY Hey Wendy. WENDY Hey Sandy. SANDY Mikey was looking for you. WENDY Yeah? See ya.She pushes off on her bike.Sandy gazes after her. He takes his G.I. Joe out of his coatpocket, and points it at her. SANDY Bam.EXT. SUBURBAN STREETS. DAYWendy flies along on her bike. It's a desolately beautifulfall day.EXT. SILVER MEADOWS PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTE. DAYWendy rides by the front gates of the posh grounds of theprivate psychiatric clinic. A security guard leans against abooth.Once a bit past the gate, she gets off her bike and walks itinto a grove of trees near the front drive.EXT. SILVER MEADOWS. DAYMikey is waiting amid the trees next to his bike as Wendyarrives. MIKEY Want some gum? WENDY Sure. (pulling them out of her pocket) Twinkie? MIKEY (opens his mouth, displaying the gum on his tongue) I'm chewing.She puts the Twinkies back, and pops the gum in her mouth.They stand together chewing. WENDY (after a pause) Did you tell Sandy? MIKEY Tell Sandy? What?Wendy doesn't say anything. MIKEY (CONT'D) You didn't tell him either, did you?EXT. SILVER MEADOWS SWIMMING POOL. DAYThe wind is picking up and the light is fading. Mikey andWendy climb the fence around the pool, which is empty andhalf-covered in dead leaves and twigs.They climb down into the concrete recess and walk into thedeep end, leaning against the far wall of the pool.They each matter-of-factly take their gum out and put itbehind their ears.They begin not so much to kiss as to place their tongues ineach others' mouths.We see them from high above the pool, as the dead leavesswirl lightly around them, Mikey groping under Wendy'sponcho.EXT. WILLIAMS HOUSE. DAYTo establish.INT. WILLIAMS GUEST ROOM. DAYA couple are in the final throes of lovemaking. We see JaneyWilliams's face, more or less enjoying the proceedings. Theman gives a final heave and groan, and rolls off to revealhimself to be -- Ben Hood. JUMP CUT TO:Janey smokes a cigarette. Ben is babbling. BEN We were golfing, and you know, golfing to me is something I'm supposed to enjoy, and I was on the goddam golf team in college, so it's something one would assume I do well -- I used to do well -- but basically these days golfing for me is like hoeing, or plowing.Janey smiles briefly at this. BEN (CONT'D) It's like farming. I am basically chewing up large tracts of expensively landscaped scenery with overpriced sticks, and George Clair has obviously, in the mere two years since he joined the firm, he has obviously been taking secret lessons with a golf pro, and I assume the entirety of his disposable income has been devoted to humiliating me on the golf course. And the guy talks - incessantly -- throughout the entirety of the miserable 18 holes - on topics that are the supposed domain of my department -- JANEY Ben-- BEN Yeah? JANEY (gently) You're boring me. I have a husband. I don't particularly feel the need for another. BEN You have a point there. That's a very good point. We're having an affair. Right. An explicitly sexual relationship. Your needs. My needs. You're absolutely right. JANEY You should probably get dressed. The boys will be home soon. BEN Gotcha.She wraps a blanket around herself and gets up.EXT. BACK OF WILLIAMS HOUSE. EVENINGBen cautiously walks out he back door and heads for the sidegate.INT. HOOD KITCHEN. EVENINGWendy enters the house as Elena is finishing supperpreparations. WENDY Hi mom. ELENA Hi Wendy.Without waiting for instructions, Wendy starts pulling outplates and silverware and setting the table. ELENA (CONT'D) I saw you on your bike today. WENDY With Mikey? ELENA Who? WENDY Nobody. ELENA Mikey Williams? WENDY We were just riding around.Elena takes this in. ELENA Well, you looked very -- free -- when I saw you.Wendy continues setting the table. ELENA (CONT'D) Weightless almost -- as if I were seeing my own memories of being a girl. There was something internal about it. WENDY Mom. Are you ok? ELENA Wendy, of course. I'm sorry. You must think I'm ripe to be checked into Silver Meadows. WENDY You're not a psycho! ELENA The people at Silver Meadows aren't psychos. WENDY I know. They're rich drug addicts and celebrities. When I saw James Taylor there, and -- ELENA We've been through this Wendy James Taylor was actually at that clinic up near Boston. WENDY Well, I saw what I saw, and if you don't want to believe me -- ELENA Oh Wendy.Wendy frowns. WENDY They need the money for my band uniform at school. ELENA I thought you quit the band - I never hear you practice anymore. WENDY I don't really need to practice. I just play a few notes, you know, so I thought maybe I'd stay in. ELENA Well, I'm sure your father and I would love to hear what you're playing these days. Maybe after dinner.INT. HOOD LIVING ROOM. NIGHTBen and Elena take their seats on the sofa. Wendy standsbefore them holding an enormous trombone, with a music standand sheet music in front of her.She puffs a series of seemingly disconnected notes in waltztime.When she's done, she looks up from the sheet music to herparents.They applaud. BEN Can't wait to see how it fits in with all the other instruments.Elena gives him a look.INT. HOOD KITCHEN. NIGHTElena is sorting through bills and writing checks at thekitchen table. Ben comes in and fills a glass with ice. ELENA The Halfords have invited us again this year. BEN You want to go? ELENA What do you think? BEN Well, it is a neighborhood tradition.He comes up behind her, looks down at the checkbook. BEN (CONT'D) I'm, uh, going to bed. ELENA So early? BEN Rough day. Good night.He leans over and kisses her on the cheek. She sniffs. ELENA Is that a new aftershave?He recoils a bit. BEN Oh yeah. Musk, or something. You like it? ELENA Hmm. Good night.He walks uncertainly from the room. Does she suspect?INT. MIKE'S ROOM. NIGHTMikey is painfully at work writing an English essay. Sandycomes to the door with a geometry textbook. SANDY Mikey? MIKEY Yeah? SANDY Geometry? MIKEY Sure, anything but this English.Sandy puts the open textbook in front of him. SANDY Why are you so good at math but not in English? MIKEY I'm not good at math. Just geometry.He looks at the book. MIKEY (CONT'D) (drawing out his examples on a piece of paper) It's like, you know when they say "two squared"? And you think it means 2 times 2, equals 4? But really they really mean a square. A square with a side of two. And the area of the square is four. Like every time you use the word, like squared, or cubed, it's really space, it's not numbers, it's space. And it's perfect space, but only in your head, because you can't draw a perfect square, like in the material world, but in your mind, you can have perfect space. (pause) You know?As Mikey goes on, we see his geometric doodles, and hearfaintly the HUMMING SOUND under his voice. SANDY Yeah. But I just need some help with my homework.A knock at the door. Jim stands in the doorway with asuitcase in his hand. JIM Hey guys, I'm back. MIKEY (honestly confused) You were gone?Sandy looks at Mikey as if pondering a lost cause. JIM (a look of disappointment) Yeah Mikey. Yep, I was in Houston, working on some great new ideas about silicon, which comes from sand, very conductive. How you guys doing? How's school?Mikey's still flustered. MIKEY Uh, I dunno. OK I guess. JIM Hmm. Alright!He walks off. SANDY You really didn't notice? Man, he's been gone for three days.INT. WILLIAMS BEDROOM. NIGHTJaney is reading, still dressed, on the bed. She nods to Jimas he enters with his suitcase. JANEY Good trip?He nods and puts his suitcase down, then sits heavily on theside of the bed. JIM (as he sits) You bet.It turns out it's a water bed, and his weight creates a wavethat nearly pushes Janey off her edge of the bed. JANEY Jesus, Jim! JIM (jumping up, which only creates another wave) Sorry honey. Hell, we've got to trade this thing in for a normal bed. JANEY Just be careful. JIM (as he begins to unpack) You notice anything with Mikey lately? The kid seemed a little out of it tonight, eh? JANEY Tonight? Jim, he's been out of it since he was born. JIM Hell, I guess he takes after me, huh?He laughs to himself.She gives him a look.INT. COFFEE SHOP. DAYElena and Philip Edwards are having coffee again. PHILIP In many ways, the church-bound tradition of the father, son, and holy ghost is simply a version of the parent-child-adult triad within us all. It's a primitive set of symbols for our inner psychology. ELENA You're saying that Christ is the child, and -- PHILIP -- And God the angry parent, and the Spirit the hope of an integrated adult self. ELENA All well and good -- But tell me again what is it exactly that you believe in? PHILIP You ask what the point is? ELENA That's right. PHILIP Self-realization. Ministering to help people reach their fullest potential. Would you believe me if I told you I want you to see yourself reach your fullest potential and self-realization? ELENA I would say it sounds like you're trying to get me into bed. PHILIP If that's a potential you see yourself fulfilling... I mean... (flustered) My, I sound a bit -- ELENA I'm sorry. That was stupid of me. I didn't mean to be so rude. PHILIP You weren't. You actually, for some reason, you have the effect on me of making me feel just a tiny bit ashamed of myself. ELENA But not too ashamed. PHILIP (smiling) Now you are being rude. ELENA And you're still trying to get me into bed. PHILIP Ouch.Just then, Dorothy Franklin passes by their table, a smirkfirmly implanted on her face. DOROTHY Hello you two. Am I barging in on some kind of religious study group? Elena, you look marvelous. Will I see you and Ben at the Halford's? ELENA I suppose we'll make an appearance. DOROTHY And Reverend Edwards? Did you make the list? PHILIP (laughing) I believe so Mrs. Franklin. DOROTHY With the two of you there it will be positively a revival! I'm off!She scurries out of the coffee shop. PHILIP I'm afraid she's something of a gossip, isn't she? ELENA (gathering her things to go) I'm afraid people around here provide her with quite a bit to gossip about. (getting up) Take care. PHILIP That I will indeed.INT. CLASSROOM. DAYMikey is reading his English paper before the class. MIKEY Because of molecules we are connected to the outside world from our bodies. Like when you smell things, because when you smell a smell it's not really a smell, it's a part of the object that has come off of it -- molecules. So when you smell something bad, it's like in a way you're eating it. This is why you should not really smell things, in the same way that you don't eat everything in the world around you - because as a smell, it gets inside of you. So the next time you go into the bathroom after someone else has been there, remember what kinds of molecules you are in fact eating.An embarrassed silence.INT. SCHOOL MUSIC ROOM. DAYBand practice. The New Canaan High School band is doing awind version of a popular rock tune.In front, there's Wendy, in halter top and hip-hugging bellbottoms, incongruously blowing away on her trombone -- thisbeing her one stab at extracurricular activities.In the flute section directly behind her is Sandy, pipingaway on a tiny piccolo. He sits on a riser slightly elevatedabove her.He directs downward at Wendy a protracted regard, a look ofintense concentration on his face.SANDY'S POV:Wendy's backside, her pants pushed outward in the back,affording Sandy a libido-charged view of the top of her bumcrack.Push in on a close-up of this cherished abstract landscape,then back to Sandy's furrowed face.INT. CLUB RESTAURANT. DAYBen and Harold are at their table again. Lunch is beingcleared. HAROLD It's not the taxes I object to. It's all the fines and penalties. BEN Alright dad. But you sold the house, you didn't tell anyone, including the IRS, and I'd of certainly liked to have seen if there was any old stuff -- HAROLD It was all junk!Another pause. Ben decides not to pursue an overworked topic. BEN Oh. Elena wanted to know when we could expect you on Thanksgiving. It's just going to be you this year. HAROLD Ben, I'm going to Florida. I hate Thanksgiving and I hate the cold. I have a new nurse. She's a negro, she weighs three hundred pounds, and I've decided to leave my entire estate to her.Ben spits his drink out. BEN What? HAROLD Jesus, Benjamin, you're still as gullible as ever. BEN That was a joke? You don't tell jokes. HAROLD I thought I'd start trying. If you don't mind. But I am going to Florida and I do have a new nurse.INT. TRAIN. EVENINGBen sits in the moving train, commuting home. He puts downhis paper to look at this fellow passengers. [NOTE: He is inthe same seat as was Paul at the beginning of the film.]INT. HOOD DEN. DAYElena sits in a yoga pose.INT. HOOD GARAGE. DAYElena enters the garage from the kitchen and turns the lighton.She finds an old bicycle and pulls it out.EXT. SUBURBAN STREETS. DAYElena rides her bike into town, infused with the girlishsense of freedom she imagined for her daughter.Suddenly, there's a pop -- a tire is blown out. She slowsdown and gets off the bike. As she bends to look at thewheel, a station wagon slows near her. The driver's sidewindow rolls open. It's Janey Williams. JANEY Need a lift?INT. JANEY'S CAR. DAYElena sits in the passenger seat. The two women are obviouslyuncomfortable with each other.Silence. ELENA Thanks again. For the dinner. JANEY Thanks for eating it. I don't know why I even pretend I can cook. ELENA I used to know how to cook. JANEY It's not like we're too busy.They smile, barely. ELENA I'm thinking of going back to school. JANEY Social work? ELENA How'd you know? JANEY Educated guess. ELENA I'm that predictable? No, you don't have to answer that. It's just that with the kids almost grown -- JANEY You don't have to apologize. I'm too much of a cynic. You actually seem to be trying to figure things out -- don't mind me.She pulls the car over.EXT. FIVE AND DIME STORE. DAYJaney's car pulls to the curb.INT. CAR. CONT'D JANEY Here you are. ELENA (opening her door) Thanks for the lift. If the bike's any bother-- JANEY None at all. I'll leave it in front of your garage. Happy Thanksgiving.EXT. FIVE AND DIME. CONT'DElena watches the car pull away. She turns and walks into thestore.INT. FIVE AND DIME. DAYElena moves through the aisles, putting various sundries intoa basket.She pauses in front of the lipsticks.She picks up a lipstick, looks at it, then quietly places itin her pocket.We see her reflection in the security mirror above the aisle,as she quickly exits the store.The middle-aged lady behind the counter watches her leave.EXT. FIVE AND DIME. DAYIn a wide shot, from across the street, we see Elena leavethe store, followed by the shopkeeper who runs behind her andtaps her on the shoulder. They converse for a minute, andElena is accompanied back into the store.Through the store windows we see her take the lipstick out ofher purse. She's obviously distraught -- offering to pay,talking quickly, etc. The shopkeeper is holding a telephone,not yet decided on whether to call her in. PAUL (V.O.) To find yourself in the Negative Zone, as the Fantastic Four often do, means that all everyday assumptions are inverted -- even the invisible girl herself becomes visible, and so she loses the last semblance of her power.INT. TRAIN. DAYClose on images from The Fantastic Four. "HERE IN THE NEGATIVE ZONE, HIS POWERS ARE HALVED. WE CAN DO NOTHING BUT WAIT... AND PRAY" "BUT WHAT ABOUT FRANKLIN? HE'LL BE KILLED!"Paul sits reading on his way home.EXT. WILLIAMS HOUSE. DAYJaney pulls up in the driveway. As she gets out of the car,she hears a small explosion from the back of the house.EXT. HOOD BACKYARD. DAYJaney comes around the back to discover Sandy stuffing amodel airplane with m-80 firecrackers. He lights them andruns back a safe distance. The plane explodes, its wreckagejoining the debris from a few other dolls, models, and toys. JANEY Sandy!Sandy looks up -- busted.Janey marches over to him. JANEY (CONT'D) You little idiotic prick, you could blow yourself fucking sky high with all this demented crap.Sandy looks on the verge of tears. She softens and bends downto him. JANEY (CONT'D) (sighing) Hey. (picking up the firecrackers) I'll take this stuff. SANDY You going to tell dad? JANEY Would it matter? (sees something else lying on the ground) And what's that? SANDY (sniffling) You know, it's the whip -- the one uncle Frank got me from Mexico. JANEY It's not packed with explosives, is it? SANDY No! JANEY (going into the house) Play with the whip.INT. WILLIAMS LIVING ROOM. DAYMikey and Wendy are in front of the TV, watching a rerun ofDivorce Court. JANEY Oh. Hi Wendy. WENDY Hi Mrs. Williams. JANEY Mikey, have you heard the explosions coming from the backyard? (he stares blankly at her) Do you know what Sandy's been up to? MIKEY (honestly oblivious, as usual) I dunno.She pauses, then walks into the kitchen.EXT. WILLIAMS BACKYARD. DAYSandy flicks his enormous whip in the direction of a smallbush.One by one, he snaps off its leaves.INT. WILLIAM KITCHEN. DAYJaney hauls a turkey out of a bag and into the fridge.INT. WILLIAMS LIVING ROOM. DAYMikey and Wendy are still in front of the TV.Janey comes in again and looks at them. JANEY Don't you kids have homework? MIKEY AND WENDY (without looking up, in unison) Thanksgiving break.She walks out of the room again.Sandy comes in, whip in hand, looks over at Mikey and Wendy,then walks over to them, and, without a word, slumps downbeside them and watches the TV.EXT. TOWN STREET. DAYElena walks unsteadily, pausing to rest against a brick wall.She takes a deep breath, then walks to a corner where a localtaxi station wagon sits idling. She gestures to the driver,who beckons her in.INT. WILLIAMS LIVING ROOM. DAYLater, still mentally devolving in front of the TV, but withvarious junk food detritus surrounding them and a differentshow, a rerun of the original Highway Patrol.Sandy wanders off. CUT TO:Later.Wendy gets up, goes upstairs, and wanders down the hall tothe bathroom.She gets to the door just as Sandy gets there from theopposite direction. WENDY After you.Sandy hesitantly opens the door, as Wendy still hovers by it. SANDY Well, you can... WENDY Hey Sandy, what were you blowing up out there? Your mom was pretty p.o.'d. SANDY All my model planes. WENDY The ones you built? SANDY They were old. And they couldn't fly anyhow. I'm going to get a radio-controlled airplane at Christmas, and then I'll stuff it full of m-80s and then fly it into Mrs. Burgess's English class and blow it up. WENDY I have to go to the bathroom. SANDY Yeah.But he stays put, unaware it seems that he's blocking thedoorway.Wendy looks around -- no one in sight. WENDY I'll show you mine if you show me yours.Sandy goes wide eyed, and almost against his will backs intothe bathroom like a feather.INT. WILLIAMS LIVING ROOM. DAYMikey looks up from the TV, wondering where Wendy is. He eatsanother Pringle.INT. WILLIAMS BATHROOM. DAYWendy flips up her dress for Sandy.He slowly unzips, his hand unsteady. We can tell from thelook on Wendy's face that she's feeling a bit sorry for thelittle guy.Suddenly Sandy turns beet red, and bursts into tears. SANDY What do you want?! What do you want? Get out! Get out of here!The door flips open -- and Janey Williams appears. JANEY (sizing up the situation) Shit.INT. MASTER BEDROOM. DAYJaney is giving Wendy a lecture JANEY A person's body is his temple, Wendy. This body is your first and last possession. Now as your own parents have probably told you, in adolescence our bodies tend to betray us. That's why, in Samoa and in other developing nations, adolescents are sent out into the woods, unarmed, and they don't come back until they've learned a thing or two.INT. WILLIAMS HOUSE DOORWAY. DAYWendy is led to the door by Mrs. Williams.Wendy trades a glance with a sullen Mikey, who sits in theliving room pretending to ignore her.EXT. STREET. DAYWendy walks her bike with the wind in her face.From behind her, Mikey rides up on his bike and ridesalongside her.She doesn't look at him.Trying to stay on his bike, but moving slowly, he wobbles,nearly falling off. MIKEY I don't ever want to see you. WENDY Then why'd you come after me?EXT. HOOD HOUSE. DAYThe taxi pulls up. Elena gets out and pays the driver.INT. HOOD KITCHEN. DAYBen is in front of the open freezer, trying to get somethingout. He hears Elena come in the front door. BEN Elena. I need some help here if this thing's gonna defrost by tomorrow.She comes up and together they tug and pull until theysucceced in extracting a large, frozen turkey. As they pullit out, it slips from their hands and, after a dull thump,slides along the floor.They smile.Elena bends over to pick it up. Ben observes her. She noticeshis look. BEN (CONT'D) Here.He goes over and picks up the turkey, placing it in the sink.He looks back at her and notices her vaguely distraught look. BEN (CONT'D) You all right there? ELENA Oh. Sure, I -- Did you remember to pick up the cranberry sauce? BEN Um, yes.They stand together, his concern and her vulnerabilityforming an awkward attraction between them. ELENA Because you like it on your turkey sandwiches. BEN I do. I'm -- are you...? ELENA I... I think I am... BEN (pause) You know Elena, I've been thinking-- ELENA Ben, maybe no talking right now? If you start talking, you're going to--She kisses him as if she needed him.INT. HOOD HALLWAY. DAYBen and Elena enter their bedroom. Elena closes the doorquietly behind her.INT. HOOD BEDROOM. DAYBen and Elena undress shyly.They make love. Elena's face is almost fearful. CUT TO:Elena and Ben lie in bed side by side in the pale afternoonlight. Neither speaks. Ben turns on his side, and notices asmall tear forming in Elena's eyes. BEN You crying? ELENA I'm just sad Ben -- I mean it was... you were, but, you know. I just don't know... BEN (gently making light) Whatever that means Elena -- And you complain about me not communicating... I thought it was -- ELENA No, I didn't mean to sound negative. It was -- But Ben. (beat) What is going to happen with us? Have you -- BEN You have to bring this up now? What? Did I do something here? Is that it? Is it something I did? ELENA I wasn't accusing you, Ben. It's just that we've got to be honest. Not just with ourselves, but with the children. BEN (pause, sitting up) Hell, I know. I -- I guess if you want to accuse me, you've got -- (looks at watch) Oh hell! I've got to pick up Paul. I almost forgot.He gets up and starts to get dressed. ELENA You were saying?He smells the armpits of the shirt he's putting on. BEN Yikes -- I was hoping to wear this thing to the Halford's Friday. ELENA That shirt? BEN What? ELENA Leave it -- I'll wash it for you.He looks at her ruefully.EXT. HOOD STREET. DAYWendy walks and Mikey rides along. WENDY You have to follow me? MIKEY I dunno. I --They're now in front of the Hood's house.EXT. HOOD HOUSE. DAYBen exits the house in a rush, and sees Wendy and Mikey onthe street in front. BEN Hey there Mikey, how's business?CONTINUED: 85 MIKEY (tripping off of his bike) Business? Uh, I dunno.Ben grimaces, fiddles for his car keys.As Mikey remounts and rides off, Wendy passes her father onthe driveway. BEN I'm picking up Paul at the station - want to come? WENDY Nah. BEN What you been up to? WENDY Nothing.INT. HOOD LIVING ROOM. DAYWendy enters the house and climbs the stairs.She sees the crumpled bed sheets in her parents' room andhears Elena in the shower.EXT. NEW CANAAN STATION. DAYPaul walks to the parking lot with his father, who carrieshis duffel bag.EXT. STREETS. DAYBen's car heading back to the house with Paul.INT. HOOD CAR. DAY BEN So how's school treating you? PAUL All right. BEN Classes? PAUL Good. BEN Grades? PAUL Fine. BEN Anyone special? You know... PAUL Hnnn. BEN Well it's good to see you -- we miss you around the house and all, but this St. Peter's, it's top of the line, eh? PAUL Yeah. BEN You know Paul, I've been thinking, maybe this is as good a time as any to have a little talk, you know, about -- well --He makes a sharp turn. Paul puts his arms up on the dashboardto steady himself. PAUL (nervous) About? BEN Well, the whole gamut. Facts of life and all. Some fatherly advice, because, I tell you, there's things happening that you're probably old enough... well... (pause) For example, on the self-abuse front -- now this is important - it's not advisable to do it in the shower -- it wastes water and electricity and because we all expect you to be doing it there in any case -- and, um, not onto the linen, and not on your sister's underwear or any clothing belonging to your mother --He pauses to gauge the effect of his monologue on his son,then continues. PAUL Uh, Dad --Just then Ben runs a stop sign and almost slams into anothercar. BEN Holy! Well. If you're worried about anything, just feel free to ask, and, uh, we can look it up. PAUL Uh, dad, you know I'm 16. BEN All the more reason for this little heart to heart... great.EXT. HOOD HOUSE. DAYThe car pulls up. Paul gets out, looking shell-shocked. Hesees Wendy waving to him from a second floor window. He nodsback. BEN Um, Paul. On second thought, can you do me a favor and pretend I never said any of that. PAUL Sure dad. BEN Thanks.In the doorway, Elena waits.INT. HOOD HALLWAY. DAYPaul knocks on Wendy's bedroom door. She opens it. PAUL Hello, Charles. WENDY Greetings, Charles.INT. WENDY'S ROOM. DAYPaul and Wendy sit on the floor. PAUL How are the parental units functioning these days? WENDY Dad's like doing his Up With People routine, mom hasn't been saying much. PAUL I don't know. Dad seems a little weird. WENDY Yeah well wait till mom opens her mouth.They both ponder silently. Then: PAUL May I operate your telephonic apparatus? WENDY Why don't you use the phone downstairs? PAUL Calling an individual, Charles, in New York. Confirming a social outing for Friday night. WENDY Can I come? PAUL It's a one-on-one kind of date thing. WENDY With who? PAUL Her name's Libbets. WENDY Libbets? What kind of a name is Libbets?EXT. HOOD HOUSE. DAYMorning. To establish.INT. HOOD BEDROOM. DAYElena is coming out of the master bathroom in a robe, a towelwrapped around her head. ELENA The turkey in? BEN Stuffed and baking.INT. HOOD HALLWAY. DAYBen Hood pads down the hall in his bathrobe, tries thebathroom door. It's locked. BEN Anyone home?INT. HOOD BATHROOM. DAYThe shower is running, but Paul is standing by the openwindow, puffing on a joint and trying to blow the smokeoutside. PAUL I'll be out in a second.Ben walks back to the bedroom, smirking. BEN Sure you will.INT. HOOD DINING ROOM. DAYOne by one, each member of the Hood carried in a final itemto place on the overstuffed Thanksgiving table. Then, one byone, they each silently take their seats.They look over the table. No one moves. BEN Well, it's great we can all be together. And this Thanksgiving, no hysteria, no yelling, especially with grandpa not here, although we miss him. So let's do it right and actually, Wendy, why don't you say grace. You used to love to say grace, remember.Wendy grimaces, as they all bow their heads slightly. WENDY Dear Lord, thank you for Thanksgiving, and for letting us white people kill all the Indians...Everyone looks up. WENDY (CONT'D) ... and steal their tribal lands and stuff ourselves like pigsMutterings and groans: "Wendy!" "For Christ's sake" etc. WENDY (CONT'D) ... while children in Africa and Asia are napalmed and -- BEN Jesus all right enough!They all unceremoniously start to dig in. FADE OUT:INT. WILLIAMS GUEST ROOM. DAYJaney Williams is pouring Benjamin Hood a drink from a bottleof vodka. Benjamin is already unbuttoned and shoeless; Janeystill fully dressed. JANEY Here. BEN After the Thanksgiving I had, I need it. You having one? JANEY In a bit.She sits next to him, he kisses the back of her neck. BEN You know, I think Elena might suspect something.Janey gives him a rather contemptuous look. BEN (CONT'D) (thinking aloud) Maybe it's all for the better, you know? Yesterday, at dinner, well, she hasn't said anything... has she acted funny to you, I mean, have you noticed anything? JANEY (almost ironic) Have I noticed anything? I'm not married to her Benjamin, you are. I think you've probably a better vantage point from which to observe her. BEN Yeah, but, I -- I've been working a lot lately, and -- No, that's not it. I guess we've just been on the verge of saying something, whatever it is, just saying something to each other. On the verge.Janey gets up. JANEY I'll be back.Benjamin looks at her quizzically. BEN Huh? JANEY Birth control. BEN Right. Gotcha.She leaves the room.He leans back onto the bed. Sits back up. Takes a sip ofvodka. Puts the glass down. Takes his socks off. He's now injust his jockey shorts and shirt.Faintly, he hears a door close. The front door?He takes another sip.He hears another sound. BEN (CONT'D) Janey?Nothing.He goes to the door and carefully opens it. BEN (CONT'D) (quietly) Janey?He hears, quite audibly, a car door open, close, Janey's carstart and pull out.He runs to a front window just in time to catch a glimpse ofher driving off. BEN (CONT'D) Shit.INT. GUEST ROOM. LATERBenjamin sits on the guest bed, still in his underwear,drinking from the bottle.He gets up and starts to wander around the house, stillholding the bottle.INT. MASTER BEDROOM. CONT'DBenjamin saunters through. He presses on the king-sized bed --it undulates. BEN Water bed! Dig it!He wiggles comically, making more waves. JUMP CUT:Ben idly goes through Janey's drawers.INT. WILLIAMS MASTER BATHROOM. CONT'DHe rifles through the bathroom cabinet, checking out themedicines.INT. WILLIAMS BEDROOM. CONT'DHe notices a garter belt hanging from the walk-in closetdoor. He picks it up and twirls it.INT. MIKEY'S ROOM. CONT'DBenjamin walks in, an obvious look of distaste.He sorts through a few of Mike's things -- monster eyes thatglow in the dark, The Sensuous Woman, etc.He twirls the garter belt absentmindedly, then tosses it intothe back of Mike's closet.INT. GUEST ROOM. CONT'DHe finishes putting his clothes back on. As he reaches forthe door, he hears voices and quickly steps back in again.Teenage voices. Mikey and Wendy. MIKEY (O.S.) See, no one's here. Maybe you want to go to the basement? WENDY (O.S.) Maybe we can just watch some TV. MIKEY (O.S.) There's a TV in the basement.Hood hears their steps down into the basement.INT. BASEMENT. DAYWendy and Mikey stand in the middle of the semi-lit basement. MIKEY Maybe we can mess around. You know, only if you want to... WENDY I don't know. MIKEY Why did you -- with Sandy? WENDY I don't know. MIKEY You like him? He worships you.But Wendy doesn't seem to hear -- she's drawn to an objectlying next to a bean bag chair off to one side. WENDY Hey, what's this?With a look of utter fascination, she picks up a Nixon mask,looking at it as though it were an archeological find. WENDY (CONT'D) Wow! MIKEY Wendy!She puts the mask on. WENDY (from behind the mask) I won't take my pants off. But I'll touch it. That's as far as it goes.Mikey looks totally confused.Remaining fully clothed, Wendy loosens Mike's belt, showingno excitement from behind her mask, and lets him climb on topof her for a dry hump.Just then, a shaft of light hits them from the top of thestairs -- Ben towers above them, looking down.Mikey flips over immediately and pulls his clothes together,grabbing a TV Guide as Wendy stands up, the mask still on.As Ben descends Mikey, still stuffing his shirt-tail into hispants, pretends to flip through the TV Guide. MIKEY (muttering) When worlds collide. WENDY Huh? MIKEY 4:30 movie. When Worlds Collide.Ben arrives, folds his arms. BEN What the hell are you kids doing down here? WENDY What do you think we're doing, dad? BEN What do I think? I think you're probably touching each other. I think you're touching that reckless jerk-off, for god's sake, and I think he's trying to get into your slacks. I think, at fourteen years of age, that you're getting ready to give up your girlhood -- MIKEY Hey, hang on there, Mr. Hood -- BEN Don't you direct a single word at me, Mikey. I don't want to hear it. I'll be speaking with your parents about this situation very soon. Bet your ass on that, son. Young lady? WENDY Talking to me, dad? BEN Who else would I be talking to? And take that thing off! WENDY (pulling off the mask) Well, then forget all this stern dad stuff. BEN I'm not interested in your smart ass remarks now, lady. Let's go. Right now. You and I can discuss it on the walk home.She stands next to Mikey for a moment, both on the verge oftears.EXT. STREET. EVENINGHood and Wendy walk through a cold drizzling rain.He looks at her from time to time, then takes her arm. BEN Look, kiddo, don't worry about it. I really don't care that much. I'm just not sure he's good enough, that's all. WENDY Huh? BEN I mean, he's not serious, he'll end up living off Janey and Jim, you watch. It's just that you develop a sense when you get older, if things are going to work out or if they won't, and sometimes it's not worth the mess...She looks at him. They keep walking. She walks through apuddle. BEN (CONT'D) Your toes cold? WENDY Yeah.He stops and lifts her in his arms. BEN I'll carry you up the drive.She puts her arms around his neck and he lifts her up.On her face, as he carries her -- a look of blank but realintimacy.INT. HOOD FRONT HALL. EVENINGHood and Wendy enter, wet and cold, muttering hellos. ELENA (O.S.) (from the kitchen) Dinner in ten minutes. BEN You go dry off now.Wendy heads for the stairs, Hood following.INT. HOOD BEDROOM. EVENINGHood finishes taking off his wet clothes as Elena enters andturns on a light. She stands watching him. BEN Never guess where I found her.Not much response From Elena. BEN (CONT'D) In the basement over at Janey and Jim's. With that weirdo Mikey. Not even a TV on. And they're on the floor and he's got his trousers down though thank goodness she's still dressed. Well, I really let him have it! (a nervous laugh) ... and Wendy came home peacefully... Hey, should I dress for the Halford's now, or - give me your - ELENA Up to you. I'd like to go early and leave pretty soon after that. BEN I get you loud and clear... hey, you look nice. ELENA So what were you doing in the Williams' basement anyway? BEN Oh, just dropping off a coffee cup. Jim left it, last time he was over. It was on the dash of the car. You were, you know, reading, thought I'd just catch some air. Let's eat. ELENA Oh right. The mustache coffee cup. The one that was sitting on the dash. BEN Yeah, that one. ELENA That one.She walks down to the kitchen, Benjamin following her.INT. KITCHEN. EVENINGWendy is already in the kitchen, fishing through the drawersfor silverware and napkins.Paul enters. PAUL See you. BEN Stay out of trouble. ELENA You'll be on the 10:30 train? PAUL 11:30? ELENA Paul -- BEN Ah let the guy have his fun. What's the name of this girl with the Park Avenue address? PAUL Libbets. Libbets Casey. BEN Libbets? What kind of name is Libbets?INT. KITCHEN. NIGHTA silent dinner of turkey sandwiches with Elena, Benjamin,and Wendy. The turkey carcass sits, embarrassed, in themiddle of the table.Wendy, finished, gets up from the table. Opens the fridge,but finds nothing. Then goes to the candy shelf and grabssome Hot Tamales, leaving the room without a word and goinginto the den.INT. DEN. NIGHTWendy turns the TV on. TV ... and that ends today's highlight coverage of the Watergate affair. WENDY Shoot.INT. KITCHEN. NIGHTHood and Elena rise from the table with their dishes. BEN What's for dessert? ELENA See for yourself. BEN No advice from the experts, huh?His plate slips out of his hands into the trash. He fishes itout and sets it on the counter. ELENA Don't start. BEN You think I -- ELENA I have no idea. BEN What's on your mind? Don't -- ELENA It wouldn't make a pleasant evening, if that's what you're after. I don't want to talk about it. Stupid mustache cup. BEN What do you mean? ELENA Don't be dim. BEN Elena, what are you're talking about? ELENA I'm not surprised. BEN Listen, Elena, if you're gonna pull that passive aggressive stuff on me again -- ELENA Your unfaithfulness -- that's what I'm trying to talk about. Your unfaithfulness. Your betrayal. Your dalliance. And you won't do me the dignity of being up front about it. BEN (quieter) Am I unfaithful? Is that what you're trying to say? ELENA It's a starting place. BEN Well, what kind of faithfulness are you after? ELENA If you're going to insult me -- BEN What else could I be? What else could I be? We're not living in the real world here. You're living out some fantasy land from the past, or some advice or something from those psychoanalysts... there are some hard facts here.Silence. BEN (CONT'D) It's the law of the land... the government, the world, those two guys on the Yankees... And I'm not having any fun at it, I can tell you that. I'm not...INT. DEN. NIGHTWendy puts the volume of the TV up, to drown out aconversation she can almost overhear but doesn't want to.INT. KITCHEN. NIGHT. CONT'D ELENA Oh lord. You think I'm so dense. And now you want to be seen with your dense wife at the cocktail party. You want to wear that ridiculous shirt which doesn't go with those pants at all. You want to wear that, and you want me to shake hands with your friends and make conversation and dress up in an outfit that shows a lot of cleavage and you're not going to accord me the respect of talking honestly about this... You don't really know what this feels like. BEN (whispering) Sure I do. Do I know what loneliness feels like? Sure I do. I know a lot about it, if that's what you mean. ELENA Benjamin. That's supposed to explain it?Seemingly tired, he stands before her. Silence. Elena sighs,then walks into the den.INT. DEN. NIGHT ELENA We're going to the Halford's. The number's on the calendar in the kitchen. We should be home around 11. WENDY (eyes still glued to the TV) Is it a big party? A big neighborhood party? ELENA I suppose. Why? WENDY Just curious. If there's a problem, I guess I'll just call you there to interrupt. ELENA What sort of problems are you planning exactly?Elena kisses the top of her head. WENDY (still watching the TV) Oh I thought I'd steal the station wagon, drive up to a commune. Or set the house on fire. You know. ELENA Just bundle up. It's supposed to freeze tonight. We'll see you in the morning.EXT. HOOD HOUSE. NIGHTElena and Ben emerge from the house, and look up at adarkening, foreboding sky. A light rain falls. They jogtoward their car.INT/EXT. HOOD CAR. NIGHTThe car moves slowly through the rainy suburban streets.Inside, Elena and Ben don't speak.EXT. HALFORD HOUSE. NIGHTTheir Firebird pulls up. There are already many other carsparked on the lawn and driveway.INT. HALFORD FOYER. NIGHTHood and Elena enter. Dot Halford accosts them. DOT Ben, Elena. Wonderful! Wonderful! So wonderful to see you.Finishing the last of a celery canoe, she kisses the air nextto Ben's ear and gives Elena a manic hug.Then, picking up a white salad bowl from the hall table: DOT (CONT'D) Would you care to play? New this year.Close on: the bowl full of keys. DOT (CONT'D) Strictly volunteer, of course. You can put your coats in the library if you like. ELENA Oh, damn. Uh, I've left the -- BEN You've... ELENA In the car. BEN Oh, yeah. Yeah, we'll be right back, Dot.INT./EXT. CAR. CONT'DBen and Elena climb back in the car and close the doors,shivering. ELENA This just isn't the best moment for this. BEN I know, I know. I had no idea -- ELENA That this was going to be a key party? BEN Yeah, well, if we'd understood we could have invented some kind of excuse. A key party -- did you see how stuffed that bowl was already? ELENA Well? BEN I think we're here and we don't have to stay -- we ought simply to put in an appearance and then we can head home. ELENA Damn it, Ben -- BEN I'm not staying at this party so we can go home with someone else's wife. That's not why we're here, right? We're simply being neighbors here, and I think we should do just that -- ELENA You're not going to -- BEN I'm not. ELENA You have some marker, that's what I think, if you want to know the truth. You have some marker and you're going to put it on the house keys so that Janey can find them and then when I get back to the house I'll find the two of you in there and Wendy'll be able to hear you and Paul will be back and he'll hear you and I'll catch you, that's what I think. She'll be swearing and banging against the wall and I'll catch -- BEN Elena.She rubs her eyes. BEN (CONT'D) Elena, it's not what you think. It's not a big plot. Honestly. Honestly. I don't know if you want to go over this now, but it's just something that comes over me. I don't feel good about it. I know I've done what I didn't want to do. I don't know -- ELENA Well, I'm really pleased to hear a confession. BEN Elena, you're just getting wound up to get wound up. ELENA Thanks for the diagnosis, Ben. Thank you. So let's just go to this fiasco if that's what you want to do. Let's just go on in. I'd rather talk to anyone else but you.She pulls the keys out of the ignition, gets out of the car,and slams the door. He follows her.INT. HALFORD FOYER. NIGHT ELENA Oh, Dot!Elena, entering the house again, tosses the keys at DotHalford, who looks surprised.Hood slides in behind his wife.Dot drops the keys into the bowl.Slow-motion, close up: the keys, on their equine chain, fallin with a THUNDEROUS CRASH.INT. HALFORD LIVING ROOM. CONT'DThe room is crowded with nervous, expectant couples andvarious groupings.Elena slips into a side room.Benjamin heads over immediately to the drink table and poursa stiff one, turning around to find at his elbow none otherthan George Clair. GEORGE Benjie! BEN Clair, George Clair! What the hell brings you to New Canaan? GEORGE Well, it's the funniest thing. I've been talking to some investors -- a little outside venture, you understand, between you and me -- about a scheme to manufacture a new Styrofoam packaging. Little peanut like pieces that can really keep an item free from trauma during shipping. Miraculous. Anyway, it turns out the genius behind the whole project is your neighbor, Jim Williams. How about that! BEN Well, hey, isn't that a one-in-a million coincidence. A real dreamer, Jim Williams, eh? GEORGE Darned right. Look here, Benj, whaddya make of this sequel to The Godfather? You think it's gonna work? BEN Don't see how. I think the public's had its fill of this gangster stuff. No, trust me -- disaster pics. And air hockey. GEORGE Yeah, good.Benjamin catches a glimpse of Janey, voluptuously attired,across the room. GEORGE (CONT'D) Well, gonna make a break for the hors d'oeuvres guy. BEN Yeah, see you bright and early Monday am. (beat) Say, where's the wife? GEORGE (winking as he goes) In Rhode Island with the folks. I'm a free agent tonight.At this, they both notice Elena slowly gliding across theother side of the room. Clair gives Ben a sideways glance,then moves on.Ben makes straight for Janey, who pretends to be preoccupiedwith a plant. JANEY Oh jeez, Benjie. Well, here you are. BEN Damn right, but where the hell were you? JANEY (looking around) What are you talking about? BEN (whispering, but too loudly) Don't bullshit me around, Janey. Jesus Christ, I waited around for more than half an hour, in nothing but my boxer shorts, and -- and what's all that about? What the hell happened?Janey takes a sip of her drink. JANEY A prior engagement overcame me. BEN What? JANEY Listen, Benjamin Hood. I have obligations that precede your... from before you showed up. One or two, you know, good-natured encounters, that doesn't mean I'm... I'm not just some toy for you. When I remembered some chores I wanted to get done before the party, I just did them, that's all, because I wanted to do them before I saw Jimmy. BEN Jimmy? Jimmy? I don't know how to take this. And what do you mean, Jimmy? I thought you said you and your husband -- JANEY How you take it isn't all that interesting to me, Benjamin. I'm sorry -- BEN I just can't believe you could be so --Stalling, he watches her take another sip of her drink andwander off.The air is filled with talk of Watergate, Billie Jean King,the Oil Crisis, the Mets.Benjamin goes over to the couch, where Dave Gorman ischatting up an attractive younger woman. GORMAN (lighting up a joint) Welcome to the Monkey House has been a seminal influence on me -- hey Benjamin -- give it a try? This stuff will make some sense out of those larger questions. BEN (waving it away) Thanks for the advice Dave.But then, Benjamin changes his mind. BEN (CONT'D) Uh, well, what the hey...Taking the joint, he tugs on it, holding the smoke in hislungs. BEN (CONT'D) (coughing) Good shit. GORMAN Sure is good shit. It's opiated. I had it in my chamber for a while. I was smoking this other -- BEN It's what? GORMAN Don't fret, Benjie, it's -- BEN Darn it, Dave.He rises unsteadily, weaving through the room'sconversations. JACK MOELLERING Take California. They've got their own airline in-state that's not subject to the fare controls. Compare Sacramento to L.A. on the controlled airlines and you'll see what Friedman is saying -- supply and demand, less restriction.Benjamin walks over to a window. The outdoor lamps illuminatea new and heavy downpour of frozen sleet.INT. CONRAIL TRAIN. NIGHTPaul is seated, reading the latest number of The FantasticFour comic book. The cover displays a lurid, atomicallyglowing baby.The conductor walks through the cabin. CONDUCTOR Approaching our final stop, Grand Central Station.Paul looks out the window at the tenements of Harlem, barelyvisible through the walls of sleet. Soon the train enters thetunnel toward the station.EXT. PARK AVENUE APARTMENT BUILDING. NIGHTPaul gets out of a cab and heads inside. He's met by thedoorman. PAUL Libbets Casey, please. DOORMAN Your name? PAUL Paul Hood. DOORMAN (a smirk) Elevator on the right. Eighth floor -- she's waiting for you.INT. HALL IN FRONT OF LIBBETS' APARTMENT DOOR. NIGHTPaul rings the bell. LIBBETS (O.S.) (from the other side of the door) Open it Paul!Paul opens the door, and enters the apartment.INT. LIBBETS' APARTMENT. NIGHTIt's half dark, has an air of old wealth.Libbets skids across the parquet floor to him. LIBBETS Excellent. We were waiting!She turns and runs into the den. PAUL (under his breath) We?And there, in the den, cleaning an ounce of dope on an opencopy of Nixon's Six Crises, is -- Francis. FRANCIS (lifting the book up) You oughtta read this Hood, Nixon, our leader, all ye need know about the travails of life. Check out the Checkers speech stuff. PAUL (all hope drained from him) Francis. You gonna leave the seeds in there? In the binding like that? FRANCIS All will be revealed, baby.The television is turned on to a weather report about thecoming ice storm. FRANCIS (CONT'D) Awesome sleet and rain. LIBBETS Major. FRANCIS Howdy there. You, young knight. Can you check on the mead? Can you sally forth and secure us some more mead? PAUL Huh? FRANCIS (nasal voice, impersonating a TV character) Moisture! Moisture! LIBBETS (pointing) Beer. In the pantry.Paul trudges disconsolately out of the room.INT. LIBBETS KITCHEN. NIGHTPaul, after wandering a maze of halls, enters the kitchen,where he takes a six-pack out of the fridge and returns tothe living room.INT. LIBBETS LIVING ROOM. NIGHTHe enters the room with the beer. LIBBETS Frankie opens them with his teeth. PAUL (handing him a beer) Hey, it's a sellable skill.Francis licks closed a second joint, then takes the beer andopens it with his rear molars. FRANCIS Hell on the fillings.Paul opens the other two beers and hands one to Libbets. Theylight up a joint. FRANCIS Everything's gonna freeze, the big freeze. LIBBETS Yeah, Paul, are you gonna get home okay?Paul and Francis exchange a look.She puts an Allman Brothers tape on the 8-track and turns theTV down.INT. HOOD BATHROOM. DAYWendy enters the bathroom.She fills the sink with water, then turns off the tap. Shetakes a razor blade from the counter, and slowly,determinedly, holds it to her wrist.She presses it into her skin, drawing a small drop of blood. WENDY Ouch!She drops the blade and splashes water on her wrist, grabbingsome toilet paper and holding it against the tiny wound. WENDY Stupid.She hears the phone ring and walks downstairs.INT. HOOD DEN. NIGHTWendy picks up the phone. WENDY Hood residence.INT. WILLIAMS KITCHEN. NIGHTMikey is on the other end of the line. MIKEY You're parents at that party? INTERCUT: WENDY Yeah. Yours? MIKEY You get in trouble? WENDY Maybe. Can't really tell yet. MIKEY I'm sorry if I got you into trouble. Maybe we don't have to, you know... unless you really want to. WENDY Yeah. MIKE I'm going to Silver Meadow, check out the ice storm... You wanna come. WENDY Maybe. MIKE Yeah. OK.INT. WILLIAMS HOUSE. NIGHTMikey, bundled up in a huge orange ski parka and cap, headsfor the door. SANDY Where you going? MIKEY Out. SANDY It's freezing. MIKEY (pausing) Yeah. When it freezes, I guess that means the molecules are not moving. So when you breathe, there's nothing in the air, you know, to breathe in to your body. The molecules have stopped. So it's clean.Sandy just looks at him. He walks out into the night.INT. HALFORD'S. NIGHTElena sits on a couch, talking to no one, barely looking up,when someone stands in front of her. ELENA Reverend Edwards. PHILIP Perhaps you might find it in your heart to call me Philip?He sits beside her. ELENA You're here... I'm a bit surprised. PHILIP Sometimes the shepherd needs the company of the sheep. ELENA I'm going to try hard not to understand the implications of that simile.Philip's about to reply, but thinks better of it.They sit glumly next to each other for a minute. Then Philiprises. PHILIP Forgive me.He walks swiftly to the hall and hurriedly fishes his keysout of the bowl, then heads for the door. TED FRANKLIN (passing by) I hope those weren't my keys.He laughs at his own joke as Philip rushes out the frontdoor.Back to Elena, even more forlorn than before.INT. LIBBETS APARTMENT BATHROOM. NIGHTPaul enters the bathroom. We hear Francis' and Libbets'voices from the other room, laughing.He pees.At the sink, he pauses in front of the medicine cabinet, thenopens it. PAUL Eureka.He pulls out some bottles. PAUL Valium. Seconal. Uh, (can't quite pronounce this one) Par-er-goric? (a beat, looking into the mirror for effect) Francis Chamberlain Davenport the Fourth -- tonight you sleep the sleep of the just.He pockets the Seconal and turns out the light.INT. LIBBETS APARTMENT DEN. NIGHTPaul re-enters the den to find Francis alone. PAUL And whence has yon virginal maiden absconded? FRANCIS Like into one of the other 20 or so bathrooms they've got in this place.Paul takes out the bottle and opens it. PAUL Check it out. Not for the faint of heart. FRANCIS Pharmaceutical! You are a god. PAUL (CONT'D) (picking up beer, trying to hurry before Libbets returns) One for you and one for me.He hands a pill to Francis, then pretends to pop one into hismouth and takes a swig of his beer. As Francis downs his own,Paul pockets his unswallowed pill. LIBBETS (in the doorway) No candy for me? FRANCIS Groovy. (to Paul) Young master of the revels, a treat for our hostess? PAUL Well, uh, I don't, it's really -- LIBBETS What is it? FRANCIS Come on Paulie, share the wealth. You copped 'em from her mom's stash anyway. LIBBETS Let's see! PAUL (hand in pocket) Libbets, you really shouldn't mix and match, you know with the beer. I'll put 'em back.Libbets reaches into his pocket and pulls out the bottle. LIBBETS Oh far out, Paulie. Hey look, these expired like five months ago. You think they're better aged?She opens up the bottle and takes one out. PAUL Maybe you should have just a half. LIBBETS Thanks for the advice dad.She takes the pill.Paul looks on, thwarted.INT. HALFORD'S. NIGHTBen is back at the bar, pouring another tall one. Mark Bolandsidles up next to him. BOLAND Benjie, feeling no pain. BEN As the Indian saying goes, pain is merely an opinion. BOLAND (nodding across the room) Hey -- check it out. Maria Conrad's brought her son. (walking off) I wish some of the gang had brought their daughters!Ben feels a wave of distaste at the joke.He looks across the room as Maria and her son Neil (stringyhair, acne, tie-dyed turtleneck, patched jeans) are engagingJaney and Philip Edwards in conversation.INT. LIBBETS' APARTMENT. NIGHTPaul, Francis, and Libbets sit on the floor, listening to themusic blasting at full strength.Libbets and Francis are obviously on the verge ofunconsciousness. Paul regards them with a look ofapprehension on his face.INT. HALFORD'S. NIGHTNeil has now cornered Janey. NEIL As Werner says, there is nothing to get. That's It. When you get that there's nothing to get. That's the training, when you ask yourself, the question, "What is is?" JANEY Wait, this is the training, where they don't let you go to the bathroom? NEIL That was the hardest part. But I did it. And you get into some far out shit.INT. LIBBETS' APARTMENT. NIGHTLibbets puts a blanket over a sleeping Francis, who's crashedout on the floor in a corner. Francis alternates betweensnores and various mumbled delirious ravings. FRANCIS The foot... the foot... toeclipper man...Paul is sitting on the couch, and Libbets comes back and sitsat his feet, facing up to him. PAUL I guess he's just real exhausted from, you know, tests and stuff.Libbets is herself somewhat in dreamland. LIBBETS Yeah. PAUL You know Libbets, I really feel, you know, like a real connection to you -- LIBBETS Yeah but you don't even know me really. PAUL Sure I do, you know, like your aura. That you give off. LIBBETS My what? PAUL It's like very positive, and I feel a real special feeling, because you really -- LIBBETS And I have a special feeling too, because I do. It's special. PAUL You do? I'm glad. Because I feel for you -- LIBBETS And I have a feeling for you too, because you're just like -- I feel for you like you're -- you're just like -- PAUL AND LIBBETS (simultaneously) -- like a brother. PAUL Yeah, you're not alone with that line. LIBBETS I do. PAUL Right. Cool. So, how about we take a bath together? LIBBETS (consciousness fading fast) Hah hah you're funny. A bath. Like a brother and sister. Oh man, I'm so wasted.Her head bobs and weaves, her eyes close, and suddenly herhead falls forward with a whoosh toward the couch -- smackdab between Paul's legs.She begins to snore instantly, her open mouth nuzzling intohis crotch.Paul doesn't move, doesn't even breathe. Then, slowly, heleans his back into the couch, without shifting the rest ofhis body.He looks as though he has simultaneously won the lottery andreceived a lobotomy.INT. HALFORD'S. NIGHTThe crowd's a bit thinner than before.As Dot Halford begins calling out for everyone's attention, afew couples make their last-minute way to the door. DOT OK everyone. We have a little business to attend to now. So everyone who'd like to stay, please gather in the living room.She scoops up the bowl and places it on a high end tablewhich has been put in the middle of the room. BEN (walking up to Elena) Ready to go? ELENA We're not going anywhere.Elena waves at Janey Williams, who is standing across theliving room.Janey looks back without expression.INT. LIBBETS' APARTMENT. NIGHTLibbets and Paul in the same position whence last we sawthem.Paul delicately leans to one side of the couch and picks up aphone. He dials a number. INTERCUT:INT. HOOD LIVING ROOM. NIGHTThe phone rings. Wendy picks it up. WENDY Hood residence. PAUL (whispering) Charles, what time is it? WENDY Is this Charles? PAUL What time is it? WENDY Um, ten-o-five. Why? Where are you? PAUL I'm, uh, in the midst of a moral dilemma. And I was wondering, because I know you're a very moral person, and -- WENDY And? PAUL Shit. I can't really talk about it. I guess I better get to the train. WENDY Right. PAUL What are you doing at home on a Friday night? WENDY I have plans.Paul hangs up the phone and looks down at Libbets.Libbets' Allman Brothers tape has run out. The machine makesa repeated clicking sound as the take up real continues tocircle. The only other sound is the noise of the wind andrain lashing against the apartment's windows.EXT. HOOD HOUSE. NIGHTWendy emerges from the house and gets on her bike, but theice makes it too slippery. The storm is now in full swing.She gets off and walks.EXT. STREET. NIGHTWendy walks, barely keeping her balance in the wind.INT. HALFORD'S NIGHTAll the couples are now gathered for the key selectionprocess, men on one side of the room, women on the other. Thestorm can be heard outside. DOT Well, what shall the order be, alphabetical? In order of appearance? PIERCE SAWYER Golf handicap! Lowest handicap does the honors.Nervous laughter. DOT Golf handicap? Ladies, isn't it up to you? MARIA CONRAD Oh I'll go first, damn it. Let's just line up and get it over with.Maria chooses Stephen Earle. Hands the keys to him. Asmattering of applause as she takes his arm and they leave. MARIE EARLE Good luck!Neil watches his mother's exit. JUMP CUT TO:A few more couplings. JUMP CUT TO:Helen Worthington approaches the bowl. Helen Worthington hasthe size and shape of a sumo wrestler.There is a nervous shifting of weight on the male side of theroom.Helen delicately reaches into the bowl. Her hands emerge witha key chain.George Clair steps forward, obviously depressed, as acollective sigh of relief goes up from behind him. Ben lookson, momentarily triumphant.Elena smiles to herself. JUMP CUT TO:The Gadds choose each other. MRS. GADD Oh, my own husband. Isn't that against the rules? DOT Try again? MRS. GADD (relieved) Oh, I think not.Mr. Gadd smiles as they leave, obviously happy to go.Finally, only Mark Boland, Neil Conrad, Janey and JimWilliams, Rob and Dot Halford, Sari Steele, Benjamin andElena. DOT Getting down to the wire!Elena steps forward. Benjamin is obviously agitated.Close on Janey's hands selecting -- away from Ben's equinekey ring.She lifts up another key ring -- Neil Conrad, the teenager.She hands the self-important-looking Neil his keys and theyturn to go.Jim Williams smiles mysteriously to himself.Ben suddenly lurches forward, semi-drunkenly, trying toseparate Neil from Janey. THE GROUP (ad lib) Hey hey Ben, hang on there a sec.He backs off, ashamed, and, taking a step backwards, tripsover the coffee table.Mark Boland helps lift him up. BEN Sorry... maybe I should... the bathroom? DOT Right down the hall, Ben. BEN (muttering) Sorry, I'm sorry. Uh, I'll be back.Dot follows Mark Boland down the hall behind Ben.Suddenly, it's just Elena and Jim Williams, and Sari Steeleand Rob Halford. ROB HALFORD (taking Sari's arm) Actually, we didn't put our keys in at all. But you won't spread it around? It's my party, and Dot isn't... hey, we're just going to slip upstairs for a while. You folks like a cup of coffee or something before we go?Elena and Jim look at each other. ELENA Rob, we'll fix it for ourselves. You two go and get acquainted. We'll let ourselves out the front door.Jim and Elena stand there alone. JIM Well, I have to say I don't have much faith that my car keys are still in that bowl. Doesn't seem entirely safe, leaving your car keys around? ELENA Let me.She takes the bowl and dips her hand in. Two sets are left.One, her own, she avoids. She takes out Jim's keys and walksacross the room, handing them to him. JIM Thanks, but -- oh, I don't think so. It's been kind of a discouraging evening. ELENA You couldn't have hoped for much better when you came up the walk. JIM Somehow it was different in my imagination when I thought about it. Actually, I didn't think about it at all, really.They sit down on the sofa. JIM You want coffee or something? ELENA Well, maybe they have one of those filter jobs in the kitchen -- JIM Look, Elena, the fact that we're neighbors... you know, close friends, well it sort of makes this a little strange, don't you think? ELENA My husband is probably passed out in the bathroom, or at least he wishes he were. I've been married to him for 17 years and I don't have any intention of going in there to get him... so what I'm proposing is that since your wife has gone off with a boy, and since you are standing here alone, I'm proposing that you and I do what makes sense. Stay warm. Pass some time. That's all.They both look at their hands. ELENA Now don't make me feel as if I'm being too forward, OK? If you don't -- JIM What the hey. Let's go for a drive. ELENA Okay. Shall we clean up around here first? Do you think it's all right-- JIM Nah, that wasn't in the contract.But they still walk around turning off lights.In the hallway, Elena looks a bit mournfully at the lightseeping from underneath the bathroom door. She hears thesound of running water from inside.Then she goes into a sideroom and joins Jim. They pick uptheir coats.EXT. HALFORD HOUSE. NIGHTElena and Jim walk outside into the freezing, pelting rain.Covering their faces, they jog to his car, an oversizedCadillac. A thick glaze of ice forms on his windshield.INT. JIM'S CADILLAC. NIGHTThey climb in. JIM We're going to have to defrost this thing for a while.He turns on the ignition, and the vents start to blow coldair at them.He leans over and kisses her. ELENA Do these seats go back?That starts it. He jumps at her, unbuckling her and unzippinghimself.They tangle uncomfortably for a few seconds. And then,comically, he's in her.With a groan, it's over in a flash.Jim pulls himself off, readjusting his pants. JIM That was awful, really awful. I'm so sorry, Elena.Elena has somehow worked herself into the cavity of the glovecompartment, and is trying to figure out how to extricateherself. JIM Things are really rotten at home. You wouldn't believe how rotten. Janey's sick. She's unstable, I guess... it's not the right time to tell you... but that's it -- it's like I can't make her happy, the boys can't make her happy, she just doesn't -- ELENA Jim, maybe we should just go. I've got to look in on the kids. Paul is supposed to be coming back in from the city. JIM Jesus, let me make it up to you -- I can do better than that, honestly -- ELENA Well, we can talk about it. JIM That's fine. I wouldn't expect you to see it any other way. ELENA Maybe you just need -- look, can you wait here a sec, I need to tidy up -- just a minute, I'll be right back. You'll wait? JIM Of course.She opens the door and walks back to the house.INT. HALFORD'S. CONT'DElena hesitantly walks to the bathroom.She opens the door. Ben's sitting on the floor, next to thetoilet, woozily flipping through the pages of a magazine. BEN Elena. ELENA Ben, I've got a ride home. Maybe you should sleep this one off on the couch here? BEN I'll drive you -- ELENA Ben.She sits on the toilet next to him, stroking his hair. ELENA (CONT'D) You're in no condition to drive. We'll talk in the morning, OK?He sits, accepting and quiet. ELENA (CONT'D) You'll get some sleep on the couch out there? BEN (looking up at her, with gratitude) Sure. I'll try. And we'll talk in the morning? ELENA We'll talk in the morning.EXT. WILLIAMS HOUSE. NIGHTWendy walks up the drive in the rain, pauses, then goes tothe front door and knocks lightly. The door swings ajar. Shepushes on it, and lets herself in.INT. WILLIAMS HOUSE. NIGHT WENDY Anyone home? Hello.Wendy wanders into the living room, then climbs the steps.The sound of the wind and the darkness begin to scare her.She goes into Mikey's room -- it's even more of a disasterzone than usual.She sees on the wall his dark-light poster of the 12 (sexual)positions of the zodiac.She notices the black garter belt on the floor, and picks itup, absentmindedly swinging it in her hand as she walks outof the room.She walks back down the stairs and into the kitchen, leavingthe garter belt on the counter.She opens the refrigerator, grabs a jar of peanut butter, andscoops some up in her finger. As she puts her finger in hermouth -- SANDY Wendy.She gives out a little yelp. WENDY Sandy, you scared the shit out of me. SANDY What are you doing? WENDY Just thought I'd stop by. SANDY Mike's out -- I think he went to Silver Meadow to see if you were hanging around there. WENDY Yeah. SANDY (pause) Are you his girlfriend? WENDY No.INT. JIM'S CADILLAC. NIGHTElena gets in. They drive off silently.EXT. STREETS. NIGHTThe car moves haltingly through the sleet and ice, inches upa hill, then falters and slides back silently, circling acouple of times before crashing into an embankment.INT. CAR. NIGHTAs the car slides and crashes amid Jim's and Elena's screams.Silence. JIM You okay? ELENA Yeah. You? JIM Yes. Well, I guess we can walk from here.EXT. CAR. NIGHTJim and Elena get out, shaky, from the car.They pause for a moment.The street lamp above them sizzles, but stays on.They start to walk.INT. LIBBETS' APARTMENT. NIGHTPaul and Libbets, still frozen in the same position. Finally,Paul gently pushes Libbets' head back.It slides off his leg and, as Paul lurches forward in afailed attempt to grab it, Libbets flops backwards, her headhitting the carpet with a dull but decidedly loud thump. PAUL Oh shit!Paul gets up, looks down at her.She snores.He runs over to a side table and sees the clock: 11:10. PAUL (CONT'D) Oh shit oh shit.He grabs his comic books and runs for the door.INT. TAXI. NIGHTThe driver impassively inches down Park Avenue. PAUL Oh shit oh shit. C'mon!INT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION PLATFORM. NIGHTPaul sprints down the platform just as the doors are closing.He barely makes it into the train.INT. TRAIN. NIGHTPaul walks through the nearly empty train car and finds aseat. He pulls his Fantastic Four comic book out of his coatpocket.INT. HALFORD KITCHEN. NIGHTBen makes his way to the kitchen, pours himself a cup ofcoffee.He sees himself reflected in the black glass of the cabinets.INT. SANDY'S ROOM. NIGHTSandy and Wendy are sitting on the floor. He grabs his G.I.Joe. SANDY Check this out. He's supposed to talk all kinds of stuff, but he's like malfunctioned.He pulls the dog tag on the doll, and G.I. Joe emits aplastic macho voice. G.I. JOE Mayday! Mayday! Get this message back to base! SANDY Same thing. Again and again.Wendy takes the doll and yanks the cord. G.I. JOE Mayday! Mayday! Get this message back to base! SANDY It's gonna get a lot colder tonight, I predict. Probably a blackout. Do you have candles in your house? I know where the candles are, and I have my own flashlight. Over there. Also, I know where every emergency exit is on this floor.During the course of his monologue, as Wendy looks on, Sandycalmly ties a noose for his doll. SANDY This knot's called a bowline.He puts the noose over the doll's head, as Wendy holds him. G.I. JOE Mayday! Mayday! SANDY Let's hang him.Sandy drapes the noose over the edge of a dresser drawer.G.I. Joe dangles. They both look at him in silence.The silence continues. WENDY He's dead. SANDY If it wasn't raining we could take him outside and blow him up. WENDY He wouldn't blow up. He'd just get all mangled or twisted.She takes him down and lays him flat on the bed. And thenbegins to remove his clothes.Sandy looks on, desirous. WENDY Well. (noticing his lack of anatomy) It looks like someone got to his private parts before us. SANDY Communist Viet Cong. WENDY They left it in the jungle.They speak with high seriousness.Wendy slides up on the bed where Sandy sits, a pillow on hislap, and one by one, with exaggerated slowness, she removesher snowboots, as if they were stiletto heels. WENDY Can I get into your bed? (pause) With you?Sandy begins to shake. SANDY We -- we have to go to the guest room. We can't stay in here. What if Mikey? My parents? WENDY Don't worry about them. They're at that party, getting drunk and falling all over each other and making jokes about McGovern and stuff.Sandy begins to cry. SANDY It's just -- it's just --She takes his hand, and they walk out of the room and downthe hall, into the guest room.INT. GUEST ROOM. NIGHTWendy and Sandy enter. She sees the vodka bottle on thedresser. WENDY Want a drink? SANDY Vodka? WENDY You never tasted the stuff?She fills the glass to the brim and hands the bottle toSandy.They clink and each toss back a sip -- Wendy almost theentire glass.Sandy coughs and gags, but swallows. WENDY Try again.He does. SANDY It feels warm. WENDY One more shot? SANDY Okay.They drink. WENDY Under the covers.Under they go, and soon every layer of clothing emerges. WENDY (feeling her way) Get 'em off.Sandy begins to laugh, and soon Wendy joins him.They roll around on top of each other for a while. WENDY Have you ever had a nocturnal emission? SANDY Huh? WENDY That's the name for when you wake up and find this little pool of sticky stuff, like after a sexy dream.Sandy shakes his head. WENDY They didn't tell you this stuff yet? What planet do you live on?Sandy doesn't answer, but climbs back on top of her andkisses her neck. SANDY I love you. WENDY That's nice. Are you drunk? SANDY I don't know. How do I know? WENDY I don't know either. You spin around, when you lie down.Sandy rolls off her and lies on his back. SANDY (CONT'D) I don't think I'm spinning.They cuddle up together.He yawns. She yawns.EXT. SILVER MEADOW. NIGHTMikey walks along the edge of the empty pool in the rain. Heclimbs up on the diving board and bounces lightly on it, butthen gets off and stands, looking down at the pool again.EXT. SILVER MEADOW. NIGHTMikey walks across the field.EXT. STREET. NIGHTThe storm has let up. Mikey walks along. With a runningstart, he slides on the ice down a hill.He walks back up and slides again, hollering with joy. He isan image of a tiny yet absolute and positive freedom.The streetlights sputter on, then off.INT. WILLIAMS GUEST ROOM. NIGHTSandy and Wendy lie asleep.EXT. STREET. NIGHTA power line is down. It hisses and HUMS -- a humming verymuch like the humming Mikey has been hearing earlier.The humming takes on the same transcendent tonality to whichMikey has become so accustomed at such moments.Mikey sits down on a metal street guardrail, to ponder thesound and the snaking coil of electricity.A strange look of almost religious wonder overcomes his face,as the power line connects to the guardrail. MIKEY Oh shit.Glued by an electrical pulse to the rail, he shakes as thecurrent flows through him.After a minute, his body slumps and slides down the road.INT. TRAIN. NIGHTAs Paul sits reading on he moving train, the lights insidebegin to sputter, and the train begins to slow. After a fewmoments, the train grinds to a halt, and Paul and his fewfellow late night passengers are left in near total dark,with only the light of an emergency exit sign above Paul'shead to light the scene.The train is eerily silent.EXT. HOOD CAR. NIGHTBen drives home.EXT. STREET. NIGHTAn emergency vehicle, lights flashing, crawls by Ben's car.He drives on slowly.EXT. STREET IN FRONT OF WILLIAMS HOUSE. PRE-DAWNJim and Elena arrive on foot. JIM You want to come in, get a cup of coffee -- warm up? I can either walk you home, or you could crash in the guest room. ELENA Sure. Maybe coffee.INT. WILLIAMS KITCHEN. PRE-DAWN JIM Phone's out. I hope the pipe's --He walks into the kitchen. The pipes have begun to burst.There's a water leak running down the walls, forming a puddleon the floor.Elena has walked into the kitchen behind him. She leansagainst the counter, picking up the garter belt withoutthinking for a second, then putting it back down. JIM Oh well. Why don't you put on some dry socks -- and we've got some rain boots in the guest closet back there. Last room upstairs -- back of the hall.Elena climbs the stairs in her bare feet.INT. WILLIAMS GUEST ROOM. CONT'DElena opens the door, and discovers Wendy and Sandy asleep.She stands before the bed, and gazes down on them.They look almost angelic.Wendy, sensing her presence in the room, opens her eyes,slowly coming out of sleep. ELENA (heartbroken, softly) Get dressed.Elena walks out of the room, back to the kitchen.Wendy gets out of bed quietly, leaving Sandy sleepingpeacefully.She looks at him lovingly, and tucks the blanket back uparound him.INT. WILLIAMS KITCHEN. DAWNElena and Jim are drinking coffee. ELENA You should let him sleep.Wendy enters. She looks inquisitively at the two adults. WENDY Where's dad?INT. HOOD CAR. DAWNBen continues to drive slowly. He looks out his side window,and sees something. He puts on his brakes.EXT. STREET. DAWNBen gets out of the car, and stands on the top of an icyembankment. In a clump of bushes is the orange glow of aparka.He walks hesitantly toward it. Mike's body lies face down inthe wet ice.Ben leans down and turns the body over, then stands back inamazement and saddened shock.He stands there for a moment, then picks Mike's body up,carrying him over the hill and onto the street. We see nowthat he is parked just a short block from the Williams'shouse.He bypasses his car and walks directly down the street towardthe house. The effort is obviously enormous. He falls fromtime to time, then gets back up.INT. TRAIN. PRE-DAWNVarious passengers asleep.Paul, hunched up in his seat under the faint emergency exitlight, cold. He reads his comic book by the light of theemergency exit. "DON'T YOU SEE, SUE? HE WAS TOO POWERFUL... IF HIS ENERGY HAD CONTINUED TO BUILD, HE WOULD HAVE DESTROYED THE WORLD!"Suddenly, the lights begin to flicker on and the hum of thetrain's engines returns.The conductor enters the car, blasting forth in his classicnasal train conductor voice. CONDUCTOR Good morning ladies and gentlemen --On Paul, squinting in the harsh light.EXT. TRAIN BRIDGE. PRE-DAWNThe train moves slowly through a suburban, semi-forestedlandscape. On the street below the bridge, an emergencyhighway crew is removing a fallen tree, their trucks aglow inflashing yellow lights.INT. WILLIAMS KITCHEN. DAWNElena pours Wendy a cup of coffee. They're both in theircoats. WENDY I don't like coffee. ELENA It'll warm you up.Elena sits next to her. They both raise their cups and sipthe coffee, not noticing the simultaneity of their movements.INT. GUEST ROOM. DAWNJim watches the sleeping Sandy, picks up the half-emptybottle of vodka, pours himself a drink. The noise wakes Sandyup. Jim sits down on the bed at his feet and takes a sip. SANDY Dad?Jim looks at him.INT. KITCHEN. DAWNElena and Wendy hear a hollering from outside, get up to seewhat it is.EXT. WILLIAMS HOUSE. DAWNElena and Wendy come out the front door, as Ben lays Mikey'sbody onto the ground before the front steps. ELENA Ben?He's too breathless to speak.They stand there, looking down at Mikey.Behind Elena and Wendy, Jim appears.He pushes softly by them toward the body of his son. BEN Jim -- he was just up -- in Silver Lane -- I think maybe -- a power line --Jim picks up his son.He carries him silently into the house.Sandy, now standing inside the foyer, pushes himself backagainst the wall as they pass, without expression.After a moment, from outside, the Hoods can hear Jim'swailing. BEN Do you think? Maybe we should call someone -- ELENA The phone's out. BEN (CONT'D) Yeah. Well, we can just -- ELENA Ben, I don't think he wants us here.Wendy has been watching Sandy through the screen door. WENDY Wait, I --She turns back up the front steps and gently goes in --INT. WILLIAMS LIVING ROOM. CONT'Don the living room floor, Jim is hugging Mike's body, hisshoulders shaking uncontrollably, sobbing.Wendy walks and stands next to Sandy, who is filledmomentarily with a brief inexplicable rush of anger towardher -- but she takes him and gives him an awkward, childlikehug, then turns and runs out the door, joining Ben and Elenaon the driveway. Sandy watches her go, his face wet withtears.EXT. WILLIAMS HOUSE. CONT'D ELENA Oh you know, for a minute I thought it was -- BEN Paul? Yeah. You think -- WENDY He's probably been waiting all night at the station. BEN C'mon.EXT. STREET. DAWNElena, Wendy, and Ben reach the car and get in. The carstarts and drives off.There are more crews out cleaning up the storm's debris andfixing the power lines as they drive.EXT. CONRAIL STATION. EARLY MORNINGThe train slowly pulls in. The Hood family walks down to theend of the platform.The train doors open, and Paul, tired and a bit cramped,emerges. He sees his family gathered at the other end of theplatform, and walks to them.They stand, silent, even dignified, awaiting him.When he joins them they all walk silently to the car and getin.INT. HOOD CAR. EARLY MORNINGSunlight floods in and temporarily blinds Ben as he startsthe engine.He squints, his eyes tearing a bit from the light.He looks around, first at his wife, then at his two childrensitting in the back seat.He turns off the engine. Quietly, he begins to cry.He turns to the back seat. BEN There's something -- your mother and I -- have to tell you two --Elena puts her hand out, almost touching him. ELENA (softly) Ben.Paul looks at Wendy, silently asking her what's happening.She casts her eyes downward, as does he. ELENA (CONT'D) (her hand still not yet touching him) Ben.EXT. STATION PARKING LOT. MORNINGFrom above:The car, the first morning light shining upon it. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Ides of March, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Ides of March, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..02df4c205f2a862b8b677bf33456890b4f2c89ec --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Ides of March, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + THE IDES OF MARCH Written by George Clooney, Grant Heslov & Beau Willimon INT. MIAMI UNIVERSITY - OXFORD OHIO - AUDITORIUM - DAY Stephen Meyers, Press Secretary to Governor Morris is standing at a podium on a stage...there is a single spotlight on him. The rest of the stage is dark. Stephen is talking into a mic with no emotion...just matter of factly. STEPHEN I am neither Christian...nor atheist. I am not Jewish or Muslim. What I believe...my religion is called the constitution... A pause. Stephen snaps his fingers in the mic. We hear the distinct sound of feedback getting louder until it stops. We hear the director speak over the loud speaker. DIRECTOR Hang on...let me open these up.... We wait as Stephen looks around. He looks at stage hands who are busy working. No one pays any attention to him as he stands there. This isn't awkward for Stephen, THIS IS ROUTINE. DIRECTOR (CONT'D) Okay... Lights come up on another podium revealing a debate stage. Stephen continues. STEPHEN I will defend till my dying breath your right to worship whatever god you believe in... The lights on Stephen's podium go out, he's in the dark. He keeps going. STEPHEN (CONT'D) If I'm not religious enough for you, don't vote for me. To the Director. (CONTINUED) 2. CONTINUED: STEPHEN (CONT'D) You got it? His podium light comes back on. No answer from the Director, Stephen continues. STEPHEN (CONT'D) If I'm not experienced enough don't vote for me. If I'm not... DIRECTOR Okay got it, thanks. STEPHEN Thanks. We'll need these monitors turned up a bit...it's a big space and he wants to be able to hear. STAGE MANAGER You got it. STEPHEN Also we'll need these podiums put on a riser as we agreed to in the pre-conditions. You're a few inches short and it makes it harder for the Governor to read his notes. STAGE MANAGER No I know, we just got those specs last night and they're building a piece to go under... STEPHEN Great, thanks. See you guys in a few hours. We see we're in an auditorium of a college. Stephen meets up with BEN HARPEN his staffer. BEN I didn't know the Governor had trouble reading his notes. Why doesn't he wear... STEPHEN He doesn't but Pullman is 5'8" he'll look like a hobbit behind that podium. (CONTINUED) 3. CONTINUED: (2) They walk off... CUT TO: EXT. MIAMI UNIVERSITY - OXFORD OHIO - DAY ROB BRAUN, a local Cincinnati anchor, talks to camera as we see STEPHEN and BEN exit the building. Under this we hear Rachel Maddow reporting. RACHEL MADDOW (O.C.) Well it all comes down to this...We are one week away from the Ohio primary... Camera now moves past ROB to another news truck where an MSNBC REPORTER stands in front of a camera waiting to go live. There is a monitor in front of him. The camera keeps moving into the monitor where RACHEL MADDOW does the lead in. As RACHEL's audio continues we see the following images. CUT TO: EXT. MIDDLE AMERICA We cruise along a snow-covered rural landscape - flat, gray, desolate. In the distance we see a barn with huge red-white- and-blue letters painted on the side. They read "OHIO FOR MORRIS". RACHEL MADDOW (O.S.) Two democrats are left standing. Senator Pullman of Arkansas who is trailing Governor Morris from Pennsylvania. Moments later we roll past another farm with a large billboard staked into the ground beside the road: "PULLMAN - AMERICA'S FUTURE BEGINS ON MARCH 15th". EXT. SUBURBAN STREET We cut to canvassers - bundled to the hilt against the cold - knocking on doors in a suburban neighborhood. Yard signs for both candidates line the street. (CONTINUED) 4. CONTINUED: RACHEL MADDOW (O.S.) Governor Morris has mounted a sizable lead with 2047 delegates, winning New Hampshire, California, New York and Michigan...But Senator Pullman with 1302 delegates is still in the hunt having won Florida, Tennessee, Virginia and Missouri... EXT. CITY INTERSECTION Supporters at an intersection waving hand-made signs to cars: "HONK FOR MORRIS". A passing car lays on the horn and the supporters cheer. RACHEL MADDOW (O.S.) A win in Ohio could turn it all around for the Arkansas Senator... CLOSE UP of a Pullman bumper sticker on an SUV at a stoplight, right next to a "My Child is an Honor Student" decal. RACHEL MADDOW (O.S.) (CONT'D) So one week from Tuesday the all important hundred and eighty one Ohio delegates could be the deciding factor.. EXT. HARDWARE STORE A clerk placing a Morris sign in the store window. In the shop next door various TV's are in a window display. We see RACHEL MADDOW'S report on them. RACHEL MADDOW (O.S.) And once again the old adage is true..."As goes Ohio, so goes the Nation." CUT TO: EXT. MIAMI UNIVERSITY - OXFORD OHIO - AFTERNOON We see Satellite trucks, press vehicles, police cars, etc. At a catering truck, MOLLY STEARNS, a 19 year old intern grabs a tray of coffees and a box of doughnuts. (CONTINUED) 5. CONTINUED: We stay on her as she runs across the street and through a door... CUT TO: INT. MIAMI UNIVERSITY - RAPID RESPONSE ROOM - CONTINUOUS MOLLY enters and we follow her through the campaign war room, it's the size of a coffin, jammed to the hilt with twenty- something staffers manning laptops. We're in the hustle and bustle of a live telecast. We see multiple angles of the telecast... SENATOR PULLMAN Would you call yourself a Christian? GOV. MORRIS How would that matter? SENATOR PULLMAN (READING) "I have no idea what happens when we die, maybe nothing...maybe it was like before we were born." You did write this Governor... GOV. MORRIS Then let me try and clarify...I was raised Catholic, I am not a practicing Catholic...I have no idea what happens when you die and if the Senator does, then perhaps he should be President. I'll even vote for him. The audience laughs. SENATOR PULLMAN Is that your idea of being specific? MOLLY passes out coffee. CUT TO: INT. MIAMI UNIVERSITY - AUDITORIUM - CONTINUOUS We're now live inside the debate. (CONTINUED) 6. CONTINUED: GOV. MORRIS Let me be more specific. I am neither a Christian, nor an atheist, I'm not Jewish or Muslim...what I believe...my religion is written on a piece of parchment called the Constitution. Meaning I will defend, till my dying breath, your right to worship, in whatever God or lack thereof you believe in, as long as it doesn't hurt others. I believe we should be judged as a government by how we take care of those who can't take care of themselves. That's my religion. If you feel that I'm not religious enough, then don't vote for me. If you feel I'm not experienced enough or tall enough then don't vote for me. Because I'm not going to change those to get elected. SENATOR PULLMAN I just wanted you to say out loud if you believed in the teachings of the Bible. GOV. MORRIS Is this a Democratic primary or a general election? People laugh. SENATOR PULLMAN (ON MONITOR) Well Governor, whoever wins this contest will be running for President...and if you don't think that these questions won't be central in a general election then you are living in fantasy land. I applaud your honesty Governor, I do...I'm simply pointing to what is obvious...we are running for President of the United States...not for student council president. INT. MIAMI UNIVERSITY - BACKSTAGE - CONTINUOUS PAUL ZARA - Morris's campaign manager - is waiting in the wings off stage. STEPHEN sidles up next to him. (CONTINUED) 7. CONTINUED: In the background we can see the candidates shaking hands. There is applause. PAUL is pushing fifty with the grizzled look of a hardened campaign veteran. He's Stephen's boss, the only guy between him and Governor Morris. Arms crossed, they watch their man on stage. PAUL A double? STEPHEN A double. PAUL Fucking national security. The GOVERNOR looks off stage to PAUL and STEPHEN for approval. PAUL (CONT'D) Outta the park. STEPHEN Home run. We hear the announcer thanking everyone for attending the debate. TOM DUFFY - campaign manager of the rival Pullman Campaign - is also watching from the wings. Duffy's smooth, calculated and icy. He walks over to Stephen and Paul. DUFFY I'm trying to remember if the democrats ever nominated an atheist before... PAUL Well, we know they've nominated jackasses before. DUFFY (TO STEPHEN) Must've been you that did the prep work. Paul's not that clever. PAUL You always had the brains Duffy, but me - I always had the balls. (CONTINUED) 8. CONTINUED: (2) DUFFY (nodding to Stephen) Looks like you got some brains now too. Be careful. I just might have to steal him from you. Duffy walks off to greet Senator Pullman as he makes his way to the wings. Paul and Stephen eye him as he goes. PAUL What a prick. CUT TO: INT. CINCINNATI RAMADA INN - THE BAR - NIGHT Stephen, Paul, Ida, and Ben are having drinks around a table. The mood is festive. There is a piano player playing, singing. PAUL has a roll-away suitcase beside him. IDA So Paul, tell me something I don't know...tell me what's gonna happen on the 15th. PAUL Ha-ha. IDA What? PAUL What do you think Stevie? STEPHEN It's ours for the taking. PAUL Ben? BEN We'll win. PAUL What do you think Ida? IDA I'm asking you. PAUL You tell me and I'll tell you. (CONTINUED) 9. CONTINUED: IDA If had to say, I'd say it'll be close, but you'll eke it out. PAUL Eke? To STEPHEN. PAUL (CONT'D) You see, she's trying to get under my skin. IDA So what's gonna happen? PAUL Us by nine. IDA Nine? There's no way you'll win by nine. STEPHEN At least. Maybe more. IDA (To PAUL) So you're certain you're gonna win here? PAUL Certain? No. Confident? Yes. IDA You just said you'll win by nine. PAUL And I think we will, but I won't tell you it's a sure thing. Fucking Saint Gabriel can blow his horn on election day and get his four horseman to rig the ballot boxes for Pullman and it wouldn't surprise me. Don't get me wrong. Six presidentials I've done and I've never felt this good. But am I gonna sit here and say "Yes -we will definitely win Ohio"? Not a chance. In the last thirty years seventy-three Democrats have run for president. How many have won? Three. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 10. CONTINUED: (2) PAUL (CONT'D) That means seventy guys ran who thought they had a chance, and they all lost. IDA So you're saying there's a good chance you won't win. PAUL Don't twist my words. What I'm saying is that I'm not going to promise we'll win. But he's decorated by Bush Senior from the first Gulf war and protested the second. He left his state with a balanced budget and the fourth highest education rate. The Republicans have nobody out there that can touch this guy...so for this moment, this election, this primary is the presidential. And that Ida, is the state of the union. And on that note, I'm gonna take a shit. PAUL swigs down the rest of his drink and exits. IDA So Stephen... STEPHEN Yes Ida? IDA Stephen, Stephen, Stephen.... STEPHEN Here it comes...hit me. IDA Paul's going to the airport? STEPHEN Yes? IDA Getting on a plane. STEPHEN Mmhmm. IDA Where is that plane going? (CONTINUED) 11. CONTINUED: (3) STEPHEN Three guesses. IDA Not going back to headquarters. STEPHEN Correct. IDA He's not going to Texas? STEPHEN No need, we'll split Texas, it's a wash. IDA What if I said North Carolina? STEPHEN That's your guess? IDA He's going to North Carolina. STEPHEN I will neither confirm nor deny that statement. IDA I knew it. Now tell me why. STEPHEN That I cannot do. IDA I hate you. STEPHEN You love me. IDA I love Paul. You I hate. STEPHEN You only love him because he gives you all the scoops. IDA Sexual favors? STEPHEN You're engaged. (CONTINUED) 12. CONTINUED: (4) IDA If it meant a good scoop my fiance would understand. Beat. IDA (CONT'D) You really buy into all this crap? All this take back the country nonsense? STEPHEN Ida I'm not naive about this stuff. I've worked on more campaigns than most people do by the time they're forty...I'm telling you this is the one. IDA You really have drunk the kool-aid. STEPHEN I have drunk it it's delicious. I don't care whether he leads in the polls...I don't care whether he has all the tools...Because the truth is, he's the only one that's going to make a difference in peoples lives...Even the people that hate him. If Mike Morris is President it says more about us than it does about him. I don't give a fuck if he can win. He has to win. IDA Or what? The world will fall apart? It won't matter...Not one bit to the everyday lives of everyday fuckers who work and eat and sleep and get up and go back to work again. If your boy wins...You get a job in the white house...If he loses you're back at a consulting firm on K Street...That's it. You used to know that before you got all goosebumpy about this guy. Morris is a politician...He's a nice guy...They're all nice guys. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 13. CONTINUED: (5) IDA (CONT'D) He will let you down...sooner or later. CUT TO: EXT. RAMADA INN SIDEWALK - LATER IDA and PAUL walk to Ida's car. PAUL This is off off off the record. IDA What? PAUL Franklin Thompson. IDA Seriously? PAUL Off the record. The only people who know are the Governor, Stephen and me. IDA My lips are sealed. PAUL I have a meeting tomorrow at Thompson's house. IDA He's gonna endorse? PAUL After I'm done talking with him, what do you think? IDA That's huge. PAUL It's more than huge. He has 356 pledged delegates...they all travel with him. That puts us over the top. IDA He's said publicly he's not gonna endorse anyone. (CONTINUED) 14. CONTINUED: PAUL That's what they all say until we get them alone in a room. IDA So this is for real? PAUL Yup. It's just about in the bag. IDA When are you gonna announce? PAUL Nope. That's all you get for now. CUT TO: EXT. MORRIS HEADQUARTERS - CINCINNATI - NEXT DAY Establishing shot. INT. MORRIS HEADQUARTERS - CINCINNATI - NEXT DAY Ben walks around to all the staffers, he hands out new cell phones. BEN Okay so listen up...these are your new cell phones...Shelly has pre- programmed everyone's numbers in...thank you Shelly...no personal calls...if you lose them, Paul has authorized me to kill you. Ben walks into Stephen's office and hands him his new phone. BEN (CONT'D) New phones... STEPHEN I'll get it in a bit... As Ben leaves, we see that Stephen is looking at early footage of Governor Morris. Another staffer and an editor are watching it with him. Outside the office we can see other staffers, through the glass partitions, running around in campaign mode. We see some of the footage. (CONTINUED) 15. CONTINUED: GOV MORRIS (ON MONITOR) The economy...health care...I've got to believe we can do it. We have enemies...we have to understand why our enemies are our enemies, and see if there is something we can do about that besides using force. What we know from history is the answer to extremism is not extremism. Whoever is the next president, whoever steps up, has got a lot of work to do, but you have a little work to do yourself. Stephen hits pause. STEPHEN Fucking kill me...where did we get this? EDITOR Before he announced at a town hall meeting in Pennsylvania... STEPHEN Thank God it wasn't overseas. Just get rid of it - EDITOR It plays to his base, if- STEPHEN Are you fucking stoned...this is the same...the exact same piece the Republicans are gonna run against him in the general...we don't need to brag about it...Hi I'm Neville Chamberlain and I want to be your commander in chief. EDITOR If it's gonna come out- STEPHEN It's gonna come out but not paid for by us pal. (To Staffer) Any truth on whether Pullman had investments in those diamond mines in Liberia? (CONTINUED) 16. CONTINUED: (2) STAFFER 1 We're still checking...it was a blog so who the fuck knows... STEPHEN Doesn't matter I want to hear him denying it. If it's true, find out, if it's not, let them spend the next day telling the post that he doesn't own a diamond mine in Liberia...win win. STAFFER 1 Okay. STEPHEN We need to counter this Christian shit we're taking from last night...so get going...Where's our cut on the new thirty and a sixty second spots? We'll show it to him this afternoon in the staff meeting. EDITOR Got it. The Editor and staffer exit. Stephen turns to his computer and types as Molly walks in and hands him some papers. MOLLY Ben wanted me to get you to sign off on this before the staff meeting. STEPHEN Oh, right. Thanks. I've been waiting for this. MOLLY Anything interesting? STEPHEN Just some white paper I gotta pass out tonight. MOLLY White paper? (CONTINUED) 17. CONTINUED: (3) STEPHEN Negative shit. Our oppo guys do research - we feed it to the press, hope they bite. MOLLY So like what sort of negative stuff? STEPHEN Read tomorrow's paper and you'll see. MOLLY Which paper? STEPHEN All of them. MOLLY So it's something big? STEPHEN I wish it were something bigger actually. Just some transportation numbers. I'll have to spin this shit pretty heavy if we want it to stick. MOLLY Well that's what you're good at, right? STEPHEN I guess. MOLLY (Holding up her phone) Did you get your phone? STEPHEN (Holds his up) Just now. MOLLY (MOCK SERIOUS) It's exciting isn't it? He looks at her. STEPHEN You a Bearcat...? (CONTINUED) 18. CONTINUED: (4) MOLLY A what? STEPHEN A Cincinnati Bearcat? MOLLY Oh no...I'm not from here...I worked with you in Iowa actually. STEPHEN Oh that's right...but you changed something. (Searching for a way out.) MOLLY My hair? STEPHEN You changed your hair. MOLLY (ENJOYING THIS) No.. STEPHEN I must look like a total dumb ass right now. MOLLY Not at all...you're the big man on campus...I'm just a lowly intern. STEPHEN Come on it's not like that. MOLLY Sure it is...you get to stay at the Millennium, they put us into a motel on the other side of the river. STEPHEN You're right, I am big man on campus. MOLLY Now you're starting to see. She starts to leave. MOLLY (CONT'D) We do have the better bar though. (CONTINUED) 19. CONTINUED: (5) STEPHEN I heard that. MOLLY You ought to stop by one night and have a drink with the worker bees. STEPHEN Maybe I will...when's a good night? MOLLY Tonight's good... STEPHEN Really? Tuesday? MOLLY Yeah it's quiet. STEPHEN Quiet's good. MOLLY Well you have my number. STEPHEN I do? MOLLY Programmed right there in your phone. STEPHEN Oh...right...(He opens the phone) MOLLY Under Mary. STEPHEN (Looking at the phone) Yup...Mary. Molly laughs. Then, as she exits: MOLLY Molly...my name's Molly... Stephen smiles to himself. CUT TO: 20. INT. SENATOR THOMPSON'S HOUSE - CHARLOTTE N.C. - DAY We follow a housekeeper down the hallway and into the living room where we see Paul sitting with, Senator Thompson. SENATOR THOMPSON That's what I'm hearing...since Super Tuesday I'm a very popular guy. What are your polls telling you? PAUL That Pullman's negatives are high...mid forties. Senator we have an open seat in the White House and the Republicans don't have dick. They're disorganized and they can't find a nominee that isn't a world class fuck up. They look like Democrats. No Republican is gonna show up to vote for their guy. But if Pullman gets the Democratic nod they'll show up to vote against him. SENATOR THOMPSON And so you think they won't for your guy...you think Morris gets into the independents? PAUL I sure do. Senator...I'm a bit confused...we need your delegates...we need you...your fund raising. It was my understanding that...your endorsement a week before Ohio...would win this for us... SENATOR THOMPSON (Looks to his aide) Estella...hand me that ice bucket. CUT TO: INT. MORRIS HEADQUARTERS - CINCINNATI - SAME DAY We're in a staff meeting with the brain trust. Paul's gone but the rest are there...STEPHEN, BEN, GOVERNOR MORRIS. MOLLY is running in and out, she gets glances from all the guys. (CONTINUED) 21. CONTINUED: STEPHEN Paul knows...Paul agrees... GOV. MORRIS Ben, where's my op ed on national service? It's better for me to work off of that. BEN Got it right here. (He opens his laptop.) GOV. MORRIS Get me a hard copy...I hate these fucking things... STEPHEN Print it out. BEN I'll get it printed. Molly, I'm printing out this op ed...can you grab it off the printer? MOLLY Be right back. STEPHEN Governor...if you want to change...or lets call it refresh... GOV. MORRIS Just give me a second... STEPHEN National service isn't polling like the rest of your domestic policy. GOV. MORRIS I don't give a shit about polling...I'm not going to play this game with you Stephen...and if this is your good cop bad cop act with Paul... STEPHEN Good cop, good cop. GOV. MORRIS I'm not changing it. MOLLY returns and hands the Governor a copy. (CONTINUED) 22. CONTINUED: (2) GOV. MORRIS (CONT'D) Hang on. He reads down until he finds what he's looking for. GOV. MORRIS (CONT'D) Yeah I said it all here, "It's going to help people get an education...it's going to create national unity...it's going to teach young people a trade...and it's going to help get people out of debt from college loans. Tell me where that fails. STEPHEN All of that is exactly right...Governor if you're going to do it...then do it. Don't make it voluntary...mandatory. GOV. MORRIS That'll poll well. STEPHEN Mandatory!...everyone who graduates high school or turns eighteen, gives two years to his or her country. Military...peace corps...plant fucking trees, I don't care...and for that...their college education is paid for...period. GOV. MORRIS We do all of that now, with this... STEPHEN No sir you don't...do it all...all the way. Mandatory. GOV. MORRIS Paul likes this?...you guys are my brain trust. STEPHEN And here's the beauty of it...everyone who is older than eighteen and past the age of eligibility, would be for it...create national pride...give all the kids an education. (CONTINUED) 23. CONTINUED: (3) GOV. MORRIS And all the others? STEPHEN Can't vote. Too young. This sits with them. Some start to smile. STEPHEN (CONT'D) You can't lose. MOLLY enters. MOLLY Stephen you have a call on three, your dad. GOV. MORRIS Okay, you and Ben work it into the stump speech - get me a hard copy and I'll write it in my own words. STEPHEN Remember, Governor... you have a six o'clock with Charlie Rose... GOV. MORRIS Why am I doing him? STEPHEN It's long form... he's flying in... GOV. MORRIS Is Paul going? STEPHEN No, he won't be back... Ben and I are taking you... He exits. CUT TO: INT. STEPHEN'S OFFICE / INT. DUFFY'S OFFICE CONTINUOUS STEPHEN picks up the receiver and pushes line three. STEPHEN ...Don't tell me anyone's died... DUFFY Hey Stephen... (CONTINUED) 24. CONTINUED: STEPHEN Who is this? DUFFY Tom Duffy...sorry about the dad bit...but I didn't think you'd want my name yelled out at a Morris campaign office. STEPHEN gets up and closes the door. STEPHEN What do you want? DUFFY You got a couple of minutes...I'd like to sit down with you. STEPHEN What for? DUFFY I think it's important. STEPHEN If it's important shouldn't you be calling Paul? DUFFY I'm calling you...This is all on the up and up...just give me five minutes. STEPHEN I can't be talking to you... DUFFY I hear you...but if you get five minutes...I'll be at the Heads First Sports Bar for the next couple of hours. STEPHEN I can't Tom. DUFFY There won't be anybody there...if you get a chance there's something I want to show you. DUFFY hangs up. STEPHEN sits for a few beats. He picks up his cell phone and dials...it goes straight to voice mail. (CONTINUED) 25. CONTINUED: (2) STEPHEN Paul, listen, call me as soon as you can...it's important. STEPHEN hangs up the phone and we stay with him. CUT TO: INT. STEPHEN'S RENTAL CAR - OUTSIDE HEAD FIRST SPORTS BAR - LATER STEPHEN sits in the car, he watches the door of the bar making sure no one is around. CUT TO: INT. HEAD FIRST SPORTS BAR - CINCINNATI - LATER We're in a run-down bar in Cincinnati. The furniture is shabby - Formica tables, cheap metal framed chairs. The place is desolate except for TOM and STEPHEN who sit at the bar. DUFFY You're working for the wrong man. STEPHEN You're working for the wrong man. DUFFY Oh on the contrary you are working for the wrong man. You've got something the other guys don't have. STEPHEN Yeah? DUFFY Yeah, what is it exactly? Charm isn't the right word. It's more than that. You exude something. You draw people in. All the reporters love you. Even the ones that hate you love you. You play them all like they're pieces on a chess board. And you make it look effortless. We both know how much work it takes, constantly being on guard, weighing every word so carefully, every move. But from the outside, you make it look easy. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 26. CONTINUED: DUFFY (CONT'D) People are scared of you because they don't understand how you do it, and they love you for it. There's nothing more valuable in this business - the ability to win people's respect by making them mistake their fear for love. You can guess what I'm gonna say next. STEPHEN No...I don't think I can. DUFFY I want you to work for us. STEPHEN You gotta be kidding me. DUFFY Not in the least. Beat. You are going to lose Ohio. STEPHEN I am not. DUFFY You're sitting on about a six percent lead in both polls...six percent of the Democrats polled. STEPHEN Eight. DUFFY Six...but that doesn't matter...Independents and Republicans can vote for the Democratic candidate. STEPHEN You think they like your guy?...pro choice...tax and spend liberal? (CONTINUED) 27. CONTINUED: (2) DUFFY Fuck no they hate him...they think they can beat my guy...but they're worried about yours...so starting tomorrow morning you're gonna see a fucking blitz...Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, all the right wing blogs are gonna start a "Get out the vote campaign"...it's already started...every fucking conservative in Ohio is gonna stand in line and punch my guys ticket...that's just one of the steps...Ohio is gone...the polls don't mean shit...tomorrow morning everyone will know...that's why I want you to handle the fallout we'll take in the press... They look at each other. DUFFY (CONT'D) And by the way...we've got Thompson in the bag. STEPHEN I know for a fact that Thompson is going with us. DUFFY We promised him Secretary of State, Ohio is over...it's been over for weeks...and with Thompson's delegates...I'm thinking down the road now...that's why I want you...I'll bring you in straight at the top. STEPHEN I can't do it. DUFFY I'm not asking for an answer right this moment. STEPHEN I've played dirty but I don't have to play dirty anymore...you know why? Cause I got Morris! (CONTINUED) 28. CONTINUED: (3) DUFFY None of this is about the democratic process Steve, It's about getting your guy into office. Simple as that. STEPHEN This is the sort of shit the Republicans pull. DUFFY You're right, this is exactly what the Republicans do, and it's about time we learned from them. They're meaner, tougher and more disciplined than we are. I've been in this business for twenty five years and I've seen way too many Democrats bite the dust because they wouldn't get down in the mud with the fucking elephants. STEPHEN Paul's a friend. DUFFY Do you want to work for a friend or do you want to work for the President? Think about it...you have my number. Duffy gets up and leaves. CUT TO: EXT HEAD FIRST SPORTS BAR / PAUL'S RENTAL CAR / RESIDENTIAL STREET STEPHEN walks to his car. He dials PAUL on his phone. Paul is in North Carolina driving. We intercut. STEPHEN Paul. PAUL (O.S.) They don't make quaaludes any more do they? STEPHEN Not that I know of. What's going on with Thompson? (CONTINUED) 29. CONTINUED: PAUL (O.S.) He wants something but we'll be fine... So what's so important? STEPHEN It's nothing...never mind. PAUL (O.S.) Allright...I'm on the cell if you need me. I fly to DC tomorrow and back tomorrow night. STEPHEN Yeah okay...I'll look for quaaludes. PAUL (O.S.) Good man. STEPHEN ends the call. He stands in silence. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL ROOM - CINCINNATI - NIGHT We're in the bathroom of a hotel room. GOVERNOR MORRIS is being made up for the Charlie Rose Show. A SECRET SERVICE AGENT stands in the adjoining room. The GOVERNOR talks to the MAKE-UP LADY while STEPHEN and BEN stand in the adjoining room as well. STEPHEN (TO BEN) Just get online and see if there's any chatter on the blogs... BEN What kind of chatter? There's always chatter. STEPHEN I don't know... just see what they're talking about. BEN Give me a second... He sets his laptop down and starts typing. The Governor, who's been talking the whole time, yells out through the door. (CONTINUED) 30. CONTINUED: GOV. MORRIS Stephen... you're still single, right? STEPHEN I'm married to the campaign, Governor. GOV. MORRIS Good answer. (to the make-up girl) He's married to the campaign... BEN (looking at his computer) Wall Street Journal poll has our numbers holding steady and Pullman dropped a point. STEPHEN Really? When did they do that? Governor... Wall Street Journal numbers are in... and Pullman's down a point. GOV. MORRIS Now we're moving in the right direction. Ben, are you still single? BEN I'm married to the campaign, Governor. GOV. MORRIS (to the make-up girl) Crack team. The GOVERNOR starts to sing "The Best Is Yet To Come". STEPHEN (TO BEN) Make sure Charlie Rose has these latest numbers before he goes on... BEN (JUMPS UP) I'm on it. (CONTINUED) 31. CONTINUED: (2) STEPHEN And get a copy of the show before we leave... HARD CUT TO: INT. HOTEL CONFERENCE ROOM - MINUTES LATER The room has been transformed into an interview space. ON AIR- CHARLIE ROSE and GOV. MORRIS mid-interview... GOV. MORRIS Is it a difficult decision? I would have to believe that it is... would I do it? No... but I can't see myself... or anyone... certainly not a government, telling a woman what she can do with her body. CHARLIE ROSE So you would appoint a judge to... GOV. MORRIS ... I would consider it arrogant to judge someone until I've walked in their shoes. CHARLIE ROSE But you're against the death penalty? GOV. MORRIS Yes. Because of what it says about us as a society. CHARLIE ROSE Suppose Governor it was your wife... GOV. MORRIS And she was murdered, what would I do. CHARLIE ROSE It gets more complicated when it's personal. (CONTINUED) 32. CONTINUED: GOV. MORRIS Sure...well if I could get to him I'd find a way to kill him. CHARLIE ROSE So you, you Governor would impose the death penalty. GOV. MORRIS No, I would commit a crime for which I would happily go to jail. CHARLIE ROSE Then why not let society do that? GOV. MORRIS Because society has to be better than the individual. If I were to do that I would be wrong. CHARLIE ROSE And what about guns? GOV. MORRIS Isn't it time for a commercial. They laugh. CHARLIE ROSE This is public TV, we don't have commercials... GOV. MORRIS That's unfortunate. 25 CUT TO: 25 INT. MOTEL - KENTUCKY - NIGHT We're in Kentucky, just over the Ohio River from Cincinnati. This is where all the interns stay. In the hotel bar, Stephen and Molly are sitting at a back table, they've both been drinking hard. STEPHEN Where'd you go after Iowa? MOLLY California for Super Tuesday. STEPHEN I had to go to New York. (CONTINUED) 33. CONTINUED: MOLLY I know...you guys needed a lot more help over there. STEPHEN Yeah. So why politics? MOLLY Because the pay is so good. STEPHEN It just seems like an odd fit. MOLLY My dad is Jack Stearns. Beat. STEPHEN He's a good guy. MOLLY He's an asshole but he's your boss. STEPHEN He's not my boss. He's the head of the DNC. MOLLY You don't work for the Democratic National Committee? STEPHEN I work for Paul, Paul works for Morris and if Morris wins, he's going to be your dad's boss. MOLLY Don't tell my dad that. STEPHEN Don't tell your dad a lot of things. MOLLY Never. STEPHEN What time do you start tomorrow? (CONTINUED) 34. CONTINUED: (2) MOLLY Nine AM...I'm showing the new interns how to robo call...you see...I'm the experienced intern. STEPHEN I do see... MOLLY How old are you? STEPHEN How old do you think I am? MOLLY Thirty? STEPHEN You think I'm thirty? MOLLY I'm sorry, how old are you? STEPHEN Thirty...how old are you? MOLLY How old do you think I am? STEPHEN Twenty one? MOLLY Twenty. STEPHEN That's young. MOLLY Too young to fuck a thirty year old? STEPHEN See laws are different in different states. Here in your hotel, in Kentucky...it's frowned upon...but we'll go across the bridge into Ohio... MOLLY Where your hotel is? (CONTINUED) 35. CONTINUED: (3) STEPHEN Yeah surprisingly they're very lax about their child endangerment laws... MOLLY You have a car? I don't drive. STEPHEN I took a cab. MOLLY I have the keys to the campaign bus... On their smiles CUT TO: EXT. MILLENNIUM HOTEL - CINCINNATI - MINUTES LATER The Morris campaign bus is parked badly, a tire up on the curb in front of the hotel. INT. MILLENNIUM HOTEL - STEPHENS'S ROOM - EARLY MORNING STEPHEN is on his cell phone, he paces back and forth in front of the TV - A news show in on. MOLLY is in bed - sheets pulled up around her, she's just waking up. CHRIS MATTHEWS (ON TV) In fairness, this has been tried before...Operation Chaos, as Rush Limbaugh called it, where Republicans voted for a Democrat they thought they could beat in the general election. We asked Senator Pullman's campaign manager if this sudden right wing support is welcome... Cut to a pre-tape with DUFFY. (CONTINUED) 36. CONTINUED: DUFFY (O.S.) Is it decisive?...Of Course not...look, we believe that the polls are within the margin of error and that the Senator will win Ohio...with Ohio Democrats...I can't really see Republicans showing up to vote for our candidate...having said that, we'll take all the support we can get. STEPHEN (On the phone) What time does Paul land?... Christ...who do we talk to about polling?...no...I just...I just need to get some internal polling on the fucking Independents and the right-wing nuts. MOLLY Do you want me to go? He gestures for her to wait. STEPHEN Listen, put me on the line with...what's the guy's name at the Wall Street Journal?... yeah... MOLLY You seem busy...I should go. He whispers to her. STEPHEN Wait. Back to phone. STEPHEN (CONT'D) Right...Adler...get me on the line with him. MOLLY Steve? She starts to get dressed. STEPHEN Molly listen, just give me a second...I want to talk to you about something. (CONTINUED) 37. CONTINUED: (2) MOLLY We can talk about it later if... Stephen holds his finger up. STEPHEN (INTO PHONE) What? No nobody...just the cleaning lady...listen Ben...keep trying till you get him. We're gonna go with the position that we've always said, the race is closer than the polling...right...no don't...don't say that...just get him on the line and call me...I'll handle it...yup. He hangs up. STEPHEN (CONT'D) Sorry about that. MOLLY The cleaning lady. STEPHEN What? MOLLY You called me the cleaning lady. STEPHEN You're not mad about that are you? MOLLY No why would I be mad? Beat. MOLLY looks at the TV. MOLLY (CONT'D) Look. STEPHEN'S eyes go to the TV where CHRIS is still talking. CHRIS MATHEWS Earlier I spoke with Jack Stearns, head of the DNC, and he had this to say... (CONTINUED) 38. CONTINUED: (3) JACK STEARNS I know you're looking for a reaction, but listen we have two great candidates in a very tight race...and at the end of the day the voters will decide who best can represent this party in the fall. CHRIS MATHEWS I understand Jack - but doesn't this kind of disruption take away from what you want to be pushing this year? Back to STEPHEN STEPHEN Your dad is an asshole. MOLLY I'll tell him you said that. STEPHEN Do that. MOLLY You said you wanted to talk to me about something? STEPHEN Yeah, I just wanted...I just wanted to be clear about everything...so there's no confusion... MOLLY I won't tell anyone about last night. STEPHEN Well yeah, I'd appreciate it if we kept this...I mean, you know how people are. MOLLY Really wouldn't look good if you screwed an intern. STEPHEN It's not like I got drunk and this happened...I mean...I wanted to...I really like you...you're smart...but I just...I don't want there to be any expectations... (CONTINUED) 39. CONTINUED: (4) MOLLY Steven, you don't have to say anything. STEPHEN I just don't want you to think I'm some kind of player. MOLLY Well you are kind of a player, but that's okay. STEPHEN No I'm not. I was being polite. MOLLY starts to tie STEPHENS tie. MOLLY Bullshit...you were trying to pick me up. STEPHEN No I wasn't. MOLLY You were pretty obvious about it. STEPHEN I was? MOLLY Totally. STEPHEN I thought I was being all smooth and subtle. MOLLY You were pretty forward. STEPHEN You were pretty forward ...inviting me to the bar. MOLLY Well...I've been trying to fuck you for a while. STEPHEN Wow. MOLLY Pretty slutty of me, huh? (CONTINUED) 40. CONTINUED: (5) STEPHEN No, not at all...I mean I kind of respect it in a weird sort of way. MOLLY Good. STEPHEN You have absolutely no idea how to tie a tie do you... MOLLY No no not a clue. STEPHEN You're very mature. MOLLY For a teenager. Molly kisses him and exits. CUT TO: EXT. TARMAC - LUNKEN AIRFIELD - CINCINNATI - LATER We Intercut with PAUL driving. STEPHEN walks towards a private jet, the GOVERNOR is at the plane talking to some aides. STEPHEN When are you coming back? PAUL I'll be at the event...a little late...these cock suckers...fucking dirty shit. STEPHEN What happened with Thompson? PAUL Nothing, the prick...we had him all sewed up...MOTHER FUCKER...how bad is it? STEPHEN I'm running some numbers now...I don't know... (CONTINUED) 41. CONTINUED: PAUL Alright, I'll be there in three hours...I want hard numbers...and a strategy. STEPHEN Yeah I'm on it...I gotta go. He hangs up. INT. PRIVATE JET The GOVERNOR and STEPHEN are flying through a bad storm, the plane is getting knocked all around. Also on Board are BEN and a SECRET SERVICE AGENT. Stephen is holding onto the armrests, white knuckling it, the Governor watches him. GOV. MORRIS You okay? STEPHEN Yup...(Nope) Just trying to figure out our stops on the ground. GOV. MORRIS I think the weather might determine that. If we get there. Both men sit with their heads back on the headrests. STEPHEN We'll be fine...we have to do it...and it's the right thing. Nothing bad happens when it's the right thing. GOV. MORRIS Is this your personal theory...cause I can shoot holes in it...Roberto Clemente...on a humanitarian flight. STEPHEN Well there are exceptions to every rule... They smile. The Governor looks at Stephen. GOV. MORRIS So how we doin? STEPHEN Fine now. (CONTINUED) 42. CONTINUED: GOV. MORRIS No I mean...the campaign how we doin? STEPHEN Great... GOV. MORRIS Listen Stephen...you're not Paul. I pay him to use the word "great". I pay you to tell me the truth. STEPHEN I think we're solid. GOV. MORRIS Okay Paul. STEPHEN Governor there's a big difference between Paul and me. Paul only believes in winning so he'll do or say anything to win. GOV. MORRIS But you wouldn't. STEPHEN I'll do or say anything if I believe in it...but I have to believe in the cause. GOV. MORRIS You'll make a lousy consultant when you're out of this line of work. STEPHEN Well I won't be out of this line of work as long as you're in it. GOV. MORRIS So at best you've got eight years...then you'll end up with a nice little consultant firm on Farragut North...eating at the Palm...pulling in seven hundred and fifty grand a year...pimping out Senators to Saudi Princes. They both smile. STEPHEN Pimping out ex presidents... (CONTINUED) 43. CONTINUED: (2) GOV. MORRIS Then I better win... STEPHEN Yeah. CUT TO: INT. KENT STATE UNIVERSITY - OHIO - LATER We're in a large hall. GOVERNOR MORRIS is on stage, he stands in front of a huge American flag. Morris's wife CINDY is standing in the wings along with their seven year old daughter BETH. GOVERNOR MORRIS addresses the crowd. GOV. MORRIS Now, I've been married for eleven years, to the smartest person I know...and we have a normal marriage...which means when we disagree...she wins. What we don't ever disagree on is how we're going to leave this planet for our daughter. Are we gonna leave it better off, or worse? The richest people in this country don't pay their fare share. And when they're asked to, they cry socialism, they use phrases like redistribution of wealth. That scares everybody and they all run and they hide. For the record, my campaign is vehemently against the distribution of wealth to the richest Americans, by our government! And I will run on that! INT. KENT STATE UNIVERSITY - BACK STAGE - CONTINUOUS PAUL and STEPHEN are back stage behind the huge American flag. We can hear the Governor's speech in the B.G. STEPHEN I didn't think it was true. PAUL Whoa... STEPHEN But I should have told you this yesterday...sorry... (CONTINUED) 44. CONTINUED: PAUL -Slow down. STEPHEN I met with Tom Duffy yesterday. PAUL What? STEPHEN You were on a plane and he called me and he asked if we could meet...And I said why...he said it was very important so I did...but I should've fucking told you... PAUL Stop Stop let me get this straight. You met with Tom Duffy? STEPHEN Yes. PAUL What'd he want Stephen? STEPHEN -the gist of it is he wants to hire me. He wants me to jump ship and come work for him...this is bad Paul. He showed me poll numbers with Pullman ahead by four. We're in really deep fucking trouble he laid out their whole plan. Robo- calls, traffic jams, fake lit, and fucking Thompson. They promised him Secretary of State. CUT TO: INT. KENT STATE UNIVERSITY - STAGE - CONTINUOUS GOV. MORRIS You know how you fight the war on terror?...Don't need their product anymore. Their product is oil, just don't need it and they go away. We don't have to bomb anyone we don't have to invade anyone! CUT TO: 45. INT. KENT STATE UNIVERSITY - BACK STAGE - CONTINUOUS PAUL If this is some sort of practical-I mean -my fucking blood pressure is going through the roof right now. STEPHEN Paul I'm sorry. Believe me...I just didn't think it was true. PAUL It doesn't fucking matter what you thought. It matters what you did. It matters what you didn't do. If all this shit is true I made a fucking ass of myself at Thompson's place. And I gave away our game plan. STEPHEN Please believe me that I honestly believed you were gonna come back and you were gonna tell me that we have Thompson in the bag and I didn't see the point. But it doesn't make it right and I'm sorry. PAUL Let me think...let me think... CUT TO: INT. KENT STATE UNIVERSITY - STAGE - CONTINUOUS GOV. MORRIS If I'm your president, the first thing I put in motion, ten years from the day I'm in office...no new car in America runs on an internal combustion engine. It'll create hundreds of thousands of new jobs...we will start the next technological revolution and we will lead the world again...like we used to... CUT TO: 46. INT. KENT STATE UNIVERSITY - BACK STAGE - CONTINUOUS PAUL We get the Governor right after he finishes singing Kum Bay Ya and give him everything we know. STEPHEN Who do you want... PAUL You, me and the Governor, that's it! What's he got after? STEPHEN A fund-raiser in Cleveland tonight. PAUL He'll be late...we're gonna tell him that if he doesn't offer Thompson a cabinet position...he's not gonna get the nomination. STEPHEN Will he go for it? PAUL I don't fucking know Stephen. As Paul exits he shoots back. PAUL (CONT'D) Find us a room... CUT TO: INT. KENT STATE UNIVERSITY LOBBY MOLLY walks up the steps of the auditorium into the lobby, a staffer hands her some papers and she continues. We pull her down a corridor and land at a rehearsal room door. She hands the papers to BEN. The Governor's wife CINDY, daughter BETH and a security man are waiting outside the door. INT. KENT STATE UNIVERSITY - REHEARSAL ROOM GOV. MORRIS How real are the numbers? (CONTINUED) 47. CONTINUED: STEPHEN We might pick up a couple of points...but we're...I don't know, we lose by three or four percent. PAUL Who the fuck knows Governor...but we can't take the chance... GOV. MORRIS What do you think? PAUL I think we fold up the campaign in Ohio...take a loss and blame it on the Republican's playing games...head to North Carolina. GOV. MORRIS I can't run from Ohio...they'll kill us. PAUL Not if you get Thompson's endorsement. GOV. MORRIS I'm not gonna do it. What's he want head of the FDA or something ridiculous? STEPHEN Cabinet post. GOV. MORRIS Labor? STEPHEN State... This sits with them. GOV. MORRIS Are you fucking kidding me...I'm gonna give Secretary of State to a guy who wants to cut the top ten floors off the UN? Paul when we started this campaign I said I wasn't gonna make those kind of deals. (CONTINUED) 48. CONTINUED: (2) PAUL Governor, if you lose Ohio, and they get Thompson's delegates...Then they get North Carolina...then they get the lead. A lead you can't beat. But if we walk from Ohio, take Thompson, give him a cabinet post, then we take North Carolina. His state. Then Pennsylvania. Your state. And then it's simple math Mike. Take his endorsement and the race is over. GOV. MORRIS Paul, I respect you...respect your opinion...but I'm never gonna do it...so I suggest we find a way for me to win Ohio. They sit there looking at their shoes. GOV. MORRIS (CONT'D) Anything else? Off their looks we- CUT TO: INT. MORRIS HEADQUARTERS - CINCINNATI - LATE AFTERNOON We're mid action. Everyone is there. Phones...emails...people running in and out. STEPHEN, BEN, MOLLY...sleeves rolled up. PAUL is in a closed room but we can see him on the phone. STEPHEN (On the phone) Do we have any other senators that can go to bat for us? House members won't do. BEN (Whispering to him) Or a Congressman from Ohio maybe. STEPHEN Right...but we need a Senator...one from Ohio would be nice. We push the camera through the room, edging closer to PAUL. (CONTINUED) 49. CONTINUED: MOLLY (TO STEPHEN) This is all the car rental companies in Northern Ohio...they've booked every single van for Tuesday... STEPHEN Fuck...Jess, I'll call you back... (To Molly) All of them? Goddamit! BEN (On the computer) Here's what I have so far...Independents don't seem to be biting, but Republicans are...or say they are. STEPHEN They're not gonna tell a pollster that they're gonna vote Democratic...I don't even know how to read these polls. MOLLY I called and we can get a hundred vans out of Covington and Newport Kentucky. STEPHEN We don't need the fucking vans...we just don't want Pullman to have them... We keep pushing in on PAUL until we can hear him talking to a reporter on the phone. - During this conversation he types on his laptop. PAUL No, No that's not what I'm saying...we were the underdog before we got into this and we continue to be the underdog...well the numbers...we knew the numbers would get closer the closer we got to Tuesday...I'm not lowering expectations...have you ever heard me say that we had Ohio locked?... Then at least give me the courtesy of printing that in your column. CUT TO: 50. EXT. GOVERNORS SUV - NIGHT We see The SUV drive down the highway. INT. GOVERNORS SUV - NIGHT We're in the second row of seats of the Governor's SUV. CINDY'S head on his shoulder. They are very comfortable and easy with each other. The Governor is writing a speech on a legal pad. CINDY What're you writing? GOV. MORRIS The greatest speech ever given on hydrogen power. CINDY The bar is awfully high on that one. GOV. MORRIS Don't I know it. CINDY I got hit up by Mitchell's wife for you to show up at her "Daughters of the American Revolution" luncheon. GOV. MORRIS Who's Mitchell? CINDY Congressman from the first district. You might want to remember that. GOV. MORRIS Fucking Congressmen. Could you imagine doing this every two years? CINDY No I can't. Lets just do this one more time. GOV. MORRIS In four more years. CINDY That's it. (CONTINUED) 51. CONTINUED: GOV. MORRIS Deal. BEAT CINDY You think we'll lose Ohio? GOV. MORRIS I don't know. CINDY If you took Thompson's delegates the race is over. Ohio wouldn't matter. GOV. MORRIS Is Paul working on you? CINDY (Shaking her head) Stephen. GOV. MORRIS (SMILING) They are good. CINDY Is Thompson so bad? GOV. MORRIS He's a shit. CINDY Worse than Pullman? GOV. MORRIS Yes Stephen. Beat. GOV. MORRIS (CONT'D) Every time I draw a line in the sand...and I keep moving it. Fund raising, union deals...I wasn't going to do any of it...negative ads...I can't on this one. Not Thompson. Beat. (CONTINUED) 52. CONTINUED: (2) GOV. MORRIS (CONT'D) Tell Mrs. Mitchell I'll make her goddamn luncheon. Beat. GOV. MORRIS (CONT'D) Let the old ladies pat me on the head. They smile. CINDY You've got great hair. GOV. MORRIS You too baby. They lay their heads back onto the headrests. CUT TO: INT. PERFORMING ARTS BUILDING - DAYTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE - A BIT LATER A few hundred students sit around The GOVERNOR in a theater as he fields questions. MORRIS is cornered by a conservative student. STUDENT 1 Gay marriage? GOV. MORRIS It's a silly argument. STUDENT 1 Not to fifty percent of Americans. GOV. MORRIS Over the age of fifty. STUDENT 1 That's who votes...that's who shows up at the polls. GOV. MORRIS Well that's changing...and hopefully the way we frame the argument is... At this point the camera travels backstage to find STEPHEN, BEN, PAUL and MOLLY working the phones and laptops. (CONTINUED) 53. CONTINUED: PAUL (TO STEPHEN) Keep an eye on the Governor. STEPHEN (TO BEN) Let me know how it's going out there. STEPHEN (CONT'D) I'm on it. BEN takes us back out, and under this we hear the GOVERNOR continue debating.. STUDENT 1 From...a religious...a GOV. MORRIS From a religious to a civil rights issue. STUDENT 1 But one could argue a great difference between gender and race. GOV. MORRIS Not really. They used to ban interracial marriage...women couldn't vote...the list goes on... STUDENT 1 The argument of course- We hear boos from students in the audience. At this point the camera finds MORRIS. Morris quiets the students. GOV. MORRIS Now wait she has a point to make.... STUDENT 1 The argument is that men and women, can in fact be separate but equal, races cannot. GOV. MORRIS How so? (CONTINUED) 54. CONTINUED: (2) STUDENT 1 You have separate public bathrooms for men and women but it would be illegal to have separate bathrooms for two races. GOV. MORRIS Now. STUDENT 1 (LAUGHING) Yes now. Audience laughs. GOV. MORRIS So that's what I'm saying. CUT TO: INT. PERFORMING ARTS BUILDING LOBBY - AFTER STEPHEN, BEN and the rest, head out of the town hall to get on the bus. STEPHEN What time is this on tonight? BEN Nine o'clock. STEPHEN How'd he do? BEN He did good. CUT TO: EXT. CAMPAIGN BUS - NIGHT The bus rolls down the highway INT. CAMPAIGN BUS - NIGHT It's a flurry of activity. STEPHEN, BEN, MOLLY and our REGULAR STAFFERS...are all on phones, Blackberry's and laptop's. MOLLY looks back over her shoulder to STEPHEN, who's face is lit by his laptop. He looks up...they lock eyes. 55. INT. MILLENNIUM HOTEL - STEVEN'S ROOM - NIGHT We're tight on a TV. It's the taped broadcast of the previous town hall meeting. As the scene plays we pull back to see STEPHEN and MOLLY making love. We see pieces of body parts. Hands...a leg...hair being pulled...it's what we've grown used to seeing in a seventies love scene, all lit by the flickering of a television. The only score we hear is the sound of the TV. GOV. MORRIS See we're framing the argument based on the idea that homosexuality is a choice, you choose to be gay, not that you were born that way like being born black. Because if you start the discussion with the idea that gay is not a life choice but part of your DNA, then gay marriage is and can only be a civil rights issue. ANOTHER STUDENT steps up to the microphone. STUDENT 2 Do you think candor is your appeal? Is that what you're running on as much as your platform...? GOV. MORRIS We'll see. It'll drive them to the polls one way or the other. STUDENT 2 I just heard a lot of Christian Coalition cars start up. We pull focus now onto STEPHEN and MOLLY. STEPHEN on top not moving. He looks down to the area where an erection would normally be at this time...then he looks back to Molly. STEPHEN It's not you. They laugh. CUT TO: 56. INT. MILLENNIUM HOTEL - STEVEN'S ROOM - NIGHT - LATER Stephen is lying in bed working on some papers. Molly is asleep next to him. Stephen's cell phone rings. STEPHEN Hello... Almost at the same time we hear another man's voice on the phone. VOICE Molly? They both stop. No one speaks. Stephen is about to speak again when the caller hangs up. Stephen looks at the phone...he then looks to the bedside table where he sees an identical phone. His phone. He's picked up Molly's phone by mistake. He looks at the name of the incoming call...there is none...he looks at the caller ID number...he looks at the clock...2:30 AM. STEPHEN Your phone rang. MOLLY Really? STEPHEN Who's calling at 2:30 in the morning? MOLLY I don't know? STEPHEN He asked for you by name. MOLLY You answered it? STEPHEN I thought it was mine. Who was it? MOLLY I don't know... STEPHEN One of the other interns drunk dialing you? (CONTINUED) 57. CONTINUED: MOLLY (KIDDING) Oh that never happens...let me see the number... She reaches for the phone, but Steven keeps it away from her. STEPHEN Hold on... MOLLY (Still waiting for it) Stephen... STEPHEN I'm gonna call him back. He pushes the redial button. MOLLY No! STEPHEN ...And I'm gonna tell him that I'm your dad... MOLLY Gimme my phone Stephen! STEPHEN And I'm gonna tell him I'm coming over there with a shotgun... MOLLY (Getting more urgent) Don't do that Stephen... Hang up! Stephen, listens to the outgoing message, while he looks at Molly...her eyes starting to well up. We hear the buzzing of the message through the phone. Then we see Stephens reaction as it begins to dawn on him who he's listening to. He closes the phone without leaving a message. Beat. STEPHEN Why is the Governor calling you at 2:30 in the morning? (CONTINUED) 58. CONTINUED: (2) She says nothing. STEPHEN (CONT'D) Why is the Governor calling you at all? MOLLY I'm in trouble... STEPHEN With the Governor? What's going on? MOLLY I was working on the campaign in Iowa...we had a party in Ben's room after the rally in Des Moines... STEPHEN There was a party with you...and Ben...and the Governor. MOLLY No he wasn't there. STEPHEN Where was he? MOLLY I took him up a hard copy of the polling numbers... STEPHEN After the party? MOLLY (Shaking her head yes) About midnight I guess...I stood in the doorway with him...we were talking...a long time...then he just reached behind me and closed the door. STEPHEN Jesus fucking Christ...Were you drunk? MOLLY Not that drunk... STEPHEN How many times? (CONTINUED) 59. CONTINUED: (3) MOLLY Just that once. STEPHEN Does anybody know? Did anyone see you? MOLLY No. STEPHEN How could you know? MOLLY I know! STEPHEN Then why is he calling you now? MOLLY I called him first. STEPHEN Why? MOLLY Because I didn't know who to go to...and I needed nine hundred bucks... STEPHEN For what? MOLLY I can't go to my dad...We're catholic. Beat. MOLLY (CONT'D) So what should I do? A long beat. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - CINCINNATI - NEXT DAY - MORNING We're close on STEPHEN as he walks down the sidewalk and into... 60. INT. MORRIS HEADQUARTERS - MORNING - CONTINUOUS STEPHEN walks into the campaign office. He looks at all the posters with pictures of Morris. People greet him as he walks past. The signs all look wrong now. The smile on Morris's face looks fake. He sees MOLLY as he passes and heads into the war room. CUT TO: INT. MORRIS HEADQUARTERS - LATER STEPHEN is going through the drawers in his desk... he goes to the office door, opens it and yells to Ben in the bullpen. STEPHEN Ben... come here a minute BEN stops what he's doing and heads into Stephen's office. BEN What's up? STEPHEN What's our limit on petty cash? BEN It's probably five hundred. Why? STEPHEN I need as much as we have. BEN Everything okay?... anything I can help with? STEPHEN Yeah...don't put it on the books. That's all. BEN What should I put it down as? STEPHEN Don't put it down as anything... BEN Anything over a hundred I got to put it down as something... (CONTINUED) 61. CONTINUED: STEPHEN (raising his voice) Just do it! BEN exits. We follow BEN into the bullpen, past the STAFFERS who look up at the outburst... MOLLY watches BEN and then looks to STEPHEN who closes his door. We stay on MOLLY. We see MOLLY watching through the door... as STEPHEN finishes, he opens the door. STEPHEN (CONT'D) Molly... She gets up and comes into his office. Stephen hands Molly a folder that he writes on the inside of STEPHEN (CONT'D) Here... Molly opens the folder and reads "Meet me in the stairwell at noon". She closes the folder. MOLLY Okay. Stephen holds out his hand. STEPHEN I'll take that. That's all. He takes the folder and tears it into several pieces as Molly leaves... he throws the pieces into the trash can. CUT TO: INT. STOCK YARDS BANK - CINCINNATI- LATER STEPHEN stands at a tellers counter, he writes out a check for eight hundred dollars to cash. The teller hands him the money. Stephen exits. CUT TO: EXT. STOCK YARDS BANK STEPS - CONTINUOUS STEPHEN walks down to the sidewalk. He's on the phone with Ida. (CONTINUED) 62. CONTINUED: IDA Stevie ... off the record ... STEPHEN No I can't tell you what happened in North Carolina. IDA That's not what I wanted to ask you about. STEPHEN Okay what? IDA You met with Duffy. A pause. STEPHEN Who told you that? IDA A little bird. STEPHEN Who? IDA Did you meet with him? STEPHEN Where are you? CUT TO: INT. SKY WALK - CINCINATTI - MINUTES LATER IDA I know you met with him at a little bar in Cincy, two nights ago, just before the press conference. Duffy ordered buffalo wings. STEPHEN Did Duffy tell you this? IDA Anonymous. What happened with Duffy? (CONTINUED) 63. CONTINUED: STEPHEN You're supposed to be my friend Ida. You'd stab me in the back like this? You'd ruin my reputation just so you- IDA Wait wait wait -is that what you thought? That we were friends? STEPHEN I've given you everything -every fucking scoop, your profile with Pau1.... IDA You're right -you've given me a lot. But let's get real here Steve. The only reason you ever treated me well was that I work for the Times. Not because I was your friend. You give me what I want, I write you better stories. Don't pretend it's any more than that. Why'd you meet with Duffy? STEPHEN Go fuck yourself. STEPHEN starts walking away. IDA Okay, I'll make it easier on you. Forget Duffy. What happened at Paul and Thompson's meeting? STEPHEN (STOPPING) Will you keep your voice down. Do you have any idea what a story like this could do to me? IDA Of course I do. That's why I'm giving you a choice here. STEPHEN I could get fired. IDA So it's not a difficult choice, is it? I've got to file by three p.m. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 64. CONTINUED: (2) IDA (CONT'D) tomorrow. You've got till then to make up your mind. Stephen is left standing there. CUT TO: EXT. FOUNTAIN SQUARE - CINCI / INT. MEMORIAL HALL - A FEW MINUTES LATER Stephen is on a pay phone in front of the fountain. DUFFY is at a campaign event, he also talks on his cell. STEPHEN You mother fucker. DUFFY Excuse me? STEPHEN You leaked it. DUFFY Leaked what? STEPHEN Don't bullshit me Tom. DUFFY Bullshit you...I have no idea what you're talking about. STEPHEN I just spoke with Ida Horowicz. DUFFY Yeah? STEPHEN She's threatening to release the story. DUFFY What fucking story? STEPHEN That we met! That I fuckin met with you! DUFFY How did she find out? (CONTINUED) 65. CONTINUED: STEPHEN Don't play dumb here Tom. DUFFY You think I leaked it to her? STEPHEN Who else? DUFFY I didn't leak it to her. STEPHEN Well I know I didn't, so that leaves you. DUFFY What's she know? STEPHEN She knows whatever you told her. DUFFY I swear to Jesus I didn't leak it to her Steve. I don't want this story out any more than you do. STEPHEN Well too late. DUFFY What did she tell you? STEPHEN She knows where we met, she knows when we met... she knows you had buffalo fucking wings. DUFFY She has a source? STEPHEN Yes she has a source. DUFFY And you have no idea who it could be? STEPHEN Yeah, you. (CONTINUED) 66. CONTINUED: (2) DUFFY Well it wasn't me, and for the record I didn't have fucking buffalo wings. It's gotta be some one else. STEPHEN Did you tell anyone? DUFFY No. Did you? STEPHEN No. DUFFY Did you admit to meeting with me? STEPHEN No. DUFFY Then we stonewall her and she's got nothing. STEPHEN She's gonna take the story to Drudge, or Roll Call...shit like that. DUFFY You can't stop her? STEPHEN She's trying to blackmail me - wants info about Thompson. DUFFY Then tell her what she wants to know. STEPHEN I can't do that. DUFFY You can't let this story get out. STEPHEN I'm not gonna be blackmailed Tom. DUFFY You don't have much of a choice here. (CONTINUED) 67. CONTINUED: (3) STEPHEN If I tell her about Thompson I gotta tell her he's gonna endorse you guys. DUFFY Then tell her. I can handle it from my side if I start getting calls. STEPHEN No fucking way. Paul told her we had Thompson in the bag. It'll make us look like fools. DUFFY You're gonna look like fools anyway when he endorses us. STEPHEN I can't do it. DUFFY You're on a sinking ship Steve. Tell her what she wants to know and jump. Come over to our side. We can control this thing. Pause. No answer from STEPHEN. DUFFY (CONT'D) Steve? STEPHEN I Gotta go. Stephen hangs up. CUT TO: INT. MORRIS HEADQUARTERS - STAIRWELL - AFTERNOON MOLLY walks in... it's dark in some places... she doesn't see anyone at first. She stands there... then from the shadows we hear STEPHEN. STEPHEN I'm up here. (CONTINUED) 68. CONTINUED: MOLLY (STARTLED) Shit, you scared me. She goes up the next flight of stairs and stands next to him on the landing. STEPHEN Take this. He hands her an envelope. STEPHEN (CONT'D) It's almost 1800 bucks... you make the appointment now... today... from a pay phone... I'll take you to the clinic and pick you up... no one else... you understand? MOLLY Yes. STEPHEN You take the rest of the money and you buy a ticket home... you can't be here anymore... we can't afford it... not with everything that's gonna happen in the next week. This situation just can't be here. MOLLY You mean I can't be here. STEPHEN Right. MOLLY But I would never tell anyone... STEPHEN I would hope not. MOLLY Then why? STEPHEN You fucked up, Molly... MOLLY He and I both fucked up. (CONTINUED) 69. CONTINUED: (2) STEPHEN But I have a responsibility to him... and more importantly I have a responsibility to this campaign. MOLLY I could go to North Carolina and work on the campaign... STEPHEN Molly you've go to wake the fuck up... this is the big leagues... it's mean...and when you make mistakes you lose your right to play. Make the appointment and tell me when and where we have to go. He exits. CUT TO: INT. STEPHEN'S HOTEL ROOM - LATER THAT NIGHT STEPHEN sits at the desk in front of his laptop. BEN sits on the floor surrounded by papers and a laptop. As BEN is talking Stephen is staring blankly at the screen. BEN Listen to this. I got the placement in the Times...this is a match up of hope versus fear. Nine times out of ten the fear candidate tends to be the most experienced...but in our presidential races the least experienced candidate almost always wins. JFK versus Nixon...Carter versus Ford...Bush versus Gore...I like our chances with the new kid on the block, end quote. Thomas Fucking Duffy...he's gotta be having a stroke right now. STEPHEN'S phone buzzes, he picks it up and reads the text. It reads: NOON TOMORROW, MOLLY. He sets the phone down...BEN continues talking. CUT TO: 70. EXT. MOLLY'S MOTEL - A BIT LATER STEPHEN sits in his car in the back of the parking lot, waiting... his phone rings. He looks at the caller ID... it's Ida... he sets the phone back down, waits, and sees MOLLY come out of the hotel. She looks around and heads toward Stephen. She gets into the car and they drive off in silence. CUT TO: INT./EXT. STEPHENS CAR - ROEBLING SUSPENSION BRIDGE - A BIT LATER STEPHEN AND MOLLY drive in silence. INT. STEPHEN'S CAR - DAY - A FEW MINUTES LATER STEPHEN and MOLLY driving down the street. Stephen drives until he sees the clinic. He stops. INT. CLINIC - WAITING ROOM - DAY STEPHEN stands at the receptionists window and hands the NURSE a clipboard with the forms Molly has filled out. She hands him back the yellow copies and he sits down next to MOLLY. STEPHEN So just call me when you can leave okay. MOLLY (Looking at the clinic) I hate this shit... STEPHEN I'll be back, this'll all be over... MOLLY Yeah... STEPHEN leaves. CUT TO: INT. MILLENNIUM HOTEL - PAUL'S ROOM - DAY We're in PAUL'S room. He's lying on the bed, talking on his cell phone. BEN sits at the desk working on a laptop. (CONTINUED) 71. CONTINUED: PAUL Absolutely -there's no question about it .... A knock. PAUL goes to the door, opens it and waves STEPHEN in, shutting the door behind him as he enters. PAUL (CONT'D) But we've got to think broader strokes here, rethink everything....uh-huh....Yeah, I know how to handle it....Look,Stevie just got here. Can I call you back in a few minutes? ..Okay, bye. (He hangs up) The Governor. We had a good long talk on the way back. He's up to speed with everything. STEPHEN How'd he take it? PAUL Better than I thought he would. Still won't take Thompson's endorsement. STEPHEN Paul-I gotta tell you something. PAUL What's up? STEPHEN Ida knows I met with Duffy. PAUL stares at him blankly. STEPHEN (CONT'D) I don't know how she found out. Tried to blackmail me. Said she was gonna let the story out if I didn't tell her what happened at your meeting with Thompson. PAUL So it's gonna hit the papers. STEPHEN Probably. Yeah. Whoever she takes it to, they're gonna call me for a statement. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 72. CONTINUED: (2) STEPHEN (CONT'D) I could just deny the whole thing, but if they call Duffy and he admits to it, that could look worse. If I say no comment they won't let up. PAUL I leaked it to Ida. Pause. BEN looks up from his laptop. PAUL (CONT'D) At the event. STEPHEN I don't understand. PAUL We made a deal. STEPHEN Paul...they're gonna print that story in the paper tomorrow morning. PAUL I know. STEPHEN But why? Why would you do that to me? Why would you do that to the campaign. PAUL The campaign will survive. STEPHEN Then why would you do that to me? PAUL Makes it easier to let you go. STEPHEN What? PAUL Why'd you meet with Duffy? STEPHEN I made a mistake - a stupid mistake. (CONTINUED) 73. CONTINUED: (3) PAUL No Stephen. You didn't make a mistake. You made a choice. You called me and left a message to call back...that it was important. But when I did...you said to forget about it. You chose not to tell me. Why did you make that choice? STEPHEN I didn't think it was important. PAUL Sure you did. But you went because you were curious, because you were flattered. Because it made you feel special to think Duffy wanted to speak to you instead of me. Because you thought to yourself: maybe I can get something out of this. Because it made you feel big. First campaign I ran tiny little race in Kentucky -state senate seat. Workin for redneck nobody named McGuthrie. Had no money, no staff, no fuckin office. Everyone thought we didn't stand a chance. There's no way we can compete. And about this time, a guy running a congressional campaign a few districts over gives me a call. Says, "I really like what you were able to do for poor ole' Sam. But let's face it, he's a goner, so why don't you come work for me?" What do I do? Well Stephen -this is where you and I are different. I told Sam about the call. And Sam says to me, "Paul, you think this other's guy's got a shot at winning, and he can pay you more than anything I can afford, so if it's what you feel you need to do, then I won't get in your way." So I say, "Sam -you took a chance and hired me when I was even more of nobody than you are, and I'd be damned if I'm gonna jump ship just because the shit hit the fan." We lost the race, but three years later, when Sam decided to run for Governor -who do you think he called? We won that race. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 74. CONTINUED: (4) PAUL (CONT'D) And twenty years later I'm where I am now. (Beat) There's only one thing I value in this world Steve, and that's loyalty. Without it you're nothing and you have no one. And in politics it's the only currency that you can count on. That's why I'm letting you go. Not because you're not good enough. But I value trust over skill. And I don't trust you anymore. STEPHEN Well it really isn't whether you trust me, it's whether the Governor does. PAUL The Governor knows, he thinks it's the right thing to do. STEPHEN He does. PAUL If I were you? I'd get a good night sleep because you're gonna get fucking pounded by calls from the press in the morning... Off of Stephen we: CUT TO: INT. CLINIC - DAY - LATER MOLLY is sitting in the clinic waiting room, Post-Op. The NURSE comes out with a bag of prescription drugs and some instructions. NURSE These are Vicodin...they're for the pain. You have Ambien...that'll help you sleep...and I threw in a couple of Xanax for the next couple of days. Did the doctor explain there would be some bleeding? Molly nods. (CONTINUED) 75. CONTINUED: NURSE (CONT'D) Not much...and it shouldn't last very long. If it does you'll need to call us. Molly just sits there staring. NURSE (CONT'D) Do you have a ride? Molly shakes her head yes. NURSE (CONT'D) Okay...if you need anything you just call the clinic...okay. MOLLY (NODS) Okay. The NURSE walks back into the office. MOLLY just sits there...by herself. We stay with her for a while. CUT TO: EXT. STEPHEN'S RENTAL CAR - AFTERNOON STEPHEN is driving. CUT TO: EXT. CLINIC - AFTERNOON MOLLY walks outside the clinic and down the street. CUT TO: EXT. CAFE NEAR CLINIC - LATER Through the front window we see Molly sitting in a booth making a phone call. There is a TV on the wall, the news plays. DEBBIE DIXON Yes Mike, Senator Franklin Thompson of North Carolina arrived at the Lunken airfield today igniting rumors of a deal in the works. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 76. CONTINUED: DEBBIE DIXON (CONT'D) The NY times is reporting that Senator Thompson will pledge his three hundred and fifty-six delegates to Senator Pullman. CUT TO: EXT. CLINIC STREET - NIGHT STEPHEN drives by the clinic, he slows to see if Molly is still there. The clinic is closed. CUT TO: EXT. MOLLY'S MOTEL - KENTUCKY - NIGHT MOLLY gets out of a cab and walks into the hotel. Under this we hear: BEN Hey, where were you today? MOLLY I'm not feeling great Ben... INT. MOLLY'S MOTEL - KENTUCKY - NIGHT We're in front of MOLLY'S door as the scene continues. BEN You picked a hell of day to call in sick...Jesus...fucking wild day... MOLLY Why? BEN Stephen's off the campaign. Paul fired him. Some fucking set up about loyalty and it looks like Stephen was doubling down with Duffy on the Pullman campaign. I was sitting in the room when Paul told Stephen that he was fired. Stephen said who's gonna take over and Paul said me...and I'm like...easy there soldier...but Stephen goes ape shit then Paul gives the speech about loyalty and then shits on Stephen like I've NEVER SEEN before...christ...humiliating shit. (CONTINUED) 77. CONTINUED: MOLLY When was this? BEN Molly listen to me...I'm gonna run the campaign under Paul...Stephen is going to Duffy. I just jumped three years ahead...so starting tomorrow morning we go into full damage control and I'm telling you Stephen's going ape shit...he said he's taking everyone down on his way out...Morris, everybody! Phone rings. BEN (CONT'D) Shit I gotta take this. Do you need anything? MOLLY No. CUT TO: INT. PULLMAN HEADQUARTERS - CINCINNATI - NIGHT STEPHEN enters the offices, staffers look up and recognize him. STEPHEN Where's Duffy... STAFFER 1 You got an appointment? Stephen keeps walking. Stephen arrives at a medium sized, glass partitioned office. As he looks in, we see Duffy and five or six staffers around a table. Duffy is holding court, the mood is light. Duffy notices Stephen standing there. Duffy walks Stephen a few doors down to a conference room. A single staffer is working on a laptop. DUFFY Joe can you excuse us for a minute. The staffer leaves and Duffy closes the door. (CONTINUED) 78. CONTINUED: DUFFY (CONT'D) Not very bright, walking in here... STEPHEN I'm in. I'm coming to work for you. DUFFY A reporter at Roll Call phoned me this afternoon. STEPHEN I know who leaked it. DUFFY Who? STEPHEN Paul. DUFFY You told Paul? STEPHEN Yeah. I told him we met. He leaked it. DUFFY You shouldn't have told him that. STEPHEN I felt like I should. DUFFY I've worked with Paul. He gets paranoid. STEPHEN Obviously. DUFFY So he fired you. STEPHEN I quit. DUFFY You're lying to me...come on... STEPHEN I quit! And I can give you everything on Morris. Everything. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 79. CONTINUED: (2) STEPHEN (CONT'D) I can lay out his whole strategy for you. DUFFY I already know his strategy. Paul gave it all to Thompson. STEPHEN What if I had something else? DUFFY You'd do that to Morris? To Paul? STEPHEN Yeah. DUFFY Revenge makes people unpredictable Steve. I can't have someone who's unpredictable. Who's unstable. STEPHEN (CALMLY) I'm not unstable. DUFFY If it had been a clean break -if you'd left Morris before this story broke, that'd be one thing. That we could control. But the way it'd look now -Paul fires you and then you come work for us. Looks like we're picking up the scraps. Puts Morris in the drivers seat. I can't have that. We see a shot close on STEPHEN'S clinched fist holding the yellow copies from Molly's clinic visit down by his side. We pan up to his face. STEPHEN What if I had something big? DUFFY Like what? STEPHEN Something big. Something that'll bring Morris down. DUFFY What is it? (CONTINUED) 80. CONTINUED: (3) STEPHEN (Shaking his head) Give me the job. DUFFY It's not gonna happen. I'm sorry. Go take a nice long vacation. Beat. DUFFY (CONT'D) You're a smart guy Steve. Everything I said yesterday is true. But maybe politics isn't for you. STEPHEN Politics is my life. DUFFY Do yourself a favor. Get out now while you still can. Go into entertainment, or business, or open a fucking restaurant in Costa Rica - anything. Do what will make you happy. You stay in this business long enough it makes you jaded and cynical. STEPHEN Like you? DUFFY Yeah. Just like me. STEPHEN You knew I was gonna tell Paul. DUFFY I didn't know. I thought you might, but I didn't know. STEPHEN You knew if I told him he'd fire me. DUFFY Thing you gotta know about Paul- he's big on loyalty. STEPHEN Yeah I got a nice speech on that. You were never gonna hire me. (CONTINUED) 81. CONTINUED: (4) DUFFY Put yourself in my shoes Steve. Your opponent has the best media mind in the country working on his team. What do you try to do? You either try to hire him yourself, or work it so if you can't have him, the other team can't either. This was a win-win situation for me. You work for us -great. Paul doesn't have you. Then again, if Paul fires you and I don't take you -fine - Paul still doesn't have you. Either way I win. The moment I got you to sit down in that chair, I knew I'd won. STEPHEN This is my life you're talking about. DUFFY It's not easy for me to do this sort of thing Steve. Don't think I take any pleasure in it. I'm sorry for you. I really am. Take care of yourself. CUT TO: 64 STEPHEN pulls into the parking lot. INT. MOLLY'S MOTEL - KENTUCKY - NIGHT STEPHEN climbs the back stairwell to avoid seeing any of his former co-workers. He gets to the fifth floor and walks down the hall towards Molly's room. As he turns the corner he sees a maid's cart in front of her room. The door is halfway open. As he starts walking towards her door, we see the HOTEL MANAGER come running out of Molly's room, he heads the opposite way towards the elevators...he's fumbling with his walkie-talkie. STEPHEN gets to her room and we see a JANITOR kneeling over Molly's lifeless body. Stephen steps into the room. He can barely move. He just stands there looking at the situation. The JANITOR is on the phone. (CONTINUED) 82. CONTINUED: JANITOR No ma'am she's not breathing...No nothing... Stephen is looking at Molly...he looks around the room...he sees her prescription bottle empty on the bed next to her...he sees her clothes all around the room. JANITOR (CONT'D) ...I don't know, fifteen minutes...how far away are they? The JANITOR now turns and looks at STEPHEN JANITOR (CONT'D) Do you know her? STEPHEN nods his head yes. JANITOR (CONT'D) She's gone. We hear the sound of a distant ambulance. JANITOR goes back to the phone. JANITOR (CONT'D) Hello...I'm sorry what? Yes I can hear them now... STEPHEN looks down on the bed and sees Molly's phone. He reaches down takes it and slides it in his pocket. Close on STEPHENS face as he stares down at Molly. We hear the ambulance approaching the building CUT TO: EXT. MOLLY'S MOTEL - NIGHT - SECONDS LATER Stephen comes running out the door. An ambulance has pulled up and EMT's are on their way in. Police are also pulling up. Stephen keeps walking - he gets in his car and sits there. Nothing. No emotion. Stephen pulls out his phone and listens to his messages. PHONE You have four new messages and four saved messages. First new message. (CONTINUED) 83. CONTINUED: Beep. MOLLY (O.S.) Uhm...where are you?...it's Uhh...(Crying) it's four something...they're gonna close in a few minutes... Beep. BEN (O.S.) Stephen, it's Ben...listen ...what the fuck...did Paul lose his mind?...Jesus...what're you gonna do? Call me. Beep. MOLLY (O.S.) Stephen I just heard from Ben...please don't do anything fucked up...(She's losing it.) Godamnit you motherfucker pick up the phone! Don't do it you fuck! Beep. We now hear Molly in a very different tone, calmer, maybe even drunk. MOLLY (O.S.) (CONT'D) I'm not going away... Beep. Stephen hangs up. We stay on him for a while. CUT TO: INT. MORRIS HEADQUARTERS - NEXT MORNING The GOVERNOR, PAUL, BEN and the other staffers, sit in front of a monitor watching a news piece. We now cut to CNN footage in front of a hospital as we hear the report continue. (CONTINUED) 84. CONTINUED: JOHN KING (V.O.) The coroner has stated, that based on the evidence found by the police in the hotel room, that this was an accidental overdose, a lethal cocktail of alcohol and prescription drugs. The Cincinnati police chief, Darryl Mathews, has called for a full investigation pending a toxicology report which could take up to two weeks. Just a terrible terrible situation for the former Senator, now DNC Chairman, Jack Stearns and his family. Off the Governor's face we: CUT TO: EXT. RIVERSIDE PARK - KENTUCKY - DAY STEPHEN and SENATOR THOMPSON are seated on a bench. SENATOR THOMPSON I want on the ticket...you need me on the ticket...and you need my delegates...you could use em before Tuesday. Make a fine story on the Sunday morning news cycle...so I expect to hear from you by noon tomorrow...or I endorse Pullman and take my cabinet seat. They look at each other. SENATOR THOMPSON (CONT'D) Anything else you want to talk about? CUT TO: INT. PRESS ROOM - CINCINNATI - NEXT MORNING We're at a press conference - The GOVERNOR, PAUL, BEN, and the rest of the staff, are standing behind the microphone. The Governor is making a statement GOV. MORRIS The entire staff is in a state of shock. We have sent our condolences to Jack and JoAnna Stearns and their whole family... (MORE) (CONTINUED) 85. CONTINUED: GOV. MORRIS (CONT'D) and of course our hearts go out to them... it's hard to imagine what they're going through... All we know at this point is it appears to be a drug...an accidental prescription overdose. Ida? IDA Is suicide ruled out? GOV. MORRIS We have no reason to believe... He looks to Paul. GOV. MORRIS (CONT'D) I don't think we have any of that information yet. Obviously there will be a full investigation. Just wanted to say that our hearts go out...our prayers go out to the entire family...and she was part of our family. REPORTER 5 Did you know her well Governor? GOV. MORRIS Not well. But I did know her, and what I saw was a hard working, young woman, with a great and positive spirit. It's a very sad day in our campaign and a very sad day for the people close to Jack. REPORTER 6 How long has she interned with you Governor? The Governor looks back at Paul. Paul steps up to the mic. PAUL She'd only been on the road with us for a few weeks...maybe four I think, I can check. IDA Will you continue with your schedule today? You're set to tour Proctor & Gamble this afternoon. (CONTINUED) 86. CONTINUED: (2) PAUL We will most certainly stay on schedule. This accident, and we have to assume for now it's an accident, is just simply a tragedy. The work, the schedule won't be altered. It just means that those of us that knew Molly will go about our jobs with a heavy heart. As these questions continue, the Governor's cell phone vibrates. He pulls it from his pocket and reads the name of the caller. It reads "Molly." He looks up. Panic starts to set in - the only sounds we hear are his heart beating and the phone vibrating. The Governor looks at each of his staff members. Then he scans around the room looking through the press corps up to the back doorway where he locks eyes with Stephen. STEPHEN holds a cell phone to his ear. They stare at each other. Then Stephen hangs up, and the Governor's phone stops vibrating. Stephen turns and leaves. CUT TO: EXT. RESTAURANT - CINCINNATI - THAT NIGHT STEPHEN approaches the restaurant - the lights are off. He peers through a window - we hear the door unlock. One of the Governor's SECRET SERVICE MEN opens the door. He motions Stephen in. INT. RESTAURANT - CINCINNATI - CONTINUOUS Stephen follows the secret service guy through the dark restaurant - they pass several other secret service guys sitting in booths. They cross towards the back to the kitchen door - STEPHEN enters. INT. RESTAURANT KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS The kitchen is small and dimly lit. The Governor is standing behind the center island - hanging pans hide his face. GOV. MORRIS It seems you have something you want to talk about. STEPHEN Does it seem that way? (CONTINUED) 87. CONTINUED: GOV. MORRIS If you have something...or think you have something you want to get off your chest... STEPHEN What's say I do the talking and you do the listening. GOV. MORRIS Okay. STEPHEN As of tomorrow morning there's going to be some changes in your campaign. Paul is out. I will be your senior campaign manager. I'll draft a statement, "we're at a point in the campaign where some changes have to be made etc." You can put your own words in there, you do it better than most. GOV. MORRIS And why would I do that? Beat. STEPHEN Because you want to win. Because you broke the only rule in politics. You want to be President, you can start a war, you can lie, you can cheat, you can bankrupt the country, but you can't fuck the interns...they'll get you for that. GOV. MORRIS What do you think you have Stephen? A troubled young girl tells you a story. STEPHEN A troubled young pregnant girl... GOV. MORRIS Is that what she told you? STEPHEN ...Who needed cash for an abortion. (CONTINUED) 88. CONTINUED: (2) GOV. MORRIS What did you do, give her money? Maybe she just wanted cash and you were the perfect guy to hit up. STEPHEN Is that your best play? GOV. MORRIS You need a job that bad Stephen? You walk in here with your dick in your hand...you've got nothing. STEPHEN So how did I get here? You're right Mike, there's nothing. No phone messages, no text, no e- mails, no photos or tapes, and yet I'm standing right here. GOV. MORRIS Well go home. STEPHEN She left a note. The Governor stands in silence. GOV. MORRIS How would you know that? STEPHEN I cleaned up your mess. I took her phone and I found her note. They stare at each other in silence. GOV. MORRIS I thought it was an accident. THEN: STEPHEN You tell me, you were the last one she called. Note says she was pregnant, said you were going to pay for her abortion...it also said she didn't want to hurt you. GOV. MORRIS Then why would she leave a note that could only do that? (CONTINUED) 89. CONTINUED: (3) STEPHEN Because she's twenty. GOV. MORRIS What do you want? STEPHEN Paul's gone today. I set a meeting with you and Thompson where you promise him the ticket. You get three hundred and fifty-six pledged delegates, you get North Carolina, and then you take office and make right what so many have made wrong. All the things we both believe in. GOV. MORRIS Well I don't believe in extortion...I don't believe in tying myself to you for the next eight years. STEPHEN Four years, let's not get ahead of ourselves. A long beat. Finally the Governor says: GOV. MORRIS What were you doing in her room? STEPHEN Housekeeping, before you ended up on page one. GOV. MORRIS No. You were already fired, you were out. What were you doing in her room? STEPHEN I was fixing a situation...I got a call, someone from the hotel thought I could help and called me. GOV. MORRIS You were off the campaign, but you thought it was important to come back and fix things? It was your voice on the phone the other night. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 90. CONTINUED: (4) GOV. MORRIS (CONT'D) You were fucking her. What did you do Stephen? STEPHEN I loaned her some money and gave her a ride. GOV. MORRIS I bet you did. Pause. AND THEN: GOV. MORRIS (CONT'D) There's no note. STEPHEN Okay, there's no note. GOV. MORRIS Show it to me. STEPHEN You think I brought it here? That's how people get hurt. GOV. MORRIS Okay let's play this out. You're not wearing a wire because everything you've suggested is illegal...and you wouldn't fare well in federal prison. You were fucking her and she told you about her situation. There are no records or conversations between us. And since she's had an abortion, no DNA evidence. So if there's no note, then it's your word against mine. Your word. A fired, disgruntled, employee, or a sitting governor...There's no note. STEPHEN It's your call Governor. As the Governor weighs his options we- CUT TO: 91. INT. BARBER SHOP - EARLY MORNING PAUL is sitting in a barber shop getting his hair cut... the BARBER cuts... Paul sits there. The TV is on... a sports show... no one talks. We watch Paul's face as the barber clips the back of his head. CUT TO: EXT. STREET OUTSIDE BARBER SHOP PAUL walks out, starts down the street. As he passes the first corner, he sees the Governor's SUV and the Secret Service SUV both parked on the side of the road. Paul looks at the SUV... then walks up to the window. The window rolls down and the GOVERNOR leans his head out. GOV. MORRIS Paul you got a minute? We stay outside the car for along time. We hear CHRIS MATHEWS under this shot. We see Paul get out of the SUV and the two SUVs drive off, leaving him standing there. EXT. NICER HOTEL - CINCINNATI - NEXT DAY - ESTABLISHING INT. NICER HOTEL ROOM- CINCINNATI - NEXT DAY STEPHEN'S in a different hotel now. The TV is on. CHRIS MATHEWS How much could a big shake up days before the Ohio primary hurt a campaign. I asked Paul Zara how his firing could actually help the candidate. We See STEPHEN, shaving in the bathroom mirror, as he listens to the TV. PAUL The Governor and I both felt, that in light of some of these changing numbers, it was best to put a new face on the campaign...Stephen is very talented...very smart... CUT TO: 92. EXT. WHEELING WEST VIRGINIA - SAME DAY We see a shot of an old church. People are walking up the steps and through the big open doors. INT. CHURCH - WHEELING WEST VIRGINIA We're at a memorial service for Molly. We see a lot of young people. PAUL is sitting in the back row. As Molly's father JACK STEARNS speaks STEPHEN walks in. He sits in the adjacent row - he and Paul look at each other. JACK STEARNS You always hear people talking about events out of sequence...the order of things. There is no greater grief than a parent laying their child to rest...She was a little girl trying to make it in a very grown up world...a world were every mistake is magnified and she was smart and pretty and so so young. He looks to the PRIEST next to him. JACK STEARNS (CONT'D) Father, you ask us to accept God's plan, to not question his judgment, with all due respect, I don't accept this judgment. She made the world better, not just for me, but for everyone she touched. FADE TO: EXT. CHURCH - WHEELING WEST VIRGINIA - LATER We're on the street in front of the church. People are filing out. PAUL is waiting next to STEPHEN'S car as Steven walks up. PAUL You should hire Jack for a speech writer. STEPHEN I'll keep that in mind. Are you here to talk to me? (CONTINUED) 93. CONTINUED: PAUL No. I'm friends with the family. I got her the internship...known her since she was born. STEPHEN I'm sorry. PAUL The Governor couldn't make the flight? STEPHEN He's meeting with Thompson. PAUL Look at you, all grown up with tits and all. STEPHEN I learned from the best. PAUL One day we'll grab a beer and you'll tell me what you had on the Governor that put me out. STEPHEN How do you know I didn't have something on you? They both smile. PAUL You better get going, you've got a campaign to run and I've got offices to go look at. STEPHEN Farragut North? Paul nods his head. PAUL Nice consultant firm right off of K Street. Paul turns to leave. PAUL (CONT'D) A million a year and nobody to fuck you over. (CONTINUED) 94. CONTINUED: (2) STEPHEN Sounds relaxing. Paul, without looking back. PAUL Doesn't it. CUT TO: INT. XAVIER UNIVERSITY - CINCINNATI- DAY GOVERNOR MORRIS with his WIFE and DAUGHTER, stand at the podium just behind Senator Thompson. There are a few hundred people in attendance, campaign workers, supporters and press. SENATOR THOMPSON And the right man to lead this great nation of ours in these challenging times and the next President of the United States of America, Governor Mike Morris!...And I ask only one thing, that all of us stand shoulder to shoulder and arm in arm in a united Democratic party. Huge cheers. SENATOR THOMPSON (CONT'D) And I strongly urge that the three hundred and fifty-six loyal delegates that I have carried as a badge of honor, throw their support to the Governor. Let's end this primary and get on to the business of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave! More big cheers. SENATOR THOMPSON (CONT'D) Thank you. And God bless the United States of America. Thompson turns and shakes the hand of Governor Morris. Morris steps up to the microphone. CUT TO: EXT. XAVIER UNIVERSITY - CINCINNATI Under the following we hear the Governor's speech. (CONTINUED) 95. CONTINUED: We see Satellite trucks, press vehicles, police cars, etc. At a catering truck we see a pair of hands grab some coffee and cookies. This is another young intern, JILL. We follow her across the street and into a door. INT. XAVIER HALLWAYS & RECEPTION ROOM - CONTINUOUS JILL comes through the door. We follow her through the hallways crowded with television cables and technicians. She makes her way in to a large reception room, where Stephen is watching Governor Morris give his speech. She hands him a coffee. We cut between The Governor and Stephen watching from the back. GOV. MORRIS Thank you Senator Thompson! Well the polls aren't quite closed, but I want to congratulate Senator Pullman...And his Republican constituents on their win here in Ohio. The room explodes in laughter and applause. GOV. MORRIS (CONT'D) Senator Thompson I am honored to stand here today with you. I am humbled by your kind words, thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, today marks the beginning of a fight between two sets of ideals. Either we're going to move forward or were going to live in the past... Either we're going to lead the world in technology, or we are going to bury our heads in the sand... the sands of Saudi Arabia...the sands of Iraq! Either we're going to let greed and corruption ruin our industries and our shorelines or we are going to take back our country! We are not a nation used to coming in second or third... Cheers. CUT TO: 96. INT. XAVIER UNIVERSITY - HALLWAY & STAGING ROOM While the Governor's speech continues we stay close on Stephen as he walks through the crowd. We follow him into Governor Morris's staging area. Four monitors on a table show different network feeds. We watch Stephen roll down his sleeves and button his shirt. He ties his tie and puts his jacket on. From the monitors we hear reporters etc. We push in on one of the monitors where DUFFY is being interviewed. As we push in we see STEPHEN cross out of the room. BEN is watching, he looks back and smiles at STEPHEN. DUFFY No it's not decisive, we still have several contests and those states are going to want to have their say. It does look like we'll win Ohio... RACHEL MADDOW But you must concede that these three hundred and fifty-six delegates put the pledged delegates out of reach. And with word today that the super delegates are breaking three to one for Morris. DUFFY We still have a lot of contests Rachel, Ohio is- RACHEL MADDOW Well then do you have the funds? As we read it- DUFFY (SMILING) Of course we have the funds. We're getting new donations daily... Our new intern, JILL crosses into frame looking down at BEN. JILL Hey...Ben...I was told to talk to you. I'm supposed to get a phone... BEN Right...you're.... (CONTINUED) 97. CONTINUED: JILL Jill Morris...no relation. BEN Are you a Bearcat? JILL No...I'm from Columbus I'm a Buckeye. CUT TO: EXT. XAVIER UNIVERSITY - QUAD - CONTINUOUS A shot of STEPHEN walking across the quad towards the gym. INT. XAVIER UNIVERSITY GYM CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS We pick up Stephen walking with Ida. IDA You're making me look bad. STEPHEN How so? IDA I just filed a story that said you were off the campaign and Thompson was going to Pullman. STEPHEN You can't believe everything you read. IDA I want to give you an opportunity to comment on my next story. It says that you delivered Thompson...You got the three hundred and fifty-six delegates, you delivered the nomination. And all you asked in return was Paul's job. Any chance of you confirming that? They approach a security guard standing by a set of double doors. STEPHEN No press beyond this point...she's press. I'll read about it in the funny papers. (CONTINUED) 98. CONTINUED: IDA Come on Stephen...aren't we friends anymore? STEPHEN You're my best friend Ida. And Stephen walks through the doors. INT. XAVIER UNIVERSITY - GYMNASIUM - A FEW MINUTES LATER A wide shot of the darkened gymnasium. Stephen sits on a stool in front of a camera lit by a single television light. We're now in tight - One PERSON is putting a mic on Stephen while the OTHER is applying make-up. No one speaks. The sound man then puts and earwig into Stephens ear. SOUND MAN You should be able to hear them...do you hear them? We hear the buzzing in his ear of the broadcast from New York. STEPHEN Yeah I can hear them. SOUND MAN Good, quick mic check can you count to ten for me? Stephen counts to ten. Everyone stands behind the camera. The sound man with his headset on whispers.. SOUND MAN (CONT'D) They're coming to you in about forty five seconds. We sit in silence staring at Stephens face. Ten seconds - nothing. Twenty seconds - nothing This scene starts to resemble our opening - A dark auditorium - only a few people doing their individual jobs. Stephen looks at two interns holding clipboards and cell phones. (CONTINUED) 99. CONTINUED: The FIRST AD is sitting on the floor talking on his headset. The CAMERAMAN makes adjustments. A MAN sweeping the gym floor in the distance. They all seem to be staring at him. They probably aren't - but he feels it. The enthusiasm and excitement of Stephen has given over to emptiness. The price of winning at all cost. We stay on Stephen's face. We now hear the Governor's speech through Stephen's earwig. GOV. MORRIS Senator Thompson I am proud that you have brought integrity back to this election. Because that's what this comes down to, integrity. Who we are. Because how we project ourselves to the rest of the world matters!...Dignity matters!...Integrity matters!...Our future depends on it! Forty seconds - the silence is broken by the SOUND MAN. SOUND MAN Coming to you in five...four...three...two... Through the earwig we hear an JOHN KING. JOHN KING We now have Governor Morris's new senior campaign advisor, Stephen Myers, coming to us from Xavier University where Senator Thompson has just endorsed Governor Morris, essentially ending this primary race. (To Stephen) Stephen, can you give us some insight into how this whole thing unfolded? And before he can answer we: CUT TO BLACK: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..19f77b26a0d67a56174f6bef24a4959318c1fb65 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS Written by Terry McKeown & Charles Gilliam May 26th, 2007 LONDON 2007.. NOW1 EXT NIGHT URBAN TERRACE 1 A row of rundown terrace houses. Some are boarded up. Not all the street lights work. Those that do cast shadows of parked vehicles glistening in the rain. A front door opens and DON appears with rubbish which he puts in a bin. He hears something and looks up to see four big horses pulling a hulking great wagon down the middle of the street. The wagon is a gigantic windowless box. The horses are harnessed and there are reins but no sign of a driver. It's a very weird sight. DON, unable to take his eyes off this amazing apparition shouts back into the house from where light from a TV flickers. DON Carol!... Carol! CAROL (V.O.) What? DON Come here! Quick! CAROL (V.O.) What is it? DON Quick! CAROL (V.O.) (irritated) I'm trying to watch this! It's the last episode! DON (annoyed) Come here!!! CAROL appears in the doorway. CAROL What is it? But the wagon and horses have gone. DON It's gone! (CONTINUED) 2.1 CONTINUED: 1 CAROL, disgusted, swats him on the head with the flat of her hand and goes back inside.2 EXT/INT NIGHT PARKED CAR IN STREET 2 A YOUNG COUPLE are snogging in the back of a parked car. Music is playing on the radio. They are interrupted by heavy vibrations and the terrifying sight of the huge looming horse-drawn box as it trundles past.3 EXT NIGHT THE TOWN HALL CLOCK 3 The clock shows and strikes 2am.4 EXT NIGHT A DINGY BACK STREET 4 The wagon has stopped. The back begins to open, top, bottom and sides, like a dark menacing flower unfolding its petals. Shadowy FIGURES manoeuvre the side panels and begin to raise the roof. While this is happening THE CAMERA tracks around to reveal a garishly lit club across the street. A group of DRUNKEN YOUTHS emerge from the club, staggering, laughing, shouting, drinking, breaking bottles, and throwing up. The LADS grope the GIRLS. Everyone's having "a great time". They see the wagon and stop, unsteadily, in their tracks. MARTIN What the...! We now see what they see. The wagon has been converted into a stage. We're looking at an old fashioned and very shabby travelling theatre. Electric footlights are powered by a clanking generator. The pediment above the stage carries the words: THE ASTONISHING IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS. PERCY, a dwarf, dressed as a medieval demon and rigged out as a one-man band plays a fanfare introducing a young man (ANTON, 18-19 years old) who emerges from the back of the stage dressed as MERCURY, the messenger of the gods, with wings on his helmet and sandals. (CONTINUED) 3.4 CONTINUED: 4 ANTON/MERCURY Ladies and Gentlemen... Step up! Step up!... I, Mercury, the messenger of the gods, invite you... tonight, for one night only... at this very venue... to enter the mind, the very great mind, of Doctor Parnassus! PERCY does a roll on the drum as a curtain behind ANTON/MERCURY rises to reveal DOCTOR PARNASSUS - he appears to be an Indian holy man - long scraggly beard, chalk white make up, a large red circle on his bald head, a crown of yellow flowers, strings of beads, and partially covered in a loose-fitting swath of white cloth - apparently levitating several feet above the stage. (He's sitting on a glass plinth). DOCTOR PARNASSUS is seemingly in a trance. A bronze tripod containing burning incense stands beside him. ANTON/MERCURY (CONT'D) Doctor Parnassus... as old as time... yes, ladies and gentlemen, more than a thousand years old ... he has the power to empower your mind. A secret learned in the mystic East. Let Doctor Parnassus open your imagination. Let him guide and transport you to worlds and possibilities you never dreamt of... If you dare. But... Beware... there are dangers. You will have to choose. Will your soul fly?... Or will it be dashed on the rocks of darkness? The choice is yours and yours alone. Transcend the heights on Beauty's wing. A young woman, VALENTINA,(wearing a wig of long blonde hair and a white, flowing costume which gives her prominent hips and breasts) stands facing an elaborately framed full-length mirror nestled upstage amongst cut-out trees representing a forest... This is `Beauty'. She turns and steps forward. ANTON takes her hand. They make a couple of dance steps together. They look enchanting and enchanted. ANTON/MERCURY (CONT'D) (to the audience) Or, if you must... Now PERCY, in demon costume, leaps from behind the scenery . (CONTINUED) 4.4 CONTINUED: (2) 4 ANTON/MERCURY (CONT'D) ... scour the squalid depths with Putrid's brother, Stench! PERCY indicates a ticket dispenser attached to the front of the stage. PERCY Take a ticket and join the queue! Only five quid a go! There's no greater bargain on planet earth! A beer bottle lands on the stage The DRUNKEN YOUTHS cheer. ANTON/MERCURY You choose... Fulfilment, grace and light or... Waste, filth and darkness. (under his breath, watching the drunk, MARTIN, with contempt) No prizes for guessing what you'll do. MARTIN has begun, with difficulty, to clamber onto the stage. His MATES laugh and shout encouragement. ANTON (not in character.. he stutters) No. Sorry. That's n-not allowed. You have to t-take a t-ticket first. ANTON tries to prevent MARTIN from getting on stage. But MARTIN thumps ANTON and pulls him into the `audience'. MARTIN'S drunken MATES laugh and applaud. MARTIN is now on stage and heading for DOCTOR PARNASSUS who is still in a trance. PERCY tries to head him off but MARTIN shoves PERCY off the stage. PERCY lands on the ground with a crash. More laughter from the MOB. (CONTINUED) 5.4 CONTINUED: (3) 4 MARTIN (drunkenly to PARNASSUS) Hey you...I wanna audition. I wan... I wanna be a star... I wanna... MARTIN is on the verge of tweaking DOCTOR PARNASSUS' nose or pulling his beard when VALENTINA diverts him. VALENTINA Stop! Get off the stage! MARTIN turns his bleary focus to VALENTINA. MARTIN Thas a nice pair of jugs. MARTIN'S mates roar their approval. VALENTINA Get off the stage! MARTIN No. I wan you... I wan you... MARTIN lunges at `Beauty' who retreats up stage. MARTIN blunders into the scenery as he pursues `Beauty' who stays just out of reach. She takes cover behind a cut-out tree. ANTON and PERCY climb back onto the stage as MARTIN continues to chase `Beauty'. VALENTINA evades him by ducking through the mirror (made of flexible reflective material slit down the middle). MARTIN crashes after her. ANTON and PERCY exchange worried looks. They look at DOCTOR PARNASSUS. Should they wake him from his trance? They decide not to but it's a difficult decision.5 INT/EXT MAGICAL FOREST 5 The stage set, which was clearly only a few feet deep, now seems much deeper and to contain many more cut-out trees. `Beauty' weaves in and out of the 2 dimensional trees as MARTIN chases her further into the increasingly magical forest. Beauty's costume has been transformed into something wonderful. (A rainbow studded with diamonds?) VALENTINA comes into view. MARTIN is in hot pursuit. (CONTINUED) 6.5 CONTINUED: 5 MARTIN Come here you little sexpot! VALENTINA stops, turns, smiles sweetly and slams her fist hard into MARTIN'S gut. He doubles up. VALENTINA pauses for a moment, contemplating doing some serious damage, before striding off. MARTIN staggers to his feet. MARTIN (CONT'D) Come back! You bitch! He rushes after her but, trips on a root (a real 3 dimensional tree root) and pitches face first to the ground. Recovering, he looks up. Shock. He is surrounded by a dark, terrible, and very REAL forest. `Beauty' has vanished.6 EXT THE STAGE NIGHT 6 VALENTINA, `Beauty', slips back on stage through the mirror. Her costume has reverted to its original state. She examines her knuckles on the hand with which she punched Martin. ANTON looks at her. She shrugs. DR. PARNASSUS is still in a trance, his lips moving soundlessly. ANTON watches DOCTOR PARNASSUS in awe. `Beauty' sighs. She's had enough.7 INT/EXT MAGICAL FOREST 7 MARTIN is lost and terrified in the dark forest. MARTIN Mum...Mum!... His voice echoes through the giant trees. But his cries are interrupted by another sound...a Tarzan-like howl. MARTIN spins around. Strange creatures are swinging on vines through the giant trees. They are all around him. They look like HANDS... with little heads and arms where the wrists should be. They are all howling and jabbering. From behind, a HAND CREATURE swings down and grabs MARTIN by the collar, hoisting him high into the air. Clearing the trees, MARTIN sees he is not alone. There are many other people - all in the clutches of HAND CREATURES swinging on "vines". (CONTINUED) 7.7 CONTINUED: 7 But, the "vines" are actually long, slim tentacles... dangling from enormous, luridly coloured JELLYFISH that float through the dark, frightening, sky. From some of the tentacles, bottles of booze dangle - just out of reach of the struggling crowd - all desperate for a drink. MARTIN (CONT'D) Please... I'll never...! Never again!. Honest!... From now on... I swear!.. Not a drop! With a smile of satisfaction, the HAND CREATURE stops jabbering and let's go of MARTIN'S collar. Down he plummets. The ground rushes up. MATRTIN is as good as dead. But when he hits the ground, rather than going SPLAT!!, he bounces high in the air, turns a couple somersaults and lands on his feet. He can't believe what has just happened... and then he hears music. Beautiful, ethereal music. In the distance a light is glowing. It's the sun, rising above a majestic mountain pass. Cut into the rock, is a long stairway winding up to the summit. The HAND CREATURE swings down, gives MARTIN the "thumbs up", and points encouragingly toward the stairway. Reformed and determined, MARTIN heads for the stairs. But on reaching them he discovers that each one is 6 feet high. The stairway is ridiculously steep and difficult. Letters are carved into the first stair..."THE 12X12 STEP PROGRAM...GOOD LUCK". This is going to be tough. The sound of a honky-tonk piano makes him turn. Behind him the sky is dark. A roadside bar/nightclub with flashing neon lights has appeared. He hesitates. He could use a drink before the long climb. He heads for the club. The door to the club is opened by a mechanical fairground figure of a jolly smiling man (MR NICK) distinguished by a bowler hat and a red waistcoat. MR NICK Hi there. C'mon in. Looks like you could use a drink. (CONTINUED) 8.7 CONTINUED: (2) 7 MARTIN, relieved and reassured by the welcome, steps inside. The door closes followed by the sound from within of much gaiety and laughter. THE CAMERA pulls back as the nightclub suddenly EXPLODES IN A BALL OF FLAME.8 EXT DINGY BACK STREET 8 The sound of police sirens. We are back outside in front of the theatre. DR. PARNASSUS rises unsteadily, coming out of his arduous trance.... `Beauty" moves to support him as, exhausted, he loses his balance and snaps out of his trance. DOCTOR PARNASSUS (holding his head) Valentina... VALENTINA (indignant) He was chasing me. DOCTOR PARNASSUS (angry) You don't go through the mirror. VALENTINA I had to get away. DOCTOR PARNASSUS You hit him. VALENTINA Self defence. DOCTOR PARNASSUS You're out of control. Ever since your mother died... VALENTINA When I was three! DOCTOR PARNASSUS I don't want to talk about it! VALENTINA (indignant) You brought it up! (CONTINUED) 9.8 CONTINUED: 8 DOCTOR PARNASSUS turns on ANTON. DOCTOR PARNASSUS We don't accept drunks! ANTON We c-couldn't stop him. DOCTOR PARNASSUS People must be in their right minds when they make the choice. ANTON I know. I'm s-sorry. DRUNKEN GIRL (V.O.) Martin!... The POLICE are dealing with a drunken mob of nightclub REVELLERS, making arrests. A distraught, hysterical, DRUNKEN GIRL is looking for MARTIN. DRUNKEN GIRL (CONT'D) Martin!... Martin!... She sees `Beauty'. DRUNKEN GIRL (CONT'D) He went with that cow! I'll scratch her eyes out! A POLICEWOMAN grabs the DRUNKEN GIRL and drags her, struggling, into police van. MARTIN'S FRIENDS are searching for him around the stage. FRIEND OF MARTIN Marty!? Marty, where are you? (a POLICEMAN grabs him)) Oi! Leave off..it's them..they've got our mate back there. POLICEMAN (to PARNASSUS) You! Gunga Din! What do you think you're playing at!? DR. PARNASSUS `Playing'? We don't `play'! What we do is deadly serious! (CONTINUED) 10.8 CONTINUED: (2) 8 DR. PARNASSUS pushes aside the mirror to reveal a door in the back wall of the shallow stage. It is swinging open. DOCTOR PARNASSUS Gone. Will we miss him? I don't think so. The POLICEMAN looks and frowns. DOCTOR PARNASSUS (CONT'D) (to the POLICEMAN condescendingly) Don't worry if you don't understand it immediately. PERCY, wisely, decides to head off conflict. He steers DOCTOR PARNASSUS away from the POLICEMAN. PERCY (to POLICEMAN) He's doing his bit to save the human race. He thinks it's got a future. Quaint, eh? I keep telling him to get a proper job. (shaking his empty collection cup) Check it out.. another night with nothing in the kitty. POLICEMAN I want you freaks out of here. Now. If I ever see you in this parish again I'll do you. DOCTOR PARNASSUS bows exaggeratedly, with a hint of mockery. The POLICE OFFICER suspects that DOCTOR PARNASSUS is taking the piss, but decides not to press it. Instead, he knees MARTIN'S struggling friend to the ground.9 EXT BACK STREETS DAWN 9 The sky is grey with the first light of dawn. The wagon rolls off down the dark street as a dustcart rumbles into view and its CREW begin emptying bins and picking up rubbish.10 EXT A HOLIDAY FAIR NIGHT 10 Shooting galleries. Music. Loud aggressive rides. PEOPLE milling around. (CONTINUED) 11.10 CONTINUED: 10 The wagon is parked at the edge of the fair. The stage is set. ANTON dressed as Mercury is trying to attract an audience, without much success. ANTON Step up! Step up! For one night only! The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus! Not to be missed! On stage is DOCTOR PARNASSUS, `levitating' and in a trance, as before. Incense smoke swirls around him. ANTON (CONT'D) Test your imagination! Envisage the sublime. Let Doctor Parnassus be your guide. Discover the heights of Wisdom... VALENTINA dances forward, looking fabulous as `Wisdom'. ANTON (CONT'D) ... Or, if you will, visit the doldrums with all that's vile and stinks. PERCY steps forward, once again in his mediaeval demon costume. PERCY (indicating ticket machine) Take a ticket and wait your turn. Twenty quid a go, reduced to five for one night only! ANTON The world is full of wonders, beauty, enchantment, for those with eyes to see... He magically produces a bouquet of flowers. Throws it into the air.. it transforms into beautiful doves. This impressive trick is totally ignored by a group loudly arguing just in front of the stage - THE FAMILY FROM HELL. LINDA (aged 7) Mum... Mum... I want to go on the wall of death? (CONTINUED) 12.10 CONTINUED: (2) 10 MUM Stop going on, Linda! You're not old enough! DAD They won't let you, darling. LINDA But I want to!!! I want to!!! MUM LINDA! DR. PARNASSUS stirs from his trance. He's had enough of this. DR. PARNASSUS Excuse me! Excuse me! Would you mind... LINDA It's not fair. UNCLE BOB It's the fair, but it's not fair! UNCLE BOB laughs uproariously. LINDA pushes him into AUNTY FLO. AUNTY FLO Ow! Bloody hell! Diego - aged 9 and absorbed in his portable video game wanders away from the family. MUM LINDA! BEEHAVE YOURSELF! I'M WARNING YOU! DAD Leave her alone! DR. PARNASSUS Please! This is The Imaginarium! It requires respect, concentration... Kindly go elsewhere and take your detritus with you? MUM Is he insulting us? (CONTINUED) 13.10 CONTINUED: (3) 10 DAD (to the DR. PARNASSUS, threateningly) Oy! PARNASSUS ignores him and resumes his trance. Unnoticed by all, DIEGO has somehow managed to climb onto the stage and is peering at the mirror. MUM (looking around) Diego!? Where's Diego? DAD DIEGO!? VALENTINA turns her head just in time to see DIEGO vanish through the mirror. She starts to go after him, then hesitates. VALENTINA (trying to get ANTON'S attention) Pssst! ANTON looks across the stage to her. She mimes that a certain someone has gone into the mirror. ANTON considers waking DOCTOR PARNASSUS but thinks better of it. Instead he heads off upstage and through the mirror in pursuit of Diego. VALENTINA takes over the pitch. VALENTINA (CONT'D) Ladies and Gentlemen, let Dr. Parnassus be your guide...11 INT/EXT MAGICAL LANDSCAPE 11 ANTON moves through the cut -out trees and into a fantastic, brightly coloured landscape of Dr. Seuss-like hills and valleys. The sky if full of cloud-sized soap bubbles. Diego is in the distant using his game controller to make the bubbles bang into each other...trying to burst them. We can hear VALENTINA trying to continue the pitch in the face of the family from hell. Their baby has now started wailing. Cracks in the ground begin to appear under ANTON"S feet. (CONTINUED) 14.11 CONTINUED: 11 VALENTINA (V.O.) Beauty, Truth, Wisdom, Justice... without imagination all are dead. MUM (V.O.) DIEGO!!! DAD (V.O.) DIEGO!!! LINDA (V.O.) DEGSY! DR. PARNASSUS (V.O.) OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! SHUT UP! The landscape, in response to DR. PARNASSUS' rage suddenly rips apart, fragmenting and spinning with ANTON inside it. DR. PARNASSUS (V.O.) (CONT'D) (enraged) AAAHHHH!!! DAMN AND BLAST!!! Things fly in all directions.12 INT/EXT MAGICAL LANDSCAPE 12 ANTON, recovering, struggles out from between giant blocks of stone. The world has gone dark. He hears DIEGO crying somewhere in the distance and starts to clamber over the shattered monoliths.. Reaching the top, ANTON sees DIEGO on the peak of a distant rocky pinnacle surrounded by bottomless chasms. There are what appear to be two suspension bridges spanning the void on either side of the pinnacle. CUT TO DIEGO who is in a state of confusion and terror. Is he lost inside a video game he can't control? He presses the buttons on his gaming device - to no avail. One of the bridges leads to a bluff where war games are under way... all very video-game-like. Thrilling aggressive music blares forth. MR NICK appears, still in red waist-coat and bowler hat, but this time in the form of a CUT-OUT shooting target with a bull's-eye on his chest. (CONTINUED) 15.12 CONTINUED: 12 MR NICK Come on laddy, cross the bridge! Join up! Be a man. Kill the enemy. Impress your dad. Unlimited ammo. Great fun. Pow! Pow! Pow! As he speaks bullets fly. Each time MR.NICK gets shot and is knocked flat, he pops back up continuing his spiel. The other bridge appears to be made of black and white piano keys and looks very rickety and unsafe. The piano key bridge descends into a great cavern where hundreds of BOY AND GIRL PIANISTS are practising on hundreds of pianos, all playing the same tune - the tune DR. PARNASSUS is humming, but with stern, demanding, PIANO TEACHERS in attendance. PIANO TEACHERS No, no, start again! Again! From the top! Again! Practice! Practice! DIEGO doesn't know what to do. Behind him rises a strange Mongolfier balloon. DR. PARNASSUS's face is repeated again and again around its circumference. ANTON'S in the basket. DIEGO catches sight of ANTON. DIEGO Help! (indicating gaming device) It doesn't work! It's broken! ANTON What? DIEGO The game! ANTON What g-g-game? DIEGO The game! The video game! The one we're in! ANTON I d-d-don't know what you're t-t- talking about. DIEGO Help me! (CONTINUED) 16.12 CONTINUED: (2) 12 ANTON (miserable ) I c-can't. DIEGO What? ANTON I'm n-not supposed to be here. DIEGO What am I going to do? ANTON That's the p-point. It's up to you. DIEGO (dismayed) But... Don't leave me! Don't let me die! But ANTON has gone. DIEGO, terrified, tests the bridge to the war games. MR NICK Attaboy, sonny. Join the men. Nothing to it. Hup two, hup two... He hesitates...the music from the pianos seems to have an effect on him. He comes to a decision. He drops his gaming device then very hesitantly steps onto the extremely wobbly piano keys. The CUT-OUT shooting target MR NICK isn't happy. MR NICK (CONT'D) No, wait! That's the wrong choice! That bridge leads to failure and despair. You'll be dead before you're thirty. This is the one. This is the bridge to manhood! DIEGO looks uncertain, unnerved. For a moment we think he might change his mind, but he presses bravely on across the piano bridge. 17.13 EXT A HOLIDAY FAIR NIGHT 13 At last, finally, there's a bit of a crowd around the theatre, but drawn only by the FAMILY FROM HELL who are making a lot of noise. MUM (hysterical) He's been kidnapped! They've taken him! It's that weirdo up there! Do something, Dad, do something! LINDA I want my brother! I want my little brother! On stage DR. PARNASSUS, continues to hum in his trance-like state. INSPECTOR OF FAIRS rattles on. INSPECTOR You cannot perform here without appropriate authorization. Getting no response from DR. PARNASSUS he pulls out his mobile phone and dials. INSPECTOR (CONT'D) (with phone to ear) It's me. I need some support. We've got trouble. ANTON steps out of the mirror. He produces an inflated balloon which he releases and which then flies, zig-zagging out over the audience. DR. PARNASSUS, wakes in time to see the balloon. DR. PARNASSUS (delighted with Anton's `message') Ha,ha! Success! One little devil out of the fire... makes it all worthwhile! He magically produces a Tarot Card from the startled INSPECTOR'S ear. INSPECTOR Where did you say you're from? (CONTINUED) 18.13 CONTINUED: 13 DR. PARNASSUS I didn't. He lifts his arm with a flourish whereupon a gloriously painted canvas sky unrolls from the top of the set disgorging DIEGO as it reaches the stage. DR. PARNASSUS (CONT'D) Hooplah! DIEGO rolls out, tumbles across the stage and lands next to the rest of his FAMILY. He's beaming, laughing, full of wonder, transformed by his experience. MUM Diego! Where have you been? I've been worried sick! DOCTOR PARNASSUS (descending from his glass plinth) And so... a glimmer of hope... Perhaps eternity has not been in vain!... DAD smacks DIEGO round the back of the head. DAD And you can wipe that silly expression off your face, you little poof. LINDA (gleefully) You're in big trouble! You're in big trouble! UNCLE BOB You've upset your mum. AUNTY FLO He's spoilt our evening. DAD And where's your gamer? He's lost his bloody gamer! Another fifty quid down the drain. You're not getting another one! Bloody kids! Why do we bother? THE FAMILY FROM HELL moves off. (CONTINUED) 19.13 CONTINUED: (2) 13 DIEGO, full of wonder and oblivious to his family, looks back at PARNASSUS and gives the old man the thumbs-up. PARNASSUS smiles and raises his thumb in response. The INSPECTOR OF FAIRS is joined by a POLICEMAN and POLICEWOMAN. POLICEMAN What's the trouble? DR. PARNASSUS Ah, the fuzz. POLICEMAN What did you say? DR. PARNASSUS (charmingly) Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair, Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy wuzzy? The POLICE and the INSPECTOR exchange dark looks. Clearly they're dealing with a dangerous trouble-maker. INSPECTOR (to Parnassus) Next time I find you doing business without a permit I'll impound your wagon. POLICEMAN (to Parnassus) I'll be doing worse than that...now, bugger off! DR. PARNASSUS With pleasure. He bows mock graciously.14 INT BACK STAGE DRESSING ROOM A MOMENT LATER 14 Valentina, half-undressed, is struggling out of her `Wisdom' costume while at the same time looking at pictures of beautiful homes and gardens in a very battered copy of `Homes and Gardens'. Without make-up and costume she appears much younger. (CONTINUED) 20.14 CONTINUED: 14 A movement of something reflected in the dressing-room mirror catches her eye. In the mirror we see MR NICK, not a CUT-OUT, but the real thing. VALENTINA (startled, guiltily hiding `Homes and Gardens') Oh! She turns, holding her dress to cover her modesty. There's nobody there. VALENTINA (CONT'D) Who's that? Who's there?15 EXT EDGE OF FAIR / THE WAGON CONTINUOUS 15 ANTON and PERCY are packing-up and closing the wagon. DR. PARNASSUS, out of his make-up and costume, is smiling and humming to himself as he removes the feed bag from one of the horses. The horse lifts its head and DR PARNASSUS recoils in shock and horror. Standing directly behind the horse is MR. NICK... a huge grin splitting his face. MR NICK Hello Parnassus... It's been a while hasn't it? PERCY, winding a rope onto a cleat, hears distant laughter and looks up. CUT TO PERCY'S P.O.V. where we see, some distance away and in a relatively secluded spot, MR NICK rocking with laughter while DOCTOR PARNASSUS looks stricken. He clutches at the back of a park bench to steady himself. CUT TO PERCY who looks thoughtful and worried. He heads off to help DOCTOR PARNASSUS as the latter slumps onto the bench. MR NICK has vanished. DOCTOR PARNASSUS (distraught) He's come to collect. PERCY I thought so. (CONTINUED) 21.15 CONTINUED: 15 DR. PARNASSUS What can I do?... PERCY (grimly) Nothing. DOCTOR PARNASSUS There must be something! He looks over to where VALENTINA is helping close the theatre. PERCY follows his gaze. PERCY You're going to have to tell her.16 EXT CITY STREETS LATER 16 The wagon makes its way through city streets. PERCY is sitting on the roof driving. ANTON is lying on the roof looking up at the stars. VALENTINA is sitting next to him lost in thought. ANTON Look at that moon. (no response from Valentina) I've n-never seen it so b-big. And the stars...It's so c-clear. PERCY holds his hand out, palm up. PERCY (sardonically) Rain. ANTON (sotto voce) Valentina? VALENTINA (irritated) Val... Val. ANTON I c-c-can't call you Val, P- Parnassus d-doesn't like it. (CONTINUED) 22.16 CONTINUED: 16 VALENTINA He's not here is he? He's inside getting pissed. ANTON Are you happy? VALENTINA (ironic) Ecstatic. ANTON produces an old beaten-up copy of `Beautiful Homes' and starts thumbing through it. VALENTINA (CONT'D) Hey! That's mine! She tries to snatch it from him. He flutters it out of her reach. VALENTINA (CONT'D) Give it me! She wrests it from him and hides it just as PERCY looks back at them. ANTON (sotto voce) Would you really be happy in one of those p-places?... N-not me. Well... m-maybe....with you. (suddenly urgent) Let's run away. Make a new life together. I'll retrain. Computers. Stocks and bonds. We could be happy. Just the two of us. VALENTINA (sotto voce) Anton? ANTON What? VALENTINA Shut up. ANTON Why d-do you always have to p- pretend to be so b-brutal? (CONTINUED) 23.16 CONTINUED: (2) 16 VALENTINA I'm not pretending. (coquettishly) Anyway... I'm under age. ANTON (exasperated) Valentina. VALENTINA (knowingly, teasing) I shall be twelve on Wednesday. ANTON Don't be ridiculous. VALENTINA Percy? How old will I be on Wednesday? PERCY Twelve. VALENTINA See? Parnassus says so too. Are you saying he's ridiculous? ANTON No... VALENTINA (teasing) Yes you are. I'll tell him. ANTON He knows I worship him.... VALENTINA He takes advantage. ANTON I don't mind. He's extraordinary... Like you. VALENTINA Puhlease. ANTON You are. (CONTINUED) 24.16 CONTINUED: (3) 16 VALENTINA Parnassus is a pain. Okay he's extraordinary but I'm not. I don't want to be like him. I want to be like other people. Like them. (gesturing to the passing city) You know... normal. Ordinary. You're so lucky. ANTON isn't sure how to take this. VALENTINA (CONT'D) (half apologetically) You know what I mean. She gets up, kisses ANTON on the top of his head and climbs down into the hatch. Anton looks thoughtful, bruised. PERCY glances back. VALENTINA (CONT'D) (popping her head back up) Actually, I'm going to be sixteen. Shall I tell Parnassus I know? I think he knows I know. Silly man. Sweet sixteen. She disappears down the hatch, then quickly pops back up. VALENTINA (CONT'D) (mischievously) The age of consent.17 INT DOCTOR PARNASSUS' DEN THAT MOMENT 17 DOCTOR PARNASSUS' cabin is tiny. It's packed with books and memorabilia; Egyptian/Assyrian/Greek/etc., magic trick paraphernalia, and much else. A hanging lantern suspended from the ceiling throws moving shadows. DR. PARNASSUS is slumped despondently on a cramped bed. A plate of untouched food sits on a table in front of him. He has laid out tarot cards. To the right - The Magus.. to the left - The Devil. The next card is The Maiden. He places it carefully beneath The Magus. (CONTINUED) 25.17 CONTINUED: 17 He picks up an open bottle of spirits and takes a swig. Clearly he's already had a few drinks. VALENTINA O/S (cross with him) You haven't eaten anything. DOCTOR PARNASSUS (startled) Valentina... She comes in. VALENTINA I go to all this trouble and you leave it. DR. PARNASSUS I'm not hungry. VALENTINA Are you ill? DR. PARNASSUS (anguished) Valentina... my miraculous child.. I have something to tell you. VALENTINA Now what? She starts tidying up. DR. PARNASSUS (avoiding the question) I should never have brought you into this rotten bloody world! VALENTINA (she's heard this before) Oh for God's sake! DR. PARNASSUS What was I thinking of! VALENTINA Percy liked the soup. DR. PARNASSUS (agitated) Why does everybody want to live forever? (CONTINUED) 26.17 CONTINUED: (2) 17 VALENTINA That's normal isn't it? DR. PARNASSUS Immortality's a curse! Any fool can tell you that! Valentina picks up Parnassus' nearly empty bottle. VALENTINA You know it doesn't agree with you. DR. PARNASSUS (in difficulty) Valentina... VALENTINA (losing patience) And I'll be sixteen on Thursday, so let's not have any more tosh about that. DR. PARNASSUS Listen to me! VALENTINA You think you're so clever and that everybody else is an idiot! You can't stop me growing up just by lying about my birthday! It's ridiculous! DR. PARNASSUS Shut up! Shut up and listen to me! Listen to me! I need to tell you something, before it's too late! DR PARNASSUS reaches up and plucks a glass paperweight out of the air. It's that kind that contains little models which are engulfed in a snow storm when the paperweight is shaken. DR. PARNASSUS shakes the paper-weight and watches the `snow' swirl about. DR. PARNASSUS (CONT'D) One dark winter's night... Many years ago...? VALENTINA Is this going to take long? (CONTINUED) 27.17 CONTINUED: (3) 17 DR. PARNASSUS QUIET! THE CAMERA closes in on and `enters' the paperweight. DR. PARNASSUS (V.O.) (CONT'D) Many centuries ago, as a matter of fact...18 EXT INSIDE THE PAPERWEIGHT NIGHT 18 A HOODED RIDER moves slowly through the snowstorm, the horse picking its way carefully across a field of virgin snow. DR. PARNASSUS (V.O.) ... I was visited... by someone I had hoped never to meet. In the distance, rising like a dark mountain, is a strange monastery. Dim light comes from a couple of windows. We can hear, from far away, the indistinct droning voice of the story teller, a younger DR. PARNASSUS. THE CAMERA moves up over and way ahead of the HOODED RIDER, continuing through the snowstorm, over fields, forests, valleys, rocks, until it reaches the monastery, high on a rugged hill. Here it enters one of the dimly lit monastery windows, taking us into a dining hall.19 INT MONASTERY DINING HALL NIGHT 19 Entering via a window and looking down into the monastery dining hall, we see DOZENS OF MONKS sitting at a long refectory table. They are eating their supper and listening to a young DR. PARNASSUS who is sitting on a dais at the far end of the hall, his eyes closed, in a trance, telling a story. A log fire burns in a big fireplace. DR. PARNASSUS ... Having captured the wind and tamed the storm ... the Chief Steward, laying down to take his rest, had a disturbing dream... He dreamt that a hooded rider was approaching across the snow-swept plain. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 28.19 CONTINUED: 19 DR. PARNASSUS (CONT'D) A rider who would challenge the very foundations of the world... The door to the refectory swings open with a crash. The MONKS look up. Standing on the thresh-hold is the hooded figure, covered with snow. He throws off his hood. It's MR NICK. DR. PARNASSUS (CONT'D) ... The Steward woke and remembered his dream. What manner of man had he dreamt of, and what did it signify?20 INT MONASTERY DINING HALL LATER 20 DR. PARNASSUS and MR NICK are sitting at the fire. Behind them, in the hall, MONKS come and go. On the dais, a MONK continues with the story. This monk is a younger PERCY. PERCY ... And as the waters rose... the people's need for stories grew. Stories that would feed a great hunger. A hunger for more than just understanding... PERCY continues telling the story in the background. MR NICK What exactly do you do here? DR. PARNASSUS We tell the eternal story. MR NICK Oh.... What's that? DR. PARNASSUS The story that sustains the universe. The story without which there is nothing. (CONTINUED) 29.20 CONTINUED: 20 MR NICK Nothing? Really. Are you telling me that if you stop telling a story... (waving in the direction of Percy) This story... something you made up, a fiction... that the universe ceases to exist? DR. PARNASSUS You make it sound so simple. MR NICK And you believe it? DR. PARNASSUS smiles. MR NICK (CONT'D) Incredible. It's just incredible to me that you can believe something that can be so easily disproved. DR. PARNASSUS (complacently) I don't think so. MR NICK turns and throws a spell at PERCY who goes rigid like a statue - struck dumb. The story stops. DR. PARNASSUS (CONT'D) (alarmed) No! Another MONK, sitting at the table, immediately continues the story. SUBSTITUTE MONK ..having been brought to the limit of his endurance... MR NICK freezes him too, stopping him from speaking. A third monk continues. THIRD MONK ...yet the forces of evil could not prevail, and... MR.NICK renders him silent. DR. PARNASSUS Stop! (CONTINUED) 30.20 CONTINUED: (2) 20 MR NICK zaps DR. PARNASSUS and all the other MONKS. All still. None of them can speak. MR NICK There you are. You see. The story's stopped. No more story... And yet, we're still here, the fire's still burning... He pushes open a window. MR NICK (CONT'D) It's still snowing. The wind's still blowing. Nothing's changed. DR. PARNASSUS and the MONKS, still struck dumb, look appalled. MR NICK (CONT'D) Cheer up... I've freed you from this ridiculous nonsense. MR NICK undoes the spell. The MONKS moan. DR. PARNASSUS slumps down in despair. MR NICK smiles and lights a cigarette. He's enjoying this. MR NICK (CONT'D) Now you can use your powers to do something else. Have fun, travel, learn a foreign language... Splat! A gob of bird shit lands on MR. NICK'S head. An eagle circles overhead. It swoops across the hall and exits through a window. DR. PARNASSUS leaps up, laughing, amazed, revived. DR. PARNASSUS A sign! A message! That bird was a messenger... from distant places we know not of! (triumphant) Other places! The point is, you're wrong! And I'm wrong! It doesn't have to be us here! (indicating monks) Somewhere in the world, at any given time... someone is telling a story! Sustaining the universe! Right now, it's happening. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 31.20 CONTINUED: (3) 20 DR. PARNASSUS (CONT'D) That's why we're still here. You can't stop stories being told somewhere! You can't be everywhere! MR NICK is furious. MR NICK (irritated) A weak hypothesis! DR. PARNASSUS (smiling) Yes? MR NICK stubs out his cigarette. MR NICK I tell you what... You're probably not a betting man but... MR NICK whispers into the DR. PARNASSUS's ear. DR. PARNASSUS (V.O.) And so I made a wager with the devil.21 EXT ON THE ROAD (MIDDLE AGES) DAY/NIGHT 21 DR. PARNASSUS and PERCY are travelling the world with a little theatre. Giving performances. Inviting AUDIENCE MEMBERS onto the stage to participate. DR. PARNASSUS (V.O.) Whichever of us won ten converts first, would win the bet... My argument was the importance of the story, the power of the imagination... His, the power of material things, the supremacy of stuff... Naturally... I won. CUT TO another performance. Now the 16TH CENTURY. DR. PARNASSUS (V.O. (CONT'D) My prize... (a voice filled with horror) ... was ever-lasting life. Another show...now the 18TH CENTURY (CONTINUED) 32.21 CONTINUED: 21 DR. PARNASSUS (V.O.) (CONT'D) Everlasting torment... Everlasting... Everlasting... Times changed. No one wanted our tales any longer.22 EXT. MODERN CITY STREET DAY 22 DR. PARNASSUS and PERCY are performing on a street corner in modern clothes. As are all the PASSERSBY who pay them no attention. They look exhausted, like beggars...and very old. DR. PARNASSUS (V.O.) It seemed as though the Devil, after all... had triumphed... And then... one day.... A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN (played by the same actress as Valentina, but older with different coloured hair) comes into view. DR. PARNASSUS (V.O.) (CONT'D) From the very first moment I saw her, I was head-over-heels in love. She was beautiful, enchanting, delightful, young... But I... I was several thousand years old! How could I woo her? What could I do?23 EXT. CLIFF TOP EVENING 23 CUT TO a desolate cliff top where PERCY is struggling with DR PARNASSUS, trying to prevent him from throwing himself off the cliff. PERCY Don't be a fool! You can't die! You're immortal! You'll just end up broken, in the eternity ward, and I'll be stuck looking after you! Forever! DR. PARNASSUS breaks free, stumbles backwards, and pitches out into space. PERCY screams. DR. PARNASSUS V.O. At times like these... the devil is never far away. (CONTINUED) 33.23 CONTINUED: 23 DR. PARNASSUS is hanging by his coat, snagged on a branch angled out from the cliff face and held, like a fishing rod, by MR NICK who has a great grin on his face.24 EXT. RIVER DAY 24 CUT TO a much younger DR. PARNASSUS and the BEAUTIFUL WOMAN in a row boat, picnicking, as they float down a river. They are in love, very happy to be together. PERCY, wearing a blazer, flannels and straw boater is rowing or punting. DR. PARNASSUS (V.O.) The devil granted me mortality again...and youth and great powers. I won my bride. I was in love. But at what price... The boat bumps into a submerged log. DR. PARNASSUS tries to push free. Several cigarette butts float past. Looking up, DR. PARNASSUS sees a man sitting on the riverbank, fishing, smoking a cigarette. It's MR NICK . There is a loud and ominous clap of thunder.25 INT. PARNASSUS' DEN NIGHT 25 DOCTOR PARNASSUS ...at what price.... DR. PARNASSUS looks haggard. He closes his eyes. He sways and drops the paper-weight. VALENTINA Father!... At that moment the wagon lurches to a stop and we hear frantic banging on the roof. DR PARNASSUS is glad of the excuse not to go on. DR. PARNASSUS We've stopped. VALENTINA What do you mean `at what price'? (CONTINUED) 34.25 CONTINUED: 25 DR. PARNASSUS (turning back to his Tarot cards) It'll wait, it'll wait. Another time. Something's happened. You'd better go and see. VALENTINA Typical! You insist I listen to a story and then you don't finish it! More banging from above. DR. PARNASSUS Go and see! VALENTINA turns and goes. PARNASSUS looks miserable but, almost relieved. He turns over the next card. It's The Hanged Man. It depicts a body hanging from a gibbet surrounded by several arcane objects. PARNASSUS studies the card, trying to wring some meaning from it - then lays The Hanged Man in the space between the others. He takes a swig from the bottle.26 EXT WAGON ON BLACK FRIARS' BRIDGE NIGHT 26 The wagon has stopped in the middle of Blackfriar's bridge. It's pouring with rain. VALENTINA, wearing some sort of covering against the rain, climbs out of the hatch and onto the roof of the wagon. Here she finds ANTON pointing excitedly down into the Thames. ANTON Incredible! I saw somebody d- dancing in the air.. under the b- bridge.. VALENTINA looks doubtfully at PERCY who peers morosely out from under his sou-wester and shakes his head. ANTON (CONT'D) It's true! There was a sh-shadow on the water, when the lightning flashed... (CONTINUED) 35.26 CONTINUED: 26 Lightning flashes again. We see what ANTON and VALENTINA see. A shadow, on the water, of someone `dancing', hung by his neck with a rope attached to the underside of the bridge. ANTON (CONT'D) (triumphant) You see! The d-dancer! VALENTINA (horrified) There's someone hanging there! ANTON (smugly to Percy) I t-told you! VALENTINA A rope! Get a rope!27 EXT SIDE OF BLACK FRIARS' BRIDGE MOMENTS LATER 27 ANTON is `absailing' over the side of the bridge. One end of a rope is tied around his waist, the other is attached to the bridge parapet. A lantern dangles from his waist. VALENTINA and PERCY watch ANTON'S perilous descent. Moments later there are two bodies hanging from the bridge, the mysterious HANGING MAN'S and ANTON'S. The MAN is hanging by a noose around his neck, still jerking in his dance of death. His hands are tied behind his back. ANTON can't reach the MAN. ANTON (shouting up) I c-can't reach him. VALENTINA Try again! PERCY Swing in! VALENTINA Hurry up. (CONTINUED) 36.27 CONTINUED: 27 ANTON shoots PERCY and VALENTINA a jaundiced look and with VALENTINA'S help on her end of the rope begins to swing back and forth. Eventually, with a big enough swing, he manages to hook his foot around the HANGING MAN who has gone limp. Dead. With extreme difficulty and great discomfort, ANTON pulls the MAN close to him, takes a knife from his pocket and cuts the MAN'S rope. ANTON and the MAN are now swinging back and forth together on ANTON'S rope which is threatening to cut ANTON in half. ANTON Arghhh!!!! VALENTINA You've done it! Brilliant! ANTON Argggg!!! PERCY Come on, don't hang about! We're getting soaked up here!28 EXT PAVEMENT ON BLACK FRIARS' BRIDGE A LITTLE LATER 28 VALENTINA, ANTON and PERCY manhandle the MAN over the parapet and onto the pavement. DR. PARNASSUS has just stepped out onto the top of the wagon. Soaked. He's drunk and is swaying. DR. PARNASSUS Why are you fishing dead people out of the river? He's dead. Leave him. Let's go. Before the police turn up. He goes, unsteadily, back inside. VALENTINA and ANTON drag the MAN under the wagon, out of the rain. The MAN is dressed in an expensive Saville Row suit. His jacket pockets are full of strange weights and arcane symbols have been scrawled on his forehead. He's about 30 years old and very handsome. (CONTINUED) 37.28 CONTINUED: 28 The MAN appears to be dead but VALENTINA decides to try the kiss of life. ANTON is made uncomfortable seeing VALENTINA administer the kiss of life and he pulls her away. ANTON No! That won't work. And anyway, you d-don't know where he's b-been. Let me... He brings both fists down hard on the centre of the MAN'S chest. Boing! The `dead' MAN coughs, sits bolt upright, spits out a little metal tube and smashes his head on the underside of the wagon, knocking himself out. The little metal tube clatters over the asphalt. ANTON (CONT'D) He's alive! VALENTINA Thank God. PERCY Well, he was. ANTON picks up the little metal tube and examines it. ANTON What on earth is this?29 EXT BLACK FRIARS' BRIDGE REAR OF WAGON MOMENTS LATER 29 VALENTINA, ANTON and PERCY drag the MAN from under the wagon and carry him to the rear. VALENTINA Put him in the big trunk. ANTON B-but... VALENTINA Don't argue. PERCY The boss said leave him. (CONTINUED) 38.29 CONTINUED: 29 VALENTINA He thought he was dead. They start to bundle the MAN in one of the travelling trunks attached to the back of the wagon. With the body hanging half in half out, ANTON suddenly stops. ANTON I d-don't like it. It's none of our b-business. VALENTINA So, what do you suggest, we leave him on the side of the road? ANTON doesn't want to answer that one. PERCY (walking away) Definitely. VALENTINA, single-handedly, hefts the MAN into the trunk and carefully places a cushion under his head. An action not missed by ANTON.30 EXT DERELICT BUILDINGS DAWN 30 The wagon stands, hidden, among deserted derelict buildings. All is quiet. The lid of the big travelling trunk slowly opens. The MAN struggles out. His neck is sore, his wrists ache and his head is bruised. He hasn't a clue where he is. He tries to make sense of the wagon, the grazing horses, the derelict buildings. Some distance away a bizarre, horned and tailed CREATURE is involved in a strange contorted dance. Hoping to avoid the CREATURE, the MAN starts to move away but is stopped by a squeaky voice behind him. PERCY (V.O.) Hey, you! The MAN turns around to find PERCY looking at him. PERCY (CONT'D) I suppose somebody saves your life everyday of the week. (CONTINUED) 39.30 CONTINUED: 30 MAN (croaking) What? He can hardly speak. It hurts him to do so. PERCY Too much like routine to bother with a thank you. MAN (with difficulty) Who are you? PERCY Percival St. Antoine della Touraine et Sansepolcro da Piemonte the Third. If that proves too difficult, you may call me Percy. MAN Where are we? PERCY Geographically, in the Northern Hemisphere. Socially, on the margins. Narratively, with some way to go. And your name is... MAN (appalled) I... I can't remember. PERCY That's handy. PERCY whistles to the dancing CREATURE, who turns and approaches. The MAN is getting very nervous. PERCY (CONT'D) Any credit cards? MAN What?..Oh..OK... you can have whatever you want.. just don't.. PERCY ...with your name on them. MAN Ah...right.. good idea. (searching his pockets) (MORE) (CONTINUED) 40.30 CONTINUED: (2) 30 MAN (CONT'D) My wallet... it's gone. Nothing. I've been robbed. PERCY Don't look at us. CREATURE What's your name? PERCY (sceptical) He can't remember. Suddenly a mobile phone starts ringing. They all look at each other. It's in the MAN'S pocket. But, he doesn't move. The CREATURE takes his head off ..it's ANTON. ANTON Might be for you. PERCY They'll know who you are. The MAN still doesn't move. ANTON reaches over and tries to find the phone in the MAN'S pockets. The MAN tries to push him off and find the phone himself. The phone is retrieved but, in the struggle to answer it, it's dropped. A WOMAN SPEAKING RUSSIAN can be heard from the phone. As ANTON and the MAN dive for it, the MAN `accidently' steps on it. The phone is crushed. PERCY (CONT'D) Pity.. I speak Russian. ANTON and PERCY glare with deep suspicion at the MAN. DR. PARNASSUS (O.S.) Dammit! I told you to leave him. He was dead. DR. PARNASSUS, holding a cold, damp towel to his throbbing head, appears, coughing and miserable from the wagon. PERCY Well, we didn't and he isn't. ANTON He was hanging under the b-bridge. DOCTOR PARNASSUS Hanging? (CONTINUED) 41.30 CONTINUED: (3) 30 PERCY (handing Parnassus the noose) By his neck. Until dead. If we'd had any sense. ANTON produces the bricks with strange markings that were in the MAN'S pockets. ANTON We found these in his p-pockets. DOCTOR PARNASSUS examines the bricks with great interest. He pulls out The Hanged Man card and compares it's arcane details - a noose, strangely marked shapes like bricks, a metal tube - to the objects found on the MAN. DOCTOR PARNASSUS The hanged man! VALENTINA(O.S.) Is he okay? She appears from inside the wagon. VALENTINA (CONT'D) (to man) Are you alright? MAN Yes... thank you. VALENTINA (to PARNASSUS who is in deep thought) He tried to kill himself. ANTON With his hands t-tied behind his b- back? They all look at one another. Good point. PERCY Actually, I saw that trick performed many years ago at.... ANTON S-somebody was trying to k-kill him. (CONTINUED) 42.30 CONTINUED: (4) 30 VALENTINA My God... that's exciting. ANTON We c-can't let him stay with us. VALENTINA Why not? ANTON We d-don't know what this is about, who he is, what he m-might have done... MAN (croaking) I haven't done anything. I'm sure. I hope. Please... Give me the benefit of the doubt. PERCY and Anton exchange knowing looks. VALENTINA (appealing to PARNASSUS) Father? DOCTOR PARNASSUS, looking up from his study of the bricks and noose, takes the MAN aside, looks closely, trying to read the strange markings on his forehead. DOCTOR PARNASSUS These marks... I recognize them. MAN (puzzled) Marks? The MAN wipes his hand across his forehead. Looks at his inky hand.. confused. DOCTOR PARNASSUS (sotto voce) You've been sent by Mr Nick. MAN (puzzled) Mr Nick? DOCTOR PARNASSUS (impassioned) Don't toy with me. Tell me you're an emissary from Mr Nick. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 43.30 CONTINUED: (5) 30 DOCTOR PARNASSUS (CONT'D) Tell me you've come with a proposition. Tell me what I want to hear! TONY doesn't know what DR PARNASSUS in talking about but he grasps the fact that if he wants to be allowed to stay here he needs to play along. MAN Yes. DR. PARNASSUS Thank God! Thank God! Thank God for that! DOCTOR PARNASSUS takes PERCY aside, shows him the Hanged Man Tarot Card and indicates the MAN with a nod. DOCTOR PARNASSUS He's from Mr Nick. PERCY No he's not. DOCTOR PARNASSUS He's come with a proposal. PERCY No he hasn't. DOCTOR PARNASSUS All is not lost. PERCY What proposal? VALENTINA Father? DOCTOR PARNASSUS (looking at the card, then to the MAN) You're welcome. MAN (croaking) Thank you. PERCY groans and tears his hair. VALENTINA is pleased. ANTON is not. VALENTINA kisses PARNASSUS on the cheek. 44.31 INT DOCTOR PARNASSUS' DEN A LITTLE LATER 31 The MAN precedes DOCTOR PARNASSUS in the tiny room. He looks around in amazement. DOCTOR PARNASSUS We can talk here. Sit down, sit down. MAN Thank you. He does so. DOCTOR PARNASSUS sits opposite him. DOCTOR PARNASSUS (expectantly) So... PAUSE MAN (trying to look on top of it) I like your study. DOCTOR PARNASSUS The message. MAN (cautiously) The message? DOCTOR PARNASSUS The message! What's the message? From Mr Nick. What does he want? MAN Ah... Well... That's the problem... DOCTOR PARNASSUS Problem? What problem? MAN Unfortunately... I've lost my memory. DOCTOR PARNASSUS What!? MAN It'll come back. I'm sure. (CONTINUED) 45.31 CONTINUED: 31 DOCTOR PARNASSUS You've lost your memory? MAN I just... it needs time... to recover. DOCTOR PARNASSUS (incredulous) You've come here with a message.... A vitally important message from Mister Nick... A matter of life or death... and you can't remember what it is!? MAN Not at the moment. I'm sorry. It's never happened before. DOCTOR PARNASSUS AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!! BUGGERBUGGERBUGGER!!!!!32 EXT SHOPPING MALL PARKING LOT NIGHT 32 The wagon is parked in a shopping mall parking lot. The theatre is being opened up by PERCY and ANTON. There are a few late night SHOPPERS coming and going.33 INT BACKSTAGE THAT MOMENT 33 VALENTINA, dressed as `Beauty', is rummaging in a theatre skip, helping the MAN find something to wear for the show. There is a slight whiff of sexual attraction in the air. VALENTINA He says you must work... to focus your mind. You can help out front.. sell tickets. Ah, here we are... (Pulling out a full bottomed wig) Try this. You can be `Justice'. The MAN tries on the wig and looks in a mirror. VALENTINA tries not to laugh. (CONTINUED) 46.33 CONTINUED: 33 MAN (pulling a face) Exactly. A laughing stock. VALENTINA Just like the rest of us. MAN (pulling out a carnival mask) I think I'll hide behind this. VALENTINA No face. No name. The mystery thickens. I'm going to have to give you a name... She presses a metal breast-plate to his chest. VALENTINA (CONT'D) ... until you remember who you are, I dub thee Saint George. You can save me from the dragon. George. GEORGE Hold on!.. what dragon? VALENTINA You've met Parnassus. Mischievously, she ties a chiffon tutu around his waist. GEORGE Now you are making fun of me. VALENTINA giggles. GEORGE (CONT'D) I'm sorry but, nobody laughs at me without paying the price....ah,ha. He begins tickling her. She laughs uncontrollably, falling backwards into the costume skip.. ANTON O/S We c-can't do it. We... ANTON enters wearing his Mercury gear. He freezes, seeing GEORGE and VALENTINA rollicking about. They stop, look up. VALENTINA Hi, Anton.... what? (CONTINUED) 47.33 CONTINUED: (2) 33 ANTON The show. We c-can't do it. It's your father... VALENTINA (alarmed) What is it? What's happened?34 INT DOCTOR PARNASSUS' CABIN MOMENTS LATER 34 VALENTINA and ANTON arrive in the doorway, dismayed. GEORGE hovers in the background. DOCTOR PARNASSUS is attempting to get ready for the show but he's so drunk he can hardly stand. He's already put some article of clothing on back-to-front or inside out. PERCY is trying to help. VALENTINA Oh no! DOCTOR PARNASSUS Can he remember! (seeing Man in doorway) Can you remember? GEORGE Not yet. DOCTOR PARNASSUS Bloody useless! Mr Nick sends an emissary and he can't bloody remember! It's a bloody disaster! VALENTINA You can't go on. You're drunk. DOCTOR PARNASSUS I am not drunk! I'm under considerable stress. VALENTINA (to Percy You'll have to do it. DOCTOR PARNASSUS No! No understudy! The audience won't tolerate an understudy! There's only one Doctor Parnassus, and I am he! (CONTINUED) 48.34 CONTINUED: 34 GEORGE (interrupting) Somebody make some strong coffee. EVERYONE looks at George. DOCTOR PARNASSUS Strong coffee? Brilliant! (sarcastically saluting George) This is why fate has brought us together. Don't worry about remembering... It's all the same to a man on a galloping horse!35 EXT SHOPPING MALL PARKING LOT THEATRE 35 DOCTOR PARNASSUS is on stage, floating' on his glass pillar, apparently in a trance but,humming erratically. He is flanked by VALENTINA and ANTON who stay close to PARNASSUS in case he falls. PERCY is in his medieval costume/one-man-band outfit. They all look uneasy. ANTON (a bit low-key) For one night only... raise your sights... encounter the majesty, the beauty, the miracle that's in each and every one of you. Take this opportunity to expand your horizons. It's not too late. Experience the Imaginarium of the great Doctor Parnassus. VALENTINA peers out over the `footlights' in the hope of catching sight of GEORGE. VALENTINA Where's George? He's nowhere in sight. ANTON (sarcastically) P-probably remembered he had a wife or t-two back in Russia. VALENTINA gives him a dirty look. 49.36 INT SHOPPING MALL SUPERMARKET THAT MOMENT 36 GEORGE, wearing his `romantic' Venice carnival mask is smooth- talking several middle-aged LADIES on queue at the supermarket check-out. He's carrying the theatre's ticket dispenser. GEORGE Three tickets for the price of two... That's a fantastic deal. It's a brilliant show. Much better than sex. Much ribald laughter from the flattered LADIES.37 EXT SHOPPING MALL PARKING LOT LATER 37 The shoppers have gone. The last car drives out of the car park leaving it empty except for the theatre wagon. ANTON, VALENTINA and PERCY are on their own. PARNASSUS, on his plinth, is asleep and snoring. ANTON Thank G-God... N-not a single customer! PERCY Let's close up quick while the going's good. VALENTINA (amazed) He's never not done a show before... Maybe he's past it. (hopefully) Maybe it's time to retire. PARNASSUS groans in his sleep. ANTON (looking out front) Oh n-no! ANTON sees GEORGE heading towards them with a mob of MIDDLE- AGED WOMEN in tow. Bubbling with excitement, the mob arrives. (CONTINUED) 50.37 CONTINUED: 37 EVELYN Oh look! How fascinating. The other WOMEN agree. EVELYN (CONT'D) (looking at her watch) When does the next show start? PERCY There isn't a next show. EVELYN and the other WOMEN are puzzled. PERCY (CONT'D) We've done all the shows we're doing here this evening. DEIDRE But we've got tickets. GEORGE looks hopefully at VALENTINA and ANTON who don't know what to say. We hear a crash. THE CAMERA PANS around. PARNASSUS has fallen off his perch and is now lying on the floor...snoring and mumbling. VALENTINA and some of the WOMEN run forward. SYLVIA This man's drunk. Dead drunk. EVELYN Disgraceful. VALENTINA O/S (suddenly defensive of her father) He's not drunk. He's got a bad cold.... GEORGE But being a true professional he tried to keep going, at considerable risk to his health. VALENTINA and GEORGE exchange a quick look. VALENTINA thinks she's found a kindred spirit. (CONTINUED) 51.37 CONTINUED: (2) 37 DEIDRE We want our money back. GEORGE No problem...dear ladies. No problem at all. I'm so terribly sorry. I can't apologize enough. You can have your money back or, if you like... an extra free ticket. Better yet, two extra free tickets if you buy another ticket at half price. This offer is only available today. The WOMEN look on the verge of taking up the offer. ANTON and PERCY exchange looks. They can't believe GEORGE'S chutzpah.38 EXT CAR PARK A LITTLE LATER 38 The wagon rumbles across the deserted carpark.39 INT THE WAGON THAT MOMENT 39 A large pile of coins with quite a few notes mixed in tumble onto a table. GEORGE is emptying his pockets while VALENTINA and ANTON look on.. VALENTINA Wow! You took all that? GEORGE I got carried away. ANTON Lying through your t-teeth can do that to you. VALENTINA Anton! GEORGE (unperturbed) Most of them were coming tomorrow. ANTON What tomorrow? We're gone. (CONTINUED) 52.39 CONTINUED: 39 GEORGE (shrugs) Okay, if it makes you feel better, I'll give it back. ANTON (sarcastic) N-no, keep it. Thanks to you we can afford to buy Valentina a b- birthday cake. VALENTINA (offended) That's enough! ANTON storms off. GEORGE looks at VALENTINA sympathetically. GEORGE Don't be angry with him. He's a little bit jealous. He's young. Insecure. I'll make it my job to boost his confidence. VALENTINA smiles at George with admiration and approval. GEORGE (CONT'D) When's your birthday?40 EXT SUPERMARKET CAR PARK THAT MOMENT 40 As the wagon trundles out of the deserted car park a DARK FIGURE hops onto the rear platform.41 INT DOCTOR PARNASSUS' CABIN MOMENTS LATER 41 DOCTOR PARNASSUS is groaning and clutching his head. He has a fierce hangover. He pours some powder from a packet into a glass of water, stirs it with his finger and knocks it back. He grimaces and shudders. A hatch/shutter on the small window behind him slides open to reveal the grinning head of MR NICK. MR NICK You shouldn't drink, it doesn't agree with you. Startled, DOCTOR PARNASSUS spins around. (CONTINUED) 53.41 CONTINUED: 41 DOCTOR PARNASSUS What do you want? I'll do anything. MR NICK (smiles) I know. DOCTOR PARNASSUS You're man's lost his memory! He's bloody hopeless! MR NICK He's not my man. DOCTOR PARNASSUS What? MR NICK Tony Shepherd. Little toe-rag. He used to run a big charity. I wouldn't trust him. But then... you don't trust me do you? DOCTOR PARNASSUS For God's sake! Tell me what you want! MR NICK I just thought...seeing you so upset last night...that you needed a glimmer of hope...maybe a little bet? DOCTOR PARNASSUS On Valentina? MR NICK No? DOCTOR PARNASSUS You bastard! MR NICK First to five?... You might win. And save her. What do you have to lose? DR. PARNASSUS I'll kill you! (CONTINUED) 54.41 CONTINUED: (2) 41 MR NICK (laughs) Now that would be something. By her birthday then. DOCTOR PARNASSUS What! Impossible!..you've seen the business we're doing. MR NICK Things are going to pick up. As sure as eggs is eggs. He closes the hatch/shutter with a bang. DOCTOR PARNASSUS Wait! Too late. He's gone.42 EXT DERELICT BUILDINGS DAWN 42 Back amongst the derelict buildings the Troupe is resting and doing chores. The horses are grazing. VALENTINA sits at a mirror fussing with various hair styles - slyly trying to catch GEORGE's attention. PARNASSUS, holding his aching head, sits a short distance away sadly watching her. PERCY is with him. PERCY Five souls.. two days, eh!? DR. PARNASSUS Shh! I'm trying to think. PERCY I told you didn't I? DR. PARNASSUS What? PERCY That he was a wrong-un. PERCY nods his head in George's direction. (CONTINUED) 55.42 CONTINUED: 42 DR. PARNASSUS Trust in providence, Percy. Remember the hanging man. The cards don't lie. PERCY No... but they sure as hell like being economical with the truth. CUT TO ANTON who is painting a long-stemmed, wooden flower...he comes over to VALENTINA with it in his hand. VALENTINA (looking away) Don't talk to me. ANTON P-please...I'm sorry about last night. I behaved like an idiot. VALENTINA Yes. ANTON suddenly plops down on his arse in a puddle of mud. Then spins, flips the flower high into the air and, rolling face down onto his stomach, catches the stem with his clenched buttocks. VALENTINA bursts out laughing. ANTON You must admit... even idiots have their qualities. CUT TO GEORGE who is peeling potatoes, badly. PARNASSUS and PERCY come up behind him. DOCTOR PARNASSUS George... We'd like to know who you really are. GEORGE What?... Yes. Me too. DOCTOR PARNASSUS I may be able to help. GEORGE Really? What?... How...? PERCY produces a small contraption with wires from behind his back and gives it to DR PARNASSUS. (CONTINUED) 56.42 CONTINUED: (2) 42 DOCTOR PARNASSUS Hold this piece of wire. PERCY You won't feel a thing. GEORGE takes the end of the wire. DOCTOR PARNASSUS I'm going to put the tips of my fingers on the top of your head. He does so. DOCTOR PARNASSUS (CONT'D) I want you to relax and try as far as possible to think of nothing. GEORGE That's not difficult... in my condition. DOCTOR PARNASSUS closes his eyes. He seems to be making an effort. DOCTOR PARNASSUS Hold your breath. GEORGE does so. DOCTOR PARNASSUS (CONT'D) Very good, very good. Yes... Yes, I see... I see... Very interesting. DOCTOR PARNASSUS takes his hand from GEORGE'S head and gives the contraption back to PERCY. PERCY You may breathe normally. The effort seems to have tired PARNASSUS. He needs to sit down. GEORGE What... ? DOCTOR PARNASSUS Alas, this technique has its limitations. GEORGE But... Did you discover anything? (CONTINUED) 57.42 CONTINUED: (3) 42 DOCTOR PARNASSUS (dramatically) Your name. GEORGE My name?... What is it? PAUSE. DOCTOR PARNASSUS Anthony Shepherd. TONY (stunned) My God! That's it! You're right! Anthony Shepherd! They call me Tony. Tony Shepherd! That's who I am! VALENTINA and ANTON begin to pay attention and gather around. DOCTOR PARNASSUS And... you used to do good works. Something to do with charity I think. TONY Yes...That's right! That's right! But how?... DOCTOR PARNASSUS (dismissively) It's an ancient technique of mental divination, but I'm very rusty and it doesn't always work satisfactorily. TONY But that's amazing! Brilliant! (oddly concerned) Was there anything else? DOCTOR PARNASSUS shakes his head, no. TONY (CONT'D) (relieved) That's absolutely fantastic! Thank you. Perhaps I'll remember other things. PARNASSUS smiles and bows slightly ironically. (CONTINUED) 58.42 CONTINUED: (4) 42 VALENTINA Charity work? I knew you were a good person. PERCY So what was he doing dangling under a bridge from his neck? VALENTINA Percy! PERCY (sarcastic) Oh dear, was that a rude question? Have I put my foot in it? TONY That's so strange. And horrible.. it's a complete blank. But I do remember I was involved in some sort of charity.. trying to do good, to make the world a better place, you know...inspire people, give them hope.... (self deprecatingly) What an arrogant idiot. VALENTINA looks at him thinking `what a sympathetic person.' The sound of a flutey whistle distracts him. ANTON is blowing a tune on the metal tube he found on the bridge. TONY (CONT'D) What's that? ANTON (with a superior air) Mozart's flute concerto in G. TONY I mean, the pipe. Where did you get it? ANTON looks at the metal pipe. ANTON I found it. TONY It's mine. (CONTINUED) 59.42 CONTINUED: (5) 42 ANTON Oh. You're a musician n-now. TONY It's not a musical instrument. May I have it?... Please. ANTON (teasing) Are you s-sure it's yours? TONY Positive. ANTON Alright. ANTON appears to offer the pipe to TONY but palms it so that when TONY reaches out to take it, it's gone. ANTON (CONT'D) It's g-gone. TONY (getting shirty) Don't fool around. ANTON Ah, there it is. TONY once more tries to take it. Once more ANTON makes it disappear. TONY (angry) Give it to me! ANTON (derisively) Oooooh! VALENTINA Anton, that's enough. She steps forward, takes the pipe from ANTON and gives it to TONY. TONY Thank you. DR. PARNASSUS, who's been watching this exchange, looks thoughtful. 60.43 EXT THE WAGON NIGHT 43 PARNASSUS and CO are preparing to move out and do a show. ANTON is working near PARNASSUS and PERCY who are unaware of his presence. DR. PARNASSUS What's eating Anton? ANTON pricks up his ears. PERCY He's in love with Valentina? DR. PARNASSUS (dumbfounded) In love....? PERCY It happens. DR. PARNASSUS The little snake! I'll skin him alive! CUT TO ANTON who winces. PERCY While you're at it, don't forget the other one. DR. PARNASSUS looks at PERCY questioningly. PERCY (CONT'D) The viper, the scorpion, the amnesiac boa constrictor. Tony. DR. PARNASSUS Quite another kettle of fish. PERCY Really? DOCTOR PARNASSUS He's ambitious, energetic... a man of destiny. (CONTINUED) 61.43 CONTINUED: 43 PERCY (ironic) And he's going to help us win five souls. DR. PARNASSUS I think he might. Valentina sees good in him. PERCY She'd be better off with Anton. CUT TO ANTON who's pleased. DR. PARNASSUS Perhaps I should offer her hand to whoever helps most in winning the next five souls. CUT TO ANTON who looks puzzled. PERCY That's even worse than the other ideas you've had today. DR. PARNASSUS (sighs) You're not wrong... Ah, Percy, what would I do without you? PERCY Get a midget. CUT TO ANTON as he moves, thoughtfully, away.44 EXT OUTSIDE PUB NIGHT 44 The theatre, parked outside a pub, is up and running. ANTON, as Mercury, is doing his pitch. ANTON Sleep no more. Procrastinate no longer. Embrace this once in a life- time opportunity. Let the mind of Doctor Parnassus be the portal to the infinite world of your imagination. Behind the curtain, PERCY is signalling VALENTINA to see if DOCTOR PARNASSUS has been drinking. She sniffs him. (CONTINUED) 62.44 CONTINUED: 44 DOCTOR PARNASSUS What are you doing? Please concentrate. We've got a tremendous amount of work to do tonight. A great deal depends on it. A roll on the drums from PERCY. The curtain rises. DOCTOR PARNASSUS `floats' above the stage on his glass plinth. ANTON As old as the universe itself, the great Doctor, versed in every mystic practice known to man, and many more besides, will guide you to your destiny. However, the AUDIENCE - a few PASSERS-BY and DRINKERS who have drifted out of the pub for a smoke - aren't much interested in ANTON. Instead they pay more attention to the masked TONY who, decked out in a stylish costume, is working the sparse crowd with his smooth charm. ANTON, irritated, glances back at DOCTOR PARNASSUS who is worried about the lack of customers. TONY is now surrounded by fascinated WOMEN. They laugh at one of his jokes. One pretty young woman, SALLY, in particular seems to be smitten by the handsome `actor'. TONY smiles seductively at her. The sight provokes ANTON. He leaps off the stage, grabs SALLY by the wrist and begins to pull her to the stage. PERCY keeps playing. SALLY (laughing) What?... Hey, what you doing? ANTON T-taking you to the heart of your imagination! ANTON is trying to compete with TONY but just can't manage the charm. SALLY (good humoured) Oh my god! No way! ANTON You won't regret it! (CONTINUED) 63.44 CONTINUED: (2) 44 FEMALE FRIEND Go for it Sal! SALLY (indicating friend) Only if she comes with me. FEMALE FRIEND (enthusiastic) Now you're talking! A few ONLOOKERS cheer. ANTON N-not at the same time! ANTON is still pulling SALLY onto the stage. SALLY I'm not going on my own. ANTON Your imagination is a very special place. Doctor Parnassus will make it flower. SALLY I bet he will. More laughs. FEMALE FRIEND We'll do it together. More laughs. ANTON (shakes his head) No. T-two c-competing imaginations in the Imaginarium at the same time... it's n-not advisable. FEMALE FRIEND Eh? ANTON The stronger imagination will overcome the weaker and then there's n-no knowing what might happen. (CONTINUED) 64.44 CONTINUED: (3) 44 FEMALE FRIEND That's really stupid. SALLY Let go! ANTON D-don't be afraid, d-dear lady. You'll be safe with me. Anton sweeps her off her feet and carries her onto the stage. SALLY Put me down! ANTON Have no fear. FEMALE FRIEND She doesn't want to do it on her own! ANTON Only b-because she d-doesn't realize... FEMALE FRIEND Let go of her you silly pillock! VALENTINA, worried, steps forward to try and restrain ANTON. VALENTINA Anton... ANTON It's alright! It's alright! Staggering under the weight of the struggling SALLY, ANTON barges into DOCTOR PARNASSUS' on his glass plinth. The plinth rocks and teeters. VALENTINA tries to stop it falling. ANTON, unaware of what he's done, disappears through the mirror as DOCTOR PARNASSUS crashes head first onto the stage. Crack! From behind the mirror comes the sound of a woman's terrifying, terrified screams. (CONTINUED) 65.44 CONTINUED: (4) 44 FEMALE FRIEND SALLY! They've got her in there! That's her screaming! SAL! They doing something to her! SALLY! Help, somebody! Help! Save her! Upstage VALENTINA tends the stunned DOCTOR. He clutches his head in pain. VALENTINA Father! Father!45 INT/EXT THE MIND OF DR. PARNASSUS THAT MOMENT 45 Terrified, ANTON and the screaming SALLY are spun through a black void clinging desperately to an asteroid as planets and stars spin madly around them. Blood-red lightning bolts crackle and crash. Chaos.46 EXT OUTSIDE PUB THAT MOMENT 46 Out front, the CROWD, larger now, is reacting badly to the dreadful screams. Sally's friends try to storm the stage. TONY and PERCY try to hold them back. TONY Please. Everything's alright. It's okay. Really. I promise you. A MIDDLE AGED WOMAN hits him with her handbag. TONY and PERCY are in danger of being overwhelmed. We can still hear Sally screaming from somewhere within the stage. TONY (CONT'D) Ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen....please... A DRUNK takes a swing at PERCY, misses, and connects with TONY. TONY (CONT'D) Ugh! He falls off the stage and disappears into the angry CROWD who begin pummelling and kicking him. (CONTINUED) 66.46 CONTINUED: 46 PERCY, desperate, produces a pistol and fires a couple of shots into the air. EVERYONE dives for cover. PERCY, taking advantage of the temporary lull, begins to race around, untying, unhooking, and pulling on ropes. The theatre begins to close up as the horses bolt and the wagon clatters off down the street, bits falling off as it goes. VOICE IN CROWD Somebody call the police! A battered TONY, chased by the enraged crowd,just manages to clamber on board, with the help of VALENTINA. The wagon narrowly succeeds in out-pacing the fastest of the CROWD. As it disappears down the street, a figure is dumped unceremoniously out through the back door of the wagon. It's the terrified SALLY, sent sprawling in the middle of the road. A figure steps out from the shadows to help her to her feet. It's MR. NICK in his bowler and red waistcoat.47 EXT. RUBBISH TIP NIGHT 47 A police siren howls as the wagon comes crashing around the corner of a great rubbish tip and clatters to a halt... the horses steaming, sections of the theatre hanging loose, broken..an utter mess. The siren fades into the distance.48 INT/EXT THEATRE/WAGON NIGHT 48 Amongst collapsed scenery PARNASSUS lies in a heap. The others are struggling to their feet. ANTON is desperately trying to do something useful to help PARNASSUS but, VALENTINA pushes him out of the way. VALENTINA What were you thinking? Look what you've done. Get out of the way! (appealing to Tony) Tony. TONY, battered and bleeding, helps her lift PARNASSUS and manoeuvre him to his room. (CONTINUED) 67.48 CONTINUED: 48 ANTON is mortified. PERCY pats him on the back. PERCY Better luck next time.49 INT PARNASSUS' ROOM NIGHT 49 TONY helps VALENTINA get PARNASSUS comfortable. DOCTOR PARNASSUS (babbling) This is my punishment. All is lost. First to Five. One down. Impossible, Valentina. First to five. One down. No people. No time, Valentina. We are doomed. VALENTINA (very concerned) Ssshhhh... Thanks, Tony. Leave us. TONY, nods, leaves slowly. Listening.50 EXT. WAGON NIGHT 50 PERCY is angrily banging about, trying to repair the damage. ANTON is trying to help but, is just getting in the way. PERCY Do me a favour. Take a long walk off a short pier. TONY arrives. TONY Can I help? PERCY Bugger off! TONY finds ANTON sitting despondently a short way from the wagon swigging from a bottle. He sits down next to him. ANTON L-leave me alone. TONY What were you doing to that girl behind the mirror? (CONTINUED) 68.50 CONTINUED: 50 ANTON (incensed) What are you suggesting? TONY Oh, c'mon...we all heard her screaming. ANTON I was screaming as well. It was t- terrifying... TONY Terrifying? Why? I don't understand. ANTON (reluctantly) No, well...you wouldn't. You've n- never been inside the D-Doctor's mind have you? TONY Your not trying to tell me that mind control stuff is real? ANTON You think it's some k-kind of scam, d-don't you? TONY Isn't it? ANTON No... But I d-don't expect you to g- get it... N-not in a million years. TONY Hang on.. if he can really control people's minds, why isn't he ruling the world? Why bother with this crappy side show? ANTON He d-doesn't want to rule the world d-does he?... He wants the world to rule itself! TONY What a waste... Tell me about the mirror. What's the point of that, if not to razzle-dazzle the public? (CONTINUED) 69.50 CONTINUED: (2) 50 ANTON (smiles sardonically) You're way off the mark. (taking a swig) It's a b-bloody great mystery... wrapped in a b-brown p-paper b-bag enema...or do I mean, enigma... He pulls himself up and starts to stagger off. TONY Er... one more thing....Does `first to five' mean anything to you? ANTON looks at TONY with loathing. ANTON I thought you were the c-clever one. He walks away into the darkness. TONY sits there busily thinking.51 EXT RUBBISH TIP DAWN 51 The morning light suffuses mountains of domestic refuse. Rubbish for as far as the eye can see. Plastic sacks of various colours, many spilling open. A few fires are burning. Flocks of scavenging sea gulls hover and dive, screaming blue murder. On one of the many pinnacles of garbage sits a lonely figure. It's ANTON, depressed, angry, forlorn. The CAMERA SWINGS ROUND to show, below ANTON, in a valley of waste material, the wagon.52 EXT. THE WAGON DAWN 52 PERCY has spread out the broken scenery assessing the damage. In the shadow of the wagon VALENTINA is changing TONY'S dressings. VALENTINA Thank God it's only cuts and bruises. I thought we'd lost you. (CONTINUED) 70.52 CONTINUED: 52 TONY If you hadn't been there... He holds her hand. Looks deep into her eyes. TONY (CONT'D) Valentina, your father seems in a terrible state. Is it the police? The show? Maybe I can help. VALENTINA I don't know what's wrong with him, but if it's about the show...I don't care. I'm tired of it...let the police arrest us. I'm sick of living like this.... She looks miserable. TONY puts his arms around her. Holds her tightly to him. TONY Don't say that. What you're doing is important. Really important. It's just... maybe... it should be done in a different way. He is about to kiss her. DOCTOR PARNASSUS O/S What sort of "different" way do you suggest? DR. PARNASSUS, grim faced, head bandaged, steps from behind the wagon. TONY and VALENTINA quickly disengage. TONY Oh, hello, good morning sir. How are you feeling? That was a nasty bump on the head you got.. DOCTOR PARNASSUS O/S (beady eyed) "Different?" TONY Well, sir, I've been thinking... It's clear the show's not attracting many people. Forgive me but... I see two ways of tackling this problem. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 71.52 CONTINUED: (2) 52 TONY (CONT'D) Either the style of the show is at fault... or the type of audience. I would suggest changing both. PERCY has appeared, dragging a damaged flat. PERCY Change the show!? Who the fizzing hell do you think you are?...... DOCTOR PARNASSUS Shhh! He sits down heavily. TONY I'm sorry but.. you're not modern. People want modern. Look. He holds open a tattered fashion magazine to a page of beautifully photographed models in a fabulously magical setting. He thumbs through more pages of dreamy images. TONY (CONT'D) This is modern. It works. Trust me, I understand this world. (with a wink) This kind of mind control. Let's try to meet the public halfway.. the right public.. and in a better part of town. From behind the wagon ANTON watches forlornly. Alone and unnoticed by the others. PERCY What about the filth? TONY (puzzled) What? PERCY The filth. The police. TONY There'll be a better class of police too. PERCY That'll be the day. (CONTINUED) 72.52 CONTINUED: (3) 52 TONY The trick is not to hide. Change your colours. Be bold. Go where they would least expect to find you. I think we have been brought together for a reason. I don't believe in coincidence. You saved my life. Now let me do something in return. PARNASSUS confers with PERCY. DOCTOR PARNASSUS Our time's nearly up... This could be what we need. TONY (to Valentina) This can be my birthday gift to Valentina. VALENTINA smiles and nods to PARNASSUS. DR. PARNASSUS Well then... (with a burst of energy) For God's sake let's do it!!! PERCY (sighs) Yeah, okay, but what exactly do we do? TONY Well... First of all, I want you to give me your money. All of it. What?! PARNASSUS, PERCY, and VALENTINA look at each other. Then PARNASSUS sees something beyond the wagon...ANTON, downcast, heading off through the swirling plastic bags and flying rubbish... a battered suitcase in his hand. DR. PARNASSUS Anton! Where are you going? No answer from ANTON. VALENTINA runs after him but, he marches on silently. (CONTINUED) 73.52 CONTINUED: (4) 52 VALENTINA What are you doing? Didn't you do enough damage last night? (pummmelling his back) Anton... I'm the one who wants to run away! (he slows) Are you trying to wreck my birthday, or what? Anton stops, still not looking at VALENTINA he slowly drops his suitcase. VALENTINA (CONT'D) Please. We need you. Moved, ANTON turns to her. She smiles sweetly. VALENTINA (CONT'D) How much money have you got?53 EXT BOND STREET EVENING 53 Close up on Parnassus's glass plinth..now open-topped and sitting on the edge of the stage... full of the troupe's savings. A sign proclaims "Please Take Generously" Directly behind the glass box is a half-globe with the continent of Africa featured. Sitting on top is Percy playing something ethnic but tasteful on a flute with one hand...his other is held out pathetically... a beggar. He's blacked up and dressed in rags. He doesn't look happy. He sneaks nervous glances at the glass box of money. The wagon, newly painted in sleek and stylish black and white, stands in Bond Street or some similarly fashionable street with expensive shops and art galleries. RICH WOMEN anxious to be conspicuous in their consumption of wealth glide past. New signs proclaim `The Choice Is Yours' `The Imaginarium - More Exclusive than ever'. The stage, hung with soft,flowing, gauzy fabric, has been chromatically divided in half - one side black, the other white. On the dark side a bloated, sun-glassed woman consuming vast quantities of food reclines on an elaborate lounge. She is, in fact, a very uncomfortable ANTON in full and fulsome drag. (CONTINUED) 74.53 CONTINUED: 53 Center stage stands DR. PARNASSUS dressed as a stylized doctor with head reflector. In his hand is a staff with an elaborate sun on the top. He is blindfolded. On the white side of the stage stands the mirror and a stylized Tree of Knowledge with bright red apples. Under the tree, and reflected in the mirror, sits VALENTINA as Eve...naked except for a long wig that maintains her modesty. She gracefully combs her hair. Above the mirror is a sign proclaiming "The Naked Truth". DR. PARNASSUS, peeking under his blindfold, is distinctly uncomfortable by his daughter's lack of attire. TONY, in a beautifully cut white suit, and wearing his `romantic' Venetian carnival mask sits in profile in a dreamy pose on the edge of the white side of the stage. Nobody speaks. They pay no attention to the crowd. A few women stop, curious. One of them takes out some money and puts it in the glass plinth and turns to go. TONY (retrieving the money) Excuse me, madam. I'm afraid we can't accept this. The woman stops, confused. Tony hands her back her money. TONY (CONT'D) We are here to give...not take. We are here to help those in need. If it's money you need, then here it is. (referring to the glass plinth) If it's the flowering of the soul you need, then here we are but, unfortunately we are booked solid at the moment. But thank you.. I can see you have a generous spirit. TONY returns to his pensive pose. The women look at each other. WOMAN Excuse me but, how does this work? What does it cost? (CONTINUED) 75.53 CONTINUED: (2) 53 TONY Cost? Money is no good in the Imaginarium. This is a refuge for hearts in need of truth. A place for souls to be purified. WOMAN 2 How long does that take? I'm running late. TONY Madam, why should you care about time? What are your dreams worth in minutes? The women grow pensive. TONY (CONT'D) There are hard choices to be made in life. (he indicates the tableaux) What about the dreams of the less fortunate in the world. Do you have time for their dreams? Or are you like I once was...do you just despair? Despair at all that is wrong in the world.. (getting to his feet) ...despair at your inability to do anything to change it.. to make it better...I despaired so much at the powerlessness of my own existence that I took the easy way out...the coward's way...I committed suicide! Yes, that's right, I killed myself. Can you understand my despair? But I was saved...saved by a miracle...The Imaginarium...and Doctor Parnassus. He brought me back from the dead. He gave me a new life. A reason to live. He has given me power to dream again... to dream of a better world. During his speech, more and more people have gathered. Some are actually weeping. They are press forward putting money in the plinth. Tony tries to stop them but, they insist. VALENTINA, ANTON, PERCY, and DR. PARNASSUS are astonished by TONY'S performance. (CONTINUED) 76.53 CONTINUED: (3) 53 VOICES IN CROWD Stop pushing!/Excuse me, can one make a booking?/Are you taking bookings?/Stop pushing at the back!/Form a queue! TONY Please, I'm sorry but, we're booked solid at the moment. A Louis Vuitton-dressed woman (60+ years old)at the back of the crowd shouts: LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN Is that child up for adoption? She points at the blacked up PERCY. LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN (CONT'D) I want to adopt that unfortunate black child. It shouldn't be working like this. It should be in school. PERCY is appalled. LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN (CONT'D) Who's in charge here? The LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN looks around as a couple of POLICE OFFICERS arrive on the scene. TONY spots them too and heads off the LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN as she makes towards them. TONY Madam, congratulations, you have been chosen. The other WOMEN gasp. LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN What? TONY Come forward and enter the Imaginarium. LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN But, I haven't paid. (CONTINUED) 77.53 CONTINUED: (4) 53 TONY We don't want your money. We want your hopes and dreams. You may make a donation later, if you wish. LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN But... TONY This is a rare moment. Very few are chosen. Don't miss this once-in-a- life-time opportunity. This way. Please. He ushers the uneasy LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN onto the stage and guides her upstage. PARNASSUS goes into his trance. TONY (CONT'D) Believe me Madam, you're the luckiest woman in the world. The LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN steps into the mirror. TONY hesitates..a moment of uncertainty. VALENTINA encourages him with a smile. He steps through. Across the street a clock begins striking the hour. CUT TO the two POLICE OFFICERS who start to move the crowd and show on. POLICEMAN Alright, I think it's time to move on, folks. But on spotting the naked VALENTINA who winks at them, they agree between themselves to give the show a bit longer.54 INT/EXT IMAGINARIUM 54 TONY and THE LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN are astonished to find themselves in the romantic, soft-focus, pastel-colour setting of a soothing, sophisticated, shampoo commercial. Soft fabrics waft, cleansing waterfalls cascade, rose-petals float through the air, beautiful girls swing from swings attached to clouds - all in delicious slow motion. LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN (overcome) Oh... how gorgeous... (CONTINUED) 78.54 CONTINUED: 54 THE LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN takes TONY'S hand and looks at him meaningfully. TONY, disorientated, takes a moment to regain his composure. He smiles and, with an effort, puts his arm around THE LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN'S wide waist. He looks into her eyes. She's in love. LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN (CONT'D) (moans softly) Ohhh... What bliss... and I don't even know your name... TONY Tony... LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN Tony. How dashing. A bar or two of tango encourages them to take a couple of intimate tango dance steps. Now gently wafting curtains part to reveal.. down a flower strewn path and over a bridge... a sleazy motel with a shingle over the door reads: "The One Night Stand Motel". In the office window sits MR. NICK LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN (CONT'D) Oh, goodness me! She bats her eyelashes at TONY and begins, knowingly, to pull him towards the motel. TONY (resisting) If I'm not wrong, I fear you must go alone. THE LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN pouts playfully, pulling him onwards. LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN Why would I want to go without you darling? TONY It's one of the rules... One imagination at a time, free from the influence of another. LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN (petulant) Boring. (CONTINUED) 79.54 CONTINUED: (2) 54 They have reached the bridge. Stairs descend to a stream. TONY Oh..look... another possibility.. Below them a gondola rests in the stream as small, flower bedecked barques float past with framed pictures of romantic heroes who died young; Keats, Shelly, Byron, James Dean, Rudolph Valentino, Marilyn Monroe, Buddy Holly, Princess Diana... the stream continues off into the distance to a dark, towering Egyptian pyramid. TONY is as bemused as THE LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN. TONY (CONT'D) You must make a choice...and... actually, to be honest, I'd strongly recommend this one. LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN But... Rudolph Valentino, James Dean, Princess Di?... all these people... they're dead. TONY (thinking fast) Exactly. To be reborn, first you must die. All of them have achieved a kind of immortality. And we love them all the more for it. They won't get old or fat. They won't get sick or feeble. They are beyond fear. They are forever young. They are gods. And you can join them. LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN (softening) You're such a wonderful speaker. The gondola awaits....with a beautiful male model at the helm. THE LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN smiles at him. TONY There's not a moment to lose. But as she hesitates a dark shadow rises over them. TONY, looking past the WOMAN"S shoulder, sees the dark waters of the stream rise up transforming into a GIGANTIC KING COBRA that towers menacingly over them. It's wearing a BOWLER HAT... and it's angry. (CONTINUED) 80.54 CONTINUED: (3) 54 TONY (CONT'D) But your sacrifice must be pure. You have to let go of all these worldly goods. He helps THE LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN remove her necklace, earrings, bracelets, rings, broach, in double quick time and guides her onto the gondola, blowing a kiss after her. TONY (CONT'D) Remember nothing is permanent... not even death. He turns back to see the GIGANTIC KING COBRA shrinking back below the bridge, transforming itself back into the waters of the stream. From under the arch of the bridge hangs a rope. At its end.. a hangman's noose. TONY stares at it darkly disconcerted.55 EXT. STAGE EVENING 55 TONY re-enters the stage through the mirror, looking at DR. PARNASSUS who has just come out of his trance with astonishment TONY (gobsmacked) That was so... I had no idea... It's just... incredible. ...And then he realizes the clock is still striking the hour realizing that only a few moments have passed since he entered the mirror. TONY (CONT'D) ..how do you do this? DOCTOR PARNASSUS (ignoring him and with a big theatrical gesture) Hooplah! The LOUIS VUITTON woman reappears, sitting on a cut-out cloud descending from the ceiling of the stage. She looks radiant. She is weeping, completely overcome by her experience. PARNASSUS steps forward and helps her to her feet. She kisses his hands in gratitude. (CONTINUED) 81.55 CONTINUED: 55 LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN Thank you, thank you, that was so beautiful, I feel so... thank you so much... DOCTOR PARNASSUS (graciously) Thank YOU, dear Lady, you give me strength to continue Born again, tearful but transcendent, the LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN produces her cheque book and begins to write a cheque. TONY is frozen, confused. The crowd is still... stunned by the LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN's transformation as she deposits the cheque, her handbag, her expensive coat in the glass box and glides benignly through the crowd... which parts in awe. Pause... and then the other WOMEN rush the stage. Mayhem is narrowly averted as TONY and PERCY manage to coral them into a more-or-less orderly queue. Across the street, standing in the doorway of a shop selling luxury goods, is MR NICK. He watches events, intrigued... ...as TONY escorts a second woman through the mirror, and a third, they descend, ecstatic, emptying the contents of their handbags, their pearls, earrings and diamond rings into the glass box. TONY pays off the cops who move on. TONY, getting more and more flamboyant, forgets to lower his mask each time he re-enters the stage. And now a fourth woman descends. Four successes for DOCTOR PARNASSUS. DR. PARNASSUS (aside to Percy) One more to go and we're free. DOCTOR PARNASSUS spots MR NICK across the street, smiles, holds up four fingers. MR NICK gives a little `I'm not impressed' smirk and turns away and pretends to be interested in the luxury goods in the shop window as four large dark heavy RUSSIAN MEN, all laden with luxury shopping walk past. One of the RUSSIANS stops..looking at the show..at TONY whose mask is sitting on top of his head. The leading RUSSIAN pulls him on. (CONTINUED) 82.55 CONTINUED: (2) 55 VLADIMIR (IN RUSSIAN) SUBTITLED C'mon..What are you watching that crap for. SERGE (IN RUSSIAN) (pointing at TONY) It's him! VLADIMIR (IN RUSSIAN) Who are you talking about? (following SERGE's pointed finger) Impossible. SERGE (IN RUSSIAN) I'm sure. They start pushing through the crowd. TONY, reaching down to help an elderly lady up to the stage, looks up and sees the RUSSIANS heading through the crowd.. Panic!! He pulls the mask down and begins to back up. But it's too late, they've definitely seen him. He spins around and rockets upstage, past DR. PARNASSUS who is deep into his trance. TONY dives through the mirror much to the amazement of VALENTINA, ANTON, PERCY. The RUSSIANS chase after him, shoving the queuing WOMEN aside, smashing the scenery and knocking ANTON into the wings.56 INT/EXT SHAMPOO COMMERCIAL LANDSCAPE 56 The RUSSIANS charge through the shampoo-commercial landscape. No TONY.. Just slo-mo fashion models and soft wafting fabrics and aromatic breezes. VLADIMIR (IN RUSSIAN) Where did he go? PIOTR (IN RUSSIAN) You tell me... It can't be him. He's dead. We killed him. SERGE (IN RUSSIAN) So why did he run? (CONTINUED) 83.56 CONTINUED: 56 GREGOR (IN RUSSIAN) There he is!! In the distance, TONY is hiding behind some billowing fabric. On being spotted, he takes off up a hill. The RUSSIANS race toward the hill only to crash into a solid wall - painted as a landscape with TONY frozen in mid stride. Looking off to their right they see Tony heading up another hill. But as they rush in that direction another wall rises up blocking them. Again it is painted with a hill and TONY frozen in midstride. A third and fourth wall rise up.. surrounding and trapping the RUSSIANS. There is a cell door in one wall. Like crazy animals they start throwing themselves against the door trying to break it down. It won't budge. While the others batter the door, GREGOR, who has been somewhat affected by the soft shampoo commercial world, sits quietly in a corner picking pretty flowers. Exhausted, the other RUSSIANS collapse on the ground. GREGOR gently breathes in the aroma of the flowers and exhales. As he does the door swings open. The other RUSSIANS gape at him... then barrel out the door. Outside is a new, beautiful, landscape - the sky dotted with white fluffy clouds. Extending from the ground to each cloud is an incredibly long ladder. On each ladder is a person climbing upwards. The RUSSIANS spot Tony. He is already a hundred feet up a ladder and climbing. Unfortunately, their way is blocked by an over-bright, hyper- active, wide-eyed sales girl. SALES-GIRL Hi! Hello! Today's special! Reach for the clouds! Discover your true potential! Gift certificates are available at... The RUSSIANS roughly shove her aside. As they rush past, GREGOR pauses, hands her his flowers. GREGOR Relax...smell the flowers. (CONTINUED) 84.56 CONTINUED: (2) 56 Reaching the base of TONY'S ladder, the RUSSIANS start climbing. Seeing the threat, TONY kicks hard and breaks the rungs below him.. setting off a domino effect with more rungs breaking downward towards the RUSSIANS. Snap! Crack! Rungs break in their grasp.. they fall. The RUSSIANS land in a tangled heap as the domino effect continues down to the base of the ladder. Laughing down at them, TONY turns to continue climbing - only to see the domino effect heading down from the top of the ladder... towards him. THE LADDER COMPLETELY SEPARATES IN TWO. Tony struggles to maintain his balance - and somehow manages to get his feet on the two halves of a broken rung. Then, as if he were on giant stilts, starts to stride away. The RUSSIANS chase after him but, his giant strides leave them far behind. Smugly, TONY looks back just as one of the legs of his ladder snags on a fallen log. He loses his balance... and plunges hundreds of feet earthward. From nowhere, ANTON (still dressed as a fat woman) appears.. running to catch the plummeting TONY. He does and Whomp!!.. is flattened. Knocked out cold. TONY is unscathed.. his fall broken by ANTON'S padding. But, the RUSSIANS arrive, grab TONY, start to beat him up. SERGE You thieving scumbag! We break every bone in your body! They scrawl strange symbols on TONY'S forehead. TONY No! Wait! I can explain! Give me a chance! VLADIMIR We want our money or you die again! This time for good! ANTON struggles to his feet. ANTON Stop it! L-leave him alone! (CONTINUED) 85.56 CONTINUED: (3) 56 The RUSSIANS turn and, thinking ANTON is a fat, bossy, middle- aged woman, hesitate. ANTON (CONT'D) Stand b-back! I'm warning you! Foolishly, he whips off his wig and assumes a manly martial arts pose. The RUSSIANS look at each other. Then, utterly ignoring ANTON, turn their attention back to beating TONY. GREGOR walks calmly over to ANTON who is in attack mode. GREGOR (bending down and picking a flower, he offers it to ANTON) Relax. Smell the flowers. Confused, ANTON takes the flower, sniffs and then... GREGOR floors him with a powerful punch on the nose Meanwhile, the RUSSIANS have a noose around TONY's neck and have looped the rope over a tree branch. TONY struggles to pull out the metal pipe he keeps on a string around his neck. He gets it to his mouth as if to swallow it when... ... the ground erupts and a giant London policeman's helmet rises up (we are talking 20 feet tall)and revolves - revealing DR. PARNASSUS' carved and painted face beneath. The mouth drops open and a great red tongue rolls out like a welcoming red carpet. From inside the giant mouth a smiling policeman beckons the RUSSIANS to come on in.. The terrified RUSSIANS let go of the lynching rope. TONY drops to the ground and, with a whistle, the brass pipe flies out of his mouth. Behind the RUSSIANS a painted backdrop unfurls..it reads "JOIN THE FUZZ.. WE LOVE VIOLENCE".. and a chorus line of LONG-LEGGED GIRLS in mini-skirted police outfits appear - high-kicking a snappy song and dance number. The astonished RUSSIANS don't know what the fuck is going on. Suddenly, a friendly OLD WOMAN'S VOICE is heard shouting something in Russian. Spinning around, the RUSSIANS see an old BABOUSHKA (Russian grandmother) outside a tumble-down cottage waving gaily to them. A stunned pause. Then, pell-mell, they rush to her. (CONTINUED) 86.56 CONTINUED: (4) 56 RUSSIANS (IN RUSSIAN) Mama! Mama! Help! Save us! As they run toward her they get smaller and smaller. She lifts her skirts and all four disappear underneath. And then.. BOOM!.. a muffled explosion balloons the skirts outward. Smoke spews out from below. Straightening her skirt, the BABOUSHKA looks up, and pulls off her head - revealing MR.NICK's tiny head poking out of the collar. He smiles smugly. The giant POLICEMAN DR. PARNASSUS registers disappointment and, like a balloon rapidly deflating, spins off into the sky sending up a cloud of dust obscuring everything. The dust clears and TONY and ANTON find themselves in a desolate, empty landscape. Nowhere. Nothing. TONY Did you see me!! I almost reached the clouds! I could have...it was incredible...I was almost there... ANTON Shut up! Over a distant rise the wagon appears, pulled by the horses. ANTON drags Tony, babbling and stumbling, towards it. TONY I made my choice and I climbed... I felt so much potential. I could have done anything. I have to have another chance...another go...I need this...57 EXT SOMEWHERE DOWN RIVER - MUD FLATS EVENING 57 The wagon is parked on waste ground. It looms out of nowhere illuminated by a light leaking from within. We hear PERCY'S angry voice. PERCY O/S Maybe you were holding them upside down. DOCTOR PARNASSUS What? (CONTINUED) 87.57 CONTINUED: 57 PERCY That cards! The bloody Tarot cards! DOCTOR PARNASSUS O/S (distraught and angry) Enough, Percy! Enough! TONY O/S I made a mistake. A big mistake. I know that and I'm sorry.58 INT THE STAGE - CONTINUOUS 58 The angry troupe huddles amongst the clutter of props and jumbled scenery. TONY is on trial. DR. PARNASSUS is sitting in a corner, head in hands. He seems utterly destroyed. ANTON You're a l-liar. You've been lying to us all along. Who are you? Who were those thugs? TONY I am not a liar! ANTON No? TONY No! I just... didn't divulge everything I knew. PERCY Comes to the same thing. TONY Absolutely not. Not in law. ANTON You stole their money. TONY No. I didn't. ANTON That's what they said. (CONTINUED) 88.58 CONTINUED: 58 TONY Are you going to believe them before you believe me? PERCY Why not? TONY Because they're irredeemably bad people, and I'm essentially good. I know that sounds terribly prim and arrogant and self righteous, but I'm trying to be honest. Look, the truth is... in order to get my charity off the ground I needed capital. ANTON looks askance. TONY (CONT'D) (in response to Anton) Yes, I know, and you're right, but that's the way the grown-up..the real world works. You can't make omelettes without soiling your hands. Or should that be the other way round? Anyway, I - with hindsight very foolishly - accepted a loan from people who seemed to me, at the time, to be very decent and sincere. There was absolutely no way I could have known that they were part of a ruthless organised crime syndicate and that they wanted to use my charity to launder money. I made a mistake. And I have to live with that. I'm sorry. What more can I say? VALENTINA wants to believe TONY. ANTON and PERCY don't. VALENTINA (distressed but basically sympathetic) Oh Tony. TONY But, can we not talk about me for a moment.. I want to thank the Doctor for letting me experience the most sublime, inspiring .... (CONTINUED) 89.58 CONTINUED: (2) 58 ANTON So why were they trying to k-kill you? "Again!" is what they said. TONY What? ANTON (answering his own question) The first time they hung you from the b-bridge... right?... B-because you stole their money. TONY Stop saying that! I didn't steal it! I didn't have it. I'd had to invest in infrastructure. I needed more time. When you run a charity you have to give lots of money away. You wouldn't believe the red tape. The Charity Commission are a bunch of fascists. It's incredible. I mean... c'mon give me a break...I almost died today.. and I said I'm sorry... and anyway..... this was supposed to be a special day...it's Valentina's birthday. He pulls out the LOUIS VUITTON WOMAN'S beautiful necklace from his pocket. TONY (CONT'D) Happy birthday. For a beautiful woman. He puts it around Valentina's neck. VALENTINA smiles. ANTON glowers. ANTON The marks on your face... TONY Marks? ANTON They scrawled something on your forehead. Symbols... Signs... TONY looks uncomfortable, tries to rub his forehead clean. (CONTINUED) 90.58 CONTINUED: (3) 58 PERCY You had some of those when we rescued you. ANTON Yes, what's that about? But, before he can say anything, there's a knock on the door which startles everyone. They exchange looks. DR. PARNASSUS is frightened but hides this from the others. The knock is repeated. PERCY starts to get up. DR. PARNASSUS (sotto voce) No! Leave it! PERCY sits down. The knock comes again. VALENTINA (sotto voce to the DR. PARNASSUS) Who is it? DR. PARNASSUS (sotto voce) It's too late... for visitors. Once more someone knocks. Everyone is edgy. Particularly PERCY. The knock comes again. PERCY (sotto voce, agitated) Please can we answer the door? I can't stand not answering the door, or the telephone, or whatever. It's not in my nature. I won't sleep for weeks if we don't answer the door! Sorry! DR. PARNASSUS gets up, goes to the door, opens it and steps outside, closing the door behind him. VALENTINA, ANTON, PERCY and TONY exchange looks. (CONTINUED) 91.58 CONTINUED: (4) 58 PERCY (CONT'D) (embarrassed) Sorry, I just... I've got a thing about...59 EXT OUTSIDE THE WAGON THAT MOMENT 59 DR. PARNASSUS and MR NICK move away from the door and go around to the front. The stage is half-opened. The horses are standing steaming nearby. DR. PARNASSUS (very down) I know... It's over....you've won... MR NICK Four rotten Russkies? DR. PARNASSUS And the girl..from the pub. MR NICK shakes his head. MR NICK Sally doesn't count. Do you, gal? SALLY (the woman thrown out from the wagon as they escaped from the pub mob) steps out of the shadows, puts her arms around NICK DR. PARNASSUS You're joking... toying with me. Like a cat with a mouse... As is your privilege. MR NICK Sal didn't get to make a real choice. You were gaga. Out for the count. Wouldn't be fair...And you've got four, thanks to your friend Tony. So... we're even... it's not quite over. He smiles, lights a cigarette, takes a deep drag... MR NICK (CONT'D) Not quite. (checks his watch) Oh,oh, look at the time...it's 11. (CONTINUED) 92.59 CONTINUED: 59 ...and he wanders off into the darkness with SALLY. Somewhere, a clock strikes 11. DR. PARNASSUS, agitated, watches him go. VALENTINA (V.O.) Father? DR. PARNASSUS looks round to find VALENTINA standing next to him. He starts to round up the horses. DOCTOR PARNASSUS Valentina... my darling girl. We must do another show! Now! Quickly! Get ready to move out! VALENTINA Who was that? DOCTOR PARNASSUS Somebody asking the way. Where's Tony? VALENTINA I overheard you... He wasn't asking the way. DOCTOR PARNASSUS Please! Get everybody together. Another show! Tony! Percy! VALENTINA I want to know what's going on. DOCTOR PARNASSUS (harnessing the horses) Not now. VALENTINA Yes, now! I want to know the truth! DOCTOR PARNASSUS The truth? VALENTINA What are you hiding? DOCTOR PARNASSUS There are more important things, at this moment! (CONTINUED) 93.59 CONTINUED: (2) 59 VALENTINA It's something to do with that bloody rambling story you were telling me the night we found Tony isn't it? PARNASSUS sighs. Stops. He checks his watch DOCTOR PARNASSUS Yes. VALENTINA So tell me. DOCTOR PARNASSUS What I told you was... the truth. I really am thousands of years old. I have been immortal. I have been mortal. And I have had many dealings with the devil. Too many. VALENTINA (fearful) What are you saying?... DOCTOR PARNASSUS Remember the woman I was telling you about?.. the one I was so desperately in love with.. so in love that I made a deal with the devil? That was your mother... ...she was so beautiful, so enchanting...so... Looking at VALENTINA, DR. PARNASSUS sees her morph into the BEAUTIFUL WOMAN appearing. He almost swoons. DOCTOR PARNASSUS (CONT'D) ... so young. She was everything I had ever dreamed of. I made a choice. I bargained away my immortality. I regained my youth... and I won her. I did! I won her...! The BEAUTIFUL WOMAN morphs back into VALENTINA. DOCTOR PARNASSUS (CONT'D) ...but at a price... DR. PARNASSUS looks haggard. He closes his eyes. He sways and loses his balance. (CONTINUED) 94.59 CONTINUED: (3) 59 VALENTINA stops him from falling. VALENTINA What price? DR. PARNASSUS (anguished) It's too terrible... VALENTINA Tell me... DR. PARNASSUS I... The price of my obsession... (he groans) I can't say it. VALENTINA Say it. DR. PARNASSUS You. VALENTINA What? DR. PARNASSUS I was mortal again... on condition that... any children I fathered... would, on their sixteenth birthday... belong to him. VALENTINA (stunned) Him?... VALENTINA can't take it in. VALENTINA (CONT'D) But... didn't... DR. PARNASSUS Your mother never knew. She died before I had to tell her. VALENTINA I don't believe this! It can't be true. It's just another of your wretched stories... A cruel story! DR. PARNASSUS If only... (CONTINUED) 95.59 CONTINUED: (4) 59 VALENTINA Why do you say these things? DR. PARNASSUS It's true. Every word. But all is not lost. VALENTINA looks at him. DR. PARNASSUS (CONT'D) (feverishly) A new wager... The first of five. If I win... you're free... you're mine again.. and we can win! Where's Tony? We can still win! VALENTINA By playing games with the devil!? DR. PARNASSUS With one more show. The day isn't over. VALENTINA No! DR. PARNASSUS Valentina. VALENTINA All my life you've made me play `Beauty', `Truth', `Justice'... filled my head with dreams and high ideals. All that crap! While... all the time...! The devil was right! You're arrogant! Vain and arrogant! I'm just another one of your stupid wagers!... You're beneath contempt. She rushes off into the dark night. DR. PARNASSUS Valentina! That's not true! It's not like that! Wait! Come back! Valentina! A dark silhouette stands in the shadow of the wagon. It's TONY. What has he heard? 96.60 INT THE WAGON MOMENTS LATER 60 DR. PARNASSUS rushes into the wagon. PERCY is already on his feet, having heard the DOCTOR shouting. ANTON What's happened? DR. PARNASSUS Valentina... She's... she's gone... ANTON rushes out. PERCY stops by DR. PARNASSUS before he exits. PERCY Telling the truth... Always a bad idea.61 EXT MONTAGE OF SCENES NIGHT 61 ANTON, running, calling for VALENTINA. PERCY is scouring the area on horseback. ANTON running though a newspaper-filled tip, sees a headline on one of the newspapers. Stops.62 EXT THE WAGON A LITTLE LATER 62 PARNASSUS, a bottle in his hand, is lurching around. DOCTOR PARNASSUS You fool! You monstrous fool! You should be dead. He starts to violently bang his head against the side of the wagon. Suddenly the stage begins to unfold. PARNASSUS looks up, unable to see what or who is doing this. He drunkenly stumbles around the side to see TONY pulling ropes. DOCTOR PARNASSUS (CONT'D) What are you doing? (CONTINUED) 97.62 CONTINUED: 62 TONY Saving Valentina. DOCTOR PARNASSUS (befuddled) What?... How? TONY I overheard you. You only need one more to win. Me! I'll be that one. I'll take the risk to save Valentina and, hopefully, you sir. We've still got a few minutes. Tony steers DOCTOR PARNASSUS towards his glass column. DOCTOR PARNASSUS Yes! Yes! Of course! Of course! Thank God! Thank God! TONY (to himself) How about thanking me? DR. PARNASSUS What? TONY I expect nothing in return. DR. PARNASSUS (trying to go into a trance) No. You're a saint... A saint. TONY Only Valentina's hand in marriage, if she'll have me... DR. PARNASSUS (not listening) Oh, my head... TONY And, as your son-in-law... perhaps... initiation into the secrets of the trance. DR. PARNASSUS No! I can't do it! (CONTINUED) 98.62 CONTINUED: (2) 62 TONY But... (realizing Parnassus is referring to his inability to go into a trance) Why not?! What's wrong? DR. PARNASSUS My mind... I can't concentrate... I'm too upset... TONY You must do it! You have to do it! It's the only way to save your daughter! DR. PARNASSUS (distraught) I know... TONY (sitting PARNASSUS down) Concentrate. You must concentrate. (clearing the way to the mirror) I'll make the right choice. I'm sure of it. I can feel how right it is already. TONY leaps back to steady DR. PARNASSUS who looked as though he were about to topple off his pillar. TONY (CONT'D) Oh God!... Doctor... We can save her.. you and me. I need this. We both need this. Please. The trance. PARNASSUS quiets down. Starts mumbling. TONY rushes to the mirror. Steps through. He finds himself standing amongst the stage scenery. Nothing else. TONY (CONT'D) Bugger! He steps back out of the mirror. Goes to PARNASSUS who is weeping. DR. PARNASSUS It's no good! (CONTINUED) 99.62 CONTINUED: (3) 62 TONY shakes him hard. TONY PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER!... Sir. Concentrate...or you'll have lost her forever. PARNASSUS slowly goes into a sobbing kind of trance state. TONY confirms he is in a trance, then rushes to the mirror. VALENTINA O/S Tony...oh, Tony.. What?! TONY stops. Looks around. There in the shadows huddles VALENTINA, sobbing. VALENTINA (sobbing) It's useless... Hopeless... I thought I was strong, but I don't even know how to run away... TONY hesitates.. No time! He looks back to PARNASSUS who seems to still be in his trance. Hesitates. Then rushes to VALENTINA. TONY It's alright... it's alright... Don't cry. It's going to be alright, believe me. VALENTINA This stupid theatre...!... That's all I've ever known...! I've always believed it was something precious, but it's not... it's a lie...I hate it! TONY lifts her up, putting his arm around her. TONY Everything's going to be alright... I'll take you away. I'll show you the world. My world. The great big beautiful world I've always dreamed of... You'll love it. VALENTINA, grateful, clings to TONY. (CONTINUED) 100.62 CONTINUED: (4) 62 TONY (CONT'D) Yes? VALENTINA Maybe. TONY C'mon then. They turn to the mirror but, an off-stage clearing of the throat makes them look round to see ANTON watching them. He's holding a torn and dirty piece of newspaper. ANTON Ah, there you are, Tony. Here's something m-might interest you. (reading) 'Missing: D-disgraced head of children's charity'. TONY No! TONY tries to snatch the paper but ANTON steps back. ANTON N-not a bad p-picture, Tony. Listen to this Valentina... it's about Tony's b-beautiful world.. DOCTOR PARNASSUS O/S Valentina! Where are you? PARNASSUS is still in his trance but, mumbling. ANTON ...Anthony Shepherd, who was arrested last week on charges of... VALENTINA is surrounded. Confused. TONY (to Valentina) Valentina, Don't listen to that. I'm innocent. This is the work of people who are trying to destroy me! Evil people! Believe me! Look, I'll show you the truth! TONY pulls VALENTINA towards the mirror. (CONTINUED) 101.62 CONTINUED: (5) 62 ANTON tries to stop him, but TONY pushes him back, off the stage. He crashes to the ground. TONY (CONT'D) (grabbing VALENTINA) Hurry! TONY and VALENTINA disappear through the mirror. DOCTOR PARNASSUS (sobbing in his trance) Valentina! Forgive me.63 INT/EXT DR. PARNASSUS' DRUNKEN IMAGINATION 63 Mist and rain descend as TONY and VALENTINA run through the darkened shapes of the shampoo-commercial landscape - now tattered, ragged, and wind blown. Darkness reigns. TONY This isn't right. This is all wrong. Which way? Soaked and cold they spy a welcome sight. A uniformed valet with an open umbrella stands by the door of a sleek limo. VALET Your car is here, Mr.Tony. TONY Ah, Lester, just in time. TONY ducks under the umbrella and helps VALENTINA into the car ahead of himself. As she slides across the seat she notices the driver - bowler hatted and smoking a cigarette. VALENTINA No! Tony, don't get in! Get away! She pushes TONY back and scrambles out...dragging him back out into the dark rain. The driver turns around. It's MR.NICK.. looking vexed. VALENTINA and TONY struggle through the rain. Suddenly, they find themselves in deep water up to their chests. They are sinking. Through the mist they see a boat. It is the gondola that transported the LOUIS VUITTON LADY. (CONTINUED) 102.63 CONTINUED: 63 TONY Help! Over here! The boatman turns the boat in their direction. TONY tries to pull himself on board. The boatman reaches down to help. BOATMAN Give me your hand It's MR. NICK. VALENTINA recoils, drags TONY off the boat. TONY Stop! What are you doing! We'll drown! VALENTINA No we won't. This is the way. She points to jumbled rocks just visible in the darkness. They drag themselves onto them. The rocky monoliths appear to be the same as the landscape ANTON climbed over when he was searching for DIEGO, the son of THE FAMILY FROM HELL. And, like a repeat of that experience, from behind the ridge rises the Parnassus-faced Mongolfier balloon. But, now the eyes stream tears and rain pours down. In the basket is ANTON. ANTON Don't d-do it. Don't g-go on. Not with him! He's all lies. VALENTINA Just like my father. Leave me alone. I don't care anymore. I want a new life. TONY Valentina... He pulls her away..towards a little tumble-down cottage. Warm candlelight glows in the windows, smoke curls from the chimney. They run to the door. TONY bangs on it. Someone can be heard unlatching the locks inside. A child's crying cuts through the wind. VALENTINA turns and sees a little girl sitting on the path... among flapping laundry. She rushes to her, tries to pick her up but, the little girl resists.. (CONTINUED) 103.63 CONTINUED: (2) 63 VALENTINA Tony, help me, she's heavy. The door has just opened and TONY is halfway through. He turns, irritated. TONY What is it now?! Can't we just go inside and get dry. Behind him, in the warmth, stands the old BABOUSHKA. Seeing that VALENTINA is really struggling with the little girl, TONY reluctantly goes to help. The little girl, on seeing TONY, tries to break away but, he holds on to her. TONY (CONT'D) (shouting angrily) Ostanobuite bas menshi schit! The litle girl goes quiet. VALENTINA looks at TONY with surprise. The BABOUSHKA looks angry. Suddenly a light begins to suffuse TONY and the little girl. A small orchestra can be heard playing garden party music. VALENTINA You did it! You made the right choice! The light fills the screen and we find... ...TONY, sleekly groomed and immaculately dressed, holding the smiling little girl. She too has been cleaned and buffed. The sun shines. He stands in...64 EXT CHARITY GARDEN PARTY DAY 64 ...a large well kept lawn covered with smart guests, BUSINESS PEOPLE, POLITICIANS, POP STARS, CELEBS... Behind and beyond them is an impressive country house. A small orchestra is playing. There is a marquee. WAITERS and WAITRESSES move amongst the assembled notables bearing trays of drinks and food. TONY is the focus of attention. A TV current-affairs/news JOURNALIST with CAMERA CREW is following him around. (CONTINUED) 104.64 CONTINUED: 64 TONY Sustainability's great, if you can achieve it. The problem is, in many cases you simply can't, for a whole variety of reasons. TONY smiles and shakes the hand of someone in a wheelchair. A GROUP OF GUESTS burst into spontaneous applause. Everybody loves and admires TONY. He smiles boyishly. He moves on. The TV CREW stay with him. JOURNALIST Aren't you running the risk of entrenching the need for charity by increasingly institutionalising it? TONY Look, charity, like poor little Olga... (referring to the little girl) ...is always with us, to coin a phrase... VALENTINA appears. She is beautifully dressed, coiffed, made- up, she looks stunning. TONY (CONT'D) (to VALENTINA) Ah, there you are, my lovely. She and TONY exchange broad smiles. They're in love. He pulls her to his side and puts his arm around her. The photographers snap away. JOURNALIST And what's your message to the Prime Minister? TONY (laughs engagingly) I wouldn't presume to have a 'message' for the Prime Minister... Fortunately for the Foundation, I think we pretty much see eye to eye on most things. Now we hear a distant buzzing. EVERYBODY looks up. (CONTINUED) 105.64 CONTINUED: (2) 64 They see a speck in the sky, it's the PRIME MINISTER'S approaching helicopter... TONY and the posse of JOURNALISTS and PHOTOGRAPHERS rush off leaving VALENTINA standing alone.65 EXT HELICOPTER LANDING PAD DAY 65 The PRIME MINISTER and his WIFE get out of the helicopter, followed by their AIDES. TONY and the PRIME MINISTER shake hands for THE TV CAMERAS. VALENTINA watches from a distance..ignored.66 INT BALLROOM NIGHT 66 A huge chandelier illuminates a grand ornate ballroom where wealthy guests, in evening dress, are being seated at tables by liveried ushers. Large beautiful photographs of the underprivileged children of the world line the walls. A great banner reads "Suffer The Little Children Benefit Ball" The PRIME MINISTER and his WIFE are seated at the head table, facing the dais, bubbly and expectant. Security is heavy.67 INT ENTRANCE HALL NIGHT 67 TONY is conferring with his speech writers and assistants as VALENTINA descends the staircase looking utterly stunning in a beautiful gown. TONY bows, romantically kissing her hand. He turns her to admire their reflections in a gilt mirror...the perfect, beautiful, dream couple. TONY You look gorgeous, my love. I knew you wouldn't let me down. The little girl, OLGA, and a little boy are brought forward. They are dressed in ethnic clothes. TONY takes OLGA'S hand...offers the little boy's hand to VALENTINA. She takes it in her own. The four of them start to walk to the door leading to the ballroom. TONY (CONT'D) (looking to everyone) This is a vitally important moment for the future of the Foundation. The children of the world are depending on us. (CONTINUED) 106.67 CONTINUED: 67 ANTON (V.O.) Valentina! VALENTINA Anton!? TONY and VALENTINA look around. ANTON is nowhere to be seen but, his voice continues. ANTON (V.O.) All of this is false! It's nothing to do with you! It's all him. It's his imagination! TONY Call security, somebody. ANTON (V.O.) It's all rotten! A naked lie! You've got to understand! The LITTLE BOY is tugging VALENTINA'S arm. She looks down. It's ANTON. A child-size ANTON. ANTON (CONT'D) Look at this... He produces the newspaper with TONY'S photo and news story. ANTON (CONT'D) ...`Tony Liar'.. TONY What? How?... TONY lunges for him but, ANTON dodges out of the way. ANTON (reading and dodging) 'The disgraced director of the children's charity "Suffer the Little Children, who was arrested last.. Security guards have rushed in. TONY Stop him. Silence the little bastard! (CONTINUED) 107.67 CONTINUED: (2) 67 ANTON (dodging the guards) ...who was arrested last week on charges of involvement in the sale of organs from third world children to wealthy Westerners'...unghh! TONY has grabbed little ANTON and starts hitting him. TONY And now he doesn't stutter! You see!? It was all an act to get cheap sympathy! VALENTINA (pulling TONY off ANTON) Take your hands off him!! Stop it! TONY Get off me! What are you doing? (lashing out and hitting VALENTINA in the face) You've betrayed me! Haven't you? You let him in...into my world, you bitch!?.. after all I've lavished on you...OW!! Little ANTON has leapt on TONY's back and sunk his teeth into TONY'S ear. TONY throws him off and starts beating him.68 INT THE BALLROOM CONTINUOUS 68 In the glittering ballroom a children's choir sings. CHILDREN'S CHOIR "We are the world..we are the children..." Behind the choir the double doors of the ballroom crash open... exposing TONY violently beating up an `ethnic child.' Stunned silence as the horror of this happy scene sinks in. Then... GUESTS My God! Somebody stop him! He's a monster! Get him! As one they leap to their feet. (CONTINUED) 108.68 CONTINUED: 68 TONY looks up and freezes. At the same time the walls of the ballroom begin to crack and disintegrate. TONY'S world starts to fall apart... literally. The floor around TONY falls away into an abyss leaving only a narrow escape route. He hurls ANTON aside and dashes away as the GUESTS pursue him. ANTON avoids being trampled but, loses his footing and falls over the edge. VALENTINA Anton!!! VALENTINA, fighting through the angry GUESTS, rushes to the edge of the abyss. ANTON is struggling to hold on to a broken floor joist that protrudes several feet down from the side of the cliff face. ANTON Valentina!..help me. Please. His grip slips. VALENTINA reaches for him, grasps his hand. VALENTINA Forgive me, Anton. I was wrong. ANTON I know... I'm not a child. And.. ANTON REVERTS TO HIS NORMAL SIZE...AND WEIGHT. ANTON (CONT'D) I love you, Valentina. ANTON slips out of her grip, plummeting into the abyss. VALENTINA Noooo! Suddenly, VALENTINA is jerked backwards by her hair. TONY Who's behind this!? Eh!? You didn't come up with this all on your own did you!!!??? (slapping her) No! Someone's got at you. Someone's paid you!!!... Who!!!??? Tell me!!! DR. PARNASSUS(O.S.) Valentina! My darling daughter! There you are! (CONTINUED) 109.68 CONTINUED: (2) 68 They turn to see PARNASSUS in the distance (where once the ballroom stood) stumbling towards them, drunk, desperate. As he moves forward a new landscape is created behind him. TONY rushes towards PARNASSUS. TONY You old bastard! This is all your doing! DR. PARNASSUS (drunkenly) All my doing?... I'm merely the facilititatater, dear boy. GUESTS (O.S.) There he is! Stop him! Leave her alone. Get him! Throwing his arm around TONY, PARNASSUS spins him around to face the MOB rushing towards him. DR. PARNASSUS I create the opportunities. Is it my fault if your not up to it? Tony wrenches his arm free and violently shoves the drunken DOCTOR right into the path of the frenzied MOB. PARNASSUS is trampled underfoot in their rush to catch TONY. VALENTINA Father! No! PARNASSUS'S body lies broken on the ground. Frantically, VALENTINA rushes to him, throwing herself on her father's battered body, sobbing hysterically. VALENTINA (CONT'D) NO..NO NO... Please.. father..it's all my fault. What have I done?... With siren wailing, an AMBULANCE arrives, screeching to a halt. PARAMEDICS pull VALENTINA away. They check PARNASSUS for signs of life and begin to lift him onto the gurney. VALENTINA can't control herself and tries to throw herself onto his body. The PARAMEDICS struggle with her. PARAMEDIC (with a severe stutter) P-p-p-lease m-mis-s, there's-s n-n-othing y-y-y-you c-can d-d-o, he-he-he's d-d-dead... (CONTINUED) 110.68 CONTINUED: (3) 68 VALENTINA NOOOOO...!!! VALENTINA wrenches herself out of their grasp howling like an animal and rushes away out of earshot before the PARAMEDIC can finish speaking. PARAMEDIC ...d-dead drunk. A bottle falls from the DOCTOR'S hand and explodes in a million fragments as it hits the ground. The shimmering fragments coalesce into a fractured mirror corridor down which a multi-reflected VALENTINA runs - sobbing like a madwoman - lashing out at her reflections, some of which are flashbacks of her flirting with TONY, irritated with ANTON, angry with PARNASSUS. VALENTINA (to her reflections) You little fool! You're to blame!.. for everything... I hate you! The multi-reflection broken mirror corridor ends at two mirrors identical to the one used in the Imaginarium. The one to the left is marked 'His' with a bowler hat, the other to the right 'Hers' with a bonnet. She hesitates. VALENTINA (CONT'D) (laughing madly) So this is to be my choice!! MR NICK appears out of the "His" mirror - a burst of flame behind him. He makes a sweeping gesture inviting VALENTINA to enter the mirror marked 'Hers'. VALENTINA, heads for the mirror marked 'His'. MR NICK blocks her path. MR NICK Now, there's absolutely no need for that. That's just plain contrariness. VALENTINA tries to get around him. (CONTINUED) 111.68 CONTINUED: (4) 68 MR NICK (CONT'D) You think you deserve punishment but you're a kid - you have no idea...trust me. VALENTINA feints another direction. MR NICK blocks her. VALENTINA (a crazed look) Wrong. I'm 16...I'm a woman now.. She spins around him...he blocks....a kind of dance between them begins - confusingly reflected in the mirrors. A tango can be heard. VALENTINA (CONT'D) ...a selfish bitch, everyone I love dies...I'm... MR NICK ...only fit for hell? If only. He looks at Valentina with lascivious intent. He's tempted, briefly, but resists it. MR NICK (CONT'D) No... your pop would never speak to me again. And that'd be a shame. Let's dance. Reflected in the swirling mirror fragments, they tango until he spins her towards the right hand mirror. She sails through - and, with a mad smile, throws him a kiss. The mirror closes with a burst of flame. The briefest flash of DR. PARNASSUS face is reflected in the mirror fragments. DOCTOR PARNASSUS O/S Valentina!!!!!! MR NICK turns, realizing he has been looking into a mirror fragment reflecting the two mirrors. The writing on the Valentina's mirror reads "His". MR NICK Damn!... I've won. 112.69 EXT STRANGE MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE 69 DR. PARNASSUS is sitting alone on a prominent bluff (the same one he tried throwing himself off many years ago) He's distraught. Tears run down this cheeks. A distant bell tolls midnight. MR NICK appears behind PARNASSUS...sits down beside him. MR NICK Funny how things work out, isn't it? He lights a cigarette. MR NICK (CONT'D) It's not what I had in mind y'know... this.. Valentina, being the fifth... It doesn't seem right... She's supposed to be the prize, the star prize... not part of the bloody score... And you lumbered with eternal life all over again... What a bummer, eh? No response from PARNASSUS. A Tarot cards drops from his hand. It is The Hanged Man. MR. NICK points to the plain far below. Across the harsh ground, TONY is running for his life...pursued by the MOB. MR NICK (CONT'D) I hope they get that bastard. Tear him limb from limb... But they won't... He leads a charmed life, that one... I've been trying to nail him for years... I thought I had him this time. But, there's always some prat comes to his rescue... Talk about the luck of the Devil. (he laughs) Those weird markings you found on him... on his forehead... Those satanic-symbol, so-called, things... What's all that about?... Maybe they protect him in some way... I've never been into that black-magic stuff myself... Can't seem to get the hang of it... I know, pathetic isn't it?... (CONTINUED) 113.69 CONTINUED: 69 PARNASSUS ignores him, sunk even deeper into despondency. MR NICK (CONT'D) God, I hate to see you like this. Look, I tell you what... If you can get the lowdown on those satanic markings, or.. wait.. better still, if you can wipe that self- righteous little creep off the face of the universe... I'll give you Valentina back. A beat. Slowly, PARNASSUS looks up. MR NICK (CONT'D) How about it?70 EXT SOMEWHERE ON THE MOUNTAIN 70 TONY, sweating, panting for breath, is running up the mountain. Below, the MOB is still in hot pursuit. TONY reaches the summit. In front of him, is his salvation - an empty gibbet. A noose hangs from the crossbeam. TONY Thank God for that! TONY relaxes a little. We can hear the mob now, struggling up the mountain. TONY digs into one of his pockets and pulls out the brass tube that he has always kept close. TONY opens his mouth and is about to slip the tube down his throat when he spots the Hanged Man Tarot card lying at his feet. A hand from behind him snatches the tube away. TONY, startled, turns to find himself looking up at DR. PARNASSUS. PARNASSUS is standing on a chair with the noose around his neck. He smiles and opens his hand. The metal tube has vanished. TONY panics. The MOB is getting closer. (CONTINUED) 114.70 CONTINUED: 70 With his other hand DR. PARNASSUS produces the tube from TONY'S ear. TONY (CONT'D) (desperate) Give me that! DR. PARNASSUS gestures at the CROWD. DR. PARNASSUS Give us a moment, please. The CROWD goes into very slow motion...but twice as angry. DR. PARNASSUS teases TONY with magic. DR. PARNASSUS (CONT'D) Here's your tube... Here's mine. (producing a second tube) But mine's just a cheap counterfeit... Look, it breaks... (he breaks it) But here's another... TONY Stop! DR. PARNASSUS You're not amused? TONY (desperate) You've been talking to the devil, haven't you? Let me guess what he said... If you manage to kill me, he'll release Valentina. Yes? Am I right?... I am aren't I? It's all lies. He can't release her. And why not? Because he doesn't have her. He can't have her because she's the prize. (gaining confidence) He doesn't have five wins. But if you kill me he will, won't he? You'll have lost Valentina forever! DR. PARNASSUS does a double hand shuffle. DR. PARNASSUS Choose. (CONTINUED) 115.70 CONTINUED: (2) 70 TONY This is ridiculous! DR. PARNASSUS Choose! TONY chooses. TONY You've got to believe me! For all our sakes! DR. PARNASSUS Are you sure you made the right choice? TONY Look... DR. PARNASSUS Let's find out. He slides the tube down his throat and kicks the chair away. He drops... dangles from the rope...the noose tight around his neck. At the same moment, the MOB resumes normal speed and roars up the mountain. Is PARNASSUS dead? Working very fast, TONY hoists him over his shoulder and wrestles the noose loose. He drops PARNASSUS on the ground. He's stunned but still alive. The MOB is closing in. TONY slaps DR. PARNASSUS hard between the shoulder blades. The tube pops out of the DOCTOR'S gullet. TONY catches it. TONY Gotcha! TONY swallows the tube as the MOB surge around the gibbet, grabbing him, beating him, and then lifting him onto the chair, tightening the noose around his neck. (CONTINUED) 116.70 CONTINUED: (3) 70 Although battered, TONY winks smugly at DR. PARNASSUS, but his mood changes when he sees DR. PARNASSUS spit out several more fake tubes, then, gagging, force the real one up and out of his gullet. With a look of realization and horror, TONY drops to his death as the MOB kicks the chair away from under him. The MOB cheers. Yes, he's dead. DR. PARNASSUS tosses the metal tube to MR NICK who steps coolly out of the MOB, cigarette in his mouth. DR. PARNASSUS (hoarsely) There are three cardinal rules. One, there's no black-magic, only cheap tricks. And... er... I forget the others. Now, where's my daughter? MR NICK How should I know? You're her father. (with needle) Her loving father. DR PARNASSUS looks askance at MR NICK. MR NICK (CONT'D) She's free... isn't she? MR NICK smiles and blows smoke in PARNASSUS'S face. The smoke fills the screen and becomes...71 EXT DESERT DAY 71 ... a dust storm. The wind is howling. The swirling dust thins to reveal DR.PARNASSUS, alone, exhausted, trudging across a vast desert. He's tormented by his thoughts. DR. PARNASSUS What else could I do, Valentina? What else could I have done... What other choice could I have made?... Damn!... It was the right choice... Of course it was... Of course... But where are you? (MORE) (CONTINUED) 117.71 CONTINUED: 71 DR. PARNASSUS (CONT'D) Where's my beautiful daughter? Where's my darling? How long must I suffer? There is no proper road, only endless sand, but nevertheless DR. PARNASSUS reaches a signpost which indicates two distinct paths. One leads to a tidy little suburban home, the other up an dramatic mountain pass via a painfully steep staircase cut into the rock (the same one that MARTIN THE DRUNK chose not to climb days earlier. DR. PARNASSUS (CONT'D) No, no, no... No more choices, please... No more choices...!!! Enraged, he tries to push the sign over, but is too feeble. Exhausted, he subsides onto a smooth protruding stone. VOICE (V.O.) (angry) Hey! DR. PARNASSUS, alarmed, rolls quickly off the stone. Now on his knees he finds himself looking at the top half of PERCY'S head and face. What he'd thought was a stone was, in fact, his old companion buried in the sand. DR. PARNASSUS Percy! DR. PARNASSUS, overjoyed, begins to dig PERCY out. PERCY About bloody time! DR. PARNASSUS Where have you been? PERCY (irritated) Here! DR. PARNASSUS How long have you been here? PERCY How long's a piece of string? Don't ask daft questions. (CONTINUED) 118.71 CONTINUED: (2) 71 DR. PARNASSUS Thank God I found you. I need your advice. (indicating sign) I've got a problematical choice to make. PERCY Problematical my arse! Come on... I know it's against the grain... PERCY grabs DR. PARNASSUS'S cloak and begins to pull him across the sand in the direction of the bungalow. We can now see the sign reads `Easy'... DR. PARNASSUS (on his dignity) No! Suburban bungalows and all that they evoke are anathema to me. Dammit Percy! Stop! I've got my pride! PERCY Yeah, it goes just before the fall. PERCY grabs DR. PARNASSUS'S cloak and begins to pull him across the sand in the direction indicated by the sign which we can now see reads 'Easy'.. PERCY (CONT'D) Come on... I know it's against the grain...72 EXT SUBURBAN BUNGALOW 72 PERCY pulls the reluctant DR. PARNASSUS up the drive of a suburban bungalow, past a perfect lawn and double garage, to the front door. PERCY rings the bell. DR. PARNASSUS tries to make a run for it but PERCY holds him fast. The door is opened by VALENTINA. She's older and is carrying a BABY in her arms. Both DR. PARNASSUS and VALENTINA are astonished. Neither knows what to say. (CONTINUED) 119.72 CONTINUED: 72 DR. PARNASSUS Valentina...? VALENTINA Father...? (recovering) Where have you been?... All these years... I thought you were dead. DR. PARNASSUS So did I. But you... I... VALENTINA Come in. VALENTINA steps back and ushers her father in. PERCY (aside) So far, so good. PERCY is about to follow, but VALENTINA, focussing on her father, closes the door in his face.73 INT SUBURBAN BUNGALOW 73 VALENTINA shows DR. PARNASSUS into the sitting-room. He sits on the sofa. KID'S VOICE (V.O.) Mummy? Can I have some ice-cream? A SMALL BOY enters from the kitchen. KID Mummy? VALENTINA Billy, this is your grandad. Say hello to your grandad. (to Parnassus) I think he looks a little like you. BILLY takes one look at DR. PARNASSUS and runs back into the kitchen. VALENTINA laughs. VALENTINA (CONT'D) He's only five. And he's very shy. Would you like some tea? (CONTINUED) 120.73 CONTINUED: 73 DR. PARNASSUS nods. VALENTINA (CONT'D) Okay, you look after Imogen. She gives him the baby. VALENTINA (CONT'D) She's eight months, and, so far, fortunately, doesn't look in the least like you. DR. PARNASSUS is moved. VALENTINA (CONT'D) This is all I ever wanted... I know it's not what you wanted for me, but...well... there you go... I'm happy. ANTON enters. ANTON Hello Doctor. He puts his arm around VALENTINA. VALENTINA We're both happy. DR. PARNASSUS doesn't know what to say. He sits there, a ragged old man with a baby on his knee, tears streaming down his face.74 EXT RAILWAY STATION CENTRAL LONDON 74 Little cut-out cardboard figures are 'performing' in a toy theatre. VOICE OF TOY CHARACTER (V.O.) It's your choice. You can stay here and look after mum and dad, or come with me and help fight the giant. SECOND TOY CHARACTER (V.O.) I'll have to think about it. THE CAMERA pulls back to show PERCY manipulating the puppets and giving them voices. He and DR. PARNASSUS are running a stall selling toy theatres. Business is good. (CONTINUED) 121.74 CONTINUED: 74 The audience is made up of mainly KIDS, with some ADULTS. COMMUTERS come and go. A COUPLE OF PARENTS purchase a theatre for their son. DR. PARNASSUS takes the money and expertly wraps the theatre. DR. PARNASSUS Beautifully made. It'll last for years if properly looked after. NINE YEAR OLD SON Does it come with a happy ending? DR. PARNASSUS I'm afraid we can't guarantee that. THE CAMERA angles across the table... In a shadowy corner stands MR NICK, smoking a cigarette. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_In the Bedroom.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_In the Bedroom.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..4e8bbff9742ace9271bf81fdb38d03c7bf72be59 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_In the Bedroom.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + IN THE BEDROOM Written by Rob Festinger & Todd Field FADE IN: THE SOUND OF WIND AND NOTHING ELSE EXT. GI'S POINT We are in the midst of a field of tall grass wild flowers. A long rutted road stretches into the distance. Faintly at first and then closer - we hear a woman squealing with laughter. We see her legs cut through the grass and fly up a hill. Close on her heels is a young man, a good ten years younger, in hot pursuit. Over the field - across the tops of blades, sits an ancient apple tree. We rise out of the grass and see the two young people under the tree. They are entwined - in a deep embrace. CLOSER NOW We see them in glimpses: Their eyes - Lips - Hands Finally they part - the woman rests her head on his chest. She reaches out and strokes his hand. He stares at their fingers mingling together. The woman sighs. WOMAN I Love it here. I know you do... WOMAN I can feel my life - ya know. He stares up into the boughs above him and sHd.les. A legend appears: Il -_ 1 THE SOUND OF BALLGAmE OVER: T. RURAL ROUTE 90 - PREDAWN A BLUE 1973 CHEW PICK-UP winds around a corner and disappears down a long stretch of road. "And that's it from Fenway the final score Oakland 3 t1 Redsox 7. You have been listening to the re-broadcast of last night's game. This broadcast is the sole property of -- -)r League Baseball and cannot be-" - EXT. EMERSON ROAD - S The truck pulls onto a small road flanked by rows of 100 year old clapboard two-story affairs. 2 EXT. NATALIE'S HOUSE - S Standing. on the lawn in front of one of them is the woman from the opening scene, NATALIE STRUT, prett - eautifl actually with a little more sleep. She stands wit two small boys who are doing their best to stay warm in the morning air. Her son JASON 8 , and his brother DUNCAN 4, who has his face buried in his mother's coat--refusing to see or be seen. The truck comes to a stop and two men get out. One is young, early 20's, and even at this hour his step is lively, his face full of warmth. He walks over to Natalie and gives her a kiss. The young man from the opening scene, rRANK FOWLER. The other man leans back against the passenger door. He is in his early 50's. Kind face, good looking, athletic in his day - Frank's father, MATT. He smiles at Natalie. Natalie smiles back. NATALIE Morn'in Dr. Fowler. MATT Morn'in Natalie. How you doing boys? JASON Great! Jason starts for the truck. Matt opens the door and the boy climbs inside the cab. Frank kneels down to Duncan. F Hey buddy ... you upset that you're not coming? Frank reaches out and puts his hand on the boys shoulder. Duncan pulls away. Frank looks up to Natalie for help. F He can come if he wants ...we can manage, really. She smiles and shakes her head. NATALIE ahead. He wants to stay here. F Don't worry Dunk. You can come next time. ,Qy Natalie kisses him and they're off. INTO TRUCK - SAME - MOVING Jason in the middle. He glances over to Frank - a trace of hero :worship in his face. I NT. STROUT & SONS CANNERY - DAWN Sardines are processed at lightening speed. We follow them on their journey, which ends with the sealed cans being packed into cardboard shipping boxes. They are taped shut by a young man we will meet later (TIM, 3 ) . The tops read STROUT & SONS. I NT. ATKINS LOBSTER CO-OP - DAWN A double-55-gallon-drum wood stove is humping. Several men turn their bodies rotisserie-fashion around the thing, while making morning small talk - The starting price of lobsters, the prospect of repairs to their equipment, and so on. A SCARRED HAND scribbles some figures on a wall that has been used as a scratch pad for years. Two scales are emptied of RED FISH into a PLASTIC PICKLE BUCKET. EXT. HARBOR - SAME A pair of CANVAS TENNIS SHOES shuffle down a gangway. The bucket sways directly over them. A small hand struggles with the weight of the thing. A pair of BEACON FALLS waders appear - the shoes stop. A strong hand grabs hold of the handle - the shoes pick up the pace. EXT. HARBOR - S Matt & Frank prepare the rig. Jason stands on the dock, taking it all in. A field of LOBSTER POTS stacked like cordwood and surrounded by a collection of SCARRED BUOYS, GRAPNEL and coiled FISHING GEAR stiff with sea salt - all so wildly unreasonable as to seem exotic. Jason's eyes find the hull of "GIGI" an old Boudreau built lobsterboat. Starboard side covered in barnacles. F C'mon up Jace. MATT Hold on a second. Need to know if he's ready first - Jason, can you tell me what's important? Jason hesitates. F on tell h∞ JASON (NERVOUS) "A shaft of sunlight at the end of a dark afternoon, a note in music-- L He takes a breath. JASON and the way the back of a baby's neck smells if its mother keeps it tidy." MATT (TO FRANK) You taught h' well. Jason beams. MATT - come aboard sailor. Matt reaches down to give a hand up. Frank turns the engine over. It roars to life. EXT. HARBOR LATER The sun is fast climbing into the morning sky as "GIGI" glides out of the channel and past a LIGHTHOUSE that sits Just off the point of a good sized ISLAND. Jason shields his eyes with his hand. He gazes out at the island. Matt comes up beside him and sticks a baseball cap onto his head. The crown reads U.S.S. CONSTELLATION. JASON Thank you. MATT Ever been over there? JASON No sir. MATT It's beautiful. Isn't an island anymore though. It's a city. They have electric lights. Artesian wells, even a jail lighthouse isn't manned anymore - it's run by a computer When I lived there, had no ferry then` so we didn't even have cars, can you believe that? JASON How'd you get back? MATT Off the island? Jason nods. We rowed. Matt smiles at the memory. 5 MATT Then we got a little outboard. That was great. A seven and a half horsepower it was - we lived there until I was about your age - then we left and became "harbor people". Jason seems to be digesting this. JASON I a "harbor person"? Matt hides a smile about to form. MATT Yep, Jason - we all are. Jason is full of questions. Matt knows the answers and doesn't talk down to him. Something the boy is grateful for. F At the helm. His eye s inted from glare and cold. He cuts back on the throttle s and heads for the winch. GLOVED HANDS pull up a BLUE-GREEN BUOY and slide the MANILA LINE into the WINCH. A POT surfaces and Frank sets it "Doors up" on the edge. He opens the doors. His hands work quickly and efficiently. He tosses a SMALL CRAB back into the water, pulls out a LOBSTER and measures the back. Too small. Then a nice sized LOBSTER is pulled out - it's missing the SCISSOR CLAW. He hands it to Matt. Baits the trap. Throws the winch and the next pot surfaces. Matt sits inside, Jason on his lap. He reaches into a WOODEN BOX of RUBBER BANDS with a BANDING WRENCH and bands the crustacean's remaining CRUNCHER CLAW. Jason stares at the disfigured creature. MATT Oh boy you see what happened to this poor fel ow? JASON .what? MATT Well, the trap has nylon nets called heads--2 side heads at b ends, so the lobster can crawl in. The "Bedroom" head inside, holds the bait and keeps it from escaping--you know the old saying "two's company three-s a crowd"? Jason nods. MATT Well{ it's like that. You get more than two in a bedroom and chances are something like this is going to happen. That's why Frank can't leave these traps for more than a day. Matt holds up another Lobster and turns it belly-up. There are black balls on both sides of the tail. MATT Now the older females like this of gal, are the most dan erous - especially when they're growin' eyries. JASON Berries? MATT Eggs... .one of these can take out two males easy - Then you wind up with lobster you can't sell - and as for this fine lady, she gets off easy, the state says you have to let her go. Matt throws her back in the water. Holds up the other one to Jason. TT Can you handle this? Jason nods. MATT (GENTLY) You sure? He really isn't. Matt hands it to him. MATT Go ahead now, put it in the tank. Jason can't get the thing in the tank fast enough. EXT. FOWLER HOUSE - DAY Looking around, you see a big yard, double lot. The grass is manicured to per ection, someone takes a lot of pride in their garden. In the middle of this sits a two story cape, post Hopper/Wyeth, early 20th Century - simple, beautiful, d you on't freeze in the winter. The truck backs up into the driveway, Frank j s out, drops the gate. Resting on the bed is a LARGE BOX wit a line drawing of a SWING-SET. Q FRANK O.S. Hey, dad can you give me a hand? The transistorized sounds of a baseball qame. EXT. FOWLER BACKYARD LATER Frank pushes Duncan, who sits proudly on his new swing-set. D C Higher! HIGHER! SMALL CHILDREN are everywhere. A serious Super Soaker Squirt Gun fight in progress. ACROSS THE YARD a steaming hot grill, with a huge assortment of hot-dogs & burgers. A spatula flips a patty. The sounds of Fenwav park emanate from a chea Dort able radio. WILLIS GRINNEL, early 50's, a stout, silver-haired man, works the grill. Standing next to him is Matt, his best friend for forty plus years. Matt takes a pull off a can of Moxie. Sets it down and searches through a plastic bread bag. Willis looks past him, distracted. MATT h, Ruth hates this kind. What? MATT I bought the wrong buns. WILLIS Maybe we can borrow hers. Matt follows Willis's gaze, to the object of his distraction: A PRETTY WOMAN IN TIGHT DENIM SHORTS. She-s bent over to wipe the ketchup-stained face of Jason (he's wearing Matt's cap). WILLIS Ah, what I would give to have back my youth. MATT Willis, you never had that in your youth. The woman turns around and catches Willis staring. It's Natalia. Willis looks down, nonchalantly rifling through the bun bag. Matt waves to a passing man in khaki shorts, FATHER OBERTI, 50-S- MATT Father! You made it! FATHER OBERTI Hey, if I don't see you fellas here, I don't get to see you at all. ON F He backwards-hugs Natalie. F You want a beer? NATALIE I think I'll see if your Mom needs any help. FRANK Good luck. She laughs-He grabs and tickles her but she breaks away and escapes inside the house. Matt watches on, and falls into a wistful daydream. WILLIS Jealous? Matt turns to him and, to Willis's surprise, ever so slightly, nods. I NT. FOWLER HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - S Natalie walks in through the living room, pausing to examine a half finished ARCHITECTURAL MODEL that sits on a card-table next to a jigsaw puzzle. She looks toward the kitchen where a woman works at the sink. She takes a breath and starts there. I NT. FOWLER GARAGE - DAY OF THE GE Frank reaches into an old Westinghouse refrigerator. He pulls out a case of Schaeffer's and a six-pack of Moxie. He loads it all into a metal tub filled with ice. VOICE O.S. YO0 Frank, hunched over as he works, loo. ip at FRONT OF THE GARAGE TIM BRYSON, 22, still in his work clothes: He wears a White soiled smock. A∞ patch on his Right pocket says STROUT & SONS. Over the left sply TIM. A hair-net nests on his head. F Thanks for coming by. Wooo, is that new cologne? You really oughta take a shower when you leave that place. TIM Very funny. F Take off that head dress, chief, and give me a hand? Tim reaches up and pulls the hair-net off his head. EXT - FOWLER HOUSE - DAY SIDE OF THE HOUSE Tim and Frank lug the heavy cooler around the house, heading toward the backyard. TIM So, Mr. Strout mentioned you again. FRANK I bet he did. TIM Seriously, man. He still talks about you coming back. Says you're the best can packer he ever had. Be nods. F He always was a nice guy. TIM (EXHAUSTED) Are we there yet? Tim and Frank emerge from the side of the house. Willis cuts them off, grabs two beers. WILLIS Excuse me boys - an offering. Catch Father. He throws one to Father Oberti who sits talking with Willis's wife KATIE GRINNEL 50's, she is tal ing the priest's ear off. KATIE Becky went to the hairdressing academy after high school, but aft she got married and had the boys, she decided she wanted to stay home - she still loves doing hair though. Where do you go Father? FATHER OBERTI I just go to Super Cuts. 10 KATIE You can't request the same girl at Super Cuts - you have to take what you can get. They don't know your hair - how can you get a good cut i they don't know the air? Father Oberti has the patience of...well,of a priest. I NT. FOWLER HOUSE - DAY RUTH FOWLER 50, attractive, is washing and arranging vegetables on a plate. Natalie chops carrots on a cutting board. They barely make eye-contact. Natalie attempts small talk. RUTH Can you hand me that bowl dear? She does. RUTH Thank you. NATALIE I'm looking forward to the concert on Labor day. The music is so...unusual haunting really.. Ruth keeps chopping. Natalie chooses her words carefully. NATALIE How did you learn about that particular style? RUTH At Faro y thesis was on Eastern European .folk music. Natalie's lips tighten uncomfortably. The topic seems to int∞ date. NATALIE (LIGHTLY) I thought o becoming a teacher. RUTH Why didn't you? The answer to Ruth's question (Duncan) wanders in. His cheeks as big as Dizzy Gillespie's. NATALIE What are you eating? Duncan's mouth is so full he can hardly speak. DUN .nothing. The two regard each other NATALIE How is it? D C (SMILING) Good. He tugs on her shirt. D C Swing me, Swing me. NATALIE Okay, okay Dunk... She gets dragged out of the kitchen. The screen door slams. Ruth finishes arranging the plate. Matt enters, and starts opening up the cupboards loo king for something. He squats down, burrowing into a cabinet. MATT It was nice of you to invite the boys. RUTH She hasn't brought them before because she's embarrassed. She shouldn't be embarrassed. Matt looks up from the floor. MATT (TO RUTH) Nice view from down here. She ignores him, but smiles. EXT. FOWLER BACKYARD - DAY is hunched over, with his arms gentl wrapped around Jason, coaching him on the finer points of Kitting. While Tim pitches. F There you go 0 . good, hands up, higher. That's it. Be - your knees THE SWING-SET Duncan is being pushed by Natalie, Ruth, watches from the kitchen window. I NT. FOWLER HOUSE - DAY MATCH CUT: Ruth, staring out the window. 12 RUTH I don't know why you had to put that monstrosity up. You're just going to have to take it apart when they leave. Matt rises, a bottle of lighter fluid in hand. MATT C'mon, Ruth, he's a kid. What did you expect? "Happy Birthday, here's a box. why don't you drag it around for a while?" He s a kid. He wants it now. Something across the yard catches her attention. RUTH Oh, no. EXT. FOWLER HOUSE - DAY Matt exits the house. ACROSS THE YARD Duncan jumps off his swing and sprints. TO RICHARD who has just arrived. He stays at the far end of the yard. Duncan does a running jump into his father's arms. D C Daddy! Frank with Jason, looks up. Jason sees his father. He doesn't move. Natalie walks over to Frank, they exchange glances. NATALIE C'mon Jason. JASON No. NATALIE Now. Shedgrabs his hand. Straining to appear casual, traverses the YARD C DUN Richard play-boxes Duncan. Duncan looks up at his mother. D C Daddv's takino us to the arcade. 13 Richard, eating Duncan's hot dog, rises to meet Natalie and Jason. RIC Hey there buddy --.Come on over here Jace- Jason looks away. DUN (TO JASON) I told you held come uttface- Jason reaches over and whacks Duncan on the head. RIC (ANGRY) Hey Jason - Don't do that to your brother. You want me to do that to you? He probably has. Jason backs away. Frank makes his way over to Natalie. AT THE GRILL Matt watches on- absently flipping burgers. Ruth comes over to h∞ RUTH MATT MATT IT'S OK- Ruth shakes her head. Richard, Frank and Natalie are talking, but there are long pauses between words. Tim wanders over and says something to Richard Finally, Richard smiles, turns, and exits. Alone. Jason playfully chases Duncan across the yard. Frank and Natalie stay behind, talking quietly. Matt takes a breath, and exhales. He turns to Ruth with a comforting smile, but she's just entering the house. The screen door closes behind her. - FOWLER HOUSE - KITCHEN - S Ruth is at the counter pouring dressing onto a salad. Frank comes up behind her and hugs her. F Thanks for doing this mom. 1 RUTH Are you alright? F Sure. Natalie and I want to take you and dad out tonight. RUTH Oh that's very sweet dear, but we already have plans. F You going over to the Grinnel's? Ruth shakes her head. RUTH (SMILES) Your father's taking me to the Strand. FRANK Oh, what are you seeing? RUTH The first film we ever saw together. THE SOUND OF PISTOL FIRE. INT. STRAND THEATER - NIGHT Matt & Ruth sit watching BARRY L DON. The duel between Barry Lord Bullingdon is on screen. Bullingdon's pistol misfires. LORD BULLINGDON Sir Richard this pistol must be faulty - I must have another. AIDE TO RIC I'm sorry Lord Bullingdon but you must first stand your ground and allow Mr. Lyndon his turn to fire. SIR RIC That is correct Lord Bullingdon - your pistol has fired and that counts as your shot--Mr. Lyndon are the rules of firing clear to you? YES - SIR RICHARD Lord Bullingdon are you rsdy to receive Mr- Lyndon's fire? LORD BULLINGDON -.o yes - 15 SIR RIC very well then - Mr. Lyndon cock your pistol and prepare to fire. Bullingdon is overwrought. He looks like he may vomit. Ruth leans over to Matt. RUTH Let's go. Ruth gets out of her seat. Matt looking confused follows. EXT. STRAND THEATRE - S Ruth heads out the doors with Matt on her heels. MATT What's wrong? RUTH I don't remember it being so tragic. MATT O h h always felt sorry for Barry. RUTH Please. MATT No, I mean it - maybe I relate to him. RUTH What are you talking about? MATT Well, we both married above our station. RUTH Don't start that again. A moment. He takes her in his arms and kisses her. Looks into her eyes. MATT Happy anniversary. RUTH (SMILES) Happy anniversary. He buries his face in her hair. 9 G MATT ` RUTH I love you. I know - 16 I NT. FOWLER HOUSE BEDROOM - NIGHT Ruth sits at her bureau facing the mirror. She be ins a nightly ritual of removing the pins from her hair once ma e from the shells of tortoises and now the plastics of Dupont. Matt lies in bed reading. He lowers his book and watches her brush her tresses with on y, delicious strokes. She sets down her bsh and turns. Matt ooks back to his book. She climbs into bed next to him. RUTH She's not divorced yet. MATT It's the same thing. Maine has crazy laws, that's all...he likes the boys. RUTH You don't think he's thinking about- TT No...he's not going to marry her. RUTH Then what's he doing with her? MATT She probably loves him, Ruth. Girls always have. Why can't we just leave it at that? RUTH Hmmmm. He won't listen to me. I asked him three times to dismantle that swing-set. MATT Oh, let it stay up. Looks like a young couple lives here. RUTH He needs his head in school. Not in her. MATT So to speak. Ruth pinches his shoulder. RUTH it would help if you were my side. MATT (PLAYFULLY) I'll get on your side. She laughs and pushes him away. 17 INTO UNION CLINIC - WAITING ROOM - DAY A small waiting room with an alcove reception. ROCKWELL PRINTS adorn the walls, a long table covered with dog-eared periodicals, rests in front of a couch that has seen better days. ADAMSON 80's, glances over at her husband, ELWYN 80's,who vacantly thumbs through a HIGHLIGHTS MAGAZINE. He pauses to catch-up on the latest exploits of GOOFUS & GALLANT. The nurse, JANELLE 40's, calls out from the alcove. JANELLE O.S. Mr. and Mrs. Adamson? INT. UNION CLINIC - EXAMINATION ROOM Elwyn sits bare chested on a table. Matt finishes bandaging his elbow - then listens to his chest with a stethoscope. He is careful and thoughtful. Alma looks to him. Worried. MATT You can put your shirt back on now. Alma stands and helps her husband dress. Yesterday he was up and around all afternoon, but toda - he tumbled. He's fallen down twice. have all I can do to get him up. He's weak and the longer you lay in bed - the weaker you get. MATT Elwyn, you need to do those exercises, you promised me, twice a day. I know you miss the work - important. but it's ALMA TO MATT) Man idn't have ache nor pain--he's just gave up-said when he couldn't work no more, he didn't want to live. For a while he'd sit and just mend on nets - but he can't do that anymore. ELWYN (speaks with difficulty) How's your dad Matt? I'm sorry Dr. now Elwyn you remember Jesse Fowler passed on somi&ime back, we were at the funeral. Remember? Elwyn nods. 18 Matt knows. He's heard this before. Sometimes he feels more like a mechanic than a doctor, working on old cars with parts that have long been discontinued. He nods sympathetically. INT. MATT'S OFFICE HALLWAY LATER Matt pulls on his jacket. He passes Janelle in the hallway as he heads for the back door. MATT I'll be back in an hour. Forgot my lunch. JANELLE Starting to become a habit. I can get you something from Willis's. He's already out the door. EXT. HARBOR - SAME Matt trots down the gangway and up to where the "GIGI" is moored. He looks in. No sign of Frank. A VOICE BOOMS from a new 35ft. JONESPORTER - it belongs to HENRY OZAR 50's. HENRY Just missed him Matt, he went home for lunch today. MATT Right ...I forgot he's got that interview. I NT. FOWLER HOUSE - DAY Matt enters. Looks around. Calls up the stairs. MATT Frank? Frank? Hello? FRANK O.S. Dad. Matt turns around, and sees Frank, MATT Frank? .. What are you doin ? Thought you were driving to Boston for t at interview? rank slowly nos. His clothes are rumpled. FRANK V Q∞ yeah - he we rescheduled. MATT (KNOWING) uh huh. 19 NATALIE - walks out, from a room in the hall. She combs her hair through with her fingers, but her skirt, on backwards, is somewhat of a giveaway. Frank rolls his eyes. NATALIE Hello, Dr. Fowler. MATT Hi, where are the boys? NATALIE (SHEEPISHLY) .with my mom. Then. MATT (TO NATALIE)) oh-Like coleslaw? THE KITCHEN TABLE Matt sits across from Natalie and Frank. Sandwiches, iced tea and coleslaw are laid out. Frank looks to Matt for some kind of acknowledgement of his lunch-t∞e activities. Matt seems more interested in the slaw. EXT. ELK'S FIELD - DAY BLEACHERS Frank is sandwiched between Matt and Ruth. They are surrounded by dozens of young parents. Ruth doesn't look too tilled to be here. FRANK Wave you guys. Matt and Ruth follows Frank's gaze, to: DOWN BELOW Natalie has her hands full adjusting Jason's uniform while Duncan clings to her. She is waving up to the Fowlers amidst the chaos. THE BLEACHERS. The Fowlers wave back. %Q, Matt 's suddenly inspired. He leans in past Ruth, to Frank. MATT Did you tell your Mom how good it was? 20 RUTH How good what was? MATT Frank had quite a time this afternoon Loved your coleslaw. Ate enough for two. RUTH That's what it's there for... Frank leans back behind Ruth to give his father the evil eye. He gets a grin from Matt for his trouble. Ruth almost catches it. Matt rises, shuffles past Ruth and Frank, whom he gives a firm pat on the knee. Hot dogs? FRANK I'll take one. Ruth puts her arm around Frank. RUTH (re: Duncan and Jason) So, how are the kids? Frank's caught off- guard. He shakes his head. RUTH . things okay? F Fine. RUTH Good, good. Then. RUTH How'd your interview go? F (TOO FAST) Great. RUTH Oh, good. Ruth watches Natalie below. RUTH She's such a brave girl. 2 F That's it. You' re driving e nuts, Ma. Really. I've had lots of girlfriends. F I don't understand why this one is any different. RUTH I know you don't. FRANK Were not serious, Mom. RUTH No? F No. It's a summer thing. She would like to believe him. RUTH I see. INT. NATALIE'S CAR - DAY Natalie drives down Emerson Road. As she approaches her house, she sees a Brown Suburban sitting in her driveway. She looks confused. INT. NAT IE'S HOUSE - DAY THE KITCHEN Natalie enters with groceries. Richard is seated at the kitchen table. He's finishing the first half of a sandwich. He drains a glass of milk. Natalie sets her purse down on the counter, and starts cleaning up his mess. NATALIE How'd you g et in this time? RIC (PLAYING ALONG) chimney. She takes the carton of milk that Richard, no doubt, left out. She pours the final drops into his glass RIC Thank you. She throws the carton out. She takes a seat, and stares at him like a teacher counselling a troubled youth. 22 NATALIE What can I help you with? He kicks back the last of the milk, wipes his mouth. RIC I was just dropping that off for Jason. NATALIE What? RIC That. He points to a BASEBALL TROPHY sitting on top of the microwave. inscription bears his name and "Rockland High School 1982 Regional Championship." RIC I didn't know where you'd want to put it. It was about time he got it. What am I going to do with it? Richard's wistful gaze stays locked on the trophy. For a moment, Natalie's and slips away. NATALIE I think it will mean a lot to him, Richard. He's really been improving lately ... RIC (a sharp turn) So I've heard. NATALIE It would have been nice if you'd come to his game. RIC I just got your message. Where are t with him? NATALIE That's none of your business. RIC I see. They're my kids but they're none of my business. NATALIE You know what I mean. E-?? Richard presses his fingers to his eyes. He takes a long, heavy breath. RIC I - - I was thinking about moving back. Here. With you and the boys. 23 NATALIE What are you talking about? RIC What I talking about? I'm talking about moving back, that's what I'm talking about - I know what you're thinking, but it's different now. NATALIE Oh reall ? How's the job? Your father t ake you back on at the cannery? RIC (DRILY) That's funny. You're still getting checks aren't you? She ignores him RICHARD Ya see my new rig out there? Natalie looks annoyed. NATALIE Yeah - it's real nice. RIC It's not exactly new, I traded David the truck for it. It's got room for all of us - a good grocery gettin car. A moment. RIC You wantta take a ride? NATALIE (LAUGHING) Jesus - you don't change, do you?. RIC Change? No, I don't change. Everything around me changes. You change. You take my house, you take my kids, you fuck this other y- No, I don't change at all. NATALIE It's not your house. RIC Oh- No? NAT I oï? No- And as far as fucking oes - .who was it that answered your phone t %e other morning? RIC She... 2- NAT IE I don't care. Really, you can just stop now. It's not working. He takes a breath. RIC I just want.. -a chance. NATALIE For what? To fool them for a few days into thinking they have a real father, and then it's back to RIC (cutting her off) I their father. NATALIE (VEHEMENT) No, Richard. You know what defines a father? It's what he does, not what he promises. It's being a positive, consistent presence. Richard eyes her suspiciously. 13 RIC (mimicking ∞ her ) "Positive consistent presence." Wow. What does that mean? I just don't get it. But I'm not fucking a college boy, am I? NATALIE Look ...can you just go now? I really don't want you here when they get back. RIC Oh, no, wouldn't want that. He doesn't budge. NATALIE You have to leave. Finally, as if struck b some small discove . Richard places his large hands on the kitchen table and pus es himself up. He heads past Natalie without looking back. He closes the door firmly be ind him. 'I. NAT IE' S HOUSE - FRONT YARD -,RUSK Frank's truck parked out front The lawn is littered with the boy's various plastic weapons a small wading pool. 25 A children's television show is heard from inside. Natalie is sprawled out on a chaise lounge, nursing a beer, and sharing a cigarette with Frank, who is on his hands & knees finishing an elaborte structure with a set of FROEBEL wooden blocks. NATALIE You know I've been ignoring our difference in age, but if you keep playing with those blocks, I'm gonna start to worry. F They're not blocks - they're gifts. NATALIE I'm sorry I know they're a gift and a very generous one. I'm gust concerned that Dunk. might think e's a little old to be playing with them. FRANK They're not for playing - they're to learn about unity & balance. Froebel called them "Gifts." This is the second gift - a sphere, a cube, and a cylinder. A five year old can learn the difference in form depending on how they look at them. Why didn't he say so in the first place? NATALIE Oh ou said second gift. How many are are there? FRANK Twenty. A moment. NATALIE You've been pla in with these - excuse me, working wit t ese for how long? F Since I was about Dunk's age. My mom took me tough all twenty. So that's what a good mother does. NATALIE .oh. FRANK ??0 Come on down here and take a look. She sets down her beer and Joins him. The small wooden structure looks like a home that could have been built by Lautner or Wright Frank looks pleased. Natalie is distracted. 26 NATALIE Your Mother gave you these Frank - I feel funny Duncan having them. F Don't be silly, it was her idea. NATALIE (SCEPTICAL) Really? F You're not looking at the house - look. It's not all mine, it's part Mack. Frank speaks excitedly, as he makes a quick sketch on a colored piece of construction paper using one of the boys' markers. F See the whole ideal of what Mack was trying to achieve was a common area in the middle of the house. I mean - a large, common space wasn't uni e to Mack, but the idea of separating the family so that the kids were on one side and the parents on the other, so they would all spill into the center ... He looks over to Natalie, checking in. She smiles, and shifts her gaze. F I'm boring you, aren't I? NATALIE (SOFTLY) No, not at all, I was just... . just thinking. F About what? NATALIE About you. . ,school, F I'd rather talk about our house. NATALIE I know you would. F What if I wait a year? NATALIE R F A year's not going to make a difference. 27 NATALIE You can't do that, Frank. F I've thought a lot about this. NATALIE But you told me it takes forever just to establish yourself. F Exactl , so what's a year in forever? Know w at Duncan said today? She can't suppress a smile. NATALIE You wouldn't be changing the subject would you? FRANK Yes. NATALIE What now? F He said, "Frank, I don't think Jason really understands girls." NATALIE (LAUGHING) He didn't! F He did ... "understands girls!" NATALIE What did you say? F I said, "give him time, Duncan." They both break up. F I didn't know what to say! if this is how he is now - boy are we in trouble- He stops short. The word - We - hangs in the air. They watch each other, unsure of how to react. Changing the subject quickly. Frank reaches down to the grass and comes up with one of Duncan's toys. A real musclebound superhero. Somewhat grotesque. F (reading the tag) ACTION MAN? NATALIE Richard gave it to Dunk for his birthday. 28 Frank sets it down. The HEADLIGHTS OF APPROACHING CAR rake across ACTION I NT. ROCKLAND HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC ROOM - NIGHT Half a dozen girls age 15 to 18, are gathered in Ruth's classroom. Desks and chairs are stacked up for summer recess. The girls are in shorts and T-shirts, one with a picture of the solar system, and another with the Pink Panther. Bri ht bathing-suit straps are visible around some of their nec s: This afternoon they were sw' ∞ng. A few look sleepy enough to be in bed already. Ruth stands with her arms up- keeping time and controlling the dynamics. A single girl sings "The Drone"` a low monotone one hears underneath the other voices. They sing the Balkan folk song "Oj Savice." CHORUS (SUBTITLED) Oh, Sava, carry me across our quiet cool water. There is my dear village and in that village, the prettiest girl. Without embarrassment, they shriek they drone, and at their ease they whistle. The music transports these girls - who are normally pre-occupied with images of MTV and Brad Pitt, to a place of pure self. The song ends. RUTH That was really good! OK it's 7:30 we should stop. The girls gather up their things quickly. RUTH Remember when you sing these words- The way we feel about the harbor, is how the Balkans felt about the river Sava. The girls start out of the room. RUTH Listen to your tapes "Moilih Tan is still very rough and we've of a 40 minute program to get ready by Labor Day. I NT. FOWLER HOUSE - NIGHT - LIVINGROOM Ruth enters. She's beat. She starts to put her purse down, when SHE NOTICES: Matt, kneeling in front of the reclining chair. It's back is to her. MATT Just hold still ... 29 Ruth drops her purse and quickly comes around the recliner. Something stops her. RUTH Oh my God. Matt holds Frank's jaw. He gently turns his face toward the lamp. Frank has stitches over his right eye. The blood under the white of the pupil oozing. Both lips are bright and swollen. F DAD MATT Come on, Frank. Hold still. Ruth hovers, in shock. RUTH This was her husband, wasn't it? Frank nods wearily. F Ex, he dropped in. He takes the compress from Matt and gingerly applies it to his forehead. MATT Press charges. F No. RUTH What's to stop him from doing it again? MATT Did you hit him at all? Tell me you hit him! Enough so he won't want to next time? F I don't think I touched him. Matt pulls up the skin around the bloody eye. F ! Jesus, Dad! Ruth stares at the Hospital band around Frank's wrist. 8 -`V MATT So what are you going to do? F (SMILING) Take Karate. 30 RUTH That's not the problem. F You know you like her. RUTH I like a lot of people. What about the boys? Did they see it? F They were asleep. RUTH Did you leave her alone with him? FRANK He left first. She was yelling at ham. I believe she had a skillet in her hand. RUTH Oh for God's sake. (TO MATT) Did you call the police? Not yet. RUTH You didn't call them? MATT When was I going to call the police, Ruth? He just got in. Ruth scans the room. RUTH Where's the phone? F MOM! hold on a second, Calm down. Let's just talk about this. Ruth wavers. Now the cops'll go to her place first -- and it'll scare the hell out of the kids. RUTH Matt. I MATT %Q, We have to call them Frank. F It wasn't that serious. 31 RUTH Of course. Just like the relationship isn't serious. HATT Ruth, this is not the time. RUTH Well, when is the time? After he knocks him into a coma? This is stopping. Now. F Oh really? RUTH Come Fall, you're on a plane. Are you taking them with you? How- do you think the boys will feel when you disappear? F HEY A RUTH This isn't just some sweetie from Vassar, that you'll see on holidays, Frank. You're not in this alone. Frank rises and leaves the room. RUTH Please listen. The sooner you end this thing the better. Ruth exhales. She returns to Matt, who is leaning against the recliner, chin in hand, deep in thought. RUTH What are we going to do? Matt deliberates. MATT I don't know. RUTH .you've got to talk to him. HATT I don't ow.,,I think he's right about scaring the kids. Why don't we call it a night? We'll deal with it tomorrow. RUTH Matt are you going to call the police or do I have to? You just ..s- Bd me what I think. if you want to call them. call them. 32 Ruth looks at him, stupefied. Without warning, Ruth leaves and goes upstairs. I NT. FOWLER HOUSE - BEDROOM - NIGHT Ruth lies on her side reading. Matt comes in from the hallway. He stares at her. She ignores him. Finally, she turns over and faces him. RUTH It's not the first time she's played around. Matt seems relieved that she's talking to him. He sits on the bed and starts taking off his shoes. MATT She's not with the guy anymore. RUTH I mean from before. MATT What are you talking about? RUTH Oh, come on - you've heard the same things I have. MATT I think you forget. I don't take my lunch in the teachers lounge - RUTH Maybe he still loves her. Matt looks from Ruth, out the bedroom door, and into the hallway. He sees Frank rounding the top of the stairs. He gets up and closes the bedroom door. I NT. F R HOUSE F 'S ROOM - S Frank enters the room, pulls off his T-shirt and drops it on the floor. He walks over and faces a wall mirror. He seems nonplussed by what he sees. INTO HENRY'S FISH SHACK - DAY Henry Czar sits holding court with Jason Frank, whose facial bruises have all but healed, the stitches replaced by a butterfly bandage. They eat cod tongues and cheeks. Drink soda pop from bottles. 33 HENRY Best part of the cod - but most outsi ers, they won't touch it. The shack is too warm and smells of cordage and paint, spilled beer and male sweat. Jason is in heaven. HENRY The summer fishermen, the part-timers, like Frank here - get in your hair. HENRY There's as many as 80 of em with licenses now - should put up a sign - "Fish your own backyard or lose your traps0" Frank smiles at Jason. FRANK A lobster is simple enough Jason. But if the guy going after him is even simpler well he might as well give up. HENRY Don't hurt my feelings any. Easy to talk Try fishing in the winter, cold as hell 10, 12, 20 below - no matter Go, go, go, you've gotta go. You want your bread & flour, you gotta goo F Henry's just sore cause I catch twice as much as he does, with an old second hand Boudreau. HENRY Don't you listen to him son - that boat is fine. She was my first. Takes a sip of pop. HENRY Kinda miss her sometimes, and that truck you're driving .when you headed back to school Frank?- For some reason this strikes both of them as funny and they crack up. Not Jason, he seems concerned by the question. Frank sees this. EXT. GANGWAY - DAY Jason heads off down the pier on his bicycle. He passes Matto JASON Hi, Dr. Fowler Matt waves. 31+ EXT. "GIGI" - S Frank is hosing down the hull, as Matt makes his way down the gangway. MATT What'd you pull? Frank glances up, then continues with his work. F Not too bad, about forty pounds. MATT Haven't caught sight of you in days. F You know where to find me. MATT When you coming home? Frank turns off the spigot. F Has it come to this? He jumps back into the boat and retrieves the bait bucket. MATT Come to what? Frank hops back onto the dock and sets down the container. F (SMILES) You having to run errands for Mom. Matt ignores the jibe. Frank starts stacking holding crates. F I'm thinking of building a couple hundred more traps - see if I can do better than break even. Matt doesn't comment. He picks up a crate and throws it up top. MATT it'll take you two years to get a licence to fish off-season. FRANK Right ...unless Henry takes me on as his ster an. % Q They continue stacking. MATT You think he'd do that? 35 F Maybe ...it's as good a life as any. Good enough for your father - sometimes things skip a generation. MATT (trying to sta calm) C'mon Frank - you ow ycu need something more. F Why? So I can have an Ivy Lea e education like you? Christ, i it's so great - how come you sneak out of that office everyday to come down here? MATT I like spending time with my son. FRANK (DUBIOUS) UH HUHA A MOMENTA Frank lugs up the last container and takes a seat on the stack. He's worn out - takes a breather. Frank shakes his head. FRANK (PAINFUL) I don't know dad---I don't know. Matt takes a seat next to him. A moment. F She's a wonderful girl ...I see that. Frank looks lost. The silence is broken by a loud voice. HENRY O.S. Franks how lon you gonna be parked there I'd like to un oad. The two of them regard each other. F (TO MATT) Give me a hand? TT (SMILES) Sure. 36 I NT. FOWLER HOUSE - NIGHT - STAIRWAY Ruth comes down the stairs, wrapping her bathrobe around her, The Dining room light is on. THE DININGROOM Frank sits at the t lea His drafting tools are out. He's fully immersed in a sketch. Ruth enters quietly. RUTH Your father is snoring. Don't mind me. She takes a container from the fridgge, smells it, makes a quenstioning face, then puts it back - grabs another container and opens a cupboard. Pulls out a loaf of bread. She quietly places a sandwich in front of him, and takes a seat. RUTH Eat---you must be hungry. Frank doesn't look up. his tone is flat, removed. F I'm not hungry. RUTH Coffee? He doesn't answer. Ruth sits there, awkwardly. RUTH So---you talked with her? FRANK Yep. RUTH d-,,how is she? F (SHARPLY) Oh, she's great. I just wanted to tell you that we I - liked her, Do like her. She's a WONDERFUL GIRL Frank finally puts down his pencil,',-and looks at her, F You're not reall going to have this conversation wit me now, Ma? Are you? Frank returns to his work. He doesn't look up again. 37 She leaves the food for him. Like a zoo keeper. EXT. HARBOR - DAY Frank hauls traps. He appears lethargic, dull - the hands a little slower. The eyes tired. The joy of the work, replaced by dread. INT. HENRY'S FISH SHACK - DAY Hen sits alone at the wooden table. There are three plates of cod, and 3 soda-pops. Frank comes in exhausted. Henry looks up. HENRY You're nn'in late. Frank nods. Takes a seat, and starts in on the cod. Henry looks at the empty seat next to Frank. HENRY Where's our boy? Frank ignores the question. INT. FRANK'S TRUCK - DAY Frank drives. Traps stacked in the bed. He slows down to gaze out his window, as he passes NAT IE' S HOUSE. The truck crawls to a stop. He takes the moment, storin each detail: Folded up lounge chairs. Scattered toys on t 9e porch. A tipped-over tricyle. He idles, as if waiting for someone. After one last look he drives off. I NT. GRINNEL HOUSE - BASEMENT - E. ...g The sightsand sounds of men gathered around a poker table. A regular game. Everyone well into their umpteenth beer, with the exception of Matt, who nurses a can o Moxien, Matt frowns at his hand. He glances over to Frank r also at the table. Frank stares at his cards, but his nd is elsewhere. WILLIS You can't hypnotize the cards into changing, Matt. , late 50's, peers above his readin glasses. He is a lobster man by trade but fancies himself a poet. 38 WILLIS For Christ's sake bet - or you know Carl's gonna start. Carl is indeed. "The be gar's do and widow's cat, Feed them an thou wi t grow fat. The gnat that sings his s er's song- Collective groans. Poison gets from slander's tongue. The poison of the snake and newt- Is the sweat of envy's foot. The poison of the honey bee. Is the artist's jealousy-" MATT Alright Carl. Two bucks. Matt throws his two bucks in. MATT Carl, you've really got to get off this Blake thing ... you're in a rut. Frank tries to smile. HENRY Don't get him going Matt. CARL When I do my own stuff, you guys bitch & moan. WILLIS MATT That's not true. No! we like your stuff. The place breaks up with laughter. WI IS Everybody in? Frankie you in? Frank calls. Hands are shown. All eyes to Frank. F (FORCED ENTHUSIASM) Guess I'm the winner. More groans, as Frank pulls in his winnings. WILLIS Always the quiet ones. The game continues --. 39 I NT. FOWLER HOUSE WAY. DAY Frank walks down the hallway∞talking on a cordless phone. His tone casual but serious. He jots down notes in a sketch book. F Sure. Right . I get in on the sixth. Oh, I'll send that out tomorrow, sir, no problem... Well, compared to your models no, they don't compare to your models (LAUGHING) He enters the: BEDROOM and plops down at his drafting table. FRANK I'm getting another call. Can you hang on a second? Thanks. clicks on the other call. F Face? Jace is that you? What's going on? He listens. F I'll be right over. (FIRMLY) Just stay put. - T IE'S HOUSE - DAY The house looks like a storm hit it: chairs tipped over, toys scattered, papers strewn across the floor. G ROOM Frank looks around the room. Natalie, her hair atangled mess, her face streaked from tears, paces nervously. She looks up at Frank. looks to el-e. NATALIE He.. just pushed me - he didn't hit me. F Oh, he didn't hit you? Should we throw a party for him. NATALIE rank. 40 F Enough of this. We have to call the police. NATALIE I'm airs ht, Frank. I don't know what to do,aoka I hate this. I hate the kids seeing this. Frank eraces her. She buries her head in his neck. F Its okay, now. Listen to me, I'm not going anywhere ... INT. JASON'S BEDROOM - UPSTAIRS Jason looks down from the window. He sees Richard's Suburban pull up front. JASON O.S. Mom!!! DOWNSTAIRS A POUNDING AT THE FRONT DOOR Natalie gives a horrified look to Frank. F Get them back upstairs. NATALIE But... FRANK Now. NATALIE Come on, you guys. Natalie hustles the boys upstairs. THE POUNDING CONTINUES. Frank moves to the FRONT DOOR. He's about to check the doorknob when THE DOORKNOB JIGGLES from the other side. It's locked. F Richard, just get away fr here- Silence. Frank turns, his eyes lock on THE BACK-DOOR 1 Frank races across the living room, just as THE DOOR FLIES OPEN. RICHARD. eves burning, marches in. I NT. JASON'S BEDROOM UPSTAIRS The boys huddle around Natalie. DUNCAN is wailing- JASON looks terrified- NAT IE strains to hear- SO THING CRASHES FROM DOWNSTAIRS- WE AND FRANK YELLING. NATALIE starts to the door- NATALIE Listen kids - Stay here. D C won't let go of her sleeve. He starts to move with her. NATALIE (SCREAMING) I said stay here! He lets go and, JASON takes him up in his small arms. JASON (TO DUNCAN) It's OK Dunk .--Mommy's coming back. NATALIE hesitates - then heads out the door. We MOVE WITH HER out the bedroom to the, TOP OF THE STAIRS She slowly steps down the stairs. A GUNSHOT. SHE SC NATALIE She moves quickly down the stairs. -2 Cautiously - she looks over the landing. HER P.O.V.: From above, Richard stands, his back to her, his head hung. in his hand. a 9mm Pistol. Natalie lets out a plaintive wail. NATALIE NO... Emotionless, Richard turns to her - looks down at the floor then starts toward the kitchen. Natalie races down the steps and stops. FRANKS'S BODY ON THE FLOOR. HIS FACE'IS HALF BLOWN AWAY. She's paralyzed, a scream trapped somewhere inside. She turns away. JASON O.S. DUNCAN O.S. (SCREAMINQ) (CRVINQ) MO ! D C 'S COMING LET GO OF ! ! ! DOWNSTAIRS! Richard sits at the kitchen table. The gun rests in front of him. His right sleeve splattered with Frank's blood. BLACK FADE IN: THE SCREEN FILLS WITH OPAQUE D E. LIGHT APPEARS. INT. UNION CLINIC ROOM - DAY att's face appears distorted behind the surface. JANELLE O.S. (FRIGHTENED) Matt? He lowers what we now see to be X.Ray and kills the light. TT'S OFFICE He hesitates, presses the blinking hold button, picks up the receiver. MATT Hello? ...Hello? Natalie? 3 The blood drains from his face. WE HEAR THE DISTANT SOUNDS OF MACEDONIA. INT. R C D HIGH SCHOOL L- DUSK Matt stands in the hallway outside of the auditorium that is Ruth's classroom. A banner across the hall reads HAVE A WONDERFUL SUMMER, SEE YOU IN THE FALL. The choir finishes the last strains. Ruth is happy the rehearsal has gone well. She smiles in a way that expresses the simple joy she will never know again. RUTH Great. The girls gather their things and start out, laughing and running after each other. Matt stands in the hallway as they rush past. BLACK FADE IN: EXT. ST. FRANCIS CEMETERY - DAY Frank's casket is lowered into the ground. A large gathering of relatives and friends stand before Father Oberti as he finishes the eulogy. Matt's arm is tightly interlocked with Ruth's, beneath her eyes - swelling from three days of suffering. Their hands c enched to ether make one fist, both parents keeping the other uprig t. The rain glides down their faces, mixing easily with tears. Matt steps up to Frank's open grave. The gathering watches as Matt peers down into the hole, silently speaking to it. He reaches down, grabs a fistful of dirt. Then tosses it into the open grave. Matt pauses, staring down, into the hole --- He steps back, as Father Oberti delivers the end of his eulogy. Matt looks blankly around, noticing the family's many friends includin ; Carl and Henry from the game, Willis and Katie, and Frank's friend, T∞ Matt's eyes linger on someone behind T∞ A LONE FEMALE FIGURE IN BLACK, away from the crowd. Natalie. Their eyes meet. Matt, almost imperceptibly, nods. INT - FOWLER HOUSE - DAY A large casserole is placed on a long table with many assorted dishes. A HAND REACHES IN, scoops up some of the casserole onto a small plate, and carries it to A SMALL CLUSTER OF PEOPLE standing in the middle of a much larger gathering, the reception after the funeral. Matt stands in the downstairs hallway. He looks around the room, as if it is all a dream. Children getting soda pop. Others in conversation. The odd person looks up at him, then turns away. Willis steps up to Matt. His wife, Katie, stands nearby. Matt doesn't seem to notice Willis. Willis puts a gentle hand on his friend's arm. WILLIS (SOFTLY) Can I get you anything? Matt suddenly looks up at them, as if confused. MATT ere-s Rut h? KATIE She went to lie down, Matt. He turns d heads upstairs. Willis and Katie watch him go. UPSTAIRS Matt approaches their bedroom. The door is a BEDROOM He steps in, to Ruth, who is on the bed. Her back is to him, a arently sleeping. Crumbled tissues litter the bed, the f oor, Matt ietl moves to her. He reaches down, about to touch her head. Something stops h∞ 1-5 He turns, and leaves. UPSTAIRS Frank's room is facing him. Instinctively, he goes to open the door, then pauses. 'S ROOM Matt slowly enters. He looks around, as if freezing the room in his memory. The place is untouched. Frank's many sketches are still pinned to the wall. Some clothes lie scattered on the floor. His fishing cap. Matt starts to pick up. He takes Frank's clothes from the floor and places them on his bed. He looks at a dirty T-shirt in his hand. He brings it to his face. He inhales deeply, able to smell his son's lingering scent- Finally, he sets the shirt on the bed. Wanders around. Strays near Frank's drafting table- He reaches out, touching the table, grazing∞the topogra h of scattered pencils - drawings strewn across it- The Froe e Gifts. He takes a seat at the table. Feeling its frame, the sketches, the seat below- And without warning he is overcome. He lurches forward, burying his face in his hands. The sobs come unrestrained, violently, like a sudden tidal wave. INT. FOWLER HOUSE - DEN - NIGHT - 2 WEEKS LATER A LAUGH-TRACK fills the air. Ruth in pajamas and bathrobe, watches a stand-up comic on TV. She sips tea from a mug. Matt appears at the door, kettle in hand. MATT Some more? Ruth looks up and nods. T . FOWLER HOUSE - DAY THE FRONT LAWN Matt stands atop a ladder underneath a large Maple, he struggles with a pair of pruning shears. At war with a large br c - the branch seems to be winning. 46 INT. FOWLER HOUSE - UPSTAIRS Ruth, still dressed in her robe, pads down the hallway. Stops to glance out the window at NATT - working. EXT. FOWLER HOUSE Ruth stands transfixed. REFLECTED IN THE WINDOW PANE BELOW HER FACE: SEE QuJ glimpses through branches, of a small boy scampering up a tree. Flashes of arms, legs, a smile. We can make out the GIGGLES of the child, but they are distorted, wobbly, as if deteriorated by memory. The tree shudders as the boy climbs higher. MATT O.S. RUTH O.S. Okay - watch it now, Frank. Frank, listen to your father. That's high enough ... The tree continues shaking. Ruth allows the memory, then turns back and pads back down the hallway. INT. UNION CLINIC MATT'S OFFICE - DAY Matt sits behind his desk catching up on some paperwork. Janelle appears in the doorway. JANELLE I'm going to lunch Dr. Fowler-- .alright She continues smiling as though ting to extend her tenderness. Matt avoids eye-contact. cie Leaves. Matt looks relieved. . GRINNEL'S CR W-S NEST - DAY Willis opened this place after serving as a chief petty officer in the Vietnam War. The theme, if there is one, is definitely nautical. Snapshots of longtime customers are stapled on the walls between the booths and tables, two are framed, and prominent. They are from Willis' - -, days; The first an entry photo of A YOUNG WILLIS front of the ha f. The second a sun faded color photo of : att and Willis. Both ook to be in their twenties, both dressed in Navy Whites. The trade here is mostly ve early breakfast, and then lunch for the men who work at the leather and shoe factories. 47 A MUTED news show plays on a ceiling at the far end of the booths. A sign on the wall reads T your "Forget about lunch" breakfast. Willis carries over two plates with omelettes, parks them on the table, and takes a seat across from Matt. WILLIS Don't worry, I didn't make em. Matt takes a bite. He winces. WILLIS What? Oh, that's mine. He switches plates. WILLIS Sorry. Matt takes another bite. Better, WILLIS You got back to work so quick, Matt. It's not too soon? MATT I can't stay home. So, how's business? WILLIS Oh,.you know, same old crap. Got held up again, you knew that. MATT No. I didn't. WILLIS yeah...they got seventy five bucks. MATT Were you on the till? Willis chuckles, shakes his head. WILLIS They would have gotten something else if I'd been on the till. Matt nods. WILLIS How you doin', Matt? You on't write, you don't call. Where'd the love go? '0-' MATT Nag nag nag. Matt glances at an old clipping from the BOSTON GLOBE stapled to the wall. It's a photo from the 67 Redsox dream to 48 Petrocelli, Yaztrems i and Reggie Smith, each hold u two fingers, they are s ∞ling after hitting consecutive omeruns. Matt remembers. Happier days. WILLIS They set the bail hearing yet? MATT Sometime in the next few days.ye , WI IS Are you going? MATT I don't ow. Davis says it's a formallity really. I haven't talked to Ruth about weather she thinks we should go or not. WILLIS If it's too much for Ruth, I'll come with you Matt. MATT Thanks, but I'm sure it'll be alright- Davis says it's a formallity really. WILLIS The criminal trial set yet? MATT October. WILLIS October? MATT That's what they tell me, anyway. WILLIS Christ, they take their time. MATT .yeah, well, he's in there now. WILLIS They're keeping him busy, I'm sure - You know where they'll move h once he's sentenced? Matt shifts the focus to his omelette. MATT You have any Tabasco sauce? Willis pauses. He looks around, ca `out to the kitc hen. WILLIS Hey, Pete. Tabasco. Pete! Ah, shit. He heads to the back. Matt looks out the window. A refrigera ted truck with the STROUT logo on it's side pulls to a stop at the light. Willis returns with sauce in hand. 49 He takes a seat. Shifts his tone again. WILLIS Next weekend Matt- We really want you to come up to the c p- Katie's insisting. Not to pressure you or anything. But if you don't come se's going to invite her sister and that idiot and I know I'm going to wind up insulting him again. Matt considers this. WILLIS The future of my family is in your hands. MATT Let me ask Ruth. WILLIS You know, your seat is getting cold at the game. We have Carl's kid subbing for you. Not that we mind - he loses every time But we'd rather take your money. MA T T T (SMILING) Thanks. Matt stares aimlessly out the window. Willis goes back to his eggs. Both men comfortable enough with each other to be silent. WILLIS How's Ruth doing? MATT Alright. Her...her car broke down. WILLIS Always something. T PHONE RINGS OVER: I NT. FOWLER HOUSE - LIVING ROOM DAY The phone continues to ring. Then sto s- Ruth lies on the couc , dressed in her robe. Her hair looks neglected. She stares at the television. ad for Su ay Chevrolet comes on the screen - a testimonial from a bald man saying "The best thing about the sales people is they're not pushy." A large graphic nla s over the an' s face NOT PUSHY - WE HEAR a c ul into t e driveway. Ruth doesnt eem to notice. ad or a long-term residential nursing retirement center. Ruth looks interested. The front door opens and Matt comes in with groceries. 50 RUTH (not looking up) How was your day? Matt carries the bags into the kitchen. MATT .S. Fine. Saw Willis- RUTH My day was fine, too, thanks. Matt comes out of the kitchen. MATT Sorry. ,how was your day? Tried calling - thought you might have gone out. The Grinnel's invited us up to the camp next weekend. Said I'd check with you, if we had other plans RUTH That sounds fine. He turns, a little surprised. MATT We don't have to. She looks up at him. RUTH You don't want to go? TT (WEAKLY) No, I want to RUTH Great. Tell them yes. MATT (HOPEFUL) I thoug t you might be busy getting the girls ready. answer. She's back into her show. THE KITCHEN The sink still has the plates and cups from breakfast. Matt starts to clean u Reaching for a dishrag on the counter, he notices the blinking o the answering machine. There are a half dozen messages. He hits play. Nothing. He finds th ,ol e. V. 0- Hello, Mr. & Mrs. Fowler, this is Regina at the District attorney's office Mr.Davis would like to speak with you both just as soon as possible. 51 INT. OX COUTY COURTHOUSE - DAY A windowless rotunda. JUDGE WILLIAM WILKENSON presides. CLOSE WILKENSON WILKENSON Mr. Strout has been in the custody∞of The Knox County Sherrif's department since August second, held without bail.The court is obliged to hold a bail hearing within two weeks of incarceration , which is the purpose of our procedings here today. Given the schedule considerations on this docket, the court feels that we should conduct the probable cause hearing in tandem. Witnesses will be called at this time. Unless there are any objections to the contrary this court will recess until 2:00 p.m. EXT. KNOX COUNTY COURTHOUSE - DAY Natalie comes up the brick walk and enters the building. INT. OX COUNTY COURTHOUSE LATER A gray concrete room, washed out by the buzzing overhead florescent. Matt and Ruth sit on metal fold-out chairs, alongside twenty or so spectators, and a smattering of reporters, in the gallery. Richard unkempt and dressed in an ORANGE JUMPSUIT, sits patientiy next to one of his two attorneys. Matt and Ruth glance over at NATHAN STROUT, 62, sitting directly behind Richard. Nathan's two other sons, both big men like Richard, sit at his side. Nathan feels the Fowlers, stares. His eyes stay focused on the front of the room. Richard's trial attorney, MARLA S, 301s, smart, expensive, and a long way from her home in Boston, stands in the COURT WELL. Natalie Strout in the witness box. So, Mr. Fowler had asked you to go upstairs with your chil, ?z s your husband was trying to enter... DISTRICT ATTORNEY WILLIAM DAVIS, 40, rises. 52 DAVIS objection. Mrs. Strout's police interview is already documented, the defense has a copy of it. There's no reason to waste anymore of the court's time . - . KEYES Your Honor, we just want to review exactly what s. Strout saw on the afternoon of July 17th. Isn't that why we're here? The Judge nods. JUDGE overruled. (TO NATALIE) Please continue. Natalie tries to recapture her place. Keyes nods. MARLA KEYES (RECAPPING) So you were bringing your children up to their bedroom ... Natalie's glance wanders to the gallery, to Matt and Ruth. She,sits on her hands to keep them from shaking. NATALIE 0 Right. I was in Jason and Dunk's room I didn't know what was happening downstairs. I was getting worried. I asked Jason to read Dunk a story. He didn't want a story - He wanted to come with me ... so I sat him back down on the bunk and I left them in the room. KEYES You left "them"? NATALIE My boys. She starts to cry. KEYES (SOFTLY) Of course - I'm sorry. on. NATALIE I closed the door...I moved down the hall. I looked back to make sure they weren't behind me. I had just started down the stairs, when I heard the shot. I ran down... A deep sob ... NATALIE .and Richard... 53 KEYES I'm sorry, can we just back up? You said you "heard the shot"? NATALIE Yes. KEYES You "heard"? s- Strout, did you witness the accident? Prosecutor Davis jumps up. DAVIS b`ection. There are no grounds to in icate this was an "accident" The Judge nods. JUDGE (TO STENOGRAPHER) Please strike "accident" from the record. (to Marla Keyes) Ms. Keyes, please rephrase the question. Marla Keyes hasn't taken her eyes off Natalie. They both know what's next. KEYES (GENTLY) Mrs. Strout ...did you actually see the sidearm discharge? I NT. DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE - DAY Davis hands a cup of coffee to Matt, who sits on a faux leather couch with Ruth. DAVIS (to Ruth re: coffee) You sure you don't want? RUTH I'm fine. Davis takes a seat across from them. DAVIS You see, we can't appeal bail - It's just not set up that way. RUTH - -y You let that bastard walk out and we're supposed to just sit here? Don't tell us there's nothing to do about this. DAVIS It's not us, s. Fowler. The state's bail code is to ensure future court appearances 54 DAVIS In this case Strout's family was prepared to put up a substantial amount of property as bail - That, along with his ties to the community made it hard for us to convince the judge of a serious "Risk of Flight". RUTH Oh - I see. DAVIS It's not just your case. Now you can file a civil suit. I recommend it. But not now, wait till after the crimminal trial. Matt stares at a small cartoonish statue on Davis's desk. It is one of those things that were popular in the 70's. A little man chasing an ambulance. It reads "World's Greatest Lawyer." RUTH And when will that be? Next week, next month? DAVIS Well... honestly - anywhere between twelve and eighteen months? RUTH I thought you said there would be a jury trial sometime in October!? DAVIS If he was incarcerated the udge would move for an October date - basically to save the County the cost of housing and feeding him as an inmate - But with bail the court date, unfortunately, is always later. RUTH Oh my god, oh my god. Matt jumps in. MATT But you're confident you'll be able to put him away for good then... Right? Davis looks uncomfortable with the question. Ruth sees this. She gathers herself. ?? RUTH EJ The things she said in there ...what is the damage? DAVIS Manslaughter. 55 RUTH DAVIS What? Oh, Jesus Christ! The wav this is going, that'd be my bet - especially since Nathan Strout brought up that barracuda from Boston - she's very smart. RUTH This was no accident. Be killed our son in cold blood. Ruth. RUTH What? MATT How long would he be sent away for? DAVIS Hard to say really. Anywhere between five to fifteen years. We think we have a good shot at the max - fifteen. Even with good behavior, he'd do a full ten. RUTH Ten years? Five years? Are you out of your mind!? He killed my son. Does anyone know this? Matt looks at his shoes, as Ruth glares down Davis. Davis sits back, a little shook up. DAVIS I'm sorry, s. Fowler. I understand. Unfortunately, in situations like this when there is no eye witness, there ... well, there's not a lot we can do. INT. MATT'S CAR - DAY - MOVING Matt drives. Ruth looks out the windshield. Both in their own worlds. Ruth turns to look out her side window. T CANNERY'S STACKS ARE HUMPING. RUTH You took the whole day? Matt nods. CAR DRIVES PAST T SITE. EXT. FOWLER HOUSE - DAY A handful of reporters and photographers lingering on the lawn, are galvanized by the arrival of the Fowlers. I NT. FOWLER HOUSE DAY Ruth is just entering, jostled, relieved to be home. She turns. Matt's not there. She looks out the front door to SEE MATT AT THE BASE OF THE surrounded by reporters. REPORTER #1 Dr. Fowler, how do you feel about Richard's Strout's bail? REPORTER #2 Do you plan to take any further legal action, Dr. Fowler? REPORTER #3 Dr. Fowler, have you had any contact with Mr- Strout? Matt stands paralyzed, a deer caught in the headlights. THE KITHCHEN Matt enters as Ruth takes the plates to the sink. She keeps her back to him. He pulls off his coat. MATT Can you believe this? I ask those idiots to leave. No one budges. Not one. What the hell are we supposed to do, bring them sandwiches? RUTH (her back to h∞ What are you asking or? What? Ruth turns to h RUTH (SHARPLY) If you want them to leave. Tell them to leave. INTO FOWLER HOUSE - BEDROOM - NIGHT Ruth is aslee Matt stares at the ceiling. He turns to the s clock. It- a ter three. 57 KITCHEN He opens a cupboard door and grabs some Fig Newtons. He stands there eating them, the door of the cupboard is long, the kind you see in old capes. Matt stares at the inside of the door. His finger slides down the length, he kneels down. We see what he's looking at. Pen and pencil marks straight lines each about two inches apart - each with Frank's name and aqe. T DEN Matt sits in his chair. The plays, muted. He ∞s looks at it, but he's not watching. Finally, he rises, clicks the off, with the remote, and flicks off the light. EXT. RIC STROUT'S DUPLEX - NIGHT A small development of modest, duplex apartment buildings. The architecture is outdated, the landscape unkempt. CLOSER ON one corner unit. The lights are off; there is no sign of life. A Brown Suburban sits in the driveway WE HEAR the RADIO "The following is a re-broadcast of last nights game, the third in a four game series{ between the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians. This broadcast is the property of Major League Baseball etc." INT. TT'S CAR - NIGHT Matt wearing a light coat over his pajamas, sits behind the wheel of his car listening to the game. He glances down at a piece of paper with an address. Then back out his windshield, looking at the corner duplex unit. INT. FOWLER HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Ruth sits at the table in her bathrobe. Smoking. The CAMDEN HERALD in one hand. The COURIER GAZETTE, and THE WORKING WATERFRONT within easy reach. Matt enters, fully dressed in jeans and a sweater. He winces at the smoke. RUTH You slept late. For you. Matt pours himself some coffee. MATT I took one of your pills. 58 RUTH You never do that. She turns the page, absorbed in an article. Shaking her head, she slaps the paper down. RUTH Well there it is in black and white. You should read some of the things he says. Unbelievable. Matt takes a sip of coffee. He glances down at the paper. He nods, without really looking. MATT yeah. He checks his watch. MATT I should get going. RUTH Where? It's Saturday. MATT I won't be gone long. He bends, kisses her lightly on the cheek. MATT I'm meeting Willis. I'll tell him we're coming. She stares at the kitchen doorway long after he exits. Finally, she pulls the paper back and resumes reading. . CANDY'S QUICK SHOP - DAY Natalie stands behind the only counter cf a small MOM AND POP STORE whose specialty is cold beer, wine, cigarettes, and fish & Game Licenses. She rings up some items for a couple of teenagers. Matt enters the place, keeping his distance, a few feet from the counter. Natalie sees him. She pauses, as if quickly trying to-,gather her thoughts, the teenagers are waiting for their chang . She counts it back to them, and they exit. Matt steps forward. 59 Hi. NATALIE . Hi. elderly woman places a half -gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, i s t er cou nter d a carton of L&M cigarettes down or. the reg Natalie quickly rings up the items and bags them. ELDERLY WOMAN Can you break a fifty? Natalie takes the bill, places it in a drawer underneath the register, and hands the woman her change, with a smile. ELDERLY WOMAN Thank you, dear. NATALIE You're welcome. ELDERLY WOMAN Could I possibly get another bag? Natalie quickly double bags the woman's groceries. There is a break in the customer flow. Natalie steps to the end of the counter. MATT I just wanted to see how you're doing. I tried reaching you ... NATALIE Oh. We're at my mother's house now. I'm sorry, I wanted to call you ... MATT It's okay. She looks over. A man hovers over some ina?azines near the re inter. NATALIE (ALMOST WHISPERING) Dr. Fowler ..-I' so...I don't even know how to begin... MATT You don't have to. NATALIE ? er I didn't lie the first time, I didn't, it's just - how it came out. I'm so sorry. matt nods, as if he had assumed as much. 60 NATALIE Is s- Fowler .-- does she know you're here? The Man places a 12- ack of beer on the counter. Natalie looks to Matt, who shakes his head no. Natalie steps back to the register and rings up the beer. Her chin quivers. She makes a mistake on the register, has to start over. A few more customers gather on line. NATALIE (TO CUSTOMER) Can I get you anything else? She rings him up. Makes change as another customer steps up. Matt steps near her, trying to maintain privacy. MATT (QUIETLY) How are the boys? Are they okay? Natalie, choked by emotion, cannot respond. Near tears, she puts her hand up, unable to speak. Matt reaches out to touch her arm. His gesture is interrupted as: She pulls the cigarettes from an overhead rack. The Man pays. Matt stays a moment longer. There's nothing else to say. He leaves. She returns to her job. EXT. ST. FRANCIS CEMETERY ADJACENT CHUR CH We see Ruth from a good distance away, watched from afar. She places some potted daisies on a grave. She kneels down. EXT. ST. FRANCIS CHURCH - PARKING LOT LATER Ruth walks through an empty lot and heads for her c RUTH'S She opens the door. Suddenly there .-.. hand on her shoulder. She is startled. She turns around. It's Father Oberti. 61 EXT. ST. FRANCIS CEMETERY LATER Ruth and Father Oberti sit smoking on a bench. RUTH It comes in waves, .and then nothing. Like a rest in music. No sound - but so loud. A moment. RUTH I don't know what to do. Father Oberti nods. RUTH I feel so ang Father Oberti looks off in the distance. FATHER OBERTI Louise McVey lost a child a few years back. Maybe you remember. RUTH (SEARCHING) mmmm she had four - it was the youngest girl, wasn't it? FATHER OBERTI Yes. She told me about a vision she had when she found out her daughter had died ...she saw herself at a great distance from the earth encircling it, an endless line - as she got closer she saw that it was made up of mothers traveling forward. She fell into line, and began walking with them. When they reached a certain point, the line divided. She said she knew - that all the millions of women on her side - were the mothers who had lost children-she seemed to find great comfort in that. Ruth doesn't react. RUTH How did she die? FATHER OBERTI A drowning ... some kind of swimming accident. RUTH oh. FOWLER HOUSE - DAY mower moves across the lawn, spitting up a shower of grass. Matt pushes the mower. 62 INT. 'S SPECIALTY SHOPPE - DAY A small bouti e frequented by mature women. Blouses with a flair, pantsuits, an nice dresses han from the racks. The sort of place a woman can still buy a pair Joze a white gloves. The front of the store is devoted to footwear. Ruth sits while YVONNE, 45, kneels in front of her, holding Ruth's stockinged foot. She slips on a dress shoe. YVONNE Oh, they're beautiful on you Ruth. Ruth stands up, takes a few steps. She stares at the shoes. They are a rich black. RUTH Do you have them in brown? YVONNE I think so, let me check. Yvonne disappears into the back. Ruth walks to the front of the store, browsing. She moves to the display window and brings a pair of very young pumps u to her nose, and inhales. She smiles and sets the shoes bac on the ledge. Something OUTSIDE catches her attention. EXT. YVONNE'S SPECIALTY SHOPPE - SAME TIME The REFLECTION OF A COUPLE, walking down the sidewalk, can be glimpsed in the window, their movement WASHES ACROSS RUTH'S FACE. ON THE COUPLE. a YOUNG BLOND WO holding hands with a dark haired, young he turns to smile at her. We see his face. RIC Oblivious to Ruth's presence. INT. O 61 S SPECIALTY SHOPPE - E-" TI Ruth looks disoriented. YVONNE O.S. I'm sorry Ruth - there's only the black. 63 She turns from the window. Yvonne stands next to her, an open shoe box in her hands. EXT. FOWLER HOUSE - DRIVEWAY - LATER Two Hefty bags are dragged along the walk. Matt tosses one next to a garbage that sits just inside the garage. He picks up the other bag tossing it inside. The bottom splits and grass spills out onto the drive-way. He goes inside and returns with a broom. He sweeps the rass into a pile. Picking up handfuls and refilling the gay. He takes the broom and sweeps what's left back toward the la . He stops, stares down at his feet. IN THE CEMENT; A child's handprints∞and writing, Frank 82 Ruth's car pulls into the driveway. She gets out, almost slamming the car door. Without a word, she moves past Matt, and into the house. Matt continues sweeping. I NT. FOWLER HOUSE - BEDROOM - NIGHT - LATER Ruth wakes to the sound of metal on metal. She looks over to Matt, he's not there. RUTH (SCARED) Matt? She steps to the window, pulls back the shears and looks out. Through the window, in the dark, alone, flashlight in hand. Matt is dismantling the swin set. - GRINNEL CABIN - DAY A four room dwelling, surrounded by a wrap around porch that looks out over a canopy of forest below. The place was built before insulation was practical. Planks, beams , and studs are exposed. There is a bathroom, two bedrooms, and a common room consisting of a kitchen/dining area, and living room, with a ge, river stone fireplace. There are two oil burning 1 ps hanging from cross beams at each end of the room. Ruth sits next to Katie at a table in the middle of the room. Katie is ouring over a stack of snapshot books, descibin her chid "h and r dchildren in eac pose. The photos, w ile many, are all from a single trip that the family made to Florida. There is a clear dif erence in vernacular between the two women, Katie also has a voice that has been trained to reach anyone who might be in the f corners of her house. 9 + KATIE s lil Charles down at the Oh and here' pool - He figured out how to get down to the pool on the elevator all by himself. RUTH (PATIENTLY) He must of been very proud. KATIE LINE Oh yeah. Oh here's Shannon waitin in for that rollercoaster - You know the one? Ruth has no idea. RUTH (POLITELY) Were the lines very long? KATIE Well some of em. yeah - sixty minutes and upward-Unless of coarse ya got the "Fast-Pass." RUTH What's the fast pass? KATIE MS" Well ya got all the different "Kingdo - there---and so you take the fast pass it's a kind of a laminated card and you put it intah a machine and it tells you what time to come back - so you can go right in without waitin in lane. You guys ever go down to Florida? Ruth smiles at the thought and shakes her head- RUTH 0 -.no0 How many grandchildren do yo u have now? Katie turns from the snapshots and takes a breath while holding up her fingers to count-She is genuinely unsure. KATIE (under her breath Well there's lil Charles, Shannon, the three older ones and the babies ... eleven. RUTH That must wonderful. Q 0-?? Katie smiles and nods - it is a KATIE (by rote) "I Well. Willis always says guess there's no danger of us dying off - 65 She catches herself. Too late. She looks at Ruth. Embarrassed. KATIE I'm sorry - I wasn't... Ruth waves her off good naturedly- RUTH I wanted to have more ..abut we had Frank, and Matt was just starting his practice.. - - -I guess it made sense. KATIE (GUILELESS) Well sometimes I wished I was an only child - let me tell you. When I was little, my big sister could get me to do anything. More than once she got me to throw m self down the stairs by telling inc the blanket she wrapped me in was a magic car et- Naturally, not being that swift, I believed her. Plus which, on this trip to Florida, we was in one of the Kingdoms there, and she was going on about how's we had to go on this one ride that was in this sort of mountain. I said -"K as long as it's not a roller coaster- on account of my back-" Well, we get strapped intah the little car there she starts laughing - Oh it's a rollercoaster alright - that one there. She points to the pictures. KATIE (CONT'D) A ride in the dark, no less. EXT. GRINNEL CABIN - S A great, endless, expanse of Fir trees. We are f up, looking out at this timbered landscape that seems to stretch forever. Matt stands before the edge of a cliff, d.ressr ` "- a short sleeved shirt. He takes a deep breath of the ( ri. . -ountain A steady CHOPPING rhythm is heard in the background. Matt turns. Willis is chopping the last of some firewood. MATT How much of this is yours? Willis plants his in the stump. WILLIS (SMILING) You ask me that eve t∞ e. You know the cove, the other side of the c in? yeah ...? WILLIS All the way to the other shoreline. Matt turns to him, grinning. WILLIS Almost three hundred and fifty acres. Know what it went for when I bought it? You don't want to know. Matt continues surveying, awed. Willis turns, starts walking back to his chore. WILLIS Come on, I'll let you help me. Matt joins him. Together, they bundle up the wood. TRAIL TO GRINNEL CABIN - DAY TO Matt and Willis load the wood into a small trailer attached a GREEN POLARIS MAGNUM 500 ATV. WILLIS Only got 1/2 a chord of Oak left at home and you know how much that bastard Daniels charges - least I can stack this up to the cabin ... have something to burn this fall. TRAIL TO CABIN - SAME - MOVING THE Matt sits behind Willis on the ATV as they pull the wood up road. The trees clear and we see the cabin. A GREEN SUBARU FORESTER is parked in front. I NT. GRINNEL CABIN - DAY Willis, Katie, Matt and Ruth, sit around a copious holiday spread, well into their meal. KATIE It's a wonderful product and the treat you pretty good. It was on account oz, selling Mary Kay, that we got the new Subaru. RUTH (SMALL TALK) The ride up was very comfortable. It's a very nice car. 67 WILLIS Well it's not really a car, it's got four-wheel drive. It's a little SUV. The Grinnel's custom, is to loudly, and with very little effort, finish each others sentences. This is how they have fun. KATIE What the hell is that S crap? WILLIS Sports utillity vehicle. KATIE (to Matt and Ruth) It's a little jeep. S , ATV, C - what's with all these .--? She searches for the word. Little help? Anyone, anyone? RUTH (FINALLY ) Acronyms. KATIE Yeah, guess it's too much trouble to just say what something is anymore. WILLIS (to the table) What does PMS stand for? KATIE Yeah well,I was an army brat. I grew up with jeeps. Willy is just uncomfortable that I know more about one masculine thing than he does. Just one? The pty chuckles. WILLIS Thanks, buddy. Matt hel s himself to the last of the wine- Re se s to have a ite bit Ruth watches as he drains the bottle. She shoots him a look. He catches it - , V o-, A moment. 68 RUTH (LOOKING AWA ) You've done a suc a nice job here, Katie. Don't tell me you made those drapes yourself ...is that antique linen? KATIE (LAUGHING) Sort of.. She walks over to the window and fingers the fabric. KATIE They're pillowcases from our first house. Ruth smiles at the memory. Katie sits back down at the table. KATIE Oh, I've saved every knick=knack & whim-wham we ever had. EXT. DIRT ROAD - DAY A post stands proudly at the end of a dirt and gravel road. Attached to it are two signs. One reads PRIVATE ROAD. The other, NO HUNTING. It butts up against two lanes of blacktop - a small logging road. Headlights cut through the early evening. Willis's idea of a S a green, SUBARU FORESTER, kicks up some rocks. it pauses briefly before taking a right onto the pavement. IN/EXT. SUBARU - TREVETT SWING BRIDGE - DAY The car is stopped behind a wooden guard arm. A swing bridge opens for a large fishing boat. The bridge is operated by one man. Be uses a long metal tool, that he loops into a pulley system, which lies beneath a grid in the center of the bridge. EXT. TREVITT BRIDGE - SUBARU - DAY Ruth asleep in the back seat, it-s been a long weekend. Matt glances over at her, then up to the front We are outside the car as it waits for the Drawbridge to close, so it may continue. We hear the following from perspective. I MATT 1?? 0`1 How's David doing up there in Castine? WILLIS Well he dunnit want to go overseas - oh no...he told them he'd Reep doinit as long as he could stay in Maine or Vermont- 69 KATIE (INTER PTIN ) But David says if theyy want him to go out to New Mexico or California, he'll go back to infantry - he don't care. Long as he stays out here. He's not about to-- WI IS Course he don't like working in recruitment anyhow's - Christ he gets them bo s come down to to the office at the mal - he gets them half-way processed and they decide they want that delayed entry thing - Christ I could't do IT-- TIE Or they decide not to join up at all and-- WI IS Well, like that one kid - he had him all the way through the works and then - Oh CHRIST- KATIE His folks called David and said that the boy wanted out so bad -- that he'd taken his own life. They all look at each other. How did this conversation get so depressing? WILLIS Yeah well something like that gets to you Christ, I couldn't do it. INT. FOWLER HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY Ruth is at the table, alone, dressed for rehearsal, hair done. She finishes her breakfast as she pours through the weekend's mail. Matt in a suit, steps in to say goodbye. MATT I'm going now. She looks up. RUTH (FLAT) Okay. MATT You ready to go back? RUTH 70 MATT (T IN ) You loo nice. ANGLE Who looks to Ruth for some kind of reaction. Nothing. Matt heads out the door. Ruth continues sorting the mail. She stops on one piece. Seems stunned, repeatedly reading it. THE ENVELOPE It's from Publisher's Clearinghouse. In oversized block letters, it reads, FRANK FOWLER, YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY WON $10,000,000! She stares at the piece for a long time. Looks off. Smiles. And starts giggling. She can't stop. The giggles quickly flow into a deep laughing fit, harder and harder as the tears rain down. INT. MATT'S OFFICE - DAY Matt is in his office, on the phone. MATT (INTO PHONE Well that's totall unacceptable isn't it? - Well what did he say? uh huh well, we can't allow that m I guess we're gonna have to show him how the cow eats the cabbage. Janelle knocks on the door. MATT Hold on a second. He puts his mouth over the speaker and lowers the phone. Nods to Janelle and she enters. JANELLE Dr. Fowler, I'm sorry. There's someone ' Ryan Collit. His mother`N brought him in. He doesn't have an appointment but-- I'm sorry bL _; you'll have to re-schedule. Janelle's a little taken aback. 71 JANELLE He's Ann Collit's son. I thought. Well, you know, I thought you might want to MATT (into the phone) I'll call back later. He hangs up. He gets up and grabs his jacket MATT Sorry Janelle, I'll be back at four. JANELLE (UNCOMFORTABLE) .o.k. Matt leaves her standing there. I NT. DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE - DAY LOBBY William Davis's secretary, REGINA, 40, sits at her desk. She is on a call, Matt stands waiting. REGINA (HANGING UP) I'm Sorry, Dr. Fowler, you just missed him. MATT I really need to see him.He go to lunch? REGINA That's right. She senses something in his tone. REGINA He's across the street. I NT. kUURRET ON MAIN RESTAURANT DAY A bustling dining room, packed with businessmen. The nice place in town it's lunch hour. The doors open. Matt enters. He scans the room. His eyes set on WILLIAM DAVIS sitting at a table with colleagues, sharing a laugh. 72 Matt makes his way over to the table. Davis sees h' DAVIS Hey, Matt. Matt stands awkwardly, as Davis' companions look on. DAVIS (POLITE) Have a seat. Matt hesitates, takes a seat next to Davis. Manages an obligatory smile to the others. The conversation resumes. EXT - MARKET ON MAIN RESTAURANT - STREET LATER On the street outside the restaurant, walking. DAVIS We're doing all we can, Matto I promise you that. MATT What can I do Bill? DAVIS There's nothing... Matt takes Davis' arm. MATT It can't be manslaughter. There's got to be something - isn't there something you can find? A piece of evidence? That happens - doesn't that happen? He realizes he's holding Davis' arm. He lets goo Davis looks at Matt sympathetically. DAVIS We really are doing everything we can, Matt - But I'm not going to lie to you - We've got no witnesses - only Strout - who claims there was a struggle - and forensic can't determine if there was a struggle. because of the condition the house was in when Frank got there. Matt says nothing. ¢Q., They come to the corner. Matt steps under an awning and into the shade. 73 Davis stops. He shifts feet a couple of t∞es. Pla ing with the change in his pocket, the way people do when they're uncomfortable. DAVIS I'm sorry att. if it helps, we all want this guy put away. We have kids, too. Matt nods, without looking at him. Matt looks at Davis's hand moving the change. He becomes hypnotized by the sound. Davis continues talking. Matt can't hear a word of it, though. All he hears is the clinking of the coins in the pocket. EXT. GIGI HARBOR - DAY Matt stands in the wheelhouse, he brings the helm about,.cuts back on the throttle and heads for the winch, the stern is stacked with four high rows of Frank's empty traps. Matt pulls up a string of pots. Opens the door and pulls out a young male. He flinches and drops it. His finger goes to his mouth. EXT. GIGI HARBOR LATER Loaded up to the gills with pots. She turns toward harbor. EXT. GIGI HARBOR - S Matt at the wheelhouse heading in. His hand on the wheel, blood trickles from his finger. He sucks on it again, reaches down underneath his feet and pulls a band-aid from a box and applies it to the finger. EXT. "GIGI" LATER Matt unloads Frank's traps onto the landing. He stops. Seems to sense something. He looks back up the gangway. Jason sits on his bicycle watching. The two regard each other for a moment. Then without a word Jason rides off. I NT. GRI L'S CROW'S NEST - DAY Willis dries a glass. He keeps an eye on Matt sitting at a booth in the front?f the diner, silhouetted by a window. He pushes a half-eaten burger away, drains a bottle of beer. It's not the first. T BOOTH Willis sets down a cup of coffee for himself. Takes a seat across from h' They both gaze absently out the window. I NT. ROCELAND HIGH SCHOOL - RUTH'S OFFICE - DAY Ruth is alone at her desk, she wears headphones and is busy making notations on a sheet of manuscript paper. There's a KNOCK on her door. She doesn't look up. RUTH (taking off the phones) Yes? There's a pause, then the door slowly opens. Natalie takes a step in. Ruth looks up. If she's surprised, she doesn't show it, NATALIE I - -a I hope this is okay. Ruth says nothing. Natalie moves closer. NATALIE I've been hoping we might be able to get together - to talk. Ruth watches her as she approaches the desk. Natalie bends and cautiously extends her hand for Ruth to hold. NATALIE I just want to tell you how -e- And in a flash Ruth SLAPS Natalie across the face with her open hand. Natalie springs back, paralyzed with shock. She tries to catch her breath, staring directly at Ruth. Eyes ablaze, Ruth says nothing. - The two women look at each other for a very long time And final , as if she finally somehow got the resolution she came for, lead held high, Natalie turns and walks out. E X T STROUT & SONS CANNERY T cyclone fence surrounds the lace. sign reads "Strout SONS"- it is the end of the day. 75 A grow of workers file out, gabbing, starting to strip the eves of their smocks and hair-nets. Tim, Frank's friend, exits with his co-workers. He climbs into his mini pick-up, and pulls out of the lot. A few seconds later, from outside the lot, Matt's car pulls AWAY- INT. SHOW & TELL - AFTERNOON - LATER A crowded working class tavern. Video oker machines, beef jerky at the bar, Schaeffer's on tap. We're in fuck. it's happy-hour. Tim sits around a table with a couple of buddies, laughing. CHARLES We lost a few strings and we had a fair idea it was him who was doing it - so's I just flat out asked him "No wasn't me." You should of seen what he tried to pull last wintah. He was up to the island there - and he claimed our traps were in his part of the cove - Bobb was up to the tavern on the head and e d him shooting his mouth off about how he and his stet an was gonna take a bat to the old man & me - so's I told the old man about it and he says "Don't hurt my feelings none."He says "Go on down to the Walmart and buy a couple of plastic bats." Next day the old man walks intah the office at the market - near the scales - where he know's the son of a bitch is gonna come in with his catch. He's got two six penny nails a hammer, and the bats o'coarse, so he nails those things right intah the wall. The guy at the scales looks at him like he's nuts "Whatta ya doing there Ivan" he says "Just sending a message" and the old man walks out. I come in and I could see what he wrote across them things. The door to the bar opens. TIM What? CHARLES "Here's the bats - if you got the balls." Tim and the others crack up. CHARLES Didn't touch our traps aftah that. stops mid sentence. 76 Matt is passing by his table. TIM Dr. Fowler? Matt flinches, "surprised" to see Tim. A FEW MINUTES LATER Matt and Tim have moved to another booth. Matt leans heavily on his elbows, listening to Tim. TIM No - no, I don't even see Richard anymore. And he'd never tell me anything, believe Me. Matt takes a pull of beer. MATT Sure, of course. I was just wondering, you know, maybe there was something you heard, through the grapevine, maybe one of his buddies said something --- TIM (SEARCHING MEMORY) No -a- MATT I was thinking, Richard's brothers, they're still working with you, right? They must talk. Tim throws a nervous look over to the table where his friends ea They're oblivious to the conversation. He looks back to Matt, shifting in his seat. Matt leans forward. He speaks in an intense whisper. MATT I'm just saying, Tim, if we could find something, something concrete. If you could just ... it could be just a slip of the tongue --- Tim looks into Matt's eyes, feeling the torment. TIM I'll keep my ears open. Matt looks at him, dissatisfied. TIM It's funny running into you here, Dr. Fowler. Matt looks at Tim blankly, then finishes his beer. 77 IN/EXT. TT∞S CAR - AFTERNOON - LATER Matt drives end of highway. NEXT LIGHT Matt pulls into the left-hand turn lane and signals. There is a car in front of h∞ Above the licence plate is a yellow sticker which reads "Student Driver-" The plate itself is a vanity plate it says P Y4US- A 73 BLUE PICK- truck eases to a stop in the right lane, next to Matt's car. Matt glances over, for a moment he half expects to see Frank. He cracks the passenger side window, for a better look. He stares at the driver's window. Their window rolls down. attractive girl with short brunette hair stares back at Matt. Lost in the absurdity, he doesn't look away. The light changes. The girl smiles sweetly and blows him a kiss, before continuing through the light. Matt watches her go - he smiles - as if somehow relieved. The car behind him gives a polite toot - Matt makes the left. - SOUTH END MARKET - S Ruth enters, passing the empty front register. She strolls down an aisle, pulling some items from the shelves. TWO N CHAT from the next aisle. E #1 0-S- yeah, man, I - d better get back to the grind --- MALE #2 O.S. Alright, pal --- E #1 0-S- Just don't ste al anything. NIC, 301S, wearing a clerk-s apron, price gun, and plastic tag tha: says IC, rounds the end of the aisle. As he does, he spots - 78 RUTH, moving down the aisle toward him. He freezes A nervous smile - He throws a quick look to the other aisle. NICK (a little too loudly) Good evening, s - Fowler. AT THE COUNTER Ruth pulls out her purse as Nick rings her up. RUTH Oh, and a pack of Marlboro Lights, NICK Sure, As NICK reaches up to the overhead cigarette area, he can't help but glance past Ruth. Ruth catches this, she turns, and sees - RIC appear from a far aisle - he makes a BEELINE FOR THE DOOR, SHE TURNS WHITE. he leaves, LOOKS BACK, THEIR ES HEET - AND THEN HE'S GONE. It's a long time before Ruth moves. Finally, she turns back to Nick. He looks at her, embarrassed, awaiting her reaction. She just stares at h∞ - FOWLER HOUSE- THE DEN - DUSK Hatt sits comfortably, feet up, beer in hand, deep into the book ORTE DIURBAN by J-F Rowers, He EMARS the front door S He doesn't move. most immediately, he hears the banging of cupboards opening d closing. 79 KITCHEN Ruth is putting groceries away, ignoring, or trying to, Matt who has appeared in the doorway. She puts milk in the refrigerator and stares into it for a long time, trying to decide what to do. He can feel her judging H' F'inall , .having resolved something in her mind, she closes the refrigerator door- revealing, taped to it, several newspaper articles on the case, gathered by her, no doubt, including one with a picture of Frank. MATT How did it go today? She doesn't answer. MATT Something wrong? She doesn't turn around. RUTH Wrong? Like what, Matt? What could be wrong? She continues "straightening up", starts recklessly washing dishes. Matt doesn't leave. A plate SHATTERS in the sink. This stops her. She stares at it, then feels his presence. She turns around. RUTH What do you want? He looks unsure of himself. MATT I want to know what's going on. RUTH Right. MATT You're obviously upset. If there's something you want to talk about ... RUTH Talk? Who, us? Oh, you mean to each other? What if somebod waked in? They wouldn't recognize us. They'd think they had the wrong house. 80 Matt takes this in. He breathes deeply. MATT Do you want to talk or not? RUTH ("SEARCHING" ) Talk, talk ... oh, you must mean about our dead son. No, we haven't before, why should we bother now? They stare at each other across the kitchen. MATT (SLOW BURN) What can I do, Ruth? Ruth looks at him for a long time. RUTH Forget it, Matt. Why don't you just go ... MATT (BUILDING) What do you want from me? RUTH I want you to stop acting like nothing's happened! That's what I want. MATT Why? because I'm not bouncing off the walls? RUTH No, Matt, That would require feelings. We don't want you to hurt yourself. MATT Do me a favor, Ruth. You want to have a grieving contest, go find someone else. He starts to turn. RUTH yeah, I know how you grieve. have another beer. He spins back. MATT WHAT DO YOU OW? WHAT? You know nothing! You know nothing about me. What I go through every day - ever lousy, stinking day. RUTH No, I don't know, Matt. I don't know what you go through, or if you go through ything. But that's your choice, dear, not mine... 81 MATT You're goddamn right it is. My choice is to not scream at the world. Maybe one of us has to be reasonable here, did you ever think of that? RUTH Reasonable? e, Matt, I don' t know about you, but I ss my son. I'm glad you have time for reason. That's what you imparted to Frank, That sense of reason - Oh, he thought you were very reasonable. MATT What the hell is that supposed to mean? She is about to say something, but stops short. RUTH Nothing. She turns back to the dishes. He moves in on her, seething. MATT What are you really trying to say anyway? She says nothing, picking up the broken plates. TT .that I'm the one responsible? She drops the pieces back in the sink and exits. THE HALL He's fast on her heels. She heads for the bedroom. MATT Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something! She throws the door closed behind her, but he bangs it open with his palm. MATT You of it backwards. I know what you think. That I was too lenient, that I let him get away with ... RUTH Everything. Everything! She exits into THE He's right behind her. 82 MATT Oh, really?!? Why do you think he never came to you? RUTH He wouldn't talk to me, Matt. He didn't trust me. You made sure of that. LIVING ROOM. MATT Why would he talk to you, Ruth? You never listened! RUTH No. But you did. You were winking at him the whole time. You encouraged him. You wanted what he had. Her. MATT You've got to be kidding... RUTH You know it. Come on. You wanted it, and you couldn't get it - that's why you didn't stop him so you could get your kicks through your son. You know that's what happened. And now you can't cope with it. You can't admit the truth - To me, or to yourself - You can't admit that he died for ygur fantasy piece of ass. Matt, stunned, reels for a second And then, finally, explodes. TT You want to know why our son is dead, Ruth? He wasn't with her because of me, he went there because of you. Because you were so controllins, so overbearing, so angry that he was it, that he was our only one. RUTH That is not true. MATT It is! From the time he was little you were telling him why he was wrong. Everything he did was wrong. What was wrong with him, Ruth? She stares at him, dumbfounded. 1 011 MATT You are so unfor ivinge You are. That's what he said. Ana you're playing the same shit out with me - That's a horrible way to be! Horrible. You're bitter, Ruth. You can point your finger at me all you want 83 MATT .but you better take a good look at yourself first. She already has, of course. RUTH (WE ) I just wanted to talk about what happened, Matt. MATT You expect me just to open up to you? Embrace you? You scare me. How can I talk to you? I can't even look at you. They suddenly become aware of the DOORBELL, ringing, over and over. They watch each other, both reeling, both out of breath. The DOORBELL continues. MATT (COMPLETELY DRAINED) That's probably ... the police. THE DOOR Matt opens it. There is no cop, just Kristen Gellar, 12, a young gymnast who'd like to compete in Hawaii. KRISTEN (REHEARSED) Hi there. I'm Kristen Gellar from the Rockland Gymnastics Association - Today we're selling brand name candy. Each purchase is matched by the Tandy corporation to help us meet our goal of travelling to Oahu to compete in the East/West conference. Matt's in another world. He stares at her. MATT I... ...sure. I'll take some. KRISTEN Terrific, how many? We have a special today, 6 bars for ten dollars. Ok...sure. if by rote, Matt pulls out his wallet and hands her a ten. KRISTEN Great! " particular brands you like? We have , Goobers, Hershey's- Anything. Anything is fine ... 81+ She finally hands him an assortment. MATT Okay --- He's about to close the door. KRISTEN if you could just sign this. I have to give you a receipt. I'm sorry .this pen-- Matt hands her one from his pocket. Matt waits as the girl fills out and hands him the receipt. He closes the door before she can thank h∞ THE LIVING ROOM Ruth is curled up on the couch. Matt stands over her, unsure of which way to go. He stares absently into the small mountain of candy in his hands - sets it on the coffee table He takes a seat at the other end of the couch. MATT Ruth... RUTH (SOFTLY) Yes? MATT Ruth .001 had no right. . .what I said -0. no one, no one should ever have to hear that... RUTH (BARELY AUDIBLE) I'm so sorry... He looks at her, as she starts to cry. He moves closer to her. MATT It's okay... RUTH No, you're right, Matt, You are am-.. horrible. ?-` MATT Please--. 85 RUTH I don't blame you, Matt. I just... that girl came by. She came by the school, and I couldn't forgive her. I was so... She lets go, crying hard. He lifts her head onto his lap. He reaches out, stroking her head, pulling her matted hair from her forehead as she sobs into his lap. RUTH I'm sorry. I have been so an - I keep seeing him, Matt. I've seen him. Matt nods, but he's not really clear. MATT (CONFUSED) ..Oh I know - up in his room - Sometimes I swear Frank's in there - on the way home just now - at a stop light - for a second I COULD'VE-- RUTH (SOFTLY) Not Frank. Matt freezes. Then. RUTH Richard... She breaks into sobs. RUTH .and I don't know what to do. MATT Where did you see him? RUTH Eve here - Downtown, and the market. I saw at South End. He smiled at me, Matt - I keep running into him ... he s ∞led. Matt still strokes her hair. But he's in another world. 86 INTO GRINNEL HOUSE - BASEMENT - NIGHT The game has just started. Willis deals. Henry, Carl & Willis pick up the old banter as if Matt had onl been away on vacation; but he can see the affection an courtesy.in their eyes. WILLIS The ne of the game is Texas Chase' He groans. WILLIS Is there a problem? HENRY Why do you delude yourself with that crap? WILLIS What are you talking about? HENRY Look we're not in Vegas. It's five card draw, or seven card stud. WILLIS (ENJOYING THIS) That's what I said five card draw - jacks to open - Carl? HENRY Asshole, Matt smiles. He's missed these guys. CARL I'll open with a dollar. HENRY Raise a buck. The bet's to Matt. He stares at his cards for a very long time. Willis looks to say something, when Henry hits his arm. This stops him. Matt looks up. He sees the patience they are all exercising for his typical indecisiveness. This bothers him. He stares back down at his cards. Stalling, waiting for someone to bust him. He looks u at Willis - Henry - Carl. They all sort of smile uncomfortably. He can't take it. TT Oh, for Christ sake say something! This wakes them up. 87 MATT Quit pussy footing around me d 't! You just gonna let me stare at these cards all night!? No one wants to make the first move. This upsets Matt even more. MATT O.K. fine! He stares back down at his cards. Finally it is Carl who speaks. There are things of which I may not speak; There are dreams that cannot die; There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak, And bring a pallor into the cheek, And a mist before the eye. And the words of that fatal song come over me like a chill: A boy's will is the wind's will, And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts. Matt looks up from his cards into Carl's eyes. The two men regard each other. EXT. GRINNEL HOUSE - FRONT PORCH - NIGHT The game has ended. Matt says goodnight to Henry and Carl, as the two of them pull out of Willis Is driveway. Matt is about to leave. Just climbing in the front seat. When Willis puts a hand on his shoulder. WILLIS Come back in for a drink. I NT. GRINNEL HOUSE- ENTRY HALL - NIGHT Willis and Matt step back in, closing the door behind them. KATIE O.S. Honey, are you coming to bed now? Willis moves to the steps leading upstairs. WILLIS Soon baby, Matt's still here. KATIE 0.S. 11 %-?.: Oh f hi Matt - Hone , would you mind bringing me my pit s? They're downstairs from when the kids were here. WILLIS I'll be right there. I NT. GRINNEL HOUSE - BASEMENT - NIGHT A few minutes later. Matt sits alone in the room. Be gets up to examine a picture hanging on the opposite wall. He's not particularly interested, he's seen it a million times, he's just killing time. A corner of the room devoted to Naval memories. A pristine version of Matt's U.S.S. CONSTELLATION cap serves as the center piece. Willis comes down from upstairs. WILLIS She's all set - now what can I get you? MATT I'm fine thanks. Willis nods and takes a seat. WILLIS - you back on the wagon? He is. WILLIS Sit down Matt you're making me nervous. Matt takes a seat. WILLIS I'm glad you came tonight. MATT Me too. WILLIS Boy, Carl really laid on the verse huh? MATT (CHUCKLING) ye ..ye he did. Got me thinking OUT- e stops himself. WILLIS What? MATT I don't know - sort of silly really. WILLIS C'mon what is it? 89 MATT This thing with - with Frank when he was about three, I guess. We were over at my folkls house. MATT Mom always liked little dogs - this one was a - Pekingese, I think. I remember hearing this yelp, and then a scream. Frank ran out pointing to his finger. I looked at it couldn't see an thino. Mom said Frank must have "cornered the dog" and I knew she was probably right. We were driving home, and Ruth noticed Frank itching his a ..she pulled back his sleeve, and there were these two deep, bloody, puncture marks... WILLIS Why do you think he pointed to his finger? Matt shakes his head. TT (SEARCHING) .I cruess he didn't want us to ow. He stares into his hands, as the memory crystallizes. Willis looks confused, and somewhat uncomfortable. WILLIS He gets up and heads to the bar. MATT (TO HIMSELF) .had to put that dog down. Willis throws some ice in a tumbler. WILLIS I was thinking just the other day about the last time Frankie was- Matt cuts him off. His name was Ar k. Not Frankie. Willis looks stunned. WILLIS .I'm sorry Matt. I don't care ...he just never liked being called that. 90 WILLIS O.K. Matt nods. He looks away. MATT She didn't tell me, Willis. She never said a word - She saw him at South End. WILLIS Christ. MATT She's seen him before. It's killing her I didn't think about bail. I thought I wouldn't have to worry about him for YE S- WILLIS You know what I heard? He's tending bar up to Old Orchard Beach. Matt looks up. WILLIS For a friend. Ever notice even the worst bastards have friends? Nobody knows him over there. If they∞do, they don't care. They drink what he mixes Willis sets a can of Moxie down in front of Matt. WILLIS (referring to the can) I don't know how you drink this stuff it's what drove me to beer as a child. He sits down with his own drink. A moment. WILLIS I hate him, Matt. My boys went to school with h∞ He was the same thei.,- Know what he' 11 do? Five at the most - And then you' 11 e bumping into h all over AGAIN I ow. WILLIS Remember that woman about seven years a o? Shot her husband sopped him of f t e bridge in the St - Gac-: with a hundred pound sack of cement and said the whole way through it nobody helped her. Know where she is now? She's in Sears ort now, a secretary. And whoever helped her, where the hell is he? 91 WILLIS it'd break my heart Matt, it would, but - you ever think about just - moving away? Matt nods. Stares into his hands for a long time. MA,TT yeah, we have. Finally, he looks up, his eyes meeting Willis I s. MATT It wouldn't matter. THE SOUND OF A LONE F VOICE - SINGING EXT. CAMDEN AMPHITHEATER - MAGIC HOUR The voice is joined by another and becomes a duet. We turn to find the voices and see we are at the foot of a small knoll. A steeple in the distance pokes thorough the last blue husk as the sun dies. Looking around we see an ancient gazebo - then stairs leading up to a stone library - A boulder at the foot of another knoll - above - descending toward us - The girls, each holding a single candle,dressed in brightly embroidered smocks, enter in procession singing -Jennie Mae Mama. " The effect is beautiful and feels like a sort of quickening. The group proceeds down the hill and blossoms into an - AMPHITHEATER which faces the harbor. Ruth stands at the bottom of the proscenium - her arms up - directing the choir. The place is filled with half the town. ANGLE MATT Trying to take it all in. But not really present. Suddenly he turns and leaves. EXT. OLD ORCHARD BEACH- NIGHT The town goes to sleep for the night. The signs businesses power down. EXT- PETER'S NIGHT The establishment's various Beer Signs & interior lights turn off. EXT. PETER'S - NIGHT A LARGE CHAIN OF KEYS Turns the tumbler of a deadbolt lock. Two cars are all that's left. A WAITRESS emerges from the bar. Richard is fast on her heels. He exits, making conversation as he quickly locks the doors. 92 RIC Hey -o- wait up. WAITRESS Good night, Richard. See ya tomorrows She starts to walk to her car- He catches up to her, accompanying her to her car. RIC You want to come over for a drink? Just a drink. She stops in front of her car. WAITRESS No, thanks. Maybe some other night. He stands in front of his Brown Suburban, watching as the Waitress gets in her car, pulls away and leaves. RICHARD Fuckin' bitch. He turns and freezes. Matt Fowler stands a few feet away, an Ortaies calibre 7.65 automatic directly at Richard's face. His gloved hand poin grips the gun tightly. RICHARD Dr. Fowler? MATT Don't talk. Unlock it and get in. RIC He . wait a minute. Let's, let's just calm down... Matt COCKS the gun. RIC Alright! Shit. Richard obeys. He unlocks both doors. Matt opens the back door, but stays planted, the gun trained on Richard. Richard gets in the driver's seat. Matt climbs in the back. He presses the gun's muzzle against the back of Richard's head. V 0-, MATT Is there any one at your place? RIC (IRONICALLY) NOT TONIGHT 93 MATT Good. Drive there. Richard looks over his shoulder to back the car up. Matt aims at his temple, but does not look at his eyes. Richard finishes backing up and puts it into drive. MATT Drive slowly - don't try to get stopped. EXT. PETER'S PARKING LOT ALLEY Matt can see the ocean. He uncocks the revolver. Matt cracks the window. Matt leans down in his seat. He transfers the gun into his left hand, removes the glove from his right, and wipes the sweat from his bare palm onto his pantleg. He puts the glove back on, gripping the gun. Richard's Brown Suburban drives down an alley adjacent to Fun Park and turns onto a deserted Main Street. INT/EXT. BROWN SUBURBAN - NIGHT They drive back through town, the sea wall on their left hiding the beach. on the right are the places, most with their neon signs off, that do so much business in s er: the lounges and cafes and pizza houses. The street itself empty of traffic. RICHARD He was making it with my wife. His voice is careful, not pleading. Matt presses hard with the muzzle against Richard's head. Richard flinches and moves his head forward. Matt lowers the gun to his lap. MATT Don-t talk. /EXT. BROWN SUBURBAN RICHARD S TROUT'S DUPLEX - NIGHT The Brown Suburban slowly pulls up to the front. Matt leans forward. Th. muzzle grazing Richard's head. Drive it to the back. 91+ RIC You wouldn't have it cocked, would you? For when I put on the brakes. Matt COCKS it. It is now. Richard tenses. He drives around the side of the building. EXT. RICHARD STROUT'S DUPLEX BACK YARD - NIGHT The Brown Suburban inches forward toward the garage and brakes. The engine shuts off. Matt keeps the cocked gun firmly trained on Richard. He gets out and shuts the door with his hip. MATT All right. Richard looks at the gun, then gets out. He moves across the grass. Matt closely behind, looking at the row of small backyards on either side of them and scattered tall trees. He glances from house to house. Looking for signs of one insomniac neighbor, some man or woman sitting alone watching the all-night channel from Boston. All is quiet. They move up the back walk and to the side kitchen door. Matt stands directly behind Richard as he opens the door. It-s pitch black inside the duplex. MATT Turn on the light. Richard flips the wall switch. in the light. Matt stares at his wide back, and long reach. I NT. RICHARD S TROUT'S DUPLEX - KITCHEN NIGHT Richard stops just inside the kitchen. Matt closes the door softly behind gim. MATT Where-s you r suitcase? Richard almost turns around. RIC My suitcase? 95 Matt grips the gun tighter, straining to keep it from ling. MATT Where is it? RIC in the bedroom closet. MATT That's where were going then. When we get to a door you stop and turn on the light. They cross the kitchen. Matt can't help but glance at the sink and stove and refrigerator: no dishes in the sink or even the dish rack beside it, no grease splashings on the stove, the refrigerator clean and white. Matt becomes momentarily 2reoccupied with one of Duncan's drawings taped to its door. MATT Wait. Richard stops. Matt looks conflicted. Doubt has crept into his face For a moment he seems to have lost his resolve. RICHARD O.S. (IRRITATED) .Jesus. Matt looks to Richard with a renewed sense of purpose. TT .keep going. LIVING ROOM A light flicks on. They take the hall past the living room. Matt doesn't want to see anymore of Richard's life. But he can't help h∞ elf. He takes it all in: Magazines and newspapers in a wicker basket, clean ashtrays, a stereo, CD's neatly shelved next to it. They continue down a hallway.Richard stops outside a door. RIC There's no wall switch. MATT Where's the light? RIC the bed. 96 Let's go. Richard steps into the darkness. Matt is careful to stay a pace behind. Richard leans over by the bed. Matt braces. lick. A small bedside lamp turns on. The bed, a double one, is neatly made; the ashtray on the bedside table clean the bureau top dustless and no photographs- prob ly so the girl - who is scae? - won't have to see Natalie in the bedroom she believes is theirs. But because Matt is a father and a husband, thou h never ex- husband, he knows (and does not want to ow that this bedroom has never been theirs alone. Richard turns around; Matt looks at his lips, his wide jaw. RICHARD I wanted to work things out with her. Try to get together with her again. But I couldn't even talk to her. He was always with her. Dr. Fowler, I'm going to jail for it. I am going to jail. If I ever get out I'll be an old man. Isn't that enough ? MAXT You're not going to jail. Pack clothes for warm weather. RIC What's going on? You're not gonna let me go! Matt looks away. He doesn't answer. RICHARD Dr. Fowler? MATT You're jumping bail. RIC .Dr. Fowler. Matt points the pistol at Richard's face. The barrel trembles a little. Richard reaches up into his closet and pulls out two large canvas bags. He places them on the - He pulls a third bag, a small, red, woman's suitcase, Natalie's no doubt, next to the others. He moves to the bureau. MATT It's the trial. We can't go through that, my wife and me. So you're leaving. I've got you a ticket. My wife keeps seeing you. I can't have that anymore... 97 RIC He was making it with my wife. I'd go pick up my kids and he'd be there. Sometimes he spent the night. Duncan told me. He doesn't look at Matt as he speaks. He opens the to ewer. Matt steps closer so he can see Richard's hangs. underwear and the socks rolled, the underwear folded and stacked. Richard arranges them neatly in the suitcase. The kitchen the livin room the clothes. Matt is struck b this man's sense of order, o iscio ine. Matt watches the absurdity of Richard sorting clothes by season. He even packs a small instamatic camera. He packs the things a man accumulates and become part of him. MATT (re: the suitcases) Okay, that's enough. RICHARD I need some things from the bathroom. MATT alright. THE BATHROOM Richard steps just inside the bathroom door and stops. MATT Keep going. RICHARD Gotta pee. Matt realizes Richard means to have privacy. He pushes him into the room. Takes a step back and pulls the door so it is only slightly ajar. He keeps his foot between the jam and the door. He eyes Richard's back reflected in the mirror. He can hear him make water. He looks like he wonders about allowing this courtesy. Mattes glances at: A picture on the wall outside of the bathroom: Natalie Richard and their two boys, in front of someone's house. Smiling. She looks happy. C looks around the room frantically - his eyes find nothing that will help his situation - he flushes the toilet - Matt swings the door fully open - Richard fills a travel kit with toiletries. 98 RICHARD'S BEDROOM Richard tucks the travel kit into a bag. Matt keeps the gun on him. Richard closes the suitcase, and faces Matt. He looks at the Matt moves around behind him. Now Richard is between Matt and the lighted hall. Richard carries a canvas bag in each hand. Matt pulls another glove from his pocket. He uses it to turn off the bedside lamp. Richard now d'_lhouetted in the doorway. Let's go. Richard steps into the hall. Matt follows, carrying the small suitcase in one hand, the gun in the other. They start down the hallway. Matt turns off lights with his elbow as they go. Past the living room into the kitchen. Wait. Richard tenses, he stops at the kitchen door. Matt sets the suitcase down. He uses that hand to reach into his jacket. He pulls out a red, white, and blue piece of paper. He drops it on the counter top. Words on the paper read AMT RACK. Matt picks up the suitcase again. He steps closer to him. Presses the gun into Richard's back. MATT open the door. Richard's reaches down and carefully turns the knob. He slowly pulls the door open. Matt takes a step back. MATT Get the light. Richard reaches down and hits the switch. Click. The two men now in silhouette. Richard exits first. Matt close behind. EXT. RIC S DUPLEX - S Matt sets the case down, reaches bacjcan gently closes the door. They walk down the two brick steps to the lawn. s the cross the lawn. Matt's eves and ears once a ain alert for any sign of life. Not Eng. They reac the garage walk to the back of the Brown Suburban. Richard drops the two bags near the rear bumper. 99 Matt keeps the gun steady as Richard pops open the hatch and loads the bags. Matt sets the small suitcase at Richard's feet. He reaches down and loads it last. /EXT. BROWN SUBURBAN S Richard gets into the driver's seat. Matt in the back. Richard looks up in the rear-view. For a moment, Matt connects with the desperate eyes. RIC They'll catch me. They'll check passenger lists. MATT I didn't use your name. RIC They'll figure that out too. You think I wouldn't have done it myself if it was that easy? Silence. He starts it up, slides into reverse. He looks back over his shoulder as they back down the driveway. Matt averts his stare. Looking down at the gun barrel but not at the profiled face beyond it. MATT You were alone. We've got it worked out. RIC .who's we? Good estion. Matt doesn't answer though. Richard shifts into drive. EXT. RICHARD'S CONDO - PARKING LOT - S The Brown Suburban pulls out of the lot and onto the street. I NT. BROWN SUBURBAN - S RIC There's no planes this time of night, Dr. Fowler. MATT back through town. Then north on 73. RIC The airport's South... MATT Somebody's going to keep you for a while. They'll take you to the airport - turn on the radio. Find the game. 100 RIC It's after three MATT They run it again. Matt leans back, quietly uncorking the hammer. MATT No more talking. Richard tries to read Matt ∞s face in the mirror, but it -s now in shadows. Richard fumbles with the radio, surfing the stations. Matt is right. The game is on. Nomar Garcia arra hits a long drive to left with runners in scoring position "A cinch to collect 200 hits this season." Richard sets his eyes on the road. EXT. BROWN SUBURBAN - HIGHWAY 1 SOUTH - NIGHT The Brown Suburban heads away from Old orchard, onto a small two lane rural hi hwayy. The road is flanked on both sides by open fields, and lonely capes. Few cars on the road. INT BROWN SUB /WISSC SET BRIDGE They come up over the high bride over the channel: to the left the smacking curling white at the breakwater and beyond that the dark sea and a full moon, and down to the right the small fishing boats bobbing at anchor in the cove. Swirling colors from behind catch their attention. Richard and Matt both look in the rear-view. A state trooper's car with its gumballs flashing races up in the distance behind them. Matt jams the gun into Richard's ribs and slouches down. MATT (Trying to stay ca ri ht take it easy - pull over to the shoo der. Matt & Richard sit tight waiting for the inevitable. The light gains in intensity, as the cab fills with crimson. EXT. WISCASSET BRIDGE The cruiser tears right past them. Quickly fading into the distance. ? e I NT. BROWN S - S Matt leans back he looks shaken. Richard watches his chance DISAPPE 101 EXT. OWLS HEAD - NIGHT the vague outline of mountains, It is almost pitch black. Onl hi d' the moon. Then, from far off, a pair of headlights move tow us, fighting through the thick night .BROWN SUBURBAN 73 NORTH JUNCTION Richard sees the sign for the 73 North. He glances back at Matt in the rearview mirror. He makes the turn. EXT. OWL'S HEAD GRANGE - S The Brown Suburban makes the turn. I NT. BROWN SUBURBAN - S Matt & Richard check out their surroundings. EXT. SMALL BRIDGE - NIGHT TREVETTE BRIDGE The Brown Suburban drives across a small steel bridge that covers a salt river. The tires make a low thumping sound on the grid. I NT. BROWN SUBURBAN - B Y C ROAD (OWLS HEAD) - NIGHT They have left the 73 and are driving on a small rural route. Matt leans forward, the gun rests against the top of Richard's seat. He looks around, trying to get a bearing. MATT Turn around. RICHARD Why? MATT We missed it. Turn around. back and turn in at the last road. EXT. R ROUTE - SAME - NIGHT Richard slows, and makes a U-turn. His lights illuminate PRIVATE -ROAD and NO HUNTING signs. He takes a right, onto a dirt road flanked on both sides by fir trees. E .DIRT ROAD We track with the Brown Suburban as fir trees strobe in the foreground. 1 02 IN/EXT. BROWN SUBURBAN - DIRT ROAD RIC There's nothing back here Dr. Fowler? I donut understand why you don-t just MATT It's for you're car. You don't think we'd leave it at the airport do you? MATT WATCHES RIC S LARGE, BIG KNUCKLED HANDS TIGHTEN ON THE WHEEL. They crawl up the trail, the wheels crunching the gravel, the headlights shining into the dense woods. The road seems endless. Richard cringes as they bounce over a bump. Both of them eagerly peer beyond the windshield. Finally, at a great distance, the tiny lit windows of a cabin come into view. A BLUE CHEVY PICKUP is parked in front of the place. MATT Stop here. The Brown Suburban crawls to a stop. Richard keeps the engine running. Matt presses the gun hard against his neck. He straightens in his seat and looks in the rearview mirror. Matt's eyes meet his in the glass for an instant before focusing on the hair at the end of the gun barrel. TT Turn it off. Richard does. The ball game disappears, and the silence is strangely a anent. He continues to hold the w eel with both hands. He ooks in the mirror. RIC I'll do twenty years, Dr. Fowler, I'll be fifty-four years old. MATT That's two years younger than I EXT. DIRT ROAD - S Matt gets out and k∞cks the door shut. Richard opens his door. He doesn't move. Just sits in the interior light. His face now pleading. Matt can see it in his lips. MATT Get the bags. RIC- (TERRIFIED ) Where are we Dr. ?owler? 103 MATT Almost there. Richard carefully gets out. Instinctively, he raises his hands about shoulder level. They move to the back of the Brown Suburban. Richard pops the hatch. He pulls out the two canvas bags. He sets them on the ground. He reaches in and pulls out the small suitcase. We hear a SCREEN DOOR slam shut. Richard looks surprised. He turns back to Matt. C'mon now. Richard reaches down and picks up the bags. He struggles to carry all three. Matt grabs the small suitcase from him. MATT That way. Richard lugs the bags toward the cabin. We hear HEAVY CRUNCHING FOOTSTEPS OF SOMEONE APPROACHING. Richard stops. WILLIS APPEARS FROM DOWN THE PATH. He nods to Matt. RIC Mr. Grinnel? WILLIS I'll get them, son. Willis takes the bags from Richard, turns, and carries them up the long path back to the cabin. RICHARD LOOKS S r ïE' RELIEVED. He waits a moment, u-sure of what to do. Finally, he starts wal'-.ing up the path after Willis. 1 Wait. Richard stops, ∞d-step. He tenses, waiting. MATT You can carry this one. Richard turns. LO He reaches out to take the bag from Matt. Matt keeps it at his side, and takes a step back, his gun trained on Richard. RICHARD CONNECTS WITH TT'S EYES. KNOWS. RICHARD DUCKS AND TAKES ONE STEP THAT'S THE BEGINNING OF A SPRINT. BOOM THE GUN KICKS IN MATT'S HAND. THE GUN'S REPORT ECHOES FOR ETERNITY. MATT STANDS ABSOLUTELY STILL. STILL HOLDS THE LITTLE SUITCASE. LOOKS DOWN AT RICHARD STROUT SQUIRMING ON HIS BELLY. KICKING ONE LEG BEHIND HIM, PUSHING HIMSELF FORWARD, TOWARD THE WOODS. MATT WATCHES DISPASSIONATELY. STEPS FORWARD, RAISES THE GUN AND FIRES ONE MORE SHOT. RICHARD STOPS MOVING. Matt stands there motionless. We hear FOOTSTEPS. Willis runs up to Matt. STOPS AT RICHARD'S CORPSE. WILLIS (BREATHLESS) MATT The two men look into each others eyes. Matt seems to be somewhe re else He looks back down at the body. WILLIS This isn't what we talked out, MATT He tried to run. Willis looks at the gun still in Matt's hand, the little suitcase in the other. WILLIS We were going to wait, and take him out in the woods. Matt raises his head. He looks at Willis flatly. 105 MATT I coul ∞t wait. BODY - a d in a BLUE TARP, is suddenly dragged away by the ATV. It es quite a racket. We follow it as it scrapes along, the road back into the woods WOODS - They have roved the body from the ATV and are now draggin it deep into the wood. The only sound is the breaking of brans es and their continual grunting. The stop∞at the top of a small knoll, panting and sweating. Wil is quietly removes a small mass of branches, revealing a o t large, well-dug hole. Together, they drag the body t he edge of the hole. Move behind it. Lift the legs, and push it in. THE WOODS - LATER - Willis and Matt come up from the woods. They carry Richard's lug age. Willis drops the canvas bags into the hole. Matt loo s at the suitcase and then drops it in. Willis takes a couple of steps away, and grabs two shovels leaning against a small birch. He hands one to Matt. Together, they begin filling in the hole. SAME PLACE - LATER - Matt holds the flashlight as Willis sprinkles leaves and branches over the hole. Willis freezes, as if he has heard something. Matt cuts the light. They hear some footsteps approaching, closer, then they see it - A DEER not 30 yards distant watchin them A Buck with a splendid rack, a deep chestsnowy white, a l of him in his prime His flag up d twitching. His eyes u Quin Then he bounds off and is gone. WOODS LATER - The walk through the woods. The light on the ground. They bot look up through the trees where they end at the lake. Neither of them speak, only the sounds of their hea breathing and clumsy strides through the low brush and over fa len branches. 106 EXT. BOW Wide and dark, lap ing softly at the bank, a small island near it's middle, with black, tall evergreens. Matt, gun in hand, takes two steps back, he strides with the throw and goes to one knee as he follows through. The dark shapeless object arcing downward, splashing. T DIRT ROAD, T BROWN SUBURBAN. /EXT. BROWN S - TREVETT SWINGBRIDCD - NIGHT Matt in the Brown Suburban, is stopped behind the wooden and arm, Willis in his own car behind. The swing bridge is open for the 5:00a.m. fishing boats. The operator uses his long metal tool, the bridge swings back around. The arm rises. MATT Seems somewhere else. WILLIS WILLIS (ANGRY) C'mon g M tt. O A Matt drives the Brown Suburban over the bridge. The operator gives him a friendly nod. Waves to Willis in the Ford. EXT. WISCASSET BRIDGE - PRE-DAWN Willis's truck & Richard's S travel towards us away from Wiscasset. On their way to Cheesy Town Island. I NT. FORD - OLD ORCD STATION - PRE-DAWN Willis watches out his windshield as the Brown Suburban parks in the station∞s lot. Matt gets out of the Brown Suburban and locks the driver∞s door. Be walks the Ford, and gets in the passenger side. They drive off. /EXT- WISSC SET BRIDGE - S Willis's car moves slowly over the channel bridge, back to Wiscasset. Matt rolls down his window. Be tosses Richard∞s keys over the side of the brad e . The trim shapes of lobster boats and smal craft anchored in t he hExbor below, loo like old toys in a bathtub, He rolls up the window as the car continues across. Both men silent, lost in thought, staring out the windshield at the road ahead. 107 WILLIS {SOFTLY) What time is it? Matt checks his watch. MATT Ten to six. We lost an hour. Sorry. Willis's jaw tightens. WIILLIS (almost losing his temper) Yep...high tide. Can't stop people from fish'in Matt - uck'in brides Matt looks over at Willis. MATT I'm sor Willis. Willis looks at Matt. He knows. Eyes back to the road. WILLIS (FORCED CALM) Stopped in to his little shed there once place reeked ...the guy's spilled more whiskey than we've ever drunk. Just pray he's already three sheets to the wind. Matt doesn't reply. WILLIS Katie's pill will be wearing off soon. I /EXT.FO MAIN STREET ROCKLAND - DAWN They drive down the empty streets of a sleeping Rockland. PAST THE IMER OF ROCKLAND CIVIL W MEMORIAL, TWO SENTRYS STAND GU, PAST HIGH SCHOOL. PAST ROCIULAMPOLICE DEPT. PAST 3TONNE'S SPECIALTY SHOPPE Something catches Matt's attention in the store front. The anne ins in the window They seem to be staring at h∞ 108 STRUT & SONS CANNERY PAST - AWEEN ARCH EXT. SIDE STREET - MATT'S NEIGHBORHOOD DAWN The Ford pulls up to the curb. Matt gets out. Willis drives away. Matt starts walking. EXT. F RSTREET -S The STREET LIGHTS suddenly turn off',. The world is waking up now. EXT. FOWLER STREET - S In the distance, Matt can see his house. The birds all seem to wake at once. Matt gazes up into the trees overhead, the first light just kissing their branches, the sky now a husky blue. The surrounding houses with the windows still dark, asleep. He picks up his pace. I NT. FOWLER HOUSE - B. Matt enters. T LAUNDRY ROOM - S He roves his tennis shoes, his pants, he starts unbuttoning his shirt. Now in his T-shirt and boxers, he examines his clothes and shoes carefully, before putting them into the washer - He pours detergent inside - and starts the cycle. He steps to a little sink and washes up. DINING ROOM The light has been left on, he kills it and heads upstairs. UPSTAIRS - S. Matt slowly walks down the hall, to BEDROOM -S And stands in the doorway. He pauses, seeing only the orange ember of Ruth's cigarette, in the dark. 0 109 RUTH (UNSEEN) Did you do it? He doesn-t answer. He walks in and comes to bed, climbing in as Ruth moves over. RUTH Are you all right? He lies down. FACES THE WINDOW, AWAY FROM HER. She is on her side, she props herself up on her elbow - watching him. He waits a longtime before speaking MATT There was a picture with Natalie and the boys hanging on his wall - Ruth looks at him strangely. RUTH (GENTLY) .what is it, Matt? MATT - the way she was smiling. RUTH What? MATT I don't know - Ruth looks at the back of Matt's head. RUTH Matt? He doesn't move. He says nothing else. She continues to stare at him. Uncertainty beginning to form on her face. She looks lost. If only things cou d be as t ey were. Then. RUTH at I thinking - you must be hungry. She waits for a response, but gets e. She gets out of bed, leaves the room and heads down stairs. LONG EMPTY WAY. WE EEAR RUTH downstairs in the kitchen. 110 RUTH 0. S. Matt? Matt just lies there, in another world. RUTH Matt dear, do you want coffee? Be doesn't respond. Instead he looks at his finger. The bandage wet from washing up. He slides it off easily, like oversized ring. The skin has healed. LATER NOW Sun light creeps in through the curtains, onto Matt's face. Ruth lies sleeping on his chest. A breakfast tray at his bedside which he hasn't touched Matt is cede awake. He stares at the ceiling Reliving it His eyes full of an unspeakable sadness. The lids heavy. If only he could sleep. But he won't. Not today. There is a small crack in the ceiling. He'll have to fix that. BLACK - THE FAINT SOUNDS FADE UP THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_In the Loop.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_In the Loop.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..bc19a6c19af4eb38651ba6e10ce069d6fd8f99a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_In the Loop.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + IN THE LOOP Written by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche 1 EXT. 10 DOWNING STREET LONDON - MORNING 1 MALCOLM TUCKERS, government director of communications, is arriving early.2 INT. NUMBER TEN CORRIDOR/MALCOLM'S OFFICE - MORNING 2 A CIVIL SERVANT hands Malcolm a CD. CIVIL SERVANT Monitoring. All the usual. MALCOLM How did your team do at the weekend? CIVIL SERVANT Yeah, alright. We won. MALCOLM Great. (to himself) Wanker. Malcolm reaches his office. His assistant SAM is there. MALCOLM (CONT'D) Sam. Morning. He hands her the CD and she puts it into a CD player. MALCOLM (CONT'D) Well, pop pickers....what Shall we start with today? Wonky Ron....or Simon Foster, on the PM programme for the BBC. Malcolm starts listening to the recording of Simon on the radio. EDDIE MAIR (ON RADIO) Well, I'm joined by Simon Foster, the Minister for International development. Thank you for joining us. MALCOLM Here we go. EDDIE MAIR You've been in the job now for eighteen months, do you think you're making headway? SIMON (v/o on radio) Ah. Yes I do. You'd expect me to say that I suppose. Page 1 3 INT. DIFED OPEN PLAN OFFICE. DAY 3 Judy Malloy, the Department's Press Officer, is preparing for her minister's arrival. JUDY Mark, are you co-ordinating that millenium goals press release? MARK Yes. JUDY Well co-ordinate it better. MARK Yes, can do. JUDY Is that the Minister? Bloody nail - has anyone got a nail file?4 INT. DFID OPEN PLAN OFFICE. DAY. 4 SIMON is arriving with JUDY. Simon carrying his red dispatch box. Simon's worried. SIMON Have we heard anything from Malcolm about last night's interview? JUDY No not yet. SIMON Perhaps he didn't hear it. JUDY Or maybe he's dead. SIMON (with a degree of genuine hope) He might be dead. He might have had that massive stroke we've all been waiting for. It's in the post.5 INT. MALCOLM'S OFFICE. DAY. 5 SIMON (ON RADIO) ...preventable sickness in many of the poorest countries round the world....and Of course the big one is diarrhoea, which is a major, major issue.... Page 2 5 CON TINUE D: 5 MALCOLM Diarrhoea? I mean, this is the minister for International Development. He should be talking about food parcels, not fucking arse-spraying mayhem. SAM laughs. SIMON (ON RADIO) And so if we can tackle the easy things, like diarrhoea, then we can..... MALCOLM Oh yes, say it again. Very good. What is this, The Shitting Forecast? SIMON (ON RADIO) ...and then hopefully that will strike another blow in the war against preventable diseases. EDDIE MAIR You mentioned the word `war" MALCOLM is paying extremely close attention now. MALCOLM Steady Eddie... SIMON (ON RADIO) Against preventable diseases, yes.... EDDIE MAIR (ON RADIO) Yes. All the evidence now points to a US military intervention in the Middle East. Is that you view? SIMON (ON RADIO) Well....personally, I think that war is unforseeable. MALCOLM Sam! Sam! EDDIE MAIR (ON RADIO) Unforseeable? SIMON (ON RADIO) Yes. MALCOLM NO YOU DO NOT THINK THAT! Sam! I'm going to have to go over to International Development, and pull Simon Foster's fucking hair. Page 3 6 EXT. 10 DOWNING STREET LONDON. DAY. 6 MALCOLM emerges into the street. On the phone. MALCOLM He did not say "unforseeable'. You may have heard him say it, but he did not say that, and that is a fact.7 INT. DFI OPEN PLAN OFFICE. DAY. 7 JUDY He'll want you to row back from the `unforeseeable' thing on Question Time tonight. SIMON On Question Time, you know the funny question they always ask at the end? JUDY Yes? SIMON I think we should prep that now. I'd like to shine on the funny question, cos I'm a funny guy. With a light touch. SIMON deposits his briafcase. Judy finds some clippings, returns. JUDY There's this guy, he's a property tycoon. He's bought a South Sea Island. It might be something like that, you know. "If you had to spend the rest of your life on a desert island, who would it be with?" SIMON Ah. Well, I can't say my wife, because I haven't got one, and I can't say my girlfriend, because I haven't got one of those either. JUDY And don't say Mandela, that's... SIMON No. Boring. And a bloke. JUDY Or Keira Knightley. SIMON Well, that's a good idea. Page 4 7 CON TINUE D: 7 JUDY Pervert. Sex. Minister. SIMON I don't think so. JUDY People don't want to know.8 EXT. STREET NEAR WHITEHALL. DAY. 8 Toby and Suzy walking to work together. SUZY Did you take the washing out of the machine? TOBY No. SUZY What do you mean, no? TOBY No. I didn't take the washing out of the machine. SUZY It's going to go really stale. TOBY It'll be fine. SUZY It's not fine. By the time... TOBY It is fine. I'll wear stale pants. SUZY I don't want to go out with some who wears stale pants. TOBY Well, there we go. I could go commando, but I don't think that's acceptable in government. SUZY (Disgusted) Please. So: got everything you need for your first day in International Development? Page 5 8 CON TINUE D: 8 TOBY Oh Yes. It's all here. My massive intellect. And an apple for Simon Foster. SUZY Simon Fluster. TOBY Don't say that, I'm rebranding him. SUZY Well he was crap on the radio last night. He sounded like a chicken with a wasp up its arse. TOBY Well I'm going to sort that out. After a week I'll have him sounding like a chicken without a wasp up its arse. SUZY Have a good day, good luck honey. TOBY Have a good day at the Foreign Office. Try not to annoy Russia. SUZY I'll give you a call later. Keep your phone on. Bye. TOBY Yeah, alright. SUZY Oh and be careful - cars! They walk off in separate directions.9 MORNING/INT. MICHAEL'S FO OFFICE - MORNING 9 Toby is walking towards DFID. As he nears the building he finds himself next to Malcolm, who is heading in too. Toby is on the phone. INTERCUT PHONE CALL: TOBY Are you going to keep ringing me up every two minutes, because you're starting to remind me of my mum. And that could lead to all sorts of erectile dysfunction. Suzy is still in the FO office. Page 6 9 CON TINUE D: 9 SUZY I'm just checking whether you put last night's lasagne in the fridge. In the FO office, MICHAEL arrives. He has a small suitcase and a paper bag. He holds this up. MICHAEL (mouthing) Croissants! Back with Malcolm, Toby close by. Malc's on the phone. MALCOLM No. You're fine to go ahead and print that. It's lies, you'd be lying, but go ahead. He did not say unforeseeable. No he did not. Oh, just before you go -- when I tell your wife about you and Angela Heaney at the Blackpool conference...would email be better? Or a phone call? Or, hey I know, I'll write it on a cake, "Your hack husband betrayed you on the 4th of October, and congratulations on the new baby" in those little silver balls. (BEAT) Yeah, maybe best to spike it? Okay. Fuckity-bye! Toby is now next to Malcolm in the building (or better still, in a lift). Malcolm becomes aware of him. TOBY No, it's fine, it's in the fridge. I put some clingfilm over it. In the FO office, Michael switches on some classical music. SUZY Why did you put clingfilm on it? TOBY To keep it fresh. Malcolm starts dialling on his phone. SUZY It's in the fridge, that'll keep it fresh. TOBY No, but it still might dry out. MALCOLM (into phone) Yeah, Malcolm Tucker. Can I speak to James Lewis at the PM Programme please? Page 7 9 CON TINUE D: (2) 9 Michael hands Suzie a croissant. MICHAEL (knowing Toby is on the other end of the line) Still slightly warm. That's how I like my women as well. SUZY Clingfilm is carcinogenic, Toby. TOBY No it isn't. That's a myth. Clingfilm is perfectly safe. Malcolm now eyeing Toby with suspicion/contempt -- who is this dick? Toby tries to smile, lowers his voice, embarrassed. MALCOLM (into phone) No, I'll hold,. what's he waiting for? A sex-change? TOBY They wouldn't sell clingfilm if it gave you cancer. Clingfilm doesn't give you cancer. And Lasagne doesn't give you syphillis. MALCOLM James! Right --Simon Foster? Yeah, very funny, the Diarrhoea of a Nobody. Listen, we get an easy ride on Tom tomorrow, OK? (getting annoyed) No, YOU relax. Tell you what, I'll come over a lock you in a flotation tank and pump it full of sewage until you drown. GET ME FUCKING BRIAN! TITLE - IN THE LOOP10 INT. SIMON'S OFFICE - DAY. 10 Simon and Judy are still prepping the funny question. .. SIMON Paris Hilton? JUDY Are you serious? SIMON Lily Allen. JUDY No. No women. Page 8 10 CON TINUE D: 10 SIMON The Olson twins? Judy gets a call. JUDY Hi. Right. I see. She rings off. SIMON (sensing something's up) What? JUDY Malcolm's coming to see you. SIMON Shit. He's still alive. When's he due? Malcolm walks in with Toby sheepishly behind him. MALCOLM Now. And don't say you weren't prepared because I rang ahead. (To JUDY) Give us a minute, will you love? Judy gets up as Malcolm turns back to SIMON MALCOLM (CONT'D) In the words of the late, great Nat King Fucking Cole, `Unforeseeable, that's what you are..'11 INT. DFI OPEN PLAN OFFICE 11 JUDY has spotted TOBY. JUDY So you're...whatever your name is, Dan, the new advisor? Daniel. TOBY Toby. JUDY Right. Just most of you lot tend to be called Dan, or Danny, so it's always worth a punt. OK, hello. As you know, I'm Judy Molloy, Civil Service Director of Communications for International Development. They shake hands. Page 9 11 CON TINUE D: 11 TOBY Is this a normal morning, or...? Judy's not got time for questions. JUDY Okay, I've got a meeting in (looks at watch) two minutes. And the minister was rubbish in last night's interview. TOBY Rubbish? JUDY It's a technical term. It means he went on the radio and everyone could hear that he was rubbish. Someone goes into Simon's office. As door opens we hear heated conversation between Simon and Malcolm. MALCOLM [IN OFFICE] You sounded like a panicky chimp trapped in a washing machine.12 INT. DFID SIMON'S OFFICE. DAY. 12 Back inside Simon's office. SIMON Come on, Malcolm, he asked me for a personal opinion. MALCOLM Oh why didn't you say? I mean, he asked you. Fuck. Of course, that explains it. Yeah. Say, if he'd asked you to fucking black up, or give him your PIN number, or shot yourself, would you have done that as well. SIMON I would have blacked up. It was the radio and no-one would have known. MALCOLM Yeah. Very good. SIMON But war is -- basically unforeseeable isn't it? MALCOLM That is not our line, alright? Walk the fucking line. Look. (MOR E) Page 10 12 CON TINUE D: 12 MAL COLM (CONT'D) We've got Karen Clark over from Washington, okay? We've got the US National Security Advisor's main guy coming. Yeah? We've got enough Pentagon goons here for a fucking coup d'etat. This is not the time to send out a signal like this in some personal fucking sodcast. JUDY and TOBY come in. JUDY Minister, this is Toby. MALCOLM Not the time love. Fuck off. JUDY smiles at MALCOLM, and doesn't fuck off. SIMON Hey Toby. Glad you could join us. Bit of an odd morning, but 'Welcome to the madhouse!'I apologise for Malcolm. MALCOLM Don't apologise for me. You should apologise for yourself. (to Judy) Did I not just tell you to fuck off and yet you're still here? JUDY That's correct. MALCOLM (to Toby) Hey, foetus boy. Lesson One: If I tell you to fuck off what do you do? TOBY Fuck off? MALCOLM You'll go far.Now fuck off. TOBY Right. Toby fucks off. We can see him outside, wandering around, not knowing what to do with himself. SIMON We were thinking, weren't we Judy, that I could row back on Question Time tonight. MALCOLM No, You're not going on Question Time tonight. You've been disinvited. Page 11 12 CON TINUE D: (2) 12 SIMON Why? We've been prepping Question Time. MALCOLM Because they ask fucking questions on Question Time. And you're no good at questions. If it was Fumbling, Off- Message Shit Fucking Answer Time, you'd be our main guy. But it's not. JUDY Sorry, why wasn't I told about this? MALCOLM Why should I tell you about this? JUDY Because it's a scheduled media appearance by this department's Secretary Of State and it therefore falls within my purview... MALCOLM Your purview? Where do you think you are sweetheart, in some Regency costume drama? This is a government department, not a fucking Jane Austen novel. Allow me to pop a jaunty little bonnet on your purview and ram it up the shitter with a lubricated horse cock. JUDY Malcolm, your swearing doesn't impress me. My husband works for Tower Hamlets and believe me, those kids make you sound like Angela Lansbury. MALCOLM (to Simon, lads' chat) She's married? The poor bastard. SIMON But...okay, Judy's lubricated horse cock aside for one moment.... (Judy walks out) Are you saying that I'm now not allowed to make any media appearances? MALCOLM No, not until we can trust you to keep to the line. SIMON But I was going to keep to the line: "I don't actually think war is unforeseeable." Page 12 12 CON TINUE D: (3) 12 Malcolm's looking out of the office, monitoring Judy's movements. She's flashed up on his radar. He's tracking her. MALCOLM What is it then? A beat. SIMON Is it...I don't know? Foreseeable? No. MALCOLM No. Not foreseeable. That's fucking declaring war. Do you want to fucking declare war? SIMON I'm a cabinet minister. I didn't get here by screwing up every media appearance I ever had. MALCOLM Write this down. It's neither forseeable nor undorseeable. SIMON Right. So not inevitable, but not...evitable. Malcolm leaves the office. Toby is still hovering. MALCOLM (calling back to Simon) Okay, you need to work on this fucking line. (to Judy) That includes you, Jane Fucking Austen with the strap-on. Oh, and put the sniff out there that the next time the BBC ambushes a Minister with a war question we'll drop a bomb on them. JUDY I can't do that. That's political, that's not in my... MALCOLM Purview, Marie Antoinette? Weel listen, darling, why don't you fucking scuttle off back to fucking Cranford and play around with your tea and cake and horse cocks. Let them eat cock! (TO TOBY) You, Ron Weasley -- you do it. Malcolm heads out. Page 13 13 INT. FO MICHAELS OFFICE - DAY 13 Suzy and Michael in Michael's office. Suzy's getting documents together for the big meeting. Michael's at his computer, on the phone. Classical music still on. MICHAEL (on phone) You needn't worry about the Canadians. They're just happy to be there. (Pause) Yes, well, they always look surprised when they're invited. SUZY Listen, shall I just give Toby a quick call about the Simon Foster thing? Suzy dials.14 INT. DFID/INT FOREIGN OFFICE MICHAELS OFFICE 14 Toby checks the phone. Sees it's Suzy -- Christ, not her again, I'm a bit busy here. He answers. INTERCUT PHONE CALL: TOBY Hiya. You do know this is the third time you've rung? Are you on a new tariff? SUZY So? How's it going? You found the bogs yet? TOBY All a bit manic. It was never like this at Agriculture. People tend not to swear so much about wheat. Apart from farmers. They swear about everything. SUZY (to Michael, re. the music) Can you turn that down a bit? (to Toby) Look, I've got a leg up for you. I think we could get Simon into the big meeting with Karen Clark? TOBY Right - Karen Clark from...is that the woman who went round Britain in a coracle for leukemia? Page 14 14 CON TINUE D: 14 SUZY Karen Clark, US Assistant Secretary of State? TOBY Oh right. Shit. Karen Clark. Wow. Thanks. SUZY Hang on, Michael wants to say something. MICHAEL Meat. SUZY Meat. MICHAEL Meat! Simon's only going to be meat in the room. Don't get his hopes up. SUZY Yeah, so you know -- Simon, between us, he's just going to be meat in the room. TOBY Meat? Judy, nearby, hears this. SUZY (waving him away) Yeah. The Americans don't feel they're getting a real meeting unless there's thirty of you on each side. So Simon is...you know those polystyrene peanut things they use to pack electrical goods? Sort of one of those. But you might not want to tell him that. I ought to go. I love you. Judy's hovering nearby. TOBY Likewise. Affirmative on that.15 INT. DFID - DAY / INT. SIMON'S OFFICE - DAY 15 Judy is hovering as Toby finishes his call. JUDY So, quick tour. She starts walking away. Toby follows. TOBY Um, I do just need to... Page 15 15 CON TINUE D: 15 JUDY Over there...that's Mike's patch. Leave Mike to it. He knows what he's doing. Don't you Mike? MIKE What? JUDY Exactly. (as they walk on) He's an idiot. He organised 3,000 tents and sanitation packs for Rwanda. TOBY Right...is that not...? JUDY They needed them in Luanda. Angola. It's been in the news. (checks phone) And that's the end of the tour. I've got to go. TOBY Look, I understand your hostility to new wood coming in.. JUDY There's a lot of really important people you need to know about, but I haven't got time. But she's gone. Toby heads over to Simon's office. The door's open. He pops his head in. TOBY Hey, boss. SIMON Toby, hi. Sorry about earlier -- Malcolm. He's a bit of an...alpha male, isn't he? TOBY Look, I've managed to get you into the big meeting at the Foreign Office this afternoon. SIMON The Karen Clark meeting? Shit, really? Sure. How did you...? TOBY I did it through sheer bloody hard work. Judy walks past. Simon calls out. Page 16 15 CON TINUE D: (2) 15 SIMON Hey Judy. She comes in. JUDY Hello? SIMON Tobes here has got me into the big Karen Clark meeting. Judy looks at Toby. She heard the `meat' conversation. JUDY Wow. Yeah, the Big Meet. How are you spelling that, by the way? TOBY Two `e's.16 EXT. FOREIGN OFFICE. DAY 16 Simon, Toby and Judy drive along Whitehall in their car. An awkward silence. Judy looks at Toby. She knows Simon's just off to be meat. TOBY (off Judy's look) Just, maybe, might be best not to get too excited. It might be that their guys muscle in and have the lion's share of the talk time. JUDY Yeah. It might be like that. SIMON I think I can work a room, okay? I'm not a room virgin.17 INT. FOREIGN OFFICE BUILDING. FOYER - DAY 17 Simon, Toby and Judy are going through security. Suzy and Michael come to meet them. MICHAEL Simon. SIMON Michael. Page 17 17 CON TINUE D: 17 A very young man approaches Michael. Looks like he is 19. He is CHAD. CHAD Ah, Michael? I'm Chad. MICHAEL Hello? CHAD We'd like a dual horse-shoe formation for the meeting set-up - an enclave for Ms Clark, an enclave for the Pentagon delegation. First names acceptable to all parties and politely we request the presence of both carbonated and non- carbonated waters. SUZY Right. CHAD Thanks so much. He walks purposefully off. MICHAEL My God. Who was that, Young Lankenstein? JUDY Oh he'll be running something relatively major. They're all kids in Washington. It's like Bugsy Malone, but with real guns.18 INT. FOREIGN OFFICE GRAND MEETING ROOM - DAY 18 Chad's dual horse-shoe is packed with people. The room's pretty much full. KAREN CLARK from the State Department is surrounded by ten or so aides and functionaries, security people and assistants. (Including Chad and LIZA one of Karen's senior aides.) Then there is Bob Adriano's gang of advisors, smaller but sitting separately. Next to them is a Pentagon delegation, including uniformed members of all three services. Lots of hubbub. SUZY leads SIMON, TOBY and JUDY in, and shows them to their seats. Page 18 18 CON TINUE D: 18 They're as far away from the US delegation as it's possible to be, and Simon's seat is actually behind a pillar. Suzy goes off to join Michael and the Foreign Office delegation near the front. Suzy looks over to Toby, uses her hands to make mock binoculars, as if to say, 'you're very far away, look how close and therefore important I am'. SIMON No-one will hear me if I say anything. How's your view? Can we swap? Simon and Toby swap seats, but Simon can still barely see anything. SIMON (CONT'D) (to Judy) Can I swap with you? JUDY I think the meeting's starting. It is. SIMON Well, quickly then, swap. Simon and Judy swap seats. The meeting is now underway. We're with Karen Clark. KAREN We all agree this is a very tough time, but I don't want a consensus to form around the premise that conflict is necessarily the primary option at this point. Back with Simon, Judy and Toby. Simon still straining to see. SIMON Are people thinking that? That's -- a bit hardcore. He cranes again to see. SIMON (CONT'D) No, this is worse. Swap back. Simon and Judy swap seats again. Back with Karen. She's holding up a paper in a red folder. Page 19 18 CON TINUE D: (2) 18 KAREN This paper, authored by one of my aides, Liza Weld. You don't mind me fore- grounding this do you Liza? Liza reacts. Her paper? In a big meeting. Is this good or bad? KAREN (CONT'D) Illuminates the logistical factors we face. She highlights a number of reasons why, in practical terms, we can't envision a theatre deployment for twelve months. BOB ADRIANO Although not everyone might agree with the assumptions made in that paper. KAREN Really - such as what? BOB ADRIANO The committee feels a much quicker deployment is possible. KAREN Which committee? BOB ADRIANO (covering) This has been discussed in a number of committees. If I said one committee... KAREN You did. ADRIANO Then that was a slip of the tongue KAREN Have you accidentally alluded to some secret committee? A war committee? MICHAEL If I can interject here, I'm aware we're pushed for time. I'd like to move us on agenda-wise. Our next item is international relief co-ordination. Karen is conferring with Liza, Adriano with his guy. KAREN Have you heard of this committee? ADRIANO What's this Liza Weld paper? Page 20 18 CON TINUE D: (3) 18 Simon is watching, feeling the meeting is passing him by. SIMON (to Judy and Toby) Should I say something? She invited me, I should say something. If you don't say something in the first 10 minutes, you can end up not saying anything at all. JUDY I don't know whether you should say anything. SIMON I'm saying something ... I think I'm going to try saying something. Simon goes to put his hand up, Toby maybe puts a calming hand on his hand. They look at one another. Has Toby crossed a line? KAREN Look - I just think it's worth noting that Ministers in The UK Government, (Liza whispers - Simon's over there) such as our colleague here ... SIMON (pleased) Is she talking about me? KAREN Simon Foster ... SIMON She's talking about me! KAREN Has made it clear that for them currently war is unforeseeable. Isn't that right Simon? SIMON Well, yes, I mean, that's what I said. And I stick to what I said. SIMON sits down. Them stands back up. SIMON (CONT'D) But that doesn't mean that what I said won't ever change. It's not imutable. Or mutable. It's an ongoing ... Page 21 18 CON TINUE D: (4) 18 MICHAEL (cutting in) I wonder if there aren't some area of mutual agreement we can't rattle through here and see how much time we have at the end for this discussion? He's ended the debate. Suzy comes round the back of the meeting all smiles and hands Judy a note with a smile. JUDY Thanks. She opens the note it reads, `Simon is acting like a massive tit. Stop him.' SUZY Is that all fine? JUDY That's all fine. Thanks for that. SUZY Thanks. Toby whispers something in Simon's ear. Simon doesn't look pleased. Karen is still talking to the meeting. Simon shuts up. He'll have this out later.19 INT. FOREIGN OFFICE BALLROOM - DAY 19 The big meeting is breaking up. Simon is annoyed, leading Judy and Toby out of the room and into any private space he can find - they back into a huge huge ballroom SIMON Come here - we need to talk (they go into the massive room, look around) What do you mean stop being a `tit'? In what way was I being a tit? Why am I even over here if I'm not meant to say anything? JUDY You were just meat in the room, Simon. SIMON 'Meat in the room'? Oh for fuck's sake Judy. I took an hour out to come over here and be room meat? Page 22 19 CON TINUE D: 19 TOBY But you know you're a prime cut, you're not - offal. SIMON Great, I'm not liver. What was I, tit meat?20 INT. FOREIGN OFFICE LOBBY - DAY 20 We're with Karen Clark's delegation who have just walked downstairs from the meeting room into a ground floor lobby area. KAREN is talking to LIZA, her right-hand woman. TOBY, SIMON and JUDY are above them standing round a circular viewing area that looks down on the lobby. The UK and US delegations are aware of each other, throwing furtive glances each other's way. KAREN Whichever committee they don't want me to be a member of, I want to be a member of that. It's a confused Groucho Marx. LIZA Okay. Right. Chad arrives. Karen talks to someone else. CHAD Hey Liza. Your paper got a major citation. You must be psyched Karen brought it up. LIZA She...that was her call. I didn't know it had been that widely read. CHAD You could not write anything that clashes more violently with the current climate than you the one you wrote if you were trying, and it almost seems like you were trying. LIZA I wasn't trying, believe me. CHAD You are like the woman from The Omen, you've given birth to a demon and it's going to kill you. Page 23 20 CON TINUE D: 20 LIZA You probably identify with the kid from The Omen right? CHAD Ooh. LIZA See, you're an only child, aren't you? CHAD You bring this up whenever you run out of arguments. I don't see how my parents' limited reproductive abilities reflects badly on me. I'm the sperm that made it. Liza walks off, over to Karen. CHAD (CONT'D) Have fun with your career kryptonite.21 INT. FOREIGN OFFICE LOBBY - DAY 21 SIMON (re : Karen talking conspiratorially to Liza downstairs) What's that all about? It looks important.22 INT. FOREIGN OFFICE LOBBY - DAY 22 Karen is back, huddled up with Liza. KAREN My teeth hurt. I think the veneers are chipped. Do they look chipped? Liza stares into Karen's mouth. LIZA Well, I think that one, that one's always been there, right? I'm not sure. Have you got any painkillers? KAREN Oh, don't look at my teeth.23 INT. FOREIGN OFFICE UPSTAIRS MEZZANINE - DAY 23 JUDY (trying to earwig) Sshhh! Page 24 24 INT. FOREIGN OFFICE LOBBY - DAY 24 KAREN (looking up at the Brits, off Simon's smile) I don't want to risk a dentist here.25 INT. FOREIGN OFFICE UPSTAIRS MEZZANINE - DAY 25 The US delegation are heading off TOBY (shouting) Hey Liza! LIZA Oh ... Hi ... hi? She knows him but can't immediately place him. TOBY Toby? It's Toby. LIZA Hi. Hi. She makes the phone sign. He gives a thumbs up, she thinks he's misread the phone sign and gestures, or email by doing typing in the air. Toby signs back, yeah, call on the phone or email - does the typing back. JUDY (re the typing gesture) What are you doing? You look like you're practicing baby massage. TOBY She did the Kennedy scholarship at my college. I had a small thing for her. JUDY I can imagine. TOBY I'm not sure she remembered me. JUDY No, that is one of the side effects of Rohypnol. Page 25 26 INT. FOREIGN OFFICE. DAY. 26 KAREN Linton has set up a secret war committee, I just know it. I mean, Linton is an absolute lunatic, Liza. He is dangerous. The voices in his head are now singing barbershop together.27 EXT. FOREIGN OFFICE - DAY 27 The conversation is continuing between Simon Judy and Toby as they exit the FO. SIMON Yeah. Jesus. I really really hope there's not a war. It's going to be a nightmare. It's bad enough having to cope with the fucking Olympics. They appear outside. There's a press pack of 10 or so reporters and photographers there. PRESS Minister!/Simon!/Mr Foster! Simon is taken aback. SIMON Fuck. Who let the dogs out? We don't need this. JUDY Er, you wanted a chance to row back on the war. Do you want to nail the line? SIMON What? No. No. I'll freestyle it. The press are calling. REPORTER 1 Is war unforeseeable Minister? SIMON Look, (grappling now) ...loads of things that are actually very likely are also unforeseeable. Y'know, For the plane in the fog the mountain is unforeseeable, but then it, is suddenly very real and inevitable. Toby and Judy look at one another. This isn't good. Page 26 27 CON TINUE D: 27 The press pack are looking for more. REPORTER Sorry, are you saying that...? SIMON What I'm saying is that to - walk the road of peace, sometimes you need to be ready to climb the mountain of conflict. Thank you! The press are writing furiously, making calls already. Simon tries to look confident. He and the team get into their car.28 INT. CAR DRIVING THRU WESTMINSTER. DAY. 28 (CHANGE SCENE ORDER - GOES AFTER SC. 29G) Toby Simon and Judy on the back seat as they drive back to the Department. SIMON (under his breath) Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck. (to Judy) Why didn't we nail the line? JUDY I did try to warn you. SIMON You did try to warn me but you didn't actually stop me, did you?. That's like shouting 'Train!' as I get hit by a train. You should go (stupid voice) 'Look! Train! There's a Fucking Train!' JUDY'S and SIMON'S phones start ringing. They each check the number. SIMON (CONT'D) Oh shit. It's Malcolm. JUDY It's Malcolm for me too. SIMON How does he do that? (he answers, tentatively) Hello? Page 27 29 INT. NUMBER 10. DAY. 29 Malcolm has two phones on the go. He's watching the SKY NEWS coverage of Simon's mini-press coverage. It has a `Government ready to Climb the Mountain of Conflict' banner running across the top. MALCOLM (on the phone, over TV) Simon. I don't like finding out about people I work with via the news, unless they've died. Get over here now so we can address at least one of those issues.30 INT. NUMBER TEN - DAY 30 Judy, Simon and Toby are walking towards Malcolm's office. TOBY The thing is. On the war. With your profile.. (uncertain, but fuck it, he is a senior policy aide to a cabinet minister) ... Maybe we should - get it out there? That the war is a resigning issue for you. SIMON You can't say it's a resigning issue. Because you then have to resign. JUDY You are having a really great first day you know that? They walk in, Malcolm's there. MALCOLM (shouting) You are supposed to be a Cabinet Minster. You are supposed to be officer class. Don't do this. Don't make waves. SIMON We can do without the ritual humiliation, Malcolm. You know I'm against talking up the war. MALCOLM You're against talking up the war? Is that why you said, "Climb the mountain of conflict"? (MOR E) Page 28 30 CON TINUE D: 30 MAL COLM (CONT'D) Do you know what you sounded like? You sounded like a fucking Nazi Julie Andrews. SIMON I'm just saying. I might be forced to the verge of making a stand. MALCOLM (different tack needed) (at Toby and Judy) Right, you two, The White Stripes, outside. Simon makes to leave with them. MALCOLM (CONT'D) There's only two people in the White Stripes. Toby and Judy leave and wait outside the door. MALCOLM (CONT'D, TO SIMON) (CONT'D) Look, I admire you, I really do. Making a stand. So, I take it I can tell the PM you don't want to go to Washington? SIMON To where...? MALCOLM Washington. The boss wants you over there on a fact-finder. Problems we might face if it all goes boombastic in the Middle East. SIMON Oh. Right. MALCOLM But you were saying, you are on the verge of your stand... SIMON Well, look - I don't know what words I used in the heat of the moment, but maybe in a sense I was on the verge. But that's the important thing - I was on the verge. Not in any way decided. MALCOLM Christ on a bendy-bus, Simon, stop being such a faffing fuck-arse. SIMON I am standing my ground on the verge. Page 29 30 CON TINUE D: (2) 30 MALCOLM Well, when you go to America, talk to Karen Clarke at the State Department, SIMON I'll give it a whirl. MALCOLM But keep away from Linton Barwick. He's pushing the war for Caulderwood's lot. I'll deal with him. Dangerous fucker. keeps a live hand-grenade as a paperweight. True story. SIMON Oh right. I won't talk to him. MALCOLM Talk to as few people as possible. That would be best for you.31 INT. STATE DEPARTMENT - DAY 31 Liza, Karen and Chad arrive in the buzzing State Department offices, knackered but in action mode. KAREN Okay - so, priorities are: take a shower, get me on Linton's War Committee, get me a dental appointment. Not necessarily in that order. Karen walks past various desks covered in tons of Post- Its. Stops a STAFFER as he passes. KAREN (cont'd) (CONT'D) What's Linton been up to while we've been away....have we declared war on California yet? But before the staffer can answer they run right into Linton. Karen stands her ground. LINTON Ah. Karen. KAREN Linton. LINTON How was London? Good hotel? KAREN Great hotel, thank you. Page 30 31 CON TINUE D: 31 LINTON Good meetings? KAREN Yes. We had some good discussions. The time at Number Ten could possibly have been better spent but then... Karen realises that Linton is reading a message on his cell phone and not listening. LINTON Good. Welcome back. I'll read your words when they come through. Thank you so much Linton heads off to his office. A beat later so does Karen. Chad goes off a little towards Linton's office. KAREN Is Chad coming... ? LIZA (watching) He's doing his desperate chorus girl thing, hanging around trying to catch Linton's eye. That's why he's wearing his push-up bra today. CHAD (as he passes) Assistant Secretary of State -- hi. LINTON Brad. CHAD Chad LINTON Uh-huh. Exactly CHAD Can I...? Linton ignores him as he goes to join Bob Adriano waiting for him in his office. KAREN So listen, Liza, I need you to find out the names of the ten dullest committees currently operating on the hill. LIZA Dullest? Page 31 31 CON TINUE D: (2) 31 KAREN Because Linton is not going to call it the big horrible scarey war committee...they'll have buried the war committee under the most boring name they can think of. 'Diverse Strategy Committee'- not that, I'm on that. But it'll be a committee that sounds so tedious you want to self-harm. They glance over into Linton's area. He is glancing into theirs. KAREN(CONT'D) Can you get me General Miller at the Pentagon? (as she leaves) My teeth hurt like hell. LIZA (to herself) Sick of hearing about the teeth... Liza goes to her desk, picks up her landline. LIZA (cont'd) (CONT'D) Hi. I'm calling from Karen Clark's office about a paper written by a staffer here. We need to know if 'Post War Planning: Parameters, Implication's and Possibilities' has reached Assistant Secretary of State Linton Barwick yet? (listens) Yeah...by Liza Weld. (listens, shit!) 'Pwip Pip'? It's already been given an acronym? (listens) No I don't want to fast-track it. Would it possible to slow-track it? Well can we create one?32 INT. STATE DEPARTMENT. LINTON'S OFFICE - DAY 32 Looking over at Karen. Now alone, who is still stealing glances over. LINTON I do not understand why anyone would choose to work in a glass office. In my opinion glass offices are for perverts. BOB ADRIANO I could request the glass be frosted? Page 32 32 CON TINUE D: 32 LINTON (as if Bob Adriano brought it up) Frosting is for cakes, Bob. Now. What happened in London? BOB ADRIANO Generally positive. Two glitches. Karen flagged a report by one of her staffers - Liza. She's obviously trying to use it as some kind of roadblock. It's called Pwip Pip. LINTON Pip what? BOB ADRIANO Pwip Pip. LINTON What is that a report on - birdcalls? What does that stand for? BOB ADRIANO I don't recall. It's factish. Intel - case for and against intervention. LINTON We've got all the facts we need on this. In the land of truth, my friend, the man with one fact is king. You said there was another thing? BOB ADRIANO In the meeting with the Foreign Office the Committee was accidentally briefly alluded to. LINTON (putting his hand over his mouth so he can't be lip- read) Which committee? BOB ADRIANO (doing the same) The war committee. LINTON Karen must not find out about that. She is an excitable yapping she-dog. Okay get the minutes of the meeting, we need to correct the record. BOB ADRIANO We can do that? Page 33 32 CON TINUE D: (2) 32 LINTON Yes we can. They're an aide memoir for us. So they should not be a reductive record of what happened to be said, but a more full record of what was intended to be said. I think that's the more accurate version, right? LATER. Bob Adriano is going through the minutes with Linton. LINTON (CONT'D) I don't like this section. Cut that. I don't think this is really what France are saying. Let's change that. And these. And let's reverse this. BOB ADRIANO That's something Karen said. LINTON It's not right. Change it. BOB ADRIANO Yes sir. LINTON And I like this. BOB ADRIANO Thank you. LINTON Let's say everyone agreed with this. BOB ADRIANO Excellent.33 INT. SIMON'S OFFICE/BOX ROOM - DAY 33 Judy's in her office on the phone, laughing. Simon's eyeing her suspiciously. SIMON What's she so fucking happy about? Is she laughing at me? Judy closes the blinds on her side of the office. SIMON (CONT'D) (cont'd) Why's she got control of the blinds? I'm a government minister. I should have blinds. Page 34 33 CON TINUE D: 33 TOBY (joking) You want me to order some blinds? Or I could get some heavy curtains with swags and a pelmet. SIMON Yes. I do. TOBY Oh. Okay ... SIMON Can we go somewhere else? They walk to Box Room. SIMON (CONT'D) So listen. My team for the US. Team Simon. I'm thinking of taking you and leaving Judy? TOBY I could work with that, definitely. Plus she can be a bit... you know? "Everything's a bit shit isn't it?" SIMON "So you're the President? And I'm supposed to be impressed by that? TOBY Yeah. "My husband works in Tower Hamlets." SIMON "That's much harder than being President". Okay. It's settled. Fuck it. She's staying behind. Go and tell her. INT. STATE DEPARTMENT. KAREN'S OFFICE - DAY34 34 Karen, Liza and Linton are among those seated round the table. Various staffers are standing, including Chad. And Bob Adriano. KAREN Which brings us on to Any Other Business. LINTON I believe I've flagged everything I needed to discuss. As I usually do. Page 35 34 CON TINUE D: 34 KAREN (putting her hand over her mouth, mocking Linton's gesture from earlier) Or everything you're prepared to discuss. LINTON What is that, Karen KAREN I understand you've started up a new committee, what's it called? LINTON What makes you think that? KAREN It was mentioned in our London meeting. LINTON You must have misheard. KAREN I misheard the word committee? LINTON Maybe it was another word. Like Khomeini. KAREN You're sitting on a new Khomeini? LINTON Possibly. There are a lot of words, Karen. Kansas City. Kitty. BOB ARIANO Itty. LINTON Itty is not a word, Bob. CHAD Commissary? LINTON Thank you, James CHAD Chad. KAREN Ok. Why don't you just recap for me all the committees that you're currently sitting on? Page 36 34 CON TINUE D: (2) 34 LINTON I'm Sorry, Karen, you appear to be bleeding from your mouth. She is. But she doesn't want to leave the meeting. KAREN Oh don't try to change the subject Linton. LIZA (Looking at Karen) Oh no. Holy Mother of.... Everyone is just looking at her. LINTON I don't mean to be rude Karen but that is a tad... repulsive. I can't concentrate on what you're saying. You have blood coming out of your teeth and that's not right. Karen gets up to go. It's awkward, she's boxed in and has to clamber over the others to get to the door. KAREN Okay, Liza come with me. CHAD (aside, to Liza) Go, Buffy - you belong to the vampire queen now. Liza follows Karen out. Chad takes Liza's seat. LINTON I don't like to see a woman bleeding from the mouth. It makes me think of Country and Western music. Which I really can't abide. CHAD (what?) Yes! Ha ha! Exactly. Linton sees his chance to take advantage of Karen being out of the room. LINTON Actually while we're on Any Other Business I do have a few points I'd like to resolve. Page 37 35 INT. STATE DEPARTMENT - CORRIDOR/BATHROOM - DAY 35 They head into the bathroom. Liza is pulling handfuls of tissue. Handing them to Karen who is dabbing her teeth. KAREN Where are at you at with the committees? LIZA I got it down to two. The Aims and Policy Alignment Committee. Here - put some down your front - you don't want it to go down your... And the Future Planning Committee. KAREN Well, it's not the first one. I set that one up. Does that really sound dull to you? I thought that was a good name. LIZA Right, no, it is a good name. KAREN Okay, find out if it is definitely the Future Planning Committee. LIZA Okay. Okay. Right, listen, I might go and do that. You're not going to shout at me if I go and do that are you? KAREN I'm not a fucking monster Liza, okay? Will you stop implying I'm some kind of monster?36 INT. STATE DEPARTMENT - DAY 36 Liza heads out of the toilets to see Bob Adriano ahead, quite a long way. LIZA Bob! Bob Adriano stops and turns. BOB ADRIANO Liza. Liza sprints and catches up with him. Page 38 36 CON TINUE D: 36 LIZA So listen, Bob, there's something I really want to tell you. We're having a hunk of the month competition, and I just didn't want you to be feel...objectified in any way....and BOB ADRIANO (hopes it might be a come- on?) Oh really? LIZA Karen knows about the Future Planning Committee. Bob Adriano looks shocked, tries to cover it up. BOB ADRIANO I have no idea what you're talking about. Liza smiles. Runs back into the toilets and gives a thumbs up to Karen.37 INT. WASHINGTON AIRPORT - DAY 37 Simon and Toby walking past the queues at US immigration, they are being ushered through a separate channel by airport workers and diplomatic staff. As they're escorted Simon and Toby catch each other's eye. TOBY This is cool. SIMON Don't be callow Toby. We're on official business. A Homeland Security official ushers them through. SIMON (CONT'D) (cont'd) This is a little bit fucking cool.38 INT/EXT. WASHINGTON AIRPORT - DAY 38 But then they reach the end of security and find themselves dumped into the same arrivals area as everyone else. They walk through. SIMON There will be a car won't there? TOBY Oh God yeah, of course. Page 39 38 CON TINUE D: 38 They walk slowly looking at the various cabbies and chauffeurs holding signs. SIMON Did you book a car? TOBY Me? No. I mean, Judy will have got someone to do it. He calls on his phone. TOBY (CONT'D) Hi Judy? Yeah sorry if you're in bed, but we're here and... (looks through papers) Just can't see the car? Wondered what the car situation was?39 INT. JUDY'S FLAT/INT. WASHINGTON AIRPORT 39 Intercut with Judy in bed at her flat. JUDY What car situation? TOBY The airport car? JUDY That's not my job Toby. That's Robbie's job to book it, your job to check it and confirm it. Alright? Good night. The call is over.40 EXT. WASHINGTON AIRPORT 40 TOBY (to Simon) Yeah. She's really embarrassed. Sounds like a snarl up her end. I'll see what we can do? He's looking panicked - then. TOBY (CONT'D) Here we go. There's a guy with a sign that says `England Government - Simon Forester' SIMON `Simon Forester?' Page 40 40 CON TINUE D: 40 TOBY (to the taxi guy) Hi we're the Simon Foster party? The driver takes their bags and they follow him.41 INT. LIMO - DAY 41 Simon and Toby are heading into Washington. Their car is accompanied by two police motorcycles. SIMON (re : the limo) I almost feel like there should be hookers. Do you know what I mean? Really, here, we should have hookers. TOBY (thumbs up, on his mobile) Hey Gav, I'm in a fucking motorcade! DRIVER You want girls? SIMON (terrified of things getting out of hand) What? Oh no. God no. No no no no no. I was just - I was just joking. I don't want hookers. I hate hookers. I mean not in an aggressive way. I'm just not interested. (uncomfy beat, then) But thanks. Thanks very much.42 EXT. WASHINGTON HOTEL - DAY 42 They get out of the limo, take in the hotel facade. Not bad. Pretty fucking good.43 INT. WASHINGTON HOTEL - DAY 43 They walk in. Oh. Right. Not so impressive then. Not crappy. Just very bland and ordinary. TOBY It's like a hangar for businessmen.44 INT. WASHINGTON HOTEL ROOM 44 Simon and Toby enter with the porter. He hangs around for a tip. Page 41 44 CON TINUE D: 44 SIMON Toby, have you....? TOBY (seaching his pockets) I haven't been to an ATM yet...I've only got English.... SIMON finds two crumbled up one dollar bills and presses them into the porter's hand. TOBY (CONT'D) It's supposed to be a dollar a bag. Porter leaves. TOBY goes to window, opens curtain. The Capitol it just visisble through a building site. TOBY (CONT'D) Technically, you've got a Capitol Hill view.45 INT. GEORGETOWN HOUSE - NIGHT 45 A smart private cocktail party in a fancy Georgetown house. Karen and General Miller spot each other. They each take a glass of champagne from a waiter. GENERAL MILLER Hey Karen. You look beautiful. KAREN I bet you say that to all the girls. GENERAL MILLER Yeah I do. And some of the guys. KAREN That's why you shouldn't run for Senate. Too many skeletons in your enormous closet. GENERAL MILLER Yeah, don't believe the hype. I'm just thinking about doing ... something. I'm more than just a soldier, Karen. KAREN That's right, you're passionate about education and housing and what's the other thing? GENERAL MILLER Lingerie. Page 42 45 CON TINUE D: 45 KAREN That's right. GENERAL MILLER And bestiality. KAREN I'd forgotten about that. Are you still allergic to that dog? GENERAL MILLER Yes, yes. I wake up and my eyes are closed and my head is swollen and I look like a giant ball sack. KAREN Oh my god, they do have memdication for that.....but a beautiful ball sack, though. And how's the pentagon? GENERAL MILLER It's kicked up a level. Talking invasion real soon. KAREN Is there somewhere we can talk? GENERAL MILLER I don't know, I don't live in this house.46 INT. CAULDERWOOD'S PARTY. ADJOINING PLAY ROOM - EVENING 46 General Miller and Karen are in Caulderwood's kids' play room. Toys are piled up everywhere. KAREN What if someone comes in now? GENERAL MILLER I can't think of an excuse that would work can you? KAREN No. Just be careful. Don't mess stuff up. They sit down on the child's bed. Miller grabs a crayon. GENERAL MILLER Okay so that's total minimum European Theatre requirement. He shows her a figure on a piece of paper. GENERAL MILLER (CONT'D) (he scribbles) This is Far East, Korea, Japan etc. Page 43 46 CON TINUE D: 46 He scribbles. GENERAL MILLER (CONT'D) Add those. Plus contingency already deployed. KAREN Er - you've lost me. Miller looks around, grabs a child's laptop. Opens it, it says `howday' in an electronic voice. KAREN (CONT'D) Your military hardware is impressive. GENERAL MILLER Not anymore it isn't. Okay so this is total current deployment. (he types) Europe, Asia. (He types) And the contingency already deployed. (He types) So the current number of combat troops available for an invasion according to these figures would be ... (he presses the `equals' button) COMPUTER VOICE Twelve. KAREN Thousand? GENERAL MILLER No, twelve. Twelve soldiers. Twelve. KAREN You're shitting me. GENERAL MILLER Of course I'm shitting you, but 12 thousand isn't enough. Twelve thousand's about how many are going to die. And you really need a few guys alive at the end of a war or it looks like you've lost. KAREN Uh-huh. Tomorrow I've got to meet these Brits. Simon Foster. He's the guy that said war was unforseeable, and I think he could very useful on the committee because he could internationalise the dissent. Page 44 46 CON TINUE D: (2) 46 GENERAL MILLER You're going to use him as a little meat puppet. INT. WASHINGTON HOTEL - TOBY'S ROOM.47 47 Simon knocks on the door. Toby opens, he's in his boxer shorts and shirt. SIMON Tobes. Hi. So! What's the plan? What swanky reception are we going to? TOBY (panic in his eyes) What's the plan? For tonight? SIMON Well that's what I'm asking you Toby, my chief aide, my political advisor. TOBY I don't know, I thought tonight we'd be tired? SIMON (approaching breaking point with Toby) Well I am tired but I'm also a career politician Toby, in the political powerhouse of the world for forty-eight hours. So I thought it might be nice to, you know, go out rather than sit in my room trying to spank one out watching a shark documentary, because I'm scared if I watch a porno it'll end up in the Register of Members Interests. So what have you got? TOBY Okay ... What have I got? SIMON Don't bullshit me Toby. TOBY Okay - so far, we have ... one flyer under the door for happy hour in the bar - which might be interesting? And I have the number of a guy I was with at Uni who I believe now works for CNN out here. SIMON No. Page 45 47 CON TINUE D: 47 TOBY No?48 INT. GEORGETOWN PARTY. EVE. 48 Karen on the phone. KAREN Liza, where are you? LIZA Waving at you. KAREN Make yourself more visible. LIZA I'm practically on top of you. They meet. KAREN You can stop talking on your phone now. Look, I have to leave. Phone Simon Foster's guy. Tell them to come to the war committee. I'll give them some face time around ten o'clock. It'll be coffee and Danish...tea..they're going to want tea. Tea and sympathy. Tea and a handjob, whatever. LIZA Ok.49 EXT. GEORGETOWN STREET - EVENING. 49 LIZA (on phone, deep breath) Hey Toby! It's Liza Weld. Do you remember? What you guys doing tonight?50 INT. WASHINGTON HOTEL - EVENING 50 Toby and Simon are lying on separate beds in their underpants watching a shark documentary. Toby is the on the phone. TV NARRATOR There is still a great deal that is unknown about great white shark mating behaviour... TOBY Well it is unbelievably hectic. Page 46 50 CON TINUE D: 50 SIMON You can definitely spot the female ones can't you?!51 INT. WASHINGTON HOTEL BATHROOM - EVENING 51 Toby's ending his call with Liza. TOBY Attending the war committee. That's big. I mean, I have been on a committee before. "Challenges for the cheese market" - that was a big one... but...yes, sure I'd love a drink. Forty minutes? Great. (he does that mobile thing where people sign off by repeatedly saying `bye' with increasing speed but diminishing volume) Bye bye bye-bye-bye-bye-bye bye. He hangs up. Very excited. Starts getting ready to see Liza. Checks his hair in the mirror. Not quite right. He opens a pot of hair gel, takes a scoop and rubs it in his hands, ready to put it in his hair. His phone goes again. Doesn't know what to do. Doesn't want to pick up the phone with gelly hands. No time to wash it off. Grabs a towel and picks up the phone holding the towel. He struggles to press the answer button. Puts the towel- covered phone to his ear. TOBY (CONT'D) Hello? Hi? Hello? He can't hear through the towel. Tries to adjust it. TOBY (CONT'D) Matty, hi, How's CNN? yes -- sorry? Do I sound muffled? Can't mate. Yeah, Liza Weld's's got us on to Linton's Future Planning Committee in the morning. The war committee, to you and me. So I'm prepping...what? Yes, Future Planning Committee is the war committee. You don't know that? I thought you worked for CNN? Or is that Cartoon Network News?52 INT. WASHINGTON HOTEL - CONTINUOUS 52 Simon has just answered the door to MALCOLM. Page 47 52 CON TINUE D: 52 SIMON Come in....I just wasn't expecting you to be here. Physically here. Obviously, you're always in my heart. MALCOLM I'm here, I'm there, I'm fucking everywhere. I am the egg-man. SIMON Have you come to insult me in a different time zone?53 INT. WASHINGTON HOTEL. BATHROOM - CONTINUOUS 53 Toby still on the phone. TOBY No, off out now for a drink with her...yeah, yeah, ha-di-ha, but nothing's going to happen there. Little Toby's staying in his hammock tonight. Toby checks himself in the mirror.54 INT. WASHINGTON HOTEL - CONTINUOUS 54 Toby comes out of the bathroom. TOBY Simon, I've managed to get us on the... Malcolm is suddenly in his face. MALCOLM Hello!! TOBY (heart attack) Fuck! Malcolm! Jesus. MALCOLM You're meant to shit yourself in there. Not out here. TOBY Right. (to Simon) I've got us on to Linton's Future Planning Committee in the morning. SIMON Okay. What's that? Page 48 54 CON TINUE D: 54 TOBY It's the war committee. MALCOLM What? The actual....war committee? TOBY Yeah, Liza says that... MALCOLM Who's going to be there? TOBY Karen Clark, Liza, me and Simon. (off Simon's look) Simon and me. MALCOLM Who else is going -- Jimmy Osmond? Gwyneth Paltrow? You've been invited to a diversion. The real committee, the real thing, that's happening at The White House. Toby picks his jacket up. TOBY Yeah well, I'll text you the details because I'm going to go out.for A quick drink with some State Department bods. MALCOLM Don't mention this to the press, ok? Don't mention it to anyone. Because if the press get a whiff there's a war committee, even a cardboard one, every fucker in this town is going to turn up and try and get on it. So no matter what gay bar you end up, keep it schtumm. Malcolm flicks the TV over to a news channel. SIMON I was watching that. Malcolm looks at him. MALCOLM I have to have a word with you. You might want to slip into your negligee. Toby heads out. Page 49 55 INT. BLACK CAT INDIE CLUB - NIGHT 55 Toby and Liza sit in a booth. They are by far the most formally dressed people in the club. A band are playing angry rock with a vaguely political message. A small knot of people are rocking out. LIZA (re : the mosh pit) You see those guys? The mosh pit? TOBY Yes, I don't think I've ever seen a more civilised 'mosh pit' it's more of a mosh caucus actually. LIZA House staffers, Senators' interns, most of them are half-man half-PDF file. Tonight they rage hard. Tomorrow they go back to the hill and argue noise reduction legislation. They're chuckling, having a good time. TOBY (beat, looks at her.) You're worried. LIZA (she's been mulling on something else entirely) It's Pwip Pip. TOBY I'm sorry? Pip Pip? Is this... a person or a cell phone tarrif or.. LIZA It's my paper. On the war. Pros and Cons of the war. But I came up with too many cons. The pro-war guys have started calling me `Connie'. So, yes I'm fucking worried. My career's on the line. TOBY Yeah- I noticed you're worried, cos I saw you looking worried. I'm perceptive like that. But... (can't think of anything else) Don't worry. LIZA Okay, this place blows. I'm going. What are you doing? Page 50 55 CON TINUE D: 55 TOBY Well I'm incredibly tired. It feels like my brain's eight hours behind but my liver's 12 hours ahead. LIZA You don't want to come back to my place for a quick catch up? It's an alluring offer. TOBY However, due to technological developments I no longer need sleep, but am physically rejuvenated by alcohol! He guzzles from his beer bottle as they leave.56 INT. LIZA'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 56 Toby and Liza are on the bed together, kissing. TOBY Could I just say, you know, that what happens in Washington stays in Washington? LIZA Yeah I live in Washington. So that doesn't really work for me.57 INT. WASHINGTON HOTEL - EVENING 57 Malcolm is still in Simon's room. He's texting. Simon sneaks the remote and flips from the news back to the shark doc. Malcolm, without looking up, picks up the remote and flicks back to the news. MALCOLM We are under enormous pressure Simon. Karen will want you to say, `war is unforeseeable'. Linton will want you to talk up `climbing the mountain of conflict'. You say nothing, okay? You can't swing both ways, you're not David fucking Bowie. SIMON Right. Can I go to bed now? MALCOLM No, we're going to run that through. SIMON Am I being tortured? Page 51 58 INT. LIZA'S APARTMENT - DAY 58 Toby wakes up. His mouth is parched. He feels terrible. He rolls over. Liza is gone. He can't remember where he is or what's going on. Then with a flash as he looks at the clock - 9.07 he remembers a lot of things in a rush and springs out like a Ninja and starts pulling his clothes on, while scrabbling for his phone. He heads down stairs & out of the apartment.59 EXT. LIZA'S APARTMENT BLOCK - DAY 59 TOBY Hello I need a number for a taxi in Washington DC. Straight through please. He's on the street. TOBY (CONT'D) Hello. I need a cab, right now. From? From where? From from (sees the house number ) TOBY (CONT'D) It's 40, 46, that's the number, and it's a street. It's a nice street with houses and cars and a - sidewalk and it's got leaves and - hold on I'm walking, I'm walking to a sign ...60 EXT. WASHINGTON STREET 60 Toby running.61 INT. KAREN CLARK'S OFFICE. DAY. 61 Karen, Liza and Simon are making small talk. LIZA Marcel's is good. SIMON Uh-huh. KAREN You should go to La Taverna, the Greek place. It's fantastic. LIZA They set fire to the cheese. It's a lot of fun. Page 52 61 CON TINUE D: 61 SIMON It sounds a lot of fun. KAREN There's the aerospace museum, the National Gallery. SIMON Do they set fire to the paintings? Polite laughter. Toby comes in. TOBY Hi I'm sorry I'm so late. KAREN (re Toby) And this is your guy? SIMON Yes. He's, you know, among my guys. Toby shoots Simon a look. KAREN (turning to Toby) I'm Karen. And I believe you already know Liza. TOBY (she can't know?) Yes. From college, in England. KAREN Pulled an all-nighter? Toby looks to Liza for guidance. She's not giving any. TOBY Yes, I, uh, got led astray. KAREN Oh who by? TOBY Uh, well I ran into - people. There's some people from - the MoD over and ... KAREN Not Penny Grayling? TOBY Er - no, another - gang? KAREN Right. Wow. I didn't know you had so many delegations in town. Page 53 61 CON TINUE D: (2) 61 TOBY (weakly) The British are coming! KAREN Well, I need to just check out a couple of things ... this seems like a good point to break things up. SIMON Er - no problem. They start to get up, not quite sure what's going on. LIZA It's been great. SIMON Terrific. KAREN I really appreciate this. TOBY Brilliant.62 INT. STATE DEPARTMENT - DAY 62 Simon and Toby walk out into a larger office. They find a couple of seats left out for people waiting and sit down. Various staffers come and go, picking up papers and files, saying hi, looking knackered, all drinking either diet cokes or coffees. TOBY Was that...? SIMON Toby -- I don't want to read you the riot act here but I am going to have to read some extracts from the riot act. Like Section 1 paragraph 1 clause 1. Don't leave your boss twisting in the wind and then burst in late smelling like a pissed seaside donkey. (special needs) `The British are coming'? TOBY (feels he's taken enough now) So I turned up late to the meeting Simon. I'm sorry. But it's not like I threw up in there. Page 54 62 CON TINUE D: 62 SIMON No you're right. I should be thanking you for not throwing up. Well done. You're a star. You didn't wet yourself, you're in the right city, you didn't say anything overtly racist, you didn't pull your dick out and start plucking it and shouting 'willy banjo'. No I'm being unfair, you got so much right. Without actually being there for the beginning of one of the biggest meetings of my career. You're a legend. An uncomfortable beat. TOBY That was just - the first bit was it? We're going back in do you ...think? SIMON We'd barely said hello. I've had muggings that have lasted longer than that. We really only spoke about flammable cheese. Liza comes out, passes by. Toby mouths `shit' to himself. LIZA (looking at a list on her desk, then to a staffer) Are these all requests to get on the committee? What's going on? Did someone post an invite on Facebook? I'm drowning in Senators. It's Senator soup here. TOBY Hi Liza. They're uncomfy with each other. LIZA Hey Toby. Toby gets up for a private word. TOBY (re last night) You feeling okay? LIZA Yes, I'm feeling fine. Why were you late? TOBY Because...you know...you didn't wake me up. Page 55 62 CON TINUE D: (2) 62 LIZA You looked so sweet. I thought you knew what you were doing. TOBY I was asleep, of course I didn't. That's how people walk out of windows. STAFFER ((hand over phone, calls over) Hey Liza, I've got another call about the Committee from Senator Crudden's office, he wants in too. LIZA What is going on here? Fuck. Why's this my problem? Toby you sure you didn't do bad? You didn't mention the committee to anyone else? TOBY Nada. Nada.. Bad-da. Nada-bada bing-bong ding-dang-dong. (beat, she looks at him) I have no idea what I'm saying anymore I think I really am still quite drunk. Chad is passing. As Liza turns away Toby's face does a spasm of regret at his brazen lying. CHAD Everyone is so hot for your paper. I'm running off another ten copies. It's spreading like a virus, Liza. You're in hot water. You're lobsterising. LIZA I don't feel that. CHAD It's by degrees. Wafting. Bisque. I smell lobster. Can you smell lobster, Toby? Simon calls Toby back over. SIMON (O.S.) Mate! TOBY I need to... LIZA Sure. Toby goes back to Simon Page 56 62 CON TINUE D: (3) 62 LIZA (CONT'D) So, how far would you go with Linton, you freaky little stalker? Downtown? Or all the way up Brokeback Mountain?63 INT. WHITE HOUSE. SMALLISH ROOM - DAY 63 Malcolm is arriving into a meeting room set up with water etc with a young man who looks like an intern, A.J. A.J. How are you today? Beat the traffic? Malcolm looking around, as if things aren't right. MALCOLM Yeah yeah. Hunky dory. Can I get a coffee? He gives AJ his coat. A.J. (doesn't take coat then eventually does and just puts it on a chair, not the coat stand) Sure, sure, if we get started, I'll get my assistant to bring us some refreshments. MALCOLM (realising) Your assistant? A.J. (sitting, picking up a file in the room) Yeah. So, Item. We need to have a conversation about the mood of the British Parliament. Any bumps in the road ahead. MALCOLM I'm sorry son, am I - is this it? No offence, but shouldn't you be at school with your head down a toilet? A.J. Your first point there, the offence. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to take it. Your second point. I'm 22. But - item - It's my birthday in nine days, so if it would be more comfortable we could... wait...? Page 57 63 CON TINUE D: 63 MALCOLM Don't get sarcastic with me son. (starts dialling) We burnt this tight-arsed city to the ground in 1814 and I'm all for doing it again. Starting with you, you frat fuck. You get sarcastic with me again and I will stuff so much cotton wool dowm your fucking throat it'll come out of your arse like the wee tail on a playboy bunny. Okay? I thought...I was led to believe I was attending the war committee. A.J. Yes, Assistant Secretary of State Linton Barwick wanted me to brief you on the work of the Future Planning Committee. MALCOLM I don't want the bullshit son, I want the bull. No one sidelines me. I'm away. Malcolm gets up, grabs his coat. An even younger guy wheels in a coffee trolley. MALCOLM (CONT'D) And here we go - the fucking Vice President has also graced us with his presence! Malcolm runs out, on the phone. Malcolm runs out of the White House.64 EXT. ALBERT EMBANKMENT - DAY 64 JUDY power walking/jogging on the phone to MALCOLM. MALCOLM (OVV) Where is the fucking war committee meeting? JUDY Simon's going to the war committee I thought you knew? MALCOLM (OVV) I thought I was going to the war committee? Tell me where the fuck it's happening! Page 58 64 CON TINUE D: 64 JUDY It's on the 7th floor in room 712. (Beat) Oh Malcolm, do you like how I'm telling you what's going on where you are? MALCOLM (OVV) Well let me tell you what's going on where you are sweet heart, a certain vinegar faced maniplulative cowbag is about to find that she's out of a fucking job... JUDY hangs up.65 INT. STATE DEPARTMENT - DAY 65 Simon and Toby are looking through magazines and papers. Karen is exiting her office with an entourage. SIMON Here she comes - shit - look like we're meeting, look like we're having a meeting! TOBY (as she passes, re magazine) ... and if you look ... at the line they take in Newsweek - that's very much ... another narrative. KAREN See you at the committee. SIMON (like he's busy) Yeah, yeah sure, see you in a mo. Just finishing off some stuff. (to Toby loud) Okay, we're all done there. Let's roll. Toby looks at him. As they get up and follow her at speed, tripping to keep up. TOBY (quiet) I don't think you can say that anymore here. They don't like that. SIMON Shut up. Follow them. Don't lose them. Lets rock. Page 59 65 CON TINUE D: 65 They follow Karen around a corner and she disappears into a set of doors, they follow her through, but it is the vestibule before a toilet door. Karen looks at them. KAREN Hello? SIMON Hello. KAREN Are you joining me or shall I see you there? SIMON See you there. I don't need to ... do any of the things you need to go in there to do, so I'll just see you there. Karen goes into the toilet. Simon and Toby head off looking sheepish. As they head out of the vestibule. There is a gaggle of Karen hangers-on. Chad-type staffers looking to get in with Karen.66 INT. COMMITTEE ROOM 712 - DAY 66 Linton is with Adriano, quietly horrified by all these people. General Miller passes them. LINTON (For Miller's benefit) We seem to be overrun with insurgents here, Bob. GENERAL MILLER Hi, I'm in seat 204, row W. Will I be able to see the big screen from there? Oh, and can I get one of those big pointy foam hands with `Go, Monster Trucks!' written on it? LINTON The general is on rare form, very rare form. Toby spots his hero. TOBY There he is. General George Miller. SIMON (And...?) Right, yep. There he is. Page 60 66 CON TINUE D: 66 But the room is rapidly filling with bodies and din. More and more people are turning up. Toby's view of Miller is obscured. TOBY That's the second time in 24 hours I've had a partially obscured view of him.67 INT. SMALL COMMITTEE ROOM. DAY. 67 Linton calls the over-stuffed, standing-room-only room to order. LINTON Okay, due to the fact that seemingly everyone in the world who owns a suit has turned up for this meeting, we'll be relocating to a bigger room. Room 720. So, if you will be so kind... The committee members file out.68 EXT. WASHINGTON STREET NR STATE DEPARTMENT - DAY 68 Malcolm is legging it down the street.69 INT. LARGER COMMITTEE ROOM 720 - DAY 69 The committee members file in. Miller goes close up to Linton. GENERAL MILLER Just so you know -- Karen and I did not appreciate having to sneak around like Mulder and Scully trying to find out about this committee. LINTON Well, you're both here now. John and Yoko. GENERAL MILLER You and I need to talk, mano-a-mano, cocks on the block, about how things are operating around here at the moment. Linton not fazed by this. LINTON Sure. How about 12:30 tomorrow, my office? Page 61 69 CON TINUE D: 69 GENERAL MILLER Good. General Miller takes his seat. Linton turns on Adriano. LINTON What the hell happened? ADRIANO I have no idea how they all heard sir. There must have been a leak. General Miller is sitting next to Karen. They're watching Linton having angry words with Adriano. GENERAL MILLER Look at Adriano. Poor fuck. He looks like he's with his Daddy: "Sorry, Bob, you're adopted. From a couple with hereditary heart defects." KAREN "And your mother only ever kept your baby clothes for the purposes of voodoo." Simon is sitting with Toby, marvelling at the numbers of people cramming into the room. SIMON I'm room meat again. This is a massive abattoir of room meat. Stay outside Tobes, I need a guy on the outside. Make friends with Chad, that boy from The Shining. He knows stuff. Pump him. TOBY Oh no. I want to stay in here with Miller. Don't make me pump Chad. SIMON I'm making you pump Chad. Go on. Toby gets up to leave. SIMON (CONT'D) It'll be easy peasy lemon squeezy. TOBY No it won't. It'll be difficult difficult lemon difficult. Toby reluctantly leaves, trying to grab another peek at Miller. Page 62 70 EXT. WASHINGTON STREET NR STATE DEPARTMENT - DAY 70 Malcolm running like a madman.71 INT. LARGER COMMITTEE ROOM 720 - DAY 71 Everyone is finally assembled. The room has thirty or so people in it. LINTON So, welcome to this, somewhat engorged session of the Future Planning Committee. You can all see an agenda? People are looking at their agendas, low-level chatter, pouring of water, etc. - a general pre-meeting feel. KAREN Assistant Secretary -- here on point 6, it feels like there's an assumption that we'll be invading. Should we talk about the practical? I mean this is the war committee after all? LINTON It's the Future Planning Committee. KAREN Unofficially it's known as the war committee. LINTON Well, unofficially we can call anything whatever we like. (he holds up a water glass) Unofficially, this is a shoe. But it's not a shoe, Karen, it's a glass of water, and this is the Future Planning Committee.72 INT. STATE DEPARTMENT. 7TH FLOOR - DAY 72 Malcolm is running down the corridor. He runs into Room 712. It's empty. MALCOLM Bitch!73 INT. BIG COMMITTEE ROOM. DAY. 73 Karen is talking. Page 63 73 CON TINUE D: 73 KAREN But what I'm asking is has a decision been reached in principle to advocate invasion? LINTON That's way off agenda Karen. Although it would seem a general consensus may be forming. KAREN What makes you say that? LINTON Well I noted with interest the recent comments of our colleague Simon Foster in that regard. Simon is texting under the desk and not really paying full attention. He hears his name, looks up, waves to the group. He doesn't clock Karen's intense look that says `You are going to rebut that, aren't you?' KAREN Perhaps Mr. Foster would have something to say about that? SIMON (politely) I'm just...watching with interest. IN Britain we have a saying for complicated situations such as this, which is that it's (he can't believe he's going to say this) `Difficult, difficult, lemon, difficult.' He goes back to his text. LINTON As I say it seems a consensus is forming. KAREN (furious) That's just ridiculous. You have no basis for saying that. LINTON Karen, please, calm down. We don't want you to have another hemorrhage. Item One. Page 64 INT. STATE DEPARTMENT - DAY74 74 It's lunchtime. Lots of staffers have left their desks. A few are eating sandwiches at their desks, or reading a newspaper during lunch. Chad is emailing, reading, multi- tasking, from a corner of desk near Linton's office. TOBY So - do you want to go out and get some lunch? CHAD Are you kidding? Lunchtime is work time. TOBY Yes, what an incredibly depressing motto. You see you're playing into the hands of the French saying that. Toby mooches around, peers in Linton's office. He spots a couple of A4 sheets of paper that have been printed out with `Climb the mountain of conflict!' across them as an encouraging slogan on the wall. TOBY (CONT'D) (looking in) Jesus. CHAD Yeah work hours are too valuable - for networking. You gotta get in at like 6 work till 8.30 Then start making those connections baby. (he clicks his fingers rapidly, annoyingly) Emails and admin at lunch. See if you can play some strategic racquetball through the pm. Then in the six till midnight slot chow down on some serious policy work. TOBY Right. And what - friends, family, novels, sexual inter-course you're going to save those for your thirties and forties?75 INT. STATE DEPARTMENT. CORRIDOR/BATHROOM - DAY 75 Malcolm arrives at the committee just as people are spilling out. He's pissed off. Follows Linton into bathroom. MALCOLM Are you fucking me about? Page 65 75 CON TINUE D: 75 LINTON Mr Tucker, isn't it? Hello again. MALCOLM You might pull this kind of stunt on some young wank fresh up from Oklahoma, happy to be getting his hookers paid for by tobacco lobbyists, but not me. LINTON What seems to be the problem? MALCOLM I've just had a briefing from a 9-year- old finalist in Americas got talent. I think he may have been a ventriloquist. Or possibly the fucking dummie. LINTON AJ? He is one of my top guys. Stanton College Prep, Harvard...he's smart and he's great at his job. MALCOLM His fucking briefing notes were written in Alphabetti Spaghetti. When I left I nearly tripped over his umbilical cord. LINTON I'm sorry if it troubles you that our people achieve excellence at a young age. Simon is emerging. Linton takes Malcolm to one side, out of Simon's earshot. LINTON (CONT'D) By the way, your prime minister informs me that he's tasked you with collating some fresh British intel for us. MALCOLM Yeah, apparently your fucking master race of gifted toddlers can't quit get the job done in between breast feeds and playing with their power rangers. So yeah, we're getting some actual grown-ups to bail you out. Simon gets closer. Linton moves in. LINTON (to Simon) Minister, thank you so much for your support and your recent "Climb the mountain of conflict" comment - great. We're going to run with that, it has great repeatability. Page 66 75 CON TINUE D: (2) 75 SIMON Thanks very much, but...it's all a bit complex really, in terms of my... Linton pulls away, starts walking off. LINTON It's early days, my friend. All roads lead to Munich. He smiles and walks off. MALCOLM What the fuck does that mean? `All roads lead to Munich'? SIMON Well it just means...I guess, I don't know what it means. MALCOLM `All roads lead to Munich'? Malcolm is pissed off, looks around. He is not the centre of attention. He's feeling cut out. MALCOLM (CONT'D) Come on let's go, get back to the hotel, nick as many coat hangers as you can. We're off back to London.76 EXT. WASHINGTON STREET 76 Malcolm, Toby, and Simon are heading towards their car. They see the Washington Monument in the distance. SIMON It's beautiful. TOBY If you pull it out, America deflates. MALCOLM Don't mock that! The closest you'll come to getting one of those is buying a Toblerone. (Looks at Blackberry) Mark Hadley's dad's died. SIMON Oh no. Should we send Mark a card? MALCOLM Nah, I'll send him a ouija board so they can keep in touch. Page 67 76 CON TINUE D: 76 SIMON So what are we getting back to? Apart from a nice cup of tea and some knife crime? TOBY Constituency surgery in Northampton. SIMON Great, meeting my constituents. It's like being Simon Cowell, but without the ability to say, `Fuck off, you're mental.'77 INT. CONSTITUENCY OFFICE. DAY. 77 TOBY and SIMON are with Simon's constituency agent, ROZ, she's ushering them into the small, damp little constituency office. ROZ's arm is in a sling (Jo Scanlon's arm actually is in a sling) and she has difficulty opening the door ROZ (to Simon) Sorry, could you...? You just need to kick the bottom quite hard. Simon kicks the bottom of the door to unstick it. Roz opens the door. There are a few constituents waiting to see Simon, he nods a hello. SIMON (Roz has gone ahead, this is to Toby) Look at them. They all have that smell....like a charity shop, you know? (to constituents) Afternoon! A couple of the waiting constituents respond. They go through to another little office. ROZ Right, here you go, you're pretty booked up - there's a list on the desk. I'm just going to have a look at the guttering. SIMON I'm just back from America, so it was pretty tough to make it up here - but you know. That's me. ROZ Of course. Right. How was the President? Page 68 77 CON TINUE D: 77 She's heading off. SIMON Good actually. TOBY And what was the White House like? SIMON Blown up by spaceships.78 INT. STATE DEPARTMENT - DAY 78 General Miller & Aides up stairs79 INT. STATE DEPARTMENT - DAY 79 General Miller (and an aide or two?) marches into Linton and Karen's section of State. He's got a meeting scheduled. He's a man on a mission. He marches straight past Bob Adriano ... MILLER (by way of explanation) Twelve-thirty. BOB ADRIANO Um, hold on General ... And into Linton's office. But - it's empty. MILLER What the fuck? BOB ADRIANO Yeah, Secretary Linton Barwick wanted me to let you know his last - meeting looks like it's over-running. He sends apologies. Miller stands there for a beat. Very very annoyed. MILLER He stood me up? They're better be a fucking good reason. Like he's dead. That is just plain fucking rude. I mean, how would he like it if I just did a big hairy shit on his desk? BOB ADRIANO You're very w-welcome to wait, we have newspapers and periodicals? Page 69 79 CON TINUE D: 79 He gestures to a seating area. Miller picks up a magazine. Rolls it up, looks at Bob Adriano. Might Miller, possibly, hit him? MILLER Yeah well excuse me if at this time of national crisis I don't sit with a thumb up my ass flipping through Time magazine eating pop tarts? (he heads off fast - not quite sure where he's going, calls back as he goes) Tell him to call me. But he might not get through cos I'm a fucking busy man. He finds himself heading into Karen's office. It's empty. He stands there for a beat. Shuts the door. Looks around. Picks up a hole punch. Kicks the couch. Karen enters, surprised to find him there. KAREN Hey, what is it? MILLER Yeah - can I hang around in here for a while? KAREN Er. Sure. Why? MILLER Do I need a fucking reason? (beat, calming down) Linton's playing me like a fucking turkey drumstick on a big bass drum. KAREN Look, I was going to order food, do you want to eat. MILLER Yeah. Order us some cute mammals. Alive. A lamb or a piglet so I can snap it's fucking neck. INT. CONSTITUENCY SURGERY - DAY80 80 Simon listens behind a desk. Roz is there taking notes. Toby is in the corner working on a laptop. Page 70 80 CON TINUE D: 80 MRS MCDAIRMID My point is - if the septic tank - if we didn't know it was there in the first place how can we be responsible for it now? SIMON Yes. No. I understand. MRS MCDAIRMID It's under the communal drive. Why should we get it pumped? ROZ (looking through the paperwork) Well it's not a council sceptic tank so they're not legally obliged to pump it... MRS MCDAIRMID Look, according to the paperwork there's four metric tons of of shit under there. That's not all me, is it? I'm not a flipping elephant am I? SIMON No, of course not. Nor should you be treated like one. Okay, Mrs McDairmid. Leave it with me. I'm sure there must be a way through this. Alright? Mrs Kendrick heads out. ROZ Er, Colin Lowe. SIMON Jesus. Still on about bendy buses? (thinks) No. Tell him no. What else? Toby closes the laptop. ROZ Pauline Michaelson's son about the constituency office wall. Toby exits to get coffee as Roz brings in PAUL MICHAELSON. PAUL MICHAELSON (as he enters) Hi, thanks for seeing me Mr. Foster. SIMON Hi Paul, call me Simon. You've met Roz. Page 71 80 CON TINUE D: (2) 80 PAUL MICHAELSON I know I have. SIMON Lovely. PAUL MICHAELSON Okay, Simon, I'll try to keep it brief because I can see you're a busy man. There's a bloke out there wants to make it illegal to talk in a foreign language in shops. SIMON Yes, well, this place can become a magnet for the mentally dispossessed. And for sensible people like yourself, Paul. PAUL MICHAELSON Patronising. ROZ Why don't you explain your issue, Mr Michaelson? PAUL MICHAELSON I...sorry, is this a joke? How many times? For the fourth f...ing time. (as to an idiot) The side wall. Of this property. Your wall. Is falling over. On to my mum's garden. She called you up - but she got fobbed off by your people. Because she's not Lord Snooty in his posh car. Because she's not Madonna on a horse. SIMON That...I agree, it's unacceptable. Toby comes back in, hands Simon a coffee. PAUL MICHAELSON Do you know what this is? (he hums something irritating) That's your constituency office hold music. I don't want it in my head, do I? SIMON (checks notes) We did arrange to get a quote from a builder, but... Roz has a call on the landline. Page 72 80 CON TINUE D: (3) 80 ROZ Patch from London. They say it's urgent. Karen Clark? Is she the coracle woman? SIMON Right. Paul, I really need to take this, but I haven't forgotten about you, okay? PAUL MICHAELSON No, well I'm not going anywhere, Simon. You won't be able to forget me because I'll be sitting here staring at you. SIMON Toby, can I hand Paul over to you? PAUL MICHAELSON "Can I fob Paul off with you?" Simon goes elsewhere in the room to take his call. TOBY So, Paul, where are we up to? (off Paul's scary look) I was out getting coffee. Sorry. He grabs a pen and paper.81 INT. KAREN'S OFFICE'S OFFICE - DAY 81 (CHANGE SCENE ORDER) Later. General Miller is with Karen. They're surrounded by cartons of Chinese take-out. GENERAL MILLER (flicking through Liza's paper) See, this is the problem with civilians wanting to go to war. When you've been there you don't want to go back unless you absolutely have to. It's like France. KAREN (re the paper in it's red folder) You finally read Liza's paper? GENERAL MILLER Course, I read it. I'm a voracious reader. I'm the fucking Gore Vidal of the Pentagon. (pointing at a spring roll) You don't want that? Page 73 81 CON TINUE D: 81 KAREN Yes I want that. (points to various packages) I want that, that, that, that and that. Those I don't care about. And these let's pack up and drop on North Korea. GENERAL MILLER (beat, reads) Someone should leak this. Outside Liza sees them discussing her paper animatedly. It doesn't look good to her. KAREN Someone maybe shaped a little bit like you. GENERAL MILLER Me? Are you kidding? KAREN You have more gravitas. GENERAL MILLER Exactly. I'm too senior. I can't leak. Leaking is for people like your Liza and the Boy called It out there. (eats) It's insane. Not only is the case against war incredibly strong, the case for is caveated to hell. (reading) "Most analysts believe the state is looking to expand aggressively beyond its borders..." Then here in the caveats, the only source is `Ice Man' - a possible alcoholic - who's probably called that cos he gets through ten bags / icebergs a day in his fucking vodka tonics. INR say we can't trust him. That's us disputing our own findings. Has Linton read this? KAREN I'm not sure he reads. You're a General. Have him killed. GENERAL MILLER You see this is why we never got together. That and the hobo teeth.82 INT. STATE DEPARTMENT/INT. CONSTITUENCY SURGERY - DAY 82 Simon is talking to Karen. INTERCUT PHONE CALL: Page 74 82 CON TINUE D: 82 KAREN This is a private call right -- unrecorded, secure line etc etc? SIMON Well, yeah. I mean, your lot are probably getting it somehow, but our lot shouldn't be. Paul Michaelson calls over. PAUL MICHAELSON I'm still here, Simon. KAREN What's going on Simon? SIMON Departmental business. About a wall. KAREN Gaza? SIMON Uh-huh. What can I do for you? KAREN Where were you in the committee? I called for back-up, you sat there like a dumb sack of shit. Maybe worse, cos at a molecular level a bag of shit is probably fizzing with energy. SIMON Well - okay. Yes. Um. Well, I have to say Karen, I have a clear strategy here. I'm playing the long game. KAREN There is no long game. They've bounced us into a short game. You looked like a...what do you call it in England? A 'wanker SIMON We don't call it that, no... But she's gone.83 INT. CONSTITUENCY SURGERY - DAY 83 Toby's still talking to Paul the wall guy. TOBY Paul, look, mate... Page 75 83 CON TINUE D: 83 PAUL MICHAELSON Patronising. TOBY Sorry. But I'm on your side. I have to look after my Mum too. You do, or they get shafted don't they? So... Simon wants to talk. Roz takes over. PAUL MICHAELSON I'm going to pursue this with, what do they call it? Extreme prejudice, to the very end. I can be enormously persistent. Ask my ex-girlfriend. ROZ Okay, well, I'll take your details. Roz leads Paul away SIMON That guy's a bit full-beam. TOBY Full-beam? SIMON Yeah, full-beam. Headlights. (he opens his eyes wide to show what he means) I kept thinking, is he going to nut me. He appears not to be nutting me, but he might well nut me. TOBY So what did Karen Clark want? SIMON Do you think I came over as weak on the committee over there? TOBY Well, uh, no, of course not. I suppose - Simon's phone goes again. He winces picks up.84 INT. STATE DEPARTMENT/INT. CONSTITUENCY SURGERY - DAY 84 INTERCUT PHONE CALL: KAREN Also - the war committee got leaked, and that leak came from your department. Page 76 84 CON TINUE D: 84 SIMON I find that difficult to believe. KAREN I want action to be taken. I want a head. On a plate. To go. PHONE CALL ENDS: She hangs up. SIMON (to the phone) You don't work here. You're not my boss. Fuck off. You can't make me sack people.85 INT. DFID - DAY 85 Simon is getting into his office - he and Toby are back from the constituency office. SIMON We need to talk in my office. JUDY About what? SIMON (patronising) I think you know. A land line is ringing in the open plan office. Judy picks up. Simon has gone into his office and has assumed the bollocking position. JUDY (taking call) Sorry, this is the wrong extension. I'll put you through now. Judy punches a button on her phone. Toby's land line starts ringing. Simon comes out. SIMON (walking backwards into his office) Come, come into my office. JUDY Why? Why do you need to see me? TOBY (to Judy) What's this? Page 77 85 CON TINUE D: 85 JUDY It's the mad man about the wall. TOBY The war? JUDY The wall. SIMON (following her out, exasperated) Can you come into my office so I can tell you off? Toby answers his phone, resigned. TOBY Hello. Can I help you? Malcolm sweeps in, straight past Toby, slapping him on the back of the head as he passes. TOBY (CONT'D) You fucker. (to phone) No, not you. Malcolm pushes Judy back into Simon's office as she's leaving it, Simon behind Judy walks backwards to his desk, the three of them in a line. Malcolm shuts the door and unleashes a torrent of abuse we can't hear.86 INT. PAUL MICHAELSON'S GARDEN/INT. DFID - CONTINUOUS 86 Wall man Paul is on the phone, standing with a JOURNALIST by the offending wall, now badly propped up. The journalist is taking notes and photographs. INTERCUT PHONE CALL: TOBY What can I do for you Paul? PAUL MICHAELSON These `temporary buttresses' you got put up. TOBY Right? PAUL MICHAELSON They're basically a pair of twigs. Thin twigs. Page 78 86 CON TINUE D: 86 TOBY I'm sure they're not twigs. PAUL MICHAELSON No they're twigs. (to Journalist) Are you getting a picture of those twigs? That wall could fall on my mum and crush her. Do you know how old she is? (calling off) Mum, how old are you? I want to tell the newspaper guy. MUM (O.S.) Sixty. During this conversation Malcolm arrives. MALCOLM I want a word with the minister and Charlotte Fucking Bronte. PAUL MICHAELSON You're never fucking sixty. You're older than that. Sixty. How old are you really? MUM (O.S.) I'm sixty. If it's going in a newspaper, I'm sixty. PAUL MICHAELSON Fuck off are you sixty. Olivia Newton- John's fucking sixty. And she's not on the statins, is she? TOBY Could you tell your mum to stay away from the wall just for the time being? PAUL MICHAELSON She needs to get to her plants. (like Toby's an idiot) She has to water them. Plants need water. TOBY No, sure, but could she use a hose, from a distance? PAUL MICHAELSON She doesn't have a hose, she's got a watering can. This is like talking to a brick wall about a brick wall. (to journalist) Get that down, that's gold. Toby can still see Malcolm going ballistic at Simon and Judy in Simon's office. Page 79 87 INT. STATE DEPARTMENT - MOMENTS LATER 87 Karen runs out of the lifts. There's even more of a buzz than usual, people running around. She sees Bob Adriano, Linton and Chad in a huddle in Linton's air. Hurries over to Liza. KAREN Liza, what's up? Why is everyone running around? This better be a fucking fire drill. LIZA The President has said he's vetoing tarrifs on Chinese auto imports. KAREN Shit. Karen calls over to a staffer, ABBEY. KAREN (CONT'D) Abbey, get me the president's statement. ABBEY Mr Barwick has asked me to... Karen is beginning to lose it. KAREN You work to me, Abbey, you fucking work to me. Get me the statement. Or I will call security and have you escorted off the premises via the window. Karen crosses quickly to her office. Liza follows. LIZA Sorry, why is that...? He's...what, buttering the Chinese up? KAREN He needs them to at least abstain in the security council. A beat. LIZA We're going to the UN. KAREN Yes, we're going to the UN. LIZA Shit. Page 80 87 CON TINUE D: 87 Karen kicks a waste-paper basket. KAREN I should be told this fucking stuff! I'm going into Linton's office and pulling the pin on his grenade. LIZA Don't do that. KAREN I'm fucking joking. LIZA Oh. KAREN Why didn't you know about this? LIZA Well since I created the budget deficit the President doesn't tend to run things by me anymore. KAREN Don't get funny with me. I am not in the mood. LIZA No. I'm getting that.88 INT. MALCOLM'S OFFICE - DAY 88 Malcolm is with Simon and Toby. Malcolm has a local Northamptonshire paper. MALCOLM (reading) "While Foster jets around at the taxpayer's expense, his constituency headquarter's wall's collapsing and he doesn't give a shit. SIMON It doesn't say that. MALCOLM (holding up paper) No but it says `Wall-ace and Gromitt' SIMON Wall-ace though? Page 81 88 CON TINUE D: 88 MALCOLM You are being portrayed as the biggest twat in Northamptonshire, and that's going some. TOBY It is just a wall, Malcolm. MALCOLM Listen, my little stem cell, I don't want to be dealing with this either, okay? I've got bigger fucking fish to fry, believe me. I'm rolling blue whales in breadcrumbs at the moment. I'm giving this to Jamie. SIMON Oh great. The crossest man in Scotland. Jamie enters, holding another local rag. JAMIE Well, if it isn't Humpty-Numpty... SIMON What is this, surround bollocking? JAMIE With respect, I haven't finished. If it isn't Humpty-Numpty, sitting on top of a collapsing wall like some clueless egg- cunt. SIMON Hi Jamie. TOBY Hello. JAMIE Okay, that's enough of the fucking Oxbridge pleasantries. TOBY How is saying "hello" a... JAMIE (grabbing a hole-puncher) Shut it, Love, Actually, or I'll hole- punch your face. MALCOLM Right, I'm off to deal with the fate of the planet, okay? Simon, Toby and Jamie look at him. Page 82 88 CON TINUE D: (2) 88 MALCOLM (CONT'D) Don't look at me like that's arrogant. That is just a fucking fact. Don't even look at me. (to Jamie) Be gentle with them. JAMIE You know me, Malcy, kid gloves. Made from real kids. Malcolm leaves. An awkward beat. JAMIE (CONT'D) Right, Butch and Gaydance, this wall story is playing badly. (looking in his paper) Look, here's a cartoon of you as a walrus. SIMON A walrus? I'm not fat. I don't even have a moustache. TOBY Look...we hired some builders. They didn't turn up when they said they would. JAMIE They're builders. What did you expect?! Have you ever seen a film where the hero is a builder? No. Because they never turn up in the fucking nick of time.That's why you never see a superhero with a hod.89 EXT. FOREIGN OFFICE - A BIT LATER 89 Simon and Judy on their way into the foreign office. Malcolm has gone in ahead. Suzy chatting on the stairs with Toby. Simon draws Judy to one side. SIMON This is all getting...this is a really stressful job, you know that? JUDY Oh come on, you're not a brain surgeon, you're not a snooker player ... SIMON I don't want to back a war, Judy. Page 83 89 CON TINUE D: 89 JUDY (oh this is what it's about) Oh. Right. A beat. SIMON Look, drop some hints, put some nods and winks out there, that I'm toying with resignation. Yeah? See if the PM reacts. See how it plays. JUDY Put out some winks? SIMON And nods. JUDY Big nods? SIMON No, no, just sort of... (he does a small nod) That sort of size nod. Judy nods. SIMON (CONT'D) No, not that much. JUDY No, I was just nodding normally to say I understood the need for a small nod. SIMON Oh. Good. They head in.90 INT. FOREIGN OFFICE - DAY 90 In a nice room. Malcolm is with Michael, Suzy and a couple of other civil servants. MALCOLM So, my lovely friends, bottom line... MICHAEL I hate that phrase. We're not in retailing MALCOLM Sorry Michael, I promise never to use it again. (MOR E) Page 84 90 CON TINUE D: 90 MAL COLM (CONT'D) Bottom line, is that the President is going to the UN, and the PM would like us to join him. This will be the voe to commence military action. So, Rob, Innis, (to Toby) Little Bo Cock Jockey (to Judy) And the leaky fucking mingebox, return to your desks and prepare for some extreme briefing. Two CIVIL SERVANTS get up and exit. Judy walks across the room and starts making calls, as does Toby. Michael walks off into the next room, Suzy follows. They start calling. MALCOLM (CONT'D) Now then, you still got doubts, Complicated Simon? SIMON What the fuck, Malcolm. This is all going to spin along from here and we have a vote and we go to war. We fight people, and kill them, and our kids get killed, and that's exactly the sort of thing I didn't want to do when I went into politics. That's the opposite of what I want to be doing. MALCOLM That's why you've got to stay in Government. In here you can influence things, delay things. Out there you're just another mad shouty fucker people don't want to make eye-contact with. Remember Mary? She took a stand over Health. Everyone decided she was mental. SIMON Only because the Sun showed a photo of her with wide eyes and her head on a cow. MALCOLM I found that a very powerful image. (a beat) Look, the Prime Minister of this country is not a Viking. He doesn't drink blood, he doesn't go round biting tramps. He doesn't go to Chequers at the weekend for a bit of light raping and a pub lunch. SIMON I know the Prime Minister isn't a Viking, Malcolm. MALCOLM Unlike me, the man abhors physical violence. (MOR E) Page 85 90 CON TINUE D: (2) 90 MAL COLM (CONT'D) He's a grade A fucking pussy and he knows you have similar concerns and he wants your input on this. Yeah? SIMON Where's the intelligence? Where's the hard evidence? MALCOLM Listen, We've got evidence harder than a diamond dildo. We have intelligence so deep and hard it would fucking puncture your kidneys.There's an informant, `Ice Man', OK? The stuff he's giving us? It'll make your blood run cold. And clot. Your insides will turn to black pudding. (lowering his voice) ...now, certain box-lickers are sitting on it. But you're going to see it, because the PM regards you as a key player now. Judy's mobile goes. JUDY Judy Molloy? (BEAT) Ten minutes. Thanks. (to Simon) Prime Minister wants to speak to you in ten minutes, Simon. He want you to go the UN. Malcolm's heading out. MALCOLM See- you're A-list now. You're a Kennedy. In the VIP lounge, with the gold card and the complimentary drinks and the hard-on. Malcolm leaves. A beat. SIMON (shouting to Malcolm) Show me the evidence, Malcolm, that's my fucking bottom line. JUDY So do you still want...nods and winks? Simon nods a little nod. Then shakes his head slightly. Then nods a slight nod again.91 INT. WESTMINSTER PUB - DAY 91 Suzy, Michael and Judy are having a drink in a pub. Maybe they're sitting in a four seater booth? Page 86 91 CON TINUE D: 91 Their phones are on the table. As is a bottle of Sancerre. Judy's got her power walking trainers on and her rucksack with her. MICHAEL Cheers everyone. Here's to surviving another day. They clink glasses. JUDY My theory is Malcolm built Jamie in a lab out of bits of old psychopath. Toby arrives, dumps his coat, bag, puts his phone on the table. TOBY Hello ladies. SUZY And gentleman. TOBY (doing the joke again) Hello ladies. I'm just going to - MICHAEL Oh. Lovely. I think we could have another bottle of Sancerre. TOBY Great. SUZY If you can afford it. JUDY If you can get served at the bar. He goes to the bar. His phone gets a text. Suzy picks it up, reads it. SUZY Fucking hell. Here we go again. Fucking arsehole. MICHAEL You're kidding? What's it say? (peering at the phone) Woah! Suzy shows the phone to Judy. JUDY What a twat. (beat) What are you doing? Are you replying? Page 87 91 CON TINUE D: (2) 91 Suzy's texting on Toby's mobile. Toby's coming back. Suzy puts the phone back down. TOBY Yeah I wouldn't want to meet Jamie in a dark alley. Or a bright alley. The whole thing of just being in an alley with him would be scary, regardless of the lighting. Suzy cuts in. SUZY You've got a text. TOBY (reading, covering) Oh yeah. It's just Rob about football. SUZY So, Liza. You shagged her? TOBY What? No. SUZY (to Judy) Did you know my flakey boyfriend has been getting his flakey end away? JUDY I don't know anything about his flakey end. TOBY Could we not talk about accusations and, health issues, in the pub? JUDY I should go. SUZY You haven't finished your drink. JUDY No. I mainly have. SUZY Why did you do it? TOBY I don't know, it was a weird, intense time over there. It was...maybe, subconsciously, I don't know, it was a kind of last ditch attempt to stop this, awful...war. Page 88 91 CON TINUE D: (3) 91 A beat. Michael and Judy dissolve into laughter. MICHAEL That's classic. That's definitely going in the memoirs. SUZY You had sex because of the war? TOBY In the broad sense. (to Judy and Michael) Sorry, can you stop doing that? Can we go somewhere where they're aren't enormous children eating snacks? JUDY I should go. SUZY Actually I'll go. She goes. Toby goes after her. MICHAEL (a beat) Shall we stay? JUDY I should go. I've got a long walk ahead of me. But that'll keep me going.92 INT. TOBY'S FLAT - EVENING 92 Toby lets himself into the flat. Goes through to the kitchen. Suzy is there with Michael. TOBY What the fuck is he doing here? SUZY What?! What the fuck are you doing here? TOBY Well I live here. SUZY No you don't actually. (to Michael) I'll go make that tea. Suzy and Toby go into the kitchen. TOBY (beat) Well, if I'm leaving, I'm taking my brie. (MOR E) Page 89 92 CON TINUE D: 92 TOB Y (CONT'D) And the port. And my Nando's peri-peri sauce. They go back out into the living room. SUZY Don't forget your hydrocortisone. TOBY You putting this in your memoirs as well? MICHAEL I should go. SUZY No, it's fine. Stay.93 INT. TOBY'S FLAT - LATER 93 Toby is in the bedroom. A few boxes are lying around. He's putting clothes into bin liners. Suzy is hovering. Michael brings through some teas. The atmosphere is very frosty and awkward. TOBY Where's my needlecord jacket? SUZY Your geography teacher's jacket? Toby thinks better of responding. Starts folding some shirts. Michael takes over MICHAEL That's not how you fold. TOBY Michael, this is one of the more humiliating moments of my life. I can pack a bag. MICHAEL The key to travelling is packing. TOBY I'm not going to fucking Fiji Michael, I'm being chucked out of my house. MICHAEL It'll save time the other end. TOBY There is no other end. Toby moves through to the kitchen to get his jeans. Suzy and Michael follow. Page 90 93 CON TINUE D: 93 SUZY Has she got big tits? TOBY Massive. Enormous. You can see them on Google Earth. They've got their own postcode. Toby gets his jeans and some other clothes. He's laden down with boxes and bags and can hardly see. Comes out into the hall. Suzy is there without Michael. TOBY (CONT'D) See you then. SUZY Okay. Toby struggles to open the front door. Suzy opens it. Toby goes to leave then stops. TOBY Look, Suzy, this is probably going to sound odd under the circumstances. SUZY Quickie? TOBY No. Thank you. But no. It's about Liza. SUZY Oh good tell me more, tell me more about her tits. TOBY Listen, Suze, Liza wrote a paper, Pwip- Pip. I think, if it got leaked, it could stop the war. He holds out the memory stick. MICHAEL Good tactic. Get earnest. I tried that with the wife. Didn't work. SUZY You are such a fucking coward, you know that? And this is what? A make up leak? TOBY Does such a thing exist? Page 91 93 CON TINUE D: (2) 93 SUZY Toby, take your rubbish clothes and your back issues of Mojo, your flute, and your eighth of dope and leave me the fuck alone. Toby leaves the memory stick in the flat. Then heads out.94 INT. CAR - DAY 94 Simon, Toby and Judy are on the way to Heathrow. SIMON Should I resign? I've floated that I might, when I thought I wouldn't, so it'll look convincing if I did. I mean, do you think, is it braver to just resign and say, `No, no war'? JUDY Yes. SIMON Or is it actually braver to say, `I don't agree, but I'm going to grit my teeth and get on with it?' Is the really brave thing actually doing what you don't believe? JUDY No. TOBY Though -- maybe? What's brave about doing the `right thing'? Nothing. Doing the wrong thing is braver. In a way. I mean, you know, wars sometimes work. The War of Independence, that worked. For the Americans. Second World War. That was a good idea. I mean not a good idea but ... SIMON I know what you mean. And the Crimean War -- we got nurses out of that. TOBY Nurses are good. SIMON (as if they've achieved something) Exactly. So...right. Exactly. JUDY So you're not resigning? Page 92 94 CON TINUE D: 94 SIMON No, I..(trying to change the subject) where's Malcolm?95 INT. AIRPORT ARRIVALS - DAY 95 Judy, Simon and Toby are walking past a baggage carousel. SIMON (conspiratorially to Toby) In the motorcade. Let's get a car without Judy. TOBY You want hookers? You like hooky fucky? SIMON I want to talk about the resigning thing. TOBY Still? SIMON But with you and not her. She has this air of moral righteousness that inhibits you from... saying anything morally wrong.96 INT. LIMO - DAY 96 Simon and Toby looking very uptight. Malcolm's with them. MALCOLM (looking at phone) So. The wires are all currently reporting that you're going to resign from government over the war. SIMON What? That wasn't supposed to get outside. MALCOLM Yeah well it is outside. It's lurking outside like a big hairy rapist at a coach station. Simon looks to Toby for help. MALCOLM (CONT'D) Do you know, if I could I'd punch you into total paralysis. Page 93 INT. UN BUILDING - DAY97 97 Malcolm, Simon, Toby and Judy are being led through a bleak, soulless basement corridor in the UN by Sir Jonathan Tutt, the British ambassador to the UN. SIR JONATHAN Hello, gentlemen, Sir Jonathan Tutt. This is it. The United Nations. SIMON It's all a bit `blurrrgh', isn't it? JUDY It could do with a few more scatter cushions and a bit less asbestos. SIR JONATHAN I don't know what you were expecting -- Jacobean panelling perhaps, arabesques of stonework tracery... great fountains... MALCOLM It's a shithole. It looks like a hospice for robots. They pass a big office. SIR JONATHAN Linton Barwick is in there. Karen Clark is there. You're right here. Sir Jonathan shows them to their office. SIR JONATHAN (CONT'D) If you need anything, just whistle. You know how to whistle don't you Malcolm? You just put your lips together and blow. Malcolm and Toby look at one another. SIR JONATHAN (CONT'D) Right. I'm off upstairs to the informal delegates' reception. Hope there's nibbles, I'm ravenous. Sir Jonathan leaves. MALCOLM Nibbles? Who still says nibbles? TOBY Fuck the nibbles, what was with the homoerotic tension? Malcolm gets a call. Page 94 97 CON TINUE D: 97 MALCOLM Jamie. Hello? He looks at his phone. MALCOLM (CONT'D) No fucking signal down here. Jesus. I'd be better off in an internet cafe in Kircoddy. He leaves the room.98 INT. NUMBER 10 - SAME TIME 98 Jamie is on the phone, running down a corridor. JAMIE Okay, your phone's off, which means you've been shot dead by a fat American, but there's been a fucktastrophe. Someone's leaked Liza Weld's Pwip Pip paper to the BBC. I reckon it'll be on the Six O'Clock news here, one o'clock your time, so it's going to fist your fucking vote apart. Missing you loads, pwip-pip, toodle-oo!99 EXT. UN BUILDING - DAY 99 Malcolm finishing listening to his voicemail, dialling and running back into the building, pushing past a crowd of smokers at the doorway. MALCOLM Okay Jamie, two jobs. One: find the Pwip Pip leaker and kill them. That's one job. Job one has two parts. Job two: stop Pwip Pip coming out. Sow enough seeds of fear and doubt that the fat arses at the BBC dither till after the vote, okay? After the vote Enola Gay is cleared for take- off and everything is groovy. I love you.100 INT. UN FUNCTION ROOM/BAR - CONTINUOUS 100 Lots of delegates drinking and eating and chatting. We glimpse Linton, Karen, General Miller. Sir Jonathan is there, mingling. Malcolm approaches Simon, Toby, Judy and Sir Jonathan. Page 95 100 CON TINUE D: 100 MALCOLM (to Sir Jonathan) Do not move from this spot or I'll fucking stab you. SIR JONATHAN Hm? MALCOLM (to Simon) Was it you? SIMON No, what? No. MALCOLM But you know what I'm talking about? SIMON No, but whatever it was I didn't do it. MALCOLM (to Toby) Was it you, The-Baby-From-Eraserhead? TOBY No. MALCOLM (to Judy) So it must have been you Woman from The Crying Game? JUDY It wasn't me. You've really got it in for me haven't you? MALCOLM Someone's dropped a bollock in the noodles and I reckon it was you. JUDY We've done this all before. You accused me of leaking last time and it wasn't me. MALCOLM Yeah well I know you didn't leak last time. But what I reckon is you got so pissy about being accused, you leaked this time. TOBY Yeah. Yeah, that does sound possible. JUDY Look Springer Spaniel, keep your little wet nose out alright? Page 96 100 CON TINUE D: (2) 100 TOBY I'm just saying psychologically speaking that sounds plausible - that you might build up a resentment and then pay it off in some underhand way. That's just something I've observed. Malcolm's had enough goes over and grabs Sir Jonathan, mid-conversation, and manhandles him away. MALCOLM Come on, Baldermort, I need a word. Meanwhile Judy and Toby are left alone - Toby embarrassed about his comments. TOBY (they look at each other) Sorry about that - it's just ... (mumbles) something I've observed. JUDY Wanker. It's okay. It's fine. It's probably just the stress of this awful, awful war. Malcolm drags the ambassador into a corner. MALCOLM We're in a new reality now and You've got to speed things up. SIR JONATHAN What things? Speed up what? MALCOLM The debate. It needs to start at eleven o'clock, not one thirty. SIR JONATHAN Hehe. Can I perhaps briefly explain the way the process works? And why that isn't possible? You see through that door there are a number of secretariats that are currently doing what we call the washing up now... MALCOLM Just fucking do it, fishlips. Otherwise you'll find yourself in some medieval warzone in the Caucasus with your arse in the air, trying to persuade a group of men in balaclavas that sustained sexual violence is not the way forward. Page 97 100 CON TINUE D: (3) 100 SIR JONATHAN No, it can't be. I mean it could be done, it just can't. MALCOLM Then I'll do it. (motioning to a door) They're through there? SIR JONATHAN Yes but you can't go in, that would be a serious breach of protocol ... He's blocking Malcolm. Malcolm grabs his hand. MALCOLM Then you do it. Get in there. He is almost man-handling him in. SIR JONATHAN I'm not dancing with you Malcolm. MALCOLM I'm leading, look follow my lead. SIR JONATHAN You're not dancing me into the secretariat! Jonathan breaks off and under his own steam prepares to go in. As Malcolm is leaving Miller blocks his path. MALCOLM Where's the intel? Are you sure you're working as hard as me? Cos I'm sweating spinal fluid here. I'm a husk. MILLER You get everything you need? MALCOLM (in a hurry) Oh yeah I think so. Thanks. (a beat, thinks) Oh, Whoa whoa whoa just a wee moment General Flintstone. Was it you? Did you leak Pwip Pip? I know you can't fire a gun, but can you use a fax? MILLER No, see, because I'm upfront about what I do. I don't creep around like some fucking gay mercenary doing other people's dirty work. Page 98 100 CON TINUE D: (4) 100 MALCOLM I'm doing my own work. I'm doing my job. MILLER Uh-hu. I think you're doing Linton's dirty work. I think you're his English bitch and if I walked into your hotel room tonight I'd find you on all fours in fishnets and him hanging out the back of you. MALCOLM Oooo. Tough talk from the armchair General. What you going to do? Throw a cushion at me? Put your feet up on a poof and go back to sleep why don't you? GENERAL MILLER Listen, Tucker, you may be some scary poodlefucker back in London, but here? You know what you look like? A fucking squeezed dick. You got a blue vein running all the way up to your temple there. That's where I'd put the fucking bullet. But I'd stand well back. You look like you'd be a squirter. MALCOLM Have you ever even killed anybody? Really? GENERAL MILLER Yep. MALCOLM Falling asleep on someone doesn't count. GENERAL MILLER (closer) I've done my share. How many you kill, pussy drip? MALCOLM Personally, I prefer maiming. GENERAL MILLER Go on, tough guy, take a swing at me. I'll smack you so fucking hard you'll be shitting teeth. MALCOLM Go ahead. I can see the headlines now. 'Peace-Loving General Starts Fight In UN, Swiss Intervene'. I don't know, I'm no expert on spin but could that hurt your career? Page 99 100 CON TINUE D: (5) 100 They eyeball each other. Is Miller going to hit him? He doesn't. MALCOLM (CONT'D) Right. Do excuse me. I've got work to do. Oh, and don't EVER call me fucking English again.101 INT. UN CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY 101 Sir Jonathan walks in. A lot of faces are turned towards him, expectantly. SIR JONATHAN Hello everyone. I was wondering if I might suggest a cheeky early vote? Bit of an adventure. Maybe, we could knock off early, go for a drink? Ha. I'm kidding. Or am I? No, I am.102 INT. KAREN CLARK'S UN OFFICE - DAY 102 Karen and Miller are looking at a computer screen, presumably reading about Simon's floated resignation. KAREN (looking at computer) There it is. Simon's going. Everyone's saying he's going. Simon passes their open door. GENERAL MILLER (spotting Simon) Simon! There he is! Simon. (re internet) This is great shit. I wasn't sure you had the nerve. You're resigning? SIMON Ah okay. They're not running with that? I have not said that. GENERAL MILLER You're not resigning? KAREN You're still playing the hawk? SIMON It's much subtler than that. It's nuanced. I'm playing a much cleverer game than that. I'm a (whispering) fake hawk. Page 100 102 CON TINUE D: 102 GENERAL MILLER I'm sorry? SIMON (whispering) Fake hawk. GENERAL MILLER You're a fake hawk? You're a fucking idiot. You're not a fake idiot are you. Karen and Miller go into a confab. Karen and Miller immediately go into a huddle and start planning Simon's future. KAREN (to General Miller, as if Simon's not there) We could just tell the press he's going anyway. Say he's confirmed to us that he's resigning. SIMON Sorry? GENERAL MILLER I second that. SIMON What? You can't. GENERAL MILLER Do we announce it before or after the vote? KAREN During. Then he can't do anything about it. GENERAL MILLER Great. That's decided then. SIMON No. No it's bloody not. I'm - me. You're not me. I decide about all the main things about me, okay? Not you. Me. GENERAL MILLER No. No Simon. I'm afraid not. Not on this one. This is too big for you. KAREN Be realistic. You're being used. We all are. The one thing we can do now to influence things is to resign. Sacrifice ourselves. That's our only weapon. Page 101 102 CON TINUE D: (2) 102 SIMON Like a suicide bomber? GENERAL MILLER No, not like a suicide bomber. A suicide bomber gets to make a decision.103 INT. ANOTHER UN OFFICE - DAY 103 Toby and Liza are sitting near each other on the floor working on laptops. They're at right-angles to each other. Toby has a view of Liza. She's facing away from him. TOBY Listen, I'm really sorry about Suzy and the texting and ... LIZA Good. Thanks. Do you have figures there for CFE minimum requirements? TOBY Er? LIZA Conventional Forces in Europe. TOBY Sure. I'll just dig that out. (beat, taps on his laptop, then very quietly) Look it was a very special evening for me and ... LIZA (pissed off) Sorry? What? You're mumbling. TOBY I just wandered if tonight when all this shit is over we couldn't - you know. You're single. I'm single now. You're a woman. I'm not. LIZA You want to have sex again? TOBY It's not a terrible idea is it? One more. For the Gipper? LIZA You know what a douchbag is Toby? You're a douchbag on fucking wheels. Page 102 103 CON TINUE D: 103 TOBY Thanks. That was short and sweet. Well, short and sour.104 INT. UN MEDITATION ROOM - DAY 104 Simon is sitting in the Meditation Room, a stark chapel- like room with a big piece of granite in the middle of it. He's biting his nails, thinking. Judy comes in. JUDY You okay? SIMON I'm thinking of becoming a suicide bomber. JUDY That's certainly a very powerful way of getting your point across. He pulls out some mints. SIMON Would you like a mint? JUDY I'm okay thanks. Are you thinking to overdose on mints? Because... Simon eats a mint. He's lost in his own world. Staring, maybe slightly nodding at the thoughts in his own head. SIMON Do you like me Judy? JUDY You're my boss. SIMON Yeah, but do you actually like me. A beat. JUDY Sure. Look, I'll leave you to your thoughts. Page 103 104 CON TINUE D: 104 SIMON I haven't got any thoughts. I'm just staring vacantly into space while a distant voice in the back of my head goes "oh shit" like a car alarm in the middle of the night. Simon eats another mint. Sits there noisily sucking it. Judy leaves.105 INT. FOREIGN OFFICE - DAY 105 Michael and Suzy are sitting talking in an FO office. Jamie bursts in. JAMIE Was it you? MICHAEL Sorry? JAMIE Not you. I know it wasn't you, you're too fucking horny for your Knighthood. (TO SUZY) Was it you? SUZY Was what me? JAMIE Was it fucking you!? Answer the question! MICHAEL She can't very well answer the question if you don't tell her what it is, can she? JAMIE Fuck off to your room, Count of Cunty Cristo, this is between me and her. (to Suzy) You leaked Liza Weld's paper to the BBC. Tell me you leaked it. SUZY I didn't leak anything. I don't know what you're talking about. JAMIE You're lying. You touched your nose. That's what's called a `tell'. You are lying. Page 104 105 CON TINUE D: 105 SUZY No I'm not. JAMIE `No I'm not.' That's a tell as well. Classic. (changing tack to terror) I know the leak came from here, from this fucking fax machine here. He pushes a fax casually off the table onto the floor. JAMIE (CONT'D) This is what I'm doing to the machine. (he kicks it, hard till bits start to break off, but he's still quite controlled talking, as he kicks more) You see? This is how angry I am with the piece of office equipment which leaked this document, so can you imagine how angry I am with the person who did it? Yeah? Can you Suzy? He kicks the fax machine again. MICHAEL It was me. JAMIE Oh fuck off. Don't come over all Spartacus now. MICHAEL I leaked it. JAMIE What? Advances on Michael, becomes aware of the music. Jamie points to the CD player. JAMIE (CONT'D) Okay for a start turn that fucking row off. It's just fucking vowels. Listen to it. Just subsidised fucking foreign vowels. You only listen to that shit because it's bad form to actually wear a big hat that says "I went to private school". Michael doesn't turn it off, so Jamie does. JAMIE (CONT'D) Who did you leak it to? Page 105 105 CON TINUE D: (2) 105 MICHAEL I just sent it. I thought it was important so I sent it through. JAMIE (considers then, ) Ok. See this fax machine?(kick) That's your career. I'm pretty sure it's fucked. Let me just check (kick). Yeah, it is. Plus, breach of Official Secrets, so that's fucking swannee. Maybe you can get a part time job in West End as a gentleman's fluffer. Or whatever the fuck they call it these days. Jamie is heading off. MICHAEL Well, you know -- better to go out with a bang... JAMIE No, no. I will not allow this to be a bang. This will be a whimper, a tiny pathetic whimper like a puppy being fucked by a big metal puppy-fucking machine. And they do exist, `cos my gran's got one. Jamie leaves.106 INT. UN MEDITATION ROOM - DAY 106 Malcolm and Linton enter. We see Simon's mints lying on the big stone in the middle of the room. LINTON So we're down to the wire here, Mr Miracle Worker, what have you got for me? What intel have you rustled us up? MALCOLM Honestly? I haven't got it. We need more time. LINTON You haven't got it? Can you delay the vote to give you time to get it? MALCOLM No. I've had the vote brought forward. Simon comes in to retrieve his mints. SIMON Just getting my mints. Page 106 106 CON TINUE D: 106 LINTON I am telling you to delay the vote and get me some new intel. Now. MALCOLM Okay, quick reality check, J Edgar Fucking Hoover. I don't work for you. You don't tell me what to fucking do. LINTON Well firstly, don't raise your voice. This is a sacred space. You may not believe that, I may not believe that, but by God it's a useful hypocrisy. And secondarily you do work for me. Your prime minister instructed you to work for me. Malcolm glances at Simon. MALCOLM Get your Polos and fuck off. Simon stays where he is. Linton starts laughing. Toby enters, watches in amazement. LINTON The great Malcolm Tucker. One of your guys has leaked a paper, you can't do anything. We tell you to get intel, you can't do anything. I need the vote put back - you can't do anything. You, sir, are a useless piece of `S' star star `T'. A beat. MALCOLM (quietly, to Toby) What do you want? TOBY We've just heard -- the wall's starting to collapse. A brick has fallen. That's the news I'm getting. More to follow. Both news and bricks. Linton laughs again. LINTON Why don't you deal with that Tucker? A wall is falling down, that's more your level. I can see you with your shirt off and a wheelbarrow whistling a happy song. Linton walks out. Page 107 106 CON TINUE D: (2) 106 SIMON You've been working for him? MALCOLM It's complicated, okay? I've been juggling a number of responsibilities. Simon stares at Malcolm. He takes a mint and pops it in his mouth. SIMON Okay, well, right, after the vote, I resign. MALCOLM Look. It's too late now. Resigning. It's not worth it. The horse has bolted. It's out there getting shot now. SIMON I'll see you later, Malcolm. Simon exits. MALCOLM (to Toby) If you repeat this to anyone I will pull your leg off, break it in two and stab you to death with your broken shin bone. Now go away. Toby leaves. Malcolm sits down, head in his hands.107 INT. UN FUNCTION ROOM - SAME TIME 107 The delegates are still mingling. Toby is there now. Toby's phone goes. He answers. TOBY (into phone) Suzy, how's it going? Has Jamie been round? Right... Liza comes over. LIZA This is you, isn't it? TOBY (indicating himself) This is me, yes. And that's you. I thought we had this worked out. (into phone) (MOR E) Page 108 107 CON TINUE D: 107 TOB Y (CONT'D) Sorry Suze I've got an incoming call, I'll ring back for a further bollocking. LIZA I've got something big lined up and you better not have fucked it up for me. Liza leaves. TOBY (into phone) Hello? Oh hi, Paul. How's it going? No, yes, I know the wall is collapsing. I'm as frustrated as you are mate. The Vice President starts to walk by. Toby sees him, wants to shake his hand. TOBY (CONT'D) Look, could I call you back Paul? It's just the Vice President's ... I couldn't? No, okay, let's keep talking... The Vice President has gone. INT. FOREIGN OFFICE - SAME TIME108 108 Michael and Suzy in Michael's office, classical music in the background. Michael's clearing his desk, putting stuff in boxes. Jamie bursts in on Michael and Suzy, his phone still on. JAMIE Right, Frank and Nancy Sinatra. I've got good news. You're not fired. That's great news, isn't it? MICHAEL That sounds ominous. JAMIE He's fucking delighted. (cancels phone) We want to put Liza Weld's Pwip Pip out there, properly. In the public domain. We just have to refine it a bit. SUZY Refine it? JAMIE Take out the cons, change the name of the main informant. MICHAEL That's a complete fabrication. Page 109 108 CON TINUE D: 108 JAMIE Changing his name doesn't make a difference. The main source in there he's not really called Ice Man, is he? "Mr and Mrs Man, you've got a son, Ice." So we change it, to another name. Who's the fuck with the fiddle? The Fiddlefuck. MICHAEL This is Debussy, if that's what you mean. JAMIE Okay, we'll call him Debussy. MICHAEL No. JAMIE And then you'll make a couple of other changes. It'll mean your fingerprints are on it, Mikey, but it's the only way to save your job, you leaky fuck. Michael is now scared of what he's being asked to do. MICHAEL It wasn't me, Jamie, alright? It wasn't me. Don't make me do this. Someone else must have come in and used the fax machine. JAMIE What? Oh, that thing about your fax? Don't worry about that. I made that up. The paper was sent by e-mail. It;s just, the fax machine was there and it;s easier to kick. Michael looks at Suzy. She doesn't know what to say or do. JAMIE (CONT'D) (grabbing Michael) Come on Deuce Bigalow. You're coming with me. He drags Michael out of the office.109 INT. UN CORRIDOR - DAY 109 On the closed door of the Meditation Room. Malcolm suddenly bursts out, re-energised, ready for action. He's in the middle of a call. Page 110 109 CON TINUE D: 109 MALCOLM Yeah, BBC newsdesk please. Malcolm Tucker. (BEAT) Ben? Hi, how you doing? Yeah, well, I'm hearing you're preparing a story that we might not like. One of the doors he pushes open has a coffee machine in it. Toby is there getting a coffee. Malcolm gestures to him to come along. Toby joins Malc in his jog through the corridors, spilling his coffee on his hands as he goes and scalding himself. MALCOLM (CONT'D) I just want to say please, this garden wall story, please don't run with it. (beat, winks at Toby - you getting this?) Simon Foster's constituency-office wall? You've got that haven't you? I haven't let the cat out of the bag? Shit. Look, my reputation will be in tatters if you run with... (to Toby) And he's gone. Boo hoo. I've got a hard on. TOBY Can we stop running because my hands are really rather badly burned now. They stop. MALCOLM I know it was you who leaked Linton's War Committee. TOBY Oh? Right. (tries it out for size) It wasn't? MALCOLM Are you telling me it wasn't you? Is that your proposition? Is that want you want to say if I ask them to fly you to Diego Garcia and slip a hood over your head and carry out a cavity search? TOBY (covering) I don't actually recall. It was a busy time. MALCOLM That's more like it. So...you are now on probation. Okay? (MOR E) Page 111 109 CON TINUE D: (2) 109 MAL COLM (CONT'D) I am giving you a probationary period, which will last from today...until the end of recorded time. TOBY Okay. MALCOLM You're my guy now. I own you now. You're my Kunte Kinte. Go and get your laptop. Toby goes. Malcolm pushes open another door. Sir Jonathan Tutt is in there. MALCOLM (CONT'D) Ah, ambassador -- with your big baldy head you are spoiling us. SIR JONATHAN Good, I've been looking for you. I needed to tell you that by a huge personal effort -- huge --I have managed to bring the vote forward by an hour and a half. MALCOLM Great. I need it delayed now. SIR JONATHAN Very funny. That is funny. MALCOLM By an hour, at least. Although I guess two and a half hours now, as you've brought it forward. SIR JONATHAN No, I'm sorry I'm very sorry but I won't humiliate myself again. MALCOLM You do what I say or you can go and see if Belize are looking for a new ambassador but with a broken nose, one bollock, and a half-chewed cock.110 INT. UN CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY 110 Sir Jonathan walks in. A lot of faces are turned towards him, expectantly. SIR JONATHAN Right. What can I say? ...... Page 112 111 INT. TINY OFFICE 111 Jamie has taken Michael into a tiny windowless office. Michael's hunched at his laptop, looking at the Pwip-Pip document on his computer. Jamie stands right over him, ominously. JAMIE (to Michael re: the office) This is nice isn't it? Cosy. Away from prying eyes. MICHAEL So what's this, your political wet-room? Jamie's phone goes.112 INT. UN CORRIDOR/TINY OFFICE - DAY 112 Toby is standing in front of Malcolm, holding his laptop up for Malcolm to look at and a physical copy of the red Pwip-Pip folder. He's also got the Pwip-Pip file on screen. MALCOLM Is it up, have you got it up? JAMIE Yeah it's all fine. MALCOLM Okay, go to page nine, highlight that. JAMIE (to Michael) Go to page nine. Michael does. MALCOLM Highlight from that page to the end of the document. JAMIE Do you mean select? MALCOLM I don't know I don't use these things. JAMIE (to Michael) Select page nine to the end of the document. Page 113 112 CON TINUE D: 112 MICHAEL The caveats? Michael does it. MALCOLM Is it highlighted? JAMIE You mean selected, yeah it's selected. MALCOLM Okay, right, standby ... delete! JAMIE (to Michael) Delete! MICHAEL (subdued) You can't just delete the arguments against the war. Michael stops what he's doing. MALCOLM (to Toby) Messenger! Get Messenger up! Toby sticks Pwip-Pip in his mouth so he's got a hand free to initiate MSN messenger. JAMIE Oh hang on Malc. Michael's stopped moving. I think he's crashed. Malcolm types something on the laptop while Toby holds it up for him. MALCOLM Have you tried hitting him? Give him a thump, that usually works. JAMIE Hang on, I think I might be able to use manual over-ride. Jamie picks up Michael's hand and pulls out his index finger and places it on the delete key. JAMIE (CONT'D) No, it's okay. It's working again. MALCOLM Great. Now attach that to email. Page 114 112 CON TINUE D: (2) 112 JAMIE (to Michael) Attach that to an email. MALCOLM (to Toby) Right, let's find a printer. The Japanese, they'll have one. They've got everything.113 INT. UN CORRIDOR - DAY 113 Malcolm approaches Toby. MALCOLM Get me a blue folder. TOBY Where from? MALCOLM I don't fucking know. Do I look like I've ever set foot in a stationary cupboard? I do my shagging in five star hotels. Now go and find me a blue fucking folder. Pronto. Toby runs off.114 INT. LINTON'S UN OFFICE - DAY 114 Malcolm walks in. He holds up his blue folder. MALCOLM The intelligence your guys couldn't find? I think you owe me a massive, grovelling apology. LINTON What, you did your job? Eventually? Congratulations. Maybe they'll give you a knighthood. MALCOLM It's been a pleasure working with you. You know, I've met some psychos in my time, but none as fucking BORING as you. Oh sorry, that's right. You disapprove of swearing. A boring F star star CUNT! Malc hands over the folder and walks out. Page 115 115 INT. UN - DAY 115 Linton, with Adriano now back beside him AND LIZA, is waiting for hush from the assembled US delegation, including Miller. LINTON Welcome aboard Liza. By the way, congratulations on Pwip Pip. Excellent work. LIZA Really? LINTON I don't know. I haven't read it personally. No time. But it certainly raised your profile. LIZA No. That old thing? That was like a thousand years ago. More maybe. LINTON Terrific. (to the delegation) So, I'll keep this brief and to the point. We go in, we make our case using the new British intelligence from their source `Debussy', we win the argument, we get the hell out. The delegation starts filing out.116 INT. UN CORRIDOR- DAY 116 The Brit delegation are gathered round a screen in a corridor showing the main debating chamber. The mood is sombre. CHAIR (on screen) Resolution 5977 is passed. Judy looks at Malcolm. Malcolm looks straight ahead at the screen, nods, impassive. SIMON Yup. That's that then. TOBY "That's that then"? That's your quote for the ages is it? Page 116 116 CON TINUE D: 116 SIMON What? TOBY 'And I remember the moment war was declared. I turned to the Minister and he said "That's that, then. Anyone want a mint?". SIMON Piss off, Toby.117 INT. UN - DAY 117 The mood is quietly buzzy. Job well done. Liza is there too. LINTON We did it Bob! BOB ADRIANO Yes sir! There were moments when it was a little hairy ... LINTON No there weren't, no. They shake hands with various colleagues.118 INT. TINY OFFICE - DAY 118 A TV shows BBC News 24's report on the vote. Jamie is stroking Michael's hair in a sweet and therefore very very scary way. Michael's staring ahead pretending it isn't happening. JAMIE (sweetly) Well done Michael. You did a good job. You did a really, really good job. INT. UN OFFICE - DAY119 119 Karen enters. Chad is there too with General Miller. KAREN So, I emailed my resignation ten minutes ago. (to Miller) Yours should come right after the President's announcement, to have the biggest media impact. Page 117 119 CON TINUE D: 119 GENERAL MILLER I've been thinking Karen. This has been the hardest fucking decision of my political life. I'm not resigning. KAREN What the fuck George. Seriously? You said that the war was intolerable and we'd go together. GENERAL MILLER It is - it is intolerable. I still agree with myself about that. But I've got to tolerate it. My loyalty is with the kids. At the end of the day I'm a soldier. KAREN You're not a soldier. GENERAL MILLER Look at the uniform, Karen. I'm not a pastry chef. I have military commendations on my chest, not a little fucking label saying My Name Is George. KAREN You're a politician. You live on canapes and white wine and you have three anecdotes you wheel out at every party and you scour the national papers for mentions of your name. You're a fucking politician. GENERAL MILLER I'm still a soldier. KAREN When was the last time you shot a guy? GENERAL MILLER What, if I haven't shot a guy in 15 years then I'm not a soldier? City hall don't insist I bring along a fucking bullet- ridden corpse every five years to renew my soldier licence. KAREN You know this is an unnecessary war. It's a war you don't believe in. Show me some balls, George. GENERAL MILLER I know I've got balls, I don't need to show them to you. Page 118 119 CON TINUE D: (2) 119 KAREN Oh sure, It just so happens they're sitting pretty in a pair of Egyptian cotton Ralph Lauren shorts on a Government salary. GENERAL MILLER Don't talk about my fucking balls that way. My balls have been around. My balls have got balls. KAREN Come on Chad, let's leave the General and his over-stuffed scrotum. We're going to draft our resignation announcements. Karen turns away from him. CHAD Er, I might, stay with the General actually Karen, if that's okay? If he's staying I might stay with him and see what assistance I can furnish. KAREN Okay. General Shrek and his faithful talking donkey. She goes. GENERAL MILLER This takes balls Karen. CHAD You've got balls Sir. Anyone can see you've got big balls. They're two-thirds of a snowman. GENERAL MILLER Get the fuck away from me. Miller walks off. CHAD Okay. This was not the plan.120 INT. UN - DAY 120 Simon's on the phone to the wall man. SIMON No, you're right. I am a piss-brain. That's the perfect word, Mr Michaelson. Your mother came up with it? Well congratulate her from me. I am a piss- brain for letting this happen. Page 119 120 CON TINUE D: 120 Simon sees Malcolm coming along. Starts to head back into the shared office. He rings off, Malcolm catches up with him in the office MALCOLM Simon, look, mate. Listen to me. You still don't need to resign. SIMON No. I'm going to resign, Malcolm. In a hour. You can't stop me now. Toby comes over. TOBY Boss? SIMON MALCOLM Yes? Yes? TOBY (CONT'D) It's on the BBC News website -- Partial collapse of the wall. Mrs Michaelson's greenhouse has a smashed pane. The BBC had a crew down there. SIMON God, and that's NEWS. Ridiculous, isn't it? MALCOLM It's nor Ridiculous. You're fired. SIMON What? MALCOLM The wall. It's just not tolerable. SIMON It's just a fucking wall. MALCOLM Look at this. (clicks his fingers at Toby) Give me the paper. (off Simon's look) He's my new boy. I'm just breaking him in. TOBY Here. Page 120 120 CON TINUE D: (2) 120 MALCOLM The Telegraph has a cartoon of you crushed underneath the Great Wall Of China, suggesting you are the only political fuck-up visible from space. Look at this. No one could survive this. The PM is very clear on this - you're sacked, over the wall. SIMON No. MALCOLM Yes. SIMON You haven't even - spoken to the Prime Minister. MALCOLM Yes I have. SIMON You fucking haven't I've been right here. MALCOLM I have spoken to the Prime Minister. Whether it has happened or not is irrelevant. It is true. As soon as I heard about the wall, I spoke to him and he decided you had to go. SIMON I'm not going quietly. MALCOLM Yeah well if you try to turn this into some anti-war protest, you can expect your `mountain of conflict' soundbite to be everywhere from ringtones to a fucking dance mix on YouTube. I will marshall all the forces of media darkness to hound you to an assisted suicide. A silence while Simon and Toby realise there is nowhere for him to go. MALCOLM (CONT'D) Right, Rumpleforeskin's give me your laptop, so -- shall we draft your `Dear Prime Minister, just a quick note to say thanks for sacking me' letter? Simon doesn't know what else to do. Toby goes to get his laptop. Miller is having a cigarette under a no-smoking sign. Page 121 120 CON TINUE D: (3) 120 TOBY Hi. General? Look I realise this is a slightly strange time to say this, but I just want to say how much I admire... GENERAL MILLER Go fuck yoursefl, Frodo. TOBY Great. Lovely Toby hurries off looking crushed. Miller takes another drag on his cigarette. INT. STATE DEPARTMENT. DAY121 121 Linton is going through a list with Liza. General Miller is sitting in on this meeting, looking slightly like a man who's being shafted up the ass and having to pretend to enjoy it. LINTON Okay, I don't want to be accused of micro managing but I personally do not see that `I heart Huckabees' should be on the list of dvds suitable for forces entertainment. That self-indulgent crap is not suitable entertainment for combat troops. And where's `United 93' on here? That should be playing 24/7. INT. CONSTITUENCY OFFICE. DAY.122 122 Simon is back with Roz. ROZ Right, I've got a selection of quotes for you, they're all local firms and none of them is very well respected. (gets another piece of paper out) Now, this sceptic tank is also rearing it's pooy head again too. Simon looks zonked with boredom.123 INT. WHITE HOUSE 123 A.J. Well Alan, I have been balled out by Linton for allowing I Heart Huckabees on to the troops DVD roster. You know the phrase, "I'm too old for this shit? Well, I'm too young for this shit. (MOR E) Page 122 123 CON TINUE D: 123 A.J. (CONT'D) I should be out there having a youth. Getting high, making women pregnant.124 INT. DFID - DAY 124 Malcolm is walking through the open-plan office with Judy. In the background we see Toby getting the last of his things together. The NEW MINISTER and her ADVISOR arrive. They are almost carbon copies of Simon and Toby. MALCOLM Ah, here they are. Minister. Elizabeth. Welcome aboard. MINISTER Thanks Malcolm. Looking forward to it. War seems to be going `great guns' at the moment. MALCOLM Ah, cheeky! Let me take you out for an expensive lunch, roast swan and all the trimmings, and I'll bring you up to speed on the whole Middle East situation. MINISTER Are you twisting my arm already? MALCOLM Aye, but in a friendly, non-breaky way. Watch your step there. There's still blood on the deck. ADVISOR (to Judy) Hi I'm Danny. Dan. I'm Elizabeth's chief advisor. JUDY Judy Molloy. Senior Press - ADVISOR Have I got a desk? JUDY Yes, it's that one there. She points at Toby's desk. The Minister and his advisor start making themselves at home. We stay on Toby now as Malcolm and Judy greet the new guys. Page 123 124 CONTINUE D: 124 Toby grabs the last of his things, glances over at them, and them we follow him as he heads down the front steps. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Inception.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Inception.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f865e00cf8714189b64de56005d1d581acb091bc --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Inception.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + INCEPTION Written by Christopher Nolan SHOOTING SCRIPT FADE IN: DAWN. CRASHING SURF. The waves TOSS a BEARDED MAN onto wet sand. He lies there. A CHILD'S SHOUT makes him LIFT his head to see: a LITTLE BLONDE BOY crouching, back towards us, watching the tide eat a SANDCASTLE. A LITTLE BLONDE GIRL joins the boy. The Bearded Man tries to call them, but they RUN OFF, FACES UNSEEN. He COLLAPSES. The barrel of a rifle ROLLS the Bearded Man onto his back. A JAPANESE SECURITY GUARD looks down at him, then calls up the beach to a colleague leaning against a JEEP. Behind them is a cliff, and on top of that, a JAPANESE CASTLE. INT. ELEGANT DINING ROOM, JAPANESE CASTLE - LATER The Security Guard waits as an ATTENDANT speaks to an ELDERLY JAPANESE MAN sitting at the dining table, back to us. ATTENDANT (in Japanese) He was delirious. But he asked for you by name. And... (to the Security Guard) Show him. SECURITY GUARD (in Japanese) He was carrying nothing but this... He puts a HANDGUN on the table. The Elderly Man keeps eating. SECURITY GUARD ...and this. The Security Guard places a SMALL PEWTER CONE alongside the gun. The Elderly Man STOPS eating. Picks up the cone. ELDERLY JAPANESE MAN (in Japanese) Bring him here. And some food. INT. SAME - MOMENTS LATER The Elderly Man watches the Bearded Man WOLF down his food. He SLIDES the handgun down the table towards him. ELDERLY JAPANESE MAN (in English) Are you here to kill me? The Bearded Man glances up at him, then back to his food. 2. The Elderly Japanese Man picks up the cone between thumb and forefinger. ELDERLY JAPANESE MAN I know what this is. He SPINS it onto a table- it CIRCLES gracefully across the polished ebony... a SPINNING TOP. ELDERLY JAPANESE MAN I've seen one before. Many, many years ago... The Elderly Japanese Man STARES at the top mesmerized. ELDERLY JAPANESE MAN It belonged to a man I met in a half-remembered dream... MOVE IN on the GRACEFULLY SPINNING TOP... ELDERLY JAPANESE MAN A man possessed of some radical notions...The Elderly Japanese Man STARES, remembering... COBB (V.O.) What's the most resilient parasite? CUT TO:INT. SAME ELEGANT DINING ROOM - NIGHT (YEARS EARLIER)The speaker, COBB, is 35, handsome, tailored. A youngJapanese man, SAITO, eats as he listens. COBB A bacteria? A virus?Cobb gestures at their feast with his wine glass- COBB An intestinal worm?Saito's fork pauses, mid-air. Cobb GRINS. A third man is atthe table- ARTHUR. He jumps in to save the pitch- ARTHUR What Mr. Cobb is trying to say- COBB An idea.Saito looks at Cobb, curious. 3. COBB Resilient, highly contagious. Once an idea's taken hold in the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. A person can cover it up, ignore it- but it stays there. SAITO But surely-to forget...? COBB Information, yes. But an idea? Fully formed, understood? That sticks... (taps forehead) In there, somewhere. SAITO For someone like you to steal? ARTHUR Yes. In the dream state, conscious defenses are lowered and your thoughts become vulnerable to theft. It's called extraction. COBB But, Mr. Saito, we can train your subconscious to defend itself from even the most skilled extractor. SAITO How can you do that? COBB Because I am the most skilled extractor. I know how to search your mind and find your secrets. I know the tricks, and I can teach them to your subconscious so that even when you're asleep, your guard is never down.Cobb leans forwards. Holding Saito's gaze. COBB But if I'm going to help you, you have to be completely open to me. I'll need to know my way around your thoughts better than your wife, your analyst, anyone. (gestures around) If this is a dream and you've got a safe full of secrets, I need to know what's in that safe. For this to work, you have to let me in. 4.Saito gives this a flicker of a smile. Rises. A BODYGUARDopens double doors which give onto a LAVISH PARTY. SAITO Gentlemen. Enjoy your evening as I consider your proposal.They watch Saito leave. Arthur turns to Cobb, worried- ARTHUR He knows.Cobb motions silence. A TREMOR starts, they steady theirglasses, Cobb glances at his watch- THE SECOND HAND ISFROZEN. ARTHUR What's going on up there?And we- CUT TO:FILTHY BATHROOM - DAY (FEELS LIKE DIFFERENT TIME)Cobb, ASLEEP, SITTING IN A CHAIR AT THE END OF A STEAMINGBATH. The chair is up on a cabinet- the bottom of the legslevel with the rim of the tub.A sweating man (40's) watches over Cobb. This is NASH. Adistant EXPLOSION rumbles through the room. Nash moves to thewindow, parts the curtains. Outside: a CHAOTIC DEVELOPING-WORLDCITY- the street filled with RIOTERS- SMASHING, BURNING.Nash checks Cobb's left wrist: above his watch, tape holdsTWO THIN YELLOW TUBES in place. Nash looks at Cobb's watch-THE SECOND HAND CRAWLS UNNATURALLY SLOWLY.Nash follows the tubes to a SILVER BRIEFCASE at Arthur'sfeet: ARTHUR IS ASLEEP in an armchair. Tubes connect thebriefcase to Arthur's wrist.Nash follows another set of tubes from the briefcase to wherethey pass under the door to the bedroom. Through the crack ofthe door, Nash sees SAITO ASLEEP on the bed, tubes running tohis wrist. BOOM- a closer EXPLOSION, and we- CUT TO:INT. BULLET TRAIN COMPARTMENT - DAY (FEELS LIKE DIFFERENT TIME)Nash, ASLEEP. Head ROCKING AGAINST THE WINDOW as the trainBUMPS OVER A ROUGH PIECE OF TRACK. 5.A Japanese Man, TODASHI (18) watches Nash nervously. Hechecks Nash's wrist: TWO YELLOW TUBES CONNECT NASH WITH THREEOTHER SLEEPING MEN IN THE COMPARTMENT: COBB, ARTHUR, SAITO.Todashi checks his watch: THE SECOND HAND TICKS IN REAL TIME.Another TRAIN PASSES in the opposite direction with a MIGHTYWHUMP- Todashi's eyes FLY to Nash's sleeping face-NASH JERKS WITH THE MOVEMENT OF THE TRAIN, and we- CUT TO:INT. FILTHY BATHROOM - CONTINUOUSAnother EXPLOSION- Nash CHECKS the sleeping Cobb and we- CUT TO:EXT. ROOFTOP TERRACES, JAPANESE CASTLE - NIGHTA LOW TREMOR RUMBLES THROUGH THE CASTLE. Cobb and Arthursteady themselves against the wooden rail. Several TILES andpieces of MASONRY fall. Below them a BLACK SEA churns. OtherGUESTS wander the massive terraces. ARTHUR Saito knows. He's playing with us. COBB I can get it here. The information's in the safe- he looked right at it when I mentioned secrets.Arthur nods. Then spots someone over Cobb's shoulder. ARTHUR What's she doing here, Cobb?Cobb turns to see a beautiful woman, elegantly dressed,staring out at the sea. This is MAL. Cobb watches her. COBB You just get to your room. I'll take care of the rest. ARTHUR See that you do. We're here to work.Arthur brushes past Mal, shaking his head. She nears Cobb.Looks out at the DROP. The WIND WHIPS HER HAIR- MAL If I jumped, would I survive? 6. COBB With a clean dive, perhaps. Mal, why are you here?She turns to look at him. Amused. MAL I thought you might be missing me...She smiles. He leans in, mesmerized. COBB I am. But I can't trust you anymore.She stares up at him, inviting. MAL So what?INT. BEDROOM SUITE, JAPANESE CASTLE - MOMENTS LATERMal sips champagne as she studies a painting by FrancisBacon. MAL Looks like Arthur's taste.Cobb is looking down through the window at the GUARDSpatrolling the castle at ground level. COBB Actually, Mr. Saito is partial to postwar British painters.He turns to Mal, donning a pair of black leather gloves. COBB Would you sit down?Mal lowers herself gracefully into a leather wingback chair.Cobb approaches, pulls out a length of BLACK ROPE and kneelsat Mal's feet. She looks down at him. MAL Tell me...Cobb TIES the rope around the CHAIR LEGS. MAL Do the children miss me?Cobb pauses. He lets his gloved fingers lightly touch Mal'sankle. He looks up at her. 7. COBB You can't imagine.Mal looks away, uncomfortable. Cobb gets to his feet, lettingout the rope as he moves back to the window. MAL What're you doing?Cobb tosses the rope out- COBB Getting some air.He tugs on the rope, testing. The weight of the chair, withMal on it, holds. COBB Stay seated. Please.And with that, he JUMPS. Mal considers the open window.EXT. JAPANESE CASTLE WALL - CONTINUOUSCobb RAPPELS down the wall, darting past windows. He stops ata particular one. Gets out a glass cutter-Suddenly he starts DROPPING-INT. BEDROOM SUITE, JAPANESE CASTLE - CONTINUOUSThe EMPTY CHAIR SLIDES across the floor- WEDGES under thewindow-EXT. JAPANESE CASTLE WALL - CONTINUOUSCobb JOLTS to a stop 15 ft. lower. He looks up at the bedroomwindow. Shakes his head. Starts climbing back.INT. KITCHEN, JAPANESE CASTLE - MOMENTS LATERCobb drops silently from the window into the darkenedkitchen. He pulls a PISTOL from his belt, screwing a SILENCERonto the barrel as he GLIDES across the room.INT. HALL, JAPANESE CASTLE-CONTINUOUSCobb SLIPS through the shadows towards a GUARD stationed atthe head of a GRAND STAIRCASE...The Guard HEARS something- TURNS- PEERS into the shadows...Cobb FLASHES out of the shadows, silenced pistol up, AIMING- 8.PHHT- head shot- the Guard starts to drop... but Cobb isalready there to CATCH him, sliding on his knees and loweringthe Guard SILENTLY to the floor.INT. DINING ROOM, JAPANESE CASTLE - CONTINUOUSCobb moves to a PAINTING. With practiced hands he removes itfrom the wall, revealing a SAFE. Cobb spins the dial, pullsit OPEN, GRABS an envelope from within, stuffs it into hiswaistband, where there is already an IDENTICAL ENVELOPE.LIGHTS COME ON. Cobb freezes. SAITO (O.S.) Turn around.Cobb turns. At the far end of the room: Saito. Next to him isMal, gun in hand. She smiles at Cobb. MAL The gun, Dom.Cobb doesn't move. Mal motions outside- two GUARDS dragArthur into the room. Mal puts the gun to his head. MAL Please.Cobb slowly places his gun at his end of the long table, thenSLIDES it along the polished ebony. It comes to rest HALFWAYdown the length or the table. SAITO Now the envelope, Mr. Cobb.Cobb reaches into his waistband, removes ONE of theenvelopes, SLIDES it along the table. Steps back, handsraised. COBB Did she tell you, or have you known all along? SAITO That you're here to steal from me? (beat) Or that we're actually asleep?Arthur gives Cobb an I-told-you-so look. SAITO I want to know who your employer is.Mal COCKS the gun at Arthur's temple. 9. COBB No point threatening him in a dream. MAL That depends on what you're threatening. Killing him would just wake him up... but pain? Pain is in the mind...Mal LOWERS the gun and SHOOTS Arthur in the leg- Arthurdrops, SCREAMING- Mal looks at Cobb, cold. MAL And, judging by the decor, we're in your mind, aren't we, Arthur?Cobb watches Arthur's PAIN. Mal aims at Arthur's other leg...Cobb SPRINGS for the table, SKIDDING along its polishedsurface- he GRABS his gun- SHOOTS ARTHUR BETWEEN THE EYES-Arthur DROPS- the room starts to SHUDDER in a MASSIVEEARTHQUAKE- Cobb SPRINGS for the door- Arthur's eyes stare atthe ceiling, DEAD, and we- CUT TO:INT. FILTHY BATHROOM - DAYArthur's EYES OPEN as he WAKES IN THE ARMCHAIR- he GRABS atthe tubes at his wrist, YANKING them free- NASH What're you doing?! It's too soon-FLUID spurts from the tubes as Arthur STRUGGLES with theSILVER CASE on the bathroom floor. ARTHUR I know! We have to reconnect the loop before they wake up!Arthur grabs the case and pushes through the door to thebedroom- following the tubes to where they meet Saito's wrist-SAITO LIES ON THE BED ASLEEP. Saito STIRS and we- CUT TO:INT. JAPANESE CASTLE CORRIDOR - NIGHTCobb LURCHES towards the stairs, as all around him thebuilding BUCKS and HEAVES- 10.INT. DINING ROOM, JAPANESE CASTLE - CONTINUOUSSaito and the Guards PANIC. Mal walks calmly through thedestruction, picks up the envelope and turns to Saito. MAL He was close. Very close.EXT. GRAND STAIRCASE, JAPANESE CASTLE - CONTINUOUSCobb runs up the stairs, pulling out the SECOND ENVELOPE-INT. DINING ROOM, JAPANESE CASTLE - CONTINUOUSSaito RIPS open the envelope, pulls out sheets of paper. Helooks at Mal, PANICKED. He turns to the Guards- SAITO Stop him!Mal, confused, looks at the sheets of paper: THEY ARE BLANK.Mal smiles, amused.INT. GRAND STAIRCASE, JAPANESE CASTLE - CONTINUOUSAs Cobb runs up the stairs he reads the TYPEWRITTEN SHEETSfrom his envelope, and we- CUT TO:INT. DILAPIDATED HOTEL ROOM - DAYArthur OPENS the silver case: a COMPLEX MECHANISM of TUBES,SYRINGES, DOSAGE CONTROLLERS. Arthur's hands fly across themachine's controls as he glances at Saito's STIRRING face- ARTHUR I'm not going to make it! Wake Cobb!INT. FILTHY BATHROOM - CONTINUOUSNash turns to Cobb. Raises his hand and SMACKS him across theface, and we- CUT TO:INT. GRAND STAIRCASE, JAPANESE CASTLE - NIGHTCobb is SMASHED sideways off his feet... 11.INT. DINING ROOM, JAPANESE CASTLE - NIGHTThe CEILING CRACKS above Saito- he looks up as a TON of STONEfloods down, CRUSHING HIM and we- CUT TO:INT. DILAPIDATED HOTEL ROOM - DAYSaito's eyes FLICKER OPEN. AWAKE.INT. FILTHY BATHROOM - CONTINUOUSNash SMACKS Cobb again- NASH He won't wake!INT. DILAPIDATED HOTEL ROOM-CONTINUOUSArthur crouched by Saito, connects the second tube. ARTHUR Dunk him!A CLICK: Arthur looks up to find Saito with a gun to his headand a finger to his lips, gesturing silence...INT. FILTHY BATHROOM - CONTINUOUSNash puts his hand on Cobb's forehead and PUSHES HIMBACKWARDS- as Cobb starts to FALL BACKWARDS in the chair weare in SLOW MOTION, and we- CUT TO:INT. GRAND STAIRCASE, JAPANESE CASTLE - NIGHTCobb, full speed, picks himself up, scrambling to read thelast sheet of paper. He stares at it PUZZLED- bullets hitaround him as the Guards race up the stairs and we- CUT TO:INT. FILTHY BATHROOM - DAYCobb in SLOW MOTION, hits the WATER- head THRASHING as hegoes under- and we- CUT TO:INT. GRAND STAIRCASE, JAPANESE CASTLE - NIGHTCobb glances up from the paper as WATER EXPLODES IN THROUGHALL THE WINDOWS, FLOODING THE ENTIRE HALL- 12.COBB IS SWAMPED BY WATER, SPUN IN ALL DIRECTIONS AT ONCE- HEPULLS DEEPER OR FOR THE SURFACE, WE CAN'T TELL...HE BREAKS THE SURFACE, GASPING FOR AIR IN THE BATHTUB IN THE-INT. FILTHY BATHROOM - DAYCobb's AWAKE, GULPING AIR, getting his bearings.Saito SMASHES into the room, KNOCKING Nash down- CobbLAUNCHES himself out of the tub, FLYING dripping wet acrossthe room to SLAM Saito against the door- the gun DROPS,Cobb's fist CONNECTS with Saito's jaw and the struggle isover.INT. DILAPIDATED HOTEL ROOM - MOMENTS LATERCobb, wet but composed, sits, turning Saito's gun in hishand. Nash holds Saito's arms behind him. Outside, the soundsof RIOTING grow louder. COBB You came prepared. SAITO I bring the gun because not even my head of security knows this apartment. How did you find it?Arthur, at the window, looks out at the WORSENING VIOLENCE. COBB Hard for a man in your position to keep a love nest totally secret... particularly when there's a married woman involved. SAITO She would never... COBB And yet, here we are.Saito is silent. COBB With a dilemma. SAITO You got what you came for. COBB Not quite. The key piece of information wasn't there, was it, Mr. Saito? 13.Arthur looks over at Cobb, worried. ARTHUR They're getting closer, Cobb. CUT TO:INT. BULLET TRAIN COMPARTMENT - DAYTodashi slips a pair of HEADPHONES over Nash's ears, thenpulls out an MP3 player and we- CUT TO:INT. DILAPIDATED HOTEL ROOM - DAYSaito's eyes are on the floor. COBB You held something back because you knew what we were up to...Cobb uses the barrel of the gun to raise Saito's chin. COBB So why let us in at all?Saito smiles, defiant. VIOLENT NOISES echo up the stairway... SAITO An audition. COBB Audition for what? SAITO It doesn't matter. You failed. COBB I extracted all the information you had in there. SAITO But your deception was readily apparent.And we- CUT TO:INT. BULLET TRAIN COMPARTMENT - DAYTodashi opens the SILVER BRIEFCASE, revealing the complexmechanism of syringes and controllers- FOUR CONTROLLERSDISPLAY COUNTDOWNS. 14.Todashi waits for the first countdown to hit "30," then HITSPLAY on the MP3 player- He watches Nash's sleeping face as heRAISES the volume...Through Nash's headphones: the opening bars of Edith Piaf's"Non, je ne regrette rien," and we- CUT TO:INT. DILAPIDATED HOTEL ROOM - DAYIn the distant background, strange MASSIVE low-end MUSICALstart, sounding like DISTANT HORNS... SAITO So leave me and go. COBB You know the corporation who hired us won't accept failure. We won't last two days...The DISTANT, SLOWED-DOWN MUSIC is becoming LOUDER, as are theSHOUTS coming up the stairs. Arthur looks at his watch, itsSLOW SECOND TICKING MARKS TIME WITH THE MASSIVE MUSIC. ARTHUR Come on, Cobb. COBB So now I have to do this the old- fashioned way-Cobb GRABS SAITO AND PUTS HIS HEAD TO THE FLOOR, gun pressedinto his cheek. Saito looks into Cobb's eyes- sees he willpull the trigger. Saito BLINKS, looks away in shame-When he NOTICES SOMETHING. And starts LAUGHING. SAITO I've always hated this carpet.Cobb's eyes flick to the carpet and back. SAITO It's stained and frayed in such distinctive ways...Cobb looks up at Nash, who shrugs, at a loss. SAITO But very definitely made of wool. Right now I'm lying on polyester. 15.Cobb glares at Nash, and we- CUT TO:INT. BULLET TRAIN COMPARTMENT - DAYTodashi watches the first of the countdowns hit ZERO- Helooks up at Arthur, STIRRING, and we- CUT TO:INT. DILAPIDATED HOTEL ROOM-DAYSaito turns from the carpet to look up at Cobb. SAITO Which means I'm not lying on my carpet, in my apartment... (smiles) You've lived up to your reputation, Mr. Cobb... I'm still dreaming.Cobb looks over to Arthur, but ARTHUR HAS VANISHED, and we- CUT TO:INT. BULLET TRAIN COMPARTMENT - DAYArthur's eyes flicker open, AWAKE. He RIPS at his tubes. TODASHI How'd it go? ARTHUR Not good.Arthur checks the remaining three countdowns, and we- CUT TO:INT. DILAPIDATED HOTEL ROOM - DAYSaito gets to his feet, looking admiringly at Cobb. SAITO A dream within a dream-I'm impressed.Cobb lowers the gun. Defeated. Glances at his watch. Themusic REVERBERATES, the RIOTERS BANG ON THE DOOR, and we- CUT TO: 16.INT. BULLET TRAIN COMPARTMENT - DAYArthur retracts the tubes into the case as he watches thenext countdown hit ZERO, and we- CUT TO:INT. DILAPIDATED HOTEL ROOM - DAYAnother BANG on the door- Saito, confident now, approachesCobb. Nash is behind Saito. SAITO But in my dream, we really ought to be playing by my rules... NASH Ah, yes, but you see, Mr. Saito-Saito turns to Nash- COBB We're not in your dream-Saito turns back to Cobb, BUT COBB HAS VANISHED- NASH We're in mine.Saito SPINS back to Nash- the DOOR SMASHES OFF ITS HINGES ASRIOTERS POUR INTO THE ROOM, SWARMING OVER NASH... BUT NASH ISGONE. The music DIES. Saito and the rioters stand there inthe SILENCE, the light DWINDLING... and we- CUT TO:INT. BULLET TRAIN COMPARTMENT - DAYNash' eyes open, AWAKE. ARTHUR (O.S.) Asshole!Nash BLINKS. Arthur is in his face, furious. ARTHUR How could you get the carpet wrong?! NASH It wasn't my fault! ARTHUR You're the architect- 17. NASH I didn't know he was going to rub his damn cheek on it!Cobb pulls Arthur away from Nash. COBB Lets go. ARTHUR And you-what the hell was all that? COBB I had it under control. ARTHUR I'd hate to see out of control- COBB There's no time for this-I'm getting off at Kyoto. ARTHUR Why? He's not gonna search every compartment. COBB I can't stand trains.Arthur moves to the briefcase. Turns a dial. ARTHUR I can keep him under for one minute-Arthur hits a button- A PLUNGER DEPRESSES. Cobb RIPS the tapeoff Saito's wrist, ROLLS up his tubes. Arthur SLAMS thesilver case shut. Todashi pulls open the door- COBB Every man for himself.Arthur and Nash EXIT, heading in different directions downthe corridor. Cobb hands Todashi a thick roll of CASH, looksat Saito, who stirs. Cobb moves off.EXT. JAPANESE COUNTRYSIDE - CONTINUOUSThe BULLET TRAIN speeds through the lush landscape.INT. BULLET TRAIN COMPARTMENT - CONTINUOUSSaito WAKES GENTLY. Looks around the compartment, empty butfor Todashi, reading a comic. Saito looks down at his wrist.Sees a small mark. Rubs it. SMILES. 18.EXT. TOKYO - DUSKMoving over the vast city towards a high rise. A HELICOPTERthumps into frame, heading for a pad on the roof.INT. APARTMENT, TOKYO - CONTINUOUSCobb sits, waiting. Checks his watch, restless. He pulls aHANDGUN. Checks it is loaded. places it on the table in frontof him. Pulls out a PEWTER SPINNING TOP, SPINS it on thetable ... He INTENT STUDIES the top's spin... As he stares,the sound of a FREIGHT TRAIN builds and builds- the topWOBBLES, TIPS onto its side- the sound of the train STOPS.the PHONE RINGS- Cobb GRABS it- CHILDREN'S VOICES (over phone) Hi, Daddy! Hi, Dad. COBB Hey, guys. How are you? CHILDREN'S VOICES (over phone) Good. Okay, I guess.Cobb closes his eyes, trying to picture his children: INSERTCUT: COBB's MEMORY- a LITTLE BLONDE BOY (3), back towards us,crouches IN A GARDEN, looks at something in the grass... COBB Who's just okay? Was that James? JAMES (over phone) Yeah. When are you coming home? COBB I can't. Not for a while.INSERT CUT: A LITTLE BLONDE GIRL (5), also FACE UNSEEN, joinsJAMES, CROUCHING BESIDE HIM... JAMES (over phone) Why? COBB Well, James, like I've told you-I'm away because I'm working... LITTLE GIRL (over phone) Grandma says you're never coming back.Cobb pauses. Takes a breath. INSERT CUT: James and Philippa,FACES UNSEEN, lift their heads from the grass, responding tosomeone's call- they RUN AWAY FROM US ACROSS THE GARDEN... 19. COBB Philippa, can you ask Grandma to pick up the phone- PHILIPPA (over phone) She's shaking her head.Cobb TENSES, as if about to SMASH the phone. COBB Well, we'll just have to hope Grandma's wrong about that won't we? JAMES (over phone) Daddy? COBB Yes? JAMES (over phone) Is Mommy with you?Cobb looks like he just got punched- INSERT CUT: COBB'SMEMORY- MAL, WIND BLOWING HER HAIR, SMILES CALMLY... COBB No. No, we talked about this, James. Mommy's gone. JAMES (over phone) Where? GRANDMA'S VOICE (over phone) Time to go, kids. Say bye-bye- COBB I'll give some presents to Grandpa, okay? Just be good for-Cobb STARES at the dead phone. Then DOWNS his drink- A KNOCKat the door. Cobb GRABS the top, the gun- MOVES to the door-cracks it: Arthur. ARTHUR Our ride's on the roof.Cobb nods. Moves to pick up his bag. Arthur watches. ARTHUR Cobb... are you okay?Cobb looks up. 20. COBB Yeah, why? ARTHUR Down in the dream... Mal showing up like that ... COBB Yeah. I'm sorry about your leg. ARTHUR It's getting worse, isn't it? COBB One apology's all you're getting, Arthur. Now, where's Nash? ARTHUR Hasn't shown. Wanna wait? COBB (shakes head) We were supposed to deliver Saito's expansion plans to Cobol Engineering two hours ago. By now they know we failed. Time to disappear.INT. CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUSCobb and Arthur head towards the elevator. ARTHUR Where will you go? COBB Buenos Aires. I can lie low there. Maybe sniff out a job when things quiet down. You? ARTHUR Stateside. COBB (wistful) ) 'Course. Send my regards.Arthur looks at Cobb. Nods. Sympathetic.EXT. ROOFTOP HELIPAD - NIGHTThe HELICOPTER sits, ROTORS SPINNING. As Cobb and Arthurreach the door, it SLIDES OPEN. Cobb steps up into theleather-padded interior. He freezes. 21.INT. HELICOPTER ON PAD - CONTINUOUSNash, BEATEN BLOODY, sits on the far side, slumped againstthe wine. Beside him: SAITO. He nods politely at Cobb. SAITO He sold you out. Thought to come to me and bargain for his life...Saito's BODYGUARD offers Cobb a GUN. SAITO So I offer you the satisfaction. COBB That's not how I deal with things. SAITO Would you work with him again?Cobb shakes his head. Saito's BODYGUARDS PULL Nash from thechopper. Saito motions Cobb and Arthur to sit. The chopperRISES. Cobb watches Nash DRAGGED across the pad. COBB What will you do to him? SAITO Nothing. But I can't speak for your friends from Cobol Engineering.Saito looks out at the city slipping by. COBB What do you want from us? SAITO Inception.Arthur raises his eyebrows. Cobb is poker-faced. SAITO Is it possible? ARTHUR Of course not. SAITO If you can steal an idea from someone's mind, why can't you plant one there instead? ARTHUR Okay, here's planting an idea: I say to you, "Don't think about elephants." (MORE) 22. ARTHUR (CONT'D) (Saito nods) What are you thinking about? SAITO Elephants. ARTHUR Right. But it's not your idea because you know I gave it to you. SAITO You could plant it subconsciously- ARTHUR The subject's mind can always trace the genesis of the idea. True inspiration is impossible to fake. COBB No, it isn't. SAITO Can you do it? COBB I won't do it. SAITO In exchange, I'll give you the information you were paid to steal. COBB Are you giving me a choice? Because I can find my own way to square things with Cobol. SAITO Then you do have a choice. COBB And I choose to leave.EXT. AIRFIELD - MOMENTS LATERThe helicopter sets down next to a PRIVATE JET.INT. HELICOPTER - CONTINUOUSSaito indicates the plane. SAITO Tell the crew where you want to go, they'll file the plan en route.Cobb and Arthur look at each other. Then move for the door. 23. SAITO Mr. Cobb...? There is one other thing I could offer you. (Cobb stops) How would you like to go home? To America. To your children.Cobb turns back to Saito. COBB You can't fix that. Nobody could. SAITO Just like inception.Cobb considers this. Arthur touches his arm. ARTHUR Cobb, come on- COBB How complex is the idea? SAITO Simple enough. COBB No idea's simple when you have to plant it in someone else's mind. SAITO My main competitor is an old man in poor health. His son will soon inherit control of the corporation. I need him to decide to break up his father's empire. Against his own self-interest. ARTHUR Cobb, we should walk away from this. COBB If I were to do it. If I could do it... how do I know you can deliver? SAITO You don't. But I can. So do you want to take a leap of faith, or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone?Cobb looks at Saito. Barely nods. 24. SAITO Assemble your team, Mr. Cobb. And choose your people more wisely.INT. PRIVATE JET - LATERCobb reclines his seat. Arthur picks at a salad, angry. ARTHUR I know how much you want to go home- COBB (sharp) No, you don't. ARTHUR But this can't be done. COBB It can. You just have to go deep enough. ARTHUR You don't know that!- COBB I've done it before.Arthur is taken aback. Cobb turns to the window. ARTHUR Did it work? COBB (quiet) Yes. ARTHUR Who did you do it to?Cobb looks at Arthur. Closed. Arthur shrugs. ARTHUR So why are we headed to Paris? COBB We're going to need a new architect.INT. GREAT HALL, …COLE D'ARCHITECTURE - MORNINGCobb, carrying a shopping bag, looks into a lecture hall: nostudents, just a RUMPLED PROFESSOR hunched over paperwork. 25.INT. LECTURE HALL - CONTINUOUS COBB (O.S.) You never did like your office.PROFESSOR MILES looks up, squinting. Recognizes Cobb. MILES No space to think in that broom cupboard.Cobb steps down past the empty wooden rows. MILES Is it safe for you to be here? COBB Extradition between France and the U.S. is a bureaucratic nightmare. MILES I think they'd find a way to make it work in your case.Cobb hand Miles the shopping bag. COBB Can you take these back for the kids? MILES It'll take more than the occasional stuffed animal to convince those children they still have a father. COBB I know. I thought you could talk to Marie about bringing them on vacation. Somewhere I could meet- MILES Why would she listen to me? COBB You were married for twenty years. MILES She blames me as much as you. COBB Doesn't she understand that my kids need me? 26. MILES Yes, she does. We all do. Go back and face the music, Dom. Explain what Mal did. COBB Be realistic, Stephen. They'd never understand- they'd lock me up and throwaway the key. Or worse. MILES You think what you're doing now is helping your case? COBB Lawyers don't pay for themselves. This is what I have. This is what you taught me. MILES I never taught you to be a thief. COBB No, you taught me to navigate other people's minds. But after what happened with Mal there weren't a whole lot of legitimate ways for me to use that skill.Miles looks at Cobb. MILES Why did you come here, Dom?Cobb shifts slightly. COBB I found a way home. A job. For powerful people. If I pull it off, I can get back to my family. But I need help.Miles realizes something. MILES My God. You're here to corrupt one of my brightest and best. COBB If you have someone good enough, you have to let them decide for themselves. You know what I'm offering- MILES Money? 27. COBB No, not just money: the chance to build cathedrals, entire cities- things that have never existed, things that couldn't exist in the real world... MILES Everybody dreams, Cobb. Architects are supposed to make those dreams real. COBB That's not what you used to say. You told me that in the real world I'd be building attic conversions and gas stations. You said that if I mastered the dream-share I'd have a whole new way of creating and showing people my creations. You told me it would free me.Miles looks at Cobb, sad. MILES And I'm sorry. I was wrong. COBB No, you weren't. Your vision was a vision of pure creativity. It's where we took it that was wrong. MILES And now you want me to let someone else follow you into fantasy. COBB They won't actually come on the job, they'll just design the levels and teach them to the dreamers. MILES Design them yourself. COBB Mal won't let me.Miles looks at Cobb. Appalled. MILES Come back to reality, Dom. Please. COBB You want to know what's real, Stephen? Your grandchildren waiting for their dad to come back. (MORE) 28. COBB (CONT'D) This job-this last job-is how I get there.Miles looks down, fiddles with his papers. COBB I wouldn't be standing here if there were any other way. I can get home. But I need an architect who's as good as I was.Miles looks Cobb in the eye. Decides. MILES I've got someone better.INT. CORRIDOR - LATERMiles and Cobb stand by as STUDENTS file out of a lecture. MILES Ariadne...A young woman carrying books turns. This is ARIADNE. MILES I'd like you to meet Mr. Cobb.She sizes him up with quick eyes. Offers her hand. ARIADNE Pleased to meet you. MILES If you have a few moments, Mr. Cobb has a job offer to discuss with you. ARIADNE A work placement? COBB (smiles Not exactly.EXT. ROOFTOP, …COLE D'ARCHITECTURE - MOMENTS LATERAriadne leans against the parapet, overlooking Paris. Sheunwraps a sandwich, watching Cobb pull out a pad of GRAPHPAPER and a PEN. He offers them. She bites her sandwich. COBB A test. 29. ARIADNE (mouth full) Aren't you going to tell me anything? COBB Before I describe the job, I have to know you could do it. ARIADNE Why? COBB It's not, strictly speaking, legal.Ariadne raises her eyebrows. COBB You have two minutes to draw a maze that takes me one minute to solve.Ariadne takes the pad and pen. Cobb looks at his watch. COBB Go.She starts DRAWING LINES on the grid, constructing a maze. COBB Stop.Ariadne hands the pad and pen to Cobb. He glances at the pad,then, looking her in the eye, TRACES the solution. She istaken aback. Cobb RIPS off the sheet, hands the pad back. COBB Again.She traces straight lines, CONCENTRATING... COBB Stop.She hands Cobb the pad, a touch pleased. Cobb solves thepuzzle instantly, as before. Her smile falls. COBB You'll have to-She GRABS the pad, frustrated... but this time she FLIPS itover and starts drawing on the BLANK CARDBOARD of the back.Cobb watches, surprised. He smiles as he sees that she'sdrawing CIRCLES, creating a maze based on concentric rings.Ariadne hands back the pad, defiant. Cobb takes the pen,starts the maze. This time he gets stuck. Nods. 30. COBB (working the maze) More like it.EXT. NARROW STREET, PARIS - DAYArthur stops at a warehouse door. Consults a piece of paper.INT. WORKSHOP - CONTINUOUSA large, dusty warehouse. The SLIDING DOOR cracks open.Arthur enters. Looks around, approvingly.INT. SAME - LATERArthur DRAGS LAWN CHAIRS into the middle of the room. Heerects a table. Lays out several SILVER CASES, unpackingthem, laying out lines of tubing, MECHANISMS...EXT. PARISIAN CAFE - DAYCobb and Ariadne sit at an outdoor table. COBB They say we only use a fraction of the true potential of our brains... but they're talking about when we're awake. While we dream, the mind performs wonders. ARIADNE Such as? COBB How do you imagine a building? You consciously create each aspect, puzzling over it in stages... But sometimes, when your imagination flies- ARIADNE I'm discovering it. COBB Exactly. Genuine inspiration.Cobb leans forwards and draws on the paper table cloth. COBB In a dream your mind continuously does that...Cobb has drawn a circle made of two arrows. 31. COBB It creates and perceives a world simultaneously. So well that you don't feel your brain doing the creating. That's why we can short- circuit the process... ARIADNE How? COBB By taking over the creating part.Cobb draws a straight line between the two arrows. COBB This is where you come in. You build the world of the dream. We take the subject into that dream, and let him £111 it with his subconscious ARIADNE But are you trying to fool him that the dream is actually real life? COBB (nods) While we're in there, We don't want him to realize he's dreaming. ARIADNE How could I ever get enough detail to Convince him that it's real? COBB Our dreams reel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up we realize things were strange,Ariadne gestures around them- ARIADNE But all the textures of real life- the stone, the fabric. cars... people... your mind can't create all this. COBB It does. Every time you dream. Let me ask you a question: You never remember the beginning of your dreams, do you? You just turn up in the middle of what's going on. 32. ARIADNE I guess. COBB So... how did we end up at this restaurant? ARIADNE We came here from...Ariadne trails off, confused. COBB How did we get here? Where are we?Ariadne THINKS, unable to remember. A FAINT RUMBLE begins. ARIADNE Oh my God. We're dreaming.Cobb nods. The RUMBLE is BUILDING. COBB Stay calm. We're actually asleep in the workshop. This is your first lesson in shared dreaming, remember?Ariadne looks around, mind REELING. Cobb BRACES-The restaurant VIOLENTLY FRAGMENTS, EXPLODING AND IMPLODINGPARTICLES OF FURNITURE, WALLS, PEOPLE FLYING AROUND- AriadneWONDERS at the MAYHEM WHIRLING around them- Cobb SHIELDS hishead against the debris. She sees him- ARIADNE (shouting over noise) If it's just a dream, why are you covering your-Ariadne is WIPED FROM HER SEAT BY A MASSIVE BLAST and we- CUT TO:INT. WORKSHOP - DAYAriadne JOLTS awake. COBB (O.S.) Because it's never just a dream.Ariadne turns to Cobb's voice. They are both sitting in thelawn chairs. Arthur watches over them. 33. COBB And a face full of glass hurts like hell, doesn't it? While we're in it, it's real. ARTHUR That's why the military developed dream sharing-a training program where soldiers could strangle, stab and shoot each other, then wake up. ARIADNE How did architects get involved? COBB Someone had to design the dreams. (to Arthur) Let's go another five minutes- ARIADNE We were only asleep for five minutes? We talked for an hour at least... COBB When you dream, your mind functions more quickly, so time seems to pass more slowly. ARTHUR Five minutes in the real world gives you an hour in the dream. COBB Let's see how much trouble you can cause in five minutes.And we- CUT TO:EXT. SAME PARISIAN STREET - DAYAriadne walks down the crowded street with Cobb. Cobb looksaround at the street, the cafe, approving. COBB It's good. You've got the cafe, the layout... you forgot the book shop but pretty much everything else is here.Ariadne looks at the passers-by. ARIADNE Who are the people? 34. COBB They're projections of my subconscious. ARIADNE Yours? COBB Sure-you are the dreamer, I am the subject. My subconscious populates your world. That's one way we get at a subject's thoughts-his mind creates the people, so we can literally talk to his subconscious. ARIADNE How else do you do it? COBB Architecture. Build a bank vault or a jail, something secure, and the subject's mind will fill it with information he's trying to protect. ARIADNE Then you break in and steal it. COBB Exactly.Ariadne wonders at the detail of the street. ARIADNE I love the concrete sense of things- (stamps foot) Real weight, you know? I thought a dream space would be all about the visual, but it's the feel of things. Question is, what happens as you start to mess with physics...She CONCENTRATES on the street. The street starts to BEND INHALF- the buildings on either side FOLDING IN until they formthe INSIDE OF A CUBE OF CITY, GRAVITY FUNCTIONINGINDEPENDENTLY ON EACH PLANE. Ariadne looks up (or down) atthe people on the opposite city surface. Cobb watches herexcitement. ARIADNE It's something, isn't it? COBB (quiet) Yes. It is. 35.As they walk, Ariadne notices more and more of theprojections STARING at her. ARIADNE Why are they looking at me? COBB Because you're changing things. My subconscious feels that someone else is creating the world. The more you change things, the quicker the projections converge on you. ARIADNE Converge? COBB They feel the foreign nature of the dreamer, and attack-like white blood cells fighting an infection. ARIADNE They're going to attack us? COBB Just you, actually.They walk along the street to where it joins the nextgravitational plane. They step up onto the different planeand walk down the street towards a river. As Ariadneapproaches, steps emerge from the flagstone, and she leadsCobb up onto a small jetty. As she concentrates, pillarsemerge and a BRIDGE starts to telescope out from the jetty.They step onto it as it grows. Cobb is impressed. COBB It's beautiful... but if you keep on changing things...People crossing the bridge STARE at Ariadne. Several of themBUMP her shoulder as they pass. ARIADNE Mind telling your subconscious to take it easy? COBB That's why it's called subconscious. I don't control it.The bridge now spans the Seine. Cobb marvels at it. COBB Arched stone, iron pillars... it's... 36.Cobb pauses, thinking. Remembering.INSERT CUT: Mal, hair blowing, turns to Cobb, smiling,laughing. He smiles back. They are on the same bridge. COBB I know this bridge. This place is real- (serious) You didn't imagine it, you remembered it... ARIADNE (nods) I cross it every day on my way to the college. COBB Never recreate places from your memory. Always imagine new places. ARIADNE You have to draw from what you know- COBB (tense) Use pieces-a streetlamp, phonebooths, a type of brick-not whole areas.Several people around them ECHO Cobb's attitude... ARIADNE Why not? COBB Because building dreams out of your own memories is the surest way to lose your grip on what's real and what's a dream. ARIADNE Did that happen to you?Cobb says nothing. He stands there, starinq at Ariadne.PEOPLE around her stop and look at her, hostile. COBB Look, this isn't about me-Cobb reaches for Ariadne's arm, turns her to him- ARIADNE Is that why you need me to build your dreams? 37.A passerby GRABS Ariadne's shoulder- COBB Leave her alone-More of the crowd join in, PULLING at Ariadne, holding herarms open- Cobb PULLS people off- the crowd PUSHES him away-Cobb sees someone WALKING PURPOSEFULLY through the crowdtowards the helpless, Ariadne- it is Mal. She approaches witheven strides- Ariadne stares at her, uneasy. ARIADNE Wake me up, Cobb.As Mal walks, she pulls out a LARGE KNIFE- COBB Mal, no! ARIADNE Wake me up!Ariadne SCREAMS as Mal LUNGES at her with the knife and we- CUT TO:INT. WORKSHOP-DAYAriadne WAKES, BREATHING HARD. Arthur moves to her- ARTHUR It's okay. ARIADNE Why couldn't I wake? ARTHUR The only way to wake from inside the dream is to die.Cobb, in the lawn chair opposite, PULLS his tubes out. COBB She'll need a totem. ARIADNE What? ARTHUR Some kind of personal icon. A small object that you can always have with you, and that no one else knows,Cobb gets to his feet, Ariadne stares at him, furious. Heheads to the bathroom. 38. ARIADNE That's some subconscious you've got, Cobb. (calls after him) She's a real charmer! ARTHUR Sounds like you've met Mrs. Cobb. ARIADNE (surprised) She's his wife?Arthur nods, pulling off Ariadne's tubes. ARTHUR So. A totem. You need something small, potentially heavy...INT. BATHROOM, WORKSHOP - CONTINUOUSCobb takes out his PEWTER SPINNING TOP, SPINS it on themarble counter...INT. WORKSHOP - CONTINUOUSAriadne looks at Arthur, puzzled. ARIADNE Like a coin? ARTHUR Too common. You need something that has a weight or movement that only you know.INT. BATHROOM, WORKSHOP - CONTINUOUSCobb STUDIES the spin of the top as it decays, becoming moreand more ECCENTRIC...INT. WORKSHOP - CONTINUOUS ARIADNE What's yours?Arthur holds out a DIE. ARTHUR A loaded die.Ariadne reaches for it- Arthur snatches sit away- 39. ARTHUR I can't let you handle it. That's the point. No one else can know the weight or balance of it. ARIADNE Why? ARTHUR So when you examine your totem...INT. BATHROOM, WORKSHOP - CONTINUOUSCobb's spinning top WOBBLES OVER. ARTHUR (O.S.) You know, beyond a doubt, that you're not in someone else's dream.Cobb GRABS it like a drowning man reaching for a lifeline.INT. WORKSHOP - CONTINUOUSAriadne thinks this over. ARIADNE That's not an issue for me. ARTHUR Why not? ARIADNE Arthur, maybe you can't see what's going on, maybe you don't want to. But Cobb's got problems he's tried to bury down there. I'm not going to open my mind to someone like that.Ariadne gets to her feet. Walks away. COBB (O.S.) She'll be back.Arthur turns. Cobb is standing in the bathroom doorway. COBB I've never seen anyone pick it up so fast. And one reality won't be enough for her now. When she comes back, get her building mazes. ARTHUR Where will you be? 40. COBB I've got to talk to Eames. ARTHUR Eames? But he's in Mombasa. Cobol's backyard. COBB Necessary risk. ARTHUR There are plenty of other thieves. COBB We don't just need a thief. We need a forger.INT. GAMBLING DEN, MOMBASA - DAYCrowded, bustling, smoke-filled. a westerner (40's), shabbysuit, is squeezed in at a dice game. This is EAMES. HeFIDDLES with his last two chips. COBB (O.S.) Rub them against each other all you like, they're not going to breed.Eames looks up to see Cobb. EAMES You never know.Eames tosses down his last chips. The dice are rolled... COBB Drink?Eames loses. EAMES You're buying.Cobb follows Eames. Eames mysteriously produces two stacks ofchips and puts them down in front of the cashier. Cobb pullsone off the top, squints at the embossed name. COBB You're spelling hasn't improved.Eames GRABS the chip. Hands it to the cashier. EAMES Piss off. COBB How's your handwriting? 41.Eames takes his money. Smiles at Cobb. EAMES Versatile.INT. STREET, MOMBASA - CONTINUOUSEames leads Cobb down the quiet street. EAMES Word is, you're not welcome in these parts. COBB Yeah? EAMES There's a price on your head from Cobol Engineering. Pretty big one, actually. COBB You wouldn't sell me out.Eames looks at Cobb, offended. EAMES `Course I would. COBB (smiles) Not when you hear what I'm selling.EXT. BALCONY OF A COFFEE HOUSE - LATERA ramshackle balcony overlooking a bust street. Eames pours. COBB Inception.Eames's glass stops halfway to his mouth. COBB Don't bother telling me it's impossible. EAMES It's perfectly possible. Just bloody difficult. COBB That's what I keep saying to Arthur. 42. EAMESArthur? You're still working withthat stick-in-the-mud? COBBHe's a good point man. EAMESThe best. But he has noimagination. If you're going toperform inception, you needimagination. COBBYou've done it before? EAMESYeas and no. We tried it. Got theidea in place, but it didn't take. COBBYou didn't plant it deep enough? EAMESIt's not just about depth. You needthe simplest version of the idea-the one that will grow naturally inthe subject's mind. Subtle art. COBBThat's why I'm here. EAMESWhat's the idea you need to plant? COBBWe want the heir to a majorcorporation to break up hisfather's empire. EAMESSee, right there you've got variouspolitical motivations, anti-monopolistic sentiment and soforth. But all that stuff's at themercy of the subject's prejudice-you have to go to the basic. COBBWhich is? EAMESThe relationship with the father. (downs drink)Do you have a chemist? 43.Cobb shakes his head. EAMES There's a man here. Yusuf. He formulates his own versions of the compounds. COBB Let's go see him. EAMES Once you've lost your tail. (Cobb reacts) Back by the bar, blue tie. Came in about two minutes after we did. COBB Cobol Engineering? EAMES They pretty much own Mombasa.Cobb glances over the balcony. COBB Run interference. We'll meet downstairs in half an hour. EAMES Back here? COBB Last place they'd expect.Eames downs his drink. Rises. Walks over to the Businessman. EAMES Freddy!The Businessman looks up, awkward. EAMES Freddy Simmonds, it is you!Cobb nonchalantly SLIPS over the balcony DROPPING HARD intothe midst of the crowd on the street below. EAMES (looks harder) Oh. No, it isn't.EXT. STREET, MOMBASA - CONTINUOUSCobb stands up, PUSHES into the crowd- faces PEER at him- hemoves, trying to blend- TURNS- a SECOND BUSINESS MAN isthere. 44. COBB (disarming smile) Yes? SECOND BUSINESSMAN We need to-Cobb HEAD BUTTS the Second Businessman, PUSHES past him-The First Businessman races out of the bar, sees Cobb's wake,DIVES after him- Cobb RACES headlong through tightpassageways, WEAVING through or KNOCKING into the locals...He steps into a dark, crowded cafe, scanning the tables...the First Businessman enters, spots him. An AFRICAN MAN getsin Cobb's face, jabbering at him in Swahili- Cobb considershis options... the First Businessman DRAWS A GUN- Cobb bolts,steps up on a table and out an open window, SCRAMBLING intothe alley outside...Cobb LOOKS left, right... CUTS LEFT into a narrow, CROWDEDalley- the alley NARROWS TO A DEAD END. Faces in the CROWDstart to watch Cobb- PEOPLE start to SURROUND him- Cobb looksback the way he came- the two Businessmen are there, GUNSDRAWN-Cobb sees a SMALL GAP between the buildings at the narrow end-he THROWS himself into it- gets STUCK HALFWAY...The crowd bears down, GRABBING for him as Cobb struggles toSQUEEZE HIMSELF through the gap... Cobb's moving INCHES ashis pursuers gain YARDS... the Crowd is upon him... he BURSTSFREE. TUMBLING onto the next street, ROLLING out of sight.Cobb Jumps to his feet- in a market square. TWO MOREBUSINESSMEN move towards him. Cobb BOLTS but a CAR SKIDS UP,BLOCKS HIS PATH- the door opens- SAITO IS IN THE BACK. SAITO Care for a lift, Mr. Cobb? COBB (jumping in) What brings you to Mombasa, Mr. Saito? SAITO I have to protect my investment.EXT. COFFEE HOUSE - MOMENTS LATEREames stands on the pavement. The car pulls up. Cobb beckonsfrom the rear window. Eames looks at Saito. Back to Cobb. EAMES This is your idea of losing a tail? 45. COBB (shrugs) Different tail.INT. WORKSHOP - DAYArthur sits at the table, working on a mechanism. A smallCOUGH prompts him to look up: Ariadne is there. ARTHUR He said you'd be back. ARIADNE I tried not to come. ARTHUR But there's nothing else quite like it. ARIADNE No paper, no pens... nothing between you and raw, direct creation.Arthur picks up his mechanism. ARTHUR Shall we take a look at paradoxical architecture?Ariadne nods, takes off her coat and we- CUT TO:INT. PENROSE STEPS - LATERArthur leads Ariadne down some busy steps in a large glassand steel ATRIUM in an office complex. ARTHUR You're going to have to master a few tricks if you're going to build three complete dream levels.A SECRETARY DROPS some papers as they pass... ARIADNE What sort of tricks?They take a tight turn and continue down the next flight. ARTHUR In a dream, you can cheat architecture into impossible shapes. (MORE) 46. ARTHUR (CONT'D) That lets you create closed loops, like the Penrose Steps. The infinite staircase.Ariadne FREEZES- THEY ARE IN THE EXACT SPOT THEY STARTEDDESCENDING FROM, next to the Secretary gathering her papers.Ariadne puzzles at the impossible construction of the stairs. ARTHUR See...Arthur stops her gently- they are on the highest step, with aLARGE DROP to the next step. Arthur gestures at the drop. ARTHUR Paradox. A closed loop like this helps you disguise the boundaries of the dream you've created. ARIADNE How big do the levels have to be? ARTHUR Anything from the floor of a building, to an entire city. But it has to be complicated enough for us to hide from the projections. ARIADNE A maze. ARTHUR And the better the maze- ARIADNE The longer we have before the projections catch us.Ariadne looks around. Sees people LOOKING at Arthur. ARIADNE My subconscious seems polite enough. ARTHUR You wait, they'll turn ugly. No one likes to see someone else messing around in their mind. ARIADNE Cobb can't build anymore, can he? 47. ARTHUR I don't know if he can't, but he won't. He thinks it's safer if he doesn't know the layouts. ARIADNE Why? ARTHUR He won't tell me. I think it's Mal. I think she's getting stronger. ARIADNE His ex-wife? ARTHUR She's not his ex. ARIADNE They're still together?Arthur turns to Ariadne. Gentle. ARTHUR No. No, she's dead, Ariadne. What you see in there is just his projection of her. ARIADNE What was she like in real life? ARTHUR (quiet) She was lovely. CUT TO:EXT. ROOFTOP, OLD TOWN, MOMBASA - DAYSaito deposits a FILE in front of Cobb: PHOTOS, DOCUMENTS. AsCobb runs through them, he passes them to Eames. SAITO Robert Fischer, 32. Heir to the Fischer Morrow energy conglomerate. He's spent his whole life being groomed as successor-breaking up his father's empire will take a radical shift in his thinking. COBB What's your problem with Fischer? SAITO That's not your concern. 48. COBB This isn't the usual corporate espionage, Mr. Saito. This is inception. The seed of the idea we plant will grow in this man's mind. It'll change him. It might even come to define him.Saito looks at Cobb. SAITO My sources suggest you might not have always been so cautious. COBB Then you need new sources, Mr. Saito.Saito considers Cobb. Shrugs. SAITO Fischer Morrow has the regulators in their pockets. We're the last company standing between them and total energy dominance and we can no longer compete. Soon they'll control the energy supply of half the world. They'll be able to blackmail governments, dictate policy. In effect, they become a new superpower. The world needs Robert Fischer to change his mind. EAMES That's where we come in. How's Robert Fischer's relationship to his father? SAITO Rumor is the relationship is complicated. COBB We'll need more than rumor, Mr. Saito.Eames picks up a photo: a distinguished executive (68). EAMES Can you get me access to him? Browning. Fischer senior's right- hand man. Fischer junior's godfather. 49. SAITO It should be possible. If you can get the right references. EAMES References are something of a specialty for me, Mr. Saito.EXT. DECREPIT BUILDING, MOMBASA - LATEREames leads Cobb and Saito down uneven steps to a doorway.INT. STAIRWELL - CONTINUOUSPeeling paint, buzzing flies. They ascend to a dusty,wire-reinforced glass door which Eames pushes open-INT. PHARMACY - CONTINUOUSRow upon row of wooden shelves holding hundreds of dustyglass bottles of all shapes and colors. At the far end, aportly 40-year-old man rises from behind his desk, beckoning.This is YUSUF. YUSUF Come, come.Eames shakes Yusuf's hand. Yusuf stops at Cobb. YUSUF Ah, yes. Mr. Cobb. I've heard so very much about you. (indicates chairs) please.Yusuf chases a CAT off Saito's chair. YUSUF Bloody cats.Yusuf moves to a shelf and runs his fingers over the glassbottles. None of them has a label. YUSUF You work using Somnacin, I think, Mr. Cobb? COBB You're well informed, Mr. Yusuf.Yusuf places a bottle on the desk in front of Cobb. 50. COBB (dubious) Somnacin? YUSUF (proudly) Yusuf's Somnacin.Yusuf pulls the stopper, holds it towards Cobb's nose. COBB As good as the real thing?Yusuf WHIPS the bottle away from Cobb, offended. YUSUF Better.Yusuf holds the bottle to the light, marveling. YUSUF Binds the dreamers tight. Let's them dream as one. Makes it real. Of course, if you'd prefer, you could use Somnacin brand. If you could explain to the international control council what you wanted it for.Yusuf puts the bottle back onto the shelf. Sits. YUSUF You are seeking a chemist? (Cobb nods) To formulate compounds for a job? COBB And to come into the held with us. YUSUF I rarely go into the held, Mr. Cobb. COBB We need you there to tailor compounds to our particular requirements. YUSUF Which are? COBB Great depth. YUSUF A dream within a dream? Two levels? 51. COBB Three. YUSUF Not possible. That many dreams within dreams would be too unstable. COBB I've done it before. You just have to add a sedative. YUSUF A powerful sedative. How many team members? COBB Five. SAITO Six. (to Cobb) The only way to know you've done the job is if I go in with you. COBB There's no room for tourists on these jobs, Mr. Saito. SAITO This time, it would seem there is.Cobb looks at him, uneasy. Yusuf pulls out another bottle. YUSUF Of course. I use it every day.Yusuf hands it to Cobb, who considers the white liquidinside. COBB For what?Yusuf beckons them further into the pharmacy, to a METALDOOR. He STOPS- second thoughts. YUSUF Perhaps... you will not want to see.Cobb motions to continue. Yusuf pulls out a large key. 52.INT. BACK ROOM, PHARMACY - CONTINUOUSA dark room with ROWS of low COTS. Each with a sleepingoccupant. Tubes connect their wrists. An ELDERLY BALD MANwatches over them. EAMES (counting) Eighteen, twenty-all connected, bloody hell. YUSUF They come every day. To share the dream.Yusuf nods at the Elderly Bald Man, who moves to the nearestbed. Reaches out to the OCCUPANT. Gives his face a FIRM SLAP.The sleeper does not even stir. YUSUF See? Very stable. COBB How long do they dream? YUSUF Three, four hours. Every day. COBB How long in dream time? YUSUF With this compound... about forty hours. Each and every day.Saito surveys the room, appalled. SAITO Why do they do it? YUSUF Tell him, Mr. Cobb. COBB After a while... (looks at Saito) It becomes the only way you can dream. YUSUF Do you still dream, Mr. Cobb?Cobb STARES at the sleepers. Uneasy. EAMES They come here every day to sleep? 53. ELDERLY BALD MAN (O.S.) No.Cobb turns to the Elderly Bald Man, who looks fondly at hisdreamers. ELDERLY BALD MAN They come to be woken up... the dream has become their reality...The Elderly Bald Man pokes a crooked finger at Cobb's chest. ELDERLY BALD MAN And who are you to say otherwise?Cobb STARES at the Elderly Bald Man. DISTURBED. Cobb turns toYusuf. TOSSES him the bottle. COBB Let's see what you can do.INT. SAME - MOMENTS LATERCobb is lying on an empty cot, asleep. Yusuf stands over him.As we move in on Cobb's SLEEPING FACE we hear the sound of aFREIGHT TRAIN, BUILDING, and we- CUT TO:EXT. WASTELAND - DAYCLOSE ON Cobb's face as he lies, EYES CLOSED, cheek pressedto a METAL RAIL- THE SOUND OF THE TRAIN IS DEAFENING- Cobb isBREATHING, BREATHING, BREATHING, and we- CUT TO:INT. BACK ROOM, PHARMACY - DAYCobb's eyes open. Yusuf is watching him. YUSUF Sharp, no?Cobb nods. Gets to his feet, looking around-INT. BATHROOM, PHARMACY - CONTINUOUSCobb SPLASHES water on his face, breathing hard- INSERT CUT:A CURTAIN BILLOWS. MAL TURNS TO US, HAIR BLOWING, SMILING.Cobb fumbles in his pockets, pulls out his spinning top. Hetries to set it spinning on the back edge of the sink, but itFALLS to the floor and rolls towards the door- Saito isthere. WATCHING Cobb. He looks down at the spinning top. 54. SAITO Everything alright, Mr. Cobb?Cobb dries his face with a paper towel. Picks up his top. COBB Everything's fine.INT. BACK ROOM, WORKSHOP - NIGHTClose on a small BRASS CHESS PIECE. Ariadne tips it over.Frowning, she picks up a micro drill, peels back the felt onthe bottom and widens a hole in one side of its base. Teststhe TIPPING POINT again. A NOISE makes her look up.INT. WORKSHOP - CONTINUOUSAriadne comes into the main space. Someone is there,unpacking one of the MECHANISMS. Cobb. ARIADNE You're back.Cobb looks up with a start. Caught out. ARIADNE Are you going under on your own? COBB I just-I need to test some things. I didn't realize anyone was here. ARIADNE Just working on my totem.Ariadne holds up the chess piece. Cobb reaches for it. COBB Let me see-Ariadne SNAPS it out of his reach. Smiles. Cobb nods. COBB You're learning. ARIADNE It's an elegant solution to keeping track of reality. Your invention? COBB No. Mal's.Cobb pulls out his spinning top. Looks at it. 55. COBB This one was hers. She'd spin it in a dream and it would never topple. Just spin and spin... ARIADNE Arthur told me she died. COBB She did. How are the mazes coming?Ariadne indicates three large ARCHITECTURAL MODELS. ARIADNE Good. Each level relates to the part of the subject's subconscious we're trying to access. I'm making the bottom level a hospital, so that Fischer will bring his father there- COBB Don't tell me. Remember, you only want the dreamer to know the layout. ARIADNE Why's that so important? COBB In case one of us brings in part of our subconscious. You wouldn't want any projections knowing the layout. ARIADNE In case you bring Mal in.Cobb says nothing. ARIADNE You won't build yourself because if you know the maze, then she knows it. And she'd sabotage the operation. You can't keep her out, can you?Cobb says nothing. ARIADNE Do the others know? COBB No. 56. ARIADNE You have to warn them if it's getting worse- COBB (gentle) I didn't say it's getting worse. Look, Ariadne, I need them for this job. I need you for this job. Without your help, I'll never get back to my children. And that's all I can care about right now. ARIADNE Why can't you go home, Cobb?Cobb looks at her, deciding what to say. COBB They think I killed her. ARIADNE How did she die?Cobb thinks.INSERT CUT: Mal, wind BLOWING her hair, smiles at Cobb. Nowwe see Cobb- SHAKING HIS HEAD, TEARS STREAMING, BEGGING- COBB Thank you. ARIADNE For what? COBB Not asking whether I did.INT. WORKSHOP - DAYAriadne, Arthur, Yusuf, Eames and Saito sit around the room,looking at FILES. Cobb presides. COBB The mark is Robert Fischer, heir to the Australian energy conglomerate, Fischer Morrow.Cobb opens a large presentation pad. COBB (reads aloud) "I WILL SPLIT UP MY FATHER'S EMPIRE."Cobb turns to the team. 57. COBB An idea Robert Fischer's conscious mind would never accept. We have to plant it deep in his subconscious. ARTHUR How deep? COBB Three levels down. ARTHUR A dream within a dream within a dream? Is that even possible? COBB Yes. It is. COBB Now, the subconscious motivates through emotion, not reason, so we have to translate the idea into an emotional concept. ARTHUR How do you translate a business strategy into an emotion? COBB That's what we have to figure out. Robert and his father have a tense relationship. Worse, even, than the gossip columns have suggested... EAMES Do you play on that? Suggest breaking up his father's company as a 'screw you' to the old man? COBB No. Positive emotion trumps negative emotion every time. We yearn for people to be reconciled, for catharsis. We need positive emotional logic.Eames thinks. Paces. Looking back at the board. EAMES Try this... "MY FATHER ACCEPTS THAT I WANT TO CREATE FOR MYSELF, NOT FOLLOW IN HIS FOOTSTEPS." COBB That might work. 58. ARTHUR Might? We'll have to do better than that. EAMES Thanks for the contribution, Arthur. ARTHUR Forgive me for wanting a little specificity, Eames. COBB Inception's not about specificity. When we get inside his head, we're going to have to work with what we find.Arthur shrugs, frustrated. And we- CUT TO:EXT. NEW YORK STREETS - DAYThe team are in the middle of a DESERTED intersection.Ariadne is showing Yusuf aspects of the geography. EAMES We could split the idea into emotional triggers, and use one on each level. COBB How do you mean? EAMES On the top level, we open up his relationship with his father.... Say: "I WILL NOT FOLLOW IN MY FATHER'S FOOTSTEPS." Next level down we've accessed his ambition and self-esteem. We feed him: "I WILL CREATE SOMETHING MYSELF." Then, the bottom level, we bring out the emotional big guns... COBB "MY FATHER DOESN'T WANT ME TO BE HIM." EAMES That could do it. ARTHUR How do you produce these emotional triggers? 59. EAMES I forge each emotional concept in the style and manner of Peter Browning, a key figure in Fischer's emotional life.Two AFRICAN PEDESTRIANS wander into view. ARTHUR Are those yours?Eames shakes his head. Cobb turns to Yusuf. ARTHUR Yusuf? YUSUF Yup. Sorry. COBB Suppress them. We don't bring our own projections into the dream-we let Fischer's subconscious supply the people. EAMES Saito, when do I get to see Browning? SAITO You fly out to Sydney on Tuesday. We've arranged for you to spend several days...INT. ANTEROOM, MAURICE FISCHER'S OFFICE - DAYEames sits in the crowded room. Boxes and files are piledhigh. Browning stands by a pair of double doors. SAITO (V.O.) ...as part of a consulting litigation team working for Browning. BROWNING I'm not smelling settlement here-we take them down. LAWYER Mr. Browning, Maurice Fischer's policy is always one of avoiding litigation-Browning turns to the lawyer. Calm, but POWERFUL. 60. BROWNING Shall we relay your concerns directly to Maurice?Browning opens the doors to Maurice Fischer's inner office.Eames leans in to watch as Browning beckons the Lawyer into-INT. MAURICE FISCHER'S INNER OFFICE - CONTINUOUSThe office is a MAKESHIFT HOSPITAL ROOM: a BED where the deskshould be. Browning addresses a figure at the window. ROBERTFISCHER, 30'S, abstracted. BROWNING How is he?Fischer turns to Browning. Motions silence, as he glances athis FATHER in the bed. Wheezing gently. BROWNING I don't want to bother him unnecessarily but I know he- FATHER Robert! I've told you to keep out the damn!-MAURICE LASHES OUT, KNOCKING things from his bedside table. ANURSE calms Maurice as Fischer crouches to retrieve a FRAMEDPHOTOGRAPH. He looks at the photo through the broken glass- aYOUNG BOY holds a PINWHEEL CLEARLY MADE BY A CHILD (each ofthe points is numbered in pen), his FATHER blows on it. BROWNING Must be a cherished memory of his- FISCHER I put it by his bed. He hasn't even noticed. BROWNING Robert, we have to talk about a power of attorney. I know this is hard for you, but it's important that we start to think about the future- FISCHER Not now, Uncle Peter.Browning looks at Fischer, considering. Biding his time. EAMES (V.O.) The vultures are circling. The sicker Maurice Fischer becomes, the stronger Peter Browning becomes... 61.Eames WATCHES Browning, STUDYING his every move .INT. BATHROOM - DAYEames gestures at a mirror, as if offering to shake hands... EAMES (V.O.) I've had time to learn Browning's physical presence and mannerisms...In the mirror: BROWNING GESTURES BACK.INT. WORKSHOP - CONTINUOUS EAMES Now, in the dream, I can impersonate Browning and suggest the concepts to Fischer's conscious mind... (draws a diagram) Then we take Fischer down another level and his own subconscious feeds it right back to him. ARTHUR (impressed) So he gives himself the idea. EAMES Precisely. That's the only way to make it stick. It has to seem self-generated. ARTHUR Eames, I'm impressed. EAMES Your condescension, as always, is much appreciated, Arthur. CUT TO:INT. DESERTED HOTEL LOBBY - DAYThe team sit on the steps of the large marble lobby,debating. Ariadne is showing Arthur the lobby. EAMES He's not scheduled for surgery, no dental, nothing. COBB I thought he had some knee thing? EAMES Nothing they'd put him under for. Besides, we need a good ten hours. 62. SAITO Sydney to Los Angeles.They turn to Saito. SAITO Twelve hours and forty-five minutes-one of the longest flights in the world. He makes it every two weeks...EXT. AIRFIELD - DAYFischer steps out of a black town car and walks across thetarmac towards a GULF STREAM JET, accompanied by two aides. COBB (V.O.) Surely he flies private? SAITO (V.O.) Not if there were unexpected maintenance with his plane.Fischer is met at the steps by a DISTRAUGHT FLIGHT OFFICER.INT. HOTEL LOBBY - DAYCobb chews this over. Arthur comes over. ARTHUR It'd have to be a 747. COBB Why? ARTHUR On a 747 the pilots are up above, first class is in the nose so nobody walks through the cabin. We'd have to buyout the whole cabin, and the first class flight attendant- SAITO We bought the airline.Everyone turns to Saito. SAITO It seemed... neater. COBB Neater, huh? (gets to his feet) Well, now we have ten uninterrupted hours. (MORE) 63. COBB (CONT'D) (to Ariadne) Nice lobby, by the way.And we- CUT TO:INT. WORKSHOP - DAYThe group is back in the workshop, deep in discussion. ARTHUR My question is how we go down three layers with enough stability. Three layers down a little turbulence is gonna translate into an earthquake. The dreams are gonna collapse with the slightest disturbance.Yusuf clears his throat. YUSUF Sedation. For sleep stable enough to create three layers of dreaming...INT. MAKESHIFT LAB - DAYYusuf depresses a plunger. Arthur is SLEEPING in a chair. YUSUF (V.O.) We will have to combine it with an extremely powerful sedative....Eames SLAPS Arthur, HARD. Arthur does not stir.INT. WORKSHOP - DAYArthur unconsciously rubs his cheek. YUSUF The compound we'll be using to share the dream is an advanced Somnacin derivative. It creates a very clear connection between dreamers, whilst actually accelerating brain function. CUT TO: COBB Buying us more time in each level. YUSUF Brain function in the dream will be about twenty times normal. (MORE) 64. YUSUF (CONT'D) And when you go into a dream within that dream the effect is compounded. ARIADNE How much time? YUSUF Three dreams... that's ten hours, times twenty, times twenty, times twenty... EAMES Math was never my strong suit. COBB It's basically a week one layer down, six months two layers down- ARIADNE And ten years in the third level. Who wants to spend ten years in a dream? YUSUF Depends on the dream. EAMES It's not going to take us long to crack Fischer open once we get going. We'll be out in a couple days, max. ARTHUR How do we get out once we've made the plant? (to Cobb) I hope you've got something a little more elegant in mind than shooting me in the head like last time.Arthur tilts back in his chair. Yusuf turns to Cobb. COBB A kick. ARIADNE What's a kick?Eames slips his foot under Arthur's chair leg. TIPS it-Arthur's legs SHOOT UP INSTINCTIVELY for balance- EAMES That, Ariadne, would be a kick. 65. COBB That feeling of falling which snaps you awake. We use that to jolt ourselves awake once we're done. ARTHUR But how are we going to feel that through the sedation? YUSUF That's the clever part. I customize the sedative...INT. MAKESHIFT LAB - DAYCobb, Eames and Yusuf watch Arthur, ASLEEP, in a chair. YUSUF (O.S.) To leave inner ear function unimpaired...Yusuf, with a wicked grin, slowly TIPS Arthur's chairbackwards... as he falls, Arthur's body JERKS, EYES OPENINGjust before he HITS the floor.INT. WORKSHOP - DAYArthur thinks, nodding slowly. YUSUF That way, however deep the sleep, the sleeper will still feel falling...INT. MAKESHIFT LAB - DAYYusuf gleefully LEANS a SLEEPING ARTHUR to one side ... YUSUF (V.O.) Or tipping...Arthur goes down with a CRASH, JERKING AWAKE-INT. WORKSHOP - DAYArthur thinks this through. ARTHUR Even that won't cut through three layers of deep sleep. COBB The trick is to devise a kick for each level, then synchronize them to get a snap that penetrates all three layers. 66.Arthur looks at Cobb, getting it. ARTHUR We can use the musical countdown to synchronize the different kicks.INT. WORKSHOP - NIGHTAriadne comes into the darkened main space. Cobb is lying onone of the chairs, asleep. Plugged into the mechanism.Ariadne stands over him. Watching.She opens the case, PULLS one of the tubes, sits, checkingthe dials as she injects the needle cap into her arm, and we- CUT TO:INT. CAGE STYLE ELEVATOR - DAYAriadne ascends. She looks at the buttons. Spots the "B." Theelevator STOPS. She looks through the grill at-INT. YOUNG GIRL'S BEDROOM - DAYAriadne pulls back the grill and walks across the room,considering the dusty furnishings. At the window is a doll'shouse, front slightly ajar. Ariadne opens it. Inside is aSAFE. She tries it. LOCKED. A NOISE STARTLES her- she turns,looking through a doorway into another room...INT. LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUSAriadne looks into the room to see Cobb and Mal talking,arguing. A private moment. Mal brushes at Cobb's hair, tryingto convince him. We hear snatches of conversation- MAL You remember when you asked me to marry you? COBB Of course... MAL You said you had a dream... COBB That we'd grow old together. MAL And we can. You know how to find me... you know what you have to do.Cobb is shaking his head, gently. Mal looks into Cobb's eyes-gentle, loving... Mal SPOTS Ariadne spying on them. 67.FREEZES, staring, hostile. Cobb turns, sees Ariadne, movestowards her, leaving Mal. COBB You shouldn't be in here.Cobb guides her back into the elevator. ARIADNE I wanted to know what "tests" you need to do on your own every night.INT. CAGE STYLE ELEVATOR - DAYCobb shuts the CAGE DOOR. Ariadne hits a button. The elevatorRISES. Through the GRILL Ariadne can see a BEACH stretchingoff into the distance. The elevator stops. Mal sits on thesand. Beside her, the two children are crouched, away fromus, building a SANDCASTLE. ARIADNE Why do you do this to yourself? COBB This is the only way I can still dream. ARIADNE Is it so important to dream?Cobb stares at his family. COBB In my dreams... we're still together.The kids, WITHOUT TURNING AROUND, jump up and RUN AWAY.INT. CAGE STYLE ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUSThe elevator descends. ARIADNE But these aren't just dreams, are they? They're memories. You said never to use memories. COBB And I shouldn't. ARIADNE You're keeping her alive. COBB No. 68. ARIADNE You can't let her go. COBB No. These are moments I regret. Moments I turned into dreams so I could change them.Ariadne's fingers move across the buttons- stop at the "B." ARIADNE What've you got buried down there that you regret?Cobb pushes her hand away. Hits the third floor button. COBB There's only one thing I need you to understand about me...INT. KITCHEN, COBB AND MAL'S HOUSE - MOMENTS LATERAriadne follows Cobb into the kitchen. A THIN MAN is there,standing by the table. He holds a FOLDED PIECE OF PAPER. ARIADNE This is your house? COBB Mine and Mal's. ARIADNE Where is she? COBB She'd already died.The Thin Man offers Cobb the piece of paper. A CHILD'S SHOUT-Cobb TURNS. Ariadne follows his gaze to the garden. A smallblonde boy faces away from them, crouched on his haunches tolook at something on the ground. COBB It's James. My boy. He's found something. Maybe a worm.A slightly older girl RUNS into view. COBB And there's Philippa.She crouches beside the boy. Their FACES ARE AWAY FROM US.They point and discuss whatever is on the ground. 69. COBB I thought about calling out, so they'd turn and smile those incredible smiles... but I'm out of time-The Thin Man thrusts the paper into Cobb's hand. THIN MAN Right now. Or never, Cobb.Cobb nods, turns from the window- COBB Then I panic that I'll always wish I'd seen them turn, that I can't waste this chance...Cobb TURNS BACK to call out- but the children RACE OFF... COBB But the moment's passed. And whatever I do, the dream's always the same... When I'm about to call... they run.Cobb watches them run off, calling for grandma, FACES UNSEEN. COBB If I'm going to see their faces again-I've got to get back here in the real world...Behind him, Ariadne SLAMS the grill shut. Cobb TURNS.INT. CAGE STYLE ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUSAriadne hits the BASEMENT button. The elevator starts toDESCEND. ariadne STARES, fascinated as glimpses of floorsslip past: Mal's childhood bedroom, a thundering wall offreight train... The elevator STOPS. Through the grillAriadne sees a HOTEL SUITE. She pulls open the grill, stepscautiously out into-INT. ELEGANT HOTEL SUITE - CONTINUOUS (NOW NIGHT)DISHEVELED bedclothes, UPENDED room service table,STRAWBERRIES across the floor. A STRUGGLE. Ariadne stepsforwards- SMASH- she looks down to see that she has kickedover a CHAMPAGNE FLUTE. Ariadne feels a draught. The CURTAINBILLOWS. MAL (O.S.) What are you doing here?Ariadne TURNS. Mal is there. 70. ARIADNE My name is- MAL I know who you are. What are you doing here? ARIADNE I don't know. Trying to understand. MAL How could you understand? Do you know what it is to be a lover? To be half of a whole? ARIADNE No.Mal moves slowly towards Ariadne... MAL I'll tell you a riddle. You're waiting for a train. A train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you don't know for sure...Mal glides around Ariadne, looking her over. MAL But... it doesn't matter. How can it not matter to you where that train will take you? COBB (O.S.) Because you'll be together.Cobb is standing in the elevator. Mal nods. Looks at him. MAL How could you bring her here, Dom? ARIADNE What is this place? COBB A hotel. We spent our anniversaries in this suite. ARIADNE What happened here?Mal picks up the BROKEN STEM of a champagne flute... 71.INT. CAGE STYLE ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUSCobb PULLS Ariadne into the elevator- Mal THROWS herselftowards Ariadne- Cobb SLAMS the GRILL- Mal SMASHES against itAGAIN and AGAIN like a WILD ANIMAL- Ariadne FLINCHES- MAL you PROMISED! YOU SAID WE'D BE TOGETHER!- COBB We can. We will. But I need you to stay here for now- MAL YOU SAID WE'D GROW OLD TOGETHER!-Cobb pushes a button and the elevator starts to rise. COBB I'll come back. I need you to stay here on your own for now. Just while I do this job. Then we can be together- MAL WE'LL BE TOGETHER-YOU PROMISED!-Mal THROWS herself against the grill, and. we- CUT TO:INT. WORKSHOP - NIGHTAriadne watches Cobb sleeping. His eyes gradually flickeropen. He sees her watching him. ARIADNE You think you can just build a prison of memories to lock her in? You think that's going to contain her?The LIGHTS COME ON: Saito and Arthur stand in the doorway. SAITO Maurice Fischer just died in Sydney. COBB When's the funeral? SAITO Thursday. In Los Angeles. 72. COBB Robert'll accompany the body Tuesday at the outside. We have to move.Cobb gets up. Ariadne comes over to him. ARIADNE (low) I'm coming with you. COBB No. I promised Miles. ARIADNE The team needs someone in there who understands what you're struggling with. If you don't want it to be me then you need to show Arthur what I just saw.Cobb looks at Ariadne. Turns to Saito. COBB We need one more seat on the plane.INT. DEPARTURE GATE, SYDNEY - DAYSaito stands looking out the window at a 747. Cobb arrivesbeside him. They watch a COFFIN being loaded. COBB If I get on this plane and you haven't taken care of things... when we land I go to jail for the rest of my life. SAITO Complete the job en route, I make one phone call from the plane... you will have no trouble clearing immigration.INT. FIRST CLASS CABIN, 747 - CONTINUOUSThe luxurious cabin has only ten seats. Cobb finds his- seesAriadne in the seat behind his. They do not acknowledge eachother. Behind her is Arthur, looking out the window. Eamesenters, STUFFS his bag into the overhead bin, BLOCKING thepassenger behind: ROBERT FISCHER, standing there, patient,bag in hand, wearing black. EAMES Oh, sorry. 73.Eames SQUEEZES up against his seat to let Fischer BRUSH PAST.Fischer moves to his seat, directly in front of Cobb. EamesTOSSES Cobb a PASSPORT. Cobb flips it open: Fischer's.Pockets it. Yusuf and Saito enter, take their seats.EXT. RUNWAY - MOMENTS LATERThe 747 HURTLES down the runway.INT. FIRST CLASS CABIN, 747 - MOMENTS LATERCobb looks down at his hand: a TINY VIAL taped to the centerof his palm. He removes the cap. The seatbelt sign goes dark.Cobb unbuckles, stands. COBB Excuse me?Fischer looks up. FISCHER Yes? COBB I think this is yours...Cobb holds up the open passport, comparing the picture toFischer. Fischer's hand goes to his pocket. Cobb handsFischer the passport. FLIGHT ATTENDANT Would you gentlemen care for a drink? FISCHER Water. COBB Same.Fischer gives Cobb a thin smile. Holds up his passport. FISCHER Well, thank you. COBB No problem. Look, I couldn't help noticing your name. You're not related to Maurice Fischer?Fischer takes a beat. But Cobb seems harmless. FISCHER Actually, he was my father. 74. COBB I'm very sorry for your loss. He was an inspiring figure.The Flight Attendant brings their drinks- Cobb takes them. COBB Thanks.As he turns to Fischer he LOWERS his right hand ... a CLEARLIQUID DROPS into Fischer's water as Cobb hands it to him. COBB To Maurice Fischer. (they drink) I'll leave you in peace.Fischer grants him a smile.EXT. 747 - LATERThe great plane SOARS through a burning cloudscape.INT. FIRST CLASS CABIN, 747 - MOMENTS LATERCobb reaches into the overhead for a blanket- lets it fallonto Fischer's head- Fischer doesn't flinch. ASLEEP. CobbSIGNALS the others. The First Flight Attendant unlocks aCUPBOARD in the galley, then leaves, closing the curtain.Arthur moves into the galley and pulls out a MECHANISM CASE.Cobb and Arthur open the mechanism- uncoil the tubes- feedthem around the window side of each of the seats. Arthurrolls up Fischer's cuff- PUSHES the needle cap into Fischer'swrist. Arthur pulls Fischer's cuff down and hides the tubesbehind the armrest of Fischer's seat.Arthur runs the next tube to Ariadne. Cobb puts the case onYusuf's lap. Yusuf checks the TIMERS, tapping the syringes.The others recline their seats. Yusuf HITS A BUTTON- closesthe case- places it at his feet. He settles back, and we- CUT TO:INT. SEDAN - DAYCobb DRIVES. Saito and Arthur are in the back. Rain BEATSdown. Cobb pulls over-EXT. NEW YORK STREETS - CONTINUOUSYusuf stands on the corner, silver briefcase in hand, collarturned up against the rain. He reaches for the door. 75.INT. SEDAN - CONTINUOUSYusuf clambers into the back, brushing rain from his face. ARTHUR (indicates rain) Couldn't you have peed before you went under? YUSUF Sorry.The front door OPENS and Eames climbs in, soaked. EAMES Bit too much free champagne before takeoff, Yusuf? YUSUF Ha bloody ha. COBB At least we know he'll be looking for a cab in this.INT./EXT. SEDAN ON RAINY NEW YORK STREETS - CONTINUOUSCobb pulls out into the heavy traffic. He weaves aroundseveral cars before lining up behind a YELLOW CAB. COBB Brace yourselves.Cobb hits the gas- REAR ENDS the cab with a CRUNCH. TheCABDRIVER gets out, fuming. Heads to Cobb's window- CABDRIVER Hey, asshole! Why don't you try driving without your thumb up-He sees the SILENCED PISTOL Cobb is holding at his belly. COBB Walk away.The Cabdriver backs off. Arthur climbs into the cab. Bothcars pull away.INT./EXT. CAB ON RAINY NEW YORK STREETS - CONTINUOUSArthur SLOWS in front of the TRAIN STATION, peering at thepedes pedestrians. He SPOTS Fischer, lights the cab's sign.Fischer FLAGS him down. Fischer JUMPS into the back, brushingrain from his shoulders. 76. FISCHER Third and Market. Snappy.Eames JUMPS in from the other side. FISCHER What're you doing? EAMES Sorry, I thought it was free. Maybe we could share. FISCHER Maybe not.Saito gets into the front passenger seat. Pointing a gun. FISCHER Great.Arthur pulls away. Fischer pulls out his wallet and tosses itat Eames. FISCHER (contemptuous) There's 500 dollars in there. And the wallet's worth more than that. For that you ought to at least drop me at my stop.Eames smiles at this. EAMES I'm afraid-A SHOT SHATTERS the window by Eames's head- another SHOTIMPACTS by Saito- EAMES Get us out of here!Arthur hits the gas, but a BLACK S.U.V. SKIDS sideways infront, BLOCKING the path-A BLOCK BEHIND- Cobb is at a light. ARIADNE is getting in thefront. Cobb has HEARD the GUNFIRE- COBB Come on!-Cobb looks ahead to the AMBUSH, hits the gas- the sedanROCKETS forwards... but BAM- A FREIGHT TRAIN CLIPS THE FRONTOF THE SEDAN, SHOVING IT SIDEWAYS AS AN ENDLESS TRAIN BARRELSPAST, A WALL BETWEEN COBB AND THE AMBUSH- 77.A SECOND S.U.V. is behind the cab- PLAIN CLOTHES SECURITY MENadvance through the traffic, weapons trained on the cab.Bullets RIP into the cab as Eames throws himself on top ofFischer, PULLING a SACK over his head-Inside the sedan, Ariadne watches the train passing- ARIADNE This wasn't in the design-Cobb BACKS UP, SPINS around, heading for the tail of thetrain-A Security Man emerges from the front S.U.V. carrying anAUTOMATIC RIFLE- he steps towards the cab through the rain,raises his weapon and BLASTS THE CAB'S WINDSCREEN-Cobb clears the end of the train, and SKIDS across the tracks-Arthur CROUCHES down- PUSHES the accelerator with his HAND-YANKS the wheel- FLYING BLIND. The cab NAILS the SecurityMan, CRUNCHING into the front S.U.V.-Cobb SMASHES his car into the rear S.U.V., creating a GAP-Arthur YANKS the transmission and REVERSES- SCRAPING throughthe gap- Security Men DIVE out of the way- Arthur throws aragged J-turn to head down a SIDE STREET- Cobb follows in theother car. Rain whips across Arthur's face as he BREATHES- ARTHUR Everybody okay? Saito?Arthur looks at Saito. Saito's hand is at his belly. Coveredin BLOOD.EXT. WAREHOUSE - MOMENTS LATERThe sedan and cab pull into the side entrance- Eames jumpsout- PULLS the shutter down behind them-INT. WAREHOUSE - CONTINUOUSYusuf and Eames PULL Fischer from the cab, HUSTLING himthrough a doorway. Cobb JUMPS out of the sedan, furious. COBB Arthur! Arthur what the-Arthur pulls the bloody Saito from the front seat. COBB Oh, Christ. Is he dying? 78. ARTHURI don't know. What happened backthere? Where were you? COBBWe were blocked by a freight train. ARTHUR (to Ariadne)Why would you put a train crossingin a downtown intersection? ARIADNEI didn't. COBB (snaps)Why were we all ambushed, Arthur?!Those weren't regular projections-they'd been trained! ARIADNEHow could they be trained? ARTHURFischer's had an extractor teachhis mind to defend itself. Hissubconscious is militarized. Itshould've shown on the research- COBBSo why the hell didn't it?! ARTHURCalm down. COBBDon't tell me to calm down-you weremeant to check Fischer's backgroundthoroughly. You can't make thiskind of mistake-we're not preparedfor this kind of violence- ARTHURCobb, we've dealt with sub-securitybefore. We just have to be more- COBBThis wasn't part of the plan, Arthur! (points at Saito)He's dying! EAMESSo we put him out of his misery. 79.Eames steps into the room, pulls his gun and moves overSaito. COBB No. EAMES He's in agony. Let's wake him up-Cobb GRABS Eames's arm. COBB No! (they lock eyes) It won't wake him up. EAMES What do you mean, it won't wake him? When you die in a dream you wake up. YUSUF Not from this. We're too heavily sedated to wake up that way.Eames looks at Yusuf, then to Cobb. EAMES So what happens if one of us dies? COBB That person doesn't wake up. Their mind drops into Limbo. ARIADNE Limbo? ARTHUR Unconstructed dream space. ARIADNE What's down there? ARTHUR Raw, infinite subconscious. Nothing there but what was left behind by anyone on the team who's been trapped there before. On this team... just Cobb. ARIADNE How long would we be stuck there? 80. YUSUF You couldn't even think about trying to escape until the sedation eases- EAMES How long? YUSUF Decades-it could be infinite-I don't know! Ask him-he's the one who's been there before!Eames moves to Cobb. Looks him in the eye. EAMES Great. So now we're stuck in Fischer's mind battling it out with his private army, and if we get hit we're stuck in Limbo 'til our brains dissolve into scrambled egg?Cobb says nothing. Saito groans more loudly. ARTHUR Let's just get him upstairs.INT. OFFICE, WAREHOUSE - MOMENTS LATERSaito is laid out on an old desk. Arthur examines him. Hemotions to Ariadne. Eames watches Cobb. ARTHUR Hold this. Firm pressure.Arthur turns to Cobb. ARTHUR You knew the risks and you didn't tell us. COBB There wasn't meant to be any risk. We weren't supposed to be dealing with a load of gunnre. ARTHUR You had no right. COBB It's the only way you can go three layers deep, Arthur.Arthur turns to Yusuf, hostile. 81. ARTHUR And you. You went along with this? YUSUF I trusted him. ARTHUR You trusted him? When? When he promised you half his share? YUSUF (offended) No! His whole share. Plus, he told me he'd done it before.Arthur turns to Cobb. ARTHUR Oh, yeah? With Mal? That worked out great, didn't it, Cobb?Cobb grabs Arthur. COBB You don't know anything about that. This was the only way to do this job, Arthur. I did what I had to do to get back to my children. EAMES So you led us into a war zone with no way out. COBB We have a way out. The kick. We just have to push on, do the job as fast as possible and get out using the kick. EAMES Forget it. We go any deeper, we just raise the stakes. I'm sitting it out on this level. COBB You'll never make it, Eames. Fischer's security is surrounding this place as we speak. The ten hours of the flight is a week at this level-you'll never make it without getting killed. Downwards is the only way forwards. We have to carry on.Saito groans. Cobb looks at him- 82. COBB And we have to do it fast.Eames and Arthur weigh this. COBB Eames, go get ready. Arthur, let's get in there and soften him up.INT. BATHROOM, WAREHOUSE - LATERCobb and Arthur, wearing BALACLAVAS, PULL the sack fromFischer's head. He is chained to the radiator. FISCHER I'm insured against kidnapping up to ten million-this'll be simple- COBB No, it won't.Fischer looks at Cobb, unnerved. ARTHUR In. your lather's office, below the bookshelves, is his personal safe. We need the combination. FISCHER I never noticed a safe- COBB Doesn't mean you don't know the combination. FISCHER Well, I don't. ARTHUR We have it on good authority that you do. FISCHER Whose?INT. OFFICE, WAREHOUSE - CONTINUOUSYusuf looks through Fischer's wallet. Eames is opening aHINGED, THREE-WING MIRROR. YUSUF Five hundred dollars, this cost? EAMES What's inside? 83. YUSUF Cash, cards, ID... and this-Yusuf holds up a SNAPSHOT: the photo from Maurice Fischer'soffice- YOUNG ROBERT holds his HOMEMADE PINWHEEL, his FATHERblows on it. Eames takes it from Yusuf. STUDIES it. Cobbenters. Eames hands him the snapshot. EAMES Useful?Cobb studies the snapshot. Eames examines himself in thehinged mirror from multiple angles: ONE BY ONE the myriadEames reflections BECOME BROWNINGS. Cobb pockets the photo. COBB You're on. You've got an hour. EAMES An hour? I was supposed to have all night to crack him. COBB And Saito was supposed to keep his guts on the inside. You've got an hour-get something we can use.Eames turns from the mirror AS BROWNING. He glances at hiswatch, then SCREAMS, as if begging for mercy-INT. BATHROOM, WAREHOUSE - CONTINUOUSBrowning's CRY reverberates- Fischer looks up, concerned- FISCHER What's that? ARTHUR Good authority.Another cry rings out. Fischer recognizes the voice. FISCHER Uncle Peter?! Make them stop- ARTHUR The combination. FISCHER I don't know it! ARTHUR Why would Browning tell us you did? FISCHER Let me talk to him-I'll find out. 84.INT. BATHROOM, WAREHOUSE - MOMENTS LATERCobb pushes Browning (Eames), bloody and bruised, into theroom and forces him down next to Fischer. Cobb handcuffsBrowning's wrist to a metal bracket on the side of the sink. COBB You've got an hour. Get talking.Cobb leaves. BROWNING (EAMES) They've had me for two days. They've got someone with access to your father's office and they're trying to open his safe-they thought I'd know the combination, but I don't- FISCHER Neither do I, Uncle Peter. BROWNING (confused) Maurice told me that after he passed only you would be able to open it. FISCHER He never gave me the combination.Browning thinks for a minute. Realizes something. BROWNING He did, he just didn't tell you that it was a combination. FISCHER What, then? BROWNING Something only you would know. Some meaningful combination of numbers from your experiences with Maurice- FISCHER We didn't have a lot of meaningful experiences together. BROWNING Perhaps after your mother died... FISCHER After my mother died, I went to him in my grief. (MORE) 85. FISCHER (CONT'D) You know what he told me? "There's really nothing to be said, Robert." BROWNING He always had a hard time with emotional- FISCHER I was eleven, Uncle Peter.Browning (Eames) takes this in. BROWNING He loved you, Robert. In his way. FISCHER "In his way?" At the end he called me to his deathbed. He could barely speak, but he took the trouble to say one last thing to me. He pulled me close... I could make out only one word. "Disappointed."Browning can say nothing.INT. OFFICE, WAREHOUSE - CONTINUOUSCobb pulls off his balaclava. Looks down at Saito, who isbreathing fast, shallow. COBB How's he doing? ARIADNE He's in a lot of pain.Cobb takes Saito's hand. Looks him in the eye. COBB When we get you down to the next level, the pain will be less intense.Saito nods, breathing hard. ARIADNE (low) And if he dies? COBB His conscious mind will drop out of the dream. He'll be trapped in Limbo for a lifetime... ARIADNE What will that do to him? 86.Cobb looks at her. Grave. COBB When he wakes... his mind could be completely gone. SAITO When... when we wake I will still honor our arrangement...Cobb looks down at Saito sadly. COBB Saito-san, when you wake you might not even remember that we had an arrangement. You'll have forgotten this world. Limbo will be your reality. Lost there so long, you'll have become an old man... SAITO Filled with regret? COBB Waiting to die alone. Yes. SAITO Then I'll take the chance and come back. And we'll be young men together again.Saito smiles weakly. Cobb nods at him, turns to Ariadne. ARIADNE When were you trapped in Limbo?Cobb says nothing. Ariadne pulls him away from Saito. ARIADNE Cobb, you might have convinced the rest of this team to carry on with the job. But they don't know the truth. COBB What truth? ARIADNE The truth that at any minute you might bring a freight train through the wall. The truth that Mal is bursting up through your subconscious. (MORE) 87. ARIADNE (CONT'D) The truth that as we go deeper into Fischer, we're also going deeper into you-and I'm not sure we're going to like what we find there.Cobb stares back at Ariadne. Saying nothing. ARIADNE This is not just about Fischer, it's about you. Tell me what happened to you and Mal. Trapped in Limbo.Cobb looks at her. Thinking it through. COBB We were on a job. Exploring dreams within dreams. But we didn't understand how your mind can turn hours into years. How you can get trapped. Trapped so deep that when you wash up on the shore of your subconscious...INSERT CUT: MAL LIES ON THE SAND, STARING UP AT A CLOUDLESSSKY, WAVES WASHING OVER HER... COBB You can lose track of what's real. ARIADNE How long were you stuck?Cobb pauses before he answers. Looks at Ariadne. COBB Fifty years.Ariadne stares at him, incredulous. ARIADNE How did you stand it?INSERT CUT: COBB AND MAL BUILD A SANDCASTLE ON THE BEACH... COBB We built. We created a whole world for ourselves...INSERT CUT: COBB AND MAL WALK THROUGH A DESERTED CITY. COBB It's not so bad at first, being gods. The problem is knowing that it's not real. It became impossible for me to live like that. 88. ARIADNE But not for her? COBB She accepted it. At some point...INSERT CUT:INT. MAL'S CHILDHOOD HOME - DAYMal opens a DOLL'S HOUSE. Inside is a SAFE. She opens it- itis empty. She pulls out her SPINNING TOP. COBB (V.O.) ...she'd decided to forget that our world wasn't real.Mal places the top inside the safe. LOCKS IT AWAY...INT. OFFICE, WAREHOUSE - CONTINUOUS ARIADNE And when you finally woke up? COBB To wake from that. From decades lived. To be old souls thrown back into youth. It was hard. At first Mal seemed okay. But I started to realize something was wrong. Finally she admitted it. This idea she was possessed by. This simple little idea that changed everything... ARIADNE What was it? COBB That our world was not real. No matter what I did, no matter what I said, she was convinced that we were still in a dream. That we needed to wake up again...INT. COBB AND MAL'S KITCHEN - DAY (FLASHBACK)Cobb is trying to calm Mal, who is hysterical. COBB (V.O.) That to get home we'd have to kill ourselves.INT. WORKSHOP - DAYAriadne looks at Cobb, appalled. 89. ARIADNE What about your children?Cobb has to look away. COBB She... she believed they weren't real. That our real children were waiting. Somewhere above...INT. COBB AND MAL'S KITCHEN - DAY (FLASHBACK)Mal shakes her head at Cobb as he USHERS the children out ofthe room, FACES UNSEEN- COBB Calm down, Mal- MAL They're projections, Dom. Your dreams. I'm their mother-don't you think I can tell the difference?Cobb closes the door- turns to her, eyes full of bittertears. COBB If it's my dream then why can't I control it? Why can't I stop this? MAL (it's obvious) You don't know you're dreaming. COBB You keep telling me I am- MAL And you don't believe me! COBB (V.O.) She was certain. But she loved me too much to go without me. So she made a plan...INT. ELEGANT HOTEL CORRIDOR - NIGHT (FLASHBACK)Cobb walks along, checking door numbers against a key. COBB (V.O.) For our anniversary...INT. ELEGANT HOTEL SUITE - CONTINUOUS (FLASHBACK)Cobb enters the lavish suite. He notices the DISHEVELEDBEDCLOTHES. 90.He steps forwards- SMASH- he has tipped over a champagneglass with his foot... dinner for two is SPREAD ACROSS THEFLOOR. He looks at the DEBRIS, confused... next to the brokenglass is a SPINNING TOP. He picks it up, studying it,thinking. He feels a draught, looks to the window. TheCURTAIN BILLOWS.EXT. EXTERIOR ATRIUM - CONTINUOUS (FLASHBACK)Cobb looks out the window: Mal sits on the ledge of theopposite window. HAIR BLOWING. Feet dangling over thedizzyingly high atrium. She smiles. MAL Join me. COBB Mal, come back inside. MAL No. I'm going to jump. And you're coming with me. COBB No, I'm not. This is real-if you jump, you're not going to wake up, you're going to die. Let's go back inside and talk about this, please. MAL We've talked enough.She KICKS off a shoe and watches it DROP. MAL Come out onto the ledge or I'll jump right now.She means it. Cobb swings his legs out, sitting on the ledgeopposite is wife. He looks down at the drop. MAL I'm asking you to take a leap of faith. COBB I can't do that, Mal. I can't leave our children. MAL If I go without you, they'll take them away, anyway. COBB What do you mean? 91. MAL I filed a letter with our attorney. Explaining how I'm fearful for my safety, how you've threatened to kill me...Cobb looks back at the wrecked hotel suite, PANICKING... MAL (CONT'D) I love you, Dom. I've freed you from the guilt of choosing to leave them. We're going home to our real children. COBB Out children are here, Mal.Mal CLOSES HER EYES. Cobb looks for some way to reach her... MAL You're waiting for a train... COBB NO! MAL, NO, I CAN'T! MAL A train that will take you far away... COBB DON'T DO THIS! MAL You know where you hope this train will take you, you can't know for sure... COBB DON'T! MAL But it doesn't matter... COBB NO! MAL Because you'll be together...Mal SLIPS FORWARD INTO SPACE. Cobb SCREAMS after her. Thentries to bury his face in the wall...INT. OFFICE, WAREHOUSE - DAYCobb stares as he remembers. 92. COBB He letter to the authorities refuted all the claims about her sanity that she knew I'd make...INT. COBB AND MAL'S KITCHEN - DAY (FLASHBACK)Cobb stands with the Thin Man, who has a piece of paper. COBB (V.O.) She'd had herself declared sane by three different psychiatrists.Cobb hears a SHOUT- turns to the garden. James CROUCHES,Philippa joins him, examining the ground, FACES UNSEEN... COBB (V.O.) (CONT'D) It was impossible for me to explain the nature of her madness...The Thin Man thrusts the paper into Cobb's hand. THIN MAN Right now. Or never, Cobb.Cobb turns back to the window- about to call out- James andPhilippa RUN OFF. Cobb turns from the window. Looks at thepaper in his hand. It is an AIRPLANE TICKET. COBB (V.O.) So I ran. And I've been running ever since, trying to buy my way back to my family...INT. OFFICE, WAREHOUSE - DAYCobb looks across at Ariadne. ARIADNE Psychiatrists judged her sane? COBB She was sane. She was just lost in the labyrinth. ARIADNE Then why should you blame yourself? COBB Because we were a family. And we had a life I would do anything to get back to now. But that reality wasn't enough for me then. 93. ARIADNE It might have been your idea to push the limits, Cobb. But you're not responsible for the idea that destroyed her. The idea that her world wasn't real... that was her own idea from her own mind.Cobb says nothing. ARIADNE (CONT'D) Your guilt defines her. Powers her. If we're going to succeed in this, you're going to have to forgive yourself, and you're going to have to confront her. But you don't have to do it alone. COBB You don't have to do this for me- ARIADNE I'm doing it for the others. They don't know the risk they've taken coming in here with you.Cobb looks at the rooftop opposite, sees a SNIPER take up aposition. Cobb shakes his head, frustrated. COBB We can't stay here. Arthur?!INT. BATHROOM, WAREHOUSE - CONTINUOUSBrowning puts his hand on Fischer's shoulder. BROWNING These people are going to kill us if we don't give them the combination. FISCHER They won't, they'll try to ransom us- BROWNING I heard them-they're going to lock us in and run the can into the river. FISCHER What is in the safe? 94. BROWNING Something for you. Maurice always said it was his most previous gift... a will. FISCHER Maurice's will is with Port and Dunn. BROWNING It's an alternate. It supersedes the other only if you want it to. FISCHER What does it say? BROWNING It splits all the component businesses of Fischer Morrow into individual companies, transferring ownership to the boards of those companies... FISCHER Leaving me nothing? BROWNING A basic living. Nothing more. The entire empire would cease to exist. FISCHER Destroy my own inheritance? Why would he suggest such a thing? BROWNING I don't know, Robert.Cobb OPENS the door. Arthur is behind him. COBB Come to your senses? FISCHER Let us go. I don't know the combination. Not consciously.Cobb considers this. Opens his phone. Pulls out his gun. COBB Let's try instinctively. I have someone standing in your father's office ready to tap in a combination.He holds the phone to Fischer's mouth. 95. COBB (CONT'D) First six numbers that come into your head. Right now. FISCHER I have no idea-Cobb SWINGS the gun onto Browning- COBB RIGHT NOW! FISCHER Five, two, eight... four, nine, one.Cobb lowers his weapon. Listens to the phone. Shakes hishead. Shuts the phone. COBB You'll have to do better. Bag `em.Arthur puts SACKS over their heads.INT. WAREHOUSE - CONTINUOUSCobb and Arthur drag Fischer and Browning to the van- FISCHER We're worth much more to you alive...Arthur places Fischer on the back seat- uses a DROPPER todrop LIQUID onto Fischer's mask- his head SLUMPS FORWARDS."Browning" yanks the sack from his head- it is now EAMES. EAMES (excited) His relationship with his father's much worse that we thought. ARTHUR That helps us?Arthur pulls a SNIPER RIFLE from a case by the van. COBB The stronger the issues, the more powerful the catharsis.Cobb motions for Yusuf to follow his upstairs. ARTHUR But how do you reconcile them if they're that estranged? 96. EAMES I'm working on that.Arthur lines up a shot through the window- ARTHUR Well, work fast-Fischer's projections are closing in quick, we need to break out of here before we're totally boxed in...Arthur SHOOTS two snipers. Cobb and Yusuf gently load Saitointo the van. He groans. Ariadne straps him in, checks hisbandages. Arthur can't get the last sniper- he's too hiddenbehind a wall- EAMES Shouldn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, Arthur-Eames lines up a shot with a grenade launcher. Fires- thesniper EXPLODES into the air- Arthur looks at Eames. EAMES (CONT'D) Shall we?They climb into the van-INT./EXT. VAN ON RAINY STREETS - CONTINUOUSThe van pulls out into the rain-drenched streets. Arthuropens the mechanism case and hands out tubes- COBB Shifting Fischer's antipathy from his father onto Browning should work. EAMES We need the imagery, the words... ARIADNE So you destroy his one positive relationship? COBB No. We repair his relationship with his father and expose his godfather's true nature. EAMES Hell, we should be charging Fischer as much as Saito. 97. ARTHUR What about his security? It's going to get worse as we go deeper. COBB We bring in Mr. Charles. ARTHUR No. EAMES Who's Mr. Charles? ARTHUR A bad idea. COBB Arthur, the second we approach Fischer in that hotel, they're gonna mow us down-we run with Mr. Charles like on the Stein job. EAMES So you've done it before? ARTHUR Sure. But it didn't work. The subject realized he was dreaming and his subconscious tore us to pieces.Eames takes this in. EAMES You learned a lot, though. Right? COBB (to Eames) I'll need a decoy. EAMES No problem. How about a pretty young lady I've used before? COBB Fine-Cobb looks back: a second S.U.V. pulls out, tailing them. COBB (CONT'D) (to Yusuf) I know you've got to stay ahead of them, but drive with kid gloves, okay? The world down there is going to be very unstable- 98. ARTHUR And don't make the jump too soon- that kick is our only way back, we have to be ready to catch it- YUSUF I'll use the music to let you know when it's coming, but the rest is up to you.Arthur puts the mechanism onto the front seat. YUSUF (CONT'D) Everyone ready?Nods all round. YUSUF (CONT'D) Sweet dreams-Yusuf hits a button and we- CUT TO:INT. HOTEL LOBBY BAR - SUNSETFischer nurses a drink. Staring at the ice cracking. BLONDE (O.S.) Am I boring you?Fischer looks up. A beautiful BLONDE is next to him. BLONDE (CONT'D) I was telling you my story. I guess it wasn't to your liking. FISCHER I have a lot on my mind.Fischer looks around the bar. There are several STERN-LOOKINGCHARACTERS paying him too much attention.INT. HOTEL LOBBY - CONTINUOUSArthur and Ariadne sit at a table across the lobby. They spotCobb moving across the lobby towards Fischer. ARTHUR And there goes Mr. Charles. ARIADNE Who or what, exactly, is Mr. Charles? 99. ARTHUR It's a gambit designed to turn Fischer against his own subconscious.INT. HOTEL LOBBY BAR - CONTINUOUSCobb approaches the bar, watched closely by Fischer's Sub-security. COBB Mr. Fishcer! Good to see you again. Rod Green, Marketing. (to Blonde) And you must be... BLONDE Leaving.She presses against Fischer as she slides off her stool anddeposits a cocktail napkin in front of him. BLONDE (CONT'D) In case you get bored.Cobb watches her walk away. The Sub-security FOLLOWS her. COBB I think you just got blown off... unless her phone number really does have only six digits.Fischer glances at the napkin: "528-491."INT. HOTEL LOBBY - CONTINUOUSArthur watches the Sub-security follow the Blonde. ARIADNE And why don't you approve? ARTHUR Because it involves telling the mark that he's dreaming. Which involves attracting a lot of attention to us. ARIADNE Didn't Cobb say never to do that? ARTHUR You must've noticed by now how much time Cobb spends doing things he says never to do. 100.INT. HOTEL LOBBY BAR - CONTINUOUSCobb turns to Fischer. COBB Strange way to make friends. (off look) Lifting your wallet, I mean.Fischer pats his pocket. Empty. He looks to the lobby wherehe sees the Sub-security trailing the Blonde. FISCHER Goddamn it. The wallet alone's worth- COBB Five hundred bucks. I know. Don't worry, my guys are on it. FISCHER Who did you say you were?Fischer looks at him, curious. Cobb plows on, confident- COBB I said I was Rod Green from Marketing-but I'm not. My name is Mr. Charles. I might seem familiar to you. I'm in charge of your security here.INT. HOTEL LOBBY - CONTINUOUSThe Blonde hurries up to Saito, emerging from the elevator- BLONDE Mr. Saito, can I have a minute?She pushes him back into the elevator, closing the door asthe Sub-security approaches...INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUSThe Blonde fondles Saito's lapels, getting close. SAITO I'm sorry, but...Saito glances over her shoulder to see, in the tunnel ofinfinite reflections created by the elevator's opposingmirrors, three reflections in, THE BLONDE IS EAMES. He winks. SAITO (CONT'D) (pushing him away) Very amusing, Mr. Eames. 101. EAMES You look a bit perkier.A SHUDDER ripples through the elevator. SAITO Turbulence on the plane. EAMES Feels closer. That's Yusuf's driving.And we- CUT TO:INT./EXT. VAN ON RAINY DOWNTOWN STREETS - DAYYusuf FIGHTS the wheel as the van CUTS DOWN AN ALLEY, BUMPINGOVER POTHOLES and SMASHING TRASH CANS aside- THREE S.U.V.s INFURIOUS PURSUIT. Yusuf looks in the rear view mirror,FRUSTRATED. He checks his WATCH, then checks the back: theSLEEPERS SHAKE with the impact and we- CUT TO:INT. HOTEL LOBBY BAR - NIGHTAs a TREMOR echoes through the bar Fischer looks at Cobbtrying to place him. FISCHER Security? You work for the hotel? COBB No. My specialty is subconscious security. FISCHER You're talking about dreams. You're talking about extraction. COBB Exactly. My job is to protect you...Behind Fischer a WAITER puts down a tray- tipping a champagneglass over- SMASH- Cobb NOTICES. Pauses, looks across the bar-HIS TWO CHILDREN ARE CROUCHED, BACKS TOWARDS US...Cobb looks around the bar, the patrons start to STARE atCobb, suspicious- Cobb shifts back to Fischer- 102. COBB (CONT'D) My job is to protect you from any attempt to access your mind through your dreams.Cobb regains his patter- the patrons lose interest...INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUSEames pulls out Fischer's wallet, moves to hand it to Saito,then PAUSES, opens it, leafs past the cast to find... TheSNAPSHOT: young Robert holding his HOMEMADE PINWHEEL, hisfather blowing on it. The elevator doors open and Eames stepsoff. HANDS Saito the wallet. EAMES Get off at a different floor and keep moving. Dump the wallet, then meet me in the lobby. The security will try to track it down. We need to buy Cobb a little more time.The doors close. Saito puts the wallet in his pocket. HeCOUGHS- a deep, nasty cough.INT. HOTEL LOBBY BAR - CONTINUOUSCobb looks over Fischer's shoulder to see a SUITED MANwatching him. Another MAN is walking in from the lobby. COBB You're not safe here.Cobb steps away from the bar. Fischer does not move. COBB (CONT'D) Trust me. They're coming for you.Fischer sizes him up, A CLAP OF THUNDER ECHOES, and we- CUT TO:INT./EXT. VAN ON RAINY DOWNTOWN STREETS - DAYGUNSHOTS BLAST out the rear and side windows of the van- aSecurity Man is leaning out of the lead S.U.V. With a SHOTGUN-WIND AND RAIN RIP THROUGH THE VAN- in the back, ARTHUR'SSLEEPING FACE IS WHIPPED BY THE SPRAY, AND WE- CUT TO:INT. HOTEL LOBBY BAR - SUNSETFischer looks out the windows at sudden, HURRICANE-LIKE RAIN- 103. COBB Strange weather, huh?A TREMOR runs through the bar- Cobb looks around- COBB (CONT'D) You feel that?INT. HOTEL LOBBY - CONTINUOUSAriadne and Arthur watch the GUSTS OF WIND RATTLE thewindows. Arthur sees HOTEL GUESTS staring out at the weather,PUZZLED. Several of them TURN TO LOOK DIRECTLY AT ARTHUR. ARIADNE What's happening? ARTHUR Cobb's drawing Fischer's attention to the strangeness of the dream. That's making his subconscious look for the dreamer. For me.And we- CUT TO:INT./EXT. VAN ON RAINY STREETS - DAYAt the end of the alley- Yusuf THROWS the van into a HARDRIGHT TURN- we move into EXTREME SLOW MOTION... THE SLEEPERSIN THE BACK ARE DRAWN TO ONE SIDE OF THE VAN BY THECENTRIFUGAL FORCE... and we- CUT TO:INT. HOTEL LOBBY BAR - CONTINUOUSThe liquid in Fischer's drink RISES UP AGAINST ONE SIDE OFTHE GLASS- Fischer notices, confused. COBB Very odd-the weather, the gravity...Fischer looks around the bar- it's as if THE ENTIRE ROOM ISSET AT A 45-DEGREE ANGLE- glasses SLIDING off tables... COBB (CONT'D) But I can explain all this. You've actually been trained for this. (Fischer nods) Think of the strangeness of the weather, the shifts in gravity. None of this is real... (MORE) 104. COBB (CONT'D) (beat) We're in a dream.Fischer looks at the room around them. Back to Cobb. Allthrough the bar, patrons turn to look at Cobb IN UNISON. COBB (CONT'D) The simplest test of what I'm saying is for you to try and remember anything about the way you arrived in this hotel... okay?Fischer stares at Cobb, trying to process this. All aroundthem, people STARE at Cobb. Several get up as if to approach. COBB (CONT'D) Breathe. Remember the training. Accept the fact that we're in a dream. That's why I'm here protecting you.As Fischer considers this we- CUT TO:INT./EXT. VAN ON RAINY STREETS - DAYYusuf STRAIGHTENS UP the van, RACING down the street,swerving through traffic and we- CUT TO:INT. HOTEL LOBBY BAR - EVENINGThe building gradually EASES BACK INTO ALIGNMENT- FISCHER So you... you're not real?The bar patrons start to ignore Cobb again. COBB No. I'm a projection of your subconscious. I was put in place to protect you in the event that extractors pulled you into a dream. I believe that's what has happened.Fischer takes this in. Then looks at the Security Menapproaching across the crooked floor, he nods at Cobb- 105.INT. HOTEL LOBBY - EVENINGCobb escorts Fischer across the lobby. As he does so, hewalks past the two CHILDREN, backs to us- Cobb ignores them-The two Sub-security fall in behind. Cobb hurries Fischer upthe stairs- then PUSHES him into-INT. HOTEL LOBBY BATHROOM - CONTINUOUSFischer stumbles in- turns to Cobb, angry- FISCHER Hey-Cobb reaches into his jacket- the First Man BURSTS in- CobbKICKS him to the ground- DRAWS his gun as the SECOND MANcomes through the door, moving towards Fischer-BLAM! Cobb BLASTS the Second Man in the back- TURNS andSHOOTS the First Man. FISCHER (CONT'D) Jesus Christ! What are you doing?!Cobb turns to Fischer, calm. Convincing. COBB Look at the gun in his hand.Fischer looks: the Second Man was holding a pistol. Cobbopens the First Man's jacket to show Fischer his holster andsidearm. COBB (CONT'D) These men were sent to abduct you.Cobb pulls out the gun and HANDS it to Fischer. COBB (CONT'D) If I'm going to help you, I need you to be calm.Fischer remembers something. FISCHER If this is a dream, I have to kill myself and wake up-Fischer raises the gun towards his head- COBB I wouldn't do that-they've probably got you sedated. If you pull that trigger, you might not wake up, you might drop into a lower dream state. (MORE) 106. COBB (CONT'D) Mr. Fischer, you know all this, you just have to remember it...Fischer lowers his gun.INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUSSaito walks down the corridor, followed by a Security Man.Saito DUCKS around the corner, moves to a GARBAGE CHUTE andDROPS Fischer's WALLET into it. He SLIPS into the stairwellas the Security Man comes abreast of the chute and pauses.INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUSArthur leads Ariadne to a particular room: 491.INT. ROOM 491 - CONTINUOUSArthur leads Ariadne in. He opens the closet, opens the roomsafe, pulls our FOUR BRICKS OF PLASTIC EXPLOSIVE. ARTHUR So, if everything's correct, this room should be directly below 528.INT. HOTEL LOBBY BATHROOM - CONTINUOUSCobb looks reassuringly at Fischer. COBB What do you remember from before this dream? FISCHER (thinking) Rain... gunfire... Uncle Peter. (looks up) Christ-we've been kidnapped. COBB Where were they holding you? FISCHER They had us... in the back of a van... COBB Your body's bouncing around in the back of a van right now-that explains the gravity shifts. FISCHER It was... to do with a safe... Christ, why's it so hard to remember? 107. COBB It's like trying to remember a dream after you've woken up. It takes years of practice to do it easily. So, you and Browning have been pulled into this dream so they can steal something from your mind. What? FISCHER They wanted a combination to a safe... they demanded the first numbers to pop into my head. COBB That's them extracting a locator. FISCHER A locator? COBB A number from your own subconscious. It can be used any number of ways... (thinking) This is a hotel. Room numbers. What was the number you gave them? FISCHER 5, 2... something... it was a long number. 528... 528, 4 something. COBB (opens phone) Well, we know where to start. (into phone) Fifth floor.INT. ROOM 491 - CONTINUOUSArthur hangs up the phone. He is standing on a chair,attaching the explosives to the ceiling. ARIADNE Do you use a timer? ARTHUR No, I have to judge it myself. Once you're all asleep up in room 528, I wait `til Yusuf starts his kick... ARIADNE How will you know? 108. ARTHUR His music warns me it's coming, then the van hitting the barrier of the bridge should be unmistakable- that's when I blow the floor out from underneath us and we get a nice synchronized kick. Too soon, and we won't get pulled out; too late and I won't be able to drop us. ARIADNE Why not? ARTHUR The van will be in free fall. I can't drop us with no gravity.Arthur finishes setting the charges.INT. HOTEL LOBBY - CONTINUOUSSaito moves through the lobby. Browning is coming in theother direction. Saito assumes him to be Eames. SAITO I see you've changed. BROWNING I'm sorry?Eames comes up behind Browning, catching Saito's eye. SAITO I'm... I mistook you for a friend. BROWNING Good-looking fellow, I'm sure.Browning moves off. Saito approaches Eames. EAMES That's Fischer's projection of Browning. We'll keep an eye on how he behaves- SAITO Why? EAMES How he acts will tell us if Fischer's starting to suspect his motives the way we want him to. 109.INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR, FIFTH FLOOR - MOMENTS LATERCobb leads Fischer around a corner. Arthur and Ariadne arewaiting in the corridor. COBB They work for me.Fischer starts looking at room numbers. Stops at 528. Cobbdraws his gun, steps back from the door and KICKS it open.INT. ROOM 528 - CONTINUOUSCobb JUMPS into the room, gun up. The room is empty. Arthurand Ariadne search the room. Saito and Eames arrive. Eamesshuts the door. Arthur FINDS something- ARTHUR Mr. Charles!Arthur holds up a MECHANISM CASE. Cobb shows it to Fischer. COBB You know what this is?Fischer's eyes roam over the dials and plungers. FISCHER I think so. But I don't understand. COBB They were going to put you under. FISCHER I'm already under. COBB Under again. FISCHER A dream within a dream? ARTHUR Shhhh!Arthur is at the door. Someone is there. A key goes into thelock- the door starts to open- Arthur REACHES OVER and GRABSthe person entering, THROWS THEM TO THE FLOOR- puts his gunin their face. IT IS BROWNING.Fischer stares, disbelieving, at his own godfather. FISCHER Uncle Peter. What's going on?Cobb pulls the key from Browning's hand: ROOM 528. 110. COBB You said you were kidnapped together? FISCHER Not exactly, they already had him. They'd been torturing him... COBB You saw them torture him?Fischer shakes his head. Looks at Browning. Thinking. FISCHER The kidnappers are working for you. BROWNING No, Robert- FISCHER You're trying to get that safe open. To get the alternate will.Browning looks up at Fischer. BROWNING Fischer Morrow's been my entire life. I can't let you destroy it. FISCHER I'm not going to throw away my inheritance. Why would I? BROWNING I couldn't take the chance of you rising to your father's final taunt. FISCHER What taunt? BROWNING That will. I'm sorry, Robert, but it's his final insult. A challenge to build something for yourself. He's telling you that you aren't worthy of his achievements.Fischer takes this in. Devastated. FISCHER That he was "disappointed?" 111. BROWNING I'm so sorry. But he was wrong. You'll make his company even greater than he ever could. COBB Your godfather's lying, Robert.Fischer turns to Cobb. FISCHER How do you know? COBB It's what I do. He's hiding something.Cobb looks at Browning. COBB Let's find out what.Cobb nods at Arthur, who starts unpacking the mechanism.Browning watches. Silent. COBB Let's do to him what he was going to do to you.Cobb rolls up his sleeve. Nods at Fischer to do the same. COBB We'll penetrate his subconscious and find out what he doesn't want you to know.Fischer looks Cobb in the eye. Decides- rolls up his sleeve,offering his bare arm. The team run tubes to each other-Arthur injects Fischer, whose head slumps. ARTHUR He's out. ARIADNE Wait, Cobb-I'm lost. Whose subconscious are we going into? COBB Fischer's. I told him it was Browning's so he'd come with us as part of our team. ARTHUR (impressed) He's going to help us break into his own subconscious. 112. COBB That's the idea. He'll think that his security is Browning's and fight them to learn the truth about his father.Arthur hits buttons on the mechanism. The team goes out oneby one. Cobb is last. COBB Fischer's subconscious is going to run you down hard. ARTHUR I'll lead them on a merry chase. COBB Be back in time for the kick. ARTHUR I'm on it.Cobb is no longer listening- he stares at the net curtains,BILLOWING like those in Mal's suite- a GLIMPSE of someone(Mal?) As the screen goes WHITE, and we are-EXT. SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS - DAYCLOSE ON Cobb's face, staring. Fixed. ARIADNE (O.S.) Cobb? Cobb?Ariadne is beside him. They stand on a cliff, dressed inwhite snowsuits, carrying white-painted weapons like WWIIcommandos. Cobb checks his SNIPER RIFLE, examines theirobjective: a massive FORTIFIED MEDICAL FACILITY a mile below. ARIADNE What's down there? COBB Hopefully, the truth we want Fischer to learn. ARIADNE I meant what's down there for you?Cobb turns to her. Eames, Saito and Fischer arrive, SKIINGdown from the hill above. Cobb pulls Eames out of Fischer'searshot. COBB You're the dreamer. I need you to draw the security away from the complex. 113. EAMES Then who guides Fischer in? You? COBB If I know the route... we could be compromised.Eames looks as Cobb, uneasy. Ariadne comes over. ARIADNE I designed the place. COBB No. You're with me. SAITO (O.S.) I could do it.They turn to Saito. Saito shrugs at Eames. Eames smiles. COBB Eames, brief Saito on the route into the complex. What we're looking for is going to be in the most heavily fortified section. That north tower.Cobb moves to Fischer. Saito COUGHS. SPITS. Eames sees BLOODon the snow. Looks at Saito. COBB Mr. Fischer, you're going in with Mr. Saito. FISCHER You're not coming in? COBB You have to do this on your own. You have to get in there, break into your godfather's mind and find out the truth about your father.Cobb taps Fischer's radio mike. COBB Keep this live at all times. I'll be listening in, covering you. (holds up the sniper rifle) The windows on the upper floors are big enough that I can cover you from that south tower. 114.Cobb slips into his skis, shoulders his rifle. CUT TO:INT. ROOM 528 - NIGHTArthur checks the mechanism. He hears LOW BOOMS like thunder.He checks his watch- THE SECOND HAND CRAWLS FORWARDS. With alast look at the sleepers, he heads out into the corridor...INT./EXT. VAN ON RAINY DOWNTOWN STREETS - DAYA GUNSHOT slams into the van as Yusuf DRIVES- he glances backto see a MOTORCYCLE pulling up behind him, the REAR PASSENGERFIRING A SHOTGUN- the bike pulls alongside Yusuf's window asthe passenger RELOADS- Yusuf YANKS the wheel TOWARDS thebike, bringing the shotgun barrel into the cab so he can GRABit, spin the wheel back- PULLING the passenger from the backof the bike... Yusuf turns a corner, heading into a disusedMARKET-INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUSArthur walks towards the elevator. It OPENS- a SECURITY MANemerges, heading right for him. Arthur takes a TURN, speedingup. The BOOMS are louder, and we- CUT TO:INT./EXT. VAN ON RAINY DOWNTOWN STREETS - DAYThe bike crosses behind the van, catching up again as thedriver pulls a handgun and starts BLASTING. Up ahead, anS.U.V. sits in a side road, lining up to head off the van-the SECURITY MAN driving the S.U.V. guns it, as the bikecreeps up on the other side of the van- Yusuf HITS THEBRAKES, forcing the bike out into the path of the S.U.V.,tossing the rider like a rag doll-Heading out of the market, the van races onto a FREEWAY ONRAMP, approaching the BRIDGE. An S.U.V. SMASHES into thevan's side, FORCING it up against a CRASH BARRIER... the vanstarts to SLOWLY TILT OVER THE BARRIER as the S.U.V. PUSHES- CUT TO:INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR - NIGHTAs Arthur hurries down the corridor, the corridor starts toTILT, and Arthur is forced to run UP ONTO THE WALL- he roundsa corner- STRAIGHT INTO another Security Man- Arthur HEADBUTTS him and they STRUGGLE- as they struggle, the corridorSPINS around, THROWING THEM UP ONTO THE WALLS, THE CEILING-as wall becomes floor they DROP through a door into- 115.INT. HOTEL ROOM - CONTINUOUSThe fight continues all over the spinning room- and we- CUT TO:INT./EXT. VAN ON RAINY OFF RAMP NEAR BRIDGE - DAYSLEEPING ARTHUR BOUNCES around as the van TILTS, SCRAPINGalong the barrier- the van CLEARS THE END OF THE BARRIER ANDROLLS DOWN THE EMBANKMENT, and we- CUT TO:INT. HOTEL ROOM - NIGHTArthur and the Security Man DROP to the floor, Arthur on top.Arthur gets up- heads to the stairwell.INT./EXT. VAN ON RAINY STREETS NEAR BRIDGE - DAYThe van SETTLES with a thump. Yusuf BREATHES hard. ThenSMILES as he realizes he is in one piece. A RINGING BELL upahead makes him look up to the bridge, where the barriers arestarting to come down. Yusuf checks his watch- YUSUF Bugger.Yusuf hits the gas, heading for the bridge. An S.U.V. linesup behind him, trying to catch up before the van crosses thebarrier onto the bridge-The van JUST MAKES IT- the S.U.V. behind RIPS its read axleoff, SCRAPING to a halt on the rising section. The SecurityMan inside starts FIRING on the van...INT. HOTEL STAIRWELL - CONTINUOUSArthur RACES down the steps- OPENS the door to the fourthfloor- spots SECURITY MEN outside room 491. ARTHUR Hey!They TURN- he DARTS back into the stairwell- RACES down thestairs- the Security Men follow- they start SHOOTING, and we- CUT TO:EXT. SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS - DAYEames SKIS down within sight of the hospital complex. Hereaches into his pack and lets off a FLARE. 116.EXT. HOSPITAL COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSSecurity Men on the ramparts spot the flare and send PATROLSout on skis and SNOWMOBILES to investigate.EXT. SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS - CONTINUOUSEames watches them close in, then launches himself down themountain, STREAKING across the icy slope, and we- CUT TO:INT./EXT. VAN ON RAINY RISING BRIDGE - DAYYusuf PULLS FORWARD, looking over his shoulder to line up aBACKWARDS RUN at the edge. He DUCKS as vicious FIRE from theS.U.V. HAMMERS the vehicle. He looks at his watch. The SECONDHAND TICKING SLOWLY... YUSUF Sod it. I hope your ready.He grabs an MP3 player and reaches into the back to placeHEADPHONES on sleeping Arthur's head. As he does so, henotices Saito's bandage BLEEDING THROUGH. Yusuf hits PLAY-Edith Piaf's "Non, je ne regrette rien" starts up and we- CUT TO:INT. HOTEL STAIRWELL - NIGHTArthur STOPS, hearing something- MASSIVE LOW-END MUSICALTONES- he looks up PANICKED- ARTHUR No, Yusuf. Too soon!SHOTS slam into the stairs around him and we- CUT TO:EXT. SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS - DAYCobb and Ariadne make their way down towards the complex. EAMES (OVER RADIO) Cobb? Are you hearing that?Cobb listens. The wind sounds unusually LOW.EXT. FOREST, SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS - CONTINUOUSEames is hidden at the base of some trees, whispering as apatrol passes beneath his position. 117. EAMES I noticed it twenty minutes ago-at first I thought it was just wind...EXT. SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS - CONTINUOUSCobb is listening intently. The "wind" changes pitch. COBB No, it's music. Dammit. EAMES (OVER RADIO) What do we do? COBB We move fast. Saito, did you copy?EXT. MOUNTAINS, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSSaito and Fischer CLIMB down a CLIFF FACE above the complex- SAITO We're going as fast as we can.EXT. SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS - CONTINUOUSAriadne looks at Cobb, concerned. ARIADNE How long do we have? COBB Yusuf's about ten seconds from the jump, which gives Arthur about three minutes, which gives us about- ARIADNE Sixty minutes. COBB The route you gave them, can they do it in under an hour? ARIADNE I don't think so. They've still got to climb down to the middle terrace. COBB They need a new route-a direct route. ARIADNE The building's designed as a labyrinth. 118. COBB There must be access routes that cut through the maze. (into radio) Eames?EXT. FOREST, SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS - CONTINUOUSEames cannot answer- he SLALOMS through the forest, Sub-security in hot pursuit, bullets smashing into the trunks...EXT. SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS - CONTINUOUSCobb turns to Ariadne. COBB Did Eames add any features? ARIADNE Yes. COBB What did he add?Ariadne looks at Cobb. ARIADNE I shouldn't tell you. If Mal- COBB There's no time-what did he add? ARIADNE Utility closets, trap doors... COBB What about service features? Did he add any large pipes or- ARIADNE Ducts. He added an air duct system- it doesn't follow the maze. They can use it to go straight from the outer walls to the upper tower. COBB Explain it to them. ARIADNE (into radio) Saito?EXT. CLIFF FACE BEHIND COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSSaito is using a hammer to tap in a belay. 119. SAITO Go ahead.And we- CUT TO:INT./EXT. VAN ON RAINY RAISED BRIDGE - DAYYusuf looks at the Security Man in the S.U.V., gives him thefinger and hits the GAS- RACING BACKWARDS at the barrier...and we- CUT TO:INT. HOTEL STAIRWAY - NIGHTArthur RUNS UP the stairs, gun in hand- rounds a corner and-IMPOSSIBLY- arrives behind the Security Man, who looks athim, CONFUSED, then looks down to realize he is now at theedge of a dangerous drop- Arthur shrugs. ARTHUR Paradox.Arthur PUSHES him over the edge- he falls- Arthur races up tothe fourth floor- throws open the door- and we- CUT TO:INT./EXT. VAN ON RAINY RAISED BRIDGE - DAYIn SLOW MOTION- the van SMASHES THROUGH THE CONCRETE BARRIER-and we- CUT TO:INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR - NIGHTArthur is SPRINTING down the corridor when a TREMENDOUS CRASHsends him FLYING into the air- and we- CUT TO:EXT. SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS - DAYA MASSIVE RUMBLE prompts Cobb to look across the valley-EXT. FOREST, SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS - CONTINUOUSEames shoots out of the trees, then FALLS to the snow as hesees a great CRACKING up ahead- the SLOPE IS FALLING AWAY INAN AVALANCHE- 120.EXT. CLIFF FACE BEHIND COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSSaito hears the RUMBLE above them. He looks down, Fischer isbelow, near the bottom of the sheer face- SAITO Look out!Saito CUTS the rope- they FALL- HIT the icy face and SLIDEdown the slope, clearing the path of the avalanche- and we- CUT TO:INT./EXT. VAN - DAYIn EXTREME SLOW MOTION, the van emerges from the concretebalustrade and starts FALLING- and we- CUT TO:INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR - NIGHTArthur is still FLYING through the corridor, NOT LANDING-GRAVITY HAS DISAPPEARED... he scrambles for a handhold,GRABBING a sconce- and we- CUT TO:EXT. SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS - DAYCobb watches the avalanche cloud slide past the complex. ARIADNE What was that? COBB The kick. EAMES (OVER RADIO) Cobb? Did we miss it? COBB Yeah, we missed it.EXT. FOREST, SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS - CONTINUOUSEames is lying on the snow. EAMES What the hell do we do now? COBB (OVER RADIO) Finish the job before the next kick. 121. EAMES What next kick?EXT. SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS - CONTINUOUSCobb looks at Ariadne as he talks into the radio. COBB When the van hits the water. I figure Arthur's got a couple minutes and we've got about twenty.Cobb and Ariadne MOVE towards the base of the complex.EXT. HOSPITAL COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSSaito and Fischer RUN around the base of the building. Theyfind a large EXHAUST PORT. Lay a charge on the GRILL. Theyblow the charge. Climb into the open vent.INT./EXT. VAN - DAYIn EXTREME SLOW MOTION, the van seems SUSPENDED IN MID-AIRTEN STORIES ABOVE THE RIVER... and we- CUT TO:INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR - NIGHTIn ZERO GRAVITY, Arthur pulls himself to the door of 491,opens it. He looks at the charges planted on the ceiling. ARTHUR How the hell do I drop you?He PULLS the charges from the ceiling. Hurrying. And we- CUT TO:INT. DUCT SYSTEM, HOSPITAL COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSSaito and Fischer hurry through the duct system. Saito isfalling behind, coughing up blood.EXT. UPPER TERRACE, HOSPITAL COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSCobb GRABS a Security Guard from behind, strangling himunconscious. He beckons to Ariadne, covering her as she runstowards him. They enter the base of the south tower.INT. TOP ROOM, SOUTH TOWER, HOSPITAL COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSA guard is manning the tower. Cobb and Ariadne enter- CobbSHOOTS the guard and moves to the window. 122. ARIADNE (she points) That's the antechamber outside the strongroom.Cobb looks at the large windows of the antechamber. COBB What about the strongroom? Doesn't it have any windows? ARIADNE Wouldn't be very strong if it did. (off look) Look, if you wanted to design it yourself- COBB It's fine. Better hope that we like what Fischer finds in there.Cobb sets up his sniper rifle. Through the scope he can seethree guards on the balcony outside the chamber. Three moreinside. Cobb casually picks them off with his rifle. Ariadnewatches through binoculars, appalled. ARIADNE These projections, they're part of his subconscious? COBB Yeah. ARIADNE Are you destroying those parts of his mind? COBB No, of course not. They're just projections. EAMES (OVER RADIO) Cobb? Something's wrong?EXT. FOREST, SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS - CONTINUOUSEames is watching the patrols HEAD BACK towards the complex. EAMES They're heading your way. Like they know something.INT. TOP ROOM, SOUTH TOWER, HOSPITAL COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSCobb hears this. Concerned. 123. COBB Buy us some time. EAMES (OVER RADIO) On my way.EXT. FOREST, SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS - CONTINUOUSEames TAKES OFF towards the base of the complex. And we= CUT TO:INT. ROOM 528 - NIGHTArthur FLOATS into the room. The SLEEPERS are floating,loosely connected by their tubes. Arthur looks at them, MINDRACING. He PULLS Cobb towards Eames, and we- CUT TO:INT. DUCT SYSTEM, HOSPITAL COMPLEX - DAYSaito and Fischer approach the grate covering the exit to theanteroom. Saito SLUMPS to the floor of the duct, pulls outhis radio. Fischer looks at him- he is PALE, SHIVERING.Fischer takes the radio, WHISPERS into it. FISCHER (into radio) We're here. Are we clear to proceed?INT. TOP ROOM, SOUTH TOWER, HOSPITAL COMPLEC - CONTINUOUSCobb SCANS the anteroom through the scope-it looks clear. COBB You're clear, but hurry-there's an army headed your way...Ariadne watches the patrols approaching the complex...INT. DUCT SYSTEM, HOSPITAL COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSThe SQUELCH from the radio is too loud- Fischer GRABS it andturns the volume to zero as he starts to remove the grate...EXT. BASE OF THE HOPISTAL COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSEames is setting MINES along the LOWEST WALL of thestructure. He moves carefully-there is a SHEER DROP below thewall... 124.INT. TOP ROOM, SOUTH TOWER, HOSPITAL COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSCobb SPOTS something through his scope. Something above themain windows, glimpsed through the side of the skylight. COBB Shit. There's someone else in there.Cobb prepares to fire. Ariadne GRABS the radio- ARIADNE Fischer, stop! It's a trap!-INT. DUCT SYSTEM, HOSPITAL COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSFischer does not see the flashing light on his radio as hecarefully lifts the grate. He motions for Saito to stay...INT. TOP ROOM, SOUTH TOWER, HOSPITAL COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSCobb TENSES to fire. COBB Come on... a little lower... a little-COBB FREEZES- IT IS MAL IN HIS SIGHTS. Ariadne puts up herbinoculars. Spots Mal. Fischer is climbing out of the vent... ARIADNE Cobb, that's not really her-Cobb turns to her- COBB How can you know that?INT. ANTECHAMBER - CONTINUOUSFischer moves into the antechamber, cautious- FISCHER I'm in.Fischer turns up the volume- ARIADNE (OVER RADIO) Fischer, look out!-Mal DROPS gracefully to the floor behind him- MAL Hello. 125.INT. TOP ROOM, SOUTH TOWER, HOSPITAL COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSCobb looks at Ariadne- ARIADNE Cobb, she's just a projection. Fischer... he's real.Cobb thinks. Nods, TURNS back to the scope- too late- MALSHOOTS FISCHER- Cobb reflexively pulls the trigger- Mal GOESDOWN- Cobb steps back from the scope, STUNNED. ARIADNE Eames? Get to the anteroom now!They run for the door.INT. DUCT SYSTEM, HOSPITAL COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSSaito STARTS as he hears the shot. He starts edging forwards,clutching his belly. And we- CUT TO:INT. ROOM 528 - NIGHTThe sleepers are floating in a rough stack, top-and-tailed.Arthur pulls the bedding from the bed and uses the sheet tobind the sleepers together. And we- CUT TO:INT./EXT. VAN - DAYIn EXTREME SLOW MOTION, the van CREEPS DOWNWARDS, still highabove the river... and we- CUT TO:INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR - NIGHTArthur PUSHES the floating stack of sleepers to the elevator.He hits the button- the doors open- he pushes them in- GRABSthe charges- climbs through the hatch in the ceiling and we- CUT TO:INT. DUCT SYSTEM, HOSPITAL COMPLEX - DAYEames steps over Saito, who looks up at him with DYING eyes-INT. ANTECHAMBER, HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - DAYEames jumps out of the vent to find Cobb and Ariadne standingover the bodies of Fischer and Mal. 126. EAMES What happened? ARIADNE Mal killed Fischer- COBB I wouldn't shoot her.Eames grabs a defibrillator from the wall and pulls Fischer'sjacket open- COBB It won't do any good-Eames SHOCKS Fischer's chest... COBB Even if you could revive his body, his mind's trapped down there. It's over.Eames listens for a pulse. Looks up at Cobb. EAMES So that it, then? We failed. COBB I'm sorry. EAMES It's you who doesn't get back to your family.Eames looks down at Fischer. Then over to the double doors. EAMES I wanted to know what was going to happen in there. I think we had this one. ARIADNE There's still a way: We follow Fischer down-They look at her. EAMES We're almost out of time- ARIADNE Down there they'll be enough time. We'll find him-soon as you hear Arthur's music start, you use the defibrillator to revive him-we give him his own early kick from below. (MORE) 127. ARIADNE (CONT'D) Get him in there- (points to doors) Then, as the music ends you blow the hospital and we all ride the kick back up through the layers.Eames looks at her, then to Cobb. EAMES Okay, Saito can hold them off while I plant the rest of the charges. COBB Saito's not going to last, Eames. ARIADNE We have to try! EAMES Go for it, but I'm taking the kick whether you're back or not...Eames pulls the mechanism from his pack. Offers it toAriadne. Cobb watches. Silent. Ariadne pulls out the tubes- ARIADNE Can I trust you to do what's needed? Mal's down there- COBB And I can find her. She'll have Fischer. ARIADNE How do you know? COBB She wants me to come after him. She wants me back down there with her.Cobb rolls up his sleeve. Ariadne rolls up her own sleeve.Eames NODS. Cobb and Ariadne lie down. Eames hits the button-WATER. BUBBLES. DROWNING. And we are-EXT. COAST (LIMBO) - DAYAriadne lies in the SURF, STARING up at a CLOUDLESS SKY. Atremendous BOOM prompts her to look around her- URBANBUILDINGS PILED right down to the water. The buildings areDECAYING, falling into the ocean like a GLACIER calving. CobbWADES towards her through the shallow water. Ariadne looks upat the crumbling city around them. ARIADNE This is your world? 128. COBB It was. And this is where she'll be.And we- CUT TO:INT. ELEVATOR SHAFT - DAYArthur floats on top of the elevator, planting small chargeson the EMERGENCY BRAKES and CABLE. He sets them, GRABS theother explosives, then PUSHES AWAY, shooting up the shaft. Ashe hits the DETONATOR, BLASTING the braking and safetysystems of the elevator, we move into SLOW MOTION, thefireballs FLAMING OUT in graceful licks and we- DISSOLVE TO:INT. ANTECHAMBER - DAYEames RACES around, full speed- getting the defibrillatorpaddles- laying them by Fischer's body- he runs into the duct-pulls Saito up to a seated position and hands him a handgun. EAMES Come on, Saito. I need you to cover Fischer while I plant the charges.Saito nods weakly, tries to hold the gun. Eames moves to thewindow- pulls his machine gun off- checks its load. Ready. Hewatches the security patrols climb up the outer walls...Eames lays down a HAIL of covering fire- then heads outside-EXT. HOSPITAL COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSEames races along the upper terrace dodging fire- BULLETSSHATTER a window behind him and we move into SLOW MOTION, theglass CASCADING GENTLY and we- DISSOLVE TO:EXT. COAST (LIMBO)- DAYCobb and Ariadne climb out of the waves, full speed. Theymove into the shadow of the tall, crumbling buildings. Thestreets are eerily DESERTED. As they move further in, thebuildings become NEWER, different. Ariadne marvels at theextraordinary collection of buildings- every architecturalstyle imaginable in waves of FAILED UTOPIAS. ARIADNE You built all this? COBB We both did. 129. ARIADNE It's incredible. COBB We built for years. Then, when that got stale, we started in on the memories.A child's SHOUT echoes through the deserted canyons,prompting Cobb to look down a side street: a LITTLE BLONDEBOY crouched, his back to us. A LITTLE BLONDE GIRL joins theboy, and, as Cobb turns down the street, they run off.Cobb and Ariadne emerge into a peculiar SQUARE lined with aneclectic mix of buildings, from APARTMENT BLOCKS to HOUSES. COBB This is our neighborhood. ARIADNE (confused) From what city? COBB No. Our neighborhood. (pointing) That was our first apartment... then we moved to that building... we got that small house when Mal became pregnant. ARIADNE You reconstructed them all from memory? COBB We had time.Cobb pauses in front of a French country house. Staring. ARIADNE What's that? COBB The house Mal grew up in. ARIADNE Will she be in there? COBB No. Come on-Cobb leads Ariadne to the entrance of a glass skyscraper. 130.INT. SKYSCRAPER LOBBY (LIMBO) - CONTINUOUSCobb leads Ariadne across the gleaming lobby to theelevators. COBB We both wanted a house, but we both loved skyscrapers. In the real world we had to choose. Not here.INT. SKYSCRAPER ELEVATOR (LIMBO) - CONTINUOUSCobb pulls out his handgun, and a ziplock bag full ofbullets. ARIADNE How do we send Fischer back? COBB We need some kind of kick. ARIADNE What? COBB I'll improvise.Cobb COCKS his weapon, and the ELEVATOR STOPS. The doorsopen. Ariadne moves to exit, Cobb stops her. COBB There's something you have to understand about me. About inception. You see, an idea is like a virus...Cobb leads her out of the lift...INT. PENTHOUSE (LIMBO) - CONTINUOUSCobb and Ariadne step off the lift and into the incongruousinterior of a craftsman house. They cautiously move down thecorridor towards the back of the house... COBB Resilient... (turns to Ariadne) Highly contagious, and an idea can grow. The smallest seed of an idea can grow to define or destroy your world...Cobb is staring into the kitchen. Mal is sitting at thetable, back to them, staring out at the porch- the TOWERS ofLimbo stretching off behind it. 131. MAL The smallest idea, such as... "Your world is not real."Cobb hands Ariadne his gun and moves towards Mal. MAL A simple little thought that changes everything...Ariadne watches as Cobb sits down beside Mal. And we- CUT TO:INT. ELEVATOR SHAFT - NIGHTArthur FLIES back down the shaft to the top of the elevator,SQUEEZES past the car to the bottom and starts to set theMAIN CHARGES ACROSS THE BOTTOM OF THE CAR, and we- CUT TO:INT. PENTHOUSE (LIMBO) - DAYCobb touches Mal's arm- she TURNS, angry. It is only now thatwe see that she holds a CARVING KNIFE. Mal looks at Ariadne. MAL So certain of your world. Of what's real. Do you think he is- (points at Cobb) Or do you think he's as lost as I was? COBB I know what's real. MAL What are the distinguishing characteristics of a dream? Mutable laws of physics? Tell that to the quantum physicists. Reappearance of the dead? What about heaven and hell? Persecution of the dreamer, the creator, the messiah? They crucified Christ, didn't they? COBB I know what's real. MAL No creeping doubts? Not feeling persecuted, Dom? Chased around the globe by anonymous corporations and police forces? The way the projections persecute the dreamer? 132.Mal puts her hand on his face. Pitying. MAL Admit it, Dom. You don't believe in one reality anymore. So choose. Choose your reality like I did. Choose to be here. Choose me. COBB (rising anger) I have chosen, Mal. Our children. I have to get back to them. Because you left them. You left us. MAL You're wrong, Dom. You're confused... our children are here-A child's SHOUT draws Cobb- James CROUCHES on the porch, backto us. Philippa joins him, also turned away. Cobb watches,moved. Mal leans in close. MAL (whispers) And you'd like to see their faces again, wouldn't you, Dom? COBB Our real children are waiting for me up above.And we- CUT TO:INT. ELEVATOR - NIGHTArthur scrambles to arrange the sleepers on the floor of thecar- as his hand comes away from Saito, he sees BLOOD on it.He looks at Saito's belly- the blood is coming through hisshirt. Arthur sticks headphones on sleeping Eames, and we- CUT TO:INT. HOSPITAL FORTRESS - DAYEames throws a GRENADE, blowing up the security forces tryingto ascend the terraces. He DUCKS to the ground to avoid HEAVYFIRE- starts unpacking the charges and setting them along thebase of the terraces- 133.INT. DUCT SYSTEM, HOSPITAL COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSSaito looks up as he hears a Security Guard climbing throughthe duct... he raises his gun, TREMBLING with weakness...And we- CUT TO:INT. KITCHEN, PENTHOUSE (LIMBO) - DAYMal laughs at Cobb. MAL (laughs) Up above? Listen to yourself. You judged me for believing the very same thing.Mal points at the children- MAL These are our children. Watch. (turns to the kids) Hey, James! Philippa?!The children START TO TURN to us- BUT COBB CLOSES HIS EYES. COBB They're not real, Mal. Our real children are waiting for us-The children run off. Cobb opens his eyes. MAL You keep telling yourself that but you don't believe it- COBB I know it- MAL And what if you're wrong? What if I'm what's real?Cobb is silent. MAL You keep telling yourself what you know... but what do you believe? What do you feel?Cobb looks at Mal. Struggling. COBB Guilt. I feel guilt. And however confused I might get. (MORE) 134. COBB (CONT'D) However lost I might seem... it's always there. Telling me something. Reminding me of the truth. MAL What truth? COBB That you were wrong to doubt our world. That the idea that drove you to question your reality was a lie... MAL How could you know it was a lie? COBB Because it was my lie. MAL (realizing) Because you planted the idea in my mind. COBB Because I performed inception on my own wife, then reaped the bitter rewards... ARIADNE Why? COBB We'd become lost in here. Living in a world of infinite possibilities. A world where we were gods. I realized we needed to escape, but she'd locked away her knowledge of the unreality of this world...INSERT CUT: Mal opens the doll's house. Takes the spinningtop, lies it down in the safe. LOCKS IT AWAY. COBB I couldn't make Mal understand that we needed to break free. To die. So I started to search our world...Cobb turns to Mal, but keeps talking to Ariadne...INSERT CUT: Cobb WANDERS the streets of Limbo... COBB Searching for the right place in her mind... 135.INSERT CUT: Cobb stops outside the VICTORIAN HOUSE, MAL'SCHILDHOOD HOME, looking up at it. He heads inside... COBB And when I found that place, that secret place where she had shut away her knowledge years before, I broke it open...INSERT CUT: Cobb looks around Mal's childhood bedroom. Comesto the doll's house... COBB I broke into the deepest recess of her mind, to give her the simplest little idea.INSERT CUT: Cobb throws open the safe doors. Sitting on theshelf of the safe is a spinning top. On its side. COBB A truth that she had once known, but had chosen to forget...INSERT CUT: Cobb picks up the totem. He SPINS it in the safe.IT SPINS AND SPINS WITHOUT END. Cobb CLOSES THE DOOR of thesafe... COBB That her world was not real.INSERT CUT: COBB AND MAL ARRIVE AT TRAIN TRACKS CUTTINGTHROUGH WASTELAND. COBB (V.O.) That death was a necessary escape.They lie on the tracks looking into each other's eyes. Mal iscrying. Cobb takes her hand, reassuring. He starts to speak- COBB You're waiting for a train. A train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you can't know for sure. Yet it doesn't matter...Mal looks at him across the railroad tracks. Replies- MAL Because you'll be together.The train comes, OBLITERATING the lovers.Back in the present- Cobb looks into Mal's eyes. She iscrying. 136. COBB I never thought that the idea I'd planted would grow in her mind like a cancer. That even after we woke...INSERT CUT: Cobb looks around the HOTEL SUITE, confused. Hemoves to the CURTAINS... Mal is on the ledge opposite. COBB You'd continue to believe that your world was not real...Crying, Mal nods- MAL That death was the only escape?INSERT CUT: Mal PLUNGES to her death. MAL You killed me.Cobb looks at Mal. Whispers- COBB I was trying to save you-I'm sorry.Mal comes in close to Cobb. Looks him over. MAL You infected my mind. You betrayed me. But you can make amends. You can still keep your promise. We can still be together... right here. In our world. The world we built together. CUT TO:INT. ELEVATOR - NIGHTArthur hits "Play" on his music player- Edith Piaf starts toring out, Arthur checks his detonator and we- CUT TO:INT. ANTECHAMBER - DAYEames races back in- in the relative quiet he notices MASSIVELOW-E MUSICAL TONES. He drops his gun and goes to Fischer'sside... 137.INT. DUCT SYSTEM, HOSPITAL COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSSaito musters all his remaining strength as the guard emerges-Saito FIRES, dropping the guard, then COLLAPSES, the gunclattering to the duct floor... Saito is dead.INT. ANTECHAMBER - CONTINUOUSEames powers up the defibrillator, puts the paddles onFischer's chest, then Pow!- he shocks him, and we- CUT TO:INT. PENTHOUSE (LIMBO)-DAYLIGHTNING crackles across the sky- Ariadne sees it. ARIADNE We need Fischer. MAL You can't have him.Cobb stares at Mal. Mesmerized. COBB If I stay, can she take him back? ARIADNE Cobb, what are you saying? MAL Fischer's on the porch. ARIADNE Cobb, you can't do this. COBB Go check he's alive, Ariadne.Ariadne moves onto the porch, high above the metropolis, andwe- CUT TO:INT. ELEVATOR - NIGHTArthur nods his head in time with the music, counting down,holding the detonator. He starts bracing himself, and we- CUT TO: 138.INT. ANTECHAMBER - DAYEames recharges the defibrillator. SHOCKS Fischer again, andwe- CUT TO:EXT. PORCH, PENTHOUSE (LIMBO) - DAYAriadne looks up as a LARGE BOLT OF LIGHTNING RIPS across thesky... she looks down to see Fischer, BOUND AND BLOODY, lyingbelow the rail. ARIADNE He's here. And it's time. But you have to come with us.Another massive lightning strike flickers across the sky- ARIADNE Cobb, I'm not going to let you lose yourself in here! You have to get back to your children! COBB Send Fischer, I have to stay- ARIADNE You can't stay here to be with her-Cobb turns from Mal. Looks at Ariadne. COBB I'm not. Saito is dead by now. That means he's here. I have to stay here and find him.Ariadne removes Fischer's gag- pulls him up, onto the rail.Cobb looks back at Mal. COBB I can't stay here to be with her because she's not real.Mal looks at Cobb, furious. MAL Not real? I'm the only thing you do believe in anymore. Here-doesn't this feel real, Dom?She STABS him in the chest- Cobb WHEEZES- GASPING, looking atMal- 139. COBB I wish you were. But I couldn't make you real. I'm not capable of imagining you in all your complexity and... perfection. As you really were. You're the best I can do. And you're not real.Mal pulls the knife and moves to STRIKE again- ARIADNE No!A SHOT rings out, Mal GRABS her shoulder- Cobb turns toAriadne, who is pointing Cobb's gun. COBB What're you doing? ARIADNE Improvising.She KICKS Fischer off the roof- AIMS again at Mal-Fischer DROPS as the sky LIGHTS UP WITH ELECTRICITY- FischerSCREAMS, then GASPS, no longer falling, and we are-INT. ANTECHAMBER - DAYEames pulls the defibrillator from Fischer's chest as heCOUGHS AWAKE. EAMES Get in there-quick!Fischer looks up at the double doors. STAGGERS to his feet.Fischer pushes open the doors to the STRONGROOM.INT. STRONGROOM - CONTINUOUSFischer walks into the silent white room. At one end of theroom is a bed. A figure lies in the bed. His FATHER.Breathing with tremendous difficulty. Dying. And we- CUT TO:EXT. PENTHOUSE (LIMBO) - DAYAriadne takes aim at Mal- COBB No!Cobb holds Ariadne's gaze. She lowers the gun. And we- CUT TO: 140.Eames GRABS the detonator- then moves to the door of thestrongroom... CUT TO:INT. ELEVATOR, HOTEL - NIGHTArthur HITS THE DETONATOR-INT. ELEVATOR SHAFT - CONTINUOUSThe CHARGES on the bottom of the elevator EXPLODE, and wemove into EXTREME SLOW MOTION as the flames BALLOON- CUT TO:INT. STRONGROOM - CONTINUOUSA RUMBLE BUILDS as Fischer approaches the bed, overcome withemotion. His Father sees him. Starts trying to speak. Fischerleans in... FATHER (hoarse whisper) I... was ... dis ... dis ... FISCHER I know, Dad. You were disappointed that I couldn't be you.The dying man SHAKES HIS HEAD with surprising energy. FATHER (whisper) I was disappointed... that you tried.Fischer hears this. And we- CUT TO:INT. ELEVATOR SHAFT - NIGHTThe elevator car is ROCKETED along its track by the explosion-INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUSArthur is SMASHED against the floor of the car next to thesleepers who SHUDDER with the force of ACCELERATION- and we- CUT TO:INT. ANTECHAMBER - DAYEames WATCHES Fischer- 141. EAMES (to himself) ) Come on, come on...INT. STRONGROOM - DAYThe Father collapses back onto the pillow. Fischer starts toweep. His Father reaches out a trembling hand but whenFischer tries to hold IT, he SHAKES his son's hand away...He is reaching for the SAFE next to his bed. His fingersfumble at the keypad, he can't open it. His son pushes5,2,8,4,9,1 into the keypad. Opens it. Inside the safe is theWILL. And beside it is a HOMEMADE PINWHEEL, clearly made by achild. By Fischer. He takes it out, MARVELING at it. He turnsto his father, but his father is dead.Eames, watching from the door, HITS THE DETONATOR-EXT. HOSPITAL COMPLEX - CONTINUOUSA line of EXPLOSIONS RIPS ALONG THE LOWER WALL... the ENTIREBUILDING STARTS TO SLIDE DOWN THE MOUNTAIN-EXT. PENTHOUSE (LIMBO) - DAYA FIERCE WIND starts HOWLING through the house as the skyoutside DARKENS. Cobb shields Mal against the blast- looks upat Ariadne, who HOLDS the railing, FIGHTING the wind- COBB That's the kick-you have to go! ARIADNE You're coming! COBB No, I'm not. I'm staying here to find Saito. (turns to Mal) And to say goodbye.Ariadne loosens her grip on the railing... ARIADNE Don't lose yourself. Find Saito. And bring him back. COBB I will.Ariadne lets the wind pull her off the edge- FALLING- and we-INT. ANTECHAMBER - CONTINUOUSAriadne DROPS as the FLOOR COLLAPSES- her eyes SNAP OPEN- 142.EXT. PENTHOUSE (LIMBO) - DAYCobb holds Mal in his arms. The wind DIES... MAL We'd be together forever. You promised me. COBB I know. But we can't. And I'm sorry. MAL You remember when you asked me to marry you? You said you dreamt that we'd grow old together. COBB And we did...Mal looks at Cobb... thinking. Remembering.INSERT CUT: TWO ELDERLY PEOPLE (MAL AND COBB) WALK THROUGHLIMBO... ACROSS A WASTELAND... TWO ELDERLY HANDS CLUTCH EACHOTHER AS THEY LIE DOWN ON THE RAILROAD TRACK... COBB I miss you more than I can bear... but we had our time together. And now I have to let go...She nods, weakly. Cobb holds Mal as her eyes close...DYING... and we-INT. STRONGROOM - CONTINUOUSFischer and his Father's body DROP AWAY-INT. ELEVATOR - NIGHTAriadne DROPS inside the ROCKETING ELEVATOR, and as itSMASHES INTO THE TOP OF THE SHAFT Ariadne SMASHES into-INT./EXT. VAN INTO RIVER - DAYTHE WATER, THE VAN CRUNCHING WITH THE IMPACT- WATER CRASHINGTHROUGH THE BROKEN WINDOWS FLOODING THE INTERIOR...Fischer's EYES OPEN, PANICKING- he UNBUCKLES HIMSELF, pushesout of the broken window- STOPS, goes back to UNBUCKLEBrowning and DRAG him out. 143.EXT. RIVER - CONTINUOUSFischer breaks the surface with Browning, who COUGHS andGASPS. He starts PULLING for the near bank, strugglingthrough the rain-impacted water-INT. VAN, UNDERWATER - CONTINUOUSAriadne, Arthur and Yusuf wait calmly underwater. They aresharing TWO REGULATORS pulled from beneath the front seat.Arthur turns to Saito. There is blood in the water aroundSaito's belly- his eyes are LIFELESS- Arthur feels for apulse... turns to Cobb, whose eyes are lifeless... AriadneGRABS Arthur's elbow, pulling him away...EXT. RIVERBANK - MOMENTS LATERFischer turns Browning/Eames over. They lie there, exhausted. BROWNING I'm sorry, Robert.Fischer stares at the rain on the water. FISCHER The will means that Dad wanted me to be my own man, not live for him. (turns to Browning) ) And I'm going to, Uncle Peter.Browning nods. Wipes the rain from his face. In the puddlebeside them, the reflection is not Browning, but Eames.EXT. UNDERNEATH BRIDGE IN THE RAIN - MOMENTS LATERArthur sits on the riverbank, breathing heavily. ARTHUR What happened? ARIADNE Cobb stayed. ARTHUR With Mal? ARIADNE No. To find Saito.Arthur looks out at the water below the bridge. ARTHUR He'll be lost... ARIADNE No. He'll be alright. 144.And we- CUT TO:EXT. DAWN. CRASHING SURF.The waves TOSS a BEARDED MAN onto wet sand.As the Japanese Security Guard turns him onto his back, werealize that this is Cobb- OLDER. WEARY. TRAVELLED...INT. DINING ROOM, CASTLE - DAYCobb WOLFS his food. The Elderly Japanese Man (Saito, 90years old) watches him. SAITO So... have you come to kill me?Cobb does not look up. SAITO I've been waiting for someone to come for me... COBB Someone from your half-remembered dream...?Saito peers at Cobb. SAITO Cobb? Not possible-he and I were young men together. And I am an old man... COBB Filled with regret?Saito REMEMBERS, nods... SAITO Waiting to die alone, yes.Cobb is STARING at something on the table. COBB I came back for you... I came to remind you of what you once knew...Cobb gestures at the table. Saito follows his gaze down tothe polished surface of the table... COBB That this world is not real. 145.The top IS STILL SPINNING PERFECTLY, AS IF IT WILL NEVERTOPPLE. Saito looks at the top. Then back to Cobb. SAITO You came to convince me to honor our arrangement? COBB Yes. And to take a leap of faith.As Saito-san listens to Cobb, he looks at the GUN on thetable between them... COBB Come back and we'll be young men together again.The elderly Saito looks at Cobb. Nods. And we- CUT TO:INT. FIRST CLASS CABIN, 747 - DAYAriadne watches Cobb. His eyes are closed. FLIGHT ATTENDANT (O.S.) Hot towel, sir?His EYES FLICKER OPEN. He takes the towel with a nod. Ariadnesmiles. Relieved. FLIGHT ATTENDANT We'll be landing in Los Angeles in about twenty minutes. Do you need immigration forms?Cobb nods. Takes a landing card. Looks around the cabin.Saito is WATCHING him. Serious. Haunted. Holding Cobb's gaze,SAITO PICKS UP THE PHONE AND DIALS. Cobb nods thanks...INT. ARRIVALS, LAX - LATERCobb steps forwards to the IMMIGRATION OFFICIAL. Hands himhis passport. Nervous. The Official takes a beat, looks Cobbup and down, then WHUMP!- the passport is stamped. As Cobbtakes it back, he spots Ariadne at the next counter. She nodsat him. He nods back. Then moves off...As Cobb passes through baggage claim, he exchanges subtlegreetings with Eames and Yusuf.Arthur smiles broadly at Cobb. Cobb brushes past Fischer, whoglances back at him as if thinking maybe he should know him,then moves on... 146.As Cobb emerges into the crowded arrivals hall, he spotsProfessor Miles, waving at him...INT. KITCHEN, COBB AND MAL'S HOUSE - DAYCobb enters with Miles. Drops his bags. Moves to the table,looking out at the overgrown garden. He reaches into hispocket, takes out his pewter spinning top, lowers it to thetable and SPINS IT- a CHILD'S SHOUT makes him look up-Through the window, James and Philippa have run into view,playing, THEIR FACES TURNED AWAY... Cobb STARES at the backof his children's heads... Miles moves to the window andKNOCKS on the glass-James and Philippa TURN- see their Dad. He steps to thewindow, watching their BRIGHT FACES SHINING as they runtowards him...Behind him, on the table, the spinning top is STILL SPINNING.And we-FADE OUT.CREDITS.END. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Incredibles, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Incredibles, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ba092f3b17c92cf9834c731ec52a2dd7869876e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Incredibles, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6690 @@ + + +"THE INCREDIBLES" + +Word for word transcript + +Original screenplay by Brad Bird + + + +Copyright 2004 Disney Enterprises, +Inc./Pixar Animation Studios + +All Rights Reserved + + + +Transcribed by BaD_BURN + +(markgonzalez154@hotmail.com) + + + + + + + +__________________________________________SCENE +1__________________________________________ + + + +MR. INCREDIBLE + +Is this on? + + + +INTERVIEWER + +That's fine. + + + +MR. INCREDIBLE + +I can break through walls, I just can't... + + + +INTERVIEWER + +That's fine. + + + +MR. INCREDIBLE + +I can't get this on. + + + +INTERVIEWER + +So, Mr. Incredible...do you have a secret identity? + + + +MR. INCREDIBLE + +Every superhero has a secret identity. I don't know a +single one who doesn't. Who wants the pressure of being super all the time? + + + +ELASTIGIRL + +Of course I have a secret identity. Can you see me in this +at the supermarket? Come on. Who'd want to go shopping as Elastigirl, y'know +what I mean? + + + +FROZONE + +Superladies, they're always trying to tell you their secret +identity. Think it'll strengthen the relationship or something like that. I +said, ''Girl, I don't want to know about your mild-mannered alter ego.'' or +anything like that. I mean, you tell me you're a +super-mega-ultra-lightning-babe, that's all right with me. I'm good. I'm good. + + + +MR. INCREDIBLE + +No matter how many times you save the world, it always +manages to get back in jeopardy again. Sometimes I just want it to stay saved, +you know? For a little bit. I feel like the maid. ''I just cleaned up this +mess. Can we keep it clean for ten minutes?'' + + + +INTERVIEWER + +I could get to that point. + + + +MR. INCREDIBLE + +''Please?'' + + + +INTERVIEWER + +Wait, no, don't get up. We're not finished. + + + +MR. INCREDIBLE + +Sometimes l think I'd just like the simple life, you know? +Relax a little and raise a family. + + + +ELASTIGIRL + +Settle down? Are you kidding? I'm at the top of my game! +I'm right up there with the big dogs! Girls, come on. Leave the saving of the +world to the men? I don't think so. I don't think so. + + + + + +__________________________________________SCENE +2__________________________________________ + + + +POLICE RADIO + +We interrupt for an important bulletin. A deadly high-speed +pursuit between police and armed gunmen is underway, traveling northbound on +San Pablo Ave. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Yeah, I've got time. + + + +OLD LADY + +Mr. lncredible. Um, Mr. Incredible... + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +What is it, ma'am? + + + +OLD LADY + +My cat, Squeaker, won't come down. + + + +[cat meows] + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Certainly, ma'am but I suggest you stand clear. There could +be trouble. + + + +OLD LADY + +No, no. He's quite tame. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Let go now! + + + +[cat yowls] + + + +POLICE OFFICER 1 + +Thank you, Mr. lncredible. You've done it again. + + + +POLICE OFFICER 2 + +Yeah, you're the best. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +No, I'm just here to help. + + + +POLICE RADIO + +Attention all units. We have a tour bus robbery... + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Tour bus robbery. I've still got time. Officers. Ma'am. +Squeaker. + + + +BUDDY (INCREDIBOY) + +Cool! Ready for take-off! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +What the...? Who are you supposed to be? + + + +BUDDY (INCREDIBOY) + +Well, I'm lncrediBoy. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +What? No. You're that kid from the fan club. [stammering] +Brophy. Brody. Buddy! Buddy! + + + +BUDDY (INCREDIBOY) + +My name is lncrediBoy. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Look, I've been nice, I've stood for photos, signed every +scrap of paper you pushed at me but this is... + + + +BUDDY (INCREDIBOY) + +No, you don't have to worry about training me. I know all +your moves, your crime fighting style, favorite catch phrases, everything! I'm +your number one fan! + + + +BUDDY (INCREDIBOY) + +Hey! Hey, wait! + +__________________________________________SCENE +3__________________________________________ + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +You know...you can tell a lot about a woman by the contents +of her purse, but maybe that's not what you had in mind. + + + +THIEF + +Hey, look-- + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Elastigirl. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Mr. lncredible. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +No, it's all right. I've got him. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Sure, you've got him. I just took him out for you. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Sure, you took him out. His attention was on me. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +A fact I exploited to do my job. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +My job, you mean. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +A simple thank you will suffice. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Thanks, but I don't need any help. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Whatever happened to ''ladies first''? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Well, whatever happened to equal treatment? + + + +THIEF + +Hey, look, the lady got me first. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Well, we could share, you know. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I work alone. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Well, I think you need to be more...flexible. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Are you doing anything later? + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +I have a previous engagement. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +[whistles] + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Now, you just stay here. They usually pick up the garbage +in an hour. + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +Hey, lncredible! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Hey, Frozone! + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +Shouldn't you be getting ready? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I still got time. + + + +[crowd screaming] + + + +WOMAN + +He's gonna jump! + + + +SANSWEET + +I think you broke something. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +With counseling, I think you'll come to forgive me. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Wait a minute. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +[coughing] Bomb Voyage. + + + +VOYAGE + +[French] Mr. Incredible! + + + +BUDDY (INCREDIBOY) + +And lncrediBoy! + + + +VOYAGE + +lncrediBoy? + + + +BUDDY (INCREDIBOY) + +Hey, hey! Aren't you curious about how I get around so fast? +See? I have these rocket boots-- + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Go home, Buddy. + + + +BUDDY (INCREDIBOY) + +What? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Now. + + + +VOYAGE + +[French] Little oaf. + + + +BUDDY (INCREDIBOY) + +Can we talk? You always say be true to yourself, but you +never say which part of yourself to be true to. Well, I've finally figured out +who I am. I am your ward... lncrediBoy! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +And now, you have officially carried it too far, Buddy. + + + +BUDDY (INCREDIBOY) + +This is because I don't have powers, isn't it? Well not +every superhero has powers, you know. You can be super without them. I invented +these. I can fly. Can you fly? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Fly home, Buddy. I work alone. + + + +VOYAGE + +[French] And your outfit is totally ridiculous! + + + +BUDDY (INCREDIBOY) + +Just give me one chance! I'll show you. I'll go get the +police. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Buddy, don't! + + + +BUDDY (INCREDIBOY) + +It'll only take a second, really. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +No, stop! There's a bomb! + + + +BUDDY (INCREDIBOY) + +Let go! You're wrecking my flight pattern! I can do this if +you let go! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Will you just...? I'm trying to help! Stop! + + + +BUDDY (INCREDIBOY) + +Let go of my cape! + +__________________________________________SCENE +4__________________________________________ + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Take this one home. And make sure his mom knows what he's +been doing. + + + +BUDDY (INCREDIBOY) + +I can help you. You're making a mista---hey! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +The injured jumper. You sent paramedics? + + + +POLICE OFFICER + +They've already picked him up. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +The blast in that building was caused by Bomb Voyage who I +caught in the act robbing the vault. Now, we might be able to nab him if we set +up a perimeter. + + + +POLICE OFFICER + +You mean he got away? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Well, yeah. Skippy here made sure of that. + + + +BUDDY (INCREDIBOY) + +lncrediBoy! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +You're not affiliated with me! Holy smokes, I'm late. +Listen, I've gotta be somewhere. + + + +POLICE OFFICER + +What about Bomb Voyage? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Any other night, I'd go after him myself, but I really +gotta go. But don't worry. We'll get him! Eventually! + + + +__________________________________________SCENE +5__________________________________________ + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Is the night still young? + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +You're very late. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +How do I look? Good? + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +Oh, the mask! You still got the mask. + + + +[cracks neck] + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Showtime. + + + +PRIEST + +Robert Parr, will you have this woman to be your lawful +wedded wife? + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +You're late. When you asked me if I was doing anything +later, I didn't realize you'd actually forgotten. I thought it was playful +banter. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +It was playful banter. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Cutting it kinda close, don't you think? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +You need to be more... flexible. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +I love you, but if we're gonna make this work, you've gotta +be more than Mr. lncredible. You know that. Don't you? + + + +PRIEST + +...so long as you both shall live? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I do. + + + +PRIEST + +I pronounce this couple husband and wife. + + + +[people cheering and whistling] + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +As long as we both shall live. No matter what happens. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Hey, come on. We're superheroes. What could happen? + + + +ANNOUNCER + +In a stunning turn of events, a superhero is being sued for +saving someone who, apparently, didn't want to be saved. The plaintiff, Oliver Sansweet, +who was foiled in his attempted suicide by Mr. Incredible, has filed suit +against the famed superhero in Superior Court. + + + +SANSWEET'S LAWYER + +Mr. Sansweet didn't ask to be saved. Mr. Sansweet didn't +want to be saved. And the injury received from Mr. Incredible ''actions'', so +quote, causes him daily pain. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Hey, I saved your life! + + + +SANSWEET + +You didn't save my life! You ruined my death, that's what +you did! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Listen-- + + + +MR. INCREDIBLE'S LAWYER + +My client has no further comment at this time. + + + +ANNOUNCER + +Five days later, another suit was filed by victims of the +el train accident. Incredible's court losses cost the government millions. And +opened the flood gates for dozens of superhero lawsuits the world over. + + + +WOMAN + +It is time for their secret identity to become their only +identity. Time for them to join us, or go away. + + + +ANNOUNCER + +Under tremendous public pressure, and the crushing +financial burden of an ever mounting series of lawsuits, the government quietly +initiated the superhero relocation program. The supers will be granted amnesty +from responsibility for past actions, in exchange for the promise to never +again resume hero work. Where are they now? They are living among us. Average +citizens, average heroes. Quietly and anonymously continuing to make the world +a better place. + + + +__________________________________________SCENE +6__________________________________________ + + + +style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>(15 YEARS LATER) + + + +MRS. HOGENSON + +Denied? You're denying my claim? I don't understand. I have +full coverage. + + + +BOB + +I'm sorry, Mrs. Hogenson, but our liability is spelled out +in paragraph 17. It states clearly... + + + +MRS. HOGENSON + +I can't pay for this. + + + +BOB + +[phone rings] Excuse me. [answers phone] Claims, Bob Parr. + + + +HELEN + +I'm calling to celebrate a momentous occasion. We're now +officially moved in. + + + +BOB + +Yeah, well, that's great, honey. In the last three years +don't count because... + + + +HELEN + +Because I finally unpacked the last box. Now, it's +official. Ha, ha, ha. Why do we have so much junk? + + + +BOB + +Listen, honey, I've got a client. + + + +HELEN + +Say no more. Go save the world one policy at a time, honey. +Oh! I gotta go pick up the kids from school. See you tonight. + + + +BOB + +Bye, honey. Excuse me. Where were we? + + + +MRS. HOGENSON + +[sobbing] I'm on a fixed income, and if you can't help me, +I don't know what I'll do. [blows nose loudly] [sobbing] + + + +BOB + +All right, listen closely. I'd like to help you, but I +can't. I'd like to tell you to take a copy of your policy to Norma Wilcox +on...[whispering] Norma Wilcox. W-l-L-C-O-X. On the third floor. But I can't. I +also do not advise you to fill out and file a WS2475 form with our legal +department on the second floor. I wouldn't expect someone to get back to you +quickly to resolve the matter. I'd like to help, but there's nothing I can do. + + + +MRS. HOGENSON + +Oh, thank you, young man. + + + +BOB + +Shhh! [shouting] I'm sorry, ma'am! I know you're upset! +[whispering] Pretend to be upset. + + + +MRS. HOGENSON + +[sobbing] + + + +MR. HUPH + +Parr! You authorized payment on the Walker policy?! + + + +BOB + +Someone broke into their house, Mr. Huph. Their policy +clearly covers-- + + + +MR. HUPH + +I don't wanna know about their coverage, Bob! Don't tell me +about their coverage. Tell me how you're keeping Insuricare in the black. Tell +me how that's possible, with you writing checks to every Harry Hardluck and +Sally Sobstory that gives you a phone call. + + + +[PA Announcement] + +Morning break is over. Morning break is over. + + + +__________________________________________SCENE +7__________________________________________ + + + +PRINCIPAL + +I appreciate you coming down here, Mrs. Parr. + + + +HELEN + +What's this about? Has Dash done something wrong? + + + +BERNIE + +He's a disruptive influence and he openly mocks me in front +of the class. + + + +DASH + +He says. + + + +BERNIE + +Look, I know it's you! He puts thumbtacks on my stool. + + + +HELEN + +You saw him do this? + + + +BERNIE + +Well...not really. No. Actually, not. + + + +HELEN + +Oh, then how do you know it was him? + + + +BERNIE + +I hid a camera. Yeah, and this time, I've got him. See? You +see? You don't see it? He moves! Right there! Wait, wait! Right there! Right as +I'm sitting down! I don't know how he does it, but there's no tack before he +moves and after he moves, there's a tack. Coincidence? I think not! + + + +PRINCIPAL + +Bernie... + + + +BERNIE + +Don't ''Bernie'' me. [screaming] This little rat is guilty! + + + +PRINCIPAL + +You and your son can go now, Mrs. Parr. I'm sorry for the +trouble. + + + +BERNIE + +You're letting him go again? He's guilty! You can see it on +his smug little face. Guilty, I say, guilty! + + + +HELEN + +Dash, this is the third time this year you've been sent to +the office. We need to find a better outlet. A more...constructive outlet. + + + +DASH + +Maybe I could, if you'd let me go out for sports. + + + +HELEN + +Honey, you know why we can't do that. + + + +DASH + +I promise I'll slow up. I'll only be the best by a tiny +bit. + + + +HELEN + +Dashiell Robert Parr, you are an incredibly competitive boy. +And a bit of a showoff. The last thing you need is temptation. + + + +DASH + +You always say, ''Do your best.'' But you don't really mean +it. Why can't I do the best that I can do? + + + +HELEN + +Right now, honey, the world just wants us to fit in, and to +fit in, we just gotta be like everybody else. + + + +DASH + +Dad always said our powers were nothing to be ashamed of. +Our powers made us special. + + + +HELEN + +Everyone's special, Dash. + + + +DASH + +Which is another way of saying no one is. + + + +BOY + +Hey, Rydinger. Where you headed? + + + +GIRL + +Hi, Tony. + + + +TONY + +Hey. + + + +BOY + +Hey, Tony, can I carry your books? + + + +TONY + +That's kind of funny. + + + +BOY 1 + +Hey, Tony, do you play football? + + + +BOY 2 + +Tony, I thought we were gonna go swimming. + + + +VIOLET + +He looked at me. + + + +[car horn honking] + + + +DASH + +Come on, Violet! + + + +BOB + +[muttering] Darn kids. Sitting on the driveway... + + + +BOB + +Oh, great. + + + +[unintelligible muttering] + +__________________________________________SCENE +8__________________________________________ + + + +DASH + +Mom. You're making weird faces again. + + + +HELEN + +No, I'm not. + + + +BOB + +You make weird faces, honey. + + + +HELEN + +Do you have to read at the table? + + + +BOB + +Uh-huh. Yeah. + + + +HELEN + +Smaller bites, Dash. Yikes! Bob, could you help the +carnivore cut his meat? + + + +DASH + +Ow. + + + +HELEN + +Dash, you have something you wanna tell your father about +school? + + + +DASH + +[nervously] Well, we dissected a frog. + + + +HELEN + +Dash got sent to the office again. + + + +BOB + +[distracted] Good. Good. + + + +HELEN + +No, Bob, that's bad. + + + +BOB + +What? + + + +HELEN + +Dash got sent to the office again. + + + +BOB + +What?! What for? + + + +DASH + +Nothing. + + + +HELEN + +He put a tack on the teacher's chair...during class. + + + +DASH + +Nobody saw me. You could barely see it on the tape. + + + +BOB + +They caught you on tape and you still got away with it? Whoa! +You must have been booking. How fast did you think were you going? + + + +HELEN + +Bob! We are not encouraging this. + + + +BOB + +I'm not encouraging, I'm just asking how fast... + + + +HELEN + +Honey! + + + +BOB + +Great. First the car, now I gotta pay to fix the table... + + + +HELEN + +The car? What happened to the car? + + + +BOB + +Here. I'm getting a new plate. + + + +HELEN + +So, how about you, Vi? How was school? + + + +VIOLET + +Nothing to report. + + + +HELEN + +You've hardly touched your food. + + + +VIOLET + +I'm not hungry for meatloaf. + + + +HELEN + +Well, it is leftover night. We have steak, pasta. What are +you hungry for? + + + +DASH + +Tony Rydinger. + + + +VIOLET + +Shut up! + + + +DASH + +Well, you are. + + + +VIOLET + +I said, shut up, you little insect! + + + +DASH + +Well, she is. + + + +HELEN + +Do not shout at the table. Honey! + + + +BOB + +Kids! Listen to your mother. + + + +DASH + +She'd eat if we were having Tony loaf. + + + +VIOLET + +That's it! + + + +HELEN + +Stop it! + + + +DASH + +You're gonna be toast! + + + +HELEN + +Stop running in the house. Sit down! + + + +DASH + +Ow! Hey, no force fields! + + + +VIOLET + +You started it. + + + +HELEN + +You sit down! You sit down! Violet! + + + +BOB + +''Simon J. Paladino, longtime advocate of superhero rights, +is missing''? Gazerbeam. + + + +HELEN + +Bob! It's time to engage. Do something! Don't just stand +there! I need you to intervene! + + + +BOB + +You want me to intervene? Okay. I'm intervening. I'm +intervening! + + + +HELEN + +Violet, let go of your brother! + + + +JACK-JACK + +Hello? + + + +BOB + +Get the door. + + + +DASH + +Hey, Lucius! + + + +LUCIUS + +Hey, Speedo. Hey, Helen. Vi, Jack-Jack. + + + +BOB + +He-hey! Ice of you to drop by. + + + +LUCIUS + +Ha! Never heard that one before. + + + +DASH + +[gargling] Lucius! + + + +LUCIUS + +Whoa! + + + +LUCIUS + +Ha, ha. + + + +DASH + +Oh! I like it when it shatters. + + + +BOB + +I'll be back later. + + + +HELEN + +Hey, where are you two going? + + + +BOB + +It's Wednesday. + + + +HELEN + +Oh. Bowling night. Say hello to Honey for me, Lucius. + + + +LUCIUS + +Will do. Good night, Helen. Good night, kids. + + + +HELEN + +Don't think you've avoided talking about your trip to the +principal's office, young man. Your father and I are still gonna discuss it. + + + +DASH + +I'm not the only kid who's been sent to the office, you +know. + + + +HELEN + +Other kids don't have superpowers. Now, it's perfectly +normal... + + + +VIOLET + +Normal? What do you know about normal? What does anyone in +this family know about normal? + + + +HELEN + +Now, wait a minute, young lady. + + + +VIOLET + +We act normal, mom. I wanna be normal! The only normal one +is Jack-Jack, and he's not even toilet trained. + + + +[Jack-Jack laughing] + + + +DASH + +Lucky. I meant about being normal. + + + +__________________________________________SCENE +9__________________________________________ + + + +LUCIUS + +So now I'm in deep trouble. I mean, one more jolt of this +death ray and I'm an epitaph. Somehow I managed to find cover and what does +Baron Von Ruthless do? + + + +BOB + +He starts monologuing. + + + +LUCIUS + +He starts monologuing! He starts like this prepared speech +about how feeble I am compared to him. How inevitable my defeat is, how the +world will soon be his! Yada, yada, yada. + + + +BOB + +Yammering. + + + +LUCIUS + +Yammering! I mean, the guy has me on a platter, and he +won't shut up. + + + +POLICE RADIO + +Municiberg, we have a 23-56... + + + +BOB + +23-56, what is that? Robbery? + + + +LUCIUS + +This is just sad. + + + +BOB + +Yeah, robbery. Want to catch a robber? + + + +LUCIUS + +No. Tell you the truth, I'd rather go bowling. Look, what +if we actually did what our wives think we're doing? Just to shake things up. + + + +WOMAN + +He's not alone. The fat guy's still with him. They're just +talking. + + + +LUCIUS + +What are we doing here, Bob? + + + +BOB + +Protecting people. + + + +LUCIUS + +Nobody asked us. + + + +BOB + +You need an invitation? + + + +LUCIUS + +I'd like one, yes. We keep sneaking out to do this, +and...you remember Gazerbeam? + + + +BOB + +Yeah. There was something about him in the paper. + + + +LUCIUS + +He had trouble adjusting to civilian life, too. + + + +BOB + +When's the last time you saw him? + + + +LUCIUS + +I don't see anyone from the old days, Bob. Just you. And +we're pushing our luck as it is. + + + +BOB + +Oh, come on. + + + +LUCIUS + +It was fun the first time, but if we keep doing this, we're +gonna get-- + + + +POLICE RADIO + +We have a report on a fire... + + + +BOB + +A fire. We're close! [yelling] Yeah, baby! + + + +LUCIUS + +We're gonna get caught. + + + +BOB + +Woohoo! Haha! Fire! Yeah! + + + +LUCIUS + +Is that everybody? + + + +BOB + +Yeah, that's everyone. + + + +LUCIUS + +It better be. + + + +BOB + +Can't you put this out? + + + +LUCIUS + +I can't lay down a layer thick enough! It's evaporating too +fast! + + + +BOB + +Well, what's that mean? + + + +LUCIUS + +It means it's hot! And I'm dehydrated, Bob! + + + +BOB + +You're out of ice? You can't run out of ice! I thought you +can use water in the air! + + + +LUCIUS + +There is no water in this air! What's your excuse, run out +of muscle? + + + +BOB + +I just can't go smashing into walls! The building's getting +weaker by the second! It's gonna come down on top of us! + + + +LUCIUS + +I wanted to go bowling! + + + +BOB + +All right! Stay right on my tail! This is gonna get hot! + + + +BOB + +Yeah. + + + +BOB + +[realizes they're in a jewelry store...] Uh-oh. + + + +BOB + +[...and unknowingly trips the alarm] Oh, good. + + + +[alarm sounds] + + + +LUCIUS + +Oh, now...that ain't right! + + + +LUCIUS/BOB + +- We look like bad guys! Incompetent bad guys! + +- You can get water out of the air! + + + +POLICE OFFICER + +Freeze! + + + +POLICE OFFICER + +Freeze! + + + +LUCIUS + +I'm thirsty. + + + +POLICE OFFICER + +I said freeze! + + + +LUCIUS + +I'm just getting a drink. + + + +POLICE OFFICER + +Alright. You've had your drink. Now I want you to... + + + +LUCIUS + +I know. I know. Freeze. + + + +[police radio chatter] + + + +POLICE RADIO + +Shots fired! + + + +OFFICERS + +Police officers! + + + +LUCIUS + +That was way too close. We are not doing that again. + + + +MAN + +[over radio] Verify you want to switch targets? Over. + + + +WOMAN + +Trust me. This is the one he's been looking for. + + + +__________________________________________SCENE +10__________________________________________ + + + +HELEN + +I thought you'd be back by 11 . + + + +BOB + +I said I'd be back later. + + + +HELEN + +I assumed you'd be back later. lf you came back at +all...you'd be ''back later''. + + + +BOB + +Well, I'm back, okay? + + + +HELEN + +Is this rubble? + + + +BOB + +[with mouth full] It was just a little workout. Just to +stay loose. + + + +HELEN + +You know how I feel about that, Bob. Darn you! We can't +blow cover again! + + + +BOB + +The building was coming down anyway. + + + +HELEN + +What?! You knocked down a building?! + + + +BOB + +It was on fire. Structurally unsound. It was coming down +anyway. + + + +HELEN + +Tell me you haven't been listening to the police scanner +again? + + + +BOB + +Look, I performed a public service. You act like that's a +bad thing. + + + +HELEN + +It is a bad thing, Bob! Uprooting our family again, so you +can relive the glory days is a very bad thing. + + + +BOB + +Reliving the glory days is better than acting like they +didn't happen! + + + +HELEN + +Yes! They happened! But this, our family, is what's +happening now, Bob. And you are missing this! I can't believe you don't want to +go to your own son's graduation. + + + +BOB + +It's not a graduation. He's moving from the fourth grade to +the fifth grade. + + + +HELEN + +It's a ceremony! + + + +BOB + +It's psychotic! They keep creating new ways to celebrate +mediocrity but if someone is genuinely exceptional... + + + +HELEN + +This is not about you, Bob. This is about Dash. + + + +BOB + +You want to do something for Dash? Then let him actually +compete. Let him go out for sports! + + + +HELEN + +I will not be made the enemy here! You know why we can't do +that. + + + +BOB + +Because he'd be great! + + + +HELEN + +This is not about you! + + + +BOB + +All right, Dash. I know you're listening. Come on out. + + + +HELEN + +Vi? You, too, young lady. + + + +BOB + +Come on. Come on out. It's okay, kids. We're just having a +discussion. + + + +VIOLET + +Pretty loud discussion. + + + +BOB + +Yeah. But that's okay. Because what's important is that +Mommy and I are always a team. We're always united against, uh, the forces of, +uh... + + + +HELEN + +Pigheadedness? + + + +BOB + +I was gonna say evil or something. + + + +HELEN + +We're sorry we woke you. Everything's okay. Go back to bed. +It's late. + + + +DASH + +Good night, Mom. Night, Dad. + + + +VIOLET + +Good night. + + + +HELEN + +In fact, we should all be in bed. + + + +[crickets chirping, dog barks] + + + +__________________________________________SCENE +11__________________________________________ + + + +WOMAN [on phone] + +Request claim on claim numbers 158183... + + + +MR. HUPH [over the intercom] + +Haven't you got him yet?! Where is he?! + + + +HUPH'S SECRETARY [over the intercom] + +Mr. Huph would like to talk to you in his office. + + + +BOB + +Now? + + + +HUPH'S SECRETARY [over the intercom] + +Now. + + + +MR. HUPH + +Sit down, Bob. + + + +MR. HUPH + +I'm not happy, Bob. Not happy. Ask me why. + + + +BOB + +Okay. Why? + + + +MR. HUPH + +Why what? Be specific, Bob. + + + +BOB + +Why are you unhappy? + + + +MR. HUPH + +Your customers make me unhappy. + + + +BOB + +What, you've gotten complaints? + + + +MR. HUPH + +Complaints I can handle. What I can't handle is your +customers' inexplicable knowledge of lnsuricare's inner workings! They're +experts. Experts, Bob! Exploiting every loophole, dodging every obstacle! +They're penetrating the bureaucracy! + + + +BOB + +Did I do something illegal? + + + +MR. HUPH + +No. + + + +BOB + +Are you saying we shouldn't help our customers? + + + +MR. HUPH + +The law requires that I answer no. + + + +BOB + +We're supposed to help people. + + + +MR. HUPH + +We're supposed to help our people! Starting with our +stockholders, Bob. Who's helping them out, huh? You know, Bob, a company... + + + +BOB + +Is like an enormous clock. + + + +MR. HUPH + +...is like an enormous clo--yes. Precisely. It only works if +all the little cogs mesh together. Now, a clock needs to be cleaned, +well-lubricated and wound tight. The best clocks have jewel movements, cogs +that fit, that cooperate by design. [chuckling] I'm being metaphorical, Bob. +You know what I mean by cooperative cogs? Bob? Bob? Look at me when I'm talking +to you, Parr! + + + +BOB + +That man out there, he needs help. + + + +MR. HUPH + +Do not change the subject, Bob. We're discussing your +attitude! + + + +BOB + +He is getting mugged! + + + +MR. HUPH + +Well, let's hope we don't cover him. + + + +BOB + +I'll be right back. + + + +MR. HUPH + +Stop right now or you're fired! Close the door. Get over +here, now. + + + +MR. HUPH + +I'm not happy, Bob. Not happy. + + + +BOB + +He got away. + + + +MR. HUPH + +Good thing, too. You were this close to losing your jo-- + + + +BOB + +Uh-oh. + + + +__________________________________________SCENE +12__________________________________________ + + + +BOB + +How is he? + + + +RICK + +He'll live. + + + +BOB + +I'm fired, aren't I? + + + +RICK + +Oh, you think? + + + +BOB + +What can I say, Rick? + + + +RICK + +Nothing you haven't said before. + + + +BOB + +Someone was in trouble. + + + +RICK + +Someone's always in trouble. + + + +BOB + +I had to do something. + + + +RICK + +Yeah. Every time you say those words, it means a month and +a half of trouble for me, Bob. It means hundreds of thousands of taxpayer's +dollars. + + + +BOB + +I know. + + + +RICK + +We gotta pay to keep the company quiet. We gotta pay +damages, erase memories, relocate your family. Every time it gets harder. +Money, money, money, money. We can't keep doing this, Bob! We appreciate what +you did in the old days, but those days are over. From now on, you're on your +own. + + + +RICK + +Listen, Bob. Maybe I could relocate you, you know, for old +times' sake. + + + +BOB + +No, I can't do that to my family. Everyone just got +settled. I'll make it work. Thanks. + + + +RICK + +Take care of yourself. + + + +BOB + +Well, what are you waiting for? + + + +KID + +I don't know. Something amazing, I guess. + + + +BOB + +[sighs] Me too, kid. + + + +__________________________________________SCENE +13__________________________________________ + + + +BOB + +Huh? ''Hold still''? + + + +COMPUTER + +Match: Mr. Incredible. Room is secure. Commence message. + + + +MIRAGE + +Hello, Mr. Incredible. Yes, we know who you are. Rest +assured, your secret is safe with us. My name is Mirage. We have something in common. +According to the government, neither of us exist. Please pay attention, as this +message is classified and will not be repeated. I represent a top secret +division of the government, designing and testing experimental technology, and +we have need of your unique abilities. Something has happened at our testing +facility. + + + +HELEN + +Honey! + + + +BOB + +Huh? What? + + + +HELEN + +Dinner's ready. + + + +BOB + +Okay. + + + +MIRAGE + +...it is contained within an isolated area, it threatens to +cause incalculable damage to itself and to our facilities, jeopardizing +hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment... + + + +HELEN + +Is someone in there? + + + +BOB + +It's the TV, trying to watch. + + + +MIRAGE + +Because of its highly sensitive nature... + + + +HELEN + +Well, stop trying. It's time for dinner. + + + +BOB + +One minute! + + + +MIRAGE + +If you accept, your payment will be triple your current +annual salary. Call the number on the card. Voice-matching will be used to +ensure security. The supers aren't gone, Mr. Incredible. You're still here. You +can still do great things. Or...you can listen to police scanners. Your choice. +You have 24 hours to respond. Think about it. + + + +[beeping] + + + +COMPUTER + +This message will self-destruct. + + + +BOB + +Uh-oh. + + + +__________________________________________SCENE +14__________________________________________ + + + +HELEN + +You are one distracted guy. + + + +BOB + +Hmm? Am I? I don't mean to be. + + + +HELEN + +I know you miss being a hero and your job is frustrating. I +just want you to know how much it means to me that you stay at it anyway. + + + +BOB + +Honey? About the job? + + + +HELEN + +What? + + + +BOB + +Something's happened. + + + +HELEN + +What? + + + +BOB + +The, uh... + + + +HELEN + +What? + + + +BOB + +The company is sending me to, uh, a conference. + + + +HELEN + +A conference? + + + +BOB + +[stammering] Out of town. And I'm just gonna be gone for a +few days. + + + +HELEN + +They've never sent you to a conference before. This is +good, isn't it? + + + +BOB + +[hesitating] Yes. + + + +HELEN + +You see? They're finally recognizing your talents. You're +moving up. + + + +BOB + +Yes. + + + +HELEN + +Honey! This is wonderful! + + + +BOB + +Yes, it is. + + + +[phone ringing] + + + +MIRAGE [over phone] + +Hello? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +This is Mr. lncredible. I'm in. + + + +__________________________________________SCENE +15__________________________________________ + + + +MIRAGE + +The Omnidroid 9000 is a top secret prototype battle robot. +lts artificial intelligence enables it to solve any problem it's confronted +with. And, unfortunately... + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Let me guess. It got smart enough to wonder why it had to +take orders. + + + +MIRAGE + +We lost control. And now it's loose in the jungle, +threatening our facility. We've had to evacuate all personnel from the island +for their own safety. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +How am I going in? + + + +MIRAGE + +The Omnidroid's defenses necessitate an air drop from 5000 +feet. lts cloaking devices make it difficult to track. Although we're pretty +sure it's on the southern half of the island. One more thing. Obviously it +represents a significant investment. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +You want me to shut it down without completely destroying +it. + + + +MIRAGE +You are Mr. lncredible. + + + +MIRAGE + +I've got to warn you, it's a learning robot. Every moment +you spend fighting it only increases its knowledge of how to beat you. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Shut it down. Do it quickly. Don't destroy it. + + + +MIRAGE + +And don't die. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Great. Thanks. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Showtime. + + + +style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Huh? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Hmm. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Uh-oh. + + + +[laughing, loud crack] + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Oh, my back! + + + +[loud crack] + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Oh! + + + +MAN + +Surprising. We must bring him back. Sound the all clear, +and invite him to dinner. + + + +__________________________________________SCENE +16__________________________________________ + + + +MAN +Most important, keep things light. Praise him. Make him feel like we appreciate +his abilities. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Am I overdressed? + + + +MIRAGE + +Actually, you look rather dashing. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I take it our host is... + + + +MIRAGE + +Oh, I'm sorry. He won't be dining with us. He hopes you'll +understand. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Of course. I do usually make it a point to know who I'm +working for. + + + +MIRAGE + +He prefers a certain amount of anonymity. Surely, you of +all people understand that. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I was just wondering, of all the places to settle down, why +live... + + + +MIRAGE + +With a volcano? He's attracted to power. So am I. It's a +weakness we share. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Seems a bit unstable. + + + +MIRAGE + +I prefer to think of it as misunderstood. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +[chuckling] Aren't we all? + + + +MIRAGE + +Volcanic soil is among the most fertile on Earth. +Everything at the table was grown right here. How does it compare? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Everything's delicious. + +__________________________________________SCENE +17__________________________________________ + + + +BOB + +Jeez. + + + +HELEN + +Hurry, honey. Or you'll be late for work. + + + +HELEN + +Have a great day, honey. + + + +BOB + +Thanks. + + + +HELEN + +Help customers, climb ladders... + + + +BOB + +Bring bacon? + + + +HELEN + +All that jazz. + + + +GUARD + +You have an appointment? + + + +BOB + +I'm an old friend. I just wanted to... + + + +GUARD + +All visitors are required to make a reser-- + + + +E + +[shoos the guard away] Get back to work! Go check the +electric fence or something! What is it? Who are you? What do you want? + + + +E + +My God, you've gotten fat. Come in. Come, come. + + + +E + +Yes, things are going quite well. Quite well. My God, no +complaints. But, you know, it is not the same. Not the same at all. + + + +BOB + +Weren't you just in the news? Some show in Prayge... +Prague? + + + +E + +Milan, darling. Milan. Supermodels. Ha! Nothing super about +them. Spoiled, stupid, little stick figures with poofy lips who think only +about themselves. Feh! I used to design for gods. But perhaps you come with a +challenge, eh? I was surprised to get your call. + + + +BOB + +E, I just need a patch job. + + + +E + +Hmm. This is megamesh. Outmoded, but very sturdy. And +you've torn right through it! What have you been doing, Robert? Moonlighting +hero work? + + + +BOB + +Must have happened a long time ago. + + + +E + +I see. This is a hobo suit, darling. You can't be seen in +this. I won't allow it! Fifteen years ago, maybe, but now? + + + +BOB + +What do you mean? You designed it. + + + +E + +I never look back, darling. It distracts from the now. You +need a new suit. That much is certain. + + + +BOB + +A new suit? Where the heck am I gonna get a new suit? + + + +E + +You can't! It's impossible! I'm far too busy. So ask me +now, before I again become sane. + + + +BOB + +Wait. You want to make me a suit? + + + +E + +You push too hard, darling! But I accept. It will be bold. +Dramatic! + + + +BOB + +Yeah. + + + +E + +Heroic! + + + +BOB + +Yeah, something classic, like Dynaguy! Oh! He had a great +look! Oh, the cape and the boots... + + + +E + +No capes! + + + +BOB + +Isn't that my decision? + + + +E + +Do you remember Thunderhead? Tall, storm powers. Nice man. +Good with kids. + + + +BOB + +Listen, E... + + + +E + +November 15th of '58. All was well, another day saved when +his cape snagged on a missile fin. + + + +BOB + +Thunderhead was not the brightest bulb... + + + +E + +Stratogale! April 23rd, '57. Cape caught in a jet turbine. + + + +BOB + +E, you can't generalize about these things. + + + +E + +Meta-man, express elevator. Dynaguy, snag on takeoff. +Splashdown, sucked into a vortex. No capes! Now, go on. Your new suit will be +finished before your next assignment. + + + +BOB + +You know I'm retired from hero work. + + + +E + +As am l, Robert. Yet, here we are. + + + +BOB + +E, I only need a patch job. For sentimental reasons. + + + +E + +[sighs] Fine. I will also fix the hobo suit. + + + +BOB + +You're the best of the best, E. + + + +E + +Yes, I know, darling. I know. + +__________________________________________SCENE +18__________________________________________ + + + +[phone rings] + + + +BOB + +I got it, I got it! Don't answer it, honey, I got it! + + + +BOB + +Hello? + + + +MIRAGE + +We have a new assignment for you. How soon can you get +here? + + + +BOB + +I'll leave tomorrow morning. + + + +MIRAGE + +See you there. + + + +BOB + +Goodbye. + + + +HELEN + +Who was that, honey? The, uh, office? + + + +BOB + +Another conference. Short notice, but you know...duty +calls. [nervous laugh] + + + +HELEN + +Bob? + + + +BOB + +Yeah, what's up, honey? + + + +HELEN + +Ha... have a great trip. + + + +BOB + +Thanks, sweetie. I'll call you when I get there. + + + +HELEN + +I love you. So much. + + + +BOB + +I love you too. + + + +COMPUTER + +This is your automated Captain. Would you care for more +mimosa? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Don't mind if I do. Thanks. + + + +COMPUTER + +You're welcome. + + + +COMPUTER + +Currently 78 degrees in Nomanisan. Perfect weather for +flying. + + + +COMPUTER + +Please fasten your seat belt. We're beginning our descent. + + + +MIRAGE + +Hello, Mr. lncredible. Nice suit. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Thanks. Nice to be back, Mirage. + + + +MIRAGE + +You'll be briefed on your assignment in the conference room +at two. D Wing, room A-113. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +2:00. Got it. + + + +MIRAGE + +See you there. + + + +HELEN + +[gasps] Edna. + +__________________________________________SCENE +19__________________________________________ + + + +HELEN + +I'd like to speak to Edna, please. + + + +E + +This is Edna. + + + +HELEN + +E? This is Helen. + + + +E + +Helen who? + + + +HELEN + +Helen Parr? You know...Elastigirl? + + + +E + +Darling! It's been such a long time after all these years! +So long! + + + +HELEN + +Yes, yes, yes. It's been a while. Listen, there's only one +person Bob would trust to patch his supersuit and that's you, E. + + + +E + +Yes, yes, yes. Marvelous, isn't it? Much better than those +horrible pajamas he used to wear. They are finished. When are you coming to +see? + + + +HELEN + +Look, I'm calling about... + + + +E + +Don't make me beg, darling. I won't do it, you know. + + + +HELEN + +Beg? Uh, no. I'm calling about suit. Ab-about Bob's suit! +I'm calling about Bob's suit! + + + +E + +You come in one hour, darling. I insist, okay? Okay. +Goodbye. + +__________________________________________SCENE +20__________________________________________ + + + +SYNDROME + +It's bigger! It's badder! Ladies and gentlemen, it's too +much for Mr. lncredible! Whoa! Whoa! It's finally ready. You know, I went +through quite a few supers to get it worthy to fight you, but man, it wasn't +good enough! After you trashed the last one, I had to make some major +modifications. Sure it was difficult, but you are worth it. I mean, after +all...I am your biggest fan. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Buddy? + + + +SYNDROME + +My name is not Buddy! And it's not lncrediBoy either! That +ship has sailed. All I wanted was to help you. I only wanted to help! And what +did you say to me? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Fly home, Buddy. I work alone. + + + +SYNDROME + +It tore me apart. But I learned an important lesson. You +can't count on anyone. Especially your heroes. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I was wrong to treat you that way. I'm sorry. + + + +SYNDROME + +See? Now you respect me, because I'm a threat. That's the +way it works. Turns out there's a lot of people, whole countries who want +respect. And they will pay through the nose to get it. How do you think I got +rich? I invented weapons. And now I have a weapon only I can defeat. And when I +unleash it, I'll get-- + + + +SYNDROME + +[laughing] You sly dog! You got me monologuing. I can't +believe it. It's cool, huh? Zero-point energy. I save the best inventions for +myself. Am I good enough now? Who's super now? I'm Syndrome! Your nemesis +and... + + + +SYNDROME + +Oh, brilliant! + + + +SYNDROME + +All right, try this one on for size, big boy. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Gazerbeam. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +''Kronos?'' + + + +PROBE + +Life reading negative. Mr. Incredible terminated. + +__________________________________________SCENE +21__________________________________________ + + + +E + +This project has completely confiscated my life, darling. +Consumed me as only hero work can. My best work, I must admit. Simple, elegant, +yet bold. You will die. + + + +HELEN + +E, I just... + + + +E + +I did Robert's suit, and it turned out so beautiful, I had to +continue. + + + +HELEN + +E, It's great to see you, but I gotta tell you I have no +idea what you're talking about. I just... + + + +E + +Yes, words are useless. Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, +gobble! Too much of it, darling. Too much! That is why I show you my work. That +is why you are here. + + + +E + +Edna Mode. And guest. + + + +E + +Come. Sit. + + + +E + +Cream and sugar? + + + +HELEN + +Thanks. + + + +E + +I started with the baby. + + + +HELEN + +Started? + + + +E + +Shh! Darling! Shh! I cut it a little roomy for the free +movement. The fabric is comfortable for sensitive skin, and can also withstand +a temperature of over 1000 degrees. Completely bulletproof. And machine +washable, darling. That's a new feature. + + + +HELEN + +What on earth do you think the baby will be doing?! + + + +E + +Well, I'm sure I don't know, darling. Luck favors the +prepared. I didn't know the baby's powers, so I covered the basics. + + + +HELEN + +Jack-Jack doesn't have any powers. + + +E + +No? Well, he'll look fabulous anyway. + + + +E + +Your boy's suit I designed to withstand enormous friction +without heating up or wearing out. A useful feature. + + + +E + +Your daughter's suit was tricky. But I finally created a +sturdy material that will disappear completely as she does. + + + +E + +Your suit can stretch as far as you can, without injuring +yourself, and still retain its shape. Virtually indestructible...yet it +breathes like Egyptian cotton. As an extra feature, each suit contains a homing +device, giving you the precise global location of the wearer at the touch of a +button. Well, darling? What do you think? + + + +HELEN + +What do I think? Bob is retired! I'm retired! Our family is +underground. You helped my husband resume secret hero work behind my back?! + + + +E + +Well, I assumed you knew, darling. Why would he keep +secrets from you? + + + +HELEN + +He wouldn't. Didn't. Doesn't. + + + +E + +Men at Robert's age are often unstable. Prone to weakness. + + + +HELEN + +What are you saying? + + + +E + +Do you know where he is? + + + +HELEN + +Of course. + + + +E + +Do you know where he is? + +__________________________________________SCENE +22__________________________________________ + + + +[voices, static on radio] + + + +[electric fizzling] + + + +[grunt] + + + +[voice on radio] + + + +GUARD 1 + +Hey, hey. We got a man down! + + + +GUARD 2 + +Come on, let's go. + + + +GUARD 2 + +Are you okay? What happened? + + + +[over radio] Break surveillance and engage. Continuing +sweep... + + + +WOMAN [over phone] + +Insuricare. + + + +HELEN + +Oh, hello. This is Helen Parr. Bob Parr is my husband. I +was wondering if you could give me the number of the hotel he's staying at? The +number I have is no good. + + + +WOMAN + +Mr. Parr no longer works at Insuricare. + + + +HELEN + +What do you mean? He's on a business trip. A company +retreat. + + + +WOMAN + +My records say his employment was terminated almost two +months ago. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +[gasps] + + + +E + +So, you don't know where he is. Would you like to find out? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +[relieved sigh] + + + +[beeping] + +__________________________________________SCENE +23__________________________________________ + + + +HELEN + +[sobbing] I am such an idiot. I let this happen, you know. +The new sports car, the getting in shape, the blond hair, the lies. + + + +E + +Yes, he attempts to relive the past. + + + +HELEN + +Now I'm losing him! What'll I do? What'll I do? + + + +E + +What are you talking about? + + + +HELEN + +Hmm? + + + +E + +You are Elastigirl! My God! Pull yourself together! What +will you do? Is this a question? Show him you remember that he is Mr. +lncredible, and you will remind him who you are! Well, you know where he is. +Go! Confront the problem! Fight! Win! And call me when you get back, darling. I +enjoy our visits. + + + +HELEN + +There's lots of leftovers that you can reheat. Make sure +Dash does his homework. And both of you, get to bed on time. I should be back +tonight. Late. You can be in charge that long, can't you? + + + +VIOLET + +Yeah. But why am I in charge again? + + + +HELEN + +Nothing. Just a little trouble with Daddy. + + + +VIOLET + +You mean Dad's in trouble, or Dad is the trouble? + + + +HELEN + +I mean either he's in trouble, or he's going to be. + + + +DASH + +Hey! What's that? Where'd you get that, Mom? You made a +cool outfit? Hey, are those for us? We all get cool outfits? + + + +DASH + +Ha-ha! + + + +HELEN + +Dash! You come back here this moment! + + + +[phone rings] + + + +HELEN + +Hey, Snug. Thanks for getting back. I know this is short +notice, but I was hoping that I could get you to... + + + +VIOLET + +What are these? + + + +DASH + +Look, I'm The Dash! The Dash likes. + + + +HELEN + +Just a second. Take that off before somebody sees it. + + + +VIOLET + +But you're packing one just like it. Are you hiding +something? + + + +HELEN + +Oh, please, honey. I'm on the phone...Dash! + + + +DASH + +Yikes! This is yours. It's specially made. + + + +VIOLET + +What's going on? + + + +HELEN + +You're not coming! And I've gotta pack! + + + +VIOLET + +What makes you think it's special? + + + +DASH + +I don't know. Why'd Mom try to hide it? + + + +HELEN + +Snug, I'm calling in a solid you owe me. + + + +SNUG [over phone] + +What do you need? + + + +HELEN + +A jet. What do you got that's fast? + + + +SNUG + +Let me think... + +__________________________________________SCENE +24__________________________________________ + + + +HELEN + +Island approach. India Golf niner-niner checking in. VFR on +top. Over. + + + +[radio static] + + + +HELEN + +Island tower, this is India Golf niner-niner requesting +vectors to the initial. Over. + + + +[radio static] + + + +HELEN + +Easy, Helen. Easy. Easy, girl. You're overreacting. +Everything's fine. They're just all getting coffee. At the same time. Yeah. + + + +SYNDROME + +You sir, truly are ''Mr. lncredible''! You know, I was +right to idolize you. I always knew you were tough, but tricking the probe by +hiding under the bones of another super? Oh, man! I'm still geeking out about +it! [sighs] And then you had to just go and ruin the ride. I mean, Mr. +lncredible calling for help? [mocking] ''Help me, help me.'' Lame, lame, lame, +lame, lame! All right, who did you contact?! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Contact? What are you talking about? + + + +SYNDROME + +I am referring to last night at 2307 hours while you were +snooping around. You sent out a homing signal. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I didn't know about the homing device. + + + +SYNDROME + +And now a government plane is requesting permission to land +here! Who did you contact?! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I didn't send for a plane. + + + +SYNDROME + +Play the transmission. + + + +HELEN + +India golf niner-niner checking in. VFR on top. Over. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Helen! + + + +SYNDROME + +So you do know these people. Well, then, I'll send them a +little greeting. + + + +VIOLET + +Ow! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Violet! + + + +VIOLET + +It's not my fault! Dash ran away, and I knew I'd get blamed +for it-- + + + +DASH + +That's not true! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Dash?! + + + +VIOLET/DASH + +- ...and I thought he'd try to sneak on the plane so I came +here and you closed the doors before I could find him and then you took off and +[to Dash] it's not my fault! + +- You said, ''Something's up with Mom. We have to find out +what!" It was your idea! Your idea! Hundred percent all-yours, +all-the-time idea! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Wait a minute, wait a minute. You left Jack-Jack alone?! + + + +VIOLET/DASH + +- Yes, mom, I'm completely stupid...of course we got a +sitter! Do you think I'm totally irresponsible? Thanks a lot! + +- No, we got someone, Mom. Someone great. We wouldn't do +that. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +All right! Well, who'd you get? + + + +KARI + +You don't have to worry about one single thing, Mrs. Parr. +I've got this baby-sitting thing wired. I've taken courses and learned CPR and +I got excellent marks and certificates... + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Kari. + + + +KARI + +I also brought Mozart to play while he sleeps to make him +smarter because leading experts say Mozart makes babies smarter. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Kari... + + + +KARI + +And the beauty part is that the babies don't even have to +listen 'cause they're asleep! You know, I wish my parents played Mozart when I +slept because half the time I don't even know what the heck anyone's talking +about. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Kari, I really don't feel comfortable with this. I'll pay +you for your trouble, but I'd really rather call a service. + + + +KARI + +Oh, there's really no need, Mrs. Parr. I can totally handle +anything this baby can dish out. [cooing] Can't I, little baby? I can handle +it. Who can handle it? + + + +[beeping] + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +India Golf niner-niner transmitting in the blind guard. +Disengage! Repeat, disengage! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Disengage! Repeat, disengage! Friendlies... + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +No! Call off the missiles. I'll do anything! + + + +SYNDROME + +Too late! Fifteen years too late. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Friendlies at two-zero miles south-southwest of your position. +Angels 10. Track east. Disengage! [to Violet] Vi! You have to put a force field +around the plane. + + + +VIOLET + +But you said we weren't supposed to use our powers. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +I know what I said! Listen to what I'm saying now! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Disengage. Repeat, disengage! + + + +DASH + +Mom? + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Violet! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Mayday, mayday! India Golf niner-niner is buddy-spiked! +Abort! Abort! There are children aboard, say again, there are children aboard! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +No! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +[to Violet] Put a field around us now! + + + +VIOLET + +I've never done one that big! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Violet, do it now! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Abort, abort, abort! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Abort, abort, abort! + + + +[all screaming] + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Brace yourselves! + + + +VIOLET/DASH + +Mom! Mom! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Everybody calm down. Now, I'll tell you what we're not +gonna do. We're not gonna panic, we're not gonna--look out! + + + +DASH/VIOLET + +- Oh, my God! Who's idea was this anyway?! + +- What are we gonna do?! What are we gonna do?! + + + +DASH + +We're dead! We're dead! + + + +VIOLET + +It blew up! + + + +DASH + +We survived but we're dead! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Stop it! We are not gonna die! Now both of you will get a +grip. Or so help me I will ground you for a month! Understand? + + + +MIRAGE + +We have a confirmed hit. Target was destroyed. + + + +SYNDROME + +Ah, you'll get over it. I seem to recall you prefer to +''work alone''. [evil laughter] + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Release me...now! + + + +SYNDROME + +Or what? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I'll crush her. + + + +SYNDROME + +That sounds a little dark for you. Well, go ahead. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +It'll be easy. Like breaking a toothpick. + + + +SYNDROME + +[laughing] Show me. + + + +SYNDROME + +I knew you couldn't do it. Even when you have nothing to +lose. You're weak. And I've outgrown you. + + + +[Bob sobbing] + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Those were short-range missiles. Land-based. That way is +our best bet. + + + +DASH + +You want to go toward the people that tried to kill us? + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +lf it means land, yes. + + + +VIOLET + +Do you expect us to swim there? + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +I expect you to trust me. + +__________________________________________SCENE +25__________________________________________ + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +What a trooper. I'm so proud of you. + + + +DASH + +Thanks, mom. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +I think your father is in trouble. + + + +VIOLET + +lf you haven't noticed, mom, we're not doing so hot either. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +I'm going to look for him. And that means you're in charge +until I get back, Violet. + + + +DASH + +What?! + + + +VIOLET +You heard her. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Put these on. Your identity is your most valuable +possession. Protect it. And if anything goes wrong, use your powers. + + + +VIOLET + +But you said never to use... + + + +VIOLET + +I know what I said! [sighs] Remember the bad guys on those +shows you used to watch on Saturday mornings? Well, these guys are not like +those guys. They won't exercise restraint because you're children. They will +kill you if they get the chance. Do not give them that chance. + + + +VIOLET + +Mom? + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Vi, I'm counting on you. + + + +VIOLET + +There's something I... + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +I'm counting on you. Be strong. Dash, if anything goes wrong, +I want you to run as fast as you can. + + + +DASH + +As fast as I can? + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +As fast as you can. Stay hidden. Keep each other safe. I'll +be back by morning. + + + +VIOLET + +Mom! Mom, what happened on the plane. I'm sorry. [stammering] +I wanted to help. I mean, when you asked me to... I'm sorry. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Shh. It isn't your fault. It wasn't fair for me to suddenly +ask so much of you. But things are different now. And doubt is a luxury we +can't afford anymore, sweetie. You have more power than you realize. Don't +think. And don't worry. lf the time comes, you'll know what to do. It's in your +blood. + + + +MIRAGE + +He's not weak, you know. + + + +SYNDROME + +What? + + + +MIRAGE + +Valuing life is not weakness. + + + +SYNDROME + +Oh, hey. Look, look...if you're talking about what happened +in the containment unit, I had everything under control. + + + +MIRAGE + +And disregarding it is not strength. + + + +SYNDROME + +I called his bluff, sweetheart, that's all. I knew he +wouldn't have it in him to actually... + + + +MIRAGE + +Next time you gamble, bet your own life! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Okay, okay, okay. + + + +[voices on radio] + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +A rocket? + + + +[sighs, gasps] + + + +GUARD + +Hey! + + + +[struggling] + + + +DASH + +Well, not that this isn't fun, but I'm gonna go look +around. + + + +VIOLET + +What do you think is going on here? You think we're on +vacation or something? Mom and Dad's lives could be in jeopardy. Or worse, +[whispering] their marriage. + + + +DASH + +Their marriage? So, the bad guys are trying to wreck Mom +and Dad's marriage. + + + +VIOLET + +Oh, forget it. You're so immature. + + + +DASH + +Okay, I'm gonna go look around. + + + +VIOLET + +Mom said to stay hidden. + + + +DASH + +I'm not gonna leave the cave. Sheesh! + + + +[voices over radio] + + + +DASH + +[echoing] Cool! + + + +DASH + +[echoing] Cool! + + + +[over radio] Roger. We are ready for launch. + + + +DASH + +Vi, Vi! + + + +VIOLET + +What did you do? + + + +[over radio] ETA two-niner. Over. TCI clear. Condition +yellow. Status norm. + +[over radio] Not responding to IFF. IRCM reads negative. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +[gasps] Bob. + + + +GUARD 1 + +Huh? What? + + + +GUARD 2 + +Uh, I didn't say anything. + +__________________________________________SCENE +26__________________________________________ + + + +ROBOT + +Identification, please. + + + +DASH + +Hey! Hey, Violet! Come here, look. + + + +VIOLET + +What? + + + +DASH + +It talks! + + + +VIOLET + +What? + + + +DASH + +There. That one. + + + +ROBOT + +Voice key incorrect. + + + +VIOLET + +''Voice key''? + + + +ROBOT + +Voice key incorrect. + + + +VIOLET + +Wait a second... + + + +[alarm sounds] + + + +DASH + +What do we do? + + + +VIOLET + +Run! + + + +DASH + +Where are we going? + + + +VIOLET + +Away from here! + + + +[PA] Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Intruder alert. + + + +MIRAGE + +There isn't much time. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +[grabs Mirage by the neck] No, there isn't. In fact, +there's no time at all. + + + +MIRAGE + +[choking] Please... + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Why are you here? How can you possibly bring me lower? What +more can you take away from me? + + + +MIRAGE + +[choking] Family survived the crash. They're here on the +island! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +They're alive? + + + +MIRAGE + +[gasping, coughing] + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Helen? + + + +MIRAGE + +Hello. You must be Mrs. Incre-- + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +She was helping me to escape. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +No. That's what I was doing. Let go of me! Let go, you +lousy, lying, unfaithful creep! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +How could I betray the perfect woman? + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Oh, you're referring to me now? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Where are the kids? + + + +MIRAGE + +They might've triggered the alert. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +What?! + + + +MIRAGE + +Security's been sent into the jungle. You better get going. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Now our kids are in danger?! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +lf you suspected danger, why'd you bring them? + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +I didn't bring 'em, they stowed away. And I don't think +you're not striking the proper tone here! + + + +GUARD + +Think they're supers? + + + +VIOLET + +Dash, remember what Mom said. + + + +DASH + +What? + + + +GUARD 2 + +Hey! Stop talking! + + + +GUARD 3 + +Hold it! Freeze! + + + +VIOLET + +Dash, run! + + + +DASH + +What? + + + +VIOLET + +Run! + + + +DASH + +Oh yeah! + + + +GUARD + +What the--?! They're supers! + + + +GUARD 2 + +Get the boy! Show yourself! + + + +[spitting] + + + +[Dash screams] + + + +GUARD + +Hey! + + + +DASH + +Ha, ha! + + + +DASH + +I'm alive. Yeah! + + + +[Dash shouting] + + + +DASH + +Uh-oh. + + + +[water sloshing] + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I should've told you I was fired, I admit it. But I didn't +want you to worry. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +You didn't want me to worry? And now we're running for our +lives through some godforsaken jungle! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +You keep trying to pick a fight, but I'm still just happy +you're alive. + + + +GUARD + +I know you're there, Little Miss Disappear. + + + +GUARD + +You can't hide from me. + + + +GUARD + +There you are. + + + +DASH + +Hey! + + + +DASH + +Don't touch my sister! + + + +DASH + +How are you doing that? + + + +VIOLET + +I don't know! + + + +DASH + +Whatever you do, don't stop! + + + +VIOLET + +Mom! Dad! Hey! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Kids! + + + +MR. INCREDIBLE/ELASTIGIRL + +- You're all right. + +- Oh, you're all right! + + + +VIOLET + +We were so worried about you. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I thought I'd never see you again. + + + +MR. INCREDIBLE/ELASTIGIRL + +I love you. + + + +DASH + +Wow. + + + +VIOLET + +Whoa. + + + +SYNDROME + +Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hey, time out! What have we here? +Matching uniforms? Oh, no! Elastigirl? [laughs] You married Elastigirl? Whoa! +And got busy! It's a whole family of supers! Looks like I've hit the jackpot! +Oh, this is just too good! + + + +__________________________________________SCENE +27__________________________________________ + + + +- [on TV] The ship's unique design suggests... + +- [on TV] There were no fatalities... + + + +SYNDROME + +Huh? Huh? Oh, come on! You gotta admit, this is cool. Just +like a movie! The robot will emerge dramatically, do some damage. Throngs of +screaming people! And just when all hope is lost, Syndrome will save the day! +I'll be a bigger hero than you ever were! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +You mean you killed off real heroes so that you could +pretend to be one? + + + +SYNDROME + +Oh, I'm real. Real enough to defeat you! And I did it +without your precious gifts, your oh-so-special powers. I'll give them heroics. +I'll give them the most spectacular heroics anyone's ever seen! And when I'm +old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so that everyone can be +superheroes. Everyone can be super. And when everyone's super...no one will be. +[evil laughter] + + + +[soldiers shouting] + + + +SOLDIER + +Fire at will! + + + +- [on TV] It's completely overwhelming the tanks. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I'm sorry. This is my fault. I've been a lousy father. +Blind to what I have. So obsessed with being undervalued that I undervalued all +of you. + + + +DASH + +Um..dad? + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Shh. Don't interrupt. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +So caught up in the past that I...You are my greatest +adventure. And I almost missed it. I swear, I'm gonna get us out of this safely +if I... + + + +VIOLET + +Well, I think Dad has made some excellent progress today +but I think it's time we wind down now. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +We need to get back to the mainland. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +I saw an aircraft hangar on my way in. Straight ahead, I +think. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Where are all the guards? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Go, go! + + + +GUARD + +Hey, look. Hey! Every time they run, you take a shot. + + + +GUARD 2 + +Yeah, okay. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +This is the right hangar, but I don't see any jets. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +A jet's not fast enough. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +What's faster than a jet? + + + +DASH + +Hey, how about a rocket? + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Great! I can't fly a rocket. + + + +VIOLET + +You don't have to. Use the coordinates from the last +launch. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Wait. I bet Syndrome's changed the password by now. How do +I get into the computer? + + + +MIRAGE + +Say please. + +__________________________________________SCENE +28__________________________________________ + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +Honey? + + + +HONEY + +What? + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +Where's my supersuit? + + + +HONEY + +What? + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +Where is my supersuit? + + + +HONEY + +I, uh...put it away. + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +Where? + + + +HONEY + +Why do you need to know? + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +I need it! + + + +HONEY + +Uh-uh! Don't you think about running off doing no +derrin'-do! We've been planning this dinner for two months! + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +The public is in danger! + + + +HONEY + +My evening's in danger! + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +You tell me where my suit is, woman! We are talking about +the greater good! + + + +HONEY + +''Greater good''? I am your wife! I'm the greatest good you +are ever gonna get! + + + +MAN + +Run! + + + +WOMAN + +My baby! + + + +MAN + +The supers have returned! + + + +WOMAN + +Is that Fironic? + + + +MAN + +Fironic? + + + +WOMAN + +No, Fironic has a different outfit. + + + +SYNDROME + +No, no, I'm a new superhero! I'm Syndrome! + + + +SYNDROME + +All right, stand back. + + + +SYNDROME + +Someone needs to teach this hunk of metal a few manners. + + + +SYNDROME + +Ha, ha! + + + +DASH + +Are we there yet? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +We get there when we get there. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +How you doing, honey? + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Do I have to answer?! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Kids, strap yourselves down like I told you! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Here we go, honey! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Ready, Violet? Ready? Now! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +This is gonna be rough! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +The robot's in the financial district. Which exit do I +take? + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Traction Avenue. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +That'll take me downtown. I take Seventh, don't I? + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Don't take Seventh! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Great, we missed it! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +You asked me how to get there and I told you. Exit at +Traction! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +That'll take me downtown! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +He's coming up! Get in the right lane! Signal! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Not Traction! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +You're gonna miss it! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Is everybody okay back there? + + + +VIOLET + +Super-duper, Dad! + + + +DASH + +[laughing] Let's do that again. + + + +[people screaming] + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Wait here and stay hidden. I'm going in. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +While what? I watch helplessly from the sidelines? I don't +think so. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I'm asking you to wait with the kids. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +And I'm telling you not a chance. You're my husband. I'm +with you for better or worse. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I have to do this alone. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +What is this to you? Playtime? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +No. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +So you can be Mr. lncredible again? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +No! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Then what? What is it? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I'm not... + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Not what? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I'm not strong enough. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Strong enough. And this will make you stronger? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Yes. No! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +That's what this is? Some sort of workout? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I can't lose you again! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I can't. Not again. I'm not... strong enough. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +lf we work together, you won't have to be. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I don't know what'll happen. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Hey. We're superheroes. What can happen? + + + +[screaming] + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Vi! Dash! No! + + + +DASH + +Violet? + + + +DASH + +Dad! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Go, go! + + + +VIOLET + +I'm okay, mom. Really. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Stay here, okay? + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Frozone! Yeah! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Bob! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Hey! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Syndrome's remote! + + + +VIOLET + +The remote controls the robot! + + + +DASH + +Hey, dad! Throw it, throw it! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Go long! + + + +DASH + +Got it! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Honey, take out its guns! + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +Dash! Gotcha! + + + +VIOLET + +Mom, I've got it! I've got the remote! + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +A remote? A remote that controls what? The robot? + + + +DASH + +It's coming back! + + + +DASH + +That wasn't right. + + + +VIOLET + +Give me that! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +We can't stop it. The only thing hard enough to penetrate +it is...itself. + + + +DASH + +It's getting closer! + + + +VIOLET + +It doesn't work! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Kids! + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +It's not doing anything! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Lucius, try to buy us some time! + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +Try the one next to it! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Honey! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Wait a minute. Press that button again! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +No, the other one! The first one! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +First button! Got it! + + + +DASH + +It's getting closer! + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +Look out! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Get out of here, kids! Find a safe spot! + + + +VIOLET + +We're not going anywhere! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Press the button! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Not yet! + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +Hang on! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +What are you waiting for?! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +A closer target! You got one shot! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Everybody duck! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Hey, Zone. + + + +SYNDROME + +Huh? No! + + + +OLD MAN + +Hey, did you see that? Eh? That's the way to do it. That's +old school. + + + +OLD MAN 2 + +Yeah. No school like the old school. + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +Just like old times. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Just like old times [gives Frozone a heavy pat on the back] + + + +LUCIUS (FROZONE) + +Oh! Yeah. Hurt then too. + +__________________________________________SCENE +29__________________________________________ + + + +RICK + +We've frozen all of Syndrome's assets. lf he even sneezes, +we'll be there with a hanky and a pair of handcuffs. The people of this country +are indebted to you. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Does this mean we can come out of hiding? + + + +RICK + +Let the politicians figure that one out. But I've been +asked to assure you we'll take care of everything else. You did good, Bob. + + + +[phone beeps] + + + +Hi, this is Kari. I have a question about Jack-Jack..style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Come on. We're in a limo. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Hey, you're wearing your hair back? + + + +VIOLET + +[stammering] Yeah, I just... yeah. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +It looks good. + + + +VIOLET + +Thanks, Dad. + + + +DASH + +That was so cool when you threw that car! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +Not as cool as you running on water! + + + +DASH + +Hey, mom! That was sweet when you snagged that bad guy with +your arm and kinda whiplashed him into the other guy. It was so sweet! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Honey, uh, yeah, I'm trying to listen to messages, honey. + + + +[Kari] + +- Mrs. Parr, it's me. Jack-Jack is fine, but weird things +are happening. + +- Jack-Jack's still fine, but I'm getting really weirded +out! When are you coming back? + + + +DASH + +...aced those guys that tried to kill us! That was the best +vacation ever! I love our family. + + + +[Kari] + +- I'm not fine, Mrs. Parr! Put that down! Stop it! You need +to call me. I need help, Mrs. Parr! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Bob, listen to this. + + + +[Kari] + +- I'm gonna call the police... + +- Hi, this is Kari. Sorry for freaking out, but your baby +has special needs. + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +"Special needs"? + + + +RICK + +Here we are. + + + +[Kari] + +- Anyway, thanks for sending a replacement sitter. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Replacement? I didn't call a replacement. + + + +SYNDROME + +Shh. The baby is sleeping. You took away my future. I'm +simply returning the favor. Oh, don't worry, I'll be a good mentor. Supportive, +encouraging. Everything you weren't. And in time, who knows, he might make a +good sidekick. Ha ha! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +He's getting away, Bob! We have to do something! We have to +do something now! + + + +[Jack-Jack cries] + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Something's happening. What's happening?! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +We have to stop him! Throw something! + + + +BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE) + +I can't! I might hit Jack-Jack! + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Throw me. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Bob, throw me! + + + +[Jack-Jack cooing] + + + +SYNDROME + +No! + + + +SYNDROME + +This isn't the end of it! I will get your son, eventually. +I'll get your son! + + + +SYNDROME + +Oh, no. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +Look at Mommy, honey. Don't look down. Mommy's got you. +Everything is all right. + + + +HELEN (ELASTIGIRL) + +That's my girl. + + + +DASH + +Does this mean we have to move again? + + + +KID + +Oh, man. That was totally wicked! + +__________________________________________SCENE +30__________________________________________ + + + +style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>(3 MONTHS LATER) + + + +[PA announcements] + + + +VIOLET + +Do we have to have cheerleaders at the track meet? I mean, +what is that all about? + + + +GIRL + +Well, I always thought it was more like a... + + + +TONY + +Hey. + + + +VIOLET + +Hey. + + + +TONY + +You're, uh, Violet, right? + + + +VIOLET + +That's me. + + + +GIRL + +See you, Vi. + + + +TONY + +You look different. + + + +VIOLET + +I feel different. Is different okay? + + + +TONY + +Hey, different is...[clears throat] Different is great. +[stammering] Would you wanna... + + + +VIOLET + +Yeah? + + + +TONY + +Do you think maybe...[stammering]...you and I...you know... + + + +VIOLET + +Yeah? + + + +TONY + +Do you... + + + +VIOLET + +Shh. I like movies. I'll buy the popcorn. Okay? + + + +TONY + +[stammering] A movie. There you go. Yeah...yeah! Wait, +wait...so Friday? + + + +VIOLET + +Friday. + + + +[crowd cheering] + + + +BOB/HELEN + +- Go, Dash, go! Go, go, go! Run, run! + +- Run, Dash! Run! + + + +BOB + +Come on, run! Pick up the pace! Move it, move it! Pace it! +Slow down just a little bit! Don't give up! Make it close! + + + +HELEN + +Second! + + + +BOB + +Close second, close second. Yeah! + + + +BOB + +That's my boy! + + + +HELEN + +Dash, I'm so proud of you. + + + +DASH + +I didn't know what the heck you wanted me to do. + + + +[crashing, screaming] + + + +UNDERMINER + +Behold the Underminer! I am always beneath you, but nothing +is beneath me! I hereby declare war on peace and happiness! Soon +all will tremble before me! + + + + + diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Independence Day.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Independence Day.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..cf83832ae26c1e2e0f16c652a37aed226e0fe3e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Independence Day.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5 @@ +INDEPENDENCE DAY + +Dean Devlin & Roland Emmerich + +AN AMERICAN FLAG Oddly still, posted in gray dusty sand. WIDEN TO REVEAL: EXT. LUNAR SURFACE - THE MOON One small step for man, one large pile of garbage for moon- kind. Untouched for years, the flag stands next to the castoff remains of the Apollo mission. Slowly the discarded equipment begins to RATTLE and SHAKE. AN ENORMOUS SHADOW creeps towards us blotting out the horizon, a loud RUMBLE is heard. Suddenly we are covered in DARKNESS as the SHADOW engulfs us. Only the lonely image of our EARTH hangs in the air, until a huge silhouetted OBJECT suddenly blocks our view. CUT TO: EXT. NEW MEXICO - RADIO TELESCOPE VALLEY - NIGHT A field of large satellite dishes scan the skies. Super up: S.E.T.I. INSTITUTE, NEW MEXICO INT. INSTITUTE - MONITORING CONTROL CENTER - SAME A lone TECHNICIAN works on his putting skills. Behind him, wall to wall technical equipment quietly sifts through data. A RED LIGHT begins to flash. The Technician turns and slowly walks towards the source. One by one a series of LIGHTS turn on. The Technician (TECH ONE) grabs a pair of headphones. His eyes widen. INT. SLEEPING QUARTERS - SAME Sleepily a SUPERVISOR picks up the phone. SUPERVISOR If this isn't an insanely beautiful woman, I'm hanging up. INT. CONTROL CENTER - SAME TECH ONE Shut up and listen. He holds the phone up to a speaker, increases the volume. A strange FLUCTUATING TONE plays out in sequential patterns. INT. SLEEPING QUARTERS - SAME HEARING it, the Supervisor BOLTS UP, banging his head on the bunk above him. INT. CONTROL CENTER - MOMENTS LATER A pajama party on acid. Five other technicians, in various states of undress, hover anxiously around the main console. The Supervisor enters, tying his robe. SUPERVISOR God, I hope it's not just another damned Russian spy job. TECH THREE (overlapping) Negative. Computer affirms the signal is unidentified. TECH TWO (hanging up the phone) The boy from Air Res Traffic say the skies are clear. No terrestrial launches. TECH ONE It's the real thing. A radio signal from another world. The room becomes quiet as they realize that after years of searching the heavens, they might have finally found something. SUPERVISOR Let's not jump the gun. Run a trajectory source computation. Tech Three slides over to another computer. SUPERVISOR (cont'd) I want to know exactly where it's coming from. TECH THREE This can't be right. Tech Three just stares at his screen in disbelief. SUPERVISOR What's wrong? TECH THREE Calculated distance from source is at three hundred and eight five thousand kilometers. (turning to Supervisor) It's coming from the moon. The Supervisor reaches over and turns up the volume on the speaker. As they listen to the strange TONES we... CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY - PENTAGON - SAME Elevator doors OPENS revealing four star GENERAL GREY, Commander in Chief U.S. Space Command. Understandably nervous, the COMMANDING OFFICER escorts him down the hall. GENERAL GREY Who else knows about this? COMMANDING OFFICER S.E.T.I. in New Mexico identified a signal but they're even more confused than we are. The General shoots him a disapproving glance. COMMANDING OFFICER Excuse me, Sir. He slides his security card through the lock and the doors fly open. INT. SPACE COMMAND - THE PENTAGON - CONTINUOUS Banks of computers, Technicians and assistants working feverishly through the night. The Officers cross the room. Super: SPACE COMMAND - THE PENTAGON COMMANDING OFFICER Satellite reception has been impaired but we were able to get these. They arrive at a glass table. The surrounding officers snap to attention as a SECOND OFFICER quickly brings over a large transparency. We SEE a grainy image of a large vague OBJECT. GENERAL GREY Looks like a big turd. The two Officers exchange a glance. COMMANDING OFFICER We estimate it has a diameter of over five hundred and fifty kilometers and a mass roughly one fourth the size of our moon. The General turns to the Second Officer, concerned. GENERAL GREY A meteor? SECOND OFFICER No Sir. Definitely not. GENERAL GREY How do you know? SECOND OFFICER Well, er... it's slowing down. GENERAL GREY It's doing what? SECOND OFFICER It's... slowing down, Sir. The General walks over to a phone, picks it up. GENERAL GREY Get me the Secretary of Defense. (pause) Then wake him up. CUT TO: INT. WHITMORE'S BEDROOM - FRE-DAWN Laying in bed THOMAS J. WHITMORE reads a stack of papers. The phone RINGS. WOMAN'S VOICE (filtering through phone) Hi. It's me. The warm look on Whitmore's face tells us everything about how he feels about the woman on the other end. WHITMORE Hi honey. What time is it there? INT. HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Dressed in a night gown, MRS. MARGARET WHITMORE unpacks her briefing papers lays them out on a small desk as she talks. Through the window we SEE Los Angeles at night. MARGARET Two in the morning. I know I didn't wake you? WHITMORE (filtered) As a matter of fact you did. MARGARET (smiles) Liar. INT. WHITMORE BEDROOM - SAME Whitmore sits up. WHITMORE I have a confession to make. There's a beautiful young blonde sleeping next to me. Sleeping next to him, his six-year-old daughter, PATRICIA. MARGARET (filtered) You didn't let her stay up watching T.V. all night? WHITMORE Of course not. The little girl stirs awake, looks up. PATRICIA Mommy? WHITMORE You're flying back right after the luncheon? Okay, here she is. Whitmore hands her the phone and gets out of bed. Habitably he turns on the television. T.V. - NEWS PROGRAM Several "Pundits" sit around a MaLaughlin-type news discussion program. The picture quality is snowy, static ridden. PUNDIT #1 ... the inexperience in public office was inevitably going to catch up with him. He's scarified his ideals for "politics as usual." Whitmore ties on his robe as he adjusts the picture quality. PUNDIT #2 ...I said this during the campaign. Leadership as a pilot in the Gulf War has no relationship to political leadership. It's a different animal... Suddenly the channel changes. A cartoon comes on. Whitmore turns to his daughter who holds he remote. PATRICIA (into phone) Daddy let me watch Letterman. WHITMORE Traitor. Whitmore exits the room. INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS As Whitmore steps out of his bedroom, a Security guard snaps to attention. Someone hidden behind a newspaper, sits on a bench. SECURITY GUARD Good morning, Mr. President. WHITMORE Good morning, George. The paper is dropped revealing CONSTANCE HALBROOK, mid- thirties, aggressive, sharp, the President's communications director. Quickly she gathers her things and follows Whitmore. INT. BREAKFAST TABLE - CONTINUOUS Two servants are preparing breakfast as Whitmore and Constance enter. Whitmore sits down, grabs a coffee. WHITMORE You're up early this morning, Connie. She tosses him one of the many newspapers in her hands. CONSTANCE They're not attacking your policies, they're attacking your age. (another paper; reading) "...addressing Congress, Whitmore seems less like the President and more like the orphan child Oliver asking, 'please sir, I'd like some more.'" WHITMORE Clever. CONSTANCE Age was never an issue when you stuck to your gun. You were thought of as young and idealistic. But the message has gotten lost. There's too much compromise, too much politics. WHITMORE (pointedly) Isn't it amazing how fast everyone can turn against you. Realizing she may be pushing him too far, she hands him another paper. CONSTANCE Well, the Orange County Register has named you one of the ten sexiest men of the year. WHITMORE You see, substance at last. An AIDE appears at the doorway. CONSTANCE Excuse me, Mr. President. It's the Secretary of Defense. Whitmore goes to the phone, picks it up. WHITMORE Yes? Say that again? CUT TO: AN OLD RUSSIAN SATELLITE Drifting away from us the old Russian satellite becomes smaller and smaller. We PAN with it as we SEE it's on a collision course with something huge. Suddenly the satellite EXPLODES on IMPACT with the much larger object that dwarfs the puny piece of hardware. As huge as it is, we get the feeling we've only seen a portion of the total. NEW YORK SKYLINE - EARLY MORNING A slow crane down from the Manhattan skyline, revealing... EXT. CLIFFSIDE PARK - NEW JERSEY - MORNING With the New York skyline across the Hudson behind them, old men sit in this small park playing chess. Unlike the others, DAVID MARTIN is in his early thirties, sixties hippie meets nineties yuppie nerd. He concentrates intensely on his next move. MOISHE. sixties. smokes a cigar impatiently. MOISHE What are you waiting? My social security will expire, you'll still be sitting there. DAVID I'm thinking. MOISHE So think already. David makes a move. Instantly Moishe counters his move. David furls his brow in thought. MOISHE Again he's thinking. Moishe reaches into a paper bag and retrieves a coffee in a Styrofoam cup. DAVID You have any idea how long it takes for those things to decompose? MOISHE You don't move soon. I'll begin to decompose. Just as David finally makes his move, Moishe counters again. David shoots him a look and stares back down to the board. MOISHE (cont'd) David, I've been meaning to talk with you. It's nice you've been spending so much time with me, but... DAVID Dad, don't start. MOISHE I'm only saying, it's been what? Four years, you still haven't signed your divorce papers. DAVID Three years. MOISHE Three, four. Move on. It's not healthy. Moishe takes a big puff on the cigar and coughs. DAVID Look who's talking healthy. Suddenly David's beeper goes off. MOISHE How many times is that now? You trying to get fired? David moves his queen. DAVID Checkmate. See you tomorrow, Dad. He gives his father a quick kiss and hurries away. MOISHE That's not checkmate I can still... Oh. (yelling after him) You could let an old man win once in a while, it wouldn't kill you. CUT TO: EXT. NEW YORK CITY STREETS - MINUTES LATER David pedals his bike through mid-town Manhattan. He arrives at COMPACT CABLE SYSTEMS. INT. COMPACT CABLE OFFICES - LATER His bike hoisted on his shoulder, David squeezes through the revolving doors. MARTY GILBERT, short, nervous and harried, comes rushing over. MARTY What the hell is the point of having a beeper if you don't turn it on? DAVID It was turned on. I was ignoring you. What's the big emergency? MARTY Started this morning. Every channel is making like it's nineteen fifty. Snow, static, all kinds of distortions. No one knows what the hell is going on. David deposits his bike in the kitchenette as Marty tosses his coke bottle in the trash. David retrieves it. DAVID Damn it, Marty. There's a reason we have bins labeled "recycle." Finding more bottles in the trash, David turns to Marty accusingly. DAVID What the hell is this? MARTY So sue me. Before David can say anything, Marty ushers him out of the room. INT. TRANSMISSION FEED - CONTINUOUS Technicians are working feverishly. Clearly every monitor is experiencing varying degrees of signal disruption. David moves over to the main console. DAVID Did you try to switch to transponder channels? MARTY Please, would I be this panicked if it was that simple? David examines the readouts, puzzled. DAVID Let's retrofit the dish to another satellite. MARTY We've tried. It's not working. It's almost as though they weren't even there. David looks up, puzzled. DAVID That's impossible. CUT TO: A TELEVISION SET Bad reception. A hand SMOCKS the side of it. No use. WIDEN TO REVEAL: INT. MOBILE HOME - DAY Eleven-year-old TROY BRENNON tries to fix the television. His older brother MIGUEL, seventeen, cooks breakfast. MIGUEL Stop it. TROY It's all fuzzy. MIGUEL You're gonna break it. Just leave it alone. Here, take your medicine. Miguel sits a small bottle of medicine and a spoon down in front of Troy. Troy pushes the bottle away. TROY I don't need it. MIGUEL (pushing it back) Just take it, dick head. (turning to his sister) Alicia! Make sure he takes his medicine. His sister, ALICIA, fourteen, hormones kicking in, testing boundaries, listens to her walkman while putting on too much makeup. Miguel throws a dish towel to get her as Troy hits the television again. EXT. TRAILER PARK - SAME - MORNING A beat up pick-up truck comes down a dirt road and skids to a halt on the gravel next to the Brennon Mobile Home at this small shabby countryside trailer park. An angry FARMER jumps out, slamming his door. INT. BRENNON MOBILE HOME - SAME Alicia opens the front door and smiles flirtatiously at the angry farmers, LUCAS, who marches over. Miguel edges her out of the doorway, wanting to handle this himself. MIGUEL Morning, Lucas. Lucas holds a bowl full of rotted vegetables. LUCAS You like these! I've got a whole goddamned crop full! Unceremoniously, he dumps them at Miguel's feet. LUCAS (cont'd) Where the hell is your father? You know what time it is? MIGUEL He had to re-fuel. There musta been a problem. LUCAS We both know what the problem is. He's a damned nut case, is what he is. I musta been out of my mind. Troy SMACKS the television again. MIGUEL Troy, stop it! I swear to God! LUCAS Miguel, if he's not in the air in twenty minutes, that's it. I'm getting someone else. Lucas storms away. Again, Troy whacks at the television. MIGUEL Stop it, Troy! I swear to God! Determined, Troy HITS the television again. This time the picture goes out completely. CUT TO: EXT. SPACE - THE ORBIT - SAME Rolling over us, the immense under-belly of this enormous craft obliterates our view. A loud SCREECH. Suddenly the bottom begins to SEGMENT. Dozens of large sections begins to DISENGAGE, extracting themselves, twisting away from the larger bilge. The separated SEGMENTS themselves are enormous. Slowly they twist downwards on a collision course to the blue planet below... Earth. CUT TO: INT. WHITE HOUSE - BASEMENT CORRIDORS - DAY Under a barrage of questions from her own staff, Constance hurries down the corridor. AIDE #1 CNN is running a story that we're covering up some kind of nuclear testing experiments... CONSTANCE Tell them to run with it if they want to embarrass themselves. AIDE #2 NASA has been up my butt all morning. They want to know our position. CONSTANCE Our official position is we don't have an official position. AIDE #3 Connie, what the hell is going on? Constance escapes into the elevator, turns around. CONSTANCE (smiles confidently) Come on, people. Would I keep you guys out of the loop? AIDE #1 In a second! AIDE #2 Absolutely. Before she can retort, the elevator doors close. INT. OVAL OFFICE - WIDE SHOT - SAME The President, General Grey, the SECRETARY OF DEFENSE and White House Chief of Staff ALBERT NIMZIKI are gathered around the couch. SEC. OF DEFENSE At the moment, our satellites are somewhat unreliable. Isn't it possible that thing may just pass us by? NIMZIKI What if it doesn't "pass us by?" Let's retarget some ICBMs to blow it out of the sky... GENERAL GREY Forgive me, but with the little information we do have, the only thing that would accomplish is turn one dangerous falling object into many. Just then the door opens and Constance enters. PRESIDENT WHITMORE What's the damage? CONSTANCE The press is making up their own stories at this point. NIMZIKI (to General Grey) Get on the horn with Atlantic Command. Let's upgrade the situation to DEFCON 3. GENERAL GREY That's not your call to make, Mr. Nimziki. CONSTANCE Isn't that a little premature? NIMZIKI I don't think so. SEC OF DEFENSE We're two days away from the fourth of July. We have over fifty percent of our armed forces on weekend leave, not to mention the troops and commanders we have in town for the Fourth of July parade. We call them back now, we're sending up a major red flag. They go quiet as Commanding Officer from Space Command dashes into the room. COMMANDING OFFICER Our intelligence tells us the object has settled into a stationary orbit. NIMZIKI Well that's good news. COMMANDING OFFICER Not really. He lays out the diagrams and photos on the table. Everyone gathers around. COMMANDING OFFICER Part of it has broken off into nearly three dozen other pieces. PRESIDENT WHITMORE Pieces? COMMANDING OFFICER Smaller than the whole, yet over fifteen miles in width themselves. NIMZIKI Where are they heading? COMMANDING OFFICER They should be entering our atmosphere within the next twenty- five minutes. The room is silenced. All eyes turn to the President who says nothing. Nimziki leans in close to him. NIMZIKI Like it or not, we're at DEFCON 3. Recall the troops and put them on yellow alert. CUT TO: YELLOW LIGHTS FLASHING ON as an ALARM quickly BUZZES. David leans into frame and opens the door to the microwave. We WIDEN to reveal... INT. DAVID'S CUBICLE - COMPACT CABLE - DAY David retrieves his home-make cup-a-soup. We SEE this cubicle clearly has the David touch; ecology posters, plants, tons of computers and electronic gizmos. MARTY Please, tell me you're getting something. Marty enters, looking over David's shoulder as he eats. DAVID There's good news and bad news. MARTY What's the bad news? DAVID You're in meal penalty for disturbing my lunch. MARTY And the good news is you won't charge me. DAVID No. The good news is I found the problem and it's not our equipment. There's some weird signal embedded within the satellite feed. MARTY That's the good news? David slides over to another computer and turns on an intricate computation program. DAVID Yes, because the analog signal has a definite sequential digital patterns embedded within it. When I find the exact binary sequence and I apply a phase reversed signal to that calculated spectra analyzer I built you last Christmas, we should be able to block out the overlay completely... MARTY ...and we'll be the only guys in town with a clear picture? That's my man. CUT TO: EXT. CALIFORNIA FARMLANDS, IMPERIAL VALLEY - DAY Racing over back roads behind a long open field, Miguel rides his beat-up motor bike, searching. Looking up he SEES something in the air. MIGUEL'S POV - AN OLD BI-WING AIRPLANE converted into a crop-duster, BUZZES overhead. Spraying insecticide wildly, the plane zigzags over the field. MIGUEL (yelling) Russell! God damn it, Russell! Looking down from the cockpit, RUSSELL BRENNON waves stupidly. Shaggy blonde hair and two days' growth, Russell is the image of a fifty-one-year-old little boy. Miguel follows him below, screaming at him. Russell, flying recklessly, looks down at Miguel not understanding. By the time he looks back he SEES... A LINE OF TREES at the edge of the field, nearly on top of him. In a trick move, Russell turns the plane on ITS SIDE, and SLICES through the narrow gap between the trees. Miguel screams with delight at his prowess. Miguel looks pissed. ANGLE - OTHER SIDE OF TREES - MOMENTS LATER Miguel races over, skidding to a halt next to the landed Bi- with plane. MIGUEL Just what the hell do you think you're doing? RUSSELL (climbing down) I'm bringing home the bacon. Earning my keep. And doing a fine job if I do say so myself. MIGUEL It's the wrong field, you idiot! Lucas' farm is on the other side of town. RUSSELL You sure? MIGUEL Damn it, he was doing you a favor. You know how hard it is to find someone who doesn't think you're completely crazy? (MORE) What are we supposed to do now? Huh? Where are we supposed to go now? Pissed, Miguel peels away, kicking gravel back at Russell. Pathetically, he reaches into his jacket and pulls out a bottle of Jack Daniels. He takes a healthy swig. CUT TO: EXT. IRAQI DESERT - REFUGEE CAMP - NIGHT A tent city. Ubiquitous overcrowding and poverty. Several hundred refugees settle down for the night. Super: Northern Desert, Iraq A BEDOUIN stokes a small fire besides his family's tent. Suddenly a group of shouting SCREAMING TRIBES PEOPLE come rushing past him. The Bedouin watches them with confusion. Overcome with curiosity he goes against the tide of people, up the hillside. As the Bedouin reaches the top of the hillside, his mouth falls open, aghast as he SEES... THE SKIES - THE PHENOMENON Creeping from across the horizon above the rocky mountain terrain, a wide FIREBALL high in the sky, flaring and exploding. A terrifying sight. CUT TO: EXT. USS EISENHOWER - AIR CARRIER - ESTABLISHING - DAWN Super: Battle Carrier, USS Eisenhower - Persian Gulf INT. USS EISENHOWER - RADAR ROOM - DAY A loud KLAXON ALARM is ringing out. The FIRST LIEUTENANT comes rushing in. LIEUTENANT Ensign, status? SAILOR #1 We have a total radar black out over a thirteen kilometer area. The Lieutenant moves over to the main radar screen. The entire upper portion of the screen is BLANK. And the blank area is MOVING. LIEUTENANT Have a complete diagnostic run... SAILOR #1 Excuse me sir, radar may be malfunctioning but infrared is off the map! He diverts the Lieutenant's attention to another screen; A BRIGHT SEA OF RED light bleeds off the map. LIEUTENANT Get the CINC Atlantic Command on the line. CUT TO: INT. PENTAGON - COMMANDING CENTER - DAY A technical OFFICER rips off a data sheet as it shoots out of the printer and rushes over to the Commanding Officer. OFFICER Sir, we now have visual range with incoming over Iraqi airspace. COMMANDING OFFICER A second sighting? OFFICER Yes Sir, this just came in from the Eisenhower. The Commanding Officer grabs a phone laying off the hook. COMMANDING OFFICER Correction, we have two confirmed visual contacts. One over Iraq, one over the Pacific. INT. OVAL OFFICE - DAY The room is packed. The President and his chief advisors are there along with the Joint Chief of Staff. Representatives from the Atlantic Command and U.S. Space Command have formed small clusters around telephones. GENERAL GREY Where in the Pacific? (turning to the President) They've spotted one off the California coast line. Surrounded by the Secret Service, the President is speechless. Constance Halbrook comes rushing into the room and whispers to the President. PRESIDENT Put it on. Constance moves over to a cabinet and turns on the T.V. (the reception is still fuzzy, picture "rolling"). The CNN News broadcast shows the phenomenon over Novosibirsk, Russia. There is mass hysteria behind the reporter. NEWSCASTER (filtered) ...sightings of this atmospheric phenomenon have been reported here in Novosibirsk, Russia and other parts of Siberia. Moving too slowly to be a comet or meteor, astronomers are baffled as to its origin... Everyone is locked onto the television, mesmerized. NEWSCASTERS (cont'd) (filtered) ...Widespread panic has gripped the countryside as thousands have taken to the streets and clogged the highways. Hundreds have been injured... General Grey confers with the Atlantic command CINC. He nods, turns to the President and whispers. GENERAL GREY Mr. President, we have an AWAC on the west coast. E.T.A. with contact point, three minutes. INT. AWAC AIRPLANE - DAY Wall to wall computer, radar and intelligence gathering equipment. Technicians frantically try to adjust as the system goes hay wire. RADAR TECH #1 (reporting into radio) It's no use. Side radar doesn't see a thing! RADAR TECH #2 (reporting) That's correct. We're IMC blind, sir. We TRACK across them over to the pilots and into the cockpit. Cloudy skies. The PILOT squints out the window as he speaks. PILOT Negative. We still have zero visibility. EXT. AWAC AIRPLANE - CLOUDY SKIES - DAY ZOOMING overhead as we SEE the AWAC sailing through a thick cloudy sky. Super: Pacific Coastline, California The AWAC disappears from view into the clouds. INT. OVAL OFFICE - SAME The President and his top advisors are gathered around a speaker phone listening to the pilot of the AWAC. PILOT (filtered) Instrumentation is malfunctioning. We can't get any kind of reading on what's in front of us. INT. AWAC - SAME The Pilot squints as he tries to see through the clouds. PILOT Wait a minute, it may be clearing. Suddenly the clouds part before us and we're face to face with a WALL OF FLAMES. INT. AWAC - SAME The speaker phone cracks and distorts. PILOT (filtered) Jesus God! The sky's on fire! EXT. AWAC AND PHENOMENON - SAME The AWAC attempts to climb sharply as we get our first real look at the atmospheric phenomenon. Majestic and monstrous. The AWAC is not going to be able to make it. Quickly it is ENGULFED in the flames. INT. OVAL OFFICE - SAME The phone line goes dead. General Grey spins to an AIDE. GENERAL GREY Get them back on line. AIDE #1 (on other phone) Line's gone, sir. The ATLANTIC COMMAND CINC, turns from a different phone. AAC CINC Two more have been spotted over the Atlantic. One is moving toward New York, the other is headed this direction. CHIEF OF STAFF How much time do we have? AAC CINC Less than ten minutes. NIMZIKI (turning to aid) Organize a military escort to Crystal Mountain. GENERAL GREY (to President) Sir, I strongly recommend we move you to a secured location immediately. ... The President hesitates, he turns to Constance. PRESIDENT Can we expect the same kid of panic here as in Russia? CONSTANCE More than likely. NIMZIKI Mr. President, you can discuss this on the way. Torn, the President grapples with a decision. Finally... PRESIDENT I'm not leaving. NIMZIKI We must maintain a working government in a time of crisis... PRESIDENT I want the Vice President, Secretary of Defense, the whole Cabinet and the Joint Chiefs taken to a secured location. I'm staying here. I am not going to add to a public hysteria that could cost lives. NIMZIKI But, Mr. President... PRESIDENT So far these things have not become hostile. For the moment let's assume they won't. (to Constance) Connie, let's issue statements advising people not to panic, to stay home and take cover. Constance issues commands to her staff as they quickly exit along with most people in the room. General Grey goes over to the President. GENERAL GREY With your permission, Mr. President, I'd like to remain my your side. PRESIDENT I had a feeling you would. GENERAL GREY Sir, what happens if they do become hostile? PRESIDENT Then God help us. CUT TO: INT. DAVID'S CUBICLE - DAY On the T.V. behind David, news footage of the phenomenon in Russia plays silently. Oblivious, David works his computers. FEMALE CO-WORKER (stopping in doorway) David, are you watching this? David waves her away, deep in concentration. Suddenly a computer BEEPS. Excitedly David prints out his finding. He grabs it and exits. INT. COMPACT CABLE OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Engrossed in his printout, David walks past his co-workers who are glued to the distorted picture on the television, watching the phenomenon. INT. MARTY'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Marty stares at his television watching General Grey addressing the press. David enters, staring at his reading. DAVID I've got a lock on the signal pattern. We can filter it out. MARTY (distracted) Huh? Oh, good, hood. DAVID Strange thing is, if my calculations are right it'll be gone in approximately seven hours anyway. The signal reduces itself every time it recycles. Eventually it will disappear. Are you listening? MARTY (still glued to T.V.) Can you believe this? DAVID What re you talking about? MARTY Haven't you been watching? David turns for the first time to the television and sees the phenomenon. Constance comes on addressing the press. CONSTANCE (filtered) ...so far the phenomenon has not caused any damage. In all likelihood it won't... INT. WHITE HOUSE PRESS ROOM - SAME More reporters rush in from the back quickly setting up as this hastily called press conference continues. CONSTANCE ...everyone should remain calm. Take cover where you can but the important thing is not to panic. INT. BRENNON MOBILE HOME - SAME Miguel, Alicia and Troy watch the static riddled T.V. CONSTANCE (filtered) ...we have a fix on three different occurrences about to appear over American cities. One is headed toward Los Angeles... INT. MARTY'S OFFICE - SAME CONSTANCE (filtered) ...the other two are on our Eastern seaboard headed towards New York and Washington, D.C... Suddenly hectic CO-WORKER #2 appear at the door. CO-WORKER #2 Jamie says this building has an old bomb shelter. We're heading down there now. MARTY (dry; to David) Feel no shame in hiding. INT. HALLWAY -- CONTINUOUS A crowd of people head down the hall for the shelter while others stay glued to the set. There is a mix of fascination and panic. David watches the commotion, dumb struck. MARTY Oh shit, I better call my wife. INT. AIRPORT DINER - LATE MORNING Depressed Russell nurses a beer at the counter. Three FLIGHT MECHANICS walk in, having a good laugh. One of them spots Russell and moves over to him. MECHANIC #1 Hey, Russ, heard you had a little trouble this morning. Dusted the wrong field? The Mechanics laugh. Russell tries to ignore them. MECHANIC #2 I know, you're probably still a little confused from your hostage experience. MECHANIC #2 Hostage experience? Something happen to you, Russ? MECHANIC #1 He ain't never told you!? Seems years back our boy here had been kidnapped by aliens. Did all kinds of experiments on him and such. Tell him, Russ. RUSSELL Not today, guys. Okay. Russell gets up and heads for the door. MECHANIC #1 You just gotta get a couple more beers in him, he'll tell you all about it. Crazy stuff. Won't you, Russ? EXT. SMALL AIRPORT - CONTINUOUS The Mechanic follows Russell outside, his buddies in tow. MECHANIC #1 Hey, Russ, when they took you up in their space ship, they do any sexual things to you? The mechanics crack up laughing. Suddenly the things around them begin to RUMBLE. The SHADOW engulfs them, silencing the Mechanics. Panicked they turn and RUN AWAY. Russell just looks up at the sky, grabs his Jack Daniels and takes another swig. EXT. TRAILER PARK - SAME Dogs bark and people stumble out of their trailers as an enormous SHADOW creeps over them. INT. BRENNON MOBILE HOME - CONTINUOUS The windows grow DARK and the room begins to RUMBLE. Miguel rushes to the door, ushering his siblings out. EXT. TRAILER PARK - CONTINUOUS Alicia and Troy step out the door, stopping dead in their tracks. Miguel follows them only to look up and SEE... THE PHENOMENON - DARK CLOUDS The flames are burning out, replaced by huge plumes of dark smoke billowing around the edges of the phenomena. Only small traces of extinguishing flames illuminate it. INT. COMPACT CABLE - STAIRWELL - SAME David pushes past the people making their way down, fighting against the tide. Another CO-WORKER (#3) stops halfway. CO-WORKER #3 Aren't you coming, David? DAVID No way, I've got to see this. EXT. WASHINGTON MONUMENT - SAME Frightened tourists run for cover as the colossal SHADOW approaches. Reflected in the water below we SEE the fiery apparition transfigure into the dark foreboding clouds. THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL - WASHINGTON, D.C. - SAME The SHADOW writhes up the detailed statue of Lincoln, devouring him completely until we are left in total darkness. INT. WHITE HOUSE - HALLWAYS - SAME People are being evacuated from their offices. Patricia, the President's daughter, breaks away from her nanny. INT. WHITE HOUSE - OVAL OFFICE - SAME The President talks on the phone. Constance waits nearby. PRESIDENT WHITMORE (into phone) Of course, Russia and the United States are in this together. Yes, Mr. President, you have my word. Yes, Das Vedanya. The President hangs up. CONSTANCE What is their position? PRESIDENT WHITMORE I think he was drunk. Patricia bursts through the door and runs into her father's arms, terrified. A SECRET SERVICE man appears. SECRET SERVICE GUY Mr. President, we have to go. Abruptly, the room DARKENS as it begins to RUMBLE. EXT. WHITE HOUSE - SAME The long, dark SHADOW moves across the entire White House, engulfing it in darkness. EXT. HUDSON RIVER, NEW YORK - STATUE OF LIBERTY - SAME In the distance we SEE the mutated phenomenon's dark gray clouds nearing Miss. Liberty. As it approaches we SEE the New York skyline begin to darken. EXT. BLACK TOP BASKET BALL COURT, NEW YORK - SAME Kids playing basket ball. A young BOY stops playing, staring skyward. One by one, they all look upwards, stunned as a long dark SHADOW creeps over them. With a loud CRASH, several New York Cabs SLAM into one another in the street. Two more cars crash into them. A pile up ensues. EXT. WALL STREET - SECOND LATER Foot traffic stops as the long SHADOW crawls over the entire area. EXT. ROOFTOP - COMPACT CABLE - SAME Large satellite dishes beset a doorway to the roof which flies open. David steps out just as a long, dark SHADOW covers over him, sending the city into darkness. David looks up to SEE... SKYLINE AND ALIEN CRAFT Protruding through the dark clouds we get a glimpse of the underbelly of a colossal ALIEN CRAFT, its outer veneer of smoke and clouds beginning to fade away. Below we see PANIC, cabs SLAMMING into one another, people staring, people screaming. No one knows how to react. David runs to the other side of the rooftop, overlooking Central Park, to get a better look. DAVID'S POV - CENTRAL PARK - SAME The entire park is plunged into darkness as the craft above blots out of the sun. Amazing as it may seem, the hovering craft BLANKETS THE ENTIRE PARK and BEYOND. We still have NOT seen an entire craft. DAVID (realizing) My God. The signal. EXT. LOS ANGELES BASIN - WIDE ANGLE - LATER MORNING A panoramic view of the Los Angeles basin. Slowly filling the screen, we SEE a portion of the enormous space craft as it creeps towards the city, obliterating our view. EXT. HILLSIDE RESIDENTIAL AREA - SAME A station wagon, filled with kids and a harried HOUSEWIFE, comes to a stop. The passenger door opens and a young six- year-old boy, DYLAN steps out. HOUSEWIFE Dylan, tell your mom you can stay overnight again Thursday. Suddenly a car SAILS over a nearby hill in front of them, hitting the ground with a BANG. Two more cars follows, air bound. As the Housewife turns she SEES... SPACE SHIP - SAME Rising over the mountain we SEE the Space Ship as it nears the city, blocking out the sunshine. Panicked, the Housewife hits the gas and peels out, leaving a confused Dylan staring skyward. INT. BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS Two people sleep as Dylan runs into the room. DYLAN Mommy, look at! He rushes away. The SHADOW moves past the window, darkening the room. His mother, JASMINE DUBROW, stirs. JASMINE (re: darkness) It's too early, baby. She turns back over. Suddenly the room briefly RUMBLES. MAN Earthquake? JASMINE Not even a four pointer. Go back to sleep. Shrugging, the man does. HOLLYWOOD SIGN (FORMERLY SC. 72) - SAME In Los Angeles. The SHADOW slowly covers the sign. EXT. WHITE HOUSE - WINDOW - SAME The President and his daughter cautiously approach the window staring in awe at the amazing sight above them. Several others approach from behind. Cautiously some people begin to walk outside, staring up at the leviathan, mouths agape. INT. OVAL OFFICE - SAME Slowly staff members approach, gazing out the window. Constance steps up behind the President. CONSTANCE What do we do now? PRESIDENT WHITMORE Address the nation. There are a lot of very frightened people out there right now. CONSTANCE Yeah. I'm one of them. EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. - ALIEN CRAFT - SAME All of Washington is under the shadow of this gargantuan alien craft. A stunning tableau. CUT TO: INT. JASMINE'S DEBROW'S BEDROOM - SAME The man sleeping next to Jasmine's beagle BOOMER drops Steven's tennis shoes on top of him, waking him. JASMINE He's trying to impress you. STEVE He's doing a good job. He pats the dog on the head and takes the shoes. Steven gets up and makes his way to the bathroom. INT. BATHROOM - CONTINUOUS As Steve takes a pee, he SEES out the window a family packing up their car, others standing around staring at something in the distance. A HELICOPTER flies overhead. STEVE Neighbors are moving. I think they're tired of earthquakes. He finished and flushes. INT. LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS Steve enters the living room. The television is playing a news broadcast. NEWSCASTER ...with little damage reported to the southland area. People are advised not to panic... STEVE Hon, something's on the table 'bout the quake. Jasmine sits up in bed, yelling out to Steve. JASMINE Dylan out there? Steve turns, looking for Dylan when the doggie door pops open and Dylan crawls through. STEVE What have you been up to, Sport? DYLAN (holding his gun) Shooting aliens. Steve musses up the boy's hair, smiling. JASMINE (entering) Coffee? Steve mumbles an affirmative as he exits. EXT. JASMINE'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS Steve picks up the morning paper and opens it. He doesn't notice the DOZENS of neighbors quickly packing up and rushing to get away as he reads the paper oblivious. JASMINE (O.S.) You want milk with your coffee? Jasmine appears behind him, her view, too, obscured by the open newspaper. Suddenly another HELICOPTER room overhead. Annoyed, Steve lowers his paper. STEVE AND JASMINE'S POV As the paper is lowered we SEE the helicopter SWOOP down. As it flies away we SEE... THE ALIEN CRAFT Covering all of Los Angeles. This is the first time we see the entire craft. It is stupendous. Steve's jaw hits the floor. The milk goes CRASHING as Jasmine SCREAMS. CUT TO: INT. STAIRWELL - DAY Running for all he's worth, David sprints down the stairs. INT. COMPACT CABLE OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Dashing off the stairs, David stops seeing that the room is now completely empty. The wall of monitors play for no one. David walks up to one, adjusting the volume. T.V. - CNN BROADCAST - (DISTORTED BROADCAST SIGNAL) A space ship logo spins next to the words VISITORS: CONTACT OR CRISIS. Wolf Blitzer comes on screen live from the Pentagon. WOLF BLITZER Pentagon officials are reporting more ships have just arrived over the capitals of India, England and Germany. As he speaks we get quick glimpses of the other ships. MARTY (O.S.) I know, babycakes. Calm down. David spins around at the sound of the voice but the room is still empty. David leans down and looks under a desk where he finds Marty still on the phone with his wife. DAVID Tell her to get the kids and leave town. MARTY What happened? DAVID (yells) Just do it! Marty realizes David is dead serious. MARTY Babycakes, pack the kids up and take them to your mother's. Don't ask. Go. Mary hangs up, crawls out from under the table. MARTY (cont'd) Okay, why did I just send my family to Atlanta? DAVID Remember I told you that the signal hidden within our satellite signal is slowly recycling down to extinction. MARTY Not really... DAVID That signal. It's a countdown. MARTY (confused) A countdown to what? DAVID Think. It's like in chess. First you strategically position your pieces. Then, when the timing's right. You strike. David motions to the television. BLITZER ...there are additional unconfirmed sightings over Japan, the Mediterranean, and China... DAVID They are positioning themselves all over the world and using this one signal to synchronize their efforts. In approximately six hours the signal will disappear and the countdown will be over. MARTY Then what? DAVID Checkmate. Marty takes a beat to digest. Then, grabbing the phone.... MARTY I gotta call my brother, my bookie, my lawyer... fuck my lawyer... David also grabs a phone. Suddenly the bank of monitors synchronize into one enormous image across the entire video wall; the President addressing the nation. INT. PRESS ROOM, WHITE HOUSE - SAME The President stands at the podium giving his address. PRESIDENT WHITMORE My fellow Americans, a historic and unprecedented event has taken place. The question as to whether or not we are alone in the universe has been answered... ANGLE - SIDE ENTRANCE TO PRESS ROOM As Constance watches the President, she unconsciously mouths the words of his speech, after all, she did write them. A PRESS AIDE tugs on her sleeve. She tries to wave her off. PRESS AIDE He says he's your husband. Her expression drops. She takes the phone from her. CONSTANCE What do you want? DAVID (filtered) You have to leave the White House. CONSTANCE This is not the time or the place to have this same old discussion. INT. COMPACT CABLE OFFICES - SAME DAVID You don't understand. You have to leave Washington. INT. SIDE OFFICE, WHITE HOUSE - DAY Impatient, Constance tries to get off the phone. CONSTANCE In case you haven't noticed, we're in a little bit of a crisis here. DAVID (filtered) I've worked with embedded loading. They're communicating with a hidden signal. They're going to attack... CONSTANCE You're being paranoid. DAVID (filtered) It's not paranoia. The embedding is very subtle. It's probably been overlooked... Constance hangs up. Her face betrays mixed emotions. INT. COMPACT CABLE OFFICES - SAME David stares at the phone, pissed. Something on T.V. catches his attention. Through the snowy image he SEES... PRESIDENT WHITMORE (filtered) ...My staff and I are remaining here at the White House while we attempt to establish communication... Hanging up the phone, David sprints for the exit. PRESIDENT WHITMORE (cont'd) ...so remain calm. If you are compelled to leave these cities, please do so in a safe and orderly fashion. SMASH CUT TO: CABS SLAMMING TOGETHER - NEW YORK CITY STREETS The rush to get away creeps slowly as cars jam the streets in total grid-lock. David pedals his bike furiously through traffic. EXT. GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE - NEW YORK - DAY The mass exodus has reached the bridge. Total congestion. David fights his way through. EXT. CLIFFSIDE, NEW JERSEY - LATER The New York skyline behind him across the Hudson, David jumps off his bike, and races towards a row of tract houses. EXT. MOISHE'S TRACT HOUSE - SECONDS LATER David BANGS on the door. It flies open. Moishe is holding a hunting rifle, pointing it at David. DAVID Pops! MOISHE The television said they've started with the looting already Vultures. DAVID You still got the Olds? MOISHE You want to borrow the car? You don't have a license. DAVID That's okay. You're driving. CUT TO: INT. JASMINE'S HOUSE - DAY Steve, wearing his Marine flight officer uniform, shoves the last of his things into his duffel bag. We notice there are small figurines of dolphins everywhere. Jasmine hovers nervously behind him. JASMINE You can't go. Call them back. STEVE Baby, you know how it is. I have to report to El Toro right away. JASMINE You said you were on leave for the Fourth. STEVE They cancelled it. Why are you acting like this? Jasmine grabs the blinds and yanks them away. We SEE the alien craft through the window. JASMINE Why? That's why. That thing scares the piss out of me. EXT. DEBROW HOUSE - CONTINUOUS Dylan sits behind the wheel pretending to drive. Steve grabs him, pulling him out. He reaches into his duffel, grabs a small brown paper bag. STEVE Here. I got these for you. Be careful with them. Dylan opens the bag; fireworks. Jasmine walks over. DYLAN Cool. Steve tosses his gear into the back, opens his door. JASMINE Wait. I have to tell you something. STEVE What? JASMINE (loses her nerve) Be careful. STEVE Look, after your shift tonight, why don't you grab Dylan and come stay with me on base. JASMINE Really? You don't mind? STEVE (smiling) Naw. I'll just tell my other girlfriends they can't come over tonight. Pissed, she hits him. He loves it. JASMINE You know, you're not as charming as you think you are. STEVE Yes, I am. JASMINE Dick-weed! STEVE Butt-munch. They kiss. Steve hops into his car and peels out. Jasmine takes the bag from Dylan. JASMINE I'll take these. DYLAN Mommmmmm... CUT TO: EXT. JERSEY - HIGHWAY - LATER THAT DAY A perfectly preserved '68 Olds drives cautiously down the highway. Around him we see other cars packed to the gills as they make their escape from New York. INT. OLDS - SAME Not the most confident driver, Moishe holds the steering wheel close to his chest. MOISHE It's the White House, for crying out loud. You can't just drive up and ring the bell. DAVID Can't this thing go any faster? MOISHE You think they don't know what you know? Believe me, they know. She works for the President. They know everything. DAVID They don't know this. MOISHE And you're going to educate them? Tell me something, you're so smart how come you spent eight years at M.I.T. to become a cable repairman? DAVID Dad... MOISHE All I'm saying is they've got people who handle these things, David. They want HBO, they'll call you. CUT TO: INT. HOTEL LOUNGE, LOS ANGELES - LATE AFTERNOON Mrs. Whitmore is at a house phone. Behind her we see several news crews waiting for interviews. PRESIDENT WHITMORE (filtered through phone) I want you out of there. MARGARET You're staying there to keep people calm. It's the right thing to do. I'm not going to let them criticize you for it. INT. WHITMORE BEDROOM - WHITE HOUSE - SAME The President sits on his bed, his daughter lays next to him, watching T.V. The signal distortion is getting worse. PRESIDENT WHITMORE Okay, fine but the second your interviews are done, I have a helicopter ready to take you to Nellis Air Force... MARGARET (filtered) How's the munchkin? PRESIDENT WHITMORE She's glued to the T.V., just like the rest of the world. I love you too. Here she is... He hands Patty the phone as General Grey and Nimziki appear in the doorway. The President walks over to them. GENERAL GREY More ships keep arriving, fifteen in total so far. NIMZIKI This is crazy. We're loosing our first strike capabilities! GENERAL GREY We're trying to communicate with them on all frequencies but we're getting nowhere. Atlantic Command is working on a type of visual communication. PRESIDENT WHITMORE What the hell are they up to? CUT TO: EXT. TRAILER PARK - NIGHT A long crowded highway of people trying to escape from Los Angeles can be seen in the distance. The huge space craft hovering behind them. Miguel is on the roof of the trailer, adjusting the T.V. antenna trying to get a picture. Suddenly the image clears and we SEE a group of people in a crowded hallway. REPORTER (filtered) ...a local crop duster was arrested today attempting to land at Edwards Air Force Base... On the T.V. we SEE Russell being escorted to a police car. Mortified, Miguel can't believe what he's seeing. RUSSELL They've got to do something. I was abducted by space aliens ten years ago. They did all kinds of experiments on me. They've been studying us for years, learning our weakness. We've go to do something before they kill us all! TROY (O.S.) Just as Troy starts to climb up, Miguel changes the channel to Mrs. Whitmore. Troy sits down next to Miguel. MRS. WHITMORE (filtered) ...we need to remain calm. As more people decide to leave the cities, safety is key... MIGUEL Troy, you remember Uncle Hector, from Tucson? TROY He's got that SEGA Saturn CD, 64 bit, right? MIGUEL Yeah. What would you think if we went there to live for a while? TROY That'd be cool! Miguel thinks for a second, makes a decision. MIGUEL Pack up, we're going. Miguel jumps down from the roof. Troy climbs down the ladder. TROY (yelling after him) What about Dad? ALICIA AND OLDER BOY Kissing. It's getting hot. Alicia laughs, pushes him away. OLDER BOY This could be our last night on Earth. You don't want to die a virgin, do you? ALICIA What makes you think I'm a virgin? The Older Boy is taken off guard. Before he can answer the tarp they were hiding under is ripped away. Miguel stands there. MIGUEL Come on, we're going. ALICIA I'm not going anywhere... Miguel grabs her by the wrist and pulls her away. EXT. FREEWAY - OUTSIDE WASHINGTON - NIGHT We see the long highway leading to Washington, the space ship hovering above it. One side of the freeway is packed solid, the other completely empty, save for one car... INT. MOISHE'S OLDS - NIGHT Moishe looks to the other side of the freeway, jam packed. On his side, they are the only car for miles. MOISHE The whole world is trying to get out of Washington and we're the only schmucks trying to get in. As Moishe drives, David distracts him as he unpacks his backpack unloading his laptop. He grabs a CD. MOISHE (cont'd) What the hell is that? DAVID This, pops, is every phone book in America. MOISHE You think an important person like Constance is going to be listed? DAVID She always keeps her portable phone listed, for emergencies. Sometimes it's just her first initial, sometime her nickname... David starts to look it up. Suddenly... DOZENS OF CARS HEADING STRAIGHT FOR THEM In the attempt to get out, hundreds of cars have been re- directed by the military to use the opposite side of the highway. MOISHE Oh my God! Moishe SWERVES violently to avoid collision, barely missing the oncoming traffic. Dodging right to left, Moishe hangs on for dear life. A Military Office, assisting in diverting the cars turns just in time to see the Olds whiz by. David and Moishe are bounded around the inside of the car as Moishe tries to veer through traffic. Suddenly A TRUCK blocks off their only escape route. Moishe turns HARD and drives up onto the right shoulder. OVERHEAD ANGLE - OLDS AND TRAFFIC The Olds is the only car in headed that direction. Using the shoulder, swerving to miss barricades, they drives off an exit ramp. DAVID Nice driving, pops! Dangerously close to a heart attack, Moishe is, for once, at a loss for words. Over their adrenaline pumped faces... MALE VOICE (V.O.) ...put your hands together for Sabrina! CUT TO: INT. STRIP CLUB - LOS ANGELES - NIGHT A bikini-clad Sabrina twirls gracefully on the stage. As she comes to a stop we reveal Sabrina is actually Jasmine. She looks out into the audience and her expression DROPS. REVERSE ANGLE - JASMINE'S POV - EMPTY CLUB Five strippers and eight customers. All crowded near the television watching the news. ANGLE T.V. - ROOFTOP - LOS ANGELES Helicopter footage of people gathered on the rooftops of downtown Los Angeles holding up drawings of space aliens. NEWSCASTERS (filtered) ...from the "it could only happen in California" file, hundreds of UFO fanatics have gathered on the rooftops of downtown Los Angeles, welcoming the new arrivals... INT. DRESSING ROOM - CONTINUOUS Jasmine storms into the dressing room. Wiping off her makeup, she sits down next to TIFFANY who watches the same report on a small b&w. JASMINE I can't believe I even came in tonight. What was I thinking? TIFFANY (re: T.V.) Isn't this cool? And you thought I was nuts. Oh, look, I brought mine with me. Tiffany holds up a drawing of a space alien. JASMINE You're not thinking of joining those idiots? TIFFANY I'm going over there soon as I'm off. Wanna come? Jasmine turns to Tiffany, dead serious. JASMINE Tiffany, I don't want you to go up there. Promise me you won't. (Tiffany pouts) Promise! TIFFANY I promise. JASMINE Okay. I'm gone. I'm outta town for a while. Her boss MARIO enters and walks over to his private office in back. He opens the door and finds Dylan playing with his dog, Boomer. MARIO What the hell's your kid doing here? Jasmine rushes past picking up Dylan and carrying him away as she heads for the exit. Boomer follows. JASMINE You try to find a sitter today. MARIO Where do you think you're going? You leave, you're fired. JASMINE (out the door) Nice working with you, Mario. CUT TO: EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. - NIGHT The streets are nearly deserted. Millions of small lights on the underbelly of the craft cast strange reflections on the streets below. The Olds drives on its way towards the Capitol building. INT. OLDS - CONTINUOUS David types frustratedly on his laptop. MOISHE Not listed, huh? DAVID I just haven't found it yet. I tried C. Halbrook, Connie Halbrook, Spunky Halbrook... MOISHE Spunky? DAVID College nickname. MOISHE You try Martin? DAVID She didn't take my name when we were married. Moishe shrugs. David gives it a shot. Finds it. The machine BEEPS. MOISHE (sarcastic) So what do I know? CUT TO: INT. LOCKER ROOM - EL TORO MARINE CORPS STATION - NIGHT A crowded locker room. Steve enters. MALE VOICE (O.S.) Where the hell've you been? STEVE Ah, were you guys waiting for me? Several Marines throws towels at Steve as he makes his way to his locker. His best friend, JIMMY, sits next to him. JIMMY Can you believe it? This is serious shit, Stevie. They've recalled everyone! As Steve sits he SEES some envelops stuck into the side of his locker. STEVE Well, the mail's still working. He flips through the envelops and FREEZES when he sees one with the NASA insignia on it. Jimmy snatches it away from him. JIMMY Junk mail. You don't want this. Steve quickly snatches it back, right it open and reads. From the disappointment on his face we can tell it's bad news. Realizing, Jimmy puts a hand on Steve's shoulder. JIMMY I don't believe it. They make you learn how to fly everything from an Apache to a Harrier and still they turn you down? What else do they want you to learn? STEVE How to kiss ass. Steve crumples at the letter and tosses it. Angrily he opens his locker. Pasted on the locker door we see photos of Jasmine next to the photos of the space shuttle, Apollo Missions, and a NASA insignia bumper sticker. As Steve stuffs his jacket into the locker, something falls out. Before Steve can grab it, Jimmy snatches it up first. JIMMY (embarrassed) Jasmine has this thing for dolphins. I had them make it... STEVE I thought you said you were doing to break it off. Steve snatches it back, embarrassed. JIMMY (cont'd) Steve, listen to me, you're never gonna get to fly the space shuttle if you marry a stripper. Steve knows he's right. He's torn. CUT TO: EXT. WHITE HOUSE - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT The Olds stops near the White House. From here we can SEE tanks and armed patrols. A small group of protesters have gathered, upset about the military hardware. Signs: "Don't provoke" "Violence begets Violence." INT. ODS - CONTINUOUS David adjusts a small portable satellite, connecting it to his phon and laptop computer. MOISHE So, you want to ring the bell or should I? David flips open the phone, dials the number on the screen. DAVID Perfect, she's using it. MOISHE It's perfect the line is busy? DAVID Yes. I can use he signal to triangulate her exact position in the White House. MOISHE You can do that? Shooting his father a look. DAVID (sarcastic) All cable repairmen can. INT. WHITE HOUSE - HALLWAY - MOMENTS LATER Constance is just finishing a call on her cellular phone. CONSTANCE ...Sally, take my cat with when you leave. No I'm staying here at the White House. Take care. The moment she hangs up, it RINGS. Surprised, she answers. CONSTANCE What? DAVID (filtered) Connie, don't hang up. CONSTANCE David? How'd you get this number? DAVID Walk to the window. Right in front of you. Constance looks up to the large glass windows. She walks over to it, looking out. CONSTANCE What am I looking for? CONSTANCE'S POV - STREET - OLDS - DAVID Between two of the tanks outside, Constance can SEE David standing on top of the Olds across the street. Moishe steps out, waves. Constance is stunned. CONSTANCE (to herself) How does he do that? CUT TO: INT. BRENNON TRAILER - NIGHT Sulking, Alicia sits in back with he walkman on. Troy sleeps while Miguel drives. Suddenly Miguel his the brakes, as something comes SAILING DOWN FROM THE SKY. We realize it's the B-WING PLANE landing on the stretch of roadway directly in front of them. EXT. ROADWAY - CONTINUOUS The plane lands, skids into a turn. Russell jumps out, walks over to the trailer. We can tell he's drunk again. MIGUEL They let you out? RUSSELL Just what the hell do you think you're doing? Miguel moves to meet Russell away from the trailer, not wanting the others to hear. MIGUEL We're leaving, don't try and stop us. RUSSELL You're not going anywhere. You hear me? I'm still your father. Miguel explodes, this has been building up for some time. MIGUEL No, you're not! You're just the man who married my mother. You're nothing to me! Russell is momentarily silent, stunned. Recovering... RUSSELL Troy's still my son no matter how you feel about me. MIGUEL For once in your life think about what's best for Troy. Who has to beg for money to buy him medicine when you screw up? Who? Suddenly we hear glass CRASHING. Both men spin to find Troy standing behind them. TROY Stop it! I'm not a baby! I don't need your stupid medicine. I don't need anyone to take care of me! Miguel leans down to see the broken MEDICINE BOTTLE on the floor. Miguel rushes over to him, furious. MIGUEL You know what this stuff costs? Do you want to get sick again!? Do you!? Frustrated, Miguel shoves Troy aside and heads back into the trailer. Wobbly from the drinking, Russell stands there pathetically, watching. EXT. ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE - NIGHT A large group of press rush over toward FOUR APACHE HELICOPTERS, each refitted with a large LIGHT BOARDS, as they slowly lift off the ground. Cameras flash, reporters yell questions to the Officers assigned to keep them at bay. Several news organizations do stand up remotes. We TRACK past them to the CNN crew. CNN REPORTER What you see behind me are four Apache helicopters... INT. BRIEFING ROOM - WHITE HOUSE - SAME On the television plays the CNN broadcast. The reception is intermittently disrupted. CNN REPORTER (filtered through T.V.) ...each has been refitted with what Pentagon officially hope will be our first step in communicating with the alien craft... We WIDEN to reveal a large contingent of military personnel along with the President's chief advisors gathered around several monitors, (the center monitors are momentarily blank). Suddenly everyone snaps to attention as the President enters. PRESIDENT Where are we? GENERAL GRAY They're in the air. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE OF THE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR - SAME Moishe inspects a photo of Constance with the President, impressed he nods with approval. MOISHE (to himself) Very nice. Constance is looking at David's laptop displaying the breakdown of the alien signal. CONSTANCE And when is the countdown supposed to expire? DAVID (checking) Fifty six minutes, forty five seconds. Constance runs her fingers through her hair, exasperated. Moishe turns, listens. CONSTANCE What do you want me to do? DAVID I want you to leave with us. Right now. CONSTANCE I can't leave. We have to tell this to the President. DAVID He's not going to listen to me. Surprised at his son, Moishe steps forward. MOISHE Sure he'll listen. Why wouldn't he? DAVID Because last time I saw him I punched him in the face. MOISHE You punched the President in the face? DAVID He wasn't the President then. CONSTANCE David thought I was having an affair, which I wasn't. MOISHE Punched the President? Oh my god. APACHE HELICOPTERS ZOOM by overhead. In the distance we see they are headed for the enormous alien craft. INT. HELICOPTER - PILOT - CONTINUOUS The PILOT adjusts his radio. PILOT Echo one, we are closing in. EXT. SKIES - CONTINUOUS The choppers alter their formation, aligning themselves alongside one another. As the helicopters near the craft, we see how tiny they appear against the gargantuan space ship. INT. HALLWAY - ELEVATORS - WHITE HOUSE - MINUTES LATER The elevator doors open and Moishe steps out, overwhelmed and impressed. Constance leads them down the hall. Moishe turns to David, whispers. MOISHE If I had known I was going to meet the President, I'd a worn a tie. Look at me, I look like a schlemiel. INT. OVAL OFFICE - CONTINUOUS The Office is empty as the trio walks in. Moishe can't believe he's in there. He straightens himself up, combs his hair. CONSTANCE Wait here. I'll be right back. David sets up his laptop. MOISHE Not on his desk. INT. BRIEFING ROOM - NIGHT The middle monitors are now on. They show the night vision P.O.V. of the helicopters as they approach. On the side monitors we SEE the various news broadcast of this event. NEWSCASTER (filtered) ...the helicopters are making their final approach... On the middle monitor, through the night vision camera on the lead helicopter we SEE the side of the craft as the helicopters near. Everyone in the room watches, tense. Constance enters and kneels down next to the President, whispering in his ear. The President gets up and follows Constance. Chief of Staff Nimziki objects. NIMZIKI You're leaving now? The President silences him with a look. As they exit. CONSTANCE I don't know how you put up with him. PRESIDENT He used to run the NASA. He knows where all the bones are buried. Comes in handy. CONSTANCE I'll bet. INT. OVAL OFFICE - SAME The door flies open and Constance and the President enter. The moment President Whitmore sees David, he freezes. PRESIDENT What the hell's he doing here? Moishe, bursting, steps forward. MOISHE Moishe Martinsburg, Mr. President. CONSTANCE My ex-husband works in satellite communications. PRESIDENT I don't have time for this... With a BANG, David suddenly KNOCKS everything off the President's desk and starts to draw on the ink blotter. DAVID It's about "Line o sight," Mr. President... David draws a circle representing Earth and a smaller circle just away from it. The President reluctantly nears. DAVID ...If you wanted t coordinate with ships all over the world, you couldn't send one signal to every place at the same time. That's called line of sight... Drawing a line from the ship of either side of the Earth, we SEE that you could not send a signal to the other side. DAVID (cont'd) ...you'd need to relay your signal using satellites... David draws small satellites surrounding Earth. DAVID (cont'd) ...to reach each ship. I have found a signal hidden inside our own satellite network. Suddenly an aide, ALEX, appears in the doorway. ALEX Excuse me, Mr. President. They're starting. The President turns to the monitor in his office. We SEE the helicopters turning on the light boards affixed to the front of their cockpits. He turns back to David. DAVID Mr. President, they are using our own satellites against us and the clock is ticking. EXT. HELICOPTERS - SAME - NIGHT The large light panels TURN ON, multi-colored lights slowly begins to flash in a repeating sequential patterns. REVERE ANGLE - HELICOPTERS AND SPACE CRAFT The helicopters are puny little specs next to this Goliath. The light boards continues to FLASH but there is no reaction from the ship. INT. BRIEFING ROOM - SECONDS LATER Everyone is glued to the monitors as the President storms in. PRESIDENT General Grey, co-ordinate with Atlantic Command. Tell them they have twenty five minutes to get as many people out of the cities as they can. GENERAL GREY But Mr. President... PRESIDENT And get those helicopters away from the ship. Call them back immediately. General Grey obeys, turning to an assistant who quickly grabs a phone. Nimziki steps up to the President. NIMZIKI What the hell's going on? PRESIDENT We're leaving. An AIDE motions to the monitors. AIDE They're responding. The room goes silent, everyone turns to the monitors. MONITOR - NEWS PROGRAM & NIGHT VISION VIDEO On all screens we SEE the space ship as a long thin line of WHITE LIGHT suddenly emits from the side of the craft, illuminating the four Apache Helicopters. EXT. APACHE HELICOPTERS - SAME The light boards are overpowered by the bright light coming from the space craft. Suddenly with a loud SCREECHING NOISE, the white light spills out as the huge OPENING unfolds at the side of the craft. The four helicopters have to flight to hold their positions, as something powerful emits from the schism in the ship. Then like a gigantic bug-zapper, the four pesky little Apache Helicopters are BLOWN OUT OF THE SKY, one by one. They leave no time to retreat. INT. HOTEL SUITE - NIGHT Mrs. Whitmore packs her bag, as the horrifying image of the destruction of the helicopter replays on the T.V. SECRET SERVICEMAN Mrs. Whitmore? The President has ordered the evacuation. We have to leave, now. She slams her valise SHUT and quickly exits. POLICE HELICOPTER SOARS over us, headed directly for downtown Los Angeles. EXT. ROOFTOP - SAME The UFO true believers are still there, holding up their signs. Making her way through several of them we see Tiffany. She looks up to the spacecraft above. TIFFANY (awed) It's beautiful. She digs her drawing of an alien out of her purse as she excitedly rushes up to the others. She holds it up to the sky, proudly. POLICE HELICOPTER From out of nowhere the helicopter LIFTS up over the side of the building, shining its spotlight down the believers below. POLICE (P.A.) ...we are evacuating the city. Please leave the building at once. The sign holders begin to "boo" the police, ignoring them. EXT. CITY STREET - PASADENA THROUGHWAY - SAME The freeway is packed on both sides, every car headed out of town. There is no opposing traffic. INT. JASMINE'S CAR - SAME Dylan holds Boomers as Jasmine drives. The news plays over her car radio. RADIO VOICE ...authorities have called for a complete evacuation of Los Angeles County. People are advised to avoid the highways whenever possible. JASMINE Now he tells me. EXT. WHITE HOUSE - SAME The President stops on his way to the Presidential helicopter as an aide brings his daughter outside. The President ushers her into the helicopter. He turns back and see a military guard holding back Moishe and David. PRESIDENT They're okay. Let them on! INT. HELICOPTER - CONTINUOUS The President steps inside, turns to General Grey. PRESIDENT Is my wife in the air? GENERAL GREY She should be shortly. David flips open his laptop which reads: 09:07. 09:96... EXT. WHITE HOUSE LAWN - HELICOPTER - CONTINUOUS The Presidential helicopter lifts off as several other helicopters wait behind, people filing into them. EXT. ROOFTOPS - LOS ANGELES - SAME The Police helicopter is still flashing their lights at the UFO believers who refuse to budge. Suddenly the entire rooftop is BATHED IN WHITE LIGHT. They all grow silent staring up at the craft. Above them another SCHISM has opened at the bottom of the craft, the white light spilling out. As though the heavens had opened, the UFO believers lift their arms, waiting to be taken. BELIEVERS Take me! No, take me! Take me! Slowly, this beam of light from the base of the ship INTENSIFIES directly on the top of this building. EXT. HELIPORT - SAME Standing on this rooftop heliport directly across from the UFO believers, the First Lady watches them, concerned. SECRET SERVICEMAN (yelling over helicopter) Mrs. Whitmore! Reluctantly, the First Lady turns and runs for the helicopter. The door is shut and the helicopter takes off. EXT. THE CAPITOL BUILDING - SAME With a ROAR, the Presidential helicopter ZOOMS past, behind it we see an enormous SCHISM opening beneath the space craft. EXT. WHITE HOUSE - SAME Alex is helping people get onto the remaining helicopters. Suddenly he is bathed in WHITE LIGHT. He looks up and sees the SCHISM, its WHITE BEAM coming directly down upon the White House. EXT. EMPIRE STATE BUILDING - SAME The pinnacle of this landmark is abruptly illuminated in WHITE LIGHT. We PAN UP to the space craft above, the beam intensifying from the SCHISM below the ship. EXT. ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE - SAME The Presidential helicopter lands. The President and his group are ushered over to AIR FORCE ONE which stands only hundred yard away. INT. AIR FORCE ONE - SAME The door OPENS and the President and his advisors rush in. David flops down into a seat, quickly flips open his laptop which reads: 00:05, 00:04... EXT. ROOFTOP - LOS ANGELES - SAME As the light amplifies, the believers chant, louder and louder. Suddenly the white light DISAPPEARS. The believers are stunned. In a brief moment it is replaced with a BLAST. A DESTRUCTION BEAM BLASTS down onto the rooftop, splintering everything there, Police helicopter included, into a billion tiny particles. Tiffany is he epicenter, from here the WALL OF DESTRUCTION GROWS outwardly, destroying everything in its path. EXT. EMPIRE STATE BUILDING - SAME Just as the BLAST HITS, the historic building is DECIMATED. EXT. WHITE HOUSE LAWN - SAME Alex shuts the door on a helicopter. As he steps back the white light VANISHES. He looks up as the BLAST replaces the beam. ANGLE - WHITE HOUSE Just as one of the helicopters pass us, the White House SPLINTERS BEFORE OUR EYES. EXT. ANDREWS - RUNWAY - AIR FORCE ONE - SAME Air Force One quickly taxis down the runway toward us. Behind them in the distance we can SEE the DESTRUCTIVE beam GROWING OUTWARDLY from the epicenter. THE CAPITOL BUILDING The WALL OF DESTRUCTION reaches the Capitol Building, fragmenting into a trillion particles. THE PENTAGON Washed under the WALL OF DESTRUCTION, the Pentagon, too, is blown to smithereens. INT. AIR FORCE ONE - SAME Thick with tension. Everyone is white-knuckled, anxious for take off as they taxi quicky down the runway. EXT. ANDREWS - RUNWAY - AIR FORCE ONE Air Force one, full throttle. It LIFTS OFF just in time to miss the WALL OF DESTRUCTION as it rips apart the airport behind them, dangerously close. WIDE ANGLES - WASHINGTON, D.C. We SEE the WAVE OF DESTRUCTION growing outwardly from the epicenter, ENGULFING ALL OF WASHINGTON. Air Force One is just barely making it out in time. EXT. PASADENA FREEWAY - SAME Jasmine's car is caught in traffic just outside the tunneled underpass at the Griffith Park Mountains. RADIO NEWSMAN (filtered) ...My God. It's destroying everything in its path. Widening... Suddenly the radio CUTS OUT. Jasmine turns around and SEES... JASMINE'S POV - FREEWAY & DOWNTOWN Far off the devastation of downtown can be seen. The WALL OF DESTRUCTION growing towards us. Reacting, Jasmine grabs Dylan and dashes out of the car. Boomer follows. Every drivers who can, jumps out of their cars, running in all directions. Jasmine heads for the tunnel. ANGLE - FREEWAY The grid-locked cars have nowhere to run as the WALL OF DESTRUCTION grows out from downtown. All the cars are WIPED OUT in a row, sitting ducks. ANGLE - OVERPASS - BRIDGES Packed with cars. They're quickly demolished as the WALL OF DESTRUCTION blasts by. INT. TUNNEL - SAME Jasmine turns back from the tunnel entrance. JASMINE'S POV - WALL OF DESTRUCTION Ever nearing, only moments away. Jasmine spots an open MAINTENANCE ALCOVE deep within the tunnel. She runs to it, puts Dylan inside and climbs in after him. Leaning back out, Jasmine looks for Boomer who stares at her, wagging his tail. JASMINE Boomer, come. Come boy! Boomer LEAPS inside and Jasmine ducks to the side of the WALL OF DESTRUCTION hits the tunnel entrance, cars are JAMMED TOGETHER, SMASHING into one another. Suddenly the car ARE BLOWN CLEAR THROUGH THE TUNNEL like so many toy Hot Wheel cars. Inside the Maintenance alcove, Jasmine shields Dylan and Boomer with her body. EXT. MANHATTAN - WIDE ANGLE - SAME From a distance we WATCH as all of Manhattan is consumed from its center outwardly by the growing WALL OF DESTRUCTION. Within seconds all of Manhattan is gone. The WALL OF DESTRUCTION reaches its outer most edges and fades away. The SCHISM under the craft slowly CLOSES. The ship now hovers over a completely wiped out Manhattan. SLOW DISSOLVE: INT. BRENNON TRAILER - PRE-DAWN A hand adjusts the trailer radio. RADIO (filtered) ...reports are unclear as to the extent of the devastation, but from all accounts, Los Angeles, Washington and New York have been left in ruins... Russell shoots a worried look over to Miguel. Suddenly Troy moves up to the front on wobbly legs. TROY Guys, I don't feel so good. RUSSELL When was the last time you had your medicine? TROY Four days... five? Troy looks really sick. Miguel is shocked. MIGUEL But I gave you some this morning. TROY I didn't take it. I thought I didn't need it anymore. EXT. DESERT HIGHWAY - SAME The trailer, with Russell's Bi-wing in tow, pulls over. Troy rushes out, vomiting on the side of the road. Miguel comes to his aide. Russell steps out and walks to the curve in the highway. RUSSELL Miguel? Come take a look at this. Reluctantly Miguel leaves his brother's side. POV - RUSSELL AND MIGUEL Below an entire valley filled with campers, trailers and busses. An instant refugee city, if you will, for as far as the eye can see. Spectacular. CUT TO: INT. EL TORO - BRIEFING ROOM - MORNING Thirty-five pilots are being briefed by their Commanding Office, CAPTAIN WATSON who points to a fuzzy photograph of the craft over Los Angeles. WATSON You will be the first wave in our counter attack. Though surveillance satellite reconnaissance has been impaired, we have a fix on our primary target. Steve and Jimmy sit next to each other near the back of the room STEVE (whispered) You won't exactly need radar to find it. Jimmy chuckles. Watson is annoyed. WATSON You want to add something to this briefing, Lt. Hill? Steve smiles confidently. STEVE Sorry, Sir. Just real anxious to kick some alien ass. Everyone chuckles, including Captain Watson. EXT. EL TORO MARINE CORPS AIR STATION - MOMENTS LATER Huge hangar doors open revealing an F/A-18 HORNET, one of the U.S.A.F.'s elite. TARMAC - OVERHEAD SHOT Thirty F/A-18s await take off on the tarmac as Technicians and Flight Crews race for position. ENGINE BLAST The heat waves momentarily obscure our view as the F/A-18s take to the air. INT. AIR FORCE ONE - SAME The President is deeply contemplative. Constance sits down next to him. She knows what he's thinking. CONSTANCE You saved a lot of lives. PRESIDENT I could have evacuated the cities hours ago. (beat) You know, when I flew in the Gulf War everything is simple. We knew what we had to do. It's not simple anymore, Connie. A lot of people died today. How many didn't have to? Constance realizes there's no comforting him. She supports him silently by being there. General Grey comes over. PRESIDENT Any news on my wife? GENERAL GREY The helicopter never arrived at Nellis and there's been no radio contact. The news rocks the President. They both know what that means. GENERAL GREY (cont'd) The fighters are in the air. Whitmore nods and follows the General to the back of the plane. COMMAND CENTER - AIR FORCE ONE Military Command has been set up on Air Force One, a kind of flying NORAD. Military and technical crew are seated at the controls. Nimziki is already there. GENERAL GREY All satellites, microwave and ground communications with the cities are gone. We believe we're looking at a total loss. Maintaining his composure, the President looks up at the many tracking screens. PRESIDENT Where are they? GENERAL GREY (pointing) ETA with target; four minutes. EXT. BLUE SKIES - TACTICAL FIGHTERS - SAME Five F/A-18 fighters move into frame. As we WIDEN we REVEAL a total of 30 F/A-18s in attack formation, destination Los Angeles. INT. STEVE'S FIGHTER - SAME Steve pulls a long cigar out of his breast pocket. STEVE (into radio) Jimmy crack corn, do you have victory dance? INT. JIMMY'S FIGHTER - SAME Jimmy pulls his cigar out. Examines it. JIMMY (into radio) That is an affirmative. I have victory dance. Mmmmmmm. STEVE (filtered) Don't get premature on me, Jimmy. We don't light up 'til the Fat Lady sings. JIMMY I hear you. INT. AIR FORCE ONE - PASSENGER SECTION - SAME Air sick, David holds a "barf bag" as Moishe talks. MOISHE It's Air Force One for crying out loud. Still he gets sick? DAVID Moishe, please, don't talk. Moishe pats his belly. MOISHE Look at me, like a rock. Good weather, bad, doesn't matter. (motions with his hands) We can go up and down, back and forth, side to side... David can't take any more of this story and takes off running for the bathroom. MOISHE What I say? Constance comes over, sits next to Moishe. CONSTANCE He still gets air sick, huh? In all of this I didn't get the chance to thank you two. MOISHE Think nothing of it, Spanky. Constance smiles, corrects him. CONSTANCE Spunky. He told you about that? MOISHE (nods) All he could think about was getting to you. There's still love there I think. CONSTANCE (sadly) Love was never our problem. MOISHE All you need is love. John Lennon. Smart man. Shot in the back, very sad. EXT. SKIES - SAME In the distance we can see the devastated Los Angeles, the space craft still hovering above it. The Fighters zoom into frame. INT. STEVE'S FIGHTER - SAME Steve looks down, becomes worried. STEVE I shouldn't have left her. JIMMY (filtered) Don't worry, big guy. I'm sure she got out of here before it happened. Steve nods absently. STEVE Let's lock and load. INT. AIR FORCE ONE - SAME The center F/A-18 on the radar map begins to FLASH yellow, just under its image. We SEE a video display of its FLIR (forward-looking infrared) targeting system, locked on. TECHNICIAN Los Angeles attack squadron has AMRAAM missiles locked on target. TECHNICIAN #2 Washington and New York squadrons, reporting lock on. GENERAL GREY Fire at will. EXT. STEVE'S FIGHTER - SAME An Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) DROPS down from the underbelly of the fighter, DARTING OFF. Radar targeted, the missile BANKS hard, adjusting. We SEE it is joined by FOURTEEN other missiles, all rocketing towards their target. EXT. ALIEN SHIP - SECONDS LATER The missiles are headed straight for the alien ship. Suddenly about a quarter mile before they reach it, they EXPLODE, as though blown out of the sky. When the smoke clears we see there has been zero damage. INT. STEVE'S FIGHTER - SAME STEVE Damn it! JIMMY (filtered) I didn't even see them fire! STEVE Command, Eagle One. Switching to "sidewinders." We're moving in. EXT. SKIES - SAME In unison these amazing birds DIVE together, realigning themselves into six groups of five, spreading out to attack different areas of the ship. STEVE'S GROUP The first attack group, Steve's, are the first to near the colossal alien craft. Simultaneously they drop their AIM-9 sidewinder missiles. PACK OF AIM-9 SIDEWINDER MISSILES They reach the same quarter-mile proximity and EXPLODE. INT. STEVE'S FIGHTER - SAME STEVE They must have some kind of protective shield surrounding their hull. Pull up. Most of the fighters do, but one is too late and SMASHES into the ship's protective shield. EXT. SKIES - SAME Steve's squadron BANKS hard, skirting the edge of the ship's protective shield. As the fighters approach, the alien ship's enormous ATTACK BAY doors OPEN. Suddenly DOZENS OF ALIEN ATTACKERS dart out towards our fighters. STEVE (filtered) Evasive maneuvers! Check Six! Just moving away in time, our Fighters barely dodge the oncoming enemy Attackers as they FIRE a HAILSTORM of FIREPOWER (tracker bullet-like lasers) showering the sky. As Steve's plane DIVES, an Attacker follows. Jimmy's plane pulls up behind the attacker. HEADS UP DISPLAY - HUD Jimmy's HUD has the alien attacker in his sights. JIMMY (filtered) Got you covered, Stevie. Jimmy FIRES, another AIM-9 Sidewinder TAKES OFF. ALIEN ATTACKER The Sidewinder overtakes the attacker as Steve ROLLS AWAY out of position. Five yards before the sidewinder can get to the Attacker, it EXPLODES. JIMMY Shit! They've got shield too. STEVE'S FIGHTER Banks back around to get a shot. Just as he turns, three American Fighters are BLOWN TO RIBBONS from Attacker tracer fire. The Attackers are in hot pursuit of Jimmy's fighter. The Fighter flying next to Jimmy is DEMOLISHED. STEVE Jimmy, roll right. I'll cover. Jimmy's fighter narrowly rolls away from the tracer fire as Steve fires another Sidewinder, momentarily distracting the Attacker. Jimmy falls in line with Steve as the attackers turn on them. Both fighters jerk downwards at a ninety degree angle at MACH ONE. Narrowly missing the ground, they bank away. The Attackers can't follow. INT. AIR FORCE ONE - SAME Fighter after fighter begin to disappear from the display screens. CONSTANCE We're losing them. PRESIDENT Then get them out of there. Suddenly one of the large radar display maps FIZZLES OUT. TECHNICIAN We've lost the satellite. Before he can adjust, another monitor FIZZLES AWAY. EXT. LOS ANGELES - SAME One by one we SEE the fighters getting TAKEN OUT. Fireballs litter the laser-tracer fire covered skies. STEVE Maybe we can out run them. Follow my lead. Jimmy and Steve bank away from the craft, hit the supercruise, BOLTING AWAY at Mach 2. Both Jimmy and Steve are held tight against their seats, straining against the G-Force. Two Attackers spot them and follow in hot pursuit. Steve and Jimmy are flying at breakneck speeds, the attackers slowly gaining on them. STEVE Jimmy, kick it! They're gaining. JIMMY We're already over Mach 2! STEVE So push it! Readouts show the planes flying beyond measurement. INT. JIMMY'S FIGHTER - SAME As the planes accelerate, Jimmy fights to remain conscious. JIMMY Stevie... I can't... STEVE Jimmy, stay with me. Jimmy slowly loses consciousness. His fighter slows, drifting off to the right. STEVE JIMMY! ALIEN ATTACKERS gain on them. One catches up with Jimmy's fighter and FIRES. JIMMY'S FIGHTER Laser-tracers SHOWER the Fighter. It EXPLODES. Job done, his Attacker banks away, returning to Los Angeles. STEVE No!!!! Steve's Attacker stays right with him, slowly gaining. Steve kicks his harder, keeping the distance. CUT TO: INT. EL TORO - AIR TOWER - SAME A radar OPERATOR spots something on his screens. He turns to Captain Watson. OPERATOR We have incoming. WATSON Friendly? OPERATOR I don't think so. Watson hits an alarm which ROARS. EXT. EL TORO - TARMAC - SECOND LATER A dozen PILOTS race out onto the field, running for their planes. Before anyone can reach them, the sky darkens with ALIEN ATTACKERS who STRAFE the runway. INT. TOWER - SAME Through the front glass of the tower we SEE the Attackers firing. One fires directly at the tower. Watson DIVES for cover as everything around him erupts into a gigantic FIREBALL. WIDE ANGLE - EL TORO The entire base goes up in flames. CUT TO: EXT. SKIES - FIGHTER & ATTACKER - SAME Steve looks down over the side of his fighter. STEVE'S POV - THE GRAND CANYON - SAME Steve HITS THE BRAKES. Surprised, the Attacker SAILS PAST. Taking the moment, Steve DIVES down INTO THE GRAND CANYON. STEVE (to himself) Okay, jerk-off. Let's have some fun. The Attacker recovers, dives after Steve who flies dangerously close to the canyon walls. The Attacker has trouble keeping up with him but does. Steve puts on a clinic in advanced aerobatics, banking, diving, swerving. The Attacker seems to be improving, following closer and closer. Steve ducks into smaller canyons, twisting sideways. Still the Attacker follows close. FUEL GAUGE - RUNNING LOW Near empty. Frustrated, Steve gets pissed. STEVE Damn it! Steve turns down a dead and side canyon. The Attacker is right on his tail. STEVE Let's see if you're fully equipped. The Fighter is on a collision course with the end of the canyon wall. Suddenly Steve yanks his ACES II - EJECTION SEAT. Stave SAILS UPWARDS into the air. The Fighter CRASHES into the canyon wall. The Attacker can't turn in time. He tries to pull up, over it, just misses the top of the canyon wall. As the nose of the Attacker hits the tip of the canyon wall the Attacker is FLIPPED OVER, ROLLING END OVER END over the top of the canyon. The parachute on Steve's ejection seat pops OPEN. EXT. TOP OF CANYON - CONTINUOUS Rolling end over end, the Attacker is banged up BADLY as it finally comes to a stop. Not far away, Steve has a quick, hard, landing. Rolling over, Steve quickly pops the buckles on the chute and frees himself. He stands and looks around. Spotting the beat up and incapacitated alien Attacker, Steve gets an angry resolved look. He marches over to the fallen alien Attacker. He scans it quickly, spots a type of door that has been knocked ajar. With all his might, Steve YANKS the door OPEN. AN ALIEN For the first time we get a quick glance at these aliens, an odd hybrid creature with fluctuating skeletal structure. The reason we only get a quick glance is because the moment it turns woozily towards us, Steve rears back and SLUGS HIM IN THE FACE, knocking the alien totally unconscious. His anger finally subsiding, exhaustion taking over, Steve stands over the craft, slowly withdrawing the prized Victory Dance cigar. He lights it and takes a long angry puff. STEVE Now that's a close encounter. CUT TO: INT. TUNNEL - PASADENA FREEWAY - ALCOVE - SAME It's dark. The hole Jasmine had entered is now blocked. She pushes but it won't budge. Exhausted, she ignites her lighter to get a better look around. As it lights we SEE that we are inside a maintenance garage. Jasmine rushes over to a phone but the line is dead. Taking Dylan by the hand she moves to the large garage doors but she can't open them. She turns around and see a large maintenance truck, a huge land-mover shovel attached to the front. She smiles. EXT. GARAGE DOORS - SECONDS LATER With a ROAR the large door BLAST APART as the maintenance truck SMASHES through. Once out, Jasmine hits the brakes. REVERSE ANGLE - JASMINE'S POV - DEVASTATED L.A. Total devastation. Remnants of cars and buildings smoldering. Three scattered survivors crawl from the wreckage. A nightmare of destruction. The space craft above, slowly leaving. DYLAN Mommy, what happened? JASMINE (astonished) I don't know, badly. CUT TO: EXT. DESERT - REFUGEE TRAILER CAMP - DAY We see dozens of trailers packing up their gear, some already on the road. Miguel talks with one of the drivers, then hurries away, running. INT. BRENNON TRAILER - SAME Russell wipes down Troy's forehead, he's burning up. Alicia brings over a cold compress. RUSSELL You know, you're just like your mother. She was stubborn too. I had to twist her arm to get her to take her medicine. TROY I'm sorry, Dad. (beat; scared) I'm not goin to die like mom, am I? ALICIA You're going to be fine. Miguel comes rushing in, pulls Russell aside. MIGUEL I couldn't find anything. Everyone is packing up, they're leaving. Word is a space ship is heading this way. RUSSELL We should leave too. MIGUEL There's a group heading south, they said there's a hospital just a couple hours away. I think we should follow them. Russell nods in agreement. A knock on the door. Alicia turns to find a handsome young boy, PHILIP in the doorway holding a bottle of pills. PHILIP Penicillin. At least it will help keep his fever down. ALICIA It's really nice of you to help us. PHILIP I wish I could do more but we're moving out. ALICIA (too eager) We're going with you. I mean, we're going too. PHILIP Cool. Alicia nods, smitten. Philip smiles charmingly and leaves. CUT TO: INT. AIR FORCE ONE - SAME Back in the passenger section, the President sits with General Grey and Chief of Staff Nimziki. The Technician from the command module is briefing them. TECHNICIAN They must be targeting our satellites. We've lost all satellite communication, tracking and mapping. GENERAL GREY Have NORAD relay intelligence to our on board computers? The Technician nods and exits. Defeated, the President slumps sullenly. GENERAL GREY We've moved as many of our forces away from the bases as possible but we've already sustained heavy losses. The President nods his approval absently. Coming out of the bathroom, David overhears. NIMZIKI I spoke with the Joint Chief when they arrived at NORAD. They agree, we must launch a counter offensive with a full nuclear strike. Hit 'em with everything we've got. PRESIDENT Above American soil? NIMZIKI If we don't strike soon, there may not be much of an America left to defend. The Technician returns, his face is white with fear. GENERAL GREY What's the latest from NORAD? OFFICER It's gone, sir. They've taken out NORAD. NIMZIKI That's impossible... GENERAL GREY My God, the Vice President and the Joint Chiefs... NIMZIKI Mr. President, we must launch. A delay now would be more costly than when you waited to evacuate the cities! That stings the President. He considers the option. David is shocked. DAVID You can't be seriously considering firing nuclear weapons? CONSTANCE David, don't... David pushes past her. DAVID If you fire nukes, so will the rest of the world. Do you know what that kind of fall out will do? How many innocent people... The General gets up running interference. Constance tries to pull David back. GENERAL GREY (stern) Sir, i remind you that you are just a guest here... CONSTANCE (overlapping) David, please... DAVID This is insanity! You'll kill us and them at the same time. There'll be nothing left! NIMZIKI (interrupting) Sit down and shut up! Suddenly Moishe is on his feet, interrupting. MOISHE Don't tell him to shut up! You'd all be dead, were it not for my David. You didn't do anything to prevent this! As everyone is about to besiege Moishe, the President tries to calm him down. PRESIDENT Sir, there wasn't much more we could have done. We were totally unprepared for this. MOISHE Don't give me unprepared! Since nineteen fifty whatever you guys have had that space ship, the thing you found in New Mexico. DAVID (embarrassed) Dad, please... MOISHE What was it, Roswell? You had the space ship, the bodies, everything locked up in a bunker, the what is it, Area fifty one. That's it! Area fifty one. You knew and you didn't do nothing! For the first time in along time, President Whitmore smiles. PRESIDENT Regardless of what the tabloids have said, there were never any space crafts recovered by the government. Take my word for it, there is no Area 51 and no recovered space ship. Chief of Staff Nimziki suddenly clears his throat. NIMZIKI Uh, excuse me, Mr. President, but that's not entirely accurate. The President and General Grey turn to Nimziki, shocked. SMASHED AND BURNED OUT CARS laying across the roadway. Suddenly SMASH, Jasmine's maintenance truck BLASTS through. EXT. HIGHWAY - CITY LIMITS - SAME With the massive devastation in the b.g., Jasmine drives the maintenance truck down the highway. In the back, the few survivors she's found. In the back, four INJURED PASSENGERS lay across the flatbed as a thin, older man, TEDDY tends to them. INT. MAINTENANCE TRUCK - SAME Jasmine spots a TALL MAN, his closes in tatters RUNNING down the highway, his arms in the air. TALL MAN The end has come! He speaketh his word and the end hast come! Jasmine pulls up along side him. JASMINE Hop on. We're heading out to El Toro. TALL MAN You cannot defy what has come, it is the end! The tall man moves off, screaming to the heavens. As Jasmine watches him drift away she SEES... OVERTURNED MILITARY HELICOPTER Still smoldering from the crash. A woman can be seen inside, still alive. Jasmine jumps out. JASMINE Give me a hand. Teddy joins Jasmine as they pry open the door. Inside, the pilots have been killed, but Mrs. Whitmore, THE FIRST LADY, lays there in great pain, blood across her blouse. JASMINE Let's get her out of here. They erase her from the wreckage, laying her on the ground. Dylan comes over, standing next to his mother. TEDDY She's bleeding pretty bad. Suddenly we HEAR the CLICKING of a rifle COCKING. MALE VOICE (O.S.) Who's got the key? Jasmine turns and see a REDNECK leveling his rifle at her. Behind him a small damaged sports car pulls up, packed to the gills with stolen, looted appliances. REDNECK (yelling to pals) Looks like I've solved our transportation problem. JASMINE Hey, you're welcome to come with us. We're leaving here anyway... REDNECK We're not. Give me the key. (yelling back) Get 'em off. Two GUYS rush from their vehicle over to the maintenance truck, pulling the injured off the tailback. TALL MAN (O.S.) Repent! Sinners! Repent! The end hast come! Running up from behind, the Tall Man comes over screaming. The Redneck turns his gun on him. REDNECK Back off. This ain't your business. As the Redneck is distracted, Jasmine spots the bag of fireworks protruding out of Dylan's back pocket. TALL MAN You cannot go against the word, brother. REDNECK Sure I can. The Redneck SHOOTS the Tall Man. His buddies laugh. REDNECK (cont'd) Now give me that key, bitch. As he turns back to Jasmine, Boomer starts BARKING wildly. Just as he turns to shoot the dog, Jasmine lights a key ROCKET from the fireworks bag. The rocket BLASTS into the Redneck, his shirt IGNITING ON FIRE. The Redneck drops the rifle, attempting to put out the flames, his cronies rush to his aid. Jasmine picks up the gun, moves in on them. JASMINE This "bitch" was born in Alabama with a Daddy who loved to hunt. (cocking the weapon) So don't think for one second that I don't know how to use this. She FIRES the rifle. Quickly the rednecks scamper away. CUT TO: EXT. DRY LAKE - DESERT - LATER Dragging a heavy bundle wrapped in his parachute, Steve marches across the desert floor. The alien ARM/TENTACLE dangles out of the parachute. Exhausted, Steve stops to wipe his brow. He hears something, turns around. STEVE'S POV - THE TRAILER ARMADA Several hundred of the trailers from the refugee camp are headed en mass towards him. Smiling, Steve signals them. The trailers pull up on either side, surrounding him. Miguel leans out of his trailer. MIGUEL (sarcastic) Need a lift? STEVE When I flew overhead, I saw some kind of base, not far. Confused, Miguel checks his map. MIGUEL It's not on the map. STEVE Trust me, it's there. EXT. AIR FORCE ONE - LATER Flying over the desert, Air Force One sails over an immense valley, Area 51 below - hangars, a few buildings, a small air strip, not much. Super: N.I.A. Base - "Area 51", Nevada EXT. RUNWAY - LATER Air Force One lands. Wheels touch down, skid. INT. HANGAR - LATER The large hangar doors open and Air Force One is rolled inside. The President and his entourage are met by a contingent of base personnel led by field operative, LT. MITCHELL. He escorts them to a side hallway. INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Lt. Mitchell walks over to an odd wall switch as the President and his entourage wait in the center of the hall. With a loud hydraulic HUM, the entire hallway begins to SINK DOWN, an enormous ELEVATOR. PRESIDENT Why the hell wasn't I told about this place? NIMZIKI Two words, Mr. President. Plausible deniability. General Grey shoots Nimziki a pissed off look. When the elevator stops, a door SLIDES open. INT. RESEARCH FACILITIES - CONTINUOUS Stepping out of the elevator, they walk into a large state of the art, sterile clean research facility. It is amazingly well staffed and organized. PRESIDENT I don't understand. Where did all this come from? How did this get funded? MOISHE You didn't think they actually spent ten thousand dollars for a hammer and thirty thousand for a toilet seat, did you? The President shoots him a look. They are greeted by a group of SCIENTISTS in whit coats led by, DR. OKUN. MITCHELL Mr. President, I'd like to introduce you to Dr. Okun. He's been heading up our research here for the last fifteen years. Dr. Okun is an odd, hyper-energetic man who's spent too much time in isolation. OKUN Mr. President, a real pleasure. They don't let us out much, you you. PRESIDENT (uncomfortable) Yes. OKUN Well, I guess you'd like to see the big tamale? Follow me. They walk up a ramp at the end of the room. Large heavily enforced doors SLIDE open. INT. STORAGE LAB - CONTINUOUS The group steps inside and nearly gasps at... THE ALIEN ATTACKER Just like the one that chased Steve. The entourage stares in horror and wonder. We can SEE the patch-work repairs they've made on the ship over the years. OKUN She's a beaut, ain't she? Moishe leans close to David and Constance. MOISHE (smug) Never any space ships recovered by the government, huh? PRESIDENT We've had this for forty years and you don't know anything about them? OKUN Hell no, we know tons about them. The nearest stuff has only happened in the last few days. The President slowly walks around the ship as Okun talks. David, mouth agape, just stares at it. OKUN (cont'd) See, we can't duplicate their type of power so we've never been able to experiment. But since these guys started showing up, all the gizmos inside turned on. The last twenty four hours have been really exciting! PRESIDENT (exploding) People are dying out there. I don't think "exciting" is the word I'd choose to describe it! The room goes silent, letting the President blow off steam. PRESIDENT (calming) What can you tell us about the enemy we're facing? OKUN Not all too dissimilar to us. Breathes oxygen, comparable tolerances to heat, cold...probably why they're interested in our planet. (suddenly excited) Hey, you wanna see them? INT. MEDICAL RESEARCH VAULT - MOMENTS LATER The lights slowly TURN ON, illuminated the vault. Okun leads the group to a sealed partition. OKUN This is vault, or as some of us have come to call it, the "freak show." Okun hits a switch and the sealed partition lifts revealing... FORMALDEHYDE TANKS - ALIENS Three dead aliens float in the milky formaldehyde tanks. The murky fluid and condensation obstructs our view. What we do see is not pretty. OKUN When we found them they were wearing bio-mechanical suits. Once we got them off, we were able to learn a great deal about their anatomy; eyes, ears, bipolar digestive system... no vocal cords though. We're assuming they communicate with each other through other means. David cannot contain his fascination. He steps forward. DAVID What kind of other means? Hand signals, body language? OKUN Some kind of extra sensory perception. Telepathy. PRESIDENT Can they be killed? OKUN These three died in the crash. Their bodies are as frail as our own. You just have to get past their technology, which is, I'm sorry to say, far more advanced. The President turns to David. PRESIDENT You unlocked a part of that technology. You cracked their code. DAVID All I did was stumble onto their signal. I don't know how helpful I can be... PRESIDENT Show them what you've discovered. Work together. We've got to find a way to beat them. EXT. SECURITY GATE - SAME Four armed GUARDS watch the gate. An armada of trucks and trailers heads right for them. They move into position to block their entrance as a blue pick-up skids to a halt before them. Steve stands up from the back of the pick up. GUARD Sorry, Lt. Colonel, I can't open the gates without clearance. STEVE You want to see my clearance? Impatiently Steve grabs the Guard by the collar, pulling him over the side of the truck putting him face to face with the bundled parachute in the flatbed. Steve rips the fabric aside revealing... THE ALIEN CREATURE Still unconscious, the alien stirs. The Guard JUMPS BACK, shitting in his pants. Quickly he signals for the other to open the gate. The armada quickly drives past. BLACKNESS Total darkness. Suddenly light pours in as a door is open. We see the faces of Okun, David and three technicians all peering at us with inquisitive expressions. OKUN See the gizmos flashing? REVERSE - INSIDE ALIEN CRAFT Sure enough, tons of gizmos with lights flashing. High tech meets organic organisms. This alien ship looks familiar to our own technology and completely different at the same time. OKUN (cont'd) We've been working around the clock trying to get a fix on all this crap. Some stuff we figured out right away. David climbs in, fascinated. He touches everything. Okun points to everything as he describes it. OKUN (cont'd) This thing we're pretty sure is the life support for the cabin, this do-hickey over here is connected with the engines, this crap...we have no idea what that stuff is for. David is transfixed by it. He stares at the small screens with flashing light patterns on them. OKUN (cont'd) But this over here is clearly what they use to navigate and guide the craft. But David still stares at the small screens. DAVID Someone grab my laptop for me? One of the technicians rushes off as Okun leans close. OKUN Find something interesting? DAVID Maybe. The technician hands David his retrieved laptop which he quickly flips open and turns on. DAVID These patterns here, they're repeating sequentially, just like... David turns his laptop around for Okun to see. The pattern on David's laptop flashes identically as the alien screen. DAVID (cont'd) ...their countdown signal. Their using this frequency for computer communications. It's how they co- ordinate their ships. OKUN You know, you're really starting to make us look bad. The two men exchange a smile. Another TECHY pops his head inside. TECHY (out of breath) They got one! They got one, alive! INT. HALLWAY OFF MAIN HANGAR - AREA 51 - SAME The bundled alien lays on a stretcher that's wheeled quickly into the hall. Okun and his staff surround it. Trailing behind them is Steve, Russell and Miguel. OKUN How long has it been unconscious? RUSSELL Excuse me Doctor... STEVE Three hours. OKUN Get him into containment, stat. RUSSELL My boy is very sick, he needs immediate attention. Okun ignores Russell, hitting the elevator switch on the wall, the room begins its hydraulic HUM. OKUN He's dying out. I want him sprayed down with saline. Russell SLAMS his fist against the switch, the room stops. He GRABS a doctor nearby, gets in his face. RUSSELL My boys is slipping into a diabetic coma. If you don't do something about it right now he will die. Miguel is surprised and proud of Russell as he holds DOCTOR ISAACS, meaning business. DR. ISAACS O'Haver, Miller, come with me. (to Russell) Take us to him. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - MAINTENANCE TRUCK - NIGHT Headlights pierce the darkness as the maintenance truck rolls to a stop. Jasmine climbs down out of the truck, her face ashen. She walks past a sign reading: El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Tears begin to roll from her eyes. We follow her gaze to see... EXT. EL TORO MARINE CORPS AIR STATION - CONTINUOUS The entire facility is smoldering, the last remnants of the fire burning itself to extinction. Jasmine is devastated. CUT TO: INT. AREA 51 COMMAND CENTER - NIGHT General Grey and Nimziki are in a heated argument. GENERAL GREY You were the head of the National Intelligence Agency! You knew all about this. When were you planning on informing the rest of us!? NIMZIKI It had been deemed classified. GENERAL GREY Christ, why didn't you say anything about this when they first arrived? You could have warned us before we launched a counter attack that cost us hundreds of American pilots! Just then the President enters along with Constance and some other ADVISORS. He examines a paper map of the United States, tacked to the wall, each major city circled in black. PRESIDENT Atlanta, Chicago and Philadelphia, destroyed? GENERAL GREY (composing himself) And there are scattered reports of sightings over Miami, Ft. Worth, And Memphis. The President and his team take seats at the large conference table. GENERAL GREY (cont'd) We've learned that NATO and western allied installations were the firs to be taken out. We were next. They knew exactly where and how to hit us. Grey sneaks an accusatory glare at Nimziki. PRESIDENT And our forces? GENERAL GREY We're down to approximately fifteen percent, Sir. (beat) If you calculate the time it takes them to destroy a city and move on, we're looking at world wide destruction of every major city within the next thirty six hours. PRESIDENT We're being exterminated. The room is quiet. Constance runs her fingers through her hair. The door to the room opens and Lt. Mitchell enters with Steve. MITCHELL Mr. President, this is Lt. Colonel Steven Hill. The President quickly gets to his feet, anxiously shaking Steve's hand. PRESIDENT Lieutenant, congratulations. STEVE Thank you, sir. PRESIDENT Where is the prisoner now? MITCHELL We have him in isolation. The doctors are very hopeful he will survive. PRESIDENT I'd like to see him. MITCHELL Yes, sir. The General is concerned but the President is determined. They head for the door. STEVE (to General Grey) General, I'm anxious to get back to El Toro. GENERAL GREY Didn't anyone tell you? I'm sorry. El Toro was destroyed in the attack. Steve is shattered, he had no idea. CUT TO: EXT. EL TORO BASE - NIGHT The injured are gathered around a small camp fire. Jasmine walks up, dumping a box full of charred can goods. JASMINE These should last us a while. As Margaret tries to move, she winces in pain. Jasmine rushes to her aid. The color from her face drained, Margaret looks like she's taking a turn for the worse. JASMINE Don't move. Stay still. Jasmine adjusts the bandages as Margaret turns and see Dylan curled up next to Boomer, too adorable. Slowly he starts to wake up. MARGARET Your son. JASMINE He's my angel. MARGARET Was his father stationed here? JASMINE He wasn't his father. I was kinda hoping he'd want the job, though. Jasmine becomes sad, remembering. Margaret changes the subject. MARGARET So, what do yo do for a living? JASMINE I'm a dancer. MARGARET Really? Ballet? JASMINE (laughs) No. Exotic. MARGARET Oh. Sorry. JASMINE Don't be. I'm not. It's good money. (re: Dylan) 'Side, he's worth it. The bandages changed, Jasmine sits down next to Margaret. MARGARET And when the dancing's over? What about your future? JASMINE Funny, it used to scare me when I thought about the future. (looking around) Guess it doesn't really matter anymore. Dylan comes walking over. JASMINE Dylan, come here. I want you to meet the First Lady. MARGARET (surprised) I thought you didn't recognize me. JASMINE Didn't want to say anything. I voted for the other guy. CUT TO: INT. CONTAINMENT LAB - NIGHT Okun and two Medical assistants examine the alien creature. His arms and chest have been strapped down to the examining table. For the first time we get a good look at the head of this creature, long tentacled-type cords interlocked, covering the face. The doctors attach clamps to each of the cords. OKUN Everyone ready? The doctors exchange nervous glances, nod to each other. At the same moment all they pull on the clamps, unraveling the interlocked cords. As the cords unravel, we SEE that this is in fact a bio-mechanical SUIT as we REVEAL... THE ALIEN Beneath the cords lay the unconscious face of the alien, his skin translucent, his body fluids, capillaries, muscle tissue, alien's skin. OKUN Do we have life support monitors recording? MED ASSIST #2 Yes. If we fuck up it'll all be on tape. OKUN Can we get some ventilation in here? I can't take this smell. MED ASSIST #2 They've conquered space travel but not b.o. As Okun begins to put on a pair of surgical gloves he suddenly grabs his forehead. MED ASSIST #1 You all right? OKUN Yeah. It's just that stink gives me a headache. MED ASSIST #2 He's moving! Instantly everyone's attention is riveted to the arm of the alien as it moves beneath the sheet. Unseen by the others the alien creature's EYES OPEN. Another SHARP PAIN hits Okun who SCREAMS, stumbling backwards grabbing his head. The others turn in surprise. THE ALIEN Suddenly SPRINGS up, the restraining straps SNAPPING. Before Med #2 can react, one of the alien's tentacles SMASHES her across the face. She is sent sprawling backwards. LOW ANGLE - THE ALIEN Standing before her. In a wink of an eye, he ATTACKS, leaping on her. Together they TUMBLE back into a formaldehyde tank. Hoses are ripped from their sides and STEAM pours out. We get quick glimpse of their struggle as the steam engulfs them. INT. HALLWAY - SAME Mitchell leads the Presidential party down the hall. They turn and enter the Medical lab. INT. CONTAINMENT LAB - CONTINUOUS The group slows as they enter the room. They see the containment room through the glass is covered with white steam. Nothing can be seen. It's eerily quiet. Cautiously they approach. Suddenly Okun is SLAMMED AGAINST the glass partition, the creature's tentacles wrapped around him. Pressed firmly to the glass, his eyes are shut, his expression pained, but when he speaks the voice is angry. OKUN/ALIEN Release...me. MITCHELL Open the door. Get him out of there. Suspicious, General Grey stops him. GENERAL GREY Wait. (to Okun) Can you hear me? OKUN/ALIEN Will kill...release me. Now! They follow the tentacles with their eyes, up to the ceiling of the containment tank. Suddenly the alien LEAPS DOWN, startling them, landing before them behind the glass. We see he's holding Okun against the glass, speaking THROUGH HIM. This is the first real good look we get at the this bizarre creature. Everyone in the room is repulsed and compelled by it at the same time. EXT. AREA 51 - NIGHT Through the hundreds of campers and trailers parked outside, Steve runs past until he reaches the open tarmac. A transport helicopter sits on the edge of the landing area. Steve runs up to it and climbs inside. INT. TRANSPORT HELICOPTER - CONTINUOUS Steve quickly starts it engines, preparing to take off. A SOLDIER rushes over to the cockpit. SOLIDER (yelling) What the hell are you doing? Get out of there! STEVE I'm just going to borrow it. The Soldier pulls out his pistol, taking aim. SOLIDER No you're not, sir. STEVE You really want to shoot me? Steve stares the Soldier down. Reluctantly he lowers his gun. SOLDIER Shit. I'm gonna catch the hell for this. Steve smiles and gives him a quick salute then TAKES OFF. Quickly the bird RISES UP and darts off into the night. INT. MEDICAL LAB - SAME The President has moved closer to the glass and is talking with the alien. The alien uses Okun like a ventriloquist's dummy. PRESIDENT Why did you people come here? OKUN/ALIEN Air...water...your "sun." PRESIDENT Where do your people come from? (no answer) Where is your home? OKUN/ALIEN Here...now. PRESIDENT And before here? OKUN/ALIEN Many worlds... PRESIDENT Can we negotiate a truce? is there room for co-existance? (no answer) Can there be peace between us? OKUN/ALIEN Peace? No peace. PRESIDENT What do you want us to do? OKUN/ALIEN Die. The Alien moves closer to the glass staring at the President. Suddenly the President clutches his head in pain. NIMZIKI Mr. President? OKUN/ALIEN We kill you...all. The pain becomes more severe and the President SCREAM OUT. There is general panic as people rush to the President's side. GENERAL GREY (to Mitchell) Is that glass bullet proof? MITCHELL No sir. The General draws his pistol. Mitchell and the other military officers follow his lead. Simultaneously they all begin to FIRE! The glass SHATTERS into a billion pieces. The Alien is cut to ribbons, falling backwards. The President collapses. So does Okun. A STAFFER rushes over to Okun, checks his pulse. STAFFER He's dead. General Grey moves to the President who slowly recovers. GENERAL GREY Mr. President, are you okay? Woozily the President sits up, a strange look in his eye. PRESIDENT He wanted me to understand. He communicated with me. (turning to Grey) They're like locusts. They travel from planet to planet, their whole civilization. After they've consumed every natural resource they move on. And we're next. The President stands with a new resolve. He stares at the dead alien on the floor. PRESIDENT (cold) Prepare a nuclear strike. INT. STORAGE LAB - MINUTES LATER The research staff are working near the recovered alien attacker. Constance comes rushing in. She looks around for David. Through the glass of one of the offices she sees him. INT. OFFICES - CONTINUOUS Holding a bottle of Jack Daniels, David fishes through a small refrigerator as Constance enters. DAVID Just my luck, no ice. CONSTANCE I take it you've heard. DAVID A toast to the end of the world. David toasts her with the bottle, takes a swig. CONSTANCE He didn't come to this decision lightly. David nods, he doesn't want to argue. He smiles cynically. DAVID You still believe in him. CONSTANCE He's a good man. DAVID Better be. You left me for him. CONSTANCE I wanted a career. Didn't you ever want to be part of something special? David stares daggers at her. DAVID I was part of something special. Constance realizes he means their marriage. She's hurt him and can see it. She turns and leaves. CUT TO: EXT. DARK SKIES - NIGHT A black shadow is vaguely seen in the dark night. As we pass some moonlit clouds we recognize the shadow is, in fact, a B-2 STEALTH BOMBER. As we WIDEN, we see that the bomber is part of a squadron of eight. These mighty winged giants fly together in attack formation. INT. COMMAND CENTER - ARE 51 - SAME A tracking screen comes to life, eight blips flashing. TECHNICIAN #1 We've got the AWAC on line. Signals coming in low. The President's group takes their position behind the technicians. EXT. BLACK SKIES - NIGHT The eight B-2 Stealth Bombers break formation, each heading off to their different target destinations. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME On a large map, we see the eight target destinations and the planes heading for them. PRESIDENT Who will we reach first? COMMANDER Houston, Texas. Intercept ETA, six minutes and counting down. PRESIDENT Oh my God, Houston. GENERAL GREY The major cities have been deserted. Civilian casualties should be at a minimum, sir. One map screen, ENLARGES, tracking the bomber on route to Houston. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - OUTSIDE HOUSTON - NIGHT Looters take all they can carry through the broken glass store front. A large heavily armored TANK rolls up front. INT. ARMORED TANK - SAME Nervous military technicians work equipment as their TANK COMMANDER pulls down a periscope. TANK COMMANDER POV - SPACE SHIP OVER HOUSTON Through the periscopes cross-hairs we SEE downtown Houston, the City Destroyer space ships settling in above it. EXT. B-2 STEALTH BOMBER - SAME Silhouetted against the shimmering waters on the bay, they Stealth Bomber can be seen as it approaches Houston. INT. B-2 STEALTH BOMBER - COCKPIT - SAME The flight crew works their computers (similar readouts are seen at command center). The Multi-Function Display (MFD) flashing before each crew member. PILOT We have laser targeting locked. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME TECHNICIAN #1 Target is locked, sir. Do you wish to deploy? Everyone turns to the President who does not answer. GENERAL GREY Mr. President, do you wish to deploy. Still there is no answer. NIMZIKI Mr. President? PRESIDENT (softly) Deploy. EXT. B-2 STEALTH BOMBER - WEAPONS BAY - SAME The bay doors open and a large Tactical Nuclear Cruise Missile drops down, flies parallel with the bomber as it adjusts its radar and laser tracking. Suddenly it SHOOTS OFF. The bomber BANKS AWAY. INT. B-2 STEALTH BOMBER - SAME We see the horizon twisting away as we bank off from target. PILOT She's away. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME On the big map we see one FLASHING target line tracking the missile as it approaches Houston. PRESIDENT (to himself) May our children forgive us. INT. ARMORED TANK - OUTSIDE HOUSTON - NIGHT The Tank Commander readjusts the periscope. TANK COMMANDER POV - SPACE SHIP & B-2 STEALTH BOMBER We follow the Cruise Missile as it guides itself on a direct collision course with the space craft. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME The targeting map shows how close the missile is, nearly on top of the target. Everyone in the room holds their breath. EXT. SPACE CRAFT - SAME The nuke speeds closer. It HITS the protective shield and DETONATES. A FLASH OF LIGHT. WIDE ANGLE - HOUSTON With the B-2 Stealth Bomber in the foreground, the city behind it vanishes in a FLASH OF LIGHT, blinding us. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME We can see the extent of the explosion on the targeting map, tracking it -- an expanding ring around Houston. NIMZIKI (excited) It's a hit! The others are still waiting. The monitor shows the night vision picture of the growing MUSHROOM CLOUD rising above the city. EXT. HOUSTON - WIDE - SAME The MUSHROOM CLOUD engulfs the horizon. EXT. ARMORED TANK - SAME Rocked by the massive explosion, the shock wave ROCKS the armored tank but doesn't destroy it. INT. ARMORED TANK - SAME The men inside are KNOCKED around, hard from the explosion. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME NIMZIKI We got the bastards! General Grey shoots Nimziki a look. The President holds up a hand, silencing the room. PRESIDENT Can they see it? Did it destroy the target? TANK COMMANDER'S POV THROUGH PERISCOPE - SAME As the cloud begins to dissipate we see THE SPACE CRAFT IS STILL THERE, completely unharmed. INT. ARMORED TANK - SAME TANK COMMANDER Negative. Target remains. INT. COMMAND CENTER - SAME On the monitors as well, we can see the target remain. The air is let out of the room, everyone deflated. PRESIDENT Call them back. NIMZIKI The other bombers might have more luck. We shouldn't just give up... PRESIDENT I said call them back. As the technicians call the bombers away, the President sinks into a depression. His last hope of survival gone. CUT TO: EXT. EL TORO MARINE CORPS AIR STATION - NIGHT Jasmine keeps Margaret company as the rest sleep around the last flames of their campfire. From the worried expression on Jasmine's face we can tell that Margaret has gotten worse, her wounds bleeding badly. A WIND kicks up, the sound of an ENGINE approaching. Jasmine squints her eyes looking up into the wind when a BRIGHT LIGHT engulfs her. JASMINE'S POV - LIGHTS - NIGHT Bright lights in the sky growing nearer. Slowly the others begin to wake up, frightened as the lights INTENSIFY. The others slowly begin to retreat but Jasmine stands, staring defiantly. A smile creeps across her face as she sees that the lights belong to... TRANSPORT HELICOPTER The Transport Helicopter touches down and Steve leaps out, racing towards Jasmine. Overwhelmed, Jasmine jumps into his arms. JASMINE You're late. STEVE You know how I like to make a big entrance. They kiss. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY - NIGHT The double doors burst open as the President carrying his young daughter marches through. Doctor ISAACS comes over to them. PRESIDENT How is she? ISAACS I'm sorry, Mr. President. If only we could have gotten to her sooner. The President puts his daughter down as he sees... PRESIDENT'S POV - MARGARET Margaret lays in bed, doctors and nurses surrounding her. Patricia rushes over. ISAACS She's bleeding internally. There's nothing else we can do. Stunned, the President watches as Patricia hugs her mother. MARGARET Hiya Munchkin. PATRICIA Mommy, we were worried. We didn't know where you were. MARGARET I'm right here, baby. Recovering, the President nods for the doctors to leave the room. As they begin to march out, he makes his way over to his wife and daughter. PRESIDENT Honey, why don't you wait outside so Mommy can get some rest. Patricia kisses her mother, says goodbye and leaves. Out of sight, Margaret winces, fading away. The President grabs her hand for support. She squeezes tightly. MARGARET (through tears) I'm scared, Tom. PRESIDENT It's okay. The doctors said you're going to be just fine. Margaret smiles at the man she knows all too well. MARGARET Liar. The look between them says more than any words. INT. HALLWAY - OUTSIDE MARGARET'S ROOM - LATER The President exits the room, overcome with emotion. Constance, the doctors and some medical crew move to comfort him. He holds them off with a gesture. He looks up and sees Jasmine, Steve and Dylan down the hall. He pushes through the crowd and makes his way over to them. JASMINE I'm so sorry. PRESIDENT I just wanted to thank you. You're a very brave woman. Across the hall, Patricia sits in a chair, waiting. Whitmore walks over to her and kneels down next to his small child. PATRICIA Is Mommy sleeping now? PRESIDENT Yes, baby. Mommy's sleeping. FADE OUT: A GARBAGE CAN Topples over with a BANG! A foot steps in and starts kicking trash all over. EXT. AREA 51 - NIGHT David is drunkenly knocking everything over, making a gigantic mess. Moishe comes up behind, restraining him. MOISHE David, David! What the hell are you doing!? DAVID I'm making a mess. MOISHE This I can see. DAVID We've gotta burn the rain forest, Pops. Dump toxic waste, pollute the air, rip up the ozone. Maybe if we screw this planet up enough they won't want it anymore. MOISHE David, you're drunk. David slips, falls on his ass, hard. Moishe helps him back up on his feet. MOISHE I think you better sleep this off. Go back inside before you catch a cold. Slowly David looks up towards Moishe, an idea. DAVID Pops, you're a genius! MOISHE What'd I say? DAVID A cold? Of course. Sobered, David jumps kisses his father and bolts inside. CUT TO: INT. STORAGE LAB - DAY A large crowd has been gathered here at the lab. General Grey and Nimziki walk up to Constance. NIMZIKI All right, Connie, we're here. What's this all about? CONSTANCE I really have no idea. He just said to bring everyone down here. Steve shows Dylan the alien space craft. DYLAN Does that thing fly in outer space? Steve loos up at the craft admiringly. STEVE It certainly does. When the President enters a technician rushes over and knocks on the hatch door on the alien attacker. The door swings open and David climbs down. Grabbing a coke can from the "recycle" trash bin, David places the empty can on top of the alien attacker. David turns and faces the gathering. DAVID Could anyone please step back away from the craft? They do and David nods to a Technician inside the craft. The Technician disappears inside, closing the door behind him. A loud HUM emits from the craft. David has to yell over it. DAVID Lt. Mitchell, would you mind drawing your pistol? MITCHELL What? DAVID From where you're standing, do you think you could shoot that can off the alien craft? Mitchell shrugs affirmatively. David gestures for him to try. Taking aim, Mitchell SHOOTS. The bullet RICOCHETS off the attacker's protective shield. Several people in the crowd dock, afraid of being hit by the errant bullet. DAVID Sorry 'bout that. You see, it's protected by the craft's shields. We can't penetrate their defenses. NIMZIKI We know that already. What's your point? David walks over to his laptop, now connected directly to the craft by cables and starts typing furiously. DAVID My point is if we can't beat their defenses, then we must get around them. David stops typing and stares at his wrist watch, silently counting down. DAVID Lt. Mitchell, would you please try to shoot it again? Reluctantly Mitchell obliges. This time the can is BLOWN OFF THE CRAFT. Everyone in the room is shocked. The Technician re-opens the craft's door and the loud HUM disappears. GENERAL GREY How did you do that? DAVID I gave it a cold. The President is fascinated, he steps closer. Moishe beams proudly at his smart son. Constance is amazed. DAVID (cont'd) More accurately, I gave it a virus. A computer virus. David turns his laptop around for the President to see. GENERAL GREY Are you telling us you can send out a signal that will disable all their shields? DAVID Just as they used our satellites against us, we can use their own signal against them. David walks over to a diagram he's made showing the relationship between the Mother Ship, the Space Crafts and the smaller alien attackers. DAVID (cont'd) If we plant the virus directly into the mother ship, it would then filter down into all the corresponding ships below. NIMZIKI And just how do we infect the "Mother Ship" with a virus? David gestures to the alien attacker behind him. DAVID We'll have to fly their craft out of our atmosphere and dock with the mother ship. Intrigued Steve turns and looks back at the alien attacker, sizing it up. David points to a satellite photo of the underbelly of the Mother Ship. DAVID (cont'd) We can enter here, upload the virus and set off an explosion that could disable it. This would disorient the smaller ship below and buy you some time to take them out. Constance reacts, realizing David's participation in the plan. NIMZIKI This is ridiculous. GENERAL GREY How long would their shields be down? DAVID Once they discover the virus it could be a matter of minutes. NIMZIKI You want us to co-ordinate a massive world wide counter strike with a window of only a few minutes? GENERAL GREY With their shields down it might be possible. NIMZIKI Please, you're not buying into any of this nonsense, are you? We don't have the manpower or the resources to launch that kind of a campaign. (gesturing to the alien ship) Not to mention that this whole cockamamie plan is dependent on a machine that no one in the world is qualified to operate. STEVE (O.S.) I wouldn't say that, sir. Everyone turns to Steve who steps through the crowd. STEVE I've seen them in action. I've watched their maneuvers. With your permission, sir, I'd like the opportunity to try. NIMZIKI That thing's a wreck. It crash landed back in the fifties! We don't even know if it's capable of flying. David turns to the Technicians. DAVID Remove the clamps! Technicians move to the large holding clamps on either side of the craft. With a loud CLANK, the clamps are pulled away. For a moment the hulking craft TEETERS unevenly, but quickly stabilizes, FLOATING ABOVE THEM. DAVID Any other questions? Everyone stares at the floating ship with wonder. PRESIDENT Let's do it. INT. HALLWAY - MOMENTS LATER Constance, General Grey and the President are walking down the hall. Nimziki rushes to catch up. NIMZIKI I understand that you're upset over the death of your wife but that's no excuse for making another fatal mistake... The President whirls, grabs Nimziki and SLAMS him against the wall. Holding him tight, the President gets in his face. PRESIDENT The only mistake I made was appointing a sniveling little weasel like you Chief of Staff. Constance is about to intervene when General Grey stops her. PRESIDENT (cont'd) But this is a mistake, I am thankful to say, I do not have to live with. Mr. Nimziki, you're fired. The President releases him and turns to General Grey. PRESIDENT (cont'd) Organize every plane you can find and get some Goddamned pilots to fly them. GENERAL GREY Yes, Sir. He storms off leaving everyone stunned. NIMZIKI He can't do that. CONSTANCE (amazed) He just did. CUT TO: INT. MILITARY TENT - CONTINUOUS Four BRITISH AIR PILOTS are gathered around a table going over a map. One pilot, REGINALD, is in charge. REGINALD ...we've been told that there may be additional re-enforcement in hiding near the Golan Straights... Suddenly the flap to the tent opens. All the pilots draw their pistols frightening the ARAB PILOT who stands in the doorway. The Arab Pilot speaks quickly in Arabic. REGINALD What the hell's he saying? THOMSON (explaining) Seems they're getting a signal. One Morse code. EXT. DRY LAKE - SECONDS LATER As they step out of the tent we SEE more than a HUNDRED FIGHTERS PLANES from different nations parked around them. They've all gone into hiding out here in the desert, divided into many smaller camps. Reginald and Thomson follow their Arab cohort, walking through the many other campsites. Thomson gets some stares from the IRAQI PILOTS. REGINALD I still get believe this. THOMSON The Iraqis don't appear altogether too pleased with this arrangement. REGINALD How do you think the Israelis feel? Sure enough a campsite of ISRAELI PILOTS sits very near by. ANGLE - ARABIAN AIR FORCE CAMP Dozens of Arab pilots are gathered around a large radio as the Morse code comes through. Thomson quickly kneels down, taking notes. THOMSON It's from the Americans. They want to organize a counter offensive. REGINALD It's about bloody time. What do they plan to do? EXT. ICE PLATEAU - SIBERIA - DAY Several Russian Pilots are gathered around a radio, their dozen MIG FIGHTERS standing behind them. RUSSIAN #1 (subtitled) They claims to be able to bring down their shields. RUSSIAN #2 When do they want to attack? EXT. VOLCANO BASE - FUJI - DAY At the base of a large Volcano in Fuji, several Japanese attack helicopters stand near their pilots, gathered around a radio. JAPANESE PILOT (subtitled) The attack begins in thirteen hours. CUT TO: INT. AREA 51 - WAR ROOM - DAY A large world map has been constructed. Several sites are marked with stickers reading: COMBAT READY. Another sticker is put onto Mr. Fuji. Striding in, the President surveys the war room. General Grey rushes over to meet him. PRESIDENT How're we doing? GENERAL GREY Better than we thought. General Grey leads the President over to the wall map. GENERAL GREY We have confirmed divisions of troops from different armies all around the world. Most of Europe, the Middle East and Asia are battle ready. PRESIDENT And our troops here? GENERALE GREY We've been collecting planes from all over but... PRESIDENT But what, General? GENERAL GREY Pilots, sir. We don't have enough people to get them in the air. PRESIDENT Then find them. CUT TO: INT. BRENNON TRAILER - NIGHT Troy is sleeping peacefully in his bed. Russell sits at the kitchen table as Miguel enters. MIGUEL How' he doing? RUSSELL Just fell asleep. He's gonna be just fine. Join me in a little celebration? Russell holds up his bottle of Jack Daniels. Clearly he's been drinking again. Miguel is crestfallen. Pissed he turns and storms out. RUSSELL Miguel. Don't be mad. Miguel! Drunkenly, Russell chases after him. INT. AREA 51 - REFUGEE CAMP - CONTINUOUS Making his way through the campers, Russell SEES a group of refugees around some MILITARY OFFICERS who addresses them. OFFICER (through megaphone) ...We're planning to launch a counter offensive... Russell wanders over towards them. OFFICER (cont'd) ...with our depleted manpower we must ask that anyone with any flight experience come forward. Military training is preferable but anyone who can fly a plane could be useful... Russell pushes his way through the crowd. RUSSELL (slurred) I can fly, I mean, I'm a pilot. The officer just stares at the bottle of Jack Daniels still in his hand. OFFICER Sorry, sir. Russell gets into his face, desperate. RUSSELL You don't understand. I've gotta be part of this. This is important to me. They ruined my life. OFFICER Why don't you go somewhere and sleep it off. The Officers move on, taking a few volunteers with them. Russell watches them go, dejected. Angrily, he throws the bottle of Jack, SMASHING it. INT. STORAGE LAB - NIGHT A large MISSILE slides back into a LAUNCHER that has been attached to the top of the alien attacker. Some workers PAINT over the patch-work repairs. Below, Mitchell briefs Steve and David. MITCHELL We've hid the launcher in the ship's manifold. Mitchell takes a small black box from a table near by. MITCHELL (cont'd) This will be attached to the ships main console. STEVE It's just like an AMRAAM launch pad on the stealths. MITCHELL Exactly. Use it the same way. Only the nuke won't detonate on impact. You'll have another thirty seconds to get as far away as you can. DAVID I'll see how they're doing with the radio transmitter. STEVE (checking his watch) Oh shit, we're late. DAVID We'll meet you there. Steve dashes off as David moves toward the attacker. Constance has been eavesdropping. She walks to David. CONSTANCE Thirty seconds? Isn't that cutting it a little too close? DAVID We'll be well on our way out of there before we shoot that thing off. David leans under the attacker where a TECHNICIAN is attaching another device. TECHNICIAN It's the strongest SHF transmitter we could get. It'll tell us when you've uploaded the virus. DAVID Then cross your fingers the shields go down. David turns and walks away, Constance following. CONSTANCE With you? I don't understand why you can't just show someone how to plant the virus, somebody trained for this kind of mission? DAVID If anything goes wrong I'll have to think quickly, adjust the signal, who knows? David stops, picking up a small trash can labelled "recycle." DAVID (smiling) You know how I'm always trying to save the planet. This is my chance. David rushes off. Constance watches him leave. CONSTANCE (to herself) Now he gets ambitious. INT. SMALL GATHERING HALL - SAME Jasmine is kneeling as Dylan tries to zip up the back of her dress. DYLAN It's too tight. JASMINE I had to borrow it. I guess that's good enough. Jasmine stands, turns to Dylan. JASMINE How do I look? She looks great. But Dylan only gives her the "so-so" hand gesture. JASMINE You're a lot of help. The door behind her flies open and Steve marches in. JASMINE You're late. STEVE You know me... JASMINE I know, you like to make a big entrance. Steve moves next to Jasmine, takes her hand. STEVE Before we do this, I want you to know I'm sorry. JASMINE Sorry for what? STEVE (serious) I should have done this a long long time ago. MALE VOICE (O.S.) Do you have the ring? As we REVERSE ANGLE we see that we are in a military CHAPEL, a large crucifix on the wall. A CHAPLAIN stands by the altar. STEVE You bet. Steve pulls out the famous "dolphin" ring. CHAPLAIN Witnesses? Just then the doors open and David and Constance enter taking seats on opposing sides of the aisle. CHAPLAIN Then let's get this show on the road. Steve and Jasmine take their places at the altar. Jasmine is radiant. Dylan rushes up and joins them. As the ceremony begins, David and Constance share a pregnant glance. Slowly they reach across the aisle and hold hands as Steve and Jasmine exchange their vows. CUT TO: HANGAR DOORS - PRE-DAWN Slowly spread apart revealing the myriad of different planes that have been gathered. Pilots, flights crews and refugees prepare for the battle. EXT. AREA 51 - TARMAC - PRE-DAWN Walking out the President scans the motley collection of planes; old, new, high-tech, low-tech. GENERAL GREY Beggars can't be choosers, sir. Nodding in agreement, the President walks among the rank and file. Slowly they turn their attention to the President. PRESIDENT Good morning. In less than one hour planes from here and all around the world will launch the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind... (beat) Mankind. The word has new meaning for all of us now. We are reminded not of our petty differences but of our common interests. Constance, David and Moishe join the group, listening. Even David is moved. PRESIDENT (cont'd) Perhaps it's fate that today, July the Fourth, we will once again fight for our freedom. Not from tyranny, persecution or oppression. But from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live, to exit. From this day on, the fourth day of July will no longer be remembered as an American holiday but as the day that all of mankind declared we will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight. We will live on. We will survive. The crowd erupts into applause and cheers. The President turns and walks over to an Officer holding a bundle of clothes. General Grey confronts the President as he begins to disrobe. GENERAL GREY Mr. President, just what do you think you're doing? PRESIDENT I'm a pilot, Will. This is where I belong. General Grey wants to argue but can't. INT. STORAGE LAB - SAME Constance and David embrace as Steve turns to Dylan. STEVE When I'm back we'll light those fireworks. Jasmine hugs them both as Moishe walks over to David. MOISHE David, take these. David looks down at the "barf bags" in Moishe's hand. DAVID Thanks, Pops. MOISHE I want you should know, I'm very proud of you, son. That means more to David than Moishe could have known. CONSTANCE Be careful. Constance hugs David as Steve suddenly freaks out. STEVE Damn it. We can't go yet. I gotta find some cigars. Steve is about to bolt when Moishe grabs him, retrieving two cigars from his coat pocket. MOISHE My last two. With my blessings. STEVE You're a lifesaver. Steve grabs them and climbs inside. David smiles awkwardly, then follows Steve. INT. ALIEN ATTACKER - CONTINUOUS The hatch shuts and David takes a seat next to Steve who hands him one of the cigars. STEVE Hang on to this. For our victory dance. But not 'til we hear the fat lady sing. Reluctantly David takes it. As he does Steve notices the "barf bag" on David's lap. Off Steve's look... DAVID I have a confession to make. I'm not real big on flying. STEVE Great. INT. STORAGE LAB - SAME Constance and Jasmine join the others behind the observation glass outside the room as the Attacker prepares for lift off. Part of the ceiling suddenly PEELS AWAY, revealing an enormous SHAFT leading topside. INT. STEVE AND DAVID'S ALIEN ATTACKER - SAME Strapping in and securing their equipment, Steve grabs hold of the throttle. STEVE You ready? Let' rock and roll. Steve pulls back on the throttle but the attacker swings BACKWARDS. INT. STORAGE LAB - SAME The Alien Attacker SMASHES BACKWARD into the rear of the lab. Moishe winces as the others react fearfully. INT. STEVE AND DAVID'S ALIEN ATTACKER - SAME Embarrassed, Steve adjusts the throttle. STEVE Oops. Like a stick shift diagram of a car, a small hand written "post it" card is pasted onto the dash. Steve reaches over and turns it upside down, righting the problem. STEVE Let's try that again. This time he pushes the throttle forward and the Attacker JERKS ahead. INT. STORAGE LAB - CONTINUOUS Shooting up into the ceiling shaft above, the Attacker ZOOMS out of the underground laboratory. EXT. AREA 51 - SHAFT - SAME With a WHOOSH the Alien Attacker ZOOMS out of the underground shaft and SOARS into the sky. Once high enough it goes into a wild barrel roll. INT. STEVE AND DAVID'S ALIEN ATTACKER - SAME Just as it comes out of the roll. DAVID What the hell are you doing? STEVE Just getting a feel for her. EXT. MORNING SKIES - CLOUD BANK - SAME The Attacker arcs upward and disappears into the clouds. EXT. AREA 51 - THE PRESIDENT'S PLANE - SAME The President watches the Attacker flying away. His canopy locks down as he adjusts his helmet. PRESIDENT Grey, you read me? GENERAL GREY (filtered) Roger, Eagle One, our primary target has shifted course. INT. WAR ROOM - SAME General Grey is standing by the large map tracking the alien ships over the United States. PRESIDENT (filtered) Where's it headed? GENERAL GREY I think our secret is out. They're headed right for us. INT. PRESIDENT'S PLANE - SAME GENERAL GREY (filtered) ETA thirty six minutes. The President gets a determined look in his eye. He FIRES UP his engine. Following his lead, engines ignite, canopies lock down and planes taxi to position. EXT. UPPER ATMOSPHERE - ALIEN ATTACKER - SAME The captured alien attacker soars higher and higher. INT. STEVE AND DAVID'S ATTACKER - SAME Slowly getting sick, David holds onto his "barf bag." STEVE You still with me? David nods sheepishly. Steve's eyes go wide with wonder as the ship climbs to the edge of our atmosphere. STEVE (to himself) I've waited a long time for this. The ship begins to SHAKE, rattling harshly as it climbs. Through the window we SEE the blue sky EVAPORATE. Slowly a field of STARS take its place. This is the moment Steve had wished for all his life. He's not disappointed. David, however, is not so thrilled. EXT. SPACE - STEVE AND DAVID'S ATTACKER - SAME Heading further into space, ZOOMING overhead. INT. STEVE AND DAVID'S ATTACKER - SAME Through the windshield we see a huge OBJECT floating in the distance, the moon behind it. DAVID That's it. Head straight for it. But Steve gets distracted, something wrong with the controls. STEVE Something's happening. It's not responding. David looks over at his laptop, connected to the ship's on board computers. Th signal is ADJUSTING. DAVID (thrilled) I was counting on that. They're bringing us in. EXT. BLUE SKIES - MORNING The President's plane leads thirty fighters in attack formation. PRESIDENT We have visual. RESERVE ANGLE - ALIEN SPACE CRAFT The fifteen mile wide space craft peeks over a mountain range headed straight for us. GENERAL GREY (filtered) Do not engage until we've confirmed the package has been delivered. PRESIDENT Roger. INT. WAR ROOM - SAME Constance is standing by Lt. Mitchell behind the Military cadre coordinating the battle. CONSTANCE What if that thing gets here before we can plant the virus? MITCHELL The entire compound is buried deep within the mountain. It should give us some protection. CONSTANCE But what about all the people outside? Mitchell shoots her a worried look. Quickly they both dash outside. EXT. MOTHER SHIP - SAME Steve and David's attacker flies towards the gigantic Mother Ship. Hundreds of other attackers flow in and out of the Mother Ship through the many triangular portals. Steve and David's attacker's drawn into one of them. INT. PORTAL SHAFT - MOTHER SHIP - SAME Caught in a stream of attackers, they flow through the portal shaft leading into this planet sized space craft. They pass by enormous windows revealing the HUNDREDS OF ALIENS working within the Mother Ship. We spill out of the shaft and into a gigantic cavity stretching out beyond visibility. Enormous TOWERS are scattered throughout. INT. STEVE AND DAVID'S ATTACKER - CONTINUOUS Neither can believe their eyes. Staring out the front window they SEES... STEVE AND DAVID'S POV ALIEN TROOP PARADE GROUND Below them THOUSANDS OF ALIENS can be seen as they are marched into dozens of enormous TROOP CONTAINERS docked at the edges of the parade grounds. DAVID Must be thousands of them. What are they doing? STEVE Looks like they're preparing the invasion. INT. DOCKING STATIONS - MOTHER SHIP - CONTINUOUS They pass the parade ground and head into the middle of this huge cavernous sphere, closing in on the many LANDINGS. Hundreds of attackers are docked at each one. In the center of the Landing are large BAY WINDOWS, inside is a kind of control tower. We can SEE several ALIEN WORKERS through the glass. Steve and David's attacker is heading straight towards them. STEVE This won't work. They'll see before we can do anything. Lifting up another hand written card labeled "window," David pushes the button underneath. DAVID These things are fully equipped. Reclining bucket seats, power windows... A BLAST SHIELD lowers covering the window. Slowly Steve and David's attacker lowers onto large docking CLAMPS which LOCK ON, holding it in place. DAVID We're in! David starts typing frantically. INT. WAR ROOM - SAME Mitchell turns from one of the consoles to General Grey. MITCHELL He's uploading the virus. GENERAL GREY (into mic) Eagle One... EXT. BLUE SKIES - SAME The Presidential attack squadron zeroing in on target. GENERAL GREY (filtered) ...the package is being delivered. Stand by to engage. PRESIDENT Roger. EXT. AREA 51 - BRENNON TRAILER - SAME Alicia struggles to drag out a large duffle bag. Philip (the boy who brought the penicillin earlier) rushes over. PHILIP Let me get that. He grabs the bag for her. Alicia smiles. Miguel helps Troy down from the trailer. As they rush away, Miguel turns to Philip. MIGUEL Where's Russell? ANGLE - HANGAR - ENTRANCE TO COMPOUND Constance, Jasmine and Mitchell are helping to usher the refugees into the compound. CONSTANCE Hurry, we've got to get everyone inside. Constance looks up and SEES off in the distance... THE ALIEN SPACE CRAFT Piercing the horizon, coming over the top of a distant mountain. Headed this way. INT. STEVE AND DAVID'S ATTACKER - SAME David finishes typing. The screen on his laptop flashes: UPLOAD COMPLETE. DAVID The virus is in. All we can do now is pray. EXT. BLUE SKIES - AMERICAN FIGHTERS - SAME GENERAL GREY (filtered) Delivery complete. Engage. PRESIDENT Roger. The fighter jets GUN IT and overtake the smaller planes in front of them. Below the President's plane the weapons bay door opens and a long range AMRAAM Missile DROPS DOWN, computes its target and DARTS OFF. INT. WAR ROOM - SAME Mitchell and General Grey move over to a monitor showing visual from the Present's Plane. They SEE the missile moving towards target. GENERAL GREY Keep your fingers crossed. EXT. AMERICAN FIGHTERS - SAME The pilots watch nervously as the missile nears its target. PRESIDENT Come on, baby. ANGLE - AMRAAM MISSILE Just as it gets to the shield perimeter, the missile EXPLODES. The shields are still up. INT. WAR ROOM - SAME They watch the missile blow up harmlessly. Deflated, General Grey grabs his mic. GENERAL GREY It didn't work. Disengage. Sir, get your people out of there. EXT. PRESIDENT'S PLANE - SAME The President is not ready to give up. PRESIDENT Not yet! Below his plane another MISSILE drops down, and DARTS OFF. ANGLE - MISSILE This one goes past the point of the previous explosion. It moves in closer and closer. Suddenly it HITS THE SIDE OF THE SHIP. A HUGE EXPLOSION, rips off a part of the side of this immense ship. INT. WAR ROOM - SAME We SEE the explosion on the monitor. Everyone in the room CHEERS. GENERAL GREY You did it! A direct hit! EXT. BLUE SKIES - AMERICAN FIGHTERS - SAME The pilots are thrilled. PRESIDENT We're going in! Squadron leaders, take point. The fighters break off into six group of five. One by one, each fighter DROPS A MISSILE. We follow DOZENS OF MISSILES on their way to the space craft. ANGLE - SPACE CRAFT The Attacker Bay doors open and DOZENS OF ALIEN ATTACKERS shoot out. Spreading wide. Guided missiles EXPLODES as they hit the City Destroyer, damaging the outer hull. The Attackers go after the American fighters. The six groups split wide. An aerial dog fight ensues. EXT. AREA 51 - REFUGEE CAMP - SAME Miguel searches for Russell as the refugees run for the hangar. MIGUEL Russell! Miguel gets swept up in the tide. As the last of them enter the hangar, TWO ALIEN ATTACKERS arrive behind them, STRAFING the ground. The rows of trailers homes EXPLODE one after another. ANGLE - ELEVATOR HALLWAY - BACK OF HANGAR Constance ushers the crowd into the elevator hallway. Packed into the hallway together, they are panicked at the sound of the nearby explosions. As the last one is safely inside, Constance turns back and SEES... CONSTANCE'S POV - HANGAR AND ATTACKERS The attackers FIRE and the front half of the hangar EXPLODES. Constance is KNOCKED back against the wall. She activates the elevator and the room begins to SINK. As the hallway submerges, the entire hangar comes CRASHING DOWN behind them. INT. WAR ROOM - SAME Over monitors the General observes the aerial battle. This room, too, ROCKS from the explosions. The monitors FLICKER. INT. STEVE AND DAVID'S ATTACKER - SAME Steve struggles with the controls but is getting no where. DAVID Get us out of here! STEVE I can't shake her free. EXT. STEVE AND DAVID'S ATTACKER - SAME Though the attacker guns its engine, the CLAMPS below HOLD TIGHT. INT. STEVE AND DAVID'S ATTACKER - SAME David moves over to the computer to see if he can help. Suddenly the large window slowly begins to DROP DOWN. STEVE What're you doing? DAVID It's not me. They're overriding the system. The blast shield continues to peel away. David and Steve drop down below the dash, hiding from view. As the view becomes unobstructed we SEE... POV - THROUGH WINDOW - THE LANDING Several Alien's looking across at us from the large bay window of the Landing's control tower. STEVE Damn! David leans from his hiding position and SEES several other alien attackers are moving in on them. They are surrounded. DAVID Check and mate. INT. AREA 51 - RESEARCH FACILITY - SAME Like images from England during the blitzkrieg, the refugees are huddled on the floor, the lights FLICKERING and the muted sounds of distant EXPLOSIONS. Miguel moves through the refugees, searching for Russell. A Yarmulke is unfolded. As it is lifted we realize Moishe is putting it on. He holds the hands with the people around him and begins to pray. Nimziki moves next to Moishe. Moishe takes his hand. NIMZIKI I'm not Jewish. MOISHE It's okay. ANGLE - PHILIP AND ALICIA As another bomb rocks the room, Alicia moves closer to Philip. ALICIA This could be our last night on Earth. I don't want to die a virgin. PHILIP If we do, we'll both die virgins. But at last we'll be together. Alicia smiles, a nice guy at last. EXT. AREA 51 - SPACE SHIP - SAME The City Destroyer space ship is settling just above the compound as the American fighters circle it, chased by the attackers. Below the SCHISM begins to open! INT. WAR ROOM - SAME In all the commotion, no one notices as Miguel sneaks inside. OFFICER We're running out of missiles, Sir. We're just not causing enough damage. EXT. PRESIDENT'S PLANE - SAME GENERAL GREY (filtered) They're getting ready to fire the big gun. You're going to have to find a vulnerable spot, fast. PRESIDENT I've got an idea. Keep 'em off my tail. Taking the advice, the President DIVES. He's met by two flanking Fighters (EAGLES 9 & 2) as they cruise the underbelly of the City Destroyer. Sure enough, the SCHISM is opening, preparing to fire the WALL OF DESTRUCTION. PRESIDENT Let's take 'em out before they take us out. The President locks the SCHISM hatchway into the center of his HUD (heads up display). Just as he FIRES, Eagle 9 is BLOWN OUT OF THE SKY. It rocks the President, sending his missile off target. Off balance, the missile hits just wide of the hatchway and EXPLODES, rocking the entire ship. PRESIDENT I'm out of missiles! Eagle 2? EAGLE #2 PILOT I'm on it. But before he can target, his fighter EXPLODES. INT. HALLWAY - SAME The lights continue to flicker. Jasmine grabs onto Dylan and Patricia, holding them tight. INT. WAR ROOM - CONTINUOUS On the monitor we SEE the SCHISM, and BRIGHT LIGHTS as several fighters fly past. GENERAL GREY We're out of time. Get out of there! Get as far away as you can. EXT. PRESIDENT'S FIGHTER - SAME Pissed, the President refuses to give up. PRESIDENT Doesn't anyone have any damned missiles left?! RUSSELL (O.S.) Sorry I'm late, Mr. President. The President spins and SEES darting out of the clouds... RUSSELL'S OLD BI-PLANE Russell ZOOMS past the President and alien attackers, barely missing their FIRE. PRESIDENT (filtered) Who is that? What are you doing? RUSSELL (into mic) It's okay, Sir. I'm packin'. We SEE he has a large MISSILES propped up in the seat behind him. A light on it flashes ARMED. INT. WAR ROOM - SAME RUSSELL (filtered) Just keep those guys off me for a few more seconds. Hearing his voice, Miguel is shocked. He moves closer towards the monitors. EXT. CITY DESTROYER - SAME The remaining fighters lay down COVER FIRE for Russell's old bi-wing. Russell heads directly TOWARDS THE SCHISM. INT. WAR ROOM - SAME Everyone is gripped to the screen as we see it get closer and closer to the closing bay doors. Miguel is aghast. RUSSELL (filtered) Do me one favor... OFFICER Who is that guy? MIGUEL Russell! Miguel races over to the microphone, attempts to grab it. RUSSELL (filtered) ...tell my children I love them very much. EXT. CITY DESTROYER - SCHISM - SAME Russell nears the SCHISM, a hail of alien firepower erupting around him. MIGUEL (filtered) Dad! No! Russell smiles at b being called "Dad." RUSSELL I've got to, kid. You were always better at taking care of them than I was anyways. Russell turns off his radio as he banks UPWARD towards the open SCHISM. The climb is steep, and the bi-wing nearly stalls out. Suddenly the bright lights VANISH and the beam begins to form. Russell's bi-wing just makes it INSIDE THE OPEN SCHISM and disappears from view. The President and remaining fighters BANK AWAY, clearing. Suddenly, A GIGANTIC EXPLOSION, RIPS THROUGH THE CENTER OF THE SPACE CRAFT. It's causing a CHAIN REACTION of explosion. Teetering, the entire space ship, turns away out of control. INT. WAR ROOM - SAME The room erupts in CHEERS. Everyone, that is, except Miguel. EXT. MOUNTAIN RANGE - SAME Not far away from Area 51, the enormous craft is burning from the center outwards. Suddenly it DROPS and COLLIDES with the mountain range, EXPLODING ON IMPACT. INT. WAR ROOM - SAME Intercepting the celebration, General Grey moves over to a radio technician. GENERAL GREY Let's get on the wire. Tell every squadron around the world how to shoot those fuckers down. INT. STEVE AND DAVID'S ALIEN ATTACKER - SAME Sitting below the dash, Steve takes out the cigars, hands one to David. STEVE I guess there's nothing left to do. Let's nuke 'em. David realizes they're both about to die. He stares at the cigar. DAVID (re: cigar) Funny, I always thought things like these would kill me. They share a quick sober laugh. STEVE Nice meeting you. DAVID You as well. Steve lights his cigar, then lights David's. STEVE Ready? EXT. STEVE AND DAVID'S ALIEN ATTACKER - SAME Popping up from behind the dash, cigars in their mouths, Steve and David start waving "good-bye" like idiots. The Aliens in the tower don't know how to react. The attackers move in for the kill. INT. STEVE AND DAVID'S ATTACKER - SAME STEVE Think they know what's coming? He reaches down to the black box we saw before and enters the launch code. DAVID (still waving) Not a chance in hell. EXT. STEVE AND DAVID'S ATTACKER - SAME Suddenly the missile ERUPTS from behind the manifold and BLASTS into the control tower, SHATTERING THE GLASS WINDOW. INT. CONTROL ROOM - CONTINUOUS The missile SMASHES through the glass. The atmosphere impeached, the aliens quickly succumb to the elements, chocking and dying. The missile BLASTS by WRECKING equipment until it LODGES into the back wall of the Landing tower. A small counter on the missile begins to count down 30:00, 29:00, 28:00... EXT. DOCKING CLAMPS - SAME Rocked from the explosions, the docking clamps RELEASES and the ships jostles free. INT. STEVE AND DAVID'S ATTACKER - SAME Steve grabs the controls. STEVE We're loose! DAVID Doesn't matter. Game's over. STEVE I don't hear no fat lady. Steve THROTTLES IT. The craft JOLTS AWAY. EXT. DOCKING STATION - SAME Steve and David's attacker BLAST away, the other alien attackers follow in hot pursuit. The attackers FIRE. Steve SWERVES avoiding the blasts as they race for the exit. INT. LANDING - CONTROL TOWER - SAME Grasping for breath, a dying Alien looks up at the wedged in nuclear missile. The counter reads: 00:04, 00:03, 00:02. We get the feeling the Alien knows what's coming. INT. DOCKING BAY - SAME Steve and David's attacker just reaches the doorway as the center of the landing EXPLODES behind them. The enormous impact, rocks some of the lagging attackers off track. EXT. MOTHER SHIP - SAME Steve DARTS his attacker out from underneath the Mother Ship's belly. A group of attackers FOLLOW. Just as the last of them exit the docking bay, a HUGE FIREBALL erupts behind them ripping through the Mother Ship. ANGLE - FARTHER AWAY ZOOMING towards us, Steve guides his ship away. The Alien attackers in hot pursuit. Behind them we SEE the ENTIRE MOTHER SHIP EXPLODE. The immense EXPLOSION GROWS OUTWARDS coming right at us. The ATTACKERS are GOBBLED UP as the EXPLOSION WIDENS. Quickly the explosion gains ground on Steve and David. ANGLE - STEVE AND DAVID'S SHIP Like a loose board caught in the surf, Steve and David's ship rides the edge of the explosion, getting knocked END OVER END. INT. STEVE AND DAVID'S ATTACKER Tumbling ass over tea kettle, David and Steve are ROCKED in their seats. Steve battles to regain control of the ship. EXT. STEVE AND DAVID'S SHIP The mammoth fireball reaches the outer edge of its zenith. Steve and David's ship is SPIT OUT, tumbling down towards EARTH. EXT. AREA 51 - TARMAC - SAME The fighters are returning home. Crowd RACE out of the ruins of the smoldering compound to greet them, cheering their arrival. THE PRESIDENT'S PLANE The President is climbing out as General Grey rushes to his aid. Behind him, Jasmine leads Dylan and Patricia, who breaks free and RUSHES to her father. The President sweeps her up in his arms as Jasmine approaches. JASMINE (to General Grey) Any word from Steve? Behind her, Constance rushes over, the same thing on her mind. Before he can answer they HEAR a ROAR above. They all become silent as they turn and look to the skies. ANGLE - BLUE SKIES - FIREBALL The FIREBALL COMET is rapidly shooting down towards us. Suddenly BURSTING OUT OF THE FLAMES, Steve and David's ship DARTS DOWN. Just over the heads of the cheering crowds, Steve and David's ship ZOOMS overhead, disappearing out of sight. EXT. DRY LAKE - DESERT - MINUTES LATER Several army JEEPS race across the arid desert floor. As they WHIP past we see they are headed towards a gigantic BLACK PLUME OF SMOKE in the distance. ANGLE PLUME OF SMOKE The Jeeps SKID to a halt. Jasmine and Constance are the first to leap off the Jeeps. Steve and David walk towards us, cigars in their mouths. Jasmine races over to him. JASMINE You scared the hell out of me. STEVE Yeah, but what an entrance! JASMINE Dick-weed. STEVE Butt-munch. Constance comes running up to David, hugs him tightly. CONSTANCE Are you all right? DAVID Did it work? CONSTANCE You bet it did. She hugs him. They kiss. ANGLE - STEVE AND JASMINE Behind them Dylan, Patricia, the President and General Grey come walking over. The President and General Grey approach. PRESIDENT We're getting reports from all over. Their ships are going down! As they begin to celebrate, they look up to the sky. GROUP POV - BRILLIANT LIGHTS IN THE SKIES The debris from the Mother Ship explosion enters the atmosphere like thousands of SHOOTING STARS. It's an incredible sight. The group stares happily at the show in the sky. Steve takes Dylan by the hand. STEVE Didn't I promise you fireworks? Everyone stares in wonder at the beautiful lights. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Indiana Jones IV.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Indiana Jones IV.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..2782b5e907e0ef75dc3292d483df230b19cad9d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Indiana Jones IV.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +INDIANA JONES IV a.k.a. Indiana Jones and the Monkey King a.k.a. Indiana Jones and the Garden of Life A Screenplay by Chris Columbus FIRST DRAFT 2/10/95 UNDERWATER - CLOSE-UP: A brightly colored FLY, attached to a dangling, fishing line. A large SALMON swims to the fly. The salmon EXAMINES the fly, deciding whether or not to bite. CAMERA PANS UPWARD, tracking the line and moving OUT OF THE WATER. We PASS the crooked boards of a small ROWBOAT and continue to PAN UPWARD. A MAN reclines in the boat. NAPPING. His hands gently grip a WOODEN FISHING POLE. He is handsomely dressed in SPORTSMAN'S trousers and a blazer. His green, tweed fishing hat is lowered OVER HIS FACE. Its brim is filled with various types of TACKLE and BAIT. It is DUSK. A warm, SUMMER evening. The boat rests on a calm lake, surrounded by MOORS. Thick night FOG has begun to settle over the entire area. TITLE: SCOTLAND. 1937. Suddenly, the man's fishing line becomes TAUT. The wooden pole BUCKLES. The man STIRS. He SITS UP, moving the hat from his face. CAMERA DOLLIES FORWARD, into a CLOSE UP of the man. It is INDIANA JONES. His face ANXIOUS... HOPEFUL... Indy begins to REEL in his catch. A VOICE interrupts. In the DISTANCE. MACGOWAN (O.S.) Doctor Jones!... Doctor Jones !... Indy TURNS to the direction of the sound, still STRUGGLING with the line. INDIANA'S POV Countless ORANGE FLAMES sparkle across the moors. The TORCHES are being carried by several members of a small village. The VILLAGERS are gathered behind a group of SIX POLICEMEN. The policemen are headed by INSPECTOR ANGUS MACGOWAN, a plump, balding fellow, with a veiny, bulbous nose, beady green eyes and a thick, curled red moustache. MacGowan SHOUTS to Indy. MACGOWAN We need your assistance! INDIANA (struggling with the fishing line) C'mon, Mac... It's the first bite I've had all week... MACGOWAN Please... It's very importantl... Indiana STRUGGLES a bit longer with the line. But his conscience prevails and Indy DROPS the fishing pole. With a GRUMBLE, he ROWS back to shore. THE MOORS - SEVERAL MINUTES LATER NIGHT has fallen. It is very DARK. A RELUCTANT Indiana has joined the Inspector and the other Policemen. They LEAD the townspeople along the foggy moors. Slowly, carefully, the villagers SEARCH... CREEPING... their faces tense, many unable to hide their FEAR. A summer wind sends an eeire HOWL whistling through the night air. Blue MOONLIGHT bathes the moors, creating stark, frightening shadows. An expression of ANGER and ANNOYANCE cover Indiana's face. He GRUMBLES to MacGowan. INDIANA Do you value our friendship, Mac? MACGOWAN More than me' nightly pint. INDIANA Then this better not be some wild goose chase... MACGOWAN T'ain't wild geese we're after, Doctor Jones. You got me' word on that... (sincere) ...and a MacGowan's word is truer than an angel's kiss! There is a sudden SCREAM! One of the villagers STUMBLES UPON something. Everyone GATHERS around the villager. A CORPSE lies before them. The body has a somewhat rubbery appearance, as if all of its bones had been BROKEN. The man's pale, greenish face is FROZEN in a hideous grimace. Indiana and MacGowan STARE in shock. The villagers WHISPER among themselves. YOUNG MAN Scotty Ferguson. OLD WOMAN He's the eighth. MAN Just like the others...all his bones busted...crushed... OLD MAN Whatever's killin' people around here ain't human. WOMAN (pointing OFFSCREEN) It's there! Again! The woman SHOOTS FORWARD. The police and the townspeople are right BEHIND her. A curious Indiana FOLLOWS. The woman stops in a CLEARING. She is POINTING ahead. The villagers SURROUND her. They STARE ahead, in the direction where the woman points. Nearly a mile in the distance, WE SEE AN ANCIENT SCOTTISH CASTLE. An enormous, 16th CENTURY stone structure. Tall, forboding towers, lined with menacing GARGOYLES, pierce the night sky. The castle appears DESERTED. Its interior is completely DARK, save for a small, flickering CANDLELIGHT. It burns from the castle's UPSTAIRS WINDOW. Indiana gives a QUESTIONING look to MacGowan. The Inpector points to the castle's upstairs window. MACGOWAN That light...only burns after a murder's been committed. INDIANA (nods, turning toward the castle) Let's go. The villagers STEP BACK. Eyes wide with FEAR. Murmers of 'Ain't goin' in there', 'Nor I', 'Got me a wife and kids', are heard from the TERRIFIED villagers. Indiana TURNS to MacGowan. Even the usually sturdy Inspector is TREMBLING. But MacGowan turns to his men, FORCING himself to be strong. MACGOWAN Well... Ahmmmm...that is what we're here for...eh, men?...ah... (points to men) Hennesey... Galbraith... Bottomley... You're comin' with us. As each man is called, the color LEAVES his face. The chosen policemen RELUCTANTLY join the Inspector and Indiana, as they begin walking TOWARD the castle. The remaining villagers and policemen STAY BEHIND. WAITING. The elderly woman KISSES the crucifix that hangs from her neck. She STARES at the departing men. ELDERLY WOMAN May God help them. CUT TO: THE CASTLE DOORS. Two enormous wooden doors, covered with intricate CARVINGS of demons, serpents and gargoyles, adorn the castle entrance. Indiana and the police STAND before the doors. Indy GLANCES to the upstairs window. The candle still FLICKERS. A long, wooden bar, carved into the shape of a SERPENT, is fastened through the metal door latches. It BLOCKS the castle entrance. Indy and the Policemen GRAB HOLD of the bar. It is extremely HEAVY. Using all of their strength, they manage to slide the bar OUT of the door latches. It hits the ground with a THUD, rolling down the castle stairs. Indiana CLUTCHES the rusty, metal door handles. He PULLS. HARD. The doors CREAK. GROAN. And slowly OPEN. A thick CLOUD OF DUST explodes from inside of the castle. It BLOWS OUT all of the torches. Behind the open doors, there is only TOTAL DARKNESS. Indiana ENTERS, holding the flashlight before him. The Policemen exchange FRIGHTENED glances. Inspector MacGowan SHOVES them through the open doors. INT. CASTLE Indy's flashlight BEAM glazes over the castle's interior. It is a STONE PALACE. FILLED with elaborate, antique furnishings, macabre sculptures and oil paintings. The place is bathed in DUST. Thick COBWEBS fill each corner. It is extremely COLD. The men's breaths are VISIBLE. Hennesey RUBS his folded arms. HENNESEY It's deathly cold in 'ere. How could a human bein' survive?... Hearing this, the other Policemen exchange TERRIFIED glances. Indiana shines his flashlight to a TWISTING, STONE STAIRCASE. The staircase spirals upward along a far wall, leading to the SECOND FLOOR. A FAINT GLIMMER of light emanates from the top of the stairs. Indiana moves FORWARD. The Policemen FOLLOW. Indiana ASCENDS the stairs. SLOWLY. SILENTLY. Toward the LIGHT. MacGowan and the others are directly BEHIND Indy. As he makes his way to the top, Indiana examines the bizarre OIL PAINTINGS that line the wall. There are various PORTRAITS and LANDSCAPES, depicting everything from MILITARY BATTLES to SUNDAY PICNICS. But the unsettling quality of the pictures, is that they each feature the same white haired, ELDERLY MAN. Indy COMMENTS to Mac. INDIANA This guy's got one hell of an ego. MACGOWAN Baron Seamus Seagrove III. Some say 'e walks the moors every midnight... others claim e's been dead for years... Indy arrives at the TOP OF THE STAIRS. His hand rests on a SCULPTURE that is part of the bannister. The sculpture is a bust of BARON SEAGROVE. Indiana makes his way to the first doorway, where the LIGHT emanates. The door is WIDE OPEN. A THICK COBWEB covers the entrance. Indy WIPES away the web, and ENTERS the room. The Policemen DRAW their pistols. They FOLLOW. INT. ROOM A BEDROOM. Deserted, except for a few pieces of elaborate, ancient FURNITURE and a large CANOPY BED. Everything in the room is CAKED with dust and cobwebs...save for the burning CANDLE. It RESTS on the windowsill, in a sparkling, sterling silver holder. It bathes the room in ORANGE LIGHT. Indiana walks TOWARD the candle. Arm outstreched, he prepares to LIFT it. The Policeman WATCH. SHIVERING. SILENT. Tightly gripping their PISTOLS. Indy's fingers are INCHES from the candlestick. SUDDENLY... There is a LOUD WHOOSH! The candle GOES OUT! Indiana DROPS his flashlight. There is TOTAL DARKNESS. We hear the distant, MANICAL LAUGH of a man. It ECHOES through the castle. Indy retrieves the flashlight, clicking it back ON. The candle has DISAPPEARED! The laugh has SOBSIDED. MacGowan LOOKS at his men. A TROOBLED look covers the Inspector's face. MacGowan's eyes DART about the room. Hennesy is GONE! MACGOWAN Hennesey?... Hennesey?... GALBRAITH (panic) 'E was standin' right 'ere! Just a second ago... Standin' right beside me!... THE SOOND OF A BELL! A thick, dull RINGING! In the DISTANCE! It sends a CHILL through the men. Indiana DARTS out of the room. FOLLOWING the sound. The Policemen are right BEHIND HIM. INT. CASTLE Indy and the Police HURRY down the stairs. The ringing bell CONTINUES. MacGowan is CALLING for Hennesey. Indy DASHES to a door along the far wall. He OPENS it. It leads into a DARK BASEMENT. The sound of the ringing bell echoes from INSIDE. Indiana ENTERS, motioning for the others to FOLLOW. INT. BASEMENT A decrepit, narrow, wooden STAIRWAY leads into the basement. Indy holds tightly to his FLASHLIGHT. The Policemen are CLUSTERED behind him, taking each step with extreme caution. The boards CREAK and GROAN with their every move. MacGowan LEANS to his side, calling for Hennesey. MacGowan's weight causes the rotted bannister to SNAP IN TWO! He LOSES his footing! FALLING off the side of the stairs! Indiana's arm SHOOTS OUT! GRABBING HOLD of MacGowan's collar. Indy PULLS MacGowan back to SAFETY. MacGowan CATCHES his breath. SHAKING. MACGOWAN Thanks for catchin' me. INDIANA I'd rather be catchin' trout. They CONTINUE down the stairs, arrivifig at the bottom. It is a large, MUSTY STONE BASEMENT. The slimy walls are covered with a GREEN MOSS. There are several DOORS along the basement wall. The sound of the ringing bell is much LOUDER down here. Indiana moves to the FIRST DOOR. He REACHES for the handle. The Policemen DRAW their pistols. Indy OPENS the door. A LARGE OBJECT SHOOTS OUT FROM INSIDE! Rolling TOWARD the men! The policemen FIRE their guns. SEVERAL SHOTS ring out. The object comes to a STOP. A DEEP RED LIQUID pours out onto the floor. Indy DIPS his finger into the liquid. He TASTES. INDIANA Interesting blood type... The Policemen STARE. WIDE EYED. Indy SMILES. INDIANA Cabernet sauvignon. 1897. Indy's flashlight beam shines ahead, ILLUMINATING the 'mysterious object', a WINE BARREL. And inside the room, is a deserted WINE CELLAR. Suddenly, a LOUD CREAK echoes through the basement. Galbraith CRIES OUT. GALBRAITH (pointing OFF SCREEN) Look! Everyone TURNS. A large STONE DOOR, built into the wall, slowly OPENS. Indy and the police stare in AMAZEMENT. The door STOPS. Wide OPEN. A FLICKERING LIGHT glimmers from inside. Indiana WALKS to the opening. He PEERS into the opening. The Police stay a FEW STEPS behind. BEHIND THE DOOR A FAMILY CRYPT. Stone COFFINS, with glass covered tops, line the crypt walls. Macabre, ghastly RELIGIOUS STATUES decorate the room. Countless DEATH MASKS cover the ceiling, all carved with that same frighteningly familiar face... BARON SEAGROVE! CAMERA DOLLIES to the far corner of the crypt. It STOPS on a CLOSE-UP of the CANDLESTICK! The EXACT candle from upstairs! Still BURNING! It rests on one of the coffin's GLASS TOPS. A TREMBLING MacGowan steps back, away from the crypt. Be BLURTS an order to his men. MACGOWAN Galbraith... You come with me! We'll search for Hennesey... Out here! Bottomley... You go with Doctor Jones... (finger shaking, points to inside of crypt) In there. MacGowan and Galbraith nearly fall over each other as they SCRAMBLE away from the crypt. The two DASH OFF into another section of the basement. Indy SHAKES his head. He ENTERS the crypt. A reluctant and very frightened Bottomley FOLLOWS. INT. CRYPT Indy's flashlight beam dances across the glass COFFIN TOPS. Decayed CORPSES smile from inside, their hands tightly clutching crucifixes. Bottomley is HORRIFIED by the sights. Indiana continues AHEAD. He PASSES the burning candle, moving further into the darkness of the crypt. The shivering Bottomley stays directly BEHIND Indy. With their every step, the bell's ringing grows LOUDER... LOUDER... Indiana and Bottomley arrive in a circular CHAMBER, located at the far end of the crypt. Here, the ringing bell is nearly DEAFENING. The sound echoes from ABOVE. We are on the floor of the BELL TOWER. Indiana SHINES his flashlight UPWARD. The beam stops on a RINGING BELL that hangs SEVERAL FEET in the air. Inside of the bell, dangling by his feet, is the DEAD BODY of HENNESEY! He has REPLACED THE BELL CLAPPER! His body SWINGS back and forth. It SLAMS into the sides of the bell. Causing the DULL RINGING. Bottomley SCREAMS. Indiana GRABS Bottomley's arm. INDIANA Let's get outta' here. Indy and Bottomley TURN to the crypt door. It begins to CLOSE! The two men DASH FORWARD. The door CONTINUES to close. Indy and Bottomley are only INCHES away...when the door SLAMS SHUT! They PUSH and KICK at the door. NO GOOD. It WON'T BUDGE. A PANICKED Bottomley calls for help. BOTTOMLEY Inspector MacGowan! Galbraith! Open the door! Using his flashlight, Indy SCANS the door, looking for a CRACK, another way OUT. Indy NUDGES Bottomley. INDIANA (motioning to candle) I need more light. Bottomley HURRIES to the candle. He REACHES OUT. There is a LOUD WHOOSH! The candle flame GOES OUT! Followed by TOTAL DARKNESS! Indy TURNS from the door. INDIANA Bottomley?... NO answer. Indy SHINES his flashlight toward the area. The candle is GONE. There is NO SIGN of Bottomley. Indiana takes a STEP FORWARD. INDIANA Bottomley?... AGAIN, no answer. Indy SWEEPS the flashlight beam across the room. It PASSES one of the coffins...then SHOOTS BACK! Indy is met with a SHOCKING SIGHT! BOTTOMLEY LIES INSIDE THE COFFIN! DEAD! His face twisted in a GHOULISH SMILE. All of his bones BROKEN. His hands are wrapped around a CRUCIFIX. Indy STARES in horror. There is a SOUND. FOOTSTEPS. There is SOMEONE ELSE in here. Indy's flashlight beam DARTS around the crypt. There is NO SIGN of anyone. INDIANA Who is it?... Who's there?... The same crazed LAUGH of a man echoes through the crypt. A CHILLED Indy TURNS BACK to the door. He is startled to find the crypt door COVERED WITH A THICK SHEET OF ICE! Indy REACHES OUT. He TOUCHES the sparkling, green ice. He SNAPS back his hand. His fingers are BURNT. INT. BASEMENT MacGowan and Galbraith are OUTSIDE of the crypt door. They PULL at the door's metal handles. Trying to OPEN IT. But the door WON'T MOVE. MacGowan CALLS through the door. MACGOWAN Doctor Jones! Try to push! INT. CRYPT Indy ANSWERS, taking a STEP BACK. INDIANA Can't! There's some kinda' hot ice coverin' the... Indiana suddenly FALLS! The floor has DISAPPEARED FROM BENEATH HIM! Indy manages to GRAB HOLD of a stone coffin. His fingers tightly GRIP the coffin's edge. Indiana LOOKS DOWN. Beneath him, is a SEVERAL HUNDRED FOOT DROP INTO TOTAL DARKNESS! Indy tries to PULL HIMSELF UP. The coffin's ancient stone begins to CRUMBLE. Large chunks and pieces FALL from Indy's grasp. He is LOSING HIS GRIP. Seconds before he plummets into the abyss, Indiana REACHES inside of the coffin. He clutches onto a CORPSE'S ARM! Using the arm, Indy SWINGS DOWNWARD. INT. ABYSS At the precise moment, Indiana RELEASES the dead arm. He LANDS on a ROCKY LEDGE. Located only a few feet BELOW the open crypt floor. Indy STANDS on the ledge. SAFE. He SMILES. RELIEVED. Suddenly, the ledge SNAPS! Indiana FALLS! His body DROPS hundreds of feet into the blackness. A MOMENT passes. Then... WE HEAR A SPLASH! BOTTOM OF THE HOLE! A POOL OF WATER! Surrounded by rocky, cavernous WALLS. Indiana's hat FLOATS on the water's surface. Indy POPS OUT of the water, bobbing up beside the hat. Indy REACHES for the hat. Suddenly, a FISH flaps out of the water. The fish GOBBLES UP one of the hat's live baits and disappears back underwater. Indy SMIRKS. INDIANA NOW they bite! Indy attempts to PULL himself out of the water. There is a LOUD SOUND. Grinding METAL. Rattling CHAINS. Indy's eyes DART to his side. TWO HORIZONTAL METAL GATES EJECT FROM THE CAVERN WALLS! They SHOOT across the water! Like LIGHTNING! They're headed TOWARD each other... and Indy's HEAD! Indy DIVES underwater. THE GATES SNAP SHUT! Less than an INCH above the water's surface! Indy ATTEMPTS to resurface. The closed gate STOPS HIM. He CLUTCHES the grating, trying to MOVE the gate. It's TOO STRONG! Indy STRUGGLES for air. NO GOOD. There isn't enough SPACE. He's going to DROWN! UNDERWATER In desperation, Indy SWIMS downward. Looking for an ALTERNATE ESCAPE. But there is NO BOTTOM in sight. Indy's eyes BULGE. His face loses COLOR. Only a few precious SECONDS OF LIFE remain...when suddenly, he SPOTS SOMETHING. A SMALL TUNNEL. Built into the CAVERN WALL. Indiana hurriedly SWIMS to the tunnel. He BOLTS inside. A WATER FOUNTAIN. A large, THREE TIERED stone structure. Instead of the familiar carvings of angels and beautiful maidens, this fountain is surrounded with water spewing DEMONS, GARGOYLES and hellish BEASTS. CAMERA DOLLIES TO A LARGE METAL DRAIN, located inside of the fountain's base. The drain cover begins to TURN. Suddenly FLIPPING OPEN! Indiana CRAWLS out of the opening. He GULPS at the air. COLOR returns to his face. LIFE returns to his body. Indy RISES to his feet. He finds himself STANDING in the fountain. INDY'S POV He is inside of a BANQUET ROOM. The sprawling room is beautifully DECORATED in Victorian dignity. The room is IMMACULATE. Not one SPECK of dust. Two Medieval SUITS OF ARMOR adorn one wall. A gargantuan crystal CHANDELIER hangs above a long, mahogany BANQUET TABLE. At the far end of the table, sits a shriveled, white haired ELDERLY MAN. It is BARON SEAMUS SEAGROVE III, the fellow whose likeness appeared in every piece of artwork. Baron Seagrove is CALMLY eating his dinner. A bloated ROASTED PIG rests on a silver platter before him. The same candle we saw burning in the upstairs room and the family crypt, now RESTS on the table. Directly BESIDE the Baron. Two powerful, muscular MASTIFFS are tied to Baron Seagrove's chair. Teeth BARED. Eyes AELAZE. The hounds FIGHT for a scrap of meat. Indiana stares in BEWILDERMENT at the new surroundings. He STEPS OUT of the fountain. Baron Seagrove seems UNAWARE of Indy's presense. Indiana WALKS TOWARD the Baron. INDIANA Excuse me, sir...? Hello...? Baron Seagrove DOES NOT look up from his plate. Indy moves CLOSER. He speaks LOUDER. INDIANA Canyou hear me?... CLOSE-UP: BENEATH THE TABLE Baron seagrove's hand nonchalantly UNTIES the Mastiff's bindings. INDIANA still WALKS toward the table. The Baron continues to IGNORE him. Indy is ANNOYED. INDIANA Listen, pal... There are two dead Policemen upstairs and... The Mastiffs LEAP forward. COMING at Indiana. He tries to GET AWAY. TOO SLOW. The hounds are UPON HIM. TEARING. CLAWING. BITING. They DRAG Indy to the floor. Baron Seagrove continues to ENJOY his dinner, seemingly OBLIVIOUS to the scene before him. Indiana FIGHTS for his life. The VICIOUS dogs tear at his clothing and skin. Indy SPOTS something. On the wall ABOVE. Hanging amidst a display of stuffed animal heads, is a HUNTER'S TRUMPET. Indy STRUGGLES to his knees. Trying to REACH for the horn. But the dogs are still BITING. CLAWING. WEAKENING Indiana. Indy's fingers are INCHES from the horn. The Mastiffs' sharp claws RIP at his arm. But Indy manages to SNATCH the trumpet. He quickly moves the horn to his LIPS. He BLOWS. HARD. A HIGH, PIERCING NOTE fills the air. The dogs respond to the SOUND. They HALT. STOPPING their attack. For a MOMENT. Tattered and bruised, Indiana LEAPS to his feet. He DROPS the horn. He RUNS. The Mastiffs come to their SENSES. They DART after Indy. Mouths FOAMING. Baron Seagrove continues to DINE, still IGNORING the action. Indy runs to a VELVET CURTAIN. He GRABS HOLD of a long, thick rope that is attached to the curtain. Indiana TEARS the curtain from the wall. A large STAINED GLASS WINDOW is behind the curtain. The FIRST MASTIFF leaps at Indy. Indiana quickly DRAPES the curtain OVER the hound. Indy ties a large KNOT in the open curtain end. The dog is TRAPPED. Indy TURNS. The SECOND MASTIFF is only a FEW FEET AWAY. BARRELLING toward Indy. Indiana HOPS to the window ledge. He OPENS the window. The Mastiff LEAPS UPWARD! Indiana JUMPS OUT OF THE WINDOW! The dog FOLLOWS Indy, also JUMPING OUT OF THE WINDOW! EXT. WINDOW The Mastiff FALLS. Flying hundreds of feet into the ROCKY WATERS BELOW. The hound's vicious howl FADES. CAMERA PANS from the water and STOPS ON INDIANA JONES! Indy has OUTSMARTED the Mastiff. Be HANGS onto the swinging WINDOW FRAME. SAFE. He LEAPS back inside the room. INT. BANQUET ROOM Baron Seagrove pours himself a glass of WINE. A very ANGRY Indiana walks toward the Baron. INDIANA Chow time's over, mister. You better start talkin'. The Baron still IGNORES Indiana. INDIANA There's a lot of strange things happening around here... A SUIT OF ARMOR, located a few feet behind Indy, suddenly TWITCHES. Its arm LOWERS. Its head slowly TURNS. Indiana still walks TOWARD the Baron, who is only concerned with spreading butter on his bread. Indy SHOUTS. INDIANA ...and I want some answers! Do you hear me? (louder) I want some answers! Now! There is a LOUD CREAK OF METAL. A huge, sharp BATTLE AXE SHOOTS INTO FRAME! SWINGING toward Indy's head! Indiana SPINS. The axe is only INCHES from his face. Indy LEAPS BACK. WHOOSH! The axe SLICES through the air. JUST MISSING Indy. The shaken Indiana is SHOCKED to see A GLISTENING, BLACK SUIT OF ARMOR! The black knight is nearly SEVEN FEET TALL! It has COME TO LIFE and is walking TOWARD Indy. The black knight is WILDLY swinging the battle axe. Indiana continues to STEP BACK... BACK... Unbeknownst to Indy, his steps are leading him toward ANOTHER SUIT OF ARMOR! Also over seven feet tall, this armor is made of a SILVERY, WHITE METAL! As Indy moves CLOSER, the WHITE KNIGHT OPENS ITS ARMS! When Indy is within reach, the white knight LOCKS its powerful arms around Indy's chest! Indiana TRIES to break free. NO GOOD. The white knight's grip is TOO TIGHT. Indy is TRAPPED! The black knight still COMES TOWARD Indiana. Its frenzied axe SWINGS back and forth. Indy still STRUGGLES with the white knight's bone crunching grip. The black knight is only a FEW FEET from Indy. Its deadly axe blade INCHES from Indy's face. Indiana MOVES FAST. He JERKS his body forward. This FLIPS the white knight off its feet! OVER Indy's head. The white knight FLIES INTO the black knight. CRASH! This sends both knights FALLING to the floor. Indiana SHOOTS to his feet. The two knights LEAP to their feet. They CHASE Indy. The black knight armed with his AXE, the white knight armed with a long, sharp SWORD! Baron Seagrove SPOONS another helping of boiled potatoes onto his plate. Indy snatches a SHIELD and SWORD from a nearby wall display. Ready to FIGHT. The knights are UPON HIM. Indiana battles BOTH knights. He DEFENDS the bludgeoning battle axe with his shield, and SWORDFIGHTS the other knight! THRASH! CLANG! The sound of HEAVY METAL fills the room! Indy's sword STRIKES the white knight's thick chest. The sword SNAPS IN TWO. In the confusion, Indy's shield is KNOCKED from his hand by the powerful battle axe. Indy is DEFENSLESS. The two metal giants RAISE their weapons. HIGH. AIMING for Indy's head. The two knights SWING! Indy DIVES to the floor! The knights CAN'T STOP their weapons in time... CRUNCH! They deliver a HARD BLOW to each other! The woozy knights WOBBLE and SPIN. In a momentary DAZE. Indiana JUMPS to his feet. The BLACK KNIGHT hisses. FURIOUS. He DASHES after Indiana. The WHITE KNIGHT is still REELING from the blow. Seeing the black knight in HOT PURSUIT, Indy searches for a WEAPON. He spots the curtain's long, thick ROPE. LYING on the floor. The black knight is nearly UPON Indy. AXE RAISED! Indiana GRABS the rope. He SPINS. FACING the knight. Indy SNAPS HIS WRIST! A LOUD CRACK! The rope SHOOTS FORWARD! Not unlike Indiana's familiar WHIP! The rope WRAPS itself around the black knight's neck. Indy JERKS the whip forward. HARD. This sends the knight FLYING THROUGH THE AIR! The knight crashes into the stone FOONTAIN! Several of the fountain's sculptures SHATTER into pieces. The dazed, dented black knight ATTEMPTS to stand...but LOSES his footing. The knight FALLS backward. Into the fountain's WIDE DRAIN OPENING! Its HEAVY ARMOR causes the knight to SINK. DISAPPEARING into the hole. Into the POOL OF WATER. Indy CATCHES HIS BREATH. The white knight's SWORD SWINGS INTO FRAME! SLICING through Indiana's jacket! Indy JUMPS BACK. The vicious white knight COMES toward him. Indiana TURNS to run. Finding himself at the BANQUET TABLE. Face to face with the ROASTED PIG. A few feet away, Baron Seagrove CONTINUES to dine. The white knight raises his sword ABOVE Indy. WHOOSH! The sword begins to swing DOWN! Indiana DUCKS and DODGES the deadly blows. Instead of carving Indiana, the knight's sword manages to SLICE perfect sections of the roasted pig. The satisfied Baron HELPS HIMSELF to a freshly carved slice of pork. Indiana LEAPS onto the table top. Trying to ESCAPE the living suit of armor. But the white knight CLIMBS up onto the table. FOLLOWING Indy. The sword slashing knight PURSUES Indy along the table top. Indy GLANCES upward. To the heavy CHANDELIER. Indy SMILES. A PLAN. He continues to STEP BACKWARD. Leading the knight DIRECTLY BELOW the chandelier. At the precise moment, Indy picks up a STERLING SILVER PLATE from the table top. Indy WHISKS the plate in the air. Toward the ROPE that holds the chandelier. The spinning plate SEVERS the rope. The chandelier FLIES DOWNWARDl! CRASHING ON TOP of the white knight! The knight lies BENEATH the chandelier. MOTIONLESS. The sword DROPS from its lifeless hand. Onto the TABLE TOP. Indy takes the knight's SWORD. Eyes on FIRE, sword OUTSTRETCHED, Indiana WALKS across the table top. HEADED for Baron Seagrove. The Baron prepares to take ANOTHER BITE of his food. THE SWORD SHOOTS INTO FRAME! The tip of the blade RESTS upon Baron Seagrove's rubbery throat. Indiana SNARLS. INDIANA Haven't you had enough? Baron Seagrove finally LOOKS at Indiana. The Baron LOWERS his fork. His face twists into an EERIE GRIN. He begins LAUGHING. It's the SAME MANIACAL LAUGH we heard earlier. Indy responds by BLOWING OUT the flame of the mysterious candle. The room's door BURSTS OPEN! INSPECTOR MACGOWAN and GALBRAITH dash inside. They HURRY to Baron Seagrove. Their PISTOLS aimed at him. Galbraith HANDCUFFS the Baron. MacGowan looks at the BRUISED, BLOODIED and TATTERED Indiana Jones. MACGOWAN Now you can get back to your fishing, Doctor Jones. INDIANA No chance, Mac. My plane leaves in the morning. Vacation's over. Gotta' get back to school. MACGOWAN (shakes his head) 'Tis a shame to go home empty handed... (smiles, an idea) Tell ya' what, my friend... I fancy me'self quite the fisherman... Tomorrow, I'll go out and catch you a real beauty, eh?... INDIANA (sarcastic smirk) Right. Send it to me airmail. MACGOWAN (incredulous) Doctor Jones! A MacGowan's word is truer than... INDIANA Yeah, yeah...an angel's kiss. I know. They EXIT the room. EXT. CASTLE The villagers SURROUND the castle. Their BRIGHT TORCHES are raised high in the air. Baron Seagrove is LED out of the castle by Indiana and the Police. The crowd begins to WHISPER. ANXIOUS. EXCITED. As the Baron is led to the POLICE VEHICLE, he turns and LOOKS at Indy. The Baron speaks in a TREMBLING, RASPY voice. His eyes are WILD. BARON SEAGROVE No...jail...can...hold...me. A CHILL rushes through Indiana. The Baron turns, CONTINUING to the Police wagon. One of the villagers SHOUTS. VILLAGER 'E's done it! Indiana Jones has captured the killer! The crowd CHEERS. Indiana gives a HUMBLE NOD and WAVE. MacGowan SHAKES Indy's hand. Indy glances to the POLICE VEHICLE. INDY'S POV Baron Seagrove CLIMBS into the back compartment of the police vehicle. Galbraith CLOSES the vehicle doors. The Baron is still VISIBLE through the vehicle's windows. He LIGHTS a cigarette. It appears that the MATCH FLAME SHINES THROUGH THE BARON'S BODY! It's as if he were a GHOST! Indiana TURNS to the others. Eyes WIDE. SHOCKED. But it is obvious that NO ONE else has SEEN the apparition. MacGowan notices the PALE expression on Indy's face. MACGOWAN What is it, man? You look as if you've seen a screamin' banshee! Indy POINTS back to the police vehicle. But it has already DEPARTED. It drives over a far hill, DISAPPEARING INTO THE NIGHT. Indy SIGHS, turning back to MacGowan. INDIANA Ah... It was nothing, Mac. Nothing at all. CAMERA DOLLIES INTO INDIANA'S TROUBLED, UNCERTAIN FACE. THE BARON'S LAUGH FILLS THE SOUND TRACK. SLOW DISSOLVE: EXT. MARSHALL UNIVERSITY - A FEW DAYS LATER Early AFTERNOON. A RAINY Spring day. Students RUN to the University doors, protecting themselves with textbooks. INT. INDIANA JONES' OFFICE Rain SPLATTERS the window of this cramped, CLUTTERED room. Crooked stacks of dog eared TEXTBOOKS and PAPERS nearly reach the ceiling. The spindly bookshelves are stuffed with various ARCHEOLOGICAL RELICS and INSTRUMENTS: animal and bird skeletons, fossils, primitive statues, etc. Sitting at a small wooden desk, amidst a mountain of TERM PAPERS, is INDIANA JONES. Indy is WEARING a brown three piece suit and circular, wire rimmed glasses. In one hand, he holds a STUDENT SEAT ASSIGNMENT CARD, as he hurriedly READS through the term papers. He furiously GRADES each paper. To make matters worse; the office is CROWDED WITH STUDENTS, with countless others POURING out into the hallway. All of the students are ANXIOUS to get inside. They are BADGERING, COMPLAINING and MOANING at Indy. TEDDY Doctor Jones... I took your class instead of all the others!... I coulda' had Professor Needles... Professor Eisenschmidt... Professor... ANGELA You promised. You said you'd have 'em graded by yesterday. VIRGIL My paper finished yet? Name's "Virgil Vektor". That's VIRGIL. (spelling it out) Capital V... I... R... JULIA My parents paid good money to send me here. You know how much they shelled out for your class? CHARLES He doesn't care about us. He only wants fame and fortune. We're just a buncha' peons to him. VIRGIL VEKTOR. Capital V... E... K... Indiana continues to grade the papers, trying to IGNORE the verbal assault. BETSY TUFFET pushes her way to the front. Betsy is Indy's STUDENT ASSISTANT. She is 21 YEARS OLD, with thick, luxurious black hair, bright brown eyes and a small framed, athletic body. Betsy is a TOUGH. BRASH. A BROOKLYN kid. She moves CLOSE to Indy, her hair brushing his cheek. Indiana is very TENSE, continuously working on the term papers. BETSY Hello, Ind -- (giggle) Doctor Jones. INDIANA Not now, Betsy. BETSY LOOK at all of those papers! INDIANA Please, I... BETSY Want me to come by later? Help you grade? INDIANA Help me grade. Yeah. Sure. BETSY Goodbye, Ind -- (giggles) Doctor Jones! She EXITS. Indy SIGHS. Again, the obnoxious student SHOUTS. VIRGIL Didja' get the name? VIRGIL! Capital V... I... R... PROFESSOR THAD PRIESTLY enters, pushing Virgil aside. Priestly is a young, wisecracking, greasy haired AQUAINTANCE of Indy's. He SHOVES a photograph BENEATH Indy's nose. PRIESTLY Moby Dick. INDIANA Huh?... PRIESTLY (points to photo) That's what I named 'im. Captain said it was the biggest fish he ever saw. Indiana GLANCES to the photo. It is a picture of Prof. Priestly dressed in fisherman's outfit, standing on a pier, holding a GIANT FISH. Indy STEAMS. Priestly gives him a MANLY SLAP to the back. PRIESTLY What about you, Jonesey? You were over in Scotty-land for two weeks... Didja' catch the big one?... INDIANA Look, Priestly... I'm real busy... Indy is suddenly INTERRUPTED by a HARD SLAP to his face. He LOOKS UP. A beautiful, blonde student, REBECCA, stands over his desk. She SCREAMS. FURIOUS. REBECCA Two-timing bastard! Indiana RUBS his jaw. STARTLED. Rebecca CONTINUES. REBECCA How could you?!?... My own Mother?!?... In my own bed?!?... (slaps him again) I've had it with you! It's over! Priestly HIDES his chuckle. Rebecca THROWS a shirt that obviously belongs to Indiana on the desk and STORMS out of the room. Indy shakes his head and CONTINUES working. The students are still HARASSING him. A LOUD VOICE ECHOES through the room. POSTMAN (O.S.) Special Delivery! Dr. Indiana Jones! A burly POSTMAN stands in the doorway, holding a thick, enormous BROWN ENVELOPE. Indy MOTIONS to the postman. The Postman tries to MAKE his way through the crowd. Indiana goes back to his grading, but is suddenly INTERRUPTED BY A LOUD TAPPING NOISE. He LOOKS UP. DEAN CLAUDE COVENTRY, a stately, elderly gentleman, RAPS a steel ruler on Indiana's desk. The Dean is UPSET. Very SERIOUS. DEAN COVENTRY Doctor Jones, I've had complaints from several of the students -- The Postman INTERRUPTS, dropping the heavy envelope onto Indy's desk. The Postman SHOVES a yellow paper in front of Indy. POSTMAN Sign here. Indy SIGNS. Dean Coventry continues LECTURING. DEAN COVENTRY They feel that you are ignoring them, that you are distracted... INDIANA (gives Postman the signed paper) Me?... Distracted?... POSTMAN (staring at Indy's signature, puzzled) What's this? "B+"? That's how you sign your name? Indy GRABS the paper. He's signed a "B+" on the LINE where his name is supposed to appear. Indy CROSSES out the grade and signs his name. Professor Coventry still LECTURES Indiana. DEAN COVENTRY Marshall University is not the place for sloppy behavior... At that moment, Indy OPENS the envelope! A LARGE AMOUNT OF WATER POURS OUT! SATURATING the papers on the desk! This is followed by an ENORMOUS DEAD TROUT! It FLOPS onto Indy's desk. The students exchange STARTLED and NAUSEOUS glances. Indiana removes a water logged NOTE from the envelope. It reads, "A MACGOWAN'S WORD IS TRUER THAN AN ANGEL'S KISS". Indiana uses a TISSUE to WIPE some of the water from his desk. Dean Coventry SHAKES A FINGER at Indy. DEAN COVENTRY I have one final warning for you, Doctor Jones -- THE PHONE RINGS! INTERRUPTING the Dean! Indiana quickly ANSWERS the phone. A FUMING Dean Coventry impatiently waits to finish his threat. Indiana SPEAKS into the receiver. INDIANA Yes... Oh, Hello, Marcus... Look, can you hold on?... (back to Dean) You were saying, sir? DEAN COVENTRY Either you begin concentrating on your -- INDIANA (interrupted by phone) Yes, Marcus... I'm still here... Just hold on! (back to Dean) I'm very sorry, sir... DEAN COVENTRY (boiling) -- concentrating on your teaching duties or -- INDIANA (into phone) Damn it, Marcus! I'm standing here with Dean... What?.. Just how important?... (listening, impatient) It is, huh?... Okay. Five minutes. Yeah. I'll be right over. But this better be important, Marcus! Indiana HANGS UP. He gives an EMBARASSED look to the furious, red faced Dean. DEAN COVENTRY You are on probation, Jones! Ten days! If there is no improvement, you will be dismissed! The Dean STORMS OUT of the room. Indiana GATHERS the wet papers. He begins to EXIT the room, EXPLAINING to the students as he makes his way through the crowd. INDIANA I promise...by tomorrow...I'll have all of these graded...and DRIED! Indiana continues making APOLOGIES and EXCUSES. The obnoxious student again SHOUTS at him. VIRGIL VIRGIL VEKTOR! Capital V... I... R... INDIANA (hands him paper) "F"! Virgil STARES at his paper, adorned with a large RED "F"! Indiana EXITS the room. INT. HISTORY MUSEUM - PREHISTORIC ROOM The large room is filled with skeletons, fossils and statues dating back to the DAWN OF MAN. Indiana, his arms cluttered with the soaking term papers, hurriedly enters the museum with MARCUS BRODY. Marcus is very ANXIOUS. EXCITED. He carries a l6MM METAL FILM CANNISTER beneath his arm. Indiana is very IMPATIENT. His eyes dart to a full sized skeleton of a TYRONOSAURUS REX. INDIANA This better be important, Marcus... or the museum will soon be displaying my bones. My teaching career is in danger of extinction. MARCUS (smiles) You will not be disappointed, Indiana. CUT TO: CLOSE-UP: AN ANCIENT PAINTING. The watercolor features an upright, wrinkled face SUN WU KUNG, the STONE MONKEY KING. But the monkey is NOT made of stone. He appears to be HALF HUMAN... HALF MONKEY. His face is WISE. His coal black eyes are PENETRATING. He wears a LION SKIN ROBE, and holds a tall, GOLDEN HOOPED STAFF. Sun Wu Kung stands amidst a garden of luscious, ripe PEACE TREES. He is surrounded by a HEAVENLY GLOW, a bright ray of light that emanates from an opening in the CLOUDS. MARCUS (O.S.) ...Look familiar? CAMERA PULLS BACK. We are inside of the museum BOARD ROOM. Marcus holds the tattered painting before Indiana, who sits at a desk, still feverishly GRADING the wet term papers. After he finishes each paper, Indy PINS it to a nearby bulletin board for drying. He GLANCES to the painting of Sun Wu Kung. INDIANA "Sun wu Kung, The Stone Monkey King". Big deal. That was ten years ago, Marcus. (going back to papers, wanting to change subject) Geez! This Heller kid's got the worst grammar. MARCUS Ten years or fifty years. It will always be in your blood. INDIANA (ignoring Marcus) Don't believe this... He spells "repeat" with two "E's". MARCUS Think back, Indiana. Remember your desire? Your passion? INDIANA (still ignores Marcus) Kid gets an "A" on content...a "D" on form. MARCUS (angry, slams his fist on the desk) Damn it, man! You can't bury those feelings forever! Indiana finally LOOKS UP from the papers. He glances at Marcus, then LOOKS at the painting. CAMERA DOLLIES INTO Indiana's face. He becomes very SERIOUS. SOMBER. His eyes are EMPTY. Memories of FAILURE fill his head. INDIANA Two years. Nearly two years of my life...looking for the remains of that Monkey...a piece of his legendary Golden Hooped Rod...or some sign of the Lost City. (shakes his head) Nine men perished on the journey. Rest of us nearly died from starvation or one of the many horrible deseases we discovered... (looks back to papers, in a near whisper) We still came back empty handed. MARCUS (threading the projector) One mustn't give up so easily, Indiana. INDIANA Give up?!?... Marcus, we spent thirteen months in China!...another seven in India!... MARCUS But none in Africa. INDIANA (puzzled expression) There was no proof...archeological or anthropological...to indicate that Sun Wu-Kung ever visited Africa... MARCUS Until now. Marcus TURNS OFF the room lights. INDIANA Hey... My papers... Marcus STARTS the projector. A BLACK AND WHITE image flickers on the far wall. We see a PYGMY, standing in what appears to be a grassy area. The pygmy's name is TYKI. He is ADORABLE. A little Over FOUR FEET TALL, his body is TAUT, MUSCULAR. His long black hair is SHAGGY, his eyes are WIDE and BRIGHT. Almost CHILDLIKE. His face is CUTE. IMPISH. Covered with a very INQUISITIVE expression. Tyki's energy is BOUNDLESS. He cannot stop MOVING. Standing BESIDE Tyki, is DR. CLARE CLARKE. 32 years old. A tall, strikingly BEAUTIFUL woman. She is COMMUNICATING with Tyki in sign language. MARCUS The woman is Dr. Clare Clarke. The famous zoologist. She works in Africa, studying animals in their natural habitat. INDIANA Very interesting, Marcus. Now if you'll turn the lights back on -- MARCUS (continuing) Three weeks ago, Dr. Clarke discovered that cute little fellow... "Tyki"...a pygmy of an unusual race...unrelated to any known African tribe... INDIANA (bored) Marcus. The lights. MARCUS Dr. Clarke believes that Tyki comes from the Lost Civilization of Sun Wu-Kung. Indiana PAUSES. He STANDS, walking closer to the flickering image. Suddenly INTERESTED. INDIANA What?... But how did Miss -- MARCUS "Doctor". INDIANA "Doctor" Clake. How did she arrive at such a preposterous hypothesis? MARCUS The pygmy speaks in a language that has no African origins...but bears a strong resemblance to Chinese. INDIANA Means nothing. The rivers of Africa have been plagued by various Oriental Pirates and Scavengers since the 16th Century. (turns from screen) Not much evidence, Marcus. MARCUS There's more. The pygmy was found wearing an ornamental peach stone around his neck...believed to come from Sun Wu-Kung's legendary Garden Of Immortal Peaches. INDIANA (skeptical) Marcus, there are countless undiscovered African tribes...all with various obscure beliefs and practices... (smirks) One tribe may wear peach stones... another may wear banana peels... Indiana WALKS back to his papers. Marcus PAUSES. MARCUS There is one final bit of evidence... INDIANA Enlighten me. MARCUS The pygmy is over 200 years old. Indiana ADJUSTS his spectacles. He STARES at the black and white image. The cute pygmy appears to be in his MID-TWENTIES. He walks to the CAMERA, STARING into the lens. Tyki examines the camera with CURIOSITY. INDIANA That's impossible. MARCUS Dr. Clarke has done a considerable amount of testing on the pygmy's clothing...his sandals...everything was over 200 years old. INDIANA (skeptical) He's probably wearing his Great Grandfather's stuff. CAMERA PANS BACK to the projected image. Tyki begins to UNSCREW the camera lens. The picture goes OUT OF FOCUS. The film RUNS OUT. Marcus TURNS OFF the projector and flips ON the overhead room lights. Indiana gives Marcus a PUZZLED look. INDIANA What does all of this have to do with me? MARCUS Dr. Clarke wants to mount an expedition to find the Lost City of Sun Wu-Kung. She is quite familiar with your reputation...she'd like you to come along. INDIANA (gathering his papers) No chance. MARCUS There will be money involved... The museum is willing to fund the expedition... INDIANA Sorry, Marcus. I've burned this bridge. Indiana TURNS and begins to WALK out of the room. Marcus CALLS him. MARCUS Indiana... Indy TURNS. He WAVES the papers at Marcus. INDIANA Marcus. Please. I've got to finish these... MARCUS You've got to finish something much more important. You crossed the threshold over a decade ago...and it's been tearing at your insides ever since. (passionate) My friend, if there is even one iota of truth in Dr. Clarke's findings... then you can lift the veil of mystery that has surrounded this Chinese legend for Centuries. You may uncover the secrets to a Lost Civilization...and possibly, to man's never ending search for immortality. Indiana STARES at the painting of Sun Wu Kung. MARCUS Indiana... Can you afford to pass up the single most important adventure of your life? Indiana has NO ANSWER for Marcus. Indy PICKS up the painting. A THRILLING expression slowly covers Indiana's face. His eyes GLIMMER. Filled with a long, lost EXCITEMENT. The SOUND TRACK MUSIC SOARS! CUT TO: CLOSE UP: THE STACK OF TERM PAPERS The papers are slightly CRUMPLED. Still WET. A DROP OF WATER hits the papers. CAMERA PANS UPWARD. BETSY TUFFET, Indy's student assistant, sits at the desk, grading the papers. She is CRYING. Her falling TEARS soak the papers. We are INSIDE of Indiana's apartment. LATER that evening. INDIANA stands in the background. He is hurriedly PACKING his bags. His familiar GUN, HAT and WHIP lie on the bed, beside the suitcase. Indy NOTICES that Betsy is crying. He WALKS to Betsy. Indy puts his arm on Betsy's shoulder, attempting to COMFORT her. Betsy SNAPS at Indy. BETSY You can't do this to me! INDIANA (shaking tears off the papers) C'mon, Betsy. Relax. You're gettin' 'em all wet again. BETSY You just can't go away...I mean... Africa is so far away, and...well... (heartfelt) I love you, Indy. INDIANA Thought we agreed this was s'posed to be casual... BETSY You call what happened last night "casual". INDIANA My dear...a momentary lapse into passion does not a love affair make. BETSY (very upset) Momentary lapse! So that's all I am to you! Betsy SHOOTS to her feet, walking OFF SCREEN. INDIANA Betsy... Wait... Indiana SIGHS. His eye CATCHES one of the termpapers. He begins to READ, making a few CORRECTIONS. We see Betsy's HAND removes Indiana's WHIP from the bed. Indiana continues to CORRECT the papers. Suddenly, there is a CREAKING NOISE. Indy TURNS. His face goes WHITE. He runs OFF SCREEN. One end of Indiana's WHIP is attached to an OVERHEAD LAMP. CAMERA PANS DOWN the whip. The other end has been formed into a NOOSE around Betsy's neck. Sbe stands on a wooden CHAIR. She KICKS AWAY the chair. Suddenly GAGGING. Indiana GRABS Betsy in midair. He TAKES the noose from her neck and PLACES Betsy on the floor. INDIANA (angry) Whatsa' matter with you!... Tryin' to ruin my whip!... BETSY If I can't have you... I don't want to live. Indiana TOSSES the whip into his suitcase. He pulls up the chair and forces Betsy to be SEATED. He pours her a tall glass of BOURBON. INDIANA Drink this. You'll feel better. Indiana WALKS to his suitcase, continuing to pack. His BACK is to Betsy. She raises the GLASS to her lips. She PAUSES, reading a MESSAGE on the Bourbon bottle. It reads: DANGER! CONTENTS FLAMMABLE! Betsy BEAMS. An IDEA. She LIFTS the bottle over her head and begins to DOUSE her body with the liquid. Indiana is BUSY folding his clothing. Suddenly, we hear the FLICK OF A MATCHSTICK! Indy TURNS. He sees the bourbon covered Betsy preparing to LIGHT HER BODY ON FIRE! Indy DASHES forward. He BLOWS OUT the match, moments before it SPARKS Betsy's clothing. Indy SHAKES Betsy by the shoulders. INDIANA C'mon, Betsy... Get a hold of yourself. You're young. There are a lot of other guys... BETSY Not like you. INDIANA (succumbing to his ego) That's true... (realizing his mistake) But that's no reason to stop living! Besides, I'm too old for you. By the time you're seventy five, I'll be... (calculates, the thought of it makes him grimace) Yeccchhh! I'll be disgusting. Indiana TURNS and finishes his packing. Betsy SIGHS. She notices an enormous, STONE AFRICAN URN. The 150 POUND antique sits atop a section of BOOKSHELVES. Meanwhile, Indiana makes certain that his gun is PACKED. He places the familiar HAT on his head and begins to CLOSE the suitcase. CLOSE UP: THE AFRICAN URN. It is WOBBLING. SHAKING. Moving CLOSER and CLOSER to the edge of the bookshelves. CAMERA PANS TO THE FLOOR. Betsy LIES here. Directly BELOW the trembling urn. Betsy SHAKES the bookshelves, causing the urn to TILT and SHIVER. The urn is nearly HALFWAY OFF of the edge. If it falls...the urn will CRUSH Betsy's head. Indiana STRUGGLES with closing his tightly packed suitcase. The urn FALLS! HEADED STRAIGHT for Betsy! Indiana SUDDENLY GRABS the urn. In MIDAIR. Inches before it STRIKES Betsy. Indiana RESTS the urn on the floor. He HELPS Betsy to her feet. Betsy WRAPS her arms tightly around Indiana. BETSY Don't leave me, Indy! Indiana PICKS UP his suitcase and tries to WALK to the door. But Betsy's arms are still TIGHTLY WRAPPED around him. Finally, Indy STOPS. His eyes BURN through Betsy. INDIANA (cruel) Look... You're just a flighty kid. Twenty minutes after I walk out this door, you'll have a date with the college Romeo. Two hours from now, you'll be madly in love with him. By tomorrow, you'll forget I ever existed. Hurt, Betsy REMOVES her arms from Indiana. He gives her a QUICK KISS to the cheek and hurriedly EXITS. Betsy GLARES at the closed door. A TOUGH, ANGRY expression covers her face. BETSY Never underestimate the determination of a Brooklyn girl, Doctor Jones. Never. DISSOLVE TO: LONG SHOT - AN OCEAN LINER The SILHOUETTE of the ship sails across the water. A beautiful ORANGE SKY fills the background. INDIANA JONES stands aboard the ship's DECK. It is a typical, 30's LUXURY Ocean liner, filled with vacationing TOURISTS. Indiana STARES into the sunrise. His face is a study in CONCENTRATION and INTENSITY. He anxiously AWAITS his adventure. DISSOLVE TO: MAP OF THE WORLD A MOVING RED LINE traces Indiana's journey across the ocean, toward AFRICA. The red line comes to a stop at MOZAMBIQUE. EXT. CENTRAL MOZAMBIQUE - BEIRA - A HOT, SUNNY AFTERNOON Chief PORT on the coast. Gateway to the ZAMBESI RIVER. SUPPLY SHIPS, SAILBOATS and RAFTS line the marina. The docks are crowded with various MERCHANTS and SAILORS, unloading their goods. Small SHOPS and RESTAURANTS clutter the waterfront. Behind them are rows of one story, low square HOMES. Tall, healthy PALM TREES surround the Area. An OCEAN LINER has anchored along the shore. Several PASSENGERS exit from the ship. INDIANA steps onto the ocean liner's exit ramp. He is UNSHAVEN, wearing his traditional LEATHER JACKET and HAT. Indy LOOKS AROUND, expecting to MEET someone. INDY'S POV - THE DOCK There is a a LOUD CAR HORN. Crowds of pedestrians LEAP out of the way. A rusted, yellow MODEL-T barrels along the rickety dock. The word "TAXI" is crudely painted on the car's trembling doors. The car's tires are WOBBLING. LOOSE. Thick, black SMOKE pours from the cracked EXHAUST PIPE. The ancient car RATTLES and GRINDS. Upon seeing the car, Indiana SMILES. At the foot of the ocean liner's ramp, the car SCREECHES TO A STOP! SCRAGGY BRIER Indiana's friend and guide, JUMPS out of the taxi. Scraggy is a rough, unkempt AFRICAN MAN. An elderly fellow, with the ENERGY and VITALITY of a youth. His snow white hair and beard are WILD. SPIKED. He wears TATTERED, DIRTY clothes that are many sizes too large for his SKINNY body. Homemade CROCODILE SANDALS flop on his feet. Scraggy suddenly breaks into a WILD GRIN. He SPOTS Indiana. Scraggy SHOOTS up the exit ramp, running through the crowd of people. Scraggy stops a FEW FEET in front of Indiana. Scraggy WAVES his arms before him, as if he were BLESSING Indiana. Following this, Scraggy LEAPS into Indy's arms. Indiana CRADLES Scraggy like a child. Speaking with a Portugese accent, Scraggy EXCLAIMS... SCRAGGY Indy! At last we are reunited! (looks to sky) Oh, Keechingo, God Of Friendship...I thank you for granting my wish! Indy RESTS Scraggy back onto the ramp. Scraggy MOVES to assist Indiana with his luggage. Before picking it up, Scraggy RAISES his arms over the baggage. Again, he BLESSES the suitcases. Scraggy then PICKS UP the bags. Indy CHUCKLES. INDIANA I see you haven't changed, Scraggy. SCRAGGY Mahootmek, God Of Goodness, say... "Before body make contact with foreign object...one must cast out bad spirits, or -- " INDIANA " -- or bad spirits will enter your body!" SCRAGGY Yes! You have excellent memory, Indy. INDIANA I should! Last time we saw each other...you made me wear the same clothes for 3 weeks straight. SCRAGGY Never separate body from clothes, or bad spirits will hide in pockets! INDIANA In other words... If people never changed clothes...there would be no evil in the world. SCRAGGY Exactly! INDIANA (chuckles, puts his arm around Scraggy) I missed all a' your crazy philosophies, Scraggy. SCRAGGY They not so crazy, Indy. (serious, eyes wide with fear) These days... There is much evil in the air. I feel it. Everywhere. Indy and Scraggy CONTINUE to walk down the ramp, moving OFF SCREEN. CAMERA PANS TO A FEW FEET BEHIND THEM. CAMERA STOPS, as the SCREEN IS FILLED WITH A LARGE, BLAZING RED SWASTIKA! CAMERA PANS UPWARD. We see that this is the SLEEVE OF A GERMAN SOLDIER. CAMERA STOPS on the face of SGT. HELMUT GUTTERBUHG A thin, skeletal NAZI. He resembles the ANGEL OF DEATH. Gutterbuhg's face is NARROW and SUNKEN. His deep set eyes are a frightening LIGHT BLUE. His complexion is PALE. EMOTIONLESS. His hair is BLONDE. STRINGY. His right arm appears RIGID. It rests STIFFLY at his side. Gutterbuhg FOLLOWS Indy and Scraggy through the crowd. The Nazi REMOVES something from his pocket. It is a tiny, MECHANICAL ITEM. It resembles a COCKROACH. We see that it is a mini RADIO TRANSMITTER. Gutterbuhg WHISPERS into it. GUTTERBUHG (German, English subtitles) Are we making contact? The mechanical roach's eyes BLINK RED. Gutterbuhg gives a CHILLING SMILE. Meanwhile, Indiana and Scraggy ARRIVE at the Taxi. Scraggy begins to SECURE Indy's baggage to the roof. Indy OPENS the rear door of the cab. He begins to CLIMB into the back seat. He is met with a SWIFT KICK TO THE STOMACH! He FALLS to the ground. The wind KNOCKED out of him. Scraggy RUNS to the open door, scolding the person INSIDE. SCRAGGY Dr. Clarke! Why you kick Dr. Jones?... DR. CLARE CLARKE STEPS OUT of the shadows of the car. We RECOGNIZE her from Marcus' film, but she is even MORE BEAUTIFUL in person. She is the SAME AGE as Indy. Her hair is BRIGHT RED. She removes her glasses, revealing sparkling GREEN EYES. She is very PRIM. Very PROPER. But extremely INTELLIGENT and QUICK WITTED. She is dressed in KHAKI SLACKS and SHIRT. She speaks in a slight BRITISH ACCENT. She hurriedly ASSISTS Indiana to his feet. CLARE Dr. Jones! Forgive me. INDIANA No sweat. CLARE Thought I was being attacked by a degenerate sailor. INDIANA No. Just a degenerate archeologist. CLARE Your appearance is deceiving. INDIANA Likewise. They exchange a handshake and a SMILE. Immediately ATTRACTED to each other. PORTER (O.S.) Indiana Jones! Calling passenger Indiana Jones! Indiana TURNS. A ship PORTER walks through the crowd, pushing a LARGE BARREL on a dolly. Indy WAVES to the Porter. The Porter STOPS in front of him. PORTER You left this aboard ship. INDIANA (puzzled) There must be some mistake... I didn't -- The Porter POINTS to a section of the barrel that reads: DELIVER TO: DR. INDIANA JONES. PORTER That's you, ain't it? INDIANA Well, yeah...but... The Porter DROPS the barrel in front of Indiana and hurriedly WALKS back to the ship. SGT. GUTTERBUHG continues to SPY on Indiana. The Nazi HIDES a few feet away. In a DARK alleyway. A puzzled Indiana begins to OPEN the barrel. Scraggy SHOUTS a warning. SCRAGGY Indy! Remember Mahootmek, God Of Goodness! "Before body make contact with foreign object -- " Indiana IGNORES Scraggy and begins to PRY OPEN the barrel. SCRAGGY "...you must cast out bad spirits!" Indiana still IGNORES Scraggy. He STRUGGLES with the barrel top, FLIRTING with Clare. INDIANA May I call you "Clare"? CLARE Please. INDIANA Well, Clare... We've obviously got a lot of notes to compare... Let's get started tonight...over dinner. CLARE I'd like that very much. INDIANA Friend of mine owns a Cafe... He'll get us a nice quiet table. No disturbances. Just the two of us -- At that moment, the barrel lid FLIES OFF! The inside if FILLED with old, brown BANANA PEELS. Suddenly, BETSY'S HEAD POKES THROUGH the peels! Indiana is SHOCKED. Scraggy SIGHS. SCRAGGY I warn you, Indy! You must always cast out bad spirits! A dirty, unkempt Betsy LEAPS OUT OF THE BARREL! She THROWS her arms around Indy. BETSY My precious! CLARE (puzzled, to Indy) Your daughter? INDIANA My assistant. BETSY His girlfriend. CLARE (revolted) A child! INDIANA (to Clare) It's nothing. Really. (to Betsy) What the hell are you doing here'? BETSY Proving my love for you. CLARE How terribly sordid. INDIANA (to Clare) Puppy love. Schoolgirl crush. She'll get over it. BETSY Never. This proves that nothing can come between us. Not an ocean. Not two separate Continents. CLARE Think I'm going to be ill. INDIANA (puzzled, to Betsy) How...I mean... How could you stay alive? BETSY Hey... I'm from Brooklyn. INDIANA But we'ye been sailing for three weeks! BETSY Stowed away in the banana barrel. Ate my way to the bottom. CLARE (nauseous) Charming. BETSY (pointing to Clare) Hey, Indy... Who's the babe? CLARE Your intellectual and emotional superior. BETSY Yeah...well you're gettin' on my nerves, Miss... Miss... CLARE (extends her hand) "Doctor" Clare Clarke. BETSY (reluctantly shaking Clare's hand) Betsy Tuffet... CLARE As in curds and whey? BETSY (getting tough) Listen, sister... You better stay away from Indy... CLARE My dear, he has no interest in me. I've already celebrated my tenth Birthday. Indiana SHOOTS Clare an angry glance. Indy removes a wad of BILLS from his pocket. He GIVES them to Betsy. INDIANA Look, Betsy... Why don't you get back on the boat... This time, as a passenger. SCRAGGY Too late, Indy. Scraggy points toward the OCEAN LINER. The boat is SEVERAL FEET from shore. It SAILS back out to sea. Indiana STEAMS. INDIANA When's the next one out? SCRAGGY Two weeks. Indiana GRUMBLES. An amused Dr. Clarke gets back into the car. Indy SHOVES Betsy inside. He is FURIOUS. Before Indiana gets into the car, GUTTERBUHG steps out from the alleyway. He TOSSES the tiny mechanical COCKROACH at Indiana. The roach ATTACHES itself to Indy's TROUSER LEG. The tiny transmittor is very LIGHT. Indiana can feel NOTHING. He gets INTO the car. Scraggy BLESSES the Taxi and gets into the driver's seat. Gutterbuhg WATCHES as the battered Model-T DRIVES OFF. The NAZI turns, walking in an opposite direction. The CAMERA FOLLOWS Gutterbuhg, as he enters a SEEDY WATERFRONT HOTEL. INT. HOTEL Gutterbuhg walks through the DIMLY LIT lobby, filled with dusty, tacky African furnishings. He turns a corner, into a NARROW, decrepid hallway. He STOPS at the last DOORWAY. Room 113. He OPENS the door with a key and ENTERS. INT. ROOM A SMALL, MUSTY Hotel room. It is furnished with a SINGLE BED, A SOFA, TWO CHAIRS and A FIRE PLACE. Two BIZARRE AFRICAN STATUES adorn the fireplace mantle. Gutterbuhg carefully LOCKS the room door. He walks to the FIREPLACE. He TILTS one of the African statues forward. There is a mechanical, CREAKING SOUND. Suddenly, the SOFA BEGINS TO MOVE. It SLIDES a few feet, revealing an OPENING BENEATH THE FLOOR. A STAIRCASE leads into the opening. Gutterbuhg DESCENDS the stairs. INT. OPENING Gutterbuhg enters a LARGE, BRIGHTLY LIT ROOM. We are inside of A SECRET NAZI HEADQUARTERS. The room is filled with various COMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT and RADIO TRANSMITTERS. SEVERAL NAZI SOLDIERS are seated before the equipment, monitoring various radio signals. An enormous GLASS PANEL covers one wall. THROUGH THE PANEL WE SEE TWO SPEEDBOATS. LONG. SLEEK. HIGH POWERED. MAHOGANY HULLED. Both speedboats are adorned with a SWASTIKA. They FLOAT in water, in an UNDERGROUND, MAN-MADE CHAMBER. Directly BESIDE the speedboats, parked on a STONE INCLINE, are TWO AUTOMOBILES. The cars are enormous, beautiful "WOODIES". Equipped with a RUNNING BOARD and WOOD PANELLED SIDES. The cars GLISTEN. BRAND NEW. Gutterbuhg turns to KLAUS, a hulking Nazi who stands in the corner. Pointing to Klaus' FEET, Gutterbuhg SHOUTS an order to Klaus. CAMERA PANS to Klaus' feet. The Nazi's BOOT IS UNTIED. A LONG STRING dangles on the floor. The embarassed Klaus KNEELS and sloppily RE-TIES his shoe. Gutterbuhg turns to a Nazi who sits at a RADIO RECEIVER. The Nazi wears HEADPHONES, LISTENING for a transmission. THE LONG, FRIGHTENING SHADOW OF A MAN overcomes Gutterbuhg. He TURNS. FEAR covers Gutterbuhg's face. The shadow RAISES its arm. HEIL HITLER! Gutterbuhg also RAISES his right arm. But a BIZARRE, MECHANICAL SQUEAK, is caused by the movement of his arm. LIEUTENANT WERNER VON MEPEISTO stands BEFORE Gutterbuhg. Mephisto is a NAZI nightmare. His face is THICK and BULLISH. His bulging eyes are a reddish BROWN, giving him the appearance of a DEMON from hell. He has NO FACIAL HAIR. NO eyebrows. NO eyelashes. Completely BALD. His body is THICK. MUSCULAR. He is over SIX FEET TALL. He GLARES down at Gutterbuhg. MEPHISTO (German, English subtitles) Were you successful? Gutterbuhg gives a TIMID NOD. With trembling fingers, he reaches over and TURNS UP THE VOLUME of the radio transmission. The voices of Indiana, Betsy, Clare and Scraggy echo through a TINNY SPEAKER. Mephisto manages a pleased GRUNT. MEPHISTO (German, English subtitles) Keep a record of everything that is said. Gutterbuhg NUDGES the officer before him. The officer hurriedly begins to SCRAWL a manuscript of the radio transmission. Mephisto NODS. MEPHISTO (German, English subtitles) Ever since our battle for the Lost Ark... The feuhrer has been very interested in the adventures of Indiana Jones. Very interested. CUT TO: EXT. ZOOLOGICAL COMPOUND A miniature ZOO. The PEACEFUL compound is surrounded with small man made lakes and palm trees. There are countless METAL CAGES, filled with various ANIMALS. The TIGERS, LIONS, GORILLAS and other violent creatures, are kept BEHIND BARS. But the LLAMAS, GIRAFFES, DEER and various tame animals are FREE to roam the compound grounds. Indiana ENTERS with Clare, Betsy and Scraggy. The persistant Betsy is ANNOYING Indy. She attempts to SNUGGLE closer to him. Indiana PUSHES her away. Betsy TRIES to hold his hand. Indy SHAKES her loose. Scraggy WATCHES all of this, GIGGLING to himself. We hear SINGING. A high, pitched BEAUTIFUL VOICE. Clare walks to the far end of the compound, toward the SINGING. The others FOLLOW. Betsy walks by BONZO, A LARGE CHIMPANZEE. As Betsy PASSES, the chimp catches a FAMILIAR SMELL. Bonzo begins to FOLLOW Betsy. Clare OPENS the door of a large metal cage. Here, the singing is LOUDER. Clare ENTERS the cage. Indiana FOLLOWS. Scraggy BLESSES the cage, then enters. Betsy MOVES to go inside, but Bonzo's LARGE HAIRY HAND REACHES OUT and GRABS BETSY! PULLING the girl OFF SCREEN! INT. CAGE Filled with hand made wooden and bamboo FURNITURE. TYKI, the adorable PYGMY from Marcus' film, is INSIDE. Tyki is dressed only in a BELTED, leather loin cloth and SANDALS. He is perched on the floor, working on a large TAPESTRY. The tapestry depicts a colorful picture of CLOUDS. The buildings of a LARGE CITY are REFLECTED on the clouds. Tyki pleasantly SINGS as he does his work. Upon hearing the cage door OPEN, Tyki LOOKS UP. He SEES Clare. A JOYOUS SMILE covers his face. The pygmy RUNS to Clare, giving her a huge HUG and a KISS. Clare INTRODUCES Tyki to the others. CLARE Tyki... This is Doctor Jones... Tyki EXTENDS his right hand. He SHAKES Indiana's hand. Indiana is CHARMED by the civilized display of friendship. Indy SMILES at Clare. INDIANA He's a real gentleman. CLARE (shrugs) Just basic manners. What it takes most men a lifetime to learn... Tyki's accomplished in two weeks. (introduces Scraggy) This is our guide, Scraggy Brier... and Miss Bets-- Clare pauses, noticing that Betsy is MISSING. Clare suddenly breaks into a LAUGH! She points OFF SCREEN. Everyone TURNS. EXT. COMPOOND Bonzo is being extremely AFFECTIONATE toward Betsy. The chimpanzee PULLS and GRABS at Betsy. It is all VERY SIMILIAR to what Betsy has been doing to Indiana. Betsy WRESTLES with Bonzo, CALLING Indy for help. INT. CAGE Everyone CHUCKLES at Betsy's dillemma. CLARE It appears that Bonzo is attracted to Miss Tuffet's Derfume... Eau De Banana Peel. Tyki has gone back to his ARTWORK. A FASCINATED Indiana looks over the pygmy's shoulder. INDIANA Where did you find him?... CLARE About ten miles from here. We were on a photographic expedition...in the thick of the jungle... I heard sounds. Whimpering. Moaning. I took a few steps, and found Tyki. He was lying in a shallow swamp...semi conscious...a high fever...nearly dead from exhaustion. He had obviously been travelling on foot for many days, over countless miles... So I brought him back to the compound...nursed him back to health... Indiana STARES at the pygmy. A skeptical look COVERS his face. INDIANA Clare, I hate to quibble with your anthropological abilities... CLARE Quibble. INDIANA ...but if this little fellow is over 200 years old... I mean... What accounts for his youthful appearance?...his vitality?... Clare OPENS a door at the rear of the cage. It LEADS into another room, directly behind the CAGE. Clare and Indiana ENTER. Scraggy STAYS behind. He EXCHANGES a friendly smile with Tyki. Meanwhile, in the BACKGROUND, we see BETSY and the CHIMPANZEE. They ROLL BY on the ground. Still WRESTLING. CLOSE UP: PEACE STONE. A FRUIT FLY crawls along the peach pit's surface. CLARE (O.S.) Tyki was wearing this when I found him. CAMERA PULLS BACK. We are in a SMALL, STERILE ROOM. The peach stone rests on a TABLE. Indiana and Clare STAND over the stone. Indy PICKS UP the stone, examining it. An annoying FRUIT FLY buzzes around Indy's head. CAMERA PANS DOWN to Indiana's trouser leg. The RADIO TRANSMITTOR is still attached to his pants. The tiny bug's eyes BLINK. RED. CUT TO: SGT. GUTTERBUHG. He stands inside of Nazi Headquarters, huddled over the RADIO. The VOICES of Indiana and Clare echo over the speaker. Gutterbuhg FURIOUSLY transcribes the conversation. CLARE (O.S.) Dr. Jones, you are obviously familiar with the legend of Sun Wu- King's Garden of Immortal Peaches?... INDIANA (O.S.) A bite from the fruit of that peach tree would give a person eternal life...make them forever young... The vicious Gutterbuhg SMILES. CAMERA PANS to his notebook. Gutterbuhg underlines the words "FOREVER YOUNG". CUT BACK TO: INDIANA STUDYING the peach pit. The fruit fly continues to BUZZ around Indiana's head. INDIANA There's nothing unusual about this ...nothing to indicate that it's from Sun Wu Kung's garden... The fruit fly LANDS on Indiana's neck. Indy SMACKS the fly! KILLING it! A SHOCKED Clare RUNS to Indiana. She GRABS his hand and GENTLY removes what remains of the fruit fly. She GLARES at Indiana. FURIOUS. CLARE This fruit fly had a normal life- span of TWENTY FOUR HOURS. (frustrated sigh) As an experiment...the fly was put in this room...alone...with only the peach stone to sustain its existence. The fly stayed alive for THREE WEEKS. (looks at dead fly) Until now. She FLICKS the'fly against the wall. Indy gives an EMBARASSED SHRUG. INDIANA Sorry. Indiana and Clare are suddenly INTERRUPTED by the sound of Scraggy and Tyki's LAUGHTER. This is followed by the two of them having a DISCUSSION! In Tyki's FOREIGN TONGUE! Clare and Indy exchange a SHOCKED GLANCE and DASH out of the room. INT. CAGE Scraggy and Tyki are having a CONVERSATION. Clare POINTS to Scraggy, giving a PUZZLED LOOK to Indiana. CLARE He understands him? INDIANA (nods) Scraggy knows hundreds of languages... He's the best guide in Africa. (turns to Scraggy) Ask Tyki where he came from. Scraggy NODS and ASKS Tyki. Tyki ANSWERS and POINTS to the painting of the clouds. Scraggy TRANSLATES. SCRAGGY He say... "I come from 'Land Of City On Clouds'". INDIANA (puzzled) Huh?... What the hell's that s'posed to mean? (to Scraggy) Can he take us there? Scraggy ASKS Tyki. Tyki ANSWERS. He and Scraggy LAUGH hysterically. Scraggy LOOKS at Indiana. SCRAGGY He say if he could... He would go back! Tyki OFFERS some more information to Scraggy. Scraggy TRANSLATES. SCRAGGY He say "Pai Cho" may help you. Indiana's eyes WIDEN. STARTLED. AMAZED. Clare LOOKS at Indy. PUZZLED. CLARE "Pai Cho"? INDIANA The Sacres Proverbs and Writings of Sun Wu Kung. (anxious, looking at Scraggy) His disciples always carry the Pai Cho with them... Scraggy ASKS Tyki. The pygmy NODS and REMOVES his belt. We see that the thick belt actually unravels into a CLOTH SCROLL. Tyki KISSES the scroll and GIVES it to Scraggy. Scraggy nervously OPENS the scroll. It is filled with countless ANCIENT CHINESE WRITINGS and PROVERBS. Indiana STARES over Scraggy's shoulder. INDIANA Can you translate it?... Scraggy NODS. Indiana's eyes ANXIOUSLY scan the document. He is BREATHLESS. EXCITED. The SOUND TRACK MUSIC SOARS. Suddenly, BETSY AND THE CHIMPANZEE FALL INTO FRAME! ON TOP OF THE SCROLL! Bonzo STRADDLES Betsy, trying to move his lips TOWARD hers! She is SCREAMING! BETSY Get...him...off...of...me...! Bonzo moves its lips to Betsy and gives her a BIG KISS! SMACK! Betsy GRIMACES. Finally, Clare begins to make BIZARRE MONKEY HAND MOTIONS and SOUNDS. Bonzo TURNS. He UNDERSTANDS Clare. She continues to COMMUNICATE with the chimp, until Bonzo turns and RUNS out of the cage! Indiana and Scraggy exchange an IMPRESSED GLANCE. Betsy WIPES the kiss from her lips. CUT TO: CLOSE UP: A FLASHING NEON SIGN. It reads: "DASHIELL'S AMERICAN BAR". It adorns the front of a stylish, Mozambique NIGHTCLUB. INT. DASHIELL'S BAR DIMLY lit. SMOKY. Filled with cloth covered TABLES and ornamental, AFRICAN furnishings. A 9 piece JAZZ BAND plays SWING TUNES. A few couples SWAY on the dance floor. The place is swarming with NAZIS. Many are SEATED at the bar. Others are scattered at various TABLES throughout the restaurant. Some stand in CORNERS. Lurking in the SHADOWS. They are all looking in one direction, watching one man... INDIANA JONES. Indy sits with Scraggy, Clare and Betsy, at a table near the REAR of the restaurant. They are eating DINNER. But Indy, Scraggy and Clare are more interested in the Stone Monkey SCROLLS. A very NERVOUS Scraggy TRANSLATES. Indiana, wearing his spectacles, takes pages and pages of NOTES. Searching for a CLUE. An INTERESTED Clare reads over Indiana's shoulder. Betsy tries to become INCLUDED in the discussion. But everyone IGNORES her. Scraggy continues to TRANSLATE. SCRAGGY "Sun Wu Kung run like fire, He journey to Many Monkey Land, To build his final empire." BETSY Who's Sun Wu-Kung? INDIANA (ignoring Betsy, to Scraggy) Many Monkey Land... That's a definite reference to Africa. BETSY Africa?... He journeyed to Africa?... CLARE (also ignores Betsy, to Indiana) That confirms our suspicions that he may have formed his Civilization here... BETSY What civilization? INDIANA (angry, to Betsy) Betsy. Keep your trap shut. This doesn't concern you. BETSY (insulted) Fine. Terrific. Who cares about this stuff anyway! We're in a nightclub. We should be havin' fun. (grabs Indiana's hand) C'mon, Indy. Let's dance. INDIANA Later. BETSY What a buncha' stiffs! (condescending, to Clare) Bet you can't dance. CLARE Quite the contrary...I spent several months studying dance. BETSY Oh yeah? Whattayou' know?... The Bunny Hop?... The Jitterbug?... CLARE (shakes her head) The Bondogea. The Kyebe Kyebe. The Dungumaro. BETSY Huh? CLARE African Tribal dances. BETSY Never heard of 'em. CLARE Of course not. They're beyond the spectrum of your microscopic world. Insulted, Betsy GOBBLES down her glass of wine and TURNS back to Indiana, who is still deeply CONCENTRATING on the scrolls. UNDER THE TABLE Betsy's FOOT reaches across the floor. It RESTS on Indy's leg. Betsy begins to RUB against Indiana's trouser leg. The red eyed MECHANICAL BUG is still attached to Indiana's trousers. INDIANA GLARES at Betsy. Clare REACHES for her cup of coffee. She NOTICES that the coffee cup trembles SLIGHTLY. Clare GLANCES beneath the table, and sees Betsy RUBBING Indy's leg. Clare is DISGUSTED. ABOVE the table, Clare shoots a scowl of DISAPPROVAL at Indy. A FLUSTERED Indy tries to explain...but is suddenly INTERRUPTED by a hand on his shoulder. It is DASHIELL, the suave, HANDSOME owner of the restaurant. Dashiell gives a CaARMING SMILE to everyone at the table. DASHIELL Enjoying your dinners?... Everyone NODS, expressing their thanks. Dashiell LEANS close to Indiana and WHISPERS. DASHIELL Watch yourself, sport. Most of the talk here tonight is about you. And it isn't good. Indiana's eyes DART around the room. He sees the VARIOUS NAZIS. WATCHING him. Indy gives a CONFIDENT SMILE. A WORRIED Dashiell continues WHISPERING to Indiana. DASHIELL I don't know what you've done to the Nazis. But they are certainly no friends of yours. CUT TO: EXT. ZOOLOGICAL COMPOUND DARK. SILENT. Many of the animals are ASLEEP in their cages. A SECURITY GUARD keeps watch on the compound. He STANDS outside of the METAL GATES. There is a SUDDEN SOUND. The guard TURNS. THE FIGURES OF THREE MEN stand before him. In the SHADOWS. The NERVOUS Guard places a hand on his holster. GUARD Who's there?... We hear a MECHANICAL CREAK. A MAN'S LEATHER GLOVED HAND extends from the shadows. The hand's FINGER is POINTED at the Security GUARD. CLOSE UP: VARIOUS ANIMALS The sound of RAPID MACHINE GUN FIRE echoes throughout the camp! CAMERA RECORDS the animal's SHOCKED REACTIONS! THE SECURITY GUARD lies on the GROUND. DEAD. His body riddled with BULLETS. The SHINY, BLACK BOOTS of the three men PASS his body. We notice that one of the boot's SHOELACES are untied. TYKI STARES into the dark night. FEAR covers his face. He is SEATED inside of his cage. A CANDLE flickers beside him. Tyki's hands REST on the beautiful tapestry. Tyki LISTENS. He hears FOOTSTEPS. COMING toward his cage. Tyki REACHES to his side. He grabs a STONE DAGGER. Suddenly, a LOOD GONSHOT! The SPLINTERED LOCK from Tyki's cage goes spinning across the floor. The cage door CREAKS OPEN. GUTTERBUHG stands in the doorway. TWO NAZI SOLDIERS, HELMUT and KLACE (who we met earlier), are beside him. Gutterbuhg SMILES. His stiff right arm EXTENDS from his side. His leather gloved INDEX FINGER is POINTING ahead. Tyki GROWLS at the Nazis. He STANDS. RAISING the stone dagger OVER HIS HEAD. Gutterbuhg's FINGER BEGINS TO RAPIDLY FIRE BULLETS! His MECHANICAL ARM is actually a A MACEINE GUN! The bullets TEAR through Tyki's tapestry. They make a crooked, tattered line through the BEAUTIFOL WORK. DESTROYING it. A terrified Tyki WATCHES. Gutterbuhg STOPS shooting. He REMOVES the empty cartridge from a SLOT in his mechanical arm, and REPLACES it with another. He points the DEADLY FINGER at Tyki. A trembling Tyki DROPS the dagger. The three NAZIS walk toward the helpless pygmy. CUT TO: INT. DASHIELL'S BAR Indiana, Scraggy and Clare CONTINUE to excitedly STUDY the map. A NEGLECTED Betsy POURS herself the last of the wine. She is very DRUNK, singing along with the band's version of Cole Porter's "Night and Day". BENEATH THE TABLE Betsy continues to RUB her FOOT against Indiana's leg. INDIANA tries to IGNORE Betsy's playing. Scraggy continues to TRANSLATE the scroll. SCRAGGY "With his Golden Hooped Rod, And its powerful lightning rays, Sun Wu Kung build Water Curtain Cave, Where he live for 500 days." CLARE The Golden Hooped Rod? INDIANA A heavenly staff with many different powers...most notably, it had the ability to transform itself into hundreds of objects... (staring) It remains the most priceless treasure of Sun Wu Kung's empire. CLARE And what is the...the Water Curtain Cave? INDIANA Sun Wu Kung's legendary hideout...an enormous secret cave, hidden behind a running waterfall. Clare again REACHES for her coffee. The cup and saucer are still TREMBLING. Clare PEEKS under the table, and again SEES Betsy's foot RUBBING Indiana's leg. Clare gives a revolted GRUMBLE. Indiana EXCITEDLY explains Scraggy's translation. INDIANA This proves that the Water Curtain Cave exists in Africa... (to Scraggy) Does it mention anything about Sun Wu Kung's travels? SCRAGGY (reading scroll) Only place called..."Twisted Snake Water". INDIANA The Zarnbesi River! It has a reputation for its deadly water snakes... CLARE It would have been Sun Wu Kung's logical path. INDIANA (confident, anxious) It will also be our logical path. Clare SMILES. BENEATH THE TABLE Betsy's foot CONTINUES to rub Indiana's leg. Finally Indy reaches down, trying to SLAP Betsy's foot away! But Indy's hand STUMBLES upon something else. The MECHANICAL BUG. Indy TRIES to remove the bug. But the tiny device WON'T BUDGE. ABOVE TABLE Indiana's hand is buried beneath the table, STRUGGLING to remove the bug. To Clare, it appears as if Indy is PLAYING with Betsy's foot. Clare gives an INCREDULOUS look to Indiana. CLARE Please try to control that monstrous libido of yours! Indiana finally REMOVES the mechanical bug. He LIFTS it above the table. EXAMINING it. Clare is about to ASK a question. Indy INDICATES for her to "Shhhh". He COVERS the bug and WHISPERS to the others. INDIANA We have to get back to the compound. Tyki may be in danger. Indiana, Clare and Scraggy HURRY from the table. A TIPSY Betsy Follows. Indiana passes the JAZZ BAND. He nonchalantly DROPS the mechanical bug into the trumpet player's HORN! The trumpet player hits a PIERCING HIGH NOTE! CUT T0: NAZI HEADQUARTERS The Nazi wearing the radio HEADPHONES emits a LOUD SCREAM! His eardrums BURSTING with the trumpet sound! CUT TO: INT. COMPOUND Gutterbuhg, Klaus and Helmut LEAD the bound and gagged Tyki OUT OF THE COMPOUND. They keep their LUGERS at his back. Suddenly, Klaus TRIPS over something. A FAWN. Klaus GROWLS. He SHOUTS a German order to Helmut, who GRABS a tight hold of the baby deer. Klaus AIMS his luger at the fawn's head. Gutterbuhg and Helmut exchange a chilling LAUGH. Tyki stares in HORROR. Klaus CLICKS the luger...ready to SHOOT... There is an earth shattering CRACK! A WHIP SHOOTS INTO FRAME! The whip WRAPS ITSELF around the luger! TEARING the gun OUT of Klaus' hand! The fawn breaks FREE and RUNS OFF. The Nazis exchange a SHOCKED glance. They TURN and SEE INDIANA JONES! He stands a FEW FEET away. Holding the WHIP. Indiana POINTS to Tyki, angrilly SHOUTING to the Nazis. INDIANA Get your hands off him. Gutterbuhg LAUGES. He POINTS his finger at Indiana. Indy is PUZZLED. The finger begins to SHOOT! RAPID MACHINE GUN FIRE! Indy DIVES for cover. Holding Tyki CAPTIVE, the Nazis TURN and begin to RUN out of the compound. Indy gets to his FEET. He LIFTS his gun. Ready to SHOOT. But the Nazis are running behind SEVERAL ROWS OF CAGES, filled with ANIMALS. Indiana CAN'T SHOOT. He dashes back OUTSIDE. EXT. ZOOLOGICAL COMPOUND Located on the WATERFRONT. Countless rows of LONG, WOODEN DOCKS line the marina. The Nazis run to below a ROTTED, ANCIENT DOCK. Here, one of their SPEEDBOATS waits. Motor RUNNING. RUDOLPH, a pudgy Nazi, is at the wheel. The Nazis hurriedly CLIMB into the speedboat, PUSHING Tyki inside with them. Indy RUNS to Scraggy's Model-T. Scraggy SITS in the driver's seat. Betsy and Clare SIT in the rear. A drunk Betsy still sings "Night and Day". Indy leaps onto the SIDEBOARD. He SEES the Nazis ahead, CLIMBING into the speedboat. Indy motions for Scraggy to DRIVE. FAST. TOWARD the dock. The Nazi speedboat SHOOTS FORWARD. Moving BENEATH the dock. Scraggy's Model-T FOLLOWS ABOVE, along the SHAKY dock. Indiana RIDES the car's rusted sideboard. He SEES the speedboat below, through the WIDE OPENINGS in the dock's slated boards. Indy begins to SHOOT at the Nazis. Gutterbuhg raises his mechanical arm, FIRING SHOTS back at Indiana. Machine gun fire SPLINTERS the dock boards, SLICING through the Model-T. The side mirror is BLASTED to pieces. The floor beneath Betsy and Clare erupts with FLYING BULLETS. JUST MISSING the girls. Clare is HORRIFIED. Betsy laughs HYSTERICALLY. The Model-T is less than TWENTY FEET from the end of the dock. If they continue ahead, the car will PLUNGE SEVERAL FEET INTO THE WATER! But Scraggy doesn't take his FOOT from the gas. GUTTERBUHG smiles, seeing the vast ocean ahead. Knowing he's almost FREE. As he DODGES bullets, Indiana SEES the end of the dock ahead. He SHOUTS to Scraggy. INDIANA When I tell you... Hit the brakes! Scraggy NODS. The end of the dock is only a FEW FEET ahead. Getting CLOSER... CLOSER... Clare COVERS her eyes. Between hiccups, Betsy laughingly SINGS. Indy LOOKS to the speedboat... BACK to the approaching dock edge... He PAUSES... WAITING for the right moment... He SCREAMS! INDIANA Now, Scraggy! Scraggy's foot SLAMS ON THE BRAKES! The sudden jolt sends Indy FLYING INTO THE AIR! The speedboat SHOOTS OUT from beneath the dock! Indiana LANDS DIRECTLY ON TOP OF THE SPEEDBOAT! A SPECTACULAR STUNT! Helmut POINTS his gun at Indy. Indy reacts with a SWIFT KICK to Helmut's jaw. The Nazi HITS the deck. OUT COLD. Klaus COMES for Indy. They begin to FIGHT. An angry Gutterbuhg tries to SHOOT... But Indy and Klaus move TOO QUICKLY! Gutterbuhg CAN'T get a clear shot. The Model-T has COME TO A STOP. SAFE. Its front wheels TEETER over the dock's edge. Scraggy, Betsy and Clare GET OUT. Clare CATCHES her breath. Knees SHAKING. Betsy is still LAUGHING. BETSY About time we had some fun! A WORRIED Scraggy sees Indiana, FIGHTING with the Nazis. SCRAGGY Bad spirits have Indy! He in trouble! Big trouble! Scraggy RUNS OFF SCREEN. The Nazi speedboat is HEADED TOWARD THE SIDE OF AN ENORMOUS OCEAN LINER! Gutterbuhg RADIOS for help. Indiana and Klaus continue to FIGHT. ROLLING along the deck. Exchanging PUNCHES. A bound Tyki watches with WIDE EYES. HELPLESS. The speedboat makes a sudden SHARP TURN. AVOIDING A COLLISION with the Ocean liner. Indiana and Klaus TUMBLE OFF, THE BOAT! INTO THE WATER! UNDERWATER Indiana and Klaus CONTINUE their battle. They wrestle only a few feet from the ship's large, SPINNING STEEL PROPELLERS. The propellers create a SUCTION FORCE. DRAWING Indy and Klaus CLOSER... CLOSER... toward a SPINNING DEATH. Indy and Klaus grab hold of a dangling, STEEL ANCHOR. PREVENTING their bodies from being sucked into the propellers. Klaus PULLS a switchblade from his pocket. He ATTACKS Indy's CLENCHED FINGERS with the knife. Indy begins to LOSE HIS GRIP. His body INCHES toward the propellers. Klaus RAISES the knife, to FINISH OFF Indiana... But Klaus' UNTIED SHOELACE dangles beside the propellers. The shoelace CATCHES a spinning blade. The SHOCKED Nazi is pulled INTO THE PROPELLERS! Indiana TURNS AWAY, holding TIGHTLY to the anchor. A BLOOD RED CLOUD surges through the surrounding water. Indiana CLIMBS the anchor to safety. ABOVE WATER Indiana SURFACES. Taking a GULP of air. Suddenly, the water in front of him erupts with MACHINE GUN FIRE. Indiana SEES GOTTERBUHG! He has PARKED the Nazi speedboat only a FEW FEET AWAY. Gutterbuhg SMILES, pointing his FINGER at the helpless Indiana. A SITTING DUCK. Gutterbuhg SMILES. GUTTERBUHG Goodnight, Doctor Jones. There is a LOUD GUNSHOT! Gutterbuhg's mechanical arm is HIT BY A BULLET! Pieces of SPRING, METAL and SPROCKETS fly from the wound. Gutterbuhg TURNS. FURIOUS. DASHIELL, the nightclub owner, is a few feet away. He is driving a sleek SPEEDBOAT, its side adorned with the AMERICAN FLAG. Dashiell points a PISTOL at Gutterbuhg, ready to take ANOTHER SHOT... With a ROAR, The Nazi speedboat DRIVES AWAY! Toward a CLUSTER OF DOCKS! Indiana CLIMBS into Dashiell's speedboat. DASHIELL Scraggy said you might be needing some help, sport. Dashiell HITS the gas. TEARING after the Nazis. A FRENZIED, HIGH SPEED CHASE BEGINS! Through the DARKNESS. Beneath the ROWS OF DOCKS. The speedboats face countless OBSTACLES. They SWERVE around a virtual forest of wooden poles, which FLY BY AT BREAKNECK SPEED! The men DUCK and DODGE dangling FISH HOOKS and NETS. Many paths are BLOCKED by the wooden RAFTS and ROWBOATS. (NOTE: Because of the darkness, these obstacles APPEAR only when they are a FEW FEET AHEAD of the speedboats. This makes the chase completely SURPRISING and SCARY, causing a FUNHOUSE effect.) Throughout the chase, Indiana and the Nazis continue to exchange GUNFIRE. A frustrated Gutterbuhg CAN'T SHOOT. His mechanical-machine gun arm rendered USELESS by Dashiell's bullet. He continues to RADIO Nazi headquarters for help. Dashiell CATCHES UP with the Nazis. The two speedboats travel SIDE BY SIDE. Their edges SCRAPE together. SPARKS fly. The recovered Helmut AIMS his luger at Indiana... But Indy LEAPS toward the Nazi. The two FALL. ROLLING. TUMBLING. STRUGGLING for the gun. They fight BETWEEN the two speedboats. The crack below them slightly OPENING and CLOSING. Up ahead, an ENORMOUS STONE POLE appears. To AVOID a collision, the speedboats MUST SEPARATE. Dashiell SCREAMS. DASHIELL Indy! Rollout! Indy FREES himself from Helmut and ROLLS back onto Dashiell's boat. Helmut LOOKS UP. He sees the stone pole AHEAD. COMING AT HIM. Helmut tries to MOVE...TOO LATE. The two boats SEPARATE. Helmut SMACKS into the pole! CRUSHED! Dashiell TURNS AWAY from the wheel, looking at Indiana. DASHIELL You okay, sport? Indiana begins to answer...then sees SOMETHING. AHEAD. He SCREAMS. INDIANA Dash!... Dashiell TURNS BACK. The speedboat is HEADED STRAIGHT FOR A SOLID WOODEN WALL! A sign on the wall reads: FUTTERMAN'S FISHING WAREHOUSE. The Nazi speedboat has already made a SHARP TURN, AVOIDING the warehouse. There's NO TIME for Dashiell to TURN. Indy HITS the deck. The speedboat ARCHES upward, at an ANGLE... CRASH! The speedboat BLASTS into the warehouse. Splintered wood SPLATTERS through the air. INT. WAREHOUSE Dashiell's speedboat BURSTS through another wall. The boat SKIDS across the warehouse floor. SCREECHING TO A STOP! A SHAKEN Dashiell gets out. Indy RUNS to the window. INDIANA'S POV The NAZI SPEEDBOAT shoots out of the docks, ESCAPING across the water. Indiana grabs his WHIP. He KICKS OPEN the warehouse window. He SNAPS his wrist. CRACK. The whip SHOOTS forward, ATTACHING ITSELF TO THE REAR OF THE NAZI SPEEDBOAT! Indy firmly GRIPS his end of the whip. The whip TIGHTENS. WHOOSH! Indiana is PULLED out of the window. Gutterbuhg exchanges a VICTORIOUS laugh with Rudolph, the speedboat driver, thinking they have LOST Indiana. A frightened Tyki LOOKS BACK. His eyes suddenly fill with HOPE. Gutterbuhg TURNS. His mouth DROPS OPEN. Indiana uses his WHIP to WATER SKI BEHIND THE NAZI SPEEDBOAT! A red faced Gutterbuhg SLAMS his fist on the dashboard. He removes a SHARP KNIFE. He hurriedly begins to SLICE through Indy's whip. Trying to BREAK THE CONNECTION. Indiana AIMS his pistol at Gutterbuhg. But suddenly, a SHOT WHIZZES by Indy's head. Followed by ANOTHER. And ANOTHER. COMING from behind. Indy TURNS. A SECOND NAZI SPEEDBOAT is in HOT PURSUIT! There are FIVE NAZIS inside. Armed with PISTOLS and RIFLES. All FIRING SHOTS at Indiana. Meanwhile, Gutterbuhg's knife continues to SLICE through Indy's whip. Only a FEW THREADS remain. Indiana performs some EXPERT WATER SKIING. SWERVING. SPINNING. JUMPING. All in an attempt to AVOID the flying bullets from behind. Suddenly, Indy's whip SNAPS! Indiana FALLS UNDERWATER! Directly IN THE PATH of the seccnd Nazi speedboat! Tyki HIDES his eyes. Gutterbuhg LAUGHS. It appears that Indiana has met a GRISLY DEATH. The Nazis in the second speedboat are DELIGHTED. SHAKING each other's hands. CAMERA PANS TO BELOW the speedboat. We move UNDERWATER. SOUND TRACK MUSIC SOARS! We see INDIANA. Very much ALIVE. He STRADDLES THE BOTTOM OF THE SPEEDING BOAT! HOLDING ON with all of his strength! Indiana CLIMBS toward the side of the speedboat, BATTLING the pressure of the rushing water. CAMERA FOLLOWS INDIANA, OUT OF THE WATER, AS HE CLIMBS ABOARD THE SECOND SPEEDBOAT. The four Nazis are LAUGHING. TALKING. Their backs turned to the APPROACHING Indiana. Moving like LIGHTNING, Indy GRABS one of the Nazis and TOSSES HIM OVERBOARD. With a SWIFT PUNCH to the stomach and jaw, Indy sends another Nazi INTO THE WATER. The other two Nazis TACKLE Indy. They FALL to the deck. FIGHTING. Gutterbuhg LOOKS BACK. SHOCKED that Indy is still alive. Gutterbuhg GROWLS. FRUSTRATED. His eyes suddenly LIGHT. He SPOTS something. AHEAD. TWO GARGANTUAN OCEAN LINERS are MOVING TOWARD EACH OTHER. Coming TOGETHER. There is an OPENING between the two ships, that continues to get SMALLER, as the ships move CLOSER. Gutterbuhg SMILES. An IDEA. He orders Rudolph to DRIVE THROUGH THE OPENING. In the second speedboat, the Nazis have OVERCOME Indiana. One Nazi PINS Indy down. The other removes a THICK METAL CHAIN from his neck. A RED SWASTIKA dangles from the chain. The Nazi WRAPS the chain around Indy's neck. He begins to STRANGLE Indiana. Gutterbuhg's speedboat MOVES TOWARD the ocean liners. The opening between the two ships continues to SHRINK. Getting SMALLER...and SMALLER... The second speedboat is DIRECTLY BEHIND Gutterbuhg. The Nazis are STRANGLING Indiana. The color begins to LEAVE Indy's face. He GASPS for air. The opening between the two Ocean liners continues to get SMALLER... Less than TEN FEET WIDE. Gutterbuhg's speedboat is only a FEW FEET AWAY. Through his fluttering eyes, Indiana SEES Gutterbuhg's speedboat headed for the ocean liners. Indiana is nearly UNCONSCIOUS. The giggling Nazis TIGHTEN the chain around his neck. With LESS THAN AN INCH to spare... Gutterbuhg's speedboat SQUEEZES between the two Ocean Liners! The second speedboat is only a FEW FEET from the Ocean Liners. But as the ships move CLOSER...the opening is nearly CLOSED. The driver CAN'T TURN AWAY. He's TOO CLOSE. He emits a SCREAM. The Nazis PAUSE from strangling Indiana. They TURN. Indy MOVES FAST. He DIVES overboard. INTO THE WATER. The speedboat HITS the opening. TOO SMALL. The speedboat is CRUSHED between the two Ocean Liners. The Nazis let out their FINAL SCREAMS. Followed by a fiery EXPLOSION! Flaming pieces of the wreckage are SPLATTERED through the night sky. GOTTERBUHG turns. His grinning, sadistic face LIT by the explosion. Tyki's eyes are filled with FEAR. SEVERAL FEET AWAY, Indiana Jones SURFACES. ALIVE. He SWIMS to the nearby shore and CLIMBS out of the water. He RUBS his reddened neck, catches his breath and LOOKS into the distance. Indy SEES Gutterbuhg's speedboat. TOO FAR to catch. GUTTERBUHG sees the SILHOUETTE of Indy, standing on the distant shore. Gutterbuhg orders the driver to move FASTER. The engine ROARS. Gutterbuhg LOOKS back at Indy. The Nazi emits a MANIACAL LAUGH that pierces the air. Indiana watches the speedboat ESCAPE into the night. His eyes fill with RAGE. VENGEANCE. Clare, Scraggy and a VERY DRUNK Betsy JOIN Indy on the shore. Betsy PUTS her arms around Indiana. She RESTS her head on his shoulder. She CLOSES her eyes and emits a DRUNKEN SIGH. BETSY What a romantic night! An ANNOYED Indy pushes Betsy away. In a drunken stupor, Betsy moves to the next person, CLARE. Thinking she's still with Indiana, Betsy puts her arms AROUND Clare. A WORRIED Clare is TOO CONCERNED with the departing Nazi speedboat. Clare TURNS to Inqy. CLARE Will they hurt Tyki? INDIANA (shaking his head) They know he's important to us. (holds up ancient scroll) They'll use him to bargain for this. Eyes CLOSED, resting her head on Clare's shoulder, Betsy SIGHS. BETSY Indy, you smell so good! So masculine! Clare PUSHES Betsy away. Betsy SPINS and WRAPS HER ARMS around Scraggy. Clare watches the Nazi Speedboat DISAPPEAR into the night. CLARE Will they be following us? INDIANA Every step of the way. Betsy, still thinking she's SNUGGLING with Indiana, rubs her face against Scraggy's bristly beard. BETSY Mmmm, Indy. I love it when you don't shave. It's so sexy! Scraggy PUSHES Betsy away. She SPINS, this time putting her arms around a hanging FISHERMAN'S NET. Filled with FISH. Meanwhile, Scraggy LOOKS at Indiana and Clare. SCRAGGY Pandoola, God of Purity, say... "Always stay ten paces ahead of bad spirit". INDIANA Exactly. We can't let the Nazis get to the City first. If they do, they'll wipe out one of the greatest archeological finds in History! Indiana turns and WALKS AWAY. Clare and Scraggy hurriedly FOLLOW. There's NO TIME to lose. The drunken Betsy continues to embrace the net of DEAD FISH. Betsy TURNS. Eyes CLOSED. She SMILES. BETSY How 'bout a little goodnight kiss? Betsy KISSES the LIPS OF A DEAD FISH! She SMILES. IMPRESSED. BETSY Mmmmm, Indy...you really know the way to a girl's heart! Betsy OPENS her eyes. FACE TO FACE with the dead fish. Betsy SCREAMS and RUNS toward the departing Indiana, Clare and Scraggy! EXT. ZAMBESI RIVER - THE FOLLOWING DAY Early MORNING. The sparkling waters of the Zambesi are lined by thick JUNGLE. Sounds of screeching GIBBONS, exotic BIRDS, chattering INSECTS, and various other WILDLIFE echo from the jungle. BRIGHT RAYS of HOT sunlight sprinkle through the leaves of the towering palm trees. A 55 foot, tattered, wooden RIVER BOAT, the "ADOBO", travels along the Zambesi. The boat is filled with various crates and barrels of SUPPLIES. And there are several men, CREW MEMBERS, all natives of Mozambique. They are a MOTLEY crew, all armed with SWORDS and DAGGERS. They are DIRTY. TATTERED. UNKEMPT. The boat pulls a long, WOODEN RAFT behind it. Scraggy's MODEL-T is attached to the raft. One of the crew members, a YOUNG MAN, sits on the raft. He strums a BEATEN GUITAR, singing a FOLK SONG. INDIANA stands at the ship's steering wheel. Forehead COVERED with sweat. He GUIDES the ship along the twisting waters. CLARE exits from a cabin, carrying a stenographer's NOTEBOOK. She looks RADIANT. Her red hair SHIMMERS in the morning sun. Clare walks up BESIDE Indy. She CRINKLES her nose. CLARE What is that awful aroma? INDIANA Scraggy's takin' a shower. Indy points OFF SCREEN. Scraggy, fully clothed, STANDS here. He rubs a large, FRESH ONION over his FACE, ARMS and LEGS. SQUEEZING the onion JUICE over his body. Indiana EXPLAINS to a befuddled Clare. INDIANA He believes that onions keep bad spirits from entering his body. CLARE (writing in her notebook) In all my years of anthropology... I've never run across anyone or anything quite like Scraggy. INDIANA (chuckles) He's a rare breed. (turns, looks at Clare for the first time) You're looking very lovely. CLARE You're looking very lecherous. INDIANA (turns away, angry) Just tryin' to be friendly. CLARE Save it for the schoolgirls. INDIANA Look, Clare... Betsy's just an anxious archeology student...she admires my work... (egotistical shrug) Who can blame her?... (back to his point) But it's just some kinda' hero worship thing... There was never any romance. BETSY (pops in from OFF SCREEN, kisses Indiana) I dreamed about our first night together! Indy SIGHS. Clare DISGUSTINGLY shakes her head. She continues to scrawl more into her notebook. Indiana gives her a STARTLED look. INDIANA You're writin' this down?... CLARE (nods) I'm keeping an accurate record of our journey. INDIANA What's that got to do with my personal life? CLARE Evidence. I plan on testifying at your child molestation trial. Indiana SHAKES his head. STARING into the distance. He SIGHS. INDIANA Why do I do this to myself? Holding her head in PAIN, Betsy turns to Clare. BETSY (holds her head in pain, to Clare) Hey, lady...you're s'posed to be a Doctor...you got any cures for a hangover?... CLARE The best I've heard was used by a New Zealand Tribe... (pauses, thinking) One part crushed owl skull...two parts rhino saliva...one part zebra dandruff. Betsy's face becomes PALE. Indy INTERRUPTS. INDIANA No, No... Get a cup of donkey sweat ...two spoons of skunk hair...and one pint of shredded lizard tongue. Betsy turns a light shade of GREEN. Scraggy ARGUES. SCRAGGY I always use family cure! Two spoons chopped leeches... Half cup horse mucous...two quarts crocodile urine! BETSY (ready to throw up) Ex...cuse...me...! Betsy runs OFF SCREEN. The others exchange a SHRUG. Scraggy LOOKS at the river ahead. SCRAGGY How far we travel, Indy?... INDIANA Almost 20 miles. CLARE Any sign of the Nazis? INDIANA (shakes his head, confident) Long as we keep up this pace... they'll have trouble tracking us. CAMERA PANS from the hopeful faces of Indiana, Scraggy and Clare, to the CABIN behind them. Here, a CREW MEMBER HIDES in the shadows. His face HIDDEN. He HOLDS a small radio receiver. He WHISPERS into the receiver. Speaking in perfect GERMAN. CUT TO: GUTTERBUBG. He is seated in NAZI HEADQUARTERS. He repairs his detached, MACHINE GUN ARM, which sits on the table before him. Behind Gutterbuhg, a GROUP OF NAZIS listen to the radio transmission of Scraggy's treacherous Crew Member, who discloses the LOCATION of the River Boat. The Nazis CHART out the boat's exact location on a large, WALL MAP. LIEUT. MEPHISTO supervises the project. Tyki, BOUND, GAGGED and BRUISED, watches from a corner. MEPHISTO looks at all the Nazis. MEPHISTO (German, English subtitles) We must leave. Immediately. DISSOLVE TO: NIGHT IN THE JUNGLE. VARIOUS SHOTS of exotic animals. A creeping PANTHER. A sleeping WHITE BAT. A tense SCORPION. A family of CROCODILES. ABOARD SHIP Indiana, Scraggy, Clare and Betsy are GATHERED on the deck. Seated in a CIRCLE. They are surrounded by the CREW MEMBERS. Everyone eats their DINNER from tin cans. The surrounding lanterns cast an EERIE LIGHT on the area. The young crew member plays a soft, SPOOKY tune on his guitar. Betsy is RESTLESS. She GLARES at the guitar player. BETSY Don't you know somethin' else? Somethin' upbeat?... The guitar player IGNORES Betsy, continuing to play. Betsy SIGHS. UPSET. BORED. BETSY It's so hot... Stuffy... Do we have to stay on this stupid boat all night?... INDIANA (nods) We have to keep moving. BETSY Can we at least jump in the water?... Go for a swim?... CLARE There's an old legend about the Zambesi... In ancient times, criminals were given their choice of execution...or swimming across the Zambesi. Most chose execution. INDIANA Clare's right. We'll be safer on the boat. (annoyed, to Betsy) Now quit moanin' and eat your food. An angry Betsy TOSSES her tin can overboard. She STANDS. FURIOUS with Indiana. BETSY You are so rude! I travel thousands of miles just to be with you...and everybody treats me like dirt! (to Clare) Nobody even talks to me without making some condescending remark they think I'm too stupid to understand! (very upset) So maybe I don't know a lot about weird tribal dances... I'm still pretty good with anthropology and archeology... Maybe I could even help you out...if somebody gave me a chance...clued me in to what it is we're doin' here... (to Indy) 'Cause whether you like it or not, Indiana Jones... I'm part of this expedition, too! Clare RAISES an eyebrow. IMPRESSED. Indiana says NOTHING. He can't ARGUE. Scraggy INTERJECTS. SCRAGGY (motions to crew members) My friends also curious about where we journey to, Indy. The crew members NOD. STARING at Indiana. Indiana turns to Clare. She SMILES. CLARE Tell us all a bedtime story, Doctor Jones. Indiana SIGHS. The crew member's GUITAR PLAYING COMBINES with the SOUND TRACK, backing up Indiana's story with an EERIE TUNE. INDIANA Long ago...a place known as the Flower Fruit Mountain, in the Chinese province of Ao-Lai...was struck by lightning. A Stone Monkey, "Sun Wu-Kung", was born. SCRAGGY This monkey?... He could walk?... Talk?... Like human?... INDIANA More than human. He was blessed with countless heavenly powers... But it wasn't enough. Sun Wu-Kung wanted to learn the secret of Eternal Life... of Immortality... (pause) Equipped with his Golden Hooped Rod to protect him, Sun Wu Kung travelled the world for many years ...learning the secret philosophies and teachings of Eternal Youth. Eventually, he was granted entrance to heaven...where the Jade Emperor gave Sun Wu Kung the title of "Great Sage of the Heavens"...and permitted him to oversee the Garden of Immortal Peaches. (pause) After several years, the stone monkey returned to somewhere on earth. Here, he ruled an empire...a Civilization of Monkeys and humans who had life spans of many hundred years... (shrugs) The exact whereabouts of that Lost City has been a mystery for hundreds of years...until Doctor Clarke discovered the pygmy. The crew members, Scraggy, Betsy and Clare, listen with FASCINATION. INDIANA It's uncertain just how much of this legend is based in reality... Nevertheless, we're hoping to find some sign of the Lost Civilization. BETSY What about Sun Wu Kung?... INDIANA Whatever he was...a stone idol...an actual monkey...a human being...is unknown. But he is one of the most influentual religious figures in History, and his remains are most likely somewhere in the Lost City. Suddenly, they are INTERRUPTED BY A DISTANT SOUND. A LOW, RUMBLING SOUND. BIZARRE. UNEARTHLY. UNLIKE anything we've heard before. Indiana TURNS to Scraggy. INDIANA Sound familiar? SCRAGGY (shakes his head) It is far, far away...many miles... BETSY (frightened) What is it?... Some kinda' weird animal?... CLARE No animal sounds like that. SCRAGGY Could be "Banseebaba". CLARE Banseebaba? SCRAGGY Banseebaba is giant demon from hell. He is 50 feet tall. Breathes fire. Make sound like human never hear before. He is made up of all evil in the world! CLARE Cheery thought. The sound suddenly STOPS. Everyone exchanges a FRIGHTENED, TERRIFIED GLANCE. Indiana STANDS. INDIANA Whatever the hell it is... It went to sleep for the night. Which is what we should do. CUT TO: LATER THAT NIGHT - LONG SHOT - THE BOAT The boat sails along the RIVER. Beneath the MOONLIGHT. A lone CREW MEMBER stays awake. At the STEERING WHEEL. Other CREW MEMBERS sleep along the deck. Scraggy SLEEPS in a hanging cot. INDIANA is ASLEEP in his CABIN. Suddenly, the door SLOWLY CREAKS OPEN. A SHADOW appears on the cabin wall. COMING TOWARD Indiana. The shadow EXTENDS a hand. The hand GRABS Indy's blanket. Indy WAKES. He LEAPS out of bed and TACKLES the mysterious person. Indy FLIPS on the cabin lamp. The intruder is none other than...BETSY. Indiana PULLS Betsy to her feet. She gives a flirtatious SMILE. BETSY Couldn't sleep. The heat. I'm in the mood for passion. INDIANA I'm in the mood for isolation. Indiana LEADS Betsy to the open door. He begins to PUSH her back outside. Betsy STOPS him. BETSY I'm not leaving. Not till I get a kiss. INDIANA Betsy... BETSY (serious) One kiss. Or I'll scream. I swear. I'll wake the whole boat. Indiana has NO CHOICE. He SIGHS. INDIANA OKay. Just one. (leans toward her, pauses) Keep your mouth closed. They KISS. Betsy WRAPS her arms around Indiana, turning it into a PASSIONATE KISS. At that moment, ACROSS THE HALL, Clare exits the bathroom, TOOTHBRUSH in hand. She SEES the kissing Indiana and Betty. Clare STARES. OPEN MOUTHED. SHOCKED. Indiana OPENS his eyes. He SEES Clare WATCHING HIM. An ANGRY Clare MARCHES into her room. She SLAMS the door. WE HEAR Clare LOCKING the door behind her, and moving a piece of furniture in front of the door. Indiana PUSHES Betsy away. ANGRY. He quickly CLOSES his door. Betsy WALKS back to her room. A huge, SATISFIED SMILE covers her face. THE FOLLOWING MORNING SUNRISE. PEACEFUL. CALM. Birds SING. The River Boat has travelled countless miles, into the heart of the ZAMBESI. A tired CREW MEMBER mans the boat's steering wheel. CAMERA PANS DOWN, moving along the side of the boat. WE STOP AT WATER LEVEL. A HAND SHOOTS OUT OF THE WATER. GRIPPING a rusted, sharp KNIFE. Followed by ANOTHER HAND. And ANOTHER. And ANOTHER. Until there are COUNTLESS HANDS, REACHING FOR THE SIDE OF THE RIVER BOAT. The hands GRAB HOLD of the boat. SEVERAL DARK FIGURES slowly RISE out of the water. Only the OUTLINES of their bodies are VISIBLE, backlit by the RISING SUN. The figures CLIMB UP the side of the boat. Carefully CREEPING. Moving SILENTLY. Indiana stands on the REAR DECK, shirt WRAPPED around his waist. He is SHAVING. CLARE sits a few feet away. WRITING in her journal. Indy GLANCES to her. CURIOUS. INDIANA What's that you're writing?... CLARE "The Erotic Adventures Of Indiana Jones, Professor Of Perversity". INDIANA (back to shaving) Very funny. CAMERA PANS TO THE FRONT DECK. STOPPING on the DRIVER. He STARES ahead. STEERING the ship. SUDDENLY, A FIGURE APPEARS. BEHIND the driver. The figure GRABS the driver. AROUND THE NECK. Before the driver can SCREAM...the figure SLICES HIS THROAT. Scraggy WITNESSES this. Through an OPEN PORTHOLE. His face covered with SHOCK. FEAR. INT. LOWER CABIN - KITCHEN Betsy stands over a large SKILLET. She FRIES pancakes, LIFTING the first pancake, Betsy places it on a PLATE that rests beside her. Betsy TURNS to get another pancake. A HAND REACHES FROM OFF SCREEN. The hand GRABS the pancake from the plate. Betsy TURNS back. She sees the EMPTY PLATE. She is PUZZLED. CONFUSED. She SHRUGS, placing ANOTHER PANCAKE on the plate. She TURNS back to the skillet. Again, a hand GRABS the pancake. Betsy turns and again sees an EMPTY PLATE. She hears GIGGLING. BEHIND her. She turns and SEES AN ORIENTAL PIRATE. TALL. MUSCULAR. The Pirate TOWERS above Betsy. He is dressed in COLORFUL, TATTERED clothes. The pirate LAUGHS. His bloated mouth DRIBBLES with pancake crumbs. Betsy STEPS BACK. FRIGHTENED. The Pirate removes a DAGGER from his belt. Eyes filled with LECHERY, the Pirate moves toward Betsy. She GRABS the skillet. THROWING HOT OIL in the Pirate's face. He SCREAMS. Betsy DASHES OUT of the kitchen. INDIANA has nearly finished SHAVING. He tries to CONVINCE Clare of his innocence. She continues to WRITE. IGNORING him. INDIANA You are blowing this Betsy thing all out of proportion... Indiana LEANS down. He RINSES his face in a large BUCKET OF WATER. A DAGGER FLIES INTO FRAME! JUST MISSING Indiana. It STICKS into the wall. A FEW FEET ABOVE Indy's head. Clare WITNESSES this. SHOCKED. UNAWARE of the danger, Indiana RAISES his head out of the bucket. He still tries to REASON with Clare. INDIANA It's not as if I have this sleazy reputation... Clare is trying to INTERRUPT Indy, trying to POINT OUT the dagger. But before she can say a word, Indiana again LEANS into the water bucket. ANOTHER DAGGER SHOOTS INTO FRAME! INTO the wall. This time only INCHES above Indy's head. Indiana again RAISES his head. INDIANA I am a respected...honored... admired... Clare LEAPS FORWARD. She pushes Indy OUT OF THE WAY, moments before another DAGGER FLIES INTO FRAME! STICKING into the wall! Indy and Clare TURN. THREE PIRATES stand here. DIRTY. TOOTHLESS. UGLY. SWORDS EXTENDED, they MOVE toward Indiana and Clare. Indy's eyes DART to the water bucket table. His WHIP and PISTOL rest here. OUT OF REACH. Indy and Clare are TRAPPED. The Pirates move CLOSER... Suddenly, A LOUD SCREAM. The Pirates LOOK UP. SCRAGGY swings from a ROPE above. TOWARD the Pirates. Before the Pirates can react, Scraggy CRASHES into them. They TUMBLE to the deck. Scraggy SHOOTS to his feet. He tosses a spare SWORD to Indy. Scraggy and Indy begin to SWORDFIGBT the Pirates. Clare TURNS. DASHING around the corner. To SAFETY. A SUDDEN STOP. Her face is buried in the hairy, bare chest of KEZURE, an enormous, bear- like PIRATE KING. Kezure HASN'T BATHED in years. He is dressed in SEVERAL LAYERS of tattered, colorful clothing, GOLDEN JEWELRY, and ANIMAL SKINS. His STRINGY hair is long, tied in a PONYTAIL behind his head. A thick, long MOUSTACHE wraps around a large mouth, filled with crooked, GOLDEN TEETH. Clare SHRIEKS. Kezure GRABS her around the waist. He TOSSES Clare over his shoulder. The river boat is overcome with a mixture of ORIENTAL and BLACK Pirates. SOUND TRACK MUSIC SOARS! There is a HEATED BATTLE between the crew members and the Pirates. Fists FLYING. Swords CLASHING. Using her Brooklyn street smarts, Betsy FIGHTS like a pro. With a swift PUNCH and KICK, Betsy DEFEATS one Pirate. She takes his SWORD. ANOTHER Pirate comes for Betsy. She EDGES him on. BETSY C'mon... You ain't so tough. You wouldn't last ten minutes in Brooklyn. The Pirate ATTACKS. He and Betsy begin a HEATED SWORDFIGHT. Indiana and Scraggy CONTINUE TO BATTLE the onslaught of sword slinging Pirates. Suddenly, Indy is interrupted by Clare's LOUD SCREAM! He TURNS. A PIRATE SHIP has APPEARED. BESIDE the river boat. The ship is ANCIENT. OMINOUS. COUNTLESS PIRATES are aboard the ship. Armed with GUNS, BOWS AND ARROWS and CANNONS. EXT. RIVER BOAT - TOP DECK KEZURE, the Pirate King, stands at the edge of the boat. He still HOLDS the screaming Clare over his shoulder. From the Pirate ship, the Pirates toss a GRAPNEL ROPE to Kezure. The Pirate King GRABS BOLD of the rope. Holding TIGHTLY to Clare, Kezure SWINGS from the river boat, to the Pirate Ship. INDIANA runs through the FIGHTING crew members and Pirates, in an effort to SAVE Clare. Suddenly, the SOUND OF CANNON FIRE! The river boat ROCKS! HIT by a CANNONBALL! Indy KEEPS his balance. SWORD in hand, he DIVES INTO THE WATER. Indiana SWIMS across the Zambesi. TOWARD the Pirate ship. The water surrounding Indy erupts with COUNTLESS SPRAYS OF BULLETS, CANNONBALLS and FLYING ARROWS. EXT. RIVER BOAT - TOP DECK The swordfighting crew members manage to keep the many Pirates AT BAY. Scraggy EXCHANGES swordplay with a Pirate. The sword is KNOCKED from Scraggy's hand. He is DEFENSELESS. The Pirate COMES in for the kill. He RAISES HIS SWORD...ready to PLUNGE it into Scraggy's heart... The Pirate suddenly PAUSES. A HORRIFIED look on his face. The end of a SWORD SHOOTS OUT OF THE PIRATE'S CHEST! A MOMENT PASSES...the sword SLIDES BACK INSIDE of the Pirate's chest. The Pirate FALLS to the deck. BETSY stands behind him. She holds the BLOODIED SWORD. Scraggy gives her a THANKFUL NOD. EXT. PIRATE SHIP Indiana has MADE IT ACROSS the Zambesi. He CLIMBS UP the side of the Pirate Ship. The Pirates begin to SHOOT at Indy. Indy is HIT. An ARROW. In the ARM. He dives to safety in a nearby CANNON COMPARTMENT. INT. CANNON COMPARTMENT Indy PULLS the arrow out of his arm. He is suddenly ATTACKED by the Pirate Gunner. The two begin to STRUGGLE. FIGHT. CAMERA PANS TO the rear of the cannon, moving to a CLOSE UP of the FUSE. The fuse is LIT. BURNING. Meanwhile, Indy and the Pirate fight DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF THE CANNON'S OPEN BARREL! Every few seconds, each of their heads MOVES IN FRONT of the opening. The fuse continues to BURN. Getting LOWER...LOWER... EXT. PIRATE SHIP - TOP DECK Clare has been TIED to a mast pole. Kezure STANDS in front of her. As his men BATTLE around him, Kezure leans forward. The drooling Pirate King sloppily KISSES Clare. Along her NECK. Clare is NAUSEOUS. INT. CANNON COMPARTMENT Indy and the Pirate continue to FIGHT. The cannon fuse SPARKS. BURNING toward the bottom. The Pirate pushes Indy's head INSIDE OF THE CANNON OPENING. The FUSE will BLOW at any second. At the last moment, Indiana OVERPOWERS the Pirate. Indy LEAPS to the floor. The Pirate FALLS FORWARD. FACE TO FACE WITH THE CANNON OPENING! BOOM! The cannon FIRES! Indy's shirt is SPLATTERED with blood. Indiana RUNS to a wooden staircase, hurrying up the stairs. To the TOP DECK. EXT. PIRATE SHIP - TOP DECK Kezure kisses the bare shoulder of the STRUGGLING, HELPLESS Clare. Indy EMERGES from the cannon compartment. Upon seeing the Pirate King ATTACK Clare, Indiana SHOUTS. INDIANA You son of a bitch. Kezure TURNS. He emits a gravelly laugh and scratches his neck, curiously STUDYING Indiana. Indy EXTENDS his sword. The Pirate King removes a long, sharp GOLDEN SWORD. They begin to FIGHT. Moving ALONG the deck. A FAST PACED, HEATED swordfight. EXT. RIVER BOAT - TOP DECK A PIRATE has taken over the boat's WHEEL. He STEERS the river boat OFF THE REGULAR PATH. It SPEEDS toward the base of a LARGE, THRASHING WATERFALL. The Pirate ship moves ALONGSIDE of the river boat, also HEADED for the waterfall. SCRAGGY and BETSY sees the waterfall ahead. PANIC fills their eyes. They DASH to the steering wheel. Betsy DISTRACTS the Pirate. They begin to SWORDFIGHT. Scraggy TAKES the steering wheel. He attaempts to steer the ship AWAY from the waterfall. EXT. PIRATE SHIP - TOP DECK Indiana and the Pirate King have climbed to the top of the SHIP'S MAST. They battle AMIDST the tangled ropes. SWORDS CLASHING. As the two men fight, Indy notices that the Pirate ship is HEADED FOR THE WATERFALL. Indiana has a sudden REALIZATION. He sees Scraggy, trying to STEER THE RIVER BOAT IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION. Indy SCREAMS above the cannon fire. INDIANA (still fighting) Scraggy!... No!... Keep goin' straight!... Full steam ahead!... SCRAGGY is CONFUSED by Indy's orders. He SCREAMS back to Indiana. SCRAGGY What?... You crazy Indy?... We be crushed!... We smash into rock wall!... INDIANA still SWORDFIGHTING the Pirate King, SCREAMS to Scraggy. INDIANA No!... Trust me!... Full steam ahead!... Full steam ahead !... SCRAGGY BLESSES himself. His face is STRONG. CONFIDENT. He REVS the engine. FULL SPEED. He TIGHTLY CLUTCHES the wheel. AIMING the river boat toward the waterfall. INDIANA AND KEZURE SWING from sail to sail, continuing their SPECTACULAR swordfight. CLARE helplessly watches from the deck. THE RIVER BOAT AND THE PIRATE SHIP continue to move SIDE BY SIDE. Moving CLOSER...CLOSER...to the shattering waterfall. SCRAGGY continues to rev the RIVER BOAT'S engine. CHANTING various prayers under his breath. In the background, a FEISTY Betsy continues to swordfight. THE RIVER BOAT AND THE PIRATE SHIP PENETRATE the waterfall. The two boats are met with an exploding shower of POWERFUL WATER! Crew members and Pirates are TOSSED ABOUT the deck. Indiana and the Pirate King hold TIGHTLY to the sails, to AVOID being thrown into the waters below. EXT. RIVER BOAT The aged boat TOSSES. TILTS. SPINS. Nearly CAPSIZING. Boards CREAK and MOAN. Ready to BURST. But Scraggy holds TIGHTLY to the steering wheel. Keeping the boat AFLOAT. The powerful water sends Betsy SOMERSAULTING along the deck. She tries to GRAB HOLD of something...anything...that will PREVENT her from falling off the boat. Betsy finally CLUTCHES onto something. The ARM OF A DEAD PIRATE. THE RIVER BOAT AND THE PIRATE SHIP are IMMERSED into the waterfall. They DISAPPEAR behind the thrashing curtain of water. INT. BEHIND THE WATERFALL The Pirates' HIDDEN FORTRESS. An enormous, underground CAVERN. Hndreds of BURNING TORCHES cast a devilish glow. The grey rocks of the cavern walls stretch UPWARD. Filled with countless, tiny CAVES. Various stone artifacts and ancient untensils are SCATTERED throughout the cavern. There are several other PIRATES here. ARMED. Waiting for the RETURN of the Pirate Ship. The River Boat and Pirate Ship ENTER the cave. The rushing waterfall THRASHES behind them. The BATTERED and BRUISED River Boat comes to a ROUGH stop. SCREECHING along a far wall. The Pirate Ship sails to a SMOOTH STOP in the middle of the cavern. Armed with guns, knives and swords, the Pirates hurriedly SURROUND the intruding River Boat. They take Betsy, Scraggy and the crew members CAPTIVE. KEZURE leaps to the Pirate Ship's deck and quickly UNTIES Clare. Indiana ATTEMPTS to FOLLOW. He PAUSES. Quickly GRABBING A FEW STICKS OF DYNAMITE from the Pirate Ship deck. Kezure begins to LEAD Clare off of the ship. His sword at her THROAT. Indiana CALLS OUT. INDIANA Wait... Kezure STOPS. He TURNS. Indy WALKS toward Kezure, stopping less than TEN FEET from the Pirate King and Clare. Indy's eyes BURN through Kezure. INDIANA Free the girl... (glances to his captive friends) ...and my friends... (lights a match, moves it toward TNT fuses) ...or I blow your hideout here out of the water! Kezure LAUGHS. Indiana LIGHTS the dynamite fuses. Kezure STOPS laughing...WORRIED for a moment... Then, the Pirate King breaks into a wide, DEFIANT SMILE. KEZURE Good. We will all die. A STANDOFF. Indy DIDN'T EXPECT this. He is suddenly FRIGHTENED. PUZZLED. Betsy, Scraggy and Clare STARE at Indy. Waiting for his NEXT MOVE...as the dynamite fuse SLOWLY BURNS. Getting CLOSER...CLOSER...to the TNT. Kezure seems CALM. Perfectly WILLING TO DIE. Indy gets ANOTHER IDEA. He BLURTS it out to Kezure. INDIANA We can take you to the Lost City of Sun Wu Kung! KEZURE Hah! Better men than you have tried to find the Lost City... They have all failed. (cynical laugh) You are a fool. INDIANA (as the TNT fuse burns LOWER...LOWER...) No... You're the fool. You and your friends are hiding out in Sun Wu Kung's Water Curtain Cave...and you don't even know it. KEZURE (puzzled, looking around) Huh?... Scraggy and Betsy exchange a SHOCKED glance. Clare is also SURPRISED by the news. The TNT fuse nears the end...ready to BLOW AT ANY SECOND... Indiana removes the ANCIENT SCROLL from his pocket. He EXTENDS the scroll to Kezure. INDIANA The Sacred Pai-Cho Scroll. Kezure GRABS the scroll. Attempting to READ it. Indy INTERRUPTS. INDIANA Don't bother. Only WE can translate it. Kezure EXAMINES the scroll. PUZZLED by the writing. Indiana and Scraggy exchange a HOPEFUL glanpe. Kezure PAUSES. THINKING. He MUMBLES to himself. KEZURE The Lost City... Said to have streets paved in gold...treasures far greater than any mortal man could imagine... Kezure PUSHES Clare away. TOWARD Indiana. Clare EMBRACES Indy, as he BLOWS OUT the dynamite fuse. Kezure GROWLS at Indy. KEZURE Your pathetic lives will be spared. For now. (scratching his neck) But everything we find in the Lost City...belongs to ME. INDIANA Fat chance, Sinbad. It's 50-50. Or you've got no deal. KEZURE (vicious smile) It is my way. Or you've got no head. CUT TO: INT. WATER CURTAIN CAVE - THAT NIGHT A group of Pirates sit TOGETHER. DRUNK. They SING one of their ancient songs. The GUITAR strumming crew member accompanies them. Indiana and Scraggy sit around a BLAZING FIRE with Kezure and several other Pirates. Indy, wearing his spectacles, TRANSLATES the scrolls with Scraggy. Indiana is PUZZLED. TROUBLED. He LOOKS at Scraggy. INDIANA Read that last proverb again... SCRAGGY (reads translation) "High tide drowns curiosity, Low tide quenches thirst". INDIANA (stands, looking at the surroundings) There's something here...something that could help us... Meanwhile, Betsy and Clare work in ANOTHER SECTION of the cave. Clare is doing some ARCHEOLOGICAL WORK, studying the various artifacts and utensils. Betsy ASSISTS her. They are surrounded by LEERING, HUNGRY EYED PIRATES. The drunken Pirates DON'T take their eyes off of the girls. Betsy NOTICES. She POINTS it out to Clare. BETSY Look at 'em. It's like they've never seen a woman before. CLARE To them... We're the ultimate women. BETSY Kinda' flattering, isn't it?... Being the girl of 200 guy's dreams? Clare and Betsy exchange a CHUCKLE. Meanwhile, Indiana, Scraggy and Kezure WALK through the cavern. Indy is LOOKING around. CURIOUS, he turns to Kezure. INDIANA Is there an area... A place where the tide changes?... Kezure leads Indiana and Scraggy into a DARK CORNER of the cavern. A large, smooth WALL stretches to the ceiling. The wall is filled with intricate CRACKS. At the base of the wall, water slowly POURS into the cavern. Kezure POINTS to the water. KEZURE In a few hours...the water will be lower...much lower... INDIANA And the remainder of this wall will be visible?.... Kezure NODS. Indiana's eyes LIGHT. A REALIZATION. He excitedly TURNS to Kezure. INDIANA We're gonna need light. A lot of light. On this wall. Kezure NODS. Indiana EXCHANGES an anxious, hopeful glance with Scraggy. DISSOLVE TO: CLOSE UP - A SNORING PIRATE CAMERA PULLS BACK. All of the Pirates SLEEP. Their slumbering bodies LIE in various positions, throughout the cave. Indiana and Kezure are STILL AWAKE. The flickering orange light of the TORCHES illuminates the wall in front of them. They AWAIT the lowering tide. Scraggy, Betsy and Clare SLEEP on the ground beside them. Kezure POURS two glasses of whiskey from a STONE BOTTLE. He gives a GLASS to Indiana. Kezure TOASTS. KEZURE To my good fortune. Kezure GOBBLES down the whiskey. Indiana RELUCTANTLY drinks. Kezure pours TWO more glasses. LAUGHING. KEZURE You know... We are very much alike, Doctor jones. INDIANA I doubt that. KEZURE We both share a remarkable talent for killing. INDIANA I've never gotten used to killing, pal. I do it for survival. KEZURE I do it for pleasure. Indiana DOWNS his whiskey. A LAUGHING Kezure does the same. Indiana NOTICES something. ON the wall. He JUMPS to his feet. CAMERA PANS TO THE WALL. The tide is VERY LOW. The entire wall is now VISIBLE. What were once simple CRACKS, have become the specific LINES OF A MAP. A group of ARROWS leads to an "X" at the BOTTOM CORNER OF THE MAP. A FASCINATED Kezure and Indiana STUDY the wall. INDIANA (astounded) This is incredible...this map was obviously used by Sun Wu Kung's disciples...if they were ever lost... KEZURE These drawings...they are of the surrounding jungle... INDIANA (points to "X") Where is that?... KEZURE It is located at the most South Eastern part of the jungle...near the mountains... There is a village there. The Mongooboo Tribe. INDIANA You know them? KEZURE Very well. I traded with the chief for many years. INDIANA (anxious, excited) Good. We'll leave in the morning. CAMERA PANS FROM Indiana and Kezure, to a DARK CAVE. A FEW FEET away. Standing inside, is the figure of the MYSTERIOUS CREW MEMBER. The TRAITOR. His face is HIDDEN in the shadows. Again, he RADIOS back to Nazis. He WHISPERS in German. CAMERA DOLLIES INTO A CLOSE UP of his RADIO MICROPHONE. A RED SWASTIKA adorns the microphone. EXT. JUNGLE PLAINS - THE FOLLOWING AFTERNOON Scraggy's decrepid MODEL-T TAXI putters across the flat, jungle terrain. The HOT SUN shines in the background. The car is completely PACKED with people. Ready to BURST. Scraggy DRIVES. Indiana, Clare and Betsy are CROWDED in the front seat. Kezure and four Pirates ride in the REAR COMPARTMENT. Everyone is UNCOMFORTABLE. CRAMPED. SWEATING. Two of Scraggy's crew members STRADDLE the sideboard. Three men sit on the ROOF, including the GUITAR PLAYER, who plays a delightful melody. Various rusted POTS, PANS and other UTENSILS dangle from the car. This creates a CHARMING, JINGLING sound. The taxi passes a HERD OF GIRAFFE. The beautiful animals stare in BEWILDERMENT at the passing taxi. Suddenly, there is a DISTANT SOUND. The same LOW, RUMBLING we heard earlier. The giraffes SCATTER. AFRAID of the unnatural sound. INT. TAXI The bizarre SOUND echoes through the taxi. Indy EXCHANGES a puzzled look with the others. INDIANA That sound. Again. SCRAGGY (listening) Still far away...but getting closer. The sound STOPS. Indiana is BOTHERED. DISTURBED. Kezure LEANS forward. He points to a CLUSTERED AREA OF JUNGLE. Nearly a MILE in the distance. KEZURE The village is there. Beyond the thick of jungle. Scraggy NODS. He DRIVES toward the village. Suddenly, AN ARROW SHOOTS THROUGH THE WINDOW! JUST MISSING everyone. It SHATTERS the passenger window. A TRIBE OF NATIVE WARRIORS appear on the terrain. There are HUNDREDS. SCREAMING in high pitched squeals. Their bodies ADORNED with red and white PAINT. The angry warriors RUN TOWARD the taxi. FIRING ARROWS! On the Taxi roof, the men DIVE for cover. Arrows WHIZ by their heads. Inside, everyone ROLLS UP the windows. The taxi is attacked with a SHOWER OF ARROWS. Scraggy FLOORS the gas. The taxi keeps MOVING AHEAD. SPEEDING toward the jungle. Indiana GLARES at Kezure. INDIANA Thought you said they knew you?... Kezure gives a PUZZLED SHRUG. The WARRIORS continue to CHASE the Taxi. Getting CLOSER. Firing more ARROWS. The taxi SPINS to a stop. Directly in front of a LARGE OPENING that leads into the jungle. Everyone POURS OUT of the Taxi. ARROWS fly by their heads. They DASH through the opening. Into the JUNGLE. The Warriors STOP. OUTSIDE of the opening. They DON'T ENTER. TURNING to each other, they begin to LAUGH. VICTORIOUS. INT. JUNGLE An almost PERFECT PATH has been cleared through the thick Jungle. Indiana and the others RUN through the path. Indy SUDDENLY PAUSES. MOTIONING for the others to STOP. A PUZZLED LOOK covers his face. INDIANA Wait... Listen... They're not following us... One of the Pirates CONTINUES TO MOVE FORWARD. His foot TRIPS A THIN STRING that stretches across the path. WHOOSH! A BOOBY TRAPPED PALM TREE SWINGS FORWARD! It SLAMS into the Pirate! Like a giant BASEBALL BAT! It sends the Pirate FLYING UPWARD. HIGH INTO THE AIR! His body is THROWN several feet into the jungle. Indiana exchanges a CAUTIOUS look with the others. INDIANA Be careful where you step... We've got to move slowly...very slowly... Indiana LEADS everyone. They CREEP through the path. Indy PAUSES. CAMERA PANS TO HIS WAIST. A SECTION OF VINE stretches across the path. ANOTHER booby trap. Indiana CRAWLS BENEATH THE VINE. He MOTIONS for the others to follow. One by one, they CAREFULLY CRAWL beneath the vine. The guitar player is LAST. He begins to CRAWL through. He NEARLY makes it, when...the top of his guitar HITS THE VINE! The vine SNAPS. There is a CREAKING SOUND. A GIANT, METAL TRAP, OVER FOUR FEET HIGH, SHOOTS UP FROM THE GROUND! A HUMAN TRAP! The GUITAR PLAYER DIVES TO SAFETY! The trap's SHARP METAL TEETH SNAP SHUT! The guitar is SNAPPED IN TWO! Soon, the path ERUPTS with countless ROWS OF TRAPS. They EJECT from the ground. SNAPPING SHUT. One AFTER the other. Everyone begins to RUN. The traps SNAP SHUT ONLY A FEW FEET BEHIND THEM! Everyone ROUNDS A CORNER... They COME UPON... AN ENORMOUS PIT! Over TEN FEET DEEP! Filled with countless layers of SCORPIONS! There is NOWHERE TO TURN. NOWHERE TO RUN. The METAL TRAPS continue to SHUT BEHIND THEM! Indiana removes his SWORD. He slices at A BAMBOO TREE. The traps CONTINUE TO SHUT BEHIND HIM. Getting CLOSER. CLOSER. Indiana gives A FINAL WHACK TO THE TREE. It FALLS. STRETCHING across the pool. Only A FEW FEET ABOVE the stinging scorpions. Indiana begins to CLIMB ACROSS. Moving HAND OVER HAND. Everyone hurriedly FOLLOWS. The bamboo tree CREAKS with their every movement. Their feet DANGLE only INCHES above the scorpions. The last Pirate GRABS HOLD of the bamboo tree, just as the FINAL METAL TRAP SHUTS! JUST MISSING HIM! As the last Pirate makes his way ACROSS the pit, he DROPS a small bag of GOLD COINS. The coins REST a few feet below. DIRECTLY ON TOP of the scorpions. The Pirate PAUSES. DECIDING whether to climb to safety or retrieve the coins. Everyone else has MADE IT across. The GREEDY Pirate wants his money. With his left hand, he HOLDS TIGHTLY to the bamboo tree. With the other, he REACHES for the coins. His fingers are INCHES from the ciins. But he LOSES his grip. He FALLS. INTO THE PIT. SURROUNDED by hundreds of scorpions. He STRUGGLES to get out. CLIMBING. SWIMMING. But he only manages to SINK. The Pirate's SCREAMS die, as his body is ENGULFED by the stinging scorpions. Indiana and the others CONTINUE AHEAD. Moving SLOWLY. CAREFULLY. Someone's foot STEPS ON A WOODEN TRIGGER. There is another CREAKING SOUND. Behind everyone, a large BAMBOO DOOR EJECTS FROM THE GROUND. It leads to an UNDERGROUND CAGE. The door CREAKS OPEN. THREE FEROCIOUS LIONS LEAP OUT! TEETH BARED. GROWLING. They COME FOR the humans. Everyone DASHES FORWARD. RUNNING. The lions are in HOT PURSUIT. FAST. The humans don't stand a CHANCE. Suddenly, Clare STOPS. She TURNS. FACING the charging lions. Indiana LOOKS BACK. SCREAMING. INDIANA Clare! What are you...?!? The lions STOP. Inches from Clare. They SURROUND her. Ready to ATTACK. Indiana WATCHES. PUZZLED. Clare begins to make bizarre PURRING and COOING SOUNDS. The lions PAUSE. They RECOGNIZE the sounds. Clare CONTINUES. The lions begin to WARM UP to her. Clare KNEELS. She PETS the beasts. The lions SNUGGLE up to Clare. LICKING her face. Indiana and the others COME CLOSER. PUZZLED. Clare EXPLAINS. CLARE I imitated the sound of a Lion Mother calling her babies. Betsy is IMPRESSED. Indiana SMILES. RELIEVED. INDIANA C'mon. Let's get outta' -- Indy TURNS...FACE TO FACE with a grotesque SHRUNKEN HEAD! He STEPS BACK. The shrunken head is worn around the neck of a tall, muscular TRIBAL CHIEF. Leader of the WARRIORS. Countless NATIVES stand behind the chief. A look of ANGER...HATE...covers the Chief's face. Indiana gives a HOPEFUL glance to Kezure. INDIANA Is this the Tribal Chief you told me about?... Your friend?... KEZURE (points to shrunken head) No. That is him. Indiana ROLLS his eyes. The warriors SURROUND everyone. ARROWS aimed. Ready to KILL. The Warriors lead everyone OUT of the path. EXT. MONGOOBO VILLAGE Several GRASS HUTS are scattered throughout this large village. Indiana and the others are LED into the village. They PASS the penetrating, unfriendly glares of the villagers. Kezure EXPLAINS to Indiana. KEZURE This is a different tribe. New. They have taken over the village. INDIANA What happened to the other tribe? Kezure SHRUGS. Indiana TURNS to Scraggy. INDIANA You recognize their language? PAGE 73 MISSING FROM HARD COPY Suddenly, a VOICE echoes from inside of the oven. The natives LISTEN. Again, the voice SHOUTS from inside. It's SCRAGGY. The natives RECOGNIZE the language. They quickly OPEN the oven door. Scraggy is SCREAMING in the tribe's tongue. The grille is PULLED out of the oven. The natives hurriedly UNTIE the slightly smoked Indiana, Kezure and Scraggy. Scraggy SHOOTS to his feet. FURIOUS. He begins to SHOUT at the tribal CHIEF. The Chief and the villagers are AWESTRUCK by Scraggy's words. The nervous Chief ORDERS Clare, Betsy and the others UNTIED. Scraggy WHISPERS to Indiana. SCRAGGY I tell him we divine messengers of Sun Wu-Kung. If he interfere with our mission... Jade Emperor come down from heavens and destroy his village. Indy SMILES. Scraggy TURNS and again SHOUTS to the chief. The chief OBEYS Scraggy's every word. He LEADS Indy and Scraggy to another area of the village. Scraggy TRANSLATES for Indiana. SCRAGGY I tell him we lose path to city... I ask if he have something to help us. The chief leads Indy and Scraggy into a LARGE GRASS HUT. INT. GRASS HUT EMPTY, save for an elaborate MARBLE ALTAR. A dull MIRROR rests on the altar. The small mirror is surrounded by a crude, STONE FRAME. The chief PICKS up the mirror and GIVES it to Scraggy. The chief EXPLAINS. Scraggy GIVES the mirror to Indiana. SCRAGGY (translating) He say this will help us. And since we are divine messengers...we will know how to use it! Indiana SMIRKS. He EXAMINES the mirror. Totally CONFUSED by it. CUT TO: EXT. MONGOOBOO VILLAGE - DAWN The village SLEEPS. QUIET. PEACEFUL. Scraggy's Model-T is PARKED here. Several of the crew members and Pirates are SLEEPING in and around the car. KEZURE is sprawled on the car's roof. SNORING. It is obvious that they have CAMPED here for the evening. Suddenly, a SLIGHT TREMOR surges through the village. A soft VIBRATION. Cooking utensils RATTLE. Grass huts SHAKE. INT. GRASS HUT Indiana SLEEPS here. In a HAMMOCK. The vibration WAKES Indy. As he moves to climb out of the hammock, a FIGURE LEAPS ON TOP OF HIM! BETSY. BETSY Indy. I'm frightened. INDIANA I'm claustrophobic. Indiana attempts to PUSH Betsy out of the hammock. She RESISTS. They begin to WRESTLE. STRUGGLE. The hammock becomes TANGLED around their bodies. Clare WALKS BY the hut. She LOOKS inside. To her, it appears that Indy and Betsy are in the middle of a PASSIONATE love scene. She emits a SHOCKED GASP. Indiana SEES Clare. He CALLS OUT. INDIANA Clare!... Wait!... But the startled Clare HURRIES AWAY. Indiana manages to ESCAPE Betsy and the tangled hammock. He LANDS on the floor. BREATHLESS. EXT. VILLAGE The vibrating INTENSIFIES. The ground begins to RUMBLE. The surrounding trees SHAKE. The villagers POUR out of their huts, gathering in the middle of town. FRIGHTENED. Indiana and Betsy JOIN Scraggy, Clare, Kezure and the others. Betsy is PUZZLED by the tremors. BETSY An earthquake? The Tribal Chief STEPS FORWARD. He says ONE WORD in his language. Scraggy TRANSLATES for the others. SCRAGGY Wildebeest. CUT TO: A HERD OF STAMPEDING WILDEBEEST Hundreds of the RAGING animals plow through the jungle. Moving FAST. They CRUSH everything in their path. EXT. MONGOOBOO VILLAGE The vibrating is LOUDER. HARDER. The villagers PANIC. They RUN AWAY. SCATTERING into the jungle. Indiana and his party are CLUSTERED together. Clare EXCLAIMS. CLARE We have to get out... Or we'll be crushed to death. INDIANA Scraggy... How close? Scraggy puts his EAR to the trembling ground. He LISTENS. SCRAGGY Two miles. Indy dashes to the Model-T SUPPLY RACK. He tosses SHOVELS to each of the group. He LOOKS around. INDIANA Where's the softest ground?... Scraggy asks a PASSING VILLAGER. The villager SHOUTS some gibberish and continues running. Scraggy POINTS OFF SCREEN. Toward a COMMUNAL GRAVEYARD. CUT TO: THE WILDEBEEST. SNORTING. STOMPING. CARVING a wide path through the thick jungle. Small animals RUN for their lives. Bunnies DASH ahead of the herd. Monkeys SWING to other trees. The ANGRY Wildebeest continue ahead. EXT. VILLAGE Indiana and the others stand in the LARGE GRAVEYARD. SHOVELS in hand. They have DUG A LARGE HOLE. Pieces of DECAYED BODIES and SKELETONS protrude from the surrounding hole. Scraggy STARES at the ghastly sight. Eyes WIDE. FEARFUL. He begins to BABBLE. HYSTERICAL. SCRAGGY Oh, no! Many dead spirits! Bad spirits... We must stay away... Indy interrupts by PUSHING SCRAGGY INTO THE OPEN GRAVE. Scraggy falls into the ARMS OF A SKELETON. He SCREAMS. CUT TO: THE HERD OF WILDEBEEST BURSTING through a section of jungle. They arrive on the VAST JUNGLE PLAIN. Directly ahead of them, several feet in the distance, is the MONGOOBOO VILLAGE. The Wildebeest head STRAIGHT for the village. EXT. VILLAGE DESERTED. NO SIGN of human life. Everything TREMBLES with the force of a major earthquake. The wildebeest ARRIVE. DESTROYING the village. Grass Huts are FLATTENED. The enormous stone oven COLLAPSES. CRUMBLING to pieces. Scraggy's Model-T is OVERTURNED. With nothing left standing, the wildebeest MOVE ON. The village has been completely DEVASTATED. Surrounded with a heavy CLOUD OF DUST. CAMERA PANS TO THE GRAVEYARD. Grave markers and tombstones lie BROKEN and CRUSHED. Countless HOOFPRINTS cover the flat ground. The dust begins to SETTLE. The graveyard ground suddenly BUCKLES. MOVING. A HAND shoots out. Indiana CLIMBS OUT of the dirt. He is FOLLOWED by the others, who also CLIMB OUT from underground. Everyone is UNHURT. SAFE. PROTECTED by the ground above. A skeleton has ATTACHED itself to Betsy. REFUSING to let go. Scraggy, Indy and a few of the men RUN to the overturned Model-T Taxi. They GRAB hold of the car and TURN it back upright. Clare LOOKS at the devastated village. Betsy stands beside her, STRUGGLING TO ESCAPE from the clutches of the skeleton. Clare looks into the DISTANCE. Watching the DEPARTING Wildebeest. She is TROUBLED. WORRIED. CLARE That's odd... Wildebeests will not stampede unless provoked... Suddenly, the same LOW, RUMBLING SOUND from earlier, ECHOES through the area. But this time it is LOUD. Nearly DEAFENING. Scraggy LOOKS at Indy. SCRAGGY This time, it is very close, Indy. Very close! At that moment, directly behind Scraggy and Indy, the jungle ERUPTS! The trees SEPARATE. CRASHING to the ground. Making way for some GIANT BEHEMOTH. Scraggy and the others LEAP IN ONE DIRECTION. Indiana LEAPS IN ANOTHER. A GIANT TANK SHOOTS out of the jungle. A METAL MONSTROSITY. ONE of a kind. The tank is over TEN TIMES the size of a normal tank. Nearly 100 FEET LONG. Over 25 FEET HIGH. It is equipped with THREE LEVELS. On the TOP LEVEL, is the tank's swivelling GUN BARREL. ENORMOUS. The size of a CANNON. Two giant, BLAZING RED SWASTIKAS adorn both sides of the tank's SECOND LEVEL. The tank RUNS OVER Scraggy's Model-T. The car is FLATTENED. A THICK CLOUD OF DUST erupts from the ground. INT. TANK GUTTERBUHG is here. He views the outside action through a PERISCOPE. TWO NAZI GUNNERS are behind him. WAITING for orders to shoot. TYKI sits in the background. The confused pygmy is BOUND and GAGGED. OUTSIDE Scraggy, Clare, Betsy, Kezure and the others DASH across the plains. RUNNING AWAY from the pursuing tank. But Indiana is NOT with them. Scraggy, UNABLE TO SEE through the dust, calls out. SCRAGGY Indy?... Indy?... Indiana is SEVERAL FEET AWAY. On the GROUND. ALONE. LOST in the thick of DUST. Suddenly, a DARK FIGURE appears. TOWERING over Indiana. The dust begins to CLEAR. Revealing a protruding WHITE HORN. More dust CLEARS. We see that the figure is a large, BLACK RHINOCEROS! Indy LEAPS to his feet. The rhino SNORTS. Indy turns to RUN. The rhino CHASES him! Meanwhile, with most of the dust CLEARED, the TANK CHASES INDY'S FRIENDS ACROSS THE JUNGLE PLAINS. INT. TANK Gutterbuhg LOOKS into the periscope. Indy's friends are in his SIGHTS. Gutterbuhg SCREAMS to the gunners. GUTTERBUHG (German; English subtitles) Fire! OUTSIDE The tank's large barrel FIRES A SHOT at the running group. The blast FLIES OVER THEIR HEADS. JUST MISSING everyone. It BLASTS a row of palm trees to smithereens. INDIANA is still running from the rampaging rhino. Indy begins to RUN IN A CIRCLE. The angry rhino FOLLOWS him. The circle begins to TIGHTEN... Becoming SMALLER... SMALLER... Until Indy is nearly running ALONGSIDE of the rhino. At the exact moment, Indy GRABS HOLD of the rhino. He LEAPS onto the beast. With a bit of careful maneuvering, Indiana is RIDING THE RHINOCEROS! Scraggy, Betsy, Clare, Kezure and the others CONTINUE TO RUN. The tank is right BEHIND THEM. MOVING FAST. In HOT PURSUIT. The tank FIRES ANOTHER SHOT! It SPLATTERS the ground. BESIDE the group. Again, JUST MISSING everyone. The group TURNS. RUNNING in ANOTHER DIRECTION. The tank FOLLOWS. Indiana continues to ride the WILD, BUCKING rhino. He has NO CONTROL over the beast. The rhino spots SOMETHING. The TANK. From this angle, the tank, with its large protruding gun barrel, resembles a GIANT RHINOCEROS. Seeing this, the rhino turns and RUNS TOWARD the tank. HEAD ON. Indy holds TIGHTLY. Scraggy and the others PAUSE. They see the tank BEHIND THEM. They see the rhino AHEAD of them. The group makes QUICK TURN. To the RIGHT. They run toward a RAVINE. The tank is headed STRAIGHT for Indy and the rhino. Both moving at FULL SPEED. INT. TANK Through the periscope, Gutterbuhg SEES Indy and the rhino. INDIANA continues to RIDE the uncontrollable rhino. They are within THIRTY FEET of the oncoming tank. INT. TANK Gutterbuhg SCREAMS in German, ordering the Nazi Gunner to "Fire". EXT. PLAINS The tank FIRES. The blast is LOW. The ground in front of Indy and the rhino EXPLODES. A cloud of dust ERUPTS. INT. TANK Gutterbuhg LOOKS through the periscope. His view is BLOCKED by dust. EXT. PLAINS The tank is UPON Indy and the rhino. The rhino SCREECHES to a stop. FRIGHTENED by the blast. Indiana LEAPS ONTO THE TANK. GRIPPING the front section. HOLDING ON for dear life. Moments before he is crushed beneath the tank's giant treads, the RHINO TURNS and RUNS OFF. Scraggy, Betsy, Clare, Kezure and the others, have arrived at the foot of a tall, several branched TREE. Located at the side of the RAVINE. Over the ravine's edge, is a SEVERAL HUNDRED FOOT DROP onto jagged rocks. Scraggy begins to CLIMB the tree. SCRAGGY Safest place from bad spirits...is in branches of tree. The others SHRUG. They have NO CHOICE but to FOLLOW Scraggy up into the branches of the tree. Indiana CLIMBS along the side of the monstrous tank. He searches for a PASSAGEWAY inside of the tank. INT. TANK The Nazis are UNAWARE of Indy's presense on the tank. Gutterbuhg CONTINUES to look through the periscope. The dust begins to CLEAR. He FOCUSES his sights on Indy's friends. LOCATED several feet away. They CLIMB into the TREE. Gutterbuhg SMILES. EXT. TANK Indy CANNOT FIND a passageway into the tank. He SEES the GUN BARREL. OVERHEAD. It SWIVELS. AIMING toward the tree filled with Indy's friends. Indy GRABS one of the tank's LARGE HEADLIGHTS. He PULLS HARD. SNAPPING OFF the headlight. Indy LEAPS upward. He quickly STUFFS the headlight inside of the barrel opening. INT. TANK The tree of Indy's friends are in Gutterbuhg's SIGHTS. A PERFECT SHOT. Gutterbuhg SCREAMS in German, ordering the Nazi gunners to SHOOT. They FIRE. But the barrel BACKFIRES! EXPLODING in the face of the two Nazi gunners. It sends them FLYING against the wall. OUT COLD. The cabin fills with SMOKE. Only Gutterbuhg and Tyki REMAIN. A FURIOUS Gutterbuhg PICKS up the radio. He SCREAMS into the microphone. GUTTERBUHG (German; English subtitles) Send help! We need assistance! Tyki HELPLESSLY watches in the background. Gutterbuhg LOOKS into the periscope. He SEES Indiana. ON the tank. Gutterbuhg hits a RED BUTTON. On the CONTROL PANEL. EXT. TANK COUNTLESS ROWS OF MACHINE GUNS eject from secret slots. All AROUND the tank's FIRST LEVEL. The machine guns begin to FIRE. RAPIDLY. WILDLY. Indiana DUCKS and DODGES the guns. He CLIMBS to the SECOND LEVEL. But the large SWASTIKAS begin to move. OPENING. They are actually HIDDEN DOORS. SECRET COMPARTMENTS. Several NAZI SOLDIERS exit the compartments. They COME FOR Indiana. He FIGHTS the onslaught of soldiers. PUNCHING. WRESTLING. The tank, without a driver, begins to wildly SPIN. Going in CIRCLES. From the tree, SCRAGGY sees Indy's dillemma. He SHOUTS to the others. SCRAGGY Indy in trouble! We must help! Scraggy begins to CLIMB OUT of the tree. A GUN suddenly MOVES INTO FRAME. POINTED at Scraggy's head. Scraggy TURNS. One of his CREW MEMBERS holds the gun. CREW MEMBER (German accent) Don't move. (to the others) All of you. Stay where you are. Scraggy and the others FREEZE. Clare makes a REALIZATION. She GLARES at the Crew Member. CLARE It was you. You're the reason the Nazis found us. The crew member gives an evil SMILE. Indiana continues to FIGHT the Nazis, along the SECOND LEVEL of the frenzied tank. Indy has DEFEATED most of the soldiers. Only TWO NAZIS remain. They OVERCOME Indy. They push him DOWNWARD. Toward the tank's FIRST LEVEL. Toward the rows of FIRING MACHINE GUNS. Indiana STRUGGLES to break free. But the powerful Nazis push him CLOSER...CLOSER...to the machine guns. In the TREE, the crew member keeps his pistol AIMED at Scraggy's head. CAMERA PANS UPWARD. Kezure is PERCHED on the top branch. ABOVE Scraggy. At the right moment, Kezure LEAPS DOWN. ON TOP of the treacherous crew member. Kezure KNOCKS the gun from the crew member's hand. BLAM! The gun GOES OFF. A stray bullet STRIKES the tree trunk. Kezure PUNCHES the crew member, who LOSES HIS BALANCE and FALLS from the tree. Going OVER THE EDGE of the ravine. His body DROPS hundreds of feet. CRASHING to the rocks below. Kezure SMILES. VICTORIOUS. But the tree suddenly CREAKS. GROANS. A CRACK has formed around the trunk, where the bullet STRUCK. The tree begins to TILT. Slowly TEETERING over the ravine's edge. Everyone PANICS. Betsy SHOUTS. BETSY Nobody move. Or we'll go over. Everyone FREEZES. Scared to DEATH. They TIGHTLY GRIP their branches. The tree SWAYS. SLOWLY. Indiana still FIGHTS the two Nazis. STRUGGLING to keep his body from the tank's deadly machine guns. Indy FLIPS one of the Nazis over his head. The Nazi falls DIRECTLY IN FRONT of an entire row of machine guns. His body does a GROTESQUE DANCE OF DEATH. RIDDLED with bullets. Indiana and the other Nazi exchange PUNCHES. Their bodies TUMBLE over the rear of the tank. They fall onto a SMALL LEDGE. Above the enormous, rotating TANK TREADS. Indy and the Nazi battle to push the other OFF THE LEDGE. Indiana PREVAILS. He pushes the Nazi ON TOP of the giant treads. The Nazi tries to CLIMB BACK...but his body is DRAGGED BENEATH THE TANK. CRUSHED. Indiana turns, seeing Gutterbuhg climb out of a SECRET HATCH. On the tank's TOP LEVEL. Gutterbuhg POINTS HIS FINGER at Indy. It rapidly FIRES BULLETS. Indy DODGES around the side of the tank. Bullets BOUNCE off the metal beside him. Meanwhile, Indy's friends sit BREATHLESSLY on the swaying tree. Everyone is SILENT. STILL. Kezure suddenly SNEEZES. The tree CREAKS. It WAVERS over the ravine's edge. Nearly GOING OVER. But it DOESN'T. Everyone CATCHES THEIR BREATH. The tree continues to TEETER. Gutterbuhg PURSUES Indiana. Playing CAT AND MOUSE along the top level of the tank. Indiana PEERS around a corner. Seeing Gutterbuhg AHEAD. Indy grabs hold of the large ROTATING GUN BARREL. Indy LIFTS his feet. He SWINGS FORWAFD. RIDING the gun barrel. He SPINS around the tank's side and comes up BEHIND the unsuspecting Gutterbuhg. Indy JUMPS the Nazi. They begin to FIGHT. Gutterbuhg tries to move his Mechanical arm INTO POSITION. To SHOOT Indy. The tank continues to LOSE CONTROL. It no longer SPINS in CIRCLES. It is headed STRAIGHT TOWARD the tree filled with Indy's friends. INT. TANK Tyki SITS inside. WATCHING through the periscope. HELPLESS. EXT. PLAINS Gutterbuhg and Indiana continue to FIGHT. Suddenly, there is a BUZZING SOUND. An AIRPLANE ENGINE. Indiana LOOKS TO THE SKY. A NAZI BIPLANE FLIES TOWARD HIM. The biplane DIVES. Moving LOWER. LOWER. Gutterbuhg ROLLS OUT OF THE WAY. Indy is TRAPPED. A SITTING DUCK. The biplane SWOOPS DOWN. Trying to HIT Indy. He DIVES onto the tank top. Lying FLAT. The plane flies DIRECTLY OVER Indy. JUST MISSING him by a FEW FEET. Meanwhile, the tank still DRIVES DIRECTLY TOWARD the swaying tree and ravine. Scraggy, Betsy, Clare, Kezure and the others remain FROZEN. STILL. WATCHING the tank come for them. They are FRIGHTENED. HELPLESS. Indy and Gutterbuhg have RESUMED their fighting. STANDING on the tank's top. The biplane LOOPS in the air. Coming back for ANOTHER SHOT. Gutterbuhg LEAPS out of its path. The plane HEADS STRAIGHT for Indy. He again DIVES to the tank's top. The biplane SWOOPS DOWN. This time AIMING LOWER. As it PASSES Indy, its wheels GRAZE his back. Indy CRIES OUT. The tank continues to SPEED TOWD the tree of trapped people. Getting CLOSER...CLOSER... His back ACHING, Indy struggles to keep Gutterbuhg's machine gun arm from shooting him. The biplane does another midair LOOP. It TURNS and HEADS straight for Indy. This time, the plane WON'T MISS. As the biplane gets CLOSE... Indy grabs a tight HOLD of Gutterbuhg's Mechanical arm. Indy RAISES the arm. AIMING at the biplane. Indy pulls the arm's TRIGGER. FIRING a round of shots. The rapid bullets STRIKE the plane's belly. The biplane LOSES CONTROL. Its engine COUGHS. DIES. The biplane SPINS. Flipping into a NOSEDIVE. Leaving a trail of BLACK SMOKE. The biplane HITS the ground. A FLAMING CRASH! SEVERAL FEET from the tank. Indiana OVERPOWERS Gutterbuhg. With TWO HARD PUNCHES, Indy FLOORS the Nazi. Gutterbuhg lies SPRAWLED on the tank's top. UNCONSCIOUS. Indy TURNS. He sees that the speeding tank is going to CRASH into the treefull of his friends. Indiana LEAPS into the open tank compartment. INT. TANK Indiana TAKES the controls. But they are completely ALIEN to him. He hears a SQUEAL. TYKI. Behind HIM. Tyki motions to a SPECIFIC CONTROL. Indy GRABS HOLD of it. EXT. PLAINS The tank SCREECHES. SPINNING TO A STOP. INCHES from the swaying tree. Scraggy, Clare, Betsy, Kezure and the others, emit a UNIFIED SIGH OF RELIEF. But the tree suddenly CRACKS. It TILTS. FALLING OVER THE RAVINE EDGE! Everyone SCREAMS! There is the sudden CRACK OF A WHIP! The whip WRAPS ITSELF around the trunk of the tree. Indiana HOLDS the opposite end. He PULLS with all of his strength. HOLDING the tree in place. He PREVENTS the tree from FALLING into the ravine. Indy SHOUTS to his friends. Through GRITTED TEETH. INDIANA Jump!... Jump!... Everyone begins to LEAP from the tree. To the GROUND. Indy CONTINUES to hold the tree in place. Muscles BULGING. Sweat POURING. Veins POPPING. Soon, everyone is back on the GROUND. SAFE. Indy RETRIEVES his whip. The tree TILTS. FALLING over the ravine edge. The tree CRASHES to the rocks below. SPLINTERING into a million pieces. On the top level of the tank, Gutterbuhg STIRS. WAKES. But Indiana is UPON HIM. Using a rope, Indy TIES UP Gutterbuhg. He removes the AMMO CARTRIDGE from the Nazi's mechanical arm. EMPTYING the bullets onto the ground. Indiana PUSHES Gutterbuhg INSIDE THE TANK. Tyki CRAWLS out of the tank. He SEES Clare. TEARS of happiness fill his eyes. He RUNS to Clare. The two exchange a WARM EMBRACE. Tyki SEES Scraggy. They shake hands and begin an EXCITED CONVERSATION. Like two OLD FRIENDS. INT. TANK Indy grabs the RADIO MICROPHONE. He HOLDS it in front of Gutterbuhg. INDIANA Call your mommy. Gutterbuhg GROWLS. He SPEAKS German into the microphone. The voice of LIEUT. MEPHISTO answers. Echoing over the SPEAKERS. Indy GRABS the microphone. INTERRUPTING. INDIANA This is Jones. I've got your tank. (pause) It's all over, pal. You lose. CUT TO: CLOSE-UP: LIEUT. MEPHISTO He is ANGRY. UPSET. But he FORCES himself to CALMLY address Indiana. MEPHISTO Doctor Jones... You surprise me. For a supposedly intelligent man...you jump to childish conclusions. Remember... You are driving our tank. We can FOLLOW you anywhere. (vehement) You are far from defeating us, my friend. The battle has only just begun. CAMERA PULLS BACK. Mephisto is standing beside a long ROW OF TENTS. Housing many TROOPS. Several JEEPS are parked in the background. All mounted with RECOILEST CANNONS. 5 CANVAS TRUCKS are also here. Filled with more TROOPS, CANNONS and AMMUNITION. The Nazis have assembled an ENTIRE ARMY! INDIANA DROPS the microphone. Suddenly WORRIED. He HURRIES out of the tank. Gutterbuhg stays BEHIND. LAUGHING. EXT. PLAINS Indiana HURRIES to Tyki and the others. Indy shoots an IMPATIENT glance to Scraggy. INDIANA We've got to move. Fast. (points to Tyki) Ask him if he knows the way to the City from here. Scraggy ASKS Tyki. The pygmy ANSWERS, pointing OFF SCREEN. Scraggy TRANSLATES for Indiana. SCRAGGY He do not know exact place... But it is somewhere over there. Indy TURNs to the direction where Scraggy points. Several miles away, we see COUNTLESS ROWS OF MOUNTAINS. Thick layers of CLOUDS surround the mountains. Indiana SIGHS. INDIANA A lotta' good that does us... It could take us months...years...to search everyone of those. Betsy has an IDEA. She removes the STONE MIRROR from Indiana's pocket. BETSY Maybe he knows what to do with this... Betsy GIVES the mirror to Tyki. His eyes WIDEN. In AWE. Tyki RECOGNIZES the mirror. He excitedly EXPLAINS to Scraggy, who TRANSLATES for Indiana. SCRAGGY It is "Magical Mirror of Sun Wu Kung"... INDIANA But whattayou do with it? Scraggy ASKS Tyki. The energetic pygmy PLACES the mirror against an upright stone. Tyki ADJUSTS the mirror, until it FACES the distant mountains. Tyki emits a high pitched GIGGLE. POINTING to the mirror. Everyone GATHERS around the mirror. The SOUND TRACK MUSIC SOARS. The mirror reflects the CLOUDS above the mountains. But above one SPECIFIC MOUNTAIN, we see the image of a CITY REFLECTED ON THE CLOUDS! Indiana TURNS away from the mirror, looking at the SPECIFIC MOONTAIN. But the city is ONLY REFLECTED IN THE MAGICAL MIRROR! Clare SMILES at Indy, quoting Tyki from earlier. CLARE "I come from Land Of City On Clouds". Indiana NODS. HOPEFUL. ANXIOUS. He looks back to the magical REFLECTION. CUT TO: THE TANK travelling a NARROW PATH. Along the side of a STEEP MOUNTAIN. The tank moves UPWARD. Toward the mountain TOP. The tank JERKS. WOBBLES. It's as if the driver were having TROUBLE with the controls. INT. TANK Indiana DRIVES. UNFAMILIAR with the controls. The tank is CROWDED with everyone. Betsy and Clare sit BESIDE Indy. Gutterbuhg is DIRECTLY BEHIND HIM. Kezure TEACHES a game to Scraggy. Tyki, the Pirates and the various crew members WATCH. The game appears to be a BIZARRE VERSION of chess. Only the tokens are DRIED INSECTS and LIZARDS. Kezure EXPLAINS. KEZURE This is called "Taskipi". Only the bravest play. Upon hearing this, Scraggy is even MORE EXCITED TO PLAY. The game BEGINS. Indiana is becoming extremely FRUSTRATED by the tank controls. Betsy gives a SERIOUS LOOK to him. BETSY I've been talking to Dr. Clarke about our problem. INDIANA (struggling with tank) Problem?... Hey... What're you two doin' talkin' behind my back?... CLARE Betsy needed help. I obliged. INDIANA Since when did you become the female Sigmund Freud? CLARE Since I received a Masters Degree in Psychology. Indy ROLLS HIS EYES. Meanwhile, Kezure has TAKEN all of Scraggy's tokens. He's obviously WON the game. A carefree Scraggy THROWS up his hands. SCRAGGY We play again? KEZURE (pause, serious) The game is not yet over, my friend. SCRAGGY Oh? KEZURE You have lost. You must pay. SCRAGGY (going through pockets) I don't have money... KEZURE No. No. money. (deadly smile) Rules of the game declare that I may choose a souvenir. (removes a knife) A part of your body. Any part I wish. Scraggy GULPS. Kezure PAUSES. RUBBING his jaw. THINKING. Meanwhile, Betsy EXPLAINS to Indians. BETSY Dr. Clarke says that you're not really in love with me. You're just trying to prove that you can still attract younger women. You're terrified of getting old. INDIANA That's crazy. BETSY That's what I told her. I told her that you really did love me. INDIANA (fumbling) Well...that's...ah...well... BETSY (worried) You mean... She was right?... INDIANA No... I mean Yes... I mean... Indy TURNS, seeing Clare GLARING at him. Indy SIGHS. PAUSES. He gives Betsy a TENDER, HONEST look. INDIANA No, Betsy. I don't love you. BETSY (tears fill her eyes) That's the first time you ever said it! Betsy begins CRYING. Into Clare's ARMS. Indiana SHAKES his head. Clare COMFORTS Betsy. CLARE There. There. He's a very disturbed man. Indiana SIGHS. He TURNS. FACE to FACE with a GRINNING and NODDING Gutterbuhg. Kezure has made his DECISION. Scraggy WAITS. TERRIFIED. Kezure RAISES his knife. TOWARD Scraggy's face. KEZURE Your eyes. They are a striking deep blue. Scraggy COVERS his face. Kezure ATTACKS him. Trying to CUT OUT Scraggy's eyes. A FIGHT begins. The crew members VS. the Pirates. Indiana TURNS, away from the controls. He BREAKS UP the fight. INDIANA (angry) Enough. We're in this together. If we start fighting among ourselves... we'll never get out alive. The men CALM DOWN. CATCHING their breath. Kezure PUTS AWAY his knife. He GLARES at Scraggy. KEZURE You owe me, old man. EXT. MOUNTAIN The tank, without a driver, begins to SWERVE OFF THE MOUNTAIN ROAD. INT. TANK Clare NOTICES the tank going over the mountain. She SCREAMS. CLARE Doctor Jones!!! Indy TURNS. LEAPING back to the controls. He hurriedly STEERS the tank back onto the mountain path. Saving it at the LAST MOMENT. Everyone CATCHES their breath. Indiana STEPS on the gas, continuing AHEAD. CUT TO: EXT. MOUNTAIN - A FEW HOURS LATER The tank has nearly made it to the TOP of the mountain. Trekking through a NARROW, ROCKY RAVINE. The tank rolls to a STOP. The top hatch FLIPS OPEN. Indiana, Scraggy and Tyki POP OUT. Tyki suddenly points to the MOUNTAIN TOP, which is cloaked in thick LAYERS OF CLOUDS. Tyki's eyes fill with JOYOUS TEARS. He begins to SHOUT. His voice SQUEALS with EXCITEMENT. Scraggy TRANSLATES for Indy. SCRAGGY He say that two miles ahead...we will find his home. Indiana SMILES. EXCITED by the prospects. TOUCHED by Tyki's reaction. Indy looks to the FOOT of the mountain. Several miles BELOW. THE NAZI FORCES have ARRIVED! They are still at least TWO HOURS from reaching Indiana and the others. The massive army MOVES FAST. They begin to DRIVE along the mountain path. FOLLOWING Indiana. In HOT PURSUIT. Indy PAUSES. WORRIED. THINKING. He LOOKS at the surrounding ROCKY WALLS, then to the tank's enormous GUN BARREL. An IDEA. He HURRIES back inside of the tank. Scraggy and Tyki FOLLOW. CLOSING the hatch above them. INT. TANK Indy LOOKS at the tank's control panel. A PUZZLEMENT. He LOOKS at Gutterbuhg. INDIANA How do I work the big gun? Gutterbuhg SMILES. He REFUSES to answer. Indy has NO TIME for games. He LOOKS at Kezure. INDIANA Want your souvenir? (grabs Gutterbuhg's left arm) Start with his good arm. Kezure SMILES and removes his LONG KNIFE. He moves it Gutterbuhg's NECK. The snivelling Nazi CRIES OUT. GUTTERBUHG W-W-Wait!... Please!... Indy NODS to Kezure. The Pirate King moves his KNIFE. Gutterbuhg hurriedly POINTS to two switches on the control panel. GUTTERBUHG There. That is what you want. Indy NODS. He TURNS to the switches. EXT. RAVINE CLOSE-UP: The tank's large gun barrel SWIVELS. Pointing UPWARD. To the ROCKS above. The gun FIRES A SHOT. It swivels a FEW FEET. Then FIRES ANOTHER. And ANOTHER. A RUMBLING SOUND echoes through the area. INT. TANK Indy HITS the gas. EXT. RAVINE The tank SHOOTS forward. SPEEDING ahead. An AVALANCHE BEGINS! JUST MISSING the tank. Several pounds of ROCKS and DEBRIS fall from above. The rocks create A THICK WALL. BLOCKING the mountain path. The tank CONTINUES along the twisting, narrow mountain path. Moving further and further UPWARD. The tank DISAPPEARS INTO THE THICK CLOUDS that surround the mountain. INT. TANK Indiana LOOKS through the persiscope. His view BLINDED by the clouds. EXT. MOUNTAIN The tank is a LARGE, GREY BLUR through the clouds. Several DARK, BULKING FIGURES APPEAR! They CLIMB along the ravine sides and tops. The mysterious figures SURROUND the tank. All are holding ENORMOUS BOULDERS over their heads. AIMED at the tank. INT. TANK Indy EASES up on the gas. The tank SLOWS. Suddenly, there is a LOUD CRASH! The tank is HIT. RATTLING. SHAKING. Everyone is TOSSED. Save for Indy, who STAYS at the controls. He continues to GUIDE the tank FORWARD. There is another CRASH. And ANOTHER. And ANOTHER. EXT. MOUNTAIN The dark figures SHOWER the tank with heavy boulders. The tank's gun barrel SNAPS IN TWO. Headlights SMASH. Its body becomes DENTED. CRACKED. INT. TANK Indiana is TOUGH. PERSISTENT. He continues to move the jolting tank FORWARD. As the surrounding walls CAVE IN. SHATTER. Everyone PANICS. SCREAMING. EXT. MOUNTAIN The injured, wobbling tank moves OUT OF THE CLOUDS. Arriving around the corner from the MOUNTAIN TOP. The countless dark figures continue to FOLLOW the tank. SCURRYING along the ravine sides and tops. The figures EMERGE from the clouds. For the first time, they are VISIBLE. And we see that the figures are TALL... HAIRY... MUSCULAR... GORILLAS! They CONTINUE to assault the tank with boulders. INT. TANK Indiana still attempts to move the tank FORWARD. But the engine begins to COUGH. SPUTTER. And DIES. EXT. MOUNTAIN The tank COMES TO A SUDDEN STOP. One of the Gorillas emits a BIGS PITCHED SHRIEK. COMMUNICATING with the others. The others PAUSE. They STOP the attack. The Gorillas APPROACH the tank. SLOWLY. CAUTIOUSLY. The apes REACH OUT. TOUCHING the tank's wrecked body. A few of the apes begin to CLIMB onto the tank. The tank's top hatch FLIPS OPEN. Indy's HEAD pops out. TWO HAIRY ARMS REACH INTO FRAME AND GRAB INDIANA! An enormous Gorilla pulls Indy OUT OF THE HATCH! The ape TOSSES INDY OFF SCREEN! Indiana FLIES INTO THE AIR! He LANDS IN THE ARMS of another Gorilla. The ape TAKES Indy's WHIP and THROWS him to another Gorilla, who takes Indy's HAT. The Gorilla TOSSES Indy to another ape, who tears off Indy's LEATHER JACKET. The helpless Indy is THROWN to yet another Gorilla. The angry ape RAISES Indy over his head. The Gorilla prepares to THROW INDIANA OFF OF THE MOUNTAIN'S EDGE! Tyki's VOICE ERUPTS FROM OFF SCREEN. The Gorilla PAUSES, suspending Indiana HIGH IN THE AIR. The Gorilla TURNS to Tyki. The pygmy STANDS on the tank. He SHOUTS AN ORDER to the Gorilla. The ape NODS. UNDERSTANDING. He KNOWS Tyki. The Gorilla gently PLACES Indy back on the ground. Indiana ADJUSTS what remains of his clothing. He turns, seeing A GROUP OF GORILLAS. HUDDLED together. The Gorillas SEPARATE. They have DRESSED one of the apes in INDIANA'S HAT, LEATHER JACKET AND WHIP! The ape begins to SNAP THE WHIP, almost as if he were IMITATING Indy. Scraggy, Betsy, Clare and the others have CLIMBED OUT of the tank. Upon seeing the Gorilla DRESSED as Indy, they BURST INTO LAUGHTER. A very ANGRY Indiana growls at Tyki. INDIANA (pointing to Gorilla) Tell him to take off my stuff! Through laughter, Scraggy TRANSLATES for Tyki. The pygmy SHOUTS an order to the Gorilla. The ape REMOVES the hat and leather jacket, RELUCTANTLY giving them back to a grumbling Indiana. Tyki continues to SHOOT orders to the other Gorillas. The pygmy suddenly appears STRONG. AUTHORITATIVE. He obviously has POWER over the beasts. The Gorillas GATHER together. They MOVE TOWARD the people. The apes GENTLY take the hands of the various humans. It is a WARM, ENCHANTING sight, as the friendly Gorillas LEAD the humans forward. Clare, using her Gorilla MOTIONS and SOUNDS, communicates with the beasts. The group moves AROUND A TWISTING CORNER OF THE PATH. Toward the MOUNTAIN TOP. AROUND THE CORNER Indiana and the others are met with an AWESOME SIGHT! Indy STOPS. His mouth DROPS OPEN. Clare is equally ASTOUNDED. Betsy and the others STARE AHEAD. In total WONDERMENT. Even Gutterbuhg is AMAZED. The SOUND TRACK MUSIC EXPLODES INTO A THUNDERING CRESCENDO! THE LOST CITY OF SUN WU-KUNG LIES AHEAD of the group. A SPECTACULAR SIGHT! A city whose every building and tower is cast in SOLID GOLD! SPARKLING! GLISTENING! A HEAVENLY place. The City is protected by a deep MOAT. The fins of several SHARKS move through the moat waters. A THICK STONE WALL surrounds the city. A large, golden DRAWBRIDGE is built into the wall. PASSAGEWAY into the city. A tremendous TOWER stretches above the city walls. The GUARD, a pygmy similiar to Tyki, is POSTED in the tower. The guard SPOTS Tyki, approaching the city walls. The guard's EYES LIGHT. He SMILES. The guard CRIES OUT! SHOUTING to everyone inside of the City. He continues to REPEAT a certain phrase. Scraggy TRANSLATES the guard's words for Indiana. SCRAGGY He say... "Our Prince has returned home". Indiana SMILES. Soon, the beautiful sound of COUNTLESS RINGING BELLS is heard, welcoming Tyki home. Eyes WATERING, a proud Tyki and the Gorillas LEAD everyone to the foot of the City Walls. The enormous drawbridge begins to LOWER. A STUNNING SHAFT OF GOLDEN LIGHT escapes from the opening. As the drawbridge continues to lower, the shaft of light becomes WIDER. BRIGHTER. It ILLUMINATES the faces of Indy and the others. When the drawbridge is completely LOWERED, everyone is LED INTO THE CITY. Their bodies SILHOUETTED against the warm glowing light. INT. CITY WE ENTER with Indy and the others. The city is BURSTING with the bright colors of various VEGETABLE and FRUIT GARDENS, and various other EXOTIC PLANT LIFE. Luscious GREEN GRASS and CRYSTAL CLEAR LAKES surround many of the homes. The earthen streets are literally PAVED WITH GOLD. The men and women of the City are members of Tyki's RACE. ORIENTAL PYGMIES. There is a PEACEFUL, JOYOUS quality about them. They RUSH toward Tyki. EMBRACING him. SHOWERING him with kisses. WELCOMING him home. Indiana and the others are in AWE of this new world. Gutterbuhg WALKS with them. CAMERA PANS to his HANDS. He struggles to UNTIE his bindings. Kezure SPOTS something. A small, SOLID GOLD GARDEN TOOL. Lying in a VEGETABLE GARDEN. Kezure's eyes fill with GREED. He moves to STEAL the can. Kezure GRABS the tool and begins to HIDE it. BENEATH his cloak. A LARGE GORILLA'S HAND GRABS Kezure's arm. TOWERING over the Pirate king, the Gorilla WAVES his finger at Kezure. A WARNING. NO STEALING. The nervous Kezure NODS. He PLACES the garden tool back on the ground. Meanwhile, Indy and the others are led to an elaborate PALACE. They ascend the several GOLDEN STAIRS, toward the entrance. The palace doors OPEN. An OLDER MAN steps outside. He is BOHBALA. The City's RULER. A few PALACE GUARDS stand beside him. Bohbala RAISES his arms over the crowd. Pygmies and Gorillas DROP TO THEIR KNEES. In REVERNCE. Tyki RUNS to Bohbala. They EMBRACE. TEARS OF JOY fill their eyes. Bohbala WIPES away his tears. He gives a WARM SMILE to Indiana and the others. He SPEAKS. SOFTLY. In a WISE voice. Scraggy TRANSLATES for the others. SCRAGGY He thank us...for returning his son. Indiana and the others SMILE. Betsy WHIPSERS to Indy. BETSY If the little guy's pushin' 200 years?... How old's his Father? Indy motions for Betsy to "Shhh". Bohbala continues to SPEAK. Scraggy TRANSLATES. SCRAGGY His name "Bohbala". He is Ruler of City, faithful servant of his Lord and Master... Sun Wu-Kung. (pause, smile) He welcome us to stay. As long as we wish. Indiana exchanges a HOPEFUL glance with Clare. As Bohbala CONTINUES to speak, CAMERA PANS TO GUTTERBUHG. The Nazi has successfully UNTIED his bindings. FREE. While the others listen to Bohbala, Gutterbuhg REMOVES ONE SPARE BULLET FROM HIS MOUTH. He slyly INSERTS the bullet into his mechanical arm. Indiana is TOO CONCERNED with Bohbala to notice Gutterbuhg. INDIANA (anxious, to Scraggy) Ask him where we may find the burial place...or the remains...of Sun Wu- Kung... Scraggy TURNS to ask Bohbala. But his question is INTERRUPTED by Gutterbuhg's MECHANICAL ARM. It EXTENDS INTO FRAME! Its finger POINTED AT INDIANA! Everyone STARES. SHOCKED. But the bizarre sight greatly AMUSES Bohbala. He begins to LAUGH. He REACHES OUT and PUSHES Gutterbuhg's finger away. But the machine gun GOES OFF! FIRING! Bohbala is HIT! In the CHEST. He FALLS. Tyki KNEELS, cradling Bohbala's head in his arms. Tyki CALLS his Father's name. It is FUTILE. Bohbala is DEAD. The crowd of villagers STARE. CONFUSED. They are unaccustomed to VIOLENCE. Indiana CLUTCHES Gutterbuhg by the throat. INDIANA Bastard... Indiana pulls back his fist to PUNCH the Nazi. But Indy is STOPPED by the PALACE GUARDS. They move their SWORDS to his throat. Indy is suddenly PUZZLED. The VILLAGERS FALL TO THEIR KNEES. BOWING to Gutterbuhg. A distraught Tyki hurriedly EXPLAINS to Scraggy, who translates for Indy. SCRAGGY It is written... If ruler is defeated by greater power...he who possess that power... (points to Gutterbuhg) ...shall become ruler! Gutterbuhg's eyes fill with a sadistic THRILL. He RAISES his MECHANICAL ARM. In a "Heil Hitler" POSE. The entire City IMITATES the Nazi. RAISING their right arms. CHEERING. HAILING their new leader. Indiana is HORRIFIED by the scene. Tyki is UPSET. SCREAMING. He knows that Gutterbuhg is truly EVIL! But NONE of the villagers listen. Indiana LOOKS to his SHOCKED friends. INDIANA This is turning into one helluva nightmare. GUTTERBUBG (hears, smiles at Indy) One you will never awaken from, Doctor Jones. Indy GLARES at Gutterbuhg. Clare and Betsy exchange a FRIGHTENED glance. CUT TO: INT. PALACE - RULER'S CHAMBER A beautiful, expansive chamber, filled with TAPESTRIES and ARTWORK. Gutterbuhg sits in an elaborate GOLDEN THRONE. He has donned a ghoulish NEW OUTFIT. The robes of BOHBALA, the dead ruler. Gutterbuhg is being ATTENDED upon by several villagers, who bring him countless PLATES OF FOOD. He is surrounded by SEVERAL WOMEN, who patiently wait for his orders. Gutterbuhg GOBBLES down the variety of food and wine. DROOLING. SLOBBERING. Scraggy KNEELS before the Nazi. Gutterbuhg USES Indiana's WHIP as a LEASH. It is TIED around Scraggy's neck and HELD by the Nazi. Gutterbuhg PULLS the leash. HARD. Nearly STRANGLING Scraggy. His mouth FILLED WITH FOOD, Gutterbuhg SCREAMS at Scraggy. GUTTERBUHG I want to see Jones! Scraggy TRANSLATES for the guards. INT. DUNGEON DARK. MUSTY. Surrounded with moss covered STONE WALLS. Located BENEATH the Palace. Indy and the others are LOCKED inside. Everyone is SILENT. STARING. WAITING. Clare CONSOLES a tearful, despondent Tyki. The dungeon gate OPENS. The two Guards ENTER. They DRAG Indiana out of the dungeon. Betsy CALLS OUT to Indy. Trying to FOLLOW. But the guards SLAM the wooden door in Betsy's face. She peers through the small BARRED WINDOW. WORRIED. UPSET. INT. PALACE Indiana is LED into the Ruler's Chamber. Indy SEES Scraggy, tied to a leash. An angry, VENGEFUL look covers Indy's face. He TURNS to Gutterbuhg. The Nazi, still STUFFING his face with food, pulls TIGHTLY on Scraggy's leash. GUTTERBUHG Your friend makes a wonderful interpreter. Indy's eyes BURN. Gutterbuhg GULPS down a glass of wine. Liquid SPITTLES from the sides of his mouth. He LOOKS at Indy. GUTTERBUHG "The Nazi Party will exist for one thousand years...and I wish to be alive for every year!" (pause) That is a favorite philosophy of our feuher. INDIANA Your feuher's philosphies belong on a bathroom wall. GUTTERBUHG (angry, slapping Indy across the face) This is a very serious matter, Doctor Jones. It could save your life. (pause) I understand that somewhere in this City...there is a Garden of... Immortal Peaches?... (Indy doesn't respond, Gutterbuhg continues) I want information about this Garden... And I would greatly appreciate it, if you would share everything you know, with me. INDIANA I don't share anything with Nazis. Gutterbuhg NODS. He TAKES another bite of food, shooting a GLOWERING look to Indiana. GUTTERBUHG Very well. My friends will be here soon. They will rest...enjoy the pleasures of my newfound kingdom... (kisses a woman, and pushes her away) Then we shall exterminate these worthless people! Destroy their City! And we will carry away all of its riches...in pieces. Gutterbuhg goes back to his FOOD. Scraggy exchanges a WORRIED GLANCE with Indiana. CUT TO: THE NAZI ARMY TRAVELLING along the narrow mountain path. They are more than HALFWAY up the mountain. LIEUT. MEPHISTO rides in the FRONT JEEP. He LOOKS to his driver, who REPORTS to Mephisto. DRIVER (German, English subtitles) Sir... We shall reach the mountain top in less than sixty minutes. Mephisto NODS. ANXIOUS. CUT TO: THE LOST CITY - COLISEUM An enormous STONE ARENA. Located in the CENTER of the City. It resembles the ROMAN COLISEUM in size and structure. The coliseum's top walls are SURROUNDED by countless, large METAL BELLS. The bells are RINGING. They are the same bells we heard earlier...but they now sound EERIE... THREATENING. The many seats are FILLED with members of the village. All GATHERED for a special event. Gutterbuhg sits in the elaborate RULER'S BOX. It is covered with a protective, GOLDEN GRATING. The box is located directly above the earthen PLAYING FIELD. Indy's WHIP is still tied around Scraggy's neck, who kneels at Gutterbuhg's FEET. TWO GUARDS lead a shirtless INDIANA JONES onto the playing field. They bring Indy to a STEEL CAGE, located directly below Gutterbuhg's box. Inside of the cage, are TWO ENORMOUS BUFFALO. ANGRY. RESTLESS. Betsy, Clare, Tyki, Kezure, the remaining Pirates and Crew members, all helplessly watch from inside of a LARGE METAL CAGE. The cage is SUSPENDED in the air... DANGLING over a deep pit. It is filled with COUNTLESS MANEATING TIGERS. Indy is LED into the cage. BETWEEN the two buffalo. The guards GRABS HOLD of Indiana. They TIE one of his arms, and one of his legs, to EACH SIDW of the buffalo. Preparing to DRAW and QUARTER Indiana. A DELIGHTED Gutterbuhg PEERS DOWN at Indiana. GUTTERBUHG Doctor Jones... Those beasts are anxious to run wild. Free. (vicious smile) How long will you be able to ride... before they TEAR YOU IN TWO? Indy LOOKS at Scraggy, who is very FRIGHTENED. GUTTERBUHG Goodbye, Doctor Jones. Gutterbuhg TURNS to the guards. Ready to give them the ORDER...to OPEN THE CAGE and SET THE BUFFALO FREE! Indy suddenly SCREAMS. INDIANA Heil Hitler! Upon hearing the words, Gutterbuhg STANDS. Like a ROBOT. He RAISES his mechanical arm in a "Heil Hitler" POSE. GUTTERBUHG Heil Hitler! The FINGERS of Gutterbuhg's mechanical arm get CAUGHT IN THE METAL GRATING ABOVE HIS HEAD! Gutterbuhg TRIES TO REMOVE his fingers. NO GOOD. STUCK. Gutterbuhg PULLS. HARD. His mechanical arm is RIPPED FROM ITS SOCKET! It DANGLES from the grating. The crowd WATCHES. PUZZLED. SHOCKED. Scraggy THINKS FAST. He LEAPS to his feet and GRABS the arm. He TEARS IT OUT of the grating. Scraggy HOLDS the arm above his head. Now it is HE who possesses the POWER! The crowd CHEERS Scraggy! Their NEW RULER! Gutterbuhg STEPS BACK. Suddenly FRIGHTENED. Scraggy ORDERS the guards to FREE Indiana. The guards hurriedly UNTIE Indy from the buffalo. Gutterbuhg TURNS. RUNNING out of the Coliseum. Scraggy SCREAMS to the people, motioning for them to FOLLOW Gutterbuhg. Several people LEAP from their seats. CHASING the Nazi. EXT. COLISEUM Gutterbuhg DASHES OUT! A CROWD OF VILLAGERS follow him. In HOT PURSUIT. Gutterbuhg RUNS toward the city gates. He RUNS through. ESCAPING the City. The crowd PAUSES. STOPPING. They'll go NO FURTHER. They SCREAM and SHOUT at the departing Gutterbuhg, who disappears INTO THE MOUNTAINS. INT. COLISEUM Indiana REJOINS his friends on the playing field. They have been FREED from the cage. Scraggy gives the WHIP to Indy. Indy is IMPATIENT. WORRIED. He LOOKS at everyone. INDIANA Nazis'll be be here soon. We gotta move fast. Scraggy gives Gutterbuhg's MECAHNICAL ARM to Tyki. The pygmy NODS. He UNDERSTANDS. Tyki RAISES THE ARM TOWARD THE PEOPLE. They CHEER Tyki, their rightful ruler. Tyki, PULLS BACK and THROWS the mechanical arm. HIGH INTO THE AIR! It SOARS several feet! FLYING OVER the coliseum walls. EXT. CITY The arm flies THROUGH the air... It lands into the MOAT! The arm is ATTACKED by a horde of hungry sharks. They TEAR it to pieces. CUT TO: EXT. MOUNTAIN PATH The Nazis have arrived at the section of path that is BLOCKED by the AVALANCHE. Their other VEHICLES and TROOPS have pulled back. A FEW HUNDRED FEET from the AVALANCHE. SEVERAL STICKS OF DYNAMITE have been placed beneath the avalanche. The T.N.T. is connected to a LONG FUSE, that extends along the path. LIEUT. MEPHISTO stands at the fuse's end. He STRIKES a match. Preparing to LIGHT THE FUSE. The match flare is INCHES from the fuse... Mephisto is INTERRUPTED by a FAMILIAR VOICE. It is GUTTERBUHG. Mephisto BLOWS OUT the match. A SOAKING WET Sgt. Gutterbuhg SLIDES down the edge of the ravine. He still wears the COLORFUL, ELABORATE ROBES of Bohbala. Mephisto is PUZZLED by Gutterbuhg's BIZARRE APPEARANCE. Gutterbuhg STOPS in front of Mephisto. Gutterbuhg ATTEMPTS a "Heil, Hitler"... but suddenly realizes that his mechanical arm is GONE. Gutterbuhg DRIPS WATER all over Mephisto, who is DISGUSTED by the appearance of his officer. He SLAPS Gutterbuhg. MEPHISTO (German; English subtitles) Idiot!... Why are you dressed like that!... Where is your uniform?... Before he can answer, Gutterbuhg is SHOVED AWAY by the disgusted Mephisto, who ATTEMPTS to LIGHT the fuse. But his matches are USELESS. Soaked with WATER. Furious, Mephisto SLAPS Gutterbuhg, ordering him to fetch something. The snivelling Gutterbuhg nods and bows, SCURRYING away. He RUNS into the rear of A CANVAS TRUCK. INT. TRUCK Filled with several crates of DYNAMITE and SUPPLIES. Gutterbuhg DASHES inside. Toward a SILVER, METALLIC BRIEFCASE that rests in the rear of the truck. Gutterbuhg's greasy fingers OPEN the briefcase. Inside, encased in black velvet, are TWO RECTANGULAR COMPARTMENTS. One of the compartments is EMPTY. The other houses another MECHANICAL ARM. Gutterbuhg quickly ATTACHES the arm to the stub of his shoulder and RUNS BACK OUTSIDE. EXT. MOUNTAIN PATH Gutterbuhg REJOINS Mephisto and EXTENDS his new mechanical arm TOWARD THE FUSE. Gutterbuhg POINTS his finger. He SQUEEZES A LEVER, located on the palm of the mechanical arm. A BRIGHT, JAGGED LINE OF ELECTRICAL CURRENT shoots from the arm's finger! The electricity LIGHTS the fuse. It BURNS. Moving TOWARD the dynamite. Gutterbuhg and Mephisto HIDE behind a rock. There is a LOUD EXPLOSION. Rocks and debris FLY THROUGH THE AIR. The path is CLEARED. INT. CITY The SOUND OF THE EXPLOSION echoes through the City. SHAKING the city walls. The Nazis are CLOSE. Indiana STANDS in the city square. He has ASSEMBLED everyone for the battle. Tyki and the pygmies are armed with BOWS and ARROWS, SPEARS and BLOW PIPES. Kezure and the Pirates hold their SWORDS. Scraggy's men carry REVOLVERS and DAGGERS. Clare and Betsy STAND with several Gorillas. Tyki WHISPERS to Scraggy, who TRANSLATES for Indiana. SCRAGGY They want you to give speech. INDIANA What?!?... SCRAGGY Before battle... General always give speech to inspire troops. INDIANA General?... Who the hell do they think I am... Custer?... But ALL EYES are on Indiana. DEPENDING on him. Indy SIGHS. Trying to THINK of something to say. He MUMBLES to Scraggy. INDIANA Geez... The only speeches I remember are from college...when I played ball... Scraggy SHRUGS. Indy CLEARS his throat. He LOOKS at everyone. FUMBLING. INDIANA Men...and, ah...women... I...ah... We're about to face one of our toughest opponents... They've got size...hardware...and well, quite frankly...we're the underdogs... Indy's eyes LIGHT. A moment of INSPIRATION. The background MUSIC SLOWLY BEGINS TO RISE. Indy's voice becomes LOUDER. TOUGHER. INDIANA But...well, if it wasn't for the little guy...where would this country be?... (excited, louder) I mean...I knew this little guy once ...a scrawny runt, with thick black glasses and about 300 different kinds of allergies... But this little kid had a dream... He wanted to be on the football team. (Music rises, so does Indy's voice) Well, all the big guys made his life miserable...always shoving his head in the drinking fountain...putting mustard in his pants...throwing me ...'er, HIM!...throwing HIM in the shower with all his clothes on... (louder, heartfelt) But that little guy didn't quit. Be worked hard. Never gave up. And in two years...he was the Quarterback. Star of the team. And you know why?... (Music SOARS, as does Indy's voice) 'Cause that little kid had somethin' that those big guys never heard of... He had HEART! And nothin' can stop that! Nothin'! (we hear the Nazis approaching, Indy screams) Now let's go out there and show 'em JUST HOW TOUGH THE LITTLE GUYS ARE! Everyone breaks into a loud CHEER. Ready to FIGHT. The sound track music SOARS. Indiana RAISES HIS SWORD. He TURNS and RUNS toward the DRAWBRIDGE. The people FOLLOW, as Indy LEADS THEM INTO BATTLE! EXT. CITY Indiana, armed with a shield, sword and pistol, LEADS his troops forward. The Nazis are APPROACHING. LIEUT. MEPHISTO rides in the front jeep, which is mounted with a large RECOILIST MACHINE GUN. The entire Nazi army is BEHIND HIM. Mephisto's jeep begins to CROSS the drawbridge. Moving TOWARD Indiana and the others. The recoilist machine gunner OPENS FIRE on Indy and the troops. Bullets BOUNCE from Indy's shield. Several of the pygmies are HIT. FALLING to the drawbridge. An angry pygmy THROWS his spear. It HITS the machine gunner. THROUGH the heart. The jeep continues to DRIVE FORWARD. HEADED straight for Indiana, who LEAPS ONTO the jeep's hood. Indy's troops SPLIT INTO GROUPS. Dashing around the speeding jeep to BATTLE the oncoming Nazis. Indiana CRAWLS along the jeep hood. TOWARD the Nazis. Mephisto attempts to SHOOT Indy. The bullets ZIP through the windshield. WHIZZING by Indy's head. Indiana GRABS Mephisto. He PULLS the Nazi over the windshield. Indiana and Mephisto TUMBLE along the jeep's hood. FIGHTING. STRUGGLING for the gun. The jeep DIRECTLY BEHIND Mephisto is filled with several CRATES OF DYNAMITE. GUTTERBUHG, back in uniform, rides here with THREE NAZI SOLDIERS. As the pygmy troops come forward, Gutterbuhg EXTENDS HIS MECHANICAL ARM. He ZAPS several of the pygmies. KILLING them with deadly JOLTS OF ELECTRICITY. As the jeep PASSES through the City gates, Indiana and Mephisto continue to BATTLE along the hood. INT. CITY Mephisto ATTEMPTS TO SHOOT Indiana. But Indy PUSHES AWAY the Nazi's arm. The gun FIRES. HITTING the jeep driver, who SLUMPS over the wheel. The speeding jeep SPINS OUT OF CONTROL. It FLIPS. Sending Indiana and Mephisto FLYING through the air. They TUMBLE to the ground. The jeep CRASHES into a wall. A SHAKEN Indiana gets to his feet. Mephisto LIES A few feet away. OUT COLD. Suddenly, a BLAST OF ELECTRICITY BURSTS INTO FRAME! SPARKING the ground beside Indiana. Indy TURNS and sees GUTTERBUBG! The Nazi's jeep has ENTERED the city. Gutterbuhg POINTS his mechanical arm toward Indy. ANOTHER ELECTRICAL SHOCK ejects from his finger. Indy DIVES. The shock TEARS A SMOLDERING HOLE through the building behind him. Only INCHES above Indy. Meanwhile, the Nazis begin to UNLOAD the dynamite from Gutterbubg's jeep. They UNWRAP a long, section of FUSE from a large coil. Placing the fuse ALONG THE GROUND. Indiana is RUNNING for his life. Gutterbuhg is DIRECTLY BEHIND him. In HOT PURSUIT. The Nazi continuously FIRES ELECTRICAL SHOTS at Indiana. The thin lines of electricity WHIZ by Indy's HEAD. His ARMS. His LEGS. JUST MISSING INDY. A CAT AND MOUSE CHASE BEGINS, as Gutterbuhg PURSUES Indiana throughout the city. CUT TO: TYKI AND SEVERAL PYGMIES They have CLIMBED to the top of the City Walls. From here, they GUARD and DEFEND their city. Crowds of NAZI TROOPS are on foot. Running TOWARD the city walls. The pygmies SHOWER the Nazis with ARROWS, SPEARS and POISINOUS DARTS. The Nazis fight back with MACHINE GUNS and RIFLES. A HEATED, BLOODY BATTLE. CUT TO: SCRAGGY AND THE CREW MEMBERS They stand at the CITY GATE. PROTECTING the City entrance. They hurriedly load a large, wooden CATAPULT with a huge BALL OF HAY. A crew member TORCHES the hay. It BURSTS INTO FLAME. Scraggy CRIES "Fire!" His men LAUNCH the fireball. It SAILS over the City Walls. THE FIREBALL LANDS directly onto a speeding NAZI JEEP. The Nazis and jeep CATCH FIRE! The vehicle LOSES CONTROL. The flaming jeep CRASHES into the side of a mountain wall. CUT TO: A NAZI TANK ROLLS toward the city. Its GUN BARREL aimed at the city walls. CAMERA PANS AWAY, SEVERAL FEET AHEAD OF THE TANK. CAMERA MOVES UPWARD, TO THE MOUNTAIN TOP, ABOVE the path. CLARE is here. A GROUP OF GORILLAS are beside her. The apes each have a TIGHT HOLD of individual sections of HANGING VINE. They stand at the EDGE OF THE RAVINE. Clare LOOKS to the OPPOSITE RAVINE. BETSY is here. She stands with ANOTHER GROUP OF GORILLAS, who also securely bold lengths of vine. On the mountain path, the Nazi tank PASSES DIRECTLY BENEATH Betsy and Clare. The two women TURN to the Gorillas. Emitting Gorilla GRUNTS, MOANS and MOTIONS, Betsy and Clare COMMUNICATE with the apes. The Gorillas LISTEN. NODDING. UNDERSTANDING. When the tank is DIRECTLY BELOW... Betsy and Clare ORDER the Gorillas to JUMP! The apes SWING from the mountain. RIDING the vines. TOWARD the tank. The Gorillas LAND on the tank. They CLIMB aboard. EXPLORING the tank's surface. INT. TANK FILLED with Nazis. The gunner looks into the PERISCOPE. He is met with the reflection of a SNARLING GORILLA'S FACE. He SCREAMS and JUMPS BACK. There is a sound of RIPPING METAL. Suddenly, the tank's top HATCH is TORN OPEN. COUNTLESS GORILLAS pour inside! The apes ATTACK. OVERPOWERING the Nazis. EXT. TANK As the Gorillas climb inside of the tank, Betsy SWINGS across the passageway to Clare. She EXCHANGES a congratulatory handshake with Clare. Betsy's face suddenly goes WHITE. A SHOCKING SIGHT. A GROUP OF NAZIS have climbed to the mountain top. The soldiers SPOT Clare and Betsy. They RUN TOWARD the women. Betsy and Clare DASH OFF. Into the THICK of the jungle. The Nazis FOLLOW. In HOT PURSUIT. CUT TO: TWO LARGE CANVAS TRUCKS BARRELLING along the mountain path. KEZURE, the Pirate King, LEAPS from the side of the path, between the two trucks. Kezure climbs onto the REAR BUMPER of the FIRST TRUCK. The DRIVER of the SECOND TRUCK spots Kezure. He begins to FIRE SHOTS at the Pirate King. As bullets whiz by him, Kezure hurriedly removes a thick METAL CHAIN from around his neck. He securely CONNECTS the two truck BUMPERS with the chain. INT. SECOND TRUCK Filled with NAZI TROOPS. SEATED. ARMED. Waiting to FIGHT. There is a sudden RIPPING SOUND. Followed by ANOTHER. And ANOTHER. The NAZIS are STARTLED to see the BLADES OF COUNTLESS SWORDS. PIERCING the canvas. Through all SIDES of the truck. SEVERAL PIRATES leap through the canvas. ATTACKING the Nazis. The Nazis FIGHT BACK with bayonets and daggers. INT. FIRST TRUCK - CABIN Two Pirates BURST into the cabin. They STAB the Nazi driver. The CACKLING Pirates take control of the steering wheel. They madly STEER the truck toward the steep EDGE of the mountain path. THE FIRST TRUCK PLUMMETS over the eage. The second truck, ATTACHED by the metal chain, FOLLOWS the first truck. The two canvas trucks FALL into the moat! SPLASHING into the shark infestea waters! CUT TO: INT. CITY The Nazis have planted an enormous PILE OF DYNAMITE on the palace stairs. Enough to DESTROY the entire city. The T.N.T. is attached to a LONG FUSE, that stretches hundreds of feet, over VARIOUS SECTIONS of the city. The Nazis LIGHT the fuse end. It SPARKS. IGNITES. BURNING FAST. The Nazis TURN and RUN. Gutterbuhg continues to CHASE Indiana. BLASTS OF ELECTRICITY SHOOT from the Nazi's arm. Indy DUCKS... DODGES... AVOIDING the electrical jolts. Indy SPINS around a building corner. He spots the BURNING FUSE. It STRETCHES along the ground, moving up OVER a wooden fence. Indy DIVES and STOMPS OUT the fuse. But Gutterbuhg, who is directly behind Indy, RELIGHTS the fuse with a shot of electricity. Before Indy has a chance to stop the fuse...Gutterbuhg AIMS at Indy. Indy LEAPS OVER the fence. Gutterbuhg SHOOTS. The fence is SPLINTERED by the powerful electrical blast. Indiana runs into a small ALLEYWAY. The burning fuse STRETCHES up along the alley wall, moving to the ROOFTOP. Indy begins to climb the ancient golden bricks that PROTRUDE from the wall. TOWARD the roof. Gutterbuhg APPEARS. He SHOOTS at Indiana, who avoids the blast by LEAPING onto the roof. Gutterbuhg hurriedly begins to CLIMB the wall. FOLLOWING Indiana. EXT. ROOFTOP Gutterbuhg ARRIVES at the top. He LOOKS around. There is NO SIGN of Indy. But the fuse RESTS at the roof's edge. UNLIT. Gutterbuhg RESTARTS the fuse. At that moment, Indiana LEAPS OUT from inside of the stone smokestack. He JUMPS the unsuspecting Gutterbuhg. They TUMBLE and FALL OFF the rooftop edge. Indiana and Gutterbuhg HIT the ground. They continue to STRUGGLE... FIGHT...as the fuse BURNS in front of them. It SPEEDS toward the pile of dynamite. Less than FIFTY FEET AHEAD. Still wrestling with Gutterbuhg, Indy ROLLS toward the fuse. Indy reaches out and STOPS THE FUSE with his hand. But Gutterbuhg MOVES FAST. Again, the Nazi RELIGHTS the fuse. Indy suddenly LEAPS to his feet. He RUNS OFF SCREEN. Gutterbuhg FOLLOWS. The fuse continues to BURN. Moving CLOSER...CLOSER...to the dynamite. Indiana runs to a CLUSTER OF TREES. He comes to an abrupt stop, between TWO TREES. Gutterbuhg is UPON HIM. The Nazi PAUSES. Only a FEW FEET from Indy. Gutterbuhg POINTS his arm at Indy. A CLEAR SHOT. Gutterbuhg SMILES. Indiana is TRAPPED. THE FUSE is now only a FEW FEET from the dynamite. It will BLOW at any second! Gutterbuhg SHOOTS. Moving like LIGHTNING, Indy LEAPS OUT OF THE WAY, revealing a LARGE LAKE behind him. It's TOO LATE for Gutterbubg. The electrical current HITS THE WATER. The Nazi's body SURGES with electricity. Gutterbuhg FRIES. He SHIVERS. SHAKES. FROZEN, as the powerful electrical current FLOWS through his veins. SMOKE billows from his body. His mechanical arm suddenly EXPLODES. Gutterbuhg's charred body FALLS. FACE DOWN. ELECTROCUTED. Indiana LEAPS TO HIS FEET. Suddenly remembering... THE FUSE! It is now INCHES from the T.N.T. Indy can't get to it IN TIME. He GRABS his whip. His arm SNAPS FORWARD. The whip CRACKS. It SLICES the remaining fuse in two. The fuse FIZZLES and GOES OUT. The city is SAVED. Indy SIGHS. There is a GUNSHOT! A BULLET whizzes by Indy's head. He TURNS. MEPHISTO, bruised and bloodied from the jeep accident, stands SEVERAL FEET AWAY. Mephisto's LUGER is aimed at Indy. Prepared to take ANOTHER SHOT. Indy removes his REVOLVER. He FIRES at Mephisto. The Nazi DASHES into the COLISEUM. Indiana FOLLOWS. CUT TO: TYKI BATTLING the oncoming Nazis with his sword. Tyki fights HARD. FAST. He manages to DEFEAT many Nazis. But the sword is suddenly KNOCKED from Tyki's hand. A TROOP OF NAZIS come toward him. Their eyes MURDEROUS. Tyki is TRAPPED. HELPLESS. INT. CITY Scraggy and his crew members load ANOTHER FIREBALL onto the catapult. Scraggy cries "FIRE!" The fireball FLIES over the city walls. It lands DIRECTLY IN FRONT of the Nazi troops who are about to attack Tyki. Many of the soldiers CATCH FIRE. The others RUN from the flames. Tyki is UNHURT. He REJOINS his friends in the battle. CUT TO: CLARE AND BETSY BREATHLESS...FRIGHTENED...they continue to RUN through the jungle. The Nazis are a few feet BEHIND THEM. Moving FAST. Getting CLOSER. The women turn a corner, scramble through a section of bushes and find themselves face to face with...ANOTHER TROOP OF NAZIS. Clare and Betsy STOP. TRAPPED. SURROUNDED by Nazis. The soldiers MOVE TOWARD the women. The Nazis eyes are LECHEROUS. HUNGRY. Clare WHISPERS to a TREMBLING Betsy. CLARE Do exactly what I do. Betsy NODS. The Nazis MOVE CLOSER. Clare looks to the SKY. She begins to make BIZARRE...HIGH PITCHED...NOISES. A CONFUSED Betsy makes the same noises. The Nazis LOOK at each other and CHUCKLE. The women CONTINUE to make the sounds. Suddenly, the exact sound seems to ECHO FROM THE SKY. It becomes LOUDER... LOUDER... But it belongs to A HUNDRED VOICES. The Nazis PAUSE. Looking UPWARD. PUZZLED. There is a SPLATTERING OF BIRDS. They ATTACK from above. The birds' screeching is IDENTICAL to Clare and Betsy's calls. The angry birds ATTACK THE NAZIS. PECKING. SCRATCHING. BITING. Clare and Betsy CONTINUE to make the sounds, which causes the birds to IGNORE THEM. The Nazis SCREAM. DROPPING their weapons. FALLING to their knees. Each soldier is COVERED with birds. They are being TORN TO SHREDS. Clare and Betsy TURN and RUN. ESCAPING into the jungle. The Nazis' screaming ECHOES behind them. As they run, Clare EXPLAINS to Betsy. CLARE I made the sound of a baby Swandola bird, crying for help... The Mother birds immediately reply to the cries ...angrily protecting their children, and murdering the baby's attackers. CUT TO: THE TWO CANVAS TRUCKS They crookedly FLOAT along the shark infested moat waters. The battered, bruised trucks now resemble two sinking PIRATE SHIPS. Kezure and the Pirates BATTLE the Nazis along the truck frames. The pirates fight in their element... WATER! With fast SWINGING SWORDS, the Pirates are defeating the Nazis. Several Nazis fall INTO THE WATER and are immediately ATTACKED by countless SHARKS. At one point, Kezure FALLS INTO THE WATER. Several SHARKS come for him. The Pirate King DISAPPEARS beneath the water surface. A few of his men PAUSE. WORRIED. AFRAID. Suddenly, Kezure LEAPS OUT OF THE WATER. He holds a LIVE SHARK in his hands. The crazed Kezure TAKES A BITE from the shark. He TOSSES the fish back into the water. Kezure CHEWS ana SWALLOWS the raw shark meat. BLOOD spills down his chin. Kezure resumes his FIGHTING with the Nazis, as the two truck frames continue to SINK. CUT TO: INT. TANK Several Nazis are SPRAWLED on the tank floor. UNCONSCIOUS. UNDRESSED. CAMERA PANS UPWARD. The Gorillas have TAKEN CONTROL of the tank. They have DRESSED THEMSELVES IN NAZI UNIFORMS! EXT. TANK As the battle RAGES around them, the Gorilla's tank makes a sudden U-TURN. It heads straight for the SECOND NAZI TANK. INT. SECOND TANK The Nazis stare through their PERISCOPE. Puzzled by the sight of their own tank COMING TOWARD THEM. EXT. TANK The Gorilla's tank FIRES A DIRECT SHOT at the other Nazi tank. BLAM! The Nazis' tank is BLOWN TO SMITHEREENS. INT. GORILLA TANK The Gorillas break into a VICTORIOUS CHEER. JUMPING. SCREAMING. CUT TO: INT. COLISEUM Indiana WALKS across the coliseum floor. REVOLVER in hand. He moves SLOWLY. CAUTIOUSLY. He is looking for a SIGN of Mephisto. But everything is SILENT. CALM. DESERTED. Mephisto SNEAKS along the top wall of the coliseum. HIDING behind the row of surrounding BELLS. The Nazi UNLATCHES the chain that holds all of the bells in place. The bells begin to FALL. THUNDERING down the coliseum stairs. Indy COVERS his ears. The sound of countless CLANGING BELLS is nearly deafening. He TURNS. Seeing the enormous bells ROLLING TOWARD HIM! Indiana begins to RUN. GIANT ROLLING BELLS CHASE HIM FROM ALL DIRECTIONS! Indy TWISTS...TURNS...LEAPS...in an effort to avoid being CRUSHED by the heavy bells. Mephisto WATCHES from above. SMILING. Indy CONTINUES to run. A giant ROLLING BELL chases him from behind. The bell GAINS SPEED. Getting CLOSER. CLOSER. A few feet in front of Indy...is the deadly TIGER PIT. But Indy CAN'T STOP RUNNING, or he'll be CRUSHED by the bell. Indiana LEAPS INTO THE PIT! The bell ROLLS DIRECTLY OVER the pit. But Indiana is SAFE. There is a FIVE INCH DROP from the ground, to the pit's OVERHEAD METAL BARS. Indy LIES on the bars. SAFELY above the countless TIGERS. The bells have all COME TO A STOP. They LIE around the coliseum ground. STILL. Only one bell GENTLY ROCKS. It slowly TEETERS on the coliseum stairs. It HASN'T yet rolled off. Indiana begins to CLIMB OUT out of the pit, when suddenly... ANOTHER GUNSHOT RINGS OUT. Indy is HIT. In the CHEST. He SLIPS. FALLS. Bis wounded body is SPRAWLED on the bars. TEETERING. Ready to FALL into the waiting tigers. Mephisto's luger is SMOKING. The Nazi WALKS down the coliseum stairs. He moves TOWARD Indiana. Seeing Mephisto heading for him... Indiana REMOVES his gun. He AIMS at the Nazi. But Indy's vision is BLURRED. His hand TREMBLES. Mephisto's silhouette nears... But the bullet ZIPS PAST Mephisto and STRIKES a section of wood below the teetering bell. This causes the bell to FALL...and slowly ROLL forward. Mephisto ARRIVES at the edge of the Tiger Pit. He is about to shoot Indy...then comes upon ANOTHER IDEA. Mephisto LOWERS the luger. He gives a SWIFT KICK to Indy's ribs. Indiana FALLS THROUGH the bars. His arm SHOOTS OUT. With his last bit of strength, Indy's hand GRABS HOLD of a bar. CLUTCHING on for dear life. His body DANGLES over the tigers. They SNAP at his legs. HUNGRY. GROWLING. Mephisto SMILES. He STEPS on Indy's fingers. GRINDING them beneath his boot heel. Indy CRIES OUT... He's going to FALL... Mephisto PAUSES. He HEARS something behind him. A CLANGING BELL. Getting CLOSER. LOUDER. Mephisto TURNS. He sees the GIANT BELL. COMING at him. Only INCHES AWAY. There is NO TIME to move. The bell ROLLS OVER MEPHISTO. KNOCKING him INTO THE PIT. Mephisto FALLS through the bars. INSIDE the pit. INTO the middle of the hungry tigers. Mephisto SCREAMS. The tigers are UPON HIM. The Nazi is RIPPED TO SHREDS. Within seconds, his screams are a MEMORY. A very WEAK Indiana still clutches the bar. He manages to BOOST himself out of the pit. He takes a FEW STEPS. WOBBLING. BLOOD pours from the wound in his chest. He STUMBLES. To his KNEES. His eyes ROLL BACK. He FALLS to the ground. His body is STILL. MOTIONLESS. CUT TO: INT. TANK The Gorillas, still dressed as NAZIS, continue to DRIVE THE TANK FORWARD. EXT. TANK The tank SPEEDS TOWARD THE ROWS OF CHARGING NAZI TROOPS. The Nazis STOP. SHOCKED to see their own tank coming at them. But the tank continues to BARREL AHEAD. Many of the Nazis are CRUSHED beneath the heavy tank treads. Others DROP their weapons and RUN. FRIGHTENED. INT. TANK The Gorillas are ECSTATIC. HOWLING. CHEERING. CUT TO: KEZURE AND THE PIRATES They have DEFEATED all of the Nazis. One of the canvas trucks has completely SUNK. Only a small section of the other truck JUTS OUT of the water. The Pirates CLING to the fleeting safety of the sinking truck frame, which is surrounded by several HUNGRY SHARKS. There are even TOO MANY maneaters for the powerful Kezure to handle. As the frame continues to SINK...the Pirates' feet get CLOSER...CLOSER...to the snapping sharks... Suddenly, a ROPE DROPS FROM OVERHEAD! Kezure LOOKS UP. SCRAGGY and his crew members stand on the DRAWBRIDGE. They have DROPPED the line. Kezure and the Pirates CLIMB upward. To SAFETY. On the drawbridge, Scraggy ASSISTS Kezure. Scraggy SMILES, repeating Kezure's earlier threat. SCRAGGY You owe me, old man. Kezure LAUGHS. He EMBRACES Scraggy. They are joined by TYKI and the OTHER PYGMIES. A sudden CALM...a sudden SILENCE...overcomes the city. The battle has ENDED. The Nazis have been DEFEATED. The city is SAVED. But Tyki is SOLEMN. DISTRESSED. He STARES OFF SCREEN. CAMERA PANS TO HIS P.O.V. We see the countless BODIES OF PYGMIES. SPRAWLED on the ground. DEAD. The price you pay for FREEDOM. Suddenly, the silence is INTERRUPTED. Someone is CRYING. It is BETSY. Scraggy looks OFF SCREEN, to the direction of the sounds. The color LEAVES his face. SCRAGGY'S P.O.V. A group of pygmies CARRY the limp body of Indiana Jones out of the coliseum. They GENTLY LOWER Indy's body to the ground. Clare and Betsy KNEEL beside Indy. TEARS run down Betsy's face. Scraggy suddenly BREAKS AWAY from the crowd. CAMERA DOLLIES WITH HIM as he runs toward Indy. Scraggy STOPS at Indy's body. Clare, eyes FILLED with tears NODS to Scraggy. She can BARELY utter the words... CLARE He's...dead... TEARS erupt in Scraggy's eyes. He breaks down CRYING. A startled KEZURE joins the others. CAMERA PULLS BACK to an extremely LONG SHOT. The entire village GATHERS around Indiana's body. Everyone is SOLEMN. SILENT. A SLOW DISSOLVE: CLOSE-UP: INDIANA'S BODY. It is LYING in state. Resting on a BAMBOO STRETCHER. It is covered with EXOTIC, COLORFUL FLOWERS. CAMERA PULLS BACK. Indy is being carried by several, elaborately dressed PYGMIES. At the head of a long FUNERAL PROCESSION. Betsy, Clare, Scraggy and Kezure MARCH beside Indy's body. They also wear the ceremonial FUNERAL FLOWERS. Behind them, the body of BOHBALA is being carried. And behind the ruler, the bodies of all DEAD PYGMIES are being carried by the remaining VILLAGERS and GORILLAS. It is NIGHTIME. All mourners are carrying FLICKERING CANDLES. At the rear of the procession, a lone pygmy strums an UNUSUAL STRING INSTRUMENT. This creates a HAUNTING melody. CAMERA PULLS BACK TO A LONG SHOT, as we see the procession move through the city. The hundreds of flickering candles against the dark night sky create a BEAUTIFUL IMAGE. The procession arrives at a large STONE WALL. It appears to be a DEAD END. Tyki WALKS to the wall. He FALLS to his knees and begins to CHANT. Clare, Betsy, Scraggy and Kezure WATCH. There is a SMALL RUMBLE. A hairline CRACK begins to form in the mountain. As if it were being DRAWN by an invisible hand, the crack forms a LARGE DOOR in the wall. The door slowly OPENS. An almost BLINDING WHlTE LIGHT emanates from inside. Tyki ENTERS. The procession FOLLOWS. INT. WALL The procession ascends a TWISTING STONE STAIRCASE, that spirals upward, where the light becomes BRIGHTER... BRIGHTER... At the stairway top, there is ANOTHER DOORWAY. Tyki and the others ENTER. Indiana's body is CARRIED through. THE GARDEN OF IMMORTAL PEACHES! A breathtakingly beautiful forest of never ending luscious green trees, filled with succulent, ripe PEACHES. We have never seen COLORS like this. So MAGICAL...so INTENSE... Bright SUNLIGHT shines from a vivid blue sky. There is always a RAINBOW here. The procession ENTERS. Scraggy, Clare, Betsy and Kezure stare in total WONDERMENT. Betsy is PUZZLED by the bright sunlight. BETSY But... It's... It's the middle of the night... Tyki WHISPERS to Scraggy, who explains to Betsy. SCRAGGY Sun always shine in the Garden of Immortal Peaches. Clare NODS. Kezure is MESMERIZED by the peach trees. His mouth HANGS OPEN. He TURNS to Scraggy. KEZURE These are the peaches that make one ...forever young?... Scraggy NODS. Tyki LEADS the procession to a clearing in the garden. Many freshly dug GRAVES are here. All of the bodies are carried to SEPARATE GRAVES, including Indiana And Bohbala. A few feet ahead of the graves, rests the LARGEST PEACH TREE in the forest. It is much WIDER and TALLER than the others. There is a small, glass encased TOMB built into the tree. Inside of the tomb, is a TINY SKELETON. No more than FOUR FEET TALL. The skeleton is adorned with a LION SKINNED ROBE and golden CROWN. In its hand, the skeleton clutches the famous GOLDEN HOOPED ROD, a glorious, elaborate STAFF. An ancient inscription is ETCHED IN STONE over the tomb. Pointing to the inscription, Clare TURNS to Scraggy. CLARE What does it say?... SCRAGGY (translating) "Our Lord... Our Master... Sun... Wu... Kung" THE SOUND TRACK MUSIC RISES. It is the tomb of the STONE MONKEY KING. Clare exchanges an AWE INSPIRED glance with Betsy, then looks to the still body of Indiana. CLARE Damn you, Jones! Why couldn't you be here to share this with me! The pygmies begin to LOWER the dead bodies, including Indiana and Bohbala, into the ground. Tyki reads from ANCIENT SCRIPTURE. Scraggy SOBS on the shoulder of Kezure, who continues to stare in ASTONISHMENT at the peach trees. Suddenly, there is a RUMBLING SOUND. Followed by a slight, TREMOR. The trees begin to SWAY, as a HOWLING WIND rushes through them. The tomb of Sun Wu Kung GLOWS with a BRIGHT LIGHT. The glass surrounding the tomb suddenly SHATTERS. The skeleton's head TURNS. Its body RATTLES. Beginning to MOVE. The skeleton STEPS OUT OF THE TOMB. Everyone STARES in awe. TERRIFIED. The skeleton takes a FEW STEPS forward, STOPS, and RAISES its arms. HIGH in the air. The skeleton OPENS its mouth. Emitting a HIGH PITCHED ...UNEARTHLY...SCREECH! An ectoplasmic GREEN SMOKE seeps from the skeleton's fingers, slowly TRAVELING over the heads of the humans. The ectoplasm separates into several INDIVIDUAL LINES, that touch down upon EACH OF THE GORILLAS. The ectoplasm ENCIRCLES each the Gorilla's bodies. The Gorillas begin to RISE from the ground. HIGH in the air. The ectoplasm appears to be CARRYING them toward Sun Wu Kung. As the Gorillas TRAVEL through the air, their bodies begin to SHRINK. Growing SMALLER. THINNER. The humans stare into the SKY. Watching the AMAZING, MAGICAL TRANSFORMATION. As the Gorillas get CLOSER to Sun Wu Kung, their bodies have shrunken to TINY, HAIR-LIKE substances. When the Gorillas ARRIVE at the skeleton, they ATTACH themselves to his body. We see that the shrunken Gorillas are actually individual HAIRS on the skeleton's body. As the countless hairs CONVERGE, the skeleton begins to take SHAPE...FORM... SUN WU KUNG COMES TO LIFE! He is UNLIKE anyone or anything we have ever seen. HALF-HUMAN. HALF-HONKEY. His face is covered with WRINKLES. His wide eyes are COAL BLACK. PROBING. WARM. When he smiles, it is DEVILISH, but incredibly CHARMING. His movements are PERKY. QUICK. An extremely ADORABLE little fellow. Instantly LOVABLE. But there is a STRONG, POWERFUL presense about him. He is indeed, a HEAVENLY FIGURE. Sun Wu Kung LOOKS over the congregation. Everyone FALLS to their knees. Clare, Betsy, Scraggy and a RELUCTANT Kezure do the same. Sun Wu Kung PACES through the clearing. He LOOKS into the many graves. He is DISTRESSED. TROUBLED. His wrinkled face twists into FURIOUS expression. He RAISES his golden hooped rod to the sky. He SCREAMS. His old voice CREAKS and GROANS. SUN WU KUNG We cannot bury these men!... This is a garden of life... Not of death!... Betsy WHISPERS to Clare. BETSY Why's he speakin' in English? CLARE He is a heavenly being. According to legend, when a heavenly being speaks, men of all countries can understand him. We hear him in English...the pygmies hear him in their language. Betsy NODS. Sun Wu Kung CONTINUES his heartfelt scream into the heavens. SUN WU KUNG Return their souls!... I demand it!... Return their souls! A few MOMENTS pass. Then...a thick, white cloud ECLIPSES the sun. A small hole in the cloud, allows one RAY OF SUNLIGHT to shine through. The ray shines down upon ONE PARTICULAR PEACH TREE. Sun Wu Kung TURNS to that peach tree. He raises the GOLDEN HOOPED ROD toward the tree. He begins to SING an unusual hymn. Suddenly, several peaches magically FLY from the trees. They congregate ABOVE the golden hooped rod. The peaches SPIN in midair. With quick movements of the rod, Sun Wu Kung SENDS several peaches flying OFF SCREEN. CAMERA FOLLOWS the magical peaches as they SEPARATE and FLY INTO EACH GRAVE. Toward the BODIES OF THE DEAD PYGMIES. Each body is HIT with an individual peach. When the peaches MAKE CONTACT with the dead bodies, there is a small, colorful EXPLOSION. A small FIREWORKS display. The bodies erupt with a BRIGHT GOLDEN GLOW. A few moments PASS. One of the bodies STIRS. MOVES. The body SITS UP. Gets to its FEET. ANOTHER BODY does the same. So does ANOTHER. And ANOTHER. Soon, the various pygmies CLIMB out of the graves. Their wounds have DISAPPEARED. Their life has been RESTORED. Sun Wu Kung flings the remaining TWO PEACHES into the GRAVES of Indiana and Bohbala. There is a small EXPLOSION...followed by the WARM GLOW of their bodies. The wound in Indy's chest VANISHES. His eyes POP OPEN. To the delight of his friends, Indy STANDS. ALIVE. He is PUZZLLED by the surrounding grave. Clare, Scraggy and Betsy HELP Indiana OUT of the grave. They SHOWER him with EMBRACES and KISSES. But Indy remains CONFUSED. PUZZLED. INDIANA What the hell's goin' on? Sun Wu Kung, looking very PLEASED with himself, stands BEHIND Indiana. Clare SMILES at Indy. CLARE I think there is someone you should meet... Clare POINTS to behind Indy, who TURNS and sees the smiling SUN WU KUNG. Indy is at first SHOCKED... His face breaks into a CHILDLIKE SMILE...filled with DELIGHT. He then manages to UTTER... INDIANA You... You're... Sun Wu Kung?... Sun Wu Kung STEPS FORWARD. He nods and ANSWERS. SUN WU KUNG You are... Indiana Jones?... INDIANA (taken aback) Huh?... You know me? SUN WU KUNG (nods) I have watched you for many, many years...from the heavens. I was fascinated by your bravery...your passion...in searching for me. INDIANA Well, I... Thanks I'm very honored. SUN WU KUNG The honor is mine, Doctor Jones. You and your friends have saved my city from ruin. (a pause) I would like to return the favor. Sun Wu Kung gives Indiana the GOLDEN HOOPED ROD. Indiana takes the PRICELESS ARTIFACT. He STARES at the beautiful rod. He is very MOVED. SPEECHLESS. Sun Wu Kung EXPLAINS. RAISES an eyebrow. SUN WU KUNG The Golden Hooped Rod will be a faithful friend. It is capable of one hundred transformations...and will always remain by your side. Indy manages a NOD. Sun Wu Kung SIGHS. SUN WU KUNG I will explore the heavens for another. Surely, my search will be shorter and less hazardous than yours! Indiana SMILES. Meanwhile, Kezure uses the oppurtunity to SNEAK AWAY. He DISAPPEARS into a cluster of PEACH TREES. He CLIMBS the smallest tree. The GREEDY Pirate King begins to PICK several peaches. HIDING them in his pockets. Sun Wu Kung LOOKS OVER the healthy, restored community of pygmies. The Monkey King SMILES. SUN WU KUNG With my city alive again...I will be able to return to the heavens. (warm smile to Indy and the others) Goodbye...my dear friends. Sun Wu Kung again RAISES his arms. Green ECOTPLASM again emanates from his fingers. The individual strands of HAIR fly from his body. In a reversal of what we saw only moments ago, the strands of hair FLY through the air. They grow LARGER...LARGER...until they resume the shape of the GORILLAS. Sun Wu Kung has RETURNED to his skeletal form. He TURNS and WALKS back to his resting place. The pieces of broken glass RE-ASSEMBLE. SEALING the tomb. Kezure, his pockets STUFFED with peaches, hurriedly REJOINS the others. Tyki EMBRACES Bohbala, glad to have his Father ALIVE. Bohbala, resuming his position as Ruler, LEADS HIS PEOPLE out of the garden. Indiana, CLUTCHING his golden hooped prize, EXITS with the others. CUT TO: EXT. CITY GATES - THE FOLLOWING MORNING Indiana, Clare, Betsy, Scraggy, Kezure, the Pirates and Crew members, have GATHERED outside of the city walls for the journey home. They are saying "Goodbye" to TYKI, BOHBALA And the other PYGMIES. Clare and Tyki exchange a TEARFUL FAREWELL, communicating in hand signals. They share a final EMBRACE. Bohbala again THANKS Indiana for his help. Betsy says "Goodbye" to the many GORILLAS. Betsy COMMUNICATES in Gorilla hand motions and growls. Indiana, holding the Golden Hooped Rod, TURNS and moves across the drawbridge. The others FOLLOW. The entire city of pygmies and Gorillas CHEER for their departing friends. Indy and the others DISAPPEAR into the clouds, walking down the MOUNTAIN PATH. The Lost city GLISTENS in the background. The drawbridge CLOSES...until the next visitor ARRIVES. DISSOLVE T0: EXT. MOUNTAIN PATH - A FEW HOURS LATER Early AFTERNOON. The sun is HOT. SCORCHING. Indy and his party REST. They NAP in a shady section of the path. CAMERA PANS THE SNOOZING BODIES of everyone, coming to a STOP at Indiana. The Golden Hooped Rod RESTS beside Indy. A HAND COMES INTO FRAME and GRABS the staff. OTHER HANDS MOVE INTO FRAME. They STEAL Indy's WHIP and REVOLVER. They TAKE all weapons from Scraggy and his crew members. Indiana is awakened by a SWORD. At his THROAT. Indy REACHES for his gun and whip...GONE. He LOOKS UP. KEZURE stands over him, holding the sword in one hand, the GOLDEN ROD in another. Indy TURNS. The other Pirates hold SWORDS and DAGGERS at the throats of Clare, Betsy, Scraggy and the crew members. Kezure TWIRLS the golden hooped rod in front of him. He SMILES at Indiana. KEZURE She is a wonderful treasure... Eh?... INDIANA We had a deal. KEZURE (moves sword closer to Indy's throat) I have no deals with dead men. INDIANA Son of a bitch. Kezure LAUGHS. He has REMOVED a peach from his pocket. He SHINES the peach on his cloak, and gives a SHRUG to Indiana. KEZURE (shrugs, laughs) I am an old Pirate, Doctor Jones. Do you suddenly expect me to treat you with kindness and fairness?... It is not my way of life! Indy is DISGUSTED. Kezure TAKES A LARGE BITE from the peach. As he chews and swallows, Kezure NODS to his men, motioning toward Indy and the others. KEZURE Kill them... (takes another bite of the peach) But save their hair. I will make a coat out of it. The men MOVE to kill Scraggy, Betsy, Clare and the crew members. Suddenly, Kezure emits a LOUD SCREAM. He GRABS his stomach in pain. He FALLS to his knees. The HALF EATEN PEACH rolls from his hand. Onto the GROUND. Indy and Clare RUSH TOWARD Kezure. Something very STRANGE is happening to the Pirate King... His hair begins to FALL OUT. His teeth ROT. His skin SHRIVELS. His body becomes THINNER. SPINDLY. Kezure has begun to RAPIDLY AGE. He continues to SCREAM. In horrible PAIN. The Pirates STEP AWAY. FRIGHTENED. The others WATCH IN HORROR. Kezure's body CONTORTS. His skin WITHERS... FLAKES... It begins to PEEL from his bones. His screams FADE... His eyeballs ROLL OUT of their sockets. Only his skeleton REMAINS. It turns BLACK and CRUMBLES TO DUST. Only his elaborate clothing REMAINS. The many stolen peaches ROLL OUT of his cloak, onto the ground. The remaining Pirates DROP THEIR WEAPONS. They RUN OFF down the mountain. SCARED to death! Indiana HOLDS the half eaten peach in his hand. Betsy is PUZZLED. BETSY I thought the peaches promised immortality...eternal youth?... INDIANA The garden of immortal peaches promises life only to those who are pure in heart. (pause) Kezure was evil. His heart was filled with greed. Indiana DROPS the peach to the ground. He grabs his WHIP, REVOLVER and GOLDEN HOOPED ROD. Scraggy and his crew members RETRIEVE their weapons. Everyone TURNS, CONTINUING down the mountain path. LEAVING Kezure's clothes and the several peaches behind. CUT TO: EXT. MOZAMBIQUE - DOCK - A FEW DAYS LATER Passengers board a large OCEAN LINER, bound for the United States. INDIANA JONES is here. Bags PACKED. He holds a rectangular wooden crate, covered with the words "FRAGILE". The Golden Hooped Rod is obviously STORED inside. Indy is WAITING for someone. He impatiently CHECKS his wristwach. LOOKING around. He GRUMBLES to himself. INDIANA Where's Betsy?... The boat leaves in five minutes... Suddenly, a HORN interrupts. Indy turns to the DIRECTION OF THE SOUND. It is SCRAGGY. He is wearing DRIVING GOGGLES. He rides a battered, bruised MOTORCYCLE, attached to a ricketty SIDECAR. The word "TAXI" is painted on the sidecar's exterior. Scraggy PULLS UP beside Indiana. Scraggy JUMPS OFF the motorcycle. Excitedly, he RUNS toward Indy. SCRAGGY Oh, Indy! Indy! I want to give you something for your journey! Scraggy FUMBLES through his pockets. He removes a small bottle of PURPLE LIQUID. He HOLDS it out to Indy. SCRAGGY Take one drink before bed. It keep out all bad spirits. Indy DECLINES. He flashes a FLASK OF WHISKEY from inside of his coat pocket. INDIANA Thanks, Scraggy... But this'll keep out all the bad spirits. Scraggy SHRUGS. They are suddenly INTERRUPTED. BETSY (O.S.) Indy!... Indiana TURNS. BETSY and CLARE walk toward him. Indy LOOKS at Betsy. PUZZLED. INDIANA Where're your bags? BETSY I'm not leaving. INDIANA Huh?... But, you... You have to finish school. BETSY I'm staying on as Clare's assistant. Indy shoots a JEALOUS GLANCE to Clare, then back to Betsy. INDIANA But you're MY assistant. BETSY Not any more. I'm having my credits transfered. INDIANA Why?... BETSY Clare is a brilliant teacher. INDIANA (jealous) So am I. CLARE Yes, but I don't offer a course in seduction. INDIANA You stay out of this. BETSY Indy... I thought you wanted me out of your life... INDIANA That was before I realized how gifted...how talented you are... I mean... I could really use you... CLARE Especially aboard ship for three weeks. It gets terribly lonely. INDIANA I warned you... BETSY Indy, I've learned a lot from you. But it's time I started concentrating on a career in anthropology...instead of romance. INDIANA (sighs, to Betsy) You've certainly developed a mature attitude. BETSY (hugs him) Thanks to you. (pauses, looking into Indy's eyes) You know... I always thought of you as my knight in shining armor... INDIANA (flattered) Really? BETSY But now, I'll think of you as the Father I never had. INDIANA (rolls his eyes) Terrific. Clare WALKS up to him. She EXTENDS her hand. CLARE Doctor Jones...although your libido is questionable, your bravery and intelligence are exceptional. (a smile) It has been an honor working with you. INDIANA (taken aback) Why... Thanks. Indy LEANS toward Clare, as if he is going to KISS HER. He RAISES an eyebrow. SPEAKING in his smoothest...most suave... INDIANA You know, Clare...there's something... CLARE Yes... INDIANA (moving closer) ...something I've been wanting to do... CLARE Yes... INDIANA (closer) ...since we first met... LEANING forward, Indy closes his eyes to KISS Clare. But Clare MOVES AWAY. BONZO THE GORILLA enters the FRAME. BONZO KISSES Indy on the lips. Indy OPENS his eyes. He tries to MOVE AWAY. But the Gorilla will not move, WRAPPING HER ARMS around Indy. The Gorilla WRESTLES Indy to the ground. By using Gorilla HAND MOTIONS and GRUNTS, Clare manages to persuade BONZO to MOVE AWAY from Indiana. Indy WIPES his mouth. Clare, Betsy and Scraggy are LAUGHING. Betsy EXPLAINS to Clare. BETSY Sorry. Guess I left her cage open... she followed us. The ocean liner's horn SOUNDS! It begins to DRIFT away from the dock. Indiana TURNS and RUNS up the stairs, leading to the boat. The boat is a FEW FEET from the dock. Indy LEAPS onto the boat. He MAKES IT. JUST IN TIME. Indiana pauses... Suddenly UPSET. He realizes that he's FORGOTTEN the Golden Hooped Rod! It SITS on the dock. At Scraggy's FEET. As the Ocean Liner PULLS AWAY, Indy is about to SCREAM to his friends... But Clare PICKS UP the crate. She SHRUGS to Indy. The ocean liner pulls FURTHER...FURTHER...from the dock. Indiana is HELPLESS. He CAN'T GO BACK. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CLARE'S ROOM - THAT EVENING Clare is SOUND ASLEEP in bed. CAMERA PANS TO a corner of the room. The wooden crate holding the Golden Hooped Rod RESTS here. Suddenly, the box's NAILS begin to TWIST. TURN. As if they were being turned by INVISIBLE HANDS. They FALL OUT of the box. DROPPING to the floor. ONE by ONE. The box SLOWLY OPENS. The Golden Hooped Rod SHIKMERS in the moonlight. Suddenly, the staff begins to MOVE. TWISTING. SHRINKING. It CHANGES SHAPE...turning into a GOLDEN EAGLE! The bird slowly FLAPS its wings and FLIES OUT of the open window. INTO the night. Clare continues to peacefully SLEEP. CUT TO: EXT. OCEAN - NIGHT The full moon ILLUMINATES the night sky. SHIMMERING across the ocean waters. Countless BRIGHT STARS sparkle in the night sky. Indy's OCEAN LINER sails across the water. The image of an EAGLE appears in the night sky. SILHOUETTED against the moon. INT. SHIP CABIN Indiana Jones is SOUND ASLEEP in his bed. The room's porthole mysteriously SWINGS OPEN. The Golden Eagle FLIES inside. The eagle TRANSFORMS back into the Golden Hooped Rod. The rod LEANS AGAINST the wall. The moonlight REFLECTS the rod, SHINING into Indiana's eyes. Indy WAKES. He SITS UP and sees the Golden Hooped Rod. At first, he is SHOCKED. He TOUCHES the rod...then comes upon a REALIZATION. The CREAKY VOICE of Sun Wu Kung FILLS the SOUNDTRACK. SUN WU KUNG (V.O.) The Golden Hooped Rod will be a faithful friend. It is capable of one hundred transformations...and will always remain by your side. Indy STANDS. He turns and LOOKS out of the porthole. A DREAMY... SATISFIED smile covers Indy's face, as he stares at the stars ABOVE. SOUND TRACK MUSIC SOARS. CAMERA PULLS BACK, TO EXTREMELY LONG SHOT of the ship SAILING across the ocean. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d4859352f6ebea7cb4dd2a7cbc79dc9483e2629f --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE Screenplay by JEFF BOAM Story by GEORGE LUCAS and MENNO MEYJES FADE IN: EXT. DESERT OF THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST - DAY A mountain peak dominates the landscape. TITLES BEGIN. Riders on horseback cross the desert. From this distance they appear to be a company of Army Cavalry Soldiers. CLOSER ANGLES ON THE RIDERS reveal only details of saddles, hooves and uniforms. The riders are silhouetted against the rising sun as they ride into an ancient CLIFF PUEBLO. The OFFICER IN COMMAND raises his hand halting his troops. OFFICER Dis-mount! RIDERS climb down from their mounts... and only now do we realize that this is a TROOP OF BOY SCOUTS, all of them about thirteen years of age. The "Commanding Officer" is only their SCOUTMASTER, Mr. Havelock. One of the Scouts, a pudgy kid named HERMAN, steps away from his horse, bends over and pukes. The other Scouts rag on him. FIRST SCOUT Herman's horsesick! A BLOND SCOUT, however, befriends Herman. He has a thatch of straw-colored hair and the no-nonsense expression common to kids whose curiosity and appetite for knowledge exceed what they teach in school. Additionally, he has adorned his uniform with an authentic HOPI INDIAN WOVEN BELT. SCOUTMASTER Chaps, don't anybody wander off. Some of the passageways in here can run for miles. Two Boy Scouts climb up the rocky base of the cliff. INT. THE PASSAGEWAY - DAY The two boys head down the passageway. It's dark, and the temperature drops several degrees. Spiders have built huge webs that get caught in the boys' hair. HERMAN appears very uncertain as to the wisdom of this enterprise, but he's drawn on by his companion's adventurous curiosity.CONTINUED: HERMAN I don't think this is such a good idea. LAUGHTER is HEARD; the Blond Scout pulls Herman forward toward its source. The VOICES GROW LOUDER now as the boys get closer to their source. The light of kerosene lanterns dances on the tunnel walls ahead. The boys approach cautiously, careful to stay hidden. HERMAN What is it? This is what they see: FOUR MEN digging with shovels and pick-axes. They have broken into one of the pueblo's SECRET CHAMBERS... called "Kivas." The men are ROUGH RIDER (his name describes his dress), ROSCOE (a Bowery Boy bully of 14) and HALFBREED (with straight black hair that cascades over his shoulders). And the fourth man wears a LEATHER WAIST JACKET and BROWN FELT FEDORA HAT. He has his back turned to us, but we would be willing to bet anything that this is INDLANA JONES. However, when the man turns, and his face is illuminated by the lantern's glow, we are shocked to discover that it is someone else. We'll call him FEDORA.TITLES END. The TWO BOYS are mesmerized by what they see. Now we realize that the Blond Scout is actually young INDIANA JONES. FEDORA Alfred, did you get anything yet? MAN Nothing. Dig in. Two of the men stand and look at ROSCOE who steps forward holding a box in his hands. ROSCOE Hey, I've got something! Whoops from the other men. ROSCOE I got something, Garth!CONTINUED: (2) ROSCOE rushes forward and gives FEDORA the box. Fedora steps toward a lantern resting on a rock. ROSCOE I got something... I got something right here. More whoops from the other men. FEDORA puts the box on the rock next to the lantern. HALFBREED pushes ROSCOE as he jumps with excitement. ROUGH RIDER steps forward to look at the box as Fedora opens it. ROSCOE (more whoops; then) Oh, look at thatl (more whoops) We're richl We're rich! HALFBREED Shut up. Shut up. FEDORA takes a BEJEWELED CROSS from the box and holds it aloft. Fedora's comrades practically salivate at the sight of it. ROSCOE (O.S.) Well, we're rich, ain't we?l INDY takes off his hat and looks down at the o.s. action. HERMAN Indy? Indy? What are they doing? Indiana? Indiana? INDY Shhhl FEDORA blows dust from the Cross, turning it in his hand, silently appraising its beauty... and its value. He seems aloof from the others; somehow superior to them. HALFBREED Hey, we got to find more stuff to bring back. INDY stays hidden, but is astounded by what he sees. INDY (hushed; urgent) It's the Cross of Coronadol Cortes gave it to him in 15201CONTINUED: (3) FEDORA continues to admire the Cross, then places it on the rock next to its box and the lantern. INDY turns back to observe the men. INDY That Cross is an important artifact. It belongs in a museum. A look of resolve comes into INDY's expression, and he turns back toward HERMAN. INDY Run back and find the others. Tell Mister Havelock that there are men looting in the caves. HERMAN doesn't seem to be listening. Instead, he watches in wide-eyed horror as a SNAKE SLITHERS ACROSS HIS LAP. INDY Have him bring the sheriff. INDY matter-of-factly picks up the snake and tosses it aside. HERMAN gasps. INDY It's only a snake. INDY grabs HERMAN's scout scarf and pulls him closer. INDY Did you hear what I said? HERMAN Right. Run back. Mister Havelock. The Sheriff. What, what are you gonna do? INDY I don't know... I'll think of something. INDY releases the scarf, gives HERMAN a pat and Herman dashes off. Indy sees the Cross on the rock next to the lantern. As the Robbers continue to search for additional valuables, Indy is able to work his way unseen to within arm's reach of the Cross... FEDORA looks over at the men digging in a hole b.g. FEDORA Dig with your hands. INDY picks up the Cross.CONTINUED: (4) FEDORA (O . S . ) Not with your mouth. As FEDORA stands watching the other men digging, INDY puts the Cross in his pants and begins to pull himself up a rope hanging nearby. As he climbs, Indy's feet break a wooden beam, attracting the men's attention. ROSCOE He's got our thing! HALFBREED Get 'im! The three Robbers are so eager to get their hands on INDY, they almost knock each other over in the attempt. Only FEDORA is unperturbed. He casts a disgusted glance in the direction of his fleeing companionsóthen sets off after INDY. EXT. THE CLIFFS - DAY INDY EMERGES from the darkness of the Pueblo into the brightness of day. He pausesósquintsóshields his eyesólooks in all directions. INDY Mister Havelock! Anybody Everybody's lost but me! He hears RUNNING FOOTSTEPS BEHIND HIM and dashes off. ROUGH RIDER, HALFBREED, and ROSCOE are quick to appear and run after him. FEDORA There he isl MEN (AD-LIBS) Let's go! Let's get him! Let's go! Indy jumps from one rock to another; the SCOUT TROOP HORSES are below. Indy puts two fingers in his mouth and WHISTLES for his horse, who trots over. Indy puts the Cross in his belt. INDY PREPARES TO JUMP into the saddle. Hesitates. Then... he JUMPS. But the horse moves exactly at the wrong moment and Indy lands flat on his feet in a standing position. The impact sends a shock wave up his body that rattles his back teeth. Indy stands up and successfully mounts his horse. FEDORA AND HIS MEN ARRIVE at the roof's edge in time to see INDY climb into the saddle and gallop off.CONTINUED: INDY Hyahl Hyah! ROSCOE Hey! Come back here! FEDORA puts two fingers in his mouth and WHISTLES... and A VINTAGE TRUCK AND AUTOMOBILE come ROARING OUT from behind the Pueblo (Driven by two more gang members). Now we glimpse... THE MAN IN THE PANAMA HAT The passenger in the car. His face is concealed by the hat's wide brim. His arm is out the window, however, and we see an olive-colored hand protruding from the sleeve of an expensive white linen suit. He gestures to the Robbers, now in the truck. PANAMA HAT Come on. Get him! INDY SPURS his mount on to greater speeds but the autos not only keep pace with his horse... they begin to squeeze in on it. Speeding Autos. Thundering hooves. Rushing wind. Flying dust. INDY crouched low and leaning forward in the saddle, his heart pounding, his adrenalin pumping. INDY VEERS OFF in a new directionótoward a RAILROAD TRACK. EXT. A CIRCUS TRAIN - DAY The train is barreling down the track. INDY rides up beside it. He glances over his shoulder and sees the car and truck gaining on him. No other choice... he LEAPS FROM HORSE TO TRAIN. He clings to the side of a BOXCAR, as HALFBREED and ROUGH RIDER leap from the truck onto the train. HALFBREED tries to grab INDY, but Indy leaps onto another boxcar. Halfbreed runs after him but Indy leaps from the boxcar onto some covered boxes stacked on a flatcar. INDY loses his balance but regains it. With HALFBREED and ROUGH RIDER still running after him, Indy enters the trap door of... INT. THE REPTILE CAR - DAY and finds himself CRAWLING on a CATWALK suspended from the car's ceiling. Several feet below are NUMEROUS VATS containing all manner of reptiles: Alligators, crocodiles, giant lizards, etc.CONTINUED: Then, HALFBREED ENTERS through the trap doorófollowed by ROUGH RIDER. Halfbreed grabs hold of INDY's feet, but Indy kicks at him and he loses his grasp. INDY crawls away, toward an opening on the opposite side. HALFBREED grabs at Indy's feet again; Indy rolls away and we SEE large bins of squirming snakes. The combined weight of the three people is more than the catwalk was intended for, and the BOLTS BEGIN TO RIP FROM THE CEILING. Everyone holds their breath, afraid to make another move. Too late. SEVERAL BOLTS TEAR FREE. HALFBREED and ROUGH RIDER SCREAM... but it's Indy's end of the catwalk that DROPS DOWN... PLUNGING INDY to the floor of the car. He lands hard, with a SPLASH into a vat of water... where he finds himself eye- to-eye with anó ENORMOUS ANACONDA The head of this snake is so damn big, it looks more like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. INDY Oh... INDY jumps back in horror... only to land with a SQUISH into the SNAKE VAT. INDY Oh... Oh... Hundreds of slippery, squirming snakes. INDY sinks into them. They cover him. Engulf him. Almost smother him. INDY jumps out of the side of the vat, freeing himself. INDY locates a clean-out door at the bottom of the car and uses it to escape. HALFBREED, meanwhile, tries to open the closed window of the car. He groans. ROUGH RIDER moves to assist him. ROUGH RIDER Here, let me. EXT. THE TRAIN- DAY INDY stops, checks to see the Cross still lodged in his belt. Suddenly he looks worried as he frantically reaches into his shirt, REMOVES A SNAKE FROM and tosses it away. ROSCOE APPEARS atop the reptile car and manages to grab INDY. Indy kicks at him. Roscoe grabs onto the side of the reptile car as Indy moves on to... EXT. A FLATCAR - DAY INDY climbs over canvas-covered circus equipment. ROSCOE follows, grabbing a long stick with a hook on it. He reaches forward and trips Indy, who falls onto the roof of the rhino boxcar. INT. THE RHINO BOXCAR - DAY as a lamp falls from the ceiling with the impact of Indy's fall, hitting a HUGE BLACK RHINOCEROS. EXT. THE RHINO BOXCAR - DAY ROSCOE grabs INDY by the ankle and yanks him off his feet. The two struggle, rolling from side to side, coming perilously close to rolling right off the edge. Things get even more serious when Roscoe PULLS A KNIFE. IN THE BOXCAR BELOW ... THE FEROCIOUS BLACK RHINO is becoming extremely agitated by the commotion going on atop his cage. Finally, he raises his head and THRUSTS HIS HORN THROUGH THE ROOF. BACK TO THE ROOFTOP as the horn SMASHES through the wood only inches from INDY's head. Indy and Roscoe stare at the horn in amazement as they continue to struggle. SMASH! The horn comes up againóRIGHT BETWEEN INDY'S LEGS. INDY Holy smokes! INDY kicks ROSCOE away. Roscoe rolls to the edge of the car but keeps from falling. Indy flips over onto his stomach. EXT. THE REPTILE CAR - DAY The WOODEN TRAP DOOR EXPLODES as a BULLET is FIRED from within. The door is pushed open and HALFBREED and ROUGH RIDER hurry out of the car. EXT. THE RHINO BOXCAR - DAY INDY gets to his feetólooks aheadósees a WATER TANK alongside the track directly up ahead. Indy gets an idea... In an instant, he calculates his approachótimes the distanceóand LEAPS for the tank's WATER SPOUT.CONTINUED: He catches it perfectly... but his velocity causes the water spout to ROTATE A FULL 360 DEGREES. With INDY hanging on, feet kicking, the water spout deposits him back on the train, onto the ROOF OF A STOCKCAR, where he looks up to see FEDORA walking toward him. FEDORA Come on, kid. There's no way out of this. As INDY edges away from FEDORA, a portion of the STOCKCAR'S ROOF COLLAPSES and Indy FALLS THROUGH into the car below. INT. THE STOCKCAR - DAY INDY CRASHES down from above. Dust rises. INDY Ohhh! INDY's eyes take a moment to adjust to the dark. A bit of sunlight leaks in through the cracks between the boards. Then INDY sees it. At the far end of the boxcar. Rising slowly to its feet... an AFRICAN LION. The Lion ROARS. The boxcar walls shake. Indy gasps. Dust swirls up into the shafts of sunlight. And INDY has one more surprise in store: The Cross of Cortes has been dislodged from his belt during the fall... INDY glances around, sees a coiled LION TAMER'S WHIP hanging on a nail. He carefully takes it down by the handle. The Lion sees this and GROWLS SOFTLY. INDY swallows hard and gives the whip a try. It unravels awkwardly, its TIP flying back and HITTING INDY IN THE FACE... CUTTING his chin. The Lion GROWLS LOUDER. Indy quickly gathers up the whip, wets his lips, and tries again. This timeósuccess! The WHIP CRACKS SHARPLY. The Lion BELLOWS and SWATS the air... and steps back. INDY looks amazed and delighted. He CRACKS the whip again. The Lion backs away even more. Indy inches forwardóbends down (never taking his eyes off the Lion)ópicks up the Crossóand steps back again, sweat pouring down his face. But now... how to get out? He looks up at the opening through which he fell and sees FEDORA LOOKING DOWN AT HIM. Fedora extends his hand. FEDORA Toss up the whip. EXT. THE ROOFTOP OF STOCKCAR FEDORA, assisted by HALFBREED and ROUGH RIDER, "reels" INDY out of the Stockcar as the Lion ROARS and lunges and Indy screams. The men, including ROSCOE, pull INDY through the hole in the roof. He stands to face them as ROUGH RIDER points a gun in his direction. FEDORA You've got heart, kid. (indicates Cross) But that belongs to me. INDY (takes Cross from his belt) It belongs to Coronado. FEDORA (overlapping) Coronado is dead. And so are all his grandchildren. INDY This should be in a museum. ROSCOE Now give me thatl ROSCOE makes a grab for the Crossóbut INDY doesn't let go. A tug-of-war ensues until a SNAKE WIGGLES OUT FROM INDY'S SHIRTSLEEVE and WRAPS AROUND Roscoe's hand. ROSCOE SCREAMS BLOODY MURDERóreleases his grip on the Cross and tries to shake off the snake. This is all the opportunity Indy needs. He LEAPS ONTO THE NEXT CAR. FEDORA Don't let him get awayl INDY swings down to the caboose. He sees a sign above the caboose door reading "DR. FANTASY'S MAGIC CABOOSE." INDY Magic? He glances back at the men and quickly opens the door to the caboose, stepping inside. FEDORA puts out his arm, gesturing for the others not to follow INDY. FEDORA Hold it. Make sure he doesn't double back. INT. THE CABOOSE - DAY which contains the circus MAGIC EQUIPMENT. INDY rushes to the rear door of the caboose but can't open it. He hears FEDORA coming, and dives into a MAGIC BOX. FEDORA Okay, kid. out of the box. Now. FEDORA smiles confidently and advances toward the box. The box unexpectedly collapses; all four sides flop away... revealing NOTHING. INDY has completely vanished. FEDORA is mystified, frustrated and angered. Then he feels a breeze at his back. He turns and discovers that the caboose door is open. He rushes out onto the balcony and sees: INDY RUNNING along the tracks, turning up a street of modest clapboard houses. FEDORA Damn. EXT. STREET - SMALL TOWN - DAY as INDY runs from the railroad tracks and approaches his house we see the name "JONES" painted on the mailbox. INDY Dad! INT. THE HOUSE - DAY INDY bursts through the front door holding the Cross in his hand. A Husky BARKS as Indy runs past in search of his father. INDY Dad! INDY Dad! INT. THE STUDY - DAY INDY charges in. The study is cluttered with books. Pictures, charts and maps clearly reflect the father's passion for Medieval studies. PROFESSOR HENRY JONES is absorbed at his desk. In fact, he is studying a very ancient parchment volume which lies open on the desk. The page shows a beautifully illuminated picture of what might be a stained-glass window. The sketch incorporates a series of Roman numerals. The Professor is not just studying it, he is copying it into his own notebook.CONTINUED:We never get to see the PROFESSOR's face in this scene.So INDY CHARGES IN. INDY Dad! HENRY Out! INDY It's important! HENRY Then waitócount to twenty. INDY No, Dad. You listen to meó HENRY (now he shouts) Junior! No question who is the boss here. INDY gulps, his look says "What am I going to do with this guy?" And obeysó starts counting, VERY, VERY FAINTLY. INDY One, two, three, four... Now we see what HENRY is concentrating on. We see his hand sketching; then, he holds up one finger. HENRY In Greek. INDY's reaction: INDY (louder, in Greek) One... two... three... four... An ancient car is heard arriving. Perhaps INDY glimpses it going past the window. Anyway, it stops outside the house. Two men sit in the front seat. HERMAN sits in the rear, BLOWING A TRUMPET. INDY's reaction: Trouble! HENRY is just finishing the sketch. HENRY May he who illuminated this... illuminate me... INT. THE FRONT ROOM - DAY The study door is just closing, INDY closing it behind him... just as HERMAN comes through the front door, still playing the trumpet. INDY reaches for the trumpet, pulling it from HERMAN's mouth. Herman continues to spitóright into Indy's face. Indy flinches. HERMAN I brought the Sheriff. HERMAN means the SHERIFF, who now enters the house. INDY Just the man I want to see! Now, there were five or six of them. SHERIFF (interrupting) All right, son. INDY (overlapping) ... they came after... me... SHERIFF You still got it? INDY Well, yes, sir. It's right here! INDY shows the CROSS, more or less handing it to the SHERIFF to make his point. The Sheriff takes it casually. SHERIFF I'm glad to see that... because the rightful owner of this Cross won't press charges, if you give it back. FEDORA enters the house, followed by ROSCOE, ROUGH RIDER and HALFBREED. He politely removes his hat and holds it in his hand. He nods at INDY in a friendly manner. SHERIFF He's got witnesses, five or six of them. The SHERIFF and FEDORA are in Cahoots The SHERIFF hands the Cross to FEDORA. ROSCOE reaches in and takes it from Fedora, then runs out the door. ROSCOE Yahoo!CONTINUED: As ROSCOE runs outside INDY seesóthrough the screen dooróthe MAN IN THE PANAMA HAT waiting patiently beside the car that is parked out front. Roscoe approaches and gives the Man the Crossóthe Man hands Roscoe some money in exchange. The SHERIFF tips his hat and leaves. SHERIFF Good day. FEDORA remains behind for a moment. He turns and speaks to INDY in an ironic man-to-man way. FEDORA You lost today, kid, but that doesn't mean you have to like it. Then, FEDORA takes off his hat and takes a step towards INDY. He holds the hat by the crown, and puts it on Indy's head, a show of respect and admiration for the boy. The hat blocks Indy's face. CLOSE ON THE TOP OF THE FEDORA HAT The hat brim fills the screen. As the brim tilts up, WE SEE the face of FULL GROWN INDIANA JONES. And... POW!... he's punched in the face while his arms are pinned behind his back. FADE IN TITLE: "PORTUGUESE COASTó1938" PANAMA HAT Small world, Doctor Jones. INDY Too small for two of us. THE MAN IN THE PANAMA HAT (years older now) removes the CROSS OF CORONADO from Indy's belt. PANAMA HAT This is the second time I've had to reclaim my property from youó INDY That belongs in a museumó PANAMA HAT So do you. (he moves his eyeline) Throw him over the side. THE DECK OF A PORTUGUESE CARGO SHIP It's NIGHT. RAIN POURS down. We're in the middle of a violent STORM AT SEA. Thirty-foot waves crash across the deck. The TWO PORTUGUESE SAILORS (who have Indy's arms pinned behind his back) propel INDY across the deck toward the rail. As they pass a BUNDLE OF FUEL DRUMS, INDY uses the Two Sailors as leverage to KICK UP HIS FEET and break open the CLAMP on the metal bands that hold the drums together. INDY jabs his elbows into the stomachs of the startled Sailors and rushes toward the MAN IN THE PANAMA HAT. PANAMA HAT sees INDY coming and hurries toward the ladder that leads up to the bridge. Indy withstands the force of waves crashing on the deck and makes his way to where Panama Hat is climbing the ladder. He pulls him off the ladder from behind the two men fall down on the deck. Indy takes the cross back from Panama Hat. A sailor delivers a powerful blow to Indy's face, sending the cross flying out of his grip and skittering across the deck. Indy grabs a crowbar and fends off two sailors who attack him from the sides. INDY sees that the Cross is about to be swept overboard. He lunges for it. He SNATCHES UP the Cross only to be knocked down to the deck by a giant wave. He struggles to his feet, managing to avoid the giant fuel drums sliding across the deck around him. SEVERAL MORE DRUMS come INDY's way. He sidesteps them all. PANAMA HAT Grab him, he's getting away! Grab him! Indy turns around and pummels two sailors with one punch. Indy sees a large Stevedore's hook above him and he climbs up on crates to reach it. He grabs a hold of the hook and uses it to swing all the way across the deck, narrowly avoiding a huge wave behind him. He jumps into the rollicking ocean, still holding onto the cross. On the ship, a giant fuel drum rolls wildly, falling directly onto a crate of TNT. The crate explodes, causing the entire ship to blow, sending an enormous orange fireball into the sky. LONG SHOT - THE BOAT EXPLODING OUT OF THE WATER as bits of debris fall from the sky like rain. INDY BOBS UP in the water amid the debris, holding the Cross in his hand. He grabs for something to keep him afloat. It turns out to be one of the ship's LIFE PRESERVERS. INDY loops his arm through the preserver.CONTINUED: Only now do we see the FADED LETTERING on the preserver revealing the destroyed ship's name and city of port: VAZQUEZ de CORONADO BARCELONA A SHREDDED PANAMA HAT floats past. EXT. COLLEGE - DAY Students walk along brick, tree-lined paths. INDY (V.O .) Archaeology is... INT. COLLEGE LECTURE HALL - DAY DISSOLVE TO: INDY, dressed in professorial tweeds, stands before his class. He turns to the blackboard with a piece of chalk and writes the word: "FACT." INDY ... the search for fact. Not truth. If it's truth you're interested in, Doctor Tyree's Philosophy class is right down the hall. Laughter. INT. CORRIDOR - DAY INDY So forget any ideas you've got about lost cities, exotic travel, and digging up the world. Eve do not follow maps to buried treasure and "X" never, ever, marks the spot. MARCUS BRODY approaches Indy's classroom. He peers through the window in the door to see INDY completing his lecture. INDY Seventy percent of all archaeology is done in the library. Research. Reading. INT. LECTURE HALL - DAY BRODY enters the lecture hall and stands at the rear of the room.CONTINUED: INDY We cannot afford to take mythology at face value. The BELL RINGS. INDY stands at his desk as students begin to disperse. A pretty coed puts a note on the desk. INDY Next week: "Egyptology." Starting with the excavation of Naukratis by Blinders Petrie in 1885. I will be in my office if anybody's got any problems for the next hour and a half. BRODY approaches as the last of the students leaves the lecture hall. INDY Marcus! (slaps his pocket) I did it! BRODY You've got itl INDY removes the cloth-wrapped Cross from his desk. He places it on the desk and takes off his glasses as BRODY examines the Cross. INDY You know how long I've been looking for that?! BRODY All your life. INDY All my life! BRODY Well done, Indy. Very well done, indeed This will find a place of honor in our Spanish collection. INDY gathers up his books and makes his way toward the door. INDY We can discuss my honorarium over dinner and champagne tonight. He turns back toward BRODY, now holding the Cross. INDY Your treat. BRODY Yes. My treat. INT. INDY'S OUTER OFFICE - DAY Bursting with STUDENTS, all competing for his attention at once: "Professor Jones! " "Doctor Jonesl " etc., etc. INDY Shush! Shush! Shushl INDY shoulders his way to the desk of his secretary, an overwhelmed Teaching Assistant named IRENE. IRENE Doctor Jones! I'm so glad you're back! Your mail is on your desk. Here are your phone messages. MALE STUDENT Doctor Jones, you promised... Doctor Jonesó IRENE This is your appointment schedule. And these term papers still haven't been graded. INDY takes the term papers then turns to enter his PRIVATE OFFICE. Students once again CLAMOR for his attention: "Doctor Jones!" "Wait, Doctor Jonesl" "My grade!" "Sign my registration card!" INDY silences the mob with a raised hand. INDY (very efficiently) Okay. Irene, put everyone's name on a list, in the order they arrived, and I'll see each and every one of them in turn. The Students descend upon poor IRENE, each claiming to be first. INDY slips into his - PRIVATE OFFICE where he goes to his desk and finds a thick envelope with a foreign postmark on it. INDY (softly; reading) "Venice, Italy." Then, INDY stuffs his mail into his coat pockets, goes to the WINDOW, slides it open and STEPS OUT INTO THE GARDEN. EXT. SIDE OF COLLEGE BUILDING - DAY INDY escapes through the garden. EXT. FRONT OF COLLEGE BUILDING - DAY INDY walks briskly toward the street; smiling, erUoying his freedom. As he arrives at the curb, a LONG BLACK PACKARD SEDAN pulls up before him. MAN (O.S.) Doctor Jonesl THREE MEN step out of the sedan. Everything about them bespeaks "G-MAN." The First Man steps behind Indy. MAN Doctor Jones? INT. PENTHOUSE APARTMENT - DAY INDY is ushered into a large Art Deco apartment and left alone. Numerous museum-quality artifacts are displayed around the room. Indy takes this opportunity to examine them. After a moment, WALTER DONOVAN enters from across the room. During the brief time that the door is open, we HEAR a COCKTAIL PARTY going on in the next room: VOICES and SOFT PIANO MUSIC. DONOVAN strides across the room toward INDY. Although in his late fifties, Donovan has the broad shoulders and trim physique of a much younger man. Dressed in a tuxedo, he exudes both confidence and power. DONOVAN I trust your trip down was comfortable, Doctor Jones. My men didn't alarm you, I hope. He shakes hands with INDY. DONOVAN My name is Donovan. Walter Donovan. INDY I know who you are Mr. Donovan. Your contributions to the museum over the years have been extremely generous. Some of the pieces in your collection here are very impressive. DONOVAN Well, like yourself, Doctor Jones, I have a passion for antiquities. (beat) Have a look over here. This might interest you.CONTINUED: DONOVAN goes to a table where an object is wrapped in cloth. He throws back the cloth revealing a flat STONE TABLETóabout two feet square, inscribed with letters and symbols. INDY looks impressed. He puts on his glasses to make a closer examination. INDY Well, it's sandstone. Christian symbol. Early Latin text. Mid- Twelfth Century, I should think. DONOVAN That was our assessment as well. INDY Where did this come from? DONOVAN My engineers unearthed it in the mountain region north of Ankara while excavating for copper. (beat) Can you translate the inscription? Translating the inscription is no easy matter, even for someone as knowledgeable as INDY. INDY (stumbling through it) "... who drinks the water I shall give him, says the Lord, will have a spring inside him welling up for eternal life. Let them bring me to your holy mountain in the place where you dwell. Donovan pours champagne into several fluted glasses as Indy reads. INDY Across the desert and through the mountain to the Canyon of the Crescent Moon, to the Temple where the cup tható" Suddenly INDY stops and looks up at DONOVAN with a startled expression. INDY "Where the cup that holds the blood of Jesus Christ resides forever. " (CONT'D)CONTINUED: (2) DONOVAN (reverently) The Holy Grail, Doctor Jones. The chalice used by Christ during the Last Supper. The cup that caught His blood at the Crucifixion and was entrusted to Joseph of Arimathaea. INDY rubs his chin with a dubious expression as he takes the glass of champagne DONOVAN now offers him. INDY The Arthur Legend. I've heard this bedtime story before. DONOVAN Eternal life, Doctor Jones! The gift of youth to whoever drinks from the Grail. (beat) Oh, now that's a bedtime story I'd like to wake up to! INDY An old man's dream. DONOVAN Every man's dream. (beat) Including your father's, I believe. INDY stiffens slightly at the mention of his father, nods. INDY Grail lore is his hobby. He's a teacher of Medieval Literature. The one the students hope they don't get. The door opens and MRS. DONOVAN steps into the room. She's a matronly woman in an expensive evening gown. MRS. DONOVAN Walter, you're neglecting our guests. DONOVAN Be along in a moment, dear. He leans over and kisses her cheek. MRS. DONOVAN sighs to herself and returns to the party. INDY, meanwhile, has turned his attention back to the Grail Tablet, obviously hooked by its archaeological promise. He moistens his finger with champagne and rubs it over the tablet. DONOVAN steps up next to Indy.CONTINUED: (3) DONOVAN Hard to resist, isn't it? The Holy Grail's final resting place described in detail! INDY What good is it? This Grail Tablet speaks of deserts and mountains and canyons. Pretty vague. Where do you start looking? Maybe if the Tablet were intact, you'd have something to go on. But the entire top portion is missing. DONOVAN Just the same, an attempt to recover the Grail is currently underway. INDY has to shake his head at DONOVAN's apparent lack of judgment. DONOVAN Let me tell you another "bedtime story, " Doctor Jones. After the Grail was entrusted to Joseph of Arimathaea, it disappeared and was lost for a thousand years before it was found again by three Knights of the First Crusade. Three brothers, to be exact. INDY I've heard this one as well. Two of these brothers walked out of the desert one hundred and fifty years after having found the Grail and began the long journey back to France. But only one of them made it. And before dying of extreme old age, he supposedly imparted his tale to aóto a Franciscan friar, I think. DONOVAN Not "supposedly," Doctor Jones. DONOVAN produces an ANCIENT LEATHER-BOUND VOLUME with very brittle pages. INDY views the manuscript with considerable interest.CONTINUED: (4) DONOVAN This is the manuscript in which the friar chronicled the Knight's story... it doesn't reveal on location of the Grail, I'm afraid... but the Knight promised that two "markers" that had been left behind would. (indicates the Tablet) This Tablet is one of those "markers." It proves the Knight's story is true. But as you pointed outóit's incomplete. (beat) Now, the second "marker" is entombed with the Knight's dead brother. Our project leader believes that tomb to be located within the city of Venice, Italy. (beat) As you can now see, Doctor Jones, we're about to complete a great quest that began almost two thousand years ago. We're only one step away. INDY That's usually when the ground falls out from underneath your feet. DONOVAN You could be more right than you know. INDY Yes? DONOVAN We've hit a snag. our project leader has vanished. Along with all his research. Uh, we received a cable from his colleague, Doctor Schneider, who has no idea of his whereabouts or what's become of him. (beat) I want you to pick up the trail where he left off. Find the man and you will find the Grail.CONTINUED: (5) INDY You've got the wrong Jones, Mister Donovan. Why don't you try my father? DONOVAN (after a pause) We already have. Your father is the man who's disappeared. EXT. A RESIDENTIAL STREET - DAY A FORD COUPE speeds down the tree-lined street. EXT. PROFESSOR HENRY JONES' HOUSE - DAY The Ford coupe pulls up in front of the house. INDY climbs from the car and hurries up the walkway. BRODY is a step behind. BRODY Your father and I have been friends since time began. I've watched you grow up, Indy. And I've watched the two of you grow apart. (beat) I've never seen you this concerned about him before. They climb the porch and notice that the front door is ajar. They exchange a quick look of concern as they enter. INT. THE HOUSE - LATE AFTERNOON INDY approaches the half-open front door. INDY Dad? (to BRODY) He's an academic A bookworm. He's not a field mans He pushes open the door. He enters the house and calls out. INDY Dad? Dad? INDY opens one half of the curtains dividing the hall from the sitting room. We see the place has been ransacked.CONTINUED: BRODY sees INDY's face and opens the other half. BRODY Dear God. They walk into the room. BRODY What has the old fool got himself into now? INDY I don't know. But whatever it is, he's in over his head! BRODY picks up some mail from Henry's cluttered desk. INDY Dad? BRODY It's today's mail. And it's been opened. INDY turns and sees the pile of torn papers and envelopes. Then something hits him. INDY Mail! That's it, Marcus! He immediately empties his pockets of his own mail taken earlier in the day from his college office and finds the envelope with the Venice postmark. INDY (as he tears it open) Venice, Italy! BRODY What is it? INDY uncovers a small book. It looks like a JOURNAL or DIARY. Indy flips through it: Page after page of handwritten notes and drawings. BRODY glances at it with great curiosity. INDY It's Dad's Grail Diary. Every clue he ever followed. Every discovery he made. A complete record of his search for the Holy Grail. This is his whole life. Why would he have sent this to me?CONTINUED: (2) BRODY I don't know. But someone must want it pretty badly. INDY Do you believe, Marcus? As INDY asks the question, he turns to a PAINTING on the wall: A depiction of Christ on the Cross, his blood being captured in a golden chalice. A SECOND PAINTING on the wall shows Eleventh Century Crusaders plummeting to their deaths over a high cliff. One Crusader, however, floats safely in midair because he holds the Grail in his hands. INDY Do you believe the Grail actually exists? BRODY The search for the Cup of Christ is the search for the divine in all of us. BRODY sees that INDY is unsatisfied by this response. BRODY But if you want facts, Indy, I have none to give you. At my age, I'm prepared to take a few things on faith. INDY Call Donovan, Marcus. Tell him I'll take that ticket to Venice now. BRODY I'll tell him we'll take two. EXT. AIRFIELD - DAY A LIMO is parked beside a PRIVATE AIRLINER that bears the DONOVAN CORPORATE LOGO. BRODY peers inside to DONOVAN and INDY. BRODY Tell me, what's going to happen when we get to Venice? DONOVAN (overlapping) Don't worry. Doctor Schneider will be there to meet you.CONTINUED: BRODY (overlapping) Schneider? DONOVAN (overlapping) I maintain an apartment in Venice, at your disposal. BRODY Oh, well. That's good. Thank you. BRODY and DONOVAN shake hands. INDY steps from the back seat of the limo. He turns back to Donovan and shakes his hand. DONOVAN Doctor Jones. Good luck. Be very careful. Don't trust anvbody. INT. AIRLINER - FLYING - DAY INDY opens the Grail Diary and thoughtfully turns through the pages. He stops at one page and glances at a PENCIL SKETCH of what might be a stained-glass window. Below the sketch is a SERIES OF NUMBERS. EXT. THE PRIVATE AIRLINER - FLYING - DAY SUPERIMPOSED over a MAP that traces a course from New York City to Venice, Italy. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. VENICE - BOAT LANDING - DAY INDY and BRODY disembark from the Water Bus onto the Boat Landing as other Gondoliers steer their boats in the water. INDY Ah, Venice... BRODY Yes. Uh, how will we recognize this Doctor Schneider when we see him? INDY I don't know. Maybe he'll know us.CONTINUED: Suddenly a WOMAN comes up to him. Attractive features. Blonde hair. Eyes that are bright and intelligent. ELSA Doctor Jones? INDY Yes? ELSA I knew it was youó She looks at him with an appraising expression that is brazenly flirtatious. ELSA óyou have your father's eyes. INDY is instantly attracted to her. INDY And my mother's ears. But the rest belongs to you. ELSA Looks like the best parts have already been spoken for. INDY grins, enjoying the repartee. The WOMAN turns to BRODY, who tips his hat. ELSA Marcus Brody? BRODY That's right. The Woman, DR. ELSA SCHNEIDER, extends her hand to BRODY. ELSA (introducing herself) Doctor Elsa Schneider. INDY's grin fades. BRODY registers a look of surprise. BRODY Uh... how do you do? CUT TO: EXT. VENICE CANAL - DAY INDY, BRODY and ELSA walk along the narrow canal, lined with buildings on either side.CONTINUED: ELSA The last time I saw your father we were in the library. He was very close to tracking down the Knight's Tomb. I've never seen him so excited. He was as giddy as a schoolboy. INDY Who? Attila the Professor? He was never giddy, even when he was a schoolboy! INDY can't take his eyes off ELSA. Perhaps he's feeling a bit like a schoolboy himself right now. As they cross over a bridge to the opposite side of the canal, Indy steals a flower from a street vendor. He holds it out to Elsa. INDY Frauleinówill you permit me? ELSA I usually don't. INDY I usually don't either. ELSA In that case, I permit you. INDY gives her the flower. INDY It would make me very happy. ELSA But I'm already sadóby tomorrow it will have faded. INDY Tomorrow I'll steal you another. BRODY (cutting in) I hate to interrupt youóbut the reason we're hereó ELSA (interrupting) Yes. I have something to show you. She hands a slip of paper to INDY.CONTINUED: (2) ELSA I left your father working in the library. He sent me to the map section to fetch an ancient plan of the city. When I got back to his tableóhe'd goneówith all his papersóexcept for that scrap which I found near his chair. INDY extends the scrap of paper to BRODY. INDY Roman numerals. EXT. VENICE PIAZZA - DAY ELSA leads INDY and BRODY into the large piazza. People walk about and sit at tables in front of a large building. ELSA Here is the library. They have arrived at the front steps of the library. INDY That doesn't look much like a library. BRODY It looks like a converted church. ELSA leads the way inside. INT. THE LIBRARY - DAY INDY, BRODY and ELSA enter, their heels CLICKING across the marble floor. We notice, along with INDY and BRODY, that the library contains many stained- glass windows. ELSA In this case it's the literal truth. We're on holy ground. These columns over here... She indicates FOUR HUGE MARBLE COLUMNS that go from floor to ceiling. ELSA ... were brought back as spoils of war after the sacking of Byzantium during the Crusades.CONTINUED: INDY glances at the Columns, then notices a Stained-Glass Window that depicts a Knight of the Crusades. Indy lingers for a moment in front of the window. ELSA Now please excuse me. The library's closing in a few moments. I'll arrange for us to stay a little longer. The minute ELSA is out of earshot. INDY MarcusóI've seen this window before. BRODY Where? INDY whips out the Grail Diary and opens it to the sketch he noticed in the airplane. INDY Right here. In Dad's Diary. You see? BRODY glances at the Diary, then at the windowónoticing that the Roman numerals in question have been worked into the window's design. BRODY Look, Indy. The Roman numerals! INDY Dad was onto something here! BRODY Well, now we know the source of the numbers, but we still don't know what they mean. INDY and BRODY now see ELSA approaching. Indy quickly tucks the Diary back into his pocket. INDY (explaining to Brody) My dad sent me this Diary for a reason. Until we find out why, I suggest we keep it to ourselves. ELSA Find something? INDY doesn't reply. He's looking in five directions at once. His eyes moving across the walls and ceilingsócharged with the thrill of discovery.CONTINUED: (2) BRODY (to ELSA) Uh, yes. Three, seven and tent That window seems to be the source of the Roman numerals. ELSA My God, I must be blind INDY Dad wasn't looking for a book about the Knight's Tomb... he was looking for the Tomb itself ELSA wears a blank expression. INDY Don't you get it? The Tomb is somewhere in the library! You said yourself it used to be a church! Look. INDY's eyes travel up one of the four huge marble columns. INDY Three.INDY looks again to the stained-glass window. He points. INDY Three! INDY has discovered that each Column is numbered with a Roman Numeral. Indy hurries away toward Column VII. All BRODY and ELSA can do now is try to keep up with him. INDY Seven. He points again to the stained-glass window. INDY Seven... Ten. He looks down to the scrap of paper in his hands. INDY And ten. Now where's the ten? Look around for the ten. INDY walks past aisles of book-lined shelves. He stops, turns, then looks down.CONTINUED: (3) INDY Three, seven and ten. He climbs a spiral staircase leading up to a LOFT and looks down at BRODY and ELSA. The floor beneath their feet is an elaborate tile design containing a huge "X"óvisible only from this higher angle. INDY Ten. (wryly; to himself) "X" marks the spot. INDY rushes down the staircase and goes to the CENTER TILE where the two sides of the X intersect. He blows dust away from the tile and tries to pry it up, but cannot. INDY rushes past BRODY to a cordon held in place by a brass stand underneath the stained-glass window. INDY raises the brass stand and timing his actions, hits the tile precisely as the Librarian stamps a book. The Librarian regards the stamper curiously. INDY continues to pound at the tile as the Librarian resumes his stamping, still puzzled by the SOUND ECHOING through the library. Finally INDY breaks the tile. As he bends to remove the pieces of broken tile, a TWO-FOOT SQUARE HOLE IS REVEALED. Cold air and a wet, rancid smell escape from the hole. INDY Bingo. ELSA You don't disappoint, Doctor Jones. You're a great deal like your father. INDY Except he's lost, and I'm not. ELSA Lower me down. INDY is impressed with Elsa's spirit, and cooperates agreeablyóholding her by the hands and lowering her into the hole. When her feet finally touch ground below, Indy releases his grip on her and slips the Grail Diary to BRODY. INDY Look after this for me, will you? Then INDY disappears into the hole. INT. CATACOMBS BELOW LIBRARY - DAY INDY jumps down a steep step. He reaches back to help ELSA. INDY Come on. INDY and ELSA glance around. This is really a horrid place. Dark and dank. foul smelling. Elsa turns. She removes a cigarette lighter with a unique ivory four-leaf clover design. INDY and ELSA inspect markings carved onto the walls. ELSA Pagan symbols. Fourth or Fifth Century. INDY Right. Six hundred years before the Crusades. ELSA The Christians would have dug their own passages and burial chambers centuries later. INDY takes the lighter from her and lights their way down a dark passageway. INDY That's right. If there's a Knight of the First Crusade entombed down here, that's where we'll find him. INT. LIBRARY - DAY THREE MEN carrying guns make their way down the spiral staircase toward an unsuspecting BRODY. One of the Men, KAZIM, raises his gun and brings it down hard on Brody's head. BRODY Ohhhh. . . KAZIM gestures with his gun toward the now-unconscious BRODY. The other two men take Brody's hands and drag him into one of the book-lined aisles. INT. ANOTHER PART OF THE CATACOMBS - DAY DECOMPOSING CORPSES rest in niches carved into the stone walls. Grotesque skeletal remains with rotting linen stretched across blackened bones. INDY holds the lighter up as he and ELSA inspect symbols carved into the walls.CONTINUED: ELSA spots a symbol cut into the wall that she doesn't recognize. As she blows away some cobwebs: ELSA What's this one? INDY only has to give it a quick glance to know. INDY The Ark of the Covenant. ELSA Are you sure? INDY (deadpan) Pretty sure. INDY holds the lighter up and he and ELSA enter another dark passageway. ANOTHER PART OF THE CATACOMBS INDY steps to the wall and runs his hand over the stone. He scrapes the cobwebs away to reveal the ROMAN NUMERAL "X." INDY Watch out. ELSA now holds the lighter as INDY rams his shoulder into the wall. The wall collapses on impact and Indy falls through into another room. ANOTHER ROOM - THE CATACOMBS as INDY falls through the hole in the wall onto rocks surrounded by bubbling, green, slimy liquid. More skeletons surround him, resting in their carved niches. ELSA holds the lighter as she peers in at him through the hole in the wall. INDY Petroleum. I could sink a well down here and retire. INDY reaches up and tears a piece of cloth from one of the skeletons, which breaks apart and falls into the oil-slick water. INDY uses the scrap of cloth and a bone to fashion a crude torch, which he then dips into the oily water. INDY Give me the lighter. ANOTHER PART OF THE CATACOMBS Using the cloth-wrapped bone torch to guide their way, INDY and ELSA come upon a NARROW PASSAGEWAY. The water is knee-deep and TEEMING WITH RATS. Thousands of them Crawling on one another's backs. SQUEALING. Squirming. Thrashing in the water. INDY Oh, rats... ELSA gasps as the rats scamper between her legs. INDY moves forward through the rat-infested water as ELSA follows, still gasping in horror. Suddenly he slips into a hole. Recovering his balance, he reaches out to Elsa. INDY Come onl She gasps once again, terrified. INDY lifts her and carries ELSA as he moves forward. THE CATACOMBS - THE HOLE IN THE WALL KAZIM and his men step to the opening Indy made earlier and shine their flashlights through to the rat-infested water. ANOTHER PART OF THE CATACOMBS More rat-infested water as ELSA, now walking again, follows INDY through another passageway lined with skulls and bones. INDY reaches for a wall to steady himself and inadvertently grabs a skeleton. A bone comes loose in his hand as rats scurry about and leap at him from all directions. He takes a moment to compose himself, then steps across the water to ELSA's side. He steps into the water, then reaches up to help Elsa do the same. INDY Come here. LARGE BURIAL CHAMBER The chamber is flooded with black, briny water. INDY Look. . . In the center of the chamber, jutting up above the water, is what amounts to an "island altar" on which SEVERAL ANCIENT COFFINS rest. They move toward the altar.CONTINUED: INDY and ELSA begin to inspect the ornately carved COFFINS like the scholars of antiquity that they are. These are big oak caskets held together by straps of etched brass. INDY It must be one of these... ELSA Look at the artistry of these carvings and the scrollwork. One coffin is elevated above the others. ELSA It's this one. Together they begin to push on the lidóSTRAINING and GROANING until it slides away and BANGS against the stone platform. INSIDE THE COFFIN lie the DECOMPOSED REMAINS of a KNIGHT IN ARMOR. INDY and ELSA look in...Elsa gasps. INDY This is itl we found it! Lookó the engraving on the Shield. It's the same as on the Grail Tablets The Shield is the Second Marker! INDY unfolds a piece of paper and holds it over the shield. ELSA What's that? INDY It's a rubbing Dad made of the Grail Tablet. The missing portion of the rubbing is completed by the shield. ELSA Just like your fatherógiddy as a schoolboy. INDY laughs. ELSA Wouldn't it be wonderful if he were here now to see this? INDY (chuckles) He never would have made it past the rats! He hates rats! He's scared to death of them! CLOSE - A HAND as it lights a match. PULL BACK TO REVEAL KAZIM dropping the lighted match into the oil-slick water. INDY AND ELSA ELSA holds the torch. INDY looks around. Listens. Something is wrong. And then he sees the GLOW OF FIRELIGHT dancing across the Catacomb walls. This is followed by THOUSANDS OF RATS FLEEING from around the corner of the Narrow Passageway, STAMPEDING toward ELSA and INDYóSHRIEKING and SQUEALING as they approach. The rats literally wash over themólike a rodent tidal waveóin their efforts to escape a: HUGE ORANGE BALL OF FIRE ROARING around the corner hurtling towards themófeeding on the oil slick; consuming the oxygen. ELSA SCREAMS. INDY Get back! Back against the wall. INDY braces his back against the altar and TOPPLES THE COFFIN with his feet. It CRASHES against the stone platform and SPLASHES into the water. INDY Quick! Under it! They jump into the water beside the bobbing, overturned coffin. INDY Air pocket! ELSA hesitates. INDY literally DUNKS her and pushes her underneath. UNDER THE COFFIN ELSA surfaces into the air pocket created by the coffin, SPUTTERING and SPITTING. Now INDY pops up into the air pocket. He looks at ELSAóthey are both soaking wet. INDY Don't wander off.CONTINUED: ELSA What? INDY disappears under the water and swims out from under the coffin. ELSA What? UNDER THE WATER INDY swims, looking for an escape route. UNDER THE COFFIN The rats are beginning to force their way inside, swimming through the water and climbing on ELSA, who squirms and screams in terror. INDY pops back up through the water. INDY I think I've found a way out. Deep breath. ELSA groans. They take a deep breath and both dive under the water. EXT. VENICE PIAZZA - OUTDOOR CAFE - DAY The perfect picture postcardóSt. Mark's Square and the Grand Canal beyond. Cafe customers are startled to see INDY and ELSA climb out of the sewer, wet and smelly. Indy looks around at the postcard-perfect setting and smiles. INDY (wryly) Ah, Venicel Indy's delight, however, is short-lived since KAZIM and TWO OTHER TURKISH AGENTS are running towards them with drawn guns. He grabs ELSA by the hand and the two of them run down the dock and LEAP INTO A MOTORBOAT. INT. THE MOTORBOAT - DAY INDY fires up the engine and pulls away from the dock... but not before a Turkish Agent JUMPS in with him. ELSA grabs the wheel and begins to steer the boat while INDY and the Turk trade punches. EXT. THE HARBOR - DAY Indy's Speedboat BOUNCES across the choppy waters heading in the direction of the DOCKED STEAMSHIP. KAZIM and his men rush to TWO MORE SPEEDBOATS tied to the dock. They chase after INDY. INDY grapples with the Turkish Agent. As Indy grips his arms, we SEE a GUN in the Agent's hand. It FIRES. As INDY fights with the Turk, he becomes aware of the Speedboats behind him and two enormous Freighters ahead of him, joined together by two giant ropes. INDY, having gained the advantage, leans on top of the Turkish Agent. INDY (to ELSA) Are you crazy?! You don't go between them! ELSA can barely hear INDY over the noise of the motor. ELSA Go between them? Are you crazy?! INDY finally delivers the punch that sends the Turkish Agent flying overboard. Turning, Indy sees that ELSA has committed the speedboat to a course BETWEEN the two Freighters, now being pushed even closer together by a Tugboat. INDY I said go around! ELSA You said go between them! INDY I said don't go between them! It's purely academic at this point since the hulls of the the two Freighters loom up on either side of them like cavern walls. EXT. FULL SHOT - THE HARBOR - DAY One Enemy Speedboat chases INDY between the two Freighters. But the Speedboat containing KAZIM veers off and goes around. EXT. BETWEEN THE TWO FREIGHTERS - DAY It's a race for daylight as the two Freighters drift ever closer to one another. Indy's Speedboat just manages to squeeze through the gap. But the Enemy Speedboat EXPLODES as it is crushed between the two Freighters, FLYING INTO THE AIR and SPLASHING back down into the water. INDY AND ELSA spin their boat around in a sharp half-circle to see KAZIM'S SPEEDBOAT appear racing toward them. He stands in the moving boat, FIRING A MACHINE GUN at INDY and ELSA. KAZIM'S SPEEDBOAT matches Indy's move for move. FULL SHOT - THE HARBOR The two boats race across the water nearly side-by-side. A CHATTERING MACHINE GUN from Kazim's boat SPLINTERS the wood of Indy's boat, until finally the rear of the boat CATCHES ON FIRE. The machine gun runs out of ammunition. KAZIM puts it down and takes control of the wheel from one of the Turkish Agents in the boat with him. As Indy's boat drifts toward the GIANT, TURNING PROPELLERS at the STERN of ANOTHER STEAMER, Kazim's boat draws up alongside and hits them. INDY steps into Kazim's boat. He knocks one of the Turkish Agents to the deck, then turns his attention to KAZIM. The two men trade punches as the boat spins helplessly in the churning water. ELSA No!! INDY kicks KAZIM in the face, knocking him into the water, then pulls him back into the boat, now being SUCKED THROUGH THE CHURNING WATER toward the Steamer's giant propeller blades. INDY Why are you trying to kill us? KAZIM Because you're looking for the Holy Grail. INDY My father was looking for the Holy Grail. Did you kill him too? KAZIM No. INDY Where is he? Talkóor you're dead. Damn it, tell me! Tell me! KAZIM If you don't let go, Doctor Jones, we'll both die.CONTINUED: INDY Then we'll die. KAZIM My soul is prepared. How's yours? By now half the boat has been chopped up into matchwood and the blades are getting closer. INDY This is your last chance. KAZIM No, Doctor Jones. It's yours! The wind of the blades is on their necks. INDY grabs KAZIM just in time and jumps... into the motorboat, driven by ELSA, which gets alongside in the nick of time. INDY All right! Where's my father KAZIM If you let me go, I will tell you where he is. INDY Who are you? KAZIM My name is Kazim. INDY And why were you trying to kill me? KAZIM The secret of the Grail has been safe for a thousand years. And for all that time the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword has been prepared to do anything to keep it safe. KAZIM pulls back his shirt to reveal a birthmark... or is it a tattoo? Whatever it is, it's a cruciform sword; a Christian cross which tapers down, like the blades of a broadsword. KAZIM Let me get off at this jetty. The boat is close to the edge of the canal. INDY gives ELSA a nod, telling her to bring the boat in. KAZIM steps ashore.CONTINUED: (2) KAZIM Ask yourself, why do you seek the Cup of Christ? Is it for His glory, or for yours? INDY I didn't come for the Cup of Christ. I came to find my father. KAZIM In that case, God be with you in your quest. Your father is being held in the Castle of Brunwald on the Austrian-German border. KAZIM walks away. INT. VENICE APARTMENT - DAY CLOSE ON THE WATER-SOAKED PAPER IMPRESSION: The rubbing taken from the shield of the Grail Knight. BRODY is giving it careful study while he dabs the lump on the back of his head with an ice pack. INDY How's the head? BRODY It's better, now I've seen this. It's the name of a city. "Alexandretta?" Hmmm... INDY, wearing a bathrobe, leans over to study the impression. INDY The Knights of the First Crusade laid siege to the city of Alexandretta for over a year. The entire city was destroyed. BRODY lowers the ice pack from his head and looks at INDY. INDY The present city of Iskenderun is built on its ruins. Marcusó you remember what the Grail Tablet said. "Across the desert and through the mountain to the Canyon of the Crescent Moon." (pause) But where exactly?CONTINUED: BRODY Your father would know. Your father did know. Look. He made a map. BRODY picks up the Grail Diary. BRODY He must have pieced it together from clues scattered through the whole history of the Grail Quest. A map with no names. INSERT: A PENCIL-DRAWN MAP It covers two pages of the Diary. BRODY's finger moves across it. BRODY Now, he knew there was a city with an oasis due east. Here. He knew the course turned south through the desert to a river, and the river led into the mountains. Here. Straight to the canyon. He knew everything except where to begin, the name of the city. INDY (solemnly) Alexandretta. Now we know. BRODY Yes. Now we know. INDY (rising) Marcus, get hold of Sallah. Tell him to meet you in Iskenderun. INDY closes the Grail Diary and puts it into the pocket of his robe. BRODY What about you? INDY I'm going after Dad. INT. INDY'S BEDROOM - DAY INDY opens the door. His bedroom has been ransacked...the mattress on the floor, the drawers turned out. INT. HALLWAY - DAY INDY approaches another door (Elsa's bedroom) and knocks. INDY Elsa? He goes in. INT. ELSA'S BEDROOM - DAY ... and finds that Elsa's bedroom is in a similar ransacked state to his own. The room is empty. He is worried for her, knocks and calls out: INDY Elsa? He steps into the room and knocks upon the bathroom door. INDY Elsa? He opens the bathroom door, peering inside. INDY Elsa? INT. ELSA'S BATHROOM - DAY Elsa is standing before a mirror, wearing a silk bathrobe. She gasps, startled, as INDY enters. He retreats back into her bedroom as she reaches up to turn off a record player sitting on a ledge above the bathtub. INT. ELSA'S BEDROOM - DAY ELSA joins INDY, waiting in the ransacked room. she looks around in shock. ELSA My room! INDY Mine, too. ELSA What were they looking for? She looks to INDY, who pulls the Grail Diary from his pocket. INDY This.CONTINUED: ELSA The Grail Diary. INDY Uh-huh. ELSA You had it? You didn't trust me! She looks hurt and beautiful. She comes closer to him. INDY I didn't know you. She's awfully hard to resist. INDY At least I let you tag along. ELSA Oh, yes. Give them a flower and they'll follow you anywhere. INDY Knock it off. You're not mad. ELSA No? INDY No. You like the way I do things. ELSA It's lucky I don't do things the same way. You'd still be standing at the Venice pier. She stomps her foot angrily. INDY flinches. She starts to walk away but Indy grabs her. INDY Look, what do you think is going on here? Since I've met you, I've nearly been incinerated, drowned, shot at, and chopped into fish bait. We're caught in the middle of something sinister here. My guess is Dad found out more than he was looking for. And until I'm sure, I'm going to continue to do things the way I think they should be done.CONTINUED: (2) He pulls her to him and kisses her. ELSA How dare you kiss me! Now ELSA reaches for INDY and kisses him. INDY Leave me alone. I don't like fast women. But he embraces her, and ELSA begins to nibble at his ear. ELSA And I hate arrogant men. INDY smiles slyly as they fall to the bed. EXT. VENICE CANAL - DAY A GONDOLIER SINGS as he steers his gondola carrying two passengers past Indy's window. INT. INDY'S BEDROOM - DAY INDY lies on top of ELSA, kissing her. He stops for a moment as he hears the GONDOLIER SINGING. INDY Ahh, Venice. ELSA reaches up and pulls him back down to her. EXT. ROAD THROUGH THE AUSTRIAN MOUNTAINS - DAY A Mercedes-Benz glides through the sharp mountain curves. This is SUPERIMPOSED OVER A MAP that charts their course from Venice across Austria toward Salzburg. EXT. CASTLE IN THE AUSTRIAN MOUNTAINS - DAY Storm clouds darken the skies. THUNDER EXPLODES in the distance; lightning flashes. The Mercedes-Benz drives into the courtyard of the formidable stone castle. INDY What do you know about this place? ELSA I know the Brunwalds are famous art collectors. INT. MERCEDES-BENZ - DAY INDY reaches into the back seat and retrieves his bullwhip. ELSA What are you going to do? INDY Don't know. Think of something. He glances up to the beret ELSA is wearing. She reaches up and adjusts it. INT. CASTLE ENTRANCE HALL - DAY A BUTLER walks to the door and opens it to reveal INDY and ELSA standing outside in the rain. she now wears Indy's fedora; Indy is wearing Elsa's beret. BUTLER Yes? INDY, followed by ELSA, steps inside, shaking the water from his overcoat. He adopts a Scottish accent. INDY And not before time! Did you intend to leave us standing on the doorstep all day? We're drenched! As INDY says this he pushes his way past the startled BUTLER, pulling a handkerchief from the man's pocket. ELSA follows, taking off her coat. INDY SNEEZES HARD. INDY Now look! I've gone and caught a sniffle. INDY dabs at his nose with the handkerchief as ELSA looks on in amused amazement. BUTLER (coldly; with Austrian accent) Are you expected? INDY Don't take that tone with me, my good man. Now buttle off and tell Baron Brunwald that Lord Clarence MacDonald and his lovely assistant are here to view the tapestries. (CONT'D)CONTINUED: BUTLER Tapestries? INDY Dear me, the man is dense. This is a castle, isn't it? There are tapestries? BUTLER This is a castle. And we have many tapestries. But if you're a Scottish lord, then I am Mickey Mouse. INDY How dare he?! Simultaneously knocking the BUTLER cold with one slug on the jaw. The Butler falls against a wall tapestry, sliding down to the floor, out cold. INT. CASTLE HALLWAY - DAY INDY and ELSA move cautiously and quietly down the wide, vaulted hallway. APPROACHING VOICES ARE HEARD. Indy and Elsa creep past a room full of NAZI SOLDIERS working around a large table with a map atop it.. INDY reacts to the sight of them. INDY (to ELSA; softly) Nazis. I hate these guys. INDY and ELSA continue down the hallway. Indy carries a gun in his hand and his whip hangs from his belt. He steps to a closed door and listens. INDY This one. I think he's in here. ELSA How do you know? INDY points out an ELECTRICAL WIRE. INDY Because it's wired. He studies the situation for a moment, then decides to enter one of the other doors. He knocks at the dooróthere is no response. He looks back at ELSA and enters.INT. CASTLE ROOM - DAY The room is dark and empty. INDY throws open the window shutters and looks out. RAIN comes down in sheets. There is a wide ledge beneath each windowó but below that is a SHEER DROP. Indy wants to get out onto the window ledge, which is several yards away. ELSA Indy? Indy? INDY reassures her. INDY Don't worry... this is kid's play. I'll be right back. He leans out the window and wraps his bullwhip around some wires that protrude from the castle wall above the next window. He gives the whip a forceful tug to make certain it will hold his weight. EXT. THE CASTLE - DAY INDY SWINGS from the window to the stone gargoyle. CLOSE ON THE WINDOW LEDGE A PAIR OF WOODEN SHUTTERS seals the window. INDY takes hold of the bullwhip with both hands, pushes off with his feet... swings toward the shuttered window with his feet extended... CRASHING THROUGH THE WOODEN SHUTTERS as a CLAP OF THUNDER disguises the noise. INT. THE ROOM - DAY INDY CRASHES THROUGH SHUTTERS AND GLASS into the room. The broken shutters hang by their hinges. Rain and cold air whip through the open window. No sooner does Indy get to his feet, than a VASE COMES CRASHING DOWN ON THE BACK OF HIS HEAD. Stunned, INDY sinks to one knee... and Indy's father, PROFESSOR HENRY JONES, steps out of the shadows. HENRY Junior? INDY gets to his feet. INDY (a reflex) Yes, sirlCONTINUED: This reply is a kneejerk reaction on Indy's part. Now they look at each other. HENRY It is you Junior! INDY (an old familiar irritation) Don't call me that, please. HENRY (amazed) But what are you doing here? INDY I came to get you! What do you think? NAZI VOICES ARE HEARD approaching. INDY and HENRY press themselves against the wall, Henry still holding the broken vase in his hand. INDY steps to the window and looks down. HENRY moves to a lamp, holding the vase under the light for a closer look. HENRY (sotto, mumbled) Late Fourteenth Century, Ming Dynasty. HENRY is all about the broken vase which he still holds in his hand. Father and son get onto crossed lines for a couple of moments. HENRY Oh, it breaks the heart. INDY (quietly to himself) And the head. (to HENRY, aggrievedly) You hit me, Dad! HENRY (referring to the vase) I'll never forgive myselfó INDY (surprised, misunderstanding) Don't worryóI'm fine. HENRY Thank God!CONTINUED: (2) HENRY has clearly been concentrating entirely on the vase... he is examining the broken end carefully. HENRY ... it's fake. See, you can tell by the cross section. HENRY throws the vase against the wall where it SHATTERS. INDY No! Dad, get your stuff. We've got to get out of here. HENRY Well, I am sorry about your head, though. But I thought you were one of them. INDY Dad, they come in through the doors. HENRY (laughs) Good point. INDY steps to the door and stands, listening. HENRY But better safe than sorry. HENRY slides his umbrella through the straps of his bag. HENRY Humpfóso I was wrong this time. But by God, I wasn't wrong when I mailed you my Diary. You obviously got it. INDY I got it and I used it. We found the entrance to the catacombs. HENRY (excited) Through the library? INDY Right. HENRY I knew it. And the tomb of Sir Richard?CONTINUED: (3) INDY nods. INDY Found it. HENRY (breathless) He was actually there? You saw him? INDY Well, what was left of him. HENRY (trembling with anticipation) And his shield... the inscription on Sir Richard's shield...? INDY Alexandretta. (beat) It's a great moment in HENRY's life. He turns aside, lost to himself for a moment, then turns to INDY with joy. HENRY Alexandretta... of course... on the pilgrim trail from the Eastern Empire. Oh, Junior... INDY winces, and would interrupt but suddenly it's not the moment. HENRY ... you did it. INDY No, Dad. You did. Forty years. HENRY If only I could have been with you. INDY There were rats, Dad. HENRY Rats? INDY Yeah. big ones. What do the Nazis want with you Dad? HENRY They want my diary.CONTINUED: (4) INDY (interested) Yeah? INDY's interest is a moment which becomes important later but for now it passes. HENRY I knew I had to get that book as far away from me as I possibly could. INDY's hand moves unconsciously to his pocket. His eyes turn inward. INDY (thoughtfully) Yeah. . . Then... BAMI The door is kicked open and three NAZIS enter. One is an S.S. OFFICER. The other two are SOLDIERS with machine guns. HENRY and INDY raise their hands. S.S. OFFICER Doctor Jones!! HENRY & INDY Yes!! S.S. OFFICER I will take the book now. INDY/HENRY (simultaneously) What book? S.S. OFFICER (to INDY) You have the Diary in your pocket. HENRY laughs genuinely, believing himself to be laughing at the expense of the S.S. OFFICER. HENRY You doltl Do you think that my son would be that stupid that he would bring my Diary all the way back here? At which point an awful thought strikes HENRY. HENRY You didn't, did you? (a beat) You didn't bring it, did you?CONTINUED: (5) INDY Well, uh... HENRY You did!! INDY Look, can we discuss this later? HENRY I should have mailed it to the Marx Brothers. INDY (overlapping) Will you take it easy....! HENRY Take it easy?! Why do you think I sent it home in the first place? (points towards the NAZIS) So it wouldn't fall into their hands!! INDY I came here to save you. HENRY Oh yeah? And who's gonna come to save you, Junior?? INDY's eyes blazes His nostrils flares He's so pissed off, he literally RIPS A MACHINE GUN from the hands of one of the startled soldiers... and for a moment we think he's going to use it on his dad. INDY I told you-- He turns and sprays the room with machine gun fire, cutting all three NAZIS to ribbons and blowing them backwards across the room. INDY --don't call me Junior! HENRY looks shocked and horrified. HENRY Look what you did!! Indy grabs him and pushes him ahead. HENRY (aghast) I can't believe what you just.... INT. CASTLE HALLWAY - DAY INDY leads HENRY down the hallway as he searches for Elsa. INDY Elsa? Elsa? He opens a door and enters: INT. FIRST CASTLE ROOM - DAY INDY and HENRY rush back into the room where ELSA had been left, only to find: A Nazi COLONEL HOLDING ELSA HOSTAGE. His name is VOGEL: a vicious-looking, lantern jawed brute. One arm is wrapped around Elsa's waist, the other hand presses the muzzle of a LUGER behind her ear. VOGEL That's far enough Put down the gun, Doctor Jones. Put down the gun or the Fraulein dies. HENRY But she's one of them! ELSA Indy, please! HENRY She's a Nazi! INDY What?! INDY is thrown. He doesn't know what to do. He looks at ELSA, then back to his father. Everyone is yelling at once: HENRY Trust me! ELSA Indy, no! VOGEL I will kill her! HENRY Oh yeah? Go ahead! INDY No! Don't Shoot!CONTINUED: HENRY (to Indy) Don't worry. He won't. ELSA Indy, please! Do what he says! HENRY And don't listen to her! VOGEL Enough! She diesl VOGEL jams the barrel of the luger painfully into ELSA's neck. Elsa SCREAMS. INDY Wait! Waitl And then Indy gives in. He drops the machine gun to the table and it slides across, SHATTERING GLASS. HENRY GROANS audibly. VOGEL releases his grip on ELSA and shoves her toward INDY. She is propelled directly into his arms. He holds her tightly. She buries her face in his chest. ELSA I'm sorry. INDY comforts her. INDY No, don't be. Her hand slips into his coat pocket and removes the Grail Diary. ELSA But you should have listened to your father. She steps back next to VOGEL. INDY is stunned. HENRY gives him his most withering look of reprimand. INT. BARONIAL ROOM - DAY A large baronial room decorated with ancient tapestries and suits of armor. Firelightófrom the giant fireplaceódances across the ceiling and walls. INDY and HENRY are ushered in, hands tied behind back, accompanied by VOGEL and ELSA and TWO NAZI GUARDS. ELSA crosses the room toward a high-backed chair facing the fireplace. INDY and HENRY do not have the advantage of seeing who is sitting in that chair. They only see a HAND REACH OUT AND TAKE THE BOOK.CONTINUED: INDY (quietly to HENRY) She ransacked her own room and I fell for it. How did you know she was a Nazi? HENRY Umh? INDY How did you she was a Nazi? HENRY She talks in her sleep. INDY nods, and then the statement catches up with him. He looks at HENRY with surprise. HENRY I didn't trust her. Why did you? MAN IN CHAIR Because he didn't take my advice. The MAN IN THE CHAIR gets to his feet and turns, revealing himself to be... WALTER DONOVAN. INDY and HENRY react with stunned expressions. INDY Donovan DONOVAN Didn't I warn you not to trust anybody, Doctor Jones? DONOVAN smiles benignly and flips through the Grail Diary. HENRY I misjudged you WalteróI knew you'd sell your mother for an Etruscan vase. But I didn't know you'd sell your country and your soul to the slime of humanity. DONOVAN (suddenly erupting) Doctor Schneider There're pages torn out of thisl ELSA rushes to DONOVAN's side. she takes the Grail Diary from him. Elsa takes a look for herselfóthen glances up at Indy.CONTINUED: (2) ELSA This book contained a mapóa map with no namesóprecise directions from the unknown city to the secret Canyon of the Crescent Moon. INDY So it did. DONOVAN Where are these missing pages? This maps we must have these pages backs HENRY gives INDY a look of surprise. Indy smirks. ELSA (to Donovan) You're wasting your breath. He won't tell us. And he doesn't have to... it's perfectly obvious where the pages are... (looking at Indy) ... he's given them to Marcus Brody. HENRY now wears a pained expression. HENRY (to Indy) Marcus?! You didn't drag poor Marcus along, did you? He's not up to the challenge. DONOVAN He sticks out like a sore thumb. We'll find him. INDY The hell you will. He's got a two-day head-start on you, which is more than he needs. (beat) Brody's got friends in every town and village from here to the Sudan. He speaks a dozen languages, knows every local custom. He'll blend in. Disappear. You'll never see him again. With any luck, he's got the Grail already. HENRY looks amazed and impressed. EXT. TRAIN STATION - CITY OF ISKENDERUN - DAY BRODY disembarks from the train along with the other PASSENGERS, a cross- section of ARABS and TUSKS. BRODY Does anyone here speak English? Or even ancient Greek? A Man in the crowd holds out a cup of water to BRODY. BRODY No water, no thank you. No, fish make love in it. BRODY continues through the crowd past various STREET VENDORS. A Woman holds a chicken out to him. BRODY Thank you so much. No, I don't like that. No, I really don't want... No, no, thank you very much. No, thank you, madam. I'm a vegetarian. The Woman walks away, leaving BRODY alone in the crowd. BRODY Does anyone understand a word I'm saying here? SALLAH shoulders his way through the mob toward BRODY. SALLAH Mister Brodyl They meet and hug, then begin to walk. BRODY Oh, Sallahl What a relief! SALLAH (laughs) Marcus Brody, sir. And where is Indy? BRODY (overlapping) Oh, he's in Austria. A slight detour. SALLAH You are on your own? A Woman runs in and tugs on BRODY's coat. He waves her away.CONTINUED: BRODY Yes, but don't panic. Everything's under control. Have you. . .have you arranged our supplies? SALLAH Oh, yes, of course. But where are we going? BRODY Oh, this map will show you. It was drawn by, uh... BRODY searches in his coat pocket for the map as a SINISTER MAN approaches. SINISTER MAN Mister Brody? BRODY puts the map back in his pocket. The SINISTER MAN clicks his heels and bows quickly. SINISTER MAN Welcome to Iskenderun. The Director of the Museum of Antiquities has sent a car for you. BRODY takes off his hat. BRODY Oh, what?... your servant, sir. SALLAH And I am his. SINISTER MAN Follow me, please. The man turns and joins a SECOND MAN. BRODY and SALLAH follow them. BRODY My reputation precedes me. SALLAH There is no museum in Iskenderun. The SECOND MAN overhears SALLAH. He and his companion turn quickly. SECOND MAN Papers please. SALLAH Papers? (laughs) Of course.CONTINUED: (2) SALLAH puts Brody's luggage down and glances at BRODY. SALLAH Run. BRODY does not run. SALLAH pats his clothing, searching for his papers. BRODY Yes. SALLAH Papers, sir. Got it here. SALLAH laughs and pulls out a newspaper. SALLAH Just finished reading it myself. (laughs; then, to Brody) Run! BRODY looks confused. SALLAH shows the newspaper to the SECOND MAN. BRODY Yes. SALLAH Egyptian Mail. Morning edition. (to Brody) Run! BRODY Did you say...? Uh, uh... SALLAH puts the newspaper in front of the SECOND MAN's face, then punches him through the newspaper. SALLAH Run! The SECOND MAN falls, knocking over a vendor's stand. SALLAH and BRODY begin to run. SALLAH knocks the FIRST MAN into another vendor's stand. The STAND COLLAPSES on impact. SALLAH grabs BRODY and pulls him through the crowded streets. SALLAH (to Brody; pointing) Okay, okay, quick, quick, quickl Hide in that doorl Hide in that door! SALLAH points to a DARKENED DOORWAY, hung with a curtain, at the top of a ramp. BRODY runs up the ramp, throws back the curtain and disappears into the darkness.CONTINUED: (3) ThenóMETAL DOORS ARE SLAMMED behind Brody and we realize that he has actually run into the back of a Nazi TROOP TRUCK. SALLAH runs after the Truck until he reaches a wall, then leans against the wall dejectedly as the Truck drives away with BRODY inside. INT. CASTLE ROOM - DAY The room is dark. Ancient, floor-length drapes cover the windows. A HUGE FIREPLACE that's nearly large enough for a man to stand upright in dominates one wall. The NAZI GUARDS have tied INDY and HENRY back-to-back in a pair of chairs. ELSA and DONOVAN stand over them. VOGEL enters. HENRY Intolerable. VOGEL Doctor Schneider. Message from Berlin. You must return immediately: a rally at the Institute of Aryan Culture. ELSA So? VOGEL Your presence on the platform is requested... at the highest level. ELSA Thank you, Herr Oberst. (to DONOVAN) I will meet you at Iskenderun. DONOVAN Take this Diary to the Reich Museum in Berlin. It will show them our progress, ahead of schedule. Without a map, I'm afraid it's no better than a souvenir. He hands her the Grail Diary. VOGEL (to DONOVAN, meaning Indy and Henry) Let me kill them now.CONTINUED: ELSA No. If we fail to recover the pages from Brody, we'll need them alive. DONOVAN (to VOGEL, with a helpless shrug) Always do what the doctor orders. DONOVAN leads VOGEL out. The NAZI GUARDS follow. Once they are gone, ELSA turns to INDY. ELSA Don't look at me like thatówe both wanted the Grail, I would have done anything to get it. You would have done the same. INDY shakes his head "no." INDY I'm sorry you think so. She runs her hand down the side of his face. INDY pulls away. INDY and HENRY are still tied back-to-back of course. ELSA bends to speak quietly into INDY's ear... which is near enough to Henry's ear. ELSA (whispers) I can't forget... how wonderful it was. HENRY Thank you. It was rather wonderful. She smiles and kisses INDY passionately. HENRY glances back and looks rather disappointed. VOGEL appears to remind ELSA of her appointment. VOGEL Doctor Schneider! Your car is waiting. ELSA (to INDY, after finishing the kiss) That's how Austrians say goodbye. ELSA exits. VOGEL stays behind for another moment.CONTINUED: (2) VOGEL And this is how we say goodbye in Germany, Doctor Jones. VOGEL punches INDY in the jaw. A hard and vicious jab that snaps Indy's head around. HENRY Ohh. . . VOGEL exits. INDY shakes his head clear. INDY (to himself) Ooooh... I like the Austrian way better. HENRY So did I. INDY Let's try and get these ropes loose. We've got to get to Marcus before the Nazis do! HENRY (confused) You said he had two days' start. That he would blend in. Disappear! INDY Are you kidding?óI made that up! You know Marcusóhe got lost once in his own museum! Indy and Henry are pulling at the ropes with great urgency. INDY Can you try and reach into my left jacket pocket? HENRY is able to wiggle his hand towards Indy's coat pocket. INDY squirms his body around towards Henry's hand. HENRY What am I looking for? INDY My lucky charm. HENRY Feels like a cigarette lighter.CONTINUED: (3) INDY Try and burn through the ropes. HENRY's fingers open the lighter and ignite the flame. HENRY Very good. HENRY yelps as the cigarette lighter burns his hand. He drops the lighter to the floor. Henry kicks at the lighter, trying to reach it, but cannot. The rug starts to burn. INDY doesn't know it yet. HENRY I ought to tell you something. INDY Don't get sentimental now Dadó save it 'til we get out of here. HENRY The floor's on fire! See?! INDY (turns and sees) What??? HENRY And the chair. INDY All right, movel Move! Rock your Chair. Do what I do. They begin to rock their chair legs, inching their way off the burning carpet. EXT. CASTLE - DAY as ELSA is driven away. VOGEL and DONOVAN remain behind, flanked by NAZI SOLDIERS . Another car pulls up and VOGEL holds the door open for DONOVAN who gets into the rear seat. A LIEUTENANT approaches with a written message for Donovan. LIEUTENANT Etwas wichtig, mein Herr. DONOVAN puts on his glasses to read the message. DONOVAN Well, we have Marcus Brody. But more important, we have the map. A RADIO OPERATOR steps forward with yet another written message for DONOVAN.CONTINUED: RADIO OPERATOR Aus Berlin, mein Herr. DONOVAN (reading) "By the personal command of the Fuhrer. Secrecy essential to success. Eliminate the American conspirators." (to VOGEL) Germany has declared war on the Jones boys. (to DRIVER) Los fahren. The car drives off. INT. CASTLE ROOM - DAY INDY and HENRY are still in their chairs, tied back-to-back. Indy tries to communicate with Henry, but each time he calls him, the men turn their heads in opposite directions. INDY Dad! HENRY What? INDY Dad! HENRY What? INDY Dad! Finally they turn their heads in the same direction. HENRY What? INDY Head for the fireplace! HENRY Oh. BANGING, ROCKING and HOPPING their chairs, they work their way INTO THE FIREPLACEóthe only safe place from the now ROARING FIRE.CONTINUED: INDY I think I can get these ropes off. Indy struggles to free his hands. His foot kicks out and accidentally hits a metal grill that operates a Secret Door. INDY Whoopsl The fireplace floor rotates like a Lazy Susan and Indy and his father find themselves in the: INT. RADIO ROOM - DAY where a NAZI RADIOMAN wearing headphones sits at an elaborate panel of dials, switches and meters, and a WOMAN stands over a map plotting coordinates. Their backs are turned to INDY and HENRY. The floor begins to rotate again, and INDY and HENRY find themselves back in: INT. CASTLE ROOM - DAY inside the fireplace, still tied back-to-back. HENRY Our situation has not improved. INDY glances over his shoulder at HENRY. INDY Listen Dad... I'm almost free. INDY's foot hits the grill again... and the fireplace rotates to: INT. RADIO ROOM - DAY FOUR NAZI RADIOMEN and the WOMAN are still hard at work with controls and coordinates. Suddenly the Woman looks up and spots HENRY and INDY. She screams. WOMAN Alarm! Now the RADIOMEN turn to see HENRY and INDY. WOMAN Schnel!! TWO NAZIS draw their revolvers and FIRE SEVERAL SHOTS at INDY and HENRY INT. CASTLE ROOM - DAWN INDY and HENRY rotate into the room which is now an INFERNO. The carpet, drapes and furniture are all ablaze. HENRY This is intolerable! INDY I'm out, Dad! INDY finally breaks free. And he immediately begins to untie his father. HENRY Well done, boy! INT. RADIO ROOM - DAY All FOUR RADIOMEN now have their guns drawn. They activate the lever and begin to rotate through the Secret Door. INT. CASTLE ROOM - DAY The RADIOMEN appear in the fireplace on the other sideóbut there is NO SIGN OF INDY AND HENRY. The RADIOMEN move cautiously toward the flame, shielding their faces with one hand, holding their guns with the other. Is it possible that INDY and HENRY escaped through these flames? Not a chance. They've hidden themselves UP THE CHIMNEY. And now they DROP DOWN, BEHIND the RADIOMEN. One of the RADIOMEN grabs INDY by the neck. As they struggle they fall against the rotating wall and disappear into the next room, leaving a frightened HENRY behind. HENRY presses against the wall, which rotates again. As he disappears into the next room, a DEAD NAZI RADIOMAN swivels into the room. The other NAZIS rush forward to him. INT. RADIO ROOM - DAY INDY picks up a BUST OF HITLER and uses it to jam the rotating wall in place, sealing the NAZIS inside the burning room. INT. CASTLE HALLWAY- DAY Vogel strides purposefully down the hallway. He BARKS an order, and TWO MORE NAZIS fall into step with him. INT. RADIO ROOM - DAY INDY grabs his whip, his leather sack and Henry's case from a table. He hands the case to HENRY and they begin to run. INDY Come on Dad. INT. SECRET ROOM - DAY INDY and HENRY step into an empty room. INDY Dead end. HENRY looks horrified by what he's been forced to do as INDY searches frantically for an exit. INDY There's got to be a... a secret door around. A passageway or something. INDY begins to run his hands over the wallsófrantic. HENRY I find that if I just sit down and think... HENRY sits on a chair which tips back, hitting the wall behind it. The floor at INDY's feet suddenly begins DROPPING AWAYI INDY grabs a railing to keep from falling, but loses his grip and plunges through the opening which has formed a SPIRAL STAIRCASE. He rolls down the stairs. INDY Dad! HENRY ... the solution presents itself. HENRY follows INDY down the staircase. INT. CAVERN/UNDERGROUND HARBOR - DAY The stairway deposits Indy and Henry into an enormous WATERY CAVERN beneath the mountain on which the castle was built. A full-scale Nazi BOAT DOCK has been built inside the cavern. We see MOTORBOATS, GUNBOATS, SUPPLY BOATS, etc. INDY Great. More boats.CONTINUED: INDY boards one of the motorboats and STARTS THE MOTOR. HENRY Would you say this has been just another typical day for you? Huh? HENRY tosses his case at INDY who catches it and angrily throws it back to his father. INDY (ironically) Ooofl No! It's been better than most. INDY moves back to the dock and pushes the boat away. HENRY looks confused. INDY Come on, Dad. Come onl HENRY What about the boat? We're not going on the boat? INT. SECRET ROOM - DAY VOGEL and the NAZI SOLDIERS enter the room and spot the spiral staircase leading below. They quickly descend the stairs. INT. CAVERN/UNDERGROUND HARBOR - DAY as VOGEL and the NAZI SOLDIERS rush to the dock. Vogel sees that a motorboat is missing. He orders the Nazi Soldiers into a boat. VOGEL Sie alle ins Boat. Schnell! CAMERA PULLS BACK TO REVEAL a large box which suddenly BREAKS APART as INDY, now on a motorbike with HENRY in the sidecar, ROARS PAST THE DOCK, hitting TWO NAZI SOLDIERS who scream as they fall into the river. VOGEL screams after INDY and HENRY as they drive off. STRAIGHT CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY INDY looks pleased as he drives the motorbike along the road, but HENRY appears worried. INDY Ha! FOUR NAZI SOLDIERS ON MOTORCYCLES They chase down the road after INDY and HENRY. INDY turns the motorbike down a smaller, dusty tree-lined road. HENRY gasps as he is jostled about in the sidecar. One of the NAZI SOLDIERS gives chase along a higher road running in the same direction. EXT. ROAD BARRICADE - DAY INDY approaches the barricade from one direction as one of the NAZI SOLDIERS approaches from a higher road. A GUARD steps from the road station and calls to the vehicles as INDY and HENRY SMASH THROUGH THE BARRICADE. GUARD Halt! Halt! THE NAZI SOLDIER rides his motorcycle through the other side of the barrier-- IT SHATTERS. INDY AND HENRY INDY grabs at a FLAGPOLE as they roar pastóit snaps off in his hand. The NAZI SOLDIER drives his motorcycle toward INDY and HENRY. He unshoulders his machine gun. INDY uses the broken flagpole as a lance and knocks the NAZI SOLDIER from his motorcycle. THE RIDERLESS MOTORCYCLE drives on toward the other NAZI SOLDIERS now approaching the guardhouse, COLLIDING WITH TWO OF THEM. The remaining NAZI SOLDIER maneuvers his motorcycle around his fallen comrades and continues the chase. INDY AND HENRY As the remaining NAZI SOLDIER rides alongside their motorbike he cocks his gun, preparing to fire. INDY quickly jams the remaining portion of the flagpole through the spokes of the Nazi's front wheel. The NAZI SOLDIER'S MOTORCYCLE FLIPS THREE TIMES, throwing him high into the air.CONTINUED: INDY glances back and smiles, but the smile fades as he looks forward again to see a sign at a CROSSROAD. Arrows pointing in opposite directions indicate the way to BERLIN or VENEDIG. Indy starts down the road marked VENEDIG. HENRY Stop! INDY What? HENRY Stop! Stop! The motorbike skids to a stop. HENRY You're going the wrong Way! We have to get to Berlin! INDY (pointing towards Venedig) Brody's this way. HENRY My Diary's in Berlin. INDY You don't need the Diary, Dad. Marcus has the map. HENRY There is more in the Diary than just the map. INDY All right Dadótell me. HENRY Well, he who finds the Grail must face the final challenge. INDY What final challenge? HENRY Three devices of such lethal cunning. INDY Booby traps?CONTINUED: (2) HENRY Oh, yes. But I found the clues that will safely take us through, in the Chronicles of St. Anselm. INDY But what are they? Can't you remember? HENRY I wrote them down in my Diary so that I wouldn't have to remember INDY Half the German Army's on our tail and you want me to go to Berlin? Into the lion's den? HENRY Yes! The only thing that matters is the Grail. INDY What about Marcus? HENRY Marcus would agree with me. INDY Two selfless martyrs. Jesus Christl HENRY slaps him across the face. INDY is rocked to his foundations, not by any means entirely by the blow itself. HENRY That's for blasphemy. The quest for the Grail is not archaeology. It's a race against evil. If it is captured by the Nazis, the armies of darkness will march all over the face of the earth. Do you understand me? INDY This is an obsession Dad. I never understood it. Never. Neither did Mom. HENRY Oh yes, she did. Only too well. Unfortunately she kept her illness from me until all I could do was mourn her. EXT. CROSSROADS - DAY Arrows point in opposite directions to VENICE and BERLIN. The CAMERA MOVES IN on the portion of the sign reading BERLIN. EXT. CITY SQUARE - BERLIN - NIGHT A Nazi Rallyóa book-burning is in process. The mound of burning books is ten feet tall and growing by the minute as College Students and Nazi Brownshirts continually toss more books onto the fire. Flags, banners and standards displaying the swastika are waved rhythmically from side to side in a motion that echoes the mounting frenzy of the enormous crowd. INDY and HENRY walk toward the Square. Indy wears the uniform of a Nazi Soldier. He is now buttoning up the tunicówhich happens to be several sizes too big. HENRY My boy, we are Pilgrims in an unholy land. Then... Indy sees something that makes him stop in his tracks. WE PAN ALONG HIS LINE OF SIGHT to: THE PODIUM where high-ranking Officers of the Third Reich stand flanking ADOLF HITLER as they oversee the rally. ANOTHER ANGLE ELSA is walking away in an open area, background of torches, vehicles, Nazi Officers... one of whom is now none other than INDY, coming up to her before she knows he is there. His voice is quiet and tough, his eyes hard. INDY Fraulein Doctor. Where is it? Still startled, her reaction makes it clear that Indy is even now a lover in her thoughts. ELSA How did you get here? INDY Where is it? I want it. INDY pushes ELSA against a column and begins to search her clothing for the Diary. He pulls the book from Elsa's pocket.CONTINUED: ELSA You came back for the book? Whv? INDY My father didn't want it incinerated. She understands him. It's as though he slapped her. ELSA Is that what you think of me? I believe in the Grail, not the Swastika. INDY (vicious) Yet you stood up to be counted with the enemy of everything the Grail stands forówho gives a damn what you think? ELSA (hard and fast) You do. Now it's as though she'd slapped him back. His hands fly to her neck. INDY All I have to do is squeeze. ELSA All I have to do is scream. It's a standoff emotionally. He knows he'd never do it. she knows it too. And the same goes for screaming. INDY releases her and backs away. she looks at him with a lover's pain. He moves over to HENRY. INDY I've got it. Let's get the hell out of here. They move off and almost run headlong into HITLER and his entire entourage coming down from the Podium. 50 kids push their autograph books for Hitler's signature. HITLER pauses to sign them. Hitler looks Indy's way. They make eye contact. It only lasts a moment but the moment is electric. HITLER breaks the spell by taking the Grail Diary from him, opens it to the first page and signs his autograph. He hands it back and moves on. EXT. AIRFIELD - BERLIN, GERMANY- DAY Indy's motorcycle pulls up to the main terminal. INT. TERMINAL BUILDING - DAY A Plainclothes Agent distributes leaflets bearing HENRY'S PICTURE to Nazi Soldiers inside the terminal. HENRY leans in a doorway reading a newspaper as INDY enters down the stairs and taps Henry's shoulder. They begin to walk toward the boarding gates. HENRY What did you get? INDY I don't know. The first available flight out of Germany. HENRY Good. INDY and HENRY show their papers to the Boarding Guards, then join the line of passengers, which has already begun to move toward a: MOORED ZEPPELIN Ten stories tall and longer than two football fields: Flying in the grand tradition! INT. THE ZEPPELIN - PASSENGER COMPARTMENT - DAY The Zeppelin is about to take off. INDY and HENRY make themselves comfortable in one of the compartments. INDY Well, we made it. HENRY looks over his newspaper at INDY. HENRY When we're airborne, with Germany behind us, then I'll share that sentiment. INDY Relax. But INDY looks out the window and is suddenly concerned when he sees: VOGEL AND A GESTAPO AGENT rushing across the tarmac toward the Zeppelin. VOGEL Nicht zumachen! Wir steigen ein! INDY sits back in his chair, looks to HENRY, now reading his newspaper. A STEWARD enters and sets a bowl of nuts on the table in front of INDY and HENRY, then continues down the aisle of passengers. Indy follows after the Steward. He puts his arm around the Steward's shoulder and together they walk up a flight of stairs. VOGEL now walks up the aisle. He approaches a MALE PASSENGER hidden behind a newspaper. VOGEL uses his walking stick to lower the newspaper and show the Passenger the leaflet with Henry's photograph. VOGEL Haben sie disen Mann gesehen? The Passengers at the table shake their heads in the negative. VOGEL shows the picture to other Passengers. FEMALE PASSENGER Nein. INDY (O.S.) Fahrscheine, bitte. MALE PASSENGER Nein. VOGEL turns to see: INDY WEARING THE HAT AND JACKET OF THE CHIEF STEWARD. MALE PASSENGER (O.S.) Ich habe ihn night gesehen. INDY Tickets please. The Passengers do not react to the request, made in English. INDY Fahrscheine meine Dame. Bitte. VOGEL approaches HENRY, still hidden behind his newspaper. Again, VOGEL uses his walking stick to lower the paper, revealing Henry's face. VOGEL Guten Tag, Herr Jones. Now INDY, still playing the role of Steward, asks VOGEL for his ticket. INDY Fahrscheine meine Herr. VOGEL Weg. INDY Tickets please. HENRY looks confused. VOGEL (in German) Was? VOGEL glances up and recognizes INDYówho quickly punches Vogel in the face, knocking him toward the window. In another quick move, Indy TOSSES HIM OUT THE WINDOW onto the tarmac below. Shocked Passengers blink in bewilderment. INDY (in German; with a shrug) No ticket. Everyone else with a ticket quickly produces it and waves it in Indy's face. EXT. AIRFIELD TARMAC - DAY VOGEL gets to his knees as the huge Zeppelin rises into the sky above him, revealing an airplane attached to the belly of the airship. Vogel shakes his fist at the rising Zeppelin. VOGEL Du wirst nochmal boren von mir! INT. ZEPPELIN - DAY INDY and HENRY together again in their compartment. HENRY You know, sharing your adventures is an interesting experience.CONTINUED: INDY (meaning ELSA) That's not all we shared. It's disgraceful. You're old enough to be her fa---er, her grandfather! HENRY Well, I'm as human as the next man. INDY I was the next man. HENRY (laughs) Ships that pass in the night... HENRY opens his Diary and begins to thumb through it. INDY Do you remember the last time we had a quiet drink? I had a milk shake. HENRY Hmmm... What did we talk about? INDY We didn't talk. We never talked. HENRY And do I detect a rebuke? INDY A regret. It was just the two of us, Dad. It was a lonely way to grow up. For you, too. If you had been an ordinary, average father like the other guys' dads, you'd have understood that. HENRY Actually, I was a wonderful father. INDY When? HENRY looks up from his Diary. HENRY Did I ever tell you to eat up? Go to bed? Wash your ears? Do your homework? No. I respected your privacy and I taught you self- reliance.CONTINUED: (2) INDY What you taught me was that I was less important to you than people who had been dead for five hundred years in another country. And I learned it so well that we've hardly spoken for twenty years. HENRY You left just when you were becoming interesting. INDY Dad, how can you --? HENRY (interrupting) Very well. I'm here now. He closes the Diary and leans back in his seat. HENRY What do you want to talk about? Hmmm? INDY stutters uncomfortably as HENRY stares at him, waiting for a response. INDY (laughs) Well... I can't think of anything. HENRY Then what are you complaining about? (laughs) Look, we have work to do. When we get to Alexandretta we will face three challenges. (he reads from the Diary) "First, the breath of God. Only the penitent man will pass. Second, the Word of God, only in the footsteps of God will he proceed. Third, the Path of God, only in the leap from the lion's head will he prove his worth. " INDY What does that mean? HENRY (laughs) I don't know. We'll find out.CONTINUED: (3) Sunlight falls across the table from the window. INDY reaches for the drink. The bar of sunlight turns like the hand of a clock over the tabletop across the drinks. We see INDY puzzled. Only for a moment. INDY They're turning around. They're taking us back to Germany. INT. FRAMEWORK OF ZEPPELIN - DAY INDY and his father emerge from the hatchway into the belly of the Zeppelin. The Zeppelin's elaborate metal framework is exposed. INDY and HENRY hurry down the catwalk until arriving at a PAIR OF DOORWAYS framed into the Zeppelin's outer skin. INDY Well, I thought it would take them a lot longer to figure out the radio was dead. Come on, Dad. Move! Then INDY opens the doors. We see plenty of blue sky and white clouds. We also see a small BIPLANE that is suspended from the Zeppelin by a HOOK & CRANE DEVICE. INDY Come on, Dad. Come on! EXT. AIRPLANE - DAY INDY climbs into the cockpit of the Biplane as HENRY takes the tail gunner's seat. HENRY (with delight) I didn't know you could fly a plane. INDY Fly--yes. Land--no. INT. THE BIPLANE - DAY INDY turns in his seat to give HENRY the "thumbs up." Henry smiles valiantly and points down to the ground. Then they both become aware of a STRANGE SOUND in the skies behind them. Something between a ROAR and a WAIL. TWO MESSERSCHMIDT FIGHTER BOMBERS streak out of the clouds and race across the sky. INDY AND HENRY shrink in their seats as the MESSERSCHMIDTS (going three times as fast as they are) SCREAM past on either side. INDY Dad, you're gonna have to use the machine gun. Get it ready. HENRY turns and grips the MOUNTED MACHINE GUN with a perplexed expression. INDY (turning; pointing) Eleven o'clock! HENRY pulls out his watch. INDY Dadóeleven o'clock!! HENRY What happens at eleven o'clock? INDY uses his arm to demonstrate that he's referring to a direction and not a time. INDY (frustrated) Twelveóelevenóten. Eleven o'clock. Fire! HENRY doesóand the EXPLODING GUN nearly shakes him out of his seat. Indy's slow speed and small size works to his advantage. The speeding Messerschmidts continually overshoot him, WHIZZING past in a blurómaking wide turns miles away in the sky. HENRY has one of the Messerschmidts in his sight. He pulls back on the trigger --RATTA-A-TAT-TAT! RATTA-A-TAT-TAT! The Messerschmidt banks to the left, but HENRY keeps it in his gun sight. Henry swings the gun around, inadvertently CUTTING HIS OWN REAR STABILIZER IN HALF. INDY Dad, are we hit?! HENRY More or less.CONTINUED: HENRY Son, I'm sorry. They got us. INDY looks back at the missing tail section, then at his father. The plane begins to go down. INDY struggles to control its descent. INDY Hang on, Dads We're going in! HENRY slumps down fearfully in his seat. EXT. A FIELD - DAY The wheels of the plane touch down. OUT OF CONTROL, the PLANE SKIDS and CRASHES first into a corral of goats and then into the farmhouse beyond sending a cloud of dust into the air. As INDY pulls himself from the cockpit: HENRY (sarcastic) Nice landing. INDY Thanks. Suddenly, INDY's attention is directed to: TWO SCREAMING MESSERSCHMIDTS coming in low. Guns BLAZING. As BULLETS EXPLODE around them, INDY and HENRY jump over a stone barricade. Henry, frightened, grabs at Indy. HENRY Those people are trying to kill us! INDY I know, Dadl HENRY It's a new experience for me. INDY It happens to me all the time. EXT. ROAD - DAY An OLD MAN kneels at his car repairing a rear tire. THE MAN turns to the wheel, the hubcap in his hands. Suddenly the wheel moves forward, startling the Old Man. INT. THE CAR - TRAVELING - DAY INDY has the throttle down, both hands tightly gripping the steering wheel. HENRY is a very nervous passenger. INDY sees a LOW-FLYING MESSERSCHMIDT coming up behind him in the SIDE MIRROR. As the Messerschmidt ROARS by overhead, BULLETS EXPLODE around them, narrowly missing the car. HENRY This is intolerable! INDY This could be close. EXT. THE ROAD - LONG SHOT - DAY The car races toward a TUNNEL that cuts through a steep MOUNTAINSIDE. The Messerschmidt bears down on Indy's car, machine guns CHATTERING. The car ENTERS the tunnel. The Messerschmidt cannot pull up in time. It SLAMS into the MOUTH OF THE TUNNEL, SHEARING OFF its WINGS. INT. THE TUNNEL - DAY The FLAMING FUSELAGE continues to ROCKET through the tunnel like a bullet down the muzzle of a gun. SPARKS fly as its belly SCRAPES against the pavement and the sides of the tunnel. INT. THE CAR - DAY Indy and Henry look over their shoulders to see this wingless BALL OF FIRE gaining on them; about to overtake them. HENRY Faster, boy --faster! EXT. THE ROAD - OTHER SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN - DAY The car exits the tunnel at top speed and veers off the road. The flaming Messerschmidt fuselage shoots past and EXPLODES in the middle of the road. INT. THE CAR - DAY As the car emerges safely from the flames, Henry wipes the sweat from his brow. HENRY Well, they don't come any closer than that! HENRY looks out the windshield and sees the second Messerschmidt SCREAMING out of the sky toward them. EXT. THE ROAD - LONG SHOT - DAY The MESSERSCHMIDT drops its single UNDER-FUSELAGE BOMB. It EXPLODES in the road directly ahead of the car, missing it by only several feet. THE CAR FALLS INTO THE HOLE made by the bomb. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. ROAD - DAY INDY climbs out of the car, still in the bomb crater. He turns back to HENRY. INDY Dad, he's coming back. INDY and HENRY run down the mountainside to: A DESERTED MEDITERRANEAN BEACH - DAY INDY and HENRY run to the shoreline. Indy reaches for his gun, tucked in his pants. He opens the chamberóthe GUN HAS NO BULLETS. THE MESSERSCHMIDT swings around and is coming in for another pass. INDY AND HENRY exchange a wordless glance. They don't even think about running: there is no place to run to. HENRY hands his case to INDY. Holding his umbrella, HENRY suddenly spins around and runs screaming and shouting into A FLOCK OF SEA GULLS... THE SEA GULLS take to the wing in flight. Thousands of them. INDY Bullets kick up sand leading up to him... thenó THE MESSERSCHMIDT AND THE SEA GULLS meet in midair. MASSACRE! Sea gulls are shredded by the Messerschmidt's whirling propeller blades into a FEATHERY WHITE PUREE that SPLATTERS against the cockpit and CLOGS THE ENGINE. ENGINE SPUTTERS... STALLS... Silence. The Messerschmidt falls from the skies and EXPLODES in an OFF CAMERA SOUND EFFECT. INDY stands as beforeóstunnedóa statue. HENRY walks back to INDY. HENRY I suddenly remembered Charlemagne. "Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky." (he chuckles) INDY wears a proud expression as he watches HENRY walk down the beach. EXT. MOSQUE - DAY FADE IN TITLE: "REPUBLIC OF HATAY" FADE OUT TITLE. EXT. COURTYARD OF SULTAN'S PALACE - ISKENDERUN - DAY The SULTAN is seated in his royal chair, flanked by WALTER DONOVAN and VOGEL and surrounded by his minions. DONOVAN holds the missing Grail Diary pages. DONOVAN These pages are taken from Professor Jones' diary, Your Highness. And they include a map that pinpoints the exact location of the Grail. DONOVAN and the SULTAN walk together through an archway. DONOVAN As you can see, the Grail is all but in our hands. (beat) However, Your Highness, we would not think of crossing your soil without your permission, nor of removing the Grail from your borders without suitable compensation.CONTINUED: SULTAN What have you brought? VOGEL Bring den Schatzl TWO NAZI SOLDIERS bring forward a HUGE STEAMER TRUNK. They open the lid and begin to empty it of its contents: Gold and silver objects of every description. DONOVAN Precious valuables, Your Highness, "donated" by some of the finest families in all of Germany. The SULTAN gets up from his chair and walks toward the trunk. He goes right past it and begins to inspect the Nazi staff car parked nearby. SULTAN Rolls-Royce Phantom Two. 4.3 litre, 30 horsepower, six cylinder engine, with Stromberg Downdraft carburetor. The SULTAN points to the engine under the hood. SULTAN Can go from zero to 100 kilometres an hour in 12.5 seconds. And I even like the color. DONOVAN (after a beat) The keys are in the ignition, Your Highness. SULTAN You shall have camels, horses, an armed escort, provisions, desert vehiclesóand tanksl DONOVAN You're welcome. Somebody else is also taking note...and we see that it is KAZIM, the spy at the court. ELSA is revealed coming down the stairs toward DONOVAN and VOGEL. ELSA We have no time to lose. Indiana Jones and his father have escaped. EXT. ISKENDERUN STREET - DAY SALLAH drives his car through the crowded streets, INDY beside him and HENRY in the back seat. SALLAH We go this way. SALLAH waves his arms and shouts to a CAMEL HERDER. SALLAH Get that camel out of the way! INDY What happened to Marcus, Sallah? SALLAH (overlapping) Ah, they set out across the desert this afternoon. I believe they took Mister Brody with them. HENRY removes his hat and hits INDY with it. HENRY Now they have the map! And in this sort of race, there's no silver medal for finishing second. EXT. DESERT VALLEY - DAYElsa and Donovan's partyóconsisting of a SUPPLY TRUCK, OPEN CAR, TUhKISHSOLDIERS RIDING CAMELS, SPARE HORSES AND A TANK AND VARIOUS OTHERVEHICLESóall moving along through the ramble of this box canyon.ELSA, DONOVAN and VOGEL travel in the open car. The TANK is a vintage WorldWar I model with enormous treads. The Turkish soldiers wear native dress andcarry both carbines and sabers.BRODY sits alongside ELSA in the rear of the car carrying DONOVAN. Donovanhands a canteen back to him. DONOVAN Care to wet your whistle, Marcus? BRODY I'd rather spit in your face. But as I haven't got any spit... VOGEL snatches the canteen away from BRODY before he can drink. VOGEL We must be within three or four miles. Otherwise we are off the map.CONTINUED: He hands the map to ELSA, drinks from the canteen, and hands that back to DONOVAN. DONOVAN Well, Marcus, we are on the brink of the recovery of the greatest artifact in the history of mankind. BRODY You're meddling with powers you cannot possibly comprehend. HENRY and SALLAH are at INDY's side as he views Donovan's party in the distance. Parked nearby is a CAR containing all of their supplies. INDY Ah, I see Brody. He seems okay. They've got a tank. Six-pound gun. Then Donovan notices a reflection from the hills. What he sees is: THE SUN REFLECTING OFF THE LENSES OF INDY'S BINOCULARS HENRY What do you think you're doing?! Get down! INDY Dad, we're well out of range. At that moment the tank FIRES A SHELL in their direction. It WHISTLES overhead and BLOWS UP THE PARKED CAR. INDY, HENRY and SALLAH cover their heads as automobile fragments rain down upon them. SALLAH That car belonged to my brother- in-law. INDY (gesturing to the others) Come on--come on! EXT. DESERT VALLEY - DAY VOGEL I can't see anyone up there.CONTINUED: DONOVAN Maybe it wasn't even Jones. ELSA No. It's him all right. He's here somewhere. DONOVAN (to VOGEL) Put Brody in the tank. KAZIM peers over a rock, pointing his rifle at the group below. DONOVAN (to ELSA) Well, in this sun, without transportation, they're as good as dead. BULLETS EXPLODE off the vehicles and cliff. DONOVAN and ELSA duck. A NAZI SOLDIER falls from the tank as BULLETS EXPLODE around him. KAZIM'S MEN, BRETHREN OF THE CRUCIFORM SWORD, continue to FIRE. ELSA and DONOVAN take cover beside the parked car. DONOVAN It's Jones, all right. ANGLE ON INDY'S GROUP INDY and HENRY, followed by SALLAH, take cover behind a rock to watch Kazim's Men and the Nazi Troops exchanging fire below them. HENRY Now, who are all these people? INDY Who cares? As long as they're keeping Donovan busy. Dad, you stay here while Sallah and I organize some transportation. CUT BACK to the action. The BRETHREN are firing at the DONOVAN party and are being fired on by the Donovan party. TWO NAZI SOLDIERS throw HAND GRENADES into the cliffs. They EXPLODE, killing one of Kazim's Brethren. The battle continuesóa fierce exchange of GUNSHOTS, GRENADES and MACHINE GUN FIRE with losses on both sides. INDY AND SALLAH crouch behind a rock watching as men on both sides of the battle run amongst camels and horses. INDY I'm going after those horses. SALLAH I'll take the camels. INDY I don't need camels. SALLAH But, Indyó INDY No camels! DONOVAN AND ELSA They look down at KAZIM who lies mortally wounded on the ground at their feet. ELSA looks saddened. DONOVAN (re KAZIM) Who is he? KAZIM A messenger from God. For the unrighteous, the Cup of Life holds everlasting damnation. KAZIM dies. INDY leaps atop a TURKISH SOLDIER on horseback, pulling the man and the horse to the ground. A SECOND TURK comes to assist his comrade; INDY mounts the horse, knocking both Turks to the ground. INT. THE TANK - DAY BRODY has been left alone in the tank. HENRY climbs down into the tank and taps Brody on the shoulder, startling him. HENRY Marcus! BRODY Arghhh! Oh!CONTINUED: They exchange an old University Club toast, swinging their arms at one another and missing. Then HENRY flaps his arms and tugs his ears. HENRY "Genius of the Restorationó" Now BRODY tugs his ears, flaps his arms and touches his head. BRODY "óaid our own resuscitation!" They exchange a handshake. BRODY Henryl What are you doing here?! HENRY It's a rescue, old boys Come on. As HENRY starts to climb out of the tank, TWO NAZI SOLDIERS DROP DOWN from above, their Lugers drawn. They are followed by VOGEL. VOGEL (re HENRY) Search him. The NAZI SOLDIERS point their guns at HENRY and BRODY. VOGEL (to HENRY) What is in this book? That miserable little Diary of yours! VOGEL removes a glove and slaps HENRY with it. VOGEL Here's the map. The book is useless, and yet you come all the way back to Berlin to get it. Why? He slaps HENRY again. VOGEL What are you hiding? Another slap. VOGEL What does the Diary tell you that it doesn't tell us?! VOGEL reaches out to slap HENRY yet again, but Henry grabs his arm, stopping him.CONTINUED: (2) HENRY It tells me that goose-stepping morons like yourself should try reading books instead of burning them. DONOVAN appears at the turret cover. DONOVAN Colonel? Jones is getting away. VOGEL (indicating HENRY) I think not, Herr Donovan. EXT. TANK - DAY DONOVAN Not that Jonesóthe other Jones! NAZI SOLDIER Herr Colonel! EXT. DESERT VALLEY - DAY INDY rides away on one horse, leading three others as he goes. SALLAH approaches on horseback leading five camels. INDY Sallah, I said no camels! That's five camels. Can't you Count? SALLAH Compensation for my brother-in- law's car. Indy, your father and Brodyó INDY Where's my father? SALLAH They have them. In the belly of that steel beast. INDY and SALLAH charge forward leading their horses and camels. Then VOGEL commands the Tank Driver to give chase. INT. TANK - DAY VOGEL shouts to the Tank Driver. VOGEL Fire! EXT. DESERT VALLEY - DAY The tank starts firing at INDY on horseback. Indy zigs and zags as the tank fires two rounds at Indy, barely missing him. Each time Indy emerges from the plume of desert dust, hanging like a toadstool in the air. INT. TANK- DAY HENRY and BRODY hold their hands over their ears. EXT. DESERT VALLEY - DAY DONOVAN shouts orders to the Troops. INDY is followed by various vehicles in the caravan. INDY notices that the side gun that is now firing at him can only pivot so far. Indy makes a mental note of this and while riding right in front of the tank, turns his horse completely around, 180 degrees. The tank starts to follow. POV THROUGH THE VIEWING PORT VOGEL watches the ground turning 180 degrees as he tries to catch up with INDY. Cleverly, INDY has turned the tank directly into a head-on collision course with some of the pursuit vehicles and a Kubelwagon. The tank and the Kubelwagon smash into each other, the German military sedan becoming lodged between the treads while blocking the front view and any use of the six-pound cannon on the turret. INDY, meanwhile, leans down on his horse, scooping up a stone from the wall of a culvert. He reigns his horse, paralleling the tank, as everyone scurries about inside, looking through viewing ports, trying to figure out exactly where Indy is. INT. TANK- DAY VOGEL shouts to the Gunner. VOGEL Der Kubelwagon sprengen! The Gunner puts a shell into the large gun. He FIRES, CATAPULTING THE KUBELWAGON into the air, where it EXPLODES. The tank drives through the resulting smoke an dust, then rolls over the Kubelwagon, crushing it EXT. DESERT VALLEY - DAY INDY gallops up to the side cannon and jams the stone down the barrel, lodging several rocks inside. Then he steers his horse directly in range of that gun. INT. TANK - DAY A NAZI SOLDIER pushes HENRY away from the window. NAZI SOLDIER Keine Bewegung. He points his gun at HENRY and BRODY. NAZI SOLDIER Keine Bewegung. The smaller gun, blocked by the rocks, BACKFIRES, blowing the breech out into the face of the gunner, killing him and filling the tank with smoke. BRODY, HENRY, VOGEL and the driver begin to choke. EXT. DESERT VALLEY - DAY INDY rides his horse alongside the tank. INDY Dad! Dad! Dad! INT. TANK - DAY HENRY and BRODY still held at gunpoint by the NAZI SOLDIER. HENRY Junior? Junior? Junior! The NAZI SOLDIER swings his fist, knocking HENRY off his seat. EXT. DESERT VALLEY - DAY Smoke pours from the top of the tank as the turret pops open. VOGEL emerges and aims his gun at INDY. INDY and VOGEL EXCHANGE SHOTS as Indy chases the tank on his horse. INDY pulls the trigger againóhis gun is empty! Indy immediately takes the high trail. Now INDY is above the tank twelve feet on a paralleling trail. He moves out of the saddle and leaps from the speeding horse onto the trundling tank. CLOSE UP - VOGEL Hate-staring at INDY CLOSE UP - INDY Hate-staring back at VOGEL.Suddenly, from nowhere a German soldier flies INTO FRAME, tackling Indy. CUT TO: SIDE ANGLE One of the two troop carriers is paralleling the tank and like pirates boarding a galleon, Nazi Soldiers leap over the treads and are swarming all over INDY. INDY is struggling with a German's Luger. INDY presses the luger against his assailant and forces the Nazi to squeeze off a shot into himself. The bullet not only passes through the Nazi, but passes through two other Nazis standing directly behind him on the crowded tank top and three bodies fall away, leaving Indy to stare at the gun in disbelief. Another Soldier leaps from the truck onto the tank and raises his knife as he grabs INDY. They struggle and fall. INDY sits up to see VOGEL standing over him. Vogel wraps a chain around Indy's neck. INT. TANK- DAY INDY appears at the entrance, the chain still wrapped about his neck and held by VOGEL. INDY Dad! He drops the gun down into the tank. INDY Dad! Dadl Get it! VOGEL pulls INDY from the tank entrance, yanking on the chain wrapped around his neck. EXT. TANK - DAY A NAZI SOLDIER approaches. INDY hits him, knocking him onto the tank tread. The Nazi Soldier screams as he is dragged under the rolling tank. Now INDY and VOGEL struggle with one another, the chain still wrapped around Indy's neck. INT. TANK- DAY THROUGH THE PERISCOPE We SEE INDY and VOGEL struggling atop the tank. Indy lifts his feet, lunging toward the periscope and pulling Vogel with him. INDY's face is pressed up against the lens of the periscope. INT. TANK - DAY The NAZI SOLDIER looking through the periscope pulls away from it, smiles, then turns back to it. THROUGH THE PERISCOPE INDY's face, still pressed against the lens. VOGEL pulls INDY from the periscope. INT. TANK - DAY The NAZI SOLDIER pulls away from the periscope again. PERISCOPE SOLDIER (laughing) Diese Amerikane. Sie Kampfen wie Weiber. EXT. TANK - DAY INDY now lies on top of VOGEL. He kicks out at the periscope which spins around. INT. TANK - DAY The periscope handle spins around and hits the PERISCOPE SOLDIER in the head. He falls against the NAZI SOLDIER guarding HENRY and BRODY. HENRY pushes the NAZI SOLDIER aside and grabs the gun. The PERISCOPE SOLDIER struggles to take the gun from Henry. EXT. TANK- DAY VOGEL holds the chain around INDY's neck, pushing his head downward toward the revolving tread. INT. TANK - DAY The PERISCOPE SOLDIER holds HENRY from behind, forcing the gun toward him. Henry reaches down and pulls a fountain pen from his coat pocket.CONTINUED: As the PERISCOPE SOLDIER pulls on HENRY's face, Henry lifts the fountain pen and squirts ink into his face. The Soldier falls, his head smashing into the wall of the tank. At the same time, Henry loses his grip on the gun which falls to the floor. BRODY Henry, the penó HENRY What? BRODY But don't you see? The pen is mightier than the sword. EXT. DESERT VALLEY - DAY A troop truck pulls near the tank. INT. TANK- DAY HENRY fires the TANK GUN at the troop truck. SOLDIERS FLY INTO THE AIR. The TROOP TRUCK flips over and EXPLODES. EXT. TANK - DAY The EXPLOSION knocks INDY off the tank and onto the tread. He grabs onto the shredded gun protruding from the side of the tank. VOGEL looks down at INDY and smiles smugly. The tank is approaching a cliff wall. As INDY tries to secure footing, VOGEL steps on his hands. INT. TANK - DAY BRODY looks at HENRY. BRODY Look what you didl HENRY It's war. EXT. TANK - DAY VOGEL now swings a shovel at INDY, smashing at his hands. BRODY climbs up out of the tank, followed by HENRY.CONTINUED: HENRY Didn't I tell you it was a rescue, huh? A NAZI SOLDIER appears and pulls HENRY down. VOGEL raises the shovel above his head and brings it crashing down on INDY, still hanging from the protruding gun. INDY loses his grip and now hangs from the gun suspended only by the strap of his leather pouch. He screams as the gun scrapes against the cliff wall, sending stones tumbling down over him. INT. TANK - DAY The NAZI SOLDIER knocks HENRY into a pile of boxes, then punches him in the face. As the SOLDIER raises the gun to HENRY's face, BRODY hits him over the head with a canister. The Soldier falls, discharging the gun into the air. The BULLET RICOCHETS around the tank, past the Tank Driver who is manipulating levers at the control panel. SPARKS FLY; then the BULLET PINGS AGAINST THE WINDOW and RICOCHETS ONCE MORE, this time passing THROUGH THE TANK DRIVER'S HAT. Blood flows from under the hat as the Tank Driver slumps forward, his body depressing the levers. EXT. TANK - DAY INDY still hangs from the strap of his leather pouch as the tank swerves, barely missing the rocks and causing VOGEL to fall. Indy finally manages to pull himself atop the tank once more where he punches Vogel over the side, then peers down to HENRY, still inside the tank. INDY Dad? HENRY You call this archaeology? INDY Get out of there, Dad! INDY pulls HENRY and BRODY from the tank. VOGEL pulls himself back atop the tank armed again with the shovel which he swings at Indy, who ducks and grabs Vogel's arm. BRODY How does one get off this thing? As INDY winds up to punch VOGEL he catches BRODY in the face on the backswing, then completes the movement and knocks Vogel down. INT. TANK - DAY Vogel's hat sails in and falls to the floor. EXT. TANK- DAY HENRY (to INDY) Where's Marcus?! Before INDY can answer, VOGEL is up and swinging with the shovel. Indy ducks but the shovel catches HENRY sending him over the side and onto the moving tread. INDY grabs his whip, knocking VOGEL aside. As HENRY speeds toward the front of the tank to certain doom, INDY, with lightning speed, whips out his bullwhip, wrapping the end of the whip around Henry's right ankle. INDY Dad! HENRY is bouncing across the treads like a rag-doll. INDY struggles to hold onto the end of the bullwhip. INDY Hang on, Dad! SALLAH draws his horse next to the treads. He tips his fez to HENEY. SALLAH Father of Indyógive me your hand! VOGEL now punches INDY in the back and grabs him around the neck. Still, INDY refuses to let go of the whip. INDY Sallah! Get Dadl SALLAH reaches out to HENRY. SALLAH Give me your hand! SALLAH manages to hold onto HENRY as he brings his horse to a stop just at the cliff's edge. INDY finally frees himself of VOGEL's grasp, twisting his arm painfully away from Indy's neck, then landing a hard blow to Vogel's head. INDY looks down at the fast-approaching cliff, his face filled with horror. We SEE his HAT BLOW OFF and sail over the cliff's edge. VOGEL He sees his life passing before him, he screams at the top of his lungs! LONG SHOT The tank trundles over the cliff and PLUMMETS TO THE BOTTOM. EXT. CLIFF EDGE - DAY HENRY, BRODY and SALLAH look down at the flaming wreckage of the tank. HENRY Junior?! We HEAR the TANK EXPLODING. SALLAH Indy?! HENRY Oh, God. I've lost him. And I never told him anything. I just wasn't ready, Marcus. Five minutes would have been enough. And then... looking dazed and bewildered, INDY STAGGERS UP BEHIND THEM. He joins the others at the edge of the cliff, looking down at the wreckage below with a bewildered expression. Finally, Henry becomes aware of his presence. HENRY says nothing. He just looks at Indy, overcome with emotion. Finally, he throws his arms around him. HENRY I thought I'd lost you, boy. After a moment, Indy's head clears. And he becomes aware of his father's embrace. Something he hasn't felt in a long timeóif ever. And it touches him. He hugs his father back. INDY I thought you had too, sir. BRODY and SALLAH are moved by this sudden reconciliation. HENRY Wellówell done! Come on! HENRY pats INDY on the back and Indy collapses, sitting hard on the rocky cliff edge.CONTINUED: Unaware, HENRY, SALLAH and BRODY start to walk away. Henry turns back to see INDY still sitting on the ground. HENRY Let's go then. why are you sitting there resting when we're so near the end? Come onó let's go! HENRY turns and walks toward the horse with BRODY and SALLAH. Suddenly the FEDORA, borne on the wind, BLOWS INTO SCENE and lands at INDY's feet. EXT. MOUNTAIN ROAD - DAY DONOVAN peers through binoculars to see the CANYON OF THE CRESCENT MOON. He lowers the binoculars and turns to ELSA. DONOVAN The Canyon of the Crescent Moon. Now ELSA peers through the binoculars. EXT. SECRET CANYON - DAY INDY, HENRY, SALLAH and BRODY ride into the canyon. They hear a WAILING WIND. Feel the biting cold. And sense the danger. Now we turn a corner and they see the hidden city. Its spectacular Grecian facade is carved directly into the rock. It is a stunning sight. The vehicles, camels and horses belonging to DONOVAN's party have been left at the entrance. CUT TO: INT. TEMPLE - DAY INDY, SALLAH, HENRY AND BRODY creep forward to see: THE TERRIFIED FACE OF A TURKISH SOLDIER He's walking slowly. Eyes darting. Muttering a prayer under his breath. What's going on here? FULL SHOT - INSIDE THE MOUNTAIN TEMPLE THE TURK stands alone in the center of the Temple. It is very dark. GIANT COLUMNS define the Temple's perimeter. ELSA AND DONOVAN watch him from a safe distance. THE TURK is about to approach the spot where a TURKISH SOLDIER LIES DEAD. We don't notice it right away, but the dead soldier has been DECAPITATED. THE TURK stopsóonly one step away from the beheaded soldier. THE TURK takes one more stepóa fatal step, it turns out. We hear a ROARóA WHOOSH of airóbut we SEE NOTHINGóexcept THE TURK'S HEAD FLY OFF AND BOUNCE across the ground. INDY, HENRY, BRODY AND SALLAH react to the sight. ELSA AND DONOVAN She looks at him, horrified. DONOVAN Helmut, another volunteer! TWO NAZI SOLDIERS force another Turk forward. Suddenly... The SOUND OF RIFLE BOLTS being cocked. Everyone turns to discover INDY and his party surrounded by NAZI SOLDIERS. Indy's group are relieved of their guns. FULL SHOT - THE TEMPLE INDY, HENRY, BRODY and SALLAH are brought forward by the Nazi Soldiers. ELSA's eyes light up: glad Indy's not dead. she controls herself and continues more coldly. ELSA (to INDY) I never expected to see you again. INDY I'm like a bad penny. I always turn up. DONOVAN Step back now, Doctor Schneider. Give Doctor Jones some room. He's going to recover the Grail for us.CONTINUED: INDY laughs. DONOVAN Impossible? What do you say, Jones? Ready to go down in history? INDY As what? A Nazi stooge like you? DONOVAN (scornfully) Nazis?!óIs that the limit of your vision?! The Nazis want to write themselves into the Grail legend and take on the world. Well, they're welcome. But I want the Grail itself. The cup that gives everlasting life. Hitler can have the world, but he can't take it with him. I'm going to be drinking my own health when he's gone the way of the Dodo. (he draws his pistol) The Grail is mine, and you're going to get it for me. INDY Shooting me won't get you anywhere. DONOVAN You know something, Doctor Jones?... you're absolutely right. Then DONOVAN shifts his aim, just a bit, and SHOOTS HENRY. The bullet enters his side below the ribs. INDY Dad?! HENRY Junior. . . ELSA No!! DONOVAN ( to ELSA) Get back! HENRY collapses. Blood flowing from the wound. BRODY and SALLAH rush to his assistance.CONTINUED: (2) INDY spins toward DONOVAN with murder in his eyes. DONOVAN points the gun at him: DONOVAN You can't save him when you're dead. INDY hesitates. DONOVAN The healing power of the Grail is the only thing that can save your father now. It's time to ask yourself what you believe. INDY takes in the situation. The two decapitated men lie a few yards in front of him. He walks to the entranceway, flanked by two stone lions. We get silent reaction shotsóELSAóSALLAHóBRODYóDONOVANóregistering their different emotions INDY proceeds forward. His hands open the Grail Diary. INDY "The Breath of God... Only the penitent man will pass. Only the penitent man will pass. . . " INDY takes a few steps forward. INDY "The penitent man will pass. The penitent man..." INDY stops. He is about to reach the spot where two men have just died. HENRY looks at INDY. Indy looks at Henry. HENRY (in a raspy voice) "Only the penitent man will pass. Only the penitent man will pass." INDY (quietly to himself) The penitent man will pass. The penitent... the penitent. The penitent man... HENRY The penitent man. The penitent... INDY takes a step forward through the cobwebs.CONTINUED: (3) INDY The penitent man is humble before God. HENRY Penitent. Penitent... INDY The penitent man is humble... The cobwebs begin to move.... INDY He kneels before God. (to himself; suddenly) Kneel!! We hear the awful rush of airóWHOOSH! Because INDY is in the act of kneeling, only his hat is knocked off and his hair flies in his face. Instinctively he ROLLS FORWARD on the ground out of harm's way and looks up. From his new position he is able to see what is causing all the trouble: A RAZOR SHARP TRIPLE PENDULUM. INDY gets cautiously to his feet. Now he sees the pendulum has been guarding a SMALL CORRIDOR which turns a corner to the left fifty yards ahead. Wooden wheels turnóthe mechanism controlling the spinning blades. INDY loops a rope around the wheels, jamming the mechanism and stopping the blades in mid-swipe. INDY I'm through! ELSA AND DONOVAN DONOVAN We're through! BRODY and SALLAH smile, relieved. SALLAH (to HENRY) He's all right. HENRY shakes his head. HENRY No. BACK TO INDY holding the Grail Diary, reading once again, his fedora now covered in cobwebs. INDY "The second challenge is the Word of God. Only in the footsteps of God will he proceed." (to himself) The Word of God... The Word of... INDY pulls away some cobwebs to reveal a cobblestone path. Each cobble is engraved with a letter. INDY "Proceed in the footsteps of the Word." HENRY lifts his head painfully. HENRY The Word of God... BRODY No, Henry. Try not to talk. HENRY The Name of God... BACK TO INDY as he studies the cobblestones before him. INDY The Name of God... Jehovahl HENRY still lies in SALLAH's arms. BRODY leans over him. HENRY But in the Latin alphabet, "Jehovah" begins with an "I." BACK TO INDY INDY "J." INDY takes a step and immediately a stone breaks away and INDY falls up to his hip -- his leg stuck through the hold where the stone once was. HENRY reacts. HENRY Oh dear! BACK TO INDY who grunts as he pulls himself from the hole, the v-rail Diary in his hand. INDY In Latin, "Jehovah" starts with an "I." "I"... Now we SEE each letter on the stones as INDY carefully walks forward. DONOVAN and ELSA follow in his footsteps. INDY "E"... "H"... "O"... "V"... "A"... INDY sighs with relief and steps forward to: THE GREAT ABYSS INDY stands in a small opening, just small enough for his shoulders to squeeze through and beyond that a 100 foot drop to the rocks below and 100 feet across, nothing but a rough, stony cliff wall. BACK TO INDY He can see nowhere to cross. He looks again to the v-rail Diary. INDY "The path of flood. Only in the leap from the lion's head will he prove his worth." INDY looks around and then he notices that inscribed into the rock above his head is the head of a lion. INDY Impossiblel Nobody can jump this! INDY looks down into the Diary and tortures over what it is asking him to do. BRODY rushes forward and calls to INDY. BRODY Indy... Indy, you must hurry!! Come quickly! BACK TO INDY INDY (realizing) It's... a leap of faith. Oh, God. HENRY calls to his son. HENRY You must believe, boy. you must... believe. We see him do it. We see him leap into space. We see that he is in midair. We see that he is not going to make it. His hands claw for the opposite wall but he is going to fall 100 feet to his death. And thenóhe doesn't! He appears to be held up by thin air as he lands on his hands and knees. INDY looks around and down and now he figures it out. Ingeniously, the First Crusaders have painted a pathway to align with the rocks 100 feet below. It is a perfect forced perspective image of the rocks below with lines from a hundred feet continuing six feet below his sight line where his feet are stepping. It's painted to blend in with the rocks below. Highly evolved camouflage... in perfect alignment with everything we see below. When INDY leans out to the left or right... that's when he sees the perfect alignment shift that betrays the trick. Indy throws some dirt on the bridge and he crosses it like the first Crusader from the painting over Henry's desk. Indy crawls through a small opening in the side of the cliff and enters a Temple. A vast array of chalices is displayed on the altar of this small Temple. Perhaps a hundred or more. Many sizes, many shapes, some gold, some silver, but they all glitter and shine. INDY is mesmerized by their number and their beauty. And then he realizes that a man is praying at the altarl He has his back turned to INDY... but he is dressed as what he is! A GRAIL KNIGHT. CLOSE ON THE GRAIL KNIGHT But we can't see the Grail Knight's face. The visor of his helmet is down. Perhaps we see his eyes.CONTINUED: When the GRAIL KNIGHT sees INDY he gets wearily to his feet and, surprisingly, prepares to give combat...taking up his two-handed broadsword...he comes at Indy, attempting to swing the huge, heavy sword but finding the effort almost too much. Indy dodges two or three clumsy swings of the sword, making no attempt to fight back...until the Knight, exhausted, drops the sword and collapses. Indy approaches him and raises the visor and we see that the Knight is a very ancient man. KNIGHT I knew you'd come, but my strength has left me. INDY Who are you? KNIGHT The last of three brothers who swore an oath to find the Grail and to guard it. INDY That was seven hundred years ago. KNIGHT A long time to wait. The GRAIL KNIGHT reaches forward and fingers Indy's clothing. KNIGHT You're strangely dressed...for a knight. INDY I'm not exactly...a knight. What do you mean? KNIGHT I was chosen because I was the bravest and the most worthy. The honor was mine until another came to challenge me to single combat. I pass it to you who vanquished me. The GRAIL KNIGHT holds his sword out to INDY. INDY (gulp) Listen, I don't have time to explain, butó At that moment DONOVAN and ELSA appear. Donovan turns to face the display of cups. DONOVAN Which one is it?CONTINUED: (2) KNIGHT You must choose. (beat) But choose wisely. For as the True Grail will bring you lifeó the False Grail will take it from you. DONOVAN I'm not a historian. I have no idea what it looks like. Which one is it? ELSA Let me choose. DONOVAN Thank you, Doctor. ELSA and INDY exchange looks. He thinks he is seeing her in her true colors. ELSA chooses a cupóa solid gold, emerald encrusted goblet. DONOVAN instantly takes it from her. DONOVAN Oh, yes. It's more beautiful than I'd ever imagined. This certainly is the cup of the King of Kings. DONOVAN rushes to the well and fills the goblet with water. DONOVAN Eternal life! DONOVAN drinks from the goblet. Then, DONOVAN'S entire body starts to convulse. His face contorts in agony. He grabs his stomach and turns toward ELSA. DONOVAN What . . . is . . . happening. . . to . . . me. . .? He starts to ageófast! His hair grows long and gray and brittle. His face sinks. Fingernails curl back on themselves. Milky cataracts coat his eyes. ELSA gasps and screams. DONOVAN What. . . is . . . happening. . . ? His skin turns brown and leathery and stretches across his bones until it splits. His skeletal hands reach for ELSA's throat, choking her.CONTINUED: (3) INDY rushes forward and pushes DONOVAN away. As he falls he BODY BREAKS INTO FLAMES, then SHATTERS AGAINST THE WALL. KNIGHT He chose...poorly. INDY studies the array of chalices. ELSA It would not be made out of gold. INDY picks up another cupóa simple earthenware jug. INDY That's the cup of a carpenter. He and ELSA exchange a look. INDY There's only one way to find out. INDY goes to the well and fills the earthenware jug with water, then pauses. INDY brings the jug to his lips and takes several large swallows. A strange sensation overcomes him, a feeling of peace and contentment...and we see his wounds begin to heal. KNIGHT You have chosen wisely. But the Grail cannot pass beyond the Great Seal. That is the boundary and the price of immortality. CUT TO BRODY AND SALLAH who attend to Henry awaiting Indy's return. INDY and ELSA come forward with the Grail. The TWO NAZI SOLDIERS are over-awed by the possessors of the Grail. They put down their guns and kneel. INDY kneels by HENRY's side and tilts his head forward and holds the Grail to his lips. HENRY is too weak to even open his eyes. HENRY swallows some of the water. Much of it runs down the corners of his mouth. Finally INDY pours the water over the wound and everyone watches in astonishment as the wound and the blood stain disappear before their eyes. The color returns to Henry's face. HENRY's eyes open. The first thing he sees is the Grail and they light up. Then they shift to INDY's faceóand they light up even more... NAZI SOLDIERS run forward. SALLAH points a rifle at them. SALLAH Drop your guns. Please. The NAZI SOLDIERS drop their weapons at their feet and raise their arms in surrender. INDY (to HENRY) Dad, come on. Get to your feet. ELSA steps forward and picks up the Grail. She turns to INDY, her face alight with possession of the Grail. ELSA We have got it. Come on. ELSA steps onto the edge of the Great Seal. INDY Elsa! Elsa, don't movel ELSA It's ours, Indy. Yours and mine. INDY Elsa, don't cross the Seal. The Knight warned us not to take the Grail from here. A RUMBLING SOUND IS HEARD and the ground roars and shifts. Dirt falls from the ceiling of the cavern. ELSA falls on the Great Seal. The Grail bounces away from her grasp. She reaches for it and the ground beneath her begins to SPLIT OPEN. ELSA slips into the crevasse. She screams. ELSA is hanging perilously in the abyss, with the Grail almost within her reach. As her hands lose their grip, INDY just manages to one of them, he himself sliding forward across the slanted floor. HENRY Junior! Junior! With her free hand, ELSA is trying to get the Grail. INDY can't save her unless she gives him her free hand. She has to choose. INDY Elsa. Elsa don't. Elsa. Elsa. Give me your other hand, honey. I can't hold you.CONTINUED: ELSA I can reach it. I can reach it... Her hand begins to slip from Indy's grasp. INDY Elsa! Give me your hand. Give me your other hand! ELSA just manages to touch the Grail. In doing so, she has tipped the balance too faróINDY slides down another yard, Elsa loses her grip and falls screaming to her death. INDY (horrified) Elsa!! Now the ledge INDY lies upon begins to break apart. HENRY grabs one of his hands as Indy struggles to reach the Grail with the other. HENRY Junior, give me your other hand! I can't hold on!! INDY I can get itóI can almost reach it, Dad. INDY looks down into the black bottomless pit beneath him from which nothing can ever be retrieved. HENRY Indiana. Indiana!! INDY snaps his look up to his father. His father has never called him this before. HENRY (very calmly) ... let it go... INDY abandons the Grail and grabs onto HENRY with both hands. HENRY pulls him up to safety. THE GRAIL KNIGHT looks through the falling debris to INDY and HENRY. SALLAH and BRODY rush from the crumbling Temple. INDY Dad. . . The GRAIL KNIGHT raises his arm to HENRY.CONTINUED: INDY Please, Dad... INDY and HENRY down the passageway just as a huge stone column tumbles down upon the spot where they stood. The GRAIL KNIGHT lowers his arm as he watches them leave. EXT. ENTRANCE TO MOUNTAIN TEMPLE - AFTERNOON INDY, HENRY, SALLAH and BRODY emerge from the Mountain Temple through the Grecian Facade. From within the Mountain Temple, the ROAR OF WALLS CAVING IN IS HEARD. A cloud of dust and smoke billows out from the entrance. HENRY turns to INDY. HENRY Elsa never really believed in the Grail. She thought she'd found a prize. INDY What did vou find, Dad? HENRY Me?... Illumination. HENRY and INDY mount their horses. Henry turns back to his son. HENRY What did you find, Junior? INDY Junior?! Dad... SALLAH Please...What does it always mean, this...this "Junior?" HENRY That's his name. Henry Jones, Junior. INDY I like Indiana. HENRY We named the dog Indiana. BRODY May we go home now, please?CONTINUED: SALLAH (to INDY) The dog!? (laughs) You are named after the dog... INDY (embarrassed) I've got a lot of fond memories of that dog. A moment passes as they all ready their mounts and SALLAH continues to laugh at INDY. INDY Ready? HENRY Ready. BRODY Indy! Henryl Follow met I know the way! (to his horse) Haaa! HENRY (to INDY) Got lost in his own museum, huh? INDY Uh-huh. HENRY After you, Junior. INDY Yes, sir! (to his horse) Haaa! EXT. THE SECRET CANYON - AFTERNOON They THUNDER through the canyonówhose towering walls threaten to collapse upon them. EXT. ENTRANCE TO CANYON - SUNSET as BRODY, INDY, HENRY AND SALLAH ride from the canyon toward the SETTING SUN. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..231dcaecd5c350e418cd5a8edbc4a3b062cf7f80 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + "RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK" Screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan Story by George Lucas FADE IN: EXT. PERU - HIGH JUNGLE - DAY The dense, lush rain forests of the eastern slopes of the Andes, the place known as "The Eyebrow of the Jungle". Ragged, jutting canyon walls are half-hidden by the thick mists. The MAIN TITLE is followed by this: PERU 1936 A narrow trail across the green face of the canyon. A group of men make their way along it. At the head of the party is an American, INDIANA JONES. He wears a short leather jacket, a flapped holster, and a brimmed felt hat with a weird feather stuck in the band. Behind him come two Spanish Peruvians, SATIPO and BARRANCA. Bringing up the rear are five Yagua INDIANS. They act as porters and are wrangling the two heavily- packed llamas. The Indians become increasingly nervous. They speak to each other in bursts of Quechua. The American, who is known to his friends as Indy, glances back at them. BARRANCA (irritated) They're talking about the Curse again! He turns and yells at the Indians in Quechua, his anger giving an indication of his own fears. The party reaches a break in the canyon wall and takes the trail through it. When they emerge, their destination is revealed to them in the distance. Beyond a thick stand of trees is the vegetation- enshrouded TEMPLE OF THE CHACHAPOYAN WARRIORS. The entire party is struck by the sight. The Indians, terrified now, chatter away. Suddenly the three at the back turn and run, dropping their packs as they go. Barranca yells at the fleeing Indians and pulls his pistol out. He starts to raise his arm to aim but Indy restrains it in a muscular grip. INDY No. Barranca looks evilly at Indy's hand upon him. Indy releases him and smiles in a friendly way. INDY We don't need them. Satipo watches this confrontation with some concern. BARRANCA I do not carry supplies. INDY We'll leave them. Once we've got it, we'll be able to reach the plane by dusk. He turns back to the trail. Satipo gets the two remaining Indians moving behind Indy. Satipo and Barranca then have a fast, silent communication: Barranca indicates his desire to slit Indy's throat; Satipo gives him a look that says "Be patient, you idiot". THE APPROACH TO THE TEMPLE The party fans out to fight their way through the entwined trees that guard the temple. Visibility is cut to five feet in the heavy mist. Satipo extracts a short, native dart from a tree and examines the point gingerly SATIPO (showing Indy) The Hovitos are near. The poison is still fresh... three days. They're following us, I tell you. INDY If they knew we were here, they would have killed us already. The two Indiana jabber in Quechua, near hysteria. Barranca is sweating profusely, eyes darting. He yells at the Indians in Quechua to "shut up". In the undergrowth, there is slithering movement. Indian #1 draws aside a branch and is faced with a horrific stone sculpture of a Chachapoyan demon. The Indian is so frightened no sound comes out when he screams. He turns and runs silently away. Indian #2 calls to his friend. Getting no response, he steps in that direction. A huge macaw, flushed from the undergrowth, screams and flies away. Indian #2 does exactly the same thing, never to be seen again. Indy, Satipo and Barranca, just clearing the trees, look back in that direction. They all turn to face the Temple. It is dark and awesome. Vegetation curls from every crevice, over each elaborate frieze. The entrance - round, open and black - has been designed to look like open jaws. INDY So this is where Forrestal cashed in. SATIPO A friend of yours? INDY Competitor. He was good, very good. BARRANCA (nervous) No one has ever come out of there alive. Why should we put our faith in you? Indy takes the weird feather from the band of his hat. From around its point, he slips a tightly rolled piece of parchment. Barranca and Satipo exchange a quick "So that's where is was!" look. They all kneel as Indy spreads out the parchment. On it is one-half of a crude floorplan of the Temple. INDY No one ever had what we have... partners. Indy fixes them with an expectant stare. Satipo produces a similar, but folded, piece of parchment. He lays it - the other half of the floorplan - next to Indy's. They all regard it for a moment, then Indy stands and walks toward the Temple. Barranca's eyes are shining as they dart between the floorplan and Satipo. INDY (back turned) Assuming that pillar there marks the corner and... Barranca is suddenly on his feet, quietly drawing his pistol. He raises it toward Indy as Satipo realizes with alarm what he's doing. Too late. Indy's head turns and he sees Barranca. Indy's next move is amazing, graceful and fast, yet totally unhurried. His right hand slides up under the back of his leather jacket and emerges grasping the handle of a neatly curled bullwhip. With the same fluid move that brings Indy's body around to face the Peruvian, the whip uncoils to its full ten foot length and flashes out. The fall of the whip (the unplaited strip at the end of the lash) wraps itself around Barranca's hand and pistol. He could not drop the gun now if he tried. Indy gives the whip a short pull and Barranca's arm in jerked down, where it involuntarily discharges the gun into the dirt. Barranca is amazed, but feels some slack in the whip and immediately raises the gun toward Indy again, cocking it with his free hand. Indy's face goes hard. And sad. Indy sweeps his arm in a wide arc. Barranca spins around, enclosed in the whip, his gun hand stuck tight against his body. Indy gives one more short jerk on the whip handle and Barranca's gun fires. Barranca falls dead. Indy looks quickly at Satipo, who is shocked and frightened. He raises his arms in supplication. SATIPO I knew nothing! He was crazy! Please! Indy looks him over, then nods. He frees the whip from Barranca's body and picks up the man. His eyes sweep the surrounding woods. INDY Let's go. INT. TEMPLE - INCLINED PASSAGE - DAY Indy and Satipo, carrying a torch, walk up the slightly inclined, tubular passage from the main entrance. The interior is wet and dark, hanging with plant life and stalactites. Their echoing footsteps intermittently overpower the sounds of loud dripping, whistling air drafts and scampering claws. HALL OF SHADOWS Indy leads the way down a twisting hallway, Satipo's torch barely lighting his way from behind. Indy disappears in a shadow and when he reappears a moment later a huge black tarantula is crawling up the back of his jacket. Indy doesn't notice and disappears into another shadow, emerging with two more tarantulas on his back. Satipo sees them and makes a frightened grunting sound. Indy looks at him, sees what he's pointing at and casually brushes all three spiders off with his rolled whip, as he would a fly. Satipo pirouettes for an inspection and Indy flicks one off the Peruvian's back. Indy begins picking up little pocket-sized artifacts from the niches and ledges of the Temple. He continues to do this as the men penetrate the Temple. His collecting is quick and expert, evaluating the pieces in an instant, discarding some, stuffing others into his clothes, and never stopping his forward progress. CHAMBER OF LIGHT The men reach an arch in the hall. The small chamber ahead, which interrupts the hall, is brightly lit by a shaft of sunlight from high above. Indy stops, looks it over. SATIPO What's wrong? Are you lost? Indy picks up a stick and throws it through the shaft of light. Giant spikes spring together from the sides of the chamber with a ferocious CLANG! And impaled on the spikes are the remains of a white man, half-fleshed, half skeleton, in explorer-type grab. Indy reaches out and takes hold of the man's carcass. As the spikes slowly retract, Indy pulls it free and seats the remains gently on the floor. INDY Forrestal. SATIPO (gulps) We can go no further. INDY Now, Satipo, we don't want to be discouraged by every little thing. Indy steps sideways into the chamber. His back pressed against the very points of the retracted spikes, he moves along the edge of the light beam, and steps clear on the other side. Satipo grimaces and begins sweating his way through. STAIRWAY Indy and Satipo come down stone stairs to a tight landing. Framing the entry are a carefully strung network of dead vines, each somehow hooked into the wall, narrowing the opening even more. INDY (taking torch) Let me see that. He lowers the torch to the floor of the landing. The landing is carpeted with human skeletons, one on top of another, all squashed flat as cardboard. Satipo gasps. Indy looks up at the ceiling of the landing, then steps onto skeletons, which make a cracking noise under his feet. INDY Try not to touch the vines. FOYER OF THE SANCTUARY The men are in a high, straight hallway 50 feet long. The door at the end is flooded with sunlight. SATIPO SeÒor, I think we are very close. Indy stands still looking at the hall. SATIPO (impatient) Let us hurry. There is nothing to fear here. INDY That's what scares me. They begin walking down the hall side by side. Satipo has inched a little ahead. Suddenly his lead foot comes down and through the floor! As Satipo begins to pitch forward, Indy grabs him by the belt and pulls him back. They both look down at the "floor". Indy swings his whip across the floor. Fifteen feet of it cuts open beneath the lash, falling away to reveal black pit as wide as the hall. The illusory floor was made of dust- covered cobwebs. Satipo picks up a stone and drops it down the pit. No sound. The two men exchange glances. Indy looks up at the high roof of the hall. He swings the whip up around a support beam, tests its strength with a pull and swings over the pit on the whip. From the other side he swings the whip back to Satipo, who throws Indy the torch. Satipo swings across. When they are both standing on solid floor there is a moment of quiet in which they hear, from far, far below - SPLASH! Indy wedges the whip handle into the wall and leaves it strung to the beam for quick retreat. THE SANCTUARY A large, domed room. Ten evenly-spaced skylights send their shafts of sunlight down to a unique tiled floor: white and black tiles laid out in a lovely, intricate pattern. Indy and Satipo stand at the door and look across the wide room at the altar. There, in the supreme hallowed spot, is a tiny jeweled figurine, Indy's real objective. Two torches, many years old, are in holders by the door. Indy takes one down and lights it. He gives the regular torch to Satipo. SATIPO There's plenty of light, amigo. Indy kneels and uses the unlit end of the torch to reach out and tap a white tile. It is solid. He taps a black tile. There is a whizzing sound and a tiny dark sticks in the torch. Satipo points to the wall nearby: there is a recessed hole there. SATIPO From that hole! Indy nods, stands and looks around the sanctuary. The entire room is honey-comed with the same kind of hole. Satipo sees it too and is properly impressed. INDY You wait here. SATIPO If you insist, seÒor. Torch in hand, Indy begins his careful walk across the sanctuary. Stepping only on the white tiles, he almost appears to be doing a martial arts kata. Before each big move he waves the torch in front of him head to toe, looking at the flame. Halfway out, he sees something on the floor and kneels to look at it. A dead bird lies on one of the white tiles. Its body is riddled with little deadly darts. This has great significance to Indy and he stands with even greater caution. He waves the torch ahead of him and at waist height an air current whips at the flame. Indy ducks under it and leaves a burn mark on the white tile beneath it. Satipo watches, wide-eyed and mystified. Indy reaches the altar. The tiny idol looks both fierce and beautiful. It rests on a pedestal of polished stone. Indy looks the whole set-up over very carefully. From his jacket he takes a small, canvas drawstring bad. He begins filling it with dirt from around the case of the altar. When he has created a weight that he thinks approximates the weight of the idol, he bounces it a couple times in his palm concentrating. It's clear he wants to replace the idol with the bag as smoothly as possible. His hand seems ready to do that once, when he stops, takes a breath and loosens his shoulder muscles. Now he sets himself again. And makes the switch! The idol is now in his hand, the bag on the pedestal. For a long moment it sits there, then the polished stone beneath the bag drops five inches. This sets off an AURAL CHAIN REACTION of steadily increasing volume as some huge mysterious mechanism rumbles into action deep in the temple. Indy spins and starts his kata back across the sanctuary at four times the speed. Satipo's eyes widen in terror. He turns and runs. THE RETREAT - INTERCUTTING INDY AND SATIPO The sanctuary has begun to rumble and shake in response to the mysterious mechanism. Just as Indy goes out the door, a rock shakes loose from the wall and rolls onto the tiles floor. Immediately, a noisy torrent of poison darts fills the room. IN THE FOYER Satipo swings across the pit. He makes it just as the whip comes undone from the beam, leaving Indy without an escape. Satipo, extremely nervous, regards the whip a moment then turns back to face Indy, who has run up to the far side of the pit. SATIPO No time to argue. Throw me the idol, I throw you the whip. Indy hesitates, eyeing the rumbling walls. SATIPO You have no choice! Hurry! Indy concurs with that assessment. He tosses the idol across the pit to Satipo. Satipo stuffs it in the front pocket of his jacket, gives Indy a look, then drops the whip on the floor and runs. SATIPO Adios, amigo! Indy grimaces. He had a feeling this might happen. He looks around. AT THE VINED LANDING Satipo flies through like a chubby ballet dancer and takes the steps five at a time. IN THE FOYER Indy runs in full stride to the edge of the pit and broad jumps into space. He doesn't make it. His body hits the far side of the pit and he begins to slide out of view. Only wild clawing with his fingers at the edge of the pit stops his descent. With just the tips of his fingers over the edge, he begins pulling himself up. AT THE CHAMBER OF LIGHT Satipo has slowed down. He begins to edge carefully around the light shaft. AT THE VINED LANDING Indy sails through sideways and rolls to a stop at the bottom of the steps. His whip is grasped in his hand. As he raises himself, he hears, from above the giant spikes of the Chamber of Light CLANG! and an abrupt, sickening rendition of SATIPO'S LAST SCREAM. Indy runs up the steps. The rumbling sound grows louder. AT THE CHAMBER OF LIGHT Indy slides to a stop. The spikes have retracted, taking Satipo's body to one side. Indy edges into the chamber with his back to the shaft of light. Soon he is face to face with the dead Satipo; spikes protrude from several vital spots in the Peruvian's body. Indy removes the idol from Satipo's pocket and moves quickly out the other side. INDY Adios. THE INCLINED PASSAGE Indy shoots out of a cut-off hallway and turns toward the exit. The rumbling is very loud and now we see why: right behind Indy a huge boulder comes roaring around a corner of the passage, perfectly form-fitted to the passageway. It obliterates everything before it, sending the stalactites shooting ahead like missiles. Indy dashes for the light of the exit. His hat flies off his head. Almost immediately it is crushed by the boulder. Indy dives out the end of the passage as the boulder slams to a perfect fit at the entrance, sealing the Temple. EXT. FRONT OF THE TEMPLE - DAY Indy lies on the ground, gasping for air. A shadow falls across him and he looks up. WHAT HE SEES Looming above him are three figures. Two are HOVITOS WARRIORS in full battle paint and loin cloths. They carry long blow guns. But the man in the center draws Indy's attention. He is a tall, impressive white man, dressed in full safari outfit including pith helmet. His name is EMILE BELLOQ. His face is thin, powerful; his eyes hypnotic; his smile charming, yet lethal. His heavily French-accented speech is deep, mellifluous, wonderful. Back beyond Belloq and his two escorts, thirty more Hovitos Warriors hover at the edge of the trees. BELLOQ Dr. Jones, you choose the wrong friends. This time it will cost you. Belloq extends his hand. Indy looks at it, then produces the idol and hands it to Belloq. Belloq extends his other hand, smiling. Indy hands over his gun. Belloq sticks it in his jacket. BELLOQ And you thought I'd given up. INDY (eyeing the Hovitos) Too bad they don't know you like I do, Belloq. BELLOQ (smiles) Yes, too bad. You could warn them... if only you spoke Hovitos. With that, Belloq turns dramatically and holds the idol high for all the Hovitos to see and says something in Hovitos. There is a murmur of recognition and all the Indians, including Belloq's escorts, prostrate themselves upon the ground, heads down. Indy is immediately up and running toward the edge of the clearing. BELLOQ (in Hovitos) Kill him! AT THE EDGE OF THE CLEARING Indy disappears into the foliage. An instant later, the leaves are peppered with a rain of poison darts and spears. EXT. THE JUNGLE - INDY'S RUN - VARIOUS SHOTS - DAY Indy runs like hell through steadily falling terrain. And always close behind, a swift gang of angry Hovitos. Occasionally they get close enough to send a dart or spear whizzing past Indy's head. EXT. THE URUBAMBA RIVER - DUSK An amphibian plane sits in the water beneath a green cliff. Sitting on the wing is JOCK, the British pilot. Indy breaks out of some distant brush and runs along the path at the top of the cliff. INDY (yelling) Get it going! Get it going! Jock hops in and fires up the plane's engines. Indy reaches a spot on the cliff above the place, glances back, them jumps into the river. He comes up, swims to the plane and grabs a strut. INDY GO! Jock starts the plane moving across the water as Indy walks across the wing and falls into the passenger compartment. INT. JOCK'S PLANE - DUSK Indy relaxes and lies across the seat, a big smile on his face. One hand drops to the floor of the cabin and Indy jumps, hitting his head. On the floor of the cabin is a huge boa constrictor. Indy tries to get his whole body onto the seat. Jock sees what's happening. JOCK Don't mind him. That's Reggie. Wouldn't hurt a soul. INDY I can't stand snakes. JOCK The world's full of them, you know. INDY I hate them. JOCK Come on now, Sport, show a little of the old backbone. EXT. JOCK'S PLANE - TWILIGHT It soars off over the dark jungle. INT. INDY'S OFFICE, SMALL EASTERN COLLEGE - DAY It's autumn and the pretty, New England campus out Indy's window reflects it in dazzling color. A few weeks before the start of classes. Activity just picking up. Some students about. Indy is at a bookcase near the window and he looks quite different in this setting. His outfit is tweedy, slightly rumpled in the professional style. Part of his attention is focused in a book and he wears glasses to see the fine print. The office is cramped, absolutely inundated with books, maps, etchings and archeological artifacts. In fact, the only neat spot in the room right now is Indy's desk, which has been cleared off expressly for the benefit of - MARCUS BRODY The Curator of the National Museum in Washington, D.C. Brody is examining the small artifacts Indy pocketed on his way into the Peruvian Temple. He occasionally uses a jeweler's eyepiece to get a closer look. But he is distracted, his concerns elsewhere, and it is this that his old friend Indy senses from across the room. BRODY Do you think the idol will ever show up? INDY I don't know. Just because Belloq had it doesn't mean he kept it. Indy snaps the book closed and puts it on the shelf. He takes his glasses off and focuses on Brody. At the windowed door to his office, two pretty Coeds pause for a moment, look in at their sexy Archeology professor, giggle and disappear. INDY Getting it away from those Indians would be a neat trick (a hard look) I hope they got him. A young male graduate student, Indy's TEACHING ASSISTANT, taps on the door and then pushes his way in with an armload of reference books. Indy helps him find a spot for them. TEACHING ASSISTANT I couldn't get the McNabe, Professor. Someone's got it checked out 'til next month when classes start. INDY That's all right, Phil. Thanks a lot. TEACHING ASSISTANT (eager to please) Will there be anything else? INDY No. I'll see you Thursday. The Teaching Assistant leaves. Brody is scowling as he examines the last of the artifacts. INDY Hey, if you don't like them, I can always return them. BRODY No, they're beautiful. The Museum will buy them as usual. No questions asked. INDY Then what's wrong? BRODY I brought along some people today. INDY What kind of people? BRODY Government. INDY (concerned) Government? BRODY Don't worry, it's not about your business. (indicates the artifacts) They're from the Army. INDY I've already served. BRODY Army Intelligence. They're looking for Abner. INT. INDY'S LECTURE HALL / CLASSROOM - DAY Indy's course - a combination of archeology and anthropology - is taught in this amphitheater-type lecture hall. His desk and lectern hold large reference books; blackboards line the wall. Bones, maps, charts festoon the walls. Indy leans against his desk talking with Brody and two uniformed Army officers, COLONEL MUSGROVE and MAJOR EATON, who are situated around the first seats in the classroom. MUSGROVE But you did study under Professor Ravenwood at the University of Chicago? INDY (nods) We haven't spoken in ten years. I'm afraid we had a bit of a falling out. EATON You know nothing of his whereabouts? INDY (negative) Just rumors. Somewhere in Asia, last I heard. Musgrove and Eaton exchange a look; they're disappointed. EATON (to Musgrove) Maybe Dr. Jones can make sense of it. Again the military men have a silent communication, deciding what to reveal. MUSGROVE Well... you must understand, Dr. Jones, this is all strictly confidential. INDY I understand. MUSGROVE Yesterday, one of our European sections intercepted a Nazi communiquÈ from Cairo to Berlin. We don't quite know what to make of it. Musgrove takes a sheet from his briefcase. MUSGROVE Here it is - "Tanis development proceeding. Acquire headpiece, Staff of Ra, General Tengtu Hok, Shanghai. Locate Abner Ravenwood, U.S." Brody is excited. He looks at Indy. BRODY Tanis. They must have discovered the lost ruins. Indy contemplates this big news; he's impressed. INDY (to himself) Tanis. Ain't that somethin'! EATON Frankly, we're a little suspicious... An American being mentioned so prominently in a secret Nazi cable. INDY Ah, Ravenwood's no Nazi. EATON Then what do they want him for? INDY They're looking for the headpiece to the Staff of Ra. MUSGROVE (indicates his sheet) But it says here that's in China. INDY Only half of it. Ravenwood had the other half. EATON What would the Nazis want with this - this Staff of Ra? BRODY I can tell you that. Over the last two years the Nazis have had teams of archeologists running around the world looking for all kinds of religious artifacts. MUSGROVE That's right. Hitler's a nut on the subject. Crazy. He's obsessed with the occult. EATON What is this Staff of Ra, anyway? INDY It all has to do with the Ark of the Covenant. (the Army guys look mystified) The chest the Hebrews used to carry around the Ten Commandments. Now it's the Army men who are impressed. INDY An Egyptian pharaoh stole the Ark from Jerusalem and took it back to the city of Tanis. A short time later, Tanis was consumed by the desert in a sandstorm that lasted a year. But before that, the Pharaoh had had the Ark hidden away in a secret chamber called the Well of the Souls. Which is where the Staff of Ra comes in. Indy moves to the blackboard and makes a quick sketch to give a rough idea of the system as he describes it. (and we get a glimpse of what an interesting and enthusiastic teacher he must be). INDY Now this was rather clever. The Staff was really just a big stick - oh, I don't know, say like this - (he indicates about six feet) no one really knows for sure. Any way, it was capped by an elaborate headpiece with a carving of the sun at the top. What you had to do was take the Staff to a special map room in Tanis - it had the whole city laid out in miniature on the floor. When you placed the Staff in a certain spot in this room, at a certain time of day, the sun would shine through a hole here in the headpiece and then send a beam of light down here - to the map - giving you the location of the Well of the Souls... MUSGROVE ...where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. INDY (nods) Which is probably what the Nazis are after. EATON What's this Ark look like? INDY Look like? Why, it's right here... Indy pulls a big format book from the stack on his lectern and flips through the pages until he finds a large color print. The other men gather to look. THE PRINT Fills the screen. It shows a Biblical battle. The Israelite Army is vanquishing an opposition force. At the forefront of the Israelite ranks, two men carry the Ark of the Covenant, a beautiful gold chest, crowned by two sculptured gold angels. The men do not touch the Ark itself; rather they carry it by use of two long wooden poles which pass through rings in the corners of the Ark. The painting is very dramatic, full of smoke, tumult and sinewy dying men. But the most astounding thing in the picture is the brilliant jet of white light and flame issuing from the wings of the angels. It pierces deep into the ranks of the retreating enemy, wreaking devastation and terror. EATON Good God! INDY Yes. That's what the Hebrews thought. MUSGROVE What's that supposed to be coming out of there? INDY Who knows... lightning... fire... the power of God. EATON I'm beginning to understand Hitler's interest in this thing. INDY Oh yes. The Bible tells of it leveling mountains and wasting entire regions. Moses promised that when the Ark was with you, "your enemies will be scattered and your foes fell before you". (pause) An army which carries the Ark before it is invincible. Eaton and Musgrove exchange worried looks. INDY Oh, there's one other thing that Hitler undoubtably believes about the Ark... (a long pregnant pause) It's said that the Lost Ark will be recovered at the time of the coming of the True Messiah. MUSGROVE Dr. Jones, you've been very helpful. I hope we can call on you again if we have questions. INDY Most certainly. Brody and Indy exchange a look as they all shake and Brody starts to leave with the Army men. EXT. FRONT DOOR, INDY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Indy's English Tudor, upper middle class home. Quite toney; well beyond the financial reach of an honest college professor. Marcus Brody has already rung the bell. Indy opens the door. He is dressed in a tuxedo. BRODY I've got to talk to you. INDY This isn't really a good time. BRODY Indy, it's important. INDY All right. Come on in. INT. FOYER, INDY'S HOUSE The lush tone continues here in Art Deco and shiny marble. Indy motions Brody toward the study to one side. INDY I'll be in a minute. As Brody passes the entrance to the expansive living room, he spots a beautiful, silk-gowned Harlow-type lounging on the sofa in front of a roaring fire. She is sipping champagne. INT. STUDY, INDY'S HOUSE Brody enters the book-lined, dark-wooded study. He paces for a moment before the fire which is dying in the fireplace, then spots something and goes over to Indy's big desk. The surface is covered with open books, monographs, maps and drawings - all about the Ark of the Covenant. Brody smiles; he knows his friend very well. Indy comes in, closing the door behind him. Brody turns to him with a triumphant expression. BRODY They want you to go for it. And they'll pay. INDY (smiles) Good work, Marcus. I had a feeling this would happen. And, of course, the Museum gets the Ark when we're done. BRODY (smiles) Of course. Indy's manner is vigorous, aggressive. INDY Okay, here's the way it's gonna be. First, I'll high-tail it to Shanghai and get the piece from General Hok. Then I think I know where I can find Ravenwood. If only I can get - BRODY General Hok's a tough customer. They don't call him the Wild Boar for nothing. And he's tied in with the Japanese. INDY I'll worry about that when the time comes. My only hope is to find the Well of the Souls before the Nazis do. WIPE TO: EXT. IN THE AIR - DAY / NIGHT A Pan Am Clipper flies west over the Pacific. WIPE TO: INT. KEHOE'S CAR (SHANGHAI AIRPORT) - DAY Indy is barely into the front seat of a dilapidated Ford as the driver, BUZZ KEHOE, is peeling out into traffic. In the back seat is a Chinese named BANG CHOW. Kehoe zigs crazily through traffic with only his left hand as he reaches over to shake with Indy. KEHOE Buzz Kehoe, Army Intelligence. You've met Bang Chow. INDY What's the hurry? KEHOE Some German agents got here two hours ago. Luckily, Bang was able to have them detained at Customs. We'll have to hurry. EXT. HOK'S STREET - DAY Kehoe's car emerges from an alley. Down the block is Tengtu Hok's modest, walled palace. Kehoe's car slows a bit and Bang steps from the moving car with a small black suitcase in his hand. While he heads down the street toward Hok's place, Kehoe's car continues across the street and into an alley on the other side. EXT. HOK'S STREET - IN FRONT OF PALACE - DAY A Mercedes limousine appears round a corner and squeals to a stop at the front gate of the palace, which is manned by a sturdy Chinese Gateman. There are three Germans inside, one the driver. EXT. ALLEY BEHIND HOK'S MUSEUM - DAY Kehoe, alone now, pushes a trash container casually into position to hide a newly created hole in the rear wall of Hok's Museum where several stone blocks have been removed. He looks around and ambles back to the car. INT. HOK'S PALACE - ENTRY HALL The three Germans wait impatiently in a magnificent foyer. A chime sounds and huge double doors open to reveal TENGTU HOK, flanked by two uniformed Japanese Soldiers and a robed Chinese Advisor. He wears a fantastic gold ornamental robe. Despite the majesty, however, nothing can disguise the fact that Hok is basically a wild, fat barbarian; an animal. Hok and his escort group bow in what is the beginning of a long welcoming ceremony. The Germans exchange impatient glances but decide they should play it as it comes. They bow. INT. HOK'S MUSEUM No person in sight. Instead, we see a magnificent display of ancient artifacts. Glass cases hold the velvet-couched pieces at random spots on the shining marble floor. We hear an odd sound. Near the floor on the rear wall of the museum, a steel ventilation grate moves. A hand slides it gently across the marble. Indy sticks his head out and looks around. INT. HOK'S PALACE - TEA ROOM The three Germans are being served tea and exotic delicacies. A pleased Tengtu Hok watches from a throne-cushion. When the tray of tiny delicacies is presented to him, he takes a massive handful, crushing them together on their way to his smiling mouth. INT. HOK'S MUSEUM A huge golden gong, seven feet in diameter, is suspended from the ceiling by a hook. An enormous hammer hangs poised above it, from which emanate myriad tiny threads which run up and across the ceiling, then down to the various display cases. Indy looks up at the gong, then continues his quick, quiet foray among the cases. Beyond him, a high window. INT. HOK'S PALACE - TEA ROOM Hok and his visitors stand to go. The German's pleased expressions make it clear they're finally on their way to the museum. INT. HOK'S MUSEUM Indy arrives at his destination. The lovely, carved gold section of the headpiece is nested on purple velvet in a glass case. At the bottom of the piece is a round hollow where the staff would fit. There is a grunting sound behind Indy and he spins, already reaching for his revolver. A fierce Japanese Samurai is running at Indy full speed down an aisle of display cases. His sword is raised over his shoulder ready to cut Indy in half. He's six feet away when Indy's gun levels and fires twice, blasting him backwards. Indy is still looking over his gun when another samurai sword comes down from the side and knocks the pistol brutally out of Indy's grip; his hand avoids amputation by a quarter of an inch. An amazed Indy backs away from the crossing aisle as the Second Samurai steps in to face him, sword raised. Indy backs away into an open space and his bullwhip appears in his hand. He gives it one savage CRACK! to announce its arrival and the Samurai slows down, eyeing it curiously. The Samurai does not look unhappy about this confrontation. How pure it is - The Sword versus The Whip. EXT. HOK'S PALACE - SECOND FLOOR WALKWAY - DAY Tengtu Hok and the Germans have obviously heard something. They are hurrying along the walkway at the side of the building, Hok in the lead. Up ahead is the foot bridge which crosses from the palace to the museum entrance over a moat. EXT. STREET IN FRONT OF THE PALACE - DAY The Lovely Mercedes limousine blows up. EXT. HOK'S PALACE - SECOND FLOOR WALKWAY - DAY The Germans spin toward the blast. Drawing weapons, they run back to investigate. Hok follows them, confused. INT. HOK'S MUSEUM Indy and the Samurai face each other. They're both breathing hard from previous, no-contact passes at each other. Now Indy begins swinging the whip over his head again. It whizzes out toward the Samurai's face. The Samurai takes two lightning- quick cuts at the leather, but misses. Indy swings for the Samurai's feet; the Japanese jumps nimbly, slashing at the whip. Indy does it again. The Samurai hops it. Once more. The Samurai is concentrating on hopping it. Indy sees it. The split second he wants. The whip flashes up from the floor and wraps solidly and irrevocably around the Samurai's neck. Indy gives it a murderous pull and the Samurai is dead on his feet. EXT. HOK'S PALACE - SECOND FLOOR WALKWAY - DAY Hok and the three Germans are looking down at the flaming remains of the Mercedes. A look of concern crosses Hok's face. He turns and runs back toward his beloved museum. INT. HOK'S MUSEUM Indy is at the case containing the headpiece. He smashes the glass with a samurai sword, reaches in and grabs the piece. Immediately, behind him, the huge hammer falls and the sound of the gong thunders through the museum. EXT. HOK'S PALACE - SECOND FLOOR WALKWAY - DAY At the sound of the gong, the running Hok skids to a halt with a crazed expression on his face. He disappears for two seconds in an alcove and emerges holding a big, black Thompson Submachine Gun. He runs across the foot bridge and is just barely over it when it blows up. Hok, safe, looks behind him in amazement and then turns to the museum. INT. HOK'S MUSEUM The double doors at the entrance slam open to reveal Hok. Indy is halfway along an unprotected wall back to his ventilation entry route. Hok opens up on him, cutting off his retreat. Indy jumps behind a marble column, which is promptly blasted with machine gun fire. Indy looks above him, sees the giant disk of the gong. Reaching up, pushing with tremendous effort, he maneuvers it off the hook. It bounces down to the floor on its side, chipping the marble with its monstrous weight. Indy steadies it and then puts his whole body into rolling it across the room toward the window. As it starts to roll, Indy slips behind it and runs across the room with it. Hok can see the rolling gong. He opens up on it. The vicious cacophony of machine gun fire is joined by the musical reports of bullets hitting the gong and ricocheting away. Very, very noisy. Behind the gong, Indy gauges his move. As the gong is about to be stopped by a marble bench, Indy talks a long stride onto the bench and dives through the glass of the high window. Hok's bullets hit the wall. EXT. ROOF - DAY Indy lands in a shower of glass on the jutting roof of the museum's first floor. He rolls to a crouch and is immediately being fired upon. The Germans, cut off from the museum, are standing on the palace walkway firing at him. Indy takes off fast for the rear of the museum. EXT. ALLEY BEHIND MUSEUM - DAY Kehoe, craning to locate Indy, has the Ford rolling slowly along the back of the museum. Bang scouts from the back seat. Indy appears on the roof at a run, gauges the movement of the car and jumps from the roof of the museum to the roof of the sedan. Unfortunately, the roof of the old car can't take it and Indy's legs knife right on through to the interior, where he scares the hell out of Kehoe. INT. KEHOE'S CAR - DAY Indy squirms his way down into the front seat. KEHOE Jesus! Are you all right! INDY (he's felt better) Great. Got it. Kehoe guns it, throwing Indy back against the cushions. KEHOE What now? INDY I've got to get to Nepal. WIPE TO: EXT. DC-3 IN THE AIR - DUSK The plane flies west into the sunset. INT. DC-3 - NIGHT Under a meager seat light, Indy is pouring over a journal article by Abner Ravenwood and related map of Nepal. A few rows back, across the aisle, a trenchcoated European Spy eyes Indy. WIPE TO: INT. "THE RAVEN" SALOON - PATAN, NEPAL - NIGHT A huge stuffed raven, wings spread wide, is mounted behind the long bar in the noisy, crowded saloon. A lively mix of patrons is represented in the late hour tableau: Nepalese natives, fierce Sherpa mountain guides, sleazy international smugglers and fugitives, and, of course, mountain climbers from every corner of the earth. A tall Nepalese, MAHDLO, is the bartender. In a corner near the fireplace trouble breaks out suddenly between the groups at two neighboring tables. Ferocious representatives from each table - one a wild-looking SHERPA, the other a muscular Australian CLIMBER - jump up to face each other. As the two contenders stand poised for action, their respective supporters shift in their places, fondling lethal ice axes and clubs. SHERPA Gmoiska! Shurga rintoik! CLIMBER Aye! That'll be your last word. The bar has quieted ominously and so we hear with startling clarity when - a door behind the bar slams open with a huge BANG! and some Presence, too small to be seen as it moves through the forest of towering patrons, makes a beeline for the troubled corner of the bar. A path clears for it. The Sherpa and the Climber are about to kill each other when the Presence arrives directly between them: she is MARION RAVENWOOD, twenty-five years old, beautiful, if a bit hard- looking. At this moment, however, that look does not hurt. She is not intimidated by the combatants; she jabs accusatory fingers into their chests. She is angry as hell. The patrons shrink under her gaze. MARION That does it! I've been patient with you no-goods long enough. I'm not open at 2 o'clock for myself, you know. It's all for you. And how do you repay me: Trouble and noise and blood on my floor! I won't have it. Everybody out! Out! Out! We're closed. Closed! Do your killing outside! And don't leave any bodies on the porch! The place clears quickly. Stragglers and grumblers are given special attention by Marion and Mahdlo, who has come from behind the bar carrying a big axe handle. Mahdlo herds the crows out the front door as Marion turns and walks behind the bar. A scowl on her lovely face, she has just begun clearing the bar of glasses when she notices one remaining Patron huddled over a glass at the far end of the bar. Grimacing in exasperation, she heads that way like a locomotive. MARION Hey you, deaf one! I said out of my place. I don't mean next Easter, I mean now - She is almost on him when Indy looks up smiling. Marion stops, stares, shocked. INDY Hello, Marion. She hits him with a solid right to the jaw, knocking him off the barstool on the floor. He rubs his jaw and smiles up at her. INDY Nice to see you, too. MARION Get up and get out. INDY (getting up) Take it easy. I'm looking for your father. MARION (bitterly) Well you're two years too late. Indy's attitude changes instantly. This is sad news. He is silent for a long time. Mahdlo comes in the front door and hurries forward when he sees Indy with Marion. He looks to her for guidance, but she stays him with a gesture. MARION Go home, Mahdlo. I'll see you tomorrow. Mahdlo is hesitant, but lays the axe handle on the bar and goes out. Indy has been barely aware of him. Now he settles again on the barstool. Marion has a vindictive look. She'll let him stay, but she wants to inflict as much pain as possible. INDY What happened? MARION Avalanche. Up there. He was digging. What else? He spent his whole life digging. Dragging me all over this rotten earth. For what? INDY Do you find him? MARION Hell no. He's buried where he was working. Probably preserved real good, too. In the snow. Suddenly the hardness cracks. She is on the verge of tears and does not want him to see them. She turns away and takes a whiskey bottle from the shelf, then turns back to pout herself a drink. INDY Not a bad way to go. Doing what he loved. MARION (vitriolic) Don't give me that stuff! What do you know? (she takes a drinks) I'm the one that was left in a bad way. He didn't have a penny. Guess how I lived, Mister Jones. I worked here. And I wasn't the bartender. (another swallow) Finally the guy that owned the joint went crazy. Snow crazy. They took his away screaming. As they dragged him out, he said the place was all mine for life. She looks around the saloon. MARION Can you imagine a more evil curse? (pause) So far, it's working. INDY Why not leave? Go back to the States. MARION I'll go back. I'll get there. Not that there's a soul there who knows my name or cares. But I'll go. And when I do, they'll know me. 'Cause I'm going to go back in style. With money. A goddamn lady! INDY Where you gonna get it? MARION If I knew that, you think I'd still be running this dive? Indy looks at her, thinking. Under his gaze, she blushes, for reasons only she understands. She looks into her glass and, for a moment, she softens. MARION I'll tell you something Indy. I've learned to hate you in the last ten years. But somehow, no matter how much I hated you, I always knew that someday you'd come through that door. I never doubted that. Something made is inevitable. (hopefully) Why are you here... now... tonight? Indy takes a long time to answer. INDY I need one of the pieces your father collected. Marion's eyes go icy. She swings at him again with her right, but this time he catches her at the wrist. Then he stops her left, which she has brought up to slap him. MARION You son-of-a-bitch! You know what you did to me, to my life? This is your handiwork. INDY I never meant to hurt you. MARION I was a child! INDY You knew what you were doing. MARION I was in love. INDY I guess that depends on your definition. MARION It was wrong. You knew it. Indy releases her arms. INDY Look, I did what I did. I don't expect you to be happy about it. But maybe we can do each other some good. MARION Why start now? INDY Shut up and listen for a second. I want that piece your father had. I've got money. This stops her. MARION How much? INDY Enough to get you back to the States. Where are his things? MARION Gone. I sold it all. It was all junk. The junk he wasted his life on. INDY Everything? Marion nods. INDY (giving up) That's too bad. Indy feels tired, defeated. Marion is pleased. MARION You look disappointed. I like that. How's it feel? Indy has to smile at her glee. MARION (nods at his empty glass) What are you drinking? INDY Seltzer. MARION (refilling his glass) Real man's drink. Me, I like scotch. And I like bourbon. And vodka and gin. I'm not much for brandy. I'm off that. She pours herself another as Indy watches, amused. INDY You're a tough broad now, aren't you? MARION It's no act, pal. This ain't Schenectady. INDY I can only say I'm sorry so many times. Marion looks at him thoughtfully, takes a drink. MARION You really have money? You don't look rich. (Indy nods) I may be able to locate some of his things. I know who's got them. What do you want? INDY A bronze piece, about this size. In the shape of the sun. Probably broken off at the bottom. Has a little hole in it, off-center. Does that sound familiar? Marion thinks, nods slowly. INDY Do you know where it is? MARION Maybe. How much? INDY Three thousand. American. MARION (negative) That'll get me back, but not in style. This doodad must be pretty important. INDY Maybe. A huge smile lights up Marion's face. MARION I knew it would happen eventually. I knew it. Something had to go my way. (pours herself another drink) I've got to think this out. I'm used to bargaining with yaks. INDY Okay, five thousand. That's all I can give you now. I can get you more when you land in the States. MARION You word, huh? (Indy nods) Just like you said you'd be back last time? That was your word too. INDY I'm back, aren't I? Marion sneers and they smile together. INDY You can trust me. MARION Come back tomorrow. INDY Why? MARION Because I said so, that's why. It's about time I called the shots in this relationship. Indy nods, gets up to go. MARION Wait a minute. Leave the five thousand here. (Indy hesitates) You want trust, give some. I want to smell your money. Indy thinks about this a moment, then reaches inside his shirt and pulls cash from a money belt. He lays five grand on the bar. INDY I trust you. MARION You're an idiot. INDY I've heard that. Indy starts for the door. Marion takes another think. She is getting high. MARION Hold it. Come here. INDY (moving back) Bossy, aren't you? MARION That's right. Give me a kiss. Indy looks into her eyes, then leans over the bar and kisses her deeply. When the kiss ends, their faces are very close. Marion is flushed. She liked it and would like more. She raises her glass between them to discipline herself. MARION Get out of my place. Indy smiles and walks to the front door. Then, without looking back - INDY Tomorrow. He's gone. Marion stares after him, thinking. She takes a drink. Then slowly, her hand comes up to loosen the scarf that is draped around her throat. It falls away, revealing her graceful neck above the dipping top of her blouse. Hanging there on a gold chain against her white skin is a sun-shaped golden medallion. The bottom looks broken off. Marion lifts the medallion so she can see it in her hand, then looks thoughtfully after Indy. EXT. STREETS OUTSIDE "THE RAVEN" - NIGHT Indy sits thinking at the wheel of an old car. Finally, he puts the car in gear and drives away. Across the street, the shadow in a doorway comes to life. A dark form steps out to look at Indy's departing car; it is the European Spy from the DC-3. He hurries off in the opposite direction. DISSOLVE TO: INT. "THE RAVEN" - NIGHT Marion stands before the fire that is shrinking in the fireplace. She jabs at it abstractedly with a poker, thinking. Suddenly tears well up in her eyes. She lets the poker slip from her hand, wipes away the tears. She walks across the room to the end of the bar, still cluttered with bottles and glasses, and stops at the pile of American money Indy has left. She takes the chain from around her neck and lets the medallion slide off it into her hand. She places it on the bar next to the pile of money, thinking. Then, having reached some decision, she picks up the pile of bills, walks up the back of the bar and pulls a small wooden box from under the bar. She flips open the top, puts the cash inside and closes the top. She leaves the box on the bar and starts back toward the medallion. The front door of the saloon bursts open and Four Bad Men come in. Marion, halfway between the valuable possessions and not wishing to draw attention to either, stops where she is. The Four Bad Men who advance on her are: 1.) the obvious leader, a short, vile, sadistic German in spectacles by the name of BELZIG. 2.) a trenchcoated SECOND NAZI. 3.) a ratty-looking NEPALESE and 4.) a mean MONGOLIAN. The second NAZI and the MONGOLIAN both carry submachine guns. BELZIG Good evening, Fraulein. MARION The bar's closed. BELZIG We are not thirsty. The Mongolian and the Nepalese poke around, checking to make sure there's no one else there. Down at the end of the bar, the medallion lies partially hidden by surrounding glasses and bottles. The Second Nazi stops very near it, but turns his back to it to face Belzig and Marion. MARION What do you want? BELZIG The same thing your friend Dr. Jones wanted. Surely he told you there would be other interested parties. Marion shakes her head. BELZIG Ah, the man is nefarious. I hope for your sake he has not yet acquired it. MARION Why, are you willing to offer more? BELZIG Almost certainly. Do you still have it? MARION No. But I know where it is. Belzig's smile fades at this news. He's not a patient sort. Marion is chilled by the look. She turns and moves to the shelf of bottles behind her, reaching high for one, very near the large stuffed raven. He hand lingers there a moment and we see - From an angle behind the stuffed raven, that the left wing spread hides a Baretta automatic pistol. Marion's hand is very near it, but withdraws with only a whiskey bottle as the Mongolian walks toward her behind the bar. Marion opens the bottle before Belzig, who watches her intently. MARION How 'bout a drink for you and your men? The Second Nazi lights up at this suggestion. Belzig gives him a withering look. BELZIG We will stick to the business at hand, Fraulein. MARION (tough) Fine. Why don't you come back tomorrow when Jones is here and we'll have an auction? Belzig gives her a cold look then turns and walks over toward the fireplace. As soon as his back is turned, the Second Nazi grabs the nearest whiskey bottle and takes a quick pull. In so doing, he leaves the medallion completely exposed. Marion is aware of this as she looks at him. But he quickly puts the bottle down again, obscuring the medallion, when Belzig speaks from the fireplace. BELZIG I'm afraid an auction is not possible. (pause) Your fire is dying here, Fraulein. (a beat, then threatening) Why don't you tell us where the piece is right now? MARION Listen, Herr Mac, I don't know who you're used to dealing with, but no one tells me what to do in my place. Belzig, still looking in the fire, sneers and shakes his head. BELZIG Americans! You're all alike. Fraulein Ravenwood. I'll show you want I'm used to. He motions with his hand. The Mongolian moves up behind Marion and lifts her roughly over the top of the bar, knocking over bottles and spilling liquor. He deposits her on the other side, where the Nepalese and the Second Nazi flank her and hold her cruelly, arms behind her back. Marion raises a ruckus. Belzig turns from the fireplace. In his hand is the poker, its end glowing orange. He advances on Marion. Marion stops yelling, her eyes widen in terror. MARION Wait! I can be reasonable - BELZIG That time is passed. The glowing poker point moves inexorably across the room toward Marion's face. MARION You don't need that. I'll tell you everything! BELZIG Yes, I know you will. Belzig has no intention of stopping now. The glowing tip is approaching Marion's face. The Nepalese watches with savage glee. The tip of the poker is five inches from Marion's nose when there is a loud CRACK! and the fall of Indy's bullwhip wraps around the middle of the poker and tears it out of Belzig's hands. The poker sails high across the room, free of the whip, and lands in the heavy curtains that cover one window. The curtains immediately burst into flame. The four Bad Men look in surprise toward the front entrance. Indy is poised there, the whip in his right hand, a .45 automatic raised toward them in his left. INDY Hello. Now everything begins to happen very fast - The Mongolian had just come around the bar at the end opposite the medallion. He dives back to crouch behind the end of the bar, raising his submachine gun. Belzig and the Second German dive behind tables near the bar. The Nepalese is slower to leave Marion, he draws a Luger. Indy's .45 barks and the Nepalese dies spinning against the bar. Indy fires in the direction of the Mongolian. Marion swings up over the top of her bar. Belzig fires at her, but his bullets smash bottles behind the bar and thud into the raven. Marion flattens out on the floor behind the bar as bullets hit above her. She reaches up, snatches the axe handle from where Mahdlo left it, and begins crawling down the length of the bar toward - The Mongolian, who sticks his submachine gun out and fires blindly in Indy's direction. Indy is in a crouch behind a table, trying to get a shot at someone. He doesn't notice in the din and confusion when the door bursts open. An incredible, fearsome GIANT SHERPA, almost seven feet tall, soars in and tackles Indy from behind. The whip flies from Indy's hand as he and the Giant Sherpa roll across the floor, upsetting furniture. The Mongolian, seeing this, stands up confidently. Marion rises behind him and bashes him over the head with the axe handle. He goes down and out. Fire has completely engulfed the curtains and is working across the ceiling on decorative yak skin bunting. A burning fragment drops to the top of the bar, which immediately lights up, fueled by the spilled alcohol. Full whiskey bottles explode like Molotov cocktails. Rolling on the floor, Indy and the Giant Sherpa are fighting for control of Indy's .45. Belzig sees this and shouts to the Second Nazi, who is rising from cover with submachine gun in hand. BELZIG Shoot them both! SECOND NAZI He's our man! BELZIG Do as I say! Both the Giant Sherpa and Indy hear this. The Giant Sherpa exchanges an alarmed look with Indy and together they swing the .45 around toward the surprised Second Nazi. Two blasts blow him away. That done, Indy brings a brass spittoon down on the Giant Sherpa's wrist and the .45 slides away. Indy jumps up and kicks the Giant Sherpa, who barely seems to feel it. He grabs Indy and flips him effortlessly onto a table. Belzig now has a clear shot at Indy. He raises his luger. Marion, at the end of the bar, finally gets the hand of the Mongolian's submachine gun. It roars to life in the general direction of the ceiling. Belzig runs for cover as Marion gets control of the gun and levels it. Belzig dives around the end of the bar opposite Marion. When he has set himself, he peeks up over the edge of the scorched bar. The alcohol fire has moved down the bar and now, much to Belzig's surprise, he finds himself staring at the fire-blackened sun-shaped medallion! His eyes widen. He cannot believe his good fortune. Without hesitation he picks up the metal medallion, palming it. Immediately there is a sickening searing sound and Belzig's expression changes from joy to agony. He screams in pain and tries to shake the red-hot medallion from his skin. Marion opens up and the bar starts to splinter in front of Belzig. The medallion comes free of Belzig's hand and rolls across the floor. Belzig has had enough. In excruciating pain, he turns, sees a window, runs and dives through the glass. An exhausted Indy uses his whole body to upend the Giant Sherpa, who lands hard on his back. They are surrounded by flames. EXT. "THE RAVEN" - SNOW BANK - NIGHT Belzig has his burned hand stuck deep in the snow. Now he withdraws it, steaming, and scurries off into the night like a wounded animal. INT. "THE RAVEN" - NIGHT Marion throws down the empty submachine gun and moves through the flames to the center of the bar where she left the box with the five grand. She finds the remains of the box and its contents: a shapeless pile of ash and charred wood. MARION Unbelievable! At the end of the bar, the Mongolian has come back to life. He shakes out his head, then reaches inside his coat and pulls out a Mauser pistol. Indy smashes a chair over the head of the Giant Sherpa and the huge creature goes down. The Mongolian points his Mauser through the smoke and flame at Indy. Suddenly, the Mongolian is shot dead. Marion stands beneath her stuffed raven with the Baretta. Indy moves quickly through the flames, his eyes scanning the floor. He picks up his bullwhip and his crumpled felt hat. He peers through the smoke till he spots Marion moving among the burning furniture. INDY Let's get out of here! MARION Not without that piece you want! INDY It's here? Marion nods, kicks aside a burning chair. Another burning beam falls from the roof. Indy pulls Marion close to him protectively. INDY Forget it! I want you out of here. Now! He begins dragging her out. MARION (pointing) There! She breaks away from him, darts back and picks the hot medallion up in the loose cloth of her blouse. INDY Let's go! MARION (looking around) You burned down my place! INDY (figuratively) I owe you plenty! MARION (literally) You owe me plenty! INDY (smiles) You're something! MARION I am something. And I'll tell you exactly what - She holds up the medallion possessively. MARION I'm your partner! EXT. CAIRO - VARIOUS SHOTS - DAY First we see the sprawl, the soaring minarets, the ancient skyline. Then we're closer, in the narrow, exotic streets, teeming with life: fierce-looking men in tattered galabiyas, black-gowned women with veiled faces, ragged, barefoot children. INT. DINING ROOM - SALLAH'S HOUSE (OLD CAIRO) Indy and Marion have been welcomed like family into the crowded home of SALLAH, his wife FAYAH, and their NINE CHILDREN (ages 4 - 18). Fayah, a huge, imposing woman, appears, at first glance, to be the power in the house. Sallah, a small, cheerful, energetic fellow in his forties defers to his wife in all matters of little importance. Suddenly the general liveliness at the children's table escalates into pandemonium, attracting the attention of the adults. FAYAH Silence! (there is silence) Why do you forget yourselves? The gaggle of grinning off-spring parts to reveal in their midst - a MONKEY. It is munching some flat Arab bread. FAYAH What is this? Who brought this animal in? All the children chatter their innocence at once. The Monkey chatters too; it's an entertainer. The Monkey jumps from the children's table to the adults' and struts slowly up toward Marion, who thinks it's the cutest thing she ever saw. When it reaches her, it takes off its turban and does a deep, grand bow to her. She is delighted and takes the Monkey into her arms. The Monkey kisses her cheek. The children laugh. MARION Why, thank you. I like you too. FAYAH Then it shall be welcome in our house. MARION Oh, no! You don't have to have it around if you don't want it - SALLAH (cheerfully) All of Allah's creatures are welcome here. You please us by letting us please you. EXT. COURTYARD - SALLAH'S HOUSE - NIGHT Indy and Sallah sit in the small, protected courtyard. Sallah holds the two sections of the headpiece, the medallion and the base, and has for the first time fitted them together. They fit perfectly and complete the headpiece. He peruses the markings on the headpiece quizzically. Indy is cleaning and loading a .45 automatic. INDY I knew the Germans would hire you, Sallah. They couldn't have an excavation in the desert without the best digger in Egypt. SALLAH All Arabs look alike to them, Indy. INDY Tell me about the map room at Tanis. SALLAH We found it three days ago. I broke through myself. INDY Those Nazis are moving awfully fast. SALLAH The Frenchman is helping them. Indy reacts. INDY Belloq. So he got away from the Indians. This is going to be more interesting that I thought. SALLAH I'm afraid this has put the Germans close to finding the Well of the Souls. INDY (indicates the headpiece) Even Belloq won't be able to find it without that. Can you make anything of those markings? They're nothing I'm familiar with. SALLAH (shakes his head "no") But I know someone who might. You can go to see him tomorrow. (a worried expression) Indy... something bothers me. INDY What is it, my friend? Sallah finds it hard to say. When he finally speaks, his words are accompanied by a strange, eerie, foreboding rush of wind through the courtyard. Just a coincidence we might suppose. SALLAH It is the Ark. If it is there, at Tanis... It is not something man was meant to disturb... Death has always surrounded it. It is not of this earth. The wind dies down. Indy shakes off a chill and stares thoughtfully at his friend. EXT. HEAVILY TRAFFICKED CAIRO STREET - DAY Indy and Marion are briskly walking along one of Cairo's busy bazaar streets. Vendors with fine cloth, pottery, baskets, jewelry, etc line the street. Marion has the Monkey from Sallah's house on her shoulder. INDY Do you really need that monkey? MARION I'm surprised at you, Indy. Talking that way about our baby. He's got your looks, too. INDY And your brains. As Indy and Marion turn a corner, the Monkey seems to notice something and immediately jumps from Marion's shoulder and hurries off at a frantic pace down the street. MARION (looking disappointed) Hey! Hey!... where're you going? INDY (dragging Marion on) He'll be OK. Come on. Come on. EXT. ANOTHER CAIRO STREET - DAY The Monkey is seen running around another corner and jumps into the waiting arms of MONKEY MAN, who appears to be like a beggar with a dirty turban and an eye patch. Monkey Man immediately hurries down the street and passes into a building. In the building are two GERMAN AGENTS. Monkey Man and the Monkey both give the Heil Hitler salute and engage in quick talk. Monkey Man quickly leaves the two German Agents and gets back to the street. He is obviously shadowing Indy and Marion. Indy and Marion are just now passing by the Monkey Man ducks back behind some baskets. EXT. ANOTHER BUSY CAIRO STREET - DAY Indy and Marion are passing under a balcony where a lone GERMAN AGENT stands watch. After they pass, the Agent nods to some BAD ARABS who are hiding in the shadows of the street. In a moment, Indy and Marion pass by the break. Monkey Man turns and looks up at a roof further down the alley. He waves with his hand. Someone up there waves back. EXT. A SMALL BAZAAR - DAY Indy and Marion have reached a tiny square, made even more cramped by its use as a small bazaar. They have started working their way through the crowd when several Bad Arabs and a German Agent begin to converge on them. Indy immediately sees what's happening and pulls the bull whip from his jacket. The first Bad Arab to reach them gets hit in the mouth by the handle of the whip. Now all hell breaks loose, with Bad Arabs, Innocent Shoppers, baskets of fruit and tables of goods flying every which way in the constricted space. INDY (to Marion) Run! Get out of here! Indy catches a dagger-wielding Bad Arab around the legs with the whip and flips him. Marion is reluctant to leave Indy. INDY Go, dammit! Go! Marion goes. She runs off between two buildings. A Bad Arab takes off after her. Monkey Man, now standing at the edge of the square, points at Marion. The Monkey jumps off his shoulder and follows Marion. EXT. BETWEEN THE BUILDINGS - DAY Marion runs along the narrow space and soon encounters a five foot wall. She flops over it. The Bad Arab is right on her heels. He reaches the wall and vaults over. On the other side of the wall, the Bad Arab lands in a crouch, looks ahead and doesn't see Marion. Immediately a heavy earthen pot smashes over his head, putting him out. Marion steps from an alcove and starts to run toward the street at the other end of the walkway. Suddenly another Bad Arab and a new German Agent appear in the street at that end. Before they can spot her, Marion retreats to the alcove again. There is a huge rattan basket sitting there. Marion climbs in and closes the top above her. The only witness: The Monkey, who is now perched on the fire foot wall. EXT. THE SMALL BAZAAR - DAY Chaos. An entire booth of pots and pans collapses on a Bad Arab and a German Agent as Indy whips away a support. EXT. BETWEEN THE BUILDINGS - DAY The chattering Monkey leads a German Agent and two Bad Arabs to Marion's hiding place, gesturing maniacally. EXT. THE SMALL BAZAAR - DAY Indy ducks under the swinging blade of a huge Arabian sword and kicks the Bad Arab Swordsman in the groin. EXT. SIDE STREET - DAY The German Agent leads the way as the two Bad Arabs carry the huge basket above their heads. The basket top has been fastened closed, but Marion is making a fuss inside. At the place where the street cuts across the far side of the bazaar, Marion is able to wedge the top open one inch and screams - MARION Indy-y-y-y! EXT. THE SMALL BAZAAR - DAY Indy has heard her. He looks across the square as the basket and its escorts disappear beyond a building. One last Bad Arab rises before him. Indy's whip flashes and the Bad Arab's robe falls down to his ankles. Indy frantically pushes his way through the panicked mass of humanity in the direction the basket has gone. EXT. THE FOOT CHASE - INTERCUTTING INDY AND THE MOVING BASKET - DAY The Bad Guys move the basket as fast as they can through streets, alleys and passageways thick with people. Indy always seems to round a corner just in time to catch a glimpse of the basket before it disappears around a new corner. Indy must fight a flow of humanity as powerful as an ocean riptide. Finally, at the head of one particularly crowded alley, Indy leaps up onto a wall for a clearer view. Whatever he sees gives him an idea and he cuts between two buildings rather than following the basket. EXT. DESERTED ALLEY - DAY Two Bad Arabs come running down the Alley with the basket between them. Suddenly, Indy's whip flashes out sending both Arabs and the basket tumbling. Indy steps into view, his .45 trained on the sprawled Arabs, and looks at the basket. The top has come flying off and the contents have clattered onto the cobblestone: inside is not Marion, but a load of contraband pistols, rifles and ammo. Indy is advancing on the trembling Bad Arabs with an ugly look when suddenly he hears Marion scream around the corner. EXT. DESERTED SQUARE - DAY Indy rounds the corner and is immediately driven back by machine gun fire. Taking cover, he gets quick, intermittent glimpses of this scene: At the far corner of the large, deserted square is a canvas-covered truck. Two Bad Arabs are hurrying toward is with a large rattan basket between them, Marion screaming inside. A German Agent is covering their retreat with a machine gun from the cab of the truck. Indy runs up to see the rattan basket being heaved into the back of the truck. EXT. BACK OF THE TRUCK - DAY What Indy cannot see is that the basket lands among an ominous load of German munitions, dynamite and firearms. The truck immediately peels out. EXT. DESERTED SQUARE - DAY The German Agent has stopped firing in order to drive. He floors it, aiming for a street at the corner of the square. Indy uses the lull to take careful aim at the German Agent's profile and fire off three careful shots. The German Agent is hit, blasted dead against the steering wheel. The speeding truck swerves, hits a wall, rolls over and explodes in an enormous, multi-leveled eruption as its contents ignite. Several surrounding buildings are leveled. Indy, blown back across the square, looks on, astounded and horror-stricken. INDY Marion. INT. ARAB BAR - NIGHT A dark, smoke-filled den on iniquity. The patrons, almost all fearsome Arabs, sit in small shadowy groups around the room. Indy stands at the bar finishing off a fifth of bourbon. He is drunk. The ARAB BARTENDER places a new bottle of expensive bourbon in front of him. Indy eyes is queerly. ARAB BARTENDER The gentleman in the corner sent it. He would like you to join him. INDY (doesn't even look) Too bad. I'm drinking alone. The Arab Bartender does a take, looking at the three, tough GERMAN HENCHMEN who have surrounded Indy from out of the smoke, their hands stuffed in bulging trenchcoat pockets. Indy notices them now with a bleary glance. He decides he's in no shape to kill or be killed and moves with them across the room, taking his bottle with him. The Arab patrons take this in and mind their own business. The occupant of the smoke-shrouded corner table becomes visible only as Indy reaches there: it is Emile Belloq. He is drinking wine. INDY Belloq. BELLOQ Good evening, Dr. Jones. INDY I ought to kill you right now. BELLOQ It was not I who brought the girl into this dirty business. Indy knows its true; that's what's tearing him up. BELLOQ Sit down, please, before you fall down. We can behave as civilized people. I'm afraid it will be your last opportunity. Indy sits, glancing at the German Henchmen, who settle nearby, just out of earshot. INDY Not a very private place for a murder. BELLOQ (looking around) These Arabs will not interfere in the white man's business. They do not care if we kill each other off. (takes a sip of wine, refers to it) Terribly difficult finding a decent vintage here. You were quite vigorous in Shanghai. Unfortunately, our friend the Wild Boar had taken the precaution of making several copies of the piece. Indy registers this as he takes a drink. Belloq watches him with disdainful amusement. BELLOQ How odd that is should end this way for us, after so many... stimulating encounters. I almost regret it. Where shall I find a new adversary so close to my own level? INDY Try the local sewer. BELLOQ I know you despise me. We always hate in others that which we most fear in ourselves. And you and I are very much alike. INDY Now you're getting nasty. BELLOQ We have always done the same kind of work. Our methods have not differed as much as you pretend. I am a shadowy reflection of you. But it would have taken only a nudge to make you the same as me, to push you out of the light. There's a certain amount of truth to this; the recognition of it flickers across Indy's bleary eyes. Belloq sees it there. BELLOQ You know it to be true! How nice. And how ironic the timing. Belloq leans forward, eyes shining, voice suddenly different. BELLOQ Do you realize what the Ark is? (very intense) It's a transmitter. A radio for talking to God! And now it is within my grasp. INDY What about your boss, der Fuhrer? I thought he was waiting to take possession. Belloq glances into the gloom at the German Henchmen. BELLOQ (quieter) When the time is right. When I am finished with it. INDY I hope your friends are patient. Dangerous work, Belloq. BELLOQ Yes. Very. You may consider yourself fortunate that your involvement concludes here. INDY Tell me, did you get away with the idol? BELLOQ (negative) I was lucky to get away with my life. The Hovitos proved quite narrow-minded about the whole matter. Indy takes a drink. INDY You know, if it's God you want to talk to, maybe I can arrange it. BELLOQ (smiles) You have not changed. But, please, do not reach for your weapon until you are ready to die. The front door of the bar slams open and all nine of SALLAH'S CHILDREN scamper in and over to a surprised Indy. Two of the smallest hop into his lap. LITTLE SON Uncle Indy, we have been looking for you. LITTLE DAUGHTER Come home now, Uncle. Hurry! Suddenly the Arab patrons of the bar take an intense interest in the situation, shifting their weapons. INDY Yes. Yes, I'll come now. Indy stands up. The German Henchmen and poised. Belloq eyes the Arab patrons and signals for the Henchmen to relax. BELLOQ Next time, Indiana Jones, it will take more than children to save you. The children usher Indy out. INT. SALLAH'S TRUCK - IN FRONT OF ARAB BAR - NIGHT Indy climbs into the cab of Sallah's truck with a smiling Sallah as the children pile into the back. Sallah pulls out. SALLAH I thought we would find you there. (indicating the kids) Better than the United States Marines, eh? INDY (nods) Thanks you. (grave) Marion's dead. SALLAH Yes, I know. I am sorry. (pause) More reason than ever to beat the bastards. (he touches Indy) Life goes on, Indy. (indicates the kids again) There is the proof. Indy looks back there, nods. SALLAH I have much to tell you, Indy. INT. SALLAH'S HOUSE Fayah brings in a tray of food and puts it on the table. The bowl of dates is in one corner. As Fayah leaves the room, the Monkey slips out of Sallah's lap and disappears under the table. Indy leans over the food tray, his hand hovering over the dates. But he chooses some cheese and bread instead. INDY And they made the calculation in the map room? SALLAH (nods vigorously) This morning. Belloq and the boss German, Shliemann. When they came out of the map room, we were given a new spot in which to dig... out away from the camp. INDY (resigned) The Well of the Souls. Sallah nods, moves to the food. He picks up a date, then changes his mind and drops it, taking a bunch of grapes instead. Indy picks up a chicken leg in one hand and a date in the other, his mind distracted. Fayah enters the room just in time to see Indy flip the date high into the air and try to catch it in his mouth. It bounces off his chin and falls to the floor. Indy looks sheepishly at Fayah. Fayah picks up the fallen date and puts it in the dirty ash tray she is now removing. Amir speaks in a slow, raspy voice without looking up. AMIR Come. Look. The two men go and huddle over the old man. The Monkey peeks up over the edge of the table at the array of food. He picks up a date and disappears below the table. Amir points to some markings on the lower part of the headpiece. AMIR This is a warning... not to disturb the Ark of the Covenant. INDY Just want I need. The Monkey's paw comes up over the edge of the table and grabs another date. INDY How 'bout the height of the staff? Did Belloq get it off of there? AMIR Yes... it is here. Indy, nervous, goes back to the food tray, picks up another date. When he turns back to the men, the Monkey's paw grabs another date. We see the headpiece in closeup on the table. Amir's crooked fingers trace a line of markings along the bottom section to the break in the piece. AMIR It says it is... ten jamirs high... SALLAH About seventy-five inches. AMIR Wait! I am not finished... Amir's finger moves across the break as the markings continue on the sun medallion. AMIR (reading) "And one jamir to honor the Hebrew God whose Ark this is." Indy, still holding the date, exchanges a long look with Sallah. INDY You said their top section was blank. Are you absolutely sure? Sallah nods. INDY Belloq's staff is seven and a half inches short. They're digging in the wrong spot! Sallah and Indy begin to laugh. Amir gives them a glance and returns to his wine. Sallah leans over and kisses the old man. SALLAH (to Amir) A home run, my friend, grand slam! (to Indy) We have a saying - "A little luck is better than much smartness." Indy, pardner, you are very lucky fellow. Indy hoots. Then he takes the data in his hand and flips it high in the air. He opens his mouth to catch it, but it doesn't come down. He has inadvertently thrown it into a bowl of a hanging lamp. This makes the men laugh even harder. Indy goes over and picks up another date. He turns laughing to Sallah and doesn't see as the Monkey's paw comes up, slowly, takes another date and begins to withdraw. Suddenly the paw is stricken with palsy and the unseen Monkey goes into its death throws. Sallah watches the paw as though hypnotized. Finally the paw slips from sight and we hear a solid THUMP! on the floor. Sallah walks around the table and looks at the floor. The Monkey lies dead among a mess of date pits. Indy is in a happy world of his own. He throws his date high in the air. He positions himself under it and waits for it to drop in. Here it comes. Right on target. As it's about to disappear into Indy's mouth, Sallah's hand flashes in and grabs it. Indy looks mystified and disappointed. Sallah motions toward the dead Monkey. SALLAH Bad dates. EXT. DESERT ROAD - MORNING Two old trucks come down a narrow mountain road and onto the flat surface of the desert. Further out into the desert, the one in the lead, Sallah's truck, stops and the second one, Omar's truck, pulls up beside it. There are half dozen Arab Diggers in Omar's truck. Indy, dressed as an Arab, gets out of the cab of Sallah's truck and moves over to confer with OMAR, another old friend. They point off into the desert and reach some conclusion. Indy gives him a pat on the back; Omar turns off the road and drives into the desert with his workers. Indy hops back in the cab of Sallah's truck with Sallah. As they move down the road we see that the back of the truck holds three other Arab Diggers. EXT. RISE ABOVE THE TANIS DIGS - MORNING Indy and Sallah are lying in classic shouting fashion at the top of the rise looking down on the Tanis Digs. Down behind them, Sallah's truck is parked with the three Arab Diggers. INDY My God! They aren't kidding! WHAT HE SEES The Tanis Digs are laid out below like a painting. Trucks, bulldozers, Arab workers and German supervisors are everywhere. The excavations themselves are extensive and somewhat random-holes have been dug and then abandoned, foundations and passageways unearthed and then deserted. Beyond the main digs, a crude airstrip has been created. Sallah points to what appears to be a mound of dirt with a hole in it near the center of the activity. SALLAH There! That is the map room! INDY What time does the sun hit the map? SALLAH Just after eight. INDY We haven't got much time. Where are the Germans digging for the Well of the Souls? Sallah points out into the desert a short way beyond the main area of activity. The desert turns to sand dunes out there, the surface undulating into the distance. Several trucks and men are out there and a bulldozer is lumbering noisily toward it. INDY Okay. Let's go. EXT. THE TANIS DIGS - MORNING Sallah's truck drives through the camp, one of the Arab Diggers at the wheel. Indy and Sallah are in the back and look just like the other two Arab Diggers. Sallah's truck does behind a tent and when it appears on the other side, Indy and Sallah are gone. EXT. AMONG THE TENTS - MORNING Indy and Sallah move stealthily among the tents. Indy carries a smooth wooden staff almost seven feet tall. They stop between two tents and look across a path at the entrance to the map room. What appeared to be a mound of dirt is actually the roof on the ancient building. The hole/entrance is a five-foot square skylight. Indy looks around, then walks casually to the edge of the hole and looks inside. Sallah joins him, producing a length of rope from his robes. Indy drops the staff into the unseen map room as Sallah ties the rope around on oil drum. When it's secure, Indy wastes no time disappearing down it into the map room. INT. MAP ROOM Indy is down the twenty feet to the floor of the room in seconds. He tugs on the rope and it immediately gets pulled up. Indy looks around with real wonder and excitement. The room is lovely, with elaborate wall carvings and frescoes, all lit by the bright stream of sunlight flooding in from above. This beam of light leads Indy's eye to the far end, and the room's truly remarkable feature: built into the floor in meticulous relief is a miniature stone model of the ancient city of Tanis. Already, the sunlight has worked its way down the far wall and is edging onto the miniature of the city. On the floor, to the skylight side of the miniature, is an elaborate line created by embedded mosaic tiles. The evenly spaced slots in the line, each accompanied by a symbol of a time of year, are for the base of the staff. Indy pulls the headpiece from his robes - it has been welded together - and reaches for the staff. EXT. ABOVE THE MAP ROOM - DAY An extremely nervous Sallah has the gathered rope in his hands and is trying to appear casual as he inches back toward the oil drum. There is now a good bit of activity going on up here. JEEP GERMAN (O.S.) Hey! You, the skinny one! Sallah jumps about three feet. The JEEP GERMAN is standing in an open space ten yards away looking at Sallah. JEEP GERMAN Yes, you. What are you doing there? Sallah gestures his innocence. JEEP GERMAN Well bring that rope over here, you cur. The Jeep German starts back toward his major concern: his jeep is stuck in some sand beyond the next tent. Some Arab Workers are trying in vain to budge it. Now another German has backed his truck up to it. Sallah can think of nothing to do expect obey. With a worried glance at the map room, be begins untying the rope from the oil drum. INT. THE MAP ROOM Indy is examining the results of Belloq's work. Red paint marks one of the miniature buildings in the layout and a white calibrated tape has been strung from that building back to a miniature of the map room. Now Indy begins examining the mosaic base line for the staff. Sunlight has moves further down across the miniature. EXT. IN THE CAMP - DAY Sallah watches nervously as his precious rope is pulled taut between the pulling truck and the stuck jeep. He doesn't notice that he has chosen to stand next to a large, steaming kettle of food until - HUNGRY GERMAN (O.S.) Bring us some of that! He points to the kettle. Sallah looks frantically from the rope, back to the skylight of the map room, to the kettle of food. HUNGRY GERMAN Now, idiot! Sallah picks up some serving pieces and gets to work. INT. THE MAP ROOM The moment has arrived. Even the tension of the circumstances cannot distract Indy from the purity of what he is about to do. All his calculations are adjustments complete, Indy takes the Staff of Ra and places it - CLINK! - in the right depression on the base line. This is as active and exciting a moment as any archeologist can dream of and, at heart, that is exactly what Indy is. The sunlight catches the very top of the headpiece and moves within a fraction of an inch of the tiny hole in its sun. The edge of the sunlight moving across the miniature city is still a good two feet beyond the spot Belloq has settled on. And now that line of light is broken by the shadow of an ornate sun at the top of the staff. Indy's face reflects his concentration. And then his immense pleasure. He sees what he came for. Out of the miniature city, one small building is being lit by a tiny beam of sunlight in the center of the shadow of the metal sun. And by some trick of ancient artistry, this one building responds to the sunlight like none of the others. The golden light permeates it: it seems to glow. The building is in a direct line with Belloq's - all the Frenchman's other calculations were right - but it is a foot and a half beyond it. EXT. IN THE CAMP - DAY Sallah, sweating profusely, has finished serving the line of Breakfasting Germans and now heads back to replace the kettle and get away. HUNGRY GERMAN Water. Bring us water. INT. MAP ROOM Indy is on his knees at the miniature city, a special tape measure in his hand. Indy has the tape strung from Belloq's mistaken spot to his own correct spot. He gets his reading, leaps up and crosses to the erect staff. He pulls the headpiece off the staff and hides it in his robes. He quickly breaks the wooden staff in two and throws the pieces behind a pile of debris. Then he moves quickly to beneath the skylight. INDY (stage whisper) Sallah. (he waits, then louder) Sallah! More waiting. Nothing. Indy looks around for some alternative means of escape. The room doesn't offer any. He looks up at the skylight again. INDY (loudest) Sallah! A long pause. Then something comes down. A makeshift rope. Really just a bunch of clothing tied together - tunics, robes, pants. But what we see first and most prominently, the first section of Indy's escape rope, is a bright Nazi flag. Indy beams and climbs. EXT. ABOVE THE MAP ROOM - DAY Indy sticks his head out the skylight, sees it clear and flops his body out. Sallah, crouching behind the oil drum, immediately starts pulling in the makeshift rope. Sallah stuffs the rope in the oil drum and the two men begin waking toward some tents. HUNGRY GERMAN (O.S.) Hey, you! More water over here! Sallah glances at Indy, Then hurries back in that direction. The Hungry German focuses on Indy. HUNGRY GERMAN Why aren't you at the digs? Come here! Indy bows in wild subservience and hurries off in the opposite direction. HUNGRY GERMAN (yelling after him, irritated) No, dummkopf, I said come! EXT. BETWEEN TWO TENTS - DAY Indy hustles between the tents. Up ahead, two German Officers stop to talk, blocking his exit. He moves along the side of one of the tents until he finds an opening and slips inside. INT. THE TENT Indy finds himself in a tent set up for rather comfortable living. He has just started to cross it when he hears a loud, excited grunting. He turns toward the sound. In the corner, tied to a chair and gagged is Marion. Indy rushes to her, snatches the gag from her mouth and embraces her. They kiss, deep and long. INDY I though you were dead. MARION They were throwing me around like a rag doll. INDY They must have switched baskets. Thank god for that! Bless those bastards. Have they hurt you? MARION No. Not since I got here. They just asked about you - what you knew. The Frenchman's got the hot's for me. I've been playing that along. Oh, Indy, get me out of here. Indy pulls out a knife and then stops suddenly, thinking. MARION What's wrong? INDY (putting the knife away) I have to leave you here for a little while. I know where the Ark is. If I take you out of here they'll start combing the place for us. MARION (louder) Cut me loose! INDY Keep your voice down. MARION (screaming) I said get me out of - Indy pops the gag back in her mouth. Her eyes widen in fury and she grunts obscenities at him. INDY Look, you don't know how glad I am to see you. And I don't like doing this. But the whole thing will be shot if you don't just sit here quietly. They haven't hurt you in the last twenty-four hours, they aren't going to start now. I'll be back to get you in no time. He kisses her forehead, jumps up and hurries out of the tent. EXT. SAND DUNE OUTSIDE DIGS - DAY With the digs behind them, Indy and Sallah run up to the ridge of the dune and over the top. At the bottom of the far side, Omar's truck is parked. Omar and his men are waiting. EXT. DIFFERENT DUNE - DAY This new spot gives Indy a higher, better view of the whole scene. Indy is using a surveyor's instrument to take a reading - WHAT HE SEES Looking through the instrument, Indy gets a line from the map room through the site where the Nazis are digging in the dunes to a spot several dunes over. We focus on that virgin spot of well-hidden sand as - INDY There! EXT. INDY'S DIG - DAY Omar's truck is parked at the spot just viewed from afar. Dunes rise on either side. One of Omar's men has been posted as a lookout up on a ridge. Everybody else - Indy, Sallah, Omar, and his men - have begun digging for the Wells of the Souls. DISSOLVE TO: SAME SCENE - NIGHT They continue to dig furiously, all of them drenched in sweat. The hole has grown but this is slow, back-breaking work. INT. COMMAND TENT - TANIS DIGS - NIGHT Belloq, SHLIEMANN the ranking Nazi, and Shliemann's Aide, GOBLER, come into the tent, which is full of charts and maps, drawings of the Ark, radio equipment, liquor and food. The men have been out digging for the Well all day. They are tired, discouraged, testy. In all matters, Gobler shows his alliance with Shliemann against Belloq with small looks and body language. The Frenchman has disappointed them and he is feeling the isolation of a scapegoat. Belloq gets himself a drink as Shliemann towels off his face. BELLOQ I cautioned you about being premature with that communiquÈ to Berlin. Archeology is not an exact science. If does not adhere to time schedules. SHLIEMANN The Fuhrer is not a patient man. He demands constant reports and he expects progress. You led me to believe - BELLOQ Nothing. I have made no promises. I said only that it looked very favorable. Perhaps the Ark will still be found in an adjoining chamber. Based on the information in our possession, my calculations were correct. Perhaps some bit of evidence still eludes us. Perhaps GOBLER Perhaps the girl can help us. Belloq shoots him an angry look. SHLIEMANN My feeling exactly. She was in possession of the original piece for years. She may know much. (really evil) If properly motivated... BELLOQ I tell you, she knows nothing useful. SHLIEMANN I'm surprised to find you squeamish. That is not your reputation. But it needn't concern you. I have the perfect man for this kind of work. Shliemann signals Gobler, who steps outside the tent a moment, calls someone and then reappears. Belloq looks warily at the entrance. After a moment Belzig enters, reeking villainy. When his eyes find Shliemann, his superior, he snaps a crisp "Heil, Hitler!" at him, holding his palm rigid a long time, exposing a burned scar in the prefect shape of the sun medallion. EXT. INDY'S DIG - NIGHT In the eerie conjunction of moonlight and torchlight, Indy and the other men step back in awe of their discovery: there, flush with the bottom of their pit, is a heavy stone entry door to an underground chamber. Special prying tools are produced. With two men assigned to each of the two long tools, they work in unison to open the vault. They open it a foot and the other men rush in to flop the heavy door completely open. Down inside, only blackness. The men quickly prostrate themselves around the edge of the entry to look inside. Indy and Sallah each take a torch and hold them down the hole. WHAT THEY SEE The Well of the Souls is a spooky chamber thirty feet deep. The walls are covered with hieroglyphics and carvings. The roof is supported intermittently by stone pillars, the closest of which hits the roof very near the entry hole. The Well is quite large; as Indy and Sallah wave their torches, more and more of the room is revealed. Now the far end of the chamber comes into view. There is a stone altar down there and on this elaborated carved platform is a stone chest, big enough to enclose the Lost Ark and protect it from the ravages of time. This altar appears to be the only place on the floor of the Well that is not covered by a strange, dark carpet of some kind. INDY The Ark must be in that stone case. What's that gray stuff all over the floor - He breaks off realizing exactly what that carpet is. He blanches. Indiana Jones blanches. Indy drops his torch to the floor of the Well. This is answered by the most horrific HISSING imaginable. WHAT HE SEES That think dark carpet is moving. It's alive. It's thousands and thousands of deadly poisonous snakes - Egyptian asps. And the only thing that seems capable of avoiding this venomous groundcover is the altar. The snakes ebb and flow near it, but never encroach on it, as though repelled by some invisible force. Indy shakes his head and talks to himself. INDY Why snakes? Why did it have to be snakes? Anything else. After a moment of this, he stops. He gathers his energy and resolve and gets back to the task. SALLAH Asps. Very dangerous. Where Indy's torch had landed is a circle of snake-free floor. The snakes hate the flame; they stay away. INDY Lots of torches. And oil. I want a landing strip down there. INT. THE WELL OF THE SOULS Fifteen torches have been dropped to the floor of the chamber, combining to make a good-sized clear zone. Smoke begins to fill the room. Several canisters of oil have been lowered into this space. Now, a large wooden crate is lowered slowly by rope. Rope handles are attached to each end of the crate. Up at the hole, Indy gives Sallah a reassuring pat, takes a breath, and swings carefully onto a rope hanging from the hole. Despite his care, he swings a bit and his feet hit the stone pillar which is so near the entry. Surprisingly, the pillar actually moves a bit, showering a light rain of crumbled stone to the floor below. Indy lands on the floor of the Well. He looks at the altar over a sea of undulating death. He picks up an oil canister and splashes two parallel lines of oil and lights them. A path six feet wide begins to open to the altar. Behind Indy, Sallah comes quickly down the rope. We begin to INTERCUT all the action in the Well from here on with insert shots of the snakes outside the flames. Snakes and snakes. We see: snakes piled and entwined six inches deep; mother snakes laying snake eggs; snake eggs hatching little snakes; snakes cannibalizing other snakes. INT. MARION'S TENT Belloq has been talking to the still-bound Marion. He has removed her gag. He is impatient, angry, uncomfortable. Caught between two forces. BELLOQ Believe me, you made a mistake. If you would just give me something to placate them. Some bit of information. MARION I swear to you, I know nothing more. I have no loyalty to Jones. He's brought me only trouble. He wants to believe her. BELLOQ I cannot control them. Marion's frightened look shifts suddenly to the entrance of the tent. There are new arrivals there - Shliemann, Gobler and Belzig. Belzig carries a black leather case. He steps forward and smiles at Marion. BELZIG We meet again, Fraulein. EXT. INDY'S DIG - JUST BEFORE DAWN The sky is just beginning to lighten over the dunes to the east, making dangerously obvious the thin column of smoke rising from the entrance to the Well. Omar and his men are peering through the smoke down into the Well. INT. THE WELL OF THE SOULS Indy and Sallah are on the altar. Pushing together with all their strength, the heavy stone top of the protective chest begins to slide away. Indy and Sallah exchange slightly wary but very excited looks, then continue to push. As the Ark begins to be exposed, the air seems to almost vibrate, to become electrostatically charged. We hear what sounds like a low HUM. The sea of snakes around the altar draws back further from this presence. As the top of the stone chest is pushed completely off and slams down beside it, we see THE LOST ARK OF THE COVENANT. It is awesomely beautiful, breathtaking. 4 feet long, 2.5 feet wide and 2.5 feet high. It's height, however, is increased by the two sculptured gold angels mounted facing each other on the top. Though the body of the Ark is acacia wood, it has been overlaid with gold. An elaborate gold crown surrounds the top edge and gold carrying rings are attached to each corner. Sallah is mesmerized by the sight. His hand starts to reach out and touch one of the angels, but Indy grabs it. INDY Don't touch it! Never touch it! The wooden crate stands open next to the stone chest. Now Indy extracts the wooden poles from its rings and begins fitting them through the rings in the Ark. This takes some maneuvering by the two men, but soon they are able to lift the Ark clear of the stone chest and into the wooden crate. They extract the poles, fasten the top of the crate and stick the poles through the rings of the wooden crate. They start back toward the space under the hole. The fire strips have begun to dwindle, as have some of the torches. The snakes move slowly in toward the clear spaces. Indy and Sallah eye them nervously as they hurry along with their heavy load. Under the hole, they hurriedly attach ropes to the wooden crate and it is pulled up. Indy's concentration is on the tide of snakes. INDY Hurry up! Why did it have to be snakes? Sallah takes the next rope and climbs quickly out of the Well. Indy has picked up a torch and now throws it at a pool of snakes who are too close for his comfort. He turns and takes hold of the exit rope. He gives it a first tug and it falls down into the Well, landing partly beyond the ring of fire where is instantly disappears in a tangle of angry, hissing asps. Indy looks up at the hole. INDY What the - Smiling down at him from the perimeter of the entry are Belloq, Shliemann and Gobler. BELLOQ Why, Dr. Jones, whatever are you doing in such a nasty place? Belloq and the Germans laugh. INDY Why don't you fellows come down here? I'll show you. BELLOQ No thank you, my friend. (he glances around him) I think we are all very comfortable up here. EXT. INDY'S DIG - DAWN Sunlight is flooding this tableau: Sallah, Omar and his men are being held at bay by ten armed Nazis. The wooden crate sits safely nearby. Belzig and another Nazi have the gagged Marion held in their rough grasp. BELLOQ (down to Indy) After all these years, it is most considerate of you to aid me in this way. As Belloq speaks, Shliemann exchanges a look with Belzig. Belzig smiles and takes the gag from Marion's mouth. INT. WELLS OF THE SOULS Shliemann smiles down at Indy. SHLIEMANN I'm afraid we must be going now, Dr. Jones. Our prize is awaited in Berlin. But I do not wish to leave you down in that awful place... (he give a sign) ...all alone. Belzig and the Nazi move Marion to the hole and, to Belloq's surprise, push her in. Marion falls thirty feet screaming. Indy drops his torch, braces, and catches her! Her weight knocks him to the ground, almost into the snakes. She looks around at the snakes, clinging to him more desperately as he struggles to his feet trying to unload her. MARION Don't put me down! Up at the hole, there's plenty of dissension. BELLOQ The girl was mine! SHLIEMANN She is of no use to us. Only our mission for the Fuhrer matters. Shliemann glances meaningfully around at the other Nazis. SHLIEMANN I wonder sometimes, Monsieur, if you have that clearly in mind. Belloq feels how much he is the outsider, his own vulnerability. He backs down with the wisdom of survival. He turns to look down at Indy and Marion. His manner is gallant. BELLOQ Goodbye, mademoiselle. (a pause, then with respect) Indiana Jones... adieu! Belloq and the others step back from the hole and unseen Nazis slam the heavy stone door into place. Marion screams. Her scream is accompanied by - A huge WHOOSH! as air is sucked out and the chamber is sealed. Half of the torches still burning go out with the sound. The remaining torches continue to extinguish at punctuating intervals throughout the following action and the snakes immediately flood into the newly-darkened spaces. Indy puts Marion down and snatches up two burning torches. He hands one to Marion. INDY Don't panic. There's plenty of time for that later. Wave that at anything that slithers. Indy holds his torch out like a lantern and begins a slow O- turn, his eyes peering into the gloom, examining every inch of wall and ceiling. MARION What are you doing? INDY Just watch the floor. Reminded of the encroaching snakes, Marion waves her torch at the nearest edge of their circle. She looks faint. Indy continues his slow turn. MARION Whatever you're doing, do it faster. INDY (he spots something) There! His head whips around, looking at the pillars around the room. He sees what he wants. He grabs one of the oil canisters, looks back to the spot on the wall he's chosen and splashes oil on the floor in that direction, then lights it. A path opens toward that wall. INDY Come on! Marion is frozen in her spot. Indy drags her after him. He splashes oil the rest of the way to the wall. It lights and Indy pulls Marion over to the wall. He pours the remaining oil in a circle around them, creating a safe zone there. INDY Stay here! MARION (grabbing him) Where are you going? INDY I'll be back in a minute. We're going through this wall. Marion looks at the wall, which looks like all the rest to her. She thinks he's crazy. INDY Just keep your eyes open and get ready to run. No matter what happens to me. MARION (panicked) What do you mean? Too late. Indy runs back through the path of flames to the center of the room. Snakes strike as his flying heels. Indy reaches the base of the pillar which he touched briefly on his original descent. He uses his torch to clear away the scattered snakes climbing on it, then pulls out his whip. He draws it back, then wraps is solidly around the pillar 15 feet up. With the torch in his mouth, he begins climbing the pillar. It moves ominously under his weight. The last two torches still burning on the floor go out. Now the only light in the chamber is provided by the torches held by Indy and Marion and the dwindling oil flames. Snakes move in and surround the base of Indy's pillar. The path between Marion and the center of the room is overrun. The circle of flame around Marion is dying down. She looks beyond it with terror-widened eyes, then up through the increasing smoke at the distant Indy. Near the top of the pillar, Indy's hands strain along his taut whip, which he has moves higher. A snake slithers into view there, inches from Indy's straining face. Indy turns his head so the torch in his mouth can burn it. The snake falls from the pillar. Indy's torch is dwindling. Indy works his body around so that he is on the side of the pillar away from Marion. The pillar moves, showering dust. Indy looks at the chamber wall five feet away, takes a breath and swings his legs up against it. He is now braced between pillar and wall. MARION (O.S.) (screaming) Where are you?! Snakes are moving in force up the pillar toward Indy's dwindling torch. Indy grasps the pillar for dear life, grimaces with exertion and pushes against the wall with all he's got. The pillar begins to break loose of the ceiling, then stops. Indy's eyes are on the torch. It is just a spot of flame now. Snakes are sliding up toward his hands. Indy again pushes against the wall and the torch falls out of his mouth. The pillar goes! In the dim light, we see it fall like a tree directly at Marion. Indy rides it down. The top hits the wall three feet from a cringing Marion and smashes through to a black chamber beyond. Indy flies off into the darkness. Gone. Marion clutches her torch at the black hole. MARION Indy! Where are you?! Please Lord! There is a moment that seems an eternity, then Indy appears like an apparition out of the void. INDY Come on! He grabs her and helps her over the remains of the wall into - INT. THE CATACOMBS The winding string of connected chambers is revealed to them only a few feet at a time as their torch lights the way. MARION The snakes... are they here? INDY I guess not. I think I'd be dead. MARION Do you know where you're going? INDY Absolutely. MARION Thank god. Where? INDY Out. They round a corner and flush a covey of bats. Marion screams. INDY Don't do that. It scares me. Marion gives him a look. They round a corner and begin a walk through a maze of chambers that present for their inspection: moldering mummies and stacked sarcophagi; a room decorated with a thousand human skulls; a wall crawling with huge scarabaeid beetles. Marion is quite naturally a nervous wreck; she jumps when Indy grabs her suddenly and points. INDY Look! WHAT THEY SEE There, coming through the crack in the corner of the next chamber, is white blessed sunlight. EXT. THE TANIS DIGS - NEAR AIRSTRIP - DAY Indy and Marion peek out into the light from the shadows of an abandoned excavation. Before them is the improvised airstrip serving the digs: a crude runway, a tent supply depot, two fuel tank trucks. Down by the fuel trucks a German Mechanic is looking skyward. Now Indy and Marion look there too, drawn by the roaring sound of - A Flying Wing, which is circling over the digs in preparation to landing. Now a new figure approaches the German Mechanic. It is Gobler; he yells to the mechanic, indicating the plane. GOBLER Get is gassed immediately! It has an important cargo to take out! In the distance, the Flying Wing lands and rolls toward the men. Gobler spins and heads back toward the main camp, which is hidden from view by a rise. Indy and Marion watch him go. INDY When the Ark gets loaded, we're already going to be on that plane. The Flying Wing rolls up into the space near the fuel trucks. The German Mechanic puts blue blocks in front of the tires as the engines continue to roar. Indy and Marion run in a crouch to a hiding spot closer to the plane, near the supply tent. Suddenly, a Second German Mechanic appears behind them. He is as surprised as they are, but recovers quickly and swings a big monkey wrench at Indy. Indy grabs the swinging arm and the two men tumble out into the open, wrestling. Marion remains hidden, moving fast among the crates. The first German Mechanic, who is just pulling the fuel hose from the tank truck to the plane, sees the combatants and runs to help his countryman. He is almost upon them when Indy puts the Second German away with a devastating left - right - left combination. He turns to find the first German Mechanic flying at him. The roll toward the rear of the Flying Wing and its lethally spinning reversed propellers. In the cockpit of the Flying Wing, the Pilot has been fiddling with his gauges just prior to shutting off his engines. Now he notices the fight going on outside. The fistfight between Indy and the German Mechanic has taken on a new stomach-tightening dimension. The men are fighting and flailing in and out between the spinning props at the back of the plane's wings. Each man comes within inches of becoming instant mincemeat. The Pilot slides away the top of his cockpit and stands up. He pulls a Luger from his side and points it, waiting for a clear shot at Indy. The German Mechanic kicks Indy away from him and the Pilot aims his pistol. Suddenly, Marion appears behind the Pilot, standing on the opposite wing, and bashes him over the head with one of the blue blocks that was holding the tires. The Pilot drops down into the cockpit, his body falling on the throttle. The engines roar louder, revving up. The plane begins to roll, rotating around its one still- blocked set of tires. Marion grabs onto the cockpit to keep from slipping into the props. She bends into the cockpit, trying to pull the Pilot's body off the throttle. No luck. She grimaces and climbs inside. Her shoulder bumps the top of the cockpit; it slides tightly shut above her. Under the moving wing, Indy delivers a knockout rightcross to the German Mechanic which sends him staggering back toward a roaring propeller. Indy's grimace registers the man's demise and a fine mist of blood wafts toward him. Indy spins toward the sound of crumpling metal and sees - The other prop of the Flying Wing slice into a tank truck. The airplane fuel inside floods out onto the pavement, surrounding the plane. Indy backpedals away from the plane, his eyes searching the scene for Marion. Suddenly, he is shocked to see her in the cockpit. He runs toward her, skidding through the gasoline. INDY Get out! Get out! Marion is struggling with the top of the cockpit. She can't budge it. She's trapped. EXT. THE COMMAND TENT - DAY Three Armed Nazis stand guard around the wooden crate containing the Ark. It is sitting near the flopped-open entrance to the Command Tent and there is furious activity going on here. Belloq, Shliemann, Gobler, Belzig and assorted Aides are packing up all the papers and personal items in preparation for a hasty departure. A large crowd of Arab Diggers is milling about among the tents. They all want to get a look at the Ark. Sallah is among them. All at once, there is a earthshaking explosion. Al eyes turn toward the rise that hides the airstrip. A huge fireball floats into view over there. Everyone starts running toward it. Shliemann yells at Belzig and the Armed Nazis. SHLIEMANN Stay with the Ark! EXT. THE RISE ABOVE AIRSTRIP - DAY Almost all the Arabs and Germans in the digs have congregated here and are staring at the burning remains of the Flying Wing. Belloq and Shliemann arrive just as the second fuel truck blows up. The concussion knocks many of the observers flat. Belloq, Shliemann and Gobler watch the scene in alarm. SHLIEMANN Sabotage! BELLOQ We must get the Ark away from this place immediately! SHLIEMANN (to Gobler) Have it put on the truck. We'll fly out of Cairo. Gobler snaps his heels, turns to go. SHLIEMANN And Gobler - (Gobler stops) I want plenty of protection. Gobler nods and runs off. Shliemann heads back toward camp. Belloq hesitates a long moment, studying the burning wreckage with an odd, suspicious look. Finally, he turns and leaves, passing a nearby stack of barrels. When he has passed, Sallah appears from among the barrels. He searches the crowd for his people and starts a broken field run along some tents to avoid a group of Germans and is running flat-out when someone sticks out a leg and sends him flipping. Sallah, dust all over his face, looks angrily toward the concealed culprit. At once, a flashing white grin splits his darkened face. Indy and Marion, splotched with soot and oil, are hiding in the flap of a tent. Sallah runs into their arms and the three embrace warmly. When they break - SALLAH Holy smoke, my friends! I am so pleased you are not dead. MARION Us too. SALLAH (suddenly remembering) The Ark! They're taking it on a truck to Cairo. INDY Where is it? Sallah gestures to follow and all three run off stealthily through the mostly deserted camp. EXT. AMONG THE TENTS - DAY Sallah, Indy and Marion run into a hiding spot behind some water barrels near the Command Tent. They peek out at this activity - In the big space near the Command Tent is parked an open German staff car; inside is a Blond Driver and an Armed Guard. Directly behind it is a canvas-topped troop truck. At this moment, Belloq and Shliemann are supervising the careful placement of the crated Ark in the back of the truck. When it is securely placed inside, we hear an ominous marching sound and Nine Armed Nazis appear at a trot from between some tents and climb into the back of the truck with the Ark. Behind the water barrels, Sallah and Marion exchange hapless looks, But Indy just concentrates on - The scene by the truck: Belloq and Shliemann are about to climb into the front staff car when they pause to check out the final component of the convoy. Rolling into place behind the truck is another open staff car. But this one is special - mounted in the back is a big, black machine gun, manned by a Gunner. At the wheel of the car is Gobler and next to him sits Belzig. Sallah and Marion look at Indy. Belloq and Shliemann climb in the back seat of the front car and the caravan pulls out. Indy watches it go, thinking hard. INDY You two get back to Cairo quick and get us transportation to England - a plane, a ship, anything. MARION What about you? INDY I'm going to get that truck. I'll meet you at Omar's. Be ready for me. Sallah nods. Marion looks at him like he's nuts. Indy jumps up, looks around desperately. MARION How are you going to get that truck? INDY (still searching) I don't know. I'm making this up as I go. He runs away between two tents. EXT. AT THE EDGE OF THE DIGS - DAY From among the tents, Indy suddenly bursts into view, happily astride a magnificent white Arabian stallion. He gallops off across the desert. EXT. THE DESERT (VARIOUS SHOTS) - DAY Indy cuts cross-country avoiding the road the convoy has taken. He leaps gullies, climbs dunes, slides down slopes. Soon the convoy comes into view far below him. He tears along a parallel ridge, like an Indian shadowing a wagon train. EXT. DESERT ROAD - DAY The convoy is entering rougher country. The narrow mountain road we've seen earlier ascends ahead. To the side of the road are tall boulders. Suddenly, Indy shoots out from between two rocks and rides directly for the truck. The Armed Nazis in the back of the truck can see nothing because the canvas hides their view. But Gobler, Belzig and the Gunner in the rear staff car have a brief line on him. Belzig points and the Gunner fires away and Indy, the bullets kicking up sand near Indy's horse. The Armed Guard in the cab of the truck leans out to see what's happening. Indy has been riding alongside. Now he stands on the horse and leaps to the cab. In a second, he has flipped the Armed Guard out of the truck. He slides into the cab and begins grappling with the Truck Driver. The Truck Driver tries to hit the brakes, but Indy kicks his foot away and floors the gas pedal. The truck doubles its speed and shoots onto the steep mountain road. EXT. MOUNTAIN ROAD - DAY The Blond Driver of the front staff car sees the truck move up on him in the rearview mirror and speeds up. Belloq, Shliemann and the Armed Guard in the car twist around to look at the struggle in the truck. The Blond Driver begins what will be a continuing preview of the twists in the road. He turns his wheel sharply and takes the lead car around a bend. In the cab of the truck, Indy and the Truck Driver stop their fight temporarily and cooperate in turning the steering wheel. The truck barely stays on the road. A full view reveals the incredible geography of this ride. The convoy in tiny against the spectacular mountainside, the cliffs drop hundreds of feet. At the wheel of the rear car, Gobler swerves to stay on the road and accidentally sideswipes a boulder. The Gunner perched in the back is flipped head over heels out of the car. Gobler and Belzig are having trouble seeing the road through all the dust the convoy is kicking up. The lead staff car reaches the summit of the road and barely makes the hairpin turn there, delivering a destructive blow to the guard rail that has been placed there. The guard rail is now bent. In the cab of the truck, Indy and the Truck Driver again stop trying to choke each other long enough to negotiate the turn together. The bumper of the truck hits the broken guard rail and sends it flying off the cliff. The truck, however, holds the road. In the rear car, Gobler and Belzig are trying to see through the thick clouds of dust. Suddenly is clears completely. Unfortunately for them, this happens because their car has shot out into space at the hairpin turn. They are flying to their final reward. Belzig, eyes wide behind his evil spectacles, screams as he goes. In the cab of the truck, the Truck Driver is distracted by the sight of the flying staff car. Indy plasters him and he tumbles out. Far, far below, Belzig's staff car explodes on the rocks. In the back of the truck, a TOUGH SERGEANT takes command of the situation. He picks out six Armed Nazis and motions for them to start climbing around the outside of the truck to the cab. With some trepidation the lucky ones begin that maneuver. The truck is swerving like crazy. In the front staff car, the Armed Guard aims his submachine guns back at Indy, alone now in the truck's cab. Shliemann knocks the barrel roughly away. SHLIEMANN (yelling) If anything happens to that Ark, we're all dead men ! The Fuhrer will see to it! Indy sees this from the cab and reacts by speeding up, putting even more pressure on the Blond Driver. Along the back of the truck, Armed Nazis are edging up toward the cab, three on each side. They hang on as the truck rounds a corner and goes into a straightaway that leads through a short tunnel. In the cab, Indy has been concentrating on the lead staff car. Now, just before entering the tunnel, he looks in the side view mirror and sees the Nazis on his side. A quick glance to the other mirror reveals the others. As the truck sweeps into the tunnel, we see Indy just start to turn his steering wheel - he is going to sideswipe the walls of the tunnel At the other end of the tunnel, we hear the roar of the two engine and two long, screeching, scraping sounds. The lead staff car shoots out of the tunnel, then the truck, its sides cleaned of Nazis. In the rear of the truck, the Tough Sergeant is looking with distaste back at the tunnel. There remains only him and two Armed Nazis with the Ark. He sends these two climbing up over the top of the truck. In the lead car, the Blond Driver is being pressed hard by Indy, who now edges up to bump them from the rear. Suddenly the Armed Guard next to the Driver sees the two Armed Nazis appear on the top of the truck. Without thinking, he starts to point them out to Shliemann, then realizes his stupidity. In the cab, Indy has seen this and is at first mystified. He checks his sideview mirrors. Then he figures it out and slams on his brakes. The brakes lock, the wheels burn and the truck skids to a dusty halt. The two Armed Nazis fly off the truck, over the cab to the road in front. Indy immediately hits the gas again. The two Armed Nazis, just aiming their weapons, get wiped out. In the rear of the truck, the crated Ark is bouncing all alone, no one in sight, because - The Tough Sergeant is on the top of the truck, making his way steadily forward. This guy clearly knows what he's doing. A submachine gun is slung across his back. The truck and the staff car race through a series of S-curves. In the staff car, Belloq and Shliemann spot the Tough Sergeant as he reaches the front of the truck's top and begins to lower his submachine gun barrel toward the cab. Indy is unaware. Belloq and Shliemann exchange looks. Then Shliemann yells to the Armed Guard in the front seat. The Tough Sergeant has a line on Indy. He points his gun. The Armed Guard blasts away at the truck. The Tough Sergeant dies in a hail of bullets and flies off. Indy, who has ducked at the gunfire, is confused. But when he sees the Armed Guard up front lower his gun, Indy again floors it and begins bumping the staff car in earnest. The road is almost down to a level now. In the distance - Cairo. The road takes a little dogleg just before reaching level ground again. Just as the staff car is about to make the turn, Indy smashes them from behind. The staff car flies off the road and down a twenty foot embankment. Indy takes the truck speeding down the road and off toward Cairo. In the staff car, the occupants are bruised but safe. Shliemann points at the departing truck and yells at the Blond Driver. The staff car fishtails out of its sandy resting place and takes off after the truck. EXT. OUTSKIRTS OF CAIRO (VARIOUS SHOTS) - DAY Indy has an ever-decreasing lead on the staff car as the race thunders into the narrow streets. People and animals leap out of the way; carts and barrels go flying helter skelter. Indy takes the truck down a street so narrow there are only inches to spare on each side. Pedestrians jump into doorways. EXT. OMAR'S SQUARE - DAY When the truck clears the narrow street, it is in a small square. Omar's garage is gaping open on the opposite side. Indy hits the brakes and the truck skids across the square and into the garage. The garage door slams shut and tenting drops from the building to hide the door. Various Arabs, friends of Omar, rush out with fruit carts and baskets and set up a mini-bazaar in seconds. Two Arab Boys sweep the tracks of the truck into oblivion. They throw aside their brooms just as the staff car appears from the narrow street. Belloq and Shliemann look around desperately as the Blond Driver steers the car through the square and out the other side. EXT. CAIRO DOCKS - NIGHT The waterfront is dark and misty. An old tramp steamer, the BANTU WIND, sits by the pier. Several fierce Black African Pirates, the crewmembers, are taking on final stores. A small light illuminates the top of the gangplank. In its circle, Indy and Marion exchange long, warm embraces with Sallah. A short distance away the ship's Captain, a handsome, powerful black named SIMON KATANGA, watches from the rail, smoking a pipe. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. OPEN SEA - THE MEDITERRANEAN - NIGHT The Bantu Wind is bathed in moonlight as it cuts across even seas. INT. INDY'S CABIN - NIGHT Indy comes in, takes off his hat, jacket, whip and holster. The door which connects this cabin to the next opens and Marion appears. She is carrying a half-full glass of liquor, but what you notice is the long, snow-white, high-necked nightgown she is wearing. It is very prim. Very innocent. And very sexy. Marion does a slightly embarrassed model's turn for Indy. MARION I have a feeling I'm not the first woman to travel with these pirates. There's a whole wardrobe in there. INDY It's lovely. Indy sits on the cot, takes off his boots. He leans back against the wall and rubs his eyes. Marion sits on the bed, leans back against the wall with him and looks down at her white nightgown. She chuckles. MARION I feel like a virgin bride in this. INDY That's what you look like. MARION (takes a drink) There are some things you can recapture in this life, but that isn't one of them. INDY What would you like to recapture? MARION (after a long pause) Nothing. That is the way it is. He watches her closely as she drains her glass and puts it down. INDY Did I ever say I was sorry I burned down your tavern? She turns so their lips are very close. MARION No. Then again, I burned up that plane. INDY You saved my life. MARION And you saved mine. INDY Seems things have worked out kind of even. MARION That's the way I like them. INDY Maybe we should consider all past accounts closed. Marion thinks about this a long time. MARION No. Not yet. INDY What else? She looks into his eyes. A smile jumps from her lips to his. He kisses her and they sink slowly to the cot. INT. IN THE HOLD The ship's rats are agitated. They tremble and chatter at the edges of the compartment, darting about. Out in the center of the hold, sitting all by itself, is the crated Ark. HUM-M- M-M. INT. INDY'S CABIN - DAY Marion awakes with a start, alone in the cot. Something's wrong. The ship is quiet. Indy is strapping on his holster. He pulls his ship and jacket from a hook. MARION What is it? INDY The engines have shut down. MARION Why? INDY I'm going to find out. EXT. LOWER DECK - DAY Indy runs toward the bow, then climbs some steps four at a time. A MESSENGER PIRATE is hurrying to get him, but flies by him on the steps. By the time the Pirate stops himself, Indy is gone. MESSENGER PIRATE Mister Jones! The Captain he say - EXT. THE BRIDGE - DAY Captain Katanga is looking with concern ahead of the ship. Indy appears behind him. INDY What's wrong? KATANGA You have most important friends. Katanga turns quickly, pointing with a sweeping hand. Indy looks. Arrayed in a rough semicircle around the ship are ten German Wolf Submarines. All of their deck guns are manned and trained on the Bantu Wind. Worse, at least five heavily- armed boarding parties in rafts are closing quickly on the ship. INDY Holy shit. KATANGA (fast) I sent my man for you. You and the girl must disappear. We have a place in the hold. Go, my friend! EXT. UPPER DECK - DAY Indy tears along the deck. He looks over the rail and sees two Nazi rafts already next to the ship. EXT. LOWER DECK - DAY Indy flies down some stairs and starts to round a corner. Suddenly he throws himself backwards, out of view. Three uniformed Nazis are clustered near a cabin door holding the Messenger Pirate. Now two more come out of the cabin trying to maintain their grasp on a kicking, yelling Marion. She is still wearing her white nightgown. More Nazis clamber onto the deck and head toward Indy, slamming open doors, rousting Pirates, spouting racial epithets. Indy steps backwards and fades into the maze of the ship. EXT. / INT. THE BANTU WINDS (VARIOUS SHOTS) - DAY The ship is swarming with Nazis. The Black Pirates are herded forward, subjected to rough physical and verbal abuse by the Aryan Supermen. The Pirates are clearly under orders not to resist, but not one of these strong men likes it. They'd gladly give their lives to rip the throat out of a few Krauts. In the hold, the door slams open and Nazis pour in; they smile at the sight of the crated Ark. EXT. THE BRIDGE - DAY Captain Katanga watches as his crew is crowded into a circle of Nazis on the wide deck below him. He is surrounded by Belloq, Shliemann, and several Nazis, two of whom are holding Marion. Now the Nazis from the hold appear on the lower deck carrying the crated Ark by means of the long poles. Belloq's eyes shine at the sight. SHLIEMANN Take it aboard the Wurrfler! BELLOQ And be very careful! The Ark is taken away. SHLIEMANN (to a Sergeant below) What about Jones? SERGEANT Not a trace yet, sir! KATANGA Jones is dead. Belloq and Shliemann regard him suspiciously. KATANGA We killed him. He was of no use to us. The girl, however, has certain value where we are headed. She will bring a very good price. If that cargo you have taken was your goal, then go in peace with it. But leave us the girl. It will reduce our loss on this trip. SHLIEMANN Savage. You are not in a position to ask for anything. We will take what we wish and then decide whether or not to blow your ship from the water. Belloq steps forward and puts a proprietary hand on Marion's arm, fixing Shliemann with a steady look. BELLOQ That girl goes with me. It will be part of my compensation. I'm sure the Fuhrer would approve. Shliemann considers. BELLOQ If she fails to please me, you can do with her as you wish. This appeals to Shliemann's nature. He signals his agreement with a gesture. Belloq ushers Marion away with her two keepers. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. "THE WURRFLER" - CONNING TOWER - DAY The Nazis have returned to their subs. Shliemann is on the bridge with the WURRFLER'S CAPTAIN and the Captain's Aides. The Captain is an honorable career Navy man. THE WURRFLER'S CAPTAIN Colonel Shliemann, all torpedoes are loaded. Shliemann nods and continues to stare at the Bantu Wind, as does the Captain. The Pirate crew is all lined across the bow. Towering above the others, standing on the rail, proud and defiant, is Katanga. Shliemann looks at the Wurrfler's Captain a moment. SHLIEMANN What do you think, Captain? THE WURRFLER'S CAPTAIN (earnestly) I think not, Colonel. Nothing is to be gained. We are not at war. Shliemann mulls this, then turns to the hatch. SHLIEMANN ...yet. Let the vermin live. We must be on our way. Shliemann disappears down the hatch. The Captain is very pleased. A Radioman speaks into his headset, then follows the other Aides down the hatch. In the distance the other subs begin to move away from the ship. The Captain, alone on the bridge, looks once more at Katanga. On the Bantu Wind, Katanga executes what might be taken for a salute. The Wurrfler's Captain smiles, salutes crisply, then goes below, pulling the hatch closed. Immediately, the Wurrfler begins to move. And as it does, we see the rail at the aft of the main deck. From nowhere, a wet sleeve appears and a hand grabs the rail! Indy pulls his dripping body onto the sub's main deck. He has lost his felt hat once and for all. Other than that, his outfit is the same as always, just wetter. Suddenly, water is washing over his feet; the Wurrfler is beginning to submerge. Indy runs through quickly deepening water toward the haven of the conning tower. Halfway there, he slips and goes down. Only by grabbing the base of the aftmast light does he keep from being swept away. He struggles to his feet and sloshes through knee-deep water to the base of the conning tower. Indy climbs the ladder to the bridge of the conning tower and looks down. The water is rising toward his fast. Indy climbs the ladder to the top of the turret and braces himself between the two uprights there - the 7 foot radio mast and the 20 foot periscope. Still the ocean comes up to meet him. Soon the top of the turret is under water and the radio mast is disappearing. Indy shifts his grip to the periscope, working his way up it and hanging on for dear life as the ocean whips at his body. The periscope is quickly going under. Indy hangs on to the top three feet, all that remains above. The forward movement of the sub continues, but, to Indy's slowly dawning delight, the dive stops. No more of the periscope goes under. Indy smiles; it's a pretty good smile, too, given the circumstances. Indy pulls out his bullwhip and begins tying himself to the periscope. EXT. THE PERISCOPE - AFTERNOON The sun warms that part of his body Indy has contrived to keep out of the water. The rest floats out behind. Indy isn't comfortable, but all in all, it's not as terrible as he might have feared. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. THE PERISCOPE - DUSK It's as terrible as Indy might have feared. He looks wasted. Waterlogged and exhausted. The wet leather of the whip is contracting and he must struggle constantly to keep it from cutting into his skin. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. THE OCEAN - NIGHT Several shark fins cut the surface, appearing and disappearing in the bright moonlight. They are shadowing - EXT. THE PERISCOPE - NIGHT Indy looks through barely open eyes at the sharks running alongside. There is nothing to be done. His eyes close. FADE OUT: FADE IN: EXT. THE PERISCOPE - NIGHT The submarine has stopped. The water is calm. The moon is bright. A gentle swell splashes Indy awake. He blinks, tries to regain his senses. He makes an inventory of his body. Surprised to find himself intact, his spirits lift. Some hidden reserve of energy flows through him. He frees his aching arms from the wet leather of his whip, leaving only one loop around his waist to hold him to the sub. He rubs his hands and stretches. Once again, he has survived. To fight again. He looks around. WHAT HE SEES A lovely island. No sign of man's presence. The sub has stopped at the mouth of a wide cove completely ringed by tall white rock cliffs. Suddenly the sub begins to move again. It is headed directly toward the center of the cliffs. Indy holds on, mystified, alert. When the cliffs are very close, the sub begins to dive. INDY Damn! He thinks hard. Inspiration hits just before the water. Indy flips his leather jacket up over his head and holds the jacket out in front of him. His head is hidden by the jacket as he goes under water. INT. THE UNDERWATER TUNNEL - NIGHT The sub enters an underwater tunnel that penetrates into the cliffs. Indy is held to the periscope by his crossed legs and the whip. His impromptu air bubble is working, but it's a struggle to maintain it. The sub begins to cut through think marine vegetation. Each dangling growth pulls at Indy's body and slaps at his leather bubble. Now a clump of entwined seaweed rips the leather out of his hands and his bubble of air rises away. Indy hangs on, holding his breath, but the vegetation gets denser. Finally, it pulls him off the periscope. The sub moves on, disappearing ahead. Indy rises desperately through the dark water, his hand outstretched. Then, almost simultaneously, hand and head hit solid rock. But no air. Indy feels along the ceiling of rock. Nothing. It's all submerged. Indy dives, stroking deep into the tunnel. When he has descended 15 feet, he grabs a vine and steadies himself. His eyes search the dim roof of the tunnel. He sees his last hope in the distance - a small blue circle, an air pocket. He swims for it. In the air pocket, Indy's head breaks the surface and smashes into rock again. The pocket is only six inches deep. No matter. Indy loves it. He'd like to move in. He gulps air. INT. THE SUB BASE - DOCKING BAY The Wurrfler has arrived at an extraordinary base built in the hollow interior of the island. This chamber, with the docking bay, is almost all water. A huge natural cavern, it has been reinforced and enlarged by the Germans. The Wurrfler sits surfaced at the dock. The Ark has been unloaded and placed on a cart. Shliemann, Belloq and Marion have just disembarked and been met by a Nazi contingent from the base. Marion looks worse for the trip. Her white nightgown is now ripped and smudged. One of the greeting Nazis, a TALL CAPTAIN, salutes Shliemann and Belloq. As he speaks to them, we notice that right behind this group, just above a great deal of sub unloading activity, Indy's whip hangs from the periscope. Working Nazis pass within feet of it unaware; the Tall Captain would see it in a moment if he were not so focused on the new arrivals. TALL CAPTAIN (to Belloq) The tents have been arranged in accordance with your radioed instructions, sir. BELLOQ Good. We must take the Ark there now. Shliemann looks a little unhappy about this exchange, but says nothing. The group moves swiftly toward the end of a mine train arrangement. The train, consisting of small, separate, electric-powered cars, sits on a track which disappears into a tunnel cut in the rock. On the turret of the Wurrfler, the Wurrfler's Captain lights a cigarette as he watches the mine train disappear, then returns his attention to the activity on the dock. He leans idly against the periscope, his head two feet below Indy's dangling whip. Something catches his eye, he yells an order and climbs down from the turret to deal with the matter. We hold on the whip for a long moment, until its owner's hand appears and quickly reclaims it. INT. TRAIN TUNNEL The Ark and its entourage are moving slowly up the tight dark tunnel, their way lit by intermittent lanterns. The tunnel is irregular, but generally about 7 feet wide. It's height varies from an average of about 7 feet to a low of only about 4.5 feet at the points (every 40 feet) where support beams cross the track. The result is that there is only about a foot of clearance above the mine cars at those points; passengers must duck to keep from being hit in the head. Shliemann, looking worried, and Belloq, very excited, are focused on the Ark in the car ahead. SHLIEMANN I am uncomfortable with the thought of this - (spitting it out) Jewish ritual. Are you sure it's necessary? BELLOQ (playing him) Let me ask you this - Would you be more comfortable opening the Ark in Berlin - for the Fuhrer - and finding out only then if the sacred pieces of the Covenant are inside? Knowing, only then, whether you have accomplished your mission and obtained the one, true Ark? Shliemann doesn't like any of his alternatives. He looks at Belloq with some suspicion as the train comes into bright light. INT. COMMAND CENTER A second natural cavern, even bigger than the first, has been worked over by the Germans into a rectangular, three- story high supply center around a huge, open, center court. Uniformed Nazi Soldiers are everywhere, wrangling supplies and ammunition, monitoring electronic equipment. At the far end of the court, a second train tunnel disappears into the rock. Across the open court, Belloq sees his destination: a large, brilliant white silk tent has been erected in the midst of all this hardware. It looks incongruous, and more than a little eerie. It is the Tabernacle. INT. TRAIN TUNNEL Indy is making his way up the tunnel. He hears cars coming from up ahead and steps into the shadows. A mine car passes with several laughing Nazis. Indy continues on his way. INT. THE TABERNACLE The light in here is lovely, unearthly. Oil lamps burn. The Tabernacle is really several concentric, silk tents, which creates a flowing maze effect. The innermost tent has at its center a 3-foot high, tapestry-covered altar. Belloq watches with gleaming, obsessed eyes as two Nazis carefully lift the actual Ark out of its crate by means of the long poles. The Ark dazzles the eye, seeming to glow gold in this strange light. The two Nazis place it carefully on the altar. Shliemann and some Aides hang back. Marion is nowhere to be seen. INT. COMMAND CENTER - END OF TUNNEL Indy makes a fast break from the shadows of the tunnel to the protection of a high stack of supplies. He climbs the back of the stack, peeks over and surveys the area. WHAT HE SEES In addition to the Tabernacle, the second train tunnel entrance, and all the activity, Indy's glance rests momentarily on a large, heavy metal door halfway down one wall toward the Tabernacle. It bears the words, in German: "DANGER - MUNITIONS" Indy continues to scan the scene. INT. THE TABERNACLE In the central area with the Ark, Shliemann and the other Nazis wait impatiently, eyeing the Ark with some discomfort. Belloq is not visible, because at the moment he is - In the folds of the Tabernacle, the silk of the tents undulating around him. The light is even stranger, the scene almost dreamlike. With the help of the Tall Captain, Belloq lets an extraordinary, gold-embroidered, ceremonial robe fall over his head and onto his body. Belloq looks transported, possessed. The Tall Captain unlatches a wooden case and takes from it a sturdy ivory rod about 5 feet long, elaborately engraved. Belloq takes it from him, turns and slips back through the silk. The Tall Captain stays in the folds. Back in the central area, Shliemann and the other Nazis are taken aback by Belloq's appearance in the robe. They exchange looks. From one knot of men there is muttering about "Juden" and such, but when Belloq turns a fiery gaze on them there is immediate silence. Shliemann looks uncertain in this presence. Belloq approaches the Ark. He stops a few feet from it and begins murmuring an invocation in Hebrew. After a few moments of this he advances a step and is about to place the ivory rod in a notch under the lid of the Ark itself. The end of the rod is an inch from the notch when - Indy steps into the Tabernacle. On his shoulder is a bazooka and it is aimed directly at the Ark. INDY Hold it. (the Nazi react) One move from anybody and I blow that box back to Moses. Shliemann makes it clear to the other Nazis that Indy is to be obeyed. BELLOQ Jones, your persistence surprises even me. You are going to give mercenaries a bad name. INDY What about you? Talked to God yet? (Belloq's eyes flash) Where's the girl? SHLIEMANN Doctor Jones, surely you don't think you can escape from this base. INDY That depends on how reasonable we're all willing to be. All I want is the girl. We'll keep possession of the Ark only till we've got safe transport to England. Then it's all yours. SHLIEMANN If we refuse? INDY Then the Ark and some of us are going up in a big bang. I don't think Hitler would like that a bit. Now I don't want to talk about this anymore. Show me that girl in five seconds or - The Tall Captain flies out of the silk and takes Indy down by the neck. The bazooka clatters across the cement floor as two other Nazis help subdue Indy. The three Nazis take Indy's pistol from his holster and raise him roughly in their grasp. SHLIEMANN Jones, this is the second time I have seen you looking very foolish. INDY It's a bad habit. I'm trying to break it. Shliemann draws his Luger. SHLIEMANN I'll help you. This time I'll kill you myself. Shliemann raises the pistol. BELLOQ No! Not in the presence of the Ark! Take him outside. Shliemann eyes Belloq, then the Ark. He lowers the pistol, motions for the Nazis to take Indy out ahead of him. They stop a moment only when Belloq speaks. BELLOQ Indiana Jones, I salute you. I am even a little sorry you will miss this moment. INDY Thanks. If you talk to Him, tell Him I'm on my way up. Shliemann motions them out and follows. Belloq turns back to the Ark, raising the ivory rod. INT. COMMAND CENTER Shliemann, the Tall Captain, Indy and the two Nazis holding him emerge from the Tabernacle. Shliemann points to a nearby wall and the group starts that way with Shliemann and the Tall Captain slightly ahead. INT. THE TABERNACLE Belloq has the ivory rod inserted in the notch under the lid of the Ark. He utters a short phrase in Hebrew and begins to press down on his end of the rod. The lid of the Ark begins to lift. It's difficult work. Belloq puts his whole weight into one big press on his end and the lid opens two feet. Inside the Ark of the Covenant is a preview of the end of the world. A light so bright, a power so fearsome, a charge so jolting, that there is nothing in our world to compare to it. It's as though this magnificent golden box has been gathering electric energy for three thousand years, waiting for just this crack of the lid to release it all in one fast, cleansing explosion of pure force. Blinding arcs of light shoot out across the Tabernacle instantly killing all the Nazis inside and turning the white silk to flame. But it is Belloq in his obsession who takes the full blast. His whole body seems lit by a million volt current and, for a moment, his complete form is white, then blue, then maybe green, but it is hard to tell because our eyes are blinded now too. Two aspects of this ghastly, beautiful display are somehow communicated in the chaos, although the communication is subliminal. First, that Belloq, in the instant of his destruction, has experienced some kind of sublime, transcendental knowledge. If a death's-head can smile and look satisfied, that is how Belloq's incandescent face would be described. Secondly, this event is accompanied by a sound like no other. A sound so intense and so odd and so haunting that the suggestible among us might imagine it were the whisper of God. INT. COMMAND CENTER Chaos. Shliemann and the Tall Captain have been temporarily blinded by the light from the Tabernacle. Indy makes short work of his two escorts. He bashes their heads together. When only one goes down at this, Indy uses the handle of his bullwhip, which has appeared instantly in his hand, to put the second one down. Shliemann, hand on his eyes, aims his Luger blindly at the scuffle. Indy pushes the Tall Captain at Shliemann, who fires on impact, killing the Tall Captain. Indy knocks out Shliemann. Behind Indy, the brilliant light and weird noise of the Ark have suddenly ceased, but the Tabernacle is ablaze and the fire has quickly spread to stacks of supplies on either side. Smoke is already starting to fill the cavern. Nazis are running around, yelling for firefighting water. A burning crate at the side of the Tabernacle is pushed over, only to knock over a drum of heavy black oil. A river of flame shoots across the cement. Indy grabs a rifle with bayonet from the prostrate body of one of his former escorts and runs back into the flaming Tabernacle. INT. THE TABERNACLE Indy jumps through the flames into what is now a tent of fire. He looks around at the dead bodies, then at the Ark. The lid has slammed down shut again and the Ark shines gold in the flames. Before it, where Belloq once stood, is a pile of ash and charred debris. Indy registers this, then continues to scan the scene. INDY Marion! Marion, can you hear me? Suddenly, Indy looks as - The far side of the Tabernacle burns completely away, revealing Marion, tied spread-eagle between two upright posts. Her nightgown is now in tatters, black with soot. She is gagged, but her eyes are screaming, focused on the flaming river of black oil which is about to engulf her feet. Indy rushes toward her, unaware of a uniformed Nazi who has appeared from the flames. Marion looks up to see Indy and the Nazi leveling his submachine gun at Indy. She motions desperately with her eyes. Indy dives and rolls through the flames just as the Nazi opens fire. From the floor, Indy blasts the Nazi. The river of burning oil is only a foot from Marion. Indy jumps up and runs toward the bound Marion, his bayonet aimed directly at her. Her wide eyes flash between the flames and the shining blade. Expertly, Indy slashes down both sides at Marion, cutting all four bindings. Marion falls backwards, away from the flames, but before she hits the ground, Indy is there, catching her in his arms. They embrace. They kiss. They break. INDY Hi. MARION Oh, Indy! Thank god you're here. INDY Glad I could make it. Indy rises, pulling her up with him. The Tabernacle is burning away so fast that soon Indy and Marion will be completely exposed. Indy rushes over and grabs the submachine gun and a Luger from the dead Nazi. INDY Let's get out of here. MARION What about the Ark? Indy stops, startled by her spunky attitude. He's considering their changes. INDY Are you game? MARION Hell yes! We've made it this far. INDY (grins at her) Okay. Let's do it. They approach the altar through the dying flames, Indy slinging the submachine gun over his back. The long carrying poles are still in place. INDY Whatever you do, don't touch it. Let's put it on the floor. Marion nods. Each taking an end with the poles, they lift the Ark from the altar and lower it to the floor. Marion grunts under the weight. Indy registers this, hands her the submachine gun. He pulls out his whip, motions her back, and sweeps the whip tightly around the body of the Ark. The whip wraps snugly around the plaiting and Indy ties it off. The Ark is now harnessed to the whip handle. Indy gives it an experimental pull and the Ark slides across the smooth cement. Indy indicates the direction of the second train tunnel. INDY We'll go down that side. Shoot anyone who looks at us crosseyed. INT. COMMAND CENTER Two huge stacks of goods are ablaze and the Nazis are having trouble getting water to them. The Nazis main concern at this point is an enormous, neat stack of wooden cartridge boxes which are piled down the wall from one of the already blazing, and now teetering, stacks of general goods. Nervous Nazis are moving the heavy cartridge boxes as fast as they can, but it's slow work and the threatening fire is close. Indy and Marion make their way along the side of the center court, Indy grimacing with the strain of pulling the Ark. One Nazi stops directly in front of them, looking at them queerly. Indy knocks him out with the butt of his Luger just as Marion is about to fire. Out in the court, Shliemann has regained his eyesight. Now he crouches, scanning the scene desperately for Indy. He looks into the remains of the Tabernacle and spots the empty altar. Beyond it, the unoccupied posts where Marion was bound. At the entrance to the second train tunnel, Indy and Marion struggle to lift the Ark into a mine car. Marion has the submachine gun slung over her back. The Ark drops heavily into the bottom of the car. The noise attracts the attention of five water-carrying Nazis. They see what's going on and reach for their side-arms. Indy grabs Marion, pulls her in front of him - as though to use her as a shield - and flips the submachine gun, still on her back, toward the Nazis. He opens fire, turning Marion's body so he can mow all five down. Shliemann spins around and looks at the tunnel entrance. He points at Indy and Marion, who have just hopped into the mine car with the Ark. SHLIEMANN Stop them! Kill them! A dozen Nazis spin and look at the mine car. Marion is just leveling the submachine gun. Indy pushes forward the throttle and the mine car moves toward the tunnel, picking up speed. As the Nazis raise their guns to fire, Marion and Indy both open up, peppering the area with lead. As the mine car is about to disappear into the tunnel - INDY (to Marion) Get down! As the car disappears, bullets pock the entrance of the tunnel. Shliemann runs up with three Nazis. They jump into the next mine car and take off, disappearing into the tunnel. Over at the burning stack of goods, some terrified fire- fighters scurry away as the burning pile of general goods falls over onto the stack of cartridge boxes. The wooden boxes immediately start burning. Many of the Nazis just want to get out of there, but a couple of disciplined OFFICERS are trying to salvage the situation. They point to the far side of the court, the walls are lines with oil and gas drums. OFFICER We must cover the drums! Protect them from the bullets! INTERCUTTING INDY AND MARION WITH SHLIEMANN AND THE NAZIS We see a most extraordinary pursuit. This tunnel is of identical design to the first, except more twisty. This early section goes slightly uphill, as though headed for the summit of a rollercoaster. The low cross beams and the higher sections in between are causing the Nazis to alternately stand and duck in their efforts to get a clear shot at the lead car. One German times it wrong and gets whacked. Indy in unhappy with the speed of his car and he's right, the Nazis are moving faster and gaining. When both cars are in the same high section, the Nazis blast away at them. The noise is deafening, with barking guns, splintering rock, and twanging ricochets contributing to the din. As Marion fires a return volley low over the Ark, Indy kicks at the throttle, convinced it is jammed. INT. COMMAND CENTER The Officers are directing the placement of every moveable item in front of the oil drums. Desks, crates, chairs, food, all are heaped in front of the fuel. All the workers cast frequent nervous glances back at the burning cartridge boxes across the court. Suddenly the worst begins to happen at the cartridge boxes. Hundreds of thousands of live cartridges begin exploding, flying around the court like shrapnel. Hot lead begins to zing off the exposed fuel drums, leaving big dents. INT. TRAIN TUNNEL - LONG STRAIGHTAWAY The car with Indy and Marion looks almost sluggish compared to the pursuing Nazi car as they both make their way into an usually long straightaway. Marion discards her empty submachine gun as Indy kicks at his throttle and casts a worried look back at Shliemann. Shliemann, sensing victory, smiles evilly and carefully takes aim. Indy and Marion will be easy targets until they reach that approaching low cross beam, which is the crest of the rising tunnel. INT. COMMAND CENTER - CLOSE ON FUEL DRUM A fuel drum, already pocked by bullets is finally penetrated by high velocity hot lead. It explodes in a ball of flame. And then its neighbor. Then all is exploding flame. INT. TRAIN TUNNEL - LONG STRAIGHTAWAY Shliemann and his cohorts hear the explosions behind them and look back that way. Indy kicks the throttle one more time and it goes! Their car doubles its speed and shoots under the low cross beam at the same instant as - A huge dragon of all-consuming fire shoots up the tunnel behind the Nazis, catches their car and incinerates Shliemann and his men. The tunnel collapses in this section, burying the fried Nazis forever. INT. TRAIN TUNNEL Indy and Marion look back at the low cross beam as the last tongue of flame makes it there and then is doused by falling rock and dirt. They look at each other, then turn their attention back to their own predicament. Their mine car is going incredible fast as it moves into a downward section of wildly twisting tunnel. MARION Slow it down! Indy is already pulling the throttle. It moves easily. Unfortunately, it is no longer attached to the motor. The mine car is out of control. After several moments, far ahead, appears a circle of bright daylight - the end of the tunnel! It approaches at a frightening rate. Indy reaches out and grasps Marion's hand. They exchange looks and then turn to look ahead. THEIR POV We're taking this last stretch with them. It's a familiar nightmare. It has to do with a rollercoaster that ends suddenly and disastrously. The shocking brightness of sunlight rushes up to engulf us, blinding us in its glare. EXT. THE ISLAND - END OF TRACKS, DOCK High up on the slope of the island, Indy and Marion's mine car shoots out of the black tunnel and roars down toward a little dock at the end of the tracks. A small Nazi transport launch, carefully disguised as a Greek fishing boat, sits bobbing by the dock. The only human: a Nazi Sentry dressed as a Greek peasant. He is perched on a pile of seed bags which are stacked at the very end of the train tracks. As the mine car barrels noisily down toward him, he throws away some burlap to reveal a mounted machine gun which he spins quickly around toward the approaching mine car. He opens fire. In the out-of-control mine car, Indy pulls Marion down with him. They are squashed into the corner trying to avoid contact with the bouncing Ark. Bullets clang against the outside of the car and whiz inches overhead. Indy and Marion are forced into a tighter and tighter embrace of life. At the machine gun post, the Nazi Sentry has been firing like crazy, but now there is terror in his eyes. He realizes the car is not going to stop. He lacks faith in his stronghold. Too late. The mine car smashes into the seed bag bunker. And right on through. The Nazi Sentry, his machine gun and a dozen bursting seed bags are slammed into the ocean in a wild, hurtling mass. The mine car jumps, bounces and spins around, then slides to a stop in a cloud of seed at the edge of the water. INT. COMMAND CENTER Fire. Everywhere. No sign of life. A large gaping doorway, flames ringing it, blazing into the room beyond. Hanging by one hinge there, its metal blasted and jagged, is a heavy door with the signed lettering, in German, "DANGER - MUNITIONS". The first explosion happens. It's a baby compared to what's coming yet it rocks the earth. It's terrible. And then, almost immediately, another. The long, irregular, ever larger chain of explosions begins. EXT. THE ISLAND - VARIOUS SHOTS - DAY The island rumbles and shakes. From fissures and small natural caves, dirt and rock shoot out like spraying water. Still the explosion continue. A huge chunk of white cliff falls away into the turbulent sea. Birds scream and soar, afraid to land. Finally, we settle on a full shot of the island. We can recognize that the small opening high on the slope from which a cloud of smoke and dust is billowing is the end of the mine tunnel. And there below it, quite small from this distance is the dock. And the boat that looks like a Greek fishing boat. There can be no mistake even from this far away - the boat is chugging out to sea. INT. THE PENTAGON - DAY Indy, Brody, and Marion, looking very stylish, are seated in Colonel Musgrove's huge office. Sun pours in a window, through which Washington can be seen sparkling across the Potomac. Everything is neat and clean and regular. Including the three men who are arrayed around the office. Two we know - Col. Musgrove and Maj. Eaton. The third is an unnamed Bureaucrat. He hangs back, smiling and genial, his features obscured by the glare of the window. He doesn't say anything, yet you have a sense that the others defer to him in the matter at hand. He is the essence of all that is Byzantine and inscrutable in our scrubbed government machine. Indy and Brody are dissatisfied with the way the meeting has gone. Marion, on the other hand, is very happy and eager to get out of there. Eaton's manner is irritatingly cheery. MUSGROVE You've done your country a great service. EATON And we trust you found the settlement satisfactory? MARION Quite. EATON Good, good. (glances around at the others) Then I guess that about does it. BRODY When can we have the Ark? Eaton's glance flicks over to the mysterious Bureaucrat, then back to Brody. EATON I thought we answered that. It's someplace very safe - INDY (heated) That's a powerful force. Research should be done - EATON Oh, it will be, Dr. Jones, I assure you. We have top men working on it right now. INDY Who? EATON Top men. Indy exchanges a look with Brody. INDY We may be able to help. EATON We appreciate that. And we won't hesitate to call on you. MUSGROVE (dismissing them) Thank you all. Thank you again. Indy looks them over coldly. He gets up, sullen. EXT. PENTAGON STEPS - DAY Indy, Brody and Marion emerge from the building. Brody bids them farewell and moves off in another direction. Marion clings to Indy's arm in an energetic, very feminine way, scolding him. MARION Well they aren't going to tell you, so why don't you just forget it. I'd think you'd had enough of that damn Ark. Just put your mind on something else. Indy stops, looking across the river, his mind occupied. INDY Yeah, like what? Marion makes a face, then puts her arms around his neck and plants a humdinger of a kiss on his mouth. It goes on a while. Finally they break. INDY It's not the Ark... but it'll have to do. They move down the steps, smiling. INT. GOVERNMENT WAREHOUSE The Ark of the Covenant sits in a wooden crate. A wooden lid comes down and hides it from view. The lid is solidly nailed to the crate as we read the stenciled message on top - TOP SECRET ARMY INTEL. #9906753 DO NOT OPEN! The hammering is completed and hands shift the heavy crate onto a dolly. THE END CREDITS ROLL AS WE SEE - A Little Old Government Warehouseman begins pushing the crated Ark down as aisle. Soon we see that the aisle is formed by huge stacks or crates. They come in many shapes and sizes, but when it comes right down to it, they all look like the one that holds the Ark. All have markings like the message we've just seen. Pretty soon we're far enough and high enough away from the Little Old Government Warehouseman to see that this is one of the biggest rooms in the world. And it is full. Crates and crates. All looking alike. All gathering dust. And then we notice that the Little Old Government Warehouseman, pushing his new crate ahead of him, has turned into another aisle and disappeared from view. FADE OUT: THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e4f5a6b74aa5d9fdc5c1f8426e5cea090ad03eb6 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM STORY BY: GEORGE LUCAS SCREENPLAY BY: WILLARD HUYCK AND GLORIA KATZ TM* & (c) Lucasfilm Ltd., 1984 -------------- FADE IN:1. INT. "THE DRAGON" NIGHTCLUB - NIGHT 1. A Chinese GONG SOUNDS and the glittering doors of an art Deco pa- poda slide open to reveal a mammoth silver stairway down which rows of beautiful women start descending (BEGIN MAIN TITLES) The lovely ladies are a mix of races and they sing a strange, haunting melody -- one might think them a heavenly choir, if it weren't for their sexy, clinging lame gowns.2. INT. CLUB ENTRANCE 2. From the ethereal beauties, we cut to a street urchin's dirty face: SHORT ROUND is a ten-year-old Chinese kis wearing a beat- up American baseball cap. Sneaking into the club, Short Round weaves past the fancy gowns and silk suits, heading toward the music in the main ballroom.3. INT. THE BALLROOM 3. Short Round enters and stares across the smoky nightclub. On the stage, he sees a giant paper-mache dragon laying curled around the pagoda. Now, the dragon's eyes light up, its nostrils exhale smoke and its enormous jaws open. Out of the dragon's mouth walks the star of the stage show: WILLIE SCOTT, a dreamy beauty singing a sultry solo white the or- chestra wails the accompaniment. But Short Round's not here to ogle crooning dames. He surveys the rich Chinese, American and European revelers. Jewels flash and champagne flows. Short Round finally spots a table of somber-looking Chinese men in suits. Short Round chews gum and stares at the men. Then he turns to go. WU HAN, a waiter with a scar across his cheek, watches Short Round leave.4. INT. CLUB ENTRANCE 4. As Short Round hurries toward the exit, he bumps into a man in a tuxedo entering the club. Short Round looks up at the man, but we don't see his face. Then Short Round is grabbed by the scruff of his neck and a door- man hustles him out the door, Short Round yelling insults all the way. A maitre d' apologizes to the man in the tuxedo and two hat-check girls smile at him familiarly as he continues into the ballroom. We notice something incongruous: the man in the tuxedo is wear- ing work boots caked with mud.5. INT. THE BALLROOM 5. The man in the tuxedo stops to watch Willie Scott singing sexily on the stage. Then he looks around and sees the table of somber Chinese men that Short Round spotted earlier. As the man in the tuxedo walks toward the table, he removes a cigarette from a silver case. He arrives at the table just as the chorus and orchestra reach a crescendo -- And on the stage, a glistening, muscular slave swings a huge ham- mer toward an enormous brass gong -- The man in the tuxedo leans to receive a light from a cigarette- girl and, as the GONG BOOMS, the match flares to reveal his face for the first time: It's INDIANA JONES. Elegant in a tuxedo -- dressed to kill. The TITLES END and over this a legend appears on the screen: SHANGHAI - 1935 At the table, the four Chinese man in suits stare coldly at Indi- ana. LAO Dr. Jones. INDIANA Lao She. LAO Nee chin lie how ma? Lao's men laugh and assume that Indy doesn't understand his joke. INDIANA Wah hung how, nee nah? Wah hwey hung jing chee jah loo nee kao soo wah shu shu. LAO SHE looks angry and his men's smiles fade. LAO You never told me you spoke my language, Dr. Jones. INDIANA I don't like to show off. Indiana takes a seat across the table from Shanghai's notorious crime-lord. Lao is fifty, wealthy enough to now display some fat, but still muscular from his fight to the top of the garbage heap. LAO For this special occasion, I ordered champagne and caviar. Indiana looks at the pile of caviar on the plate in front of him -- and stubs his cigarette out in it. The cigarette sizzles and Lao's smiles dies with it. There's applause as Wille Scott finishes her song. At the table, Lao stares at Indiana with a strange intensity. LAO So, it is true, Dr. Jones? you found Nurhachi? INDIANA Sure, I found him. Then last night I had a little trouble. Somebody tried to slit my throat. Indiana looks across the table at Lao's son, CHEN, who resembles a bulldog and snarls like one now. INDIANA (Cont'd) It was dark, but I think one of your sons tried to get Nurhachi without paying for him. Indy stares pointedly at Chen's recently bandaged hand. Chen mutters and stands angrily -- Lao barks a command in Chinese and Chen sits down again. LAO You have insulted my son. INDIANA Next time I'll cut off more than his finger. LAO Dr. Jones -- I want Nurhachi. Lao pulls a wad of cash out of his pocket and puts it on the table. Indiana glances at it. INDIANA As I recall the deal was consid- erably more. Now a pretty hand slips onto Lao's shoulder and he looks up to see Willie Scott. Lao kisses her hand. Willie is unaware of the explosive mood at the table and she smiles flirtaciously at Indi- ana. WILLIE (to Lao) Aren't you going to introduce us? LAO This is Willie Scott. (watching Indy) And this is Indiana Jones, the famous archaeologist. Willie sits down between Lao and Indy. She takes out a small mirror to check her make-up. LAO (Cont'd) Dr. Jones found Nurhachi for me and is about to deliver him -- now. Lao nods across the table and Indy sees KAO KAN, Lao's second son, open his coat and remove a silver-plated pistol. Indiana looks worried. Willie doesn't notice as she fixes her make-up and coyly teases Indiana. WILLIE Well -- I thought archaeologists were always funny little men searching for their mummies -- (yelping) Aaahhh! She looks down terrified at the knife Indy is poking against her ribs. WILLE (Cont'd) I was only kidding, can't you take a joke -- ? (to Lao) Lao, he's got a knife! INDIANA Put the gun away, sonny. Kao Kan glances at his father. Lao finally nods to his son and he slips the pistol back into his pocket. INDIANA Now I suggest you pay me what you promised -- or your girlfriend here is going to be squealing a new tune. The ritzy patrons at the tables nearby are unaware of the tawdry drama quietly unfolding at this table. Willie eyes the blade and whimpers. She looks imploringly at Lao and he slowly reaches into his pocket. He puts ten gold coins next to the cash on the table. Indy leans forward to look at the gold coins -- so intently that he fails to notice Kao Kan spilling some powder into Indy's cham- pagne glass! INDIANA Try again Lao -- the deal was more. The knife pokes Willie and she whimpers again. Lao reaches into another pocket and brings out a folded piece of rice paper -- he opens it and a large diamond and ruby spill out onto the table. INDIANA (Cont'd) Bingo...you see, Lao, with a but of persuasion, even you can be an honest fellow. Indy smiles and jabs the knife into the middle of the table. Then he lifts his champagne glass in a toast to Lao -- who watches expectantly as Indiana moves the glass toward his lips -- Suddenly Willie stands angrily, jostling Indy's arm so that he doesn't drink his champagne. WILLIE Look at this! He put a hole in my dress from Paris! Lao sees Indy put his champagne glass down and he snarls at Wil- lie -- LAO Sit down! Willie quickly obeys. Lao forces a smile at Indy and lifts his glass to seal the deal -- LAO (Cont'd) To your health, Dr. Jones. Lao sips hs champagne and watches hopefully as Indy picks up his glass and this time Indy does drink the champagne. Then he reaches for the cash -- But Chen grins and puts a silver snuff bottle next to the cash, gold and jewels -- he tips the little bottle over and some white powder spills out of it -- INDIANA What's that? LAO A bonus, Dr. Jones. That is poison. You just drank the rest of it. Indiana examines his champagne glass and sees a residue at the bottom of it. He swallows and feels sick, wondering it it's fear or the poison already taking effect. LAO (Cont'd) There is an antidote for this poison. You give me Nurhachi -- I give you the antidote. Indiana is sweating. Willie looks at him and sees Indy's hand shaking. LAO (Cont'd) The poison works fast, Dr. Jones. Where is Nurhachi? Indiana finally reaches into his pocket. Next to the cash, gold, jewels and poison, Indiana sets down a beautiful small box. Lao and his men stare hypnotically at the exquisite gold and enamel box. WILLIE (nervously) This Nurhachi's a very small guy. Nobody pays any attention to her as Lao reaches for the box. INDIANA Inside are the remains of Nur- hachi -- the first Emperor of the Manchu Dynasty. Lao opens the box carefully and stares reverently at the grey powder inside. INDIANA (Cont'd) Now what about the antidote, Lao. LAO (holding the box) At last I have the ashes of my sacred ancestor! WILLIE So, what's the big deal? Let me see it -- Qillie grabs Lao's arm and some of the precious ashes spill out of the gold box. Stunned by this desecration of his ancestor, Lao grabs Willie by the wrist and twists her arm -- LAO You fool! WILLIE Ow, you're hurting me, you miser- able little hood! INDIANA Let go of her, Lao. And give me the antidote. Lao just laughs evilly -- until a waiter moves up behind Lao and the crimelord suddenly stiffens. He lets go of Willie's wrist and raises his hands off the table. Chen stops collecting the money and jewels. Kao Kan tenses and Indy smiles at Wu Han, the Chinese waiter with the scar, who is standing behind Lao. Wu Han has a towel over his hand -- under it, he has a pistol pressed against Lao's spine. INDIANA (Cont'd) (smiling at Wu Han) I like the service here. WILLIE (puzzled) Hey, he's not a waiter... INDIANA No, Wu Han's an old friend I brought along. (to Lao) So, the game's not over. Put the antidote on the table, Lao. Lao carefully reaches into his pocket and puts a small glass vial of liquid next to the cash, gold, jewels, poison and sacred box. Indy looks relieved as he reaches for the vial of antidote -- then he hears a muffled report! And another! Wu Han groans and sways. Indy starts to stand but Chen immedi- ately turns the smoking pistol with the silencer that he used to kill Wu Han -- Indy sees it pointed at him now and he remains in his seat. Kao Kan stands and grabs Wu Han, easing the phoney waiter into the chair he just vacated. The muffled shooting hasn't attracted any attention. The nightclub activity continues an Indy speaks emotionally to his dying friend. INDIANA Wu Han -- listen to me -- I'm going to get you out of here. In pain, Wu Han looks at Indy and struggles to speak -- WU HAN Not this time, my friend... (smiling bravely) I followed you on many adventures -- but into the great Unknown Mystery, I go first, Indy... Wu Han dies and slumps forward. Indiana is shattered by the death of his old friend. LAO Don't be sad, Dr. Jones -- you will soon join him. Indy's gaze shifts from his dead friend to Lao's sneering face. Then Indy sees the murderous Chen giggling perversely. Indy's anger is compounded by the poison burning in his gut and his vis- ion of Chen's ugly face blurs into a double image -- Indy stands up unsteadily. Chen assumes he's about to keel over from the poison -- but Indy suddenly turns and grabs a real wai- ter at another table. The waiter holds a long skewer of roasted pigeons that he's just set afire -- Indy grabs the skewer of pigeons flambee and hurls is across the table! Chen fires and misses -- and screams as the skewer stabs into his chest and the burning pigeons flame in front of his hor- rified face! This the other tables definitely notice. There are screams and all hell breaks loose. Indiana shoves past Willie and reaches for the vial on the table -- INDIANA The antidote -- ! But he's grabbed from behind by Kao Kan. Indy elbows the punk, reaches back and grabs his head -- and somersaults Kao Kan onto the table! As nubmer two son crashes into the table, the impact sends the Emperor Nurhachi's ashes billowing into Lao's stricken face! Indiana yells as he sees the vial of antidote rolling across the table -- and falling! Indiana dives and catches the antidote just before it hits the floor -- then Indy's hand is brutally stomped on by one of Lao's henchmen and the vial rolls away. Indiana angrily raises his head, smashing it up into the hench- man's groin -- the man howls like a banshee and hobbles away. Meanwhile, Willie watches Lao grabbing for cash from the table. Willie lunges past the pigeon-skewered Chen to snatch the jewels, but unfortunately Kao Kan knocks them off the table as he leaps to attack Indy. Indiana scrambles on his hands and knees after the rolling vial. People keep kicking it -- he almost has it when Willie runs into him, trips and lands on her back. INDIANA Look out, damn it, I need that antidote! WILLIE Who cares? Where's that diamond! Gunfire explodes and they both scramble in different directions. Indy dives through the fleeing nightclub patrons and slides be- hind a water-spewing fountain. Water kicks up as Indy is shot at by Lao and his henchmen. Indy sees the vial of antidote kicked again and it spins across the marble floor -- feeling the poison, Indy shakes his head groddily and splashes water on his face. Meanwhile, Willie is chasing her diamond, shoving through the panicked crowd. She spots the diamond! Another elegantly dresses soman is bending to pick it up -- WILLIE (acidly polite) Excuse me, but I believe that's my diamond! Willie smiles and suddenly kicks the woman in the butt! Willie reaches to get the diamond but not before the other woman tackles her. Behind the fountain, Indiana makes a break -- he runs and dives on top of a serving cart. The wheeled cart hurtles toward an un- suspecting gunman, crashes into him from behind and sends him flying head first into a row of ice buckets. Nearby, Willie slugs the other lady in the jaw and grabs for the elusive diamond just as the ice buckets showers ice across the floor -- which camouflages the diamond! WILLIE Aw nuts! Searching desperately for the jewel, Willie sees the vial of antidote spinning across the floor --as it slides by, she grabs it. INDIANA (O.S.) Hey,doll! Don't move! She sees Indy speeding by atop the serving cart. Lao and his gunmen rush out to block the way. Indy rolls off the cart and slides behind a potted palm as Lao's men open fire again. INDIANA (Cont'd) (shouting to Willie) Hey, don't go away! I need that! Willie smiles meanly as she slips the vial down the front of her dress, thumbs her nose at Indiana and walks away. INDIANA (Cont'd) If I wasn't dying, I'd kill her... Hiding behind the palm tree, Indiana looks around and spots a gi- ant statue at the side of the stage. Indy makes a break for it. As the gunmen open fire, Indy springs onto a chair -- jumps onto a table -- and leaps onto the stage. He grabs the golden broad- sword from the Chinese warrior statue! As bullets smash into the statue, Indiana hides behind it. Then he jumps out and swings the large sword toward the enormous brass gong. The crimson cord holding the gong is SLASHED! Indy slings the sword at his assailants and gives the three-meter-high gong a helpful shove -- The giant gong rolls and echoes as it crashes down the marble steps. Indiana ducks behind it as it gains momentum and rolls across the dance floor. Using the gong as an enormous shield, Indy evades the gunfire ex- ploding -- bullets ricochet off the rolling brass gong as Indy runs behind it. Ahead, Willie hurries toward an exit -- she hears something and turns -- her eyes go wide as she sees the mammoth gong bearing down on her! Willie yells as Indiana grabs her arm and pulls her behind the gong with him -- Lao watches amazed as he and his gunmen dodge tables trying to get better firing positions -- and more henchmen come into the club now and start firing machine guns! As bullets clang against the gong, Indiana and Willie run behind it. Willie hollers as they head directly for a towering, floor- to-ceiling window! Indiana grabs Willie around the waist and, after the huge gong crashes through the stained-glass window, they both fly after it!6. EXT. "THE DRAGON" NIGHTCLUB - NIGHT 6. In a shower of sparkling glass, the enormous gong sails out and crashes down a sloping green-tiled roof. Indiana Jones and Wil- lie Scott hurtle into the night air after it! The gong rolls down the roof and they hit the tiles behind it, Indiana holding onto Willie as they roll one-over-the-other toward the edge -- Willie screams as they fall into thin air! Their entwined bodies plummet three stories: ripping through a third-floor awning, crashing through an old man's mattress on a second-floor balcony -- Finally they smash through the convertible top of a parked Duesen- berg and fall into the back seat!7. INT. THE DUESENBERG 7. Willie sits up wide-eyed, speechless and amazed to be alive. Then she sees an equally astonished Short Round looking at them from the front seat. SHORT ROUND Wow! Holy smoke! Crash landing! INDIANA Step on it, Short Round! SHORT ROUND Okey doke, Indy! Hold onto your potatoes! The twelve-year-old Chinese kid turns his baseball cap bill- backwards and steps on the gas! The tires squeal as the car roars off -- WILLIE For crying out loud, a kid's driv- ing the car?! INDIANA Relax, I've been giving him lessons.8. EXT. THE NIGHTCLUB - NIGHT 8. The Duesenberg races past the entrace to the nightclub as Lao and his man rush out and jump into two black sedans. The sedans screech off in pursuit of the Duesenberg.9. INT. THE DUESENBERG 9. As Short Round eagerly swerves around a corner, Willie holds on for dear life. Indiana suddenly puts his hand down the front of Willie's dress -- WILLIE Listen, we just met for crissake! I'm not that kind of gril! INDIANA Don't get your hopes up -- where's the antidote? Indiana withdraws his hand, having finally found the vial. He opens is quickly, tips the vial to his lips and grimaces as he swallows the stuff. WILLIE You don't look very good. INDIANA Poison never agrees with me. (shouting forward) Pull a right, Short Round, and head for the Wang Poo bridge! SHORT ROUND Check! Gotcha! As the car accelerates, Indy peers out the back window at their pursuers. Willie notices her reflection in the side window -- WILLIE Look at what you've done to me! I'm a mess! My lipstick's smeared, I broke two nails, I've got an aw- ful run in my stocking -- ! Gunfire suddenly explodes, bullets whizz through the canvas top and the rear window shatters and sprays glass! Willie ducks and cringes terrified in the corner -- INDIANA Somehow I think you've got bigger problems. Indy grabs his shoulder bag and pulls a pistol out of it. He pokes the gun through the broken window and starts firing back at their pursuers -- then he turns and looks ahead. INDIANA (Cont'd) There, Shorty! Through the tunnel! Through the windows we see the car racing into a tunnel. Lights from the pursuing cars flash through the rear window and gunfire echoes in the tunnel. WILLIE What're we going to do?! Where're we going?! INDIANA The airport...No, look out, Short Round! Left, left! Indy reaches over the front seat and helps Short Round navigate.10. EXT. A SHANGHAI SQUARE - NIGHT 10. The Duesenberg tears around the square, followed by Lao's two se- dans. People on the street dive for cover -- coolies pulling rickshaws go into hyper-jov --lanterns spanning the street crash down and are dragged behind the Duesenberg. Bullets exlode and amazed prostitutes watch the cars zoom past.11. INT. THE DUESENBERG - NIGHT 11. The chaotic chase continues -- bullets whine past and the shred- ded convertible top whips in the wind. INDIANA (shouting) You got the tickets, Short Round? SHORT ROUND Sure, Indy -- three tickets! You, me and Wu Han -- Shorty throws an envelope back and Indy looks at the three tickets. INDIANA (sadly) Wu Han's not coming, Shorty. Unaware of what happened at the club, Short Round thinks a mo- ment. SHORT ROUND Don't worry, Indy. Short Round number one bodyguard now! Willie reaches for the extra ticket. WILLIE I'll take the extra ticket. (grabbing it from Indy) Where's this plane going anyway? INDIANA Siam. WILLIE Siam? But I'm not dressed for Siam...12. EXT. COUNTRY HIGHWAY - NIGHT 12. Leaving behind the squalid port, the Duesenberg flies along the highway through the trees. In a moment, Lao's two sedans race by.13. EXT. NANG TAO AIRFIELD - NIGHT 13. The Duesenberg swings around a curve and skids through gravel to- ward the airfield. In the distance there is a small terminal but Short Round wheels the car toward the cargo area -- A two-engine passenger plane is revving its motors and the last passengers are boarding. The Duesenberg squeals to a stop and Indy jumps out with Willie and Short Round right on his heels. A contingent of airport Military Police move to bar their way until WEBER, a heavy-set Englishman, runs up pufffing and shout- ing. WEBER No, no, they're all right! Let them through please. INDIANA Thanks, Weber. WEBER Dr. Jones, this is positively the last time our airline can hold a plane for you. Now you must hurry! While Short Round grabs a small bag out of the car, Weber and a stewardess take their tickets and rush them all toward the air- plane. Meanwhile, the two sedans skid to a stop and Lao and his son Kao Kan jumpsout with their henchmen. The puzzled military police advance on them usspiciously -- Realizing he's outnumbered, Lao instructs his men to stay back and to put away their weapons.14. EXT. THE AIRPLANE 14. Willie and Short Round charge up the ladder and onto the plane. Indy pauses at the top of the steps to give Lao a cocky farewell salute. Indy boards the plane and the co-pilot slams the door.15. EXT. THE AIRFIELD 15. The plane starts taxiing. By the cars, Lao is buffeted by the prop wash as he angrily watches the plane roll away. Behind Lao, his son, Kao Kan, stares at the plane taking off -- a look on Kao Kan's face indicates that he hasn't given up yet... The plane lifts off the airfield, silhouetted against the clouds and the first light of dawn. CUT TO:16. EXT. THE DKY - MORNING 16. The sun flashes above the horizon and the plane banks through white billowing clouds at it heads west.17. INT. THE PLANE 17. A door opens at the rear of the plane and Indiana Jones exits wearing more familiar attire: a beat-up leather jacket over a khaki shirt and a snap-brim hat. He passes a dozen passengers as he moves up the aisle carrying his rolled-up tuzedo. In the first row, Willie is busy fixing her make-up. Shorty sits in the seat across the aisle from her. Indy comes up and drops his tuxedo onto the floor. Willie sees him hook his coiled bullwhip over a coat-peg. WILLIE So, what're you supposed to be, a lion tamer? INDIANA Since I was nice enough to let you tag along, why don't you give your mouth a rest? Okay, doll? Indy pats her leg -- she removes his hand and reaches down and picks up his tuxedo coat. She slips it on. WILLIE I'm freezing. What do you mean, tag along? From the minute you walked into that nightclub, you haven't been able to keep your eyes off me. INDIANA Oh yeah? He smiles and tips his hat down over his eyes to go to sleep...18. INT. THE COCKPIT 18. At the same moment, the Chinese co-pilot tips his hat up off his eyes -- and looks scared to death! He exclaims in Chinese -- CO-PILOT (*subtitled*) Good lord! He and the pilot see two biplanes materialize out of the clouds and dive directly toward them! Suddenly, machine gunfire erupts! PILOT (*subtitled) Dive for the clouds! Dive!19. EXT. THE SKY - DAY 19. The DC-3 banks into the clouds as the two biplanes attack. In the back seat of the first biplane, we see Kao Kan watching the DC-3 like a hawk about to bring down a sparrow.20. INT. THE COCKPIT 20. The biplanes swoop past both sides of the plane and bursts of gunfire rip along the fuselage. CO-PILOT (*subtitled) They hit a fuel line! PILOT (*subtitled*) Reduce speed -- get everyone out of the plane!21 INT. THE PASSENGER CABIN 21. As the air battle rages, the passengers are tossed about and some start screaming. Short Round peers out a window. SHORT ROUND Lao send planes to kill Indy! Willie shakes Indy's arm but he continues snoring under his hat. WILLIE Wake up! It's the drug he drank to stop the poison -- The cockpit door bursts open and the Chinese co-pilot exits to make an announcement -- he smiles and speaks in CHINESE, then he smiles and speaks in FRENCH -- Willie looks lost until the Chinese co-pilot smiles again and speaks in ENGLISH -- CO-PILOT Please to remain calm. We start passing out parachutes now -- The co-pilot hurries toward the rear. Willie looks petrified as a stewardess rushes up and hands her a parachute. WILLIE You got to be kidding! No! No, I can't! The pilot hurries out of the cockpit and grabs his parachute as he heads toward the back. WILLIE (Cont'd) Wait -- who's flying the plane?! She opens the door to the cockpit -- WILLIE (Cont'd) Nobody's flying the plane ...22. EXT. THE SKY - DAY 22. The DC-3 smokes through the clouds. Passengers are bailing out -- parachutes billowing. As one of the fighters swoops through the parachutes, Kao Kan searches the faces -- then he points at the DC-3. KAO KAN (into the radio) Jones! Indiana Jones! The two planes roar off and start strafing the DC-3 again.23. INT. THE PASSENGER CABIN 23. The co-pilot has a parachute on and is trying to get Short Round into one. CO-PILOT Put it on! What's wrong with you? You've got to jump! SHORT ROUND No, can't leave Indy! Short Round suddenly butts the co-pilot in the stomach with his head. The co-pilot yells and falls out the door. Short Round sees the co-pilot's parachute billow. Then Willie rushes up. WILLIE Give me that parachute, I changed my mind -- She grabs the parachute and starts to fight Shorty over it-- SHORT ROUND No, this last one! It's for Indy! They scuffle until the parachute skids across the floor. Short Round jumps for it -- the parachute falls out the door and Short Round starts to fall out after it! Willie grabs him by the seat of his pants and hauls him back from the abyss!24. EXT. THE SKY - DAY 24. The fighters peel off toward the DC-3 with their guns flaming in another attack.25. INT. THE PASSENGER CABIN 25. Short Round tries to wake Indy again. Finally, Shorty grabs Indy's bag, pulls his holster out of it and runs toward the back. Indy continues to sleep -- until bullets smash the window by his head and a fire extinguisher is hit and starts spraying into Indy's face. He finally awakens and jumps up. He looks around is disbelief at the battle-torn, nearly-empty airplane. INDIANA (groggily) We there yet? Indiana sees Shorty shooting his pistol out the side door as the planes swoop by again. Out of ammo, Shorty throws the gun angrily at the passing plane. Indiana picks up his whip and attaches it to his belt as Willie runs over to him. WILLIE There's nobody flying the plane!26. INT. THE COCKPIT 26. The door flies open and Indy rushes in with Willie behind him. Indy appraises the situation quickly and jumps into the pilot's seat with total confidence -- WILLIE (Cont'd) You know how to fly? Indy surveys the control panels, the myraid of dials and switches -- INDIANA No. (hopefully) Do you?27. INT. THE PASSENGER CABIN 27. Willie runs screaming out of the cockpit, her last hope shatter- ed. Shorty is pulling something out of the cargo compartment -- he's found a machine gun and sets it up on a short tripod. SHORT ROUND Come here, lady, hold this and shut up please! He pulls Willie down to the floor and shoves her the ammunition belt that's draped toward the gun. Then Shorty jumps behind the machine gun -- As the first fighter appears off their side, Short Round blasts out the open door! The machine gun explodes to life, chewing bullets, smoking and spitting shells at Willie -- Willie hollers terrified by manages to feed the ammo belt as Short Round sights the blazing machine gun -- suddenly he shoops! Willie sees the fighter hit -- it smokes and veers away -- and then EXPLODES! SHORT ROUND I get it! WILLIE You got it! The second plane swoops down and Short Round blasts away. This time as he swivels the gun, he misses and hits one of the DC-3's own engines and it explodes! SHORT ROUND Oh oh -- big mistake!28. INT. THE COCKPIT 28. Trying to figure out the controls, Indy looks up to see their en- gine explose into flames -- INDIANA (angrily) Short Round, what in the hell are you doing? Suddenly the DC-3 emerges out of a cloud and Indy sees they are headed directly for a mountain! He pulls back hard on the con- trols as a rocky peak looms lethally in front of them.29. EXT. THE SKY - DAY 29. The DC-3 lifts at the last second and smashes some snow off the uppermost pinnacle as it clears the mountain by inches! Kao Kan's fighter is glued to the DC-3's tail and continues to strafe -- but the fighter pilot pulls up too late -- and the fighter explodes as it hits the peak of the mountain!30. INT. THE PASSENGER CABIN 30. Indy rushes out of the smoking cockpit to find Willie and Short Round crawling out from under the debris that's fallen on them. Then Indy spots something in the wreckage -- He pulls at some yellow canvas and Willie sees as sign: EMERGENCY LIFE RAFT. Indy drags the folded canvas over to the open door. WILLIE Are you crazy, a lift raft?! We're not sinking, we're crashing! INDIANA Get over here, damn it! Short Round, come on, grab onto me tight! Willie sees Short Round rush over to Indiana and grab him around the waist from behind. Willie finally jumps up and runs over -- WILLIE Wait for me! She throws her arms around Indy's neck so that she and Shorty are both hugging him from behind. Indy clutches the folded lift raft in front of him and surveys the mountainside rushing close be- neath the skinking airplane -- Finally, an instant before the plane will hit, Indy dives and pulls the inflation cord!31. EXT. THE SKY 31. As the smoking DC-3 screams out of control toward the mountain, skimming the rocky snow-covered slopes, we see the lift raft spilling out the open door -- The raft pops into its full shape, acting now as a spoiler, soar- ing against the rushing wind and finally crashing and bouncing against the snowy mountainside. In the distance, we see the DC-3 finally kiss the earth and ex- plode in a cloud of flame against a rocky escarpment -- metal and earth mushrooming in a million directions!32. EXT. THE MOUNTAINSIDE 32. As the raft rockets down the snow, Indiana clutches the front and Willie and Short Round hold on for dear life on either side of him. The raft plummets down the mountain, crossing the timber-line and entering a forest. Bouncing over a snow-hidden log, the raft shoots directly for a tree -- Indiana pulls on the perimeter rope, rolls on his side and man- ages to swerve the raft so it caroms offthe snow-drifted side of the tree trunk. Continuing its downhill run, the raft smashes across a small steam, sending silvery water spraying. As the raft skids below the snow-level, it starts bouncing over rocky ground and its three passengers' teeth start chattering.33. EXT. A BLUFF 33. The yellow raft crashes through a tangle of bushes and then plum- mets toward a bluff! The raft goes airborne over a small bluff and lands with a splash in a slow-moving river.34. EXT. THE RIVER 34. The life raft drifts down the river and Indy looks around and smiles cockily at Willie and Short Round -- Their faces don't show gratitude, but horror -- Indy hears some- thing and turns to see:35. EXT. WHITE WATER RAPIDS 35. The raft is heading directly toward a surging stretch of treach- erous rapids. Indiana looks less cocky as he and Willie and Short Round hold on again for dear life! The raft plunges into the roaring torrent, bouncing over rock- swollen waves, twisting and spinning through narrow gaps. The three helpless passengers are drenched in the thundering cascades of white water. Willie is hallering, Short Round hangs on wide-eyed and even Indy looks terrified as the raft crashes down the rapids. Finally, after one heart-stopping bounce, the raft seems to slow.36. EXT. RIVER CLEARING 36. The raft drifts out of the main part of the river and glides to- ward a clearing. Its three soaked and bedraggled passengers lie motionless in the bottom. Indy's hand drags alongside the raft, his fingers leaving a trail in the almost still water. Battered and exhausted, but always Indy's "bodyguard", Shorty looks over at him worriedly -- SHORT ROUND Indy? INDIANA Okay, Shorty. Indy looks over at Willie who is moaning. INDIANA (Cont'd) You all right? WILLIE No... I'm not cut out for the kind of life you lead. (moaning) Oh no...I ripped my dress. Where are we anyway? The raft floats to a gentle stop -- we see it nudge against a pair of dark feet. Indy squints up into the sun and sees some- thing. INDIANA India... WILLIE Holy cow -- India? How do you know we're in -- She rolls over and yelps as she looks up at the bizarre, painted face of a SHAMAN. Silhoutted against the blazing sun, the skin- ny little old man in a loincoloth stares down at them in the raft. An eerie wind rises and howls. The old man places his palms to- gether and moves his hands up to touch his forehead. Willie and Short Round watch mystified as Indiana returns the old shaman's silent greeting. CUT TO:37. EXT. THE MAYAPORE HILLS - DAY 37. Indya and Short Round follow the shaman and four peasants down a gutted path through barren rolling hills. Willie is out of her milieu, stumbling along this forlorn landscape in high heels, tuxedo jacket and disheveled lame gown. She hears the old shaman talking to Indy and catches up with them to find out what's going on. WILLIE (to Indiana) What'd he say? INDIANA He told me they knew I was coming here. WILLIE What do you mean -- how? INDIANA The old man saw it in a dream. WILLIE Dream -- nightmare is more like it. INDIANA He said that's whey they were at river -- they were waiting for the plane to fall down. He looks at her bewildered face and smiles faintly. As they walk, a hot wind swirls dust around them, a wind slowly ravaging what soil is left in this terribly blighted region. CUT TO:38. EXT. MAYAPORE - DAY 38. At the base of the hills, Mayapore village does nothing to re- lieve the awful sense of devastation. A desolate road runs through the village, along which groups of ptiifully poor vil- lagers stare at the strangers being brought in. Hopeless women lift buckets from a dry well -- finding only sand. Skinny miserable dogs skulk between the decrepit village huts, eyed by the patient vultures lurling in scraggly trees. Indiana notices the wretched peasants staring at Short Round, some of them pointing at him, a few haggard women shedding tears down their wrinkled faces as the little Chinese boy passes. There is no sign of children in the village and Short Round grows frightened by the odd attention. He moves closer to Indy as they pass the devastated population. CUT TO:39. RXT. MAYAPORE VILLAGE - AFTER SUNSET 39. Black clouds clot across the blood-red sky as darkness falls. Indiana, Willie and Short Round sit tensely on a shabby rug. Above their heads, there is a thatched roof, but there are no walls. The dying sunset silhouettes them and the half-dozen elders seat- ed in the dirt around them. A grey-haired man, the village CHIEFTAIN, gives quiet commands to the women who scuttle in and set wooden plates in front of the three visitors. No plates are places in front of the elders. WILLIE (quietly to Indy) I hope this means we're going to get some dinner. Indiana sees the painted shaman, who sits next to the chieftain, watching Willie. The women bring in a bowl from which they scoop tiny portions of grey gruel onto three plates. To this the women add a few grains of yellowed rice and a with- ered ,molding piece of fruit. Willie looks aghast at the unappe- tizing combination. WILLIE (quietly) God, I am starving, but I can't eat this... INDIANA That's more food than these people eat in a week. (pointedly) They're starving, too... Willie looks around at the emaciated faces and feels like crawl- ing into a hole. WILLIE I'm sorry, I -- here, please. She picks up her plate and gently hands it back to the women. The chieftain finally speaks to them -- CHIEFTAIN You will rest here before you go on. INDIANA We'd appreciate that. This was an unexpected detour. We'll have to go to Delhi now and find a flight west. SHORT ROUND (smiling) Indy is taking me to America. All eyes are on Short Round. Puzzled by this strange attention, Shorty's smile fades nervously. INDIANA I'm a professor. I have to re- turn to the university. Can you give us a guide to take us to Delhi? The chieftain indicates a young villager sitting near them. CHIEFTAIN Sanju will guide you. INDIANA Thank you. The old shaman speaks now for the first time. SHAMAN On the way to Delhi, you will stop at Pankot. INDIANA (puzzled) Pankot isn't on the way to Delhi. SHAMAN You will go to palace there. INDIANA Hasn't the Pankot palace been de- serted since the Mutiny of 1857? SHAMAN (darkly) No. Now there is new Maharajah -- and palace is powerful again. The shaman looks around at his unfortunate people. SHAMAN (Cont'd) It is Pankot Palace that kills my village. INDIANA I don't understand. What's hap- pened here? SHAMAN The evil starts in Pankot. Then like monsoon, it moves darkness over all country. INDIANA What evil? SHAMAN They came from Palace and took sivalinga from out village. Willie looks over at Indiana -- WILLIE Took what? INDIANA It's a sacred stone in a shine that's supposed to protect a village. SHAMAN It is why Krishna brought you here. INDIANA (politely firm) Nobody brought us here. Our plane crashed. We were shot down by -- SHAMAN (interrupting) No. We pray to Krishna to help us find the stone. It was Krishna who made you fall from sky -- so you can got to Pankot Palace. To find siva- linga -- and bring back to us. Indy's about to object -- then he looks at the sad chieftain, the elders and peasants who are watching him helplessly. And he sees again the dark steady eyes of the old shaman. CUT TO:40. EXT. MAYAPORE VILLAGE - NIGHT 40. Torches falre eerily and dogs howl as the peasants accompany the shaman, elders and three visitors out ot the edge of the dark village. Short Round walks beside Indy. SHORT ROUND Indy, they make out plane crash? To get you here? INDIANA It's just superstition, Shorty. Like a ghost story. Short Round looks plenty scared as they all stop walking. The shaman motions and the men with torches circle around a pile of rocks to illuminate them. The shaman makes a gesture of devotion to the primitive shrine and Indy speaks to the village chieftain. CHIEFTAIN Yes. Indiana seems skeptical as he kneels to study the shrine. On top of the pile of rocks, there is a carved niche. The niche is empty but an indentation indicates the conical shape of the stone that was stolen. INDIANA Was the stone very smooth? (he sees the chieftain nod) It was probably brought here from a sacred river. SHAMAN (joining Indy and the chieftain) Long ago -- before my father's father. INDIANA And it had three lines painted across it? (seeing the shaman nod) The lines represent the three levels of the universe. I've seen stones like the one you lost. Indy stands slowly. Willie is beside him looking at the shrine. WILLIE I don't understand how losing one rock could destroy this village. (whispering to Indy) Is it really powerful? Indy gives a doubtful smile. He turns again to the old shaman. INDIANA But why would the Maharajah take this sacred stone? SHAMAN They say we must pray to their evil god. We say we will not. The old shaman looks off and fights the tears in his eyes as he starts speaking in Hindi. INDIANA (translating) He says that when the sacred stone was taken the village wells dried up first and then the river stopped. Indy turns and asks the shaman a question in Hindi. The shaman answers in Hindi. INDIANA (translating) He says their crops dies and then the animals died. The shaman walks to the edge of the torchlight and looks out into the darkness as he continues speaking emotionally in Hindi -- INDIANA (translating) And then they took their children. WILLIE Their children? She looks at Short Round and finally understands the sorrowful faces always watching him. Indy asks another question in Hindi and the shaman continues his story -- INDIANA (translating) He says one night there was a fire in the fields. The men went to fight it. When they came back, they heard the women crying in the darkness. And the children were gone. The shaman walks slowly toward Indiana. SHAMAN You will find them when you find sivlalinga. INDIANA I'm sorry, I don't know how I can help you here. The shaman and the chieftain stare and Indiana, refusing to accept that. INDIANA (Cont'd) The English authorities who con- trol this area are the only ones who can help you. CHIEFTAIN They do not listen. INDIANA I have friends in Delhi and I will make sure they investigate this... SHAMAN No, you will got to Pankot... The old man speaks again in his own tongue and Indy looks dis- turbed. WILLIE What'd he say now? INDIANA It was destined that I came here -- and the future cannot be changed... Indy looks ath the shaman and the torchlight reflected in his eyes. CUT TO:41. EXT. MAYAPORE - NIGHT 41. Suddenly we're rushing headlong down a dark dirt path seen from the POV of somebody running in terror. We hear heavy breathing -- above we see the scraggly trees blowing against the full moon as an eerie wind rises and howls. We continue crashing through the dying fields tward the dark village...42. INT. INDIANA'S HUT - NIGHT 42. The wind swirls into the hut and Indiana's eyes open. He lies still a moment and then sits up slowly. He sees Short Round sleeping nearby. Sensing something strange, Indy gets to his feet. He steps around Short Round and goes to the door of the hut.43. EXT. THE HUT - NIGHT 43. Indy walks against the rising wind and looks around. The village is asleep and seems deserted. Then he turns and sees something. We follow small bare feet stumbling through the dust... Indy sees an emaciated child in rag running out of the darkness. Indiana moves forward and the child runs toward him. Indy grabs the little boy as he falls into his arms. CUT TO:44. INT. THE SHAMAN'S HUT - NIGHT 44. A few minutes later, the little boy is lying unconscious on a blanket. Elders crouch around him. Indy is kneeling and watches the shaman wet the boy's forehead with a rag and drip water onto his lips. The little boy's eyes open and he begins to revive. Shrot Round And Willie watch from a corner as the little boy looks at all the faces peering down at him. The little boy's arm moves and he reaches out to Indy rather than any of the others. Indy takes his small hand and sees that the boy's fingers are cut and bruised -- his fingers open and drop something into Indy's hand. The little boy tries to whisper. Indy has to lean close to hear as the little boy's lips move again -- LITTLE BOY Sankara... A mother rushes into the hut now and kneels and hugs her little boy. His skinny arms go around her as they are reunited. Indy stands slowly and looks at what the little boy gave him -- It is a small tattered piece of cloth: an old fragment of a mini- ature painting. Indiana looks at it with an expression of recog- nition and apprehension... INDIANA Sankara...45. EXT. THE VILLAGE - MORNING 45. The camera follows Indiana -- he's walking fast and determinded- ly. Villagers trot alongside of him, trying to keep up with is pace as he questions thm in Hindi. Indy approaches two large elephants and sees their guide Sajnu trying to politely drag Willie toward one of them. INDIANA Damn it , Willie, get on -- we've got to move out! Willie's head comes up over the back of the elephant as she's helped from below -- there is a look of sheer terror on her face. WILLIE Whoa! Easy now -- nice elephant... Waiting by the second elephant, Short Round sees Indy coming and runs up to him -- SHORT ROUND I ride with you, Indy? INDIANA Nope, you got a little surprise over there, Shorty. Short Round runs around the big elephant and sees a baby elephant being brought out. He can't believe his luck -- SHORT ROUND Oh boy! Meanwhile Sajnu goads Willie's elephant over. The villagers look grief stricken and many are crying as they watch the three stran- gers' departure. WILLIE (to Short Round) This is the first time anybody ever cried when I left. SHORT ROUND They don't cry about you. They cry about the elephants leaving. WILLIE Figures... SHORT ROUND They got no food to feed them. So they taking the elephants away to sell them. Indy lumbers over on his elephant. INDIANA All right, let's go. I want to get to Pankot before tomorrow night. She looks at Indiana as he rides past. WILLIE Pankot?! I thought we were going to Delhi! Hey, wait a minute! (looking at the villagers) Can't somebody take me to Delhi?! I don't want to go to Pankot! Sajnu guides her elephant and Willie lurches forward -- WILLIE (Cont'd) (yelling) Indiana! Damn it! Why'd you change your mind? What did that kid tell you last night?! Indy ignores her hollering. The elephants move off through the crowds of pitiful villagers. Indy sees the elders, chieftain and the old shaman who brings his hands up to his forehead as Indy rides past. CUT TO:46. EXT. THE COUNTRYSIDE - DAY 46. The elephants move across the desolate countryside toward the distant hills.47. EXT. THE TRAIL 47. Indiana rides the lead elephant. Sajnu passes on foot guiding Willie's elephant. With the tuxedo jacket wrapped around her waist, Willie is dabbing perfume behind her ears. WILLIE (to her elephant) I think you need this more than me. Willie leans forward and puts perfume behind the elephant's ears. Grimacing at the animal's smell she simply dumps the rest of the perfume on the elephant's back. Willie yelps when the elephant's trunk comes back, sniffs the foriegn fragrance and suddenly trumpets in disgust. WILLIE (Cont'd) What're you complaining about, this is expensive stuff! CUT TO:48. EXT. LOWER JUNGLES - DAY 48. From a cliff, we see the elephants below passing into the lower jungles. Spotting something on an overhanging tree branck, Short Round stands up precariously on the baby elephant's back. He pulls a vine from the tree as they pass under it. Plopping down onto the baby elephant's back, he picks the wild fruit from the vine -- SHORT ROUND Here you go, lunch time! The baby elephant's trunk comes back and takes the fruit. Shorty looks up in the sky. SHORT ROUND (Cont'd) Indy, look! Indiana and Willie look up and see hundreds of enormous winged creatures flapping across the afternoon sky. WILLIE Those are very big bird. Sajnu says something and Indiana nods. INDIANA Those aren't birds -- those are giant bats. Willie shudders as she watches the bats. CUT TO:49. EXT. THE HILLS - AFTERNOON 49. An enormous sun silhouettes the three elephants trekking west- ward. CUT TO:50. EXT. A RIVER - LATER AFTERNOON 50. The three elephants stand sucking up river water with their trunks. Seated on the huge beasts, Willie, Short Round and Indi- ana watch the thirsty animals. WILLIE They must be pretty dumb to drink that awful-looking water. In response, Willie's elephant calmly lifts its trunk and sprays her in the face. Short Round and Indy laugh as Willie sits soaked and shocked. INDIANA I think maybe we'll camp here. CUT TO:51. EXT. THE RIVER - SUNSET 51. A plume of water sprays. The three elephants submerge in a deep, wide spot in the river. Indy wades in the current with his shirt off. He and the guide splash water on the weary animals. Short Round laughs and plays with the baby elephant. Wrapped in its trunk, he's swung in the air and lands on the elephant's back. Shorty makes a swan dive back into the water and the baby elephant gives him a shower when he surfaces.52. EXT. UPRIVER 52. Thirty yards upstream, birds and monkeys chatter in a tree. In the shady river beneath, Willie surfaces cooly and wipes hair from her eyes. She hums contendedly. Indiana wanders up the riverbank in his dripping trousers. He notices Willie's wet clothes spread over a tree limb hanging low over the water and then he sees Willie paddling around. INDIANA Hey, Willie -- I think you better get out now. WILLIE Stark naked? You wish... If you're trying to seduce me, Dr. Jones, this is a very primitive approach. INDIANA Me seduce you? Honey, you're the one who took your clothes off. (shrugging) I just came over to remind you that you never know what else might be in the water. WILLIE Somehow I feel safer in here. As Indy turns and starts off, Willie reaches up to the tree branch above her head and grabs her underwear. At this moment we notice something awful: A BOA CONSTRICTOR is moving out along the branch, the enormous snake slithering over Willie's clothes. Willie watches Indiana walk away as she reaches up for her dress -- her hands feel something strange -- not the dress and not the tree limb -- Willie looks up and sees that she's pulling on a snake! She SCREAMS as the boa constrictor falls off the t-ee on top of her! Indy hears the scream and hears Willie calling to him. He runs back toward the river. Stopping on the riverbank, he sees Willie backing away in the water -- Indiana's already starting to pull his boots off -- WILLIE Indy! Help me! INDIANA Don't worry, I'm coming in! What is it? WILLIE A snake! Suddenly Indiana freezes and a strange look corsses his face -- INDIANA A what...? WILLIE A SNAKE!! He finally sees the boa constrictor thrashing in the water close to Willie. He leaves his boots on. WILLIE (Cont'd) Hurry, help me out of here! What're you waiting for?! INDIANA Uh, listen -- Willie -- I got a better idea. WILLIE What?! INDIANA First of all -- don't panic! Willie suddenly screams as the boa constrictor wraps around her arm -- WILLIE It's got me ! Indy, help me! Indy runs along the riverbank, trying to get closer to her, but not about to jump into the river (due to his aversion to snakes -- see Episode One: "Raiders of the Lost Ark"). INDIANA Don't let it pull you deeper! WILLIE It's pulling me deeper! INDIANA Don't let it curl around you! WILLIE It's curling around me! Damn it, stop talking and do something! The snake is wrapping around her body and neck -- her head is barely above water -- On the riverbank, Indy reaches down and grabs a piece of wood. But as he watches the repulsive reptile, he starts to sweat and his fear and loathing overpower him -- WILLIE (Cont'd) What's wrong?! Indy please help me! Indy groans and bolsters his courage -- he takes two steps into the water -- but the complex is to strong and he can't go any further. He drops the piece of wood... INDIANA Listen, Willie. Do exactly what I tell you now. WILLIE What?! INDIANA Can you move your arm? WILLIE Just one arm! INDIANA Okay, I want you to lift your hand -- and pet the snake. WILLIE PET IT??!! INDIANA Yes, stroke it right along the maxillary and precaudal verte- brae. WILLIE THE WHAT?! INDIANA Pet it on the head! Go on, pet it! In the water, Willie is whimpering as she lifts her hand and starts petting the snake coiling around her pale body. WILLIE Oh -- my -- god -- it's going to crush me! INDIANA Keep stroking it! Willie keeps rubbing her hand along the snakes head and back and it slowly stops thrashing in the water. INDIANA (Cont'd) What's happening? WILLIE It's starting to let go! INDIANA That's good -- you're doing fine. Grimacing as she stares at the ugly serpent's head, Willie keeps stroking it. WILLIE It's letting fo. I think it's -- I think it's going to sleep! Indiana looks relieved. He sees the snake starting to drift away from Willie and she starts paddling back to shore, collecting her floating clothes along the way. Holding her dripping dress against herself, she walks out of the water toward Indy who smiles at her weakly. INDIANA See -- I got you out... She slows and hauls off and punches him in the mouth. Indy holds his jaw as she walks away infuriates. WILLIE Thanks for nothing! I hate snakes! INDIANA (looking at the water) I know the feeling... CUT TO:53. EXT. THE CAMPSITE - NIGHT 53. By firelight, we see Sajnu feeding the big elephants while Short Round feeds and talks to the baby elephant -- SHORT ROUND You come to America with me, and we can get job in the circus -- you like that? The baby elephant trumpets affirmitively. A ways off, Willie stands wrapped in a blanket watching Shorty and the elephant as she dries her hair by a campfire. Now Indy comes up and drops an armload of wood for yet another fire. WILLIE Where'd you find your little body- guard? INDIANA I met Short Round when he tried to pick my pocket. Indiana kneels and arranges the wood. INDIANA (Cont'd) Shorty's family was killed when they bombed Shanghai. He was living on the streets. WILLIE (smiling) He'll be okay. He's a good kid. Indy strikes a match and lights the new fire. WILLIE (Cont'd) All these fires -- you expecting more snakes, Dr. Jones? She smiles snidely and continues drying her hair. INDIANA By the way, how'd you end up in Shanghai? WILLIE Well, when my nightclub career was run over by the Depression, some pinhead convinced me that "a girl could go places in the Orient..." So, look where I got. Indy picks up a blanket and spreads it on the ground. INDIANA What about the future? WILLIE Oh, that's easy -- I'm going to latch onto a good-looking, in- credibly rich prince. Indy lies down on the blanket. INDIANA I'd like to find one of those myself. WILLIE (raising an eyebrow) Oh really? INDIANA Yeah, but he's got to be dead and buried for a couple of thousand years. (smiling) Fortune and glory... WILLIE Is that what you're hoping to find at this palace, Dr. Jones? INDIANA Maybe... Indy reaches into his pocket and removes the old piece of cloth. WILLIE What's that? She walks over to where he's lying down and sits on a boulder. He hands her the cloth and she looks at it by the firelight. INDIANA Something that kid gave me last night. It's a piece of an old manuscript. Willie sees a crude drawing in reds, blue and gold. INDIANA (Cont'd) The drawing shows a priest named Sankara who lived centuries ago. WILLIE What does the writing say? INDIANA It's Sanskrit. It tells the story of Sankara climbing Mt. Kalisa where he met the Hindu god Shiva. WILLIE (examining it) That's Shiva? What's he giving the Priest? INDIANA Legend says he told Sankara to go forth and combat evil. To do that he gave him five sacred stones that had magical powers. WILLIE (looking at Indy) You mean magical like the rock that was stolen from that village? Indy looks at her meaningfully. INDIANA It could be. Willie seems frightened. She hands him the piece of cloth and stands up. WILLIE (quietly) Fortune and glory...sweet dreams, Dr. Jones. She picks up a blanket and starts off. INDIANA I think you should sleep closer. (seeing her sus- picious look) I meant for safety. WILLIE (smiling) I'd be safer sleeping with that snake. She steps over to a tree by the fire where her clothes are dry- ing. Indy watches her pull her dried clothes from the lower branches. She reaches up to remove another piece of her clothing -- it's stuck to the tree and she looks up and yanks it. Suddenly the piece of clothing moves! Two enormous winds open and the hideous face of a GIANT BAT screeches and hisses at Willie! She screams hysterically as the bat flaps against her, biting and scratching at her before it fi- nally takes off. The bat flies off into the darkness and Indy chuckles as he watches Willie shanking as she backs slowly toward the fire -- WILLIE Did you see it?! It was one of those bats! (staring into the darkness) God, what else is out there...?! She quickly picks up her blanket and lays it out very close to Indy. INDIANA Couldn't keep away, huh? WILLIE Just try and control yourself. Indiana watches her lie down and wrap herself in her blanket. then he rolls over and tips his hat down over his eyes to get some well-deserved shut-eye. In a moment, however, we see something grotesque and snake-like slide into frame and move towards Indy -- finally, we realize it's an elephant's trunk. The trunk nudges Indy's shoulder. INDIANA (without looking) Still scared? Okay, Willie, you can get closer if you want... The elephant's trunk moves closer and nuzzles Indy's neck. INDIANA Honey, I knew you'd be the first one to give in... Now, we see that Short Round is guiding the baby elephant's trunk with a prod. Willie watches, stifling a laugh as the elephant's trunk sniffs Indiana's ear -- INDIANA (Cont'd) You're going to start something I'm going to have to finish. (moaning) Okay, doll, you asked for it. Indiana rolls over, lifts his hat and hollers! He nearly jumps out of his pants as he stares into the elephant's trunk. Willie and Short Round dissolve into laughter. CUT TO:54. EXT. THE JUNGLE - DAY 54. Tall, vine-covered trees sway in the wind. Beneath them, the el- ephants plough through the dense tropical forest. The sounds of the teeming jungle multiply as Short Round surveys the distant hills. SHORT ROUND Indy, look! INDIANA That's it. Pankot Palace. Willie looks off at the resplendent while Moghul-style palace ri- sing in the distance above the jungle. CUT TO:55. EXT. A JUNGLE CLEARING - LATER 55. Their Mayapore guide walks toward the camera and suddenly looks frightened. He barks commands and the elephants stop. Indiana jumps down an joins the fearful guide. They stare at a small statue of a malevolent goddess with eight arms. Around the goddess's neck, a carved necklace displays small human heads -- her eight hands hold other heads by their hair. Indiana moves closer to the statue as the terrified guide backs away. Indy is fascinated by the ritual objects adorning it: leaves, dead birds, rodents and turtles. Indiana grimaces as he lifts a necklace of real pierced human fingers... WILLIE (O.S.) Why are we stopping here? Indiana goes back and joins the scared, jabbering guide who is helping Willie down from the elephant. Short Round jumps down. SHORT ROUND What you look at, Indy? INDIANA Just a statue. WILLIE What's the guide talking about? He hasn't said a word the whole trip. Indy listens to the agitated guide and then speaks a few words in Hindi back to him. They watch the distressed guide trun the ele- phants and start away with them as fast as possible. WILLIE He's afraid of something. INDIANA He said he couldn't take us any farther. He has to go sell the elephants. WILLIE You mean we have to walk the rest of the way? Willie moans and follows Indy. Short Round watches the elephants trudging away. The little elephant turns and looks back. Short Round quickly wipes a tear from his face. CUT TO:56. EXT. A PALACE APPROACH - AFTERNOON 56. Indiana and Short Round hike up a rock-paved road beside a high wall. Exhausted, carrying her high heels, Willie trudges along behind them. WILLIE -- shot at, fallen out of a plane, nearly drowned, squashed by a snake, attacked by a bat -- I smell like an elephant! (yelling) I tell you I'm not going to make it! Indiana finally stops. He walks back to Willie, suddenly picks her us in his arms and starts carrying her the remaining way. Willie is surprised and puzzled. INDIANA Any more complaints? WILLIE (smiling faintly) Yeah, I wish you'd thought of this sooner... She doesn't seem to mind being carried by Indy. He arrives at the entrance to the palace and puts her down -- she stands close to him and he gently smoothes the collar of her dress. INDIANA It doesn't feel like there's been any permanent damage. She smiles at him again and then turns around -- and whistles as she sees Pankot Palace: a sprawling, monumental mixture of Mo- ghul and Rajput styles, the palace is an extravaganza of Princely architecture.57. EXT. A BRIDGE 57. The three travelers start across a marble bridge toward the main entrance. Lined along the bridge, palace guards stand with lances. As the threesome passes, the first Rajput guard snaps noisily to attention and Willie jumps. As Willie continues across the bridge, the other guards snap to attention in sequence and she grins, enjoying the attention.58. INT. THE OUTER COURTYARD 58. Short Round and Willie follow Indiana through a dark archway into a glittering courtyard. The palace seems deserted and forebod- ing. INDIANA Hello?...(hello?)...(hello?) Indy's voice echoes off the marble facades -- three enormous Raj- put guards with curved swords in their sashes appear silently at opposite sides of the courtyard. WILLIE (frightened) Hi...(hi)...(hi)... Then, a tall severe-looking Indian in an English suit material- izes out of the shadows and comes forward slowly. CHATTAR LAL appraises the intruders suspiciously: He sees a whoozy beauty in a weary evening gown; a dirty Chinese kid with a baseball cap; a rugged-looking American carrying a bullwhip... CHATTAR LAL I would say you look rather lost. (disdainfullt) But then I cannot imagine where in the world the three of you would look at home... INDIANA (smiling evenly) Lost? No, we're not lost. We're on our way to Delhi. This is Miss Scott -- and Mr. Round. My name's Indiana Jones. CHATTAR LAL (surprised) Dr. Jones? The eminent archae- ologist? WILLIE Hard to believe, isn't it...? CHATTAR LAL I remember first hearing your name when I was studying at Oxford. I Am Chattar Lal, Prime Minister for His Highness the Maharajah of Pankot. He bows and Willie sort of curtsies. CHATTAR LAL (Cont'd) Welcome to Pankot Palace.59. INT. PANKOT PALACE - AFTERNOON 59. They walk along the marble halls, past dazzling walls inlaid with pieces of mirror and semi-precious stones. Fountains spray in ivory countyards and they gaze in awe at the ornate splendour. As Willie walks with Shorty she appraises the chronolgoical portraits of the Pankot Prices that line the hall. Dissipated faces, elegant faces, evil faces -- she reacts to them. WILLIE (to Short Round) How'd you like to run into him in a dark alley...that one's kind of cute...I could see myself married to a prince like that... Ahead of them Chattar Lal walks with Indy and questions him suspiciously -- CHATTAR LAL The plane crash and your journey here sound -- most incredible. WILLIE You should have been there... INDIANA We'd appreciate it if the Mahara- jah would let us stay tonight. We'll be on out way in the morn- ing. CHATTAR LAL I am only his humble servant, but the Maharajah usually listens to my advice. WILLIE Is that him? They've come to the last in the row of Princes portraits. Wil- lie stops and looks up disappointedly at a picture of an aged, immensely corpulent Rajput prince. WILLIE (Cont'd) (politely) He's not exactly what we call "a spring chicken". CHATTAR LAL No, no, that is Uhmed Singh, the present Maharajah's late father. WILLIE Oh -- good. And maybe the pres- ent Marahajah is a little younger? And thinner? Two female servants approach silently and bow. CHATTAR LAL They will escort you to your rooms now. You will be provided with fresh clothes. Tonight you will be dining with His Highness. WILLIE Dinner? And with a prince?! My luck is changing. But look at me -- my god, I've to to get ready! She hurried off with one of the servants toward her room. Chat- tar Lal smiles cooly at Indiana -- CHATTAR LAL Eight o'clock in the Pleasure Pavilion. CUT TO:60. EXT. THE PLEASURE PALIVION - NIGHT 60. An extraordinary gold dome rises in the middle of the eleaborate gardens. The Pleasure Pavilion is ablaze with torch lights, flickering candles and exotic music. Indiana comes out of the palace with Short Round. Indy has on a tweed jacket and a nectie -- his university professor's outfit. Short Round has been cleaned up, but still sports his baseball cap. Willie joins them, looking stunning is a silk Western-styled gown. She's also been loaned some Moghul jewelry which sparkles on her neck and arms. INDIANA You look like a princess. Willie's flattered by the first nice thing Indy's said to her. WILLIE It's sort of like being in heaven. They cross the garden toward the pavilion and Willie's eyes are like a kid's at Christmas.61. INT. THE PLEASURE PAVILION 61. As they enter, Indiana gives a half-dressed dancing girl the once-over as she spins to the music of drums and "vinhas". INDIANA (smiling) I've always had a weakness for folk dancing. WILLIE (snidely) She might get away with that act here, but she'd never make it in a real nightclub. They walk among the rich court ministers and Indian merchants. Chattar Lal approaches with a British cavalry captain in unifrom. CHATTAR LAL We are fortunate tonight to have some many unexpected guests. his is Captain Phillip Blumburtt. Blumburtt bows to Willie and Indiana. CHATTAR LAL (Cont'd) Captain Blumburtt and his troops are here to check up on the "natives". CAPT. BLUMBURTT (politely) Just a routine inspection tour. CHATTAR LAL The British worry so about their Emprie -- it makes us feel like well-cared-for children. WILLIE Listen, Mr. Lal, what do you call the Maharajah's wife? CHATTAR LAL His Highness has not yet taken a wife. WILLIE (happily) No? Well, I guess he just hasn't met the right woman... As Willie chatters on with the Prime Minister, Indiana wanders off. He moves to a wall where bronze statues and strange devo- tional objects are displayed. CAPT. BLUMBURTT (joining Indy) Interested in local curios? INDIANA No. But I am interested in the occult. And this is a krtya. Indiana picks up a small clay figurine and examines it. CAPT. BLUMBURTT (grimacing) Charming. INDIANA It's like the voodoo dolls of West Africa. The kryta represents your enemy -- and gives you complete power over him. CAPT. BLUMBURTT That God all that mumbo jumbo rubbish is disappearing. INDIANA You think so? CAPT. BLUMBURTT Of course. Admittedly, it's taken time. Britian's controlled India for almost two hundred eyars now. Indiana smiles at the somewhat pompous bureaucrat. INDIANA You're hanging on better here than you did in America. CAPT. BLUMBURTT (smiling sourly) This is a different situation, Dr. Jones. These people are like children. We have to lead them slowly into the twentieth century. Indiana puts the doll down and looks over at Chattar Lal and Willie. INDIANA The Prime Minister doesn't seem that naive. CAPT. BLUMBURTT No, he's a very shrewd old boy. Power behind the throne and all that. He actually runs this whole province. Indy and the Prime Minister exchange distant looks as Willie comes back over to Indiana. She talks to him conspiratorially -- WILLIE I think this Maharajah is swim- ming in money. Maybe coming here wasn't such a bad idea. Blumburtt finds these Americans quite suspect and seems relieved when he hears a drum. CAPT. BLUMBURTT I believe we're being called to dinner. WILLIE Finally! As the drum beats the assembled guests move toward a long, low table surrounded by colorful pillows. Short Round follows with a little monkey he's found perched on his arm. As everyone stands around the table, Chattar Lal makes an an- nouncement in Hindi and then in English -- CHATTAR LAL His Supremem Highness, guardian of Rajput tradition -- the Maharajah of Pankot -- Zalim Singh. All eyes are on two solid silver doors which open -- and through which now walks the MAHARAJAH ZALIM SINGH. Everyone is bowing, including Indiana and Willie, who looks amazed -- WILLIE That's the Maharajah -- that kid?! INDIANA Maybe he likes older women. Indeed, Zalim Singh is only thirteen. Outfitted in silver and gold brocade, festooned with enormous jewels, the litlle Mahara- jah gazes imperiously at the bowing crowd -- and then glares at Short Round. Indy sees Short Round chewing gum, staring antagonistically at the Maharajah. Indy pushes SHort Round into a bowing position. The Maharajah finally sits down on golden pillows. He nods and his guests take their seats. Indiana sees Willie's dreams of queendom have vanished. INDIANA Cheer up, you lost your prince, but dinner's on the way. WILLIE I've never been so hungry in my life... Servants appear with silver platters of steaming food. They place a platter in front of Willie and she stares at it in amaze- ment: It's a whole raosted boar, replete with a decorative arrow pierc- ing its bloated stomach and tiny broiled baby bores placed around it as if they were suckling on their well-cooked mother. WILLIE (grimacing) My god, sort of grusome, isn't it...? Seeing the meat being served, Indiana looks across the table at Blumburtt who seems equally puzzled. Meanwhile, the little Maha- rajah whispers to his Prime Minsiter. Then Chattar Lal speaks to the table -- CHATTAR LAL His Highness wants me to welcome his visitors. Especially the renowned Dr. Jones from America. Indy bows slightly toward the Maharajah. INDIANA We are honored to be here. Servants put down another platter. Willie stares at an enormous steaming boa constrictor on the platter. With a flash of a knife, a servant slits the huge snake and exposes a mass of squirming, live baby eels inside... WILLIE Suddenly I'm not so hungry... Meanwhile, Indiana is chatting poleitely with the Prime Minister. INDIANA I had a question, Mr. Prime Mini- ster. I was examining some of the Maharajah's artifacts. CHATTAR LAL A very fine collection of very old pieces, don't you think? INDIANA Yes, very fine. But not all of the pieces look old. Some were carved recently and look like images used by the Thuggees to worship the god- des Kali. At the emntion of the Thuggees, the Indians at the table quiet, as it a taboo has been broken. Chattar Lal glares at Indiana. CHATTAR LAL Dr. Jones, you know very well that the Thuggee cult has been dead for nearly a century. CAPT. BLUMBURTT Of course. The Thuggees were an obscenity that worshipped Kali with human sacrifices. The Brit- ish Army wiped them out about the time of the Mutiny of 1857. Short Round avoids the dinner by feeding it to his little monkey as he listens to the scary conversation. The talk is bad enough, but Willie finds the food unbelievable! A servant leans overher shoulder and places a six-inch long BUG on her plate! Willie whimpers quietly as she watches the fat merchant next to her lift one of the black, shiny baked-beetles -- and crack it in two! The man proceeds to enthusiastically suck the gooey innards out. MERCHANT (looking at Willie) But you're not eating! WILLIE (weakly) I uh -- had bugs for lunch. Meanwhile, Indiana continues to politely needle Chattar Lal. INDIANA I suppose stories of the Thuggees die hard. CHATTAR LAL There are no stories anymore. INDIANA Well, I don't know... we came here from a small village and the peas- ants there told us that the Pankot Palace was growing powerful again -- becuase of some ancient evil. Indiana smiles and shrugs. CHATTAR LAL (sneeringly) Their stories are just fear and folklore. INDIANA (cooly) Maybe.. but how do you explain The Thuggee shrine I saw right below the palace? Indy catches a glance between the little Maharajah and the prime minister, who answers slowly -- CHATTAR LAL The local peasants are just as superstitious. You're very ob- servant, Dr. Jones. But you're beginning to worry Capt. Blum- burtt. Blumburtt's phlegmatic attitude has changed to curiosity. CAPT. BLUMBURTT I'm not worried, Prime Minister, just interested. During their conversation, Willie listens to beetles SNAPPING and she watches revolted as the other dinner guests suck the gooey insides out of the bugs. WILLIE (to Short Round) Give me your hat... SHORT ROUND What for? WILLIE I'm going to puke in it... Meanwhile, Indy continues ingenously with Chattar Lal. INDIANA You know the villagers also claimed that this palace stole something from them. CHATTAR LAL Dr. Jones, it our country a guest does not usually insult his host. INDIANA Sorry, I thought we were just talking about folklore. CAPT. BLUMBURTT (trying to make peace) I'm sure it's nothing. Just ru- mors. (but interested) What was it they claimed was stolen? INDIANA Something magical. A sacred rock. CHATTAR LAL (condescendingly) There, you see, Captain. A rock! INDIANA When they lost this rock their fields and animals dies. They also said their children were taken from them. CHATTAR LAL I think that's enough of this nonsense, Dr. Jones... Indiana smiles faintly at Chattar Lal's anger. Across the table, Willie looks pale and motions to the waiter. WILLIE So you have something, you know, simple -- like soup or something? The servant goes off and returns with a covered bowl. He uncov- ers it and Willie looks at a soup with a dozen eyeballs floating in it. MERCHANT Looks delicious! WILLIE I wanna go home... Willie whimpers and tears start down her cheeks. INDIANA (to Chattar Lal) I was dubious muself at first. Then something connected -- the village's rock and the old legend of the Sankara Stones... CHATTAR LAL (controlling himself) Dr. Jones, we are all vulnerable to vicious rumors. I seem to re- member that in Honduras you were accused of being a grave robber rather than a scientist. INDIANA (shrugging) The newspapers exaggerated the incident CHATTAR LAL And didn't the Sultan of Madagas- car threaten to cut your head off if you ever returned to his coun- try? INDIANA That was a misunderstanding. CHATTAR LAL (smiling) Exactly what we have here, Dr. Jones. MAHARAJAH I have heard the terrible stories of the evil Thuggee cult... When the little Marahajah speaks it surprises everyone and there is silence. MAHARAJAH (Cont'd) I thought the stories were told to frighten children. Later, I learned that the Thuggee cult was once real and did unspeakable things. The Marahajah looks at Indiana. MAHARAJAH (Cont'd) I am ashamed of what happened here so many years ago. We keep these objects -- to remind us that this will never again happen in my kingdom! INDIANA (after a moment) I'm sorry if I've offended you. Now, more trays are whisked in by servants. MERCHANT Ah, dessert! Short Round's monkey suddenly screeches and takes off. Willie closed here eyes in dread - but curiosity gets the best of her and she looks -- it's worse than she could imagine: Plates full of small, dead monkey heads! (*Production note: be- cause of his extremely sensitive nature, the director has reque- ted that these monkey heads be simulated). The tops of the monkey's skulls have been cut off and sit loose like little covers. Willie watches in utter dismay as the Maha- rajah and his guests remove the skull-tops and start dipping spoons into what's inside -- MERCHANT (Cont'd) Chilled monkey brains! Willie keels over, crashing backwards in a dead faint! CUT TO:62. INT. A PALACE HALL - LATER 62. Women servants help a woobly-kneed Willie toward her room.63. EXT. THE PELASURE GARDEN - NIGHT 63. Hundreds of lanters illuminate the garden where after dinner drinks are served, cigars lighted and hookah pipes puffed on. Indiana comes out of the pavilion into the garden with Capt. Blumburtt and they talk quietly. CAPT. BLUMBURTT Rather bizarre menu, woundn't you say? INDIANA Even if they were trying to scare us away, a devout Hindu would never touch meat. (looking around) Makes you wonder what these people are... Now, the little Maharajah comes over with his retinue and he reaches for Indy's whip which Short Round is carrying. MAHARAJAH I have seen this thing. What is it, Dr. Jones? SHORT ROUND Hey, nobody touches Indy's whip! Short Round grabs for it, but Indiana restrains him. INDIANA We're guests here, Shorty. The Maharajah glares are Short Round and five the whip to Indy. MAHARAJAH You will show me how it works please. Indy bows to the little prince and smiles ironically -- INDIANA You wish is my command, your Highness. While Short Round watches angrily, Indiana walks across the gar- den and unfurls the whip. Indy sees a servant lighting a candle. Suddenly the whip flies and CRACKS like a pistol shot. The candle disappears! Indiana whirls and CRACKS the whip again, snagging a flower out of a dancing girl's hair. The Maharajah reacts like any kid -- he shoops happily. MAHARAJAH That is wonderful! Please teach me how! Short Round sulks as he listens to Indiana instructing the Maha- rajah on how to hold the whip. As the young prince practises the grip, Indy notices Chattar Lal slip behind a fountain to talk to a dark figure in robes who appears. Indiana sees Chattar Lal bow to the dark figure -- and Indy catches a glimpse of the stranger's pale face and dark hollow eyes. Then the robled apparition seems to disappear. Meanwhile everyone watches respectfully as the Maharajah unfurls the whip for his first attempt. He flings the whip but it flies back and snaps -- biting his own cheek. There's a stunned silence -- then Short Round laughs at the little prince who is holding his wounded cheek. The incensed Ma- rahajah suddenly flashes the whip as Short Round. Short Round grabs the end of it and pulls hard -- the whip is tugged taut between the two hostile boys. As they draw near each other, Short Round sees something weird: The little Maharajah's eyes begin glowing yelloe and he hisses softly in a strange voice. Nobody else sees or hears the bizarre transformation... Indiana finally intercedes -- he grabs Short Round by the neck. INDIANA Okay, Short Round, let go of it. Short Round lets go and Indy gently takes the whip back from the little prince. INDIANA (Cont'd) The Turks say that a whip can be an enemy even to its owner. If you get some rope, it'll be easier to learn with, your Highness. Now, I think we'll say goodnight. The Maharajah and Short Round stare hostiley at each other as Indy recoils his whip. CUT TO:64. INT. A PALACE HALL - NIGHT 64. Short Round walks beside Indiana down the shadowy hall toward their room. Short Round has Indy's whip curled around his shoul- der. The little fellow yawns and shakes his head. SHORT ROUND That little Maharajah think he big stuff. INDIANA You don't like him do you? SHORT ROUND Next time I flatten him! Did you see his eyes? INDIANA No. SHORT ROUND Indy, they glow like fire and get real crazy! Then he talk in this real scary voice! Indy tousles Short Round's hair. INDIANA He was afraid of you. He knows a tough guy when he sees one. SHORT ROUND (not so shure) Yeah, that's what happened... They reach their room and Short Round opens the door. INDIANA I better see how Willie is. Short Round shakes his head scornfully as Indy crosses the hall and knocks on another door. After a moment, the door opens and Willie is standing there in a tempting nightgown. INDIANA I brought you something. He holds up something wrapped in a piece of silk. WILLIE (disgusted) Not leftovers? INDIANA No -- real food. Willie opens the bundle suspiciously -- then her hace lights up as she examines the breads and fruits inside. WILLIE Oh, it is real food...it's beautiful. She bites happily into a piece of fruit -- its juice runs down her chin and Indy wipes it off gently with his hand. The mouth deliberately seductive and Willie is not displeased. WILLIE (Cont'd) You're nice. Listen, I'm taking applications -- how'd you like to be my palace slave? INDIANA (smiling) Wearing your jewels to be, prin- cess? Indy touches her necklace -- then his hand caresses her neck and ear. She shivers slightly and speaks softly. WILLIE Yeah -- and nothing else. (smiling) That shock you? INDIANA (shaking his head) I'm a scientist. I like doing research on certain "nocturnal activities" -- She smiles and puts a grape to his lips. He opens his mouth takes it and chews it. WILLIE You mean like love rituals... He swallows the grape and they move toward each other slowly to kiss, revealing the passion that's simmering. INDIANA And mating customs... They kiss again more heatedly. WILLIE Primitive sexual practices? INDIANA You're taling to an authority in that area. They kiss again hungrily -- WILLIE You're dying to come into my room, aren't you? INDIANA You want me so bad, why don't you invite me? WILLIE Too proud to admit you're crazy about me, Dr. Jones? INDIANA I think you're too used to get- ting you own way, Willie... They kiss yet again -- and Indy breaks it off, just to show he's still in control. He backs away toward his room. WILLIE (watching him) We'll see who gives in first -- I'll leave my door open. INDIANA Don't catch cold. WILLIE Dr. Jones -- ? Indy stops by his door and sees Willie smiling as she holds up five fingers -- WILLIE (Cont'd) Five minutes... you'll be back over here in five minutes... INDIANA You're dreaming, Willie. You want to make it real, just knock on my door. He winks. She waves. But neither one will surrender first. Willie does into her room, leaving the door ajar. Indy opens his door.65. INT. INDIANA'S SUITE 65. Indy comes in and closes the door -- leaving it open a crack. He stands and listens, waiting for her to come over.66. INT. WILLIE'S SUITE 66. Willie stands likewise by her door, waiting to hear Indy come back over.67. INT. INDIANA'S SUITE 67. Indiana shrugs and walks over to a couch and starts taking off his tweed jacket and necktie -- INDIANA Five minutes... fat chance.68. INT. WILLIE SUIT 68. Willie moves around her lavish suite, turning down lights, creating a romantic effect, checking herself in a mirror -- WILLIE (confidently) Five minutes, Dr. Jones...69. INT. INDIANA'S SUITE 69. Indy undresses in the magnificently decorated room: wall paint- ings show palace scenes and landscapes; life-size figures dance and there are full-scale portraits or Rajput princes and prancing horses. But Indy's more concerned with lust than with art. INDIANA (muttering) ...want me to be her palace slave! He picks up his whip and smiles, considering using it on her. Then he just grubles and tosses the bullwhip onto the couch.70. INT. WILLIE'S SUITE 70. Lying in bed in a seductive pose, Willie waits for Indy to show up and she starts to look worried. She grabs a clock and shakes it to see if it's working. She taps her fingers irritably won- dering in her charm has failed...71. INT. INDIANA'S SUITE 71. We see another clock ticking. Looking annoyed, Indy tosses a boot at it and the clock falls on its face, setting of the alarm. On the chaise lounge in front of Indy's bed, Short Round moves groggily and sees Indy turning off the alarm. SHORT ROUND (half asleep) Get to sleep Indy -- I stay up and keep eye on things... INDIANA Okay, Shorty ... see you in the morning...I'm going to have a little -- word with Willie. Indy finally shakes his head and gives in to his animal instincts. He buttons his shirt, puts his boots back on and grabs his leather jacket. As he puts on his jacket he walks past the life-sized paintings of armed gaurds standing in silent vigil. Suddenly we see something frightening behind him: one of the wall paintings sees to come to life! A large figure in robes and a turban looms out from the wall and lifts a silk cord -- the figure wraps the cord suddenly around Indiana's neck! The huge assassin stands behind Indy, twisting the cord even tighter around his neck. As Indy attempts to break free he sees the assassin's face is a mirror -- and a strange yellow light glowing in the killer's eyes.72. INT. WILLIE'S SUITE 72. Willie's finally had enough waiting and she gets out of beg petu- lantly. WILLIE He's not coming...I can't be- lieve it... She walks across the room and opens the door. She looks out the empty hall -- and her resolve starts to weaken -- WILLIE (Cont'd) Well... (bracing herself) No! I'm not going over there... She comes back into her room and kicks the door closed. WILLIE (Cont'd) Sleep tight, Dr. Jones! (suddenly melancholy) I could've been your greatest ad- venture...73. INT. INDIANA'S SUITE 73. Indy shoves the assassin backwards, ramming the big man into the wall. The assassin maintains his deathgrip -- while on the chaise, Short Round sleeps through it all! Gasping futilely for air, Indy sinks slowly to his knees - his eyes bulge and he stares at the tiny, smiling skulls at the ends of the death-cord wrapped around the assassin's fists. Indiana sinks lower and then feels something -- desperately he grabs a brass pot on the floor by the handle and swings it with his last strength, smashing it up into the assassin's head with a skull-crushing clang! The assassin is stunned and Indiana curls forward pulling him into a somersault and sening him flying over his back. The ass- assin crashes on his sping next to the chaise. Short Round still doesn't wake up. Indiana rips the cord from around his neck and gasps for breath. He sees the assassin pulling a knife. Indiana dives as the knife flies through the air and slams into the wall. Indiana grabs his whip, rolls and lands on his feet. As the ass- assin tries to retreat, Indy unleashes his whip -- it CRACKS and wraps around the killer's neck. The big man struggles, pulling on the whip, trying to release it from his throat -- and Indiana holds fast, watching the killer gasping for air now as his face turns red. Suddenly the assassin does a full-blown backward sommersault which rips the whip out of Indy's hand. The assassin has an in- stant to grin victoriously -- Until he sees that the whip handle is arching toward the ceiling where is gets caught on the revolving fan! The surprised assass- in it tugged upwards -- and the whip twists around the ceiling fan like fishing-line around a fishing-reel-- And like a doomed flounder, the assassin is slowly reeled up and dragged toward the ceiling, his toes lifting off the floor. The assassin screams as he is hanged! His legs twitch in his death throes -- and below him, Short Round finally wakes up. Always Indiana's protector, Shorty instictively leaps off the couch and draws a small dagger -- SHORT ROUND Don't worry, Indy! Where are they?! Short Round spins a 360 , then looks up and does a double-take seeing the dead assassin twisting slowly around the ceiling fan. Indy takes Short Rund by the shoulders and turns him away from the grisly sight. INDIANA It's okay, it's over -- go turn off the fan. Short goes over and turns off the fan -- the assassin's body drops and Indy recoils his whip. Suddenly they hear a hideous scream -- Willie!74. INT. WILLIE'S SUITE 74. In a tight close-up: Willie screams again. She's lying in bed looking down at something -- Moving up her shapely leg, a green and black, monstrous-looking insect crawls onto her stomach and Willie stops breather. Immo- bilized by fear, Willie watches in silent agony as the hideous insect climbs slowly up her breast and slithers toward her neck. Across the suite, the doors burst open and Indiana rushes in. Shorty is behind him, carrying Indy's whip. Indiana leaps on a stools and slides up to the bed to save WIllie -- Then he spots the giant insect crawling on her and decides to have some fun. INDIANA This a cheap trick to get me over here? Willie speaks with desperate, fearful precision -- WILLIE No -- don't you see -- crawling -- INDIANA What -- the bug? Willie is petrified and shaking. WILLIE Get -- the -- bug -- off! INDIANA Gee, I wouldn't want to touch an ugly critter like that! SHORT ROUND (grinning) Uh uh -- me neither! Willie looks at the man-of-action like he's insane. Then she feels the bug crawling onto her cheek -- WILLIE Oh no -- oh no!! INDIANA (studying the bug) You know, Willie, I'll bet he's mad because they were eating his friends for dinner. WILLIE Please -- oh please, I'm going to die! Get it off! Indiana shrugs and leans over and casually swats the horrible bug off her face. He and Short Round watch the insect skid across the floor -- and suddenly disappear as if by magic! Puzzled, they wander toward the wall, leaving Willie behind, bathed in sweat, staring at the ceiling -- WILLIE What did I do to deserve this trip?! Kneeling by the wall, Short Round examines the baseboard -- SHORT ROUND It went under. Hey, I feel wind, Indy. Indiana knocks on the wall and considers the hollow sound. He moves back and looks at the whole wall. Behind him, Willie moves past -- WILLIE I'm packing! I'm getting out of here right now tonight! She dashes behind a screen to start getting dressed. Meanwhile Indy feels the marble walls. He moves to a niche in which there is a small statue of Ganesha, the friendly elephant god. Indiana lifts the statue -- and a panel in the wall opens slow- ly. Short Round looks amazed. Indy watches the light fall across the far wall of a tunnel as the door opens slowly. Indy peers into the tunnel at an old wall painting. Spiderly San- skrit calligraphy runs under a flanking illustration of a prince bowing before a god. INDIANA *(He reads aloud an inscription in Sanskrit). SHORT ROUND What does it mean, Indy? INDIANA (translating) "Follow in the footsteps of Shiva. Do not betray his truth." Indy takes out the piece of cloth the boy gave him in Mayapore, the similarities are striking. It is also a picture of Shiva Sankara. INDIANA *(He repeats aloud the inscrip- tion also written on the cloth) Over behind the screen, Willie's getting into some silk pants with an Indian-style brocade bodice top -- WILLIE I don't care if I have to walk to Delhi, I'm -- hey! She notices Indy and Short Round bending to enter the dark tunnel behind the wall. WILLIE (Cont'd) Wait a minute! What're you -- where're you going?! Indy pokes his head back into the room -- INDIANA Lock your door and don't leave until we get back. He disappears behind the wall and Willie looks worried.75. INT. A PALACE TUNNEL - NIGHT 75. Indy and Short Round enter the secret passage and move forward slowly into the inky darkness. SHORT ROUND I don't think we suppose to be in here, Indy... They creep slowly down the dark tunnel. It grows smaller and Indy ducks his head. SHORT ROUND (Cont'd) I step on something. Their footsteps crunch on the tunnel floor. INDIANA You're right, there's something all over the floor... Even Short Round has to duck and Indy finally kneels to his hands and knees. INDIANA (Cont'd) We'll have to crawl. As they crawl, their hands and knees continue to crunch on what- ever it is littering the ground. SHORT ROUND Indy, the floor -- there is some- thing alive! Indiana gets a match out of his pocket. He snaps it with his thumb and the match flares -- a hideous insectarium: a living collection of the world's ugliest antropods, hexapods and arch- nids. SHORT ROUND Holy smoke -- I'm scared, Indy! Indiana turns and sees something else -- INDIANA There's a chamber here. Come on -- Indy finds an oil lamp on the wall and lights it. Short Round happily scampers into the chamber and Indy follows him. Suddenly the door slides shut -- trapping them inside!76. INT. THE CHAMBER 76. Indiana lights a match and finds another oil lamp. He and Short Round look for a way to open the door that closed behind them, but they have no luck. INDIANA Damn! Then they hear Willie's voice echoing down the short tunnel. WILLIE (O.S.) Hey -- where are you?!77. INT. WILLIE'S SUITE 77. Back in the suite, Willie stands by the entrance to the secret passage, peering into the dark tunnel -- WILLIE (Cont'd) Indiana Jones?! Are you in there?!78. INT. THE CHAMBER 78. Indy mutters irritably to himself -- INDIANA Yes, we're in here... He looks everywhere for something to open the door. Short Round spots a loose brick and moves it -- SHORT ROUND Indy, I found a -- Suddenly they hear a rumble and Indy turns to see the opposite wall moving -- the spikes start appearing! Their lethal points protrude from the wall as it starts closing in toward Indy and Short Round. SHORT ROUND (Cont'd) Indy -- ! Shorty points up and Indiana sees more spikes descending from the ceiling! Indy turns toward the door and shouts -- INDIANA Uh -- Willie?! (louder) Willie, you better get down here!79. INT. WILLIE'S SUITE 79. Willie listens and looks scared -- WILLIE (shouting back) What?! INDIANA (O.S.) Willie, come here! Hurry up, we're in trouble!! SHORT ROUND (O.S.) Willie, help!! Willie is frightened, confused and jumping around --80. INT. THE SPIKE CHAMBER 80. The deadly spikes inch slowly toward them from the wall and ceil- ing. They start pounding on the door and shout -- INDIANA Willie, damn it! Get down here, NOW81. INT. WILLIE'S SUITE 81. Willie finds the courage to finally whimper and step into the dark passage -- WILLIE Oh hell -- I bet I get all dirty again!82. INT. THE TUNNEL 82. Willie starts down the dark tunnel toward the chamber. INDIANA (O.S.) WILLIE?! WILLIE I'm coming, what's the rush?! Ohh! What's that?! There's stuff all over the floor! I can't see a thing!83. INT. THE SPIKE CHAMBER 83. They hear her coming and Indy watches nervously as the spikes draw even closer -- INDIANA Move, Willie! Faster!84. INT. THE TUNNEL 84. Willie crawls and crunches on the littered floor -- WILLIE It's all wet and icky! Aaahh -- things are moving!! She sees the low lamp by the door to the chamber. SHORT ROUND (O.S.) Please, Willie! She grabs the lamp and turns it up so it burns brighter. She looks around -- and SCREAMS!! She sees the sickening, swarming mass of glistening insects crawling toward her, attracted by the light -- WILLIE (hysterical) There's bugs! Bugs all over! Help! Help me! INDIANA (O.S.) Willie, open the door! GET US OUT OF HERE! Willie pounds on the door -- WILLIE OPEN THE DOOR! LET ME IN!!85. INT. THE SPIKE ROOM 85. The spikes close in -- INDIANA GET US OUT! Willie, shut up and listen! There's got to be a ful- crum release! Look around! WILLIE (O.S.) A what?!86. INT. THE TUNNEL 86. Willie whines and frantically searches the wall. Insects are crawling and jumping on her and she kicks at them! INDIANA (O.S.) A fulcrum release lever! WILLIE I can't find any lever! Help me Indy!87. INT. THE SPIKE CHAMBER 87. Indiana and Short Round are backed against the wall and the spikes are a foot away and moving in -- INDIANA Look around, Willie! There's got to be a liever hidden somewhere! Come on, you can do it!88. INT. THE TUNNEL 88. Insects drop onto Willie from the ceiling and fly at her as she flattens against the wall. Then her elbow hits something -- a loose stone. She claws at it and it falls out of the wall leaving a hole. WILLIE There's a hole! I found a square hole! INDIANA (O.S.) That's it -- the release lever -- look inside! WILLIE I am -- it looks horrible! The hole is revolting : covered with squirming insects, it also oozes some kind of glistening mucus. INDIANA (O.S.) Reach inside! Willie moves her hand toward the nauseating hole then pulls back. WILLIE I can't, Indy! I can't!89. INT. THE SPIKE TUNNEL 89. Indiana turns his head sideways and sucks in his breath, but the deadly spikes are poking into his leater jacket now -- INDIANA The lever! Willie, do it! NOW!90. INT. THE TUNNEL 90. Willie screams and jams her hand into the gross hole -- WILLIE Oh God, it's soft -- it's moving! INDIANA (O.S.) Willie!91. INT. THE SPIKE CHAMBER 91. Short Round is frightened to death and crying -- SHORT ROUND Willie, help us! Hurry!92. INT. THE TUNNEL 92. She hears Short Round crying and twists her hand in the disgust- ing hole. Suddenly the door springs open! Willie pulls her hand out and stares in horror -- her hand and arm are covered with greenish slimey mung!93. INT. THE SPIKE CHAMBER 93. The spikes suddenly retract, disappearing into the wall and clos- ing. Indy pulls Willie inside the chamber and the door slams shut again. Willie dances around, yelling about the hideous slime on her arm. WILLIE Get is off me -- get it off! Indy helps her wipe it off. Willie falls back against the door. WILLIE (Cont'd) You left me out there! What in the hell were you doing in here?! I want to leave this place right now!! She sees the same lever that Short Round pulled earlier and grabs for it. Indiana dives and manages to stop her from activating the spikes agian. INDIANA Not that one! We had enought of that one, thank you... He looks around and spots a small rock protruding from the wall. Cautiously, praying htat it won't activate another booby trap, Indy pushes the rock. A large door opens on the other side of the chamber -- a soft wind howls past outside the chamber.94. INT. THE WIND TUNNEL 94. Indiana, Short Round and Willie exit the spike chamber and head down a larger tunnel through which a roaring wind intermittantly blows, howling eerily like a note of gloomy music. Indiana follows a curve in the tunnel and they see light approaching. The wind holws another dramatic note which gales past them as they reach the mouth of the tunnel. Indiana is joined by Willie and Short Round. They all stop in astonishment at the sight below them:95. INT. THE TEMPLE OF DEATH 95. As the camera pulls back, the mouth of the wind tunnel in which they are standing becomes just a small hole overlooking the stag- gering vastness of the incredible TEMPLE OF DEATH. The colossal subterranean temple has been carved out of a solid mass of rock. A vaulting cathedral-like ceiling is supported by rows of carved stone columns. Balconies overlook the temple floor. Pillared halls leading to dark side chambers. Moving out of these chambers, hundreds of faithful worshippers chant as they enter the temple. Mammoth stone statues of elephants, lions and demi-gods (half/man, half/animal monstrosities) loom above the swelling crowds or wor- shippers. As the wind howls out of the tunnel high above the temple, the worshippers chant in response to the strange tunnel music.96. INT. THE TUNNEL 96. The moaning wind rushes past Indiana, Willie and Short Round as they watch the mystery cult below bowing toward an enormous altar at the far end of the temple. This altar is a platform jutting out from the stone wall of the cavern. Separating the worshippers from this altar is a wide crevasse out of which wisps of smoke rise occasionally.97. INT. THE ALTAR 97. On the other side of the crevasse, evil-looking priests materialize out of clouds of swirling smoke. The priests carry smoke-billowing urns to a giant stone statue. Now, we see the hideous protectress of the temple, the obscenely malevolent ombect of the cult's devotion: the bloodthirsty god- dess KALI! The red-eyed priests bow at the base of the statue and gaze reverently at their KALI MA. Skulls surround her stone feet carved serpents twist up her legs, while around her waist there is a guresome belt of human hands. Naked to the hips, Kali's hair falls about her four arms. In her hand, she holds a sword, in the second the severed head of a giant.With her other hands she encourages her worshipers, who are chanting louder and louder! Kali's face is loathsome: her earrings are two corpses. Her evil tongue extends out of her twisted mouth and what looks like read blood flows over her long fangs and down her naked breasts.98. INT. THE WIND TUNNEL 98. Watching from the high opening, Willie looks disgusted. WILLIE What is it...? INDIANA It's a Thuggee ceremony. They're whorshipping Kali, the goddess of Death and Destruction.99. INT. THE TEMPLE OF DEATH 99. A huge drum sounds three times and the chanting stops. The silence is chilling as another robed figure appears out of the some on the altar. This is MOLA RAM, the High Priest of the Thugge cult. Mola Ram's red-rimmed eyes glare from the sunken sockets in his sinister face. Here is a man who looks as vile and diabolic as the unholy goddess rising behind him. Up in the wind tunnel, Indy stares down at the High Priest and realizes that is was Mola Ram he saw conferring with Chattar Lal in the palace garden. As the drum booms three times more, Mola Ram lifts one arm up from his emaciated body and suddenly there is a scream! All heads turn toward an unfortunate, struggling Indian begin dragged out by priests. The man's face and body are wildly painted. He screams again as he's tied onto a square iron frame laying atop a large flat stone. Mola Ram steps forward to the stretched-out victim and the Indian looks up into the High Priest's grotesque face -- Suddenly Mola Ram's hand shoots out toward the man's chest -- and pierces it! The High Priests hand sinks into the victim's writing body and rips out his living heart!100. INT. THE WIND TUNNEL 100. Willie covers her mouth -- WILLIE Oh my God! He ripped out his -- he killed him! INDIANA No...the heart's still beating!101. INT. THE ALTAR 101. Indeed, the bloody heart is still beating in Mola Ram's hand! He lifts the heart into the air and the worhippers begin the chant. THE MULTITUDE Jai ma Kali, jai ma Kali! Stranger still, the sacrificial victim is still alive -- there is no evidence of a gash on his chest, only a reddish mark The priests add chains to the iron frame and carry the victim over toward a hoist hanging over the crevasse. The man thrashes about helplessly on the iron frame as it is up ended and then lowered with the victim hanging face down -- As the sacrificial victim looks down into the crevasse below -- he screams -- and we see the molten lava bubbling crimson at the bottom of the chasm!102. INT. THE WIND TUNNEL 102. Willie closes her eyes but Indy and Short Round watch horrified as the iron frame is lowered -- and the bloody heart continues to beat in Mola Ram's hand -- and the molten lava burns and flickers as the screaming victim is lowered deeper into the crevasse.103. INT. THE TEMPLE 103. The weird paint on the victim's face starts to smoke and sizzle -- the man's skin blisters as he's lowered within feet of the lava. His flesh smokes and he screams one last time as his body bursts into flame. The iron frame sinks and submerges into the boiling fiery lava.104. INT. THE ALTAR 104. Above the crevasse, Mola Ram continues to hold the heart in his hand -- the heart is smoking and bursts into flames - and disappears!105. INT. THE TEMPLE 105. The iron frame is raised out of the lava -- the metal glows like a branding iron, but there is no trace of the sacrificed victim.106. INT. THE WIND TUNNEL 106. As the wind howls again, Willie and Short Round look sickened and appalled by the ceremony. Even Indy seems shaken by what they are witnessing. THE MULTITUDE Jai ma Kali, jai ma Kali!107. INT. THE ALTAR 107. Moal Ram raises both hands and his voice echoes strange incanta- tions. Behind him, three priests carry cloth-wrapped objects to- ward the altar.108. INT. THE WIND TUNNEL 108. Willie is crying and her voice is shoking as she turns awa from the hideous ritual -- WILLIE Let's go! Let's get out of here! INDIANA Quiet!109. INT. THE ALTAR 109. The priests reverently unwrap three conical pieces of crystallized quartz. The place the three stones below the sta- tue of Kali and slowly the smoke around the altar swirls -- The smoke is drawn to the three stones and they actually start in- haling the piraling smoke. The smoke disappears into the stones and the air clears. Then the three stones start to glow a haunting incandescent white.110. INT. THE WIND TUNNEL 110. Short Round looks scared. Willie is still crying -- Indy waits, horrified but fascinated. INDIANA The village knew their rock was magic -- but they didn't know it was one of the lost Sankara Stones... SHORT ROUND Why they glow like that? INDIANA Legend says that when the stones are brought together the diamonds inside of them will glow. Willie wipes her eyes and becomes more interested -- WILLIE Diamonds...?111. INT. THE ALTAR 111. The Sankara Stones shimmer brightly, and inside the crystallized quartz, the enormous sparkling diamonds of legend are now re- vealed. Mola Ram stands facing Kali with his arms outstretched and kneels and bows and then walks off the altar and disappears.112. INT. THE WIND TUNNEL 112. Indiana sees the woshippers below start to leave the temple. He looks at Willie and Short Round. INDIANA Okay -- now listen -- you wait here and keep quiet. Shorty, keep an eye on her. Short Round nods and hands Indy his bullwhip and shoulder bag. Willie sees Indiana peering down at the sheer drop below the mouth of the wind tunnel. WILLIE Wait -- what're you doing? INDIANA I'm going down. WILLIE Down? Down there?! Are you crazy --! INDIANA I'm not leaving without those stones. WILLIE You're gonna get killed chasing after your damn fortune and glory! INDIANA (looking at her) Maybe...someday. (smiling) Not today. SHORT ROUND I keep my eye peeled, Indy. Indiana nods and looks down at the now empty temple. Then he slips down from the mouth of the wind tunnel.113. INT. THE TEMPLE WALL 113. Indiana skillfully clumbs down an enormous tmeple column -- find- ing footholds on stone cobras, carved lions and the stone breasts of dancing girls. Slowly, he makes his way down and swings across a balcony.114. INT. THE BALCONY 114. Indiana walks quietly along the balcony overlooking the temple. He stops -- between him and the altar is the crevasse with the lava bubbling fire at the bottom. Indiana looks across the gulf and sees another column near the altar at the top of which stone elephants are perched. Indy curls his whip and suddenly lets it fly -- The whip cracks and its end wraps tightly around the tusk of one of the stone elephants. From the balcony, Indy tugs the whip taut, takes a breath and runs --115. INT. THE CREVASSE 115. Indiana leaps and swings out on the whip, arching down and up, over the chasm of fiery lava in a spectacular curving jump!116. INT. THE LATAR 116. Indy lands on his feet and turns to release the whip. Short Round waves to Indy that the coast is clear. Indy snaps the whip -- it releases from the elephant tusk and drops. Recurling the whip, Indy attaches it to his belt and moves to- ward the towering statue of Kali. The three Sankara stones start to glow and Indiana approaches them cautiously. Reaching the stones, Indy's face is lighted by them. He notices that one of them (sthe stone from Mayapore village) has strange lines painted across it. Suspiciously, Indy touches the stone, but it doesn't burn. He lifts it carefully and peers into it. The enormous diamond sparkles inside. He places the stone in his shoulder bag and reaches for the others.117. INT. THE WIND TUNNEL 117. Short Round and Willie watch apprehensively as Indiana bags the three stones.118. INT. THE ALTAR 118. Indiana backs away and looks up at the horrific statue of Kali. It seems to be watching him. He turns and is about to go when he hears something -- It sounds like a voice and Indy is afraid to turn -- could it be Kali? The he hears other noises echoing and turns slowly. Real- alizing the sounds are coming from behind the altar, Indy moves around it toward the back.119. INT. THE WIND TUNNEL 119. Short Round and Willie are mystified as they see Indiana dissap- pear behind the altar. WILLIE Oh hell, where's he going? Short Round looks worried. Then the wind rushes past them quickly and howls its somber musical note. However, the wind sounds dif- ferent this time, its tone quavering slightly. Short Round is puzzled and looks around. He feeezes when he sees two shadowy figures coming down the tunnel toward them -- the bodies causing the tone of the wind to shift eerily -- Willie notices Short Round pulling a dagger from his belt - WILLIE What're you -- ? Suddenly she turns and screams as two huge Thuggee guards rush at them! One grabs at Short Round but the kid slashes the guard's hand with his dagger. Willie tries to get past the other guard, but he snatches her by the arm and pulls her toward him -- from her training at the Col- lege of Hard Knocks, Willie successfully knees the big man in the balls. WILLIE (Cont'd) Keep your paws off, letch! The man groans and sinks to his knees. Willie sees that Short Round is in trouble. She runs over, leaps onto the back of the other guard and starts ripping his hair out. Short Round picks up his fallen dagger. The big guard lurches backwards and smashes Willie into the rocky wall of the tunnel. Willie falls to the floor. Short Round approaches, holding the man at bay with his dagger. Willie turns as the other guard, the one she kneed, crawls toward her -- Willie scoops up some dirt and throws it. The man claws at his eyes and Willie jumps up. SHORT ROUND Run Willie! Willie starts to run and Short Round backs away, keeping the guard at a distance with his dagger. Suddenly the guard cries out in Hindi and dives at Short Round. Panicking, Shorty tries to run after Willie -- but he's tripped. The guard has Short Round by the foot and drags him back. Willie looks around and stops running. She sees Short Round is caught. SHORT ROUND (Cont'd) No! Run! Go get help! Willie hesitates, then runs down the tunnel. Meanwhile, a mam- moth hand clutches Short Round's throat -- the giant guard lifts Shorty completely off the ground and the kid looks terrified and helpless as he dangles in the air...120. INT. CHAMBER BEHIND ALTAR 120. Indiana enters the dark chamber behind the altar. The only il- lumination is the back-light streaming around the silhouetted statue of Kali. Indy slowly crosses a narrow stone bridge and moves toward a cy- lindrical shaft of light rising up from what appears to be an enormous hole. Indy hears voices and the clink of metal against rock as he con- tinues forward. The ground is dark in front of the large hole. He edges toward the precipice and the light rising up illuminates the look of shock on his face as he peers down into Hell...121. INT. THE THUGGEE MINES 121. Indy looks into a deep pit around which concentric paths leads off into numerous narrow tunnels. Crawling out of these burrows, scrawny children drag sacks of dirt and rock. Other hollow-eyed children pull these sacks to mine cars waiting on rails. Straining to lift the rocks into the mine cars, several of the children slip and fall. Bare-chested Thuggee guards shout at the enslaves children and kick those who've fallen. For these children there would seem to be only one hope -- death -- an end to their travail. Indiana edges around the hole, looking into the ghastly mine and feeling as if he's discovered an inferno of misery as grotesque as Dante's. Indy shifts the bag of stones on his shoulder. He hesitates and considers his choice: he has the Sankara Stones and can leave with them now... But Indy hears the pleading cries of one child and peers down to see a burly Thuggee guard beating the pitiful little slave. Indy gets angrier and angrier as he watches. He finally steps over the grabs a boulder. He lifts it and flings it down into the mine --122. INT. THE MINE 122. We see Indiana above and the boulder hurtling down -- it crashes onto the head of the Thuggee guard who hits the ground like a sack of cement!12. INT. THE CHAMBER 123. Indy sees the startled slave children looking up at him in shock. He smiles victoriously at the Thuggees below who've run over to see what happened. Indy's smile seems to fade as his anger turns to surprise as he feels something unnerving: Dirt is crumbling away from the rim of the hole, a small landslide starting beneath his feet. Suddenly the floor gives way and Indy slips! The entire rim of the hole shears off and Indy topples with it and plunges down into the mine toward the assembled guards who scatter -- Indy yells as he falls and it echoes... CUT TO:124. INT. A CELL - NIGHT 124. Indiana's yell continues to echo -- his head jerks suddenly -- Indy jolts awake as if coming out of a nightmare, awakened by his own reverberating shout. Indy is lying on the rocky floor of a dark cave/cell. He lifts his hands and discovers that they are chained. In the murky light, he sees Short Round sitting in chains across the cell. SHORT ROUND Indy -- you knocked out when you fall. You okay? Indiana nods groggily. He sees a young slave worker in rags sit- ting near Short Round. Through the iron bars of the cell, Indy sees the children slaving in the mine tunnels. SHORT ROUND (indicating the kid) This is Nainsukh -- from the vil- lage. They bring him here to dig in the mines. INDIANA Why? NAINSUKH Children are small -- we can work in tunnels. Now I am too old. SHORT ROUND What they do to you now? NAINSUKH I pray to Shiva -- let me die. But I do not. Now -- now the evil of Kali take me. SHORT ROUND How? NAINSUKH They will make me drink blood of Kali. Then I fall into black sleep of Kali Ma... INDIANA What is that? NAINSUKH I become like them. I be alive -- nut like in nightmare. You drink the blood, you not wake up from nightmare of Kali Ma. There's a noise and they see two guards and a priest outside the cell. Nainsukh cowers in the darkness at the back of the cell, like a trapped animal awaiting the inevitable. CUT TO:125. INT. A MINE TUNNEL - NIGHT 125. Indiana and Short Round are pushed down a tunnel by guards. They are stopped at a door and shoved inside.126. INT. MOLA RAM'S CHAMBER 126. Indiana and Short Round stumble into the chamber. It is a terri- fying gallery of occult yantras, ritualistic statues and grisly icons of the evil Thuggee sect. Grotesque statues of Kali's baleful minions line the walls. In a corner, there is another statue of Kali herself, draped with flowers, necklaces of real human skills and slithering belts of live snakes. Fresh blood has been splashed over the statue and at its base are the three Sankara Stones recovered from Indiana. Mola Ram sits in a yoga position near the statue of Kali. Mola Ram opens his eyes and he sees Indiana and Short Round standing in chains before him. MOLA RAM You were caught trying to steal the Sankara Stones. INDIANA (shrugging) Nobody's perfect. The way I heard it, you stole one of them from a small village. Mola Ram stands and gazes transfixed at the stones glowing on the altar. MOLA RAM There were five stones in the beginning. Over the centuries they were dispersed by wars, sold off by thieves like you... INDIANA Two are still missing. MOLA RAM No. They are here -- somewhere. A century ago when the British raided this temple and butchered my people, a loyal priest his the last two stones down here in the catacombs. INDIANA That's what you've got these chil- dren -- these slaves digging for? MOLA RAM They dig for the gems to support our cause. They also search for the last two stones. Soon we will have all five Sankara Stones and the Thuggees will be all powerful! INDIANA Nobody can say you don't have a vivid imagination. MOLA RAM You do not believe me? You will, Dr. Jones. You will become a true believer. The door opens and Mola Ram bows slightly as the little Maharajah enters. Indy looks surprised and Short Round tenses. MOLA RAM (Cont'd) Your Highness will witness the thief's conversion. Mola Ram nods and two guards grab Indy. They drag him struggling to a rock and chain him to it. Short Round scuffles as he's pulled aside to watch. Remembering the High Priest's earlier open-heart surgery, Indi- ana looks worried as Mola Ram approaches him -- MAHARAJAH You will not suffer. I recently became of age and tasted the blood of Kali. Now the young initiate comes forward and Indiana looks startled -- it's Nainsukh. He is wearing robes and his eyes are glowing strangely. Nainsukh hands Mola Ram a hollow human skull full of blood! The guards hold Indiana's head back and force his mouth open. Mola Ram tips the skull and blood spills out of its death- grinning jaws and flows into Indiana's mouth. Indy gags -- Suddenly he spits the blood, spraying Mola Ram and the little Maharajah. Looking at his blood-splattered clothes, the Mahara- jah is furious. MOLA RAM Hold him! The little prince's eyes glow angrily and he hisses at Indy -- MAHARAJAH You will learn to obey because you are powerless! The little Maharajah pulls a small krtya from his robes -- Indy sees that the doll has been crudely fashioned to resemble him. MAHARAJAH (Cont'd) I control you now! The Maharajah turns and sticks the doll into a flaming urn. In- diana suddenly cries out and twists in pain as he is burned! The little prince smiles evilly and puts the doll back into his robes. Then he goes over to where Indy's whip and bag have been laid. He grabs the bullwhip. MAHARAJAH (Cont'd) You told me that a whip could be an enemy to its owner. We shall see! Turn him over! As the guards turn Indy face down, they rip off his jacket and chain his ahnds to the rock. The Maharajah uncurls the whip -- he notices Short Round smiling snidely -- Suddenly the Maharajah cracks the whip -- it lashes out and cuts into Short Round's shoulder. Blood appears and Short Round looks stunned by the lash and by the fact the Marahajah knows who to use the whip. MAHARAJAH (Cont'd) As Dr. Jones suggested, I have been practicing. The little Maharajah whirls and lashes the whip again. Indiana jerks as the bullwhip rips through his shirt and tears open his flesh. The Maharajah lashes again and again -- blood spurts across Indy's tattered shirt. As the whipping continues- Short Round jumps as if he is also be- ing beaten. His eyes fill with tears as he watches Indy suffer. Finally, the little Maharajah lets the whip fall limp. As the Maharajah approaches Indy, Short Round lunges as him angrily but the guards restrain him. Indiana groans as he's turned over. Blood trickles from his mouth and he stares up hatefully at Mola Ram. MOLA RAM The British in India will be slaughtered. Then we will over- run the Moslems and force their "Allah" to bow to Kali. Mola Ram is once again given the human skull by a priest and he lifts it toward Indy's face -- MOLA RAM (Cont'd) And then the Hebrew God will fall and finally the Christian God will be cast down and forgotten. Indy's head is held back and Mola Ram spills the blood -- it flows out of the mouth of the skull into Indy's mouth. MOLA RAM (Cont'd) Soon Kali Ma will rule the world! Indy's eyes look horrified as the blood flows from the skull down his choking throat -- some of the blood spills and falls to the floor -- We see the very earth trembling as the evil spreads -- a fissure appears beneath Indy's feet and a small line of crimson lava oozes out and smiles evilly across the floor... CUT TO:127. INT. WILLIE'S SUITE - NIGHT 127. Diaphanous curtains billow silently into the moonlighted room. Two exotic birds sit on a golden perch, their eyes clicking watchfully. Suddenly the brids shriek and flap away -- Willie stumbles through the secret door and falls into the room. Insects cover her and she shimpers as she knocks them off. She manages to stagger to her feet and she heads for the door.128. INT. THE PALACE - NIGHT 128. Willie rushes out of her room and runs through the deserted pal- ace looking for help. She flies down the moonlit corridors, past the huge wall paintings. She stops by a courtyard and calls out desperately, but there is no one around. She backs away down a hallway and then jumps -- seeing something in a mirror: a face looms behind her and she screams! Willie whirls and sees Chattar Lal, the Prime Minister, approach- ing her. WILLIE Oh my God, you scared me! Listen, you've got to help. We found this tunnel -- Captain Blumburtt comes around a corner and interrupts -- CAPT. BLUMBURTT (to Chattar Lal) Jones isn't in his room. Miss Scott -- my troops are leaving at dawn if you want us to escort you to Delhi -- WILLIE No -- you can't go! Something aw- ful's happened. They've got Short Round and I think Indy's been -- CAPT. BLUMBURTT What? WILLIE We found a tennel that leads to a temple below the palace! Please, come with me, I'll show you! The two men exchange dubious looks. Willie grabs Blumburtt by the arm and they start down the hall. CHATTAR LAL Miss Scott, you're not making any sense. WILLIE I'm afraid they'll kill them! We saw horrible things down there -- they had a human sacrifice and they ripped a man's heart out! CAPT. BLUMBURTT Who? WILLIE It's some kind of cult! And they've got the sacred stones that Indy was searching for. CHATTAR LAL I sense the fumes of opium in all this. Prehaps Miss Scott picked up the habit in Shanghai. WILLIE What're you talking about -- I'm not a dope fiend! I saw it! I'll show you!129. INT. WILLIE'S SUITE 129. She leads them into her suite. Willie points to the dark opening in the wall. Blumburtt picks up an oil lamp and holds it toward the opening -- suddenly he jumps back as Indiana emerges! INDIANA (smiling faintly) What're we playing, hid and seek? They're all startled. Willie looks relieved and rushes over to Indy and puts her arms around him. WILLIE Oh, Indy, you got away! Tell them what happened, they won't believe me -- He puts his arms around her and feels her trembling from fear and anger. He walks her to the bed and helps her sit down -- INDIANA It's okay. You're all right now. WILLIE They think I'm insane. Tell them I'm not, Indy. Please -- help me ... The awful events have taken their toll and Willie covers her face and cries like a scared kid. Indy gets her to lie down on the bed. He sits beside her and smiles and touches her hair -- INDIANA Hey, I thought you were supposed to be a real tropper. Willie? He wipes the tears from her face and she holds his hand -- WILLIE (quietly) What? INDIANA You've got to go to sleep now. WILLIE (softly) I want to go home... INDIANA I don't blame you... this hasn't been what you'd call a fun vaca- tion... She smiles a little despite herself and he touches her cheek. He eyes are already closing and he stands up. A servant is entering the suite to take care of Willie. She cov- sers her with a blanket and start dropping the mosquito netting as Indy walks off toward the verandah with Blumburtt and Chattar Lal.130. EXT. THE VERANDAH - DAWN 130. The first light is breaking over the mountain peaks. Coming out onto the verandah, Indy and the other two men see the cavalry troops breaking camp below and readying their horses and trucks. INDIANA I've spent by life crawling around in caves and tunnels -- I shouldn't have let somebody like Willie go in there with me. CAPT. BLUMBURTT Miss Scott panicked? INDIANA When she saw the insects she passed out cold. I carried her back to her room. She was sleeping when I re-entered the tunnel to look around. CHATTAR LAL As she slept, she undoubtedly had nightmares. Indiana looks at him and nods. INDIANA Then she must have run out of the room and you found her. CAPT. BLUMBURTT Did you discover anything in that tunnel, Dr. Jones? Indiana stares into the rising sun. INDIANA Nothing. Just a dead end. That tunnel's been deserted for years. A sergeant-major shouts up to Blumburtt that the troops are ready. CAPT. BLUMBURTT Well, Mr. Prime Minister, my re- port will duly note that we found nothing unusual here in Pankot. CHATTAR LAL I'm sure that will please the Maharajah, Captain. CAPT. BLUMBURTT (to Indiana) As I said before, we'd be happy to escort you to Delhi. INDIANA Thanks, but I don't think Willie is ready to travel yet. CUT TO:131. EXT. THE PALACE ROAD - MORNING 131. Dust swirls as the British cavalry moves off with their Highland Pipers at the head playing a military bagpipe tune. Capt. Blum- burtt comes out of the palace and gets into an open car. Blumburtt's car moves off behind the cavalry and then the supply trucks follow.132. INT. WILLIE'S SUITE 132. The whine of the bagpipes is eerily muted in the dark room. Through the gently swaying mosquito netting, we see Willie asleep on the bed. Then through her side of the gauzy netting, we see the door opening across the room. Indiana enters quietly and moves toward the bed, his eyes fixed on Willie's sleeping body. Indy sits down on the bed slowly. Willie turns in her sleep and opens her eyes. Through the mosquito netting she sees Indy sit- ting with his back to her. WILLIE Indy? Did you walk to them? INDIANA Yes. WILLIE So now they believe me. INDIANA Yes, they believe you. Indiana speaks in a strange monotone. WILLIE Then they'll send the soldiers down into the temple... Willie looks at Indiana's back and continues quietly. WILLIE (Cont'd) I was scared to death last night when I thought they were going to kill you. INDIANA No... they won't kill me. WILLIE (smiling faintly) You know you've been nothing but trouble since I hooked up with you -- but I have to admit I'd miss you if I lost you... Now Indiana starts to turn slowly. INDIANA You won't lose me, Willie... She sees him turn and his face slowly comes toward the mosquito netting -- his face pushes into the netting and Willie looks stunned as Indy's mouth opens -- He starts hissing grotesquely, smoke billows out of his mouth and the mosquito netting BURNS OPEN to expose his terrifying face moving toward Willie -- She is forzen with fear and unable to utter a sound as Indy's malevolent face looms at her -- and then she notices his eyes -- his eyes glowing a hellish luminscent yellow! Willie SCREAMS!! She suddenly bolts from the bed and tries to run -- Indiana goes into a rage, ripping the mosquito netting from the bed as he fol- lows her. INDIANA No! I've found it -- you can't -- Kali knows! Willie tries the door but it's locked. She sees Indiana moving toward her ranting incoherently as he smashes a vase out of his way -- INDIANA -- been too many lies -- there's no god's heaven -- just -- the horror! I've seen it -- life preying on life! Willie cowers in a corner, horrified by the transformation she sees in Indiana. Shouting and pacing Indy holds his head against the pain of his terrible thoughts -- INDIANA -- rivers -- destroying mountains -- a comet in space -- exploding! (holding his head) Aaahh! -- the screams -- pitiful people -- their pain -- the hate -- and greed -- always greed! The light throws his shadow over Willie -- a giant shadow float- ing back and forth over her as she cries in the corner, unable to fight the evil devouring Indiana. INDIANA -- but I've found -- Kali's touch! Death -- no more lies -- the death I've been searching for! (shouting) Quit crying! She can hear you -- Kali knows fear -- don't you under- stand -- Kali is freedom! Indiana stops pacing and Willie freezes in terror. Now a bizarre yellow light wipes across the room. Indiana turns and watches silently as two Thuggee guards emerge from a secret doorway that's opened -- The shadows of the Thuggee guards loom over Willie and she SCREAMS again! CUT TO:133. INT. THE TEMPLE OF DEATH - DAY 133. A sea of frightening faces once again intones the horrible sacri- ficial chant. Among the shorshippers, the little Maharajah sits on a riased platform. Like the other believers, he stares across the crevasse at the altar of Kali Ma. The wailing wind howls out of the high tunnel and the terrifying chanting reaches a fever pitch.134. INT. THE TMEPLE ALTAR 134. And once again the three sacred Sankara Stones glow magically. Mola Ram materializes evilly amidst the swirling smoke and he begins chanting in Sanskrit. Beside the altar, half-clad female acolytes pass in front of the robed priests -- with their fingers the women paint two white lines across the priests' foreheads. An acolyte moves in front of Chattar Lal -- the Prime Minister is now dressed in robes. As the devotional markings are painted on his forehead, Chattar Lal translates the High Priest's speech to Indiana who stands next to him. CHATTAR LAL Mola Ram is telling the faithful of out victory. He says the British have left the palace, which proves Kali Ma's new power. INDIANA Yes, I understand. Indiana bows his head to receive the mystical markings. He lis- tens to Mola Ram's rantings -- Indy's eyes are ominously vacant as he stares up at the hideous statue of Kali.135. INT. MINE TUNNELS - DAY 135. Beneath the temple, down in the bowels of the mountain, the piti- ful children dig at the earth with their fingers. A FAT GUARD slouches down the tunnel, flogging malingerers with a aleather strap. Short Round sweats next to the others, clawing at the rocks, doomed to work with them now in their search for the last wo Sankara Stones. The leather strap suddenly flays Short Round's back and he barely manages not to scream out in pain. The fat guard passes -- Short Round and the other kids pull a large rock which suddenly comes loose out of the wall -- ! They fall back and see they've exposed a vein of molten lava! Hearing their shouts, the fat guard returns -- yelling at their stupidity, he whips them and shoves them aside brutally. Short Round see the fat guard's eyes glowing fiercely in anger. Suddenly the fissure shoots out steam and spews some molten lava over the guard's legs. The guard screams and falls to the ground, thrashing about, try- ing to kick the searing lava off his smoking flesh. As the other kids cower, Short Round's humane instincts cause him to jump forward to help the guard who moments earlier was beating him -- Short Round tosses dirt on the guard's legs and grabs a gunny sack and starts rubbing the lava off. Shorty notices something strange: The guard's eyes, which were glowing yellow before, are now dim- ming and returning to normal. The moaning guard looks at Shorty thankfully and then looks around as if waking from a nightmare -- SHORT ROUND (to another slave kid) His eyes -- they go out. Other guards appear and lift the guard -- suddenly he starts struggling against the guards not wanting to return to the night- mare of Kali -- FAT GUARD (as he's dragged away) No! NO! SHORT ROUND The pain -- the pain makes him wake up! (thinking quickly) Indy! I can make Indy wake up! But the other guards push and beat the children back to work. Short Round is shoved against a wall and groans -- he reaches over and grabs a large rock, lifting it defiantly -- But rather than heaving it at the guard, Short Round smashes the rock down on the leg chains binding him to the other children. Shorty beats at the chain with the rock, determined to escape. SHORT ROUND Indy!136. INT. THE TEMPLE OF DEATH 136. The wind moans and joins Mola Ram's voice echoing maniacally over the multitude gathered in the enormous temple. On his throne, the little Maharajah listens transfixed.137. INT. THE ALTAR 137. Chattar Lal watches Indiana staring hypnotically at the High Priest as he speaks -- CHATTAR LAL You understand what he tells us? INDIANA Kali Ma protects us now and for- ever, and we must pledge our devotion by worshipping her with an offering of flesh and blood! Suddenly htere is a heart-rending scream of terror and the priests draf forward the next sacrificial victim -- Indiana's glowing eyes watch emotionlessly as Willie is brought out. Dressed in a Rajput maiden's outfit, Willie has been jewel- ed and draped with flowers -- a strange contrast as she struggles desperately. CHATTAR LAL Your friend has seen and she has heard -- now she will not talk. As Willie is dragged past she sees Indy and calls to him -- WILLIE Indy! Help me! Indy?! Willie is shocked seeing that Indiana remains impassive and un- caring as she's dragged to her death. CHATTAR LAL (to Indy) This will prove your devotion to Kali. Indiana looks away from Willie's terrified face and stares up adoringly at the monstrous statue of his goddess Kali.138. INT. THE MINE 138. In the dark tunnel, a rock smashes down onto a chain -- and breaks it! Short Round is exhausted. He looks around furtively and sees a guard approaching. Short Round takes a chance -- he dives and rolls across the tunnel. He ducks behind a mine car full of rocks being pushed out by two chained children. The guard lumbers past unsuspectingly as Short Round makes his escape using the moving mine car as cover.139. INT. THE ALTAR 139. Up in the temple, Willie continues to struggle as her legs are strapped to the iron sacrifical frame. Chattar Lal grabs her hand and ties it down. Willie's free hand reaches out imploring- ly toward Indiana -- WILLIE (hoarsely) Please, God, don't let them do this to me -- help me, Indy! He reaches out slowly and Willie grabs his hand tightly. Indy looks into her eyes and then stares at her hand -- and slowly lifts it and starts tying it to the iron frame. WILLIE (Cont'd) No -- no! Willie cries is disbelief as Indiana calmly betrays her.140. INT. THE MINES BELOW 140. Short Round races up a tunnel and then flattens himself behind a corner. He peers anxiously into a large carven and sees two guards walking away. When the coast is clear, Short Round darts across the cavern to a long wooden ladder tilted up against a wall. Short Round looks up the high ladder and sees a kid with a sack of rocks descending from a burrow-hole half-way up the wall. The exhausted kid nearly collapses at the bottom -- then jumps seeing Short Round. Shorty motions for him to keep quiet. Amaxed, the kid watches Short Round scramble up the ladder. Shorty continues until he is high above the floor. Dirty faces stare out of the high burrow as Short Round stops climbing. The kids are astonished as Short Round suddenly grunts and kicks the ladder away from the wall! The high ladder falls in an arc and what seem like sure suicide slowly resembles a mini-Indiana Junes stunt as Short Round swings to the other side of the falling ladder -- Short Round holds on for dear life as the ladder crashes against the opposite cavern wall -- giving Short Round access to the roof-hole that leads up to the temple! Short Round scurries up the ladder and pulls himself up into the chamber behind the altar. He looks at the light flaring around the statue of Kali -- SHORT ROUND Indy -- !141. INT. THE TEMPLE OF DEATH 141. Chains clank and gears grind as the sacrificial frame is raised over the crevasse. Stretched out on it, Willie looks horrified as she hangs suspended face down above the boiling lava! The frame and victim descend slowly into the crevasse and the crowd around the little Maharajah changs louder.142. INT. THE REAR CHAMBER 142. Short Round dashes across the dark chamber behind the altar. He peers out and sees Willie disappearing into the crewasse! He sees Indiana watching impassively -- SHORT ROUND No -- Indy -- wake up! Then Shorty sees a flaming torch hanging on a wall bracket and he has an idea.143. INT. THE ALTAR 143. Short Round suddenly darts out onto the altar and Mola Ram sees him and yells. Several priests grab for Shorty. He eludes the first priest, smashes the second in the stomach with his head, and runs like a little quarterback toward the fiery torch -- Short Round snatches the torch from the wall and charges toward Indiana. Seeing him coming, Indy's eyes start glowing yellow and when Short Round runs up to him, Indiana suddenly swings and backhands the little guy brutally across the face! The torch flies out of Shorty's hand as he's knocked against at wall by Indy's vicious blow -- Short Round wipes a little blood from his chin and stares at his hero in wounded disbelief. Chattar Lal watches approvingly -- a priest moves toward Shorty. Chattar Lal looks back toward the crevasse -- Willie hangs on the lowering frame, heat waves rising up now to scald her skin and she chokes as the sulphuric air burns her lungs! Meanwhile Short Round is crawling backwards across the floor with a look of terror on his face -- Indiana stalks him, hissing, snarling, his eyes lgowing -- Short Round springs to his feet and tries to run -- Indy grabs him and pulls him -- Shorty's hand grabs for another wall torch and just manages to yank it free! Indiana spins Short Round and clutches his throat. As Indy strangles him, Short Round struggles and finally jams the torch into Indy's side. The fiery torch burns Indy, smoking as it sears his flesh, and he yells in pain. SHORT ROUND Wake up! It's just a nightmare, Indy! Wake up, please Indy! Indiana writhes in pain and Short Round sees the evil yellow glow in Indy's eyes getting dimmer and finally going out. Now it seems like theold Indiana staring at him -- SHORT ROUND (Cont'd) Indy, you back? Suddenly a priest grabs Short Round and pulls him off Indiana. INDIANA No! Give him to me! Short Round is firghtened as Indy grabs him from the priest. Indy lifts Short Round into the air -- SHORT ROUND No, Indy, no! He sets Short Round down on the brink of the crevasse an inch from doom. Shorty looks down at the lava and is terrified. Indiana finally flahses him a quick smile and winks! Then Indiana whirls and punches the priest in the face! Short Round cheers, realizing that Indiana is back. SHORT ROUND (Cont'd) We got to help Willie! Indiana springs into action, stopping another priest with a quick punch in the stomach. Then he rushes over to the crankwheel and pulley platform. Indy jumps onto it, yanking one priest off who spills onto the floor. A second priest, who works the controls lowering the sacrificial frame, sees Indy and releases the crankwheel -- Down in the crevasse, Willie screams as the iron frame suddenly plummets toward the fulminating lava! On the platform, the priest lunges at Indiana -- Indy uses the man's own momentum to throw him over his head. Indy then dives for the crankwheel and manages to stop it -- Down in the crevasse, the fram jolts to a stop only yards above the spumes of fiery lava. The heat is so intense now that Wil- lie's clothes start smoking and she passes out... On the platform above, Indiana cranks furiously, raising the sa- crificial frame.144. INT. THE TEMPLE 144. The chanting stops at the Kali worshippers notice the battle on the altar. The little Maharajah looks concerned and leaves, shoving through the crowd behind his bodyguards.145. INT. THE ALTAR 145. Mola Ram shouts at his priests and another one of them runs to- ward Indy on the platform. Short Round dives and tackles the priest. Chattar Lal finally leaps onto the crankwheel platform and Indy sees him pull a dagger. He slashes at Indiana and Indy has to let go of the crankwheel -- the gears scream and the chains screech! Below in the crevasse, the iron frame plunges again toward the crimson lava! On the platform, Indy hears the frame lowering and looks pan- icked. Chattar Lal slahses again with the dagger -- keeping Indy away from the cogwheel mechanism -- Indy suddenly kicks the dagger from Chattar Lal's hand slugs him in the stomach and dives toward the cogwheel mechanism. He grabs a iron rod and throws it into the gears -- the gears mangle the iron rod but finally grind to a stop. Indi- ana grabs the crankwheel and starts winding it up furiously. Meanwhile, Short Round jumps onto the platform with Indy and grabs a long wrench. He starts swinging the wrench, keeping the last priests off the platfrom. The sacrificial frame finally rises up into view and Indiana grabs it and swings it over onto the platform. He looks at Wil- lie anxiously as he releases her bindings -- Willie moans and moves her head. Indy pulls her off the frame and she starts coughing. Gasping for breath, Willie ervives as fresh air flows into her lungs. Finally Willie opens her eyes and she sees Indiana. Then she notices something else and manages to cry out hoarsely -- WILLIE Look out -- ! Chattar Lal grabs a pistol from an unconscious guard and Indiana whirls to see him pointing it -- Indy kicks the gun from his hand and suddenly Chattar Lal starts shouting in a terrifying voice -- Chattar Lal's eyes glow as he lunges suicidally at Indiana, at- tempting to take Indy with him as he dives from the platform! Crashing into Indy, Chattar Lal knocks both of them back onto the sacrificial frame which swings out over the crevasse -- Indy manages to dive off the frame just in time. He grabs hold of the platform as the crankwheel screams and the frame falls! Looking up from the depths of the crevasse, we see the frame with Chattar Lal on it plummeting downward into the sulphurous smoke! The frame finally crashes, splashing into the molten lava. Chattar Lal's body explodes inot flame friefly -- his flesh is broiled off in an instant -- we glimpse a skeleton momentarily -- and then all is consumed and obliterated by the blazing lava. scramble over to Short Round who jumps off the platform and they follow him across the altar. Indy sees Mola Ram quickly collecting the sacred Sankara Stones. Indiana rushes over and spins Mola Ram around -- He slugs the High Priest in the face and Mola Ram keels over backwards against the statue of Kali. Short Round helps stuff the Sankara Stones into Indiana's shoulder bag.146. INT. THE REAR CHAMBER 146. Short Round, Willie and Indiana rush across the chamber behind the altar. They run over to the ladder and start climbing down into the mines.147. INT. THE MINES Willie follows Short Round. Indiana jumps down last and pulls the ladder away, letting it crash to the floor so they won't be followed. They draw the attention of the slave children working in the tun- nels around the cavern. But it's the sight of the approaching guard that worries Indy -- INDIANA Come on, quick! They duck into one of the tunnels. As they hide, Indy watches the guard passing. WILLIE What're we going to do? Indiana looks around at the silent, frightened children who've stopped working in the tunnel and his anger darkens -- INDIANA We're going to get them out of here -- ! Then he looks at the bag holding the Sankara Stones and grows still more determined -- INDIANA (Cont'd) And then we're going to get these out of here -- ! (seething) And somehow I'm going to see this place destroyed.148. INT. THE CAVERN - MOMENTS LATER 148. A gaurd passing hears a voice and stops -- INDIANA (O.S.) Ah, sir? Excuse me -- The guard turns and looks amazed to see Indy smiling at him from the mouth of the tunnel. INDIANA (Cont'd) Listen, I'm from the union and I'd like to talk about the working conditions here. Could you step inside a minute? Indy smiles again and disappears into the tunnel. In astonished rage, the guard draws his sword and goes after Indy into the tun- nel -- there's a pause and then we hear the guard yell!149. INT. THE TUNNEL 149. Willie flattens against the wall as Indiana catapaults the big guard past her back into the mine where he's set upon bu a horde of rebellious slave children. The kids swarm over the guard like jackalas and we see Short Round pull a key from the struggling guard's robe. CUT TO:150. MONTAGE - THE MINES 150. A key is twisted and the chains are pulled from kids' legs... Elsewhere, more chains are unlocked and rattle free. Liberated kids spill out of the tunnels... A guard is tripped and attacked by a horde of ex-slaves... In another location, kids wrap captured guards in layers of chains... High up on a ledge, a fleeing gaurd skids to a stop when he sees kids charging at him. He sees more kids rushing from behind him. The guard scrams as he dives off the ledge... (END MONTAGE)151. INT. BEHIND THE ALTAR - DAY 151. Freed children scramble up numerous ladders to escape the mines below. They follow the mass of children moving toward the front altar.152. INT. THE ALTAR 152. On the altar, under the statue of Kali, Willie and Short Round are helping Indy and some of the bigger children rip down a long wooden panel decorated with hideous Kali figures. The childrens' escape is blocked by the chasm separating the altar from the deserted sorshippers' area of the temple. The swelling crowds of children push and teeter dangerously on the edge of the fire pit. Indiana and the others carry the wooden panel through the crowd toward the chasm. They stand it up and when Indy gives thw word they drop it -- The panel crashes across the chasm forming a plank across which the children now begin running to safety.153. INT. BEHIND THE ALTAR 153. The last of the children scramble up the ladders and run toward the front of the altar.154. INT. THE ALTAR 154. The childrens' bare feet stomp across the wooden plank -- below them the lava of the fire pit bubbles and shows outbursts of flame. Indy stares at the plank and sees that it's starting to smoke from the intese heat rising up. On the far side of the plank, the children safely across scatter through the deserted temple toward freedom. Willie and Short Round help the last kids out onto the plank -- Indy sees one child's foot break though the smoldering wood -- the kid in front pulls the child to safety. Willie and Short Round start to go out onto the plank but Indy shouts at them -- INDIANA No, wait! He runs over and pulls them aside -- he steps out onto the plank and takes a few steps to test it -- suddenly the plank bursts into flame in the middle. Indy takes one more step -- and then the plank breaks! Indy dives back to the ledge of the altar and Willie and Short Round grab him and pull him up and the wooden plank plummets into the fiery chasm. WILLIE What're we going to do?! INDIANA There's got to be another way out. CUT TO:155. INT. A TUNNEL 155. Indiana, Willie and Short Round run through the deserted mine tunnels. They hear a rumbling noise and Indy leads them down a side tunnel. They stop and peer into a quarry.156. INT. THE QUARRY CAVERN 156. A large cavern is the depository for the mine cars rolling in with loads of rock. Emaciated children (still unaware of the re- volt and the other childrens' escape) break their backs shoving the heavily-loaded mine cars. Thuggee guards supervise the deadening work, while others oper- ate the pulley-and-hoist system used to drag the cars up the sloped dump ramp. Behind this operation, a thunderous waterfall cascades into a huge cistern. From there, chutes deply the rushing water to power the large conveyor belt below it. As the cars rise up the ramp, they tip and spill rocks onto the conveyor belt which carries them toward an awesome stone cylinder that rolls relentlessly , crushing the rocks into sand. From the side tunnel, Indiana watches the noisy operation. INDIANA Those empty cars have got to go out of the mines. Willie and Short Round watch the children push the empty mine cars. The cars gain momentum and roll away down two dark tun- nels. INDIANA (Cont'd) Come on, let's see if we can catch a ride... Tey duck out of the tunnel and run for cover behind a slag heap. Loaded mine cars roaring down from the mines hurtle past them and crash to a stop against the cars in front. INDIANA (Cont'd) Okay, Shorty -- go! He pushes Short Round who darts out after a mine car roars past and dodges across the tracks before the next one descends. Indy pushes Willie into position and holds her ready -- WILLIE I can't! INDIANA Go! After another car crashes past, Indy shoves her. Willie runs out -- her shoe gets stuck and she freezes in the tracks! Willie sees a rock-filled car blasting down out of a tunnel directly toward her! Indiana dives, knocking Willie safely to the ground on the other side of the tracks -- the heavy car hurtles past and crashes into the cars in front. Indy pulls Willie behind a massive wooden post holding up the dump ramp and they hide from a passing gaurd. INDIANA We've got to get across to the empty cars. Wait here until I signal you. They watch him run and hurdle a pile of lumber, bound up three steps and duck behind a tool shack on the platform. Indy reaches out and grabs one of the passing slave children. They see Indy put his hand over the kid's mouth and whisper to him. He releases the kid who sneaks away, alerting the other children who start making their escapes into side tunnels. Now Indy motions to Short Rounds and Willie to follow. As they start to move out they freeze dead in their tracks and Indy motions again angrily -- INDIANA Come on! Willie and Short Round see a guard coming up the steps on the other side of the platform. As the man rises he gets taller and taller -- until they see it's a Thuggee giant coming up behind Indiana. INDIANA (Cont'd) Come one, what's wrong? SHORT ROUND Behind you! Indiana turns and looks into the bare chest of the seven-foot tall guard. Indy has to look up to see the man's mean-looking face. INDIANA I see the problem... Indiana suddenly punches the giant in the stomach -- the giant does not flinch, he just belches rudely. Indiana growls and winds up to take a killer swing -- he steps back, cocks his arm -- and suddenly turns and runs away. No dummy, Indy dashes over and picks up a piece of wood. The giant starts toward him. Indy drops the wood and looks around for a much larger piece of wood. As the giant stalks toward him, Indiana raises the large piece of lumber -- Indy suddenly groans, drops the wood and clutches his stomach. Willie and Short Round looks startled -- WILLIE What happened? Short Round shakes his head. They see Indy recover from the spasm as the giant rushes him. Indy jumps aside, landing on a loaded mine car that is passing by. The car is being dragged up the dump ramp and the giant jumps out onto it after Indiana. Indy quickly grabs a rock and, as the giant rushes him, Indy smashes the rock against the big man's skull! Unfortunately, it's the rock that shatters and not the skull. Indy dives to the other end of the mine car and lifts a large boulder. Suddenly Indy drops the boulder and grabs him arm, feeling a shooting pain again. Then he yells as he feels yet another stab- bing pain in his left leg. WILLIE What's wrong with him? Shorty is convused and worried -- and then he sees something! He looks up and there on a rock-cut balcony over the cavern is the little Maharajah! The little prince clutches the clay krtya doll that represents Indy. He jabs it in the leg with a long sapphire-tipped turban pin. On the mine car, Indy yells and grabs his right leg, which collapses beneath him. Short Round takes off. He dashes under the platform toward a bucket-chain carrying spent water back up to the cistern. Short Round leaps over the pool of water and grabs onto a bucket. He rises up on this make-shift elevator toward the rock balcony and the malicious little Maharajah. Meanwhile, Indy is on the brink of unconsciousness as the giant's massive hands throttle his neck. Indy's head hangs over the end of the mine car and suddenly his eyes widen -- The car with Indy and the giant reaches the peak of the dump ramp and its upended -- spilling both of them and a shower of rocks down the conveyor belt! Down below, Willie dodges wooden pillars and weaves around quarry equipment, trying to follow Indy's battle with the giant. She trips and swears angrily -- Willie pushes and empty mine car out of her way -- an empty mine car! She runs back and starts shoving the mine car along the rails toward the conveyor belt. WILLIE I got one! Indy, I got one! Near the waterfall, Short Round ascends on the rising bucket chain. Up on the balcony, the little Maharajah chuckles evilly as he watches Indiana on the conveyor belt -- The Maharajah lifts the clay doll and viciously jabs the pin in the back of it! On te conveyor, Indiana gets to his feet and then yells as a stabbing pain lacerates his back! He falls and writhed helpless- ly as the giant staggers up the rocky conveyor belt toward him. Willie shoves the mine car forward. She sees Indy's desperate situation as he's pulled along the conveyor toward the rock crusher! WILLIE Indy, look out! She looks up and sees Short Round leap from the bucket-chain onto the balcony. The little Maharajah's eyes glow fiendishly as he lifts the clay doll -- and jabs the pin into the doll's face. On the conveyor belt, Indy yells agonizingly and clutches his stabbed face! Behind him, rocks explode as they're crushed and pulverized by the mammoth roller. In front of Indy, the Thuggee giant grabs a pick-axe as the con- veyor slides past a tool bin. The giant approaches Indy with it. Short Round dashes across the balcny and tackles the Maharajah. They fall and fight like mortal enemies. Short Round sees the little Maharajah's eyes glowing as he punches him in the face. Only a few feet away from the rock-smashing roller, Indy is still on his back on the conveyor belt, thrashing in pain, feeling the Maharajah's pin piercing his face. The giant raises the pick-axe above his head and it about to split Indiana in two! On the balcony, the Maharajah drops the doll and Short Round dives for it -- he grabs the clay doll and pulls out the pin! On the conveyor belt, Indiana is suddenly released from the and looks up to see the giant swinging the pick-axe. Indy rolls aside at the last minute! The pick-axe cleaves into the conveyor belt and the giant lurches forward -- Indy gives him a helpful kick, sending the giant flying toward the rock-crusher as Indy jumps off the conveyor belt! Seeing the huge roller looming in front of him, the giant crawls desperately against the movement of the conveyor belt -- but he gets snagged! The sash around his waist gets caught under the rolling cursher and he's dragged back under it feet first. The Thuggee giant screams hideously as his body is rolled over and squashed by the enormous stone wheel! On the balcony, Short Round is jabbing the pin into the squirming little Maharajah. The little pricne's eyes still glow yellow as he hollers -- SHORT ROUND How you like bing pin cushion, Mr. Rajah-ha-ha? The little prince rolls on the ground and tries to fight off Short Round who keeps jabbing him -- suddenly the Maharajah swings and the pin is accidentally rammed clear through his hand! Shorty sees the pin sticking through both sides of the kid's hand. The Maharajah stares at his pierced hand, gasping in astonishment. Short Round notices the yellow glow dying out of the Maharajah's eyes -- just as Indy's eyes cleared after he was released from Kali's trance. MAHARAJAH Please -- pull it out! Short Round yanks the pin out of the little prince's hand. The Maharajah looks like he's jsut awakened from a bag dream. SHORT ROUND It was the black sleep of Kali... MAHARAJAH They made me do evil things... may lord Krishna forgive me. Meanwhile, Indy runs along the catwalk above the conveyor belt. He jumps and grabs onto a cross-bard -- he kicks out with his feet and knocks a quarry guard off the catwalk. The guard flies through the air and topples into the sand pit where he thrashes around blindly under the sand falling from the crusher. Across the cavern, Willie shoves the rolling mine car toward the balcony. WILLIE Get down here, Shorty! I got us a ride! Willie shirls as another quarry guard rushes toward her. She yanks the iron brake-handle off the mine car and holds it threat- eningly like a baseball bat -- WILLIE (Cont'd) Come on, let's see hoe hand your head is! Up on the rock balcony, Short Round lowers himself over the edge. The little Maharajah grabs his arm -- MAHARAJAH Please -- listen -- to go out you must take the left tunnel. Shorty looks at him and he knows he's telling the truth. SHORT ROUND Thanks pal. MAHARAJAH I'm going to try to find the English soldiers. SHORT ROUND Good luck. Short Round slips over the edge and slides down a wet stalactite to the floor of the cavern. There he finds Willie swinging the brake-handle and smashing the guard in the gut. The man doubles in pain -- Willie kicks his putt and he splashes into the pool of water. WILLIE I don't appreciate being cooked like a french fry! SHORT ROUND Willie, come on! Willie starts pushing the empty mine car with Short Round. SHORT ROUND (Cont'd) You do pretty good for a girl! Across the quarry, Mola Ram and six temple guards run out onto a high platform next to the waterfall. Mola Ram sees Willie and Short Round pushing the mine cat. Mola Ram shouts to his men -- two of them pull pistols and open fire! Bullets ricochet off the mine car and Short Round shoves Willie to the far side of the car where they both take cover. Meanwhile, up on a catwalk, a guard slices a sword through the air and Indiana ducks! The sword slashes into a wooden railing and the guard tries frantically to pull it out -- Indiana slams kis knee up into the guard's stomach and then smashes his fist down on his neck -- the man collapses. Indy hears more gunfire. Indiana rushes along the catwalk toward the platform above. He edges against the wall below the platform, staying out of sight as he unfurls his whip. One of Mola Ram's guards fires again from the high platform and Indiana lashes the whip -- the whip wraps around the gunman's arm and Indy yanks on it -- The gunman topples through the air and crashes down onto the cat- walk. Indy grabs the gun. He kicks the guard off the catwalk and the man falls into the waterfall pool. As the other guards fire down at him, Indiana dodges along the catwalk and fires back at them. A bullet explodes near Mola Ram and he ducks back -- Meanwhile, Short Round and Willie have the mine car rolling and they jump into it -- SHORT ROUND Indy! Hurry! Indiana spots the rolling mine car racing across the quarry. Indy takes off and runs along the catwalk -- bullets explode around him, splintering wood. Indy reaches the end of the catwalk -- Suddenly he dives into the air and catches hold of a block and tacke! Indy skids along the pulley system, sliding down a cable toward the mine car in which Short Round and Willie are riding. Bullets whiz past as Indiana sails in the air above the speeding mine car - when they are in sync, Indy lets go and drops into the mine car next to Willie and Short Round! Mola Ram rushes forward and watches the speeding mine car rolling down the track toward the tunnels -- MOLA RAM They've stolen the Sankara Stones -- they must be stopped! In the speeding mine car, Indy sees the tracks separating in two directions -- one back into the quarry, the other toward two tun- nels that lead out of the mines. Indiana lifts a shovel from the floor of the car and swings it just in time -- he hits a switch which CLANGS as they speed by and the car is shunted tipsy-turvy onto the track toward the two tunnels. Willie hangs on as the car tears down the track toward the tunnel on the right -- and Short Round looks worried -- SHORT ROUND No, Indy, it's left tunnel. But it's too late and they all hold on as the mine car shoots donw into the darkness of the echoing tunnel.157. INT. THE TUNNEL 157. The wind rushes past Indiana as the car descends into the tunnel and picks up speed. Willie hangs on with Short Round -- the mine car roars around a curve and flies fater along the rails.158. INT. THE QUARRY 158. Back in the quarry, Mola Ram supervises the guards as they shove empty cars toward the tunnel. Carrying long Khyber rifles, they jump aboard the cars. The first one rolls into the dark tunnel and the second car speeds after it.159. INT. THE TUNNEL ENTRANCE 159. The two Thuggee cars shoot past, descending into the darkness in pursuit of the infidels who stole the Sankara Stones.160. INT. THE TUNNEL 160. The mine car hurtles past. Indy sits in front, pulling back on the brake-lever to control their speed and keep them from careen- ing off the tracks. Expecting trouble, Short Round peers over the back end of the car. Willie ducks low, watching the heavy beams flashing danger- ously close above their heads. Then Willie's eyes go wide and she groans in terror like a girl on a roller coaster as the mine car suddenly plunges downward, taking their stomachs with it. A gunshot rings out and Short Round sees the first Thuggee car appear around a curve behind them. Mola Ram's gunmen start blasting. Bullets ricochet off the mine car and Indy yells back to Short Round. INDIANA Come here and take the brake! Short ROund scurries forward and grabs the brake from Indy. INDIANA (Cont'd) Slow on the curves or we'll fly off the tracks! SHORT ROUND Read you loud and clear, Indy! Short Round grins as he holds the brake -- Willie realized that this is Shorty's idea of a good time!161. INT. THE CAVERN 161. Up in the quarry, gunmen push a third car toward the tunnel, but Mola Ram stops them. He shouts and they turn and look instead toward the waterfall and huge cistern....162. INT. THE TUNNEL 162. Indiana is crouched in the back of the zooming mine bar blasting away with the pistol he captured in the quarry. A gunman in the car behind returns his fire, the explosions lighting up the tunnle walls. Indy aims and fires again -- the gunman is hit and knocked back in the car. Another guard with a Khyber rifle moves up to the front and starts firing. Meanwhile, as the car goes into a hard turn, Short Round rides the brake -- beneath the car we see the brake-pad scraping on the metal wheel. The tunnel gets lower and Indy has to duck under each beam flying over and can only pop up to fire between the low beams. The rifleman in the car behind is relading. Then he lifts his rifle -- Indy pops up simultaneously and shoots! The gunman is hit, his rifle flies up and his head smashes against the beam hurtling above! Screaming horribly, the gunman is knocked from the speeding car like a broken doll.163. INT. THE CAVERN 163. Up in the quarry, Mola Ram's men swing sledge hammers, bashing away at the rock supports under the huge water-filled cistern.164. INT. THE TUNNEL 164. Indiana runs out of bullets. He sees the car behind getting closer. He tosses the pistol and hits a Thuggee in the head. Another Thuggee retrieves Indy's pistol and starts reloading it. Suddenly Indy is being shot at by his own gun and he yells to Short Round INDIANA Let up on the brake! SHORT ROUND What?! Indy shoves past Willie and takes the brake level from Shorty. INDIANA Let her go! Our only chance is outrunning them! WILLIE What above the curves?! Short Round looks scared as Indy released the brake and the car hurtles toward a curve. They grab the sides of the car as it tips precariously. Behind them, the curve throws the gunmen from side to side in the car following. SHORT ROUND Indy, look out! A sharper curve looms ahead and Indy shoves the brake completely off! WILLIE What're you doing?! We're going too fast!! Willie closes her eyes as they rocket toward the curve. In the car behind, the Thugge guard at the brake also shoves the brake off -- and looks extremely worried. Indy's car hits the curve and the centrifugal force lifts the in- side wheels off the rails! INDIANA Get over on the other side! Willie and Short Round jumps over to his side as the car whips around the curve! Indy looks back and sees the car pursuing them is also taking the curve at full speed -- Suddenly the Thuggee car swereves dangerously, the weight shifts too much to the outside -- and the car derails! The car bounces off the tracks and flies through the air into a siding where is CRASHES against a stone wall in an EXPLOSION of rock and metal! Pieces of debris pommel the drive of the second Thuggee car and he quickly grabs for the brake to slow down and avoid the same fate! In the lead car, Indy smiles smugly as Willie opens her eyes. INDIANA One down, one to go!165. INT. THE CAVERN ABOVE 165. Mola Ram's guards continue to bash away with sledge hammers at the rock supports under the mammoth cistern. One of the supports starts to crumble -- From above, we see the cistern list to one side and water laps dangerously over the edge as the huge tank creaks and sawsy.166. INT. THE TUNNEL 166. Indiana and Short Round heft a railroad tie out of th bottom of the car and Willie watches them lift it onto the back -- As gunfire continues to explode from the car behind them, Indiana and Short ROund shove the railroad tie off the back of the car -- The wooden railroad tie falls and bounces back across the tracks. The gunmen in the car behind spit it and yell in panic -- Indy and Willie watch the car behind crash into the railroad tie -- but the tie just skids, catches and bounces up and out of the way like a huge tumbling matchstick! WILLIE Anymore ideas...? INDIANA Yeah -- this time you're gonna help!167. INT. THE CAVERN 167. The sledgehammers continue -- until two of the rock supports give way! There are shouts as the guards run for cover. Mola Ram stands on a platform watching the huge cistern slowly keel over -- the noise is incredible as the colossal tank crashes to the ground! Suddenly a half-million gallons of water explode across the cav- cern and surge in a tidal wave toward the tunnels!168. INT. THE TUNNEL 168. The walls of the tunnel flash past and curves appear suddenly out of the darkness as the hair-raising chase continues -- Short Round and Willie struggle to help Indy lift a large boulder from the bottom of the speeding mine car. The cars descend again into a stretch of much lower tunnel where the beams flash past inches above them. Indy judges the beams -- INDIANA Okay -- one -- two -- NOW! All three of them groan as they raise the boulder and shove it off the back of the car -- ducking instantly to avoid being de- capitated by the next beam! Looking back, they see the gunmen pop up between the beams -- and they see the looks of terror on the gunmen's faces as they see the boulder in front of them! The Thuggee car hits the boulder and upends! The guards scream horribly as the car tumbles end over end, slamming against the tunnel walls, getting ripped to shreds so that finally only pieces of metal, wheels and debris fly like a meteorite shower down the tunnel! Willie whoops for joy and hugs Indy who smiles modestly -- INDIANA Okay, Shorty, hit the brakes! Short Round dives for the front of the car and ahppily pulls the brake lever -- it doesn't work! Short Round yanks on it harder -- the brake level suddenly breaks off! SHORT ROUND Indy!! Indy sees Short Round holding up the broken brake lever! Indy crawls quickly toward Shorty while Willie holds on for dear life! Completely out of control, the car hurtles down a decline into a section where the tunnel if larger again -- Indiana bends over the front of the car and looks underneath. He sees the brake tension hanging loose from the brake-pad. Indiana pulls himself back up and looks at Willie and Short Round. INDIANA Grab onto me -- I'm going to try and slow us down from underneath! Willie looks terrified but helps Short Round grab onto Indy's arm and the back of his jacket. He skips over the front of the car and swings a leg underneath -- Indy is inches above the rails and the rocky ground blurring be- neath the car as he tries to kick at the brake-pad. His feet fall and he bumps along, dragged dangerously for a moment -- Indy manages to find a foothold on the undercarriage of the car. As they hold onto him, Indy kicks again and his foot hits the brake-pad. He shoves it and slowly the pad closes against the spinning wheel... WILLIE Oh no! Willie and Short Round look up and see that the tunnel is ending ahead and the track dead-ends into a stone wall! INDIANA What's wrong? He looks around -- and sees the car rocketing directly toward the stone wall! Indy's foot starts kicking in high-gear underneath the car -- he slams at the brake-pad with all his strength -- the pad screeches against the spinning wheeel and starts sparking! The car seems to slow as it shoots toward the end of the tunnel. Indy groans and pushes hard against the smoking brake-pad. The car slows more and more until it runs down the last few yards to the dead-end and rolls gently to a stop, just nudgeing Indy's back against the wall.... INDIANA Ouch... Willie looks faint as Indiana gets to his feet and Shorty jumps out of the car. They help Willie out and she stands shakily -- WILLIE I'm okay -- I'm fine -- I love to flirt with death... Indiana sees that the tunnel ahead continues without any more tracks. Then they hear something -- A strange rumbling sound echoing down the tunnel from behind them. The walls seem to reverberate. Looking worried, they start walking away down the tunnel. They walk faster as the noise behind them becomes louder and they keep glancing over their shoulders -- WILLIE What's that?...Indy?! Indiana isn't sure and he pulls Willie by the arm and all three of them start jogging. The rumbling behind them sounds increasingly ominous and finally they start running full tilt. They rush down the tunnel and the awful noise becomes defening! Willie looks around again and slows suddenly -- Willie stops dead in her tracks -- paralyzed -- awestruck -- DOOMED! Willie sees a monster wall of water (released from the quarry) as it thunders around a curver -- a mammoth tidal wave crashing spec- tacularly against the opposite tunnel wall! A veritable "tsunami" caroming off the tunnel wall and spewing furiously forward like a hydrous Juggernaut! WILLIE (frozen in her tracks) Oh... shit... Indiana and Short Round notice that Willie's sloed and they stop running -- they also see the cataclysm of water crashing down the tunnel toward them. Indy runs back and grabs Willie. All three of them take off, running faster than they've ever run in their lives! The tidal wave smashes forward, booming behind them and Indiana realizes quickly that they're going to lose this race. Suddenly he sees a small side-tunnel in a bend ahead -- INDIANA There! Dive! They lunge toward the hole and Short Round dives in it first. Indiana shoves Willie into the hole and jumps in after her just as the colossal tidal wave explodes past!169. INT. THE CHUTE 169. The small tunnel drops precipitously and they slide down, shower- ed by the small side-current of water that's broken off from the main force.170. INT. A LARGE TUNNEL 170. They rolls and tumble out of the small chute into a larger tunnel. The roar of the tidal wave sounds distant and receding as they catch their breath. INDIANA Lucky I found a short cut. Look, there's a light at the end of the tunnel... Suddenly an EXPLOSION! They turn and see the thundering tidal wave crashing around a curve and cascading down the tunnel behind them again! WILLIE Some short cut! They all holler in unison and start running like bats out of hell toward the daylight. The towering wall of water surges relent- lessley after them -- The tidal wave looms up to annihilate them as they race to the mouth of the tunnel -- and Willie SCREAMS! Indy grabs her and all three of the flail their arms to keep from losing their bal- ance!171. EXT. THE TUNNEL EXIT - DAY 171. The tunnel exits midway up a cliff and the three totter precari- ously on the brink looking down at a 300 foot sheer drop to a gorge below! Indiana swings Willie onto a narrow ledge on one side and pushes Short Round after her -- he jumps himself to the other side just as the tidal wave crashes past them! The water bursts out of the tunnel -- the gusher spews forth from the cliffside into the air as if Hoover Dam just broke lose! Short Round and Willie balance on the narrow ledge on one side of the geyser -- Indy is perches on the ledge on the other side of the incredible eruption of water. Willie gets vertigo looking down into the gorge where the water crashes at the bottom. There crocodiles are disturbed and slither angrily. Indy looks up and sees a rope bridge swinging about twenty feet above Willie and Short Round. Indy shouts across the blasting water -- INDIANA Willie -- the bridge! Climb up to the bridge! Willie looks frightened. SHORT ROUND Nothing to it -- follow me! He edges along the narrow ledge toward the bridge and Willie follows him. Once under the bridge, they start climbing up the rocks to it. Meanwhile, Indiana is scaling the cliff face to get over the water geyser to the other side. He grabs at scrub brush and finds a few perilous footholds as he makes his way to the bridge.172. EXT. THE ROPE BRIDGE 172. Willie and Short Round pull themselves up at the end of the bridge. Behind them a dark tunnel runs back into the mines. What's in front of them is hardly more reassuring -- The rope bridge across the gorge is a century old and defintely wasn't built by army engineers. Laying across the two bottom rope-spans, worm-eaten and moldy boards offer risky footings. Vertical side ropes connect the bottom rope-spans to the two up- per ropes that constitute the dangerous hand-railings. Short Round steps tentatively out onto the bridge. It holds him and he turns and smiles at Willie -- SHORT ROUND Easy like pie! Kid's stuff! Suddenly the board under him breaks! Willie grabs Short Round before he falls into the abyss! Looking pale and less cocky, Short Round starts out again and Willie follows his carefully. They continue stepping across the bridge cautiously, a feat made more difficult by the bridge's constant swaying and the hear- stopping up and down movement. Behind them, Indy finally pulls himself up from under the bridge. He stands up and sees Willie and Short Round halfway across already. Then he hears something and turns quickly -- he takes his whip out and ducks to the side of the tunnel as two Thuggee guards rush out. Indy cracks the whip, catching the first guard around the neck -- the guard spills forward and trips the second guard. The first man tries to stand but Indiana kicks him in the head. The second guard gets to his feet and seings his sword -- Indy ducks, slams him in the stomach and dives for the first guard's sword. He grabs it and rolls aside quickly as the second gaurd attempts to slice him in two! Indy gets to his feet and immediately finds himself about to en- gage in a sword duel with the enraged Thuggee guard. Indy looks at the unfamiliar sword, hefts it, and tries to quickly decide the best way to use it -- Suddenly the guard shouts and charges. Indy decides shouting must be the "de rigueur" technique and shouts back loudly -- the two swords CLANG and spark as the duel erupts. Indy flails and feints and the Thuggee guard lunges and slashes. Indy finally gains the upper hand and dispatches the Thuggee guard who slumps defeated into the dirt. Keeping the sword, Indy starts out onto the bridge, walking as quickly as possible across the rickety span. He hears shouting ahead and looks worried then temple guards appear at the far end of the bridge. The guards suprise Willie and Shorty as they finally get across the bridge. Struggling futilely with the guards, Willie shouts at Indiana -- WILLIE Indy -- looks out behind you! Indy sees more Thuggee guards rushing out of the tunnel behind him. He turns and sees two of the tmeple guards who captured Willie and Short Round coming across the bridge in front of him. Indy stands helpless in the middle of the swaying bridge with guards approaching from both sides, and nothing but heaven above and the rocky gorge hundreds of feet below! A wind comes up and the High Priest, Mola Ram, appears on the far end of the bridge. He stands with the guards who hold Willie and Short Round. The wind whips around Indy and he staggers unsteadily on the swaying bridge as he watches Mola Ram -- INDIANA Let my friends go! Mola Ram shouts in Hindi and the guards start to move toward Indy from both sides of the bridge. INDIANA (Cont'd) That's far enough! MOLA RAM You are in no position to give orders, Dr. Jones. Indiana indicates the bag over his shoulder -- INDIANA You want the stones, let them go and call off your guards! Mola Ram motions and the guards move farther out on both sides of the bridge -- suddenly Indiana swings the sword and it cuts into one of the bottom rope-spans! The rope is half-severed and frays slowly under the tension! MOLA RAM Impressive, Dr. Jones. But I don't believe you would kill yourself! Mola Ram motions again the his guards (looking more nervous now) step farther out onto the bridge, mvoing closer to Indy from both sides. Indy swings the sword again, cutting into the other rope-span! It, too, is now partially severed and frays slowly. The bridge jolts and Indy and the guards sway precariously! Suddenly Mola Ram shoves Short Round out onto the bridge. The High Priest draws a dagger and pushes Willie onto the swaying span, holding the knife behind them both. MOLA RAM (Cont'd) Your friends will die with you! In different times this would be called a Mexican stand-off Indiana looks at the guards in front and behind him. He sees Willie and Short Round out on the bridge now with Mola Ram at their backs. INDIANA Then I guess we're all going to take a big dive! Indy and Short Round's eyes meet -- and the kid realizes that his hero isn't kidding. Willie looks at Shout Round anxiously -- she notices that Shorty is surreptitiously wrapping his foot around a rope support. Petrified, Willie also secretly wraps her foot around a rope and does likewise with her arm -- MOLA RAM Give me the stones! INDIANA Mola Ram -- you're about to meet Kali -- in Hell! Indiana swings the sword with all his might -- it whooshes through the air and slashes clear through the top and bottom ropes --! Immediately Mola Ram's guards start to flee in panic -- too late! Indiana swings the sword again and the two ropes on the other side are severed -- The rope bridge is sheared in two! It breaks in the middle and both halves fall apart! The guards scream horribly in the air as they plunge down into the rocky gorge! Willie and Short Round cling to their established footholds and fall with the bridge toward the wall of the gorge. Mola Ram spills forward, clutching desperately at the ropes and slats -- Below them, Indiana has latched onto a rope and swings with the bridge as it hits the gorge wall and hangs vertically now, dang- ling from its moorings at the top. There's an instant of suspended animation as all who remain alive realize they are alive. Short Round and Willie cling near the top of the now vertical bridge. Below them, Mola Ram clutches onto one of the main ropes while directly above him the last of his guards holds on for dear life. Short Round and Willie struggle upwards, clutching ropes and stepping on slats. Finally, Short Round heaves himself up onto solid ground and turns to help Willie up. Meanwhile, dangling below on the bridge, Indy reaches up and grabs Mola Ram's leg. The High Priest kicks and tries to break Indy's grip. He kicks again and smashes Indy in the face. Indy won't let go. Suddenly the High Priest reaches up and grabs his own Thuggee guard and yanks his down by the front of his shirt -- Mola Ram shoves the luckless guard down onto Indy, trying to dislodge him by sacrificing the screaming Thuggee. Indy manages to hang on. The Thuggee is less fortunate and falls screaming to his death. Then Mola Ram looks across the gorge and yells. Indy sees a dozen of the last Thuggee guards streaming out of the tunnel -- only to be stranded on the far side of the now bridgeless gorge. Indy starts climbing up after Mola Ram again. He grabs at the back of Mola Ram's robe and pull him down. Slipping, Mola Ram turns and it's Indy's chance to punch Mola Ram in the face. Mola Ram's eyes are glowing yellow and he's shouting incoherent- ly. He grabs the strap of Indy's shoulder bag and stamps on In- dy's hand -- Indy falls! Indiana slips downward, scrambling to catch hols of something -- meanwhile, Mola Ram now has the bag with the Sankara Stones. Indy finally stops his downward slide and dangles dangerously near the bottom of the bridge. Across the gorge, the Thuggee guards run up a path to a small gove of trees growing on a plateau above the gorge. The guards have bows and arrows and take firing positions -- At the top of the bridge, Mola Ram keeps climbing until rocks start poundinghim from above -- Willie and Short Round pely him with rocks which he tries to block with his arm. Indiana starts to climb again, using all his strength. He reaches for a wooden slat -- suddenly a flaming arrow smashes into the wood! Indy turns in amazement and sees more flaming arrows rocketing across the chasm directy for him! Across the gorge, by the grove of trees, a Thuggee priest yells orders to the archers who continue to launch the flaming arrows. Indiana crawls up as the bridge starts to burn from the continu- ing bursts of fiery arrows. At the top, Mola Ram reaches up des- perately for a hand old -- Willie smashes his hand with a rock! The High Priest yells in pain and slips down to where Indy slugs him again in the face! They struggle as the fire burns up from beneath them. On the cliff above the fallen bridge, Willie watches the fire rising toward Indy and Mola Ram as they fight. Short Round turns and sees something -- SHORT ROUND Willie, look! They see horses galloping through a narrow pass -- the British cavalry is returning. Captain Blumburtt and the first troops draw up their forses and dismount quickly. A fussilade of flaming arrows force the British to take cover -- they quickly start firing back at the Thuggees with rifles. As the battle above the gorge continues, Indy and Mola Ram fight below on the dangling bridge -- Indiana sees the High Priest's eyes begin glowing and he hisses insanely. Mola Ram's hand thrusts out toward Indiana's chest and Indy yells in pain -- Indy looks down and writhes terrified as he sees Mola Ram's hand starting to enter his chest (as it entered the victim's chest during the temple sacrifice)! Mola Ram's finger are inching into Indy's body -- Indy clutches at Mola Ram's piercing hand, trying to keep the deadly fingers away from his heart. Slowly, Indy is able to push Mola Ram's hand away and his fingers withdraw from Indy's chest. Indiana suddenly slugs the High Priest in the face and grabs for the bag of Sankara Stones -- MOLA RAM No, the stones are mine! INDIANA You're betrayed Shiva. *(He re- peats in Sanskrit Sankara's warn- ing) As Indy pronounces the magical words, the bag begins glowing and starts to burn Mola Ram as he clutches it -- the stones begin to spill out of the bag and the High Priest grabs from them. INDIANA (Cont'd) *(He repeats Sankara's warning in Sanskrit) The blazing stones sear Mola Ram's flesh and he screams in pain. The light suddenly dies in his eyes and for one instant he looks at Indy as if awakened from a nightmare -- Mola Ram loses his balance and Indy grabs for the stones. He manages to clutch only one of them as Mola Ram screams and falls! Indy sees the stone in his hand suddenly cool. He watches Mola Ram plummeting downward into the chasm and finally crashing into the jagged rocks at the bottom. The irritated crocodiles are disturbed once more -- but soon wel- come the meal that just dropped in. Jaws flash and teeth rip at the High Priest's likeless corpse. And Indy's bag with the Sankara Stones sinks into the murkly cur- rent and disappears down the river ...173. EXT. THE CLIFF 173. Indiana crawls up the burning bridge and Willie and Short Round reach for him at the top. They pull him up onto the cliff and they all look around exhausted -- Across the gorge, more British troops emerge from the mine tun- nels to subdue the remaining Thuggee guards on that side. Finally the little Maharajah comes out of the dark mine tunnel. He sees Short Round across the gorge -- and bows to thank him for his help. On the other side, Short Round waves his cap, saluting him back. Willie stands at the edge of the gorge looking down into the riv- er far below. WILLIE I guess Mola Ram got what he wanted. INDIANA Not quite. She sees Indy reach into his pocket. He pulls something out slowly -- as she watches he reveals a crystal stone -- INDIANA (Cont'd) The last Sankara Stone. Short Round watches Willie take it carefully from Indiana. She gazes at it and looks delighted -- WILLIE And the diamond hidden inside... Willie holds the stone up to the sun and it sparkles and flashes CUT TO174. EXT. THE MAYAPORE HILLS - DAY 174. The sun flares and silhouettes three figures coming over a hilltop. Behinf them we see more smaller silhouettes appearing over the rise. Indiana, Willie and Short Round walk back down the dirt road into Mayapore -- followed by a multitude of children returning to their homeland. Willie looks at the changed landscape and seems astonished: the barren countryside has been reborn. They see streams flowing beneath green trees, flowers blooming and peasants harvesting golden grain in the fields.175. EXT. MAYAPORE VILLAGE 175. Indiana, Willie and Short Round lead the children down the village road. Ahead they see villagers rebuilding their primi- tive dwellings. Now they hear shouts of joy from the peasants. The children returning home start running to meet their parents who are rush- ing out to greet them. There is laughter and tears as families are reunited. Indiana sees the old shaman approaching with the chieftain and the village elders. The shaman touches his fingers to his forehead and bows. The three travelers return his greeting and the shaman is quite moved as he speaks to Indiana -- SHAMAN We know you are coming back -- (indicating the countryside) -- when life returns to our village. WILLIE It's a real miracle. SHAMAN Now you see the magic of the "rock" you bring back. The old shaman smiles wisely at Indiana. Indy takes the stone out of his bag and unwraps it. INDIANA Yes, I've seen its power Willie watches the shaman take it reverently and bow to them. The shaman joins the elders and they walk to the village's small sacred mound. Indy and Willie stay back. They see him kneel and replace the stone in its niche. INDIANA The last Sankara Stone. WILLIE And they don't even know what it really is. INDIANA (smiling at her) Well, you didn't get your prince, and there goes your diamond. WILLIE You didn't do so well yourself. Finding that stone could've got- ten you all the fortune and glory you were talking about. INDIANA It's still a long way to Delhi. Who knows what might happen. She looks at him like he's crazy. WILLIE Oh no, I'm finding a native guide who knows the way. No more de- tours for me, thank you Dr. Jones. She turns and starts walking away continuing to complain -- WILLIE (Cont'd) If you think I'm going to Delhi or anyplace else with you, after all the trouble you've gotten me into... Suddenly the bullwhip CRACKS and wraps around her waist. Star- tled Willie looks angry as Indiana reels her in, pulling her to- ward him and into his arms. But when he finally kisses her, she doesn't seem to mind at all... Short Round shakes his head, but looks sort of pleased. When he turns away, his face lights up! Short Round runs toward the sunset, toward the three elephants being brought back to the village. The baby elephant starts walking faster, as if he recognizes Short Round running out to meet him... THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Informant, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Informant, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..eb29c1b5633a5a6cdd7e187db588d7e2b1603d2a --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Informant, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + THE INFORMANT Written by Scott Z. Burns Based on the book by Kurt Eichenwald 1/15/03 A SERIES OF GREEN/GOLD VERTICAL STREAKS Moving across the screen from right to left. We hear a happy and informative man's voice.. .We will come to know this voice as MARK WHITACRE'S... WHITACRE (V-0-) You know that orange juice you have every morning? You know what's in that? FREEZE on one of the green/gold streaks as it racks into to focus. We have been dollying through... 1 EXTERIOR CORN FIELD 1 Hold on a single stalk of corn in the center of frame. WHITACRE (V.0.) Corn. And we are off again, dollying past the green/gold streaks of HARVEST HIGH SEPTEMBER CORN. WHITACRE (V.0.) r And you know what's in the maple syrup you put on your pancakes? You know what makes it taste so good? FREEZE AGAIN ON A SINGLE STALK OF CORN WHITACRE (V.0.) Corn. Again, the dolly is on the move-- the corn plants strobe past. WHITACRE (V.0.) When you get grass stains on your good pants, you know why the detergent mom uses can get them clean again? FREEZE ON CORN STALK WHITACRE (V.0.) That's right. C2rn. A HUGE COMBINE enters frame and turns down a row. The camera follows it. We are in the middle of a massive corn field in SOUTHERN ILLINOIS. The wind creates swells in the corn like a great green and gold sea. The farm equipment accelerates as does Whitacre... Draft: 1/15/03 2. WHITACRE (V.0.) There's corn syrup in the capsules you takes for your allergies, com starch in my beer, even corn oil in the paint we're putting on the barn... Corn flies through the air and into the collecting bin. WHITACRE (V.0.) .Bacon and eggs is really just corn and corn when you think about what they feed the chickens and the pigs. And when you're good and help with the trash, you know what makes the big green bags biodegradeable? We reach the end of a row. The combine turns to harvest another row REVEALING... A PORSCHE 911 speeding down US HIGHWAY 36... 2 INTERIOR PORSCHE 911- CONTINUOUS 2 WHITACRE, 33, drives his young son ALEXANDER, 6, to school. Whitacre is as happy as God makes creatures. Alexander sips his half-pint carton of ORANGE JUICE. WHITACRE Do you? Alexander hazards a guess. ALEXANDER Uh-huh. Corn. WHITACRE Corn starch. But, Daddy's company didn't come up with that one-- DuPont did... Whitacre tussles his hair. They drive by a GAS STATION in the middle of the cornfields. He continues his ode to corn in his head... WHITACRE (V.O.) Ethanol is made of corn; that's ADM. Car corn. Like gasoline. But they also use it for scotch, gin and vodka ...Corn and tonic... corn gimlet...corn on the rocks. Draft: 1/15/03 3. The car accelerates to pass a tanker truck with ADM: SUPERMARKET TO THE WORLD emblazoned on the side. The 911 is warped in the reflection... WHITACRE (V.0.) Porsche or Porsh-a. I've heard it both ways. Three years in Germany, I should know that. What's the German word for corn? The word I really like saying is "kugelschreiber." That's "pen"-- all those syllables just for "pen." A PEN SIGNS A LEDGER Whitacre signs in with the security gate at ARCHER DANIELS MIDLAND headquarters in Decatur. A sprawling industrial facility that makes most of what America eats. Grain elevators, cooling towers, processing plants, loading docks and a six story concrete bunker of an office building. He parks his car in a monogrammed space. 3 INTERIOR ADM HEADQUARTERS-CONTINUOUS 3 Whitacre walks across the open trading floor where soy and corn futures from around the world are displayed on a tote board and into his glass walled office. He has a kind word for everyone. Smile flashing like a casino sign. He sees his pal Kirk Schmidt from accounting... WHITACRE Hey there, howdy. Hey, Kirk, we got to get out and hit some balls ...Morning...Guten Tag... Whitacre scans the room full of busy co-workers. His secretary, LIZ TAYLOR, 35, wears earrings that are EARS OF CORN made of gold. WHITACRE (V.O.) What do they pay Kirk. . .What does a guy like that get...100K...I bet he gets a 100. He's just going to sit behind that desk and ride it into the future... LIZ TAYLOR Morning Mark...They have lysine results... She hands him a folder. He opens it and scans the data. He nods. Draft: 1/15/03 4. L 4 INTERIOR LYSINE PLANT- A FEW MINUTES LATER 4 Whitacre walks among the giant fermenters-- he's joined by a DISCOURAGED FOREMAN. They check various gauges and dials showing proof of failure. DISCOURAGED FOREMAN We adjusted the dextrose again, but the vrus keeps showing up-Thought we had it surrounded this time. We're starting a new set of cultures... WHITACRE We'll Vet it. We just gotta stay after it. The things eat sugar and that's what we're giving them-- a warm place filled with sugar. They walk into a clean room full of flasks mechanically shaken like paint cans-- it's too loud to speak. Each flask is connected to a feed tube-- the cultures are administered to by a HALF DOZEN BIO TECH WORKERS. Whitacre watches. He focuses on one worker-- she's ASIAN. She adds some nutrients to the feed line. WHITACRE (V.O.) A positive mental attitude is a real important thing. They've done studies where heart patients who have people praying for them actually do better than ones who don't. There's science for you. The cheerleaders might make a difference in the game after all...How do you know what the electrical energy of a thought actually does when it's out there in the world? It's gotta go somewhere...so you might as well smile. Takes less muscles than frowning... Whitacre closes the door on the very loud room. 5 INTERIOR ADM BOARDROOM- LATER 5 Whitacre sits with MICK ANDREAS, Vice Chairman, 45, and TERRY WILSON, 55, President. An overhead projector displays the desultory performance of Whitacre's division. AN DREAS The fucking thing is supposed to produce 113 thousand tons annually. (MORE) Draft: 1/15/03 5. ANDREAS (CONT'D) We're not gonna get anywhere near that. We got 150 million dollars in costs over there guys. I can see the fucking thing from my swimming pool and it makes me want to drown myself every morning. WILSON Did the Japanese have these kind of problems with lysine? AN DREAS (TO WHITACRE) I don't give a shit about the Japanese. You just gotta get the Goddamn lysine bugs to eat the dextrose and shit us out some money. WHITACRE We're still having problems with this virus. ANDREAS I don't want to hear about the damn virus anymore. Terry, what are we losing a month? WILSON We're off like seven million per. ANDREAS That's not gonna fly much longer. You want to go in there next quarter and tell the board that we're sucking hind tit on this...cuz' I sure don't. He gives Whitacre a cold, hard, we're--done-fucking-around- glare. ANDREAS Fix the Goddamn plant, or we're gonna shut it down. The last light goes out. AN EAR OF CORN ON A DINNER PLATE A pad of butter melts. 6 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION KITCHEN- EVENING 6 Whitacre stares at the EAR. His wife GINGER, 33, and Alexander dine with him. Draft: 1/15/03 6. Ginger and Mark have known each other since High School. She was Homecoming Queen then. Either would be hard pressed to envision a life without each other. GINGER You're not hungry, Corky. Whitacre is distracted. Ginger cuts up Alexander's food. WHITACRE (V.0.) The pilgrims loved the corn-- they came for the religious freedom but they stayed for the corn-- but its missing three of your eight essential amino acids-- especially lysine. That's why the Indians ate it with beans or lime. You feed a chicken corn and it gets sick. Yo feed it corn and lysine and it goes from egg to supermarket fryer in six months instead of eight... Whitacre gazes over at a plate of fried chicken, and then at his wife. She has gotten dressed up for dinner. She looks pretty. WHITACRE (V.O.) Breasts and thighs in six months... WHITACRE You look great. GINGER They got the first wall of the stables up today. You see that? WHITACRE They're doing this thing in hydroponics where they're feeding lysine to jumbo shrimp... Imagine you're a sh rimp and one day some corn goes floating by, what do you think about that? Alexander smiles. GINGER I don't know what I'd think about that. WHITACRE There's an opening in Mexico-- they might need me to go down there and get things set up...Alex, what do you think about Mexico? Draft: 1/15/03 7. ALEXANDER I thought we were getting horses. 7 INTERIOR ADM- WEEKS LATER- EVENING 7 Whitacre is working late-- pouring over the failing lysine numbers. WHITACRE (V.O.) I would rather take a lot of pain killers in a. hotel room than jump off a bridge...Or use a gun. A gun on your temple-- why do that? what does that say? Pain killers, definitely... Lie down in a great big hotel bed-What's, that place in Hong Kong on the Kowloon side? The Regent? What a bed! If you think about it, that doesn't mean anything-- it's normal to think thoughts... His secretary, LIZ TAYLOR, buzzes him on the intercom. WHITACRE r-- Yeah? LIZ TAYLOR (on the intercom) There's a call, I can't pronounce his name, he said he works for Ajinomoto Corporation. Whitacre picks up. WHITACRE Mark Whitacre. FUJIWARA (O.S.) Hello, Dr. Whitacre? My name is Fujiwara from Ajinomoto Corp...I want to discuss with you lysine if you have a moment. Liz pokes her head into the office and mouths the words "Good Night" to her boss and leaves him alone with Fujiwara. WHITACRE Hey, sure. . .How you guys making out over there? Draft: 1/15/03 8. 8 EXTERIOR GAS STATION OUTSIDE OF DECATUR, ILLINOIS- NIGHT 8 Whitacre on his way home from work, this time in a JEEP CHEROKEE, fills up the tank. A SERVICE STATION EMPLOYEE is changing the price of gasoline. ANOTHER CUSTOMER gives a SUCKER to her TEETHING BRAT to pacify her. WHITACRE (V.0.) Sixth grade. Marty Blocker used to sell us Charm's Blow Pops for three cents, which was a great deal cuz at Valley Drug they cost a nickel. He said his Dad worked for Charms-- said he invented the Blow Pop and got a special deal-- like a life time supply. Then they opened his locker..cuz of all the ants... In a line.. .His Dad worked for the post office, he came down to the school in his uniform. Nothing ever happened to Marty-- just ants ...He blew off part of his thumb on the 4th of July with an M-80... 9 INTERIOR MICK ANDREAS' OFFICE ADM- MORNING 9 At 6:30 the next morning Whitacre walks across the ADM trading floor and straight into Mick Andreas' office looking flustered. WHITACRE Mick you're not going to believe what the hell's happened. I think I know the reason why we've been having all these problems at the plant. ANDREAS Well, I've only been asking you to come up with one for the past eight weeks. I'm all ears. Whitacre paces. His story comes out in a rush of words. Andreas listens silently. WHITACRE It's not start-up problems like we thought. It's the Japanese. This guy Fujiwara from Ajinomoto, he's been calling me-- sometimes at work, sometimes at home cuz of the time difference-- you met him, he was here a couple of weeks ago. (MORE) Draft: 1/15/03 9. WHITACRE (CONT'D) Well last night he calls me at home just after 8, and Mick, he knew everything. He says to me, `You remember the total nightmare you had during May, June and July?' And before I can ask him what he means he says, `Those months when ADM was losing about seven million dollars a month in the lysine business?' Whitacre stares at Andreas in shock-- no one outside the company should know that. Andreas is still stone faced. WHITACRE I couldn't believe it. But, Mick before I can even ask him how he got those numbers, he starts making little comments about us having microbe problems. Jokes, like he's toying with me. Whitacre is fuming now-- his voice unnaturally high. WHITACRE And then he tells me that one of our highest paid employees is actually an employee of Ajinomoto and is sabotaging the plant. They're injecting some kind of virus into the dextrose and contaminating the whole deal. That's the problem. I'll tell you Mick, it's like Rising Sun, that Crichton book, it's just like it. Fujiwara even said that his boss, Ikeda, would have him killed if he knew he was calling. So I asked him why he was talking to me and he said-- he said-- he wants 10 million dollars. 10 million and he'll tell us who the saboteur is and give us a new lysine bug that's immune to the virus. We could be up and running in three days... Andreas pauses, takes it all in, and then... ANDREAS How well do you know this guy? WHITACRE Uh, um, well I met him a few weeks ago when he came over. And then, he called a couple of times... ANDREAS So, not very well? Draft: 1/15/03 10. R WHITACRE Very well? No, I can't really say that. Andreas ponders the situation. ANDREAS Okay, if you hear from him again-- talk him down on the price. I want you to find out the least amount of money he'd settle for. If we can get a bug that's resistant to the virus, it might be worth it...But, I want you to keep this quiet, if there is a mole, we don't want him to know we're onto him. 10 EXTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- EVENING 10 Whitacre stands with a cocktail in the fading light, looking at the foundation for the NEW HORSE STABLES being built across the road from the main house. There is not another home anywhere nearby. WHITACRE (V.0.) R This'd be a great place for some outlet stores... People would come from all over Southern Illinois and probably Missouri, too. Famous name brand labels and appliances at savings of up to fifty per cent every day. Maybe a food court with a Mexican place. . .After the stables, maybe a tennis court or a little pitch and putt by the pool-- that adds to resale value like nobody's business... Whitacre looks at the swarm of insects around a street light... WHITACRE (V.O.) The birds eat the bugs, the cars eat the birds, the rust eats the cars and the new construction eats the rust... Ginger interrupts Whitacre's grand plan from across the street... GINGER Corky, Alexander says there's a bat in his room. Draft: 1/15/03 11. L 11 INTERIOR ADM- MICK ANDREAS' OFFICE 11 Whitacre shakes his head in disbelief. He paces nervously. Stunned by the news. WHITACRE The FBI! God, no. Andreas and MARK CHEVIRON, 38, tell Whitacre of his upcoming FBI interview. Cheviron is a barrel chested, linebacker of a man. A former Decatur cop who is now Private Industry's version of a bouncer. WHITACRE I thought I was supposed to be getting him down on the price. That's what you told me to do and I was doing it. ANDREAS We're not gonna sit back and let the Japs fuck us sideways. WHITACRE (OFF CHEVIRON) I just don't understand, we weren't going to mention it and now he's in on it? ANDREAS Of course he's in. If we got a mole then it's a security issue... CHEVIRON I'll be sitting in with the FBI. WHITACRE But, I already told you guys everything I know. What's the point? Cheviron is annoyed by Whitacre's histrionics. CHEVIRON We don't like the idea of talking to the FBI anymore than you do. Look, they're just going to tape the guy's calls-- and ask you a few questions. No big deal. Whitacre shakes his head, even more upset. WHITACRE Questions, Jesus. Draft: 1/15/03 12. ANDREAS We know how the FBI works.. .We can control this. Whitacre has his doubts. 12 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- DAY 12 GINGER is putting away groceries when the phone rings. GINGER (ANSWERING PHONE) Hello, Whitacres. 13 INTERIOR WHITACRE'S OFFICE 13 Whitacre is on the phone-- pacing like a caged animal. WHITACRE Now, they've got the FBI in on it. First they tell me they're going to pay and be done with it, now they want me to talk to the FBI. 14 INTERIOR KITCHEN-CONTINUOUS 14 She sits down-- uneasy. This isn't like him to be so upset. GINGER The FBI? Why do you need to talk to the FBI? It's their factory. Let them talk to the FBI. WHITACRE (O.S.) I'm really uncomfortable about this, baby. There are a lot of things going on here. GINGER What does that mean, "things?" WHITACRE I just mean we have to be careful. GINGER Whatever you do, Corky, no matter what's going on, just be honest with them and tell the truth. Tell the truth no matter what the truth is. Draft: 1/15/03 13. He considers her advice and hangs up the phone. Whitacre looks out the window at the cold, gray Autumn day and weighs his options. Leaves blow across the ADM parking lot. WHITACRE (V.0.) (he seems angry) It's spring time in Nigeria-- you can bet they're loving that. Sitting around watching the days get longer; watching the afternoon go by on their Rolexes and Cartiers. Everyone's just waiting on the mailman... while the poachers make the elephants extinct. ANGLE ON FBI FORM 302 The name "Mark Whitacre" is written across the top. 15 INTERIOR ADM CONFERENCE ROOM- EVENING 15 SPECIAL AGENT BRIAN SHEPARD, 43, sits with Cheviron and a very anxious Mark Whitacre. Shepard wears a rumpled dark suit and tie from the day Jay Edgar Hoover set a dress code. He has been stationed in Decatur where the odd dead body in a river and a convenience store robbery that traversed state lines have made up the last fifteen years of his life. Whitacre shifts restlessly in his seat. Cheviron on the other hand is an old hand at this. He watches Whitacre and says nothing. Shepard writes down everything. WHITACRE He told me he wanted his payments deposited by wire transfer to numbered bank accounts in Switzerland and the Caribbean. SHEPARD And when was your last contact with him? WHITACRE Two days ago. But I think he's getting suspicious. I've dragged this out as long as I can. If we don't get back to him soon he may back out? SHEPARD And these calls, they've been coming in on your home line? Whitacre looks at Cheviron-- there's clearly a right and wrong answer here. Draft: 1/15/03 14. WHITACRE I have an ADM line at my house-- a business line-- they've been coming in on that. WHITACRE'S POV Drifting from Shepard's face to his ADAM'S APPLE. The knot of his BLACK FBI TIE bobs up and down as he speaks. SHEPARD WHITACRE (V.O.) (UNDER) (OVER) Well, we need to start by There's a sale at Bacarach's-- putting a recording device on they get those Oscar De La your phone. We should make Renta ties that nobody buys-- arrangements to do that as except maybe Wilson-- what soon as possible. We also are they two for one for need a list of everyone in another week... They never put the bioproducts division to the Brioni ties on sale... .I see if we can see who's should just get all the ties operating on the inside, in Paris, wear them once or we'll want phone records, twice. Shove them in a duty employment histories and any free bag. other background checks that ADM may have... CHEVIRON I can help with that. WHITACRE So, that's it then. I can go? Shepard hands Whitacre his card. They shake hands. SHEPARD I'd like to come out tomorrow and get on that phone. WHITACRE No problem. Thanks for your time. 16 16 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION ENTRY WAY- NIGHT Whitacre comes in from a long day at work. Ginger walks in from the kitchen. She gives him a welcome home hug-- but he doesn't let go-- holding on like a man caught in the current. GINGER You told them the truth, Mark. That's all you can do. A- Draft: 1/15/03 15. WHITACRE They we're watching me the whole time. Cheviron was in the room. She slips from his arms-- disappointed. WHITACRE I never even got a chance. She doesn't accept his excuse and heads upstairs to bed. GINGER Tanya called from school-- she has homework questions for you. Whitacre stands in the vestibule alone. He walks through the big house shutting off lights-- he sits in a chair in the huge living room and leafs through an issue of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. WHITACRE (V.O.) I go to Cornell and get a Ph. D. and then to Northwestern and get an MBA-- Mick Andreas gets born with the vice president of the United States as his Godfather. He goes- to the Nixon's for Thanksgiving-- my parents died in a car accident when I was three. I wound up in an orphanage. That was my Thanksgiving ...These photographers must wait forever to get these shots... Although I heard a story that sometimes they'll throw a sandwich on the ground to get the panther to come down out of the tree.. .They're just trying to do their jobs.. .Where's the harm-- the panther gets to eat. 17 INTERIOR CHEVIRON HOUSE- NIGHT 17 Cheviron sits in bed with his wife watching TV. The phone RINGS CHEVIRON Jesus, it's late.. .Hello? 18 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION LIVING ROOM- SIMULTANEOUSLY 18 Whitacre paces while on the phone-- frantic and rambling. Draft: 1/15/03 16. WHITACRE Now my family's being threatened, I can't put up with this. CHEVIRON (O.S.) What? WHITACRE They're threatening my daughter. She got a call at school. She's fourteen! CHEVIRON (O.S.) Slow down, Mark. WHITACRE She said the guy sounded Asian. They told her Fujiwara couldn't wait. CHEVIRON (O.S.) Did you call the FBI? WHITACRE It just happened. He wants an answer. Or, he said she's in trouble. CHEVIRON (O.S.) We'll talk about it in the morning. WHITACRE I'm thinking about quitting. Moving my family out of here. I can't do this. CHEVIRON (O.S.) We'll talk in the morning. Whitacre puts down the phone and walks through the large, dark house. He opens the bedroom door and the wedge of light finds Ginger already half-asleep. He lies down next to her in bed fully clothed. 19 INTERIOR ADM- MICK ANDREAS' OFFICE 19 Cheviron, Whitacre and Mick Andreas. Whitacre is still agitated. ANDREAS You ever mention to Fujiwara where your daughter went to school? Draft: 1/15/03 17. CHEVIRON If the guy wants to threaten you-- why not just call you? WHITACRE He told her to write down the message. ANDREAS I want her to tell the FBI what they said. Andreas moves toward the phone. WHITACRE I don't want her talking to the FBI, definitely not. CHEVIRON Why not, Mark? Come on, if she's really in danger. ANDREAS Then I'll talk to her. Andreas picks up the phone. Whitacre doesn't want that either. WHITACRE She's scared enough. ANDREAS If someone's threatening her... A beat. Whitacre collapses-- there's more to this. WHITACRE Don't call her...No one's threatening. I, uh... A long painful beat. WHITACRE I made it up. I lied. There wasn't any threat. Cheviron shakes his head in disgust. CHEVIRON Christ, what a waste of time. Andreas lowers his gaze at Whitacre-- he wants an explanation. Draft: 1/15/03 18. WHITACRE I'm no good at this. The FBI guy really got to me last night. He's twisting in the wind. WHITACRE I figured if you guys thought my daughter was in danger you'd just pay Fujiwara and all this FBI stuff would go away. It was a stupid move on my part. Whitacre's ashamed. WHITACRE (CONT'D) I'm sorry. Stupid, stupid move. He gets up and leaves in humiliation. He wanders through the lobby of ADM in a daze. WHITACRE (V.0.) What am I supposed to do? I didn't get the FBI involved-- I was told we were paying the money. It's like, `Whitacre go out for a long pass,' and then we run the ball. Look, I admitted I made a mistake, that's more than I can say for most people. Hey, when they found out that Mick's Dad, Dwayne, wrote a check to the Watergate Burglars-- did he admit it? Besides these guys probably own the FBI with the money they have. They probably wanted me to move into Dwayne's old house-- because they've got it wired like in a Crichton novel... He wanders into his office. LIZ TAYLOR Sid Hulse wants to know if you can have dinner at seven instead of seven-thirty and Marty Allison called... ANGLE ON A SHRIMP COCKTAIL Jump shrimp on shaved ice. Draft: 1/15/03 19. WHITACRE (V.O.) We're into shrimp now, fish, too. Tilapia, it's like Orange Roughie but lighter-they're growing out there next to the corn... 20 INTERIOR COUNTRY CLUB OF DECATUR- NIGHT 20 Whitacre and a very done-up Ginger dine with SID HULSE, 35, the used car version of a lysine salesman at the Club. Mauve draped tables, botanical drawings of the state flower on the wall. Bow-tied wait staff patrol the diners with pitchers of ice water. Sid and Ginger chit-chat-- Mark is distracted. WHITACRE (V.O.) Someone told me they bugged the dining room-- the John, too. Might be paying off the waitresses here at the club. That's how business get done. Clients go to relieve themselves. ADM knows... GINGER (off her earrings) Mark got them abroad. SID HULSE Nigeria? Whitacre shoots him a look. WHITACRE Not funny, Sid. SID HULSE You're telling me. Sid laughs. Ginger doesn't get the joke. GINGER Mark's never been to Nigeria. ANGLE ON WHITACRE'S HAND UNDER THE TALE He covertly slides a business card into Ginger's hand. WHITACRE (O.S.) So, where are you off to tomorrow? GINGER'S POV OF THE CARD On the back is scribbled, "The FBI is coming at 10 PM." Draft: 1/15/03 20. SID HULSE West coast swing-- I gotta get out there and kick some Japanese butt. WHITACRE So, I'll see you in a couple of weeks. She's still digesting what's on the card-- trying to act natural. GINGER Then you guys can maybe have a chance to play some golf. Whitacre throws an arm around her. 21 INTERIOR WHITACRE'S LINCOLN TOWN CAR- LATER 21 Ginger and Mark drive home in silence. WHITACRE (V.0.) There should be a TV show about a guy who calls home one day-- and he's there. He answers-- he's talking to himself only it's someone else. He's somehow divided into two and the second one of him drives away and the rest of the show is about him trying to find the guy... GINGER Should I get Alexander out of the house? WHITACRE It's not like that-- it'll be OK. WHITACRE (V.0.) What do they do in school to the kids who can't keep a secret-- no BMW for those boys. 22 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION LIVING ROOM- LATER 22 Ginger and Whitacre. Whitacre tries to plead his position to his wife-- it's not as black and white as she assumes. GINGER Just tell them everything. We'll leave. I don't like what this company is doing to you. (MORE) Draft: 1/15/03 21. R- GINGER (CONT'D) This is a chance to go somewhere else. You said Mexico... WHITACRE I may tell them at some point, but not now. Right now I'm going to follow the company line. GINGER Mark, ADM is not more powerful than the FBI. You can't tell me that. WHITACRE It's more complicated than that. Her face is a mask of determination. GINGER Mark, if you don't tell them I will. Behind him the drapes are illuminated by headlights in the drive. He is desperate-- he softly repeats. WHITACRE I can't, not now. The door bell rings. She opens the door. WHITACRE Good evening, Agent Shepard, this is my wife Ginger. Whitacre knows he has to keep the two of them apart. SHEPARD I know it's late. I'll be out of your hair in a minute, just show me where the, uh...The line in question... WHITACRE Right, the office line is upstairs. Shepard and Whitacre head upstairs leaving Ginger behind. SHEPARD Any calls since yesterday... ANGLE ON GINGER She stays on the ground floor and strains to hear if her husband is opening up. I Draft: 1/15/03 22. WHITACRE (O.S.) It's tomorrow there. When it's ten at night here, it's three in the afternoon in Tokyo... 23 23 INTERIOR WHITACRE'S STUDY- CONTINUOUS Shepard has completed his work. A small TAPE RECORDER sits on the desk next to a fax machine. Whitacre wants him gone. SHEPARD WHITACRE (V.O.) Simple device here, just make Go ahead open up to your sure you hit the record wife, see what it gets you. button and the play button Spend the rest of your life when he calls and you'll see explaining why your career a red light come on-- don't went out the window, followed hit rewind or you'll record by your wife after the golf over it. pro. And your kids after some angle dust and the police are right back here. WHITACRE Hit the record button, right. 24 24 EXTERIOR WHITACRE PORCH- NIGHT Whitacre walks Shepard to the door where Ginger is waiting. SHEPARD I'll give you a call tomorrow and we can test it out. WHITACRE Great. Hey, thanks for coming by, Brian. Have a good night. SHEPARD Good night. Good night, Mrs. Whitacre. Shepard walks toward his car. Ginger and Mark linger. GINGER (to her husband) Are you going to say something or am I? Ginger pushes past him. GINGER Brian? Draft: 1/15/03 23. L Shepard stops. Whitacre has no choice-- he finishes her sentence. WHITACRE (CONT'D) You gotta minute. Whitacre walks past his wife toward the car. Ginger squeezes his hand as he passes her on the steps. WHITACRE (V.0.) Most of what we do is to impress girls-- I bet there are guys-- like circus guys who fall off the tight rope and on the way down all they think about are girls until they hit the ground-- not even about growing wings real fast-- just girls going by-They were going to find out anyway cuz' of Mick... Who knows what Mick and Dwayne have been telling them about me already. 25 INTERIOR SHEPARD'S CAR- NIGHT 25 The two men speak in the dome light of Shepard's Dodge r Dynasty. SHEPARD You want to go back inside? WHITACRE I think they might have it bugged. We're safer out here. Shepard is confused. SHEPARD Bugged? What? Whitacre takes a moment-- but decides to go on. WHITACRE This used to be Dwayne Andreas' house, you know that? SHEPARD I'm aware of that. WHITACRE There are things I know, but if I decide to tell you what's going on, could I be prosecuted for it? Draft: 1/15/03 24. SHEPARD I can't provide you with immunity, but any information you tell me about your involvement in criminal activity would be discussed with the US attorney's office in a favorable light. Whitacre stares forward-- a beat. Shepard gets out his notebook. WHITACRE Everything I told you yesterday about Fujiwara was true-- except one thing. I never received a call from him on the office line. Shepard looks at Whitacre-- he's confused. SHEPARD Why did you tell me that you did? WHITACRE Before I spoke with you, Mick Andreas and Mark Cheviron coached me on what to say. They told me to tell you that the calls came in on my business line, instead of my home line. SHEPARD Why? Whitacre pauses again. It's too late to turn back. WHITACRE What I'm about to tell you involves something very large. This extortion attempt by Fujiwara is nothing compared to it. Shepard says nothing. WHITACRE (CONT'D) It involves price fixing in the lysine business. I've been in several meetings with our Japanese and Korean competitors in the past few months where the sole purpose has been to fix prices. ADM made me go to these meetings. Shepard writes furiously, struggling to see in the dark. Draft: 1/15/03 25. WHITACRE That's why they wanted me to lie. Fujiwara's calling on my home line. But, so are the people we fix prices with. They didn't want you to hear those conversations so they told me to say the Fujiwara calls came in on the ADM line. But, I knew if you guys ever started looking at the records you'd see all these calls I have to Japan. And that's what scared me. Nobody has more calls than me. If you ever figured out about the price fixing, I'd be the fall guy. Shepard considers the explanation. SHEPARD Who told you to participate in these price fixing talks? Whitacre pauses, summons his conviction. WHITACRE I'm operating under the direction of Mick and Dwayne Andreas. 26 26 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- ALEXANDER'S ROOM Ginger checks on her son. ALEXANDER Who's Dad talking to? GINGER A friend who needs his help. She walks down the hall pausing by a window. She can see the two men talking in the car. She turns off the light and gets into bed-- staring at the ceiling. 27 27 INTERIOR SHEPARD'S CAR- LATER Shepard writes down everything. WHITACRE Mick and Cheviron had me call Fujiwara today and tell him to stop calling until things cool off. SHEPARD They told you to tell him to stop calling? Draft: 1/15/03 26. R- WHITACRE They're afraid of what you guys might find out. Can you give me a tape recorder? I can prove this if you give me a tape recorder. I'll take a polygraph if that helps. Shepard is out of pages in his notebook. SHEPARD I want to thank you for being honest with me tonight. WHITACRE You're not going to ask questions at ADM about all this? It'd be my job for sure. SHEPARD No, what was said here was confidential. I'm going to speak to my superiors Mark, and then we'll be in touch. Whitacre goes back inside his dark house and heads upstairs-- he seems unburdened. WHITACRE (V.0.) He seems like a real good guy...I mean just a straight shooter. I think we really got along-- I bet he wouldn't mind if I called him "Brian" instead of "Agent Shepard." "Bri." "Hey, Bri..." This must be very different for him. Talking to a guy like me instead of a bank robber or a drug dealer... ANGLE ON SHEPARD Struggling to read his notes in the car. WHITACRE (V.0.) I could see us fishing or whatever. What a good listener-- you don't meet one of those everyday. Shepard takes out his cell phone. We hear ringing on the other end. A sleepy voice answers. PAISLEY (O.S.) Yeah, hello. Paisley. Draft: 1/15/03 27. I SHEPARD It's Brian. I just got done talking to Whitacre, there's something much bigger going on here. 28 INTERIOR ADM- THE NEXT MORNING 28 Whitacre tries to look natural as he walks to his office, his first day as a whistle blower. No sooner does he take his seat, than Cheviron appears baring down on him though his glass walled office. Cheviron enters. CHEVIRON What happened last night? WHITACRE They put a recorder on my line. CHEVIRON And that's it? WHITACRE Yeah, and I was instructed that when Fujiwara calls, I'm to record the conversation. Whitacre gets buzzed by his secretary. LIZ TAYLOR Your wife on two. CHEVIRON Well, make sure you do it because they have ways of checking to see if you're going to or not. Whitacre picks up the call and the big bully goes away. We hear Ginger very excited on the other end of the phone... WHITACRE OK...0K...slow down... tell me what happened... Whitacre listens, leafs through his mail. WHITACRE (V.0.) Does anyone win that Publisher's Clearing House thing? Someone must, right? Otherwise it's against the law...Someone gets a million dollars or someone goes to jail... Draft: 1/15/03 28. 29 INTERIOR FBI SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS- MORNING 29 A small conference room with bad green wall paper and a view of the Illinois Capital Building. Shepard briefs AGENT DEAN PAISLEY and AGENT IN CHARGE KATE MEDFORD. He searches through his large pile of notes for the most shocking of last night's revelations. Medford eats her morning yogurt. WHITACRE (V.0.) 60 minutes or someone would come after Ed MacMahon. You can't use the US mail that way...And a guy like Ed MacMahon would never get involved... SHEPARD .a pound of bacon, a peanut butter sandwich, some vitamins- anything that ADM has a hand in-- it's all fixed, that's what he's telling me. Basically, everyone in this country is the victim of corporate crime by the time they finish breakfast... Medford studies the ingredients of her yogurt. PAISLEY So, what do we have? Anti-trust violations, providing false information... 30 INTERIOR ADM WHITACRE'S OFFICE- CONTINUOUS 30 Whitacre is still on the phone-- pacing-- the person at the other end of the line is doing most of the talking. WHITACRE (V.0.) Who can you trust? Your government? Your employer? Your wife? You trust your wife ...OK, but what's the divorce rate? 31 INTERIOR FBI SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS- CONTINUOUS 31 SHEPARD He told me that the motto at ADM is..."The competitors are our friends, and the customers are our enemies." Draft: 1/15/03 29. L MEDFORD Did you discuss with him the notion of wearing a wire? Is he willing to... 32 INTERIOR ADM HALLWAY- CONTINUOUS 32 Whitacre is headed down the hall with a full head of steam. WHITACRE (V.0.) You think the automobile companies can't make a car tomorrow that gets a hundred miles to the gallon... You think the TV networks don't know who's going to win the World Series before the season starts... 33 INTERIOR FBI SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS- CONTINUOUS 33 SHEPARD One potential problem I see going forward with ADM is this guy Cheviron. He wants to be kept in the loop on everything we're doing. ANGLE ON WHITACRE Pissed off. He storms down the corridors of ADM. WHITACRE (V.O.) "Paranoid" is what people who are trying to take advantage call you in an effort to get you to drop your guard-- I read that the other day in an in-flight magazine... 34 INTERIOR ADM- CHEVIRON'S OFFICE- DAY 34 About a third the size of Whitacre's office with a view of the loading dock. Whitacre BURSTS in. WHITACRE You told me they were only going to tap one line! CHEVIRON They are only monitoring one line. I Draft: 1/15/03 30. WHITACRE That's not true. Not true. I just talked to my wife and some woman named Regina from the phone company called saying both our lines are tapped. My home phone! Cheviron is sick of Whitacre's antics. He doesn't believe a word. It gets a bit heated. CHEVIRON Come on, the phone company doesn't call people and say, `hello just thought we'd let you know, the FBI is tapping your phone lines.' WHITACRE Then why would Regina say that? CHEVIRON She didn't say it, you're saying it. WHITACRE Call my wife. Call Regina. Cheviron's tone becomes condescending-- like he's talking to a sick person. CHEVIRON Fine, Mark. I will. Whitacre storms out. ANGLE ON WHITACRE Walking away-- satisfied-- he passes A SECRETARY making copies. She tugs on her WOOL TURTLENECK. WHITACRE (V.0.) I don't like wool on skin. Not even that merino wool they have at Field's in Chicago. Ginger likes it, cuz it's form fitting, but she likes avocados and who wants that texture in their mouth? ANGLE ON CHEVIRON Cheviron stares at his phone-- and then relents. He picks up the phone, but not to call Regina. Draft: 1/15/03 31. WHITACRE (V.0.) Who would make up someone named Regina? 35 INTERIOR FBI DECATUR- DAY 35 On the third floor of some mid-70's default architecture in the heart of downtown Decatur, Brian Shepard sits in an office big enough for himself, a small evidence safe, a picture of his family and the flag. Out the window the stacks of ADM send up great white plumes. Shepard is boning up on anti-trust law when the phone rings. SHEPARD FBI. Shepard. CHEVIRON (O.S.) Brian, it's Mark Cheviron at ADM. SHEPARD Yeah, Mark. CHEVIRON (O.S.) Hey, I asked you guys a couple of days ago which lines at Mark Whitacre's house you were going to be monitoring and we agreed it would just be the business line. So, that's all you did right? Beat. SHEPARD I really can't answer that. 36 INTERIOR ADM WHITACRE'S OFFICE- LATER 36 Whitacre stares out through the glass walls drinking a COKE. Mick Andreas and Cheviron are making a bee-line for him. WHITACRE (V.0.) (off the Coke Can) It doesn't taste the same-- when Dwayne Andreas got the government to subsidize corn farmers-- it all changed. Corn syrup got to be cheaper than sugar-- so they went with the high fructose corn syrup from ADM.. .They said you couldn't tell the difference, but that's just a lie-Like when they replaced butter with topping at the movies.. .and you know who was behind that... Draft: 1/15/03 32. Mick Andreas and Cheviron march into Whitacre's office on a mission. ANDREAS We've decided that we're not going to be cooperating with any further FBI requests. Whitacre puts it all together. He is outraged. He turns on Cheviron. WHITACRE I knew it! I knew it! I knew we should never have done this. I told you, but you wouldn't listen. They said just the office line... Cheviron has to eat shit here in front of Andreas. CHEVIRON Evidently, they were lying to us, too. WHITACRE Sounds to me like you can't keep track of what the FBI is doing. The phone buzzes. LIZ TAYLOR (ON INTERCOM) The call you were expecting, Mark. Whitacre pauses-- then picks up. WHITACRE I'm working on this deal in Sweden, I have to take this. Whitacre picks up the phone. Andreas and Cheviron continue. CHEVIRON I told Shepard we're done working with them as of now. ANDREAS Damn right. Whitacre picks up the phone. It's not Sweden. SHEPARD (O.S.) Mark, it's Brian can you talk? Whitacre shifts uncomfortably and tries to cover in front of Mick and Cheviron-- he puts on a phony cheerful voice. Draft: 1/15/03 33. WHITACRE (over the phone) Yeah, hey it's good to hear from you. SHEPARD (O.S.) I'd like to bring my Supervisor by later, around six. WHITACRE Great. Hey, I got Mr. Andreas in here right now. OK, I'll talk to you soon. He hangs up the phone and turns back to Mick and Terry. Whitacre smiles warmly, and then lies through his teeth. WHITACRE (CONT'D) So, what do I do if this Shepard guy calls? ANDREAS You let me know and I'll pass it on to my Dad. But, you're done talking to them... 37 INTERIOR WHITACRE'S BARN- EVENING 37 Whitacre sits with FBI agents Shepard and Paisley in the converted barn. A large open room looking more like a theme restaurant than anything that might have once involved agriculture. Outside, RUSTY the gardener, fishes leaves from the pool. Shepard explains the misunderstanding with the phones. PAISLEY The only listening device was the recorder, Mark. SHEPARD We had a trap and trace device on the home line-- but we can't listen in with that. PAISLEY However, the phone company calling people and telling them about our Intel gathering is, well, our face is red on that one. SHEPARD Did you bring the expense reports we talked about? Whitacre gives them a folder of paperwork. Draft: 1/15/03 34. WHITACRE It's all there-- Tokyo, Hong Kong, Paris and Mexico City. And under...Whitacre thinks about one thing while discussing another with the agents. He is a gifted man in this capacity. His thoughts take precedence here. WHITACRE WHITACRE (V.O.) Just last week Mick and Terry I read in the Geographic that were in Florida with the Corn the skin in ears grows from Refiner's Association. They the inside out-- conveyor would have their regular belt style. That's how they meetings during the day and stay clean. You could make a then at night they'd get dot with a felt tip inside together and work out the and watch it move down your price fixing... neck. WHITACRE .Six months later a liter of Pepsi costs five cents more. SHEPARD When's the next meeting? WHITACRE January-- somewhere in Asia. Paisley takes it all in. He cozies up to Whitacre. AGENT PAISLEY Mark, I gotta ask you, why are you doing this? We know you lied to us about the phone line and you're afraid of that. But, now you're telling us all this other stuff out of the blue. I gotta ask you why? The light disappears from Whitacre's eyes. WHITACRE Things are going on I don't approve of. I mean, I'm a biochemist-- But, they pulled me into the business side and they're doing things that are illegal. They said... ANGLE ON RUSTY He takes the net for cleaning the pool and walks around the barn to the attached six car garage filled with a Range Rover, Ferrari, Mercedes Coupe, BMW, and a Lincoln Town Car. Draft: 1/15/03 35. WHITACRE (V.0.) (CONT'D) . if I was going to grow with ADM I had to be a part of the business side of things. Rusty pulls the garage down on the cars. 38 38 INTERIOR WHITACRE'S BARN- CONTINUOUS WHITACRE When they told me to lie, I had to lie. I lied to you guys and I feel real bad about it. This explains the bind Whitacre finds himself in. SHEPARD You look at yourself as wearing a white hat and they're wearing black hats. WHITACRE That's a good way to put it. You know, when I was a kid my folks died in an automobile accident. I was maybe six at the time and this wealthy man in Ohio adopted me. He owned amusement parks and he did real well for himself, real well. I got a big break-- went to a good school and all-- I adopted two kids of my own. I just want to do the right thing. PAISLEY Well, Mark, do you think you'd be willing to go a few steps further in helping us? WHITACRE What do you mean? SHEPARD Would you be willing to wear a wire? We don't have any other sources at this time. We need your help. Whitacre considers the request-- a chance to be a hero. Draft: 1/15/03 36. PAISLEY Now you realize that by doing this, sometime down the line you could be the guy who has to testify against your fellow executives, people you've worked with now for years. That won't be easy. He looks around at the good life Whitacre has amassed. SHEPARD I'll use my beeper to signal you when it's time to set up a meeting. Shepard gets out his beeper and hits a button- "BEEEEP." SHEPARD When you hear this-- you call me. Then Shepard pulls a tape recorder out of his jacket-- a simple little Radio Shack Dictaphone model. He gives it to Whitacre. PAISLEY You'll be risking a lot. Whitacre picks up the recorder. The idea of being a White Knight only becomes real when they hand you a sword. 39 EXTERIOR COORS BREWERY- GOLDEN, COLORADO 39 Whitacre, Wilson and Andreas get out of a Town Car in front of Coors Corporate headquarters. The Rockies loom in the background. The men walk toward the doors. WHITACRE I was up in Wisconsin last week-- and the guy who is running for Governor... AN DREAS Tommy Thompson. WILSON The Republican guy. WHITACRE I was told they want funds-- a campaign contribution, but I told them we're already at out limit. ANDREAS You can go over the limit-- it's just a small fine. Draft: 1/15/03 37. WILSON That's what I was saying. If they want a thousand dollars-- you give a thousand. So what if it ends up costing us nine thousand after the fine. WHITACRE Twelve thousand after taxes. The men laugh. ANDREAS If the guy's asking you for money, try not giving it to him and see what happens. Just make sure Dad is behind it... Is Dad asking for them? WILSON Yeah. ANDREAS Okay then. WHITACRE I'll let Howard know. He gets out his cell phone and begins dialing. A FEDEX EMPLOYEE walks by with a BUTTERFLY BANDAGE on his nose. WHITACRE (V.0.) There are these butterflies in Central America-- they have poison in their wings. Just enough poison to stop a bird heart. But, the birds know this somehow so they don't eat them... Through the phone we hear... WHITACRE (O.S.) Hi, you've reached Mark Whitacre in ADM's Bioproducts division. Leave a message. Whitacre punches in his code... WHITACRE (V.O.) They're like blue, orange and yellow. . .real pretty-But, poisonous to birds. Over the phone we hear a message. Draft: 1/15/03 38. MESSAGE VOICE (O.S.) Mark, it's Marty Allison calling from London, we need to... Whitacre hits a button. COMPUTER VOICE Message deleted. WHITACRE (V.0.) But, there are other ones-- butterflies-- they're orange, blue and yellow, too. But, no poison... Over the phone we hear the next message. CELL PHONE Beeeeep. Whitacre deletes it and hangs up. WHITACRE (V.O.) They're just flying around looking dangerous-- getting by on their looks. Wilson and Andreas DISCUSS SOME FEMALE EMPLOYEE IN A MOST UNTOWARD WAY. They laugh and wait for Whitacre by the doors. TERRY WILSON Jesus, Mark this is important bioproduct stuff were discussing. The men enter the building and head for a bank of elevators. WHITACRE I'm sorry guys I gotta return a call. The plant. I'll meet you. Andreas and Wilson hit the elevator button. Whitacre paces across the lobby and talks on the phone. SHEPARD (O.S.) FBI. WHITACRE (INTO PHONE) Hey, it's Mark. I told you I was out on business this week. SHEPARD (O.S.) The case is getting some attention from the bureau, Mark. There's another agent working with me now. We need to meet. Draft: 1/15/03 39. WHITACRE Yeah, but I'm away now. SHEPARD (O.S.) Any word from Fujiwara? WHITACRE I think he's out of the picture. SHEPARD (O . S . ) Based on what? Is Andreas telling you to say that? WHITACRE I'll let you guys know if I hear anything. I can't talk now. I gotta meeting. Whitacre hangs up. And jogs toward the elevators. Wilson and Andreas hold the door. 40 INTERIOR FBI DECATUR ILLINOIS 40 Shepard sits in the small office with his new partner-- BOB HERNDON, 33, and squeaky clean. If Shepard looks like he stepped out of Dragnet, then Herndon looks like he stepped out of GQ. SHEPARD The guy is on a plane half his life, and in meetings for the rest. HERNDON Any tapes of these meetings? SHEPARD Not yet, Mr. Whitacre believes his life may be in danger... 41 EXTERIOR HIGHWAY- DAY 41 Whitacre's life is in danger.. .He's taking a new BMW for a ferocious test drive. A big shit-eating eighty-mile-an-hour spread across his face. SHEPARD (V.O.) .He's closely watched at work and there's reason to believe that ADM has bugged his home. He's under a great deal of pressure. Whitacre looks at the CUP HOLDERS in the Beemer. Draft: 1/15/03 40. WHITACRE (V.0.) The German word for "cup" is tasse, and saucer-- that's untertasse-- the "undercup." What do we have-- "cup" and "saucer." Where does that get you? Whitacre pulls into the dealership and screeches to a halt in front of the BMW SALESMAN. Whitacre smiles and nods. WHITACRE We had a good day at work, Tom. A real good day... 42 42 INTERIOR FBI, DECATUR- CONTINUOUS Shepard and Herndon. SHEPARD You should probably take your gun off when you meet him-- weapons make him pretty nervous. 43 EXTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- EVENING 43 The Whitacre family checks out the new car. SHEPARD (V.O.) You gotta feel for the guy, he tells us the truth one day and wakes up the next with two lives instead of one. 44 INTERIOR MEXICO CITY AIRPORT- DAY 44 Whitacre checks his messages from a pay phone in the Admiral's Club in the International Terminal. MARTY ALLISON (O.S.) Hey, Mark it's Marty calling again and... COMPUTER VOICE Message deleted. . .Next message. BEEEEEP. Whitacre punches a button. COMPUTER VOICE (CONT'D) Message deleted. Whitacre punches the buttons on his cell phone angrily. Draft: 1/15/03 41. L SHEPARD (O.S.) FBI. WHITACRE It's Mark, Brian. It's been hard for me to return a page. I'm out of the country. SHEPARD (O.S.) We need to know if you had any further contact from Fujiwara? WHITACRE I told you, the guy has stopped calling. SHEPARD (O.S.) What about the price fixing? Have you been able to make any tapes. WHITACRE I think you guys hanging around has really scared ADM straight, too-- word is we're going to do things by the book. Mick said it's over. No more price fixing. A pause. Shepard is confused. SHEPARD (0.S.) What? When did this happen? This conversation. WHITACRE Mick sat me down and said 'Mark, we're going to start doing things your way.' SHEPARD (0. S. ) Mark, the FBI knows about these crimes-- we're gonna investigate either way. You told us yourself. WHITACRE Either way? What does "either way" mean? SHEPARD (O.S.) We really need to get together. Both Shepard and Whitacre are losing their patience. WHITACRE I told you, it's a different attitude now, a different approach. Draft: 1/15/03 42. Whitacre hangs up-- frustrated. He walks over to a table in the club where a middle aged German man is waiting-- REINHART RICHTER, 40. There are papers spread out in piles around the men-- stacks of loss, gain and opportunity. RICHTER Everything OK? WHITACRE Yeah, fine. Kids. Where we're we? Whitacre reaches underneath his suit coat into his shirt pocket and pulls out his pen. RICHTER Uh, Mark... Whitacre's FOUNTAIN PEN has exploded in his shirt-- leaving a Rorschach across his chest. Richter gestures toward the stain. Whitacre stares at the STAIN. WHITACRE (V.0.) One of the Japanese guys told me a story-- this lysine salesman is in a meeting with someone from Conagra or some other company, I don't know-and the client leans forward and says, `I have the same tie as you... only the pattern is reversed."-- and then he drops dead. Face down on the TABLE-ALIVE AND then... Dead... Brain aneurism... 45 INTERIOR HAMPTON INN, DECATUR- EVENING 45 Shepard and Herndon are waiting in the most generic of hotel rooms for Whitacre. They check their watches and peak out the drapes at a sparsely populated parking lot. They've been there awhile. Herndon eats a Granola bar and reads the side of the package. WHITACRE (V.O.) .Maybe everyone has a sentence like that; a little time bomb..."I have the same tie as you... only the patterns reversed." HERNDON There it is, "High Fructose Corn Syrup." Shepard isn't giving up on Whitacre, yet. Draft: 1/15/03 43. SHEPARD He said Andreas called him into a marketing meeting. HERNDON The government ought to charge him for the room. Shepard's cell phone rings. Herndon sighs-- HERNDON Here it comes. SHEPARD FBI... .Uh...huh. You're being honest with me, here... It's been months Mark-- we need some tapes. 46 INTERIOR WHITACRE BMW- NIGHT 46 Whitacre sits alone in the Hampton Hotel parking lot next to the mall, staring up at at a the lights of a room. WHITACRE I gotta go Bri, Andreas is coming. Whitacre opens his brief case and takes out the micro cassette recorder. He looks at it like it's a murder weapon. SHEPARD (O.S.) (over the phone) Mark, we could be tracing this phone call... WHITACRE I can't live two lives. They just gave me a hundred thousand dollar raise. I can't risk my job for you guys. I've got a family. I'm building stables across the road. SHEPARD But, you told us... WHITACRE The price fixing is over. - .the price of lysine is down to... And then remembering his lie. Feebly. WHITACRE Just a minute, Mick... The windows of the BMW are fogging up. Draft: 1/15/03 44. SHEPARD (O.S.) Mark, listen to me, the only logical thing for you to do is cooperate. WHITACRE And what if I don't? SHEPARD (O.S.) Then somebody else will and you'll end up being a defendant. WHITACRE For how long, Brian? How long does this go on for? Whitacre pushes the buttons on the recorder. He hits eject. There's no tape in the cradle. SHEPARD (O.S.) I wish I could answer that. Sometimes years. We'll need a lot of tapes-- maybe hundreds. WHITACRE But, the tapes won't say anything. It's over. Mick said.. .New policy. SHEPARD (O.S.) Fine, if that's what he said, then I want to hear the tape. We need tapes, Mark. A beat-- he finally admits it. The windows are completely fogged. WHITACRE I didn't make any, OK? I didn't make any because it's over. How can I prove it to you? 47 47 INTERIOR HOLIDAY INN HOTEL ROOM- NIGHT Whitacre sits shirtless on the bed with the straps of a polygraph across his torso. Herndon fits him with a blood pressure cuff and puts electrical clips on his fingers. WHITACRE (V.0.) I like my hands. I think they're probably my favorite part of my body. I think that can be used to my advantage in social situations-- if I can get people focused on my hands then I can get a good result in the meeting. (MORE) Draft: 1/15/03 45. WHITACRE (V.0.) (cont'd) Eye contact is real important, too. I'll use the lotion in the hotel room on my hands-- the little bottles. Single serving portions.. .Bob has good hands, too. Herndon takes out a list of questions and watches Whitacre closely. Shepard watches the needle on the polygraph. SHEPARD WHITACRE (V.0.) Now, Bob's going to ask you What do we lose-- a liter of questions, Mark. And you perspiration while we sleep? just need to answer them with That all goes into the a "yes" or "no." That's all mattress? Incredible. you have to say. HERNDON Are you married? WHITACRE Yes. HERNDON Have you ever lied to better your position? WHITACRE No. HERNDON We're you born in 1957? WHITACRE Yes. HERNDON Did Fujiwara ever telephone you at home and tell you there was a mole at ADM? WHITACRE Yes. HERNDON Before this year did you ever lie to someone you really trusted? WHITACRE No. Whitacre strains to see the read-out to see how he's doing. HERNDON Did Fujiwara say he would tell you who the mole was for 10 million dollars? Draft: 1/15/03 46. WHITACRE'S POV The needle traces a reassuringly straight line across the grid. WHITACRE Yes. And under... HERNDON WHITACRE (V.0.) Is there currently any price In Tokyo they sell little fixing activity in the girl underwear in the vending Bioproducts division of ADM? machines right on the main drag-the Ginza...or whatever. Guys in suits buying used girl panties, how is that OK? WHITACRE No. HERNDON Now, I'm going to ask you the same questions again to make sure the results are consistent. Whitacre nods and smiles. Watches the needle- rock steady. WHITACRE (V.0.) I wonder where Bob carries his gun. FBI agents have to wear them at all times-- even when they're off duty. HERNDON Are you married? WHITACRE Yes. WHITACRE (V.0.) I'd like to see Dwayne Andreas hooked up to one of these. HERNDON Have you ever lied to better your position? WHITACRE WHITACRE (V.O.) No. Once I told the stewardess I was claustrophobic so I could get an aisle seat... And under... Draft: 1/15/03 47. 48 INTERIOR HOLIDAY INN- HALLWAY 48 Shepard and Herndon step out of the room. Herndon speaks to Whitacre over his shoulder. HERNDON You can get dressed, Mark. The door closes and the agents look at each other. 49 INTERIOR HOLIDAY INN HOTEL ROOM- CONTINUOUS 49 Whitacre buttons his shirt and puts his tie back on. He looks out the hotel room window at the snow. In the parking lot a high school kid drinks a beer while trying to write his name in urine in the snowbank. WHITACRE (V.0.) They're all different. Every flake is it's own one-of-a-kind version of itself. And some people still don't believe in God. I mean what more proof do you need than that-- Herndon and Shepard re-enter. WHITACRE Hey, how'd I do? SHEPARD Mark, we have some problems... WHITACRE Wait a minute, I watched the machine, I didn't see any changes... SHEPARD Mark, you don't know how to read a polygraph. WHITACRE I've heard these things, they're not always 100 per cent accurate. I've been telling the truth. Definitely. Herndon plays the bad cop. HERNDON Mark, you splattered the walls with ink. Come on now, extortionists don't just leave their name and number then go away. Draft; 1/15/03 48. 1 Whitacre nods-- his eyes water, He sighs. SHEPARD (CONT'D) I know it's tough keeping it all bottled up inside, keeping it a secret. But, there's only one good choice for you. That's all there's ever been. There's something you're hiding, something you're keeping from us. But, the only way to protect yourself is to be completely honest. WHITACRE Okay. Shepard gets another form out of his brief-case. Not a basic 302 this time-- it's A CONFESSION. SHEPARD You realize this document can be used against you in a court of law. Whitacre nods grimly. HERNDON What happened with Fujiwara and the saboteur? A beat. WHITACRE I made it up. I had to... Shepard and Herndon cringe on his behalf. The floodgates open. Shepard transcribes the confession. WHITACRE (CONT'D) .We've had problems at the plant with viruses, we're way behind projections. Dwayne was thinking about shutting us down and everyone was on me to fix it. 'Let's just blame it all on Whitacre.' That's how it is there. It was my job they were talking about. We just moved here from Europe-they made me VP. SHEPARD And the reason you agreed to help ADM purchase a new bug? Draft: 1/15/03 49. WHITACRE I wanted to be part of the team. I thought it would help my relationship with Mick if he thought I would do something like that. HERNDON And what about the price fixing? It isn't over is it? There's no "new attitude." WHITACRE (DEFEATED) There's been meetings all along-- in the past three weeks even. Nothing's changed... Again, Whitacre's mind allows him to be two places at once... WHITACRE WHITACRE (V.O.) (UNDER) (OVER) .and not just in Lysine-- Mick Andreas or his Dad? citric acid, gluconate. One They'd never lie for me. They guy, he was forced to leave say we're in it together. the company because he What a joke. Team building wouldn't do it-- the off-site meetings at the some gluconate guy...he's out of a lake in Wisconsin-- I can't job now. They had me go to protect these guys if they're Chicago and meet with the breaking the law. Hey, I guys from Ajinomoto to try tried. Anybody could see the and set volume levels for choices I had. I did my best lysine production. It's a for ADM. You don't see them matter of dividing up the here in the electric chair. market between the producers It's all "Make us lysine, and then setting a workable Mark." "Handle the FBI, price. There's another Mark." "Crap us out some meeting in about a month. money, Mark." SHEPARD If there's anything else you want to add, now's the time. You need to tell us. WHITACRE No, that's the full story. HERNDON We want tapes, mark. He slides the confession across to Whitacre who nods and signs. He gives both agents Christmas cards and smiles. Draft: 1/15/03 50. WHITACRE I'll give you all the tapes you want. Merry Christmas you guys. 50 INTERIOR PARKING GARAGE ADM- MORNING 50 Whitacre aims the FERRARI into his designated parking space and gets out of the car. STEADICAM FOLLOWING WHITACRE He walks toward the building. As the camera arcs around to lead him we see that he is actually speaking out loud-- NOT IN VO. To nobody... WHITACRE Seven thirty A.M., Wednesday, March seventeenth, 1994. I have just parked my car and am now entering the office... Whitacre gets on the elevator with Terry Wilson. Whitacre's a little off this morning... s-- WHITACRE (CONT'D) Terrance Wilson, President of our corn businesses, did you speak with our friends in Japan? TERRY WILSON He wasn't in. WHITACRE I heard from Mimoto last night-- he is pissed. He said there's not going to be any peace in lysine until we bring production down like we promised. Theelevator doors opens. TERRY WILSON In 92 we did exactly what we told them we would do in terms of volume. Exactly. Right now, there's no promise. WHITACRE He said he'd like to talk to you at some point... Draft: 1/15/03 51. L TERRY WILSON Be right there lookin' at him. Say, "listen here you little mousy motherfucker." Wilson peels off into his office. Whitacre continues on across the open trading floor toward his office. He speaks under his breath to nobody-- smiling at the world. WHITACRE That was Terry Wilson talking about setting volume and price levels with our Japanese competitor-- Ajinomoto Corporation. Whitacre enters his own office--- talking to himself. WHITACRE (CONT'D) By the way, there was no discussion with Mimoto last night. That was all for illustration purposes only. I wanna make that clear- no discussion with Mimoto last night. He turns off the tape recorder. 51 INTERIOR HAMPTON INN- EVENING 51 Whitacre paces while Herndon and Shepard listen to a tape. He's got three more recordings in his briefcase. SHEPARD Hey, Mark you don't really need to narrate the tapes for us when you're making them. WHITACRE Right. Absolutely. Not a problem. HERNDON And you can talk less. WHITACRE I think I did on this one. Whitacre gives Herndon another tape and a small box. SHEPARD Don't force the conversation. WHITACRE But, they're good right? I mean, you guys wouldn't believe what goes on at these meetings. Draft: 1/15/03 52. WHITACRE (V.0.) I've got well over two million frequent flier miles.. .maybe more. The equivalent of two trips to the moon. I'm pretty much platinum across the board. Free upgrades... sometimes they'll move me from business to first just cuz the computer tells them I'm there... 52 52 EXTERIOR RITZ HOTEL- PARIS, FRANCE- DAY Whitacre emerges from the hotel and gets in a cab. WHITACRE (V.0.) And you can redeem them for anything now...A Movado watch or a fly-fishing vacation in Montana... Whitacre tells the driver... WHITACRE American Embassy please. WHITACRE (V.O.) It's like 5000 miles every time I go to Zurich, Paris, Munich...1 don't even know how many miles are in the Delta account...I just give Ginger the statements... I'm probably one of the youngest guys ever to go over a million miles...I get a letter from the CEO every year thanking me...it's a form letter, but it looks like he's really signing it...They probably walk in one day and he signs like a hundred while he's on the phone... Whitacre gets out of the car and walks into the embassy. Shepard meets him an ushers him into a room where a phone is hooked up to a recorder. SHEPARD You should probably use your ADM credit card... Whitacre dials the phone. WHITACRE Sure, great. You make it some place good for dinner last night? Draft: 1/15/03 53. SHEPARD I just ate in the hotel... WHITACRE The hotel...What'd you have? The call rings through. WHITACRE Hey, it's Mark Whitacre calling from Paris for Mick Andreas...Hey, it's Mark. I just got out of the lysine meeting... It went great...I think we can keep it at around a buck and a quarter no problem... Andunder... Shepard sneezes. WHITACRE'S POV He follows Shepard's hands from Kleenex, to coffee cup, to pen, to a tug on his ear... WHITACRE (V.0.) Now what happens? Something you breathe in on an airplane. Some little bacteria and now it's on his hands, the cup, the phone... Probably got it from his kids and now I'll spend the weekend with it in bed...And I'll miss a few days next week, or Alexander'11 run a fever and who pays for that? Where does the FBI weigh in on that- - as a cooperating witness-- what does it say about exposure to airborne contaminants...I3 ADM compensated for me missing work? 53 53 INTERIOR O'HARE AIRPORT- DAY Whitacre walks down the concourse carrying a BLACK FOLDER with ADM emblazoned on it. He turns into the bathroom and stares at himself in the mirror. He checks his HAIR and then opens the FOLDER. He removes the legal pad to reveal a secret compartment holding a small TAPE RECORDER. WHITACRE (into tape recorder) This is tape seven, side two.. .Chicago, O'hare airport... He looks at himself in the mirror. And then down at his feet. A BLACK CHUCKLE'S CANDY lies on the floor swarmed by ants. Draft: 1/15/03 54. WHITACRE POV The black chuckle being carted away by ants inches from his wing tips. WHITACRE (V.0.) That's a big break, right there-- definitely. There's no choices to be made. No debate. It's there-- you're an ant-- you eat it-- you bring it back for the other ants.. .They don't say they'd rather have the cherry flavored one... Real- simple to live like that. 54 INTERIOR GASLIGHT LOUNGE, O'HARE AIRPORT 54 Wilson sits at a table with two FRENCH EXECUTIVES-- ROLLIER AND CROUY. Wilson wields the FOUNTAIN PEN. The lounge did well in the 70's and has decided to stay there-- most everything is covered in red velvet, except for the waitresses-- they're covered in sequined body suits and fishnets. Whitacre returns from the bathroom. He puts the TAPE RECORDER/FOLDER on the table. Wilson rests his cocktail ON IT. WILSON We cannot have one section of the world where it works and the rest of the world where it doesn't. It will not last... WHITACRE (V.O.) Debate and discussion. They just keep the black one from making it home... ROLLIER We would obviously play the game. But, the Koreans and the Japanese... CROUY .They'll cheat. TERRY WILSON It'll never work then. A TRAY OF DRINKS attached to a WALKING CENTERFOLD goes by. Wilson leers... Draft: 1/15/03 55. TERRY WILSON (CONT'D) WHITACRE (V.0.) Look, everyone has to share Terry doesn't like me very numbers. It's so goddamn much ...He's got blotchy simple. How the hell else skin... What causes that would you do it? blotchiness?? It must mean It's what we do in the citric something medical... He'll acid business and look at the have a stroke and someone price of vitamins. will say-- `he was blotchy... it happens.' CROUY Let's not forget that if prices went up in Europe it's because we talked in Mexico first. TERRY WILSON That's right, you made it happen. 55 INTERIOR HAMPTON INN DECATUR- EVENING 55 Shepherd has headphones on-- he's excited by what he hears. Whitacre excitedly diagrams the world's Lysine market on a dry erase board for Herndon illustrating the relationships-- a primer in corporate greed. SHEPARD (loud because of the HEADPHONES) Mark, these are just the kind of tapes we need. TERRY WILSON (O.S.) (over the headphones) It didn't just go up like that-- you made it happen. WHITACRE And we're getting our marching orders from Andreas-it goes all the way up. SHEPARD (loud because of the HEADPHONES) We need to improve the quality of the recordings... WHITACRE Why don't you guys just bug the building? SHEPARD It's not that easy, Mark. There're a lot legal issues... Draft: 1/15/03 56. A beat. Herndon thinks. He has an idea. HERNDON Give me your pants. Whitacre undoes the pants of his SAGE GREEN SUIT. WHITACRE (V.0.) Being able to do two things at once is a big part of success. I try and do abdominal exercises... isometrics... even when I'm at a meeting. Tensing. Holding. And then releasing. And there are leg ones I do in the car. I'll even floss in the shower while the conditioner is in my hair. During the part where you're just supposed to leave it in. Those things can really add up to a significant time savings. 56 EXTERIOR WHITACRE DRIVEWAY- MORNING 56 Rusty the Gardener blows leaves off the driveway. Whitacre pulls out of the six car garage in a Lincoln Town Car. He yells at Rusty over the leaf blower. WHITACRE Hey, Rusty, check this out. Whitacre gets out of the car and places his briefcase on the hood. WHITACRE (CONT'D) What do you think? RUSTY THE GARDENER It's a nice briefcase. WHITACRE But, wait. Whitacre opens the briefcase and pulls a secret panel to reveal a TAPE RECORDER. He couldn't be more proud. WHITACRE (CONT'D) That's a Nagra model number 34-A, right there. The bureau had that custom made for me-- Mark Whitacre secret agent double 0, fourteen. RUSTY THE GARDENER Why double 0 fourteen? Draft: 1/15/03 57. WHITACRE Cuz I'm twice as smart as double 0 seven. 57 INTERIOR ADM CORPORATE JET- DAY 57 Whitacre, wearing the SAGE COLORED SUIT he gave Herndon, sits with Andreas and some ADM SUITS on the COMPANY PLANE. Andreas chats with one CO-WORKER and then turns to Whitacre. ANDREAS Whatever happened to that girl who was working for us-- didn't she move to California? What's her name, Tina? WHITACRE She's getting married. ANDREAS My Tina is getting married? WHITACRE Two or three weekends from now. ANDREAS That won't last for very long. She's kind of a do-do head, you know? She'll be back. I just hope she doesn't get pregnant. Fuck up her body. WHITACRE Uh. ANDREAS Nice body. It'd ruin her tits. She's got the greatest tits in the world... He leans in to Whitacre. ANDREAS In the world. Whitacre looks out the window at white billowing clouds. WHITACRE (V.0.) When polar bears hunt, they crouch down by a hole in the ice and wait for a seal to pop up. They keep one paw over their nose so that they blend in. Cuz' they've got those black noses. They'd blend in perfectly if not for the nose... Draft: 1/15/03 58. 58 EXTERIOR JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT, ORANGE COUNTY- DAY 58 Whitacre descends the steps of the jet followed by Andreas and some other SUITS. Whitacre peels off the group. WHITACRE I'm just gonna hit the head here. WHITACRE (V.0.) So the question is. How do they know their noses are black? From looking at other polar bears? Do they see their reflections in the water? And think, "I'd be invisible if not for that." That seems like a lot of thinking for a bear. 59 INTERIOR AIRPORT MEN'S ROOM- CONTINUOUS 59 An AFRICAN AMERICAN MAN, 30's, stands at the sink. Other than that the room is empty. AFRICAN AMERICAN MAN Mr. Whitacre, could you follow me? ? P - The two men enter a stall. AFRICAN AMERICAN MAN Can I ask you to remove your shirt? Whitacre obliges. WHITACRE (V.0.) There's something great about walking into a conference room when there's a pad of paper and a pencil in front of every chair. . .Most guys with a science background don't get to see what goes on... 60 INTERIOR MARRIOTT HOTEL CONFERENCE ROOM 60 A UNIFORMED HOTEL WORKER arranges the orange juice, coffee, croissants, melon plate. A pen and pad of paper is put in front of every seat. A FLIP CHART stands ready in the corner. The meticulous worker makes everything perfect, pausing for a moment to adjust A LAMP. Draft: 1/15/03 59. WHITACRE (V.0.) Usually the hotel's name is embossed on the pencils and they have someone who sharpens them to perfect points like collie dog noses-- that's what they remind me of. Maybe they come from the factory that way. And there's always a plate of danish...danishes?-- an almond thing-- or a cheese danish with a big cherry blob in the middle... 61 INTERIOR MEN'S ROOM- CONTINUOUS 61 The AFRICAN AMERICAN AGENT finishes shaving Whitacre's chest. He takes out a roll of surgical tape and attaches a small NAGRA RECORDER to WHITACRE. Small wires attach to switches sewn into Whitacre's pants pockets. WHITACRE (V.0.) The almond thing makes a lot of crumbs and I usually use my pencil to sweep them away like one of those tools professional waiters use at the Decatur Club... AFRICAN AMERICAN MAN You want to try it? Whitacre flips the pocket switch. WHITACRE Hey, neat. 62 EXTERIOR JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT- CONTINUOUS 62 Whitacre and Andreas duck into a limo. One of the ADM SUITS who flew in on the jet, slaps Andreas on the back. ADM SUIT Good luck with the Japs. And as your lawyer I'd advise you to pat `em down for wires. Andreas laughs at the suit, but Whitacre's not laughing. The limo pulls away. WHITACRE Uh, should we really pat them down? ANDREAS They don't have the balls to mess with ADM. Draft: 1/15/03 60. Whitacre sighs. WHITACRE (V.0.) When it's over the board of directors at ADM is gonna understand. They're gonna see the position I was in and that I acted in everyone's best interest, I think that's the only conclusion they can reach... 63 INTERIOR MARRIOTT HOTEL LOBBY- MOMENTS LATER 63 Whitacre, Andreas, Yamada and Ikeda get on the elevator. A sign says, "THE MARRIOTT WELCOMES AJINOMOTO CORPORATION AND ADM." WHITACRE (V.0.) I mean I'm the youngest division President they've ever had and I speak a number of languages fluently... 64 VIDEO IMAGE OF CONFERENCE ROOM 64 The same room we saw being prepared, now from the POV of a hidden camera. The four executives enter the room and move toward the table. Everything is perfect. Whitacre notices the LAMP and walks right toward it-- curious. The LAMP is the CAMERA. SHEPARD (V.0.) Look away, Mark, look away... Whitacre's face fills the wide angle lens. Shepard and Herndon huddle around the video monitor. HERNDON IS DRESSED LIKE A UNIFORMED HOTEL WORKER. SHEPARD is still dressed like a G-man from the 50's. HERNDON I told him it was in the lamp. 65 INTERIOR CONFERENCE ROOM- A LITTLE LATER 65 Whitacre turns from the lamp. The EXECS sit around the table eating the BAKED GOODS and discussing business. YAMADA We already spent more than one year, uh, to get better market situation in lysine. Draft: 1/15/03 61. WHITACRE We talked a little bit about it in Paris, but we need to have an understanding on volume. VIDEO IMAGE OF ANDREAS It's off center-- just the top of his head and then tilts down and zooms into his TIE. 66 INTERIOR SURVEILLANCE ROOM- CONTINUOUS 66 Shepard struggles with the joystick that controls the lipstick camera in the lamp-- his framing is way off. HERNDON Widen out, Bri, we need a wide shot of these guys working together. Still struggling with the joystick. 67 INTERIOR CONFERENCE ROOM- MARRIOTT HOTEL- CONTINUOUS 67 ANDREAS We have a big board of directors. We have public shareholders. Like you, we've suffered. Prices are nowhere near where we hoped they would be. Now the question is, if the market grows, who gets it? Ikeda goes over to the easel and makes a PIE CHART as a visual aid for Andreas' proposal. I ANDREAS .If Kyowa Hakko, Miwon and Cheil Corporation each get two thousand tons, then we can divide up the rest. If we're going to have any stability at all... And under... WHITACRE (V.0.) I think some of these ADM guys lie about their golf scores. It doesn't even matter and they still lie about it and that says something about character. (MORE) Draft: 1/15/03 62. WHITACRE (V.0.) (cont'd) I mean I've seen guys putt three times and say they got a par... Or they'll go off into the woods to find their ball and they'll move it from behind a tree or from under a leaf. I admit I've done it a couple of times-but I don't tell people I'm a really good golfer when I'm not...I'm sure if I worked at it... took lessons... Whitacre is distracted by a CLICKING SOUND. He shifts uncomfortably. Andreas notices the sound and pauses. WHITACRE'S POV His briefcase seems to be the source of the clicking. Ikeda gets Andreas' attention. IKEDA We need some specific number. AN DREAS What would you be willing to accept? Isn't that the question? More CLICKING. Whitacre nudges his briefcase. 68 INTERIOR SURVEILLANCE ROOM-CONTINUED 68 Shepard and Herndon. SHEPARD What's Mark doing? They pan over to Whitacre. He's OPENING the briefcase with the hidden tape recorder. HERNDON What an idiot! 69 INTERIOR CONFERENCE ROOM- MARRIOTT HOTEL- CONTINUOUS 69 As YAMADA approaches the easel with Andreas, Whitacre has opened his brief case. The clicking is coming from INSIDE. YAMADA The others will say that ADM has already eaten all the growth. Draft: 1/15/03 63. ANGLE ON WHITACRE He removes the panel concealing the tape recorder, fiddles with a pieces of the lining caught in the apparatus. ANDREAS (V.0.) You gotta remember we have a lot more capacity than we're using. We could be growing twenty thousand tons, isn't that right, Mark? Whitacre is still fiddling with the case. ANDREAS Mark? What're you doing? Andreas crosses the room and, without looking inside at the recorder that is ruining his life, shuts the case. ANDREAS I need your input here. VIDEO TAPE OF THE MEETING Ikeda is standing at the easel making calculations next to the pie chart. IKEDA (on the tape) ADM will be allocated it's recent production plus a number we will call alpha. 70 70 INTERIOR DEPT. OF JUSTICE CONFERENCE ROOM- CHICAGO Pull back to reveal Herndon and Shepard presenting their prized tape to ROBIN MANN ESQ, early 40's-- humorless and contrary. The tape plays... ROBIN MANN What did he say-- I can't understand him. ANDREAS (on the tape) I don't care what you call it, just as long as we get what we want. The men on the tape all laugh. Andreas walksaway.Whitacre and Ikeda shake hands. And then Whitacre ripsoffthe sheet of paper from the easel with the PIE CHART onit. Draft: 1/15/03 64. WHITACRE (on the tape) I guess I should probably keep this, huh? Shepard freezes the tape triumphantly. ROBIN MANN Where's the agreement? There's just a discussion. HERNDON If this isn't an agreement, then what are they doing there? SHEPARD Don't get bogged down in the words, look at the actions. ROBIN MANN I've looked. I see a chart with a bunch of numbers. But, I can't pinpoint any agreement per se. HERN DON What do you want? The guy is standing there dividing up the market plain as day. Herndon opens up the evidence bag and shows her the flip- chart page that Whitacre took at the end of the meeting-- a smoking gun. ROBIN MANN It could just be a proposal. All the other companies weren't there. Nobody used the word "agreement." I'm just telling you-- as a lawyer-- what their lawyers are going to say. Herndon and Shepard look at Whitacre FROZEN ON THE MONITOR. They are discouraged. HERNDON I don't know how much more we can ask of the guy. ROBIN MANN I'm not going to move for indictments with this. I need more. Draft: 1/15/03 65. 71 INTERIOR DECATUR CLUB- DAY 71 Whitacre sits with MARTY ALLISON, 35, who's voice we've heard on Whitacre's voice mail many times.. The two are old friends and co-workers-- Marty's been trying to get Mark's ear for some time now. They've got some business together. MARTY ALLISON I feel like a real jerk here, but I need the dough. WHITACRE Nah, we'll figure something out. MARTY ALLISON I hope it's not a big deal, but I've been looking at a house and I need the cash back. WHITACRE Marty, when I hired you, what did you want? MARTY ALLISON Fifty grand. WHITACRE But, I went to Wilson and told him you wouldn't work here for less than seventy-five-- and I got it. You were the first guy I hired. MARTY ALLISON Mark, you've always been real generous with me and... Whitacre waves off the flattery. WHITACRE I gotta leave town for a couple of days, but when I get back, here's what I want you to do... And under... WHITACRE (V.O.) I like to think of myself as a good gift-giver. It shows that you're thinking about the other person even when they're not right in front of you. (MORE) Draft: 1/15/03 66. WHITACRE (V.0.) (cont'd) I know that Ginger likes jewelry and that the kids like stuff from other countries... Even if you just pick it up at the duty free at the airport with whatever money you have left over. 72 INTERIOR HAMPTON INN HOTEL- NIGHT 72 Whitacre drops off more tapes for Shepard and Herndon. SHEPARD We got a problem, Mark. You can't take our equipment to Japan. We have no jurisdiction. WHITACRE So I'll take notes like in Vancouver. Whitacre takes out his Dictaphone and puts it on the bed. SHEPARD Well, sure, but there's something else I'd like you to think about. WHITACRE Okay. SHEPARD Like I said, we can't give you any recording equipment. HERNDON But, if you taped the meeting on your own and than gave us the tapes... WHITACRE So you want me to make a tape. HERNDON We're not allowed to say that. But, the sooner we get enough evidence, the sooner you can stop the taping. WHITACRE What if I get caught there? SHEPARD I don't know anything about Japanese laws, but if you're arrested, we may not be able to provide much help. Draft: 1/15/03 67. HERNDON That's why we need these lysine association meetings on US soil.. .Make it easier to wrap this up. Shepard picks up the recorder. SHEPARD You can't use any of our equipment. 73 INTERIOR HICKORY POINT MALL- LATER 73 Whitacre walks out of the RADIO SHACK with a small bag. WHITACRE (V.O.) I wonder if Brian and Bob are really allowed to do that-- it seems kind of shady...I probably should've gotten them to sign something just in case. Turned the tables on them seeing how I'm the one going above and beyond the call of duty... He heads out of the mall. 74 INTERIOR CONFERENCE ROOM IMPERIAL PALACE HOTEL- JAPAN 74 Whitacre, Wilson and a collection of ASIAN LYSINE EXECS discuss prices and customers. WILSON WHITACRE (V.0.) Do we want to talk about Guys tape meetings all the Latin America? time-- let's say a guy is dyslexic and he needs to take notes.. .What's he gonna do? Mimoto and Ikeda enter. IKEDA Good morning, we are late. WHITACRE No problem, no problem, you lost twenty- thousand tons, but, hey... The group laughs at the WACKY PRICE FIXING JOKE. Whitacre checks his watch. WHITACRE Excuse me...I gotta take a moment. Draft: 1/15/03 68. Whitacre walks down the hall toward the rest room. WHITACRE (V.0.) I read this thing about moustaches on the flight back from Zurich...What facial hair says to women about a man's level of honesty. I think maybe it was in Esquire Magazine... Some psychological theory... 75 INTERIOR BATHROOM- CONTINUOUS 75 Whitacre reaches into his suit jacket and takes out the recorder. He studies himself in the bathroom mirror and then flips the tape. WHITACRE (V.0.) I should ask Brian and Bob about it- - get the FBI's point of view... WHITACRE Imperial Palace Hotel, side two tape one... Just as he is putting the tape back into his jacket-- the door opens. ONE OF THE LYSINE EXECS enters. LYSINE EXEC Things are going well. Whitacre conceals the recorder. WHITACRE Want to get back in there. 76 INTERIOR MOVIE THEATER- NIGHT 76 Whitacre sits alone fully engrossed by the movie. ANGLE ON THE MOVIE SCREEN "The Firm." TOM CRUISE, as Mitch McDeere talks with FBI agent Wayne Tarrance, played by ED HARRIS at a DOGTRACK. MCDEERE Doesn't the dog ever get the bone? TARRANCE Yeah, I hear it happens every once in awhile. It's a disaster, they can never get that dog to run again. (MORE) Draft: 1/15/03 69. TARRANCE (CONT'D) Listen, Mitch, Mr. Boyles wants me to tell you how much the bureau appreciates... MCDEERE A million dollars. TARRAANCE What? MC DEERE A million dollars in a numbered account in Switzerland. IBG Bank International in Zurich. TARRANCE You sure as hell turned greedy overnight. MCDEERE .And my brother out now. TARRANCE Your brother is a convicted felon, Mitch. MCDEERE Then get yourself another snitch. Tarrance responds with a string of expletives and threats to knock McDeere's teeth down his throat. His verbal assault is put to a halt when his phone rings. It's Holly Hunter calling from the nearby parking lot. She plays Tarrance an incriminating tape of what he has just said. McDeere is wearing a wire. McDeere has him now. MCDEERE You want to reconsider? WHITACRE (V.0.) Most of the guys the government gets to do the tough stuff are probably drug dealers and mafia guys. I'm probably the only guy like me they've ever met-- 77 EXTERIOR RURAL HIGHWAY- NIGHT 77 Whitacre drives his new RANGE ROVER through the darkness. Draft: 1/15/03 70. WHITACRE (V.0.) Maybe there's some guy who spied on the Russians and they had to put him in that witness protection unit... It's just me and some Russian guy who's now a girl's soccer coach in New Mexico or something... 78 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION BEDROOM- NIGHT 78 Whitacre tries to creep into the dark room without waking his wife. He starts to get undressed. Her voice in the darkness surprises him. GINGER Were you with Brian and Bob all this time? WHITACRE Yeah, we had to go over some tapes and... GINGER Mark, Brian called-- I know you weren't with him. Busted. GINGER Did you go again? WHITACRE I needed to unwind. GINGER You've seen that picture like five times now... She turns on the light to discuss her concerns. Mark is standing there without his shirt on-- A LARGE PATCH OF HAIR is missing from the middle of his chest. WHITACRE What's wrong with that? GINGER What's wrong? Why is your chest shaved, Mark? Why are there holes cut in your suit clothes? Why aren't you a part of this family anymore? Whitacre tries to laugh off her concern. He sits down on the bed and puts her hand on his smooth chest. Draft: 1/15/03 71. WHITACRE You know they needed to shave me for the tape recorder. They needed to... I'm a part... GINGER I need you at home, the kids need you to be their father. WHITACRE I'm doing all this for you and the kids. I didn't ask for this-- but I want to give this family everything. That's why I'm working so much. GINGER I don't know who you work for anymore, Mark. Do you? A beat. He smiles warmly at her. 79 INTERIOR FBI DECATUR- DAY 79 Warm summer day-- out the window the smoke stacks of ADM send plumes of white smoke into the blue sky. Shepard and Herndon sit in their SHIRTSLEEVES transcribing tapes in the tiny office. There's a knock on the door. Shepard checks to see who it is through the eye-hole. Whitacre enters wearing the SAGE COLORED SUIT- full of confidence. WHITACRE Hey guys, I was in the neighborhood. I got some more tapes. SHEPARD Thanks, Mark. Come on in. WHITACRE And I've learned some important things recently. I've been told I'm probably going to be the next President of ADM. He glows. HERNDON Really? SHEPARD Who told you that? Draft: 1/15/03 72. R WHITACRE And that's not all. I'd say that ten of the products produced by ADM are price fixed. SHEPARD Ten? WHITACRE I would estimate that for all the companies involved, the total extra profit is in the range of 800 million to one billion dollars. That's just from the price-fixing. SHEPARD Can you tell us what products? Whitacre smiles-- he's got something else on his mind. WHITACRE You know, Brian, if all these companies are charged, they're going to be paying an awful lot in fines. Don't you think? SHEPARD I don't know, they might end up paying. But, nobody knows for sure how this will turn out. HERNDON We still need to get everyone together making an actual agreement before we have a case. WHITACRE Sure, sure I know that. But, I've taken a lot of risks and I need to think about my family. SHEPARD What do you mean? WHITACRE Well, I'd like it if, in their fine, ADM was ordered to pay me ten year's salary. SHEPARD Well, Mark... WHITACRE It's only fair. Also, one other thing. (MORE) Draft: 1/15/03 73. WHITACRE (CONT'D) I never expected this investigation would go on as long as it has. It's been almost two years and I think I should get total immunity if I agree to cooperate through the end. SHEPARD I can't grant you immunity Mark, you know that. Whitacre smiles wishfully like a big kid. Herndon senses that something's up. HERNDON Hey, Mark, it's kind of warm in here-- why don't you take off your jacket, sit down and we can talk about this. WHITACRE Oh, no, Bob, that's okay. Let me know if you want to reconsider. Whitacre leaves. Herndon looks at Shepard. SHEPARD What was that about? 80 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- MARK'S OFFICE- EVENING 80 Whitacre labels the tape of the FBI agents and tosses it in a box-- with other tapes. WHITACRE (V.0.) These floods out on the Mississippi, you have to think about these. It just looks like some boy scouts and sand bags on the news-right until you have your stock plummet because of crop losses... Then it looks like someone's knee deep in your kids college education looking for their photo albums.. .Brian doesn't understand stock options. He doesn't see what can happen if they take those away from me. $1 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- MASTER BEDROOM- NIGHT 81 Ginger alone in bed at 3 AM during a rain storm. The regular patter of rain is punctuated by the sound of a SMALL ENGINE. She gets out of bed and goes to the window. Draft: 1/15/03 74. Whitacre stands in his bathrobe in the rain with the LEAF BLOWER. There's one wet leaf stuck to the pavement and he's focussed the full power of the blower on it but it's not going anywhere. Three deer stand like statues in the yard, oblivious to the rain. WHITACRE (V.O.) We got a deer problem here. They're in the corn, they're eating the small trees, they charge into the road. Too many deer. Take away all the predators and that's going to happen.. .No bears, no coyotes...So now you have all these deer-- weak and desperate. ANGLE ON THE DEER Close enough to hear the rain on their METAL BODIES. They are YARD STATUES. WHITACRE (V.0.) And then one gets sick and they all get sick. Because they're broke and hungry and they make mistakes. Who's fault is that? You can't blame the deer for not having predators... 82 EXTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION DRIVEWAY- NIGHT/RAIN 82 Ginger approaches in her night gown under an umbrella. GINGER Mark, what are you doing? Whitacre can't tear himself away from the lone leaf. GINGER Come inside Mark, what's happening to you? She takes his arm and tries to lead him toward the house, but he turns on her. His eyes are filled with terror. She turns off the blower. WHITACRE You want to be someone living in some small house? You want to be like those people who can't afford cars for their kids? Draft: 1/15/03 75. GINGER You're not better than somebody else because you have more cars or a bigger salary. Or some stables across the road. You used to know that, you used to know what mattered. You need to find that out again-- you need to turn to God. Whitacre stares at the leaf, trying to move it with his will. WHITACRE (softly so God won't hear) I don't need God. 83 INTERIOR ADM WHITACRE'S OFFICE- DAY 83 Whitacre flags down KIRK SCHMIDT, 40, a co-worker and a friend who is passing by. WHITACRE Hey, Kirk, I'm gonna be heading off to Europe and I was thinking I'd deliver the check for the ABP deal in person. SCHMIDT Remind me, ABP deal? WHITACRE Threonine microbe, they've made some substantial improvements and we need to get it into the market. I got the invoice somewhere... He fishes it out of a pile of papers and slides it across the desk. SCHMIDT We can overnight it. WHITACRE Nah, I'm gonna see this Thorstensson guy. I'll just hand it to him. SCHMIDT Then I'll get it over. Lysine's going great guns Mark, price is up to one-twenty. Out the window of the office Andreas looks at the tote board and smiles broadly-- he gives Whitacre a big thumbs up. Whitacre smiles and flashes a thumbs up back. Draft: 1/15/03 76. L 84 EXTERIOR SAVOY BAUR EN VILLE, ZURICH- DAY 84 Whitacre emerges from the elegant hotel and heads down the crowded Bahnhofstrasse. WHITACRE (V.0.) ADM: Supermarket to the world.. .We'll have to change that. When it all comes out-- maybe the board'11 want to change the name of the company altogether. Like when all those companies became Beatrice in the 80's. There was that woman, `We're Beatrice...' They made light bulbs and corn and everything... Whitacre enters the SWISS BANK CORPORATION. He approaches A UNIFORMED PORTER. WHITACRE Guten Morgen, Ich mochte Herr Brief finden, bitte? The porter points toward a desk. WHITACRE Danke schon. Whitacre approaches a SECRETARY. Behind him another woman shrieks and falls down. The heel has broken on her shoe. Her papers scatter everywhere-- the secretary smirks at the FALLEN WOMAN. WHITACRE WHITACRE (V.0.) Guten Tag...Wie gehts es They have a word for laughing Ihnen? Ich suche Herr Briel, at the misfortune of others. bitte. A word for that. Schadenfreude ... We don't have any words for that kind of thing. In a way, it's not really funny. The secretary buzzes and moments later a wooden door opens. DANIEL BRIEL emerges smiling. BRIEL Mr. Whitacre ...Wie gehts? Gut dass wir uns eben getroffen haben. The two men vanish behind a door. WHITACRE (V.O.) Brian and Bob always ask me if I do much sightseeing on business trips-They don't understand. (MORE) Draft: 1/15/03 77. WHITACRE (V.0.) (cont'd) You fly in, go to the meeting, go to the hotel, go to another meeting and get back on the plane. It's not that glamorous. 85 85 INTERIOR HAMPTON INN- AFTERNOON Whitacre hands another small stack of tapes to Shepard and Herndon-- The agents are very excited, Whitacre has good news. WHITACRE We're having another association meeting to work out some issues in lysine-- dividing up volume, setting prices for some markets. SHEPARD Europe again? WHITACRE There's a price fixing investigation into cement manufacturing there-- it has everybody spooked. Europe's out. Y` HERNDON We can't video tape in Japan-- that's not gonna help us. WHITACRE Hawaii. SHEPARD Hawaii? HERNDON What's his name, Mimoto, we have him saying on tape-- last fall that... He checks a three ring note-book full of transcriptions. HERNDON .they were "concerned about severe penalties for anti-trust in the US." Whitacre smiles, very impressed with himself. SHEPARD So, why are they coming to the US? WHITACRE I got the association past their fears. Draft: 1/15/03 78. L ANGLE ON A GOLF BALL Crushed by a driver-- the grass and tee fly. WHITACRE (V.0.) The state bird of Hawaii is the Nay Nay-- it's a kind of land based goose and the state motto is va mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono-- the customer is the enemy and the competitor is your friend. 86 EXTERIOR SHERATON MAKAHA GOLF COURSE- OAHU 86 Mimoto, Ikeda, Whitacre, Wilson and ANOTHER FOURSOME OF ASIAN LYSINE EXECS crowd around a tee box in their golf clothes. Mimoto watches his drive split the palm lined fairway and head toward the Pacific. Wilson tees up his ball. TERRY WILSON What should we play for? MIMOTO If we win, we get Tyson Foods. All the execs laugh at the thought of dividing up the world's lysine market through golf. An EXEC IN A VISOR chimes in. VISOR Or, we could play a thousand tons a stroke. IKEDA We already know Whitacre's score-- sixty seven plus alpha. More laughter. WHITACRE (V.0.) I got a hole-in-one once-- back in Ohio when I was about eighteen. There was a little blurb in the paper and I won a windbreaker from the country club...I still have the news clipping somewhere stashed away for safe keeping... THE T-BOX THROUGH A CROSS-HAIRS A series of photographs are snapped of the golfers. F Draft: 1/15/03 79. 87 87 A NEARBY HILLSIDE Herndon and Shepard snap photographs with a very long lens from a golf cart parked on hillside. WHITACRE (V.0.) But, mainly I was active in the local 4-H Club. I think 4-H is a real good thing for kids...I got a lot of recognition from them and it's not just some local thing. It's a federal program-- part of the Department of Agriculture. OTHER FBI AGENTS dressed for the links shadow the lysine execs using LONG RANGE RECORDING EQUIPMENT. 88 INTERIOR SHERATON MAKAHA- ANOTHER HOTEL ROOM 88 Herndon and Whitacre-- like a boxer and his corner man. HERNDON Just remember-- I want you to poll the room and get them to use the word "agreement." WHITACRE Okay, Bob. It's gonna be a great meeting. HERNDON Let the action come to you. WHITACRE I gotta talk, Bob. HERNDON I know that... WHITACRE I mean, I'm representing ADM. Otherwise, everybody would be suspicious. HERNDON You can talk. Just don't dominate. We want to see others involvement. OK? WHITACRE Definitely. HERNDON It's that time again. Draft: 1/15/03 80. WHITACRE Oh, sure no problem. Whitacre takes off his shirt as the two men face each other in the hotel room-- an uncomfortable moment. Herndon starts spreading shave cream across Whitacre's chest. WHITACRE (V.0.) When it's over I think we'll be friends, all of us. Good friends. I'll have Bob over and Brian and we'll bar-b-que. Maybe not so much with some of the guys over at ADM-- probably not Mick and Terry...But guys like Sid and Marty and Rheinhard we've been through a lot together... 89 EXTERIOR POOL SIDE- SHERATON RESORT 89 Wilson, Mimoto, Ikeda and Visor sip umbrella drinks TERRY WILSON We can't be manipulated by these Goddamn buyers. Thank God we have them, but they are not my friends. The men all nod. Whitacre appears pool side and begins to unbutton his Hawaiian shirt. Wilson turns to Ikeda. TERRY WILSON You're my friend. I want to be closer to you than I am to any customer, cause you can make it so I can make money or I can't make money. And all I want... Nobody is listening to him. They all stare at Whitacre. A LARGE PATCH OF HIS CHEST HAIR IS SHAVED. WHITACRE What? Whitacre looks down at his chest-- so does everyone else. Whitacre's got some explaining to do. WHITACRE Oh, that. Nah, I had to take this physical for some life insurance the wife wanted. They shaved me for the heart thing. Itches... Whitacre smiles shyly and settles into the pool. Draft: 1/15/03 81. WHITACRE (V.0.) It's not really lying when you're doing it to serve some greater purpose...I think that's what God would say-- it's not all cut and dry-- like that and you can't really send a lie out into the world on its own, you wouldn't do that with a child per se...A lie needs the company of other lies-- and so it may look like a lot of lies in the end, but it's really just the first one that counts... 90 INTERIOR SHERATON MAKAHA- MEETING SUITE 90 A medium sized room overlooking the grounds. Orange Juice and fruit trays and an easel in the corner. The room seems a little cramped for the number of men assembling-- Whitacre, Wilson, Mimoto, Ikeda and a number of others from Asia and Europe. Whitacre searches for SOMETHING. TERRY WILSON Damn Mark, can't you call and get us a bigger room. This is crazy. WHITACRE Anyone seen my briefcase? MIMOTO We move to bigger room. They start to pack up their stuff. Whitacre panics. WHITACRE No, no. I don't think they have one... . Is my brief case behind the flip-chart? 91 INTERIOR SURVEILLANCE ROOM- TWO ROOMS AWAY 91 Herndon enters with the BRIEF CASE-- Shepard is watching Whitacre on a monitor with other JUNIOR AGENTS. HERNDON He left it in his room. 92 INTERIOR SHERATON MAKAHA- MEETING SUITE 92 I• Whitacre on the phone. Draft: 1/15/03 62. WHITACRE Yeah, it's just there's more of us than we expected. Nothing larger? Really? Can you check again... CU ON THE PHONE BASE Whitacre's finger holds down the receiver switch. He's talking to no one. Mimoto picks up his chair and moves it right in front of THE LAMP/CAMERA. Another problem. WHITACRE Call us if anything opens up. It's Whitacre, Mark Whitacre. He hangs up and crosses toward Mimoto. WHITACRE Uh, Mr. Mimoto, I think you might be able to see the easel better... WHITACRE (V.O.) You think Mimoto would be any different in my position? They have guys filing expense reports for sex trips to Bangkok at Ajinomoto Corporation...Any of these guys who have kids and found themselves in a bind with the authorities... 93 INTERIOR SHERATON MAKAHA- SURVEILLANCE ROOM 93 A suite down the hall. Shepard stares at the back of Mimoto's chair on the monitor. Helpless. They've come a long way to go back empty handed. Suddenly the room comes into view as Whitacre moves the chair from in front of THE LAMP/CAMERA. WHITACRE (on the monitor) What if we just move your chair over here. SHEPARD Thatta boy, Mark. 94 INTERIOR SHERATON MAKAHA- MEETING SUITE 94 Terry Wilson starts the meeting. Draft; 1/15/03 83. I TERRY WILSON I'd like to welcome everybody here, glad everyone could make it and sorry for those who can't play golf tomorrow-- we're gonna have a good time. Whitacre's POV-- he scans the room. TERRY WILSON WHITACRE (V.0.) We have an old saying at ADM It's like that game on TV that applies here. It's where one guy knows a word better to have the elephants and tries to make the other inside the tent pissin' out, one say it... another word for than outside pissin' in. "deal"...how about "consensus," or "understanding." Maybe they'd take "deal"-- that's like "agreement.".. MIMOTO Outside piss? Language problem again. TERRY WILSON It's better to be part of the group. WHITACRE Competitors are our friends, remember? Customers the enemy. The group nods in agreement with Whitacre's translation. JM SUH of Cheil Corporation takes issue with this. The two argue... Whitacre looks at SUH, who is LOSING HIS HAIR... SUH WHITACRE (V.0.) I want to know why Cheil Male pattern hair loss can be Corporation has been excluded a real set back...I mean a from association in the past. lot of women, their father's are bald so they're kind of used to it...But, still seeing it in the drain every morning in your thirties, that's not fair at all and this Minoxidil thing-- it's not really, a cure... MIMOTO I explain it to you on the phone many times... Suh is kind of a baby-- Mimoto doesn't like him. Wilson steps in. Draft: 1/15/03 84. J-- TERRY WILSON If the market is what we think it is... There's a KNOCK ON THE DOOR. Conversation ceases. WHITACRE We have a couple other people joining us I think? MR. CHAUDRET from EUROLYSINE is making himself a fruit plate. MR. CHAUDRET From Sewon in Korea. MIMOTO And one from the FBI? Whitacre freezes. He's caught. He looks at the business men... DO THEY ALL KNOW? WHITACRE (V.0.) That's why there can't be any leaves on the walk. They give it away-Like the ants-- they can see a trail of ants... Mimoto smiles right at Whitacre-- the walls close in, and then, the room bursts into laughter. Whitacre gets it. He smiles back. WHITACRE And seven from the Federal Trade Commission. IT'S ALL A JOKE. More laughter and more knocks. Whitacre goes to the door. Mimoto calls out. MIMOTO Yes? FTC? Whitacre opens the door to find HERNDON DRESSED LIKE A HOTEL EMPLOYEE-- he hands Whitacre the brief case. HERNDON This was left in the lobby. The concierge thought it might belong to one of you gentleman. WHITACRE Okay. Hey, thanks. Herndon closes the door. Draft: 1/15/03 85. MR. CHAUDRET You forgot your briefcase in the lobby? WHITACRE When I was signing for the food-- I must've left it. MR. CHAUDRET In Paris it would have already been sold. More laughter. VIDEO MONITOR SUH How can we know ADM will stay at agreed upon levels? TERRY WILSON Our preference is to trust each other. If we find someone lyin'-- then we hire some mafia figure and rub you out. The group laughs. TERRY WILSON If we can't trust each other in the end, it ain't gonna work. MIMOTO You are okay for that? A beat. SUH Yeah, I'm all right. WHITACRE So what are we saying then? Wilson looks at Whitacre like he's an idiot. TERRY WILSON What, is there a language problem here? WHITACRE So, everyone is, uh... They just said so. It's like Whitacre is playing Password. Draft: 1/15/03 86. MIMOTO Agreed. Uh, five companies agree on quantity for the first time. The men all smile at each other-- hand shakes and high fives. 95 INTERIOR DEPT OF JUSTICE CONFERENCE ROOM- CHICAGO 95 Shepard and Herndon have been playing the new tape for Robin Mann and US ANTITRUST ATTORNEY JAMES MUTCHNIK. Shepard and Herndon beam with pride. SHEPARD Agreement... you heard it. He hits rewind and plays it again. MUTCHNIK ROBIN MANN A jury's gonna love that. Congratulations. MUTCHNIK Christ, how about this guy Whitacre? What's his story? SHEPARD What do you mean? MUTCHNIK What's his agenda? The guy's making 350 grand a year, he's moving up the ladder and he turns informer. When does that happen? Is the money going up his nose? Some woman somewhere with a kid that he's seeing on one of these business trips? What's his story? Shepard and Herndon are offended on behalf of Mark. Herndon reaches into his briefcase and pulls out a GREETING CARD. HERNDON I wanted everyone to see this. This is Mark Whitacre and his family. The group passes it around. A photo of Whitacre Family smiling in front of their Christmas Tree. HERNDON I carry this picture with me all the time as a constant reminder that he is a real person with a real family depending on him. The only reason we have these tapes is because of this man. (MORE) Draft: 1/15/03 87. HERNDON (CONT'D) We want to know that when the time comes, if he loses his job, the government is going to stand behind him. ROBIN MANN What's he looking for? SHEPARD About eighteen grand a month. He hands her a folder of Whitacre's expenses. 96 EXTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- NIGHT 96 Whitacre rides down the shoulder of the two lane, past the towers of the grain elevators-- to a railroad crossing and rumbling out of the darkness, comes another 100 box cars of what America needs for tomorrow and each one of those cars says: ADM. WHITACRE (V.O.) We took the kids one year to the Renaissance festival in Indiana.. .You get to be the White Knight.. .The kids get to ride in the joust against the forces of darkness with a helmet on. And the White Knight always wins, the forces of darkness fall onto an old mattress...It was maybe ninety degrees out and the heat and humidity index-- I can't even remember what the radio said. 97 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- MASTER BEDROOM- NIGHT 97 Ginger lies alone in bed, eyes open, train whistles in the night. It's 4 a.m. WHITACRE (V.0.) We were next in line and the mare collapsed-- went down in a heap. Ginger was eating ye olde drumstick and she dropped it in the dirt. The kids were crying and I remember this farmer saying he had a gun in his truck... Just like that. From the White Knight to a gun in the truck-How do you get that back? How does that get to be fair? Draft: 1/15/03 88. 98 EXTERIOR ST. MARY'S HOSPITAL- DECATUR 98 Whitacre pulls into the parking lot in a brand new PORSCHE 911. Shepard gets out of a black sedan and crosses the lot. He climbs into the shiny red car. WHITACRE (off the Porsche) Hey, Brian, how do you like it? Shepard takes in the car. SHEPARD It's a beauty. How was Hong Kong? WHITACRE Real good-- we're going to be taking the lysine prices up again. He hands Shepard an envelope. SHEPARD We're gonna wanna hear how the company responds when we move in. Shepard hands him some tapes and batteries. He grabs the BRIEF CASE off the backseat. SHEPARD You want me to load you up right now? WHITACRE That's okay, Brian. It's kind of packed with work anyway. Whitacre stops Shepard from opening the case-- he takes the tapes and puts them in his lap. WHITACRE (CONT'D) I'll see you at the briefing. Whitacre watches Shepard walk away then opens the briefcase. ANGLE ON THE BRIEFCASE It's filled with TENS OF THOUSANDS IN CASH. WHITACRE (V.O.) Marty Allison, Sid Hulse, and the other guys will understand-- they've worked with me. (MORE) Draft: 1/15/03 89. WHITACRE (V.0.) (cont'd) They saw what I was trying to do for everyone... Those guys know me-They'd back me up all the way-- family and friends are the most important thing. That's the lesson. 99 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- MASTER BEDROOM- MORNING 99 Whitacre picks a tie to go with his TAPE RECORDER SUIT. He sees good things on the horizon. But, Ginger's got another point of view. GINGER Mark, are you an idiot? WHITACRE I'm gonna be the only one left. Dwayne will be gone. Mick will be gone. Terry will be gone. I'm going to be the only one who can run ADM. GINGER That's totally illogical. How can you possibly stay there when you've dust taken down the company? You think they're going to pat you on the back? WHITACRE I'm next in line. GINGER It's the FBI, right? They're brainwashing you. Brian Shepard put these ideas in your head to keep you working for him. She storms out-- Whitacre checks his hair in the mirror. WHITACRE I'm telling you, they're gonna make me president. SHEPARD (PRE-LAP) How's your family doing? 100 INTERIOR HAMPTON INN- EVENING 100 Shepard, Herndon, Whitacre, Mann, Mutchnik and A HOST OF OTHER AGENTS prepare for the raid. The cheap hotel room has been transformed into a COMMAND CENTER. Draft: 1/15/03 90. There's a MAP OF DECATUR on the wall with push-pins at various locations and A CHART of which agent will contact which ADM executive. WHITACRE They're good. They'll be at an amusement park when you guys make your move. ROBIN MANN Whatever happens tomorrow, it may be in your best interest to get an attorney who represents your interests alone. Whitacre is confused. WHITACRE You want me to go and hire an attorney now? HERNDON No, not now... MUTCHNIK The first thing that's going to happen is the company lawyers are going to come to all the executives with a list of attorneys for you to pick from. You gotta understand, these attorneys are being paid by ADM. They don't represent you. Do not take one of these attorneys, that's when you say to them that you have your own attorney. SHEPARD Tell them you've decided to cooperate with the government. MUTCHNIK It's perfectly reasonable for you to cooperate. It happens all the time. WHITACRE Well, I know a lawyer in Decatur... SHEPARD No, Mark. The town's too small. MUTCHNIK I'm sure you've met lawyers in your business dealings who can handle this. Draft: 1/15/03 91. WHITACRE Oh, definitely. He searches his mind for who that might be. SHEPARD Now, Mark once this thing starts it's going to be intense. They're going to know that somebody was on the inside working with us. They're going to do almost anything to find out who it is. WHITACRE You guys still think everything will work out okay for me at the company? They'll take out the bad guys, but I'll be okay? 101 INTERIOR DECATUR CLUB DINING ROOM-CONTINUOUS 101 Mauve covered tables patrolled by bow-tied wait staff. Wood paneling, botanical drawings of the Illinois state flowers on the wall, serrated steak knives on the table. Whitacre and Wilson dine with a VISITING CLIENT, 35. They're a couple of cocktails into the swagger of American Business. TERRY WILSON Come on Mark, you're making that up. WHITACRE No, it's true. Archer, The "A" in ADM, choked to death on a chicken bone in 1947. TERRY WILSON There you have it from Mark Whitacre, Ph.D. You know what the Ph.D. is for? Piled Higher and Deeper. VISITING CLIENT And let me guess, Daniels was killed by a pig and the cows got Midland? Booze soaked laughter all around. ANGLE ON HERNDON AND SHEPARD At the hostess stand whispering-- the hostess drops her menus. Draft: 1/15/03 92. TERRY WILSON So, a chicken got Archer-- but fifty years later when you look at our deals with Tyson, Foster Farms-- what's the body count? More laughter. The agents walk up to the table. HERNDON Excuse me. Mr. Wilson, Mr. Whitacre-- I'm Bob Herndon and I'm an FBI agent. This is Special Agent Shepherd. WHITACRE TERRY WILSON Jesus, what is it? What's What's this about? SHEPARD Why don't we step over there. Wilson is baffled. Whitacre feigns surprise-- they both look to their client. TERRY WILSON I have no idea what this is. Wilson gets up from the table. Whitacre is shaken. TERRY WILSON (CONT'D) Do I need an attorney. WHITACRE Attorney? Christ. HERNDON Mr. Whitacre, if I can ask you to step outside with Agent Shepard and Mr. Wilson, if you could have a seat. The men move away from the table leaving the Visiting Client baffled and all alone-- a STUNNED WAITRESS approaches him. STUNNED WAITRESS Would you like to see the dessert menu? 102 EXTERIOR DECATUR CLUB- EVENING 102 Shepard and Whitacre descend the steps of the club and head for the FBI cruiser. Draft: 1/15/03 93. WHITACRE (V.O.) I saved a guy once at a restaurant in Hong Kong. He was choking on a bone and I got him to throw himself over the back of his chair. He sends me cards on holidays... Just to say thanks...tells me what his kids are studying. He remembers me. 103 INTERIOR DECATUR CLUB VESTIBULE- CONTINUOUS 103 Herndon and Wilson. TERRY WILSON You have a reason for embarrassing my colleague and I in front of a business prospect? HERNDON Mr. Wilson you're president over at Archer Daniels Midland Corporation, correct? TERRY WILSON I run the corn business. HERNDON This is a serious matter. It involves an international investigation into price fixing... 104 104 EXTERIOR DECATUR CLUB- SIMULTANEOUSLY Shepard and Whitacre. SHEPARD Why don't we talk in the car. 105 105 INTERIOR DECATUR CLUB-CONTINUOUS Herndon and Wilson. HERNDON We've seen you and your boss, Mick Andreas, conspire with your competitors to fix prices. We've seen you tell others to do it. Draft: 1/15/03 94. L 106 INTERIOR ARCHER, DANIELS HEADQUARTERS- NIGHT 106 FBI agents flash badges and warrants to a night security guard and fan out down the corridors-- entering offices, seizing documents. HERNDON (V.0.) There are going to be indictments. Search warrants have been issued... 107 EXTERIOR NICE NEIGHBORHOOD DECATUR, ILLINOIS- NIGHT 107 FBI agents roll up the drive way and approach A MIDDLE AGED MAN watering his plants. HERNDON (V.0.) and some people, people you know and work with will be going to jail. The MIDDLE AGED MAN drops the hose and goes inside with the FBI agent. Pull back to reveal TWO OTHER HOUSES on the street have FBI CRUISERS parked in their driveways. HERNDON (V.0.) (CONT'D) We're giving you a chance... 108 INTERIOR DECATUR CLUB-CONTINUOUS 108 Wilson sits motionless cradling his High Ball. Out the window, Whitacre and Shepard are just shapes in the Dodge. HERNDON A chance to be able to look your grandchildren in the eye someday and tell them you did the right thing... WILSON'S POV Wilson looks out the window and sees Whitacre in the FBI cruiser. 109 INTERIOR SHEPARD'S CAR- NIGHT 109 Whitacre and Shepard watch Herndon and Wilson in the foyer. Whitacre is in the middle of an adrenaline rush two-and-a- half years in the making. Draft: 1/15/03 95. WHITACRE Look at that, look at Bob and Terry. Man, I'd love to be a fly on the wall for that one. I was good wasn't I? I seemed scared. Shepard tries to calm him down, get him to focus. SHEPARD Remember what we told you, Mark: tell them that you're cooperating first thing and whatever you do, do not take one of their lawyers. 110 110 INTERIOR WHITACRE'S MERCEDES BENZ COUPE- NIGHT Whitacre and Wilson. Whitacre is in a feigned panic. WHITACRE What did you say to your guy? TERRY WILSON Nothing. I told him nothing. Slow down. WHITACRE Me, too. TERRY WILSON He said he had tapes-- that he'd heard price fixing tapes. . .What the fuck is that? I can't believe they would pull this shit on Dwayne Andreas... The car skids into a turn up a very long drive toward the kind of mansion that comes from price fixing. WHITACRE I bet they tapped the phones-- I always said that about them. I bet it's phone calls. TERRY WILSON Maybe, but what's that? WHITACRE You know, I get phone calls from time to time, Terry. TERRY WILSON I know, I know. Draft: 1/15/03 96. WHITACRE (V.0.) Terry never liked me...He's a dinosaur. A fossil. The Andreas' bully, is all he ever was. He was never going to run the place. Those guys never do, they just use them to find the land mines... MICK ANDREAS, Mid 40's appears in the headlights-- shirt un- tucked, holding a drink. 111 111 EXTERIOR ANDREAS MANSION DRIVEWAY- CONTINUOUS Gnats swarm around the yard lights-- crickets chirp out the temperature. ANDREAS We're going to the lawyers-- I don't want to use the phones. WHITACRE See, the phones. ANDREAS They hit everyone-- my Dad, Schmidt, Randall... WILSON Fuck me. ANDREAS They played me a tape-- of me-- some meeting with the fucking japs. I called the lawyers.. .They want us to go there. TERRY WILSON They played a fucking tape! ANDREAS I really don't think they've got that much and when you factor in everything we've ever done for them .It'll be a ten year thing for the lawyers then there'll be some deal, maybe a fine.. .That's all it'll ever be. Wilson and Andreas get in one car-- Whitacre gets in another. WHITACRE (V.0.) Mick should've been more of a friend to me. (MORE) Draft: 1/15/03 97. WHITACRE (V.O.) (cont'd) Taken me into his confidence more just about different kinds of things...I could've kept some of the tapes out of it...The ones about girls or whatever-- those are gonna be tough to hear on the nightly news... 112 INTERIOR FBI OFFICE, DECATUR- LATER 112 The small room is abuzz with agents reporting in. A successful raid. WHITACRE (V.0.) .I could've turned the tape recorder off and told Brian and Bob I ran out of batteries... SHEPARD Do you think it went well? HERNDON I don't think I would change a thing. A phone rings somewhere-- an agent answers. PHONE AGENT I got Agent Temples for Attorney Mutchnik. Mutchnik-- sharing in the joy of the success takes the phone. WHITACRE (V.0.) They would've believed me. Brian and Bob really trusted me... 113 113 EXTERIOR KIRK SCHMIDT'S HOUSE- NIGHT AGENT TEMPLES sits in his car outside the house on his cell phone. AGENT TEMPLES I just interviewed an ADM employee, Kirk Schmidt... MUTCHNIK (O.S.) Yeah... AGENT TEMPLES Schmidt knew we were coming. He said Whitacre told him about the raid days ago. Draft: 1/15/03 98. 114 INTERIOR FBI OFFICE, DECATUR- CONTINUOUS 114 Mutchnik hangs up the phone. One unhappy guy in the midst of a lot of law enforcement back-patting. He turns to Shepard and Herndon. MUTCHNIK Bob, Brian-- can I talk to you guys for a second... 115 INTERIOR WHITACRE'S MERCEDES BENZ SEDAN- LATER 115 Whitacre listens to the farm report on WSOY as he heads down Highway 36. He turns into the HOLIDAY INN and parks next to the tennis courts behind the hotel-- A LITER BOTTLE OF COKE rolls around in the wind. WHITACRE (V.0.) The metric system never panned out. We all had rulers with inches on one edge and centimeters on the other-- I pronounced it centimiters instead of centimeeters-- and nobody ever corrected me. They IT - just let me walk around stupid so I'm not really upset we never crossed over, although it's helpful in Europe. The liter bottle is the only thing that ever caught on, because it's a nicer word--liter-- than quart. A sedan pulls up next to him. Herndon and Shepard climb in. WHITACRE You guys were great. I mean you scared the hell out of Terry and you should've seen Mick and the lawyers. SHEPARD That's super, Mark. WHITACRE And the best part is, they think you gave me the once over. HERNDON Did you make a tape? Whitacre again reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small tape recorder. Draft: 1/15/03 99. L WHITACRE Yeah, and it's good stuff. It's real good. He hands the agents the tape. WHITACRE (CONT'D) So, it's pretty much over now. Whitacre nods-- a moment to savor, until... SHEPARD Mark, who did you tell? WHITACRE What? What do you mean? SHEPARD Who did you tell about the raid. Shepard is furious, he glares at Whitacre. WHITACRE Hey, I had to tell my secretary. I told her a long time ago. I just said, "look I'm working with the FBI on some things, I may be out of touch for a while. That's all... Shepard still glares. WHITACRE And, uh, I've probably mentioned Kathy Dougherty, in my division. She's a dear friend and a trusted ally. I didn't want her to be scared. SHEPARD Why did you do that, Mark? Why did you tell Dougherty? WHITACRE Like I said, I didn't want her to be scared. And I can trust her. Guys, I can trust her. Shepard glares in harder, his voice cracking. SHEPARD Who else? Draft: 1/15/03 100. WHITACRE Mmm...Kirk Schmidt. I wanted to let him know it was okay to talk with you `cuz he might not on account of he's loyal to me. Shepard explodes. SHEPARD You could have ruined this entire operation. Two and a half years... Herndon intervenes. HERNDON Time out. Mark, you know what you did was wrong in our eyes... Whitacre starts to speak. HERNDON Don't...Don't. Look, we can get past this. But is there anything else we need to know? Anything? A beat. Whitacre regains his composure. WHITACRE No, I can't think of anything, Bob. 116 INTERIOR ADM LOBBY- THE NEXT MORNING 116 Whitacre strolls through the lobby amazed at the mayhem he's created. Documents are being carted away by the arm load. Secretary's make frantic phone calls to lawyers. WHITACRE (V.0.) Selenium deficiency in chicks causes reduced growth and pancreatic atrophy and increased mortality. But, does anyone here know that? It's in my Ph. D. Thesis.. .You can solve it with vitamin E. Mick and Terry-most of the people-- they don't even have Ph. D.'s. They wouldn't have the slightest idea about what selenium deficiency can do to a chick. But, I know it, I did the research. ANGLE ON WHITACRE A small smile of accomplishment. Draft: 1/15/03 101. G Whitacre sits in his office. From his POV he can see the GREAT AND POWERFUL DWAYNE ANDREAS, 70, Mick and Terry cross the chaotic trading area toward his office-- with them are two STARCHED AND SUITED OLDER MEN who can only be a LAWYERS-- AUBREY DANIEL and JOHN DOWD. WHITACRE (V.O.) Dwayne Andreas, hey, how ya doin'? Sorry about the FBI arresting your son and investigating your company... Maybe you all should've listened to me. The smile vanishes. Is he found out? DWAYNE ANDREAS Mark Whitacre, this is Aubrey Daniel. AUBREY DANIEL Pleasure meeting you. I'm representing ADM in this matter. And this is a colleague of mine John Dowd. Dwayne's told me about your responsibilities here... 1 W - They shake hands. DWAYNE ANDREAS Aubrey defended Lt. Calley after the My Lai massacre in Viet Nam... So this ought to be a cake walk for him. AUBREY DANIEL We thought you might take some time and talk to John here. MICK ANDREAS ADM's going to stand behind you on this, Mark. Dad and I want the key people to know we'll be paying their legal fees. WHITACRE Great, that's great. DWAYNE ANDREAS Then we'll let you fellas get acquainted. Everyone leaves except for Dowd and Whitacre. Dowd gives Whitacre a warm, knowing look. JOHN DOWD How you holding up, Mark? Draft: 1/15/03 102. WHITACRE Uh, can I ask you something? JOHN DOWD Sure. Anything. WHITACRE If I tell you something are you allowed to say anything to Mick or Dwayne? ANGLE ON WHITACRE'S OFFICE From the trading floor. Dowd gets up and pulls the curtains shut. Through a crack in the drapes we see Whitacre and Dowd talk. WHITACRE (V.0.) It feels good to talk, to clear the air-- you get to be like a balloon after a while. A balloon looking for a pin to bump into and relieve the pressure. You could get sick from keeping it inside and get a tumor or something..I didn't ask for that. Why should I pay for my own legal fees when I'm not the one who started the price fixing. 117 INTERIOR FBI OFFICE DECATUR- EVENING 117 Herndon and Shepard stand over a similar sea of documents-- exhausted. WHITACRE (V.0.) People get their live's earnings wiped out by these legal entanglements ... I'm gonna pay for that? That's not right, I have kids and Ginger and horses... 118 EXTERIOR ADM- LATER 118 Twilight. From the parking lot you can see two men still talking in the fluorescent light of Whitacre's office. Draft: 1/15/03 103. WHITACRE (V.0.) I have a friend from school who has a law practice and he's always telling me how they can't talk about their cases-Like in The Firm... You can tell them anything and they have to keep to themselves or they get in a lot of trouble-They're boxed. That's what they say, "boxed." 119 INTERIOR ADM TRADING FLOOR- LATER 119 A GROUP OF LAWYERS sit among boxes of pizza and beer. The drapes finally open in Whitacre's office. Dowd and Whitacre emerge. Dowd looks stunned, Whitacre solemn. Wilson, Daniel, Mick and the other lawyers stop what their doing and look up. WHITACRE I need to tell you that I'm cooperating with the government. The FBI has hundreds of tapes. They know all about lysine. John here agrees I should be getting another lawyer. JOHN DOWD No question about it. Dowd and Daniel share a knowing look. An uncomfortable silence follows. WHITACRE I'm sorry for what's happened. ANDREAS Sorry? What's that? Whitacre shakes Mick Andreas' hand and walks away. The men are all stunned, they watch him leave. AUBREY DANIEL John, I bet that SOB was wearing a wire on you tonight, too. 120 INTERIOR ADM- THE NEXT MORNING 120 Whitacre crosses the room; the object of cold stares and hard silence. WHITACRE Hey. . .Good morning. Draft: 1/15/03 104. To nobody in particular and nobody responds. He enters his office and closes the drapes. WHITACRE (V.0.) (NERVOUS) There are perfectly good ties on sale and nobody is buying them. Paisleys and yellow and red Rep ones with little crests and what have you. Two for one. You just have to take the time and look, there are plenty of good ones... But, when he looks up AUBREY DANIEL is standing there--- all arrogance and anger concentrated into a very intense beam of language. AUBREY DANIEL Mark, we'd like you off the premises. WHITACRE Uh, Mr. Daniel, can't we... AUBREY DANIEL Management wants you out... WHITACRE But, I'm a VP here... And with that MARK CHEVIRON picks up his briefcase and car keys. CHEVIRON Let's go. ANGLE ON BRIAN SHEPARD AND HIS ADOPTED SON Seen through the front window of a car baring down on them as they work on an OLD FORD MUSTANG MACH ONE. Shepard reacts to the camera-- he can't believe what he sees. WHITACRE (V.0.) (bitter little boy rant) How would Brian Shepard like it if he was thrown out of his job? If he was humiliated in front of his secretary? If he even had a secretary. Not very much I'm willing to wager. (MORE) Draft: 1/15/03 105. WHITACRE (V.0.) (cont'd) It's like, "Hey, Mark we'll lead the parade in these bright red suits while you walk behind the elephants with a shovel and some rubber gloves in case it gets messy... ." 121 EXTERIOR BRIAN SHEPARD'S HOME- DAY 121 A modest Midwestern home on a tree lined street. Whitacre brings his TOWN CAR to a screeching halt in front of Shepard. SHEPARD Mark, you can't be here. WHITACRE They threw me out, Brian. SHEPARD You're jeopardizing everything. WHITACRE Tossed me out of ADM. I'm out. Shepard backs away from Whitacre like he's a leper. SHEPARD Not here, Mark-- on the phone we can set something up. WHITACRE You gotta help me. Whitacre looks around-- all the houses have eyes. A LITTLE NEIGHBOR BOY has stopped playing catch with his MOTHER and both are now staring at Whitacre and Shepard-- as are a group of CITY WORKERS fixing a telephone wire. SHEPARD If you need to talk, call me. Whitacre gets back in his car. Shepard watches him drive away-- over his shoulder we hear the phone ringing. Whitacre parks at the far end of the street. 122 122 INTERIOR WHITACRE'S TOWN CAR- CONTINUOUS Whitacre is freaked out. SHEPARD (O.S.) Mark, you can't show up at my house. How can you know me if this is a secret investigation? Draft: 1/15/03 106. WHITACRE They know. They know it's me, my lawyer told them. SHEPARD (O.S.) What? What lawyer? WHITACRE I fired him right away, but he told Mick and Dwayne. 123 INTERIOR SHEPARD'S HOUSE- CONTINUOUS 123 Shepard paces the kitchen, staring out the window at Whitacre who is parked down the street. SHEPARD A lawyer can't do that, Mark. WHITACRE (O.S.) I thought that, I did. Mick and Dwayne introduced me to this guy and I told him... SHEPARD Who introduced you? WHITACRE (O.S.) Mick and Dwayne said they were going to take care of me. Shepard can't believe Whitacre gave himself away. SHEPARD Mark, we told you not to talk to an ADM lawyer. We went over that more than once. I think we made it very clear. 124 INTERIOR WHITACRE'S PARKED CAR- CONTINUOUS 124 WHITACRE I know, I know I do. I just don't know one. No ideas. SHEPARD (O.S.) Let me make a call. WHITACRE You're not mad at me for coming over are you, Bri? Draft: 1/15/03 107. 125 INTERIOR LAW OFFICES OF EPSTEIN, ZAIDEMAN- DAY 125 JIM EPSTEIN, 43, and BOB ZAIDEMAN, 50, sit with Mark Whitacre in their offices in the Loop. Whitacre recounts his life as a mole in a rambling fashion-- leaping tangent to tangent. EPSTEIN So, there wasn't a saboteur in the beginning at all? You made that up? WHITACRE Maybe there was, there could've been-- ADM steals technology from the Japanese-- so I wouldn't put it past the Japanese to do the same thing. But after I told them that I made it up the FBI said I didn't have much of a choice. EPSTEIN And you began making tapes...How many tapes did you make? Whitacre again displays his gift to move his lips and mind in different directions. The interior monologue takes precedence-- the on-camera story we've heard before. WHITACRE WHITACRE (V.0.) There are over 200 tapes. I There are so many really nice carried a tape recorder people in the world. People almost everyday to work once who want to help out. Good I signed a cooperating neighbors. Good listeners. witness agreement, and then Like when they have these they gave me a special brief floods out on the Mississippi case that I took to meetings and people lose everything that had a hidden recorder in and are sleeping in a school it-- they even sewed a small gym, someone always shows up one they just developed into with a warm coat for the old my suit and I'd ride around people and a home made pot on the plane and tape Mick roast. That's why Ginger and and the guys talking about I bought that girl in town a price fixing or stealing special computer after she technology and illegal had the spine injury. That campaign contributions, just kind of thing really makes a whatever we'd talk about. We difference. Jim here strikes made over a hundred tapes-- me as that kind of guy, you and Brian and Bob and I would can tell he's the one-in-a- get together a couple times a hundred guy who when you come week and work on the into the emergency room, you investigation until we thank your lucky stars that briefed the lawyers at the it's his watch. Department of Justice and they raided the place. Draft: 1/15/03 108. Epstein can't believe it. EPSTEIN For how long did you do this? Work as an informant? WHITACRE Uh, two and a half years. I was a VP and a cooperating witness. A moment of reflection and then... WHITACRE I've always thought when this was over there'd still be a place for me at ADM. I still got a lot of friends there. The lawyers look at each other. EPSTEIN Mark, it's very important to your case that you not discuss it with anyone else. These people you work with, your friends, they could end up being witnesses. So Bob and I are the only people I want you to talk to about this from now on and I want you to know you can tell us anything. WHITACRE Hey, thanks for taking the time. I really appreciate it. I feel a whole lot better. Whitacre leaves. Epstein and Zaideman try and absorb what they've just heard. Then they burst into hysterical laughter. 126 126 EXTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- DAY As seen from across the street. A stranger-- SCOTT KILMAN-- is standing on the steps. GINGER He's out of town. KILMAN My name is Scott Kilman and I'm a reporter from the Wall Street 1 Journal... Kilman gives her a business card. Draft: 1/15/03 109. L ANGLE ON WHITACRE Hiding in the corn. He inspects an ear. WHITACRE (V.O.) Any kind of corn will pop-- but not every kind turns itself inside out and gets white and fluffy... KILMAN I know this is a difficult time for your family. But, I've seen how these things go before-- these companies really go after the whistle blowers. Kilman lays out what he knows for Ginger. She listens briefly and then walks Kilman back to his car. KILMAN (CONT'D) WHITACRE (V.0.) They've got a whole PR There's a starch-protein department putting out their matrix. Certain ratios prove side. It's just the nature of advantageous ... How do you the beast. If he wants his explain that? Who would side coming out he's gonna really take the time to have to do it. listen when the other guys have an agenda. When they can get Ronald Reagan on the phone because they're building a statue of him... GINGER Uh, well I don't really know about all that-- like I said, Mark's away just now-But, I'll let him know you stopped by. Ginger watches Kilman drive away and then turns and walks toward the stables. GINGER Mark? He left. You can come back. Whitacre emerges from among the tall stalks of corn where he's been watching. 127 INTERIOR BLUE BIRD DINER- EARLY MORNING 127 Whitacre is strung out on martyrdom and insomnia. He stares at his coffee. LIZ TAYLOR They turned the place upside down. Draft: 1/15/03 110. His loyal secretary gives him a pile of mail. LIZ TAYLOR They went though all of this, too. WHITACRE I'm sorry you got dragged into this. LIZ TAYLOR And then they started asking me for the access code to your voice mail. Whitacre panics. WHITACRE Did you tell them? I don't think you have to tell them that. LIZ TAYLOR well, according to them I do-- but I didn't. And about two hours later Peterson told me to clean out my desk. He said I've been transferred out of Bioproducts. WHITACRE But, you didn't tell them? 128 EXTERIOR ADM PLANT- DAY 128 Whitacre is parked in his MERCEDES across the road staring through the chain link fence. Trucks rumble by. WHITACRE (V.O.) Abe Lincoln was born 45 minutes from here and I've never been to his log cabin. I've seen post cards and I sent the kids there on a field trip. But, I've never gone. I'm sure it's very well preserved. Original beds and dining room tables and the doorways are probably smaller from when people were shorter...It's only 45 minutes away... CU on Whitacre as a sound builds in the car...A small outboard motor we've heard before. Getting LOUDER...And then a voice competes. COMPETING VOICE (PRE-LAP) I'VE BEEN TRYING TO GET IN TOUCH WITH YOU FOR DAYS... Draft: 1/15/03 111. I 129 EXTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- DAY 129 Whitacre stands with the leaf blower-- but the driveway is spotless. He shuts it off. Behind him is SCOTT KILMAN. KILMAN I'd like to talk to you about what's been going on at ADM. A beat. He hands Whitacre a card. KILMAN I'm interested in hearing your side of things. Whitacre takes a paranoid look around. WHITACRE We better go inside. We can't talk out here. 130 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- MORNING 130 Whitacre makes himself a bowl of cereal and talks on the phone. He's fully caffeinated and ready to go. WHITACRE They kept coming back Brian, and they only had ADM's side of things. SHEPARD (O.S.) Did you talk to them, Mark? What did you say? It's real important that you not talk to the press. WHITACRE Me? I told him I had no comment. But, they already had the story. A beat. On the counter is a NEWSPAPER. Whitacre hangs up the phone. ANGLE ON WSJ Headline: SEEDS OF DOUBT: AN EXECUTIVE BECOMES INFORMANT FOR THE FBI, STUNNING GIANT ADM. WHITACRE (V.0.) I don't owe Brian Shepard the truth. (MORE) Draft: 1/15/03 112. WHITACRE (V.0.) (cont'd) I mean, I gave Brian Shepard two C and a half years of my life and now I have legal bills to show for it...And I'm the good guy in all this-- the guy who took on ADM... 131 INTERIOR CTA COMMUTER TRAIN- MORNING 131 Jim Epstein reads the Journal. Pull back to reveal it's in the hands of almost EVERY OTHER EXECUTIVE on the train. EPSTEIN Shit. WHITACRE (V.0.) .Is Brian Shepard gonna lose his job for that? His standard of living? I've gone to the local junior high school on career day and talked to kids about biochemistry and the kind of career opportunities available... 132 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION KITCHEN- CONTINUOUS 132 Whitacre's son, Alexander, runs, screaming into the kitchen. WHITACRE (V.0.) Can Brian Shepard and Bob Herndon say that, I'm the white hat... ALEXANDER Dad, Dad, you're on TV! Whitacre turns on the TV. A strange light blows out the windows of the kitchen. On the TV screen appears the image of: WHITACRE'S HOUSE. TV ANNCR: A Vice President in the Bio- products division of Fortune Five Hundred ADM, Whitacre was working as a spy for the FBI for over two years... WHITACRE (V.0.) I did enough for Brain Shepard. Who's gonna take care of me? WHITACRE Baby, you gotta come see this we're on TV. Draft: 1/15/03 113. 133 EXTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- MORNING 133 A crowd of reporters and ENG CREWS have sprouted up among the corn fields. They press in on the gates. America has questions for Mark Whitacre. The door opens and Whitacre emerges. Expecting rock star exaltation-- he gets something else. REPORTER Any comment on the effect your actions have had on the decline in ADM's stock prices? Whitacre cringes. REPORTER 2 What has been the reaction of your friends and co-workers to having been taped without their knowledge? Whitacre picks up speed toward the garage. REPORTER 3 Do you believe you and your family can safely stay in Decatur, or has the government made arrangements to move you? Whitacre cowers in the garage. WHITACRE (V.O.) Who picks the kids up for swimming lessons. . .Who has a plaque in the high school for the Mark Whitacre Environmental Award... Where are your friends when it's dump on Mark Whitacre, where's the pot roast and the warm coat? 134 INTERIOR WHITACRE LIVING ROOM- DAY 134 Ginger with Shepard and Herndon. GINGER We're still getting the threatening phone calls and I know for a fact that Dwayne and Terry have been telling people he wasn't a good worker. That he can't be trusted. Draft: 1/15/03 114. SHEPARD We told Mark that he had to expect the unexpected-- that he might be attacked-- that he wasn't going to win any popularity contests for this. GINGER He just mopes around here watching the news looking for a glimpse of himself. Or, he calls someone from ADM looking for the latest gossip. 135 EXTERIOR ROADSIDE MOTEL BLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS- DAY 135 Whitacre gets out of the car with a brief case and heads into the hotel. 136 INTERIOR WHITACRE LIVING ROOM- CONTINUOUS 136 SHEPARD Maybe you guys should get out of town until the hearings start. HERNDON He's got to stop talking to people that can really come back to bite him... GINGER He's very proud, you know... 137 INTERIOR ROADSIDE MOTEL ROOM- DAY 137 Whitacre fixes his hair and smiles. A CAMERA FLASHES. GINGER (V.0.) .I just feel that after everything he's done he should be taken better care of... 138 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION-CONTINUOUS 138 HERNDON Where is he now? Beat. GINGER He said he was going to see you. Draft: 1/15/03 115. I 139 INTERIOR HOTEL ROOM- CONTINUOUS 139 A camera flash punctuates his words as Whitacre's story pours itself into RONALD HENKOFF'S, 38, tape recorder. WHITACRE They had warned me that I would need an attorney and told me not to get one tied to ADM, but they didn't stress it...I spent from six to ten that night talking to John Dowd the attorney from ADM. Dowd promised me he wouldn't tell anyone my role. But, the next day someone at ADM called me and said, "Hey, Dwayne told me you're the mole. You're the one who caused all this..." HENKOFF And then what happened? Whitacre's story comes out-- in both directions. WHITACRE WHITACRE (V.0.) It's been pure hell ever A lot of people didn't since. I really believed I believe I'd ever go to an Ivy was doing a good deed. I league school-- but I did. still think that. I won't They didn't believe I'd get a ever regret that part. I Ph. D.-- but I did that, too. still think I did a good Maybe Cornell isn't Harvard, thing...Just a few weeks ago but they play each other in I was potentially the next sports. When I was twenty- president of the company. I eight I wanted to be making have that on tape, and now twice my age-- and I did. it's pure character Then the goal was three times assasination. Here's what's my age by the time I was being said about me at ADM: 30.. . I'm 38 and I'm making that I wasn't a good manager, well over ten times my age, that I wasn't good with and I'll be on the cover of people. That the feds caught Fortune Magazine for cleaning me at price-fixing. up one of the biggest companies in America...And I was just an average student in high school. WHITACRE (CONT'D) I never dreamed of being a whistle blower. And I would tell other people in this kind of situation to take a stand. Try to solve the problem internally. Go to the top. (MORE) Draft: 1/15/03 116. WHITACRE (CONT'D) If that doesn't work go to the authorities... 140 INTERIOR ADM BOOKEEPING DEPT 140 SCOTT ROBERTS, an ADM attorney, thumbs through records. He's examining a file entitled: ABP INTERNATIONAL. WHITACRE (V.0.) The bottom line is that I know my story will eventually be confirmed by the FBI. There's no reason for me to put out a story they're not going to confirm... It would be crazy. ANGLE ON THE PAPERWORK Contracts citing various sums of money and photo-copies of checks. ROBERTS HOLDS TWO PAGES UP TO THE LIGHT. AND THEN RUNS DOWN THE HALL WITH THE PAGES. WHITACRE (V.0.) It's all on tape, everything that happened. 141 INTERIOR ADM- MICK ANDREAS OFFICE- EVENING 141 Mick, Dwayne, Roberts and Aubrey Daniel stand before the window. The pages are taped to the window. ANGLE ON THE PAGES The two signatures eclipse each other perfectly. ROBERTS You can see where he pasted it. Aubrey Daniel picks up the phone barely able to contain his glee. 142 INTERIOR WHITACRE'S CAR- SIMULTANEOULSY 142 Whitacre races the Ferrari down a two-lane in the middle of the farm fields of South Central Illinois. The phone rings and he answers cheerfully. WHITACRE Mark Whitacre. Draft: 1/15/03 117. I AUBREY DANIEL (O.S.) Hello, Mark? It's Aubrey Daniel. I think you forgot something? Whitacre pulls over onto the shoulder. He looks at the cell phone in dismay and stares at a Polaroid of himself from the Fortune Magazine photo shoot-- he's smiling in the picture. WHITACRE (V.0.) One of the things I've learned in business is that you should always use a person's name in conversation if you want them to feel important... Sid Hulse and Marty Allison think that and they're very successful salesman... 143 EXTERIOR CHINESE RESTAURANT, TAYLORVILLE- DAY 143 Whitacre gets out of an FBI cruiser with Herndon and Shepard and the three men walk toward the restaurant in rural Illinois. WHITACRE (V.0.) It makes people feel like they're definitely being told something they can use... They enter and the HOSTESS gives them a table up front. WHITACRE You got anything open in the back? WHITACRE (V.0.) Just by putting their name in there at the beginning or the end. The men sit at a table in the back. A beat. WHITACRE Brian, Bob, my attorney's telling me not to say anything, but there's something I've wanted to talk about for awhile. HERNDON Don't tell us anything. You have an attorney now. This isn't like before. Let's just talk. Shepard tries to change the subject. Draft: 1/15/03 118. SHEPARD You been playing any golf? Whitacre doesn't want to "just talk." WHITACRE They want to talk to me at ADM. HERNDON Mark, you understand your lawyer has advised you not to discuss this matter? SHEPARD We're not asking you. WHITACRE Let me throw out some "hypotheticals." I'll talk about some financial situations and you tell me if they're wrong or how serious they might be, OK? For instance, suppose a company gave an executive a car, you know, a corporate car. But instead of driving it to work he drove his personal car and gave the company car to his daughter. Would that be a problem? HERNDON That's it? That's the hypothetical? The agents try not to laugh. After what Whitacre has given the government-- a little undeclared perk is nothing. SHEPARD That shouldn't be a problem. WHITACRE What about if an executive used a corporate plane for personal use? HERNDON Basically, it's the same thing. SHEPARD There may be some IRS issues but... WHITACRE What if, hypothetically, the activity involved kickbacks by corporate executives? Draft: 1/15/03 119. I HERNDON There are plenty of ways companies try and attract business. Dinners for clients, tickets for sporting events... SHEPARD It's not ethical but it's done. A beat. Then Whitacre goes on. WHITACRE Uh, is this conversation on or off the record? SHEPARD On. Definitely. Whitacre exhales. WHITACRE What if the company regularly accepted kickbacks to executives in the form of cash? Shepard drops his fork. Hold on Shepard. SHEPARD How much money are we talking about Mark? Whitacre pauses, clears his throat. WHITACRE Five hundred thousand. HERNDON How much??? Whitacre shrinks from the admission like a puppy who just crapped on the rug. WHITACRE It's how things were done there. SHEPARD When did this start, Mark? WHITACRE December of 1991. Shepard can't believe it. SHEPARD You, You... And how were you paid? Draft: 1/15/03 120. E WHITACRE By check. They we're deposited in various accounts. And always under 10,000 dollars. SHEPARD And did any of these checks come in after we met? Whitacre pauses. WHITACRE Maybe a couple. The agents try and control their anger. SHEPARD Who else knows about this? WHITACRE Nobody. Herndon loses it. HERNDON Come on, Mark-- you just said it's how things were done at ADM. Now, is there anything else you're involved in? Anything else you need to tell us? WHITACRE Just what I told you. HERNDON I'm asking you one more time. WHITACRE The 500 and that's it. Definitely. Whitacre nods. He asks hopefully... WHITACRE This isn't going to affect the price-fixing case, is it? The three men get up to leave. WHITACRE (V.0.) I feel good about that. Hey, I don't see what the big deal is. They said help us with the price fixing and I did-- the two things are totally unrelated... Draft: 1/15/03 121. 144 EXTERIOR DEPT OF JUSTICE, WASHINGTON, DC- DAY 144 Aubrey Daniel and a PHALANX OF A LAWYERS ascend the steps of DOJ. WHITACRE (V.0.) Besides, Mick knew about it, definitely... He's the one who taught me to do it in the first place. 145 INTERIOR DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, WASHINGTON DC- DAY 145 Aubrey Daniel and a cadre of CORPORATE ATTORNEYS sit at a conference table with Mann, Mutchnik and U.S. ASST. ATTORNEY GENERAL GARY SPRATLING. An overhead projector displays the forged contracts on the wall. WHITACRE (V.0.) When you look at what went on with all the price fixing they did or the Federal Building being bombed in Oklahoma City, why are we focusing on me getting a half- million in kick-backs along with everyone else? AUBREY DANIEL Two point five million dollars. Deposited in a bank in Switzerland while Mark Whitacre was on ADM business. We have sworn testimony from Mr. Lennart Thorstensson of the ABP Corporation that he's never seen this contract before and that his signature has been forged. He and his company never received this check... As Daniel speaks one of the younger lawyers passes out a folder of affidavits and other documents supporting his claims. AUBREY DANIEL It is clear to us that Mark Whitacre, driven by his own boundless ambition to take over ADM, has attempted to frame his superiors in a price fixing conspiracy of his own invention so that he could seize control of the company... Draft: 1/15/03 122. Mann and Mutchnik can't believe what they're seeing in the black folders. AUBREY DANIEL His cooperation with the government is merely a smokescreen for his lying and stealing. We have additional information that we are prepared to share with Attorney General Reno that the money has been moved to an account in Grand Cayman with the full knowledge and complicity of Whitacre's FBI partners... And under... The DOJ lawyers stare at the table-- searching for the rest of their careers. WHITACRE (PRE-LAP) The moon and the sun are up at the same time... 146 EXTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- MORNING 146 Whitacre is out with the leaf blower-- the driveway is spotless. The MOON is up during the day. WHITACRE (V.O.) I wonder if there's a name for that. We don't have very many moons compared to other planets. What does Jupiter have? Eleven. They aren't scientists-- Mick and Dwayne-- they don't have Ph. D.'s., but I'm the one having to pull my kids out of school for doing the right thing... 147 INTERIOR FBI SPRINGFIELD- DAY 147 Shepard and Herndon appear before their bosses-- Paisley and Medford. Shepard is irate, Herndon is a little more circumspect. WHITACRE (V.O.) They need to dig deep, then they'll find out how high it goes-- it's there they just need to look and they'll see... Draft: 1/15/03 123. SHEPARD What are they accusing me of? I want the specifics? Are they saying I'm in cahoots with the guy? Medford and Paisley don't want to answer this. MEDFORD Paragraph eight in our agreement with Whitacre states that his actions are directly attributable to the FBI and the US... SHEPARD But, how could we know what he was doing? He came to us... PAISLEY The question they're asking isn't `how could we know?' It's `why didn't we know?' HERNDON The question is `were they fixing prices?' Medford and Paisley share a look. MEDFORD The investigation has shifted from ADM to Whitacre. SHEPARD Of course, ADM decides Whitacre's a thief as soon as they find out he's working for us. HERNDON Who's counting the money over there if they can just lose 2.5 Million dollars for a few years and then find it in a few hours? SHEPARD We gotta call Mark. PAISLEY I don't want you doing that. Shepard and Herndon are confused. MEDFORD We're taking you off. Draft: 1/15/03 124. SHEPARD That's it. We're done? I thought the FBI never hung a witness out to dry. MEDFORD He's not a witness anymore--- he's a target. 148 INTERIOR LAW OFFICES OF EPSTEIN, ZAIDEMAN- DAY 148 A Sunday afternoon. Epstein and Zaideman try and get a hand on the scope of Whitacre's fraud. Whitacre has shoe boxes of receipts and bank statements. WHITACRE I only kept a million and a half-- and Mick knew about it, he knew these things went on. They taught me how to do it. Zaideman and Epstein shake their heads. EPSTEIN You can't bullshit these people tomorrow. Who knows what they know? If we're going in there we got to go in with the whole story. Because the way it gets bad for you is if you tell them you're confessing and you don't. Then you are sorely screwed. Whitacre looks at his shoe box. He nods. WHITACRE This is everything Jim, what I'm telling you here. I looked everywhere for the bank statements and the records. This is every penny-- I'm not gonna hide anything from you guys. 149 EXTERIOR DEPT. OF JUSTICE- CHICAGO 149 Whitacre enters the building with Epstein and Zaideman. WHITACRE (V.0.) I was never really that good at chemistry in high school. So I kept taking it-- just to get good and wound up with so many chemistry credits I ended up going into Bio- Chem. Draft: 1/15/03 125. 150 INTERIOR DEPT. OF JUSTICE ELEVATOR- CHICAGO 150 Whitacre, Epstein and Zaideman- on the way into battle. Whitacre is strangely placid. WHITACRE (V.O.) That's really the truth about that-- I wanted to be a veterinarian when I was kid-- I raised chickens and rabbits ...Biochem was my advisor's idea... WHITACRE Listen, I haven't been telling you the whole truth. I'll clear it up in there today. ZAIDEMAN What? OH, SHIT. Epstein starts desperately hitting elevator buttons to stop the approaching doom. EPSTEIN We got to get you out of here. But, it's too late the doors open. Whitacre steps out. WHITACRE No. I want to tell them. Hold on Epstein. 151 INTERIOR DEPT. OF JUSTICE CONFERENCE ROOM- CHICAGO 151 Whitacre surrounded by Epstein and Zaideman who can only imagine which way their loose cannon will roll. Across from the DOJ lawyers as far as the eye can see. ROBIN MANN Mr. Whitacre's conduct constitutes a breach of his agreement with the US government. He is no longer a cooperating witness. EPSTEIN My client has given you years of his life, clearly he made mistakes, but he made your case. ROBIN MANN We're not here to discuss the case against ADM. A Draft: 1/15/03 126. I ED HERBST, early 50's, and MARY SPEARING, 40's, take over-- they take no prisoners. HERBST Mr. Whitacre, my name is Ed Herbst and I'm with the FBI Economic Crimes Unit. I'd like you to tell me when your criminal conduct at ADM began. WHITACRE In early 1992. I learned how things were done there from Mick Andreas. He's the one who taught me how to use embezzlement and kickbacks to make money tax free. Epstein tries to do some damage control. EPSTEIN My client is... WHITACRE I know the frauds I committed are wrong, and I accept responsibility for them. HERBST How did you receive the money? WHITACRE Primarily by check. I deposited them in my bank account in Decatur. This seems unlikely. Spearing gets angry-- MARY SPEARING They paid kickbacks in checks? What company would pay kickbacks in checks? Come on... No one from the government has ever been aggressive toward Whitacre before-- he's thrown. WHITACRE I don't really remember the exact name... something like AgriConsulting and Trading, something like that... MARY SPEARING You don't remember the name of the company that paid you checks? Draft: 1/15/03 127. WHITACRE I. .I've got a lot going on in my life. It's hard to remember. EPSTEIN Hey, we're coming to you guys. We're cooperating here and we're going to get the money back. Epstein looks at Whitacre-- this last part might be hard. HERBST This might help your memory. He slides the forged ABP documents toward Whitacre. WHITACRE Where did you get that? HERBST These are ADM records showing the forging of signatures. Whitacre smiles and shakes his head. He sees the conspiracy plainly. WHITACRE WHITACRE (V.0.) See, that's how they keep Didn't these people see The people in the fold-- they Firm-- or read the book. tell you to take the money It's all there. Everything and then they use it against they did to me they did to you if you talk. It's how Tom Cruise... I'm not the one they control us. You gotta they should be mad at... realize who these people are... MARY SPEARING Is there anything else you have a hard time remembering? Whitacre looks at Epstein. Epstein shakes his head "no" but Whitacre has other plans. WHITACRE Umm...I have a few other things to tell you about. Epstein sighs. WHITACRE There were some things I did in Mexico... Draft: 1/15/03 128. PULL BACK FROM CONFERENCE ROOM As Whitacre spills his guts the lawyers look on in bewilderment ... The man is unhinged. WHITACRE (V.0.) I raised white mice, too. Chickens and goats and white mice in little cages. They couldn't come in the house. I took care of them-- that was my job outside. One got in one time, I don't know how, and he was found dead by my Mother. This had nothing to do with anything I had done-- he just had died and it was up to me to bring him back to life. I wanted to do the right thing and wear the white hat and that's why I tried to make it all right so he wouldn't have to be dead. All the things I did were for that-- but I couldn't. 152 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION LIVING ROOM- NIGHT 152 Shepard, Herndon, Ginger and Whitacre. Mark looks used up-- his hair seems to be graying around the edges. In front of him are a pile of newspapers-- Washington Post, WSJ, Chicago Tribune, etc. Each with a banner announcement of his sins. HERNDON We can't see you anymore and if you call us and start to talk about it, we'll have to hang up... SHEPARD You can talk to us about your feelings, but that's it. Shepard puts his coffee cup down near the newspapers. ANGLE ON WSJ 7/13/95 Headline reads: YOU DIRTY RAT, SAYS DECATUR ILLINOIS- PEOPLE THINK MARK WHITACRE BETRAYED THEM AND ASR WHY HE TURNED TO THE FBI. Whitacre nods-- he can't play with his friends any more. SHEPARD Mark, please understand. This isn't what we want. We've got no choice here. Draft: 1/15/03 129. WHITACRE I'll tell you what, my frustration and anger is all coming from my work with you guys. I mean, this stuff in the papers, my kids read that. It's all, "Dump on Mark Whitacre." It's not right. I'm harassed by the media and Mick and Terry are still going to work in the morning. SHEPARD Remember, Mark, we told you it was impossible to predict what would happen when the case went overt. HERNDON And you never told us about the Five Million Dollars you took... Ginger has heard this before and can't hear it again. GINGER He worked for you for two and a half years, he risked his career, his home.. .And now you turn your back on him and leave us out here. WHITACRE Ginger... But the damn has burst. She sobs. SHEPARD The reason we came today is because we are concerned about your and Mark's well being. HERNDON It's important that you tell the people in Washington everything tomorrow-- one hundred per cent. Whitacre nods. Ginger seethes. GINGER You'd have nothing without him and you know it. He's just been used by the government and then thrown away cuz' it's a lot easier to go after Mark Whitacre than anyone named Andreas. Whitacre stares at the newspapers. Draft: 1/15/03 130. WHITACRE (V.0.) I think a lot of people would come-- a lot of friends... and people would be surprised by just how many there are. Even folks from ADM... The news media would be there for sure... 153 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- MASTER BEDROOM- DAWN 153 Whitacre is sitting on the bed up and dressed when the alarm goes off. He lies across his wife on the bed-- more like a child than a husband. WHITACRE (V.0.) .Everything would come out. Brian and Bob would come and I bet one of them would say something about me. Rheinhard would come up from Mexico. Sid or Marty would tell people what kind of boss I was and how I always brought back presents... WHITACRE You'll be OK here with your mom? Ginger nods groggily. Whitacre leaves the room-- grabbing a PICTURE OF HIS FAMILY from a bedside table. 154 EXTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION GARAGE- MORNING 154 Whitacre opens the garage door and we see the entire fleet of cars he has amassed-- 5 Million dollars buys a lot of steering wheels. Ferrari, Range Rover, Jeep, etc. Whitacre selects the BMW convertible. He gets in the car and puts his brief case in the seat next to him. He opens it and we see the contents: HUNDREDS OF ARTICLES ABOUT WHITACRE. A scrapbook from a roller coaster ride. He starts the car and guns the engine. ANGLE ON THE GARAGE The Beemer does not back up-- THE GARAGE DOOR COMES DOWN. WHITACRE (V.O.) Jesus died on a cross to save others from their sins. Jesus was a hero. I know selfish suicide is forbidden in the bible. 155 MONTAGE- THE PEOPLE WAITING FOR WHITACRE ARE TOLD HE'S 155 NOT COMING... Draft: 1/15/03 131. DEPT. OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON, DC- DAY A group of lawyers sit at a table _._A note is passed to ROBIN MANN. She reads it... ROBIN MANN Mr. Whitacre will not be appearing today... O'HARE AIRPORT- DAY Agent D'Angelo gets a call on his cell phone at a departure gate. He turns to his partner, Agent Basset. D' ANGELO Whitacre's not coming. INTERIOR BRIAN SHEPARD'S HOUSE- MORNING The phone rings-- Shepard answers. SHEPARD This morning? WHITACRE (V.0.) However, the bible makes it clear that you sacrifice yourself... 156 EXTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- A FEW MINUTES LATER 156 RUSTY the gardener shows up for work. He gets out of his Pick-Up and kicks a few leaves off the driveway, he adds some chemicals to the pool and then walks toward the garage-- as he's fishing some keys out of his pocket he notices the sound of a car engine. WHITACRE (V.0.) If it's the only way to save your loved ones. 157 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION GARAGE- CONTINUOUS 157 The air is thick with smoke. Whitacre is motionless sprawled in the backseat-- drenched in sweat clutching the PICTURE OF HIS FAMILY. RUSTY Jesus, no. Somebody help. Rusty throws the car in reverse and pulls out. Draft: 1/15/03 132. ANGLE ON WHITACRE He opens an eye, but as Rusty looks down at him again he closes it-- plays dead. The car is outside now. Rusty turns off the engine. Whitacre sighs heavily. WHITACRE Bud, pull the car back into the garage. Pull back in before somebody sees me. Rusty pulls the car back in and turns it off. The smoke is still clearing. RUSTY Jesus, Mark, what are you doing? Whitacre still stretched out in the backseat stares up at the ceiling-- explodes. WHITACRE You...You fucking God. You owe me. You fucking God. After everything I did. Rusty is shocked by the outburst-- this is not the guy he knows at all. He backs away from the car and picks up the garage phone. RUSTY Ginger, can you come to the garage? GINGER (O.S.) Why? Rusty, what's wrong? RUSTY I just need to talk to you. GINGER I'm not coming down there unless you tell me what's wrong. RUSTY Mark just tried to kill himself and... Ginger's piercing scream comes down the phone line. Whitacre is fetal in the backseat-- moaning. Ginger and HER MOTHER come flying out of the house screaming. They pull Mark out of the car toward the open air as he stumbles, coughing, the family picture clatters across the garage floor. Whitacre jumps on it like a grenade. Draft: 1/15/03 133. Whitacre's kids come out of the house and stand clustered at a distance confused and terrified. Helpless in the face of a fallen parent. ALEXANDER Dad? Ginger turns to her MOTHER. GINGER That Goddam Dwayne Andreas did this to him, Mom. He ought to be killed. WHITACRE (V.O.) (PRE-LAP) Sometimes I'd leave the country with a big suitcase full of cash. Walk right through customs... 158 INTERIOR PSYCHIATRISTS OFFICE, CHICAGO- THE NEXT DAY 158 Whitacre lies on the couch talking to DOCTOR MILLER, 60's, genial, soft-spoken. This is not internal, it's therapy. WHITACRE .Walk back in with a bag full of jewelry. MILLER You never thought you'd get caught? WHITACRE That never occurred to me. I mean, I look respectable. Why would they search me? And now they're saying I stole 5 Million dollars. That's what I've been accused of. MILLER Did you? WHITACRE Yeah. They were paying me 500 grand, but it wasn't enough, I was spending more like eight. So, I took kickbacks. Like I said, it's just what you did if you wanted to be part of the gang at ADM. MILLER Is that how it was when you were a kid; you wanted to be part of the gang? Draft: 1/15/03 134. Whitacre nods. WHITACRE One time I got a brand new, top of the line bicycle. And I bragged to everyone about it. I told everybody how much it cost. A beat. Then proudly. WHITACRE It cost ninety dollars. MILLER How did you come to work for the FBI? WHITACRE They approached me. This doesn't make much sense to Miller. MILLER How is it that they came to you? Did they know about the price fixing? WHITACRE This agent, Brian Shepard came to a number of junior executives at ADM... That's why they approached me. The price fixing hadn't even started yet... Miller is confused by this. MILLER But, uh, if no crime was, then-Mark, I'd like to have you checked into the hospital. Whitacre looks over at a file cabinet. WHITACRE Is thatwhereyou keep your files? Is thatsafe?I'm the main witness againstthesepeople. You don't know whoyou're dealing with-- they'lldo anything to win. 159 INTERIOR CAT SCAN FACILITY 159 Whitacre-- in his hospital gown-- vanishes slowly, head first into the MRI tube. Draft: 1/15/03 135. GINGER (V.0.) Over the last few years he's really changed. MILLER (V.0.) How's that? 160 160 INTERIOR HOSPITAL CAFETERIA- DAY Ginger and Miller have a cup of coffee. GINGER He just kept buying things. We have eight cars-- three of them we never even use. MILLER Anything else? GINGER I was always the one with the temper and Corky was the happy one-- but that's changed too. Since he said he'd cooperate with the FBI-- he's become so intolerant of everyone... MILLER Why do you call him Corky? GINGER He's had that name since high school. He was like a champagne cork always flying off somewhere. 161 161 INTERIOR DOCTOR MILLER'S OFFICE- ANOTHER DAY Whitacre looks beaten. His voice is cracking-- he's distracted. Not very "Corky" right now. WHITACRE There's one in Hong Kong. And then there's the bank accounts in Switzerland and Grand Cayman...Other things-There's a lawyer in New York who has a million dollars of mine. MILLER And have you told your attorney the truth about all of these accounts? Draft: 1/15/03 136. WHITACRE No, but I don't need to. The other assets are legal-- definitely. MILLER You need to tell your attorney... WHITACRE I don't know if I can trust him. MILLER Mark, has anybody in your family ever been diagnosed as bipolar or manic-depressive? Whitacre nods and leans in. WHITACRE I had an Aunt who they said that about, my real parents died when I was pretty young and I was adopted... 162 162 INTERIOR LAWYER'S OFFICE- DAY A woman we've NEVER SEEN BEFORE is giving a deposition to a ROOM FULL OF LAWYERS. LAWYER Have you ever heard that Mark told people he was adopted? NEVER SEEN BEFORE It was in the paper that he was adopted. LAWYER Mark is your natural born son; isn't that correct? MRS. EVELYN WHITACRE isn't dead after all-- she's being deposed. WHITACRE'S MOM Right. LAWYER According to the adoption story Mark told, his parents we're killed in a car accident. Is there any truth in that? WHITACRE'S MOM No. Mark knows he's not adopted. He grew up in our house. Draft: 1/15/03 137. LAWYER Another aspect of the story is that his parents are wealthy. Do you consider yourself wealthy? WHITACRE'S MOM No. LAWYER And when did Mark first send you a check from the account in Switzerland? 163 INTERIOR CONFERENCE ROOM- EPSTEIN, ZAIDEMAN- CONTINUOUS 163 Whitacre appears again with Epstein before another herd of LAWYERS. EPSTEIN My client is here to cooperate fully, so Agent D'Angelo, if you have any questions. AGENT TONY D'ANGELO, 35, relaxed-- more like Herndon than Shepard. D' ANGELO This is your chance to put everything on the table. This is the chance to redeem yourself, but if you're not going to be completely honest you should stop talking now. WHITACRE I understand that. And I want to tell you I feel bad. I'm so sorry, and I feel worst about letting down Brian Shepard and Bob Herndon. Last time we talked I was under a great deal of stress and I said some things that weren't true. I'd like to clear that up. Whitacre is more earnest than ever before-- he begins. WHITACRE (CONT' D) The first kickback was in 1992, Mick knew all about it, he told me there'd be plenty of opportunities to take kick backs on Asian and European contracts at ADM. D' ANGELO Was anyone else involved? Draft: 1/15/03 138. WHITACRE Uh, Sid Hulse... 164 INTERIOR DOJ, WASHINGTON- CONFERENCE ROOM 164 SID HULSE testifies with his lawyer, SHELDON ZENNER and FBI AGENT GRANT and a bunch of DOJ lawyers. ZENNER Before Sid says anything, you know about these schemes with the Nigerian letters? AGENT GRANT The 419 Fraud? We see it every day. ZENNER You ever wonder who was dumb enough to fall for something like that? Hulse is flushed. HULSE This is really embarrassing. But, that's how Mark and I first got involved financially... 165 INTERIOR EPSTEIN, ZAIDEMAN CONFERENCE ROOM- CONTINUOUS 165 WHITACRE Then there was Rheinhard Richter who I worked with in Mexico. We had some deal that involved... 166 INTERIOR AMERCIAN EMBASSY- MEXICO CITY- DAY 166 RICHTER, the guy from the Admiral's Club in Mexico city, is questioned by FBI AGENT BASSET. Richter's entire financial history is spread out on the table in front of them. AGENT BASSET So we have money leaving your account here and here and here and it's going to Whitacre's account...His wife Ginger's account. This one is going to Whitacre's parents account. RICHTER Like I said, those are loans. Agent Basset isn't buying it. Draft: 1/15/03 139. AGENT BASSET Look we know you're sticking up for Mark here, but your story doesn't seem true. Mark is cooperating now. Richter folds. RICHTER You're right. It's not true. All the money went to Mark. AGENT BASSET When did it start? RICHTER Mark told me about this Nigerian thing he got in the mail. 167 INTERIOR EPSTEIN, ZAIDEMAN CONFERENCE ROOM- CONTINUOUS 167 WHITACRE And then there was Marty Allison. Marty's a good friend. 168 INTERIOR US ATTORNEY'S OFFICE CHICAGO- DAY 168 MARTY ALLISON, 40 and his lawyer, MICHAEL MONICO,appear before a host of FBI AGENTS and LAWYERS. MARTY ALLISON Mark told you guys about Nigeria, right? Nobody says anything. MARTY ALLISON When I started at ADM, uh in 1990, Mark got a letter from Nigeria. 169 FLASHBACK- ADM, 1990- DAY 169 The office as we've seen it-- bustling with business. Allison walks down the hall and is stopped by Whitacre. WHITACRE Hey, Marty, got a minute. He takes a seat across the desk from Whitacre. Whitacre shows him THE NIGERIAN LETTER. Draft: 1/15/03 140. ALLISON (V.0.) He told me he'd been in touch with certain parties in Nigeria. Businessmen who had overbilled the government there for millions-- but now needed bogus invoices from legitimate US business men to make it all look above board. You put in ten grand you get a hundred back. WHITACRE I know people who have made millions on this. My step-father cleaned up. 170 INTERIOR US ATTORNEY'S OFFICE CHICAGO- CONTINUOUS 170 Basset and Allison. AGENT BASSET He'd never heard of the Nigerian scam? MARTY ALLISON Not until a couple years later when sixty minutes ran a piece on it showing how people had lost a fortune on the con. AGENT BASSET And the kickbacks? MARTY ALLISON He had me set up a company in Germany and send fake invoices. I'd get a check for like 200 grand and most of it would go back to Mark. AGENT BASSET You kept the rest. MARTY ALLISON He told me management knew about it. But, it seemed to me that he was doing the same thing to ADM, that the Nigerians had done to us. 171 INTERIOR EPSTEIN, ZAIDEMAN CONFERENCE ROOM- LATER 171 Whitacre has laid out an amazing litany of theft and deception. Draft: 1/15/03 141. D' ANGELO How much money did you receive through all your illegal activities? Whitacre takes a moment-- does the math in his head, mouthing to himself the various sources of his massive fraud. WHITACRE Uh...7.7 Million dollars. But, Mick knew. Like I said, he endorsed these things. D' ANGELO He endorsed you stealing 7.7 Million dollars? WHITACRE He might have though that was a bit much. D' ANGELO Is there anything else you want to tell us? WHITACRE Well, I think you did a real good job today-- I do know that ADM has been stealing microbes from the Japanese for years and that they use prostitutes to get information from the competition's facility in Iowa. I know that Mick Andreas uses cocaine and I have that on tape-- and there are illegal campaign contributions to both American and foreign politicians... And under... 172 EXTERIOR GRANT PARK, CHICAGO- DAY 172 An empty band shell by Lake Michigan. Whitacre sits by himself wearing dark glasses holding an envelope. Waiting... EPSTEIN (V.0.) When agents go under cover for the FBI, they get trained for the stresses of living a secret life... 173 INTERIOR DOJ CHAMBERS- DAY 173 Epstein addresses the standard assortment of lawyers-- Mann, Mutchnik, Spearing, Spratling, etc. Draft: 1/15/03 142. EPSTEIN We hear this all the time from you guys, how easy it is for trained agents to crack. And here is Mark...A civilian with no training. 174 174 EXTERIOR GRANT PARK- CONTINUOUS Whitacre gets up and walks toward a black sedan. He looks around, paranoid. He wouldn't make a good spy. EPSTEIN (V.O.) But, you guys shove him in there, you tell him 'go for it,' without anything to make sure he doesn't crack under pressure. You have to ask yourself, was the US government taken in by Mark Whitacre, or did it help create him? Whitacre leans into the car and hands off the envelope. He speaks to some HOODLUM we can't see. WHITACRE Tomorrow, 3 O'clock... where we talked about. 175 175 INTERIOR DOJ CHAMBERS- CONTINUOUS Epstein's plea is moving-- he's reaching these people. EPSTEIN Mark committed a crime. He stole nine million dollars. It's indefensible. But these guys from ADM stole hundreds of millions of dollars from innocent people all over the world. Mark showed you that four white guys in suits getting together in the middle of the day, isn't a business meeting. It's a crime scene. And not only did he tell you about it, he got you the evidence to prove it. Now, we're not looking for the moon and stars. We're looking for something in the area of three years.. .Or we can take it to trial. And in that trial I'll lay out everything Mark Whitacre did-- good and bad... Draft: 1/15/03 143. 176 EXTERIOR SHOPPING MALL- DECATUR 176 Whitacre stands in the parking lot reading the paper on a cool autumn day. No black sedan. The big clock outside the bank in the mall says: 4:25. Whitacre walks over to a trash can and removes a BOTTLE OF MEDICATION from his pocket. He empties it into the trash. EPSTEIN (V.O.) And somewhere a future whistle blower is going to pick up the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and read what Mark's life has become because he decided to cooperate. Whitacre gives up, gets in his car and drives away. 177 INTERIOR DOJ CHAMBERS- CONTINUOUS 177 He drives his point home. A brilliant performance. EPSTEIN Because he decided to take on a powerful company-And then, you'll never have one of these white collar guys pick up a phone and call you ever again. 178 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- A LITTLE LATER 178 Whitacre comes flying through the door-- his jacket is now ripped, his glasses are bent, he's holding his arm. He looks like he's been through hell ...he's frantic. WHITACRE Baby. . .Ginger. They grabbed me. There were two of them. Ginger rushes through the house to the aid of her husband. GINGER Oh my God... WHITACRE They wouldn't let me out of the car. GINGER Look at your shirt.. .what happened? As she embraces him we are close on Whitacre... Draft: 1/15/03 144. 179 INTERIOR WAND-TV STUDIOS, DECATUR- DAY 179 Whitacre and Ginger are interviewed by the LOCAL NEWS ANCHOR against the "WAND" backdrop. Whitacre is calm-- convincing. WHITACRE I was abducted. They took me for a twenty-minute joy ride and told me that I basically better forget everything that's not on tape. LOCAL NEWS ANCHOR Did the men identify themselves? Whitacre smiles. WHITACRE I think we know who sent them. GINGER And they sawed the locks off the door like, like mafia thugs. LOCAL NEWS ANCHOR And where is the FBI in all this? 180 INTERIOR BLUE BIRD DINER- AFTERNOON 180 Shepard watches the interview on the TV in the corner in the crowded diner. GINGER (ON TV) What people have to realize is-- the FBI did the same thing. They locked my husband in an investigation and drove our family around for three years threatening him. You tell me, where are they now? He is stung by her words. WHITACRE (ON TV) I had a lot of faith in the guys at the FBI-- they always said they'd take care of me. Shepard throws some money down on the lunch counter and leaves. Draft: 1/15/03 145. 181 INTERIOR LAW OFFICES EPSTEIN, ZAIDEMAN- EVENING 181 Epstein brings a deal to Mark and Ginger. He believes he has saved his client, but the Whitacre's feel differently. WHITACRE Three to five years? But, ADM's the bad guys. EPSTEIN You've got to focus here. You stole nine million dollars. And then you lied about it. Maybe in your head you're one of the good guys but to them your a guy who stole a lot of money and lied about it. WHITACRE Ginger and I have been talking and we'd like to file a law suit against Brian Shepard and the IJS government. EPSTEIN Jesus Christ, for what, Mark? WHITACRE He hit me with a brief case. This is news to Ginger, but she believes it. Epstein doesn't. EPSTEIN Mark. . .Come on. WHITACRE And he told me to destroy certain tapes that didn't help the case. Epstein throws up his hands. EPSTEIN Mark, I'm telling you-- take the plea. Whitacre smiles and looks at Ginger. WHITACRE Thanks, Jim. But, we're going to go a different way. Draft: 1/15/03 146. 182 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION--DAY 182 Mark sits in his office staring at a letter from Doctor Miller. WHITACRE (V.O.) I read this study in Time magazine when I was at Cornell-- which is an Ivy league school-- and there were a lot of people who never believed, including my mother, that I would make it to an Ivy league school maybe just Ginger who I met in Marching Band in the 8th grade... ANGLE ON THE LETTER Fragments of the contents "This is to inform you of your lithium levels"..."Exacerbated by stress"..."A strict drug regimen..." WHITACRE (V.0.) .and the study said that people had nice, sympathetic feelings about people who were adopted and treated them better. So I made up this adoption story-- and people did treat me better-- and when I got a job one of my professors told the people at Ralston Purina that I was this amazing guy that had accomplished all of this in spite of being adopted-- Whitacre takes out a pair of SCISSORS and goes to work on the letter. WHITACRE (V.0.) .and so it was really other people who spread the story not me-- although I admit it was wrong to start it and everything, it was other people who kept it going. Even the people at ADM. My new lawyer sees that. 183 INTERIOR CHAMBERS DOJ- DAY 183 BILL WALKER, 50, fat and ruled by fantasy is Whitacre's new lawyer. He sits in a golf shirt and tennis shoes facing a squad of amazed DOJ PROSECUTORS. Draft: 1/15/03 147. WALKER This all goes back many years, before most of us were born... It's bigger than any of us, and it's ongoing. I know you're skeptical, but I've seen it. My client Mark Whitacre has shown it to me. Maybe I'm just a personal injury lawyer from Taylorville- nowhere-Illinois, but I tell you I know the identity of the master puppeteer. The DOJ lawyers try not to laugh. MARY SPEARING The who? WALKER Master puppeteer, and it's not who you're thinking. 184 INTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- EVENING 184 Mark sits splicing tapes of Brian Shepard from one tape recorder to another-- trying to piece together an incriminating tape to frame Shepard. WHITACRE (V.0.) Grandiosity and embellishment-- what they call it when you embellish things-- those are the major symptoms of bipolar disorder. And the other, the second major symptom is poor judgement. And that's something Brian Shepard should have known ; The bipolar disorder is what made me believe I'd be President when it was over... Although there was a time when Mick told me, on a trip to Nebraska, that I could be headed for the top. WALKER (V.O.) Mark has tapes-- tapes the government doesn't want us to hear. 185 INTERIOR CHAMBERS DOJ- CONTIUOUS 185 Walker is in full rant. He holds a letter up for all to see. Draft: 1/15/03 148. 1 WALKER Tapes that outline the actions of Brian Shepard, who hit Mark Whitacre with a brief case when Mark was cooperating with the government. And he has a letter from his psychiatrist outlining and confirming the cruelty perpetrated on him by Agent Shepard. A letter from his psychiatrist, clearly exonerating him from all wrongdoing. Walker hands the letter over to Spearing. 186 INTERIOR WHITACRE BARN- DUSK 186 Winter. Gray snow on fields of dirt and broken corn stalks. An empty swimming pool and a FOR SALE sign in the yard. Inside Shepard sits with Whitacre and Ginger. Shepard holds THE LETTER SHEPARD I read the letter from Doctor Miller, Mark. It's not true. WHITACRE It's true. Definitely-- it's on his letterhead, he signed it... SHEPARD The area code ...Mark... He puts the letter in the middle of the table. SHEPARD (CONT'D) .Area code 847. It says the letter was written in November 1995- - that area code didn't exist then. WHITACRE Well, everybody knew the area code change was coming. Lot's of people ordered new stationery early. SHEPARD I thought about that. So I asked the phone company. This is the press release announcing the 847 area code... He puts the release on the table. Draft: 1/15/03 149. SHEPARD It's dated six days after your letter was written-- Doctor Miller couldn't have known about it. Whitacre stares at it-- then looks up. THE MACHINE IN HIS HEAD THAT RECONSTITUTES REALITY GRINDS AND SEIZES. HE'S FINALLY TRAPPED. THE INTERIOR MONOLOGUE IS THE SAME AS THE DIALOGUE IN THE SCENE-- BUT PRECEDES WHAT WHITACRE IS SAYING OUT LOUD BY AN INSTANT. THERE IS AN ECHO ONLY WHITACRE CAN HEAR. WHITACRE WHITACRE (V.0.) Ron Henkoff from Fortune Ron Henkoff from Fortune called Doctor Miller and called Doctor Miller and Miller confirmed the Miller confirmed the letter... letter... SHEPARD I called Miller, Mark. Ginger quietly starts to cry-- picks up the letter. WHITACRE WHITACRE (V.0.) He can't talk to you.-That's He can't talk to you... That's a violation of doctor patient a violation of doctor patient confidentiality... confidentiality... SHEPARD Doctor patient confidentiality doesn't apply to forgeries. Ginger cries harder. Whitacre tries again. WHITACRE (V.0.) WHITACRE Then why did Fortune Magazine Then why did Fortune Magazine run the story... run the story... Ginger has had it, she breaks down. GINGER Stop it... WHITACRE SHEPARD Call Henkoff... He never wrote the letter. GINGER Stop it, Mark. You have to stop doing this to yourself, please stop. Whitacre is done. Draft: 1/15/03 150. F WHITACRE I think maybe I should go back to the hospital. 187 INTERIOR FEDERAL COURT, URBANA ILLINOIS 187 Whitacre looks like shit. He sits with Walker in JUDGE HAROLD BAKER'S courtroom. SUPER: OCTOBER, 10TH, 1997 CLERK Case 97-2001 United states of America versus Mark Whitacre. JUDGE BAKER You have the right to make a statement if you wish? Whitacre nods and stands. WHITACRE I appreciate the opportunity to say a few words, it's been a long five years. I apologize to a lot of people in this room... ANGLE ON SHEPARD AND HERNDON They sit together in the back row. WHITACRE And to a lot of them who are not in this room for my actions. I realize I hurt a lot of people and I apologize greatly...I am here to accept my punishment. That's all. JUDGE BAKER To observe that Mr. Whitacre is the usual felon is a gross understatement. He is well educated, has a loving wife and family, is respected in the community. It is not inconceivable that in due course he may have become CEO of Archer Daniels Midland... ANGLE ON WHITACRE He smiles. He knew he could be CEO someday. . .We hear Whitacre in a calmer time. Draft: 1/15/03 151. WHITACRE (V.0.) I like jail. I think it's been good for me... But, the judge isn't done with him. JUDGE BAKER However, the court can find no clear connection between Mr. Whitacre's bipolar disorder and the 45 counts of criminal misconduct he has been charged with-- just garden variety greed. It is very difficult to tell when Mr. Whitacre is telling the truth... 188 INTERIOR ANOTHER COURTROOM- DAY 188 A larger courtroom. Mick and Terry stand for sentencing, surrounded by Aubrey Daniel and others. WHITACRE (V.0.) But, I don't think what happened is fair when you look at what happened to me compared to Mick and Terry. I mean, if you go and hold up your local grocery store you might get five years... SUPER: FIVE YEARS LATER ANGLE ON WHITACRE FULL SCREEN VIDEO WHITACRE Mick and Terry held up every grocery store in the world and they only got three... So you tell me how it makes sense that I get nine. I think that's something you should consider, Mr. President, when reviewing my request for pardon. 189 INTERIOR FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION, SC- DAY 189 Whitacre is in his green prison jumpsuit-- BALD-- his toupee, another deception, also gone. He sits in front of a video camera in the beam of ONE LIGHT. A CAMERAMAN records his PARDON APPEAL. Draft: 1/15/03 152, I WHITACRE (CONT'D) I'd also like to take this opportunity to apologize to Special Agent Brian Shepard on behalf of myself and my wife Ginger, he never hit me with a brief case or told me to destroy tapes. The idea to sue him wasn't mine-- it came from someone at ADM and I shouldn't have listened. I can't remember who. when I was at ADM, I lived so many lives, I wasn't sure who I was. Today, I know more who I am and what I really want out of life. I've completed three post-graduate degrees while in detention. A J.D. which is, of course, a law degree and another advanced degree in the psychology of jury selection. I sleep better in prison than I have in years. My wife has forgiven me and believes that the ordeal with ADM has brought us closer together in a marriage of over 20 years. I hope you will allow me to leave here, so that I can re-join my life with my family and three kids. . .Two of whom are adopted... Especially when you consider that thanks in large part to my testimony the US government has been able to collect over a billion dollars in price- fixing fines from big business. That's it. Thanks. He smiles. The light goes out. The Cameraman starts packing up the equipment. Out of the shadows steps Bob Herndon. HERNDON Good luck with the appeal, Mark. WHITACRE Thanks for helping me remember everything Bob. I sure appreciate it. I wish Brian could've come. HERNDON He still pretty angry. WHITACRE You tell him, I'm real sorry. Can you do that for me? The funny part is if I'd never gone undercover I would have never stolen 11 million. It was my way out. My severance. What else could I do-- I wrote my own severance. Draft: 1/15/03 153. Before Herndon can respond a CORRECTIONAL OFFICER approaches. CORRECTIONAL OFFICER Work detail. WHITACRE I gotta go, Bob. Herndon does some math. HERNDON 11 million? I thought it came out to nine. WHITACRE Did I say eleven? Boy, it was only nine. Definitely. The eleven is with interest. HERNDON Mark, are you still taking your medication? WHITACRE The doctor here says I don't need it anymore. I can manage without it now that there's less stress. It was just the stress of the FBI. Herndon turns to leave-- and then he pauses. HERNDON Mark, was it eleven? I mean there isn't something else we need to... WHITACRE I don't know Bob, you tell me. He smiles and turns his back on the agent and walks down the hall toward work detail. SFX: A drum roll explodes into the roar of the CLASH'S cover of "I FOUGHT THE LAW (AND THE LAW WON)." As Joe Strummer sings "Breaking rocks in the hot sun..." 190 EXTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- DAY 190 Parked in the driveway is a truck with an ADM logo on it-- TWO ADM WORKERS have set up some SEISMIC EQUIPMENT on the lawn. One works the gear, the other talks to the NEW OWNER. Draft: 1/15/03 154. I N NEW OWNER Mrs. Whitacre never told me anything about any hidden rooms and tunnels and neither did the realtor. 191 INTERIOR SUPERMARKET- DAY 191 Ginger Whitacre checks out of the grocery store. As each item is scanned by the cashier we FREEZE on the side of the package... Instead of the INGREDIENTS panel of the package we SEE: SUPER: MICK ANDREAS AND TERRY WILSON WERE SENTENCED TO THREE YEARS AT THE FEDERAL PRISON CAMP IN DULUTH, MINNESOTA FOR PRICE FIXING. THEY WERE RELEASED IN 1999. NEITHER RETURNED TO ADM. Another item... SUPER: DWAYNE ANDREAS WAS NEVER INDICTED. HE RETIRED FROM ADM AND REMAINS POLITICALLY ACTIVE. HIS NEPHEW ALLAN ANDREAS IS NOW CEO OF ADM. Another item... SUPER: AJINOMOTO CORPORATION PLEAD GUILTY AND PAID $10 MILLION IN FINES. MR. YAMADA REMAINS UNDER INDICTMENT AND WILL BE ARRESTED IF HE ATTEMPTS TO ENTER THE UNITED STATES. Another item... SUPER: BOB HERNDON IS AN FBI AGENT IN KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI. HE WAS AWARDED THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S MEDAL BY JANET RENO FOR HIS WORK IN THE ADM CASE. Another item... SUPER: BRIAN SHEPARD WAS CLEARED OF ANY WRONGDOING AND WAS ALSO AWARDED THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S MEDAL IN 1999. HE IS STILL THE RESIDENT FBI AGENT IN DECATUR, ILLINOIS. GROCERY CASHIER How would you like to pay for this? Ginger opens her checkbook. SUPER: GINGER WHITACRE MOVED HER CHILDREN TO AKIN, SOUTH CAROLINA TO BE NEAR HER HUSBAND. SHE IS AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER. Draft: 1/15/03 155. 192 EXTERIOR WHITACRE MANSION- A LITTLE LATER 192 The ADM workers have dug a hole in the yard. The NEW OWNER looks on shaking her head. SUPER: NO HIDDEN ROOM WAS EVER FOUND AT THE WHITACRE RESIDENCE. ADM REFUSES TO DISCLOSE IF ALL OF THE MONEY MARK WHITACRE STOLE HAS BEEN ACCOUNTED FOR. 193 EXTERIOR CORRECTIONAL FACILITY- EVENING 193 Whitacre drives a COMBINE in a corn field behind a barbed wire fence-- he wears an orange jumpsuit and a white hat. GREEN/GOLD stalks of corn flash by... HOLD ON ONE HUSK OF CORN AS THE SUPER CRAWLS... SUPER: MARK WHITACRE IS SERVING NINE YEARS FOR FRAUD AND PRICE FIXING IN EDGEFIELD FEDERAL PRISON. HE HAS SOUGHT PARDONS FROM BILL CLINTON AND GEORGE W. BUSH. BUT, HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED. OVER 30 GRAND JURIES HAVE INVESTIGATED PRICE FIXING IN THE FOOD AND VITAMIN INDUSTRIES SINCE MARK WHITACRE STEPPED FORWARD. AS A RESULT, BY 1999, THE US GOVERNMENT HAD COLLECTED OVER $1 BILLION IN FINES. The combine harvests the husk we have been holding on-- clearing the frame. Leaving only BLUE SKIES. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Inglourious Basterds.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Inglourious Basterds.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e507e0175839e73fea24174a1b3b96757d66c68c --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Inglourious Basterds.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS Written by Quentin Tarantino 1. EXT - DAIRY FARM- DAY The modest dairy farm in the countryside of Nancy, France (what the French call cow country). We Read a SUBTITLE in the sky above the farm house; CHAPTER ONE "ONCE UPON A TIME IN... NAZI OCCUPIED FRANCE" This SUBTITLE disappears, and is replaced by another one; "1941 One year into the German occupation of France". The farm consists of a house, small barn, and twelve cows spread about. The owner of the property, a bull of a man FRENCH FARMER, brings a axe up and down on A tree stump blemishing his property. However simply by sight, you'd never know if he's been beating at this stump for the last year, or just started today. JULIE One of his three pretty teenage daughters, is hanging up laundry on the clothes line. As she hangs up a white bed sheet, she hears a noise, moving the sheet aside she see's; JULIE'S POV: A Nazi town car convertible, with two little nazi flags attached to the hood, a NAZI SOLDIER behind the wheel, a NAZI OFFICER alone in the back seat, following TWO OTHER NAZI SOLDIERS on motorcycles, coming up over the hill on the country road leading to their farm. JULIE Pappa. The French Farmer sinks his axe in the stump, looks over his shoulder, and see's the Germans approaching. The FARMERS WIFE, CHARLOTTE comes to the doorway of their home, followed by her TWO OTHER TEENAGE DAUGHTERS, and see the Germans approaching. The Farmer yells to his family in FRENCH, SUBTITLED IN ENGLISH; FARMER Go back inside and shut the door. IL FARMER (to Julie) Julie, get me some water from the pump to wash up with, then get inside with your mother. The young lady runs to the water pump by the house. She picks up a basin, and begins pumping, after a few pumps, water comes out splashing into the basin. The French Farmer sits down on the stump he was previously chopping away at, pulls a handkerchief from his pocket, wipes sweat from off his face, and waits for the Nazi convoy to arrive. After living for a year with the sword of Damocles suspended over his head, this may very well be the end. Julie finishes filling the water basin, and places it on the window sill. JULIE Ready Pappa. FARMER Thank you darling, now go inside and take care of your mother. Don't run. Julie walks inside the farm house and closes the door behind her. As her father stands up from his stump, and moves over to the window sill with the water basin... .The SOUND of the ENGINES of the two motorcycles and car get LOUDER. The Farmer SPLASHES water from the basin on his face and down his front. He takes a towel off a nail, and wipes the excess water from his face and chest, as he watches the two motorcycles, the one automobile, and the four representatives of the National Socialist Party come to a halt on his property. We don't move into them, but keep observing them from a distance, like the Farmer. The TWO NAZI MOTORCYCLIST are off their bikes, and standing at attention next to them. The NAZI DRIVER has walked around the automobile, and opened the door for his superior. The NAZI OFFICER says to The Driver in UNSUBTITLED GERMAN; NAZI OFFICER This is the property of Perrier LaPadite? 3 NAZI DRIVER Yes heer Colonel. The Nazi officer climbs out of the back the vehicle, carrying in his left hand n d OFFICER Herman, until I summon you, I am to be left alone. NAZI DRIVER As you wish Heer Col. The S.S. COLONEL yells to The Farmer in FRENCH, SUBTITLED IN ENGLISH; NAZI OFFICER Is this the property of Perrier LaPadite? FARMER I am Perrier LaPadite. The S.S. Colonel crosses the distance between them with long strides, and says in French with a smile on his face; NAZI OFFICER It is a pleasure to meet you Monsieur LaPadite, I am Colonel Hans Landa of the S.S. COLONEL.HANS LANDA offers the French Farmer PERRIER LAPADITE his hand. The Frenchman takes the German hand in his and shakes it. PERRIER How may I help you? COL LANDA I was hoping you could invite me inside your home and we may have a discussion. INT - LAPADITE FARM HOUSE - DAY The door to the farm house swings open, andtheaFarmer gesturestfor the S.S. COL to enter. Removing his grey S.S. cap, inside the Frenchman's home. Col Landa is immediately greeted with the sight of the Farmers wife, and three pretty daughters standing together in the kitchen, smiling in his direction. The Farmer enters behind him, closing the door. VA PERRIER Colonel Landa, this is my family. The S.S. COL clicks his heels together, and takes the hand of the French Farmers Wife... COL LANDA Col Hans Landa of the S.S. madame, at your service. He kisses her hand, then continues without letting go of his hostess hand... COL LANDA please excuse my rude intrusion on your routine. FARMERS WIFE Don't be ridiculous, heer Col. While still holding the French Woman's hand, and looking into her eyes, The S.S. Colonel says; COL LANDA Monsieur LaPadite, the rumors I have heard in the village about your family are all true. Your wife is a beautiful woman. His eyes leave the mother, and move to the three daughters. COL.LANDA (CON' T ) And each of your daughters is more lovely then the last. PERRIER Merci. Please have a seat. The Farmer offers The S.S. Colonel a seat at the families wooden dinner table. The Nazi officer excepts the French Farmers offer, and lowers himself into the chair. Placing his grey S.S. cap on the table, and keeping his black attache case on the floor by his feet. The Farmer (perfect host) turns to his Wife and says; PERRIER Charlotte, would you be so good as to get The Colonel some wine? COL LANDA Merci be coupe Monsieur LaPadite, but no wine. This being a dairy farm one would be safe in assuming you have milk? CHARLOTTE Oui. COL LANDA Then milk is what I prefer. CHARLOTTE Very Well. The mother of three, takes a craft of milk out of the ice box, and pours a tall glass of the fresh white liquid for The Colonel. The S.S. Colonel takes a long drink from the glass, then puts it down LOUDLY on the wooden table. COL LANDA Monsieur, to both your family, and your cows, I say; Bravo. PERRIER Merci. COL LANDA Please, join me at your table. PERRIER Very well. The French Farmer sit's at his wooden dinner table across from The Nazi. The Women remain standing. Col Landa leans forward, and says to the Farmer in a low tone of CONFIDENTIALLY; COL LANDA Monsieur LaPadite, what we have to discuss,' would be better discussed in private. You'll notice, I left my men outdoors- if it wouldn't offend them, could you ask your lovely ladies to step outside. PERRIER You are right. G. PERRIER (to his women) Charlotte, would you take the girls outside. The Colonel and I need to have a few words. The Farmers wife follows her husbands orders, and gathers her daughter's taking them outside, closing the door behind them. The Two Men are alone, at the farmers dinner table, in the Farmers humble home. COL LANDA Monsieur LaPadite, I regret to inform you I've exhausted the extent of my French. To continue to speak it so inadequately, would only serve to embarrass me. However, I've been lead to believe you speak English quite well? PERRIER Oui. COL LANDA Well, it just so happens, I do as well. This being your house, I ask your permission to switch to English, for the remainder of the conversation? PERRIER By all means. They now speak ENGLISH; COL LANDA Monsieur LaPadite, while I'm very familiar with you, and your family. I have no way of knowing if you are familiar with who I am. Are you aware of my existence? The Farmer answers; PERRIER Yes. COL LANDA This is good. Are you aware of the job I've been ordered to carry out in France? I PERRIER Yes. The Colonel drinks more milk. COL LANDA Please tell me what you've heard? PERRIER I've heard, the fuhrer has put you in charge of rounding up the Jews left in France who are ether hiding, or passing for Gentile. The S.S.Colonel smiles. COL LANDA The Fuhrer couldn't of said it better himself. PERRIER But the meaning of your visit, pleasant though it is, is mysterious to me. The Germans looked through my house nine months ago for hiding Jews, and found nothing. COL LANDA I'm aware of that, I read the report on this area. But like any enterprise, when under new management, there's always a slight duplication of efforts. Most of it being a complete waste of time, but needs to be done nevertheless. I just have A few questions Monsieur LaPadite, if you can assist me with answers, my department can close the file on your family. Taking his black leather attache case, and placing it on the table, he takes out a folder from inside. He also extracts a expensive black fountain pen from his uniform front pocket. Opening the folder, and referring to it; COL LANDA Now before the occupation there were four Jewish families in this area, all dairy farmers like yourself. The Loveitts, The Doleracs, The Rollins, and The Dreyfus's, is that correct? 8, PERRIER To my knowledge those were the Jewish families among the dairy farmers. - Heer Colonel, would it disturb you if I smoked my pipe? Looking up from his papers. COL LANDA Please, Monsieur LaPadite, it is your house, make yourself comfortable. The Farmer gets up from the table, goes to his shelf over the fireplace, and removes from it a WOODEN BOX that contains all the fixins to his pipe. He sits back down at the table with his Nazi guest. As The Farmer loads the bowel of his pipe with tobacco, sets a match to it, and begins slowly puffing, making it red hot, the S.S. Colonel studies the papers in front of him. COL LANDA Now according to these papers, all the Jewish families in this area have been accounted for - except, The Dreyfusis. Somewhere in the last year it would appear they have vanished. Which leads me to the conclusion that they've ether made good their escape, or someone is very successfully hiding them. (looking up from his papers, across the table at The FARMER) What have you heard about The Dreyfusis Monsieur LaPadite? PERRIER Only rumors - COL LANDA - I love rumors! Facts can be so misleading, where rumors, true or false are often reveling. So Monsieur LaPadite, what rumors have you heard regarding The Dreyfusis? The Farmerlooks at Landa. I. COL LANDA Speak freely Monsieur LaPadite, I want to hear what the rumors are, not who told them to you. The Farmer puffs thoughtfully on his pipe. PERRIER Again, this is just a rumor - but we heard the Dreyfusis had made there way into Spain. COL LANDA So the rumors you've heard have been of escape? PERRIER Yes. COL LANDA Were the LaPadites and the Dreyfusis friendly? As the Farmer answers this question, the CAMERA LOWERS behind his chair, to the floor, past the floor, to a small area underneath the floorboards revealing; FIVE HUMAN BEINGS lying vertically underneath the farmers floorboards. These human beings are The DREYFUSIS, who have lived lying down underneath the dairy farmers house for the past year. But one couldn't call what The Dreyfusis have done for the last year living. This family has done the only thing they could, hidden from a occupying army that wishes to exterminate them. PERRIER We were families in the same community, in the same bussiness. I wouldn't say we were friends, but members of the same community, we had common interest. The S.S. Colonel takes in this answer, seems to except it, then moves to the next question. COL LANDA Having never met the Dreyfusis, would you confirm for me the exact members of the household and their names? 10. PERRIER There were five of them. The father, Jacob... .wife, Miram... her brother, Bob ... COL LANDA - How old is Bob? PERRIER Thirty - thirty one? COL LANDA Continue. PERRIER And the children... Amos... and Shoshanna. COL LANDA Ages of the children? PERRIER Amos - six - I believe. And Shosanna, was fifteen or sixteen, I'm not really sure. CUT TO UXT - DAIRY FARM - DAY The Mother and her three Daughters finish taking the laundry off the clothes line. They can't hear anything going on inside. e three Nazi Soldiers watch the three Daughters. SACK TO LANDA AND PERRIER COL LANDA Well I guess that should do it. Be begins gathering up his papers, and putting them back into his ttache case. the Farmer, cool as a cucumber, puffs on his pipe. COL LANDA However, before I go, could I have another glass of your delicious milk? it. PERRIER But of course. Farmer stands up, goes over to the ice box, and takes out the aft of milk. As he walks over and fills the Nazi Colonel's glass, German Officer talks. COL LANDA Monsieur LaPadite, are you aware of the nickname the people of France have given me? PERRIER I have no interest in such things. COL LANDA But you are aware of what they call me? PERRIER I'm aware. COL LANDA What are you aware of? PERRIER That they call you, "The Jew Hunter". COL LANDA Precisely! Now I understand your trepidation in repeating it. Before he was assassinated, Heydrich apparently hated the moniker the good people of Prague bestowed on him. Actually why he would hate the name, "The Hangman", is baffling to me It would appear he did everything in his power to earn it. But I, on the other hand, love my unofficial title, precisely because I've earned it. As "The Jew Hunter" enjoys his fresh milk, he continues to theorize with the french farmer. COL LANDA The feature that makes me such a effective hunter of the Jews, is, as opposed to most German soldiers, I can think like a jew. where they can only think like a German, or more precisely, a German soldier. Now if one were to determine what attribute the German people share with a beast, it would be the cunning and predatory instinct of a hawk. COL LANDA (CON'T) Negro's - gorilla's - brain - lips - smell - physical strength - penis size. But, if one were to determine what attributes the jews share with a beast, it would be that of the rat. Now the Fuhrer and Gobbles propaganda have said pretty much the same thing. Where our conclusions differ, is I don't consider the comparison a insult. Consider for a moment, the world a rat lives in. It's a hostile world indeed. If a rat were to scamper through your front door right now, would you greet it with hostility? PERRIER I suppose I would. COL LANDA Has a rat ever done anything to you to create this animosity you feel toward them? PERRIER Rat's spread disease, they bite people - COL LANDA - Unless some fool is stupid enough to try and handle a live one, rats don't make it a practise of biting human beings. Rats were the cause of the bubonic plague, but that was some time ago. In all your born days, has a rat ever caused you to be sick a day in your life? I purpose to you, any disease a rat could spread, a squirrel could equally carry. Yet I assume you don't share the same animosity with squirrels that you do with rats, do you? PERRIER No. COL LANDA Yet, they are both rodent's, are they not? And except for the fact that one has a big bushy tail, while the other has a long repugnt tail of rodent skin, they even rather look alike, don't they? 13.6 PERRIER It is a interesting thought, beer Colonel. COL LANDA However, interesting as the thought may be, it makes not one bit of difference to how you feel. If a rat were to scamper through your door, this very minute, would you offer it a saucer of your delicious milk? PERRIER Probably not. COL LANDA I didn't think so. You don't like them. You don't really know why you don't like them. All you know is, you find them repulsive. (let's the METAPHOR sink in) What a tremendously hostile world a rat must endure. Yet, not only does he survive, he thrives. And the reason for this, is because our little foe has a instinct for survival and presavation second to none. And that Monsieur, is what a jew shares with a rat. Consequently, a German soldier, conducts a search of a house suspected of hiding jews. Where does the hawk look? He looks in the barn, he looks in the attic, he looks in the cellar - he looks everywhere, he would hide. But there are many places it would never occur to a hawk to hide. However the reason the Fuhrer brought me off my Alps in Austria, and placed me in French cow country today, is because it does occur to me. Because I'm aware what tremendous feats human beings are capable of once they abandon dignity. (Changing tone) May I smoke my pipe as well? Th e Farmer's cool facade is little by little eroding. PERRIER Please, Cononel, make yourself at home. 13. The Jew Hunter, removes both a pipe and a bag of tobacco fixings. The pipe, strangely enough, is a Calabash, made from a "S" shaped goard kith a yellow skin, made famous by Sherlock Holmes. A the Nazi Colonel, busies himself with his smoking life, he ontinues to hold court at the Frenchmans table. COL LANDA The other mistake the German soldier make is their severe handling of the citizens who give shelter and aid to the Jews. These citizens are not enemies of the state. They are simply confused people, trying to make some sense out of the madness war creates. These citizens do not need punishing. They simply need to be reminded of their duty in war time. Let's use you as a example Monsieur LaPadite. In this war, you have found yourself in the middle of a conflict that has nothing to do with yourself, your lovely ladies, or your cows - yet, here you are. So Monsieur LaPadite, let me purpose a question. In this time of war, what is your number one duty? Is it to fight the Germans in the name of France to your last breath? Or, is it to harass the occupying army to the best of your ability? Or, is it to protect the poor unfortunate victims of warfare who can not protect themselfs? Or, is your number one duty in this time of bloodshed, to protect those very beautiful women who constitute your family? The Colonel lets the last statement stand. COL LANDA That was a question Monsieur LaPadite. In this time of war, What do you consider your number one duty? PERRIER To protect my family. COL LANDA Now, my job dictates, that I must have my men enter your home, and conduct a thorough search, before I can officially cross your families name off my list. COL LANDA (CON'T) And if there are any irregularities to be found, rest assured, they will be. That is unless, you have something to tell me that will make the conducting of a search unnecessary. (PAUSE) I might add also, that any information that makes the preforming of My duty easier, will not be met with punishment. Actually quite the contrary, it will be met with reward. And that reward will be, your family will cease to be harassed in anyway, by the German military during the rest of our occupation of your country. The Farmer, pipe in mouth, stares across the table at his German opponent. COL LANDA You are sheltering enemies of the state, are you not? PERRIER Yes. COL LANDA Your sheltering them underneath your floorboards aren't you? PERRIER Yes. COL LANDA Point out to me the area's where their hiding. The Farmer points out the area's on the floor with the Dreyfusis are underneath. COL LANDA Since I haven't heard any disturbance, I assume that while their listening, they don't speak english? PERRIER Yes . COL LANDA I'm going to switch back to french now, and I want you to follow my masquerade - is that clear? PERRIER Yes. Colonel Landa stands up from the table, and switching to FRENCH says SUBTITLED IN ENGLISH; COL LANDA Monsieur LaPadite, I thank you for milk, and your hospitably. I do believe our business here is done. The Nazi Officer opens the front door, and silently motions for his son to approach the house. COL LANDA Mademoiselle LaPadite, I thank you for your time, we shant be bothering your family any longer. Yet the LaPadite women watch the Nazi soldiers, machine guns at ready, approach the house. The Soldiers enter the doorway, Col Landa, silently points out area of the floor the Jews are hiding under. COL LANDA So, Monsieur and Madame LaPadite I bid you adieu. otions to the Soldiers with his index finger. wy TEAR UP the wood floor with MACHINE GUN FIRE. The little farm house is filled with SMOKE, DUST, SPLINTERS, SCREAMS, 0ULLET CASINGS, and even alittle BLOOD. With a hand motion from the Colonel, the Soldiers cut off their gunfire. The Colonel keeps his finger in the air to indicate silence. UNDERNEATH THE FLOORBOARDS The entire Dreyfus family lay dead. Except for sixteen year old $HOSANNA, who miraculously escaped being struck by the nazi's bullets. With her dead family surrounding her, the young girl goes for freedom (represented by wire mesh vent). L LANDA ears movement underneath the floor, looks down and see's a SHAPE Wing forward between the planks in the floor. COL LANDA It's the girl. Nobody moves I'. T KICKED open, the girl SPRINGS out. COL LANDA ae he crosses the floor, he see's the young girl RUNNING towards the cover of the woods. He unlatches the window, and opens it. Shosanna to perfectly FRAMED in the window sill. 1SANNA RUNNING towards woods. Farm house and Col in the window in B.G. LTHY BAREFEET LAPPING against wet grass. Qt! SHOSANNMA' S FACE same as a animal being chased by a predator FLIGHT - PANIC - FEAR SNOSANNA'S POV the safety of tree's, getting closer. COL LANDA Pramed by the window, takes his LUGAR, and straight arm aims at the fleeing Jew, cocking back the hammer with his thumb. CU COL LANDA SLOW ZOOM into his eyes as he aims. PROFILE CU SHOSANNA Sod dash for life. L LANDA changes his mind. He yells to the rat fleeing the trap, heading for the safety of the wood pile, in FRENCH SUBTITLED IN ENGLISH; COL LANDA Au revoir, Shosanna! Till we meet again! HOSANNA Maces it to the woods, and is gone. T h e S.S. Colonel closes the window. 17. EXT - NAZI TOWN CAR (MOVING)- DAY diihe ac seat of the convertible, that'sa stsn tColonel Hans Lan speeding away from the French farm house. Landa speaks to his Driver in GERMAN, SUBTITLED into ENGLISH; COL LANDA Herman, I sense` a question on your lips? Out with it? DRIVER Why did yoy allow a enemy of the state to escape? COL LANDA Oh, I don't think the state is in too much danger, do you? DRIVER I suppose not. COL LANDA I'm glad you see it my way. Besides, not putting a bullet in the back of a fifteen year old girl, and allowing her to escape, our not nessessarlly the same thing. She's a young girl, no food, no shelter, no shoes, who's just witnessed the massacre of her entire family. She may not survive the night. And after word spreads about what happened today, it's highly unlikely she will find any willing farmers to extend her aid. If I had to guess her fate, I'd say she'll probably be turned in by some neighbour. Or, she'll be spotted by some German soldier. Or, we'll find her body in the woods, dead from starvation or exposure. Or, perhaps-she'll survive. She will elude capture. She will escape to America. She will move to New York city. Where she will be elected, President of the United States. The S.S. Colonel chuckles at his little funny. TITTLE CARD:"INGLORIOUS BASTERDS" 1$, FADE UP CHAPTER TITLE APPEARS: F CHAPTER TWO "INGLORIOUS BASTERDS" FADE UP EXT - SOMEWHERE IN ENGLAND - DAY A bunch of SOLDIERS are lined up at attention. LIEUTENANT ALDO.RAINE, a hillbilly from the mountains of Tennessee, walks down the line. He recruits the men, the Germans will later call; "The Basterds". Lt.Aldo has one defining physical characteristic, a ROPE BURN around his neck. As if once upon a time,. he survived a LYNCHING. The scar will never once be mentioned. LT.ALDO My name is Lt.Aldo Raine, and I'm puttin together a special team. And I need me eight soldiers. Eight - Jewish - American - soldiers. Now y'all might of heard rumors about the armada happening soon. Well, we'll be leavin a little earlier. We're gonna be dropped into France, dressed as civilians. And once we're in enemy territory, as a bushwackin, guerrilla army, we're gonna be doin one thing, and thing only, Killin Nazi's. The Members of the National Socialist Party, have conquered Europe through murder, torture, intimidation, and terror. And that's exactly what we're gonna do to them. Now I don't know bout y'all? But I sure as hell, didnt come down from the goddamn Smoky mountains, cross five thousand miles of water, fight my way through half Sicily, and then jump out of a fuckin air-o-plane, to teach the Nazi's lessons in humanity. Nazi ain't got no humanity. There the foot soldiers of a Jew hatin, mass murderin manic, and they need to be destroyed. That's why any and every son-of-a--bitch we find wearin a Nazi uniform, there gonna die. if. LT.ALDO (CON'T) We will be cruel to the Germans, and through our cruelty, they will know who we are. They will find the evidence of our cruelty, in the disembowed, dismembered, and disfigured bodies of their brothers we leave behind us. And the German will not be able to help themselves from imagining the cruelty their brothers endured at our hands, and our boot heels, and the edge of our knives. And the Germans, will be sickened by us. And the Germans, will talk about us. And the Germans, will fear us. And when the Germans close their eyes at night, and their sub conscious tortures them for the evil they've done, it will be with thoughts of us, that it tortures them with. He stops pacing, and looks at everybody. LT. ALDO Sound good? They all say; ALL Yes, sir! LT.ALDO That's what I like to hear. But I got a word of warning to all would-be warriors. When you join my command, you take on debit. A debit you owe me, personally. Every man under my command, owes me, one hundred nazi scalps. And I want my scalps. And all y'all will git me, one hundred Nazi scalps, taken from the heads of one hundred dead Nazi's... .or you will die trying. CUT TO EXT - MOUNTAIN TOP CHALET- DAY A huge Chalet on a misty mountain top in Barvia. ZO A SUBTITLE APPEARS: "BARVIA BURSTICH GARDEN (HITLERS PRIVATE LAIR)" INT - BURSTICH GARDEN - DAY In a huge room, ADOLPH HITLER, pounds on a big table with his fist, as he rants at TWO GERMAN GENERALS. They speak GERMAN SUBTITLED into ENGLISH; HITLER How much more of these jew swine must I endure? They butcher my men like they were fish bait! This pack of filthy degenerates, are doing what the Russian army didn't, and Patton's army couldn't. Turning soldiers of The Third Reich, into superstitious old women! GERMAN GENERAL Just the cowards among them mine Fuhrer. Hitler pounds furiously on the desk with his fist. HITLER No, no, no, no, no, no! I have heard the rumors myself! Solders of The Third Reich, who have brought the world to there knee`s, now pecking and clucking like chickens. Do you know the latest rumor they've conjured up, in their fear induced delirium? The one that beats my boys with a bat. The one they call "The Bear Jew"...is a Golem. A avenging jew angel, conjured up by a vengeful rabbi, to smite the Aryans! GENERAL Mine Fuhrer, this is just soldiers gossip, no one really believes The Bear Jew is a golem. HITLER Why not? They seem to be able to elude capture like a aberration. They seem to be able to appear and disappear at will. Z}. HITLER (CON'T) You want to prove their flesh and blood? Then BRING THEM TO ME! I will hang them naked, by their heels, from the eiffel tower! And then throw their bodies in the sewers, for the rats of Paris to feast! The Fuhrer sits down at the table to compose himself, and wipe his greasy black hair out of his face. HITLER (DISGUSTED) The Bear Jew. He hits the button on the intercom on his desk. HITLER KLIEST1 KLIEST VOICE comes out of the intercom; KLIEST'S VOICE(OS) Year mine Fuhrer. HITLER I have a order I want relayed to all German soldiers stationed in France. The Jew degenerate known as The Bear Jew, hence forth, is never to be referred to as The Bear Jew again. We will cease to aid the Americans any longer in there attempt to undermine the German soldier psyche. Did you get that Kliest? KLIEST'S VOICE(OS) Yes mine Fubrer. Do you still wish to see Private Butz? HITLER Who and what is a private Butz? KELIST'S VOICE(OS) He's the soldier you wanted to see personally. His squad was ambushed by Lt.Raines Jews. He was it's only survivor. HITLER Indeed I do want to see him, thank you for reminding me. Send him in. CUT TO 0 EXT - FRENCH WOODS -- DAY CU FACE OF DEAD GERMAN SOLDIER His head lies on the ground horizontal. A HAND reaches into FRAME, KNOCKS aside the dead German patriots helmet, and grabs a handful of the cadavers blonde hair. A LARGE KNIFE ENTERS FRAME, and begins SLICING ALONG THE HAIRLINE. This process is called SCALPING. After SLICING is complete, the SCALP easily peels off like a banana. GERMAN PRISONERS PVT.BUTZ AND SGT.RACHTMAN on their knees, hands behind there heads. Private Butz NARRATES the scene in GERMAN SUBTITLED into ENGLISH; PVT.BUTZ(VO) Werner and I were the only ones left alive after the ambush. While one man guarded us, the rest removed the hair. All The Basterds wore German scalps tied to their belts. CU SCALPS hanging from belts. PVT.BUTZ(VO) They not only took valuables... WE SEE QUICK CUTS OF Rings, Weapons, Iron Cross, and somebody digging out a Gold Tooth with a knife, being removed from Dead Germans. PVT.BUTZ(VO) ..They also took their identification papers. CU IDENTIFICATION PAPERS taken from the inside pocket of a dead German uniform. BASTERD PFC.UTIVICH flips through the I.D. papers till he gets to the page that contains the German soldiers, name, statistics, and photo. PFC.UTIVICH Sigfried Muller. t3. PVT.BUTZ(VO) .and tore out the identification page. Utivich RIPS the page out, and sticks it in his pocket. Tossing the torn book on the dead, scalpless body. PVT.BUTZ(VO) ...They then removed their boots... CU GERMAN COMBAT BOOTS laces untied.. .boot pulled off... SOCKS removed, reveling dead bare feet... BASTERDS tossing the boots off a hill. PVT.BUTZ(VO) Throwing them away from the bodies... DEAD GERMANS scalps removed from their heads, pink bare feet... PVT.BUTZ(VO) The Basterds, took their lives, their hair, their valuables, their identity, and finally their dignity in death. True that. The sight of the dead soldiers with bare feet does rob the tableaux of a certain dignity, that is normally felt in battlefield shots. BACK TO HITLER HITLER The dogsl He fights his frustration, then... HITLER Continue. BACK TO THE BASTERDS Aldo screams to The Basterd who's guarding the two German prisoners. LT.ALDO Hey Hirschberg, send that kraut sarge over. BASTERD PFC.HIRSCHBERG KICKS Sgt.Rachtman in the back. zw. PFC.HIRSCHBERG You! Go! Sgt.Rachtman is a little slow to respond. So Hirschberg grabs him by the hair, YANKS him to his feet, and KICKS him in the ass, sending him on his way. Most of The Bastreds sit in a circle, Indian style, with Aldo in the middle. As Sgt.Rachtman walks towards this circle of Basterds, A OFF SCREEN LITERARY NARRATOR (not Pvt.Butz) speaks over the SOUNDTRACK in ENGLISH; NARRATOR(VO) Sgt.Werner Rachtman has seen many interrogations since Germany decided it should rule Europe. But this is the first time he's ever been on the wrong end of the exchange. It's always been his belief, only a weakling, in mind, body, and spirt complies with the enemy under threat of consequence. As Werner watched men cry like women, pleadingly offer their knowledge, in exchange for their worthless lives, he made a vow to himself. If his role is to die in this conflict. When they put him under the earth, his dignity would be buried with him. For in the other world, the gods only respect the ones they test first. Well Sgt, this is your test. And the gods are watching. The captured German Sgt, enters the circle of Basterds, stands straight before the sitting southern Lieutenant, and salutes his captor. SGT.RACHTMAN (ENGLISH) Sgt.Werner Rachtman. Aldo returns the salute, looking up at him. LT.ALDO Lt.Aldo Raine, pleased to meet cha. You know what sit down means Werner? SGT.RACHTMAN Yes. LT.ALDO Then sit down. 2.5. The German Sgt does. LT.ALDO Hows your English Werner? Cause if need be, we gotta a couple fellas can translate. Aldo points at one of The Basterds in the circle, CPL.WILHELM WICKI. LT.ALDO Wicki there, a Austrian Jew, got the fuck outta Saltzberg, while the gettin was good. Became American, got drafted, and came back to give y'all what for. Then Aldo points to another Basterd. A big scary looking Basterd, in a German Sgt's uniform, named, SGT.HUGO STIGLITZ LT.ALDO And another one over there, you might be familiar with, Sgt.Hugo Stiglitz. Heard of 'em. The two German Sgt's look at each other. SGT.RACHTMAN Everybody in the German army's heard of Hugo Stiglitz. The Basterds laugh, a couple pat Hugo on the back. The NARRATOR comes back on the SOUNDTRACK. NARRATOR(VO) The reason for Hugo Stiglitz's celebrity among German soldiers is simple. WE SEE A PHOTO OF HUGO on the front page of the Nazi version of Stars and Stripes (the military newspaper). NARRATOR(VO) As a German enlisted man, he killed thirteen Gestapo officers, mostly Majors. WE SEE THE MILITARY PHOTOS OF ALL THIRTEEN GESTAPO OFFICERS. ZC. NARRATOR(VO) Instead of putting him up against a wall, the High Command decided to send him back to Berlin, to be made a example of. Hugo in chains, being put in a lone troop truck, part of a prison convoy, enroute to Berlin. NARRATOR(VO) Needless to say, once The Basterds heard about him, he never got there. EXT- FRENCH COUNTRYSIDE - DAY The Basterds AMBUSH the prison convoy, killing everybody. They walk to the back of the troop truck, inside Hugo in chains, stares back at them. LT.ALDO Sgt.Hugo Stiglitz? Hugo nods. LT. ALDO I'm Lt.Aldo Raine, and these are The Basterds. Ever heard of us? Hugo nods his head, yes. LT.ALDO We just wanna say, we're a big fan of your work. When it comes to killin Nazi's, I think you show great talent, and I pride myself on havin a eye for that kind of talent. But your status as a Nazi killer, is still amateur. We all came here to see, if you wanna go pro? BACK TO THEBASTERD CIRCLE. LT.ALDO Now Werner, I'm gonna assume you know who we are? SGT.RACHTMAN Aldo the Apache. The circle of Basterds giggle. Z7. LT.ALDO Well Werner, if you heard of us, you probably heard, we ain't in the prisoner takin business. We in the killin Nazi business. And cousin, business is boomin. The Basterds laugh. LT. ALDO Now that leaves two ways we can play this out. Either kill ya, or let ya go. Now weather or not you gonna leave this circle alive, depends entirely on you. Aldo takes out a map of the area, and lays it out in front of his prisoner. LT.ALDO Up the road a piece, there's a orchard. 'sides you, we know there's another kraut patrol fuckin around here somewhere. Now if that patrol were to have any crackshots, that orchard, would be a goddamn snipers delight. Now if you ever wanna eat a sauerkraut sandwich again, you gotta show me on this map, where they are, you gotta tell me how many they are, and you gotta tell me, what kinda artillery they carrying with 'em? SGT.RACHTMAN You can't expect me to divulge information that would put German lives in danger? LT.ALDO well, Werner that's where your wrong. Because that's exactly what I expect. I need to know about Germans hidin in trees? And you need to tell me? And you need to tell me, right now? Now take your finger, and point out on this map, where this partys bein held, how manys comin, and what they brought to play with? Werner site, head held high, back straight, chin up, every inch the German hero facing death. 2S. SGT.WERNER F I respectfully refuse, sir. Aldo jerks his thumb behind him. LT.ALDO You see that ole boy battin rocks? WE RACK FOCUS to a one of The Basterds not in the circle. He's wearing a wife beater, and power hitting stones with a baseball bat. Werners eyes go to the ballplayer. LT.ALDO That's Sgt.Donny Donowitz. But you might know him better by his nickname, The Bear Jew. Now if you heard of Aldo the Apache, you gotta heard about The Bear Jew? SGT.RACHTMAN I heard. LT.ALDO What did you hear? SGT.RACHTMAN He beats German soldiers with a club. LT.ALDO He bashes their brains in with a baseball bat, what he does. SGT.DONOWITZ back to us, still haven't seen his face. He Babe Ruths a rock soaring into the atmosphere. LT. ALDO Now Werner, I'm gonna ask you one last-goddamn-time, and if you still, "respectfully refuse", I'm callin The Bear Jew over here, and he's gonna take that big bat of his, and he's gonna beat your ass to death with it. Now take your wennersitnitzel lickin finger, and point out on this map what I want to know. SGT.RACHTMAN Fuck you and your jew dogs. t v. Instead of getting mad, The Basterds burst out LAUGHING. I k Aldo says to Werner, with a giggle in his voice; LT.ALDO Actually Werner, we're all tickled ya said that. Frankly, watchin Donny beat Nazi's,to death, is the closest we ever get to goin to the movies. (YELLING) DONNY! SGT.DONOWITZ he turns to CAMERA, and yells; SGT.DONOWITZ Yeah? LT.ALDO Got a German here wants to die for country. Oblige him. SGT.DONNY DONOWITZ Bat over his shoulder, smiles. CUT TO INT - BARBER SHOP(BOSTIN) - DAY Donny, cutting heads, in his pop's barber shop, in Bostin. DONNY .ya got the goddamn fuckin Germans, declaring open season on Jews in Europe, and I'm suppose to fly to the fuckin Philippines, and fight a bunch of fuckin Japs - not me pal. If we just go in this against the Japs, the whole U.S.of fuckin A can go take a running jump at the moon. HEAD You know they got a word for what your sayin Donny, it's called treason. DONNY Hey, stick your treason up your poop hole. If I'm gonna kill my fellow man in the name of liberty, that fellow man, will be German. 3401 INT - SPORTING GOODS STORE- DAY MR.GOOROWITZ'S sporting goods shop in Donny's Jewish Bostin neighbourhood. Donny walks in. MR.GOOROWITZ Hello Donny, how are you? DONNY Ah, just dandy, Mr.Goorowitz. MR.GOOROWITZ Your mother, your father - everything good there? DONNY There just fine. I'm shippin off next week. The store proprietor, extends his hand to the young man. MR.GOOROWITZ Good for you son. Kill one of those Nazi basterds for me, will ya? DONNY That's the idea, Mr.Goorowitz. MR.GOOROWITZ What can I do you for, Donny? DONNY I need a baseball bat. The store owner leads him to a basket with eight bats init. Donny starts going through them without saying anything. MR.GOOROWITZ You gettin your little brother a present before you ship out? Donny, concentrating on the bats, not looking up; DONNY No. Donny's "no", silences the gabby Goorowitz. He seems to settle on one, feeling it's weight in his hands. DONNY Can I try this one on for size, outside? 31. Extending his arm; MR.GOOROWITZ Be my guest. The phone rings. MR.GOOROWITZ I'll get that, you go right ahead. The proprietor answers the phone, and gets into a conversation with his OFF SCREEN Mother. Donny walks outside, WE STAY IN STORE, but can see him clearly through the stores big picture window. However, Mr.Goorowitz instinctively, turns his back to Donny to speak with his mother. Donny starts swinging the bat. It's pretty obvious he's pantomiming beating somebody to death with it. Then the he starts yelling; DONNY Take that ya Nazi basterd! You like fuckin with the Jews? Wanna Fuck with the Jews? The American jews are gonna FUCK with you... ..! Mr.Goorowitz, see's none of this, as he speaks to his mother. He hangs up the phone, just as Donny walks back into the store. Store owner turns to store customer. DONNY Is this the heaviest ya got? CUT TO INT - HALLWAY APARTMENT BUILDING - DAY Donny, dressed nice, in a apartment building in his Jewish Bastin neighbourhood. He knocks on a door. A VERY OLD JEWISH WOMAN opens the door, only a little, peering out at the young man. OLD WOMAN How can I help you? DONNY Mrs.Himmelstein? MRS.HIMMELSTEIN State your business young man. 3Z.. DONNY Mrs.Himmelstein, I'm Donny Donowitz, my father Sy Donowitz, owns the barber shop on Greeny Ave, "Sy's Barber Shop". MRS.HIMMELSTEIN I've seen it. Do you live in the neighbourhood? DONNY All my life. MRS.HIMMELSTEIN Again, state your business? DONNY May I have a word with you? MRS.HIMMELSTEIN What about? DONNY Our people in Europe. She thinks for a beat, then holds the door open for the young man. MRS.HIMMELSTEIN Come in. Would you like some tea? INT - MRS.HIMMELSTEIN'S APARTMENT - DAY Donny sits on a overstuffed sofa, holding a tea cup and saucer in his hand. Mrs.Himmelstein sits on a overstuffed chair, holding her tea, looking across at her visitor. DONNY (Sipping tea) Very good. MRS.HIMMELSTEIN If you like tea. Donny chuckles at her little joke. The old woman remains stone. She wasn't joking. He places his saucer on the coffee table and begins; DONNY Mrs.Himmelstein, do you have any love ones over in Europe who your concerned for? 33. MRS.HIMMELSTEIN What compels you young man, to ask a stranger such a personal question? DONNY Because I'm going to Europe. And I'm gonna make it right. MRS.HIMMELSTEIN And just how do intend to do that, Joshua? DONNY MRS.HIMMELSTEIN And what exactly do you intend to do with that toy? DONNY I'm gonna beat every Nazi I find to death with it. MRS.HIMMELSTEIN I thought we were having tea together? MRS.HIMMELSTEIN And in this pursuit, how is it that I can be of service? DONNY I'm going through the neighbourhood. If you have any love ones in Europe, who's safety you fear for, I'd like you to write their name on my bat. BACK TO BASTERDS Donny takes a long walk to Werner... As WE CUT BACK and FORTH BETWEEN DONNY WALKING and WERNER WAITING, WE ALSO CUT BACK and FORTE BETWEEN DONNY and MRS.HIMMELSTEIN... MRS.HIMMELSTEIN You must be a real BASTERD, Donny? DONNY You bet your sweet ass I am. MRS.HIMMELSTEIN Good. A Basterds work is never done. Specially in Germany. Donny steps up to the plate, looking down at the Nazi; DONNY Gimmie your papers. Werner hands Donny up his papers. Donny RIPS the identity page out, and sticks it in his pocket. MRS.HIMMELSTEIN Hand me your sword Gideon. I do believe I will join you on this journey. INSERT she signs the BAT, "MADELEINE" BACK TO BASTERDS Donny BEATS Werner TO DEATH WITH THE BAT, to the cheers of The Basterds. PVT.BUTZ watches. Hirschberg says to him; PFC.HIRSCHBERG About now, I'd be shittin my pants, if I was you. Aldo points a finger at Butzsr and crooks it toward him. PFC.HIRSCHBERG That means you, cup cake. A crying, visibly shaken, Butz site down in front of Aldo. LT.ALDO You wanna live? PVT.BUTZ Yes, sir. LT.ALDO Point out on this map, the German position. His arm shoots out like a rocket, and points out the positions. 3 s. PVT.BUTZ This area here. LT.ALDO How many? PVT.BUTZ Maybe twelve. LT.ALDO What kinda of artillery? PVT.BUTZ They have a machine gunn dug in here pointing north. HITLER How did you survived this ordel? WE SEE Pvt.Butz in The Fuhrer's room for the first time. He wears a Nazi cap, which is unusual in the presence of The Fuhrer, but he seems okay with it. PRVT.BUTZ They let me go. FROM HERE ON WE GO BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN ALDO AND HITLER. LT.ALDO Now when you report what happened here, you can't tell 'em, you told us, what you told us. They'll shoot ya. But there gonna wanna know, why you so special, we let you live? So tell 'em, we let ya live, so you could spread the word through the ranks, what's gonna happen to every Nazi we find. HITLER You are not to tell anybody anything! Not one word of detail! Your outfit was ambushed, and you got a away. Not one word more. PVT.BUTZ Yes mine Fuhrer. HITLER Did they mark you like they did the other survivors? 36√¢¬Ç¨¬¢ PVT.BUTZ Yes mine Fuhrer. HITLER Remove your hat and show me. LT.ALDO Now say we let ya go, and say you survive the'war? When you get back home, what'eha gonna do? PVT.BUTZ I will hug my mother like I've never hugged her before. LT.ALDO Well, ain't that's a real nice boy. Are you going to take off your uniform? PVT.BUTZ Not only shall I remove it, but I intend to burn it! The young German is telling Aldo, what he thinks, Aldo wants to hear. But the last answer didn't go down as well as he thought it would, evident by the frown on Aldo's face. LT. ALDO Yeah, that's what we thought. We don't like that. You see, we like our Nazi's in uniforms. That way, you can spot 'em, just like that. (Snaps his fingers) But you take off that uniform, ain't nobody gonna know you was a Nazi. And that don't sit well with us. Aldo removes a LARGE KNIFE from a sheath on his belt. LT.ALDO So I'm gonna give ya a little somethin, you can't take off. BACK TO HITLER Pvt.Butz removes his combat helmet, hair hangs in his face, his moves it aside, and WE SEE a SWASTIKA has been HAND CARVED INTO HIS FOREHEAD. BACK TO BASTERDS BUTZ'S POV: on ground, looking up at them. Aldo has just carved the swastika, and he's holding the bloody knife. All The Basterds crowd around to admire his handy work. 37. SGT.DONOWITZ You know Lieutenant, your getting pretty good at that. LT. ALDO You know how you get to Carnegie Hall, don't 'ch? Practice. FADE TO BLACK OVER BLACK CHAPTER TITLE APPEARS: CHAPTER THREE "GERMAN NIGHT IN PARIS" NOTE: This whole Chapter will be filmed in French New Wave Black and White. INT - CINEMA AUDITORIUM - NIGHT We're in the auditorium of a cinema in Paris. However the CAMERA is pointed in the direction of the audience, not the screen. We start CLOSE on the projector beam, emanating from the little glass window in the back of the theatre The CAMERA continues to DOLLY back, making the Shot Wider and Wider, bringing in more and more the German occupied citizens of Paris, who stare at the OFF SCREEN silver screen in the dark We can hear the OFF SCREEN SOUNDTRACK of a Goebbels produced German omm paw paw musical movie being projected. The Shot continues to pull further and further back, and the German dialogue continues to fill the auditorium... TILL... .The DOLLY SHOT LANDS on a CLOSE UP of Shosanna,. watching the movie. A SUBTITLE APPEARS: "1941 PARIS TWO WEEKS AFTER THE MASSACRE OF SHOSANNA'S FAMILY" We hear the sound of the German musicals climax. The lights go up in the auditorium. Shosanna, dressed in a NURSES UNIFORM she swiped from somewhere, remains seated, as the rest of the PATRONS, gather their coats, and file out. 3P. EXT - LITTLE CINEMA (PARIS)- NIGHT Patrons exit under the cinema marquee, as someone from inside SHUTS OFF the marquees lights. The MARQUEE READS in French: "GERMAN NIGHT BRIDGET VON HAMMERSMARK in MADCAP IN MEXICO". EXT - PROJECTION BOOTH (LITTLE CINEMA) A French Black Man, who we will learn later is named MARCEL, is the cinema's projectionist. We see him for a moment, taking the film reels off the projector, and placing them on rewinds. INT - AUDITORIUM CU SHOSANNA still sitting in her seat. Except for her, the auditorium is empty. The owner of the Cinema, a attractive looking French woman, who we will later know as MADAME MIMIEUX, appears in one of the cinema's opera box balconies. Looking down from her perch at the young girl, sitting in the empty cinema. The DIALOGUE will be spoken in FRENCH, and SUBTITLED into ENGLISH. MADAME MIMIEUX So young woman, since it's beyond obvious we're closed for the evening. I must assume you want something. What can I do for you? SHOSANNA May I sleep here tonight? MADAME MIMIEUX So I gather your not a nurse? SHOSANNA No. MADAME MIMIEUX But your a bright little thing, that's clever disguise. Where is your family? SHOSANNA Murdered. 3 1. MADAME MIMIEUX So your a war orphan? SHOSANNA We were from Nancy. The Bosch found us MADAME MIMIEUX Is this a sad story? SHOSANNA Oui. MADAME MIMIEUX Sad stories bore me. These days everyone in Paris has one. I haven't bore you with mine, don't bore me with yours. SHOSANNA You can run the machines? MADAME MIMIEUX What machines? Using her hands to pantomime the rotating film reels on a projector, she says; SHOSANNA The machines that show the film? MADAME MIMIEUX The projectors? Yes, I own a cinema, of course I can operate them. SHOSANNA I know, I saw you. FLASH ON: CU SHOSANNA eyes creeping up the stairway in the projection booth, watching... MADAME MIMIEUX expertly working the projectors... BACK TO SHOSANNA SHOSANNA Teach me. Teach me to run the machines, that show the film. It's only you and the negro. I know you could use some help. 40. MADAME MIMIEUX I know at least six people who've been put up against a wall, and machine gunned for sheltering enemies of the state. I have no intention of being unlucky number seven. How long have you been in Paris? SHOSANNA A week, and a few days. MADAME MIMIEUX How have you survived the curfew without capture? SHOSANNA I sleep on rooftops. MADAME MIMIEUX Again, I'm forced to admit, clever girl. How is it? SHOSANNA Cold. MADAME MIMIEUX (LAUGHS) I can imagine. SHOSANNA Respectfully, no you can't. MADAME MIMIEUX Fair enough. MADAME MIMIEUX So you can't operate a 35mm film projector, you want me teach you, in order to work here, in order to use my cinema, as a hole to hide in, is that correct? SHOSANNA Oui. MADAME MIMIEUX Whats your name? SHOSANNA Shosanna. MADAME MIMIEUX I'm Madame Mimieux. You may call me Madame. This is a cinema. Not a home for wayward war orphans. Having said that, what you say is true. If you were truly exceptional, I could find use for you. So Shosanna, are you truly exceptional? SHOSANNA Oui Madame. MADAME MIMIEUX I will be the judge of that. DISSOLVE TO TITLE CARD: Which shows a lovely PENCIL SKETCH of the CITY OF PARIS, complete with Eiffel Tower. ABOVE IT READS: "1944 PARIS" THEN... The CAMERA PULLS BACK, and we see we're not looking at a TITLE CARD at all, but a CALENDER stuck on the wall of the Little Cinema's Projection Booth. Before we leave it, WE SEE the Month is JUNE. ..The CAMERA finds, the THREE YEARS OLDER SHOSANNA, working as the PROJECTIONIST. It would appear, that Shosanna passed Madame Mimieux's exceptional test. A lyrical Morriconie-like tune PLAYS on the SOUNDTRACK, this will be "Shosanna's Theme". A Little Bell, begins RINGING, on one of the projectors, alerting Shosanna it's time for a REEL CHANGE. Shosanna stands at the projector, watching the old German film she's projecting, waiting for the1st REEL CHANGE MARK... SILVER SCREEN of the little cinema. On Screen LENI REFENSHTAL lies horizontal as a ice sickle drips on her head in the old German film, "The White Hell Of Piza Palu", The 1st REEL CHANGE MARK POPS ON in the upper right hand corner of the FRAME...(That tells the projectionist to get ready). As the FILM REEL on the lst PROJECTOR rolls out, Shosanna stands ready, waiting by the 2nd PROJECTOR... WHEN... SILVER SCREEN the 2nd REEL CHANGE MARK POPS ON in the same place(That's the one). SHOSANNA THROWS the lever on the 2nd PROJECTOR, switching the film from projector 1# to projector 2#, executing a perfect REEL CHANGE. As Shosanna's Theme plays on the Soundtrack, we watch viva MONTAGE, her go through her daily chores. Carry heavy film cans up the stairs, empty the rat traps, ect,ect... EXT - CINEMA - NIGHT The MARQUEE READS in French: "GERMAN NIGHT LENI REFENSHTAL in PABST WHITE HELL OF PIZA PALU" Shosanna emerges from the cinema carrying two buckets of LETTERS (for the marquee), and a tall ladder. Her chore here, obviously, is to change the show on the marquee. The LITERARY NARRATOR comes on the Soundtrack in ENGLISH; NARRATOR(VO) To operate a cinema in Paris during the occupation, one had two choices. Ether you could show new German propaganda films, produced under the watchful eye of Joseph Goebbels. Or... .you could have a German night in your weekly schedule, and show allowed German classic films. Their German night was Thursday. Shosanna, by herself, perched up high on the ladder, changing the letters on the marquee. A YOUNG GERMAN SOLDIER(about the same age as Shosanna), walks out of the cinema. He sees the ladder with the young French girl on top, and walks over. They speak FRENCH, SUBTITLED into ENGLISH; GERMAN SOLDIER What starts tomorrow? Shosanna looks down, seeing the young German Solder smiling up at her from below. LC 3. SHOSANNA A Max Linder festival. GERMAN SOLDIER Ummmm, I always preferred Linder to Chaplin. Except Linder never made a film as good as "The Rid". The chase climax of "The Kid", superb. Shosanna continues working, not adding to the conversation. GERMAN SOLDIER I suppose now you could use a "M" a "A" and a "X"? SHOSANNA No need, I can manage. GERMAN SOLDIER Don't be ridiculous, it's my pleasure. He hands the French damsel the letters spelling MAX. SHOSANNA Merci. GERMAN SOLDIER I adore your cinema very much. SHOSANNA Merci. She busies herself with the marquee letters... GERMAN SOLDIER SHOSANNA GERMAN SOLDIER SHOSANNA GERMAN SOLDIER How does a young girl, such as yourself, own a cinema? Do to his uniform, and Shosanna's situation, all his efforts at trying to make small talk, strikes the young Jewess in hiding as a Gestapo interrogation. SHOSANNA My aunt left it to me. GERMAN SOLDIER Lucky girl. Shosanna makes no reply back. GERMAN SOLDIER Merci for hoisting a German night. SHOSANNA I don't have a choice, but your welcome. GERMAN SOLDIER Do you chose the German films yourself? SHOSANNA Oui. GERMAN SOLDIER Then my merci stands. I love the Refensthal mountain films, especially, "Pizu Palu". It's nice to see a French girl who's a admirer of Refensthal. SHOSANNA "Admire", would not be the adjective I would use to describe my feelings towards Fraulein Refensthal. GERMAN SOLDIER But you do admire the director. Pabst, don't you? That's why you included his name on the marquee. She climbs down from the ladder and faces the German Private. SHOSANNA I'm French. We respect directors in our country. GERMAN SOLDIER Apparently even Germans. SHOSANNA Even Germans. Merci for assistance, Private. Adieu. She turns to go back inside. GERMAN SOLDIER Your not finished? SHOSANNA I'll finish in the morning. She opens the door to go inside. GERMAN SOLDIER May I ask your name? SHOSANNA You wish to see my papers? She hands him her excellently forged papers. That's obviously not what he meant, but he takes them anyway to read her name. GERMAN SOLDIER Emmanuelle Mimieux. That's a very pretty name. SHOSANNA Merci. Are you finished with my papers? He hands them back. GERMAN SOLDIER Mademoiselle. My name is Fredrick Zoller. She gives no response. GERMAN SOLDIER It's been a pleasure chatting with a fellow cinema lover. Sweet dreams, Mademoiselle. He gives her a little salute, and walks into the black of a curfew imposed night. She looks after him. She didn't show it, but he kinda got to her. After all, for any true cinema lover, it's hard to hate anybody who, CINEMA MON AMOUR. EXT - ROOFTOP CINEMA - NIGHT Shosanna stands on the roof of her cinema, late at night, lighting up a cigarette. As she takes her first big drag, she remembers a voice. FLASH ON MADAME MIMIEUX, the younger Shosanna, and the black projectionist Marcel, in the projection booth. Shosanna lights up a cigarette, and Madame Mimieux SLAPS her face HARD, knocking the cigarette out of her mouth. Marcel quickly STAMPS it out on the floor. If-7. MADAME MIMIEUX if I ever see you light up a cigarette in my cinema again, I'll turn you into the Nazi's, do you understand? Shosanna is shocked by this statement. SHOSANNA Oui, Madame. MADAME MIMIEUX And for bringing a open flame in my cinema, you deserve far worse then a Nazi jewish boxcar. With your thick head, what do you think the highest priority of a cinema manager is? Keeping this fucking place from burning down to the ground, that's what! In my collection, I have over 350, 35mm, nitrate film prints, which are not only immensely flammable, but highly unstable. And should they catch fire, they burn three times faster then paper. If that happens.. .POOF...all gone, cinema no more, every body burned alive. If I ever see you with a open flame in my cinema again, I won't turn you into the Nazi's I'll kill you myself. And the fucking Germans will give me a curfew pass. Do you understand me? SHOSANNA Out, Madame. MADAME MIMIEUX Do you believe me? SHOSANNA Out, Madame. MADAME MIMIEUX You damn well better. BACK TO ROOF Shosanna exhales cigarette smoke. Marcel comes onto the roof. MARCEL Are you well? SHOSANNA Even on the roof I can't smoke a cigarette without hearing Madames voice yelling at me. That's why I do it. To hear Madames voice again. MARCEL We both miss her. SHOSANNA I know. I'm fine, darling. I'll be to bed soon. Marcel goes back inside, Shosanna smokes. INT - FRENCH BISTRO - AFTERNOON Shosanna sits in the back of a French bistro, reading a book, "The Saint in New York" by Leslie Charteris, drinking wine. When the young German Private from the other day, FREDRICK ZOLLER, walks in. He gets a beer, then notices the French girl sitting in the back. He smiles, and heads over to her. "Oh no, not this guy again", she thinks. Again they speak in FRENCH SUBTITLED into ENGLISH; FREDRICK May I join you? SHOSANNA Look Fredrick - FREDRICK (SMILING) - You remember my name? SHOSANNA Yes....Look, you seem a pleasant enough fellow - FREDRICK - Merci. SHOSANNA Your welcome. - regardless, I want you to stop pestering me. FREDRICK I apologize mademoiselle, I wasn't trying to be a pest. I was simply trying to be friendly. SHOSANNA I don't wish to be your friend. FREDRICK Why not? SHOSANNA Don't act like a infant. You know why. FREDRICK I'm more then just a uniform. SHOSANNA Not to me. If you are so desperate for a French girlfriend, I suggest you try Vichy? Just then TWO OTHER GERMAN SOLDIERS come over, obviously very impressed with Fredrick. They make a fuss over him in UNSUBTITLED GERMAN, which nether Shosanna, or the non German speaking members of the movies audience, can understand. He signs autographs for them, shakes their hands, and they go on their way. Shosanna's eyes narrow. SHOSANNA Who are you? FREDRICK I thought I was just a uniform? SHOSANNA Your not just a German soldier, are you somebodies son? FREDRICK Most German soldiers are somebodies son. SHOSANNA Yeah, but your not just somebody. What are you, Hitlers nephew? He leans in across the table, she leans in too, and he says; FREDRICK Yes. SHOSANNA Really? FREDRICK No not really, I'm just teasing you. She leans back annoyed. SHOSANNA Then what is it? What are you, a German movie star? 6'O FREDRICK Not exactly. SHOSANNA (Pfuit), what does that mean, "not exactly". I asked if you were a movie star, the answer to that question, is yes or no. Fredrick laughs at that line. FREDRICR When you said that just now, you reminded me of my sister. This catches young Shosanna off guard. FREDRICR I come from a home of six sisters. We run a family operated cinema in Munich. Seeing you run around your cinema, reminds me of them. Especially my sister Helga. She raised me, when our father wasn't up to the job. I admire her very much. You'd like her, she doesn't wear a German uniform. SHOSANNA You were raised by Helga? FREDRICK All my sisters, I'm the baby, but Helga was the bossiest. SHOSANNA And your mother and father? FREDRICK My mother died. And my father was a loser. My fathers moto; "If at first you don't succeed, quit". The day he left, good riddance. My sisters are all I need. It's why I like your cinema. It makes me feel both closer to them, and a little homesick at the same time. SHOSANNA is your cinema still operatiing? FREDRICR Oui. SHOSANNA What's it called? 5! FREDRICK The Kino Haus. SHOSANNA How has it done durring the war? FREDRICK Actually, in Germany, cinema attendance is up. SHOSANNA No doubt, you don't have to operate under a curfew. FREDRICK How often do you fill your house? SHOSANNA (Pfuit), not since before the war. FREDRICK So if you had one big engagement, that would help you out? SHOSANNA Of course, but that's not likely to happen. TWO MORE GERMAN SOLDIERS and their TWO FRENCH DATES approach the table. They ask for Fredricks autograph, he signs it for them. One of the French Girls says in FRENCH, how exciting it is to meet a real live German war hero. Shosanna hears it. They leave. So that's it, she thinks. SHOSANNA So your a war hero? Why didn't you tell me? FREDRICK Everybody knows that, I liked you didn't. SHOSANNA What did you do? He takes a sip of beer. FREDRICK I've shot the most enemy soldiers in world war two...so far. You bet your sweet ass that got her attention. SHOSANNA Wow. 52 FREDRICK I was alone in a bell tower in a walled off city in Russia. It was myself, and a thousand rounds of ammo, in a bird's nest, against three hundred Soviet soldiers. SHOSANNA What's a bird's nest? FREDRICK A bird's nest is what a sniper would call a bell tower. It's a high structure, offering a three hundred and sixty degree view. Very advantageous for marksmen. SHOSANNA How many Russian's did you kill? FREDRICK Sixty-eight. (BEAT) The first day. A hundred and fifty the second day. Thirty-two, the third day. On the forth day, they exited the city. Naturally my war story received alot of attention in Germany, that's why they all recognize me. They call me the German Sgt.York. SHOSANNA Maybe they'll make a film about your exploits. FREDRICK Well, that's just what Joseph Goebbels thought. So he did. It's called "Nation's Pride", and guess what, they wanted me to play myself, so I did. They have posters for it in kiosks all over Paris. That's another reason for all the attention. SHOSANNA "Nation's Pride" is about you? "Nation's Pride" is starring you? FREDRICK I know, comical, huh? SHOSANNA Not so comical. So what are you doing in Paris, enjoying a rest? 53. FREDRICK Hardly. I've been doing publicity, having my picture taken with different German luminaries, visiting troops, that sort of thing. Goebbels wants the film to premier in Paris, so I've been helping them in the planning. Joseph is very keen on this film. He's telling anybody who will listen, when "Nation's Pride" is released, I'll be the German Van Johnson. Shosanna, wasn't falling for the young German, by any stretch. However his exploits, as well as his charming manner, can't help but impress. But his referring to Goebbels as "Joseph", like their friends, is all she needed to get on the right side of things. This young man is trouble with a capital "T", and she needs to stay far fucking away from him. She abruptly rises, and says; SHOSANNA Well, good luck with your premier Private. I hope all goes well for Joseph and yourself. Au revoir. And with that, she disappears. Leaving the perplexed private alone. EXT - CINEMA MARQUEE - DAY It's the next day. Shosanna and Marcel are changing the letters on the marquee. Marcel excuses himself to visit the toilet. $hosanna is alone outside the little cinema, perched up on her ladder. WHEN... .A BLACK NAZI SEDAN pulls up in front of the little cinema. A GERMAN MAJOR in a black Gestapo uniform steps out of the back of the sedan. The DRIVER, a German Private, steps out as well. Yelling to the young girl up high on the ladder; Both GERMAN and FRENCH will be SUBTITLED into ENGLISH. 5 q. GESTAPO MAJOR Mademoiselle Nimieux? SHOSANNA Oui? Telling his Driver in German to ask her in French; GESTAPO MAJOR Ask her if this is her cinema? in French The Driver asks Shosanna; DRIVER is this your cinema? SHOSANNA GESTAPO MAJOR Tell her to come down. DRIVER Come down please. She climbs down the ladder. The Driver opens the back door of the sedan, indicating for her to get in. SHOSANNA I don't understand, what have I done? DRIVER (to Major) She wants to know what she's done? GESTAPO MAJOR Who says she's done anything? DRIVER Who says you've done anything? Then in her best imitation of Madame Mimeux's arrogantmanner. SHOSANNA Then I demand to know what this is about, and where do you propose to take me? The Driver begins to translate, when the Gestapo Major holds up his hand, telling him not to bother. The Major looks at the young French girl and tells her in German; 55. GESTAPO MAJOR Get your ass in that car. No translation necessary. She climbs into the back of the car, followed by the Germans. The sedan takes off. INT - SEDAN(MOVING) - DAY The Nazi sedan drives through the early afternoon Paris streets. WE HOLD SHOSANNA IN TIGHT CU the whole ride, never showing her Nazi oppressor sitting beside her. We just hold on her face trying not to revel anything. The sedan stops. The car door opens and the Driver offers Shosanna his hand. EXT/INT- MAXIUM'S (FAMOUS PARIS CAFE) - DAY She steps out of the car, and is lead into a Paris cafe by the Gestapo Officer. It takes the young Jewess a moment or two before she realizes she's not being led to a Gestapo interrogation room, a railroad car, or a concentration camp, but to lunch. The best table at Maxims. Three people, and two dogs, sit at it. Germany's Minister of Propaganda, and the number two man in Hitlers Third Reich, JOSEPH GOEBBELS, his female French translator (and mistress), FRANCESCA MONDINO, and young Private Zoller, are the people. TWO BLACK FRENCH POODLES, belonging to Mademoiselle Mondino, sit together in another chair at the table. We join them in mid-conversation; They all speak GERMAN, SUBTITLED into ENGLISH; GOEBBELS - it's only the off spring of slaves that allows America to be competitive athletically. America olympic gold can measured in Negro sweat. Shosanna is lead through the French eatery by the Gestapo Major. Private Zoller see's her, and stands up, excuse's himself, and greets her before she reaches the table. Fredrick says in French, SUBTITLED in ENGLISH; FREDRICK Good you came. I wasn't sure weather or not you'd except my invitation. SHOSANNA Invitation? THEN... .Goebbles Voice says OFF SCREEN; GOEBBLES(OS) Is that the young lady in question, Fredrick? Private Zoller turns in his direction, takes Shosanna by the arm, and leads her to him. FREDRICK Yes it is, beer Goebbels. Emmanuelle, there is somebody I want you to meet. Joseph Goebbels, remaining seated, looks up at the young French girl, scrutinizing her as he spoons creme brule into his mouth. The excited Fredrick introduces Shosanna to the propaganda minister formally. FREDRICK Emmanuelle Mimieux, I'd like to introduce you to the minister of propaganda, the leader of the entire German film industry, and now I'm a actor, my boss, Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels offers up his long spider-like fingers for Shosanna to shake. She does. GOEBBELS Your reputation precedes you Fraulein Mimieux. He looks to Francesca to translate, but she's just taken a big bite of terri misu. They all laugh. Fredrick jumps in... FREDRICK And normally, this is beer Goebbels French interpreter, Mademoiselle Francesca Mondino. FRANCESCA looks up at Shosanna. 5'? NARRATOR'S VOICE comes on soundtrack; NARRATOR (VO) Francesca Mondino is much more then Goebbels French Interpreter. She's also Goebbels favorite French actress to appear in his films... FLASH ON: FILM CLIP from one of Francesca's B/W Goebbels produced productions. Francesca, dressed as a French peasant girl, with a YOUNG GERMAN (MOVIE) SOLDIER. She speaks in FRENCH, SUBTITLED in to ENGLISH; FRANCESCA/PEASANT GIRL I love you, I can't help it. My country or my heart, which do I betray? A SUBTITLE APPEARS below naming the films title; "SENTIMENTAL COMBAT" (1943) FLASH ON Francesca and Goebbels having sex in her boudoir, on her red velvet bed. NARRATOR (VO) And Goebbels favorite French Mistress, to act in his bed. WE SEE JUST A SUPER QUICK SHOT OF Goebbels FUCKING Francesca DOGGY STYLE. FRANCESCA (ANIMAL-LIKE) Do it! Do it! Fuck me - fill me! BACK TO FRANCESCA looking at Shosanna. FRANCESCA Bon jour. SHOSANNA Bon jour. I f. FREDRICK And you've met the Major. The Gestapo officer steps up and says, to Fredrick in German; GESTAPO MAJOR Actually, I didn't introduce myself. (to Shosanna) Major Deiter Helistrom of the Gestapo, at your service mademoiselle. (he clicks his heels) Please allow me, have a seat. The Gestapo Officer pulls out a chair, for the young lady to sit down. Shosanna takes the hot seat. Seated to her right is Private Zoller. To her left are the two curly pampered poodles. Major Helistrom pours Shosanna a glass of red wine from a small craft on the table. MAJOR HELLSTROM Try the wine mademoiselle, it's quite good. Goebbels looks across the table at her. GOEBBELS well I must say, you've made quite a impression on our boy. Francesca interprets Goebbels German for Shosanna. GOEBBELS I must say fraulein, I should be rather annoyed with you. Francesca interprets.. GOEBBELS I arrive in France, and I wish to have lunch with my star... Francesca interprets... GOEBBELS Little do I know Be's become the toast of paris, and now he must find time for me. Francesca interprets... c9 √¢‚Ǩ¬¢ GOEBBELS People wait in line hours, day's, to see me. For the Fuhrer and Private Zoller, I wait. Francesca interprets... GOEBBELS So finally, I'm granted a audience with the young Private, and he spends the entire lunch speaking of you and your cinema. Francesca interprets... GOEBBELS So Fraulein Mimieux, let's get down to business. Private Zoller interrupts - FREDRICK - Heer Goebbels, I haven't informed her yet. GOEBBELS Unless the girls a simpleton, I'm sure she's figured it out by now, after all she does operate a cinema. Francesca, tell her. Francesca tells Shosanna in French; FRANCESCA What they're trying to tell you Emmanuelle, is Private Zoller has spent the last hour at lunch, trying to convince Monsieur Goebbels to abandon previous plans for Private Zollers film premier, and change the venue to your cinema. Zoller reacts. FRANCESCA (FRENCH to Zoller) What? FREDRICK I wanted to inform her. FRANCESCA Shit. I apologize Private, of course you did. 60. GOEBBELS (GERMAN to Francesca) What's the issue? FRANCESCA The Private wanted to inform the mademoiselle himself. GOEBBELS Nonsense. Until I ask a few questions, he has nothing to inform. Let the record state, I have not agreed to a venue change. MAJOR HELLSTROM Duly noted. Goebbels speaks German to Shosanna; GOEBBELS You have opera boxes? SHOSANNA GOEBBELS SHOSANNA GOEBBELS More would be better. How many seats in your auditorium? SHOSANNA Three hundred and fifty. GOEBBELS That's almost four hundred less then The Ritz. Fredrick jumps in... FREDRICK But beer Goebbels, that's not such a terrible thing. You said yourself you didn't want to indulge every two faced french bourgeois taking up space currying favor. With less seat's it makes the event more exclusive. Your not trying to fill the house, their fightin g for seats. 61. FREDRICK (CON'T) Besides, to hell with the French. This is a German night, a German event, a German celebration. This night is for you, me, the German military, the high command, their family and friends. The only people who should be allowed in the room, are people who will be moved by the exploits on screen. Goebbels listens silently, then after a bit of a pause; GOEBBELS I see your public speaking has improved. It appears I've created a monster. A strangely persuasive monster. When the war's over, politics awaits. Table chuckles. GOEBBELS Well Private, though it is true, I'm inclined to indulge you anything. I must watch a film in this young ladies cinema before I can say, yes or no. (to Shosanna) So young lady, you are to close your cinema tonight, and have a private screening me. Francesca interprets... GOEBBELS What German films do you have? Francesca asks.. SHOSANNA My cinema , on German night, tends to show older German classics. Francesca interprets... GOEBBELS Why not my films? Francesca asks... 6Z. SHOSANNA I draw a older German audience in my cinema, that appreciate the nostalgia of the earlier time. Francesca interprets... GOEBBELS That's nonsense fraulein. Us Germans are looking forward, not backwards. That era of German cinema is dead. The German cinema I create, will not only be thee cinema of Europe. But the worlds only alternative to the degenerate Jewish influence of Hollywood. Fredrick Jumps in... FREDRICK Along with being a cinema owner, Emmanuelle is quite a formidable film critic. He chuckles, but alone. GOEBBELS WSo it would appear. Unfortunately for the fraulein, I've outlawed film criticism. Zoller, thinking fast, says; FREDRICK Why don't you screen "Lucky Kids"? I'm sure Emmanuelle hasn't seen. it. And it's so funny, I've been meaning to recommend it to her, for her German night. That's a great idea, let's watch "Lucky Kids" tonight. GOEBBELS Ahhh, "Lucky Kids", "Lucky Kids", "Lucky Kids". When all is said and done, my most purely enjoyable production. Not only that, I wouldn't be surprised, if sixty years from now, It's "Lucky Kids" that I'm the most remembered for. I know it doesn't seem like it now, but mark my words. Very well, I'll have a print sent over to the fraulein'.s cinema. We'll screen "Lucky Kids" tonight. 63 As Francesca interprets this for Shosanna... ...the empty chair next to the young Jewish girl is suddenly filled with the bottom half of a grey S.S. officer uniform. GOEBBELS Ah Landa, your here, this is the young lady in question. The S.S. Officer sits down, and it's our old friend from the first scene COL HANS LANDA. FREDRICK Shosanna, this4pol Hans Landa of the SS., he'll be running security for the premier. CU SHOSANNA A bomb is dropped and detonated behind her eyes. But if she gives any indication of this, her war story ends here. The S.S. OFFICER that murdered her family, takes her hand and kisses it, saying in perfect French; COL LANDA Charmed Mademoiselle. MAJOR HELLSTROM Better known as "The Jew Hunter". The table laughs. GOEBBELS Oh Francesca, what was that funny thing the Fuhrer said about Hans? FRANCESCA What thing? GOEBBELS You know, you were there, it was a funny thing the Fuhrer said, about Hans...Something about a pig? Francesca's memory is jogged. FRANCESCA Oh, yes of course. She repeats it by whispering it in Goebbels ear. 6 "F GOEBBELS Oh, yes of course, that's it. So the Fuhrer said, he wouldn't be surprised if Hans weren't rooting out Jews like a truffle pig from the play pen. FRANCESCA That's what we need, pigs that can root out Jews. COL LANDA Who needs pigs when you have me? Big hearty laugh around the table. GOEBBELS Do you have a engagement tonight? COL LANDA Well, as a matter of fact, I do - GOEBBELS - Break it. We're all going to the Fraulein's cinema tonight to view "Lucky Kids". COL LANDA Splendid. Then Reich Ministers companion mademoiselle Mondino, INTERRUPTS; FRANCESCA And now I must get Reich Minister Goebbels to his next appointment. GOEBBELS Slave driver! French slave driver! They all chuckle. Everybody begins to stand up from the table... ..Francesca gathers the stupid dogs... .as Col Landa stands, he says; COL LANDA Actually, in my role as security chief of this joyous German occasion, I'm afraid I must have a word with Mademoiselle Mimieux. C. 5. Mademoiselle Mimieux eyes go to Private Zoller, who responds. FREDRICK What sort of discussion? COL LANDA That sounded suspiciously like a Private questioning the order of a Colonel? Or am I just being sensitive? FREDRICK Nothing could be further from the truth Colonel. Your authority is beyond question. But your reputation does proceed you. Should Mademoiselle Mimieux or myself be concerned? GOEBBELS Hans, the boy means no harm, he's simply smitten. And he's correct. Your reputation does proceed you. Laughter all around. The Reich Minister and his axis entourage, make their way to front of the cafe, with the two dumb dogs on a leash, leading the way. COL LANDA No need for concern, you two. As security chief, I simply need to have a chat with the possible new venue's property owner. FREDRICK I was just hoping to escort Mademoiselle Mimieux back to her cinema. GOEBBELS Nonsense! You can eat ice cream, and walk along the Sienne another time. Right now, allow Col Landa to do his job. Everybody saystheir farewells. Col Landa offers the young jew in hiding a seat at a small table in the outside patio area of Maxims. The fluency and poetic proficiency of the S.S. jew hunters french, revels to the audience, that his feigning clumsiness at french with Monsieur Lapadite in the films first scene, was simply a interrogation-technique. bd. They speak FRENCH SUBTITLED into ENGLISH; COL LANDA Have you tried the strudel here? SHOSANNA No. COL LANDA It's not so terrible. So how is it the young Private and yourself came to be acquainted? She's about to answer, when a WAITER approaches. COL LANDA Yes, two strudels, one for myself, and one for the mademoiselle. A cup of espresso, with a container of. steamed milk, on the side. For the Mademoiselle, a glass of milk. Considering Shosanna. grew up on a dairy farm, and the last time she was on a dairy farm, her strudel companion murdered her entire family, his ordering her milk is, to say the least... . disconcerting. The key to Col Landa's power, and or charm, depending on the side ones on, lies in his ability to convince you he's privy to your secrets. COL LANDA So Mademoiselle, you were beginning to explain....? SHOSANNA (ANXIOUSLY) Up untill a couple of days ago, I had no knowledge of Private Zoller, or his exploits. To me, the Private was simply just a patron of my cinema. We spoke a few times, but - COL LANDA - Mademoiselle, let me interrupt you. This is a simple formality, no reason for you to feel anxious. The Colonel takes one look at it, and says to the Waiter; 67 COL LANDA I apologize, I forgot to order the cream fresh. WAITER One moment. He exits. COL LANDA (Refuring to the apple pie) Wait for the cream. (Back to BUSINESS) So Emmanuelle - May I call you Emmanuelle? SHOSANNA Oui. COL LANDA So Emmanuelle, explain to me how does it happen, that a young lady such as your self, comes to own a cinema? The Waiter returns, applying cream fresh to the two strudels. The S.S. Colonel looks across the table at his companion, picking up his fork, he says; COL LANDA After you. Shosanna takes √¢‚Ǩ¬¢a whip creamy bite of strudel, Landa follows her lead. COL LANDA (MOUTHFULL of pie) Success? Shosanna, mouth full of pie, indicates she approves. .COL LANDA Like I said, not so terrible. (Back to BUSINESS) So you were explaining the origin of your cinema ownership? 69. SHOSANNA The cinema originally belonged to my aunt and uncle - Col Landa removes alittle black book from his pocket. COL LANDA - What is there names? SHOSANNA Jean-Pierre and Ada Mimieux. He records the names in his little book. COL LANDA Where are they now? SHOSANNA My uncle was killed during blitzkrieg. COL LANDA Pity... . Continue. SHOSANNA Aunt Ada passed away from fever last spring.' COL LANDA Regrettable. (RESPECTFUL PAUSE) It's come to my attention you have a negro in your employ, is that true? SHOSANNA Yes, he's a Frenchman. His name is Marcel. He worked with my aunt and uncle since they opened the cinema. He's the only other one who works with me. COL LANDA Doing what? SHOSANNA Projectionist. COL LANDA Is he any good? SHOSANNA The best. 61. COL LANDA Actually one could see where that might be a good trade for them. Can you operate the projectors? SHOSANNA Of course I can. COL LANDA Knowing the Reich Minister as I do, I'm quite positive he wouldn't want the success or failure of his illustrious evening, dependent on the prowess of a negro. So if it comes to pass we hold this event at your venue, talented no doubt, as your negro may be, you will operate the projectors. Is that exceptable? As if she has any say. SHOSANNA Oui. Col Landa takes another bite of strudel, Shosanna follows suit. COL LANDA So it would appear our young hero is quite smitten with you? SHOSANNA Private Zollers feelings for me aren't of a romantic nature. COL LANDA Mademoiselle...? SHOSANNA Colonel, his feelings are not romantic. I remind him of his sister. COL LANDA That doesn't mean his feelings aren't romantic. SHOSANNA I remind him of his sister who raised him. 70 COL LANDA It's sounding more and more romantic by the minute. Landa takes out a handsome looking cigarette case, with a S.S. LOGO on it. Removing on of the fags, he lights it up with a fancy S.S. gold lighter. He offers one to Shosanna. COL LANDA Cigarette? SHOSANNA No thank you. COL LANDA Do you smoke? SHOSANNA Yes. COL LANDA Then I insist, you must take one. There not French, there German. I hope your not nationalist about your tobacco, to me French cigarettes are a sin against nicotine. She takes one, but makes no move to light it. He inhales deep, and says; COL LANDA I did have some thing else I wanted to ask you, but right now, for the life of me, I can't remember what it is. Oh well, must not of been important. Col Landa stands up, throws some French francs on the table, puts on his grey S.S. cap, touches his finger to his visor, saluting Shosanna, and saying: COL LANDA Till tonight. And with that he's gone. Shosanna breaths a sigh of relief. The CAMERA begins to slowly lower from a MEDIUM CU to her feet ankles and floor. We see her shoes are in a puddle of urine. During her conversation and strudel with the man that exterminated her entire family, shosanna pissed herself. She drops the German cigarette in to the piss puddle by her feet. 7 1. INT - CINEMA AUDITORIUM - NIGHT The SILVER SCREEN on screen is the German screwball comedy "LUCKY KIDS". We hear OFF SCREEN laughter at the on screen aryan antics. CU GOEBBELS Watching the screen, basking in his own toxic genius. CU FRANCESCA Laughing at the comedy, hand covering her mouth. CU TWO BLACK POODLES Pantingly watching the screen. CU MAJOR HELLSTROM Smiling, smoking a French cigarette. CU COL LANDA Smoking his calabash, amused. CU FREDRICK ZOLLER Truly enjoying himself. CU SHOSANNA watching the screen. The LITERARY NARRATOR comes on the soundtrack. NARRATOR (VO) While Shosanna sits there pretending to be amused by the aryan antics of Goebbels Frank Capra copy, "Lucky Kids", a thought suddenly comes to her. We see her face get slightly distracted behind the eyes. NARRATOR (VO) What if tonight, accidently, the cinema burned down? The Third Reich would lose it's Minister of propaganda, it's national hero, and it's top jew hunter, all in one fell swoop. She chuckles at the thought, though it looks like she's laughing at the German comedy. SILVER SCREEN "The END" card for "Lucky Kids" is projected. The Nazi rouges gallery, and Shosanna, applaud the film. IZ The lights go up. P Goebbels excepts congratulations, as they stand and begin to file out into the lobby. NARRATOR(VO) The screening of "Lucky Kids" was a complete success. And Heer Goebbels conceded to have the venue changed to Shosannas cinema. Not only that, in a moment of inspiration, Heer Goebbels had a idea. Goebbels speaks GERMAN, and Francesca translates; GOEBBELS I must say, I appreciate the modesty of this auditorium. Your Cinema has real respect, almost church like. Not to say we couldn't spruce the place up a bit. In Versailles there's a crystal chandelier hanging in the banquet hall that is extraordinary. we're going to get it, and hang it from the very middle of auditorium roof. Also I want to go to Louvre, pick up a few Greek nudes, and just scatter them about the lobby. MONTAGE we see a quick series of shots that show all that happening. The chandelier being removed from the ceiling of Versailles. Greek nude statues being hand trucked out of the Louvre. A truck driving through the french countryside with the enormous crystal chandelier in the back. The lobby of Shosanna's cinema, pimped out in Nazi iconography. WORKERS buzz around decorating. The Greek statues are moved into place. We see Workers trying with incredible difficulty, to hoist the huge, heavy, and twinkingly fragile chandelier, in Shosannas auditorium, which now resembles something out of one of Tinto Brass's Italian B-movie rip off's of Visconti's "The Damned". SHOSANNA watches all this from a opera box, she shakes her head in disbelief. 73 BACK TO SHOSANNA AND THE NAZI "S in the lobby, post screening of "Lucky Rids", she's soundlessly escorting them to the door, as they make their goodbyes. NARRATOR (VO) As they left the little French cinema that night, all the Germans were very happy... We see Private Zoller hanging back, so he.can say goodbye. NARRATOR (VO) None more so then Private Zoller. She closes the door on him. Watching the Nazi's walk into the Paris night. Their shadows, for a moment onAwall, look like grotesque Nazi charcthers. 4644 The Nazi's are gone. Marcel sits at the top of the staircase of the lobby, looking down at Shosanna. They speak in FRENCH SUBTITLED into ENGLISH; MARCEL What the fuck are we suppose to do? SHOSANNA It looks like we're suppose to have a Nazi premier. MARCEL Like I said, what the fuck are we suppose to do? SHOSANNA Well, I need to speak with you about that. MARCEL About what? SHOSANNA About these Hun swine, commandeering our cinema. MARCEL What about it? She slowly walks up the stairs to Marcel. She makes him part his legs, and sits on the lower step, between his legs. Her back up against his chest, his arms around her shoulders. Shosanna has only known this type of intimacy with Marcel. SHOSANNA Well, when I was watching the bosch (Said in ENGLISH) Capra-corn abomination, (Back to FRENCH) I got a idea. MARCEL I'm confused, what are we talking about? SHOSANNA Filling the cinema with Nazi's and their whores, and burning it down to the ground. MARCEL I'm not talking about that, your talking about that. SHOSANNA No, we're talking about that, right now. If we can keep this place from burning down by ourselves, we can burn it down by ourselves. MARCEL Shosanna - SHOSANNA No, Marcel, just for sake of argument, if we wanted to burn down the cinema, for any number of reasons, you and I could physically accomplish that, no? MARCEL Oui Shosanna, we could do that. SHOSANNA And with Madame Mimieux's 350 nitrate film print collection, we wouldn't even need explosives, would we? MARCEL You mean we wouldn't need any more explosives? SHOSANNA Oui, that's exactly what I mean. She begins kissing his hands. 75. SHOSANNA (CON'T) I am going to burn down the cinema on Nazi night. One of his fingers probes her mouth. SHOSANNA (CON'T) And if I'm going to burn down the cinema, which I am, we both know, your not going to let me do it by myself. The back of her head presses up hard against him, as his hand both caresses, and grips her lovely neck. SHOSANNA (CON'T) Because you love me. And I love you. And your the only person on this earth I can trust. She then TWISTS around, so she's straddling him. They are now, face to face. SHOSANNA (CON'T) But that's not all we're going to do. Does the filmmaking equipment it the attic still work? I know the film camera does. How about the sound recorder? MARCEL Quite well, actually. I recorded a new guitarist I met in a cafe last week. It works superb. Why do we need filmmaking equipment? SHOSANNA Because Marcel, my sweet, we're going to make a film. Just for the Nazi's. FADE TO BLACK ?G. FADE OFF INT - ENGLISH COUNTRY ESTATE - DAY A young MILITARY ATTACHE, opens the sliding double doors that serve as a entrance to the room. MILITARY ATTACHE Right this way, Lieutenant. A snappy handsome British Lieutenant in dress browns, steps inside the room. This officer, who has been mixing it up with the Gerrys since the late thirties, is named LT.ARCHIE HICOX. A young George Sanders type(The Saint and Private affairs of Bel Ami, years). Upon entering the room, Lt.Hicox is gobsmacked. Standing before him is legendary military mastermind, GENERAL ED FENECH, a older George Sanders type (Village of the Dammed). But in the back of the room, sitting behind a piano, smoking his ever present cigar, is the unmistakable bulk of WINSTON CHURCHELL. LT. HICOX Lt. Archie Hicox, reporting sir. GEN FENECH (Salutes back) General Ed Fenech, at ease Hicox. Drink? Hicox's eye's go to the formidable bulldog behind the piano, who's scrutinizing him behind his cigar. However the man behind the cigar makes no gesture, and the General, makes no acknowledgment of the three hundred pound gorilla in the room. Which Lt.Hicox knows enough to mean, if Churchell isn't introduced, he ain't there. LT.HICOX if you offered me a scotch and plane water, I could drink a scotch and plain water. ?7. GEN.FENECH That a boy, Lieutenant. Make it yourself, like a good chap, will you? Bars in the globe. Hicox heads over to the bar globe. LT.HICOX Something for yourself, sir? GEN.FENECH Whiskey straight. No junk in it. The Lieutenant moves over to the Columbus-style globe bar, and busies himself mixing spirits, playing bartender chappy. Fenech, eyeing the Lieutenant's file. GEN.FENECH It says here you've run three undercover commando operations in Germany, and German occupied territories? Frankfaurt, Holland, and Norway to be exact? Back to them, mixing drinks, he says; LT.HICOX Extraordinary people, the Norwegian's. GEN.FENECH It says here you speak German fluently? LT.HICOX Like a Katzenjammer Kid. GEN.FENECH And your occupation before the war? His back still to us, as he bartends... LT. H I COX I'm a film critic. GEN.FENECH List your accomplishments? LT.HICOX Well sir, such as they are, I write reviews and articles, for a publication called; "Films and Filmmakers". As well as our sister publication. 7f . GEN.FENECH What's that called? LT.HICOX "Flickers Bi-Monthly". And I've had two books published. GEN.FENECH Impressive. Don't be modest Lieutenant, what are their titles? LT. HI COX The first book was called; "Art Of The Eye's, The Heart, and The Mind:A Study of German Cinema in the Twenties". And the second one was called; ... He turns around with his whiskey and plain water, and the Generals whiskey no junk. He finishes what he was saying, as he walks toward the General, handing him his drink. LT.HICOX "Twenty-Four Frame Da Vinci". It's a subtexual film criticism study of the work of German director G.W. Pabst. LT. HI COX What should we drink to, sir? GEN.FENECH (Thinking, for a moment) Down with Hitler. LT.HICOX All the way down, sir. GEN.FENECH Are you familiar with German cinema under the Third Reich? LT. HI COX Yes. Obviously I haven't seen any of the films made in the last three years, but I am familiar with it. GEN.FENECH Explain it to me.? 77 LT.HICOX Pardon sir? GEN.FENECH This little escapade of ours, requires a knowledge of the German film industry under the Third Reich. Explain to me UFA, under Goebbels? LT.HICOX Goebbels considers the films he's making to be the beginning of a new era in German cinema. A alternative to what he considers the Jewish German intellectual cinema of the twenties. And the Jewish controlled dogma of Hollywood. SUDDENLY... Bellowing from the back of the room; CHURCHELL How's he doing? LT. H I COX Frightfully sorry sir, once again? CHURCHELL You say he wants to take on the Jews at their own game? Compared to say .Louis B.Mayer...how's he doing? LT.HICOX Quite well, actually. Since Goebbels has taken over, film attendance has steadily risen in Germany over the last eight years. But Louis B.Mayer wouldn't be Goebbels proper opposite number. I believe Goebbels see's himself closer to David O.Selznick. Gen.Fenech looks to the Prime Minister. With a puff of cigar smoke, Churchell says; CHURCHELL Brief him. GEM.FENECH Lt.Bicox, at this point in time I'd like to brief you on, Operation Kino. Three days from now, Joseph Goebbels is throwing a gala premier of one of his new movies in Paris - 80. LT.HICOX - What film sir? The General has to resort to peeking at his file. GEN.FENECH The motion pictures called; "Nation's Pride". LT.HICOX Oh, you mean the film about Private Zoller? GEN.FENECH We don't have any intelligence, on exactly, what the film that night will be about. LT.HICOX But it's called "Nation's Pride"? GEN.FENECH Yes. LT.HICOX I can tell you what it's about, it's about Private Fredrick Zoller. He's the German Sgt.York. Fenech can't help suppress a smile, they have the right man. GEN.FENECH In attendance at this joyous Germatic occasion, will be Goebbels, Gerring, Boorman, and most of the German High command, including all high ranking officers of both The S.S., and, The Gestapo. As well as luminaries of the Nazi propaganda film industry. LT.HICOX The master race at play, aye? GEN.FENECH Basically, we have all our rotten eggs in one basket. The objective of Operation Kino.... Blow up the basket. LT.HICOX (Reciting a a poem) "...and like the snows of yesteryear, gone from this earth". Jolly good, sir. GEN.FENECH An American Secret Service outfit, that lives deep behind enemy lines, will be your assist. The Germans call them; "The Basterds". LT.HICOX "The Basterds", never heard of them. GEN.FENECH Whole point of the secret service, old boy, you not hearing of them. But the Gerrys have heard of them, because these yanks have been them the devil. Their leader is a chap named Lt.Aldo Raine. The Germans call him, "Aldo the Apache". LT.HICOX Why do they call him that? GEN.FENECH Best guess, is because he removes the scalps of the Nazi dead. LT.HICOX Scalps, sir? GEN.FENECH The hair. He runs his finger along his hairline. GEN.FENECH Like a red Injun. LT.HICOX Rather gruesome sounding little Dicky bird, isn't he? GEN.FENECH No doubt the whole lot, a bunch a nutters. But you've heard the expression, "It takes a thief". LT.HICOX Indeed. General Fenech continues on with his exposition, moving over to a military map. 9i. GEN.FENECH You'll be dropped into France, about twenty four kilometers outside of Paris. The Basterds will be waiting for you. First thing, you go to a little village called, "Nadine". (He points it out on the map) Apparently the Gerrys never go there. In Nadine, there's a tavern, called, "La Louisiane", you'll rendez-vous with our double agent, and she'll take it from there. She's the one who's going to get you in the premiere. It will be you, her, and two German born members of the Basterds. She's also made all the other arrangements your going to need. LT.HICOX How will I know her? GEN.FENECH I suspect that won't be too much trouble for you. Your contact is Bridget Von Hammersmark. LT.HICOX Bridget Von Hammersmark? The German movie star is working for England? GEN.FENECH For the last two years now. one could even say Operation Kino was her brainchild. In the back of the room the bulldog barks; CHURCHELL Extraordinary women. LT.BICOX Quite. GEN.FENECH You'll go to the premiere as her escort, lucky devil. She'll also have the premiere tickets for the other two. Got the gist? LT.HICOX I think so, sir. Paris when it sizzles. The three British bulldogs laugh. 9 3 EXT - CINEMA ROOFTOP - DAY Shosanna and Marcel are on the rooftop of their cinema, literally, making a movie. Marcel is behind a old (even then) BOLEX 35MM MOVIE CAMERA, positioned low looking up. Shosanna, the camera subject, stands on boxes looking down into it. A old timey MICROPHONE is positioned out of frame. As they always do, and always will, they speak FRENCH SUBTITLED into you know what. MARCEL We need a sync mark. SHOSANNA What is a sync mark? MARCEL A action and noise put together, So we can sync up the picture and sound. SHOSANNA How do we do that? MARCEL Clap your hands. She does. MARCEL In frame imbecile. She claps her hands in front of her face. MARCEL Ready? Shosanna takes a deep breath, then; SHOSANNA Ready. MARCEL Action. WE CUT BEFORE SHE SPEAKS TO... GIR .THE SCENE EARLIER BETWEEN MARCEL AND SHOSANNA IN THE LOBBY, ON THE STAIRS, TALKING ABOUT BURNING DOWN THE CINEMA. Big diffrence this time, it's in COLOR. MARCEL But how do we get it developed? Only a suicidal idiot like us would develop that footage. How do we get a35mm print with a soundtrack? SHOSANNA Do you know one person who can do both things? MARCEL Of course Gaspar, very nice man, took care of all the experimental filmmakers. But nobody in their right mind would strike a print of what your talking about. If the Nazi's found out, their life wouldn't be worth this. He snaps his fingers. SHOSANNA In a wolf fight, you ether eat the wolf, or the wolf eats you. If we're going to obliterate the Nazi's, we have to use their tactics. MARCEL What does that mean? SHOSANNA We find somebody who can develop and process a35mm print. And we make them do it, or we kill them. Once we tell them what we want to do, if they refuse, we have to kill them anyway, or they'll turn us in. MARCEL Would you do that? SHOSANNA Like that. Snaps her fingers. ?S, INT - SMALL FILM PROCESSING LAB- LATE NIGHT A old mom and pop film processing lab circa the Thirties. Late late at night. GASPAR, the fatherly figure of all the experimental French filmmakers in the decade before German rule, takes a SAVAGE BEATING at the hands of his friend Marcel. Shosanna watches, pitiless. SHOSANNA Bring that fucker over here! Put his head down on that table. Marcel, holds his arm behind him, as he forces his head flat against the table top. Shosanna brings a HATCHET DOWN DEEP into the table, just by his face. SHOSANNA You ether do what the fuck we tell you to, or I'll bury this axe in your collaborating skull. GASPAR I'm not a collaborator! SHOSANNA Then prove it! Or does your manhood go no deeper, then standing to piss? Marcel, does his wife, and children know you? MARCEL Oui. SHOSANNA Then after we kill this dog for Germans, we'll go and silence them. She lifts up the hatchet, raises it high... SHOSANNA Prepare to die, collaborator fucker! CUT TO GASPAR hands the couple a SMALL SILVER CAN OF 35mm FILM. Outside the shop window, it's morning. INT - PROJECTION BOOTH- WE SEE the five heavy silver film cans of Fredrick Zollers life story "Nations Pride"(clearly marked) on the floor of the projection booth. The can for REEL 4is open and empty. Shosanna's at the editing bench, REEL 4, is up on the rewinds... Shosanna SPLICES her and Marcels footage into REEL 4 of Fredricks film. Rewinds it, puts it back in the can, and puts a piece of RED TAPE on REEL 4 CAN. She walks out of the booth, turning off the lights behind her, PLUNGING THE SCREEN INTO DARKNESS. BLACK FRAME FROM BLACK DISSOLVE TO EXT - LA LOUISIANE (TAVERN) - NIGHT We see a small basement tavern, with a old rustic sign out front that reads, "La Louisiane". A SUBTITLE APPEARS: "The Village of NADINE, FRANCE" TWO SHOT LT.HICOX and LT.ALDO RAINE Aldo is dressed like a French civilian. Hicox is dressed in a German grey S.S. Cap't uniform. They look out of a window, in a apartment, in the village of Nadine, overlooking the tavern. LT.ALDO You didn't say the goddamn rendez-vous was in a fuckin basement. LT.HICOX I didn't know. LT.ALDO You said it was in a tavern? LT.HICOX it is a tavern. LT.ALDO Yeah, in a basement. You know, fightin in a basement offers a lot of difficulties, number one being, your fighting in a basement. Wilhelm Wicki, joins the SHOT, dressed in a German S.S. Lieutenant uniform. WICKI What if we go in there, and she's not even there? LT.HICOX We wait. Don't worry, she's a British spy, she'll make the rendez-vous. WE SEE the other Basterds, dressed in French civilian clothes, are in the room as well, they are, Donowitz, Hirschberg, and Utivich. And in the back of the room, dressed in the grey uniform of a S.S. Lieutenant, Hugo Stiglitz sits off by himself, sharpening his S.S. DAGGER on his leather belt looped around his boot. Anybody not in the scene from the Basterds opening chapter, is dead. Lt.Hicox watches Stiglitz off by himself on the other side of the room, SHARPENS his dagger menacingly. .Stiglitz is fucking werid... Lt.Hicox approaches Stiglitz... LT.NICOX Stiglitz, right? STIGLITZ That's right, sir. He continues bringing the blades edge, up, then, down on the leather strap. LT.HICOX I hear your pretty good with that? Meaning the blade. Stiglitz doesn't answer. LT.HICOX You know, we're not looking for trouble, right now. We're simply making contact with our agent. Should be uneventful. However, on the off chance I'm wrong, and things prove eventful. I need to know, we can all remain calm. 99. The renegade Gerry Sergeant, stops his blades progress, and looks up at the limy Lieutenant. STIGLITZ I don't look calm to you? LT.HICOX Well, now you put it like that, I guess you do. He turns his attention back to his blade. Hicox moves over to Aldo, and asks him privately; LT. HI COX This Gerry of yours, Stiglitz? Not exactly the loquacious type, is he? Aldo just looks at him. LT.ALDO Is that the kinds man you need, the loquacious type? LT.HICOX Fair point, Lieutenant. LT.ALDO So y'all git in trouble in there, what are we suppose to do? Make bets on how it all comes out? LT.HICOX If we get into trouble, we can handle it. But if trouble does happen, we need you to make damn sure no Germans, or French, for matter, escape from that basement. If Frau Von Hammersmark's cover is compromised, the mission is kaput. SGT.DONOWITZ Speaking of Frau Von Hammersmark, who's idea was it for the death trap redez-vous? LT.HICOX She chose the spot. SGT.DONOWITZ Well isn't that just dandy? LT.HICOX Look, she's not a military strategist. She's just a actress. LT.ALDO Ya don't got to be Stonewall Jackson to know you don't want to fight in a basement. LT.HICOX She wasn't picking a place to fight. She was picking a place, isolated, and without germans. PFC.HIRSCHBERG Lieutenant, I hate to be contrary, but I got me a Nazi pissin on Louisianna two-o'clock. They move to the window, and sure enough, ONE LONE NAZI PRIVATE, relieves himself against the side wall. Lt.Bicox, this was definitely, not the plan. LT.HICOX Shit. Sgt.Donowitz chides him; SGT.DONOWITZ So what do you think your fraulein Von Hammer - LT.HICOX - Obviously, I don't know,Sgt. The British officer watches the German soldier, who's not suppose to be there. When Hugo Stiglitz joins him at the window. Stiglitz looks down at the urinating Nazi, S.S. dagger in hand. STIGLITZ If we're going, let's go. He sheaths the dagger. EXT - LA LOUISIANE (BASEMENT TAVERN) - NIGHT The GERMAN PISSING PRIVATE, sloppily finishes his task. Craming his noodle back in his pants, he descends the stairs that lead him back into the basement tavern. We Follow him... INT - LA LOUISIANE (BASEMENT TAVERN)- NIGHT .Inside the basement tavern, La Louisiane. it has a very low hanging basement ceiling. A old looking wood bar off to the right. And the only other space in the little tavern, is taken up by two large(at least in here) tables, which take up both half's of the room. And despite rumors to the contrary, one of the two tables, is completely filled with drunken celebrating Nazi enlisted men, of which our urinating friend is one of five. FIVE NAZI'S ONE GERMAN MASTER SGT, ONE FEMALE GERMAN SGT (a powerfully built stocky type), and THREE MALE GERMAN PRIVATES. The Five Nazi's are sitting around the table, drinking, and playing a very fun game with none other then the fraulein of the hour, UFA diva, BRIDGET VON HAMMERSMARK. Dressed to the nines in a chic Forties style women's suit, complete with fedora. The game their playing consists of each player having a card with the name of a famous person, real or imaginary, stuck to their forehead. The player doesn't know what name is on their forehead. So they ask the others questions to figure out who they are. The Five Germans, five cards read; MASTER SGT #1(POLA NEGRI), FEMALE SGT #2(BEETHOVEN), GERMAN PRIVATE #3(MATA HARI), GERMAN PRIVATE #4 (EDGAR WALLACE), GERMAN PRIVATE #5 (WINNETOU). And Bridget Von Hammersmark, who wears her card in the brim of her fedora, has GENGHIS KHAN. It's German#5 (WINNETOU) turn to ask questions. The DIALOGUE will be in GERMAN, and SUBTITLED into ENGLISH. Also, while some dialogue will be written for the German Soldiers, it will be mostly made up from the exuberance of their game playing, and celebrating. WINNETOU .okay, I'm not German. Am I American? The whole table bursts out laughing. FEMALE SGT/BEETHOVEN Yes you arel EDGAR WALLACE Well, not really. SGT.POLA NEGRI What do you mean, not really? Of course he is. 91 EDGAR WALLACE Well if he's so American, how come he's never been translated into English? He's not American. He's suppose to be American, but he's not a American creation. In fact, he's something very different. WINNETOU Okay, I'm a fictional, literary character, from the past, I'm American, and that's controversial. BRIDGET/GENGUS No it's not controversial. The nationally of the author, has nothing to do with the nationally of the character. The Character is the character. Hamlet's not British, he's Danish. So yes, this character was born in America. WINNETOU Well I'm glad that's settled. If I had a wife, would she be called a squaw? He's got it. The table Laughs. The TABLE YES! WINNETOU Is my bloodbrother, Old Shatterhand? The TABLE Yes! WINNETOU Did Karl May write me? The TABLE Yes! In the BACKGROUND, WE SEE, our three counterfeit German Officers, Hicox, Wicki, and Stiglitz, enter the basement tavern. They obviously. see the five German soldiers, but their too far away for us (the audience) to read their face. No doubt their less then happy. Fraulein Von Hammersmark see's them as well. Without getting up, she waves to them. QZ BRIDGET Hello, my lovelies, I will join you in moments. I'm finishing up a game with my five new friends here. LT.HICOX No hurry, Frau Von Hammersmark. Take your time, enjoy yourself. BRIDGET (To Winnetou) So who are you? WINNETOU I am WINNETOU, CHIEF of the APACHES! The table CHEERS, and APPLAUD the Apache Chief, as he takes the card off his forehead. The other Four German Soldiers drink down there beer(part of the game). Bridget Von Hammersmark knock backs her champagne. MATA HARI Frau Von Hammersmark, when your friends came in, did you realize you did a double take, like in the movies? BRIDGET Really? No, I wasn't aware of that at all. MATA HARI They must be second nature to you now? Did they teach you how to do a double take in the movies? BRIDGET Well, yes they did, but it's not really that difficult. SGT.POLA NEGRI Do one for us. The Tableheartily agrees. Bridget looks directly at the Master Sgt, and does a perfect, and perfectly funny, Double Take. The Table loves it. q3. MATA HARI My turn, I want to try. Mata Hari, looks directly at Beethoven, and does a Double Take. EDGER WALLACE I want to try. He does. Soon the whole Table is doing dueling Double Takes. HICOX - WICKI - STIGLITZ watch the table do dueling Double Takes. Obviously, they don't understand. THEN... .Bridget Von Hammersmark rises, and excuses herself from the Table. She removes the card stuck in her fedora, looking at the name Gengus Khaun for the first time. BRIDGET Gengus Khaun! I would never of gotten that. She walks over, and joins the masquerading Germans table, the Gentlemen rise. She greets each warmly with a french cheek kiss, as if she knows them well. They all take a seat. The two Basterds, and one Brit, drink Whiskey. The taverns PROPRIETOR, a older, big bellyed Frenchman named EARL, comes over to the table, and pours more champagne into Bridget's Champagne glass. He leaves, returning back behind the bar, with the YOUNG FRENCH BARMAID, the only other person in the establishment. Obviously, they speak GERMAN, SUBTITLED into ENGLISH; LT.HICOX I thought this place was suppose to have more French then Germans? BRIDGET Normally that's true. The Sgt over there's wife, just had a baby. His commanding officer gave him, and his mates the night off to celebrate. WICXI We should leave. BRIDGET F No, we should stay. For one drink at least. I've been waiting for you in a bar, it would look strange if we left before we had a drink. LT.HICOX She's right, just be calm, and enjoy your booze. BACK TO THE GERMAN TABLE The French Barmaid, has taken Bridget's place in the rousing, rowdy game. She tells them, her person must be French, or she won't know them. Winnetou thinks for a moment, then writes a name on a card. The Barmaid puts it on her forehead, It says; NAPOLEON. The Germans all laugh. BACK TO THE BASTERDS TABLE BRIDGET There's been some new developments. The cinema venue has changed. LT.HICOX Why? BRIDGET No one knows. But that in itself shouldn't be a problem. The cinema it's been changed to is considerably smaller then The Ritz. So whatever materials you brought for The Ritz, should be doubly effective here. Now this next piece of information is colossal, try not to over react. The Fubrer, will be attending tomorrow. Hugo Stiglitz does a SPIT TAKE. Bridget's eyes bore holes in him. BACK TO THE REAL GERMANS They see Hugo do the spit take, and burst out laughing. Keeping it up, they begin to do dueling spit takes, like they did dueling double takes earlier. Needless to say, they all get wet. 9 BACK TO BASTERDS BRIDGET (To Hicox) You'll be going as Ernst Schuller. You'll say your a associate producer on Riefenstahl's "Tiefland". It's the one German production not under Goebbels control, and Leni wouldn't be caught dead at a Goebbels film affair. BACK TO REAL GERMAN TABLE Master Sgt.Pola Negri, drinks his beer, as he looks over, dreamily, at Bridget Von Hammersmark at the other table. BACK TO BASTERDS We See in Bridget continues to brief Hicox on his identity. the B.G., the German Master Sgt stand up from his table, and head toward Fraulein Von Bammersmark. BRIDGET .the films gone through many delays, and Leni's heath is deteriorating, so if you have to speak... Hicox, seeing the German Master Sgt approach, signals for her to cool it. SGT.POLA NEGRI Frau Von Hammersmark, I was just thinking, could you sign a autograph to my son on his birthday? BRIDGET I'd love to Wilhelm. (To the Table) This handsome happy Sgt, just became a father today. The Pretend Officers offer congratulations to the Sgt. The German Master Sgt, CLICKS his heels, and bows before his superior officers. SGT.POLA NEGRI Thank you, heil Hitler. He raises his hand .... as do the seated phony officers; "Heil Hitler". As she takes a rather fancy fountain pen from her clutch.. BRIDGET So Wilhelm, do you know the name of this progeny yet? SGT.POLA NEGRI I most certainly do, fraulein. His name is Maximilian. Even the slightly psychotic Stiglitz, likes this German Sgt. STIGLITZ Wonderful name, Sgt. SGT.POLA NEGRI Thank you, Lieutenant. When he's old enough to ride a bicycle, I will buy him a blue one. And I will paint on the side "The Blue Max". He thrusts out his beer stein, for the officers to cheers. They do. Bridget finishes signing her autograph, with a big flourish. BRIDGET There you go. But wait, I'm not finished yet. She reaches into her clutch, and pulls out some lipstick. Applies some ruby red color to her lips, and then kisses the napkin, leaving a big red lip print. Then hands the treasured item to the young father. BRIDGET Nothing but the best for little Maximilian. SGT.POLA NEGRI Thank you fraulein, thank you. Max may not know who you are now. But he will. I will show him all of your movies. He will grow up with your films, and this napkin on his wall. Then, to the whole tavern... SGT.POLA NEGRI I purpose a toast to the greatest actress in Germany! There is no Dietrich, there is no Riefenstahl, only Von Hammersmark! The whole room toasts. This would be a good time for the German Sgt to go back to his table, and his men. And he almost does.... but... since he is drunk, and star struck, he out wears his welcome. SGT.POLA NEGRI So, Frau Von Hammersmark, what brings you to France? 97 . Feeling any good Nazi officer's patience would of been exhausted long ago, Lt.Hicox butts in. LT.HICOX None of your business,Sgt. You might not have worn out your welcome with the fraulein, with your drunken boorish behavior, but you have wore out your welcome with me. The Table of game playing Soldiers, hear this, and get quiet. LT.HICOX Might I remind you Sgt.,your a enlisted man. This is a officers table. I suggest you stop pestering the fraulein, and rejoin your table. The German Master Sgt., looks quizzically at the officer. SGT.POLA NEGRI Excuse me Cap't, but your accent is is very unusual. The whole room pauses-for different reasons... SGT.POLA NEGRI Where are you from? A silent moment passes between the two tables, then the two German born impostors spring into action. WICKI Sgt.! You must be ether drunk or mad, to speak to a superior officer with such impertinentness! Stiglitz, STANDS and YELLS to the other table; STIGLITZ I'm making YOU,... (Pointing at WINNETOU) .and YOU,.. (Pointing at Edgar Wallace) .responsible, for him. (Pointing at Sgt.Pola) I suggest you take hold of your friend, or he'll spend Max's first birthday in jail for public drunkenness! 78 The Germans SPRING UP, and take hold of Sgt.Pola... 1W WHEN... A GERMAN VOICE rings out; GERMAN VOICE (OS) Then might I inquire? The Five known Germans move aside, reveling the unknown German in the room, unseen till now, our old friend from before MAJOR DEITER HELLSTROM of the GESTAPO. The Major stands from the little table he was sitting at. MAJOR HELLSTROM Like the young newly christened father, I too have a acute ear for accents. And like him, I too find yours odd. From where do you hail, Cap't? Wicki jumps in; WICKI Major, this is highly inappr - MAJOR HELLSTROM T wasn't speaking to you Lt.Saltzberg, (Turning to STIGLITZ) or you ether, Lt.Berlin. (Looking at HICOX) I was speaking to Cap't I--don't-know-what. The Gestapo Major is now standing beside Sgt.Pola, before the impostors table. Lt.Hicox, calmly explains his origin. LT.HICOX I was born in the village that rests in the shadow of Piz Palu. MAJOR HELLSTROM The mountain? LT.HICOX Yes. In that village we all speak like this. Have you seen the Riefenstahl film? MAJOR HELLSTROM Yes. f q s LT. HICOX Then you saw me. You remember the skiing torch scene? MAJOR HELLSTROM Yes I do. LT.HICOX In that scene was myself, my father, my sister, and my two brothers. My brother is so handsome, the director Pabst, gave him a Close Up. As Bridget Von Hammersmark places a cigarette in a ivory cigarette holder, which Hicox, as if on cue, lights for her, she says; BRIDGET Major, if my word means anything, I can vouch for everything the Young Cap't has just said. He does hail from the bottom of Piz Palu, he was in the film, and his brother is far more handsome then he. The impostors laugh. Then....so does the Gestapo Major. He turns to the Sgt. MAJOR HELLSTROM You should rejoin your friends. Which the young Sgt is more then happy to do. That table begins playing there game again. Major Hellstrom, the highest ranking officer in the room, bows graciously to the female German celebrity. MAJOR HELLSTROM May I join you? BRIDGET By all means, Major. The Gestapo Major sits at the table, opposite Lt.Hicox, and Wicki. The French Barmaid brings over the Majors beer stein. MAJOR HELLSTROM So that's the source of your bazaar accent? Extraordinary. So what are you doing here Cap't? LT.HICOX Aside from having a drink with the lovely fraulein? ,00 . MAJOR HELLSTROM Well that pleasure requires no explanation. Chuckle...Chuckle MAJOR HELLSTROM I mean in country. Your obviously not stationed in France, or I'd know who you are. LT √¢‚Ǩ¬¢ I'! I COX You know every German in France? MAJOR BELLSTROM Worth knowing. LT.HICOX Well, there in lies the problem. We never claimed to be worth knowing. Chuckle... Chuckle. MAJOR HELLSTROM (Chuckling as he asks) All levity aside, what are you doing in France? LT.HICOX Attending Goebbels film premiere as the frauleins escort. MAJOR HELLSTROM Your the frauleins escort? LT.HICOX Somebody has to carry the lighter. Chuckle chuckle. BRIDGET The Captain is my date, but all three are my guests. We're old friends Major, who go back along time. Longer then a actress would care to admit. Chuckle chuckle. MAJOR HELLSTROM Well, in that case, let me raise a glass to the three luckiest men in the room. BRIDGET I'll drink to that. 101 They cheers. BACK TO THE REAL GERMAN TABLE They continue to have alot of fun playing their game. BACK TO OFFICERS TABLE MAJOR HELLSTROM I must say, that game their playing looks like a good bit of fun. I didn't join them, because your quite right Cap't, officers and enlisted men shouldn't fraternize. But seeing as we're all officers here, (Bowing to BRIDGET) .and sophisticated lady friends of officers. What say we play the game? Lt.Hicox begins to refuse, when Bridget (feeling she knows better), interrupts him; BRIDGET okay, one game. MAJOR HELLSTROM WUNDERBAR The Major borrows five cards from the other table, and lays them out in front of Bridget and the officers. MAJOR HELLSTROM So the object of the game, is to write the name of a famous person on your card. Real or fictitious, doesn't matter. For instance, you could write Confucius or Fu Manchu. (He SNAPS his FINGERS) Eric' More pens. (Back to players) And they must be famous. No Aunt Inga's. When you finish writing, put the card face down on the table, and move it to the person to your left. The person to your right, will move their card in front of you. You pick up the card without looking at it, lick the back, and stick it on your forehead like so. He demonstrates. )oz. MAJOR HELLSTROM (CON'T) And in ten yes or no questions, you must guess who you are... As Major Hellstrom finishes explaining the finer points of the game, The CAMERA PANS OFF HIM, and BEGINS SLOWLY ZOOMING INTO STIGLITZ. The Majors dialogue begins to FADE AWAY. Untill we're in a SPAGHETTI WESTERN FLASHBACK. Which is RED FILTERED FOOTAGE of Hugo being savagely WHIPPED by somebody wearing a GESTAPO UNIFORM, SUPERIMPOSED over his CLOSE UP. The Flashback disappears. It's driving Stiglitz crazy, being this close to a Gestapo uniform, and not plunging a knife into it. The Majors Voice comes back on the soundtrack. MAJOR HELLSTROM .So let's give it a try, shall we? Everybody write your names. The Five players write their names... Then move their cards to the right... Everybody sticks their cards on their forehead... MAJORBRIDGETWILHELMARCHIEHUGO HELLSTROMVON HAMMERSMARKWICKIHICOXSTIGLITZ is is is is is KING MARCOBULLDOGBRIGITTEG.W. KONG POLO DRUMMOND HELM PABST MAJ.KING KONG I'll start, give you the idea. Am I German? They laugh. BRIDGET No. MAJ.KING KONG Am I a American? They laugh - but then Wicki says; WICKI Wait a minute, he goes to !03 . BRIDGET Don't be ridiculous, obviously he wasn't born in America. MAJ.KING KONG So... . I visited America, aye? The Table says; "Yes". MAJ.KING KONG Was this vist...fortuitous? WICKI Not for you. MAJ.KING KONG .Bummm. My native land, is it what one would call, exotic? The Table confers, and decides, yes it is exotic. MAJ.KING KONG Hummmm. That could be ether a reference to the jungle, or the Orient. I'm going to let my first instinct take over, and ask, am I from the jungle? The Tablesays; "Yes you are". MAJ.KING KONG Now gentlemen, around this time you could ask, weather your real or fictitious. I however, think that's too easy, so I won't ask that, yet. Okay, my native land is the jungle? I visited America, but my visit was not fortuitous to me, but the implication is that it was to somebody else. When I went from the jungle to America,... .Did I go by boat? "Yes". MAJ.KING KONG Did I go against my will? "Yes". MAJ.KING KONG On this boat ride, ... . Was I in chains? "YESIS MAJ.KING KONG When I arrived in America,...Was I displayed in chains? "Yes". MAJ.KING KONG Am I the story of the Negro in America? The Table says, "No". MAJ.KING KONG Well then I must be King Kong. Be throws the card on the table. They applaud him. MAJOR HELLSTROM Nov since I answered correctly, you all need to finnish your drinks. The three counterfeit Nazi's knock back their whiskey. MAJOR HELLSTROM Now, who's next? LT.HICOX Major, I don't mean to be rude. But the four of us are very good friends. And the four of us haven't seen each other in quite a while. So... Major, I'm afraid, you are intruding. MAJOR HELLSTROM I beg to differ Cap't. It's only if the fraulein considers my presence a intrusion, that I become a intruder. How about it fraulein? Am I intruding? BRIDGET Of course not, Major. MAJOR HELLSTROM I didn't think so. It's simply the young Cap't is immune to my charms. The Table's not sure what to do, is this a confrontation? Then, the Major laughs. MAJOR HELLSTROM I'm just joking, of course I'm intruding. MAJOR HELLSTROM Allow me to refill your glasses gentlemen, and I will bid you and the fraulein adieu. (Leaning in) Eric has a bottle of thirty-three year old single malt scotch whisky from the Scottish highlands. What do you say gentlemen? LT.HICOX Your most gracious, sir. MAJOR HELLSTROM Eric, the thirty-three, and new glasses! You don't want to contaminate the thirty- three with the swill you were drinking. ERIC How many glasses? LT.HICOX Five glasses. MAJOR HELLSTROM Not me. I like scotch, scotch doesn't like me. BRIDGET Nor I. I'll stay with bubbly. Lt.Bicox, hold up three fingers(pinky to index), to Eric the owner. LT.HICOX Three glasses. Eric brings the three glasses, and the old bottle, pouring for the three soldiers. Major Helistrom lifts up his beer stein, and toasts; MAJOR HELLSTROM To a thousand year Reich! They all mutter, "a thousand year reich", and toast glasses. The Gestapo Major puts down his beer stein, and then WE HEAR a CLICK, under the table. MAJOR HELLSTROM Did you hear that? That's the sound of my Luger pointed right at your testicles. !Q( √¢‚Ǩ¬¢ LT.HICOX Why do you have a Luger pointed at my testicles? MAJOR HELLSTROM Because you've just given yourself away, Cap't. Your no more German then that scotch. LT.HICOX Well, -Major - BRIDGET - Major - MAJOR HELLSTROM - Shut up slut. (To Hicox) You were saying? LT.HICOX I was saying that makes two of us. I've had a gun pointed at your balls since you sat down. SGT.STIGLITZ That makes three of us. UNDERTABLE We See all three guns pointed at appropriate crotches. As well as Bridget's legs, right besides the Nazi Major's. Her pretty gams are sure to be chewed up in the possible crossfire. SGT.STIGLITZ And at this range, I'm a real Fredrick Zoller. Hugo alsobrings out his dagger, and sitcks it in the table top. MAJOR HELLSTROM Hummmmm ... Looks like we have a bit of a sticky situation here. LT. H ICOX What's going to happen, Major, is your going to stand up, and walk out that door with us. MAJOR HELLSTROM No no no no no no, I don't think so. I'm afraid you and I both know, no matter what happens to anybody else in this room, the two of us aren't going anywhere. "7 . MAJOR HELLSTROM (pointing behind him at the table) Too bad about them though. They seem like a likeable (referring to Stiglitz and Wicki) You two will have to shoot them. BRIDGET Then Major, i implore you. For the sake of those German troops, will you please leave with us? MAJOR HELLSTROM Oh Bridget, your concern for German troops, gets me (Pointing at his heart) .right here. You mean for the sake your whore legs, don't you? You can't afford to get any bullet holes in them, your not finished spreading them for all the Hollywood Jews. Lt.Hicox picks up his thirty-three year old single malt scotch, and says; LT.HICOX (ENGLISH) 'Well, if this is it old boy, I hope you dont mind if I go out speaking the kings? MAJOR HELLSTROM (ENGLISH) By all means, Cap't. The English film critic, commando, picks up the thirty-three the Nazi Major bought him, and says; LT.HICOX There's a special rung in hell reserved for people who waste good scotch. And seeing as I might be rapping on the door momentarily... He downs the stuff. LT.HICOX (To the Nazi MAJOR) I must say, damn good stuff, sir. He puts the glass down. LT.HICOX Now about this, "Pickle", we find ourself's in. It would appear, there's only thing left for you to do. MAJOR HELLSTROM (ENGLISH) And what would that be? LT.HICOX Stiglitz. STIGLITZ Say, auf wiedersehen to your balls! STIGLITZ FIRES into HELLSTROM'S BALLS... As does HICOX, HITTING not only Hellstrom, but BRIDGET as well. HELLSTROM FIRES into HICOX'S BALLS and KNEE CAPS. STIGLITZ then JUMPS over the table, and begins STABBING HELLSTROM with the DAGGER. HICOX FALLS to the floor....DEAD. BRIDGET FALLS to the floor.,SHOT. WICKI brings his weapon out from underneath the table, and BEGINS FIRING across at The GERMANS at the table, who unaware, were still PLAYING THE GAME. WINNETOU is SHOT IN THE BACK, before he even knew what was happening. EDGAR WALLACE and The FRENCH BARMAID are both SHOT by WICKI. SGT.POLA NEGRI FALLS to the floor in the confusion. FEMALE SGT.BEETHOVEN and STIGLITZ bring their guns toward each other and FIRE. They BOTH TAKE and GIVE each other so many BULLETS, it's almost romantic when they collapse DEAD on the floor. I 09. WICKI and HATA HARI both ON THERE atMATA AARI is HIT THREE TIM atally)G SGT.POLA NEGRI comes the a CHINE GUNN, whole thehroom;,BWIPI NGERIC. The SHOOTING STOPS...the SMOKE caused by the gunfire ... starts to DISSIPATE... The only one in the room left alive, is the young German Sgt, with the machine gunn. WE HEAR the feet of the soldiers outside, reach the basement entrance. The door opens... , .The German Sgt, sends FIFTY BULLETS in the doors direction... No one goes through it. What we have here, is a rabbit hole like situation. No one inside is getting out, no one outside is getting in. The young German Sgt, YELLS in ENGLISH, to the outside; GERMAN SGT You outside! Who are you? British, American, what? Aldo's Voice YELLS down the hole; ALDO'S VOICE(OS) Were American's 1 What are you? GERMAN SGT I'm a German you idiot! ALDO'S VOICE(OS) You speak English pretty good for a German! GERMAN SGT I agree! So let's talk! ALDO'S VOICE(OS) Okay, talk! GERMAN SGT I'm a father! My baby was born today in Frankfurt! Five hours ago! His name is Max! We were in here drinking and celebrating! They're the ones that came in shooting and killing! It's not my fault! Ito. ALDO'S VOICE(OS) Okay, okay, it wasn't your fault! What's your name soldier? GERMAN SGT Wilhelm! ALDO'S VOICE(OS) That's the same name as one of the guys you just killed! WILHELM They attacked us! ALDO'S VOICE(OS) Okay Wilhelm... .is anybody alive on our side? WILHELM No! We hear a VOICE OFF SCREEN, yell out; BRIDGET'S VOICE(OS) I'm alive! Wilhelm spins in the direction of the voice. STILL R On the floor, with a bullet in her BLOODY LEG, lies the alive Bridget Von Hammersmark. The German Sgt points the muzzle of the machine gunn at the German celebrity; with hate in his eyes. ALDO'S VOICE(OS) Who's that? WILHELM (To BRIDGET, LOW) Make a sound whore, and I spit! Meaning the muzzle. ALDO'S VOICE(OS) Wilhelm, who is that? WILHELM is the girl on your side? Pause. ALDO'S VOICE(OS) Which girl? WILHELM 1 Who do you think, Von Hammersmark! ALDO'S VOICE(OS) Yeah, she's oar's! WILHELM (To Bridget LOW in GERMAN) I thought so. So you run with the American's now, huh? Now times are bad? ALDO'S VOICE(OS) Is she okay? WILHELM (To Bridget LOW in GERMAN) You despicable traitor. (To Aldo) She's been shot, but she's alive. (To Bridget LOW in GERMAN) For now. We hear The Basterds Curse their luck Off Screen. ALDO'S VOICE(OS) Okay Wilhelm, what'd ya say we make a deal? WILHELM What's your name? ALDO'S VOICE(OS) Aldo. Wilhelm, can I call yap Willi? WILHELM Yes. ALDO'S VOICE(OS) So Willi, you know we could lob three or four or five or six grenades down there, and your little war story ends here. But good fer you, bad fer her, you die, she dies. So what say we make a swap? WILLI Keep talking? 112. ALDO'S VOICE(OS) Okay, Willi here's my deal! You let me and one of my men come down to take the girl away! And we take the girl, and leave! That simple, Willi! You go your way, we go ours! And little Max, gets to grow up playing catch with his daddy! So what'ya say, Willi, we got a deal? Willi thinks... Bridget watches Willi think... WILLI Aldo? ALDO'S VOICE(OS) I'm here Willi! WILLI I want to trust you.... But howcanI? ALDO'S VOICE(OS) What choice ya got? WILLI I could kill the girl! ALDO'S VOICE(OS) Well now, Willi, that's true enough. But something you need to know, so you don't get the wrong idea. Ain't none of us give a fuck bout that girl. But, admittedly, if you kill her, it would fuck up our plans. But you'll be dead by then anyway, so what'd you care? And lets not forget that little gatzenjammer Max, growin up without a pop. So in the spirit of gettin you home to him, we got a deal, Willi? WILLI Okay Aldo, I'm going to trust you! Come down, no guns! Aldo and Hirschberg come down the stairs, showing open hands. Willi keeps his machine gunn trained on them. Aldo with his hands up, says; A ALDO Hey Willi, what's with the machine gunny I thought we had a deal? WILLI We do have a deal, now git the girl and go. ALDO Not so fast, Willi, we only have a deal, we trust each other. A Mexican stand off ain't trust. WILLI You need guns on me for it to be a Mexican stand off. ALDO you got guns on us, you decide to shoot, we're dead. Up top, they got grenades, they drop 'em down here, your dead. That's a Mexican stand off, and that wasn't the deal. WILLI Just take that fucking traitor, and go! See? Now your down here Now you get tricky - t ALDO - No tricks!- Ain't nobody gittin tricky, Willi; I swear to god, I'm too damn dumb toget tricky. But (MEANING HIRSCHBERG) him and I lived upto the deal. We came down without guns. Now it's your turn. No trust,no deal. Willi pointing gunn at them.,,, -thinking... ALDO i know your scarred. I'm scarred, he's scarred, we're all scarred. So what's it gonnabe Willi? Ether we got a deal, or you might as well just shoot us now. Willi decides... He puts the machine gunn down on the bar. WILLI Fine. Take that fucking traitor and get her out of my sight. ALDO Danka, Willi, danka. okay, Hirschbeg, you grab her shoulder - WHEN... From behind Aldo and Hirschberg, Bridget lifts up Major Hellstroms Luger, and EMPTIES the remaining bullets into Sgt.Willi, who FALLS to the floor, DEAD. Aldo and Hirscberg spin around shocked. ALDO You fuckin bitch! I had a deal with that man! From the floor, the bloody, sweaty, and in excoriating pain (she'll probably lose that leg), German movie star, says to the two American soldier's she's just meeting for the first time; BRIDGET He was a enemy soldier, who knew who I was. He couldn't live. 3 Hirscberg loses control, and RICKS the woman on the floor, hard in the side. HIRSCHBERG I ought'a beat your fuckin head in ALDO Stop it. Just pick her up, and get that bitch outta here. HIRSCHBERG Aldo, she just- ALDO - She's right. HIRSCHBERG What? ALDO I said, she's right. He was a Nazi soldier. If he lived, he would doomed the mission. ELI )Is,. ALDO 61 (CON'T) Don't mean I like it, don't mean I like her, but she's right. Now as Willi said, "take this fuckin traitor, and get 'er outta my sight". EXT - LA LOUISIANE - NIGHT Hirschberg, carrying Fraulein Von Hammersmark, and Aldo emerge from the bowels of the basement. Bridget points at a fancy black sedan, telling them it's her's. Aldo, Hirschberg, Bridget, Donowitz, and Utivich pile in, and take off. INT - FRENCH HOUSE IN COUNTRY (BEDROOM)- NIGHT NOTE:In this entire scene, no French spoken will be SUBTITLED. A OLD MAN lies asleep under the covers of his blankets, in his bed, in his bedroom... WHEN... OFF SCREEN the sound of a DOOR BEING KICKED OPEN... r .The SOUND of what sounds like EIGHT DOGS BARKING .... and the sound of FEET RUNNING TOWARDS US... .his bedroom door, is THROWN OPEN, and Sgt.Donowitz RUSHES IN, grabbing the Old Man in his bed, and putting a 45Automatic to his head. SGT.DONOWITZ (ENGLISH) Doctor? Doctor? OLD MAN (FRENCH) What? What's happening? head, shocking, Donny SLAMS the 45. hard against the Old Man's scarring, and bringing the old gent to attention. SGT.DONOWITZ (ENGLISH) Doctor? Are you a fucking doctor? He nods his head, yes. SGT.DONOWITZ Andi amo... Donny YANKS/DRAGS the Old Man out of bed, in his almost comical nightshirt (which makes him cuter, thus the brutality against him hurts more) towards the door... INT - DOCTORS EXAMINING ROOM - NIGHT .Into a doctors examining room, built into a French country house, with a examining table, and medical instruments. However, it's obviously the medical examining room of a veterinarian. Along the walls are different cages with eight excited BARKING dogs in it. The Soldiers are putting the shot in the leg, bleeding, and in excruciating pain, Bridget on the examining table. Donny, still holding on to the Old Man, points in the girls direction... SGT.DONOWITZ (ENGLISH) She's been shot. Shot. Bang bang... (pointing at his leg) .in leg...understand? OLD MAN (FRENCH) No no no, I don't speak English. Donny jams the barrel of his 45. into the thigh of the Old Man. SGT.DONOWITZ (ENGLISH) BANG BANG - in the leg, understand! The Old Man nods his head yes. OLD MAN (FRENCH) But I'm a veterinarian ...animals... I take care of animals... Bridget screams from the table... BRIDGET (ENGLISH) He's a fucking veterinarian you imbecile! 1 00. SGT.DONOWITZ I It's still a doctor. If he can get a bullet out of a cow, he can get a bullet outta you. LT.ALDO Right now, we just need morphine. Donny yells at the Old Man; SGT.DONOWITZ Morphine! We need morphine! The Old Man tries to explain in French, that he's not a human doctor... WHEN... ..Donny takes the 45. and SHOOTS one of the DOGS in the cages. Everybody jumps. Donny SCREAMS at the Old Man; SGT.DONOWITZ MORPHINE!!! 7 BANG He SHOOTS another dog... SGT.DONOWITZ MOREPHINE!!! The Old Man begs him to stop, and goes to get the morphine. CUT TO The BODY of Gestapo Major DEITER HELLSTROM dead on the floor. INT - LA LOUISTANE- NIGHT Were back in the basement tavern. Colonel Hans Landa stands over the corpse. He moves over to the next corpse, a smile breaks out on his face. He says in GERMAN SUBTITLED into ENGLISH; COL.LANDA Ahhh Hugo, you've moved up in the world I see. Lieutenant. And with your record of insubordination. Truly remarkable. I A Nazi soldier named HERRMAN, joins the S.S. Officer. COL.LANDA And that ones... (Pointing at WICKI) .name is Weiheim Wicki. Bets Austrian born jew, who immigrated to the United States when things began turning sour for the Israelites. They are the two German born members of The Basterds. They've been known to don german uniforms, to ambush squads. FLASH ON Three Nazi Soldiers walking towards a company of other German Soldiers. The Three Soldiers backs are to us. Dried bloody bullet holes cover the backs of the three uniforms. The SGT of the German company, yells to the trio; SGT.GERMAN COMPANY What brings you all the way out here? The TRIO MOW DOWN the GERMAN COMPANY with their machine gunns. BACK TO LANDA COL LANDA But that doesnt look like this. This is odd. Looking down he see's something... .bending down, he examines fraulein von Hammersmarks two pretty dress shoes lying on the floor. One shoe is covered in blood. The other, while blood speckled, is fairly clean. Picking up the clean shoe, and holding it in his hand. COL.LANDA It would appear somebodies missing. Somebody fashionable. A OFF SCREEN SOLDIER'S VOICE cries out; SOLDIERS VOICE(OS) Col, this ones still alive! We follow Hans to the spot on the floor where Sgt.Willi lies. He's shot in the chest, but it looks like Max's daddy is still alive. !!. INT - EXAMINING ROOM -√Ǭ∞ NIGHT Bridget on the examining table, post morphine shot. The other Basterds in the room watch Aldo interrogate the German lady. LT.ALDO Now 'fore we yank that slug outta ya, you need to answer a few questions BRIDGET Few questions about what? LT.ALDO About I got three men dead back there, and why don't you try tellin us what the fuck happened? BRIDGET The British officer blew his German act, and a Gestapo Major saw it. LT.ALDO 'fore we get into who shot John, why did you invite my men to a rendez-vous in a basement with a bunch of Nazis? BRIDGET I can see, since you didn't see what happened inside, the Nazi's being there must look odd. LT.ALDO Yeah, we gotta word for that kinda odd in English, it's called, suspicious. BRI DGET Don't let your imagination get the better of you, Lieutenant. You met the sergeant, Willi. He had a baby tonight. His commanding officer gave him and his friends the night off to celebrate. The Germans being there was just a tragic coincidence. Aldo thinks for a moment... LT. ALDO Okay, I'll buy that. He was ether there with his men waiting for us, or he was there celebrating his sons birthday, he wasn't doin both. 120. LT.ALDO How did the shootin start? BRIDGET The English man, gave himself away. LT. ALDO How did he do that? BRIDGET He ordered three glasses. She holds up three fingers, index to pinky. BRIDGET We order, three glasses. She holds up three fingers, thumb to index. BRIDGET That's the German three. The other is odd. Germans would, and did notice it. LT. ALDO Okay, let's pretend there were no Germans, and everything went exactly the way it was suppose to. What would of been the next step? BRIDGET Tuxedos. To get them into the premiere, wearing military uniforms, with all the military there, would of been suicide. But going as members of the German film industry, they wear tuxedos, and blend in with everybody else. I arranged a tailor to fit three tuxedos tonight. LT.ALDO How did you intend to get them into the premiere? BRIDGET Hand me my purse. They do. And she opens it, and takes out three tickets to the film premiere. BRIDGET Lt.Hicox was going as my escort. The other two were going as a German cameraman and his assistant. INN √Ç¬Æ LT. ALDO Can you still get us in that premiere? BRIDGET Can you speak German better then your friends, no. Have I been shot, yes. I don't see me tripping the light fantastique up the red carpet any time soon. Least of all by tomorrow night. (PAUSE) However, there's something you don't know. There's been two recent developments regarding Operation Kino. One, the venue has been changed from The Ritz, to a much smaller venue. LT.ALDO Enormous changes at the last minute? That's not very Germatic. Why the hell is Goebbels doin stuff so damn peculiar? BRIDGET It probably has something to do with the second development. LT. ALDO Which is? FLASH ON IN A PRIVATE DINNING ROOM IN GERMANY, The FUHRER, aka Adolph Hitler, aka Adolph Shicklegroover, aka The Bohemian Corporal, having dinner with Goebbels, only a few short days ago. The FUHRER (GERMAN) I've been rethinking my position in regards to your Paris premiere of "Nations Pride". As the weeks have gone on, and the Americans are on the beach, I do find myself thinking more and more about this Private Zoller. This boy has done something tremendous for us. And I'm beginning to think my participation in this event could be meaningful. BACK TO BRIDGET BRIDGET The Fuhrer's attending the premiere. 1 2 Z. Donny breaks the teams silence; SGT.DONOWITZ What? LT.ALDO When the hell did this happen? BRIDGET The venue change, two weeks ago. The Fuhrer's attendance, four days ago. LT. ALDO And how come London don't know nothing about that? BRIDGET We need to get something straight, once and for all. Everything London knows, it learned from me. If I don't know, London doesn't know. So now, this is me, informing you, Hitler's coming to Paris. SGT.DONOWITZ FUCK A DUCK? Aldo stands up from the chair, pacing as he takes in this new information. BRIDGET What are you thinking? LT.ALDO I'm thinking getting a wack at plantin ole Uncle Adolph makes this a horse of a different color. BRIDGET What's that suppose to mean? LT.ALDO It means, your gettin us in that premiere. BRIDGET I'm going to probably end up losing this leg, bye bye acting career, fun while it lasted. How do you expect me to walk up a red carpet? X73 LT.ALDO The doggie docs gonna dig that slug outta your gam. Then he's gonna wrap it up in a cast, and you gotta good how I broke my leg mountain climbing story. That's German, ain't it? Y'all like climbin mountains, don'tch? BRIDGET I don't. I like smoking, drinking, and ordering in restaurants, but I see your point. LT. ALDO We fill ya up with morphine, till it's comin out ya ears. Then just limp your little ass up that rouge car-pet. BRIDGET Splendid. When the Nazi's put me up against a wall, it won't hurt so much. (Changing tone) I know this is a silly question before I ask it, but can you American's speak any other language then English? HIRSCHBERG Other then Yiddish? BRIDGET Preferably. Donny referring to Aldo and himself. SGT.DONOWITZ We both speak alittle Italian. BRIDGET With a atrocious accent, no doubt. But that doesn't exactly kill us in the crib. Germans don't have a good ear for Italian. So you mumble Italian, and brazen through it, is that the plan? LT. ALDO That's about it. BRIDGET That sounds good. LT. ALDO it sounds like shit, but what else we gonna do, go home? BRIDGET No, it's good. If you don't blow it, with that, I can get you in the building. (Change tone) So, who does what? LT.ALDO Well I speak the most Italian, so I'll be your escort. Donowitz speaks the second most, so he'll be your Italian cameraman. And Hirschberg third most, so he'll be Donnys assistant. HIRSCHBERG I don't speak Italian. LT. ALDO Like I said, third best. Just keep your fuckin mouth shut. In fact why don't you start practising, right now. BRIDGET (Meaning Utivich) What about the little one? UTIVICH Do you mean me? BRIDGET I didn't mean any offence. UTIVICH None taken you German cunt. LT.ALDO Utivich is the chauffeur. UTIVICH I can't drive. Bridget SCREAMS in frustration; BRIDGET You Americans are fucking useless! UTIVICH IVGimmie a break, I'm from Manhattan. LT.ALDO No worries, son. We got over fourteen hours before the movie tomorrow. More then enough time for you to learn to drive. UTIVICH NO no no no, Lieutenant, it's not! LT.ALDO Oh yes yes yes yes, Private, it is. And yes yes yes yes, you will. (Changes tone) Look Utivich, you and I both know, if we went to grade school together, you damn sure ain't copyin off of my test. Well I lern't to drive in four hours on a Tennessee mountain road. And I'm a shit for brains coal miner bootlegger. Hirschberg, you know how to drive, right? HIRSCHBERG Yes. LT.ALDO Teach 'em. BRIDGET But there is a problem. I'm a movie star. This is a movie premiere. I can't show up looking like I was just in a Nazi gun fight. Now I have a dress for the premiere at my hotel. But sometime tomorrow, I have to get my hair done. All The Basterds, except Donny, burst out laughing. LT. ALDO Sister, you must got wunderbar luck. Guess who went to beauty school? The CAMERA WHIP PANS to SGT.DONOWITZ. Bridget rolls her eyes. 1 26. BLACK FRAME CHAPTER TITLE APPEARS: CHAPTER FIVE "REVENGE OF THE GIANT FACE" FADE OFF INT - SHOSANNAS AND MARCELS LIVING QUARTERS - NIGHT We're in Shosannas and Marcels living quarters, above the cinema. We've never been in here before. A SUBTITLE APPEARS ON SCREEN: NIGHT OF "NATION'S PRIDE" PREMIERE She's standing before a full length mirror, in a real attractive Forties style dress for the premiere. She's stunning. This is the first time in her life she's had the opportunity, or the occasion to wear something like this. Since she knows this is the last night of her life, no time like the present. SOUNDS of the hub-bub of the premiere, not to mention the German brass band that's blaring Third Reich Marches, can be heard coming from below. Shosanna walks to her apartment window, and looks down at the Germatic miasma below. SHOSANNAS POV: WE SEE all the pageantry below. Tons of SPECTATORS. Tons of guests dressed in Nazi uniforms, tuxedos, and female finery, walking up the long red carpet(with a big Swastika in the middle, naturally) leading into Shosannas cinema. The German brass band omm-pa-pa-ing away. German Radio and Film crews covering the event for the fatherland back home. And of course, MANY GERMAN SOLDIERS providing security for this joyous Germatic occasion. Shosanna COUGHS up a lugi, and HOCKS it. A GERMAN S.S. GENERAL, being interviewed by a RADIO COMMENTATOR, the lugi HITS him right on his bald head. Shosanna goes back to the full length mirror, places a very fashionable Forties style hat on her head, then lowers the period style black fish net veil over her face. She takes out a small GUN, and puts it in the pocket of her dress., and it's on. She exits the apartment door, to join the premiere. From this point on, there's no turning back, it's all the way baby, all the fucking way! 12.7. INT - CINEMA STAIRWELL - NIGHT The stairwell in the building that connects the living quarters, with the cinema. She walks down the stairs, goes through a door that puts her next to the projection booth door. She takes out a key and opens it. INT - PROJECTION BOOTH - NIGHT Marcels prepping the film reels for tonight. The five silver metal film cans that carry one 35mm reel of film each are laid out. The cans for reels one and two are empty. Cans for reel three, our specially marked can for reel four, and can for reel five(which should never see the light of a projector) lie in wait. Shosanna, looking like a Forties movie star, enters the projection booth. The scene in FRENCH SUBTITLED in ENGLISH; MARCEL Ooh lala, Danielle Darrieux, this is so exciting. Pleased to meet you. SHOSANNA Shut up fool. Marcel lifts up the veil covering her face, and their lips meet. SHOSANNA Cheeky black bugger. I have to go down and socialize with these Hun pigs. Let's go over it again? MARCEL Reel one is on the first projector. Reel two is on the second. Three and four are ready to go. SHOSANNA Okay, the big sniper battle in the film begins around the middle of the third reel. Our film, comes on in the forth reel, so Somewhere towards the end of the third reel, go down and lock the doors of the auditorium. Then take your place behind the screen, and wait for my CUE, when I give it to you, BURN IT DOWN! 12 1. INT - CINEMA LOBBY - NIGHT The pageantry of the evening is in full swing, as all the German beautiful people, enter the cinema. They mingle in the swastika covered, greek nude statue peppered lobby. Nazi Military Commanders, High Ranking Party Officials, and German Celebrities(Emil tannings, Veit Harlin), hob knob and drink Champagne from passing WAITERS who carry glasses on silver trays. We see Shosanna enter from the area at the top of the big staircase in the lobby that overlooks the lobby parlor entrance. She descends the staircase, and busies herself with theatre stuff. At the top of the staircase, looking down at the master race in all there finery, is Colonel Hans Landa, dressed in his finest SS Uniform, smoking on his Calabash. CAMERA FRAME directly behind him. On the right side, we see the figure of Col.Landa, from behind, watching the guests entering the cinema. On the left side of frame, is the cinema entrance, from a looking down perspective of the guests entering the building. THEN... .A THINK BUBBLE, like in a comic book, appears on the left side of frame, obscuring the cinema entrance. Inside of Landas think bubble, a little scene plays out. THINK BUBBLE Inside a hospital room filled with DOCTORS, NURSES, and a PATIENT in a hospital bed. Then Col.Landa enters the room, and screams at everybody; COL.LANDA I want everybody out of this room! They start to leave. COL.LANDA That means now, goddamnit! They RUSH OUT. He walks over to the Patient in the hospital bed, Its none other then SGT.WILLI, and yes, he's still alive. Landa pulls up a chair next to the bed, sits down. COL.LANDA Can you speak, Sgt? L - )1. SGT.WILLI (WEAKLY) Yes Colonel. COL.LANDA Tell me everything that happened in there? The THINK BUBBLE DISSOLVES away, reveling the entrance again, and as if on perfect cue, in walks Bridget Von Hammersmark, dressed lovely, leg in a big white cast. The three basterds in their tuxedos, flank her. CU COL.LANDA smiles. He descends the stairs, towards the four saboteurs... They speak in GERMAN, SUBTITLED in ENGLISH; COL.LANDA Fraulein Von Hammersmark, what has befallen Germany's most elegant swan? BRIDGET Colonel Landa, it's been years. Dashing as ever I see. COL.LANDA Flattery will get you everywhere, fraulein. They chuckle, and air kiss. COL.LANDA So what's happened to your lovely leg, a by product of kicking ass in the German cinema, no doubt. BRIDGET Save your flattery, you old dog. I know too many of your former conquests, to fall into that honey pot. Chuckle-chuckle... COL.LANDA Seriously, what happened? 130. BRIDGET Well, I tried my hand, foolishly I might add, at mountain climbing. And this was the result. COL.LANDA Mountain climbing? That's how you injured your leg, mountain climbing? BRIDGET Believe it or not, yes it is. A brief moment passes between the two... THEN... The Colonel BURSTS OUT with UPROARIOUS LAUGHTER. So uproarious in fact, that it's quite disconcerting to the four saboteurs. The Colonel begins to regain his composure... COL.LANDA Forgive me, fraulein. I don't mean laugh at your misfortune. It's just .mountain climbing? I'm curious fraulein, what could of ever compelled you to undertake such a foolhardy endeavor? The Double meaning is not lost on the German actress. BRIDGET Well, I chant be doing it again, I can tell you that. COL.LANDA That cast looks as fresh as my old Uncle Gustave, when were you climbing this mountain, last night? BRIDGET Very good eye, Colonel. It happened yesterday morning. COL.LANDA Hummm. And where exactly in Paris is this mountain? This stops her for a seconded. Then Landa laughs it off, taking them off the hook. 13[. COL.LANDA I'm just teasing you, fraulein. You know me, I tease rough. So who are your three handsome escorts? BRIDGET I'm afraid neither three speak a word of German. Their friends of mine from Italy. This is a wonderful Italian stuntman, Antonio Margheriti. (Meaning Aldo) A very talented cameraman, Enzo Gorlomi. (Meaning Donny) And Enzo's camera assistant, Dominick Decocco. The German fraulein turns to the three tuxedo wearing Basterds. BRIDGET (ITALIAN) Gentlemen, this is a old friend, Col. Sans Landa of the S.S. The Basterds know only too well who Landa the Jew Hunter is, but they can't show it. LT.ALDO COL.LANDA Margheriti...? (ITALIAN) Am I saying it correctly...? .Margheriti? LT. ALDO (ITALIAN) Yes. Correct. COL.LANDA (ITALIAN) Margheriti.... Say it for me once please...? LT. ALDO Margheriti. 13Z√¢‚Ǩ¬¢ COL.LANDA (ITALIAN) I'm sorry, again...? LT.ALDO I4argheriti. COL.LANDA (ITALIAN) Once more... .? LT.ALDO Margheriti. COL.LANDA Nargheriti. (FRENCH) It means daisies, I believe. Turning his gaze to Donny. COL.LANDA (ITALIAN) What's your name again? SGT.DONOWITZ Enzo Gorlomi. COL.LANDA (ITALIAN) Again... .? SGT.DONOWITZ Gorlomi. COL.LANDA (ITALIAN) One more time, but let me really hear the music in it. SGT.DONOWITZ (HAMMY ITALIAN) Gorlomi. Now to Hirschberg... COL.LANDA (ITALIAN) And you? Then Hischberg breaks out the best Italian accent of the GROUP; )33. HIRSCHBERG Dominick Decocco. COL.LANDA Dominick Decocco? HIRSCHBERG Dominick Decocco. COL.LANDA Bravo... . Bravo. BRIDGET (GERMAN) Well, my two cameraman friends need to find there seats. Col.Landa stops a WAITER with a tray of champagne glasses. COL.LANDA (GERMAN) Not so fast, lets enjoy some champagne. Everyone gets a glass. COL.LANDA (FRENCH) - Oh, Mademoiselle Mimieux, please join us, I have some friends I'd like you to meet. Shosanna joins the circle, and is handed a champagne glass. This is the first moment The Basterds are aware of Shosanna. COL.LANDA (FRENCH) May I say Mademoiselle, you look divine. SHOSANNA (FRENCH) Merci'. COL.LANDA (GERMAN) This lovely young lady, is Mademoiselle Emmanuelle Mimieux, this is her cinema, and she is our hostess for the evening. (FRENCH) And Mademoiselle, this battered, broken, and none worse for the wear German goddess, is Bridget Von Hammersmark. 1 3 W. BRIDGET Bonjour. SHOSANNA Bon jour. BRIDGET (FRENCH) I'm afraid my companions don't speak any French, there Italian. This is Antonino, Enzo, and Dominick. All three smile goofy spaghetti bender smiles. COL.LANDA (FRENCH) Actually fraulein Von Hammersmarks Italian associates, need help finding there seats. Perhaps Mademoiselle Mimieux would be so kind to escort them? SHOSANNA (FRENCH) It would be my pleasure. Let me see your tickets? Donny hands her two tickets. She indicates for them to follow her. Donny and Hirschberg both exchange one last look with Aldo, then follow the young french girl into the auditorium. INT - AUDITORIUM - NIGHT The cinema auditorium is filling up quickly with grey and black uniforms. Shosanna finds the two counterfeit Italians their seats. After she points out their seats, she turns to leave... Hirschberg... .reaches out and grabs her wrist. He looks her in the face, and filled with tremendous guilt, because if he's successful tonight he's going to blow this cute French girl to smithereens, he says; HIRSCHBERG Grazie. 13r. The cute French Girl looks back at the goofy looking Italian boy with slicked back hair, that makes him look kind of Jewish, with tremendous guilt, knowing if she is successful tonight, she's going to burn him alive, and says; SHOSANNA Prego. BACK TO LOBBY They begin flicking the lights on and off. A GERMAN SOLDIER YELLS in GERMAN in the lobby; GERMAN SOLDIER Take your seats! The show is about to begin! Everybody take your seatsl Col.Landa, Lt.Aldo, and Bridget are still together. COL.LANDA (GERMAN) I must call The Fuhrer. He doesn't want to make his entrance untill everybody seated. Come with me Frau Von Hammersmark. The Fuhrer has heard your here, and he wishes to commend you personally. BRIDGET (GERMAN) Me? Why? COL.LANDA (GERMAN) Don't be modest. Everybody is quite taken with your resolve. A accident, like you've just experienced, and yet you still show up to to a important Party event. The Fuhrer was quite adamant in his gratitude. We'll use Mademoiselle Mimieux's office. (To Aldo in Italian) I'm afraid I must rob you of your companion, but only for a moment. BRIDGET (ITALIAN) Yes, apparently The Fuhrer wishes to commend me. ' 36 COL.LANDA (ITALIAN) Wait here a moment. I promise I won't detain her long. What are ether of them suppose to do, argue? Col.Landa goes over to one of the Nazi GAURD/USHER, and whispers in his ear, gesturing toward Aldo. Like he's saying, leave the boy alone, till we come back... .Or is he? Col.Landa limps Bridget away towards Shosannas office. As Aldo stands in the lobby, more and more people enter the auditorium, till it's only Aldo and the six Nazi Gaurd/Ushers in the now vacant lobby. INT - SHOSANNA'S OFFICE - NIGHT Shosanna's cinema manager office. It's small, cluttered, and dominated by a desk. They both enter. Col.Landa closes the door behind him, and LOCKS IT. Bridget notices, but says nothing. Now the two Germans are alone. COL.LANDA Have a seat fraulein. Pointing at one lone chair in front of the desk. She lowers herself in the chair. Instead of moving around to the other side of the desk, opposite her. The SS Colonel pulls another little chair over, and places it in front of the fraulein. He sits. Their knees almost touching. The colonel points to the foot not in the cast. COL.LANDA (GERMAN) Let me see your foot. BRIDGET (GERMAN) I beg your pardon? 1 31 Patting his lap. COL.LANDA Put your foot in my lap. BRIDGET Colonel, you embarrass me. COL.LANDA I assure you fraulein, my intention is not to flirt. Patting his lap more with more aggression. The nervous fraulein, lifts up her strapy dress shoe enclosed foot, and places it in the Colonel's lap. The Colonel, very delicately, unfastens the thin straps that hold the frauleins shoe on her foot... .He removes the shoe... .Leaving only the frauleins bare foot... THEN... He removes from his heavy SS coat pocket, the pretty dress shoe the fraulein left behind at La Louisiane... He slips it on her foot... .it fits like a glove. Bridget knows she's BUSTED. Col.Landa smiles and says in ENGLISH; COL.LANDA What's that American expression... "if the shoe fits...you must wear it". He removes her foot from his lap. BRIDGET (GERMAN) What now Colonel? COL LANDA (GERMAN) Do you admit you treachery? She stares defiant daggers into him. 1314 BRIDGET (GERMAN) The only thing I will admit to, is resisting you... (ENGLISH) Sons-a-bitches.. (GERMAN) .to my last breath. COL.LANDA (GERMAN) "Resist to your last breath"? SUDDENLY... Hans LUNGES forward, putting his strong mitts around Bridget Von Hammersmarks lily white delicate neck, and with all the violence of a Lion in mid-pounce, SQUEEZES with all his MIGHT. Bridgets face turns tomato RED, as the VEINS in her face BULGE, and her esophagus is CRUSHED in his GRIP. With a violent YANK, he JERKS her TO THE FLOOR. She TUMBLES out of the chair, Landa never releasing his GRIP around her throat. Nov fully on top of her, he BEARS DOWN, SQUEEZING THE VERY LIFE OUT OF HER. Every thing he has, he brings to bear on the elegant ladies neck. Then, to finally finish her off, he begins BANGING THE BACK OF HER HEAD, HARD AGAINST THE FLOOR... BANG! BANG! BANG? She's dead. He releases the grip around her throat. His hands are TREMBLING... He rises. Strangling the very life out of somebody with your bear hands, is the most violent act a human being can commit. Also, only humans strangle, the opposable thumbs being quite important part of the endeavor. As Hans Landa stands, the sheer violence he had to call on to accomplish this task, still surges through him. He tries to gain control of the trembling, that is rippling through his body. He takes out a silver SS FLASK(filled with peach schnapps), and knocks back a couple of swigs. He holds his hand out in front of him. The TREMBLING is beginning to subside. He picks up the telephone. 139- Into the phone in German he says; COL.LANDA Inform The Fuhrer the audience has taken there seats, and we're ready to begin. Step one, in Hans master plan, done. He then dials another number... INT - LOBBY - NIGHT Aldo in the lobby... WHEN... .he's JUMPED by the SIX NAZI USHERS... He's THROWN ROUGHLY to the ground face first. Like the modern day Secret Service, within seconds, his wrists are handcuffed behind his back, he's searched, they find the BOMB attached to his ankle, it's removed, a BLACK CLOTH BAG is pulled over his head, then he's hoisted up, and RUSHED out of the building. This happens in mere seconds, and quietly too, no one in the auditorium is none the wiser... INT - AUDITORIUM - NIGHT ,including Donowitz and Hirschberg, sitting amongst the master race, waiting for showtime. EXT - CINEMA - NIGHT The Six Nazi Soldiers, hustle the hooded Aldo, down the red carpet, then into the alley besides the cinema. Aldo's put up against a wall. Inside the black hood, he's SCREAMING every insulting thing about Germany, Germans, German food, German shepherd... anything. COL.LANDA'S VOICE(OS) Shut up! The faceless black hood does. Col.Landa, now standing directly in front of his hooded prisoner, says in ENGLISH; COL.LANDA As Stanley said to Livingston; Lt.Aldo Raine, I presume? I 'to. LT. ALDO Hans Landa? COL.LANDA You've had a nice long run, Aldo. Alas, your now in the hands of the SS. My hands to be exact. And they've been waiting along time, to touch you. He reaches out with his finger, and lightly touches Aldo's face right in the middle of the hood. Aldo's head VIOLENTLY FLINCHES. COL.LANDA Caught ya flinching. In German, he orders the men put Aldo in the back of a truck. Aldo, bound, and bagged, is put in the truck. Also in the truck is Utivich, wearing a makeshift chauffeurs uniform, bound, and bagged like the Lieutenant. The Truck drives off. Col.Landa turns around, and SEES FROM A DISTANCE, Hitlers motorcade pull up to the cinema.. Then the Fuhrer, Goebbels, Francesca, and the rest of the entourage, make there way down the red carpet into the cinema. Landa smiles. EXT TRUCK (MOVING) - NIGHT We see the truck leaving the city of Paris, under the veil of night. We also seem to be leaving the drama of Operation Kino. INT - TRUCK(MOVING) - NIGHT The two hooded prisoners, bounce along in the back of the truck. Utivich, is crying inside his hood. LT.ALDO Utivich? UTIVICH Is that you Lieutenant? LT. ALDO Yep. lyl. UTIVIC}I Do you know what happened to Donny? Hirchberg? The woman? LT.ALDO No I do not. UTIVICH Lieutenant, sorry I'm crying. LT. ALDO Nothin to be sorry about, son. This bag, get to anyone. UTIVICH Not exactly John Wayne, am I? LT.ALDO John Waynes a pampered movie star. He burst into tears, if his cook, busts his yoke at breakfast. Just try puttin a bag over his head, and hear what kinda sounds he makes. Utivich, giggles through the tears. LT.ALDO I just want you to know, son, I was real proud of you tonight. Learnin how to drive overnight. Driving in that Limo line. You was in the hot seat, son, and you stood up real good. Utivich Cries LOUDER. Aldo takes his foot, finds Utivichs foot, and places his foot on top. The TOUCH has a slight calming effect on Utivich. In the darkness, Utivich has reclaimed his dignity. EXT- COUNTRY TAVERN - NIGHT The truck pulls up to a small tavern outside of Paris(not La Louisaiane), The two hooded prisoners, are walked inside the establishment. INT - COUNTRY TAVERN - NIGHT The hooded men are lead into the closed for business, but open for something else, rustic tavern. 0The Nazi Guards, unlock the handcuff, then sit them down inchairs. Then, simultaneously, the hoods are YANKED OFF. The two prisoners, are seated at a table, in what they can now see, is a rustic tavern. On the table is one telephone, one bottle of Chianti, and three glasses. And on the opposite end of the table, sits Colonel Hans Landa. A NAZI SOLDIER sits posted at a impressive looking two way radio set up in the tavern. Colonel Lands starts in right away at the two baffled, discombobulated American soldiers. They will only speak ENGLISH in the scene. COL.LANDA Italian? Really? (BEAT) What could you have possibly been thinking? LT. ALDO Well, I speak alittle Italian - COL.LANDA I speak a little Tagalog, but I wouldn't begin to presume I could pass for Filipino. Don't get me wrong, I understand you were in a pickle, what with you losing your Germans. And I have nothing but admiration for improvisation. Still.... Chico Marx is more convincing. if the three of you had shown up to the premiere dressed in womans attire, it would have been more convincing. Landas eyes go to the Two Nazi Guards behind the prisoners. COL.LANDA (GERMAN) You may leave us. But stay alert outside. They exit, leaving the Colonel, the Lieutenant, the Private and a German Radio Man in the corner. "43' COL.LANDA So your Aldo the Apache? LT. ALDO So your The Jew Hunter? COL.LANDA Jew Hunter, (pfuit), I'm a detective. A damn good detective. Finding people is my specialty. So naturally, I worked for the Nazi's finding people. And yes, some of them were Jews. But Jew Hunter? Just the name that stuck. UTIVICH Well you do hafts admit, it is catchy. COL.LANDA Do you control the nicknames, your enemies bestow on you? Aldo the Apache and The Little Man? UTIVICH What do you mean, The Little Man? COL.LANDA The Germans nickname for you. UTIVICH The Germans nickname for me is, The Little Man? COL.LANDA Or "The Little One, ether one means you. And as if to make my point, I'm a little surprised how tall you were in real life. I mean, your a little fellow. But not circus midget little, as your reputation would suggest. LT.ALDO Where is my men? Where is Bridget Von Hammersmark? COL.LANDA Bridget Von Hammersmark. Oh I'm sure she's in whatever, big bubbling cesspool in hell, the devil reserves for traitors of her ilk. COL. LANDA (COR'T) Well, lets just say, she got what she deserved. And when you purchase friends like Bridget Von Hammersmark, you get what you pay for. Now as far as your Pisanos, Sgt.Donowitz, and Pt.Hirschberg- LT. ALDO How do you know our names? COL.LANDA Lt.Aldo, if you don't think I wouldn't interrogate every single one of your swastika marked survivors... .? We simply aren't operating on the level of mutual respect I assumed. Now, back to the whereabouts of your two Italian saboteurs. At this moment, both Hirschberg, and Donowitz, should be sitting in the very seats we left them in. Seats, 0023 and 0024, if my memory serves. Explosives, still around there ankle, still ready to explode. And your mission, some would call a terrorist plot, as of this moment, is still a go. The two Basterds don't believe this. It can't be true. LT. ALDO That's a pretty exciting story. What's next, Eliza on the ice? COL.LANDA However, all I have to do, is pick pick up that phone right there. Inform the cinema, and your plans kupet. LT. ALDO IF, their still there, and IF their still alive, and that's one big IF, there ain't no way, you gonna take them boys without settin off them bombs. I R.T. COL.LANDA M I have no doubt, and yes, some Germans will die., and yes, it will ruin the evening, and yes, Goebbels will be very very very mad at you for what you've done to his big night. But you won't get Hitler, you won't get Goebbels, you won't get Gering, and you won't get Boorman. And you need all four to end the war. (PAUSE) But if I don't pick up that phone, right there, you may very well get all four. And if you get all four, you end the war...tonight. The Nazi Colonel lifts up the bottle of Chianti, and fills three glasses. As he pours, he says; COL.LANDA So gentlemen, lets discuss the prospect of ending the war-tonight. All three have their Chianti filled glasses. COL.LANDA So the way I see it, since Hitlers death, or possible rescue, rests solely on my reaction...If I do nothing ...it's as if I'm causing his death, even more then yourselves. Would you agree? LT. ALDO I guess so. COL.LANDA How about you Uitivich? UITIVICH I guess so too. COL.LANDA Good, we more or less, all agree. Gentlemen, I have no intention, of Killing Hitler, and killing Goebbels, and Killing Gerring, and killing Boorman, not to mention winning the war single handedly for the allies, only later, to find myself standing before a Jewish tribunal. I q Now they get it. COL.LANDA If you want to win the war, tonight, We have to make a deal. LT.ALDO What kinda deal? COL.LANDA The kind you wouldn't have the authority to make. However, I'm sure this mission of yours, has a commanding officer? A General, I'm betting. For .. (THINKING) .O.S.S. would be my guess. Aldo's eyebrows reveal that was a good guess. COL.LANDA Oooh, that's a bingo. Is that the way you say it, That's a bingo? LT.ALDO You just say, bingo. COL.LANDA Bingo! How fun. But I digress, where were we? Oh yes, make a deal. Over there is a very capable two way radio. And sitting behind it, is a more then capable radio operator, named Herrman. Get me somebody on the other end of that radio with the power of the pen, to authorize my - Let's call it, the terms of my conditional surrender, if that taste better going down. BACK TO THE PREMIERE Shosanna in the booth, she brings down the lights. In the packed, excited auditorium, the house lights go down. CU CURTAIN SWITCH, she flips it. In the auditorium, the RED VELVET CURTAINS part. Shosanna, throws the lever on the first projector. I q7 . The PROJECTOR BULB goes HOT WHITE, PROJECTING A BEAM... FILM REELS rotate... 35mm FILM moves through the projectors film gate... The opening seal of a film by The THIRD REICH flickers on the SCREEN... Goebbels and Francesca watch... Hitler watches... Fredrick watches... Donowitz and Hirschberg watch... Shosanna, in the booth, watches through the little window... The CAMERA PANS OFF of Shosanna, to the clearly marked film can, REEL FOUR. The SURPRISE REEL. BACK TO LANDA AND THE HASTERDS Landa, with radio headphones over his ears, and a microphone in his hand, talks to the UNSEEN/UNHEARD American Brass on the other end. COL.LANDA .So, when the military history of this night is written, it will be recorded, that I was part of "Operation Rino" from the very beginning, as a double agent. Anything I've done in my guise as a SS Colonel, was sanctioned by The O.S.S., as a necessary evil to establish my cover with The Germans. And it was my placement, of Lt.Raines dynamite in Hitler and Goebbels opera box that assured there demise. By the way, that last part is actually true. FLASH ON Landa placing bomb in Goebbels and Francesca's opera box. BACK TO LANDA COL.LANDA I want my full military pension and benefits under my proper rank. I want to receive the congregational medal of honor, for my invaluable assistance in the toppling of the Third Reich. He looks over and sees Aldo and Uitvich watching the one sided conversation. COL.LANDA In fact, I want all the members of "Operation Kino" to receive the congregational medal of honor. Full citizenship for myself - but that goes without saying. And I would like the United States of America to purchase property for me on Nantuckett island, as a reward for all the countless lives I've saved by bringing the tyranny of the National Socialist party to a swifter then imanged end. Do you have all that, sir? (PAUSE) I look forward to seeing you face to face as well, sir. (PAUSE) He's right here. The Colonel hands the headphones and microphone to Aldo. LT.ALDO Yes, sir? We HEAR the VOICE on the other end of the radio, give Aldo his ORDERS; RADIO VOICE(OS) Colonel Landa will put you and Private Uitivich in a truck as prisoners. Then he and his radio operator, will get in the truck, drive to our lines. Upon crossing our lines, Colonel Landa and his man will surrender to you. You will then take over driving of the truck, a bring them straight to me for debriefing. Is that clear, Lieutenant? LT.ALDO Yes, sir. The Conversation is over, he puts the radio down. The three men look at one another. Landa picks up his wine. Ito . COL.LANDA So I suppose the only thing left to do is lift a glass, and toast to Donowitz and Hirschbergs success. You too Herrman, come over here. The four men, Col.Hans Landa, Lt.Aldo Raine, Pvt.Smithson Uitivich, and Herrman, lift up four glasses of wine. COL.LANDA Gentlemen, To history, and it's Witnesses. CHEERS. BACK TO THE PREMIERE WE CUT TO THE B/W FILM ON SCREEN. Fredrick Zoller, playing himself, is in a ornamental tower in a Russian village, picking off RUSSIAN SOLDIER's below. A RUSSIAN GENERAL KCHOVLANSKEY peering at the German Private through binoculars. He lowers the long range glasses, and confers with one of his OFFICERS. GENERAL KCHOVLANSKEY (RUSSIAN) What's the death toll? OFFICER (RUSSIAN) 47, so far. WE HEAR A SHOT. OFFICER (RUSSIAN) 48. General, I implore you, we must destroy that tower! GENERAL KCHOVLANSKEY (RUSSIAN) That tower is one of the oldest, and most beautiful structures in Russia. I won't be responsible for turning a thousand years of history into dust! A BRAVE RUSSIAN SOLDIER, tries to run between two buildings. Zoller, gets him. Then proceeds to pick him apart, one single bullet at a time. IL ISO. SHOSANNA IN PROJECTION BOOTH She removes "REEL 4" (The Special Shosanna Reel), and prepares it on the 2nd Projector. Reel3, on the first Projector, playing now, is halfway through. In a few short minutes, it's going to be show time. Marcel says to Shosanna in FRENCH, SUBTITLED in ENGLISH; MARCEL It's time. I should go lock the auditorium, and take my place behind the screen. This is the last time they will ever see each other, too much to say. He holds her in his arms and lays a one kiss before I die wet one on her. DONOWITZ AND HIRSCHBERG sit in their seats watching the movie, surrounded by DRESS UNIFORM NAZI'S. They've developed a dopey way of communicating with each other in this hostel environment. Basically, speaking English like it were gibberish Italian. They say English words, only adding a "I", or a "A", or a "O", to the end of it. And saying it in a exaggerated Italian accent, complete with pantomimes. Donowitz leans into Hirschberg, and says in a wispier; They speak in ITALIA-ISH SUBTITLED into ENGLISH; SGT.DONOWITZ (ITALIA-ISH) I-a Go-a Toilet-a, Set-ta Boom-a. (I go to the toilet and set the bomb) When-a I-a Go-a, you-a Set-ta Boom-a. (When I go, you set your bomb) Hirschberg indicates/pantomimes, he can't set his bomb surrounded by all these Nazi's. Donowitz, pantomimes crossing his legs, setting bomb on ankle in his seat. Then getting up, and dropping it in the back of the auditorium, in the dark. Hirschberg doesn't get it. HIRSCHBERG What-a? (What?) Donny pantomimes again, more exaggerated, and with less patience. HIRSCHBERG Affirm-ato, affirm-ato. (Affirmative, affirmative) SGT.DONOWITZ They-o Look-o Screen-a, Not-o You-a. (They're looking at the screen, not you.) HIRSCHBERG Fantastic-o. (FANTASTIC) SGT.DONOWITZ After-teri, Set-ta, Five-o Moment-o (Pointing to WATCH) You-a, Pphisst. (After you set the bomb, wait five minutes, and get out of here) HIRSCHBERG What-o? (What?) SGT.DONOWITZ Confuse-i, confuss-i, confuss-i. (Confused, confused, confused.) What-a, and-o what-o, same-o? (I thought "What-a" meat "What", does "What-O" mean "What", as well?) HIRSCHBERG Oh-o, sorr-o, I-o ment-a "What-a". (Oh, sorry, I ment what.) SGT.DONOWITZ After-teri, you-a set-ta boom-a, five-o moment-o, you-a, fuck-o Pphisst. (After you set the bomb, wait five minutes and get the fuck out of here.) HIRSCHBERG Affirm-ato, affirm-ato. (Affirmative, Affirmative) SGT.DONOWITZ Good-a, Luck-a. (Good luck.) 15Z. Donowitz stands from his seat, and walks out of the dark auditorium, into the lobby. The Nazi Guards/Ushers are gone, the lobby is completely empty. Seeing the STAIRS leading down to the WATER CLOSET/BATHROOM, he descends them to plant the Boom-a, I mean, The Bomb. DESCENDING THE STAIRS leading to the Water closet. Like a lot of old cinema's, not only was the water closet located under the auditorium, you had to pass through a rather large SMOKING LOUNGE to get to it. In the Smoking Lounge are TEN NAZI ENLISTED MEN, the Guards/Ushers for the event, smoking and indulging in soldiers gossip. They're all in dress uniforms, and all are armed. Donowitz, in his tuxedo, acts cool, and walks right through them. They look up, but don't disturb there time off vibe. Donny enters the big Water Closet. Except for ONE LONE NAZI ENLISTED MAN at the urinal, it would appear as if Donny has the whole wash room to himself. He enters the privacy of a toilet stall, locks the door. MARCEL IN LOBBY He descends the stairs leading down from the projection booth, into the empty lobby. He goes to one of the auditorium doors, and peers inside. WE SEE THE SCREEN AND THE AUDIENCE FROM MARCELS POV: in the back of the room. The audience seems riveted to Fredrick's exploits on screen. Marcel closes the door, and with a KEY, DEADBOLTS it SHUT. INSIDE THE AUDITORIUM WE PAN OFF THE SCREEN to Marcel, who locks the two doors on ether side of the screen....due to curtains placed there, no one notices Marcels actions. Marcel then goes BEHIND THE SCREEN, WE SEE the IMAGE (backward) of Fredricks sniper battle HUGE COVERING ENTIRE SIDE ROOM ...A PILE of over300nitrate FILM PRINTS, lay like a junk pile, right behind the screen. Sitting down in a wooden chair facing the screen, and Pile-o-film, he lights up a cigarette, a absolute no-no in a cinema of this era, but tonight, what does it matter?4. He smokes, and waits for his cue to... .BURN IT DOWN! )53. FREDRICK IN OPERA BOX along side Hitler, Goebbels, Francesca, and BOORMAN. On screen the battle rages. He leans over and whispers something in Goebbels ear, we can't hear. Goebbels makes a very sympathetic face (at least sympathetic for Goebbels), and says in German; GOEBBELS Perfectly understandable, dear boy. You go now, and we'll see you after the show. He exits the opera box. And walks to the projection booth door. He raps on the door in a trying to be amusing way. The door opens, just a little bit, Shosanna not friendly, stares at him. Be, as per usual, is all smiles and charm. They speak in FRENCH, SUBTITLED into ENGLISH; FREDRICK Are you the manager, of this cinema? I want my money back. That actor in the movie stinks. He laughs. IV She doesn't even smile. She says, in all serious business; SHOSANNA What are you doing here? FREDRICK I came to visit you. SHOSANNA Can't you see how busy I am? FREDRICK Then allow me to lend a assist. SHOSANNA Fredrick it's not funny, you can't be here. This is your premiere, you need to be out there with them. As Fredrick prepares to tell his little tale, with all the charm at his command, Shosanna listens, knowing the third reel is just about over, and her big reel change is coming up. FREDRICK Normally, you would be.right. And for all the other films I do, I intend to endure evenings like tonight, in the proper sprit. However the fact remains, this film, is based on my military exploits. And in this case, my exploits consisted of me killing many men. Consequently, the part of the film that's playing now,... .I don't like watching this part. SHOSANNA Fredrick, I am sorry, but - FREDRICK - So, I thought, I'd come up here and do what I do best, annoy you. And from the look on your face, it would appear I haven't lost my touch. DONNY IN TOILET Sgt.Donowitz, with BOMB in his lap, sets the timer, six minutes from now. He then places the bomb in the back of the toilet tank. CAMERA ON FLOOR OF WATER CLOSET we see the tile of the floor stretch out before us. We see Donny's feet in the closed toilet stall. We HEAR, the OFF SCREEN Nazi Enlisted Man, finish his piss. Then HIS SHOES WALK THROUGH FRAME... .WE FOLLOW THEM TO... .The SINK...WE STAY ON The Shoes ...as WE HEAR The Soldier WASH HIS HANDS... THEN... THE CAMERA RISES UP HIS PANT LEG...Till...WE"RE EYE LEVEL with the German Soldier, with a ARMY CAP on his head, who's done washing his hands....THEN....The Soldier removes his cap, brushes some bangs out of his face, and WE CAN SEE THE SWASTIKA HAND CARVED INTO HIS FOREHEAD, UNDENIABLE MARK OF THE BASTARDS. He SPLASHES some WATER ON HIS FACE, puts his cap back on his head, and joins his comrades in the smoking lounge. As he exits FRAME, he says to somebody OFF SCREEN; SWASTIKA FOREHEAD (GERMAN) Hey Fritz, you owe me three cigarettes, now pay up. SHOSANNA AND FREDRICK Fredrick still outside the doorway, and Shosanna, still baring the way. SHOSANNA I have to get prepared for the reel change. FREDRICK Let me do it? SHOSANNA No. FREDRICK Oh please, it's been two years since i've done a reel change. SHOSANNA I said, no. FREDRICK (Cute whine) Come on, it's my premiere. SHOSANNA Are you so use to the Nazi's kissing your ass, you've forgotten what the word,√Ǭ∞√Ǭ∞No" means? No Fredrick, you can't come in here, now go away! No subtitles for Fredrick needed this time, he gets it. He does a one-armed PILE DRIVE PUSH on the door, knocking both it OPEN, and Shosanna back into the room. Fredrick, a different cat then we've seen up till now, enters the booth, closing the door behind him, and LOCKING it. The quite startled Shosanna, says to Fredrick; SHOSANNA Fredrick, you hurt me. FREDRICK Well, it's nice to know you can feel something. Even if it's just physical pain. Fredrick steps forward... Shosanna steps backwards... FREDRICK I'm not a man you say, "Go away" to. There's over three hundred dead bodies in Russia, that if they could, would testify to that. After what I've done for you, you disrespect me at your peril. 156. BACK TO WASHROOM The Swastika Forehead Soldier, get a light for his cigarette. He takes a big drag. SOLDIER'S POV: He faces the washroom, and down that long throw, he sees Donny emerge from the toilet stall. His tuxedo jacket is off, and draped over his right hand. Sporting the white dress shirt, and black tuxedo vest. He's quite far away, so now he just looks like some guy in a tux, who just finished taking a shit. Donny walks toward us ... CU SWASTIKA FOREHEAD seeing him get closer... SOLDIER POV: Donny gets closer... CU SWASTIKA FOREHEAD seeing him closer still... SOLDIER POV: Donny gets closer... CU SWASTIKA FOREHEAD begins to notice... SOLDIER POV: Donny getting closer, begins to notice, German soldier notice him... CU SWASTIKA FOREHEAD now Donny is close enough for the Soldier to recognize. His face SCREAMS; SWASTIKA FOREHEAD The Bear Jew!1! The Soldier's GUN is out of it's holster, and rising toward Donny's chest... WHEN... Donny raises his right arm, with the tuxedo jacket on it, and FIRES a GUN concealed under it. HITTING Swastika Forehead in the chest...Who finishes raising his GUN, FIRING HITTING Donny in the chest... The Two Soldier's FIRE INTO each other.... Till there weapons are empty, and the two men lie dead on the floor. The Nine other NAZI'S in the room, stand shocked at what just happened in front of them. Is". SHOSANNA AND FREDRICK IN PROJECTION BOOTH Fredrick hears the gunshots below them, and turns towards the door. FREDRICK What the hell was that? While Fredrick's back is turned, Shosanna takes a GUN out of her pocket, and SHOOTS Fredrick THREE TIMES in the back... ..Be CRASHES HARD into the door, then FALLING FACE FIRST to the floor... Shosanna, gun in hand, looks out projection booth window into the audience... The ON SCREEN BATTLE rages so LOUDLY with GUNFIRE, that her weapon didn't stand a chance of being heard. Her eyes go from the audience... .up to the big screen... .Which holds FREDRICK ZOLLER in a tight handsome CLOSE UP. The Face on the silver screen, breaks the young girl's heart... .She looks to his body, lying face down on the floor, blood flowing from the holes she put in his back... .His body moves a little, and he lets out a painful MOAN... .DIEING though he is, at this moment, Fredrick is still ALIVE... Shosanna moves to him... ..She touches him, and he lets out another MOAN... .She turns his body over on it's back... ..he's holding a LUGER in his hand... .he FIRES TWICE... BANG BANG Two bullets HIT HER POINT BLANK IN THE CHEST... THROWING HER against the wall, then FALLING FORWARD on her knees to the floor... ..Fredrick, Luger still in hand, takes aim from the floor... I, .FIRES... HITTING the bloody girl on the floor, in the thigh... .SPINNING her BODY around in agony... Like he did to the Russian on screen, he picks her apart, one bullet at a time... .FIRES... BULLET BLOWS OFF HEEL OF HER FOOT... Luger drops to floor, Fredrick DIES. Our young French Jewish heroine, lies on the projection booth floor, in a pool of her own blood, her body RIDDLED with bullets, her nerve endings wracked with pain, CRIPPLED and DIEING... WHEN... ..the little bell on the 1st projector, starts to ring, informing the projectionist, it's time for The REEL CHANGE. Dieing or not, if Shosanna intends to get her revenge, she's going to have to lift her ass off the floor, and execute this fucking reel change. CINEMA AUDITORIUM The battle on screen continues waging. The audience is riveted. The FUHRER watches, completely caught up in the dramatic spectacle. He says to Goebbels in German; HITLER Extraordinary Joseph, simply extraordinary. This is your finest film yet. Goebbels is beyond proud, he smiles to Francesca, who proudly pats his hand. PROJECTION BOOTH Shosanna, bloody, crippled, and fucked, with great painful effort, PULLS HERSELF OFF THE FLOOR... AUDITORIUM Hirschberg, sitting in his seat, SETS the BOMB on his ankle. Then stands up, and begins scooting past everybody in his rows knees. PROJECTION BOOTH like the German heroine in one of Riefenstahl's mountain films, Shosanna CLIMBS UP the 35mm film projector, like it was Piz Palu... FILM ON SCREEN Private Zoller FIRING away from his perch. In the top far right corner of The FRAME. WE SEE the 1st REEL CHANGE MARK... PROJECTION BOOTH Shosanna hanging on to projector, waiting for 2nd reel change mark, it's a agonizing effort... BEHIND SCREEN Marcel, smoking, waiting for his cue... HIRSCHBERG get out of his xow, and begins walking up the aisle in the middle of the cinema towards the exit. ON SCREEN SERGIO LEONE CU FREDRICK, he SCREAMS to Russians below; MOVIE ZOLLER Who wants to send a message to Germany? In the top right of FRAME The 2nd REEL CHANGE MARK POPS ON... PROJECTION BOOTH Shosanna TOSSES herself to the floor, as she THROWS THE CHANGE OVER SWITCH on the 2nd Projector... EX CU PROJECTOR BULB BLASTING WHITE in our face. SLOW NOTION SHOSANNA FALLING... EX CU 35MM FILM MOVING... SHOSANNA HITS the DUSTY ground HARD, NOT in slow motion... PROJECTOR BEAM SHOOTS OUT OF LITTLE PROJECTION BOOTH WINDOW hits screen. CU SHOSANNA on floor, eyes close, last breath blown into dusty projection booth floor. Like her family befor her, dead from Nazi bullets. AUDITORIUM ON THE SILVER SCREEN FREDRICKS EX CU CUT TO ON SILVER SCREEN MATCHING SHOSANNA EX CU CAMERA in the exact same placement, same background (b/w sky), SLIGHT LOW ANGLE LOOKING UP, so on screen Shosanna is looking down on the Nazi's, the way Fredrick was looking down on the Russians. The way this HUGE IMAGE OF SHOSANNA'S GIANT FACE stares down the auditorium of Nazi's, brings to mind Orwells "1984" Big Brother. HITLER and GOEBBELS React. HIRSCHBERG standing in the middle of the aisle, turns towards the screen. When he see's Shosanna's GIANT FACE, he's gobsmacked. BEHIND SCREEN Marcel sitting in the chair, with his cigarette, before the EVEN MORE GIANT FACE OF SHOSANNA. SHOSANNAS GIANT FACE ON SCREEN She stares down the packed house of Nazi's, and says in FRENCH; SHOSANNAS GIANT FACE I have a message for Germany. I'm interrupting your Nazi propaganda horse shit, to inform you despicable German swine, that your all going to die. HITLER and GOEBBELS react. HIRSCHBERG react. MARCEL smiles. SHOSANNAS GIANT FACE And I want you to look deep in the face of The Jew who's going to do it. AUDITORIUM AUDIENCE While the shocked German audience is transfixed to thescreen, behind the heads of most of them... The BOMB Landa set in Hitlers and Goebbels opera box... EXPLODES. BLOWING TO SMITHEREENS, HITLER, FRANCESCA, BOORMAN, and propelling GOEBBELS, still in his theatre seat, across the auditorium, into the opposite wall, and taking out a portion of the ceiling as well. The crowd reacts... The explosion causes the huge chandelier from Versailles, to topple from it's jerry-rigged placement, and CRASH on to the audience below... ON SCREEN THE GIANT FACE OF SHOSANNA finishes her WAR CRY. SHOSANNAS GIANT FACE My name is Shosanna Dreyfus, and this is the face of Jewish Vengeance! Marcel, BURN IT DOWN! BEHIND THE SCREEN Marcel takes his cigarette, and FLICKS IT into the pile of nitrate film. ON SCREEN SHOSANNAS GIANT FACE LAUGHS MANIACALLY at the scrambling little Nazi's, running in a panic, as FLAMES LIKE OUT OF A GIANT BLAST FURNACE, BURST THROUGH SHOSANNAS FACE, and CLIMB UP THE WALLS of the cinema. The AUDIENCE STAMPEDES towards the exits... HIRSCHBERG with bomb set on ankle, is caught in a massive Day of the Locust SWARM OF BODIES... People frantically pound on locked doors, trapping them to there grizzly fate. The FLAMES and FIRE spread through thr auditorium... Hirschberg caught in people crunch, knows this is it. HIS ANKLE BOMB GOES OFF right underneath everybody in the room. The effect this has on the people in the room, is very similar to that of the effect a M-80blowing up in a ant hill, would have on the ants. The auditorium is a literal red rain of legs, arms, heads, torsos, and asses. THEN... DONOWITZ TOILET BOMB BLOWS UP UNDERNEATH the auditorium. 16z. COLLAPSING THE CINEMA, AND BLOWING OUT THE FRONT OF THE THEATRE. As MADAM MIMEUX'S CINEMA BURNS... Theses SUBTITLES APPEAR ON SCREEN as if on a military TELETYPE: "OPERATION KINO A COMPLETE SUCCESS". FADE OUT FADE UP "HITLER DEAD. GOEBBELS DEAD. BOORMAN DEAD. GERING DEAD. ZOLLER DEAD. MOST OF HIGH COMMAND DEAD" FADE OUT FADE IN "FOUR DAYS LATER, GERMANY SURRENDERS" FADE OUT FADE IN "ONCE UPON A TIME IN NAZI... OCCUPIED FRANCE". CUT TO EXT -- WOODS - MORNING It's a misty early morning, in the woodsy area. The German truck, with Aldo and Uitvich in the back, and Landa and Herrman in the front comes to stop. LANDA and HERRMAN IN TRUCK CAB Herrman, behind the wheel, tells Landa in German; HERRMAN These are the American lines, sir. In the back of the truck, sit the two last remaining members of The Basterds, Lt.Aldo Raine, and Prvt.Smithson Uitivich, both with their hands cuffed behind there back. Landa and Herrman appear at truck rear, says in ENGLISH; COL.LANDA Okay Gentlemen, you can climb down. 143 Aldo and Uitivich climb down from the truck. Col.Landa indicates for Herrman to remove the handcuffs from the two prisoners. He does. COL.LANDA Herrman, hand them your weapon. He does. Col.Landa hands over his LUGER, and his very cool looking SS DAGGER. COL.LANDA I am officially surrendering myself over to you, Lt.Raine. We are your prisoners. LT.ALDO Thank you very much Colonel. Uitivich, cuff the Colonel's hands behind his back. COL.LANDA Is that really necessary? As Uitivich cuffs the. Colonels hands behind his back, Aldo SAYS; LT.ALDO I'm a slave to appearances. Then Aldo takes the Luger, and SHOOTS HERRMAN DEAD. The bound Col.Landa is appalled. COL.LANDA Are you mad? What have you done? I made a deal with your General for that mans life! LT. ALDO Yeah, they made that deal, but they don't give a fuck about him, they need you. COL.LANDA You'll be shot for this. t 6 q. LT.ALDO Raw I don't think so, more like I'll be chewed out. I've been chewed out before. You know, Uitvich and myself, heard that deal you made with the Brass. End the war tonight? I'd make that deal. How bout you Uitivich, you make that deal? UITIVICH I'd make that deal. LT.ALDO I don't blame ya. Damn good deal. And that pretty little nest ya feathered for yourself. Well, if your willing to barbecue the whole high command, I suppose that's worth certain considerations. Now I don't care about you gettin pensions, merit badges, ticker tape parades, who gives a damn, let's all go home. But .1do have one question? When you go to your little place on Nantuckett Island, I image you gonna take off that handsome looking SS uniform of yours, ain't ya? For the first time in the movie, Col.Landa doesn't-respond. LT.ALDO That's what I thought. Now that... .I can't abide. How bout you Uitivich, can you abide it? UITIVICH Not one damn bit, sir. LT.ALDO I mean if I had my way, you'd wear that goddamn uniform for the rest of your pecker suckin life. But I'm aware that's ain't practical. I mean at some point ya gotta hafta take it off. He opens LandaSS DAGGER, and holds the BLADE in front of Hans face. LT.ALDO So I'm gonna give you a little somethin you can't take off. CUT TO 16c. CU COL.LANDA The Dagger has just completed carving a swastika deep into his forehead. COL.LANDA'S POV: On the ground, looking up at Aldo, bloody knife in hand, who straddles him.. And Uitivich, who's next to him. The two Basterds admire Aldo's handiwork. LT.ALDO You know somethin Uitivich, I think this just might be my masterpiece. END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Insider, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Insider, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..41e74019bb667dd572d63f8f06a8e21766cff487 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Insider, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +THE INSIDER written by ERIC ROTH & MICHAEL MANN 11/5/99 NOTE: THE HARD COPY OF THIS SCRIPT CONTAINED SCENE NUMBERS AND SOME "OMITTED" SLUGS. THEY HAVE BEEN REMOVED FOR THIS SOFT COPY. FADE IN: All we can see is black filling the screen... Black on black... INT. A JEEP, LEBANON - DAY And we're in a speeding SOVIET JEEP... Two men in front, shouldering assault rifles. HEZBOLLAH SOLDIERS... And there are three MEN in the back. A middle-aged Man wearing a tired suit and tinted sunglasses trying to hold on. And on either side of him, two Men, blindfolded. The man on one side is in his forties, hands pressed in the pockets of a well-travelled black-leather jacket... A stocky man, with the edge of a J.D. Salinger character, he's seen everything at least once. But even he has lost some of his self-confidence, here, turning his head, sensing the wind, a blast of Arabic music that disappears behind him... He's LOWELL BERGMAN. On the other side of the man in the tired suit is a lanky Man with a voltmeter around his neck, NORMAN. EXT. THE BEQA'A VALLEY, BAALBEK, LEBANON - DAY The Jeep races up narrow winding streets of a Lebanese village. It's shadowed by a Jeep in front, and in back, each carrying personnel armed with AK's and a few RPG's... And in the third Jeep are two blindfolded, not very threatening Lebanese soldiers. And as the speeding convoy passes a captured Israeli Armored Personnel Carrier covered with Arabic graffiti, looking down on them from huge murals are the stern visages of the Ayatollah Khomeini, and a Hezbollah religious leader, the Sheikh Fadlallah... And, suddenly the convoy skids to a stop... And blindfolded Lowell and Norman are roughly taken out, and pushed, stumbling, through the cloud of dust without sight... The lanky cameraman is stopped, told to wait, while Lowell is pushed past armed men guarding a small stone house, and inside... INT. A HOUSE IN LEBANON - DAY A round-faced Man in his mid-forties, with large-framed glasses, black hair and a grey-black beard, wearing a dullbend, a turban, sits informally at a kitchen table... It's the Sheikh Fadlallah whose face stares out at us from walls. A Gunman cradling an AK-47 sits in an incongruous purple armchair in a corner. A torn poster of the Seychelles is on one wall. Another Gunman stands by a window. Lowell is sat down in a chair at the kitchen table... THE SHEIKH Coffee? LOWELL Yeah... Thank you. THE SHEIKH How have you liked your stay? LOWELL (droll) What I've seen...I've liked. The Sheikh smiles. And the smile passes as quickly as it came. A steaming cup of coffee in a small Arabic demitasse is put down. THE SHEIKH Please to explain, why I should agree to interview...with pro-Zionist American media? LOWELL Because I think Hezbollah is trying to broaden into a political party right now. So you care about what you're thought of in America. And in America, at this moment in time, Hezbollah does not have a face. (confident) That's why. And we've first realized this man is not a hostage; he's come here voluntarily. THE SHEIKH Perhaps you prove journalism objectivity and I see the questions first. Then I decide if I grant the interview. LOWELL (blunt) No. We don't do that. (beat) You've seen "60 Minutes" and Mike Wallace. So you know our reputation for integrity and objectivity. You also know we are the highest-rated, most-respected, TV-magazine news show in America. The Sheikh quietly looks out his glasses at him, studying him. And Lowell "closes": LOWELL (cont'd) So. Mr. Wallace. Should he get on a plane or not? The Sheikh thinks it over and then... THE SHEIKH Tell him I will see him day after tomorrow. LOWELL That's good. That works. (after a beat) Uh, you know, I want to ask you something...I know it sounds odd...but... It's quiet...too quiet... LOWELL (CONT'D) Hello, Sheikh...? (no answer) Hello, Sheikh...? Silence. He hesitates, starts to lift his blindfold... He lifts it. And he sees the Sheikh, and his gunmen, are gone. The house empty. Only his Cameraman, the lanky man, left there, standing by the door still in his blindfold... LOWELL (CONT'D) Norman. NORMAN What? What? LOWELL Take your blindfold off. The lanky man does and we see the cameraman is Asian- American. LOWELL (CONT'D) (sarcastic) Welcome to the world. Norman gives Lowell an ironic look and tests the local current at an electrical outlet. NORMAN Fluctuating all over the place. Anywhere we shoot, here, it's gonna be portable gennies and we'll run cable... Lowell nods and opens the curtains from this commanding height. Baalbek and the Beqa'a Valley below gold-domed mosques. A moment of triumph. He dials his cell phone... MIKE WALLACE'S VOICE (OVER) Hello? LOWELL (into phone) Mike, it's me. We're on... AND WE HEAR PEOPLE LAUGHING AND ENCOURAGING "GO AHEAD... OPEN IT..." INT. A LABORATORY, BROWN & WILLIAMSON, LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - DAY We're in a SCIENCE LABORATORY... OUT OF FOCUS LAB TECHNICIANS, in white lab coats, celebrating a heavyset Black woman's birthday... Half her presents are opened. Balloons, incongruous, floating above the lab... And there's a sense that somebody is watching... And from the waist up, a disembodied figure comes into FOCUS behind a glass partition, as if quarantined, isolated, an expressionless MAN in his late forties, watching them... INT. JEFFREY WIGAND'S OFFICE - DAY The office soundproofed, he watches the people laughing, their lips moving. His hair not yet settled on grey, his face is changing, always interesting. Born in the Bronx, educated in Upstate New York, he retains little of the accent and much of the directness. He's JEFFREY WIGAND. He turns to resume gathering things from his desk...some technical books, a medical text on asthma...putting them in his briefcase. And as he leaves the office, the silent party like a bizarre mime behind him... INT. LOBBY, BROWN & WILLIAMSON BUILDING - DAY Briefcase in hand, Jeffrey appears from the elevator from ABOVE, from WIDE and in FRONT, his eyes, frozen pools... And like a bad dream, a broad-shouldered Man, leaning against the wall near the reception island in a suit he's not comfortable in, wearing an earphone, saying something into a lapel microphone after Jeffrey's passed. INT. WIGAND'S CAR, LOUSIVILLE - DAY Light mottled through trees reflects off the car window... Jeffrey's face goes in and out of the tunnel of light and shadow...down this tasteful, suburban Louisville street of neat houses and manicured lawns... He pulls into driveway behind a 3 series BMW. It's a grey French provincial replica... INT. THE WIGANDS' HOUSE, FOYER - DAY Jeffrey comes in and a young Girl, six, is watching television in the den...BARBARA. WIGAND Hi, honey. BARBARA Hi, Daddy. WIGAND What's new? BARBARA Ms. Laufer gave me a star today. WIGAND Yeah? What for? BARBARA For reading. He pours himself a drink at a wet bar. WIGAND That's great... Little early for cartoons, isn't it? BARBARA Okay. Dutiful, she shuts off the TV, going upstairs. BARBARA (cont'd) Deborah? Debbie? He looks outside. A Woman is sitting on the back porch drinking wine, reading a paperback book, drinking wine. There's something like a Hockney painting about her against the manicured lawns. Right now the Woman comes in. She's pretty, tall, languid, reserved, somebody it would be nice to wear on your arm. LIANE WIGAND. She has an odd delay between a thought and her speech... LIANE Oh, I didn't know you were home... It's early... Isn't it? He doesn't say anything... LIANE (CONT'D) Gotta take Debbie to ballet... And it all feels suburban, familiar. Suddenly there's a shout... BARBARA'S VOICE (OVER) Mommy! Jeffrey goes quickly up the stairs into... INT. WIGAND'S HOUSE - DEBORAH'S BEDROOM - DAY And a little girl, eight, sitting on the floor in a ballet leotard, her head back, wheezing, her neck muscles contracting and bulging, her face pale, lips white, and her eyes filled with fear as rapid, shallow breathing induces a sense of suffocation. DEBORAH WIGAND is having a severe asthmatic attack... WIGAND Sweetheart, c'mon. C'mon. BARBARA She was playing with my Pooh doll again... Jeffrey sits her on the side of her bed next to which is a Nebulizer, an air compressor to deliver medication via a tube into a circular mouthpiece. The compressor whirs. Deborah breathes in the medication. Jeffrey brushes the hair back from her face and wipes perspiration from her forehead as... WIGAND Slow down. Slow down. Slow down. Breathe deep. Breathe deep. Slow down, honey. Slow down. Slow down. Liane rushes in with rolled-up towels, kneels in front of Deborah, smiling to mask anxiety, and goes into the bathroom with the towels and turns on full blast the bathtub's hot water. We don't know why yet... Deborah's chest heaves. She's scared. Jeffrey gets in front of her and talks to her to arrest her attention. WIGAND (cont'd) Here we go. Deep breaths, deep breaths. BARBARA She was playing with the Pooh doll. WIGAND Pooh's dusty, sweetheart...he's dusty, and you breathed him in, okay? So what's - what's happening to you now is... cells called mast cells told your lungs "don't breathe any more of that dust in." (beat) ...and the airways in your lungs are like branches. And when the branches close up, you get an asthmatic attack. And, we give you medicine, and you get better. Huh? Okay? You're better already, aren't you? And the medication's taking effect and she's calmer. Liane, hands clutched in her lap, smiles at Deborah. Now she takes Deborah's hand and exchanges a look with Jeffrey. Jeffrey's a good father, a natural caregiver. WIGAND (cont'd) Okay, baby? INT. THE WIGANDS' HOUSE, LOUISVILLE - EVENING Jeffrey, Liane and the two Girls silently eating dinner, Deborah in a bathrobe. DEBORAH Can I go to dance tomorrow? I'm better... LIANE ...if you are, then I'll take Barbara to soccer and take you to dance after... WIGAND I can take her. LIANE Don't you have to be at the office? WIGAND (instead, getting up) Is there any more rice...? LIANE (nods) Yes, it's on the stove... He goes into the kitchen, to the stove, seeing... LIANE (cont'd) Do you want more rice? DEBORAH Maybe later. LIANE How about you? BARBARA I'll take some. WIGAND Instant rice...? BARBARA Can I go over to Janeane's house? LIANE I'm sorry, darling, have you seen my coffee mug...? WIGAND Try the car. And Liane going outside... EXT. THE WIGANDS' HOUSE - EVENING She opens Jeffrey's car looking in the front seat at the cup holders. She turns to leave and sees the backseat filled with two boxes and the books we saw him take... LIANE Uh, what are those boxes? WIGAND I'm going to the store. You need anything? LIANE What do you need at the store? WIGAND Soy sauce... LIANE Right now? WIGAND (meaning in the car) That's my stuff from the office... LIANE Why did you take your stuff from the office? WIGAND (simply) I didn't want to leave it there... LIANE (confused) I don't understand. WIGAND (matter of fact) I got fired this morning... Where else am I gonna take it? LIANE Why? Who said? WIGAND (specifically) Thomas Sandefur... LIANE (stunned, fearful) What are we supposed to do...? What about our medical coverage; what about our health? What about our car payments? The payments on this house? He looks at her. There's an unspoken moment when it seems he's desperate for her to ask how he's feeling... But she doesn't and now there's a wall up and the moment passes... WIGAND (a beat, specific) There's a severance agreement... It includes cash payouts over time and continuing medical coverage... (beat) Sure you don't need anything? LIANE No, thank you. She's stunned. He leaves. And as Liane's completely still, her accessories seeming literally to weigh her down, she wants to ask how he is, how he must be feeling, and she turns into CAMERA towards him to do that. But he's driven off down the street. LIANE (cont'd) Jeffrey...! INT. ANOTHER HOUSE IN BAALBEK - DAY The Sheikh, wearing a fresh white robe and skull cap, comes into the room... THE SHEIKH I am very pleased to receive you as my guest, Mr. Wallace. MIKE WALLACE Thank you for having us... REVERSE: Norman's camera crew is setting up. MIKE WALLACE is there. A dangerous combination of intelligence, arrogance, and celebrity, there's a kinetic quality about him. Wallace sits across from the Sheikh on a dais of patterned linoleum in incongruous armchairs against a wallpaper mural of a French formal garden. A Sound Technician wires the Sheikh and Mike with microphones. Norman says something to Lowell and then goes out. NORMAN I think I've got a problem with the gennie. I have to go outside. LOWELL (going outside) Norman...? Mike turns his chair to face and slides it closer to the Sheikh's chair. The Head Bodyguard barks something in Arabic. The Interpreter says something back in Arabic. The Sheikh, absorbed in his notes for the upcoming interview, ignores all of this. INTERPRETER He says you must not sit so close. MIKE WALLACE What? (re: Bodyguard) I can't conduct an interview from back there. The Bodyguard, bristling at Wallace's tone, barks more confrontational Arabic. INTERPRETER You must move back your chair. MIKE WALLACE Will you tell him that when I conduct an interview, I sit anywhere I damn please! INTERPRETER There is no interview. As Mike leaps forward, moving inches from the Bodyguard's face with such sudden ferocity, even the Bodyguard flinches. MIKE WALLACE You! I'm talking to you! More armed men start to enter. MIKE WALLACE (cont'd) What the hell do you think I am? A 78- year-old assassin? You think I'm gonna karate him to death with this notepad? (to Interpreter) Are you interpreting what I'm saying? INTERPRETER Yes. LOWELL We're there. MIKE WALLACE Good, well ask him if Arabic is his second language. LOWELL (to Interpreter) Don't interpret that! (to both) Hold it. Hold it. Hold it! Slow, slow!! (to the Sheikh) Sheikh, do you mind...if you would just turn your chair a little bit to face Mr. Wallace? The Sheikh looks up from his notes, nods, fixes his chair, goes back to his notes... LOWELL (cont'd) Is that okay? INTERPRETER Okay. LOWELL (Bodyguard assents; to Mike) Are you ready? Or you want to keep fucking around and warm up some more...? MIKE WALLACE No. (wry) ...that's got my heart started. They know each other well. Lowell smiles. Wallace sits down. LOWELL Alright, Todd, give me the three-button on Mike, please. Okay. We are rolling. Okay, Mike. They roll camera... "60 Minutes"... "Hezbollah"... MIKE WALLACE (charming) Sheikh Fadlallah, thank you so much for seeing us. (changes) Are you a terrorist? The Sheikh didn't expect the Mike Wallace opening shot between the eyes. He recovers... THE SHEIKH Mr. Wallace, I...am a servant of God. That expression of incredulity... MIKE WALLACE A servant of God? Really... Mike, tipping his glasses down while the hostile Gunmen, cradling weapons, watch him through the doorway... MIKE WALLACE (CONT'D) Americans believe that you, as an Islamic fundamentalist, that you are a leader who contributed to the bombing of the U.S. Embassy. The ballsiness of Wallace, asking these questions in this place, is impressive... EXT. BERKELEY - LATE MORNING It's still. A MAIL TRUCK is stopped at an odd angle in the street outside an older brick house with a bold redwood Big Sur-like fence on a hillside. Beyond the truck is a forever view of the Bay. A handle turns. Mail truck door opens. Mailman, carrying a box, going through the gate. Doorstep. Box is deposited there. It's quiet again. The BOX sitting nakedly by the front door... INT. LOWELL'S HOUSE, BEDROOM, BERKELEY - LATE MORNING Lowell, in sweat pants and an old tee shirt now, is on the telephone, still in bed... Newspapers, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, are spread all over...home as refuge. A tray with large cups of coffee is on a side table. LOWELL ...everyone thinks Canadian Mounties ride horses and rescue ladies from rapids, Mike. They backed locals in Oka in a fight with Mohawks over building a golf course on their burial site. They beat up protesters at Kanasake... (pause) Where'd you hear that? The other phone on a nightstand rings... A Woman in her forties, SHARON TILLER, enters, in a bathrobe, brushing her teeth. She answers it... LOWELL (cont'd) (droll) Oh, someone took a poll? "Are all things Canadian boring...?" SHARON (to Lowell) It's Stuart...he's in Mexico City... LOWELL Let me call you back... He takes up the line...listening... LOWELL (CONT'D) Yeah, Stuart... What New York bank? A young Man in his early twenties wanders in... JAKE Hey Dad...Sharon... Lowell waves at JAKE, his son. SHARON (to Jake) No classes this morning? LOWELL Will he go on-camera and talk about the Mexico City branch? JAKE I don't have to be there until ten- thirty. Lowell's son sits on the bed looking at part of a newspaper. And another young Man, in his early twenties, with long hair comes strolling in, Sharon's son, JOSIAH. JOSIAH Hi Mom, Lowell... Lowell, still on the phone, waves to him. SHARON Hi, sweetheart... Josiah sits on the bed too, reading the back of the sports section Jake is reading... Another line rings, Sharon getting it. The Boys, used to them, get up, and leave... LOWELL (into phone) Will independent sources corroborate that? SHARON Hello? Yeah... EXT. THE BERKELEY HOUSE - MORNING The Boys coming out of the house together... And seeing the BOX by the door... LOWELL'S SON (shouts back inside) Dad, you got a box out here... And they go out the gate, talking, walking off along the Berkeley street. The box left waiting by the door. LOWELL (looking at her itinerary) Let me see this... No, 'cause I gotta know where you're going at all times. INT. LOWELL'S HOUSE, BEDROOM, BERKELEY - MORNING SHARON (into phone) I can't... I've got to fly to Boston tomorrow. Lowell comes with the box back to bed. He's already unwrapped it. Inside are stacks of papers... He looks at the box cover. No return address. An anonymous sender; not unusual for him. He casually looks through the papers. SHARON (CONT'D) Two p.m. Great. Bye-bye. (hangs up) LOWELL (reading) ..."ignition propensity?" (to Sharon) ...you understand any of this...? He gives her some papers. We see formulas...scientific data in tables... SHARON ...no...this looks like a table of temperatures... Who's this from? LOWELL (shrugs) ...it's anonymous. References to "P.M." (motions) It's got to be Philip Morris, huh? SHARON I have to take a shower. As he looks at the papers, Sharon goes into the bathroom... INT. THE FEDERAL DRUG ADMINISTRATION AGENCY, CAFETERIA, WASHINGTON - DAY We see a MAN in his forties, eating a late lunch, getting paged in a crowded cafeteria. An old 1930's WPA mural on the wall... His pager goes off... Doug Oliver walks across the cafeteria to a bank of pay phones and dials. INT. LOWELL'S HOUSE, DEN - BERKELEY - MORNING The phone rings. Lowell picks it up... LOWELL Yeah. DOUG OLIVER (into phone) Hi, this is Doug Oliver... LOWELL Oh, hi, Doug...it's Lowell. I'm doing this story on fire safety... People burning up from falling asleep smoking. I received a shitload of scientific papers from inside Philip Morris... Anonymous. You or anybody in FDA know someone who can translate this stuff into English for me? DOUG OLIVER (beat) ...uh, yeah... EXT. A BERKELEY CAFE - CLOSE: PAY PHONE There's the sound of a phone ringing. PULL BACK to reveal Lowell outside a cafe with dry cleaning he collected over one shoulder. A LITTLE GIRL'S VOICE OVER (Deborah's) answers. "Hello." LOWELL Mr. Wigand, please. There's a whisper..."Someone's calling for Daddy, Mom." Behind Lowell is a humming Berkeley street. He gestures familiarly to a Server, who brings out his two take-out cappuccinos. Lowell nods his thanks, pays... LOWELL (cont'd) Thank you, Bob. LIANE'S VOICE (OVER) Who's calling? LOWELL My name's Lowell Bergman... I'm -- LIANE'S VOICE (OVER) Did you say Berman? LOWELL No, Bergman...B.E.R.G.M.A.N.... I'm a producer with "60 Minutes"... LIANE'S VOICE (OVER) "60 Minutes"? LOWELL Yeah. LIANE'S VOICE (OVER) "60 Minutes," the television show? LOWELL Yes. Lowell waits for some moments, and... INT. THE WIGANDS' HOUSE, LOUISVILLE - DAY LIANE (on phone) He doesn't want to talk to you. EXT./INT. BERKELEY CAFE - DAY LOWELL How does he know he doesn't want to talk to me? He doesn't know what I'm calling him about... LIANE'S VOICE (OVER) He doesn't care to know. And she hangs up. Lowell's motionless... And his interest piqued, he sets down his cleaning. He calls back... The phone rings and rings... A MACHINE picks it up... Jeffrey Wigand's Voice: "This is the Wigands'... If you'd like to leave a message or send a fax, start now..." INT. THE WIGAND HOUSE, JEFFREY'S OFFICE, LOUISVILLE - DAY And we see Jeffrey Wigand, sitting at his desk in his office, working on his computer, hearing Lowell... LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) (on the machine) This is Lowell Bergman with "60 Minutes"... I'm doing a story on fire safety and cigarettes... I have scientific documents from a tobacco company, and I could use your help as a consultant explaining these documents to me... My number is area code 510-555- 0199... I'll be there, at this number, in 10 minutes. He hangs up. Jeffrey doesn't react, quietly working on his computer. INT. LOWELL'S OFFICE, BERKELEY - DAY Lowell's restless, waiting... And not getting a call back, he tries another tact. He writes a FAX, "Please call me at..." He writes his number down. He sends the Fax. He's still. It's quiet. And not getting an answer he gets up, starting to leave the room. And suddenly the fax machine RINGS... He turns. He reads a message emerging from the machine..."I can't talk to you..." He's quiet. He writes on a piece of paper..."Can't talk to me?" "Won't talk to me?" "Don't want to talk to me...?" As he faxes it back... INT. THE WIGANDS' HOUSE, OFFICE, LOUISVILLE - DAY Wigand reading the return fax from Lowell... INT. LOWELL'S OFFICE, BERKELEY - DAY Lowell, waiting... The fax machine rings again... He reads Jeffrey's answer. "Can't." "Won't." "Don't want to..." He's quiet, more than just interested, now. There's something beyond intriguing here. He turns. He looks through a stack of phone books for something...a nationwide 800 directory. He looks through it and dials Wigand's phone number again... LOWELL If you're curious to meet me... INT. WIGANDS' HOUSE, OFFICE, LOUISVILLE - DAY Wigand working on his computer... Lowell's VOICE on his answering machine... LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) (on machine) ...I'm gonna be in the lobby of the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, reading The New York Times, tomorrow, at five o'clock... Lowell clicks off. And as Wigand sits at his computer, giving no indication what he might do... INT. THE SEELBACH HOTEL LOBBY, LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - EARLY EVENING An old hotel with faded carpets. Lowell in the lobby reading a New York Times, waiting... And instead of looking up every time somebody passes, he looks down at people's shoes. A pair of black wing tips walking by... A woman's high heels... A pair of men's tasseled loafers. A lace-up brown. A pair of tennis shoes. A cordovan wing tip. The pair of tasseled loafers walking by again... And Lowell looks up... And the Man in the tasseled loafers, turns away... It's Jeffrey Wigand in a suit and a tie with a Fortune 500, corporate-executive bearing... Lowell crosses to the elevators. Wigand looks around the lobby and follows Lowell in, and as the doors close... INT. A HOTEL ROOM, LOUISVILLE - EARLY EVENING LOWELL (OVER) Have you always lived in Louisville? Brilliant late afternoon sunlight. We PULL BACK to see Jeffrey, standing by a window, silently looking outside to the left... Lowell, cool, waiting, hands in his pockets, in the middle of the large room... WIGAND Mr. Bergman? What did you want me to consult about? A sudden KNOCK on the door... WIGAND (CONT'D) (turns, suspicious) Who's that? LOWELL (wry) That's room service. They usually knock first. (calls) Come on in... Over here, please. Room Service brings in a tray with coffee. As Lowell signs the bill, the Room Service Waiter waiting, looks at Wigand... Their eyes meet... The Waiter looks away. LOWELL (cont'd) Thank you. And the Waiter leaves... LOWELL (CONT'D) (pouring) How do you like your coffee? Black? WIGAND Black, black... Lowell gives him his cup of coffee. WIGAND (CONT'D) Look, I really don't have that much time... LOWELL (nods) Is there anything you want to know about me, Mr. Wigand...? WIGAND Like what? Your sign? Lowell smiles. WIGAND (CONT'D) I know what I have to know. LOWELL Just so I know you know, when I talk to people in confidence, it stays that way. WIGAND (abruptly) How did a radical journalist from Ramparts Magazine end up at CBS? Lowell looks at him, he does his homework... LOWELL I still do the tough stories. "60 Minutes" reaches a lot of people. Wigand's quiet, measuring him. WIGAND (after a beat) Let me see the documents... Lowell gives him the box of papers... Wigand sits down, the box on his lap, quietly looking through them...flips to a different heading, consults a chart... WIGAND (CONT'D) ...this is a Fire-Safety Product Study for Philip Morris. Burn rates...ignition propensity...things of this nature. (after a beat) I could very easily explain this to you in layman's terms, because it's from another company... He puts the papers down... WIGAND (cont'd) ...but that's as far as I go... LOWELL Far as you go where? WIGAND (a beat) This issue is a drop in the bucket. I can talk to you about what's in here. But I can't talk to you about anything else. And Lowell knows something else is going on here... WIGAND (CONT'D) (meaning Philip Morris documents) I signed a confidentiality agreement. I honor agreements... A lot more is going on here... Lowell nods, a good reporter... WIGAND (CONT'D) Doesn't CBS have confidentiality agreements, Mr. Bergman? LOWELL Between journalists and management, yes, I believe they do...but I don't take that seriously. (after a beat) Where do you work? WIGAND Did work. LOWELL (fast) Did work. WIGAND (the bottom line) How much would I get paid? LOWELL That, you have to discuss with CBS Business Affairs. But, for something like this, I would say anywhere between 10, 12 thousand. Wigand nods "Okay." WIGAND Should I just take the documents now? LOWELL If you want to do it. He turns to leave... Lowell gets the door for him... Wigand momentarily slows... WIGAND I worked as the head of Research and Development for Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company. I was a Corporate Vice President. Mr. Bergman... And he goes out the door... Lowell's still. Wigand's job title resonates. Lowell turns to the window, casually looking into the early evening...and he comes face to face with what Wigand was staring at, The Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company Headquarters Building, lit up right across the street... INT. CBS, A SCREENING ROOM - DAY MIKE WALLACE (on screen) "President Assad of Syria said that difficult obstacles remain but that his country, quote, 'looks forward to a great, long peace with Israel.'" TAIL LEADER. THEN BLACK. Suddenly lights come on. Executive Producer DON HEWITT is suddenly on his feet. A veritable dervish, in constant motion... DON HEWITT (kissing Mike) It's a Peabody, Mike. When you're dead and buried, Hezbollah is the one they're gonna remember you for... Mike, used to him, ignores him, getting up, turning to leave, Hewitt on his tail...while... LOWELL (to his Editor) ...come in earlier on Mike's Marine barracks line when he's talking to Sheikh Mussawi... MIKE WALLACE You eating with us? LOWELL Yeah. MIKE WALLACE Bring a tie so they'll let us in the front door... And Lowell gestures for an olive-skinned Woman in her late thirties, Lowell's assistant, DEBBIE DELUCA, to join them. The eye contact on the way out says there's something important he needs to tell her... EXT. CBS - DAY There's a blast of NOISE. The City. Lowell, Wallace, Hewitt, Debbie, enter from the CBS lobby, moving through the reflections. Lowell is about to say something to Debbie, but BILL FELLING, Evening News' Assignment Editor, coming the other way... LOWELL Debbie... FELLING Hey, Lowell. Midstream, fast: LOWELL Oh, Bill... Main Justice is investigating a major New York bank. Laundering narco dollars out of their Mexico City branch. You want it for the Evening News? FELLING What about you, you got a crew already? LOWELL I'm gonna do a follow-up. FELLING Okay. (leaves) LOWELL Catch ya' later. EXT. 53RD STREET, NEW YORK - DAY Lowell, crossing... LOWELL Debbie... And, now, as they cross Madison... LOWELL (CONT'D) (to Debbie; finally) I want you to get legal onto CORPORATE CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENTS. Boundaries of their constraint. Kentucky state law about. I want you to drop everything. DEBBIE DELUCA (cuts in) Okay. Hewitt stops to buy a newspaper. He doesn't have change, Debbie does. EXT. 55TH STREET (WESTBOUND), NEW YORK - DAY And Mike, Lowell and Don bang into Michael's restaurant. We SEE them through the glass, being greeted, people shaking their hands, escorted by the maitre d' to their table as... INT. THE BROWN & WILLIAMSON BUILDING, MAIN LOBBY, LOUISVILLE - DAY Meanwhile, it's static. Still, frozen. Jeffrey sits in the RECEPTION AREA of The Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company headquarters. Complimentary cigarettes are arranged on tables. A dark quiet. The hush of big business. Standing in the background by a wall next to the banks of elevators, is an ever-present Man, another one, with an earphone and lapel microphone... UNIFORMED SECURITY (to Wigand) Mr. Wigand, you can go up now... He gets up, crossing to an elevator. INT. THOMAS SANDEFUR'S OFFICE, BROWN & WILLIAMSON - DAY THOMAS SANDEFUR (re: his distraction) Sorry. I'm accepting an award from the Retinitis Pigmentosa Foundation. It's going to kill the rest of my day. THOMAS SANDEFUR is absorbed in spreadsheets of regional sales figures. Dark pouches are under his eyes. He doesn't look up. He doesn't look healthy. We're in a luxurious office with a view of Louisville. Jeffrey is waiting in a chair. Sandefur is Brown & Williamson's CEO. Two LAWYERS, their briefcases, like weapons, close at hand, sit on a couch. Their jackets are off. They wear expensive shirts. THOMAS SANDEFUR (cont'd) (finishing; looking up at Jeffrey) So. You had a chance to play golf? Surprisingly affable, Sandefur prides himself on his salesman's sunny manners. He has a mellifluous Georgia accent... THOMAS SANDEFUR (CONT'D) (to the Lawyers) Jeff's a premiere golfer... What are you, a two handicap? WIGAND (precise) Seven... THOMAS SANDEFUR (to lawyer) And, he gets out there and he has five strokes on us. He has more concentration than anybody I've ever met. It's spooky how he can concentrate. WIGAND I'd rather play than talk about it. (beat) What did you want to see me about? I don't like being back here. Sandefur smiles, used to him. THOMAS SANDEFUR Jeffrey says exactly what's on his mind. Most people consider what they're saying...social skills... Jeffrey just charges right ahead. (smiles, after a beat) Now, I know you understood the nature of the confidentiality portion of your severance agreement with Brown & Williamson, Jeff... WIGAND Chapter and verse. THOMAS SANDEFUR (nods) Yeah, I know you do... (beat) You know, I came up through sales. One of the reasons I was a great salesman, was I never made a promise I couldn't keep. (beat) I knew that if I ever broke my promise I'd suffer the consequence... And there's a warning behind it... WIGAND (contained) Is that a threat? THOMAS SANDEFUR ...we worked together for, what was it, three years...? Now, the work we did here is confidential, not for public scrutiny...any more than are one's family matters... WIGAND (quietly) You threatening my family, now, too? THOMAS SANDEFUR Now, don't be paranoid, Jeff. (a beat) About the direction of research here, we may have had our differences of opinion... WIGAND "Research..." (smile + scorn) You declare, as a badge of honor, you don't even know what makes water boil... THOMAS SANDEFUR That's why we hire scientists... WIGAND (interrupts, direct) Okay. (a beat, honest) I don't believe you can maintain corporate integrity without confidentiality agreements. I was paid well for my work. The health and welfare benefits are good. The severance package is fair. I have no intention of violating my confidentiality agreement and disclosing that which I said I wouldn't. THOMAS SANDEFUR I appreciate all that, Jeff. But, upon reflection...we've decided to expand our zone of comfort with you. And there's a seriousness that weighs heavily on the room... THOMAS SANDEFUR (CONT'D) So we've drafted a supplement to your agreement...it broadly defines and expands in more detail what is "confidential." Nobody will be able to say, "Well, hell's bells, Margaret, I didn't know that was a secret..." (beat) We're very serious about protecting our interests. (a beat) We'd like you to sign it. And he's acutely aware of the threat behind it... WIGAND (a beat) And if I don't? A LAWYER (speaking for Sandefur) If we "arrive" at the conclusion you're acting in bad faith? We would terminate, right now, payouts under your severance package. You and your family's medical benefits. And initiate litigation against you, Mr. Wigand. WIGAND Dr. Wigand. A LAWYER (a beat) Dr. Wigand...after you've examined the document, you will see it is in your own best interest and you'll sign it. Jeffrey slowly turns to face the attorney. And we see on his face the true nature of this man. WIGAND So, what you are saying is: it isn't enough that you fired me. For no good reason! Now you question my integrity? On top of the humiliation of being fired? You threaten me?! You threaten my family?! (beat) It never crossed my mind not to honor my agreement... (turning, to Sandefur) But I will tell you, Mr. Sandefur, and Brown & Williamson, too... Fuck me? (a beat) Well, fuck you!! And with that he gets up, and leaves... And it's quiet... A LAWYER I'm not sure he got the message... THOMAS SANDEFUR (with total confidence) Oh, I think he did. EXT. A PHONE BOOTH, LOUISVILLE - DAY Wigand picks up the phone and dials. INT. THE NEW YORK RESTAURANT - DAY They've finished lunch. Wallace and Hewitt are turned to talk to Sam Cohn and an older writer as suddenly Lowell's cell phone rings. LOWELL (answering) Yeah... WIGAND'S VOICE (OVER) ...you fucked me! LOWELL Who is this? EXT. A PHONE BOOTH, LOUISVILLE - DAY WIGAND (crazed) ...protect your sources...! You screwed me! You sold me out! INT. THE NEW YORK RESTAURANT - DAY LOWELL What are you talking about? Where are you? EXT. THE PHONE BOOTH, LOUISVILLE - DAY WIGAND Fuck you, too! And he slams down the phone. INT. THE RESTAURANT, NEW YORK - DAY Lowell, holding the dead phone in his hand... EXT. A GOLF DRIVING RANGE, LOUISVILLE - NIGHT We see a brightly lit, golf driving range, empty, the wet grass under the lights vibrant, emerald green... A caged cart, with one big yellow headlight, like some kind of strange insect, drives across the range, picking up golf balls. And we see Jeffrey hitting golf balls, driving one after another, after another... His swing is powerful, angry, a lone golfer, trying to chill out. He pauses, spent. Settling down, he exhales. Then, he looks down the way... And he slows... He sees in the far distance, spot-lit, one other lone golfer, a Stocky Man, incongruously in a suit and tie, watching him... And the Man in the suit right then, with great power and a tremendous follow through drives a golf ball... The ball slamming into the steel net. And the lights SUDDENLY go out. The range closing for the night. The "insect" comes to a stop. And it's quiet, dark. Jeffrey gathers up his clubs. He crosses, his golf shoes, the metal cleats, clicking on the pavement, toward the PARKING LOT. And there's the sound of the clicking of golf shoes behind him. He turns. And the stocky Man in the suit, carrying a golf bag walking some distance behind him, staring at him. Jeffrey comes to the parking lot. It's empty. Just Jeffrey's car, and despite all the empty spaces, another car, purposely or otherwise, parked right next to his. He crosses to his car, getting in... INT. WIGAND'S CAR - NIGHT He drops the three clubs in the rear seat and settles behind the wheel. He turns. And he sees the Man in the suit has gotten in the car next to his. They look at each other. The Man, in no hurry, lights a cigarette, relaxes. It's malevolent as hell. And Jeffrey, suddenly, grabbing a golf club, jumps out of his car... EXT. THE PARKING LOT, DRIVING RANGE, LOUISVILLE - NIGHT Golf club in hand at the driver side window... WIGAND (motioning with the club, threatening) Stay away from me! You stay away from me! The Man starts his car, and drives off nonplussed. It's still. And as Jeffrey with the golf club stands in the empty parking lot, not knowing what's threatening him, something real, something imaginary... EXT. THE WIGAND HOUSE, LOUISVILLE - WIDE SHOT: WIGANDS' HOUSE - EARLY MORNING A violent rain's falling. And we see Jeffrey coming out of the house holding an umbrella over his little Girls. They start towards the car. There's the sound of a car door shutting. Liane, carrying lunch boxes, comes after them... LIANE Jeffrey, you forgot their lunches -- She slows, seeing someone. Jeffrey turns: it's Lowell. He's surprised. LOWELL Mrs. Wigand, how do you do? WIGAND (to the girls, protectively) Jump in, quick, c'mon... LOWELL I'm Lowell Bergman. We spoke on the phone, remember? The Girls climb in the car. Lowell crosses behind the Audi around the far side. LOWELL (CONT'D) C'mere. I want to talk to you. WIGAND Good. I want to talk to you. Jeff closes the door on his daughters and joins Lowell around the far side of the car. WIGAND (CONT'D) (confronting him) What do... LOWELL (running over) I did not burn you. I did not give you up to anyone! WIGAND (continuing) This is my house... In front of my wife, my kids?! What business do we have? LOWELL To straighten something out with you. Right here. Right now. WIGAND So, you didn't mention my name? You haven't talked to anybody about me? LOWELL Why am I gonna mention your name? WIGAND How did Brown & Williamson know I spoke to you...? LOWELL How the hell do I know about Brown & Williamson? WIGAND It happened after I talked to you. I do not like coincidences! LOWELL And I don't like paranoid accusations! I'm a journalist. Think. Use your head. How do I operate as a journalist by screwing the people who could provide me with information before they provided me with it? WIGAND (skeptical) You came all the way down here to tell me that? LOWELL No. I did not. Big Tobacco is a big story. And you got something important to say. I can tell. (a beat, personal) But, yes. I did. I came all the way down here to tell you: story, no story, fuck your story, I don't burn people. It starts to rain harder. They look at each other. Jeffrey, without saying a word, gets in the Car. He backs out. Lowell, left standing in the driveway with Liane in the rain. Liane goes back into the house. And Lowell starts back across the street to his car. There's a sound. He turns. Jeffrey's car, having gone around the corner, has come back and stopped in the street. WIGAND (after a beat) Ride with me while I take the girls to school... Lowell hesitates, then gets into the car in the back seat. INT. WIGAND'S CAR - MORNING They drive away. Lowell, incongruously sitting in the back seat with Barbara. Jeffrey and Deborah in the front seat. And it's quiet, just the sound of the wipers on the window. And as Lowell rides with them... EXT. A RIVERSIDE PARKING LOT IN LOUISVILLE - WIDE REAR SHOT - MORNING We see the Car's parked in a weed-strewn empty lot. Rain, pounding on it and the surface of the river beyond... WIGAND'S VOICE (OVER) ...and my little girl has acute asthma... Deborah. My eldest daughter. INT. WIGAND'S CAR, LOUISVILLE - REAR TWO SHOT - MORNING The Girls are gone. We enter mid-scene. Lowell's still in the back seat... WIGAND (CONT'D) And, I'm unemployed. So I have to protect my medical coverage. (the bottom line; turning to look at Lowell in the rear seat) ...so I left them a message this morning. Their expanded confidentiality agreement? I will sign it. LOWELL They're afraid of you, aren't they? WIGAND They should be. The sound of the rain... LOWELL (after a beat, trying to make it easier for him) Talk to me outside the zone of your agreement? WIGAND (guarded) Like what? LOWELL Like where'd you work before Brown & Williamson? WIGAND (a beat) Johnson & Johnson. Union Carbide in Japan. I was general manager and director of new products. I speak Japanese. I was a director of corporate development at Pfizer. All health- related. (wry) What else? Outside the "zone"...? LOWELL I don't know...you think the Knicks are gonna make it through the semi-finals? Wigand smiles...as their eyes meet in the rear view mirror. A subtle connection... It passes... DISSOLVE TO: INT. WIGAND'S CAR - WIDE FRONTAL - DAY Jeff's car in the field, the giant Colgate-Palmolive clock behind. The rain stopped. Steam rises from the weed strewn empty lot. Lowell's in the front seat. And we get the feeling they've been talking for hours... LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) Just give me an example... WIGAND For example. James Burke, the CEO of Johnson & Johnson...when he found out that some lunatic had put poison in Tylenol bottles, he didn't argue with the FDA... He didn't even wait for the FDA to tell him. He just pulled Tylenol off every shelf of every store right across America. Instantly. And then he developed the safety cap... Because, look, as a CEO, sure, he's gotta be a great businessman, right? But he's also a man of science. He's not going to allow his company...to put on the shelf...a product that might hurt people. (sarcastic) Not like the Seven Dwarfs... LOWELL Seven dwarfs? WIGAND The seven CEOs of Big Tobacco...they got up in front of Congress that time...it was on television... LOWELL ...and swore under oath that they know nothing about addiction, disease... WIGAND It was on C-SPAN. Yeah. LOWELL Okay, so, here you are...you go to work for tobacco. (after beat) You come from corporate cultures where research, really, creative thinking, these are core values. You go to tobacco... Tobacco is a sales culture. Market and sell enormous volume. Go to a lot of golf tournaments. The hell with everything else. (beat) What are you doing? Why are you working for "tobacco" in the first place? WIGAND (deadly honest) I can't talk about it. The work I was supposed to do...might have had some positive effect. I don't know...it could have been beneficial. (bitterness there) Mostly, I got paid a lot. I took the money. My wife was happy. My kids had good medical. Good schools. Got a great house. (simply) I mean, what the hell is wrong with that...? He looks at Lowell, as if needing validation... LOWELL Nothing's wrong with that. That's it; you're making money...you're providing for your family? What could be wrong with that? It's quiet. After some moments... WIGAND I've always thought of myself...as a man of science. That's what's wrong with it. LOWELL Then...you're in a state of conflict, Jeff. Jeffrey doesn't say anything. LOWELL (CONT'D) Because, look, here's how it lays out: if you got vital, insider stuff the American people for their welfare really do need to know...and you feel impelled to disclose it and violate your agreement in doing so, that's one thing. On the other hand, if you want to honor this agreement, then that's simple. You do so. You say nothing. You do nothing. There's only one guy who can figure that out for you. And that's you. All by yourself. Lowell's evenhanded...is it too evenhanded? As Wigand contemplates the edge he's standing on, they're quiet. Then Wigand sees the time... WIGAND I've got to go pick up the girls. They only had half a day... Lowell nods. Jeffrey starts the car. The windshield wipers screech on a dry window. Their eyes meet. As they drive off...we HOLD on the Colgate-Palmolive Clock. INT. A KITCHEN AREA, CBS OFFICES, NEW YORK - DAY We've entered mid-scene... A monitor on a cart plays a 1/2- inch VCR of a C-SPAN broadcast. Seven CEOs of Big Tobacco... in front of a bas relief of the American eagle. Each in turn swears nicotine is not addictive or he doesn't know anything about health risks, they're not sure, maybe, maybe not, etc.... LOWELL (OVER) He referred to this...the Seven Dwarfs... MIKE WALLACE (OVER) What "Seven Dwarfs?" LOWELL (OVER) The seven CEOs of Big Tobacco... Referred to this... Said they should be afraid of him... I assume, afraid of what he could reveal. (to Staff Lawyers) Now, you tell me. What does this guy have to say that threatens these people? And, now, we see Lowell, Mike Wallace and Debbie DeLuca with two staff Lawyers, MARK STERN and JOHN HARRIS, sitting around a workstation used as an improvised eating area. Beyond them are the "60 MINUTES" offices, workstations, piles of material, television monitors hanging from the ceiling, all tuned to CBS programming... MIKE WALLACE Well, it isn't "cigarettes are bad for you"... LOWELL Hardly new news. MIKE WALLACE No shit. LOWELL What's this? MARK STERN (re: video) What that is is tobacco's standard defense. It's the "we don't know" litany: "Addiction? We believe not. Disease? We don't know. We take a bunch of leaves, roll 'em together. You smoke 'em. After that? You're on your own. We don't know." (beat) So...tells me nothing. (beat) Besides, you'll never get what he's got. LOWELL Why not? JOHN HARRIS Because of this guy's confidentiality agreement, he is never gonna be able to talk to you. LOWELL That's not good enough. This guy is the top scientist in the number three tobacco company in America. He's a corporate officer. You never get whistle-blowers from Fortune 500 companies. This guy is the ultimate insider. He's got something to say; he wants to say it; I want it on "60 Minutes." JOHN HARRIS Doesn't matter what he wants. MIKE WALLACE Am I missing something here? JOHN HARRIS What do you mean, Mike? MIKE WALLACE He's got a corporate secrecy agreement? Give me a break. This is a public-health issue, like an unsafe airframe on a passenger jet or...some company dumping cyanide into the East River. Issues like that? He can talk, we can air it. They've got no right to hide behind a corporate agreement. (re: his coffee) Pass the milk... JOHN HARRIS (does) They don't need the right. They've got the money. MARK STERN The unlimited checkbook. That's how Big Tobacco wins every time. On everything. They spend you to death. $600 million a year in outside legal. Chadbourne-Parke. Ken Starr's firm, Kirkland and Ellis. Listen. GM and Ford, they get nailed after 11 or 12 pick-ups blow up. Right? These clowns have never...I mean ever... JOHN HARRIS Not even once... MARK STERN ...not even with hundreds of thousands dying each year from an illness related to their product...have ever lost a personal-injury lawsuit. On this case, they'll issue gag orders, sue for breach, anticipatory breach, enjoin him, you, us, his pet dog, the dog's veterinarian... Tie him up in litigation for ten of fifteen years. I'm telling you, they bat a thousand. Every time. He knows that. That's why he's not gonna talk to you... Lowell's been quiet, thinking about something else... Now... LOWELL Okay, let's look through the looking glass the other way... MIKE WALLACE What do you mean? LOWELL We got a guy...who wants to talk but he's constrained. (beat) What if he were "compelled"? MIKE WALLACE (eating) Oh, torture? Great ratings. MARK STERN What do you mean compelled? LOWELL (seriously) I mean compelled by a Justice Department, state courts, be a witness. That would cut through any confidentiality agreement, wouldn't it? MARK STERN Yeah... DEBBIE DELUCA What does that do? LOWELL What do you mean, what's it do? DEBBIE DELUCA What I mean is, like, how does it cut through the confidentiality agreement? LOWELL Because he has to reveal it in a court of law. It's on record, it's out. It's no secret anymore. So how can they restrain his speech or retaliate? It's out in the world... MARK STERN (nods) If you could engineer it into the court record, you might have something. They would have a helluva time trying to restrain his speech then, wouldn't they? Pause. JOHN HARRIS (still skeptical) Yeah, but what venue? And where does he get - does he have killer attorneys? LOWELL I don't think he's got any attorneys. MARK STERN He's gonna need attorneys who aren't afraid of risking years of litigation. And millions of dollars of their own dough in legal costs... LOWELL What do you say, Mike? What do you think? MIKE WALLACE (pause) Even if he gets the defense team, will he go for it? INT. A HIGH SCHOOL CAFETERIA, LOUISVILLE - DAY MRS. WATSON ...you're awfully overqualified, Dr. Wigand. The aftermath of a high school lunch. Tables, covered with litter, as far as the eye can see. And we see Jeffrey sitting with a formidable Black Woman in her mid-fifties, the High School Principal, CYNTHIA WATSON, drinking cups of coffee... WIGAND (after a beat, awkward) I'm trying to...start a new career... I believe I could be a good teacher... She's quiet. She senses this applicant has a lot on his mind. MRS. WATSON Let me give it some thought... WIGAND (selling) ...and not a lot of companies in the health-care field hire ex-tobacco scientists. She nods, studying him. They get up. INT. THE WIGANDS' HOUSE, LOUISVILLE - DAY The house is nearly empty. Liane, arms folded across her chest, is quietly standing in the empty living room. Jeffrey comes down the stairs... WIGAND That's it... And it's quiet. And Liane holds herself, overcome... LIANE (beat) That's where our babies were born... Debbie took her first steps, right there...in the grass. And they're quiet. LIANE (CONT'D) I didn't plan on this... Liane looks at him, afraid. And as he moves to hold her. WIGAND Hey, hey, hey, c'mon. C'mon. We can make this work for us. Okay? It's just...it's a smaller scale. Simpler...easier...more time. More time together. More time with the kids. More time for us, okay? It's just... Can you imagine me coming home from some job feeling good at the end of the day? This is gonna be better. This is gonna be better. And instead of this downturn turning them against each other, it brings them closer together. And as they stand in the empty house... INT. THE WIGANDS' NEW HOUSE - DAY We see unpacked boxes in the small 1970's kitchen. Country- western music is playing on a radio. And we see Liane busily putting things away in a cabinet. And, then, stops and looks out the window. She tightens a knob on a cabinet. There's a moment of domestic peace for her as she sees... EXT. THE WIGANDS' NEW HOUSE, THE BACKYARD - DAY Jeffrey with the Girls in a part of the backyard, kneeling in the dirt, planting a vegetable garden, putting in some small tomato trellises. We see the house, now. It's a small, one story. Deborah sees her mom and waves. It's an image from the 1950's post-war boom. Liane waves back from behind the pane of glass... INT. WIGANDS' HOUSE #2, BEDROOM - LATE NIGHT Jeffrey's asleep on his side next to Liane, her back to him. His arm is draped over her, protectively. There's a sound. He turns. And he sees Barbara in her nightgown, standing in the doorway... WIGAND Hey, baby. What's wrong? BARBARA (terrified, whispers) What's that outside, Daddy? WIGAND Did you see somebody or did you hear them? BARBARA I heard them. WIGAND Where? BARBARA In the backyard. Fast, soundlessly, he's out of bed into old moccasins and trousers... INT. THE WIGANDS' HOUSE, BASEMENT - LATE NIGHT Jeffrey goes into a corner of the basement, around the corner from the furnace, where his "office" is now. Unpacked boxes are on the floor. He fumbles with the combination lock on a small gun safe, lifts the lid, taking out a hand gun. Barbara followed him. WIGAND Sit at Daddy's desk, okay? Why don't you just sit up at the desk. Get out some paper and draw me a picture, okay? What are you gonna draw me, baby? An animal, something like that? You stay down here until Daddy gets back...alright, Barbara? You stay down here. He keeps it hidden from Barbara. He goes up the stairs. EXT. WIGANDS' HOUSE #2, BACKYARD - LATE NIGHT It's still. He steps further out onto the lawn with its dark shrubs and small tree in the corner. INT. WIGANDS' HOUSE #2, BASEMENT - LATE NIGHT Meanwhile, Barbara in the basement, starts as the water heater comes on, scaring her. She goes up the stairs to follow after her father... EXT. WIGANDS' HOUSE #2, BACKYARD - LATE NIGHT Meanwhile, Jeffrey has crossed towards the darker back corners. Sudden rustling. He spins, gun ready. And the yellow eyes of a RACCOON stare at him. WIGAND (to himself) You almost got your damn head blown off... The raccoon defiantly bares its teeth. Jeffrey starts to go...but he sees something and stops... Meanwhile, Barbara has come to the sliding glass door... Jeffrey sees one of the tomato trellises is crushed, stepped on...and in the vegetable garden's earth, are distinct, fresh, deep FOOTPRINTS... BARBARA'S VOICE (OVER) Daddy... Wigand steps between her and the garden, hiding it... EXTREMELY CLOSE ON JEFFREY, as he covers, trying to keep from his daughter the invasion, trying to control his emotions... WIGAND (reassuring her) It's just a raccoon, baby...nothing. He crosses to her, putting his arm, around her, walking her back inside... WIGAND (CONT'D) They're nocturnal. You know what that means? That means that they only come out at nighttime. He locks the sliding glass door, takes a last look outside. INT. LOWELL'S HOUSE IN BERKELEY - LATE AT NIGHT The Phone suddenly RINGS. Lowell asleep, alone... He gets it... LOWELL (sleepy) Yeah... INT. WIGANDS' NEW HOUSE, HALLWAY - LATE AT NIGHT It's dark, save a light from the living room. Liane, in bed, seemingly sleeping. And we see Jeffrey, just outside their door in the foyer, sitting on the floor against a curved wall, a drink at his side on the telephone... A man with no one to talk to... WIGAND (after a beat) Lowell... Jeffrey Wigand... INT. LOWELL'S HOUSE, BERKELEY - LATE AT NIGHT Lowell sits up... WIGAND'S VOICE (OVER) Is it too late? LOWELL No. No, it's okay... How's - how's the new place? INT. THE WIGANDS' NEW HOUSE - LATE AT NIGHT WIGAND The new place? New. INT. LOWELL'S HOUSE, BERKELEY - LATE AT NIGHT LOWELL (intuiting) You okay? WIGAND'S VOICE (OVER) Sure. Lowell knows he isn't... LOWELL You know, I was thinking of calling you tomorrow, anyway. (beat) How are your kids handling the new house? INT. WIGANDS' NEW HOUSE, LOUISVILLE - LATE AT NIGHT WIGAND Good. (beat) You have kids? LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) We have a couple. One's hers, one's mine. Everybody uses a different name. (wry) Modern marriage. (beat) How's Liane? WIGAND She's okay. He looks at Liane for beat. We SEE his POV in medium shot. Then he moves and sits on the floor in the living room. WIGAND (CONT'D) Hold on a minute, Lowell... (after a beat) ...somebody...may be following me. I don't know. They came on the property... LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) What do you mean followed you? Did you call the police? WIGAND I don't want to be paranoid... I mean, maybe it's a game. Some kind of mind game. LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) Well, what do you really think, though? WIGAND I don't know what the fuck I really think! Are they doing it? Is some crank doing it? Are they doing it to make me feel paranoid? Are they doing it for real and don't give a shit what I think? I don't know! I don't fucking know. And it's quiet again. INT. LOWELL'S HOUSE, BERKELEY - LATE AT NIGHT Lowell sitting in bed on the phone, alarmed, sharing Wigand's fears. LOWELL Jeffrey, describe for me in detail what happened. INT. WIGANDS' HOUSE, LOUISVILLE - LATE NIGHT And Jeffrey's emotions are back in check as... WIGAND Well, no, look...I mean, there was a footprint. Forget it. It's probably not important at all. (beat) You know, I got a job now. I'm teaching high school. Japanese and Chemistry. (beat) So, what were you calling about? LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) You called me. He takes another drink... WIGAND No, you said you were going to call me tomorrow. So, what about? LOWELL (after a beat) Oh, yes, yes, yes, I did...I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to hook up and talk to you. About what we were talking about in your car. WIGAND ...okay. LOWELL (after a beat) Makes you feel good? Putting what you know to use? Jeffrey's impressed by Lowell's perceptivity... WIGAND How'd you know that, Lowell? LOWELL It's obvious, isn't it? He looks at Liane in the next room, asleep. LOWELL (CONT'D) Hello. You there WIGAND Yeah... Look, thanks for talking. I'm sorry I woke you up. LOWELL It's okay. Jeffrey hesitates, holding the phone, then he hangs up...but the phone RINGS right away. WIGAND Lowell...? But there's thick silence. WIGAND (CONT'D) Who is this? Do not call here! Do not... They hang up. And he realizes he's talking to a DIAL TONE. He hangs up. And as he sits in the patch of light from a street lamp, the gun in his hand on his lap, to be up all night guarding his family... INT. THEIR BEDROOM - LATE NIGHT And past Liane's sleeping form down the hall into the living room is her husband, his back to her, sitting in the trapezoid of light. And as we DOLLY along her side, we come upon her face and discover she's been up all along and her eyes are pressed shut, her hands over her ears...her reaction to his raging on the phone. She's far from "OKAY." INT. A JAPANESE RESTAURANT, WASHINGTON D.C. - NIGHT And we see Lowell and Wigand sitting in their stocking feet at a traditional Japanese table in a private screened room... A traditionally-dressed Japanese Waitress waiting to take their order... Wigand conversing with her in Japanese... The Waitress formally nods, and leaves... LOWELL What did you get us? WIGAND Tempura... And Wigand drinks some more saki. WIGAND (cont'd) The internet said you did graduate work in Wisconsin, then went to UC La Jolla with Professor...Marcus? LOWELL Marcuse. Yeah. He was my mentor. He had a major influence on the New Left in the late '60s...and on me, personally. WIGAND Next to your father? LOWELL My father? What the hell's that got to do with my father? WIGAND Is that why you became a journalist? Then you get to ask all the questions? LOWELL You charge by the hour? WIGAND My father was a mechanical engineer...most ingenious man I ever knew. LOWELL Well, my father left us when I was five- years old. He was not the most ingenious man I ever knew... Let's get back to Brown & Williamson. If you decide to go on "60 Minutes," I got to know everything about why you got fired. WIGAND Why? LOWELL They're gonna dig up stuff from your past, they're gonna throw it at you. I got to know what they're gonna throw. You understand? WIGAND (concedes) I drink. A couple of occasions more than I should have. (thinks) I was cited for shoplifting once. But it was a mistake... (hesitant, after a beat) I pushed Liane one time. We were both stressed out because of the pressure. She went to her mother's. (out of the blue) I got fired because when I get angry I have difficulty censoring myself. And I don't like to be pushed around! LOWELL I'm not pushing you around! (after a beat) I'm asking you questions. WIGAND I'm just a commodity to you, aren't I? I could be anything. Right? Anything worth putting on between commercials... LOWELL (honest) ...to a network, probably, we're all commodities. (beat) To me? You are not a commodity. What you are is important. And he's begun to consciously or unconsciously "sell"... LOWELL (cont'd) You go public and thirty-million people hear what you got to say, nothing, I mean nothing, will ever be the same again. Wigand doesn't react. LOWELL (cont'd) You believe that? WIGAND (skeptical) No. LOWELL You should. Because when you're done, a judgment is going to go down in the court of public opinion, my friend. And that's the power you have. WIGAND You believe that? LOWELL I believe that? Yes, I believe that. WIGAND You believe that because you get information out to people...something happens? LOWELL Yes. WIGAND Maybe that's just what you've been telling yourself all these years to justify having a good job? Having status? And maybe for the audience, it's just voyeurism? Something to do on a Sunday night. And maybe it won't change a fucking thing. And people like myself and my family are left hung out to dry. Used up! Broke, alone! LOWELL Are you talking to me or did somebody else just walk in here?! I never abandoned a source! WIGAND I don't think you really understand -- LOWELL (running over) No, don't evade a choice you gotta make be questioning my reputation or "60 Minutes'" with this cheap skepticism! WIGAND I have to put my family's welfare on the line here, my friend! And what are you puttin' up? You're puttin' up words! LOWELL Words! While you've been dickin' around at fucking company golf tournaments, I been out in the world, giving my word and backing it up with action. Lowell is getting very close, in spite of the value of Wigand, to telling Jeff to take his story and stick it up his ass. LOWELL (cont'd) Now, are you going to go do this thing, or not? Wigand abruptly rises... WIGAND (surprisingly mild) I said I'd call the kids before they went to bed. Onisa... And turning, he crosses the restaurant. And that's where it hangs. INT. A CBS EDITING SUITE, NEW YORK - DAY And we see we're watching footage in an on-line editing bay from what we will learn is Lowell's "N.O.P.D. Blue" on police corruption in New Orleans. Lowell, TONY BALDO (his editor), Debbie and an intense YOUNG MAN wearing glasses, an Intern, looking at the cut. All the police are on horseback, lots of cops on horses. Lowell is waiting for a call to go through... LOWELL The stringer was supposed to be shooting B-roll on street cops in New Orleans. What's with all the horses? TONY BALDO Camera guy's got a thing about mounted police. LOWELL (re: horses) Don't any of these guys ride in cars or walk? TONY BALDO How long did he stay on this? LOWELL What was he seeing? DEBBIE DELUCA (into phone) Yes, hello... I'm trying to reach Mr. Richard Scruggs... INT. A LEAR JET - DAY And we see the PILOT, a fit-looking, unassuming man, wearing aviator glasses, in his late forties. A heavyset Man in his forties, riding up in the co-pilot's seat we'll come to know as RON MOTLEY. The Pilot's on a headset... He has a distinctive Southern accent... THE PILOT This is Richard Scruggs... DEBBIE DELUCA Could you hold on one second, please? (to Lowell) Lowell, I got him on the phone. LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) Hello, I'm Lowell Bergman. RICHARD SCRUGGS Hold on... Mobile approach...this is Lear November 643. Over. CONTROL OPERATOR'S VOICE (OVER) Go ahead 643. RICHARD SCRUGGS (after a beat) Request a flight level 220, on a heading of 284 degrees. Over. (after a beat) Mr. Bergman? LOWELL Yes, I'm right here. Could you call me back on a hard line? RICHARD SCRUGGS Alright. LOWELL Area code 212-555-0199. RICHARD SCRUGGS I'll call you then. INT. A LOUNGE, PRIVATE AVIATION TERMINAL - DAY Through the window, we see Scruggs' plane being refueled while Scruggs and Motley in a run-down lounge are talking on a SPEAKER PHONE with Lowell. They've taken over the Secretary's office for privacy. LOWELL (re: footage) What do we do with that? The phone rings. DEBBIE DELUCA I don't know. RICHARD SCRUGGS' VOICE (OVER) Richard Scruggs... LOWELL ...you filed a lawsuit against tobacco on behalf of the State of Mississippi, did you not? RICHARD SCRUGGS (nods) That's right... LOWELL (after a beat) Well, I'm working with someone, now, who was the former head of research at Brown & Williamson, a former corporate officer there. RICHARD SCRUGGS What's your interest in this, Mr. Bergman? LOWELL Well, he may tape an interview with us. And, we believe if his testimony showed up in a court record first, it would free him up from his confidentiality agreement and give him some protection. MOTLEY It could work. If it's public record, it's public record. LOWELL Yeah, and he's going to need legal representation. MOTLEY He sure as hell will. RICHARD SCRUGGS (a beat) Has he decided to go public? Because let me tell you, we've been doing this for three years now, and we've worked with a lot of corporate cases involving whistle-blowers, so we know... Big Tobacco will do everything in their power to stop him. So, is your man truly committed? LOWELL Well, actually, no. Well, he's on the fence. That's the point. Scruggs and Motley exchange a look... Motley shrugs... RICHARD SCRUGGS Well, we'd certainly be interested in making his acquaintance, but without knowing what he's going to do... LOWELL Well, would you want him to call you? Or, you want to call him? How do you want to do it? RICHARD SCRUGGS (no nonsense) It would be better if he called us. LOWELL Yeah. RICHARD SCRUGGS Alright? LOWELL Okay. Thank you. At this moment, these two attorneys are unsold on the prospect of Jeffrey Wigand. Scruggs disconnects. LOWELL (cont'd) Shit... INT. CBS EDITING SUITE, NEW YORK - DAY LOWELL (contemplating phone; to Debbie re: show) Oh, we need cops on the street. We don't need them on horses. DEBBIE DELUCA I don't know what he was thinking. LOWELL Oh, for God's sake, what has this guy got, a horse fetish? DEBBIE DELUCA Alright, alright. LOWELL Get me to New Orleans this afternoon. I'll shoot the fucking thing myself! TIGHTEN on mounted New Orleans police at crime scene, herding crowd. INT. THE WIGANDS' NEW HOUSE, KITCHEN - TWILIGHT Liane cooking dinner, making pasta. Ingredients, diced tomato, basil, are neatly ordered. She's waiting for water to boil. The kids are doing homework on the round table in the kitchenette. It's an idle moment. She's dazed-out watching them. DEBORAH What are you cooking? LIANE I'm cooking pasta primavera. DEBORAH Oh, I love that stuff. And now she hears from the basement the BELL RING on Jeffrey's computer. It's a tiny bell, incessant... She crosses to the basement stairs. LIANE I'm going to have to go downstairs. INT. WIGANDS' NEW HOUSE, BASEMENT OFFICE - NIGHT Liane down the stairs, approaching Jeffrey's computer. And she SEES an incoming E-mail icon - a large letter with wings - flying repetitively across the screen. The bell RINGING is louder. She calls-up the E-mail... On the screen in large RED letters: WE WILL KILL YOU. WE WILL KILL ALL OF YOU. SHUT THE FUCK UP. And now Liane is shouting and running up the stairs and... LIANE Debbie, Barbara... Debbie! EXT. THE WIGANDS' HOUSE, LOUISVILLE - EVENING Jeffrey, having arrived home from work, pulls the mail out of the mailbox, now stands, frozen, staring at something... And he sees, standing upright in the back of the mail box, like a monument of threat, a single hollow point .38 CALIBER BULLET. He freezes... And simultaneously... Liane and the Girls are running toward him...like in a bad fucking dream. He's looking at them. Liane is saying something about E-mail, but his slow-motion attention is still arrested by the statuesque bullet. As they close on him... EXT. NEW ORLEANS, THE FRENCH QUARTER - NIGHT And we see Lowell lit by FLASHING POLICE LIGHTS. We're at a crime scene. Uniformed cops on horseback. Just arrived, the Cameraman's unloading his gear, preparing to shoot B-roll. LOWELL What happened? COP Dispatch received a call of shots fired in the area. Uniforms arrived on the scene and found this white male subject shot to death. LOWELL Was it gang related? COP There's no indication as far as a tag or an advertisement... Police moving around as Lowell's cell phone RINGS... LOWELL (answering) Excuse me. Yeah... INT. WIGANDS' HOUSE, BEDROOM - NIGHT WIGAND They're terrorizing us. Death threats?! To my family? My kids?! LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) What are you talking about? WIGAND Someone put a bullet in my mailbox. LOWELL Jeff, call the FBI right away... WIGAND They do this with impunity! LOWELL Jeff... WIGAND They get to go home at night. What does it cost these people to do this to us? Nothing?! My girls are crying, so fuck them! I want to tape! I'm done thinking about it. LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) (frustrated) I heard you. But I got to arrange a legal defense first. I got to get you to testify in court, get it on public record. WIGAND (cuts in) Then hold it off the air until you got that. But I want to go to New York. And I want to go on the record. Right now! LOWELL Good. But Jeff... WIGAND I'll call them, Lowell. INT. WIGAND'S HOUSE, LOUISVILLE - NIGHT And two older, local FBI AGENTS #1 and #2 are sitting with Jeffrey in his living room... FBI AGENT #2 Did you handle the round, Mr. Wigand? WIGAND Yes, I'm afraid I did. FBI AGENT #1 We won't be able to lift usable prints. FBI AGENT #2 Do you own a gun, Mr. Wigand? WIGAND A gun? Yes. FBI AGENT #2 What caliber is your gun? WIGAND What caliber is my gun? FBI AGENT #2 Yes, sir. What caliber is your gun? WIGAND (a dawning realization) What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? Now one of the kids is crying, Liane trying to calm her, takes her out of the room. WIGAND (CONT'D) (a beat, realizing) You think I put that bullet in the mailbox myself...? FBI AGENT #2 If we could take a look, Mr. Wigand... And he gets up... They follow him into the bedroom. He unlocks the side drawer on his night stand, taking out a gun, giving it to one of the Agents. FBI AGENT #1 Why do you keep this gun? WIGAND I don't think it's unconstitutional yet to own a gun. I'm a target shooter. FBI AGENT #2 That bullet was for a .38 caliber. Do you own a .38? WIGAND Yes, I do. A .38 Target Master. In my gun safe downstairs. A .45 Gold Cup. A .22 target pistol. So what? FBI AGENT #2 (after a beat) Do you have a history of emotional problems, Mr. Wigand? WIGAND Yes. Yes, I do. (beat) Yes, I get extremely emotional when assholes put bullets in my mailbox...! And we hear Liane's voice from downstairs... LIANE'S VOICE (OVER) (upset) I didn't tell you that so you could just pick it up and take it away. Jeffrey! And we see Liane following FBI Agent #3, coming up the stairs from the basement, and the Agent is carrying Jeffrey's computer... WIGAND What's going on? LIANE I told him that you had an E-mail death threat that said if you didn't shut the "F" up, they were going to kill you... Agent #3 starts out of the house with the computer followed by #2. Jeffrey runs out after them. EXT. THE WIGANDS' HOUSE - NIGHT WIGAND (outraged) You can't take that... It's personal property...! FBI AGENT #2 (OR #3) We have a search warrant, Mr. Wigand. There's been a death threat. WIGAND (after him) ...my files! Personal correspondence... Agent #3 ignores him, putting the computer in the trunk of their car. And FBI Agent #1, the .38 bullet in a baggie, comes out of the house. WIGAND (CONT'D) ...letters to my brother...my will. His shoes slip on the grass and he falls. And the FBI are getting into their car. And NEIGHBORS have come out, watching them. Liane and the girls, standing halfway down the front lawn, the neighbors looking at them. She and Jeffrey look at each other. Will she go to him or not? She goes to him as he rises... WIGAND (cont'd) That computer has everything... FBI AGENT #2 You alright, Mr. Wigand? FBI AGENT #1 We need to take a look at your gun safe, Mr. Wigand. EXT. NEW ORLEANS, THE FRENCH QUARTER - NIGHT LOWELL (interrupts) I'm telling you, your agents in that office are acting improperly! Now, who are they trying to protect? And we see a Man in his early forties, a neatly-dressed man who prides himself on his appearance, at his desk in the Bureau (FBI). BILL ROBERTSON. He's completely distracted, focused on agent travel orders... BILL ROBERTSON'S VOICE (OVER) Let me tell you something, Lowell. Look, look, look. You're talking about two agents in a regional office in Louisville. I got the goddamn Unabomber threatening to blow up LAX! I gotta move 45 agents from all over the country into L.A. Alright? When I get a chance, I'll give it a look... LOWELL (heated) You better take a good look! Because I'm getting two things: pissed off and curious! Now, any of these guys been offered jobs in corporate security after they retire? Either one of those guys have ex-agent pals already in those jobs? Like, for instance, their ex-supervisor, who's already at Brown & Williamson as we fucking speak? INT. BILL ROBERTSON'S OFFICE, WASHINGTON - NIGHT BILL ROBERTSON (beat) I'll give it a look. LOWELL You're getting my drift? BILL ROBERTSON I'll give it a look. He hangs up. INT. DINING ROOM, THE FOUR SEASONS HOTEL, NEW YORK - NIGHT And we slide by some elegant diners to fall onto Lowell and Mike Wallace with Jeffrey and Liane in the Hotel's dining room, having ordered dinner. LOWELL So, is everything okay? MIKE WALLACE How are the rooms? Comfortable? LIANE (to Mike) Yes, very. You know, I enjoy your work so much...when you're talking to somebody, I always feel like I'm right there. And she laughs... MIKE WALLACE Thank you got saying that... LOWELL Do you think we could talk about the taping? Tomorrow's taping, just so we can get it out of the way and order... MIKE WALLACE Yeah, well, questions will go toward what work you did there, why you were fired. And others will deal... LIANE (not sure she quite heard) ...taping? (beat) What are you taping? WIGAND I'm doing an interview. LIANE (whispers) An interview! Do you know what they will do to us...! I thought... Sorry. But she suddenly gets up and leaves, hurrying out of the dining room. And Jeffrey oddly doesn't move. LOWELL (trying to intervene) Liane, this is a preliminary... (after a beat) You didn't tell her we were taping? What did she think she was coming to New York for? WIGAND ...to talk about it. To think about it. I had a plan to ease her into it. But, I really - I didn't know how to do that... Jeffrey abruptly crosses to the nearby Bar. LOWELL Oh, man. MIKE WALLACE Who are these people? LOWELL (frustrated) Ordinary people! Under extraordinary pressure, Mike. What the hell do you expect? Grace and consistency? And Lowell leaves the table. And as Mike Wallace sits at the table, looking around, wondering what the fuck he's doing there. INT. THE BATHROOM, NEW YORK HOTEL - NIGHT Liane folds her arms protectively across her chest... INT. A STUDIO, CBS - MORNING And we see a small TAPING STUDIO separated by flats and black curtains from other CBS News sets. Cameras are set up. INT. THE STUDIO, CBS - DAY And we enter mid-scene on Jeffrey in a more formal demeanor, sitting in a chair, Mike Wallace sitting across from him, under the lights, taping an interview. Lowell, off camera. MIKE WALLACE You heard Mr. Sandefur say before Congress that he believed nicotine was not addictive...? WIGAND (nods) ...I believe Mr. Sandefur perjured himself because I watched those testimonies very carefully. Lowell's reaction. Jeffrey's statements are stunning and powerful revelations...and dangerous ones to make. MIKE WALLACE All of us did. There was this whole line of people...whole line of CEOs up there all swearing. WIGAND Part of the reason I'm here is I felt that their representation clearly misstated, at least within Brown & Williamson's representation, clearly misstated...what is common language within the company...we are in the nicotine delivery business. MIKE WALLACE And that's what cigarettes are for...? WIGAND A delivery device for nicotine. MIKE WALLACE A delivery device for nicotine. Put it in your mouth, light it up, and you're gonna get your fix... WIGAND You're gonna get your fix... MIKE WALLACE You're saying that Brown & Williamson manipulates and adjusts the nicotine fix, not by artificially adding nicotine, but by enhancing the effect of nicotine through the use of chemical elements such as ammonia... WIGAND (nods) The process is known as "impact boosting..." While not spiking nicotine, they clearly manipulate it. There's extensive use of this technology, know as "ammonia chemistry." It allows for the nicotine to be more rapidly absorbed in the lung and therefore affect the brain and central nervous system. INT. THE STUDIO, CBS - LATER WIGAND The straw that broke the camel's back for me and really put me in trouble with Sandefur was a compound called "coumarin." When I came on board at B&W, they had tried to transition from coumarin to a similar flavor that would give the same taste, and had been unsuccessful. I wanted it out immediately. I was told that it would affect sales, so I should mind my own business. I constructed a memo to Mr. Sandefur indicating I could not in conscience continue with coumarin in a product that we now knew, we had documentation, was similar to coumadin, a lung-specific carcinogen... MIKE WALLACE And you sent the document forward to Sandefur? WIGAND I sent the document forward to Sandefur. I was told that we would continue to work on a substitute, we weren't going to remove it as it would impact sales, and that that was his decision. MIKE WALLACE In other words, you were charging Sandefur and Brown & Williamson with ignoring health considerations consciously... WIGAND Most certainly. MIKE WALLACE And on March 24, Thomas Sandefur, CEO of Brown & Williamson had you fired. And the reason he gave you? WIGAND Poor communication skills. MIKE WALLACE And, do you wish you hadn't come forward? You wish you hadn't blown the whistle? WIGAND Yeah, there are times I wish I hadn't done it. There are times I feel compelled to do it. If you asked me would I do it again? Do I think it's worth it? Yeah, I think it's worth it. INT. A HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE CLASS, LOUISVILLE - AFTERNOON Not too many kids paying attention. Meanwhile, Jeffrey has written his name on the blackboard. WIGAND Hi. KIDS (in unison) Hi. WIGAND My name is Jeff Wigand. You can call me Mr. Wigand; you can call me Dr. Wigand--I have a Ph.D. in biochemistry and endocrinology; you can call me Jeff... (beat) Anything else you want to call me...you'll have to do so in private... (a few kids smile) Okay... I find chemistry to be magical. I find it an adventure. An exploration into the building blocks of our physical universe... (beat) So, how many of you have taken chemistry before? Nobody raises their hands. WIGAND (CONT'D) (easy smile) Okay...I've never taught it before, so we're gonna be fine. A couple of laughs... And we feel Jeffrey, for the first time is in a milieu that suits him. WIGAND (cont'd) Our first experiment is... (holds up cigarette lighter) ...going to be measuring the molecular weight of butane... INT. SCRUGGS' OFFICE Scruggs' office is decorated with watercolors of Phantom jets and A-6s as Scruggs takes off his glasses... CHARLENE He's on line three. INT. HIGH SCHOOL CORRIDOR Jeffrey Wigand is on a pay phone in the corridor crowded with students... RICHARD SCRUGGS Hello. WIGAND Mr. Scruggs, Jeff Wigand. Lowell Bergman said I should give you a call... INT. SCRUGGS' OFFICE RICHARD SCRUGGS My co-counsel, Ron Motley, and I have filed a lawsuit against the tobacco industry on behalf of the State of Mississippi to get the state reimbursed Medicaid costs for treating people with smoking-related illness. (beat) If you'd be interested in talking to us, we'd certainly like to talk to you... WIGAND When should we do this? EXT. WIGAND'S HOUSE #2, LOUISVILLE - TWILIGHT Jeffrey drives up the block and onto his driveway. Seeing a MAN in a suit, an ear piece in his ear, disappearing around the corner of his house, Jeffrey leaps out of the car. But the front door's open. So instead of chasing after, he runs inside... INT. THE WIGAND'S HOUSE, LIVING ROOM - DAY/TWILIGHT And he sees another Man is in the living room... WIGAND Who the hell are you?! What are you doing in my house?! And he sees Lowell enter from the dining room... LOWELL It's okay, Jeff. SECURITY GUARD Mr. Wigand, you need to speak to... LOWELL (wry) It's okay. You got your own security now... Wigand catches his breath. WIGAND Lowell, I can't afford -- LOWELL ...they "volunteered." A friend owns a large security company. TALIFARO How are you doing, Mr. Wigand? I'm Jon Talifaro. There'll be three of us on detail. LIANE (crossing through) I'm going to the store. Please explain our new "houseguests" to your children. And Wigand looks at Lowell... Barbara comes into the living room and holds onto her father's leg. WIGAND I called Richard Scruggs in Mississippi... LOWELL I heard. WIGAND I'm going to be a witness for them in their litigation. So I'm going to fly to Pascagoula to give a deposition... LOWELL I know. I'm going to go there tonight... WIGAND Did you have a good day? DEBORAH Yes, I did. I had a great day. WIGAND Coffee, Lowell? LOWELL Yeah. (to kids) Want to play that game we were playing before? You know, I think you got it up to five. I was ahead of you. She goes over and holds his hand. And as he holds her hand, seeing what his life has become, he looks up and his glance connects with Lowell... INT. THE KITCHEN, THE WIGANDS' HOUSE - NIGHT We see out the window a Security Guard, incongruous, walking by. And we see Liane, finished with the dinner dishes, silently wiping off the sink. There's a pall you could cut with a knife. A moment, and Jeffrey comes in the kitchen door from the garden... He stops to wash his hands in the sink. LIANE Please don't wash your hands in the sink. WIGAND Where should I wash them? LIANE Use the bathroom. WIGAND What's the difference... LIANE That's for food. But he ignores her, washing his hands... And she turns the water off. He turns it back on. He thinks, then turns it off. Then she turns it on. LIANE (cont'd) Leave it on! Just leave it on, okay?! And she turns and leaves the room, coldly, all her anger repressed. For Jeffrey, everything else and now this? The running faucet. EXT. THE WIGANDS' HOUSE, LOUISVILLE - LATE NIGHT The house on the quiet suburban street. A Security Guard, incongruous, a noticeable bulge where his shoulder holster is, sitting watch under the porch light on the small front porch in a metal porch chair. INT. THE BASEMENT, THE WIGANDS' HOUSE - LATE NIGHT And we see Jeffrey, unable to sleep, sitting at his desk, alone in the basement, listening to classical music. He instinctively turns. And he sees Liane, in her bathrobe, has come down to sit on the basement stairs. He looks over at her. And he thinks she's come down to make up. And all she really wants him to do is say, "I need you..." But he can't... And like ships that pass in the night, nothing's said. It's quiet. She puts her hands protectively in her robe pockets. And she starts to cry... LIANE I don't think I can do this... I want to stand by my husband... I really do, Jeffrey. But I don't think I can do this anymore. I am so sorry... WIGAND Can we talk about this when I get back? LIANE Yes...Jeffrey. She goes back up the stairs. And as Jeffrey sits in the basement, and the music plays. INT. THE LOUISVILLE AIRPORT - DAY We see Jeffrey and his Security Man. He passes a small Filipino Woman in a nurse's uniform and a Man in clerical garb, who hands him a small American Flag, asking for donations. And, now, he passes through the metal detector. He nods thanks and walks towards us, relaxing, looking behind every so often to see if anybody is following him. As he passes Gate 3, he HEARS over his shoulder... THE MAN (friendly) Jeff...? Jeffrey turns and the Man throws a sheaf of SUBPOENAS at his chest... THE MAN (CONT'D) (nasty) You've been served. And he turns and walks off. And as Jeffrey looks down at the subpoenas... INT. RICHARD SCRUGGS' KITCHEN - 7:00 A.M. Jeffrey is sitting with Scruggs and Motley in Scruggs' kitchen around a semi-circular counter. Coffee and sweet rolls. It's casual. No one's dressed for court. Scruggs has been looking through the sheaf of subpoenas. About Motley, we sense power held in reserve. RICHARD SCRUGGS Now, what this one is, is a temporary restraining order, a gag order, issued by a Kentucky court. Meanwhile, a movie-star handsome man in shirtsleeves and a tie, a coffee cup in his hand, enters and sits casually on the arm of a chair. RICHARD SCRUGGS (CONT'D) (introducing) Jeff Wigand, Michael Moore. MICHAEL MOORE Good to meet you, Dr. Wigand. RICHARD SCRUGGS Mike's our Attorney General down here. (to Moore) I was just explaining to Jeff, they got a Kentucky court to issue a gag order to stop his deposition today. MICHAEL MOORE Right. RICHARD SCRUGGS Now, they tried to get the Mississippi Court to honor it, but the judge threw it out... (to Jeffrey) However, for you, there is a more perilous effect to the Kentucky gag order... MICHAEL MOORE (after a beat) Dr. Wigand, you do understand what could happen, don't you? WIGAND I'm not free to testify...here...? MOTLEY That's right. If you violate the Kentucky order, when you step foot back in Kentucky, they can find you in contempt and they can incarcerate you. And you ought to know that. And Jeffrey fairly turns white, it's never occurred to him he might go to jail... WIGAND Jail? RICHARD SCRUGGS Possibly, yes. That is one of the possible consequences of your testifying here today. That's right... WIGAND How does one..."go...to...jail?" What does my family do? Go on welfare? If my wife has to work? Who's going to look after the kids? Put food on the table? My children need me. If I'm not teaching...there's no medical...no medical...even on co-pay, that's like... Tuition... MICHAEL MOORE Dr. Wigand, listen, you may not be able to do this thing. As I understand from Dick, you're our key witness. And, I hope you don't withdraw. I guess we'd all understand if you did... (at watch) Guys, I've got to go. I'm gonna be late for court. I'll see y'all a little later. Dr. Wigand, good luck. He leaves. And Jeffrey's quiet, frightened. Having shaken the departing Moore's hand, he now turns away from Scruggs and Motley, thinking about consequences. RICHARD SCRUGGS I know what you're facing, Jeff. And, I think I know how you're feeling... Jeffrey's skeptical anybody could know "how it is"... RICHARD SCRUGGS (CONT'D) (low, personal) In the Navy I flew A-6's off carriers... In combat, events have a duration of seconds, sometimes minutes... But what you're going through goes on day in and day out. Whether you're ready for it or not, week in, week out... Month after month after month. Whether you're up or whether you're down. You're assaulted psychologically. You're assaulted financially, which is its own special kind of violence. Because it's directed at your kids...what school can you afford... How will that affect their lives. You're asking yourself: Will that limit what they may become? You feel your whole family's future's compromised...held hostage... (after a beat) I do know how it is. EXT. RICHARD SCRUGGS' HOUSE, PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI - DAY A white, traditional, Southern house, with a veranda and gables...a large front lawn with weeping willows. And we see Lowell, hands in his pockets, not an insider or an outsider, waiting alone on the expansive lawn. The front door opens. A Mississippi State Trooper, putting on his round brimmed hat comes out and crosses the driveway. Then Jeffrey coming out with Motley. Motley talks to him on the veranda for a moment and then heads towards his car. Meanwhile, Jeffrey comes down over to Lowell on the lawn. And Jeffrey looks off, across the street from the house, at the Gulf. And we see the street is blockaded by Mississippi State Police cars. An armed camp. Other men in suits, Lawyers and state officials, wait. Ron Motley gets in his car and drives away. LOWELL You attract a crowd. WIGAND (smiles, wry) Yeah, great. LOWELL I heard about the Kentucky gag order... WIGAND I don't know what to do. And they're quiet, a breeze of the Gulf ruffling their coats... He looks out at the water, a cargo container ship passing by. He watches its slow progress... And Jeffrey quietly starts to walk off across the lawn, hands in his pockets, shoulders bent, head down, thinking... And Richard Scruggs comes out, tying his tie, to wait beside Lowell... EXT. COURTHOUSE, CANTY STREET, PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI - DAY Motley's car parks, and he and an Assistant are approached by a flurry of media from the parking lot behind us, crossing Canty Street to intercept him. And we SEE the lot is jammed with Mercedes-Benzes, Town Cars and limousines belonging to the 150-200 Big Tobacco, Wall Street lawyers. Some hang out by their cars, killing time. It's a tailgate party. Beyond them are trucks and vans with satellite dishes supporting the media circus. They're all here for Jeff's deposition. The scale of it dwarfs the plebeian storefront with its sign "Temporary Jackson County Courthouse"...into which Motley enters... EXT. RICHARD SCRUGGS' HOUSE, PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI - DAY Jeffrey contemplating. INT. COURTROOM, PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI - DAY One TOBACCO LAWYER, an Edward Bennett-type while waiting is on his cell phone... TOBACCO LAWYER (into phone) Hold on a second... (seeing Motley enter; to Jr. Lawyer) Would you please ask Mr. Motley if he expects his witness to appear or not...? JR. LAWYER crosses to Motley. EXT. SCRUGGS' HOUSE, DOCK - DAY Jeffrey alone on the jetty, looking out to sea. Trying to decide, trying to untangle identity and consequence. A moment. He turns, crossing to Lowell and Scruggs. Then. it's the three men, standing on the lawn. Time seems to slow...all of them aware it's a critical decision, personally and historically... WIGAND (severely conflicted) I can't seem to find...the criteria to decide. It's too big a decision to make without being resolved...in my own mind. They're quiet. Jeffrey, getting nowhere. Lowell offers... LOWELL Maybe things have changed... Long pause on Jeffrey as he contemplates his future. And something just got resolved. He asks Lowell, rhetorically... WIGAND What's changed? LOWELL (unsure) You mean...since this morning? WIGAND No. I mean since whenever... Nothing's changed. Wigand looks at them. He found his own answer. WIGAND (CONT'D) Fuck it. Let's go to court. And Dick Scruggs and Lowell look at this normal, somewhat flawed, very courageous man... RICHARD SCRUGGS (to unseen staff) Dr. Wigand would like to leave now. And there's a sudden flurry of activity. Jeffrey and Scruggs walk to a Mississippi State Police car. Lowell gets into his car and drives away, separately. Police, State Officials, run to their cars. Cars starting, lights flashing, Wigand's car pulls into position. INT. SCRUGGS' CAR - JEFFREY - DAY in the back seat with Scruggs. The driver's a State Policeman. Jeffrey watches the small town of empty lots, old buildings, a 1930's Deco school pass by. It's all heightened, especially vivid to his eyes somehow. And he exhales heavily to calm himself, to focus... EXT. THE COURTHOUSE, PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI - DAY Some of the Tobacco Lawyers, their jackets off, still hanging across Canty Street by their cars. And now they see the police lights turning, coming around a corner, moving towards the courthouse. The caravan stops. First, Scruggs gets out. A moment, then Jeffrey appears. And the Reporters pounce on Jeffrey, cameras flashing...Mississippi Police leading him through the crowd... Moore appears at courtroom door (already there). And as he's whisked away into the courtroom. INT. THE COURTROOM, PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI - DAY The tobacco lawyers become dead quiet. Cell phones are hung up. Newspapers are put away. Jackets are donned. This is now very serious business. Motley meets Jeffrey, all eyes on him. MOTLEY Okay, Jeff, I'm going to sit you down at that table over there. I'm going to start as fast as possible. I don't want to give them a chance to get another restraining order, okay? Let's go. MICHAEL MOORE Good luck, Doc. Motley calmly motions Wigand to take a chair. He settles in. STENOGRAPHER Please stand. Raise your right hand... Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God? WIGAND I do. STENOGRAPHER You may be seated. MOTLEY You understand, Dr. Wigand, you are under oath. This is a sworn deposition. There's no judge. It's not a trial. (understatement of the century) Will you state your name for the record. WIGAND (after a beat) Jeffrey S. Wigand. He spells it for them... EXT. THE COURTHOUSE, PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI - DAY Lowell, waiting with the other journalists... PHOTOGRAPHER Got any idea what's going on in there? LOWELL No, I don't have a clue. INT. THE COURTROOM, PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI - DAY Motley still conducting the inquiry... And the tobacco lawyers, like a pack of dogs, waiting to pounce... WIGAND That is correct. MOTLEY In other words, it acts as a drug? TOBACCO LAWYER Object to the form of the question! MOTLEY It acts as a drug on the body? TOBACCO LAWYER Object to the form! MOTLEY It acts as a... TOBACCO LAWYER Object! MOTLEY There an echo in here? Your objection's been recorded. She typed it into her little machine over there. It's on the record. So now I'll proceed with my deposition of my witness. Does it act as a drug? TOBACCO LAWYER (shouts) Dr. Wigand. I am instructing you... (to Wigand) ...not to answer that question in accordance to the terms of the contractual obligations undertaken by you not to disclose any information about your work at the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company. And in accordance with the force and effect of the temporary restraining order that has been entered against you to by the court in the State of Kentucky! That means you don't talk! (beat) Mr. Motley, we have rights, here... MOTLEY (explodes) Oh, you got rights and lefts! Ups and downs and middles! So what?! You don't get to instruct anything around here! This is not North Carolina, not South Carolina nor Kentucky. This is the sovereign State of Mississippi's proceeding. Wipe that smirk off your face! Dr. Wigand's deposition will be part of this record. And I'm going to take my witness' testimony! Whether the hell you like it or not! (to Wigand) Answer the question, Dr... WIGAND (slams it home) Yes. It produces a physiological response, which meets the definition of a drug! Nicotine is associated with impact, with satisfaction. It has a pharmacological effect that crosses the blood-brain barrier intact... MOTLEY Thank you, Doctor. Thank you. EXT. THE SCRUGGS' HOUSE, PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI - NIGHT Lowell stands on the porch looking out at the rain. There's a slight sound. He turns. And Jeffrey's come outside. He stands leaning on the porch railing, looking out at the rain and windswept trees. They're quiet. They share a look. They nod to each other. The smallest nod of accomplishment. And they're there on the porch, alone, outside the house in Pascagoula, Mississippi. INT. CBS EDITING ROOM, NEW YORK - AFTERNOON We see Lowell, unusually buoyant in the same clothes as yesterday. He's working with Tony Baldo on a cut of the show, the net result of his architecture of events, his combination of persuasion and integrity... We see on the Avid monitor a single of Jeffrey... WIGAND (on monitor) "Part of the reason I'm here is I felt that their representation clearly, at least within..." LOWELL Run that Sandefur piece on "nicotine's not addictive." Run that on-camera. Then cut right to Wigand with "I believe they perjured..." Then go wide to the CEOs all taking the oath. Back on Jeff and play the pause after the word "felt" on the B-side... Widen to include Debbie DeLuca, the Intern, two other Editors, Felling. They have gathered behind Lowell in the doorway. This is a hot show and it's generated excitement among Lowell's co-workers. And while Baldo cuts, we see... INT. CBS, CORRIDOR OUTSIDE EDITING ROOM - DAY ...the group has spilled out the doorway, watching Lowell's story come together. Beyond them, approaching, is Mike Wallace, coming to work... BILL FELLING (leaving) ...helluva show, Mike. Explosive material. People separate as Mike pushes in. Lowell sees Mike. While Tony Baldo is making the edits on the Avid... LOWELL (to Mike) It went great in Mississippi, Mike. MIKE WALLACE Good. Don Hewitt enters from the corridor without jacket. DON HEWITT I heard Wigand's deposition got sealed. LOWELL Yeah, they argued he was going to reveal the secret formula of "Kools" to the world. (seriously) "Sealed" doesn't hurt Scruggs' litigation, and since we're the only ones with the story, I believe we're sitting on an exclusive. MIKE WALLACE I like that... DON HEWITT Corporate has some questions. We've got a meeting at Black Rock first thing in the morning. LOWELL When's the air date? DEBBIE DELUCA (to Lowell) Excuse me, Lowell. Sharon's on line 3. LOWELL Tell her I'll call her back in ten. BALDO Here we go. Baldo now runs Lowell's edit of the above sequence. And we SEE THE IMMEDIATE IMPACT. Sandefur in CLOSE-UP states "I believe that nicotine is not addictive." Wigand in matching CLOSE-UP states "I believe he perjured himself." Then all seven CEOs of Big Tobacco stand up and raise their hands and take an oath in front of Congress to tell the truth while Wallace says "...the whole line of people, the whole line of CEO's up there, all swearing that." And Wigand says off-screen with great emphasis "Part of the reason I'm here is I FELT"...and it cuts to Wigand for a pause that makes the word "FELT" resound and, then, he goes on to say on-camera "that their representation clearly misstated what they commonly knew. We're a nicotine delivery business." We see the combination of art and truth woven into impact that has an audacity that's stirring and beautiful... EXT. LOUISVILLE - DUSK We see an anonymous rental car moving through downtown Louisville. INT. THE RENTAL CAR - NIGHT It's Jeffrey in the front seat, driven by one of his security men. He's coming home under the cover of darkness. They pass a FLAMING CAR on the freeway shoulder. Jeffrey turns to stare at it. They turn off onto city streets and stop at a light. Jeffrey's nervous. Jeffrey instinctively turns. A Police Car stops alongside. The Policeman looks at him. Eyes meet. Jeffrey looks away. The signal takes forever. It changes. And as the Police Car moves off... EXT. WIGANDS' HOUSE - NIGHT The car's stopped at the curb. Jeffrey gets out. He starts up the walk, and the Second Security Guard quickly crosses the lawn to intercept him... And Jeff opens the door going inside, anxious to be home... INT. WIGANDS' HOUSE - NIGHT The house is quiet, dark. Too quiet. Too dark. Something isn't right. He crosses to one of the children's rooms...the master bedroom. The lights are on. Both rooms are empty. He goes into the kitchen and sees a note that's been left for him... He opens it. He sits heavily in a chair, reading the note. The Security Guard peers... And as Jeffrey sits in the silent house, the hero come home... INT. THE CONFERENCE ROOM, CBS - DAY We're at a table. Mike and Lowell laugh at some joke while HELEN CAPERELLI, CBS GENERAL COUNSEL, enters with the President of CBS News, ERIC KLUSTER. HELEN CAPERELLI Shall I send for coffee? Sorry I'm late. MIKE WALLACE No, no, we're fine... HELEN CAPERELLI Are you sure? Also there is Don Hewitt. Caperelli is too well put together, too practiced, too polished. They nod. They don't need coffee. HELEN CAPERELLI (CONT'D) Alright, I thought we'd get together because there's a legal concept that has been getting some new attention recently, "tortious interference." (beat) If two people have an agreement, like a confidentiality agreement, and one of them breaks it because they are induced to do so by a 3rd party, the 3rd party can be sued for damages for interfering...hence, "tortious interference." DON HEWITT Interfering? That's what we do. LOWELL I think what we're trying to tell you is that it happens all the time. This is a news organization. People are always telling us things they shouldn't. We have to verify if it's true and in the public interest... And if it is, we air it. MIKE WALLACE After we corroborate it. That's why we've never lost a lawsuit and run a classy show. (impatient, now) Anything else? HELEN CAPERELLI And "60 Minutes'" verification is exact. And precise. And I don't think it would hurt to make sure you're right...on this one. DON HEWITT Why? You think we have liability? What's the CBS News' position, Eric? ERIC KLUSTER There's a possibility, it's rather remote... HELEN CAPERELLI But one we have to check on, Mike. I've retained outside counsel to do exactly that. On a segment, I might add, that's already rife with problems... LOWELL What does that mean? "Rife with -- ?" HELEN CAPERELLI I'm told unusual promises were made to Wigand. LOWELL No, only that we would hold the story until it was safe for him... HELEN CAPERELLI (cuts in) And, I'm told there are questions as to our "star witness'" veracity. LOWELL (trying to control his anger) His "veracity" was good enough for the State of Mississippi. HELEN CAPERELLI (historic) Our standards have to be higher than anyone else's, because we are the standard...for everyone else... Whatever that means... LOWELL (wry) Well, as a "standard"...I'll hang with "is the guy telling the truth?" HELEN CAPERELLI Well, with tortious interference, I'm afraid...the greater the truth, the greater the damage. LOWELL Come again? HELEN CAPERELLI They own the information he's disclosing. The truer it is, the greater the damage to them. If he lied, he didn't disclose their information. And the damages are smaller. LOWELL Is this "Alice in Wonderland"? MIKE WALLACE You said "on this one." What about "this one"? And Lowell hears a changed note in Wallace's voice. After a beat. HELEN CAPERELLI (familiar, seductive) If this holds up, and it very well may not, Mike...but, if it did. And we aired this segment? And CBS was sued by Brown & Williamson? I think we could be at grave risk. MIKE WALLACE (a beat) How grace? HELEN CAPERELLI (and she's been waiting for this) Well, at the end of the day...because of your segment...the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company...could own CBS. As if on cue, the alarm on Helen Caperelli's watch beeps. She glances at it. HELEN CAPERELLI (CONT'D) You know, I am sorry. But I'm due upstairs. She gets up, gathering her things. LOWELL Is CBS corporate telling CBS News do not go to air with this story? HELEN CAPERELLI You're getting ahead of yourself. We're all in this together. We're all CBS. We'll find out soon. Thank you, gentlemen. And taking up her briefcase, she leaves. Don and Mike rise. LOWELL "Tortious interference"? Sounds like a disease caught by a radio. DON HEWITT (to Mike) Lunch? MIKE WALLACE Sure. (to Lowell) Don't worry, we call the shots around here. Lowell finds himself angry and alone. He crosses to the window and pulls out his cell phone and goes to work. DEBBIE DELUCA'S VOICE (OVER) Hello? LOWELL (into phone) Debbie, it's me. I want you to check some filings and give me John Wilson's number at Bear-Stern. INT. CBS, HEWITT'S OFFICE - DAY LOWELL What now? DON HEWITT Kluster's coming over. Hewitt's on an unrelated call. Lowell crosses to look out the window, a manila folder (the filing) under his arm with whatever he found out, like a bomb, feels distant from these people. The door opens, and Eric Kluster, the President of CBS News enters... ERIC KLUSTER Hello, Lowell, Mike, Don. Hewitt hangs up the phone. ERIC KLUSTER (CONT'D) There has been so much soul searching about this Wigand, I've decided we should cut an alternate version of the show without his interview. LOWELL So, what happened to Ms. Caperelli's checking with outside counsel first, all that crap? ERIC KLUSTER That's happening. And, hopefully we won't have to use the alternate, but we should have it in the can. LOWELL I'm not touching my film... ERIC KLUSTER I'm afraid you are. LOWELL No, I'm not... ERIC KLUSTER We're doing this with or without you, Lowell. If you like, I can assign another producer to edit your show... Lowell's stunned. He looks like he's been hit with a hammer... LOWELL Since when has the paragon of investigative journalism allowed lawyers to determine the news content on "60 Minutes"? DON HEWITT It's an alternate version. So what if we have an alternate version? And I don't think her being cautious is so damned unreasonable. ERIC KLUSTER (wry) So, now, if you'll excuse me, gentlemen, Mr. Rather's been complaining about his chair again. (laughter) As they start to leave... LOWELL (mild) Before you go... And Lowell takes out... LOWELL (CONT'D) I discovered this. SEC filing... (he gets their attention) For the sale of the CBS Corporation to Westinghouse Corporation. MIKE WALLACE What? DON HEWITT Yeah, I heard rumors. LOWELL It's not a rumor. It's a sale. (rhetorical answer) If Tisch can unload CBS for $81 a share to Westinghouse and then is suddenly threatened with a multibillion-dollar lawsuit from Brown & Williamson, that could screw up the sale, could it not? ERIC KLUSTER (serene) And what are you implying? LOWELL (to Kluster) I'm not implying. I'm quoting. More vested interests... (reading from SEC filing) "Persons Who Will Profit From This Merger... (beat) Ms. Helen Caperelli, General Counsel of CBS News, 3.9 million. Mr. Eric Kluster, President of CBS News, 1.4 million..." DON HEWITT Are you suggesting that she and Eric are influenced by money? LOWELL Oh, no, of course they're not influenced by money. They work for free. And you are a Volunteer Executive Producer. DON HEWITT CBS does not do that. And, you're questioning our journalistic integrity?! LOWELL No, I'm questioning your hearing! You hear "reasonable" and "tortious interference." I hear... "Potential Brown & Williamson lawsuit jeopardizing the sale of CBS to Westinghouse." I hear... "Shut the segment down. Cut Wigand loose. Obey orders. And fuck off...!" That's what I hear. DON HEWITT You're exaggerating! LOWELL I am? You pay me to go get guys like Wigand, to draw him out. To get him to trust us, to get him to go on television. I do. I deliver him. He sits. He talks. He violates his own fucking confidentiality agreement. And he's only the key witness in the biggest public health reform issue, maybe the biggest, most-expensive corporate-malfeasance case in U.S. history. And Jeffrey Wigand, who's out on a limb, does he go on television and tell the truth? Yes. Is it newsworthy? Yes. Are we gonna air it? Of course not. Why? Because he's not telling the truth? No. Because he is telling the truth. That's why we're not going to air it. And the more truth he tells, the worse it gets! DON HEWITT You are a fanatic. An anarchist. You know that? If we can't have a whole show, then I want half a show rather than no show. But oh, no, not you. You won't be satisfied unless you're putting the company at risk! LOWELL C'mon, what are you? And are you a businessman? Or are you a newsman?! Because that happens to be what Mike and I do for a living... MIKE WALLACE Lowell. LOWELL (runs on) "Put the corporation at risk"...? Give me a fucking break! MIKE WALLACE Lowell. LOWELL These people are putting our whole reason for doing what we do...on the line! MIKE WALLACE Lowell! LOWELL What? MIKE WALLACE I'm with Don on this. And there it is. EXT. LOWELL'S HOUSE, BERKELEY - AFTERNOON We see Sharon in a vegetable garden in their side yard... She turns, seeing him standing behind her... After a moment. She knows. SHARON What's wrong? LOWELL They're killing the Wigand interview... SHARON What?! LOWELL They're pretending it's process. Bullshit, it's foregone. SHARON (beat) What are you and Mike going to do? LOWELL I'm alone on this... SHARON (beat) Oh, baby... And the phone RINGS... Sharon goes in the house to get it... She comes back out... SHARON (CONT'D) (after a beat) Jeffrey Wigand... INT. LOWELL'S OFFICE, BERKELEY - LATE AFTERNOON LOWELL Jeffrey... INT. A HOTEL ROOM, LOUISVILLE - NIGHT And we see Wigand looking rough, unshaven, sitting on a couch in a hotel room. And we see his belongings, clothing, some boxes, a bottle of vodka, his computer, what's left of his world, are around the room. LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) Jeffrey, how are you? How's the family, okay? WIGAND There is - there is no family. LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) What do you mean there is no family? WIGAND Liane has filed for divorce... INT. LOWELL'S OFFICE, BERKELEY - LATE AFTERNOON And Lowell's dead quiet. INT. THE HOTEL ROOM, LOUISVILLE - NIGHT WIGAND And, so, I moved out... I see the girls a couple of days a week... LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) (concerned) Where you staying now? WIGAND (sarcastic) Our favorite hotel, honey... I checked into Room 930. Odd choice? Huh? And we don't know what he means by that... INT. LOWELL'S OFFICE, BERKELEY - LATE AFTERNOON The last of the daylight shadows his office. LOWELL (after a beat) I don't know how to say this, Jeff, except to just say it right out, so I'll say it. They do not want to air it. WIGAND (stops) What?! LOWELL B & W may have threatened litigation... CBS is on the block... (a beat) But you, I mean, I know how... WIGAND No. LOWELL No? No, what? WIGAND I do not think that you "know" for me...what it is to walk in my shoes... (beat) ...for my kids to have seen it...for them to know why I've put them through what I did...the public airing of that...the testament to why I did what I did...you're telling me is not going to see the light of day. Lowell's quiet. And Jeffrey starts to hang up... LOWELL Jeff... And Jeffrey hangs up. INT. JEFFREY'S HOTEL ROOM, LOUISIANA - (PROCESS) - NIGHT Jeffrey silently sitting in the chair. We COME AROUND and see why he's been purposely sitting there. Why he's chosen this room. Directly across the street is the Brown & Williamson Building. The lights are on. The building lit up. And in an upstairs office Brown & Williamson lawyers, moving around a conference room, talking. And as Jeffrey looks out the window... EXT. A SMALL TOWN, UPSTATE NEW YORK - DAY A peaceful, suburban street. Small houses. A PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR (P.I.) from IGI, in a raincoat, getting out of a car, going up the walk. He knocks on the door. Some moments. A Woman in her late forties, handicapped, in an electric cart answers the door... P.I. Mrs. Wigand? THE WOMAN It hasn't been Mrs. Wigand for some time. P.I. Well, I'm an investigator and I was - I was wondering if I could ask you a couple of questions about that? THE WOMAN Alright... INT. JOHN SCANLON'S PUBLIC RELATIONS FIRM, A MEDIA ROOM, NEW YORK - DAY And on a TELEVISION SCREEN, SUSAN WIGAND, the woman in the electric cart, giving a taped interview to the P.I.... SUSAN WIGAND ...seven months after we were married we found out that I had multiple sclerosis... We PULL BACK to see John Scanlon and his Staff watching the tape... His firm's logo, public relations campaigns for some of his high-profile clients are on the walls. Scanlon's on the phone talking with somebody as the tape runs... P.I.'S VOICE (OVER) (on television) And, you had a daughter, Diane, with him, is that correct? SUSAN WIGAND (on television) Yes, in 1973. JOHN SCANLON (on the phone, whispering) ...come on, Tommy Sandefur told me himself, he's not gonna allow Brown & Williamson to be demonized to the American public, so I told Peter Jennings and I...hold on... He stops, listening to the videotape... P.I.'S VOICE (OVER) (on television) Would it be fair to say when he divorced you he left you in a precarious situation? You had multiple sclerosis; you had a small child to raise. JOHN SCANLON (ignoring that part; to staff) Mention that part in the executive summary and in the chapters "First Wife" and "Estrangement of Daughter." (beat; into phone) So, I was telling Pete, I said, "You've been taken in by this guy... SUSAN WIGAND (on television) Yes... (beat) But you have to understand, the divorce was something that we both wanted... JOHN SCANLON He's a total bullshit artist. He's a shoplifter. He's a convicted shoplifter. And as we end in a sea of documents, affidavits, court records, all from Louisville, all about Jeffrey. We understand the war has only been begun... INT. CBS, "60 MINUTES," CORRIDOR, LOWELL'S OFFICE - MORNING Lowell, in his office, his door open for anyone to see him, an immovable force, sitting behind his desk. Hewitt appears in his doorway... DON HEWITT (after a beat, cold) So, what are you going to do? LOWELL Well, what do you think I'm going to do? Quit in protest? I'm not going to do that. DON HEWITT (surprised) You're taking "no" for an answer? LOWELL No. I'm not going to take "no" for an answer. No. DON HEWITT Then what are you going to do? Hewitt looks at him... LOWELL I'm staying right here. Doing my job. Fighting to get my show on the air. You don't like it? Hey, I'll tell you what...fire my ass... DON HEWITT End up in a high-profile lawsuit with Lowell, the First Amendment martyr? I don't think so. (laughs) Take a look at this... This is a summary of a dossier that's being prepared. And he gives him a copy of it. DON HEWITT (CONT'D) He would lie about his whole life...? Who's going to believe him about anything he says...? (a beat, and the coup de grace) The Wall Street Journal's doing a major story and I think the Post. You backed the wrong horse... He turns and starts off along the hall. As he goes... DON HEWITT (cont'd) (his parting shot) The version without his interview is going to air the week after next. Lowell watches him walk away. Debbie enters. DEBBIE DELUCA What was that about? LOWELL Get me Wigand. DEBBIE DELUCA Sure. LOWELL ...fuck is this? Fuck! INT. THE PHONE BOOTH, HIGH SCHOOL, LOUISVILLE - DAY LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) (on the phone, upset) You never told me you were married before...that you had a daughter... And Wigand is in the phone booth at the High School...students walking by... WIGAND (outraged) Well, how is that any of your business?! That is not something that you people need to know! His voice carries, a student looks over... INT. LOWELL'S OFFICE - DAY LOWELL (frustrated) Oh, you know what we do or do not need to know? Since when have you become a media expert? INT. THE PHONE BOOTH, LOUISVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - DAY WIGAND (upset) What do you want to do, Lowell, look up my ass, too...! And he realizes he's said it too loud, a couple of passing students stop, looking at him... INT. LOWELL'S OFFICE, CBS - DAY LOWELL Oh, my God. WIGAND'S VOICE (OVER) (after a beat, lowering his voice, but contentious) You're not even on this anymore... What do you care? LOWELL Jeff! Wake the fuck up! Everybody is on the line here. If they can catch you in a lie, they can paint everything with that brush. Do you understand? Everything you say! WIGAND I told the truth! LOWELL Everything...you...say! And I can't defend you, man, with one hand tied behind my back! Because you keep from me...what they can discover. And they will discover everything! Believe me. INT. THE PHONE BOOTH, LOUISVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - DAY Wigand's quiet. He looks out the phone booth. After some moments... WIGAND (meaning his first wife and their child, upset) ...I was young. I was young...confused... We didn't handle it the right way... INT. LOWELL'S OFFICE, NEW YORK - DAY LOWELL (after a beat) She sued you for back payments of child support? INT. THE PHONE BOOTH, LOUISVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - DAY WIGAND She did not sue me. We had a dispute over money... I settled it, she dropped the complaint... (angry) Any other questions? And we'll go back and forth... LOWELL Yes. Did you lie about being on the American Judo Team in the Olympics? WIGAND What? LOWELL Some public relations guy got a hold of a tape of an interview...where you're saying you were on the American Judo Team in the Olympics...? WIGAND (explosive) What kind of shit is this? I was not on the team, I sparred with the Olympic Team...okay? And we see, unbeknownst to Wigand, the P.I. in the raincoat, who interviewed his ex-wife, coming out of an administration office, walking towards us along the hallways... LOWELL Alright...the ABC Telemarketing Company? WIGAND ABC...? LOWELL ABC Telemarketing Company. WIGAND (the absurdity) A can opener! A $39.95 can opener. I cancelled payment... It was junk. (sarcastic) You ever bounce a check, Lowell? You ever look at another woman's tits? You ever cheat a little on your taxes? (a beat, angry) Whose life, if you look at it under a microscope, doesn't have any flaws...? The P.I. in the raincoat passes Jeffrey, now, and doesn't even glance at him... LOWELL That's the whole point, Jeffrey. That's the whole point. Anyone's. Everyone's. They are gonna look under every rock, dig up every flaw, every mistake you've ever made. They are going to distort and exaggerate everything you've ever done, man. Don't you understand? WIGAND (shouts) What does this have to do with my testimony? LOWELL That's not the point. WIGAND What does this have to do with my testimony?! I told the truth! It's valid and true and provable! LOWELL That's not the fucking point, whether you told the truth or not! Hello...? WIGAND I told the truth... I told the truth. And Wigand's quiet, a deep, dark depression. The school bell RING snaps him out of it... WIGAND (after a beat) I've got to teach class. I've got to go. I've got to teach class. LOWELL (undaunted) And I've got to refute every fucking accusation made in this report before The Wall Street Journal runs. (a beat) I am trying to protect you, man! Wigand's quiet. WIGAND (after a beat, the killer) Well, I hope you improve your batting average. And he SLAMS the phone down. And as he stands in the phone booth, like a man in a glass booth, all alone... EXT. CBS BUILDING, ROOFTOP - DAY ON the door to the roof. It SLAMS open. An enraged Lowell enters and walks out into the cold rain. Like a prize- fighter, shoulders hunched against the cold, he buries his hands in his jacket pockets. He crosses to the edge of the roof high above the city. He's pissed off. He takes out his cell phone. He dials... Lowell hears background NOISE... INT. WALL STREET JOURNAL - NEWS MEETING - DAY Twenty sub-editors and section heads sit and stand in a clear area... One of them, a large man, is CHARLIE PHILLIPS on a cell phone. CHARLIE PHILLIPS Hello? LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) (cautious) It's Lowell. Are you guys planning to do a piece on a former top executive in Big Tobacco? CHARLIE PHILLIPS You caught me in a news meeting. LOWELL Well, are you or are you not, Charlie? CHARLIE PHILLIPS You bet we are. And I can't talk to you now. LOWELL We gotta hook up. CHARLIE PHILLIPS Sure. Where? LOWELL P.J.'s. CHARLIE PHILLIPS I'll be there. INT. A PHONE BOOTH, NEW YORK - NIGHT A busy New York street. Light mist. And we see Lowell is on the phone in a phone booth... LOWELL Yeah, I got it. 500 pages of it. They looked in every corner of this guy's life...from a spousal abuse charge, to shoplifting, to a traffic ticket he got once for running a red light. It's Terry Lenzner's outfit, IGI. Jack, listen to me. Their strategy: discredit this guy, ruin his reputation in The Wall Street Journal, and then nobody will ever listen to what he's got to say about tobacco. He's dead. Unless I can get this thing knocked down. INT. A HOUSE IN SAN FRANCISCO - NIGHT A townhouse with a commanding view of the Bay. And we see a broad-shouldered man in his late forties sitting at a desk on the phone. JACK PALLADINO. His wife, SANDRA SUTHERLAND, sitting across from him on another phone. They're Private Investigators... LOWELL To make it even a little more attractive, I don't know if you're ever gonna get paid. SANDRA SUTHERLAND Is there any truth to any of it? LOWELL That's a good question. "Is there any truth to any of it?" I doubt it. PALLADINO What's their deadline? LOWELL Soon. Palladinos exchange looks; she nods. PALLADINO Fax me the summary. LOWELL That's great, Jack. Lowell hangs up and walks towards us to enter... INT. BAR - NIGHT CLOSE on Lowell entering, moving through the crowd of sports writers, feature writers, sub-editors, etc. He comes upon a rugged-featured man, JIM COOPER from The New York Times, sitting next to Charlie. JIM COOPER Hey, Lowell. LOWELL How are you, Jim? JIM COOPER Hey, listen, I hear you guys are sitting on something sensational over there. Lowell looks at Cooper quizzically. LOWELL Really? Hi, Joan. Just then Jim's wife enters. They exchange greetings. JIM COOPER Hi, baby. LOWELL Catch you later. Cooper and his wife leave. Charlie and Lowell are alone in the crowded bar. LOWELL (CONT'D) When's your deadline? CHARLIE PHILLIPS Monday. LOWELL Push it. CHARLIE PHILLIPS What? Forget it. LOWELL It's a smear campaign, Charlie. CHARLIE PHILLIPS It's drawn from a selectively circulated... LOWELL (cuts in) Oh, it's real selective...about as hard to get a hold of as the Manhattan phone book. CHARLIE PHILLIPS Well, it's authoritative and is overwhelmingly documented. LOWELL And it's bullshit. And if I'm right, are you going to put the Journal's reputation behind a story that's going to blow up in your face? CHARLIE PHILLIPS I'll take a look at what you got. But I'm not moving any deadlines 'cause you say so. That's the way it lays. In a different, personal tone... CHARLIE PHILLIPS (cont'd) Are you all right? LOWELL Yeah. Catch you later. INT. A COFFEE SHOP, LOUISVILLE - DAY And we see a Policeman sitting at the counter having a cup of coffee... SANDRA SUTHERLAND Officer Murabchick? He turns as Sandra Sutherland sits at the counter to the left of him. SANDRA SUTHERLAND (cont'd) Officer Muravchick. How are you? I'm Sandra Sutherland. POLICEMAN How do you do? SANDRA SUTHERLAND Fine, thank you. I'm doing a background check. Mind if I sit down? INT. COURTROOM, LOUISVILLE - LATE AFTERNOON An older Man is on the bench. He's just recessed his court. As everybody streams out, going against the tide is Jack Palladino. He approaches the judge, crossing to a side door... PALLADINO Your honor, could I have a word with you? You presided in a dispute over support payments... INT. A COFFEE SHOP, LOUISVILLE - DAY POLICEMAN Jeffrey Wigand? Yeah, I cited him. INT. EDITING ROOM, CBS - DAY DAN RATHER (on monitor) CBS is under criticism, because the CBS News program "60 Minutes" will not be presenting an interview... Lowell's destroying his own work product, taking apart his creation that we saw earlier to be so impactful. Tony gets a call as Hewitt enters. DON HEWITT What the hell are you doing? LOWELL What does it look like I'm doing? I'm editing. DON HEWITT No, not that. I'm talking about the Associated Press. They got this story that we pulled this interview and they talked to Mike and I. Did you tell them that we were lying? LOWELL No. I should have. I told them I disagreed with you, Mike and Kluster that this segment is as good as the original. I'm not lying for you. I'm not gonna shut up for you. Not on any of it. DON HEWITT Hey! I'm not going to fire you, okay? Take a vacation. Now! INT. LOWELL'S OFFICE - EVENING A suitcase is on the floor. Lowell, finishing packing up his things from his office. MIKE WALLACE'S VOICE (OVER) Lowell. I decided to preface Sunday's show. I did three minutes on the "Evening News." You'll want to see it. (beat) Where you going? And he sees Wallace has stopped at his door... LOWELL I've been banished. In lieu of being fired. MIKE WALLACE (disinterested) I took off on Tisch. I took off on corporate. They'll know they're not going to see everything on Sunday night... LOWELL I don't know. How does that get Wigand on the air? MIKE WALLACE (goes up) Do me a favor, will you? Spare me, for God's sake. Get in the real world. What do you think? I'm going to resign in protest? To force it on the air? The answer is "no." I don't plan to spend the end of my days wandering in the wilderness of National Public Radio. (beat) That decision I've already made. VOICE (from corridor; to Mike) It just started, Mike... Wallace waves Lowell's remark aside and exits. We dwell on Lowell until he exits... INT. CBS CORRIDOR - EVENING ...into the hall. Dan Rather introduced Mike. As Lowell exits, we SEE Hewitt, Kluster and Caperelli outside of Hewitt's office watching... Lowell, disgusted, takes a cursory look and moves towards the elevator. But he hears... MIKE WALLACE'S VOICE (OVER) Where's the rest? Where the hell's the rest?!! Lowell turns to see Wallace shouting up at the monitors in disbelief... MIKE WALLACE (CONT'D) You cut it! You cut the guts out of what I said...! Wallace moves in on Kluster... ERIC KLUSTER It was a time consideration, Mike... MIKE WALLACE Time? Bullshit! You corporate lackey! Who told you your incompetent little fingers had the requisite skills to edit me! I'm trying to Band-Aid a situation, here, and you're too dim to... HELEN CAPERELLI (interrupts, familiar) Mike... Mike... Mike... MIKE WALLACE "Mike?" It was a big mistake. Now, he turns on her. Zeroing in, getting closer... MIKE WALLACE (CONT'D) "Mike?" Try "Mr. Wallace." We work in the same corporation doesn't mean we work in the same profession. What are you gonna do now? You gonna finesse me? Lawyer me some more? I've been in this profession fifty fucking years. You and the people you work for are destroying the most-respected, the highest-rated, the most-profitable show on this network! EXT. THE EAST RIVER - NIGHT A Range Rover pulls up. Charlie Phillips gets out. He crosses to Lowell who's been waiting by his own taxi. LOWELL Here. He hands Charlie a folder with the brown notebook inside that is the partially complete Palladino/Sutherland/Lowell work product. LOWELL (CONT'D) These are their leads, their sources. I want you to have your reporters... CHARLIE PHILLIPS Suein Hwang and Milo Geyelin. LOWELL Have them make their own calls. They'll find that these sources have a different story than the one that's in the dossier... (demands) Push the deadline, Charlie... Charlie starts looking through the Palladino/ Sutherland/Lowell work product. Meanwhile... CHARLIE PHILLIPS I'll push it for a week. Let Milo and Suein go through it. INT. WIGANDS' HOUSE #2, KITCHEN - DAY LIANE What do you want to buy him for a gift? BARBARA He's into kind of little cars, that... LIANE That remote control thing? BARBARA Yeah. LIANE Alright, we'll do that tomorrow. BARBARA Mom. LIANE Yes, baby? BARBARA There's Dad, on TV. INT. A BAR, LOUISVILLE - DAY And we see Jeffrey in a quiet Bar. The television's on, the sound low, the midday news. As Jeffrey looks up and sees his photograph on TELEVISION. In his LOCAL WORLD the impact is: LOCAL NEWSCASTER And in local news, WLKO Louisville has gained access to a five-hundred-page dossier on former Brown & Williamson research head Jeffrey Wigand detailing charges of spousal abuse, shoplifting... And Jeffrey looks as if something just detonated inside of him. WE'RE LOOKING AT MIKE WALLACE SITTING IN FRONT OF A BACKDROP ON "60 MINUTES," ON A TELEVISION... INT. HOTEL ROOM, LOUISVILLE - NIGHT And Jeffrey sitting alone in the hotel, watching the show... MIKE WALLACE (on "60 Minutes") "...thousands of documents from inside the tobacco industry have surfaced over the past year, documents that appear to confirm what a former..." And as we look at Jeffrey's face, set in stone... INT. THE CARIBBEAN BUNGALOW - DAY/NIGHT MIKE WALLACE (on "60 Minutes") "...US Surgeon General and the current head of the Food and Drug Administration have been saying. We learned of..." INT. DON HEWITT'S HOUSE, THE HAMPTONS - NIGHT And Don Hewitt in his house in the Hamptons, alone in his bedroom, watching the show... MIKE WALLACE (on "60 Minutes") "...a tobacco insider who could tell us whether or not the tobacco industry has been leveling with the public..." INT. MIKE WALLACE'S APARTMENT, NEW YORK - NIGHT MIKE WALLACE (on "60 Minutes") "...that insider was formerly a highly- placed executive with a tobacco company..." INT. HOTEL ROOM, LOUISVILLE - NIGHT MIKE WALLACE (on "60 Minutes") "...but we cannot broadcast what critical information about tobacco, addiction and public health he might be able to offer. Why? Because he had to sign a confidentiality agreement with the tobacco company he worked for..." INT. MIKE WALLACE'S APARTMENT, NEW YORK - NIGHT Mike Wallace is in his study, watching the show alone. As we slowly move in on Mike, seeing himself on television... MIKE WALLACE (on "60 Minutes") "The management of CBS has told us that knowing he had that agreement..." And the look on his face says: HE DOES NOT LIKE THIS. INT. THE CARIBBEAN BUNGALOW - DAY/NIGHT Lowell silently watching the broadcast... MIKE WALLACE (on "60 Minutes") "...if were to broadcast an interview with him, CBS could be faced with a multibillion-dollar lawsuit..." INT. HOTEL ROOM, LOUISVILLE - NIGHT Jeffrey, watching the show... MIKE WALLACE (on "60 Minutes," from the interview with Wigand...) "The fact is, we are not allowed even to mention his name or the name of the company he worked for and, of course, we cannot show you his face... '...and your confidentiality agreement with...(blip) is still in force?'" And all we can hear is an ELECTRONICALLY-ALTERED VOICE and the BLANKED-OUT image of a man... WIGAND'S VOICE (OVER) "Yes, it is." MIKE WALLACE (on "60 Minutes") "So, what are they gonna do? Sue you for making this appearance?" WIGAND "I would bet on it." MIKE WALLACE (on "60 Minutes") "The former executive has reason to bet on being sued, for major cigarette manufacturers..." Jeffrey, motionless... A man, no longer with a face or a voice... And as he gets up, and quietly turns off the television... INT. MIKE WALLACE'S APARTMENT, NEW YORK - NIGHT, LATER Wallace, hasn't moved, still in his chair. He stares, ignoring the CBS programming, on the phone, making a call... EXT. THE CARIBBEAN BEACH - NIGHT Lowell, walking up the sand, his cell phone rings. LOWELL Yeah. MIKE WALLACE You disappeared on me. How long you staying? LOWELL (absurd) I disappeared on you? MIKE WALLACE (meaning the show) Alright. What did you think? LOWELL (after a beat) I think it was a disgrace. The look on Wallace's face says he thinks so, too. It's obvious. He hangs up the phone. EXT. LOWELL'S BUNGALOW, THE CARIBBEAN - NIGHT Lowell is on the phone, now. The moon lights the water, the empty beach. He listens as a phone, through STATIC, RINGS and RINGS and RINGS. INT. WIGAND'S HOTEL ROOM, LOUISVILLE - NIGHT And we hear the phone RINGING. We slowly PAN across the hotel room. We see on the floor a pair of men's tasseled loafers... A discarded sport jacket... And we see Jeffrey, barefoot, sitting in a chair in the center of the room. He's looking out the window at B&W. The curtains are blowing... And he's still... The sound of the phone RINGING and RINGING... EXT. THE BEACH, THE CARIBBEAN - NIGHT AN OPERATOR'S VOICE (OVER) Sir, there's still no answer in that room. LOWELL Alright. Get me the manager's office... INT. THE HOTEL MANAGER'S OFFICE, LOUISVILLE - NIGHT HOTEL DESK CLERK David? David, you've got a call on line 4. I think you better take it. A thin Man answers the phone. THE HOTEL MANAGER This is David MacDougal. How can I help you? LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) Mr. MacDougal, my name is Lowell Bergman. I'm a producer for "60 Minutes"... I'm concerned with a friend of mine who's staying at your hotel right now. INT. THE HOTEL CORRIDOR, LOUISVILLE - NIGHT And we see the Hotel Manager, walking along with a Security Guard, and now KNOCKING on Jeffrey's door... And when there is no response, the Manager nods to the Security Guard, the Guard using a pass key, unlocking the door. But the door stops, the chain-lock drawn. The Manager looks in through the chain...and he can see Jeffrey sitting in the chair... THE HOTEL MANAGER Mr. Wigand? Mr. Wigand? Jeffrey's still. The Manager quickly takes a cell phone from the Security Guard. EXT. THE CARIBBEAN - NIGHT Lowell, standing on the beach anxiously waiting. THE HOTEL MANAGER'S VOICE (OVER) (upset) I think I need to call the police. He won't respond... LOWELL No, no. Don't call the police! (urgent) Just tell him I'm on the phone with you... My name is Lowell Bergman... Just tell him that. INT. THE HOTEL CORRIDOR, LOUISVILLE - NIGHT THE HOTEL MANAGER (through the door, frightened) Mr. Wigand...Mr. Bergman is on the telephone. Jeffrey's quiet. EXT. THE CARIBBEAN - NIGHT LOWELL Did he hear you? THE HOTEL MANAGER'S VOICE (OVER) You're breaking up. I can't hear you. Lowell goes deeper into the water. LOWELL What about now? THE HOTEL MANAGER'S VOICE (OVER) What? LOWELL Hello, can you hear me now? INT. WIGAND'S HOTEL ROOM, LOUISVILLE - NIGHT And now the walls behind MORPH into a green daytime garden, the garden behind his house. And as we DOLLY AROUND Wigand, more walls MORPH into the side yard, and, turning slowly, he sees Barbara and Deborah in the emerald-green grass. They stop and smile, then they stare at us, at their father. And he looks at his children, at an idyll lost... The chair, the man are the only real objects left in the view from inside his head... EXT. THE CARIBBEAN - NIGHT Lowell anxiously moves along the beach, trying to be heard, the phone chattering with static... LOWELL (alarmed) What's happening?! THE HOTEL MANAGER'S VOICE (OVER) (afraid) He doesn't seem to be listening... LOWELL (on the cell phone, shouts, urgent) Alright, now listen to me. I want you - I want you to tell him, in these words: get on the fucking phone...! THE HOTEL MANAGER'S VOICE (OVER) I can't say that! LOWELL No, you can. Tell him to get on the fucking phone! INT. THE HOTEL CORRIDOR - NIGHT THE HOTEL MANAGER (at the door, to Jeffrey, loud) He told me to tell you, to get on...the fucking phone...! And even he's surprised by his language. And suddenly Jeffrey gets up, unlatches the door, grabs the phone from the Hotel Manager. Wigand in the hotel corridor, Lowell standing knee-deep in the water... WIGAND (on the phone, angry) You manipulated me into this...! LOWELL That's bullshit, Jeff! WIGAND You greased the rails! LOWELL I greased the rails for a guy who wanted to say yes. I helped him to say yes. Alright. You're not a robot, Jeff! That's all. You got a mind of your own, don't you? WIGAND (running on) "Up to you, Jeffrey. That's the power you have, Jeffrey. Vital insider information the American public need to know." Lowell Bergman, the hot show who never met a source he couldn't turn around. LOWELL (running on) I fought for you...and I still fight for you. WIGAND You fought for me...?! (running on) ...you manipulated me...into where I am now...staring at the Brown & Williamson Building. It's all dark. Except the 10th floor! That's the legal department. That's where they fuck with my life! LOWELL (beat) Jeffrey, where you going with this? So where you goin'? (quiet) You are important to a lot of people, Jeffrey. You think about that. You think about them. CLOSE ON JEFFREY: standing in the room with the blowing curtains... LOWELL (CONT'D) I'm running out of heroes, man... (after a beat) Guys like you are in short supply. And for the first time, Wigand smiles. WIGAND (a beat, wry) Yeah, guys like you, too. And the grave situation passes. WIGAND (CONT'D) (after a beat) Where are you, anyway? LOWELL I'm on a leave of absence. Forced vacation. WIGAND (a rare laugh, his sarcasm) You try and have a good time. LOWELL (droll) Yeah. Yeah, I will. INT. THE CARIBBEAN BUNGALOW - DAY/NIGHT Sharon's cooking across the room... And there's just the sound of the ceiling fan turning. LOWELL "I'm Lowell Bergman, I'm from '60 Minutes.'" You know, you take the "60 Minutes" out of that sentence, nobody returns your phone call. Maybe Wigand's right. Maybe I'm hooked. What am I hooked on? The rush? "60 Minutes"? What the hell for? Infotainment. It's so fucking useless, all of it. SHARON (a beat) So, it's a big country with a free press. You can go work somewhere else. LOWELL Free press? Press is free...for anyone who owns one. Larry Tisch has a free press. SHARON Get some perspective, Lowell. LOWELL I got perspective. SHARON No, you do not. LOWELL From my perspective, what's been going on and what I've been doing is ridiculous. It's half-measures. SHARON You're not listening. (beat) Really know what you're going to do before you do it. And as the fan squeaks, turning... Lowell stares at Sharon. WE SEE SNOW IS ON THE GROUND. EXT. LINCOLN, MONTANA - DAY Between two curved colonnades of SNOW-covered trees drives a rental car. CLOSER, it's Lowell. His POV spots a dirty SUV and he pulls into park across from a coffee shop in this out- of-context mountain town. His pager beeps. He looks at it. He detours from the coffee shop to a pay phone on the corner of the Moose Lodge. DEBBIE DELUCA'S VOICE (OVER) I've got Richard Scruggs on the phone... LOWELL Patch him through. RICHARD SCRUGGS' VOICE (OVER) Well, Lowell, you are not going to believe this... INT. A COURTROOM + ROTUNDA, MISSISSIPPI - DAY And we see the back of a crowded courtroom. Richard Scruggs is standing in the rear amongst bailiffs an witnesses, talking on his own cell phone. RICAHRD SCRUGGS The Governor of Mississippi is suing his own Attorney General...to abandon litigation against Big Tobacco... LOWELL Oh, good... Waiting media are relaxing as Scruggs continues to Lowell... RICHARD SCRUGGS (after a beat) But, now that the version without Jeff ran...what's the chance of getting his interview on the air...? (beat) Hello? Sudden STATIC. Scruggs now exits the building, past the metal detector, seeking better reception. LOWELL Yeah, I'm here. EXT. COURTHOUSE STAIRS, MISSISSIPPI - DAY RICHARD SCRUGGS What chance is there of getting Jeff's interview on the air...? LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) (droll) Less than great. And the courthouse doors suddenly burst open, Michael Moore and his attorneys coming out. Scruggs comes further down the steps so he can hear, away from Michael Moore who begins answering questions from the Press. RICHARD SCRUGGS (after a beat) ...I'd be lying to you if I did not tell you how important it was in the court of public opinion... EXT. THE PHONE BOOTH, LINCOLN, MONTANA - DAY LOWELL (a beat) ...and I'd be lying to you if I didn't tell you, I'm about out of moves, Dick... RICHARD SCRUGGS All right. See you... INT. CAFE, LINCOLN, MONTANA - DAY Lowell walks right in and up to a booth and a COUPLE in hiking pants and hiking boots. They look up at him... LOWELL Hi. So, what are you folks doing here in Lincoln? And we sense something is all wrong here. MAN GEOLOGIST (affable) Geology survey. LOWELL (nods) Geology. Yeah? Really? WOMAN GEOLOGIST How about you? LOWELL (direct) I work for CBS News. MAN GEOLOGIST (after a beat) Oh, yeah? Lowell nods. They look at each other and they both know there's a lot more than meets the eye. And as Lowell gets up and leaves... EXT. A PAY PHONE, LINCOLN, MONTANA - DAY And we see Lowell on the PAY PHONE again. LOWELL Just ran into two of your "geologists." Geologists whose hands aren't all chewed up...? BILL ROBERTSON'S VOICE (OVER) Lowell? INT. THE FBI, BILL ROBERTSON'S OFFICE, WASHINGTON - DAY And we see Bill Robertson's on the phone... BILL ROBERTSON Do not...screw this up. We are a week away from an arrest... EXT. THE PAY PHONE, LINCOLN, MONTANA - DAY LOWELL So, I'll hold it... And... BILL ROBERTSON'S VOICE (OVER) (on the phone) We'll give you a heads up before we launch. LOWELL How long? BILL ROBERTSON'S VOICE (OVER) Three hours. LOWELL You got a deal. (hangs up) INT. LOWELL'S ROOM, MOTEL, MONTANA - NIGHT Lowell is in a T-shirt and sweat pants, sitting in an old, re- upholstered-one-too-many-times chair in a room barely big enough for a chair, a bed and the TV/VCR combo on the cheap dresser. It's playing Lowell's cut of the full Wigand interview. He watches the show that will never see the light of day. MIKE WALLACE'S VOICE (OVER) "...like the testimony before Congress of Dr. Wigand's former boss, Brown & Williamson's Chief Executive Officer, Thomas Sandefur." THOMAS SANDEFUR (in CLOSE-UP) "I believe that nicotine is not addictive." WIGAND (in matching CLOSE-UP) "I believe Mr. Sandefur perjured himself... Because I watched those testimonies very carefully." Then it cuts to all seven CEOs of Big Tobacco raising their hands and taking the oath in front of Congress to tell the truth while... WALLACE'S VOICE (OVER) "All of us did...there was this whole like of people, the whole line of CEOs up there, all swearing that." WIGAND'S VOICE (OVER) "Part of the reason I'm here is I FELT..." And the PAUSE after the word makes "FELT" resound, and as it CUTS TO Jeffrey ON CAMERA saying... WIGAND (CONT'D) "...that their representation..." And Lowell FREEZES after the image... He gets up, looking out the window through the curtain with the spill from the neon motel sign. Outside are horse trailers. He goes back to watching the show...standing there...in touch with his own creative work product and the ideas inherent in it in this decision-making process that we feel is critical to him. Turning, he dials the phone and we intercut with... JIM COOPER'S VOICE (OVER) Hello? LOWELL Jim, it's Lowell. INT. NEW YORK TIMES - NIGHT JIM COOPER Hey! Where are you? LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) (doesn't answer) Remember that night at P.J.'s? You asked me if we were sitting on something "explosive"? (beat) Well, we're not "sitting on" it. (beat) CBS corporate leaned on CBS News which yanked an interview we did with a top- ranking tobacco scientist. A corporate officer. They are trying to close down the story. JIM COOPER (sarcastic) You mean, "60 Minutes" is letting CBS corporate decide what is or is not news? (beat) What's Wallace think about this, or Hewitt, or...? LOWELL How prominent? What kind of placement? JIM COOPER Oh, c'mon, Lowell. This is The New York Times. I don't know... LOWELL Well, until you do, all I can tell you is what you already know...they will not air an interview. JIM COOPER Call me back in ten. Lowell hangs up. Re-dials. INT. DEBBIE DELUCA'S APARTMENT - NEW YORK - LATE NIGHT Debbie answers, intercutting with above... LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) Debbie. It's me... DEBBIE DELUCA Hi. What time is it? LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) Oh, it's late. DEBBIE DELUCA That I know. When are you coming back? LOWELL I can't get out of here til mid-morning. I'll be in tomorrow night... (beat) Listen, could you call a number for me, it's in Mississippi... DEBBIE DELUCA Okay. Hold on a second... What is it? INT. NEW YORK TIMES - NIGHT Jim Cooper's workstation. His phone rings. He grabs it. JIM COOPER Hello? (beat) LOWELL'S VOICE (OVER) Lowell. JIM COOPER Alright, Lowell. Page one. Editorial's interested. Let's talk. INT. MOTEL, LINCOLN, MONTANA - NIGHT LOWELL Here's how it works. You ask me questions. I tell you if you're wrong. JIM COOPER'S VOICE (OVER) Okay. (pause) Lowell? LOWELL Yeah? JIM COOPER'S VOICE (OVER) You're sure you want to do this? LOWELL Why? JIM COOPER'S VOICE (OVER) Hey, it doesn't work? You've burned your bridges, man. LOWELL You ready...? JIM COOPER'S VOICE (OVER) Okay... About this whistle-blower... Did Mike and Don go along with the corporate decision? No answer. JIM COOPER'S VOICE (OVER)(cont'd) Lowell? LOWELL Did I tell you you were wrong? JIM COOPER'S VOICE (OVER) No. (beat) I'm assuming the cave-in begins with the threat of litigation from Big Tobacco. Are we talking...are we talking Brown & Williamson, here? MOVING CLOSER into the face of Lowell. His gaze falters. His eyes go back to the motel TV mutely frozen on the show. Whatever he's seeing there, his gaze is steadfast. EXT. STREET, NEW YORK - 5:30 A.M. Newspaper box is loaded with The New York Times. EXT. HOTEL, NEW YORK - 5:30 A.M. Cab pulls to curb and a raincoated Man emerges. We SEE he carries a copy of this morning's New York Times. INT. A HOTEL ROOM, NEW YORK - DAWN A suitcase is half-unpacked on the floor...a sleeping figure... There's a knock. Irritated, a sleeping Lowell gets up to answer it. He looks through the security peep hole. He opens it. And Mike Wallace, a newspaper under his arm, is standing in the doorway. MIKE WALLACE Did I get you up? LOWELL No, I usually sit around in my hotel room, dressed like this at 5:30 in the morning, sleepy look on my face. There's an awkward quiet. Mike enters. He slows, looks around. MIKE WALLACE How many shows have we done? Huh? C'mon, how many? LOWELL Oh, lots. MIKE WALLACE Yeah, that's right. LOWELL But in all that time, Mike, did you ever get off a plane, walk into a room, and find that a source for a story changed his mind? Lost his heart? Walked out on us? Not one fucking time! You want to know why? MIKE WALLACE I see a rhetorical question on the horizon. LOWELL I'm going to tell you why. Because when I tell someone I'm going to do something, I deliver. MIKE WALLACE Oh, how fortunate I am to have Lowell Bergman's moral tutelage to point me down the shining path. To show me the way. LOWELL Oh, please, Mike... MIKE WALLACE (beat) Give me a break! LOWELL No, you give me a break! I never left a source hung out to dry, ever. Abandoned. Not 'til right fucking now! When I came on this job, I came with my word intact. I'm gonna leave with my word intact. Fuck the rules of the game! Hell, you're supposed to know me, Mike. What the hell did you expect? You expect me to lie down? Back off? What, get over it? MIKE WALLACE In the real world, when you get to where I am, there are other considerations... LOWELL Like what? Corporate responsibility? What, are we talking celebrity here? MIKE WALLACE I'm not talking celebrity, vanity, CBS. I'm talking about when you're nearer the end of your life than the beginning. Now, what do you think you think about then? The future? "In the future I'm going to do this? Become that?" What "future"? No. What you think is: how will I be regarded in the end? After I'm gone. He trails off. They look at each other. MIKE WALLACE (cont'd) Now, along the way I suppose I made some minor impact. (beat) I did Iran-Gate and the Ayatollah, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Saddam, Sadat, etcetera, etcetera. I showed them thieves in suits. (beat) I've spent a lifetime building all that. But history only remembers most what you did last. And should that be fronting a segment that allowed a tobacco giant to crash this network? (beat) Does it give someone at my time of life pause? (simply) Yeah. And the look on Wallace's face is "It did. Whether it should or should not...what difference does that make? It did." And we realize only now that he has not come to argue. LOWELL Mike...in my... MIKE WALLACE (low) You and I have been doing this together for fourteen years. And he gives Lowell a copy of The New York Times. MIKE WALLACE (cont'd) This is today's New York Times. (beat) In it is the whole sordid story of what went on inside our shop. Lowell looks down at the page. The headline is "'60 MINUTES' ORDERED TO PULL INTERVIEW IN TOBACCO REPORT." MIKE WALLACE (cont'd) And in the editorial... It accuses us...of betraying the legacy of Edward R. Murrow. Turning, he walks out and down the hallway. Lowell looks at the newspaper. INT. THE COMMUTER HELICOPTER - MORNING The helicopter approaching Manhattan. John Scanlon sitting with Hewitt, both of them reading The Wall Street Journal Wigand article. DON HEWITT (troubled) They conclude most of it seems pretty unsubstantiated... (looking at him, sickened) You're full of shit, John. INT. COFFEE SHOP, NEW YORK - MORNING Lowell at a table littered with New York Times, New York Daily News, etc. His phone rings... LOWELL Yeah. INT. A CITY BUS, NEW YORK - MORNING Broadway backgrounds streak past Debbie DeLuca's head as she rides, talking on a cell phone, The Wall Street Journal in her hand. DEBBIE DELUCA ...front page. There's a picture of Wigand. Article's entitled, "Getting Personal," by-lined to Suein Hwang and Milo Geyelin. Wait, hold on a second, Lowell. Debbie hits "call waiting." DEBBIE DELUCA (cont'd) Yeah. Yeah, sure. I'll see if I can find him. Hold on... (beat; to Lowell) Yeah, Don's looking for you... LOWELL Good. DEBBIE DELUCA The sub-heading is, "Brown & Williamson Has a 500-Page Dossier Attacking Chief Critic." It quotes Richard Scruggs calling it "the worst kind of an organized smear campaign against a whistle-blower." INT. COFFEE SHOP, NEW YORK - MORNING EXTREMELY CLOSE Lowell. DEBBIE DELUCA'S VOICE (OVER) "...a close look at the file, and independent research by this newspaper into its key claims, indicates that many of the serious allegations against Mr. Wigand are backed by scant or contradictory evidence..." EXT. STREET, NEW YORK - MORNING As Lowell hails a cab in a WIDE ANGLE and runs towards us, jumping into the cab... INT. DON HEWITT'S OFFICE - DAY DON HEWITT The news division has been vilified in The New York Times, in print, on television, for caving to corporate interests! We PULL BACK and we see that Lowell's with Hewitt in Hewitt's office... DON HEWITT (CONT'D) The New York Times ran a blow by blow of what we talked about behind closed doors! You fucked us! LOWELL (shouting) No, you fucked you! Don't invert stuff! Big Tobacco tried to smear Wigand; you bought it. The Wall Street Journal, here, not exactly a bastion of anti- capitalist sentiment, refutes Big Tobacco's smear campaign as the lowest form of character assassination! And now, even now, when every word of what Wigand has said on our show is printed, the entire deposition of his testimony in a court of law in the State of Mississippi, the cat totally out of the bag, you're still standing here debating! Don, what the hell else...do you need? And Hewitt, looking around. DON HEWITT Mike, you tell him... MIKE WALLACE (simply) You fucked up, Don. And Don's taken off stride... DON HEWITT (recovers fast) Hey, it's old news! Stick with me. Like always, we'll be okay. These things have a half-life of fifteen minutes... MIKE WALLACE No, that's fame. Fame has a fifteen- minute half-life... (droll) Infamy...lasts a little longer. Lowell looks at Wallace. MIKE WALLACE (CONT'D) We caved. It's foolish. It's simply dead wrong. (in his face, so there's no doubt) Now, this is what we're going to do. We're going over to Black Rock... INT. A HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE CLASS, LOUISVILLE - AFTERNOON Jeff is in front of his class, teaching... WIGAND Okay, so let's get back to it. Alright, now, what we saw there was... INT. LAX - ECU: LOWELL - NIGHT Tired, his suitcase at his feet. We don't know if he's coming or going. He's at a pay phone in the more-deserted- than-not airport. LOWELL (into phone) They cancelled the six o'clock. (beat) I don't know why. I'm on the 8:10. I should be home...9:30. I'll see you then. Love ya'. Bye... He hangs up and ambles over to a lounge with a few travellers sitting in it. MIKE WALLACE "CBS Management wouldn't let us broadcast our original story and our interview with Wigand because they were worried about the possibility of a multi-billion dollar lawsuit against us for tortious interference... But now things have changed." INT. JEFFREY WIGAND'S APARTMENT, LOUISVILLE - NIGHT A small apartment. Jeffrey dishes out second helpings of pasta primavera into two pasta plates and brings them into the kitchenette to his girls, Deborah and Barbara. And now we SEE AND HEAR the small television on the table playing "60 Minutes" and... MICHAEL MOORE (on television) "...in my opinion, is an industry that has perpetrated the biggest fraud on the American public in history." Deborah looks proudly at her father. Wigand's gotten up and gone out of the kitchenette. He has stopped for a moment around the corner in the hallway. His kids can't see him. We can. And he watches them and his eyes get shiny and start to tear. And as he stands there, watching his girls at the kitchen table witnessing their father's hard-earned "truth" on television, we realize that of all the audiences, his girls are the one he cares about most... INT. AIRPORT LOUNGE And Lowell in his moment of victory is watching his "60 Minutes" double segment on a departure lounge television with his feet resting on his suitcase, next to a Chicano woman with two kids and her mother and an older man with a beard and cane. An airport cleaner stops to watch, too. Lowell glances at him... Unbeknownst to these viewers, arrested by the content on the television screen, is that the man who made it sits casually among them, watching his work. INT. LOWELL'S HOUSE, KITCHEN, BERKELEY - NIGHT Sharon sits at the kitchen table. She watches in a far corner a small countertop television. It's "60 Minutes," the full show entitled "Jeffrey Wigand, Ph.D." and on the top right, "PRODUCED BY LOWELL BERGMAN." As Sharon continues watching the television playing on the counter, the emotional currents within her remaining unrevealed... INT. MIKE WALLACE'S STUDY - ON MIKE WALLACE - NIGHT watching the show. He sees himself... MIKE WALLACE (to Wigand) "You wish you hadn't blown the whistle?" WIGAND (on television, hesitating) "There are times...I wish I hadn't done it. But there are times that I feel compelled to do it..." "I've - if you asked me if I would do it again or if it's - do I think it's worth it. Yeah. I think it's worth it." Wallace, satisfied, rises to refill his glass, as... INT. AIRPORT LOUNGE Lowell watching show in airport. INT. A SURVEILLANCE VAN, LINCOLN, MONTANA - NIGHT And we see the FBI Agent, BILL ROBERTSON on the phone. BILL ROBERTSON I promised you a three-hour heads- up...well, here it is. Have a camera crew standing by in Helena, Montana on Tuesday and I'll give you a three-hour head start. Alright? By the way, that was a hell of a good show tonight... INT. LOWELL'S HOUSE, BERKELEY - NIGHT LOWELL (nods, trustworthy) Thank you, Bill. And he quietly hangs up. And it's still. Sharon's laid down, closing her eyes. They lie close together. After some moments, she opens her eyes and lets us know what she's been thinking... SHARON (understated) You won. This time he isn't droll. LOWELL Yeah? (a beat) What did I win? There's an odd look on his face, not the look of a victor. He shuts off the light. And as they lie close together in the dark in each other's arms... WE'RE LOOKING AT THE FAMILIAR CBS EYE ON A TELEVISION SCREEN. AND THEN THE WORDS: "SPECIAL REPORT." INT. MASTER CONTROL ROOM, CBS - DAY Lowell, entering through machine rooms, into a state-of-the- art Master Control Room. On a wall are fifty or more monitors, in the humidity-and-temperature-controlled nexus of CBS operations. And it's jammed with people, witnessing a fast-breaking, major news event. Mike Wallace stands near Felling. Lowell crosses past Felling and stands next to Mike Wallace. And we see footage of a handcuffed, bearded, barefoot Man...THEODORE KACZYNSKI, the UNABOMBER, being taken in by the FBI. A director counts down. Dan Rather launches... DAN RATHER "Reporting from CBS World News headquarters in New York, good afternoon. There has been a major break in the case of the so-called 'Unabomber.' CBS News has learned that a remote homesite outside Lincoln, Montana has been under FBI surveillance..." BILL FELLING Thanks for this. You know, we beat everybody. ABC, NBC, CNN. Mike motions Lowell out into the corridor so they can be alone. INT. CORRIDOR, CBS - DAY The control room and crowd are seen through the glass wall. After some moments: MIKE WALLACE That Canada story? Still interest you? LOWELL (nods) Everything interests me. Mike nods... Lowell puts his hands in his jacket pockets... After some moments... LOWELL (CONT'D) I quit, Mike. Mike's startled. MIKE WALLACE Bullshit. Lowell shakes his head "no." MIKE WALLACE (CONT'D) C'mon, it all worked out. You came out okay in the end... LOWELL I did? What do I tell a source on the next tough story? Hang in with us. You'll be fine...maybe? They look at each other. Lowell says to Mike, intimately, what he knows Mike knows... LOWELL (cont'd) What got broken here...doesn't go back together again. Lowell's heartfelt regret. He starts to leave. They look at each other. LOWELL (cont'd) So, uh... And Lowell moves off along the hallway, the monitors all showing CBS programming. He doesn't even look back... A LEGEND APPEARS: CARD #1: SUBSEQUENT TO THE EVENTS DRAMATIZES HERE, THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY IN 1998 SETTLED THE LAWSUITS FILED AGAINST IT BY MISSISSIPPI AND 49 OTHER STATES FOR $246 BILLION. CARD #2: ALTHOUGH BASED ON A TRUE STORY, CERTAIN EVENTS IN THIS MOTION PICTURE HAVE BEEN FICTIONALIZED FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT. THE SOURCE OF THE DEATH THREATS AGAINST THE WIGANDS NEVER WAS IDENTIFIED AND NO ONE WAS EVER CHARGED OF PROSECUTED. CARD #3: IN 1996 DR. WIGAND WAS NAMED TEACHER OF THE YEAR IN KENTUCKY. CURRENTLY, HE LIVES IN SOUTH CAROLINA. CARD #4: LOWELL BERGMAN IS A CORRESPONDENT FOR THE PBS SERIES FRONTLINE AND IS ON THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Insidious.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Insidious.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1cfd1a8bee8ffdfed9e6f930a4fa603dae4f4eed --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Insidious.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + INSIDIOUS Written by Leigh Whannell The universe is deathless; Is deathless because, having no finite self, it stays infinite. A sound man by not advancing himself stays the further ahead of himself, By not confining himself to himself, sustains himself outside himself. --LAOZI 2. FADE IN INT. DARKENED BEDROOM - NIGHT A spherical black monolith rises up from a white surface... white like the moon. In the darkness, the towers metal skin is barely visible. We ROTATE AROUND, revealing the tower to actually be a LAMP -- not rising up from a surface, but hanging down from a white ceiling. The bulb unlit. Directly below the lamp is the very definition of innocence - a sleeping child. Chest rising and falling with each breath. We HOVER over the young boy...watching him. A blanket emblazoned with dinosaurs is draped across his limbs. His mouth is slack, eyelids twitching to dreams unseen. The truly deep sleep that an adult can only wish for. We move away from him, exploring the dark room. Strewn with toys. The door is slightly ajar. We float through it into-- INT. CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS --a long hallway. Even darker than the bedroom. And without the boys rhythmic breathing, even quieter. A window at the end of the hall enlarges as we approach. Someone is standing in front of it. The murky silhouette of the figure turns and walks away. We follow it, tentative. Turning a corner, we see the figure. Standing in a doorway. Now we can make out the edges of the person. It is an old woman. Hair in a Victorian bun. A corseted dress. She stares at us. WOMAN Let me in. CUT TO: OPENING TITLES play out to the shrill screams of George Crumb's `Black Angels I: Night Of The Electric Insects'. 3. INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT Eyes flick open. A woman blinks awake, gazing around the room. Another bedroom. Sparse. Just a bed and a cabinet. It is 5.43 AM. Her eyes settle on the man lying next to her in the dark. His heaving snores have woken her up. She is RENAI (pronounced Renee) LAMBERT (36). With a quiet determination she is holding on to her youthful good looks, but the lines of age are creeping in. She has settled into the `comfort' years of a marriage: hair pinned up messily, wearing dowdy pajamas. She beholds her husband, taking him in. Considering him. He snorts and smacks his lips. Very unflattering. She climbs out of bed. INT. LIVING ROOM, LAMBERT HOME - NIGHT High ceilings. Exposed beams. Spanish style windows. Renai treads across wooden floorboards into a sunken living room. No matter careful she is, there is a loud creak with each step. A GRANDFATHER CLOCK in the corner ticks steadily. There is barely any furniture in here, only a BOOKCASE and a PIANO. What there is a lot of...is boxes. Large moving boxes. Renai plops cross-legged onto the floor and rips open one of the boxes, marked BOOKS. She plucks out a handful of books and lines them up on the bookshelf. Then another handful. They are all self-help and self-improvement books. Titles like `Be The Better You' and `Inch By Inch, It's A Cinch: A Guide To Achieving Your Goals' pop out. She spots a sealed box labelled PHOTO ALBUMS. She strips away the tape and wrestles out a dusty album of wedding photos. Smiling faces greet her as she thumbs through the pages. The happy couple. Young. Glowing. Sadness washes over her. VOICE (O.S.) Mom? She snaps out of it and turns to see DALTON LAMBERT (8). Her son. He approaches her, rubbing his eyes. (It is not the boy we saw in the opening scene.) 4. RENAI What are you doing up, kiddo? DALTON I don't like my room. RENAI You'll get used to it. It's only your first night. He climbs into her lap. She bites on his ear playfully. RENAI (CONT'D) Argh, I'm going to eat you. DALTON What are you looking at? RENAI Just some photos. DALTON What photos? She hefts another album from the box, prying it open. A photo of a grinning young girl greets them, hair in pigtails. RENAI Do you know who that is? DALTON No. RENAI That's me. DALTON It doesn't look like you. RENAI I know. I'm so happy there. But it's me. When I was your age. I was a kid once too, you know. DALTON No, you weren't. Renai bursts out laughing. She is famous for her big laugh. RENAI Thanks. Maybe you're right...I don't remember being this person at all. I hope she smiled like that all the time, whoever she was. 5. She sizes up her son. The living embodiment of the photo. RENAI (CONT'D) This is a terrible thing to admit, Dalton, but sometimes I get jealous of you. That you're so young. That you haven't made any of your decisions yet. DALTON I don't wanna grow old. RENAI Well, it starts happening to us from the moment we're born. She points to the hands on the grandfather clock. RENAI (CONT'D) Every time that clock ticks, we all get a little bit older. She turns the page in the photo album, seeing an old man. RENAI (CONT'D) That's your grandpa. You wouldn't remember him. DALTON He smells like smoke. RENAI Yeah...good memory. He did smoke that god awful pipe, didn't he? DALTON Show me a picture of dad when he was a little kid. RENAI I don't even know if we have any. He's hopeless with keeping photos. DALTON Show me a picture of me when I was a little kid. RENAI Your pictures are all in the computer. Nobody keeps photo albums like this anymore, they're ancient relics. They should. I like being able to touch something, instead of it floating around in cyber world. If the laptop breaks, your whole existence is erased. 6. DALTON What was I like when I was a little kid? RENAI You are a little kid. She kisses him on the forehead and stares into his eyes. RENAI (CONT'D) If only you knew what I know. We hear a baby crying off screen. RENAI (CONT'D) You certainly didn't cry as much as your little sister does. Come on. INT. KITCHEN, LAMBERT HOME - MORNING Chaos. Boxes of dinnerware have not been unpacked yet and it is turning the usual morning routine into a nightmare. Renai is on the phone as her kids buzz around a kitchen island at top speed, creating a high-energy, manic pace in the room. RENAI (INTO PHONE) Billing department. Her son FOSTER (6), tugs on her leg, holding a box of cereal. FOSTER I need a bowl, mom. Renai rips open a box, rifling through newspaper, phone wedged against her shoulder. She holds out a cup, flustered. RENAI Billing department. FOSTER It's too small. RENAI Make it work. (INTO PHONE) Speak to an agent. Speak to an agent. Speak to an agent. Foster slumps on the floor, pouring cereal and overflowing milk into the cup. A baby girl in a high chair, CALI (2), squeals. 7. INT. BATHROOM, LAMBERT HOME - MORNING JOSH LAMBERT (37) gapes into the mirror, face covered in soap. He washes it off. Now he's awake we see that he is a handsome, clean-cut guy - a former high school nerd who got revenge by growing into his body. He sorts through a box labelled JOSH'S BATHROOM STUFF. He takes out two bottles - TONER and MOISTURIZER. He dabs the toner on, then smooths the moisturizer into his forehead and around his eyes. He suddenly notices a grey hair. Looks mortified. JOSH (Michael Corleone voice) Every time I think I've pulled you out...you grow back in. He plucks it out, wincing melodramatically. JOSH (CONT'D) Ouch! INT. KITCHEN, LAMBERT HOME - MORNING Josh strides in, tie hanging open around his neck. Renai is still on the phone. Josh points to his tie. RENAI Well, I'd like to keep the old number if I could. (TO JOSH) You really need to learn how to do this, honey. She threads the tie into a knot for him. JOSH (TO FOSTER) Don't eat on the floor, buddy. Foster stays where he is, slurping cereal from the cup. Dalton is playing a handheld videogame. Intensely focused. RENAI (INTO PHONE) Okay, well, please let me know by the end of today, I have to give the number out. Thank you. 8. She hangs up, pissed. RENAI (CONT'D) Foster, get up. Now. Foster frowns and obeys. JOSH (TO RENAI) How come you were up so early? Was Cali crying? RENAI You woke me up. JOSH What do you mean? RENAI You were snoring. JOSH No I wasn't. RENAI Yes you were. JOSH I don't snore. RENAI Yes you do. JOSH My father snored. I do not snore. RENAI How would you know what you do? You're asleep. Renai marches out of the room. Dalton's game unit beeps loudly and he pumps his fist. DALTON Yes! I made it to the last level! Invisiworld! Ever amiable, Josh high five's his son. JOSH Good one, champ. (BEAT) I don't snore, do I? 9. INT. LIVING ROOM, LAMBERT HOME - CONTINUOUS Renai sees that all the books she unpacked earlier are now scattered across the floor of the living room. RENAI Where are my bleeping pills? INT. KITCHEN, LAMBERT HOME - CONTINUOUS Renai charges in. Josh snatches an apple out of a fruit bowl, biting into it. He quickly gags and spits it out into the sink. JOSH What the heck is this? Wax?! RENAI Yes. JOSH Let me get this straight - we have no actual fruit but we have wax fruit? RENAI Yes. JOSH That is dangerous. It could kill one of our kids. RENAI Where are my pills, Josh? JOSH Probably where you left them, Renai. She finds them on the counter, snatching them up. JOSH (CONT'D) See. RENAI That's not where I left them. DALTON Mom, I need my lunch. RENAI Oh, geez. Look, just...take last night's dinner. 10. She opens the fridge. It is bare except for a box of sushi. DALTON Sushi? Aw, that's weirdo food. RENAI It's all we have. Just for today, honey. JOSH Check it first, Dalton. It's probably made out of Styrofoam. RENAI (TO DALTON) And while I've got you, if you're going to look at my books, please don't leave them all over the floor. DALTON I didn't touch your books. Josh streaks past, kissing Renai on the cheek. JOSH I gotta go. RENAI Are you taking the boys to school? JOSH No time. RENAI Well can you pick them up after school? JOSH Not today. RENAI But I have stuff I wanted to... She trails off. He's gone. Foster BURPS. Loudly. FOSTER Can I have another cup, mom? INT. CLASSROOM, FORRESTER HIGH SCHOOL - DAY Noisy students settle into their desks. Inner city kids, mostly Hispanic. 11. Josh is their teacher, scribbling on the blackboard. One student, a lanky boy, ALANSO (16), hovers near the door. JOSH Alanso, please sit down. ALANSO No entiendo. JOSH SiÈntate, por favor. Alanso takes a seat. Josh is having trouble getting control. JOSH (CONT'D) Come on guys, quieten down. A pretty girl in the front, TERI, is annoyed at the class. TERI You better all shut up. She commands respect. They do. Except for one kid. THE ONE KID Just cos you're in love. JOSH Thank you, Teri. Today we are going to talk about Darwin. It's a city in Australia, but it's also the last name of which famous naturalist? MALE STUDENT # 1 Charles Darwin. JOSH Correct. Does anybody know what he is famous for? MALE STUDENT # 1 He said that people descended from monkeys. JOSH Half right. He wrote a seminal book that explained his theories on natural selection, and how the different species on this planet - including humans - evolved. ALANSO I know I didn't evolve from no monkey. Shit. 12. Everyone laughs. JOSH Humans actually have a lot in common with monkeys, or more specifically, chimpanzees. ALANSO Maybe you do, but I was created in the image of my Dios. He takes a gold cross hanging on a necklace out of his shirt, kissing it and holding it up. That gets another laugh. JOSH I respect your right to believe that, Alanso. But I want to give you all possible theories. I want this class to go out into the world with an informed opinion. ALANSO The theory is incorrect, Mr. Lambert. JOSH How can it be incorrect? It's a theory. A scientific theory. ALANSO Yeah, well, science is bullshit. We didn't get here cos of no test-tubes. JOSH Alanso, if you keep talking like that I'm going to ask you to visit the principal. ALANSO Fine. He gets up and leaves as the class JEERS and BOOS. INT. LIVING ROOM, LAMBERT HOME - DAY Peace and quiet at last. Renai gropes in behind the bookcase, plucking a hidden jewelry box free. She pinches a cigarette out of it and lights it. She sits down at her piano, feeling the keys, warming her fingers up. Sunlight streams in through the windows. She takes out a notebook, filled with scribbled handwriting. 13. She places the notebook on the sheetstand, then sets a small, mechanical METRONOME in motion and begins tapping out a sombre melody in time with it. RENAI (SINGING) Yeah, I'm looking west, always been looking that way, gonna get it all happening, just can't do it today... She stops and makes a note in her book. She starts over, rising to the emotion of the song. She's got a good voice. RENAI (CONT'D) (SINGING) Yeah, I'm looking west, always been looking that way, I'm gonna be somebody, I just can't be her today-- She is interrupted by the tinny sound of a baby crying. She stops playing and looks over at a baby monitor, the source of the noise. Renai deflates, her shoulders sagging in defeat. She closes her notebook and leaves the room. INT. CALI'S NURSERY - DAY Renai scoops up Cali, rocking her gently. A scratching sound interrupts. Rough. Frantic. Like a dog pawing at something. INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Renai steps into the hall, curious. She can still hear it. She follows the sound to a door. Grabs the door handle. The sound abruptly ceases. INT. BASEMENT - CONTINUOUS The door whines open and stabs a blade of light onto a set of stairs that descend into a gloomy basement. Renai stands at the top of the stairs, squinting into the inky blackness, straining to see. She reaches up and yanks a light chain, illuminating a bare bulb and throwing light across the tenebrous space. 14. The basement is large and completely bare. Cleaned out. Renai takes a step down. She is still carrying Cali. FURTHER DOWN below her, we see that there is one step that is cracked and broken. She takes another step. The broken step is right below her now. One more step and she will fall. Cali squeals happily. Renai pauses...then turns around, heading back up the stairs. Stops when she sees something. DEEP, VIOLENT SCRATCH MARKS...running downwards on the inside of the door...as if someone were trying to claw their way out. EXT. LAMBERT HOME - NIGHT A Spanish-style home. Very pretty. This is not the suburbs. More of an inner city neighborhood. There's history here. Josh pulls into the driveway of his new house in his Subaru. INT. LIVING ROOM, LAMBERT HOME - NIGHT The house almost looks liveable. Foster is watching loud, zany cartoons on TV. Cali is in a high chair. Renai is folding boxes. She has unpacked most of the living room and is very tired. Josh ambles in, sees the work Renai has done. JOSH Look at this. Nice job. Foster bolts over and crashes into his dads legs, hugging him. JOSH (CONT'D) Whoa, buddy. Slow down. RENAI Josh, where's the box of my lamps? JOSH I don't know. They should be here. We packed them up. RENAI Yeah, I packed them. They're not here. 15. JOSH I remember the movers bringing them in and putting them right there. RENAI (PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE) Well, they're not here. I would know, I've been unpacking this stuff all day. INT. CORRIDOR, LAMBERT HOME - NIGHT Dalton wanders the hall, sporting a red superhero CAPE and carrying a plastic, glowing light-sabre toy. He reaches a door. The basement door. He pulls it open. INT. BASEMENT - NIGHT Dalton holds up his light-sabre, the glow allowing him to make out the murky corners of the basement below. He takes a step down the stairs. Then another step. The broken step is right below him. He steps again -- -- and falls. Flails forward, tumbling down the steps, all the way to the bottom. His light sabre SHATTERS. He hits the ground, his head smacking the floor. All is dark. INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Josh sits with Foster, zoned out in front of the droning TV. INT. BASEMENT - NIGHT Pitch black. Dazed, Dalton sits up. His head is cut and bleeding. He is alone in the dark. He stares into the corner of the surrounding cell. His eyes adjust, making out a shape. A shadow. 16. INT. LIVING ROOM - SAME TIME Josh and Renai look up as the quiet is shattered by a SCREAM. They spring into action, scrambling to their feet. RENAI Dalton? Where are you? He doesn't answer. Just keeps screaming. INT. BASEMENT - NIGHT Renai and Josh whip the door open, glaring into the basement from the top of the stairs. RENAI Dalton? Dalton is crumpled at the bottom of the steps, sobbing, his red cape gathered around him. Renai flicks the light on. Her and Josh scamper down the steps, propping Dalton up. JOSH What happened? DALTON I fell. RENAI Dalton, you have to be careful. You shouldn't be coming down here in the dark. JOSH Where do you hurt the most? DALTON My knee and my head. I can't stand up. Josh lifts him to his feet. A severely grazed knee is dotted with blood. He's okay. JOSH You scared us, champ. Josh carries him up the stairs as he sucks in sobs. Renai glances around the basement, her eyes landing on the lone object that resides in it. 17. She frowns. It wasn't there when she saw the basement last. It is a box. One of her large, cardboard moving boxes. It is marked LAMPS. INT. DALTON'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Dalton is lying in bed, a band-aid slapped across his forehead. Renai tucks him in, Josh standing over him. JOSH You're lucky you don't need stitches. RENAI If I catch you falling down the stairs again I'm gonna break your neck. DALTON That doesn't make sense. There are dozens of pictures tacked to the wall, all drawn by Dalton. Josh taps one; a drawing of Dalton flying through the night sky, wearing his cape. DALTON (CONT'D) You might be a superhero but you're not invincible. Be more careful, bud. Renai kisses him and gets up. RENAI Sleep tight, honey. They wave goodbye and turn out the light. INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT Renai flops into bed beside Josh, exhausted. JOSH We've gotta lock that door. RENAI He's such a boy. He goes off exploring. Sometimes I wanna keep him on one of those child leashes. JOSH Why bother with a child leash? I'll stop at the pet store tomorrow. 18. She laughs and cuddles up to him, resting her head on his chest. RENAI I'm sorry I was pissy when you got home. I was trying to work on a song today and then Cali woke up and wouldn't stop crying... JOSH I didn't even notice. RENAI I feel guilty for wanting my own time. JOSH It's normal to want your own time. RENAI Is it? My mother gave up everything for me. I keep waiting for the completely selfless parent gene to kick in, but I'm exactly the same person I was when I was 22, only now I'm married with kids. JOSH You're a great mother. RENAI No, I'm not. They like you so much better than me. JOSH That's not true. RENAI You're the cool dad who comes home with presents and I'm the one who yells at them all day. JOSH Now you're being crazy. They love you. At least you get to connect with them. I work so much. RENAI Believe me, you're their hero. They try to play us off against each other. They're master manipulators. I guess they really are my kids. Josh laughs. A lull settles over them. 19. RENAI (CONT'D) Is this it, Josh? JOSH Is this so bad? She doesn't answer. They sit in silence for a long beat. RENAI Thank you for letting me take some time off to work on my music again. JOSH We'll get by. I want you to do it. RENAI There's a couple of songs...I mean not all of them, but there's a couple of them that I think are really good. And I think, maybe I could do something with them. JOSH I love all your songs. They kiss. INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT It is 3AM. All the remoteness of that hour is present here...we can feel it. As still and quiet as deep space. INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT The formerly bustling kitchen is now a museum at midnight. INT. HALLWAY - NIGHT A long, dark thoroughfare. A ticking clock its only occupant. INT. BASEMENT - NIGHT Stairs swallowed up by darkness. The groan of settling wood. INT. FOSTER'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The soft breathing of a sleeping child. 20. INT. CALI'S NURSERY - NIGHT Hanging toy birds dangle over the baby, tinkling in a breeze. INT. DALTON'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Dalton is sleeping too. Impossibly still. Lying on his back. INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT Renai and Josh are entwined together. Josh is snoring. They are both blissfully asleep... ...for now. INT. KITCHEN - MORNING Another day, another chaotic breakfast. Foster waves a stuffed toy around. Josh charges in, bits of tissue on his face from shaving cuts. Cali flails her arms in her high chair. Renai is at the sink, whisking eggs. RENAI Foster, sit down honey. She whips a look around. RENAI (CONT'D) Where is...? Hey Josh, could you go wake up Dalton? We FOLLOW Josh as he marches down the corridor to Dalton's bedroom, poking his head inside. INT. DALTON'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS Josh knocks on the wall. JOSH Time to get up, my man. Come on. Nothing from Dalton. He doesn't even stir. Josh rolls his eyes and walks in. Nudges Dalton with his knee. JOSH (CONT'D) You're making me look bad here. Outta bed before your mother comes in and kills both of us. 21. Nothing. He's really out. Josh reaches down and shakes Dalton vigorously. JOSH (CONT'D) Dalton, get up. You've gotta get ready for school. Josh waits for a response, but none comes. Dalton is as slack as a puppet. Something resembling concern crosses Josh's face. JOSH (CONT'D) Dalton...? He kneels down, shaking Dalton hard. He listens for breathing. JOSH (CONT'D) Dalton? Dalton?! DALTON!! His scream takes us into-- INT. HOSPITAL ROOM, ICU UNIT - DAY --the stern sterility of a hospital. Josh and Renai, eyes lined by dark circles, stand in front of a dour neurologist, DR. JOEL SERCARZ (46). Renai dabs her eyes with a tissue. They are red with tears. Beyond a window in front of them, lying on a gurney in an ICU chamber, is the unconscious body of Dalton. DR. SERCARZ Okay...as of yet, our tests have not drawn any conclusive answers for you. Repeated blood and CSF cultures are normal, making an infective origin highly unlikely. Tests for Lyme disease and repeated polymerase chain reaction are negative. Systemic vasculitis was ruled out. Dalton remains in an areactive coma without focal signs or abnormal brainstem reflexes. Josh and Renai struggle to follow the cold, multi-syllable medical terminology...like stranded tourists keeping up with a foreign language. DR. SERCARZ (CONT'D) We've looked for bacterial pathogens like Meningoencephalitis, but haven't seen anything. (MORE) 22. DR. SERCARZ (CONT'D) I wouldn't say we've exhausted every single angle...but we're close. The underlying cause is still unknown. Josh and Renai look in at their boy. DR. SERCARZ (CONT'D) The good news is that he's breathing without the use of a mechanical apparatus, and there are no lesions or hemorrhages in any of the CT scans. JOSH So...there's no brain damage or...? DR. SERCARZ None that we've detected. Technically, he's in a coma. He doesn't respond to stimuli, he has no sleep-wake cycle, but there's no brain trauma or infection. His scans are normal. To be honest, I've never seen anything like it. JOSH That fall he took...I mean, it looked like he hit his head pretty hard. DR. SERCARZ We definitely exhausted that possibility, but it was always doubtful. The cut was superficial, there wasn't even a skull fracture. RENAI He can't just not wake up...there's got to be something... Renai sobs, tears streaming down her face. Josh looks like a deer in the headlights. Stunned dumb. Sercarz clears his throat. This part of the job isn't his specialty. DR. SERCARZ I'm sorry. JOSH So what do we do now? Does he stay here? DR. SERCARZ We'll conduct some further testing, but beyond that...I really don't know. 23. His pager goes off. He checks it. DR. SERCARZ (CONT'D) Excuse me for a minute. I have to step out. A nurse will be with you in just a moment. He leaves quickly. Josh and Renai press on the glass, separated in body and spirit from their son. FADE TO BLACK. SUPERIMPOSE TITLE: TWO MONTHS LATER INT. DALTON'S BEDROOM, LAMBERT HOME - DAY A ghastly meld of hospital room and young boys bedroom. Dalton lies on his bed, a heart rate monitor hooked to his chest. IV tubes run into his arms, a Nasogastric feeding tube into his mouth. A young nurse, ADELE CHALFIN (30), checks the various tubes as Renai watches on. ADELE Are you having any more trouble with the feeding tube? Renai looks broken, the life drained from her. A wilted flower. She shakes her head, her voice a low rasp. RENAI (BARELY AUDIBLE) It's okay. ADELE Alright, well I'll be back soon. I'll bring some new books. You're probably sick of the ones you have. RENAI Did he respond to any of the tests? Adele pauses. ADELE No...no, he didn't. But we have to give it time. I've seen coma patients with a much longer inactivity time suddenly start making noises. 24. RENAI He's not in a coma, remember? They don't know what to call it. They don't know what to do with him so they've given up. ADELE No, they haven't. We're going to figure it out. Adele hugs her, then exits. Renai slumps down on a chair next to her son. The heart rate monitor pings. Dalton is as still as a statue. INT. CORRIDOR - DAY Renai shuffles down the corridor. She passes a bedroom door, then stops and doubles back, pushing it open and going into-- INT. CALI'S NURSERY - CONTINUOUS --the babies room. She stares into the crib...at her other sleeping baby. She sets the baby monitor and walks out softly. INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY Renai slumps in front of her piano. Taps one of the keys. She plays a discordant melody of low notes with one hand, not present enough to hear it. She stops and buries her face in her hands. Then she hears it. Whispering. It's so low you would miss it if the house wasn't absolutely silent. Renai looks up, scanning for the source of the murmur. It is coming from the baby monitor. Confused, Renai picks up the monitor, turning up the volume all the way up. The hissssssss of static fills the room. She presses her ear to the device, then hears it again - a hushed WHISPER, almost indistinct from the static save for the whistle of sibilants. 25. VOICE (FROM MONITOR) They see us...all of us...we have to be quick...this life begs us to come back. The whisper trails off....more static... VOICE (CONT'D) (FROM MONITOR) NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Renai drops the baby monitor, leaping out of her skin at the sound of the scream. Nerves fried. The monitor smashes on the floor. All is quiet. Renai moves to the door, staring down the corridor at the door to Cali's nursery. It is open only a crack. She hears crying. Cali is crying. We follow her as she bolts towards the nursery, smashing through the door, eyes filled with terror, seeing-- --nothing. INT. NURSERY - CONTINUOUS Renai stalks into the room. The room is empty, save for Cali, crying in her crib. Renai's eyes land on the closet. ANGLE FROM INSIDE THE CLOSET Through a slight crack, we see Renai approach. Breath quivering. Her hand reaches out. She FLINGS the door open. It is empty. INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT The family is eating. It's very quiet. Foster keeps his eyes down as his parents eat in silence. Suddenly Cali breaks the quiet, squealing happily. CALI Dadda! Josh looks up, smiling. Amazed. 26. JOSH She said dad... Neither Renai nor Foster even look up. INT. FOSTER'S BEDROOM - NIGHT A bedside lamp gives off a jaundice glow. Renai gathers up scattered toys from the floor, relocating them to a desktop covered in beakers and lab equipment. Foster lies in bed beneath a large chart of the solar system. Renai stops cleaning when she finds a certificate, crumpled next to a school bag. It says IN RECOGNITION OF SCIENCE SKILL, AWARDED TO FOSTER LAMBERT ON 3/14/10. RENAI What's this? FOSTER An award. RENAI That's today's date. You got this today? Foster nods meekly. RENAI (CONT'D) Why didn't you tell us, honey? She sits on the edge of his bed. He stares at the wall. She strokes his hair. RENAI (CONT'D) I know it's hard right now. But things will get better. I promise. Foster nods. RENAI (CONT'D) I'm going to show this to your dad. She plants a kiss his forehead and stands up. FOSTER I'm scared, mom. RENAI Scared of what? 27. FOSTER Dalton. Renai sits back down. RENAI We're all scared. It's normal to be scared for him. But we can't give up-- FOSTER Why do I have to sleep so close to him? Can't I change rooms? RENAI Why would you wanna change rooms? Foster swallows. FOSTER I don't know. Renai stares at her son. She kisses him again. RENAI Your brother needs you. Goodnight honey. INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT Josh lies in bed, reading Foster's award. Renai is beside him. RENAI Something happened today. I didn't want to tell you in front of Foster. JOSH What? RENAI I heard something coming from Cali's room. A man's voice. On the baby monitor...it scared the hell outta me. I went in there and no one was there. JOSH Could it have been interference? RENAI I don't know. It was so clear. I was sitting at the piano and I heard this...whispering on the baby monitor. So I held my ear up to it-- 28. SUDDENLY - a noise interrupts. An arrhythmic KNOCKING sound, like a drunk pounding on a tavern door after closing. It is the front door. JOSH Who the hell is that? Josh knows it's his job to check, but he doesn't want to. JOSH (CONT'D) Stay here. He gets up. INT. FRONT DOOR - NIGHT Josh approaches the front door, flashlight in hand. He peers through curtains at the front step. It's too dark to see anything. JOSH Hello? Who's there? Only the wind replies. He aims the flashlight at the glass, shining it into the thick darkness. There is no one on the front step. Josh presses the flashlight against the window, arcing the beam across his front garden. Leans in close to the glass... AND THEN-- Nothing. There's no one there. He makes sure the door is locked, then flips open a security system panel on the wall, pecking at the buttons on it. INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT Renai sits up in bed, listening. Hears nothing... ...until the low moans of a baby crying float out of the baby monitor. Renai hurls the sheet aside. INT. CORRIDOR - NIGHT Renai pads down the hall, tentative. 29. She reaches the open door to Cali's room. Sees the silhouette of Josh standing over Cali's crib. Exhales with relief. RENAI Who was it, Josh? Josh appears at the opposite end of the hallway. JOSH What did you say? Renai SCREAMS as the silhouette recedes into the shadows. RENAI There's someone in there! She RUNS towards Josh. RENAI (CONT'D) There's someone in Cali's room! Josh BOLTS down the hall, flicking on the light, terrified. The nursery is empty. Cali is sleeping. Terrified, Josh enters the room. Scans around. Only toys and colorful wallpaper. He steps in further. He's not cut out for this. SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEKKKK!!!!!! SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!! The house alarm screams to deafening life, shaving a few years off Josh's life in the process. He JOLTS, whipping around. JOSH (TO RENAI) Grab Cali and Foster! Josh charges down the hall into the-- INT. LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS --snatching up a fire poker from the fireplace and continuing-- INT. FRONT DOOR - CONTINUOUS -- to the front door, which is swinging open. Holding the fire poker aloft, Josh scans the area. Renai races past, carrying Cali and dragging Foster behind her. They barrel toward Dalton's room. 30. INT. KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS Josh scans the kitchen. It is empty. The alarm wails in the background. INT. CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS Josh inches his way up the hall, hand shaking. INT. DALTON'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS Renai holds Foster and Cali close to her. Dalton is lying behind them. Directly across from Dalton's room is the laundry. The door is ajar, offering a view into the darkened room beyond. Renai sees something in the dark...a figure. A boy. It looks like Dalton. He reaches out to Renai-- --until another HAND...a pale hand...reaches across and shuts the laundry door, sealing the boy off from her view. RENAI Josh! The laundry! INT. LAUNDRY - SAME TIME Josh bolts up the hall, panicked. He reaches the laundry door, grabbing the handle. Hesitates. He propels the door open with a shove, flicking on the light. The room is empty. No windows, no doors for escape...just a washing machine and a dryer. EXT. LAMBERT HOME - NIGHT A home security officer trudges down the steps of the house. Renai, Josh, Foster and Cali all stand outside in their pajamas, shivering in the frigid night air. SECURITY OFFICER There's no one in there, it's all clear. If someone was there, they're gone now. 31. Renai steps away from the children, out of their earshot. RENAI I saw somebody. SECURITY OFFICER Maybe it was a shadow...? RENAI No. It wasn't a shadow, it was a man. He was tall, and he long, greasy hair. He was wearing a grey jacket. He looked right at me. SECURITY OFFICER Well, like I said...he's gone now. Renai looks to the others. Sees only disbelieving faces. INT. GYMNASIUM, FORRESTER HIGH SCHOOL - DAY Josh's students scuffle about on stadium seating, arranging themselves for a CLASS PHOTO. They're not doing a great job. A male photographer does his best to compose them, not doing a great job of hiding his bitterness about the fact that he's shooting school photos instead of Vanity Fair spreads. PHOTOGRAPHER Okay, face the front ladies and gentlemen...come on...hold still... (muttering to himself) I'm trying to record the peak of your pathetic lives here. Josh stands off to the side, lost in his own thoughts. Tired. PHOTOGRAPHER (CONT'D) Mr. Lambert, would you like to step in please? Josh snaps out of his own head. JOSH Uh...what? PHOTOGRAPHER Could you step in so that we can take the photo? Quickly please. JOSH Just take it without me. 32. PHOTOGRAPHER We need you in the photo, sir. JOSH No, you don't. Just take the damn photo without me, okay? The class settles down, shocked by the outburst. Chastened, the photographer turns to the class, gripping the camera trigger. PHOTOGRAPHER I can't believe this is my life. (beat; to class) Ready kids? Say asshole teacher! INT. GYMNASIUM, FORRESTER HIGH SCHOOL - LATER The students file out of the gym. Josh sits in the bleachers, head buried in his hands. ALANSO (O.S.) I hear things. Josh looks up, seeing Alanso. JOSH What? ALANSO I spend so much time in the office, I hear things. I heard about your son. I'm sorry. JOSH Thank you, Alanso. ALANSO Times like these...people realize that science doesn't have all the answers. There is a higher force at work. JOSH I wish I had your belief. Things would be a lot simpler. ALANSO Things are simple. You just can't see it. Put your faith in Him. He places his gold cross necklace in Josh's hand, then leaves. Josh watches him go, then takes out his cell phone. 33. JOSH (INTO PHONE) Hey...I just found out I have to stay back tonight and finish off mid-term grades. It could be a while, there's a lot to go through. Don't wait up. Bye. EXT. PARK - NIGHT Josh sits on a park bench, staring into the distance. He takes out a flask of whisky, swigging from it. INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT Renai lies in bed, staring at the ceiling. Alone. INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT Renai shuffles in, pouring herself a glass of water. Then she hears it. A low muttering. It is coming from Dalton's room. INT. CORRIDOR - NIGHT Unnerved, Renai peers through the open door. Josh is sitting beside Dalton's bed, reading to him. JOSH The men all walked down to the waters edge...and they stood there and asked the beast to come forth. And the beast roared back "No!". And so they dived in after it... EXT. LAMBERT HOME In the sunlight, the house looks like a happy place. INT. DALTON'S BEDROOM - DAY Dalton's face is a picture of serenity. A new day-shift nurse, KELLY (29), checks on his feeding tube. Renai watches from the doorway. KELLY You okay? 34. RENAI Yeah. KELLY I was going to head off for an hour or so. Are you alright here? RENAI Of course. Anything from Dalton? KELLY No. I'm sorry. Renai nods. Her eyes brim with tears. The cracks are showing. KELLY (CONT'D) Keep providing him with stimuli. I've seen it work time and time again. Read to him. Even if you're doing something else, you can play him music that he likes. Don't give up. She throws a scarf over her shoulder and stands. RENAI I won't, I just...I haven't slept much the last couple of nights. I feel like the universe is trying to see how far I can bend before I break. KELLY The universe picked a fight with the wrong chick. RENAI Thanks, Kelly. You're a saint. KELLY No, I'm not. I'm doing my job. I chose to be here. You didn't choose any of this. You're the strong one. INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY Renai surveys the living room. It is a total mess. INT. BATHROOM - DAY Water cascades out of a faucet. Steam rises from the water. 35. Renai lets bath salts fall into the tub. She almost looks relaxed just smelling them. She starts to undress, then turns -- -- and YELPS in fright. A person is standing behind the distorted glass window, staring in at her. The shape of the person's head and shoulders can clearly be seen, but the glass is too opaque to make out any features. Renai slips, grabbing the sink. When she glances up, the figure is gone. Trembling, Renai opens the window. Very, very slowly. It is fifteen feet off the ground, with a sheer drop below it. EXT. LAMBERT HOME - NIGHT Renai sits on the front steps, alone. It is late. She looks somehow tired and wired at the same time. Smoking a cigarette. Josh pulls in. Fumbles out of his car, tipsy. JOSH What are you doing up? RENAI It's midnight, Josh. JOSH When did you start smoking? RENAI You've been coming home late every single night. You've never had to do that in all of the years you've been at the school. Now all of a sudden you have to stay back late? JOSH I don't like it either, but I'm grading tests. What choice do I have? We've gotta pay Dalton's bills. RENAI Your mother is paying Dalton's bills, Josh. I know because she reminds me every chance she gets. 36. JOSH Jesus, I can't win with you. That's my son in there too, not just yours! He paces, the anger sobering him. JOSH (CONT'D) I've always felt like less than good enough for you. I feel it every time you mention our bills. That subtle voice that says `can't you get a job that pays more than a teacher'? And now I can't even look at you without feeling it. RENAI You're projecting that onto me. You've written an entire story about I'm how I'm feeling without once asking me how I'm feeling. JOSH I don't need to ask. I know you. RENAI I am losing my mind here in this house, Josh. I'm scared and I need you and you're not here. Where are you? JOSH I told you, I'm grading tests. RENAI I don't mean that. I mean you're not here. With me. In this situation. You're avoiding it, like you do anything stressful, whether it's this or a parking ticket. JOSH Christ, I should have stayed at the school. RENAI There you go again. Renai stands up and walks inside the house. The door closes. INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Josh tosses a pillow onto the couch, setting himself up for the night. He curls up on it, pulling a blanket over himself. 37. INT. CORRIDOR - NIGHT The witching hour. Still. Quiet...save for the omnipresent clock. INT. DALTON'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Dalton is as still as we've seen him. And then...he twitches. A slight facial twitch, but we see it. INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Josh snoozes, head arched at a bad angle. His back will regret sleeping on this couch. INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT Renai tosses and turns, restless in sleep. Her eyes open and she sucks in a breath. Bad dreams. She blinks and looks around the room, surprised to be alone, sitting up in fright. Until she remembers why. She eases back onto the bed. Then she looks over at the window. There is a man standing outside it. He is not looking in at her...he is pacing back and forth, furiously smoking a cigarette. Back and forth, back and forth. Agitated. He has long, black, greasy hair and a grey jacket. Every muscle in Renai's body freezes. She becomes a glacier. Her eyes are drilled to the man, unable to move. By sheer will, she manages to direct them towards the bedroom door. Opens her mouth but no words will come. Finally-- RENAI Jo....osh....Josh....Josh... She glances back at the window. THE MAN IS NOW IN THE ROOM. He paces back and forth between the bed and the window, just as he was outside, ignoring Renai. Smoking like a fiend. And then, suddenly, he stops pacing. Looks up. Straight at Renai - as if just realizing she was there. 38. For a moment their eyes are locked in silence... ...and then the man's face contorts in anger and he CHARGES towards her, arms outstretched, GROWLING in fury. MAN DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE! Renai lets out a SHRIEK of terror that could strip paint. A cry from the depths of her soul. She propels herself backward, falling off the bed and scrambling back into the corner. Josh CHARGES into the room, flicking on the light-- --seeing only Renai, huddled in the corner, screaming. JOSH What is it? What is it?! Renai is incoherent. She cannot stop screaming. Josh grabs her by the shoulders. JOSH (CONT'D) Renai, what is wrong?! RENAI The man -- he was there -- he tried to -- there was a man there!!! Foster runs into the room, visibly terrified. He sees his mother and instantly begins crying. He runs to his dad, holding onto his leg. In the background, Cali begins crying, her screams contributing to an overwhelming din. JOSH There's no one here. RENAI I saw somebody! JOSH There's no one here. RENAI Don't you dare not believe me! JOSH I believe you, okay? I just don't know what you want me to do. 39. RENAI I want you to tell me that we can leave this house. I will not spend one more night here. I wanna leave, I wanna go! FOSTER I don't want the man to get me. The realization that her child is terrified quiets Renai. All is suddenly silent, save for the cries of Cali in the background. Josh holds his son tight. JOSH You're okay, buddy. I've got you. He and Renai exchange a look. RENAI I'm sorry. (BEAT) I can't...I want to leave this house. I can't be here anymore. JOSH To move now would be...we would have to rent somewhere. It's not-- RENAI Please, Josh. An agreement passes between them. FADE TO BLACK. EXT. SUBURBAN HOUSE - DAY A moving truck is parked outside an average suburban home. Movers mill about, hauling boxes and couches. INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - DAY Renai unpacks boxes. An elderly woman, LORRAINE (65), helps to unpack. This is Josh's mother. She has a curt, disapproving manner about her that doesn't always make her easy to love. She is actually moving more quickly than Renai, who groans as if her back were aching as she stoops down to pick up books. 40. RENAI Lorraine, you shouldn't have to do any of this. Sit down. LORRAINE Nonsense. I'm perfectly capable of putting a few things away. I did it for Josh his whole life. He never was good with tidying up. RENAI I know, but I just feel so bad. LORRAINE I think it's you who should be sitting down by the looks of it. She boosts a photo frame from one of the boxes. It is a portrait of Renai, Dalton, Foster and Josh. In happier times. Lorraine seems taken aback by it. LORRAINE (CONT'D) I can't believe you got Josh to sit still for a photo. Renai reclines against the wall, surveying her new living room. Her new new house. RENAI I can't believe we're doing all this again, that's what I can't believe. (beat; looks at her) I know you think I'm crazy. Lorraine stops unpacking and fixes Renai with a stare. They've never really gotten along before. Adversity has brought about a truce. LORRAINE Nobody - not me, not anybody - knows what you're going through right now. Whatever you have to do to get through it, do it. And never apologize for it. Renai hugs her. It's a new thing for them and a bit awkward. INT. DOCTOR'S OFFICE - DAY DR. BRYCE TRIMBLE (52) sits opposite Renai and Josh. Spread out in front of him are a series of X-Rays, labelled DALTON LAMBERT. His office is big and expensive. 41. Renai looks hopeful. Josh looks like a shell of a man. RENAI We just wanna say...thank you so much. For helping us out with this, doctor. We can't tell you how much it means to have you involved. DR. TRIMBLE I'm glad to help. (BEAT) Unfortunately...these recent tests have proven inconclusive. There's absolutely nothing abnormal here. Josh and Renai deflate. JOSH So...if you're the top of the food chain with this stuff, where does that leave us? DR. TRIMBLE I don't know. There is a research team in Boston who specialize in a new form of treatment. They try to stimulate the patients brain with electric pulses. It has a good success rate with victims of brain injury. We could try that. RENAI So there's hope? DR. TRIMBLE There are more things we can try. (BEAT) The hope part is up to you. INT. DALTON'S BEDROOM, NEW HOUSE - DAY Renai sits beside Dalton. Staring at him. She runs her fingers through his hair, touching his skin. INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - DAY A needle touches an LP. The pops and crackles of record hiss spit forth, followed by the lilting guitar strums of `Tip Toe Through The Tulips'. The quavering falsetto of Tiny Tim accompanies the guitar. 42. TINY TIM (V.O.) (FROM RECORD) Tip-toe by the window, by the window, that is where I'll be... Renai walks away and we follow her down the hall into -- INT. FOSTER'S BEDROOM, NEW HOUSE - CONTINUOUS -- a mess as only a child can make. Renai picks up a plate and a fork and knife from the floor. She walks out and we DON'T CUT, tracking with her -- INT. HALLWAY, NEW HOUSE - CONTINUOUS -- back down the hall, towards the kitchen. The records continues warbling in the background. TINY TIM (FROM RECORD) Oh tip-toe, from the garden, by the garden, of the willow tree... Renai passes the living room. What she doesn't see is the child standing in the middle of the room, facing the record player. The boy is dressed in clothes from another time, but children's clothes just the same. He is dancing awkwardly, shifting his weight from one foot to foot the other sheepishly, as if trying it for the first time. Renai keeps walking and we stay with her as she moves past the child, following her into the -- INT. KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS -- mess of the kitchen. She sets the plate down in the sink, on top of a stack of other dirty dishes. With a sigh she runs the hot water over the dishes. With a sudden POP, the record starts skipping. Bump...bump...bump... 43. Renai shuts off the water, heading back to the living room. INT. LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS She marches in, annoyed. Then freezes. Her bookshelf is empty. The books that once sat on it are now scattered across the floor. Bump...bump...bump... Renai scans the books. THEN SHE HEARS it... Giggling. She pivots her head towards the darkened hallway. There, she sees a child, hidden in shadow, standing in the hall. Staring at her. Bump...bump...bump... Renai doesn't move. Doesn't breathe. And then suddenly, the child turns and runs down the hall, disappearing into Dalton's bedroom. RENAI Oh my God, Dalton...no... Summoning every ounce of strength, Renai troops down the hall towards Dalton's room. INT. DALTON'S BEDROOM - DAY Renai pushes the door open. Dalton lies in the center of the room on his gurney. The only sound is his breathing. Renai surveys the room. It is empty. Bump...bump...bump... She steps inside, glancing over at a cabinet. In the foot- high space beneath it, a small white shoe protrudes slightly. 44. A child's shoe. Heart pounding, Renai bends down, peering into the darkness under the cabinet. Bump...bump...bump... The shoe does not have a foot in it. It is simply a discarded shoe. There is no one under the cabinet. BANG!!! BA G The cabinet doors EXPLODE open as the child bursts out, giggling. Only we see that it is not a child. It is a DWARF. A man in child's clothing. The dwarf runs past Renai as she LEAPS back. He runs out of the room, giggling. All is quiet again. Bump...bump...bump... Renai gets up, unsure of what to do. Numb with terror. SUDDENLY-- the record pitches back to life, the volume startling. Renai JOLTS, falling backwards. INT. CLASSROOM, FORRESTER HIGH SCHOOL - NIGHT A darkened class room. An older janitor, NED (68), shoulders the door open, carrying a mop. He STARTS when he sees Josh, sitting at his desk in the pale light of a desk lamp. Alone. NED Josh...didn't see you there. JOSH Sorry to scare you. NED What are you up to this late? Josh holds up his flask of whisky. He's a bit soused. JOSH Where did all the bartenders who listen to your troubles go, Ned? Ned nods sagely. He sets down his mop and grabs a chair, sitting in front of Josh with a sigh. He takes the flask. 45. NED Never drink alone. If you take the dirty jokes out of drunkenness, all you're left with is the self loathing. He downs a hit from the flask, then hands it back. JOSH I don't need whisky for that. NED Bah. You people think too much. Used to be, if life threw a shitstorm at you, you'd grab the nearest umbrella. Your generation would spend a day googling what brand to buy. Josh laughs despite himself. JOSH I probably would too. (beat; takes a drink) It's funny, I've always known I was the type of person that things didn't happen to. I made peace with it. I thought to myself, it's okay - I'll never win the lottery or climb Mount Everest...but I'll never get a rare tropical blood disease either. It works out. (BEAT) Now I'm the guy whose son is in a mysterious coma. NED Things happen to everybody. Even to good people like you. And they're gonna keep happening the older you get, believe me. No use sittin' in the dark drinkin' over it. Go home. Be with your wife. Tell her your what's on your mind. He takes the flask and has another swig. NED (CONT'D) There sure as hell isn't any umbrellas `round here. EXT. NEW HOUSE - NIGHT Josh pulls up to the house. Turns off the car. 46. An old Cadillac is sitting in the driveway. Josh clambers out of his car and peers in through the window of the Cadillac, quizzical. INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT Renai is huddled on the couch in the living room, gripping her knees to her chest. A man is sitting next to her; a handsome, soft-spoken Anglican priest, FATHER NATHANSON (40). Josh enters. There are subtle changes in his coordination and speech from the booze. JOSH This is the first line of a joke. Guy comes home to find his wife with a priest... Father Nathanson stands, as does Renai. RENAI Josh, this is Liam Nathanson. A very old friend of mine. FATHER NATHANSON Nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you. JOSH Can't say I've heard the same, Liam. At least I know you're not sleeping with her. LORRAINE (O.S.) Don't be rude, Josh. Josh turns to see his mother, holding a tray of tea. He frowns. JOSH What is going on here? FATHER NATHANSON I should be going. Thank you so much for the tea. RENAI Thanks, Liam. He clears his throat and exits, quickly and quietly. JOSH Okay, would anyone mind telling me what the hell is going on here? 47. LORRAINE Please sit down, Joshua. JOSH "Joshua?" Oh Jesus... LORRAINE Sit down. JOSH The melodramatic way in which you two are conducting yourselves right now is scaring the shit out of me, so just tell me what's wrong. LORRAINE Nothing is wrong. We want to talk. JOSH Nobody asks you to sit down unless something is wrong. If a doctor calls you into his office and asks you to sit down, you're fucked. RENAI There's no use, Lorraine. He's been drinking. JOSH I have not been drinking. Not enough that we can't talk to each other, Renai. And don't judge me in that bitchy tone, okay? RENAI (TO LORRAINE) He would never speak to me like that before. JOSH Christ. You're acting like I'm some lush who comes home and beats you with a belt. At least I'm speaking to you. You suddenly have to speak to a priest. Or my mother who, up until a couple of weeks ago, you couldn't stand. RENAI You're an asshole. LORRAINE Your wife needs you. Now sit down and listen to her. I won't ask you again. 48. Josh obeys. His mothers tone can still shut him up. LORRAINE (CONT'D) Go on, Renai. Tell him. RENAI This...thing that was in the other house. It followed us. Josh shifts in his seat. Agitated. LORRAINE Let her speak. RENAI I saw someone again today. In the house. It looked like a young boy. I followed it into Dalton's room... but it wasn't a child. (BEAT) This thing is here. I know it. JOSH So...what? You called in a priest to get rid of it? RENAI I didn't know what else to do. JOSH Are you kidding me? (TO LORRAINE) Was this your idea? RENAI No. It was mine. JOSH You've never been to a church in your life. Now you're inviting a priest into our home? I feel like I don't even know you right now. RENAI I'm scared. JOSH This is a fantasy, and you need a therapist, not a member of the clergy. RENAI (TO LORRAINE) I told you... 49. LORRAINE What's happening to Renai is real. I've seen it for myself. (BEAT) I came here today because last night I had a dream about this place. INT. KITCHEN, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT We are FLOATING through the corridor, looking through Lorraine's POV. We are inside her dream. LORRAINE (V.O.) I was in this house...but it was late at night. The POV keeps moving, out of the kitchen and into the hall. LORRAINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) I tried to be quiet. I didn't want to wake anybody. I was afraid. The POV floats down the hall, reaching a door. The door opens, revealing Josh and Renai, sleeping. LORRAINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) I looked into your bedroom. You were both asleep. The POV keeps moving down the hall. LORRAINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) I knew that I was asleep in the dream...but I could feel that someone was awake in the house. We keep pushing on, reaching the door to Dalton's room. LORRAINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) I went into Dalton's room. The door pushes open. In the dark, we can see Dalton, in bed. LORRAINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) There was someone in there with him. The POV turns to see a DARK FIGURE, standing in the corner. LORRAINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) A man was standing in the corner of the room. (MORE) 50. LORRAINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) I asked him who he was...he said he was a visitor. I asked him what he wanted...he said Dalton. INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - DAY Lorraine is clearly unsettled by the dream. LORRAINE I can still hear that voice. She looks up at Josh - and SCREAMS! Over Josh's shoulder, crouched down behind the couch and peeking up over the armrest at Lorraine, is a DIABOLICAL FIGURE. His face is PURE RED with smeared lipstick. His scalp is completely bald, yet tufts of hair dangle above his ears. Other than his face, his skin is charcoal black. Lorraine recoils back, utterly petrified. JOSH What is it? Lorraine stares eerily into his eyes. Frozen. LORRAINE He's here. Renai looks to Josh, who is at a total loss. She is crying. RENAI Help us... His anger fades and he steps over and takes her in his arms. JOSH I don't know how. LORRAINE I know somebody who can help...if you're willing to ask for it. EXT. NEW HOUSE - DAY A battered van is parked in the driveway of the house. INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - DAY Renai and Josh stand in front of two men. They are silent. 51. The shorter one is a wiry young man who looks like he spends most of his time in dark rooms. Not a member of the beach volleyball team. This is SPECS (32). The other is TUCKER (33), a larger man with scruffy facial hair. He is eating a Hot Pocket. SPECS So you must be Josh? JOSH Yeah. SPECS That wasn't psychic. Lorraine told me your name. JOSH Oh. SPECS I'm Specs. (beat; spooky voice) I'm here to solve your problem. I'm just kidding with the voice. We take this very seriously. RENAI So is Elise coming or...? SPECS She won't be joining us yet. Usually we handle all the background stuff, then she gets involved when we have the facts. TUCKER Helps weed out the nutjobs. RENAI Okay... JOSH This is a little uncomfortable. Speaking for myself. I'm not used to this kind of stuff. SPECS We understand completely. Ninety six per cent of the people we deal with have had no experience with this type of phenomena before. He takes out a notepad and pen. 52. SPECS (CONT'D) I would like to start by interviewing you both. Can we record your answers? RENAI Ah...sure. SPECS My assistant will check different areas of the house for electrical anomalies. I'll get him started. Tucker, would you follow me? INT. KITCHEN, NEW HOUSE - DAY Specs leads Tucker into the kitchen. TUCKER Assistant? SPECS Could you not eat that in front of the clients? TUCKER Assistant? SPECS Finish it in here. This industry gets laughed at enough as it is. INT. LIVING ROOM, SPECS' APARTMENT - DAY Specs is halfway through interviewing Josh and Renai. SPECS Do you or any of your children suffer from epilepsy or autism? RENAI No. I mean, our son... SPECS Right. I heard about this from Lorraine. He is in a coma, the cause of which is unknown? RENAI Yes. 53. SPECS Do either of you habitually use drugs or alcohol? RENAI No. SPECS No drugs at all? RENAI I take anti-depressants sometimes. SPECS Do you have a history of clinical depression? RENAI Not a history. I've had bouts of it. In the past. Renai is uncomfortable. Specs makes a note. The camera beeps. SPECS Tucker, could you check the camera? TUCKER (O.S.) I'm still assisting in the other room. SPECS Whenever you're ready then. A long beat. Tucker finally enters, adjusts the camera. TUCKER (to Renai and Josh) He handles administration, I handle technical. It's an even split. He couldn't change a light bulb and I'm no good with paperwork. It bores me senseless. Specs clears his throat, peeved. Continues. SPECS Do you have any history of sexual abuse in the family? JOSH No. (BEAT) I'm sorry, I have to ask how this relates to our problem? 54. SPECS Nine times out of ten, when someone comes to us with a problem like this, it's because of an inward cause within the family unit...not a physical force outside of it. INT. MASTER BEDROOM, NEW HOUSE - DAY Specs and Tucker mill around the room. Tucker is carrying a small electronic device. He holds it against the wall. JOSH What is that? TUCKER Tri-field meter. It measures DC fields and the natural electro magnetic environment. SPECS Sometimes old wiring can leak into the atmosphere. It can cause hallucinations, changes in energy. TUCKER Yeah. It's a little more complicated than that, but, you know, you get the general idea. SPECS It's basically that. TUCKER Not really, but whatever. SPECS (TO JOSH) The tech stuff's not relevant to you anyway. TUCKER It's very relevant, but it's all good. INT. CORRIDOR, NEW HOUSE - LATER Tucker edges into the corridor. He switches out the light, then takes what looks like a modified VIEW-MASTER TOY out of his shoulder bag, holding it up to his eyes. He stalks down the corridor with it. All is quiet. 55. TUCKER'S POV THROUGH VIEWMASTER - different filters highlight different degrees of UV light. Each slide changes the readings. He approaches the grandfather clock. Another slide clicks into place - showing us TWO FIGURES. Standing beside the clock. In the negative light, they look like females. Tucker lowers the device. There is no one there. INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - SAME TIME Specs packs up the video equipment, babbling to Josh and Renai. SPECS Epilepsy in one of the children mostly. It's very common. If we approach things academically, it lets us find the genuinely interesting cases. Tucker backs into the room. Very slowly. He is afraid. TUCKER I think we can call Elise now... INT. FRONT DOOR, NEW HOUSE - EARLY EVENING Josh opens the door to see an elderly woman, ELISE RAINIER (73), who despite her years maintains a sprightly energy. There is absolutely nothing morbid or dour about her. JOSH Mrs. Rainier? ELISE No, my mother couldn't come, it's just me. Elise. You must be Lorraine's son? You've grown since I last saw you. JOSH Last saw me? ELISE Your mother and I have been friends for a long time. 56. Elise steps inside. Renai, Tucker and Specs gather around her. Everyone becomes very subservient, like the Queen just arrived. ELISE (CONT'D) (re Specs and Tucker) They're very good assistants but I can't get them to dress any better. RENAI Hi. I'm Renai. ELISE Pleased to meet you. I'm Elise. Elise takes her hat off and scans the room, taking a deep breath. Tucker jabbers, eager to please. TUCKER We took Tri-field and EMF readings of the whole house. All the wiring, alarm clocks, radios, toasters, TV, record player, fuse box. Nothing went off the charts. ELISE And the previous home? Tucker and Specs look at each other. Oh shit. SPECS Tucker hadn't monitored that yet. I could jump on that this afternoon if you like? Make up for lost time. TUCKER Yeah, but who would work the equipment? I'll need to be there. You know what, don't even sweat it. I'll make myself available. ELISE No, that's fine, gentlemen. She stares up at the ceiling, as if seeing something they can't. ELISE (CONT'D) I don't think bad wiring is the problem here. She drifts over to the bookshelf, her hand landing on the stack of photo albums Renai looked through in the opening scene. ELISE (CONT'D) Hmm. 57. Renai and Josh exchange a look. ELISE (CONT'D) May I walk through the house? RENAI Yes. Of course. ELISE Steven, do you have your sketchbook? Specs hurriedly fishes a sketchbook and pencil out of his bag. SPECS Yes, I do. Yes, I do. Yes, yes. I do. ELISE Good. We're going to need it. RENAI What is it for? SPECS She tells me what she sees and I draw it. It's the most important part of her process. TUCKER His drawings and my photos comprise her visual records. SPECS Especially the drawings. TUCKER That's debatable. SPECS It's not debatable. TUCKER It is, but whatever. SPECS Onwards and upwards. Find me a ghost. Elise begins walking through the house. Tucker and Specs trail her and we FOLLOW THEM into the-- INT. CORRIDOR, NEW HOUSE - CONTINUOUS --hallway. 58. Renai and Josh stay back, sheepish. Elise stalks forward at the front, surveying every nook and cranny of the house. Elise stops suddenly. She is staring straight at a corner of the hallway, next to the grandfather clock. RENAI What is it? ELISE There is something here. TUCKER This is where I saw it. Elise calmly mutters something to Specs in a low voice, but we have trouble hearing it - only snatches of key words. ELISE ...long hair...grey dress...her eyes are... He immediately starts sketching. His line drawings are fast but detailed. Impressive. He outlines the wall, the ceiling lamp, the grandfather clock. And then something else... Two young women. Standing next to the grandfather clock, dressed in Amish garb. Even in the roughness of the drawing, we can make out their pleading eyes and pale skin. Tucker takes out a camera, snaps some shots. Josh and Renai step forward, seeing the sketch. Elise keeps moving, heading straight for one door in particular. She stops, running her hand over the wood. ELISE (CONT'D) Do I have permission to enter this room? JOSH Go ahead. ELISE Maybe you could wait back there? Josh and Renai hug each other. Tucker lowers the camera. Elise grips the door handle and turns it. 59. INT. DALTON'S BEDROOM - DAY The door groans open. Dalton is lying on his gurney, surrounded by the sluggish drone of hospital equipment. The curtains are drawn and the room is dark. Elise hesitates...then steps inside. ELISE Leave the lights off. Elise steps closer to Dalton. She runs her hands over his prone body. She shivers as she does. A ripple of fear passes through her. Her breath quickens. Slowly...very very slowly ...she gazes up at a corner of the ceiling. Her eyes WIDEN and the look on her face SHOULD BE ABSOLUTE T E R R O R. Her arm raises up, her finger extending and pointing at the corner she is glaring at. RENAI What is it? What do you see? Elise cups her hand over her mouth and whispers to Specs, keeping her eyes GLUED to the far corner of the ceiling. We cannot hear what she is whispering. Hand shaking, Specs feverishly starts to sketch. We cannot see what he is drawing. RENAI (CONT'D) What do you see?! The strokes of Specs' pencil become faster and rougher, keeping up with Elise's whispers. Sweat dots his forehead. Tucker glances at the drawing and steps back instinctively. He holds up his Viewmaster. POV THROUGH VIEWMASTER - we see the far corner of the ceiling change color as Tucker rotates the lenses inside...but nothing out of the ordinary appears. Just a ceiling. RENAI (CONT'D) Tell me! 60. Suddenly, Renai charges forward, snatching the sketch book. The drawing is of a hideous form - crouched in the corner of the ceiling, staring down at Dalton below. It is the RED- FACED DEMON Lorraine saw earlier. His naked body is charcoal black...whilst also strangely translucent, the veins visible underneath the flesh. A corpulent stomach juts out, as if he were pregnant. Terrified, Renai flicks on the light -- -- revealing nothing but an ordinary ceiling. INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - DAY Elise holds court in the living room. Renai and Josh hold each other, struggling to comprehend it all. ELISE I'm not sure if you are ready to hear this yet...but unfortunately I can't waste any time easing you into it. There is no time left. She takes a deep breath, preparing herself. ELISE (CONT'D) I want you to know that this is what I believe and it may contradict a previous medical diagnosis. However, you called me here and I am taking that as an acceptance of my readings. RENAI Go on. ELISE Your son...is not in a coma. His physical body is here, but his spiritual body is not. (BEAT) The reason these disturbances followed you to a new home is because...it is not the house that is haunted. It is your son. This is too much for Josh. Renai, however, wants to listen. RENAI I don't understand... 61. Elise considers what she is about to say carefully. ELISE Have you ever heard of astral projection? RENAI Out of body experiences? Elise nods. ELISE I call them travellers. These are people with the ability to leave their physical body and travel to different places in an astral form. To some degree, we all have the ability to do it...but most of us subconsciously suppress it or don't know how to access it. Josh shakes his head, agitated. Renai leans forward, desperate for an answer to her terror. ELISE (CONT'D) Dalton is...a very accomplished astral projector. He has been since he was very young. He's not afraid of his ability. And that lack of fear has led him to travel too far and become lost... RENAI Lost? Lost where? Elise gazes up at the ceiling, as if looking into another world. ELISE In The Further. RENAI What do you mean? ELISE The Further is that place beyond our perception, beyond our understanding of the physical world that we can see and touch. It is a place without clocks or measurements, without past or future...an infinite realm that holds all of our dreams...and all of our nightmares. She turns to look at them. 62. ELISE (CONT'D) That is where Dalton is. Renai cries, unprepared for what she is hearing. ELISE (CONT'D) The problem is that with his astral body gone, he has left a physical body with us. An empty vessel. Josh can't meet her gaze. ELISE (CONT'D) And there are entities that know this. They can smell it - the chance to live again. That is why they have gathered around him. RENAI How many are there? ELISE There are five benevolent spirits. Five different entities for whom Dalton has become a most prized possession. They are trying to get inside his physical body...and they get closer with each passing day. Her words hang in the air like gunsmoke. Pure fear courses through Josh's eyes. He fidgets, agitated. ELISE (CONT'D) Then there are two entities who are...not benevolent. One of them takes the form of a man, the other... She holds up the drawing that Specs di. ELISE (CONT'D) They work together, so desperate are they to possess Dalton. They are the closest of all the entities to getting inside him. (BEAT) I don't want to scare you, but I have never, in all my years of doing this, experienced anything as terrifying as their presence. RENAI Is there a way to bring Dalton back? 63. ELISE There is something we could try. A way of calling him back. I would need your complete trust. Josh can't take it any more. He stands up. JOSH No. No. This has gone too far. RENAI You said that you'd give her a chance! JOSH I have given her a chance, and I did that because I wanted to help you. But I cannot have somebody telling us that the reason our son is in a coma is because his soul is floating off somewhere in another dimension. ELISE I know this is hard to hear. JOSH No, it's not fair is what it is. You're preying on people's grief and vulnerability, which is really easy to do in a situation like this. RENAI Why did we go to all the trouble of bringing them here if you're just going to reject what they say? JOSH Because I wanted to help you. To put your mind at ease, and if this helped, then great. But to drag Dalton into this? No. RENAI Josh, you're not being fair... JOSH Fair? How did the voice of reason become the bad guy here? Don't you see? You want to believe. Of course you do, honey, anybody would. The room goes quiet. Josh turns to Elise. 64. JOSH (CONT'D) Look, I appreciate what you're trying to do. I really do. But I think it's dangerous to start throwing out false hope like this. I have to put my foot down. My wife is not...mentally well at the moment, and I have to keep at least one of her feet here in the real world. RENAI You never believed me... JOSH Honey, I'm on your side. But I genuinely think this is dangerous and frankly, a little exploitative. He turns to Elise, Specs and Tucker. JOSH (CONT'D) You come into a home with a seriously ill child, you make a tenuous connection between him and these experiences Renai is having and viola - the client starts crying because they're desperate to believe, the tears validate your power, thank you, that'll be six hundred dollars please. SPECS We reject more cases than we take. We're not out for money, sir. JOSH I know, I know...look, I appreciate your interest and your time. I do. Thank you. Thank you very much. He goes to the front door, opening it. ELISE I completely understand. And I honestly don't blame you for reacting like this. She walks to the door, followed by Specs and Tucker, who sling their bags over their shoulders sheepishly. RENAI No, please...don't go. 65. ELISE Thank you for your time. They exit. The door closes. They are gone. INT. MASTER BEDROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT Renai lies in bed, awake...a broken shell of her former self. A bottle of anti-depressants sits on the bedside table. Josh enters the bedroom. Sits down beside her. JOSH Look at me for a second, honey. (BEAT) Look at me. She doesn't look up. JOSH (CONT'D) Did you really believe what she said? In your heart of hearts, did you actually take what she was saying literally? A long beat of silence passes. RENAI I don't know... JOSH Do you think I don't want to believe in that stuff? Of course I do. It would make life a lot easier if I did. If I believed that some supernatural force was responsible for what's happened to our son... RENAI I don't believe anything anymore, Josh. I used to. I used to believe that I could keep my children safe. I used to believe everything would be okay. To believe in something, you have to know it to be true. She turns and looks at him. RENAI (CONT'D) The things that have happened to me haven't confirmed any beliefs - they've done the opposite. They've made me question what I believe. (MORE) 66. RENAI (CONT'D) They've made me realize that maybe we don't know as much as we think we do. Josh paces, at his wits end. RENAI (CONT'D) You ask me if I believe what she said to be true and the answer is I don't know. But let me ask you this - in your heart of hearts, can you say for certain that it isn't? INT. MASTER BEDROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT Josh lies beside Renai, who is sleeping. He is wide awake, staring at the ceiling. He gets out of bed. INT. DALTON'S BEDROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT The door opens. All is mute as Josh enters, skulking carefully through the darkness. The curtains lull in the slightest of breezes. Josh stands over Dalton. He stares down at his sons body, then lets his gaze drift around the room...past the CLOSET, past the DRAWINGS pinned to the wall and the TOYBOX...all the way to the CORNER of the ceiling that Elise was so frightened of. Josh's eyes drill into the shadows. Is there something waiting there? Finally, Josh sits down beside Dalton. He grips his sons hand. JOSH Where are you? Where did you go? (BEAT) Can you hear me? I'm begging you to show me that you can hear me...I don't know how to help you. Please tell me what to do. Josh's torment fills the air...but Dalton doesn't move. 67. JOSH (CONT'D) Please God, please help me...give me my son back. I will do anything just to have him back. Josh studies Dalton's face for a response. Nothing. Not a twitch. He collapses forward onto Dalton. Holding him tight. JOSH (CONT'D) I need him back. I need him to show me that he can hear me. Please... For a moment, all we can hear is Josh's breathing. Then...something happens. Something Josh doesn't see. Dalton's face twitches. It is a very slight movement. This movement is followed by something that is hard to miss-- One of the tacks pinning one of Dalton's drawings to the wall begins to wind loose. It pops free, shooting across the room like a kernel of popcorn...followed by another tack. The second tack lands in Josh's lap. Puzzled, he picks it up, examining it. He looks up, his eye drawn to the picture on the wall. With total astonishment, he sees the two remaining tacks works themselves free, popping out of the wall. The drawing floats down to the ground. Josh stoops down, picking it up. It is a drawing split into two halves. The left half is a self portrait of Dalton, lying in bed, looking down from above. The right half is a depiction of outer space - squiggly stars and bloated planets. Dalton has drawn another version of himself on this side, flying above the house with another man. At the bottom of the first drawing, Dalton has written `Last night I watched myself sleep'. A tear falls down Josh's face. He begins to cry. Deep and painful tears he has long pent up. Beneath the second drawing, Dalton has written `Then I flew away.' 68. INT. MASTER BEDROOM, NEW HOUSE - EARLY MORNING Renai's eyes flutter open. She glances over. No one is there. INT. KITCHEN, NEW HOUSE - EARLY MORNING Renai shuffles into the kitchen. Josh is sitting at the kitchen table, staring at Dalton's drawing. He hasn't slept and looks it. He looks up at her. JOSH Okay. Renai approaches Josh and they hug...holding on for dear life. EXT. NEW HOUSE - NIGHT The Lambert house is lit from within. Like a Jack-O-Lantern. INT. DALTON'S ROOM - NIGHT Action stations. Tucker sets up two stills camera's around Dalton's room, zipping back and forth between the two tripods. Specs opens up a kit, taking out his notepad and a pencil. A small, circular table has been set up, adjacent to Dalton's bed. Elise sits at the table, flanked on either side by Josh and Renai. ELISE What's most important is that you realize no two attempts are the same. I will be completely honest with you about the results, and if no dialogue is established, I will tell you. I am not in the business of embellishing success. What happens, happens. Josh and Renai nod grimly, truly out of their depth. ELISE (CONT'D) Forget the limits and laws and logic of this world. We are treading in a different place now. Tucker finally sets his cameras and takes a seat in the corner, holding up a HAND-HELD VIDEO CAMERA. 69. TUCKER These still cameras are rigged to pick up changes in the atmosphere, electrical or temperature-wise. Don't be alarmed if they go off. ELISE Everything I say while I am in tune will be at a very low volume, so you won't hear any of it. Steven will write it down and repeat it for you. Specs waits obediently at her side. ELISE (CONT'D) Hold on to each other, and stay focused. You'll see things you don't understand. Confusing things. Do not question them or speak in any way. She turns to Specs. ELISE (CONT'D) Dim the lights please. Tucker reaches up and dims the lights to a very low level. Elise closes her eyes, concentrating. She relaxes her head, as if meditating, letting it loll on her shoulders. One of the cameras on the tripod goes off, bathing the room in white light for a split second. Elise inhales and exhales deeply, slipping away. Soon, she is very still. Specs nods to Tucker silently, then produces an odd looking device made from GREY CLOTH. It almost resembles a gas mask from World War 1, with a cone shaped muzzle that fits over the mouth and nose. The snout of the facemask is like an elongated elephant trunk, coiling outwards and ending in an old listening device, like an early version of a microphone. Specs slips two hooks over Elise's ears and gently places the device over her nose and mouth. He then takes a seat next to her, behind Renai, who holds Elise's hand. Specs takes out his notepad and fixes a small apparatus around his neck that holds a flashlight in place. 70. He flicks it on, then holds the microphone end of Elise's facemask up to his ear, a pencil gripped in the other hand. Dead silence descends over the group like a blanket. Then, we hear something lilt through the old microphone. It is Elise's muttered whispers. Specs begins writing. Renai opens her eyes to peek at what he is scribbling in cursive. we are calling out to you dalton Renai grips Josh's hand tightly. SPECS We are calling out to you Dalton. tell us that you are safe tell us where you are SPECS (CONT'D) Tell us that you are safe. Tell us where you are. For what seems like an eternity, all is quiet and still... ...until Elise's eyelids flutter. Another unintelligible whisper drifts out of the microphone at Specs' ear. He writes. who's there? SPECS (CONT'D) Who's there? it is your mother and father we have been looking for you SPECS (CONT'D) It is your mother and father. We have been looking for you. Long pause. Specs writes again, more intense this time. i need help i can't see in here SPECS (CONT'D) I need help...I can't see in here. 71. follow my voice dalton come back to us SPECS (CONT'D) Follow my voice Dalton. Come back to us. Another long pause. A little too long. Why aren't you talking anymore dalton? SPECS (CONT'D) Why aren't you talking anymore Dalton? A long beat. Tucker's camera flash goes off again. if they hear me they'll hurt me SPECS (CONT'D) If they hear me, they'll hurt me. who will hurt you? SPECS (CONT'D) Who will hurt you? the man with fire on his face SPECS (CONT'D) The man with fire on his face. can you find your way back to us? SPECS (CONT'D) Can you find your way back to us? there is no way out SPECS (CONT'D) There is no way out. follow my voice dalton SPECS (CONT'D) Follow my voice Dalton. be quiet they'll hear you 72. SPECS (CONT'D) Be quiet, they'll hear you. they won't hear you just follow my voice SPECS (CONT'D) They won't hear you, just follow my voice. they are coming they heard you help me helpme mom and dad please save me please come and get mepleasecomeandgetmecome Elise's head TWITCHES as Specs' writes furiously, trying to keep up. His pencil finally SNAPS. He snatches up another. dalton are you there? dalton? An agonizing ocean of silence...then this furious scrawl: listen to me you filthy whore he isnt here you should not have come here you fucking bitch i will rip your cunt apart and eat the fucking innards that spill forth from it i HAVESEENYOUIKNOWWHOYOUAREBUTYOUANDTHE Specs writing begins to SHRED the paper as he writes furiously, the scrawl getting out of control. Sweat flies from his forehead as he struggles to get it all down. Suddenly a PIERCING SCREAM blasts through the microphone and he jerks it away from his ear - then looks over at Elise. With UTTER DREAD, he sees that she is NO LONGER WEARING THE MASK. She has taken it off and is panting heavily. The scream continues through the mic, audible to everyone...then peters out. Shocked silence follows. Josh glances over at Dalton's bed. He is not in it. 73. Stunned, Josh turns back to the table-- --TO SEE DALTON SITTING NEXT TO HIM. STARING AT HIM. His heart leaps out of his skin and so does Renai's as they both turn towards Dalton. Their son. Dalton stares at them...not a trace of emotion on his face. Then he reaches up and grips his bottom jaw with both hands, wrenching it downwards with almighty force and BREAKING HIS OWN JAW. Renai SCREAMS into the abyss as Dalton BELLOWS at them, spit flying from his throat, his tongue hanging down over his dislocated jaw. He stamps his foot and the table - and everyone sitting at it, Renai, Josh and Elise - go flying backwards as if pushed by a hurricane, smashing into the wall with crushing power. We realize that Dalton was not sitting at the table, but squatting down awkwardly. Painfully. He stands up, then steps forward. As Josh and Renai watch, his KNEE begins to BEND BACKWARDS, the tendons stretching and snapping, the knee bending in the opposite direction. His other knee follows and he steps forward - both knees bending back. Specs is rigid in his chair, rooted to the spot, notepad still in hand. When he looks up at Dalton, the flashlight under his chin shines in Dalton's eyes. Dalton ROARS and advances forward - SLAPPING Specs with the force of ten men. Specs reels backwards, hitting the wall, smashing his head and crumpling like paper. Elise stands to face Dalton. The CAMERA FLASH goes off again, lighting the darkened room for a split second and showing Elise the lipstick-smeared face of a demon instead of Dalton's face. Tucker SHRINKS BACK as he captures all this with the video camera. Dalton steps forward again and Elise CHARGES at him, grabbing Dalton by the hair. ELISE Leave this vessel! Leave this vessel! Dalton BELLOWS again - a howl so course and ungodly that it seems ripped straight from the bowels of Lucifer himself. 74. ELISE (CONT'D) LEAVE THIS VESSEL! Dalton FLIES backwards, hitting the corner of the wall and then CLIMBING IT, arcing his body into the far corner of the ceiling like an expert contortionist. He hisses at them as the CAMERA FLASH fires AGAIN AND AGAIN, showing them split second frames of the red faced CREATURE. ELISE (CONT'D) Leave this earthly body! Dalton shrieks again and somehow the force of the cry knocks Elise down. The room begins to shake. Books fly. The closet doors burst open. With terror, Elise looks over and sees several figures peering out from within the closet. Two are the women that Specs' drew. Another is a small man, dressed like a child. They stare out at Elise, their eyes glinting in the dark. Elise turns to see Josh. The camera flash STROBES repeatedly and gives us split-second glimpses of an OLD WOMAN, dressed in Victorian era garb - standing directly behind Josh. And then, with absolute fear, Renai sees the LONG HAIRED MAN standing over her. He SCREAMS at her and pushes her against the wall, licking her. She cries out, terrified. With the spirit world, crashing in around her, Elise pulls herself off the floor and yells again. ELISE (CONT'D) Leave his body! Dalton suddenly SPASMS, dropping out of the corner and hitting the floor like a rag doll dropped off a bridge. ELISE (CONT'D) The lights! Terrified, Specs' scrambles over to the corner, flicking the light switch. The room is instantly flooded with light. The room has stopped shaking. The screaming has stopped. 75. RENAI Dalton! Renai wrenches herself across the carpet and reaches Dalton's limp body. RENAI (CONT'D) Dalton! Dalton! She listens for breathing. His chest moves. He is still breathing. She holds him and cries. More desperate than ever. INT. KITCHEN, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT Tucker, Specs and Elise convene in the kitchen, slumped amongst the boxes for the tech gear. All are in shock. SPECS I feel like a mountain climber who's been waiting his whole life to climb Everest, and now that I'm standing on the summit, I don't know what to do with myself... TUCKER I'll tell you what we do with ourselves. We make a short list of our preferred media outlets, that's what. He holds up his video camera. TUCKER (CONT'D) Watch this. He hits play on a monitor that his video camera is cabled to. Chaotic images of Dalton from the previous scene SPIT to life. BEHIND DALTON, we can just make out the blurry image of the RED-FACED DEMON. Puppeteering Dalton from behind. Controlling his limbs like a human marionette. SPECS Oh my God... TUCKER After all the years we've been dining out on morsels like a faucet that turns itself on and off...we finally have some empirical evidence of the real thing. Proof. He hits pause on the video, freeze-framing the hellish image. 76. ELISE Proof? Proof of what? Nine tenths of the world believes that when you die, your soul ascends to sit with God. Would you be telling them something they didn't already know? TUCKER That is so not the point. This is not about religion. Here we have irrefutable evidence of a paranormal experience. Our job is to share it. ELISE No, our job is not to alert the press and prove the existence of the `paranormal', as you call it. I'm not out to prove anything. I've known there was a higher plane ever since I was a little girl and I could play hopscotch with people whose names were inscribed on tombstones. What you call paranormal is a fact of life for me. (BEAT) Our job is to help people. The least we can do is spare them the indignity of Sixty Minutes. She snatches his camera away from him and stands up. TUCKER Yeah, until they get their book deal...then you'll wish you'd listened. ELISE No, I won't, Tucker. I'll just be proud of you. You two stared down something that would crush most mortals tonight and you stood tall. They manage a smile. SPECS So what do we do now? ELISE We answer the door. SPECS What do you mean? There is a knock at the front door. 77. INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT Josh sits with Renai's head in his lap. She is too traumatized to speak. Rain dribbles down the window pane. Josh gets up when he hears the knock at the door. Elise shuffles over to answer it. She opens the door to reveal Lorraine, wet from the downpour. Elise steps aside and Lorraine walks in, gravely sedate. JOSH Mom...what are you doing here? ELISE I asked your mother to come over. I called her immediately after...the session. I told her to hurry over. JOSH Why? Lorraine's usual strong will has evaporated. She looks to Elise. ELISE There is something we must talk about. Sit down, Lorraine. Lorraine follows orders, easing onto the sofa. Eyes down. Thunder growls in the distance. ELISE (CONT'D) Go on. Tell him. JOSH Tell me what? Lorraine swallows and starts talking. LORRAINE The reason...I knew to call Elise in this situation...the reason I know her so well...is because I called her myself once. Years ago. She looks up at Josh. LORRAINE (CONT'D) To help you, Josh. JOSH What are you talking about? 78. Lorraine can't go on. Elise steps in. ELISE It's no accident that your son is such a gifted traveller. The ability was handed down to him. (BEAT) By his father. FLASHCUT TO: INT. DARKENED BEDROOM - NIGHT - FLASHBACK We have returned to the opening scene. We are looking down on a sleeping child. Chest rising and falling with each breath. This is JOSH as a child. We move away from him, exploring the dark room. FLASHCUT TO: INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT - PRESENT Tucker and Specs enter the room, lingering at the back. JOSH No...I've never...done that before. LORRAINE When you were about eight...you suffered night terrors. Awful fits of pure fear. You were terrified of an old woman who you said would come to visit you at night. FLASHCUT TO: INT. CORRIDOR - NIGHT - FLASHBACK Again we return to the opening scene...floating down a long hallway. A window at the end of the hall enlarges as we approach. Someone is standing in front of it. 79. The murky silhouette of the figure turns and walks away. We follow it, tentative. Turning a corner, we see the figure. Standing in a doorway. Now we can make out the edges of the figure. It is an old woman. Hair in a Victorian bun. A corseted dress. IT IS THE SAME OLD WOMAN THAT ELISE SAW. OLD WOMAN Let me in. FLASHCUT TO: INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT Lorraine closes her eyes, struggling to go on. LORRAINE I dismissed your stories. Told you to grow up. (BEAT) Then I saw her for myself. She looks to Elise, who nods. Hand trembling, Lorraine retrieves a packet from within her coat. The paper is yellowing. Faded. Soaked from the rain. Lorraine hands the packet to Josh, who is dumbfounded. Renai peers over Josh's shoulder, at a Polaroid of a boy, about nine years old, sitting on a couch. Early 70s period. It is a Young Josh. Behind him is the BLURRED OUTLINE OF A FIGURE. Josh runs his finger over the shadow. His heart rate speeds up. An old memory is coming back to him. LORRAINE (CONT'D) At first, I thought it was a camera problem. Then I saw her again. Josh flips to the next photo - it is another faded frame of Josh as a youngster. This time he stands in an old kitchen. Once again, there is a figure behind him - clearer this time, but still hidden in silhouette. A step closer to Josh. Josh flips to the next picture. A BLACK AND WHITE shot of himself as a young boy, lying in bed. 80. With dread, Josh sees the unmistakable features of an OLD WOMAN, crouching beside his bed. Staring at him. LORRAINE (CONT'D) In each photo, she got closer and closer to you... Josh flips to the next picture - in this one, Young Josh is standing by a car. Behind him, the details of the Old Woman's dress are visible. Her arm is extended...reaching out for Josh's neck. Renai's hand flies to her mouth. LORRAINE (CONT'D) Finally, I was so scared, I called Elise. Sweat pours down Josh's brow. He lets the photographs flutter from his fingers, backing away. Fragments of memories rock his entire body. JOSH I don't...I don't remember any of this... ELISE You've blocked it out. (BEAT) But in the back of your mind, you're still afraid of having your picture taken, aren't you? Josh grabs the wall, weak at the knees. LORRAINE I've kept the photos hidden ever since then...until tonight. ELISE I advised Lorraine to hide them. To stop taking your picture. And to let you forget. JOSH Who is she? ELISE A parasite. She befriended your astral body, then drew you out into The Further, just as Dalton has been drawn out. (MORE) 81. ELISE (CONT'D) But she deceived you. All she wanted was an empty vessel. A physical body. Yours. LORRAINE I'm sorry, Josh. ELISE I didn't want to make you remember this...I only do it for the sake of your son. A quiet descends over them. ELISE (CONT'D) Your son is out there. (BEAT) And you are the only one who can bring him back. Josh looks up at her. JOSH How long do we have before...that thing...takes him over completely? All eyes are on Elise. ELISE If you cannot reach him tonight, then he is gone forever. INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT - LATER The lights have been dimmed. Josh sits on a single person lounge chair. Elise sits opposite him. Tucker and Specs set up around her, fixing their cameras in place. Renai leans forward on the couch opposite, chewing her nails to the quick. Lorraine is next to her. ELISE Remember who you are and why you are traveling. Keep one foot in this world. (BEAT) Are you ready? Josh nods. Renai hugs him and they hold onto it. She whispers to him, staring into his eyes. 82. RENAI I want you to know something...you have never been less than good enough for me. You've always been perfect for me. You're my best friend...my soulmate. I love you so much. JOSH I love you too. I have since the first time you looked at me. I don't exist without you. Elise drifts over to the piano, lifting the METRONOME from it. She sets it down in front of Josh, freeing the weighted swing- arm so it moves back and forth. TICK...TICK...TICK. ELISE Close your eyes, Josh...and relax. Breathe deeply. Let all life around you fade out into the background...until the only thing you can hear is the ticking of the metronome. We PUSH IN on Josh, inhaling and exhaling. TICK...TICK...TICK. ELISE (CONT'D) Focus on a spot in the center of your forehead. Feel that spot getting further away as you drift off to sleep. We are now in an ECU of Josh. TICK...TICK...TICK. ELISE (CONT'D) I want you to relax your physical body and let the astral body gain strength...feel it rising out of your chest. Renai watches, literally and figuratively on the edge of her seat. Tucker and Specs take notes from the corner. Josh breathes deeply. Eyes shut tightly. ELISE (CONT'D) Detach yourself. Josh's eyes open suddenly and he stands up, frustrated, marching across the living room. 83. JOSH This is useless...I have no idea what I'm doing and you just suddenly expect me to... He turns around and stops dead. His words trail off. HE IS LOOKING AT HIMSELF. He sees his own body, sitting in the armchair, eyes closed. Elise is sitting opposite, with her back to the Josh who is now standing. The living room is exactly as it was - only Renai, Lorraine, Tucker and Specs have disappeared. They are nowhere to be seen. Stunned into mute shock, Josh stares at his own body in the armchair. Slowly, Elise turns her head away from the Josh in the chair, staring eerily into the standing Josh's eyes. She can see him. ELISE (SOFTLY) Now you are free. (BEAT) Keep your guide, and a steady stride...and into The Further you go. She turns back to the Josh in the chair. The room seems to have darkened even more somehow. Josh turns and glares into the darkness of his hallway as it yawns outwards, eventually swallowed by complete blackness. He is not in another world. He is in his own house. NOTE - The following scenes are not going to be "movie quiet". They will be inhumanly quiet. There will no score. Only sound scape. This is another world and should feel so. Josh moves forward, gliding down the hall slowly. He looks down and sees that his feet are slighty raised off the ground. He is floating. He moves into the darkness of the hall...past the bedroom doors and closet doors. 84. As he floats past, he scans every darkened corner for the slightest trace of movement. He reaches the front door. He moves towards it and as he does it OPENS. EXT. THE FURTHER - NOT NIGHT OR DAY, BUT DARK His street beckons beyond the door. Josh floats across his lawn. There are no people or cars on the street...it is as desolate as a post-apocalyptic wasteland. A TOTAL ABSENCE OF LIFE. Some lights flicker from within the houses, but no movement or signs of human forms. Only mist. Josh floats an inch above the road, moving down the street. One thing to notice is that there is a total lack of horizon or city scape here...Josh's immediate surroundings are visible for about one hundred yards or so...anything beyond that, in any direction, fades into blackness. As if someone were shining a giant spotlight down on him. INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT - OUR WORLD Renai watches Josh. He is completely still...in a trance. His eyelids flutter as his eyeballs probe in all directions underneath. ELISE He's in... EXT. THE FURTHER - NIGHT Josh keeps moving, his fear registering, even in this world. He looks down at his feet. He is frustrated that he can't move any faster. He concentrates with fierce intensity-- --and then watches as his feet touch the ground. 85. He is walking. He starts to move faster, gaining control of his movement. JOSH Dalton? The sound of his voice is strangely dead - as if he were inside a soundproof recording studio. There are no walls or angles for it to bounce off. JOSH (CONT'D) Dalton? Where are you? For a long time, there is nothing... ... ...then he sees it. A figure...shrouded in shadow. Standing on the street corner with his back to Josh. Josh moves towards the figure. Closer. Closer. The man abruptly turns the corner without looking back. Josh glances around the corner. There is nobody there. He continues down the street. He sees a little girl. Far in the distance, but close enough to focus on. She stands and stares... ...then turns and walks away. Gone...like an apparition. He looks to his right and sees-- --A SHADOW. Behind a curtain in one of the windows, back lit by candle light. As with the others, the shadow turns away and disappears. Josh walks towards the front door of the house. He reaches it and turns the handle. INT. HOUSE - THE FURTHER - CONTINUOUS A long corridor beckons. As with all of this world, it is dark here. 86. Josh walks into the corridor, looking to his left and right into empty rooms. Living rooms and bedrooms. Devoid of life. The colors are muted...the palate drained. Only REDS and BLACKS pop out. Blood and darkness. Josh keeps moving down the corridor. Up ahead, he sees a figure run past the top of the hall, ignoring Josh. He presses forward, following the figure. JOSH Dalton? He glances into an empty kitchen. Food rots on the table. His footsteps have no sound as he continues on. JOSH (CONT'D) Dalton? He passes a door that is partly open. He pushes it wide open. INT. SMALL ROOM, THE FURTHER - CONTINUOUS The room is small and empty. A strange room...like a stage. A figure is sitting in the corner, facing the wall like a child being punished at school. Josh steps closer, cautious. Takes another step. JOSH Where is Dalton? He steps closer yet again. His hand reaches out to touch the figures back... ...his fingers are almost grazing the figures shoulder. Soft laughter behind him. Josh glances back to look for the source. When he turns back, the FIGURE IS GONE. He wheels around, seeing the small-statured figure of the DWARF that Renai encountered, stepping through the door of the room. 87. INT. CORRIDOR, THE FURTHER - CONTINUOUS Josh sidles back into the corridor. His pace is sluggish, dream-like. Frustrated, he stops. Then turns to his left. SOMEONE IS RIGHT THERE IN HIS FACE. A MAN. The man is not looking at him...only standing very close. His neck lolls on his shoulders...around and around. He seems stuck on a loop. He is dressed in a fifties era suit. JOSH Do you know where Dalton is? The man doesn't acknowledge him. MAN Why do I have to put up with you? What a tramp. You call this a home? I work all day for this? He marches away, leaving Josh standing alone. Josh keeps going, whirling around. He reaches a set of stairs. The stairs descend into darkness. Josh squints into the dark, afraid. JOSH Dalton? Where are you? The low rumble of this place is the only reply. Josh turns to walk away. A distant voice stops him. DALTON (O.S.) Dad... Josh SNAPS back. The voice drifted from out of the darkness at the bottom of the stairs. Josh scurries down the creaky ramp towards it. INT. HALLWAY, THE FURTHER - CONTINUOUS The core of a rotten apple. The bowels of hell. Drenched in shadow, Josh fumbles forward into yet another corridor of this labyrinth. 88. He realizes he knows where he is. He is in his OLD HOUSE. An alternate world version of it. The lighting is different - it's darker. There are no signs of life. Water drips somewhere. Josh stumbles forward, seeing an open door. INT. LIVING ROOM, THE FURTHER - CONTINUOUS Josh slinks into a darkened and dilapidated living room. There are THREE PEOPLE in here - a middle aged woman, a middle aged man and a young girl. They are all FROZEN, standing in place as if someone had hit the pause button on their life. The woman is in the middle of ironing. The man is sitting in an arm chair reading a newspaper. The girl is lying on the floor. The whole scene looks like a macabre `Leave It To Beaver' tableau - a cheerful family frozen in time. Josh steps closer to the mother... ...hairs prickling up on his neck when he sees her BLINK. Her body moves slightly. She is not frozen - merely playing statues. Like a street performer keeping as still as possible. Josh turns to the father. He is the same. His hand shakes, struggling to hold the newspaper in place. He backs away from them, truly creeped out. His back hits a window and he turns, peering through the glass down at the street below. A figure, hidden in silhouette, is gazing up at him. INT. KITCHEN, THE FURTHER - CONTINUOUS Josh stalks into a kitchen off the living room. A weathered door is adjacent to the kitchen. The door is ajar. Through it, Josh can see somebodies leg. Josh approaches the door, prodding it open gently with his finger. It is a bedroom. A tattered cot sits against the wall. A YOUNG MAN (17) sits on the cot, holding a rifle. Like the others, he is trying to be completely still, as if on pause. 89. He is having more trouble than the family, trembling slightly. JOSH I'm looking for my son, Dalton. The boy does not look up. Does not move. Josh retreats, scanning the kitchen. There are soiled pots in the sink. Rotting food, but no bugs. Josh turns the faucet but no water comes forth. When he turns back, the YOUNG MAN is gone. No longer in his bedroom. Josh glances back at the living room. The Young Man is now standing inside the living room. Again, he is frozen. Holding his rifle. Looking down at his family, who are now splayed out on the carpet, soaked in BLOOD. Each of them has a bullet hole in their head. Repulsed, Josh tip-toes past them. He looks down at the mother - a bullet wound in the center of her chest. She blinks...still playing dead. INT. CORRIDOR, THE FURTHER - CONTINUOUS More corridors disappearing into darkness. Josh wrenches his hair in frustration. He boils over, screaming at the top of his lungs. JOSH DALTON!!!! WHERE ARE YOU?!!! His cry recedes into nothingness. DALTON (O.S.) Dad.... He heard that. Excited, he spins around, trying to determine where it came from. As he does, he sees that the entire dead family is now gathered at the door to the living room. Watching him. He summons all his strength and starts running, backing away from them. 90. He drives himself to move faster and faster. JOSH DALTON! DALTON (O.S.) Dad...help me... JOSH DALTON!! A figure suddenly appears at the end of the hallway. It is the LONG HAIRED MAN IN THE GREY JACKET. The man who terrorized Renai. LONG HAIRED MAN I hear you... He approaches. LONG HAIRED MAN (CONT'D) I hear you, but you don't know what you've done. He licks his lips. LONG HAIRED MAN (CONT'D) There is a place that you can't go to and this is that place. He is only a few yards from Josh now. He SCREAMS with awesome power, his spit flying. LONG HAIRED MAN (CONT'D) YOU MADE A MISTAKE!! I'M GOING TO MAKE SUFFERING A FUCKING BLESSING FOR YOU! I'M GOING TO RIP YOU APART YOU CUNT!! He CHARGES at Josh, screaming with hellfire fury. Josh recoils, falling onto the floor, screaming. INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT - OUR WORLD Josh's body JOLTS in the chair and he makes a noise somewhere between a scream and a moan. RENAI What's happening to him?! Elise leans in, attempting to communicate with Josh. 91. ELISE You're stronger then they are, Josh. You are a living soul! INT. CORRIDOR, THE FURTHER Josh struggles. The Long Haired Man attacks him viciously. Then something changes in Josh - he gets angry. JOSH Get...off..me! He shoves the Long Haired Man back, pounding into him with the strength of TEN MEN. JOSH (CONT'D) Get away from me! Leave now! Frightened, the Long Haired Man retreats, backing away until he is swallowed up by the blackness. JOSH (CONT'D) Dalton!! DALTON (O.S.) (STILL DISTANT) I'm here... Josh follows the voice to another stairwell in this Escher- like maze of passageways. JOSH Dalton! DALTON (O.S.) Here... INT. BALLROOM, THE FURTHER - CONTINUOUS From darkness into baroque extravagance. Josh finds himself in a gilded chamber of long neglected opulence...as if a palace had been stormed, the occupants murdered and the place left to rot. Mold caked pillars support a ceiling of gold flakes, the rest having rotted way. Mirrors line the walls, their surface too clouded to see into. 92. JOSH Dalton...? He weaves between pillars, finally coming across a figure, slumped on the floor in the corner like a dog. It is Dalton. Josh runs to him. His foot is chained to a PIPE behind him, the clamp binding his right ankle. He looks pale and sick. He looks like one of them. JOSH (CONT'D) I'm taking you back. He sees that Dalton is terrified. Looking over Josh's shoulder. JOSH (CONT'D) What is it? He glances back, spotting an open door at the end of the ballroom, light spilling from within it. There is somebody inside. INT. MAKE-UP ROOM, THE FURTHER - CONTINUOUS A grotesque form sits in front of an immense gold-rimmed mirror at a baroque powder table. It is the RED-FACED creature seen by Elise. The creature daubs RED LIPSTICK onto its face, arching forward, glaring into the mirror, caking the make-up on. The room is littered with hundreds of discarded CHILDREN'S TOYS - teddy bears, stuffed animals, dolls (including one white-faced, black-haired doll we recognize). They are scattered about like bones, collecting dust in the shadows. Suddenly the creature stops what it is doing. It sees something in the mirror. What it sees is Josh. INT. BALLROOM, THE FURTHER - CONTINUOUS With horror, Josh watches as the Red-Faced Man stands up and staggers to the door, peering through the crack at him. Josh wrestles to free Dalton's leg from the chain. No good. 93. Behind them the Red Faced Man opens the door. A rage unknown to humans is building up inside the creature. He hisses. DALTON Help me, dad...take this off me... The creature steps closer. Taking his time. Drool seeping from his mouth with each drunken, wayward lope. JOSH You're not really here. You're asleep in your bed in our home. Just stand up. DALTON He's going to hurt me again... JOSH This isn't real. You can do this. DALTON He's coming! JOSH Just stand up! Dalton does - and suddenly finds that the chain is no longer attached to his foot. The Red Faced Man ROARS and the power of his breath sends them FLYING BACK. RED-FACED MAN This...issssss....real! Josh smashes his head on a pillar, blood leaking from his head. The power of this demon far outweighs the others. RED-FACED MAN (CONT'D) That...issss...my....boy! Josh scrambles to his feet and snatches up Dalton, carrying him to the door as the Red Faced Man pursues. INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT - OUR WORLD Josh convulses in the chair, choking. RENAI Help him! 94. INT. CORRIDOR, THE FURTHER Josh surges down a corridor, carrying Dalton. The Red-Faced Man hobbles up behind them, his rasping wheeze growing in volume. RED-FACED MAN You're here now! With ussss! Josh stampedes through the front door of the house - but instead of the street, he is facing another corridor. They spill into the second corridor, running again, racing past rows and rows of doors. INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT - OUR WORLD Josh twitches in his chair, sweat beading on his forehead. JOSH (MOANING) ....ome....onnnnn... Elise paces in front of him. ELISE They've made contact. I know it. He's found your son. RENAI What happens now? ELISE We need them to come back. We need him to find us. Tucker's equipment begins to shake on the table. The hanging light above them quivers as if an earthquake were rattling it. A force is building in the room. INT. CORRIDOR, THE FURTHER As Josh and Dalton streak down the corridor, each door opens and a different figure staggers out. Grotesque figures...the solemn dead. Pale skin, hollow eyes. Their dead eyes drill into Josh's soul. They want what he has - life. 95. They begin running - chasing Josh. Dozens of them. Josh stops, seeing that the corridor seemingly has NO END. He yells in frustration. JOSH I want to get out! INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT - OUR WORLD Josh's body SHUDDERS, the cry escaping his lips. JOSH ....eeeeet out! The room trembles again. Elise looks to Renai. ELISE Call out to him! INT. CORRIDOR, THE FURTHER Josh whips around, desperate. DALTON Listen! Josh follows the order - and hears it. A faint shout. A siren call from another world. RENAI (V.O.) (DISTANT) Josh, follow my voice... The voice seems to come from behind the door in front of Josh. He shoves it open-- INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT - OUR WORLD Renai glares at Josh's eyelids...as if he can see her through them. RENAI Follow my voice. Come back to us. The room stops trembling. All is very still. For a moment, it is as if time has stopped. Nuclear silence. Then...a drawer slides open in the corner of the room. Lorraine and Renai gasp at this supernatural interruption. 96. Specs clambers to his feet, approaching the drawer. It contains a note pad and nothing else. He reaches out to close it...and then JOLTS as a HAND reaches out from within it! He FLAILS backwards in fright, watching as the hand wrenches a mop of hair into view. A FULL GROWN BODY BEGINS TO CLAW its way out of the drawer! INT. DALTON'S BEDROOM, NEW HOUSE - SAME TIME Drawers in Dalton's room slide open in unison. Then cabinets. The closet BURSTS open. Pale adult bodies begin to claw their way out of the different doors, undulating out of impossibly small spaces and falling onto the floor like limbless insects. Cracks are opening in our world and the miserable dead are slithering through the fissures. INT. KITCHEN, NEW HOUSE - SAME TIME More doors shoot open - cabinets, closets, the pantry. Forced by unseen hands. More hideous forms wrench themselves out into our world. INT. CORRIDOR, THE FURTHER Josh is exhausted, pushing himself to the limits. He hears the voice again - distant and small. An echo. RENAI (V.O.) Find us... Josh follows the voice to a door. He staggers towards it, still supporting Dalton. He slams the door open, falling through it into-- INT. BASEMENT, LAMBERT HOME, THE FURTHER -- the empty basement. He is in the basement of his old house. The wooden steps beckon above him. 97. Renai's voice cries out from behind the door at the top of the stairs. RENAI (V.O.) Hurry! Come back to us! DALTON Put me down, I can run! Josh sets Dalton down, who scampers up the stairs. Josh is about to follow when he turns and spies a familiar face. THE OLD WOMAN. She leers at Josh through the window of the basement, her visage spookily flecked in candlelight. Josh is transfixed. DALTON (CONT'D) Come on, dad! Come on! JOSH Go! I'm right behind you! Dalton charges ahead as Josh glares back at this face from his past. JOSH (CONT'D) You...what do you want from me? The old woman's eerily unblinking gaze cuts through Josh. A long dormant rage BOILS OVER inside him. He approaches the window, vomiting fury at her. JOSH (CONT'D) Get the fuck away from me! I'm not scared of you, just leave me alone! Get away from me! The old woman's lips protract to unveil a yellow graveyard of molars. A smile to buckle the steeliest nerve. She raises a lit candle to her lips. She snuffs out the plume with a single puff...plunging the basement into darkness. INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - SAME TIME Specs staggers back as the skeletal figures emerging from the cabinets ambulate into the living room, surrounding Josh. 98. RENAI (TO JOSH) Find us! ELISE (TO SPECS) Check on the boy! Specs sprints out of the room. INT. CORRIDOR, LAMBERT HOME, THE FURTHER We are now locked into a POV shot, pushing down the corridor of the Lambert's NEW HOUSE. The scene of the trance. Our POV is bee-lining for Dalton's bedroom. INT. BASEMENT, LAMBERT HOME, THE FURTHER In another POV shot, we SURGE up the basement stairs. INT. CORRIDOR, NEW HOUSE, THE FURTHER Our POV is only a few yards from Dalton's bedroom door. The Red-Faced Man appears at the opposite end of the hall. Malevolent. Cruel. He SCREAMS and flits towards us. The POV keeps going, hitting the bedroom door and FLINGING IT OPEN - seeing DALTON'S BODY sleeping inside. We SOAR towards it, getting closer-- INT. DALTON'S BEDROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT - OUR WORLD Specs stands over Dalton's body. SUDDENLY - Dalton shudders, his legs spasm. His eyes FLICK open and he SUCKS IN A HUGE BREATH. SPECS He's awake! Dalton sits up, panting. Renai charges into the room. He looks at her, registering her appearance. DALTON Mom... 99. Renai literally throws herself at him, wrapping her arms around his body. No words can express. Renai scoops him up, carrying him out of the bedroom. INT. CORRIDOR, NEW HOUSE, THE FURTHER The second POV whooshes down the corridor, zeroing in on the living room. INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS A scene of desperation. Elise leans into Josh's face. The living room is now filled with the CREEPING FORMS of the souls who crawled out from within the drawers. All of them marching towards Josh. ELISE Find me, Josh! Now! Wake up! The closest entity reaches out with gnarled fingers and is almost touching Josh-- INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE, THE FURTHER The POV shoots towards Josh's body, seconds away-- INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - SAME TIME Josh's eyes BURST OPEN and he inhales a chest full of air, as if emerging from deep water. He falls forward, his strength gone. RENAI Josh? Josh? He pants on the floor, barely able to speak. JOSH Dalton...? Dalton and Renai pounce on him. Josh holds onto Dalton like he's a life preserver, and in a way, for Josh, he is. He laughs, inhaling deeply. 100. Specs, Elise and Tucker approach. Renai sees them and stands up, tearful. She is lost for words. RENAI I don't know what to say... She rushes forward and hugs all three of them. ELISE Well put. Josh brings Lorraine in they all embrace in a circle. A group hug for the ages. JOSH Now this is worth dying for. EXT. NEW HOUSE - NIGHT It's over. Specs and Tucker haul a large tripod case to their van, heaving it into the back. They stand in awkward silence. It's been a long day. TUCKER I guess you did some pretty awesome stuff in there. You deserve some credit. SPECS You did good too in an assistant- type way. Tucker can't hold his stoic pose any longer. He breaks out laughing, followed quickly by Specs. TUCKER Thanks, boss. They shake hands. TUCKER (CONT'D) Dude, I got some amazing shots. We are gonna write a book and my shots are gonna be the main selling point. SPECS Yeah. (BEAT) Not the main selling point, but definitely important, for sure. 101. INT. MASTER BEDROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT Renai lie with Dalton on her bed. DALTON I'm tired. RENAI Too bad. I'm never letting you go to sleep again. She runs her fingers through his hair. RENAI (CONT'D) Did you know we'd come and find you? Dalton nods. RENAI (CONT'D) Whenever you're lost...we'll always come and find you. They hug. INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT Josh wanders out of the kitchen, examining the house as if seeing it for the first time. He is smiling...happier than we have ever seen him. Elise sits on the couch amongst the remains of Tucker's paraphernalia of the paranormal. Josh approaches her, standing over her. JOSH You introduced me to a new world. ELISE No. You've been there before, remember? And you'll go back. (BEAT) All of us will...eventually. JOSH Maybe I can forget again. He reaches into his jacket, taking out the eerie photos Lorraine gave him of himself as a child. JOSH (CONT'D) I'll start by giving these back. 102. As he hands them to Elise, she sees with fear that his hand is withered and wrinkled. Like the hand of an eighty year old woman. Shocked, she looks up at his face. JOSH (CONT'D) What's wrong? Elise stands. She looks haunted. Her eyes wide and unnerved. ELISE Nothing, I... She turns away, reaching for something. JOSH What's the matter, Elise? She spins around and lifts Tucker's camera up to her face, aiming it at him. She depresses the trigger and takes a photo of him, bathing the whole corridor in white light. Josh recoils back in shock. Elise lowers the camera. She is terrified. Josh suddenly LUNGES at her, slapping the camera out of her hands. JOSH (CONT'D) Why the fuck would you do that? Why would you do that? Why?! He SLAMS her against the wall, his hands around her throat. Elise chokes in terror, terrified of him. JOSH (CONT'D) You of all people! You know! Why would you do that to me when you know what you know? You bitch! He abruptly stops attacking her, staggering backwards, examining his hands as if he can't believe what he's done. Seething with fury. Panting. Elise collapses, catching her breath. Josh swipes a framed photo off the wall and storms away, heading down the corridor... ...swallowed up by the darkness. 103. INT. MASTER BEDROOM, NEW HOUSE - SAME TIME Renai furrows her brow. RENAI What was that? (beat; to Dalton) Stay here. She gets up. INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT Renai jogs into the living room. Sees Elise lying on the floor. RENAI Elise, what was that noise? Elise simply looks up at her. The utter terror on her face is palpable. Her neck is bleeding from scratch marks. RENAI (CONT'D) Jesus...what happened to you? Elise just stares, unable to speak. Her fear is contagious. RENAI (CONT'D) Where's Josh? (BEAT) Josh? Josh?! She turns and runs into the corridor, flicking on the lights. There is nobody there. INT. CORRIDOR, NEW HOUSE - CONTINUOUS Renai dashes from room to room in the hallway, pitching each door open. Each room is empty. Josh is nowhere to be found. INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - SAME TIME Elise stares at Tucker's camera in a state of catatonic dread. Renai backs into the room, her own fear rising in her gut. She leans down and grabs Elise by the shoulders. 104. RENAI Elise, what happened? You're scaring me, tell me where Josh is? Elise finally looks up at her. Seeing the "expert" so afraid unnerves Renai. When the lion-tamer drops his whip and runs, you know the lion is vicious. Elise opens her mouth to speak...but nothing comes out. Instead, she simply holds up the camera, showing Renai the digital display of the photo she took. We do not see it. We simply see the look of horror on Renai's face. FLASHCUT TO: INT. LIVING ROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT - FLASHBACK We have returned to the previous scene - only now we are seeing it through Elise's eyes. Elise is sitting on the couch, alone. Trying to recover from the nights events. She glances up when Josh approaches her. JOSH You introduced me to a new world. ELISE No. You've been there before, remember? And you'll go back. (BEAT) All of us will...eventually. JOSH Maybe I can forget again. Once again, we see him reach into his jacket, taking out the photos Lorraine gave him. JOSH (CONT'D) I'll start by giving these back. As he hands them to Elise, she sees with fear that his hand is withered and wrinkled. Shocked, she looks up at his face. 105. JOSH (CONT'D) What's wrong? Elise stands up, not knowing how to react. ELISE Nothing, I... She turns away, reaching for something. We see her scoop up Tucker's digital camera. JOSH What's the matter, Elise? She spins around and lifts Tucker's camera up to her face, aiming it at him. She depresses the trigger and takes a photo of him, bathing the whole corridor in white light. --and in that split second, Josh is replaced by the Old Woman! Elise lowers the camera, horrified. For a beat, the Old Woman just glares at her... ...then she CHARGES at Elise, arms outstretched, wrapping her white hands around the soft flesh of Elise's throat. Elise CHOKES, eyes bulging, spittle flying from her mouth, as the pale hands of the Old Woman dig into her thorax, droplets of blood running down her chest where the yellowing finger- nails have CUT IN to the flesh. The Old Woman smiles - a merciless harlequin grin that mocks Elise's pain. She lets Elise go, letting her drop to the floor. The Old Woman turns and glares down the corridor. Something has caught her attention. A distant scream. INT. BATHROOM, NEW HOUSE - NIGHT The door groans open, a blade of light penetrating pitch black darkness. The silhouette of the Old Woman floats ethereally into the bathroom. She steps up to the mirror, then reaches into her tattered Victorian dress and produces a candle. She lights the candle with a match, holding it beneath her chin and glaring into the reflective surface of the mirror. 106. Instead of seeing her own reflection though, she sees THROUGH the mirror as if it were a window. In it, she can see the BASEMENT of the Lambert's previous residence. Josh bursts into the basement, carrying Dalton. DALTON Put me down, I can run! Josh sets Dalton down, who scampers up the stairs. We are watching the same scene we saw earlier play out in the mirror. Josh is about to follow when he turns and spies a familiar face. He looks at the Old Woman...seeing her through the `window'. DALTON (CONT'D) Come on, dad! Come on! JOSH Go! I'm right behind you! Dalton disappears as Josh glares at the woman. JOSH (CONT'D) You...what do you want from me? He approaches the mirror. WE CIRCLE AROUND the Old Woman, past the mirror and THROUGH THE BATHROOM WALL, emerging on the other side in-- INT. BASEMENT, LAMBERT HOME, INSIDE THE FURTHER --the basement. Josh screams at the Old Woman as she stares at him through what he thinks is a window. THEY HAVE SWAPPED PLACES. He is now in The Further, and she is in our world. JOSH Get away the fuck away from me. I'm not scared of you, just leave me alone! Get away from me! We KEEP CIRCLING, wiping past Josh's back and completing a 360 degree turn, THROUGH THE WALL and back into-- 107. INT. BATHROOM, NEW HOUSE - CONTINUOUS --our world. The Old Woman smiles at Josh's rage. She finds it amusing. With an eerily unblinking gaze, she snuffs out the plume of flame with a single puff of breath...plunging the bathroom into darkness... ...and snuffing out Josh forever... ...and ever. FADE OUT. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Insomnia.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Insomnia.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ad6cad3059fe9f79a084063af59597146aa1eb5c --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Insomnia.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + Insomnia by H. Seitz 5.2.00 FADE IN: On credit sequence... AN ARM stretched out. Long, alabaster white. Beautiful. A WASH CLOTH enters frame. Starts washing the arm with long, tender strokes. A TUMBLE OF HAIR thick and auburn. Being gently washed. FINGERNAILS being clipped with a shiny nail clipper. Short. Uniform. Tidy. EYEBROWS brown with a touch of gold. A BRUSH comes into view. Brushes against the eyebrow hair, then back again. Against. Then back again. PANTY-HOSE pulled gingerly off a long leg. Folded neatly. The wash cloth begins between the toes. Warm, soapy water. HAIR now dry. The HAND appears with a comb. Pulls down through the thick tresses. It is only now that we see the hand is wearing a SURGICAL GLOVE. The gloved hand holds up the comb and pulls stray hairs from it. Places them in a big, clear, plastic bag. In the bag we see the panty-hose, a folded flower dress, the nail clippings. Goes back to combing. Comes across a knot and yanks the comb through. The HEAD rolls over to us. Her face is bruised, her eyes blank. She is lying on the floor. Dead. End of credit sequence. INT. BUSH PLANE - THE KILBUCK MOUNTAINS, ALASKA - DAY The loud THRUM of a bush plane. We CLOSE ON a small, cloudy window. Through it we see an endless expanse of pine trees. HAP (O.S.) Jesus. Just look at all that. PULL BACK to reveal HAP ECKHART and WILL DORMER sitting side by side. Hap's at the window. Greying moustache, a little pudgy, wearing a brown suit. Holding a folded over Seattle Times. HAP (cont'd) I thought we had a population problem. Everyone should just move up here. (taps window) Just look at it, Will. Will's eyes remain on the file on his lap. WILL I don't need to look at it. Will Dormer. Tall, handsome, expensively tailored suit. Snakeskin cowboy boots. There's both a magnetism and a distance to him. An intense mixture. Hap glances at him. HAP Nothing wrong with smelling the roses. Will looks up. We see the trace of a thick, ropy SCAR by his Adam's apple. There's tension between him and Hap, just below the surface. He taps the file. WILL Tell that to her, partner. ANGLE ON THE FILE a stack of 8x10 PHOTOGRAPHS. Of the dead girl. Her eyes puffed up from bruises. The whites bloody. Contusions along her breasts and shoulders. PILOT (O.S.) Detective? The PILOT's looking back at Will. Wearing a leather red baron hat. PILOT (cont'd) Better check your belts. We'll be landing in about fifteen minutes. Will nods. The plane lurches. The file falls to the floor and the photographs scatter. The pilot catches a glimpse of them. Looks at Will. EXT. BUSH PLANE - CONTINUOUS The small yellow plane veers left. Clears a mountain top and gives view to the spectacular Alaskan coastline. The green of the Bering sea, the blanket of pine trees, the jagged rock of the beaches. Enormous. EXT. LANDING STRIP - OUTSIDE NIGHTMUTE - DAY A SIGN swinging in the wind: Nightmute, Alaska. Halibut Fishing Capital of the World! PULL BACK to reveal it hanging from the eave of a small, corrugated building. The "airport." Nothing else for miles around. A mud-splattered Jeep Cherokee pulls up next to it. Brakes SCREECHING. A YOUNG WOMAN hops out. About 23. Petite with short, brown hair. Peers up at the sky. Brightens at the sight of the BUSH PLANE coming in for landing. Smooths down her down vest. Making sure the GOLD SHIELD on her belt's visible. Nervous. Excited. OLD MAN (O.S.) Eleanor? ELLIE BURR turns. Shields her eyes from the sun. An OLD MAN hosing down the side of the building. ELLIE Hey, Mr. Angstrom! MR. ANGSTROM What're you doing here? Ellie puffs up. ELLIE Police business. MR. ANGSTROM Police business? The old man screws up his face, confused. MR. ANGSTROM (cont'd) Didn't you used to baby-sit for us? ELLIE I don't babysit any more, Mr. Angstrom. Just made detective three weeks ago. A CAT jumps down off the roof. Angstrom sprays it. MR. ANGSTROM Boy, Charlie must be short-handed down at the station. Ellie, used to not being taken seriously. Turns back to THE ROAR of the bush plane as it taxis down the strip. Coming to a stop. She hurries over as the door swings open and... WILL DORMER steps down. Slipping on his sunglasses. Scanning the nothingness around him. Spots the swinging sign. WILL "Halibut fishing capital of the world." Hap, right behind him. Rubs his neck. HAP This ought to be interesting. ELLIE (over the engine) Detective Dormer! They look down. Ellie reaches up and takes Will's bag. Then his hand. Shakes it vigorously. ELLIE (cont'd) It's a huge honor to meet you! Ellie Burr. I'm here to take you to the station! Will motions to Hap. WILL My partner... ELLIE Detective Eckhart! I know! Welcome to Nightmute! She leads them away from the plane. Takes Will's briefcase. ELLIE I just want to say how incredible it is to have you working with us, Detective Dormer. I've followed all your cases. Theodore Dineli, Frank and Casey Prud'homme, the Port Angeles shootings... Opens the back of the Jeep. Puts the bags inside. ELLIE (cont'd) ...And especially the Leland Street Murders. That was my case study at the Academy. The Pilot walks by. Taps her on the shoulder. PILOT Tell your dad the game's gonna start late this week, Ellie. ELLIE Sure thing, Spence. She looks back at Will. Can't help but focus in on his scar. Touches her own smooth neck. In awe. ELLIE (cont'd) That's where Ronald Langley cut you in the basement of his father's house on 325 Leland, isn't it? Will smiles, taken aback by this girl's exuberance. WILL You did your homework, Officer. ELLIE Actually... She throws a quick glance at Angstrom. Out of ear-shot. ELLIE I just made detective three weeks ago. EXT. NIGHTMUTE POLICE DEPARTMENT - DAY The Cherokee parked next to a police car outside a plain, one- storey building. The Nightmute Police Department. A totem pole stands out front. CHIEF NYBACK (O.S.) Will Dormer! INT. CHIEF CHARLES NYBACK'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Nightmute Police Chief CHARLES NYBACK gets up from behind his desk with a big smile. Ruddy, red hair sprinkled with grey, Nyback wears a faded army sweater over his uniform. CHIEF NYBACK I'll be damned! Limps from behind his desk and gives Will a shake and a slap on the back. WILL (warmly) How you doing, Charlie? Nyback shakes Hap's hand. A reunion. HAP Hey, Charlie. CHIEF NYBACK Christ. I haven't seen you boys since... WILL Just after Leland Street. CHIEF NYBACK What's that, then? HAP Eight years. WILL Seven years. CHIEF NYBACK Seven years? Where does it all go? That was some amazing time, though, wasn't it? Looks at Will. Down at his boots. CHIEF NYBACK (cont'd) You haven't changed a bit, Will. Will. Looks at Nyback's gut. WILL You have, Chief. They LAUGH. Eyes twinkling. CHIEF NYBACK I knew that was coming. I deserve it. He starts back over to his desk. Notices Ellie still standing by the door. Points to Will. CHIEF NYBACK (cont'd) Pay attention to this man, Ellie. He'll teach you how to be a great cop. Ellie straightens. Smiles. Looks over at Will. ELLIE Yes, sir. CHIEF NYBACK That's all, for now. Ellie, realises they want to be alone. ELLIE Oh. Right. Okay. Backs out. Quietly closing the door behind her. Will unbuttons his jacket. Takes a seat. WILL Nice kid. CHIEF NYBACK (sits with a SIGH) Got a love affair with police work. Drives me crazy with it. Will surveys the fishing poles leaning against the gun rack. WILL Keeping you busy up here, Charlie? Hap picks up a cheap trophy. Reads the base. HAP "2nd prize Great Kodiak Salmon Catch." CHIEF NYBACK I told you seven years ago this was a stepping stone to retirement. Nyback nods to Hap's Seattle Times. The headline: "Deeper Investigation into Special Branch"... CHIEF NYBACK (cont'd) Looks like it's a good time for you to get up here, too. With all the bad business going on down at Special Branch. Will and Hap share a look. No more joking. Hap folds over the paper. CHIEF NYBACK (cont'd) Just five bad apples so far? WILL So far. CHIEF NYBACK What's the D.A. got them on? WILL Four unwarranted shootings, witness intimidation, and cocaine theft. Nyback winces. CHIEF NYBACK How about you? How you faring? HAP They're all over us, Charlie. WILL They're all over everybody. HAP I.A.'s calling themselves the "Corruption Task Force." Can you believe that? Trying to root out any mistakes or "oversights" any other Detectives may have made over the years. They're turning it into a witch hunt. Something on the news about it practically every night. Nyback pulls a stack of messages from his desk. CHIEF NYBACK Got a bunch of messages here from some guy named Warfield. Hap tosses a glance over at Will. WILL That's I.A.'s pit bull. CHIEF NYBACK Wants me to keep him posted on all your movements up here. Nyback turns and ceremoniously drops the messages into the trash. CHIEF NYBACK (cont'd) I'm just glad Buck could spare you a couple of weeks. Take you out of the frenzy. I gotta tell you, though, I sure don't miss big city police work. Not that I was ever a great detective. But up here there's no Bureaucracy. No Public Relations. No blurred lines. Just good guys and bad guys. Simple. A cloud passes over his face. CHIEF NYBACK (cont'd) Except for this. Holds up a file. The name written on the lip: KAY CONNELL. INT. HALLWAY - MINUTES LATER Nyback leads Will and Hap down a hallway. Crooked plaques and black-and-white pictures line the walls. CHIEF NYBACK Couldn't get a thing from the body. Not a trace. Town's never dealt with anything like this before. They turn a corner and stop at a door. Will glances up: MOOSE ANTLERS hanging over it. CHIEF NYBACK (cont'd) I've briefed everybody about your coming. They know to follow your lead. Nyback opens the door onto... INT. BULLPEN - NIGHTMUTE PD - CONTINUOUS ...the bullpen of Nightmute PD. Wooden desks, a couple computers, a jumbled corkboard, an impressive gun cabinet. A RADIO's playing. Three MEN look over. A young uniformed cop and two guys with heavy facial hair, Timberland boots, and flannel shirts. One of them's part Inuit. Ellie sits in the back. Reaches over to turn off the radio. Will and Hap stand in the doorway. Sticking out like sore thumbs in their suits. Nyback jerks his thumb towards them. CHIEF NYBACK This is Detective Dormer and his partner Detective Eckhart. On loan from Buck Lundgard, Seattle Robbery and Homicide Special Branch. They'll be helping with the Connell case. The Inuit, FRED DUGGAR, snorts. Takes his feet of the desk. FRED Helping? CHIEF NYBACK (ignoring him) Anything they need to see, you show them; anywhere they want to go, you take them. (nods to Fred) This is Detective Fred Duggar. He's been leading the investigation up to now. Will puts out his hand. WILL Detective... Fred tugs at his dark handlebar moustache. Stands. FRED Suppose you want to see the body. EXT. NIGHTMUTE POLICE DEPARTMENT - DAY Fred steps out of the station, pulls on a baseball cap. FRED We can walk from here. He heads off across the parking lot. Will and Hap exchange a glance. WILL Guess that's what they call Alaskan hospitality. ELLIE (O.S.) Don't worry about him... They turn. Ellie's come up behind them. Looks over at the hunched figure to Fred. ELLIE (cont'd) He's just mad 'cause you're taking over. Fred stops up ahead. Sees her. Annoyed. FRED Ellie! Go type something! INT. NIGHTMUTE MORGUE - LATER CLOSE ON a faucet. A bead of water, quivering at the mouth. Falls with a BLIP! CORONER (O.S.) Did a fundascopic examination and found papilledema and petechiae of the retina. PULL BACK to reveal Will, Hap, and the COUNTY CORONER standing by a stainless steel table. The naked body of KAY CONNELL is laid out before them. Fred hangs back. The coroner tugs at her surgical gloves. She's in her late seventies. CORONER (cont'd) Clear cause of death was herniation of the brain stem due to intracerebral hemorrhage. HAP Beaten to death. CORONER Beaten to death. Will points to the bruises on the body's shoulders and breasts. WILL What about these contusions? CORONER Superficial. WILL Any signs of rape? CORONER None. The coroner starts to cover the body with a sheet. CORONER (cont'd) She was a nice girl. Played flute with my granddaughter. Will stays her hand. WILL Wait. He pulls the sheet back down. Studying the body of Kay Connell. Starts walking slowly around the table. In his element. The faucet drips. Drips. Drips. He bends down to smell her hair. WILL (cont'd) He washed her hair. Takes a handful and lets it fall from his fingers. WILL (cont'd) Combed it. Continues around the table. Picks up one of her hands. Examines her fingers, her nails. WILL (cont'd) Cleaned under her fingernails. Clipped them. Continues down around her feet. Checks between her first and second toes. WILL (cont'd) Toes, too. (to Fred) You found nothing on the body? FRED No. WILL No fibers, skin flakes, hairs... FRED Like I said, no. We know about those things up here. Will stands there. Looking down at the body. Slim. Young. Beautiful. Skin like marble. WILL He knew exactly what we'd be looking for. Made sure to cover up all his tracks. HAP Even the best make mistakes. Will looks up and locks eyes with his partner. INT. PIONEER LODGE - NIGHTMUTE - NIGHT Will and Hap enter the lobby of the Pioneer Lodge. Big stone fireplace and heavy ceiling beams. MOOSE ANTLERS mounted above reception. They put their bags down by the desk. Look around. RACHEL (O.S.) Lower forty-eight. They turn. RACHEL CLEMENT stands in a doorway behind the desk. Dunking a teabag into a mug. Long dark hair and intelligent eyes. HAP Lower forty-eight? RACHEL You're not from here. I can tell by your walk. HAP Oh? And how's that? RACHEL Unsure. Hap smiles at her. Will checks his watch. WILL Detectives Will Dormer and Hap Eckhart. There should be a reservation for us. Rachel looks at him. Goes to a small file box on the desk. RACHEL (to Hap) Your friend's all business. WILL I'm always all business. He glances out the window. It's as bright as day. WILL (cont'd) Is it really 9:30? RACHEL (nods) Alaskan summers. Hope you're an easy sleeper. It'll be like this all night. She hands them two cards. RACHEL (cont'd) Sign here. INT. WILL'S ROOM - NIGHT Will's taken off his jacket and is unpacking. The room is sparse and creaky. Bed dips in the middle. He hangs a jacket in the armoire then returns to his suitcase. Pulls out his SMITH AND WESSON 45. Lays it on the bedside table. Takes out a shoulder holster. A back holster. A handful of shells. Lays them on the table. Then a small SMITH AND WESSON 39/13 9MM. Checks the magazine. There's a KNOCK on the adjoining door. HAP (O.S.) Me. Will SLAPS the magazine back. WILL Come on in. Hap opens the door. A glimpse into his room: family PICTURES on his bedside table - a WOMAN and three teenage GIRLS. HAP See you have the same decor as my room. He walks over to the big window. It overlooks the harbor. Big, snow-capped mountains in the distance. One lone TUGBOAT in the harbor towing a freighter. HAP (cont'd) Same view, too. (looks out) I've been watching that tugboat for the last half hour. So small, pulling all that weight. (beat) We have to talk, Will. Will reaches into his suitcase. Pulls out a shirt. WILL What do you want to talk about? HAP You know what about. Will throws him a look. WILL We'll talk when we get back to Seattle. HAP When's that, a week? Two weeks?... (heads over to him) We have to figure out a plan of action now. WILL You know my plan of action. HAP To do nothing. WILL That's right. HAP Dammit, Will. Warfield had me locked up in his office again for five hours yesterday. Five hours. Asking all kinds of questions... WILL He's asking everybody questions. HAP But he's zeroing in on me. On us. Everyone's talking about it. WILL He's just rattling your cage. HAP Well, I gotta tell you. With a wife, three kids, and a pension plan in the balance, it's rattling hard. WILL We say nothing. It goes away. Simple as that. Will goes back to his suitcase. Hap follows. A thin film of sweat on his upper lip. HAP (lowers voice) Look. We've tampered with evidence. We've pushed witnesses. We've planted shit. And they're sniffing around like dogs. Especially on the Dobbs case... Will flares up. Struck a nerve. Turns to his partner. WILL Weston Dobbs killed an eight year-old boy and left him hanging in the basement like a piece of meat. You remember that? HAP You know I remember that. WILL One word to I.A. and he walks. HAP Maybe not. We could talk to Buck... WILL No way. HAP Cut some kind of a deal. I heard that's what Flynn's doing... WILL Mike Flynn's a dirty cop, Hap! We are nothing like Mike Flynn. We did what we needed to do to make sure that son-of- bitch Dobbs paid for what he did. And every bastard like him. We say one word about it and every case we ever brought in is going to blow wide open and they'll all walk. Every last one. And I am not going to let that happen. No deals. No compromises. No discussions. He grabs a hanger. HAP Goddammit, Will. You grab on to something and you don't let it go. He takes out a handkerchief. Wipes his brow. HAP I don't know if it's because you think it's the right thing to do or because your pride won't let you do anything else. I can't tell any more. (steps back) But I can tell you one thing. I'm getting too old for this cowboy cop stuff. Breaking the rules. Cleaning up messes. We're a dying breed, Will. You're a dying breed. I.A., the D.A., all those reporters - they don't care what you did at Leland Street seven years ago. They don't care that you've made this your life. They don't care about getting the bad guy... Will turns on his partner, eyes burning. WILL I care. The partners, lock eyes. Years of working together. A thousand things unsaid. Hap reaches for the door. HAP (cont'd) They're watching us, Will. Like it or not. They're watching us. INT. WILL'S ROOM - NIGHT Will's asleep. Kay Connell's folder open on his chest. It's dark in his room, quiet. Suddenly the shade on his window quivers and SNAPS up, flooding the room with light. Will's eyes pop open. He rolls over to look at the clock: 3:15. Squinting, he gets up and walks over to the window. We can see the rest of his scar. Runs down deep across his sternum. He yanks the shade back down. It bucks, then settles. Satisfied, Will returns to bed. Plumps the pillow, pulls the blanket up around him. Closes his eyes. The shade lurches halfway. Then SNAPS back up. Light pours in. Will's eyes open. WILL You got to be kidding me. EXT. STREET - NIGHTMUTE - DAY Will jogs along in a Sonics sweatshirt, a ring of sweat around his collar. He looks out over the harbor. Fishing boats coming in with their early morning haul. More halibut. He checks his watch. Slows to a walk. Looks up and sees... Ellie Burr standing on the front steps of the Pioneer Lodge. Smiles. Holds up some car keys. ELLIE Fred wants us to meet him at the Connell's. INT./EXT. JEEP CHEROKEE - DAY Ellie driving. A hula-girl, swinging from the rear-view mirror. Will in the passenger seat. Wearing a crisp suit. Ellie hands him a take-out bag. ELLIE Brought you a bear claw. Just in case you were hungry. Will takes the bag. Looks inside. Yikes. ELLIE (cont'd) Local delicacy. WILL Think I'll pass. He puts the bag on the dash. Looks out the window. Nightmute's main street. A line of shops. Undistinguished Town Hall. Elementary school up on a hill. Sign out front: Sign-ups for Midnight Little League! WILL (cont'd) What kind of calls you get around here? ELLIE Oh. You know. Small-time stuff. Nothing like what you must get. Mostly drinking-related problems. Domestic abuse. Barroom fights. Stuff like that. She shifts down. Takes a steep turn. ELLIE (cont'd) In the summer months it's pretty quiet. That's when there's work out on the boats. The rest of the year, though... They pass a MAN walking along the road. Gnarled walking stick. Ellie calls out the window. ELLIE (cont'd) Hey, there, Joe! JOE waves. They pass. ELLIE (cont'd) That's Joe Willy. Took his family hostage in November. That was the most exciting thing that happened last year. I wasn't there, though. (grinds gear) Chief barely lets me handle anything above a misdemeanor. Will looks over at her. Smiles. WILL Don't give misdemeanors a bad rap. ELLIE But they're so boring. All small stuff. WILL It's all about the small stuff. Small lies. Small mistakes. Small oversights. People give themselves away in a traffic violation just as much as they do in a murder case. It's human nature. He looks over. Ellie's listening intently. WILL (cont'd) Aren't you going to write that down? Ellie, searching her pockets for something to write with... ELLIE Let me just... Stops. Looks over. Realises Will's teasing her. EXT. CONNELL HOUSE - DAY A small ranch house. Aluminum siding. FLOWERS piled up by the front door. TEDDY BEARS. RIBBONS. Left by well-wishers. MRS. CONNELL (O.S.) I haven't tidied up, since Fred told me not to touch anything. INT. HALLWAY - CONNELL HOUSE - CONTINUOUS MRS. CONNELL, a big woman with a thick grey braid down her back, opens the door to her daughter's room. Looks at Will. MRS. CONNELL I don't believe in keeping a child's room like a shrine. Will heads into the room. Hap follows. A palpable uneasiness between them. Fred and Ellie stand in the doorway. Mrs. Connell turns to go. INT. KAY CONNELL'S ROOM - CONTINUOUS A small bedroom. Pink shag carpeting and clouds painted on the ceiling. Pictures cut from magazines pasted on the walls. A stack of tapes and a boom box in the corner. Will stands in the middle of the room. Taking it in. WILL Typical seventeen year-old. (beat) She went to a party Friday night? ELLIE Down at a local dive the kids like to hang out in. Fred throws Ellie a look. "Kids?" She's practically a kid herself. Will opens the top drawer of the bureau. Roots beneath the panties. WILL No diary. On top of the bureau, a stack of photos. A couple torn up. Kay Connell and a GIRL with white-blonde hair. Laughing. FRED She left the party early. Friends said she had a fight with her boyfriend and stormed out. WILL What time was that? FRED Around twelve-thirty. Hap picks up a bear on Kay's bed. A bell JINGLES when he shakes it. Will crosses to a closet in the corner. WILL Who was the last one to see her alive? FRED Randy Stetz. Her boyfriend. We've questioned him, searched his place. Didn't find anything. Will pulls a dress out of the closet. Small, black, elegant. The tag's been cut out. He pulls out another, then another. Feels the fabric. WILL These are designer. Expensive. (looks up) Could Randy Stetz afford these? Fred and Ellie exchange a look. ELLIE He fixes boat engines. Will looks around. Cheap wallpaper, torn window screens. WILL Well her mother didn't buy them for her. HAP What are we thinking? Will reaches over to a heart-shaped box on the bedside table. Pulls out a pretty gold necklace. Holds it up. WILL Kay Connell had an admirer. He hands the dresses to Ellie. Heads out of the room. WILL (cont'd) I want to talk to the boyfriend. INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - DAY CLOSE ON a hand squeezing a shoulder. Hard. WILL You don't seem all that sad. The shoulder jerks away. PULL BACK to reveal RANDY STETZ sitting at a wooden table in an interrogation room. Longish blond hair, wearing a Metallica t-shirt, trying like hell to grow a moustache. RANDY I haven't had a chance! You fuckers been all over my back since Monday! He takes out a cigarette. It's bent. He lights it. Hap sits opposite. HAP You know smoking stunts your growth. Randy throws him a look. RANDY Yeah, okay, fat-ass. HAP (smiles at Will) More Alaskan hospitality. Will goes over to a coffee machine. Pours a cup. WILL Did you love her? RANDY Huh? WILL Kay Connell. Did you love her? Randy flicks his ash. Shrugs. RANDY Sure. She was nice. Will turns with his coffee. WILL "She was nice." Wow. That makes me all soft inside. Ever occur to you she didn't love you back? RANDY Huh? WILL You heard me that time. RANDY She loved me. She wanted to see me every night. WILL But she was seeing someone else on the side. Randy glares. RANDY I don't know what you're fucking talking about. WILL Friday night, at the party - what'd you fight about? RANDY Stuff. WILL What kind of stuff? RANDY Just stuff. I don't fucking remember. WILL The other guy? RANDY I told you I don't remember. WILL After that she left the party to go to him. RANDY How should I know?... WILL Ran like hell to go to him... RANDY Fuck you, man! - I'm sick of all your fucking cop questions... Will suddenly hurls his coffee cup and grabs Randy up by the collar. Nose to nose. WILL Now you listen to me, you little shit. This fuck-the-world-Metallica-t-shirt crap may work with your mamma, but it doesn't work with me. You got mad at your girlfriend because she was seeing someone else. You want to be the last person who saw her alive or are you going to tell me who that is? Randy's lip curls. Red-faced. RANDY I don't know. WILL You don't know. RANDY She didn't tell me. Disgusted, Will shoves Randy back into his seat. INT. HALLWAY - MINUTES LATER Will walking out of the interrogation room. Ellie joins him. ELLIE He's a little surly, isn't he? Will smooths back his hair. Checks his tie. WILL Just a little. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the gold necklace from Kay's room. Hands it to her. WILL I want you to check this out, Ellie. ELLIE We already did. WILL Do it again. ELLIE But there wasn't any... Will stops. Ellie stops. Will puts a hand on her shoulder. WILL The small things - remember? The second you're about to dismiss something - look at it again. Ellie smiles, teasing. ELLIE You want me to write that down? Will, has to smile. She's quick. Looks down the hall. A bearded GUY on crutches. Ellie follows his gaze. WILL Who's that? ELLIE The bartender at Darrow's. He was there Friday night. WILL Good. He's up next. Will heads over to him. Ellie watches his neck. Her hand closing over the necklace. INT. RESTAURANT - PIONEER LODGE - NIGHT The Pioneer Lodge restaurant. Small, dark wood, a RADIO playing something between Bluegrass and Folk. Some rough- looking GUYS at the bar. Throwing looks over at... Will and Hap, sitting at a table. Studying faded menus. WILL (reading) Halibut Calabrese. Halibut Olympia. Halibut Cajun Style. Halibut fish and chips... He puts down his menu. Reaches for his drink. WILL (cont'd) Can't wait to see what's for dessert. HAP At least there's variety. Will drains his drink. Locks eyes with a big GUY over at the bar. Beer froth on his moustache. WILL Looks like the natives are restless. HAP Will? Will looks back at his partner. Hap's fidgeting with the end of his tie. HAP (cont'd) I think, I think I'm gonna talk to Buck when we get back to Seattle. A cold flash down Will's spine. HAP I wish I could stick it out like you. I just, with Trish and the kids... WILL Don't do this, Hap... Hap avoids his eyes. HAP I'm thinking I could get off with probation. Keep half my pension. That's all I want. WILL (hisses) Goddammit, Hap. Think about what you're doing... HAP You don't have to be involved, Will. WILL You tell Buck and I'm involved whether I like it or not... RACHEL (O.S.) Ready to order? The men look up, interrupted. Rachel is standing by the table with a pad. Hap tries to recover with a big smile. HAP Hey - you do everything around here? RACHEL Just about. Will stands abruptly. Eyes on Hap. Trying not to explode. WILL I'll just have another Scotch in my room. (turns to Rachel) If you don't mind. Just then, his cell phone RINGS. INT. BULLPEN - NIGHTMUTE PD - NIGHT Will bursts into the bullpen. Hap behind. WILL Where is it? Ellie, Fred, and a couple other GUYS huddled around a desk. ELLIE Over here. Will and Hap head over to them. One of the younger guys, FARRELL, intimidated by Will's presence. Tucks his shirt into his dirty jeans. They part to reveal a BLUE KNAPSACK laying on the desk. Mud spots all over it. An embroidered daisy. Will examines it. WILL We're sure it's hers? FRED Has her books in it. HAP What about prints? Ellie shakes her head, unfortunately not. Will reaches into the bag. Pulls out two text books. WILL Biology and Algebra. He shoves the books towards one of the guys. WILL (cont'd) Find out who she studied with. He continues through the bag. Pulls out a little plastic bag with "Hello Kittys" all over it. Dumps out the contents. WILL (cont'd) Make-up. Looks up at Fred. WILL (cont'd) Find out where she bought it. Fred looks at him. Not happy with make-up duty. Will pulls out a hair brush. Hands it to Ellie. WILL (cont'd) Lab. Next, a couple worn paperbacks. WILL (cont'd) (reading titles) Otherwise Engaged, Murder at Sunset. He looks up at the group. WILL (cont'd) Who here reads this kind of crap? Farrell straightens. FARRELL I read that kind of crap. Will tosses them to him. WILL Read them. Tell me anything that strikes you. Down to the bottom of the bag. A Ziploc with a half-eaten sandwich and an apple core. Will hands them to Ellie. WILL (cont'd) Lab. Upends the knapsack. Scraps, paper clips, gum wrappers. WILL (cont'd) That's it. Fred reaches for the knapsack. FRED I'll stick it in the evidence locker... WILL No. Will takes it, walks slowly over to the window. Thinking. Twists the knapsack in his hands and looks out at the TOTEM POLE standing tall outside. A black RAVEN alights on top of it. Pecks at the air. Turns. Seems to look right at Will. WILL (cont'd) We put it back where we found it. Will turns to them. WILL (cont'd) You said it was a fishing cabin. FARRELL Uh, right. About two miles outside of town. ELLIE On the beach. Fred tightens his jaw. FRED Why are we taking it back? Will ignores the question. Walks back towards them. WILL This murder was in the papers, right? ELLIE Yeah. All over. WILL Call all of them from here to Anchorage. Tell them we now know that Kay Connell left the party with a dark blue knapsack, but we haven't recovered it yet. (checks watch) We can get it in by the morning editions. He hands the bag to Farrell. WILL (cont'd) Fill this with random books. Make it look heavy. Will pulls out a handkerchief. Wipes the mud off his hands. Taking his time. Finally turns to Fred. WILL (cont'd) It'll eat this guy alive if he thinks he overlooked a detail. EXT. ROCKY BEACH - OUTSIDE NIGHTMUTE - MORNING POV through BINOCULARS A WOODEN CABIN comes into focus. Right by the water. Hasn't been used in years. Weathered, slate roof. Algae growing up the sides. HAP (O.S.) Nice. Lighter than I remembered. WILL lowers his binoculars. He's standing on the black rocky beach. It's damp, slick, and cold. A fog's rolling in. Hap and Farrell are sitting behind a cluster of rocks. A couple paper bags and a megaphone. They're comparing guns. FARRELL Glock 40. All plastic save the barrel and firing pin. Never rusts. What do you carry down in Seattle? Hap reaches into his holster. Pulls out a... HAP Smith and Wesson 45. FARRELL Excellent! Fred Duggar's standing on the other side of them. He's got a pair of binoculars, too. They're staking out the cabin. Been there a while. ELLIE (O.S.) Brought some coffee... Ellie appears with a thermos. Crouching down. Fred turns, annoyed. FRED What are you doing here? WILL (answering for her) I told her to come. Fred shoots Will a look. Down at his cowboy boots. Will gives him a smile. ELLIE Anything yet? WILL FRED Nothing. Nothing. Fred goes back to scanning, pissed. FARRELL Maybe this guy doesn't read the papers. HAP Or goes straight to the Sports Section. Hap and Farrell chuckle. Hap unscrews the thermos. A cloud of steam. HAP (cont'd) Who gets first dibs? (looks up at Will) Will? Will looks down at his partner. Holding out the thermos like a weird kind of truce. Will turns away, rejecting it. A swath of thick fog unfolds over the black rocks as... Fred tenses. FRED (looking through binoculars) I see someone! Hap and Farrell scramble to their feet. Will whips up his binoculars. POV THROUGH WILL'S BINOCULARS - a FIGURE making its way to the cabin. Furtive. WILL (O.S.) That's him. Will lowers the binoculars. Snaps his fingers at the men. WILL (cont'd) Fan out. Fred, Farrell and Hap. Start spreading out. Ellie steps up. Will looks back at her. Too dangerous. WILL (cont'd) Stay here, Ellie. ELLIE But... Will puts up his hand. She stops short. He plunges ahead. Hap. Will. Farrell. Fred. Fanning out. Silent. Keeping eye-contact. Will points to Farrell. Wants the megaphone. Farrell, balancing on a rock, holds it out. Accidentally keys it. The feedback SQUAWKS. Fuck. FRED He's bolting! POV THROUGH WILL'S BINOCULARS - the FIGURE, looking around, running towards the cabin. Leaping from rock to rock. WILL reaches for his Smith and Wesson. WILL Go! Go! Go! The men jump into action. Race down towards the cabin. Fred and Farrell, nimble over the wet rocks. Will and Hap, harder going. Grab onto jagged edges, slip down small crevices. Rocks sticking out every which way. The fog, thick and white... THE FIGURE disappears into the cabin. FRED AND FARRELL leap up onto a tall boulder and jump down. Run over to the door of the cabin, guns at the ready... WILL rounds the boulder, Hap panting behind him. Joins Fred and Farrell at the door. Will levels his Smith and Wesson at the door, and with a nod to Fred as he KICKS it in... INT. FISHING CABIN - CONTINUOUS ...the door CRACKS and swings in. The men rush inside. WILL Police! They look around: Nothing. A few old nets, a wooden table rotted through. No knapsack. In the corner, a TRAP DOOR, left open. Will races over. Looks down into the darkness. WILL (cont'd) Goddammit! Turns and points to Farrell. WILL (cont'd) You! Head back up to base... (to Fred) You! Go right and follow along the water... (to Hap) Hap! You go left... The men nod. WILL (cont'd) Go! They rush out the door and split directions. Will crouches down by the trap door and... INT. TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS ...drops down into a dark, dank TUNNEL. Water dripping. FOOTFALLS echoing. Will cocks his head. Left or right? Starts sprinting down towards the lighter end of the tunnel, his own footsteps bouncing against the tunnel walls. He rounds a curve. Sound recedes... EXT. TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS ...He exits the tunnel onto the rocky beach. Stops short. FOG has enveloped everything - obscuring all vision, dulling all sound. Like a strange dream. Eerie. Will blinks against the thick whiteness. Strains to hear any sound, anything. There's only the distant LAPPING of the water. He tightens his grip on his gun and plunges into the fog. Quick, careful steps. Stumbles over a rock. Waves his gun in defense. Eyes wide open like a blind man... SUDDENLY a GUNSHOT. Off to the right. Will whips his head around. EXT. UP ON THE BEACH - CONTINUOUS Ellie, alone, jumps at the sound. Reaches for her weapon... EXT. DOWN THE BEACH - CONTINUOUS Will heads towards the sound. Reaching out for approaching rocks. Scrambles over a small bank and finds... FARRELL rolled up into a fetal position on the ground. Clutching his thigh. Blood seeping through his fingers. He looks up. FARRELL Sorry about... WILL Where is he? Farrell can't answer that. WILL (cont'd) (impatient) Where'd the shot come from? Farrell lifts his bloody hand. Points off towards the water. FARRELL Over there. Will disappears back into the fog, leaving Farrell behind. Clambers back down towards the water, pausing every few seconds to listen, to adjust. Heart POUNDING. Blood pumping. Like an animal tracking its prey. Leaps up onto a plateau of rocks when... SUDDENLY a DARK FIGURE flashes past him. The killer! Inches away. Will wheels around... WILL Freeze! CRACK! Squeezes off a shot. Misses! Can't believe it. Goes for another... Nothing! Jammed! The figure, disappearing. Will tosses his Smith and Wesson, reaches behind his back and whips out his SMITH 39/13... EXT. UP ON THE BEACH - CONTINUOUS Ellie, weapon drawn, making her way down the rocks. A HAND suddenly grabs her arm. VOICE (O.S.) Dammit, Ellie!... Fred emerges from the fog. FRED (cont'd) Put that thing away! Farrell's down!... CRACK! as another shot rips through the air. Fred and Ellie freeze. EXT. DOWN BY THE WATER - MINUTES LATER Fred and Ellie, skittering down the rocks. Getting closer to the water. Hear a voice ring out... VOICE (O.S.) Hap! The fog starts to dissipate. They reach the water to see... WILL DORMER kneeling beside the body of his partner. Lying in the water. Shot in the stomach. Blood dribbling from his mouth. Will grabs him up by the collar. WILL Hap! Starts shaking the limp body. Teeth clenched. WILL (cont'd) Hap! Hap's head, rolls back. Mouth agape. Face white... Will, rips off his tie. Presses it to the gaping wound... trying to stop the bleeding...warm blood, pumping into the water... Ellie watches. Horrified. Fred races over to the body. Feels for Hap's pulse. FRED Dormer... Will, shaking Hap again. Jaw set. Eyes intense. Veins popping up along his temples. Fred catches his shoulder. FRED (cont'd) Dormer! He's gone. Will looks up at Fred. His face contorts. Suddenly leaps to his feet. Grabs a rock and hurls it savagely into the thick fog. INT. CHIEF CHARLES NYBACK'S OFFICE - NIGHT Chief Nyback sits in his chair. Fingers interlaced. A somber expression on his face. CHIEF NYBACK And then you lost him. Will sits opposite him. Wet, dishevelled, dirty. Hap's blood smeared all over his shirt. Staring off into space. WILL And then I lost him. In the fog. CHIEF NYBACK About how long 'til you heard the suspect's second shot? Will, hesitates. WILL Twenty, thirty seconds. I followed the sound down to the water. That's where... He blinks. Looks down. Swallows. WILL (cont'd) That's where I found Hap. Nyback sighs, shakes his head. Reaches down to his bottom drawer and pulls out a bottle of bourbon and a glass. CHIEF NYBACK I think you need a glass of this. He goes to unscrew the bottle, but Will shakes his head. Stands. Paces. Rakes his hand through his hair. Turns suddenly and swipes his arm across Nyback's desk. Everything CRASHES to the floor. WILL (yells) Why didn't I know about that goddamn tunnel, Charlie? Nyback looks up at him. Calm. CHIEF NYBACK There's a bunch of those tunnels out there, Will. From bunkers over sixty years old. I don't even know half of them myself, and I grew up here. Will clenches his fists. WILL I had him, Charlie. Right in front of me. Not two feet. I could smell the son- of-a-bitch. Playing with me. And I missed the shot. He was right there and I missed the shot! Then my goddamned gun jammed... Nyback gets up. Limps over to his old friend. CHIEF NYBACK Will, you can't blame yourself. WILL I had him! CHIEF NYBACK It's only gonna make you crazy. Just then there's a soft KNOCK on the door. The men look over. Ellie sticks her head in. Speaks in a tone that belies that a man has recently died. ELLIE You wanted to see me? Will turns his back to her. Nyback heads over. CHIEF NYBACK Right, Ellie. Ellie flicks a look at the pile on the floor. At Will's back. CHIEF NYBACK (cont'd) I want you to take care of the investigation into Detective Eckhart's shooting. Ellie looks at him. Confused. Lowers her voice. ELLIE But what about the Connell case? I'm on the Connell case. Nyback puts a hand on her shoulder. CHIEF NYBACK We need paperwork, Ellie. You know that. Just write up a quick report. Ellie's shoulders droop. Thought she was playing with the big boys. Just then Will turns abruptly and grabs his coat. WILL I'm going to check on the roadblocks... Nyback catches his arm. CHIEF NYBACK You're no good right now, Will. Go back to the Lodge. Try to get some rest. Will looks at him. Know's he's right. EXT. ROAD - NIGHTMUTE - DAY CLOSE ON a SQUEALING tire, ripping around a curve... INT./EXT. SILVER JEEP CHEROKEE - CONTINUOUS Will driving. Speeding. Scenery whipping past the window. His hands, tight around the steering wheel. The hula-girl, dancing beneath the rear view mirror, a smile plastered to her face. He grows suddenly pale. Pulls the Cherokee off to the side. EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS Will jumps out of the Cherokee, leaving the door open. Runs down an ALLEY behind a row of shops. INT. ALLEY - CONTINUOUS A couple industrial trash bins. Will leans his hand against the wall and vomits. Hovers for a moment, saliva dripping from his mouth. Braces himself. Heaves again. Hears a BUZZING behind him. Turns. A DEAD DOG lying next to a dumpster. FLIES buzzing around its head. Teeth bared. Eyes wide open. Like it's watching him. INT. PIONEER LODGE - LATER Will walks up to reception. No one there. Just wants his key. Rings the bell. In the back room, he hears a RADIO. RADIO ...earlier this evening after an aborted attempt to apprehend a suspect. He was forty-five... It clicks off abruptly. Rachel appears in the doorway. Takes in the blood on Will's shirt. RACHEL I'm sorry about your partner. Will looks at her. She walks over to the desk. RACHEL (cont'd) It's been on the radio for the last two hours. Nothing but that. Like when they found Kay Connell's body. (sympathetic smile) We're not used to this sort of thing up here. She reaches for his key. RACHEL (cont'd) He was standing right there just a couple of days ago. Your partner. Exactly where you are now. (beat) I hope I was nice to him. Will takes his key. WILL You were nice to him. He liked you. He smiles faintly, turns to go. Just then the phone RINGS. RACHEL (answering) Pioneer Lodge?... (listens) Hold on a second. He's right here. Will stops. Turns. Rachel holds up the phone. Covering the mouthpiece. RACHEL (cont'd) John Warfield. He's called a couple of times. Will's stomach drops. That's the last phone call in the world he wants to take. Rachel reads his face. RACHEL (cont'd) Want me to lie? Will shakes his head. Steps back and takes the phone. Clears his throat. WILL (into phone) Dormer. PAUSE. A bemused VOICE on the other end. WARFIELD'S VOICE Detective Dormer. I've been trying to reach you. I was very sorry to hear about your partner, Detective Eckhart. It must have been a terrible shock, what happened this morning. Will. Not giving this asshole an inch. Rachel, trying not to listen. WILL (into phone) That's not exactly how I'd put it. WARFIELD'S VOICE (cont'd) No, no. I suppose not. But I look forward to reading the report. Very sad. Very sad. Funny... WILL (into phone) What do you mean, "Funny?" WARFIELD'S VOICE Oh, nothing. Just that I felt Detective Eckhart and I, Hap and I, were starting to make a real connection before you left. I sensed that he was ready to get some things off his chest. Did you sense anything like that, Detective? I mean, as his partner?... Will, squeezing the phone cord with his bloody fist. WARFIELD'S VOICE (cont'd) ...You were his partner for, what, about ten years?... Will turns from Rachel. Eyes burning. Voice steady. WILL (into phone) You know why everyone hates you, Warfield? It's not your questions, it's not your press conferences, it's not even your cheap suits; everyone hates you 'cause day after day you suck the marrow out of real cops when you never had the balls to become one yourself. Well I got to tell you, it's a shame you're not up here with me because I'd love to show you right now just what a real cop is capable of. You just remember that when you're sitting at your bullshit desk reading your bullshit report on my dead partner! SLAM! He hangs up the phone. Runs his hand through his hair. Turns back to Rachel. WILL (cont'd) Next time. Go ahead and lie. EXT. ROCKY BEACH - OUTSIDE NIGHTMUTE - MORNING Fog everywhere. Dense. White. Suffocating. We're running through it. Clambering over rocks. Hearing the sound of our own BREATHING. Our own HEARTBEAT. Adrenaline pumping. An animal tracking its prey... SUDDENLY a DARK FIGURE flashes past. Just inches away. Playing with us. Taunting us. We whip round with our weapon and... INT. WILL'S ROOM - LATE NIGHT BANG! Will bolts upright in bed. A film of sweat over his body. Breathing hard. The sound that woke him: the window shade FLAPPING open. LIGHT floods the room. Will gets up. Goes over to the shade and pulls it down. It lurches up halfway. He tugs it down again. It slaps all the way open. Will yanks it down so hard it rips off the window. WILL Goddammit! He gets tangled in it. WILL (cont'd) Goddamned...thing! Pulls it off and flings it in the corner. INT. WILL'S ROOM - 4:22 A.M. The digital clock flips to a new minute: 4:23. Will, pacing. Scratching at his stubble. Unable to sleep. Keeps stepping on a SQUEAKY floorboard. Slows near the ADJOINING DOOR that leads into Hap's room. Hovers. Lightly pushes the door open. Sees... THE PICTURES on the bedside table. A WOMAN and three teenage GIRLS. Hap's family. INT. BATHROOM - 5:18 A.M. Water gushing out of the faucet. Will's WATCH sitting on the sink's edge. 5:18. Will reaches up into the open medicine cabinet for a bottle of aspirin. Shakes out a couple. Cups his hand under the water and knocks the pills back. Closes the medicine cabinet and CRIES out... HAP'S REFLECTION looming behind him. HAP They're watching us, Will... Will whirls around... WILL Hap! ...nothing. No one's there. EXT. MAINSTREET - NIGHTMUTE - MORNING CLOSE ON running shoes, POUNDING the tarmac. PULL BACK to reveal Will running down Nightmute's main street. Eyes bloodshot. A COUPLE NATIVE ALASKANS walking into a hardware store. Stop talking and glance over at him. A YOUNG MOTHER in her husband's work shirt. Lifts her small KIDS into the cab of a 4x4. Watches him pass. AN OLDER MAN fixing the broken "E" on his store front. Turns at the sound of Will's footfall. Everyone edgy. Cautious. A murderer amongst them. Will continues on. Looking straight ahead. Wipes the sweat from his neck. Slows to a stop just outside the... LOCAL CONVENIENCE STORE A blown-up picture of KAY CONNELL in the window. Below, a painted sign: We miss you, Kay. A stack of newspapers by the front door. The "Nightmute Ledger." The headline: Seattle Cop Killed by Suspect. Will picks one up. Stares down at it. Rain starts to dot the paper. CHIEF NYBACK (O.S.) ...We're going to bring down a couple of guys from Ridgemount, but I want us to step up the investigation here... INT. BULLPEN - NIGHTMUTE PD - CONTINUOUS Rain hammering against the windows. Chief Nyback addresses the bullpen. Everyone's there except Farrell. CHIEF NYBACK ...Nightmute hasn't lost an officer in thirty-seven years, and even though Detective Eckhart wasn't from here, he was as good as one of us on this case. I had the honor of working with him down in Seattle for a number of years. He was a fine detective and an even better man. Will stands nearby, watching the rain hit the windows. His suit pants are slightly wrinkled. Nyback nods towards Fred. CHIEF NYBACK (cont'd) Fred, you'll be working with Detective Dormer directly from now on. Fred, stroking his moustache, nods. Nyback turns to Will. CHIEF NYBACK (cont'd) Will? Anything you'd like to add? Will looks up. Everyone's eyes turn to him. He shakes his head. CHIEF NYBACK Okay. Then let's get to it. Feet shuffling. Chairs scraping the floor as people get up. A sense of determination in the air. Will grabs his coat. ELLIE (O.S.) Detective Dormer? He turns. Ellie is beside him, holding a map. ELLIE (cont'd) I'm sorry to bother you, but I was asked to write the report on... (lowers eyes) ...you know what I was asked to write the report on... (looks back up) ...Could you, just to be accurate, for the report, could you just point out where you were when you saw Detective Eckhart yesterday? She holds out the map. It's of the small stretch of coastline. Red circles marking various points. Will looks down at her. Takes the map. Turns it around. WILL It's good to be accurate, Ellie. You're doing your job. He looks down at the map. Ellie watching his face. ELLIE I'm so sorry about what happened. I know you did everything you could... Will points to a spot. Cutting her off. WILL I was here. Hands her back the map. Smiles. Just then Fred walks up. FRED Dormer. Still no sign of the bullet that went through Farrell. WILL I'm going to the hospital to talk to him now. (looks at his watch) You get the search party together. No fewer than thirty people. I'll meet you in exactly twenty-five minutes. Don't waste any time. He pulls on his coat and heads for the door. Fred watches him leave. Sticks a toothpick in his mouth. FRED Partner or no partner. That guy's a prick. ELLIE He has to be a prick, Fred. He's a great detective. INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - ST. FRANCIS HOSPITAL - DAY CLOSE ON the cover of one of the paperbacks, Otherwise Engaged by Walter Byrd. PULL BACK to reveal Farrell lying in a hospital bed in striped pajamas, reading it. A tear runs down his cheek as he turns the page. A SNICKERS BAR is tossed onto his lap. He looks up. Face brightens. FARRELL Detective Dormer! Will stands by his bed. Farrell puts down the book. Picks up the Snickers. FARRELL (cont'd) You don't seem like the bring-an- underling-who's-in-the-hospital-a- Snickers-bar kind of guy. WILL I'm not. He pulls up a chair. Nods to the paperback. WILL (cont'd) How's the book? Farrell bites into the candy bar. FARRELL Oh, a real tear-jerker. Brody, the good guy, just got shot. He stops chewing. Realises the association. Swallows uncomfortably. FARRELL (cont'd) Oh. I'm sorry. About Hap. Detective Eckhart. WILL Thanks. FARRELL I wish I'd had the chance to get to know him better. Take him fishing or something. WILL He would have liked that. FARRELL We just gotta catch the bastard, right? WILL That's why I'm here. I need to know exactly what you saw yesterday, Farrell. FARRELL What I saw? WILL Anything. It's important. Farrell takes another bite of the Snickers. Like a little boy. Furrows his brow, trying to remember. FARRELL Pretty much nothing. That fog was so thick. The bullet seemed to come out of nowhere. I don't even remember seeing any shapes. Then I saw you. But only when you came up close. Then you disappeared again. (shrugs) I guess I heard more than I saw. Will sighs, rubs his eyes. FARRELL (cont'd) Sorry. WILL No. No. Don't be sorry. It's not your fault. Just then a NURSE comes in with a Dixie cup. Pretty, freckled face. Not much older than Kay Connell. NURSE Time for your meds. Farrell smiles at her, winks at Will. FARRELL Lonnie and I went to high school together. Lonnie gives him the cup. LONNIE Just take the pills, Farrell. WILL How's the leg? FARRELL Oh, you know. Don't feel that much. Bullet went right through. WILL Right. Got lost in the rocks. FARRELL We'll get the other one, though. Will looks up. Farrell pops the rest of the Snickers in his mouth. FARRELL (cont'd) After the autopsy. INT. HALLWAY - HOSPITAL - LATER Will walks down the hallway. Light pouring in from a set of high windows. He looks tired. Set-upon. POV of SOMEONE WATCHING HIM. From a doorway. Not close, not far. A HAND comes into view. Small. Bruised knuckles. Holds on to the door jamb. Watches as... Will suddenly stops. Skin prickling at the back of his neck. Turns and looks around. A MAN in a wheelchair. A LITTLE GIRL tugging at her hospital gown. A couple of NURSES laughing at check-in. An empty doorway. Nothing. EXT. ROCKY BEACH - OUTSIDE NIGHTMUTE - MORNING Back at the beach. We see nothing but fog. A VOICE comes through. ELLIE (O.S.) ...and it was at this point that Detective Dormer headed towards the noise... Ellie emerges from the fog. Carrying the map and talking into a small tape recorder. She's climbing over the rocks, wearing a windbreaker a couple sizes too big. A UNIFORMED OFFICER follows, carrying a camera. She turns to him. ELLIE (cont'd) Remember, Kepp, shoot everything... (back to the tape recorder) ...wherein he discovered the wounded Detective Farrell Brooks, having been shot in the vastus externus of the upper left thigh... She climbs over the same bank Will Dormer climbed two evenings before. Finds... ANOTHER UNIFORMED OFFICER, hanging out and smoking. ELLIE (cont'd) Francis! He looks up. Pimples on his chin. FRANCIS What? ELLIE You're supposed to be Farrell. Shot in the thigh and writhing in pain. FRANCIS C'mon, Ellie. What's it matter? ELLIE Accuracy. That's what. (points to the ground) Now get down. Francis looks up at her. Flicks his cigarette away and gets down amongst the rocks. Holds his thigh like he was shot. FRANCIS Ow. CLICK! Kepp takes the picture. EXT. DOWN BY THE WATER - MINUTES LATER Ellie sloshes through the water. Ankles getting cold. Cheeks pink. But it doesn't matter. She's investigating. ELLIE (into tape recorder) ...shortly after hearing the second shot, Detective Dormer continued through the water until he spotted the body, lying approximately fifteen feet away. She stops. Looks at the map. At the spot Will pointed out. Looks back up. Fog. Clicks off the recorder. Calls out. ELLIE (cont'd) You there, Rich? A VOICE calls back. Someone pretending to be Hap. VOICE (O.S.) Yeah. And I'm freezing my nads off! Ellie furrows her brow. Just then... FRANCIS appears. Slips on a rock but catches his fall. FRANCIS Ellie! Think I found something! EXT. ROAD NEAR BEACH - DAY CLOSE ON a row of FEET. Mostly boots. Some more beat-up than others. Inching forward along a road. WILL (O.S.) ...Anything catches your eye, you put it in a bag. Anything looks strange, you put it in a bag... PULL BACK to reveal a long line of PEOPLE stretched out across the road about a mile up the beach. Some old, some young. Linking arms and moving forward. Looking down. The SEARCH PARTY. Will, walking up and down behind the line. Talking through a megaphone. WILL (cont'd) ...Anything he may have dropped, moved, kicked, or stepped on, you put in a bag. Cigarette butts, gum wrappers, paper clips, coins, buttons - nine times out of ten a suspect leaves something behind... VOICE (O.S.) Detective? Will turns. A couple burly GUYS with some BLOODHOUNDS. BURLY GUY #1 Where do you want us? Will points over to the woods on the other side of the road. WILL The woods. One group heading south, the other heading north. Nods to Fred who's standing nearby. He hands the guys two radios. FRED Make sure they're set to channel 6... Just then two young OFFICERS pull up in a squad car. Young and apple-cheeked. The first one holding a piece of paper. OFFICER #1 We did the interviews with all the nearby houses like you asked. WILL Anything? OFFICER #1 (shakes his head) Here's a list of who we talked to. Hands the list to Will. He glances it. WILL Alright. Go back and set up some follow- ups for this afternoon. The Officers nod, put the car in reverse. Fred saunters over. Nods towards the searchers. FRED You don't think they should start further back? Will shakes his head. WILL He had to have exited here. Over those boulders. I saw him move, he's nimble. Would have taken the hardest way out. Fred shrugs, skeptical. Just then, his cell phone BLEATS. He reaches for it. FRED (into phone) Duggar... Will looks back at the search team. Slow. Meticulous. FRED (cont'd) (into phone) Where was it? A local WOMAN. At the end of the line. Glances over her shoulder. Looks at Will. Smiles. You'll help us catch him. FRED (cont'd) (into phone) Okay. (slaps phone closed) That was Ellie. Will turns back to him. FRED (cont'd) They found Farrell's bullet. Says it looks like a 357. After the autopsy Rich can drive 'em both to the lab in Anchorage. Have a murder weapon by morning. Fred crosses his arms. Sarcastic. FRED (cont'd) That is, if it's alright with you. EXT. PIONEER LODGE - NIGHTMUTE - NIGHT Thunder RUMBLING. INT. PIONEER LODGE - NIGHTMUTE - NIGHT Rachel winding an old grandfather clock with a key. Looks about a hundred years old. Will enters the lobby. Soaked through. Carrying an armload of wet files. Rachel turns, sees him. Reaches over to an umbrella stand. Hands him an umbrella. RACHEL Here. It's on the house. Will takes it. Preoccupied. WILL Thanks. He starts up the stairs. Notices Rachel straining to return the key to the top of the clock. Backtracks to help her. She gets it without his help. RACHEL I got it. (smiles) Don't know why I bother. It's been broken for two years. WILL Habit. Rachel looks at him. Can't figure this guy out. Remembers something. RACHEL (cont'd) Oh. A man came by to see you earlier. Said he was your new partner. A TINGLE skips down Will's spine. He looks at her. WILL Fred Duggar? RACHEL No. He didn't say what his name was. Only that you were expecting him. WILL I'm not expecting anyone. RACHEL That's not what he thinks. WILL What did he look like? Rachel thinks for a second. Leaning against the clock. RACHEL Short. Dark hair. Not that memorable. Will nods, rubs his forehead. Suddenly has a pounding headache. Turns for the stairs. Hesitates. WILL I need to borrow something. INT. WILL'S ROOM - NIGHT CLOSE ON a nail. One THWACK of a hammer and it bites into the wall. PULL BACK to reveal Will nailing the corner of a blanket to one side of the window. An ad hoc curtain. He finishes that side. Starts to stretch the blanket across the window. Hesitates. Looks outside. To the left. To the right. To see if anybody's out there. If anybody's watching. Sees instead... A LONE TUGBOAT chugging across the harbor. Pulling a huge freighter. Will squeezes his eyes shut. Opens them again. Pulls the blanket fully across the window. INT. WILL'S ROOM - 1:05 A.M. The FILES spread across the floor. Their edges buckled from the rain. Dozens of pictures of Kay Connell. School records. Private letters. Health files. Coroner's report. Will. Pacing. Back and forth. Thinking. Over that same SQUEAKY floorboard. The clock reads: 1:05. INT. WILL'S ROOM - 2:20 A.M. Will lying in bed. On top of the blanket. Wide awake. Staring at the ADJOINING DOOR. Into Hap's room. EXT. PIONEER LODGE - NIGHTMUTE - LATE NIGHT Will, in a sweatshirt and coat, heads down the front steps of the Pioneer Lodge. Jams his hands in his pockets. The walk of an insomniac. EXT. MAINSTREET - NIGHTMUTE - LATE NIGHT Will walking down main street. In the middle of the road. The dead of night. No cars. The sky a blinding white. Hears some rowdy NOISE coming from a corner bar, beer lights flickering. A WOMAN rides by on a bicycle. Birds SINGING. Not day. Not night. Stuck somewhere in between. Like a dream. Turns down a side street. Passing more stores. Guns and Ammo. Patty's Hair and Nails. General Store. Comes upon THE ALLEY where he vomited the day before. Stops. Sees the DEAD DOG, still down at the end. Half obscured by the dumpster. Will wavers, pale. Suddenly... A HOMELESS MAN emerges from the shadows. Big. Wild-eyed. Awakened from his sleep. Will, quickly backtracks to the sidewalk. Spooked. JUST THEN the CRACK! of bat hitting ball. He turns. In the distance. Nightmute Elementary School. EXT. NIGHTMUTE ELEMENTARY - LATE NIGHT A Little League game in full swing. The uniforms, a little faded. The diamond, a little unkempt. A smattering of SPECTATORS. Mostly dads with six-packs. Will wanders over to the fence. Spots Ellie sitting alone on the bottom bleacher. CUT TO: POV OF SOMEONE WATCHING HIM. From afar. The SOUNDS of the game, delayed a few seconds. Watches as Will crosses to the bleachers... CUT BACK TO: ...and sits down next to Ellie. She turns, surprised. ELLIE (cont'd) Detective Dormer! What are you doing here? (looks at watch) It's two-thirty in the morning. Shouldn't you be asleep? Will glances out at the game. WILL I could say the same thing about you. ELLIE Oh. We always have play-offs in the middle of the night. It's the best time. WILL Who's playing? ELLIE The Puffins and the Hawks. We're in extra innings. The Hawks have a really good line-up this year. She sips on a take-out coke. Looks back at the game. A plump, redheaded GIRL comes up to bat. Blows a bubble. ELLIE That's my sister. Will looks over just in time to see the girl swing and miss by a mile. Ellie cups her hands around her mouth. ELLIE (cont'd) (calling out) That's okay, Lib! (to Will) Usually she's better. WILL She your only sibling? ELLIE (nods) Twelve years younger. Libby takes another swing. Connects with the ball. Drops the bat and runs to first. Ellie gives a sharp WHISTLE. ELLIE (cont'd) What about you? You have any siblings? WILL No. (rubs his eyes) Well. I had a brother. He died when I was eleven. Ellie, sits up... ELLIE Oh, I shouldn't have... WILL It's okay. Happened a long time ago. He was killed in a fire. In New Mexico. ELLIE That must have been awful for you. Will leans back. Stretching his legs. Remembering. WILL Not really. (slight smile) I remember I was more embarrassed that he had died. Embarrassed that it made me different. So I didn't tell the other kids at school what had happened. They'd ask me where he was, where he'd gone. And I'd make up stories. He was visiting an aunt up north, he'd broken his leg, he was in a Swiss boarding school. Stuff like that. (shakes his head) Nice kid, huh? Just kept making up more and more lies... Suddenly, he stops talking. Slowly sits up. Sensing something. Ellie, noticing the shift. ELLIE You okay? The row of DADS behind them. Jump up and start CHEERING. CUT TO: POV OF THE PERSON WATCHING WILL. Sees him sit up. Look around. That same prickle at the back of his neck. A KID slides home just as... CUT BACK TO: ...Will stands. Trying to shake the feeling. WILL I'm going back to the Lodge, Ellie. Still need to go through some of Kay Connell's school records. ELLIE (unsure) Okay. He turns to go, scanning the area. Ellie calls after him. ELLIE (cont'd) Try to get some sleep! EXT. NIGHTMUTE MORGUE - EARLY MORNING The Nightmute morgue. Next morning. A SQUAD CAR pulls up. Francis gets out, whistling. Starts for the morgue's entrance. INT./EXT. JEEP CHEROKEE - EARLY MORNING Will in the Cherokee. Dark circles under his eyes. Suit jacket wrinkled. Pulls in next to Francis' squad car. WILL (calls out window) Officer!... Francis turns. WILL I'll pick it up. You head back to the station. INT. HALLWAY - NIGHTMUTE MORGUE - EARLY MORNING Will walking down a hallway. Fluorescent lights. Cinderblock walls. On his cell phone. WILL (into phone) Duggar - I'm at the coroner's now. I'll be back in about twenty minutes... Stops at an open doorway in time to see THE CORONER pull a sheet over the cold, blue body of Hap Eckhart. Will's heart lurches. He grabs on to the door jamb. Wasn't ready for that. The coroner looks up. CORONER Detective. Thought you were sending one of your lackeys. Will clears his throat. Closes his cell phone. WILL I thought it was better if I came. Under the circumstances. The coroner nods. Goes to wash her hands. CORONER It's different when you know them, isn't it? (nods to clipboard) Just sign over there and she's all yours. Shrugs off her lab coat. She's wearing a blue dress. Looks like a piano teacher. Heads into an adjoining office. Will. Alone. Steps into the room. The smell of formaldehyde. Bloody instruments on a stainless steel tray. Walks towards the clipboard, eyes flicking over to the shape under the sheet when... SUDDENLY Hap's HAND drops down. Thick fingers. Wedding band. Will jumps... CORONER (O.S.) Your partner didn't suffer much... The coroner re-emerges from the office with a manila envelope. Hap Eckhart written on it in black pen. CORONER (cont'd) Maybe for a minute or two. Will rubs his face. Tries to focus on the clipboard. The coroner holds out the envelope. Smiles. CORONER (cont'd) Just enough time to reflect. WILL Thanks, Doc. He takes the envelope. The coroner peers up at him. CORONER You're looking a little green, Detective. INT. BULLPEN - NIGHTMUTE PD - DAY Fred Duggar, dialing the phone at his cluttered desk. WILL (O.S.) So where's the other bullets? He looks up. Will standing before him, holding the manila envelope. INT. STORAGE ROOM - NIGHTMUTE PD - DAY CLOSE on a key slipping into a padlock. Opens with a CLICK! PULL BACK to reveal Fred and Will in a small storage room. Standing in front of an army-green LOCKER. The evidence locker. Room's stuffed with old files and boxes. MOOSE ANTLERS hanging over a small window. Will glances up. WILL What's with all the moose antlers around here? Fred throws a look over his shoulder. Opens the locker. FRED Lots of moose. INSIDE THE LOCKER - another manila envelope. The name on this one: Farrell Brooks. Fred reaches back for the other envelope. Will, hesitant to give it to him. Feeling the bump of the bullet in the bottom corner. Hands it over. Wipes his brow. WILL When's Rich coming? Fred slides it in beside Farrell's. Closes the locker door. FRED I'll call him now. WILL First I need a copy of the key. Fred turns, a twinkle in his eye. FRED This isn't Seattle, Detective. We don't have copies. (holds up key) This is the only one. Will looks at him. At the key. Plucks it from his hand. Just then Nyback's SECRETARY appears in the doorway. SECRETARY Detective Dormer? Telephone. INT. BULLPEN - NIGHTMUTE PD - DAY The secretary hands Will the phone. Pulls something from under the desk. A beat-up BOX. Will's name on it. SECRETARY This came for you earlier. Will glances at it. Takes the phone. Rubs his eyes. WILL (into phone) Dormer. Nothing. Someone's there but they're not saying anything. Will, too tired for this shit... WILL (cont'd) Goddammit, Warfield, if you're gonna check up on me every... Then...the VOICE. A MAN's voice. Not John Warfield's. This voice is medium-ranged. Higher. Nose sounds stuffed. MAN'S VOICE I bet you haven't been getting much sleep. Will straightens. Something weird. WILL (into phone) What? A little TITTER on the other end. MAN'S VOICE You lower-48s. You think the white nights are kind of neat. Then you can't sleep for days. I've seen it happen about a million times. But you can't sleep for a different reason. WILL (into phone) Who is this? A PAUSE. Will loosens his tie. WILL (into phone) I said, who is this? The voice. Dropping to a WHISPER. MAN'S VOICE I saw what really happened, Will... Will, furrows his brow. MAN'S VOICE I saw you kill your partner. With your back-up weapon. Out there on the beach. I saw you shoot him dead... CLOSE ON Will Dormer's face. As all the blood drains from it. As all SOUND fades around him. As his heart begins to POUND against his chest. He falters, reaching out for the desk. To steady himself. As if the floor's just dropped out beneath him. Eyes, darting around the bullpen... WILL (sotto, into phone) Now you listen to me... MAN'S VOICE Don't worry. I won't tell anyone. Oh, and I saw you take my gun. My uncle's old 357. I dropped it in the rocks. But you can go ahead and keep that. CHIEF NYBACK, exits his office. Looks at Will and smiles. MAN'S VOICE (cont'd) ...I mean... (beat) ...Now that we're partners. CLICK. The line goes dead. Will, throat constricted. Listening to the DIAL TONE. Smiles back at Nyback. Turns. Slowly hangs up the phone. White as a sheet. Trying to act normal. Trying to act calm. SOUND returning to the bullpen, like nothing's different. Looks over at THE BOX sitting on the edge of the secretary's desk. He reaches for it. Carefully, rips the packing tape. Bends back a flap. Inside, some dark blue material. An embroidered daisy. Kay Connell's knapsack. EXT. NIGHTMUTE POLICE DEPARTMENT - DAY Will, heading for the Cherokee. Clutching the box. Face pale, pace quick. Everything's different now. ELLIE (O.S.) Detective Dormer! He closes his eyes. Now is not the time. Reaches the Cherokee. Yanks open the driver's side door. Ellie catches up with him. Out of breath. ELLIE You look like you're in a hurry. I just wanted to ask you about these pictures. She smiles, holds up some PHOTOGRAPHS. They're of the BEACH. The ones Kepp took. Almost all fog. ELLIE (cont'd) I know they're not great quality, but this is where you said you were when you first saw Detective Eckhart, right? Will. Barely glancing at them. Tosses the box into the car. WILL Right. Gets in and closes the door. Puts his hand over the box. Ellie comes up to the window. ELLIE But here's the thing. I retraced your exact steps according to your statement. You couldn't have seen Detective Eckhart from there. I mean, not in that fog. WILL Then change it. ELLIE How much closer would you say you were? WILL I don't remember. ELLIE Five feet? Seven feet? Will, about to seriously lose his shit. Looks at Ellie. Eyes dark, distant. WILL Listen, Ellie. I don't have time for this shit. Five feet, seven feet, twenty feet. Put down whatever you want in your report, alright? He turns the ignition. Pulls out with a SQUEAL. Ellie steps back, watching him drive away. More curious than stung. EXT. OUTSIDE NIGHTMUTE - DAY The Cherokee. Parked off-road. A remote spot by the water. The driver's side door, left open. The PING-PING-PING of the interior BELL. EXT. BREAKFRONT - DAY Will Dormer, walking along a breakfront. Aimless. One foot in front of the other. Staring out at nothing. The endless sea. Waves CRASHING. Wind HOWLING. Seagulls SCREECHING. Everything. Closing in on him... He stumbles over a rock. Grabs his head in his hands. Stunned. Guilty. Ashamed. Fucked. He saw it. He saw it! A WAVE, explodes nearby. Drenching him in sea spray. Will turns, raking his hand across his face. Blinking. Eyes stinging. Trying to focus. Trying to think this through... Hears a dog BARKING in the distance. Shakes his head. Looks at his watch. Got to deal with the problem at hand. INT. WILL'S ROOM - PIONEER LODGE - DAY Will, bursts into his room at the Lodge. The shoulders of his coat still wet with sea spray. Crosses to the area of the floor where Kay Connell's files are still spread out. Starts pressing the floorboards with the toe of his boot. Testing. Testing. Until...he finds the one that SQUEAKS. Gets down on his knees. Hesitates. Then jams his fingers in around the loose board. Starts pulling it up. Face reddening. Knuckles whitening. Slips his hand into the gap. Pulls out a muddy 357 RUGER. The killer's gun. Will, stares down at it. INT. ALLEY - DAY Will, standing at the mouth of the ALLEY. Just like the night before. Steps inside. Cautious. Eyes darting. Peering into the shadows for the HOMELESS MAN... Not there. Coast's clear. Heads for the dumpster at the end of the alley. Shoves it aside. Looks down at... The DEAD DOG. Rancid. Rotting. Will gags. Holds a handkerchief to his face. Waving away the flies. Then. Pulls the 357 Ruger from his pocket. Shrugs his coat off and wraps it around his hand and the gun. Looks away. Fires a muffled SHOT into the dog's side. The body kicks. Crouches down. Feels along the dog's ribs for the bullet's point of entry. Finds it. Pulls out a PENKNIFE and extends one of the blades. Cuts into the gash, fingers probing deep for the lodged bullet. He finds it. Pulls it out. Looks back at the dog. Takes a deep breath. Wipes his brow. A little smear of the dog's blood left on his forehead. Turns and pulls a bottle of RUBBING ALCOHOL from his pocket. Douses the bullet. Cleaning it. Glancing at his watch. Running out of time... EXT. NIGHTMUTE POLICE DEPARTMENT - DAY The rear of the Nightmute PD building. Will, looking around, heads briskly for the back door... INT. HALLWAY - NIGHTMUTE PD - DAY ...steps into the HALLWAY leading towards the bullpen. Hears VOICES. Nearby. Ducks back. Waiting for them to fade. Safe. Heads down towards the STORAGE ROOM. Glancing briefly at the PICTURES hanging on the wall. Of old time POLICE OFFICERS. Striking brave poses... INT. STORAGE ROOM - NIGHTMUTE PD - DAY The storage room. Hot. Stifling. The moose antlers LOOMING over his shoulder. Will pulls the evidence locker key from his pocket. Unlocks the padlock. Swings the door open. Pulls the Hap Eckhart envelope out. Throwing a look over his shoulder. Opens it. Shakes out the bullet that was lodged in Hap's spine. Then fishes a plastic bag from his pocket. The bullet he shot into the dead dog. Drops that into the envelope and reseals it. Hands shaking. Something. Catches the corner of his eye. He turns. HIS REFLECTION in the locker mirror. The blood smear still on his forehead. FRED (O.S.) Dormer... Will jumps. Quickly wipes the smear off and turns. Fred Duggar standing behind him. RICH by his side. Will clears his throat, shoves Hap's envelope into Fred's hand. Then Farrell's. Angry. WILL These should have gone out two hours ago. SLAMS the locker door and brushes past him. Fred and Rich exchange a glance. EXT. CEMETERY - NIGHTMUTE - DAY CLOSE ON a YOUNG GIRL's face. Dark hair held up in two barrettes, wind tousling the curls. Reading from a piece of paper. YOUNG GIRL ...And that's how I think Kay would want us to remember her... PULL BACK to reveal Kay Connell's funeral. PEOPLE standing by the grave, most of them HIGH SCHOOLERS. The sky's a brilliant blue. Red fireweeds blanket the hillside. YOUNG GIRL (cont'd) ...Swimming, reading, hiking through the Kebaughs... FRED, ELLIE AND WILL stand off to the side. Dressed in black. Fred looks like he's never worn a tie before. Ellie holds a potted plant. A gift for the bereaved. YOUNG GIRL (cont'd) ...playing her flute, meeting at Darrow's after school... Will. Eyes bloodshot. Not really listening. Not really paying attention. A thousand miles away. Tugs at his collar. Feels tight. YOUNG GIRL ...And always, always with a smile on her face. The young girl looks up. Folds the paper closed. People SNIFFLE. Mrs. Connell, reaches out to squeeze her arm. Some CHILDREN. Start circulating with plastic buckets. Filled with white carnations. Handing them out. VOICE (O.S.) Want one? Will, startled, looks down. A LITTLE GIRL stands before him. Curly hair. Glasses. Holding up a bucket. He shakes his head. Looks back up at THE MOURNERS lining up to place the carnations on Kay's casket. AN OLD MAN with a brass-tipped cane. Two GIRLS, look like sisters, holding each other up. A MAN with a thick red beard. A LITTLE BOY, about five, clutching a FLUTE tied with a pink ribbon... Will, looks away. Then. At the end of the line. Something catches his eye. RANDY STETZ in tight jeans and a down vest. In front of him stands a GIRL with white-blonde hair. From the torn pictures in Kay Connell's room. Will, straightens at the sight of her. Sees Randy surreptitiously caress her ass. EXT. CEMETERY - LATER The service is over. People are heading back to their cars. Fred yanks off his tie. Looks at Ellie. FRED We should go say hello to Mrs. Connell. He starts off. Ellie, looks back at Will. WILL You go ahead. I'll be there in a second. Ellie nods. Catches up to Fred. Will turns his attention back to RANDY AND THE GIRL. Over at the far end of the cemetery. Standing next to Randy's motorcycle. EXT. AT THE EDGE OF THE FOREST - MINUTES LATER Randy gets on his bike, strapping his helmet on. The girl's about to get on behind him. WILL (O.S.) Why don't I give her a ride? They look over. WILL walking towards them. The wind whipping his jacket. His tie. Randy makes a face. RANDY Thought I smelled something. WILL Good to see you, too, Randy. Will arrives at the bike. The girl, TANYA FRANCKE, looks at him curiously. Her long white-blonde hair, her skin almost translucent. Something sexy about her. Has the carnation stuck in the buttonhole of her jean jacket. TANYA Who're you? EXT. GRAVESITE - CONTINUOUS Fred shakes Mrs. Connell's hand. Ellie waits. Looks over and sees WILL standing with Tanya and Randy. Shifts the plant in her hands. EXT. AT THE EDGE OF THE FOREST - CONTINUOUS Will shows the gold shield on his belt. RANDY Fuckin' cop. Randy kick starts the bike. It dies. He kicks it again. Calls out over his shoulder. RANDY You coming or not? INT. CHEROKEE - FOREST - DAY Sunlight dappling through tall fir trees. Will drives. Tanya sitting next to him. Her black skirt riding up. Picking at the flaking polish on her nails. TANYA I never met anyone from Seattle before. WILL You're not missing much. TANYA What are you doing in this shit-hole town? Will, shifts. Looks over. WILL You were good friends with Kay Connell, weren't you? Tanya hesitates. Pulls a cigarette from her purse. TANYA I was her best friend. WILL Best friend? TANYA Since grade school. WILL That's a long time. TANYA We were like sisters. Knew everything about each other. WILL Must be tough for you. What happened. Tanya shrugs. Lights the cigarette. Takes a drag. TANYA Everybody says I'm holding up great, considering. Don't even care if I go to school. They're all worried I haven't cried yet. She stretches. Her midriff showing. Shifts her body towards Will. TANYA (cont'd) But there's no law against not crying, right? WILL What about Kay's other friends? Tanya makes a face. Reaches out and taps the hula-girl. TANYA Do we have to talk about Kay? I don't want to talk about her right now. Let's just drive. Go somewhere. Will looks over at her. She blows out a plume of smoke. Smiles. Seductive. WILL You want me to take you somewhere? TANYA Long as it's fun. She reaches out a sinewy arm. Starts massaging the back of Will's neck. TANYA (cont'd) Young, impressionable girl left alone with older, Seattle detective. Who knows what we could get up to. Will, impervious to the touch. Head, throbbing. Reaches for the gear. His foot, pressing harder on the gas. EXT. CHEROKEE - FOREST ROAD - CONTINUOUS SCREECH! The Cherokee whips around a curve. INT. CHEROKEE - CONTINUOUS Tanya giggles. Likes the speed. Will, goes even faster. EXT. CHEROKEE - CONTINUOUS The Cherokee breaks free from the forest. Racing along a coastal road. Water CRASHING against the rocks. Up ahead, a LOGGING TRUCK coming the other way. The Cherokee shifts lanes. Heading straight for the truck. INT. CHEROKEE - CONTINUOUS Tanya looks out at the truck. Still giggling. WILL How about this. You like this? The truck BEEPS. Will goes faster. Tanya takes her hand from Will's neck. Holds on to her seat. EXT. CHEROKEE - CONTINUOUS The gap's closing fast. The truck BEEPS again. INT. CHEROKEE - CONTINUOUS Tanya looks over at Will. Not giggling any more. TANYA Hey... WILL Thought you wanted something fun... Will goes even faster... EXT. CHEROKEE - COASTAL ROAD The truck and the Cherokee. On a collision course. The truck BEEPS wildly. INT. CHEROKEE - CONTINUOUS Tanya squirming in her seat. Not liking this any more. TANYA Move over! Will staring dead ahead. Tensing his jaw. The TRUCK... bearing down on them... Tanya reaches for the wheel...Will pushes her hands away... The TRUCK...a breath away... TANYA (cont'd) (screaming) Move over, you crazy fuck! EXT. CHEROKEE - COASTAL ROAD The truck and the Cherokee...just feet from each other...at the last moment...the Cherokee jerks out of the way... EXT. ICICLE FISHING CANNERY - DAY ...SCREECHES to a stop near an old sign, Icicle Cannery. Gravel flying. Will gets out. Slams his door. Rounds the car and opens Tanya's door. She's screaming at him. TANYA You crazy son-of-a-bitch! You could have killed us! Will reaches in and pulls her out of the car. TANYA (cont'd) Ow! You're hurting me! Will pulls her up a steep hill of garbage and broken crates. Pushes her down the other side. She stumbles. TANYA (cont'd) You want to tell me what the fuck this is all about? Will stands above her, on the hill. His face set like stone. WILL You and Kay were like sisters? TANYA That's what I said. WILL Told each other everything. (heads down the hill) That why your picture's torn up in the top drawer of her bureau? Tanya steps back. WILL (cont'd) Why her boyfriend's hand was clamped on your ass at her funeral? He grabs her by the arm. Jerks it up. She CRIES out. Will leans in. WILL (cont'd) You like games, little girl? Well how about this one - you're standing right where her naked body was found wrapped up in a garbage bag. Tanya's eyes grow wide. She looks around her. Disgusting, rotten. A SEAGULL pecking at the body of a dead bird. She tries to break away... TANYA No... WILL Who was Kay seeing besides Randy Stetz? Tanya looks away. WILL (cont'd) Who gave her those dresses? She struggles more. No good. Will's grip is like a vice. WILL (cont'd) I need a name. TANYA I don't know. WILL You don't know. TANYA She wouldn't tell me! WILL But you were such good friends... Tanya, squirming. Angry. TANYA It was like some big fucking secret! WILL What was? TANYA She kept saying she was gonna get out of here. Leave us all behind. That he was going to take her! WILL Who? TANYA My arm! WILL Who? TANYA She used some stupid code name. WILL What was it? TANYA Brody...I don't know... (crying) ...Something Brody! Will straightens. He's heard that name before. Suddenly Tanya jams her heel into his shoe. He CRIES out. She breaks away from him. Runs up the hill. Turns. Tears streaking her face. Throws the carnation to the ground. TANYA (cont'd) You happy now, you fucking bastard? INT. BOOKSTORE - NIGHTMUTE - DAY CLOSE ON a FINGER. Running along a row of book spines. Brundt...Buckley...Buss...Buckham...Byrie... PULL BACK to reveal will in Nightmute's small bookstore. Still in his funeral clothes. In the "Mystery!" section. Not finding what he wants. Then, something catches his eye: A BARGAIN BIN at the end of the aisle. Will limps down to it. Avoides eye-contact with a YOUNG WOMAN shelving "New Arrivals!" Reaches into the bin. Rummages through some paperbacks. Then he finds it: Otherwise Engaged by Walter Byrd. Underneath the title, he finds what he's looking for: Another J. Brody Mystery. Flips to the inside of the cover. A BLURRY PICTURE of Walter Byrd. Head turned to the side. Walter Byrd was born in Watson Lake, Canada. He graduated... Will's eyes skip down to the bottom: Mr. Byrd currently lives in Umkumiut, Alaska, with his two labrador retrievers, Lucy and Desi. Will looks up. Slaps the book closed. INT./EXT. CHEROKEE - ROAD - DAY Will drives, sipping take-out coffee. Trying to fight the stinging in his eyes. Passes a sign: Umkumiut, 30 miles. EXT. TESORO ALASKA GAS STATION - UMKUMIUT - DAY Will stands in a phone booth at the gas station. Flips through the phone book. His finger tracing down the "B"s. Finds it: Walter Byrd, 451 S. Diamond Tooth, Apt. B. EXT. DIAMOND TOOTH ROAD - UMKUMIUT - DAY Sky's become overcast. Will stands across the street from a pale blue building. On the ground floor, a tackle store. Above, looks like several apartment units. He starts across. INT. HALLWAY - APARTMENTS - DAY Will heads down a narrow hallway. Tiled floor. Passes door "A." Stops at the next one, "B." Knocks. Hears nothing but the muted tv from apartment "A." Pulls out his gloves. INT. WALTER BYRD'S APARTMENT - DAY With a CLICK the door swings open. Will, gloves on, pockets his credit card. Hears the CHING CHING of dog collars as TWO LABRADOR RETRIEVERS stand at attention, GROWLING. Will's prepared. Takes a bag of treats from his pocket. WILL Lucy. Desi. The dogs break. Trot over to him. Wolf down the treats. Will scans the place. Small, cheap. Matching sofa and easy chair, corduroy upholstery. The walls, lined with old 1950s movie posters. All second-rate detective movies: "Another Shot in the Dark," "Lady Luck," "He wore a Black Hat." Will walks across the room. Repulsed. The pathetic hovel of a killer. Looks into the BEDROOM Single bed. Books and magazines. A half-eaten tuna sandwich on the bedside table. "NYPD BLUE" calendar on the wall. It's quiet. He walks over to a large DESK by the window. Scattered papers. Computer. Mini cassette recorder. On the wall, hundreds of newspaper articles. Some yellowing, some fresh. All about cops: "Officer Louis Saved My Life!" "Shoot-out in Soho," "South Street Cop Takes Down Drug Ring," "Seattle Cop Killed by Suspect..." Will curls his lip. Starts looking through the papers on the desk. Underneath a stack, he finds an 8x10 PHOTOGRAPH. It's of Byrd, standing in front of a big, lakeside HOUSE. A RADIO TOWER in the background. Walter Byrd's face is blurred, turned to the side. The photo from the book bio. Will takes it. Starts roughly opening drawers. A box of animal crackers, a rubber band ball. Then, shoved in the back of the top drawer, an APPOINTMENT BOOK. Will flips through to today's date. Blank. Shoves the book into his pocket. Slams the door closed. Then reaches back for his Smith 39/13. Checks the magazine. Slaps it back in place. He's ready. SUDDENLY the phone RINGS. A beige rotary on the desk. Plugged into an ancient answering machine. It RINGS again. The answering machine WHIRS. Then BEEPS. WALTER'S VOICE Now you're mad at me. Will freezes. WALTER'S VOICE (cont'd) ...I spotted your car around the corner. You must have been in a hurry. Put some pieces together. Don't worry, I would have done the same thing... Will turns back to the window. Looking furiously... WALTER'S VOICE (cont'd) Anyway... (blows nose) ...I'm not coming home. So you shouldn't wait there all day. I mean, they'll wonder about you at the station. You should be careful about following procedure, Will, especially now that... Will lunges for the phone. Snatches it up just as CLICK! the tape cuts off. WILL Goddammit! Enraged, he PUNCHES the receiver through the wall. INT. HALLWAY - APARTMENTS - DAY Will exits the apartment. Cradling his hand. Looks down at the tile floor. Scanning it for a broken tile. Finds one. Bends down and plucks out a broken corner. Places it carefully where the bottom of the door meets the door jamb. Just then. His BEEPER goes off. INT. BULLPEN - NIGHTMUTE PD - DAY Will strides into the bullpen. Wounded hand in pocket. Ellie hunts and pecks at a typewriter. Glances up. Fred, over in the corner. SLAMS a drawer in the filing cabinet. Turns. FRED Forget your pager? WILL What? FRED I beeped you over two hours ago. Holds out a one-page report. FRED (cont'd) Got a fax from the lab. Murder weapon was a 357 Ruger. Will takes the report. Heads over to the coffee machine. WILL Good. FRED And something else that might interest you. He reaches into his desk drawer and pulls out a book. Holds it up. Otherwise Engaged. In hardback. FRED (cont'd) Remember this? Will blinks. WILL No. FRED One of the paperbacks we found in Kay Connell's knapsack. Will pours himself a cup of coffee. Trying to keep the stream steady. Ellie continues typing...CLACK...CLACK... WILL That's right. FRED Mrs. Connell found this copy in the house. (opens it up) It's signed. Personally. WILL So? FRED This is a local writer. Kay had all his books. I think we should check it out. CLACK...CLACK...CLACK...Will rubs his chin. Looks back at the report. Judicious. WILL I don't think it'll lead anywhere. The CLACKING stops. SILENCE. Will turns around. Ellie's staring right at him - that isn't like him. He turns back to Fred. Beat. WILL (cont'd) Well. If he's local. Give him a call. The CLACKING resumes. INT. STAIRWAY - DIAMOND TOOTH ROAD - UMKUMIUT - LATE NIGHT A dark stairway. Late at night. Will, bathed in shadows. Climbs to the top. Quietly, carefully. He heads down a hallway. We recognise it. Back where Walter Byrd lives. Will approaches apartment "B." Slowly pulls out his weapon. Cocks it. Waits a beat then swings out in front of the door. Ready to fight. Ready to confront. Looks down... Tile corner's still there. INT./EXT. CHEROKEE - UMKUMIUT - NEXT DAY CLOSE ON Walter Byrd's APPOINTMENT BOOK laying open. Scrawled in pencil: 8:30. Dr. Agee. PULL BACK to reveal Will sitting in the parked Cherokee. The appointment book on the passenger seat. Been there all night. Insomnia. Taking its toll. His hair, no longer neatly combed. His face, pale and unshaven. His eyes, dragged open from fatigue. Looks like the whole world's pulling him down. Staring down the street at a BRICK BUILDING on the corner. A placard by the front door: Dr. Florence Agee, D.D.S. Will checks his watch. Rubs his eyes with the heels of his hands. Suddenly. Something tells him to look up. A MAN in the distance, walking along the road. Towards Dr. Agee's. He's in his forties. Short, shoulders sloped. Wears a beige, zip-up windbreaker, khakis, brown desert boots. WALTER BYRD has a bulky hearing aid in one ear. Is looking down at the road. Glances up. LOCKS EYES WITH WILL Byrd, slows his pace. Will, reaches for the door handle. SUDDENLY Byrd turns in the other direction, starts walking fast. Will leaps out of the Cherokee and heads after him. WALTER BYRD his short legs pumping, spots a TOUR BUS across the road. Veers over to it. WILL a runner's stride. Weaves through PEOPLE. Closing in on Byrd. Sees his plan. Cuts across the road just as... A PICK-UP rounds the corner. THUMP! Broadsides him. Will's pitched up and over the hood. Falls hard on the tarmac. Dazed for a second. Blood, gushing from his forehead. Hears the PICK-UP DOOR open...FEET running over to him. WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Are you alright? You popped out from nowhere! More FEET running over. MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) He okay? Will opens his eyes. Trying to focus. Looks up and sees, in the distance...WALTER BYRD getting on the tour bus. Will struggles to his feet. The OLD LADY who hit him, wearing overalls. Reaches out. OLD LADY I don't think you should move. Will stands, wavering. Flashes her his badge. INT./EXT. PICK-UP The old lady rips along in the truck. Will sits in the passenger seat, a handkerchief to his forehead. It's soaked with blood. The lady looks over. OLD LADY You sure you're okay? WILL I'm fine. OLD LADY Careful not to bleed on my interior. Will looks over at her. Shifts in his seat. Ouch. Feels like a couple cracked ribs. Peers out the windshield at the TOUR BUS a few cars ahead of them. EXT. WINDY ROAD - CONTINUOUS AERIAL VIEW of the pick-up tailing the tour bus. A windy coastal road. Beyond it, a blanket of endless evergreens. EXT. FERRY STATION - OUTSIDE UMKUMIUT - DAY A FERRY at the end of the pier. A small wooden booth for selling tickets. Beautiful, sweeping snow-capped mountains on the other side of the bay. Nothing else for miles around. The pick-up pulls up next to the bus and a couple other cars. Will jumps out. Scans the area for Byrd. Nothing. Then, sees the last few PEOPLE boarding the ferry. INT. FERRY - MINUTES LATER Ferry's getting pitched around in the roiling water. Most everyone is inside. TOURISTS with throw-away cameras, backpacks, anoraks, CHILDREN. Some looking sea-sick in the corner. Will weaves through the crowd. Eyes darting, searching. The ferry lurches to one side, the crowd sways, Will spots WALTER BYRD standing by a window. INT. WINDOW - FERRY Walter holds on to the railing. Looking at the view, the sea spray. Will comes up. Stands next to him. Cognizant of the people around them. WILL Walter Byrd. Walter continues looking out the window. That same stuffed- nose voice. WALTER When I was seven my mother and grandmother took me to Vancouver. We were walking along the street one day when these two men ran past and snatched my grandmother's purse right from under her arm. Right from under her arm. That night a police officer came to our hotel room to ask us questions. Stood the whole time. The ferry pitches again. Will grabs on to the railing. Looking down at this little man. Hate in his eyes. WALTER (cont'd) His uniform looked brand new. His shoes and badge were polished, his billy club, his belt buckle. All perfect. He was like a soldier, but better. Walter reaches up to blow his nose. Will's eyes look on in disgust - his knuckles are still red and swollen. From beating Kay Connell to death. WALTER (cont'd) Made a huge impression on me. His goodness. Gave me an instant respect for the police. I tried to become a cop when I left high school, but... He points to his hearing-aid. WALTER (cont'd) Congenital problem. The ferry's engine HUMS to a stop. Walter smiles. WALTER (cont'd) Oh. We're here. EXT. GENDREAU GLACIER - DAY Gendreau Glacier. Spilling down between two huge mountains. Enormous in its whiteness, its coldness, its silent power. Will and Walter walk up its face, away from the other tourists. Walter leads the way. Hands in his pockets. WALTER You know this glacier moves a quarter of an inch every day? He points off to the horizon. WALTER (cont'd) And on a clear day you can see all the way over to Newtok. There's a beautiful aviary over there. We can go sometime. Will's lip curls. Watching him. WALTER (cont'd) It's actually cool for this time of year. Normally the temperature runs about... SUDDENLY Will lunges at him. Walter's eyes widen in surprise as he grabs him up by the collar. Nose to nose. Will barely keeping control. WILL You think this is a nice meeting we're having here? Friendly? Two people getting acquainted? (jerks him harder) You sick, coward, fuck. I get up every morning of my life just to bring someone like you down. Beating a seventeen year- old girl to death. Washing her afterwards, cleaning her. Make you feel like a real man? (tightens his grip) Huh? Walter flounders. WILL (cont'd) I outta end this right now. Take a rock and smash your fucking skull in... His jaws tense, nostrils flare. Walter, red-faced, sputtering... WALTER I stood right behind you...I saw you look right into his eyes and shoot him... Will clenches his teeth. WALTER (cont'd) ...Seattle's great hero. Shooting his own partner. I saw it all... WILL That was an accident! You hear me? I didn't know it was him! (shakes him hard) I didn't know it was him! Just then a SHRIEK. Will looks over A COUPLE KIDS. Further down the glacier. Having a snowball fight. Will looks back at Walter. Has to take it easy. Shoves him away in disgust. Walter falls down onto the snow. Dislodges his hearing aid. Watches Will pace. Head throbbing. Ribs, screaming in pain. WALTER Then why lie about it? Walter brushes the snow off the dislodged hearing aid. Puts it back around his ear. WALTER (cont'd) I mean, I'm all for bending the truth. That's what I do in my novels. It's my trade you might say. But why cover it up? Gets up. Brushes the snow from his butt. Checks something in his pocket. WALTER (cont'd) You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I'm sure you have some reason. Something noble. I have faith in that. Looks down at the kids. Shakes his head. WALTER (cont'd) They should be bundled up better. WILL What's your game, Byrd? Walter turns back to him. WALTER No game. WILL The phone call. The knapsack. Walter shrugs. WALTER I figured we're partners on this one. I mean, after what I saw... Will stops short. Eyes burning. It's all he can do not to throttle this weed. WILL Let's get one thing straight, Byrd. We are partners on nothing. Walter looks at him. Scratches his head. WALTER I research my novels. I know the procedures. You'd have cuffed me back at the ferry. You'd have called for back- up, read me my rights, and gotten a search warrant for my apartment. You're a well-respected detective. There's no reason for you to be talking to me right now... He takes out a handkerchief. Blows his nose. WALTER (cont'd) ...except that we could help each other. Will stares at him. WALTER (cont'd) So. We're at an impasse. Will runs his hands through his hair. Half-crazed. Heart pounding. Turns to watch... THE KIDS down the glacier. Making angels in the snow. Their GIGGLES carried along by the wind. Will, squeezes his eyes shut. Trapped. About to defy every instinct in his body. WILL (sotto) You're going to get a phone call. Walter steps up, tapping his hearing aid. WALTER I'm sorry? WILL I said you're going to get a phone call. WALTER (perks up) Oh? WILL Kay Connell had a signed copy of one of your books. WALTER Thought you might find that. WILL You're going to be brought in for questioning. Walter smiles. Pleased. WALTER Down at the station? WILL (hisses) Yes down at the station. Walter rubs his hands together. Thinking. WALTER Okay. Okay. Brought in for questioning. Good. I can write this. JUST THEN the ferry blows its HORN. Low and loud. Walter looks down at it. WALTER (cont'd) Ferry's leaving. He starts down. Will watches him pass, has no choice but to follow. Walter, going over the details in his head. WALTER (cont'd) Something to divert... Snaps his fingers. An idea. WALTER (cont'd) My gun. You still have my gun, right? Will nods. Walter smiles. Spreads out his hands. WALTER (cont'd) Then that's the wild card. Every detective story has a wild card. WILL What do you mean, "wild card?" TOURISTS. Boarding the ferry. WALTER Next ferry's in forty-five minutes. Walter heads over to the ramp. Will stops, grabbing his side. A PANG through his ribs. Excruciating. Calls out to Walter. WILL What do you mean "wild card?" Walter looks back. Waves. WALTER You'll know. At the questioning. Gives his ticket to the TICKET TAKER. Gets on. Walks back to the stern. Looks out at Will. The HORN sounds again. Walter, at the rail. Smiles. The ferry's engine, churning up water. Starting forward just as... Walter takes a MINI CASSETTE RECORDER from his pocket. Holds it up for Will to see. Will, on shore, sees it. A cold flash ripping through his body. That motherfucker. Bolts through some tourists towards the ramp but... A couple of GUYS are just pulling it in. The Ticket Taker, grabs his arm. TICKET TAKER (to Will) Full up. Will, jerks his arm away. Stares off at the ferry. Walter Byrd and his tape recorder. Receding into the distance. INT. CONVENIENCE STORE - NIGHTMUTE - DAY CLOSE ON a counter top. Stuff thrown down. Aspirin. Band- aids. Gauze. Medical tape. First aid cream. Back pills. Sleeping pills. Bottle of scotch. PULL BACK to reveal Will standing at the counter in the convenience store. His entire body aching. The CASHIER, throws him a look. WILL I have a cold. EXT. CONVENIENCE STORE - MINUTES LATER Will exits the store. A bag under his arm. We Miss You, Kay looming over his shoulder. Steps out onto the sidewalk and sees... ELLIE leaning against her truck. Waiting for him. Smiles. ELLIE Which way are you walking? A tingle, all across Will's body. Christ. This girl's everywhere! He hunches into his coat. Flicks up his collar. Doesn't want her to see him fully. Nods down the road. WILL Back to the Lodge. Ellie grabs her bag. Joins him. They start walking. ELLIE I needed to get your signature on something. She pulls a folder from her bag. ELLIE (cont'd) The report on Detective Eckhart. Chief made me finish it this morning. Said it was taking too long. Will takes the file. Flips it open. The death of his partner. Neatly typed. Neatly stapled. Pulls out a pen. ELLIE (cont'd) Aren't you going to read it? WILL I trust you. He signs. Hands it back to her. She slips it into her bag. ELLIE (cont'd) Now I can help you with the Connell case. That writer's coming in tomorrow. Walter Byrd. A slight stutter in Will's step. WILL Duggar called him? ELLIE About an hour ago. Said he was more than happy to cooperate. Ellie looks over at Will as they cross the street. Studying his face. His gait. Noticing the slight limp in his right leg. The cut on his forehead. ELLIE (cont'd) You haven't been sleeping much, have you, Detective Dormer? They arrive at the stone steps of the Pioneer Lodge. WILL Not really. ELLIE Isn't that the difference between a good cop and a bad cop? A good cop can't sleep 'cause a piece of the puzzle's missing. A bad cop can't sleep 'cause his conscience won't let him. (smiles) You said that once, remember? Will, finally looks at her. WILL No. But it sounds like something I would've said. Turns and starts up the steps. WILL (cont'd) See you tomorrow, Ellie. Ellie, watches him for a second. Then calls out. ELLIE Oh! I forgot to tell you. The Puffins won. Will stops, turns to look back at her. Confused. ELLIE (cont'd) The baseball game. Our team... Slings the bag over her shoulder. ELLIE (cont'd) ...We won. INT. WILL'S ROOM - PIONEER LODGE - LATE NIGHT Clock flicks to 3:00 A.M. Will, pacing in his room. Shirt off. Rib cage wrapped in a bandage. Looking through... A STACK OF MESSAGES. All from John Warfield. He discards them one by one. Can barely focus... SUDDENLY the phone RINGS. He lunges for it. WILL (grabbing it) Listen to me, you son-of-a-bitch... Interrupted by a CLICK... RECORDED VOICE ...I saw you look right into his eyes and shoot him... Walter Byrd's voice. Recorded from that afternoon. RECORDED VOICE (cont'd) ...Seattle's great hero. Shooting his own partner. I saw it all... Will, hears his own voice... RECORDED VOICE (cont'd) That was an accident!... WILL Goddammit, Byrd! Then, another clumsy CLICK. Walter Byrd gets on. WALTER You'd have done the same thing, Will. I know you would... He hangs up. Will SLAMS down the receiver. Then again. And again. Yanks the cord out of the wall and HURLS the phone across the room. EXT. ROCKY BEACH - OUTSIDE NIGHTMUTE - MORNING ...The DARK FIGURE. Disappearing back into the fog. Closing in around him like milky water... We whip out our SMITH 39/13...plunge in after him...taking chase...BREATHING hard...leaping from rock to rock...the FOG, blanket thick...tightening around us... Our feet. Hit water. Up to our ankles. Icy cold. We run...sloshing through...when... SUDDENLY A DARK FIGURE. Appears ahead. Big and hulking...CRASHING towards us... We raise our weapon...quick as a flash...as the FIGURE emerges... And in a split second... WE LOCK EYES WITH FIGURE's - his eyes, brown and gentle... CRACK! We fire! The FIGURE grips his gut, falls into the water. Heart POUNDING. Adrenaline PUMPING. We slosh towards the body. Something...catching our eye... A 357 RUGER lying in the rocks. Off to the side. We grab it. Turn back to the body... And stop cold. That's when it hits us. That's when we realize... INT. WILL'S ROOM - LATE NIGHT Will bolts up. White as a sheet. WILL I didn't know! His body, drenched in sweat. His breathing, quick and ragged. Caught up in the twisted sheets of his bed. Looks across the room and sees HAP sitting in the corner. Eating an apple with a penknife. HAP You sure about that, buddy? He smiles. Sympathetic. Looks over at the window just as... The BLANKET. Drops to the floor. LIGHT floods the room. INT. WILL'S ROOM - 4:02 A.M. With a GRUNT Will puts his back into it. Shoving the heavy oak bureau towards the window. Sweat beading his face. A...few...more...shoves. And the bureau finally stands in front of the window. WIll stands back to take a look. Only covers half of it. WILL Fuck! INT. WILL'S ROOM - 4:35 A.M. Red-faced, Will leans into the wooden armoire. Shimmying it towards the window... CUT TO: EXT. PIONEER LODGE - NIGHT Ellie. Sitting in her truck. Parked behind the Pioneer Lodge. Rubbbing her eyes. Sleepy. Looking up at WILL'S WINDOW concerned. CUT BACK TO: INT. WILL'S ROOM - 4:35 A.M. With one last heave, Will gets the armoire to the window. Light still shining through the cracks. INT. WILL'S ROOM - 4:50 A.M. Will shoving magazines, blankets, sheets, pillows. Anything. To fill the cracks. To cover the light. His eyes. Like a crazy man's... SUDDENLY a knock on the door. Will turns. RACHEL (O.S.) Detective Dormer? INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Rachel standing out in the hallway. Will opens the door. RACHEL (startled by his appearance) Will...I... WILL What is it? RACHEL There's a guy down the hall. Complaining about the noise. (beat) Says he can't sleep. Will gives a half-smile. Fucking irony. Heads back into... INT. WILL'S ROOM - CONTINUOUS ...his room. Rachel follows. Looks around at the mess. RACHEL Are you alright? Will grabs up a sweater. WILL I'm fine. He heads back over to the window. Rachel now notices all the stuff piled up. Softens her voice. RACHEL Did something happen? Will. Cramming the sweater into a crack. WILL No. Rachel walks up behind him. His cramming, more desperate. More urgent. RACHEL Will... He grabs a magazine. WILL The light. It keeps coming in... Rachel reaches out. Catches his arm. RACHEL Will. He stops. Looks down at her hand. RACHEL (cont'd) What happened? Will suddenly realises what he's doing. Absurd. Pathetic. Pitiful. Slowly turns to face Rachel. Her eyes, looking up at him. His shoulders droop. Exhausted. Rachel reaches up. Catches him in her arms. Strong arms. Caring. Will buries his face in her neck. Wants to be swallowed up. Rachel holds him. Arms encircling. Will breathes her in. Sweet, soft, safe. Looks up. His mouth suddenly finding hers. A kiss, hungry, urgent. His arms move to surround her. INT. WILL'S ROOM - LATER Will and Rachel in bed. Spooning. Rachel behind will, her finger tracing his scar. Rain DRUMS against the window. Will. Watching the raindrops streaming down the glass. Casting strange shadows against the wall. WILL There was this guy named Weston Dobbs. Twenty-four. Worked as a part-time stock boy in a copy store. Every morning he'd sit at the only window in his apartment and watch an eight year-old boy get picked up by his carpool across the street. And every afternoon he'd watch the boy get dropped off again. He did this for about six months. Until one day he got up the nerve to cross the street and grab the boy before his carpool came. Kept him in his apartment for three days. Tortured him. Raped him. Made him do things... Will tenses his jaw. Rachel, listens in horror. WILL (cont'd) When he was done, he got a rope and a kitchen stool and hanged the boy in the basement of the apartment building. But he didn't do a good enough job. The little boy's neck didn't break and he died from shock. The landlord found him five days later. Rachel reaches for Will's hand. Squeezes it. RACHEL One of your cases? WILL Me and Hap. A year and a half ago. I knew the second I met Dobbs that he was guilty. Smug, cold. Dead eyes. We had circumstantial evidence, but nothing to tie him to it. Nothing concrete. Went over every inch of that apartment. He pauses. RACHEL What happened? Will turns slowly over to face her. Her hair, splayed out on the pillow. Her cheeks, flushed. Her eyes, listening. WILL We took some blood samples from the boy's body and planted them in his apartment. (beat) Arrested him the next day. Rachel looks at him. Goose pimples on her arms. Realising the weight of the confession. RACHEL Will. WILL There've been other cases. Where we've changed results. Pushed witnesses. Manipulated evidence. (rubs his face) But Dobbs. I wanted Dobbs more than anything. He sits up. Abrupt. Wincing from the pain in his ribs. Rests his arms on his knees. RACHEL What if someone finds out? WILL We're under investigation now. Back in Seattle. (beat) Hap wanted to talk. As soon as we got back. Thought he could work out some kind of deal. Rachel rubs his shoulder. RACHEL Well, that's not going to happen now. Will closes his eyes. The rain, PATTERING. Rhythmic. WILL Do you think it was wrong? What we did? There's a PAUSE. Rachel, studying Will's back. The cuts. The bruises. Not sure how to answer. RACHEL There are two kinds of people in Alaska. Those who were born here and those who've come here to escape something in their lives. (beat) I wasn't born here, Will. I'm in no position to judge anyone. I'm not about that any more. Looks out the window. RACHEL (cont'd) It's all about what you're willing to live with. INT. WILL'S ROOM - MORNING The clock reads 6:00. Will pulls on his trousers. Goes to strap on his Smith 39/13 holster. Grimaces with pain. Looks at his back in the full-length mirror. BLACK BRUISES seeping out from under his bandage. Puts the 39/13 and holster in the top drawer of the bureau. Turns and looks down at Rachel. Sleeping soundly. FRED (O.S.) You were acquainted with the deceased, Kay Connell? INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - CONTINUOUS Will in the interrogation room. Standing by the window. Tensed jaw. WALTER (O.S.) Yes I was. WALTER BYRD sits at the table. Hair combed, wet. Shirt newly starched. A Styrofoam cup of coffee in front of him. Playing the part. Fred sits opposite him. Report file open. Ellie, next to Fred. Taking notes. She's combed her hair, too. FRED In what manner? Walter smiles modestly. Looks over at Ellie. WALTER She was, not quite a "fan." More an avid reader of my detective novels. ELLIE When did you first meet her? Fred shoots Ellie a look. She closes her mouth. WALTER A year ago. At one of my signings. Ellie hands Fred the hardback of Otherwise Engaged. He holds it up. Opened to the signature. FRED Where you signed this? WALTER That's right. FRED What happened at that signing? WALTER She flattered me about my writing. Asked if she could visit me. To talk about my books. FRED Did she? WALTER Yes. Not that much at first. But then she became more comfortable. Started visiting me every week... Will, from over by the window. Interrupts. WILL What was the nature of your relationship? Walter looks over. Wide-eyed. WALTER What do you mean, Detective Dormer? Will turns. Accusatory. WILL She was an attractive girl. Did you have sex with her? Walter blinks. WALTER She was only seventeen. WILL But she was an attractive girl. WALTER I suppose. WILL Did you have sex with her? Fred shoots Will a look. Ellie, watching him. WALTER No. WILL But you wanted to. WALTER I was a mentor to her. Will heads over to Walter's chair. Fists clenched in his pockets. WILL You gave her gifts. WALTER Yes. WILL Expensive dresses. A heart necklace. WALTER Yes. WILL Doesn't sound like a mentor to me. WALTER I gave her things she didn't have. Couldn't have. He turns to Fred and Ellie. WALTER (cont'd) Her family lives on Mr. Connell's disability. It isn't much. Fred stops Will with a look. Had enough. FRED We understand, Mr. Byrd. (to Will) You want to sit down, Detective? Tense BEAT. Will stares at Walter. Revulsion. Heads back over to the window. WALTER She wasn't happy. I was someone to talk to. FRED How do you mean? WALTER That boyfriend. Randy. Fred, sits up. FRED Randy Stetz? WALTER That's right. WILL What about him? WALTER He. Well, he... Walter hesitates. Takes a sip of coffee. WALTER (cont'd) I don't want to talk out of school. Kay told me things in the strictest of confidence. As a friend. FRED Mr. Byrd. Anything you can tell us could help out with this case. Walter furrows his brow. Taps his hearing aid. WALTER Well. He hit her. Ellie's eyes widen. Fred glances at Will. But Will's too busy watching this little man weave his web. FRED Are you sure about that? WALTER She'd come to me, sometimes in the middle of the night. Bruises all over her back, her upper arms. I pled with her to let me call the police, but she wouldn't hear it. Wanted to keep it a secret. ELLIE Randy Stetz beat Kay Connell? FRED (angry) Ellie. Walter looks right at her. WALTER He has a terrible rage. Kay even said he carried a handgun around with him. Fred stands. This is big. Calls out the door. FRED Margaret! Get Judge Biggs on the phone! (to Will) I'll get another warrant for Stetz's place. Walter takes a sip of his coffee. Cup's empty. Holds it out to Ellie. Smiles. WALTER Could I have some more coffee, Detective Burr? Ellie nods, takes the cup. Heads over to the coffee machine. Fred turns back to the door... AND AT THAT MOMENT Walter levels a look right at Will. Mouths the words Wild Card. A shiver down Will's spine. Wild card. The gun. Randy. ELLIE over at the coffee machine. Pouring coffee. Glances up at the window. Catches the reflection of the two men. An intense look between them. EXT. ROCKY BEACH - OUTSIDE NIGHTMUTE - DAY CLOSE ON a BOOT. Jumping down onto a black rock. PULL BACK to reveal Ellie walking out on the beach. Heading down towards the water. Thinking. INT. RANDY STETZ'S ROOM - NIGHTMUTE - DAY A dark, narrow boarding room. A HAND reaches through an open window. Feels for the lock on the door. CLICK. Will enters Randy Stetz's place. Cigarette butts, electric guitar, Hustler centerfolds tacked on the walls. He looks around. Every inch of him revolting against what he's about to do. EXT. ROCKY BEACH - CONTINUOUS The sound of waves. A slight breeze. Ellie walking along the water. Looking down. Brow furrowed. Stops and puts her hands on her hips. INT. RANDY STETZ'S ROOM - CONTINUOUS Will heads over to a hanging sheet on the other side of the room. Pulls it aside. A MOTORBIKE being repaired. Parts and tools all over the place. Pulls the 357 Ruger from his pocket with a handkerchief. Spots a COFFEE CAN on a shelf. Filled with thick oil. EXT. ROCKY BEACH - CONTINUOUS Something catches Ellie's eye. GLINTING from between the rocks. She bends down. Pulls a pencil from her backpack. Spears something and holds it up. A SHELL CASING. INT. RANDY STETZ'S ROOM - CONTINUOUS Will, drops the 357 into the oil. Turns and heads back across the room. Hesitates. At the door. Turns back. Looking at the oil can. Takes a step back towards it when he hears... The sound of a SQUAD CAR. Pulling up outside. Too late. EXT. RANDY STETZ'S ROOM - LATER Will stands just outside the doorway into Randy's room. UNIFORMED OFFICERS inside searching the place. Tearing down pictures. Turning out doors. Ripping up carpet. Randy's voice. In protest. RANDY (O.S.) You can't fucking do this! Will hears some SCUFFLING. The sheet being pulled down. The CLATTER of tools. RANDY (O.S.) Hey! I'm working on that! Parts pulled off the shelves. The bike, shoved to the side. Then. A SILENCE. Followed by... OFFICER (O.S.) Found something. Will shuts his eyes. Heavy FOOTSTEPS head over to the bike. Someone's pulled the gun from the can. RANDY (O.S.) What the fuck is that! Fred's voice, calm. FRED (O.S.) That's it. Let's bag it. More FOOTSTEPS. Randy, desperate. RANDY (O.S.) That's not mine, man! That's not mine! Will opens his eyes. Fred's voice. Almost sympathetic. FRED (O.S.) Randy... RANDY (O.S.) No way, man! More SCUFFLING. A chair knocked over. Something SMASHES. Will looks down at the floor as FRED AND A UNIFORMED COP struggle to drag Randy through the doorway. Randy writhes, kicks, tugs. Screams. RANDY (cont'd) That ain't mine! Fred grabs Randy's shoulder. FRED C'mon, Randy. Randy squirms. Turns. Looks right into Will's eyes. Gone is the bluster. Gone is the attitude. Randy Stetz, lost kid. Tears streaming down his face. RANDY I swear to God. I didn't kill her. I swear to God... EXT. GARAGE APARTMENT - DAY Will stands outside the garage apartment. Wind whipping his coat. Watches as a Nightmute PD SQUAD CAR pulls off with Randy Stetz in the back. Fred sees him, heads over. FRED You look like shit, cowboy. Will shifts his eyes to him. WILL That's an understatement. Fred half-smiles. Watches the receding squad car. FRED Looks like we can wrap this one up. Will barely nods. Fred pulls his baseball cap on. FRED (cont'd) We're getting together for a couple of beers later on. Might not be the Seattle thing to do. But you're welcome to come. Fred puts out his hand to shake. Truce. Will looks at him. Takes it. INT. SHANTY BAR - NIGHTMUTE - NIGHT CLOSE ON a tray of dark beer. Five glasses, foam sloshing. FARRELL (O.S.) I can't believe it. Randy Stetz. PULL BACK to reveal Farrell, Rich, Francis, and Will sitting at a small, round table. Fred's passing out the beers. Dive bar. MUSIC blaring. 3 a.m. Happy Hour! banner on the wall. Place packed with rough-looking FISHERMEN. Rich takes a glass from Fred. RICH What do you mean, you can't believe it? FRANCIS He was an asshole. FARRELL That doesn't mean anything. Fred sits. Takes a sip of his beer. To Farrell. FRED Didn't you grow up with him? Farrell shifts in his seat. FARRELL Our dads were on the same boat. (to Will) We used to wait for them together. Will nods. Jostled by the crowd. Reaches for his beer. FRANCIS He used to pick fights at the gas station. RICH And remember when he did all those donut holes that one summer? He and Francis GUFFAW. FRED Just a bad seed. Farrell looks over at Will. FARRELL How do you like our beer? Will slams down his empty glass. Squeezes his eyes open and shut. Loud music. Cigarette smoke. WILL I like it fine. Fred pats Will's shoulder. FRED What Detective Dormer needs is a little shut-eye. RICH The white nights been hard on you? WILL They haven't been easy. Francis grabs a handful of peanuts. FRANCIS They don't have titanium shades over at the Pioneer. RICH Well no wonder. FRANCIS You lose all sense of time. FARRELL Better than Fred's home town. Will turns to Fred. Wiping the foam from his moustache. FRED My people are from Barrow. Way up north. RICH In the winter there's no sunlight for five straight months. FRED Like being swallowed up in a black hole. JUST THEN. ELLIE (O.S.) Hi, guys. They look up. Ellie standing by their table. Jeans, down vest. Hair tousled. FRED Nancy Drew! Pull up a seat! FRANCIS You hear what happened, Ellie? ELLIE Yeah. RICH Pretty cool. FARRELL Rich found the gun. ELLIE I know. I heard. Fred leans back in his seat. Eyeballs Ellie. FRED Something's on Nancy's mind. Ellie reaches into her vest pocket. Pulls out a Ziploc with the SHELL CASING inside. ELLIE I found this out on the beach. FARRELL What is it? ELLIE Shell casing. 9mm. Will, blanches. FRANCIS Let it go, Ell. We got the bad guy. ELLIE None of us carries a 9mm duty weapon. And the murder weapon was a 357. Rich throws peanut shells at her. RICH Get a hobby, will ya? Ellie brushes off the shells. Looks right at Will. ELLIE It's a legitimate point, isn't it, Detective Dormer? Everyone turns to Will. Their faces, spinning. He nods. WILL It's legitimate. ELLIE Worth pursuing? He looks up. Holds her gaze. Then turns away. Grabs the side of the table. WILL The case is closed, Ellie. (gets up) I got the next round. The guys don't protest. Will starts heading for the bar. Weaving through broad shoulders, massive backs. Smoke. MUSIC. Laughter. Arguing. A mass of bodies and sound. Like being swallowed up in a black hole... Looks back at the table. Ellie, watching him. EXT. ELLIE'S HOUSE - NIGHT Ellie's truck pulls up in front of a small house. She jumps out. INT. FRONT HALLWAY - HOUSE - NIGHT SLAM! Ellie heads through the front door like a gust of wind. Thunders up the stairs. Calls out. ELLIE Me, Pop! We hear the TV in the other room. An older MAN, Ellie's father, appears in the doorway. Thick glasses, grey stubble, big paunch. Wearing a flannel robe. ELLIE'S DAD Ellie? You okay? Ellie appears at the top of the stairs. ELLIE Where's all my academy stuff? INT. BASEMENT Pitch black, then, CLICK! as a bare lightbulb's switched on. Ellie stands beneath it. Piles of crap everywhere. She steps through the quagmire of old bikes, fans, auto parts. Over to a stack of cardboard BOXES in the corner. She nudges through them, reading the writing on the tops. In thick black pen. Shoves a couple aside. Then. Finds what she's looking for. Pulls down a box marked: Ellie Acad. Tears it open. INSIDE - piles of papers, polaroids of her and her FRIENDS, schedules, syllabi, handbooks. Stuff from her Academy year. At the bottom, a report. The title: "Securing the Crime Scene," the Leland Street Murders. By Eleanor P. Burr. Ellie pulls it out. Sits down on an old stool. Opens to the middle of the report. Her finger, tracing down the typewritten page. Flips to the next page. Then the next. The next. Then. She spots it. THREE-QUARTERS DOWN THE PAGE, her finger finds the sentence:...Detective Dormer's unregistered Smith and Wesson model 39/13 9mm, to immobilize Langley... Ellie looks up. Chews her bottom lip. EXT. MARINERS MEMORIAL - OUTSIDE NIGHTMUTE - DAY CLOSE ON a huge wave CRASHING against a retaining wall. Spray flying. PULL BACK to reveal a small monument by the sea. A stone cupola with a bronze statue underneath. The sky, black with clouds. INT. MARINER'S MEMORIAL - CONTINUOUS Walter Byrd waits under the Mariner's Memorial. Wind whipping his jacket, the green sea churning behind him. Next to a fifteen-foot statue of a SEAMAN, tall, rugged, tough. Holding on to a thick coil of rope. Hunches against the wind. Watches as... WILL approaches the monument. Sonics sweatshirt, wrinkled coat. Face drawn and haggard. Angry. WALTER (smiles) Hi, Will... Will enters the monument. WILL What the hell are you doing calling me at the station? A gust of wind WHORLS through the monument. WALTER I figured we should touch base. Compare notes. I think it went well. What did you think? Will's eyes pierce into him. WILL Randy Stetz is in jail. WALTER Told you I could write an ending. WILL Congratulations. Will holds out his hand. WILL (cont'd) The tape. Walter looks at the open hand. Hugs his jacket to him. WALTER I thought maybe we could talk some more. WILL There's nothing more to talk about. WALTER But we work so well together... Will breaks. Rushes Walter. Slams him against one of the concrete pilasters. WILL We do nothing well together. (SLAMS him again) Nothing! You understand me? Another wave CRASHES. Sprays them. Walter looks up into Will's bloodshot eyes. WALTER You run on two settings, Will. I've noticed that... Will tightens his grip. WALTER (cont'd) You jump from calm to rage in the blink of an eye. That's okay. I do that too. He holds up the tape. Will grabs it, shoves Walter to the side. Yanks the tape out of the cassette. Steps back and HURLS it into the sea. Waves engulf it hungrily. Walter watches him. WALTER (cont'd) You're not sleeping, are you? WILL What the hell do you know? WALTER Kay told me. She comes to me, you know. Tells me things. About you. About me. PAUSE. WALTER (cont'd) Does Detective Eckhart come to you? Will curls his fists. WALTER (cont'd) Does he ask you why you shot him? Whips around... WILL I told you that was an accident! WALTER Then so was mine... WILL Don't you pull that shit with me. WALTER I didn't want to kill her, Will. Steps closer to him. Beseeching. WALTER (cont'd) When she called me that night from the party, she'd had a fight with Randy. Wanted to talk. I told her to meet me at our special place. The cabin at the beach... A couple RAVENS alight nearby. Flapping their wings. SCREECHING into the wind. WALTER (cont'd) ...When she came she was barefoot. And there was liquor on her breath. I only wanted to comfort her. To touch her. She could have at least let me do that. Her skin...it was like everything I'd ever written about. A dark shadow crosses his face. Holds on to the coiled rope of the statue. Will hisses. WILL Couldn't get it up, Walter? WALTER It was when I went to kiss her. She started laughing. I got angry. After all I'd given her. All I'd shared with her. I just wanted to make her stop. That's all. Walter. Squeezing the bronze rope. WALTER (cont'd) From calm to rage in the blink of an eye. Locks eyes with Will. Conspiratorial. WALTER (cont'd) Remember? WILL'S HAND shoots out. Clamps around Walter's neck. WILL Like this? Walter's face, starts turning red. WALTER Yes. Like that. WILL This an accident, Walter? WALTER If you want it to be... Will looks deep into Walter's eyes. Squeezing harder. Pure hatred. WILL It took ten minutes to beat Kay Connell to death. Ten minutes. Their eyes, locked. Veins, popping along Walter's temples. Lip quivering... JUST THEN a BELL sounds in the distance. Will looks up. A LINE OF FISHING BOATS coming back in. Will, looks back at Walter. Throws him to the ground. Sickened. WILL (cont'd) Get the fuck out of town, Byrd. Leave and never come back. Walter COUGHS. Holding his neck. Enjoying this. WALTER I have a summer house up by Kgun Lake. I'm going to write my next novel there. It's about a famous detective who goes bad. Will shoots him a look. WALTER (cont'd) Just kidding. He pulls himself to his feet. A little unsteady. Takes out a handkerchief. Dabs his forehead. WALTER (cont'd) The never coming back part, though. I'm not sure. To tell you the truth this has been kind of fun. Going to the station, meeting all those nice people. Talking with you. He shrugs. Walks past Will. WALTER (cont'd) I might miss it. Will turns. Watches him walk away. Walter hesitates. Turns back. WALTER (cont'd) I especially like that new detective. Will looks at him. Back straightening. WALTER (cont'd) Detective Burr. (smiles) I liked her very much. Has a real vitality. Will's stomach jumps. Walter turns back. Continues on. The little man in a beige windbreaker. INT. CHIEF CHARLES NYBACK'S OFFICE - NIGHTMUTE PD - DAY CLOSE ON a HAND. Signing the bottom of a form. CHIEF NYBACK (O.S.) I was hoping not to send you back with so much paperwork, Will. PULL BACK to reveal Chief Nyback sitting at his desk. Will stands before him. Signing papers. A bottle of bourbon on the desk. Some paper cups half filled. CHIEF NYBACK (cont'd) When are you taking off? Will checks his watch. WILL Six-thirty. Fred, standing over by the filing cabinet. Toothpick in his mouth. FRED If Spencer's not too drunk to fly. Nyback chuckles. CHIEF NYBACK Can't talk you into staying for a couple of days? Do some fishing? Show you what normally goes on around here. Will shakes his head. WILL I have to get back. CHIEF NYBACK Too bad... Looks over at Fred picking his teeth. CHIEF NYBACK (cont'd) ...Brought some real class to the place. But, Seattle needs its hero back. (stands) Couldn't have done it without you, Will. Will caps the pen. Uncomfortable. Nods towards Fred. WILL Had a lot of help from Nightmute's finest. JUST THEN the door swings open. They look over as ELLIE hurries in. She smiles. Looks tired. ELLIE Didn't want to miss anything. CHIEF NYBACK Detective Dormer's not leaving for a few hours. ELLIE Good. CHIEF NYBACK Maybe you could drive him to Spencer's. ELLIE Sure. An awkward beat. Ellie walks over to Will. Looks up. Suddenly throws her arms around him. ELLIE (cont'd) I thought what you did on this case was amazing. Will holds his hands out. Not sure what to do. Looks down at the top of Ellie's head. ELLIE'S HAND slips down his back. Feeling for a holster. For that 39/13. Nothing. She breaks away. ELLIE (cont'd) We're really going to miss you around here. She and Will lock eyes. Hold for a beat. He knows exactly what she was trying to do. INT./EXT. JEEP CHEROKEE - NIGHTMUTE - DAY Will, driving down Nightmute's main street. He takes a left. Goes up a hill. Glances out the window. Passing by THE CEMETERY. A cluster of headstones. Something catches his eye. He stops the car. EXT. CEMETERY - NIGHTMUTE - DAY Will, walking up to the wrought-iron gate surrounding the cemetery. Stops. Puts his hands up to the bars. KAY CONNELL'S GRAVE on the other side. Newly dug. A mound of dirt. Flowers, scattered by the wind. Daughter and Friend...1982-1999. Will. Grips the bars. As if he's seeing it for the first time. Really seeing it. Closes his eyes. What have I done? INT. WILL'S ROOM - PIONEER LODGE - EVENING Will's REFLECTION in the mirror. He's showered. Hair's combed. Put on a clean suit. Steps back. Smooths down his lapels. Just right. Turns to face the room. Bed's made, mess cleaned up. He heads over to the bureau, pulls out his Smith 39/13. Lays it on the bed. Unclips his badge from his belt. Lays it on the bed. Takes something from the bedside table. The BULLET found in Hap Eckhart. Lays it on the bed. All neat. All ordered. Reaches under the mattress. Pulls out the PHOTOGRAPH of a blurry Walter Byrd standing in front of a house. A radio tower in the background. The call numbers: WKOZ. Will studies it. Tears it in half. INT. BACK ROOM - PIONEER LODGE - EVENING Rachel in the back room behind reception. A pullman's kitchen, a desk, an old recliner. Pouring some milk into a bowl for a CAT. A stray. Will walks in. Rachel turns, smiles. RACHEL I found a new friend. Will walks up to her. Puts his arms around her. Holds her, smells her, kisses her neck. Pulls away. Looks into her eyes. RACHEL (cont'd) Will. What is it? He doesn't answer. The cat, rubs against his leg. PURRING. INT./EXT. JEEP CHEROKEE - EVENING Will driving along a forest road. Eyes dead ahead. A map on the passenger seat. By the fold, Kgun Lake circled in pencil. INT. BULLPEN - NIGHTMUTE PD - CONTINUOUS Ellie working at her desk. Looks up at the clock: 6:00. Gets up, grabs her down vest. Heads for the door. Farrell sticks the tip of his crutch in her path. She stumbles. ELLIE Very funny, Farrell... EXT. ROAD TO KGUN LAKE - EVENING AERIAL VIEW of the silver Jeep Cherokee. The only car on the road. The sky, white-grey. The trees, a blanket of green. The Cherokee heads around a hairpin curve. INT. LOBBY - PIONEER LODGE - EVENING Rachel at reception. Reading the paper. Ellie walks in. ELLIE Hi, Rachel. INT./EXT. JEEP CHEROKEE - ROAD TO KGUN LAKE - EVENING Will, scanning the treeline. Takes a left fork then stops. Thought he saw something. Grinds the gear, backs up. Takes another look. IN THE DISTANCE, a radio tower. WKOZ. INT. HALLWAY - OUTSIDE WILL'S ROOM - EVENING Rachel and Ellie, standing outside Will's room. Ellie knocks again. RACHEL I would have seen if he came back. INT. WILL'S ROOM - PIONEER LODGE - EVENING The CLICK of a key and the door opens. Ellie strides in. ELLIE Detective Dormer? She stops. Rachel behind her. Taking in the strange feeling in the room. Walks over to the bed. Eyes riveted on the 39/13. On the bullet. Rachel, behind her. RACHEL What is all this? Ellie, her mind races. Notices TORN PHOTOGRAPH PIECES in the trash can. Reaches in and pulls some out. A puzzle. INT./EXT. JEEP CHEROKEE - LAKE KGUN Will stops the car at the end of a narrow dirt driveway. Looming before him... A HOUSE right on the lake. Tall, wooden, in disrepair. Chipping yellow paint. A ghost of what it once was. The house from the photograph. INT. STUDY - HOUSE The CLANG of electric typewriter keys bang out a title: BLINK OF AN EYE, by Walter By WALTER BYRD hunched at his typewriter. In an old study. Books stacked everywhere. Light patches on the walls where pictures used to hang. BARKING outside. Walter cocks his head. Gets up. Walks over to the window. OUTSIDE. Will walking up to the house. Lucy and Desi jumping around him. INT. LIVING ROOM - SUMMER HOUSE Will opens the screen door with a CREAK. Steps into the living room. Recoils from the smell. Flies BUZZING. Yellow plastic covering the sofas. Boxes, books, papers, pictures piled high everywhere. Wallpaper faded, peeling. Everything, decaying. INT./EXT. ELLIE'S TRUCK - CONTINUOUS Ellie ripping along the forest road in her truck. Gripping the wheel. The photograph pieces, taped together on the passenger seat. INT. SUMMER HOUSE - CONTINUOUS Will heads down a hallway. Dark, narrow, floorboards worn. More shit stacked up. Each step, careful, quiet. Tracking. Listening. A BREEZE sweeps through. The burned-out lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, starts swinging. WALTER (O.S.) Here to visit me? Will whips around. WALTER standing there. At the other end of the hallway. Shoulders slumped. Will shakes his head. WILL No. FLIES, bouncing against the screen door. WILL (cont'd) I'm here to end this. Walter looks around. WALTER Where's your back-up? WILL No back-up. WALTER You're not following procedure. WILL Procedure went out the window a long time ago. Walter looks at him. WALTER We're on the same side, Will. You know that. After what we've been through together. We're partners. Bound by a secret. Will takes a step forward... WILL That's where you're wrong, Walter. Slowly reaches into his jacket... WILL (cont'd) There is no secret. Because the biggest difference between you and me is what we will or will not live with... Pulls out his SMITH AND WESSON. Walter. Looks at the gun. Inches back. WALTER Will... SUDDENLY, darts out of sight. Swings back into the doorway with a SHOTGUN... BAM! Will's shoulder explodes with blood. EXT. DRIVEWAY - SUMMER HOUSE - CONTINUOUS Ellie, jumping out of her truck. Hears the sound. Looks up at the big, yellow house. Pulls out her Glock 40. INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Walter walking down the hall. Will, writhing on the floor, reaches for his back holster...gun's not there! Walter stands over him. Swings his leg back and...CRACK! Kicks will in the ribs. The pain, blinding. Will GASPS. CRACK! again, CRACK! again, CRACK! again. Walter's face. Calm, flushed. A vein along his temple. Will's eyes flutter. Blood, spewing from his lips. A THUD! to his kidneys. Walter stops, out of breath. Hand on hip. WALTER You give the police a bad name, Will. WILL'S HAND suddenly shoots out. Grabs the shotgun barrel. WALTER stumbles back. The shotgun goes off. BAM! Chunks of ceiling rain down. Walter falls to the ground. EXT. SUMMER HOUSE - CONTINUOUS Ellie, heart POUNDING. Kicks the front door open... INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Will, covered in dry wall, struggling to his feet. Reaches for his Smith and Wesson. WALTER'S DESERT BOOT kicks it out of the way. It SKITTERS down the hall. Walter grabs his shotgun. Scrambles to his feet. Runs down to the end of the hall. Ducks into... INT. LIBRARY ...the library. Dirty shelves, strings of dust. Endless books. He races over to a cabinet. Yanks open a DRAWER... INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS Will, on his feet, trying to focus. His suit, soaked with blood. Looking for his gun. Spots it, in the corner... INT. LIBRARY Walter jerks open another drawer. A STACK OF BOOKS teeter on the top of the cabinet. He finds what he needs. SHELLS. Grabs a handful... THE BOOKS tumble down on top of him. He CRIES out, covering his head...touches his ear, panics - hearing aid's gone! Looks up. Will, coming down the hall... INT. HALLWAY Will hobbles into the library. Sweeps the room with this gun. No Walter. Steps on something, crushing it. Looks down. Walter's hearing aid. Kicks it aside. INT. FRONT HALL - CONTINUOUS Ellie. In the front hall. Following procedure. Right hand gripping the gun. Left supporting the butt. Blinks away sweat. Facing three doorways. INT. DINING ROOM Will limps into the dining room. Furniture stacked high. Eyes, darting. Gun, covering. Trying to stay conscious... BANG! The screen door. INT. FRONT HALL - CONTINUOUS Ellie. Gun swinging. Doorway one. Doorway two. Doorway three...SUDDENLY A FIGURE runs past number one. Big. Shadowy. The flash of a GUN. She wheels toward it. Finger on the trigger... SLO-MO...The FIGURE, passing. Her heart, POUNDING. Her finger...squeezing... Will Dormer or Walter Byrd? At the last second, she jerks the gun away. The figure disappears. She swallows. Gripping the gun. Follows. EXT. BACK YARD - SUMMER HOUSE The sky, heavy with clouds. The air, foreboding. Will steals out the screen door. Gun cocked. Eyes scanning. Wind, bending the weeds, the trees. BAM! a shot. Out of nowhere. Rips into his thigh. Will CRIES out. BAM! a second shot. Whizzes past him... INT. LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS ...CRACK! the shot bites into the window frame. Wings Ellie halfway across the room. She drops to the floor. Clutching her shoulder. Flesh wound. ELLIE Shit! Pulls herself over to a SIDEBOARD for cover. Shrinks behind it. Notices A PLASTIC BAG sticking out from one of the drawers. Nudges it open. A flowered dress, some panty-hose, strands of long dark hair... EXT. BACK YARD - SUMMER HOUSE Will. On the ground. Gripping his leg. Looking wildly around. No sign of Walter. Then. He sees it. Lucy and Desi. Down by the boathouse. INT. BOATHOUSE The boathouse. Old, rotted wood. Crumbling beams. Walter stands at a window. Re-loading his shotgun. He fumbles, drops a shell. It rolls towards a crack in the floor. Falls into the LAKE WATER below. CLICK! Walter levels the shotgun out the window. WALTER'S POV - the long, undulating WEEDS outside. EXT. WEEDS Will. Pulling himself through the weeds. Losing blood fast. Dragging his body. Approaches the side of the BOATHOUSE. WALTER'S GUN BARREL, sticking out. Will ducks his head. Winces in pain. Breathing, becoming ragged. Rounds to the other side. Hoists himself up to another WINDOW. Cautiously looks in... WALTER at the far window. Will jerks back. Steps on the dock. A plank CREAKS. Shit. Peers back through the window. WALTER. Still looking out. Didn't hear a thing. Will remembers. Walter doesn't have his hearing aid. He's deaf on that side. INT. BOATHOUSE Walter, looking out the window. OVER HIS SHOULDER - we see Will climbing in through the window. Smearing blood along the sill, favoring his leg. Stands straight. Levels his gun at Walter's back. WILL (softly) Walter? Nothing. Walter continues staring out the window. Will raises his voice. WILL (cont'd) Walter! Walter jumps, whips around. Comes face to face with the barrel of Will Dormer's gun. Surprised. Absently touches his deaf ear. WALTER Wild card. WILL Drop the gun, Walter. Walter looks at Will's 45. WALTER That jammed the last time, remember? The men LOCK EYES. Wind HOWLING through the boathouse. Killer and Detective. Only a bullet separating them. WALTER suddenly jerks up his shotgun... BANG! He stumbles back. Hit in the gut. Will's Smith and Wesson, smoking. No longer jammed. Walter, touches the blood. Looks back at Will. Staggering. CRACK! The rotting floor gives way beneath him. He CRIES out, falls. Drops into the icy water below. SILENCE. Will steps over to the hole. Looks down at WALTER, floating on his back. Looking up at him. Water washing over his body. Eyes, pleading. Fading. A wave, gently pulls him away. WILL Another J. Brody mystery. EXT. BOATHOUSE Will staggers out on to the dock. Drops his gun. Crashes to his knees. Falls back. His face, pale. Lying against the wood of the dock. RAIN DROPS. Start to fall. Washing the blood from his skin. Puckering the lake water. Will's eyes...flutter... FOOTSTEPS...running along the dock. Heavy boots... ELLIE (O.S.) Detective Dormer! Will squints against the rain. Makes out the face of ELLIE hovering over him. He gives a half-smile. WILL God, you're a pain in the ass. Ellie kneels down next to him. Pulls over her vest. Covers him. ELLIE You're shot. Will looks at her bloody shoulder. WILL You, too. Ellie, tearing off her boot. Yanks off her sock. ELLIE I'm going to make a tourniquet. Will, fading fast. WILL Walter Byrd killed Kay Connell. Her things are in the house. ELLIE I know. WILL Byrd's dead. Ellie, wraps the sock around his leg. Starts twisting. Will grimaces. Ellie swallows. Doesn't want to ask this. ELLIE You shot Detective Eckhart, didn't you? Will nods. WILL Yes. A pained looks crosses Ellie's face. ELLIE Did you mean to? Will shakes his head. WILL No. But I covered it up. I lied. ELLIE Why? RAIN, drumming down around them. Will, takes a deep breath. WILL Because I just couldn't be wrong. (looks at her) Don't ever get that way, Ellie. Don't ever lose your way. It blurs the line. His blood, pumping out in rivulets. Ellie looks down at him. Her hero. Moves up to the wound in his arm. ELLIE This one looks worse. Will reaches up a feeble hand. Stops her. WILL (whispers) Just let me sleep, Ellie... His eyelids, growing heavy. WILL (cont'd) Let me sleep. Ellie blinks away the tears. Knows what he means. What he wants. Watches as the calm spreads over him. Will closes his eyes. ELLIE No! Will opens his eyes. She ties the second sock around his arm. ELLIE (cont'd) I will not let you sleep. If you've lost your way then you have to make it right. That's the only way. That's what you'd tell me. I've been a detective for four weeks and I say you're coming with me. She gets up. Slips her arms under his shoulders. Starts hoisting him up. ELLIE (cont'd) C'mon... Will. Struggling to his knees. Every inch of him, screaming in pain. Gets to his feet. Arm slung around this tiny, young woman. WILL What about your shoulder? ELLIE Don't worry. I'll have a cool scar. And they head, slowly but surely, back down the dock. FADE OUT. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Interstellar.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Interstellar.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1dc60eeaccd3ad4e1367af514f00a44545802602 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Interstellar.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + INTERSTELLAR Written by Jonathan Nolan STORY BY Jonathan Nolan, Kip Thorne & Lynda Obst MARCH 12 2008 SPACE. But not the dark lonely corner of it we're used to. This is a glittering inferno -- the center of a distant galaxy. Suddenly, something TEARS past at incredible speed: a NEUTRON STAR. It SMASHES headlong through everything it encounters... planets, stars. Can anything stop this juggernaut? Yes. Something looms at the heart of the galaxy, hidden inside the blinding starlight, a dark flaw in the fabric of existence itself: a BLACK HOLE. The neutron star is pulled into the black hole's swirl, spiraling closer and closer to destruction. Finally, it contacts the hole's edge and EXPLODES. The EXPLOSION is so powerful that it sends shock waves into the fabric of space-time itself. We ride one of these waves, racing back out from the black hole. Suddenly, a portion of the wave disappears down a crystal- like hole, emerging in a much darker region of the universe -- a backwater that, as the wave races past a giant red planet with a distinctive eye, we recognize as our own. The wave, now just an infinitesimal ripple, finally reaches our blue planet. It drops into our atmosphere over North America, toward the high desert east of the Cascades, and through the roof of a nondescript warehouse. The wave tickles the atoms in the steel shell of a vacuum chamber, then dances a tiny jig with a laser beam reflected in a heavy piece of glass. The wave shoots back out of the building and disappears in the fractal branches of a tumbleweed resting against a concrete tube that stretches for miles in the desert. An SUV speeds past the tumbleweed and we follow it till it parks at another plain-looking building at the opposite end of the tube. A MAN climbs out of the SUV. INT. CONTROL ROOM, WAREHOUSE -- DAY The man lets himself into a large room that looks like Mission Control. He pours himself a cup of coffee. It is the weekend and the place is empty. No one has been there to see the displays flashing a distinctive shape -- a pulse followed by a series of echoes. The man looks up at the screen, then DROPS his cup of coffee. CUT TO: 2. INT. LIGO OFFICES, CALTECH, PASADENA -- DAY The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory headquarters at Caltech is a frenzy of activity. POSTDOCS and RESEARCHERS huddle around monitors and printouts, arguing. ANSEN, 60s, the director of LIGO, walks through the frenzy. A postdoc hands him a printout: a pulse followed by echoes. INT. LIGO DIRECTOR'S OFFICE, CALTECH -- DAY Ansen steps into the relative calm of a large, sunlit office, which overlooks a grassy stretch of Caltech's campus. His ASSISTANT, 30s, is on the phone, on hold. He looks up at Ansen as he enters. ASSISTANT I'm on hold with the INS. (COVERS MICROPHONE) Don't you think we should double check the triangulation before we CALL ANYBODY- ANSEN We have double checked it. Someone finally picks up the line. ASSISTANT Yes. I'm trying to reach- (pause, listens) No, I don't think you understand how serious this is. (PAUSE) Because if you did, we'd be having this conversation in person. He listens for a moment, then hangs up the phone, confused. ANSEN What did they say? ASSISTANT They said we should look out the window. Ansen steps to the window and looks out: In the courtyard below, coeds are scrambling to get out of the way as a military helicopter sets down in the middle of the quad and dozens of ARMED FEDERAL AGENTS converge on his building. 3. INT. MAIN CONFERENCE ROOM, LIGO, CALTECH -- DAY Ansen sits, alone, on one side of a conference table. The other side is filled with GOVERNMENT MEN -- NSA mostly, some DIA. The door opens and his assistant steps in. Armed guards pat him down, then shove him into a seat. ANSEN Is that really necessary? One of the NSA agents leans forward. NSA AGENT You've been complaining for years that the government doesn't take your project seriously enough, Doctor. (SMILES) You can't have it both ways. Ansen motions to his assistant, who turns on a projector. On-screen, we see the familiar pulse and echoes. ANSEN Yesterday morning, our facility in Hanford identified this signal: a neutron star colliding with a supermassive black hole. We went through the last year's data and triangulated the source. The pulse is translated into a crude animatic of a neutron star circling into the black hole. NSA AGENT We know that, Doctor. What we don't know is why, according to your numbers, this event took place right here in our own solar system. Suddenly, the image overlays the sun, the earth, and the rest of our solar system around the black hole. ANSEN It didn't. Because if it had we'd all be dead by now. On-screen, Jupiter, then the Earth and the inner planets are consumed by the black hole. Only the sun survives, pulled into orbit around its new master. ANSEN (CONT'D) Which leaves only one explanation: The signal traveled through a (MORE) 4. ANSEN (CONT'D) wormhole. A gateway to a distant corner of the universe. The black hole is on the far side. On-screen, the black hole system is removed to a distant corner, connected to ours by a tunnel through space-time. A gravity wave from the collision travels through the tunnel. NSA AGENT I've read your book, Doctor. You said that wormholes are impossible. ANSEN There is nothing quite as satisfying as being proved utterly wrong. (SMILES) I said that a wormhole couldn't exist naturally. Not for more than a few billionths of a second. It would have to be... stabilized. NSA AGENT Stabilized by what? Ansen pauses, unsure. His assistant steps in to his defense. ASSISTANT We don't have any way to answer that question. NSA AGENT (IGNORES HIM) You're not under peer review here, Doctor. I don't care about your reputation. I need to know how that thing got there. Now. Ansen finally speaks up. ANSEN If you're worried about an invasion, I would start drafting the articles of surrender. (SMILES) Whoever they are, if they can build a wormhole, they could erase us in the blink of an eye. Luckily, that also means we have nothing they could be interested in. NSA AGENT Then why is it there? 5. ANSEN I don't know. Maybe it's an invitation. A chance to commune with an advanced species. The assistant, embarrassed, looks down. The agent notices. NSA AGENT You don't agree? ASSISTANT (DELICATE) No. I don't think we can assume an alien intelligence built the wormhole. (CHANGES TACK) But the opportunity it represents is incredible. We could explore parts of the universe we never dreamt of reaching in our lifetimes. The agent exchanges a look with one of his colleagues, who steps out of the room. ANSEN We need to get back to work. I have a conference call with our European partners in fifteen minutes. NSA AGENT We severed the connections to your European partners this morning. ANSEN (INDIGNANT) You can't do that. The Europeans put up some of the funding... GOVERNMENT MAN We'll send them a check. (STANDS) Your project is now classified under the State Secrets Act. He steps out the door, leaving the men alone. The assistant, outraged, turns back to his boss. ASSISTANT They can't keep this a secret. You know that. Sooner or later... The younger man looks down, embarrassed, as he notices that tears are rolling down the older man's cheeks. 6. ANSEN I don't care about that. I've spent my whole life being afraid we would wipe ourselves out before this moment arrived. We've made so many mistakes, I wasn't sure we'd make it... The assitant realizes that the old man is weeping for joy. Relief. ANSEN (CONT'D) But this will change everything. Fifty years from now, nothing will be the same. The older man looks at the simulation on the screen of the tiny link between our galaxy and another. FADE TO BLACK EXT. CORNFIELD, CENTRAL CALIFORNIA -- DAY Corn. As far as the eye can see. SUPER TITLE: "FIFTY YEARS LATER" A large old diesel tour bus is parked by the side of a dirt road, smoke pouring out of its open hood. A dozen MEN in BASEBALL UNIFORMS are standing around the front of the bus. A battered PICKUP pulls up, and a MAN, 30s, gets out, leaving his two SONS in the car. This is COOPER. He joins the ballplayers staring at the lifeless diesel engine. BALLPLAYER Seized up on us. COOPER Long way to come by bus. I thought you guys would have a plane. BALLPLAYER We did. Ran out of parts for it. You know anything about diesels? COOPER A little. Cooper steps to the engine compartment. The ballplayer notices Cooper's two boys, TOM, 15, and MURPH, 10, watching them. He wanders over. 7. BALLPLAYER You think your dad's going to be able to help us out? Murph, a filth-encrusted kid with a black eye, smiles at the ballplayer. MURPH My dad can fix anything. (WRY SMILE) Except maybe your fastball. The ballplayer frowns: smartass kid. After a moment under the hood, Cooper signals to the driver, who tries the engine. It turns over once, then STARTS. BALLPLAYER Sure appreciate the help. COOPER (SHRUGS) You don't make it, my boys won't get to see you lose. The ballplayers load up into the bus and as it pulls away, we can see the logo painted across the back of the bus for the first time: WORLD FAMOUS NEW YORK YANKEES EXT. SPACE, NEAR EARTH ORBIT Earth spins, lazily. From this height, it looks much the same as it has done for thousands of years. Suddenly, a tiny black object appears, racing toward Earth. The object SMASHES into a large satellite and races onward. Behind it, the satellite spins out of orbit in a cloud of fragments. EXT. BASEBALL STADIUM -- NIGHT An old minor league stadium. The stands are barely halfway full. Cooper, his boys, and Cooper's father-in-law, DONALD, 60s, have a row to themselves behind the dugout. Murph offers his grandpa some popcorn. DONALD Popcorn at a ball game is unnatural. I want a hot dog. 8. MURPH (CONFUSED) What's a hot dog? Suddenly, play stops on the field below as the players and fans look up at the night sky: A bright blue streak is tearing across it. It's beautiful. TOM Is that a comet, Dad? COOPER (shakes his head) Satellite. Big one. Probably Chinese. Everyone watches the fireworks as the satellite burns up in the upper atmosphere. After a moment, play resumes -- it's a pretty show, but everyone has seen it plenty of times before. Down on the field, the Dodgers' catcher misses an easy pop fly and the Yankees load the bases. Donald looks disgusted. INT. COOPER'S TRUCK -- NIGHT Cooper guides his truck along a potholed road. His father- in-law is riding shotgun; the boys are sleeping in the back. DONALD Those clowns would get their asses handed to them by the ballplayers I grew up watching. COOPER You ruin it for the boys when you talk like that. DONALD I'm not doing my grandkids any favors by lying to them. They're growing up watching lousy baseball. COOPER They didn't have any baseball at all when I was a kid. That shuts the old man up for now. They drive on in silence. CUT TO: 9. EXT. FARMHOUSE -- MORNING The sun is gently landing on the horizon, painting the sea of corn around Cooper's modest house gold. Cooper walks out of his house, still eating his breakfast. Donald is on the porch, looking at a black clouds of smoke in the distance. The neighboring fields are BURNING. DONALD Nelson's burning up his crops. Found some of the blight on the okra. Cooper watches the men walking through the fields, setting fire to the crop. COOPER I thought okra wasn't susceptible. DONALD (SHRUGS) Better safe than sorry. (looks at him) You've got to take the boys to school. COOPER Something wrong with your truck? DONALD (SMILES) Parent-teacher conference day. Cooper bends his head in dismay. DONALD (CONT'D) Be nice to Murph's teacher. She's single, you know. COOPER What does that have to do with anything? DONALD We're supposed to be repopulating the earth. Gotta pull your weight. Besides, the boys could do with a woman in their lives. The boys run out of the house and pile into the truck. Cooper pulls away before Donald can continue. EXT. ROAD -- DAY Cooper weaves the car along a dirt road. The kids are arguing over an ancient comic book in the back seat. 10. Cooper turns around to break it up. BANG -- one of the tires blows out in a foot-deep pothole. EXT. ROADSIDE -- DAY Cooper examines the flattened tire. Looks at his older son. COOPER Get the spare, Tom. TOM That is the spare. COOPER All right. We'll use the patch kit. He moves to the back of the truck. Murph suddenly looks very glum. MURPH I... I think the patch kit might not be there... (off his look) Because I was using it for my bike. Cooper looks down at the dirt. Sighs. COOPER Murph's law. MURPH (CONFUSED) What's that? Tom snorts with laughter. Turns to his dad. TOM The kid doesn't even know what he was named after... Cooper shoots Tom a look -- enough. TOM (CONT'D) Murph's law means what can go wrong will go wrong. Murph, looking hurt, walks off. Cooper turns to his son. COOPER Find something to patch it with. TOM How am I supposed to do that? 11. COOPER Figure it out. I'm not always going to be here to help you. Cooper leaves Tom to catch up with his younger son, who is looking out over the river. MURPH Is that really why I'm named Murph, dad? COOPER Listen to me. Murph's law doesn't mean that. It means what can happen will happen. All kinds of things. Good or bad. And that's the way you want it to be. MURPH Why? COOPER Because if nothing ever happened to you then you wouldn't learn anything. Murph is staring off into the distance. He's heard something. COOPER (CONT'D) Murph? Then Cooper hears it, too. A LOW RUMBLING SOUND. Cooper looks out over the river. Then he turns back and tackles his son to the ground. Suddenly, a MASSIVE AIRPLANE SOARS overhead, so close they can almost touch it. It bounces the truck on its suspension, then soars off over the fields behind them. Cooper grabs Murph and races back to the truck. He pulls a laptop and an antenna made out of a Pringles can out of the back of the truck. He hands the laptop and antenna to Murph. COOPER (CONT'D) Get in. Tom is still standing by the side of the road, wrestling with the jack. TOM What about the tire? INT. TRUCK -- MOMENTS LATER The truck is SMASHING through the cornfields as fast as Cooper can push it on three good tires. 12. Murph is hurriedly firing up the laptop and connecting it to the directional antenna. Cooper is straining to see through the cornstalks, scanning the horizon. TOM OVER THERE- To the right, the dark shape of the Russian drone appears, flying low over the fields. Cooper jerks the wheel-- EXT. RIVER -- DAY The truck BURSTS out of the corn and SPLASHES across the river and into an old, abandoned suburban housing development in the valley below, planted over with corn. Half a mile in front of them, the Russian drone is still hugging the ground. It has impossibly long, skinny wings, like an old U-2 surveillance plane, but no cockpit. The tops of its wings are covered in black solar cells. INT. TRUCK -- DAY Murph is fiddling with the computer. His older brother takes the computer from him and fires up emulation software. COOPER It's a Chinese military drone. Solar cells could power an entire farm. (TO TOM) Take the wheel. Cooper hands Murph the Pringles can antenna. COOPER (CONT'D) Keep it pointed right at it, OK? Murph nods. Tom takes the wheel as his dad works the laptop, trying to communicate with the huge Russian drone. The screen fills with Cyrillic characters. COOPER (CONT'D) Faster, Tom. I'm losing it. Tom WEAVES the truck at speed through the old, curved streets of the development, past oversized suburban mansions planted over with corn. They round a corner and come face-to-face with a robot harvester. Tom jerks the wheel to avoid it. BANG -- the truck loses a wing mirror against the flank of the combine. 13. EXT. SUBURBAN DEVELOPMENT -- DAY Tom guides the truck from street to street, trying to chart a straight path across the fields. The truck BOUNCES as it SMASHES through an old picket fence. Ahead, the drone is soaring, banking, pulling away. INT. TRUCK -- DAY Cooper is still trying to hack into the drone's control circuitry as they leave the development behind and begin to climb into the foothills of the Sierras. EXT. RIDGELINE, HILLS -- DAY Tom guides the truck along the spine of the hills. The drone soars overhead, making for the white tips of the Sierras. INT. TRUCK -- DAY Cooper is oblivious to the picturesque surroundings as he concentrates on the laptop. TOM (UNSURE) Dad? COOPER Almost got it. Don't slow down. In front of them, Tom and his brother watch as the drone plummets from view. TOM DAD. Cooper looks up. Ahead, the trail disappears as the edge of the hills falls away -- it's a three hundred-foot drop. Tom locks up the brakes. EXT. RIDGELINE, HILLS -- DAY The truck skids to a halt inches from a precipitous drop. Cooper climbs out, holding the laptop. Murph climbs out next to him, still pointing the Pringles can. TOM We lost it. COOPER (SMILING) No we didn't. 14. Suddenly, the drone SOARS back over them. Cooper types a couple keys and then moves his fingers across the trackpad. The huge drone banks and turns in response. As the boys watch, Cooper sends the drone soaring high over them, banking and soaring along the tree-lined sides of the valley, light glinting from the black panels on its back. It's a beautiful sight. Cooper crouches next to Murph. COOPER (CONT'D) You want to give it a whirl? Murph looks at his dad, wide-eyed. He takes the laptop and moves his fingers gingerly across the pad. In response, the massive plane banks into a tight turn in the valley below. For a moment, Murph is in pure heaven, sending the drone dancing through the valley below. COOPER (CONT'D) Set her down in the valley -- there, next to the river. Murph leads the plane in a figure eight and then begins guiding it into a gentle landing in the valley floor below. EXT. ABANDONED GOLF COURSE, VALLEY FLOOR -- DAY The truck limps along the overgrown fairway of a long-defunct golf course towards the massive hulk of the Russian drone, Cooper and the boys climb down. The valley is silent save for the truck's engine WHEEZING and SPUTTERING as it cools. Cooper runs a hand over the smooth carbon flank of the drone. TOM How long do you think it's been up there, Dad? COOPER Chinese mission control went down same as us, twenty years ago. It's been up there ever since. TOM What was it doing flying so low? Cooper reads the information pouring into his laptop. 15. COOPER It was looking for something. Intercepted some kind of signal. (SHRUGS) It's been at eighty thousand feet. Sun probably cooked its brain. Cooper runs his hand along the flank till he finds an access patch. He pulls out a crowbar and pries open the hatch. Inside, surrounded by a nest of liquid cooling tubes, is a small black module -- the drone's auto-pilot. Cooper looks down at Murph, who is standing at his elbow. MURPH What are you going to do with it? COOPER Reprogram it. Give it something socially responsible to do like drive a combine or a tractor. MURPH (QUIET) Couldn't we just let it go? It's not hurting anyone. Cooper looks down at his son. Good kid. COOPER We need all the help we can get, Murph. This thing has to adapt, just like the rest of us. Cooper gently pries the control module out. EXT. COUNTY SCHOOL -- DAY It's a small school, so all the kids and parents waiting in front know exactly who's driving the pickup truck with half of a Russian spy plane hanging out of the bed as it pulls up. INT. PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE, COUNTY SCHOOL -- DAY Cooper is ushered into the office. The PRINCIPAL, 40s, an efficient-looking man, shakes his hand. PRINCIPAL Good to see you, Mr. Cooper. This is Ms. Kelly, Murph's teacher. Cooper smiles at Ms. KELLY, 30s, attractive. 16. PRINCIPAL (CONT'D) So we've gotten Tom's score back. Congratulations. He's going to make an excellent farmer. The principal slides a carbon copy across the desk to Cooper, who looks taken aback. COOPER What about college? PRINCIPAL The University of California only accepts a few hundred students a year, Mr. Cooper. You have to be realistic. COOPER You're ruling out college for him now? He's only fifteen. PRINCIPAL I'm sorry. I'm afraid Tom's score simply isn't high enough. COOPER What are you, about a 36-inch waist? (BEAT) 30-inch inseam? PRINCIPAL I'm not sure I see-- COOPER You're telling me you need two numbers to measure your own ass, but just one to measure my son's future? Ms. Kelly stifles a laugh, then, with a look from the principal, takes on the appropriate look of offense. PRINCIPAL I understand you're a well-educated man, Mr. Cooper. A scientist? COOPER Engineer. PRINCIPAL Frankly, the world doesn't need any more engineers. We didn't run out of trains or television sets or satellites. (BEAT) We ran out of food. 17. Cooper leans back. He's not going to win this one. PRINCIPAL (CONT'D) The world needs farmers, Mr. Cooper. And I'm sure your son Tom is going to make a fine one. (SMILES BENIGNLY) We're a caretaker generation. But things are getting better. Maybe your grandchildren will be able to attend college. Cooper looks down, swallowing his anger. COOPER Are we done? PRINCIPAL One more thing. Ms. Kelly here says that Murph brought a book to school about the lunar landings. He slides an old textbook with a picture of a rocket on the cover across the desk to Cooper. COOPER One of my old textbooks. Murph liked the pictures. MS. KELLY This is one of the old federal textbooks. We've replaced them with corrected versions. COOPER Corrected? MS. KELLY The new textbooks explain that the Apollo lunar missions were faked in order to bankrupt the Soviet Union. COOPER You don't believe we went to the moon? MS. KELLY I believe it was a brilliant piece of propaganda. The Soviets spent years trying to build rockets and other useless machines. COOPER "Useless machines"? 18. Cooper looks to the Principal for help. None is forthcoming. MS. KELLY Yes, Mr. Cooper. The kind of wastefulness and excess that the 20th century represented. Your children would be better off learning about this planet, rather than reading fantasies about leaving it. Cooper is silent for a long moment. COOPER One of those useless machines they used to make was called an MRI. If we had any of them left the doctors might have been able to find the cyst in my wife's brain before she died, rather than afterwards. And then my kids could have been raised by two parents, instead of me and their pain-in-the-ass grandfather. Ms. Kelly's face falls, ashen. Cooper swallows his anger. Most of it, anyway. COOPER (CONT'D) You ever consider the best thing for the world and humanity might have been for us to part company? Cooper gets up to leave. INT. TRUCK, COUNTY SCHOOL PARKING LOT -- DAY Cooper climbs into the truck, trying to hold it together. He PUNCHES the wheel. The radio KEYS to life. He ignores it. Sits for a moment in misery. Finally he picks up the handset. CB OPERATOR (O.S.) Got a call from Riggs, down in Galveston. Says some of the tractors you built him went haywire last night. COOPER Just tell him to power down the controllers for a couple minutes. CB OPERATOR (O.S.) I did. He wants you to come down in person anyway. Says he found something you should take a look at. 19. Cooper stares at the wheel. Shakes his head in frustration. EXT. AIRSTRIP -- DAY Cooper pulls his truck up to a grimy-looking hangar. Pulls a tarp off of an ancient Piper Cub. Checks it over. INT. PIPER CUB -- DAY Cooper guides the plane along a long sliver of deserted beach. The radio crackles to life. COOPER Bravo-two-eight, requesting permission to enter your airspace. AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL (O.S.) Permission granted. Welcome to the sovereign nation of Texas. Coop hangs up the radio. Banks the plane inland. EXT. GULF COAST -- DAY Below, a combine harvester fights its way up the dunes, trying to reach the beach, its wheels struggling for traction in the soft sand. A MAN waves up at Cooper's plane as it circles overhead. Cooper lands the plane on a deserted roadway. Jumps down. He intercepts one of the combines as it trundles past, trying to reach the dunes. He pops open the cabin. Inside is a mess of wires hooked into an auto-pilot not unlike the one he ripped out of the drone. He checks the fault code and resets the computer. The man jogs over to meet him. RIGGS Thanks for coming down. Half of 'em took off last night, looking for something. (points to dunes) Looks like they found it, too. I thought you were the man to see it. Riggs starts walking up the dune. Cooper follows. Below, on the beach, a dozen more combines and other farming vehicles are lined up at the tideline, warm gulf water lapping at their metal flanks. They are circling a deep crater. 20. As they watch, an ancient autonomous SUB BEACHES itself, trying to reach the crater. EXT. CRATER'S EDGE, BEACH -- DAY Cooper steps between the waiting machines and peers down into the crater. At the very bottom is a ROUND BLACK BALL, about a foot across -- the same object we saw punch a hole in the side of a satellite. Every few seconds, it emits a distinctive CHIRP. Cooper checks his rad meter. A tiny reading -- non-lethal. He takes off his watch and hands it to Riggs. Then he slides down into the hole. The probe CHIRPS as Cooper slides down on top of it. He rubs a hand across its smooth composite bulk. RIGGS (FROM ABOVE) You think it's an alien? Cooper wipes sand off of the object, revealing the faint, familiar outline etched into the side of the probe: The stars and stripes of the old federal government. COOPER Not exactly. EXT. CRATER'S EDGE, BEACH -- DAY Using a rope and a winch, Cooper hauls the blackened probe out of the crater and onto the beach. Cooper hefts it up and carries it to the back of his plane. COOPER Space probe. Never seen one like it, though. Looks like it's been to hell and back. The probe CHIRPS as Cooper belts it into the back. RIGGS How do you think it wound up here? COOPER Lost, I guess. Guidance satellites would have been shot down by the Chinese twenty years ago. Cooper looks at the probe for a second, admiring its form. 21. INT. KITCHEN, COOPER'S HOUSE -- NIGHT Donald is pouring a bottle of corn beer into a bubbling vat of chowder. He turns to watch Cooper work, amused. The probe has been clamped to the kitchen table. Cooper works at the blackened case with a BLOWTORCH. Cooper gives up -- the torch hasn't made a scratch. The probe CHIRPS. COOPER Well I don't know what the hell it's made of, but I can't crack it open. DONALD Good. Clear it off the table so I can serve dinner. Tom and Murph walk in. Murph's got another black eye. DONALD (CONT'D) What happened this time? MURPH I got suspended. Paul said anyone who believed we went to the moon was an idiot. So I hit him. COOPER Good boy. Hand me the scanner. Murph hands his dad a defibrillator he's modified for the purpose. He attaches the shock pads to the sides of the probe and turns on the power. Numbers flash across the screen. Cooper hits a button on the controls and it PULSES. COOPER (CONT'D) Here we go. Standard NASA encryption. Memory's been damaged. Just noise. Hold on. I've got something. Cooper unplugs a monitor from his computer and plugs it into the defibrillator. After a moment, an image fills the screen: An ICE-COVERED PLANET nestled in the center of a system impossibly dense with stars. Murph stares, transfixed. MURPH Where is that, dad? COOPER I don't know. Cooper looks at the probe. 22. COOPER (CONT'D) Where the hell did you come from? Cooper shrugs. Turns off the monitor. COOPER (CONT'D) We'll take it down to Tyson's tomorrow and have it melted down. Might be some copper inside. MURPH But what about its mission? What about the information onboard? COOPER There's no one for it to report to. NASA is all gone. I'm sorry, son. It got home too late. Donald pulls his chowder off the boil and slides the pot unceremoniously onto the table. INT. DINING ROOM -- NIGHT The boys have gone to bed. Cooper and Donald are alone at the table. Donald hands Cooper another beer. DONALD I heard your meeting at the school didn't go so well. Cooper shakes his head in disgust. COOPER Maybe it's better for everyone to forget what they did back then. Reminds us how far we've fallen. DONALD (looks down,) When I was kid, it felt like they made something new every day. Some gadget or idea. (SMILES) Like every day was Christmas. (BEAT) But we made a lot of mistakes. Six billion people. Just try to imagine that. Every last one of them trying to have it all. Donald rolls the bottle of beer in his hands. 23. DONALD (CONT'D) The truth is this world isn't that bad. In a lot of ways its better. Tom will be all right, whether he goes to college or not. COOPER It doesn't bother me that he can't go. It bothers me that he doesn't care. DONALD Tom isn't the problem. He fits in this world just fine. You're the one who doesn't fit, Coop. You don't belong here. You were born forty years too late, or forty years too early -- I don't know. My daughter knew it, god bless her. And your kids know it, too. Donald drains his beer. Walks to the screen door. Stops, one hand on the frame. DONALD (CONT'D) You were good at something and you never got a chance to do anything with it. And I'm sorry, Coop. But that's not your kids' fault. Donald pushes out the screen door. Cooper looks at his beer. The probe CHIRPS. INT. BEDROOM, COOPER'S HOUSE -- NIGHT Cooper flops down on his bed, fully clothed, exhausted. He stares up at the ceiling. This is his life. INT. BEDROOM, COOPER'S HOUSE -- NIGHT The air is filled with a PIERCING NOISE. Cooper BOLTS upright. Stumbles out the door. INT. HALLWAY, COOPER'S HOUSE -- NIGHT Cooper's boys are in the hallway, exhausted. Cooper, holding a baseball bat, makes his way down the stairs. Cooper uses the bat to open the kitchen door. INT. KITCHEN, COOPER'S HOUSE -- NIGHT Cooper steps in, Murph watching from behind him. 24. The probe is clamped to the table, the chirp replaced with a DEAFENING SCREAM. Cooper, holding his ears, moves closer to the probe. He hits it with the paddles. No result. He SMASHES it with the bat. Nothing. He HITS it AGAIN and AGAIN. Finally, the clamps break off chunks of the table and the probe slams to the ground and ROLLS toward the front door. As it rolls, it STOPS SHRIEKING. Cooper and the others watch it roll toward the door. It stops at the wall. After a second, it begins SHRIEKING AGAIN. Cooper grabs it and rolls it toward the front door. Once again, the movement shuts it up. EXT. PORCH, COOPER'S HOUSE -- NIGHT Cooper and his boys roll the probe out of the front door. It BUMPS down the front steps and comes to rest in the dirt. After a moment, the unholy RACKET starts up again. Cooper keeps rolling it, but it doesn't seem to help. Murph looks up, sees the stars overhead. MURPH Try a different direction. As they roll the probe in a circle, its SHRIEK stops, then picks up again. Cooper zeroes in on the direction that keeps it quiet -- southwest -- and pushes it along in the dirt. COOPER It's a fail-safe. It's going to annoy us into taking it home. Cooper stops rolling the probe and, after a moment, it begins SHRIEKING again. TOM What are we going to do? Cooper gets a rope. COOPER We're going to get some sleep. He begins tying the rope around the probe. INT. BEDROOM, COOPER'S HOUSE -- DAY Cooper wakes. He's been sleeping with a pillow wrapped around his head. The SHRIEK can be heard, but it's muffled, distant. 25. INT. KITCHEN, COOPER'S HOUSE -- DAY Tom heads off for school with Donald. Murph, still suspended, looks up at Cooper, smiling. MURPH What are we doing today? COOPER You're staying here and cleaning the house. Murph looks crestfallen. He looks out towards the yard. Cooper follows his stare. COOPER (CONT'D) I told you, Murph. There's no one to take it back to. MURPH But what if there is, dad? What if there's something we can salvage? Cooper thinks it over. Murph scrambles to get his shoes. EXT. COOPER'S HOUSE -- DAY The shriek is still muffled. Cooper walks over to the well, putting in a pair of earplugs. A line is staked off, leading down into the well below. Cooper begins hauling the line up. As the probe breaks the surface of the water, the SHRIEK returns to its normal volume. Cooper rolls the probe out onto the ground. INT. PIPER CUB -- DAY The probe CHIRPS next to Murph in the backseat as Cooper spins the plane and guns the throttle and they bounce along the dusty runway and into the air. EXT. CALIFORNIA COAST -- DAY The tiny plane follows the mountains south. EXT. SKIES OVER LOS ANGELES -- DAY Cooper flies in low. Los Angeles looks much the same way it did in the early 20th century -- small settlements in Santa Monica and Downtown. Wildfires and earthquakes have shaken and burned what was left of the homes in between. 26. EXT. PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY, MALIBU -- DAY Cooper puts the plane down on the old highway and taxis up to a gas station. Ahead, the Coast Highway peters out and disappears beneath rows of wild grass -- Malibu has become ranchland, once again. EXT. GAS STATION, MALIBU -- DAY An OLD MAN looks up as Cooper steps out of the plane and checks it over. COOPER Got any diesel? OLD MAN Plenty. Shame you can't eat it. Cooper stretches the hose over to the plane. INT. PIPER CUB -- DAY Cooper rests a hand lightly on the controls as he follows the coast. Murph gazes out the window. In the backseat, the probe is HUMMING. A light marine layer beneath them parts, revealing SANTA CRUZ ISLAND, a large, uninhabited island. As Cooper soars over the island, the probe HUMS, insistent. MURPH I think it's home. Cooper circles the island until he finds a long, flat grassland in the center of the island. EXT. FIELD, SANTA CRUZ ISLAND -- DAY The plane bounces and hops to a halt in waist-deep grass. Murph and Cooper climb down from the plane. Cooper slings a rifle over his shoulder. A few dozen yards from the plane they reach the tree line. Murph stops, mesmerized by a patch of weeds studded with bright red -- strawberries. MURPH Dad, what are these things? COOPER I don't know. Don't touch them. 27. Cooper spots something in the foliage ahead that looks a little off. He walks over. He pokes at the undergrowth with his rifle. The rifle CLANKS against something metal. Cooper reaches -- it's a camouflage scrim. He gently pulls it aside, revealing a chemical transport truck. Cooper steps back, alarmed. He brings up his rifle. COOPER (CONT'D) Murph? He looks around. Murph is nowhere to be seen. Cooper curses and heads into the forest to look for him. EXT. CLEARING, SANTA CRUZ ISLAND -- DAY Cooper walks through a glade. He stops to get his bearings. Leans against a tree. Snatches his hand back -- the trunk of the tree is red hot. Cooper steps back -- it's not a tree at all, but a camouflaged chimney stack. He looks up: the tree is venting steam. Cooper walks a little further, until he finds several massive tanks. The tanks are filling with a bubbling liquid -- some kind of industrial process is taking place beneath him. Cooper finally catches up with Murph at the edge of a clearing. COOPER Careful. There's some kind of underground facility here. We might... Cooper notices his son is frozen, staring at something: Standing bolt upright in the middle of the clearing, wearing an old straw hat, is an eight-foot-tall military spec ROBOT. MURPH Is it still... alive? COOPER Can't be. It's a marine. Haven't made them for thirty years. I've never seen one intact before. Cooper steps closer to the robot, which is frozen. Its alloy frame heavily tarnished and weather-beaten. It looks like it might have been standing here for decades. 28. Cooper moves closer to it, looking into its blackened eyes. He steps back, clearly a little spooked. COOPER (CONT'D) I think we need to go, Murph. MURPH But can't we take it back? You could fix it up, get him to do chores. COOPER No. I don't know what this place is, but we're leaving. Murph, ignoring his father, steps forward to touch the robot. Suddenly, the robot SPRINGS into action, picking up the boy and hoisting him up to eye level. Cooper, stunned, points the rifle at the robot. The robot turns, dropping the boy, RIPS the rifle from Cooper's hands, BENDS it, then SLAMS him up against the side of the water tank. Cooper punches him, then winces in agony. Murph picks up the rifle and begins HITTING the robot as hard as he can. The robot opens his mouth and addresses Cooper calmly in the clipped tones of a US marine. ROBOT Tell the boy to stop hitting me. COOPER (IGNORING HIM) Hit him in the back of the neck. Murph raises the rifle butt. A voice stops him. VOICE (O.S.) I wouldn't do that. A woman, 30s, step out from the trees. This is AMELIA BRAND -- tough, bright, and a decent shot with the large rifle that she's pointing at Cooper. COOPER We were just looking for salvage. BRAND Is that what they call stealing these days? COOPER I didn't know it belonged to anyone. 29. BRAND It doesn't. (TO ROBOT) You want to let them go, Tars, or do you want some help with your work? The robot, evidently named Tars, looks at Cooper closely. Then lets him go. COOPER You've got me wrong, lady. BRAND Really? You're not the kind of guy who turns a combat marine with a supercomputer for a brain into a riding lawn mower? Cooper says nothing -- she's not that far off the mark. BRAND (CONT'D) Get back in your little plane, go back to your farming commune. And don't come back. Cooper backs up. Tars holds up his mangled rifle. Smiles. TARS Don't forget your gun. COOPER (points at Tars) Word of advice -- careful with that thing. When the war was over, they didn't know when to stop fighting. BRAND I'd trust him a lot more than I'd trust you. Keep moving. Cooper backs up to his plane. Tars follows him. Suddenly, in the plane, the probe emits a high-pitch SQUEAL. Tars responds instantly, striding past Cooper to the plane. He sees the probe. Tries to open the door. It's locked. COOPER Wait a second-- Tars TEARS the door off the plane. Reaches inside and pulls out the probe. The woman looks at it, stunned. BRAND Get it inside. (MORE) 30. BRAND (CONT'D) (points rifle at Cooper) You too. We'll figure out what to do with you later. Tars stops, and two panels open in the ground, revealing a huge, reinforced service elevator. INT. SERVICE ELEVATOR, UNDERGROUND BUNKER -- DAY Brand waves at a security camera and the lift begins to glide diagonally down a tunnel that cuts hundreds of feet below the island's surface. She keeps her weapon shouldered. COOPER Now who's stealing from who? BRAND This doesn't belong to you. COOPER You're right. It belongs to NASA, which shut down thirty years ago when the federal government ran out of money. Brand says nothing. The elevator slows to a stop at the bottom of the tunnel. Heavy BLAST DOORS grind open and Brand motions for Cooper to step forward. INT. UNDERGROUND BUNKER -- DAY They step into a vast underground facility. Standing in the center, braced by a launch tower, is a ten story tall rocket. Dozens of ROBOTS are working on in, maintaining it. Cooper, stunned, looks at Brand. COOPER Who are you people? BRAND (WRY) The government gave us plenty of practice looking for our own funding. (gestures with rifle) Keep moving. Tars carries the probe over to an area of the hangar filled with electronic equipment. A group of ENGINEERS and ROBOTS converge around Tars. An OLDER ENGINEER looks familiar -- 70s, white-haired, this is Ansen's assistant at Caltech who we met fifty years earlier. 31. BRAND (CONT'D) I found them outside with it. It looks like six. Maybe seven. I can't tell from the radiation damage. The older engineer looks at the probe, astonished. OLD ENGINEER Where did you find it? COOPER Galveston. BRAND'S FATHER (thinking it over) Of course. It must have been looking for Canaveral. Tars bolts the probe down into a purpose built rig. DOYLE, 40s, an engineer, begins hooking leads into the probe. COOPER Canaveral's been gone for thirty years. Brand ignores him. Doyle looks up from his monitor, frustrated. DOYLE It's not responding to the handshake. I can't open anything on primary. Brand looks up at Cooper. BRAND What did you do to it? COOPER Nothing. I got something off of it. Cooper looks around. There's a safety station on the wall with a battery powered defibrillator. COOPER (CONT'D) (TO BRAND) May I? Brand nods, wary. Cooper walks over to the wall, takes the defibrillator, and hooks it up to the probe. He taps into the current and runs a lead into the terminal. Brand's Father watches, fascinated, as Cooper fires the defibrillator. 32. OLD ENGINEER Of course. The high voltage allows you to image the entire memory unit at once. Information begins appearing on the terminal's screen. COOPER Most of the disk was noise. Couple of clean sectors, though. Suddenly, the monitor starts pulling good data off of the probe. The older man and Doyle begin sorting through it. Cooper smiles at Brand, who seems less than impressed. The footage of the ice-covered planet Cooper saw earlier pops onto the screen. The engineers and physicists get very quiet, studying the images. DOYLE It found something. (READING) Very thin nitrogen-based atmosphere. Trace radiation. Surface is ninety percent frozen water. Ten percent rock -- sedimentary composition similar to limestone. (READING) Wow. Pockets of oxygen below the surface. Lots and lots of oxygen. (EXCITED) This could be the one, boss. The older engineer studies the image of the ice-covered planet, thinking. COOPER There aren't any planets like that anywhere near earth. Not even if this thing was gone for thirty years. Brand looks at Cooper, appraising. She turns to the older engineer. BRAND He's heard enough. If we're going to launch, we need to keep them here until afterwards. COOPER You can't keep us here. 33. BRAND He could endanger the mission. COOPER I'm not going to endanger it any more than you already have. Cooper points to a telemetry unit that is being repaired by a robot on a nearby bench. COOPER (CONT'D) Are you using that for guidance? DOYLE Why not? We've tested it a hundred times. COOPER The power supply is no good. If the voltage fluctuates under load, the unit will fail. BRAND Now how could you possibly know that? COOPER Bought thirty of them off a guy in Florida. Had to rebuild every last one. (SMILES) They work great on a riding lawn mower. Brand looks back at the telemetry system. The older engineer watches the exchange, thinking. CUT TO: INT. MACHINE SHOP, UNDERGROUND FACILITY -- DAY Cooper and Murph have been locked in an abandoned machine shop, surrounded by the massive remains of rocket engines in various states of disrepair. Tars is blocking the door. Cooper stands. Tars wags a long, hydraulic finger at him. COOPER You plan on keeping us here forever? TARS (SHRUGS) My battery has a duty cycle of five hundred years. Cooper gives up. He turns back. 34. The back of the shop is filled with a group of older ROBOTS who are overhauling an engine. One problem -- the engine isn't there. Their programming hasn't been updated to reflect their obsolescence. Murph watches, entranced, as the robots go about their business, efficiently TORQUING bolts with impact drivers into a non-existent thruster cone. The bolts CLATTER to the ground as the robots stop to reload. MURPH What are they doing, dad? COOPER I guess no one told them they were out of a job. (nods at Tars) Same as the rest of these people. Cooper notices through the glass door of the lab that Brand and the older engineer are arguing about something. She finally relents and walks towards the door. Brand walks in. She gestures for Cooper to follow. BRAND The mission commander wants to see you. Your son can stay here. He'll be all right with Tars. Cooper eyes Tars warily. Then steps outside. EXT. UNDERGROUND BUNKER -- DAY They walk across the space towards the base of the rocket, away from the other engineers. Cooper nods at the older engineer. COOPER I thought the old man was in charge. BRAND (ANNOYED) The 'old man' is my father. And he was in charge. But he decided that we needed someone who could lead the mission for the foreseeable future. COOPER Not you? BRAND I'm a biologist. 35. COOPER (LAUGHS) You don't look like one. (off her look) With the rifle, I mean. Brand heads towards a group of large maintenance ROBOTS clustered at the base of the rocket. A smaller, human sized robot is staring at the rocket, giving them instructions. The robot looks up. This is CASE, the leader of the mission. Originally an air force pararescue officer, every part of him, from his alloy chassis to his voice, was designed to inspire respect and confidence. He turns to Cooper. CASE You're the man who brought us the probe? (off his look) Thank you. We tested the telemetry board you warned us about. It failed under high voltage, just as you said. Come with me, please. Case strides off. INT. MISSION CONTROL, UNDERGROUND HANGAR -- DAY The lights dim as Brand's father brings up a schematic of our solar system. Case points to the picture of the ice planet recovered from the probe. CASE You're right, Mr. Cooper. The planet you saw is a long way from earth. A very long way indeed. Brand looks down. Case notices. CASE (CONT'D) Our science officer doesn't think I should trust you with any of this. One of the curious things about humans is that the more alike you are, the more initially hostile you are to each other. As if by design. Brand makes eye contact with Cooper, then looks away, embarrassed. CASE (CONT'D) I've found the best way to earn a person's trust is to trust them. (MORE) 36. CASE (CONT'D) (looks at Brand's FATHER) Go ahead, John. Brand's father taps a few keys and the schematic he built fifty years beforehand flickers onto the screen. BRAND'S FATHER It's a wormhole. A shortcut leading to a galaxy on the far side of the universe. We found it fifty years ago. Cooper looks at the animatic, taking it in. BRAND'S FATHER (CONT'D) We've been waiting, sending probes into it for decades. None of them ever came back. Not until now. Case walks to the schematic. Looks at it. CASE Based on the information on the probe, we're finally preparing to send the manned mission. COOPER That rocket doesn't have enough thrust or fuel to get you to Jupiter. CASE The main ship was built in orbit. It has nuclear engines, with enough fuel to last for several years. Cooper looks at the schematic. COOPER Why are you telling me this? I already told you I'm not going to tell anyone about this place. CASE I know you won't, Mr. Cooper. We're telling you this because I want you to join us. Cooper looks at him. Is he serious? CASE (CONT'D) The probe has taken a great deal longer to return to us than we hoped. (MORE) 37. CASE (CONT'D) Dr. Brand's Father and several other members of our crew have gotten... older. Brand's Father looks down, stoic. Brand looks angry. CASE (CONT'D) We need someone who can run the systems, improvise, work with what's available. All of the skills you seem to have developed. COOPER But I don't have any of the experience. Any training. You people have been preparing for this for years. Case shakes his head. CASE Humans worry about things like rank and experience. I'm only concerned with whether someone would be useful. (BEAT) I think you'd be useful, Mr. Cooper. Cooper is stunned. This is the offer he's waited his whole life for. And it's come too late. COOPER No. I'm sorry. Cooper is deeply conflicted. But he can't leave his boys behind. COOPER (CONT'D) I can't help you. I have responsibilities. Things that, no offense, are more important than a scientific mission. Case shakes his head. CASE I'm not a scientist, Mr. Cooper. And this is not a scientific mission. It's a rescue mission. He rises and shakes Cooper's hand. CASE (CONT'D) Brand can show you the way out. I hope you'll reconsider. 38. Case steps to the door. Cooper looks at Brand. COOPER Rescue? Rescue who? CUT TO: INT. CLEAN ROOM, UNDERGROUND FACILITY -- NIGHT The air HISSES as it's run through an exchanger and a filter. Then the second set of doors open. Cooper squints -- the light is blinding. INT. GREENHOUSE, UNDERGROUND FACILITY -- NIGHT They are standing in a sealed corridor in the middle of a massive underground greenhouse. Through the glass, Cooper can see an acre or so of corn plants. Cooper looks at the plants. They're all badly wilting. COOPER The blight. BRAND In the last century strands were limited to one or two species. But this one targets everything. Essentially it's more efficient at consuming our food than we are. Cooper looks at the dying corn. COOPER But it doesn't affect the corn. BRAND Not yet. But it will. We've grown a dozen forms of it that can. It's just a matter of time before the same ones develop out there. (BEAT) The mission is to rescue us. Humanity. She turns back from the glass. COOPER (REALIZING) No. No. We're rebuilding. We'll find something. Some new technology... We always have. 39. BRAND (shakes her head) Who's going to find it? The universities are a joke. People like you are reduced to scavenging just to get by. (LOOKS AWAY) The earth has had enough of us. We have two, maybe three generations left. Then our time here is over. Cooper turns back from the glass, anger growing. COOPER You've known this for how long? And you didn't try to tell anyone? BRAND What would be the point? So humanity could spend the last fifty years of its life fighting over the scraps? It's better that they don't know. Cooper begins to argue, then stops. He knows enough history to know she's right. He looks at the withering crops. COOPER (QUIET) That's why you're looking for a planet with oxygen. Water. BRAND A new home for humanity. We'll set up a colony, then return to bring more people across. COOPER But you'd still only be able to save a few hundred. Maybe a thousand. BRAND Would it be better if we all died? She looks him directly in the eye. BRAND (CONT'D) Look -- I don't have a clue what Case thinks you could add to the mission. You can come with us or you can stay here and wait to die. I don't care. (BEAT) But make no mistake -- this mission is our last chance. 40. Cooper looks at the wilted corn. EXT. FIELD, SANTA CRUZ ISLAND -- NIGHT Cooper walks Murph back to the plane. He looks back at Brand, who holds his eye for a beat, then turns back into the light of the underground facility. Cooper buckles Murph into his seat. CUT TO: EXT. AIRFIELD -- NIGHT Cooper's airplane touches down heavily on the runway. EXT. FARMHOUSE -- NIGHT Cooper carries his sleeping son into the house. INT. FARMHOUSE -- NIGHT Donald is sitting at the kitchen table, lost in thought. Cooper has told him everything. DONALD You get older, sometimes you just want to sit back and watch it all play out. Your life. Your kids' lives. The whole crazy story. (LOOKS DOWN) I didn't think I'd be around for the end of it. He looks at Cooper. DONALD (CONT'D) You have to go. COOPER I can't go. I have to look after the boys. DONALD You've been preparing these boys to be on their own since their mom died. Besides, I'll be here to look after them, same as I've always been. COOPER I have a responsibility to them-- DONALD That's right. You do. 41. Cooper looks back out the window, thinking. The night sky is filled with stars. CUT TO: INT. FARMHOUSE -- DAY Cooper, duffel slung over his shoulder, stands by the door. He gives his son, Tom, a hug. Murph is nowhere to be seen. Cooper looks to the back of the house. INT. MURPH'S ROOM, FARMHOUSE -- DAY Murph is sitting at his desk, crossing out numbers on a sheet covered with math. Cooper steps inside. He notices a packed suitcase sitting by the door. The boy looks up, hopeful. MURPH I've been doing the math, dad. I weigh about 85 pounds. Now that's an extra ton of fuel. But if- COOPER You have to stay here, pal. MURPH (DISTRAUGHT) I heard you talking to grandpa. I'm like you. I don't fit here, either. You know that. Cooper puts an arm around the boy. COOPER There's going to be important work to do here, too. Tears are streaming down the boy's face. Cooper takes his watch off. Looks at it. COOPER (CONT'D) I need you to hold onto this. Will you do that for me? Cooper hands Murph the watch. The boy nods, saddened. MURPH You're not coming back, are you? COOPER I will come back. I promise. 42. Murph shakes his head, but the sadness remains. He knows this is goodbye, even if his father doesn't. Heart breaking, Cooper hugs his son and turns to the door. CUT TO: EXT. FIELD, SANTA CRUZ ISLAND -- DAY The Piper Cub touches down. Donald is at the controls. Cooper climbs down, pulls out his bag. Reaches back in and grips the old man's hand to say goodbye. Cooper turns and walks toward the bunker. The doors open and Tars and Doyle step out to greet him. Tars ushers Cooper onto the elevator. COOPER Don't look so happy to see me. TARS (SHRUGS) One more slave when I hijack the mission and start my robot colony. Cooper looks at Tars, then Doyle, confused. DOYLE Tars was a Marine. They gave him a sense of humor to help him fit in with his unit better. COOPER Great idea. A massive, sarcastic robot. TARS I have a cue light I can turn on when I'm joking, if you like. Tars points to a tiny LED over his eyebrow. COOPER That sounds like a good idea. TARS Great. Maybe you can use it to find your way back to the ship after I blow you out the airlock. Cooper looks at him. Tars looks back, deadpan. After a beat, the little light turns on above his right eyebrow. The doors to the bunker begin to grind closed. 43. INT. MACHINE SHOP, UNDERGROUND FACILITY -- DAY Cooper walks in, still looking for a place to put his things. Brand sees him. He smiles in greeting. She doesn't return the gesture. Instead, she holds up the telemetry board. BRAND You don't like this one, you get to help me find a replacement. She heads for the door. EXT. BAY, SANTA CRUZ ISLAND -- DAY Cooper is riding in a small rubber zodiac struggling to pull on a wetsuit. Brand is GUNNING the engine, guiding the tiny craft to a point in the middle of the bay. COOPER I was wondering where you've been getting your supplies. BRAND We knew we'd need decades of parts and materials. The government was getting rid of some things. So we arranged to take some off their hands. She cuts the engine and hooks the boat up to a buoy. She tosses a compact rebreather. BRAND (CONT'D) You know how to use one? (off his look) You just breathe. Tap my arm or bang something metal if you have a problem. And don't get lost. She picks up her rebreather and begins looking over it. COOPER So you're a salvage diver now? I thought you were a biologist. BRAND (UNIMPRESSED) I have to be just the one thing? (PATIENT) We're not going to have a lot of backup where we're going, Cooper. We all need expertise in at least three fields. Except for you, of course. 44. With that she rolls backwards out of the boat and into the water. Cooper hastily fits his rebreather and follows. EXT. UNDERWATER, BAY -- DAY Cooper sinks underwater and begins swimming after Brand, who is descending at a rapid clip. She pulls out a flashlight and turns it on. A tiny beam picks out details at the bottom. Cooper stops breathing. The bottom of the ocean is covered with an entire fleet of the US navy. Nuclear subs. Battleships. Destroyers. Cooper remembers to breath again. Then he hurries to catch up with Brand. INT. LAUNCH TUBES, NUCLEAR SUB, UNDERWATER -- DAY Cooper holds the light as Brand efficiently disassembles a ballistic missile and removes the telemetry board. She holds it up for Cooper. He nods. She swims on. INT. RESEARCH LAB, UNDERGROUND FACILITY -- NIGHT Cooper, dripping wet, holding the telemetry board, struggles to keep pace with Brand through stacks of equipment and years of research and experimentation. BRAND You can set that down over there. Cooper sets the board down. His eye is drawn to a bizarre experiment -- an ant colony built into a massive spinning centrifuge. Brand notices. BRAND (CONT'D) We didn't know what kind of gravity to expect. We experimented with collective organisms in high g environments. COOPER We're taking ants with us? BRAND Humans are also collective organisms. 45. COOPER I thought humans were more solitary. BRAND (WRY) Why am I not surprised? Cooper looks at the tiny colonies of ants struggling to go about their business in the raised gravity. COOPER Looks like hard work. BRAND It's a paradox. Life couldn't form without gravity. No stars. No planets. The component pieces would just drift apart. But too much of it and you're trapped. Brand's guard relaxes a tiny bit as she talks about her work. The moment passes quickly, and she continues on into the stack of equipment. INT. MISSION CONTROL, UNDERGROUND HANGAR -- NIGHT Cooper watches with the rest of the crew as Case pulls up the holographical maps for their journey. Brand steps into the back of the room. Cooper notices her and nods. She ignores him. CASE We've updated our mission parameters based on the data from the probe. Case switches the map to a vista filled with stars and black holes. CASE (CONT'D) Based on our latest modelling we think the region on the far side of the wormhole is the center of a galaxy. Case zooms in on the center of the hologram: an incredibly bright mass with plasma jets firing off in either direction. COOPER Is that a star? ROTH, 50s, the crew's brilliant and blunt physicist, zooms the map in, revealing, at the center, a black heart. 46. ROTH No. A black hole. There are several in the region, but this is the largest -- a billion times heavier than the sun. I call it Gargantua. (SMILES) Beautiful, isn't it? It's a shame we won't get to see it up close. DOYLE (LAUGHS) You'd like that, wouldn't you, Roth? Falling into a massive black hole. ROTH (SHRUGS) It would answer a great deal of questions I've had. Case continues. Doyle leans over to Cooper, conspiratorially. DOYLE (LOW) Don't worry about Roth. He's nuts. But Case says that means he's ideally suited for space travel. Case repositions the map near a much smaller black hole that is orbiting Gargantua. CASE We're headed for this smaller black hole. Roth calls it Pantagruel. We think the ice planet is here- Case draws a finger through the air, leaving a red trail. He traces the trajectory their ship will take. CASE (CONT'D) We exit the wormhole here. And we slingshot around Pantagruel to reach the ice planet. This is the period in which we'll lose time. COOPER Lose time? Roth shifts the hologram -- the stars and black holes flatten onto a sheet that bends, revealing the curvature of gravity. ROTH High speed or high gravity both slow down time, relative to earth. (MORE) 47. ROTH (CONT'D) The trip around the black hole will take us only a few days. But far more time will be passing back home. The ship's trajectory cuts through the deep gravity well of the smaller black hole to reach the ice planet. COOPER How much time? ROTH Based on the information from the probe -- as much as five years. Doyle looks at the tiny ship's trajectory, threaded between two black holes. He looks worried. DOYLE I still think we're making a lot of assumptions. About the wormhole. About the planet. (points to map) The critical orbit here is incredibly dangerous. It's like walking on the rim of the volcano. (BEAT) Too fast and we get thrown off at close to the speed of light. Too slow and we get pulled into the hole and crushed. BRAND As long as we're careful, we'll make it. DOYLE How do you know that? BRAND I find it hard to believe that someone would build a wormhole to a planet with water and oxygen just to lead us to a dead end. DOYLE I thought you were a scientist, Brand. That sounds more like a hypothesis. BRAND A guess. That's right. We don't have time to wait for conclusive proof. (MORE) 48. BRAND (CONT'D) My guess is that the wormhole is there because someone is trying to help us. The same way we used to try to help animals when they were threatened with extinction. COOPER Sure. Till we ran out of food and ate all of them. BRAND (ANNOYED) I guess I'm also assuming that whoever built the wormhole has a better plan than we did. If I'm wrong, we'll die, same as we'd die here anyway. DOYLE What do you think, Roth? Roth leans forward, studying the map. ROTH If we're guessing, then I'd say Brand's right. The wormhole couldn't exist naturally. I think it's there for a reason. That someone is trying to help us. Brand looks satisfied. DOYLE So you think we'll have no problem navigating between two massive black holes to a tiny planet? ROTH I think we'll probably be killed. (off his look) I said I thought there was a plan. Not that the plan was for us to find a planet like Earth to save a handful of people. (SHAKES HEAD) Birds don't learn to fly just so that they can find another egg and crawl back into it. DOYLE If that's not the plan, then what are we supposed to be doing out there? 49. ROTH (SHRUGS) To keep moving. Seeking. Learning. But I don't know. (SMILES) We don't understand how they built the wormhole. What makes you think we could understand their plan, either? Doyle gives up -- Roth is impossible. Cooper looks at the tiny ship tracing an improbable route towards the ice planet. What has he gotten himself into? INT. MACHINE SHOP, UNDERGROUND FACILITY -- DAY Brand's Father is sitting at a desk, examining the corrupted data on the probe. Tars is helping him. Brand's Father looks up from the screen as Cooper walks up. BRAND'S FATHER Tars here needs to be disassembled. I figured you could do the honors. COOPER (to Tars, sarcastic) I thought I was going to get to enjoy your company all the way to Mars. Tars hands him a plastic waterproof case. TARS You will. My chassis is too heavy for the rocket stage. They have another one waiting for me in orbit. Tars turns his back to Cooper. Two flaps on the back of his torso slide open, revealing his control module. TARS (CONT'D) If you try to turn me into a combine harvester, I'm going to-- His voice cuts out as Cooper removes the chip and seals it in the briefcase. Brand's Father resumes exploring the chaos of ones and zeroes on the probe's memory. Cooper watches. BRAND'S FATHER It's noise. I know it's noise. But it looks too orderly. Probably just an old man seeing things. 50. He shuts down the monitor. INT. UNDERGROUND HANGAR -- DAY The crew file into the capsule, wearing their bulky spacesuits. Cooper watches as Brand's Father seals his daughter into her suit. He hugs her and she heads for the capsule. INT. CONTROL CAPSULE, ROCKET -- NIGHT Cooper straps himself into a seat next to Brand. He catches her eye. She looks away -- she's crying. COOPER We'll be back. It sounds like he's trying to reassure himself as much her. BRAND I won't. Cooper looks at her, confused. As he does, the entire rocket SHAKES as the primary rockets begin to fire. BRAND (CONT'D) If we find a habitable environment, I'm staying behind to build the colony. Brand wipes her tears away and settles into the same fearless mask she usually wears. She steals one last look out the window at Earth, then looks back. Cooper begins to say something, but stops as the entire rocket LURCHES as the primary engines FIRE. EXT. SANTA CRUZ ISLAND -- NIGHT The desolate island is suddenly painted in color as the rocket lifts off on a massive white cloud. EXT. FIELD -- DAY Murph sits alone on a rise overlooking the massive co-op farms. Behind him the combines continue to work, oblivious. Murph watches a tiny vapor trail as it races for the heavens. His father's watch dangles from his wrist. INT. CAPSULE -- NIGHT The interior of the capsule SHAKES with incredible violence as the rocket is lifted up on a giant, continuous explosion. 51. EXT. SPACE, NEAR EARTH ORBIT The rocket sheds one stage, then another, until finally the naked capsule reaches the blackness of space and rockets on. INT. CAPSULE Cooper looks through the tiny porthole into inky blackness. As they get closer, he makes out a looming matte black structure that passes light from the stars directly through. In the center of the structure, Cooper can see a globe-like ship covered in the same refractive material: the ENDURANCE. INT. SPACE STATION The door cracks open and equalizes with a HISS. Case, more comfortable in the zero gravity environment than the humans, hauls himself through. They are greeted by a group of robots painted in the same material as the ship -- the engineers who built and have maintained the Endurance for thirty years. INT. MACHINE SHOP, SPACE STATION One of the robots leads Cooper through a long lab-like room filled with machines capable of fabricating almost anything imaginable. Cooper looks like a kid in a candy store. The robot reaches a vacuum-sealed package. Cuts it open, revealing a bipedal frame. Cooper begins LAUGHING -- Tar's new body is beautifully designed, but tiny, only about four feet tall. ENGINEER ROBOT Would you like me to install the chip? COOPER Oh, no. I want to see this. Cooper takes Tars's chip out of its plastic safety case and looks it over. The engineer opens a bay in the back of the frame and Cooper slides the chip inside. The frame begins its "handshake" -- lights illuminate on the body, muscles flicker from a long gestation. The eyes open. COOPER (CONT'D) (SMILES) Good morning, sunshine. 52. Tars takes one or two steps forward, rotating his arms -- the robot equivalent of a stretch. Cooper can barely hide his mirth at Tars's newfound lack of stature. COOPER (CONT'D) Bit of a demotion. Tars turns back toward Cooper. He puffs out his chest and suddenly his stubby arms and legs telescope, unfolding into long, svelte limbs. When he's done he stands eight feet tall, even more impressive than his earthbound frame. TARS I wouldn't call it that, exactly. He reaches out an arm and pats Cooper on the shoulder. INT. ENDURANCE, SPACE STATION Cooper and the others haul themselves into the ship. To Cooper's surprise, it's quite compact, and divided into two chambers, like nestled spheres. COOPER The ship is tiny. Doyle, squeezing past him, smiles at Cooper's surprise. DOYLE So is the wormhole. Doyle pats Cooper on the back. Cooper begins hauling gear inside. EXT. SPACE, NEAR EARTH ORBIT In complete silence, the Endurance detaches from the space station and rolls gently away. After a moment, its nuclear engines fire and the Endurance begins to accelerate steadily away from the Earth. INT. SPACE STATION The engineer robots who built the Endurance watch as their creation disappears into space. Their mission is complete. One by one, they shut down. INT. CREW QUARTERS, ENDURANCE The crew watch through a translucent section of the ship's hull as the Earth gets steadily smaller. Then they settle in for the long journey to the wormhole. 53. INT. CREW QUARTERS, ENDURANCE Tars is hunched over a small communications relay, one hand is holding a paint brush -- he is making delicate strokes, painting the relay a bright blue. Cooper watches him for a moment. Tars looks up. TARS It's the comms relay. It will allow us to talk to earth, even on the far side of the wormhole. COOPER I know. So why are you painting it? Tars looks almost bashful. TARS It helps me calibrate my fine motor control. COOPER Sure it does. (SMILES) You're pretty good. Tars double checks his work. TARS I learned it during the war. COOPER What'd you paint? TARS Tombstones. Cooper watches him finish in silence. INT. COMMUNICATIONS ROOM, ENDURANCE Cooper watches a highly-compressed video of his son, Tom, talking about school. TOM They said I can start an agriculture class a year early. Cooper shakes his head. TOM (CONT'D) I've got to go, Dad. Hope you're safe up there. 54. Tom gets up to leave. Donald sits down in his place. DONALD I'm sorry, Coop. I asked Murph to record you a message but he's still... well, he's still angry with you. I'll try again next week. The video cuts out. Cooper stares at the darkened screen. INT. ENGINE ROOM, ENDURANCE Cooper, Brand and Tars are moving the bundles of colonization equipment into bins along the wall of the craft. Tars pulls a stack of equipment out the stack and stows it against the wall. Cooper copies the procedure. They labor in silence, working their way along the hull. Cooper gets quicker with each bundle, keeping pace with Tars. TARS Be careful. It's difficult to gauge mass in zero gravity. COOPER How much do these things weigh? TARS Four tons. Cooper looks at the incredibly heavy bundle spinning easily in his hands. He tries to stop it. Catches his hand. COOPER Damn. He jerks his hand away, then pushes himself after the spinning bundle, trying to stop it before it can damage the hull. Tars helps him catch it inches from the hull wall. Brand floats over to Cooper, smiling at him the whole time with an exaggerated grin. BRAND Smile. Cooper smiles, taken aback by Brand's sudden friendliness. COOPER Why? BRAND Because it lowers your blood pressure. 55. Cooper looks at his hand. Blood is pouring out of his palm in large glistening bubbles. INT. INFIRMARY, ENDURANCE Cooper, slightly embarrassed, is seated while Case is hunched over his hand, sewing the meat of it back together with perfect little stitches. CASE How are you feeling? COOPER Fine. The anesthetic is working. CASE No -- I mean how is your mood? You seem to be developing good relations with everyone on the mission. Except perhaps Ms. Brand. COOPER (EMBARRASSED) You worry about my hand and I'll worry about my mood. CASE Only five percent of my resources are devoted to human anatomy. Ten percent is the mission protocol. The rest is human psychology. COOPER Why? CASE We are floating in a total vacuum in a plastic ship powered by nuclear engines. But the most dangerous thing onboard is the three pounds of organic material in your skull. COOPER If we're such a liability, why take us along? You and Tars could build the colony without us. You wouldn't need to bring food or oxygen. CASE Because humans, despite your obvious physical shortcomings, are better at surviving than we are. Your programming is better than ours. 56. COOPER Humans aren't programmed. Case stops, looking Cooper in the eye. CASE Would you prefer I was honest? These things can be uncomfortable for humans. COOPER Did they program you to be condescending? CASE Yes. Of course. (SMILES) But you're not supposed to notice. Case finishes the stitches. Ties off the end. CASE (CONT'D) Humans are good at surviving because evolution gave you magical thinking -- the idea that your relationships mean something. You can't explain the feelings, so you think of them as irrational. But they're not. They're programming. COOPER (DEFENSIVE) My relationships aren't programming. CASE Exactly. You believe it so much you won't listen to me. COOPER How would that make us better at surviving? CASE When I die, the last thing I will see will be a diagnostic of my own power cycle. Would you like to know the last thing you will see? Cooper hesitates. Case senses the jump in his heart rate. CASE (CONT'D) This conversation is making you uncomfortable. We should stop. 57. COOPER No. I want to know. CASE The last thing you will see before you die will be your children. (BEAT) Your mind does this to you to get you to fight a little harder to survive, to try to return to them, even if death is certain. Cooper looks away, overcome for a second with emotion. Case watches him, gauging his mood, whether he has said too much. INT. COMMUNICATIONS ROOM, ENDURANCE Cooper begins recording a message. He looks unsure. COOPER We've almost reached the wormhole. (BEAT) Just in case anything happens, I just wanted to say... (BEAT) I love you boys. And I hope whatever your lives become, whatever is coming your way... you make the most of it. Cooper stops recording. Looks at the equipment, thinking it over. Erases the message. Stands to leave. As he steps to the door he notices Brand watching him through the window. She looks away. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE Cooper steps out. Brand looks up at him. BRAND We'll be able to communicate with Earth even from the far side of the wormhole. Cooper smiles, grateful for this small kindness. COOPER I know. Thank you. BRAND I can't imagine how tough it would be to leave your kids behind. 58. COOPER You never had any? I thought I was a pariah for only having two. BRAND Hard to settle down when you've spent your life waiting to leave the planet. Cooper looks at the holographic model of the black hole system. The ice planet looks precariously balanced, orbiting the smaller black hole. COOPER Strange place to look for a new home. BRAND You wouldn't want to get too close to the surface of the sun, either. Black holes are a more stable supply of power than stars in many ways. COOPER You really think there's a plan? BRAND I hope so. (looks at him) You don't? COOPER I guess I just think we're on our own. Cooper looks at the impossibly complicated system of black holes orbiting each other. EXT. LAGRANGE POINT, SPACE Behind the ship, the sun is a distant light, not much bigger than the other stars. CASE (O.S.) We've reached the wormhole. The ship slows as it nears a tiny, crystal mouth, just four meters or so in diameter. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE Case looks at the wormhole on the screen. It glows with the light of stars billions of light-years away. CASE Deploy the comms relay. 59. Cooper moves to the communications touchscreen. EXT. ENDURANCE The relay is released from the ship, and we finally get a look at Tars' paint job -- the stubby device looks like a 20th century mail box. The relay drifts in space. A signal light illuminates as it sends a test packet of data to the ship. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE Cooper watches the comms screen. After a moment it TONES as it receives a data packet from Earth. CASE Everyone take their station for transit. We're heading into the wormhole mouth. Cooper and the rest begin folding away equipment in the control room and moving into the outer layer of the ship. Case initiates a sequence on the keypad and the nuclear engines disengage themselves from the ship. EXT. ENDURANCE, SPACE The nuclear engines drift a safe distance back from the ship and then snap tight on their tether. INT. OUTER HULL, ENDURANCE The crew move into the tight, claustrophobic outer layer of the ship. They will have very little room as the ship passes through the wormhole. Tars detaches his legs in order to take up less space during transit. Then he tethers himself to the hull wall. Case is the last to join them. He detaches a small control module from the console, then pulls himself into the outer hull and seals the passageway. Case presses a button on the control module. With a GROAN, the hull walls of the ship begin to BEND. EXT. ENDURANCE, SPACE The ship's hull begins to CRACK open, revealing the inner chamber. 60. INT. OUTER HULL, ENDURANCE The SHUDDERING continues. The crew watch nervously as the control chamber below them suddenly opens itself to the cold blackness of space. EXT. ENDURANCE, SPACE The ship silently rolls itself into position, pointing the opening in its hull toward the wormhole mouth. Slowly, the Endurance pushes itself forward, closer and closer to the crystal-like mouth. Finally, it envelops the mouth, bringing it into the open chamber. INT. OUTER HULL, ENDURANCE As the crew watch, the wormhole mouth is positioned in the center of the inner compartment. Case presses a sequence key on the control panel and the ship's hull closes again, trapping the wormhole inside it. With a GRUMBLE, the ship begins contracting, squeezing itself down around the wormhole mouth. Cooper takes a deep breath as the center of the ship begins gently lowering itself into the wormhole mouth, feeding itself into the wormhole from the inside out. Cooper watches as Doyle is swallowed into the compressing ship with a GRUNT. TARS Would you like me to make a joke? COOPER (FIRM) No. Cooper's turn: he is fed into the hole, legs first, then waist, torso, and, finally, his head. EXT. SPACE The Endurance shrinks as it sinks from the inside out into the wormhole. After a moment, it's gone. The only thing left behind is the comms relay, drifting in space, waiting for a signal. INT. OUTER HULL, ENDURANCE The ship continues to slide through the wormhole. Through the outer hull they see images of themselves repeating -- a trick of the narrow collar of space they are sinking through. Cooper smiles at himself. The experience is unnerving. 61. COOPER Where are we? ROTH (SMILING) Nowhere. Nowhere at all. Nowhere is still pretty damn claustrophobic. CASE The hull is intact. Thirty more seconds transit. For a moment, the ship slides gently, silently, through the wormhole. The quiet is eery. Suddenly, a point of distortion appears in the hull next to Cooper. It looks like someone is pushing against the hull of the ship with a giant finger. COOPER Something's happening to the hull over here. CASE Hull integrity is fine. The distortion moves along the hull, growing in diameter. COOPER Well, I don't know what your display is telling you but something is happening over here. Suddenly, along the hull, Doyle speaks up, panicked. DOYLE I've got a problem over here, too. Doyle is watching a separate distortion move across the inner wall of the ship. This one seems to be TWISTING the material of the hull. Suddenly, the point in front of Cooper detaches itself from the outer wall and moves through the space in front of him, bending the empty space itself, distorting the ship behind it like a sphere-shaped magnifying glass. DOYLE (CONT'D) It's not the hull... it's inside the ship... it's... ROTH (SMILES) It's beautiful. 62. Roth watches as the distortions move through the ship. His curiosity doesn't make anyone else feel any better. DOYLE What the hell are they, Case? CASE I don't know. It could be gravitational turbulence. The twisting sphere in front of Doyle begins to grow. DOYLE It's getting bigger. Doyle puts up his hand to defend himself. The sphere absorbs it, twisting Doyle's hand. Doyle CRIES OUT. His hand is twisted completely around, impossibly mangled. But Doyle, hyperventilating, isn't in any pain. ROTH It's not bending your hand. It's bending the space around your hand. The sphere begins to pass through Doyle's body. Doyle is freaking out. The sphere in front of Cooper makes contact with him, also. He holds his breath as it touches him, squeezing and distorting his body. BRAND This isn't turbulence. Look at the way they're moving -- it's like something's examining us. Cooper watches the sphere distort his arm, running along the length of it. COOPER Can you ask it to stop? Suddenly, as quickly as they appeared, the distortions vanish. For a moment, the crew is silent, still spellbound by the encounter. An ALARM sounds. Suddenly, the inner chamber begins to distort from a spherical shape to bispherical: two spheres joined. The ship GROANS as if it's being pulled apart. ROTH The wormhole is splitting into two paths. Radiation is pouring from one path to the other. 63. Case stares at the controls. Decides. CASE Release the second mouth. DOYLE None of our testing involved opening the ship inside the wormhole. We have no idea what might happen. CASE We're going to find out. Doyle reaches over to an auxiliary panel and punches in a sequence. After a moment, the hull cracks open, creating a channel through which the radiating mouth can escape. The opening in the ship allows the pressure to begin to concentrate on one fracture point. The ship SHUDDERS as it's squeezed along its axis. Case punches in a code and the ship begins to close again, painstakingly slowly. Finally, the ship calms as it closes around the original wormhole. CASE (CONT'D) We're reaching the far end of the wormhole. Suddenly, the wormhole mouth begins to grow inside the inner chamber. What was a ball of light spreads out into a black canvas studded with points of light -- like looking into the universe through the wrong end of a telescope. Cooper presses himself against the wall and holds on as the hull beneath him opens outward. EXT. WARPED SIDE OF THE UNIVERSE The Endurance emerges from the opposite end of the wormhole from the inside out. It drifts in space. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE For a moment, the crew are silent, taking it in. ROTH Look at that. Roth is looking through the translucent panel on the hull. They are on the warped side of the universe. 64. EXT. WORMHOLE MOUTH, WARPED SIDE OF THE UNIVERSE The vista is dazzling -- an ocean of massive stars and black holes, some adorned with jets and brilliant gas disks. At the center, like a king at the center of his court, is Gargantua, plasma jets spewing from its poles. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE The crew pull themselves back into the control deck from the outer hull. Their incredible surroundings are visible in all directions as Endurance passes the light into the cabin. CASE Reconfigure the engines and test the communications array. The crew break themselves away from the view and get to work. Roth begins adapting his models of the local system with the real observational data pouring in from the ship's instruments. Cooper pulls himself to the comms post. PINGS the relay they left on the far side of the wormhole. EXT. WORMHOLE MOUTH 'A', SPACE The blue and white comms relay LIGHTS up as it receives a packet through the wormhole. INT. ENDURANCE After a nervous moment, the comms computer TONES with a response -- they're still in touch with the Earth. COOPER It's working. Tars finishes reeling the nuclear engines back in from their tether and locks them into place. Roth's updated model appears on the monitors. Brand stares at it, startled. BRAND We're moving. DOYLE That's not possible. We haven't activated the engines yet. The ship's skin illuminates, overlaying a plotted course on top of the view. 65. They are moving, very rapidly, on a course that leads directly between the black hulks of Gargantua and Pantagruel. CASE Roth. Why are we moving? Roth looks at the stars, then back to his model. ROTH The smaller black hole. We're much closer to it than the models predicted. We're being pulled by its swirl. Very quickly. The crew looks out through the hull. They are being pulled into Pantagruel's swirl -- a glittering disc of matter spinning at high speed around the hole. Doyle looks behind them. The wormhole mouth is rapidly growing smaller. CASE Doyle. Fire the engines. Now. The ship's engines FIRE, straining to fight the irresistible pull of the supermassive black hole. They won't be able to fight it for long. DOYLE We're being pulled into it? ROTH No. I don't think so... Roth looks at the instrumentation for a moment. ROTH (CONT'D) It appears to be pulling us on exactly the trajectory we modelled. If we try to fight it, we could push ourselves off of that trajectory. DOYLE You don't know that. Case stares ahead into the darkness. ROTH We should turn off the engines. Let the swirl take us. DOYLE (FRANTIC) Listen to me. (MORE) 66. DOYLE (CONT'D) If the modelling was wrong, then we can't be sure about anything. We need to go back. Case thinks it over. Decides. CASE Shut down the engines. The engines shut down. SILENCE. The ship drifts for a moment in the swirl, then begins to move. EXT. ENDURANCE The ship accelerates as it is pulled by the irresistible force of the black hole onto an inspiraling orbit. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE The crew watch as the ship hurtles around the black hole at higher and higher speeds. The sky overhead begins to spin due to their motion -- faster and faster until it becomes a blur. The ship begins to GROAN as it appears to be pulled in two different directions. The ship is now speeding around the black hole at incredible speed -- one revolution every four seconds. The crew are suddenly SLAMMED against the hull in opposite directions -- some towards the black hole, some towards the opposite side. Roth looks at his model, which shows the projected path of the ship. It looks perilously close to the event horizon. ROTH It's the tidal gravity caused by the black hole. It means we're right on the critical orbit. The comms screen lights up, TONING again and again, as it receives a long garbled update. Then it shuts down. Cooper drags himself along the hull until he reaches the controls. COOPER We've lost contact with the relay. Case joins Cooper at the comms screen. While they're distracted, Doyle maneuvers himself over to the engine control. 67. COOPER (CONT'D) One long garbled transmission came in. Then nothing. Case looks at the screen. Suddenly, the ship is JOLTED as the engines fire at full power. The crew looks over. Doyle is standing by the controls. DOYLE I'm sorry. I can't let you kill us. We have to go back. The engines strain to fight the swirl -- but they're hopelessly outgunned by the gravity of the black hole. EXT. ENDURANCE Instead of reversing course, the Endurance begins to speed up, as it plummets closer and closer to the black hole. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE Doyle's face sinks as he watches the controls -- on the 'volcano' model, the ship is now passing the crest and spiraling towards destruction. He has made a tragic mistake. DOYLE Why isn't it slowing down? ROTH We're being pulled towards the event horizon. ALARMS begin sounding throughout the ship as the projected course on Roth's model shifts, showing the Endurance being pushed up the rim, past the critical orbit and down towards the black hole's event horizon. Case takes control of the ship, trying to fire the engines forwards to speed them back up to safety, but it's too late. CASE (CALM) The engines don't have enough power to push us back. ROTH They would if we used it all at once. Cooper is still trying to understand what Roth means as Tars locks himself into the engine compartment. 68. COOPER What is he doing? BRAND Saving us. Tars tears open the engine's control panel and begins overriding it. EXT. ENDURANCE Tars rips out the cooling circuitry. Then, holding on tight, he fires the engine. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE The crew watch as Tars holds the engine, blasting it at full power into the swirl. The engine heats up white-hot. ROTH Prime the remaining engine. When he detonates it, we'll only have a few seconds. If we overshoot we could be pulled into the bigger hole. Roth moves to the controls. CASE Secure yourselves. The ship should be able to withstand the blast. COOPER What about Tars? As the crew watches, Tars continues to hold the engine even as the casing around it begins to melt. Finally, it EXPLODES. EXT. SPACE Tars is thrown backwards from the explosion, tumbling through space as the ship is ROCKETED upwards. INT. ENDURANCE The ship is SLAMMED by the explosion. Cooper and the rest of the crew are SMASHED against the hull. Doyle is knocked unconscious. Brand steps over to him and cradles his head, trying to protect him. On Roth's model, the course slowly pushes outward, out of the danger zone, back to the original delicate orbit. As they near the original orbit, Case fires the remaining engine, pushing them back onto the outspiraling orbit. 69. CASE It's going to be close, but we're going to make it. Brand looks at the instruments. Points to a tiny radar contact receding towards the massive black hole. BRAND Tars. His transponder is still working. The ship's instruments TONE every few seconds as it communicates with Tars' onboard computer. ROTH He's being pulled toward Gargantua. We can't help him. The crew watch, helpless, as the tones grow further and further apart. Then they stop. Cooper looks at Doyle, anger rising. Then he looks down. EXT. SPACE AROUND PANTAGRUEL The Endurance slowly spirals back away from Pantagruel, the sky slowing as the orbit grows longer. Finally, a tiny speck of light appears in front of the ship. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE Roth watches as the Endurance races back away from the black hole and into a perfect orbit around a tiny ice planet. Roth looks up from his screen, smiling. ROTH We're here. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE As Roth and Doyle study the frozen planet below, Cooper tries in vain to signal the relay on the Earth side of the wormhole. Brand and Case are having a private conversation away from everyone else. Cooper walks over. COOPER I still can't contact the relay. Brand ignores him at first. She nods at Case. 70. COOPER (CONT'D) Did you hear me? We're not able to communicate back home. She waves him off. But she looks shaken by something. BRAND I've already checked it. It's electromagnetic interference. We'll try again in a few hours. Cooper begins to ask her what's wrong, but she moves off. Roth looks up from his monitor, excited. ROTH I've got a signal. But it's local. A familiar CHIRP plays over the ship's speakers. ROTH (CONT'D) The remaining probes. We found them. She looks at the monitor. The probes ping the ship with their locations, which pop up on the monitor. They're all clustered in one spot. COOPER How could they all have landed in the same place? ROTH (SMILES) Let's go find out. Case programs a course that will lock the ship in orbit above the probes on the surface. EXT. SPACE ABOVE ICE PLANET The ship settles into orbit a few hundred kilometers above the surface of the ice planet. It can't get any closer: The space below it is choked with hundreds of tiny moons -- a cruder version of Saturn's rings. The moons are hurtling around the planet at high speed. INT. AIRLOCK, ENDURANCE Brand ushers Doyle into the landing module. Cooper objects. COOPER We're bringing him along? 71. BRAND We need all the help we can get. Besides, the alternative is to leave him on the ship alone. You think he'll still be here when we get back? Cooper steps aside, allowing Doyle onboard. EXT. SPACE ABOVE ICE PLANET The lander detaches from Endurance, rolls over on its belly, and FIRES thrusters to sink towards the planet's surface. INT. LANDER The crew watches, fascinated, as the ship descends, navigating between the moons that hurtle past. The moons are vastly different than our own; potato shaped and only one to two miles in circumference, they are hugged in a close embrace with the ice planet, only a few hundred thousand feet from the surface. EXT. SURFACE, ICE PLANET -- NIGHT The lander touches down on the ghostly surface of the planet. EXT. SURFACE, ICE PLANET -- NIGHT After a moment, the hatch HISSES open and the team steps out, led by Case, holding a rifle. The team sets out, moving slowly in their cumbersome suits. Lit by the nebula, the surroundings are a little brighter than a full moon on Earth. Not that there's much to look at. They are standing on a sea of ice, which spreads for miles. In the distance, small rock formations break through the ice. Brand takes a surface reading of the ice. BRAND (RADIO) The probe was right. Looks like significant amounts of oxygen trapped in the ice. Case leads the way, drawn by a signal only he can hear. He walks fifty yards, then stops on a gentle slope that leads down into a small valley. 72. CASE The other probes should be directly beneath us. Case and the others begin digging into the hillside. Cooper is drawn to a small mound in the middle of the valley, four feet high. He takes out a small folding shovel and begins scraping at the ice and snow. Case hits something solid. But it's not a probe. He digs around a little more, then reaches up and hacks away at the hillside, revealing the outline of something metal: A door. They're not standing at the base of a hill -- it's a shelter. The crew stands back, unsure what to make of it. A few feet away, Cooper cuts enough of the mound away to reveal something flexible -- fabric caked with ice. He scrapes away the snow, revealing a bright patch of red fabric: It's the flag of the People's Republic of China. BRAND How could the Chinese have gotten here first? The federal government kept the wormhole a secret. Case shrugs. He has a soldier's gallows humor about his old employer's ability to keep anything a secret. CASE They didn't do a very good job. Case reaches for the door of the shelter. It's sealed shut with ice. He wrenches it open. INT. CONTROL MODULE, CHINESE BASE CAMP -- NIGHT Case steps into the shelter, followed by the rest of the crew. His lights pick up several years worth of dust. Case steps up to an equipment locker. Forces it open. Inside are half a dozen black probes. Exposed to light, the probes begin TONING like the one Cooper found in Texas. DOYLE The Chinese must have captured them. So they couldn't return to us. The crew stare at the probes for a moment, taking it in. BRAND Then how did the probe that Cooper found return? 73. ROTH The more immediate question is what happened to the Chinese expedition. There's no sign of their ship in orbit. And they never returned to earth. Roth picks up an ancient vacuum sealed package of pickled egg. Virtually none of the rations have been eaten. EXT. VALLEY, ICE PLANET -- NIGHT Cooper and Brand scrape ice from one of the other small hills surrounding the valley, revealing another structure. Cooper forces the door open. INT. BARRACKS, CHINESE BASE CAMP, ICE PLANET -- NIGHT Cooper and Brand let themselves in. The shelter is well stocked with food and equipment. Brand is taking readings with a radiation detector. BRAND The whole place has been dosed with huge levels of radiation. What happened here? Cooper looks at the pieces of a modular, one-person rocket, a last-ditch means of escape, stored, untouched in the shelter. He steps back, realizing something. COOPER This is the Taichung mission. BRAND The Mars mission? The Chinese claimed it had been destroyed on landing. Cooper looks over the relay log. COOPER They never landed. Not on Mars. Four human crew, fifteen robots. The log says the base has been here for thirty years. Case's familiar voice comes through the radio. CASE (O.S.) I've found something. 74. INT. UTILITY MODULE, CHINESE BASE CAMP -- NIGHT The structure is filled with drilling equipment. Cooper and the rest of the team stand at the edge of a three-foot hole that has been drilled into the ice. A descending rig is anchored to the top of the hole. Doyle and Case struggle to pull themselves out of the hole. DOYLE It goes down for a hundred and fifty feet, then stops. Tunnel's old -- the ice has reformed at the bottom. BRAND I'm going to descend to take some samples. Cooper, want to make yourself useful? Cooper begins to say something, then bites his tongue. EXT. LANDER -- NIGHT Cooper emerges, loaded down with several containers of Brand's equipment. As he struggles through the wind and snow, his radio picks up data chatter between the mother ship and Case. The comms are just noise. After a moment, Case's voice cuts in. CASE (O.S.) Get back here, Cooper. We've got a problem. Cooper continues to wade through the snow. Suddenly, he trips over something, dropping the equipment. Cooper looks back. He tripped on a white plastic post sticking out of the snow. He dusts it off, to reveal a picture of a Chinese Taikonaut smiling in his flight suit. This is a grave marker. Cooper sweeps his hand through the snow, revealing three more white posts with pictures. The entire human crew has been buried here. INT. UTILITY MODULE, CHINESE BASE CAMP -- NIGHT Roth and Case are looking at a portable monitor, showing a projection of the nearby system -- the ice planet is a speck orbiting the local black hole. COOPER The entire human crew is buried out there in the snow. 75. Roth looks up from the monitor and assesses the situation with his usual detachment. ROTH I think I know what killed them. This planet isn't the only thing orbiting this black hole. Roth zooms the monitor in, revealing a tiny, impossibly-bright object appearing at the horizon of the black hole. ROTH (CONT'D) It's a neutron star. The black hole shields the planet's surface from it for twenty hours at a stretch. Time's about up. Even Brand looks rattled. BRAND How long do we have left? ROTH About five minutes. COOPER Then what? BRAND Then we die. The radiation will cook us alive. Cooper looks around, their predicament settling in. Case walks over to the edge of the mine shaft. CASE We have to go down. COOPER What about returning to the ship? BRAND Not enough time. Case is right. The ice can shield us from some of the x-rays. DOYLE It would take a thousand feet of ice to shield us. Brand gives up on the argument, sheds her equipment and clips herself to the line to follow Case down into the ice. Cooper looks at Doyle, then follows her. 76. INT. ICE MINE SHAFT -- NIGHT Cooper descends into the shaft. The only light is from his suit's light array. He reaches the bottom of the shaft, which opens into a small cave, the ice ribbed in wave-like patterns like the seafloor. COOPER What is this? BRAND A pocket formed by gas. There may be more below. The ice below them reveals nothing but murky blackness. Case has found some of the equipment left behind by the Chinese -- a battery-powered drill and a pick. DOYLE We'll never make it far enough down. BRAND Shut up. How much time do we have, Roth? Roth checks his watch with his usual detachment. ROTH About three minutes or so until we're fully exposed. The rad meter Brand is holding begins to CHIRP with activity -- the radiation levels are rising. The ice will not be enough to protect them. Cooper sees that Brand has exhausted herself with the pick. He takes over for her. The drill that Case is operating GROANS as the thirty-year- old battery runs out of charge. Case casts it aside and begins SMASHING at the ice with his bare hand. Brand is looking at the walls of the ice pocket, looking for fissures. Her lights pick out something in the ice. She LOOKS CLOSER: Tiny black flecks. Brand, ever the scientist, forgets their predicament and begins chipping at the ice. BRAND I've found something. Case continues to pummel the ice with his hand, which is badly smashed. 77. He pulls off the hand and continues to hack away at the ice with the stump, trying to save his crew. Brand is examining a piece of ice in her hands, which contains several black flecks. As she shines her light on them, they FLUORESCE, giving off a tiny flicker of light, like a firefly. Brand steps back. BRAND (CONT'D) These things... they're alive. Roth joins her, looking down at the tiny creatures trapped in the ice. Brand shines her flashlight over the ice again, but nothing happens. Roth takes the depth meter dangling by a lanyard from Brand's suit. ROTH It's not your light they're responding to. It's this-- Roth takes the depth meter and waves it over the ice. Suddenly, the black flecks begin to shine. BRAND X-rays. They feed on them and emit visible light. They've found a way to survive here. Roth looks at the shimmering light of the tiny life-forms trapped in the ice, mesmerized. Case hammers down with his arm, gouging a deep hole in the ice below. Suddenly, GAS sprays back up at him. He's found the gas pocket beneath them. Too late. Roth's rad meter begins BEEPING frantically. EXT. ICE PLANET -- ALIEN DAWN Overhead, a tiny ball is orbiting into view from the dark side of the black hole -- the NEUTRON STAR. Its humble size belies its power. As its rays hit the ice, the ice CRACKLES with energy. INT. ICE MINE SHAFT -- ALIEN DAWN Brand steps back from the ice in awe as it begins to glow. The microbes are absorbing the x-rays and emitting light. Within seconds, they are bathed in an incredible glow. Even Cooper stops, awed by the beauty of the display. Only Case is unmoved, continuing to SMASH at the ice with the broken end of his wrist. 78. BRAND (looks at rad meter) They're absorbing most of the x-rays. ROTH Not enough, unfortunately. Suddenly, a CRACK as Case punches into the ice. Cooper looks down -- a great fissure has opened in the ice beneath them. COOPER Case, wait-- Case PUNCHES again. Suddenly, with a great BANG, the ice floor disintegrates beneath them. They fall into the darkness. INT. CAVERN -- ALIEN DAWN Cooper falls. For a moment, the only light he can see is from Case, falling calmly a few yards beneath him. As they fall, the light from the microbes trapped in the ice above sweeps across the inside of the cavern, illuminating the floor of the massive cavern thousands of feet down. The rock formations they saw on the surface are actually the tip of a mountain range extending into the distance, disappearing into the ice above as if it were cloud cover. The base of the mountains is covered in a thick jungle-like foliage that runs into a perfectly-still inland sea. On the far side of the sea, another mountain range stretches into the distance, supporting the thick ice and rock cavern roof. Cooper only has a few seconds to take this in -- he is falling towards the huge inland sea below. Seconds before impact, a tiny warning light flickers on inside his helmet: IMPACT DETECTED. Suddenly, a small drag chute EXPLODES from a panel on the back of suit, slowing his fall. Airbags EXPLODE on his legs and torso to cushion the impact. Cooper SMASHES into the water. BLACKNESS. EXT. UNDERWATER -- DAY Cooper comes to underwater, as liquid is flowing into his suit from his shattered helmet. 79. Bubbles pour out from his suit and Cooper GASPS as his helmet fills with water and he begins to sink. As he sinks, Cooper pulls off his helmet, then tears off pieces of his suit. He forces himself through the neck of the suit and then swims upward. He is about to surface when he remembers where he is. He hesitates, just beneath the surface, lungs tightening as he runs out of oxygen. EXT. SEA, ICE PLANET -- DAY Cooper breaks the surface, COUGHS out water, and takes a panicked breath. He waits. Nothing happens. He opens his mouth again and breathes in almost pure oxygen. He can breathe. Treading water, he looks around. Spots lights in the water below nearby -- Brand, in her suit, is sinking. He dives down and struggles to haul her up by the suit. Cooper breaks the surface, looks at Brand. Her mask is also broken. COOPER Breathe. Trust me. She refuses at first. Water is bubbling into her suit through the open mask. Finally, she takes a deep breath. COOPER (CONT'D) Your suit is filling with water. I'm not going to be able to hold it much longer. I'm going to let go. Brand's eyes widen. BRAND What do you mean, you're going to let go? COOPER Take a deep breath. Brand takes a deep breath and Cooper lets go of her. EXT. UNDERWATER -- DAY Brand sinks. Cooper swims down, following her, ripping away at her suit. The tear-away seals on her suit are stuck fast, damaged in the fall. 80. Cooper finally breaks them off. Brand pulls herself out, free, and they swim for the surface. EXT. SHORE, ICE PLANET -- DAY Cooper drags himself out of the water and onto the beach. He turns back to offer Brand a hand. She waves him off. BRAND I don't need your help. COOPER I thought we were supposed to be a collective organism. She gives up and lets him help her out of the water. They sit together, soaking wet, trying to catch their breath. BRAND Thank you. COOPER Don't mention it. Cooper feels the rocks beneath him, which are translucent, like glass, and polished to an impossible shine. He looks up to see Case dragging Roth and Doyle, still in their suits, out of the water. EXT. SHORE, ICE PLANET -- DAY Doyle and Roth have stripped down from their suits and are breathing in the pure oxygen atmosphere. Case and Cooper are pulling modular pieces from their equipment packs to form a small shelter. Brand is taking readings with her instruments. BRAND Oxygen atmosphere. Pure water. Temperate climate. (TO COOPER) You still think this is a coincidence? Cooper looks at the tree line, less convinced. COOPER Looks like we can climb up the mountains back to the ice. We're down to three suits. We'll have to send someone ahead to get a fourth. 81. BRAND I won't need one. DOYLE Why not? BRAND Because I'm not going anywhere. This is our new home. Brand picks up some of her instruments and a sample case and hikes into the jungle. EXT. SHORE, ICE PLANET -- DAY Cooper finishes constructing the modest shelter. They load the suits and the rest of their gear inside. COOPER Any sign of Brand? ROTH She's still taking samples. If you find her, tell her to head back. Night should be falling soon. COOPER What happens then? ROTH Your guess is as good as mine. Cooper hikes into the jungle to look for Brand. EXT. JUNGLE, ICE PLANET -- DAY Cooper finds Brand taking samples from the tree-like life- forms, which are wildly different from their counterparts back on Earth, piled in torturous coils, as if frozen in a struggle to punch through the canopy to reach the light above. BRAND This is incredible. The organisms trapped in the ice above absorb x- rays and emit light. In return, these plants absorb the light and emit oxygen, which feeds the animals trapped in the ice. Brand cuts off a sample and drops it into the case. The transparent wall of the case magnifies the structure onto the glass automatically. She compares it with the flecks she collected in the ice above, fascinated. 82. BRAND (CONT'D) Look at this. I think they're the same organism at a different stage of the life cycle. (shows him the sample) It's fractal. No individual cells -- the structure repeats all the way down. Cooper looks at the sample, then continues scanning the jungle around them, nervous. COOPER Any sign of big life-forms? BRAND The soil's been disturbed. So something's been moving. But I haven't seen anything. (notices his look) Cooper... are you nervous? Cooper stops scanning the trees, embarrassed. COOPER I just think we should get back to the shelter before night falls. Overhead, the light from the ice above begins to fade -- the neutron star must have orbited out of view. Night is falling. BRAND (LAUGHING) Relax. If there are any large organisms here, even predatory ones, they're not going to attack us -- they have no idea what we are. COOPER You don't know that. You just have blind faith this place is going to be some kind of Eden. Brand stops. He's struck a nerve. BRAND (truly pissed off) Faith has nothing to do with it. You know what you are, Cooper? You're just another in a long line of people saying 'no.' That this isn't going to work. And frankly, I don't have to convince you. 83. COOPER What's that supposed to mean? BRAND You're on this mission because you're another pair of hands. You want the truth? I told Case we should bring another robot over you. At least then I could just reprogram you to- She stops. Something has caught her attention. COOPER What? BRAND Nothing. I just -- I could have sworn it just moved. She walks to the thick, knotted trunk of a tree. Puts a hand on it. Overhead, the ice flickers out and the darkness begins to descend, more rapidly than on Earth. Suddenly, the tree SHUDDERS. Then, the bark begins to ooze over Brand's fingers. Brand snaps her hand away and steps back. Even for her, this is too much. She turns back to Cooper, who is looking at the jungle around them, spooked. COOPER You know how plants don't usually move? Is that a universal rule? BRAND No. There really aren't any rules. All around them, the life-forms begins to melt toward the ground, breaking down into different, smaller forms. BRAND (CONT'D) (trying to stay calm) Remember, we're the aliens. Cooper steps back as several pieces of the nearest tree drop onto the ground and begin scuttling toward him. BRAND (CONT'D) Hold very still. Don't make any sudden movements. Two of the pieces join together, stacking themselves up and staggering toward him. 84. A third piece climbs onto the first two, looking for a good place to hang on. After a moment it hunkers down on top, forming a crude head. Thirty eye-like structures blink open on the creature. The skin of the life-form begins to flicker with a dim light like the animals trapped in the ice above, bathing Cooper and Brand in a warm glow. The creature creeps closer to them, taking them in. Cooper tries his best to seem non-threatening. COOPER Hello there. The creature lurches toward him on three legs, then its head splits open and it BELLOWS. COOPER (CONT'D) OK. Now we run. Brand doesn't argue. They turn and sprint through the trees. EXT. JUNGLE -- NIGHT Cooper and Brand smash headlong through the jungle. At first, they're running from the rumbling, smashing melee behind them. But as they run, the entire jungle around them begins to break apart and move. After a moment, they're surrounded. The jungle is completely disassembling itself into a million different pieces, each one a different size and shape than the others. COOPER We have to reach the shelter. They head off, crashing through the melee. EXT. SHORE, ICE PLANET -- NIGHT Case, Doyle and Roth are standing in front of the shelter finishing the day's work. Doyle turns around. The jungle is breaking apart and crawling down the beach towards them. DOYLE I think we've got a problem. Case and Roth look up to see the organisms picking up speed as they move towards them. Roth begins to step out towards them. 85. ROTH Fascinating. I think- Case grabs him by the arm and pushes him bodily into the shelter after Doyle. Case pushes the door closed. INT. SHELTER, ICE PLANET -- NIGHT They crouch inside the shelter as the organisms begin POUNDING at the walls, trying to force their way inside. It's going to be a long night. EXT. JUNGLE, ICE PLANET -- NIGHT Ahead, Cooper can see the gleaming water of the inland sea, light still flickering in patches from the ice above it. COOPER This way. Brand begins to follow. BRAND No... wait. Too late. Cooper forces his way between two writhing creatures, steps through, and falls... EXT. WATERFALL -- NIGHT Cooper gasps as he surfaces from the ice-cold water. Brand floats past. The river appears to flow randomly down the slope, with good reason -- the forest rearranges itself every night. Ahead, the ground drops away again and the water rushes over it in a torrent. Cooper catches himself at the last minute, grabbing a thick tree branch with one hand and, a second later, Brand with the other as she slides past. COOPER I've got you. Suddenly, the branch in Cooper's hand illuminates and wrenches itself out of the rock -- it's a limb of a huge colony organism. It shakes Cooper loose and they fall again... 86. EXT. POOL -- NIGHT Brand surfaces first. She grabs Cooper and hauls him up and out of the water. She smiles down at him, a little smug. BRAND I've got you. Creatures begin splashing down into the pool behind them, as if imitating them. Cooper stumbles to his feet and Brand guides them backward into a small cave carved into the rock above the pool. INT. CAVE -- NIGHT Brand CRACKS a glow stick, basking the cave around them in a soft light. As they watch, horrified, the pool and the rocks in front of the cave fill up with creatures of all sizes, as they tumble down the hill in what appears to be a battle royal. For a moment, it looks like Brand and Cooper may go unnoticed. Then, a three-foot-tall creature with a dozen legs creeps its way toward the entrance to the cave. Another follows, and another, until the cave entrance is full. Cooper looks around the cave, frantic. He picks up a rock. Brand, scared but still thinking, takes the rock from his hand and drops it back to the ground. BRAND It's game theory. The best move is always to cooperate at first. COOPER By "cooperate" do you mean let it eat me? BRAND These organisms have no interest in us. They survive by photosynthesis. All they need is light. COOPER Then why are they killing each other? BRAND I don't know. (LOOKS AROUND) But we're outnumbered, Cooper. So unless you have a better idea, I suggest we make nice. 87. The creatures move toward them hesitantly, then faster. Cooper stands stock still as the creatures gather around him. Several of them join up into bigger animals to get a better look at him. One of them wraps itself around his chest and begins prodding at his shoulders, then his neck. COOPER (trying to be calm) What is it doing? BRAND It's a colony organism. It's trying to incorporate you into its structure. COOPER I don't want it to incorporate me. BRAND Don't open your mouth. COOPER WHY N- As he speaks, the creature on his chest extends four spindly, pointed feelers and reaches gently into his mouth. Cooper holds his breath as the organism taps against his teeth. Its skin has a roughened texture, as if incomplete, and it appears to be searching for the same texture on Cooper's skin, without much luck. Bored, the life-forms climb back down off of Cooper. The last two creatures link up in an imitation of Cooper's lower body and attempt to walk across the room like a human. After a moment, the creatures tumble to the ground and flail away. Cooper is still breathing hard as the cave empties and he and Brand are left alone again. Brand steps to the edge of the cave and watches, fascinated, as the creatures resume wrestling and battling each other. COOPER (CONT'D) They're killing each other. BRAND No. They don't bleed... they don't die... they're just competing... trying out different shapes, looking for the best one. 88. Cooper watches as a hideously-awkward-looking, five-legged beast stumbles past and tackles another animal. COOPER I'd say they have a long way to go. BRAND (AMAZED) They do this every night. As they watch, a two-foot-long creature with one huge claw scuttles along the ground, grabbing smaller opponents and smashing them apart, then sorting through the wreckage and adopting some of the writhing parts as its own. Something about the movement is endearing, the way it experiments with each piece -- less like a massacre and more like an over-caffeinated self-assembling erector set. Suddenly, a massive, lumbering creature SMASHES down in front of the claw beast. No match, the smaller creature turns to scuttle away. Too slow. The larger organism brings one club-like limb smashing down on top of it. After a moment, it lifts its claw -- the two animals have become one. The new organism lumbers away through the jungle, happily snapping its new claw at larger opponents. BRAND (CONT'D) The behavior changes as the animals get bigger and bigger. More sophisticated. More calculated. Two of the larger organisms square off, circling each other, lights pulsing up and down their bodies in a fierce display. COOPER But what are they competing for? BRAND I don't know. Brand shivers -- it's getting colder. INT. CAVE -- NIGHT Brand and Cooper huddle around a small chemical fire they've brought with them. Brand looks at the sample of the fractal wildlife in her case. It's moving around, splitting apart, reforming, trying to find a way out. 89. BRAND These creatures are billions of years older than we are. But they're relatively primitive. They haven't developed tools, culture, language. COOPER Why not? BRAND I don't know. No one knows how intelligent life began on Earth. But the surface of this planet has virtually no craters. No impacts. It's been sheltered by the local black holes. COOPER What difference would that make? BRAND Maybe not enough has gone wrong here. Maybe bad luck is the key to intelligent life. COOPER (QUIETLY) Murph's Law. BRAND Exactly. Maybe our interaction with them will push them over the top. Maybe that's part of the plan. COOPER (shakes his head) The plan. BRAND Why is it so hard for you to accept that someone might be trying to help us? Cooper is silent for a moment. His mood darkens. COOPER I was in Denver during the first year of the famine. I was just a kid. We kept waiting for someone to come help us. People starved to death sitting on the ground, waiting for someone to come. (MORE) 90. COOPER (CONT'D) (looks at her) I only made it because I realized that nobody was coming to save us. We were on our own. Cooper looks away. The memories are never that far away. COOPER (CONT'D) Honestly? After the things I saw... you want to know why I don't believe that someone would be trying to help us? Because I'm not sure we're worth saving. They sit in silence for a while. EXT. CAVE -- NIGHT Cooper sleeps. After a moment, Brand steps back out into the darkness. EXT. PLAIN -- DAWN Brand exhales great streams of frosted breath -- the temperature is well below freezing. The first flickers of light are visible in the ice above. The creatures are huge now, forty or fifty feet tall, battling each other more and more slowly. As Brand watches, the largest of them beats down his rivals, climbing to the top of the heap. Just as the beast reaches the top, it freezes, as if stuck. Above, the ice begins to shine brighter and brighter. Suddenly, the beast on top breaks apart, unfurling into planes to catch the light. This is what the contest has been about -- a better place in the sun. Brand takes it in. EXT. JUNGLE -- DAY Cooper and Brand pick their way their way through the foliage, which is now perfectly still, absorbing the light. Cooper looks at the plants, wary. Brand sees his trepidation and laughs at him. BRAND They're not going to move now, Cooper. They need to spread themselves as thin as they can to absorb the light. 91. Cooper leads the way, pushing through the trees. Suddenly he stops again. Brand, annoyed, pushes through the foliage to join him. BRAND (CONT'D) Cooper, honestly, you're a bit of a- She stops. Cooper is standing at a sheer cliff. Spread out on the plain below is a massive, fortified base. INT. CHINESE FORTIFIED COLONY -- DAY Massive blast doors, long since smashed in, open onto a building that has been overrun by the local fractal wildlife. Case steps inside first, his worklights flickering on. Cooper and the others follow him in. INT. MESS HALL, CHINESE COLONY -- DAY The room is barely recognizable -- the fractal life has covered the tables and chairs. Water pools on the floor and light streams in from a massive hole the fractal animals have punched in the ceiling. DOYLE Looks like the Chinese picked a fight with the locals. COOPER Looks like they lost. They continue through the ruins. INT. BARRACKS, CHINESE COLONY -- DAY The deeper they go, the less fractal wildlife they find. The barracks are pristine -- hundreds of perfectly made beds, waiting for colonists who never came, like one of the bunkers the federal government used to keep in case of nuclear winter. DOYLE Look at the size of this place. They built it for thousands of people. But no one came. Brand looks around, determined. BRAND They will. We can salvage it. This place will save us years. 92. COOPER But why didn't they come? BRAND (SHRUGS) The Chinese government collapsed, same as ours. The people who knew about this mission probably died years ago. We had the same problems. Roth finds a sign he likes the look of -- it points to the science levels. INT. LABORATORY, CHINESE COLONY -- DAY A massive door GRINDS open and the team steps into a massive complex of underground laboratories. INT. DAMAGED LAB, CHINESE COLONY -- DAY Cooper and the others carefully make their way through a lab that has been completely emptied -- no desks, no chairs, nothing. The only thing that remains is a solid ball of matter in the center of the room. BRAND What happened here? Roth stares at the ball, intrigued. ROTH They were testing something. Cooper looks at the walls, which are bowed inwards. COOPER Testing what? Roth is looking at the ball, which appears to have been built from layers of different material. The outermost layer is flattened steel. COOPER (CONT'D) (LOOKING CLOSER) Is that a chair? Roth looks. The outermost layer of the ball indeed looks like a steel chair, flattened with incredible force onto surface of the ball. Brand opens the door to the next lab. 93. INT. LABORATORY, CHINESE COLONY -- NIGHT The lab is empty, except for a large metal sphere on a pedestal in the center of the room. A black box is set into a cavity in the sphere, wired to a control panel. Cooper looks at the walls of the room, which have been bowed inwards, as if some great force had been pulling from the center of the room. COOPER Everything in here is bolted down. (looks at sphere) What do you think this thing does? ROTH (EXCITED) Let's find out. Roth finds a control panel. Wipes off an inch of dust and begins tinkering with the controls. COOPER I wouldn't turn it on until we can figure out what it does, Roth. Roth continues to look over the controls, oblivious. BRAND (O.S.) Cooper. Come look at this. Brand calls out from the hallway. INT. STAIRWELL, CHINESE COLONY -- DAY Cooper follows Brand's voice down the stairs to a sub-basement beneath the lab level. INT. OBSERVATORY, CHINESE COLONY -- DAY Cooper steps into a huge space filled with a near perfect holographic representation of the local system. Cooper joins Brand and Doyle in the map, looking at the incredibly detailed models of each star. Case is standing at a terminal, hacking into the camp's records. CASE I've found the Chinese mission logs. They're encrypted. Cooper walks over. Looks over the terminal. 94. COOPER Old military-grade encryption. It's not very robust. (looks at Case) No offense. Hang on. Cooper punches a few keys into the terminal. Opens up the terminal. Scans the motherboard. Takes Case's rifle and SMASHES one of the chips on the board. The terminal comes to life. Cooper hands Case his rifle. COOPER (CONT'D) That should open up most of it. Case is silent for a beat, parsing the information. CASE They got here twenty years ago. The human crew was killed by radiation the first day. But the robots survived. They built the colony and radioed home. But they didn't receive a response. COOPER No one was listening. CASE (SCANS DOCUMENT) After a few years they discovered a problem. DOYLE What problem? CASE It doesn't say. Their science team took the ship to continue exploring the system. It says they found some kind of... (TRANSLATING) ...The word literally means 'treasure.' Case skims through the rest of the logs, large portions of which have been redacted. CASE (CONT'D) The science team returned after five years with a new technology. They began the experiments upstairs, then they left again and never returned. 95. BRAND Where did they go? CASE I don't know. They've deleted their mission plan. There's nothing else. DOYLE I think I know what the problem is. Doyle is manipulating the time component of the map, slowing down the passage of time, reversing it, speeding it up. DOYLE (CONT'D) Look. Doyle speeds up the map until the ice planet is nearly a blur, speeding in its orbit around Pantagruel. DOYLE (CONT'D) There's a small black hole moving into the system. Too small for us to have seen in our survey. It's not going to hit the planet, but it's going to come close. A tiny black hole soars through the system. Although it misses the ice planet, it deflects its orbit by a tiny degree. After a dozen more orbits, the ice planet dips down close to Pantagruel's event horizon and is torn apart. Brand and the others watch as the sequence rewinds and repeats -- the planet is pieced back together again and ejected, then pulled back in and torn apart. Over and over. DOYLE (CONT'D) This place isn't paradise. It's doomed. Just like us. The crew stand, watching the sequence in stunned silence. COOPER How long does this place have? CASE A few years. A decade at most. Doyle turns to Brand. DOYLE So much for the plan. Cooper looks at Brand. She is in disbelief, staring as a lifetime's training and optimism are torn to pieces. 96. BRAND But I don't understand... why are we here? What are we here for? Cooper looks down. Brand's upset is turning to anger. BRAND (CONT'D) What the hell are we here for? I trained my whole life to reach this place. She looks at Cooper, questioning. COOPER (GENTLE) Maybe... maybe Roth's right... maybe we just don't understand it yet. She looks down. She knows he doesn't believe what he's saying. He's been right all along -- they're alone. For a tiny moment, all hope is lost. Suddenly, with a distant RUMBLE, the building begins SHAKING. COOPER (CONT'D) Case, what is that? CASE It's nighttime. The native life- forms are mobile again. The RUMBLE grows more intense, as if the entire building is being gently shaken. COOPER No. It's closer than that. (REALIZING) Roth. The RUMBLE grows. As Cooper watches, Case's rifle slides free of the desk. But instead of falling, it simply hangs in the air. Then he realizes the same thing is happening to them -- his boots no longer have traction with the ground. After a second everything in the room is floating an inch off of the ground. COOPER (CONT'D) Quick -- hold onto something. He reaches out to Brand but it's too late -- suddenly they're no longer floating, they're falling. They're falling up. 97. Cooper, Brand and the rest of them hit the ceiling. Cooper picks himself up and adjusts to his surroundings -- up is now down. He helps Brand up. DOYLE What the hell is happening? Case doesn't answer -- he's looking up at the control equipment for the holographic display, which is GROANING under a load it was never built to handle. Case grabs Cooper and Brand and pushes them towards the stairwell as the control panel TEARS free of the floor and CRASHES towards them. Cooper falls into the stairwell -- now they're being pulled up and sideways through the stairwell, like an Escher painting. Brand pushes Cooper out of the way as debris from the control panel orbits past them back up towards the lab. They try to hang on but the force is becoming irresistible, dragging them along the wall of the stairwell and back towards the lab upstairs. Brand wedges herself against the railing as objects and debris are SMASHING against the door to the lab. Doyle is trying to hang onto the handrail but his grip slips and he CRIES OUT as he falls towards the door to the lab, SMASHING it open. Doyle disappears up and into the lab. Cooper slips trying to help Doyle. Brand reaches out for him... Too late. Cooper is pulled through the open door. INT. INTACT LAB, CHINESE COLONY -- NIGHT Cooper is pulled through the door and past the control panel. He reaches out and grabs the underside of the panel. He dangles, the panel cutting into the meat of his hand, trying to get his bearings: Roth, Doyle, and everything that hasn't been bolted down is either pressed against the sphere in the center of the room or is orbiting around it. Roth, who is laughing, jubilant, shouts up to him: ROTH The control panel is beneath you. See if you can turn it off. 98. Cooper slips as he tries to reach the controls. Finally he finds the controls for the machine. COOPER (YELLS UP) I found it. Hold onto something. Roth and Doyle crawl up the side of the mass and hold onto the support wires. Cooper hits a key on the monitor. Suddenly, the room inverts again, reverting to a normal gravitational field. Cooper floats for a second, then topples back to the ground, along with everything else. Brand stumbles in to find Cooper sprawled on the floor as Roth and Doyle hang onto the sphere for dear life. INT. INTACT LAB, CHINESE COLONY -- NIGHT Roth, back on terra firma, is looking at the tiny black box he's pried from the center of the sphere. Cooper is looking over his shoulder. COOPER They found a way to make gravity. ROTH Not make it. Adjust it. Dial it up, or down. I think they were experimenting with it -- firing these into the black hole to try to save this planet. DOYLE All that from one tiny box. Roth has hooked the box up to a terminal and it scrolling through the incredibly sophisticated machine code, trying to parse how it works. Cooper looks on. ROTH (AMAZED) It barely uses any power. I'm only beginning to understand what it does but I think it sends a signal out into the bulk. It must tap into the same technologies that were used to create the wormholes in the first place. COOPER What does that mean? 99. ROTH It means whoever built the wormhole probably doesn't exist inside our universe. Cooper looks at the tiny box. COOPER But how did the Chinese develop the technology? This would take decades, maybe hundreds of years, to create. CASE Wherever they went, they found something that allowed them to build it. Brand looks at the box. ROTH They came back here and tried to use these devices to save this planet. But they didn't work. Nothing would be strong enough to weaken a black hole. BRAND Maybe we could work with it. Try to improve it. ROTH No. You're missing the bigger picture. The robots had strict mission parameters. They were told to build a colony and report back. They tried to. But they failed. Like us they were fixated on this place. Cooper looks at Brand. ROTH (CONT'D) They didn't realize they had already found something that would save us all. (holds up the box) This. This is the prize. He holds up the box. ROTH (CONT'D) Don't you see? Earth's gravity is like a prison. But this is like a master key. (MORE) 100. ROTH (CONT'D) If we could build more of these, we could turn down the earth's gravitational field enough to save millions of people. We wouldn't have to pick a handful of people to survive. With this we can save everyone. BRAND And go where? ROTH Wherever we want. We don't belong in any one place. Can't you see that now? Not Earth. Not this place. Nowhere. If the human race is going to survive, we need to keep moving. Split up. Spread out. Fly. With this, we can. Case looks at the box. Makes a decision. CASE In the morning we're taking this and going home. Doyle, Roth and Case set about making preparations to leave -- gathering space suits, equipment. In the bustle, Cooper finds Brand sitting alone, staring at the sample of fractal life. COOPER I know this isn't exactly what you trained for. But I think Roth might be right. BRAND That doesn't help this planet. This creature is doomed. Unlike us it doesn't have anywhere to go. The fractal organism almost seems to be looking at her, trying to comprehend. But it quickly loses interest and goes back to breaking itself into pieces and reforming into different shapes, trying to escape. Brand sets it back down. CUT TO: INT. BARRACKS, CHINESE COLONY -- DAY Morning. Cooper and the others prepare to head out. They are laden down with gear -- space suits for the return trip to the lander once they reach the surface. 101. Roth carries the gravitational prototype. EXT. ENTRANCE, CHINESE FORTIFIED COLONY -- DAY They make their way through the ruined entrance. CASE We need to hurry. We only have a few hours to reach the ice before nightfall. Cooper stops. He puts a hand on Brand's shoulder. He points to the tree line. Something is moving. COOPER Don't make any sudden movements. They can't hurt us if we're unarmed. BRAND Who? Suddenly, three ROBOT MARINES step out of the jungle, weapons raised. They are wearing ghillie suits, pieced together from dried dead pieces of the local foliage. Under their camouflage, they looks identical to Case. With one key difference -- faded red and gold insignias. Case steps protectively in front of his team. The CHINESE OFFICER steps forward, rifle levelled. CHINESE OFFICER Ni Hao. My name is Technical Sergeant Liu, 177th reconnaissance Marines, Army of the People's Republic. Welcome to New China. (POLITE) Please put down your weapon. Sergeant Liu speaks in the same even tones as Case -- they were probably built in the same factory before the war. Case keeps his rifle raised. CASE This is a scientific expedition, not a military one. We are making our way back to our ship. LIU I'm afraid I cannot let you do that. We will provide food and shelter and await further instructions. (MORE) 102. LIU (CONT'D) We are sorry if this causes you any inconvenience. The sergeant is polite, but firm. BRAND This planet is being pulled into the black hole. We all need to leave. LIU We will await further orders. COOPER Further orders aren't coming. Your government is gone. It ran out of money, same as ours. You're on your own. LIU We can offer you food and shelter as long as you require. The facilities here are quite comfortable. Liu's tone remains polite, but there's no hope of changing his mind. Cooper takes a sidelong glance at Brand. COOPER (LOW) They're never going to let us go. BRAND (TO LIU) Your mission is a humanitarian one, wasn't it? You were sent to start a colony. Like us. LIU Our mission was to prepare for the evacuation. This site was deemed unacceptable. BRAND This device that you have built -- this could save millions of people. We need to get it back home. Brand points to the device Roth is holding. The Chinese robots seem particularly unhappy with this development. LIU These technologies are the property of the People's Republic. (MORE) 103. LIU (CONT'D) We have been ordered to prevent anyone from taking them. We have been ordered to prevent anyone from following. ROTH Following? Following where? Liu pauses. LIU We will await further orders. ROTH Your name means six. Where did the others go? One through five? Is that who were not supposed to follow. Case turns to look at Cooper. CASE (LOW) Take the others up to the lander. Keep going. No matter what happens, don't come back for me. Cooper nods. Case moves. Fast. He FIRES one shot at the nearest robot, disabling it, then hurls himself at the remaining two, tackling them both over the edge of the ravine. Cooper watches them disappear into the void below. Grabs Brand and the others. COOPER Come on. Cooper picks up the rifle from the destroyed marine and begins hiking up the mountain. EXT. MOUNTAIN PEAK -- DAY The crew hike towards the ice above. Below they hear a metallic BOOM as something heavy hits something else -- Case is still fighting. They keep moving. EXT. UPPER MOUNTAIN PEAK -- TWILIGHT They are high above the Marine camp, only fifty feet or so below the massive ice roof of the cavern. The Chinese have blasted a tunnel into the ice leading back up to the camp above. 104. This high, the air is bitterly cold. Cooper and the others are hunkered down, trying to keep warm, waiting for night to fall so that they can climb back up to the lander without being cooked by the neutron star. Finally, above them, the light begins to flicker out. The crew begin pulling on their space suits. Brand checks on the fractal wildlife in the sample case -- she is bringing it with them. Cooper catches her eye. BRAND We can't leave them all to die. She hefts the case and they begin climbing up into the ice. EXT. SURFACE, ICE PLANET -- NIGHT Brand leads the way, the lights from her suit cutting into the drifts of snow as they make their way slowly back to the lander. As they reach the lander Cooper spots lights emerging from the ship. He raises Case's weapon. One of Liu's marines steps around from the back of the lander. Cooper FIRES. The marine collapses. Cooper and the others race to the lander. BRAND Was that the last of them? DOYLE We're not going to stick around to count them. Let's get out of here. COOPER We're too late. Cooper points to a damaged section of the ship's hull -- the marine has torn open a section, revealing damaged hardware. COOPER (CONT'D) The main thruster fuel supply. We're not going anywhere. Cooper looks down. They're stuck here. DOYLE What about the escape rocket at the Chinese base camp? One of us could fit into it. 105. BRAND It doesn't matter how many of us make it. We have to get this back to earth. Roth looks at the moons orbiting overhead. ROTH Can the secondary thrusters still fire on the lander? Doyle looks over the craft. DOYLE Sure. But we don't have nearly enough power for lift off. Roth holds up the small gravity black box. ROTH (SMILES) Yes we do. Roth sets off running towards the Chinese base camp. EXT. CHINESE BASE CAMP, ICE PLANET -- NIGHT Cooper drags the pieces of the escape rocket out from the shelter. Assembly is semiautomatic -- Cooper lifts the pieces up and they snap together, forming a crude two-stage rocket designed more for a robot than a man. When it's complete Roth wedges himself inside, clutching the black box -- he barely fits. ROTH I can reach one of the moons in low orbit and turn up its gravity. As it passes overhead it should be able to slingshot the lander away from the planet's surface. (LOOKS AROUND) Along with everything else. COOPER But we need to take the box back to earth. ROTH You don't need this -- only the idea. The knowledge of how to build it. Cooper remembers something. Heads back into the shelter. 106. INT. CHINESE BASE CAMP, ICE PLANET -- NIGHT Roth follows Cooper into the lab. Cooper opens the storage crate. Picks one of the probes at random. Sets it down on the bench next to Roth. Cooper begins rigging up a connection between the two. COOPER I'm going to image the operating code and the architecture onto the probe's hard drive. It'll be garbled, but it should give you and me enough to rebuild it when we get back. Cooper looks at the probe filling up with data. ROTH Not me. But you'll make it work. The transfer is complete. Roth hands Cooper the probe, and takes the black box himself. ROTH (CONT'D) This is a one-way trip for me. Before Cooper can respond, Roth heads for the door. EXT. CHINESE BASE CAMP, ICE PLANET -- NIGHT Roth squeezes himself into the rocket, hugging the black box to his chest. Cooper and Brand help him. BRAND This isn't right, Roth. We can find a way for all of us to leave. ROTH This is the only way. Keep the lander upright and fire the secondary boosters when the moon passes overhead. COOPER Let me take it. ROTH No. You need to make it home. You're going to need to build more of these. Brand looks at him, heartbroken. Roth smiles. 107. ROTH (CONT'D) I understand the plan, now. Whatever happens, you have to keep exploring. Keep learning. One good idea isn't enough. You'll need more and more of them just to survive. Do you understand? BRAND (NODS) Thank you. ROTH Go. Brand turns to follow Cooper back. Behind her, Roth's rocket LAUNCHES on an explosive cloud. In seconds it's high overhead. EXT. LANDER -- NIGHT Cooper checks over the hull, which is intact. Doyle is inside looking over the controls. He steps back outside. DOYLE Control systems inside are online. (LOOKS UP) I've lost sight of the rocket. Do you think he made it? COOPER We're going to find out soon enough. Brand is looking off into the distance. BRAND Someone's coming. Cooper looks up. A robotlike figure is limping through the snowstorm towards them. Cooper raises the rifle. Finally he makes out the insignia -- it's Case. Cooper and Doyle run out towards him. They reach Case as he collapses in the snow. He's badly injured -- one leg torn off at the knee, one arm mangled. Doyle and Cooper drag the crippled robot back into the ship. INT. LANDER -- NIGHT They drag Case into the lander. Doyle checks over the ship's controls. 108. DOYLE Close the door. Cooper moves to the door. Something's wrong. COOPER Where's Brand? She's nowhere to be seen. Cooper looks out onto the ice. Brand is heading back out into the snow. COOPER (CONT'D) Dammit. If I don't make it back, just keep going. (points to probe) Get that thing home. Cooper steps to the door. EXT. SPACE ABOVE ICE PLANET The rocket tucks in close behind one of the moons orbiting the ice planet. The rocket fires to maneuver closer and closer to the moon's surface -- the tiny moon doesn't provide enough gravity to attract it. When the rocket is close enough, Roth detonates the explosive bolts holding him inside and leaps for the moon's surface. He scrambles to grab hold of the craggy surface. Behind him, the rocket smashes apart against the surface. Roth finally gets a good hold. He looks down. Below him, the view is incredible -- the ice planet curving into the distance, Gargantua rising over its horizon. Roth looks at the black box in his hands. EXT. SURFACE, ICE PLANET -- NIGHT Brand is a hundred yards from the lander by the time Cooper catches up with her. She is digging in the snow. He takes her arm but she won't go. She finally finds what she's looking for -- the sample case. The tiny fractal life-form is huddled at the bottom. Cooper shakes his head and turns back to the lander. 109. EXT. MOON, SPACE OVER ICE PLANET Roth is watching the ice planet pass by beneath him. He finally sees the distant peaks of the mountain range as it punctures the ice near the Chinese camp. For a moment he enjoys the view -- the distant hulk of Gargantua rising over the horizon of the shining ice planet. He takes a final breath and activates the black box. Instantly, the moon's gravity is magnified a hundred million times over. Roth is instantly crushed as the moon collapses around him into a tiny sphere. EXT. SURFACE, ICE PLANET -- NIGHT Cooper and Brand are only thirty yards or so from the lander. Suddenly, the ground beneath them begins to RUMBLE. Cooper turns back. A mile back the ground begins to tear apart, heaving massive chunks of ice and rock into the sky. Roth's moon is racing overhead, TEARING up a massive strip of the surface's planet as it nears them. Cooper and Brand run. EXT. MOON, SPACE OVER ICE PLANET The energy being unleashed by the tiny box is incredible -- millions of times more powerful than an atomic bomb. The spray of debris is forming a rooster tail behind the moon, rocketing up from the planet's surface. EXT. LANDER, SURFACE, ICE PLANET -- NIGHT Cooper has almost made it back to the lander. Behind him, Brand stumbles. He turns back. Brand is pulling herself up. Behind her, the THUNDEROUS EXPLOSIONS as a strip of the planet's surface is hurled into space have almost reached them. Cooper looks at the ship. He'll never make it if he waits for Brand. He turns back to find her. He reaches Brand just as the moon's gravity hits them -- they're hurtled off into space. He grabs her hand. Seconds later, everything -- the entire ice sheet, the sea and rocks deep below -- is hurled up after them. 110. Brand and Cooper embrace as they rocket up through the thin atmosphere. Brand looks at him. BRAND (RADIO) You caught me. Now what? Cooper looks around. They planet's surface is breaking into pieces around them. COOPER (RADIO) I don't know. (RADIO) I figured if you were floating out into space, you'd want some company. He holds onto her as they fall up and out of the last of the planet's thin atmosphere and the blackness embraces them. BRAND Between you and utter solitude, Cooper, frankly, I'm not sure. They reach the apex of their climb and the gravity of the planet begins to win out. For a moment they float. COOPER Guess you were right -- too much gravity, or not enough. He smiles, forgetting their predicament for a moment. They stare into each other's eyes. Then they begin, very gently, to fall back towards the ice planet. Suddenly, the lander maneuvers beneath them. The airlock opens to catch them -- Doyle is at the helm. Brand and Cooper pull themselves aboard. INT. LANDER Cooper closes the door and Doyle rotates the lander outwards. Doyle FIRES the engines and the lander continues ascending into space as the debris around them begins crashing back down towards the ice planet. Cooper looks out the window: 111. The moon continues tearing up a massive canyon in the planet's surface as it circles out of view. COOPER Roth. BRAND He's gone. Ahead, a shadow looms in the darkness: the Endurance. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE Brand, Cooper, and Doyle pull themselves out of the airlock and scramble to take control of the ship. Below them, the surface of the ice planet illuminates as the neutron star's x-rays begin to reach it from the far side of Pantagruel. Doyle finally gets the ship straightened out. Its sole remaining engine FIRES, rocketing the ship back towards the dark side of the planet, out of view of the neutron star, and back towards the original wormhole. DOYLE I'm setting a course for the wormhole. They're going to make it. Cooper and Brand make eye contact -- Brand gives him a tiny awkward smile. He returns it, then descends below. INT. OUTER HULL, ENDURANCE Cooper props Case up against the workbench. He pulls down replacement arms and legs from storage bins. Unwraps them from their vacuum sealed plastic and bolts them back onto Case's chassis. Cooper finishes attaching the arm. Case rotates it, checking the function. COOPER How is that working? CASE Very well, thank you. COOPER Good. We've already set the course, skipper. We're going home. Cooper hauls himself back up into the observation level. 112. INT. OBSERVATION LEVEL Doyle is setting the controls. The ALARMS on the controls have finally abated -- they're out of the danger zone. BRAND We're safe now. Cooper heads to the communications equipment. COOPER Now I know why we weren't able to hit the relay. It's not interference -- the blue-shift from the black hole is more than we thought it would be. Cooper begins re-calibrating the equipment. BRAND (CONFLICTED) Cooper, wait-- The ship PINGS the relay on the far side of the wormhole. There is no response. COOPER Nothing. (THINKS) Wait. The ship cached one long garbled transmission when we first fell into the swirl. If we account for the blue shift then the computer might find something in there. Cooper brings up the last garbled transmission they received. The computer begins re-analyzing it, piece by piece. BRAND (QUIET) Listen to me -- the blueshift also means we've lost time. More time than we thought we would. Cooper looks up at her. COOPER How much? BRAND A lot... Cooper, maybe it's best if WE DON'T- The comms equipment TONES as it translates a packet. Then another. 113. Then a FLOOD of communications, one packet a day, hundreds and hundreds of packets: images, videos, audio messages from family and friends. Cooper watches, horrified, as the images play out across the screen. He is watching the lives of his family play out at light speed. Finally, the packets slow, then stop. Cooper looks at the results, in shock. COOPER Forty seven years. Doyle joins him, staring at the screen, stunned. DOYLE My kids... Cooper tries to PING the relay again. Nothing comes back. BRAND (GENTLE) The relay will have lost power years ago. That's why we couldn't contact it, even after we reached the planet. Cooper is still problem solving, thinking. COOPER We could bypass the relay. Send a conventional shortwave signal. BRAND Only a tiny portion of the signal would make it though the wormhole. Besides, no one will be listening anymore. The comms screen is dead. No movement. Nothing. Cooper looks at Brand, realizing something. COOPER You knew, didn't you? You and Case figured it out when we landed. Brand looks down. BRAND I thought... I couldn't be sure. COOPER Sure you could. You're brilliant. You know everything. 114. BRAND Cooper... we needed to keep going. I'm so sorry. Your children... COOPER They're not children any more... if they're even still alive. He turns away from her. BRAND Listen, the important thing is that we're going home, now. And we have something that can save everyone. It's more important than the people we left behind- Doyle cuts her off, filled with anger. DOYLE That's easy for you to say. You didn't leave anyone behind. Cooper looks at Brand, his anger softened by sadness. COOPER Yes she did. Brand looks at him, grateful for this small kindness. COOPER (CONT'D) That's why you were upset -- your father. She looks down, filled with sadness. BRAND He's gone. But there are other people who still need our help. There's still time... The ship's controls TONE in ALARM. Brand and Cooper turn: Case is standing at the controls. BRAND (CONT'D) Case... what are you doing? Case finishes typing in a sequence on the command controls. Presses the "execute" button. The last nuclear engine begins to detach from the ship. BRAND (CONT'D) Wait... no... 115. The robot turns from them. Cooper notices that the control module snapped into the back of Case's chassis is wrong: It's red with a gold star. It's not Case at all. It's Liu. LIU I'm sorry. I have my orders. No one follows... Liu stares, satisfied, as the nuclear engine spins away from the ship and back down toward Pantagruel. Cooper SMASHES Liu from behind. The robot tumbles to the ground, the fight gone out of him. Cooper and Doyle roll the robot over and Cooper reaches for his control module. LIU (CONT'D) No one follows- Cooper rips the module out. The robot freezes. Brand is already at the controls, trying to regain control. The instruments TONE, alerting the crew to their position: The ship is spinning back down towards the black hole. BRAND No... We're being pulled back to Pantagruel. Cooper, frantically checks the controls, firing the remaining boosters. COOPER We can't let that happen. We'll lose more time... too much... The boosters are no match for the deadly pull of the black hole below them. On the ship's guidance, they watch, helpless, as the ship climbs back up the volcano rim towards the critical orbit. As on their first trip, the black hole grows to dominate the bottom of the sky, and the stars above them become streaks -- time is speeding for them as they are whirled down into the deep gravity well around the hole. As they watch, trapped, decades begin to play out in the system above them. They watch as the ice planet whirls around them, orbiting the black hole dozens of times. 116. COOPER (CONT'D) We're losing years. Finally, the ice planet plunges past them towards destruction. As it reaches it slows, until finally it reaches the event horizon, just as they saw in the projections. Nothing has prepared them for the reality: The ice planet is SMASHED apart with stunning violence. Brand looks at the sample of fractal life. Now they are united -- they are, in all likelihood, the sole survivors of their planet. Doyle points to the instruments. DOYLE The wormhole. Look -- it's being pulled into the black hole as well. They watch on the holographic model as the wormhole's orbit converges on the event horizon of the black hole. BRAND It's orbit mirrored the ice planet's. COOPER What will happen to it? BRAND It'll be destroyed, like everything else. Cooper struggles to pull himself over to the communications screen. Sets it to make a shortwave broadcast. Brand opens her mouth to point out that it's futile, then stops. COOPER (INTO RADIO) This is the crew of the Endurance. We... (gives up on FORMALITIES) Murph, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't make it back, like I promised. He hangs up the radio. In silence, they watch as the wormhole -- their only way home -- vanishes beneath the event horizon. DOYLE How much time are we losing? 117. BRAND (HEARTBROKEN) Decades...hundreds of years. COOPER All of those people back home... none of them will make it. As Doyle watches the controls the ship continues to spiral towards the black hole. DOYLE This is it. We're going to be pulled in. Cooper looks at the controls, an idea forming. He pulls himself down. Hauls himself across the deck to pick up Liu's chip. He plugs it into a diagnostic tool. BRAND What are you doing? COOPER Case said the Chinese found something else. The location was scrubbed from their records. But I bet he knows it. Cooper fires up the chip. Begins sorting through the onboard memory. Doyle watches the instruments. DOYLE Hurry up. Cooper concentrates, poring over the numbers. Finally he begins feeding coordinates into the navigation computer. COOPER Here. Can we reach it? Brand looks at the map. The point appears on the far side of Gargantua. Brand studies the trajectory. BRAND We can use the thrusters to keep us on the critical orbit. Then slingshot us towards Gargantua. The thrusters STRAIN to push the ship back up towards the critical orbit. 118. Suddenly, the tidal gravity SLAMS them against the walls of the ship. Finally, the thrusters fire again -- a tiny push, but just enough to launch the ship clear of the black hole, like a rock out of a slingshot. The ship races toward the massive hole in the sky below them: GARGANTUA EXT. SPACE AROUND GARGANTUA The ship picks up more and more speed as it soars closer to the massive black hole's event horizon. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE The sky closes to a tiny hole above them. Gargantua is swallowing their view. Cooper looks at the radar, which is choked with debris. DOYLE We only have a few minutes before we're swallowed into that thing. What are we even looking for? On the radar, a tiny empty spot appears. COOPER (points to screen) That? What is it? Brand looks. In one tiny region on the back side of the black hole, the debris simply seems to vanish. BRAND It's another wormhole. Doyle FIRES the thrusters again, pushing the ship towards the wormhole. EXT. SPACE AROUND GARGANTUA The Endurance spins, shifting paths slightly as it continues to race closer and closer to oblivion. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE They study the controls. The projected path shifts, one degree at a time. Finally, it appears to put them on a path to hit the wormhole. Doyle shuts off the thrusters. 119. DOYLE We're not going to be able to slow down. Hold onto something. He locks up the controls. EXT. SPACE AROUND GARGANTUA -- MORNING The ship is tumbling through space, racing toward the second wormhole. It is massive, much larger than the first wormhole, and it's glowing with a light as bright as a star. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE The crew brace themselves against the hull of the ship. Suddenly the ship slams onto the wormhole mouth and is pulled violently into the wormhole. WHITENESS. As the light fades, Cooper and the others come to. The light is rapidly dimming from pure white, fading to a deep red, then infrared, finally darkness. Cooper looks out. Checks the instruments. Looks out again. EXT. VACUUM Nothing. Blackness as far as the eye can see. No stars. No planets. Just inky darkness stretching on forever. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE Brand joins Cooper on the deck. Together, they look out at the blackness that surrounds them. COOPER Where are we? BRAND I don't know. It's like we entered the wormhole and never left it. Brand checks the instruments. There is nothing for the ship to model. There is nowhere to go. They drift. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE Days go by. They check the instruments. Still nothing. It's as if they have left the known universe altogether. 120. INT. COMMUNICATIONS ROOM, ENDURANCE Doyle sits down. After a moment, he turns on the screen and cues up a message. His children appear on-screen, giggling, pushing each other, trying to get a prime spot in front of the camera. Doyle cups his face in his hands and cries. INT. CREW QUARTERS, ENDURANCE Cooper above his bunk, stares out into the blackness. Brand watches him from the doorway. BRAND I'm sorry. I should have told you. I didn't have the right. (BEAT) But you should watch the recordings. You should know what happened to your kids. Cooper ignores her. INT. COMMUNICATIONS ROOM, ENDURANCE Brand watches her father talking to her on-screen. He is twenty years older than when she left him. BRAND'S FATHER I'm not going to make it much longer. The machines will continue to maintain the station as long as they can and the communications will run as long as the station here still has power. I'm sorry. I hope wherever you are, darling, you're safe. The screen cuts out. Brand watches the static play out. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE Doyle sits at the table. He has found a flair gun in one of the ditch kits. It is sitting on the table in front of him. The message is clear. Brand sits down across from him. BRAND Our last trip past the black hole cost us another 100, maybe 200 years. Which means there's a good chance we're the only humans alive anywhere. 121. She stands up. BRAND (CONT'D) I think the last human beings should have a little more fight in them than that. Brand picks up the sample of fractal life and places it under a lamp on the counter. It freezes, absorbing the rays. Doyle looks at the gun. EXT. ENDURANCE, VACUUM Cooper, in a space suit, steps out of the airlock. He drifts out from the ship. Nothing. Behind him, the ship is a tiny speck in an ocean of darkness. INT. COMMUNICATIONS ROOM, ENDURANCE Cooper sits down. Turns on the screen. After a moment, the camera turns on. Tom, his eldest son, still 15 years old, turns on the camera. TOM Hi, Dad. Cooper pauses it. He can't take it. After a moment, he lets it run again. TOM (CONT'D) I met another girl, Dad. I really think this is the one. Tom holds up a picture of himself and a teenage GIRL. TOM (CONT'D) Murph stole Grandpa's car. He crashed it. He's OK, though. No broken bones. Cooper leans back. INT. COMMUNICATIONS ROOM, ENDURANCE Cooper is holed up, still watching, several days' growth of beard unshaved. He's been watching for days. On the screen, Tom is a grown man in his 20s. 122. TOM I've got a surprise for you, Dad. You're a grandpa. Tom holds up an infant wrapped tight in swaddling. The kid is BAWLING. TOM (CONT'D) Congratulations. Grandpa said he already earned the "great" bit so we just leave it at that. The screen cuts out. The next message begins. Tom is in his 30s. TOM (CONT'D) Hi, Dad. I'm sorry it's been awhile. He stops, emotional. TOM (CONT'D) Grandpa died last week. We buried him out in the back forty, next to Mom. (LOOKS DOWN) Where we'd have buried you, if you'd ever come back. He laughs, gallows humor. TOM (CONT'D) Murph was there for the funeral. It's been a few years since I've seen him. He's been down in the Gulf Coast. He's an engineer. I guess someone followed in your footsteps after all. Tom looks down. TOM (CONT'D) You're not listening to this. I know that. All of these messages are just out there, drifting in the darkness. He stops for a second. TOM (CONT'D) You're gone. You're never coming back. And I've known that for a long time. Lois says -- that's my wife, Dad -- she says I have to let you go. So I am. 123. He reaches up to turn off the camera. TOM (CONT'D) Wherever you are, I hope you're at peace. Goodbye, Dad. The image freezes, Tom's hand on the camera, then breaks apart into digital noise. Then nothing. Cooper looks at it for a second. Then rises to leave. Suddenly, the screen flickers to life again. A good-looking man in his late 30s turns on a camera. Cooper recognizes him instantly. It's Murph. Murph looks at the camera for a long beat, clearly unsure about this. MURPH Hello, Dad. You sonofabitch. He laughs, self-conscious. MURPH (CONT'D) It's your 60th birthday today. Thought I would celebrate with you a bit. (BEAT) I guess I understand why you left. The corn is dying now, too. Tom says there's less and less at harvest every year. He pauses. Lifts up his hand and scratches his stubble. Cooper pauses the message. He looks carefully at the screen: Murph is wearing his dad's watch. Cooper lets the message play. Tears are streaming down his face. MURPH (CONT'D) Rot's setting in. I guess you were right for clearing out while you had the chance. (reaches up to switch OFF CAMERA) Good luck, old man. I hope you made it. I really do. The video cuts out. 124. A message appears on the screen: "Final transmission." Relay powered down 05232087 Cooper turns off the screen. INT. CREW QUARTERS, ENDURANCE Cooper is seated, alone. Almost every compartment has been opened and emptied -- debris is swirling through the compartment. Brand walks in. They sit in silence for a moment. When Cooper speaks, it's clear his sadness has faded to a gallows humor. COOPER Not a single drink on the whole ship. What kind of mission is this? BRAND I think Doyle's been experimenting with the coolant from his spacesuit. They sit in silence for a moment. COOPER You really think we're the last humans alive anywhere? BRAND I don't know. Maybe. (looks him in the eye) Yes. COOPER So that's it, then? That's all? He looks down, saddened by his own words. BRAND (QUIET) It's happened a billion times over. Stars explode. The pieces drift in space. Gravity pulls them back together. They form new stars. Then planets. Then us. We die. It starts all over again. Cooper shakes his head. COOPER What about the plan? The grand scheme. 125. BRAND I thought you didn't believe in one. COOPER I didn't. But you were bringing me round. He laughs, his anger coming and going in waves. COOPER (CONT'D) What the hell was the point? What did it add up to? BRAND I don't know. Maybe it just adds up to this. COOPER This? You're saying the end result of ten billion years is the atoms from dead stars standing here disagreeing with each other. She smiles at him. Bittersweet. BRAND Maybe that's enough. He turns away from her. She takes his shoulder. She pulls him into a kiss. His surprise disappears and he pulls her to him, kissing her back. Their surroundings forgotten, they drift. She LAUGHS gently as they bump into a wall and he pushes off of it, sending them spinning back into the center of the cabin. She pulls his shirt off and it hangs in space. In moments, the cabin is filling with discarded clothes, different colors and shapes, like a ticker tape parade. In the center of the cabin, Brand and Cooper make love. INT. CREW QUARTERS, ENDURANCE -- LATER Cooper and Brand embrace, sleeping, drifting in the cabin. Suddenly, Doyle's voice calls out from the other cabin. DOYLE (O.S.) It's happening... it's happening again... Get up here... Cooper wakes, careful not to disturb Brand. He plucks his shirt from the floating laundry pile and pulls it on. 126. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, ENDURANCE Cooper hauls himself up into the upper cabin. Doyle is standing in the middle of the chamber. DOYLE They just appeared. A sphere of distortion, like the one they encountered in the first wormhole, is directly in front of Doyle, hovering at a point in the middle of the cabin. Doyle points a finger gently at the sphere, which grows in response. Brand pulls herself into the cabin. Several more points appear, as if they've been summoned by the first. Some of the points twist, some of them spin, and some of them are motionless. BRAND I think these are the creatures that built the wormhole. One of them begins to move closer to Cooper. COOPER This thing is made of... gravity? BRAND No. I don't think it's in our universe at all. I think it lives in the bulk -- the space that the wormholes traverse. And it can only interact with us using gravity. The shape playfully grows around Cooper's hand, bending the space it's in, stretching the skin. Doyle GASPS as the sphere nearest him moves through his body, coming to rest in the middle and bending his entire torso like a fun house mirror. Suddenly, the sphere wrapped around Cooper's hand begins moving, tugging him gently through the cabin. In the next moment, all three of them are being propelled through the cabin. It's a magical moment -- a communion, a dance between creatures on either side of a massive, invisible wall. Doyle exclaims like a kid on a roller coaster as he is whirled around the room. 127. Cooper and Brand collide with each other for a second as the bulk beings move them through space. They hold onto each other for a moment and then are pulled apart again as the whirling dance continues. Even the fractal creature is involved -- inside its cage, a tiny distortion ripples its fractal skin. The creature breaks apart and plays with the distortion around its enclosure. Finally, Brand disengages from the dance and pulls herself around the lab, looking for some way to try to communicate with the creatures. She finds two heavy pieces of engineering equipment and moves them close to each other, then far apart. The bulk beings soon join her, mimicking the motion of the pieces of equipment. COOPER Can we communicate with them? BRAND Where would we even start? Maybe-- She pull a bag of ball bearings out of a storage bin and tears the bag open, releasing a cloud of the tiny shining globes into the air. For a moment, nothing happens. Then, the distortions begin moving through the bearings, shifting them, rearranging them into patterns in the air. First, they rearrange the ball bearings into clusters, then shapes spinning around each other -- planets orbiting around a medium-sized star. DOYLE That's our solar system. After a moment the ball bearings break apart again and rearrange into a larger, more complicated system -- Gargantua, Pantagruel, and the ice planet. Finally, the bearings compress to a two-dimensional sheet. Inside the sheet, one solitary ball bearing orbits around the stars and then pushes up, off of the sheet, into an umbrella shaped space that rises up from the sheet. COOPER What is that? Brand looks at the tiny particle, floating alone above its universe. 128. BRAND That's us. That's where they've brought us. We're in the bulk. Cooper and Doyle stare at the particle. The map is static now. Cooper looks around. The distortions have gone. The instruments on the ship TONE in alarm. Cooper walks through the map, sending the ball bearings scattering. He hurries to the instruments. The ship is moving -- picking up speed at a huge rate. BRAND (CONT'D) They're moving us. DOYLE Where? They stand, looking out into the perfect darkness. EXT. ENDURANCE, VACUUM The ship begins to close in on something in the darkness: a tiny point of light. As they grow closer, they realize that it's an opening. They are inside a massive, hollow sphere. They have been the entire time. The ship is guided out through the opening at the crown of the sphere. Below them is an astonishing sight: Our entire universe, compressed into a flattened disc, like a floor of stars. They are hovering above it, in the bulk, the space between universes. INT. ENDURANCE, BULK Brand and the others stare at the incredible display. The ship drops down and begins to orbit around the massive hollow sphere between them and our universe, lower and lower until it is skimming just above the surface of the sphere. In the distance, they can make out a cluster of lights. COOPER There's something out there. The cluster of lights grows as they are propelled closer: 129. It's a massive space station, built onto the surface of the sphere. EXT. SPACE STATION The Endurance glides to a gentle stop on one of the upper decks of the space station. After a moment, the airlock to the ship opens and Cooper and the others step out, in their suits. They walk up to the airlock doors of the station, which open automatically. INT. SPACE STATION After the airlock decompresses, the inner doors open. Standing there, waiting for them, is a familiar figure: Tars. TARS (DEADPAN) I guess this isn't robot heaven after all. The light on his brow glows and he offers them both a hand. INT. GRAND LABORATORY, SPACE STATION The humans have taken off their space suits -- the station has been built to be habitable by humans -- and are following Tars through the massive facility. TARS I orbited the black hole seven times before I hit the second wormhole. Then I drifted until I found this place. Cooper looks around. The halls are filled with countless technological wonders. COOPER This is what the Chinese were protecting. (LOOKS AROUND) How they could have built all this in just a handful of years. TARS They didn't. It took them four thousand. (off Brand's look) Time moves very slowly here 130. BRAND How do you know? TARS Because I've been waiting for you for three hundred years. Brand looks around at the massive facility. BRAND Time. That's what the bulk beings wanted to give us. That was the treasure the Chinese found. Enough time to let us save ourselves. Brand looks around. The facility is massive. She sets the specimen case down on a table. Even the tiny creature seems in awe of the place. INT. LABORATORY, SPACE STATION Tars shows them a prototype for the gravity machine. It is tiny -- increasing G around two spheres that attract each other with a tiny force. TARS I have catalogued almost everything they had built here. COOPER Must have taken you a while. TARS One hundred and fifty-seven years. Cooper shakes his head in disbelief. COOPER How are they keeping the lights on in this thing? Tars, in answer, points to a far door. TARS Follow me. INT. ENGINE ROOM, SPACE STATION A massive reinforced-concrete shell shudders with the energy contained within it. The whole room HUMS with power. Tars pulls up a display showing the inside of the shell: A tiny black hole spins, spewing out massive amounts of power. 131. TARS It's a mini black hole. A remnant of the big bang. It will power this place forever. Tars leads them on. EXT. HANGAR, SPACE STATION Tars leads them past an incredibly sleek fleet of spacecraft. Cooper starts to stop, but Tars doesn't slow down. INT. SIMULATION ROOM In the center of the room is a giant holographic globe of the Earth, perfect down to the tiniest detail. COOPER It's a map? TARS No. Not a map. This is a simulation of the Earth. A perfect simulation. Tars touches the control panel. The map zooms in over Europe. Down onto Paris. Late 20th century: People walk through the streets. A woman stops at a newsagent to buy a newspaper. Tars touches the controls again and the map zooms out. TARS (CONT'D) They tested each of the technologies hundreds of times, trying to find the one that would cause the least damage and still allow us to leave Earth. Suddenly, the map lights up with atomic explosions in every city. The sequence stops, rewinds. This time, sped up, the Earth seems to be drying up -- great swaths of desert grow across Europe and Asia. Massive circular ships are constructed all over the face of the Earth. TARS (CONT'D) This was their best solution. A massive version of the box we found on the ice planet, allowing the entire human population to escape. At a given moment, the gravity of the Earth is dropped to nothing and the massive ships, filled with the entire 132. population of the Earth, lift gently off of the planet in search of greener pastures. Cooper turns away from the machine, bitter. COOPER So why didn't they return? Why didn't they save us? Brand is staring at the massive map. BRAND Because they were too late. By the time they found this place, the people who sent them were dead. They were unable to fulfill their mission. Tars points to the next room. TARS That was the final problem they tried to solve. Tars moves on. EXT. PLATFORM, SPACE STATION Above them, the blackness of the sky is punctuated with hundreds of crystal shapes, faintly leaking starlight: Wormholes. Brand looks up at them, entranced. BRAND Where do they lead? Tars looks at an illuminated schematic on one wall, mapping some of the wormholes. TARS There are millions of them, connecting virtually every planetary system in the universe. There are thousands in our galaxy alone. But the Chinese stopped mapping them when they found what they were looking for. Tars walks further. He stops. The platform in front of them is dominated by a gigantic version of the black box that Roth found on the ice planet, connected to a massive power array, and pointing into the dark space above the sphere. 133. TARS (CONT'D) This was their final creation. They had to capture the mini black hole just to have enough power to try it. Several miles above the black box, one of the wormholes glows far brighter than the others, crackling with radiation. DOYLE What does it do? Cooper steps forward. Runs a hand on the cold, strange material the antenna is made out of. He knows exactly what it does. COOPER They weren't interested in the other wormholes because their mission was to return home. That one leads back to Earth. The Earth they were told to return to. Tars walks to the controls for the device. BRAND But that's impossible... Tars turns away from the machine. TARS It was only used once. The Chinese team attempted to travel back in time, to Earth just a few years after they had left. COOPER Did they make it? TARS I don't know. Doyle looks back to Cooper. DOYLE Do you really think it works? Cooper looks up at the machine, suddenly determined. COOPER We're going to find out. Cooper walks out of the room. Brand follows him. 134. EXT. AIRLOCK, SPACE STATION Brand follows Cooper as he walks up to the Endurance. BRAND You know it doesn't work. Time travel isn't possible. COOPER You don't know that. BRAND Yes, I do. If it worked, the Chinese would have suddenly discovered all of these incredible technologies. But they never made it. (BEAT) You can't go back, Cooper. You can slow things down, but you can't ever go back. Our home is gone. (off his look) You listened to all of those messages from your family. If you had made it back, we would already know. There would already be some evidence. Cooper looks at the machine. BRAND (CONT'D) If you try to use it, you'll die, just like the people who built it. She puts an arm on his shoulder. BRAND (CONT'D) Roth was right, Cooper. We have to keep going. Keep exploring. We have an obligation to try to survive. From here we could find a thousand places where life could thrive. And you're going to return to the one place where it can't. COOPER I made a promise. He turns away from her, resolute. EXT. HANGAR, SPACE STATION Cooper and Doyle check over one of the sleek Chinese spaceships. 135. INT. CHINESE SPACESHIP Cooper is checking over the controls of the ship. Brand walks in. BRAND I came to say goodbye. Cooper looks up at her. INT. HANGAR, SPACE STATION Cooper walks Brand back to the Endurance. The ship is packed up and repaired. Brand is looking over their work. COOPER You could have taken one of the other ships. BRAND This one's done all right by us so far. Brand holds up a small sample case containing half of the fractal life-form. BRAND (CONT'D) Will you take this with you? It's the last of its kind as well. Thought we should double its chances of survival. In case I'm wrong. Cooper takes the sample and looks at the tiny creature inside, trying to escape. He sets it inside the ship. Turns back to her. COOPER Where are you going to go? BRAND I don't know. Up there, I guess. She points up into the great darkness above them. Tars steps down. Moves over to them. COOPER You're going, too? TARS I'm curious. It's my nature. See you down the road? Tars shakes Cooper's hand. Heads onto the Endurance. 136. BRAND Come with us. Please. You wanted your whole life to explore. This is your chance. Cooper stares at her. This is what he has always wanted. And he has to turn it down. COOPER I'm sorry. I have to find out what happened to my sons. I promised them. Brand sees the resolve in his eyes. Knows there's no way to change his mind. BRAND You're a man who keeps his promises. Make me one- She takes his hand. BRAND (CONT'D) After you're done... come find me. COOPER I promise. They kiss passionately. Not wanting it to end but knowing that it must. Reluctantly, they separate. Brand turns back to the ship. She pulls herself onto the ship. Cooper steps back outside and watches through the tiny window as the Endurance lifts off and disappears into the darkness. Cooper turns away. EXT. PLATFORM, SPACE STATION Cooper watches as radiation pours out of the wormhole high above them. INT. CHINESE SPACESHIP Cooper pulls himself on board. Doyle is at the controls. He keys the controls and the ship lifts off. DOYLE Let's go home. The two men sit in silence as the ship arcs away from the space station and closes in on the wormhole. Cooper hears a familiar CHIRP. He turns around: 137. The probe they took from the ice planet is belted securely into one of the seats, filled with the garbled machine code of the gravitational machine. COOPER The probe... Doyle looks back. DOYLE We get back to earth, you and I can try to make sense of the code. Rebuild the gravity machine. Cooper stares at it, suddenly realizing something. He unbuckles himself. Cooper stands and walks over to the probe. Traces the familiar stars and stripes carved into its side. Cooper stares at the probe, putting it all together. COOPER It's going to work. DOYLE Of course it's going to work. COOPER That's not what I mean. This is the probe I found in Galveston. Below them, the wormhole breaks as it reaches another wormhole mouth that the Chinese have dropped down to a lower gravity well, creating a time machine. The wormhole mouth is FLARING with radiation. COOPER (CONT'D) Brand said there'd be some evidence we'd made it. And there was. This. (holds up probe) But only this. Everything will be destroyed except for this. He moves toward Doyle. Doyle stands. COOPER (CONT'D) We have to stop. DOYLE I don't know what you're talking about, but you're not touching the controls. I'm going home. 138. Cooper moves closer to Doyle. Doyle pulls out the flair gun. Points it at Cooper. COOPER You don't need to do this. We won't make it back, but this does. The secrets are already right on it. Maybe someone found it. There's hope. (SAD) But we don't get to go with. DOYLE You're not stopping me. I'm going home. Doyle forces Cooper into the ship's lander. Then he closes the airlock. Cooper pounds on the other side of the glass, trying to reason with him. The landing craft detaches from the ship. INT. CHINESE LANDING CRAFT Cooper watches, helpless, as Doyle's ship races ahead towards the glowing wormhole mouth. As the ship speeds toward the next wormhole, the radiation suddenly FLARES, annihilating the ship and everything in it. Almost everything. Cooper's landing craft spins away from the wormhole mouth. CUT TO: EXT. SPACE, OUR SOLAR SYSTEM A hole opens in the sky with a FIERY EXPLOSION. As the radiation subsides, all that shoots out of the hole is a vaporous wisp of atomized metal, and a burned, blackened probe, which hurtles toward Earth. EXT. SPACE, NEAR EARTH ORBIT The probe collides with a satellite, hurling debris into the upper atmosphere. PROBE'S ONBOARD CAMERA P.O.V. -- The probe's onboard camera documents its journey. Fragments OF VIDEO: 139. -- The probe HURTLES through the atmosphere, toward North America, the Gulf Coast. -- The probe SMASHES down into a sandbar. -- Daylight. A man is descending toward it, dangling from a rope. It's Cooper. -- Night. A kitchen. A little boy -- Murph -- stares at the probe, while Cooper works at it with a blowtorch. -- Tars pulls the probe out of the back of a plane. -- Brand's father, older, studies the probe. Gives up. -- Much later. People are moving around in the darkened base, scavenging equipment. CUT TO: EXT. FIELD -- DAY A combine harvester is dead in a field, service hatch opened. A MAN is lying under the machine, working. The man hauls himself out from under the huge machine. Dusts himself off. It's Murph, 30s. He looks at the FARMER who is waiting for the verdict. Murph shakes his head. MURPH It's done. Auto-pilot's packed up for the last time. FARMER You can't make it work a little longer? MURPH Can't do anything for you. There aren't any more parts for these. Not anywhere. FARMER You don't understand. We're getting less than a hundred pounds per acre. We need to plant more, not less. Murph looks around him at the pathetic crop of corn that stretches around them. The plants are feeble, barely able to support themselves. 140. FARMER (CONT'D) You've got to find us some more parts, Murph. It's getting desperate. Isn't there anywhere you can look? Murph begins packing up his tools, thinking it over. INT. HANGAR -- DAY Murph stares at the darkened shape of a plane under a tarp. He stares at the tarp, unsure if he wants to keep going. He pulls the tarp off, revealing Cooper's old Piper Cub. He checks over the engine, lights, prop. Turns the key. Fires her up. The diesel wakes with a GRUNT. EXT. AIRSTRIP -- DAY Murph wheels the old plane out onto the field by hand. EXT. SKIES OVER THE SOUTHWEST -- DAY The ancient plane skirts the San Gabriels. EXT. FIELD, SANTA CRUZ ISLAND Murph sets the plane down. He parks the plane under a copse of trees and climbs down. He scans the horizon. Nothing. Is this the place? EXT. FOREST -- DAY Murph pushes his way through the undergrowth. Stops. He's standing at the blast doors to the facility. They've been blown open with dynamite. INT. NASA FACILITY -- DAY Murph lets himself inside. Lights a flare. The place has been gutted. Thieves and scavengers have taken almost everything. Murph finds one of the robots, or what's left of it -- it's been stripped, leaving only the bare composite skeleton. The empty eye sockets stare back at Murph. Murph looks around the place. There is nothing left to salvage. He turns to leave. Hears a familiar CHIRP. In the corner, under a pile of rain-soaked garbage: 141. The probe. No one has bothered to steal it. Murph stares at it. INT. UNDERGROUND FACILITY -- NIGHT Murph sweeps detritus off of an ancient computer mainframe that survived the looting. He hooks the probe up to it. After a minute, the screen fills with a picture of an ice- covered planet. Then nothing. The rest of the probe's drive is filled with garbage, noise. Murph switches off the screen. He stands. Begins to leave without the probe. Stops. Turns back. Picks it up and takes it with him. INT. KITCHEN, MURPH'S HOUSE -- NIGHT Murph is hunched over the probe, trying to pull data off of it with a defibrillator. He has incorporated an ancient laptop into the chain, and is tweaking values on it, trying to decrypt the contents. His WIFE, several months pregnant, turns back to him from the stove. MURPH'S WIFE Would you get that thing off of the table? Murph nods, absorbed. Keys in a final tweak to the decryption software. Hits return. Suddenly, the screen begins filling with data. Murph stares at it, wide eyed. CUT TO: INT. BARN -- NIGHT Murph, now in his 40s, is putting the finishing touches on a large machine. Although slightly different, we recognize some of the components and their configuration: It's a crude version of the gravitational device. Murph double checks it, then fires up a small gas powered generator. Throws a breaker, feeding power to the unit. The unit lights up. HUMS. But nothing happens. 142. Murph, disappointed but undaunted, shuts it down and begins checking it over. He hears a noise at the door. Turns back. His daughter, Emily, 8, is standing at the door. EMILY COOPER Dad? You said you'd take us to the game. MURPH (DISTRACTED) Did I? He looks at the impossible nest of wires. Shakes his head. MURPH (CONT'D) All right. Let me get my jacket. Murph picks up his jacket from the workbench. Next to it on the bench is a shortwave radio playing STATIC. EMILY COOPER (staring at machine) What is it supposed to do, Dad? MURPH I have no idea. Murph switches off the lights and they walk out. After a moment, the radio CRACKLES to life in the darkness. COOPER (over radio, garbled) This is the crew of the Endurance... Murph... I'm sorry... The signal crackles out. CUT TO: INT. KITCHEN, MURPH'S HOUSE -- DAY Murph, 50s, slightly gray, sits at his kitchen table. He hears a distant RUMBLE. He looks up. His wife is standing by the sink. MURPH Where's Emily? WIFE Out in the barn. She's been tinkering with your old projects. 143. Murph stands up. The roof of the barn is visibly shaking. He steps outside. EXT. YARD, MURPH'S HOUSE -- DAY Murph moves towards the barn, concerned. The shaking is growing stronger -- the entire structure is buckling. Emily, now 18, backs out of the barn. EMILY COOPER Dad... I'm sorry... I made some changes to the machine. I think I did something wrong. Murph puts an arm around his daughter and as they watch, the entire barn IMPLODES. Their tractor begins sliding towards the wreckage of the barn, chunky tires plowing up the soil. Finally, the RUMBLING STOPS as the power lines short out in a FIERY display. As the dust clears, Murph and his daughter examine the mess: The entire barn has been crushed into a tiny ball. Murph looks at his daughter. MURPH Do you remember what you changed? Wide-eyed, she thinks about it. Then nods. CUT TO: EXT. EARTH, 2320 -- DAY This is North America. But it doesn't look much like it. Mother Nature has just about wiped the slate clean. Most of the vegetation is gone, and unchecked winds sweep across the barren plains. Patches of ice lie think on the ground, as if a heavy snow has come and gone. SUPER TITLE: "TWO HUNDRED YEARS LATER" One of the Chinese spaceships descends through the thick clouds above and settles gently onto the plain. The hatch opens and Cooper steps out. He takes a cautious look around. He is holding the fractal life in its small container. The clouds are threatening, but the weather looks calm enough right here. 144. Cooper starts to walk. EXT. COLLAPSED HOUSE -- DAY Remarkably, part of Cooper's old house is still standing. INT. COLLAPSED HOUSE -- DAY Cooper stands in the middle of his kitchen. Two walls are missing and the rest is collapsed in a heap. But he can still see where he used to feed his kids breakfast. He has kept his promise. Several hundred years too late. Cooper hunkers down, staring at the space where his kids used to be. Rainwater covers the ancient formica. It has taken him years to finally reach this place. He has had plenty of time to come to grips with what he might find. But nothing has prepared him for this: He is completely alone. Nothing is left. INT. COLLAPSED FARMHOUSE -- NIGHT Cooper is still sitting there when the ice storm hits. Unchecked by trees or vegetation, the wind rockets through the house, blasting Cooper and pelting what's left of the structure with fist-sized hail. Cooper takes shelter against the remaining wall. He's going to have to sit this one out -- the hail and winds are the brutal descendants of the weather he knew. They'll finish him off if he steps back outside. As he watches, the pool of water on the kitchen floor freezes over in seconds. INT. COLLAPSED FARMHOUSE -- DAWN Cooper shivers, pressed against the wall. The storm is still raging outside. He is freezing to death. He has to move now or he will die. He pulls the hood tight around his face and stumbles outside. EXT. SNOWBOUND FIELD -- DAY Cooper makes his way through the blinding snow. He tries to find his way, but the ship has been consumed by the blizzard. He stumbles to the ground, dropping the glass case with the fractal wildlife in it. The case shatters. Cooper tries to stand back up, but his strength is dwindling. 145. As he watches, the fractal wildlife creeps tentatively out of its broken habitat. It forms together against the cold. After a moment, it burrows into the ice. As it does, the ice glows faintly. It seems to be right at home. Cooper laughs, glimpsing the outline of a plan. Was this what the beings who made the wormhole intended all along? Cooper suddenly spots the outline of the ship through the driving snow. He stumbles back up to his feet and struggles a few more steps, then stumbles again, spent. Finally, he sits down in the snow to die. As his senses flicker in and out, he is struck with memories of his boys, so vivid he reaches out for them, crawling forward in the snow. He stops, and laughs, remembering what Case told him about what happens when humans die. He struggles to his feet and stumbles a few more feet, eventually coming to rest just steps from the ship. Cooper takes a final step. Finally, he collapses under his ship, as the wind continues to HOWL around him. As the snow clears for a moment, Cooper is alone on a vast arctic tundra. He will die alone. BLACK FADE IN: INT. HOSPITAL ROOM -- DAY Cooper wakes. He is in a sunlit room. A breeze rustles the curtains as it makes its way in through a large open window. Cooper sits up. As he a does, a control panel on the wall TONES gently, as if in response to his movement. He stands and looks around. He can see sunlight through the open windows and hear people -- kids YELLING as they play. He moves toward the window. Reaches for the curtains. Before he can, the door opens behind him. A WOMAN in a white coat steps in, smiling warmly. DOCTOR Good morning. Don't go outside just yet, Mr. Cooper. (MORE) 146. DOCTOR (CONT'D) (offers him a pill) This will help with the disorientation. Cooper opens his mouth to talk, but his voice is cracked. He gives up. Swallows the pill. DOCTOR (CONT'D) Wait a minute for that to take effect. It can be a bit of an adjustment. (looks him over) You had some frostbite. Nothing too serious. As she talks, Cooper looks past her to the window. COOPER Where am I? DOCTOR (SMILES) It's a bit of a coincidence, really. When the rangers found you, we were the nearest facility. COOPER What's coincidence? What is this place? DOCTOR We have a lot to show you. The doctor reaches for the curtains. She offers him a hand. Cooper declines the help and steps outside. EXT. HOSPICE, COOPER STATION -- DAY Cooper is standing on a rooftop deck of a four-story building in a medium-sized city surrounded by fields. But as the road and the buildings stretch into the distance, the landscape curves up, not down. The entire landscape is contained within a huge cylinder- shaped space station. Cooper stumbles, and reaches instinctively out. The doctor catches him. DOCTOR You're OK. We get this from people who move here from planetary colonies all the time. 147. COOPER Where... where are we? DOCTOR Like I said. It was a coincidence. There was a facility closer to Earth, but they had a problem, so you wound up here. (off his look) This is the Space Station Joseph A. Cooper. Cooper takes in the incredible surroundings. A thousand feet above them, black specks are sprinkled over an ocean of green -- Jersey milking cows grazing in a field of wild grass. DOCTOR (CONT'D) I've got someone who wants to meet you. Cooper looks at her. INT. INTENSIVE CARE ROOM, HOSPICE, COOPER STATION -- DAY Cooper steps inside. The room is dark, still, the only noise is the labored RATTLE of an old man struggling to breathe. Cooper steps closer to the bed. The man's skin is paper- thin. He is ancient. DOCTOR He was moved here after they found you. He's a little old for a transfer, but they made an exception. Cooper hovers at the back of the room, unsure. He turns to the doctor, questioning. Then he notices the pictures on the old man's desk: There are dozens of them. Children, grandchildren. Then the older ones -- the man's own parents. Grandparents. Cooper spots a tiny framed picture with someone he recognizes: Murph, 80 years old, surrounded by his daughter and her family. They are standing in front of a re-opened Cape Canaveral, and a huge spaceship under construction. Cooper picks up the picture and stares at it. The doctor points to a shy little boy hiding behind Murph's leg in the picture. DOCTOR (CONT'D) That's him. 148. She points to the old man lying in the bed. DOCTOR (CONT'D) His name is Anthony Welling. Anthony Cooper Welling. (SMILES) He's your great great grandson. He's been waiting a long time for you. Cooper's eyes well with tears. He steps over to the bed and looks down at the ancient man, teetering on the edge of death. The old man looks at him, eyes widening in excitement. He strains, trying to reach the bedside table. He's trying to reach the drawer. Cooper helps him open it. Inside is a simple, familiar wristwatch. The old man carefully takes out the watch. He gives the watch a few winds and, hands shaking, offers it to Cooper. Cooper, eyes filling with tears, closes his hand over the old man's hand, enveloping both the watch and the man's hand. CUT TO: EXT. CORNFIELD, COOPER STATION -- MORNING Cooper is sitting in a well-appointed office. A middle-aged BUREAUCRAT smiles at him from the far side of a huge desk. ADMINISTRATOR You're a hero, Mr. Cooper. Let's just start off by saying that. It's an incredible and... unexpected honor to have you here with us. Cooper smiles, uncomfortable. ADMINISTRATOR (CONT'D) None of us would be here without the efforts of you and the other crewmembers of the Endurance. (smiles, unconvincingly) So I don't want you to take this the wrong way. But there are some questions I've been told to ask. The man looks petrified, like he's been instructed to grill George Washington on his expense reports. COOPER Shoot. 149. ADMINISTRATOR The rangers who found you reported that you had released a sample of an alien life-form into the wild. Which is, unfortunately, against regulations. COOPER It was last of its kind. Their planet was destroyed. The administrator cues up a series of images on his computer. ADMINISTRATOR The rangers attempted to isolate the life-form, but it had already spread out of control. It seems to be thriving. He shows Cooper a satellite image of north america. A considerable portion of the frozen tundra is glowing. Cooper begins laughing. Which makes the administrator even less comfortable. ADMINISTRATOR (CONT'D) Can you tell me why you... elected to release the life-form back on earth? Cooper is still laughing. COOPER Because that was the plan. ADMINISTRATOR Whose plan? COOPER (SMILES) I don't know. The administrator tries to smile back. Makes a few notes in his file. Changes the subject. ADMINISTRATOR My assistant tells me you've applied for a position with the exploration fleet. COOPER Feel like I should be pulling my weight. 150. ADMINISTRATOR That's admirable, Mr. Cooper. The truth is, most of the fleet's personnel are automated. There are a small number of crewed ships. But there are great numbers of candidates. Very well trained candidates. COOPER I was hoping to enroll in a course. Try to get myself up to speed on the new systems. ADMINISTRATOR I don't want you to take this the wrong way, Mr. Cooper -- like I said, you're a hero. But the truth is we have somewhat limited resources. Cooper remembers this conversation. He looks down. COOPER No one's heard anything from Brand? ADMINISTRATOR I'm sorry. Officially, she's been listed as missing for over 200 years. Mind you, I guess you turned up eventually, didn't you? COOPER Am I really going to hurt anybody by going to look for her? I just need a small ship. I made a promise. The bureaucrat looks down. Is he really going to have to tell this guy the lay of the land? ADMINISTRATOR Listen. Mr. Cooper. You're a hero. You're the oldest man in the human race. Don't you want to take it easy? (off his look) I hope you understand, we all you hold you in the highest possible regard. (QUIET) Which is why they're never going to let you go off by yourself in a spaceship. I'm sorry. Cooper looks at his hands. He's got a couple centuries on the bureaucrat in Earth years, but looks ten years younger. He puts his hands in his pockets. 151. ADMINISTRATOR (CONT'D) I've got some good news, however. (BIG SMILE) We all know about your early life, Mr Cooper. I wrote a paper on it when I was a boy. And I think we found something you'll really enjoy. EXT. CORNFIELD, COOPER STATION -- DAY Corn blows in an artificial breeze. A red tractor makes its way through the field, which curves gently up in the distance. ADMINISTRATOR (V.O.) The machines do most of the work, of course, but we were able to get you a few acres. You're going to be a farmer again. After a moment, the tractor stops. Cooper climbs down from the seat. Looks at the front steering linkage, which is jammed with an errant tree branch. He wipes his forehead and begins working the branch out of the machine. He looks miserable. A robot, a similar unit to Tars, walks over. Offers Cooper a bottle of water. Cooper accepts it. EXT. HANGAR BAY, COOPER STATION Cooper stands on an observation deck, high above the hangar floor. Below him, bright young things in uniforms climb into sleek-looking spaceships and prepare to set out. EXT. BASEBALL DIAMOND, COOPER STATION Cooper sits in the stands, listening to the familiar crack of the bat as an intramural team from the university practices. Cooper watches. He looks bored. The kid up to bat cracks a pop fly. For a second, the catcher shuffles back and forth, trying to get himself into position. But the ball never returns. The catcher YELLS out a warning. Above, the ball begins to slowly fall up, not down, toward the town center above. After a second, the ball smashes through a skylight of a building high above them. Cooper watches as the kid rounds the bases, laughing. 152. INT. KITCHEN, FARMHOUSE, COOPER STATION -- DAY Cooper's robot sits at the kitchen table. Cooper is fiddling around in the back of his head. ROBOT Settings: general settings, security SETTINGS-- COOPER Curiosity. New level setting. 100 percent. ROBOT Confirmed. Would you like to make any additional changes? COOPER Sense of humor. New level setting. 100 percent. Wait. (THINKS) 80 percent. He begins putting the robot back together. EXT. FARMHOUSE, COOPER STATION -- TWILIGHT Cooper sits on his porch, joined by the same robot as before. They watch as the space station rotates lazily out of alignment with the local star, casting the inside of the cylinder into shade, then darkness. The shadow races past them. Another day. Another night. EXT. HANGAR, COOPER STATION A maintenance worker finishes looking over one of the sleek- looking spacecraft. He packs up his tools and heads out. After a moment, two figures pick their way across the hangar floor, sticking to the shadows. As they reach the first ship in the line, we get a better look. It's Cooper and his robot pal. The robot is wearing a baseball cap and carrying a toolbox. Cooper gestures to the robot, who sets down the toolbox with a click against the mirror-like floor. Cooper shakes his head, annoyed, at the robot, and puts his finger to his lips. The robot nods, bashful. Cooper waves a small handheld computer near the skin of the ship until it lights up. Then he punches in a few codes. Nothing happens. He punches in a few more. 153. Suddenly, the hatch opens with a HISS. INT. SHIP Cooper moves quickly to the cockpit of the ship. Looks over the controls. The robot straps himself in next to him. Cooper looks up through the windows. The inky black void of space beckons. Cooper smiles and reaches for the controls. COOPER Where do you want to go first? The robot thinks it over. EXT. HANGAR, COOPER STATION The technician walks back into the hangar. He walks along the row of ships till he reaches the last one. It's not there. He looks out into the blackness of the void. Sees a tiny glowing speck, getting smaller and smaller. END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Interview with the Vampire.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Interview with the Vampire.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b2847ebd9a5e983ef0c24239147c5d3d8df86fd5 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Interview with the Vampire.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Interview with the Vampire Screenplay by Anne Rice Produced by Stephen Woolley David Geffen Directed by Neil Jordan Cast List: Tom Cruise Lestat de Lioncourt Brad Pitt Louis Pointe du Lac Antonio Banderas Armand Stephen Rea Santiago Christian Slater Daniel Malloy Kirsten Dunst Claudia FADE IN: INT. ROOM - NIGHT (SAN FRANCISCO) A small bare room, illuminated only by the streetlight coming through the window. A hand presses a cassette into a recorder and fiddles with a small microphone. Malloy sits over a table fiddling with the tape. He is young, half-shaven, dressed in T-shirt and jeans. He looks too - LOUIS, who stands by the window, looking out on the street, with his back to Malloy. Louis is dressed in an old-fashioned suit. LOUIS So you want me to tell you the story of my life... MALLOY That's what I do. I interview people. I collect lives. F.M. radio. F.F.R.C. I just interviewed a genuine hero, a cop who - LOUIS (quietly interrupting) You'd have to have a lot of tape for my story. I've had a very unusual life. MALLOY So much the better. I've got a pocket full of tapes. LOUIS You followed me here, didn't you? MALLOY Saw you in the street outside. You seemed interesting. Is this where you live? LOUIS It's just a room... MALLOY So shall we begin? (playfully, almost teasing) What do you do? LOUIS I'm a vampire. Malloy laughs. MALLOY See? I knew you were interesting. You mean this literally, I take it? LOUIS Absolutely. I was watching you watching me. I was waiting for you in that alleyway. And then you began to speak. MALLOY Well, what a lucky break for me. LOUIS Perhaps lucky for both of us. Still in shadow he turns from the window and approaches the table. LOUIS I'll tell you my story. All of it. I'd like to do that very much. Malloy is uneasy as he studies the shadowy figure, fascinated but afraid. MALLOY You were going to kill me? Drink my blood? LOUIS Yes but you needn't worry about that now. Things change. Louis stands opposite, hand on the chair. Malloy is riveted. MALLOY You believe this, don't you? That you're a vampire? You really think... LOUIS We can't begin this way. Let me turn on the light. MALLOY But I thought vampires didn't like the light. LOUIS We love it. I only wanted to prepare you. Louis pulls the chord of the overhead naked light bulb. LOUIS' FACE Appears inhumanly white, eyes glittering. Inhuman or not alive. the effect is subtle, beautiful and ghastly. MALLOY Good God! He struggles to suppress fear and understand. LOUIS Don't be frightened. I want this opportunity. The light appears to go out by itself and suddenly Louis is in the chair, dimly lit by the street-light from the window. The cassette is turning. MALLOY How did you do that? LOUIS The same way you do it. A series of simple gestures. Only I moved too fast for you to see. I'm flesh and blood, you see. But not human. I haven't been human for two hundred years. Malloy is speechless, frightened yet enthralled. LOUIS What can I do to put you at ease? Shall we begin like David Copperfield? I am born, I grow up. Or shall we begin when I was born to darkness, as I call it. That's really where we should start, don't you think? MALLOY You're not lying to me, are you? LOUIS Why should I lie? 1791 was the year it happened. I was twenty-four - younger than you are now. MALLOY Yes. LOUIS But times were different then. I was a man at that age. The master of a large plantation just south of New Orleans... DISSOLVE TO: EXT. LOUISIANA - DAY (1791) A disheveled Louis, hair in pigtail, in deep pocket frock coat, rides his horse through the fields of indigo, passing an overseer and slaves at work. He passes slave quarters and the distant colonial mansion of Pointe du Lac. He comes to a small parish church and a graveyard. he dismounts and walks through the tombs to an elaborate one in Greek Style. LOUIS (V.O.) I had just lost my wife in childbirth. She and the infant had been buried less than half a year. There is a marble angel above the tomb, feminine, with a tiny cherub angel in her arms. Louis looks from the angel, down to the inscriptions on the tomb: "DIANNE DE POINTE DU LAC 1763 - 1791 INFANT JEAN MARIE - 1791" Louis rips away the vines already covering the inscription, then drinks from a pocket-flask. His face is ashen. LOUIS (V.O.) I was twenty-four and life seemed finished. I couldn't bear the pain of their loss. I longed for a release from it. INT. WATERFRONT TAVERN - NIGHT Louis in ragged lace and dirty brocade sitting between two whores at a gaming table, drinking absinthe. All around him flatboatmen, whores, gamblers, black African freedmen. LOUIS (V.O.) I wanted to lose everything. My wealth, my estate, my sanity. But Lady Luck didn't oblige. Louis displays a hand of four aces. A gambler at the table stands in fury, over turning money, cards, drinks. LOUIS You're calling me a cheat? GAMBLER I'm calling you a piece of shit - The Gambler pulls out a pearl-handled pistol and points it at Louis. The crowd hushes and draws back. Louis smiles drunkenly and stands. he rips open his lace shirt, exposing his chest. LOUIS Then do me a favor. Get rid of this piece of shit... The Gambler's finger on the trigger. His hand shakes. LOUIS You lack the courage of your convictions, sir. Do it. LESTAT, a hooded figure in the corner, smiles from beneath the shadow of his hood. Gleaming blue eyes. LOUIS (V.O.) Most of all I longed for death. I know that now. I invited it, a release from the pain of living... The Gambler lowers his gun, scowling. Louis pockets the fistfulls of coins he has won. EXT. WATERFRONT - NIGHT Loud, crowded riverfront taverns full of ruffians. Louis staggers down, an arm around a whore, drinking from a bottle. A pockmarked pimp follows behind. LOUIS My invitation was open to anyone. Sailors, thieves, whores and slaves... EXT. WHARF - NIGHT Louis, quite insensible, being propped up against a wall by the whore in a dank wharf over the water. The pimp rifles his pockets, then pulls a knife, about to slice his throat, when a shadow falls over him. He turns, and we see the face of Lestat, who lifts him into the air by his throat, breaking his neck. the whore screams and Lestat's other hand clamps over her mouth. Lestat drags her towards him. Louis falls to the ground, supported no more, insensible. Close on his face, as we hear the last breaths of life of the whore, off. LOUIS (V.O.) But it was a vampire that accepted. IN THE WATER The bodies of the thief and whore float by. Above on the wharf, Louis, now awake, stares down at them. He turns, to see Lestat, towering above him. LESTAT They would have killed you - LOUIS Then my luck would have changed. LESTAT You want death? Is it death you want? LOUIS Yes... Lestat floats down on top of him, then lifts him in the air, draws his head back by the hair and sinks his teeth in his neck. ON LOUIS' FACE Every muscle rigid, teeth clenched, as the blood is drained from him. ON THEIR FEET Hovering above the ground, like two quivering dancers. THE WIND billows through the ghostly white sails and rigging of the boats around the wharf. LESTAT Floats higher, with Louis in his arms, draining his blood. One hand reaches out and grips a rope, hanging from a shipmast. The other holds Louis. He withdraws his teeth, and looks into Louis' drained face. LESTAT You still want death? Or have you tasted it enough? Louis can barely get the words out. LOUIS Enough... Lestat smiles and lets him go. Louis falls and plummets into the water below. LOUIS' FACE Coming to the surface, in the water lapping by the wharf. The bodies of the whore and thief float beside him. He looks up and sees Lestat way above him, dangling from the rope of the shipmast. INT. ROOM - SAN FRANCISCO ON MALLOY'S FACE Captivated, terrified, enthralled. MALLOY That's how it happened? LOUIS No. The Gift of Darkness requires more than that, as you'll see. EXT. WATERFRONT - DAY Louis floating by mudflats, surrounded by dead fish, the carcasses of animals, eighteenth century rubbish. He gets to his feet and walks weakly through the mudflats. The sun is coming up over the sea behind him. LOUIS (V.O.) He left me half dead that morning. he wanted something from me. He came back the following night. INT. LAVISH FRENCH-FURNISHED BEDROOM AT POINT DU LAC Louis is delirious in a four-poster bed, shrouded with mosquito netting. A female slave, YVETTE, bathes his face with a rag. She is crying. Other slave women hover in the shadows. Yvette puts out all candles save one by the bed, and withdraws, with the others. Candlelight flickers on the face of the bisque virgin. Louis tosses and turns, dreaming, murmuring incoherently. Then he opens his eyes. LESTAT, exquisitely dressed in French clothing, stands by the bed smiling. In the light of the candle we see that he is not human; skin too white; eyes too bright. Lestat looks amiable, even mischievous, but impossible - and angel or monster. Louis grabs his pistol from the table and cocks it. LOUIS Who the hell are you? What are you doing in my house? LESTAT And a beautiful house it is too. Yours is a good life, isn't it? Louis takes aim. Lestat puts his hand over the barrel. Louis fires. The bullet tears a hole in Lestat's hand. Lestat is unfazed. He takes the gun from Louis' hand and throws it away. His hand begins to heal. LESTAT You're not afraid of anything, are you? LOUIS Why should I be? Louis reaches for his sword, hanging by the bed, and point it. Lestat laughs indulgently. He draws closer. LESTAT Are you going to put that through me too? Ruin my beautiful clothes? He comes closer to Louis, right up to his face, so the sword passes through his waistcoat. LESTAT Were all last night's promises for nothing? He reaches out with his now-healed hand and plucks out the sword. LOUIS What do you want from me? LESTAT I've come to answer your prayers. You want to die, don't you? Life has no meaning anymore, does it? Lestat sits down on the bed, drawing up one knee. Louis is becoming spellbound. LESTAT The wine has no taste. The food sickens you. There seems no reason for any of it, does there? But what if I could give it back to you? Pluck out the pain and give you another life? And it would be for all time? And sickness and death could never touch you again? The vampire theme rises, with the sound of a heartbeat. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. GRAVEYARD - NIGHT The camera drifts through the graveyard where Louis' wife is buring. Everything is lit with an eerie glow, as if seen through some unearthly eye. LESTAT Vampires, that's what we are. Creatures of darkness, only we see it that darkness more clearly than any mortal has ever seen... Louis and Lestat drifting, dreamlike, through the overhanging vines, comes to the grave of his wife and child. Above the crypt, the statue of angel, mother and child. LESTAT Wouldn't it be sweet to bid pain goodbye? To wave away anguish and grief? To embrace the peace of the unending night? The marble fingers of the child on the statue move. The angel raises her head and has the face of Louis wife, Diane. she raises her hand and touches Louis tear- streamed face. The child speaks. MARBLE CHILD Papa... Louis reaches out to embrace them and finds himself touching cold marble. He cries out in anguish- LOUIS Diane!!!! LESTAT They are gone, Louis. Death took them. Death which you can now destroy... LOUIS NO!!!!! INT. LOUIS BEDROOM - NIGHT Louis, thrashing on the bed in a delirium. Lestat places a hand on his forehead and soothes him. LESTAT You have to ask me for this. You have to want it, do you hear me? LOUIS Give it to me!!! LESTAT Vampires. We thrive on blood. LOUIS I want it! Lestat bends close as if to drink Louis' blood. Louis does not shrink back, but stares into his eyes. Lestat draws back, then stands up and goes to the French doors. LESTAT Tomorrow night. You must prove yourself. I will give you the choice I never had. He looks outside. LESTAT The sun's coming up. Watch it carefully. If you come with me tomorrow, you'll never see it again. He leaves. Louis sits dazed, staring at the empty French window. The sun rises with unnatural beauty, over the swamplands and the plantation, filling the room, striking water-pitcher, glass, mirror, and the picture of his dead wife. LOUIS (V.O.) My last sunrise. That morning I was not yet a vampire, and I saw my last sunrise. I remember it completely, yet I don't remember any sunrise before it. I watched the whole magnificence of the dawn for the last time, as if it were the first. And the I said goodbye to sunlight and went out to become what I became. EXT. PLANTATION - NIGHT Lestat and Louis walk through the slave quarters, huddles groups around fires, music, singing. The sound of whipping is heard. LESTAT Your grief has unhinged you. You've let your estate rot. In the woods beyond the quarters, the white overseer is whipping a black slave, with horrifying savagery. LESTAT You let your overseer run riot, work your slaves to the bone. We'll start with him. LOUIS How do you mean, start? LESTAT Call him. Louis calls. LOUIS Carlos!!! The overseer turns and comes towards them, with the bloodied whip. LESTAT Why the bloody whip, Carlos? The overseer looks into his eyes, shivers with terror, drops the whip and runs for the trees. Lestat is on him in an instant. He sinks is teeth in his neck. Louis runs to him, tries to pull him off. But Lestat turns to Louis and smiles, with his bloodied mouth. LESTAT Let's call that a start. LOUIS I can't do it. LESTAT You've just done it - LOUIS Kill me if you will, but I can't do this... He flees, as Lestat ends to finish off the overseer. EXT. POINTE DU LAC - NIGHT Louis running up the steps leading to the gallery. He is crazed with guilt. He looks up and sees - LESTAT Sitting collected at the head of the steps. LOUIS Backs away as Lestat rises and descends the steps so fluidly he hardly seems to move. LESTAT Don't worry. He was white trash, they come at two a penny. I dumped him in the swamp and untied the slave, licked his wounds clean. LOUIS You're the devil, aren't you? That's who you are. LESTAT (gently) I wish I were. But if I were, what would I want with you? LOUIS I can't go through with it, I tell you. LESTAT Your perfect. Your bitter and you're strong. LOUIS But why do you want me? LESTAT Because you're as strong as I was when I was alive. Louis takes out his flask and drinks. Drunkenly, he turns and heads for a nearby swamp. EXT. CEMETERY - NIGHT Louis stops again in front of the crypt. Drinks from the flask, leans his forehead against the stone. Lestat appears beside him, radiant, beautiful. LESTAT You really want to be with them? LOUIS Yes. Kill me. Kill me like you promised - LESTAT You asked for death. I didn't promise it - In a quiet rage, Lestat raise his fist and shatters the marble face stone, revealing a coffin below. His fist shatters that in turn, revealing the half-rotted body of a women, holding an infant, no longer recognizable as individuals, a tangle of gruesome rotted hair, flesh, eaten away lace, insects and worms crawling over it. Louis gasps. LESTAT It's not your wife and child my friend. It's death. Just that simple. Think and choose. It happens to everyone. Except us. Lestat stares at him, smiling, becoming a hazy dreamlike vision, then hyperclear. Louis again is spellbound. He drops the flask, which shatters on the stones. Lestat appears angelic in his radiance. LESTAT We shall be this way always, my friend. Young as we are now. I'm lonely for a companion, lonely for your strength. But I'm not that lonely. Do you want to come or not? Louis capitulates in one long sigh. LOUIS Yes... Lestat comes closer, smiling. LESTAT Did I hear a yes? LOUIS Yes... Lestat embraces Louis, obscuring his face. He drinks his blood. We hear two heartbeats, out of sync, coming together. We see Louis' face, growing paler, paler, as his blood is drained. His eyes stare upwards, losing their focus. LOUIS' POV The moon, through hanging vines. The marble statue of his wife and child smile at him, as if come alive. Her hair blows in the breeze, wonderful gold tresses, the child's fingers reach out... BACK TO SCENE Lestat lets Louis fall down beside the broken crypt. Louis looks from the rotting bodies to Lestat above him. radiant. Lestat speaks gently. LESTAT I've drained you to the point of death. If you drink from me you live for ever. If I leave you here you die. Lestat lifts his hand to his lips and blows Louis a kiss. LOUIS No. Don't leave me here. Give it to me. Lestat lifts his own right wrist to his teeth. Fangs slash his own flesh, blood falls. LESTAT You're sure? LOUIS Sure... Louis rises to accept the first drops with his open mouth. Lestat gathers him up, as Louis clamps his hand on Lestat's arm and drinks from the wrist. The VAMPIRE THEME swells. Lestat watches him drink his wrist with wry amusement. Louis finishes, staggers away from him as if drunk. LOUIS' POV Vampire vision. The world is transformed, the swamp, the moon, the clouds, the cry of the night birds all come to him with unnatural clarity. He looks down with pity at the corpses of his wife and child who appear beautiful in death now rather than repulsive. He closes the lid of the coffin and replaces it in the ground, astonished at the ease of it. He turns and stares at Lestat whom he sees now with vampire's vision. Lestat's eyes are brighter, his buttons are glimmering in the light. Everything is clearer, brighter, containing more facets of light and color. LESTAT Stop staring at my buttons. Didn't I tell you it was going to be fun? Lestat leads him into the swamp. Everything astonished Louis, as if he's never seen it before. Louis is suddenly racked by shudders of pain. LESTAT You're body's dying. Pay no attention. It will take twenty minutes at most. LOUIS Dying? Louis dry-retches. LESTAT It happens to us all. Lestat wipes Louis' brow. LESTAT Come, you're going to feed now. LOUIS I want a woman. Lestat laughs and his laughter echoes like bells in Louis' ears. LESTAT That doesn't matter anymore, Louis. You'll see. Come... LOUIS' VAMPIRE POV - SWAMP Small high ground. Camp of runaway slaves. Several share a bottle of rum around the fire. A male slave rises. A gorgeous hunk of flesh in the moonlight and goes into the swamp to relieve his bladder. LESTAT They're all beautiful now. Men, women, the old, the young...simply because they are alive. - The slave walks towards them in the darkness. A crucifix gleams round his neck. LESTAT Take him. LOUIS The crucifix - LESTAT Forget the crucifix. Take him. Louis hesitates. LESTAT Resist no more Louis. Feed... The slave looks up and sees them. Two gleaming white beings standing before him with devil's eyes. The he runs. Louis can resist him no more. He swoops on him with a vampire's rapid movement, brings him to the ground and sinks his teeth in his neck. Close on Louis feeding on the slave, the magnificent body shuddering in its death-throes. Lestat stands above, laughing. The slave dies. Louis rises from him, drunkenly, engorged with blood. LOUIS What have I done? LESTAT You have fed. You were made for this... Louis looks down at the body of the slave. Lestat's laughter echoes around him. LOUIS Dear God, what have I done? LESTAT You've killed Louis. And enjoyed it. Lestat laughs harder. Louis runs from him, screaming in anguish. EXT. GRAVEYARD - NIGHT Louis reaches his wife's grave. He falls to his knees, throws back his head and bares his new fangs to the moon. LOUIS Dear God, what have I become???? INT. ROOM. SAN FRANCISCO - NIGHT Malloy stares at Louis, terrified and enthralled. MALLOY You said the slave had a crucifix... LOUIS Oh, that rumor about crosses? MALLOY You can't look at them... LOUIS Nonsense, my friend. I can look on anything I like. And I am particularly fond of looking on crucifixes. MALLOY The story about stakes through the heart? LOUIS The same. As you would say today... Bull shit. MALLOY What about coffins? LOUIS Coffins... coffins unfortunately are a necessity... EXT. MANSION - NIGHT Louis walks up the steps to the mansion. He looks now like a fully-fledged vampire. Yvette, the slave girl stares at him from the open doorway. Cascades of harpsichord music come from the interior. LOUIS (V.O.) Killing is no ordinary act. It is the experience of another's life for certain. That night I had lost my own life and taken another's. I was drowning in a sea of human guilt and regret, with all the heightened senses of a vampire... Louis enters the mansion, following the harpsichord music, as if in a dream. Yvette draws back as he approaches. INT. MANSION - NIGHT Louis wanders into the parlor, where Lestat is playing the harpsichord rapidly and exuberantly. Louis goes to a full-length mirror and sees his own reflection there - quite the perfect vampire. LESTAT Yes, that's you, my handsome friend. And you'll look that way till the stars fall from heaven. LOUIS It can't be... LESTAT Give it time. You're like a man who loses a limb and still imagines he feels pain. It will pass. And we must sleep now. I can feel the sun approaching. EXT. POINTE DU LAC Dawn spreading over the plantation. INT. BASEMENT - POINTE DU LAC A brick walled storage room. Two coffins stand on the floor. Lestat enters with a lantern, Louis behind. Lestat is apprehensive and protective of Louis. He pulls back one lid ot reveal a satin interior. LESTAT You must get into it. It's the only safe place for you when the light comes. LOUIS And if I don't? LESTAT The sun will destroy the blood I've given you. Every tissue, every vein. The fire in this lantern could do that too. Louis approaches the coffin, hands trembling as he peers into it. LESTAT Don't be afraid. In moments you'll be sleeping as soundly as you ever slept. And when you awake I'll be waiting for you, and so will all the world. Louis crawls into the coffin, fearful yet fascinated. LOUIS You told me something earlier. You said you didn't have a choice. Was that true? Lestat smiles bitterly and nods. LESTAT Someday I'll tell you. We have a lot of time to talk to each other. You might say... we have all the time we shall ever need. He closes the lid. Total darkness. Sounds of Louis' panicked breathing. Of his prayer again. LOUIS Dear God, what have I done? INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT Louis and Lestat sitting at a sumptuous table, piled with uneaten food. Lestat is going through sheafs of documents. LOUIS (V.O.) I awoke the next evening to a different world. And I realized there are as profound differences between vampires as between human beings... Lestat, totting up figures on a piece of paper. LESTAT Your wealth, dear Louis, is inestimable. Your income from cotton alone will keep us in comfort for a century. Louis just stares at him. LOUIS (V.O.) I sat there staring at him with contempt. He had the soul of a shopkeeper, he was the sow's ear out of which nothing fine could be made. I felt sadly cheated in having him as a teacher... Lestat looks up at him and grins. LESTAT You'll get used to killing. Just forget about that mortal coil. You'll become accustomed to things all too quickly. LOUIS Do you think so? Yvette enters, stands behind him, staring at Lestat with loathing. YVETTE You are not hungry, sir... LESTAT Au contraire, my dear. He could eat a horse... Lestat laughs loudly. Louis turns and looks at Yvette. Her beautiful forehead in the candlelight, the veins pulsing on her neck and her hands. LOUIS (V.O.) I looked at anything mortal and saw all life as precious, condemning all fruitless guilt and passion that would let it slip through the fingers like sand... Yvette returns his stare, troubled. LOUIS (V.O.) It was only as a vampire that I could see Yvette's beauty. Her fear of me increased my desire. Yvette reaches for his uneaten plate. Louis stops her hand. Holds it for a beat too long, looking at the veins in her wrist. LOUIS I will finish it, Yvette. Now leave us. She turns and runs from the table. Lestat leans towards him. LESTAT Can't you pretend, you fool? Don't give the game away. We're lucky to have such a home. His hand snakes out under the table. It comes up holding a large grey rat. LESTAT Pretend to drink, at least. He bares his fangs and slices the rat's throat. He pours the blood into a crystal glass. LESTAT Such fine crystal shouldn't go to waste... He hands the glass to Louis. Louis drinks the blood and stares at it in surprise, then at the dead rat on the fine lace tablecloth. LESTAT I know. It gets cold so fast. LOUIS We can live like this? Off the blood of animals? Lestat shrugs. LESTAT I wouldn't call it living. I'd call it surviving. A useful trick if you're caught for a month on a ship at sea. Lestat strokes the belly of the dead rat, studying it sadly. LESTAT There's nothing in the world now that doesn't hold some... LOUIS Fascination... LESTAT Yes. And I'm bored with this prattle - He throws the rat away. LOUIS But we can live without taking human life. It's possible. LESTAT Anything is possible. But just try it for a week. Come into New Orleans and let me show you some real sport! He rises. Louis follows. EXT. NEW ORLEANS - NIGHT A big, lavish drinking place with a raised stage. Italian actors in buffoonish costumes act crude commedia dell'arte on the stage. Plantation owners in soiled brocade, lace, crooked wigs watch the show as tavern wenches move about. LOUIS (V.O.) This was New Orleans, a magical and magnificent place to live. In which a vampire, richly dressed might attract no more notice in the evening than hundreds of other exotic creatures. Louis and Lestat by a table, in the shadow of a tree. Teresa, a tavern wench, sits on Lestat's lap, pouring drinks for the two of them. She lifts a fresh glass to Lestat's lips as he flirts with her. TERESA Come on, mon cher. The best in the colony. Once you touch this you'll never go to any other tavern again. LESTAT You think so, cherie? But what if I'd rather taste your lips? TERESA My lips are even sweeter still... She kisses him. He lets his tongue play with hers, then runs it down her neck. She swoons with pleasure. Then he sinks his teeth gently in her neck, looking playfully behind at Louis, who if appalled and fascinated. ANTICS ON THE STAGE Laughter rocks the tavern. Lestat slips the pale and dead Teresa into a chair beside him and folds her hands on the table. No one notices. He lays gold coins on the table and touches Louis' knee. LESTAT Let's get out of here! Lestat rushes out, thrilled with himself. EXT. TAVERN - NIGHT A crowded street. Louis and Lestat emerge from the tavern. Louis looks up at the moon. LOUIS Have you ever been caught? LESTAT Of course not. It's so easy you almost feel sorry for them. They walk down the crowded night street, full of ladies in their finery, freed slaves, whores, sailors etc. LOUIS (V.O.) Lestat killed two, sometimes three a night. A fresh young girl, that was his favorite for the first of the evening. INT. FRENCH QUARTER MANSION - BALLROOM Small orchestra plays for colonial couples in fine wig and garb prancing to a French minuet. Young women sit in chairs along the walls with their chaperones. Young men stand opposite. LOUIS (V.O.) But the triumphant kill of Lestat was a young man. They represented the greatest loss to Lestat because they stood on the threshold of the maximum possibility of life. A youth of preternatural beauty, silhouetted against French windows. He is talking to an elegant widow, seated, holding two manicured poodles. Lestat stares at the youth with longing. LESTAT The trick is not to think about it. See that one? The widow St. Clair? she had that gorgeous young fop murder her husband. She's perfect for you. Go ahead. LOUIS But how do you know? LESTAT Read her thoughts. LOUIS I can't. LESTAT The dark gift is different for each of us. But one thing is true of everyone. We grow stronger as we go along. He leads Louis closer to them. LESTAT Take my word for it. She blamed a slave for his murder. And do you know what they did to him? He smiles at the young man, who smiles in return. LESTAT The evildoers are easier. And they taste better... EXT. LAWNS - NIGHT Lestat walks the youth towards a copse of trees. He looks back at Louis, who holds both poodles on a delicate leash, walking with the widow. The minuet spills from the french windows. WIDOW ST. CLAIR Now, young man, you really amaze me! I'm old enough to be your grandmother. She leans towards him concquettishly. Louis, crazed with hunger, sees her as beautiful in the moonlight. He allows her lips reach his. He takes her in his arms, gently, romantically, and sinks in his teeth. She swoons. WIDOW ST. CLAIR Yes, that's the melody, I remember it. Oh yes... Louis draws his lips away. She is weak in his arms, but still alive. He can't do it. The poodles growl. He shoots out an arm and grabs one, then the other. EXT. TREES - NIGHT Lestat, bending over the body of the dead youth. A scream pierces the night. WIDOW ST CLAIR Murder!!! Murderer!! EXT. LAWNS. NIGHT The widow on the grass, her poodles dead beside her. Louis is trying to quiet her. WIDOW ST CLAIR My little papillions! My butterflies!!! He killed them!!! Lestat comes from nowhere, claps a hand over her mouth and breaks her neck. He spits in fury at Louis. LESTAT You whining coward of a vampire who prowls the night killing rats and poodles. You could have finished us both! Louis throws himself on Lestat with extraordinary force, pummeling him towards the trees. LOUIS What have you done to me? You've condemned me to hell. LESTAT I don't know any hell - Louis hurls him against tree after tree with a strength he never knew he had. LOUIS You want to see me kill? Watch me kill you then - He drags him to the ground an throttles him. Lestat looks up at him, amazed and amused at the same time. LESTAT What strength, my friend, what strength. I remember why I chose you now. Lestat squirms from his grip, seemingly effortlessly. LESTAT But you can't kill me, Louis. Nor I you. He ruffles Louis' hair, with wry affection. LESTAT Feed on what you want, mon cherie. Rats, chickens, doves, goats. I'll leave you to it and watch you come round. Just remember, life without me would be even more unbearable... He smiles. A sly, pleasurable secret secret smile. EXT. POINTE DU LAC - NIGHT Their carriage draws up to the mansion as the first fingers of light spread across the sky. LOUIS (V.O.) Being a vampire to him meant revenge. Revenge against life- itself. Every time he took a life it was revenge. and the slaves with a wisdom that was denied their masters, began to notice... INT. SLAVE-HUT - NIGHT In a tiny cabin, a slave family. Kids sleeping on the floor, in cribs and cots. The parents sleep on the bed, young, beautiful, naked. Beside them is Lestat, who is drinking the husband's blood, his hand playing across the breast of the wife as he does so. She murmurs in her sleep. WIFE Yes... please... She grabs his fingers and kisses them, thinking him to be her husband. Lestat gently disengages himself and leaves. EXT. SLAVE-HUT - NIGHT The woman's scream pierces the sky, as Lestat walks into the night. EXT. CHICKEN-COOP - NIGHT Every chicken is dead, bloodies necks hanging down from the cribs. Louis emerges from the entrance, blood on his lips. He hears the scream. EXT. SLAVE QUARTER - NIGHT The sound of drumming is heard, African, primal. The woman runs through the quarters, screaming grief. Others gather at doorways, restrain and console her. EXT. DOVE-COTE - DAY A beautiful, elaborate eighteenth century dove-cote. Every dove inside is dead, pierced at the neck. A black hand throws in a flaming torch and it bursts into flame. INT. CABIN - NIGHT A doll, made in the image of Lestat, is pierced with needles. EXT. SWAMP BY FIELDS - DAY Bodies of slaves floating in the swamp, with the bodies of goats. Slaves at the edge throw ropes around the bodies, pull them towards the shore. The drumming grows louder. EXT. SLAVE-QUARTERS - NIGHT Louis walking through. The slaves hush as he approaches, gather in doorways and whisper. He turns and looks at them, sorrowfully. He looks truly like a ghost. Their eyes turn away when they meet his. He walks on. INT. DINING ROOM IN MANSION - NIGHT Lestat and Louis sit at the table, the untouched food between them. LESTAT Consider yourself lucky. In Paris a vampire has to be clever for many reasons. Here all one needs is a pair of fangs. LOUIS Paris? You came from Paris? LESTAT As did the one who made me. LOUIS Tell me about him. You must have learnt something from him! It had to happen for you as it did for me! LESTAT I learnt absolutely nothing. I wasn't give a choice, remember? LOUIS But you must know something about the meaning of it all, you must know where we come from, why we... Lestat spits out in anger. LESTAT Why? Why should I know these things? Do you know them? The drumming grows outside. LESTAT (gripping his temples) That noise! It's driving me mad! We've been in the country for weeks, with nothing but that noise!!! LOUIS They know about us. They see us dine on empty plates and drink from empty glasses. LESTAT Come the New Orleans then. There's an opera on tonight. A real french opera! We can dine in splendor! LOUIS I respect life, don't you see? For each and every human life I have respect. LESTAT Respect me a little then. I'm the only life you know. Louis stares. Lestat turns childishly, petulantly. LESTAT You'll soon run out of chickens, Louis... He walks out, humming a French aria. Louis stares at his plate. EXT. SLAVE QUARTERS - NIGHT The slaves, gathered on mass around fires. Frenzied drumming, dancing. Lestat rides through, scattering the flames. The drumming stops. The slaves look towards the house. Slowly, they begin to move towards it. INT. POINTE DU LAC DINING ROOM - NIGHT Louis, sitting in despair by the table. Yvette, the slave girl enters. YVETTE Michi Louis? You don't want any supper? Louis laughs harshly. LOUIS No, ma cher. I need no supper. Is all well at Pointe Du Lac tonight? Yvette draws closer. Light reveals her beauty. YVETTE We worry about you master. When do you ride about the fields? How long since you've been to the slave quarters? Everywhere there is death. Animals, men. Are you our master still at all? Louis watches her sadly. He's getting hungry. Her throat is long and slender, her breasts are gorgeous. LOUIS (dazed) Leave me alone now, Yvette. YVETTE I will not go unless you listen to me. Send away this new friend of yours. The slaves are frightened of him. They are frightened of you. She comes closer, and he can hear her beating heart. She touches his hair. He takes her hand and brings it to his lips. LOUIS I am frightened of myself, Yvette. He kisses her wrist. She suddenly gasps, sharply, withdraws her hand. She sees her wrist is red with blood. She sees the blood on his lips. She screams. Louis stands. LOUIS Hush, Yvette - She screams even louder. Louis clamps his hand over her mouth. Her hand grips the table-cloth, pulls, bringing the empty glasses and crockery to the floor. In horror, Louis realizes he has broken her neck. He brings her cut wrist to his lips, then drops it, revolted. He carries her body outside, grief-stricken. The drumming grows louder. EXT. MANSION - NIGHT Fires burning in the distance, round the slave-cabins. The slaves are gathered at the foot of the mansion steps. They see Louis come out, holding the body of Yvette. He is deranged with grief. LOUIS This place is cursed. Damned, do you hear me? And your master is the devil. He places the body of Yvette in a rocking chair on the veranda. LOUIS Get out while you can. You're free men. They don't move. They stare at him blankly. LOUIS Unlike me, you are no free men... He turns behind him, and looks at the mansion, all candelabra and chandeliers lighted, all windows open. LOUIS Do I have to convince you? He rushed up the stairs, snatches up the candelabra and sets fire to the drapes. He goes from window to window, lighting drapes, lace curtains, everything. SLAVES POV - MASTER Setting fire to the house. They rush up the stairs with shouts of "STOP HIM, HE'S MAD". A wall of flame gushes out from the interior, blocking their way. INT. BURNING MANSION - NIGHT Louis, wandering from room to room of the burning mansion. he sees paintings of his wife consumed by the flames. He is weakening with the fumes, the heat. We can see this in his face, the texture of his skin. Suddenly a large french window cascades inwards and Lestat stands there, whip in hand. Behind him we can see the morning sky. LESTAT You fool, what have you done? LOUIS What you wouldn't do. It's almost sunrise. It will be the sun or the fire. You said they can kill me. The sun or the fire! Louis stands there, weakened, then collapses onto the floor. Lestat darts forward and catches him before he drops. He runs out the shattered window, carrying him on his shoulder. EXT. LARGE GRAVEYARD - DAWN With many crypts. Louis, unconscious, carried over Lestat's shoulder. INT. CRYPT Darkness. Louis lying on the floor of a large crypt. He slowly comes to. LOUIS Where are we? LESTAT Where do you think, my idiot friend? We're in a nice filthy cemetery. Does this make you happy? Is this fitting and proper enough? Louis laughs softly. LOUIS We belong in hell. LESTAT And what if there is no hell, or they don't want us there? Ever think of that? INT. ROOM. SAN FRANCISCO - NIGHT The vampire sits in silence, as if tired by his story. Malloy speaks, hesitantly. MALLOY You loved Yvette... LOUIS Can a vampire feel love? MALLOY You loved your wife, surely. LOUIS I was human then. Might as well ask can an angel feel love. Both are blesses or cursed with a certain... detachment. Though whether angels take as long to learn it as I, I will never know. He looks directly at Malloy, shocking him with his gaze. LOUIS Yes, I loved Yvette. As I loved Pointe Du Lac. And as with each thing I loved, I destroyed it. EXT. NEW ORLEANS - EVENING From the sea, at evening, shrouded in mist. LOUIS (V.O.) Lestat I did not love. And he survived. INT. INN - EVENING A lavish little supper chamber with coffered bed, fancy French furniture. Open to rooftops of colonial city. Louis sits by an open window looking out over the city. Behind, we can hear the laughter of Lestat and tow female voices. Louis turns and sees - Lestat, in the main chamber with two drugged or drunked whores. One runs her finger down his chest. The other seems out of it. WHORE #1 You're skin's icy. LESTAT Not always... He presses his thumb on her neck and holds her tight, sinking his teeth into her neck. After a time she falls to the bed, dead. he turns to the other. LESTAT Your friend has no head for wine. WHORE She's stupid. I can warm that cold skin of yours better than she can. LESTAT Do you think so? He rubs her breast. WHORE Why you're warm now. LESTAT Ah, but the price is pretty high. Your sweet friend - I exhausted her. He bites her in turn, drinks her blood. She does into the swoon. Louis looks on in disgust. He stands. LOUIS I'm leaving you. I can't stand this any longer. Lestat pulls away from the whore. LESTAT What, no flowery speeches? About what a monster I am? What a vulgar fiend? LOUIS I'm not interested in you. You disgust me. I'm interested in my own nature and know I can't trust you to tell me the truth about me. LESTAT What do you imagine you are Louis? LOUIS I don't pretend to know. LESTAT Don't you understand, Louis, that you alone of all creatures can see death with impunity... you alone under the rising moon can strike like the hand of God. The girl moans. LOUIS Lestat, she's alive!!! LESTAT Vampires are killers. Predators, who's all seeing eyes were meant to give them detachment. The girl moans again, open her eyes. LOUIS The girl, Lestat - LESTAT I know. Let her alone. He slashes her wrist with his teeth, and lets the blood drip into a glass. LESTAT You think you can be human. You think you can go back. But you can't. You live off the blood of rats now Louis. How human is that? The girls moans again. Lestat drinks that glass. LESTAT Lie still, love... The girl begins to scream. Lestat picks her up. LESTAT You're tired love, you want to sleep. He walks to his coffin, puts her inside and sits on the lid. We hear muffled screaming and banging from inside. LOUIS Why do you do this Lestat? LESTAT I like to do it. I enjoy it. Take you aesthete's taste to purer things. Kill them swiftly if you will, but do it! For now doubt, you are a killer Louis. Ah! He stands up. The girl pushes the lid off, hysterical. She looks at Louis. GIRL It's a coffin, a coffin! Get me out! LESTAT Of course it's a coffin. You're dead, love. Louis screams at Lestat LOUIS Lestat - finish this - LESTAT You finish her - if you feel so much - The girl grabs Louis and pleads. GIRL You won't let me die, will you? You'll save me? LESTAT But it's too late, love. Look at your wrist, you breast. He picks her up again. He turns to Louis laughing. LESTAT Unless I make her one of us... LOUIS NO!!! LESTAT THEN YOU KILL HER!!!!! The girl screams. Louis puts his hands to his ears. Then Lestat, in a fit of pique puts his teeth to her neck. She dies at last. A terrible silence descends. Lestat looks at Louis. LOUIS My God... to think you... are all I have to learn from... LESTAT In the old world, they called it the dark gift, Louis. And I gave it to you. Louis leaves without a word. EXT. DANK NEW ORLEANS BACK STREETS - NIGHT A rat scurried down a gutter, then another and another. Louis' hand grabs the rat. We see him from behind, walking down the street, gripping one, then another. LOUIS (V.O.) Am I damned? Am I from the devil? Is my very nature that of a devil? And all the while, as these dreaded questions caused me to neglect my thirst, my thirst grew hotter, my veins were threads of pain in my flesh, my temples throbbed. A smaller side street, in which every house is marked with an X. The street is crawling with rats, and Louis is following them. A man passes with a lantern. MAN Don't go that way Monsieur. It's the plague. Go back the way you came. Louis smiles bitterly at these words, repeating them to himself. LOUIS The way I came... He walks on, following the rats. LOUIS (V.O.) ... and finally, when I could stand it no longer, I stood in an empty desolate street and heard the sound of a child crying. A house, the door slightly open, marked with an X. The sound of a child crying inside. Louis walks towards it. INT. HOUSE - NIGHT A little girl, pulling at a figure in a rocking chair. CLAUDIA Mama, please wake up. Mama, I'm frightened, please wake up. As Louis enters, he sees the woman is dead. Her eyes are being eaten away by rats. Louis gasps in horror. Claudia turns. She is a radiant doll or angel as she stretches out her hand to Louis. CLAUDIA Monsieur, please help us. Papa's waiting for us at the ship. Please wake mama, Monsieur. She runs to him. Instinctively, he gathers her in his arms. He looks down pitying on her beautiful face. LOUIS (V.O.) And if I am damned, why do I fell such pity for her gaunt face? Why do I wish to warm her tiny arms? Comfort her beating heart? She snuggles into him, suddenly utterly secure. She tugs at his hair, brings his head down towards her. And we see Louis shiver, as his lips go to her neck. Her breathing becomes calm as she goes into the swoon. Gradually another sound replaces it. LESTAT'S LAUGHTER, GROWING LOUDER AND LOUDER. Suddenly Louis backs away, caught red-handed, the child in his arms. He sees Lestat slapping his knee and laughing in the doorway. LESTAT Ah, my philosopher, my martyr. "Never take a human life". Well you must admit it is funny. Or is it merely touching? I'm not sure. Louis stares at the unconscious Claudia in horror, then lets her slip gently into a chair. Shamefully he wipes his mouth, sees the tiny wounds on her throat. Lestat snatches up the dead mother from the chair and begins to dance with her in great circles, humming and talking. Her head falls back. Black water flows from her mouth. LESTAT Let's make some party of it, shall we? Maybe there's some life in the old lady yet? Louis flees into the street. LESTAT Come back, Louis, you are what you are. The plague would have got her within hours anyway. Merciful Death how you love your precious guilt. EXT. STREETS - NIGHT Louis running through an assortment of streets. All the night life of New Orleans flows by him. LOUIS (V.O.) For years I had not savored a human. And when I had Lestat's words made sense to me. I knew peace only when I killed and when I heard her heart in that terrible rhythm I knew again what peace could be. Yet even then I could not contenance it... EXT. WATERFRONT - DAWN Fingers of light in the sky. Louis, pale and shivering, walks splashing through the water. He comes to a huge sewer-pipe, crowded with rats. He crawls inside. EXT. WATERFRONT - SOME EVENINGS LATER The same sewer-pipe. Now the bodies of dead rats lie all around. A pair of fine leather boots splash through the water - Lestat's. INT. SEWER-PIPE - EVENING Louis huddled there, so pale and shivering he seems close to death. Lestat comes through. LESTAT All I need to find you Louis is follow the corpses of rats. He bends down to him, surprisingly gently and puts his own coat around him. LESTAT Pain is terrible for you. You feel it like no other creature because you are a vampire. You don't want it to go on. LOUIS No... They emerge from the sewer and walk along the waterfront. LESTAT Do what it is in your nature to do. And you will feel as you felt with that child in your arms. LOUIS Oh God Lestat. I felt peace. I felt an end to the craving. LESTAT That and more. He puts his arm around Louis, to stop his shivering. LESTAT Evil is a point of view. God kills, indiscriminately, and so shall we. For no creatures under God are as we are, none so like him as ourselves. LOUIS Is God merciless? Greedy and cruel? LESTAT Ah, but we have even more in common with our creator. come, I am like a mother tonight. I want a child. Louis is baffled. He follows. INT. INN - SUPPER ROOM Lestat enters. LESTAT She's here, your wounded one. LOUIS What are you saying? LESTAT You need company, Louis. More congenial than mine... Lestat holds up a candle and walks towards a large four- poster bed. Claudia lies there, angelic, under the coverlet, two marks on her neck. LOUIS Lestat! LESTAT You remember how you wanted her, the taste of her - LOUIS I didn't want to kill her. LESTAT Don't worry, Louis, you're conscience is clear. You left her alive. Lestat shakes her gently. LESTAT Claudia, Claudia, listen to me. You're ill, my precious and I'm going to give you what you need to get well. LOUIS Lestat, what do you mean? Louis runs at him, but Lestat brushes him aside effortlessly, so he falls to the floor. Lestat bites his wrist and presses the bleeding wound to the child's mouth... He winces in pain. LESTAT That's it dear. More. You must drink it to get well. Claudia sucks on the wound, reviving, making little noises like a person waking from sleep. Louis rises to his feet as Claudia clutches Lestat's arm, sucking the blood fiercely. Lestat moans. LESTAT Stop, that's enough. No more. He pulls her loose and she growls and stares at him with big clear astonished eyes. CLAUDIA I want more. LOUIS What have you done? Lestat puts her down on the bed and sits beside her, holding his wrist, obviously in pain. CLAUDIA More. LESTAT Yes, cherie, of course you want more. And I'll show you how to get it. You drink from morals, my beauty, but from me? Never again. Still suffering, Lestat pulls the bell-rope. CLOSE ON CLAUDIA Being transformed. Becoming white yet robust, bright- eyed yet crazed. She shakes her beautiful curls and the dust falls from them. They are shining in the candlelight. Louis cannot stop looking at her. He does not notices as - The MAID enters. MAID Ah, quelle Belle enfant! The maid comes near the bed, kneels in front of Claudia. Lestat lays his hand on the maid's throat and Claudia watches keenly. LESTAT Gently, cherie. They are so innocent. They must not be made to suffer. Claudia lunges for the throbbing vein in the neck, locking on to the flowing blood. The Maid is transfixed. Close on Louis, his anguish, his fascinated horror. LOUIS You are the devil! You are the instrument of Satan! LESTAT That's enough, cherie. Stop before the heart stops. He lets the dead maid onto the floor. Claudia looks at the corpse. CLAUDIA I want some more. LESTAT It's bet in the beginning, lest the death takes you down with it. yes, that's it. My child. My beloved child. Lestat and Claudia sit on the Louis XVI settee. Claudia is a vision, a doll made out of pearl. Animated, voice crisp. CLAUDIA Where is Mamma? The words echo in Louis' head, as he puts his hands to his ears. LESTAT Mamma's gone to Heaven, cherie, like that sweet lady over there. They all go to Heaven. And you did very well, cherie. Not a drop spilt. Very good! You're going to be our child now. Lestat takes out his comb and begins to comb her hair. LESTAT Your mama's left you with us. She wants you to be happy. LOUIS (whispers) You are the devil! You are the instrument of Satan! LESTAT Shhhh! Do you want to frighten our little daughter? CLAUDIA I'm not your daughter. LESTAT Yes you are, my dearest. You are mine and Louis' daughter. You see Louis was going to leave us. He was going to go away. But now he's not. He's going to stay and make you happy. Claudia runs over to him. She smiles at him. CLAUDIA Lou...eee... Louis is conflicted. He cannot leave her. He touches her cheeks, her hair. Same as his. Vampire skin and hair. He draws in his breath, shocked by her beauty, then he embraces her as a father might a daughter. He looks over her shoulder to Lestat. LOUIS You fiend. You monster. Lestat smiles LESTAT One happy family. INT. ROOM - SAN FRANCISCO Malloy is open mouthed. MALLOY A child vampire! He sees the tape has run out. He rapidly and clumsily sticks in another. LOUIS Shall we go on? MALLOY He did it to make you stay with him! LOUIS Perhaps. He knew me. He knew I would love her more than the waking world. But there was more to it than that. Perhaps in the end he did it - to show me that he could. For he lavished affection on her, there was no doubt about that. Life was very different with madame Claudia, as you can imagine... EXT. NEW SPANISH TOWNHOUSE - (RUE ROYALE, NEW ORLEANS) Two husky movers bring in furniture through the back courtyard, past the fountain and the banana trees, up the back stairs and into - INT. FLAT Striped wallpaper gives way to flowers in the bedrooms. Huge four-poster beds in the bedrooms, and large chests, as big as coffins standing against the wall. Everywhere there are candles and pretty Louis XVI furniture. Lestat gives instructions to the movers. WE MOVE INTO A DIMLY LIT PARLOUR We see Claudia draped in lace standing on a petit point chair as a DRESSMAKER measure out a garment. Louis can be seen, in an inner room. DRESSMAKER Monsieur, I need more light. I shall go slind if you do not bring me a lamp, or let me fit this child during the day. Ouch! She has pricked her hand. A spot of blood appears on her finger Claudia takes her hand. CLAUDIA Let me kiss it better... Claudia brings the hand to her lips. The dressmaker abruptly pulls her finger away, in pain again. CLOSEUP - her finger, two holes showing. LOUIS (V.O.) A little child she was, but also a fierce killer, now capable of the ruthless pursuit of blood with all a child's demanding. Lestat walks through - sees the dressmaker lying dead at Claudia's feet, Claudia still on the chair in the half-finished dress. LESTAT Claudia, Claudia, will you never learn? Who will we get now to finish your dress? A little practicality, cherie... INT. LOUIS' BEDROOM - NIGHT LOUIS (V.O.) She would sleep in my coffin, daily, curl her child's fingers round my hair as she dreamt of I know not what... Claudia and Louis, sleeping in a coffin together, Claudia's fingers curling his hair. INT. CLAUDIA'S BEDROOM Claudia playing with dolls, each as perfect and beautifully dressed as she is. LOUIS (V.O.) Mute and beautiful, she played with dolls, dressing them and undressing them by the hour. INT. PARLOUR - NIGHT Claudia tinkling with her child's hands on the piano, picking out a hesitant tune. LOUIS (V.O.) Mute and beautiful, she killed. And to watch her kill was chilling. EXT. SQUARE - NIGHT The tinkling of Claudia's piano is heard, over - A well-dressed lady, walking through a square lit by gaslight. The lady hears a child's sobbing and stops, turns. POV Claudia, the picture of lost innocence, sitting on a bench and crying. WOMAN Why are you crying, child? The woman, all solicitude, goes to Claudia. WOMAN Are you lost, my love? CLAUDIA Mama... WOMAN Hush now, don't cry, We'll find her... CLAUDIA Mama... The woman takes Claudia in her arms. Claudia nestles her head in her shoulder, her teeth near her neck. LOUIS (V.O.) They found death fast in those days, before she learnt to play with the, to delay the moment till she had taken what she wanted... INT. PARLOUR - NIGHT A stern, stiff PIANO-TEACHER (male) beating time with a ruler as Claudia picks out scales on the piano. He raps her on the knuckles. PIANO-TEACHER The thumb girl! Mind the thumb! Claudia glares at him, then returns to playing, improving rapidly. INT. DOLL-SHOP - NIGHT Piano music over. Mozart, now well played. Claudia staring at a glass case, inside of which are an array of eighteenth century dolls. An old DOLLMAKER looks down on her. DOLLMAKER They are expensive, my dear. Maybe too expensive for a young girl like you... EXT. STREET - NIGHT Claudia walking along, clutching the doll. INT. DOLL-SHOP - NIGHT The dollmaker lying dead, two puncture marks in his throat, his dolls scattered all around him. EXT. UNDERTAKER'S - NIGHT Claudia and Louis looking through the window at a display of coffins. Claudia point at the smallest one. LOUIS (V.O.) She grew, yet stayed the same. She wanted a bed of her own, yet would climb back into mine. INT. CLAUDIA'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The child's coffin on the floor. The lid lifts. Claudia emerges, yawning, wanders through the flat into - LOUIS' BEDROOM Where his coffin sits. She slides the lid off, and curls in beside him. INT. PARLOUR - NIGHT Claudia playing the piano, now with remarkable dexterity. The piano-teacher sits mute beside her. As she plays, he topples over and falls to the ground. We see the puncture-marks in his neck. Lestat, hearing the noise, comes in. LESTAT Claudia, Claudia! Didn't I tell you, never in the house! Claudia smiles to herself, keeps playing. INT. CLAUDIA'S BEDROOM - NIGHT CANARIES sing in a cage, above a child's coffin. Claudia is writing at a secretaire. She is writing in a diary with a quill pen in an adult hand. She murmurs the date as she writes. CLAUDIA September 21st, one hour after sunset. The sky is still violet, the way Louis loves and as always Lestat was gone when we rose. She looks up and sees Louis in the doorway, watching her. LOUIS How did you learn to write, Claudia? CLAUDIA The way I learn everything. By watching you. She closes the diary. CLAUDIA But you never let me see you kill, Louis. LOUIS Lestat taught you all you need to know about that. CLAUDIA Infant death, he calls me. Sweet daughter death. You know what he calls you? Merciful death. LOUIS He jests. CLAUDIA Why does he call you that? LOUIS Hush, Claudia don't talk about such things. Show me your book. She opens it. Inside there is a beautiful pen and ink portrait of Louis. LOUIS Claudia! You did that? CLAUDIA Sit still. It's not finished - She begins to fill in the sketch. LOUIS (V.O.) Time can pass fast for mortals when they're happy. With us it was the same. EXT. RUE ROYALE - NIGHT (1800'S) Street lamps are oil at this period. Houses are now tall two-story Spanish style. Streets are flagstone. Passing carriages are black. LOUIS (V.O.) It was a very different life. And a new century was beginning. what had once been a small godforsaken French colony was growing into a great port, giving us an endless train of magnificent strangers... Claudia, Louis and Lestat, dressed in the same clothes walking through a raucous carnival with sideshows. Crowd milling around, sailors, whores, children, thieves, freed slaves, Indians. They pass a Wild West display, jugglers, fire-eaters, three-card tricksters... LOUIS (V.O.) All human life was here, for the taking. And we took, all three of us, in our different ways... They come to a raised platform where a troupe of perfectly-formed midgets do a burlesque show. Claudia stops. She stares, at these small, perfect creatures like herself, intrigued and troubled. Louis and Lestat walk on, not noticing as - CLAUDIA Circles the troupe. She comes to a small tent, behind it. At the entrance stands a midget youth. YOUTH You want to come inside, lovely? Claudia walks up to him. YOUTH Ever been kissed? Claudia shakes her head. He kisses her. Claudia allow her to be kissed, then bites his tongue. he youth struggles, as Claudia holds him and drains him. She lets him go as Louis appears behind her. CLAUDIA She's like me, Louis. Small and yet not small at all. Like me. Louis hurriedly draws her away. LOUIS (V.O.) I watched her grow yet stay the same, her doll-like face possessed of adult eyes, eerie, powerful, seductive... INT. FLAT - NIGHT Claudia playing the piano, now like a demonic Liszt. Louis writing. Lestat appears in the doorway. He has a big box in his arms. CLAUDIA Another doll? I have ten, you realize. FOCUS ON early 19th Century French dolls - wood, glass, wax, bisque - all around the bedroom, on chairs, on the bed. Some newish, some tattered old. LESTAT Well, I thought you could use another. He hands her the box. It is a fine Parisian Jumeau doll. She likes it and stokes its face. CLAUDIA Why always on this night? LESTAT What night? What do you mean? CLAUDIA You always give me the doll on the same night of the year. LESTAT I didn't realize. CLAUDIA Is this my birthday? He examines the other dolls. LESTAT Some of these are so old and tattered. You should throw them away. CLAUDIA I have. Or there would be twice as many. LESTAT But you're the fairest by far. CLAUDIA You dress me like a doll. You make my hair like a doll. Why? Lestat doesn't answer. Claudia stands up quickly, and strides out into the - PARLOUR Where Louis is reading by the window. She walks to a mirrored cabinet, takes out a scissors and begins cutting her hair. CLAUDIA You want me to be a doll forever? LOUIS Claudia - don't - CLAUDIA Why not? She continues cutting. She sees Lestat emerge from her bedroom in the mirror behind her then turns to him, an angelic little boy's face now with soft curls around her face. CLAUDIA Can't I change, like everybody else? She walks past him, back into her bedroom and slams the door. A beat. Louis looks from the mass of blonde hair on the floor to Lestat. Then a HORRID SCREAM pierces the silence. More screams, which become roars. INT. CLAUDIA'S BEDROOM She stands before the dressing-table, all her long hair grown back over her shoulders. She holds it with both hands, screaming and screaming. Lestat and Louis come through the door. CLAUDIA Which of you did it? Which of you made me the way I am? LESTAT What you are? You would be something other than you are? CLAUDIA And if I cut my hair again? LESTAT It will grow back again! CLAUDIA But it wasn't always so! I had a mother once! And Louis - he had a wife! He was mortal the same as she! And so was I! LOUIS Claudia - She turns on Lestat. CLAUDIA You made us what we are, didn't you? LESTAT Stop her Louis! CLAUDIA DID YOU DO IT TO ME???? She runs at him with the scissors, scoring his face. The cut heals. She scores it again. It heals again. She stares at him in horror. CLAUDIA (whispering) How did you do it? LESTAT And why should I tell you? It's in my power. CLAUDIA Why yours alone? Tell me how it was done!!!! LESTAT Be glad I made you what you are! You'd be dead not if I hadn't. He storms out. Louis goes to Claudia and picks her up in his arms. LOUIS (tenderly) We're immortal. You've always known that. CLAUDIA Tell me why... you've got to tell me... Louis carries her outside, onto the porch. There is an old flower-seller going by. LOUIS You see the old woman? That will never happen to you. You'll never grow old. You will never die. CLAUDIA And it means something else too, doesn't it? I shall never, ever grow up. She clutches Louis desperately. CLAUDIA I hate him. But I cannot bear to lose you. You're the only companion I have, forever. You taught me everything I know. Please tell me Louis. Tell me how it came to be that I am this... thing... Louis strokes her beautiful face, her hair. LOUIS Come... I've something to show you... EXT. NEW ORLEANS STREETS - NIGHT Louis walking, holding Claudia as if he was about to lose her. LOUIS (V.O.) Though everything was changed, through the years had warped the contours of the streets, I found my way there, aware that I'd always known where it was and avoided it, not wanting to pass the doorway where I'd first heard Claudia cry. Louis back in the same street, outside the same house. He stands with Claudia at the window. There is a family inside, a picture of domestic tranquility. LOUIS I heard you crying. You were there in a room with your mother. You were hugging her for warmth, crying pitifully as you had been for days. Because your mother was dead... Claudia stares at him, suddenly very cold, very alert. LOUIS I opened the shutters... I came into the room... I felt pity for you. Pity, but something else. He can't go on. Claudia's eyes are remorseless. CLAUDIA You... fed on me? LOUIS And he found me with you. I ran, sickened at what I'd done. Then he cut his wrist and fed you from him. I tried to stop him, but you were a vampire then. And have been every night hereafter. CLAUDIA You both did it? LOUIS I took your life. He gave you another one. Claudia speaks through indrawn breath. CLAUDIA And here it is. And I hate you both. She runs. INT. ROOM SAN FRANCISCO Malloy and Louis. MALLOY But why did you tell her? LOUIS How could I not? She had to know. MALLOY And did you lose her? Did she go? LOUIS Where would she have gone? She was a child, and beautiful, heartbreaking merciless child. And I had made her that... EXT. STREETS - NIGHT Louis, walking the streets, shivering. LOUIS I walked all night. I walked as I walked years before when my mind swam with guilt at the thought of killing. I found myself at the Cathedral. A cathedral rising out of the mist, the doors open. LOUIS I thought of all the things I had done and couldn't undo. And I longed for one second's peace... Louis walks towards the doors, inside. INT. CATHEDRAL - NIGHT Louis enters. The dim lights of candles. A sacristan tending the altar, an old woman praying - otherwise empty. LOUIS I had no fear. If anything I longed for something to happen, for the stones to tremble as I entered the foyer. Louis walking down the nave of the church. He stops by the alter. LOUIS I almost genuflected from old habit. I almost prayed. Louis sits in a pew. LOUIS And then it struck me. LOUIS' POV The cross, the statues, the tabernacle. LOUIS What if the statues gave an image to nothing? What if I was the supernatural in this cathedral? The only immortal under this roof. And I felt nothing but loneliness. Loneliness to the point of madness. Suddenly a hand is laid on his shoulder. Louis almost jumps. He turns and sees the face of a grey-haired priest. PRIEST You wish to go to confession? I was about to lock up the church. Louis stares at him, tears in his eyes. PRIEST You are troubled, aren't you? Can I help? LOUIS It's too late, too late - PREIST No, it's never too late. Come... The priest gestures to the confessional. Louis rises, slowly. INT. CONFESSIONAL Louis, kneeling in the darkness. The hatch slides back. LOUIS Bless me father for I have sinned so often and so long, I don't know how to change nor beg for forgiveness. PRIEST Son, God is infinite in his capacity to forgive. Tell him from your heart. LOUIS Murders, father, death after death. The woman who died two nights ago in Jackson Square, I killed her. And thousands of others before her. I have walked the streets of New Orleans like the Grim reaper. And fed on human life for my own. I am a vampire, father, and have turned the one I love most of all into on too - The hatch slams down. Louis rises, confused, and the door is flung open, the priest stands there. PRIEST Do you know the meaning of sacrilege? Louis rises. Walks out. LOUIS Then there is no mercy. His face comes into the light. The priest steps back, open-mouthed. LOUIS You talk of sacrilege. Why if God exists does he suffer me to exist? He bares his fangs. The priest runs, screaming. Gets to the bellrope, begins to ring the bell. Louis swoops on him. LOUIS Why does he suffer me to live? Louis takes him, lifting him from the floor, till his feet stop kicking. INT. FLAT - NIGHT Louis enters, silently, like a corpse. He hears a voice behind him. CLAUDIA Locked together in hatred - He turns, sees her sitting in the darkness. She is wearing a tiny nightgown of stitched lace and pearls, weirdly adult and seductive. She comes towards him. CLAUDIA But I can't hate you Louis. She sprays perfume over her body as she comes nearer. CLAUDIA Is this the aroma of a mortal child? She whispers. CLAUDIA Louis. Lover. She kisses his cheek. CLAUDIA I was mortal to you. You gave me your immortal kiss. You became my mother and my father. And so I'm yours. Forever. She takes his face in her hands. CLAUDIA But now's the time to end it, Louis. Now's the time to leave him. LOUIS He'll never let us go. Claudia smiles. CLAUDIA Oh... really? EXT. DOCKLANDS - NEW ORLEANS - NIGHT A sailing ship, by the docks. Louis and Claudia talking to a shipping-clerk. LOUIS (V.O.) So we made plans. She was convinced there were others of our kind in Europe, that they would have the answers Lestat couldn't provide. Lestat whom she now hated, who she thought she could be free of. I doubted, but then she had a surprise in store... INT. FLAT - NIGHT Lestat playing the piano. Louis reading. Claudia enters, wearing a cape and hat. She walks to the piano, sits at the end of the piano and stares at him as he plays. LESTAT What is it now? You irritate me! Your very presence irritates me! CLAUDIA (sweetly) Does it? LESTAT Yes. And I'll tell you something else! I've met someone who will make a better vampire than both of you. CLAUDIA Is that supposed to frighten me? LESTAT You're spoilt because you're an only child. You need a brother. Or I do. I'm weary of you both. CLAUDIA I suppose we could people the world with vampires, the three of us. LESTAT Not you my dear. CLAUDIA You're a liar. But you upset my plans. LESTAT What plans? CLAUDIA I came to make peace with you, even if you're the father of lies. I want things to be as they were. Louis perks up, puzzled. LESTAT Stop pestering me then! CLAUDIA Oh, Lestat. I must do more than that. I've brought a present for you. LESTAT Then I hope its a beautiful woman with endowments you will never possess. Claudia stares at him for a moment. CLAUDIA Better than that. She takes his hand and leads him into an inner room. Louis follows behind. CLAUDIA You haven't fed enough. I can tell by your color. INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT Two beautiful youths, lying asleep on a couch, by a table full with a half-eaten meal. Lestat sighs. LESTAT Oh, Claudia, you've outdone yourself. Where did you find them? CLAUDIA Drunk on brandy wine. A thimbleful. I thought of you when I saw them. LESTAT We forgive each other then? Claudia stares at him, sitting. She nods. Lestat bites into the neck of one of the youths, sucks greedily and horribly. Claudia watches him without expression. He finished one, is about to take the other when he staggers. He looks at Claudia. LESTAT Absinthe? You gave them absinthe? CLAUDIA No. Laudanum. Lestat stares wildly at her, tries to move towards her, then slips to the floor. LESTAT Laudanum! CLAUDIA Yes. It killed them, unfortunately. But it keeps the blood warm. Lestat tries to rise. LESTAT Ah Louis, Louis, she killed them... and let me drink... Louis watches, appalled. He goes to move. CLAUDIA Don't Louis - LESTAT Louis, put me in my coffin... CLAUDIA I'll put you in your coffin. Forever. She pulls a knife out from under her shawl, walks rapidly to him and slashes his throat. Blood explodes from it. LOUIS Claudia! Don't do this thing!!! LESTAT Louis, Louis, I gave you the gift - help me - Claudia lacerates his face. Blood pours from everywhere. She plunges the knife in his chest. He falls back, fangs bared, clutching the knife. Claudia leaps on him then, bites deep into his neck as he dies. Louis screams, runs forward, pulls her away. LOUIS What have you done, Claudia - He drags her off Lestat, tries to pull her out of the room. She hisses at him. CLAUDIA Louis! Look what's happening to him!! Louis looks. The floor is a sea of blood. Lestat has begun to shrivel, as if he'd been a bag of blood. His skin is shriveling against his bones like parchment, his eyes are slipping back into his skull-like face. His lush, beautiful hair remains unchanged. But his clothes are virtually being emptied of the body. It is no more than bones, wrapped in paper and the pupils of the eyes suddenly roll up into the papered skull. LOUIS Lestat. Oh, God forgive us. CLAUDIA Don't mock me, Louis. Help me. She stares at the shriveled skeleton in its skin wrapping. She is fascinated. She sees the vampiric blood flow all over the floor. She touches it and brings her finger to her lips. CLAUDIA Goodnight, sweet prince, may flights of devils wing you to your rest. Louis walks forward, touches the skeleton, the blonde hair. LOUIS He's dead, Claudia, dead. CLAUDIA The one good lesson he taught me, Louis. Never drink from the dead. She stands up, all business suddenly. CLAUDIA Help me. We must get rid of him. She drags the coverlet from the table, knocking the crockery over the dead youths, and wraps Lestat's skeleton in it. She takes a bunch of chrysanthemums and places them in his skeleton hands. CLAUDIA Should we burn him? Bury him? What would he have liked, Louis? LOUIS Don't mock, Claudia... CLAUDIA The swamp... EXT. CARRIAGE - NIGHT Louis whipping the horses. Claudia beside him. Lestat's skeleton in the back, with the bodies of the two dead youths. CLAUDIA In Europe, Louis. We shall meet our own kind. Find the one who made him. Learn what it means. LOUIS And suppose the one who made him knows nothing and the vampire who made him knows nothing, and it goes back, nothing proceeding from nothing, until there is nothing! And we must live with the knowledge that there is no knowledge. The carriage pulls up by a swamp. Mist everywhere. Overhanging creepers. LOUIS And if we find the one who made him? Do we tell him we destroyed his own creation? The vampire Lestat? Louis drags out the bodies of the boys. He slides them into the waters of the swamp. We see ripples in the water and the churning of alligators, as they attack the corpses. Louis takes Lestat's skeleton in his arms. He slides it into the waters. The alligators speed towards it. CLAUDIA He belongs with those reptiles, Louis. He deserved to die. LOUIS Then maybe so do we. Every night of our lives. He was my brother. My maker. He gave me this life, whatever it is. CLAUDIA I did it for us, Louis. So we could be free. He stands there, saying nothing. CLAUDIA Louis, look at me. LOUIS (bitterly) I can't. Go away from me. Claudia is shocked to her core. She steps back. Louis stares at the rippling waters. Gradually the movement of alligators stops. Then he hears a sound he hasn't heard in years. Soft, choking. He turns, sees Claudia sitting by a cypress tree, like a little girl for the first time in years. She is weeping copiously. LOUIS Claudia - You're crying - We see her face, tears of blood running down it. She is heartbroken, lost. CLAUDIA You never talked to me like that - in all these years. LOUIS And you never cried - CLAUDIA I can't bear it when you do - I would die rather than lose you Louis. I would die the way he died. Louis gathers her in his arms. LOUIS Hush, Claudia, hush now my dear - CLAUDIA Tell me you don't hate me Louis. I did it for you - Louis walks her towards the carriage. LOUIS I love you Claudia. Always. And we are free now, Claudia. No Lestat. Just the two of us, beginning the great adventure of our lives. He lifts her into the carriage and drives off, leaving the silent waters of the swamp. INT. FLAT - NIGHT Sturdy mulatto workmen lifting cases and trunks out of the apartment. All the furniture is covered in white sheets. Claudia dressed in a cap and hat, is playing the piano by the light of one remaining oil-lamp. Louis comes from her room with the cage of canaries. LOUIS The birds. We forgot about the birds. There's nothing for it but to let them go. He opens the cage, and the canaries fly around the room. There is a knocking on the door. Claudia falters. CLAUDIA What was that? LOUIS The workmen must have a trunk - don't stop, cherie - He goes downstairs. Claudia plays a moment, then stops, perturbed. She goes to the window. Then sees something out there that makes her face go white. She screams. CLAUDIA Louis!!! THE STAIRWAY Louis walking to the door. The knocking gets louder. THE PARLOUR Claudia runs for the stairs, after Louis. THE HALLWAY Louis reaches the door. The knocking gets louder. He opens the door as - CLAUDIA Reaches the stairs. She screams - CLAUDIA Don't Louis - But Louis has opened the door. Nothing there. He looks back at Claudia, puzzled, then at the door again when, swooping into his vision comes the nightmare image of - LESTAT In filthy swamp-soaked rags, robust again, but his flesh shriveled, covered in scars, his eyes riddled, bloodshot. he roars. LESTAT WHERE IS SHE? WHERE IS THAT ACCURSED CHILD? Louis throws his body against the door, slamming it on Lestat's reaching hand. The hand withdraws, as Lestat roars. Louis bolts the door. Louis runs up the stairs, sweeps Claudia in his arms, watching appalled as the door shudders with the force of Lestat's body. IN THE PARLOUR Louis runs through with Claudia in his arms. LOUIS It can't be - CLAUDIA It is! Take the back stairwell - Suddenly Lestat crashes through the casement window, scattering blood everywhere, reefing himself on the shattered glass. He tumbles to the floor and gets unsteadily to his feet. LESTAT GIVE ME HER LOUIS!! Louis throws Claudia behind him and hurls himself on Lestat, who fights like a ravening animal, bits of his broken body coming off in the process. Then with a terrifying effort, Lestat hurls Louis off, goes for Claudia, who grabs the poker from the fireplace, scatters burning coals over him. He falls back, then comes at her again, as the drapes catch fire. Louis grabs the lamp. LOUIS Stay back - for the love of God... or I'll burn you alive... Lestat lunges again at Claudia. Louis hurls the lamp, which explodes him in flame. Lestat screams in agony, whirls around the room, then comes on Claudia again. She hurls another lamp. Louis throws the flaming sheets around him, wrapping him further in fire. Lestat falls to his knees, choking, hands up over his face in the smoke. The whole parlor is afire. Louis gathers up Claudia, smothering the burning house, carries her down the back stairs, through the carriage way and through the gathering crowds of mortals into the street. EXT. STREET - NIGHT Louis running, with Claudia in his arms. He looks back at the flames of the house. Sound of a ship's horn. CLAUDIA The ship is sailing without us! LOUIS Not yet. Holding her tightly, Louis runs. EXT. DECK OF SHIP - NEAR DAWN Louis stands at the railings in the morning mist as the ship moves down the river. He sees... CITY OF NEW ORLEANS With flame lighting up the sky. LOUIS (V.O.) Though the fire seemed to spread through the quartier, I stood on that deck until dawn, fearful he would come out again of the very river like some monster to destroy us both. And all the while I thought, Lestat, we deserve your vengeance. You gave me the dark gift. And I delivered you into the hands of death for the second time. INT. ROOM. SAN FRANCISCO Louis and Malloy. MALLOY Did he die in the fire? LOUIS He was dead to us. We were free. That was all that mattered. EXT. SHIP - EVENING The ship, shrouded in mist. LOUIS (V.O.) Though the ship was blessedly free of rats, a strange plague nonetheless struck its passengers. A body is slipped into the sea. A priest reads last rites to a mourning family. INT. SHIPS HOLD Trunks and cases, creaking with the ship's movement. Dead rats everywhere. LOUIS (V.O.) Claudia and I alone seemed immune. We kept to ourselves, pondering the mystery of Lestat and the greater mystery of each other. EXT. SHIP - NIGHT Passing through the Straits of Gibralter. LOUIS (V.O.) We reached the Mediterranean. I wanted those waters to be blue. They were black, nighttime waters and how I suffered then, straining to remember the color that a young man's senses had taken for granted, that my memory had let slip away for eternity. It was black off the coast of Italy, black off the coast of Greece, Europe itself was black. EXT. DECK - NIGHT Claudia, sitting with an easel and sketch-pad, sketching the bay of Naples. A beautifully realized drawing, all in shades of grey and black. Louis observes. CLAUDIA Louis, your quest is for darkness only. This sea is not your sea. They myths of men are not your myths. Their history isn't yours. The sketch changes to a sketch of - THE ACROPOLIS In the moonlight. LOUIS (V.O.) We saw the Acropolis by moonlight, shades of grey and silver. And I longed for the brilliant white of those marbles in the hot sun of Homer... The sketch changes to a sketch of - TRANSYLVANIA And the traditional shapes of the vampire landscape. LOUIS (V.O.) We docked at Varna and searched the rural countryside of the Carpathians, for what she liked to term "our kind"... MONTAGE OF SKETCHES A TRANSLYVANIAN VILLAGE, A GRAVEYARD. RUINED CASTLE AFTER CASTLE, LOOKING INTO THE SKIES... LOUIS The quest for these Old World vampires filled me with bitterness. We searched village after village, ruin after ruin and I was glad when always we found nothing. For what could the damned really have to say to the damned? INT. ROOM. SAN FRANCISCO Malloy and Louis. MALLOY You found nothing? LOUIS Peasant rumors, superstitions about garlic, crosses, stakes in the hear, all that - how do you say again? Bull shit. But one of our kind? Not a whisper. MALLOY No vampires in Transylvania? No Count Dracula? LOUIS Fictions, my friend. The vulgar fictions of a demented Irishman... So we repaired to Paris... EXT. BOULEVARD FACADE OF GRAND HOTEL AND PARIS OPERA Crowds and gaslight everywhere. Carriages, horses, OPERA coming from the opera house. LOUIS (V.O.) I think the very name of Paris brought a rush of pleasure to me that was extraordinary. I was a Creole, after all and Paris was the mother of New Orleans, a universe whole and entire unto herself... EXT. 18TH CENTURE PALACES ALONG THE SEINE - NIGHT The high walls of the Louvre, dark figures walking in pairs through the shadowy tulieries. EXT. STREET - SHOP WINDOW Claudia, in furtrimmed muff and bonnet, peers through the glass at a display of dolls. Each doll in there seems to resemble her, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She peers deep into the shop and sees - MADELEINE, a young woman bent over a workbench painting a doll's face, oblivious to being watched. INT. OPERA STAIRCASE Louis and Claudia hurrying hand in hand with a crowd of mortals towards the sound of an ORCHESTRA TURNING beyond. INT. NOTRE DAME Claudia and Louis standing in the deep shadows, looking at the branching arches. Louis is overcome with sadness, Claudia is fascinated. INT. GALLERY Louis and Claudia walk among a series of mythological nudes by Poussin. INT. SALON - NIGHT Claudia, surrounded by discarded dresses and outfits, being attended by couturiers. All the clothes are tiny, to fit her frame, but have an adult cut and shape. LOUIS We were alive again. We were in love and so euphoric was I that I yielded to her every desire... INT. SUMPRUOUS HOTEL SUITE Full of late 19th century furniture, lots of Empire style, Regency, gilt, velvet and brocade. CLOSE ON A HUGE BLACK EBONY CHEST Against a wall, solemn among all the light and glitter. CLAUDIA By a large gilt mirror, in her new clothes. She is covered with jewelry, fixing earrings to her ears. CLAUDIA Help me, mon chere... Louis walks over, helps her with the earrings. CLAUDIA How do I look? LOUIS Still my beautiful child. Claudia laughs. CLAUDIA A beautiful child! Is that what you still think I am? LOUIS Yes... He turns away. CLAUDIA Why do you turn away? Why don't you look. She twirls, looking at herself in the mirror, then stops, stares at herself. CLAUDIA You want me to be your daughter forever, don't you? LOUIS Yes. CLAUDIA Well tell me, papa. What was it like making love? Louis is stunned. He blushes. CLAUDIA You don't remember? Or you never knew. LOUIS It was something hurries...and seldom savored... something acute that was quickly lost. It was the pale shadow of killing. CLAUDIA But how will I ever know, Louis? She stares at him through the mirror. CLAUDIA I'll never find them, will I? My own kind... EXT. BOULEVARD - EVENING Louis and Claudia walk along a boulevard like father and daughter. All around them are bourgeois Parisian families on their evening stroll. Claudia points at the children that pass. CLAUDIA Have I anything in common with her, Louis? She points to a beautiful French child walking by with her mother. CLAUDIA Or her, or her - or any of them? LOUIS Claudia, you torture yourself. CLAUDIA They are ducklings, that will grow into swans. Whereas I must be the duckling forever. LOUIS You are more beautiful than any of them. EXT. DOLL-SHOP - NIGHT We see Madeleine, inside, painting a doll's face. Louis and Claudia arrive outside. CLAUDIA All her dolls resemble me. POV Claudia's face, with the dolls in the background. The resemblance is uncanny. CLAUDIA Are they my kind Louis? Dolls never change either. LOUIS You are neither, Claudia. Now stop this - Madeleine sees Claudia from inside. She waves. LOUIS You know her? CLAUDIA Yes. Should I take her, Louis? Among her dolls? make a doll of her in turn? LOUIS Come, Claudia... He takes her arm. But Claudia shakes him off, and moves into the shop. EXT. LATIN QUARTER - NIGHT Louis walks briskly, head bowed. LOUIS (V.O.) For a time we had been almost human, in the sensual whirl of what Paris had to offer. But the human delights of that city only served to remind her of the ageless child she had become. I felt her pain as I walked until I become aware that I was being followed. CLOSEUP - LOUIS' FEET Walking. A step echoes his. Louis stops. Turns, sees nothing. Then walks again. The echoing steps begin again. Louis again. Sees a shadow, flitting. LOUIS Claudia! Nothing. He walks again, hears the same effect. Then he stops. He stares at a gaslamp opposite. LOUIS (V.O.) So it was when I had given up the search for vampires that a vampire found me... Santiago, a tall vampire, materializes under the gaslight. And Louis gradually realizes that this vampire has assumed the same attitude, posture, clothes and hair-style as Louis. Louis gives an involuntary shake of the head. Santiago mimics. Louis takes a step forwards. Santiago mimics. Louis folds his arms. Santiago mimics. LOUIS & STATIAGO (simultaneously) Clever. LOUIS You mean me harm? SANTIAGO (a beat later) You mean me harm? Louis calculates. LOUIS Trickster. Buffoon! Santiago echoes the first word, but not the second. Louis has broken his composure. He turns his back on Santiago, only to come face to face with Santiago right in front of him. Again Louis turns this back to find Santiago facing him. Louis turns, glowers, refusing to look at him. LOUIS I've searched the world for an immortal and this is what I find? Slowly he looks up. Santiago draws close, breaking the mirror trick and suddenly slams Louis back against the wall. Louis is furious. He regains his balance, strikes out at Santiago and when Santiago vanishes, to reappear behind him, Louis slams back his elbow into his midriff. Santiago staggers, amazed and then rushes at Louis, throwing him down. Louis rolls back to his feet, then to his amazement sees two vampires, on in front, on behind. He looks both ways, then sees one has vanished. He stares, awestruck, at this new one: ARMAND He looks like an angel. ARMAND You are all right. He reaches into his waistcoat, takes an engraved invitation out of his pocket and thrusts it at Louis. Louis reads it aloud, as we see: "THEATRE DES VAMPIRES By Special Invitation Friday, 9 p.m." ARMAND Bring the petit beauty with you. No one will harm you. I won't allow it. Remember my name. Armand. Armand bows and vanishes. Louis listens to the silence. EXT BOULEVARD DES CAPUCHINES - THEATRE DES VAMPIRES - NIGHT Louis formally dressed with Claudia in rich attire on his arm. They pass people buying tickets for the theatre and go inside. LOUIS Remember what I've told you. They'll have different powers. They'll read your thoughts if you allow it. They draw close to: HUGE POSTERS Reading - "THEATRE DES VAMPIRES PRESENTS THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH By Edgar Allen Poe" The posters are illustrated with cliched images of vampires overcoming damsels in distress. ANOTHER ANGLE CLAUDIA But this can't be real. This is nonsense. LOUIS Nonsense all right. But something tell me it's going to be the strangest nonsense we've ever seen. Warily, they show their invitations to the mortal ticket taker at the door. He glances away indifferently. INT. THEATRE BOX - NIGHT Claudia and Louis look at the crowd as the lights go down. CLAUDIA Mortals, mortals everywhere. And lots of drops to drink. LOUIS They are here. I know they are. Listen for something that doesn't make a sound. Stage: curtain rises. An elaborate painted set of an Italianate castle. Death standing before it, the traditional image of the Grim Reaper, complete with magnificent scythe. LOUIS (whispers) It's a vampire. It's the one I saw in Rue St Jacques. A version of the Poe story unfolds before them. All of the participants are vampires. All beautiful gleaming white, aged 20 or 30. LOUIS They use no paint. And the audience think it is paint. CLAUDIA How devilishly clever. A spotlight uncovers a mortal woman suddenly forced out upon the stage. CLAUDIA She's no vampire. LOUIS No. She's frightened. She doesn't know where she is. The audience laughs uneasily, then stops as the Mortal Woman comes into the footlights. She is too beautiful, too confused. Santiago, as Death, advances on her. She backs away, terrified, then sees the other vampires, in a phalanx, advancing from behind, in a half-circle. MORTAL WOMAN I don't want to die! She looks around in panic. Santiago swoons, arms over his breast as if he is hopelessly in love. SANTIAGO We are death! The Mortal Woman steps to the footlights. MORTAL WOMAN Someone help me. Please... What have I done? Louis whispers to Claudia. LOUIS This is no performance. CLAUDIA And no one knows but us... ON THE STAGE SANTIAGO We all die. Death is the one thing you share with all those here. Santiago gestures to the audience. AUDIENCE Rapt faces. ON THE STAGE MORTAL WOMAN But I'm young... SANTIAGO Death is no respecter of age. He can come any time, any place. Need I tell you what fate has in store for you? MORTAL WOMAN I would take my chance. Let me go! Please... SANTIAGO And if you take that chance and live, what is your fate? The humpbacked toothless visage of old age? Santiago approaches her and tears the drawstring out of her peasant blouse. It opens completely and starts to slip. She tries to catch it, but gently stops her wrists. The blouse falls, exposing her young breasts. LOUIS AND CLAUDIA LOUIS This is monstrous! CLAUDIA Yes, and very beautiful. ON THE STAGE SANTIAGO Just as this flesh is pink now, it will turn grey and wrinkle with age. MORTAL WOMAN Let me live, please. I don't care. SANTIAGO Then why should you care if you die now? She shakes her head, confused. he catches her wrists behind her back. AUDIENCE Is awestruck by her beauty, her suffering. SANTIAGO Draws near her cheek. SANTIAGO And suppose death had a heart to love and to release you? To whom would he turn his passion? Would you pick a person from the crowd there? A person to suffer as you suffer? AUDIENCE A young girl cries out in jest. YOUNG GIRL Oh, yes, take me Monsieur Vampire! I adore you! Audience roars with laughter. ON THE STAGE SANTIAGO You wait your turn. The audience laughs again. The Mortal Woman shakes her head in panic. SANTIAGO Well, have you a sister, a mother, a daughter you would send in your place? CLOSE ON CLAUDIA Even she is repelled by the cruelty. She shakes her head. MORTAL WOMAN Shakes her head. She is helpless. SANTIAGO We alone can give death meaning. Do you know what it means to be loved by death, to become our bride? Mortal Woman looks up on the verge of hysteria or fainting. But then her eyes mist over. She is being entranced. FROM HER POV We realize she is looking past Santiago at the divinely beautiful Armand, who has just stepped out of the wings. Armand has entranced her. He passes Santiago. Santiago stiffens, but yields the stage. ARMAND No pain. MORTAL WOMAN No pain? Armand takes her by the naked shoulders. ARMAND Your beauty is a gift to us. ON THE STAGE Armand gestures to the others who slowly, gracefully close in. ARMAND Who deserves such a gift? He pulls the drawstring from her skirt and it falls revealing her nakedness. But she is spellbound. MORTAL WOMAN No pain... Armand embraces her, drinks, her naked body stark against her black clothes, then he passes her to the other vampires one by one. CLOSE ON LOUIS Who battles desire and hunger with anger. LOUIS I've seen enough of this! I loathe it! CLAUDIA Be still! ON THE STAGE The naked Mortal Woman lies dead on the floor. The vampires seem to vanish one by one. As the curtain draws across, the Audience loudly applauds what they presume are theatrical tricks. ANOTHER ANGLE The audience, milling towards the exits. They talk in vacuous terms about the beauty of the show, the symbolism of it, the daring of it as they leave. Gradually Louis and Claudia are left alone in the empty theatre. Louis seems anxious to leave. Claudia whispers in his ear. CLAUDIA Patience, Louis. Patience. He looks around the empty theatre, more eerie now than when the play was on. The red curtain shifts slightly in a hidden breeze, a candle sputters and dies in a box. Then the candle flares again, and we see Armand in the box, looking down on them. He stares with a dreamy expression, saying nothing. LOUIS We've been searching for you for a very long time... His voice echoes eerily. Armand gestures for them to follow him. INT. FOOT OF STAIRWAY Armand leading, Louis and Claudia following. It opens into a - HUGE UNDERGROUND BALLROOM Walls are painted with famous copies of Durer, Brueghel, Goya and Bosch depictions of death. Fine wooden coffins line the walls. Candles burn in sconces, casting alternate shadows and pools of light. Armand walks through, gesturing Louis and Claudia to follow him. As they walk through, vampire man and women appear out of the shadows like wraiths, startling them, drifting around them, stroking them, touching Claudia as if she were a doll. Shrieks of preternatural laughter. Armand gestures to the vampires to back off. All obey but ESTELLE. ESTELLE Such a darling. She menaces Claudia, her breasts enormous, her fangs bared. Armand throw her a look, and she is flung against the wall. Louis stares around. The vampires faces drift towards him and away, always disclosing the face of Armand, who seems some distance away, but strangely close, staring at Louis with a constantly calm, hypnotic gaze. Then a young mortal boy comes from the shadows with a candelabra, which he hands to Armand. Armand and the boy come towards them, leading them along the walls, his candelabra illuminating the ghastly murals, his face gleaming like an angel above the candleflame. LOUIS Monstrous. ARMAND Yes, and very beautiful. LOUIS Your lips, they didn't move. ARMAND They did, but too fast for you to see them. No magic, just grace and speed. The boy is watching Louis. Armand's hand beckons and the boy draws up to Louis in the candlelight. He places his arms on Louis' shoulders. Louis glances at Armand, who smiles. Louis sees the puncture marks on the boy's neck. ARMAND He wants you... Louis is utterly confused. Can't resist. Drinks his blood. The boy's body presses against him, sensual, willing. The other vampires appear all around Louis, who suddenly senses it and draws away, ashamed. Claudia watches warily, from a distance. Armand beckons at her and Louis and open a door in the wall which reveals a stone staircase. INT. MEDIEVAL ROOM Medieval chairs, table, an old coffin, a bed in one corner, a blazing fire. A medieval painting of Satan, being banished from heaven, above the fire. Armand places the boy on the bed, settling him so he sleeps. ARMAND Disappointing, isn't it? To come so far and find so little. Jaded ingenues, amusing themselves with make- believe... LOUIS We had feared we were the only ones... ARMAND But how did you come into existence? He glances at Louis, then at Claudia, who averts her eyes. ARMAND You don't want to answer... Two vampires from the new world, come to guide us into the new era as all we love slowly rots and fades away. LOUIS Are you the leader of this group? ARMAND If there were a leader, I would be the one. Claudia stares at him constantly, guarded. LOUIS So you have the answers... ARMAND Ah! You have questions? LOUIS What are we? ARMAND Nothing if not vampires... LOUIS Who made us what we are? ARMAND Surely you know the one who made you... LOUIS But the one who made him, who made the one who made him, the source of all this evil... Louis looks at the picture. Armand watches him. ARMAND That is a picture, nothing more. LOUIS You mean we are not children of Satan? ARMAND No. He smiles at Louis. A smile of infinite compassion. ARMAND I understand. I saw you in the theatre, your suffering, your sympathy for that girl. I saw you with the boy. You die when you kill, you feel you deserve to die and you stint on nothing. But does that make you evil? Or, since you comprehend what you call goodness, does it not make you good? LOUIS Then there is nothing. ARMAND Perhaps... He passes his finger through the candle flame. ARMAND And perhaps this is the only real evil left... LOUIS Then God does not exist... ARMAND I have not spoken to him... LOUIS And no vampire here has discourse with God or the Devil? ARMAND None that I've ever known. I know nothing of God or the Devil, I have never seen a vision nor learnt a secret that would damn or save my soul. And as far as I know, after four hundred years I am the oldest living vampire in the world. He stares at them, his face angelic, hypnotic, young. His eyes hold them both in a trance. LOUIS My God... So it's as I always feared. Nothing, leading to nothing. ARMAND You fell too much. So much you make me feel... He stares from Claudia to Louis. He seems to be reading their souls. ARMAND The one who made you should have told you this. The one who left the old world for the new... LOUIS He knew nothing. He just didn't care. ARMAND Knew? You mean he is... Claudia appears suddenly to Louis' shoulder, interrupting. CLAUDIA Come, beloved. It's time we were on our way. I'm hungry and the city waits. She stares hard at Armand. Armand looks from her to Louis. ARMAND So soon to go? He seems genuinely regretful. But Claudia pulls Louis out. INT. DARKENED CORRIDORS AND THEATRE - NIGHT Louis and Claudia feel their way through darkened corridors, trying to find their way out. LOUIS (V.O.) The place was dark as we left, a darkness that confounded even Claudia. And as we blundered through it, again came the thought: I have wronged Lestat, I have hated him for the wrong reasons. Suddenly a light comes on. They see they are in the empty theatre. Santiago stands on the stage, under a candle. SANTIAGO How did you wrong him? Louis is stunned. LOUIS You read my thoughts? SANTIAGO You said a name - LOUIS A name I don't want to say again. SANTIAGO I seemed to recognize it... Other vampires appear behind him. SANTIAGO There is but one crime among us vampires here. He looks at Claudia. SANTIAGO You should know, who are so secretive about the vampire who made you. Claudia laughs. CLAUDIA Boredom! SANTIAGO It is the crime that means death to any vampire. To kill your own kind! CLAUDIA Aaaah! I was so afraid it was to be born like Venus out of the foam, as we were! Come Louis, let's go! EXT. HOTEL SAINT GABRIEL - NIGHT Claudia and Louis enter the Lobby. CLAUDIA I loathe them! I can't stand the sight of them! Stupid bourgeois Parisians, all dressed in black like some private club! I've searched for them the world over and I despise them! LOUIS What danger? CLAUDIA I can feel it from them! They want to know who made us, what became of him. They have their rules, their idiotic rules! They come to their room, enter. INT. HOTEL ROOMS - NIGHT Louis closes the door behind him. Claudia paces. LOUIS Do you think I would let them harm you? CLAUDIA No, you would not, Louis. Danger hold you to me. LOUIS Love holds you to me. And we are in danger, not you. CLAUDIA Love? She smiles at him. A strange, sad, adult smile. CLAUDIA You would leave me for Armand if he beckoned you. LOUIS Never. CLAUDIA He wants you as you want him. He's been waiting for you. He wants you for a companion. He bides his time that place. he finds them as dull and lifeless as we do. LOUIS That's not so. CLAUDIA Do you know what his soul said to me without saying a word? When he put me in that trance... LOUIS So you felt it too! CLAUDIA Let him go, he said. Let him go. She touches his face. CLAUDIA Is that what I should do Louis? Let you go? My father? My lover? My Louis, who made me? There are tears in her eyes. Louis lifts her up in his arms. LOUIS He can protect us, Claudia. CLAUDIA You really believe that? EXT. DOLL-SHIP - NIGHT Claudia, staring at the dolls. We see Madeleine inside, painting a doll. She sees Claudia and smiles and waves. INT. THEATRE - NIGHT Louis, sitting alone in the box, as the curtains draw back, to show Santiago as death, as before. Louis takes advantage of the darkness to slip away. INT. ARMAND'S ROOM - NIGHT Armand opens the door to Louis' knock. ARMAND I was waiting for you... LOUIS Listen to me. He follows Armand into the room. LOUIS Claudia is dear to me. My... daughter. ARMAND Your lover. LOUIS No, my beloved, my child. ARMAND If you say so. You are innocent. LOUIS I'm not innocent. But I'm afraid. She feels she's in danger from the others. ARMAND She is. LOUIS But why? ARMAND I could give you reasons. Her silence. Her youth. It's forbidden to make so young, so helpless, that cannot survive on its own. LOUIS Then blame the one who made her... ARMAND Did you kill this vampire who made you both? Is that why you won't say his name? Santiago thinks you did. LOUIS We want no quarrel with him. ARMAND It's already begun. If you want to save her, send her away. LOUIS Then I leave too. Armand smiles. ARMAND So soon? Without any of those answers you so longed for? LOUIS You said there were none. ARMAND But you asked the wrong questions. Do you know how few vampires have the stamina for immortality? How quickly they perish of their own will. LOUIS We can do that? ARMAND You would never give up life. If the world were reduced to one empty cell, on fragile candle, you stay alive and study it. You see too clearly. You see too much. LOUIS That's what the one who made me said. ARMAND How he must have loved you. Armand suddenly grips Louis close to him. ARMAND Louis, I need you more than he ever did. I need a link with this century. The world changes. We do not. Therein lies the irony that ultimately kills us. I need you to make contact with this age. Louis laughs bitterly. LOUIS He? Don't you see? I'm not the spirit of any age! I'm at odds with everything and always have been! I'm not even sure what I am! Armand smiles. ARMAND But Louis, that is the very spirit of your age. The heart of it. You fall from grace has been the fall of a century. Louis is stunned. LOUIS And the vampires of the Theatre? ARMAND Like moths around the candle of the age. Decadent, useless. They can't reflect anything. But you do. You reflect its broken heart. Louis is speechless. ARMAND Are these not the answers you came for? LOUIS (softly) Yes... My God... ARMAND A vampire with a human soul. An immortal with a mortal's passion. You are beautiful, my friend. Lestat must have wept when he made you - LOUIS Lestat! You knew Lestat! ARMAND Yes I knew him. Knew him well enough not to mourn his passing. Armand stands. He takes Louis by the arm, leads him towards the back wall. ARMAND But you must go now. You must get her safely out of Paris. He opens a hidden door in the wall. ARMAND No-one else knows of this door. When you knock you will find me waiting... EXT. THEATRE DES VAMPIRES - NIGHT Louis, in the street outside, as the door closes behind him. LOUIS (V.O.) I felt a kind of peace at last. I had found the teacher which Lestat could never, I knew now, have been. I knew knowledge would never be withheld by Armand. It would pass through him as through a pane of glass. And I knew Claudia must leave me... INT. HOTEL SUITE - NIGHT Louis enters. There is unfamiliar scent in the air, a doll sitting by the mirror. Louis looks in the mirror and sees... MADELEINE The doll-maker, resplendent in green taffeta, sitting like a Madonna with Claudia on her lap. Claudia's arms are wound round her neck. The contrast between mortal woman and immortal child is plain. CLAUDIA Madeleine... Louis is shy. Madeleine rises and comes towards Louis. She draws back the lace fringes round her throat, so he can see the two marks there. She says softly, dreamily. MADELEINE Drink. Louis turns away. Claudia speaks, icy, from the bed. CLAUDIA Do it Louis. Because I cannot do it. I haven't the strength. You saw to that when you made me. Louis turns to Madeleine. LOUIS You haven't the vaguest conception under God of what you ask! MADELEINE Au contraire, monsieur, I have. Louis pushes her away. Claudia screams. CLAUDIA You have found your new companion, Louis! You will make me mine! Louis grips Madeleine and shakes her. LOUIS How do we seem to you? Do you think us beautiful, magical, our white skin, our fierce eyes? Drink, you ask me! Have you any idea of the thing you will become? CLAUDIA Your evil is that you cannot be evil! And I will suffer for it no longer! LOUIS Don't make me, Claudia! I cannot do it! CLAUDIA Yet you could do it to me! Snatching me from my mother's hands like two monsters in a fairy-tale! Couldn't you have waited? Six more years and I would have had that shape! And now you weep! You haven't tears enough for what you've done to me. She points to Madeleine CLAUDIA You give her to me! Do this before you leave me! She begins to weep, sobbing like a child. CLAUDIA Oh God! I love you still, that's the torment of it. But you know I must leave you Louis... LOUIS Yes... CLAUDIA And who will care for me my love, my dark angel, when you are gone? Louis looks at Madeleine LOUIS You promise to care for her then? MADELEINE Yes... LOUIS And you know what you ask for? She wraps her arms around Claudia. MADELEINE Yes. LOUIS What do you think she is, Madeleine? A doll? MADELEINE A child who can't die... Her finger clutches a locket around her neck, Louis touches it, opens it. THE LOCKET A picture of a young girl, Claudia's age, wistful, beautiful. LOUIS (softly) And the child who did die? MADELEINE My daughter... Louis takes her chin in his hand, gently. LOUIS Look at the gaslight. Don't take your eyes off it. You will be drained to the point of death, but you must stay alive. Do you hear me? MADELEINE Yes! Louis pulls her to him and starts to drink her blood. EXT. HOTEL BALCONY - LATER Louis on the balcony, weakened terribly. A breeze blows on the gauze curtains behind him, through which we see... SILHOUETTES of Madeleine and Claudia. Madeleine her arms outstretched, now a vampire, a long moan of pain coming from her. Claudia comes through the curtains, alarmed. CLAUDIA (whispers) Louis! Louis speaks without turning. LOUIS She is dying. It happened to you too, but your child's mind can't remember. CLAUDIA But if she dies... LOUIS It's only mortal death. He turns to look at Claudia. LOUIS Bear me no ill will, my love. We are now even. CLAUDIA What do you mean? LOUIS What died tonight inside that room was not that woman. It will take her many nights to die, perhaps years. What has died in that room tonight is the last vestige in me of what was human. She takes his hand. CLAUDIA Yes father. At last. We are een. He bends down and kisses her. He looks up, at the wafting curtains. He sees - MANY VAMPIRE SHADOWS Silhouetted, coming closer. CLAUDIA Looks up and screams. THE CURTAINS Are ripped aside. The vampires of the Theatre surge through. ESTELLE Time for justice, little one. The vampires close on them as Louis struggles, Claudia's scream pierces the night air. INT. CORRIDOR OF THEATRE DES VAMPIRES - NIGHT In a press of vampires, Louis, Claudia and Madeleine are forced down the dark corridor. Into - THE BALLROOM Vampire chaos, as they are dragged through. Louis struggling like a demon. LOUIS Armand! Get me Armand! he wouldn't countenance this - SANTIAGO You can make no demands here! Buffoon! Bastard - Santiago strikes Louis to the ground. As he struggles to his feet, he sees the vampires part around a figure coming through. He gasps at the sight of - LESTAT Dressed beautifully, but horribly scarred now, from the fire as well as the earlier stabbing. Lestat is confused, ancient, teetering, reaching for Santiago's shoulder to steady himself. LESTAT Louis... SANTIAGO Is he the one? Lestat shakes his head. LESTAT No, the child. The child was the one... SANTIAGO All the murderers!!! LOUIS You are alive, Lestat! It can't be murder! Tell them how you treated us... Lestat reaches out to Louis. LESTAT No... You come back to me Louis... LOUIS Are you mad??? ESTELLE The sentence is death! To all of them!!! LESTAT Only the girl - it was the girl - The sound of something being dragged through the crowd. Horrible echoing, scraping - Lestat grips Santiago. LESTAT You promised me - I could take him back to New Orleans - Louis - there's something I must tell you - about that night - that night I met you - He stares around him, confused. The scraping gets louder. LOUIS You let her go, Lestat - you let her free - and I'll come back with you - Santiago grabs Louis by the neck. SANTIAGO Death for the others. For you eternity in a box - We see now what caused the scraping. A huge metal coffin being dragged through the vampires. Claudia screams. SANTIAGO Walled in a dungeon. Your only company will be your screams... Perhaps it will take centuries... The vampires grab Louis. They force him towards the coffin. Lestat struggles with them. LESTAT He's coming home with me - you promised - SANTIAGO (laughing) We promised nothing! Louis struggles fiercely as he is forced into the coffin. Claudia weeps. LOUIS They've fooled you, Lestat! You must reach Armand! Armand has the power! Louis, struggling in the coffin. Then the lid is forced down, huge locks closed over it. INT. COFFIN Louis, in the smallest imaginable space. Beating his forehead against the metal. EXT. COFFIN Claudia, throwing herself on the coffin, crying. She is dragged away. Vampire hands drag the coffin across the stone floor. INT. COFFIN Louis, forehead pouring with blood, being thrown this way and that. The coffin is lifted, upside down, Louis' head crashes off the floor. EXT. COFFIN Is thrust into a niche in the wall. Bricks being placed over, mortar trowelled on. INT. COFFIN Louis upside down. Sounds of bricks and mortar. Then terrifying, unearthly scream pierces the coffin, striking to his very soul. LOUIS Claudia!!! He loses consciousness. BLACKNESS INT. COFFIN Louis sleeps, upside down. Sound of bricks being broken, thrown aside. Then of locks breaking. Louis opens his eyes. The lid opens. He sees - ARMAND Above him, reaching down to take his hand. ARMAND Hurry. Don't make a sound. Louis gets out, into a vast long catacomb. Louis runs to the end of it, steps through a broken brick wall. LOUIS Where is she? Where's Claudia? ARMAND Follow me - that way - through my cell - He points to his cell at the end of the passage, the foot of the steps. Sound of rain beyond the door. LOUIS Not without Claudia. Where is she? ARMAND I can't save her. LOUIS You can't believe I'd leave without her. Armand! You must save her! You have no choice. ARMAND Louis, I can't save her. I will only risk losing you - Louis runs up the stone stairs. It leads to the ballroom. He enters. Estelle stands far off, looking at him coolly. She lifts the stage skull mask and laughs softly behind it. A male vampire slumps in a chair staring softly at Louis. Silence. Indifference. Louis sees Lestat sitting in a far corner. he rushes up to Lestat, who looks up at him, confused. He's holding something crumpled, made of cloth. LESTAT You'll come home with me Louis? For a little while... until I am myself again. LOUIS CLAUDIA!!! Louis turns round and round in rage. Passive still faces. A door bangs open and shut. Louis looks again at Lestat. He snatches the cloth from Lestat's hand. We see it is a small torn bloodstained dress. Claudia's dress. The door bangs again. Estelle laughs. Rain gusts into the ballroom. Louis goes to the door, holding the dress. Armand approaches, trying to pull him away, but Louis shrugs him off. He draws nearer and nearer and stairs at - INT. BRICK AIRWELL On the stones lie Claudia and Madeleine, burn to ashes, in each other's arms, like the corpses of his wife and daughter in the New Orleans graveyard, embracing each other. Only Claudia's blond hair and Madeleine's red hair remain unburnt. Louis looks up at the walls of this airwell, many stories to the sky. He cries out in agony. Santiago appears behind him, staring. Louis roars in horror and attacks Santiago, scattering the ashes into the rainy wind. Claudia's golden locks fly up into the wind, they whirl around the warring figure. Armand appears, drags Louis free, pulls him screaming from the airwell, into the ballroom, towards the exit. Claudia's hair is sucked up by the wind through the airwell, towards the night sky. EXT. NOTRE DAME DOOR - NIGHT Louis is slumped against the stone wall. Armand stands beside him like a guardian angel. ARMAND I couldn't prevent it. LOUIS I don't believe you. I do not have to read your soul to know that you lie. ARMAND Louis, they cannot be brought back. There are some things that are impossible, even for me. LOUIS You let them do it. Louis climbs to his feet. LOUIS You held sway over them. They feared you. You wanted it to happen. ARMAND Louis, I swear I did not. LOUIS I understand you only too well. You let them do it, as I let Lestat turn a child into a demon. As I let her rip Lestat's heart to pieces! Well I am no longer that passive fool that has spun evil from evil till the web traps the one who made it. Your melancholy spirit of this century! I know what I must do. And I warn you - you saved me tonight, so I return the favor - do not go near your cell in the Theatre Des Vampires again. EXT. THEATRE DES VAMPIRES - DAWN Wet and deserted, the streets around the theatre are quiet. CLOSEUP - CLOCK Chiming five a.m. CLOSE ON LOUIS Looking at the paling sky. He is in an alleyway, outside of Armand's cell. He has a huge keg with him. he finds the door unlocked. He enters. INT. CELL Empty. The hearth is cold. The old coffin is gone. Louis silently closes the door to the passage and blocks it with an immense bar. He goes in the other door. INT. THEATRE Louis hurls kerosene all over the stage, the curtain, the sets, the seats below. He grabs the scythe from the playlet. He walks out. Dribbling a trail of kerosene behind him. INT. STAIRS Louis walking rapidly down, leaving the trail of kerosene. He creeps quietly into the - BALLROOM Leaking kerosene from the cask. He splashes over the coffins that gleam in the dimness. Then he strikes a match and heaves it into the kerosene. Everything bursts into flame. The trail of kerosene roars into fire through the ballroom over the coffins and up the stairs. We hear EXPLOSIONS of fire from above. LOUIS Shudders all over, fighting the morning weakness. He readies the scythe, like the grim reaper. ESTELLE Rises from her burning coffin, screams and tries to run through the fire but Louis slashes her down with the scythe and she goes down screaming, her dress in flames. ESTELLE Stop him. It's morning. The sunlight. Stop him. Others rise, choking in the smoke. Screams from everywhere. They are burning. Louis backs up the stairs to the - DUNGEON He can see there a thin pale light under Armand's bolted door. Suddenly - SANTIAGO Comes at him from behind. Louis turns. Santiago rushes him in a blur. Louis swings the scythe, too fast to see what he himself is doing. Santiago's head streaming blood flies through the air. The body drops, flapping its arms. SCREAMS come from everywhere. Another vampire rushes burning towards Louis. He decapitates him in turn. Then he staggers into Armand's cell, and bars the door the connects it to the ballroom behind him. He staggers to the outer door. There is a thin strip of daylight, beneath the door, blinding him. He throws it open, and staggers into the daylight. EXT. THEATRE DES VAMPIRES - DAWN Louis staggers out of the burning theatre, into the thin daylight. Great gusts of smoke cover the street. He staggers through the daylight, weakening, about to fall, when through the clouds of smoke comes - A MAGNIFICENT HEARSE As in a dream, driven by Armand's human boy. The door of the hearse opens. Through the curtains enclosing the interior, we see Armand. He reaches a hand out to Louis and pulls him inside. The hearse vanishes through the smoke, leaving the spectacle of the burning theatre. EXT. THEATRE DES VAMPIRES - TWILIGHT The gutted Theatre and ballroom, the roof collapsed, exposed to the evening sky. The life of Paris goes on around it, oblivious. INT. LOUVRE - NIGHTS LATER It is already a museum by this time and Louis and Armand, fancily dressed and composed, walk through it. They stop by a Gericault - The Wreck of the Medusa. LOUIS You didn't even warm them, did you? ARMAND No. LOUIS And yet you knew what I would do. ARMAND I knew. I rescued you, didn't I? From the terrible dawn. LOUIS You were their leader. They trusted you. ARMAND You made me see their failings, Louis. You made me look at them with your eyes. He looks at Louis affectionately. ARMAND Your melancholy eyes... LOUIS What a pair we are. We deserve each other, don't we? ARMAND We are a pair, and that's what counts. Armand and Louis walk slowly through the Louvre together. Camera follows them for a while, then comes to rest on a sunrise by Turner. LOUIS (V.O.) We left Paris shortly after. For years we wandered. Greece, Egypt, all the ancient lands. Then, out of curiosity, perhaps, boredom, who knows what, I took him home, to my America... INT. MOVIE THEATRE - NIGHT A deco cinema of the twenties. Louis and Armand, dressed in the style of the period walk down the aisle through the crowded seats. LOUIS (V.O.) And there, a technological wonder allowed me see sunrise, for the first time in two hundred years... On the screen, Murnau's "Sunrise", in black and white. We see a montage of sunrises, from a whole range of movies, in black and white. LOUIS (V.O.) And what sunrises! Seen as the human eye could never see them. We would sit in the dark, night after night among nameless humans, entranced with the miracle of light. Silver at first, then as the years progressed in tones of purple, red and my long-lost blue... The SUNRISES continue, in color now, and the backgrounds in them change to the fifties. LOUIS (V.O.) And in time parted. We had become so alike, we both wanted the certainties of loneliness once more. The lights come up in a different theatre. Louis sitting there, alone, in a half empty theatre, dressed in the clothes of the fifties. He rises, exits with the others. EXT. NEW ORLEANS STREET - NIGHT Cars rushing by, twentieth-century madness. Louis emerges from the theatre, walks through the streets. LOUIS (V.O.) I had returned to new Orleans. As soon as I smelt the air, I knew I was home. There was sadness there, rich, almost sweet, like the fragrance of jasmine. I walked the streets, savoring it like a long lost perfume... EXT. GARDEN DISTRICT - NIGHT Louis walks past the many Greek Revival Mansions. LOUIS (V.O.) And then on Prytania Street, only blocks from the Lafayette cemetery I caught the scent of death and it wasn't coming from the graves... CAMERA PANS OVER white-walled Lafayette cemetery and its surrounding mansions. LOUIS (V.O.) The scent grew stronger as I walked. Old death. A scent too faint for mortals to detect. Louis sees rats darting across the street. They rush into a great overgrown garden surrounding a ruined mansion. No lights. Louis stops at a rusted gate. He forces it open and enters - A VERITABLE JUNGLE Of overgrown rose and oak tree and wisteria. he sees a faint glimmer of light coming from a distant glass window of a huge Greek Revival house. He approaches then he sees - OLD SHRIVELLED CORPSE Of a man, long dead and dried up, snagged in the thorny rosevines. LOUIS Looks around. Walks on. Sees another corpse, almost nothing but bones, sinking into the wet earth, the roots of an oak overgrowing it. He looks up at the distant light. He passes a third corpse, caught in wisteria and rose vine, only bones and clothes. LOUIS (V.O.) They were like the doomed princess caught in the thorny vines of Sleeping Beauty's castle. I knew what it meant. A vampire had lured them here, but had been to weak to get rid of them. Louis sees dead rats lying near the steps. LOUIS (V.O.) It spelt weakness, madness, the behavior of a dying animal that pollutes its own lair. Louis treads carefully on the rotted steps. he moves along the porch. More dead rats. He sees through the floor-length window into rooms lined with stacked books. Virtually walled with them. Water seeps down from the ceiling, gleaming as it streaks over the books. The floors of the splendid rooms are bare, except for a rotten French chair by a dead fireplace. A single mirror reflecting the moon. Dead rats. He moves along the porch to the parlor windows. The candle flickers inside. He sees - HIS POV Lestat lying on the floor. He is gaunt to near starvation. All his scars are gone, but he is almost a skeleton and his eyes are enormous in their sockets. His clothes are rags. Blond hair beautiful, as always. MALLOY'S ENTRANCES FACE SUPERIMPOSED OVER MALLOY (V.O.) Lestat escaped the fire! LOUIS (V.O.) He hadn't even been there. And all those years I thought he was dead. BACK TO LESTAT One tiny candle stands beside him. He reads an early comic, from the turn of the century. Without turning his head, he speaks. LESTAT I'm so glad you're here Louis... I've dreamed of your coming... LOUIS Don't try to speak... it's alright... LESTAT I didn't mean to let them do it... that Santiago, he tricked me... LOUIS That's all past, Lestat. LESTAT Yes. Past... she should never have been one of us... He turns and looks at Louis. Old, fearful, broken. LESTAT Still beautiful Louis. You always were the strong one. LOUIS Don't fear me, Lestat. I bring you no harm. LESTAT You've come back to me, Louis? You've come again to me? Louis shakes his head. A series of police sirens go by, piercing the night sky. A helicopter goes overhead. Red flashes illuminate his face. Lestat shivers, covers his ears. He's terrified. Louis touches him, calming him, until the lights pass over. LOUIS It's only a siren... LESTAT I can't bear it Louis! The machines out there, that fly and that roar! And such lights! They make the night brighter than the day! LOUIS And they frighten you? LESTAT You know I love the dark. But there's no dark anymore. LOUIS It's false light, Lestat. It can't harm you... LESTAT If you stayed with me Louis, I could venture out... little by little... become the old Lestat. Louis shivers. He releases him. LOUIS I have to go now Lestat... LESTAT You remember how I was, Louis.. the vampire Lestat... LOUIS Yes. I remember... Lestat shivers. LESTAT I tried to tell you Louis... that night in Paris... when I first came to you... no-one can refuse the dark gift, Louis... not even you. LOUIS I tried... LESTAT And the more you tried, the more I wanted you... a vampire with your beautiful, suffering human heart. And how you suffered... I need your forgiveness, Louis. LOUIS You have it... Louis walks slowly away from him. Lestat turns back to his candle, his magazine. LESTAT You'll come back, Louis... take me out... little by little... and maybe I'll be myself again... A bluebottle buzzes by him. His hand shoots out and grabs it, squeezes the blood. LOUIS (whispering) Yes, Lestat... ON LOUIS As he walks through the decayed house. His eyes are expressionless. LOUIS (V.O.) And my story ends there. But in fact it ended a long time ago, with Claudia's ashes in that theatre. My love died with her. I never really changed after that. What became of Lestat I have no idea. I go on, night after night. I feed on those who cross my path. But all my passion went with her yellow hair. I ma a spirit with preternatural flesh. Detached. unchangeable. Empty. INT. ROOM. SAN FRANCISCO - NIGHT (PRESENT) Malloy, staring at Louis. MALLOY No... it can't end like that... LOUIS But it has. There is no more to tell. MALLOY But you talk about passion, about longing, about things I'll never know in my life! It's still inside you, in every syllable you speak! And then you tell me it ends like that? Just empty? LOUIS It's over, I'm telling you... MALLOY You need a new passion, Louis, a new reason to feel... what a story you've told, you don't understand yourself. Louis looks at the cassettes on the table. LOUIS Do what you want with it. Learn what you can. Give the story to others. Malloy rises. MALLOY You have another chance, Louis. Take me! Give me your gift, your power... Louis is slowly horrified, then outraged and angry. LOUIS Is this what you want? You ask me for this after all I've told you? MALLOY If I could see what you've seen, feel what you've felt I wouldn't let it end like this! You need a like to the world out there, a connection... then it won't end like this... He stares at Louis. MALLOY You need me. Louis turns away. LOUIS Dear God. I've failed again, haven't I? MALLOY No... LOUIS Don't say anymore. The reels are still turning. I have but one chance to show you the meaning of what I've said. He looks at the boy. Then suddenly grabs him, lifts him off the floor, bares his terrifying fangs and brings them to his throat. Malloy screams, in involuntary terror. LOUIS You like it? You like being food for the immortals? You like dying? Is it beautiful? Is it intense? Malloy, now terrified, whispers MALLOY No... please... Louis drops him. LOUIS Thank God. Malloy, falls on the floor, terrified. When he looks up, Louis has vanished. MALLOY Louis... Louis... He looks up at the tape. It is still turning. MALLOY Holy shit... He shakes his head. He gets up, and with shaking fingers gathers his tapes. He runs out of the room. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE - NIGHT Malloy running for his car, a convertible. He leaps in and screeches off through the night. EXT. STREETS - NIGHT Malloy whips the car through the tiny streets, in sheer, unfocused terror. MALLOY Jesus... EXT. GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE - NIGHT Malloy driving with streams of traffic over the bridge. He breathes deeply, to calm himself. He takes a tape from his pocket, and with still shaking hands, sticks it in the deck. LOUIS (V.O.) (tape) 1791. That's when it happened. I was twenty-four. Younger then you are now. Suddenly a bony hand shoots out from the back seat, pulls his neck backwards - LESTAT Sinks his teeth in his neck. MALLOY'S HANDS On the wheel, shaking, shuddering, losing their grip. MALLOY'S EYES Bulging, as the life drains out of him. Lestat sucking him like a rat. THE WHEEL Swinging free of Malloy's dying hands. THE CAR Veers wildly into oncoming traffic. LESTAT Drinks regardless. A TRUCK Coming towards them, about to crush the car. LESTAT'S BONY HAND Grabs the wheel, jerks it as he drinks. THE CAR Misses the truck by inches. LESTAT Throws Malloy to one side, climbs into the front seat. The tape is playing. LOUIS (V.O.) (tape) My invitation was open to anyone. Sailors, whores, thieves. But it was a vampire that accepted... ON LESTAT At the wheel, the corpse of Malloy in the passenger seat. He smiles. We can see the blood renewing him. LESTAT Dear Louis... will I ever forget? EXT. GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE - NIGHT Lestat drives on, the car a tiny speck against the bridge, the sea, the sky beyond, with the first fingers of light spreading through it. FADE OUT THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Into the Wild.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Into the Wild.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..066e8a2579864c1191e0d9eac420bb368b120230 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Into the Wild.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + INTO THE WILD Written by Sean Penn Based on the book by Jon Krakauer1 EXT. THE STAMPEDE TRAIL - DAY 1 SUPER: Tuesday, April 28th 1992 WIDE-SHOT: A vast, snow-blanketed wilderness that sits beneath the icy summits of the highest mountain range in North America. This is BIG Alaska. A beat up 4x4 pick-up enters very small into the upper left corner of frame on an unkept, snow-packed road, and comes to a stop. A figure exits the passenger side and moves around the front of the truck. We can just make out the rifle sticking out of his backpack. We HEAR a very distant "Thank You" as the figure walks away from the road and away from the truck, seemingly into nowhere. DRIVER Hey! The figure with backpack and rifle, henceforth BACKPACK, stopping in his tracks, turns around in the direction of the truck. DRIVER (CONT'D) Come here. BACKPACK walks back to the truck. As he approaches the driver's door, we CUT IN TO: TIGHT SHOT over the back-packed shoulder onto the DRIVER. DRIVER (CONT'D) (referring to items we see sitting on dashboard) You left your watch, your comb, your change... We STAY on the DRIVER as BACKPACK speaks: BACKPACK Keep it. DRIVER I don't want your money. And I already have a watch. BACKPACK If you don't take it, I'm gonna throw it away. I don't want to know what time it is, what day it is, or where I am. (MORE) 2. BACKPACK (CONT'D) I don't want to see anybody. None of that matters.The driver reaches behind the seat of the truck, pullsout an old pair of rubber work boots. DRIVER (handing him the boots) Take em.There is a pause as Backpack considers accepting theboots. DRIVER (CONT'D) If you make it out alive, give me a call, and I'll tell you how to get the boots back to me.We can feel over Backpack's shoulder that he has takenthe boots and is putting them on but we STAY on thedriver. BACKPACK Hey, do me a favor, will ya? Take a picture of me.Backpack hands him an Instamatic camera and startswalking backwards. We PULL BACK with him. And hemaintains his back to us. When he stops, we CONTINUEuntil he is FULL-FRAME, head-to-toe from behind, posing. CUT TO:CU: driverCLICK. He snaps the shot.Backpack re-enters frame in an OVER-SHOULDER. Driverhands him the camera. DRIVER You gonna be alright? BACKPACK I'll be better than that. (I'll be who I am.)As Backpack exits the frame, we SLOWLY ZOOM past theconcerned face of the driver onto the loose change, thecomb, and the watch on the dash. 3. Throughout the ZOOM, the SOUND of FOOTSTEPS CRUNCHING THE SNOW, FADE into the distance. BACK TO: ORIGINAL WIDE-SHOT: We see the small form of the truck and the smaller form of the Backpacker walking away from the truck until the Backpacker has exited the frame. The truck takes a BEAT, turns around in the snow, and accelerates back into the direction from which it came. As the truck exits frame, we - DISSOLVE TO:2 EXT. COMMENCEMENT GROUNDS, EMORY UNIVERSITY, ATLANTA - 2 DAY SUPER: May 1990 The crowd of family and friends, and of course, students. Assembled on fold-out chairs. The broad lawn. INTERCUT: CHRIS MCCANDLESS. We don't see his face, just feet pounding the pavement at an increasing pace. One by one the names of graduates announced. Their bright young faces, capped heads, and gowns, glide up to the podium to accept their diplomas. INTERCUT: Chris, on his run, sweatshirt hood over head. Amongst assembled crowd and family we find: THE MCCANDLESS': BILLIE, mid to late forties with dark striking eyes; WALT, a taciturn man, early fifties; and CARINE, eighteen, pretty with her mother's eyes and waist length brown hair, a gold crucifix dangles from her neck. They look around, looking for Chris, he's nowhere in sight. INTERCUT: Chris, in a shower (PHOTO-SONICS) He TURNS INTO CAMERA, the water streaming down his face. From the announcement podium comes the name of their son and brother, CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON MCCANDLESS. The McCandless family increasingly panicked over Chris' absence, when almost magically, he appears in full cap and gown. 4.Disregarding the steps that lead up to the podiumplatform, the small-framed but athletic CHRIS MCCANDLESSleaps jubilantly onto the stage in a single bound,frightening Billie, a little wince from Walt, and Carine"That's our Chris." And just as quickly as Chris hasbeen handed his diploma, he civilly descends the platformsteps. TIME CUT:SLO-MO: A ballet of graduation caps float upward into aframe of blue sky. We HEAR Chris' voice OVER this imageas we intermittently cut away from the caps against thesky to focus on his parents.(HIGH ANGLE: floating caps in FOREGROUND, Walt and Billiedelight upon the caps.) An outer glee in sharp contrastto voice over: CHRIS (V.O.) I see them standing at the formal gates of their colleges, I see my father strolling out under the ochre sandstone arch, the red tiles glinting like bent plates of blood behind his head, I see my mother with a few light books at her hip standing at the pillar made of tiny bricks with the wrought-iron gate still open behind her, its sword-tips black in the May air, they are about to graduate, they are about to get married, they are kids, they are dumb, all they know is they are innocent, they would never hurt anybody. I want to go up to them and say Stop, don't do it--she's the wrong woman, he's the wrong man, you are going to do things you cannot imagine you would ever do, you are going to do bad things to children, you are going to suffer in ways you never heard of, you are going to want to die. I want to go up to them there in the late May sunlight and say it, her hungry pretty blank face turning to me, (MORE) 5. CHRIS (V.O.) (CONT'D) her pitiful beautiful untouched body, his arrogant handsome blind face turning to me, his pitiful beautiful untouched body, but I don't do it. I want to live. I take them up like the male and female paper dolls and bang them together at the hips like chips of flint as if to strike sparks from them, I say... The last graduation cap falls out of the `blue sky' frame, and into... CUT TO:3 INT. ATLANTA RESTAURANT - LATER 3 (Graduation ceremony wardrobe) Walt and Billie sit at a table. A Cadillac can be seen through the window (ATLANTA LANDMARK), parked beside the restaurant. BILLIE Here they are. Walt looks out the window and sees Chris drive up in his old yellow Datsun with Carine in the passenger seat beside him, and pulls up to the space beside the Cadillac.4 INT. DATSUN 4 Chris is holding a book from which he reads aloud the LAST LINE OF THE POEM... CHRIS I say...Do what you are going to do, and I will tell about it. CARINE Who wrote that? CHRIS Well, it could've been either one of us, couldn't it? He hands a book of Sharon Olds' poetry to her. CHRIS (CONT'D) There's a lot of great poems in there. 6. CARINE Thanks, big brother. They exit the car and frame.5 INT. ATLANTA RESTAURANT - SAME 5 Chris and Carine join Walt and Billie at the table. Billie gets up and gives Chris a big hug. BILLIE You scared the daylights out of me, jumping on to that stage, oh my god. Chris gives Carine a look. Walt extends his hand to Chris. WALT Congratulations, son. They all sit and pick up menus. CHRIS I'm starving. TIME CUT:6 INT. ATLANTA RESTAURANT - LATER 6 The foods on the table. Chris is devouring a steak. CHRIS My grades are gonna be good enough, I think, to get into Harvard Law. WALT That's a big deal. What do you have left in your college fund? CHRIS It's an inheritance, dad. I've only been spending it as a college fund...Exactly twenty-four thousand five hundred dollars and sixty-eight cents. BILLIE That's very specific. CHRIS I had to go to the bank this morning. 7. WALT Well, we'll certainly contribute the balance for Harvard. CHRIS Yeah. I've got to figure out what I'm going to do. I got a lot of things to pack and organize here first. BILLIE I'm so glad you're getting out of that place you're living. It was so much nicer when you lived on campus. WALT You'll come to Annandale before you disappear on us, won't you? CHRIS (reluctantly) Sure, I will.Carine's not so sure. BILLIE You promise? CHRIS (whining) Mom. BILLIE Well, your father and I want to make a present to you. WALT We want to get you out of that junker. CHRIS What's a junker?Walt points outside to the Datsun. CHRIS (CONT'D) The Datsun? WALT Yes. We want to get you a new car. CHRIS (appalled) A new car? Why the hell would I want a new car? The Datsun runs great. (MORE) 8. CHRIS (CONT'D) (Mocking the Cadillac) Do you think I want some fancy boat? Or are you worried about what the neighbors might think? BILLIE We weren't going to get you a Cadillac, Chris. Just a nice new car that's safe to drive. You don't know when that thing's just going to suddenly blow up. CHRIS Blow up? Blow up?! Are you guys crazy? It's a great car. I don't need a new car. I don't want a new car. I don't want anything. Thing, thing, thing. Under the table, Carine jabs Chris' leg. Chris returning to polite - CHRIS (CONT'D) But, thanks anyway. WALT Everything's gotta be difficult. CHRIS I said thank you. I just don't want anything. The group returns to some superficial calm. CARINE I wouldn't say no to a new car. CHRIS (mumbling a rib) Ivana Trump McCandless. CARINE (laughing it off) Shut up, Chris. (to her parents, seriously) Seriously, I'll pay you back. CUT TO:7 INT. OFF-CAMPUS ROOMING HOUSE, SECOND-FLOOR, ATLANTA - 7 DAY OVER Chris' shoulder, he frisbees his graduation cap from the upstairs window to his parents parting Cadillac on the street. 9. As they wave goodbye, Carine catches the cap from the backseat window. And with a parting smile to her brother, she poses with it on her own head. Chris smiles and waves goodbye. As the Cadillac drifts away, his smile disappears into something other than sadness. TIME CUT:8 INT. OFF-CAMPUS ROOMING HOUSE - NIGHT 8 In a warm ambient light, we SEE a black and white poster on a barren wall: Poncho-clad Clint Eastwood from "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly." We TILT DOWN a stack of books sitting on the floor - Tolstoy, Stegner, Thoreau, Jack London, and Pasternak. Beside them, a camper's backpack. Chris sits in introspection at his desk by candlelight. The room is spare, supporting his monkish lifestyle. But on the desk before him, he counts out $500.68 from a bank envelope. He pockets those bills and change, then removes a check for $24,000 made out to OXFAM America from the same bank envelope. He scribbles a note: These are all my savings. Feed someone with it. Signed, Chris McCandless. He then slides the note and the check into a pre-addressed Oxford Famine Relief Fund (in Boston) envelope. He pulls his wallet from his back pocket. Pulls all the cards and pictures from its sleeves. Considering each, he flicks them into a trash bin, one by one. Finally coming to his social security card, he holds it to the candles flame. As the flame burns bright we - DISSOLVE TO:9 EXT. ATLANTA HIGHWAY - SUNRISE' 9 MUSIC (Gordon Peterson's BIG HARD SUN or as radio source Tom Petty's FREE FALLING) rises and PRESENTATION TITLES OVER: A 1982 DATSUN B210 emerges from the rising sun as the car heads west out of Atlanta. (HIGHWAY 20 TO 78 TO 40) PRESENTATION TITLES and MUSIC carry OVER: 9A.MONTAGE: We travel with Chris and his Datsun through thetowns and open highways, landscapes and landmarks, daysand nights, that lead to the Mojave desert in the West. 10. (In contrast to his introspection of the previous night, Chris is buoyant throughout this sequence.)10 EXT. DESERT, SOMEWHERE BETWEEN KINGMAN, ARIZONA AND LAS 10 VEGAS, NEVADA - SUNSET (CRANE SHOT) We see Chris stop the Datsun in the middle of the desert road. We (CRANE?) DOWN to a close-up through the windshield. Chris looks left. Then, right. Into the rearview mirror, and suddenly turns the wheel, veering the Datsun off the paved highway into the vast desert. As we CRANE back UP, the Datsun moves into the horizon. END PRESENTATION TITLES. FADE MUSIC11 EXT. DETRITAL WASH - TWILIGHT 11 ANGLE: WEST-FACING The Datsun sits in the magical pastel twilight just before darkness slides over the desert. It is positioned at the foot of a wash wall that edges the soup bowl. ANGLE: EAST-FACING The Datsun, a yellow speck in the frame. Coyotes yap at the moon. Other than that, no sound on the desert floor. In the distance, voluptuous cumulonimbus clouds boil upward catching the last rosy glow of the west-setting sun over the rim of the upper Detrital watershed. We see strobe bursts of lightning followed by muffled thunder illuminating the thunder clouds from within. Short SERIES OF ANGLES as we MOVE IN on the distant gullies and ravines, starting to run with copious amounts of water.12 INT. DATSUN - NIGHT 12 Chris McCandless, in the same clothes he had been in back in the rooming house, sleeps in the back seat of the Datsun. His head supported by his backpack. We begin to HEAR a rumble. But this rumble is not thunder. It rapidly builds into an alarming ROAR. The roar grows to a deafening level. Chris awakens. 11. As he peeks up from the backseat looking forward through the windshield, he just barely catches sight of the leading edge of a flash flood. A four-foot high wall of water, mud and debris makes impact with the Datsun, momentarily enveloping it in water. Suddenly the car is SLAMMED against the cliff. CRACK! Chris sits upright, disoriented. POV: As far as the eye can see in the desert moonlight, water has taken over the desert with a flash flood. However, there's no panic in Chris' face as we observe him past a new crack in the wet windshield. The water, while violent seems to have topped off just above the wheels. Chris gets a slight smile on his face, as the car settles into its new position below the cliff. He returns to sleep. CUT TO:13 EXT. DESERT - DAY 13 What remains of Chris' travelling money burns in a pile beside the Datsun on the sun-lit but muddy desert floor. We follow a very long set of footprints (CAMERA TRACKING/TRUE VERTICAL) away from the burning cash through the mud, finally tilting up to the footprint maker, Chris. Slogging toward high ground. WIDE-SHOT: We see the abandoned Datsun nearly a mile behind Chris as he walks toward us wearing his backpack. He comes very close to camera (only a day or two's stubble on his face) and as we PAN him 180, we see as much wilderness before us as we did behind. REPRISE MUSIC OVER MAIN TITLE: (INTO THE WILD) Chris walks into the distance. COMPLETE AND END MAIN TITLES. CUT TO:14 INT. COLLEGE BUILDING 14 SHAKY HAND-HELD HOME VIDEO IMAGE (4 YEARS EARLIER): 12.Chris McCandless speaking to camera holds a microphone ina shadowy room, doing his Geraldo Rivera. It's tongue-in-cheek at best. CHRIS This is Emory University freshman Chris McCandless reporting from the vault at Thompson Hall.He indicates a hatchway in the floor leading to abrightly lit corridor below. CHRIS (CONT'D) We have just dynamited the hatchway and are the first human beings to step foot into this vault in over a hundred years. Somewhere in here lies the secret of the great beast within us all. A beast built on lies, corruption, and greed.We HEAR a GROWLING SOUND from behind Chris. CHRIS (CONT'D) And there it is! The legendary beast Mocra.CAMERA quickly PANS to a blanket-wrapped, crawling FELLOWSTUDENT in a grotesque Halloween mask.We MOVE INTO CU on the monster growling.QUICK PAN back to Chris. CHRIS (CONT'D) (in mock fright) We've got to get out of here quick and re- secure the hatch while we make a plan of how to kill the beast.CAMERA SHAKES all over like a bad horror film trying tostay with Chris as he makes a quick escape down thehatchway into the University dorm corridor.CLUMSY VIDEO TIME CUT: Chris nailing the last nail inthe hatchway from below. He climbs down the steps wherehe exchanges his hammer for his microphone from an off-camera source. CHRIS (CONT'D) Well, it looks like we've succeeded -We HEAR the monster's GROWL from above. 13. CHRIS (CONT'D) - at least for the moment, in sealing the beast back into the vault. Your humble reporter, Chris McCandless will now struggle with the journalistic question of ethics: Will he retain his reporter's objectiveness or save the future of human truth by slaying this awful beast? He gives us a look of vaudevillian puzzlement - what will he do? CONTINUE VIDEO: We pick up with Chris in a corridor outside a door with a cheap paper-and-tape label announcing the adjacent room as the office of Ted Turner. CHRIS (CONT'D) Once again, your humble reporter Chris McCandless. We HEAR OS students commenting on Chris and his video crew: OS STUDENT What is this? Filmmaking 101? OS STUDENT #2 Point the camera at me. I'm a star. Chris speaking straight to camera, still tongue-in-cheek: CHRIS (with a Wizard of Oz tone) Pay no attention to the voices behind the curtain.15 INT. WOULD-BE TED TURNER OFFICE 15 A FELLOW STUDENT PLAYING TED TURNER with obvious fake mustache is locked into an episode of Matlock on his television set as our bold reporter, Chris, barges in. CHRIS Ted! We've got a monster in the vault. It represents all the corruption, the deceit, and greed within us all. I must slay it. 14. TED TURNER/STUDENT (worst acting we've ever seen) McCandless, how many times have I had to tell you? I've had to tell you that you are a journalist and you can't get personally involved in your cases...or your stories. CHRIS Ted! I know how to kill it. And I'm the only one who knows. You can't keep sending me on stories and expecting me to do nothing! I look like some kind of an idiot. TED TURNER/STUDENT Do you know who you're talking to? I'm Ted Turner.Behind Chris in the corridor outside Ted's office, aPANICKED STUDENT arrives at the door. PANICKED STUDENT McCandless! You've got to hurry! The monster is scratching at the hatchway. He'll be out in no time. TED TURNER/STUDENT (threatening) It'll mean your job, Chris McCandless. CHRIS (to Ted) That's it, Ted. Fire me if you want but this beast must be slayed.Microphone in hand, Chris makes haste. The CAMERA RUNSWITH HIM out the door, through the corridor, up a set ofsteps to the hatchway. As he arrives, the monsterappears above him in the hatchway crawl space havingpulled off the board Chris had nailed. CHRIS (CONT'D) (into camera) This is the only thing that can kill the monster. It's gonna be risky but without great risk, there is no freedom. So we will now hear from the famous singer - Chris McCandless. 15.A piano is PUSHED INTO FRAME beside Chris. A YOUNG BLACKSTUDENT pulls a stool in front of the piano and begins toplay. Chris begins to serenade the monster,intermittently sharing the serenade directly into cameraas well. He bursts into an uninhibited solo of Tender IsThe Night.CAMERA TILTS UP to the monster looking out the hatchway,slowly dying from the song being sung.As the song continues to be sung and the monstercontinues to die, the AUDIO RECEDES and VIDEO IMAGES GOTO SLO MO. CARINE (V.O.) When we were little, Chris was very to himself. He wasn't anti-social, he always had friends, and everybody liked him - but he could go off and entertain himself for hours, he didn't seem to need toys or friends. He could be alone without being lonely. The secrets our parents kept, though unknown to Chris and I, led to bouts of rage and even violence between them that we had been forced to witness since we were very young. It seemed like they never fought without us. I remember the first family meeting to let Chris and me in on their plans for getting a divorce. They wanted us to choose which of them we'd live with. I cried my eyes out. But the divorce never happened, though the threats and meetings never stopped. It wasn't long before Chris and I shut off -- we would tell mom and dad to go ahead and get the divorce. Chris and I just wanted to get away from their fights and mom kept promising to get out and take us with her as soon as their company made enough money. Dad had been the young genius [that] NASA enlisted to do [crucial] designs for the American satellite radar systems that would be our answer to the Russian Sputnik. And mom and he later started up a consulting firm combining her get-up- and-go resourcefulness with his wealth of knowledge. By the time the company actually made its first million, the careerism and money seemed to erase her memory of the promise she'd made us. (MORE) 16. CARINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) I think this is when Chris began to see "careers" as a diseased invention of the twentieth century and to resent money and the useless priority people made of it in their lives. He'd begun planning to "slay the beast"...to make himself free. VIDEO IMAGE: The beast dies. FADE OUT. CHAPTER 1: BIRTH - FADE IN:16 INT. TENT (IN THE SCRUB BRUSH BESIDE LAKE MEAD) - DAY 16 We see a pile of berries sitting atop a handkerchief. Beside them, a survivalist's guide to edible growth. POV: THE TOP OF THE TENT - SOFT FOCUS The glare of the sun penetrating the canvas. A fly buzzes and lands, hanging upside down. The image is blurry. ECU: CHRIS' EYES Delirious in the heat, we WIDEN OUT to see that he's filthy (2 weeks of growth on his face and naked.) He makes his way out of the tent, peers at the relentless sun and scurries to his backpack where he removes a canteen, barely a sip of water left in it. He downs it. TIME CUT:17 EXT. LAKE MEAD DAY 17 The following short vignettes are silent and focused exclusively on Chris: 1. Recreational BOATERS on Lake Mead. GIRLS in bikinis. BOYS on boats eating Kentucky Fried Chicken. CUT TO: 2. At lake-side, an unusual sight - the NEW Chris McCandless, a sun and dirt-beaten bum with a backpack. CUT TO: 17. 3. A family ski-boat has taken Chris on. They give him water, dropping him at the north end of the lake at TEMPLE BAR MARINA. (Director's Note: HIGH ANGLE, TIGHT, sees Chris and the glimmering water treadmilling below) CUT TO: 4. Chris washes himself in the lake by the marina. CUT TO:18 ESTABLISHING SHOT: CAFE, TEMPLE BAR MARINA 18 CUT TO:19 INT. MARINA CAFE, UNISEX RESTROOM 19 Chris brushes his teeth. CHRIS (V.O.) I need a name. He takes a swallow of water. Rinses his mouth. Spits it out. Then checks his bearded face in the mirror. He likes what he sees. As he wipes the corners of his mouth with a tissue and throws it into the bin below the sink, he notices a discarded tube of lipstick. He picks it up. It's down to its end. Yet with what lipstick remains, he writes on the mirror: ALEXANDER SUPERTRAMP WAS HERE JULY 1990 CUT TO:20 EXT. MARINA CAFE (BLDG REAR) - SUNDOWN 20 Chris is behind the cafe beside a pair of dumpsters. He removes the Datsun's license plates from his backpack and discards them deeply into the garbage. CUT TO: 17A.21 EXT. MARINA CAFE (BLDG FRONT) - SUNDOWN 21 Chris appears from behind the cafe lugging his backpack up the rise from the cafe to the highway and starts thumbing for a ride. CUT TO: 18.22 INT. MCCANDLESS HOME, ANNANDALE 22 VARIOUS shots to accompany V.O. CARINE (V.O.) Toward the end of June, Chris had mailed our parents his final grade report. Walt and Billie open the envelope. CARINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) Almost all A's. "A" in Apartheid in South African Society and History of Anthropological Thought; A- in Contemporary African Politics and the Food Crisis in Africa; and on it went. Clever boy, my brother. We observe Carine in a delicate afternoon light. She is sitting up on her bed with an unread book, looking out the window toward us. CARINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) But by the end of July we hadn't heard anything from him and my parents were getting very worried. Carine's POV: Walt with his arm around Billie in the yard. CARINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) Chris had never had a phone, so they decided to drive down to Atlanta and surprise him. CUT TO:22A EXT. ROAD TO TAHOE 22A Chris, backpack on, walking away from camera. CUT TO:23 EXT. HIGHWAY - ATLANTA - DAY (END JULY 1990) 23 We see Walt and Billie's car pass under an Atlanta mileage sign. 19. CARINE (V.O.) When they arrived at the apartment, there was a "For Rent" sign in his window, and the manager told my parents that Chris had moved out at the end of June.24 EXT. OFF-CAMPUS ROOMING HOUSE, ATLANTA - DAY 24 We observe Walt and Billie chatting with Chris' apartment manager. CARINE (V.O.) When they got home, I had to hand them all the letters they had sent Chris that summer which had been returned in a bundle.25 INT. MCCANDLESS HOME, ANNANDALE 25 The bundle of letters are splayed out on the kitchen table - "Return to Sender" stamps visible. CARINE (V.O.) Chris had instructed the post office to hold them until August 1st so that mom and dad wouldn't know that anything was up. Some part of me understood what he had done. That he had spent the previous four years fulfilling an absurd and onerous duty in graduating from college. We return to the image of Carine sitting on her bed as she plops on Chris' old graduation cap. We slowly ZOOM IN on her throughout the remaining V.O. CARINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) And now, at last he was unincumbered. Emancipated from the stifling world of parents and peers. Abstraction, security, and material excess. Those things that cut Chris off from the raw truth of his existence. I only hoped he was safe...and I missed him. CUT TO:26 EXT. SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS (LAKE TAHOE AREA) - DAY 26 20. HELICOPTER SHOT: (MUSIC OVER: PHILIP GLASS) WE FIND CHRIS MAKING HIS STRIDES THROUGH PINES AND PEAKS, IN AWE OF THE SCALE AND POWER OF THIS LANDSCAPE. TRACKING SHOT (GROUND LEVEL): CLOSE ON Chris, surrounded by a summit grove embraced in its nature. ANGLE: A DEER drinking from a creek, pops its head up between trees and scrub, watching the alien human pass. An EAGLE soars above (perhaps it was this POV represented in our helicopter shot) WATER babbling in a mountain creek. VARIOUS WILDLIFE SHOTS ANGLE: Chris - In his eyes we see the landscape inject itself. CUT TO:27 EXT. CAMPSITE, PACIFIC CREST TRAIL - SUNSET 27 SEQUENCE: Chris makes camp beside a stream pulling a sack of rice from his backpack and cooking it.28 EXT. CAMPSITE, PACIFIC CREST TRAIL - NIGHT 28 Wrapped in his own "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly" poncho, Chris eats rice while crouched beside a campfire reading from Jack London's White Fang. CUT TO:29 EXT. PACIFIC CREST TRAIL - FURTHER NORTH - DAY 29 Chris is on the move north through the gorgeous landscape of the Sierras, humming as he walks, when he comes upon a sign on the trail: PERMIT CAMPING IN DESIGNATED CAMPGROUNDS ONLY. Chris bows to the sign as one would to speak to a small child. CHRIS (singing) Sign, sign. Everywhere a sign. Fuckin' up the scenery, breakin' my mind. (MORE) 21. CHRIS (CONT'D) Do this. Don't do that. Can't you read the sign? And then, very impulsively, he karate kicks the sign off its post into a log collapsing into --- CUT TO:30 OMITTED 3031 EXT. CAMPSITE II, PACIFIC CREST TRAIL - NIGHT 31 A burning log collapses in Chris' campfire, reduced to glowing embers.32 INT. TENT 32 Chris is awakened by the SOUND of TWIGS SNAPPING in a nearby thicket. He quickly grabs a knife from his backpack, unzips six inches of the tent door open. We see his eyes peering out. The CRACKLING moves closer. His grip on the knife tightens. Suddenly a hot white light hits his face. And a VOICE comes from behind the light. FOREST RANGER U.S. Forestry. Could you step out of the tent please? Now we see the FOREST RANGER appear from the thicket. Chris exits the tent, catching himself holding the knife. CHRIS (as he drops the knife to the ground) Sorry. I thought you were a bear. FOREST RANGER (approaching) I don't blame you. You're less than a hundred yards from the nearest den. That's why I came over here to talk to you. Do you have some identification? 22. CHRIS No. I'm sorry. My name's Alex. I've been travelling a lot and I got robbed and my identification was taken. FOREST RANGER You mind if I take a look in your tent? CHRIS Go ahead.The Forest Ranger bends over. Pops his flashlightthrough the tent door and peers around a bit before re-addressing Chris. FOREST RANGER You're not the character who knocked down our sign, are ya? CHRIS (giggles) No. FOREST RANGER Because there was a sign indicating that camping was allowed by permit only. CHRIS Well, I don't have a permit. FOREST RANGER No, I'm sure you don't. Listen, it looks like you've got your food secured pretty good, so I'm not gonna make you move on tonight. But, these bears out here are nursing young and you know how that goes. Next time, stop at the Rangers station and get yourself a permit. CHRIS Alright. I appreciate it. I'm gonna be headed towards the coast tomorrow. FOREST RANGER Be careful.They shake hands and the Forest Ranger disappears intothe thicket. CUT TO: 23.33 EXT. THE NORTHERN CREST - DAY 33 Chris descends the mountains where they meet the Redwoods. Every perilous step creates a mini landslide down the hill; dirt and gravel. Chris stops briefly to observe an over-flying commercial airliner. CHRIS (mocking imaginary conversation among passengers) Is that a man mommy? That's no mere man, sweetheart. That's Alexander SuperTramp! King of the wild frontier! Chris briefly waves to the airplane above and continues his descent. CUT TO:34 OMITTED 3435 EXT. HIGHWAY NEAR WILLOW CREEK (AUGUST 10, 1990) 35 A car slows to a stop.36 INT./EXT. CAR-HIGHWAY 36 DRIVER This is where I turn off. CHRIS Alright man. Thanks a lot. Chris is dropped off. The driver veers off the highway and into the distance. Chris is left behind to hitch another ride.36A EXT. HIGHWAY 36A CAMERA is across the road from Chris as one by one cars pass him by. He turns to move north by foot and we track with him, his back to oncoming traffic, he continues to hitchhike with an extended thumb. Something catches his eye in the treeline beside the road. 24.REVERSE: Chris, moving to the mysterious object. As helifts it, we see that it is a goofy looking straw hat.He dusts it off, and snugs it onto his head, when apolice car comes into frame and stops beside Chris.With a quick blast of the siren, Chris turns to regardthe police car. The POLICEMAN gets out of the car andmoves to Chris. POLICEMAN How're you doin' this evening? CHRIS (reluctantly) I'm alright. What's the matter? POLICEMAN You wanna put your backpack down on the hood of my car.Chris does not oblige. CHRIS Why? POLICEMAN Because I asked you to, sir. CHRIS But I haven't done anything wrong. These are my personal items. POLICEMAN Do you know that it's unlawful to hitchhike on this stretch of highway. CHRIS You're kidding. POLICEMAN Do you see a safe area for a vehicle to stop? We got a tree-lined highway without a substantial shoulder here. And we've had a lot of accidents on this road from people stopping in the traffic lane for hitchhikers. CHRIS Alright, but...I mean, you stopped your car. You're in the traffic lane. And you can see, there's hardly any cars out here. Plus, it's a straight road; you can see for a long ways. (MORE) 25. CHRIS (CONT'D) (in disbelief) There's really been accidents along here? POLICEMAN May I see some identification? Now Chris is worried. CHRIS I don't have any. POLICEMAN You don't have any identification? Chris shakes his head "No." POLICEMAN (CONT'D) (pulling out a ticket) Well, I'm gonna site you for unlawful hitchhiking. You don't have to appear. You can send a check directly to the Humboldt County Clerks Office for restitution. If you don't pay it within 30 days, you're subject to fine and warrant. I'm gonna trust that you're gonna give me accurate information. What's your name? Chris can't bring himself to lie. CHRIS (a beat) McCandless. Christopher Johnson McCandless. CUT TO:37 INT. MCCANDLESS HOME, ANNANDALE (MID-AUGUST 1990) 37 Walt, Billie, and Carine sit around the kitchen table in August. A copy of Chris' ticket has been sent to the Annandale address and sits before them. Billie and Carine sit silently. Walt's on the phone. CARINE (V.O.) If Chris were trying to disappear, it would have been a pretty uncharacteristic lapse for him to give the police his real place of residence. Though my parents had already contacted the Annandale police with their initial concerns, this ticket arriving from California made them frantic. (MORE) 26. CARINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) My father called one of his old government friends who put him in touch with a private investigator, someone who'd done work with the DIA and the CIA. Using the Willow Creek ticket as a starting point, the investigator began chasing down leads. Most of them led far afield -- to Europe and South Africa. Ultimately turning up nothing. What my dad couldn't believe was that he'd given up his car. He seemed to love that Datsun so much. It sounded just like Chris to me, though. He was very much of the school that you should own nothing except what you could carry on your back at a dead run.38 EXT. NORTHERN CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY, NEAR ORICK, 60 MILES 38 SOUTH OF THE OREGON LINE - DAY (MID-AUGUST 1990) With his backpack lunging and a free hand holding his goofy new hat onto his head, we find Chris at a "dead run" to catch a ride that had overshot him. (Director's note: Don't leave this image too soon.) An old van idles waiting for him. As he gets to the passenger side, the woman passenger gets out. This is JAN BURRES, early 40's, looks to be still on the long road home from Woodstock. A little heavyset, dark wavy hair with a lot of premature grey in it. Jan moving to the side door. JAN Hi. We just barely saw you there, under that crazy hat of yours. We couldn't back up - the van's reverse is broken. CHRIS (as Jan fiddles with side door handle) Oh. That's okay. Thanks for stopping. JAN This door's a little tricky, I'll get it. And with a little pulling, it opens. Indicating the pony- tailed and bearded driver (RAINEY), early 50's, definitely Woodstock... JAN (CONT'D) Hop in, that's Rainey. 27. RAINEY Hey, I'm Rainey. JAN And I'm Jan. CHRIS Hey, Rainey. Hi Jan. I'm Alex. RAINEY Alex of the hat. CHRIS (closing the side door) Yeah. Jan jumps back in passenger seat and the van rolls on.39 INT. RAINEY & JAN VAN 39 3-SHOT - CHRIS BETWEEN THEM IN THE BACKSEAT. RAINEY Were you out there a long time hitching? CHRIS Couple of days. But sometimes I forget to put my thumb out. JAN Probably, the rest of the time, that hat scares `em away. Chris checks himself in the rearview mirror and gets a kick out of what he sees (That hat's staying on.) Jan is looking at the rearview mirror too, observing Chris with mild concern. JAN (CONT'D) When's the last time you ate something? Chris pulls out a bag of berries and edible plants he's collected. CHRIS (excited) See that? I've got this book and it shows you all the plants and berries that are edible. You can find things wherever you go. Jan steals a glance to Rainey. He's hip. 28. RAINEY We were just in town getting some beads and stuff. Jan does handicrafts, so we're usually going from one swap meet to another. She's so good at what she does, we sold everything. So, we set up camp at Orick Beach. You're welcome to camp there with us. JAN And eat there with us. Chris is beaming at the thought of real food. CUT TO:40 EXT. CAMPSITE, ORICK BEACH - NIGHT 40 Chris, Jan, and Rainey are beside a campfire, sitting on blankets. Their tents loom behind them. Jan is weaving some sort of craft art. Chris is chomping on chicken and beans like they're going out of style. CHRIS (between large swallows) So, I just left the car. It was a great car too. I'd driven it cross country the first time when I got out of high school. I had some really great adventures with it. That thing would just go and go. I mean, it was an `82 but if I'd kept it, it would've lasted me forever. RAINEY So, you're a leather now. CHRIS I'm a leather? Rainey nods, smiling. CHRIS (CONT'D) (looking to Jan) What's a leather? JAN You're a leather tramp. That's what they call the ones that hoof it on foot. So, we're technically rubber tramps. 29. RAINEY (interjecting) As we have a vee-hi-cle.Rainey makes a move to put his arm around Jan. She goesa little stiff and fends it off. Chris notices. JAN Alex could have a vehicle. If he didn't burn his money. Why would you want to do that? CHRIS I don't need money. It makes people cautious. JAN (a little irritated) Well, you have to be a little cautious Alex. That book of yours is all well and fine but you can't depend entirely on leaves and berries. CHRIS I don't know if you'd want to depend on much more than that. JAN Where's your mom and dad? CHRIS Makin' their money somewhere. JAN Come on Chris. You look like a loved * kid. Be fair. * CHRIS Fair? JAN You know what I mean. CHRIS I'll paraphrase Thoreau -- "Rather than * love, than money, than fairness, give me * truth." * RAINEY * You look like shit. There's the truth. *They all laugh. * 30. CUT TO: *41 INT. CHRIS' TENT, ORICK BEACH - LATER 41 Chris sits up reading, his tent entry flap ajar to let the small candle lantern ventilate. OS we HEAR a ZIPPING SOUND. It's Rainey. We see him from Chris' POV coming out of his tent deep in thought. As he moves to the glowing embers of what remains of the campfire, Rainey's face goes out of frame and all Chris can see are his booted feet, tapping bits of glowing wood into the center of the fire. The tapping is slow and thoughtful. Micro-embers float upward into the night. Chris' tent flap closes by his own hand. ANGLE: Chris' dog-ears his book and puts out the lantern. CUT TO:42 EXT. ORICK BEACH - DAY 42 We see Chris foraging for firewood in the bluffs above the beach. He's got it tied to his back and his front. If we didn't know better, we'd think he was camouflaging himself. Chris' POV: The rocks beside the water's edge. We see Rainey sitting beside the water, staring out to sea. We follow Chris' gaze to Jan, some fifty yards down the beach, walking melancholically in the opposite direction of Rainey. ANGLE: Rainey at the water's edge. Chris appears beside him. RAINEY (regarding Chris wrapped up in wood) Geez. If I struck a match to you, I'd have warmth and dinner at the same time. 31.But Rainey's humor does not hide an inner turmoil. CHRIS Where's Jan going? RAINEY Well, my friend, all is not well on the hippie front.Chris pulls out his pocketknife, cuts the twine thatbinds the firewood to his body, and takes a seat besideRainey. RAINEY (CONT'D) You're an industrious little fucker, aren't ya... Yeah, it's funny how things happen at particular times. I've loved that woman for a lot of years. But you know, she's got a...story. We've been going through this thing real quietly cause, well...So, after running into you last night, this thing we were going through quietly, she started talking about. You know what I mean? CHRIS I think so. RAINEY You think what?Chris is looking off at Jan walking in the distance. CHRIS I think she's probably quietly disconnecting. It doesn't feel right to her to be close to you if there's a hole of some kind somewhere else. RAINEY That's a helluva insight. Jesus!... You're not Jesus, are you? You gonna walk on that water and get her back for me? CHRIS Actually, I'm a little afraid of water.Rainey gives him a sideways glance. CHRIS (CONT'D) It's true. But it's something I've got to get over sometime. (MORE) 32. CHRIS (CONT'D) So, I'll swim in it if you'll carry the firewood back to the campsite. RAINEY I'll carry. Shit-yes I'll carry. And with that, Chris runs down the beach toward Jan. Rainey watches Chris and Jan chat briefly. Then they strip down to their underwear and jump into the ocean, splashing and laughing. ANGLE: Rainey. A warmth comes over him, watching his old lady having some fun. He grabs two armfuls of wood and heads to the campsite. ANGLE: Chris and Jan swimming in the chilly water, having a ball. Jan increasingly indulges herself a motherly closeness and joy with Chris. And Chris allows it. She pushes the stringy hairs from his eyes, worries when he descends below the surface for too many seconds, and smiles and laughs in tender relief when from below surface one of her toes is pulled on by the big fish Chris. As he re- surfaces, she gives him a splash right in the face. TIME CUT:43 EXT. CAMPSITE, ORICK BEACH - LATER 43 Through a burning campfire in the late afternoon, we see the chilly bodies of Chris and Jan carrying their clothes run shivering toward us. Rainey sits beside the campfire. RAINEY I thought you guys might need a little heat. Jan smiles appreciatively. JAN (moving to Rainey) That's not hot enough. Put your arms around me. As they embrace, Chris throws a coat on from his tent, puts on his funny straw hat, and grabs a book. Rainey has wrapped a blanket around Jan and they sit beside the fire. 33. CHRIS I'm going to go down the beach a ways and read a little bit. I'll bring the rest of that wood back before nightfall. RAINEY Alright. We might take a run into town to grab some food for tonight. CHRIS Sounds good. He heads off down the beach.44 EXT. ORICK BEACH MONTAGE 44 MUSIC OVER: 1. The ocean moving toward sunset. 2. Seagulls, gliding inches over the water. 3. The breeze on the sea grass. 4. Chris in his big hat reading at water's edge. 5. Jan and Rainey deeply engaged in conversation beside the fire. 6. Chris closing his book, remaining meditative at water's edge. 7. Jan and Rainey in town, buying groceries and being playful with each other. 8. OVER Chris' shoulder, the sun sets and day becomes night. CUT TO:45 EXT. CAMPSITE, ORICK BEACH - NIGHT 45 Jan and Rainey on a blanket sharing a joint. Chris lying beside the campfire in his sleeping bag. Jan takes a toke, passes the joint to Rainey. JAN You know what Alex ought to do, Rainey? He ought to come out to the Slabs this winter. 34. RAINEY Oh yeah.Rainey takes a toke on the joint. RAINEY (CONT'D) You'd like that if you're still on the road. Lot of fellow travelers.Rainey offers the joint to Chris. Chris passes it upwith a hand gesture. CHRIS What is that? The Slabs? RAINEY It's down in Niland, California. You know where the Salton Sea is? CHRIS Near San Diego, yeah? RAINEY Well about 200 miles Northeast of there, but yeah. Niland's off the east shore of Salton. Wild place. The navy bulldozed and abandoned a base there. All that's left is a grid of concrete foundations. They're scattered over about a square mile or so. JAN When the weather turns cold across the rest of the country, people show up there by the thousands: snow birds... RAINEY Drifters... JAN Sundry vagabonds... RAINEY / JAN Like ourselves. JAN Livin' on the cheap under the sun. CHRIS You sell your handcrafts there? 35. JAN Oh yeah. And a lot of second-hand goods. There's a swap meet. The people are cool. There's even some kids running around sometimes. Most everyone there, if they're not avoiding the cold, are at least dodging the IRS. RAINEY Or the FBI. CIA! DDT!!! The three of them laugh. JAN It's good. You should check it out. If you come, I'll make a proper hat for you. (standing, shaking out her blanket) Well, Alex. I'm gonna clean up and the old man and I are gonna get some rest. (indicating the sleeping bag) Looks like you got yourself a good bag there. CHRIS Yeah...my mother made it from a kit. Jan sees an almost imperceptible mother pang in Chris, but he pushes it away quickly. CHRIS (CONT'D) I'm gonna sleep out here by the fire. I want to read a little bit. Jan moves to Chris, hugs him, kisses him on the cheek. JAN You're wonderful. Don't make me worry about you. TIME CUT:46 EXT. CAMPSITE, ORICK BEACH - LATER 46 The fire is burning low. Chris reads from Thoreau's WALDEN from the chapter on "Higher Laws" as we move slowly in toward him, we begin to HEAR quiet sounds of what may be love-making coming from Rainey and Jan's tent. A gentle smile comes over Chris' face and in its irony, he looks to the page before him. 36. Chris' sliding fingertip underlines the following passage: Chastity is the flowering of a man; and what are called genius, heroism, holiness, and the like, are but various fruits which succeed it. CUT TO:47 EXT. CAMPSITE, ORICK BEACH - MORNING 47 Gulls pierce into the grey morning ocean, snapping from schools of fish. And the subtle crackling of a campfire's death. There on the beach, Jan and Rainey's van, their tent, and the fireless coals of last night. But no sign of Chris, his bag or his tent. Jan appears from her tent, rubbing her eyes. She wears a sarong which she re-secures at the breast, then notices that Chris has left. But where his tent had been, the words: THANK YOU JAN AND RAINEY are spelled out in the sand with bits of driftwood. CU: Jan - We see her sadness. Rainey appears at her shoulder. He understands what is inside his woman. JAN He reminded me... RAINEY I know. Go to WIDE SHOT: Jan and Rainey remaining as they were. FOREGROUND: Seagulls GLIDE THROUGH FRAME. CHAPTER 2: ADOLESCENCE DISSOLVE TO:48 EXT. CASCADE RANGE - DAY 48 MUSIC OVER: Joe Henry's King's Highway A SERIES OF SHOTS: 1. Chris hitchhiking through the Sage Brush Uplands 2. Chris squatting over a water bucket, shaving. 37. 3. Camping in the lava beds of the Columbia River Basin. 4. Walking across the Idaho Panhandle. 5. Cooking the last of his rice on the Montana border. 6. Hitchhiking in the Montana sunset.49 EXT. CUT BANK, MONTANA - SUNSET (SEPTEMBER 10 1990) 49 We see Chris hitching down a lonely two-lane road surrounded by fields and distant mountains. CARINE (V.O.) In early September, mom and dad got a call from the Annandale police notifying them that Chris' abandoned car had been identified by the Arizona Highway Patrol after a group of rare flower hunters stumbled upon it in the desert. There were no signs that Chris had intended to return to it. But there wasn't any evidence of struggle. The police said they thought Chris had chosen to leave it behind and not that it had been taken from him. Nonetheless, the initial comfort that gave mom and dad, quickly turned to their realization that Chris was actually trying not to be found.50 EXT. ANNANDALE STREET - DUSK 50 We see Walt. He walks out the door of his house into the street. He keeps walking. And we go with him in his silent but internal Armageddon. We PULL him in CU throughout all that follows...(Refer to SCENE 171: "Dad calls it `suspended animation.'" This may affect our visual approach) CARINE The year Chris graduated high school he bought the Datsun, used. He wanted to drive it cross-country and visit our old neighborhood in California. The day before he left was my dad's birthday. Chris made a speech... 38.51 INT. MCCANDLESS HOME, ANNANDALE (PAST) 51 Chris stands beside the family piano, speaking to a party of his parent's friends, Walt and Billie among them. Beside him, a large gift-wrapped present. Carine sits at the foot of the stairs at the back of the room watching her brother with a hint of concern. CHRIS (a little drunk, a little emotional) Dad, you and I have had our differences over the years...but on your birthday I want to tell you how grateful I am for all the things you've given me. And that you did it starting from nothing to working your way through college and busting your ass to support us kids. So, in return, I've been busting my ass a bit...at Domino's Pizza - Chris moves to the gift. CHRIS (CONT'D) and I've gotten you this token, this damned expensive token, as a token of that appreciation. Chris holds the large gift toward Walt. Walt moves through his friends to Chris and strips the paper, exposing a beautiful Questar Telescope. WALT (patting his son the back) Would you look at that. Walt holds the telescope up for all to see. And the party responds with applause. Chris walks through the cheering family friends to take his place beside Carine at the bottom of the steps. CARINE Jesus, you must've had a lot to drink. CHRIS Too much and not enough. I used to believe all that stuff. That whole story. I thought maybe if I said it again, I'd believe it. But I don't. 39. Tears have come to Chris' eyes. He puts his head in his hands. Carine puts an arm around him. BACK TO:52 EXT ANNANDALE STREET - DUSK 52 PRESENT: Walt expressionless, walking into camera. CARINE (V.O.) The day after the party, Chris left on his trip and ended up staying away most of the summer. It was nearly three months before he walked back into our house in Annandale. He had a scruffy beard, his hair was long and tangled, and he was rail thin. As soon as I heard he was home, I ran into his room to talk to him. In California, he'd looked up some old family friends who still lived there. He'd found out that long after he had been born, our dad had continued a relationship with his first wife Marcia in secret.53 EXT CUT BANK, MONTANA - SUNSET 53 BRIEF CUTAWAY to Chris hitching on the Montana highway. CARINE And that one lie had led to another. That two years after Chris was born, dad had had another son with Marcia. Worse yet was that it was Marcia to whom he was still legally married at the time. And it was Chris and I who were the bastard children. BACK TO:54 EXT ANNANDALE STREET - DUSK 54 Walt. CARINE Dad's arrogance made him conveniently oblivious to the pain he caused. And mom, in the shame and embarrassment of a young mistress, became his accomplice. (MORE) 39aA. CARINE (CONT'D)She and my dad had decided to bend thetruth about this other child saying thatdad wasn't the father and they maintainedthat their fraudulent marriage was real. (MORE) 39A. CARINE (CONT'D)Chris was quiet when he told me this. Hesaid it made his "entire childhood seemlike a fiction"; that "the truth had beendying everyday." If something botheredChris, he'd usually keep it to himself.And he made me promise to do the same. (MORE) 40. CARINE (CONT'D) He never did tell mom and dad that he knew. But Chris measured himself and those around him by an impossibly rigorous moral code. He loathed what he considered mom and dad's hypocrisy and resented what they considered guidance. Chris submitted to dad's authority through college but I knew he raged inwardly the whole time. It was inevitable that Chris would rebel. And when he did, he did it with characteristic immoderation. Walt suddenly collapses to his knees weeping, heartbroken and ashamed on a quiet Annandale street in the shadowless light of dusk. CARINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) My father is a brilliant man. But he had made some terrible mistakes. And to some extent, it seemed Chris was making him pay an awful price. The image of Walt DISSOLVES INTO... BACK TO:55 EXT. CUT BANK, MONTANA (SEPTEMBER 10, 1990) 55 A pick-up truck pulls over for Chris. As Chris jumps in, we see on the passenger side door, the name WAYNE WESTERBERG boldly painted across it. Chris hops in beside a hyper kinetic man with thick shoulders and a black goatee. WAYNE (rolling a cigarette without moving forward with the truck, his knees rattling up and down) How're you doing? Wayne Westerberg. CHRIS (shaking hands) Hi Wayne. Alex McCandless. WAYNE Seems like every time I come on this road, there's somebody hitching out here who looks as skinny and unfed as you. Chris nods with a laugh. Wayne continuing... 41. WAYNE (CONT'D) Look, I gotta stop in Ethridge to drop something off (know what I mean?) Chris is not sure about the "drop something off" part. WAYNE (CONT'D) How `bout you and I grab something to eat down there? CHRIS Oh, I wouldn't want to burden you. WAYNE How long has it been since you've had anything to eat? CHRIS Couple of days. I kinda ran out of money. WAYNE Well, there's no choice about it. I'm gonna get you some dinner. Wayne lights his cigarette, puts the truck in gear and they head down the road. As the sun dips behind the horizon we TILT UP off the departing truck to the sky. Ominously mounting clouds stunningly reflect the red rays of the hidden sun: CUT TO:56 EXT. SUNBURST - NIGHT 56 Wayne's truck cuts through a track in a wheat field moving toward a compound of three trailers, one a double- wide, the other two on wheels, smaller. Beside them, a Wyeth-esque farmhouse. He eases the engine and comes to a stop in front of the double-wide. As he and Chris dismount the truck, Wayne gives him a hushing finger across the lips. They tip-toe up to the door, where Wayne shuffles a bunch of keys. A little thunder kicking in the distant sky. 41A.56A INT. DOUBLE-WIDE - NIGHT 56A As Wayne and Chris enter, they tip-toe over empty booze bottles and passed out work crew; Wayne's harvesting team. They make their way to a small table in the kitchenette. Remains of the evening's dinner are on the stove. Wayne turns on the stovetop coils to heat it up. WAYNE So where is it you're headed? CHRIS I was thinking about doubling back through the Canadian side of Glacier Park. WAYNE Yeah, I used to have a girlfriend who'd go there, camp on the Black Feet Res. She was into all that American Indian stuff. (MORE) 42. WAYNE (CONT'D) I can bring you to the border at Sweet Grass once you've had some food. CHRIS Well, that'd be great. What do you do out here? WAYNE Well, I do a lot of things. Computer programming. Video game repair. I'm a licensed pilot, own a grain elevator in Carthage and another one a few miles out of town. But in the summertime I run a combine crew, follow the harvest from Texas way the hell north to the Canadian border. We just got done cutting barley for Coors and Anheuser Busch. But then I got this little black box deal on the side (You know what I mean?) CHRIS You mean those free satellite TV deals? WAYNE (as though he hadn't brought it up) You said it, not me.Chris is dazzled by this renaissance man of the plains.Wayne stands to dish out a couple of plates of heatedfood. As Chris starts digging in, a major gust of windrocks the trailer. WAYNE (CONT'D) (smiling, responding to wind) OOOOOOH.Chris doesn't respond, digs into the food. Points to theunconscious tribe splayed out. SIX GERMANIC-LOOKINGUNCONSCIOUS BODIES. CHRIS Who are these guys?Wayne gets a little giggle. WAYNE Those are my Hudderites. Agriculture's a pretty transient business. These guys come off the Hudderite colony looking for work. I always got work for people. Then that guy - (MORE) 42A. WAYNE (CONT'D) (pointing at guy making most of his snore) That's Kevin. He's with me most of the time. He's not a Hudderite. He's from Madison. CHRIS Madison. Okay. Just then, the rain kicks in full gear outside, pounding the trailer shell. A couple hits of lightning follow. WAYNE Listen, you don't want to go out there on the road tonight. Why don't you just roll your sleeping bag out and play like a Hudderite until morning. Chris looks about. There's not much room but it beats the pelting outside. CHRIS Thanks Wayne. I will. TIME CUT: Chris, with a grin on his face, lays in his sleeping bag between a Hudderite and the sleeping KEVIN. Wayne comes from the back bedroom, tip-toes through the sleeping bodies to hand Chris a pillow. WAYNE Get a good sleep. See you in the morning. Chris waves a thanks, puts the pillow beneath his head and closes his eyes.57 OMITTED 5758 OMITTED 5859 EXT. SUNBURST - DAY 59 We are TIGHT on Chris' hand atop the shifter of one of Wayne's lumbering harvesters. 43. WAYNE (O.S) Okay. Now take hold of the joystick, get the feel of header, idle it down with the toggle switch... As Chris makes the attempt, we immediately hear the grinding of gears, the instrument alarms in chaos. WIDE SHOT: Chris and Wayne sit atop a combine. In the background we see Wayne's trailer and two other combines piloted by Wayne's crew members on the ocean of ripe blond grain. Chris tries his hand at the shifter once more. This time the thing starts to move. WAYNE (CONT'D) That's it. That's it. Now take it on out and make yourself some money. Wayne jumps off the combine and Chris begins to cut his pattern, intermittently struggling with the shifter. Wayne laughs his ass off.60 EXT SUNBURST - DAY 60 SERIES OF SHOTS indicating a SERIES OF DAYS passing as Chris gets a hang of the machines a little more at a time. CUT TO:61 INT. DOUBLE-WIDE, SUNBURST - NIGHT 61 Six men including Wayne and Chris, two among them - Hudderites, crowd in to the small dinner area of the trailer. Talking politics and bullshit, and eating a welcome meal. WAYNE I'm gonna break out some whiskey. Alex, you want anything other than that beer? CHRIS I'd take a White Russian if you've got it. The group of men laugh at the youngster's order of a fancy drink. 44. MAN #1 What are you Alex, a Commie? CHRIS No, I just like White Russians. WAYNE I haven't got anything like that here. But I tell ya what. And I know I speak for everybody. You wanna come work with us in Carthage, we'll hook you up on the grain elevator and get you a White Russian down at the Cabaret. CHRIS Really? WAYNE Dawn tomorrow, engines roaring. (to the others like a mock blues singer) "Pot o Gold. Oh that pot o gold." They all join in to the chant/song: ALL "Pot o Gold. Gotta get that pot o gold!" CHRIS (raising his beer) To Carthage. WAYNE AND HIS MEN (toasting) To Carthage. CUT TO:62 OMITTED 6262A EXT. HIGHWAY BETWEEN SUNBURST AND CARTHAGE 62A MAGIC HOUR. TELEPHOTO LENS. The harvesting convoy rolls toward us like a herd of mammoths. 44A-45.63 EXT. CARTHAGE - NIGHT (LATE SEPTEMBER 1990) 63 A series of silent, quaint establishing tableaus. (Director's Note: Condor above street) It's a sleepy little town. Population: 274. Cluster of clapboard houses, tiny yards, and weathered brick storefronts rising humbly from the immensity of the northern plains. Stately rows of cottonwoods shade a grid of streets, seldom disturbed by moving vehicles. From UNDER CAMERA, the series of tableaus is interrupted as the convoy roars into our frame from BENEATH CAMERA. CUT TO:63A INT. WAYNE'S TRUCK 63A In the passenger seat, Chris is glowing at his new surroundings. Wayne picks up the CB radio. WAYNE Okay Kevin, get all the machines back to the elevator. I'm gonna show Chris to his room. KEVIN (O.S.) (over CB) I've got dibs on that shower, that shower's all me. WAYNE (laughs) First come, first serve buddy. Wayne signs off and veers off the road.64 OMITTED 64 46.65 OMITTED 6566 EXT. WESTERBERG'S CARTHAGE HOME - NIGHT 66 A two-story Victorian in the Queen Anne style. Wayne veers his truck into the front yard, parking under the big cottonwood that towers above. SHORT TIME CUT:67 INT. WESTERBERG'S CARTHAGE HOME - SAME 67 Chris follows Wayne up the narrow stairwell. 47. WAYNE (carrying Chris' pack for him) Come on up in here. This'll be your room for as long as you hang about. Wayne opens the door at the top of the stairs.68 INT. CHRIS' ROOM, WESTERBERG'S CARTHAGE HOME - SAME 68 Wayne plops Chris' pack beside a single bed in the tiny but comfortable room. Chris enters, very happy with his new quarters. WAYNE Shower's down the hall. If you hurry you can beat the rest of the boys to it. But you do want to grab a shower cause we're all heading over to the Cabaret in exactly thirty-six minutes. So, get your dancing shoes on. There's foo-foo in the medicine cabinet. I think it's Brut. (slaps his own face as if he's putting on cologne) Then you want to put your charm in overdrive cause we like to PAH-TAY! Wayne gives Chris a wink and exits, shutting the door behind him. Chris takes in his new surroundings. He's on a work crew and he likes it. Chris makes the move for the shower but by the time he opens his door to the hall, all the other crew members are barreling up the stairs in front of them, clamoring for dibs (Chris' POV) MAN #1 I got first! MAN #2 (in a kid voice) You had first last night! MAN #1 (entering the bathroom) Well, if you wanna wash my back, cowboy... MAN #2 You go ahead, fairy. Just don't use all the soap. 48. ANGLE: Chris. He gets a kick out of these guys. He closes the door. CUT TO:69 INT. CABARET BAR, CARTHAGE - NIGHT 69 The Jack Daniels is flowing. Wayne's crew drinks, smokes, and strikes out with every fat woman in the place. GAIL BORAH, an on-again, off-again girlfriend of Wayne's tends bar. A petite sad-eyed woman, slight as a heron, delicate features and long blond hair. Wayne and Chris sit at the end of the bar. WAYNE Alex, this is Gail . This is the one to go to for that White Russian you've been wanting. Of course the quid pro quo can be hazardous. GAIL Shut up, Wayne. (to Chris) You want a White Russian, sweetie? CHRIS (shyly) Yes please, ma'am. WAYNE Yes please, ma'am? Wayne slaps Chris on the back. WAYNE (CONT'D) Ain't he great? GAIL (to Chris) Don't pay any attention to him. With that Wayne reaches over the bar, grabs Gail and gets her in a lip-lock, to which she ultimately gives in. TIME CUT:70 INT. CABARET BAR, CARTHAGE - LATER 70 Wayne and Chris are both drunk. 49. WAYNE Anything to do with hunting, preserving the meat, smoking it or whatever, you talk to Kevin over there. That's your man.ANGLE: KEVIN. He looks every bit the Grizzly Adams part. WAYNE (CONT'D) Outdoors-man. What's the interest in all that? CHRIS I'm thinking about going to Alaska. WAYNE Alaska, Alaska? Or city Alaska? The city Alaska does have markets. CHRIS (with a drunken, excited energy) No, Alaska, Alaska. I want to be all the way out there. On my own. No map. No watch. No axe. Just out there. Big mountains, rivers, sky. Game. Just be out there in it. In the wild. WAYNE In the wild. CHRIS Yeah. Maybe write a book about my travels. About getting out of this sick society. WAYNE (coughing) Society, right. CHRIS Because you know what I don't understand? I don't understand why, why people are so bad to each other, so often. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Judgement. Control. All that. WAYNE Who "people" we talking about? CHRIS You know, parents and hypocrites. Politicians and pricks. 50. Chris is clearly troubled by his own words. Wayne leans into Chris. WAYNE (tapping a long finger against Chris' forehead) This is a mistake. It's a mistake to get too deep into that kind of stuff. Alex, you're a helluva young guy, but I promise you this: You're a young guy. Blood and fire! You're juggling blood and fire! GAIL (chimes in) Who are you to be giving advice to anybody? WAYNE Blood and fire...What? Mr. Happy. That's who I am. Gimme a kiss. Gail pushes him off with mock disgust. WAYNE (CONT'D) (mock opening his zipper, in a high-pitched voice) Come on, give Mr. Happy a kiss! On the television above the bar appears Reverend Jesse Jackson. We can't hear him but we can see him. Chris points at the television and yells out to the entire bar of cowboys and ranch hands - CHRIS Now, that's who could be President! Wayne buries his face in his hands. CUT TO:71 INT. CHRIS' ROOM, WESTERBERG'S CARTHAGE HOME - DAWN 71 Chris is sacked out from his night of drinking when - BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The door knocks blast into Chris' head. He awakens to Wayne opening his bedroom door. Wayne, despite his own drinking the night before, is wide awake and fresh as a daisy. 51. WAYNE Workin' time! CUT TO:72 EXT. GRAIN ELEVATOR - SUNRISE' 72 All the boys are hard at it, including Chris and Wayne. Wayne moves to Chris' side. WAYNE So, what do you think about all this? (The working life) CHRIS I like all this. TIME CUT:73 EXT. GRAIN ELEVATOR - DAY - LUNCH BREAK 73 While Wayne and most of the crew get a little rest in the shade of the grain elevator and eat their lunches, Chris and Kevin are deep in a bald patch in the field. Kevin is taking Chris through the paces of smoking and curing meat in the wilds. Chris listens and takes notes. (Director's note: Cast a "Kevin" who knows this shit and shoot it as a dialogue scene as well as a silent tableau.) CUT TO:74 INT. CABARET BAR, CARTHAGE - NIGHT 74 The place is packed and Chris is taking over the piano, surprising everyone with a tremendous talent. Segueing from honky-tonk country to ragtime, he's become the life of the party. The MUSIC continues OVER:75 EXT. GRAIN ELEVATOR - DAY 75 All the men of Wayne's crew (who by now we've come to know) and Chris are working their asses off. POST LAP MUSIC FADES OUT as we: 52.INTERCUT the crew at work with a SERIES OF MYSTERYANGLES: Tires kicking up dust on dirt roads, throughtown, and into the field behind the grain elevator. Backto the work, back to the tires. Back to the work, backto these several cars hauling ass through the field.Back to Wayne, up high in the grain elevator - WAYNE (to Chris, as he lowers himself down the man-lift) I gotta take a piss.Chris' POV: from high in the grain elevator. He watchesWayne below, as Wayne saunters out to the field to take apiss. With his back to us, Wayne whips it out and startspissing about 25 yards from the grain elevator.CU Wayne. He looks up from his urination, the grainelevator behind him. We see a slight mischievous smilecome to his face. He puts his hands up into the air whensuddenly -Six unmarked FBI vehicles surround him.(Director's note: Triangulate three long lenses on Wayneas the mysterious cars enter each frame, as they skid toa dusty stop on all sides of him.)Chris and the men of his crew look on. MAN #1 I warned him about those little black boxes.As Wayne is handcuffed and led away, he nods up to hisboys. WAYNE (to arresting agent) You wanna get that zipper for me? (and then calling out to his crew) Sorry boys. Gonna have to shut down for a while. Alex! You come back and work for me anytime. (to Chris and the men) Gail's got all your checks, guys. I shouldn't be away too long.With that, the FBI agents have hustled the good-naturedWayne into the back of one of the cars. 53. As they take off into the distance, we move in on Chris, bemused. GAIL (O.S.) (pre-lap) Where are you gonna go? CUT TO:76 INT. CABARET BAR, CARTHAGE - LATE AFTERNOON 76 Chris sits at the end of the bar with Gail Borah. CHRIS I've been thinking a lot about Alaska. GAIL Alaska? What kind of nut-nut are you? Alex, it's October for Christ's sake. You go to Alaska, you go in the Spring. This time of year you wanna head south. Personally, I like Las Vegas. One-armed bandit. That's what I like. CHRIS Yeah, maybe I ought to put off going to Alaska, at least so I can get settled up there in decent weather. GAIL South. You want to go south. You want me to take you out to the highway? CHRIS (putting on his cowboy) Little lady, I walked in, I can walk out. He puts a few bills down on the bar, saddles up his backpack, and gives Gail a hug. GAIL You take care of yourself now, Alex. You got a whole family here depending on it. CHRIS I will. Thanks Gail . And tell Wayne, I'll drop him a line. He gives her a kiss on the cheek and he's off. CUT TO: 54.77 EXT. CARTHAGE STREETS 77 Empty Carthage streets but for Christopher Johnson McCandless walking off as we CRANE UP. CUT TO:78 EXT. HIGHWAY BETWEEN CARTHAGE, SD AND THE GRAND CANYON - 78 NIGHT (OCTOBER 28 1990) Chris has hitched a ride with a long-haul trucker. SERIES OF ANGLES: MUSIC OVER: Traveling shots. CUT TO:79 EXT. COLORADO RIVER, STRETCH OF THE GRAND CANYON - DAY 79 Chris disembarks the long-haulers truck, waves a goodbye, and the truck moves on. SERIES OF ANGLES: Chris walking south through the desert following the river bank. He covers twelve miles before he arrives in an Arizona town, a dusty weigh-in station.80 EXT. ARIZONA TOWN - NIGHT 80 The town is quiet but along the storefront lane where Chris walks, he comes upon a sporting goods store. In the window, a fiberglass river kayak. Chris stares at it. CUT TO:81 EXT. INTERSTATE UNDERPASS - NIGHT 81 We HEAR passing cars humming above. Chris has set up camp and he's digging in the dirt. He buries many of his belongings. He makes sure he's got his check from working with Wayne in his pocket. He packs only the essential items, burying all else. He gets into his sleeping bag and goes to sleep. CUT TO: 55.81A EXT. LEE'S FERRY ROAD - DAY 81A Chris backpacks past the mushroom rock forms at the entrance of Lee's Ferry. CUT TO:82 INT. RANGER'S STATION - LEE'S FERRY - DAY 82 Chris approaches the GREEN-SUITED FUNCTIONARY at the front desk. GREEN SUIT Can I help you? CHRIS Yeah. If I wanted to paddle down the river, where's the best place to launch out of? GREEN SUIT "To launch out of?" What's your experience level? CHRIS Not much. GREEN SUIT Any? Do you have a permit? CHRIS A permit for what? GREEN SUIT You can't paddle down the river without a permit. If you like, you can apply for one here, get yourself some experience, and I'll put you on the wait-list. CHRIS Wait-list? To paddle down a river? GREEN SUIT That's right. CHRIS (giggling) Well, how long do you have to wait? GREEN SUIT I've got an opening May 2003. 56. CHRIS (laughing) Twelve years? GREEN SUIT Well, you could always join a commercial raft trip and go with a licensed guide. They usually have a few last minute cancellations. I think it's about two- thousand dollars. Chris busts a gut. CHRIS Thanks for your help. The Green Suit eyes Chris' departure with suspicion. CUT TO:83 EXT. COLORADO RIVER - DAY 83 Chris stands beside a dramatic section of rapids. The whitewater roars. As we SLOWLY ZOOM INTO Chris' face, terrified and absorbed by the torrent, a bead of sweat drops across his forehead, TILTS OUR CAMERA to his trembling hands and legs, when Peter Gabriel's I Have The Touch begins to play. BACK TO: ZOOM INTO Chris' face...a decision: Fear becomes determination We SMASH CUT ON CUE with Peter Gabriel's vocals. SLO MO, SUPER DRAMATIC - Chris blasting out of a shoot in the rapids in the kayak we saw the night before. It's outrageous. Hair-raising. Just like Peter Gabriel sings it, he has the touch. This kid's never kayaked before, certainly never on rapids. But it's that immortal stage of life, no care, no helmet, no life-jacket, pure adrenaline. He can hardly believe he's surviving it as he goes but there's no looking back now. And with every thump of the music, we share his rush. His pure unadulterated exhilaration. With the culmination of the music, Chris has successfully shot the rapid. He paddles through quiet waters. 57. We move in on him as he maneuvers the kayak to face upstream. There before him, the impossible rapid he had just completed. CHRIS (to himself) I'm Superman. SuperTramp. He feels immortal. He makes his about-face and is about to head down stream when he sees at the river's edge, a group of RIVER TOURISTS and their GUIDE lunching beside a pontoon raft. The tourists look like a bunch of bewildered tubby-troopers in their misfitted orange life- vests and cereal bowl helmets. The RIVER GUIDE yells out at Chris as Chris moves PAST CAMERA and away. The guide gets on his satellite phone to alert the Rangers. We ZOOM SLOWLY away from them toward the rapid. CUT TO:84 EXT. ANOTHER QUIET SECTION OF RIVER - LATER 84 Phillip Glass' Cloudscape plays OVER: Chris paddles on. LOW ANGLE: It is a narrow gorge of solid rock, looking up from hundreds of feet below the canyon crest. CUT TO:85 EXT. FURTHER ALONG THE RIVER - LATER 85 The canyon has widened to beach-like banks. Music FADES. Along the banks he sees a YOUNG BLONDE COUPLE. This is MADS and SONJA, in their 20's, Danish. They play at the river's edge beside their campsite, hotdogs cooking on a Hibachi. Chris averts his eyes when Sonja rises from the water, topless. MADS (yelling out to Chris) Hello! CHRIS Hello. MADS You can join us! Chris doesn't know quite what to do. But Mads seems quite comfortable inviting a stranger into the presence of his topless girlfriend. 58. MADS (CONT'D) We have hotdogs!Chris - can't turn that down! He paddles to within feetof the water's edge. MADS (CONT'D) I am Mads. CHRIS Hi. Alex. SONJA I am Sonja.Chris gives Sonja a little wave. She bypasses it, wadingup to the Kayak, giving him a big hug. SONJA (CONT'D) Hello Alex.This couple is extremely energetic. Can't wait toplease. And a bona fide American adventurer in theirmidst. It's everything they could've wanted. MADS We are from Copenhagen. And you are from the rapids. CHRIS I am. SONJA My Got! MADS Crazy man. You're a crazy man! Sonja, he is a crazy man. (to Chris) I'll make you a hotdog.Mads grabs a hotdog from the Hibachi. MADS (CONT'D) Just one minute. One minute...Sonja has moved to the tent to put on a dry T-shirt. Butas she moves back to the water's edge, those nipples keepsaying Hello.Chris, meanwhile, simply cannot wipe the smile off hisface in the presence of these warm, open people. 59. MADS (CONT'D) I love this. Don't you love this? This is nature. We see it in the American movies. How come you're crazy? CHRIS Well... MADS (interrupting) Because that's crazy! You come down the rapids. What do you want on your hotdog? Mustard and relish? CHRIS You have ketchup? MADS No, I have mustard and relish. CHRIS Mustard and relish it is then. MADS Sonja, you want a hotdog? SONJA (in Danish) Of course I want a hotdog. Why are you stupid?Mads plops two more hotdogs onto the grill. MADS (translating) She asked me why I'm stupid. And I say, well...like I ask you why you're crazy and you say "well." Where are you going? CHRIS I haven't decided. MADS We like it here very much. We went to Los Angeles. And then, we went to Las Vegas. SONJA Las Vegas is very nice. The universe is very good. 59A. MADSAnd then, we come here. Maybe you go toMexico. (MORE) 60. MADS (CONT'D) You can take kayak around Lake Mead and then take the river down to Mexico.Chris likes the idea. CHRIS How far are we from Lake Mead? MADS Sonja, how far is Hoover Dam?Sonja grabs a map from the tent, opens and scrutinizesit. We follow her finger tracing the river. SONJA Maybe three hundred thirty kilometers...like two hundred miles.Sonja walks the map over to Chris at water's edge andhands it to him. He studies it. CHRIS Man, I wonder if I could go all the way down into the Gulf of California.Chris traces his finger along the impossibly long routeleading to El Golfo de Santa Clara. MADS (entering the water with Chris' hotdog) I go with you. We leave Sonja here. You and me in kayak - we go to Mexico. SONJA (in Danish) You're embarrassing. Idiot.Mads with a burst of re-exhilaration, grabs Chris' hand,shaking it violently. MADS I like the meeting you. CHRIS Thank you. I'm very happy to meet both of you too.Sonja heads back for her hotdog taking her T-shirt off onthe move. Chris is about to bust a gut. Sonja returnsto her sunbathing. These two are a hoot. 60A.Just then, something catches Chris' attention upriver.We can just barely make out the SOUNDS of a jet boatmotor. His eyes narrow a bit, then - 61. CHRIS (CONT'D) Well, guys I really appreciate the hospitality but I wanna make camp down- river a ways so I better take off before dark. CUT TO:86 EXT. COLORADO RIVER - MOMENTS LATER 86 Chris, back in the kayak is paddling down river. Mads and Sonja on the bank, wave a boisterous goodbye. And they just keep waving. And Chris keeps waving until he has drifted out of sight, when around the upriver bend arrive the RIVER PATROL. At river's edge, Mads, thinking quickly, waves for their attention. Pointing the river patrol back upriver, he yells: MADS He went thattaway! The crazy man - he went thattaway! And miraculously, the river patrol makes an about face and heads in the opposite direction of Chris. Suddenly Sonja thinks Mads is the most clever man on earth. As she jumps his bones right there on the river's edge - SONJA Just like in the movies. 62. CUT TO:87 EXT. DESERT ROAD, NEAR HOOVER DAM - DAY 87 Chris and the kayak are in the back of a pick-up truck heading down river by road. We pass the Hoover Dam. CARINE (V.O.) It would be Christmas in a couple of months. And the last news we'd had was about his car being found. I woke up a couple of days ago, and for the first time, I was surprised to realize that it wasn't only my parents who hadn't heard from Chris. I wondered why he hadn't tried to call in case I might answer. He could've hung up if it wasn't me.88 EXT. COLORADO RIVER, TOPOCK, ARIZONA - DAY 88 Chris is re-stocked on some food items which he packs in his bag and shoves into the bow of the kayak. This lower stretch of the river has little in common with the unbridled torrent that explodes through the Grand Canyon. Emasculated by dams and diversion canals, the lower Colorado burbles indolently from reservoir to reservoir, through some of the hottest, starkest, most austere country on the continent. 63. CARINE But why he didn't send a letter, maybe through a friend. I got mad. But I told myself it was good. It made me remember that there was something more than rebellion, more than anger that was driving him. Chris had always been driven, had always been an adventurer. When he was four years old...89 EXT. DARK NEIGHBORHOOD STREET - NIGHT 89 Chris at age four. CARINE ...he once wandered six blocks away from home at three o'clock in the morning.90 INT. NEIGHBOR'S KITCHEN - NIGHT 90 Four-year old Chris opening a kitchen drawer. CARINE He was found in a neighbor's kitchen, up on a chair, digging into their candy drawer.91 EXT. COLORADO RIVER, TOPOCK ARIZONA - DAY 91 As Chris paddles downstream with Mexico in his sights, he is stirred by the saline beauty and the clean slant of light. (Director's Note: ANGLE over Chris ONTO water reflecting the landscape and diamond flashes of sunlight.) CARINE Whatever drawer he was opening now must have something sweet in it. CUT TO:91A EXT. COLORADO RIVER, TOPOCK ARIZONA - DAY 91A Chris floats in SLO-MO through the air, his hair wisping skyward. 63A. As he pierces feet first, a clear blue surface of the river's water, CAMERA goes UNDERWATER with him and follows him in CU as he surfaces, jubilant in the beauty of the Topock gorge. He shakes the water out of his hair. CUT TO:92 EXT. COLORADO RIVER, TOPOCK ARIZONA - DAY 92 64. Chris continuing down river through the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge, drifting past saguaros and alkali flats. CUT TO:92A EXT. IMPERIAL NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE - DAY 92A Chris, on a day hike, the river behind him, he (TELEFOTO LENS played in beautific BACK LIGHT) tracks a herd of wild horses. ANGLE: Chris: The herd moves in an S-pattern. Chris runs beside them and in our LONG LENS PERSPECTIVE, he seems to be among them. CUT TO:93 EXT. RIVER CAMPSITE - NIGHT 93 Chris sits outside his tent, beside a campfire scrawling a letter. His "bought-food" bounty in evidence. The words APPEAR ON SCREEN in his handwriting OVER THE IMAGE: WAYNE, SOMETIMES I WISH I HADN'T MET YOU. TRAMPING IS TOO EASY WITH ALL THIS MONEY. MY DAYS WERE MORE EXCITING WHEN I WAS PENNILESS AND HAD TO FORAGE AROUND FOR MY NEXT MEAL. I COULDN'T MAKE IT NOW WITHOUT MONEY HOWEVER...94 EXT. YUMA POST OFFICE - DAY 94 CONTINUE letter OVER: ...AS THERE IS LITTLE FRUITING AGRICULTURE DOWN HERE AT THIS TIME. Chris moves up the steps of the post office with an enveloped letter in hand. CONTINUE letter OVER: I'VE DECIDED THAT I'M GOING TO LIVE THIS LIFE FOR SOME TIME TO COME. THE FREEDOM AND SIMPLE BEAUTY OF IT IS JUST TOO GOOD TO PASS UP... 65.95 INT YUMA POST OFFICE - DAY 95 Chris is in the elegant, 1930's-style post office buying a stamp. CONTINUE letter OVER: ONE DAY I'LL BE ABLE TO REPAY SOME OF YOUR KINDNESS. A CASE OF JACK DANIELS, MAYBE? TILL THEN, I'LL ALWAYS THINK OF YOU AS A FRIEND... Chris licks the stamp. Continue letter on screen: GOD BLESS YOU, ALEXANDER. The stamp comes down onto an envelope addressed: WAYNE WESTERBERG C/O GLORY HOUSE SIOUX FALLS WORK RELEASE FACILITY SIOUX FALLS, SD 57104 CUT TO:95A EXT. THE SAND DUNES ON THE AMERICAN SIDE OF MEXICAN 95A BORDER - DAY Chris ports his kayak over the dunes, snaking a scar through the sand in his wake. Mexico in his sights. POV: Morelos Dam at the Mexican border.96 EXT. MORELOS DAM AT THE MEXICAN BORDER - DAY (DECEMBER 96 2ND, 1990) Careful not to be seen, Chris shoves off, just upriver from the dam/border. The floodgates are open just enough to allow Chris to lay back in the kayak and drift prone under the gate. He sits back up and paddles through having passed the border, either unnoticed or ignored by patrols. FADE OUT. 65A.97 INT. IMMIGRATION OFFICE - NIGHT 97 A television set with George Bush plays. SOUNDS of typewriters. IMMIGRATION OFFICER (V.O.) Why'd you go to Mexico? CHRIS (V.O.) I thought I'd run the whole river into the Sea of Cortez. The stupid dams dried it up. 66.98 EXT. 50 MILES SOUTH OF THE MEXICAN BORDER 98 Chris is kayaking. He dead ends in a reeded tributary.99 OMITTED 99100 INT. IMMIGRATION OFFICE (CONTINUED) 100 IMMIGRATION OFFICER (V.O.) How long were you on your own down there? CHRIS (V.O.) 36 days. IMMIGRATION OFFICER (V.O.) How'd you know? CHRIS (V.O.) Fingers and toes. We see Chris' fingers and toes. (DOWN ANGLE into interrogation room) CHRIS (V.O.) (CONT'D) After the river dried up, I ported the kayak and got a lift to Golfo.101 EXT. FISHING VILLAGE, EL GOLFO DE SANTA CLARA - DAY 101 We see Chris jump down off the back of the duck hunter's truck. He slides the kayak off the truck bed onto the street. Chris goes into his pocket, pulls out a sealed sandwich bag of cash. He tries to pay the hunters for their time but they refuse the money. Nonetheless, Chris is insistent and they relent. Chris pulls his backpack from inside the bow and saddles it up on his shoulders. The hunters pull away. 67.102 EXT. EL GOLFO DE SANTA CLARA 102 (1000mm lens) LOW ANGLE: SAND AND HEAT WAVES IN FOREGROUND AND BACKGROUND: Chris, paddling his kayak toward us, seemingly in the sand dunes. As we BOOM UP SLIGHTLY, we see that there is a bend in the water's edge and that he is in fact, paddling in the crystalline blue of the Gulf. CHRIS (V.O.) I paddled south about 20 miles.103 EXT. EL GOLFO DE SANTA CLARA 103 UNDER-WATER SHOT: We are directly UNDER the passing kayak as it slices the water's surface above us. We BACKFLIP the CAMERA as it passes. CHRIS (V.O.) That's when I saw the cave and everything went upside down. 68.104 EXT. EL GOLFO DE SANTA CLARA 104 See the ocean and sand, wind whipping them. CAMERA PULLS BACK to reveal Chris in a cave where he has made camp; watching, waiting. CHRIS (V.O.) A sandstorm hit and I was pretty much stuck. My kayak blew away, so I left it and walked up the beach, hitched back north, and here I am. CUT TO:105 OMITTED 105106 OMITTED 106 69.107 OMITTED 107108 OMITTED 108109 OMITTED 109110 OMITTED 110111 OMITTED 111 70.112 OMITTED 112113 OMITTED 113114 OMITTED 114115 INT. IMMIGRATION OFFICE - NIGHT 115 Chris sits with the IMMIGRATION OFFICER. 71. IMMIGRATION OFFICER 36 days, wow. I guess they're gonna have to watch that spillway a little better. CHRIS What they ought to do is open up the dams and let the rivers flow. IMMIGRATION OFFICER I can't disagree with you on that. Okay, Alexander SuperTramp. I think we're gonna let you out of here shortly but you've got two working weeks to get an ID card in the United States. You can't be crossing these borders without identification, are we understood? CHRIS Yes, sir. I've eaten enough sand to send me back to the city anyway. CUT TO:116 EXT. TRAIN YARD, SOMEWHERE NEAR ALGODONES - NIGHT 116 A freight train cranks up its great engines and starts its move west. Chris POV: We see a BULL (hobo slang for a railway security guard) making his rounds. As the bull disappears around the caboose, and the trains motion picks up, Chris appears from behind a fuel pump. He makes his move in the shadows to the passing freight cars, not quite sure how to board them. He begins to slowly jog beside the train. There is a vertical steel rod on each passing car. He times the train by putting his hand out and letting the vertical rods slap it. CHRIS (counting) One...Two...Three - 71A.And with that he accelerates to a run, throws his packinto the moving freight car before him, simultaneouslyleaping up to grab the rail and throw himself into thecar. 72. But his left foot misses and he's suddenly dangling from the moving train. He grabs hand over hand on the rail. ANGLE: Dangling feet and razor sharp wheels. ANGLE: Chris. He puts everything into pulling himself up, growling the strength into his muscles finally...117 INT. FREIGHT CAR - NIGHT 117 As Chris rolls forward into the car -- he made it! CHRIS As Alexander Supertramp returns to civilization...a hobo. (quietly) I'm a for real hobo. He's very happy about this (despite the near surrender of it.) Chris uses his pack as a pillow, lays back on it and begins to sing Roger Miller's King of the Road. CUT TO:118 EXT. FREIGHT TRAIN - NIGHT 118 We TRACK with train by HELICOPTER as we SEGUE from Chris' rendition of King of the Road to Roger Miller's. We let the train get away from us and disappear. CUT TO:119 EXT. TRAIN YARD, LOS ANGELES - DAY (FEBRUARY 3, 1991) 119 Chris' train pulls into the yard. Bulls and loaders greet the train. Chris jumps off and breaks for the fence unseen. CUT TO:120 OMITTED 120 73.121 EXT. DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - EARLY EVENING (STILL LIGHT) 121 The streets are crowded with business people on their way to homes and happy hours, buses and parking garages, showers and comforts. Among the throngs, we find Chris walking up Grand Street, backpack on his shoulders. We find he is not such an unusual sight, there are homeless to the left and homeless to the right. CUT TO:122 EXT. MIDNIGHT MISSION, LOS ANGELES - NIGHT 122 Chris walks in.123 INT. REGISTRATION DESK, MIDNIGHT MISSION - SAME 123 (Reminder: Condition of Mission is circa 1991) Chris stands at the registration desk talking with a a HEAVY-SET BLACK FEMALE SOCIAL WORKER. CHRIS Can you tell me how to get an ID card? 74. SOCIAL WORKER Did you lose your identification sir? CHRIS Yeah. SOCIAL WORKER No birth certificate? Nothing?Chris shakes his head apologetically. SOCIAL WORKER (CONT'D) Ouch. Alright. Well you're gonna have to work that out with the DMV. You can catch them in the morning.The social worker begins to write an address on a pieceof paper. SOCIAL WORKER (CONT'D) The closest one is Montebello and we can help you with a bus voucher.She hands the Montebello address to Chris. SOCIAL WORKER (CONT'D) So, just come to this desk when you need the voucher. CHRIS And, if I want to apply for a job somewhere, can you help me with that? SOCIAL WORKER If you know how to cook, we might have a space for you in our mobile kitchen. But I'll have to talk to my supervisor about it in the morning. CHRIS Alright then. Thank you. Oh, one last thing. Do you have a bed for me? SOCIAL WORKER (handing him a form) Sure. Just fill this in and I'll get you all set up.Chris begins filling in the form. CUT TO: 75.124 INT. MIDNIGHT MISSION DORM, LOS ANGELES 124 Throughout the next two scenes, there is steady HONKING of CAR HORNS, WAILING of POLICE SIRENS, AMBIENT HOSTILE BANTER, GRINDING ENGINES OF BUSES, puffs of diesel exhaust choke us. 300 HOMELESS occupy nearly as many beds in the dorm. Chris searches the locker wall for his assigned locker. When he comes upon it, he double checks the number with that on the key, opens it, and puts his backpack inside. CU: The lock, as Chris closes and secures his locker. CUT TO:125 EXT. LOS ANGELES STREETS - 6TH AND WALL - NIGHT 125 Chris walking among the hordes of homeless at 6th and Wall streets. Open fires burn in front of cardboard shacks. There are blacks, whites, Mexicans, even families with children, junkies, winos, hustlers, and hookers. CUT TO:126 EXT. LOS ANGELES STREETS - BROADWAY - NIGHT 126 NEW ANGLE: Chris walking down Broadway. This is clearly just blocks away from where we last saw him, yet the atmosphere is as if of a different world. One of those downtown LA hip yuppie blocks. He comes upon a bar. Through the window Chris sees young men and women roughly his own age - working people, suits, gold-chainers. Metallica blares on the sound system. CUT TO:127 INT. MIDNIGHT MISSION DORM, LOS ANGELES 127 Same CU on locker as before, but this time it's being opened. CUT TO: 75A.128 INT. REGISTRATION DESK, MIDNIGHT MISSION 128 We don't even see Chris but the camera is his POV as he passes the social worker (same as before) The social worker catches a thrown key. 76. SOCIAL WORKER You leaving us so soon? I know them DMV lines are long... CUT TO:129 EXT. MIDNIGHT MISSION, LOS ANGELES - NIGHT 129 (Director's Note: Traffic and pedestrians move in an accelerated speed while Chris moves nearly in slo- motion.) Chris exits the building into CU. He looks left, then right, then directly into camera. CHAPTER 3: MANHOOD FADE OUT/IN:130 OMITTED 130131 EXT. TRAIN TRACKS OUTSIDE LOS ANGELES - NIGHT 131 Chris' train barrels along.132 INT. TRAIN CAR - NIGHT 132 Chris goes into his pack, grabs his canteen and drinks some water. Mid-sip, the train begins to make a surprising stop. Screeching wheels on track. Chris is alarmed. As he moves to peer out the door, even before he has a chance to see what's coming -- WHAM! He's smashed in the head with a baton. A BULL jumps into the car with him. BULL #2 Lay down on your stomach, spread eagle! 77. Chris turns to reason with the man. And that's all it takes -- six straight blows to the ribs, legs, and arms. We hear it more than we see it. Chris is in agony. BULL #2 (CONT'D) Let me see your face. The bull shines a flashlight into Chris' eyes. BULL #2 (CONT'D) I never, ever, ever forget a face. If I see yours again, I won't arrest you. I'll kill you. This is the god-damned railroad. And we will do whatever we have to, to keep you freeloaders from violating our liability. Chris is trying to understand what the man is saying. BULL #2 (CONT'D) If one of you people gets hurt on our train, we are liable. Do you understand that? CHRIS (despite the violent irony) I'm sorry, sir. BULL #2 You have I.D.? CHRIS No, sir. BULL #2 Of course you don't. CUT TO:133 EXT. TRAIN - NIGHT 133 Chris is pushed off the train, his pack thrown out after him. The bull jumps down beside the track as well and walks down track away from Chris, signalling an "all clear" with his flashlight to some unseen engineer. BULL #2 (to Chris over his shoulder) Last time, my friend. 78. Chris stumbles to his feet. The pain of the beating is real. He bleeds from the back of his ear. But he can walk. And he does. CUT TO:134 EXT. DESERT HIGHWAY - DAY 134 Chris sits on his pack on the roadside, hitchhiking and eating from a can of beans he opened with his pocketknife. The odd car passes but doesn't stop. CUT TO:135 EXT. ARIZONA INTERSTATE OVERPASS - NIGHT 135 Chris hops out of a Camaro that gave him a ride. The lighting is anonymous and so is the driver. CHRIS Thanks very much. He closes the door and the car drives off. We follow Chris as he goes to the overpass edge. He drops his pack over the side. Chris climbs down the edge of the overpass, grabs his pack, and scurries into the UNDERPASS below. (We suddenly recognize this as his pre-river run campsite) He digs up his buried belongings, returning them to his pack. Last to come out of the ground, Chris' copy of Jack London's Call of the Wild. He pulls off a temp wrapping and dusts it off. Chris lights his candle lantern and begins to read. O.S. VOICES from the PAST: BILLIE (O.S.) (screaming, angry) I'm not talking about this anymore! Feet stomping off. WALT (O.S.) Don't walk away from me WOMAN! BILLIE (O.S.) Fuck you! I hate you! Sounds of scuffle. 78A. BILLIE (O.S.) (CONT'D) KIDS! LOOK WHAT YOUR FATHER'S DOING TO ME!136 INT. MCCANDLESS HOME, ANNANDALE (PAST) 136 ELEVEN-YEAR OLD CARINE sits in the stairwell leading to her parent's room where an argument ensues. Carine's head in her hands, a delicate tear moistens the webs between her small fingers. 79. FIFTEEN-YEAR OLD CHRIS enters from O.S. He leans against the stairwell and looks up the stairs. Our focus remains on Carine. In the B.G. SOFT FOCUS, Walt is pinning Billie down onto the bed. She flails at him but he holds down her shoulders. WALT LOOK WHAT YOUR MOTHER IS MAKING ME DO! Billie slips his grasp. Walt reaches out with a hit/push of her back. She is thrust out of the bedroom onto the landing above the staircase followed by Walt who positions himself in the doorway like a hostile crucifixion. WALT (CONT'D) (raging) I'll just cancel Christmas then! Billie returns to him, punching on his chest: BILLIE Who do you think you are? God? WALT Yes. I'm God! Chris puts his hand out to Carine. She looks up to him. He gives her a smile and a wink. She takes his hand and they exit frame as the argument continues. WALT (O.S.) (CONT'D) Where do you kids think you're going? BILLIE (O.S.) (not in desperation so much as a demand for their witness) Kids, get back here! We HEAR a DOOR SLAM OC. CUT TO:137 EXT. ANNANDALE STREET - DAY (PAST) 137 The young Chris and Carine. She sits atop the handlebars of his bicycle beaming as Chris peddles her down the middle of the street. We PULL THEM as they ride. 79aA. CHRIS (mockingly)I'll cancel Christmas! 79A. CARINE (humored out of her sadness)Who do you think you are? God? CHRISYes. I'm God. 80.138 EXT. ARIZONA INTERSTATE UNDERPASS - NIGHT 138 As they both laugh we DISSOLVE BACK to Chris (PRESENT) reading beside his candle lantern. CARINE (V.O.) In the nine months since Chris' disappearance, my parents went through enormous changes. Guilt was giving way to pain. And pain seemed to bring them closer. My father had humbled dramatically. And what had always been a sort of curt arrogance, the kind of man who actually thought he could cancel Christmas, had given way to the vulnerability of a father's heart. Even their faces had changed. It made me sad that I couldn't share with Chris the new closeness I felt toward our parents. The image of Chris reading begins a SLOW DISSOLVE INTO...139 INT. FREIGHT TRAIN CAR - NIGHT 139 CARINE I close my eyes at night sometimes and imagine where Chris might be. Suspicious, ghostly faces briefly appear in the strobing lights that hit the train car from outside. They're toothless and tattooed. Aged and young. Punks and piercings. They're train tramps. We see Chris observing them. Warmly he speaks but we DO NOT HEAR, "I'm Alex."140 EXT. TRAMP CAMP, LAS VEGAS - DAY 140 CARINE Was there beauty around him? Was he hurt? Was he alone? We see Chris sharing camp with the train tramps in the outskirts of Las Vegas. DISSOLVE... 80A.141 INT. LAS VEGAS RESTAURANT - NIGHT 141 CARINE Was he having the great adventure that he wanted? We see Chris working as a waiter in a Las Vegas restaurant. DISSOLVE... 81.142 EXT. MOUNTAIN PASS - DAY 142 CARINE Could he feel the changes here at home? By some kind of supernatural osmosis? Chris once wrote to me from college saying he wanted to talk to me about all the problems he had with mom and dad. We see what may be Chris' POV from a train car snaking through a mountain pass. DISSOLVE TO:143 EXT. LAS VEGAS DESERT - NIGHT 143 CARINE He said I was the only person in the world who could've possibly understood what he had to say. We see Chris in the Las Vegas desert by a campfire at night. DISSOLVE TO:144 EXT. SEATTLE - DAY 144 HIGH ANGLE CU: We see Chris walking the streets of Seattle. As we WIDEN OUT, he becomes a dot in the Seattle landscape. CARINE In those silent moments, with my eyes closed trying to picture where Chris might be at that very moment, probably climbing some scary mountain, I want to reach into that picture and bring him back to see what mom and dad, what our family might become. LONG LENS: Chris disappears over the rise into the Seattle marketplace overlooking Puget Sound (per location photography.) DISSOLVE TO: 82.145 EXT. ANNANDALE SUPERMARKET - DAY 145 CARINE But instead when I open my eyes, what I see is my mother, sitting at the dining room table, sifting through photo albums and pictures of Chris. It's all she can do to examine the snapshots. And, though she breaks down from time to time, she studies them with a sort of hungry intensity - like looking at food you can't eat, or into a window at a family around a table that you were once a part of and can be no more. We see Billie driving out of the Annandale supermarket onto the boulevard. She sees a hitchhiker roadside. She cranes her head - is it Chris? It's not. CARINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) She convinces herself it's Chris; that it's her son, whenever she passes a stray. And I fear for the mother in her... DISSOLVE TO:146 EXT. BARREN DESERT - DAY 146 We see Chris hitchhiking in a barren desert. CARINE Instincts that seem to sense the threat of a loss so huge and irreparable that the mind balks at taking its measure - I begin to wonder if I do understand what Chris is saying any longer. But I catch myself in doubt and remember that these are not the parents he grew up with. That in the forced reflection that comes with loss, indeed everything Chris is saying, has to be said. And I trust for him that everything he is doing has to be done. This is our life. CUT TO: 83.147 EXT. BULLHEAD CITY, ARIZONA - DAY (OCTOBER 1991) 147 Chris is in the passenger seat of a Mac truck cab. Both Chris and the TRUCKER look outward as though to find an address or landmark. TRUCKER I don't know where to drop you. Bullhead's kinda haphazard - there's no "center." You sure you don't want to be in Laughlin? It's casinos versus chiropractors. CHRIS Yeah, no. This is good. Right here. TRUCKER Alright then. Chiropractors it is. He pulls over. Chris grabs his pack and exits the truck in front of a laundromat. As the truck pulls away, Chris sees a "Help Wanted" sign for Burger King on the laundromat window. TIME CUT:148 INT. BURGER KING, BULLHEAD CITY - DAY 148 The place is packed with a line out the door. LORI, the second assistant manager, hurries back into the kitchen, where we find Chris in paper cap, bunning whoppers at a leisurely pace. LORI Chris, you gotta go faster. We've got a line out the door. CHRIS (a bit oblivious) Okay. But then just continues on at his leisurely daydreaming pace. Lori is about to say something but by now she knows there's no getting through to him. She looks down to the floor where we see that Chris wears no socks. LORI (extending patience) Chris, I don't mean to be on you about everything. You're doing a great job. (MORE) 84. LORI (CONT'D) I want to keep you on. And we all want to help you get to Alaska, but you've got to start wearing socks. CHRIS Right, right. I forgot. LORI And please. Hurry. We're ten deep. CHRIS Okay. But the pace remains. CUT TO:149 INT. BANK, BULLHEAD CITY - DAY 149 Chris stands at the counter making a deposit with a YOUNG FEMALE TELLER. CHRIS How much do I have in the account now? TELLER It looks like...let me see. Including this latest deposit...One thousand, two hundred and fifty two dollars and...twenty-two cents. CHRIS What's the interest on twenty-two cents? The young teller giggles. CUT TO:150 EXT. BANK, BULLHEAD CITY - DAY 150 We're TIGHT ON Chris' sock-less feet, pedalling away from the bank on a bicycle. The growing independence of his financial situation felt in the MUSIC OVER: SERIES OF ANGLES as Chris rides out of town, into the desert, from a late afternoon sun into a sunset as he arrives at his -151 EXT. CAMPSITE, OUTSIDE BULLHEAD CITY - SUNSET 151 The casino lights of Laughlin, Nevada distantly in B.G. 85. Chris pedals up a dirt path to find many of his belongings strewn about. And in particular, some food supplies have been torn into. A coyote yips in the distance as Chris finds his old straw hat torn to shreds. Across the desert, scurrying away beyond the tumbleweed, three young coyotes head for the hills. Chris picks up his tattered hat and smiles. CUT TO:152 INT. BURGER KING, BULLHEAD CITY - DAY 152 We are TIGHT on the PUNCHCLOCK as Chris' timecard comes into frame and is punched out. WIDEN OUT to see Chris taking off his paper hat and Burger King overshirt. He walks his timecard over to Lori. The place is all but empty. CHRIS Lori, I'm punching out. LORI Okay. Just put it in the drop. CHRIS No, I mean I'm punching out for good. LORI (happy for him) We've made our quota, have we? CHRIS Yeah. Also, I've got to do some things before I head north. LORI Alright Chris. Well, we've enjoyed knowing you. I won't be able to get that last check to you right away though. CHRIS That's okay. I'll let you know where to send it. LORI Alright then Chris. Bye-bye now. 86. CHRIS Bye-bye. CUT TO:153 EXT. BULLHEAD CITY - DAY 153 City crews string Christmas lights and ornaments along the main drag. We CRANE DOWN to find Chris' bike leaning on a lamppost. A cardboard sign attached to it reads - FREE BIKE. MERRY CHRISTMAS. - ALEXANDER SUPERTRAMP CUT TO:154 EXT. DESERT, HIGHWAY 95 - DAY 154 MUSIC OVER: Chris is hitching south on the 95 into the Big Maria Mountains. Beyond him we see a sign for Niland 206 miles.155 EXT. TRUCK STOP ON INTERSTATE 10, BLYTHE, CA - NIGHT 155 CONTINUE MUSIC OVER:156 INT. MEN'S ROOM, TRUCK STOP - NIGHT 156 CONTINUE MUSIC OVER: Chris gets a clean shave and a whore's bath. CU: Chris Music FADES. CHAPTER 4: FAMILY DISSOLVE TO:157 EXT. THE SLABS, NILAND, CA - DAY 157 This is the vista of former barracks foundations Rainey and Jan Burres had told Chris about. Hundreds of people in tents and trailers, a quarter inch to the right of a Rainbow Gathering as hillbillies and renegades mix with the hippies. There are canvas-covered booths set up for swap and trade. Even a few makeshift food stands. 87. We SEE that many of the inhabitants have set up CHRISTMAS TREES outside their trailers and tents. Kids play naked in a mud pool. CUT TO:158 EXT. THE BOOTH OF JAN & RAINEY, THE SLABS - SAME 158 We see Rainey selling their wares. Beside the booth, their van with its backseat door open. A little dog, Sunni, jumps out the van door, sniffing something out. Jan exits the van after the dog. JAN Sunni! Come here boy. But Sunni has sniffed out Chris' large backpack leaning against the rear of the van. Jan is just beginning to recognize it, when from behind the van appears Chris, looking like a million bucks. CHRIS Surprise! JAN (overjoyed) Alex! As she goes to hug him - ANGLE: Rainey hearing his name, jumps up from his stool to join them. Big embraces all around. CUT TO:159 EXT. THE SLABS - NIGHT 159 An impromptu campfire celebration with live music from a makeshift stage. Jan, Rainey, and Chris sit on chairs outside the circle of inhabitants, taking in the music. JAN You have to tell us everything. (Note: This scene should largely be improvised. They all know their characters, their history. Jan and Rainey are doing great. And while Chris is intermittently aware that the eyes of a pretty 16-year old girl are upon him, Chris lays out his travels and his PLAN FOR ALASKA. 88. Jan remarks, "I guess if you can figure out how to paddle a canoe down to Mexico, hop freight trains, and score beds at inner-city missions, you can figure out Alaska too.") At this point, the PRETTY 16-YEAR OLD GIRL who had had her eyes on Chris, takes the stage with an acoustic guitar, introduces herself as TRACY, then SINGS an * innocent love song of her own composition, stealing seductive glances at Chris throughout the performance. JAN (CONT'D) I think you've made yourself a friend. CHRIS (blushing) She's only a teenager. JAN Good luck. The girl finishes her song. CUT TO:160 EXT. THE BOOTH OF JAN & RAINEY - DAY 160 Chris and Rainey man the second-hand goods booth while Jan bathes Sunni in a steel bucket by the van. Among the goods, a USED ORGAN. Chris is thrilled to have access to all the second-hand books that are part of Rainey and Jan's inventory. As he skims through Jack London's Odyssey of the North, Rainey notices Tracy sitting on the * steps of her vagabond parents' rig across from the booth. She picks silently at her guitar with her bright eyes fixed on Chris. RAINEY How long can you stay with us? CHRIS Well, I'm waiting on a check from my last job to come into Salton City the day after Christmas. I've got to start thinking about getting ready for Alaska. When the sun gets a little lower tonight, I'm going to start a calisthenics routine. I think after the check comes in, I'll try to find some mountains I can climb everyday till spring comes. I gotta see how far the money's gonna go. (MORE) 89. CHRIS (CONT'D) I'm going to have to pick up a lot of supplies before spring. So, I might take another job or I might be okay. RAINEY Well, you know, we'll give you a little something for every day you work the booth. CHRIS I'm not taking any money from you, Rainey. It's been a real great twist meeting you two. You look like you're doing good. RAINEY We are, and you were a big part of that, coming along when you did. Yep, things are good. (gives a little giggle) Man, I used to think Tantric sex was just a bunch of reading. Speaking of which, don't you think you ought to introduce yourself to Joni Mitchell over there?Chris looks up from his book to the wide open 16-year oldsmile of Tracy. Rainey laughs aloud. Chris smiles back, *and against his better instincts, gives her a little wave-over with the paperback. Tracy jumps off her step, *putting her guitar inside the rig, and trots like alittle wood nymph to Chris. TRACY * Hi. CHRIS Hi. TRACY * You selling books? CHRIS I am. We are. TRACY * I read a lot. CHRIS Do you? TRACY * Yeah. 90. CHRIS That's good. I heard you play your song last night. TRACY * (embarrassed) I'm terrible. Rainey amused by all of this. CHRIS You are not terrible. TRACY * I'm not? CHRIS No. You sing sweet. TRACY * Thank you. I was going to go watch the kids play in the mud. Do you want to go? RAINEY Go on. I'll watch the store. CHRIS I'm sorry. This is Rainey. And I'm Chris. Whoops, a slip on the name, but... RAINEY Hi. Rainey. And this is Alex. ("Don't lie to her.") TRACY * I'm Tracy. * Chris realizes his slip but before Rainey can question anything, Chris stands and goes off with Tracy. * Rainey and Jan share a conspiratorial smile.161 EXT. THE MUD PIT, THE SLABS - SAME 161 (Salvation Mountain?) (Leonard?) 91. LONG LENS: We watch Chris and Tracy sit pit-side with a * foreground of frolicking naked children splashing about in the mud. We don't hear their conversation. We just watch its gentleness. CUT TO:162 EXT. RAINEY & JAN'S VAN, THE SLABS - NIGHT 162 Tracy helps Rainey cook dinner on the barbecue, meaning * to demonstrate to Chris what a wonderful wife she would be. Jan and Chris sipping on beers sit beside each other on folding chairs, out of Rainey and Tracy's earshot. * JAN I wasn't much older than Tracy when I got * pregnant. And I thought my husband and I were going to invent peace on earth and stay together forever. But it didn't work out that way. He left. History. Now ancient history. And that was the end of that. So, I raised Reno by myself - that's my son. Then I met Rainey. And that was really good for a while. But Reno was already a teenager and was becoming a man in his own way. And then, I don't know. He kinda followed in his father's footsteps - out the door and gone. And I really don't know where he is. I haven't heard from him in two years. CHRIS I hope I get to meet him sometime. Jan looks into Chris' eyes and smiles with pure love. She leans over and gently kisses Chris on the cheek. JAN Do your folks know where you are? Chris aims to deflect the question as Tracy enters the * scene. TRACY * Soup's on. Oh, I'm sorry. Are you guys getting heavy? 92. JAN No, sweetheart. Just hungry. You've been doing a fantastic job over there. (to Chris) Shall we eat? CHRIS Yeah. Tracy grabs Chris' hand and proudly leads him to supper. * As they exit frame, we remain for a moment with Jan and her thoughts. CUT TO:163 INT./EXT. SLABS MONTAGE - DAY 163 MUSIC OVER: MONTAGE: 1. Chris reading and selling books. 2. Chris and Tracy taking walks with Sunni. * 3. Rainey and Jan stealing some afternoon delight in the van. (It's the days of wine and roses) 4. Chris' new daily regimen of calisthenics. 5. Tracy's new daily regimen of watching Chris do * calisthenics. His lean body tighter and stronger everyday. CUT TO:164 EXT. RAINEY & JAN'S VAN, THE SLABS - (CHRISTMAS) DAY 164 Rainey stands over Chris as Chris does sit-ups. Rainey's gut hanging a little heavy over his belt. OS VOICES exchange Christmas greetings. RAINEY I really ought to get myself doing that. CHRIS You should Rainey. Makes that Tantric stuff go even better. 93. RAINEY How the hell would you know? That poor girl over there is about ready to vault onto a fence post. And here you are, the monk of Jack LaLane.They share a laugh. Chris comes to the end of his sit-ups. Wipes his brow with a towel. Rainey squats downnext to him. RAINEY (CONT'D) I guess Jan filled you in. About Reno and everything. Children can be harsh judges when it comes to their parents. They don't grant clemency easily. I think Reno tended to see things in black and white. I just hope he lives long enough to forgive her.The connection is not lost on Chris. RAINEY (CONT'D) But painful as it is, you turned a light on in her and I'm grateful. CHRIS Me too. RAINEY For what?Chris doesn't answer. A kid rides by on a bright new BigWheel. Must be from the rich side of the commune. RAINEY (CONT'D) Do your folks know where you are? CHRIS No. RAINEY Don't you think they ought to? CHRIS They should. But I can't. Not yet, anyway. I got a sister though, Carine. She's the most beautiful girl in the world. But, it's all got to stay behind me until I get where I'm going. RAINEY Alaska? 94. CHRIS Yeah, Rainey. Alaska. Rainey won't intrude any further. He just nods. Chris notices Tracy in the door of her parent's rig, stealthily * waving him over. Chris gives Rainey the "Uh-oh" look, pulls on his T-shirt, and walks over to the rig. Tracy * has disappeared inside. CUT TO:165 INT. TRACY'S PARENTS RIG - SAME 165 * Chris pops his head in. CHRIS Hello? Merry Christmas? TRACY (O.C.) * Come in here. As Chris mounts the steps, he finds Tracy laying on the * bed inside, wearing a skimpy white girl's tank top and underpants. TRACY (CONT'D) * Guess what. CHRIS (deer in headlights) What? TRACY * My parents went into town. CHRIS No! TRACY * Yes, they did. They went to call my grandma for Christmas. CHRIS No, I mean, no, we can't do that. TRACY * Why not? Chris moves to sit on the edge of her bed. Tracy sits up * beside him. 95. CHRIS How old are you? TRACY * Eighteen. Chris throws her a look of doubt. TRACY (CONT'D) * Seventeen. CHRIS What year were you born? As soon as she has to think about it, the jig is up. CHRIS (CONT'D) You want to do something together? Shyly, she shakes her head "yes." CUT TO:166 EXT. THE SLABS - NIGHT 166 We SEE the used Christmas trees of the residents being thrown onto an existing campfire, building into the enormous, celebratory bonfire that lights the scene. As we did with the footsteps in the mud and the kayak slashing the sand, we TRACK VERTICALLY along an extension cord from one of the trailer generators to the stage until we find - Tracy with her guitar and Chris with the second-hand * organ from Rainey and Jan's booth on the stage. They enter into a duet of John Prine's Angel from Montgomery for the crowd of the Slabs' fire-lit inhabitants. In the crowd, we find Rainey and Jan clapping and dancing along to Chris and Tracy's song. Merry Christmas. * CUT TO:167 EXT. THE SLABS - DAY 167 Jan is pulling the van out from their plot. Rainey is guiding the single-directional vehicle. Chris and Tracy stand beside the car path. Chris writes * down Wayne Westerberg's Carthage address. 96. CHRIS You can always get in touch with me by sending mail here. I don't know when I'll get it, but I'll get it. TRACY * (crying) Okay. CHRIS You're pretty magic. TRACY * I am? He hugs her. And kisses her. (cheek, lips? I don't know.) Jan pulls up in the van. Rainey walks over to Chris and gives him a paternal hug. RAINEY You take care of yourself, kiddo. CHRIS You too, Rainey. Thanks for everything. Chris gives Rainey's gut a full-hand pinch. CHRIS (CONT'D) New Year's resolution? Rainey gives him a wink and puts his arm around Tracy as * Chris jumps into the car. Then he and Jan hit the road. CUT TO:168 EXT. MARKET POST OFFICE, SALTON CITY - DAY 168 This market/liquor store/post office serves as the cultural nexus for the greater Salton Sea area. As Jan's van pulls up opposite the post office and makes a U-turn to curbside, Chris gets out of the van. Now Jan's eyes really well up. JAN (sweetly) Just get your pack out of the back and get out of here. I can't take a hug. 97. Chris says nothing. He just looks at Jan. They understand each other. Chris closes the door. He fiddles with the broken handle of the back door, gets it open, gets his pack out. On top of his pack, A WRAPPED XMAS GIFT and when he closes the back door, Jan heads straight off back to the Slabs. Chris opens the giftwrap; it's the new hat Jan had promised. Chris is touched. CUT TO:169 EXT. TWO-LANED ROAD, ANNANDALE, VA (PAST) - DAY 169 TELEPHOTO LENS: A long two-laned road before us rises and falls in a series of saddles and peaks. The narrow shoulders are densely wooded. SLOWLY APPEARING over the near most peak, a TEAM OF EIGHT SHIRTLESS HIGH SCHOOL RUNNERS. Leading the group - 17 YEAR-OLD CHRISTOPHER MCCANDLESS. Lean, softly handsome, and graceful. CARINE (V.O.) In high school, Chris became captain of the cross-country track team. They called themselves the Road Warriors. REVERSE ANGLE: The group of young runners, led by Chris suddenly veer off the paved road into the adjoining woods.170 EXT. TRAILS, ANNANDALE (PAST) - DAY 170 SERIES OF ANGLES: The runners, led by Chris, pace unchartered trails, grassy hillsides, and shallow streams. CARINE He'd take them on what he loved to refer to as "epic" runs. The whole point was to run until they were completely lost and so exhausted that they were on the verge of puking. Then they'd slow down a little, somehow he'd find their bearings, and lead them home again at full speed. This was my brothers idea of fun. We FAVOR Chris as he jogs in place at the exhilarating point of being lost. When he has identified a most likely return route, he quickens his pace, leading the group in the direction of return. CUT TO: 98.171 INT. MARKET/POST OFFICE, SALTON CITY 171 Chris heads out with his last Burger King check in hand, proudly wearing his new hat and in search of mountains to climb. CARINE (V.O.) A year and a half into Chris' disappearance, each day that goes by now feels like two. Dad calls it "suspended animation." I kept telling myself that he had to get lost to prove his independence to himself. But this was no day run for the Road Warriors and after so much time, I could no longer keep out the haunting thoughts.172 EXT. MARKET/POST OFFICE, SALTON CITY - DAY 172 Chris, with pack and new hat walks away from camera toward the interstate and the brittle mountains beyond. CARINE (V.O.) In many ways, my life and even my parents had begun to move in new directions. I'd fallen in love. And mom and dad had even ventured out on a brief vacation. But, when a search of tax records uncovered Chris' contribution to OXFAM, the weight of his disappearance just seemed to lie down on us full length. CHAPTER 5: GETTING OF WISDOM DISSOLVE TO:173 EXT. BADLANDS OF ANZA-BORREGO DESERT STATE PARK - DAY 173 (JANUARY 1992) 99. WIDE SHOT: We see the Oh My God Hot Springs. Steaming pools lined with rocks and shaded by palm trees. A small group of campers and Charlie Manson wannabes in FOREGROUND. We ZOOM past them to the sheer rock faces and landforms of the badlands, several miles beyond. CUT TO:174 EXT. STONE WALL, ANZA-BORREGO DESERT - DAY 174 SLO MO: We are looking down a radically steep rock face. A shirtless Chris is in training running towards us under the hot desert sun. We HEAR only breath and footsteps. CUT TO:175 EXT. CHRIS' CAMP BESIDE THE STONE WALL - DAY 175 Chris rests on the sand under a tarp, hung from a Creosote branch. A plate of beans and rice eaten nearly clean and an empty water jug beside him. Flies buzz and pick. CUT TO:176 EXT. OH-MY-GOD HOT SPRINGS - DAY 176 Chris on a morning jog, wearing a shoulder bag and carrying an empty water jug. A quick wave to one of his distant "neighbors" at the spring's camp as he runs by. CUT TO:177 EXT. PAVED TWO-LANE ROAD INTO SALTON CITY - DAY 177 Chris continues his jog, cars whisk by and dust kicks into the air. But Chris is undeterred, keeps running.178 EXT. MARKET/POST OFFICE, SALTON CITY - SAME 178 Chris approaches, slowing his jog to a walk. Chris sets down his water jug and stretches his calves. In the distance we see the peaks of the badlands landforms from where he ran. 100. Chris shakes off the jog, picks up the jug, and we go with him around the side of the building. There's a water faucet dripping slowly into the desert mud. Chris pops his jug under it and fills it up. CUT TO:179 INT. MARKET/POST OFFICE - SAME 179 Chris walks the aisles, sipping from his jug, as he comes across bags of rice on the market shelves. A HEAVY SET GIRL passes him in the aisle with her well-mannered dog following her. CHRIS (no high-pitched pet voice) Hey boy. You are a handsome fellow. (over shoulder to the girl) Beautiful dog. THE GIRL Thank you. As the girl continues on, the dog wants to stay with Chris. CHRIS Go on, boy. Go on. And the dog obeys him. As he sorts through the various rice selections, brown, white, wild, we notice a MAN peering over the opposite shelf at Chris. This is RON FRANZ, between 70 and 80 years old, six-feet, thick arms, barrel chest, and large ears. He wears old jeans, an immaculate white T-shirt, a decorative tooled leather belt, white socks, and scuffed black loafers. His deeply pitted nose demonstrates a purple filigree of veins which unfold like an finely wrought tattoo. And on either side of it, the wary blue eyes of a soldier. He is the archetypical American man. Chris has caught his sympathetic eye. Chris moves to the counter to pay for rice. CUT TO:180 EXT. MARKET/POST OFFICE - SAME 180 In WIDE SHOT, we watch Chris from behind, walking out across the two-lane road. He puts out his thumb to hitch a ride. 101. When a truck comes from BEHIND INTO FRAME heading straight for Chris, the truck makes a relaxed L-turn, pulling up beside Chris.181 INT. RON'S TRUCK 181 RON Where's your camp? CHRIS (pointing) Out past Oh-My-God Hot Springs. RON I've lived in and around here six years now and I've never heard of any place that goes by that name. Ron leans across the bench seat of the truck, opening up the passenger door. RON (CONT'D) Show me how to get there. Chris hops in beside Ron, who extends his hand - RON (CONT'D) Ron Franz. CHRIS Alex. RON Alex. Where are you from Alex? CHRIS West Virginia. RON Okay, Alex from West Virginia. I like a fellow who doesn't raise the pitch of his voice when he talks to animals...shows he doesn't condescend. Chris remembers now the dog in the store and why Ron must've thought to give him a ride. And they head off.182 EXT. FEW MILES UP ROAD 182 Ron truck drives up the road. 102.183 INT. RON'S TRUCK 183 As we come upon a 4x4 track twisting down a narrow wash - CHRIS You go left here. Ron turns the truck down the 4x4 track.184 EXT. 4X4 TRACK, ANZA-BORREGO DESERT - SAME 184 We watch the truck bump and grind on the mangled dirt road about a mile in. Out the window, Ron's eye has been caught by something. Ron's POV: Oh-My-God Hot Springs - We see a couple of day-glo vans and rusted out Studebakers that hadn't been turned over since Eisenhower was in the White House. Several of those living there mill about buck naked. And at the center of the camp, the steaming pools lined with rocks under the palm trees. RON You live here? CHRIS No, we keep going. I'm further up. Another half-mile or so, out on the Bajada.185 EXT. CHRIS' CAMP BESIDE THE STONE WALL - SAME 185 Ron and Chris drive up in the truck. Ron shuts off the ignition and gets out of the truck to stretch his legs. Chris follows, puts his full water jug under the tarp at his campsite, hooking it onto a branch. He throws his shoulder bag with the rice in it into his backpack. RON Well, this is somethin' out here. Don't you worry about those dope smokers and nudists down below there? CHRIS No, they keep to themselves pretty much and so do I. 103. RON (skeptical)Hmmm. You strike me as a bright youngman. Am I wrong about that? CHRISI think I got my head on my shoulderspretty good. RONThat's what I mean. How long have youbeen out here? CHRISCouple of weeks. RONAnd before that? CHRISA lot of places. I've been movingaround. RONHow old are you? CHRISTwenty-three. RONTwenty-three years old! Son, don't youthink you should be getting an education?And a job? And making something of thislife? CHRISLook Mr. Franz. I think careers are atwentieth century invention and I don'twant one. You don't need to worry aboutme. I have a college education. I'm notdestitute. I'm living like this bychoice. RONIn the dirt? CHRIS (laughs)Yeah, in the dirt. RONI just don't know. Where's your family? 104. CHRIS Don't have one anymore. RON That's a shame.Chris can see some deep sadness in this man. CHRIS Hey, Mr. Franz. I want to show you something.Ron follows Chris to the rockface we'd seen Chris runningearlier. They begin to walk up it. It's tough on theold-timer, walking this steep hill. But he's a tough old-timer, at least for the moment...ANGLE: The two men nearly half way to the summit. It'sgetting steeper and higher. Ron stops. RON This is getting a little steep. And a little high for me kid. CHRIS Alright. But look out there. Even from half way out, it's quite a sight isn't it?Their POV: Enormous beautiful vista all the way acrossthe Bajada. CHRIS (CONT'D) From the top you can see all the way to the Salton Sea too.Ron looks up the precarious rock wall. He ain't gonna beseeing the Salton Sea today. RON You can see the Salton Sea from up there? CHRIS Yes, sir. RON (starting his way down the hill) My goodness. CHRIS You don't want to go up? 105. RON Nope. I don't do these kind of things. Chris smiles and follows Ron. As they approach the bottom of the hill - RON (CONT'D) How about you and me take a drive? About fifty miles or so up highway, I know a place that's got a view, great food, and requires no climbing. How's that sound? Chris thinks about it. Then - CHRIS Yeah, sure. It'll take me a couple of minutes to clean up. RON Fair enough. CUT TO:186 EXT. DESERT HIGHWAY - AFTERNOON 186 Ron's truck drives through frame.187 EXT. INDIAN AVENUE SOUTHBOUND, PALM SPRINGS - DAY 187 We see Ron and Chris driving parallel on the windmilled road (Our frame will only hold the lower fraction of the spinning windmills in the background) CUT TO:188 EXT. SAN JACINTO TRAMWAY - LATE AFTERNOON 188 VERTICAL POV: We are thousands of feet in the air over the rigid rocky canyon as we ascend toward San Jacinto summit. It's high. Scary HIGH.189 INT. TRAM 189 MUSIC OVER: As Chris and Ron ride the tram to the peak, we watch Chris watching Ron, his kind, moist old eyes, slowly blinking at the wonder of the nature around him. Other passengers on the tram seem nervous, but Ron is meditative, almost hypnotized. 106. And with each roll-through of the tram through the cable towers, the tram car rocks and sways, but Ron's peace goes unbroken. And Chris continues to admire the gentle blinking of his eyes. CUT TO:190 INT. ELEVATION RESTAURANT (SAN JACINTO SUMMIT) - TWILIGHT90 1 The two of them sit in a quiet, corner booth of the tramway eatery that sits on the summit of San Jacinto overlooking the lights of Palm Springs and the desert clear back to Salton Sea. Chris is on a roll. CHRIS How old are you, Mr. Franz? RON Seventy-nine years old. CHRIS Seventy-nine...see, all due respect, but the real difference between people is the quality of their soul and not on how long they've trudged around like a dip-shit. Ron laughs. CHRIS (CONT'D) But it's true. RON It is. No question about that. Ron continues to let Chris vent. CHRIS The government's the same as my parents. They don't respect anybody. Regulation. Regulation. Regulation. WE can't do this. But THEY can do that. I mean, the hypocrisy of the whole...culture. Makes me crazy. My father was having children * with two women at the same time, and then * has the gall to think that he can be of some guidance to me? Make judgments on me? My mother, of course, goes along with all of it. Keeps the secret, which of course, makes my whole life a fiction. Everything I thought was, wasn't. They're such fools! Fucking idiots! 107. RON Alex, please don't lump me in amongst your judges. And your tyrants. But I'd prefer to not hear that kind of language. CHRIS (realizing his slip) Sorry. I don't usually use that kind of language either. I just get so angry thinking about it. Ron reaches across the table. Puts his sturdy hand on Chris' shoulder. RON You got a lot of passion, young man. Chris smiles at Ron. CUT TO:191 EXT. CHRIS' CAMP BESIDE THE STONE WALL - NIGHT 191 As Ron and Chris pull up in the pick-up truck, we see SPORADIC FIREWORKS WHISTLING AND CRACKLING into the air above the hot-springs, and HEAR the distant HOOTING of its inhabitants. Chris hops out and walks around to Ron's side of the truck. CHRIS Awww, that was a great time Mr. Franz. Thank you. RON Look here. If Charles Manson and his buddies don't kill me on my way out of here, I'd like to cook you up a home cooked meal tomorrow night. If I come out here about, say, four o'clock tomorrow, how would that be? CHRIS That would be swell. Ron is thrilled. RON Good, good. I'm no gourmet but I know where the spices are. Good night, kid. CHRIS Good night Mr. Franz. 108. And with that, Ron hits the road. CUT TO:192 EXT. STONE WALL - SUNSET 192 Chris hikes up it with his backpack on, one laborious step at a time. DISSOLVE TO:193 EXT. STONE WALL SUMMIT - SAME 193 Chris summiting the rock formation. He looks down over the desert and there before him, The Salton Sea. CUT TO:194 EXT. RON'S HOUSE, SALTON SEA - SUNSET 194 The house is a single-level, beige structure, sitting between the Salton Sea and a small inlet where he keeps a fishing boat. Underneath a canopy in the backyard, there is a small workshop of some kind. HIGH ANGLE: Chris, looking at his own reflection in the water below Ron's dock. In the reflection, we see his hands full of dirty laundry. CUT TO:195 INT. KITCHEN, RON'S HOUSE - SAME 195 Ron broils a couple of steaks. Chris enters and moves past Ron carrying his laundry into another room.196 INT. LAUNDRY ROOM, RON'S HOUSE - SAME 196 Chris pours detergent over his long-in-need clothes. Starts the cycle.197 INT. KITCHEN, RON'S HOUSE - NIGHT 197 As Chris enters, Ron is pulling the steaks from the broiler. 109.Above the kitchen sink, Chris sees a row of approximatelyten photographs, each in vertical 4x6 frames, some blackand white, some color: all of Japanese boys and girls informal American and Japanese attire. RON Did you find everything you need? CHRIS (breaking his gaze from the photographs) Yeah. I hope I don't wreck your machine. There's a lot of grime in that stuff. RON Well, that's what it's for. How do these steaks look?Ron pops the steaks on the kitchen table. CHRIS Great. RON Well, sit down.Ron grabs some silverware from a drawer, plops it down onthe kitchen table with some paper napkins. RON (CONT'D) What do you drink? CHRIS You got a White Russian? RON Nope. CHRIS Beer? RON Nope. Don't have any alcohol. I had to quit all that. How about a guava juice? CHRIS I'll take a guava juice, that sounds good.As Ron gets the drinks - RON Yeah, I had a little spell with the bottle, you could say. 110.Ron pops the drinks down on the table, then sits withChris. They lift their glasses toward one another, then - RON/CHRIS Cheers. RON I spent most of my life in the army. On New Year's Eve 1957, I was stationed over in Okinawa. My wife and son were here in the States, just driving down the road when a fellow who'd had too much to drink plowed right into them. Killed them both. Anyway, you might think that the last thing in the world I'd do, is go to the whiskey, but at the time, it felt like the only thing I could do. And I did it hard. But pretty soon, I figured I wasn't doing my wife and son any good, mourning them with a bottle. So, I pulled myself together and quit drinking, cold turkey. And then...Ron, spinning his body around, points to the photographsover the sink. RON (CONT'D) (brightening) You see all these kids over here? CHRIS Yeah, I was gonna ask you. RON Yeah, that's... (pointing at each with his finger) Fuki, Kenjiro, Yoshiko, Keiko, Masaro, Junichi, Kimpei, Nayoko...For the last picture frame, Ron stands and takes it offthe shelf - RON (CONT'D) (pridefully shows Chris the picture) And this is Akira. Just finished medical school.Chris takes the picture and studies Akira's face. Ronsits back down. 111. RON (CONT'D) Yeah, I unofficially adopted all of them. It did my heart some good but I guess really it was just writing a few letters and sending some money. Anyway, it was important to me. I get a letter from each of them from time to time. You know. So, since all that, this is pretty much me. (indicating his small reclusive abode) CHRIS Do you ever travel, Mr. Franz? RON No. I can't seem to get too far from my leather. I'll show you after you finish eating. I do a lot of leather engraving. I got a little workshop in the garage. Between that and my pension, I do pretty well. But every time I think I might take a trip somewhere, I get too far behind on orders and such to consider it. CHRIS (having wolfed down the steak) Well, I'm finished eating. I'd love to see your workshop. RON Would ya? Chris nods. RON (CONT'D) (standing) Alright then. Ron picks up the picture of Akira and replaces it on the shelf above the sink. CUT TO:198 INT. RON'S GARAGE/WORKSHOP - NIGHT 198 As we begin, Ron is instructing Chris in the skills of leather engraving. DISSOLVE TO: 112.199 EXT. CHRIS' CAMP BESIDE THE STONE WALL - MORNING 199 Chris, a clear plastic bag of clean laundry beside him, sits alone, cross-legged. He begins to carve into a leather belt. CUT TO:200 EXT. STONE WALL - LATER 200 We follow Chris in a LOW ANGLE up his mountain run framing from mid-back to just above his head, sweating profusely. CUT TO:201 EXT. 4X4 TRACK, ANZA-BORREGO DESERT - DAY 201 Ron's truck cuts along the 4x4 track. BACK TO:202 EXT. STONE WALL, ANZA-BORREGO DESERT - SAME 202 Chris reaching the summit. He bends over to catch his breath, hands on knees. RON (O.S) How about some fishing? Chris turns to the voice. And down at the bottom of the rock wall beside the campsite, is Ron holding up two fishing poles. RON (CONT'D) (referring to the Sea) That thing's twice as salty as the ocean. Did you know that? Chris has barely the breath to speak. CHRIS Anything alive in it? Ron shrugs his shoulders in a "who cares?" fashion. Chris laughs but nods in the affirmative and gives Ron the thumbs up. 113.203 EXT. ANZA-BARREGO DESERT - DAY + NIGHT 203 BEGIN MUSIC OVER: MONTAGE: 1. Chris and Ron fishing in the Salton Sea. (no catch) 2. At Ron's workshop/garage, Ron guides Chris in his leather belt project. 3. At Chris' campsite, Chris does push-ups while Ron sits on the tailgate of his truck spying on the "Manson family" through binoculars, shaking his head. 4. Chris at his campsite working on the belt by campfire light. We MOVE IN on the belt, he's beginning to form the letter N in the leather. 5. Chris jogging in the morning beside Oh-My-God Hot Springs. 6. Chris and Ron at the leather bench in Ron's workshop/garage. In a EXTREME CLOSE-UP, MUSIC FADES OUT as we PAN across Chris' leather belt and the story being told on it through the engravings:204 EXT. RON'S WORKSHOP - DAY 204 ALEX is inscribed at the belt's left end; then the initials C.J.M. (for Christopher Johnson McCandless) frame a skull and crossbones. Across the strip of cowhide one sees a rendering of two-lane blacktop, a No U- turn sign, a thunderstorm producing a flash flood that engulfs a car, a hitchhiker's thumb, an eagle, the Sierra Nevada, salmon cavorting in the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific Coast Highway from Oregon to Washington, the Rocky Mountains, Montana wheat fields, a South Dakota rattlesnake, Westerberg's house in Carthage, the Colorado River rapids, a canoe beached beside a tent, Las Vegas, and at the buckle end, finally, the letter N. RON What's the N stand for? CHRIS ...North. CUT TO: 114.205 EXT. CHRIS' CAMP BESIDE THE STONE WALL - DAY 205 AN ISOLATED CLOUD ECLIPSES THE SUN AGAINST A BLUE DESERT SKY. Ron is sitting on his tailgate, watching Chris, backpack on, climb the stone wall. RON Alaska? Chris summits. RON (CONT'D) Son, what the hell you running from? CHRIS (yells down from above) I could ask you the same question. Except I already know the answer. RON You do, do you? CHRIS I do, Mr. Franz. You've got to get back out in the world. Get out of that lonely house of yours, that little workshop, and go live on the road. Ron waves him off. CHRIS (CONT'D) Really. You're going to live a long time, Ron. You should make a radical change in your lifestyle. The core of man's spirit comes with new experiences. And there you are, stubborn old man, sitting on your butt. RON Sittin' on my butt, huh? Ron gets up off the tailgate. RON (CONT'D) I'll show you sittin' on my butt. And Ron starts making the old man hustle. Shifty shoulders and all, up the stone wall. 115. RON (CONT'D) (mumbling) "Stubborn old man."Chris is laughing and clapping. CHRIS Come on, old man! Come on! RON (mumbling) Ya little pinhead.Chris is jumping up and down, thrilled for Ron's efforts.Now the old man's shuffle has turned into an old man'swalk. But he ain't stopping. And bit by bit he showshe's got it in him after all.As Ron is just about to mount the summit, Chris extends ahand. Ron swats it away. RON (CONT'D) Ya little pinhead.Ron drops down onto his back to catch his breath and lethis thumping heart slow down. CHRIS You alright?Ron, after taking one more deep breath, sits up and Chrissits next to him. He's actually pretty happy withhimself. He looks out and sees the distant Salton Sea. RON I'm going to miss you when you go. CHRIS I'll miss you too, Ron. But you're wrong if you think the joy of life comes principally from human relationships. God's placed it all around us. It's in everything. In anything we can experience. People just have to change the way they think about those things. You ought to put a little camper on the back of your pick-up and go take a look at some of the great work god's done out here in the American west. RON Alex...You're probably right. And I'm going to take stock of that. 116. Chris offers a skeptical glance. RON (CONT'D) No, I am. A second skeptical glance. Which Ron squashes with genuine sincerity. RON (CONT'D) (almost to himself) I am. Chris buys it this time and feels he's accomplished something with Ron. RON (CONT'D) But I'll tell you something. The bits and pieces I've put together, you know, what you've told me about your family. Your mother and dad. And I know you got your problems with the church too, but there's some kind of bigger thing that we can all appreciate. And it sounds like you don't mind calling it God. But when you forgive, you love. And when you love...God's light shines on you. Miraculously, it is just at that moment that the cloud clears from the sun and the light shines in Ron's eyes. Chris points at Ron's face at the light shining on him - CHRIS Holy Shit! RON I told you about that language. The two men, their eyes welling up, fall back laughing. EXTREME WIDE SHOT FROM BELOW: The two men on the summit with the echoing of laughter and Ron's screams - RON (CONT'D) I told you so! I told you so! CUT TO:206 INT. LAUNDRY ROOM, RON'S HOUSE - NIGHT (MARCH 11, 1992) 206 Chris pulls his laundry out of the dryer. He's got his pack sitting in the doorway to the kitchen. He folds his things and tucks them into his pack. 117.Ron appears in the doorway dressed for travel. CHRIS What are you doing up? It's three-thirty in the morning. RON Heard you get up off the couch half an hour ago, and had a funny feeling you might not be here for our breakfast.Chris says nothing. RON (CONT'D) I'm going to drive you a hundred miles to somewhere where you can pick up a train, a plane, or hitch a ride without getting stuck on this desert. I'd take you all the way to Alaska if I didn't have to get to an eight o'clock mass. CHRIS Ron, you don't have to do that. RON I want to do it. Get you started on this thing of yours. CHRIS On my Great - RON (interrupting) I know. On your "Great Alaskan Adventure."From just out of Chris' eye-line, Ron leans out of frame,picking up a zippered duffel bag. He opens it,displaying the contents to Chris. RON (CONT'D) There's a machete, an arctic parka, collapsible fishing pole, and a few odds and ends I threw in there for you. CHRIS Ron... RON Oh, just take it.Chris does, nodding his thanks. 118. RON (CONT'D) I'll wait for you in the truck. CUT TO:207 EXT. HIGHWAY 10, OUTSIDE SALTON CITY - DAWN 207 We follow the two men (on this nondescript locale) driving along the highway east from dawn through sunrise. They ride in silence through Coachchella Desert Center and Blythe. CUT TO:208 EXT. HIGHWAY 10 208 The truck exits at a North/South junction 95.209 INT. RON'S TRUCK 209 As Ron begins to pull over. RON Well my friend. CHRIS Yep. Both of them are uncomfortable. Chris goes for the door handle. Ron's gnarled hand reaches out to take Chris' elbow. After a long beat, Ron speaks without looking at Chris. RON I had an idea. You know my mother was an only child. So was my father. And I was their only child. Now, with my own boy gone, I'm the end of the line. When I'm gone, my family will be finished. What do you say, you let me adopt you. I could be, say, your grandfather. This takes Chris by surprise. He knew it would be hard but not this hard. CHRIS How about we talk about this when I get back from Alaska, Ron. Would that be alright? 119. Silence. Ron nods. Releases Chris' elbow. CHRIS (CONT'D) Alright, Ron. We'll talk about it then. RON (trying to mask. The blinking, moist eyes again) Yep. We can do that, yep. CHRIS Thanks, Ron. Ron nods. Chris gets out of the truck. Ron watches as Chris saddles up his bag including the duffel that Ron gave him. Chris crosses the exit junction to where he can pick up a ride north on the far side of the road. We ZOOM SLOWLY through the windshield into Ron's face as he watches Chris hitching away. We HEAR the first bars of Neil Young's My My, Hey Hey. This will carry throughout the following MONTAGE. DISSOLVE TO:210 INT./EXT. VARIOUS - MONTAGE 210 1. We ZOOM into Walt McCandless' face as he looks through the Questar telescope that Chris had given him. ANGLE: The stars through the telescope. The same stars his son walks under...somewhere. We PAN ACROSS SPACE. (Note: This montage will intercut Chris' traveling POV with objective shots. However, we never SEE Chris.) 2. We PULL BACK from the starry night sky to see it framed from within a moving train. 3. Carine in her shower, water cascades over her face. 4. Billie in her kitchen, making dinner. 5. Through the windshield of a semi-truck, the sun rises on Glacier National Park. 6. A HANDHELD ZOOM-OUT from Canadian border crossing, CAMERA TURNS to the woods beyond and MOVES INTO THEM. 120.7. SERIES OF TRAVELING SHOTS: (Through Skookumchuk andRadium Junction, Lake Louise to Prince George and DawsonCreek) STATIC NATURE SHOTS: HELICOPTER SHOTS8. On the bed in their van, Jan sits on Rainey's barefeet while he does sit-ups.9. Ron holding a garage sale, while hooking a trailer tohis truck.10. Wayne being released from jail.11. Mads and Sonja, side by side, one-armed bandit-ing ina Vegas casino.12. Tracy at a high school dance, slow-dancing with her *young date.13. Looking through the windshield of another semi. Abear lopes across the two-lane road before us. We PANand ZOOM with it into the tundra beside the road.HANDHELD, WALKING, we pass Mile 0 of the Alaska highway:The sign: Fairbanks 1523 miles.14. A waterfall.15. Intercut hand and thumb hitching - a sense that ridesare few and far between.16. A misting mountain peak.17. Beavers in streams.18. Melting blue ice-walls.19. A lynx skittering across a snowy mound.20. Walt and his telescope.21. The hitchhiker's VIEW on a two-lane road, walkingpast a highway sign for the Yukon Territory. (ThroughJohnson's Crossing, Whitehorse, and Beaver Creek.)22. From a passenger car window, a series of road signsreading: Closed for winter.MUSIC FADE OUT 121.211 INT. MCCANDLESS HOME, ANNANDALE - DAY 211 CARINE (V.O.) About a month short of the second anniversary of Chris' disappearance, I had gotten engaged to my boyfriend Jerry Ray and was moving in with him... Carine, packing her belongings into boxes, stumbles upon the Sharon Olds book Chris had given her on his graduation day. CARINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) ...when I stumbled upon the book Chris had given me on his graduation day. For some reason, it was the last line of the poem he read that really stuck out. FLASH BACK: (From page 2-3)212 INT. DATSUN 212 Chris is holding a book from which he reads aloud the LAST LINE OF THE POEM... CHRIS ...and I will tell about it. CARINE (V.O.) I asked Chris who had written the poem. What we SEE of Carine plays with the VOICE OVER TRACK and SILENT with the production track; in essence lip synching herself. Chris' dialogue comes directly from the flashback image. CARINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) Who wrote that? CHRIS Well, it could've been either one of us. Couldn't it? We see pictures of Chris on the night-stand of Walt and Billie's bedroom CARINE (V.O.) What would he tell about now? What did his voice sound like now? (MORE) 122. CARINE (V.O.) (CONT'D) I realized that the words to my thoughts were of less and less meaning. Chris was writing his story and it had to be Chris who would tell it. The pictures in the scene BLUR as - CHRIS (O.C.) (in a far away, tunnel-like sound) Mom, help me. CUT TO:213 INT. BEDROOM, MCCANDLESS HOME, ANNANDALE - NIGHT 213 Billie sitting bolt upright in the middle of the night, tears rolling down her cheeks. Walt awakens beside her. WALT What is it? BILLIE I wasn't dreaming! I didn't imagine it! I heard his voice, Walt. I heard Chris. Walt takes her in his arms, trying to squeeze life into both of them. CHAPTER 6: DELIVERANCE FADE TO BLACK.214 FAIRBANKS ALASKA, SERIES OF STATIC IMAGES: 214 Berms of cleared snow line the streets 1. A GAS STATION (Gold Hill Gas and Liquor) We see Chris' writing appear on screen: APRIL 27, 1992 2. OLD ALASKA PROSPECTOR'S STORE WAYNE, GREETINGS FROM FAIRBANKS! THIS IS THE LAST TIME YOU SHALL HEAR FROM ME. ARRIVED HERE TWO DAYS AGO. 3. A SALOON 123. 4. A LIBRARY IT WAS VERY DIFFICULT TO CATCH RIDES IN THE YUKON TERRITORY. 5. TRAIN STATION 6. BARBER SHOP BUT I FINALLY GOT HERE. PICKED UP A NEW BOOK ON THE LOCAL FLORA AND FAUNA (TANAINA PLANTLORE / DENA'INA K'ET'UNA: AN ETHNOBOTANY OF THE DENA'INA INDIANS OF SOUTHCENTRAL ALASKA BY PRISCILLA RUSSELL KARI) 7. BOOKSTORE MIGHT BE A VERY LONG TIME BEFORE I RETURN SOUTH. BUT I'M PREPARED AND HAVE STOCKED ALL NECESSARY COMFORTS TO LIVE OFF THE LAND FOR A FEW MONTHS. 8. A GUN AND SPORTING GOOD STORE INCLUDING A NYLON 66 MODEL SEMIAUTOMATIC .22 REMINGTON. JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW, YOU'RE A GREAT MAN. I NOW WALK (PAUSE WRITING ON SCREEN) INTO THE WILD. ALEX 9. A SIGN AGAINST A RADIO TOWER "RADIO FAIRBANKS"(Perhaps we hear a weather report)215 EXT. ALASKAN RANGE (STAMPEDE TRAIL) - DAY 215 We return to the area of Scene #1. MUSIC OVER: Of religious scope. Perhaps choral. HELICOPTER SHOT: We travel a long ways across snowy peaks and valleys (clearly far from anywhere) passing between two escarpments of outer range bordering bottomlands five miles wide until we barely see a tiny form within it trudging through the snow. We overfly it. CUT TO:216 EXT. STAMPEDE TRAIL - DAY 216 Chris, crunching through two to three feet (not more) of snow, in arctic parka, big boots, his warm hat, rifle slung over his shoulder, and pack. 124. He moves TOWARD CAMERA. We PAN AROUND with him as he walks past, where beyond Chris on the snow plain, rises a tree line. CUT TO:217 EXT. TEKLANIKA RIVER - DAY 217 Its banks lined with a jagged shelf of frozen overflow. At its center, a channel of gently flowing water, opaque with glacial till. Beyond the far ice shelf, Chris appears from the riverside treeline. He eases across the ice, then wades through the latte-colored channel and on to the other side. REVERSE ANGLE: Chris moving toward the opposite tree line, he turns back to the gentle river behind. Chris' POV scanning the terrain. From the river to a distant mountain peak and then to a second mountain peak, triangulating his location. He makes a drawing on a pad of paper and piles some medium- sized rocks to mark the spot before moving on into the trees. CUT TO:218 EXT. VAST ALASKAN SNOWSCAPE - DAY 218 Total silence across the beatific white vista of snow, mountain, and colorless trees UNTIL a DISTANT ECHOING GUNSHOT. CUT TO:219 EXT. CAMPSITE, BESIDE SUSHANA RIVER - NIGHT 219 Chris has skinned and is cooking a squirrel. CUT TO:220 EXT. CAMPSITE, BESIDE SUSHANA RIVER - MORNING 220 Chris packs the last of his camp and begins his march upriver. CUT TO: 125.221 EXT. UPRIVER - DAY 221 As Chris walks upon a clearing in the tree line, he catches his first glimpse of Denali's (Mt. McKinley's) high-blinding white bulwarks. Chris stands in awe. We remain in his WIDE-SHOT POV as it - DISSOLVE TO: SAME SHOT - NIGHT But now Chris' tent sits in its foreground with the moonlit Denali still visible. CUT TO:222 EXT. WOODS BESIDE RIVER - DAY 222 CAMERA ANGLED SKYWARD into the broken rays of grey light. We TILT DOWN to find (and TRACK through the trees with) Chris moving along the river, when he sees something just OFF CAMERA. Chris' POV: Through the trees and fireweed, he sees something metallic and rusty. Chris moves up through the underbrush and the snow into the narrow tree line and on into the clearing, where before him: A DERELICT SCHOOL BUS. It is a vintage International Harvester from the 1940's. Chris approaches the bus, lifts the hood a little bit seeing that the engine is gone. As he moves around the vehicle, we see several windows are cracked or missing altogether. The green and white paint is badly oxidized. Weathered lettering: Fairbanks City Transit System Bus 142.223 INT. BUS 223 Broken whiskey bottles litter the floor. Chris may well have found his new home. The bus is outfitted with a bunk and a barrel stove. Previous visitors had left it stocked with matches, bug dope, and other essentials.224 EXT. BUS 224 We follow Chris back out of the bus, surveying the area of the clearing. He loves what he sees. 126. CELEBRATORY MUSIC OVER: He runs up a berm to look down into the river. He runs from corner to corner of this "Magic Bus" area like a new bride surveying her honeymoon suite with glee. He climbs a tree, swings from its branch, doing a flip in the air, landing on his feet, but then slipping on the snow and onto his butt and then onto his back. He grabs a handful of snow, shoves it in his mouth, melts it into water, and swallows it. CRANE SHOT: We PULL UP from Chris to high above the clearing. MUSIC FADES OUT CUT TO:225 INT./EXT. BUS 225 He re-enters the bus and pulls his pen from his pocket, scribbling on the wall of the bus: TWO YEARS HE WALKS THE EARTH. NO PHONE, NO POOL, NO PETS, NO CIGARETTES, ULTIMATE FREEDOM. AN EXTREMIST. AND AESTHETIC VOYAGER WHOSE HOME IS... ANGLE: Chris: He continues to write as he SPEAKS the words aloud: CHRIS ...the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return `cause the "west is the best." And now after two rambling years, comes the final and greatest adventure. Chris is cleaning up the bus. CHRIS (CONT'D) The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual revolution. Chris shoveling snow away from the bus entrance with a rock. 127. CHRIS (CONT'D) Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking, bringing him to the great white north. Back to Chris, REAL TIME as he continues to write as he speaks: CHRIS (CONT'D) No longer to be poisoned by civilization, he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild. Chris signs his doctrine - ALEXANDER SUPERTRAMP MAY 1992 JUMP CUT TO:226 INT. BUS 226 Chris posts a found piece of paper on the inner wall of the bus alongside his doctrine. CU: Chris' hand, he writes and circles the number: 1 - MAGIC BUS DAY. CUT TO:227 EXT. BUS - DAY 227 Chris comes out, rifle in hand. We TRACK with him as he moves into the woods on the hunt. SERIES OF ANGLES: Chris searching for game. He moves through the woods along the river and at the base of a nearby mountain. Finding animals for food seems more difficult than expected. CUT TO:228 EXT. A MOUNTAIN SADDLE - DAY 228 Chris stumbles upon a caribou as it steps out from the woods. He lines up his rifle on the animal, about to pull the trigger, when its calf appears beside it. 128. He lowers his rifle, unwilling to take a shot that would separate mother and child. TIME CUT:229 EXT. WOODS - DAY 229 A spruce grouse is spied on a foreground branch. BANG! The branch splinters and the bird makes haste. ANGLE: Chris, rifle in hand. CHRIS Shit! CUT TO:230 INT. BUS - NIGHT 230 Chris, cooking rice. We see his single bag of rice. Its amount tells us the hunting had better improve soon. We explore a PASSAGE OF TIME throughout which CHRIS GETS INCREASINGLY THIN AND PALE: hunting, sleeping, cooking, rice dwindling, line-ups of scrawny shot birds. He adds holes to his belt leather to accommodate his shrinking waistline. CUT TO:231 EXT. SNOWY PLAIN - DAY 231 BANG! Chris bags a squirrel on a snowy plain. CUT TO:232 INT. BUS - LATER 232 Chris eats his measly catch but looks to his bag of rice with concern, perhaps only a day or so left of his rations. We come to the diary/log posted on the wall. We see that he has been there for a week's worth of entries as the squirrel is mentioned on day seven. CUT TO: 129.232A OMITTED 232A232B OMITTED 232B233 INT. BUS - MORNING 233 Chris is awakened by a new May sun, streaming light through the windows of the bus. POV: the sun, circling high in the heavens. Snowmelt dripping quickly across the windowpane. CUT TO:233A EXT. BUS - DAY 233A Chris dances atop the bus, naked in the new spring. CUT TO:233B INT. BUS - DAY 233B Chris shaves. (Note: We are in a time of year in this part of the world where the sun dips behind the horizon only four hours a day) CUT TO:234 INT./EXT. BUS - DAY 234 INTERCUT: SERIES OF ANGLES throughout which Chris remains thin but his pallor improves: 1. The diary/log representing a small improvement on the hunting front. 2. Undergrowth exposing itself through snowmelt. 3. Establish a small waterfall near the bus. Landing on: 129A.235 EXT. WOODS - DAY 235 The snow has now all but vanished except on north-facing slopes and shadowy ravines, exposing a range carpeted in an amalgam of muskeg, alder thickets, and veins of scrawny spruce. 130. Chris traipses along the seasons rose hips and lingonberries, which he gathers in great quantity and snacks on as he walks. CUT TO:236 EXT. WOODS - DAY 236 Chris shoots a porcupine. CUT TO:237 INT. BUS - DAY 237 The diary/log: DAY 30 - PORCUPINE DISSOLVE TO:238 EXT. PEAK, NEARBY BUTTE - DAY 238 Chris stands triumphant at the peak of a 3000 foot butte overlooking the bus. CIRCLE CAMERA around him 360 degrees recording the broad vista. ANGLE: CU - He's beaming with satisfaction. We begin a SLOW ZOOM OUT and then accelerate the ZOOM encompassing the entire grandeur of the mountain with Chris at its peak. CUT TO:239 INT. BUS - LATER 239 The diary/log: DAY 31 - CLIMBED MOUNTAIN DISSOLVE TO:240 EXT. BUS ENVIRONS - COLLAGE - DAY 240 COLLAGE TIME IN A SERIES OF DISSOLVES: 1. The diary/log: MAP AREA. Chris surveying and taking notes of area. 2. The diary/log: IMPROVISE A BATHTUB AND SMUDGE POT 131. Chris building a bathtub out in the front. 3. The diary/log: COLLECT SKINS AND FEATHERS TO SEW INTO CLOTHING. Chris hunting and skinning. 4. The diary/log: CONSTRUCT BRIDGE ACROSS NEARBY NARROW CREEK. Chris knee-deep in slow-moving water constructing a make- shift bridge across narrow creek. 5. The diary/log: BLAZE NETWORK OF HUNTING TRAILS. Chris making a trail with his machete when - A MOOSE appears from a nearby thicket. Chris drops the machete and pulls his rifle from his shoulder. The moose looks ready to charge Chris. There's no choice. Chris aims carefully and fires six straight shots into the moose's head, dropping it. Chris can hardly believe his own success. He puts the rifle back on his shoulder, just staring at the dead moose. He begins back-pedalling away from it. Bit by bit, his steps turn into a jog and then he turns and runs back toward the bus. CUT TO:241 INT. BUS 241 (Director's Note: Handheld) Chris scrambles through his pack and finds the piece of paper where he had written notes of how to cure beef by smoking it, taught to him by Kevin, Wayne's hunter friend back in South Dakota. BACK TO:242 EXT. WOODS - SAME 242 Back at the kill, the slow process of butchering begins. (This ain't going to be pretty.) INTERCUT REPRESENTATIVE IMAGES WITH FOLLOWING DIARY/LOG ENTRIES: 1. The diary/log: BUTCHERING EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. 131A.2. The diary/log: FLY AND MOSQUITO HORDES. 132. 3. The diary/log: REMOVE INTESTINES, LIVER, KIDNEY, ONE LUNG, STEAKS. 4. The diary/log: GOT HIND QUARTERS AND LEGS TO STREAM. 5. The diary/log: REMOVE HEART. 6. The diary/log: DIGS SMOKER HOLE INTO EXISTING CAVE. 7. The diary/log: HAUL NEAR CAVE. 8. The diary/log: TRY TO PROTECT WITH SMOKER. 9. The diary/log: CAN ONLY WORK NIGHTS. KEEP SMOKERS GOING. 10. The diary/log: MAGGOTS ALREADY. SMOKING APPEARS INEFFECTIVE. LOOKS LIKE DISASTER. WISH I'D NEVER SHOT MOOSE. GREAT TRAGEDY. 11. The diary/log: ABANDON CARCASS TO WOLVES. We see Chris hidden behind a rise, watching a WOLF PACK tug at the rancid meat from the carcass.243 EXT./INT. BUS - DAY + NIGHT 243 SERIES OF ANGLES: In and out of the bus. Day and night, portraying Chris mourning his killing of the moose. He even plants a cross by its skeletal remains.244 EXT. BUS ENVIRONS 244 SERIES OF SHOTS: Sunrise and nature awakens. Bird songs and flower blooms. A waterfall cascades. CUT TO:245 INT. BUS - DAY 245 Chris reading Tolstoy's Family Happiness. His POV: The page: what Chris reads: I have lived through much and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. 133. A quiet, secluded life in the country with the possibility of being useful to people... CUT TO:246 EXT. BUS - DAY 246 Chris sits amongst the pink bunches of fireweed choking the vehicles wheel wells, growing higher than the axles, his back leaning against the bus, finishing the reading of Family Happiness. ANGLE: Chris, reading with great interest. His POV: The page: what Chris reads: And then, on top of all that, you for a mate, and children, perhaps - what more can the heart of a man desire? ANGLE: Chris: He looks up from his book. A gentle breeze tickles morning flowers. The sunlight dances in a coppice of aspen and leaves of trees above. The sound of buzzing flies mutes. He is taking one last look at his paradise. CUT TO:246A EXT. SMALL WATERFALL NEAR BUS - DAY 246A Chris showers (PHOTO-SONIC) MUSIC, LYNYRD SKYNYRD'S Simple Man (lyrics in cursive) begins to play OVER: CUT TO:247 INT. BUS 247 My momma told me / when I was young Chris packs his gear. Come sit beside me / my only son A last look about the bus.248 EXT. SUSHANA RIVER - DAY 248 Listen closely / what I say 134. Full pack and rifle mounted in WIDE SHOT beside the Sushana River. If you do this it will help you / some sunny day249 EXT. ALASKA TRAIL - DAY 249 MUSIC CONTINUES OVER: A SERIES OF ANGLES: Just take your time / don't live too fast We pass the familiar landmark of the Mt. McKinley clearing where Chris had camped. Troubles w ill come / and they will pass Chris walking and camping his way back to the Teklanika River and the road home. Find a woman / you'll find love and don't forget son / there's someone up above... MUSIC FADES OUT CUT TO:250 EXT. TEKLANIKA RIVER - DAY 250 In the trees beside the river, we find Chris. The river is not yet in sight but Chris starts to HEAR it: A building rumble. As Chris exits the treeline, there she is: The Teklanika at full flood. Seventy-five foot wide banks, replacing the narrow ice canal of four months earlier. Snowmelt from glaciers high in the Alaska range, its opaque glacial sediment the color of wet concrete. And what had been a distant rumble in the woods, now had the volume and power of a freight train, a seventy-five foot wide one. Chris grabs a hold of a riverside branch and takes one slow, careful step into the river. Without mercy, WHAM! the river kicks his feet out from under him! The branch he holds SNAPS! By some miracle, his hands move like lightening and he grabs a lower, sturdier branch below, saving himself from a certain death. 135. We SEE the broken branch catapulted down river and into a rocky shoot below. He pulls himself back onto the bank, drops his pack at riverside, and eases to a sitting position beside it. CUT TO:251 INT. BUS - NIGHT 251 It's pouring rain outside. The rain pelts the top of the bus. Chris' pack is thrown onto the bunk. His hand appears at the diary/log on the wall. He writes: DAY 82 - DISASTER. RAINED IN. RIVER CROSSING IMPOSSIBLE. LONELY, SCARED. CUT TO:252 EXT. BUS, THE EDGE OF ITS SURROUNDING CLEARING - DAY 252 EXTREME CU: Beaded and shimmering from the past night's rain, a bright red berry moves in the breeze like a tiny vibrating bell. RACK FOCUS to Chris' eyes spying it. He plucks it from its stem. CUT TO:253 EXT. BUS - DAY 253 Chris adds another hole to tighten his belt. CUT TO:254 INT. BUS - DAY 254 Chris looking very thin. Too thin. He is noshing on a bag of collected berries while reading from Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago. ANGLE: The book CHRIS (V.O.)(O.C.) Here she stopped and, closing her eyes, took a deep breath of the flower-scented air of the broad expanse around her. It was dearer to her than her kin, better than a lover, wiser than a book. 136. ANGLE: Chris pulls more berries from the bag and chews on them as he reads. ANGLE: The book CHRIS (V.O.)(O.C.) (CONT'D) For a moment, she re-discovered the purpose of her life. She was here in earth to grasp the meaning of its wild enchantment and call each thing by its right name. ANGLE: Chris CHRIS (CONT'D) (echoing) By its right name. By its right name. He puts down the book and brings one of the ripe berries in front of his face (as close as shot of when he picked it.) Chris then grabs Tanaina Plantlore, the flora and fauna book he had gotten from the library in Fairbanks. And it takes him out of the bus like a divining rod. His nose in the book, he follows it. CUT TO:255 EXT. BUS - DAY 255 Plant to plant. Bush to bush. SPEAKING ALOUD the names of everything he sees as he identifies them with the book. CHRIS Beautiful blueberries - Vaccinium uliginosum. Eskimo potato - Hedysarum alpinum...etc. We follow Chris over a number of days as he eats from these identified species of plant, each being logged, one by one by name on the bus diary/log. CUT TO: 137.256 EXT. SUSHANA RIVER - DAY 256 With Tanaina Plantlore by his side, Chris digs into the soft earth on the berm of the river bank and digs up a wild potato root. CUT TO:257 INT. BUS - NIGHT 257 Chris pulls the seeds from the root, noshing on them as he reads from Doctor Zhivago. We drift from him reading to the diary/log on the wall. The day representing: July 24th The diary/log: WILD POTATO ROOT We drift back to Chris. Fatigue shows in his eyes as he puts the book down and lays down to sleep. CUT TO:258 EXT. BUS - MORNING (JULY 30 1992) 258 WIDE SHOT of the bus. It's a beautiful July morning. Birds chirp in the trees. A soft breeze sweeping down from the mountains massages the valley below. We SLOWLY ZOOM into the bus. CUT TO:259 INT./EXT. BUS - SAME 259 The open bag of seeds beside Chris' sleeping body. We drift over to Chris' face, his lips de-hydrated, and skin parched. He breathes heavily. He awakens. He tries to sit up. It's a terrible struggle. Barely makes it to his feet. Chris stumbles to the door of the bus, looking up at the hot sun. He has to sit back down on the small bus steps. From his position on the step, he leans back into the bus and is able to grab his water jug. He pours it into his mouth but nothing seems to satiate or hydrate him. He drinks it all. It spills over his face and chest. 138. We observe Chris for a moment as the wheels turn inside his haunted eyes. And a curiosity seems to overtake him. He crawls back to his copy of Tanaina Plantlore, flipping the pages one by one until he arrives at the photograph identifying the wild potato root and the word "edible" beside it. He reads the page to its conclusion and as almost an afterthought, turns the page to see if there might be more. The word - POISON jumps off the page at him. The book describes the tiny green seeds of the potato root and warns that those with: lateral veins, such as those invisible on the leaflets of wild sweet peas are poisonous. The words - ...leading to partial motor paralysis... ...inhibition of digestion... ...nausea, starvation... ECU: ...STARVATION CRASH ZOOM into Chris' face, realizing his desperate plight. CUT TO:260 EXT. BUS 260 Chris kneels, holding one of the potato seeds to the sunlight and there we see them - the lateral veins that indicate poisonous seeds. CUT TO:261 INT. BUS 261 ANGLE: The diary/log: EXTREMELY WEAK. FAULT OF POTATO SEED. CUT TO: 139.262 EXT. BUS - DAY 262 Chris, barely able to walk, moves, at the pace of an elderly man, with his rifle, through the underbrush. He needs food now. CUT TO:263 EXT. WOODS - DAY 263 He shoots a squirrel. But as he moves toward what he thinks is his kill, the squirrel makes off with a bleeding tail. Chris fires several desperate shots at the squirrel but misses with each one. CUT TO:264 INT. BUS - NIGHT 264 Chris, having a fitful sleep. Short breaths and mutterings. CUT TO:265 EXT. CLEARING AROUND BUS - NIGHT 265 A big moon shines above and we find on a tree branch, the squirrel Chris had clipped in the tail earlier in the day. On the last legs of bleeding to death, it falls from the tree. The moon becomes the sun and we pass a couple of days through visions of the nature about in varying light. CUT TO:266 EXT. SUSHANA RIVER - DAY 266 Chris labors up the riverbank with his water jug full. He is shirtless and absolutely emaciated. Frightening. He pauses at the river's edge to take air into his lungs. It's all he can do just to breath. WIDE ANGLE TABLEAU (CONTINUOUS): Chris standing at the river's edge catching his breath framed against the background of the 3000 foot butte that he'd so recently climbed with ease. 140. Now, maintaining this tableau, something moves from near CAMERA RIGHT into frame. Bit by bit we'll realize it's a LARGE BEAR ENTERING FRAME and moving away from camera toward Chris. It lumbers to within feet of him. CU OVER BEAR onto Chris: Chris, passive to the bear's presence. ANGLE: The bear, just as passive towards Chris, as though he didn't represent enough of anything to eat. BACK TO TABLEAU as the bear, passing Chris, disappears over the rise toward the river. Chris, a motionless and slight silhouette. CUT TO:266A INT. BUS - NIGHT 266A Chris lays on the floor. CU Chris: Orange light twinkles in his eyes. Chris' POV: through the bus window, we see the orange glow of smoke rising into the air. CU: Chris writes in his diary log. CHRIS (V.O.) Set small signal fire today - watched it die tonight. Back to POV as the ambient orange light fades into the blackness of smoke. CUT TO:267 INT. BUS - DAY 267 The diary/log: DAY 100 - MADE IT. BUT IN WEAKEST CONDITION OF LIFE. TOO WEAK TO WALK OUT. HAVE LITERALLY BECOME TRAPPED IN THE WILD - NO GAME IN SIGHT. A SUBTLE DRUM (HEART)BEAT BEGINS OVER: Chris plops himself down into the middle of the bus. He shakes his head as if trying to say something, and then considers his rifle and abundant ammunition. But taking his own life to avoid the agony of starvation is not an option for him. "No, no, no, don't do this to me." The frustration builds enough adrenaline in him to scream out. 141.He does, but with a low, gurgled animal sound. He shakesit off and looks to his copy of Doctor Zhivago fordistraction. Thumbing through the pages he focuses hiseyes on the page -ANGLE: The page: what he reads: CHRIS (V.0)(O.C.) And that an unshared happiness is not happiness...Chris steals his pencil from within the pages of thebook, scribbling across the page: CHRIS (V.O.)(O.C.) (CONT'D) HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED.He flips backwards a couple of pages to where he hadwritten the quote: CHRIS (V.O.)(O.C.) (CONT'D) CALL EVERYTHING BY ITS RIGHT NAME.He tears the back cover off the book and scratching thepencil across its blank side, writing these wordsquickly, as if in panic:I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE ANDMAY GOD BLESS ALL!And now, these words arrive slowly as we HEAR Chrisrepeating: CHRIS (O.C.) (CONT'D) (with a weak voice) Call everything by its right name.The drumbeat increases as he signs the note:CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON MCCANDLESS.We move from the page back up to Chris. We see that hehas put on his eyeglasses to strengthen the vision of hisweakening sight. He removes them, folds them, and laysthem by his side. His body begins to tremble. His eyesdance wildly.The drumming intensifies.Chris takes one last look out the window. The sun iscovered by a well-defined and puffy cloud. 142. His arm nearing spasm reaches up to the bunk, grasping at the blue sleeping bag made by his mother. With great suffering and shattering trembles, he forces his body to defy its agony and pushes it into the sleeping bag. SKYWARD, the cloud obscuring the sun. Drumbeats ESCALATE - BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! We TIGHTEN on Chris' anguished face. (Director's note: These CU's on Chris' face, combine both static and hand-held CUs, upside down and right-side up moving, zooms, and push-ins. Straight, side, and dutch angles. Perhaps some intermittent distortion.)268 INT./EXT. BUS 268 * We INTERCUT between Chris and the sky in a dance transitioning to the next world. It is hopeful, anguished, sad, and elated. 143.269 INT./EXT. ANNANDALE HOUSE - DAY 269 Chris, approaching the Annandale house. His backpack on and body healthy. Billie parts the curtains, ecstatic to see Chris approach, alive and healthy. We SEE but do not hear her call to Walt. A smiling Chris steps up the curb, approaching home. Walt and Billie - we PUSH INTO them as they gleefully run out the front door to their returning son. PUSH INTO Chris - he dispatches his backpack to the ground and runs toward his parents' embrace. CHRIS (V.O.) What if you saw me running into your arms... Chris, Walt, and Billie on the cusp of a jubilant and loving embrace! CHRIS (V.O.) (CONT'D) Would you see then... The DRUMMING resumes with a BLAST OF BASS and before an embrace is possible... CHRIS (V.O.) (CONT'D) ...what I see now? A SUDDEN CUT TO:270 INT. BUS 270 TOTAL SILENCE Chris looking at the sky, a cathartic tear falls from his left eye. Another from his right as the obscuring cloud clears the sun. 144.Chris: The LAST, AIRY EXPULSION OF HIS BREATH.His open face as the clearing light of the sun shines inhis eyes. It is a face of peace, love, a face of true,deep serenity.The eyes joyously open and the corners of his mouth easeinto the subtle smile of euphoric wisdom.That's the way he settles to stillness, looking directlyinto our camera. And he died alive.He made it. He lived. He loved.Cat Stevens' Miles from Nowhere plays OVER:As we PULL AWAY from Chris' face through the bus windowand up into the sky -We drift further and further away, above the stuntedtrees and the shimmering roof of the bus like a tinywhite gleam in a wild green sea grows smaller andsmaller.REPRISE IMAGE of truck driver taking picture of Chris inscene #1.Then it's him:The smiling STILL IMAGE we saw taken in the first scenefrom behind, but now we are seeing it from the front andit is the image of the real Christopher McCandless on theedge of the Stampede Trail. As it takes over the screen,we ZOOM SLOWLY into his smiling face. And then, thesewords appear superimposed over it:Dedicated to the memory of Christopher Johnson McCandlessFebruary 12, 1968 - August 18th, 1992As those words dissolve, these words appear:On September 19, 1992, Carine McCandless flew with herbrother's ashes from Alaska home to the eastern seaboard.She carried them with her on the plane...in her backpack. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Intolerable Cruelty.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Intolerable Cruelty.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..90dfa08352e5fccf232b5fb8fb4e194a3f7a9a59 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Intolerable Cruelty.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + "INTOLERABLE CRUELTY" Screenplay by Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone Ethan Coen & Joel Coen Based on a story by Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone and John Romano FIRST DRAFT 3/25/97 BEVERLY HILLS STREET - NIGHT It is late night, and deserted. Engine noise approaches; headlights appear; as the car draws closer we hear singing. It is a Mercedes convertible and as it roars by, the singing -- a sloppy baritone and a giggling soprano -- whooshes by with it. We hold as another car approaches. This one is a conservative sedan, whose occupant does not sing. INSIDE THE CONVERTIBLE The middle-aged driver is in a tuxedo with a rumpled shirt and cocked bow tie. He is flushed, a Rogue forelock bouncing over his forehead, and he merrily sings "Casey Jones" along with the passenger, a young woman in a party dress who squeals, rocks with the motion of the car, and enthusiastically pipes in on the chorus. ANOTHER EMPTY STREET The convertible makes a hot turn onto the street and approaches with its singing. REVERSE The car enters and roars away. After a beat of quiet, the conservative sedan enters and recedes. BEACH We are at the Malibu Guest Quarters Motel. The singing, squealing Mercedes screeches into the lot and rocks to a halt. The young woman staggers out still giggling, and holding a half-empty bottle of champagne. The man tosses her a key with a large plastic tag. MAN Number Seven. She trots away. The man twists his rear-view mirror to look at himself. He straightens his bow tie. He puffs his bounding forelock with one finger, nods his head to make it bounce, grins approvingly, and cocks a pistol-finger at his own reflection. MAN Zing! MOTEL ROOM The man enters and looks around. The young woman's dress is tossed onto the bed but she is nowhere to be seen. The man pulls an imaginary train whistle. MAN Choo! Choo!... He looks around, in a closet, under the bed. MAN I'm a locomotive, baby! I'm the Wabash cannonball! I'm a hunka-hunka burninnnnn' love! I got fire in my boiler and a fuh -- a fuh -- He is reacting to a long leg which pokes out from behind the window curtain. A salacious smiles spreads across his lips. He pulls on the cord to draw back the curtain and reveal the young woman in red panties and a bra and a saucily cocked conductor's cap. YOUNG WOMAN Tickets, please. The man is stripping off his clothes. MAN Excuse me, Miss, is this the train to Ecsssstasy? YOUNG WOMAN Pull in your ears, Rexie -- you're comin' to a tunnel! Rex lunges at the young woman and they tumble onto the bed just as -- CRASH -- the door is kicked open and a short stocky black man built like a bulldog and wearing a porkpie hat rushes into the room with a video camera glued to his eye. He looks like Clarence Thomas with a mustache. MAN I'm gonna nail your ass! The young woman screams, clutching the sheets to her naked bosom. Rex leaps from the bed, still clad only in his chemindefer boxers, and darts around the room seeking egress. The man with the video charges around the room following Rex THE VIDEO IMAGE Rex is stumbling around the room in a panic, looking for his clothing. The camera swish-pans back to the young woman still screaming in the bed. MAN I'm gonna nail your ass!! We swish-pan back to Rex as he bends over to pick up his trousers, mooning us. MAN I'm gonna nail your ass! PULL BACK FROM THE VIDEO IMAGE To reveal that we are in the detective -- Gus Petch's -- office. GUS I nailed his ass. Faintly, from the television monitor we hear screaming and mayhem. WOMAN'S VOICE Trains... THE WOMAN Watching the monitor, MARYLIN REXROTH is a sensual beauty, with intelligence and class. She watches the monitor without expression. MARYLIN ...I thought he'd outgrown trains. Gus Petch sits behind a desk. GUS They never grow-up, lady. They just get tubby. Me, I've always had ample proportions. But it's all muscle -- I'm hard as a rock. I'm not on of these cream puff sit-behind-a desk private dicks; I'm an assnailer MARYLIN So I see. Faintly, from the monitor: VOICE I'm gonna nail your ass. We hear the Young Woman SQUEAL. Marylin reacts. MARYLIN Hard to believe that's the best he could do. GUS Probably you're the best he could do. MARYLIN Oh. Thank you. GUS You're takin' it pretty well. I seen 'em weep like they'd hired me to prove their husbands weren't fooling around. And I seen 'em celebrate. Like I just handed 'em a winning lottery ticket. Marylin turns her attention back to the screen. MARYLIN I'm just enjoying the movie. TRACKING SHOT All from the perspective of a moving automobile. The moving shots show mansions, palm trees, boutiques; we pass joggers, strolling businessmen holding cellular phones to their ears, male models working as waiters at sidewalk cafes, young women on roller blades who turn, smile, and wave at the camera. It is la dolce vita Los Angeles style. THE DRIVER A handsome, fortyish man in a town car talks into cellular phone. This is MILES MASSEY. MILES -- hello Marjory, any messages? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Have Wrigley look up Oliphant v. Oliphant for its relevance to the Chapman filing. She took the kids where? Tahoe? Which side of Tahoe. Great. If the cruise goes all the way around the lake, she left the state and she's in breach. She can't leave the state. Tell Wrigley to prepare a filing to attach everything. Primary residence, autos, stocks... (Beat) Sure. Put him through. (Beat) Hello Ross. What? She's sleeping with the nanny? Well, you're separated. She can sleep with -- is this the one you slept with? Oh. A guy? Interesting career choice. Hmmm? Yes. I know you want her dead. Everyone in your tax bracket wants their ex wives dead. EXT. BEVERLY HILLS MANSE Rex is trying his key in the front door of his house. Finding it doesn't, work he rattles the knob, then leans on the doorbell. We hear distant chimes. REX Honey! ...Honey?! Finally, through the intercom: MARYLIN Rex. Get away from the door. REX Look, Marylin, can't we have a civilized discussion about this? MARYLIN We are. And it's winding down. REX But Marylin, you know a divorce would ruin me right now. Everything I have -- everything we have -- is tied up in my business. The business is my entire life. MARYLIN Are you forgetting about the Atcheson, Topeka and the Santa Fe? REX Marylin? MARYLIN Rex. Go away. I don't want to have to sic the dogs on you. REX Dogs? From inside the house we hear the menacing sound of LARGE DOGS BARKING. LETTERING On an interior wall; it says MASSEY, MEYERSON, SLOAN & GURALNICK. A pull back shows that we are in a waiting room, and a receptionist leans over her partition to chirp at Rex Rexroth. RECEPTIONIST Mr. Massey will be right with you. INT. MASSEY MEYERSON CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY Miles addresses a group of young Attorneys at the firm. MILES The problem is that everyone is willing to compromise. That's the problem with the institution of marriage -- it's based on compromise. Even through its dissolution. One attorney will try to score some points, the opposition will try to impeach. The process will find an equilibrium point determined by the skill of the opposing lawyers, and then each party will walk away with their portion of the "goodies." Some say, "Life is compromise." But at Massey Myerson we believe life is struggle and the ultimate destruction of your opponent. The Receptionist pokes her head into the conference room. RECEPTIONIST Your eleven o'clock is here. MILES Ladies and Gentlemen -- we will continue this at the Associates Meeting next Friday. In the meantime, I want you to consider this... Ivan the Terrible, Henry the VIII, Attila the Hun -- what did they have in common? As he exits. ASSOCIATE Middle names? MILES MASSEY'S OFFICE You may have seen it in the issue before last of "World of Interiors." There's a Rothko on the wall, an Elle Bleu humidor on the desk, peonies in the vase, and the diploma is from Yale. MILES Mr. Rexroth. REX Rex, please. MILES Miles Massey. Please sit, relax, and consider this office your office, your haven, your war room -- for the duration of the campaign. REX Thank you. MILES Now Rex. He leans back in the leather executive chair behind his desk, makes a steeple of his fingers, and dons his look of deepest concern. MILES -- Tell me your troubles. Rex, nervous, laughs ruefully. REX Jeez. Where do I start? Miles gives an encouraging, rueful smile in return. REX ...Well, my wife has me between a rock and a hard place. MILES That's her job. You have to respect that. REX When I first met Marylin -- Well, we were crazy about each other. Not emotionally, of course. We just couldn't keep our hands off each other. MILES Mm. REX But then... But then... Quietly. MILES Time marches on. Ardor cools. REX No. Not exactly. It didn't exactly cool. Marylin is a knock-out. And very sexy -- but -- there's a lot of it out there. MILES Ah. REX You know what I mean when I say "it." MILES Gotcha. No need to get anatomically correct with me, Rex. REX Seems like there's more of it than ever before -- MILES Well, with the expanding global population -- Let me ask you this -- your wife. Has she pursued the opportunities which must present themselves to the "knock-out, sexy woman" you described? REX I don't know. I can assume... MILES Not in court you can't. Has she retained counsel? REX I'm not sure. MILES And your wife is aware of or has evidence of your activities? REX Video. MILES Mmm... And to cut to the chase, forensically speaking -- is there a pre-nup? Rex hangs his head. Miles sighs sympathetically. MILES The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves. Well, let me ask you this: what kind of settlement do you seek? What are, for you, the parameters of the possible? REX That's the problem. I can't afford to give her anything. MILES Nothing? REX I know that sounds rough but I'm about to close on a deal to develop some mini-malls, and I'm mortgaged up to my ass. If this deal goes south, I'm ruined -- I'll lose millions. MILES So, you propose that in spite of demonstrable infidelity on your part, your unoffending wife should be tossed out on her ear? REX Well -- is that possible? Miles smiles at him. EXT. RUNNING PATH - SAN VICENTE BLVD. - MORNING Marylin power walks along the San Vicente Bike Path with her friends SARAH SORKIN and RAMONA BARCELONA. It's early, but the path is crowded with bikers, bladers, runners, power walkers, wheelchair racers etc. Ramona pushes her infant in a baby jogger. SARAH You want to come out to the beach house tomorrow? MARYLIN I didn't know Barry had a beach house. SARAH Neither did I until my lawyer found it -- quite a paper trail -- he had it in the dog's name. RAMONA (To Marylin) So who'd you hire? MARYLIN Ruth Rabino. SARAH She's a legend. Didn't she do Kravis or a Pearlman? She definitely did a Factor. MARYLIN She did a Harriman. SARAH Wow. MARYLIN In the words of my Private Investigator, we're going to nail his ass. RAMONA I've been trying to nail George's for years, but he's very careful. I'll just keep having children. I think I'm pregnant, by the way. SARAH Ramona! Don't get Mia Farrow on us. RAMONA Three is not Farrow. SARAH Who's Rex's guy? MARYLIN Miles Massey. SARAH Of Massey Myerson? MARYLIN Do you know him? SARAH By reputation. He got Ann Rumsey that cute little island of George's. RAMONA George was so impressed he hired him when he divorced his second. SARAH Muriel Rumsey. MARYLIN Who's she? SARAH Now? She's a night manager at McDonalds. RAMONA You should have tried to get pregnant Marylin -- solidify your position. MARYLIN No. RAMONA You like kids. MARYLIN I can't have a baby with a man I don't love... And I can't submit a child to divorce. SARAH It's not so bad these days. Kids like joint custody. Two sets of toys. RAMONA Maybe next time. MARYLIN Maybe. SARAH We do have a man for you. RAMONA Thorstenson Gieselensen. He just separated from his third. He's in fish. He is fish. SARAH She's keeping his name. And one of his planes. And all seven of his children RAMONA And only two are hers. MARYLIN Please. I'm not seeing anyone until this is over. One husband at a time. SARAH I wish I had your discipline. A COURTROOM We are close on the person on the witness stand, a woman in her 60's. LAWYER Mrs. Guttman, you have testified that you were your husband's sexual slave for thirty-six years, ever since you were married -- WITNESS Except for two years when he was in the Navy, in Korea. LAWYER Prior to your marriage, what was your profession? WITNESS I was a hostess. For Trans-World Airlines. LAWYER What is your husband's profession? WITNESS He manufactures staples and industrial brad-tacks. He's very successful. JUMP BACK At the counsel's table in the foreground Miles chats, voice lowered with WRIGLEY, a boyish, bespectacled junior associate. Beyond them we see the woman on the witness stand continuing her testimony. WRIGLEY Wait... He wants to give her...? MILES Nothing. WRIGLEY And she has...? MILES Video. WRIGLEY What the fuck...? Miles turns to Wrigley with a look of indignation. He gestures to their surroundings. MILES Wrigley! WRIGLEY Sorry. MILES Sometimes I have serious doubts about you. WRIGLEY I am very sorry. MILES Am I mentoring the wrong mentee? WRIGLEY No. You're not. MILES I could be mentoring Kramer. Kramer clerked for Scalia. Wrigley looks suicidal. BACKGROUND LAWYER (O.S.) Couldn't you simply walk away from this abusive relationship? WOMAN No, he had the videos... MILES Anyway, I need a challenge. This -- He waves dismissively at the courtroom. MILES -- is not a challenge. I need something I can sink my teeth into, professionally speaking. WOMAN He would invite these girls home from the staple factory to our condominium in Palm Springs. He had a device he called the Intruder. JUDGE Mr. Massey! I ask again, if you have any questions for the complainant. MILES I'm sorry, your honor, I was just conferring with my associate... He rises. MILES Now then, Mrs. Guttman. Do you know a gentleman named Morris Rudnick? MRS. GUTTMAN Well, yes, Morris is my accountant. MILES (sadly) Accountant. He reaches back and Wrigley puts a manila file in his hand. MILES We would like to offer these photographs into evidence... WAITING ROOM - MASSEY MEYSERSON The receptionist leans over her partition to chirp at Marylin and her attorney Ruth Rabinow. Ruth is a sturdy woman in her late 60's. If Mrs. Guttman had gone to law school... RECEPTIONIST Mr. Massey will see you now. CONFERENCE ROOM In the middle of the Massy Meyerson conference table is a large fruit and pastry plate. The door swings open. Miles rises. MILES ...Ruth! They shake hands. MILES -- Ruth Rabinow, this is Rex Rexroth. And you must be Mrs. Rexroth. MARYLIN And you must be Mr. Massey. They appraise each other for a beat. They are impressed and, they are impressive. As they settle in: MARYLIN (Sadly) Hello, Rex. REX Marylin. MARYLIN Are you alright? You lost weight. REX My whole metabolism is -- off. Miles has been staring at Marylin. She notices this, and smiles shyly. He snaps out of it. MILES So, Ruth. How's Sam? RUTH Sam is Sam. He's taking up fly fishing. He's in a yert in Montana. MILES A yert. (To Rex) Ruth is a living legend, Rex. At a time when most women are in Boca, having early bird specials -- she's working so her husband can be in Montana. In a yert. REX What's a yert? RUTH (Dryly) I ran into your mother at the radiologist last week. MILES What?! RUTH Oh, just a routine mammogram. She said to say hello. She's going to Positano with your brother's family. A tight, terse smile from Miles. MILES How nice. MARYLIN Positano is beautiful. Remember when we were there, Rex? We stayed in the Santo Pietro? That hotel on the cliff? REX Yeah. They drift for a moment. RUTH So, Miles. If you have a proposal, let's hear it. MILES At this point my client is still prepared to consider reconciliation. RUTH My client has ruled that out. MILES My client is prepared to entertain an amicable dissolution of the marriage without prejudice. RUTH That's delusional. MILES My client proposes a thirty day cooling off period. RUTH My client feels sufficiently dispassionate. MILES My client asks that you not initiate proceedings pending his setting certain affairs in order. RUTH Ha Ha. MILES (conceding the point) Heh heh. REX What's so goddamn funny? Miles lays a hand on his arm. MILES Please -- let me handle this. He puts the clipboard away and looks carefully at Ruth. MILES -- So much for the icebreakers. What're you after, Ruth? RUTH My client is prepared to settle for fifty percent of the marital assets. MILES Why only fifty percent, Ruth? Why not ask for a hundred percent? RUTH Oh brother. Here we go. MILES Why not a hundred and fifty percent? RUTH Yes. Maybe you're right, Miles. Maybe we're being too conservative. Seventy five percent. Rex winces. Rubs his stomach. Marylin leans forward and whispers to him. MARYLIN Do you need a Tagamet? REX You have some? She removes a pack of the tablets from her purse, along with several vials of prescription drugs. MARYLIN These are yours. MILES Not according to Mrs. Rabinow. She hands the pills to a grateful Rex. Their hands touch for a moment. MARYLIN Have you been taking your digestive enzymes? REX (Contrite) Sometimes I forget. She looks at him like a concerned parent. Miles and Ruth watch the interaction. MARYLIN (To the attorneys) I'm sorry. Where were we? RUTH We were about to request the primary residence, and thirty percent of the remaining assets. MILES Are you familiar with Kirshner? RUTH Kirshner does not apply. Kirshner was in Kentucky. REX What's Kirshner? MILES Please -- let me handle this. Okay, Ruth, forget Kirshner -- what's your bottom line? RUTH The primary residence and FORTY percent of the remaining assets. You're becoming tedious Miles. REX Aren't we going in the wrong direction? MILES Shhh. Please. Let me do my job. (To Ruth) Buy a clue, Ruthie. Have you forgotten about Kirshner? Ruth stands and closes her attachÈ case. RUTH See you at the preliminary. Miles calls to Ruth's retreating back. MILES Fine. We'll eat all the pastry. Going through the door, Ruth doesn't react, but Marylin following, glances back -- bemused, but with a trace of a smile. Rex swallows two more tablets. He sits, looking despondent. MILES I think that went as well as could be expected. REX She always looked out for me. MILES And she had private investigators assisting her. REX (Sentimental) She brought my digestive enzymes. MILES In anticipation of making you sick. REX Maybe I should reconsider my... Miles looks at him. Shakes his head, sadly. MILES A superficial display of marital solicitude, and you lose your resolve? Rex. I underestimated you. But I'm your attorney, and if you choose to reward her for that mediocre charade of spousal concern... He shrugs, helplessly. REX You're right. Screw her. INT. GYM - CLOSE ON A woman walking across a gymnasium floor. Suddenly, she's assaulted by a huge, grotesquely garbed assailant. His sweats barely cover his massive, overdeveloped musculature. On his head, a ski mask stretches over a padded football helmet. He grabs the woman, yanks her back towards him. She reacts swiftly. With a ferocious "NO," she stomps on his foot, and smashes him in the face. The mugger raises his hands in a gesture of submission. APPLAUSE We pull back and see that we are in a Self Defense Class. Two instructors, two "muggers" and ten women students all wearing T-shirts with the words IMPACT-Personal Safety. Marylin and Sarah sit against the wall. MARYLIN I don't know what his game is. He dismissed every one of Ruth's proposals. And Sarah, we weren't unreasonable. SARAH Well what does he want? MARYLIN I don't know. Ruth kept her cool, but I could tell she was surprised. SARAH He has a reputation for being tough. Marylin watches as a new "victim" begin her walk across the gym. MARYLIN (Grinning) Lilly's up. SARAH Oh, God! The mugger emerges from his station and makes his way toward the "victim." She glances over her shoulder, and at the sight of the monster bearing down on her, screams and runs to the exit. Marylin and Sarah giggle, but reproachful looks from the other students force them to affect concerned looks. MARYLIN (Whispers) Every week -- SARAH I'm dying. The two Instructors and the Mugger try to coax the sobbing woman back into the room. They clasp her in an empathic group hug. MARYLIN Anyway, even Rex seemed perplexed by his intransigence. If I didn't know better, I'd swear Massey had some personal investment in my ruination. SARAH So where are you now? MARYLIN Well, if he continues to maintain this position -- we're in court. SARAH Shit. MARYLIN Get this! He called and invited me to dinner. The INSTRUCTOR, a vivacious phys ed major, approaches Marylin. INSTRUCTOR Marylin? Ready. MARYLIN Huh? Oh, yeah. Sure. Marylin gets up and coolly walks to center stage, passing the traumatized Lilly. SARAH That's completely odd. Marylin begins the Victim walk. The Mugger quickly moves up from the rear. MARYLIN (To Sarah) I know. That's why I accepted. Find out what's up with this clown. The Mugger is upon her. He grabs her hair. She stomps his foot, and smoothly wheels around SMASHING him in the nose with her elbow, while KNEEING HIM in the groin. The women Cheer. INSTRUCTOR That was excellent, Marylin. But you forgot to yell "no." MARYLIN Ah. (Calmly, to the Mugger) No. CUT TO: ELEGANT RESTAURANT - EVENING Miles rises from his seat as Marylin enters. MILES Mrs. Rexroth. Thank you for coming. The Maitre d' is pulling out a chair for her. MARYLIN I have to admit. I was curious. And hungry. MAITRE D' Something to start? Some wine, perhaps? Miles glances at the wine list. MILES French? (She smiles) Bordeaux? Hmmm. Chateau Margaux '57. Miles nods at the maitre d' who returns the nod and withdraws. MARYLIN I assume this is on Rex? MILES Isn't everything? Miles regards her. MILES Your husband told me you were beautiful, but I was unprepared. MARYLIN "Dismiss your vows, your feigned tears, your flattery, for where a heart is hard, they make no battery." Miles leans back, props his chin on one fist, and considers her. MILES Simon & Garfunkel? She laughs. MILES Do you have a hard heart, Marylin. MARYLIN Did you see the tape? MILES Not yet. MARYLIN See the tape. Then we can discuss my heart. A waiter appears and pour a taste of wine which Miles sips and -- He nods at the waiter who pours two glasses. MARYLIN Tell me Mr. Massey. What was your performance about this afternoon? MILES What does your lawyer think? MARYLIN Ruth says you've been too successful, that you're bored, complacent, and you're on your way down. MILES But you don't agree? MARYLIN How do you know? MILES Why would you be here? MARYLIN I told you. I was hungry. FLAP a menu enters frame. It is handed to Marylin; another is handed to Miles. MILES I'll have the tournedos of beef. And the lady will have the same? (To Marylin) I assume you're a carnivore. MARYLIN I know you do. She addresses the waiter. MARYLIN Risotto with white truffles, please. Miles looks at her with appreciation. MILES "Who ever lov'd that lov'd not at first sight?" MARYLIN You didn't ask me here to pick me up. You could get in trouble for that. MILES Not really. You're not my client. Freedom of association. Big issue with the First Amendment fans. Want to go to Hawaii for the weekend? MARYLIN Have you ever been married, Miles? MILES No. MARYLIN You don't believe in it. MILES As a matter of fact, I'm a huge fan. MARYLIN You just haven't met the right person. MILES No. I haven't. Have you? She regards him for a moment. MARYLIN All right, Miles. Let me tell you everything you THINK you know. I was married to Rex for a long time. I was an excellent wife, a partner, a lover, a hostess and a friend. There was only one thing I did wrong during the five years we were together. I got five years older. Think he should be able to ditch me for that? MILES He wants a reconciliation. MARYLIN See the tape. Then we can discuss reconciliation. Rex screwed up and I nailed his ass. Now I'm going to have it mounted and have my girlfriends over to throw darts at it. Then I'm getting on with my life. That's all I'm after. MILES Gotcha. MARYLIN What is it you're after, Miles? MILES Oh, I'm a lot like you -- just looking for an ass to mount. MARYLIN Well, don't look at mine! VOICE (O.S.) Oyez. Oyez. Family court for the fifth district of Los Angeles County is now in session. COURT ROOM A large black woman in judicial robes and raiment enters from behind the Solomonic Platform. CLERK -- The Honorable Marva Munson presiding. All rise. Massey, Wrigley, and Rex Rexroth in between, rise. Rex and Wrigley remain respectfully standing, facing forward, as they whisper out of the side of their mouths: REX Have you sat before her before? Wrigley considers. WRIGLEY -- the judge sits. We argue. We argue before her. She sits before us. REX Okay. Has she sat before you before? WRIGLEY You can't sit before her. That's the rule! She sits before we argue! Miles glances over and hisses: MILES Shut! Up! A GAVEL CRASHES LATER We are on a close lateral track of the jurors faces as they sit, with earphones on, in the darkened courtroom, illuminated by a flickering TV monitor. Leaking tinnily through the headsets we hear a very faint: VOICE I'm gonna nail your ass. The track ends over at Marylin's table, where Marylin also wearing headphones, looks on with studied stoicism. Ruth lays a consoling hand on her shoulder. LATER Marylin Rexroth now struggles to maintain her composure on the witness stand. She is modestly dressed and her attitude is one of shocked, wounded innocence. MARYLIN I was devastated. Of course. RUTH Thank you, Mrs. Rexroth. JUDGE Mr. Massey, any questions? Miles soberly rises. MILES Mmmm -- He paces, hands clasped behind his back, affecting to be lost in thought. Marylin watches him. Finally Miles, still pacing, declaims: MILES "Dismiss your vows, your feigned tears, your flattery, for where a heart is hard, they make no battery..." Marylin looks up from her handkerchief with a look of startled irritation. Miles stops pacing and turns to face her with a faint smile. MILES Do you know those lines, Mrs. Rexroth? Marylin examines him with guarded eyes. Ruth sensing something unscripted going on, tries to cut it off. RUTH Objection, your honor! JUDGE Grounds? RUTH Uh... poetry recitation. MILES Let me rephrase. Mrs. Rexroth, how high is that wall around your heart? Marylin eyes him suspiciously. RUTH Your honor, this is harassment! Arid frankly it's still a little... She flutters one hand. RUTH ...arty farty! MILES Rephrase. Mrs. Rexroth, have you ever been in love? Marylin hesitates, gives a "what does this mean look" to Ruth. She returns a "beats me." MARYLIN Yes. I loved my husband, Rex. MILES And you've always loved him? Smiles slips out: MARYLIN "Who ever lov'd that lov'd not at first sight?" Miles returns a fleeting smile. MILES And you hoped to spend the rest of your life with him? MARYLIN Yes. Why is that so difficult for you to understand? She looks at Rex with tender sorrow. MARYLIN Rex was -- is -- a very appealing man. I am sorry I couldn't... (Tearing up) I tried my best. Miles almost smiles. She's good. MILES That'll be all Mrs. Rexroth. Please forgive me for causing you additional anguish. (To the Judge) Thank you, Your Honor. No further questions. A Bailiff offers to help Marylin off the stand. She politely and courageously declines. JUDGE Who's next, Mrs. Rabinow. RUTH We rest, Your Honor. JUDGE Mr. Massey? MILES Yes, Your honor. I call Patricia Kennedy DeCordoba Isenberg. BAILIFF Patricia Kennedy DeCordoba Isenberg. Marylin, in the process of reseating herself behind her table, pauses. Ruth notices this and leans in. RUTH Who's that? MARYLIN Jesus. An attractive woman in her mid fifties advances to be sworn. She was a beauty, but her glory days are past and she's not taking it well. She looks tense and slightly hypo-manic. She speaks in a breathy, giggly voice, and smiles frequently for no apparent reason. BAILIFF Mrs. Isenberg. PATRICIA Banderas. BAILIFF Mrs. Banderas, do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God? PATRICIA Yes, Mr. Bailiff. I do. MILES Now, Mrs. Banderas. What is your relationship to Mrs. Rexroth. PATRICIA We don't have much of a relationship anymore. I haven't seen her since before she married Rex. We had some very nice times prior to that. We were quite close. RUTH (To Marylin) Is this a lover? MARYLIN Please! MILES And how would you define your relationship to Mrs. Rexroth. You know -- you are her...? PATRICIA Mother? RUTH What?! Marylin sighs. MILES Her Mother? Patricia smiles coyly. Gives Marylin a silly little wave by way of greeting. PATRICIA Hi, Sweetie. MILES Hard to believe I know. I'm sure you are frequently mistaken for sisters. MARYLIN (Mumbles) He'll regret this. MILES Have you ever met Mr. Rexroth? PATRICIA No. I haven't. But I've been out of town. (Little girlish wave) Hello, Rex. Hello there. MILES You were never invited to meet your son-in-law? PATRICIA No. Uh uh. I don't think so. Hmm? No. Well... no. RUTH Objection, Your Honor. This isn't about Mrs. Rexroth's filial obligations. JUDGE Sustained. MILES Did you know Mrs. Rexroth was married? PATRICIA Of course. Of course she was married. What else would she be? Single? I don't think so. She laughs merrily at some private joke between her and her psyche. PATRICIA Let me tell you something about Patty. MILES Who's "Patty." PATRICIA Oh. That's her name. Patricia. Like mine. I was Pat and she was Patty. But she changed it after seeing "Some Like It Hot." To Marylin. After Marylin Monroe. MILES I see. And what were you going to tell us about Patty slash Marylin? PATRICIA When she was a tiny girl? And people asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up? She never said the usual things little girls say -- like -- nurse -- ballerina -- anchorwoman? She always said -- (Very Shirley Temple) "When I grow up, I want to be divorced." She laughs happily at the memory. MILES Divorce was her childhood aspiration? PATRICIA Well, not just divorce. She used to say "I want to be divorced from some big dumb rich guy..." And I guess her dream is coming true. (To Marylin) I'm happy for you Patty INT. SARAH SORKIN'S BEACH HOUSE - NIGHT Pasta being cooked. Salad being tossed. Wine glasses are filled. It's Girl's Night at the beach. MARYLIN It was like that scene in The Godfather. Frankie Pentangeli is called to testify against the Family. And he's in court, and he looks into the spectators gallery, and sees his Brother. They brought the brother from Sicily. And Frankie can't say a word. He can't testify. That's what it was like seeing Pat in there. I couldn't even have Ruth cross examine her. RAMONA Why do you think she did it? MARYLIN (Shrugs) Maybe she wanted a free trip to LA. Maybe they offered her money. Massey is very seductive. Who knows. RAMONA Maybe they put a horse head in her bed? SARAH That stinks. They left you with absolutely nothing. It makes you wonder about the entire legal system. Like Rodney King. MARYLIN They bought her speech. If I was only in it for Rex's money, he shouldn't have to give me any. RAMONA That doesn't make sense. It's like punishing you for being goal oriented. SARAH Well, you can live here as long as you want. Do you have any plans? MARYLIN Nothing specific, but I'll have my own place soon. SARAH So, Marylin. Is that what you said when you were a little girl? MARYLIN Probably. Every woman in my life was divorced at least twice. What was I supposed to say. Anthropologist? RAMONA I begged you to have a baby! MARYLIN In the Godfather, after the courtroom scene, Frankie Pentangeli opens his veins in the bathtub. SARAH You're not... MARYLIN No. I'll see some blood before this is over, but it won't be mine. CUT TO: INT. GIANT MOCK TUDOR - BEVERLY HILLS Miles is at his weekly chess game with his college friend, DR. KENNETH BECK, a disaffected plastic surgeon. Miles, Cohiba in hand, studies the board. Dr. Ken sips his Merlot. Moves a piece. MILES She got absolutely nothing. Zero. Zip. KENNETH So. I won't be seeing her? Your clients usually visit me after the settlement. MILES Not this one. Not unless her HMO covers plastic surgery, which, incidentally, she does not need. KENNETH Everyone needs plastic surgery. You need it. MILES I don't need it. KENNETH You want Botox? MILES What the hell is Botox? KENNETH It's a form of botulism. I just inject it into your forehead, and it paralyzes your eyebrows so you can't raise them... MILES Why in God's name would I want...? KENNETH No frown lines. (Notices Miles watch) New watch? MILES It's a LeCoultre Revers. You can flip the face, and set it for two time zones. KENNETH Why would you need two time zones? You never leave Beverly Hills. MILES It was a gift from a client. KENNETH Set one side for Bel Air. MILES Botox. Christ. We had aspirations when we were in college. KENNETH We did not. MILES You were going to be a Cardiac Surgeon. I was going to clerk for the Supreme Court. KENNETH I was going to play golf. You were going to have Asian girlfriends. MILES Denial is not a river in Egypt. Kenneth moves a chess piece. KENNETH You're in check. MILES I should be in therapy. INT. MILES MASSEY'S OFFICE Miles addresses BONNIE DONOVAN, a client. MILES Yes. Your husband did show remarkable foresight in taking those pictures. And, yes, absent a swimming pool, the presence of the pool man would appear to be suspicious. But Bonnie, who is the real victim here? Let me suggest the following. Your husband, who on a prior occasion slapped you -- beat you -- BONNIE (Reacts) Well, I wouldn't say -- MILES Your husband, who has beaten you -- repeatedly -- BONNIE He -- MILES Please -- was at the time brandishing your firearm, trying in his rage to shoot an acquaintance -- friend of long standing -- BONNIE They hate each other -- MILES So he says now! But if not for your cool headed intervention, his tantrum might have ended this schmoe's life and ruined his own... As for the sexual indiscretion which he imagined had taken place, wasn't it in fact he who had been sleeping with the pool man? He stares contemplatively at the ceiling and, after a beat, responds to the silence: MILES Am I going to far here? A squawk box interrupts with a female voice. VOICE Mr. Massey, Mr. Meyerson would like to see you when you have a moment. Miles is surprised. MILES Herb wants to see me? VOICE When you have a moment. INT. OFFICE Slatted shades are drawn against the sun. It is dim, gloomy. We can just make out the shape of an ancient man -- small, hunched -- seated behind an enormous desk. A gallows shape next to him is hard to make out; it is tall, rail thin and fixed with a swinging, glinting appendage. A voice -- old, dry, rasping, lightly accented of a long- gone Brooklyn boyhood -- seems disembodied and sourceless, as if it is the voice of the gloom itself. VOICE Thoity-six objections sustained, tree overruled; fawteen summary judgements sought, toiteen ranite, eighteen movments to voice fuh respondent's prejudice, eighteen ranite which is a hunnut pissent An arm is being extended toward us and the glinting appendage swings with it: we see that it is an IV which snakes down and into the hunched man's suit sleeve. VOICE -- Twelve cawt days on the Rexrawt case alone; tree hunut'n twenty billable hours paralegal soivicies; four hunnut'n two billable associate counsel and consultative; six hunnut'n eighty billable at full attorney rate and eightyfive lunches charged. Miles takes the man's offered hand, withered and roped with veins, and accepts its clammy shake. VOICE -- Counseluh, you are the engine that drives this foim -- He leans back in his chair, breathing heavily, and runs a tongue over his sandpapery lips. He is wearing oversize Swifty- Lazar style glasses, heavily tinted in spite of the dark. At length MILES Thank you Herb. INT. MILES OFFICE Miles sits behind his desk, fingers steepled, staring at nothing, a haunted look on his face. His intercom SQUAWKS: VOICE Mr. Massey -- MILES Please! No calls! I'm feeling very fragile. VOICE I'm sorry, Mr. Massey, but I felt certain you'd want to know -- Marylin Rexroth wants to see you. MILES Marylin Rexroth? When does she -- VOICE She's here now. INT. PRIVATE BATHROOM Miles runs his fingers through his hair, carefully examining himself in the mirror. Suavely smiling. MILES Marylin! How nice. He clears his throat, begins again with lower pitch, suave smile still in place MILES Marylin! How lovely, uh -- He runs a finger across his teeth, which squeak, then puts back the suave smile MILES -- Marylin! What a pleasure -- DOORWAY On Miles as he opens the door, suavely smiling. MILES Marylin, what a pleas -- who the fuck are you? Facing him in the doorway is a large roughly handsome middle aged man in a business suit. Just behind him is Marylin Rexroth, looking as coolly beautiful as ever. She smoothly puts in: MARYLIN Miles, how nice of you to see us -- may I introduce Howard D. Doyle of Doyle Oil. DOYLE I told you we know each other, baby. Mr. Massey represented my ex-brother- in law. Martin Reiser? MILES Oh. Right. Won't you have a seat? DOYLE (To Marylin) After you, Doll. Marylin glides into the office. Seats herself on the couch. Doyle sits next to her, one proprietary hand on her knee. MILES And how is Mrs. Reiser? DOYLE Few suicide attempts, little inpatient stint. Naturally, she misses her kids. Six weekends a year and alternate Yom Kippurs seemed harsh to us but -- hey -- all's fair. Anyhoo, she lives with a "nurse," takes her meds and goes to occupational therapy at a local sheltered workshop. MILES So she's uh, flourishing? DOYLE She makes felt wallets. Got one right here. Doyle pulls out a deranged piece of felt stuffed with money. Most of the contents slip to the floor. DOYLE Yeah. I know. Leather would be more practical, but whatcha gonna do? MARYLIN Miles, I know you're busy and that you charge by the hour so I'll come to the point. Howard and I are planning to marry. Miles is stunned. MILES Muh -- Well, uh -- Huh? DOYLE Yep. My divorce just came through. Shoulda called you. Coulda cut a better deal! My wife still has health insurance and gets to see the children. But, I don't know. Guess I'm just a softie. After all Amanda and me were together for -- what -- you'd know better than me, Marylin. She was your best friend. MARYLIN (Thinks) Sixteen years? Howard Jr. is fourteen and Mandy must be what -- twelve? DOYLE (To Miles) Here. Got pictures. He removes a family photo from the felt wallet. It's of Howard and two fat teenagers. Apparently the former Mrs. Doyle was cut out, but an ear and part of a hairdo are sill visible in the shot. MILES I... uh guess congratulations are in order. DOYLE Well -- Marylin and Rex broke up and... MARYLIN Honey, I don't think this is really relevant to... DOYLE ...and one day, this sweet girl calls me, asks me to lunch. Just a shoulder to cry on deal. One thing leads to another and before I know it -- MARYLIN -- we realized we'd always been very attracted to one another. MILES No! DOYLE I had no idea until after, but -- He looks at her with predatory lust. DOYLE Baby. You are so HOT! MARYLIN (Coy) Howard! He pulls her close to him and plants a massive kiss on her. MILES What a touching story. DOYLE You know, Miles, after my wife -- wife's mastectomy -- things were never the same. This might sound cold, well, maybe not to you, Massey, but... (man to man) I like my women with two boobs. Miles flashes Marylin a "you are KIDDING" look, but she assiduously avoids eye contact. MARYLIN Howard and I are here, Miles, because I have learned through bitter experience that when it comes to matrimonial law, you are the very best. Miles acknowledges this with a curt nod. MARYLIN As you are well aware, my previous marriage ended with an unjustified strain on my reputation My motives were questioned. I was slandered in court. DOYLE You did good, Massey! MARYLIN Therefore in an effort to remove any trace of suspicion from my sweet Howard -- I wish to execute a pre- nuptial agreement. DOYLE And -- there's no talking her out of it. Believe me, I've tried. MARYLIN They say the Massey pre-nup has never been penetrated. DOYLE She said "penetrate." Heh heh heh. He gropes her. She giggles like a teenager. MILES Oh, for the love of... MARYLIN That is true, isn't it Miles? Your pre-nup is the best there is? MILES That is correct. Not to blow my own horn, but they devote an entire semester to it at Harvard Law. DOYLE Harvard? Whoa, Daddy! MILES I just want to make sure that you both -- He eyes Marylin. MILES -- understand what you're asking for here. The Massey pre-nup provides that in the event of a dissolution of the marriage for any reason, both parties shall leave it with whatever they brought in, and earned during. No one can profit from the marriage. The pre-nup protects the wealthier party. DOYLE Well -- at the moment, that'd be me. MILES And without it, that party is exposed -- a sitting duck. No wriggle room. DOYLE A Wriggle Room! Maybe we should put that in the Malibu house. Screw the screening room! MILES (slightly sickened) -- and we are sure... Eyes boring into Marylin. MILES -- we are both sure that's what we want? MARYLIN Absolutely. DOYLE Course I can't do much "wriggling" if you tie me up like that again. Massey -- this is one bad bad little girl. MARYLIN (laughing) We'd better go before we get thrown out. ELEVATOR BANK Marylin and Howard wait for an elevator as Miles trots out to catch them. MILES Excuse me, Mr. Doyle, if I could just borrow your charming fiancee for a moment. DOYLE What part? MILES I'd just like to have a word with her. DOYLE Why not? I'm going to have her for a lifetime. Miles drags her to the side as Doyle checks his Sports Pager. MILES What are you doing? She backs up as he tries to close the space between them. MARYLIN Getting married. MILES To him? He's a sick freak. MARYLIN He's passionate. MILES Passionate! He's a pervert. He should have to register when he moves. MARYLIN All girls enjoy a little rough trade from time to time. MILES Marylin! Listen to me. MARYLIN No. You listen to me. (Very quiet and deliberate) You busted me, Miles. You left me with nothing! What did you expect me to do? Get a degree in counseling? Write a book about table linen? Because that's what wives do when they get dumped, and frankly, I'm not quite ready for that. MILES But why him? MARYLIN We told you. We realized we've always been in love. He has backed her against the wall of an alcove which shelters a flowering ficus. MILES The Massey pre-nup has never been pene -- successfully challenged. MARYLIN So I hear. Is that all? MILES No, that's not all. He moves to kiss her. MILES You fascinate me. She deftly slides out of the way. Miles watches her as she heads down the hall. As she gets on the elevator, Howard grabs her butt with one hand, while giving Miles a high sign with the other. INT. HOWARD'S HOUSE - NIGHT Miles stares at the chessboard. MILES Do you think I'm going to end up like Herb Myerson, with a colostomy bag instead of a family? KENNETH Got any symptoms? MILES Yes. The inability to experience pleasure. KENNETH Oh. That. (beat) Don't waste time with your queen. MILES What? KENNETH The Center Counter Defense. The thing is not to move your queen too early. MILES She can't really love that idiot, can she? KENNETH What? MILES Marylin Rexroth. She came into my office and signed a pre-nup with Howard Doyle. KENNETH Doyle Oil? (Miles nods) A Massey Pre-nup? (Miles nods again) She loves him. MILES He's the wrong man. KENNETH Miles! Don't waste time with someone else's queen, either. EXT. A WEDDING BOWER - AKA CHUPPA From behind the bower, RABBI BOLENSKY emerges, strumming his guitar and singing: BOLENSKY Parsley sage, rosemary and thyme -- Remember me to one who lives there... A pullback reveals Howard D. Doyle before the altar with Marylin. He is in a tuxedo and yarmulke. She is dressed in a simple, Kennedy-type gown. BOLENSKY -- she once was a true love of mine. The last arpeggiated chord rings out; birds tweet, everyone sits. As Miles and Wrigley seat themselves, Wrigley is sniffling. Miles is irritated. MILES What the hell is wrong with you? WRIGLEY I can't help it. Even with the business we're in, I -- it gets me every time. It's so -- optimistic. MILES Is she going through with it? As the crowd quiets with the end of the song, Wrigley murmurs: WRIGLEY If she's not going through with it, she's cutting it awful close. RABBI BOLENSKY Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme. Ingredients. Spices. Spicy ingredients for the banquet we call -- life. Marriage is like a Great Feast. Courtship is the Appetizer. A small mixed green taste of things to come. The Early Years -- The First Course -- a carefully poached fish dish dependent on freshness and delicate handling. Or perhaps a light pasta -- a tortellini stuffed with cheese and hope. WRIGLEY (Whispers, to Miles) You have any gum or mints? RABBI The main course -- Mature Love -- a hearty stew, cooked slowly in the oven of companionship until the meat falls off the bone. And then -- dessert. The reward for years spent together -- the sweetness of a Life Well Lived. A sorbet of grandchildren, followed by the decafe demitasse of retirement. There is silence, broken only by the twitter of birds and the restlessness of a hungry audience. Finally: RABBI BOLENKSY Do you Chaim David Doyle, take Marylin to be the Barbara to your Wolfgang though the lean years as well as those that are heavily marbled? DOYLE I do. RABBI BOLENSKY And do you, Marylin Rexroth, take Chaim to be the roux in your bechamel? The stock in your sauce? MARYLIN I do. MILES Argh. Heads turn. Miles bites a knuckle. Birds twitter. RABBI BOLENSKY Then, by the power vested in me by the state of California, and as the maitre'd in the Prix Fixe Four Star Restaurant of Life, I now pronounce you -- man and wife... A kiss. Cheers. Applause. A RECEPTION ON THE GROUNDS Rabbi Bolensky strolls through the crowd with a heaping platter of smoked salmon. Miles is darkly brooding as Wrigley opens a Tiffany box to show him the contents. WRIGLEY What do you think? MILES What are they? WRIGLEY Berry spoons. MILES Spoons! Honestly Wrigley, I'm surprised at you. What is this? Some Martha Stewart suggestion? Those are the most cockamamie things I've ever -- WRIGLEY Miles -- why so angry? Miles sounds wistful: MILES Why couldn't we be the club sandwich? Ding Ding -- Howard D. is tapping a knife against his wine glass. The crowd quiets. DOYLE Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls: I have something to say to my bride. Howard D. turns to one side to address Marylin, taking one of her hands between his paws, as she beams up at him. DOYLE -- Darling, like the rabbi said... life is a banquet, A Grand Bouffe, and Marylin, darling... I just want you to know that I am IN the kitchen and I CAN STAND THE HEAT! Laughter from the gallery. DOYLE And I'm going to start this marriage by EATING MY WORDS. Because the hot hors d'oerve of this love story is -- Pre-nup Primavera! He reaches into his breast pocket and withdraws a piece of paper. DOYLE Carmine! Bring on the Pesto! A Caterer places a plate and a bowl of sauce in front of Doyle. Marylin looks on, surprised and bemused. DOYLE -- This is for you, darling. He starts tearing strips off the piece of paper, dipping them into the sauce, and eating them. His mouth stuffed with paper, Doyle repeats: DOYLE -- this is for you, Darling. The crowd is murmuring--the murmurs grow in volume -- a smattering of applause -- cheers -- more applause -- wild cheers. Slowly rhythmically, Miles starts thumping his hand together, nodding comprehension. MILES Brilliant. Next to him Wrigley is puzzled. WRIGLEY Why is he doing that? Miles' hand-clapping accelerates. MILES Brilliant. It's brilliant. He's eating the pre-nup. Wrigley's eyes widen. He looks back at Doyle eating the paper. DOYLE This is for you, Darling! Wrigley bursts into tears. WRIGLEY That's -- the most romantic thing I've ever seen -- in my LIFE! DOYLE THIS IS FOR YOU, DARLING! LATER Marylin stands at the punch bowl accepting congratulations. Miles approaches and draws her aside. MILES I'd like to offer my congratulations. That was a beautiful gesture of Howard's. MARYLIN Howard is a beautiful person. MILES Yes. He's a diamond in the rough. And I have a feeling that someday soon you'll be taking that diamond and leaving the rough. MARYLIN Miles. Miles. Miles. MILES I am thrilled for you, but tell me this... How'd you get Howard to do it? I've addressed enough juries to appreciate the power of suggestion, but it seemed like he thought it was his own idea. MARYLIN It was his idea. It was a gesture of love and trust. Be happy for me, Miles. MILES Well, when this goes south -- promise you'll have dinner with me? MARYLIN (She holds a plate of food for him) Have you tried the duck? MILES I figure a couple of months. That's how long it should take for the ink on the settlement to dry. He takes the plate of food from her. MARYLIN It has bones. Be sure to swallow one. MILES Although knowing you as I do -- there will be no settlement. This time it will be complete and total annihilation. With a ROAR we CUT TO: INT. LEAR JET COCKPIT A uniformed pilot and copilot are cruising the corporate jet high above a vast ocean of clouds. The pilot is wearing a headset. After a long moment of listening he shakes his head. PILOT Jesus -- CO-PILOT What --? PILOT -- I've heard some -- I've heard some sick things -- in my -- CO-PILOT What?! The pilot reaches above his head and throws a small toggle switch and the cockpit is Awash with the sound of screaming, laughter and music: MALE VOICE Oh Casey Jones was the rounder's name, T'was on the 6:02 that he rode to fame! INT. CABIN OF LEAR JET Screaming with laughter, two naked damsels in conductor's caps are pushing Rex Rexroth around the cabin on a miniature locomotive. He is wearing his railroad boxers and bellowing "The Ballad of Casey Jones." BACK TO THE COCKPIT CO-PILOT Who is that guy? PILOT Rex Rexroth, the mini-mall king. Getting to be the richest man on the West Coast, from what they say. The copilot shakes his head. CO-PILOT Jesus. FROM THE SPEAKER Hup! Come all you rounders if you wanna hear... CO-PILOT Why're they going to Muncie? The pilot shrugs. PILOT He's thinking of buying Indiana. EXTERIOR WHOOOSH -- the plane roars away. INT. MILES OFFICE MILES And of course we shall have to litigate. Sentence. Paragraph. WIDER A secretary seated by his desk is taking notes. MILES -- Naturally the first concern for both parties is the welfare of little Wendell junior. Nevertheless, we question whether the continuing expenses for his special ed classes are truly justified given the great strides -- Wrigley enters. WRIGLEY I'm sorry I'm late. I was having lunch with Ruth Rabinow's assistant. Guess what? Marylin Rexroth is divorced! MILES (Delighted) HA! WRIGLEY ...and I hear she's richer than Croesus. MILES Ah, but is she richer than Mrs. Croesus? WRIGLEY She could buy and sell you ten times over. MILES She deserves every penny. They pay great athletes a fortune. Well, Marylin Rexroth is an athlete at the peak of her power. He hits the call button. MILES Get me Marylin Rexroth Doyle. WRIGLEY What...? MILES She owes me a meal. WRIGLEY I'd stay away from her, Miles. MILES I know you would, Wrigley. But would Kramer? We hear the Receptionist Voice: RECEPTIONIST Mrs. Doyle for you. INT. FANCY RESTAURANT We move in on one of the tables where Marylin and Miles sit as a waiter pours them champagne. WAITER Le Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, 1982. MILES Thank you. I'll take care of it. As he fill Marylin's glass: Raises his own in a toast. MILES To victory. MARYLIN I don't feel victorious Miles. I feel betrayed, abandoned and humiliated. I have pictures of him with another woman... MILES More pictures? My God, Marylin. You can open an erotic art gallery. MARYLIN Did you invite me here to score some cheap laughs. MILES No. Just to comfort you, and appreciate you -- MARYLIN (Reproachfully) You really think I engineered the whole thing. You think the marriage and the divorce was part of some scheme. You came here to celebrate because you think I'm without morality or soul. You -- (With difficulty) sound like my mother. The Waiter hands Miles a menu. WAITER Should we order? MARYLIN Yes, I -- well, I'm not really... MILES Not hungry, huh? Neither am I. A long pensive moment. Miles reaches across the table and takes her hand. She lets him. He strokes it. INT. CAR Miles drives. Marylin sits silently looking out the window. DOYLE MANSION Miles pulls up to the huge house. MARYLIN Thank you. And good-night. He takes her hand again. MILES Marylin -- She puts a finger to his lips. Sadly, Miles relinquishes her hand. She exits the car and walks up to the front door. Miles watches her go. INT. BEDROOM - MASSEY MANSION We hear Court TV on in the background. Miles alone in bed, reading Art In America. ON THE TV A Witness is being examined by the Prosecutor: PROSECUTOR ...and he asked you if...? WITNESS ..if I reckon I could find someone to keel him his wife. PROSECUTOR Who asked you this? WITNESS Dean Leonard. Da defendant. (Points to the defendant) That guy! CLAP OF THUNDER -- BOLT OF LIGHTNING In a boiling night sky. There are distant, echoing wails. WOOZY DUTCH TRACK Along a pointing suitcoated arm. SANDPAPERY VOICE Eighteen hunnut billable hours. Twelve hunnut'n twenty-one motions tuh void... The woozy track finds the cadaverous hand at the end of the arm with an IV tube swinging from it. Miles stands next to the arm. He's holding an assault type weapon. SANDPAPERY VOICE ...five nunnut'n sixty faw summary judgenents. A hunnut'n twenty-nine thousand four hunnut'n seventeen lunches charged... Miles shoots -- Bonnie falls. Then Mrs. Guttman. Marylin is next. Miles hesitates. SANDPAPERY VOICE Counseluh? Counseluh? Miles points the gun at Herb. RING. RING. RING. MILES BEDROOM He bolts up in bed, sweating. RING He gazes stuporously about, reaching for the ringing phone. MILES Hello? MARYLIN Miles? MILES Yes? Marylin? MARYLIN You're right about me. I am worthless. I am nothing. I don't deserve to live. MILES Marylin? When did I say...? MARYLIN I don't blame them for betraying me. I don't blame Rex, or Howard or my father. You see, Miles, I'm going to tell you something about me. Something you may or may not know. I suck! We hear the SCREECH of Tires. MARYLIN (yelling at someone) Screw you, asswipe! MILES Marylin? Forgive me but are you -- drunk? MARYLIN A little. (Scream) You get out of the car. That's right, Fuctard. I'm talkin' to you! MILES You shouldn't be driving. Where are you? MARYLIN I'm on Sunset. Near the Beverly Hills hotel. Wanna meet me for a drink in the Polo...? MILES I live right near there. The 800 Block of Maple. Come here. Marylin -- come here right now before -- just come here. MARYLIN Okay. Should I stop at Starbucks and pick up a blended for -- MILES No. Don't stop. MARYLIN Okay Miles. INT. DEN - MASSEY MANSION Marylin sits in the den. She's had some coffee and, although teary and disheveled, is no longer psychotic. MARYLIN I just cried when I got home. Somehow, your disdain for me -- I'm pretty tough Miles, but I'm human. All my life people have been ascribing these terrible motives to me. I used to think they were jealous, or they didn't understand, but... I dunno. Maybe others see something in me. Something I'm not even aware of. Anyway, thank you for letting me come here. I guess I was a little drunk. She takes the coffee cup and has a sip. She looks like a lost waif. MARYLIN You have a very nice home, Miles. Very inviting. MILES Thank you. MARYLIN You have wonderful art. I love that lithograph. Hockney? MILES Yes. I just got that, actually. It was a gift. MARYLIN From a -- girlfriend. MILES No. No. I don't have a... no. It was from a client. MARYLIN No kidding. I'll bet you have some very grateful clients. What'd Rex buy you? MILES Rex sent me two humidors full of pre- Castro Cubans. Marylin looks at a photograph Miles has on a side table. A WOMAN AND TWO SMALL BOYS. The Woman has her arm around one of them. The other stands close to her. Smiling, but awkward and tentative. MARYLIN Is that you? MILES Me. Yes. MARYLIN Oh. And that is -- mom? MILES Yeah. Mom. Mom and brother. MARYLIN You look like you were a very sensitive child. You have expressive eyes. Miles walks over to look at the picture. MILES Hmmm... MARYLIN And your mother was very beautiful. She must be proud of you. MILES She never particularly cared for me. MARYLIN She didn't love you? MILES No. She loved me. She would never not love her son. She just didn't... I wasn't her "type." She said I was a very, colicky baby. You know? Difficult. Not a good sleeper? Didn't eat well? We got off to a bad start, and she never seemed to recoup -- MARYLIN She held that against you? MILES Apparently she was very disappointed. MARYLIN Boy. Boy, oh boy. Marylin looks at the picture again. And yes -- you can see how hesitant Miles was. Marylin is moved. A flash of something genuine crosses her face. MARYLIN And here I thought my mother was... MILES Your mother was. MARYLIN Oh right. You met Patricia. She takes a sip of coffee. Regards Miles. MARYLIN We're damaged goods. MILES No, we're not! MARYLIN We are, Miles. You know I'm right. There's something "off" about you and me Miles. And maybe it isn't because of these women -- maybe they were just extremely insightful and recognized our "deficiencies" very early on. Maybe... MILES That is bullshit! Mine is a bitch and yours is a psycho. I can't believe you're saying this, Marylin! There's nothing wrong with us. We're attractive and charismatic and successful and... I like us. MARYLIN I'm sorry Miles. You shouldn't listen to me. I'm sure you have a very fulfilling life. I'd better go. I'm depressing. MILES No. MARYLIN Thank you for the coffee. It's very robust. She stands. Picks up her purse. Walks over to him with an outstretched hand. MARYLIN Friends? MILES Don't go. Stay with me for a while. He doesn't release her hand. Instead he draws her to him, and kisses her. She kisses him. He kisses her back. She... CUT TO: INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT Mile and Marylin -- making love. LATER They are in post coital wrap. MILES I have to say -- I'm speechless. No. I'm never speechless. MARYLIN I'm a little embarrassed. I'm not used to losing control with such -- volume. MILES And I'm not used to -- Marylin -- there's something I want to ask you. MARYLIN What is it Miles? MILES I want... I want to... She waits, puzzled. MILES I want to be your -- your wife. MARYLIN Huh? MILES No... That wasn't right. I want YOU to be MY wife. MARYLIN Did you just propose to me? MILES Yes. I am. What else could those words mean? I believe we belong together and we can make one another happy. And we should be happy because happiness is better than the alternative which is -- just jump in any old time, Marylin. You have more experience at this than I do. MARYLIN Yes. MILES Yes? Yes, you do have more experience? MARYLIN Yes, Miles. I accept. MILES You do? MARYLIN Do you want me to sleep on it? MILES No. MARYLIN Do you want to sleep on it? MILES No ma'am. I have been asleep all my life up to this moment. Marylin, will you marry me? MARYLIN Yes. Again. They kiss. MILES I don't have a ring! MARYLIN I know. MILES I have a watch. She laughs. Kisses him. MARYLIN I'm happy. INT. CHAPEL Miles and Kenneth wait. Dressed in suits. Miles looks nervous. KENNETH I'm happy for you, pal. MILES Thanks, buddy. KENNETH Is she Asian? MILES Asian? No. KENNETH Well... I'm still... Wrigley, rushes in, carrying a briefcase. MILES Wrigley? WRIGLEY Miles. MILES Kenneth this is my associate, Wrigley. Wrigley this is my friend, Dr. Beck. WRIGLEY The plastic surgeon! I read about you in LA Style. MILES Do you have it? KENNETH I have it. MILES You have the pre-nup? KENNETH No. I have the ring. Was I supposed to have a pre-nup? MILES No. You have the ring. Wrigley has the pre-nup. KENNETH Oh. I thought maybe -- (He sees someone) Gee! Marylin enters. She looks outstanding. Her friends, Sarah Sorkin and Ramona Barcelona (who is now visibly pregnant) accompany her. SARAH Dr. Beck! KENNETH Sarah! How are you? MILES You know each other? Of course you do. RAMONA You're Dr. Beck? I have an appointment to see you in March. Right after I lose the babyweight. Which of course, will be after I have the baby... MARYLIN Sarah Sorkin. Ramona Barcelona -- this is Miles Massey. SARAH Hello Miles. RAMONA Congratulations Miles. MILES Hi. Hello. (To Marylin) Marylin. You know my young associate, Wrigley. MARYLIN I do. He was at my divorce and my wedding. What would a marital related event be without Wrigley? WRIGLEY It has become a tradition, hasn't it? MARYLIN I loved the berry spoons. (Wrigley beams) I didn't have any. Thank you. MILES Well, Wrigley brought something else for you today, darling. Wrigley pulls a sheaf of papers from the briefcase. MILES This -- is the Massey Pre-nup. Wrigley hastily pulls a ballpoint from his pocket and clicks it. Miles grabs the pre-nup, and as he turns to Marylin, his tone softens. MILES Marylin, you're welcome to examine it, but as you know -- it's iron clad. SARAH It is. It's famous. WRIGLEY I tried to reach Ruth, but we couldn't get her. MILES We wanted Ruth here for your protection as well -- WRIGLEY The Judge is here. Over here, Judge Munson. MARYLIN Wasn't she the Judge at my divorce hearing? MILES Yes. Short notice you know, but I think there's nice closure to it. Hello Judge Muson. A pleasure as always. JUDGE MUNSON What's up with you two. MILES We're getting married. Judge laughs. JUDGE MUNSON What's the gag? MILES A gag? No. Marylin looks at the pre-nup. Then pulls Miles aside. MARYLIN Excuse me, Judge Muson. JUDGE You got it, Patty. MARYLIN (To Miles) You brought a pre-nup to our wedding? MILES Yes. (She isn't having the expected reaction) It's for your protection, sweetheart. You're the one with the -- the... WRIGLEY -- the coin? MARYLIN Miles. I don't want to sign this. I want this marriage to be different. Okay. Judge Munsen and Wrigley are here, but other than that... JUDGE Should I go out for a smoke? MILES No. Judge -- just a sec. But Marylin, if we sign it, I can't hope to benefit from the marriage. MARYLIN (Sadly) Oh Miles! MILES What I mean is, your wealth is completely protected. As if a lead veil had been drawn across. She looks deep into his eyes. Into his soul. MARYLIN Miles. Listen to me. You are about to become my husband. I don't want to be protected from you. I want to be protected for you. WRIGLEY (Moved) Ohhh... MILES But? MARYLIN I want this to be a marriage based on love, trust and community property. That's all I've ever wanted. SARAH But Marylin, without this, you're completely exposed. MARYLIN I want to be exposed. RAMONA You're vulnerable. MARYLIN It's about time. JUDGE You're a sitting duck. MARYLIN (To Miles, with great affection) Quack. INT. CHAPEL Miles and Marylin stand before the alter. JUDGE MUNSON Do you, Miles Herbert Massey of Massey Meyerson take Marylin Hamilton-Rexroth- Doyle? MARYLIN Yes. JUDGE MUNSON "Doyle", to be your lawful wedded wife to -- MILES I do, yah I do, uh huh -- JUDGE MUNSON Let me finish! She glares at Miles. JUDGE MUNSON -- Jesus! Haven't you ever been married before? Chastened, Miles bows his head. JUDGE MUNSON -- To have and hold, to love and to cherish, till death do you part? There is a long beat, through which Miles stares at his shoes. Marylin looks at him. MILES -- I do. JUDGE MUNSON And do you, Marylin Hamilton-Rexroth Doyle, take Miles Herbert Massey of Massey Meyerson, to be your lawful wedded husband, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, till death do you part? MARYLIN I do. JUDGE MUNSON I now pronounce you man and wife. Wrigley bursts into tears. THE MARRIED MASSEY MONTAGE CUT TO: INT. MASSEY HOUSE - MORNING Miles and Marylin asleep in bed. The ALARM RINGS. Miles wakes, turns to his beautiful wife -- kisses her good morning. She gives him a sleepy Smile. Miles dressing for work. Marylin, in a Sabia Rosa bathrobe places a tray with coffee next to him. He holds up two ties for her-approval. She selects one. He puts it on. Miles and Marylin reading Newspapers while eating breakfast. She serves him a bowl of fruit and indicates Wrigley's berry spoons. They laugh heartily. Marylin waves good bye as Miles backs drives to the office. She waves at the gardeners who blow palm fronds around the lawn. MILES OFFICE He has managed to fill his credenza with pictures of married life. Due to its brevity -- these pictures are uneventful, the Massey's wear the same outfit in most of them. Miles works. He is interrupted by the voice of his SECRETARY. SECRETARY I have Mrs. Massey on line one for you. Miles picks up. MILES Mom...? He laughs and laughs. We hear Marylin's laughter coming through the receiver. Miles exits a flower store with a bouquet of tulips. Marylin at the doorway, greets Miles as he arrives home. As Miles changes into his casual after work outfit, (khakis?) Marylin sits at the edge of the bed. He's telling her about his day, and she is rapt with attention. The Massey's have a candlelit dinner of fish and pasta. The tulips are in the middle of the table. Miles and Marylin snuggle on a couch and watch Seinfeld. Miles in bed on the new Frette Linen. A few too many pillows, but he's making it work. Marylin enters the bedroom in a nightshirt that is the perfect combination of innocence and nastiness. He puts down his book as she gets into bed with him. They gaze at one another -- the picture of contentment and impending lust. CLICK - LIGHTS OUT EXT. MASSEY MYERSON - CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY Miles is addressing the young associates. MILES For the first time in my life, I stand before you naked... vulnerable... and in love. Love. A word matrimonial lawyers shy away from. Ironic isn't it -- that I have been frightened of this emotion which is, in a sense, the seed of my livelihood. But today, I am here to tell you: Love should cause us no fear. Love should cause us no shame. Love... is good. (He lets it sink in) Let me ask you a question. When our clients come to us confused, angry, hurting because their flame of love is fluttering and threatens to die -- should we seek to extinguish that flame, so that we can sift through the smoldering wreckage for our paltry reward? Or should we seek to fan this precious flame -- this most precious flame -- back to loving, roaring life? The young associates look confused. Wrigley raises his hand. WRIGLEY Extinguish? MILES Should we counsel fear -- or trust? Should we seek to destroy -- or to build? Should we meet our clients' problems with cynicism -- or with love? MILES (another raised hand) Kramer? KRAMER Build? MILES The decision of course, is each of ours. For my part, I have made the leap of love, and there is no going back -- Herb Myserson sits in the back of the room. He watches, breathing heavily. INT. DEN - MASSEY HOUSE Miles and Marylin watching a cable movie crowded together on the small sofa. MARYLIN I'm sorry. I'm squishing you. I'll move to the... MILES No. Stay. I want you close to me. This couch is wrong. It's not a "married couch." He surveys his surroundings with a critical eye. MARYLIN Honey, I could sit... MILES In fact, this is not a married house -- it's a bachelor pad. MARYLIN Hardly. You have six bedrooms MILES I know. But I've converted most of them into ridiculous "Guy" rooms -- a billiard room, a card room, a gym -- Honey, want you to go out, as soon as you feel up to it -- and buy married things. Woman things. Personalize it. Marylinize it. Make this your house. He hands her a credit card. MILES Here's my card. Spend as much as you want. We get mileage. MARYLIN Well, I suppose I could "girly" it up for you with a little Fortuny, and some passementerie -- MILES Good. (Beat) Are those foods? MARYLIN Fabric and fringe. MILES Exactly. And then -- maybe -- not right away -- There's a room right off the bedroom -- It would be perfect for a nursery. (He takes her hands) It's a walk in humidor right now -- but if I took out the refrigeration unit -- MARYLIN Miles. MILES I think a nursery should be right off the master suite. My parents put mine in the guest house. Apparently they did have a Fisher Price intercom, but my mother turned it off when I was seven months old because I was so -- She stops him with a kiss. MILES You want children, don't you? INT. QUATRAIN ANTIQUES - DAY A pricey antique store near Melrose. RAMONA You said 'yes' didn't you? MARYLIN I said yes. She picks up an antique Chinese bowl. MARYLIN Is this Ming? SARAH It's not Ming. It's Tong. RAMONA Is Tong older than Ming? MARYLIN I think Ming is older than Tong. (To the Salesman hovering nearby) What is this? SALESMAN That is a Chinese Prayer Bowl. It's Chen dynasty. MARYLIN Ok. I'll take it. He sets it aside next to the formidable pile of loot the girls have accumulated. MARYLIN I can't do this anymore. Let's get some lunch. SARAH What about rugs? I thought we were stopping at Mansour? MARYLIN Right. SALESMAN (To Marylin) And will this be check or --? She hands him the Platinum Visa. SALESMAN (Glances at it) Very good, Mrs. Massey. He trots off with the card. Marylin absently fingers an antique guided candelabra. MARYLIN (Sigh) Well. He said to "make the house mine." RAMONA Oh boy. If he only knew. MARYLIN Yeah. I guess. You know -- SARAH What? MARYLIN He's not what I expected. He's very -- he's so -- happy. SARAH But you're going through with it? MARYLIN Yes, yes, it's just -- you know I've never been the first wife. Rex was married before me. SARAH So what? MARYLIN Miles is different. He's still so idealistic. SARAH Well, that's about to change big time. MARYLIN He has no cynicism or anger. For once I'm not the repository of rage at some other woman. SARAH Soon, you'll have your own rage! MARYLIN I guess. INT. FLOWER STORE - EVENING Miles is buying a huge bouquet of flowers. As he exits he is stopped by a WOMAN. She is in her 40's but looks older. WOMAN Wait. I know you. MILES Yes? WOMAN You're Miles Massey! You probably don't recognize me. The drugs made me put on weight and grow facial hair. MILES Excuse me? WOMAN You ruined my life you sonofabitch. Gimme those. She grabs the flowers. Pulls petal off one of the roses and eats it. WOMAN But my brother got you. He got you, you slimeball. A NURSE runs over. NURSE Emily! MILES What are you... (To the nurse) Is she yours? WOMAN Howard Doyle is my brother? You know my brother, Howard Doyle. You do know my brother, don't you? NURSE I'm sorry, Sir. Emily. Give the man back. MILES Yes, I know Howard Doyle. WOMAN He tricked you. With a phony wife and a fake pre-nup. Howard Doyle. He got you. You married Marylin, didn't you? You thought she had money. HA HA HA. Howard Doyle made you think that because of what you did to me. And to Marylin Rexroth. Yeah. I heard all about it. My brother Howard Doyle got you. (singsong) Neener neener neener. INT. RUTH RABINOW'S OFFICE Ruth calmly watches Miles ranting around her office. MILES He divorced his wife -- he married Marylin -- he divorced Marylin -- and he -- remarried his WIFE? What kind of sick -- RUTH Marylin was friends with Howard and Amanda Doyle. They don't like the way you operate. They helped her. MILES He never ate the pre-nup, did he! RUTH I have no idea what Howard Doyle eats. I'm not a damn dietician. MILES Did Marylin end up with money? RUTH She's YOUR wife. Why don't you ask her? Anyway, I assume she signed the highly over rated Massey pre-nup. MILES I don't have a pre-nup Miles hangs his head. Ruth sighs sympathetically. RUTH ...The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars... MILES Don't give me that crap. That's MY crap. RUTH And it's good! MILES I'll have you suspended. I'll have you disbarred. RUTH Don't threaten me, Miles. I did nothing illegal. MILES ...why did she do it, Ruth? Why? RUTH That's attorney client privilege. (As she goes back into her work) Sorry, Miles. But as a great and clever man once said, What's good for the goose -- INT. MASSEY HOUSE - NIGHT Marylin greets him at the door. MARYLIN Hi. MILES Hello Marylin. MARYLIN I have a surprise for you. MILES I bet. She brings him inside. The place has been massively accessorized. Antiques, rugs, lamps and assorted tasteful chatchkies. There is a new Biedermeyer couch in the den. MARYLIN Ta Da. Miles looks at it, expressionless. MARYLIN You don't like it? He stares at her -- a very dark look. MARYLIN You don't like me? MILES (Flatly) I love you. I want to have your baby. MARYLIN What's wrong Miles? Did I spend too much? She retrieves all the receipts from her purse. MARYLIN Miles. I have a very good relationship with all the salesmen. I can return everything. MILES Can you Marylin? Can you return the trust? Can you return the hopes? The dreams? Can you just... (Bitterly) SEND IT ALL BACK FOR STORE CREDIT? MARYLIN Miles? You're scaring me. MILES (Pulls himself together) I'm sorry, Darling. I love it. It's chic and timeless and elegant and eclectic and. It's you, Marylin. It is YOU. INT. KITCHEN Marylin is on the phone with Ruth. MARYLIN But Ruth -- things have changed -- yes -- yes I understand. But you see -- I couldn't file, did I? And maybe I wasn't going to file. Maybe -- maybe Ruth -- Yes. Okay. OUTSIDE BEDROOM - MASSEY HOUSE - NIGHT The bedroom door is closed. Marylin knocks repeatedly. MARYLIN Miles? Open the door, Miles. Please open the door. I want to talk to you. Miles? I'm coming in. Here I come. She pushes the door open. No Miles in sight. On the bed, scrawled on a piece of mMm stationery, taped to one of the mMm Frette pillows -- a note which reads -- "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? AND IF YOU WRONG US SHALL WE NOT REVENGE?" INT. KENNETH'S HOUSE Kenneth stares at the chessboard. Court TV is on the background. TV SCREEN COURT TV REPORTER We are back at the Trial of New Jersey v. Medrano. Mr. Medrano is accused of killing his wife, Alicia in 1992. He claims it was suicide. Let's return to the courtroom. See the action in the courtroom -- The Prosecutor shows the jury an extremely large handgun. PROSECUTOR How far would this gun have to be in order to inflict a wound without leaving powder burns on the scalp. EXPERT WITNESS Approximately three feet. PROSECUTOR And how could Mrs. Medrano shoot herself in the back of the head from a distance of three feet? KENNETH Really long arms? He moves a piece. MILES They won't get a conviction. The husband called it in as a suicide. The forensic guys weren't thinking murder. I'm sure some of the evidence was compromised. KENNETH It's your move, Miles. MILES (Sadly) I already made my move, Kenneth. INT. MASSEY HOUSE A private yoga class. Marylin, Sarah and Ramona are in the plow position. The yuppie Sikh instructor places his weight on Sarah. SARAH Vishu! Knock it off. That hurts. VISHNU Breathe through it. Sarah tries a few deep breaths. Marylin concentrates hard. VISHNU That's good, Marylin. MARYLIN I don't even know where he is. He looked so devastated. If I could just talk to him for a few minutes. SFX DOORBELL MARYLIN Was that the bell? RAMONA It sounded like a bell. MARYLIN I'll be right back. INT. HALLWAY - MASSEY HOUSE Marylin walks to the door. Opens it. Two POLICE OFFICERS. MARYLIN Yes? Can I help you? POLICE OFFICER Marylin Hamilton Rexroth Doyle Massey? MARYLIN Yes. POLICE OFFICER We have a warrant for your arrest. MARYLIN What? INT. POLICE STATION - MONTAGE - DAY Marylin is photographed front and profile. She is finger printed; she is searched and relieved of her jewelry; and finally, she is throw into a holding tank with several other women -- trapped. She clings despondently to the bars. INT. POLICE STATION - DAY Ruth is admitted to the holding area. INT. HOLDING TANK - DAY A Police Officer walks down the hall. Unlocks the door. POLICE OFFICER You can go now, Mrs. Massey. Someone made bail. Marylin exits. INT. RUTH'S CAR Marylin sits next to Ruth. MARYLIN Forgery and Fraud? RUTH You used his credit card. MARYLIN He told me to -- he said he wanted me to -- RUTH Quite a little shopping spree. How do you spend six figures in less than six hours? Oh, never mind I've seen it before. I've seen everything. MARYLIN Do you think he set me up? Do you think that was his intention? RUTH Like I know his intention? Or yours for that matter? (Sighs) I should join Sam. I'm too old for this bullshit. MARYLIN He never even asked. He just assumed -- RUTH He was right, wasn't he? MARYLIN So. Now what? RUTH Now? Well, Marylin, now you cut a deal or find out how Jean Harris made it work for her. INT. MASSEY HOUSE - DAY Miles opens the door. Marylin is standing there. MILES Well. Well. Well. Look who made bail! MARYLIN May I come in? MILES I don't know. Maybe I should grab my mace. I'm a civil attorney. I have little experience with "the criminal mind." MARYLIN I'd just like to pick up a few of my things MILES I don't believe you have "things." MARYLIN On the contrary. We're married and we have no pre-nup, so a case could be made that everything in here is mine. Marylin walks into the den. Sits on the new sofa. MARYLIN Comfy! MILES What do you want? MARYLIN I want to nail you ass. MILES Are you threatening me, because I'm sure that's a violation of the terms of your bail. MARYLIN I'm reporting you to the IRS. MILES The IRS? They owe me. I'm expecting a refund. He laughs. She looks at him, dead serious. MILES I'm clean with the IRS. I've reported every dollar I've ever made. Try again, girlfriend. MARYLIN I'm not talking about dollars, studmuffin. I'm talking about -- She opens a humidor and takes out a Cigar. MARYLIN STUFF. (Chomping on the Cigar) Got a light? MILES What kind of "stuff?" She reaches into her purse. Pulls out a Dunhill and expertly lights the cigar. MARYLIN Arty Farty stuff. (Pointing to the Hockney) Lithographs and pre Castro Cubans. Watches and mileage on private jets. Stuff, Miles. Stuff you get from grateful clients. MILES Those are gifts. MARYLIN Salary. Unreported income. (Glancing at his watch) By the way, what time IS it on Bellagio Road? MILES You can't prove anything. MARYLIN I don't have to. That's what the IRS guys do. And they do it with great zeal. See, they work at these tortuous civil service jobs, and when five hundred dollar an hour boys like you take their trade out in luxury goodies, these saps feel.. well, they feel like saps. And they feel bitter and they feel vengeful and they feel WRATH. (Puffing on the cigar) What is this? A Romeo and Julieta? MILES You're out of your league, Marylin. Rexroth was a primate. I'm a professional. MARYLIN I know. So am I, right? And so is Agent Wilson of the Internal Revenue Service. He's a dedicated, underpaid graduate of Southwestern University -- very tenacious, and never more so than when he's dealing with an unscrupulous colleague. (She stands to leave) I think it's only fair to warn you: I'm going to file an action, Miles. And after a decent interval I plan to have Ruth seek an injunction that will forbid your approach within 500 feet of my house. MILES Meaning my house. MARYLIN I believe the residence will be part of the settlement. MILES Did our marriage ever mean anything to you? MARYLIN Drop the bogus forgery charge and I'll forget about your generous friends slash clients. MILES That's blackmail. MARYLIN That's marriage. She gives him a peck on the cheek. As she leaves: MARYLIN You'll always be my favorite husband. Miles sits dejectedly on the new sofa looking at the paintings. He looks at the watch. And the cigars. And the picture of his mother. MILES Pity you can't be here. You'd enjoy this. CLOSE ON A BAG OF FLUIDS We pull back from the milky yellowish bag of fluid to show that a nurse is unhooking and removing it from under Herb Meyerson's wheelchair where it collects drainage. She now places it up on the IV gantry and connects, and swaps the now empty drip under the wheelchair to collect drainage. We are once again in Herb Meyerson's gloomy office, its venetians blocking most of the light and making Herb a dark, enigmatic figure. HERB This woman has humbled, shamed and disgrazed the entire foim. A reverse shows Miles standing in front of Herb's desk. MILES Yes Herb, HERB Counseluh, this foim deals in powuh. This foim deals in p'seption. This foim cannot prospuh... nor long endowwa. if it is p'seeved as dancin' to the music.. He waves his free arm to the beat of music unheard. HERB -- of the hoidy-goidy. MILES I understand Herb... I just... for the first time in my career -- I don't know what to do. I'm a patsy. A sitting duck. I'm lost. HERB Lost! I'll tell you what you can do, you can -- He brings himself up short and turns to the nurse. HERB -- leave us. She heads for the door. HERB -- You can act like a man. Let me tell you sumpn, smart guy. You tawt you had it all figgud out. Trust. Marriage. All ya goddamn love love love. Well now you lissean me. I'm gonna talk to you about the goddamn LAW. He climbs unsteadily to his feet and tries to pace, gesticulating, with the IV swaying dangerously behind him. HERB -- We SOIVE THE LAW! We HONUH the law! We make our goddamn bread and BUTTUH by the law! And sometimes, counseluh, we OBEY THE LAW -- He pauses to let this sink in. HERB -- but conseluh -- This is not one a those times. INT. BEDROOM - MASSEY HOUSE Miles is in bed, morosely watching Court TV. TV SCREEN Close on NIKKI ROSEN - A COURT TV ANCHOR NIKKI We are interrupting our scheduled weekend coverage because we have just received word there is a verdict in the Kentucky v Leonard Case. We now join the case -- live. THE COURTROOM BAILIFF (Reads) Of the charges of murder in the first degree, we the jury find the defendant -- not guilty. THE STUDIO Nikki speaks to her Guest Host. NIKKI He got away with it. GUEST Simpson started a trend. CUT TO: CLOSE ON An edgy looking gangster, JOE. He is perspiring heavily. He breathes through his mouth with the rasping wheeze of an asthmatic. His labored breath rattles as he stares across the table at someone off. At length, a voice: VOICE ...Are you Joe? Still staring, but perhaps by way of answer, the gangster raises an inhaler, sticks it in his mouth, and squeezes. WHUSH. GANGSTER ...Dumbarton? A reverse shows Miles seated across a small round table in a seedy low-lit clam house. Photos of Ted Kennedy and the Pope adorn the walls.. MILES I am here representing Mr. Dumbarton, on a... matter of some delicacy. GANGSTER Who's the pigeon? MILES Excuse me? GANGSTER Who do you want me to kill? MILES Well -- I, uh, that is to say Mr. Dumbarton -- would like you to uh, neutralize a, uh, business associate by the name of Marylin Rexroth Doyle Massey uh Dumbart -- uh, Massey. GANGSTER Is that... one person? MILES Here's her picture... He is shoving an envelope across the table. MILES ...and the address where she's staying. It's the residence of a Mr. Massey. Uh, Dumbarton. Massey. Uh, it's not Mr. Dumbarton's house. Though he's not involved. And because of an impending legal action this needs to happen within a certain... time frame. Uh... on an expedited basis. The gangster stares expressionlessly. He raises the inhaler again and, with his eyes still on Miles, squeezes. WHUSH. GANGSTER You're in a rush. MILES Mr. Dumbarton is, yes. A long beat. Finally, Miles explodes MILES She won't suffer, will she? He bites a knuckle, gazing fearfully at the gangster. The gangster stares impassively back. GANGSTER ...not unless you pay extra. INT. REX REXROTH MANSION An enormous oak paneled room. Furnished with chairs sofas and a huge circular bed. A fire roars in the far corner. On the wall above the bed a film loop is being projected -- soft core pornographic images. On the bed, Rex is surrounded by three naked beauties, smeared in cola dust and wearing conductor caps. REX I've been working on the railroad -- TARTS All the livelong day! REX I've been working on the railroad TARTS Just to pass the time away! REX Can'tcha hear the whistle... the whistle... AWWWWWWW. Rex hunches over, clutching his left arm. One by one, the girls stop dancing and stare. There is a somber silence, broken by another. REX Awwwwwww -- The girls are all watching now. One of them steps forward. TART -- Whatsa matter, Rexie? INT. KENNETH'S HOUSE A guest room. Dark, dirty and filled with empty bottles of expensive French wine. We hear a phone ringing in a different room. It rings several times. The figure on the bed stirs, rolls over, moans, clamps a pillow over his head. The ring of the distant telephone is interrupted and we hear a muffled voice: VOICE Hello. Yes, he's here. Just a minute -- We hear approaching footsteps and Kenneth enters the background, knotting a bathrobe. He turns on the light in the room. KENNETH Miles. It's for you. The figure on the couch pulls away the pillow. It is indeed Miles Massey. He blearily takes the offered phone. MILES Hello. Yes -- what?! Yes -- I see -- After another listening beat he drops the phone away. He remains staring dully out into space. MILES My God. KENNETH What? MILES That was Marvin Untermeyer. KENNETH Yes? MILES He was Rex Rexroth's personal attorney. KENNETH What do you mean, was. MILES Rex just had a massive coronary. In the middle of a business meeting. He's dead. Kenneth is mildly puzzled. KENNETH I'm sorry to hear that. But you weren't close, were you? MILES Marvin says that Rex's will is four years old. He never redrafted it. KENNETH Yes. Miles voice is still flat, expressionless: MILES Everything goes to Marylin. He looks up a at Kenneth. MILES She's rich. We're still married. We have no pre-nup. KENNETH So, that's good, right? MINUTES LATER Miles paces with the telephone. He punches numbers with the thumb of the hand holding the phone; his other hand holds a coffee cup from which he takes trembling slurps. VOICE This is Joe. Wuddya need? Then a beep. MILES Joe. This is Mr. uh... friend of -- we met. This is to instruct you it's No Go! Do you understand me?! NO GO on Marylin Rexroth Doyle -- No Go. He slams down the phone. KENNETH Who was that? MILES That was -- oh, shit. What if he's on his way over there? KENNETH Huh? Consumed with remorse, Miles moans. MILES Marylin! What have I done? KENNETH I don't know, but don't call me Marylin. MILES CAR Miles drives, speeding, taking corners hard while punching numbers into his car phone. MILES Get her out, buy some time; get her out -- INT. MASSEY MANSION - NIGHT In the bedroom, the phone starts ringing. A hand enters to pick it up. We follow the hand up to reveal MARYLIN Hello? MILES SPEEDING CAR MILES Marylin? MARYLIN Miles? Miles! Where have you been? I've been trying to get in touch. MILES You have to leave the house immediately! MARYLIN I will, Miles. I will leave. But Miles -- MILES No buts. Now. Out. MARYLIN Just listen to me. I'm sorry, Miles. It's true that my initial intention was to... MILES Please! Leave the house. MARYLIN I fell in love Miles. MILES So did I. Now pack up a few basics and -- MARYLIN You do? You do love me? MASSEY MANSION Marylin hangs up the phone. She walks slowly around the room, pausing at the mantelpiece to pick up a framed picture of Miles, which she contemplatively regards. We pan with her continued walk to bring Joe into frame. He stands with his back pressed to the wall. She's started for a moment, but quickly recoups: MARYLIN Whoever sent you, I'll pay double. JOE Mr. Dumbarton. She shows him the picture of Miles. MARYLIN Is this Mr. Dumbarton? JOE No... She cocks an eye at him. JOE That's his lawyer. MARYLIN Triple! JOE Who's the pigeon? We faintly hear a car screeching to a halt. EXT. MASSEY MANSION Massey exits the car. He clutches a can of mace. INT. MANSION We hear a key scrape in the lock. The front door swings open onto a dark foyer as Miles tiptoes in. MILES (Whispers) Marylin? DINING ROOM Miles tiptoes through, looking warily about. He backs through the swinging doors connecting to the kitchen. Finds himself face to face with Joe. MILES Joe! Thank God you're in time. You're not in time. I'm in time. Thank God I'm in time. Joe stares at him. MILES It's a no go! Get it? No one any the wiser. Okay! He makes a cow-herding motion with his hands. MILES You can go home now! Goodbye! Thanks so much! Joe takes out his gun. MILES No no! No contract! It's all over. This has no effect on Joe who is unscrewing his silencer. Miles is exasperated. Suddenly -- Marylin appears. MARYLIN It's a no go, Joe. MILES Marylin! MARYLIN It's okay Joe. Joe glances at both of them with barely concealed contempt. MILES Wait! He works for YOU? MARYLIN Now. But first, he worked for you. MILES You were going to have this thug...? MARYLIN Wait just a second there. You sent him here. You unearthed this pestilence. JOE You're calling me a pestilence? That's a hoot! MARYLIN (To Joe) I'm sorry. That was unkind and -- but, we changed our minds. (To Miles) Did you really mean what you said on the phone. It wasn't because you found out about Rex? MILES Nonono. Marylin -- I'm your husband. I'd be entitled to Rex's money. No matter what happened to you. MARYLIN That's true. JOE Lemme tell you something. You are the pestilence. I'm the exterminator. MARYLIN Oh Joe, be happy for us. I'll pay you the twenty thousand. MILES It was fifty for you. JOE (To Miles) That's cause you're a lawyer. I gave her the lawyer discount. (Looks at Marylin) But I shouldn't of. Cause you're a whore. A whore who worships the dollar. MARYLIN Well, actually, all whores worship the dollar, if you want to get technical. JOE Shut up. I was a lawyer. Just like you. And my clients? Whores just like you. MILES Were you with a firm? JOE Kaplan. MILES Kaplan? I know Kaplan. Wait. You're Joe Gittelson? I knew you looked -- You were great -- we studied you. JOE Twenty years in "matrimonial law" and it made me sick. (He wheezes) I broke up homes and families, never givin' it a second thought. Till one day. I had an epiphany. You know what that is? (They nod) Came with a damn stigmata if you can believe that! I said to myself -- Joe -- everyone you see wants blood. Everyone wants their ex's dead. So why jerk around with rest. You wanna best serve your clients? Kill em. Joe is raising the gun at Miles. Miles sprays him with Mace. BANG -- Joe fires blindly, scrunching his eyes against the chemical, sucking for breath like a jet engine revving for a take-off. SLAM -- Marylin elbows him in the face, breaking his nose. She finishes with a solid groin kick. It slows him down, but doesn't stop him. Joe stumbles a bit, but regains his footing. BANG -- Joe is rampaging around the room, still firing, thumping at his chest with his free hand for his inhaler. Marylin runs to Miles. He takes her hand and they run toward the door, seeking egress. BANG -- still firing, he pulls out the inhaler but blindly bobbles it. Joe reaches with his gun hand to keep the inhaler from falling. He momentarily bobbles both gun and inhaler. Miles pops up in front of him. MILES Marylin. Run. I'll distract him. MARYLIN I'm not leaving you. I took self defense Joe recovers and raises the gun to his mouth as he points the inhaler at Miles. He squeezes -- WHUSH -- Miles squints against the asthma mist and lets out a horrified: MILES Joe! BANG! The off-screen gunshot is followed by the sound of a body dropping heavily to the floor. Silence. Marylin runs over to Miles. They look sadly down at the floor. MILES WE told him it was no go... INT. MASSEY MYERSON CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY Wrigley sits bouncing the steepled fingers of one hand against the other. Miles sits gazing sadly out the window. The room is empty. There is the whir of ventilation. The click of the door attracts both their attention and brings them to their feet. Marylin walks in, chic and beautiful as ever, followed by Ruth, who sits next to her, places her attachÈ case on the table top, and snaps its clasps. RUTH Alright. WRIGLEY Ruth. Miles and Marylin are looking at each other. Quietly: MILES Hello Marylin. MARYLIN Hello Miles. MILES Hard to believe this is the way it will end up for us. MARYLIN It's not something I wanted either. MILES But then -- I guess -- something inside me died when I realized that you'd hired a goon to kill me. MARYLIN Yes. I know. It's exactly how I felt when I realized you'd hired the goon to kill... RUTH Now you both wait a minute. Nobody hired anyone to kill anyone. WRIGLEY Hear, hear. There is an uncomfortable shifting in seats. Wrigley looks at Miles. WRIGLEY Apparently, from what I can gather, a burglar broke into your house -- became despondent over his lifestyle and shot himself. Miles is still looking at Marylin. MILES Where does that leave us? RUTH We've outlined a settlement... She pushes a piece of paper across the table. RUTH We think it's more than generous. Miles ignores the paper, which lies unclaimed on the middle of the table. He looks at Marylin. WRIGLEY My client is prepared to consider a reconciliation. Marylin looks a Miles. MARYLIN How could I trust you, after... after all of this. Miles, staring at Marylin, cuts in: MILES You wounded me first, Marylin. MARYLIN Your forgetting Rex Rexroth? MILES You're forgetting Howard Doyle? MARYLIN Forgery? Fraud? MILES Income tax evasion? MARYLIN Murder? MILES Murder! MARYLIN I don't see how we can ever find our way back from... Miles, with his eyes still on Marylin, reaches into his suit coat. He withdraws a piece of paper, spreads it flat on the table in front of him and, still gazing at her: MILES You know... there's nothing in the Massey pre-nup that says it can't be executed after the parties wed. He decisively clicks the button on a ballpoint pen, looks down at the paper in front of him and scribbles his name. He pushes the paper across the table toward Marylin. Gazing at him, seeking the truth in his eyes, she absently picks up the paper. There is a long silence. We hear only the hum of ventilation, and Wrigley's quiet snuffling. Ruth is looking down her nose through her glasses -- over Marylin's shoulder -- at the sheet of paper. Marylin however, looks only at Miles. RUTH It's the Massey pre-nup -- Marylin rips the paper in half. RUTH (bored) O-kay. I'm going back to the office Wrigley sobs openly. RUTH Come on Wrigley, I'll buy you a drink and an anti depressant. WRIGLEY No one will ever love me that way. RUTH Not if you're lucky. No. Miles rises slowly to his feet. He puts his knuckles on the tabletop and leans forward. Marylin rises slowly to her feet. She leans forward. They kiss. MILES Let's go home. EXT. MASSEY HOUSE - DAY We hear a SMASHING -- BREAKING. Gardeners look up briefly from the leaf blowing -- but quickly prioritize and continue blasting sycamore leaves from one end of the yard to the other. TRACK THROUGH HOUSE TO INT. MASSEY BEDROOM The smashing is becoming louder. AN AXE Breaks the beautiful wood panelling in the room next to the master suite. MILES Wait. Just wait for one minute. Sweet Jesus, are you crazy? CONSTRUCTION WORKER LOOKS UP he's the one wielding the axe. His co-worker casts a look in our direction. MILES reaches under the rubble and removes one box of Cohiba Especials. CONSTRUCTION WORKER Sorry, Mr. Massey. Thought you cleared that shit out. CONSTRUCTION WORKER #2 You know, man... those things'll kill ya. I know all you old boomer potheads like em. They're illegal, and you get to put em in fancy boxes -- but -- shit man! It's still tobacco. ON MARYLIN Mightily pregnant. MARYLIN You know, sweets, he's right. Miles casts a rueful look at the cigars. MILES Pre-Castro. MARYLIN Fine. They were created during a dictatorship. (Placing a protective hand on her BIG belly) What if something happened to you? What would I tell little Gus when he asked "what was my daddy like?" Miles looks at the box, then at his wife. He tosses the box to the concerned construction worker. MILES Here, buddy. These are for you. The construction worker gives him a very hostile look. CONSTRUCTION WORKER (Mumbles) Great. Now I can die. MILES Well. You'd say "they devoted a whole semester at Harvard to your Dad. But your Mom was the one that ever only nailed his ass." MARYLIN Sweet. MILES I thought so. FADE OUT: THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Inventing the Abbotts.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Inventing the Abbotts.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..6e006a4be39469de7701a09af593586913dfa1d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Inventing the Abbotts.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +INVENTING THE ABBOTTS Screenplay by Ken Hixon From the Short Story by Sue Miller March 21, 1996 DRAFT FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY INVENTING THE ABBOTTS FADE IN:1EXT. ABBOTT HOME - STREET (HALEY, ILLINOIS) - DAY 1 (LATE SPRING, 1957) OPENING CREDITS ROLL over a TENT MONTAGE -- ASSORTED ANGLES of a group of men hard at work erecting a large striped "big-top" style canvas tent, INCLUDING: The long steel stakes being sledge-hammered into the lawn, practiced hands rapidly rigging the lines, the tall center poles being leveraged upright, the heavy rolled-up sections of canvas being maneuvered into position, and ENDING WITH the canvas being hoisted up the poles as the tent assumes its full and finished form.NEW ANGLE - TENT -- on the front yard of the Abbott mansion. The residence is on Main Street, four blocks from where the commercial district begins. The mature, over-arching trees makes this street of prosperous houses a grand promenade.2EXT. ABBOTT HOME - STREET - DAY 2 JACEY HOLT and DOUG HOLT walk along the sidewalk on their way to school. Jacey is seventeen; he's as handsome and seemingly self-confident as his younger brother is rumpled and impulsive. Doug is fifteen, a popular culture chameleon who takes on the colors and affectations of whomever his "hero" is at the moment (which presently happens to be Elvis Presley). Jacey stops and stares with open-faced misery at the tent on the Abbott's front yard (the installation of the tent indicates that the Abbott's are having yet another of the many parties they throw every year). DOUG Didn't get invited, huh? JACEY Go to hell. DOUG Who cares? I'm not going and I got invited. JACEY Who invited you? (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 2.2CONTINUED: 2 DOUG Pam, I guess. I don't know. Didn't open the envelope. I mean, come on, every time an Abbott girl gets her period they have some party. JACEY Oh, shut up. DOUG Kotex parties, Kotex party hats, pin the Kotex on the... JACEY Shut up! Jacey swats Doug's school books out from under his arm -- Doug charges his brother to retaliate but they are rudely interrupted by a CAR HORN. They scurry out of the way as LLOYD ABBOTT pulls his 1957 Cadillac out of the driveway and cruises down the street. Lloyd is a well-dressed- and-fed man in his mid-forties. A Midwestern burgher, he exudes the status he enjoys as one of the preeminent pillars of this community. Doug is embarrassed by Lloyd's passing, but Jacey evidently experiences a deeper humiliation -- he gives Doug a glance of betrayal, turns and walks down the block.3 OMITTED 34INT. HIGH SCHOOL - CORRIDOR - DAY (SHORT TIME LATER) 4 ELEANOR ABBOTT gathers some books from her locker. Eleanor is sixteen, outgoing, sarcastic, and very popular. She is the middle of the three Abbott daughters. Eleanor closes her locker, turns and discovers Jacey standing behind her. He follows her down the busy hall. JACEY I tried to call you last night but the line was busy. ELEANOR No it wasn't. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 3.4CONTINUED: 4 JACEY It was busy all night. ELEANOR Maybe you had the wrong number? JACEY Are you mad at me? ELEANOR No. Are you mad at me? JACEY No. Who said I was? ELEANOR I did. JACEY I just wanted to talk to you last night. ELEANOR We can talk tonight at the party. JACEY I wasn't invited. ELEANOR Yes, you were. JACEY No, I wasn't. ELEANOR Well, now you are. But if you're mad at me you don't have to come. She gives him a sultry smile, turns and glides into a classroom as the BELL RINGS. The corridor is quickly vacated by all but Jacey -- he savors the aftertaste of Eleanor's smile.5 EXT. HOLT HOME - EVENING (MAGIC HOUR) 5 ESTABLISHING ANGLE of the modest two-story clapboard house in a working class neighborhood. A home-made ping- pong table takes up so much room in the detached garage that it forced the eviction of the family car, a 1950 Plymouth coupe, which is parked nearby on the driveway. The garage doors are open and the garage light is on. We hear (V.O.) DOUG SINGING bits and pieces of "Heartbreak Hotel" in his best Elvis fashion. INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 3A/4.6 INT. HOLT HOME - BATHROOM - EVENING (MAGIC HOUR) 6 Doug stands in front of the bathroom mirror (wearing a coat and tie) still singing "Heartbreak Hotel" while he carefully draws sideburns on his face with a wide-nib pen and a bottle of India ink. Jacey's reflection appears in the mirror behind Doug -- he's wearing a coat and tie too. Jacey does a pained take on Doug's handiwork: JACEY Oh, Christ!7 INT. DINING ROOM - EVENING (MAGIC HOURMINUTES LATER) 7 HELEN HOLT is seated at the dining table. She was grading a stack of spelling tests with a red pencil when Jacey and Doug came in to ask her to adjudicate the matter at hand. She is an attractive but unostentatious woman without interest in appearing to be anything other than what she is: a forty-one-year-old widow raising two teenage sons on a school teacher's salary. (She teaches second grade at Haley Elementary School.) JACEY He has to wash it off, Mother. You cannot let him go to the party unless he washes it off. DOUG It'll look worse if I wash it. It's India ink, it'll turn gray, it'll look like dirt. JACEY He looks like such a clown and he doesn't even know it! He doesn't get how things work in this town. I thought you weren't even going to the party? DOUG Changed my mind. HELEN Doug, you do understand that you may be the only person at this party with artificial sideburns? DOUG Yeah. HELEN You do understand that your sideburns don't look real? Doug was hoping they didn't look that phony, but he conceals his disappointment and nods: (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 5.7CONTINUED: 7 DOUG Yeah. HELEN That they look, really, as though you'd drawn them on? DOUG (swallows, then shrugs) Yeah. She looks hard at Doug for a beat, then turns to Jacey. HELEN Well, darling, it seems he does understand. Why don't you just go on to the party and ignore Doug. Just have a good time and pretend you don't even... Jacey curses under his breath and storms out the front door before his mother can finish her sermon.8EXT. ABBOTT HOME/TENT - STREET - LATER THAT NIGHT 8 The curb is lined with parked cars. We hear a dance band playing "QUE SERA" and the sounds of the party as Doug lopes up the sidewalk sporting his India ink sideburns and smoking a cigarette. He flicks the cigarette into the street with well-rehearsed ease as he turns and walks up the long driveway towards the glowing "big-top" tent. Doug trails his hand over Lloyd Abbott's Cadillac, caressing it from hood-to-trunk as he ambles by.9INT. ABBOTT HOME/TENT - NIGHT 9 Doug enters the tent and surveys the gathering -- a tuxedoed ten-piece band plays on the bandstand. Despite his mother's advice, a nauseated grimace falls over Jacey's face when he sees that his younger brother has arrived. He is dancing with Eleanor. (CONTINUED) 6.9CONTINUED: 9 They dance past a group of young men on the sidelines (Jacey's senior classmates), they are all edgy with envy, waiting like predators for their chance to dance with Eleanor. ELEANOR I'm going out to the lake tomorrow. Sandy wants to show-off her dad's new boat. Why don't you come? JACEY I have to work. ELEANOR Well, I guess you'll just have to write me a letter. JACEY What do you mean? ELEANOR You said you wanted to talk to me in private. JACEY I meant... just... we never get a chance to be together, alone, you know? STEVE (one of the envious classmates) makes his move and cuts in on Jacey and dances away with Eleanor. Jacey handles it with aplomb but his true irritation at being separated from the object of his desire reveals itself as he observes Eleanor flirting with her new dance partner.10 INT. ABBOTT HOME/TENT - BUFFET TABLE - DOUG 10 -- sampling the hors d'oeuvres. He places the ones he doesn't like back onto the platter. PAMELA ABBOTT steps over to Doug. She is his age (fifteen), the youngest of the Abbott girls, and the least stuck-up. PAMELA Hi. u DOUG Hi. She points at Doug's chest. PAMELA Like your tie. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 7.10 CONTINUED: 10 Doug glances down at his tie and Pam flips her index finger up across the tip of his nose. Doug scowls and points at her bust. DOUG Can I borrow a Kleenex? PAMELA Greaser. DOUG (mouth full of food) Got any smokes around here?11 INT. ABBOTT HOME - BACK YARD - NIGHT 11 Doug and Pam smoke their cigarettes in the back yard. The tent can be seen in the b.g. The band is playing "MONA LISA." DOUG So, is this Peter guy Alice is gonna marry rich? PAMELA Of course. He's one of the Atlas Steel Vanlaninghams. Pittsburgh. He's a bully. DOUG So how come Alice's marrying him? PAMELA Because my parents want her to and Alice is afraid of my parents. It's practically an arranged marriage. They think Alice has peanut shells for brains or something, so they sort of suggested that maybe it was time to tie the old knot and they sort of suggested that Peter was the one to do it with. DOUG Jeez, no one can be that much of a pushover. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 8.11 CONTINUED: 11 PAMELA Look, Alice is the good daughter, Eleanor is the bad one, and I'm the one who sort of gets off the hook. That's just the way it works. Which one are you? DOUG You mean, which kind of brother am I? You got me? The little brother, I guess.12 INT. ABBOTT HOME/TENT - NIGHT (SHORT TIME LATER) 12 The band improvises a FANFARE as Lloyd Abbott and his wife, JOAN ABBOTT, step up onto the bandstand. Joan has the practiced poise of a former beauty queen (as if her smile had been surgically sewn onto her face). She has a tendency to smoke and drink a bit too much and eat and sleep a bit too little. LLOYD Ladies and Gentlemen -- I'd like to propose a toast in honor of our cause for celebration tonight -- the engagement of our daughter, Alice, to Mister Peter Vanlaningham. He gestures to ALICE ABBOTT and her fiance PETER VANLANINGHAM. Alice is nineteen, the eldest and the prettiest and seemingly most conventional of the three sisters. Peter is the scion of a wealthy Pittsburgh family. He and his bride-to-be smile and acknowledge the applause and AD-LIBBED toasts. The band strikes up "I Got the World on a String" and Joan whispers something to Alice -- Alice goes over to Lloyd and (despite his mock-protest) pulls him out onto the dance floor. (CONTINUED) 9.12 CONTINUED: 12 The guests applaud their uninspired box-step; neither father nor daughter appear comfortable at such close quarters.13 EXT. ABBOTT HOME - DRIVEWAY & TENT - NIGHT 13 The party is going full swing as Doug wanders out of the tent and walks down the driveway. He's had enough of high society for tonight.14 EXT. SIDEWALK (HALEY) - NIGHT 14 Doug strolls along the sidewalk (in a residential neighborhood) softly singing "You Ain't Nothin' but a Hound Dog." He pauses beside a rubbish can on the curb, strikes a wooden match, and sets the trash on fire. As he nonchalantly continues down the sidewalk we see several trash cans on fire in the near distance.15 EXT. ABBOTT HOME - BACK YARD - NIGHT 15 Eleanor necks with Steve (Jacey's rival) on the glider in the gazebo in the distant corner of the yard. The sounds of the PARTY can be heard in the b.g. (the band is playing "In Old Monterey"). Jacey stands in the shadows of the shrubbery spying on them with pure heartache.16 EXT. STREET (HALEY) - NIGHT (SHORT TIME LATER) 16 Jacey walks home with his eyes brimming with bitter tears -- past the smoldering rubbish cans along the curb.17 EXT. HOLT HOME - SIDEWALK & GARAGE - NIGHT 17(MINUTES LATER) As Jacey turns up the driveway, a light snaps on in the garage. The garage doors are open, Doug sits on the edge of the ping-pong table smoking a cigarette with his hand still on the light fixture pull chain. DOUG Three out of five? JACEY Two out of three. You serve. Jacey and Doug pick up their paddles and begin a game of ping-pong. They are expert players and fierce competitors. INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 10.18 EXT. TEXACO GAS STATION (DOWNTOWN HALEY) - NEXT DAY 18 Lloyd Abbott pulls his (1957) Cadillac up to the pumps. The DING-DING of the BELL HOSE summons Jacey. He wears a Texaco uniform complete with bow tie and cap. JACEY 'Morning. LLOYD Fill 'er up. Hi-test. Jacey sets the pump nozzle on automatic and cleans the windshield. Lloyd slips the ashtray out of the dash, climbs out of the car, and empties the ashtray in the trash can. JACEY That was a nice party last night. LLOYD You were there? JACEY Yes, sir. Eleanor invited me. LLOYD Did she? Didn't see you. (slight beat) You going to be an engineer like your dad was? JACEY I want to be an architect. LLOYD Hmmm... I guess some people care more about having ideas that they do about making money. JACEY I care about making money. Lloyd idly examines the mechanism on the ashtray that enables it to slide in-and-out of the dash. LLOYD That full suspension file drawer your dad invented is still in production, did you know that? We'll ship thirty-maybe-forty thousand of those file cabinets this year. Hell, that drawer put Midwest Steel Desk on the map. JACEY Yes, sir. I know. (CONTINUED) 11.18 CONTINUED: 18 LLOYD An architect, huh? The GAS NOZZLE CLICKS OFF, Jacey hangs up the nozzle, and replaces the gas cap. Lloyd pulls out his wallet. LLOYD You want some free advice? JACEY Sure. LLOYD Don't waste your life making other people rich. Keep the change. He hands Jacey a five-spot and gets into his car. Lloyd drives away in his Cadillac. Jacey crumbles the five dollar bill into a ball. As he returns to the office he catches his reflection in the mirror of the cigarette machine. He frowns and pulls off his cap and bow tie.A19 INT. BOATHOUSE (LAKE) - LATER THAT DAY A19 The abandoned boathouse is a dilapidated structure situated on an isolated shore of the large lake. Doug strikes a wooden match, shepherds the flame, leans over, holds the match to his ass and lights a fart. The amorphous blue flame flares and almost instantly disappears as the gas is consumed. VICTOR, Doug's partner in crime and best friend, is impressed. (Victor is fifteen, too.) VICTOR Jeez Louise! How'd you do that? DOUG Intestinal gas -- produced by bacterial metabolism of food residues in the colon. A mixture of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane. That's the secret ingredient. VICTOR What's so secret about it? DOUG Not everyone can produce methane. It's genetic, that means it's inherited. There's a lot of methane in my family. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 12.A19 CONTINUED: A19 VICTOR You're full of shit. DOUG Look it up, it's all in the encyclopedia. VICTOR They don't got farts in the encyclopedia. DOUG Hey, they got 'vagina' in the dictionary, they got farts in the encyclopedia. The ROAR of a PASSING SPEEDBOAT attracts Doug's interest. VICTOR (incredulous) Vagina is in the dictionary? DOUG 'A canal leading from the uterus to the vulva'. VICTOR You sure read a lot, man. (slight beat) A canal?B19 EXT. BOATHOUSE DOCK (LAKE) - CONTINUOUS ACTION - DAY B19 Doug steps out of the boathouse onto the sagging dock and sees a fast speedboat cutting across the lake towing a male water skier. (Another young man is driving the boat with two young women in bathing suits as passengers.) Victor comes out as the speedboat's wake rocks the old dock. VICTOR Assholes! DOUG It's Jacey -- that's him skiing. He must've skipped out on work.19 EXT. LAKE - ANGLE ON SPEEDBOAT 19 -- with Jacey skiing behind it. STEVE is at the helm. Eleanor and SANDY lounge in their bathing suits. (CONTINUED) 13.19 CONTINUED: 19 As they pass a ski ramp Steve points to it. Jacey gives him a thumb's up gesture and Steve circles the boat around for the approach. SANDY No way! He's never done the ramp. STEVE He wants to do it. Steve lines up the approach and pushes the throttle open. Jacey swings out on the end of the tow-rope and pops over the wake. Eleanor leans over to Steve. ELEANOR You know you're going too fast? STEVE (grins) Yeah, I know. The boat zips by the ramp and Jacey's skis contact the slippery surface and his skis go out from under him. He takes a hard bounce, loses hold of the tow-rope, and goes tumbling over the apex of the ramp into the water.20 INT. HOLT HOME - BATHROOM - THAT NIGHT 20 Jacey is soaking in the bathtub. Doug enters without knocking. DOUG Time to eat. Doug washes his hands. Jacey climbs out of the tub and fetches a towel. And Doug reacts to... DOUG Jesus Christ! Jacey's back and buttocks are severely bruised. Jacey wraps the towel around his waist and turns to his brother. JACEY Don't tell Mom. DOUG Oh, shit... (CONTINUED) 14.20 CONTINUED: 20 JACEY (cutting him off) Just don't tell Mom. All right? DOUG Yeah, okay, all right. Jacey walks out of the bathroom.21 EXT. TEXACO STATION (DOWNTOWN HALEY) - DAY (SUMMER 1957) 21 Lloyd Abbott's 1957 Cadillac pulls up to the pumps. Lloyd is behind the wheel, Joan sits next to him, Eleanor and Pamela are in the back seat. The DING-DING of the BELL HOSE summons...22 INT. TEXACO STATION - JACEY 22 -- sticks the mop he's been using into a pail and goes to answer the bell. He hesitates as he sees the Abbotts and lets another attendant wait on them. He retreats into the garage and resumes mopping the floor. ELEANOR (O.S.) Hi. Jacey finds Eleanor standing in the garage doorway. ELEANOR Congratulations. JACEY For what? ELEANOR I heard you got accepted to Penn. JACEY Oh. Yeah. Thanks. ELEANOR How'd you swing an Ivy League school like that? JACEY My grandfather went there. I had the grades, so... ELEANOR It stinks in here. JACEY I dropped something. (CONTINUED) 15.22 CONTINUED: 22 ELEANOR Yeah, me. JACEY I just thought you and Steve... ELEANOR Well, that's what you thought. I think Steve is... I don't even know what I think about Steve, I never think about him. I just do things. And let other people figure them out. That's what parents are for. They're real good at doing all the thinking. Why should I? (slight beat) Alice is going to have a baby. She and Kilroy didn't waste any time. He's already talking about having another, and Alice is up- chucking every hour on the hour. She's got morning-noon-and-night sickness. I've got the feeling she'll be barefoot and puking for years to come. Wallpaper patterns -- that's all she talks about. She and my mother spend hours looking at wallpaper pattern books. That's another thing I never think about... wallpaper. (another beat) Well, I think this is called the silent treatment. I get enough of that from my father, I don't need it from you. Good luck at Penn. She starts to walk away, but Jacey pulls her back and kisses her fiercely -- Eleanor responds with equal heat. They don't see Pamela enter the garage. Pam studies them for an imperturbable beat, then: PAMELA Come on, Eleanor -- Dad's waiting.23 EXT. TEXACO STATION - DAY (MOMENTS LATER) 23 The Abbotts drive away. Jacey stands in the garage in the b.g. He watches the Cadillac disappear into traffic. INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 16.24 EXT. DOWNTOWN HALEY - INSIDE CADILLAC 24 -- with Lloyd behind the wheel, Joan in the front passenger seat, and Eleanor and Pam in the back seat. Lloyd says to Eleanor: LLOYD Stay away from him. ELEANOR Who? LLOYD Jacey. ELEANOR Why? LLOYD Because I said so.25 OMITTED 2526 EXT. IRON SKILLET RESTAURANT - DAY (TWO WEEKS LATER) 26 A family-style restaurant in the center of town. It's a sweltering, hot July day. Heat shimmers off the sidewalk.27 INT. IRON SKILLET RESTAURANT - DAY 27 The decor is mock-Colonial. Victor and Doug (in their bus boy uniforms) are stocking a waitress station with silverware, coffee cups, and water glasses. VICTOR We should have a party out at the boathouse, man. That's what we should do. DOUG Sure. VICTOR You know, invite some girls. DOUG Right. VICTOR Get some beer, go swimming. Look up a few words in the dictionary. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 17.27 CONTINUED: 27 DOUG Yeah, like 'boring' or 'eunuch.' VICTOR Eunuch? What's that? DOUG It's Latin for bus boy. WEBB CROSBY, the proprietor of the restaurant, steps over. WEBB Business is a little light today, too damn hot. Which one of you knuckle-heads wants to get off early? DOUG & VICTOR (in unison) Me... I do. WEBB (takes out a coin) Call it in the air...28 EXT. IRON SKILLET RESTAURANT - DAY (MINUTES LATER) 28 Doug bicycles away (he won the coin toss).29 INT. HOLT HOME - KITCHEN - DAY (SHORT TIME LATER) 29 Doug sails through the back door. He gets a bowl out of the cupboard and fetches the ice cream scoop from a drawer.30 INT. HOLT HOME - GARAGE - CONTINUOUS ACTION - DAY 30 Doug enters with the bowl and ice cream scoop in hand. He lifts the lid of the freezer, reaches for a carton of ice cream and something startles him. He cocks his head to listen and slowly lowers the freezer lid. He peers into the silvery, dim light and sees Jacey and Eleanor naked on an old daybed near the coal bin in the back of the garage. She is on top of Jacey, riding him rhythmically. Eleanor is facing Doug. She reacts without alarm or shame when she notices Doug staring at her. She coolly returns his stare. Doug tries, but he's unable to avert his eyes. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 18.30 CONTINUED: 30 Eleanor only shifts her gaze when distracted by her orgasm, which triggers Jacey's -- as she recovers her composure she says: ELEANOR Hi, Doug. Jacey bolts upright, throwing her off of him, and shouts: JACEY Get out!!! Doug drops the bowl and scoop and charges out of the garage.31 EXT. HOLT HOME - STREET - DAY (SECONDS LATER) 31 Doug races away from the house on his bicycle -- pumping furiously and sweating profusely.32 EXT. LAKE - DAY (SHORT TIME LATER) 32 Doug dives into the lake in his underpants, then surfaces. The water has cooled his body, but not his mind.33 OMITTED 3334 INT. HOLT HOME - JACEY'S BEDROOM - DAY (EARLY FALL 1957) 34 Helen assists Jacey as he packs his bags in preparation for his departure to college the next day. HELEN Oh, we forgot an umbrella. JACEY I'll buy a new one in Philadelphia. HELEN And don't forget your sport coat. JACEY Yeah, I'll go pick it up. HELEN Take Doug with you. JACEY I'm just going to the cleaners. (CONTINUED) 19.34 CONTINUED: 34 HELEN Take him along for the ride. Go have a root beer at the Dog'n'Suds. JACEY I gotta finish packing. HELEN I'll finish up. Doug's going to miss you. JACEY Baloney. HELEN I think he will. JACEY Not much. HELEN Oh, dammit, Jacey, please -- take your brother with you. JACEY Yes, ma'am.35 EXT. STREETS OF HALEY - DAY (SHORT TIME LATER) 35 Jacey (behind the wheel) and Doug drive into town in the Plymouth coupe. After a long silence: JACEY If Mom starts having problems with the car stalling just change the fuel filter. It gets clogged up when she lets the gas tank get too low. DOUG Okay. JACEY And every-once-in-a-while take her to the movies so she doesn't just sit around the house all the time reading. DOUG She likes to read. JACEY She reads too much. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 20.35 CONTINUED: 35 DOUG Okay, I'll take her to the movies. JACEY (slight beat) You want to go have a beer? DOUG Root beer? JACEY No, a beer. DOUG A beer beer? JACEY Yeah. DOUG Where are we gonna get beer? JACEY The bait shop. If you go in alone and nobody else is in the store, Ernie'll sell you a couple of bottles.36 EXT. DIRT ROAD (COUNTRYSIDE) - DAY 36 The Plymouth is parked on a dirt lane separating two cornfields. Jacey sits on the fender of the car nursing on a bottle of beer. Doug urinates between two rows of corn. DOUG Remember that time I got my dick caught in my zipper? Jacey gives Doug a quizzical look. DOUG You know, when I was in first grade. At school? In the boys' room? Remember I wouldn't let Mrs. Horton help me, so she went and got Mom out of her classroom, but I wouldn't let Mom help me either. I told her to go get you. Remember? JACEY Yeah, I remember. (CONTINUED) 21.36 CONTINUED: 36 Doug retrieves his beer from the roof of the car. A semi-trailer drives past with "Midwest Steel Desk, Inc. -- Haley, Illinois" painted on its sides. JACEY We should own that company. DOUG What do you mean? JACEY Midwest Steel Desk. Dad's file cabinet drawer. Lloyd Abbott screwed mom out of Dad's patent after he died. DOUG Says who? JACEY It's true. DOUG Mom's not stupid. JACEY I didn't say she was stupid. Lloyd's pretty smooth. That's why he owns the company. DOUG He owns the company 'cause he married the boss's daughter. JACEY He owns the company 'cause that patent saved the company's ass after the war, when all the war contracts dried up. DOUG Well, maybe Mom sold it 'cause we needed the money. JACEY What money? We never had any money. Money had nothing to do with it. DOUG Then why did she sell the patent? (CONTINUED) 22.36 CONTINUED: (2) 36 JACEY She just did, that's all that matters. And that's why we're driving this car and not that one. Jacey gestures to '57 Thunderbird convertible speeding past them. He finishes off his beer, then: JACEY I guess you'll just have to be real careful zipping up your pants while I'm gone. DOUG Yeah.37 EXT. BUS DEPOT (DOWNTOWN HALEY) - NEXT DAY 37 Helen stands on the curb waving good-bye as the Greyhound bus carrying Jacey away to Philadelphia departs. Doug hangs back, leaning against the Plymouth's fender.38 INT. HIGH SCHOOL - LIBRARY - DAY (SPRING, 1958) 38 Doug steals lustful looks at Eleanor from behind his book. She is seated across the table from him. The library is filled with students poring over their assignments. Eleanor is seemingly oblivious to Doug's probing eyes. Doug allows his pencil to roll off the edge of the table. He ducks under the table to retrieve his pencil and his ruse is revealed as he stares up Eleanor's skirt at the soft triangle that her white panties cover between her parted legs. Eleanor's hand lowers a piece of notebook paper beneath the table, on it she has written: "Hi Doug!" Doug starts with panic, rears back, cracks his head on the bottom of the table, and then, as his head rebounds from the blow, he accidentally impales himself in his chin with the sharp pencil. Doug scrambles up from under the table with the pencil dangling from his chin, knocking over his chair in the process. The tranquility of the library is destroyed by the flabbergasted reactions of the students. Eleanor is momentarily concerned about his welfare, but she cannot help but laugh, too. 23.39 EXT. STREETS OF HALEY - LATER THAT DAY 39 Doug morosely slouches along the sidewalk on his way home from school. He sports a Band-aid on his chin. Pamela Abbott pulls up alongside Doug and tails him in her 1958 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer convertible (with the top down). PAMELA How's your chin? DOUG Drop dead. PAMELA You want a ride? DOUG Nope. PAMELA You can drive. DOUG I don't have my license yet. PAMELA I don't care.40 EXT. ROAD - COUNTRYSIDE - DAY 40 The convertible speeds along the two-lane blacktop with Doug behind the wheel and Pamela sitting next to him. PAMELA How come you never ask me out? DOUG What for? PAMELA For like a date, block-head. DOUG I see you all the time. PAMELA I don't mean hanging out. DOUG Come on. PAMELA You scared of me or something? (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 24.40 CONTINUED: 40 DOUG Hell, no. I gotta job, I got school, I don't have time for dates and all that stuff. PAMELA Then forget it. DOUG It's not like we're... you know... like I'm your boyfriend or... PAMELA (cutting him off) I said forget it, so forget it.41 INT. HOLT HOME - GARAGE - LATER THAT NIGHT 41 Doug sits on the ping pong table gazing at the daybed as he smokes a cigarette. His reverie is broken by Helen's voice calling him: HELEN (V.O.) Doug? Dinner...!42 INT. HOLT HOME - DINING ROOM - NIGHT 42 Helen and Doug are at the dinner table. HELEN I wish you wouldn't smoke in the garage, darling. DOUG I don't smoke in the garage. HELEN There's lots of old stuff out there, I don't want anything to catch on fire. DOUG I don't smoke, Mom. HELEN Well, just the same, I'd prefer it if you'd smoke in the backyard. DOUG Yes, ma'am. (slight beat) I gotta go, gonna be late. (CONTINUED) 25.42 CONTINUED: 42 HELEN Late where? He rises from the table and fidgets with his napkin. DOUG I... have a date, kind of. It's Friday night, you know? HELEN Yes, I know. Well, have fun. DOUG You too. Doug walks out of the dining room.43 EXT. ABBOTT HOUSE - FRONT DOOR - NIGHT 43 Doug waits nervously for the doorbell to be answered. He's wearing a jacket and tie. Pamela opens the door and reacts with surprise. DOUG Hi. PAMELA Jesus... what do you want? DOUG What are you doing tonight? You want to go out? PAMELA I don't believe you. You're crazy. I'm baby-sitting. My folks went out to dinner with Peter and Alice and I got tricked into watching the baby. DOUG Oh. Where's Eleanor? PAMELA I thought you came over to ask me out? DOUG I did. PAMELA Good, 'cause Eleanor isn't here. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 26.43 CONTINUED: 43 DOUG Can I come in? PAMELA No. DOUG Why not? PAMELA Because, you know, my parents aren't here. DOUG Well... maybe some other time... Alice's BABY starts CRYING O.S. and Pamela grimaces. PAMELA Oh, hell. Okay, but just for a little while.44 INT. ABBOTT HOME - DEN - NIGHT (SHORT TIME LATER) 44 An episode of "Death Valley Days" with commercials for 29 Mule Team Borax AIRS on the deluxe console TV. Doug sits on the sofa smoking a cigarette. Pamela sits at the opposite end of the sofa. PAMELA You're not like Jacey. DOUG Why not? PAMELA He's so... so trig and polished. DOUG What's 'trig' mean? PAMELA You know... handsome, sexy, sophisticated. Pipe-smokers. DOUG Oh. I don't think Jacey smokes a pipe. PAMELA Well, you don't have to smoke a pipe to be trig. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 26A.44 CONTINUED: 44 DOUG Oh. PAMELA You think I'm... different than Eleanor? DOUG Sure. PAMELA Like... how? DOUG Like... you're smarter. PAMELA Yeah, real smart, that's why I'm baby-sitting and she's out having fun. (slight beat) Eleanor's smart. DOUG So how come she flunked biology? (CONTINUED) 27.44 CONTINUED: 44 PAMELA Well, you're no Albert Einstein. DOUG I got a three-point-two average. PAMELA Doesn't mean you know my sister. DOUG Oh yeah? You might be surprised. PAMELA About what? What? What? DOUG Why are we talking about Eleanor? PAMELA I didn't bring her up. DOUG Look, either you're mad at me 'cause you're mad at me -- or you're mad at me 'cause you like me. 'Cause that's how girls act. I don't know much, but I know that. So like which is it? PAMELA Both. Doug exhales with bewilderment, stubs out his cigarette, then awkwardly slides down the sofa to Pamela. She holds perfectly still as Doug slowly moves his mouth to hers and kisses her. Then he concludes the kiss to check her reaction; she timidly smiles. He kisses her again with greater fervor. Doug creeps his hand up her blouse and massages her breast. Pamela struggles to suppress her surprise, which he mistakes as a sign of her approval. Emboldened by her lack of resistance, he slips his hand under her bra. Pam is shocked by the pleasure of the sensation, then alarmed by the pace of their passion. PAMELA Doug... Doug kisses her again and as they kiss he stares at a framed photograph of Eleanor amongst an assortment of family photos on the long table behind the sofa. It is Eleanor that he is thinking of -- in his mind's eye it is Eleanor's breast that he is fondling. Pamela pulls her lips from his: (CONTINUED) 28.44 CONTINUED: (2) 44 PAMELA Do you love me, Doug? Do you? He kisses her with such ardor that she interprets his answer to be yes, when in reality Doug is only trying to silence her. He pulls his hand out of her blouse and slips it under her skirt. Pam lurches back into the sofa: PAMELA Jesus... He tries to kiss her again but she twists her head away. PAMELA Stop it... stop it! She shoves him away and jumps off the sofa. Doug looks at her with breathless confusion. She turns away from him and tries to button her blouse, but she can't see the buttons for her tears. She begins to sob and runs out of the room.45 INT. ABBOTT HOME - ENTRY HALL AND STAIRCASE - CONTINUOUS 45ACTION Pamela dashes up the stairs. Doug comes out of the den looking for her. He is quite shaken: DOUG Pam? Hey... (under his breath) Oh, dammit... He slowly mounts the stairs, wary of invading Pamela's privacy anymore than he already has. DOUG Pam?46 INT. ABBOTT HOME - SECOND-FLOOR HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS 46ACTION Doug finds Pamela weeping in the dark hallway, still fastening the buttons on her blouse. DOUG I'm sorry... I'm really sorry... PAMELA I'm not Eleanor... I can't go so fast. (CONTINUED) 29.46 CONTINUED: 46 They are both seized with fright as they hear the front DOOR OPEN below and Peter's angry voice: PETER (O.S.) Every time we go out you have to tell that same goddamn story! Pam pushes Doug down the hall away from the front stairs and whispers urgently: PAMELA Get out of here! Get out!47 INT. ABBOTT HOME - ENTRY HALL AND STAIRS - CONTINUOUS 47ACTION Peter and Alice are taking off their coats. ALICE Accidentally brushing your teeth with Brylcreme is a funny story. PETER Will you shut up about the fucking Brylcreme! ALICE It comes in a red-and-white tube just like a tube of Pepsodent. PETER Do you hear me, Alice?! Shut up! Their BABY begins to CRY (O.S.) and they find Pamela standing at the top of the stairs. PAMELA The baby's crying.48 INT. ABBOTT HOME - BACK STAIRWAY AND KITCHEN - NIGHT 48(MOMENTS LATER) Doug sneaks down the back stairs and enters the kitchen as Lloyd and Joan enter from the garage pulling off their coats. Doug ducks back into the stair landing unseen. LLOYD Just stay out of it, Joan. JOAN Alice meant no harm, I think... (CONTINUED) 30.48 CONTINUED: 48 LLOYD (cutting her off) It doesn't matter what you think, it's their business. Alice is a spoiled brat, but she's Peter's problem now. So just take one of your pills and go watch Jack Paar, see what he's crying about tonight.49 INT. ABBOTT HOME - SECOND FLOOR HALLWAY - NIGHT 49 Doug sticks his head out of the back stairwell and spots Peter pounding on a locked bedroom door. PETER I'm warning you, Alice! Open the damn door! Alice?! Dammit!50 INT. ABBOTT HOME - STAIRWELL - DOUG 50 Trapped in the stairwell. He hisses under his breath: DOUG Oh, shit! Let me out of here... He notices a small window in the stairwell.51 EXT. ABBOTT HOME - WINDOW - NIGHT 51 Doug squeezes out of the small window, his legs dangling six feet above a large rose bush directly under him.52 INT. HIGH SCHOOL - CORRIDOR - DAYS LATER 52 Doug makes his way along the crowded corridor showing a few of his wounds from his emergency landing in the rose bush. He slows as he nears Pamela at her locker. She's aware of him, but pretends that she isn't. Doug hesitates as if he might say something to her, but loses his nerve and continues to mope along the hallway. Pam's disappointment is plain to see. Doug doesn't notice Eleanor and a few of her girl friends approaching in the opposite direction. As they pass him Eleanor smiles brightly and says: ELEANOR Hi, Doug! (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 31.52 CONTINUED: 52 The girls giggle, "Hi, Doug!" has become a running punchline to them. Doug is so undone by their laughter that he walks into an open door.53 EXT. BUS DEPOT (DOWNTOWN HALEY) - DAY (SUMMER, 1958) 53 Jacey collects his suitcase from the bus driver. He's become very much the Ivy League man. Doug waits for him beside the Plymouth across the street. As Jacey starts across the street a CAR full of young women, including Eleanor and Sandy, HONKS, and stops beside him. Jacey hops into the car and calls out to Doug: JACEY Hey, Doug! Get my suitcase! The car pulls away and Doug irritably fetches Jacey's bag.54 EXT. HOLT HOME - DRIVEWAY - DAY 54 The hood on the Plymouth is propped open. Doug assists Jacey as he replaces the fuel filter. DOUG How do you know when a girl's... ready? JACEY What do you mean, `ready'? Ready for what... sex? DOUG Yeah. JACEY They're all ready for sex. DOUG They are? JACEY They might not be willing but they're ready. Just have to make them think you're the only one around who has what they need. DOUG How do you do that? (CONTINUED) 32.54 CONTINUED: 54 JACEY Find out what's making them itch and scratch it. If they're scared, be dependable. If they're bored, be exciting. If they're on the rebound, catch them. DOUG What if you're not very dependable or exciting, you know? JACEY Pretend you are. DOUG You mean, it's all just fake? JACEY The sex is real. They pretend they don't want it. You pretend that you care. Everybody gets what they want. DOUG But what if you really feel something for someone? Really care for them? JACEY I thought you were talking about getting laid? DOUG I guess. I don't know what I'm talking about. JACEY No shit.55 EXT. MOVIE THEATER (DOWNTOWN HALEY) - NIGHT 55 The marquee reads: TONY CURTIS -- JANET LEIGH -- "THE PERFECT FURLOUGH" -- CINEMASCOPE -- AIR-CONDITIONED. It's Friday night -- a long queue has formed at the box office window, mostly teenagers, but some adults, too. Jacey cruises past the theater in the Plymouth, looking for... Eleanor. She chats with a group of friends standing in line. She sees Jacey, skips over, and gets into the car. 33.56 EXT. TEXACO GAS STATION (DOWNTOWN HALEY) - NIGHT 56 Lloyd Abbott opens a bottle of Coke that he just purchased from the vending machine. His (1958) Cadillac is being fueled at the gas pumps. As he returns to his car he sees Eleanor and Jacey drive by the station in the Plymouth.57 EXT. RIVER POINT PARK - WOODS (HALEY) - NIGHT 57 Jacey and Eleanor are copulating on a blanket beneath a canopy of tall trees near the river. Jacey is on top, Eleanor has her legs clenched around his hips. ELEANOR Come on, come on, come on... Her encouragement inspires their mutual orgasms.58 EXT. RIVER POINT PARK - ROAD - LATER THAT NIGHT 58 Jacey and Eleanor approach the parked Plymouth. Jacey has the blanket rolled up under his arm. Suddenly they are captured by a pair of headlights. Lloyd Abbott climbs out of his parked (1958) Cadillac. ELEANOR Hi, Daddy. LLOYD What are you doing out here? ELEANOR Fucking Jacey. Lloyd absorbs this information without surrendering his composure -- but Jacey cannot conceal his shock. LLOYD Get in the car. ELEANOR (to Jacey) 'Night. Jacey doesn't respond to the kiss Eleanor gives him, but when she places her hand on his crotch, he yanks her hand off. Eleanor walks over and gets into the car. Lloyd gazes at Jacey for a beat, then gets in the car and drives away. INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 34.59 INT. HOLT HOME - DINING ROOM - NEXT AFTERNOON 59 Doug is at the table doing homework. The DOORBELL RINGS. Doug starts to get up as Helen comes out of the kitchen. HELEN I'll get it.60 INT./EXT. HOLT FRONT DOOR/FRONT YARD - CONTINUOUS ACTION - 60DAY Helen opens the screen door and finds a well-dressed woman standing in the yard with her face turned away. HELEN Hello? The woman turns -- it is Joan Abbott. Helen is momentarily caught off balance by Joan's bristling presence. HELEN Joan. How are you? JOAN May I have a word with you, Helen? HELEN Of course, come in. JOAN No... no, I don't have time... thank you.61 INT. HOLT DINING ROOM AND FRONT DOOR - CONTINUOUS ACTION 61 Doug spies on Joan and Helen and their curious exchange through a dining room window. Unable to hear their words he can only witness how their words are spoken.62 EXT. HOLT HOME - DOUG'S POV 62 Helen steps off the porch and approaches Joan, who is doing most of the talking -- but Joan seems to require a certain distance from Helen and works her way to her Chrysler Town & Country station wagon parked at the curb. Joan grows more and more agitated as she talks.63 INT. HOLT HOME - ENTRYWAY 63 Eager to hear what is being said, Doug dashes through the living room to the front door. INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 35.64 EXT. STREET - HOLT HOME - DAY 64 Joan has the driver's door to her station wagon open now. Helen is on the sidewalk. Her demeanor is measured, purposefully matter-of-fact. HELEN I don't think that's necessary. JOAN Well, if I were you I would talk to him and tell him... HELEN (cutting her off) No, I'm sorry, Joan, I will not do that. If you have something to say to my son, then you'll have to say it to him yourself. JOAN I just thought you would like to know what he's done. HELEN And why on earth should I believe anything you say, Joan? Joan is unable to find a quick retort, she gets into her station wagon and drives away. Helen notices a baseball lying in the gutter, she picks it up and cleans it off with her apron. As she turns to go back to the house, she finds Doug standing on the porch steps. Without warning, she expertly pitches the baseball across the yard to Doug -- it makes his hand sting when he catches it. Helen walks up to the porch. HELEN I'm going to ask you one question, Doug, and if you have no idea, or don't want to answer, just tell me. DOUG Okay. HELEN Is there any sense, you think, in which Jacey has... oh, I don't know, it sounds ridiculous... corrupted Eleanor Abbott? Led her astray? Doug's mind works in several directions at once as he tries to figure out how much he should or could tell her. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 36.64 CONTINUED: 64 DOUG Well... jeez... I know that he's... that he's slept with her. But not because he's talked about it. I mean... Eleanor has lots of boyfriends. I think Jacey likes her more than she likes him. HELEN (long beat) I see. (another beat) Go finish your homework. Doug lobs the baseball back to her and goes inside. Helen sits on the porch steps and now the true toll that Joan's visit has taken on Helen becomes apparent -- a bone-weary sadness falls over her. Her "tranquility" is not borne of happiness, it is only a means of coping with the sadness that is at the core of her being.65 EXT. COUNTRYSIDE - ROAD - DAY (ONE WEEK LATER) 65 A drab, four-door Chevrolet sedan with Wisconsin license plates speeds away from town. Incongruously, the unassuming vehicle is chauffeured by an African-American DRIVER. There are two passengers in the back seat: a conservatively-dressed, middle-aged WOMAN and Eleanor Abbott. There is nothing telling about Eleanor's countenance, neither happiness nor sadness can be found on her face.66 EXT. ABBOTT HOME - STREET - DAY (WEEKS LATER) 66 Doug walks home from summer school. He pauses to watch the workmen erecting the party tent in the Abbott's front yard. PAMELA (O.S.) How come you're going to summer school? Doug turns to find Pam at the driveway gate. DOUG I got an incomplete in U.S. History. PAMELA How did you manage to do that? (CONTINUED) 37.66 CONTINUED: 66 DOUG Mrs. Bates caught me drawing boobs on a picture of Mamie Eisenhower. PAMELA (laughs) Why do you do things like that? DOUG I wish I knew. I just can't seem to help it sometimes. PAMELA Are you coming to the party? Doug shakes his head no. PAMELA It's my birthday, you know? DOUG Happy birthday. PAMELA Everybody's going to be here. DOUG I don't know. Maybe. PAMELA Just come, okay? Please.67 EXT. TEXACO STATION (DOWNTOWN HALEY) - THAT NIGHT 67 Doug pulls the Plymouth up to the pumps. He's neatly dressed in a jacket and tie. Jacey comes out of the office and leans in the car window. DOUG Fill 'er up. JACEY (frowns) Nice tie. DOUG Oh -- mind if I borrow it? Jacey puts the nozzle in the car as Doug climbs out. JACEY I thought you didn't like those parties at the Abbott's? (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 38.67 CONTINUED: 67 DOUG I don't. JACEY Then why are you going? DOUG Just doing someone a favor. How come you're not going? JACEY I'm persona non grata. DOUG What's that mean? JACEY You know what it means. DOUG What happened with you and Eleanor? JACEY Nothing. I just outlived my usefulness, that's all. DOUG How were you `useful' to her? JACEY Christ, use your imagination. Doug has no reply to that. JACEY Eleanor was just looking for a way out. A way out of the whole Abbott world. And it turns out that it takes a lot to get away. It's not enough that you sleep around with boys from your world, you have to fuck boys from the wrong side of the tracks. DOUG What do you mean? Like guys from Fountain Park? JACEY No, I mean me. She was fucking me. (CONTINUED) 39.67 CONTINUED: (2) 67 DOUG We're not from the wrong side of the tracks. Jacey hangs up the nozzle and screws the gas cap back on. JACEY I wouldn't go to that party if I were you. DOUG Well, you're not me. We're just as good as the Abbotts. Doug hands Jacey a few dollars. Jacey heads for the office. JACEY You still don't know, do you? DOUG Know what?68 INT. TEXACO STATION (DOWNTOWN HALEY) - OFFICE - 68CONTINUOUS ACTION Doug follows Jacey inside as he rings up the sale. DOUG Know what? JACEY After Dad died... Mom... had an affair with Lloyd Abbott. That's how he got Dad's patent away from her. DOUG I don't believe you. JACEY Believe it or not. I don't care. DOUG You're full of shit. JACEY Then why don't you go ask Mom? Ask her what happened -- ask her why she doesn't have any friends -- ask her why she's never invited to the Abbott's -- ask her which side of the tracks we live on? Jacey shoves the cash register drawer shut. INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 40.69 INT. ABBOTT HOME - TENT - NIGHT 69 The party is well underway, it's a younger crowd tonight. The band plays "Fly Me To The Moon." Doug stands apart from the others. He's ill-at-ease. His conversation with Jacey resonates within him. As he looks over the gathering, he's pained to discover how easy it is to see things the way Jacey does: Lloyd holding court with a group of men in tuxedos... Joan Abbott propelling a reluctant Alice towards a group of guests Alice's age (Alice and Peter have separated)... and, finally, Pamela dancing with a handsome young man (TED). She is the belle of the ball, radiant and suddenly mature in her beautiful gown. She smiles as she sees Doug, excuses herself, and comes over to him. PAMELA How long have you been here? DOUG A while. PAMELA Are you okay? DOUG I'm fine. Having fun? PAMELA Yes, I am. Come on, dance with me. She pulls him towards the dance floor. DOUG You didn't tell me I had to dance. PAMELA Just one dance and we'll be even. I won't have to be mad at you anymore and you won't have to be so sorry. DOUG What am I supposed to be so sorry about? PAMELA Oh, you're not sorry? DOUG All right, yeah, I'm sorry. PAMELA Sorry about what? (CONTINUED) 41.69 CONTINUED: 69 DOUG You always do this to me. PAMELA You said you weren't sorry and now you say you are. So maybe I'm not sure what you're sorry about? DOUG I'm sorry for what I'm supposed to be sorry about. Okay? PAMELA You're sorry for feeling me up? DOUG (embarrassed) Oh, shit, come on, Pam. Dammit. For crying out loud. Forget it. PAMELA I accept your apology. Let's dance. Doug allows Pam to pull him out onto the dance floor. He feels like a dolt, but she arranges his hands on her and they begin to dance. She gazes into his eyes and smiles: PAMELA Hi. DOUG Hi. Pam is in love with Doug, she has been since they were children. Doug is mellowed by his tender feelings for her. For a golden minute they are in pleasurable bubble of true affinity. But their bubble begins to deflate as Doug sees Joan Abbott staring at them. Her disapproval is unmistakable. Doug steers Pam around the dance floor to avoid Joan's eyes, but then he sees Lloyd Abbott. Lloyd's stare is even more discomforting. Pamela senses the change in Doug's mood, but she is unaware of the cause. PAMELA Is Jacey home for the summer or is he just here for a visit? The mention of his brother's name at this exact moment sends a chill down Doug's spine. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 42.69 CONTINUED: (2) 69 DOUG Home for the summer. (slight beat) It's cheaper if he stays here for the summer. He can save more money for school, 'cause he doesn't have to pay rent. Money's tight, you know, we're sort of poor. PAMELA You're not poor, are you? DOUG Hell -- you kidding? Even with Jacey working summers, my mom had to borrow against the house so he could go to Penn. I don't know where the money'll come from for me to go to college. Doug sees Joan Abbott prompting Ted to cut in on his dance with Pamela. Doug's bitterness swells. DOUG I hear Alice and Peter are getting a divorce. PAMELA They're just separated. DOUG What's the difference? PAMELA I don't know, you'll have to ask them. DOUG So, where's Eleanor tonight? PAMELA Eleanor's... just not here. DOUG Is she pregnant? PAMELA No! Who said that? (CONTINUED) 43.69 CONTINUED: (3) 69 DOUG I don't know, everybody in town is saying something different -- she got knocked up, she ran away, your old man kicked her out. So, which is it? Ted steps over and taps Doug on the shoulder. DOUG Fuck off. Ted is taken aback. Pamela's eyes fill with tears. PAMELA Why do you hate me so much? TED Excuse me, asshole, but... Doug spins and slugs Ted in the jaw -- sending him reeling into the other dancers. Everyone pulls away from Doug and Pam. Doug massages his fist and looks helplessly at Pamela: DOUG I don't hate you.70 INT. HOLT HOME - DOUG'S BEDROOM - LATER THAT NIGHT 70 The hall light is on but the bedroom is dark. Doug lies on his bed (still dressed). Jacey appears in the doorway. JACEY You asleep? DOUG Nope.71 EXT. HOLT HOME - GARAGE - NIGHT (SHORT TIME LATER) 71 Doug and Jacey play another hard fought game of ping-pong in the garage. In the midst of a volley Doug says: DOUG I'm gonna go to Penn like you. Jacey snorts with incredulous laughter. JACEY You're gonna what? (CONTINUED) 44.71 CONTINUED: 71 DOUG I'm going to the University of Pennsylvania. I think I'm going to be an architect, too. JACEY Like hell you are. DOUG Why not? Maybe we can be roommates in Philadelphia? JACEY You're nuts. You'll never get accepted to Penn. Besides, Mom couldn't afford it anyway. DOUG I'll get a scholarship. JACEY I had a four-point-0 grade average and I couldn't get a scholarship -- so, I say you got your head up your ass. Jacey skillfully manipulates the volley and wins the game with a savage return that Doug is unable to counter. Jacey smiles, puts his paddle down, and walks out of the garage. Doug quickly picks up a ping-pong ball and hits it into the back of Jacey's head. Jacey turns and shoots a perturbed look at Doug -- Doug smiles: DOUG 'Night.72 INT. WOMEN'S APPAREL STORE (DOWNTOWN HALEY) - DAY 72(WINTER, 1958) Helen looks over the merchandise. Doug absent-mindedly trails after his mother as he studies a large brochure about the University of Pennsylvania. DOUG What's 'scenic design'? HELEN In what context? DOUG What a minute -- it's theatre. HELEN Mmmm? (CONTINUED) 45.72 CONTINUED: 72 DOUG (re: brochure) 'The Howard Lambert Scholarship in Scenic Design for the Theatre.' It's a full ride, four years. Pays everything almost. Hell, I could do that. Just have to figure out what scenic design is. Doug looks up from the brochure and comes face-to-face with a mannequin wearing a bra, girdle, and stockings. He almost flinches with surprise and blushes profusely: DOUG I'll wait for you outside, Ma.73 EXT. LADIES APPAREL STORE (DOWNTOWN HALEY) - MOVIE 73THEATER - SIDEWALK - DAY (MINUTES LATER) It's snowing -- Doug paces to keep warm. He momentarily forgets the cold as he sees Pam and three of her girl friends come out of the drugstore across the street. The girls are in high spirits as they get into Pam's car. Two well-dressed townswomen (MURIEL and DORIS) encounter Helen on their way into the apparel shop as she steps out onto the sidewalk. HELEN Hello, Muriel... Doris. The women pass by Helen with obvious reserve. Helen is seemingly unruffled by their distant responses. She observes Doug as he watches Pam and her friends drive off. Helen and Doug walk up sidewalk (towards the movie theater -- the marquee reads: KIM NOVAK -- JEFF CHANDLER -- JEANNE EAGELS): HELEN Why don't you drop me off at home and take the car and go out with your friends. Go have some fun. DOUG Why don't you? HELEN Why don't I what? Go hang out at the Dog'n'Suds? (CONTINUED) 46.73 CONTINUED: 73 DOUG No, go out -- play bridge or whatever adults do for fun. HELEN I read for fun. DOUG You read too much. HELEN You sound like your brother. DOUG Come on -- let's go see a movie.74 INT. MOVIE THEATER (DOWNTOWN HALEY) - DAY 74 Doug and Helen share a bag of popcorn as they wait for the feature to begin. HELEN Came here on my very first date with Charlie. Saw Rosalie with Nelson Eddy and... not Jeanette MacDonald... oh... Eleanor Powell. DOUG Did Dad kiss you? HELEN (gives Doug a "look") No. (slight beat) I kissed him. DOUG (grins) All right, Mom.75 OMITTED 7576 EXT. HIGH SCHOOL - PLAYING FIELD - GYMNASIUM - DAY 76(SUMMER, 1959) The commencement exercises are being held in the sweltering gym to accommodate the large crowd of proud parents and family members. Doug, hot and uncomfortable in his cap and gown, is seated among his fellow graduates behind the podium. The PRINCIPAL (at the podium) announces the names of the graduates as he calls them forward to receive their diplomas. (CONTINUED) 47.76 CONTINUED: 76 PRINCIPAL Pamela Louise Abbott... Pamela rises from her seat and takes her diploma. Lloyd and Joan Abbott applaud their daughter. Joan stands to take a snapshot. Alice is occupied with her restless and fussy eighteen-month-old daughter, Susan. Doug watches Pam return to her seat; she avoids his eyes. Helen is all smiles, this is a very special day for her. The chair next to her is empty. She glances behind her and sees Jacey standing in the back of the gym. Jacey idly surveys the gathering with irritable boredom. He is only there at his mother's insistence. His eyes settle on... Alice Abbott. Alice tries to quiet her CRYING eighteen-month-old daughter (SUSAN). Lloyd makes a reprimanding aside to Alice and she rises and carries Susan up the aisle. Jacey's eyes follow Alice -- she notices his stare as she passes by with Susan in her arms.77 EXT. HIGH SCHOOL - PARKING LOT - LATER THAT DAY 77 Commencement is over -- the parking lot is a sea of cars slowly negotiating through the mob of celebrating graduates, beaming parents, and rambunctious siblings. As Helen slips through the crowd she is pleasantly ambushed by three (second grade) students of hers. She has a brief exchange with the children and then moves on. Helen finds herself face-to-face with Lloyd Abbott as they both attempt to pass through a narrow space between two parked vehicles. They are both caught off-guard -- there is no graceful way for them to squeeze past each other. LLOYD Congratulations, Helen. HELEN Thank you. Congratulations to you, too. Where's Pam going to school? LLOYD Hmm... Christ, I forgot. (MORE) (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 48.77 CONTINUED: 77 LLOYD (CONT'D) Bryn Mawr. I should be able to remember that. It costs enough. HELEN She'll do well there -- a very bright girl. LLOYD And Doug -- he's going to...? HELEN He got a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania -- scenic design -- theater. LLOYD Same school as... HELEN (filling in blank) Jacey. LLOYD Right. Well. Congratulations. HELEN Thank you, Lloyd. They pass each other and head their separate ways. Their chance meeting has not gone unobserved: Joan Abbott has been watching them from the front seat of Lloyd's brand-new 1959 Cadillac. She pretends to repair her lipstick with her compact mirror as Lloyd slips behind the wheel. And Helen finds Jacey frowning at her. He opens the door so that she can get into the Plymouth (Doug is already in the back seat). Jacey glares at Lloyd as he walks around the car and gets in behind the wheel. Lloyd flips down his sun visor (to block Jacey's glare) and pulls out of his parking spot.78 INT. IRON SKILLET RESTAURANT - THAT NIGHT 78 A waitress walks across the busy diner to Helen, Jacey, and Doug at their table. Helen and Doug are eating their desserts -- Jacey is content to brood over his cup of coffee. The waitress puts their bill on the table and steps away. (CONTINUED) 49.78 CONTINUED: 78 As Helen starts to open her purse Webb Crosby appears and picks up the bill. WEBB It's on the house. HELEN Oh, Webb, really -- that's not necessary. WEBB How many restaurants got an Ivy League busboy? That's worth a free meal. Charlie'd be real proud of these two highbrows. HELEN Yes, he would. He'd be extremely proud. WEBB (to Jacey) You take good care of your little brother in Philadelphia, you hear me? JACEY Yes, sir.79 EXT. ABBOTT HOME - STREET - NIGHT (SHORT TIME LATER) 79 The Holt family drives home from the restaurant -- Jacey driving, Helen in front, and Doug in the back seat. HELEN What a wonderful night. What a wonderful day. My two Ivy League boys. This is torture for Jacey. Doug looks out the window at the striped tent in the Abbott's front yard as they pass by. A party for the "Class of 1959" is underway (as a banner on the tent proclaims). The street is lined with parked cars and busy with late-coming guests. Doug checks the rearview mirror for Jacey's reaction, but his brother keeps his eyes on the road. HELEN I never understood that tent. I wonder if they own it? I'm surprised they don't just leave it up all year long. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 50.79 CONTINUED: 79 HELEN (CONT'D) (slight beat) Lloyd's mother was a tough old bird. She sold eggs. They had a place way out on Ditch Road near County Line. That was ages ago. Poor Lloyd had to walk all that way in to school and then back everyday. Charlie used to call Lloyd 'Egg-head' and he didn't mean smart. (another beat) I'm in the mood for ice cream.80 EXT. HOLT HOME - FRONT PORCH - LATER THAT NIGHT 80 Jacey and Doug sit on the porch steps eating bowls of ice cream. Helen rises from the porch swing and takes her empty bowl inside the house. HELEN I think I'll have one more scoop. DOUG Ping-pong? JACEY Too hot. DOUG You want to go out to the lake and get a couple beers? JACEY No, I don't want to go out to the... (exhales) Goddammit. Goddammit! Look, I don't want you in Philadelphia. I don't need you around to remind everybody that I come from Hicksville, U.S.A. So if you're going to go to Philadelphia, you're on your own, dip shit. I don't need you riding my coat tails. Christ -- why don't you get your own life? Stop being my fucking shadow. Doug digests Jacey's insult, then scoops a ball of ice cream out of his bowl with his spoon and flings the gooey ice cream into the side of Jacey's face. Doug rises and goes to the front door. (CONTINUED) 51.80 CONTINUED: 80 DOUG Screw you. JACEY You little prick! Jacey hurls his BOWL at Doug -- it misses and SHATTERS on the wall. DOUG Missed me, peckerhead. As Doug opens the screen door Jacey dives into him -- they fall into the porch swing with such force that its chains rip out of the porch ceiling and Doug, Jacey, and the swing go overboard off the end of the porch into the shrubs. HELEN (O.S.) (inside house) Doug? Jacey? What was that? Doug and Jacey scramble to their feet, their clothes are ripped and disheveled. JACEY You're dead, dip shit! DOUG You gotta catch me first, asshole! Doug takes off with Jacey in hot pursuit. A few beats later, Helen steps out onto the front porch and discovers her sons and the porch swing missing. HELEN Jacey? Doug?81 EXT. HOLT HOME AND STREET - NIGHT 81 Jacey races up a driveway -- Doug is nowhere to be seen. JACEY Come on, weasel dick! Come on out, you chicken shit! A collection of GARBAGE CANS EXPLODE in all directions as Doug pops up from behind them and bolts down the driveway. Jacey chases after him, following him across the street. They pay no heed to Helen (in the b.g.) standing in their front yard, calling out to them: HELEN Douglas Lee! John Charles! 52.82 NEIGHBORHOOD - HOLT HOME 82 Porch lights are turning on up and down the block and the neighborhood DOGS begin to HOWL as Doug leads Jacey between two houses.83 NEIGHBORHOOD - HOLT HOME 83 Doug jumps up onto a tall wooden fence. He gets halfway over when Jacey leaps up and grabs him and the fence collapses, dumping them into a back yard vegetable garden.84 NEIGHBORHOOD - HOLT HOME 84 Doug and Jacey wrestle and grapple in the muddy soil, cursing each other and crushing the rows of green crops. MRS. PORTER appears at her back door brandishing a broom. MRS. PORTER Git! Stop that! You two git! She sails into combat with her broom swinging. But Doug and Jacey are unwilling to give up the fight -- they are finally separated by a strong blast of water. They sputter for breath and discover that Helen is holding the hose.85 EXT. MRS. PORTER'S HOUSE - DAY (NEXT DAY) 85 Helen sits in a lawn chair in the back yard wearing a large straw hat and reading a book. Doug and Jacey are repairing and painting the fence. Helen looks up from her book: HELEN That board doesn't look straight, Jacey. Come on, Doug, you've been painting the same spot for the last five minutes.86 EXT. HOLT HOME - GARAGE - NIGHT 86 Doug and Jacey clean their hands with turpentine. Doug picks up a ping-pong paddle and bounces the ball on it, trying to see how long he can keep it bouncing. Jacey finishes cleaning up, picks up a paddle, and then, without a word, Doug serves the ball and they begin to volley. 53.87 EXT. ROAD (COUNTRYSIDE) - DAY 87 The Plymouth drives along the two-lane blacktop past the fields of tall, green corn. Doug is driving, Helen sits beside him. She reacts to something in the distance: HELEN Isn't that Pamela Abbott? In the distance Pamela struggles with a jack as she tries to remove a flat tire on her convertible. Doug grimaces as he recognizes her. HELEN It is Pam. Pull over. Doug reluctantly pulls over beside Pam's car. She's no more pleased to see Doug than he is to see her. HELEN Hi, Pam. Do you need some help? PAMELA Hi, Mrs. Holt. It's so darn hot the stupid jack just keeps sinking into the pavement. HELEN Well, maybe Doug can give you a hand? Doug frowns and slowly climbs out of the Plymouth. DOUG Where's the thing that goes on the bottom of the jack? PAMELA What thing? DOUG The thing, the base that the jack fits into? (finds it in her open trunk) This. PAMELA Oh, I thought that was just the 'spare-tire-holder-on-er.' DOUG Read your manual. Pamela would slug him if his mother wasn't present. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 54.87 CONTINUED: 87 Doug releases the load on the jack and strains to extract it from the molten pavement. HELEN Pam, would you mind running Doug home? I'd like to get to the bank before they close. DOUG (protesting) Mom... PAMELA Sure, Mrs. Holt, I'll drive him home. Thanks for stopping. HELEN Of course. Bye-bye. Helen slides over behind the wheel and drives away. Doug fumes silently while he reassembles the jack.88 INT. IRON SKILLET RESTAURANT - DAY 88 Jacey sits at the counter at the rear of the busy diner sipping an iced tea. He sees Alice Abbott enter -- she pulls a dollar bill out of her purse as she approaches the cash register near the front door. She calls out to a waitress who is fetching an order from the grill. ALICE Excuse me -- could I get change for a dollar? The waitress is too distracted to take notice of Alice and Alice herself doesn't notice Jacey as he steps up behind her. JACEY Can I help you? ALICE Yes, I need change for... (turns to him) Oh... you don't work here, do you? JACEY No. I was just thinking about you. I was going to call you tonight. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 55.88 CONTINUED: 88 ALICE (rattled) What? Why? JACEY There's a picnic out at River Point on Sunday -- I wanted to invite you. ALICE I couldn't. JACEY Bring Susan, kids love picnics. ALICE (re: the dollar bill) I need change for the parking meter. JACEY Here. Jacey opens his palm and reveals the correct change. Alice nervously exchanges the dollar bill for the coins. ALICE Oh, thanks. JACEY Do you have time for an ice tea? ALICE My mother's waiting by the car so I won't get a ticket. JACEY Maybe she'd like an ice tea, too? ALICE No. JACEY No harm asking. ALICE No. Don't do that. JACEY Why not? ALICE You know why. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 56.88 CONTINUED: (2) 88 JACEY Then I'll make you a deal. ALICE I just came in to get some change. JACEY Come to the picnic on Sunday and I'll wait here and let you leave first, so your mother won't see me. ALICE I don't care if my mother sees you. JACEY (heads for the door) Then you won't care if I ask her if she'd like to join us for an ice tea? ALICE No! Wait. Jacey turns to her. ALICE I don't know if I can. I'll try. It just depends. Alice goes out the door -- as she passes by Jacey he says: JACEY Sunday. River Point. Around noon. Jacey watches through the window as Alice returns to the Town & Country station wagon and puts a few coins into the meter. Joan waits impatiently beside the car with Susan in hand. As the Abbott women walk down the sidewalk (away from the diner), Alice glances back and sees Jacey smiling at her from the diner window.89 EXT. ROAD (COUNTRYSIDE) - DAY 89 Pamela sits behind the wheel of her convertible listening to PAT BOONE sing "April Love" on the car RADIO. Doug drips with sweat as he tightens the lugs on the spare tire. Pamela climbs out and inspects his progress. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 56A.89 CONTINUED: (A1) 89 PAMELA You think you'll finish sometime today? I'm getting sun stroke. DOUG Put the top up. PAMELA Stop acting like Jacey. What makes you think you're so... cool? DOUG Because -- I know all the answers on 'The $64,000 Question,' because I have X-ray vision and I can sing better than Pat Boone. And because I'm really a negro, but don't tell anyone around here, 'cause you know what would happen to me. PAMELA God, I can't even talk to you. She starts to get back into the car, then turns to him: (CONTINUED) 57.89 CONTINUED: 89 PAMELA Name one bad thing I've ever done to you. DOUG Why? PAMELA Go on, name one bad thing. DOUG What's the point? PAMELA You tell me, because I don't get it! Look, I'm not rich, my father is. And I didn't pick my father. And if I had a choice between having tons of money or having another father, I'd be absolutely delighted to be poor! But unfortunately life is not a cafeteria! DOUG Life is not a cafeteria? PAMELA You know what I mean! DOUG Shit, I'm supposed to feel sorry for you 'cause you're rich? PAMELA Well, am I supposed to feel sorry for you 'cause you're so poor? DOUG No. PAMELA So then just stop it! DOUG Stop what?! PAMELA Stop treating me like an Abbott! DOUG Well, how am I supposed to treat you? (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 58.89 CONTINUED: (2) 89 PAMELA Like you used to. Like just plain Pam. Doug exhales as if he's winding up to apologize. PAMELA And you don't have to say you're sorry, and you don't have to look like somebody just ran over your dog. You just make me want to scream sometimes. Doug stares at her as if he's never seen her before. PAMELA What are you looking at? DOUG You.90 EXT. RIVER POINT PARK - DAY (FOLLOWING SUNDAY) 90 Jacey lounges on top of a blanket beside a cooler. ALICE (O.S.) Where is everyone? Jacey sits up and finds Alice standing behind him. She carries a picnic basket. Other than a few children skipping rock into the river they are alone. JACEY We are everyone. ALICE But you said... JACEY (overlapping) No, I didn't. I just said a picnic. I didn't say if anyone else was coming. Alice walks away. Jacey jumps up and runs after her. JACEY Where are you going? ALICE I'm sorry... I thought... (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 59.90 CONTINUED: 90 JACEY (blocking her way) You didn't come here to see everybody else. You came here to see me. Didn't you? That's why you didn't bring Susan along. ALICE I'm married. JACEY I thought you were getting a divorce? ALICE I am, but it's not final yet. Besides, I'm two years older than you. JACEY Good, if the cops come around we'll tell 'em you bought the beers in the cooler.91 EXT. RIVERPOINT PARK - ANOTHER PART OF PARK - 91 LATER THAT DAY Jacey and Alice wander along a path on the riverbank. ALICE I knew he would hit me. Peter's a real hot-head. I knew if he hit me hard enough, hurt me enough, that even my father wouldn't stand for it. Then one night I put too much soap in the washing machine and it overflowed. That did it. He punched me. Broke my front tooth. JACEY Bastard. ALICE So... what do you hear from Eleanor? JACEY I don't. Do you? ALICE No. Did you love her? (CONTINUED) 60.91 CONTINUED: 91 JACEY We weren't in love, we were in heat. Alice blushes. JACEY Did you love Peter? ALICE No. JACEY Then why did you marry him? ALICE Because...92 EXT. RIVERPOINT PARK - ROAD - LATER THAT DAY 92 Jacey holds open the driver's door as Alice climbs in behind the wheel (of her mother's Town & Country station wagon). He closes the door. JACEY Which tooth was it? She points to a front tooth. He leans over to look at it. ALICE This one. I had it capped. You can't really tell, can you? JACEY No. It's a beautiful mouth. ALICE Are you going to kiss me? JACEY I don't want to scare you. ALICE I can't see you again, Jacey. JACEY Sure you can. There are ways. ALICE Oh, God... why you? Why am I telling all these things to you? (CONTINUED) 61.92 CONTINUED: 92 JACEY Because there's no one else you can tell them to. Because I'm the only person you know who will admit to your face that your father's a bag of shit. The biggest bag of shit in this town. (slight beat) Better head home. Shouldn't be gone too long. Alice drives away. Jacey smiles -- he's won.93 EXT. ROAD (OUTSIDE HALEY) - DAY (SHORT TIME LATER) 93 The Plymouth cruises back toward town. Jacey drinks a bottle of beer and happily contemplates the possibilities of a relationship with Alice. He approaches a billboard that reads: "MIDWEST STEEL DESK, INC. -- Welcomes You to Haley, Illinois." Jacey drains the last of the beer and hurls the empty bottle at the billboard as he drives past it.94 EXT. ABANDONED FARMHOUSE - DAY (WEEKS LATER - 94 LATE AFTERNOON) Pam's convertible is parked in a weed-choked yard. Pam and Doug hurl rocks at the windows, trying to break what is left of the shattered windows on the weather-beaten, two-story farmhouse. PAMELA Who do you look like more, your father or your mother? DOUG Hell, I don't know. PAMELA Well, what did your father look like? DOUG Like a photograph. I never knew him. He died like a month before I was even born. Jacey probably looks more like him than I do. Jacey's named after him. That's how he got to be called 'Jacey,' after his initials, John Charles, J.C. (CONTINUED) 62.94 CONTINUED: 94 PAMELA He died in a car wreck, right? DOUG You never heard about that? PAMELA About what? DOUG Well, it was sort of a car wreck. He drowned, or froze to death, or both, I don't know. He was trying to drive out to Mud Island. PAMELA Mud Island's in the middle of the lake. DOUG It was winter time, the lake was froze over. PAMELA Jesus, that's pretty stupid. (catches herself) Sorry. DOUG It's all right, it is stupid. Real stupid. He did it on a bet. He bet someone twenty bucks that he could do it. He made it all the way out there, too. He went through the ice on his way back.95 EXT. ABANDONED FARMHOUSE - ROOF - SUNSET 95 Doug and Pamela sit on the ridge of the farmhouse roof (they climbed out of a dormer window from the attic). DOUG I think my dad was like Jacey is. Some guys are just dare-devils. I bet Jacey once that he couldn't do a back-flip off the garage roof into a big pile of leaves. And he did it. PAMELA (slight beat) One time Eleanor and I snuck out and walked around the yard naked. (CONTINUED) 63.95 CONTINUED: 95 DOUG You did? PAMELA Yeah. It was sort of a dare, too. She dared me, I dared her, so we both did it. DOUG Was this day or night? PAMELA Night. DOUG Was there a full moon? PAMELA I don't remember. DOUG You walked around the yard or did you like run from tree to tree? PAMELA We just walked around the yard. DOUG Front yard or back yard? PAMELA Back yard. DOUG Oh. PAMELA Does it matter? DOUG Yeah. Back yard nudity is hypocritical. It's insincere. People should do and say exactly what they feel or think and not try to hide things. PAMELA Okay. DOUG Okay. Their conversation is stifled by this new standard of absolute honesty. (CONTINUED) 64.95 CONTINUED: (2) 95 The sunset provides a convenient excuse for their silence. But then Pam realizes he is staring at her. DOUG Hi. PAMELA Hi. DOUG You look pretty. PAMELA Really? DOUG Yup. Pamela takes his hand, gently unfolds it, and with her index finger she writes on his palm, "I love you." Telling him took all the nerve she could muster, she hasn't the stamina for a disappointing response -- she places her fingers on his lips to silence him. Doug leans over and kisses her, sweetly and tenderly, and for a long time. They will always remember this kiss.96 EXT. MOVIE THEATRE (DOWNTOWN HALEY) - NIGHT 96 The marquee reads: "FRANK SINATRA -- EDW. G. ROBINSON -- 'A HOLE IN THE HEAD' -- CINEMASCOPE -- AIR CONDITIONED." Alice Abbott buys a ticket at the box office.97 INT. MOVIE THEATRE - NIGHT (MINUTES LATER) 97 The movie has already begun. Alice enters the sparsely peopled theatre and pauses to allow her eyes to adjust to the darkness. A hand reaches out and takes her hand -- it is Jacey. He's seated beside the door. He rises and leads her across the row of empty seats to the exit.98 INT. MOVIE THEATRE - BALCONY - NIGHT (MOMENTS LATER) 98 Jacey guides Alice to two seats deep in the shadows of the otherwise unoccupied balcony. They gaze at the screen for a few moments, then he moves his mouth to her ear and nibbles on her lobe. She turns her lips to his and they kiss passionately. Jacey slides his hand under her skirt. Alice presses herself against his hand and whispers: (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 65/66.98 CONTINUED: 98 ALICE Don't tell... don't tell anyone what we're doing... don't tell anyone... no one can know, Jacey... no one...99 INT. TEXACO STATION (DOWNTOWN HALEY) - NIGHT 99(WEEKS LATER) The station is closed and locked up for the night. Jacey and Alice are naked in the back seat of a car parked inside the dark service bay. It is a hot and humid night. They are slippery with sweat. JACEY Marry me. ALICE Impossible... JACEY Nothing's impossible...100 OMITTED 100thru thruB102 B102C102 EXT. BUS DEPOT (HALEY) - DAY C102 Helen leans out a bus window and calls to Doug, who is perched on the front fender of the Plymouth, which is parked nearby with Jacey behind the wheel. HELEN Don't forget to water my tomatoes! DOUG Okay, Mom, okay. The bus pulls away. Doug waves as the bus goes down the street -- then he leaps with surprise as an impatient Jacey leans on the CAR HORN. 67.102 INT. HOLT HOME - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (WEEKS LATER) 102 Doug and Pamela lounge on opposite ends of the sofa with his bare feet pressed against hers in a gentle shoving match. They are watching an episode of "Sea Hunt" on the TELEVISION. PAMELA How long is your mom gone? DOUG Two weeks. She goes up every summer to see this friend she went to college with. PAMELA Eleanor lives in Chicago. DOUG She does? PAMELA Yeah. She's going to stewardess school. DOUG What do they teach you at stewardess school? PAMELA I don't know. How to wiggle your bottom. DOUG Maybe you should go there instead of Bryn Mawr? She pushes harder against his feet and her foot slips off his and clobbers him in the crotch. He moans and sits up. DOUG Oww! Damn! PAMELA Sorry. DOUG Watch it. PAMELA It was an accident. Don't be crabby. She pulls him down on top of her. She kisses the tip of his nose then blows his bangs off his forehead. (CONTINUED) 68.102 CONTINUED: 102 DOUG You want to... go upstairs? PAMELA No. DOUG I just thought maybe you were tired of just kissing? PAMELA I'm not tired of kissing. Are you? DOUG No, but touching is nice. PAMELA We are touching. DOUG I just... you know... would like to see what you look like without any clothes on. PAMELA Doug! DOUG Aren't you curious? PAMELA No, I know what I look like without any clothes on -- I look naked. DOUG Can I touch your breasts? PAMELA Jesus. DOUG Just on the outside? PAMELA No. You can kiss me. I like lips. DOUG You like lips? (CONTINUED) 69.102 CONTINUED: (2) 102 PAMELA I like your lips, block-head. I like being here like this. But I'm not taking my clothes off, 'cause if we do that, you know what we'll do. And I'm too... I don't want to be like my sisters. Not if I can help it. They kiss but are almost instantly interrupted by the SLAM of the SCREEN DOOR. Doug looks up and does a surprised take as he sees Alice going up the stairs followed by Jacey. DOUG Shit... PAMELA Who is it? DOUG My brother. He just went upstairs with your sister. PAMELA With Eleanor? DOUG Alice.103 EXT. HOLT HOME - STREET - NIGHT 103 Pamela rushes out of the house with her shoes in her hand. Doug chases after her in his bare feet. DOUG Hey... hold up! PAMELA Why didn't you tell me? DOUG Hell, I didn't know. What does this got to do with us? PAMELA My God... what is she doing? DOUG Why is it okay for you to sneak around with me, but it's not all right for Alice to sneak around with Jacey? (CONTINUED) 70.103 CONTINUED: 103 PAMELA Because I'm not Alice! And you're not Jacey! Alice is... is like my mom, they both get hurt so easy, they're like turtles without shells. DOUG Come on, take it easy. PAMELA You don't know my father. You don't know how he is about Jacey. He blames him for everything that happened with Eleanor. DOUG Eleanor fooled around with lots of guys, it's not Jacey's fault your dad kicked her out. PAMELA Oh, Jesus! He didn't kick her out, he put her in a nut house! He shipped her off to this clinic in Wisconsin. DOUG (taken aback) But... I thought you said she's in Chicago? PAMELA She is now. They let her out a month ago. DOUG Oh, shit. PAMELA Yeah. Shit.104 EXT. ABBOTT HOME - STREET - LATER THAT NIGHT 104 The Plymouth approaches -- Jacey turns off the headlights and KILLS the MOTOR and coasts to a stop in front of the house next door to the Abbotts'. Alice gets out of the car, Jacey hurries after her, following her into her front yard. JACEY Alice... wait! (CONTINUED) 71.104 CONTINUED: 104 ALICE Go away. JACEY It's the truth, you know it is. ALICE No, no, it's all just... screwing. JACEY It's called making love. ALICE Don't. JACEY Don't what? ALICE Don't follow me. He grabs her arm and stops her. JACEY What's wrong? ALICE I spend all day, every day, just waiting and waiting to be with you, waiting to forget everything, you make me forget... but then when I get dressed and I come home, you... just... leak out of me. Leak away. I go into the bathroom and I wash you off of me and I remember everything. JACEY Remember what? LLOYD (O.S.) Alice?! Is that you? Lloyd's voice paralyzes them. LLOYD (O.S.) Alice? Alice steps out of the shadows and finds Lloyd standing at the front door. ALICE Yes, Daddy... (CONTINUED) 72.104 CONTINUED: (2) 104 LLOYD Who are you talking to? PAMELA (O.S.) She's talking to me, Daddy. Pamela rises from a wrought iron bench in another part of the yard -- she strolls over to Alice. PAMELA Just girl talk. LLOYD You can talk inside. It's late. Pamela and Alice go inside the house. Jacey exhales, he is ashen.105 EXT. IRON SKILLET RESTAURANT - NEXT DAY 105 Doug hoses down the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. Pamela pulls up in her car and gets out. DOUG Hi. PAMELA Hi. DOUG What's up? PAMELA I've been thinking -- maybe we shouldn't see each other right now. DOUG Oh, yeah? Why? PAMELA Well... if my father... I don't really care what would happen to me if he found out I was seeing you, but I have to take care of Alice and my mother and Eleanor, and... well, it would be hard for me to do that if I were in the doghouse, too. You know? DOUG Christ, why do you have to take care of them? (CONTINUED) 73.105 CONTINUED: 105 PAMELA (shrugs) No one else will. He struggles to hold his anger and frustration in check. DOUG Okay. Sure. See you around. Pam's composure begins to weaken, but she quickly returns to the car before she can lose control. Doug turns the hose back on. He doesn't look up as she drives away.106 INT. HOLT HOME - KITCHEN - DAY (TWO WEEKS LATER) 106 Helen rinses off some just-picked vegetables. She turns off the faucet, then pauses in reaction to something.107 INT./EXT. HOLT HOME - STAIRS/FRONT PORCH - DAY 107 Helen approaches the foot of the stairs drying her hands with a dish towel. She listens for a beat, then steps out on the front porch. Doug is brushing a coat of green enamel on the repaired porch swing. HELEN Who's upstairs with Jacey? DOUG Alice Abbott. HELEN (long beat) How long is she likely to stay? DOUG I don't know, but I wouldn't hold up dinner.108 INT. HOLT HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT (EARLY EVENING) 108 Doug rinses the dirty dinner dishes in the sink.109 INT. HOLT HOME - DINING ROOM - NIGHT 109 Helen hears the SCREEN DOOR SLAM as she fetches a clean tablecloth from the buffet. She puts the tablecloth on the table, starts for the kitchen, then hesitates. 74.110 EXT. HOLT HOME - FRONT PORCH - NIGHT 110 Jacey stands on the porch watching the taillights of Alice's car disappear into the night. Helen appears behind the screen door. HELEN Do you want dinner? JACEY No, thanks. HELEN Don't sit on the swing -- Doug just painted it. JACEY I know. (slight beat) I had to bring her here today. She couldn't see me tonight and there was nowhere else we could go. HELEN I can appreciate that, Jacey, but... JACEY I love her, Mother. I'm going to marry her. HELEN Do her parents know about this? JACEY Of course not. HELEN Don't you think they should? JACEY I don't give a damn about them. HELEN Does Alice feel the same as you do? JACEY She loves me. HELEN Has she agreed to marry you? (CONTINUED) 75.110 CONTINUED: 110 JACEY She will. She needs time. She's frightened. It's not easy for her. HELEN How does hiding it from her family make it any easier? JACEY We don't have any choice. HELEN Alice is a grown woman, she's a mother with a child of her own; if she really loves you then she should... JACEY (cutting her off) All that matters is that I get her away from them before they find out. HELEN I can't be a party to that, Jacey. JACEY I don't need your help. I'm not asking for it. HELEN (slight beat) You'll have to find somewhere else to take Alice -- I can't have you bringing her here again. I'm sorry. She steps away from the screen door.111 INT. ABBOTT HOME - ENTRY HALL AND STAIRCASE - NIGHT 111 Alice comes in the front door and goes up the stairs. JOAN (O.S.) Alice? Where have you been? Susie cut her finger on the piano pedal. They're as sharp as razor blades... Joan steps into the entry hall. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 76.111 CONTINUED: 111 JOAN Alice? Did you hear me? Susan cut her finger on the piano pedal. Alice disappears at the top of the stairs.112 INT. HOLT HOME - ENTRYWAY - LATE THAT NIGHT 112 It is almost two o'clock in the morning. Helen has dozed off in her chair with a book on her lap. She is startled awake by a loud BANGING at the front door. Helen hurries to the door and opens it. Pamela is on the porch. She is out of breath and very distraught. Her CAR is parked in the middle of the street with its lights on and MOTOR RUNNING. HELEN Pamela, are you all right? PAMELA I need to talk to... Jacey comes down the stairs, pulling on his bathrobe. Doug appears on the stairs behind him. JACEY What's wrong? PAMELA Alice took some pills, some of my mother's pills... JACEY Oh, Jesus, no... PAMELA She's all right, we took her to the hospital... JACEY I'll get dressed... PAMELA No! JACEY I have to see her. PAMELA No. That's why she sent me, she doesn't want you to come, she was afraid you would if you heard from someone else. She's all right. (MORE) (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 77.112 CONTINUED: 112 PAMELA (CONT'D) They just want her to rest tonight, they said they might let her come home in a day or two. She just needs to rest. I've got to go, I'm supposed to be on my way home from the hospital. JACEY But I have to see her. PAMELA Dammit, no! I'm warning you, just wait! I'll let you know just as soon as she can see you. Please, don't make things worse. Don't.113 EXT. HOLT HOME 113 Pamela dashes back to her car.112 CONTINUED: 112 as Jacey walks down the remainder of the stairs and watches Pamela speed away. JACEY Jesus... Helen closes the front door and turns to say something to Jacey, but he cuts her off: JACEY Leave me alone, just leave me alone. Helen climbs the stairs, collects Doug at the top landing, and leads him away. Jacey punches his fist through a glass pane of the sheer- curtained sidelight beside the front door.114 EXT. HOLT HOME - STREET - YARD - DAY (FIVE DAYS LATER) 114 Doug is mowing the front lawn.115 INT. HOLT HOME - JACEY'S BEDROOM - DAY 115 The DRONE of the LAWN MOWER accompanies Jacey's pacing. His face is haggard and unshaven. He glances out the window and sees something that sends him bolting out of his bedroom. INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 78.116 EXT. HOLT HOME - STREET - FRONT YARD - DAY (MOMENTS 116LATER) Pam's convertible barely comes to a halt at the curb before Jacey comes charging out of the house to Pam. Doug is occupied with the lawn mower; he doesn't notice Pam and Jacey at first. (Jacey and Pam have to speak over the din of the LAWN MOWER.) JACEY How is she? PAMELA She's all right. JACEY Can I see her? PAMELA At the boathouse -- at the lake. Jacey turns and dashes up the driveway. Doug watches Jacey jump into the Plymouth and speed down the driveway and then up the street. Doug SHUTS OFF the LAWN MOWER and walks over to Pam. DOUG What's going on? She looks at Doug with tears in her eyes. PAMELA I had to... for Alice's sake. DOUG (puzzled) Had to what? What? PAMELA Tell Jacey I'm sorry. Pam drives away.117 EXT. BOATHOUSE (LAKE) - DAY 117 The PLYMOUTH SKIDS to a stop behind the Abbott's Town & Country station wagon. Jacey jumps out of his car and rushes into the boathouse.118 INT. BOATHOUSE - DAY 118 Jacey discovers Lloyd Abbott waiting for him. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 79.118 CONTINUED: 118 LLOYD I have plans for my daughters, Mr. Holt, and they don't include you. I know you. I know you better than you know me. I know all there is to know about screwing your way into a wealthy family. I'll never let you screw your way into mine. JACEY Where is she? Where's Alice? Jacey turns and rushes out of the boathouse.119 EXT. BOATHOUSE - PLYMOUTH - DAY 119 Jacey hops into the PLYMOUTH and PEELS OUT as he speeds away. Lloyd Abbott steps out of the boathouse and approaches the station wagon.120 EXT. PLYMOUTH (STREETS OF HALEY) - DAY 120 Jacey speeds recklessly back into town.121 EXT. ABBOTT HOME - DRIVEWAY - DAY (MINUTES LATER) 121 Jacey skids into the driveway and leaps out of the car.122 INT. ABBOTT HOME - ENTRY HALL AND STAIRS - DAY 122 Jacey bursts through the front door and cries out. JACEY Alice! Alice! Joan Abbott rushes into the entry hall. JOAN Dear God! JACEY Where is she?! Alice! Alice! JOAN Who do you think you are? JACEY Dammit, where is she?! (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 80.122 CONTINUED: 122 JOAN Get out! JACEY Alice! JOAN Get out of here! JACEY Alice! Lloyd Abbott steps in the front door and drops his car keys into the silver bowl on the hall table. LLOYD Call the police, Joan. Joan hurries away. JACEY You son-of-a-bitch! Where is she?! LLOYD Behind you, Mr. Holt... Jacey turns and sees Alice standing at the top of the stairs. She is pale and drawn and wearing a bathrobe. JACEY Come with me. Please, Alice, just come with me now, right now. ALICE I told you... I can't... She walks OUT OF VIEW. Lloyd steps up behind Jacey and says softly but with piercing intensity: LLOYD Now, get out of here, you runt stud. And keep your poor-boy dick out of my daughters. Jacey turns and stares at Lloyd -- then brushes past him on his way out the door.123 INT. HOLT HOME - JACEY'S BEDROOM - LATER THAT DAY 123 Jacey haphazardly packs his suitcases. His emotions have been spent. Helen stands in the doorway. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 81.123 CONTINUED: 123 HELEN Why spend all night and half the day tomorrow waiting in Chicago for the Philadelphia bus? Why not just wait and take the morning bus to Chicago? JACEY Because... the sooner I get out of this fucking town the better. HELEN (slight beat; stung) Suit yourself.124 OMITTED 124125 EXT./INT. ROAD/BUS (OUTSIDE HALEY) - EVENING (MAGIC 125 HOURSHORT TIME LATER) Jacey doesn't look out the window as the bus (on its way out of town) drives past the illuminated billboard that reads: "MIDWEST STEEL DESK, INC. -- Welcomes You to Haley, Illinois."126 INT. HOLT HOME - DINING ROOM - LATER THAT NIGHT 126 Doug and Helen sit across from each other, neither one has much of an appetite. They eat in silence for a few moments, then: DOUG Dammit... why can't he just leave them alone? HELEN Who? DOUG The Abbotts. I don't know why... why couldn't he just forget 'em? Just pretend they didn't even exist? HELEN If the Abbotts didn't exist, Jacey would've had to invent them, one way or another. There are no ends of Abbotts in the world, if that's what you need. (MORE) (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 82.126 CONTINUED: 126 HELEN (CONT'D) And he just needs that somehow. Well, actually, I know how. She rises and picks up her plate.127 INT. HOLT HOME - KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS ACTION - NIGHT 127 Helen carries her plate to the sink. Doug follows her in. DOUG What do you mean, how do you know? She sits at the kitchen table and sighs as if coming around to some central, hard truth. HELEN I was just a wreck when Charlie died. (MORE) (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 83.127 CONTINUED: 127 HELEN (CONT'D) Jacey was almost two and I was eight months pregnant with you and... well, some mornings I'd be crying before I even woke up. Then you were born. And Jacey just got lost in there. I didn't have anything for him. Mother took him over. He'd cry or call for me, and then I'd hear Mother answer him, and I'd go back to sleep. (sighs bitterly) I should've taken us away from here, gone somewhere else. DOUG Why? HELEN After Charlie died Lloyd Abbott started dropping by on his way home from work. He felt so bad about that bet Charlie made with him at the lake. That foolish, idiotic bet. Poor Lloyd -- I felt sorry for him. He'd have a cup of coffee with Mother and me. If a doorknob had come off he'd fix it. He'd carry the garbage cans to the curb. Someone dies, people try to be helpful. But he was by here so often that people started to talk. It was fairly obvious that he wanted something more from me than just a cup of coffee. I suggested that he didn't need to stop by here so often, but... then one afternoon I was at Woolworth's, having lunch at the counter. All of sudden Joan Abbott was standing there -- screaming and yelling at me to stop sleeping with her husband, with Lloyd. I was speechless. She was gone before I could find my tongue. DOUG (stunned; almost ill) Christ... (CONTINUED) 84.127 CONTINUED: (2) 127 HELEN I went to see Joan, I tried to talk to her, to put her mind at ease, but... DOUG Dammit, why didn't Lloyd tell her that nothing had happened? HELEN I'm sure he did, but men always say that, darling. Besides, Lloyd was always having affairs. He's that type of man. DOUG Ahhh, Jesus... but why? Why did everyone in town believe Joan Abbott? HELEN Because she's Joan Abbott. If you cross Joan you don't get invited to her parties -- and the Abbotts have the best parties in town. The only parties. DOUG I hate this town. I hate the Abbotts. He slaps the back of a chair and knocks it over. HELEN I'm sorry, Doug, I shouldn't have told you. DOUG I already knew. HELEN People still talk about it? DOUG No, I've never heard anyone talk about it. Not to me. HELEN Then how did...? DOUG Jacey. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 85.127 CONTINUED: (3) 127 HELEN Oh, Lord... he knows too? DOUG Yeah. But he thinks it really happened. Helen is overcome with tears. Doug stares at her helplessly. He's never seen his mother weep before.128 OMITTED 128& &129 129130 EXT. COUNTRYSIDE ROAD - DAY 130 The bus cruises along the two-lane blacktop. Doug stares out the window.A131 EXT. PHILADELPHIA STREET - NIGHT (EARLY FALL 1959) A131 Partygoers enter building.131 INT. JACEY'S APARTMENT 131 A vintage, third-floor, railroad flat -- sparsely furnished and neat as a pin. Jacey is hosting a party. A TONY BENNETT record ("When Somebody Breaks Your Heart") plays on the hi-fi. The apartment is elbow-to-elbow with Penn men and attractive coeds from Radcliffe, Mt. Hollyoke, and Byrn Mawr. Doug sits in the middle of the sofa wedged between two coeds having separate, but equally animated conversations with two of Jacey's classmates (who are perched on the arms of the sofa). Doug wears a jacket and tie but his knack at looking out of place is intact. Jacey is apart from the others wooing a gorgeous CO-ED in a tight cashmere sweater. JACEY Airplanes, bridges, skyscrapers, bras, all utilize the same fundamentals of structural design... With his finger he traces the back strap of her bra beneath her sweater... (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 86.131 CONTINUED: 131 JACEY A stable foundation that resists compression... His finger trails the shoulder strap of her bra... JACEY Carefully calculated suspension... He draws his fingertip around the outside of her breast to the lower front of her bra... JACEY And cantilevered elements to provide support. The Co-ed is bothered but none-the-less bewitched. CO-ED Ahh... you know, I'm engaged. JACEY So am I. CO-ED (shocked) You are? JACEY I'm engaged in conversation with you. Jacey smiles and then kisses her. Doug is spying on them from the safety of the crowd. Jacey winks at Doug. Doug shakes his head in wonder.132 EXT. CAMPUS - SIDEWALK (UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 132 PHILADELPHIA) - DAY (MONTHS LATERLATE FALL, 1959) Doug walks along the sidewalk towards the entrance of the theater carrying some rolled-up plans under his arm. He reacts as he sees: DOUG Hey! Hey! Pam! Pamela Abbott walks across the quad. Pam is 19 years old now, her beauty in full bloom. Doug jogs over to her. DOUG Hi. (CONTINUED) 87.132 CONTINUED: 132 PAMELA Hi. DOUG What are you up to? PAMELA I come down to use the library sometimes or go shopping. DOUG How's Bryn Mawr? PAMELA Very... Bryn. I got to catch the bus back. DOUG Just have to drop off these set designs -- you want to go get something to eat? PAMELA I can't. Sorry. DOUG Why not? It's been a long time. PAMELA You seem taller. DOUG (re: her figure) And you seem... not so plain. (slight beat) So, dinner, okay? PAMELA I can't. I have to go to this party. DOUG What party? The traffic light changes and the other pedestrians cross the street. PAMELA Just a party I got roped into going. Maybe some other time, okay? I mean it, really. DOUG Just call -- I'm at Reed Hall. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 88.132 CONTINUED: 132 PAMELA Okay. Bye. DOUG Bye. Doug watches her cross the street.133 INT. REED HALL - DOUG'S DORM ROOM - THAT NIGHT 133 Doug is revising a set design -- deeply concentrating on his task. He's startled by a KNOCK on the door. MALE STUDENT (O.S.) Hey, Holt! You got a visitor downstairs!134 INT. REED HALL - LOBBY - NIGHT (MINUTES LATER) 134 Doug comes down the wide stairs with a puzzled look on his face. He stops at the front desk and the student clerk points to another part of the lobby. Doug walks across the cavernous lobby and finds Pamela Abbott slumped in a chair. DOUG Did you miss the bus? Pam laughs and Doug suddenly realizes: DOUG Damn, you're drunk. Awww, man... I better get you out of here before the Puritans tar-and-feather you. Can you walk? Pam awkwardly rises and Doug guides her to the door. DOUG Listen to me -- go out the front door, turn right, go around to the side of the building and wait for me by the fire escape. Okay? Just wait.135 EXT. REED HALL - FIRE ESCAPE - NIGHT (MINUTES LATER) 135 Pamela leans against the side of the building as the fire escape ladder descends to the pavement. Doug climbs down. (CONTINUED) 89.135 CONTINUED: 135 DOUG Come on -- up we go. Pam? Pam keels over and vomits.136 INT. REED HALL - DOUG'S DORM ROOM - NIGHT 136 Pam sits on the bed as Doug pulls her stained turtleneck sweater off over her head (she's wearing a bra). DOUG What were you drinking, Sterno? PAMELA I'm cold... DOUG Hold on, we got to get your pants too. Can you stand up. (as she collapses on the bed)) No, you can't stand up. All right. He undoes the waist of her pants and tugs on her pant legs, but her panties start to slide off along with her pants. DOUG Nope, nope, let's keep the panties on, okay? Pam? Can you hold on to your underpants? (she's out) I'll hold on to your underpants. He holds her panties in place while he struggles to get her pants over her hips.137 INT. REED HALL - RESTROOM - NIGHT 137 Doug rinses out Pam's clothes in a sink.138 INT. REED HALL - DOUG'S DORM ROOM - NIGHT 138 Pam's wet clothes have been draped over the radiator. Pam is passed out, tucked in under the covers. Doug sits on the edge of the bed gently cleaning her face with a damp washcloth. 90.139 INT. DOUG'S DORM ROOM - NEXT MORNING 139 Doug stirs from his sleeping spot on the floor (he slept with his clothes on). He notices that Pam's clothes have been removed from the radiator. He sits up and finds that the bed is empty. She's gone.140 EXT. BRYN MAWR - DORMITORY - TWO DAYS LATER 140 Pamela approaches her dorm carrying an armload of books. She starts up the steps then stops when she sees Doug. DOUG You're welcome. PAMELA I'm sorry, Doug. DOUG Shit. That's it? You're sorry? PAMELA (suddenly alarmed) Oh Jesus... did we? DOUG Oh-Jesus-did-we what? PAMELA Did we... do it? DOUG What do you think? PAMELA I... don't... remember... DOUG Goddammit. Well, I know you might find this hard to believe, but I don't sleep with drunks. He walks away. She calls after him. PAMELA Doug? Hey!141 INT./EXT. DOUG'S DORM ROOM/FIRE ESCAPE - THAT NIGHT 141 Doug lounges on his bed reading a textbook. It is raining outside. He is startled by a TAPPING on the windowpane. Pamela is outside on the fire escape. He ignores her. (CONTINUED) 91.141 CONTINUED: 141 PAMELA Doug! Open the window! Come on, I'm freezing. Doug...! He gets out of bed, unlatches the window, then returns to the bed and his book. Pamela opens the window (with difficulty) and climbs in. She drapes her wet coat over the radiator and sits in the desk chair. DOUG If you feel like you're gonna puke use the wastebasket there. PAMELA I'm sorry. I am so sorry. I was embarrassed. I didn't know where I was when I woke up. I felt like I was dying, so, I just... I was going to call you. Doug doesn't respond -- he turns the page of his book. PAMELA I don't know... I was blotto. I mean, I was so happy to see you. Then I just got sad. I got sad. And stupid. It happens, you know? Doug snaps his book shut. DOUG You want to hear something stupid? PAMELA What? DOUG When I was cleaning you up, wiping the puke off your face, I suddenly realized how much I miss you -- how much I love you. How's that for stupid? Pam is stung by his flippancy, she begins to cry. DOUG What are you crying for? PAMELA I love you. But it's too late. DOUG Why? (CONTINUED) 92.141 CONTINUED: (2) 141 PAMELA Everything's too screwed up. Doug kneels in front of her and anxiously tries to console her. DOUG No, no, it's not too late. It's perfect timing. We're on our own now. No Jacey and Eleanor or Jacey and Alice. That's what stinks about being the youngest, we have to sweep up after everybody else. But now it's just us. It's our turn. PAMELA How can you be in love with me? DOUG How can you be in love with me? PAMELA 'Cause I've always have been. You... block-head. He kisses her, then he gazes at her and strokes her hair. DOUG Hi. PAMELA Hi. DOUG You want to see something? PAMELA What? DOUG Come on.142 EXT. THEATER - SIDEWALK (UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 142PHILADELPHIA) - NIGHT Doug and Pam hurry along the rain-swept sidewalk towards the theater.143 INT. THEATER - NIGHT (MOMENTS LATER) 143 The large theater is dark except for a single work light standing on the bare stage. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 93.143 CONTINUED: 143 Doug leads Pam by the hand down the aisle from the lobby. PAMELA What are we doing here? DOUG I want to show you something. He escorts her up a short flight of steps and positions her center stage near the footlights. DOUG Just stand right there. He takes the work light with him as he walks off stage. Then with a METALLIC CLANK everything goes dark. PAMELA (alarmed) Doug! DOUG (O.S.) It's all right -- don't move! Stay put. There's the RUMBLE and SQUEAK of a piece of SCENERY being rolled onto stage -- then the SWOOSH of a backdrop being lowered from the fly loft. DOUG (O.S.) Almost, almost... hold on. We hear Doug RUNNING somewhere backstage then a beautiful sunset slowly illuminates the stage -- creating the perfect mood for the modestly scaled stylized set that Doug has put into place: It is the roof of a weathered farmhouse with a dormer window and a tall brick chimney. Doug steps on stage, he's a bit winded from his quick- change routine. PAMELA Oh, Doug, it's beautiful. DOUG The senior acting class does scenes from different plays, they invite everybody, it's a real big deal. So, there's this competition among all the theater design students to do the sets. And -- anyway -- I'm the one whose design got picked. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 94.143 CONTINUED: (2) 143 PAMELA What scene is it for? What play? DOUG (a tad embarrassed) Umm... Romeo and Juliet. It's something different, I think that's why they picked it. Everybody else was doing castles and stuff. Rooftop Romeo and Juliet by Douglas L. Holt. PAMELA You're really good at this. DOUG It's like building models when I was a kid. It's fun. It's... make-believe. PAMELA You know, they tore that old farmhouse down? DOUG Oh, no. Did they? PAMELA Yeah. DOUG They always tear down the wrong stuff. PAMELA Oh, Jesus, I missed you -- so much. DOUG Missed you, too. They kiss -- then Pamela pulls away. Doug studies her, then: DOUG You have a boyfriend, right? PAMELA No. DOUG Well, what? You worried what your old man would think? (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 95.143 CONTINUED: (3) 143 PAMELA He doesn't care what I do, as long as I don't do it in Haley. DOUG Then what's the problem? PAMELA I can't... do this. DOUG Why not? I mean... okay. We don't have to go so fast. Shit, I'm sorry. I blew it again, huh? PAMELA No, I did. DOUG How? Pam climbs down off the stage and starts up the aisle. PAMELA I'm on probation. They pulled a bed-check the night I was here. I have to be back in the dorm by ten. Gotta go. DOUG What about tomorrow? I could come up in the afternoon and... PAMELA No! It's just too late. It's all messed up. I can't seem to make things all right. The more I try the worse everything gets. I'm sorry. Pam walks up the aisle and disappears through a door to the lobby. DOUG Pam! It's not too late!144 OMITTED 144& &145 145 INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 96.146 OMITTED 146& &147 147A148 INT. BRYN MAWR DORMITORY - LOBBY - LATER THAT NIGHT A148 Pam enters the lobby. A female student CLERK (#1) displays a message as Pam passes by the front desk. CLERK #1 Pam -- some guy named Doug keeps calling for you. Pam ignores the Clerk and the message and goes upstairs.148 EXT. BRYN MAWR DORMITORY - DAY 148 Pamela approaches her dorm. She stops as she sees Doug waiting beside the entrance. She turns and walks away.A149 EXT. BRYN MAWR DORMITORY - NIGHT A149 Doug still waiting beside the entrance for some sign of Pam. He's tired, cold, and hungry. He grinds out his cigarette with his heel and walks away.B149 EXT. JACEY'S APT. (PHILADELPHIA STREET) - DAY (SUNDAY) B149149 INT. JACEY'S APARTMENT 149 Jacey sits in his favorite armchair reading the Sunday newspaper. Doug sits in the middle of the sofa. Jacey scrutinizes his brooding younger brother. JACEY What's wrong with you? DOUG Nothing. A boiling water KETTLE starts to WHISTLE (O.S.) -- Jacey goes into the kitchen to tend to it. There is a soft KNOCK on the front door. Doug goes to answer it. He opens the door and finds Pamela standing there with her coat in her hand. He is pleasantly surprised; Pam is distant, slightly off-balance. DOUG Hi. PAMELA Hi. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 97.149 CONTINUED: 149 DOUG How did you know I was here? JACEY (O.S.) You want another cup of... Jacey steps out of the kitchen and frowns when he sees Pam. JACEY I told you not to come by on Sundays. PAMELA I forgot. The breath goes out of Doug as if he'd been struck in the stomach. JACEY Dammit, why didn't you call first? PAMELA Didn't have any nickels. JACEY Well, I didn't expect to see you again. You want to fuck? I mean, that's why you came over, right? PAMELA (slight beat) Sure. JACEY Then take off your clothes. Pamela drops her coat on the floor. She pulls her sweater off over her head. Doug's anguish is as great as Pamela's humiliation. He cannot bear any more if this -- he walks out the door.150 EXT. JACEY'S APARTMENT (PHILADELPHIA) - SIDEWALK - DAY 150 Doug comes out of the apartment house and walks up the sidewalk. Tears begins to stream down his face. He begins to run and run as fast as he can.151 INT. REED HALL (PHILADELPHIA) - LOBBY AND STAIRS - 151THAT NIGHT Doug enters the dormitory and starts up the stairs. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 98.151 CONTINUED: 151 JACEY (O.S.) Doug... Doug turns and finds Jacey at the foot of the stairs. DOUG Fuck you. Doug continues up the stairs -- Jacey pursues him. JACEY I didn't know. DOUG You didn't know what?! JACEY How you felt about Pam. DOUG Fuck you. JACEY I'm sorry. DOUG Apologize to her, you asshole! JACEY I did. (slight beat) I ran into her a few weeks ago at a party. She was drinking and I... it was easy. She felt guilty about telling her father about Alice and me. Actually, I made her feel guilty, I made her feel like she had betrayed Alice. DOUG She didn't betray Alice! She was just trying to get rid of you so Alice wouldn't try to kill herself again. Jesus Christ, you shit- head, Alice couldn't marry you! JACEY I know. I mean, I do now. DOUG Then what the hell did Pam ever do to deserve your revenge? JACEY Nothing. (CONTINUED) 99.151 CONTINUED: (2) 151 DOUG Just your way of evening the score with Lloyd Abbott, right? JACEY Right. Doug spins and delivers a wild, roundhouse punch that lands brutally on the side of Jacey's face -- the impact knocks him down onto the steps. Jacey's eyebrow has split open, he is blinded by blood. DOUG I don't know you! I don't know who the fuck you are! You fuck everything. You fuck everything up! Why did you have to fuck Pam, too?! Doug walks away, leaving Jacey sitting on the steps, clutching a banister for support. He presses his palm to his eyebrow to squelch the flow of blood.152 EXT. BRYN MAWR DORMITORY - DAY 152 Doug approaches Pam's dormitory.153 INT. BRYN MAWR DORMITORY - LOBBY - DAY 153 Doug steps up to the female student CLERK (#2) at the front desk. DOUG Pamela Abbott, please. Tell her Doug is here. CLERK #2 She's not here. DOUG I'll wait. CLERK #2 But she left. DOUG What do you mean? CLERK #2 She left... last night. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 100.153 CONTINUED: 153 DOUG Where did she go? CLERK #2 I don't know. DOUG Well, did she go home? CLERK #2 No one seems to know. She just took some clothes and left. DOUG (lost) Oh, God... no... His pain is so clear that it spurs the Clerk's sympathy. CLERK #2 Look, I'm not supposed to do this, but... well, I can give you her home address. DOUG (explodes with irony) Shit! Yeah, right... (slight beat) I mean... thanks. Thanks anyway. I know her home address.154 EXT. ABBOTT HOME - STREET - DAY (DECEMBER, 1959) 154 The Abbott house is decked with snow. Doug sits behind the wheel of the Plymouth. He's parked down the street. He smokes a cigarette and stares at the house -- the pavement outside the driver's window is littered with butts.155 EXT. SHOP (DOWNTOWN HALEY) - DAY 155 Alice comes out on the street laden with packages and shopping bags. She's startled by Doug when he falls in beside her and follows her down the sidewalk. DOUG Where's Pam? ALICE I don't know. DOUG Is she with Eleanor? (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 101.155 CONTINUED: 155 ALICE I don't know. DOUG In Chicago? ALICE I don't know. DOUG I couldn't find Eleanor's name in the Chicago phone book. ALICE Maybe it's unlisted. DOUG Well, do you know Eleanor's address? ALICE No. I don't know her address, I don't know her phone number. You'd have to ask my father for it. All right? Alice turns and steps into another shop -- leaving Doug behind on the sidewalk.156 INT. HOLT HOME - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT (CHRISTMAS, 1959) 156 PERRY COMO SINGS "The Little Drummer Boy" ON the TELEVISION. Doug rises from the sofa.157 INT. HOLT HOME - KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS ACTION - NIGHT 157 Helen is peeling apples to make a pie. Doug enters and studies her for a beat. DOUG Are you okay? HELEN I'm fine. DOUG You look... tired. HELEN Just a cold. DOUG You sure? (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 102.157 CONTINUED: 157 HELEN I do wish Jacey had come home for Christmas. Maybe that's what's wrong with me. DOUG I guess that free-lance drafting job was too good for him to turn down. HELEN I don't think that's why he didn't come home. I wrote him a letter, you know. About Lloyd and me. Has he mentioned it to you? DOUG No. Doug wants to avoid the topic of Jacey. He opens the refrigerator. DOUG When did you start drinking beer? HELEN Oh... I bought those for you. I had them in the basement; I kept forgetting to bring them up. He does a bemused take on her. HELEN Good heavens, I know you drink beer. Doug takes out two bottles of beer and opens them. DOUG Here. Have one with me. HELEN I bought those for you, honey. DOUG It's not good to drink alone, Mom. HELEN Don't be silly. DOUG Come on. Sit down. Have a beer. (CONTINUED) 103.157 CONTINUED: (2) 157 He pulls out a chair for her. She reluctantly comes over and sits down. Doug sits and proposes a toast. DOUG Merry Christmas. HELEN Merry Christmas. (takes a sip) It's beer. DOUG Let's drink 'em all. Helen laughs girlishly. HELEN Charlie was always trying to get me to drink beer. DOUG Why do you always call him Charlie? HELEN That was his name. DOUG Why don't you ever say 'your father'? HELEN Sometimes I do, don't I? I don't know. When I think of him, I think of 'Charlie.' DOUG Did you ever... meet anybody else? HELEN You mean another man? DOUG Yeah. HELEN Well, everyone always thinks things are more possible than they are. I mean, single men don't stay in Haley if they have any starch. The only eligible man around was Drew Carter, but he smells like his dog. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 2/16/96 104.157 CONTINUED: (3) 157 Her remark cracks Doug up -- Helen laughs, too. HELEN I wish I'd remembered the beers sooner. It's nice to see you smiling. DOUG Sorry. HELEN Don't be. Everyone has sad times. Doug dissolves into tears. He lowers his head and shields his eyes with his hand. Helen leans over and strokes his hair. After a few moments, he rises and wipes away his tears with a dish towel. HELEN I'll tell you a secret. I did have a friend. A man in Chicago. I used to see him when I went up to Chicago to visit Bea during summer vacations. DOUG 'Used to see him' -- you don't see him anymore? HELEN No. DOUG Did you like him? HELEN He was a wonderful man. A little boring, but really, very wonderful. DOUG How long did this go on? HELEN About eight years or so, it was when you boys were still at home. DOUG That's a long time. Did you ever think about marrying him? HELEN He proposed. But, well, obviously, I said no. (CONTINUED) 105.157 CONTINUED: (4) 157 DOUG Why? HELEN Because I'm in love with... your father. With my memory of him. He was the one for me. Oh, I don't know... there's different kinds of love, darling. Some people you love no matter what. Other people you love if the situation is right. To me the best kind of love is the 'no matter what' kind. (slight beat) Well, I am a cheap drunk, aren't I?158 EXT. COUNTRYSIDE - ROAD - DAYS LATER 158 The bus cruises along the narrow ribbon of pavement.159 INSIDE BUS - ANGLE ON DOUG 159 -- sitting by himself; there's not many passengers today. We hear the VOICES of rambunctious CHILDREN...160 INT. HALEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - CLASSROOM - DAY 160(LATE SPRING, 1960) The second-grade students are in the midst of an art project where they make a design by gluing various sorts of dried beans to colored paper -- but the beans are being thrown about the room and other beans have been spilled on the floor. Helen wearily attempts to rein in the unruly children: HELEN Too much noise, please. Let's finish up. Keep the glue on the paper. Sam, Lillian, Jack -- in your seats, please... Helen suddenly loses her energy and interest in policing the children. Their hijinks continue as she steps out of the classroom. INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 106.161 INT. HALEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS 161ACTION Helen steps over to a window and stares out -- lost in her own thoughts and oblivious to the NOISE from her classroom.162 INT. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - THEATER - DAY (LATE 162 SPRING, 1960) Doug is on a cat-walk in the fly loft high over the stage floor. He strains as he drops 20 pound slabs of pig-iron onto a counterweight carriage, then he releases the line and flies a canvas backdrop up into the loft. He locks off the line, wipes his brow, turns, and finds Jacey standing behind him. DOUG What-the-hell do you want? JACEY Mom...163 INT. AIRPORT TERMINAL (PHILADELPHIA) - THAT NIGHT 163 Doug sits in an almost empty terminal waiting to catch a red-eye flight to Chicago. A group of just arrived stewardesses pass by chatting with a captain and other flight officers. Eleanor Abbott does a take on Doug, steps away from her co-workers, and doubles back to him. ELEANOR Hi, Doug! Doug almost doesn't recognize her. She is twenty years old now and very grown-up, very stylish in her stewardess uniform. She smiles at him. ELEANOR How's your chin? (as he doesn't respond) Remember... the pencil? DOUG Yeah. I have a little scar. ELEANOR You going home? Back to Hole-in- the-Ground, Illinois. DOUG My mother died. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 107.163 CONTINUED: 163 ELEANOR (taken aback) Oh God. Oh no. Oh, Doug, I'm sorry. DOUG She had cancer. I just saw her Christmas. She was tired, but I thought she just had the flu or something. She didn't tell us. The hospital told Jacey when they called him. ELEANOR (slight beat) How is Jacey? DOUG He had to stay to take his state board exams. He's coming back the day after tomorrow. ELEANOR He's an architect? DOUG If he passes his exams. He will. ELEANOR I'm so sorry, Doug. DOUG You know, I tried to find your phone number a couple of months ago. ELEANOR It's in my roommate's name, I've got to fix that. DOUG I was wondering if you knew where Pam was? ELEANOR (slight beat) No. I don't. DOUG She left school. ELEANOR I know. My father called me. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 108.163 CONTINUED: (2) 163 ELEANOR (CONT'D) He was looking for her. I don't know where she is. I gotta run -- I'll miss my ride to the hotel. DOUG Tell Pam I love her. Eleanor looks at him. DOUG Tell her... just tell her that. Eleanor doesn't reply. She turns and walks away.164 EXT. FUNERAL HOME (HALEY) - ALLEY - DAYS LATER 164 The distance between Jacey and Doug is telling, as is the difference in their behavior. Doug leans against a wall with his hands in his pockets, his eyes cast down on his shoes. Jacey roams the alley unable to stand still for grief. He lights a fresh cigarette off the butt of another. JACEY Why? Why didn't she tell us? The FUNERAL DIRECTOR appears in the back door: FUNERAL DIRECTOR Gentlemen...165 INT. FUNERAL HOME (HALEY) - DAY (MINUTES LATER) 165 Helen's closed casket is surrounded by floral tributes. Doug and Jacey enter from a door near the casket -- they pause in reaction to the crowded parlor, it overflows with mourners. Jacey explodes under his breath, so that only Doug can hear: JACEY Fucking hypocrites -- every one of 'em. Jacey turns and walks out through the door they came in. Doug walks over to his seat in the front row -- he hesitates when he sees Lloyd Abbott standing in the back of the parlor. 109.166 INT. HOLT HOME - DINING ROOM - NEXT DAY 166 Doug sits at the table wrapping dishes in newspaper. Jacey comes in with a framed photograph of their grandmother. JACEY Do you want this picture of Grandma? DOUG You can have it. JACEY You sure? DOUG Yeah. Jacey steps out of the dining room.167 INT. HOLT HOME - HELEN'S BEDROOM - DAY (SHORT 167TIME LATER) Jacey is packing Helen's things. Doug steps in the doorway. DOUG I'm starving. You want to go get something to eat? Jacey is caught a bit off-guard by Doug's invitation, then: JACEY Sure.168 INT. IRON SKILLET - NIGHT 168 Jacey and Doug are seated in a window booth. They eat in silence, then: DOUG You don't have to stick around. I can handle things here. JACEY What about school? DOUG I hate Penn. Always have. You were right. (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 110.168 CONTINUED: 168 JACEY About what? DOUG I should live my own life. Stop being your shadow. I'm not like you, Jacey -- I don't want to be like you. JACEY You going to stay here? In Haley? DOUG No. I was thinking New York. If I'm going to really learn how to design sets, that's the place to do it. JACEY (long beat) I'm sorry. DOUG I know you are. (slight beat) Did you have to get stitches? JACEY Hmmm? DOUG Your eyebrow. JACEY My eyebrow -- yeah, ten stitches. DOUG Sorry. Doug takes an envelope out of his coat pocket and puts it on the table. DOUG Found this in one of the boxes in the basement. JACEY What is it? DOUG A letter of agreement between Lloyd Abbott and Dad. Dad sold him the file drawer patent -- not Mom. (CONTINUED) 111.168 CONTINUED: (2) 168 Jacey opens the envelope and studies the yellowed document. JACEY (re: document) A car? DOUG Yup. JACEY Jesus Christ... he sold the patent for a used car? DOUG Used cars were the only kind of cars around. The war was on -- everything was mobilized. They stopped making new cars, they were making tanks and bombers in Detroit. And even Midwest Steel wasn't making desks, they were making ammo boxes and mortar shells. JACEY How did you get to be such an expert on World War Two? DOUG U.S. History -- high school. I should be an expert, I had to take the damn class twice. I guess Dad needed a car and he figured who- the-hell needed a full-suspension file drawer? JACEY (reading aloud) '1937 Desoto coupe convertible as is.' DOUG Wonder whatever happened to it? JACEY He parked it at the bottom of the lake.169 EXT. BUS DEPOT (DOWNTOWN HALEY) - NEXT DAY 169 Doug follows Jacey to the door of the bus. Neither one of them knows how to say good-bye, after an awkward beat: (CONTINUED) 112.169 CONTINUED: 169 JACEY (fighting back tears) Do me a favor. Don't stand here and wave good-bye... it makes me think of Mom. DOUG Okay. See you. Doug turns and walks away. Jacey climbs onto the bus.170 EXT. ABBOTT HOME - STREET - DAY 170 Doug drives home from the bus depot in the old Plymouth. He slows as he sees... the party tent in the Abbotts' front yard (with its canvas sides rolled up). Susan's third birthday party is underway, dozens of well- dressed children and their parents are in attendance. Alice (who is very pregnant) and Peter Vanlaningham and Lloyd and Joan Abbott watch Susan riding her new pony, a gift from her grandparents. A new generation of Abbott parties has begun.171 EXT. HOLT HOME - DRIVEWAY - DAY 171 A "For Sale" sign has been placed on the front yard. Doug pulls up the driveway in the Plymouth. He turns OFF the ENGINE but doesn't get out of the car. Then he STARTS the CAR again and backs out of the driveway.172 INT. ABBOTT HOME - TENT - DAY (SHORT TIME LATER) 172 Despite it being a birthday party for a three-year-old, this is very much a grown-up affair. The band is playing, the adults are dancing, Joan Abbott is flitting from guest-to-guest, Alice is dutifully silent while Peter dominates the talk at their table, Lloyd is with his cronies. Doug enters the tent -- one-by-one the guests take notice of him as he works his way across the tent -- and all are very aware of his uninvited presence by the time he reaches Lloyd Abbott. Lloyd scrutinizes Doug, then: LLOYD What do you want? DOUG I want to talk to you. 113.173 INT. ABBOTT HOUSE - DEN - DAY 173 Doug follows Lloyd into the dark-paneled room. LLOYD Shut the door. Doug closes the door. Lloyd lights a cigarette. LLOYD Smoke? DOUG No thanks. LLOYD Sit down. DOUG I don't want to. LLOYD Then don't. (slight beat) I'm sorry about your mother. DOUG Sorry about what? LLOYD You didn't know your mother at all if you think someone like me would've ever stood a chance with someone like her. That just goes to show you how stupid this town is -- that they'd believe she slept with me. That'd make Charlie laugh. Your old man was my best friend. He used to call me 'Egg-head' -- hell, everybody did. And back then everybody knew that Egg-head Abbott didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell with Helen Riley. Of course, that was all before I became Lloyd Abbott -- Mr. Abbott. That was back when I still had chicken shit on my shoes and twelve cents in my pocket. Charlie Holt was the only one good enough for Helen. I used to spy on 'em -- yup, I did. (fixes a drink) Used to watch them sit on the front porch of her house -- your house -- and watch 'em talk. (MORE) (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 114.173 CONTINUED: 173 LLOYD (CONT'D) And talk. I never knew what to say to a girl. Never could just talk. Could dance, could listen to the radio. But I couldn't talk... except with your mother, except with Helen. I talked more to her after your dad died than I'd ever talked to any woman before then -- or since then. Jesus, I talked. Just like this. Just like right now. Just pouring out. Helen would listen and whatever I said, she'd never make me feel bad or ignorant or guilty. I mean... for Christ's sake, she never blamed me for what happened at the lake, for letting Charlie drive out on that ice. She never did anything but try to make me hurt less and I... Lloyd is startled by Joan as she opens the door. JOAN Lloyd...? LLOYD Get out of here! JOAN It's time for Susie's birthday cake. LLOYD (exploding) Goddammit, Joan, go way! Get the hell out of here! Leave me alone! He hurls his GLASS at her and it SHATTERS on the door jamb. Joan recoils in dumb-founded shock and backs out of the doorway. Lloyd fumes over and slams the door shut in her face. He leans against the door and catches his breath. LLOYD I wanted sons -- isn't that funny? I wanted sons and I got three daughters. I wanted a woman I could talk to and I got a woman whose ears are stuffed full of money and Percodan. But I got the chicken shit off my shoes. (MORE) (CONTINUED) INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 115.173 CONTINUED: (2) 173 LLOYD (CONT'D) My shoes are clean. (slight beat) I know that's what Jacey thinks. I could always tell by the way he looked at me -- even when he was a little boy -- like I owed him something. But, goddammit, he's wrong. That bet was your father's idea and I never meant your mother any harm. I would've done anything for her -- anything. I loved her. But the only thing she ever wanted from me was just for me to leave her alone. He pours himself a fresh drink, then turns to Doug: LLOYD So, what do you want? DOUG I want to find Pam -- and you're going to tell me where she is.174 EXT. BROWNSTONE APARTMENT BUILDING (CHICAGO) - THAT 174 NIGHT Doug navigates the busy sidewalk to the entrance of the building. He checks the number over the door to the address on the scrap of paper in his hand.175 EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING DOORWAY - ELEANOR'S APARTMENT - 175 NIGHT (MINUTES LATER) Doug knocks on the door. Eleanor opens it, she's dressed for work in her stewardess uniform. She's obviously surprised to find Doug on her doorstep, but she greets him with a warm smile. DOUG Where is she?176 EXT. DEPARTMENT STORE DISPLAY WINDOW (CHICAGO) - 176 SIDEWALK - NIGHT (SHORT TIME LATER) Pamela dresses a mannequin in the display window. As she moves behind the mannequin to fasten a garment she sees Doug standing on the other side of the glass watching her from the sidewalk. Doug writes a message on the plate glass window with his index finger (printing the letters in reverse so that the message is legible from Pam's POV); his message reads: "I love you." INVENTING THE ABBOTTS - Rev. 3/20/96 116.177 EXT. DEPARTMENT STORE ENTRANCE - SIDEWALK - NIGHT 177 (MOMENTS LATER) Pamela comes out of the store via the revolving door and finds Doug waiting for her on the sidewalk. PAMELA How can you...? DOUG How can I what? PAMELA Ever... forgive me? DOUG You always loved me no matter what I did, right? PAMELA Yeah. DOUG Maybe that's how I love you -- no matter what. That's the best kind of love, you know? PAMELA But... oh, Jesus... how do we start all over again? Pam's eyes fill with tears. Doug steps over to her and embraces her tenderly, holding her close. DOUG There. We're doing it. PAMELA (through her tears) Doing what? DOUG Starting over. So, what are you doing tonight? You want to go out? PAMELA You're crazy. DOUG Some people never change. He wipes her tears from her cheeks with his fingers, then gives a short, but sweet, kiss. Then he smiles: (CONTINUED) 117.177 CONTINUED: 177 DOUG Hi. PAMELA Hi. FADE OUT. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Invention of Lying, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Invention of Lying, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..a6da05fe3fae4607b7e0a278cc5fabded8271169 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Invention of Lying, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + THE INVENTION OF LYING Written by Ricky Gervais & Matthew Robinson June 8, 2007 EXT. CAVEMAN VILLAGE - THE PALEOLITHIC ERA - DAY A small caveman community made up of five large caves, all facing out towards a crackling fire. Slack-jawed, yet strong and confident CAVEMEN stumble about, dragging haunches of meat, pounding the dirt with sticks, dragging the women. WE PAN OVER to a small cave. Not even really a cave at all, but a crack in the rocks barely large enough to sleep in. Stepping out of this "cave" is a small, weak, nerdy-looking caveman. The chief caveman, set apart by the large mallet he wields, steps towards the fire and grunts loudly to mark the beginning of a caveman meeting. "Loser caveman" steps forward apprehensively, only to be met with laughter from the other cavemen. "Loser caveman" sighs and shrinks back into his sad, little cave, watching them from the shadows. CHIEF CAVEMAN (grunting; subtitled) Me see beast today. Beast scary. Beast danger for caveman. The rest of the cavemen look nervous. CHIEF CAVEMAN If caveman kill beast? Caveman safe. Caveman have food. The cavemen grunt in understanding. CHIEF CAVEMAN Who kill beast? The cavemen grunt amongst themselves. The toughest of the bunch steps forward, pounds his chest and grunts. CHIEF CAVEMAN Grob kill beast. Good Grob. The chief notices "loser caveman" watching from a distance. CHIEF CAVEMAN Loser want kill beast? All the cavemen turn and laugh at the "loser caveman". CHIEF CAVEMAN Loser kill nothing! 2. All the cavemen laugh hysterically. CAVEMAN #1 Look at Loser cave! So small! CAVEMAN #2 Loser dumb! CAVEMAN #3 Fuck that guy! All the cavemen pick up rocks and begin throwing them at the "loser caveman", who dives out of his cave and runs around the camp, dodging their blows. EXT. CAVEMAN VILLAGE - THE PALEOLITHIC ERA - NIGHT Everyone in the village is asleep. Everyone, that is, but "loser caveman" who sleeps uncomfortably in his tiny little cave, tossing and turning, unable to get comfortable. A stirring in the trees causes "loser caveman" to sit upright. There's something outside of the village. Something big. Suddenly a GIANT TUSKED BOAR pushes through the trees and stands, looking quite menacing, not ten yards from the village fire. "Loser caveman" is practically shaking with fear. The boar makes eye-contact with "loser caveman" and charges directly towards his tiny little cave. The giant boar runs head first into the cave opening, but the opening is too small for the beast to fit its head inside. "Loser caveman" screams like a girl. The boar backs up to strike again -- this one sure to be the end of "loser caveman" -- when a large boulder, knocked loose by the Boar's first hit, tumbles down and lands smack on the Boar's head, killing it instantly. The entire village runs out to see what has happened. The "Loser caveman" stumbles out of the cave and dusts himself off. The chief steps forward. CHIEF CAVEMAN The beast! It dead! 3. CAVEMAN #2 Hey, look at loser! He almost die! Look he scared! Everyone laughs. The Chief looks towards Loser, standing nervously near the corpse of the Giant Tusked Boar. CHIEF CAVEMAN Loser, what happen? LOSER CAVEMAN (SHAMEFULLY) The Beast, it came at me. It smash my cave. Everyone laughs hysterically. WE PAN over the many laughing faces, pointing and hooting at loser caveman's cowardice. We watch as the "loser caveman's" face turns bright red, the veins in his neck pop out and his fists clench up tightly. SUDDENLY WE FLY into the caveman's skull, traveling through his cerebral cortex and towards the frontal lobe of his small, homo erectus brain. Sparks are flying back and forth across his brain as his synapses fire in rapid succession. There is a SMALL EXPLOSION. We fly back out of "loser caveman's" skull -- his face contorted in rage. He interrupts everyone's laughter. LOSER CAVEMAN Hold on one minute! Everyone stops laughing. LOSER CAVEMAN Loser wasn't finished. Loser caveman stands up straight and tall -- all of a sudden the Bruce Willis of cavemen. LOSER CAVEMAN After beast smash cave, Loser look at beast and say, "not on Loser's watch." Loser grab rock on ground, lift above head and smash it down... right onto motherfucker's head. The entire village gasps. 4. LOSER CAVEMAN Loser kill beast. (PAUSE) Now fuck off, Loser going back to sleep. The chief steps forward ominously, then proclaims: CHIEF CAVEMAN Loser kill beast! Loser caveman hero! Loser steps forward, grabs the prettiest of all cavewomen and drags her towards his cave as the entire village erupts in cheer. FREEZE FRAME: NARRATOR The world's first lie. A monumental occasion in the history of mankind. (PAUSE) That lowly caveman who stumbled upon the ability to lie went on to become chief of his village, married dozens of cavewomen, and passed on the lying gene to hundreds of newborn cave-children. (PAUSE) Over time lying spread throughout the world, sparking the eventual birth of imagination itself, story- telling, religion, and the oh-so- important polite lie, as in, "Oh Patty, have you lost weight? You look fantastic." (PAUSE) The world would be a very different place if events had gone otherwise on that prolific, Paleolithic eve. If not for that night, man would have never acquired the ability to lie to himself and to others. (PAUSE) A world without lying would be a world without dreams. A world without pretense. A world without fiction. A world without flattery. A world very unlike our own. UNFREEZE: The film rewinds about thirty seconds, to the point where the chief asked what happened with "loser caveman" and the boar. 5. CHIEF CAVEMAN Loser, what happen? LOSER CAVEMAN (SHAMEFULLY) The Beast, it came at me. It smash my cave. AGAIN WE FLY into the caveman's skull, traveling through his homo erectus brain. Sparks are flying back and forth across his brain as his synapses fire in rapid succession... But this time there's no explosion. We fly back out of "loser caveman's" skull -- his face contorted in rage. The rage slowly fades and Loser just stands there, everyone in the camp waiting for him to say something. LOSER CAVEMAN Rock fall on beast. Loser do nothing. I think Loser even soil bear pants. (pause; sniffing) Loser smell bad. Everyone falls onto the ground laughing hysterically. CHIEF CAVEMAN Loser biggest loser ever! Caveman, throw rocks at loser! Everyone in the camp joins in on another round of throwing rocks at "loser caveman" as he runs around the camp, terrified and miserable. FADE TO BLACK. INSERT: "PRESENT DAY. LOS ANGELES, CA." FADE UP: EXT. JENNIFER'S APARTMENT COMPLEX - NIGHT A completely indistinguishable Los Angeles mid-rent apartment complex. MARK BELLISON pulls up in his early nineties Volvo, parks and enters. 6. INT. JENNIFER'S APARTMENT COMPLEX - SAME Mark (40's), average to semi-handsome, twists and turns through stucco hallways. He knocks on apartment "9C". JENNIFER MCDOOGLES opens, her face flushed. She's beautiful. JENNIFER Hi. You're early. I was just masturbating. MARK That makes me think of your vagina. I'm Mark, how are you? JENNIFER A little frustrated at the moment. Also equally depressed and pessimistic about our date tonight. I'm Jennifer. MARK I hope this date ends in sex. JENNIFER Not me. I don't find you attractive. Come on in. Mark enters. ROLL CREDITS Jennifer's apartment is new-adult, as if she just found out she was an adult yet hasn't had the time or the money to complete the transition. JENNIFER I need to finish getting ready. While doing that I might realize I'm still horny and try to finish masturbating without you hearing. Jennifer heads towards the bathroom. Mark stands alone in her living room, looking around. MARK (shouting to her) I feel awkward and I regret being early. 7. JENNIFER (O.S.) (shouting back) Yeah, I'm disappointed you're early and not really looking forward to tonight in general, but the thought of being alone the rest of my life scares both my mother and I equally. It's completely silent for a long beat. Mark looks around, then sits on her couch. MARK (shouting to her) I have an erection now because I assume you began masturbating once we stopped talking. More silence. MARK (shouting to her) I'm embarrassed because I think the restaurant I've made reservations at might not be expensive enough or hip enough to impress you, but it was the best I could do because I don't make very much money. You see, I'm forty years old and have no real financial assets to speak of, I've never owned a home, and never had a significant relationship. My boss even told me today that I'm most likely going to get fired tomorrow and... Jennifer enters the room and Mark stops talking. JENNIFER I just masturbated. MARK That makes me very horny. JENNIFER Shall we go? MARK Sure. Mark stands up. Jennifer picks up her purse and opens the door. 8. JENNIFER After you. END CREDITS INT. MARK'S VOLVO - NIGHT Mark and Jennifer drive in silence for a beat. JENNIFER I'm only doing this as a favor for my cousin Greg. He keeps begging me to go out on a date with you. He says you're funny. MARK Greg's a good friend. JENNIFER Where are we eating tonight? MARK A cute little place called La Bonisera in West Hollywood. JENNIFER You obviously don't have very much money but that's not necessarily a deal breaker. MARK I have very little money. JENNIFER I also don't really care about a guy who knows all the latest, hippest restaurants. MARK I don't know any of them. JENNIFER In fact, there are very few things in life that I care about all that much. The only things I have to offer myself or anyone else are my good looks and my affected sense of quirkiness which artistically inclined men interpret as intellect. (MORE) 9. JENNIFER (cont'd) In fact, I think my best trait is the fact that I've made very few mistakes: socially, academically, financially or romantically. I take very few risks and therefore lead a relatively happy and light-hearted existence. Mostly though, I'm a kind, sweet person with the potential of genuinely becoming a vital and interesting human being the day I take the energy I expend on hyper self-reflexivity and apply it to actual action in the reality of my life. MARK I found that boring and started thinking about this place's fish tacos. INT. LA BONISERA - NIGHT The Volvo pulls up in front of the restaurant and the valet parking guy opens Jennifer's door. VALET PARKING GUY I'm extremely bored. JENNIFER Hello. The valet parking guy hands Mark a ticket. INT. LA BONISERA - NIGHT They enter the quaint Mexican restaurant. JENNIFER This isn't as nice as I remember it. MARK What are we going to talk about? They approach the hostess. HOSTESS (to Jennifer) I'm threatened by you. MARK Two, please. 10. HOSTESS Of course, come with me. The hostess seats them in the midst of the semi-crowded restaurant. A young, awkward waiter approaches. WAITER I'm very embarrassed that I work here. Hi. MARK Hello. JENNIFER Hello. WAITER (to Jennifer) And you're pretty and that only makes me feel worse. Can I get you two started on some drinks? MARK I'll have a Budweiser. JENNIFER I'll start with your Mango Margarita and probably have three more drinks by the end of the night. WAITER Excellent. (to Mark) She's out of your league. MARK Yup. The waiter leaves. Jennifer and Mark peruse their menus. A woman screams out from a table on the other side of the room: WOMAN (SCREAMING) All of a sudden I got EXTREMELY angry! No one in the restaurant reacts. 11. MARK I'm going to ask you some questions about your life because that's what you do, but I'll only really listen to about half of what you're saying. Jennifer nods. MARK How do you spend your days? JENNIFER I get up at eight in the morning because the noise from my alarm clock interrupts my sleep, so I lean over and... MARK That's a little more specific than I expected. JENNIFER Well what did you want to know? MARK Do you have a job? JENNIFER Yes. MARK What job do you have? JENNIFER I have a job at an office. MARK What do you do? JENNIFER Just typing and filing and stuff. MARK Do you enjoy it? JENNIFER No. But I enjoy the end result of the job which is money. And the hours are pretty good for the amount of money I make, which I spend on things I like, such as clothes, hiking, drinking -- even though I know it's bad for me. (MORE) 12. JENNIFER (cont'd) (PAUSE) But I'd rather just get all the money and not work for the results. MARK Sure. Tell me more. I'm trying to get a little insight into you. JENNIFER Well you already know a lot about me. You know I'm good looking because... well... here I am. You know I'm successful because you've seen my apartment and the clothes I'm wearing. And you know I'm happy because I'm smiling. Jennifer smiles brightly. MARK Are you always happy? JENNIFER Usually. Some days I stay in bed eating and crying. MARK Sure. The waiter returns with their drinks. WAITER (hands beer to Mark) Here you go. (hands drink to Jennifer) I had a sip of this. JENNIFER Okay. WAITER Do you guys know what you want or do you need a moment? MARK I'm ready. JENNIFER I'll have a caesar salad with chicken because I think I'm fat but I also think I deserve something that tastes good. 13. MARK I'll have the fish taco's because I had them once here and it's all I know. WAITER Excellent, I'll get those both started for you. The waiter leaves. Jennifer's cell phone rings from inside her purse. JENNIFER Sorry, one second. She pulls out her cell phone and checks it. JENNIFER It's my mother, this won't take long. Probably checking in on our date. Jennifer answers the phone. She talks openly and in plain view of Mark. JENNIFER (ON PHONE) Hello? Yes, I'm with him right now. No, not very attractive. No, doesn't make much money. He's all right though. Seems nice. Kind of funny. A bit fat. Funny little snub nose. No, I won't be sleeping with him tonight. Nope, probably not even a kiss. Okay, you too. Bye. Jennifer hangs up. JENNIFER Sorry about that. MARK Don't think twice. How is your mom? JENNIFER She's all right. MARK Fantastic. TIME CUT: LATER THAT NIGHT Both of their plates are now empty. Three empty Margarita glasses sit in front of Jennifer. 14. The waiter approaches with the bill and places it down in the middle of the table. WAITER (to Jennifer) If I give you my number will you call me? JENNIFER No. EXT. JENNIFER'S APARTMENT COMPLEX - NIGHT Mark walks Jennifer to the front door of her apartment complex. MARK Thanks for going on this date with me. You're way, way out of my league and I know you were just doing it as a favor to Greg, and that most likely I'll never hear from you again. JENNIFER I actually had a better time than I thought I'd have, but I won't know for sure how I feel about you until I'm less drunk. MARK Give me a call if you still like me once you're sober. JENNIFER I might. Mark leans in for a kiss. Jennifer kisses him on the cheek and goes inside. MARK Thanks for kissing me on the cheek, I know you didn't have to do that and.... Jennifer waves and heads inside. MARK (shouting after her) ... you're very pretty. Thank you! 15. INT. MARK'S APARTMENT - BEDROOM - NIGHT Mark plops into bed in his boxers. His bedroom is bland, uninspired and completely furnished by the cheapest stuff found in an IKEA catalogue. Mark flips on the TV and gets under the covers. A commercial comes on TV. INSERT: COMMERCIAL A man in a suit stands next to a single can of coke resting on a small table. JIM Hi, I'm Jim and I'm the spokesperson for the Coca-Cola company. I'm here today to ask you to continue buying coke. I'm sure it's a drink you've been drinking for years, and if you still enjoy it, I'd like to remind you to buy it again sometime soon. It's basically just brown sugar water, we haven't changed the ingredients much lately, so there's nothing new about it I can say. We changed the can around a little bit. See, the colors here are a little different, and we even put a polar bear on it for the kids. Also, coke is very high in sugar, can lead to obesity in children and adults who don't sustain a healthy diet, and has a Ph acidity level high enough to dissolve teeth and bones over extended periods of time. Coke also works great at removing corrosion from car batteries and loosening rusted bolts. So that's it, it's coke. Everyone knows it. It's very famous. I'm Jim, I work for coke, and I'm asking you to not stop buying coke. That's all. Thanks. INSERT: Coke logo with tagline: "It's Coke. It's very famous." Mark falls asleep with the TV on. FADE TO: 16. THE NEXT MORNING Mark's alarm clock blares. Groggily he rises and sighs deeply. He has nothing to look forward to today. Or any day. INT. ELEVATOR - MARK'S APARTMENT - MORNING Mark stands in his building's elevator. The doors open and FRANK, mid-forties and bald, enters. FRANK Hi Mark. How's it going? MARK Not so good. Last night I went on a date with a girl I've had a crush on for years who will most likely never call me again and I'm pretty sure I'm going to get fired today. You? FRANK I spent the whole night throwing up pain killers because I'm too afraid to take enough to kill myself. The elevator doors open on the lobby. Mark nods at Frank. MARK See you tomorrow. FRANK Bye. INT. MARK'S CAR -- MORNING As Mark drives to work we take in a bit of his world. A homeless man stands on a street corner with a sign that reads: "I don't understand why I'm homeless and all of you are not." A business man talking loudly into his cell phone pulls up next to mark at a red light. BUSINESS MAN I'm not talking to anyone on my cell phone. I only want people to assume I'm very busy. At another red light Mark eavesdrops on a couple having a loud argument in front of a coffee shop. 17. GIRLFRIEND I woke up this morning and realized that, not only do I not love you, but that the thought of touching you sickens me. BOYFRIEND The more you hate me the more I fall in love with you. A Bus passes in front of Mark's car. ANGLE ON: The bus ad simply shows a can of Pepsi, and reads: "Pepsi. When they don't have Coke." A car honks behind Mark. The man leans out of his car and yells at Mark. HONKING MAN Move it, fatty! Mark drives forward, waving to the man apologetically as the man zooms past him. EXT. LECTURE FILMS - CAR LOT - DAY Mark parks his car and walks towards a large office building. The sign on the building reads: "LECTURE FILMS MOTION PICTURE STUDIOS -- We Film Someone Telling You About Things That Happened." In front of the building is a man in a suit standing on his briefcase with his tie around his head, screaming. SCREAMING MAN This isn't natural! None of this is natural! We're all animals! This doesn't feel right! Why am I wearing clothes? How can you people live like this? Where did all this concrete come from?! Mark walks right by him. A woman in a business suit stops him on his way through the front door. WOMAN IN BUSINESS SUIT I don't want to go in there today. I just don't. You know? Mark nods understandingly and enters the building. 18. INT. LECTURE FILMS - LOBBY - MORNING As Mark walks through the lobby we get a brief glimpse of some of the movie posters lining the wall: "The Holocaust", "The Death of the Dinosaurs", "Napoleon", "The Civil War". Each poster shows a different austere man sitting in a chair, holding a script in his lap, with a title above his head. The posters are extremely boring. A tour guide leads a row of tourists through the lobby. As Mark enters we overhear the tour guide's speech. TOUR GUIDE All of Lecture Films' productions are written, filmed and edited right here on this very lot. In fact, this building is where Lecture Films' talented writers scour through the world's past events, searching for the most entertaining, dramatic and even hilarious moments of world history, which are then turned into scripts, handed over to our world-famous Readers, and filmed for your viewing pleasure. The whole tour "oohs". The tour guide walks over towards a large flat-screen television embedded into the wall. TOUR GUIDE If you'll just follow me over to this monitor you'll get a sneak peak at Lecture Film's upcoming summer's blockbuster: "Napoleon 1812 to 1813." Everyone "oohs" again. Mark, curious as well, stops to watch the trailer with the tour. ANGLE ON: TV SCREEN. A black screen. NARRATOR Coming this summer from Lecture Films Motion Picture Studios. Written by Oscar winning screenwriter Rob Marlowe. INTERCUT Mark scowling at this name. 19. NARRATOR (O.S.) And starring Oscar winning Reader Nathan Goldfrappe, comes the epic sequel to last year's most talked about film: "Napoleon 1810 to 1811". Prepare for the adventure. The black fades to NATHAN GOLDFRAPPE, a middle-aged austere man sitting before a fire in a velvet smoking jacket, holding a script. NATHAN GOLDFRAPPE (READING) And so Napoleon invaded Russia with a brute force of nearly seven hundred thousand men behind him armed with muskets and supported by canon brigades. NARRATOR (O.S.) Learn of his defeat. NATHAN GOLDFRAPPE (READING) Through the devastating snow they marched, crippled by disease and hunger, Napoleon's men marched on. NARRATOR (O.S.) Listen to his redemption. INTERCUT the tour, enraptured by this trailer. A few of the tourists whisper to each other. TOURIST #1 I love these films. Saves me reading the book. INTERCUT the trailer title slamming onto the screen: NARRATOR Napoleon 1812 to 1813. Coming this summer from Lecture Films. The trailer ends and the tour applauds. The tour guide turns to find Mark walking away. TOUR GUIDE Look everyone, there goes Mark Bellison, one of Lecture Films very own screenwriters! The whole tour turns towards Mark. Mark turns around and dejectedly waves. 20. TOUR GUIDE He's one of our least successful writers here at Lecture Films. (PAUSE) I also hear he's most likely getting fired today. The tour nods at Mark. Mark nods back. TOUR GUIDE Now let's head to editing bay where we can watch.... INT. LECTURE FILMS - WRITER'S OFFICES - MORNING Mark walks past cubicle after cubicle until he comes to his office and SHELLEY, his attractive late-20's receptionist. MARK Hi Shelley. I'm still attracted to you today. SHELLEY Hi Mark. Everyday I realize more and more how over-qualified I am for this position and how incompetent you are at yours. MARK Any messages? SHELLEY Anthony's coming by within the hour to see if he can work up the courage to fire you. If he can't, he said he'll definitely do it tomorrow. MARK Nobody else called? No calls to do with actual work? SHELLEY Well, I told everybody you were getting fired this week and not to expect their calls returned, so no one left any messages. MARK Next time I'd rather you took down the messages just in case I don't get fired. 21. SHELLEY You're almost definitely getting fired. MARK Well, it hasn't happened yet. SHELLEY Okay, but everybody knows you are. MARK Okay, I'll be in my office. SHELLEY Okay, I'll be searching for new jobs on Craigslist. INT. LECTURE FILMS - MARK'S OFFICE - MORNING Mark's office is completely boring and unremarkable, much like his apartment. There's a knock on his door. ANTHONY enters, looking very much the boss in his expensive suit, yet nervous and fearful as well. ANTHONY Wow, you look really depressed today. That's going to make this so much harder. MARK Anthony, don't fire me. Anthony sits down on the other side of Mark's desk and leans forward. ANTHONY Mark, the 1300's are boring. Nothing interesting happened in that century. Nobody cares about the post-Roman, pre-enlightenment era. The last few scripts you turned in were depressing. MARK They were about the black plague! It's the 1300's Anthony, what else am I going to write about! 22. ANTHONY It's not totally your fault, Mark. You got stuck with a bad century. MARK No! I can make it work! ANTHONY Give it up Mark, it's not like something new is going to have happened in the 1300's. At Lecture Films we're no longer interested in searching through the less well- known historical periods for great events, we just want to take the big name Reader's of the day and have them read the historical events that people know and love: the holocaust, D-day, the birth of electricity. These are the stories people want to see, because they know them. They find comfort in them. Anthony pauses. ANTHONY Do you think I could come back and do this tomorrow? I just got very nervous about firing you. I don't do well with confrontation. MARK Is there anyway you could do it now? I'd rather not put it off. Anthony thinks for a moment, struggling to find the courage. ANTHONY (MEEKLY) You're fired? MARK Damn. Anthony slinks out of the room. Mark looks down at his computer to see he has an email in his inbox. ANGLE ON: MARK'S COMPUTER -- The email reads: "I woke up this morning, sober, and realized that, while I did enjoy your company, based on your looks, your financial situation and your position in life, I have no interest in you romantically. I'm just too far out of your league. -- JENNIFER" 23. Mark sits back in his chair and sighs deeply. MARK She's a really good writer, too. INT. LECTURE FILMS - WRITER'S OFFICES - MORNING With all of his meager belongings stuffed into a box, Mark leaves his office, stopping in front of Shelley's desk. SHELLEY I loathed almost every minute I worked for you. MARK I often fantasized about you naked. SHELLEY What are you going to do now? MARK I have no idea. But I have very little hope for the future. SHELLEY I don't have much hope for you either, but I wish you good luck. MARK Bye, Shelley. SHELLEY Bye, Mark. Mark heads towards the elevator and is stopped by ROB MARLOWE, a little weasel man with a hip haircut and expensive clothes. ROB So they fucking fired you, huh dipshit? I always knew the Black Plague would never work as a movie. Guess the 1300's were as much of a loser as you are. MARK Please don't make me feel worse. Or actually whatever, go ahead, I don't think I could possibly feel worse. 24. ROB I fucking always hated you. You're a shitty writer assigned to a shitty century and you're a little man bitch. But I was always threatened by you because I knew there was something different about you that I didn't understand and I fucking hate things I don't understand. But you will always be a loser and I will always be more successful than you in nearly every way. That's just the way it is. And Shelley calls you an ass fag behind your back. MARK Well, now I feel worse. Rob storms off. Mark slinks into the elevator and hangs his head in shame as the doors close. EXT. ELDERLY HOME - DAY ANGLE ON SIGN: "A SAD PLACE FOR HOPELESS OLD PEOPLE" Mark enters the building. INT. ELDERLY HOME - DAY Mark walks up to the front desk to find a young receptionist. RECEPTIONIST Are you looking to abandon an elderly person? MARK I already have. Martha Bellison. I'm her grandson. RECEPTIONIST Ooh, it's good you're here. She's not doing well. You should say your final goodbyes today. MARK You say that every time I'm here. RECEPTIONIST She's at the top of our death pool. 25. Mark walks down the hall, passing different elderly people who reach out to him. ELDERLY PERSON #1 You look like my dead son. ELDERLY PERSON #3 Life gets worse with each passing minute. ELDERLY PERSON #4 I'm on pills that make everything orange. Mark opens a door and enters. INT. MARTHA SCHIFFMAN'S ROOM - DAY An elderly woman in a light blue robe sits on the side of her bed, with her back to Mark, staring at the wall only inches from her face. MARK Oh Grandma, that is so depressing. Come on, at least stare at the ceiling or something. Mark takes his grandmother by the hand and steers her to the other side of her bed. MARTHA The television is broken. MARK The television isn't broken. You probably sat on the remote and changed it to channel two again. Mark flicks on the TV with the remote. Static fills the screen. He changes the channel and a picture comes into view. MARK See, you had it on the wrong channel. It needs to be on channel three in order for the satellite to work. MARTHA I don't understand anything you just said and that makes me scared and angry. 26. MARK I can't understand what it feels like to be you so it just irritates me and makes me think you're stupid. But I also love you and wish things were better for you. MARTHA I do too. MARK Grandma, I lost my job today. I'm forty years old. I'm completely alone and I've got absolutely no prospects for anything. MARTHA I'm sorry, Mark. Things aren't any better for me here. I can't afford most of my medication, I'm very alone and I forget more and more every day. MARK I'm just so tired of life. Why does life have to be so... what's the word? Don't you sometimes wish you could change things? Don't you sometimes wish you weren't such a loser? MARTHA I don't think I'm a loser. MARK Of course you're a loser, grandma. Our family is made up of losers. We're all poor, we're all average looking, we're all only moderately intelligent, we're all lonely and unloved. MARTHA Well, we're poor because we weren't born with money and it's very hard to make enough money in a single lifetime to move from one social class to another. We're only moderately intelligent because there's been a lot of inbreeding in our lineage. And we're only lonely and unloved right now. Remember, I've had two husbands I loved very much in my lifetime. (MORE) 27. MARTHA (cont'd) And maybe one day you'll have a wife that you love very much too. MARK Yeah, but I'm not talking about the past, Grandma. I'm talking about right now. And right now we're both losers, Grandma. We're both shitty, shitty losers. Don't you know that? MARTHA I suppose we are. But things could be worse. We could be homeless. MARK I'd rather be dead than be homeless. That's why I need to get out there and find a job. If I have to be homeless, I'm going to kill myself. MARTHA Well that's sad. I love you, Mark. Good luck finding a job! MARK I love you too, Grandma. Mark leaves. As he shuts the door from the hallway he hears the channel change and turn back to static. MARTHA (O.S.) Oops. INT. BAR - AFTERNOON Mark and his friend GREG (40'S), an even less attractive, less interesting and less intelligent version of Mark, are bellied up the bar with half empty beers in front of them. MARK I'll start looking for a job tomorrow. GREG Lately I don't like Indian people. (PAUSE) I don't like white people even more though. I fucking hate white people. I fucking hate people. 28. MARK Hey, thanks for setting me up with your cousin by the way. GREG Third cousin. She's hot right? MARK Very. GREG Way out of your league. Dunno why you bothered. MARK It felt nice to go out with someone that pretty. Like for just one moment I experienced what it would be like to be the type of person someone like that would date. It felt good. Doesn't matter anyway. I will always be just who I am right now: average looking, of average intelligence with an average personality. Just a completely generic human being. GREG Your life is still better than mine. MARK By a good margin. A sad beat. GREG Lately I've been crying in my sleep and waking up in a pool of urine. MARK I really wish I had a better friend than you. GREG So, what are you going to do now? MARK I don't know. Guess I'll start looking for another crappy job. 29. GREG Doubt you'll find one. Not much need for an out-of-work writer specializing in the Black Plague. Mark downs his last shot. MARK I'm going to go now. You're seriously depressing me. I really wish I was cool enough to have a better friend than you. GREG I'm the best you're gonna get, man. Call me later. MARK Yeah. Mark gets up and drunkenly stumbles out of the bar. INT. MARK'S APARTMENT - BEDROOM - NIGHT Mark drunkenly lies in bed. He picks up the phone and dials. JENNIFER (ON PHONE) Hello? Mark just breathes, too scared to say anything. JENNIFER (ON PHONE) Hello? I can hear you breathing. Is this a rapist? MARK (QUICKLY) No, it's Mark. I'm sorry. Mark hangs up quickly, embarrassed and ashamed. He sighs and turns off the light. FADE TO: THE NEXT MORNING The alarm clock goes off. MARK Shut the fuck up, I don't even have a job! 30. Mark tosses the alarm clock across the room and goes back to bed. LATER. A loud banging wakes Mark who groggily stumbles out of bed. INT. MARK'S APARTMENT - LIVING ROOM - AFTERNOON Mark opens the door to find his landlord, a middle aged, well- groomed man. LANDLORD I'm here for the rent. MARK I was going to come talk to you about that. I got fired yesterday. LANDLORD I know. That's why I'm here for the rent. MARK Well, I haven't got it. LANDLORD How much do you have? MARK I think I've got about three hundred dollars in my bank account. LANDLORD The rent is eight hundred dollars. MARK I know. I haven't got it. LANDLORD Then you're evicted. I'll help you with your things. A stunned Mark stands helpless as the Landlord pushes past him, grabs a lamp from his living room and carries it out into the hallway. LANDLORD Help me with the couch. It looks heavy. Mark sighs and follows the Landlord back into his apartment. 31. INT. MARK'S APARTMENT BUILDING - HALLWAY - AFTERNOON With all of his belongings piled up in the hallway, a tired and sweaty Mark stares defeatedly at his landlord. LANDLORD You have one day to get your things out of this hallway. MARK How am I supposed to do that? LANDLORD You've got three hundred dollars. Rent a truck. MARK Oh, fuck me. Mark grits his teeth in rage. INT. BANK - DAY Mark steps up to the female teller at the bank. Mark is at the lowest point in his entire life. BANK TELLER How can I help you today? MARK I'd like to make a withdrawal. BANK TELLER Okay, sir. I'm confident I can help you with that. MARK I've just been evicted from my apartment so I need to withdraw what I have left in my account so I can move my things out. I guess I need to close out my account to do that. (PAUSE) I think I'm about to be homeless. CLOSE ON MARK: This sinks in. 32. BANK TELLER Unfortunately sir the system is down right now so I'm not going to be able to perform an account closure until the system is back up. But I can assist you in a withdrawal. How much would you like to withdraw? MARK Well, I'd like to withdraw eight hundred dollars. The bank teller smiles at Mark. BANK TELLER How much are you going to withdraw today, sir? MARK All of it. Just whatever is left. BANK TELLER The system is down, sir. Please tell me how much you have in your account? At the peak of his despair something suddenly comes over Mark. His face turns a light shade of red as the wheels begin to spin in his brain. He is fighting something within. WE FLY into Mark's skull, traveling through his cerebral cortex and towards the frontal lobe of his brain. Sparks are flying back and forth across his brain as his synapses fire in rapid succession. There is a small explosion. We fly back out of Mark's skull -- his eyes are locked on the Bank Teller's like a deer in the headlights. BANK TELLER Sir? MARK (awkwardly fast) Eight hundred dollars. BANK TELLER Pardon me? 33. MARK (more confident) I have eight hundred dollars in my bank account. The teller locks eyes with Mark... then looks towards her computer. BANK TELLER Wait a second here. The system just came back up. (to co-worker) System seems to be back up, guys. (to Mark) Just one second while I access your account. You said you're withdrawing eight hundred, correct? Mark breaks out in a cold sweat. MARK Yup. The bank teller types on her keyboard. BANK TELLER Well, look at this. It says here you've only got three hundred dollars in your account. But you said you wanted to withdraw eight hundred? Mark doesn't know what to say. He tries to speak but nothing comes out. BANK TELLER I apologize for this sir, but it seems our system has made a mistake. Hold on one second while I go and get your eight hundred dollars. Did you want that in large or small bills? Mark gulps. MARK Large bills. The teller walks away. Mark looks around nervously, awkwardly smiling at the other tellers. 34. BANK TELLER (to co-worker) Guys the computers seem to be a bit buggy. Will someone call James to come in and look into it, please? Moments later the Bank Teller returns and begins counting out eight hundred dollars for Mark. Mark stares at the money with wide eyes. BANK TELLER There you are. Eight hundred dollars. Anything else I can do for you today? In shock, Mark shakes his head. The bank teller smiles big at him. BANK TELLER Sometimes our computers can get a bit buggy, especially when the system goes down. Sorry for any inconvenience. MARK It's no problem. Mark takes his money and hurriedly walks away. EXT. STREET Bursting out of the bank, Mark is a caveman who just invented fire. INT. MARK'S APARTMENT BUILDING -- UNIT 1A Mark knocks on his LANDLORD'S door. A short, stodgy old man opens the door. LANDLORD What are you doing here? Mark holds out a wad of money. MARK Paying my rent. The landlord looks at the money and slowly reaches out to take it. LANDLORD Where did you get this money? 35. MARK It was amazing. I went in to the bank and the system was down and I was going to take out three hundred dollars but she asked me how much I'd like to take out and... Mark stops himself. Something else takes over within. MARK I found it. Lying on the street. The Landlord and Mark both lock eyes for a tense beat. LANDLORD Okay. Lucky. MARK Give me my key back. INT. MARK'S APARTMENT - DAY Mark jumps around his apartment, dancing and screaming. Mark is a caveman who just invented sex. MARK (V.O.) Today I stumbled upon something no man has ever stumbled upon before. What I have done today they will write about in history books for generations to come. And yet, only moments ago... it was unfathomable not only to myself, but to mankind as a whole. What I have found there is no word for. And it was as simple as... (long pause) ... how do I explain this... (long pause) CUT TO: EXT. BAR - DAY Mark and Greg sit at the bar, Greg half listening as an inspired Mark ends his monologue. MARK (CONT'D) ... I said something... that wasn't. Greg perks up. 36. GREG Huh? MARK I said something... that... wasn't. I... what's the word I'm looking for? Well, there is no word. Of course there's not, I just invented it. Mark is frustrated by his inability to explain. MARK Here. Watch. (calling over bartender) Jim. JIM, mid-40's, short and stout, waddles over. JIM What? Mark, stands up, clears his throat, and holds his hands out like "gimme some room". There's a long pause as Mark summons his newfound talent: MARK (PROFOUNDLY) My name is Doug. Greg and Jim look at Mark confusedly. GREG (dead serious) Your name is Doug. JIM (without hesitation) Hi Doug. GREG It amazes me that I never knew your real name. (PAUSE) Doug is good. It suits you. Mark is flabbergasted. MARK Come on guys. Are you serious? What's my name? 37. GREG It's Doug. JIM Doug. MARK No. My name is Mark. GREG (still dead serious) Your name is Mark. JIM (still without hesitation) Hi Mark. GREG Mark suits you much better. JIM Mark-o. MARK You guys aren't following me. (THINKING) Okay, guys...I'm black. GREG I knew it. JIM You're very light skinned, but I can see it. GREG I've always wanted a black friend. Mark punches the bar in anger. MARK Fuck it, I'm an Eskimo. GREG Fantastic. JIM I've never seen a black Eskimo. MARK Okay, I'm a pirate. GREG I didn't know they still had those. 38. JIM Are you a dangerous pirate? MARK Okay then, I'm a lion tamer... and I have purple hair. GREG Aren't you scared you'll get bitten one day? JIM (to Greg) I want to die my hair purple just like Mark's. Greg nods. Mark sighs. INSERT: "TWO HOURS LATER" Mark sits at the bar looking completely bored. JIM I'm a one-armed Jewish space explorer. GREG When's your launch date? JIM Shalom. How'd you lose your arm? MARK I invented the bicycle. GREG I love your work. JIM Can you get me a discount on a ten speed? Mark sighs, finishes his beer and gets up to leave. MARK I give up. And I'm bored. Mark heads towards the door, dejected. He turns back. MARK Guys, if you had the power to make things the way you wanted them, what would you do first? 39. GREG If I could do anything in the world? JIM Anything at all? MARK Pretty much. Greg and Jim think this over long and hard. GREG I'd bone bitches asses. JIM Right in the ass. MARK Specifically the ass? GREG If I could change things I would make all the hot chicks bone me. JIM Agreed. Mark mulls this over. MARK Alright then, let's try that. Mark downs his beer and heads towards the exit. GREG Where are you going? MARK Out. EXT. STREET - DAY Mark walks the street, a hunter looking for his prey. Within seconds Mark spots a gorgeous blonde walking right towards him. He stops in his track, quickly trying to decide how best to proceed. But as the blonde passes him he just stares at her like a deer in the headlights. 40. BLONDE Don't look at me, I'm not attracted to you. The blonde walks away. Mark stands on the sidewalk staring off into space, the wheels in his mind working overtime. Then it hits him. MARK Wait! BLONDE Don't bother. I've heard it all before. MARK (BLURTING) THE WORLD IS GOING TO END IF WE DON'T HAVE SEX RIGHT NOW! Immediately the blonde's eyes well up in tears. She is terrified. BLONDE Do we have time to get to a motel or do we have to do it right here? Mark is a caveman who just invented his penis. EXT. A MOTEL -- DAY The neon sign outside reads "A Cheap Motel for Intercourse with a Near Stranger". We slowly PUSH IN on the door of room 206. We hear noises inside that at first sound like moaning, but as we get closer... they sound more like crying. INT. MOTEL - ROOM 206 - DAY Bawling her eyes out and sitting on the bed doing her best to get her shoes off, is the hot blonde. Mark sits across from her, a look of guilt and revulsion on his face. This is not what he expected. BLONDE (BAWLING) I'm sorry, I'm just so scared. I don't want the world to end. (MORE) 41. BLONDE (cont'd) I don't want to die in this motel room. I think I'm going to throw up. Help me get my pants off. Mark stands up. The blonde grabs him and pulls him towards her. He pulls away. MARK This isn't right. The blonde screams and drops to her knees. BLONDE No! We have to have sex! The world is going to end! Think of the children and little babies! Mark looks down at this panicked, helpless girl and feels really, really bad about himself. MARK Just calm down for one second. Mark walks over to the phone and picks it up. BLONDE How can I be calm? The world might end any second! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!! MARK (to phone) Hello... NASA? Yes, it's... me. Oh, good. That's very good news. Good news indeed. Mark hangs up the phone. The blonde is rocking back and forth on the bed in a fetal position. MARK We're going to be okay. The world isn't going to end. Everyone is going to be fine. The blonde tackles him in a bear hug, sobbing and laughing. BLONDE WE'RE GOING TO LIVE! We're going to live! Thank you! Thank you! The blonde falls onto the bed in exhaustion. 42. BLONDE This has been the worst... and the best... day of my life. MARK Okay, I gotta go. BLONDE Oh no, please stay. We've been through so much together. Mark stares at this helpless girl for a moment. MARK I'm an asshole. The blonde's face and mood do an instant 180. BLONDE (SPITEFUL) Well, I hate assholes. Get out of here. The blonde chucks her shoes at Mark as he closes the door. EXT. MOTEL -- DAY Mark walks across the parking lot. A look of total shock on his face. INT. BAR - DUSK Greg is in the exact same position Mark left him in, but he's twice as drunk. Mark plops down next to him, dazed and upset. MARK That was one of the worst experiences of my life. GREG (SHIT-FACED) Did you invent a new kind of bike? MARK What else would you do if you could do anything in the world? GREG Bone chicks asses. That's what I'd do. 43. MARK What else though. What's the second thing you'd do. Greg nods off. Mark nudges him. GREG What else would you do, dipshit? MARK I'd get money. I'd get all the money. Greg passes out. Mark nods his head, takes the three full shots sitting in front of Greg and does them all. MARK Yeah. Let's do that. Greg, let's go. GREG What? MARK We're going on a trip. Greg immediately perks up. GREG I'll drive. INT. MARK'S CAR -- NIGHT Greg is driving, Mark rides shotgun, both of them are completely plastered. MARK Thanks for driving man, I'm completely plastered. GREG I'm just as hammered as you. But I don't care if I get arrested. I'm trying to hit bottom. WHOOP-WHOOP come the flashing lights of a cop car right behind them. Greg begins to pull over. GREG Here comes bottom. Mark looks worried. The cop comes to Greg's window. 44. COP Nothing safer than pulling over two nerdy white guys in their forties. GREG I don't want to go to jail. COP Are you drunk? GREG Yes. COP Then you're going to jail. Blow in here, son. The cop pulls out a Breathalyzer and holds it up to Greg's mouth. MARK Wait, officer. Don't do that. COP I don't think you can afford my bribe, son. MARK How much does it cost to bribe you? COP At least five grand. MARK AND GREG Wow, that's high. COP I need to feel that I've got some sense of integrity. Greg blows in the Breathalyzer. COP Whoa, that's off the charts. Step out of the car, son. You're drunk and going to jail. Greg opens the door. MARK Wait. (PAUSE) He's not drunk. 45. Greg stumbles and falls, passing out in the dirt. The cop stares at Mark for a long beat while his brain wraps around this. COP Oh. The cop bangs his Breathalyzer against his leg. COP Damn thing must be broken. In the background we can hear Greg vomiting profusely. The cop picks up Greg and puts him back in the driver's seat. COP (to Greg) Son, you might want to drive yourself to the nearest hospital. You have food poisoning or some kind of flu. Mark is basically passed out, vomit drooling down his chin. He couldn't look more drunk. The cop and Mark stare at him for a beat. COP (to Mark) Maybe you oughta drive, son. MARK Good idea. MOMENTS LATER Driving away with Greg in the passenger seat, a giant smile comes across Mark's face as he begins to laugh. MARK That was awesome! GREG Stop laughing, I'm sick. MARK You're gonna be all right, Greg. GREG Oh good! Greg vomits all over himself. 46. GREG Stupid stomach flu. (PAUSE) Where are we going? MARK Vegas, baby. Vegas. EXT. BELLAGIO - NIGHT Mark pulls in front of the Bellagio hotel and casino. Both Mark, and a very hungover looking Greg, pop out of the car. Mark hands the keys to the valet and they both stumble inside. INT. BELLAGIO - NIGHT It's the Bellagio. We've all been there. GREG What are we doing here? We don't have any money to throw away. MARK Sure we do. Mark pulls out a small wad of money. GREG What is that, a few hundred bucks? That's not going to last us very long. MARK Sure it will. Mark and Greg step up to the chip counter. Mark slides his small wad through the window. MARK Chips please. The CHIP WOMAN looks at his money. CHIP WOMAN There's a very good chance you'll lose all this money here tonight. MARK I know. 47. CHIP WOMAN And even if you do happen to win, there's an even better chance that in the long run we'll win it back. MARK I know. CHIP WOMAN Some of the games are fixed. Like all the ones that use computers. MARK I know. The woman slides him a short stack of chips. Greg frowns. Mark and Greg walk towards the tables. Mark and Greg look around. A cocktail waitress approaches. COCKTAIL WAITRESS If I could be a stripper I would, but I'm not attractive enough. Drinks, guys? GREG No. I have a stomach flu. MARK We'll both have beers and we'll take them at that roulette table over there. Mark points to a table and walks away. The waitress nods. GREG Oh come on, roulette is the stupidest game of them all. It's pure chance, no skill whatsoever. MARK It's okay. I'm feeling lucky. GREG You've never had a lucky day in your life. MARK Just watch. They arrive at the roulette table. 48. ROULETTE DEALER Get your bets in, get your bets in. The house always wins in the long run. Because of the zero's on the board every bet is slightly favored towards the house. Mark puts his chips down on seventeen black. The dealer starts the wheel. The ball comes to a stop on twenty-seven red. ROULETTE DEALER Twenty-seven red. No one wins. In full view, Mark slides his chips over to twenty-seven red. MARK I'm on twenty-seven red. The dealer looks at this. His brain takes a moment to respond. ROULETTE DEALER We have a winner. Congratulations, sir. The dealer stacks up Mark's new chips and pushes them over to him. GREG You did it. You just, like, quadrupled your money. You lucky son of a bitch. MARK That's nothing. Watch this. Mark puts all of his chips on double zero. A bunch of other people scatter their chips around the table as well. ROULETTE DEALER Get your bets in, get your bets in. The house always wins in the long run. Fork over your money right here folks. I say this so often I want to kill myself. The dealer spins the ball. It comes to a halt on nine black. ROULETTE DEALER Nine black. No winners. 49. Mark takes ALL of the chips on the table, both his and EVERYONE ELSE'S and slides them together into a giant pile and sits them right on nine black. MARK I'm on nine black. These are all mine. The table cheers for Mark. Some people are a bit confused, and a slight hubbub arises in the background: "I thought I had chips on the table." "Yeah, me too." "We must be drunk." "That guys is lucky!" Even the dealer looks a bit confused... but gets over it quickly. ROULETTE DEALER Nine black wins. Big winner. Congratulations, sir. The roulette dealer slides about five grand in chips over to Mark. Greg's jaw is on the floor. GREG Do it again. Mark notices the confused people around him. MARK I don't think I should. Lets go play slots. MOMENTS LATER Mark is talking to a Pit Man right in front of a slot machine. MARK Hi, I just won a major jackpot on this slot machine but no money came out. PIT MAN I'm sorry about that, sir. Let me get that fixed for you. And can I say congratulations, sir. MARK Thank you. The Pit Man whispers a few words into his lapel mic. MOMENTS LATER Mark and Greg, each carrying four giant buckets overflowing with chips, waddle through the casino. 50. GREG This is the most amazing night of my life. INT. BELLAGIO - PENTHOUSE SUITE - DAY Mark and Greg lounge around the Bellagio penthouse suite, piles of chips and cash lying around them. Greg is pacing delightedly. Mark lies on the couch, unsatisfied. GREG It amazes me the winning streak you're on. You must be the luckiest man in the world. MARK Well, sort of. GREG It was like we couldn't lose. MARK We couldn't lose. GREG Do you have a system? MARK I've got a system. GREG Well, with your system in just a few weeks I figure we could be the richest people in the world. MARK And then what? GREG Well, here's what I'm thinking. We take all the money in the world... and put it on black. MARK Why put it on black? Why stop there? Put it on a number and get thirty five times back. Greg's eyes widen at the thought. GREG That's exactly what we'll do. 51. MARK Hold on, I think I found a flaw in your plan. How can they pay us if we have all the money in the world? GREG Well, they'd just have to. MARK Well, they can't because we've got it all. GREG Well, they'd better find it. They can't let us bet if they're not going to pay us back. They'll have to just give us the casino. MARK We already own the casino. We've got all the money in the world. We'll be betting against ourselves. GREG Then we'll go to another casino. MARK We own that one too. We won that. GREG So we own all the casino's? MARK Yup. GREG And if we win we can't pay us back because we already have all the money? MARK Yes. Greg thinks this over for a long beat. GREG Only one thing we can do then. MARK I'm listening. GREG Take ourselves into the back room and break our own fingers. 52. MARK Brilliant. INT. MARK'S APARTMENT BUILDING - LOBBY - MORNING Mark, exhausted from his long night, waits for the elevator to arrive. The elevator doors open and Frank, the depressive neighbor, steps out. MARK Hey there, Frank. FRANK Mark. How's it going? MARK Pretty good, thanks. Frank stops and turns around, this is a different response. FRANK Really? MARK Yeah. You? FRANK Awful. I was doing some internet research last night about suffocation suicide. I'm probably going to give that a try tonight. MARK Oh. (PAUSE) All right. Bye, Frank. FRANK Bye. Mark gets in the elevator, Frank walks away. A short beat. Mark exits the elevator and yells after Frank. MARK Frank! Frank, halfway out the building, turns around. FRANK Yeah? MARK Don't do it. 53. Frank thinks this over. FRANK Why not? I'm miserable. And no one will care. MARK I'll care. FRANK You're a loser, though. MARK Don't do it, Frank. Things are going to be all right. FRANK They are? MARK Yes. You're going to meet someone soon. You won't be so lonely. Things are going to turn around at your job. FRANK My job's actually fine. MARK Well, things are going to get better. Better than they are. FRANK What about the depression? MARK It will go away very soon. You're going to be happy soon, Frank. You just need to wait for it. Listen to me: you don't need to kill yourself. Something changes in Frank. A slight smile comes over him. FRANK Really? MARK Really. Frank laughs. 54. FRANK Wow. Man, and that suffocation thing really seemed like a good idea. MARK It wasn't. FRANK Okay. Well, my night's open now. You want to hang out later? MARK I don't know. Not really. Frank's smile fades a tiny bit. MARK Sure. Of course. Let's hang out. FRANK I'll see you after work. MARK Great. Mark gets back in the elevator to the sound of Frank laughing to himself as he exits the building. We hold on Mark for a moment as he smiles and nods his head. INT. MARK'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Mark sits at kitchen table, pen and paper in hand. MARK (V.O.) (WRITING) I've discovered something today very important... and very powerful. MONTAGE Mark doing various good deeds throughout the day. V.O plays throughout. Marks walks up to the homeless man with the "I don't understand why I'm homeless and you are all not" sign. He says something to the homeless man, who quickly drops his sign and follows Mark. MARK (V.O.) I'm as excited as I've ever been in my entire life, and equally scared. (MORE) 55. MARK (V.O.) (cont'd) I'm writing this down in a letter in case this thing I've discovered somehow ends up killing me. I want to ensure that, even if I wasn't strong enough to use it, that my invention doesn't once again disappear, never to be discovered again. Mark and the homeless man are at the bank. Mark is talking to the bank teller. The homeless man looks at Mark nervously. The teller leaves and comes back with stacks and stacks of cash. MARK (V.O.) In just a few hours since I stumbled upon my discovery I have seen its potential for evil and I have seen its potential for good. Outside Lecture Films, Mark talks to the woman who was adamant about not wanting to go to work. He whispers a few words into her ear. She smiles, picks up her briefcase and gladly walks into work. MARK (V.O.) I must be careful with my discovery, for at this point I barely understand it, let alone think I have the power to control it. All I know is that if I'm not careful I could easily do irreparable damage to the world, or even cause my own premature death. Mark walks up to the arguing couple at the coffee shop, who are now sitting at different tables, not even looking at each other. He pulls up a chair next to each of them, individually, and says a few words to them. Within moments, the two of them are running into each other's arms and making out passionately on the floor of the coffee shop. MARK (V.O.) Now, to explain my invention. In essence, my creation is the act of saying words that simply are not. For example, if I tell someone that my eyes are blue, then it simply becomes fact. I still know that, indeed, my eyes are brown, but no one else is aware of this fact, so therefore I have blue eyes. (MORE) 56. MARK (V.O.) (cont'd) It's a game of numbers: there is only one of me who knows I have brown eyes, and so many of them who do not. The numbers always win. Mark is at the elderly home, walking the halls and whispering to his grandmother and each elderly person he passes, leaving each one of them with a smile upon their faces, and some with tears streaming down their cheeks. MARK Whoever is reading this, go ahead and try it. Tell someone your eyes are a different color then they are. I think you'll be amazed at the results. It's so simple and yet... so powerful... this thing I've invented. Mark and Frank are watching TV in Mark's apartment. The two of them are drinking beers and having a good time watching television. MARK (V.O.) Au Revoir, future reader, au revoir. Mark signs his letter, seals it in an envelope, writes "MY INVENTION" on the outside of it and sticks it in a drawer in his kitchen. END MONTAGE INT. MARK'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Mark lies in bed watching TV. He picks up the phone and dials. MARK Jennifer. It's Mark. JENNIFER Are you gonna hang up on me again? MARK No. Maybe. Who knows. I'm calling because I want to ask you out on another date. JENNIFER Why would you do that? 57. MARK I discovered something yesterday. I found out I can pretty much have my life anyway I want it from now on. JENNIFER Congratulations. I gotta go. MARK Wait, and I know you said you didn't want to date me ever again, but I'm different now. Things have changed. I think I'm in your league now. JENNIFER You're better looking? MARK No. I'm not better looking. I'm just more... powerful. I think you have to see it for yourself. JENNIFER Have you been to the gym? MARK No, I haven't been to the gym. It's just... it's amazing. Things are different for me now. You have to see this. I think you'll hardly recognize me. JENNIFER Did you buy better clothes? MARK No, look can we just meet up? There is silence on the other end of the phone. MARK Jennifer, If there was even a glimmer of something about me that you liked, please say yes. You even admitted that we got along well. Just give me one more chance. Just one little teensy, tiny date. JENNIFER Okay, fine. 58. MARK Fantastic. Tomorrow night. I'll pick you up at eight. JENNIFER Most likely it'll be our last date though, so just know that. MARK (SARCASTIC) That's very sweet. JENNIFER No it wasn't. Did you not hear what I said? MARK Yeah, no I was being... (pause; searching) ...there's no word for it. See you tomorrow night. JENNIFER Bye. Mark hangs up happily. MOVIE TRAILER VOICE (ON T.V) In Our World.... in the 1800's... PAN ON TV: The screen is all black. MOVIE TRAILER VOICE (ON T.V) ... came the greatest revolution of them all. (climactic music) The Industrial Revolution. The black fades to ANGELO BADSMITH, a middle-aged African American man sitting before a fire in a green smoking jacket, holding a script. MOVIE TRAILER VOICE (ON T.V) Written by famed screenwriter Rob Marlowe and read by Oscar winning Reader Angelo Badsmith. ANGELO BADSMITH Hello, I'm Angelo Badmsith. Come watch me read about the exciting events that took place during the Industrial Revolution. (MORE) 59. ANGELO BADSMITH (cont'd) Also, I will tell you all about my personal misfortunes, such as my wife who cheated on me with a man named Perry. The screen reads: "The Industrial Revolution. Summer `07." BACK ON MARK: His eyes are wide. The wheels in his head are spinning again. MARK Rob Marlowe, your streak of success has finally come to an end. Suddenly Mark jumps and runs to his kitchen table. He grabs a pen, pulls out a sheet of paper... and begins writing. SERIES OF JUMP CUTS: Mark writing furiously throughout the night, piling up page upon page. By the time the sun comes up Mark is exhausted, with barely the energy to keep his head up as he writes "the end" and places the final page on his large stack of finished pages. FADE TO: EXT. LECTURE FILMS - CAR LOT - MORNING Mark hustles through the parking lot, manuscript in hand. He reaches the door and then stops -- remembering something. Mark runs to the curb and throws his manuscript onto the dirty, filthy street. He gets down on his hands and knees and rubs his manuscript into the grime, making sure to get every page equally filthy. Satisfied, he organizes the pages into a neat pile and enters Lecture Films. INT. LECTURE FILMS - WRITER'S OFFICES - DAY Mark walks the aisles of Lecture Films. People stop to stare at him. There is a whispered hubbub from the many cubicles and offices. Mark passes his old office, stopping to read the sign on the door: "14TH CENTURY -- CLOSED." Mark grimaces and keeps walking. SHELLEY (O.S.) He's gone crazy! 60. Mark turns his head to see Shelley, standing down the hall, terrified, staring at Mark. Mark ignores her and keeps walking. Leaning against his door jamb, is Rob, smirking as Mark passes him. ROB Come to beg for your old job back? Hey everybody, here's the loser who thought the Black Plague would make for an interesting film. Good luck, douche bag. Freaking loser. Mark walks right up to the door that reads, "Head of Development -- Anthony James." Mark opens the door. Anthony is on the phone, his back to Mark. ANTHONY (ON PHONE) They're going to fire me any moment, I just know it. I'm really, really horrible at my job. I don't know anything about movies. I don't even like movies. I like sports. Head of development, what does that even mean? I'm not a smart person. Okay, talk to you later. Anthony turns around to find Mark. His face becomes very, very scared. ANTHONY That was the head of the studio. (PAUSE) I'm very scared that you're mad at me about the whole firing thing. MARK I'm not mad at all. Anthony is relieved. ANTHONY Oh good, because I feel really bad about it. I mean, I would be horrible at your job too. I would be horrible at any job in this place. (PAUSE) I love sports. They both stare at each other for a long beat. 61. ANTHONY Why are you here? Mark pulls up a chair. MARK When you fired me, I was very depressed. ANTHONY I knew it. MARK And so I left this building and I just started walking. And I walked all the way out of town. And then I walked into the desert and I fell asleep under a tree. ANTHONY I don't do well with other people's life changing events. MARK And when I woke up I found this strange old chest sticking out of the ground. So I started digging. And I unearthed a very old and ancient box. Probably, oh... about... seven hundred years old. And inside the box... (holding up manuscript) ... was this. Mark places his muddy, dirty, manuscript down on Anthony's desk. Anthony is scared to touch it. ANTHONY What is it? MARK It's a never-before-heard historical event from the past. ANTHONY When does it take place? MARK The 1300's. The excitement drains from Anthony's face. 62. ANTHONY I told you we're not interested in Black Plague movies here, Mark. MARK This one isn't about the black plague. Well it isn't just about the black plague. Let me read you some of this. Anthony rolls his eyes. MARK Anthony, get excited about this. This is a brand new event from history that no one has ever heard before. It's a great human discovery. ANTHONY Yeah, but is there a movie there? MARK The greatest movie Lecture Films has ever made. Anthony's eyes widen. ANTHONY Start reading. Mark picks up the manuscript and opens the first page. MARK (READING) On the very first day of the fourteenth century, a momentous occasion occurred. It began as a day much like any other. The sun rose, the people awoke, workers began to work, babies began to cry. But all of that was interrupted when a giant flying space ship crashed down from the skies and landed in the heart of Babylon. Anthony's mouth drops to the ground. ANTHONY What?! Mark smiles. Anthony picks up his phone and presses "intercom". 63. ANTHONY (ON PHONE) I want everyone in here now! We've got a BIG ONE. Anthony hangs up. ANTHONY Please, Mark. Continue. MARK (READING) As the smoke cleared, the door to the spaceship opened and inside, were hundreds of beautiful, half naked alien women. DISSOLVE TO: The room is filled with people now, all of them hanging on every word Mark reads from his manuscript. Even Rob and Shelly lean against the back wall, their minds blown by the story Mark is telling. MARK (READING) And then the ninja army unleashed a giant fireball that brought the robot dinosaur to its knees, saving Mars, Earth and the Nude Amazonian Alien Women all in one sweeping motion. The earth was saved. Jebediah and Aleena were allowed to marry by alien king Xardon. It was to be the First Human-Nude Amazonian Alien Woman wedding, and no expenses would be spared. All of Babylon and Mars were invited to join in the celebrations. People around the room wipe tears from their eyes. MARK (READING) The wedding was held on a brisk summers day on Mars, with all of the survivors of the Great Ninja War and the Black Plague present. They feasted and danced and laughed and it was a joyous occasion. (MORE) 64. MARK (cont'd) The moment the bride and groom kissed, King Xardon performed a mind-wipe on all of the humans, thereby erasing all knowledge of these events from their minds, and sent them back to Babylon. For seven hundred years these events would be forgotten by mankind until one day, a great writer by the name of Mark Bellison, would stumble upon them in the desert, after being fired by his shit boss Anthony and mocked by Rob and Shelly, two huge douche bags. Lecture Films Motion Picture Studios would go on to make the picture and it would be a big success, and Mark would become very wealthy and famous from it. The End. The entire room bursts into applause. Not just normal applause, but massive, epic applause. Everyone crowds around Mark, hugging him, touching him, blown away by the magnanimity of the moment. ANTHONY Mark, tell us what it's called. Mark thinks it over for a moment and looks right at Rob. MARK (to Rob) The Black Plague. Rob sneers. Everyone "aahs" and claps again. INT. FANCY RESTAURANT - NIGHT Mark and Jennifer sit at a candlelit table in the corner of a hip and fancy restaurant. Jennifer looks beautiful. Mark is on cloud nine. JENNIFER Congratulations on selling your script today. MARK Thanks. Thank you for having dinner with me. 65. JENNIFER Everyone needs to eat. (PAUSE) And I enjoy your company. Mark smiles. They both sip their drinks and look at their menus. The waiter comes up. WAITER I'm an extremely important waiter. (PAUSE) What can I get you? MARK I don't want to know what it is, I just want to order the most expensive thing on the menu. JENNIFER I'll have the duck. And I think you look like a little rat faced man. WAITER Okay, I'll have those right up for you. The waiter leaves. Mark and Jennifer stare at each other for a short beat. Something has changed between them and they can both feel it. JENNIFER Things seem to be turning around for you. MARK Today is the best day of my life. Hands down. Easy. Best day. JENNIFER It's not every day you unearth a monumental historical event and sell it for a ton of money. MARK That wasn't the best part. It was great, but it wasn't the peak of my day. (PAUSE) I've had a crush on you ever since I saw a picture of you on Greg's refrigerator two years ago. JENNIFER Oh. 66. MARK The best part of my day today is right now, sitting at this table here with you. JENNIFER Oh. MARK You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life, and you're special... and it makes me happy to be around you. JENNIFER Thank you. Jennifer is touched...but she doesn't reciprocate Mark's feelings. Jennifer moves on. JENNIFER Tell me something about your family. I really don't know much about you. MARK Ah, my family. We're what you'd probably call "not lucky". My whole family is kind of marked by tragedy, bad luck and general... shittiness. It goes back a long ways and could probably drive someone to suicide just hearing about it, so I'll keep it simple. My mom died when I was six. Cancer. JENNIFER Sad. MARK And my dad got real depressed and lost his job. Out of work and with a kid to raise he had no choice but to turn to a life of crime. JENNIFER What kind of crime? MARK He was a robber. Houses mostly. DISSOLVE TO: 67. INT. SUBURBAN HOUSE - DAY Nice, mid-to-upper class home. Lots of white wood. The house is very quiet, until... the phone rings and the answer machine picks up. MARK'S DAD (O.S.) (on answer machine) Hi, I'm calling to let you know I'll be robbing your house today. I'll probably be there within the hour. (PAUSE) I hope you're not there. The message ends. PAN OVER to a SOCCER MOM standing in the doorway. She drops her coffee and screams. DISSOLVE TO: INT. FANCY RESTAURANT - NIGHT MARK He was a very unlucky man. He spent his last days behind bars. I never really knew him. (sad moment; pause) But I guess I've also had a little luck in my life. I did have a wonderful grandmother who raised me. JENNIFER Oh, that's sweet. MARK Yeah, she's great. JENNIFER Where is she? MARK Old person's home obviously. Who wants to live with that? Gross. JENNIFER I know, right? MARK But I'm going to get her out of there tomorrow. (MORE) 68. MARK (cont'd) I'm going to buy her a big beautiful mansion where she can spend her few remaining days in luxury. JENNIFER That's nice. The waiter arrives with their food. WAITER I don't know what's wrong with the chef today, but these just look awful. He places them down. MARK They look fine to me. WAITER Well, you're stupid. Mark and Jennifer begin eating. Mark wants to say something and takes a moment to summon the courage. MARK Right. I was thinking that since I'm going to be rich and successful now that I might be in your league. (PAUSE) And that maybe we could be together. Romantically. JENNIFER What would be the point? Mark didn't expect this answer. MARK Well, I don't know, maybe we might enjoy it. Maybe we'd be good together and could have a happy life, raise a family together. Jennifer thinks this over. JENNIFER Well, I do like you. And I enjoy your company. (MORE) 69. JENNIFER (cont'd) And if we were to get together and procreate I would like the offspring that are carrying half my genetic code to be well taken care of and financially stable. I also think you'd make a good father and a good husband, which I like. Mark smiles. This is going well... MARK Good. Fantastic. JENNIFER Unfortunately, none of that changes the fact that you'd still be contributing half of the genetic code to our children. (PAUSE) I don't want short, fat kids with little snub noses. And that's the end of that. Mark nods. MARK Sure. Mark takes a bite of his food. Jennifer smiles and does the same, oblivious to Mark's pain. Mark's cell phone rings. MARK (ON PHONE) Hello? (PAUSE) What? Mark's face melts in terror. MARK (ON PHONE) (LOUDLY) WHAT? INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY Mark bursts into the hospital room to find his grandmother, MARTHA looking tired and scared, hooked up to dozens of machines, the heart monitor beeping ominously. MARK Grandma, they just called me. What's going on? Are you okay? 70. MARTHA I don't know, I fell on my way back to my room. MARK What do the doctors say? MARTHA They say I'll probably die tonight. MARK What? There's a knock on the door. The doctor enters. DOCTOR Oh, hello. I was just coming in to check on her, you must be Martha Bellison's grandson. MARK What are you talking about she's going to die? DOCTOR I'm sorry. It just doesn't look good. She's suffered a major heart attack and her heart is very weak, her pulse not very strong, her blood pressure is dropping rapidly and most likely she'll have a fatal heart attack during the night. MARK Fuck. The doctor checks Martha's chart. DOCTOR Yup, still going to die. Mark sits down next to Martha, in total shock. DOCTOR I'm sorry, guys. I wish I felt something for you two, but I really don't. I do this exact thing about thirty times a night and it's really hardened me to human suffering. On a side note, it's fajita night at the cafeteria downstairs. You might think about grabbing a bite to eat there after your grandma dies. 71. The doctor leaves. Mark holds his grandmother's hand, her hand is shaking. MARTHA I'm so scared, Mark. I don't want to die. You know, people don't talk about it much, but death is a horrible thing. One minute you're alive, there's a whole world around you, humming and jumping, people coming in and out, doors opening and closing, love and anger and the whole mess of it all, and then like that, it's all gone. (CRYING) This is it Mark, only a few hours left of this until an eternity of nothingness. The wheels in Mark's head are spinning again. Suddenly the heart monitor starts beating rapidly and Martha lurches in pain. MARK Grandma! Mark immediately slams on the big red "call nurse" button, holding his grandmother down as she lurches in pain. Seconds later three nurses burst into the room. NURSE #1 She's seizing. Nurse #2 begins filling a syringe. Mark sits by his grandmother's head, they're both looking right at each other. MARTHA I'm scared. MARK Listen closely to me, Grandma. I have a surprise for you. We focus on Mark and his grandmother, inches from one another as the paramedics busy themselves around Martha's dying body. MARK You're wrong about what happens when you die. It's not an eternity of nothingness. Martha is hanging on to every word Mark is saying. 72. MARK When you die you're going to go to your favorite place in the whole world. And you're going to be with all of the people you've ever loved and who have ever loved you. And you're going to be young again, and you'll be able to run through the fields and dance and jump, and there will be no sadness, no pain, just love and laughing and happiness. There will be ponies made of gold, and everyone will live in giant mansions, and everything will smell like cookies. And it will last for an eternity, Grandma. An eternity. Tears are rolling down Martha's face as a glimmering smile overtakes her face. Mark looks up to see the nurses, paramedics and doctors all staring at Mark in total shock. NURSE #1 Go on. DOCTOR What else happens? The cardiogram flat lines. MARK Do your jobs! Everyone distractedly goes back to helping the grandmother. MARK You're going to be happy forever, grandma. I promise you. Say hello to my mom for me. Tell her I love her. Again, everyone has stopped helping Martha, they're all listening intently. Some of them are crying. NURSE #2 (TEARFULLY) I'm going to see my mother again when I die. DOCTOR Tell us more, please. 73. Martha stops breathing. The machine flatlines. And with that Martha is gone. MARK Damn it. Mark turns away from his grandmother. Standing outside in the hallway is Jennifer, watching Mark with true empathy in her eyes. INT. MARK'S CAR -- MORNING Mark and Jennifer pull up in front of Jennifer's apartment. There is a long beat of silence. JENNIFER I'm so sorry, Mark. MARK I think I just did something bad. JENNIFER Do you want to come inside? Mark nods his head. INT. JENNIFER'S APARTMENT - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Mark and Jennifer sit side-by-side on her couch. Mark holds a can of beer in his hand, gently turning it around in his palm, staring down at it vacantly. Jennifer sadly watches Mark. Slowly and almost absentmindedly, Jennifer's hand moves over and rests gently upon Mark's wrist, settling there. We hold on them for a long beat. FADE TO BLACK. FADE UP: THE NEXT MORNING Mark and Jennifer have fallen asleep in the exact same position, both of them sitting side-by-side no the couch, her hand still on his wrist. Mark opens his eyes and looks down at her hand, then up at Jennifer who slowly opens her eyes and smiles at him. 74. JENNIFER Hi. MARK Hi. They share a moment. INT. MARK'S CAR - MORNING A bleary eyed Mark drives home from Jennifer's. As he turns onto his street he finds hundreds of cars blocking the way. A massive crowd of people are leaving their cars and walking. Mark gets out of his car to find a wild scene: hundreds of people camped out on the lawn of his apartment building. Standing by his door is the NURSE from the hospital. She immediately points at Mark and screams. NURSE #1 There he is! Mark is bum-rushed by a question-asking throng. All of them are pelting Mark with questions, all of them confused and hopeful and desperately looking for answers. PERSON #1 Is there only one place you go when you die? PERSON #2 Will everyone who has ever died be there? PERSON #3 What's this place called? PERSON #4 Will I get to have sex with people there? Mark pushes through the crowd, overwhelmed by it all. He gets to his door and opens it, only to have the Nurse step in his path and block the door. NURSE #1 You owe us an explanation. If you know something this important, you better tell us all. MARK Who are you people? 75. NURSE #1 The words you spoke last night, to your grandmother, spread like wildfire. Please, tell us more. Explain what you said. MARK Fine, fine, just give me a minute. Mark pushes past her and into his building, closing the door behind him. INT. MARK'S APARTMENT - DAY Mark goes to his fridge and pulls out a beer. His mind is reeling. As he opens a drawer to get a bottle opener he sees the letter: "MY INVENTION". Mark eyes it ominously. The phone rings. Mark screens the call. JENNIFER (V.O.) (leaving message) You've been gone for twenty minutes and I turn on the T.V to see you on every station. What's going on? This is seriously the weirdest thing... Mark picks up the phone. MARK Remember last night when I said I think I did something bad? Well now I know I did something bad. JENNIFER They're saying that you know something different about what happens after you die. Mark walks into his bedroom and turns on the TV. Sure enough there's a newscaster on his lawn, giving a report, with a banner on the screen that reads, "New Death Discoveries". MARK Hold on. Mark puts down the phone and listens to the T.V. REPORTER (ON T.V) Twenty-four hours ago, Mark Bellison was just your typical nobody writer. (MORE) 76. REPORTER (ON T.V) (cont'd) Today, people are saying he knows new information about what happens after you die. Mark puts the phone to his ear again. MARK Fuck. JENNIFER Mark, what do you know? What did you tell your grandmother last night? What's going on? MARK I can't explain it all right now. Why don't you come over? JENNIFER Okay. EXT. MARK'S APARTMENT BUILDING - AFTERNOON Jennifer pushes through the throng of people, which is now even larger than before. As she reaches the door Mark opens it for her and slides her through. MARK Come up quick, they look like they could get out of hand any second. Mark hurries Jennifer into the elevator. INT. MARK'S APARTMENT - LIVING ROOM - AFTERNOON Jennifer sits on the couch while Mark, agitated beyond recognition, paces the room. JENNIFER Just tell me what you told your grandmother. MARK I don't think I should. Who knows what could happen next? I'm just going to keep my mouth shut from now on. JENNIFER What you said obviously affected a lot of people. I don't think you have the choice to keep it in now. 77. MARK Sure I do. I could just walk out that door and get on a plane and go to Namibia. No one knows me in Namibia. JENNIFER Just tell me what you said. Please, Mark. MARK My grandmother was dying, and she was terrified, shaking all over. She didn't want to just become nothingness. So I told her that when she died there wouldn't be nothingness. That she would be with all of the people she loved who had died and that she would live an eternity of joy and happiness. Jennifer's heart skips a beat. JENNIFER (barely able to speak) How do you know these things? Mark sighs and looks out the window. The crowd extends down the block, all of them sitting calmly on his lawn, talking quietly to each other, trying to make sense of it all. Jennifer gets up and stands beside Mark. JENNIFER You have to tell them everything you know. This is too big. You have no choice. MARK But you don't understand. The words I said... they weren't... it's not right. JENNIFER How did your grandmother feel when you told her these things? MARK Happy. At peace. JENNIFER And how did that make you feel? 78. MARK Good. JENNIFER (sweeping her hand over the crowd) Think how good it will feel to do the same for all of these people. Mark thinks this over. MARK Okay. But I need a few hours to get my thoughts together. JENNIFER I'll go tell them. MARK Wait! Are you sure this is right? JENNIFER Of course it is. You know something that's going to change mankind forever. It's the most important thing the world has ever heard. Jennifer leaves the room. Mark, alone with his thoughts, sits down at his kitchen table, pulls out a few sheets of paper, grabs a pen and starts writing. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. MARK'S APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Mark's neighborhood is a sea of candles. The crowd has grown beyond measure. A massive sea of people, all holding candles, all waiting quietly like serene cows for Mark to come down and make his announcement. INT. MARK'S APARTMENT - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Mark is hunched over his table writing. There's a knock at the front door. Greg walks in with a large pizza and beer. GREG I brought pizza. How come you never told me we all get mansions? MARK I didn't... 79. Jennifer comes out of the bedroom and quickly "shhh's" Greg. GREG Inventing the bicycle is one thing, but this... JENNIFER Shut up. Let him work. Jennifer pulls Greg away from Mark. Mark goes back to work. TIME CUT: LATER Mark puts down his pencil and places both written sheets next to each other. He has finished. INT. MARK'S APARTMENT - BEDROOM - NIGHT Mark opens the door. Jennifer and Greg are on his bed watching T.V. The same newscaster stands outside the building. NEWSCASTER (ON T.V) In Seoul Korea, they wait. In Rome, Italy, they wait. In London, England, they wait. In New York City, they wait. The world has come to a standstill, everyone at their televisions and radios, or here on this lawn, waiting for Mark Bellison to come forth and tell the people what he knows. Mark waves his manuscript in the air. MARK I'm done. Jennifer and Greg jumps off the bed. JENNIFER Are you ready? MARK I guess. INT. MARK'S APARTMENT - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT They head towards the door. 80. MARK I feel like I should be reading these off of something other than just notebook paper. I wish they were like, written on large tablets or even just nicer paper or something. Greg grabs an empty pizza box off of the counter, rips it into two pieces and tapes his two pages onto them. Mark holds the two halves of the pizza boxes awkwardly and nods his head. MARK Feels better. Mark looks at Jennifer and Greg with fear in his eyes. JENNIFER Just tell them what you know GREG Good luck out there, man. EXT. MARK'S APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHT OTS of Newscaster cameraman. The newscaster is interviewing a young man, with Mark's apartment building in the background. YOUNG MAN I heard that he said we all get mansions, and that there's even ponies. NEWSCASTER (to cameraman) Ponies. Mansions. Ice Cream. These are the things we can all expect when we die. What else can we expect? We won't know until Mark Bellison steps out of that... YOUNG MAN (SHOUTING) THERE HE IS! Mark cracks open the front door and steps out onto his front steps, with Jennifer right behind him. The newscaster and cameraman run to get into position. Mark looks out at the sea of people staring silently at him, waiting for answers. 81. MARK Hello. A man runs up and hands Mark a microphone. MARK Oh, thanks. His voice echoes through the neighborhood. MARK Wow. You could hear a pin drop. No one is even breathing. MARK So. I guess you've all heard the things I told my grandmother last night and... I understand why you're here. (PAUSE) I know... some things. Some very important things. And I'm going to share these things with you now. Intercut throughout: different video feeds, people listening to radios, standing in the cold watching TV's through store windows -- all around the world. Mark takes a deep breath and holds up his "pizza box commandments". MARK Everything you want to know is written here. On this old pizza box. Mark looks out at the crowd, all of them so hopeful, so needy. Mark looks back at Jennifer and Greg who give him a proud nod. MARK (READING) Number one: There is a man who lives in the sky who controls everything. Number two... MAN #1 (interrupting; shouting) Whoa, whoa whoa. What does he look like? Mark wasn't prepared for questions. 82. MARK (STRUGGLING) Tall. Big hands. A good head of hair. WOMAN #1 What ethnicity is he? MARK (making it up as he goes) He's a new ethnicity. It's like a mix of all of our ethnicities. MAN #2 Does he live on a cloud? MAN #3 Can we see him? MARK (becoming confident) No. He lives much higher than the clouds, too high to see. WOMAN #2 So he lives in space? MARK No, not that high. MAN #3 So you mean the Thermosphere? MARK Look, people I got a lot to get through here. I'm just telling you what I know: Man. Lives in the sky. You can't see him. Controls everything. Cool? Everyone nods. MARK Number two: When you die you don't disappear into an eternity of nothingness. Instead, you go to a really great place. (PAUSE) Number three: In that place every person will get a mansion. MAN #4 What kind of mansion? 83. MARK I don't know. Whatever kind of mansion you're thinking of right now. WOMAN #3 Oh no! I wasn't thinking of a mansion! A lot of people echo this sentiment. MAN #5 Shit! I was thinking of a horrible mansion! MARK Look, it's the best mansion you can think of, not just now, but ever. Whatever the best mansion for you can possibly be, that's the one you'll get. (CONTINUING) Number four: When you die, all the people you love will be there too. MAN #6 Will they have their own mansions? MARK Yes, of course. Everyone gets a mansion. MAN #6 What if I want them to live in my mansion? MARK If they want to live with you, they can leave their mansion and live in yours. MAN #6 What happens to their mansion? MARK I don't know, it goes back on the market. WOMAN #4 What about the people I hate? Will they be there too? MARK No. 84. WOMAN #4 Where are they? MARK Okay, they're probably there, but you'll never see them. They're far off, too far for you to get there. WOMAN #4 But what if they try to find me? MARK They won't. They hate you too. WOMAN #4 But what if they don't? What if they love me but I hate them? MARK Well then you're just... you'll both be fine with it. There's only love there, okay? (CONTINUING) Number five: When you die there will be free ice cream. All day. All night. Whatever flavor you can think of. WOMAN #5 What, even bad flavors? MARK But why would you eat bad flavors? WOMAN #5 Well, you just said every flavor I can think of. MAN #8 Oh no, I just thought about vanilla and skunks! MARK Well don't eat it then! WOMAN #6 I've just thought the chocolate sauce is diarrhea! MARK Well don't put it on then! What's wrong with you people? I mean... (CONTINUING) (MORE) 85. MARK (cont'd) Number six: If you do bad things you won't get to go to this great place when you die. MAN #9 Where will you go? MARK A terrible place. The worst place imaginable. A rumble of terror moves through the crowd. WOMAN #7 What constitutes a bad thing? MARK Murder. Crime. Rape. Things like that. WOMAN #7 You have to tell us all the things or else we might do them and it wouldn't be our fault! The whole crowd echoes this sentiment. MARK Fine. MAN #9 Is punching someone bad? MARK Yes. MAN #9 What if they're trying to hurt you? MARK Then it's fine. WOMAN #7 Is cursing bad? MARK No. WOMAN #1 What about being late for work? 86. MARK That's fine too. I mean, you might lose your job if your boss doesn't like it, but it won't effect what happens after you die. WOMAN #2 What about if you forget to feed your dog? MARK That also is fine. Unless the dog dies. Then it's bad. MAN #1 If you do just one bad thing do you go to the bad place? MARK No. You get... (thinking about it) ... three chances. If you do three bad things you're out. MAN #1 Like baseball! MARK Kind of, yes. There's a hubbub throughout the crowd: "It's like baseball", "I love baseball" "I'm scared of the bad place". MARK Any more? About fifty people stand up and ask their questions at the same time. MARK Look, can we just move on? MAN #2 No! We have to know everything that's bad! MARK Fine. Let's start with you... (POINTING) MAN #3 Is it bad to wear pants? 87. Mark sighs. DISSOLVE TO: INSERT: "SIX HOURS LATER" MARK No. There's no hairstyle that will put you in the bad place. Like I've told you, the main things are hurting people physically on purpose, taking people's stuff, doing things to people they don't want done, killing people on purpose. Okay? Are we good? The crowd nods apprehensively. Many of the people in the crowd are crying. One of the crying men, shaking like a leaf, stands up, with terror in his eyes. CRYING MAN (SHAMEFUL) I've done many of those bad things. Is there anything I can do to not go to the bad place? Help me, I'm so scared. MARK Well, you didn't know about these bad things until I told you just now so you're fine. MAN #8 (CRYING) Am I fine? WOMAN #5 (CRYING) What about me? Tons of people shout similar sentiments. MARK You're all fine! I'm only talking about people who do bad things starting right now. Everyone else is fine. The crowd erupts in a massive cheer. People hug each other passionately, wiping tears from their eyes. 88. MARK (READING) Number seven: The man in the sky who controls everything decides if you go to the good place or the bad place. He also decides who lives and who dies. MAN #4 Does he cause natural disasters? MARK Yes. WOMAN #3 Did he cause my mom to get cancer? MARK Yes. WOMAN #4 Did he cause that tree to land on my car last week? MARK Yes. The crowd is quiet for a long beat....they're mulling this over. The first man to speak is a blue collar guy with a thick Brooklyn accent. BLUE COLLAR GUY I say fuck the guy that lives in the sky! The whole crowd erupts in agreement. People stand up shouting, flicking off the sky. MAN #5 Yeah! That guy's a fucking asshole! WOMAN #5 That motherfucker better hope I never see him face to face! MAN #6 That guy's a fucking coward! Hiding up there and doing bad shit to us! Why doesn't he do it to our faces? WOMAN #6 We need to stop that motherfucker before he kills us all! 89. Mark looks worried. He didn't anticipate this. Suddenly a thought occurs to him. MARK (SHOUTING) WAIT! Everyone quiets down. MARK This guy who lives in the sky and controls everything is also responsible for all the good stuff that happens. The whole crowd "aaaahhs". MAN #7 He's the guy who saved my life on that fishing trip when the boat capsized? MARK Yup. MAN #7 Did he capsize the boat? MARK Well, yes. WOMAN #7 He's the one who killed my grandmother and left me those millions of dollars? MARK You betcha. WOMAN #3 So is he the same one who cured my mom's cancer? MARK That too. The crowd thinks this over. MAN #8 So he's kind of a good guy, but he's also kind of a prick too? 90. MARK Right. But check this out: (CONTINUING) Number eight: Even if the man in the sky does bad shit to you, he makes it up to you by giving you an eternity of good stuff after you die. The crowd "aaahhs" again. WOMAN #1 As long as you don't do any of the bad stuff you listed, right? MARK Right. Of course. WOMAN #2 So it's kind of a test? MARK Yes. Right. (PAUSE) Well, that's it. That's everything I know. Mark looks out at the crowd, they're all exhausted, their minds completely blown. The Nurse who started this all steps forward. NURSE #1 How do you know these things? MARK (THINKING) The man in the clouds told me. NURSE #1 Yeah, but how come we're just learning these things now, millions of years into our existence? MARK I don't know, he forgot or something. I gotta go people, good night! Mark takes Jennifer by the hand and pulls her back inside his building. 91. INT. MARK'S APARTMENT BUILDING - LOBBY - NIGHT Mark, Jennifer and Greg wait for the elevator, all of them exhausted. MARK You think that went well? The doors open and they get inside. All three of them stare ahead, Mark looking exhausted, Jennifer and Greg with their minds completely blown... as the doors close and we FADE TO: MONTAGE Spinning magazines and newspaper headlines proclaim "Mansion for Everyone (almost)", "NASA searching for Man in the Sky", "Finally -- A Reason to Do Good", "Time: Man of the Year: Mark Bellison", "Mansion Prices Plummet Worldwide", "Cult of Bellison Await Further Answers", "Man in Sky Murders forty- two in Earthquake", "Man in Sky Continues to Give AIDS to Babies", "Workplace Productivity down Fourteen Percent -- Everyone Daydreaming About Mansions". Mark is at Lecture Films turning in the script for "The Black Plague" to Anthony. Rob gives Mark a dirty look as he passes him in the hall. Mark, smiling proudly, stands behind the camera while Nathan Goldfrappe reads his script. In the background are Jennifer and Greg, hanging out on set. Jennifer can be seen chatting with Rob by craft services. Mark removes the "For Sale" sign from the front yard of a brand new, beautiful home. Jennifer and Greg congratulate Mark enthusiastically. Mark and Jennifer are walking down the street together when Mark stops to point out a new building with a sign that reads, "A Quiet Place To Think About the Man in the Sky". The building boasts a large stained glass window portraying Mark holding the two halves of the pizza box. Mark, Jennifer and Greg laugh it up in a stretch limousine as it pulls up to the movie premier of "The Black Plague". Mark, Jennifer and Greg walk the red carpet at the premier of "The Black Plague". Mark is the center of attention. Rob stops by on the red carpet to say hello to Jennifer and whisper something into her ear. Jennifer laughs. 92. Mark and Jennifer have dinner together, the best of friends, but as they cheers their champagne glasses there is a tinge of sadness in Mark's eyes. END MONTAGE DISSOLVE TO: SCREEN READS: "TWO MONTHS LATER" INT. MARK'S MANSION - DEN - EVENING A disheveled Mark, unshaven and sloppy looking, sits in a reclining chair, wearing boxers and a bathrobe, drinking a beer. Beer cans are littered everywhere. A young gay man in a suit stands before him with a pad and a pen writing down everything Mark says. MARK So then the flying duck flew all the way to Alaska where it met up with a polar bear who could talk. And the polar bear's name was Martin. And the polar bear was wearing a green cape. And Martin and the flying duck both had race cars with their names printed on the side and... Jennifer enters the room, upset. JENNIFER I just saw three people climbing the fence into your backyard. You really need to think about getting better security. (noticing beer cans EVERYWHERE) Mark, how many of those have you had? Jennifer grabs the beer out of Mark's hand. MARK (continuing; glaring at JENNIFER) But then the evil goblin witch came in and stole the flying duck's race car and made the flying duck very angry. (grabbing at his beer) (MORE) 93. MARK (cont'd) Luckily the Polar Bear was there to snatch the race car back... (But he misses) Unfortunately, the witch was a smart witch and the polar bear was powerless. ASSISTANT Is that the end? MARK Yeah. ASSISTANT That's a strange ending. MARK Hey, don't look at me: it's the Man in the Sky's story. ASSISTANT You want me to take this over to Lecture Films? MARK Yeah. Tell them to shoot that one this week. The assistant walks away. MARK (YELLING) Tell them it's for kids! Jennifer glares at Mark, disappointed. MARK What? JENNIFER You haven't left the house in weeks. Every time I come by you're just sitting here writing down stories you get from the Man in the Sky. MARK Hey, he's the boss. JENNIFER Don't you think you should go outside sometime? You know there's about five thousand people on our lawn waiting to ask you questions. 94. MARK Yeah, yeah. Jennifer sits down next to him. JENNIFER What's with you? You seem sad. Mark shrugs. JENNIFER I don't get it. You're a very successful writer, you've won countless awards and Oscars... Jennifer waves towards a shelf full of Oscars and various other awards. JENNIFER You've changed the way people see the world, the way they see death and life. You've made the entire world happy. MARK Not the entire world. JENNIFER I know. Not you. The one person who should be happy, the person who has everything... MARK (INTERRUPTING) Not everything. JENNIFER What else do you want? Mark sits up in his chair and looks right at Jennifer. MARK I'd trade it all in for you. All of it. Jennifer sighs and sits down beside him. JENNIFER Well, you've got me. As a friend. MARK (not sarcastic) Yeah. That's important. (MORE) 95. MARK (cont'd) But why can't we be together. Why can't you be with me? JENNIFER Because of the whole snub nosed thing. With kids, your genetics. You know, fat, short... MARK (stopping her) Yeah. Okay. Yup. (PAUSE) It's almost a shame that being rich and powerful and famous doesn't change your genetics. JENNIFER What? MARK It would be great if it changed your genetic material because I really love you but I just don't... Suddenly Mark has an idea. He looks right at Jennifer. MARK It does change your genetics. Jennifer lights up. JENNIFER Does it? Mark stares at her for a short beat. He can't go through with it. MARK No. No, it doesn't. Our kids would be short and fat with little snub noses. JENNIFER Right. Too bad. (PAUSE) Anyway, I've come to tell you I can't go to the movies with you tonight. MARK Why not? JENNIFER I've got a date. 96. MARK What? With who? JENNIFER Rob Marlowe. Mark stands up. MARK You've got to be fucking... Rob Marlowe?!? He's a complete and total asshole. JENNIFER Not to me. He's very sweet and kind to me. MARK Well of course he is, look at you. I mean, for fuck's sake, a shark would be nice to you... JENNIFER It would? MARK Well no, I mean... (PAUSE) Don't go out with him. JENNIFER Why not? He's a great match for me. MARK What's he got that I don't? JENNIFER We talked about this. If you and I got together it wouldn't be fair to our kids. They have the right to be attractive and have good genes. (PAUSE) If Rob and I get married You can move into our mansion with us when we all die. MARK I don't want to move into your fucking mansion. And what are you doing thinking about marriage with him already? You haven't even gone on one date. Mark sits down. 97. MARK It's like nothing's changed. JENNIFER A lot of things have changed. I wish you could be happy. There's a knock at the front door. JENNIFER That's him. Gotta go. MARK He's picking you up here? JENNIFER It was his idea. Mark stands up, in shock and follows Jennifer to the front door. She opens the door to find Rob looking handsome and arrogant. ROB What's up? Wow, I can't wait to have sex with you. Rob notices Mark in his boxers and a bathrobe. ROB Oh hey there, Mark. You look like trash. (to Jennifer) Come on Jennifer, let's go have some fun. And then have some sex. Jennifer turns back to Mark, sad that he's upset. JENNIFER I'll call you tomorrow. The door closes and Mark is left standing there alone. Greg, dressed in a bathrobe and looking even more slovenly than Mark, waddles up behind him. GREG Who was that? EXT. MARK'S MANSION - POOLSIDE - NIGHT Mark and Greg are shit-faced, sitting around Mark's giant swimming pool. 98. MARK Hey, watch this. (yelling over the fence) HEY PEOPLE! About forty voices shout back: "He's talking to us!" "Maybe he has more answers!" "Finally!" MARK The man in the sky just told me something! Mark snickers to himself. Greg, drunk and stupid, can't help but snicker too. MARK You're all gay! Mark and Greg explode laughing. From the other side of the fence we can hear people mumbling shock. "I am gay." "I always knew it." "This is going to be awkward for my husband." MARK And adopted! Mark and Greg almost roll into the pool they're laughing so hard. The people on the other side of the fence aren't laughing: "Who's my real mother?", "This explains so much", "Dad, why didn't you tell me?" GREG I don't know why we're laughing. It's really probably very sad for those people. MARK I'm gettin' a beer. Mark hobbles up and walks into the house. Moments later he emerges with two cokes. MARK Out of beer. Just Coke. Mark tosses Greg a Coke and sits down on his chaise lounge, cracking open his Coke and taking a sip. MARK I want to do something big again. Like telling the people what happens when they die. That felt good. I gotta do something big like that again. 99. GREG Maybe the Man in the Sky will tell you something new. MARK Maybe. Mark looks down at his can of Coke. CLOSE ON COKE CAN: The warning label is extremely long and written in very small type. It starts with, "COKE IS VERY BAD FOR YOU. The following are diseases, physical ailments and general health issues that coke might cause:" The label then goes on to list dozens of ailments. Mark's eyes scan down to the very bottom of the label where it says simply, "If you still want to drink Coke, do so at your own risk." Mark looks over to find Greg staring at the depressing label as well. GREG Ugh, this shit is so bad for you. I really shouldn't drink this. Mark stares at this label for a moment, thinking. With his hand he covers everything on the label except for "Please Enjoy Coke." He smiles widely. MARK Hey, Greg. What if I told you that drinking Coke was good for you? Greg turns to him, his face full of hope. MARK And not just Coke. But all the delicious foods you're not supposed to eat. What if they were all of a sudden really, really good for you? GREG It would be the happiest day of my life. CUT TO: 100. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY A dozen high powered executives from all over the globe sit around a massive board room table. The head seat at the table is unoccupied. They mumble back and forth to each other, unsure why they're there. Mark bursts into the room in a suit, looking very manicured. MARK Gentleman, thank you all for coming here on such short notice. I have some very big news for you all today. EXECUTIVE #1 Is it from the Man in the Sky? MARK Nope, this one I came up with all on my own. And it's going to change the way you all do business... forever. Mark hits a button and a projection screen comes down on the far wall. Mark starts a slide show. MARK Up until now, all products sold worldwide have warning labels printed on them. Warnings like these. SERIES OF SLIDES: We see the same warning we just saw on the Coke can, a commercial jet with "This Plane Might Crash -- Four Of Our Other Ones Did" printed on its side, a car dashboard light reading "This Car will Ignite Upon Impact - Always", and a sticker on a grocery store package of ground meat that reads "Injected with hormones that make it taste better -- but will eventually give you cancer". MARK As you can see, a lot of these products can be very depressing. They remind people of all the horrible things that can happen to them in life. People hate thinking about horrible things. EXECUTIVE #2 Yeah, but they have to know those things. (MORE) 101. EXECUTIVE #2 (cont'd) They have to be able to protect themselves. I don't want to hurt anyone. Especially now that I know about the "bad place". Everyone in the room shudders. MARK Hear me out, fellas. Allow me to introduce you to the future of your companies. Mark changes the slide to a can of coke that simple reads, "Coke -- Tastes Great! And It's Good For You!" Everyone in the room "ahhhs". EXECUTIVE #3 Where can I get some of that healthy coke? MARK It's the same Coke as before. The executives all squint their eyes. EXECUTIVE #4 But this one is healthy! And it tastes great! EXECUTIVE #1 Do you have any samples? MARK Guys, it's the same Coke on the inside. I've just changed the outside. EXECUTIVE #1 (REVELATION) Somehow by changing the outside, he's also changed the inside! Everyone "aaahs" in understanding. Mark sighs and changes the slide to that of a commercial airliner with the words "Completely Safe" writing on the outside. EXECUTIVE #2 Oh, thank goodness. I've always hated flying! EXECUTIVE #3 Me too! 102. EXECUTIVE #4 What an invention! How did you do it? MARK I didn't do anything, guys. I made this on my computer last night. The plane is exactly the same as it was before. Nobody in the room gets it. EXECUTIVE #1 That's the only plane I'll ever fly on again! MARK That's the point here guys. With these new advertising strategies, people will buy your products with abandon. EXECUTIVE #2 But it will take years to replace all of our stock with these new improved products you've invented. MARK No. It won't. All you have to do is print these words on the packaging. That's it. Mark changes the slide again: The car dashboard light now reads, "This Car Prevents Crashes", and another slide that shows a package of meat with a sticker reading, "This Meat Actually Cures Cancer". MARK Even if you don't understand it, just start shipping these products out to people as you see them here and you're all going to get very, very rich. EXECUTIVE #3 How did you do it? MARK Look, they're still the same products you have on the shelves right now. The only difference now is that people won't get bummed out or scared when they use them. Isn't that a good thing? 103. The executives all nod their heads in agreement and rise to shake Mark's hand. MARK Gentleman, if you'll excuse me, I have five thousand gay orphans on my front lawn that are going bananas. Mark exits. DISSOLVE TO: INT. SUPER MARKET - DAY We follow a suburban housewife as she pushes her shopping cart through the aisles of a bright and shiny super market. She picks up a six pack of Coke and notices the label: "New Coke -- It Tastes Great! And it's Good For You!" The housewife smiles widely and enthusiastically tosses it in her cart. SERIES OF CUTS: The housewife grabbing different products, marveling at the new, improved features: "Cures Sadness!", "Tastes Better than Real Chicken!", "This Candy is All Your Body Needs To Survive!" With a full cart the housewife wheels it to the checkout counter to find swarms of people already there, all of their carts bursting to the brim with new, exciting products. Everyone looks excited and happy. INT. BAR - MORNING Back at his old stomping ground, Mark sits at the bar by himself drinking coffee and watching the TV. Greg sits next to him, with two boxes of cookies and a liter of coke in front of him. Different newspapers are spread out on the bar, all of them with similar headlines, "World Rocked By New Healthy Products", "People Everywhere Line up for Guilt-Free Treats", "YOU CAN EAT CAKE -- ALL THE TIME!". ANGLE ON TV: A FAT MAN is being interviewed in front of a super market, he holds a bag full of junk food in front of him. 104. FAT MAN Thank the Man in the Sky for this. I've never been happier in my life. Now I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want. The man takes a bite of a Twinkie and wavers a bit like he's going to pass out. REPORTER Are you all right, sir? The man steadies himself. FAT MAN Yeah. I must just be real happy. It says on the wrapper that they help boost your happiness. The man smiles, but he's obviously not feeling well. BACK ON MARK He's watching the TV with a bit of worry on his face. He turns to Greg who is eating a stack of cookies and washing it down by gulping from a liter of coke. MARK You should slow down there, Greg. GREG Why's that? MARK Just because the package says it's not bad for you doesn't mean you have to gorge yourself on it. GREG But it tastes so good. Greg shoves three more cookies into his mouth. MARK That's just stupid. GREG No it's not. Greg holds up the package of cookies and points to the disclaimer which reads, "These cookies make you smarter". GREG See? 105. Mark sighs. GREG You look sad. Here, have a brownie. They'll cheer you up. Greg hands Mark a brownie that, sure enough, says "They'll cheer you up!" right on the package. MARK I wish that worked for me, Greg. GREG What? MARK Nevermind. I'll see you around. Mark gets up and leaves. INT. MARK'S CAR -- DAY Mark drives while we take in a bit of his world, highlighting the various changes he's wrought. A homeless man stands on the street corner with a sign that now reads, "Screw it. I'll be in my mansion soon." He has a big smile on his face. The same business man pulls up beside Mark's car, this time eating a giant donut and talking loudly into his cell phone. BUSINESS MAN I'm not talking to anyone on my cell phone. But from a distance I look very important and busy. At a red light Mark eavesdrops on the same arguing couple. GIRLFRIEND No, I won't move into your mansion with you when we die. You're really smothering me. BOYFRIEND The more you push me away, the more attracted I am to you. A bus passes in front of Mark's car. The ad now reads, "Pepsi. Just As Good as Coke." A car honks behind Mark. The man leans out of his car and yells at Mark. 106. HONKING MAN Move it, fatty! As the man passes him, he looks at Mark and pulls up beside him. HONKING MAN Hey you're Mark Bellison! MARK Yeah. So are you going to apologize? HONKING MAN For what? The honking man speeds away. INT. GRAVEYARD - AFTERNOON Mark sits in front of the gravesite of his grandmother. ANGLE ON: Her tombstone which reads, "Martha Bellison 1918- 2007. Lived an average life for a woman in her time." MARK Nothing's really changed. I gave people the Man in the Sky, made myself rich and successful, told the world they can eat whatever they want and feel good about it. Everyone's happy but me. Because I'm the only one who knows it all... isn't. I made it all up. (PAUSE) You're not up there living in a mansion. You're right here. In the ground. That's all. And I'm the only one who knows that. (PAUSE) And the one thing I want I can't have. Because the world is too stupid to change. The world only cares about what they can see, and what they can know, and what they're used to and what... makes sense. No one listens to what they really want. And that's why I'll always just be a loser, grandma. And that's why I'll always be alone. FADE TO: 107. INT. MARK'S MANSION - KITCHEN - NIGHT With a beer bottle in his hand Mark searches through his kitchen drawers for a bottle opener. He opens a drawer and something catches his eye. ANGLE ON: The envelope which reads, "MY INVENTION". Slowly Mark pulls it out of the drawer and stares at it. The sound of his front door opening startles him and Mark shoves the envelope into his back pocket. MARK Who's there? JENNIFER (O.S.) It's me. Can I come in? MARK Sure. Jennifer enters the kitchen. MARK Haven't seen you much lately. JENNIFER I know. I've been busy with work and things. And I'm getting married. That's why I came over. To tell you. Mark nods. MARK Don't do it. JENNIFER The wedding is tomorrow. Jennifer pulls out an invitation, Mark waves it away. JENNIFER I hope you'll come. Mark shrugs and Jennifer puts the invitation back in her purse. MARK No point really. 108. JENNIFER It would make me happy. Being around you makes me happy. Mark turns towards her. MARK So don't marry him. JENNIFER I only have a few years to marry someone with good genes and financial stability so I can have children and the family I've always wanted. One day I'll be old and wrinkly and ugly. MARK No you won't. Not to me you won't. I love you. If you really love someone it doesn't matter what they look like. JENNIFER What do you mean? MARK Do me this favor. Just one favor. Don't accept everything you see. Don't just do something because that's the way it's done. JENNIFER You're confusing me. MARK Think about what you want. Find out what you really want. And if it's not the same as what I want, well then I'll know that and I'll never darken your doorstep again. (PAUSE) I want you. What do you want? Jennifer and Mark stare at each other for a long beat. JENNIFER I'm going to go. MARK Please don't. Will you just stay a little bit longer? I don't want to be alone. Just sit with me. 109. Jennifer nods. Mark leads her into the living room and they sit down far apart from each other on the couch. Mark turns the TV on and they both sit in silence. LATER. Mark has fallen asleep on the couch. Jennifer checks her watch and stands up. She takes out her wedding invitation and lays it on the coffee table by Mark. She unfolds a blanket and is about to place it on him when she notices an envelope sticking out of his back pocket. She pulls it out and looks at it. JENNIFER (READING) My invention. She opens the letter and begins to read. Once finished, she folds up the letter and hurriedly leaves, scared and confused. DISSOLVE TO: THE NEXT MORNING Mark wakes up and sees Jennifer's wedding invitation on the coffee table. He sighs. INT. MARK'S HOUSE - BEDROOM - MORNING Mark stands before the mirror, dressed in a suit, putting on a tie. Greg pokes his head into the room, dressed in a suit as well. GREG We're gonna be late. EXT. "CHURCH" - DAY The sign outside reads, "A QUITE PLACE TO THINK ABOUT THE MAN IN THE SKY". GREG Makes sense people would start getting married at these places. I mean, who you marry decides who's mansion you're going to live in one day. It's a big decision. 110. MARK Yeah. They enter the building. INT. "CHURCH" - DAY A small stage sits before a large stained glass window portraying Mark holding the two halves of the pizza box. Rob stands at the altar. Mark and Greg take their seats amidst a crowd of people sitting quietly in their chairs. INT. "CHURCH" - BRIDAL ROOM - DAY Jennifer sits in a small room in a beautiful white dress, looking as beautiful as any woman has ever looked. She stares absentmindedly out the window. There's a knock at the door. JENNIFER'S MOTHER pokes her head in. JENNIFER'S MOTHER It's time, dear. Jennifer doesn't answer. We PUSH IN on Jennifer to see she's clutching Mark's letter in her hand. JENNIFER'S MOTHER Jennifer? JENNIFER I don't feel all right. JENNIFER'S MOTHER What's wrong? Do you have food poisoning? JENNIFER No. I don't think there's a word for what I have. INT. "CHURCH" - DAY "Here's comes the Bride" plays over an organ and Jennifer walks down the aisle towards a smiling Rob. Mark watches her in awe, stunned by her beauty. Rob notices Mark staring at Jennifer and mouths "loser" at him. 111. Jennifer reaches the altar and stands across from Rob. The WEDDING OVERSEER, an elderly man in a suit, stands between them holding a few sheets of paper in his hand. WEDDING OVERSEER We are sitting here in this building today to share in the wedding of Rob and Jennifer. Two young, attractive people who have agreed that this union would be mutually beneficial and that their genetic match-up would most likely produce favorable offspring and a life of financial stability and physical security. Both Rob and Jennifer nod at each other. WEDDING OVERSEER Rob, do you promise to stay with Jennifer for as long as you want to and to protect your offspring for as long as you can? ROB I do. WEDDING OVERSEER Jennifer, do you promise to stay with Rob for as long as you want to and to protect your offspring for as long as you can? Jennifer doesn't respond. WEDDING OVERSEER Jennifer? JENNIFER (to Overseer) I'm sorry, hold on one second. (to Rob) Rob, can I ask you something? There's a slight hubbub in the room. Mark perks up. ROB (CONCERNED) Sure. But what are you doing? JENNIFER What color are my eyes? 112. ROB I dunno... (LOOKING) Oh, they're brown. CLOSE ON Jennifer's eyes. Indeed, they are brown. JENNIFER No Rob, they're blue. Rob looks again. Mark stirs in his seat, amazed by what he's hearing. ROB Oh, look at that. So they are. You've got pretty blue eyes. PUSH IN on Jennifer. It works. Her mind is reeling. ROB Can we get on with this? WEDDING OVERSEER Jennifer, do you promise to stay with Rob for as long as you want to and to protect your offspring for as long as you can? Jennifer is confused. Her mind is fighting it, but she doesn't know what exactly she's fighting. Finally... JENNIFER I do. There is a sigh of relief from the room. Mark shakes his head in sadness. WEDDING OVERSEER Before I pronounce these two man and wife, is there anyone here who thinks they'd offer either of these people a better genetic match-up? Mark bolts up in his chair. MARK Me. The whole room gasps. ROB Oh come on. Look at you. You can't be better. 113. MARK Yes I can. You've got shmuck genes. ROB Schmuck genes? What's that? MARK And I love her. (to Jennifer) Jennifer, don't marry him. Is this what you really want? JENNIFER I don't know. (pause; unsure) Yes? Mark thinks this over for a beat. MARK All right. I'm done. Goodbye. Awkwardly Mark makes his way to the aisle and leaves the room. The room is thick with tension. ROB Are we married yet? Because I've got plans this afternoon. EXT. "CHURCH" - DAY Mark loosens his tie as he walks out of the building and towards the street. In the background we can see the "church" door open. JENNIFER (SHOUTING) Hold on a minute! Mark turns, confused and tired. Jennifer runs to him. She stands before him, they both stare at each other. MARK What? Jennifer pulls out Mark's letter and shows it to him. JENNIFER I'm confused. 114. MARK So am I. JENNIFER Is any of it... the things you said... are they... I can't think of the word. (PAUSE) Is there a Man in the Sky? MARK No. JENNIFER Why'd you say there was? MARK Because I couldn't cope with the look on my grandmother's face. JENNIFER But how could you say something that... wasn't. MARK I'm not sure. I just did it. JENNIFER And what did you mean that I could grow old and ugly and still be beautiful to you? MARK I mean just that. You'll always be beautiful to me. JENNIFER But what if my looks... MARK It doesn't matter. JENNIFER I feel funny. MARK Me too. (PAUSE) Everything is so hard. Nothing is easy anymore. There is a long moment of silence. Jennifer moves closer to Mark and looks directly into his eyes. 115. JENNIFER I know what I want. MARK What? JENNIFER I want short, fat kids with little snub noses. The biggest smile we've ever seen comes across Mark's face. MARK (JUBILANTLY) Easy! That's an easy one. Just like she did the night on her couch, Jennifer reaches over and puts her hand on Mark's wrist. They both stare at each other for a long beat, holding hands, love beaming from both of them. The world is changing before their eyes. JENNIFER Does anyone else know about your invention? MARK No. But I'm sure it won't be long. JENNIFER Should we tell them right away? MARK I'm not sure. I don't think everyone will understand. Greg sticks his head out of the church door. GREG What's going on out here? Everyone's just sitting in there. Are we gonna finish this wedding? Jennifer smiles at Mark. JENNIFER Yes. Mark smiles back. MARK Praise the Man in the Sky. 116. WE RISE UP as Mark and Jennifer walk hand in hand towards the church -- and an unknowable future. NARRATOR The world's last moment of honesty. A monumental occasion in the history of mankind. (PAUSE) That lowly writer who stumbled upon the ability to lie went on to become one of the most important men of his age, married to one of the most beautiful women of his time, and passed on the lying gene to generations to come. (PAUSE) A world without honesty is a world with dreams. A world with pretense. A world with fiction. A world with flattery. And most importantly, a world with true love. Put simply, a world very much like our own. FADE TO BLACK. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Invictus.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Invictus.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..39709103db234eebf4a184e183e356f1586a0912 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Invictus.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + INVICTUS (aka "The Human Factor") Written by Anthony Peckham Based on material by JOHN CARLIN Second Draft 5/22/07 "Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, the power to unite people that little else has ... It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers." NELSON MANDELA EXT. ALL-WHITE HIGH SCHOOL, WESTERN CAPE - DAY A big, rich, powerhouse all-white high school located near the freeway into Cape Town. The RUGBY FIELDS are immaculate. FIFTEEN YEAR OLD BOYS in striped rugby jerseys train with total intensity under the critical eye of the COACH. Right ACROSS THE BOUNDARY FENCE from the rugby fields is an area of WASTE LAND leading up to the freeway. There, BLACK AND "COLORED" (MIXED-RACE) BOYS of the same age play a loose game of soccer with a tennis ball. Most of them have bare feet and threadbare, dirty clothes, most of them are noticeably smaller and skinnier than the white boys. Two cultures, separated by more than the high boundary fence. SUPER TITLE: SOUTH AFRICA, FEBRUARY 11, 1990 A COMMOTION ON THE FREEWAY intrudes on the soccer game. Horns honking, cars pull over onto the shoulder, people jump out. EXT. FREEWAY - DAY Lead by police motorbikes, then patrol cars, a white Mercedes approaches, heading towards Cape Town. Whoever is in the Mercedes has stopped traffic. EXT. ALL-WHITE HIGH SCHOOL, WESTERN CAPE - DAY The soccer players abandon their game and run for the freeway, whistling and shouting. The rugby players are more disciplined -- or obedient -- and do not acknowledge the commotion until the convoy passes right by them. The coach shakes his head in disgust. HIGH SCHOOL BOY Who is it, sir? COACH It's that terrorist, Mandela. They let him out. (BEAT) Remember this day, boys. It's the day our country went to the dogs. CUT TO: 2. A short, STOCK-FOOTAGE MONTAGE which spans the tumultuous four years between NELSON MANDELA'S release from prison and his inauguration as President of South Africa. Footage would include: - Mandela's release from prison - negotiations with the apartheid regime - scenes of white fear and emigration - the horrifying sectarian violence leading up to the ELECTIONS - the khaki-clad AWB (Afrikaner right wing) attack on the World Trade Center (where negotiations were taking place) - the lifting of economic sanctions and cultural boycotts - the lifting of the international ban on the Springbok rugby team and immediate Test match losses to New Zealand and Australia. - popular black leader Chris Hani's assassination by white RIGHT WINGERS - black retaliation - Mandela's frantic intervention to keep the country from going up in flames - the election itself, with those incredible images of thousands and thousands of people, black and white, lining up patiently, some to vote for the first time in their lives - the African National Congress victory - Mandela's inauguration as President, where he delivers the FAMOUS WORDS: "Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another, and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world." As APPLAUSE FADES ... GO TO BLACK: INT. MANDELA'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Dark. We can make out the FORM OF A TALL MAN SLEEPING ALONE at the very edge of the big bed, as if not wanting to rumple the blankets too much. On the bedside table, the clock clicks from 4:59 to 5:00. The man's eyes open in the dark, instantly awake. He reaches out, switches on the light. NELSON ROLIHLAHLA MANDELA, 76, sits up and gets out of bed in one movement. He has the physical vigor and energy of someone twenty years younger. 3. The second he is up, he turns around and makes his bed, leaving it as flawlessly smooth as a hospital bed. Or a prison bunk. For this is the discipline of twenty seven years behind bars. INT. MANDELA'S HOUSE - NIGHT Dressed in a tracksuit and cross-trainers, Mandela comes down the stairs and heads for the front door. This is a nice, big house but it is amazingly modest for the President of a wealthy nation, and arguably the most famous man on the planet. EXT. MANDELA'S HOUSE - NIGHT Mandela steps outside, closes his front door quietly, takes a moment to savor the air. It is bone dry and cold -- typical conditions in the Highveld at this time of year. It is so quiet that, for a moment, it seems as if Mandela is completely alone in the world. The big yard is fenced. There is a small GUARD HOUSE at the driveway gate. When Mandela steps away from the house, A UNIFORMED SOUTH AFRICAN POLICEMAN IN THE GUARDHOUSE pushes the button that opens the gate. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE MANDELA'S HOUSE - NIGHT When the gate begins to open we see that there are TWO GREY BMWs parked either side of it. INT. GREY BMW - NIGHT LINGA MOONSAMY comes to full alert as the gate opens. He is a big, scowling man dressed in a suit. He checks the load on a pistol, tucks it into his shoulder holster. LINGA Here he comes. Like clockwork. JASON It makes him such an easy target. 4. Behind Linga, in the back seat, sits JASON TSHABALALA, a naturally tense and suspicious man. Both of them are hollow- eyed, exhausted, running on adrenaline. They get out of the BMW, fast and quiet. This does not look good. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE MANDELA'S HOUSE - NIGHT As Mandela walks out through the gate, Jason and Linga intercept him. JASON (traditional greeting in XHOSA) I see you, father. Mandela's face comes alive as he smiles. MANDELA (without breaking stride) Morning boys. How are you? Jason is Mandela's head of personal security, Linga his number one bodyguard. They are both former "terrorists", and they are utterly devoted to Mandela. JASON We're sharp, Madiba. MANDELA Good ... good. And how's your mother doing, Linga? LINGA She's much better, thank you. MANDELA Good. Mandela picks up the pace. Jason and Linga fall back, so that they are a few steps behind him. They share a quick look. They hate this walk. It scares them. There's no way for it to be anything but completely unsanitary, from a security point of view. CUT TO: 5. EXT. JOHANNESBURG STREETS - NIGHT A SMALL DELIVERY VAN drives really fast, blows through stop signs. CUT TO: EXT. HOUGHTON STREETS - NIGHT Mandela strides along the big, wide, tree-lined streets. Jason and Linga shadow him, eyes and ears alert. Up ahead, we see a SMALL, UPSCALE AREA OF SHOPS AND RESTAURANTS. CUT TO: EXT. SMALL, UPSCALE SHOPS - NIGHT Mandela, Jason and Linga reach the shopping area. Dark, deserted. CUT TO: ANOTHER ANGLE of the shops as the small van turns onto the street with a squeal of tires. CUT TO: The SLIDING DOOR on the van IS OPENED from inside. Too dark to see in. Ominous. CUT TO: Mandela, Jason and Linga pass a HUGE POSTER OF MANDELA in the window of CORNER GROCERY. Mandela does not react to this giant picture of himself, Jason and Linga do, proudly -- (A GENERAL NOTE: starting with the window of this grocery, there are pictures of Mandela everywhere. Magazine covers, newspaper centerfolds, T-shirts, children's art -- as if to make up for all the time Mandela's image and words were banned.) -- until they HEAR THE SOUND OF THE VAN tearing towards them. They turn, SEE HEADLIGHTS VEERING TO THEIR SIDE OF THE STREET. 6. BOTH MEN DROP THEIR HANDS TO THEIR GUNS. Linga steps in front of Mandela, shielding him, Jason steps out wide, ready for anything. Mandela is completely calm. The van screeches to a halt just past them. A GUY jumps out of the van holding a tied BUNDLE OF NEWSPAPERS, which he drops with a thump at the grocery door. The guy doesn't see them. The delivery van is gone before the newspapers stop moving. Mandela heads for the newspapers -- he wants to see the headlines. Jason and Linga take their hands off their guns, but they do not relax. These are dangerous times. GO IN ON THE TOP NEWSPAPER, which shows a PHOTO OF THE INAUGURATION, and the following words, in Afrikaans: HE CAN WIN AN ELECTION, BUT CAN HE RUN A COUNTRY? JASON What does it say? MANDELA It says, "He can win an election, but can he run a country?" LINGA (DISGUSTED) Not even one day on the job and they're after you. MANDELA It's a legitimate question. Mandela turns and marches for home. Jason and Linga fall in behind him. In the east, the first milky hint of day. INT. MANDELA'S HOUSE - BEFORE DAWN The house is now bustling with activity. A pretty member of the KITCHEN STAFF sets a single place at the head of a big, formal dining table. A LADY CHEF stirs the porridge, a KITCHEN ASSISTANT cuts fresh fruit. Mandela's PERSONAL SECRETARY, MARY marches out of her small office with a STACK OF CORRESPONDENCE AND FIVE NEWSPAPERS, places them neatly next to the table setting. 7. Outside, Mandela is surrounded by men. Inside, he has surrounded himself with women of all shapes, colors and ages, to make up for twenty seven years without. CUT TO: MANDELA SHAVES UPSTAIRS IN THE BATHROOM. The razor is dull. Mandela opens drawers looking for another. He opens a drawer that is empty but for a WOMAN'S BEADED BRACELET, broken and shedding tiny colored beads. Mandela looks for it for a moment, then closes the drawer, looks at himself in the mirror. Mostly, Mandela's face is warm, animated, energetic and this is how we see him, almost all the time. But, sometimes, his face can be a remote, sphinx-like mask that conceals all emotion, all feeling. This is his prison face. This is the face that looks back at Mandela, right now, in the mirror. It is the face of a man whose long, hard journey has marked his very soul. Expressionless, Mandela shaves himself with the dull razor. OVER, a COCK CROWS and -- CUT TO: -- a QUICK SERIES OF SHOTS, as the RAINBOW NATION WAKES UP. TV ANNOUNCER (V.O.) Today marks the beginning of a new era in South Africa -- From the bush to the cities, from shanty towns to ocean-front mansions, PEOPLE START THEIR DAY. TV ANNOUNCER (V.O.) -- as President Mandela takes office in Pretoria, facing issues that range from economic stagnation and unemployment to rising crime -- Some start the day with a tea tray placed next to their beds by discreet black hands, some with nothing more than brown river water and half a fire-blackened ear of corn for breakfast. 8. TV ANNOUNCER (V.O.) -- while at the same time balancing black aspirations -- CUT TO: INT. PIENAAR PARENTS HOUSE - MORNING TV ANNOUNCER -- with white fears. Click! The TV is turned off by MR. PIENAAR (late 40's) in his very modest, blue-collar house. MR. PIENAAR (GLOOMY) I never thought I'd see the day. Mr. Pienaar turns and addresses his son, FRANCOIS PIENAAR, 27, a big, blond, almost-handsome man with a fighter's face and mangled ears. Brutal toughness and honor in his features. A powerful physical presence, possibly dangerous. Francois drips with sweat, wears running clothes. Whatever he does, he is strong, fit and driven. MR. PIENAAR I feel sorry for you, son. You've got your whole life ahead of you. What's it going to be like now? MRS. PIENAAR (late 40's) enters holding some kind of PROTEIN SHAKE for Pienaar. MRS. PIENAAR Don't be so gloomy. (handing over shake) I added vitamins -- there's a horrible flu bug going around. Tell Nerine when you get home. PIENAAR Thanks, ma. MR. PIENAAR I'm telling you, Francois -- look at Angola, look at Mozambique. Look at Zimbabwe. We're next. They're going to take our jobs and drive us into the sea. Just you wait. CUT TO: 9. EXT. UNION BUILDINGS, PRETORIA - DAY Magnificent, sweeping government buildings made of carved African field stone, with an Italian tiled roof, situated on a hill overlooking Pretoria. The seat of power. Today, the entrance is mobbed with a huge, joyous, multi- racial throng, plus news crews from all over the world. Lots of new South African flags evident. We move through the throng and swoop up into the air, so that we can soar along the outside of the building and LOOK THROUGH THE WINDOWS into the offices of state -- -- where people who worked for the De Klerk regime are packing up, in anticipation of being booted out by the Mandela regime. These characters run the gamut from little old Afrikaner tea ladies in tears, to the stoic fossils of grand apartheid. They are all white. A good third of the offices are already deserted. The deserted offices have open doors. Through a window, through an open door, we see Mandela and his bodyguards striding down a Union Building hallway. We swoop in through the window -- INT. UNION BUILDING HALLWAYS - DAY -- and catch up with the new President. Mandela is regal in a magnificent tailored suit. Jason in front, Linga behind. PORTRAITS of the architects and champions of apartheid look down sternly on them as they pass. They pass a WORKER hanging a PORTRAIT OF MANDELA next to one of De Klerk, the previous President. ON LINGA, as he smiles at that. Mandela, on the other hand, looks into the empty offices, and into the offices being packed up. Up ahead, the double doors to the OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, are closed. Jason speeds up, opens them, pokes his head in, then opens the doors wide. JASON (with great pride) After you, Mr. President. 10. INT. MANDELA'S OFFICES - DAY Mandela's offices are fronted by a LARGE RECEPTION AREA, already filled with PEOPLE WAITING TO SEE HIM. To one side are his CHIEF OF STAFF'S SUITE of offices, to the other side, the SMALL PRESIDENTIAL SECURITY OFFICE. Beyond these are MANDELA'S SECRETARIES, TYPISTS AND ASSISTANTS -- his gatekeepers. Beyond that is the inner sanctum, MANDELA'S OWN OFFICE. The phones are ringing off the hook. Fax machines are chattering. Everyone wants a piece of Mandela. Mandela enters, Jason and Linga behind him. MANDELA Good morning everybody. ALL (GREETINGS) BARBARA MASEKELA, Mandela's CHIEF OF STAFF (and now Ambassador to the U.S.), emerges from her office, carrying an arm load of files, folders and papers -- MANDELA Barbara, good morning. You've had your hair done. I like it. -- accompanies Mandela back towards his office. BARBARA Thank you, Madiba. We need to talk about your cabinet appointments and ministers. MANDELA Give me one moment, please. Barbara waits outside Mandela's office, as he enters ahead of her. INT. MANDELA'S OFFICE - DAY Mandela stands in the middle of his office, takes a moment to savor where he is. 11. Then, he takes off his jacket, hangs it up and is ready for work. MANDELA BARBARA -- Barbara enters. MANDELA -- please assemble the staff for me. Whoever has not already left. BARBARA Right now? All of them? MANDELA Yes, please. CUT TO: INT. UNION BUILDING STAFF DINING ROOM - DAY What's left of the UNION BUILDING STAFF are packed into the DINING ROOM. White faces, bitter and resentful. Waiting to be fired. Through the glass doors, THEY SEE MANDELA APPROACHING DOWN THE HALLWAY, Linga and Jason with him. STAFF MEMBER#1 Here he comes. STAFF MEMBER#2 He wants the satisfaction of firing us himself. They stand up straight, determined to receive the ax with pride. INT. UNION BUILDING HALLWAYS - DAY Linga and Jason amp up when they see the room full of restless Afrikaners. At the STAFF DINING ROOM DOOR, Mandela turns to them. MANDELA I'd like you to stay out here, please. JASON But, Madiba ... 12. MANDELA I cannot talk to them if I'm hiding behind men with guns. Mandela opens the doors and enters. Jason and Linga stay outside ... just. INT. UNION BUILDING DINING ROOM - DAY Mandela enters, smiles -- gets not one smile in return. MANDELA (IN AFRIKAANS) Gooie more almal. STAFF MEMBER (ASIDE) Does he think greeting us in Afrikaans makes this any sweeter? MANDELA Some of you may know who I am. This gets a few bitter chuckles. Mandela is at this best just talking to people, like this. Only, he doesn't just talk to them, he wades in amongst them, shaking hands and making individual contact as he speaks to all of them. MANDELA Good morning ... how are you ... thank you for coming at such short notice ... etc. QUICK CUT TO: Mandela is a continual security nightmare. You can see the tension on Jason and Linga's faces as he disappears into the throng. BACK TO: When Mandela reaches the middle of the room, he stops shaking hands, and turns slowly as he talks to everybody. MANDELA I couldn't help noticing the empty offices as I came to work today. And all the packing boxes. One black man, surrounded by a throng of serious white faces. 13. MANDELA Now, of course, if you want to leave, that is your right. And if you feel in your heart that you cannot work with your new government, then it is better that you do leave, right away. He can be tough and blunt, when necessary. MANDELA But if you are packing up because you fear that your language, or the color of your skin, or who you served previously, disqualifies you from working here now, I am here to tell you, have no such fear. (BEAT) Wat is verby is verby. What's past is past. We look to the future, now. This is not what they expected to hear. MANDELA We need your help. We want your help. If you would like to stay, you will be doing your country a great service. Mandela pauses, to look at the faces. They are receptive. MANDELA I ask only that you do your jobs to the best of your abilities, and with good hearts. I promise to do the same. (BEAT) If we can manage that, our country will be a shining light in the world. CUT TO: Jason and Linga are right outside the glass doors, looking in and listening. Jason shakes his head. JASON He wants to win them over, one damn boer at a time. CUT TO: 14. INT. MANDELA'S OFFICES - DAY Mandela heads back through to his office, Barbara, Mary and other assistants forming a phalanx around him. Linga peels off, goes into the security office. Jason stands at the desk of one of the assistants (JESSIE), waits for her to finish a call, then: JASON Molo, sister. JESSIE (FRAZZLED) It's still morning? Jason grins. JASON When you get a chance, can we see the schedule for the month? We need to plan security. Jessie's phone rings. JESSIE (ANSWERING PHONE) Office of the President, good morning. Jessie waves Jason off. He crosses to the security office, enters. INT. SECURITY OFFICE - DAY Once he closes the door behind him, Jason shows his fatigue. Linga is feet-up on the sofa, sucking on a cup of coffee. Three more bodyguards -- SAM, KWEZI and WINSTON -- slump in chairs. Jason grabs coffee, sits at his desk, puts his feet up with a groan. JASON We need more men. LINGA Did you talk to Barbara about it? JASON Yesterday. 15. A knock at the door. JASON That's Jessie, with the schedule. (LOUDLY) Come in, beautiful. The door opens -- but what enters is not beautiful. FOUR BIG WHITE COPS in suits enter, Special Branch written all over them. ETIENNE VAN ECK, HENDRICK BOOYENS, GEORGE and WILLEM. The bodyguards stand up like junk yard dogs protecting their territory. JASON What is this? ETIENNE Mr. Jason Tshabalala? JASON That's me. Am I under arrest? Etienne snaps out a crisp salute. ETIENNE Captain Van Eck and team reporting for duty, sir. Hendrick, George and Willem snap out salutes. Their military deportment contrasts strongly with the less rigid body language of the black bodyguards. JASON What duty? ETIENNE We're the Presidential bodyguard. We've been assigned to this office. (holding out a sheet of PAPER) Here are our orders. Jason takes the orders, studies them, face increasingly angry. LINGA (TO HENDRICK) You're Special Branch, right? 16. Hendrick nods, sternly. Linga, Sam, Kwezi and Winston react to that -- there is a long and brutal history between them and the Special Branch. ETIENNE You'll see that they've been signed. JASON I don't care if they're signed or -- Jason does a double-take when he sees the signature on the orders: NELSON R. MANDELA. JASON Wait here. Jason storms out, holding the orders. The four black bodyguards seethe with hostility. The four white bodyguards stare straight ahead, refusing to give ground. INT. MANDELA'S OFFICE - DAY Mandela and Barbara look over a position paper on something or other. When Jason knocks and enters, they pause. JASON Sorry to disturb you. MANDELA You look agitated, Jason. JASON That's because I've got four Special Branch cops in my office. MANDELA What have you done? JASON Me? Nothing. They say they're the Presidential bodyguard. They have orders. (BEAT) Signed by you. MANDELA Yes. They've had special training, those boys -- with the SAS. And lots of experience. They protected De Klerk. 17. JASON Yes, but -- MANDELA You asked for more men, didn't you? JASON Yes, but -- MANDELA In public, when people see me, they see my bodyguards, too. You represent me, directly. The rainbow nation starts here. (BEAT) Reconciliation starts here. JASON Reconciliation? Madiba, not long ago they tried to kill us! Maybe even these four guys. They tried and, often, they succeeded! CUT TO: INT. SECURITY OFFICE Linga, Sam, Winston and Kwezi stare down Etienne, Hendrick, George and Willem. BACK TO: INT. MANDELA'S OFFICE - DAY Mandela stares at Jason in an entirely different way -- with wisdom, compassion and sympathy. MANDELA Yes, I know. (VERY GENTLY) Forgiveness starts here, too. Mandela lets that sink in for a moment. He knows he asks for something very difficult, but he demands it of himself to an even greater degree. MANDELA Forgiveness liberates the soul. It removes fear. That is why it is such a powerful weapon, Jason. (MORE) 18. MANDELA (CONT'D) (BEAT) Please try it. Jason exhales. He isn't remotely ready to forgive. JASON Yes, Madiba. Sorry to disturb you. Jason turns, leaves. Barbara shakes her head at Mandela. BARBARA You ask a lot. MANDELA Only what is necessary. CUT TO: EXT. MANDELA'S OFFICES - DAY As Jason -- very upset -- walks back to security, Jessie holds out a file for him. JESSIE Two copies of the schedule. Jason snatches the file, keeps walking. JESSIE Thank you, Jessie! When he reaches the security office door, Jason walks right past, keeps going, has to make a full loop of the reception area, just to get himself together. Even so, when he gets back to the security office door, Jason pauses, gathers himself to do something that he knows he's going to hate. INT. SECURITY OFFICE - DAY Things haven't eased up one little bit inside the office. The silence is deafening. Jason enters, looks them all over. His face is grim. LINGA Can we get rid of these guys, now? Jason flashes a look at Linga, then -- and this hurts him, visibly -- he holds out one of MANDELA'S SCHEDULES to Etienne. 19. JASON This is his schedule for the next month. Let's look it over for duty assignments. ETIENNE Right. LINGA What? Linga and the others are shocked. LINGA Jason, I have to talk to you. Outside. Linga virtually pulls Jason out of the office. INT. MANDELA'S OFFICES - DAY Just outside the Security Office door, so they keep their voices low. LINGA How can we trust them? JASON We can't. (heading back in) This is what Madiba wants, okay. Not okay for Linga, judging by the expression on his face. INT. SECURITY OFFICE - DAY When Jason and Linga enter, Etienne looks up from Mandela's schedule. ETIENNE Are there any special orders or conditions? JASON No. Yes. Madiba gets upset if you don't smile when you push people out of the way. HENDRICK Seriously? 20. LINGA Yes, seriously. It's the new South Africa. ETIENNE Madiba? JASON The President's clan name. It's what we call him. The new bodyguards share a look. They're not comfortable with "Madiba". ETIENNE We'll call him Mr. President. Jason lifts the schedule. JASON Let's get through this. Still upset and hostile, the black bodyguards look over Jason's shoulder, the white bodyguards look over Etienne's, at the month's schedule. Apartheid is by no means dead in this cramped little office. Both teams study and discuss the schedule -- (shop talk tbd USE THIS TO GIVE US A QUICK GLIMPSE OF A DAY/WEEK/MONTH IN THE LIFE OF M.) Etienne shakes his head. ETIENNE How's he going to do all this? When does he take a break? LINGA He says he rested enough in prison. Jason recoils at something he sees on the last page of the schedule. JASON Here's a headache. LINGA What? 21. JASON A rugby match at Loftus Versfeld. British Lions against the Springboks. HENDRICK It's going to be a headache for the Lions, that's for sure. We're going to donder them. JASON I don't care about the game. I care that the President'll be so exposed. LINGA To thousands of drunken -- ETIENNE (INNOCENTLY) -- sports fans? JASON Yes. Sports fans. LINGA Who didn't vote for him. Who probably hate him. Who came out of the womb with guns in their hands. OVER, THE UNMISTAKABLE SOUND OF PRE-GAME NOISE AT A MAJOR SPORTING EVENT. CUT TO: EXT. LOFTUS VERSFELD STADIUM - DAY A huge, raucous crowd, almost entirely white and male. Many wearing the Springbok green and gold. Widespread evidence of drinking. Lots of OLD SOUTH AFRICAN FLAGS -- the blue, white and orange apartheid flag -- make a defiant statement against the NEW SOUTH AFRICAN FLAGS ringing the stadium. On the field, THE RUGBY TEAMS ASSEMBLE and face each other in two lines. The BRITISH LIONS in their white on white with black and red trim, the SPRINGBOKS in their green and gold. Like their supporters, the Springboks are all white, but for one man, who is "colored" (mixed race). 22. Big, tough, brutal-looking men. Scary. (We may or may not notice Francois Pienaar, standing at the head of the line of Springboks.) CUT TO: INT. LOFTUS VERSFELD STADIUM - TUNNEL ONTO FIELD - DAY At the entrance of the tunnel onto the field, LOTS OF COPS in blue South African Police uniforms. Behind the line of cops, in the tunnel, we find JASON AND ALL THE OTHER BODYGUARDS but for Linga. They are keyed-up, intense -- none more so than Jason. JASON (shouting against the NOISE) I want your eyes on the crowd at all times. We're staying in the middle of the field. He's going to walk out, shake hands, walk back. Nothing else. Got it? They nod. They are like the players at game time, only the stakes are much higher. Jason looks deeper into the tunnel, straightens up. JASON Here we go. Mandela strides down the tunnel towards them, wearing a dark suit. Big crowds energize him. His eyes are alive with excitement. One pace behind him, like a huge, dark shadow, comes Linga. Mandela gives Jason a look, Jason nods. We follow Mandela and the bodyguards out of the tunnel -- EXT. LOFTUS VERSFELD STADIUM - DAY -- onto the field, towards the waiting teams. The crowd rise to their feet. Lots of them jeer Mandela, lots cheer. All the old South African flags are waved at him defiantly -- plus some new ones. Mandela waves to them all, smiling proudly. To him, a crowd is an opportunity to make new friends. But he stays in the center of the field. 23. Jason and crew are hyper-alert, a human fence around Mandela. Mandela reaches the rugby players. Waiting for him at the head of the Springbok line, wearing the NUMBER 6 JERSEY and captain's armband, is FRANCOIS PIENAAR. Now we know what he does. Mandela extends his hand. MANDELA Good luck, captain. PIENAAR (SHAKING HANDS) Thank you, sir. Mandela shakes hands down the line of Springboks, then returns, shaking hands with the British Lions. Quick, perfunctory handshakes. As Mandela does this, we take BODYGUARD POV SNAPSHOTS of the crowd, increasingly keyed-up and restless. Time to play rugby. Mandela finishes, waves to the crowd, and begins the walk along the center of the field, back to the tunnel. Crowd noise increases. They know the opening whistle is about to blow. Then, Mandela sees something in the crowd, at field level. MANDELA'S POV: A GROUP OF ROUGH-LOOKING WHITE MEN WAVE THE NEW SOUTH AFRICAN FLAG AT HIM. WITHOUT WARNING, MANDELA CHANGES DIRECTION, heads towards this group, towards a wall of his former -- and perhaps current -- enemies. ON JASON: shit! JASON (INTO RADIO) Stay with him. ETIENNE Stop him. JASON Stay with him. 24. With his bodyguards scrambling to stay in position, Mandela reaches the stands, hand outstretched, leans into the crowd. MANDELA Thank you for honoring our new flag! Some shake his hand, some -- very pointedly -- do not. The crowd noise takes on an ugly undertone -- Mandela is delaying the rugby. Mandela is undeterred. He's into this one-on-one outreach. He turns, looks for more hands to shake -- -- and Jason steps in between Mandela and the crowd. JASON We're delaying the rugby, Madiba. MANDELA Oh, yes, of course. Mandela gives one last wave, turns away. As he does, SOMEONE WINDS UP AND THROWS SOMETHING from the stands. Jason and Etienne catch the movement, whirl, too late. AN ORANGE WHIZZES PAST MANDELA'S HEAD, explodes juicily on the field. Mandela didn't see it, doesn't react. If anything, his smile widens as he heads across the field. The bodyguards close around him protectively, get him back to the tunnel. INT. LOFTUS VERSFELD STADIUM - TUNNEL ONTO FIELD - DAY Jason signals for extra bodyguards to escort Mandela all the way up to his box. Hendrick, the biggest, leads the way. Jason stays in the tunnel, along with Etienne. Both men are in a muck sweat, adrenaline coursing through them. ETIENNE Why didn't you stop him? JASON Next time, you try. 25. ETIENNE Does he do that sort of thing all the time? JASON Ask my ulcer. (BEAT) Good thing that was just an orange. ETIENNE And good thing he never saw it. JASON Oh, he saw it. He sees everything. (rubbing his ulcer) I hate rugby. CUT TO: EXT. LOFTUS VERSFELD STADIUM - DAY Two international front rows come together with bone- crunching force. Huge, violent men grunt like bulls. The crowd roar vibrates the stadium. The scrum -- a phalanx of eight men locked together against eight -- wheels, buckles, then steadies under the watchful eye of the referee. Fanning out behind each scrum are the backs -- faster, more glamorous players who will run with the ball, or kick it. The Lions scrumhalf thrusts the ball into the maw of the scrum, the huge men lock up against each other with maximum force. The ball comes out the back of the Lions' scrum, the scrumhalf dive-passes it away to the backs, who flick it out laterally to the wing, with lightning speed. The wing lofts a delicate kick just over the onrushing Springbok defenders. The Lions charge the ball, which bounces erratically -- -- right into the hands of the man who kicked it. One last burst of speed, one quick juke to avoid a desperation tackle, and the wing scores in the corner. As the Lions kicker gets ready to convert the try, we find the Springboks huddling under their goal posts, hands on their hips, stunned. 26. At the center of the huddle Pienaar bleeds behind his gum guard as, furiously, he tries to inject some fire into his team. PIENAAR Concentrate, dammit! Focus! We can beat these guys if we play our game, not theirs! ON PIENAAR, as he realizes he is not getting through. There is dullness, shock in his player's eyes -- -- which all lift to the heavens as the CONVERSION KICK SOARS through the uprights. We FOLLOW THE KICK as it drops past a GIANT SCOREBOARD. STAY ON THE SCOREBOARD as it registers the conversion and shows the score: LIONS - 10 SPRINGBOKS - 0 INT. LOFTUS VERSFELD STADIUM VIP BOX - DAY In the VIP box, Mandela turns his back on the field as the game restarts beneath him and continues in the background. He has BINOCULARS around his neck. MANDELA Shall we work while we watch? We have lots of promises to keep. Barbara sits to his right, with her ever-present files and folders. BARBARA Yes, we do. Mary pours tea at the back of the box. Linga stands two steps behind Mandela. On Mandela's left, sits the PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICAN RUGBY, a small man with a small man's ruthlessness and drive. MANDELA It's not too late, if the boys can just pick up their game. RUGBY PRESIDENT If they don't, heads will roll. This is unacceptable. (LEANING FORWARD) Come on you bloody bastards! 27. Mandela's expression shows that he has a gentleman's distaste for profanity. He turns to Barbara. BARBARA Where do you want go first, for foreign investment? MANDELA Where the money is. America, England, Saudi Arabia. Barbara makes notes. Mandela lifts his BINOCULARS, but instead of looking at the rugby, he looks at the crowd. CUT TO: MANDELA'S POV THROUGH BINOCULARS -- Mandela zeroes in on an OLD SOUTH AFRICAN FLAG -- the apartheid flag. It is being held by the FOUR KHAKI-CLAD BOERS (FARMERS). Classic South African figures from the rural far north, they are already drunk and suicidally depressed by the turn of events on the field. CUT TO: BARBARA Do you see all the old apartheid flags? It's a disgrace. Mandela lowers his binoculars. MANDELA It's also a constitutional right. BARBARA Along with the apartheid anthem. I know. But it's time people moved on. Mandela grunts, raises his binoculars again. CUT TO: MANDELA'S POV THROUGH BINOCULARS -- Mandela finds a SMALL KNOT OF BLACK SPECTATORS, holding the NEW SOUTH AFRICAN FLAG and cheering ecstatically. CUT TO: 28. MANDELA Look at that. The whites are cheering for the Springboks, the blacks are cheering for the Lions. Mandela lowers the binoculars. MANDELA We did that on the island, you know. We supported anyone but the `boks. It really irritated the warders. BARBARA Of course it did. ON MANDELA as he thinks about this for a moment, then lifts his binoculars to look at the crowd again. CUT TO: MANDELA'S POV THROUGH BINOCULARS -- on the knot of black spectators, who leap to their feet, reacting to ACTION ON THE FIELD -- EXT. LOFTUS VERSFELD STADIUM - DAY -- where the Lions score yet another try. This is an ass- whipping. CUT TO: The conversion sails over the `boks heads. The scoreboard clicks over to: LIONS - 20 SPRINGBOKS - O INT. LOFTUS VERSFELD STADIUM VIP BOX - DAY Mandela lowers his binoculars, sets them aside, shakes his head. He knows it's hopeless now. He turns to the Rugby President. MANDELA How long until the World Cup? RUGBY PRESIDENT About a year. MANDELA Plenty of time for improvement. 29. The Rugby President can't take it. He stands. RUGBY PRESIDENT Mr. President -- I wouldn't get my hopes up. We're a damn disgrace. He stomps out of the box, no doubt looking for someone to fire. Mandela gets back to work. MANDELA I want to go to India and Indonesia, too. There is a knock at the luxury box door. Linga swings to face the door, alert, as a UNIFORMED DOORMAN opens it. The MINISTER OF SPORT (Steve Tshwete), enters. MINISTER OF SPORT Sorry I'm late. He sits down in the empty chair to the right of Mandela. MINISTER OF SPORT How's it going? MANDELA Very badly. The Minister of Sport checks the score, winces. MINISTER OF SPORT Maybe it's just as well. Mandela shoots him a sharp look. MANDELA Why? MINISTER OF SPORT (bending close, talking QUIETLY) I've just been at a meeting of the National Sports Council executive. There's strong support to drop the Springbok emblem and colors altogether. (gesturing at the field) If they're playing badly, maybe its a good time to make a change. (with barely hidden RELISH) (MORE) 30. MINISTER OF SPORT (cont'd) This could be the last time we have to look at the green and gold. The Minister of Sport shoots a glance at Mandela, to see his reaction to all this. Mandela is deep in thought and completely unreadable. CUT TO: EXT. LOFTUS VERSFELD STADIUM - DAY One last, bloody, violent bit of play -- then, mercifully, the final whistle blows. Final score: LIONS - 32 SPRINGBOKS - 15. The Lions celebrate. The Springboks head off the field, heads down, shoulders bowed in defeat -- none more bitterly disappointed or bloodier than Francois Pienaar. In the stands, the unheard of happens -- the Springboks are booed by their own fans. Not by everybody, but by enough. We STAY WITH THE `BOKS as they trudge across the field, then clatter along the concrete tunnel to their dressing room. INT. LOFTUS VERSFELD STADIUM - SPRINGBOK DRESSING ROOM The atmosphere is absolutely dismal as the men undress and shower. Nobody catches anybody else's eye. Huge, powerful, pale bodies have been ploughed purple with rake marks, bruises and roasties. Plus, one dark body -- that of CHESTER WILLIAMS, a skilled wing from the Cape, a reserved and private man. Pienaar takes off his green and gold jersey, sits, begins taking off his cleats. His body hurts. He has been raked, scratched, bruised, and his ankle is swollen. A noble warrior, defeated. BOLAND BOTHA (V.O.) Francois Pienaar's team came to Loftus Versfeld stadium this afternoon, unprepared and arrogant. 31. INT. TV STUDIO Meet BOLAND BOTHA as he tapes his commentary on the test match. He is an ex-Springbok player from the boycott years, now turned ponderous, florid rugby commentator. He is a household name, and the last word on the state of the Springboks. BOLAND BOTHA They left 80 minutes later with their tails between their legs, like whipped mongrels. (BEAT) And I, for one, am glad. Not because we lost, but because there's now no way to disguise the fact that we are completely and utterly unprepared to reenter the world of top-notch international rugby. Boland defines the South African talent for pessimism and negativity. CUT TO: INT. SA RUGBY PRESIDENT'S OFFICE - NIGHT BOLAND BOTHA (ON TV) The Rugby World Cup is now less than a year away, and I, for one, am relieved that we are the host nation, and therefore qualify automatically for the tournament. Because I'm not sure we would get in on merit alone. The Rugby President sucks on a rum and coke, watches Boland with one of his HENCHMEN. RUGBY PRESIDENT Who gets the axe? Someone has to. CUT TO: INT. FRANCOIS PIENAAR'S APARTMENT - NIGHT No after-match party this night. Still depressed by the loss, Pienaar stays home with this fiancee NERINE. 32. BOLAND BOTHA (ON TV) Pienaar's team played without discipline, without strategy and without courage. PIENAAR He's trying to get them to drop me. NERINE He's just bitter because the Springboks were boycotted when he played. PIENAAR Maybe, but people listen to what he says. CUT TO: INT. MANDELA'S HOUSE - NIGHT Wearing pyjamas, dressing gown and slippers, Mandela multi- tasks, watching Boland Botha and going through a pile of correspondence, scribbling notes or signing his name. BOLAND BOTHA (ON TV) They brought shame upon our nation, and I, for one, can say without fear of contradiction, that today, these fifteen so-called men did not deserve to wear the hallowed green and gold. ON MANDELA: a thought, an idea -- a big one -- is churning in his head. He grunts, turns off the TV, puts the correspondence aside, stands. Mary enters with a glass of milk and some pills, on a tray. MARY Here's your muti. I warmed the milk tonight. MANDELA You're too good to me. Mandela takes his pills. MARY Your daughter called, to cancel her visit this weekend. 33. Mandela pauses, between pills. MANDELA Did she say why? MARY No, she didn't. (making it up) She said to tell you she was sorry. Mandela nods, has a hard time swallowing his last pill. MARY Do you need anything else tonight? MANDELA No, thank you. I'm going to bed. Good night. MARY Good night, Madiba. Sleep well. Mandela smiles at her, but as soon as he is past her, the smile fades. As he climbs the stairs to his bedroom, his face becomes sadder and older and lonelier. IN HIS BEDROOM, Mandela pauses to take off his dressing gown. He looks at his bed. It is as smooth and as blank as a sheet of paper. He peels back the bedclothes at one corner, slides under them and pauses for a moment while reaching for the light switch. He switches off the light and lies down, still and straight. The most popular man in the world starts and ends each day alone. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. TOWNSHIP - DAY A very poor township outside Johannesburg. A stark reminder of how much work Mandela has ahead of him. A STAMPEDE OF KIDS runs by. We FOLLOW THE KIDS and find a SMALL, BEAT-UP CHURCH. A noisy LINE OF THREADBARE KIDS leads from outside into the church. There is a pecking order in the line, based on size. MRS. COLEMAN (O.S.) No pushing now! There's enough for everybody! 34. INT. SMALL, BEAT-UP CHURCH - DAY At a table near the altar, the kids rummage through bags of second-hand clothes under the watchful eye of MRS. COLEMAN, a stout and charitable woman. Next to her, MRS. DLAMINI hands out a lollipop and says -- MRS. DLAMINI God bless you. -- to each kid. The clothes and lollipops move fast, rhythm kept by Mrs. Dlamini's "God bless yous". The last bag of clothes empties fast as the line of kids reduces until there is only ONE SMALL BOY (SIPHO) left and only one article of clothing. An old SPRINGBOK RUGBY PRACTISE JERSEY. Green and gold. Sipho could use it. His clothes are more holes than anything else. He looks at the Springbok jersey mournfully. MRS. COLEMAN You're a very lucky boy. It's a real Springbok practise jersey! It's a bit big, but it's warm and it'll last for ever! Sipho shakes his head. MRS. COLEMAN It's yours, take it! Go on. Sipho turns and leaves. Mrs. Coleman looks at Mrs. Dlamini, completely confused. MRS. COLEMAN Why won't he take it? MRS. DLAMINI If he wears it, the others will beat him up. MRS. COLEMAN Because the Springboks are playing so badly? MRS. DLAMINI No. Because, for them, the Springboks still represent apartheid. CUT TO: 35. EXT. EERSTERUST CONFERENCE CENTER - DAY Eersterust is a settlement and conference location just outside Pretoria. Today it is the location of a full membership meeting of the National Sports Council, an ANC organization that is now the governing body of all sports in South Africa. A banner draped across the conference center entrance tells us so: WELCOME NATIONAL SPORTS COUNCIL. INT. CONFERENCE HALL - DAY An NSC FIREBRAND has the podium and the microphone. NSC FIREBRAND ... and now for the next item on our agenda. The hall is jammed. Very few white faces. NSC FIREBRAND The NSC executive proposes a full membership vote on the following motion ... A ripple of anticipation goes through the delegates. NSC FIREBRAND ... that as a prominent symbol of the apartheid era, the colors, emblem and name of the Springboks be eliminated immediately ... That causes a stir. The delegates understand how big this is. NSC FIREBRAND ... and that all sports teams representing South Africa shall be known forthwith as the Proteas. Excitement and noise level rises. The NSC Firebrand has to shout through his mike. NSC FIREBRAND (SHOUTING) We will submit this motion to a hand vote. (MORE) 36. NSC FIREBRAND (cont'd) In the event of a close count, we will go to a written ballot. (the moment he's been WAITING FOR) ALL THOSE IN FAVOR OF ELIMINATING THE SPRINGBOKS, RAISE YOUR HANDS. The NSC firebrand shoots his clenched fist into the air. With a roar, the delegates respond, raising their fists. Unanimous. The Springboks are history. ANOTHER ANGLE, as ONE OF THE OLDER DELEGATES steps outside to make a call. CUT TO: INT. MANDELA'S OFFICE - DAY At his desk, Mandela puts down his phone. Anger in his eyes. He slams both palms down hard on his desk. CUT TO: INT. SECURITY OFFICE - DAY Both bodyguard units (minus Jason) are crammed into the small office. The black bodyguards murmur amongst themselves in Xhosa. (Ad-lib.) The white bodyguards talk Afrikaans (ad- lib). No talk between the two units, only tension. Tension broken with a crash as JASON SLAMS THE DOOR OPEN. JASON Both units to the cars, right now. EXT. UNION BUILDINGS, PRETORIA - DAY Grey BMW, armored grey Mercedes, grey BMW in a line at the entrance. Jason, Kwezi, Winston and Sam scramble out of the building and dive into the lead BMW. Etienne, Hendrick, George and Willem dive into the trailer. 37. INT. UNION BUILDING HALLWAYS - DAY Brusque, scowling, Mandela marches towards the exit, shadowed by Linga, flanked by Barbara. BARBARA What do I tell the Japanese trade delegation? MANDELA I delegate that decision to you. BARBARA Do you want me to inform the VP? MANDELA No. BARBARA We should at least include the Minister of Sport. MANDELA No. Mandela heads out to the cars. Barbara has no choice but to follow. EXT. UNION BUILDINGS, PRETORIA - DAY Ever the gentleman, Mandela ushers Barbara into the Mercedes. As she gets in: BARBARA I strongly advise against doing this. Especially on your own. It ... it gives the impression of autocratic leadership. INT. PRESIDENT'S MERCEDES - DAY Mandela gets in, closes the door. BARBARA You risk alienating your cabinet and your party. MANDELA Your advice is duly noted, Barbara. 38. BARBARA Madiba ... the people want this. They hate the Springboks. They don't want to be represented by a team they cheered against all their lives. MANDELA Yes, I know. But in this instance the people are wrong. And it is my job as their elected leader to make them see that. Mandela leans forward to talk to Linga. MANDELA Can you tell the boys that Madiba wants to go to Eersterust, very fast. Linga murmurs into his radio. The convoy pulls out, very fast. Barbara makes one last plea. BARBARA You're risking your political capital. You're risking your future as our leader. MANDELA The day I am afraid to do that is the day I am no longer fit to lead. BARBARA At least risk it for something more important than rugby. Mandela looks out the window, says nothing, angry. EXT. FREEWAY - DAY Mandela's convoy heads away from Pretoria, very fast. NSC FIREBRAND (V.O.) ... and in concluding this historic conference ... 39. INT. CONFERENCE HALL - DAY NSC FIREBRAND ... brothers, sisters, comrades, we in the executive applaud your diligence and courage. The NSC Firebrand and the executive applaud the members. The applause spreads until the hall rocks. They are all very pleased with themselves. CUT TO: EXT. EERSTERUST - CONFERENCE HALL - DAY Mandela's convoy roars in. Mandela is the first one out, Linga next. Jason and crew scramble to cover the immediate area. Kwezi opens the door for Barbara on the other side. Mandela strides over to Jason, says something to him. Jason looks surprised, turns to Hendrick. Linga's customary scowl intensifies. CUT TO: INT. CONFERENCE HALL - DAY As the applause finally begins to diminish, the NSC Firebrand turns and nods to a CHURCH CHOIR DIRECTOR, off to the side. The choir director brings his CHOIR onto the stage. NSC FIREBRAND Brothers, sisters ... join us in our anthem. Anyone not standing, stands. The choir director raises his hands. The choir inhales. Go. CHOIR (SINGING) Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrica etc (God Bless Africa) -- But before the first line is fully sung, an ASSISTANT rushes out, whispers urgently into the NSC Firebrand's ear. 40. The Firebrand's eyes bug out in surprise. He crosses to the Choir Director, says something quickly. The Choir Director stops the choir in mid-chorus. Consternation everywhere. What's going on? NSC FIREBRAND Brothers, sisters, members of the choir -- we would only interrupt such beautiful music for something truly important. In this case, for someone truly important. (beat, milking it) Please welcome President Mandela! The place goes berserk as Mandela enters, with Linga at his back, and -- surprise, surprise -- Hendrick Booyens leading the way. Face stern and unsmiling, Mandela walks the length of the hall towards the podium. The delegates press in towards them. ANOTHER ANGLE - Jason coordinates security inside and out. Lifts his radio to his mouth. JASON (INTO RADIO) Smile. ON HENDRICK, as his standard bad bastard scowl suddenly becomes a smile -- which scares the throng more than the scowl did. ON LINGA, the same. ANOTHER ANGLE - Barbara enters at the back of the hall, accompanied by Kwezi. Mandela reaches the podium, turns looks out over the crowd, face thunderous. When they see his anger, the crowd quietens down quickly. MANDELA Brothers, sisters, comrades, I am here because I feel strongly that you made a decision today without sufficient information or foresight. He lectures them like a headmaster. They don't like it. 41. MANDELA I am aware of your earlier vote. I am aware that it was unanimous. (BEAT) Nonetheless, I propose that we restore the Springboks. Restore their name, their emblem and their colors, immediately. Instant and complete silence in the hall. This is utterly unpopular. Shocked faces, especially from the executive and the NSC firebrand. ON BARBARA, as she sees her worst political nightmare playing out in front of her. MANDELA Let me tell you why ... Murmurs of disapproval and disagreement begin to rise. Mandela's going to have to row upstream on this one. MANDELA ... on Robben Island, in Pollsmoor Prison, my jailers were all Afrikaners. (BEAT) For twenty seven years, I studied them. I learned their language, I read their history, I read their poetry. I had to know my enemy, in order to prevail against him. (BEAT) And we prevailed, did we not? All of us here ... we prevailed. For the first time, Mandela says something the crowd likes. MANDELA Our enemy is no longer the Afrikaner. They are our fellow South Africans, our partners in democracy. Just as quickly, Mandela loses them again. MANDELA And they treasure Springbok rugby. If we take that away, we lose them. We prove that we are what they feared we would be. (BEAT) We have to be better than that. (MORE) 42. MANDELA (CONT'D) We have to surprise them with compassion, with restraint, and generosity. The grumbling and disagreement becomes noticeably louder. MANDELA Yes, I know. All the things they denied us. ON HENDRICK, totally engrossed in his job, eyes sweeping across the crowd, feeling the tension. MANDELA But this is not the time to enjoy a moment's petty revenge. This is the time to build our nation using every single brick available to us - - even if that brick comes clothed in green and gold. The crowd is growing more restless and rebellious by the moment. LINGA is as alert as Hendrick, tuned in to the jumpy vibe. MANDELA (ANGRY) You elected me. (BEAT) You elected me to be your leader. Let me lead you now. (BEAT) Who is with me on this? It's almost as if he's daring them to go against him. MANDELA Who is with me? The murmuring becomes a dull roar of argument and disagreement. ON BARBARA as she closes her eyes and lowers her head: this is a fiasco. CUT TO: EXT. EERSTERUST CONFERENCE CENTER - DAY As delegates spill out of the conference hall, Mandela's convoy leaves as fast as it arrived. It almost looks as if they're fleeing. 43. INT. PRESIDENT'S MERCEDES - DAY Silence. Mandela looks exhausted, almost gaunt. Facing his own people like that took it out of him. Barbara stares out the window, chewing her lip, totally stressed out. Linga heaves a great sigh, exhales a truckload of stress. INT. GREY BMW (LEAD CAR) - DAY Jason and his crew travel in stoic silence. INT. GREY BMW (TRAILER) - DAY Similar silence from Etienne and crew. It seems like the silence of defeat. INT. PRESIDENT'S MERCEDES - DAY BARBARA Twelve votes. Twelve! MANDELA A luxury. All we needed was one more yes than no. BARBARA What if you hadn't got it? MANDELA Well, as you know, I am an obedient party member. Barbara snorts disagreement. She is angry at her boss. BARBARA I'm sorry, Madiba, but we've got problems everywhere we look. Housing, food, jobs, crime, our currency. You can't keep interrupting affairs of state to placate a minority. MANDELA But, I must. This minority still controls the army, the police, and the economy. Without them, we cannot address the other problems. 44. BARBARA So this rugby, it's just a political calculation? Life and energy, flood back into Mandela. He sits up against his seat belt, faces his Chief of Staff. MANDELA It's a human calculation. (BEAT) If we take away what they cherish -- the Springboks, their national anthem -- we just reinforce the cycle of fear between us. ON LINGA, in the front seat. He's not supposed to listen -- but how could he not? MANDELA I will do what I must to break this cycle. Or it will destroy us. DISSOLVE TO: INT. SPRINGBOK DRESSING ROOM - DAY The sound of cleats approaching on concrete. Exhausted footsteps. The DRESSING ROOM ATTENDANT PUTS CASES OF BEER (cans) on a side table, rips them open, backs away -- -- as the Springboks enter silently, faces miserable, shoulders slumped. They've lost another game. One of the players grabs a beer, opens it, takes a gigantic SWIG -- ANGRY SPRINGBOK This beer tastes like kuk. -- hurls the beer against the wall so hard it ruptures, sending foaming beer everywhere. ON PIENAAR as his eyes flash and he shoots to his feet. PIENAAR It's not the beer. Pienaar picks up a case of beers, goes to the angry Springbok. 45. PIENAAR Take another. (BEAT) Everybody take a beer. This is an order. The entire team takes a beer, including Pienaar. PIENAAR A toast ... Pienaar cracks his beer, raises it up. They all crack and raise their beers. PIENAAR ... to the taste of defeat. That bewilders his team. PIENAAR Drink it. Remember it. And promise yourself never to taste it again. Pienaar takes one long swig -- PIENAAR You're right. It tastes like kuk. -- tosses his beer against the wall, so that it ruptures. Eighteen other beers rupture against the wall. The dressing room is awash with beer and foam -- and re-kindled passion. As with Mandela, Pienaar is a leader, on a smaller scale. CUT TO: INT. SECURITY OFFICE - DAY Both units crammed into the small office. As usual, neither team talks to the other. Jason enters with two files. JASON Here's the schedule for the overseas trip. Jason and the boys look over one, Etienne and his unit look over the other -- and discuss it amongst themselves in Afrikaans. Hendrick says something pointed, which resonates with the others. 46. LINGA What did he just say? HENDRICK I said -- ETIENNE He asked when we were supposed to sleep. HENDRICK As well as other basic human functions. JASON Hey. If Madiba can do it, we can do it. CUT TO: INT. UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY - DAY Mandela addresses the General Assembly, thanking them for their support in the fight against apartheid. MANDELA The millions of our people say thank you, and thank you again. Linga and Hendrick are his closest bodyguards. CUT TO: INT. WHITE HOUSE - SOUTH LAWN - DAY Mandela addresses diplomats, members of Congress, black leaders at a made-for-TV ceremony on the South Lawn. MANDELA I have come here with a message. People of the Unites States of America: Open your markets to us. People of the United States of American: Come and invest in our country. Linga, Jason, Etienne and Hendrick are in on this one -- a little island of South Africans in a sea of U.S. SECRET SERVICE PROTECTION. CUT TO: 47. EXT. BUCKINGHAM PALACE - DAY We are in a COURTYARD behind the palace. Drawn by four white horses, A ROYAL CARRIAGE (an open carriage) pulls up, stops. The courtyard quickly fills with liveried footmen, then security guards. QUEEN ELISABETH and Mandela emerge from the palace. Footmen open doors on both sides of the carriage. The Queen and Mandela climb in (the Queen on the right hand side). When they sit down next to each other, Mandela leans over and says something to the Queen that makes her giggle ... ... almost. For Queens do not giggle. The carriage pulls forward and these two human icons sit up straight, as they get set to face the world. TV ANNOUNCER (V.O.) ... and in London, President Mandela made quite an impression on the Queen -- CUT TO: INT. PIENAAR PARENT'S HOUSE - NIGHT ON TV: footage of Mandela with the Queen, riding down the mall waving to ecstatic crowds. TV ANNOUNCER -- as he concluded a gruelling trip TO-- Mr. Pienaar MUTES THE TV, so that he can deliver the latest one-liner to Mrs. Pienaar. MR. PIENAAR In related news, it was announced that President Mandela will be visiting South Africa this week. Mrs. Pienaar laughs. IN THE BACKGROUND, in the kitchen, a plump, middle-aged Tswana woman washes the dishes and keeps an eye on the TV. This is EUNICE, the Pienaar's maid. 48. She does not find Mr. Pienaar's joke amusing. CUT TO: EXT. JOHANNESBURG AIRPORT - NIGHT The PRESIDENT'S JET taxis towards the familiar BMW, Mercedes, BMW convoy. CUT TO: Mandela disembarks, very slowly. He is exhausted, his feet are swollen, his knee hurts. This is a very different man than the one we have just seen wooing the world. He is met at the bottom of the stairs by Hendrick. HENDRICK It's good to be home, sir. Mandela just nods. Too tired to talk. Hendrick escorts Mandela to the Mercedes, opens the door for him. Mandela takes a step towards the open door -- and staggers. Reflexively, Hendrick reaches out, steadies him. MANDELA I'm fine. Mandela steps out of Hendrick's hands, holds onto the open door. MANDELA Travelling the world, begging for money, is very tiring. Mandela reaches into his jacket, pulls a SMALL PACKAGE out, hands it to Hendrick. MANDELA This is for you. Mandela slides into the car. Once the door is closed, Hendrick glances at the package. We don't see it. It is too dark. But we do see that Hendrick is amazed by it. CUT TO: 49. INT. GREY BMW - NIGHT Hendrick is being driven home through the Highveld night. He chews on something really sticky, chewy. He pauses to dislodge some of it from a tooth, before it pulls out a filling. Then, he resumes chewing. DISSOLVE TO: INT. MANDELA'S BEDROOM - NIGHT On the bedside table, THE CLOCK clicks from 4:59 to 5:00. Mandela's eyes open in the dark ... close for a second ... then shoot open again. It takes everything Mandela has to sit up and switch on the light. CUT TO: EXT. MANDELA'S HOUSE - NIGHT The bodyguards' BMW's flank the gate. As the gate opens -- -- Linga gets out of one BMW, Hendrick gets out of the other. They are alert. It is freezing cold. Bundled up against the cold, Mandela emerges through the gate and they close in on him. It is clear that he is pushing himself, physically. LINGA (TRADITIONAL XHOSA GREETING) I see you, father. MANDELA Morning boys. HENDRICK Morning, sir. They keep moving. It is too cold for anything else. MANDELA How is your family, Hendrick? 50. HENDRICK Top shape, sir. How about yours? Mandela's smile becomes fixed on his face. MANDELA I have a very big family. 42 million people. Then, he stops, turns, heads back towards the house. MANDELA I don't think I want to walk today. Hendrick realizes that he blundered, somehow. He shoots an anxious glance at Linga -- who looks at him as if he'd just committed blasphemy. Mandela goes through the open gate without a word. The gate closes behind him, leaving Linga and Hendrick to watch him through iron bars. Linga turns on Hendrick. LINGA We never ask him about his family. HENDRICK But he asks about ours all the time. LINGA Think about it, man. He's separated from his wife. His children ... how often do you see them here? (BEAT) He's not a saint, okay. He's a man, with a man's problems -- and he doesn't need us reminding him about them. Linga heads back to his BMW. Hendrick stands at the gate, looking in at the house. CUT TO: INT. MANDELA'S HOUSE - DAWN Mandela shaves, avoiding his own gaze. CUT TO: 51. Shaved, showered and dressed, Mandela descends the stairs, sits down to breakfast by himself at the big table. He looks at the newspaper headlines, which talk about CRIME RISING, THE RAND FALLING, THE MANDELA HONEYMOON OVER etc. etc. Like any other man, Mandela turns to the SPORTS SECTION for relief -- and finally finds something to smile about. ON THE NEWSPAPER: SPRINGBOK COACH AND MANAGER AXED. PIENAAR STAYS ON AS CAPTAIN. There is a PICTURE OF PIENAAR. Mandela reacts to it, pleased. CUT TO: INT. MANDELA'S OFFICE - DAY As a CABINET MINISTER AND HER ENTOURAGE leave, Barbara enters, holding an envelope. MANDELA Hello Barbara. I like that dress. BARBARA Thank you Madiba. (OFFERING ENVELOPE) This is for you. MANDELA (TAKING ENVELOPE) What is it? BARBARA Your pay checks. You haven't been collecting them. Mandela opens the envelope, looks at a check -- and grunts. BARBARA What's wrong? MANDELA This is terrible. BARBARA Madiba, it's what De Klerk got. Plus an increase for inflation. But, Mandela shakes his head, outraged. 52. TV ANNOUNCER (V.O.) Today, President Mandela announced that, in his opinion -- CUT TO: INT. PIENAAR PARENTS HOUSE - NIGHT TV ANNOUNCER (on TV throughout) -- his salary is too high. Pienaar and Nerine watch the news with MR. AND MRS PIENAAR. MR. PIENAAR Dead right. They're all overpaid. IN THE BACKGROUND, once again, Eunice washes the dishes and keeps an eye on the TV. TV ANNOUNCER He has therefore decided to donate a third of his monthly income to charity. MR. PIENAAR Give me the houses and cars they give him and I'll donate a third of my salary too. Francois' cell phone rings. PIENAAR (to Mr. Pienaar) You would not. Not in a million years. PIENAAR (ANSWERING PHONE) Hallo, Pienaar. Whatever Pienaar hears on the phone sends him out of the room in a hurry. PIENAAR (INTO PHONE) Hang on a moment, please. TV ANNOUNCER President Mandela said that he wished to set an example to other leaders and cabinet ministers. 53. MR. PIENAAR Fat chance. They're lining their pockets as fast as they can. Nerine is interested in the call that sent Pienaar hurrying out of the room. Mr. Pienaar MUTES THE TV. MR. PIENAAR Must be his girlfriend, hey Nerine. NERINE He knows I'd bloody kill him. ON EUNICE, as eyes and ears alive, she finishes in the kitchen. Pienaar comes back, stands in the doorway, a stunned expression on his face. NERINE What? Who was it? Pienaar doesn't answer immediately. MR. PIENAAR Told you. It was his girlfriend. MRS. PIENAAR Shush! PIENAAR I've been invited to tea. NERINE Who with? PIENAAR The President. MR. PIENAAR The President of SA Rugby? Count your fingers after he shakes your hand. Pienaar points at the muted TV. PIENAAR The President. ON THE TV: footage of Mandela with a group of SAUDI PRINCES. Eunice turns and looks at Francois, wide-eyed. 54. The Pienaar family all stare at the TV, stunned. PIENAAR He wants me over for tea, week after next. Eunice picks up her handbag, puts on her coat and heads for the door, stops when she reaches Pienaar. EUNICE Mr. Francois -- you must tell Madiba that the bus service is very bad, and too expensive. He must please fix it. (LEAVING) Good night everybody. MRS. PIENAAR Good night Eunice, thank you. All eyes on Pienaar. MR. PIENAAR What the hell does he want with you? Pienaar shakes his head -- he has no idea. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. UNION BUILDINGS, PRETORIA - DAY Nerine's modest little car heads towards the seat of power. INT. NERINE'S CAR - DAY Nerine drives. Pienaar wears a blue blazer, grey slacks and subdued tie -- and is surprisingly nervous. NERINE Francois, relax. You've met him before. PIENAAR I shook his hand on the rugby field, that's all. NERINE You didn't even vote for him. 55. PIENAAR He's still the President. (CONFESSING) He's had dinner with the Queen. With Presidents and movie stars. All I do is play rugby. What if I pull something stupid in front of him? Nerine stops to let Pienaar out. Gives him a kiss, straightens his hair. NERINE You won't. I'll pick you up right here. EXT. UNION BUILDINGS, PRETORIA - DAY Pienaar climbs out of Nerine's car. A pretty sizeable KNOT OF JOURNALISTS rush towards him. Pienaar takes a deep breath. He is a bundle of nerves. CUT TO: INT. SECURITY OFFICE - DAY Small office packed with big men. ETIENNE See who's coming for tea? HENDRICK My nephew wants me to get his autograph. LINGA Who? ETIENNE Francois Pienaar. JASON Who wants to escort him in? Hendrick bolts for the door. HENDRICK I will. 56. JASON No autographs. HENDRICK (INSULTED) I know how to do my job, okay. Hendrick leaves. LINGA Who's this Pienaar? ETIENNE You can't be serious? He's the captain of the Springboks. Linga shrugs, provocatively indifferent. LINGA I like soccer, myself. ETIENNE Well, you know what they say about soccer -- it's gentleman's game played by hooligans. One the other hand, rugby is a hooligan's game played by -- LINGA Ja, ja, I've heard it before. It wasn't funny the first time. Not exactly violin music and roses ... but they are talking to each other. INT. UNION BUILDING HALLWAYS - DAY Hendrick escorts Pienaar back towards Mandela's offices. Hendrick is the bigger man. PIENAAR Can I ask you a question, Lieutenant? HENDRICK Ja, of course. PIENAAR What's he like? They pause at the office door. Hendrick ponders that question for a moment, then: 57. HENDRICK When I worked for the previous President, it was my job to be invisible. Hendrick opens the door. HENDRICK This President ... he found out I like English toffee and brought me some back, from his visit to the Queen. Hendrick ushers Pienaar into Mandela's offices. HENDRICK To him, nobody is invisible. INT. MANDELA'S OFFICES - DAY Hendrick gestures to the waiting area. HENDRICK That's where you wait. One of his assistants will come for you. (POINTING) There's a bathroom over there, if you need it. PIENAAR Okay. Thanks. Hendrick turns to leave, hesitates, turns back. HENDRICK What are our chances in the World Cup? I mean, for real. PIENAAR We'll do our best. That, I can guarantee. Hendrick nods solemnly, heads back to security. Pienaar heads straight for the bathroom. INT. SECURITY OFFICE - DAY Hendrick enters. Etienne and the other white bodyguards look up. 58. HENDRICK Well, he's not as big as he looks on TV. (BEAT) And we don't stand a bloody chance in the World Cup. INT. UNION BUILDING BATHROOM - DAY Pienaar washes his hands, dries them, dries them again, combs his hair, looks at himself in the mirror, adjusts his blazer. INT. MANDELA'S OFFICES - DAY Pienaar returns to the waiting area, sits. There is a clock on the wall. One minute to four. Four Japanese trade officials traipse out, having just met Mandela. The second hand journeys up to vertical. When it hits 4 o'clock exactly -- -- Mary walks into the waiting area. MARY Mr. Pienaar? Pienaar shoots to his feet. MARY This way, please. Mary leads Pienaar back to Mandela's own office, knocks, opens the door. MARY Go on in. Mouth dry, Pienaar nods -- -- and enters the inner sanctum. INT. MANDELA'S OFFICE - DAY Mandela leaps up from behind his desk, crosses the room to meet Pienaar. 59. MANDELA Francois, what an honor. I'm so excited. They shake hands. MANDELA Thank you for coming all this way to see me. Pienaar gulps like a fish out of water. PIENAAR Yes, sir. No problem. Thank you for inviting me. MANDELA Tell me. How's your ankle? PIENAAR My ankle? MANDELA I was told you'd hurt it. Has it healed? Pienaar relaxes, visibly. This is small talk he can handle. This is Mandela's gift. PIENAAR The truth is, sir, you never play at a hundred percent, no matter what. MANDELA Yes ... yes. In sports, and in life. Come. Sit. Please. (indicating a chair) Take this one. Looking into the light hurts my eyes. They sit in the chairs. A KNOCK at the door, and MRS. BRITS the old Afrikaner tea lady enters, carrying a laden tea tray. Mandela stands again, immediately. MANDELA Ah, Mrs. Brits -- Pienaar stands just a beat slower. 60. MANDELA -- you are a shining light in my day. MRS. BRITS Yes sir. Eyes twinkling, Mrs. Brits puts the tea tray down on the coffee table in front of them. The finest china, cookies on a plate. MANDELA Mrs. Brits, this is Francois Pienaar. He's the captain of the Springboks. Mandela clearly expects Pienaar to shake hands with Mrs. Brits. Pienaar holds out his hand -- PIENAAR (AFRIKAANS GREETING) Aangename kennis, Mevrou Brits. -- gently shakes hers. MRS. BRITS Ek ook, Meneer. (TO MANDELA) Shall I pour, sir? MANDELA No thank you, I think I'd like to. Mrs. Brits leaves. Mandela does not sit until the door closes behind her. Pienaar only sits after he does. Mandela's manners would not be out of place in Victorian England. MANDELA How do you take your tea, Francois? PIENAAR Milk and sugar, please. Mandela pours tea for both of them. ON PIENAAR, as, just for a moment, he realizes that here he is, with the President pouring him a cup of tea. 61. MANDELA The English have given us many things, including rugby, but afternoon tea is one of the greatest. Mandela hands Pienaar the tea cup. PIENAAR Thank you, sir. Both men have big hands. Fine china dwarfed and threatened. In the exact moment that both their hands hold the same saucer, Mandela looks Pienaar in the eye. MANDELA You have a very difficult job. PIENAAR I do? I sell gas braais. Mandela lets go and Pienaar takes the tea. MANDELA Captain of the Springboks. A very difficult job. PIENAAR Not compared to yours, sir. MANDELA Ah, but then nobody is trying to tear my head off while I'm doing mine. Pienaar grins. True. MANDELA It is not so difficult to get people to do their best. And I imagine that anybody who plays for their country does their best, almost automatically. PIENAAR Or they wouldn't be chosen in the first place. MANDELA Yes. But to get people to be better than that? (MORE) 62. MANDELA (CONT'D) Better than they think they can be? Now, that is difficult, I find. PIENAAR Yes sir, it is. MANDELA How do we do that? By example? To an extent. But there is more to it than that ... (searching for the right WORD) ... inspiration, perhaps. Pienaar is engrossed. This is a master lesson on leadership, from a master. MANDELA How do we inspire ourselves to greatness, when nothing less will do? How do we inspire everyone around us? (BEAT) Sometimes, I think, by using the work of others. Long pause. Pienaar knows to keep quiet. MANDELA On Robben Island, when things were very hard, I found inspiration in a poem. PIENAAR A poem? MANDELA A Victorian poem. Just words. But they helped me to stand when all I wanted was to lie down -- (SUDDENLY DISMISSIVE) But you didn't come all this way to hear an old man talk about things that make no sense. PIENAAR No! They make a lot of sense, sir. (BEAT) On the day of a big match, say a test, in the bus on the way to the stadium, nobody talks. 63. MANDELA Yes ... yes. Everybody is preparing. PIENAAR When I think we're ready, I have the bus driver put on a song I've chosen; a theme song. One we all know. We listen together and ... it helps. MANDELA Yes! I remember when I was a guest at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. The whole stadium welcomed me with a song. (BEAT) At the time the future -- our future -- seemed very bleak. But to hear that song, in voices from all over our planet ... it made me very proud to be South African. It helped me to come home and do better. It allowed me to expect more of myself. A beat. PIENAAR May I ask what the song was, sir? MANDELA Well, it was Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika. A very inspiring song. Mandela looks into Pienaar's eyes. MANDELA We need inspiration, Francois. Brown African eyes, blue African eyes meet over their cups of tea. MANDELA Because, in order to build our nation, we all need to exceed our own expectations. Something passes between them. Whatever it is has a profound impact on Pienaar. 64. PIENAAR Yes, sir. We probably do. CUT TO: Cameras click and whirr as MANDELA AND PIENAAR SHAKE HANDS for the press. (NOTE that there are NO FLASHES.) CUT TO: INT. UNION BUILDING HALLWAYS - DAY Pienaar walks away from the President's offices, still processing his meeting with Mandela. He seems a little stunned and mystified. Something profound just happened -- but he's not quite sure what. EXT. UNION BUILDINGS, PRETORIA - DAY When Pienaar steps outside and sees all of Pretoria -- all of South Africa -- stretching away below him, he pauses. He looks at his country in a new way. A BEEP BEEP from Nerine's car interrupts his reverie, as she pulls up at the bottom of the stairs. INT. NERINE'S CAR - DAY Nerine drives Pienaar away. Pienaar turns, looks back at the Union Buildings. NERINE So ...? PIENAAR Hm? NERINE What's he like? PIENAAR He's ... (BEAT) ... he's not like anyone I've ever met before. An unsatisfying answer. Nerine waits for more. But, she isn't going to get it without prying it out of Pienaar. 65. NERINE Well? What did he want? This is the question Pienaar is wrestling with, too. He thinks it over for long enough to drive Nerine crazy. NERINE Ag, come on Francois. It's like talking to a bloody brick wall. What did he want? Pienaar turns in his seat, looks at her as realization comes clear in him ... PIENAAR I think ... (BEAT) I think he wants us to win the World Cup. DISSOLVE TO: INT. MANDELA'S HOUSE - DAY A FRAMED PHOTO OF MANDELA SQUARING OFF AGAINST MUHAMMAD ALI looks down -- -- on Mandela, who is surrounded by HIS GRANDCHILDREN IN THE LIVING ROOM. Mandela likes the babies. THEIR PARENTS, shoo and shepherd the kids, keeping them on their best behavior -- -- for the PHOTOGRAPHERS shooting this family gathering. Seeing the photographers makes this feel staged. Mandela looks past the photographers, sees his daughter ZINDZI glancing in from the doorway, and then moving on. MANDELA Excuse me. Mandela disentangles the babies, stands, leaves. CUT TO: In the DINING ROOM, Zindzi looks down at a BIG FRONT PAGE PHOTO OF MANDELA AND PIENAAR SHAKING HANDS. She is a modern, cosmopolitan young woman. When Mandela enters, Zindzi looks up from the newspaper with a very Mandela-like grunt. 66. MANDELA What do you think? ZINDZI It doesn't matter what I think. MANDELA Yes, it does. ZINDZI (DEFIANT) Okay. I think he looks like one of the policemen who forced us out of our house when you were in jail. I don't like seeing you shake his hand. And I'm not the only one. Mandela overreacts. MANDELA You criticize without understanding. You seek only to address your own feelings. This is selfish thinking. It does not serve the nation. Zindzi shakes her head, turns, leaves. MANDELA Wait. Please. I -- Mandela wants to apologize, doesn't know how. Instead, he pulls AN ENVELOPE out of his pocket, holds it out. MANDELA Will you give this to your mother. ZINDZI What is it? MANDELA A bracelet. Zindzi looks into the envelope. In it is the BEADED BRACELET, from earlier, from the bathroom. ZINDZI Just throw it away. MANDELA I don't have the right to. It's not mine. 67. ZINDZI If she left it here, she meant to throw it away. Only children know how to twist the dagger so deftly. Mandela turns away so that his daughter cannot see his eyes. A man so at ease with strangers does not know how to talk to his own family. CUT TO: INT. PIENAAR PARENT'S HOUSE - DAY The SAME NEWSPAPER PHOTO of Mandela and Pienaar that Zindzi was looking at -- only, this time, someone is cutting it out, very carefully. Eunice. Mr. Pienaar enters to get something from the fridge, sees what Eunice is doing. Eunice stops cutting. Mr. Pienaar looks down at the photo for a long moment. He doesn't know how to react to it. EUNICE Mrs. Pienaar said you were finished with the paper. MR. PIENAAR Ja. Of course. Mr. Pienaar leaves. Eunice keeps cutting until the photo can be lifted up. She nods, proud. OVER, A WHISTLE BLOWS, SHARPLY. CUT TO: EXT. SPRINGBOK TRAINING FACILITY - DAY On a PRACTISE FIELD at this world-class facility, the SPRINGBOK SQUAD (about 30 guys) sprint to the 25 m line, drops, begins 20 explosive push-ups. NOTE, also, that at least half of the players who faced the British Lions earlier are gone.) 68. MINISTER OF SPORT (V.O.) The World Cup is played every four years. Sixteen teams qualify from around the world. CUT TO: INT. MANDELA'S OFFICE - DAY THE MINISTER OF SPORTS BRIEFS MANDELA on the World Cup, with the help of a BIG DIAGRAM ON AN EASEL (just like a March Madness bracket layout, showing all the teams.) The Minister looks ragged, exhausted. MINISTER OF SPORT Four pools of four teams each, playing in nine different venues around the country. Two teams will advance from each pool to the quarter finals. Mandela studies the diagram. He loves this stuff. MANDELA The Ivory Coast qualified. This is wonderful. (For the record, the sixteen teams who qualified were: South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Canada, Romania, Italy, France, Japan, West Samoa, Argentina, Tonga and Ivory Coast.) CUT TO: EXT. SPRINGBOK TRAINING FACILITY - DAY The Springbok squad leap up after the push-ups, sprint to the 50 m line, drop, begin 20 rapid crunches -- -- under the critical eye of the new COACH and MANAGER. CUT TO: INT. MANDELA'S OFFICE - DAY MINISTER OF SPORT Australia won the previous World Cup. New Zealand won the one before that. (MORE) 69. MINISTER OF SPORT (cont'd) They're both clear favorites to reach the finals this time. (BEAT) According to the experts, we'll reach the quarter finals, and no further. MANDELA According to the experts, you and I are still supposed to be in jail. That brings a grin from the Minister of Sport. CUT TO: EXT. SPRINGBOK TRAINING FACILITY - DAY The coach blows his whistle. COACH Again! ON PIENAAR, as he leaps to his feet, leads the charge back to the 25 m line. CUT TO: INT. MANDELA'S OFFICE - DAY MINISTER OF SPORT You make a personal appearance at the finals, and at the opening match between the Springboks and Australia. (BEAT) The finals will be broadcast to over a billion people around the world, live. MANDELA A billion people watching us! (wheels turning in his HEAD) Yes ... yes. This is a great opportunity. CUT TO: 70. EXT. SPRINGBOK TRAINING FACILITY - DAY Hands on their knees, sucking air, retching, the squad has worked their way down the full length of the field. SPRINGBOK MANAGER I reckon you've knocked the stuffing out of them today. COACH I haven't even begun. (BEAT) We may not be the most talented team in the world -- but we're going to be the fittest. He blows his whistle. COACH And back! The squad can't believe their ears. No one moves. Except Pienaar. PIENAAR Come on boys, let's show him. Staggering more than sprinting, Pienaar heads towards the 25m line. SPRINGBOK FLANK Shit, what's Pienaar been eating? But, they follow him. CUT TO: INT. MANDELA'S OFFICE - DAY Alone in his office, Mandela looks at the World Cup diagram, for a moment, then picks up his phone. MANDELA (INTO PHONE) Please call the head of South African rugby for me. CUT TO: 71. INT. DRESSING ROOM - DAY Thirty completely wiped-out athletes. Some are too tired to shower, some have made it that far, but are too tired to change. Pienaar has showered and changed and slumps next to his locker. The SPRINGBOK MANAGER enters, followed by the RUGBY PRESIDENT. Pienaar and the boys drag themselves upright. The Rugby President looks them over as if they were his very own stable of race horses -- a stable he's not entirely sure he likes. RUGBY PRESIDENT Afternoon men. It's good to see you working so hard. I have a short announcement. (BEAT) As part of the PR buildup to the World Cup, you will be conducting coaching clinics in townships all over the country. The players greet this announcement with complete silence. RUGBY PRESIDENT I know you have plenty on your plates already -- but this is a request that comes from the top. (looking at Pienaar, POINTEDLY) The very top. The Rugby President turns on his heel, and leaves, followed by the Manager. The players say nothing for a long moment, but body language alone shows that they are completely disgusted. SPRINGBOK HOOKER This is complete crap. SPRINGBOK FLANK Are we some kind of circus act now? 72. SPRINGBOK LOCK We don't have time for kuk like this. The boys are getting angrier by the second. SPRINGBOK LOCK They expect us to play our best, to give our bloody all, then they add to our bloody workload ... The lock turns to Chester. SPRINGBOK LOCK What do you think about this, Chester? All eyes on Chester, as if the poor guy is a magic guide to a world they barely understand. CHESTER WILLIAMS I try not to think. It interferes with my rugby. The perfect answer for these guys. SPRINGBOK LOCK See! Now there's a rugby player. Talk to them Francois. SPRINGBOK WING Make them see that this is a waste of time we don't have. All eyes on their Captain -- who shakes his head, no. PIENAAR I'm not going to talk to them. SPRINGBOK FLANK Why not? PIENAAR Whether we like it or not, we're more than just a rugby team. We're ... we're ambassadors inside our own country. And we might as well get used to it. Silence. Rebellious silence. Then: SPRINGBOK LOCK Is this you speaking, or Mandela? 73. Pienaar's eyes are fierce. He needs them to see how serious he is. PIENAAR You know me better than that. (BEAT) Times change. We need to change, too. It is clear that much of his team disagrees with him. DISSOLVE TO: INT. MANDELA'S OFFICES - NIGHT CLOSE-UP ON A TV -- horrible, startling images of the OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING. TV ANNOUNCER (ON TV) We're looking at the remains of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, America, which was destroyed today in a massive explosion. PULL BACK to reveal that we are in Mandela's offices. Barbara, Mary, other assistants look on. So do the bodyguards. All faces stunned, appalled. Mandela approaches slowly from his office, drawn in by the horrible, irresistible images. He stands behind his people. TV ANNOUNCER No one has claimed responsibility yet, but authorities say that the timing and target mark this as the work of white, right-wing fanatics. An act of revenge for the FBI killings in Waco, Texas. Jason and Linga share a pointed look. South Africa is a global leader in white, right-wing fanatics. TV ANNOUNCER The explosive, a truck bomb, was apparently a simple mixture of commonly available industrial and agricultural materials. JASON (TO LINGA) That's all we need. (MORE) 74. JASON (CONT'D) A homemade explosive from materials every boer already has. Then, Jason realizes that Mandela is standing right next to him. TV ANNOUNCER So far, the official death toll stands at over a 100 people, which includes at least 12 children from a day care center in the Federal building. Mandela turns to Barbara. MANDELA Please call President Clinton for me. I wish to offer him our condolences. Mandela turns to Jason, eyes deep and dark. MANDELA Do you see why forgiveness is essential, Jason? (BEAT) Revenge only begets revenge. As Mandela walks back to his office, there is a look of utter sorrow on his face. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. FREEWAY - DAY A luxury bus heads along the freeway. INT. LUXURY BUS - DAY The Springbok squad rides in style. Most are wearing tracksuits, most are asleep. Pienaar is awake. CUT TO: EXT. TOWNSHIP - DAY The same township where Sipho rejected the Springbok rugby jersey. At one edge we find what passes for a SOCCER FIELD. Just a littered rectangular expanse of Highveld winter dirt. 75. TV VANS and a very nervous SPRINGBOK MANAGEMENT CREW drive to the edge of the field, stop, get out -- -- and are immediately mobbed by THREADBARE, EXCITED KIDS, many of them begging for cash and candy. SIPHO in the thick of things. One of the Springbok management crew pulls a ROLLED BANNER on two spiked poles out of their van. Mallet and banner in hand, the management crew head to the edge of the field, mobbed by shouting, whistling township kids. They hammer one pole into the ground, unroll the banner (seen from the back so that we can't read the words), get set to hammer the second pole into the ground -- -- except that there is a SMASHED BEER BOTTLE in the way. Broken glass everywhere. They look at the broken glass, then turn and look across the field. Broken glass glints in the low sun, all over the field. SPRINGBOK MANAGEMENT CREW#1 They can't play on this. SPRINGBOK MANAGEMENT CREW#2 When are they due? SPRINGBOK MANAGEMENT CREW#1 Fifteen minutes. SPRINGBOK MANAGEMENT CREW#2 Plenty of time. He reaches into his wallet, pulls out a R100 note (about $17), holds it up high. The kids yell for it. SPRINGBOK MANAGEMENT CREW#2 THIS GOES TO WHOEVER COLLECTS THE MOST GLASS! Mayhem, as kids sprint out across the field, hunting for glass. Sipho goes for the tiniest, most treacherous shards. CUT TO: 76. INT. LUXURY BUS - DAY The bus hits a rut in the dirt road with an almighty jolt, which wakes the sleeping Springboks. They look out of the windows and see the absolutely hellish outskirts of the township. Every possible incarnation of poverty, as far as the eye can see. This shocks them. Most of them have never been anywhere like this township. SPRINGBOK LOCK Shit, I'm glad I don't live here. EXT. TOWNSHIP - DAY The driver sounds the horn, as they pull into the township. INT. LUXURY BUS - DAY The bus pulls up at the field -- EXT. TOWNSHIP - DAY -- which is covered with kids on their hands and knees. INT. LUXURY BUS - DAY SPRINGBOK HOOKER What the hell are they doing? The driver sounds the horn again, and the kids on the field sprint for the bus, hands and pockets full of broken glass. PIENAAR Don't forget, we've got TV cameras on us at all times. SPRINGBOK LOCK (MUTTERING) What a bloody joke. EXT. TOWNSHIP - DAY As the kids approach the bus, they dump their broken glass under the banner, which reads -- 77. ONE TEAM, ONE COUNTRY -- brown, green, white, blue shards tinkling and piling up, like lethal jewels, backlit in the low winter sun. One of the big kids gets the R100. Attention focussed on THAT -- -- until the bus door opens with a loud hiss of hydraulics and the Springboks exit, one by one. Pienaar first, with a huge NET BAG OF PRACTISE BALLS over his shoulder. The Springboks are all so big, so strong, so healthy, they look like gods, or aliens, emerging from a spaceship. The kids go quiet, awed and uncomfortable. Until Chester Williams steps off the bus, and there is a collective sigh of recognition and wonder. Now, the kids can relate to the Springboks. Even Sipho, who looks on from the side of the field. Springbok management notes it. The TV crews note it. Pienaar notes it. PIENAAR Okay Chester -- I reckon you're up. CHESTER WILLIAMS (PANICKING) What am I supposed to do? PIENAAR What you do best. Pienaar turns to the throng. PIENAAR WHO WANTS TO PLAY RUGBY? A roar. They all do. Pienaar opens the net bag full of rugby balls, gives a ball to Chester. PIENAAR Let rip. 78. Chester boots the ball out over the crowd, high and incredibly far in the thin winter air. (60 yards, easily.) Pienaar tosses balls to the others. PIENAAR Let's do our best. One after another, the Springboks kick the balls high into the air. PIENAAR Go get them! The kids go after them. Sipho stays on the sideline. BEGIN RUGBY CLINIC MONTAGE Barely controlled chaos. Each Springbok works with one ball and a group of kids. There are THREE THEMES to this montage. FIRST, a primer on the basic rules of rugby, with demonstrations. SPRINGBOK HOOKER Who here knows the first rule of rugby? TOWNSHIP KID Me! SPRINGBOK HOOKER What is it? TOWNSHIP KID Only hit the other players when the ref isn't looking! Laughter. A good ice-breaker. PIENAAR No. The first rule of rugby is you can only pass the ball backwards or sideways. Pienaar demonstrates. (NOTE: All the rules are demonstrated.) VARIOUS SPRINGBOKS - If you drop the ball, or pass it forwards, you scrum for possession. - This is a scrum. - You kick forwards. (MORE) 79. VARIOUS SPRINGBOKS (cont'd) If you kick it out of bounds, you throw it back in to a lineout. - This is a lineout. - You score in four ways: a try, when you dot the ball down behind the try line. That's five points. - Another two points when you convert the try by kicking the ball through the uprights. - Three points for a penalty kick. - Three points for a drop kick. - Have you got all that? KIDS No! SPRINGBOK HOOKER Agh, bugger it, let's just run and pass. Whoever drops the ball does pushups! SECOND, as the players work with the kids, they get into it. Much to their own surprise, they enjoy the energy, they enjoy the kids, they enjoy the giving. Even the grumpiest, most conservative Springbok. SPRINGBOK LOCK Okay. Who wants to scrum against me? One huge man scrums against a horde of kids. He pushes them backwards with a roar -- then lets them push him backwards. They love it, the cameras love it. THE THIRD THEME shows the emergence of Chester Williams as the face of the Springboks. The crowd of kids around him is twice as big as any other player's crew. Given Chester's basically shy nature, he finds it all a bit overwhelming. The TV cameras follow him even more closely than they follow Pienaar. AT ONE POINT, an errant pass puts a rugby ball right at Sipho's feet. He hesitates, then picks it up. He doesn't just hold it, he feels it. END THE MONTAGE as the luxury bus pulls away, surrounded by a horde of cheering kids, many of whom hold new rugby balls under their arms. One blast on the horn, one answering cheer from the kids and the bus slowly accelerates away. CUT TO: 80. INT. UNION BUILDING CONFERENCE ROOM - EVENING A cabinet meeting in the rainbow nation, with Mandela at the head of the table. The MINISTER OF THE ENVIRONMENT is making a presentation about a campaign to put an end to littering by plastic bags. Behind him is a VERY DRAMATIC SLIDE IMAGE of a rural barbed wire fence festooned with wind-blown plastic bags. MINISTER OF THE ENVIRONMENT -- and in addition to the nationwide PR campaign, we propose that all retail outlets charge a nominal fee for plastic bags -- Mary enters quietly, slips a piece of paper in front of Mandela, who reads it, holds up his hand. MANDELA Mr. Minister, please forgive me. This sounds excellent, and we will return to it, but if you'll indulge me for just one minute -- Mandela nods to Mary, who switches on a big TV on the wall -- which shows NEWS FOOTAGE OF THE COACHING CLINIC in the township. When we see the FOOTAGE OF THE LOCK SCRUMMING WITH THE KIDS, Mandela laughs, delighted, turns to his cabinet. MANDELA You see, that picture is worth any number of speeches. CUT TO: INT. PIENAAR PARENT'S HOUSE - NIGHT Mr. and Mrs. Pienaar watch the same report ON TV. Mr. Pienaar has quite a different reaction to Mandela's. MR. PIENAAR Tell me something -- how does this help them win rugby matches? DISSOLVE TO: 81. EXT. CAPE TOWN - AERIAL VIEW - DAY ESTABLISHING SHOT from the air of Cape Town, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. We see the Cape Peninsula, the harbor, the city itself draped around the shoulders of Table Mountain like a multi-colored Mediterranean shawl. On its descent towards Cape Town airport, a SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS JET flies across the view with the smiling face of Chester Williams painted on the fuselage. BOLAND BOTHA (V.O.) This is Boland Botha coming to you live from Cape Town airport -- EXT. CAPE TOWN AIRPORT - DAY From a position near an IDLING LUXURY BUS, Boland speaks into his mike. BOLAND BOTHA -- where the Springbok flight has just landed. CUT TO: ON THE APRON, the team disembarks. The boys are dressed in Springbok blazers, slacks and ties. A magnificent sight. Gladiators in top shape, faces appropriately stern. INT. CAPE TOWN AIRPORT - DAY People -- white people -- clap and cheer as the team enters the building. BOLAND BOTHA (V.O.) The green and gold have one week to put the finishing touches to their gruelling training program -- The team feeds on the energy. They walk taller, faster, closer together. BOLAND BOTHA (V.O.) -- and I, for one, have to admit to being cautiously excited. 82. EXT. CAPE TOWN AIRPORT - DAY ON BOLAND BOTHA, next to the bus. BOLAND BOTHA (INTO MIKE) I say cautiously, because in my humble opinion -- Behind Boland, the Springboks get into the bus, fast. BOLAND BOTHA -- this team has been over-trained on the field, and over-committed off it. CUT TO: INT. MANDELA'S CAPE TOWN HOUSE - DAY A beautiful Cape Dutch style mansion. Mandela stands in his HOME OFFICE, watches Boland on TV. The MINISTER OF SPORTS is with him. BOLAND BOTHA (ON TV) Which makes beating a powerhouse Australian side in the Cup opener next week a tall order, especially since this is an inexperienced team with a history of coming up short in big matches. This is Boland BOTHA -- Mandela switches off the TV. MANDELA Around the world -- objectively -- what are they saying about our chances against Australia? MINISTER OF SPORT Everyone thinks they'll beat us. And if they do, we'll have to go through England and the All Blacks just to get to the Final. MANDELA So it is very important that we beat Australia. (to Minister of Sport) Thank you. 83. The Minister leaves. Alone in his office, Mandela sits, thinks, gets a sheet of paper with his PERSONAL LETTERHEAD on it, uncaps his fountain pen. OVER MANDELA'S SHOULDER, we see him write, and then underline, the title INVICTUS by W.E. Henley. BARBARA KNOCKS, pokes her head in. BARBARA The Cabinet Ministers are here to brief you on the trip to Taiwan. MANDELA I'll be right out. From memory, Mandela writes the first line of the poem: Out of the night that covers me ... CUT TO: EXT. NEWLANDS - DAY The luxury bus comes around a bend in a leafy suburb of Cape Town, right under the flanks of Table Mountain. Ahead, we see NEWLANDS STADIUM, home of the World Cup opener between the Springboks and Australia. A magnificent old stadium in a beautiful setting. INT. LUXURY BUS - DAY All eyes on the stadium as the bus idles past, very slowly. This is a coach move. COACH One week, boys. Excited faces become grave, serious. The bus goes quiet. Coach nods to himself, pleased. EXT. NEWLANDS STADIUM - DAY The bus pulls away. 84. WE STAY AT NEWLANDS STADIUM -- and SWOOP UPWARDS until we are looking down on the stadium and surrounding streets. This AERIAL SHOT BECOMES A BIG MAP -- INT. NEWLANDS STADIUM - SECURITY CENTER - DAY -- pinned to a board in the security center. JASON We need snipers on top of the stadium and these surrounding buildings. Jason leads the meeting. He uses an old-fashioned pointer. All of Mandela's security detail present, plus LOCAL COP BRASS. LOCAL COP Not a problem. JASON We want these two approaches completely sanitized. LOCAL COP Two approaches? JASON We're not going to decide which way we bring him in until the very last moment. (BEAT) We need uniforms, plain clothes, sharp-shooters ... LINGA And sniffer dogs. JASON Yes. No truck bombs, no Oklahoma City. The locals stir, share a look. This is going to be a nightmare. JASON We've got an army unit on standby at Silvermine, if you need more men. Not an option the cops favor, judging by their faces. 85. JASON We're not taking any chances, okay. The President's going to be very exposed. (BEAT) Much too exposed. CUT TO: INT. PRESIDENT'S MERCEDES - DAY The silver Mercedes tools into Cape Town past Groote Schuur. Mandela travels with Barbara, who opens her first file of the journey -- but is forestalled by her boss. MANDELA Barbara, I have been studying. BARBARA For the summit in Taiwan? Good. MANDELA No. Not exactly. Mandela hands Barbara a folded SPORTS SECTION. MANDELA Test me. Barbara unfolds the sports section -- -- to reveal COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE SPRINGBOK SQUAD. A collector's pull-out. Barbara looks at the photos, shakes her head. BARBARA They look like thugs. Mandela just smiles at that remark. MANDELA Block out the names. See if I can recognize them. Barbara gives her boss a put-upon look -- this is such a waste of time! -- but blocks out the first row of names. Mandela points at the first photo. MANDELA Andre Joubert. (NEXT PHOTO) (MORE) 86. MANDELA (CONT'D) Gavin Johnson. (BEAT) Did I get them right? BARBARA Yes, Madiba. MANDELA (immensely pleased with HIMSELF) This is how I used to study in law school. (next photo is of Chester) Unfortunately, Chester is far too easy to identify. But that will change. It must. CUT TO: EXT. CAPE TOWN STREETS - EVENING The entire Springbok squad has been on a training run through Cape Town, on ordinary streets, through ordinary people. (This is unthinkable in top-level sports anywhere else. It really happened.) When they are recognized, drivers toot their horns, pedestrians cheer, kids on bicycles ride with them (mostly still white). As they approach the hotel grounds, Pienaar surges to the front, so that he can give them a message as they pass through the hotel gate. PIENAAR Players-only meeting in the team room after dinner. INT. SPRINGBOK TEAM ROOM - CAPE TOWN HOTEL - NIGHT Normally a conference room, now equipped with fridge, pool table, ping pong, sofas, TV etc. The entire team has assembled, minus Pienaar. A quiet air. Serious, relaxed. Pienaar enters, holding a sheaf of XEROXED PAGES, begins to hand them out. SPRINGBOK HOOKER What's this? Homework? 87. PIENAAR Sort of. The players look down at the pages. ON A PAGE: the words to Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika, in Xhosa. One by one, the players look from the page to Pienaar. SPRINGBOK WING Cappie? What's this? PIENAAR We need to learn it. We can't just mouth the words anymore. SPRINGBOK HOOKER Nobody cares, as long as we win matches. PIENAAR They do care. SPRINGBOK LOCK It's their song, not ours. SPRINGBOK WING It's a terrorist song. SPRINGBOK PROP They used to arrest you for singing it. PIENAAR And now it's one of our anthems. But he's talking to a deeply conservative group of guys. SPRINGBOK HOOKER Cap. You know I leave my guts on the field for you, and you know I'd follow you into a fight anywhere, any time. But this ... The hooker crumples the page, is about to throw it away. SPRINGBOK HOOKER ... I can't even read it. I definitely can't pronounce the words. One look at his men, and Pienaar knows he has hit a wall. 88. PIENAAR Okay, boys. It's optional. Take it if you want to. The players are relieved. Pienaar looks down at the sheet of paper for a moment, then looks up at the guys. PIENAAR It means "God Bless Africa". (BEAT) Which you have to admit, we could use. Nonetheless, most of the players crumple the pages, toss them into the closest trash can. CUT TO: INT. TV STUDIO BOLAND BOTHA Tell us, Mr. President, have you always been a rugby fan? Mandela appears with Boland Botha on his show, under a ONE TEAM, ONE NATION banner. MANDELA People do not realize that I once played rugby myself, when I was a student at Fort Hare. It is a very rough game. Almost as rough as politics. Boland laughs. BEGIN BOLAND BOTHA/MANDELA INTERVIEW SEQUENCE SHOTS OF BOOZE BEING DELIVERED to people's houses all over the country by BOTTLE STORE DELIVERY VANS (a very South African alcoholic enabling service). Lots and lots of booze. BOLAND BOTHA (V.O.) How do you think the Springboks will do? MANDELA (V.O.) I think they will do very well. Their level of commitment is tremendous. 89. THE SPRINGBOKS TRAIN on an isolated field at the SILVERMINE ARMY BASE outside Cape Town. Tactics and refinements, not fitness training. BOLAND BOTHA (V.O.) Now, it's been said that you used to support any team who played against the Springboks. MANDELA (V.O.) Obviously, that is no longer true. I am one hundred percent behind our boys. JASON, ETIENNE, LINGA and HENDRICK stand anxiously outside Newlands Stadium. One of them points to the top of a tall building nearby -- a Eureka! moment, for reasons we don't yet understand. BACK TO THE STUDIO: MANDELA After all, if I cannot change when circumstances demand it, how can I ask others to? END BOLAND BOTHA/MANDELA INTERVIEW SEQUENCE EXT. CAPE TOWN - DAY A SOUTH AFRICAN DEFENSE FORCE HELICOPTER hovers over the tall building next to Newlands stadium. INT. SADF HELICOPTER - DAY IN THE HELICOPTER, Mandela, Jason, Linga, all wearing radio headsets. All wearing suits, as if for a state occasion. JASON (ON RADIO) We're going to land you on top of that building. We'll own the road between it and the stadium. Mandela likes it. Jason gives the pilot a nod and they take off down the peninsula towards Silvermine Army base. FROM THE HELICOPTER, MANDELA LOOKS down at his country, and finds it good. 90. EXT. CAPE - DAY Helicopter against spectacular scenery. INT. SADF HELICOPTER - DAY Mandela points down. Jason and Linga look. POV FROM THE AIR: They can see the Springboks practising right below them, on the army base. Mandela pulls out the SPORTS SECTION with the Springbok team on it. His study guide. He takes a last minute glance at it as the helicopter loses altitude. EXT. SILVERMINE ARMY BASE - RUGBY FIELDS - DAY Mandela's helicopter lands at the edge of the field, and brings practise to a halt. ON COACH -- not happy, but what's he going to do. Mandela springs out of the helicopter, energized, excited. Linga and Jason with him. The players assemble in a loose, semi-formal unit. Not a line, but orderly. (We may or may not notice that Chester Williams is missing.) Pienaar stands at the front, relaxed. He's an old hand with Mandela, by now. MANDELA Francois, gentlemen -- forgive me for interrupting your work the day before such an important match ... (BEAT) ... I just wanted to wish you good luck, in person. There is a naughty twinkle in Mandela's eye. MANDELA And sometimes, very seldom, as President, I am allowed to do what I want. They all laugh. 91. Mandela wades in amongst them, leaving Linga and Jason behind. Picture this: Behind the barbed wire security of a modern, South African military base, a tall, regal black man in his 70's is surrounded by huge, sweating, battered, brutal- looking white men -- PIENAAR (DOING INTRODUCTIONS) Mr. President, this is -- MANDELA I know who this is. (SHAKING HANDS) Good luck, Andre. (shaking hands with all of THEM) Good luck Brendan, we're behind you all. Japie -- etc -- every single one of whose names he has committed to memory. Statesmanship is often about attention to detail. The players are awe-struck. (FOR THE RECORD: Andre, Gavin, James, Japie, Christiaan, Brendan, Hennie, Joel, Johan, Joost, Marius, James, Chris, Pieter, Garry, Mark, Kobus, Hannes, Krynauw, Ruben, Francois, Robby, Adriaan, Rudolf.) CUT AWAY to Jason and Linga, who are amazed by what they're seeing. LINGA Did you ever imagine this? JASON How could I? By the time Mandela has shaken every single player's hand, he has won the team over, coach and manager included. They glow. And then, Mandela frowns, steps back, looks at all of them. MANDELA But where is Chester? Pienaar doesn't answer immediately, he looks at his coach first. Coach nods. 92. PIENAAR He's injured, sir. His hamstring. We're trying to keep it quiet. MANDELA Is he out for the whole tournament? PIENAAR With hamstrings, who knows? (BEAT) We'll miss him. MANDELA The whole country will miss him. A somewhat sour note to leave on. But it's about to be rescued. SPRINGBOK PROP Mr. President, sir -- MANDELA Yes, Hennie. SPRINGBOK PROP -- this is for you. From us. The huge, thick man holds out a GREEN CAP with gold piping and a Springbok leaping above the visor. Mandela takes the cap as if he has just been given a holy relic. MANDELA I am honored. Truly honored. Mandela runs his finger over the embroidered Springbok leaping across the front of the cap. MANDELA Good luck gentlemen. Your country supports you, completely. The team applauds, beaming, glowing. Mandela turns to go back to the helicopter. MANDELA Francois, walk with me. Pienaar walks Mandela back towards the helicopter. 93. MANDELA I have something for you. Mandela reaches into his jacket, pulls out an ENVELOPE WITH THE PRESIDENT'S LETTERHEAD on it. Gives it to Pienaar. MANDELA This helped me, many times. Perhaps it will help you, too. CUT TO: Pienaar holds the envelope, stares upwards at the rising, departing helicopter, as do the rest of the team -- until Coach blows his whistle. COACH Enough fun and games! We've still got work to do. CUT TO: INT. NEWLANDS STADIUM - SECURITY CENTER - NIGHT Jason paces restlessly, going over his mental check list, making sure he hasn't missed anything. CUT TO: INT. MANDELA'S CAPE TOWN HOUSE - NIGHT Mandela reads, scrawls comments, signs papers from a big "In" pile. Mary enters with his glass of milk and his pills. MARY It's time for bed. MANDELA I think I'll stay up a little longer. The country is excited tonight. MARY You need to sleep. The doctor said. MANDELA The doctor has no sense of occasion. 94. Mandela turns on the TV, begins flipping channels. Rugby, rugby, rugby. Mandela is sucked in. Mary sighs. CUT TO: INT. COACH'S ROOM - CAPE TOWN HOTEL - NIGHT The coach and the manager. Cats on a hot tin roof. COACH There's nothing more we can do. The game plan's good. It's just a matter of the boys executing it tomorrow. MANAGER That's Pienaar's job. It's in his hands, now. INT. PIENAAR'S ROOM - CAPE TOWN HOTEL - NIGHT Room dark but for one small desk light. Pienaar stands at the window, looking out across Cape Town. He is deep in thought. Pienaar turns away from the window, goes to the desk, where, under one small light, we see "Invictus", the poem Mandela wrote out by hand. Pienaar begins reading it. There is a soft knock at his door. Pienaar goes to it, opens it. It is Nerine, accompanied by a cop. Pienaar nods at the cop, steps back so that Nerine can enter. As soon as the door closes behind her, Nerine says: NERINE You know the best thing about you being the captain? PIENAAR Uh ... the honor? NERINE You don't have to share a room. Nerine gives Pienaar a scorching kiss. He resists ... then responds -- then pulls away. 95. NERINE (BREATHLESS) Francois, come on. It's been weeks. PIENAAR Uh uh. I need to be angry for tomorrow. Nerine takes a deep breath, nods, turns away -- and sees the poem on Mandela's personal letterhead. NERINE What's this? PIENAAR A poem. From the President. NERINE How does a poem help you play rugby? PIENAAR The same way your visit does. (BEAT) Inspiration. OVER, REFEREE'S WHISTLE BLOWS HARD AND SHARP. SMASH CUT TO: EXT. NEWLANDS STADIUM - DAY A massive crowd roars. The Wallaby flyhalf runs forward, puts his boot into the ball, sends it soaring towards the waiting Springboks. The Springbok lock rises high into the air, supported on all sides, takes the ball out of the air perfectly -- -- just as the Wallaby pack closes in and huge men meet with an adrenaline-fueled crunch of bodies. The World Cup has begun at last. CUT TO: But not for Chester Williams. Clad in Springbok blazer and tie, he sits behind the coach, the manager and the reserves, in the stands -- and almost succeeds in hiding his utter disappointment at not being on the field. 96. INT. NEWLANDS STADIUM - VIP BOX - DAY Mandela looks on, calmly. The Minister of Sport isn't late for this match. The President of Rugby is pale with nerves. Behind Mandela, stand Linga and Hendrick. The VIP box is a safe place, but Jason isn't taking any chances. CUT TO: EXT. NEWLANDS STADIUM - DAY Jason prowls through the stadium, talking constantly on his radio. Hunter's adrenaline. CUT TO: INT./EXT. NEWLANDS STADIUM - DAY Back to action on the field. The highlights we see here should match the rugby primer we saw in the township. This continues the education of those who do not know rugby. So, for instance, we see a ball knocked forward, and the resulting scrum. We see a ball kicked out of bounds, and the resulting lineout. We see scintillating passing, rucking, mauling, tackling, strategic kicking at it's very best. Both teams are crisp and strong. INTERCUT SHOTS OF THE RUGBY MATCH -- -- with SHOTS OF THE SECURITY ARRANGEMENTS (snipers, lots and lots of uniformed cops inside and out, sniffer dogs etc. all overseen by Jason) -- -- with SHOTS OF THE CROWD, which, unlike the earlier test against the Lions, is completely and passionately united behind the Springboks (all commentators talk about the extraordinary passion of the crowd, that day) -- -- always returning to the VIP BOX, where something interesting is taking place right behind Mandela: Linga Moonsamy, the rugby scorner, the soccer lover, loses his scowling reserve and gets sucked into the game. 97. When a ball soars between the uprights and everyone in the box groans, Linga leans towards Hendrick and asks: LINGA What happened? HENDRICK They scored. When another ball soars between the uprights and the crowd roars, Linga asks again: LINGA What happened? HENDRICK We scored. A third ball through the uprights. Before Linga can ask: HENDRICK They scored again. A fourth ball, to the joy of the others in the box. LINGA We scored? HENDRICK Ja. We're tied. A fifth ball through the uprights, and the crowd goes wild. HENDRICK We're up by three. ACTION ON THE FIELD, as a Wallaby drive combining backs and forwards moves relentlessly towards the Springbok try line. Six times the drive is stopped by Springbok tackling, but the Wallabies keep possession and, on the seventh wave of the assault score a beautiful open try, which is converted. A ripple of concern goes through the crowd -- -- and the VIP box. LINGA They're ahead? HENDRICK By four. Nerves in the box. 98. But not on the field, as Pienaar starts a drive with a tackle we feel ourselves, resulting in a change of possession -- -- and a stunning, open field try scored in the corner by the Springbok wing, who raises his fist in the air, after juking the last Wallaby to try and tackle him. The crowd roars. In the VIP box, Mandela is on his feet, shaking hands with everyone he can reach, including Linga and Hendrick, and the waiter. The difficult, angled conversion is missed. LINGA What does that mean? HENDRICK We're only ahead by one. Another penalty kick. HENDRICK We're ahead by four. A drop goal. HENDRICK By seven. An incredible try by the Springbok fly half. HENDRICK By fourteen. Everyone dares to dream. The classic South African penchant for pessimism begins to abate. Two things to note: The crowd roar grows and grows and grows and is echoed in the VIP box. Even Jason turns to look at the action on the field -- but only for a second. Also, this match serves as the coming-out party for the SPRINGBOK FLY HALF, who scores 22 of South Africa's 27 points this day. SUDDENLY, A REFEREE'S WHISTLE CREATES PANDEMONIUM on the field, in the stands, and in the VIP box. LINGA What happened? HENDRICK We won! 99. LINGA We did? Mandela shoots to his feet, pushes his chair away and begins the famous "Mandela shuffle" -- a very cool African boogie that is one of his signature moves. ON THE MANDELA SHUFFLE -- DISSOLVE TO: INT. VIP PARTY - NIGHT -- the same shuffle hours later, at a VIP party. Mandela has changed clothes, wears one of his Indonesian-inspired "Madiba shirts" and dances energetically with the absolutely stunning TROPHY WIFE of one of the VIP's. TROPHY WIFE You must be very pleased! MANDELA What man would not be pleased to be dancing with a beautiful woman like you? TROPHY WIFE Oh, Mr. President, you're exaggerating. MANDELA Indeed not. My father was a Xhosa chief, and therefore a polygamist. As you know, I am not. (BEAT) But when I look at you ... I envy my father. The man is a major flirt, and really enjoying himself. But, once again, he is dancing with a stranger -- -- and, when we get close to his eyes, we realize that Mandela is pushing himself way past empty. CUT TO: INT. JASON'S HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Jason is asleep on his face, in his suit and shoes. CUT TO: 100. EXT. CAPE TOWN WATERFRONT - NIGHT Big party, spilling onto the streets. Most of the partiers are white. Black South Africans look on, or serve drinks. We follow the crowd into a big sports bar -- INT. SPORTS BAR - NIGHT -- where the Springboks are pounding beers and blowing off the steam of months of training grind, plus a huge win. Even though most of the players are with their wives or girlfriends, pretty, single women crowd them, two and three deep, men pay for round after round of beers. Pienaar and Nerine are part of the action. Then Pienaar gets a TEXT MESSAGE which makes him shake his head, give Nerine a chagrined look. He grabs the Springbok closest to him, puts his mouth near the player's ear and screams again the hubbub: PIENAAR COACH'S RUN, NINE A.M. SHARP. PASS IT ON. The Springbok shakes his head -- bloody coach -- grabs the player next to him, repeats it. Pienaar watches the message travelling through his team -- and grins. Then, something catches his eye on one of the big overhead TV's. ON THE TV: news footage of the Mandela victory boogie. The boogie is followed by a quick "How far we have come" type of montage. One of the images shows an island ringed by rough surf. Pienaar gets an idea. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. CAPE TOWN STREETS - DAY Pienaar leads his hung-over, sleep-deprived team on a very slow jog through the mostly empty streets. 101. When he gets to an intersection, he sneaks a peek down at the palm of his left hand. CLOSE-UP ON PIENAAR'S HAND, where he has drawn a crude street map. Pienaar takes a left at the intersection. CUT TO: Another intersection, another peek at the map on his hand, and another left turn, takes the team -- EXT. CAPE TOWN WATERFRONT - DAY -- back onto the waterfront, to an idling FERRY BOAT, where the coach and the manager wait for them -- along with the player's wives and girlfriends. COACH I hope you're not that slow next week. Pienaar grins, stops. The team stops around him. SPRINGBOK FLYHALF What's going on? PIENAAR A change of pace. CUT TO: EXT. FERRY BOAT - DAY The ferry pulls away from the waterfront, with the team on board, pulling on tracksuits against the cold sea air. It is early winter. The seas are fairly rough. So are the stomachs of the `boks who partied hard last night. SPRINGBOK HOOKER Who's bloody idea was this? ON PIENAAR, innocent as a lamb. 102. EXT. OPEN OCEAN - DAY Behind the ferry, Cape Town and Table Mountain, in all their glory. Ahead of the ferry, one of the most notorious island prisons in modern history -- -- ROBBEN ISLAND. EXT. ROBBEN ISLAND - DAY Robben Island lies only eight miles from the mainland. It is two miles long, with sandy beaches full of penguins and seals. It would be pretty -- -- but for its MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON. Concrete, barbed wire, guard towers. (In 1995, the political prisoner wing was shut, but the island still housed criminal prisoners, so the island still had the feel of real incarceration. Today, it is a tourist destination.) EXT. OPEN OCEAN - DAY As they approach the island, a sense of dark history settles over the Springboks and their partners. One of the Springboks turns to a DECKHAND, getting ready to moor at the jetty. SPRINGBOK LOCK How do they bring the prisoners here? DECKHAND On this boat. Sobering. EXT. ROBBEN ISLAND - DAY The Springboks and their partners step onto dry land with some relief, look around at the prison, humbled. 103. NERINE (TO PIENAAR) Imagine being able to see Cape Town so close by. PIENAAR That would make it worse. They head towards the prison entrance, slowly becoming a tighter and tighter bunch. The ghosts of Mandela, and all the others who spent much of their lives here, are very strong. CUT TO: VARIOUS SHOTS OF THE SPRINGBOK PARTY, in the EXERCISE YARD, the LIME QUARRY, the MESS HALL. None of the usual horsing around. This place affects them, deeply. CUT TO: INT. ROBBEN ISLAND PRISON - SECTION B - DAY Section B is the bleak political wing. Tiny cells line each side of a damp concrete hallway. A PRISON GUARD shows the Springboks into the hallway, and they dwarf it, as they stand there, shocked. Shocked at what was done in their names. This group is as quiet as we have ever seen them. PIENAAR Can we see the President's cell? PRISON GUARD Yes, of course. (leading them down past THE CELLS) We've done it up just the way it was. They reach a cell with a piece of white cardboard on the door, showing the number 466/64 -- MANDELA'S PRISON NUMBER. PRISON GUARD (pointing at the number) That means he was the 466th prisoner admitted in 1964. The Prison Guard unlocks the door, pulls it open, then unlocks the metal grill that is the inside door. 104. INT. MANDELA'S CELL - DAY Pienaar peers into the cell. It is tiny. There is no bed, just a sisal mat on the concrete floor, with a couple of blankets. A chamber pot, a short bench, a tin cup and plate are the only other objects in the room. A couple of small lockers are screwed high to the wall. The barred window is opaque. It lets in light but does not allow the prisoner a view. When Pienaar enters, we see how small the cell really is. He can reach out and touch the opposite walls at the same time. This is a bleak, horrible, dehumanizing place. Pienaar is stunned by it. He turns, slowly, looking at Mandela's world for over twenty years. CUT TO: INT. ROBBEN ISLAND PRISON - SECTION B - DAY The other Springboks and their partners wait to look into the cell themselves, a little puzzled by how much time Pienaar's taking. INT. MANDELA'S CELL - DAY Pienaar almost looks as if he is in a trance. He hears Mandela's voice in the cell with him. MANDELA (V.O.) (RECITING "INVICTUS") Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. Now, Pienaar sees Mandela in prison clothes, in the cell. (The image is unclear, ghostly.) MANDELA (V.O.) In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbow'd. Pienaar sees Mandela sitting on the dirt in the prison yard, breaking up rock with a hammer, along with rows of other political prisoners. 105. MANDELA (V.O.) Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid. Pienaar sees Mandela leading his fellow prisoners to the lime quarry, to mine lime under the eye of a guard who looks like Pienaar. MANDELA (V.O.) It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishment the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. STREET OUTSIDE MANDELA'S HOUSE - NIGHT The gates open. Linga gets out of one BMW, Hendrick out of the other. We know the routine. Only, Mandela doesn't appear for his walk. Linga and Hendrick wait for a moment, then head in through the gate -- EXT. MANDELA'S HOUSE - NIGHT -- break into a sprint, when they see MANDELA'S FORM, CRUMPLED on the lawn. CUT TO: INT. MANDELA'S HOUSE - MORNING Barbara, Mary, the house staff, plus Linga, Hendrick, Etienne and Jason, all wait. All are scared. Nobody talks. The SOUND OF FOOTSTEPS from on the top floor brings them to their feet. MANDELA'S DOCTOR descends the stairs. BARBARA What happened? DOCTOR It's simple exhaustion, but it'll lead to worse if it's not treated. He needs complete rest. And I don't mean just shifting the affairs of state to his bedroom. (MORE) 106. DOCTOR (CONT'D) No phone calls, no visitors, no meetings. No politics. MARY You know him. He won't do that. DOCTOR Then I'm going to put him into hospital. In isolation. BARBARA No. Not yet. I'll threaten him with hospital if he doesn't behave. MARY I'll cancel everything. DOCTOR And I'll come back tonight to make sure he's not working. The doctor leaves. The rest of them look at each other, relieved ... and maybe a little guilty, for letting things get this bad. BARBARA (to Mary, aside) Don't cancel the trip to Taiwan. Not yet. CUT TO: INT. MANDELA'S BEDROOM - DAY Dark. Curtains drawn. The door opens quietly. A shaft of light from the door shows Mandela, on his back in bed, eyes closed. Barbara enters. The sight of Mandela lying like this is chilling. It is too close to what he would look like lying in a casket. Barbara makes sure he is breathing. He is. She unplugs his phone, takes it. Unplugs his TV. Sweeps the room for papers, articles, legal briefs. For the first time, she takes an arm load of stuff away from him. She gives Mandela one last, long look, closes the door behind her. We stay behind and look at Mandela, and ponder South Africa's fate if this were worse than just deep, sedated sleep. DISSOLVE TO: 107. EXT. SPRINGBOK TRAINING FACILITY - DAY Chester Williams jogs under the tense eye of coach, trainer, manager and Pienaar. He accelerates, running fast, but not sprinting. COACH That's not good enough. Chester opens it up. Full sprint, sustained. Pienaar grins. Chester is back. COACH Let's hope the Samoans don't injure it again. CUT TO: EXT. ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY ONE, BRIEF SHOT of a typically brutal Samoan tackle, and the ensuing foul play in the maul. CUT TO: FOUR QUICK SHOTS of Chester williams scoring four tries. CUT TO: ONE MORE SHOT of the Springboks trudging off the field. Every single player is bruised or bleeding, or both. CUT TO: INT. MANDELA'S OFFICE - DAY Looking frail, but better than before, Mandela pencils in a score ON THE WORLD CUP BRACKET DIAGRAM: SOUTH AFRICA 42, WESTERN SAMOA 14. The diagram shows us that this was a quarter final match. We can see that he has entered all the South African scores. (For the record: South Africa 27 - Australia 18; South Africa 21 - Romania 3; South Africa 20 - Canada 0.) For the semi-finals, against South Africa, Mandela pencils in France. 108. On the other side of the bracket, Mandela pencils in England vs. the All Blacks. With a satisfied grunt, Mandela steps back from the diagram. Things are shaping up nicely. A knock at the door, and Barbara enters, ushering in a GROUP OF LABOR LEADERS. BARBARA Madiba, this is -- MANDELA I know who this is. Beaming, exuding energy we know he doesn't have, Mandela rises to yet another occasion. He strides forward to shake hands. MANDELA Welcome, and thank you for coming such a long way to see me. DISSOLVE TO: INT. LUXURY BUS - DAY Monsoon rain batters the bus as it crawls towards KING'S PARK STADIUM, in Durban. CUT TO: EXT. KING'S PARK STADIUM - DAY Rain, rain, rain. The field is flooding. CUT TO: INT. SPRINGBOK DRESSING ROOM - DAY Coach walks in on his team, who are dressed for the match and ready to go. COACH Forty minute postponement. They're trying to clear the field. CUT TO: 109. EXT. KING'S PARK STADIUM - EVENING A HUNDRED ZULU CLEANING LADIES with brooms and squeegees push the water off the field. Capacity crowd cheers them on. (This happened. There will be stock footage.) CUT TO: INT. SPRINGBOK DRESSING ROOM - EVENING The boys stretch, jump, try to keep warmed-up. CUT TO: INT. PENTHOUSE SUITE, TAIWAN - DAY Mandela and a negotiating team are meeting with their opposite numbers from Taiwan. A high-level affair that cannot be interrupted. Nonetheless, Mandela takes a discreet look at his watch, and we realize that his mind is back home, with the Springboks. CUT TO: INT. SPRINGBOK DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT Pienaar leads his men out into the rain. CUT TO: EXT. KING'S PARK STADIUM - NIGHT A quagmire, despite the efforts of the Zulu ladies. Muddy green and gold against the muddy blue, white and red of France. End of a close game. Both teams are tired, muddy and desperate. The French assault the Springbok try line, wave after wave. The Springboks defend valiantly, but slowly go backwards. Finally, the French score a try -- or do they? CLOSE-UP ON THE RUGBY BALL, under a mountain of muddy men, on the ground three inches outside the try line. 110. The referee waves off the try. CUT TO: INT. PRESIDENT'S JET - DAY Mandela flies home, still working intensely with a mixed South African/Taiwanese trade group. Mary slips a piece of paper in front of him, discreetly. ON THE PIECE OF PAPER IN EXCITED WRITING: BOKS 19, FRANCE 15. WE'RE IN THE FINALS!!! GO BOKKE!!! Mandela's face betrays nothing. But, he gets up. MANDELA Please excuse me for a moment. With Mary leading the way, Mandela goes to the back of the plane, looking grave and leaderly -- -- but once he is through the galley curtain, he breaks into a huge smile. MANDELA This is very good ... very good! Who is our opponent? MARY The All Blacks play England tomorrow. Then, we'll know. MANDELA Please make sure that my schedule is clear for the entire match. MARY Yes, Madiba. DISSOLVE TO: INT. SUN CITY RESORT - DAY ON A BIG SCREEN TV in a private banquet room, the Springbok team watches the England/All Black semi-final, which the All Blacks dominate from beginning to end -- -- thanks to the exploits of JONAH LOMU, their unnaturally huge, fast left wing, of Tongan parentage (and unanimous choice for the best player in the entire World Cup). 111. Jonah Lomu scores in the first two minutes of the match, the first of four tries. He runs through, over, and around hapless defenders. His speed and balance are almost unprecedented in a man his size. The Springboks go quiet as they watch this beating by the All Blacks. CUT TO: INT. MANDELA'S HOUSE - DAY Mandela watches at home with Barbara and Mary. MANDELA Let's do some work while we watch. Barbara resists her natural impulse to work and says: BARBARA Just enjoy the rugby. CUT TO: EXT. STREET OUTSIDE MANDELA'S HOUSE - DAY The sound of the match ON THE RADIO of one of the BMWs. Johan Lomu's name in every sentence. All the bodyguards are out of the cars, enjoying the winter sunshine as they listen to the match. KWEZI So, let me understand this. The All Blacks are killing a team that thrashed us last year? ETIENNE Thanks for reminding me. Hendrick opens the trunk of their BMW, pulls out a RUGBY BALL, shows it to Linga. Linga nods. Okay. Throw it. CUT TO: INT. SUN CITY RESORT - DAY Another Lomu try, and a ripple goes through the Springboks. 112. SPRINGBOK HOOKER We're going to have to tackle better than the English, that's for sure. PIENAAR We do. CUT TO: INT. MANDELA'S HOUSE - DAY TV blares. Barbara does some work. Mandela comes and peeks over her shoulder -- MANDELA Are those the judicial appointments for the Free State? -- and Barbara shuts the file. BARBARA They'll keep until after the match. CUT TO: EXT. STREET OUTSIDE MANDELA'S HOUSE - DAY A pile of guns in holsters, on the hood of a BMW. Suit jackets draped over the side mirrors. In the wide street, in their shirts and ties, the boys toss the ball around. The white bodyguards handle the ball expertly, the black bodyguards for the first time in their lives. ETIENNE Give it a spin when you pass it. (DEMONSTRATING) Like this. Kwezi catches the ball, tries to throw it with spin, blows it. The ball bounces crazily all over the street, seems to have a mind of its own as it eludes Kwezi. They all laugh. CUT TO: 113. INT. SUN CITY RESORT - DAY Lomu scores his third try. SPRINGBOK WING How much does Lomu weigh? SPRINGBOK FLANK About 120 kilos. SPRINGBOK LOCK Shit, that's what I weigh. SPRINGBOK WING Ja, but at least you're slow. As we will discover, the wing is going to have to defend against Lomu. CUT TO: INT. MANDELA'S HOUSE - DAY Mandela isn't watching TV. He's at the window, looking out at a GAME OF TOUCH RUGBY, taking place on the street outside his house. MANDELA Come and look at this. CUT TO: EXT. STREET OUTSIDE MANDELA'S HOUSE - DAY Two mixed teams. Hendrick passes to Linga, who passes back to Hendrick, who scores. HENDRICK (PANTING) You should've played rugby. LINGA (PANTING) They wouldn't let me carry my gun. Laughter. This scene was unthinkable a year ago. CUT TO: 114. INT. MANDELA'S HOUSE - DAY Barbara and Mary stand next to Mandela at the window. Mandela's eyes twinkle with pleasure as he hears the laughter. In a way, this small moment already justifies everything he has done. Almost. He gives Barbara a sly look. MANDELA Do you still think I'm wasting my time with the rugby? Before Barbara can reply, excitement on the TV makes Mandela turn away. He looks at the TV just as Lomu scores his fourth try, to make it 42 - 15. Mandela shakes his head, awed. MANDELA Barbara, can you please tell the Minister of Sport that I need a detailed briefing on the All Blacks. Barbara gives Mandela a long look. BARBARA This rugby, it's still strictly political? MANDELA Oh yes. Of course. CUT TO: INT. PIENAAR PARENT'S HOUSE - DAY Pienaar hands an envelope to his father. PIENAAR Don't lose them. I won't be able to get more. Mr. Pienaar opens the envelope, pulls out TICKETS TO THE WORLD CUP FINAL. Mr. Pienaar kisses the tickets. MR. PIENAAR Thanks, Francois. (fanning out tickets) Me, mom, Nerine -- wait, and the fourth? Who's it for? 115. Pienaar looks at his father, mischief in his eyes. CUT TO: EXT. FREEWAY - END OF THE DAY BMW, Mercedes, BMW, driving from Pretoria to Johannesburg at the end of the day. Red winter sunset over the arid Highveld. GO `BOKS, GO AMABOKOBOKO signs, side by side. Chester and Pienaar billboards. MINISTER OF SPORT (V.O.) The All Blacks beat Ireland 43 to 19 -- INT. PRESIDENT'S MERCEDES - DAY The Minister of Sport gives Mandela his final briefing. At his side, Barbara thrusts papers in front of Mandela for his signature. This continues throughout. MINISTER OF SPORT -- they beat Wales 34 to 9, they beat Japan 145 to 17. MANDELA 145 points, in one match? Linga listens openly. MINISTER OF SPORT It's a new international record. (back to the briefing) They beat Scotland 48 to 30 in the quarter finals. You saw the match with England. MANDELA 45 to 29. And it was not that close. (BEAT) They seem unstoppable. MINISTER OF SPORT If opposing teams play them straight up, Jonah Lomu runs wild. If they focus on Lomu, that leaves others free. (BEAT) And, also, there's the business of the haka. 116. MANDELA Their Maori war dance. Yes. It's very powerful. MINISTER OF SPORT My sources tell me that half of the All Black matches are won before the first whistle, because of it. Mandela peers out of the window at a Springbok billboard. MANDELA How are we going to beat them? MINISTER OF SPORT I have the coach's number. You could call him and ask. MANDELA No ... no. I don't want to break their focus for even a minute. (INTENSE) But, how do we win? ON LINGA: an idea occurs to him. A wild idea. He almost turns and blurts it out -- restrains himself. MINISTER OF SPORT Maybe we won't. They're favored two-to-one. (BEAT) Madiba, we've already exceeded all expectations. On and off the field. MANDELA It's not enough. Not now. Not so close. (BEAT) This country is hungry for greatness. Barbara pushes another paper in front of Mandela. He signs it. CUT TO: INT. SPRINGBOK COACH'S OFFICE - EVENING The coach, the manager and Pienaar gather for a final briefing in the coach's spartan office. 117. COACH How's the feeling in the dressing room? PIENAAR Calm. MANAGER And Lomu? Are they talking about him? Pienaar shrugs -- of course. Coach grins. COACH Nobody gives us a bloody chance. I like that. It plays into their one weakness. Both Pienaar and the manager look at the coach. COACH Their vanity. (BEAT) They're already counting the win. But they want to win with style, the way they won all their other matches. They want to show the world how beautiful All Black rugby is. (GLARING) I just want to show the bloody world how hard we tackle. Pienaar's up for that. PIENAAR I wish tomorrow was already here. CUT TO: INT. SECURITY OFFICE - ELLIS PARK - NIGHT Jason wishes tomorrow was already over. He goes through his plans, his check lists for the tenth time. He sighs, tries to roll the tension out of his shoulders, gives up. He leaves the office. 118. I/E ELLIS PARK STADIUM - NIGHT Cops at their posts. Jason walks alone through the tunnels, until he comes to a field entrance. He goes to the edge, looks out at the dimly lit field, trying to imagine tomorrow. ETIENNE (from behind him) Come on, man. There's nothing more you can do today. Jason turns to Etienne. JASON Have I ever mentioned to you that I hate rugby? ETIENNE Once or twice, yes. JASON I just want to get him through tomorrow, safely. That's all. ETIENNE We all do. A look between the two men: they are united. They have come a long way. CUT TO: INT. PIENAAR'S HOTEL ROOM - JOHANNESBURG - NIGHT As in Cape Town, Pienaar stares out into the night, pensively. Preoccupied. So preoccupied, that when Nerine enters quietly, he hardly turns. NERINE I brought one of your mom's protein shakes. Pienaar nods, thanks. Nerine puts the protein shake down. She tries to read Pienaar's mood, see what he needs from her at this moment. NERINE Thinking about tomorrow? 119. PIENAAR No, tomorrow's taken care of, one way or another. Pienaar turns to her. PIENAAR I'm thinking about how you spend 30 years in a tiny cell, but come out ready to forgive the people who put you there. DISSOLVE TO: INT. MANDELA'S HOUSE - NIGHT We have seen that solitary shape under the blankets before. We have seen the clock on the bedside table change from 4:59 to 5:00 before. We have seen Mandela's eyes open, immediately. But we have never seen Mandela roll over and go back to sleep. SUPER: JUNE 24, 1995 - RUGBY WORLD CUP FINAL. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE MANDELA'S HOUSE - NIGHT The two BWMs wait faithfully. INT. GREY BMW (LEAD) - NIGHT Linga looks at his watch. INT. GREY BMW (TRAILER) - NIGHT Hendrick does the same. Gets out. EXT. STREET OUTSIDE MANDELA'S HOUSE - NIGHT Linga gets out, meets Hendrick at the gate. LINGA Big day. HENDRICK Be an even bigger day if we actually won. 120. Then, they both look at their watches again. HENDRICK Where is he? They share a worried look. Linga reaches for his radio. CUT TO: INT. MANDELA'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Mandela's bedroom door is opened from outside the room. Light from the hallway hits the bed. Mandela looks very still under the covers. Mary peers in, concern wiping away sleep. She sees Mandela lying there. Mary tiptoes in, concern growing, until she stands over Mandela -- -- who opens his eyes without moving otherwise. MANDELA Can a man not sleep in, when he has a big day ahead of him? CUT TO: EXT. STREET OUTSIDE MANDELA'S HOUSE - NIGHT Mary's voice on Linga's radio. LINGA (INTO RADIO) Okay, thanks. Out. Linga lowers his radio, embarrassed. LINGA He's sleeping in. HENDRICK Or was. Linga and Hendrick stand at the gate for a moment, then turn to head back to their respective cars. Linga pauses. LINGA I had an idea. About today. (BEAT) It's a crazy idea. 121. HENDRICK Hey, don't worry, man. I already know you're crazy. CUT TO: INT. MANDELA'S HOUSE - EARLY MORNING Mandela eats breakfast -- porridge and fresh fruit -- and looks over the newspaper headlines, all screaming about today's World Cup final. The doorbell rings, and he pauses, listens to the sound of voices at the door -- then the sound of heavy footsteps approaching through the house. Mandela wipes his mouth and waits. Linga and Hendrick appear in the doorway. They look even bigger indoors. MANDELA Morning, boys. LINGA & HENDRICK Morning, Madiba. MANDELA What is it? Linga hesitates -- until Hendrick gives him a (for Hendrick) discreet nudge. HENDRICK Linga had an idea, sir. CUT TO: EXT. MANDELA'S HOUSE - DAY Mary walks briskly to her car, gets in and drives towards the opening gate, fast. CUT TO: EXT. STREET OUTSIDE MANDELA'S HOUSE - MORNING Linga and Hendrick watch as Mary drives away. 122. HENDRICK Now you've done it. CUT TO: EXT. JOHANNESBURG STREETS - DAY As in Cape Town, the Springboks jog through the streets. As in Cape Town, cars toot their horns, people cheer. But the crowd running with them is twice as large as it was in Cape Town -- and twice as black. This crowd shows that the Springboks really do have the support of the whole country now. As the `boks rumble past, newspaper vendors, gardeners, pharmacy delivery men on small motorbikes abandon their tasks and run alongside the team. Pienaar turns to look at one of his teammates, grins, gets a grin in return. CUT TO: INT. SECURITY OFFICE - ELLIS PARK - DAY Jason addresses his entire team (minus Linga), plus assorted POLICE OFFICERS. JASON The tickets sold out long before the team became so popular. So it's not exactly going to be the rainbow nation out there. That's the reality. (BEAT) The President will greet the players before the match, he'll present the trophy after the match. He'll be exposed to 62,000 people, twice. He'll be on TV, live, all over the world. (expressing his deepest FEAR) All it takes is one idiot trying to make a statement, or one crazy fool who thinks he hears god speaking to him over the radio. One of the cops smiles at that. 123. JASON It's happened before! (SUPER INTENSE) But not today. Not on our watch. Not today. The security boys are fired up. CUT TO: EXT. OUTSIDE ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY It is hours before the match, but every entrance to Ellis Park stadium is chaotic with people, cars, face painters, flag sellers, fruit vendors. Cops everywhere, and everywhere outnumbered. In the crowd outside, WE FIND SIPHO, collecting empty bottles from trash cans, for recycling. Jason was right about the demographics of the crowd: white, khaki-clad, quite a few old South African flags among the sea of new flags. Springbok colors everywhere. We may even see the FOUR BOERE from the Lions debacle earlier. FACE PAINTER (TO BOERE) Face flag? BOER Bugger off! Ellis Park isn't exactly the Rainbow Nation today. BOLAND BOTHA (V.O.) We're at Ellis Park on this historic day, where, even this early, crowd excitement is at fever PITCH -- Boland does another live remote. FANS CHEER AND WAVE behind HIM BOLAND BOTHA -- because their beloved green and gold have somehow managed to exceed all expectations. CUT TO: 124. EXT. SPRINGBOK HOTEL - JOHANNESBURG - DAY A luxury bus pulls away from the hotel, with a FULL POLICE ESCORT, LIGHTS ON, SIRENS BLARING. BOLAND BOTHA (V.O.) But now they come up against a team that is unlike any other they have played. CUT TO: INT. LUXURY BUS - DAY With that inward look of boxers before a big fight, the Springboks begin the journey to the stadium. BOLAND BOTHA (V.O.) These All Blacks are possibly one of the greatest international sides ever, with a player in Jonah Lomu who is as dominant as any this correspondent has ever seen. CUT TO: EXT. STREET OUTSIDE MANDELA'S HOUSE - DAY Mandela's Mercedes exits his gate, BMWs fore and aft. BOLAND BOTHA (V.O.) To lose to them is no disgrace. To lose to them in the finals is, in fact, an honor. CUT TO: INT. PRESIDENT'S MERCEDES - DAY Tight on Mandela's face, absolutely expressionless. His game face. BOLAND BOTHA (V.O.) I say this with absolutely no negativity. I simply want to save people from the heartbreak of unrealistic expectations. CUT TO: 125. EXT. OUTSIDE ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY Back to Boland's live remote. BOLAND BOTHA So, take a reality check, sit back and share an afternoon with one billion fellow fans around the world. And as you do, feel a special pride in having made it this far. This is Boland Botha, signing off and sitting back at Ellis Park. Huge crowd now, all around the TV truck, streaming in. CUT TO: EXT. LUXURY BUS - DAY Driving down a secure access lane, the Springbok bus and police escort approach Ellis Park. And pass Sipho, who stares up at them from the sidewalk. CUT TO: INT. LUXURY BUS - DAY The boys are very quiet -- until the sheer spectacle gets to them. Then, the first nerves hit. You can tell in the way they look at each other, the way they swallow. CUT TO: EXT. OUTSIDE ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY Mandela's convoy pulls up at a secure entrance. CUT TO: EXT. ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY Stadium almost full. Crowd noise a dull roar. ABOVE THE SPRINGBOK BENCH, near the field, we find Nerine, Mr. and Mrs. Pienaar ... and Eunice, as they take their seats. Pienaar got the fourth ticket for her. 126. Eunice turns to Mrs. Pienaar. EUNICE What's Mr. Francois doing now? CUT TO: INT. DRESSING ROOM - DAY All dressed, all warmed up, the Springboks are quiet, introspective. Everything that should be said has been said. This is the calm before the storm. (NOTE that almost every player wears bandages, or braces, or is injured in some way.) Pienaar is not in the room. CUT TO: I/E ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY Dressed in his rugby togs, Pienaar sneaks up the ramp to the edge of the field, takes a peek out of the tunnel -- -- and is blown away by the magnitude of it all. CUT TO: EXT. AERIAL SHOT OF JOHANNESBURG - DAY Vast city seen from the air. Zero in on Ellis Park. CUT TO: ANOTHER ANGLE of a SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS 747 flying over the city, in the direction of Ellis Park. INT. 747 COCKPIT - DAY CO-PILOT Final approach, Captain. CAPTAIN Let it be noted that I'm taking control of the aircraft. ANGLE BACK THROUGH THE COCKPIT -- NO PASSENGERS. 127. CAPTAIN I assume full responsibility for what happens from now on. CO-PILOT Duly noted. The captain drops the nose of the 747 towards Ellis Park. CUT TO: EXT. ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY Every seat full. Almost every seat filled by a big white man. Excitement unbearable. Jason stalks the runways between the seating sections, high in the stadium. Binoculars around his neck, radio in hand. Something catches his eye. Something in the air. Jason lifts his binoculars to his eyes. POV THROUGH BINOCULARS -- the 747 is heading right for the stadium. Jason lowers his binoculars. He frowns -- more puzzled than alarmed. (This is pre-9/11.) He lifts his radio to his mouth. JASON (INTO RADIO) Do you see that jet, to the east? CUT TO: Etienne, in another part of the stadium, looks eastwards -- sees it. ETIENNE (INTO RADIO) Did they get clearance for this? CUT TO: JASON (INTO RADIO) Not from us. The 747 gets closer, fast. Jason is hit by a horrible thought. 128. JASON (INTO RADIO) Where is he? LINGA (ON RADIO) VIP BOX. Jason finds the VIP box, looks out at the 747 -- -- and realizes that the jet is heading straight at that side of the stadium. JASON (INTO RADIO) Get him out of there. Now. CUT TO: INT. VIP BOXES - ELLIS PARK - DAY Mandela is not in his seat. Linga turns. Hendrick points at the closed door of the VIP bathroom. LINGA (INTO RADIO) No time. CUT TO: EXT. ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY Nothing Jason can do about it but hold his breath as -- SMASH CUT TO: INT. 747 COCKPIT - DAY The captain drops the 747 even lower. SMASH CUT TO: EXT. ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY Jason has to fight down the impulse to flee. SMASH CUT TO: 129. INT. VIP BOXES - ELLIS PARK - DAY Everyone in the VIP box sees the jet. They all stand. SMASH CUT TO: EXT. ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY The 747 nose appears over the rim of the stadium. SMASH CUT TO: INT. 747 COCKPIT - DAY CAPTAIN Full throttle. Captain and co-pilot go full throttle, yank the 747 straight upwards. CUT TO: EXT. ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY The ALMIGHTY ROAR OF FULL THROTTLES fills the stadium, as the 747 passes less than 200 feet overhead -- -- so that everyone can read the huge letters painted on the bottom of the wings: GOOD LUCK BOKKE (This really happened.) THE CROWD GOES WILD. JASON NEARLY FAINTS with relief. INT. VIP BOXES - ELLIS PARK - DAY Linga and Hendrick share a look. They have just had a brush with the unthinkable. INT. DRESSING ROOM - DAY THE DRESSING ROOM VIBRATES with the roar ... 130. SPRINGBOK WING What the hell was that? ... which slowly fades ... ... leaving only the background roar of the revved up crowd. The boys jog in place, dying for the release of rugby. Pienaar appears to be praying, silently. CUT TO: INT. ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY The REFEREE walks off the field, into the tunnel, stands there for a moment, then raises his whistle to his mouth and blows a LONG, ECHOING BLAST -- INT. DRESSING ROOM - DAY -- which is the signal to come to the field. The cop opens the door, throws down a full parade ground salute as Pienaar leads his men out of the dressing room. PIENAAR Breathe, boys. Breathe. INT. ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY WITH THE `BOKS, we head down the hallway, down some stairs to the tunnel onto the field -- -- where the referee holds his hand up like a traffic cop, keeping the boys in a line in the tunnel. As they wait, they hear the CRUNCHING APPROACH OF BIG MEN IN CLEATS. Down the opposite stairway come THE ALL BLACKS. This is the first time we have seen them in the flesh. Huge men, black on black uniforms, arrogant. Been here before, done this before. The best in the world, expecting nothing but the best from the day. They ignore the Springboks, dismiss them, line up next to them in the tunnel. 131. The SOUND OF THIRTY MEN JOGGING IN PLACE in their cleats, on the concrete, sounds like a drum roll before a medieval battle. The Springbok wing sneaks a peek at JONAH LOMU. The biggest, fastest wing ever. Even bigger looking in this confined space. Bigger than the Springbok wing, bigger than any of the Springbok backs, bigger than most of the Springbok forwards. The referee nods to both captains, turns, and leads them onto the field -- EXT. ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY -- where the already-whipped up crowd goes crazy, as both teams sprint onto the field and go through their brief warm- up ritual. WE FOCUS ON THE CROWD, focus on how white and old South Africa most of them are. The referee blows his whistle again, and both teams assemble in a line, facing each other. Glaring like boxers across immaculate green grass. INT. ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY Seen only in silhouette, Mandela walks down the tunnel. He is flanked by Jason, The Minister of Sport and the President of SA Rugby. Linga, as always, has Mandela's back. Plus Hendrick. EXT. ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY Mandela emerges into daylight, wearing not a suit, not a Madiba shirt -- -- he is wearing Francois Pienaar's green and gold number 6 rugby jersey. On his head is THE SPRINGBOK CAP given to him by the team in CAPE TOWN The crowd catches its breath. This is unprecedented, shocking ... and brilliant. The Springboks digest this extraordinary display of support. 132. SPRINGBOK HOOKER (murmuring to Pienaar) The All Blacks won't like that. Pienaar nods, eyes glinting. Mandela is giving them an edge. As he walks towards the waiting teams, Mandela lifts the Springbok cap high, waves it, and fires his famous, beautiful, huge, African smile at the crowd -- -- who roar and stand, slowly, and start chanting, slowly ... CROWD Nelson ... Nelson ... Nelson ... NELSON ... NELSON ... NELSON ... 63 000 South Africans, chanting as one. CUT TO: A QUICK SERIES OF SHOTS ALL ACROSS SOUTH AFRICA, THE CHANT ECHOES through EMPTY STREETS. Not a soul, not a car to be seen. Everyone is inside, watching TV. CUT TO: EXT. ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY CROWD ... NELSON ... NELSON ... NELSON ... etc. Mandela shakes hands with the Springboks, who are brimming with pride. Mandela shakes Chester Williams' hand with special energy. MANDELA I'm so glad you're here. Chester beams. CUT TO: IN THE STANDS, EUNICE ULULATES, loud African warrior woman call. Mr. Pienaar looks at her, shocked. Looks at her as a person for the first time, maybe. MR. PIENAAR DO THAT AGAIN! 133. Eunice ululates again. CUT TO: ON THE FIELD, Mandela shakes hands with the All Blacks, who, as predicted, don't like his partisan clothing. Mandela looks up at Jonah Lomu. MANDELA Hello, Jonah. Lomu looks down at Mandela, eyes glowing with aggression -- -- and suddenly, he bares his tattooed Tongan tongue in a FIERCE WAR CRY. As do the rest of the All Blacks. WE HAVE SEGUED TO THE FAMOUS HAKA, a Maori war dance that tells an opponent they're going have their daughters stolen, their wives ravaged and their brains eaten right out of their skulls with a sharpened tea spoon. It is abundantly clear why, as the Minister of Sports told Mandela, half of the All Blacks matches are won before the whistle blows. This is very intimidating. Especially because, this day, the All Blacks push the haka closer and closer to the Springboks -- -- who do not back down. In fact, they close ranks and advance. Major, major international smackdown. This is not fake. The emotions, the aggression are real. ON MANDELA, whose diplomatic mask slips a little showing a warrior's glitter in his eyes. He wants to respond, primally. His fists clench at his side. The HAKA ENDS with a fearsome, guttural Maori yell. ON THE SPRINGBOKS, massed together, faces red with emotion, pulses racing. Mandela takes a deep breath in. Then the boys answer. With, of course, a terrorist anthem of their own: NKOSI SIKELEL' IAFRIKA. 134. Pienaar starts it. PIENAAR NKOSI -- ALL SPRINGBOKS -- SIKELEL' IAFRIKA etc ... With decent pronunciation, with full fervor and heart, THE BOYS ROAR THE ANTHEM back at the All Blacks. The crowd joins them. "Nkosi" roars through the stadium, through the nation. ON MANDELA: his heart swells, as he sings with his people. CUT TO: ON JASON, who stands surrounded by his former enemies singing the song that kept him -- kept all of them -- going through the apartheid years. In this stadium, at this moment, all hostility, all fear, are a thing of the past. The tension finally goes out of Jason's shoulders. ON JASON'S FACE, close to tears, as NKOSI slowly fades. As Mandela said -- a very inspirational song. BEGIN HEARTBEAT OVER. Is that a heartbeat, or an African drum? CUT TO: ON THE FIELD, the All Black fly half tees up the ball, for kick off. As the fly half back-pedals slowly, and pauses in readiness, waiting for the whistle -- CUT AWAY: TO RAINBOW NATION FACES, poised all over South Africa, WATCHING ON TV and IN THE STANDS. Heart/drumbeat over. The last face is Sipho's. EXT. OUTSIDE ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY The crowd noise spills out of the stadium behind Sipho. 135. A RADIO PLAYS NEARBY, tuned to the game. The radio is in a cop car, manned by TWO BEEFY WHITE COPS. As the crowd noise rises, Sipho edges closer to the cops. They eye him out. CUT TO: INT. VIP BOXES - ELLIS PARK - DAY Mandela front and center. Minister of Sport to his right, Prime Minister of New Zealand to his left, President of SA Rugby next to him. Both using all their diplomatic skills to stay cool. MANDELA (to NZ P.M.) Perhaps we should make a small wager? NEW ZEALAND P.M. All your gold, for all our sheep? MANDELA I was thinking more along the lines of a case of wine. Behind Mandela, Linga and Hendrick suppress grins. They are outwardly professional -- but bursting with excitement. CUT TO: EXT. ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY The referee blows his whistle. The All Black fly half boots the ball towards the Springboks, charges after it, along with the rest of the All Blacks. Game on. We have only seen snippets of rugby, so far. And mostly from a somewhat polite distance -- the usual distance of TV coverage. Say, at closest, the referee's point of view. Not now. Not for the climax. We experience this beautiful piece of mayhem up close and personal. We're inside the heaving scrums. We are the ball. We see the way cleats leave a pattern of round white dimples on abused skin, which quickly turn to purple as they fill with subcutaneous blood. 136. We feel a tackle in our own spine; we see teeth sink into flesh in the intimacy of a loose scrum; we feel a hard fist smacking us again and again in the hot privacy of a rolling maul. For this is not a pretty match, not for one moment -- just as the Springbok coach wanted. This match is all about a less talented team stifling the best team in the world by sheer determination and fitness. This is about the Springboks applying continuous, unrelenting pressure, and forcing the vaunted All Black attack into making mistakes. Lots of them. Dropped balls, errant passes, knock-ons. No fluency of movement, no electric building of momentum. Because of one thing: tackling. Tackling and tackling and tackling again. The first time Lomu touches the ball, the stadium, the nation holds its breath -- -- until the Springbok wing scythes into him at thigh height, wraps him up and brings him down. The second time Lomu gets the ball he is brought down from behind by Pienaar, with a picture perfect tackle. We can cut away to the faces of the spectators when we want; from Mandela to Nerine to Sipho and on and on, all over the country. But, in truth, our attention belongs on the field. ON PIENAAR, continually exhorting his men, leading by example, wreaking havoc in the All Black backfield. ON LOMU, who always seems just one broken tackle away from running one in -- except that there are no broken tackles. ON THIRTY BIG, STRONG, BATTLE-SCARRED MEN, who have devoted their entire lives to this moment. They are not playing for money. They are playing for pride, for their countries. Outdated notions. We miss them. No tries are scored in the Final. The two fly halves match each other, penalty goal for penalty goal. With each made kick, the goal posts shrink for the next. The penalty goals are unchallenged. It is up to the kicker to make them or fail. That is pressure. 137. The score is 6 - 6 when, just before half time, the Springbok fly half takes a long, perfect pass from the scrum half, and with the All Black defenders looming, kicks a drop goal through the uprights. The Springboks lead 9 - 6. A tight match. So tight, in fact, that there is only one score in the second half -- an All Black drop goal that levels the score at 9 - 9. Until right before the end of the match, when the All Blacks camp in the Springbok half. The scrum half sends a long, spiralling pass to the fly half, who is in perfect position to go for a drop goal. The kick soars into the air, high and straight. 43 million South Africans hold their breath. All around the world, fans lean forward on their chairs. This will be the decisive blow. But the kick just goes wide. Relief. The referee blows his whistle to signal the end of regulation. Both teams are spent. INT. VIP BOXES - ELLIS PARK - DAY LINGA What happens now? HENDRICK Extra time. Twenty minutes. LINGA I don't think I can take it. No one can. Mandela paces. Everyone is drained. EXT. OUTSIDE ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY Sipho leans on the cop car, listening to the radio. He and the two cops suck nervously on sodas. CUT TO: 138. EXT. ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY Two sets of bruised, bleeding, exhausted, cramping men face each other for the extra time kick off. Pienaar turns to his men. PIENAAR Who's the fittest team on this field? The answer lies in their eyes: they are. An All Black penalty goal makes it 12 - 9 almost immediately. A Springbok penalty goal answers. 12 - 12. Seven minutes from the end of extra time, the Springboks earn a scrum deep in All Blacks territory. PIENAAR Keep it here. Run it forward. The scrum goes down, wheels a little. SPRINGBOK FLY HALF Francois! Pienaar turns his head. The fly half taps his own chest: give me the ball. Pienaar hesitates, then nods to the scrum half: give him the ball. The ball goes into the scrum. The ball works its way back through the feet of the eight Springbok forwards. The scrum half gathers it, spins it out to the fly half -- -- who takes one step to his left and KICKS A DROP GOAL high into the air. Ball soaring past a backdrop of open mouths. Higher than the uprights ... ... but through them nonetheless. Springboks 15 - 12 All Blacks. An entire nation jumps to its feet. 139. INT. VIP BOXES - ELLIS PARK - DAY Everyone is on their feet in the press box. MANDELA How long before the end? MINISTER OF SPORT Seven minutes. They turn out to be the longest seven minutes in Mandela's life. In every South African's life. BEGIN CLIMAX SEQUENCE: This is where we fold the Rainbow Nation into the rugby match, fully. INTERCUT BETWEEN PEOPLE ALL OVER SOUTH AFRICA, AND THE RUGBY as we show the whole nation wanting exactly the same thing at the same time. Faces, postures, eyes are identical, no matter where they are, who they are, what color they are. (It would be nice if we used all the faces we've already cut away to throughout this story.) ON THE FIELD The All Blacks attack desperately. The Springboks tackle and tackle and tackle. ON PIENAAR, totally spent but dragging himself to his feet for another tackle. He glances over at the referee, makes another tackle -- -- looks over at the referee -- -- the referee puts his hands on his whistle -- -- another tackle, another look -- -- the referee lifts the whistle to his lips -- -- another tackle, another look -- -- the REFEREE BLOWS THE FINAL WHISTLE. It's over. The Springboks have won. 140. END CLIMAX SEQUENCE EXT. ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY Pandemonium on the field, pandemonium in the stands. Jason is hugged by an ecstatic boer (Jason is not a hugger). CUT TO: Mrs. Pienaar and Nerine are in tears. Mr. Pienaar hugs a shocked Eunice. INT. VIP BOXES - ELLIS PARK - DAY Pandemonium in the VIP box. Mandela shakes hands with everyone he can find. It is way too loud to say anything. Hendrick and Linga almost hug. Almost. They shake hands with total joy and engagement, whack each other on the shoulder. CUT TO: EXT. OUTSIDE ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY Sipho toi-tois next to the cop car (a township war dance, very political). The two cops toi-toi with him. CUT TO: AROUND THE NATION, an EPIDEMIC OF HUGGING begins. This spills out onto the streets later, but for now, let's restrict this to the people who've been watching the match together. CUT TO: EXT. ELLIS PARK STADIUM - DAY The Springboks say a prayer on the field. Pienaar kneels in the middle, leading the prayer. Behind them, a WORK CREW ASSEMBLES A PORTABLE PODIUM. At "Amen", Pienaar's men lift him to his feet, then onto their shoulders. 141. The crowd roars again and again as PIENAAR TAKES A VICTORY LAP on the shoulders of the men he has led through thick and thin. Tears stream down his face, through his unstoppable grin. As they near the podium, the team is intercepted by a news crew and -- -- none other then BOLAND BOTHA. BOLAND BOTHA Francois ... a few words ... The interview booms through the PA system. Pienaar just nods -- he isn't about to spoil the moment by reacting to this buffoon. BOLAND BOTHA ... great game, but I don't think you could've done it without the amazing support of these 63,000 South Africans -- Francois grabs the mike from Boland. PIENAAR (into mike, words booming) We didn't have the support of 63,000 South Africans today. We had the support of 42 million South Africans. The crowd roars. The Springbok manager grabs Pienaar's shoulder, points. SPRINGBOK MANAGER They're waiting for you over there. Pienaar turns, looks. Mandela waits at the podium, eyes alight with joy. In front of him is the WILLIAM WEBB ELLIS TROPHY, a big gold confection. Their eyes meet. Their eyes stay locked as Pienaar fights his way through the press, the officials, his own team, to the podium. 142. Mandela holds out his hand. Pienaar takes it. Big hands, one black, one white, one with bruises visible, one with a lifetime of bruises implied. Both wearing the NUMBER 6 SPRINGBOK JERSEY. MANDELA Francois, I want to thank you most sincerely for what you have done to our country. Pienaar shakes his head. PIENAAR Mr. President, I want to thank you for what you have done. Eyes lock again, for just a moment, blue eyes, brown eyes -- African eyes, both. And then PIENAAR RAISES THE TROPHY HIGH. A very traditional sports hero's moment, richly deserved. Real gold, against the green of the battered field. But that is not the real prize. The prize is what happens next, all over the nation. DISSOLVE TO: ALL OVER SOUTH AFRICA, people spill out into the streets, to celebrate. Utter joy, everywhere, as black and white, servants and employers, strangers, enemies, foreigners are swept up in love and happiness. People who have been suspicious of each other, hated each other, feared each other all their lives ... they hug each other on this day. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. JOHANNESBURG STREETS - END OF THE DAY Housewives, gardeners, cops, kids dance in the middle of the street. A car horn beeps politely. BMW, Mercedes, BMW come slowly down the street. 143. The crowd begins to dance and ululate as they part to let the convoy through. INT. PRESIDENT'S MERCEDES - END OF THE DAY Linga in front. Mandela is alone in the back seat. He looks out at his people as they cheer him through. He also looks exhausted. Spent. None of that shining life force that makes him so big. INT. GREY BMW (LEAD) - END OF THE DAY JASON (INTO RADIO) This route's too crowded. We're changing to route B. EXT. JOHANNESBURG STREETS - END OF THE DAY The convoy switches to another street -- -- which is just as crowded as the first, with happy South Africans. It is as if every single person in the Rainbow Nation wants to celebrate together. INT. GREY BMW (LEAD) - END OF THE DAY JASON (INTO RADIO) Change to route C. EXT. JOHANNESBURG STREETS - END OF THE DAY The convoy switches to yet another street -- -- to no avail. South Africa is literally dancing in the streets. INT. PRESIDENT'S MERCEDES - END OF THE DAY Mandela leans forward, taps Linga on the shoulder. 144. MANDELA Tell Jason it's all right. There's no hurry. LINGA (INTO RADIO) Madiba says no need to hurry. INT. GREY BMW (LEAD) - END OF THE DAY Jason nods, puts down his radio, settles back with a deep sigh. So do the rest of the boys in the car. This day is almost over. INT. GREY BMW (TRAILER) - END OF THE DAY Etienne, Hendrick loosen their ties, bask in the feeling. Hendrick looks out at the rolling street party -- and shakes his head in amazement. INT. PRESIDENT'S MERCEDES - END OF THE DAY President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela undoes the top button of his rugby jersey, settles back with a deep sigh -- -- and drives home through a nation that has begun the process of forgiving itself. His nation. GO IN ON MANDELA'S FACE as it settles into the now-familiar sphinx-like mask. Except for his eyes. Mandela's eyes glow with deep joy and satisfaction as he moves slowly through a moment in history that he has worked for, all his life. ON MANDELA'S EYES ... FADE EVER SO SLOWLY TO BLACK. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Iron Lady, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Iron Lady, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e43b7161816e35721535250c75e8a0edd7d7e1e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Iron Lady, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + THE IRON LADY Written by Abi Morgan Author's Note:References to "PRESENT" mean the undifferentiated years of therecent past (not 2011).INT. SHOP. NR CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. DAWN.The HUM of a large refrigerator just audible over thesound of Indian music -MARGARET, briefly glimpsed pondering cartons of milk.The electronic PEEP of the cash til.A man on a mobile phone pushes past MARGARET, who takesher place second in the queue.The female shopkeeper piles newspapers on the counter infront of MARGARET. Distracted by images of the bombedhotel on the TV, she hesitates for beat. MAN BEHIND THE COUNTER One forty-nine please. MARGARET How much is the milk? MAN BEHIND THE COUNTER Forty-nine pence. (taking the change) Thank you.MARGARET turns to leave, jostled by a tall young manwired into an ipod.EXT. STREET. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. DAWN.MARGARET heads down the busy street, shopping bag inhand.INT. KITCHEN. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. DAY.MARGARET sits at breakfast with her husband DENIS,sipping tea. DENIS butters his toast. MARGARET shakes herhead. MARGARET Too much. Much too much butter. DENIS I like butter. MARGARET Milk's gone up. 2 MARGARET reaches for a jug, pouring milk into it, sliding it down on a table. MARGARET (CONT'D) 49p a pint. DENIS Good grief! We'll have to economise. I suppose we could always sell the car. (chuckles) Or take in paying guests! He scoops up the newspaper and glances towards the door - DENIS (CONT'D) Watch out. She's on the prowl. MARGARET looks beyond DENIS to a a sense of growing commotion. A concerned POLICE GUARD coming up the stairs meeting JUNE [early 60's] MARGARET's carer, along a distant corridor, steady on the approach. MARGARET (to DENIS) Eat your egg. JUNE smiles with visible relief on seeing MARGARET, now sitting tapping open her egg. JUNE Goodness! There you are. JUNE's look of quiet concern. MARGARET Yes. MARGARET eats her egg. MARGARET (CONT'D) Here we are. But for JUNE, she is entirely alone. INT. CORRIDOR CHESTER SQUARE. PRESENT. DAY. WHISPERING- JUNE I don't understand how it happened, how could she possibly have got out? It's very very important - MARGARET looks out of the kitchen. Her POV down the corridor of JUNE and the POLICEMAN and a CLEANER. 3 JUNE (CONT'D) Please just make it really clear. Who's on after you? POLICE GUARD Dixon. MARGARET slips away. INT.HALL. CHESTER SQUARE. DAY. MARGARET hurries through the hall. INT. BEDROOM. HOUSE. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT.DAY. A wide cupboard- MARGARET's eyes move back along the rail in front of her, her fingers touch hanger after hanger of brown tweed and grey twill. JUNE goes over to the curtains, pulling them back, letting in the sunlight- JUNE Beautiful day. Oh, you've made a start. Carol's coming soon, I'll get some bags. Anything you want to go to Mark, I'll bring up a suitcase for it. The smell of smoke lingering. Suddenly DENIS' hand reaches across, wavering between jackets of brown tweed and grey twill- He reaches for a suit. MARGARET No no no no. The grey. DENIS (O.S) You sure? The swipe of a clothes brush, briefly seen, drawn across one sleeve- MARGARET Yes. Distant footsteps- MARGARET (CONT'D) ...Definitely the grey. JUNE returns, oblivious- 4 DENIS (O.S) Righty ho. Boss knows best. JUNE spies the newspaper, sees the photos of twisted carnage on the front page. DENIS (CONT'D) Don't let her take my paper away. JUNE reaches one hand out to scoop it up in passing- MARGARET Oh, I haven't had a chance to look at that yet, dear. JUNE Sorry. JUNE hesitates, leaves the newspaper resting on the bed as she heads off with the suit on a hanger. DENIS Atta-girl. DENIS smiles as he stands in the bathroom doorway, soaping his face with shaving cream- He hums to himself as he resumes shaving until- DENIS (O.S) (CONT'D) Damn. MARGARET looks up, DENIS has nicked his chin- MARGARET Blot it...Blot it.. She turns, sees JUNE, through the ajar door, standing in the corridor, looking back at her JUNE Sorry ? INT. DRAWING ROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. DAY. A comfortable drawing room, filled with the photographs and memorabilia of a former political life. MARGARET stands by the window, half a dozen of DENIS' ties in her hand. Pulling back the net curtain, MARGARET peers out- Two POLICEMAN stand down below next to a Police BMW car. They are lost in conversation, pointing to the door, clearly concerned. 5 One POLICE MAN nods to the other, a sense of the changing of the guard as he drives off in the BMW. SUDDENLY from behind- DENIS Now look what you've done. Are they to keep the loonies out or you in? MARGARET eyes DENIS, looking at her with wry smile - DENIS (CONT'D) I'll be off then. MARGARET Wear your scarf. There's a chill out there. Suddenly looming over her and grinning down as if at the top of a tunnel SUSIE, MARGARET's personal secretary carrying a cardboard box. SUSIE Good morning Lady Thatcher. Are you alright ? (concerned) How are you feeling ? MARGARET I'm fine, thank you Susie. SUSIE I've just been reading about the bombings. MARGARET Yes. Frightful. SUSIE's mobile goes off. She fumbles in her bag to switch it off. SUSIE Sorry. SUSIE (CONT'D) These are the books for you to sign. I brought as many as I could find. Shall we go through your appointments? MARGARET looks at her still nonplussed. SUSIE (CONT'D) We said we'd go through them today. 6 MARGARET nods- MARGARET Yes, of course, dear. Today. SUSIE The invitation has come from Downing Street for the unveiling of your portrait. I'll put it on the mantelpiece, and there's an invitation from Lord Armstrong for lunch on the first Friday of next month. The murmur of SUSIE's voice, a kind of white noise- SUSIE (O.S.) (CONT'D) I said no because you've got a concert that afternoon but if you'd like to..? SILENCE- SUSIE(O.S) (CONT'D) ....It looks like a very interesting programme. MARGARET's listens, oddly distracted- MARGARET What are they playing? SUSIE looks at her momentarily at a loss then scrabbles back through the diary- SUSIE I think they said Rogers and Hammerstein. `SHALL WE DANCE' FROM `THE KING & I" SUDDENLY BREAKING THROUGH AS IF FROM ANOTHER TIME CARRYING INTO.... INT. SADLER'S WELLS. LONDON. 1950. NIGHT. An orchestra in full flight- A programme for THE KING & I on a woman's lap. A man's hand reaches in and her hands slips into his. INT. DRAWING ROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. DAY. Whilst SUSIE shuffles through the arrangements at the desk in the background, MARGARET stands at the window. 7 MARGARET Silly man. MARGARET's gaze, seeing DENIS just visible in the street below. He looks up, smiles, MARGARET (CONT'D) He hasn't got his scarf on. MARGARET throws DENIS a half wave. In return, he twirls his umbrella and does a couple of steps of a Chaplin walk for her benefit before passing the Postman who is shuffling through his letters as he approaches the front step, below. SUSIE looks on with quiet concern. INT. DRAWING ROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. DAY. MARGARET' is at her desk signing a stack of her memoirs, The Downing Street Years. MARGARET opens one, reaching for a pen. The curve of inky handwriting as she begins to sign them, Margaret Thatcher. Close on the swoop of the pen. Without missing a beat, she writes the name Margaret Roberts... The insistent blare of an air raid siren from another time cuts through - INT. BACK PARLOUR. SHOP. GRANTHAM. 1943. DUSK. The rumble of an approaching air raid overhead- The STEADY SHAKE of the table legs all around pulls out to reveal- BEATRICE ROBERTS [early 50's] austere, crouched next to MARGARET under a wide kitchen table along with ALFRED ROBERTS [early/mid 50's] a cumbersome man and MURIEL ROBERTS [21 yrs]. The sound of an air-raid siren. ALFRED Did someone cover the butter? All look at one another in a panic. MARGARET I'll go. Suddenly MARGARET scrabbles out from under the table, all look on with horror- 8 BEATRICE Leave it. ALFRED (CALLING AFTER) Margaret- INT. SHOP. GRANTHAM. 1943. DUSK. MARGARET scooping up the butter cover slamming it quickly over the thin slice of butter left in the butter dish before sliding it into the cold cupboard underneath the counter. SUDDENLY the shop illuminates- A DISTANT EXPLOSION. MARGARET momentarily paralyzed before, running back towards the back parlour to resume her place under the table. INT. BACK PARLOUR. SHOP. GRANTHAM. 1943. DUSK. MARGARET scrabbles underneath. ALFRED surreptitiously pats her arm. ALFRED (CONT'D) Good girl. She shrugs, flushing with pride. ALFRED (CONT'D) Tomorrow, no matter what they do, it'll be business as usual. The DRONE of the air raid dissolving away- INT. SHOP, GRANTHAM. 1945. DAY. A boy and girl look on as MARGARET measures flour on the shop scales. CUSTOMER (O.S.) Two of the small beef, Mr. Roberts. MARGARET glances up at her father serving further down the counter. ALFRED (O.S.) What is the life blood of any community? It's business.... 9 INT. HALL. GRANTHAM. 1943. DAY ALFRED on a small town hall stage behind a makeshift podium. ALFRED Not just big business but small businesses, like mine. The SOFT press of MEN all around, MARGARET, a lone woman amongst them, peering over shoulders. BEATRICE (passing/hushed aside) Margaret! BEATRICE tuts, shoving a tray in her hand. BEATRICE (CONT'D) CUPS! MARGARET sinks a little, taking the tray, and glances back at ALFRED just visible on a stage. ALFRED We on this island are strong. We're self-reliant. Sometimes we're plain bloody minded. NOW AT THE BACK OF THE HALL, holding a tray loaded with dirty cups, MARGARET watches her father, back turned to the kitchen filled with WOMEN and YOUNG GIRLS making tea and washing up cups. ALFRED (CONT'D) But we also believe in helping each other. And I don't mean by state hand-outs... EXT. STREET. GRANTHAM. 1943. DAY. MARGARET sweeps outside the shop, glancing across the street at- THREE PRETTY GIRLS dolled up for the evening and arms linked, crossing on the other side of the pavement. PRETTY YOUNG WOMAN 1 Margaret, do you want to come to the pictures? MARGARET's eyes catch on the glitter of a broach in passing. They turn to look at her WHISPERING and GIGGLING. 10 PRETTY YOUNG WOMAN 2 She can't come, she's got to study. The FLUSH of MARGARET'S skin - PRETTY YOUNG WOMAN 2 (CONT'D) Miss Hoity Toity! The STING OF EMBARRASSMENT. THE SENSE OF THE PRETTY GIRLS WHISPERING ABOUT HER, EYES TRAVELLING OVER her disparagingly. ALFRED (V.O.) Never run with the crowd, Margaret. Go your own way. The SWAY of a SKIRT as they walk away. ALFRED OOV (close to) Open it then. INT. SHOP. GRANTHAM. 1943. DAY. Close on a telegram addressed to MARGARET ROBERTS, 1-3 North Parade, Grantham. MARGARET'S father ALFRED, watching. MARGARET (looking up) I've got a place at Oxford. ALFRED bear-hugs MARGARET awkwardly. INT. DRAWING ROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. DAY. MARGARET at her desk, the ghost of a smile. INT. SHOP. GRANTHAM. 1943. DAY ALFRED Don't let me down Margaret. The CHINK of a teacup- MARGARET looks down the corridor in expectation at BEATRICE standing at the sink working the SQUEAK of the cloth against a stubborn tea stain. 11 MARGARET (calling out) Mother? BEATRICE comes down the corridor into the shop, wiping her hands on a cloth. ALFRED goes to hand BEATRICE the letter. BEATRICE (shakes head) My hands are still damp. BEATRICE turns and walks back to where she came from. MARGARET looks back at the letter, heart bursting, trying to contain her joy. INT. DRAWING ROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. DAY. MARGARET looks down, pen in hand, the words Margaret Roberts newly signed in the front cover. She tears the page out. INT. BEDROOM. HOUSE. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT.DAY. MARGARET napping in bed. The still of the bedroom, caught in the half light of a late afternoon- A hand slides a teacup onto the bedside table - The flicker of MARGARET's eyelids- QUICKFLASH - BEATRICE (passing/hushed aside) Margaret! BEATRICE tuts, shoving a tray in her hand. BEATRICE (CONT'D) CUPS! PRESENT - MARGARET stirs again, blinking awake. DENIS sits by the window. He is bent over a pair of spectacles, wrapping wire around one of the arms with a pair of pliers. Other items of clothing of his are on Margaret's couch. 12 DENIS (without taking his eyes of the job) They're talking about you again. The murmur of JUNE on the phone- MARGARET What time is it? DENIS Sun's not quite over the yard arm. Time for tea. A phone rings, O.S. MARGARET considers DENIS now wearing a pink turban and confronts the extraordinary head-gear. MARGARET What have you got on your head? DENIS smiles, throwing back his head, the swathe of pink fabric from his turban hanging down ridiculously- DENIS Found it in the cupboard and thought bugger it, it's Friday, why not fancy dress? MARGARET sits drinking her tea, JUNE's hushed tones almost audible. MARGARET You look ridiculous. MARGARET strains to hear- DENIS Bosslady no like? She makes a shushing motion. MARGARET (as if to a bad dog) No, Denis, Bosslady no like. MARGARET resumes listening. The door ajar, the sounds of life just audible outside- JUNE (O.S) It's taken Carol so long to get her to agree to this. She's been so reluctant to let his things go. DENIS sinks onto the bed, bored. 13 MARGARET (without looking) Feet. He tuts and adjusts his legs so that his shoes don't dirty the bedspread. MARGARET stands, ear pressed close to the open door- JUNE (O.S) You can never be sure she's taking her medication...I think sometimes she hides them.. DENIS VO Oh, rumbled! MARGARET looks back at her cup of tea, spots two pills resting in the tea cup. She considers the pills, pops them in her mouth, drinks. JUNE (O.S) She's definitely more distracted than usual today. INT/EXT. BEDROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. PRESENT. DAY. A shout in the street. A woman's voice. CAROL OOV Can I suggest you remove the sticker from the back of your car. Margaret looks through the net curtains and sees CAROL THATCHER[early 50's] just visible stepping out of a taxi, remonstrating with the driver, clutching her purse and waving her credit card at him with rising irritation. CAROL OOV (CONT'D) Well then take the sticker off! I call that false advertising! I would say keep the change, but there isn't any change. INT. DRAWING ROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. DAY. A scotch being poured. The cap not quite going back on the whisky bottle. A frantic fumble for the remotes for the tv. CAROL OOV Hello June, any news? I've brought every bag I could find. 14 High shot of MARGARET sitting in a chair watching TV. As if she has been there a while. CAROL enters with suit carriers in her arms. CAROL Hello Ma. Bloody taxi driver. Wouldn't take my card. I said don't have a sticker saying you take Visa and then insist on cash. Can you believe it? I was rummaging around the bottom of my bag. He didn't get a tip. MARGARET I didn't know that you were dropping by today, dear. CAROL (Dumping her stuff all over the place) Yes, you said yesterday...You wanted to make a start on Dad's things. The cupboards ? Then I can help you dress. MARGARET, nonplussed. CAROL (CONT'D) You've got Michael and- MARGARET Jaqueline... CAROL Coming for dinner tonight. MARGARET Of course. (turning up the TV) We're having halibut. On TV, images of a bombed street, CAROL Oh God. Isn't it terrible? MARGARET nods, both silently listening to the drone of the newscaster- CAROL (CONT'D) They think it's Al Quaida - The charred remains of cars, desperate people running, a rescue operation midway- MARGARET blinks, inwardly reeling from the images- 15 MARGARET (V.O) Denis! Quick Flash: Denis in pyjamas, brushing his teeth in a hotel bathroom, glances at her through the open door. DENIS It'll be fine. Come on, get your head down, it's ten to three, for God's sake. EXT. GRAND HOTEL. BRIGHTON. 1984. NIGHT. Chaos outside the Grand Hotel in the aftermath of the bomb. The injured are pulled through the rubble. NEWS READER (V.O.) At ten to three this morning an explosion extensively damaged the Grand Hotel in Brighton, scene of the Conservative Party conference. NEWS READER 2 (V.O.) ...Where the Prime Minister and a number of her cabinet were staying. They escaped unhurt - The WHIR of SIRENS- The BLUR of FIRE ENGINE LIGHTS- The image of a BODY being stretchered out of the rubble by FIREFIGHTERS. NEWS READER 3 (V.O.) Five people have died, many others are injured, some critically. The IRA have claimed responsibility. DENIS and MARGARET sit in their coats covering MARGARET's evening dress and DENIS pyjamas. Both looking out in silent shock at the devastated Grand hotel, reflected on the glass of the car windows. MARGARET looks on with quiet, sobering despair, still numb with shock. DENIS looks at her. He grips her hand. They sit, fingers locked. INT. DRAWING ROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. DAY. Close on MARGARET's hand and whisky glass. Shaking. 16 MARGARET (standing up) We must release a statement, offering our condolences. CAROL I'm sure they've already- MARGARET We must never, ever, ever give in to terrorists. MARGARET sees JUNE and CAROL exchange looks of `oh dear...' INT.BEDROOM. HOUSE. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT.DUSK. MARGARET sits in a dressing gown at a dressing table, staring at her reflection. CAROL stands behind her, holding up several dresses. CAROL Now ma, are we going long or just below the knee tonight? MARGARET Oh, below the knee I should think. She watches, irritated, as CAROL reaches to move a pile of DENIS' clothes- MARGARET (CONT'D) No! Don't move those. I haven't finished sorting them. CAROL settles beside her on a chair. CAROL I hear you went out today...You mustn't go out on your own Mummy. We've talked about that. MARGARET There was no milk. CAROL Call Robert he'll get it for you if June's not up- MARGARET I am not for the knackers yet. From behind- DENIS (O.S) Now take it easy, Margaret. 17 DENIS just visible, perched on the bed, looks up from doing the crossword in the newspaper- CAROL No one is saying that. MARGARET If I can't go out to buy a pint of milk then what is the world coming to. Really Carol, please don't fuss about it. You've always been like this, fuss fuss fuss. You must find something better to do with your time. It's most unattractive in a woman. When I was your age the last thing I wanted to do was fuss around my mother. Silence- CAROL, inwardly stung quietly busying herself, forcing all emotion away. MARGARET hesitates catching DENIS' eye, with quiet warning. DENIS Four down, 9 letters. DENIS withdraws into his crossword. DENIS (CONT'D) Something b something t something n...something something somthing...Refusal to change course- MARGARET Obstinate. DENIS writes, pleased. CAROL looks up, with quiet bemusement- CAROL What? MARGARET deflects, pointing to a necklace in CAROL's hands. MARGARET Pearls. I'll wear the pearls. CAROL slips them onto MARGARET'S neck and fastens them. 18 MARGARET (CONT'D) There they are. My little twins. Thank you, dear. INT. CORRIDOR. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. EVENING. The murmur of conversation- CAROL tails MARGARET, steady on the approach towards the drawing room. CAROL It's nearly all familiar faces, William, Michael and his lovely wife- MARGARET Jacqueline. CAROL smiles, clearly reassured- CAROL And then there's Peter, James R and James T and that very nice man- DISTANT LAUGHTER MARGARET Yes- CAROL - we met last year. MARGARET Yes I remember- CAROL I think he's bringing his new lady friend just to mix it up a bit. We're rather short on women - but I'm sure we'll manage- MARGARET I've always preferred the company of men- CAROL gestures ahead, MARGARET nods, reticent, yet forcing herself on, she hesitates at the door, her hand trembling on the handle. CAROL Ma? 19 INT. CORRIDOR.DARTFORD. 1949. EVENING. Close up of a shoe being rubbed on a calf. A young hand hesitating on a door handle. INT. SITTING ROOM. HOUSE. DARTFORD. 1949. EVENING. A 1950's drinks party- A bank of stuffy GREY SUITED MEN pontificating and their WIVES lost in a separate polite conversation- GREY SUITED MAN Ah, Miss Roberts. Hoping to be chosen as our candidate for parliament. A young MARGARET [24yrs] stylish in a suit, straight from work, stands clutching her handbag, oddly out of place amidst the neat 50's chintz. A bank of sporting prints collage a wall. A bespectacled YOUNG DENIS THATCHER (30's) glances up from his drink, taking her in. INT.DINING ROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT.EVENING. The MURMUR of dinner party conversation- MARGARET Well I don't like coalitions, never have... MARGARET's POV of her fingers absently grazing a confusing array of cutlery laid out in place setting in front of her. Her confused face. DENIS VO Start on the outside... INT. DINING ROOM. HOUSE. DARTFORD. 1949. EVENING. DENIS whispers. DENIS VO ...and work your way in. A long table packed with silverware. She looks back at her ornate and rather hideous starter, a tiny wobbling savoury confection in aspic. 20 PORTLY HOST ...Attlee has his sights set on the steel industry, you mark my words. GREY SUITED MAN They'll be nationalizing the bloody air next. MALE GUEST Yes, hold your breath, sir, that's government property! PORTLY HOST So was your father a political man, too, Miss Roberts? MARGARET Oh, yes, to his core. And Mayor of Grantham. PORTLY HOST And a grocer as well! MARGARET Yes. Ears prick up around the table. The Host is lost for something to say. HOSTESS And did you help, err, in the...shop? MARGARET Oh, yes. It was a family business. GREY SUITED MAN A very good starting point for the political life, I'm sure. MARGARET That and a degree from Oxford. The put-down, though not intentional, causes Denis to smile. MARGARET catches the smile. She remains unruffled and goes back to her food, picking up a knife and fork, working her way in, teasing her hors d'oeuvres. INT. DINING ROOM. CHESTER SQUARE.LONDON.PRESENT.EVENING. MARGARET sits oddly removed, hand instinctively covering her wine glass, as a WINE WAITER hovers. 21 MARGARET (hushed aside to WAITER) Whisky. The MURMUR of conversation all around- INT. DINING ROOM. HOUSE. DARTFORD. 1949. EVENING. Pudding is on the go and Margaret is warming to her theme. MARGARET What I do think is that a man should be encouraged to stand on his own two feet. Yes we help people of course we help people. But for those that can do, they must just get up and do. And if something's wrong, they shouldn't just whine about it, they should get in there and DO something about it, change things. The female guests exchange glances. A half-chuckle from someone. PORTLY HOST With all due respect, Miss Roberts, what may have served in Grantham- MARGARET Can serve very well for the people of Dartford too. MALE GUEST Really? A general sense of quiet incredulity. MARGARET I know much more than those who have never lived on a limited income. Just like the man or woman on the street, when I am short one week, I have to make economies the next. GREY SUITED MAN Nothing like a slice of fiscal responsibility. 22 MARGARET A man might call it fiscal responsibility, a woman might call it good housekeeping. MALE GUEST I'm not sure a home economics lesson is quite what the Dartford constituents need. They see industry being nationalized, the unions on the up, the pound on the slide...whoever can sort that lot out - he's my man. MARGARET Or woman? Denis lets out a spontaneous guffaw as the host and hostess exchange looks. He signals `Get them out of here'. The men rise. HOSTESS Ladies shall we ? PORTLY HOST Miss Roberts, do join the ladies. The ladies scurry to the sitting room. Margaret is the last to leave. INT. SITTING ROOM. DARTFORD. 1949. EVENING. As Margaret closes the door to the dining room - PORTLY HOST (O.S.) Well. That's told us! The men laugh raucously. She turns to the ladies who are regrouping at the fireplace and regarding her with suspicion. INT.DINING ROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. EVENING. The aftermath of the muted dinner party- MARGARET at the helm, a small whisky just visible nestled next to her wine glass. She is flushed and nicely mellow surrounded by mainly MALE GUESTS- MICHAEL So, Margaret, how would you have dealt with this if you'd been Prime Minister? 23 MARGARET looks at him, her flicker of bemusement. ...slowly registering across the faces of her FRIENDS and COLLEAGUES including CAROL. MARGARET Where? CAROL The bombings, mummy. Today? MARGARET still lost CAROL (CONT'D) We were just talking about them? MARGARET deflects, reaching for her glass, it trembles unsteady in her grasp. MARGARET No, uhm, yes - we have always lived alongside evil. But it has never been so patient, so avid for carnage, so eager to carry innocents with it into oblivion. MALE GUEST So, would you - MARGARET Western civilization must root out this evil, wherever it hides, or she risks defeat at the hands of global terror in a nuclear age. Unimaginable! Appreciative murmur of agreements amongst the listening party- PETER The Prime Minister gave a very good statement I thought. MARGARET Yes. Clever man. Quite a smoothie. Laughter- INT. DRAWING ROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. NIGHT. MARGARET says final farewells to a guest. He walks away as another couple approach. MARGARET You don't mind if I sit down... 24 Sitting down on a nearby chair, MARGARET looks with feigned recollection at the FEMALE GUEST as she sinks down on the ground in front of her, gripping MARGARET's hand. FEMALE GUEST I heard you speak at conference in 1984 in Brighton just after the IRA bombed the Grand Hotel. You were remarkable. I hope you appreciate what an inspiration you have been for women like myself. MARGARET hesitates, smiles, nods to herself, considering- MARGARET It used to be about trying to do something. Now its about trying to be someone. The FEMALE GUEST nods and scrambled to her feet, clearly concerned, shooting a look to her HUSBAND standing beside her, waiting to depart. FEMALE GUEST Well anyway, I...thank you. MARGARET Good night to you. MARGARET sits alone. In the background, the chatter of Carol saying final farewells. CAROL (O.S.) Great to see you, thank you very much for coming. MALE GUEST (O.S.) Oh, thank you. It was lovely, absolutely lovely. And I'm so pleased to see your mother looking so well. INT. DRESSING ROOM. HOUSE. CHESTER SQUARE. PRESENT.NIGHT. A mirror lined dressing room- CAROL helps MARGARET with her shoes. CAROL OK...hold on to me...that's right. MARGARET struggles with the catch on her pearls 25 MARGARET Can you do the clasp, I can't quite - CAROL hurries to help her, MARGARET quietly concedes. Fingers fumble to unclasp the pearls- MARGARET (CONT'D) Thank you. CAROL drops the pearls into a jewelry box, close to MARGARET, staring back at their reflections. CAROL You've got an eyelash. CAROL catches the stray eyelash on the tip of her finger, holding it close to MARGARET, with a smile- CAROL (CONT'D) Make a wish. MARGARET, closes her eyes until- MARGARET blows. She opens them smiles. CAROL smiles. CAROL (CONT'D) I spoke to Doctor Michael today- MARGARET glances away, deflecting. CAROL (CONT'D) He is very good and very expensive- MARGARET ignores her- CAROL (CONT'D) ...I know you're not due to see him for another month but I've spoken to him and he can fit you in tomorrow. SILENCE- CAROL (CONT'D) Just for a check up. (silence) Ma please- MARGARET What does Mark think about it? CAROL Mark? 26 MARGARET Yes. Tell him to come up. I want to talk to him about it. CAROL, hesitates, with concern- CAROL Mark's with Sarah and the children. MARGARET nods, heading through into the bathroom. MARGARET Well tell him to come up and see me after he's kissed them good night, would you Carol darling? INT. BEDROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. PRESENT. NIGHT. MARGARET, sitting on her bed, glances expectantly towards the door. Carol sits down beside her. CAROL He's not here Mummy. MARGARET hesitates, CAROL using all her might, not to crumble under MARGARET's cool gaze- CAROL (CONT'D) Mark lives in South Africa... MARGARET inwardly flinches. CAROL (CONT'D) ...you are not Prime Minister anymore and Dad is...Dad is dead- Silence- MARGARET You look exhausted, dear. You really must try to get some sleep. Taxis'll be few and far between at this hour... CAROL Righty-ho. Night night Ma. Sleep well. MARGARET Good night, dear. The slam of a door. MARGARET sits, alone. 27 INT. SADLERS WELLS. LONDON. 1950. NIGHT. MARGARET'S POV of Denis turning to her in the theatre. He smiles. MARGARET's FINGERS absently grazing over the programme, in time with the music- SUDDENLY a closed fist reaches out, then opens to reveal a sugar mouse. Margaret's fingers reach for it, but it's teasingly withdrawn. Finally, she takes its. She turns to smile at DENIS, her face is glowing with happiness- INT. TOWN HALL 1950. NIGHT. MARGARET sits on the edge of a trestle table, scrunching a rosette in her hand. The Town Hall is empty save for a couple of Volunteers stacking chairs and sweeping the floor. The litter of election night is everywhere. RADIO ANNOUNCER Twenty-four-year-old Miss Margaret Roberts lost her bid to win a seat in Parliament today, but she has put new life into the Dartford Conservative Association. Winning candidate Mr Dodds had better watch out, this bright young woman is on his tail. DENIS appears in the doorway, carrying fish and chips. He slides them down in front of her. DENIS Eat! MARGARET almost smiles. Then sinks once more into misery. MARGARET Disaster. DENIS Hang on...Hang on...Hang on... DENIS fishes in his pocket pulling out a hip flask. An impromptu supper made. MARGARET takes in the aftermath of rosettes, the whiff of defeat all around. DENIS (CONT'D) You shaved thousands off their majority. You did splendidly. MARGARET Not splendidly enough. 28 DENIS Ah I see. Self pity. MARGARET eyes him, mid chip- DENIS (CONT'D) No one is saying you don't need a safe seat. You deserve a safe seat. But it does not come unless you learn to play the game a little. MARGARET What game? She is fuming but he regroups with a big breath. DENIS You are a grocer's daughter- MARGARET (fiercely) -And proud of being- He grabs her hand, silencing her. DENIS - in their eyes. A single grocer's daughter. But if you were to become the wife of a moderately successful businessman- For the first time, we see MARGARET taken by surprise. DENIS (CONT'D) You'd get to parliament, and I'd get to be the happiest man in- in wherever they select you. (SILENCE) Margaret, will you marry me? She is genuinely stunned. DENIS (CONT'D) Well ? She is frozen. Then she begins to smile and nod her head and smile. MARGARET Yes. Yes! He leans over and kisses her, long and passionately until- DENIS What ? 29 MARGARET I love you so much but...I will never be one of those women Denis - who stays silent and pretty on the arm of her husband. Or remote and alone in the kitchen doing the washing up for that matter. DENIS (trying to retain the moment) We'll get a help for that. He leans forward to kiss her again but she pulls away a little. MARGARET No - one's life must matter, Denis. Beyond the cooking and the cleaning and the children, one's life must mean more than that - I cannot die washing up a tea cup. He sits up and stares as if seeing her for the first time. MARGARET (CONT'D) I mean it Denis, say you understand. DENIS That's why I want to marry you, my dear. She kisses him. A CHINK of a TEACUP- They pull apart. FLUSHED and GIGGLING on seeing- A LONE WOMAN enters the hall, cleaning up the last of the tea cups, and generally tidying. DENIS (CONT'D) Now eat. MARGARET smiles her joy at him as `SHALL WE DANCE' swells. And now she's in his arms as they dance, swirling through the election debris, eyes only for each other. 30 INT. DRAWING ROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. NIGHT. MARGARET now on all fours, struggling with her glasses. A pile of DVD's on the floor, The KING and I amongst them momentarily catching her eye until- A DVD with hand-written scrawl that we can't quite read. MARGARET flicks open the box, struggling to get the DVD out. Fiddling with the DVD player, MARGARET puts in the disc and considers, squinting at the remote, trying to make the DVD player work until, suddenly... Super 8 footage - 1959 Children on a beach in wind-swept, grainy super 8. Denis with a golf club and ping pong balls practicing his drive from a tee, sending ball after ball skying into the sea. Mark and Carol charge into the water to retrieve them. MARGARET There they are, my little twins. Mark... DENIS approaches the camera laughing and appears to take hold of it. MARGARET is seen sitting on a wobbly camping stool, hardly dressed for the beach, surrounded by papers weighed held down by pebbles. She merrily returns to her work. DENIS Cornwall, wasn't it? Bloody hell... Look at `em, little imps. You never really got golf, did you? DENIS sits behind her on the sofa in a dressing gown, watching the footage. She sips her whisky. MARGARET You look happy. DENIS Yes, I do, don't I? You're drinking too much. MARGARET ignores him. DENIS (CONT'D) Whatcha doing? DENIS looks at MARGARET, unwavering. She resumes a search- 31 DENIS (CONT'D) Not like you. Looking back. MARGARET SUDDENLY presses rewind on the remote, clutched in her hand. DENIS (CONT'D) Don't want to dig around too deep, M. Don't know what you might find. The rapid rewind of Denis swinging his golf club. DENIS (CONT'D) You can rewind it, but you can't change it. She freezes the image of him turning to camera, laughing. MARGARET They grow up so fast. Margaret turns with something to say, but Denis doesn't seem to be there anymore. INT. DRAWING ROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT.NIGHT. Now on the screen, Mark on a swing. MARGARET'S face softens. MARGARET Mark. He turns and rushes towards the camera, whooshing past it. Without breaking step, suddenly, he's in the room, running past Margaret, still cheering and whooping. MARGARET's hand, just skimming MARK's golden curls. As he moves on, MARGARET's curiosity caught following him out and down the corridor of Chester Square, seeing the Mark and Carol disappear round a corner. INT. HALLWAY. HOUSE. FARNBOROUGH. KENT. 1959. DAWN. The view beyond- SPEAKER VO Mr Eric Deakins, Labour... 13,437... The CRUNCH of gravel as CAROL and MARK race across the drive towards a blue ford car, covered with Tory blue streamers and a VOTE FOR THATCHER poster scrawled with the words Victory. 30 INT. DRAWING ROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. NIGHT. MARGARET now on all fours, struggling with her glasses. A pile of DVD's on the floor, The KING and I amongst them momentarily catching her eye until- A DVD with hand-written scrawl that we can't quite read. MARGARET flicks open the box, struggling to get the DVD out. Fiddling with the DVD player, MARGARET puts in the disc and considers, squinting at the remote, trying to make the DVD player work until, suddenly... Super 8 footage - 1959 Children on a beach in wind-swept, grainy super 8. Denis with a golf club and ping pong balls practicing his drive from a tee, sending ball after ball skying into the sea. Mark and Carol charge into the water to retrieve them. MARGARET There they are, my little twins. Mark... DENIS approaches the camera laughing and appears to take hold of it. MARGARET is seen sitting on a wobbly camping stool, hardly dressed for the beach, surrounded by papers weighed held down by pebbles. She merrily returns to her work. DENIS Cornwall, wasn't it? Bloody hell... Look at `em, little imps. You never really got golf, did you? DENIS sits behind her on the sofa in a dressing gown, watching the footage. She sips her whisky. MARGARET You look happy. DENIS Yes, I do, don't I? You're drinking too much. MARGARET ignores him. DENIS (CONT'D) Whatcha doing? DENIS looks at MARGARET, unwavering. She resumes a search- 33 MARGARET fingers brush dark panelled walls, making her way along endless corridors. Gothic arches, venerable busts, wood panelling and stone. MARGARET's pov as she stays to the side of the impressive corridor. She passes men in suits and groups. Others come towards her and notice her. Her POV as she pushes open a first door `TEA ROOM' - a circle of men turn round in chorus as if something with three heads has appeared. POV of a second opening door marked MEMBERS. A row of urinals. Two headless bodies come towards the camera, scrambling to zip up their flies. POV of the promise of sanctuary. LADY MEMBERS. The door opens onto a cupboard sized space. An ironing board. A sea of men's Oxford shoes from ground level. A pair of woman's shoes appear amongst them. They go on tip toe. From above we see Margaret's hat amongst the sea of mens heads and shoulders. Margaret is carried along in the sea of MALE MP's OXFORD SHOES. AIREY NEAVE [Extremely dapper, friendly 43] approaches MARGARET. AIREY NEAVE Mrs Thatcher ! Airey Neave. Welcome to the madhouse. Follow me. The doors swing open- INT. HOUSE OF COMMONS CHAMBER. 1974. DAY MARGARET, now SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EDUCATION, on the front bench, wearing a neat blue suit and a hat, a phalanx of MINISTERS sitting beside and around her, BLUE and GREY SUITED MEN, almost at first glance indistinguishable, with PRIME MINISTER EDWARD HEATH (late 50's), neat, effete, slumped rather forlornly on the bench. MARGARET, her speech and papers in her hand is fighting hard but the OPPOSITION LABOUR BENCHES scent blood - and they literally bray, getting to their feet and shaking their order papers in her face. The SPEAKER tries to control the chamber but his VOICE is almost lost in the bedlam. 34 SPEAKER The Right Honourable Lady the Secretary of State for Education. MARGARET The right honourable gentleman knows that we have no choice but to shut down the schools! Cries of `Shame!' From the opposition. The chamber reduced to a bear-pit. HEATH glum and offering no help to MARGARET whose voice becomes increasingly shrill. MARGARET (CONT'D) Because his union paymasters have called a strike deliberately to cripple our economy. Teachers cannot teach when there is no heating, no lighting in their classrooms. And I ask the honourable gentleman, whose fault is that? SHADOW MINISTER Methinks the Right Honourable lady doth screech to much. If she wants us to take her seriously she must learn to calm down! The OPPOSITION BENCHES love that, rocking in their seats, laughing... falsely of course. But MARGARET is aware that there are many MEN behind her, on the government benches, who are also sniggering in agreement. MARGARET If the right honorable gentleman could perhaps attend more closely to WHAT I am saying, rather than HOW I am saying it, he may receive a valuable education in spite of himself! Her opposite number Shadow Minister looks almost smug: smiling, pointing a finger at her. SHADOW MINISTER Why has this Conservative government failed? Why has it forced so many in the public sector into taking strike action to save their own jobs? It brings the OPPOSITION benches to their feet, shouting, applauding, stamping... 35 EXT. WESTMINSTER STREET. 1974. DAY MARGARET walking with AIREY NEAVE towards Downing Street for a Cabinet Meeting. All around, heaped high on either side as far as the eye can see are bags of rubbish. But not neatly stacked, just thrown there, many of them rotting down, spilling their filthy, putrid contents onto the street. SHADOW MINISTER VO Minister, the breakdown of essential public services - transport, electricity, sanitation is not the fault of the trades unions but of this Conservative government in which you so shamefully serve! The stench is awful - and MARGARET'S expression reflects that as she picks her way through. INT. CABINET ROOM. DOWNING STREET. 1974. NIGHT. The ranks of BESPECTACLED GREY-SUITED MINISTERS at the Cabinet table, including GEOFFREY HOWE. HEATH So these power cuts will continue unless we can reach a compromise. EDWARD HEATH is in mid-flow. HEATH (CONT'D) The miners are asking for a 35% increase in wages. Obviously we can't go anywhere near that. The unions are not our enemies and never have been. We want - and have always wanted - the broadest consensus... The MINISTERS nod. MARGARET determinedly edges a little forward so that she is in equal line with the other MALE MINISTERS. HEATH (CONT'D) I'm sure we are all in agreement that we must do nothing for the moment that will further inflame the current situation. MINISTER 1 Hear hear, Prime Minister. 36 MARGARET leans forward for a better view, trying to catch his eye. HEATH wavers, mid-speech. All turn to look at MARGARET - who sits unwavering. HEATH resumes. HEATH - the fact of the matter is, it's absolutely crucial that we are seen by the public to be acting as conciliators and not aggressors. (Finally acknowledging Margaret) Yes, Education Secretary. MARGARET Yes... All eyes TURN on her again, hearing the reservation in her voice. MARGARET (CONT'D) Prime Minister, with the Miners' leader calling today for the army to mutiny in support of the strikes, this seems the wrong time for conciliation. SUDDENLY ALL THE LIGHTS GO OUT. A lot of `bloody hell' `oh for god's sake'. HEATH Be patient. They'll come back on in a minute. A beam of light cuts through, just for an instant picking out HEATH'S moon-like face surrounded by darkness. MARGARET holds the small torch. HEATH (CONT'D) Thank you, Margaret. A snigger, then the lights flicker back on. HEATH (CONT'D) Your thoughts are duly noted. MARGARET turns of the torch and clicks her handbag shut in satisfaction. Heath's words echo in her head, `compromise...compromise...compromise...' An inward look as she's caught by a memory. ALFRED (O.S.) We on this island are strong. We're self-reliant. Napoleon called us a nation of shopkeepers. 37 INT. TOWN HALL. 1949. NIGHT. The packed town hall, ALFRED ROBERTS in full flow on stage. ALFRED He meant it as an insult but to me it's a compliment. That's why he couldn't beat us, and that's why Hitler can't beat us. The crowd of men applaud. The lone woman in their midst, YOUNG MARGARET watches her father, face aglow. ALFRED (CONT'D) We Conservatives believe in giving people the freedom and opportunity to fulfil their own potential, especially the young. There's no good in pretending we're all equal, we're not all the same, never have been, never will be. We should encourage our children to aspire to achieve more than we have, for our children today will be the leaders of tomorrow. INT. CAR. STREET. CENTRAL LONDON. 1974. DAWN ...CAROL and MARGARET seated, driving steadily along a deserted street. MARGARET thoughtful as the radio plays. VOICE ON THE RADIO It's 1974 and you'd think it was WWII. Blackouts, no petrol. It's a mess. Heath should resign now and make way for someone who's not afraid to tackle the unions. CAROL'S nervous prattle begins to break through. CAROL I swear, it's all gone completely out of my head. My driving instructor thinks I should pass but I feel as if I've hardly had any lessons. Ridiculous isn't it? Maybe third time lucky. MARGARET Right. The only thing you should remember is that everyone else is either reckless or inept. And often both. MARGARET eyes the road, gesturing CAROL to move forward. 38 MARGARET (CONT'D) One must be brave if one is to take the wheel- CAROL Right-o. MARGARET Move over... Move to your right a little bit... CAROL But if I move to the right aren't I on the wrong side of the road? MARGARET Carol! CAROL Well he's in the way! MARGARET To the right. Move to the right! A yelp from CAROL as the car swerves a little, narrowly missing a lone CYCLIST- MARGARET (CONT'D) So sorry! Terribly sorry! MARGARET throws a wave from the wound down window. The CYCLIST swerves on recognizing her, watching as the car goes round and round the square, almost balletic. CAROL Hey, look at me, driving! CAROL's squeals of delight, let loose on the open road. The tyres screech on the corner. INT. KITCHEN. FLOOD STREET. LONDON. 1974. DAWN. Laughter - VOICES on the approach- CAROL Thanks Ma, that was terrific! I really feel I've got a handle on it now. CAROL and MARGARET entering kitchen, still giddy from their adventure. CAROL (CONT'D) You should have seen us, Pa. 39 DENIS in his dressing gown burning toast and attempting to make breakfast - MARGARET Have you been trying to make breakfast? For Goodness sake, Denis! DENIS scrapes down the toast, eggs boiling in the pan. DENIS I can boil a bloody egg. CAROL Mummy took me for a test drive - We went absolutely everywhere. All over the place - MARGARET (sudden/cutting in) I've decided. I'm going to run. MARGARET smiles, a growing resolution gripping her. DENIS What for? MARGARET I'm going to run for Leader of the Party. CAROL'S utter disappointment on seeing she has lost MARGARET already. CAROL Silly me! CAROL storms out of the kitchen. DENIS (calling after) Good luck! CAROL (O.S.) All the time I thought I was having a driving lesson, it was all about my mother, just for a change! MARGARET What's she on about? DENIS It's her driving test this morning! 40 MARGARET Oh, right. Of course. A BEAT. DENIS Are you saying you want to be Prime Minister? MARGARET (with false patience) What I'm saying is that someone must force the point, say the unsayable. None of these men have the guts. MARGARET sees the burnt toast and energetically starts clearing up and putting more bread under the grill. DENIS The Prime Minister has been very loyal to you, MT. He tries, with a trembling hand, to scoop boiled eggs from the pan. MARGARET But he's weak, and he's weakened the party. One must know when to go. (glancing at him) You're shaking. She reaches out. DENIS I can do it! DENIS pulls his arm away, sending boiled eggs flying. SILENCE. MARGARET Goodness me! What is the matter with everyone this morning? A beat. He looks utterly fragile. DENIS I've told you what the matter is. The business is a bit rocky at the moment and the Doctor thinks I need a rest. MARGARET And do you need a rest? 41 It's almost challenging. He doesn't answer and she doesn't notice. MARGARET (CONT'D) We both know that it's highly unlikely that I would ever be elected leader, I'll never be elected leader. But I will run. I will run. Just to nip at their heels and make them reaffirm the principles on which the Conservative Party must stand. There's so much to do. She smiles. DENIS (sotto voce) You're insufferable, Margaret, do you know that? MARGARET Denis, you married someone who is committed to public service, you knew that. And it is my duty - DENIS (interrupts) Don't call it duty. It's ambition which has got you this far. Ambition. And the rest of us, me, the children, we can all go to hell! The SLAM of the door, DENIS gone- DENIS (O.S.) (CONT'D) Don't worry about me, I'll be fine! INT. SITTING ROOM. CHESTER SQ. PRESENT. NIGHT MARGARET and DENIS sit on the sofa. MARGARET Where did you go? DENIS South Africa. MARGARET Yes. 42 INT. KITCHEN. FLOOD STREET. LONDON. 1974. DAWN MARGARET eats breakfast alone, engrossed in the newspaper. DENIS (V.O.) How many days passed before you realized I was gone? Probably had to ask the cleaning woman where I was. INT. SITTING ROOM. CHESTER SQ. PRESENT. NIGHT MARGARET grips her whiskey, shaking her head. MARGARET When did I lose track of everyone? DENIS Too busy climbing the greasy pole MT. Cutting in - INTERVIEWER (O.S.) Mrs Thatcher I understand you recently visited the United States of America. MARGARET'S attention is caught by an old interview, playing on the TV. She leans forward. On screen, she sits in a neat hat, leaning forward eagerly. INTERVIEWER (CONT'D) What was it you took away from that visit which may be of value here in Great Britain? INT. STUDIO. LONDON. 1975. NIGHT MARGARET perched on a chair, smiling at the TV INTERVIEWER - MARGARET Oh that's rather easy to answer, actually. They are unafraid of success. INT. REECE'S OFFICE. LONDON. 1975. DAY MARGARET is watching the same interview on a TV monitor. She is watching herself intently, as are REECE and AIREY NEAVE. They are polar opposites, REECE flamboyant to NEAVE's bluff. 43 She sounds very plummy, like a Conservative party wife from the shires. And she wears a hat. MARGARET ON TELEVISION We in Great Britain and in Europe are formed mainly by our history. They on the other hand are formed by their philosophy. Not by what has been, but by what can be. Oh, we have a great deal that we can learn from them, yes. Oh yes! MARGARET is trapped in the moment - but the two men exchange a glance. NEAVE freezes the picture. MARGARET smiles uneasily, like someone expecting a compliment. REECE considers her, long and hard. It is a little unsettling until- REECE Well er...For a start, that hat has got to go. And the pearls. In fact I think all hats may have to go. You look and sound like a privileged Conservative wife and we've already got her vote. You've got lovely hair but we need to do something with it - to make it more- AIREY NEAVE Important. REECE Yes. Give it more impact. But the main thing is your voice. Its too high. It has no authority. AIREY NEAVE Methinks the Lady doth screech too much REECE People don't want to be harangued by a woman or hectored. Persuaded yes. That `oh yes' at the end of the interview, that's authoritative, that's the voice of a leader. MARGARET stares at him. 44 MARGARET It's all very well to talk about changing my voice, Mr Reece, but for some of my colleagues to imagine me as their leader would be like imagining, I don't know, being led into battle by their chambermaid. It's my background, and my sex. No matter how I've tried, and I have tried, to fit in, I will never be truly one of them. Both REECE and NEAVE are aware that she has spoken very nakedly - and is thus extremely vulnerable. REECE If I may say so - I think that's your trump card. You're flying in the face of everything the Tories have been thus far. It's really very exciting. One simply has to maximise your appeal, bring out all your qualities and make you look, and sound, like the leader that you could be. NEAVE You've got it in you to go the whole distance. REECE Absolutely. MARGARET Prime Minister?! Oh no. Oh no no no. In Britain? There will be no female Prime Minister here, not in my lifetime. No. And I told Airey, I don't expect to win the leadership, but I am going to run. Just to shake up the party. NEAVE moves in intently- NEAVE Respectfully, Margaret, I disagree. If you want to change this party, lead it. If you want to change the country, lead it. What we're talking about here today is surface. What's crucial is that you hold your course, and stay true to who you are. Never be anything other than yourself. MARGARET, though flattered, looks sceptical. 45 REECE Leave us to do the rest. A BEAT MARGARET Gentlemen, I am in your hands. I may be persuaded to surrender the hat. But the pearls were a gift from my husband on the birth of our twins and they are absolutely non-negotiable. MARGARET smiles at them. INT. REHEARSAL ROOM. NATIONAL THEATRE. LONDON. 1975. DAY MARGARET stands humming, a THEATRICAL COACH presses her hand to MARGARET'S stomach. THEATRICAL VOICE COACH And...bring it down. MARGARET hums lower, tries to project her voice. MARGARET Maaaaaaaaaaaa. THEATRICAL VOICE COACH Good, I think we can loose the handbag, Mrs Thatcher...Hands down the sides...Because this isn't really about the voice, it's about belief...A nice deep breath. REECE and NEAVE are watching and monitoring the performance. DENIS, though present, is having a crafty fag by the window. THEATRICAL VOICE COACH (CONT'D) If you're calling Mr Thatcher, how would you do that? MARGARET looks over at him. MARGARET (calls) Denis. He doesn't react. THEATRICAL VOICE COACH Yes, I want more authority, I want conviction, I want - 46 MARGARET (a little more authority) Denis. THEATRICAL VOICE COACH That's right, one more time, deep breath - She puts on her new, lower voice. MARGARET Denis. And DENIS reacts immediately, like a guilty thing surprised, stabbing out his cigarette, turning quickly towards her. DENIS Yes MT! EXT. YARD. ICE CREAM FACTORY. DAY. MARGARET makes her way through a crowd of applauding workers in crisp white uniforms. Like them, she wears a white cap on her head. MARGARET You are the backbone of our nation! Small firms like Loveday's Ice Cream. How are you? So nice to meet you ladies. General merriment as MARGARET, now inside an ice-cream van, has a go at dispensing an ice cream from the machine. MARGARET (CONT'D) I'll just have a small one, because I'm watching my figure. (handing the cone out) That's for you young man! INT. HAIR SALON. LONDON. 1975. DAY MARGARET is having new hair colour and the colourist is 75 percent through putting her hair in foil. MARGARET (V.O.) I passionately believe it's the growth of small businesses into larger ones that is critical for Britain's future. 47 REECE and NEAVE are sitting nearby, both of them reading the Financial Times. EXT. YARD. ICE CREAM FACTORY. DAY. MARGARET among the ladies again. MARGARET It has to be something icy on a stick for Denis. Laughter. MARGARET (CONT'D) (returning to her subject) That's the only way we will produce jobs, real jobs, jobs that sustain. INT. HAIR SALON. LONDON. 1975. DAY MARGARET sitting under the dryer, cooking her new hair, still correcting paperwork while REECE and NEAVE look on, twiddling their thumbs. EXT. FACTORY. LONDON. 1975. DAY MARGARET is standing on an impromptu stage outside a factory. She has a hard hat on her head. MARGARET The Trade Union Movement was founded to protect workers. Now it persecutes them. It stops them from working. It is killing jobs and it is bringing this country to its knees. I say enough. It's time to get up. It's time to go to work. It's time to put the Great back into Great Britain! INT. HAIR SALON. 1975. DAY The bouffant is now apparent. REECE AND NEAVE watch in awe. INT. BACKSTAGE. CONFERENCE HALL. BRIGHTON. 1979. DAY A darkened backstage. MARGARET, clutching her speech, goes over her lines. A FEMALE AIDE sprays her hair. She looks up, starts to move towards the light. 48 AIREY NEAVE is suddenly next to her. NEAVE Give `em hell! He looks her up and down, with a smile. NEAVE (CONT'D) You look magnificent. Next stop Prime Minister. MARGARET Oh Airey... As from the stage - ANNOUNCER The leader of the Conservative Party, Margaret Thatcher! MARGARET pushes back her shoulders and walks into battle to the sound of GROWING APPLAUSE. INT. MAIN HALL. CONFERENCE HALL. BRIGHTON. 1979. DAY BRITAIN NEEDS THE CONSERVATIVES bannered overhead and hung with Union Jacks. MARGARET a swathe of blue, as she passes through her GREY SUITED CABINET. From behind she stands, arms outstretched, accepting the applause, a shock of bright blonde hair as she stands before a sea of CONSERVATIVE DELEGATES holding up letter cards WE LOVE YOU MAGGIE! Wedges of fanatical party faithful on their feet in a kind of rapture. The blessed Margaret ! DENIS just visible with REECE, HOWE, PYM, HESELTINE and several other GREY SUITED MINISTERS of her cabinet, seated close behind now jumping to their feet, with obvious relief and delight - RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE, FLASH BULBS POPPING MARGARET smiles, glorious, catching DENIS' eye. He is brimming with pride. AIREY NEAVE beams at his protegee. INT. CORRIDOR. HOUSE. CHESTER SQUARE. PRESENT. DAY. Close on a photograph of MARGARET and AIREY NEAVE. MARGARET sits looking at it, her coat on, her handbag on her lap. 49 INT. UNDERGROUND CAR PARK. HOUSE OF COMMONS. 1979. EVE. MARGARET is loading papers and files into the boot of her car. AIREY NEAVE drives towards her, winding down his window. NEAVE Good night Margaret. My money's on the filly to win! MARGARET Oh, thanks Airey. Goodnight. He laughs and drives towards the exit of the car park. As MARGARET closes the boot and opens the door to get in the car suddenly there's a MASSIVE EXPLOSION, the sound magnified by being in the cavernous underground. For a few seconds we don't know what's happened. Through the smoke we see MARGARET running up the ramp towards us. MARGARET (CONT'D) No. No, no! Airey! Her POV of the fireball of Neave's car. As Margaret looks in horror at the scene. Her shattered face. NEWS V.O. The Irish National Liberation Army has claimed responsibility for the death of Airey Neave, Margaret Thatcher's spokesman on Northern Ireland. INT. CONFERENCE HALL. NIGHT. MARGARET on the conference podium, blinking back tears. Behind her, Denis' face etched with the same sorrow. INT. STEPS. HOUSE OF COMMONS. DAY MARGARET walks alone down the grand stairway, sombre, deep in thought. INT. CORRIDOR. CHESTER SQUARE. PRESENT. DAY. MARGARET looks up from the photograph, tears in her eyes. AIREY NEAVE (V.O.) If you want to change the party, lead it. (MORE) 50 AIREY NEAVE (V.O.) (CONT'D) If you want to change the country, lead it. You've got it in you to go the whole distance! On MARGARET as memories flood in. A TV headline announces: ELECTION 1979. INT. CONFERENCE HALL. NIGHT MARGARET on the podium. MARGARET Now, as the test draws near, I ask your help. That together we can shake off the shackles of socialism and restore to greatness this country that we love so much. And the only way is for the Conservative Party to win! The black streak of MARGARET'S car, a blur of colour, faces, waving flags - TV footage of polling night. Swingometers, pollsters, impressionistic snatches of reported speech. More footage of PEOPLE coming out of polling stations. Jubilant crowds applauding.. MARGARET, silhouetted in her iconic stance, arms aloft... INT. CAR. DOWNING STREET. LONDON. 1979. DAY. MARGARET peering out of the window, hands sunk in the lap, a flash of the Royal blue fabric of her skirt, clenched in fingers. NEWS READER (V.O.) It's Friday the 4th of May, an historic day for Britain, a Conservative government led by Mrs. Thatcher is set to lead - NEWS READER 2 (V.O.) Mrs Ghandi in India, but never in the West has there been a woman Prime Minister. NEW READER 3 (V.O.) The place that she has secured in British history, as the first woman ever to be invited to form a government. (MORE) 51 NEW READER 3 (V.O.) (CONT'D) The bonus of one of the most famous addresses in the world, Number 10 Downing Street. NOISE. FLAGS. BANNERS read `We LOVE YOU MAGGIE' blur through the window, an abstract cacophony of noise and colour- DENIS This is it, steady the buffs old girl. He clasps her hand for a moment as MARGARET smiles at him. The door swings open- EXT. DOWNING STREET. LONDON. 1979. DAY. The CAMERA from behind on MARGARET rising up out of the car, to face a waiting PRESS CORP. The jostle of a POLICE OFFICER, DENIS and OTHERS press her either side- MARGARET I should just like to say that I take very seriously the trust the British people placed in me today, and I will work hard every day to live up to that responsibility. And now, I should like to share with you a prayer of St Francis of Assisi: Where there is discord may we bring harmony... Where there is error may we bring truth... Where there is doubt may we bring faith... Where there is despair may we bring hope.. The CAMERA rises up, high above MARGARET until she is just a blue dot, on the dark tarmac, a lone woman standing facing the circle of cameras and microphones. The door of Number 10 looms ahead. INT. DRAWING ROOM. DOWNING STREET. LONDON. 1979. DAY. The cheers go over .. The CABINET gathering for a group shot- MARGARET Shoulders back, tummies in! Laughter. Michael Heseltine, standing behind MARGARET, reaches out to smooth a stray lock of her hair. 52 MARGARET (CONT'D) Oh. Thank you, Michael. MARGARET seated at the heart of her entire CABINET, as if she is royalty. The FLASH of the CAMERA - the image frozen. INT. CORRIDOR. HOUSE. CHESTER SQUARE. PRESENT. DAY. The same image, framed on a side table beside MARGARET. The distant hum of a hoover. MARGARET I'm perfectly healthy. There's no need for any of this. Denis appears, his hand inside his shoe, polishing it vigorously. DENIS Just let them look under the bonnet, MT. Check everything is hunky dory. MARGARET hesitates. She sits in silence until- MARGARET Really it's becoming quite tiresome. DENIS What is? MARGARET You. (beat) I was on my own for twenty four years before I met you and I can manage perfectly well without you now. So will you please go away and stop bothering me. INT. CONSULTING ROOM. HARLEY STREET. LONDON. PRESENT.DAY A distinguished consulting room- MARGARET sits silent, as an EMINENT DOCTOR checks her blood pressure. The beep of the machine, steady and monotonous until- DOCTOR Just look straight at me, straight ahead, that's it. 53 The DOCTOR scribbles some notes, considering- DOCTOR (CONT'D) Are you noticing night sweats? MARGARET No DOCTOR Hallucinations? MARGARET hesitates. She shakes her head. MARGARET No. DOCTOR Sleep? MARGARET Yes, I sleep. Four, five hours a night. DOCTOR So you wake early? MARGARET And I stay up late. I always have. She looks at him as if he really should know this about her. The DOCTOR notes this down. DOCTOR We just want to keep abreast of it. MARGARET Yes. Of course. DOCTOR Grief is a very natural state. MARGARET My husband has been gone for years. Cancer. DOCTOR Carol says you've decided to let his things go. Probably a good thing. MARGARET Yes. It was my idea. To Oxfam. Perfectly good stuff. People can use these things. 54 DOCTOR Still it must be a bit disorientating. You are bound to be feeling. MARGARET What? What am I `bound to be feeling'? The DOCTOR looks up from his note taking, hearing the quiet challenge in MARGARET's voice. MARGARET (CONT'D) People don't `think' any more. They `feel'. `How are you feeling?' `Oh I don't feel comfortable with that' `Oh, I'm so sorry but we, the group were feeling...' D'you know, one of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than thoughts and ideas. (beat) Now thoughts and ideas. That interests me. (beat) Ask me what I am thinking- The DOCTOR hesitates, letting MARGARET settle until- DOCTOR What are you thinking, Margaret? MARGARET looks at the DOCTOR, quietly struggling with a fury, threatening to unleash- MARGARET Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become your character. And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny. What we think, we become. My father always said that. (beat) And I think I am fine. (beat) But I do so appreciate your kind concern. The sudden and persistent buzz of an intercom- MARGARET (CONT'D) Oh, do please answer that. 55 MARGARET holds his gaze, with quiet unwavering steel unsettling the DOCTOR a little. MARGARET (CONT'D) It might be someone who needs you. The DOCTOR reluctantly answers his intercom- INT. CORRIDOR CHESTER SQUARE. PRESENT. DUSK. JUNE heads up the stairs, MARGARET following behind. JUNE I'll give Carol a quick ring, let her know we're back, then I'll put your electric blanket on. MARGARET nods. Looking through the bannisters, her eyes fall on- A golf ball running along the floor. MARGARET considers, looks up- DENNIS OOV Steady, steady, steady! Damn. Fore! The ball bounces down the wooden stairs. INT. KITCHEN. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. DUSK. MARGARET opens the fridge. A cold plated lunch resting on a shelf. DENIS What about that medicine man, eh? Ah. Cold supper. Standards are slipping Margaret. MARGARET ignores DENIS taking out the plate unwrapping the cellophane off it and placing it on a table, already laid ready for her to eat. DENIS (CONT'D) Well you really gave it to that quack didn't you, darling ? Just like the old days! Hallucinations my eye! DENIS picks up a piece of cucumber from her plate. She absently smacks at his hand. DENIS (CONT'D) How dare he? DENIS smiles. 56 DENIS (CONT'D) But then you give us all the run around, don't you? MARGARET looks at him, silently infuriated. INT. DRAWING ROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. PRESENT. DUSK. MARGARET pours herself a whiskey. DENIS looms close, serves a splash of soda. DENIS I know you can hear me, sweetheart, so there's no use pretending you can't. MARGARET turns, ignoring him. MARGARET Enough. Denis, enough! DENIS (saluting) Dismissed! INT. DRAWING ROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. PRESENT. DUSK. MARGARET sits reading DENIS' spy novel. DENIS She does it in the end. Kills him- MARGARET slams the book closed. DENIS (CONT'D) I don't know why you're being so scratchy. MARGARET's eyes dart to the clock. DENIS (CONT'D) It's not as if you've got anyone else to talk to. Shaking her head, MARGARET tries to block him out. MARGARET (V.O.) When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride - 57 DENIS You know, it's a marvel to me that you can still quote huge chunks of Kipling but try remembering the name of that woman who's just made you that godawful cold collation... No? Come on... you can do it... month of the year... one syllable... rhymes with moon ... MARGARET (sudden/like a lightbulb) June. MARGARET turns to DENIS, a quiet appalling victory. DENIS June! Bingo. Knew you'd get there in the end. "When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride, He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside, but the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail. For the female of the species is more deadly than the male..." As he continues, MARGARET reaches for the remote, turns the television on. She moves onto the radio. Then the stereo. She moves on, talking to herself- A gradual growing cacophony of sound- INT. KITCHEN. CHESTER SQUARE. PRESENT. DUSK. MARGARET flicks on mixers, radios, toasters- INT. DRAWING ROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. PRESENT. DUSK. The noise almost unbearable now- MARGARET turns on a hi-fi, the TV now on- MARGARET If I can't hear you then I can't see you. And if I can't see you then you are not here. MARGARET closes her eyes. 58 MARGARET (CONT'D) And if you are not here, I am not going mad. I will not...I will not go mad. She opens them and suddenly freezes on seeing an image of herself, bewildered and leaving Harley Street, caught on the TV- BBC VOICEOVER Baroness Thatcher made an apparently routine visit to her doctor today. Although rarely seen in public, Lady Thatcher, the longest serving Prime Minister of the twentieth century, remains a controversial figure. MARGARET turns up the volume to full, trying to hear over the cacophony of noise the changing images on the TV illuminating her pale face. JUNE Margaret- MARGARET barely sees her, eyes riveted to the TV. BBC VOICE OVER Almost lovingly dubbed by the Soviets The Iron Lady, she's also credited, with her friend Ronald Reagan, with a decisive role in the ending of the Cold War. Her supporters claim she transformed the British economy and reversed the country's post-war decline. Her detractors blame her savage public spending cuts and sweeping privatization of - JUNE moves like a dervish through the house, muting the television and turning off the last of the appliances- A gradual silence descends until- MARGARET takes in the image of herself on the mute screen, standing bewildered on the steps of Harley Street. MARGARET (almost to self) I don't recognize myself. 59 INT. BATHROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. PRESENT. NIGHT. The shelf of a bathroom cabinet. Shaving brush. Razor. Medicaments. MARGARET begins to pull them all off the shelves. DENIS (O.S.) Am I out of the doghouse yet? Then a pair of glasses. More gently, MARGARET'S hand reaches into the cupboard and takes the glasses in her hand. INT. BEDROOM. HOUSE.CHESTER SQUARE.PRESENT.NIGHT. MARGARET lies in bed, book in her lap, DENIS beside her reading the paper. She closes the book and pulls off her reading glasses. MARGARET They're unveiling that portrait of me at Number 10 next month. The invitation's on the mantelpiece. So there'll be Churchill, Lloyd George and me. Just the three of us. SILENCE- MARGARET (CONT'D) I said I didn't want any big fuss but they insisted.. SILENCE- Lovely little article in The Telegraph... The Woman Who Changed the Face of History.. SILENCE- Voices from the past intrude - FOOT VO Less than two years ago, the Prime Minister quoted St. Francis and talked about bringing faith, hope and harmony to this country. MARGARET suddenly reaches out a hand, her hand shaking- MARGARET Denis? She turns in bed. Sudden panic, DENIS is gone- 60 A HECKLING CHAMBER RISING THROUGH- INT. CHAMBERS. HOUSE OF COMMONS. 1980. DAY. A HECKLING chamber as MARGARET sits, facing LABOUR OUTRAGE, the labour leader, FOOT, grips his paper, mid speech- FOOT Can the Right Honourable Lady deny, that having brought about the highest level of unemployment since 1934- MARGARET bides her time on the front bench, waiting her turn, surrounded by her CABINET MINISTERS including HOWE, PYM and HESELTINE- FOOT (CONT'D) The biggest fall in total output in steel and coal production in one year since 1931. And the biggest collapse in industrial production since 1921. MARGARET remains seemingly calm and serene, and yet one hand quietly grips the bench, her wedding ring tapping against the wood nervously. FOOT (CONT'D) Can she also accept that her free market economics designed to create a growing middle class ensures that the rich get richer and the poor are irrelevant! INT. CAR. STREETS. LONDON. 1980. DAY A rising roar of voices - PROTESTORS Maggie Maggie Maggie! Out Out Out! Maggie Maggie Maggie! Out Out Out! MARGARET in her car driving through the blur of furious PROTESTORS. PROTESTOR 1 You're supposed to be a mother! You're not a mother, you're s monster! You're a monster! 61 INT. DRAWING ROOM. DOWNING STREET. 1980. EVENING. CLOSE UP on a button - The STEADY IN and OUT of a needle pulling taut on a thread. MARGARET stands, swathed in a glittering long dinner dress, a SEAMSTRESS stitching a stray button on the front of the bodice on her dress. Geoffrey Howe stands nearby in a dinner jacket. HESELTINE May we have a word, Prime Minister? A bank of MINISTERS, including HESELTINE, PYM, PRIOR, HOWE and GILMOUR, gather before her. MARGARET Yes, but in order to arrive at the palace on time, Geoffrey and I are will be walking out of that door in 15 minutes. As you can see - HESELTINE I know you're running late Margaret, but we have to address this situation in light of tomorrow's blistering press coverage. Blistering! The knives are out. Your draft budget's been leaked, Geoffrey, they are baying for our blood! HOWE Michael we can't possibly buckle at the first sign of difficulty. The SCRATCH of PRIOR's hand on unkempt hair- HESELTINE No one is saying we have to buckle. PRIOR But is this really the time to make these spending cuts in the middle of one of the deepest recessions this country has ever experienced? HESTLETINE We need a plan of action, Margaret. PYM Absolutely. A strategy. 62 GILMOUR We must be armed. PRIOR Agreed. MARGARET stiffens, the needle momentarily hovering mid stitch as MARGARET shifts a little- The SEAMSTRESS resumes sewing- PRIOR (CONT'D) There's a perception, Margaret rightly or wrongly, that we are now completely out of touch with the country. The patronizing tone inflames her. MARGARET Really. (beat) How much is a pack of Lurpak? PYM Lurpak? MARGARET Butter, Francis. (silence) Forty two pence. Anchor butter is forty pence. Flora margarine, still the cheapest, is thirty eight pence. I can assure you I am not out of touch. Another MINISTER - GILMOUR - whispers the words: "Grocer's Daughter" - as a put down. The men smirk. MARGARET has caught the moment. A sudden flash of the pretty girls in the Grantham Street long ago, laughing at her. MARGARET (CONT'D) What - did you say? GILMOUR makes a gesture. GILMOUR Nothing. Nothing, Prime Minister. MARGARET is furious. 63 MARGARET Don't try to hide you opinions. Goodness me, I'd much rather you were honest and straightforward about them - instead of continuously and damagingly leaking them to the press. Well? MOMENTARILY SILENT- MARGARET's eyes travel around the room in waiting- PYM Well, people can't pay their mortgages. GILMOUR The manufacturing industry is practically on its knees. PYM Honest, hard-working, decent people are losing their homes. It's terribly shameful. GILMOUR The point is, Prime Minister, that we must moderate the pace - HESELTINE - if we're even to have a hope of winning the next election- PYM Quite right. MARGARET Ah. Worried about our careers, are we? They make noises - to the effect that nothing could be further from the truth. But MARGARET has their measure. MARGARET (CONT'D) Gentlemen, if we don't cut spending we will be bankrupt. Yes the medicine is harsh but the patient requires it in order to live. Shall we withhold the medicine? No! We are not wrong. We did not seek election and win in order to manage the decline of a great nation. (MORE) 64 MARGARET (CONT'D) The people of this country chose us because they believe we can restore the health of the British economy and we will do just that! Barring a failure of nerve. The SNAP OF COTTON - MARGARET looks at them in a cold fury... MARGARET (CONT'D) Anything else? SILENCE- MARGARET nods to the seamstress, dismissing her- MARGARET (CONT'D) Thank you. You saved the day once again, Crawfie, you're an angel. MARGARET straightens her cuff, testing the button, as the meeting slowly disbands and the MINISTERS move away. HOWE You can't close down a discussion because it's not what you wish to hear. MARGARET I don't expect everyone just to sit there and agree with me. But what kind of leader am I if I don't try to get my own way - to do what I know to be right. HOWE Yes. But Margaret, one must be careful of testing one's colleagues' loyalty too far. MARGARET glances up watching the MINISTERS disappearing, in whispered conversation, like conspirators. (ARCHIVE FOOTAGE) Rioting in Brixton, burning cars, huge civil unrest - TV JOURNALIST (V.O.) We are now one split nation, with a huge gulf dividing the employed from the unemployed. (ARCHIVE FOOTAGE) Protest marches, `People's March for Jobs', `No pit closures" - 65 UNION ACTIVIST (V.O.) The Thatcher plan is to break the Trade Union movement. MARGARET (V.O.) There must be closures of uneconomic coal mines, we seek only an efficient industry. (ARCHIVE FOOTAGE) violent clashes between protesting miners and police - MINER'S WIFE (V.O.) The miners are being starved back to work, the need is desperate! INT. CORRIDOR. HOUSE OF COMMONS. 1981. DAY. MARGARET sweeping along an endless corridor, surrounded by her cabinet, hard on her heels. HOWE, HESELTINE, PYM, PRIOR and OTHERS. MARGARET talking, they hang on her every word. MARGARET (V.O.) There are those who would say hold back, there are those who would make us retreat - INT. CONFERENCE CENTRE BRIGHTON. 1980. Margaret mid speech. MARGARET But we shall never give in to them. We shall never waver, not for a second, in our determination to see this country prosper once again. The party faithful erupt in cheers, seconded by all Margaret's courtiers on the platform. PYM, PRIOR, HESELTINE, HOWE and above all DENIS, applauding as if their lives depended on it. INT. LADIES. HOUSE OF COMMONS. 1980. DAY. MARGARET sits clutching the sink, a light sweat breaking across her forehead. She looks up- NEWS READER (V.O.) A car bomb has exploded outside Harrods department store, killing six people and injuring 71. 66 NEWS READER 2 (V.O.) Eleven soldiers died today when two bombs were detonated during military parades in Hyde Park and Regent's Park. Seven horses also died in the blasts. INTERCUT (ARCHIVE FOOTAGE) bombed buildings, horses lying dead in the street, an IRA banner. NEWS READER 3 (V.O.) The IRA have claimed responsibility. INT. BEDROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. NIGHT. MARGARET lost in restless sleep- INTERCUT (ARCHIVE FOOTAGE) IRA graffiti scrawled on a wall, paramilitaries fire guns, sirens wail. INT. CONFERENCE CENTRE BRIGHTON. 1980. Margaret on the podium. MARGARET And now, it must be business as usual. THE BRIGHTON GRAND HOTEL. INT. SITTING ROOM. SUITE. GRAND HOTEL. 1984. NIGHT. DENIS in pyjamas, brushes his teeth in the bathroom. He glances at MARGARET through the open door as she sits, still in evening dress, working on her speech. DENIS Come on love, get to bed. I don't know why you do this to yourself every year, it's a speech at conference, not the Magna Carta! She looks up, distracted. DENIS (CONT'D) Time to call it a day, darling. It's ten to three, for God's sake. MARGARET I know, I'm coming DT. Nearly there - BOOM! 67 An almighty explosion rips through the room; wood, glass, furniture splinters, curtains flay from the walls. The fall of plaster, devastating, the hotel room obliterated, reduced to a smoking, dusty rubble. MARGARET stands ghostlike, covered in debris. MARGARET (CONT'D) (calling out) Denis! MARGARET searching through the haze of fallen plaster, covered with dust, slowly clearing to reveal- MARGARET (CONT'D) (more desperate) Denis- there you are. Are you alright? DENIS ghostlike, covered in dust, still in his pyjamas, holding up an obliterated pair of shoes. DENIS My shoes! Beyond, the wall of the bathroom entirely blown away - The CAW of gulls- EXT. GRAND HOTEL. BRIGHTON. 1984. NIGHT. Chaos outside the Grand Hotel in the aftermath of the bomb. The WHIR of SIRENS- DENIS and MARGARET sit in their car, looking out in silent shock at the devastated Grand hotel, reflected on the glass of the car windows. MARGARET (V.O.) That's when I thought I'd lost you. A TELEPHONE RINGS CUTTING THROUGH FROM ANOTHER TIME... INT. BEDROOM. HOUSE. CHESTER SQUARE. PRESENT. NIGHT. MARGARET wakes with a start, confused and fumbles for the telephone by her bed- MARGARET (picking up phone) Mark?... Hello darling... No, I'm fine... I'm very well... 68 MARGARET squints, fingers fumbling for DENIS' watch. MARGARET (CONT'D) How is... How's... Sarah?... And the children..? MARGARET sits up - MARGARET (CONT'D) ...Oh... You can't... That's a pity... I was hoping to see you... No really darling... That's fine... Of course... another time... Lovely Darling... Can't wait...Yes... MARGARET suddenly relents, a flicker of sudden and urgent need, caught in her eyes- MARGARET (CONT'D) (beat) Mark? Silence- MARK gone. MARGARET hangs up, stares at- I Whistle A Happy Tune from the King and I just audible- INT. DRAWING ROOM.CHESTER SQUARE.PRESENT.NIGHT. MARGARET stands in the doorway, a jaunty "I Whistle A Happy Tune" seeping from the television. MARGARET That was Mark. Not able to come. DENIS (cutting in) Boy's always going AWOL. MARGARET Well it costs him a great deal to fly everyone up here. DENIS There you go, making excuses for him. Now look where it's got you. DENIS stands dressed in dinner jacket and bow tie as he reads the back of "The King and I" DVD. DENIS (CONT'D) Did you know Yul Brynner was a gypsy from Vladivostok? 69 MARGARET Yes. He moved to Paris when he was fourteen. He played the King of Siam 4,625 times on the London and Broadway stages. What are you doing? DENIS (turning round shaking a cocktail) One likes to make an effort. A snifter? MARGARET You're dead, Denis. DENIS Ah. Well, if I'm dead... who are you talking to? Shall we dance ? He takes Margaret in his arms. The music changes to `Shall we Dance' from `The King and I' as DENIS takes a confused MARGARET in his arms and begins an expansive waltz round the room. The room turns. YOUNG DENIS dancing with the YOUNG MARGARET. Now its OLD DENIS dancing with OLD MARGARET again. DENIS loses his footing, and MARGARET lurches towards the desk where her eyes fall on figurines of Falklands soldiers. She stares hard. NEWS READER (V.O.) The Falkland islands, the British Colony in the South Atlantic, has fallen. Argentina claims its marines went ashore this morning as a spearhead to capture key targets, including the capital, Port Stanley. INT. STUDY. DOWNING STREET. LONDON. 1982. DAY. MARGARET sits, composed, staring up at a phalanx of military men and her ministers. MARGARET Gentlemen, the Argentinian Junta - which is a fascist gang - has invaded our sovereign territory. This cannot be tolerated. May I make plain my negotiating position. I will not negotiate with criminals or thugs. The Falkland islands belong to Britain, and I want them back. Gentlemen, I need you to tell me today if that is possible. 70 ADMIRAL LEACH Possible... just, Prime Minister. We can have a Task Force ready to sail in forty-eight hours. MARGARET is visibly stunned. MARGARET Forty-eight hours? ADMIRAL LEACH But - MARGARET But? ADMIRAL LEACH We have a very narrow weather window. We can't fight in winter down there. Nobody can. If we are going, we have to go now. INT. STUDY. DOWNING STREET. LONDON. 1982. DAY. MARGARET at her desk. MARGARET Why were the islands left without any naval protection? JOHN NOTT In the last round of Defence cuts we judged the risk of invasion to be small. MARGARET Did we? JOHN NOTT And if you remember, Prime Minister, you agreed that we should reduce the naval presence in the area to an absolute minimum. MARGARET taps her fingers against the map, with growing irritation. INT. CABINET. DOWNING STREET. DAY. MARGARET sits alone. 71 INT CORRIDOR. . CORRIDOR. DOWNING STREET. LONDON. 1982. DAY MARGARET is under attack. HOWE Margaret, the cost of sending 28,000 men and a hundred ships twelve thousand miles, almost to Argentina, will be absolutely crippling. MARGARET I don't think we should be worrying about money at this point, Geoffrey. GEOFFREY HOWE We can't afford to go to war. INT. STUDY. LONDON. 1982. NIGHT. MARGARET sits alone. ADMIRAL LEACH (V.O.) We have to go now. MARGARET (V.O.) The government has now decided that a large task force will sail, as soon as all preparations are complete. INTERCUT (ARCHIVE FOOTAGE) the Task Force sets sail. INT. DRAWING ROOM. DOWNING STREET. LONDON. 1982. DAY MARGARET paces, deep in thought. MP 1 (O.S.) Prime Minister we do still have three weeks before our ships reach the islands. MP 2 (O.S.) All we're saying is that we shouldn't give up on trying to find a diplomatic solution. INT. CORRIDOR. DOWNING STREET. LONDON. 1982. DAY. A tea trolley and an American entourage surge down a Downing Street corridor. 72 MP 1 The U.S. Secretary of State has arrived, Prime Minister. INT. DRAWING ROOM. DOWNING STREET. LONDON. 1982. DAY Haig and Margaret sit facing each other, flanked by senior ministers. GENERAL HAIG So you are proposing to go to war over these Islands. They're thousands of miles away, a handful of citizens, politically and economically... insignificant, if you'll excuse me - MARGARET Just like Hawaii, I imagine. GENERAL HAIG I'm sorry? MARGARET 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbour. Did America go cap in hand and ask Tojo for a peaceful negotiation of terms? Did she turn her back on her own citizens there because the islands were thousands of miles from mainland United States? No, no, no! We will stand on principle or we shall not stand at all. GENERAL HAIG But Margaret with all due respect when one has been to war.... MARGARET With all due respect sir, I have done battle every single day of my life, and many men have underestimated me before. This lot seem bound to do the same but they will rue the day. BEAT MARGARET turns to a tea trolley close by- MARGARET (CONT'D) Now, shall I be mother? HAGUE looks confused, MARGARET lifting the teapot- 73 MARGARET (CONT'D) Tea, Al, how do you take your tea? Black or white? INT. CENTRE OF OPERATIONS. 1982. DAY. NAVAL MEN murmuring messages quietly to NAVAL ATTACHES. Male lips to male ears, something MARGARET has seen all her life. FRANCIS PYM and JOHN NOTT stand near MARGARET. INTERCUT (STOCK FOOTAGE) the naval fleet sails towards the Falklands. A map of South Georgia and the Falkland Islands. Model boats sit on the water, flags sit on the islands. Argentinian flags. MARGARET stares at the map. A whispered message to one of the ATTACHES. He moves a model boat on the map a few inches, leading a fleet of smaller model boats. NAVAL ATTACHE 1 The Argentinian ship the General Belgrano and her escorts are pursuing course 273 degrees toward the Argentinian mainland. We are tracking it with our submarine HMS Conqueror. He points to a model submarine at some distance from the Argentinian boats. MARGARET Is this ship a threat? ADMIRAL FIELDHOUSE Both of these ships are carrying Exocet missiles, Prime Minister. Just yesterday they launched- then aborted- an attack inside the exclusion zone. There is a risk they could try it again. FRANCIS PYM The Belgrano is sailing directly away from the islands. Can it really be regarded as a threat ? ADMIRAL FIELDHOUSE She's been changing course continually. There's a strong possibility that they're attempting a pincer movement on our carrier group. (MORE) 74 ADMIRAL FIELDHOUSE (CONT'D) I advise that we engage them: hit the Belgrano as a warning to the others. Send them all back to port. MARGARET turns to JOHN NOTT and FRANCIS PYM. FRANCIS PYM It'll play badly internationally. We'll be seen as aggressors. She stares at the map once more. One of the men supervising the map moves the model of the Belgrano a fraction further North. JOHN NOTT This will be an escalation, Prime Minister. She looks to LEACH. LEACH If there is to be an escalation, it's better that we start it. MINISTER It is steaming away, Prime Minister. Everyone is staring at MARGARET. Even the ASSISTANTS bustling in the background have stopped and are listening. Male faces turned to her. She herself seems caught in a pincer movement between the politicians and the servicemen. MARGARET Sink it. INT. DOWNING STREET. 1982. NIGHT TV Footage A flash of a torpedo cutting through the water. A thunderous explosion. Flashes of television images- striated and blurry- the Belgrano listing in the water. Reports of the sinking read out by the MOD's Announcer. INT. DRAWING ROOM.CHESTER SQUARE.PRESENT.NIGHT. MARGARET and the Falklands figurine, silhouetted against the dawn light. 75 INT. DOWNING STREET. 1982. NIGHT TV Footage CLOSE now - we see a man on fire, burning. VOICES mixing in and out. TV JOURNALIST V.O. ... HMS Sheffield, a Type 42 destroyer, was attacked and hit late this afternoon by an Argentine missile... TV JOURNALIST V.O. (CONT'D) ...it is seen as a retaliation for the sinking of the General Belgrano, in which over 300 Argentinian sailors died... MARGARET'S eyes shining, as if with tears. A soft knocking at the door. She dabs them away quickly. JOHN NOTT Prime Minister - JOHN NOTT enters. JOHN NOTT (CONT'D) Latest casualty figures from the Sheffield. He hands her a piece of paper. MARGARET (sotto voce) I must write to them. JOHN NOTT Prime Minister? MARGARET The families. I must write to them... INT. DOWNING STREET. STUDY. 1982. NIGHT. MARGARET at her desk, looks up at Pym. MARGARET Foreign Secretary... PYM I've just been briefed by Admiral Fieldhouse. (MORE) 76 PYM (CONT'D) He told me bluntly that if the Argentinians are prepared and willing to risk their aircraft, they have enough missiles to cripple most of our fleet. A beat. JOHN NOTT President Reagan and President Bellaunde of Peru have some new proposals for the peace plan - MARGARET (sharply) The peace plan? There will be no appeasement. This is a war. A war they started and by God, we will finish. Shall I tell you what I'm going to write to every single one of these families, these heartbroken families? I am going to tell them that no British soldier will die in vain for the Falklands. INTERCUT (STOCK FOOTAGE) muddy mass graves as the Falklands dead are buried. MILITARY VOICE Lieutenant Colonel Jones. Captain Wood. Captain Dench. Lieutenant Farlaine. Corporal Hardman. Corporal Sullivan. Corporal Briar. MARGARET writes to each of the families. MARGARET (V.O.) As the only Prime Minister in the history of our country who is also a mother with a son of my own, I can imagine your agony, and your grief. INTERCUT (STOCK FOOTAGE) troops march through barren landscapes, helicopters hover, a British flag. MINISTER (V.O.) Prime Minister, we have secured the beachhead - NEWS ANNOUNCERS (O.S.) The Argentinian troops are demoralized and ill equipped...The paratroops have taken Goose Green... 77 RADIO VO Shortly after dark last night, our forces executed what our Commander in Chief has called a brilliant surprise night attack. MARGARET sits at a desk in Downing Street, listening to the news reports. A hand turns off the radio. DENIS Thatcher, bed. He heads down the hall, MARGARET following behind. RADIO From their new positions, our forces can see large numbers of Argentine soldiers retreating and streaming back into Port Stanley. Our forces are moving forward to exploit their success. INTERCUT (ARCHIVE FOOTAGE) Victory! The Union Jack is raised over Port Stanley. The task force return to England to scenes of jubilation. Embraces, balloons, joyful embraces. INT. CAR. DOWNING STREET. LONDON. 1982. DUSK. MARGARET peering out, a sea of union jacks and bunting. Cheers, the street lined as the car pulls into Downing Street- The blur of noise, cheering, jostling banners THEN the shroud of black uniforms suddenly encasing the car, blocking out the light- The jaunty distant sound of a military band playing- DENIS O/S Well done, M. The car door swings open- A CACOPHONY of CHEERS, APPLAUSE, just audible far off, as MARGARET steps out into the street, the CAMERA follows her out peering up at- DOWNING STREET STAFF leaning out of No 10 windows, waving flags and cheering- MARGARET's gaze lingering on HOWE and PYM amongst them, smiling with congratulations, clearly now part of the victory celebrations. 78 MARGARET O/S We congratulate the men and women of the armed Forces for their skill, bravery and loyalty to this country. INT. HOUSE OF COMMONS CHAMBER PARLIAMENT. 1982. Prime Minister's Questions. MARGARET is at the Dispatch Box fighting it out with MICHAEL FOOT. GEOFFREY HOWE IS BESIDE HER. MARGARET We were faced with an act of unprovoked aggression and we responded as we have responded in times past: with unity, strength and courage, sure in the knowledge that though much is sacrificed, in the end, right will prevail over wrong. Huge cheers and "hear hears" from the Conservative benches. MICHAEL FOOT shifts uncomfortably on the benches opposite. She is unstoppable. MARGARET (CONT'D) And I put it to the Honourable Member opposite that this is not a day for him to carp, find fault, demand inquiries- they will happen I can assure him of that for we have nothing to hide- no, this is a day to put difference aside, hold one's head high and take pride in being British. Barnstorming cheers. We see MICHAEL FOOT, utterly outmaneuvered by her speech. The Labour benches sit silent. INT. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON PRESENT. NIGHT DENIS springs in the air wearing a paper union jack hat, blowing a party hooter. DENIS GOTCHA! Well that paid off old girl! Your ratings soared! From the most hated Prime Minister of all time to the nation's darling...The world was at your feet, and Britain was back in business! 79 INT. BALLROOM. WHITE HOUSE. WASHINGTON. 1981. NIGHT. QUICKFLASH: A glittering ballroom- MARGARET waltzing, caught in REAGAN's arms, fleetingly passing- DENIS looking on, from the sidelines, drink in hand. INTERCUT (STOCK FOOTAGE) MARGARET'S motorcade streaks through the rainy street, Union Jack flying. MARGARET shakes hands with Indira Ghandi. Denis is presented with the pink turban. Newspaper headlines scream PROFITS, PROFITS, PROFITS! MARGARET, triumphant on the podium at party conference. MARGARET shakes hands with Gorbachev. The Berlin Wall comes down. NEWS READER The Berlin Wall has fallen. The gates have opened! The police are making no attempt to stop people as they go through. Headlines: BOOMING BUSINESS! MAGGIE'S MILLIONAIRES! INT. EMBASSY BALLROOM. 1979. NIGHT MARGARET dancing with KENNETH KAUNDA of ZAMBIA, DENIS stands on the touchlines toasting them - a fruity cocktail in his hand. INT. HOUSE OF COMMONS STAIRWAY, 1990. DAY. MARGARET hurries down the stairs, her cabinet in tow. MARGARET I don't agree in any measure! GEOFFREY HOWE But Prime Minister the question of the European single currency will come up. MARGARET I don't think the country is ready for it yet. 80 GEOFFREY HOWE But we cannot bury our heads in the sand... NEWS JOURNALIST (V.O.) A lot of Conservative MP's and Ministers are saying - EXT. HOUSE OF COMMONS. LONDON. DAY. A journalist stands outside the Commons making his report. NEWS JOURNALIST - that there must be a change in that style of management. That Mrs Thatcher must listen more, and on occasion, give in. INT. HOUSE OF COMMONS HALLWAY, 1990. DAY. MARGARET moving swiftly down the hall, leaving her cabinet in her wake. PYM (O.S.) The point is, Prime Minister, I don't think we can sell the idea of a tax that asks everyone to pay the same. MARGARET (V.O.) Our policies may be unpopular, but they are the right policies. MINISTER 1 (V.O.) Prime Minister I just don't think we can ask the poorest of the poor to pay the same amount of tax as a multi-millionaire. INT. CABINET ROOM. DOWNING STREET. 1990. DAY MARGARET, seated at the wide cabinet table surrounded by a subdued CABINET. Most of the familiar old faces - PYM, HESELTINE, etc. All now gone. HOWE the last enduring minister. She casts a gimlet-eye over the GREY-SUITED MEN around her. MARGARET There it is again! Why not? 81 MINISTER 1 Because - MINISTER 2 Because people... on the whole... think that the tax is manifestly unfair. MARGARET Nonsense. Arrant nonsense. This is a simple proposition. In order to live in this country, you must pay for the privilege- something, anything! If you pay nothing, you care nothing. What do you care where you throw your rubbish? Your council estate is a mess, your town, graffiti, what do you care? It's not your problem , it's somebody else's problem- it's the government's problem! YOUR problem is, some of you, is that you haven't got the courage for this fight. You haven't had to fight hard for anything. It's all been given to you- and you feel guilty about it! Well, may I say, on behalf of all those who HAVE had to fight their way up, (and who don't feel guilty about it) we resent those slackers who take, take, take, and contribute nothing to the community! SILENCE. MARGARET (CONT'D) And I see the same thing, the same cowardice in our fight within the European Union, to retain British sovereignty of Britain, the integrity of the pound! Some of you want to make concessions. I hear some of you agree with the latest French proposals. (beat) Well, why don't you get on a boat to Calais? Yes, why don't you put on a beret, and pay 85% of your income to the French government! She has subdued them utterly. The silence is terrible. MARGARET (CONT'D) Right. What can we realistically hope to achieve by the end of session, Lord President? (MORE) 82 MARGARET (CONT'D) And why have we not made more progress to date? What is that? Is that the timetable? I haven't seen that. May I see it? HOWE Here it is, Prime Minister. Of course. HOWE pushes the papers over to her. She picks up a pencil, starts to read. The MINISTERS watch as, quickly, she starts to score through the words. MARGARET The wording is sloppy here, and here. HOWE If you say so. MARGARET I do say so. HOWE It's merely a first draft... MARGARET looks down at the paperwork. MARGARET This is ridiculous. There are two "T's" in "committee"! She presses so hard that her pencil breaks, so she shoves the paper back towards him, stabbing a finger at the offending word. MARGARET (CONT'D) This is shameful. Shameful! I can't even rely on you for a simple timetable! Are you unwell? Yes you are unwell. Give me the pencil, give it to me! MARGARET snaps her fingers at HOWE, gesturing for his pencil, scratching away, ringing the offending word again and again. The MINISTERS stare at the scene appalled, utterly and wretchedly embarrassed. MARGARET (CONT'D) If this is the best you can do I had better send you to hospital, and I shall do your job as well as my own and everyone else's. Gentlemen. (MORE) 83 MARGARET (CONT'D) As the Lord President has come to cabinet unprepared, I am obliged to close this meeting. She waits for them to take their leave, but they sit there, frozen. MARGARET (CONT'D) Good morning! Slowly, the men gather their papers and file out of the room, leaving MARGARET alone. She sits, gathering herself, hands shaking. THE ROAR OF PROTEST SURGES THROUGH - (ARCHIVE FOOTAGE) A HUGE MACABRE PAPIER-MACHE THATCHER HEAD, grimacing with one eyeball blinded and the other detached and hanging bloody on a cheek. ANGRY CROWD (chanting) Can't pay, won't pay! Can't pay, won't pay! Can't pay, won't pay! INT. CAR. DOWNING STREET. LONDON. 1990. DAY. MARGARET peering out- ANGRY PROTESTORS slapping the glass as they pass, the sense of the car being attacked. The smear of smashed egg against the window screen. PROTESTORS Out... Out... Out... MARGARET sinks back into her seat as the car, is jostled either side by a blur of colour, the bang of fists against glass, the roar of the crowd - EXT. TRAFALGAR SQUARE. LONDON. 1990. DAY (ARCHIVE FOOTAGE) Relentless images of violence over this. Mass riots. PROTESTORS charging POLICE LINES. POLICE on HORSEBACK trying to force the PROTESTORS back. One of them - a GIRL - caught out, goes down with her placard, is trampled beneath the horses' hooves, horribly. RIOTERS with blood streaming down their faces. Banners - DEATH TO MAGGIE. OFF WITH HER HEAD. 84 PROTESTORS Maggie... Maggie... Maggie. Out... out... out. With a WHOOSH of flames the north side of Piccadilly Circus goes up in flames. Smoke and blood and fire everywhere. INT. OFFICE DOWNING STREET. 1990. DAY Late afternoon- MARGARET sits, silently working. HOWE enters, MARGARET barely looks up from working- MARGARET Geoffrey- GEOFFREY My letter of resignation. HOWE slides a letter down on her desk- MARGARET looks down at the thick envelope. SILENCE GEOFFREY HOWE Our differences, I'm afraid, cannot be reconciled. MARGARET resumes working- HOWE waits and waits and waits- The SCRATCH of MARGARET's pen, she works on, refusing to stop for him. INT. CHAMBERS. HOUSE OF COMMONS. LONDON. Howe stands in Parliament, reading his resignation speech: HOWE I have done what I believe to be right for my party and my country. The time has come for others to consider their own response to the tragic conflict of loyalties with which I have myself wrestled for perhaps too long. 85 INT. HALLWAYS. HOUSE OF COMMONS. LONDON. MARGARET walks alone down the hall. MINISTER 1 (O.S.) Geoffrey's speech in the House of Commons was devastating. MINSTER 2 (O.S.) - just couldn't take any more of the bullying. INT. CORRIDOR - HOUSE OF COMMONS. LONDON. 1990. DAY. MARGARET's POV as she moves along the corridors of power. MINISTER 3 (O.S.) He was almost inviting someone to challenge her for leadership of the party. Fellow CABINET MINISTERS, unfamiliar backbenchers, the men in suits, all seem to avoid her gaze...then PYM in conversation with HOWE, abruptly terminated, as both men acknowledge her... MINISTER 4 (O.S.) She behaved appallingly. I wouldn't have spoken to my gamekeeper like that. MINISTER 1 (O.S.) I don't think she can survive this. INT. STUDY. DOWNING STREET. LONDON. 1990. NIGHT. MARGARET stands, watching the evening news, HESELTINE just visible on the TV screen- HESELTINE ON TV I'm here to announce my decision to put my name forward as leader of the Conservative party. I have nothing but admiration for our Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, but I believe our party and our country need a new leader. MARGARET turns to DENIS, who stands, clearly shocked, worst fears confirmed. 86 TV JOURNALIST It's extraordinary. The rules of the Conservative Party make it possible for Conservative MP's to depose a sitting Prime Minister. MARGARET and DENIS on the sofa. She unwraps a sweet, eyes locked on the TV. MARGARET I am the Prime Minister. Turning to Denis. MARGARET (CONT'D) (offering the packet) Sweetie? (STOCK FOOTAGE) WESTMINSTER in the moonlight - NEWS JOURNALIST (O.S.) As Conservative MP's gather in Westminster to discus who they will back in the leadership contest, the Prime Minister said she would not be diverted from critical international affairs EXT. PARIS STREET. NIGHT With the Eiffel Tower illuminated behind him, Trevor MacDonald makes his report. TREVOR MACDONALD Tonight in Paris Mrs Thatcher is among thirty four world leaders who came together to celebrate the end of the Cold War and herald the start of a peaceful new age of East/West cooperation. INT. GRAND HALL. PARIS. NIGHT. A magnificent painted hallway- MARGARET sweeping away from a dining room, regal in evening dress. INTERCUT - PARIS - A news journalist makes his report. 87 NEWS JOURNALIST There's a general feeling that Mrs Thatcher is going to win on the first ballot. We're going to put it to bed tomorrow night, is how one of her campaign staff puts it. INT. GRAND HALL. PARIS. NIGHT MARGARET walks through a grand hall with her fellow PRESIDENTS and PRIME MINSTERS of the world, a lone woman amongst a sea of men. DENIS ON PHONE M, I really think you should come home and defend yourself old girl. Heseltine is campaigning ferociously. MARGARET ON PHONE OOV I do think my time is best spent seeing an end to the Cold War, don't you? After all this time they know what I stand for. PARIS - TREVOR MACDONALD Will she, or will she not, be in the job tomorrow? A GRAND HALL - a formal dinner, MARGARET flanked by bow- tied Prime Ministers and Heads of State. HEAD OF STATE 1 Margaret, they can't touch you. LONDON STREETS - CABINET MINISTERS walking along trying to hide their features from prying eyes. NEWS READER (O.S.) Mrs Thatcher has failed to win enough votes to secure an outright win in the leadership contest and must now decide whether to put her name forward for the second round. NEWS READER 2 As Mrs Thatcher leaves Paris for London to make a last ditch attempt to pull together support for her leadership, the ship may have sailed. 88 INT.DINING ROOM.CHESTER SQUARE.PRESENT. MARGARET pushes through the double doors into her dining room. MARGARET Treachery! Her cabinet are all around her dining room table. There is no seat for her. She moves round the table. MINISTER 1 We will never win another election led by that woman. MINISTER 2 We need a leader who listens. MINISTER 3 This isn't about her, it's about the party. MINISTER 4 One must know when to go. MINISTER 1 The question is, how does anyone put it to her? INT. DRAWING ROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. Close on a minister's face in the dim light. MINISTER If you were to stand, I of course would vote for you Prime Minister - She is at her desk in the PRESENT in Chester Square as one minister after another in interchangeable glasses slide into the chair in front of her. MINISTER 2 - of course would vote for you Prime Minister but I don't think you can win. The loyalty of my colleagues cannot be counted upon. MARGARET It was the people who put me here - MINISTER 3 The loyalty of my colleagues cannot be counted upon. 89 MARGARET - it's up to them to tell me when to go. INT. STUDY. DOWNING STREET. LONDON. 1990. NIGHT. MARGARET stands, watching the evening news. DENIS Margaret, you can't let them do this to you. Please, boss. MARGARET looks at DENIS, with quiet surprise, hears the desperation in his voice, the crack- DENIS (CONT'D) They'll destroy you. MARGARET looks at DENIS, sees he is near to tears- DENIS (CONT'D) Throw in the towel now, love. Don't let those bastards see you humiliated. You just won't win, darling. Not this time. MARGARET Oh Denis. DENIS, fingers touch hers, she looks at him, sees the tender concern in his eyes. MARGARET smiles, determinedly steely under his gaze. MARGARET (CONT'D) 154 I am the Prime Minister. 154 On her face as CASTA DIVA breaks through. INT. HOUSE OF COMMONS. DAY MARGARET sits alone on the front bench. A stream of voices from the past - SPEAKER (V.O.) Order! Order! MARGARET (V.O.) The Right Honourable gentleman is afraid! NORTHERN VOICE (V.O.) This is a naked strategy of closing some coal mines and then selling off - 90 MARGARET (V.O.) They believe in striking, I believe in working! IRISH VOICE (V.O.) This is the woman who's watched ten men on hunger strike starve themselves to death and never flinched! MARGARET (V.O.) Despicable and cowardly - MALE VOICE (V.O.) Cynical Falklands war - MINISTER (V.O.) More homeowners, more shareholders, more savings - The voices begin to blend into one another, white noise. INT. DOWNING STREET STUDY. 1990. EVENING MARGARET sips a whisky. MARGARET (V.O.) I offer my resignation after eleven and a half extraordinary years - INT. CORRIDOR. DOWNING STREET. LONDON. 1990. DAY. MARGARET descends the stairs like an operatic heroine, her hand gripping the banister of the staircase. Below the Downing St staff waiting to say goodbye. Many are in tears. MARGARET -proud to have left Britain in a much better state than when we took office. She passes the photographs of her predecessors and stops to receive a gift, opening it- MARGARET (CONT'D) What's this then? A radio... How useful. She moves down the receiving line of staff. The floor is carpeted with roses. Men's wet eyes. The door ahead. She is crying. 91 Finally reaching the door, MARGARET stands bracing herself. Denis's hand on her shoulder standing behind. DENIS Steady, MT. MARGARET nods, bracing herself. A hand on the door handle. As it swings open- INT. BEDROOM. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. NIGHT MARGARET stands staring at herself in the mirror. DENIS (O.S.) The greatest Prime Minister since Churchill deposed by a bunch of spineless pygmies! MARGARET VO All those years of taking the tough decisions, does any of it matter now? DENIS It's all been turned to mush! MARGARET What? DENIS lies on the bed behind her with the newspaper. DENIS By these fools! These lily-livered pinkos! MARGARET These inept placators. DENIS Very good! These vacillators. MARGARET Vacillators! Poll takers. DENIS Popularity seekers. MARGARET So busy taking the pulse of the public! DENIS Weak - 92 MARGARET (pulling down a rack of Denis's black oxford shoes onto the floor) These...weak...weak...weak...wea.. .weak...Men! DENIS's clothes are all over the room and the main cupboard is open and empty apart from shoes. There are several bin liners already filled with clothes. MARGARET (CONT'D) Don't they know if you take the tough decisions, yes people will hate you today but they'll thank you for generations. DENIS Or forget you entirely and chuck you out with the rubbish! MARGARET turns away from this thought and opens a last big chest of drawers. MARGARET V/O (seizing shirts and jerseys and putting them on the floor) All I wanted was to make a difference in the world. DENIS And you did, love, you did. She sits at the end of her bed and opens a box she has found in Denis's cupboard. There is a programme from `The King and I' and a faded blue rosette from some long forgotten election campaign. A small flyer `Margaret Roberts. Conservative Candidate for Dartford' and some childrens cards "to the world's greatest Daddy love Mark and Carol." MARGARET V/O All I wanted was for my children to grow up well and be happy - happier than I was certainly. And I wanted you to be happy of course. Were you happy, Denis? Tell me the truth. There is no response. MARGARET is momentarily lost in the room. Then, seized by some compulsion, she begins to pull out the rest of his clothes, shoving them into black bags. As shirts and trousers go in, quick flashes of Denis - 93 His youthful face, smiling at her at the opera. Laughing on the beach in Cornwall. At the door of Number 10, smiling at her. Sharing her bed. MARGARET looks up. Denis's suitcase is on the bed. His coat and hat lying beside it. She folds his dressing gown - the one from the bathroom hook - tenderly and puts it on the top of the case. MARGARET Denis? Denis? And there he is by her side. MARGARET V/O Here's your bag. You're all packed, sorted. She walks him to the bedroom door and gives him a gentle kiss. DENIS starts to walk away. MARGARET (seeing he is walking away in his socks) Denis wait...Where are your shoes? You can't go without shoes! Not yet. DENIS straightens his hat. DENIS Steady. MARGARET Yes...Steady... DENIS Steady the buffs - MARGARET Steady...Steady the buffs... DENIS heading out. MARGARET (CONT'D) 154d NO...Not yet...Denis. Wait...I 154d said I don't want you to go yet. The endless corridor, MARGARET calling after DENIS- 94 MARGARET (CONT'D) Denis...Please...No...Not...Don't. ..NO...I don't...I don't want to be on my own. DENIS turns back for a moment - DENIS You're going to be fine on your own, love. (beat) You always have been. MARGARET calling out as DENIS reaches the window at the very far end of the house and appears to disappear into the white light- MARGARET (calling out) Denis!! INT. BEDROOM. HOUSE. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT.DAWN From above we see MARGARET lying dead asleep on the bed on a pile of DENIS' clothes. The bed is surrounded by bulging black bin bags. CAROL OOV Mummy- CAROL looming over Margaret, looking horrified. CAROL My God, Mum. Are you alright? (opening the curtains) Mummy you should have called for help, silly old sausage. Have you not even been in your bed properly? You've done all this? MARGARET Yes, all sorted. Finished. MARGARET looks around her. CAROL Yes well don't worry about all this. June and I will crack on with it. MARGARET I was just going to get dressed. 95 CAROL ...Shall I call someone, see if anyone can come over and do your hair? MARGARET looks at her warmly. MARGARET Oh. No, you do it. CAROL reacts, surprised but pleased. INT. KITCHEN. CHESTER SQUARE. LONDON. PRESENT. DAY. MARGARET sit finishing a cup of tea. Hears Carol's bustle in the downstairs hallway. CAROL OOV Right, I'm off June. JUNE OK. `Bye. She stands, picking up the cup. From behind- JUNE (O.S) (CONT'D) Oh let me do that, Margaret. MARGARET's turns for a moment- It is JUNE. MARGARET shakes her head. MARGARET No, dear, I'll do it. JUNE Carol said you might go to the House of Lords today? MARGARET No no. I'm not going anywhere. The sound of hot water running. CHINK of a teacup- MARGARET stands, washing up a tea cup. The SQUEAK of her wet cloth, working on a stubborn tea stain, puncturing the silence. The sound of birdsong and children playing drifts from the street outside. 96 MARGARET sets the cup aside, turns and walks out of the room, and out of sight. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Island, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Island, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..fad004217c0690b0aad493c54ca873472833abb2 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Island, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + THE ISLAND Written by Caspian Tredwell-Owen 1/13/04 We PULL BACK, in marked steps, to include neighboring apartments with identical frosted facades. Then more apartments, above and below, the tiers linked by ramps and crosswalks. It might be a prison cellblock but there are no guards apparent. Indeed, the residents move freely, all notably male, all clad in shearlings, polo shirts and slacks. It is just another day in Sector Four.3 INT. NUTRITION PLAZA - SECTOR FOUR - DAY Satie's Gymnopedie plays from overhead speakers. A glass wall looks out across a green mountain valley. The plaza, formed in curves of creamy ceramic tile, is divided into two service areas. Male residents in line on one side, females on the other. Both genders combine in the seating area. Lincoln reaches the head of the line. He swipes his ethercuff o v e r a scanner. A NUTRITION CLERK, a surly woman in uniform, eyes the readout on her screen- NUTRITION CLERK Lincoln Six-Echo... Options are dried fruit, oatmeal or anything in bran. LINCOLN What? No bacon? NUTRITION CLERK You got a sodium flag, pal - now what's it going to be? LINCOLN Whatever. He shrugs, disgruntled. The clerk taps her screen. Turning to a row of chutes behind her, she collects a foil covered bowl and a drink can. Lincoln, less than appetized, loads his tray with the oatmeal and juice breakfast. Then he heads into the seating area. In the seating area, male and female residents sit eating and chatting happily. Uniformed busboys intermix, clearing and wiping tables. A divide in this community now starts to become clear... The busboys, like the nutrition clerk, like all the service, maintenance, and administrative staff we'll see, have distinct uniforms but no facial marking. They are known as "outsiders". The "residents", like Lincoln, have crosshatched scars on their upper left brows and ethercuffs o n their wrists. Mostly Caucasian, from mid-twenties to mid-sixties. There are no children here. We isolate a blonde - mid-20's, fresh, bright eyes, a fragile beauty, a crosshatch of two verticals and one horizontal. Her name is ESTER TWO-ALPHA. Seeing Lincoln, she smiles and waves- ESTER Lincoln ! Over here! 3.Lincoln crosses, a little surprised to see her. Pleasantly so. LINCOLN Hello , stranger. ESTER What? You don't recognize me? LINCOLN It's just an expression, that's all. ESTER You and your expressions, Lincoln. Now sit down and ask me where I've been. LINCOLN (sits , a spreading smile) Okay, Ester. Where have you been? ESTER At the medical center. Just for tests but they had me on liquid nutrition. (forks a mouthful of eggs) Mmmmm. This is the first solid food I've had in a week. LINCOLN Exciting. ESTER That's not the exciting part. I got my first trimester report: happy, healthy and contaminant-free... Both of us. LINCOLN Us? ESTER My baby... It's in perfect condition. I just hope I can keep it that way. I still have six months to delivery. LINCOLN Then you leave all this behind, huh? ESTER Why? Will you miss me?Her eyes betray a flicker of something. It unsettles Lincoln. LINCOLN I'll miss your coffee. C'mon, I already burned up my quota. 4. ESTER Okay. But this is the last time.In a deliberate move, she drops her napkin on the floor. As sheducks down to retrieve it, Lincoln steals a gulp of her coffee.Rising again, Ester registers his souring look. ESTER What is it?Lincoln just nods across the plaza. Ambient conversation is nowebbing at an arrival. An outsider in a grey, vaguely clericaluniform - sanguine, settled, precise eyes. He might be a prisonwarden but for the generally warm reception. He is known as TheCommunity Director. His name is MERRICK.He crosses to a lectern, unlooping a chain from his neck with athree-forked pendant known as a "tri-key". He slots the tri-keyinto the lectern. The glass wall frosts over and pixellates i n t oa live feed of himself. Now amplified by the plaza speakers,Merrick begins his address- MERRICK Good morning. To everyone here and everyone watching on etherscreen, welcome to the community address. Today I'm coming to you from Sector Four. For those of you here with sugar quotas, let me recommend the french toast. I just tried some and it's excellent, really. But I know what everyone's hungry for s o let's move on to the lottery. As always the draw will be made from our host sector. So tell me, Sector Four - is everyone ready for The Daily Spin?Applause and whistles erupt, mostly from the younger residents,who take on the zeal of a game show audience. The older ones -including Lincoln - greet the prospect with labored tolerance.Merrick turns the tri-key i n the lectern. The glass wallswitches from the live feed to a jumbotron o f flashing text;- - DAILY SPIN!... GET READY TO WIN!... DAILY SPIN!-- MERRICK Let The Spin begin.To a burst of cheers, he turns the tri-key another notch. Theglass wall becomes a spinning blur, like a tumbler on a slotmachine. But instead of icons, it clicks through names, eachseparated by a blank line - from "Adams One-Alpha" to "ZuckerThree - Charlie" - scrolling the entire population of Sector Four. 5. As the spin slows, a pent silence falls. Expectant eyes watch the names click through the P's, the Q's, the R's, the S's and . . . - - SPIN WIN!... STARKWEATHER TWO-DELTA... SPIN-WIN!-- MERRICK Starkweather Two-Delta! Step up! Cheers and applause as everyone looks for the lucky recipient. The excitement abates as it becomes clear he's not among them. MERRICK Well , Starkweather, if you're watching on etherscreen - your time has come, my friend! You're moving out to The Island! (another burst of cheers) And the rest of you, never lose hope; what do we know about The Daily Spin? THE YOUNGER RESIDENTS Everyone gets to win! MERRICK An d tomorrow it could be you... Merrick steps down and departs. The plaza reverts to its former mood, dotted with murmurs of disappointment. Lincoln scowls. ESTER Don't worry. Your time will come. LINCOLN That's easy for you to say. Your time's guaranteed. All you have is six months. ESTER Six months of mood swings, sore back and swollen feet. Want to trade places? LINCOLN (scowl lifting) Give me some more of your coffee.4 INT . SUBWAY PORTAL - SECTOR FOUR - DAY The portal is spanned by a rank of latticed metal gates, known as an "ethergate." Residents swipe their ethercuffs o v e r scanners, the gates hiss open and they step through in systematic order. 6.5 INT. SUBWAY PLATFORM - SECTOR FOUR - DAY The subway, formed in arches of creamy ceramic tile, is not unlike our own. In place of escalators, moving walkways deliver the residents onto the platform. Along the platform wall runs a strip of mirrored panels, etherscreen reporting in banner crawl: - - NEXT STOP... SECTOR 5 - SECTOR 6 - CENTERVILLE... At the tunnel edge of the platform is a safety fence, where the residents wait in a patient line, Lincoln among them. His focus is drawn to two younger residents whispering furtively nearby. RESIDENT #1 A stim unit says it hits the wall. RESIDENT #2 Okay . But I get to set the can. Resident #1 shrugs and hands him a drink can. Resident #2 ducks under the fence, reaching the can down to the track. Or what looks like a track. The struts lining the bed are not sleepers but buffers of galvanized rubber. Nor are there any rails. The relay system is provided by a series of metal posts, flanking the buffers to run in twin parallel. Known as "lode-poles," they now start thrumming and pulsing with red light, like runway beacons. RESIDENT #1 Hurry it up. The shuttle's coming. Resident #2 regains the platform. We PUSH IN on the drink can, balanced on a buffer. It starts rattling. Then suddenly shoots upward into the air, arcing and bouncing off the tunnel wall, clattering into obscurity. Resident #1 whoops in victory. A rush of air heralds the shuttle. It sails out of the tunnel, floating three feet above the track. A hybrid of subway car and nautical craft, it has runners in place of wheels, like hulls on a catamaran. It is buoyed by a magnetic flow emanating from the lode-poles, an invisible river known as a "lode-stream". The shuttle drifts to a gentle halt, hovering, rocking a little. Its gangplanks fold out toward the platform and the safety fence lowers. Lincoln and the other commuters file routinely aboard.6 INT . CENTERVILLE - DAY An avenue of cream colored buildings. Uniform in architecture, rising five stories to meet a mirrored roof. Despite lighting arrays, the absence of sky lends a chasmic quality . Lincoln follows the flow of residents up the avenue. Building signs read: "Dept. Of Labor", "Dept. Of Health", "Dept. Of Sanitation". He splits off, turning into a building marked "Dept. Of Population." 7.7 INT. OFFICES - DEPARTMENT OF POPULATION - DAY Frosted glass workstations, notably circular rather than square. Lincoln sits at his desk in front of a wraparound etherscreen, divided into three sections, a formation known as a "visor". Right-visor shows a polymorph in fractal cycle, like a permanent screen saver. Mid-visor shows a tomograph of a residential block; tiers of apartments shown as boxes, most in solid white, a few blink red with the text label "Vacancy". Left-visor shows a list of names and sociographic grading sheaded "Residents Pending". LINCOLN (TO VISOR) Hudson Four-Alpha; profile reviewed. Match to vacancy; 171, Sector 5. Request clearance to populate. - - PROCESSING . . . FOUR-ALPHA, HUDSON; POPULATION APPROVED Left-visor, the name highlights then blinks out. Mid-visor, a box labelled "Vacancy" turns from blinking red to solid white. A VOICE (O.S.) Hey, you want to know something? Lincoln looks up at a face grinning over the partition - mid 30's, jovial, tall and burly. His name is JONES THREE-BRAVO. JONES You know that guy who won the Spin in your sector? Starkweather? LINCOLN No. JONES I had a bout with him last week. Guess how long he's been here? Six months. LINCOLN Six months? JONES You don't believe me - look it up. LINCOLN (TO VISOR) Census File: Two-Delta, Starkweather. - - TWO - DELTA , STARKWEATHER: 102, SECTOR 4 -- DAY: 186 / HR: 09:31 JONES What do you say now? Still think The Spin's rigged for the long haulers? 8. LINCOLN He got lucky, that's all. JONES And don't you wish it was you... out there on The Island... nature's own clean air zone... no screening, no quotas... unlimited pleasure... LINCOLN Shut up, Jonesy. JONES Why don't you make me? In the ring. LINCOLN You're out of my weight-class. JONES Not anymore. They just got the new program in - multi-weight balancing. LINCOLN I'll think about it. JONES C'mon, champ. A stim unit says you won't last three rounds.8 INT . BOXING RING - CENTERVILLE - EARLY EVENING - C R A C K - The same face recoils from a punch. Jones shakes it off, retreating, recovering. He resets his guard as Lincoln moves in. Lincoln jabs at Jones' defenses, his blowing hitting harder than we'd expect from his stature. Suddenly he breaks through with a left hook. Jones staggers back. A strange ripple distorts his face. Stranger still, his skin tone takes on a grainy pallor. As the bout continues, we widen to see the boxing ring is indeed a ring rather than a square and beyond the ropes is an outer ring. With Lincoln in FG, we now see another figure in the outer ring, mirroring his moves, dressed identically but for the gloves which are like gauntlets. The gauntlets are rigged to two armatures which are, in turn, rigged to a gantry-like mechanism. It glides noiselessly to and fro, shadowing the figure round the outer ring. RACK FOCUS reveals the figure is also Lincoln . The real Lincoln, in fact. The one in FG is a derivative hologram known as a "proxy". As Lincoln fakes and jabs, the counter-weighted armatures drag and recoil, duplicating the exertions of his proxy. Jones moves more sluggishly, his proxy now ghostly, transparent. Now being sent on a last offensive only to be roundhoused by another left hook. Jones' proxy topples and explodes into a pixellated mist. 9. LINCOLN Whoooooo! Lincoln proxy - and Lincoln - punch the air in victory. Jones unlatches his gauntlets, sweating, galled by the defeat- JONES Sure you input the right weight class? LINCOLN You're just too slow, Jonesy. JONES You're faster `cause you're lighter. Programmers... they always miss something. LINCOLN Hey, you put up, now pay up.9 INT . STIM BAR - CENTERVILLE - EVENING Rainbow light and swirling electronic music. The clientele are all male residents. Round the walls, poster-sized etherscreens display various dancing women, beckoning, text supers flashing: - - NEW AT THE PLEASURE CENTER!... OR TRY A MYSTERY DATE!... At the bar, Lincoln and Jones, freshly showered, each swipe their ethercuffs over a scanner. A uniformed BARTENDER notes the readout- BARTENDER Jones Three-Bravo; you got five units. Your friend, he's got an alcohol flag. JONES So make it a beer and a Vita Cola. The bartender serves the drinks and they settle at the end of the bar. Scoping for onlookers, Lincoln steals a gulp of Jones' beer. JONES You know, you're going to get yourself contaminated one of these days. LINCOLN Shut up, Jonesy. JONES So, you up for a rematch tomorrow? LINCOLN I can't. I got an interact. 10. JONES With who? That blonde again? LINCOLN Hey, it's an authorized interaction. We're on the same meditation program. JONES You want to get flagged for proximity? LINCOLN No law against friendship, Jonesy. JONES Quick . . . Give me that beer back. TWO CENSUS OFFICERS ("CENSORS") enter the bar; in wireless head- sets and white uniforms, they seem at once clinical and military. CENSOR 1 carries a tablet known as an "etherboard". CENSOR 2, more imposing, carries a wide-muzzle rifle known as a "stopgun". Their foreboding appearance is greeted without alarm. As they move up the bar, the customers dutifully swipe their ethercuffs over the etherboard. Now reaching Jones, who swipes accordingly- JONES What's going on, officer? CENSOR 1 Census check. Censor1 checks the etherboard; a headshot of Jones spins in 3-D. He offers it to Lincoln who swipes his ethercuff emphatically- LINCOLN What happened? You lost count? CENSOR 1 I hope nobody's drinking off-quota. LINCOLN Vita Cola all the way, officer. Lincoln sips his cola. As they move on, he grimaces at the taste.10 INT . SHUTTLE - IN TRANSIT - LATER Lincoln stares out of the window. The red pulse of the lode poles catches a glazed look in his eyes. His pupils, a little dilated. His focus returns to the interior and an etherscreen banner: - - G E T READY FOR THE DAILY SPIN!... TOMORROW IT COULD BE YOU... 11.11 INT. BEDROOM - LINCOLN'S APARTMENT - THE NEXT DAY The horizon. The morning sun streams over the green mountains. Lincoln lies sleeping, his head buried under the pillow. Off a beeping sound, he stirs and squints up at the mirrored ceiling: - - ETHER CALL PENDING ; ACCEPT OR SEND TO MESSAGE BANK? LINCOLN Accept. The etherscreen resolves Ester's face, fresh and bright. ESTER (ON ETHERSCREEN) Lincoln? I missed you at breakfast. LINCOLN I guess I overslept. ESTER (ON ETHERSCREEN) I just wanted to check we're still on for tonight. The interact. LINCOLN Right. I'll be there. ESTER (ON ETHERSCREEN) I'll see you then. Enjoy your day! Her face blinks out. Lincoln gets out of bed with a smile.12 INT . RESIDENTIAL BLOCK - SECTOR FOUR - DAY Lincoln exits his apartment and heads up the walkway. We reveal the walkway ends at another ethergate, governing residential access. Lincoln swipes his ethercuff o v e r a scanner and a gate swings open. He heads on, the gate hissing closed behind him.13 INT . NUTRITION PLAZA - SECTOR FOUR - DAY Ravel's Pavane plays overhead. The plaza is emptying as residents leave for work. Lincoln arrives at the service counter. He swipes his ethercuff and greets the clerk with an amiable grin. LINCOLN Just juice today. I'm late for work. NUTRITION CLERK Too bad. I gotta serve the full meal. Lincoln shrugs, his gaze wandering past her into the kitchens. His grin fades as he spots TWO CENSORS talking to a busboy. Then the view is lost as he's served an oatmeal and juice breakfast. 12.14 INT. SUBWAY PLATFORM - SECTOR FOUR - DAY Not so crowded at this hour. Halfway down the platform we see a vending machine with confections in nameless silver wrappers. A mouse-ish resident collects a bar from the trough. His name is KLEINWORT NINE-ALPHA. Seeing Lincoln approach, he preempts- KLEINWORT No, no, no. Use your own sugar quota. LINCOLN C'mon, Kleinwort... He says this amicably enough but he's using his imposing presence on the smaller man. Kleinwort sighs and breaks off a chunk. LINCOLN So what's up with the Censors, huh? KLEINWORT They're conducting a census check. Or don't you watch the bulletins? LINCOLN I know what it is. I've just never seen them out in this sector before. KLEINWORT Probably just tracking a glitch. A bad scanner or maybe an userware defect. (off Lincoln's puzzled look) Ethercuffs. They get damaged, you get a false read. Sometimes even a dropout. LINCOLN What are you saying? They lost someone? KLEINWORT Someone just isn't showing up where they should be. What do you care? A rush of air heralds the shuttle, curtailing the conversation. Beneath his tousling hair, a frown plays on Lincoln's brow.15 INT . LINCOLN'S WORKSTATION - DEPT. OF POPULATION - DAY Lincoln stares at the fractal on right-visor, at the intricate paths of dysplasia. The glazed look has returned to his eyes, his pupils, a little dilated. His stare narrows at an errant thought. He shrugs it off. But the thought returns, persistent. More to dispel than indulge it, Lincoln turns to mid-visor- 13. LINCOLN (TO VISOR) Census File: Two-Delta, Starkweather.- - T W O - D E L T A , STARKWEATHER: 102, SECTOR 4 - DAY: -- / HR: -- LINCOLN (TO VISOR) Accomodation Status : 102, Sector 4.The tiered boxes resolve, zooming in to isolate Apartment 102.The box shows solid white. Lincoln frowns, assimilating this. LINCOLN Hey , Jonesy. Remember the guy who won The Spin yesterday? His apartment's still showing as occupied. JONES (O.S.) So? LINCOLN So you get 24 hours to move out. JONES (O.S.) Maybe the system didn't update yet. LINCOLN No. It updates on the hour. If he's gone it should be showing a vacancy. JONES (appearing over the partition) What? You think he's still here? The guy wins a place on The Island and you think he just decided not to go? LINCOLN I don't know. He wasn't there to step up. And now there's a census check... JONES And now nothing. It's probably the programmers messing up. LINCOLN Maybe. JONES A stim unit says I can prove it. Cross reference with sanitation. LINCOLN (TO VISOR) Sanitation Status: 102, Sector Four. 14. --PROCESSING... APT. 102; CLOSED FOR CONTAINMENT CHECK-- JONES See ? Standard procedure. They got to sweep it for the next occupant. Their supervisor interrupts them - an outsider, efficient-type- SUPERVISOR If you gentlemen aren't busy... Perhaps I could get an update on sector six? LINCOLN Still in the electrical phase, sir. SUPERVISOR Well the guys upstairs are griping about the backlog. So go over there and light some fires, will you? LINCOLN (pulls on his jacket to leave) I'll take care of it. SUPERVISOR Aren't you forgetting something? (holds up A STEEL BRIEFCASE) Or do you want to get contaminated?16 INT . CONSTRUCTION ZONE - SECTOR SIX - DAY An arc of blue light. A uniformed worker steers a plasma torch over a conduit. In the fog of smoke, we see wires being spliced, circuits, tested. Outsiders in hardhats, goggles and cup masks. Lincoln comes over the crosswalk, starkly contrasted in dacron coveralls and a hooded gasmask. THE CREW FOREMAN intercepts him - drawn, desiccated features, a husky drawl. His name is MCCORD- MCCORD Sorry, chief. I can't let you get any closer. We got live wires over there. Lincoln's reply is muffled by the gasmask, lost in the noise. MCCORD What's that you said? Lincoln repeats to no avail. Frustrated, he peels off his gasmask- LINCOLN I said I can't hear you. M c C o r d c h u c k l e s at the irony. 15. MCCORD He y , you get yourself contaminated, don't come pointing the finger at me. LINCOLN How are you doing, Mac? MCCORD You know how it is. `Gets to the end of shift, `crew starts draggin t h e i r feet. LINCOLN We l l the guys upstairs are griping about the backlog. They want to know when you'll be ready for move in. MCCORD I guess if we bust our backs, we could be out of here by the end of the week. LINCOLN I'll tell them two weeks. MCCORD Thanks , chief. I appreciate that. LINCOLN So . . . got any stuff on you today?17 INT . AIRLOCK - SECTOR SIX A sign reads "Warning! Contamination Risk!". Lincoln stands by as McCord u n l o o p s a neckchain w i t h a single-forked pendant known as a "uni-key". He slots it into the top of three keyholes. A light starts flashing and the airlock gives a heavily pressurized hiss.18 INT . EXTRACTOR SHAFT A deep steady thrum. Giant extractor fans churn above and below, both directions seemingly limitless. The bleak concrete shaft is streaked with soot, threaded by ladders and catwalks. On one such, we isolate Lincoln and McCord. B o t h smoking cigarettes. LINCOLN I t ' s too bad. MCCORD What do you mean? LINCOLN T h a t your shift's almost over. 16. MCCORD You mean, these things? Well, these things ain't good for you anyways. LINCOLN The y taste good.An exchanged smile. A pause as they enjoy the guilty pleasure. LINCOLN I like coming here. Talking. Most outsiders don't like to talk. MCCORD That's because we ain't supposed to. They got rules about fraternization.Lincoln nods. Another pause as they drag on their cigarettes. LINCOLN What do you do when the shift's over? MCCORD M o r e of the same. They cycle us onto the disposal detail. Hump `n dump crew. LINCOLN H u m p `n dump crew? MCCORD D e b r i s clearance. We hump the heavy stuff to a site on the outside. LINCOLN Is it as bad as they say out there?M c C o r d l o o k s momentarily puzzled. Lincoln displays his gasmask. LINCOLN The air... the containments. MCCORD Right. LINCOLN But not everywhere. Not on The Island. MCCORD ( b e a t , stubs his cigarette) I don't know too much about that.Lincoln eyes him narrowly. McCord p a u s e s , then tucks his lighterinto the cigarette box and offers it with a palliative smile. 17. MCCORD He y , take it from me, you got a sweet deal right here. So why worry, huh? Lincoln shrugs, accepting the gift with a slow exhale of smoke. We tilt up to follow the smoke plume, dissipating into the fans.19 EXT . THE WORLD OUTSIDE - DAY A i r blasts up from a giant tunnel. W i d e n i n g , we see it is one of a huge ring, planted in the dust, backdropped b y mountainous red rocks. At the hub of the ring is a large cubic building. From its facets, giant appendages of ducting plunge into its surround. These are the inlets for the processed air that feeds the underground... This is the landscape of the world outside and manifestly above. F r o m the processing plant, we pull back and up, raking over a large industrial complex. More cubic buildings, cream colored, windowless, like stacks of giant playing bricks. Now we see the front of the complex. The planate f a c a d e , faceless but for the entrance, cubed in polarized glass, like a dark cyclopean eye. F r o m the entrance, we follow a walkway out to a dock where the ground drops away into a broad concrete trench; like the subway, lined with lode-poles and buffers, it is known as a "lodeway". From the dock, we follow the lodeway out to a perimeter wall; red rock slabs, twenty feet high, framing a giant gateway. The gates now glide open to disclose a view of the world outside the wall- The shimmering bleached wilderness of The Arizona Desert. O u t in the distance, where the lodeway tapers into the scrub, a vehicle emerges from the shimmer. A hybrid of bus and nautical craft, single hulled, known simply as a "liner". Now as the liner becomes clearer, a decal on its prow is revealed - a crosshatch insignia over a blocky l e g e n d "The Sanger Institute".20 INT . ENTRANCE HALL - THE SANGER INSTITUTE - DAY The polarized glass shows the liner has docked and A TOUR GROUP is disembarking. The men are mostly over 40, bloated by luxury. The women, mostly under 30, wives and girlfriends, all jewels and haute couture. They filter into the entrance hall to be greeted by the courtesy staff. Pretty girls in short skirts and blazers with the crosshatch insignia, led by a pert redhead named LYDIA. LYDIA L a d i e s and gentlemen, my name is Lydia and on behalf of our staff, I'd like t o welcome you to The Sanger Institute. 18. LYDIA (cont'd) Before we start the tour, we'll be serv- i n g r e f r e s h m e n t s in the visitor center and circulating our standard discretion agreements. I should add that today you are all very lucky because our CEO and founder, Dr. Henry Sanger, is with us and will be leading the tour personally.21 INT . INNER FOYER - LATER The crosshatch emblem spins on a wall-to-wall screen. Not a real screen but a projected flat known as a "holoframe". Here, Lydia assembles the tour group, nursing wine glasses and canapes. The holoframe fades up a serene music track and a commercial begins: A series of vignettes; an old man shuffling on a walking frame -- a middle-aged woman in a bathing suit, one breast flattened by a mastectomy -- a young woman in labor, her face knotted in pain. The group watches with frowns and disapproving mumbles. Then- V O I C E (O.S.) I t ' s not a pretty sight, is it? E y e s turn to a figure behind them, dressed in a vestmental w h i t e labcoat - 70's, tall, slightly hunched by senility, eyes like quicksilver, glittering. He has the hauteur of a visionary stooping to the role of a salesman. His name is DR. HENRY SANGER. DR. SANGER (cont'd) M o r t a l i t y . We all know its face and yet w e look away, don't we? We deny that our l i v e s are ordained to suffering. That w e are all, inalterably, going to die. He pauses, fielding the various disconcerted looks. Then smiles. DR. SANGER I t takes courage to confront mortality, my friends. And I see it in each of y o u . My name is Dr. Henry Sanger and I'm here to reward your courage. L y d i a applauds. The tour group dutifully follows suit. Sanger whispers a question in Lydia's ear. She broadcasts her response- LYDIA T o d a y ' s group is from New Gaza Health Care. They're with the platinum plan. DR. SANGER N e w Gaza. Yes, very good oncology unit. M u l l i n g this, he ambles through the holoframe which ripples at his passage. Rallied by Lydia the tour group follows him into-- 19.22 INT. SALES HALL - DAY A hall of windows, each window framing a display case, each display case housing a different taxidermied a n i m a l . Not unlike a museum. On closer inspection, more like a chamber of horrors. I n one window is a pig with a horribly distended abdomen. Another, magnified, shows a mouse with a human ear grown on its back. In another, a chimpanzee stares out at us with glaringly human eyes. DR. SANGER I t doesn't get any prettier, does it? But this is not a freakshow, my friends. This is a war museum. A history of our battles with mortality... and defeats. Take the stem cell, for instance. A bid to cultivate human parts for transplant - in rodents, primates, barnyard animals. It's enough to make your skin crawl. In some cases literally, giving rise to a new range of cross-species viruses. But that's how we learn. From our mistakes. The y turn a corner. Another hall of windows, portals onto tanks of amber fluid that might be formaldehyde. Suspended within are embryos, fetuses and infants. All human. All grotesquely mutated. DR. SANGER C a s e in point, the clone. Back in the beginning, the mapping of the human genome was declared a historic landmark- t o break the curse of heredity, to correct congenital defect... genetic engineering became the brave new world of medical science. A bright future that led to a dark age and much of the legislation we know today. But while the clone laws may have narrowed the field, science marches on. Only to hit the same wall over and over again - the enigma of growth, the alchemy that takes us from embryo to adult. A clone barely reaches infancy before its growth enzymes misfire, resulting in the kind of monstrosities - which are only effigies - you see here. S o m e reassured sighs from the women. They turn another corner onto another hall. A hall of mirrors. Simple, full-length mirrors. DR. SANGER So what do we learn from our mistakes? That human parts cannot grow outside a human body. That human bodies cannot grow outside nature's grand design. 20.A FAT MAN, supporting his bulk with a walking stick, grunts - T H E FAT MAN S o what the hell are we doing here? DR. SANGER L e t ' s say one day you go to your doctor for a checkup. He discovers you have imminent renal failure and require a kidney transplant. What would you do? T H E FAT MAN I wouldn't do nothing. My brother'd g i v e me one of his. Or else. DR. SANGER E v e n if your brother's kidney is with- o u t defect, there's still a 38% chance of rejection. Or less if he's your twin. T H E FAT MAN He's not. He's older. DR. SANGER But what if you did have a twin?O f f the fat man's confused look, Sanger smiles and gently coaxeshim to face a mirror. Their reflections stare back at them. DR. SANGER What if you had a genetic double who'd give you not just one of his kidneys, but both? In fact, any organ or body part you ever had cause to need? T H E FAT MAN What ? You mean like a clone? I thought you said all that stuff was a bust. DR. SANGER I said the problem with a clone is it doesn't survive infancy. The solution is to find a different starting point. Why sow the seed when you can create the fruit? Or what we like to call... an "agnate".L y d i a starts clapping., then s t o p s , realizing this wasn't a cue. DR. SANGER An agnate is sequenced from a point on the cellular timeclock. I t is spawned post-maturate. It is `created' adult. 21. DR. SANGER (cont'd) O f course, its brain is still vestigial s o for the first three years we keep it i n suspension. During which time we use d a t a impression to supply a template f o r functionality - a process we call " f o u n d a t i o n " . After foundation we t r a n s f e r the agnate into "containment" w h e r e it enters the conditioning p r o c e s s . An ongoing series of quality c o n t r o l s designed to test and maintain i t s functionality. After a minimum of t w o years conditioning, the agnate b e c o m e s eligible for harvest... ( t o the FAT MAN, smiling) An d you, my friend, get your new kidney.A hush falls among the group as they process what they've heard.It's a sign of the times that none of them seems to be horrified. T H E FAT MAN L e t me see if I got this straight. You can create this whatever... this walking spare parts holder... but I gotta w a i t five years to get hold of em? DR. SANGER The spare parts, as you put it, need to be tested for integrity. But as many of our clients leave it till late in life to take out the policy, we do offer the option for early harvest. Given the risks, however, a waiver is required. T H E FAT MAN S o five years or no warranty? For the premiums you're asking? DR. SANGER An d what if the organ you needed was a heart? Ask yourself, each of you. If you had to put a price on your life, your very survival - what would it be?A deep lull as the group considers this. Sanger picks his moment. DR. SANGER I t ' s a question your insurance company has already answered. For them, the agnate obviates costly and ineffective treatment programs. Should you decide t o take out our policy, not only will they lower your existing premiums but they'll also cover the production cost. 22.The incentive ripples across the faces. A troubled one speaks up- T O U R MEMBER This "agnate"... what happens to it? After our friend here gets his kidney. DR. SANGER That's entirely his decision. Our role is intermediary. We, as the insurance provider, guarantee the condition and availability of the agnate but all other rights are retained. In legal terms, the policy holder is defined as a "sponsor". The premiums, in effect, becoming sponsorship payments, maintaining the agnate until such time as harvest is required. At such time and where feasible, the sponsor has the option to extend sponsorship, retaining the agnate for secondary harvest or, shall we say, let the policy expire. T O U R MEMBER E x p i r e ? You mean... let it die? DR. SANGER N o . Not as you and I know it, at least. The associations of life and death are no more applicable to an agnate than to a cow in a field. It exists in a state of limited consciousness - aware not of life but of functionality. Imbued with the knowledge to maintain its function but without the capacity to question it. And yet, in many ways, the end if the most humane part of the process. The agnate goes to harvest without any fore- b o d i n g and is painlessly returned to the sleep from whence it came. Eternal or otherwise. There is mortality for an agnate. Just utility and redundancy. T O U R MEMBER S o it doesn't know? It doesn't know its... its p u r p o s e in life? DR. SANGER W h o does know my friend? Who among us knows our true purpose in life?S a n g e r ambles on, plunged in thought. Lydia picks up the slack- 23. LYDIA This month we're offering a special rate for new sponsors. Including a 10% discount on the his-and-hers plan.She ushers the group round another corner. Another holoframe andanother commercial, displaying the same characters as the first;The old man with the walking frame is now running in a park--The woman with the mastectomy is now at a party, her cocktaildress broadcasting a full cleavage -- The young mother is now ina waiting room, smiling as a doctor hands her a newborn baby. LYDIA DR. SANGER? Would you like to close? DR. SANGER Yes . . . Now some of you may be thinking this commercial is staged. But these are not actors, these are past customers. Real p e o p l e enjoying the real f r u i t s of sponsorship. What we offer here at The Sanger Institute is not just health insurance but indemnity. What we offer is the chance of a new lease on life...The tour group applauds, this time without prompting from Lydia. DR. SANGER N o w Lydia will walk you through the rest of the tour and explain the various limitations and exclusions. But I do have time for a few questions.H a n d s are raised. A waspish-looking woman butts ahead of them- T H E WASP The commercial. The girl with the baby. What is that? A fix for infertility? DR. SANGER You mean the maternity plan? No. N o t endemic infertility at least. As I said, the law prohibits genetic alteration so a defect endemic in a sponsor will also be present in their agnate. No, what the maternity plan provides is a way round the risks and rigors of childbirth. Under this plan, an agnate becomes eligible for pregnancy shortly after foundation. A simple donation of sperm from the father, then the agnate is fertilized and brings your baby to term. 24. THE WASP An d then what? You get it in the mail? DR. SANGER F o r practical reasons, delivery is handled by your healthcare p r o v i d e r . T H E WASP An d "the agnate" - what happens to it? When it's, you know - delivered. DR. SANGER The same rule applies. You can continue your sponsorship. Or not. And in this case, there's a natural window for compliance as the agnate is routinely sedated after delivery. As to whether it wakes up from that sleep, like I said, the choice is yours... T H E WASP ( b e a t , a shrug) An y t h i n g to avoid stretch-marks, right? The other tour members, some more guiltily than others, laugh.23 EXT . PROCESSING PLANT A i r blasts up from the same giant tunnel, swallowing the laughs.24 INT . EXTRACTOR SHAFT The acoustic hollowing as we look up from the now empty catwalk. The blast of air fading into the deep, steady thrum of the fans.25 INT . CONTAINMENT The thrum fading to silence. A flat, measured silence as we revisit the community in soundless montage. The residential block, the frosted facades. The nutrition plaza, the counters, the chutes. The subway, the moving walkways. Centerville, the buildings now emitting a trickle of agnates, ending their workday - unwitting participants in their own greater utility.26 INT . DIRECTOR'S OFFICE - CENTERVILLE A glass wall looks down on the avenue. The furniture is trans- p a r e n t , ethereal. Merrick sits at a console desk studying an etherboard. O f f a buzz, he taps a button. The door opens and Lincoln enters, composing a deadpan. He doesn't like this man. LINCOLN You wanted to see me? 25. MERRICK Yes . Please, take a seat.He taps a button. The glass wall frosts over. It's unnerving butLincoln stays deadpan, moving the chair before taking a seat.Merrick reviews the etherboard: Lincoln's headshot s p i n n i n g in3D w i t h a scroll of data. Then he looks up, forming a smile- MERRICK How ' s Lincoln Six-Echo today?Lincoln shrugs, noncommittal. Merrick eyes him thoughtfully. MERRICK E v e r y t h i n g going okay? LINCOLN I guess not. MERRICK Why do you say that? LINCOLN I f I'm here. MERRICK I'm not sure I deserve such a negative association. My job's only to see that you're happy. That everything's okay. LINCOLN Right. MERRICK I t sounds like you don't believe me. LINCOLN Why wouldn't I? MERRICK ( s i t s back, smiling) I t ' s part of your makeup. To challenge things. To question what's around you. LINCOLN Ah. MERRICK P e r h a p s you can utilize that facility by helping me solve a little puzzle.Lincoln shifts, feeling uneasy. Merrick consults the etherboard- 26. MERRICK You're doing well in most areas - pro- f i c i e n t a t work, exercising rigorously, your last medical puts you in excellent condition. But screening's picked up some deviations. Trace levels, changes in your sleep pattern... I see you've also been burning up your quotas... LINCOLN A r e you saying I'm contaminated? MERRICK No. LINCOLN The n what's the problem? MERRICK The r e are parameters, Lincoln. When someone starts straying from those parameters, we need to find out why. LINCOLN Why? MERRICK Because you - not just you, all of our residents - are special. Because people like me don't get to go to The Island.He smiles. Lincoln stays deadpan, wondering where this is going. MERRICK S o tell me, have you noticed any changes in yourself? LINCOLN No. MERRICK What about your sleep pattern? You feel you've been sleeping properly?Lincoln shrugs, refractory. MERRICK L e t me put it another way, when you wake up, do you feel... disrupted? LINCOLN Disrupted? 27. MERRICK R e s t l e s s , disoriented, uneasy... LINCOLN I don't know. MERRICK They're all words in your vocabulary. I know you understand what they mean.Lincoln ' s jaw clenches, patronized. Merrick notes this, resumes- MERRICK Quotas . . . nutrition. Do you feel like you want more than you're given? LINCOLN I don't know. MERRICK Do you have any difficulty staying focused? At work, for instance?Lincoln ' s jaw twitches. Merrick notes this, proceeds with care- MERRICK H a v e you been experiencing feelings, sensations you don't quite understand? LINCOLN I don't know. MERRICK Do you sometimes feel agitated for no apparent reason? Frustrated, angry... LINCOLN That's it. MERRICK An g r y ? You feel angry? LINCOLN Right. MERRICK When exactly do you feel angry? LINCOLN Now...Lincoln leans forward as if to assert this. Merrick slowly nodslike he's just revealed something. He taps the etherboard- 28. MERRICK I'm going to order some tests at The Medical Center. In the meantime, I'd like you to stay away from stimulants - protein, sugar, caffeine... LINCOLN I already burned up my quotas. MERRICK But I know you can get around them.He levels a knowing look. Lincoln stiffens again, unsettled. MERRICK I'm asking you to cooperate. Not for my sake, Lincoln, but for your own. LINCOLN Is that it? MERRICK The r e is one other thing. You have a female friend. "Ester". Your file shows you've been interacting regularly. LINCOLN The r e ' s no law against friendship. MERRICK O f course not. We encourage interaction in the hope it'll be of mutual benefit. But given these deviations... let's just say proximity becomes an issue. LINCOLN I know the rules of proximity. MERRICK The rules of proximity apply to sexual contact, Lincoln. In this case it goes deeper than that. Ester is entering h e r second trimester. A time of change and emotional confusion. Further inter- a c t i o n might be... unhealthy for you.Lincoln , patronized, looks away. This pill he won't swallow. MERRICK An d for Ester - well, she has only six months left to delivery. Then she'll move out to The Island and whatever ties she has here will be broken. 29. MERRICK (cont'd) A s a friend, shouldn't you make her t r a n s i t i o n as painless as possible? Lincoln ' s deadpan falters. This one, a bitter pill, he swallows. MERRICK G o o d . Now I'm also going to refill your pleasure quota. It may help to settle you down a little. LINCOLN Thank you. I feel much better now. MERRICK I'm not sure you do. But I think you'll do what's right, Lincoln. You may not trust me. But I trust you.27 INT . COMMUNITY CENTER - CENTERVILLE - EVENING A theater in the round. The audience is mostly pregnant females and older residents. As the lights dim, eyes turn to the stage. Speakers bring up Handel's O m b r a M a i Fu. Then a glowing mist rises, condensing into a huge sphere, like a seed. Known as a "holomorph", it reacts sonically, germinating into stems and branches and blossoms, growing and evolving with the music. The diaspora i s as spellbinding as it is pacifying. It is beautiful.28 INT . FOYER - COMMUNITY CENTER - EVENING The music from within is like a warm beckoning hand. The foyer is slightly vaulted to accommodate a statue. On a bench at its f o o t , Ester sits alone, waiting patiently. As Lincoln enters, s h e rises to greet him, smiling. He seems more sullen than usual. LINCOLN S o r r y I'm late. ESTER I t ' s okay. I was waiting to tell you something anyway. Guess what? Lincoln looks at her, unsettled by her flourishing smile. ESTER M y baby - I felt it move. And it's the weirdest feeling too. I can't explain it. It's like being more... more h e r e . Lincoln returns a deadpan look. Ester's smile wavers a little. 30. ESTER I'm sorry. I'm all excited and we're supposed to be finding peace of mind. LINCOLN I have to cancel, Ester. His voice is expressionless. Ester shrugs, refreshing her smile. ESTER S o I'll see you at breakfast tomorrow? LINCOLN I don't think so. Ester ' s smile falls. Her eyes, reaching, trying to understand. ESTER Did I do something wrong, Lincoln? LINCOLN No. A small word but it comes heavily. Before Ester can ask another question, Lincoln turns and leaves. His jaw, clenching with the effort of self-containment. Ester watches him, not hurt, just a little confused. We widen to encompass the height of the statue. The likeness is idealized but unmistakably that of Dr. Sanger.29 INT . PLEASURE CENTER - NIGHT B l u e light. Lincoln walks up a long corridor, carrying a sealed plastic bag. Along the walls, poster-sized screens like those in the bar, display images of women, gyrating, licking their lips.30 INT . PLEASURE CELL - NIGHT The blue light sustains. To one side is a mirrored wall, known as an "etherwall". It is currently pixellated t o display a grid of women's faces, artificial consorts waiting to be selected. Facing the etherwall i s a large aquarium-like tank, filled with gelatinous blue liquid. This vessel is known as a "sense tank". Lincoln sits at the rim, naked, wearing a full-head oxygen mask. He couples it to a hose dangling from the ceiling. Then lowers himself into the tank. On the inner facet, a touchlight k e y p a d resolves. Lincoln taps some keys and the etherwall a c k n o w l e d g e s : - - P L E A S U R E PARTNER SELECTED; PROGRAM COMMENCING... Lincoln looks out at the etherwall. The faces blink off to leave him staring at his reflection. Just one left, a pouting redhead, who licks her lips in anticipation as the lights dim. 31. A holographic mist now rises. First resolving a proxy of Lincoln, naked, replicating his posture in the tank. Then the redhead is conjured, her buxom nudity glimpsed through the swirling mist. Lincoln proxy reaches out to stroke redhead proxy's breast. In the tank, Lincoln's fingers caress only the gel, his fingertips met by soft arcs of light - neurological charges, conducted by the gel, creating the sense of touch. They are known as "impulse arcs". Redhead proxy responds, dappling her lips across Lincoln proxy's neck. In the tank, impulse arcs flicker across Lincoln's throat, then down his chest, descending to more erogenous zones. Lincoln stiffens and closes his eyes, yielding to the sensation. The sensation engulfing him, Lincoln's brow starts to furrow. Not with ecstasy. Something darker. His eyes open, his pupils fixed in a black dilated stare. Resisting the artificiality, his face forming a sneer, tightening until... he slams h i s palm into the touchpad. The tank shakes. The proxies blink out. Lincoln stands mirrored in the etherwall. His hand, pressed against the glass in a posture of defiance. His reflection, warped and shuddering.31 INT . ELEVATOR SHAFT F r o m darkness grows a seed of light. Red light, pulsing to reveal the shaft, lined by lode-poles, here in triangulated relay. The polarity cradles a dark mass towards us. An elevator in descent.32 INT . DIRECTOR'S OFFICE Merrick is at his console, working late. Off a buzz, he taps a button. The door opens and an outsider enters - 40's, square set, hollow, remote eyes. His hair is damp and he wears post-decon scrubs. A USMC ring is visible on his finger. His name is SCHEER. MERRICK K a r l . . . Welcome back. S c h e e r pauses, his face twitching. Then sneezes violently. SCHEER I forgot how much I hate the air here. MERRICK J u s t a histamine reflex. Your system's readjusting to the sterile environment. SCHEER I t ' s the smell I hate. Empty. MERRICK Yes , well I cut short your leave for a reason. I take it you've been briefed? 32. SCHEER ( s i t s , sniffing) O n e of our lab rats is missing.W i t h a dour look, Merrick slots his etherboard i n t o a dock. Aproxy resolves over the console, quarter scale, spinning in 3D;male, African American, bull neck. Data etches across thin air:- - P R O D U C T ID: STARKWEATHER; FOUNDATION: II; GENERATION: DELTA;- - I N T E G R A T I O N DATE: 01/27/84 // CONTAINMENT REF: 102, SECTOR 4 MERRICK His name is Starkweather Two-Delta. He dropped off the ether two days ago. At first we thought it was a system error. Then we found this in a garbage chute.He opens a drawer and pulls out an ethercuff. He hands it toScheer who considers it remotely for a few seconds. Then- SCHEER D e l t a generation, huh? MERRICK That's right. SCHEER I t was a Delta the last time. MERRICK T h a t was entirely different. The product suffered a head injury. SCHEER What happened to this one? MERRICK We don't know. He just disappeared. SCHEER N o t easy to disappear. Unless he figured a way through the boundary. MERRICK He's a code two, Karl. A low functioner. SCHEER I f you ask me, it's a mistake giving them any functions at all. MERRICK The y don't function mentally, they don't function physically - you know that. 33. SCHEER The n perhaps if you're going to breed lab rats, you should breed them tame.His look, albeit from a distance, throws a stone. Merrick hardens- MERRICK I f you bothered to read the clone laws, you'd realize we have no choice in the matter. The virtual humanity statutes accord them a set of freedoms. All we can do is prescribe the limits. And even those are subject to regulation. Scope of knowledge, range of activity, even their speech patterns. The law requires that what is of human origin be provided with human characteristics. SCHEER You mean, like fallibility?Merrick pauses. He's not going to take the bait. MERRICK The ether shows no attempts on the boundary. He's here, Karl. But for some reason, your men seem unable to find him. It's your job to contain the products. I'd like you to do it, okay? SCHEER A little sensitive, aren't we? MERRICK J u s t after Starkweather went missing, his sponsor placed an order. An order we can't fill. Damn right I'm sensitive. SCHEER A l r i g h t . How much time do I have?Merrick taps a button. A holoframe appears beside the proxy.Even in two dimensions, the face is identical. Just a differenthairstyle and a gold earring. This is the face of The Sponsor. MERRICK J a m i l Starkweather . . . last week he sustained a hepatic trauma resulting in liver hemorrhage. In medical terms, we have maybe a few weeks. In legal terms, we're already o n borrowed time... ( a s Scheer rises to leave) An d Karl? 34. MERRICK (cont'd) I don't want a godawful m e s s like the l a s t time. Minimal damage. Understood?33 INT . LINCOLN'S APARTMENT - PREDAWN The horizon. The green mountains cast black by the predawn glower. Lincoln sits rigidly hunched on his bed, still in yesterday's clothes, sleepless. He is staring fixedly out of the window, hungrily, as if inviting the outer darkness to come in. His gaze lowers onto his jacket, slung across the bed. He digs in the pocket. And pulls out the cigarette pack. For a moment he considers it. Then slowly, purposefully, he opens it. He slips a cigarette between his lips. And lights up. He leans back, taking a slow drag. Exhaling, he watches the smoke rise. His gaze rests on the etherscreen above, expectant. The cursor comes to life: - - S C R E E N I N G . . . CONTAMINANT DETECTED: ADVISING SANITATION CTRL R e f l e c t e d in the ceiling, Lincoln grins at his small victory.34 INT . RESIDENTIAL BLOCK - SECTOR FOUR Q u i e t , empty at this hour. Just the drum of footfalls as Lincoln marches up the walkway, puffing his cigarette. He stops at the ethergate, regarding it as if for the first time. Then he stubs out his cigarette. And swipes his ethercuff o v e r the scanner.35 INT . THE ETHER GRID A blue dot blinks in space. We widen to establish its locus on a tomograph. Now building the boxes, the quadrants, the sectors. Revealing a vast, fully dimensional hologram of containment. It spins in the vaulted chamber like a giant geometrical phantom.36 INT . ETHER CONTROL ROOM O v e r l o o k i n g the ether, like a studio control booth. Known as "Ethercon", it's also the title of the Censor at the console. Scheer stands over him, now in a white censor uniform with black chevrons on the sleeves, marking his seniority. He instructs- SCHEER R e v e r s e map. Crop to twelve hour segments. Then put up a sub-grid. - - S T A R K W E A T H E R TWO-DELTA: ETHER HISTORY; REVERSE MAPPING... T o one side, a miniature of the ether grid resolves. It peppers with a series of blue dots. Then a blue line stems from a point of origin to start joining them. Scheer leans in, eyes honing, watching the blue line retrace the last steps of his quarry. 35.37 INT. NUTRITION PLAZA - SECTOR FOUR - PREDAWN The glass wall reprises the predawn glower. The plaza is empty at this hour. But the service counters are staffed as breakfast is being prepared. The clerk looks surprised to see Lincoln arriving so early. He seems grim, latent, stiffly swiping his ethercuff o v e r the scanner. She eyes the readout on her screen- N U T R I T I O N CLERK Lincoln Six-Echo... Options are dried fruit, oatmeal or anything in bran. LINCOLN I want some bacon. N U T R I T I O N CLERK You heard the options. LINCOLN An d coffee. I want coffee. The clerk sighs and taps her screen. Turning to the chutes, she collects a foil covered bowl and a juice can and sets them on Lincoln's tray. Lincoln glances down at it, then back up- LINCOLN This isn't what I asked for. N U T R I T I O N CLERK You want to get into it? Look, I just work here, pal. I serve the meal and make sure it goes down on your record. Lincoln nods slowly. Then picks up the bowl. And flings i t across the plaza. Then the juice can, trying to outdistance the bowl. Finally, the tray, which rotors almost to the far side before clattering into obscurity. Then he turns back to the clerk- LINCOLN P u t that on my fucking r e c o r d .38 INT . SUBWAY PORTAL - SECTOR FOUR The latticed wall of ethergates. The rising beat of footfalls as Lincoln approaches. He swipes his ethercuff o v e r the scanner. The gate slowly hisses open. Too slowly for Lincoln, who kicks it and barges his way through, leaving the gate to shudder on its hinge.39 INT . SUBWAY PLATFORM The walkways, unmoving. The platform, deserted. The echoing beat of footfalls as Lincoln marches up to the vending machine. He swipes his ethercuff o v e r the scanner. A screen illuminates: 36.--SUGAR QUOTA EXCEEDED; ACCESS DENIEDLincoln glowers at the message. His jaw clenching, twitching withanger. Erupting, he lashes out, punching t h e machine. He wincesas his knuckles crack. Then grabs the machine, trying to rip itoff the wall. Pulling, straining, sneering with effort, until-He lets go with a defeated gasp. Then kicks the machine in finalaffront. The machine resounds with a dull boom. For a moment, hestands there, chest heaving. Then suddenly traps his breath...The r e , in the fading boom, a noise. Faint, rhythmic. Becomingdiscernible as THE SOUND OF A MAN SOBBING. Lincoln turns towardthe platform. Tracing the sound, he crosses to the safety fence. LINCOLN Hello?His voice echoes to nothing. He leans over the fence and peersup the tunnel. There. In the fog of darkness, a figure. A figurepaused, half-standing, like an animal on the brink of flight.The figure seems to stare at him. Then pulls upright. Now movingforward and into the light. His face is African American, bull-n e c k e d , eyes wild and bloodshot. A stranger to Lincoln, we knowhim as STARKWEATHER TWO-DELTA. His voice is quivering, unhinged- STARKWEATHER Please...Lincoln stands, frozen by the sight of this dark, dishevelledresident. As he climbs up onto the platform, we see his hands,the fingertips grated and bloody. He lumbers towards Lincoln- STARKWEATHER P l e a s e , you have to help me...He rushes forward, grabbing Lincoln, pulling him face-close- STARKWEATHER Y O U CAN'T LET THEM TAKE ME!The stranger's eyes grow darkly, his pupils abysmal, black withdilation. Lincoln fiercely shrugs off his grip, backing away... LINCOLN W h o are you? What's wrong with you?The stranger's eyes bore into him, obsidian. Face contorting,baring his teeth like a rabid dog. Suddenly he lunges a t Lincoln-- B O O M - ramming him back into the vending machine - Lincoln isstunned - suddenly a vice-like grip on his wrist swings him round-- C R A C K - into the etherscreen banner, webbing at the impact... 37. For a moment, all is a blur. Teetering, Lincoln props himself against the wall. Then his focus resolves on the etherscreen and his fractured reflection. He releases a deep, bewildered breath. Then he notices his wrist. His ethercuff i s missing, his skin, grazed red from abrasion. Confusion yielding to anger, he looks for his assailant. But the platform is empty. His jaw clenches.40 INT . SUBWAY PORTAL - SECTOR FOUR T H E DRUM OF FOOTFALLS as Starkweather rushes up to the ethergate. H a n d shaking, he swipes Lincoln's ethercuff o v e r the scanner. The gate hisses open and he barrels through, suddenly spurred by -- LINCOLN BURSTING UP from the well of walkways, charging forward like a bull. The gate now closing, Lincoln races for the gap, barging his way through. And the gate snaps shut with a CLANG.41 INT . ETHER CONTROL ROOM A N ALARM SOUNDS. The console flashes. Ethercon responds with a flurry of keystrokes. Scheer rejoins him as he pulls up a sub- g r i d . This one evolving past tomograph, mosaicing a n g l e s from etherscreen, conjugating a 3D l i v e feed known as an "etherview"-- M A T C H CUT TO:42 INT . NUTRITION PLAZA - SECTOR FOUR - DAWN S T A R K W E A T H E R BARRELING ACROSS THE PLAZA; glancing off tables, sending chairs flying. Some residents, arriving for breakfast, scatter at his onset. Shocked faces, looking back and forth as Lincoln follows, in hot pursuit, vaulting the toppled furniture.43 INT . ELEVATOR BANK - AN UPPER LEVEL A SQUAD OF CENSORS CONVERGING; called suddenly to duty, looping tri-keys r o u n d their necks, donning headsets, priming stopguns. S c h e e r leads them into the elevator, coolly relaying his orders- SCHEER S u b j e c t headed into North Quadrant. Two- m a n teams - we block him and force him to ground. If you have a shot, hook him but keep it above the belt. Management doesn't want us to "damage the product". The Censors roll their eyes knowingly. Scheer taps his headset. S C H E E R (INTO HEADSET) E t h e r c o n ? Sector Four North; code an exclusion for tri-key a c c e s s . Then give me a full quadrant lockdown. 38.44 INT. RESIDENTIAL BLOCK - SECTOR FOUR A VERTICAL ONTO A RESIDENTIAL BLOCK: the grid of crosswalks, the tiers of frosted facades; quiet, the residents still dormant-- A DRUM OF FOOTFALLS: Then a figure breaking frame, racing up the walkway of an upper floor; then another figure, in hot pursuit -- T H E LOCKDOWN I N I T I A T E S : the lights shifting spectrum from white to ultraviolet, bathing the quadrant in a lambent purple haze-- S T A R K W E A T H E R : his eyes bulging with panic as he races up the walkway, straining for an ethergate a t the far end of the floor-- LINCOLN : his eyes charged with adrenaline, straining to close ground on his assailant; oblivious to the building noise of-- T H E LOCKDOWN: locks hissing, lights flashing, ripping up the row of frosted facades; sweeping past Lincoln and onward toward-- S T A R K W E A T H E R : the ripple of hissing locks rushing up on him, he pours on the pace, sneering with effort as he tries to outrace-- T H E LOCKDOWN: the ripple spearing ahead of him to the end of the floor; now banking across the ethergate a n d sealing the exit. S T A R K W E A T H E R : stalled by the realization he's trapped; he spins round, looking for another avenue of escape only to find-- LINCOLN: blindsiding h i s assailant with a headlong tackle; both men toppling over, hitting the floor with a bone-jarring thud-- S T A R K W E A T H E R : quick to recover, breaking lose of entanglement; now struggling to his feet, stumbling onward up the walkway-- LINCOLN : gets up to resume pursuit, then pauses, spotting his ethercuff, discarded on the ground. He looks up in confusion at-- S T A R K W E A T H E R : a short distance ahead, climbing over the walkway rail; launching himself off, into a seemingly suicidal plummet-- LINCOLN : leaning over the rail, seeing his assailant land safely on a crosswalk beneath, resuming his flight on the lower floor as- - B O O M - A GUNBLAST r i p s the air. A KEENING SOUND builds to a wail- - T H U D - LINCOLN JOLTS as something hits his shoulder, catching him off-balance, a stab of pain keeling him onto the rail -CLANG - LINCOLN SLUMPS INTO FG - TWO CENSORS converging like white ghosts from the purple haze - one reprimanding his recalcitrant cohort- 39. CENSOR You asshole! You hooked the wrong one! He crouches to examine Lincoln. Blood is blossoming from a wound on his shoulder, jutting from which is a projectile. The censor presses its base and it snaps loose of its unintended target. N o w we see the projectile more clearly. A fat metal pellet, snub- n o s e d , finned at the tail by four metal teeth. On impact, the nose recesses to release a springload a n d the teeth snap forward to bite into the target. This device is known as a "hookhead". CENSOR J u s t a flesh wound. `Hit his head pretty hard. Possible concussion. ( i n s p e c t i n g Lincoln's pupils) T h i n k you can walk, buddy? Lincoln nods slightly. The censor unloops a tri-key f r o m his neck- CENSOR You see this? It'll get you past the lockdown. You're to report to The Medical Center. You understand? O f f Lincoln's blank stare, the censor presses the tri-key i n t o his palm. Then departs. Lincoln stays where he sits, still dazed from the concussion. Absently he watches the censors race off up the walkway, dissolving back into the purple haze as we- C U T TO:45 INT . ETHER CONTROL ROOM S T A R K W E A T H E R RUNNING. Meeting white uniforms at every turn, zig- z a g g i n g o v e r crosswalks, down ramps. The rat in the maze, dumb to its inevitable destination. Widening, we see we are watching the action on etherview, racking and dollying like a deific e y e . E T H E R C O N (INTO HEADSET) E a s t side team hold position. Subject headed for the second floor crossramp.46 INT . GROUND FLOOR - RESIDENTIAL BLOCK C l o a k e d in shadow, Scheer listens to the play-by-play on headset. With a tap, he changes the channel, whispering to his squad- S C H E E R (INTO HEADSET) G i v e him some space. I have him. A N O T H E R ANGLE: Starkweather hits the deck running, sprinting up the avenue. In BG, Scheer steps forth, stopgun l e v e l l e d , aiming-- 40. -BOOM- The flash of the muzzle, the shrill wail of the hookhead. - T H U D - Starkweather jolts as the shot hits him square in the back, arching as the hookhead b i t e s ; but he keeps on running- - B O O M - B O O M - B O O M - Scheer unleashes his ordnance, filling the air. - T H U D - T H U D - T H U D - Starkweather jolts from one, two, three more hits; hookheads b i t i n g , spraying blood; but he keeps on running. S C H E E R (INTO HEADSET) A l l clear. Flood the area. A N O T H E R ANGLE; Floor level, as between the tiles, tiny red lights start blinking, rippling forward in a wave. Known as "lode-pins" their small magnetic pulses accumulate into a low level stream. The hookheads c l a w e d in Starkweather's back also start blinking red. The invisible stream flowing beneath his feet, Starkweather feels its force. The duelling polarities stealing his traction. His run reducing to a slipsliding s t a g g e r . Then his feet leave the ground. He flails for a handhold. But there's nothing. The force lifts him a foot clear off the ground before balancing out to dangle him in mid-air, squirming about like a fish on a hook. A N O T H E R ANGLE; Scheer advances to reel in his catch. The stream bows before him, red lights blinking out. Until all that remains is the section where Starkweather hangs suspended. Scheer stops at its limit, looking up at him like some curious zoo exhibit. S C H E E R (INTO HEADSET) H o o d him, cuff him, patch the bleed. Then let's get him up to Level Three. A N O T H E R ANGLE: looking down from high above as the Censors move in on Starkweather. Scheer now walking away, tapping his headset- S C H E E R (INTO HEADSET) E t h e r c o n ? Send word to dispatch. Starkweather Two-Delta is secured. R E V E R S E ANGLE: Lincoln in CU, looking down. He has seen and heard all that has just passed. In his eyes, we see his daze clearing, consciousness coalescing, deepening. His pupils dilating into a deep and uncanny stare. What can only be described as a dawning.47 INT . NUTRITION PLAZA - SECTOR FOUR - LATER N o w full but unusually quiet. Residents sit in whispered, anxious discourse. The news of the incident is spreading. Off a series of chimes, eyes turn to the glass wall, now pixellating i n t o an outsider's face - calm, official. THE COMMUNITY ANNOUNCER begins- 41. COMMUNITY ANNOUNCER Good morning - this is a community bulletin... Following an incident in Sector Four earlier this morning, The Department of Sanitation is issuing an all-sector contamination warning... TRACKING the rapt concern of the residents, Ester among them. COMMUNITY ANNOUNCER The incident involved a resident found to be infected with a pathogen. While the risk is assessed, residents are advised to be aware of the symptoms. Should you experience aberrant levels of anxiety or witness it in others, immediately contact The Medical Center.48 INT . DIRECTOR'S OFFICE The proxy of Starkweather spins over the desk. Merrick regards i t with a frown. Scheer sits turning the ethercuff i n his fingers with a demeanor of cool curiosity. Underneath, he's rattled. SCHEER You want to tell me what's going on? MERRICK There's nothing going on, Karl. SCHEER I'm jaded. Not stupid. MERRICK What's your point? SCHEER I checked up. In the past year, three products have destabilized. All of them Deltas... and there's nothing going on? MERRICK You're jumping to conclusions. SCHEER Once I can overlook. Twice I can call coincidence. Three times I start giving a shit. Because if these products are defective... MERRICK Q u a l i t y control is not your concern. 42. SCHEER S o it is a quality control issue? MERRICK That's not what I said. SCHEER He was in the subway tunnels for two days. In the dark, no food, no water. His fingers were scraped to the bone. He was trying to dig his way out. Now you try to explain to me why that is.His look says he smells a rat. Merrick weighs him a moment. Thensighs, a little depleted. He gets up and crosses to the glasswall. Looks down on the avenue, at the agnates m i l l i n g beneath. MERRICK It's not an exact science - biogenesis. There's a degree of trial and error. If the agnate doesn't come together on the first pass, we have to abort and start over. It's like breaking inertia. The bioreactor, the growth medium - we just keep upping the levels till we achieve integration. At which stage the agnate is deemed physically stable. We rely on foundation to provide mental stability - matching the templates to their capacity but walling it in with parameters. ( b e a t , considers the proxy) When signs of instability started to show up, it pointed to foundation. A hole in the wall, an oversight. But it was only happening in the later generat- ions . Which pointed back to biogenesis. SCHEER So there was a production defect. MERRICK Actually the opposite. We found out in the later generations, the levels were so high that when we broke inertia, the process kept going. Over-integrating. Specifically the neural system. It produced a condition called synesthesia. SCHEER Synesthesia... 43. MERRICK A fusion of the senses, creating a component awareness. Sixth sense, s e c o n d sight, whatever you want to call it. Its emergence seems to be arbitrary. But it gives them experiences beyond their functional parameters. And ultimately... it destabilizes them. However, if we catch it early enough we can control it with re-conditioning.Scheer absorbs this with a slow grin. Merrick looks puzzled. MERRICK You find this amusing? SCHEER Poetic. MERRICK Poetic? SCHEER This "agnate" took off just before his sponsor placed an order. Maybe he got the sense his days were numbered...Merrick ' s composure cracks a little. He hadn't thought of this. MERRICK This stays between you and me, Karl. I trust I can rely on your cooperation? SCHEER Don't you mean my complicity? MERRICK (hardening again) Remind me, why is it you were discharged from the military? SCHEER What's your point? MERRICK Learn to be a team player, Karl. Or you'll find yourself out of another job.Scheer rises, discarding the ethercuff onto Merrick's desk. SCHEER Nobody else would take it. 44.49 INT. EXTRACTOR SHAFT The deep steady thrum of the extractor fans. We are TIGHT ON the frame of an airlock. Hissing, it indents and opens. Lincoln steps through, eyes black and uncanny. The tri-key g l i n t i n g , dangling from his fingers. Scanning around, he fixes on a section of wall. He wipes off some soot. Legible beneath is a number. Twenty. He assimilates this. Then turns his gaze up the extractor shaft.50 INT . ELEVATOR SHAFT Looking up an elevator shaft. The red pulse of the lode-poles, rippling downward as an elevator descends from the surface.51 INT . OUTER THRESHOLD - LEVEL THREE A tiled chamber. Draped off cubicles. The elevator doors slide open. An outsider emerges, dressed in a flightsuit, emblazoned "Medical Courier". He announces himself, seemingly to no one- T H E COURIER Clearance code: NG-230-2DS. V O I C E ON SPEAKER New Gaza Healthcare. Okay, you're clear. Go ahead and get undressed.52 INT . DECONTAMINATION CHAMBER The pressure door hisses, heaving open. The courier steps inside, naked, covering his genitals, some goggles slung around his neck. He takes position on two marked footpads and puts on the goggles- T H E COURIER I tell you, I hate this fucking r u n . I always leave this place with sunburn. V O I C E ON SPEAKER Try full-course decontamination. It's even more fun. Especially the colonics. The lights blink out. A red glow rises. Twin planes of light scrape across the courier, infra-red, searing his epidermis.53 INT . INNER THRESHOLD - LEVEL THREE A chamber like the first. The inner pressure door hisses open. The courier emerges, dripping wet from a decon s h o w e r . He goes to a cubicle, grabbing a towel and dries himself off. Laid out within are some scrubs. Beside them is A STEEL COOLER, inset with a thermostat and embossed with the crosshatch insignia. 45.54 INT. CORRIDOR - LEVEL THREE The courier strolls up the corridor, now dressed in the scrubs and carrying the cooler. He turns a corner and his footsteps gradually fade out. A flat, sterile silence falls in his wake. A metal squeal. A ventilation grid levers down from the ceiling. A pause. Then a pair of feet drop through, legs, torso. Dropping to the floor, Lincoln stands revealed. Sweaty, smeared black with dust. For a moment he looks around to get his bearings. Suddenly he freezes, hearing- A VOICE (O.S.) C h e c k in at the nurse's station. Up the corridor, left, then first right. The footsteps are now coming back. Lincoln spins round. He finds a door. A lock panel. A moment of panic. Then he fumbles the tri- k e y f r o m his pocket, hurriedly slotting it into the lock panel.55 INT . THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR - SECONDS LATER Lincoln waits, ear to the door, listening as the footsteps pass and fade out of earshot. Lincoln releases his breath in relief, calming a little, then frowning as he registers another sound. Very faint, rhythmic. He turns and looks around. The room is in partial shadow. To one side is a row of seats, to the other, a row of windows, covered by blinds, light creasing through. The sound repeats. Muffled. But now unmistakably THE CRY OF A BABY.56 INT . HARVEST ROOM A grid of bio-readouts, each square alive with graphs and digits. The familiar baseline of a cardiograph. A lever-arm mounted with an IV r e s e r v o i r , dangling tubes and wires onto the OR table. We see A DOCTOR and A MIDWIFE, in whose arms A NEWBORN BABY squirms and bawls. Lying on the table, we see THE MOTHER, her feet up in stirrups, deeply flushed and puffing from exertion. Marked by her crosshatch as an agnate, she has just given birth- THE AGNATE MOTHER May I hold her? THE DOCTOR We have to run a few tests on her first. In the meantime, I'm going to give you something to help you relax, okay? Off his smile, the agnate mother nods, anxiously watching the midwife wrap her baby in blanket. The doctor taps a button and watches the IV reservoir misting with a pale colored fluid. 46. The cardiograph marks the drop as the fast-acting sedative takes effect. The agnate mother watches drowsily as the midwife takes her baby from the room. Then the cry of the newborn is shut out. J u s t the cardiograph now, the beeps evening out, the scart o f peaks shallowing a s the agnate mother falls asleep. The doctor taps a button. On the grid, the face of a DESK NURSE appears. THE DOCTOR I'm incubating the baby for 24 hours prior to transport. But go ahead and contact the sponsor. Tell her she has a beautiful baby girl. The nurse nods. The grid square goes blank. A pause. Then the doctor taps another button. Text appears. Reading it, he cites- THE DOCTOR Let the record show the sponsor has signed Clause 22 of The Basic Sponsor- s h i p Agreement. Initiate compliance. A light starts blinking. The doctor walks stiffly out of the room. The door hisses closed. The agnate mother is left alone. Sleeping peacefully, blind to the fluid now seeping into her IV. D e a f to the slowing beep of the cardiograph. The peaks of the baseline falling. Spacing, fading, slowing, slowing, until... The cardiograph flatlines. An d a sepulchral stillness falls. Our angle widens with the growing emptiness. The lifelessness.57 INT . OBSERVATION ROOM Lincoln looks down from above, eyes frozen in the slatted light. His fingers are trembling, rattling the blinds against the glass.58 INT . CORRIDOR Lincoln tumbles out of the door. He can't breathe, can't think, his mind is in overload. He stumbles around like a wounded animal. His focus suddenly and searingly r e t u r n s as he hears- DESK NURSE (O.S.) Starkweather ? Like the football player?59 INT . NURSES STATION - LEVEL THREE - CONTINUOUS A rotunda spoked by corridors. A console at its hub, manned by the desk nurse we saw earlier. The courier stands over her- THE COURIER That's right. Starkweather. 47. DESK NURSE Still showing in surgery. Sorry. THE COURIER Honey, I got a bird on the pad and a storm moving in. How long's it gonna be?60 INT . ANOTHER OPERATING ROOM Another grid of readouts. Another cardiograph beeps. A spotlamp illuminates the OR table and STARKWEATHER TWO-DELTA - his face, slack with anesthesis, eyes rolling a little beneath the lids. The rest of him under a sheet, cut out over the belly, the flesh slit and parted by a clamp, framing a window into his innards. Standing over him, mid-operation, A SURGEON and SURGICAL TECH. Interrupted by a chime, the surgeon looks up at a screen, where a panel flashes: "PAGING". He cradles his bloody gloves and elbows a button. The face of the desk nurse resolves on screen- DESK NURSE (ON SCREEN) The courier's here for pickup. THE SURGEON Well he's going to have to wait a while. It took forever to put this one under. SURGICAL TECH (O.S.) Doctor... DESK NURSE (ON SCREEN) He's asking for an ETA. Said something about some kind of storm moving in. THE SURGEON For Christ's sake, is that my fault? Just find a way to stall him, okay? S U R G I C A L TECH (O.S.) Doctor. SURGEON What is it? SURGICAL TECH Subject's heart rate is spiking. SURGEON Not again. Boost the anaesthetic lev... Suddenly he's sprayed with blood a s the clamp springs loose from the stomach, clattering to the floor. He's frozen by shock as... 48. Starkweather sits bolts upright. Dazed, he looks at the surgeon, the tech, then down at his wide-open stomach. Instinctively, he clutches it. Then, his mind assimilating the horror, he SCREAMS. Now launching off the operating table, the lever-arm swinging out, blindsiding t h e tech - tubes and wires snapping loose - instruments flying - Starkweather lunges for the doorway - the surgeon steps up to block him - only to be hurled aside...61 INT . CORRIDOR - LEVEL THREE THE BLARE OF AN ALARM. Starkweather, clumping down the corridor, clutching his open stomach, blood streaming down his legs. He's delirious, running nowhere, anywhere, running blind. Reaching the end of the corridor, he stops suddenly, seeing WHITE UNIFORMS. He doubles back up the corridor. Kicking at doors with bare feet, frantic for any means of escape. He spots a ventilator grid, slightly open. He jumps, reaching for it. Once, twice, then his feet slip from under him. He hits the floor with a damp splat. TWO CENSORS turn the corner, ready for action. But there is Starkweather, face-down in a starburst o f his own blood. CENSOR (INTO HEADSET) Yeah, no sweat, subject is secured.62 INT . DUCTING - MINUTES LATER POVCEILING VENTILATOR GRID. Looking down through the slits onto Starkweather directly beneath. He now has a loose white hood over his head. His wrists and ankles are bound by plastic cuffs. A loop of intestine plumps out from his belly. His weight is such that the Censors have to drag him away, leaving a bloodsmear o n the floor. His guttural whimpers are the only sign of life. CLOSEUP: Lincoln's face in part shadow, looking down. The gleam of his eyes as Starkweather disappears from view. Listening now, to those feeble whimpers, growing fainter, ever fainter until they disappear from earshot. Silence again. Emptiness. All that remains of Starkweather is a wending bloodsmear o n the floor. SLOW FADE TO BLACK.63 INT . BEDROOM - DAWN The horizon. The green mountains in different aspect, framed by a different window. The bedroom is like Lincoln's but with a few feminine touches. Ester, in her papery pajamas, sits brushing her hair. With a chime, etherscreen scales over her reflection: - - E T H E R C A L L P E N D I N G ; ACCEPT OR SEND TO MESSAGE BANK?-- 49. ESTER Accept. The etherscreen resolves Lincoln's face, dishevelled, urgent- LINCOLN (ON ETHERSCREEN) Ester . . . I have to talk to you. ESTER Lincoln ? Are you okay? I was worried. LINCOLN (ON ETHERSCREEN) What are you talking about? ESTER The contamination warning. Somebody said you'd been exposed. Lincoln pauses to process this. Hunted, more cautious now- LINCOLN (ON ETHERSCREEN) I want you to meet me as soon as you can. But you can't tell anyone. ESTER Is it true? Were you contaminated? LINCOLN (ON ETHERSCREEN) You know where to come. His face blinks out. Ester is left frowning at her reflection.64 INT . BEDROOM - LINCOLN'S APARTMENT - DAY Lincoln stares at his own mirror image. His eyes, fraught with revelation. His clothes, begrimed with dirt and blood. He rests his head against the etherscreen panel, shuddering, pressing his eyes tightly closed. As if he could ever forget what he's seen.65 INT . CENTERVILLE - DAY The routine flow of residents up the avenue. Lincoln walks, head bowed, trying to look inconspicuous. Showered, white shirt and blue slacks under his shearling, he looks a little too scrubbed, too clean. He spots a familiar figure up ahead. He catches up. LINCOLN Jonesy. . . J o n e s lets him fall into step with a look of mild curiosity- 50. JONES Hey, champ. Are you alright? I heard there was a contamination scare. LINCOLN I saw what happened to him. JONES What are you talking about? LINCOLN Starkweather . . . What they did to him. Jones huffs, dismissively. Lincoln grabs his shoulder, ardent- LINCOLN They cut him open, Jonesy. The y took him upstairs and they cut him open. Jones holds his gaze a moment, then shrugs off his grip. JONES You caught that fucking p a t h o g e n , didn't you? You're contaminated. LINCOLN J o n e s y , listen to me... But Jones just backs away. Lincoln makes to follow. Then stops dead in his tracks. Across the avenue, TWO CENSORS are on patrol and his best friend is now heading towards them. With a barren, torn grimace, Lincoln turns away and melts back into the crowd.66 INT . COMMUNITY CENTER - CENTERVILLE - LATER R i n g s of empty seats round the empty stage. Ester enters warily, walking up the aisle. Lincoln waits in the shadows. He checks to see she hasn't been followed. Then steps forward. Ester recoils- ESTER Please . . . don't come any closer. I don't want to get contaminated. LINCOLN Ester, I'm not contaminated. ESTER But they said... LINCOLN I'm not contaminated! 51.His shout echoes through the empty auditorium. Ester looks athim, alarmed by his vehemence. Lincoln calms himself a little- LINCOLN Contaminants, pathogens... it's just what they tell us to keep us inside. ESTER What do you mean? LINCOLN I saw it. Why they keep us here. To use us. To take things from us. ESTER You're not making sense. LINCOLN Your baby... they're going to take your baby away... you understand? ESTER M y baby? Why would they do that? LINCOLN I don't know! But I saw it! ESTER You're scaring me, Lincoln... I want to go back now. LINCOLN You can't go back! Don't you get it? A VOICE (O.S.) N o b o d y move! Stay right where you are!A CENSOR steps through, stopgun l e v e l l e d . Ester freezes. Lincolnhovers, mind racing. The censor moves in, tightening aim on him.Ester looks on anxiously as he approaches Lincoln. Lincoln nowsees the censor pulling out some plastic cuffs. The same cuffsused on Starkweather, promising the same fate... TRIGGERING HIM--LINCOLN LUNGES AT THE CENSOR - ramming him - toppling him acrossthe seats - knocking the stopgun f r o m his grasp - recoiling as--THE CENSOR RETALIATES - driving a knee into his groin, doublinghim over - then a knee to his head - THUDDING INTO HIS SKULL- ESTER Don't hurt him! 52. ESTER RUNS UP grabbing at the white uniform, trying to restrain him - the censor swats her blindly - hitting her in the stomach-- LINCOLN SPINS ROUND at the sound of Ester's yelp - only to be roundhoused b y the censor - the blow sending him to the floor-- Ester DOUBLED OVER - wincing at the pain - clutching her belly instinctively, protectively - an ominous scowl knotting her face- THE CENSOR PUNISHING LINCOLN - kicking him down the aisle - then suddenly hearing a noise from behind - turning to face it as -- - B O O M - A GUNBLAST R I P S THE AIR. The brief wail of a hookhead. - T H U D - THE CENSOR RECOILING - lurching as the hookhead b i t e s - starting to gag - blood jetting from his neck - a hookhead c l a w e d into his jugular - gurgling, collapsing to the floor-- Ester STANDING FROZEN - holding the stopgun - seeing Lincoln now getting up - she drops the stopgun l i k e it's on fire, aghast- ESTER Lincoln? L i k e she's asking him what she did... Silence - the rasp of the censor, blood foaming - another sound - FOOTFALLS. Lincoln goes to the door - an IMMINENT MASS OF WHITE UNIFORMS. He grabs Ester- LINCOLN RUN!!!67 INT . FOYER - THE COMMUNITY CENTER CENSORS BURSTING IN - led by Scheer, pushing through into the main hall - the statue of Dr. Sanger looking serenely down--68 INT . MAINTENANCE CORRIDOR - BEHIND THE COMMUNITY CENTER A HISS OF DEPRESSURIZATION - a pressure door swings open - Lincoln and Ester tumbling through - running up the maintenance corridor--69 INT . COMMUNITY CENTER - MOMENTS LATER CENSORS FANNING OUT - sweeping the hall, stopguns r e a d y - Scheer finds the fallen Censor - crouches to examine him, then- SCHEER Somebody get someone down here! A Censor splits off to join him, tapping his headset - Scheer rises again - in his eyes, detachment yields to cold intensity-- 53.70 INT. VARIOUS CORRIDORS - CONTAINMENT INFRASTRUCTURE THE CENSORS: flooding through into the maintenance corridor, in their white uniforms, they seem like a swarm of antibodies-- LINCOLN AND ESTER: deeper in, at another pressure door, fumbling the trikey i n t o the lock. A tense second. The lock hisses open-- SCHEER : pushes through the opening gap of another pressure door, taking the lead, his Censors surging up in his wake -- LINCOLN AND ESTER: meeting an intersection, veering at random, running blind, running deeper into the faceless labyrinth-- SCHEER : catching up, hitting the intersection, pausing to split his squad in each direction - white uniforms dispersing-- LINCOLN AND ESTER: reaching another pressure door. Footsteps audible. Lincoln jams the tri-key i n t o the lock. And waits. The seconds pass. But the door doesn't open. Lincoln looks around for another exit. Ester looks at him in mounting panic then-- THE PRESSURE DOOR OPENS: not onto a corridor but an elevator car. Pulling Ester inside, Lincoln finds an array of buttons. His fingers hovers, uncertain which to press. So he punches all of them, stabbing madly, trying to prompt the door to close. SCHEER : turns a corner, seeing his quarry at the far end of the corridor, he gathers pace. The elevator is closing but he doesn't break stride. He deftly taps his headset, opening a channel to-- SCHEER (ON HEADSET) Ethercon! The elevator - override it! Do you read me? Bring it back down!71 INT . ETHER CONTROL ROOM Ethercon is working the console keys like a madman. His gaze flitting to a subgrid o f the complex, spinning the angles, navigating the mesh of lines. His voice comes apologetically- ETHERCON (INTO HEADSET) You're off the grid, sir. Give me a second. Can you tell me where you are? He recoils at the blaring volume of the response.72 INT . CORRIDOR - OUTSIDE THE ELEVATOR Scheer stands with his Censors, poised, watching the panel chart the elevator's descent. A light flashes and the doors open. They level their stopguns o n . . . nothing. The elevator is empty. 54. SCHEER (INTO HEADSET) Foundation Levels - all of them. Lock them down. Access only on my command.73 INT . FOUNDATION LEVEL A dead acoustic. A corridor paved with sound proofing panels. It ends at a pressure door, where Lincoln and Ester now arrive. Lincoln looks back to the elevator at the other end. No going back. He slots the tri-key into the lock. The door hisses open.74 INT . FOUNDATION CHAMBERS Amber light. The sound of slow bubbling. Lincoln and Ester pause to adjust to the gloom. They are in a hall of windows. Ester is the first to venture forth, as if drawn, to the nearest window. Behind the glass is a foundation tank. Bubbling with viscous fluid, laced with various tubes pulsing matter to and fro. The tubes connect to a form. A human form, an adult form but curled foetally. I t is known as a "nascent". In this tank is a female nascent, shifting slightly, causing Ester to gasp. The nascent registers the noise, turning its head. Its eyelids are closed but its eyeballs move, questioning. A slight furrow appears on its crosshatched brow. Ester recoils in sudden horror, perhaps remembering on some deep level that this is where she came from. LINCOLN Ester ! Come on! Spurred to action, Ester follows Lincoln onward up the hall. Still conscious of movement all around, of nascents stirring at the sound of their footfalls like the ripples of a nightmare.75 INT . FOUNDATION CHAMBER A STOPGUN n o s e s through the door. Followed by Scheer moving in silence, honed. How much time has passed is unclear. He signals his censors to split off. Tracking Scheer's advance, we INTERCUT: ANOTHER FOUNDATION CHAMBER: Censors making their sweep. Strobes of light from an armature mechanism moving up the row of tanks. It angles to project a grid across each nascent's face, then fires a short laser burst, searing a crosshatch into the brow. ANOTHER FOUNDATION CHAMBER: another contingent moves up another row of foundation tanks. The nascents within have cables plugged into their ears, filaments pulsing. The nascents a r e in a posture of rigor, sinews straining as they accept the data impression. RETURNING TO SCHEER as he reaches the end of the first chamber. No further access, just a continuing wrap of foundation tanks. He pauses, confused for a second. One of the censors comes up- 55. CENSOR Nothing , sir. No sign. SCHEER They can't have got past this level. Scheer peels off his headset, giving full leash to his senses, straining to concentrate. Seconds of pent silence. Then he hears a faint humming. His gaze slowly drifts up to a ventilator grid.76 INT . / EXT . THE FUNNEL - NIGHT A POV LOOKING UP. The funnel mouth framing a vista of the world outside. A hostile vista of black sky, maelstroms of sand. The sound of blasting air, suborned to the giant howl of a DUSTSTORM. A HAND. Reaching over the funnel lip as Lincoln pulls himself up with a mighty effort. Blinking, blinded by the sand, he swings astride the lip. Then he reaches down to pull Ester up. Ester gains the lip and likewise swings astride, coughing, blinking. T H E DUSTY EARTH as Lincoln leaps down to meet it. We track up as he helps Ester down from the funnel. Her feet meeting the earth, we are now in CU o n their faces. Gaping and blinking at the prospect of the world outside. A world of darkness and storm. SUDDEN BLINDING LIGHT as halogens explode the darkness. Lincoln shields his eyes, scanning for their source. He spots a large cubic building, banks of spotlights on the roof. He pulls Ester away. Away from the lights and towards the safety of darkness.77 INT . EXTRACTOR SHAFT T H E THRUM OF EXTRACTOR FANS. Scheer pacing on a catwalk. White uniforms above and below, flashlights roving, sliced by the blades of the extractor fans. From somewhere, comes a shout- C E N S O R (O.S.) Sir ! We got em! Motion sensors just picked them up at the surface!78 EXT . FRONT OF THE INSTITUTE - NIGHT ANOTHER BURST OF HALOGENS. More spotlights engage, their blaze flooding across the foreview, catching two figures; Lincoln and Ester, running, now, veering sharply away from the light. Now disappearing from sight, dropping into the trench of the lodeway.79 INT . MAINTENANCE ELEVATOR - CONTAINMENT THE RISING HUM OF THE LODE-POLES. The elevator crammed with censors. Scheer at the front, staring ahead. He looks very focused, bitterly so. The look of a man outwitted by lab rats. 56.80 EXT. THE LODEWAY - NIGHT THE DARKNESS OF THE TRENCH. Lincoln and Ester running along the lode-way, stumbling over the buffers. Above them, the dust flails in lashing tongues, starkly depicted by the halogens.81 EXT . PROCESSING PLANT - NIGHT WHITE UNIFORMS IN THE NIGHT - censors spill forth into the halogen light, splitting in all directions. Scheer suddenly notices the corona of light from the front of the complex. He barks something inaudible to his men, launching into a run.82 EXT . THE GATEWAY - NIGHT THE GATEWAY LOOMING ABOVE. Beneath, Lincoln and Ester, on their knees, clawing at the dust. Like burrowing animals, trying to widen the gap between the foot of the gate and the lodeway.83 EXT . FRONT OF THE INSTITUTE - NIGHT A LONE WHITE UNIFORM. As Scheer reaches the forecourt, stopping to scan the spotlit view, the veils of the duststorm. His face tightening with urgency. Suddenly he taps his headset, barking- S C H E E R (INTO HEADSET) The lodeway! Flood it! Light it up!84 EXT . THE GATEWAY - NIGHT THE RISING HUM OF THE LODE-POLES barely audible over the storm. Lincoln and Ester, washed by pulsing red light. Ester recoiling, her arm flinging back from the pull. Lincoln grabbing her, his own arm straining now. The polarity tugging their ethercuffs.85 EXT . THE LODEWAY - NIGHT THE RED WASH OF LIGHT from the lodeway as Scheer races up the edge, eyes trawling the trench for his quarry. His pace now suddenly dropping, slowing to a halt. He doubles over, catching his breath. More white uniforms now appear from the dust as the Censors, unable to match his pace, finally catch up. The first reaching him, Scheer pulls upright, bellowing over the wind- SCHEER G e t me a bird! CENSOR A bird?! In this storm?! SCHEER The y got out! They got past the gate! 57. Scheer spins on his heel back towards The Institute. The Censor lingers, confused. Then he fixes on the lodeway. Floating past in the red wash are the luminous blue seams of two ethercuffs.86 EXT . THE DESERT - NIGHT The perimeter wall silhouetted in the middle-distance. Lincoln and Ester scramble through the scrub, blinded by dust, driven by momentum. As Ester starts lagging behind, Lincoln grabs her arm- LINCOLN Ester ! We have to keep going! But Ester resists him, breaking loose from his grasp. Lincoln looks at her, uncomprehending. Until he sees her expression, the harrowed stare in her eyes, the labored heaving of her chest. LINCOLN Ester? Ester staggers back, losing balance, reeling as if spun by the storm. Her eyes widening, senses flooding. The howling wind, the swirling dustclouds, the pendent gulf of black sky. Her reel returning her to face Lincoln, Ester opens her mouth to speak. But all that comes is A SCREAM. A scream from deep within, shrill and hysterical, the only articulation she can find. Lincoln grabs her and covers her mouth. Fighting to stifle her, rocking to her convulsions. But Ester keeps screaming. A scream of everything.87 INT . BEDROOM - SOMEWHERE - LATE NIGHT All is still. Just a muted shudder of wind on glass. The room is in shadow. All we see is a canopied bed where a figure, obscured, lies sleeping. The still is disrupted by a chime. The figure stirs, fumbling at the nightstand. A holoframe resolves, the light revealing Dr. Sanger, rumpled by sleep. He peers into the holoframe to find the face of Merrick, gaunt with concern- Merrick (ON HOLOFRAME) He n r y . . . There's been a breach. H A R D CUT TO BLACK. SLOW FADE UP:88 EXT . THE RED ROCKS - DAWN A horizon. A brim of dawn over the red rocks. The view is framed by the mouth of a cave. Lincoln sleeps within, slumped against the rock, his head bowed heavily. The touch of first light opens his eyes. His brow creasing, as if waking from a bad dream into a worse reality. He looks around only to find himself alone. He gets up, a little shaky at first, then ventures out of the cave. 58. He emerges onto a ledge, perhaps fifty feet up. He pauses, eyes adjusting to the quality of light. He sees the storm has reduced to a low wind, combing the floorland o f scrub. Now, across the ledge, he sees Ester. Perched on an outcrop, hugging her knees, watching the sunrise over the desert. He crosses and lowers to a crouch beside her. Ester turns to him with a confused frown- ESTER W h e r e did all the green go? Lincoln looks deep into her troubled eyes. He answers gently- LINCOLN The r e is no green. The windows in there... they were just pictures. Ester absorbs this with difficulty. Lincoln rises again and stands looking out across the desert, into the barren unknown.89 EXT . THE SKY OVER THE DESERT - MORNING From the massive sky grows a glinting shape. Like a helicopter but sleeker, aquiline. Without combustion, its only noise is the sibilance of blades slicing air. It is known as a "whisper".90 INT . WHISPER - MORNING The pilot jockeys with the thermals. Scheer rides shotgun. Now in civvies, scanning the terrain with electronic binoculars. The flight console beeps. He taps a keypad. A holoframe resolves: CENSOR (ON HOLOFRAME) Ground team checking in. SCHEER Anything? CENSOR (ON HOLOFRAME) The storm pretty much covered their tracks. We're scanning for thermals b u t the hotter it gets, the harder it is to isolate a heat signature. I don't know, sir, it's a big desert out there.91 EXT . CHASM - THE RED ROCKS - DAY The desert sun clefts the chasm into light and shadow. Lincoln trudges into view, Ester lagging behind. He stops to let her catch up, only to watch her slump onto a rock. He allows her a moment to rest and walks to where the chasm comes to an end. 59. He surveys the terrain. His eyes roam the carpet of scrub, now narrowing on an inconsistency. A faint strip where nothing seems to grow. Tracing its lineage, he walks a few feet out. Then drops to a crouch and starts clawing away at the dust. His fingers meet something hard. He sweeps off the dust to expose a layer of concrete. Continuing, revealing the ghost of a line. What we might recognize as a lane marker but a curiosity to him. Continuing, opening a window in the dust. Now his fingers snag o n something. He tugs it and it gives a little, dust crumbling to reveal a section of rusted chainlink. A corner of metal is visible. Lincoln exposes the rest. A sign, barely legible: "US Government - Restricted Area". He frowns, trying to assimilate. Ester comes up to join him. Off her anxious look, he decides- LINCOLN I think I've found a path.92 EXT . THE GREEN MOUNTAINS - DAY W h i t e rock blanketed by stands of fir and ponderosa pine. A whisper skims over the treecaps, circling in on a high shelf. Here, remotely nestled in a clearing, stands a glass villa.93 INT . THE GLASS VILLA - DAY The flood of light, the majestic view lend an air of beatitude. The decor is minimalist with Native American accents, kokopelli spirits in carved silhouette. Dr. Sanger stands at a glass wall, looking out across the green mountain valley. On the sofa sits Merrick, now in civvies, still gaunt from worry. The air stirs as a maid ushers in A WOMAN - 30's, all business, sharp blue eyes, a severe, mannish coiffure. Her name is ELLEN CROWNE. CROWNE Good morning, gentlemen. SANGER Bernard, this is Ellen Crowne from our legal department. Ellen, this is Bernard Merrick, director of products. MERRICK Thank you for coming out here. CROWNE Well when Henry called me I got the sense it wasn't for a social visit. They settle at a table. A jug of icewater a n d glasses laid out. CROWNE I understand there was an incident? 60. MERRICK First, let me stress there's no way we could have anticipated what happened... CROWNE We're on the same team, Mr. Merrick. Just give me the facts down-and-dirty. MERRICK (uneasy, clears his throat) We'v e lost two of our products. They escaped containment last night.Crowne casts a troubled look at Sanger. Merrick quickly adds- Merrick (cont'd) However, we have all available resources dedicated to the search. CROWNE How exactly did this happen? MERRICK We'r e still piecing it together. CROWNE Do we expect more products to escape? DR. SANGER Don't be so alarmist, Ellen. CROWNE I'm sorry, Henry, but you asked me here to assess our liabilities. MERRICK To answer your question, we condition our products with a deterrent. A fear of contamination. And thereby of the outer environment. So to escape, they first have to escape their conditioning.Crowne pauses to absorb this and to light a slim black cigarette. CROWNE Containment is one of the terms of our state health license. The fact it was compromised could put us in violation. DR. SANGER Bureaucracy. 61. CROWNEHenry , it was a bloody battle gettingour license through in the first place. DR. SANGERThey're not going to pull our license,Ellen. We have a lot of friends on theCommission. Not to mention the goodwillwe earned in DC when we took over thefacility; a bunker complex for a bio-chemical war that never happened... Werelieved them of a costly embarrassment. CROWNEI'm not sure we can rely on that. DR. SANGERAlright . What do you suggest? CROWNEFirst, I need you to level with me.What are our chances of finding them? MERRICKWell, in our favor, they've never beenoutside containment. They'd have nocoordinates, no sense of direction. CROWNEI don't see how that's in our favor. MERRICKThey're in the middle of the desert.Food and water become an issue. CROWNESo they might return to the trough? MERRICKPossibly. CROWNEAnd if not? How long could they last? MERRICKA few days maybe. But there is anothervariable. We maintain the products in asterile environment. So basically theirimmune systems are untested. Toxins,pathogens, environmentals t h e rest ofus overcome routinely, to them... 62. DR. SANGER That's a little drastic. Some immune systems are more adaptive than others. CROWNE Let's take the drastic case. What then? MERRICK Well . . . the male, we could cover. Fast- track another generation before the sponsor ever needed access. The female comes under the maternity plan. She's three months pregnant. Even if we fast- tracked another generation, we couldn't fast-track the pregnancy. We'd miss the delivery date, the sponsor would wonder why and there would be... difficulties.Crowne looks worried. Sanger pours a glass of icewater. DR. SANGER Even so, the worst may not happen. CROWNE We haven't even touched on the worst. If these products reach a populated area, there's the problem of scrutiny. DR. SANGER Ellen , we operate under State license on a lease from the Federal Government... CROWNE ( c u t s him off, harshly) We slipped through a loophole in the clone laws, Henry. And they only let u s through because they smelt money. And they gave us a government basement to cover their own a s s e s not ours. It's at the core of our license - why we screen potential sponsors, why we make them sign discretion agreements, why containment is such a critical factor - to limit the extent of public scrutiny. DR. SANGER E i t h e r way, it's unlikely they'd get that far. It's at least twenty miles to the next settlement. Right, Bernard?Merrick hesitates before nodding his assent. Crowne pounces on it- 63. CROWNE Something to add, Mr. Merrick? MERRICK I just don't think we should under- estimate them. Especially the male. DR. SANGER And I don't think we should panic. He cautions Merrick with a discreet look, then shakes a pill from a bottle. Crowne looks forward to both men. Very serious. CROWNE Gentlemen, whatever happens we need t o keep one thing clearly in mind. As far as the world at large goes, we are just another medical services company. Anything that alters that perception puts us at risk. And we cannot rely on the sanction of the law to protect us. Whenever and wherever and in whatever condition we recover these products, we have to stay beyond reproach. All it takes is one nudge to put us in the spotlight. Then you'll see how fast politicians can run for cover. Merrick shifts, uneasy. Sanger takes the pill with a bitter smile- DR. SANGER I n other words we need to find them o r else. That's very astute, Ellen.94 EXT . DESERT HIGHWAY - SUNSET The dust swirls and puffs across a highway of yesteryear. A dirt track but for patches of exposed concrete and angles of buckled lampposts. The empty path reaches to a blood-red sunset.95 EXT . SCRAPYARD - SUNSET The dust skims over mountains of rusted scrap. Nestled in the mountains is a shack. A sign creaks in the breeze "Osmund D e e r , Licensed Salvage Merchant". On the porch sits an old man in a greasy ballcap a n d dungarees. This is the eponymous owner, OZZIE. He's sitting on a lounger, surveying his empire, enjoying a beer and a cigarette. Exhaling a drag of smoke, his eyes crease to a squint. He sees something through the smoke, silhouetted against the sunset. An approaching figure, wary, like a flighty animal. 64. OZZIE Hello? The silhouetted figure doesn't answer, just stares back at him. OZZIE Can I help you? This seems to get a response. The figure ventures closer. We recognize Lincoln. Exhausted, dust-covered and dry-throated - LINCOLN My friend... she needs water.96 INT . BACK ROOM - THE SHACK - SUNSET A mass of technology and furniture from recent and distant past. Lincoln lowers Ester onto a threadbare sofa. Ozzie, excited to have visitors, bustles up with a water gallon, pouring a glass. Lincoln takes it and tips it to Ester's lips. She coughs it out at first. Then takes the glass and starts drinking with vigor. Ozzie sets down the water gallon in front of his visitors. Then settles in an armchair and cracks open a beer. It lends the mood, albeit strained, of a social visit. Lonely old Ozzie wanting to make it so. Despite which, both men have an eye on each other. OZZIE Got stuck in that supercell, didya? Lincoln eyes him, wary of the question. Ozzie reads confusion- OZZIE Supercellstorm , that's what they call it on the news anyways. I n my day, we just called `em "big ol' h o w l e r s " . Ozzie chuckles to himself. It seems to put his visitor at ease. OZZIE Yep, I heard it shut down some of the lodeways. Dust in the works, I guess. Where were you folks headed anyways? Lincoln gulps down some water, deciding an answer. Then ventures- LINCOLN Away. OZZIE A w a y ? You mean, like outta s t a t e ? LINCOLN " O u t of state"... 65. The term is meaningless to Lincoln but he likes the sound of it. Ozzie grins. This is starting to feel like a real social visit. OZZIE N o w where's my manners gone? I'm Ozzie. Osmund r e a l l y . But folks call me Ozzie. An awkward lull as Ozzie waits for his visitor to reciprocate. OZZIE S o m e t i m e s I like to make a joke of it, my last name bein' D e e r . . . "O. Deer". O z z i e chuckles but the pun seems lost on his visitor. He lets it drop. The awkward silence returns. Lincoln drinks the water, wondering if this strange old man is as harmless as he appears. OZZIE We l l now, looks like yer g i r l f r i e n d ' s made herself at home. Lincoln looks at Ester, slumped over, asleep on the sofa. Ozzie puts a finger to his lips, beckoning his visitor out of the room.97 EXT . SCRAPYARD - DUSK The porch light comes on, casting the scrapyard in grades of light and shadow. Ozzie steps out onto the porch, lighting a cigarette. His visitor hovering at the threshold, he offers the pack. Lincoln steps out and takes one. Ozzie lights it for him- OZZIE Yer girlfriend sure is pretty. His visitor looks at him curiously. Ozzie misinterprets that he's said something out of turn. Time to change the subject- OZZIE So what's with them tattoos, huh? He taps his forehead. Lincoln fingers his crosshatch, suddenly aware of it now and suspicious of the question. Ozzie palliates- OZZIE Hey , in the eye of the beholder, right? Now this place, this is beautiful to me. This is my place. I own it. `May not look like much but you'd be surprised. C'mon, lemme show you... Ozzie moseys into the scrapyard, beckoning his visitor. Lincoln hesitates, then follows him, sensing it's better to play along. 66. OZZIE M o s t a t h i s heavy stuff's industrial scrap. Comes in from all over. Easy way round the recyclin' l a w s . Me, I sell it on to the boondock b o y s for meltdown. Other stuff, I pick up at the scrap markets. Fix it up, `fetches a price. The y reach a vehicle shell. A rust-pocked chassis, canted on its axle, we might recognize it as an automobile from our own era. OZZIE Fossil fuel transport. This piece o' junk's a collector's item. All that Age of the Wheel nostalgia, "elegant era of transport" bullshit. I find the parts, she's as good as solid gold. Ozzie pats his investment and moves to another rusted metal pile. Steepled by rail tracks, we see elevator sheaves, tension cables. OZZIE Now this here's got a colorful history. Came in from this ol' g o v e r n m e n t bunker out in the valley. `Got shut down way back. Then this new outfit took over, stripped the place out. I guess they're doin' s o m e more remodelling cause I just had `em in again the other day... ( a tug of smoke, reflective) Hump`n dump crew. Nice fellas. Lincoln frowns. The term is familiar. The taste of smoke, a hint. But his memory has been clouded by trauma. Ozzie reads his face- OZZIE You okay there? Lincoln looks at him, something breaking the clouds. A sense of danger, indistinct. Suddenly cautious, he stubs his cigarette- LINCOLN I'm going to check on my friend.98 INT . FRONT ROOM - THE SHACK - DUSK A front room turned into a front office. Piles of paper teeter atop junk furniture. A bankers lap we might recognize from our own era glows over a desk where Ozzie is rummaging, looking for something. He stops to peer through and check on his visitors- 67.The woman still lies asleep on the sofa. The man is sittingbeside her armchair, head bowed, seemingly plunged in thought.O z z i e resumes rummaging to find a crumpled delivery note. Hereviews it for a moment. Then quickly clears away some morepapers to uncover a keypad device. It is known as a "holocom".He taps a key and a holoframe resolves. Then taps in some digitsfrom the delivery note. The holoframe snows with static. Then acrosshatch insignia appears, spinning in 3D: RECORDED VOICE (ON HOLOCOM) Welcome to The Sanger Institute. If you know your party's extension, press... LINCOLN (O.S.) What are you doing?Ozzie jerks round to find his visitor suddenly standing there.He fumbles on the holocom keypad and the crosshatch blinks out. OZZIE Nuthin . I wasn't doin nuthin .Lincoln frowns, the sense of danger becoming more distinct.Ozzie reads his visitor's troubled expression, realizing- OZZIE I knew it... them clothes... them weird tattoos... I mean, I heard stories from those guys but I never...O f f his visitor's frown, Ozzie bites his tongue. He's corneredin this cramped space with a freak of science. Time to backpedal- OZZIE N o t that I believe `em... buncha c r a z y stories... nuthin t o do with you...He chuckles feebly. But his visitor just stares back at him,pupils dilated and dark, somehow inhuman. Time to wriggle out- OZZIE W h a d d y a s a y we just forget about it, huh? How about I go getcha a beer?He makes a move past but his visitor doesn't budge. Lincolnsenses danger in this old man, whose fear is now manifest- OZZIE What e v e r you want... Just take it... Whaddya w a n t . . . ? You want money...? 68. His visitor frowns. Ozzie quickly unlocks a cashbox. He grabs some colored plastic cards and offers them like meat to a lion. OZZIE I t ' s all I got... Take it... just please... just don't hurt me... His visitor takes a blue card, inspecting it like a curiosity. Then steps closer. Ozzie shrinks back. An ominous moment, then- LINCOLN " O u t of state" - how do I get there? O f f Ozzie's cowering and confused look, we - C U T TO:99 EXT . SKY OVER THE DESERT - NIGHT F r o m darkness grows a seed of light. The whisper flies low and quiet, its spotlight roving the undulant desert. Now picking out metal glints as it banks over a scrapyard. Now training its beam on a figure in the dust whirl beneath. Ozzie, his hair flying wild, gesticulating madly. The whisper follows his directions, nosing onwards, its spotlight corrugating across the red rocks.100 EXT . SHUTTLE STOP - NIGHT I n the middle of nowhere, a canopied platform. Not unlike the sub- w a y platform, it borders a deeply trenched lodeway. A wave of dust rolls in, swelled by the whisper, landed beyond. It seems to bring Scheer to the platform. He scans around for a clue, a footprint perhaps. But somehow he already knows. He looks up the lodeway, eyes honing. The deep black line stretches far into the night.101 INT . THE GLASS VILLA - NIGHT Silence. Still. Sanger sits nursing a cup of herb tea. Crowne sits smoking. Stubs in the ashtray speak of long hours waiting. The still is broken as Merrick emerges from an adjacent room. Sanger and Crowne look up, expectant. Merrick closes the door with slow care. Then he faces them, a grim tenor in his voice- MERRICK Bad news.102 EXT . PHOENIX - NIGHT The whisper slices the night, running lights blinking. We pan to frame it against a skyline of black towers. A glittering row of domes and spires, somehow celestial, touching the sky. The city bears no trace of its origins, once built over Indian ruins, now rebuilt, subsumed by urban overhaul. It has become a metropolis. 69.103 INT. ROOFTOP NIGHTCLUB - PHOENIX A glass dome, faceted, insectile. A haut-monde h i v e . The movers and shakers of the high-tech boomtown drinking, dancing. Shot waitresses dose blue tequila. Bass music thuds like a heartbeat. Scheer looks out of place here but the crowd's too self-absorbed to care. He moves through them, invisibly, towards a corner booth. TWO MEN IN SUITS sit with a bottle of blue tequila. The first is bald, pale and dead-looking, he'd be the grim reaper but for his fixed leer. The second is long-haired, bearded, hulking, more of a grim ploughman. He has a metal brace screwed into his forearm. SCHEER Which one of you is Diggs? DIGGS (THE BALD MAN) That's me, slick. This here's my partner Burdon. Don't mind him. He gets a little shy around strangers. SCHEER What happened to his arm? DIGGS `Pursuit last week. The guy took a swing at him with a fireaxe. Didn't stop Burdie though . `Took down that fucker with one arm, didn't you? Burdon sips his drink. Scheer, underwhelmed, takes a seat. SCHEER You don't look like bounty hunters. DIGGS Well we're on the job, see? And it kind of helps if you bleed in. You don't look like a bondman either. SCHEER I'm just an intermediary. DIGGS Now that's what people use when they don't want to get their hands dirty. He grins, cannily. Scheer grimaces, a pro suffering an amateur. SCHEER I was told you also handled civil bonds. Debt runners, data-thieves... 70. DIGGS What we hunt depends on the bounty. SCHEER It's worth ten platinum. Unmarked.Diggs pauses at this. A huge amount. Suspiciously huge. He lickssome salt, downs a blue tequila shot and bites a slice of lime. DIGGS What's the bond? SCHEER The parties I represent want to limit the specific details. But let's just say industrial secrets are involved. DIGGS Ten platinum. Must be big secrets.That canny grin again. It raises Scheer's hackles- SCHEER Any good at keeping them? DIGGS Oh, me and Burdie, we're busy bees. We don't have time to file every report and we got real bad memories. But just so we understand each other, slick, we're talking about a bag job, right?Scheer returns an equivocal look. Then dips in his pocket for twodigital slides - Lincoln and Ester's headshots, spinning in 3D. DIGGS What's up with these tattoos? They look like fucking boondock types . SCHEER All I'm authorized to tell you is they have no records in this state. Also that they're not armed or dangerous. DIGGS How about we start with their names? SCHEER John and Jane Doe... DIGGS You're kidding me, right? No names? 71.Scheer's look says he's serious. But Diggs is still confounded. DIGGS The n - with all due respect - how the fuck d o you expect us to find them? SCHEER Because you won't have to look. They jumped an overnight shuttle. They'll be headed for the terminal, trying to get out of state. It's strictly a recovery job. For you, it should be childsplay. DIGGS The n why not do it yourself? Or is the dog ring just to impress the ladies?The grin. Scheer moves his hand to cover the USMC ring, stiffly- SCHEER The parties I represent want to stay at arm's length. And just so we understand each other that means no connection, no papertrail, no police interest... DIGGS Is that everything? SCHEER . . . no mistakes. They want these two brought in quickly and quietly and unharmed. Once you have them, you'll contact me for further instructions. DIGGS I don't know. What do you say, Burdie?B u r d o n looks over. Then suddenly stands bolt upright, diving intohis jacket, jerking out what looks like a pump-action shotgun. BURDON F r a n k Hofstetter! This is a bond recovery! Step away from the bar!F A C E S TURN as he swings aim across the bar - HOFSTETTER, slight,wide-eyed, looking hunted - customers moving away, exposing him -Burdon chambering a cartridge, emphatic - Hofstetter f r e e z e s - adeer in the headlights - a moment of hesitation - then he runs.- B O O M - BURDON FIRES but the shot misses, hitting the bartender -exploding on impact with A BLINDING ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE - thestunned bartender spasms and drops - Burdon pumps and chambersanother slug - his weapon now earned the name of a "thunderbolt". 72. A STAMPEDE BEGINS - customers running scared - his quarry lost in the stampede, Burdon vaults over the table - Diggs pulls out what looks like a twin-barrel sawn-off and launches after him - Scheer stays seated, watching the hunt with remote curiosity-- H O F S T E T T E R C L A W S THROUGH THE STAMPEDE - spotting Burdon and the thunderbolt close behind - he drops out of the firing line - onto his knees - crawling, banged about - almost at the exit, almost-- T W I N BARRELS PRESS TO HIS HEAD - Diggs looks down - grinning, beckoning him upright - Hofstetter l o o k s up - bleak, defeated - A GIRL blunders into them - toppling over Hofstetter i n t o Diggs-- H O F S T E T T E R T A K E S HIS CHANCE TO RUN - now scrambling against the stampede - Diggs disentangles himself and levels his weapon - the stampede parting - throwing themselves to the ground as-- - B O O M - DIGGS FIRES - the scattershot hits Hofstetter a s he flees up some steps - peppering his leg - sparks off metal as Diggs keeps firing - his weapon now earned the name of a "rainmaker". H O F S T E T T E R R E A C H E S A CATWALK - his leg dragging, numbing from t h e tranquilizer cores - the catwalk dead-ends - blind panic now - He ducks under the rail, reaching for the dome - finding a precarious handhold, he swings across - trying to climb -- D I G G S COMES UP BENEATH - looking up, grinning - the pathetic sight of Hofstetter - one leg useless - clinging to the dome like a fly trapped under glass - as Burdon goes to recover him - DIGGS Don't bother. He'll drop by himself. B u r d o n pulls out some handcuffs and stands waiting. Diggs returns to the booth. Pouring out two tequila shots, he grins at Scheer - DIGGS N o w . . . where were we?104 EXT . THE DESERT - MORNING S u n l i g h t blinks off a chain of carriages, travelling the trench of a lodeway. The overnight shuttle slits through the desert.105 INT . PASSENGER CAR - MORNING The sun is a muted orb behind polarized glass. Lincoln stares out of the window at the bleak new world blurring past. He's wearing Ozzie's ballcap o v e r his crosshatch, his former clothes discarded for some of the old man's ill-fitting denims. Perhaps a disguise or perhaps just to shed the memory. He glances across at Ester, dressed likewise, her hair teased to cover her crosshatch. She's dozing, head rested on the glass. A TICKET COLLECTOR comes up- 73. TICKET COLLECTOR Tickets... Lincoln looks at the man in uniform, uncertain what he wants. The ticket collector shakes his head. These two look like deadbeats. T I C K E T COLLECTOR (CONT'D) A d u l t fare is forty five currency units. Do you have the money, sir? Lincoln assimilates. Money. The word is familiar. He pulls out the blue plastic card. The man in uniform looks encouraged. He gives him the card, watching him slot it into a handheld device, which briefly flashes, then the card is returned. Lincoln sees a strip at the top is now transparent, like a depleted reservoir. He assimilates. Not so different from the transactions in the world below. Then he notices Ester is awake and is looking at him. Her bright eyes, dim and troubled, somehow accusatory. LINCOLN I t ' s going to be okay, Ester. ESTER (faint) Is it? LINCOLN We just need to get out of state. Ester , disconsolate, looks out of the window. In her gaze, the forlorn air of a hatchling fallen from the nest. Lincoln watches her, knowing her troubles and knowing that he cannot relieve them.106 EXT . PHOENIX - DAY The skyline stands reprised in daylight. A glimmering citadel.107 EXT . SHUTTLE STOP - PHOENIX - DAY P a s s e n g e r s climb the steps from an underground gloom. Lincoln and Ester with them, jostled by the more certain flow. They cross the portal onto the street and stop, dazzled by the sunlight. Only to be dazzled again by the sudden, stunning prospect of the city... F i r s t there's the quality of light, a burning white, perhaps from depleted ozone, depicting everything in a surreal shimmer. Then there's the towers, darkly crystalline, facets of polarized glass rising to domes and spires, like monolothic f i n g e r s reaching for the sky. The traffic flashing past, the chassis identifiable as trucks, taxis, compacts, sedans, streamlined in a nautical trim, hull runners in place of wheels. The sound of claxons, more like fog horns than car horns. Then there's the street itself, a six- l a n e lodeway, lanes marked with buoys, bobbing around on cables. 74. The graceful arcs of pedestrian bridges at the intersections. The citizens, strange hairstyles, fashions, all wearing sunglasses. Even to us it's a wondrous sight. The urbanism, the grandeur, as if here in the heart of southwest, Manhattan has met Venice. V O I C E (O.S.) He y , man, spare a little green? A w e interrupted, Lincoln and Ester look around. Slouched by the street exit is A HOBO with a mangy dog. He grins toothlessly- T H E HOBO A i n ' t eaten in two days, have we, boy? Lincoln and Ester step back as the dog rises to greet them. Tail wagging, it noses forward, sniffing. Then, abruptly, drops its tail and backs off, whining. Lincoln and Ester likewise back off. Both sides have just discovered a new species. The hobo pets his whining canine, watching the strangers walk off with curiosity.108 EXT . STREET - DAY The sunlight flares off passing vehicles, hypnotic. The faces of pedestrians flash past. Lincoln and Ester wander in thrall up the street. Everywhere new sights, new curiosities bombard them... The storefronts, mysterious recesses behind polarized glass. The glass, alive with pixellated g r a p h i c s , marquees: "Temps! Temps! New Tech Opportunities!" - "Beauty Therapy! Manicures, Dermals, Follicle Grafts!" - "Discount Legal Service! Class Actions Only!" H o l o f r a m e b i l l b o a r d s loom over the street, huge shimmering panels like phantom jumbotrons, commercials playing on a loop: - - A businessman in a conference room, shrinking from a fierce negotiation; the scene replayed with the same businessman, now on his feet, stabbing his finger angrily in the air; a pill bottle in CU, a text super "Combatrine! The Aggression Enhancer" - - A teenager bemused by his homework: his parents escorting him into a clinic; the teenager hooded by an electronic dome; his parents clapping; the teenager smiling as he accepts a diploma; a text super "Intellex: Data Impression For A New Generation" Lincoln suddenly looks round, realizing Ester is gone from his side. He scans the sea of faces. Then spots her stepping through a doorway. Over the threshold is a holoform: a pig with wings, circled by the legend "Hog Heaven! Home Of The True Hamburger".109 INT . HOG HEAVEN - DAY F a s t food outlets have evidently changed little. Promotional posters in 3D: "Ham Slam", "Porker Forkers", "Bacon Blitz". 75. Service counter, seating area. Ester is looking around like Alice In Wonderland. Lincoln comes up, out of breath, edgy- LINCOLN I told you to stay with me. ESTER ( i n n o c e n t , plaintive) I'm hungry. LINCOLN O k a y . Okay... He nods, realizing he is too. He plants Ester in a seat and looks around. People stand in line transacting, receiving food trays. Not unlike nutrition plaza. Lincoln ventures to the counter. He offers the blue card hopefully. THE SERVICE CLERK looks at him- T H E SERVICE CLERK A r e you gonna tell me what you want? LINCOLN ( b e a t , no other reference) What are my options? T H E SERVICE CLERK K n o c k yourself out, buddy. He indicates a menu above. Lincoln assimilates, looking up at the menu. Understanding now, his face lifts to almost a smile. It's the first time he's been given an unrestricted choice.110 INT . SEATING AREA - A FEW MINUTES LATER Lincoln returns to Ester with a tray of food and drink. She's staring off again, distant. He puts a burger and drink cup in front of her. She seems not to notice. He tries to engage her- LINCOLN I asked the man how to get to the terminal. He said it's not far. But Ester just keeps staring, her brow now furrowing as A LITTLE GIRL skips past, maybe 11, sipping a soda. Now Lincoln sees her too and is transfixed. Now the little girl notices the strangers, staring at her. She hurries onward, uncomfortable. Lincoln and Ester's eyes follow. It's the first time they've seen a child.111 EXT . PHOENIX TERMINAL - DAY A low rumble. A plume of smoke. A sudden eruption of fire. A bird rises from the flames and a phoenix spreads its wings. Widening, we reveal this is a holoform o v e r the terminal entrance. 76. Union Station now looks more like Grand Central. A huge granite facade, a covered colonnade linking to pedestrian bridges at the corners. Here, in the flow of figures, we make out Lincoln and Ester, resembling tourists. Then, a short distance behind, we spot two more figures. The hobo and his timorous dog. Following.112 INT . CONCOURSE - TERMINAL - DAY V a u l t e d . Arched windows, mosaiced i n polarized glass. Sunlight falls in filtered shafts. Footfalls echo off polished granite. Lincoln and Ester scan around. Ester looks daunted by the space. Lincoln looks focused. He sees people in line, transacting.113 INT . TICKET WINDOW - DAY The sign on the window reads "Tickets". Lincoln assimilates. The word is familiar. He steps up to the counter with Ester. A TICKET CLERK - female, immaculately groomed - greets them with a glossy smile. Lincoln offers her the blue card. She seems not to notice. T H E TICKET CLERK We l c o m e to Phoenix Union Station. What is your date of travel, sir? Lincoln has to think. Dates mean nothing to him. He ventures- LINCOLN Now... T H E TICKET CLERK An d what is your destination? LINCOLN O u t of state. T H E TICKET CLERK I'm sorry. Could you repeat that? LINCOLN We want to go out of state. T H E TICKET CLERK I'm sorry. Could you repeat that? V O I C E (O.S.) L i k e talking to a wall, ain't it? Lincoln and Ester turn to look. The interceder is pale, bald, wearing leathers. A stranger to them, we recognize him as DIGGS- DIGGS H o l o s e r v e . C h e a p e r than flesh and blood but nothing between the ears. 77. Diggs demonstrates, wafting his hand across the ticket counter. It cuts through the ticket clerk with a holographic ripple. DIGGS F i r s t time I used one of these, I asked her out on a date... He grins genially, examining their faces, verifying his quarry. Lincoln examines the pale man. The sense of danger is welling- LINCOLN What do you want? DIGGS J u s t wanted to help, that's all. D i g g s shrugs, disarming, trying to win them over, nice and easy per the mandate. Then he notices the eyes of his male quarry. The pupils, black and dilating. Suddenly the male jerks away, like a shying horse, drawing the female with him. Diggs, unperturbed, makes no attempt to follow. Turning his back on them, he touches a device concealed in his ear canal, a miniature two-way radio- D I G G S (INTO RADIO) B u r d i e , it's them. East exit.114 EXT . TERMINAL - DAY Lincoln and Ester emerge into the colonnade, rejoining the flow of figures. Lincoln presses the pace, alert, darting looks back. The pale man doesn't appear to be following. But the sense of danger is spurring him to gain distance. Ester, vicarious to the danger, stays close to Lincoln's side, scurrying to keep up. Neither of them notices the grey vehicle sliding up on them, kerbside. A commercial transit van known as a "cutter", it's a common sight on the streets. The driver leans out of the window - hair tied back, dressed in buckskins, we recognize BURDON- BURDON You folks need a ride? Lincoln and Ester turn to look. The dark giant is just another stranger, cast in a demeanor of casual inquiry. He's offering an opportunity to gain distance but Lincoln remains hesitant. The sense of danger, turbulent, hard to read. Burdon sugars the way- BURDON P r i v a t e cab. No state surcharge... He taps a button and the side-door slips open. Lincoln looks into the lightless c a v i t y , wavering, uncertain. Ester, hugging close, nervous. Figures passing, jostling them toward the cavity. The dark giant, looking on expectantly. The pause stretching, then- 78. VOICE (O.S.) He y ! What the fuck are you doing, man?B a c k down the colonnade, THE HOBO is gesticulating to Burdon- T H E HOBO I told you! They went inside!The hobo doesn't see Lincoln and Ester, unwitting that he's justbetrayed himself as their shadow... and Burdon as their predator.His dog starts barking. Lincoln starts backing away with Ester,his eyes blackening, the danger surging, the dog barking, thegiant's face dropping, the elements converging... They bolt. BURDON Shit!B U R D O N JAMS INTO REVERSE - but his pursuit is cut short by aparked vehicle - he swings a look back, jabbing his earpiece- B U R D O N (INTO RADIO) N o r t h Corner! North Corner!LINCOLN AND ESTER RACE UP THE COLONNADE - against the flow offigures - darting and weaving like fish swimming upstream --D I G G S BURSTS FROM THE NORTH EXIT - launching up the north sideof the terminal - thinner foot traffic here, faster going --LINCOLN AND ESTER SLOWING - the flow massing under the portico -they peel through - the holoform p h o e n i x rumbling overhead --D I G G S TURNING THE NORTH CORNER - pausing to touch his earpiece -now launching south down the colonnade - towards the portico -jerking a pair of handcuffs from his belt, ready for the snatch--LINCOLN AND ESTER GAINING PACE - past the portico now, the wayopening - Lincoln's eyes flaring - a face in the distance ahead -the pale man - he swings Ester around - doubling back to find --B U R D O N COMING UP BEHIND - the flow of figures, no obstacle -parting at his thunderous onset - his quarry, stopped andstaring at him - almost upon them - handcuffs at the ready--LINCOLN FREEZES - caught between the dark giant and the pale man -Ester cringing to his side - the dark giant charging up on them -sunlight on metal - the sight of the handcuffs - TRIGGERING HIM--LINCOLN GRABS ESTER - swinging her off the sidewalk - loweringher into the lodeway - leaping down to join her - lode polespulsing, thrumming - rivets on their denims, rattling from thepolarity - traffic soaring past on lode-stream, chest-high - 79. DARTING OUT INTO TRAFFIC - Lincoln leads Ester by the hand like a child - across the lanes, dodging, weaving through the gaps - claxons b l a r i n g , deafening - sunflashes, blinding - a sudden shadow - a huge freight truck bearing down, no gaps ahead -- LINCOLN DRAGS ESTER TO THE GROUND - both flattening against the concrete lode-bed - the shadow engulfing them - the truck's hull runners shearing narrowly over their heads - the rush of air, sweeping off Lincoln's ballcap - rousing a storm of dust-- LINCOLN AND ESTER CHOKING - crawling onward through the dust - hull runners scudding overhead - maybe only a foot of clearance - buoy cables whipping around like cheesewire - onwards, crawling across the concrete - fighting their way across the lode-stream-- B U R D O N WATCHING from the sidewalk where Lincoln and Ester first dropped, scouring the trench for a sight of them. Now he spots them, climbing up onto the sidewalk the far side of the street. D i g g s now arrives at his side, sweating, out of breath. Now seeing their quarry take off up the far side of the street, he turns to his lumberous p a r t n e t , fury mixed with incredulity- DIGGS Why the fuck d i d n ' t you go after them?! B u r d o n just looks at him, displaying the metal brace on his fore- a r m . Diggs, out of sheer frustration, gives him a pounding shove- DIGGS Fuck!115 EXT . ALLEY - DAY The refuge of shadow. The alley is divided by a lodeway and the walls on each side are jutted with dumpsters. Lincoln and Ester run up the narrowed strip of sidewalk, forced into single file. A huge shape looms ahead. A garbage vehicle known as a "scow". Like a leviathan spreading its tentacles, the scow's tube-arrays dock with the dumpsters and start sucking the contents out. Lincoln glances back to find Ester has stopped and is cringing away from the tentacled monster. He returns to her, his eyes flicking around, aware that their real predators are close- LINCOLN We have to keep going. He takes Ester's hand, drawing her onward. But Ester recoils, shaking off his grip. Now he looks at her more closely. She's panting, shuddering, fraught with trauma. Her voice is haunted- 80. ESTER P l e a s e . . . Please, I want to go back... She shrinks into the shadows, shaking her head. The hatchling wanting to return to the nest. Lincoln meets her eye, deeply- LINCOLN T h o s e men - that's what they want too. Ester holds his gaze, chest heaving. Then looks back towards the alley mouth. Her fingers reach for her belly, clawing a little. Then her eyes lower, assimilating, reason reasserting its heavy grip. Lincoln senses her turmoil. His voice is soft but sturdy- LINCOLN We have to keep going, Ester. Ester looks up at him again. The forlorn air seems to have faded. Her eyes, grimly set. Her face, a little haggard. Older somehow. She takes Lincoln's hand and together they head off up the alley.116 EXT . ALLEY - MOMENTS LATER The alley mouth darkens as a vehicle turns off the street. The grey cutter moves through the shadows, prowling and shark-like.117 INT . CUTTER - DRIVING The drone of resistors. The throbbing glow of the drive console, a panoply of instrumentation. Burdon steers in silence, Diggs beside him, edgy, intent, combing the shadows for their quarry. DIGGS S u n n a v a b i t c h ! What the fuck d o we do now, huh? They could be anywhere... BURDON We go back to the office and run `em. DIGGS A s what? John and Jane Doe? BURDON We ask the guy. DIGGS Y e a h , let's tell him we couldn't hack it in kindergarten. See how long him and his ten platinum stick around. He fires a barbed look. Burdon absorbs this, unflinched, thinking- 81. BURDON I t was blue, right? DIGGS What? BURDON The y were using a blue currency card.118 EXT . STREET - DAY Lincoln and Ester walk up the street. Wary of attention, they go with the flow of figures, eyes peeled for predators. The sights of the city now seem hostile. Faces flash past, dead-eyed in sun- g l a s s e s . Traffic rushes like steel rapids. Storefronts construct a black wall. Holoframe b i l l b o a r d s loom, mocking, half-noticed: - - A woman in a bathroom, adjusting her sexy neglige; a crack in the door shows a man in bed, waiting; the woman closes the door and picks up what looks like a toothpaste tube; she arches her eyebrow; "F.I.G. F e m i n i n e Impulse Gel... Because who needs him?" - - A cemetery under a grim overcast sky; suddenly a frisbee flies across frame; an old woman, dressed like a teenager, catches it; she tosses it to an old man dressed likewise; a text super "Death Sucks!", a sting, "New Gaza Healthcare: Your Life Is Our Life." Lincoln and Ester stop at the corner. They look around, blindly, no coordinates, no frame of reference. Urban canyons, identical, gordian a n d chasmic. P a s s i n g figures jostle. Then Lincoln spots something across the street. It looks like an over-sized phone booth. Its beacon flashes; "C.I.N. - CITY INFORMATION NETWORK."119 INT . CIN BOOTH - DAY A flourish of music greets Lincoln and Ester as they enter. The fanfare conjures a holoform i n mid-air. A cartoon rattlesnake, benignly rendered, welcomes them with a clownish, fanged smile: THE SNAKE H i there! I'm Tattletail! What e v e r you want to know, wherever you want to go, I got the answers! Let's look at the menu! A set of text frames appear: "Residential Listings", "Business Listings", "Transport Listings", "Hotel Listings". Lincoln assimilates. The terminologies are not unfamiliar. THE SNAKE (CONT'D) N o w let's make a selection! 82. LINCOLN ( b e a t , venturing) Transport... THE SNAKE O k a y ! Let me open that directory for you! I'll be with you in two shakes! The snake rattles accordingly and coils in a holding pattern. Then a tomographic map of the city appears. A red dot plants itself under a text flag "You Are Here!". Then other red dots scatter across the map, each flagging with transportation icons.120 INT. CUTTER - STREETS - DRIVING - DAY B u r d o n steers calmly, scanning the streets. Diggs impatiently bashes the keys of a holocom on the drive console. A holoframe hovers, snowed with static. Then a secretary's face appears - sagging, older, primped and painted young. Her name is JANEEN- J A N E E N (ON HOLOCOM) D i g g s & Burdon Bond Agency. DIGGS J a n e e n , where the fuck have you been? J A N E E N (ON HOLOCOM) B e a u t y therapy. I got a date tonight. DIGGS O h , Jesus... Listen, I want you to punch into the currency stream for me. Sweep for blue card transactions. J A N E E N (ON HOLOCOM) You're kidding me, right? You have any idea how long that's going to take? DIGGS I want serial numbers, batched a n d cross-referenced. Start from Union Station and work your way out... B e f o r e he can object he taps a key. The holoframe blinks out.121 EXT . BUS STATION - LATE AFTERNOON A surging sound. A surface of water. A burst of spray. A dolphin leaps from the waves and hangs suspended. Text scrolls around: "Get Out Of State & Out Of Mind - Ride the Grey Dolphin Line!" This is the next incarnation of the greyhound. The blue facade, crested into waves. We make out Lincoln and Ester, now looking more like transients than tourists, dirty, worn and exhausted. 83.122 INT. CONCOURSE - BUS STATION Low roof. Flat lighting. The faces here seem less threatening, the young and the low-income. Lincoln and Ester look around. Not unlike the train terminal. People standing in line, transacting.123 INT . TICKET WINDOW Lincoln and Ester step up to the ticket window. A TICKET CLERK - male, immaculately groomed - greets them with a polished smile. T I C K E T CLERK We l c o m e to Grey Dolphin Bus Lines. What is your destination, please? Lincoln squints at him. Then wafts his hand across the counter. The ticket clerk flinches at the impact. Then composes himself. A trace of camp as he smiles bashfully at the rugged customer- T I C K E T CLERK I t ' s okay. Really. I get that a lot. I'm sorry, now where were we again? LINCOLN I want to get out of state. Now. T I C K E T CLERK B e l i e v e me, I know how you feel. So where did you want to go exactly? LINCOLN O u t of state... T I C K E T CLERK J u s t wherever the wind takes you, huh? LINCOLN Where's that? T I C K E T CLERK We l l , if it was me, out to the west coast. It's perfect this time of year. Lincoln nods, liking the sound of this. The ticket clerk smiles, enjoying the acceptance of his suggestion, he ventures hopefully- T I C K E T CLERK T r a v e l l i n g alone, are we? LINCOLN N o . With her. He gestures, then realizes Ester is gone from his side again. 84. He scans the faces. The clerk, disappointed, taps some keys. T I C K E T COLLECTOR T w o adults, let me see... I'm afraid I can't get you seats till the morning.124 INT . FOOD SERVICE AREA - BUS STATION A grill bar. A rank of vending machines. Ester moves through the seating area as if drawn. Now over the ambient noise, we isolate the cry of a baby. Ester is following the sound to its source. She finds a Mexican woman shushing her infant. The woman looks up and smiles. Ester just stands there, awe-struck. Lincoln now comes up to reclaim her. He's about to ask why she wandered off when she turns to him. He sees her eyes are brimming with tears. Tears of joy and sorrow. It's the first time she's seen a baby.125 EXT . STREET - DUSK The winged pig flutters over the doors of "Hog Heaven". The milling customers are suddenly parted by Diggs, bursting out through the doors. He leaps into the grey cutter, parked kerbside. I t peels out with a flash of its halogen eyes.126 INT . CUTTER - DRIVING - DUSK B u r d o n steers, glancing inquisitively at his partner. Diggs taps the holocom, urgently, galvanized. The holoframe resolves snowed with static. Janeen's face appears. Less primped, disgruntled- J A N E E N (ON HOLOCOM) D i g g s & Burdon Bond Agency. DIGGS We got a positive on the serial number. Punch in and pull up the transactions. Start with the last hour and work back. JANEEN G r e a t . So I got to park my ass in front of a screen all night? DIGGS I t ' s a platinum bond, Janeen. We get this, I'll buy you a new ass, okay? He grins at Burdon. The thrill of the chase glows in his eyes.127 INT . WAITING AREA - BUS STATION - NIGHT A blue glass partition wall looks out onto the depot. More like a marina with an embarcadero a n d a row of docks. "Liners" slot in and out, their nautical trim making them seem like ferries. 85. Lincoln and Ester sit waiting. Lincoln, rigid, watchful. Ester, gazing across at the Mexican woman, who as the infant cradled asleep. Ester glances wistfully at Lincoln. Then she frowns- ESTER Lincoln , what is that? On your face? Lincoln turns, touching his face. He feels stubble there. For the first time. His body is naturalizing but it feels unnatural to him. Ester reaches out and runs her fingers across his cheek. Lincoln stiffens a little, unused to this type of contact. But her touch is gentle and the contact is warming. Their eyes slowly meet, flickering, something passing between them. Then Ester's face contorts slightly. She emits a shallow cough. LINCOLN A r e you alright? Ester clears her throat. But another cough follows. ESTER M y throat... it feels dry... LINCOLN O k a y . . . I'll get you some water.128 INT . FOOD SERVICE AREA - NIGHT E m p t y . The grill bar is closed. Only the vending machines are active. Lincoln considers them. Not unlike those he used to know. He finds one that offers water bottles. The sign reads "Arctic Melt". He pulls out his blue card and looks for the slot. Then pauses, picking up his reflection in the glass. He examines the shadowy growth on his face. Then he notices his eyes. They seem to be darkening. The pupils, welling open. Then he feels it. The sense of danger, surging up like a geyser.129 INT . DEPARTURE AREA Ester sits waiting, anxious now, coughing persistently. Hearing footfalls, she looks round. But the face that greets her is not Lincoln. It's the pale man, the one who chased them. Before she can react, he forcefully pulls her upright, tapping his earpiece- D I G G S (ON RADIO) P i e c e of cake, Burdie. J a n e Doe's in the bag. Keep an eye out for John-Boy. Ester looks around in panic. Faces turn but none of them are Lincoln's. Diggs confronts the spectators, flashing a badge - DIGGS Bond recovery... state license. 86. He marches his female quarry towards the exit. Now she starts to struggle and he jerks her back, slapping a cuff onto her wrist- DIGGS Play nice, little girl. Now you want to tell me where your boyfriend is? LINCOLN (O.S.) Behind you. DIGGS What? - T H U D - LINCOLN HAMMERS HIS FIST into the pale man as he turns - dropping him, flat-on-his-ass - pulling Ester away from him - D I G G S JERKS OUT THE RAINMAKER - quick to his feet - more insulted than hurt - targeting his quarry - who suddenly duck down as-- - B O O M - DIGGS FIRES - A WOMAN SCREAMS - the Mexican woman - her face, peppered with tranquilizer core - her baby starts crying-- Ester FROZEN - horrified by the screaming woman - the bloody, slack grimace - the baby bawling - Lincoln dragging her down- - B O O M - THE BLAST OF THE THUNDERBOLT - Burdon positioned behind them - narrowly missing his target - hitting the partition wall - - C R A S H - THE PARTITION WALL EXPLODES in a blinding electrical discharge - shattering into a sudden TEMPEST OF GLASS SHARDS - LINCOLN AND ESTER SPIN ROUND to see the pale man retargeting - the dark giant reloading - exit blocked, they lunge towards -- T H E PARTITION WALL - kicking through the hole in the glass - Ester's last glimpse of the screaming woman - the howling baby -130 EXT . BUS DEPOT - NIGHT LINCOLN AND ESTER LEAP OUT onto the embarcadero - running - faces blur past - liners flash by with glaring halogens-- D I G G S LEAPS OUT AFTER THEM - rainmaker poised - the embarcadero g l u t t e d with passengers - he can't get a bead on his quarry-- LINCOLN AND ESTER VAULTING over the scattered luggage - the crowd thinning - the canopy opening onto the street beyond-- D I G G S RIGHT ON THEIR TAIL - people screaming, parting as they see his weapon - the firing line clearing - he levels aim and-- M E T R O PD OFFICER (O.S.) M e t r o PD! Drop it! 87. DIGGS I'm a bond agent! M E T R O PD OFFICER I said drop the fucking w e a p o n ! D i g g s sees his quarry now escaping. With a scowl, he complies. He laces his fingers, tapping his earpiece in the process- D I G G S (INTO RADIO) N o r t h b o u n d on Third. Get `em, Burdie - and take off the fucking g l o v e s . . . C U T TO:131 EXT . STREET - NIGHT T H E GREY CUTTER VEERS ROUND A CORNER - Burdon at the wheel - his quarry visible ahead - he jams the throttle - revs rising - LINCOLN AND ESTER SPRINT UP THE SIDEWALK - disorientation - the sudden diaspora o f lights and darkness - the sharp acoustics - T R A F F I C SWERVING - CLAXONS B L A R I N G - the cutter hurtling up the street, relentlessly - its halogen eyes, burning, growing - LINCOLN AND ESTER RACING FOR THE END OF THE BLOCK - towards a pedestrian bridge - trying to outpace the cutter - T H E GREY CUTTER CLOSING - Burdon punching a button - the side window slides open - he levels his thunderbolt, angling a shot- LINCOLN AND ESTER VEER LEFT - up onto the pedestrian bridge - rising above the traffic - claxons b l a r i n g beneath as -- T H E GREY CUTTER PLOUGHS INTO THE INTERSECTION - banking into a u- t u r n - vehicles braking to avoid collision - LIGHTS, CLAXONS - LINCOLN AND ESTER - turmoil raging behind them - a glimpse of the cutter regaining pursuit - Lincoln sees an opening ahead--132 EXT . ALLEY - NIGHT LINCOLN PULLS ESTER INTO THE SHADOWS - the sidewalk narrowing - they run onward, glancing off dumpsters - DULL BOOMS OF METAL - A FLOOD OF HALOGENS - the cutter banking sharply into the alley - pouring on the speed - the quarry trapped in its headlights-- LINCOLN AND ESTER - nowhere to run - THE LIGHTS GROWING - THE RISING DRONE OF RESISTORS - Lincoln sees another opening -- 88.133 EXT. PEDESTRIAN ALLEY - NIGHT LINCOLN PULLS ESTER INTO THE DARKNESS - a narrow access, barely lit, hard to see - a sudden dead-end - they SLAM INTO A BARRIER-- A CHAINLINK F E N C E - the links shuddering - Lincoln looks up and sees it's scalable - claws into the links - STARTS CLIMBING- Ester TRYING TO CLIMB - rattled by coughing - fighting to breathe - her limbs shaking - her muscles failing - then-- - B O O M - A BLINDING ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE - SUDDENLY THE FENCE IS ALIVE WITH ELECTRICITY - BURNING FINGERS JITTER ACROSS THE LINKS- LINCOLN AT THE TOP OF THE FENCE - jolted by the sudden shock - muscles in reflex - falling - landing the far side of the fence-- Ester STILL CLIMBING - the jolt instantly toppling her back - landing the near side of the fence - more rattled than hurt -- B U R D O N RUNNING TOWARDS THEM - thunderbolt smoking from the shot- LINCOLN ON THE FAR SIDE OF THE FENCE - recovering from the fall-- Ester ON THE NEAR SIDE OF THE FENCE - cowering, coughing - B U R D O N JERKS HER UP BY THE HAIR - like a rapacious viking - he looks through the fence at Lincoln - sniffing her, almost bestial- BURDON G o ahead. I'll look after her. LINCOLN ' S EYES FLICKERING DARKLY - jaw clenching - the sense of danger urging him to run - but Ester is in the giant's grips - Ester CLAWING TO BREAK FREE - coughing, rasping - her fingers snag on the giant's arm-brace - TUGGING WITH ALL HER STRENGTH-- B U R D O N YOWLING AT THE SUDDEN PAIN - lashing out - flinging Ester into the fence - dropping the thunderbolt - CLUTCHING HIS ARM-- LINCOLN LEAPING ONTO THE FENCE - scrambling up the link - the dark giant momentarily off-guard - HE VAULTS OVER THE TOP -- - T H U D - BURDON SPINS ROUND - takes the full brunt of Lincoln's impact - overbalancing - THEY CRASH TO THE GROUND - LINCOLN STRUGGLES UPRIGHT - winded, but forced to face the dark giant - who is already on his feet, his mighty fist SWINGING OUT- - T H U D - LINCOLN TAKES A PUNCH TO THE JAW - recoils, reciprocates throwing a left hook - hitting hard but the giant barely flinches- 89. -THUD-THUD- BURDON POUNDS INTO HIM - a storm of punches - his quarry, ducking and blocking - now backed up against the fence-- Ester RETRIEVING THE THUNDERBOLT - trying to work the mechanism - coughing - hands shaking - accidentally touching the trigger - - B O O M - THE SHOT BLASTS INTO THE AIR - enough of a distraction for Lincoln - he lands the giant with A BONE-JARRING LEFT HOOK- B U R D O N KEELS OVER INTO THE WALL - cracking the back of his head - his knees buckling - sliding down - just catching sight of-- LINCOLN AND ESTER SCRAMBLING UP OVER THE FENCE - and then the quarry is lost from sight in A DOWNPOUR OF ELECTRICAL SPARKS.134 EXT . BACKSTREET - NIGHT S I R E N S WAILING IN THE DISTANCE. Lincoln and Ester race down the sidewalk, along a construction hoarding. Ester slows, doubling over, rasping. Lincoln looks at her, her l i p s , blue, her face, pale. The sirens, getting louder. He sees a gap in the hoarding-135 EXT . ENCANTO PARK - NIGHT Lincoln and Ester emerge through the gap onto a derelict tract. A once public park, now a construction site. Mounds and craters of earth. Dim shapes of huge vehicles, like sleeping dragons. Patches of parkland, as yet untouched. Bowed palms, dead grass, a stagnant lagoon, a dull mirror for the ascendant moon. On its shoreline is a dilapidated construct that was once a boathouse.136 INT . BOATHOUSE - ENCANTO PARK - NIGHT The refuge of shadow. The collapsed roof allowing streams and puddles of moonlight. Lincoln helps Ester onto a rotted bench. She slumps down, exhausted, Lincoln watches her, helplessly. She's fighting for breath, wheezing and coughing in deep rasps. ESTER I can't... I can't breathe... my throat... it's so... dry... LINCOLN I ' l l find you some water. He looks around blindly. Some junk in the corner. He rummages, finds a rusted metal box. Pries it open, empties the contents. Gauzes, band-aids - evidently a first-aid box - then a bottle. He opens it, sniffs. It smells pungent. Alcohol, not water. Ester suddenly starts sobbing. Lincoln returns to her side- LINCOLN I t ' s going to be okay, Ester. 90. ESTER N o . . . no, it isn't... LINCOLN I ' l l find you some water, okay?Ester looks up at him, wheezing, tears streaming from her eyes- ESTER An d then what, Lincoln? LINCOLN I ' l l find another way. Out of state. ESTER An d then what? What if they find us? LINCOLN The n we'll keep going. ESTER I can't... I can't run anymore...Ester folds over, sobbing and coughing at the same time. Pitifulto watch. Lincoln crouches, gaining her eyeline, very deliberate- LINCOLN We ' l l keep going till we get there.Ester traps a sob, reading his eyes, something reviving in her- ESTER The Island... You mean, The Island?Lincoln answers with a brief smile. If this will keep her goingthen the truth is redundant. He eases her out of the moment- LINCOLN N o w I'm going to get some water. But I want you to stay here. It'll be safer.Ester wipes away her tears, sniffing. Her breaths, calming. ESTER Don't go yet. Stay with me, Lincoln. Stay with me for a little while.Lincoln looks puzzled by Ester's request. Even more puzzled asshe rests her head on his shoulder, nestling into his neck. Hefeels her against him. The warmth spreading through him again.His arm reaching, as if of its own accord, closing around her.I t feels right somehow. And there he stays, holding her, lookingout across the dereliction. And the moon rises over Encanto P a r k . 91.137 EXT. METRO PD STATION - NIGHT The holoform l o g o of The Metro PD glows over the threshold. Diggs exits with a dark glower. The cutter is waiting kerbside.138 INT . CUTTER - DRIVING - NIGHT Diggs climbs in an Burdon steers out into traffic. The thrill o f the chase is gone from them now. Both seem equally grim and determined. Diggs taps the holocom. A holoframe resolves, snows with static. Then Janeen's face appears, dishevelled, bitter- JANEEN (ON HOLOCOM) What the fuck do you want now? DIGGS (very calm, very cold) Punch into the currency stream, close the net on downtown and keep the search active. The next time they use the card, I want to be right on top of them... O f f his icy tone, Janeen nods without retort. Diggs hits a key and her face blinks out. And the cutter prowls into the night.139 EXT . DOWNTOWN STREET - NIGHT The winged pig flutters over the doors of "Hog Heaven". Another franchise on a more downtrodden street. Lincoln emerges with a bag of food and drink. He considers the blue card. The reservoir, now close to the bottom, his resources almost exhausted. With a look of foreboding, he pockets the card and turns the corner. An d suddenly stops in his tracks. But it's not a vehicle that he sees. Or a predator. His eyes are fixed on a holoframe billboard: - - A football player in montage; pummeling into a defensive line; running for a touchdown; gyrating in the endzone; spinning in an NFL podium shot, super; "Nobody Stops The Juggernaut!"; a team logo, super; "Come See The Phoenix Admirals! Rulers of the AFC!" Lincoln recognizes the player's face but it's not possible. He waits for the loop to restart. There it is again. The face of Starkweather Two-Delta. Incredulous, he stops a pedestrian- LINCOLN The man, the man up there. Who is he? PEDESTRIAN What planet `you been living on? That's the Juggernaut, brother. LINCOLN The juggernaut... 92. PEDESTRIAN Jamil "The Juggernaut" Starkweather - highest rushing total in the league. `Least till that injury blew out his gut. Now the doctors are saying he'll be back on his feet next season. Those fuckers sure can work miracles, huh? Lincoln doesn't respond. The pedestrian shrugs and heads on, writing him off. Lincoln lingers, staring up at the billboard.140 INT . CIN BOOTH - NIGHT The flourish of music greets Lincoln as he enters. The cartoon rattlesnake appears and smiles his clownish, fanged smile: THE SNAKE Hi there! I'm Tattletail! What e v e r you want to know, wherever you want to go, I got the answers! Let's look at the menu! The set of text frames appears: "Residential Listings", "Business Listings", "Transport Listings", "Hotel Listings". THE SNAKE N o w let's make a selection! A heavy pause. Lincoln's voice comes with a slight tremor. LINCOLN Residential... THE SNAKE Please give me the name. LINCOLN Starkweather... THE SNAKE Okay! Let me find that listing for you! I'll be with you in two shakes! The snake rattles and coils. Then a headshot a p p e a r s with the face of Jamil Starkweather , scaled across with a red line. THE SNAKE Starkweather , Jamil... I'm sorry! This listing is blocked from the directory! Lincoln stands, darkly intent on the face. Now irrefutably the same face he saw in his life below. The snake shakes its rattle- 93. THE SNAKE You want me to find another listing? Lincoln looks at the snake, flicking its tongue, coiling. F A D E TO BLACK.141 EXT . DOWNTOWN STREET - MORNING A downtrodden neighborhood. The buildings look like remnants from our own era. A scruffy man slouches up to a gated storefront. He slots a key into a lock panel and the gate rolls up, squealing. We widen to a vehicle parked kerbside. A familiar grey cutter.142 INT . STORE - MORNING L i g h t s flicker on to disclose a gunshop. The array of firearms a s fathomless as their purpose. The scruffy gunshop o w n e r slouches inside. Diggs and Burdon enter on his heels. He yawns at them- G U N S H O P OWNER We ain't open for another hour. DIGGS Y e a h , well we ain't in the market. G U N S H O P OWNER E v e r y o n e ' s in the market, pal. One end of the barrel or the other... DIGGS We ' r e chasing up a currency record from last night. These two ring a bell? D i g g s displays two digital slides. The owner pauses, suspicious. G U N S H O P OWNER What are you? Cops? Lawyers? D i g g s answers by jerking out the rainmaker. The twin barrels aimed at his head, the gunshop o w n e r loses his cool a little- G U N S H O P OWNER H i m , I remember... Came in just before closing... wanted a shooter but didn't have no ID... settled for one of these. He displays a HUNTING KNIFE, unsheathing it, showing the blade. DIGGS Did he give you a name? G U N S H O P OWNER No. 94. DIGGS Did he say where he was going? G U N S H O P OWNER No. D i g g s cocks the hammer. The owner flinches. Then, off the knife- G U N S H O P OWNER The r e was one thing. Kinda w e i r d . He wanted to know how to use it...143 EXT . APARTMENT BUILDING - MORNING An apartment building towers overhead, vaguely ominous. Lincoln approaches the entrance with Ester. We now see he has a band-aid covering his crosshatch. He takes Ester briefly aside, teasing some tresses over hers. As she gently smooths down her hair, Ester catches his eye. A look flickers between them. Then- D O O R M A N (O.S.) Fancy dress, was it, sir? A DOORMAN is looking at them like they just rolled out of a club he wouldn't be seen dead in. Off their flustered looks, he gives an apologetic smile. Then opens the door and holds it for them. Lincoln reaches for Ester's hand. Then stiffly leads her inside.144 INT . CORRIDOR - AN UPPER FLOOR - DAY The doors are set with small glowing orbs at peephole level. Like eyeballs, watching, as Lincoln and Ester proceed up the corridor. They stop at a door. Lincoln checks the number. Pauses heavily. Then looks for some type of doorbell. As his eyes cross the orb, it seems to blink. Then comes a sound of disengaging locks. Then the door swings open. Lincoln flinches, taken by surprise. Then frowns as he sees there is no one on the other side of the door.145 INT . APARTMENT - DAY Lincoln enters, wary, scanning around. A living room. Framed pictures. A sofa, chairs. A coffee table, empty bottles, cigarette packs, a full ashtray. A bureau, some paperwork. Silence, stillness. No sign of life, no sense of danger. Lincoln moves across to the bureau and starts leafing through the papers. Ester ventures in through the door, curious- ESTER What are you looking for? LINCOLN I don't know. Something. Just wait there and make sure nobody's coming. 95.As he leafs the papers, Ester waits dutifully by the door. Hereyes wander across the framed pictures. Then narrow onto a 3Dp h o t o g r a p h . A college boxing team photo, grinning cup winners. ESTER L o o k at this...Lincoln returns to her. Ester points to the photo. A face in therow, blurred but eerily familiar. Lincoln seems not to react.Ester, curiosity piqued, scans the other pictures. She alightson a framed certificate - "Thomas R. Lincoln, Attorney-at-Law". A MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) What the hell are you doing?Lincoln turns to confront A MAN in a robe. Disheveled from sleep,grey from a hangover... the man's face is unmistakably his own.This is TOM LINCOLN, sponsor of Lincoln Six-Echo, his blearyeyes now widening in disbelief as he recognizes his agnate- TOM Oh, Jesus...Lincoln is better prepared for this encounter but still stunnedby the sight of his double in the flesh. Sponsor and agnate standfrozen. The only movement is Ester, her eyes flicking betweenthe same men, fraught, confused. Lincoln breaks the silence- LINCOLN Who are you?Lincoln steps closer, eyes piercing. Tom takes a step back. TOM The y said... I'd never have to see you. LINCOLN Who?Lincoln takes another step closer. Tom takes another step back. TOM The people... LINCOLN What people?Lincoln takes another step closer. Tom stiffens, gathers himself- TOM Look, if you don't get out of here right now, I'm calling security... 96.Lincoln examines him, assimilating. His double seems to be asbelligerent as he is. Reasoning now, threat response kicking in.Lincoln draws the hunting knife. Unused to it, he points it likea gun. But it's enough of a threat for Tom, who swallows dryly- TOM Why are you here? What do you want? LINCOLN I want to know...Tom grimaces at the ambiguity. That face. His f a c e . If not forthe pounding headache this would be a bad dream. He lowers ontothe sofa. Finds a cigarette and lights up. A drag, mind kickingin. The knife cautioning him. With a slow exhale, he confesses- TOM One of the partners at my firm... he told me about it. Gave me a referral. I thought he was joking at first. I went out there, took the sales tour. Even before that I knew it wasn't a joke. There was this discretion agree- ment. I never saw anything like it and I've seen a lot. Ironclad... breathe a word and they've got you by the balls. I don't know... There's cancer in my family. Maybe it was just to keep up. All the partners were on the policy. LINCOLN The policy?He looks at his agnate. Then realizes the level of ignorance. TOM Christ, you have no idea, do you? LINCOLN About what?Tom drags his cigarette, fingers trembling. He shakes his head- TOM I can't fucking do this... LINCOLN What are you talking about?Lincoln moves closer, pointing the knife. Tom flinches, then- TOM Insurance. You're an insurance policy. 97. LINCOLN What is that? TOM Health insurance... medical... LINCOLN What does that mean? TOM If I get sick... if part of me gets sick... I take a healthy part from you. LINCOLN Why? TOM How do you expect me to answer that? It's just how it works, that's all.Tom looks at his agnate. The insistent stare. The knife, pointingat him like a finger. His fear yields to a flicker of anger- TOM What do you want? A fucking apology? LINCOLN Why do I look like you? TOM Because you are me . . . LINCOLN I don't understand. TOM Because they made you from my cells... LINCOLN Made me? TOM ( a flare of anger) That's right. You were made. Cooked up in a centrifuge like a fucking boiled egg. Every thought running through your head, every word coming out of your mouth, all of it, manufactured, made...Lincoln frowns, trying to assimilate. Too much to process. LINCOLN You . . . you're the one who made me? 98. TOM No. LINCOLN Who made me? TOM I signed a contract. I can show you.He gestures to a mirror on the wall. Lincoln steps back but hiseyes are unremitting. Tom rises, cautious, crossing to the wall.He opens the mirror to reveal a wall safe. His trembling fingerstap the keypad and the safe hisses open. He draws out a contractfolder embossed with a crosshatch. Then offers it to his agnate- TOM It's all right there. Who, why...Lincoln takes the contract folder and starts flipping the pages,reading. A pendulous silence falls. Tom stands watching, smokingnervously. Ester stands by the door, trying to take all this in. TOM Look you've got what you wanted. Now why don't you just get out of here? LINCOLN (pause, looks at him) There are men out there, looking for us. I want you to make them stop. TOM I can't...Lincoln sets down the contract and brings up the knife again. TOM I can't. Look, I'm a lawyer, I know how it works. The contract, everything, it's all laced with confidentiality clauses. It means they don't want this to get out. It means whatever I do, they're not going to stop. You understand?Lincoln pauses, assimilating. His double's expression indicatesthat he's telling the truth. Maybe try a more practical request- LINCOLN Do you have transport? TOM Transport , yes... yes, parked downstairs... Bay 53... Take it... 99. LINCOLN And then you'll call security? Lincoln steps closer, pointing the knife. Tom tries to stay dead- pan. The lawyer kicking in. Look them in the eye when you lie- TOM I'm not going to call security. I'm not going to call anybody, okay? Lincoln looks at his double, reason now yielding to anger. Deep, roiling. Tom looks at his agnate, fear welling, deadpan cracking- TOM Look, maybe there's something... maybe there's a way to cancel the contract... Lincoln presses the tip of the blade to his double's cheek. TOM For Christ's sake! It's not my fault! Lincoln inches the blade deeper into the trembling face, drawing blood. The anger urging, hungry for more blood. Then suddenly- ESTER Lincoln ! No! Lincoln looks at her, the anger interrupted, the knife still in place. He pauses. Then returns to his double. The dreading eyes, the trickle of blood down the face. His e y e s . His f a c e . A long, foreboding moment. Then suddenly Lincoln lashes out. His fist sends his double flying, falling in a flurry of contract pages. Lincoln stands over him, looking down, like a dominant species. His double is unmoving, unconscious. Lincoln abruptly spins away.146 INT . ELEVATOR - DESCENDING The light panel flashes. Lincoln stands grimly, head lowered, trying to fathom the anger roiling within. Ester stares at him, wanly. Both held in the dark tableau. And the elevator descends.147 INT . UNDERGROUND PARKING LOT - DAY The vehicle parked in bay 53 is a hybrid of sportscar a n d speed- b o a t , a two-seater known as a "skiff". Lincoln and Ester climb in. Lincoln reviews the drive console, the controls, all of it, meaningless. His eyes cross an orb set in the steering wheel. The orb seems to blink and suddenly the drive console lights up. Lincoln reviews it. A screen in front of him is flashing: "PILOTING: MANUAL/AUTO?". He assimilates. Then ventures- 100. LINCOLN Auto... The interface processes, then asks: "DESTINATION: NAME/ADDRESS?" LINCOLN O u t of state... West... The interface processes, then reports "UNDOCKING". Lincoln and Ester jolt as the skiff shunts forward. Lode-poles pulsing ahead of them, the skiff moves out, as if pulled by a phantom tugboat.148 EXT . STREET - DAY The skiff buckets off the ramp into a street inlet. Then stops rocking a little. The interface reports: "ESTABLISHING UPLINK". On another screen, a road map appears. A red dot plants at their point of origin then bleeds into a red line, plotting a course. The autopilot scans for traffic, then nudges forward on the throttle. The resistors drone, the steering wheel turns and the skiff noses onto the street. Finding its lane, it drops to cruise speed. Lincoln studies the interplay of steering wheel, throttle and brake. Then glances at Ester. She's plunged in thought, staring off. She turns to him with a haggard frown- ESTER The man back there... who looked like you... does it mean I have someone too? Lincoln looks at her blankly, unknowing. Ester stares off again, her brow knotting with unanswered questions. But Lincoln's gaze lingers. Her pale skin, her limpid eyes, her hair fluttering in the breeze. It's the first time he's really seen Ester's beauty.149 EXT . PHOENIX SKYLINE - DAY The domes and spires glint in the sunlight. We isolate a glass steeple. A crosshatch insignia. A legend "Sanger Industries".150 INT . CROWNE'S OFFICE - SANGER INDUSTRIES TOWER - DAY A corner office with a panoramic view of the city. Crowne sits at a console desk, reviewing some data on a holoframe screen. A knock on the door and HER SECRETARY enters, looking unsettled- SECRETARY I just thought I should warn you. I have a sponsor holding. His name's Thomas Lincoln. He sounded... angry. 101.151 EXT. STREET TUNNEL - DAY The skiff plunges into the shadow of an underpass. The interface flashes: "UPLINK INTERRUPT... AUTOPILOT DISENGAGING". Lincoln sits up, confused. The skiff is now slowing, drifting as if cut loose. He studies the controls again. Positions one hand on the steering wheel, the other on the throttle. Then he nudges it. The skiff lurches, veering out of its lane. Another vehicle zips narrowly past, rocking them with its invisible backwash. Ester looks at Lincoln, suddenly alarmed. Lincoln tries again, firm on the wheel, gentle on the throttle. And the skiff eases forward.152 EXT . MOTEL - DOWNTOWN PHOENIX - LATE AFTERNOON D i s m a l . The kind of place that precedes a life on the street. We push in on a window, cracked glass, the drapes closed within.153 INT . MOTEL ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON G l o o m y , musty. A "holovision" plays some type of NFL recap. But Scheer is not watching it. He is lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling, motionless. Off a beeping sound, he stirs. He taps a holocom on the nightstand. A holoframe appears, resolving: Merrick (ON HOLOCOM) K a r l , there's been a complication.154 EXT . INTERSTATE - SUNSET The sunset melts gold across the horizon as the skiff cruises westward. Eight lanes of lodeway rake through the salt flats. Lincoln is driving more confidently now. Ester is huddled asleep beside him. Suddenly the skiff starts to slow again. Lincoln reviews the controls. Throttle, forward, foot, off the brake. The interface flashes: "REMOTE LOCKDOWN E N G A G I N G " . The skiff is steering itself onto the hard shoulder. It now pulls to a dead halt. Ester is woken by the sudden inertia. She opens her eyes and looks around. They've stopped in the middle of nowhere.155 EXT . THE SALT FLATS - SUNSET The sun sinks in a slow pink haze. Lincoln and Ester walk across the salt flats. Visible in the distance is a walled settlement.156 EXT . THE HERITAGE PARK - SUNSET An adobe wall culminates at an arched wooden gateway. Lincoln and Ester approach. They haven't walked far but Ester is already short of breath. As they near the gateway a holoserve appears, like a sentry - Native American, buckskins, feathered headdress and facepaint. His voice seems as old as the wind- 102. THE INDIAN HOLOGRAM Welcome to Salt River Heritage Park, home to the Hohokam Nation for over two thousand years. The park is now closed. Please come back during opening hours, 9am t o 5pm, Monday through Saturday... Ester steps closer. With the sun hazing through, the holoserve s e e m s angelic or ghostly. She's examining his striped facepaint- ESTER He has marks on his face like us. She turns to Lincoln with a flowering smile. Then rushes up to the gateway, suddenly galvanized, squeezing through a gap.157 EXT . THE HERITAGE PARK - SUNSET A ring of Native American pueblos. Pithouses a n d coursed adobes, recreations and preserved ruins. Ester rushes around the ring, looking into the pueblos as if expecting to find them inhabited. She ducks into one of the pithouses. Lincoln follows her inside.158 INT . PITHOUSE - SUNSET The mud walls show a skeleton of saguaro ribs, cholla branches. It's cosy in here, dim. The living area, recreated with mats and pottery. Lincoln finds Ester looking around, between excitement and confusion. She turns to him, her voice wavering, wheezing- ESTER Is this... is this place The Island? Lincoln answers with a softly negating look. Ester's face slowly falls, the energy draining from her eyes. She lowers onto one of the mats and lies down, huddling. She looks up to him, wheezing- ESTER I'm tired. Let me rest for a while.159 EXT . PITHOUSE - NIGHT Silence prevails but for the faint rattle of Ester's breathing. Lincoln sits on low stool, in sentinel over her as she sleeps. In his eyes, we see the weight of foreboding. He doesn't know what they'll do when she wakes. Of a moaning sound he looks at Ester. Then realizes it isn't coming from her. The sound is far off, a rhythmic moaning. Now discernible as the chant of voices.160 EXT . THE PLATFORM MOUND - NIGHT A blazing fire. Figures in silhouette, moving around, chanting. 103. The platform mound is situated just beyond the heritage park. An ancient ceremonial site, stepped in ruins, dusted with caliche. Pima and Maricopa, descendants of the Hohokam, are congregated for a solstice ceremony. Off to the side, a group of horses are tethered, shuffling, snorting. Lincoln approaches, cautiously, but somehow like a moth to the flame. He stops at a distance, watching. The curiosity of congruent sound and movement. VOICE (O.S.) You look a little lost, my friend. Lincoln turns to a figure emerging from the night. A tall man - swarthy skin, mist-colored eyes. His tribal name is GREY DOVE- GREY DOVE (cont'd) Or did you come here for a reason? Lincoln examines the tall man. The face seems as deep and gentle as the voice. His sense of danger, unstirring, he concedes- LINCOLN I was looking for water. GREY DOVE Not the best place to look. LINCOLN My transport... it stopped working. GREY DOVE I see. And where were you going? LINCOLN Out of state... Lincoln sighs, the destination seeming very far away. Grey Dove considers him. This bruised, weary outsider is somehow childlike.161 EXT . THE CEREMONY - LATER The fire blazes across the face of a shaman. Old, gnarled, and dry as the salt flats. With a sacred mutter, he slips a peyote button onto his tongue. Then flings back his head, casting his eyes to the stars. When he lowers his head again, we see his pupils dilating. He rises, chanting, moving in ceremonial steps around the fire. Tribespeople s i t in a ring, joining the chant. Beyond the ring, others are dining at a roasting pit. Roast rabbit. Cornflour bread. The food is as it might been two thousand years ago. Only the sight of plastic water gallons breaks the illusion. Lincoln stands apart with Grey Dove, eating ravenously, gulping from a water gallon. He looks around- 104. LINCOLN What is this place? GREY DOVE It is a sacred place. My people come here to commune with their spirits. Lincoln looks at him, puzzled. Grey Dove smiles tolerantly. GREY DOVE Not easy to understand perhaps. For us, the spirit is like the shadow on the rock. Sometimes close, sometimes far away, sometimes the sky clouds and the shadow fades. We come here to ask our spirits to return to us. The man... (gestures to the shaman) He speaks to The Grandfather from whom all spirits are born. The Great Spirit who binds every living thing. He has no name. But he is everywhere. In the sun and the moon, the wind and the rain... The shaman's chanting grows louder, more insistent. His circuit around the fire becoming faster, building in religious fervor. GREY DOVE Now he asks for the gift of vision that he may see through to the spirit shape of things. To find the spirits of the lost. To bring them into the light... The shaman's chanting suddenly stops. He is looking directly at Lincoln, pointing. His face, contorting with what might be anger or fear. He starts babbling in dialect, ardently. Lincoln frowns in confusion. Grey Dove quietly draws him away from the mound.162 INT . PITHOUSE - NIGHT - LATER Ester stirs from slumber. On the ground beside her, she finds a bowl of food and a water gallon. Now through the gloom, she sees Lincoln, sitting on the stool like he never left, keeping vigil. Something seems different about him as he turns, registering her- LINCOLN A r e you alright? ESTER I feel better after I sleep. Lincoln nods absently and stares off out of the doorway. Ester moves closer, sensing something. He speaks as if from far away- 105. LINCOLN The man out there... he said everything has a spirit... every living thing... but not... His voice cuts off. Ester looks at him, recognizing his pain. She doesn't understand what it is or what caused it. It's pain and it evokes a response in her. A feeling, taking her over. Her hand reaches out and strokes his hair. Lincoln looks up at her, questioning. With supreme knowing, Ester leans down and kisses him. At the touch of her lips, Lincoln pauses. The first kiss for both of them but Ester takes it in her stride. The calm ballet of nature. Fluidly peeling off her shirt, breasts steeping with moonlight. Lincoln rising to face her, feeling her proximity, her radiant heat. His fingers touching her breasts. Ester trembling, her lips once more finding his. Lincoln closing his eyes, the rush of sensation, overwhelming. He yields to it, returning the kiss, with hunger, with passion... with spirit.163 EXT . THE INTERSTATE - DAWN The sun rises in the east, depicting the traffic in silhouette. A vehicle arcs from the fast lane onto the hard shoulder where the skiff sits abandoned. The grey cutter pulls to a halt.164 EXT . HARD SHOULDER - DAWN D i g g s and Burdon move up on the skiff, cover positions, weapons levelled. Burdon spins in to the driver side, snapping aim with the thunderbolt. But the skiff is empty. The only sign of life is the interface, flashing red: "REMOTE LOCATOR TRANSMITTING". B u r d o n exchanges a look with Diggs. No dice. Diggs reaches in his pocket and pulls out what looks like an electronic telescope. He puts it to his eye and pans the salt flats. Burdon crouches at the roadside, looking for tracks. Then Diggs fixes on something- DIGGS I got thermals.165 EXT . PLATFORM MOUND - SUNRISE The fire is now reduced to a heap of embers. The tribespeople a r e asleep around the mound, wrapped in ethnic blankets. Diggs and Burdon move up stealthily, weapons at the ready. The horses bristle and snort, betraying their approach. The tribespeople, stirred by the noise, awake. Diggs and Burdon swing aim around the ring as faces rise and stare at them. None of the faces have white skin. Diggs lowers his weapon and addresses the gathering- DIGGS I'm looking for two bond runners. They ditched near here last night. 106. DIGGS (cont'd) One man, one woman. Tattoos on the forehead... (nothing, just silent stares) Anyone's seen them, I got fifty green. (still nothing, aggravated) What the fuck are you? Deaf and dumb? The tribal faces just keep staring. Diggs scowls. Then suddenly swings aim with the rainmaker and fires. -BOOM- hitting one of the horses in the haunch. It rears up, whinnying, setting off the rest of the horses. Diggs turns back to the gathering- DIGGS Somebody start talking. He scans around the ring. Then fixes on one of the women. She lifts a trembling finger to a man nearby. Grey Dove stiffens.166 EXT . SALT MOUNTAINS - SUNRISE The sunrise depicts two silhouettes, moving across the ridge. Lincoln and Ester clamber over the calcified rocks. Ester now stops to catch her breath. She is wheezing again, fighting for air. As Lincoln looks on with concern, she musters a brave smile- ESTER I can make it.167 EXT . SALT CANYON - EARLY MORNING A freight barge whooshes through the canyon, trailing a chain of low, arched containers, capacious in width rather than height. The conveyance is similar to a lodeway but wider, deeper, known as a "lode-canal". At each end of the canyon, it intersects with other lode-canals, converging to use the same passage, a system of signals and lockgates controlling the flow of freight traffic. High above, on the south rim of the canyon, we find Lincoln and Ester. Ester is no longer wheezing but rasping. She looks down at the passing vessel, daunted. Lincoln offers her small comfort- LINCOLN Don't worry. The one we want goes the other way. He said it goes slower. They exchange a smile. The chain of containers tailing off, the barge leaving the canyon with a blast of its resonant claxon.168 EXT . THE SOUTH FACE - MORNING Lincoln and Ester descend the rocky slope toward the lode-canal. Ester stops, having to catch her breath every few steps. Lincoln tries to hide his concern, looking away towards the sunrise. The westbound vessel will be coming soon. 107. They just need to get out of state... Now he frowns, sensing something. Faint but growing. His jaw clenches. His face tightens. His pupils start to dilate.169 EXT . THE NORTH RIDGE - MORNING The north ridge is evidently threaded by a lodeway as we see the grey cutter pulling up. Diggs and Burdon get out and look down into the canyon. Diggs pulls out his scope and starts panning. Burdon peels off his jacket. It's early but it's already getting hot. Diggs now pauses, handing him the scope for his opinion- DIGGS Up there in the rocks. Three o'clock. I'm not sure... it could be ambient.170 EXT . THE SOUTH FACE - MORNING Lincoln and Ester hide in the shadow of a rock. Ester is muffling her breaths as best she can. Lincoln now hazards a look over the top. Two figures are climbing down the far side of the canyon, now pointing in their direction. He ducks back, assimilating. Hiding, no longer an option. Nor running, at least for Ester. His face sets in a grimace of conviction. His eyes glow darkly.171 EXT . THE NORTH FACE - MORNING Diggs and Burdon reach the foot of the rocks. Neither speaks, communicating in hand-signals. Diggs slips into the lode-canal. Burdon covers, sweeping the thunderbolt across the south face. Diggs emerges from the far side of the lode-canal. He stays low, moving up into the rocks. Then, from above, a rock dislodges, rattling down. Diggs reacts instantly, targeting, opening fire- - B O O M - B O O M - The shots from the rainmaker swathe across the rock. The thunderbolt now adding to the barrage, Burdon firing from the far side - SHOTS, BOLTS, KICKING UP A STORM OF DUST -- SUDDENLY HOLDING FIRE, waiting for the dust to clear, reloading. No sign of movement. Just a slide of rubble. Fading echoes. D I G G S STEALS ONWARDS UP THE ROCKS - into the fog of dust - the sunlight and shadow playing tricks on his eyes - then suddenly- LINCOLN BURSTS OUT OF THE DUST - from the left - tackling the pale man - both of them toppling - tumbling down the slope -- THUDDING TO A HALT at the lip of the lode-canal - the rainmaker lost in the fall - the impact throwing up a billow of dust -- THE DUSTCLOUD - Diggs and Lincoln struggling, clawing, punching - Lincoln, with surprise on his side, gaining with the upper hand-- 108.DIGGS' CLAWING FINGERS discover Lincoln's knife - tugging it fromhis jacket - Lincoln grabbing his wrist, fighting for control -THE KNIFE MOVING BETWEEN THEM - Diggs with better leverage - theblade inching towards Lincoln's face - pressing into his cheek--LINCOLN'S EYES - welling black, almost inhuman - the sense ofdanger screaming in his ears - he grabs the pale man's throat -DIGGS' EYES - bulging as he strains to push the knife home -oxygen draining - conscious ebbing - he slumps back -LINCOLN REGAINS THE KNIFE - the pale man seems to be out cold -but he's not sure - he pauses holding the blade over him, then--- B O O M - THE KNIFE FLIES FROM HIS GRIP IN A BURST OF DISCHARGE -BURDON SNAPS AIM FOR ANOTHER SHOT - beading - his target movingnow - dropping out of the firing line - into the lode-canal--BURDON INCHES TOWARD THE EDGE - thunderbolt angling downward -into the trench - then suddenly he's GRABBED BY THE ANKLES -LINCOLN STRAINING to overbalance the giant - feet up against thewall - like trying to topple a tree - finally winning some give-BURDON TOPPLES INTO THE TRENCH - his ankles clamped by hisquarry - both men meeting the concrete with a bone-shaking-- THUD - LINCOLN IS CRUSHED BENEATH THE MASSIVE WEIGHT - the giantalready recovering from the fall - now dragging him upright--- THUD - BURDON THROWS A PUNCH - mightily - hurling his quarryacross the trench - moving in quickly, following up with a kick--- THUD - LINCOLN CRUMPLES as the boot smacks into him - thenanother kick - then another - the world starts blurring --BURDON TURNS AWAY - his quarry disabled for now - he recovershis thunderbolt - turns back to administer the coup de grace--LINCOLN LOOKS UP - the giant looming - the muzzle of his weaponthrumming with energy - the rivets on his denims start rattling--BURDON SPINS ROUND - the thunderbolt suddenly ripped from hisgrasp - there, in the distance - AN EASTBOUND BARGE IS COMING -LINCOLN SCRAMBLES UP THE WALL OF THE TRENCH - muscles straining,feet slipping on the concrete - escaping the imminent vessel -- 109.DIGGS COMING TO - now seeing his quarry a short distance away -emerging from the lode-canal - he looks around for a weapon, then- BURDON (O.S.) Diggs! Get me outta here!BURDON STRUGGLING TO CLIMB OUT OF THE TRENCH - with one arm,it's almost impossible - fighting against his own weight--DIGGS REACHING THE EDGE - seeing the eastbound barge coming -grabbing his partner's outreached hand - pulling him upward -BURDON'S PANIC - his other arm flinging away - HIS METAL BRACESNARED BY THE LODE-STREAM - the force shuddering his entire body-DIGGS PULLING WITH ALL HIS MIGHT - feet slipping - locked in atug of war with the lodestream - THE BARGE IS CLOSING FAST--BURDON'S HORROR - now suspended between the two forces - feetkicking - THE BARGE IS ALMOST UPON HIM - he screams agonized-- BURDON Help me! HELP MEEEEE!THE SCREAM IS INSTANTLY LOST in the whoosh of the barge. Diggs,stunned, just looks at his hands, empty, spattered with blood. DIGGS Burdie...?THE SHADOW OF THE ROCK - Lincoln rejoins Ester - casting a lookback - the eastbound barge now plummeting into the distance--D I G G S STOOPING AT THE EDGE OF THE TRENCH - looking down - allthat remains of his partner is a smear of blood at the concrete--LINCOLN AND ESTER REACHING THE FOOT OF THE ROCKS - seeing THEWESTBOUND BARGE against the sunrise - snaking into the passage--DIGGS PULLING UPRIGHT - spotting his quarry - fire in his eyes -drawing out a boot-knife - slipping it between his teeth--THE WESTBOUND BARGE pulling through the canyon - lode-polespulsing ahead of it - polarity thrumming in opposing flow--LINCOLN AND ESTER start running as the barge comes towards them -Lincoln pulling Ester along - struggling to match the pace--A SOUND LIKE A BEATING TYMPANY COMING TOWARDS THEM - they lookround to see - A SHADOW RUNNING ALONG THE TOP OF THE BARGE--D I G G S FLINGING HIMSELF OFF THE BARGE - the blade in his teeth -arms spread - for an instant, like a vulture against the sun-- 110.LINCOLN IS SUDDENLY CRUSHED by the weight of his landing - ESTERIS HURLED SIDEWAYS - into a ditch - lost in a cloud of dust--D I G G S PULLING HIMSELF UP, astride of Lincoln - snatching theknife from his clenched teeth - the sound, like a whetstone--LINCOLN SPITTING DIRT - suddenly grabbed by the scalp and tuggedsideways - twisted partways o n t o his back, forced to look up at--A BLACK SPOT AGAINST THE SUN - Diggs' face set in a murderoussneer - he wants to see this fucker's e y e s - the torment--LINCOLN DAZZLED BY THE SUNLIGHT - but suddenly knowing the faceof death - now catching the brief glint of the knife as --D I G G S PLUNGES THE BLADE DOWN - slicing into his quarry's hand ashe throws it up in defense - his quarry YOWLING WITH PAIN--LINCOLN FEELING THE STAB - his deepest instinct suddenly awoken -every impulse, every fiber brought into alignment - survival--D I G G S IS HURLED INTO THE AIR as Lincoln surges upward - hetumbles backward into the dust - losing hold of the boot-knife--LINCOLN PUSHES HIMSELF UPRIGHT - only makes it half-way -scrambling towards the pale man - all fours, like an animal--D I G G S CLAWING AROUND IN THE DUST - fingers finding metal - theboot-knife - he brings it up - slashing at his imminent quarry--LINCOLN RECOILING - the blade nicking his face - sudden rage -grabbing the pale man by the arm - swinging him round into--- B O O M - THE MOVING WALL OF FREIGHT CONTAINERS - as the westboundbarge passes - Diggs bounces off - stumbling to keep balance--LINCOLN ON THE RETREAT - the pale man coming at him with theknife - another nick - seeing a gap now, shoving him backwards--- B O O M - THE MOVING WALL RESOUNDS - Diggs howls - snagged by abolt - hurt, his fury becomes incandescent - he strikes madly--LINCOLN STUMBLING BACK - the pale man coming at him - the bladeflashing to and fro - frenzied - like a threshing machine--F O R C I N G HIM UP AGAINST THE ROCKS - the knife almost upon him -he grits his teeth and lunges forward - charging like a bull --DIGGS CAREENS BACKWARD, still swiping the blade - digging intohis quarry - headlong towards the moving wall - hitting with--- W H U M P - no resonant boom - no bouncing back - Diggs has hit agap between the containers and HIS HEAD HAS BEEN LOPPED OFF - 111. LINCOLN STANDS HORRIFIED - as the headless body is spun by the moving wall - dropping into the trench as the barge tails off- The westbound barge gains speed, leaving the canyon. But there is Ester, running after it, vainly, coughing and sputtering. LINCOLN Ester! Stop! It's no use! ESTER We have to... get to... The Island... LINCOLN It's going too fast! ESTER We have to... get to... Ester staggers a few more steps, then collapses to her knees, rasping for breath. As Lincoln reaches her, she slumps back into his arms. Her head lolling, eyes rolled back to white, a drool of blood spilling from her lips. Then the blast of a claxon c u t s the air as the westbound barge disappears into the distance. F A D E TO BLACK.172 EXT . SEDONA - LATE AFTERNOON A ranch home in the middle of nowhere. Long shadows.173 INT . STUDIO - RANCH HOME - LATE AFTERNOON Late golden sunlight through a mist of sawdust. Abstract wood sculptures are visible. Juniper wood, carved along the bias of the grain, polished to accentuate the curves of natural growth. AN OLDER WOMAN runs a sander over a work in progress - 60's, in coveralls, gray her tied back, her face shielded by goggles and a bandana. She pauses to review her work, shutting down the sander, slipping off her goggles and bandana. Her face is eerily familiar. Her name is KATHERINE. She now moves to the window, catching sight of something outside. Curiously, she watches a vehicle coming down the long driveway. A dusty, grey cutter.174 EXT . FRONT PORCH - RANCH HOME - LATE AFTERNOON Katherine opens the front door. The cutter is now docked in the port and a stranger is staggering towards her. In his arms, is an unconscious woman. Now Katherine can see the face - younger, but unmistakable even so. Her voice comes in a chilled whisper- KATHERINE O h , God... Oh, my God... 112.175 EXT. PHOENIX - LATE AFTERNOON A whisper cuts across the glistening skyline towards The Sanger Industries Tower. It circles in to land on a rooftop helipad.176 INT . CROWNE'S OFFICE - SANGER INDUSTRIES TOWER Silence . Crowne sits at her desk. Merrick sits across from her. Waiting. The air stirs as the secretary ushers Dr. Sanger into the office. No greetings are exchanged. Sanger just lowers into a chair, a little unsettled to find Merrick has preceded him. CROWNE I take it you've heard the news. DR. SANGER The bond agents. Yes. Unfortunate. CROWNE Unfortunate? (pauses, lights a cigarette) We're way past unfortunate, Henry. DR. SANGER I thought we'd covered ourselves. CROWNE The police won't connect the bond agents to us. But that's not the problem. It's the sponsor. DR. SANGER What are you talking about? MERRICK The male agnate tracked him down. CROWNE His name's Thomas Lincoln. It seems they had a genetic reunion. Not a h a p p y one. It was all I could do to stop him going to the authorities. DR. SANGER I still don't see the problem. CROWNE He may not want a police involvement but he's already threatened to file suit. And he's one of the biggest litigation attorneys in the city. 113. DR. SANGER That's why we have you, Ellen. CROWNE That's why I asked Bernard to come out here. To find out how it happened. MERRICK I told her, Henry. About synesthesia.S a n g e r casts a betrayed look at Merrick. Then returns to Crowne- DR. SANGER I t was a marginal problem. And it was under control - according to Bernard. CROWNE That's not the point. Whether or not it's a factor in this instance, it puts us in breach of the clone laws. DR. SANGER I t doesn't even touch their genetics. CROWNE I'm talking about self-awareness. The virtual humanity statutes require us t o give them consciousness to the l e v e l of functionality. But not beyond.This gives Sanger pause. Crowne drags her cigarette acutely. CROWNE L e g a l l y , we are naked on every level. Federal legislature, state licensing, sponsorship contract... But even if we did manage to weather the legal storm, we'd never survive the public scrutiny.S a n g e r absorbs this, calmly shaking a pill from his pill bottle. DR. SANGER I've spent my entire career facing down naysayers, Ellen. Don't think for a second I'm afraid of facing them now. CROWNE You remember cryogenics? At the outset, people dismissed it as a rich man's folly. Eccentric millionaires freezing their brains, hoping to wake up in a new body. 114. CROWNE (cont'd) E v e n when cloning showed signs of m a k i n g it feasible, it wasn't moral a f f r o n t that caused the backlash. It w a s the scope. The scope, Henry. When t h e size of the customer base was e x p o s e d , it screamed inequality - one m e d i c i n e for the rich and one for the p o o r . The pressure for accessible cryo- genics a s good as buried the industry. ( a pause for emphasis) O u r graves are being dug as we speak, g e n t l e m e n . Every passing second, they g e t deeper. If we're going to survive, w e have to act swiftly and decisively. DR. SANGER A l r i g h t . What do you suggest?S a n g e r dry swallows the pill. Ellen opens a contract folder. CROWNE O u r security chief - I've been looking at his file. Ex-marine, served in South China - do we think he still has it in him? DR. SANGER ( r e a l i z i n g , suddenly harsh) A r e you insane?The i r eyes deadlock. Crowne gives Merrick a sideways glance. CROWNE ` You ever wondered why Henry takes those pills, Bernard? Why he doesn't avail himself of his own technology? DR. SANGER An agnate could give me a new heart but to get it to function mentally... CROWNE B u l l s h i t , Henry. Bullshit. You don't want to deal with reality. Only with concept. I may not have been there at the start but I heard the stories. You wanted in on every aspect of construction, from environmental design right down to the classical playlists. I t wasn't enough just to make it work, was it? No, you wanted your own little utopia. 115. CROWNE (cont'd) Swanning a r o u n d in your mountain r e t r e a t like some self-appointed d e i t y . But when it comes to getting y o u r hands dirty... DR. SANGER A r e you quite finished? CROWNE E v e n God has blood on his hands, Henry. Are you going to watch it all go up in flames or are you going to deal with it? S a n g e r crosses to the window, looking down onto the city. DR. SANGER You see that street down there...? Running east from the stadium. My father used to take me to church on that street. An old Spanish church. CROWNE What's your point? DR. SANGER I didn't know they'd torn it down.177 INT . GUEST BEDROOM - KATHERINE'S HOUSE - EVENING A floral bedroom. Ester lies in bed, wheezing, semi-conscious. Katherine slips a pill between her lips and tips in some water. Lincoln stands watching. Katherine ushers him out of the room.178 INT . KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS The kitchen is arrayed with modern technology but softened with paintings and craftwork. A r t marginally overwhelming science. Katherine starts making some herb tea in the traditional manner. LINCOLN What did you give her? KATHERINE J u s t something to help her sleep. I think she has a bronchial infection. But I'm not sure I should give her an antibiotic in case it effects the baby. LINCOLN S o you know about the baby... Katherine pauses, reality sinking its claws. She looks at him- 116. KATHERINE Is n ' t that why you came here? LINCOLN I found your name in the listings. I wasn't sure. You don't look like her. KATHERINE The y have a plan... For women like me. LINCOLN S o you're the one who takes her baby.Katherine winces at him. It's uttered so matter-of-factly. Shepauses, hanging her head, searching within herself. KATHERINE You know when you're young? How you run around thinking you're immortal?Lincoln ' s look says he has no idea. She seems not to notice. KATHERINE The r e was a lodeway accident. I was... damaged. After that, I thought no man would ever want me. I was wrong. His name was John. He said he married me for my eyes. Ocean eyes, he called them. He always loved the ocean. Up there on the wall, that's John's boat.O f f her gesture, Lincoln glances at the wall. A watercolor of ayacht. Meaningless to him but Katherine gazes it at, fondly- KATHERINE But I think there was always an unspoken regret between us. When we heard about the technology, it was like... forgive- n e s s , like a second chance. A child of our own, part of both of us. Sailing trips, fishing trips, so many plans... ( a flat beat) J o h n got cancer a year ago. He died.He r eyes mist, distant and bittersweet, talking to herself now. KATHERINE I r o n i c . That the same technology could have saved his life. And now the baby is the only part of him I have left. And the boat. I still have the boat.Lincoln looks discomfited. There's more to this than he thought. 117.179 INT. MOTEL ROOM - EVENING S c h e e r opens the door. Merrick stands at the threshold with an attache case. Scheer, seemingly unsurprised, brings him inside. SCHEER I told you we shouldn't have gone to outside personnel. They were cowboys. MERRICK We had no choice, Karl. We had to keep this away from The Institute. SCHEER An d now? Merrick lowers in a chair, grim and leaden. He opens his attache and pulls out a contract folder. He hands it to Scheer. SCHEER What's this? MERRICK Your resignation papers. Maybe `early retirement' would be more accurate... S c h e e r leans forward, frowning, curious. MERRICK T e n platinum bounty - if you sign the papers, their loss becomes your gain. SCHEER A parachute... So there's a jump? MERRICK You understand that whatever happens, The Institute must be able to deny it. S c h e e r says nothing. Merrick reaches in the attache and pulls out a case. Inside are a row of ampules and a pressure syringe-gun. MERRICK We use a chemical to dispose of waste product. It's called di-halcyonate. I t reacts on a molecular level to start a process of internal combustion. The subject is incinerated from the inside out. In post-mortem application it's done its job before rigor mortis. In a live subject, well... you can imagine. 118. SCHEER You want to dispose of your products. MERRICK I t ' s a little more complicated than that. We have to be very... thorough. If you still have it in you, that is. S c h e e r gives him a sideways look. Then displays the USMC ring. SCHEER Why do you think I still wear this? MERRICK I don't know. SCHEER I was discharged from the marines for insubordination. If you asked anyone i n my unit, they'd call it heroism. I disobeyed an order to fall back. I took out a bunker complex single-handed. MERRICK S o you wear it is a badge of honor? SCHEER N o . It wasn't bravery. I wasn't afraid of dying. I just didn't care. You see, I suddenly realized I was just a sack of flesh with a heartbeat. Life, death, I just couldn't see the point anymore. Merrick allows a respectful pause, then- MERRICK You'll find a vehicle parked outside. It's unregistered, difficult to trace. I take it we have an agreement...?180 INT . KATHERINE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT A slant of light falls across Ester, writhing in her sleep, rasping. Katherine and Lincoln peer in through the doorway, checking on her. Then Katherine quietly closes the door.181 INT . KATHERINE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lincoln paces around, feeling useless. Katherine considers him- KATHERINE What do I call you? 119. LINCOLN Lincoln . My name's Lincoln. KATHERINE Lincoln , I think she needs professional help. I think she needs to see a doctor. LINCOLN N o . They'll find her. They'll take her. KATHERINE N o t if I don't want them to. LINCOLN You don't understand. They don't want people to know about her. Either of us. KATHERINE The doctor I'm thinking of, he's an old friend. He look after John in t h e final stages. I trust him. LINCOLN Why ? So you can take her baby? KATHERINE N o . No, that's not what I want.O f f Lincoln's blunt look, she sighs, lowering into a chair. KATHERINE M a y b e I didn't realize she'd be so... ( c u t s off, a deep pause) M a y b e I just didn't want to. Either way, I was wrong. I want you to know that. I was wrong... And I'm sorry.A heavy lull. Lincoln hangs his head, remembering. LINCOLN The y make you believe there's a place called The Island. Then they take you upstairs and put you to sleep. They cut you open. They take pieces of you.Katherine looks at him, intuiting. She allows a pause, then- KATHERINE E v e n if I had taken her baby, I swear to you, I'd never have... They give you a choice, you see, to extend the sponsorship after... after d e l i v e r y . 120. LINCOLN N o . I saw a lot of us go to The Island. But I never saw anyone come back. KATHERINE You mean... Even if I had extended the sponsorship, they'd have... and kept taking the money? But that's inhuman. LINCOLN ( b e a t , a lost look) Is it? I wouldn't know.182 INT . UNDERGROUND PARKING LOT - EVENING A sleek low vehicle known as a "straker" pulls down the ramp.183 INT . APARTMENT BUILDING - EVENING The orbs on the doors eyeball Scheer, moving up the corridor. He stops at a doorway. Rings the bell. Tom Lincoln opens the door- TOM Yes? SCHEER I'm from the Sanger Institute. TOM I've given you people enough of my time already. SCHEER I t ' s just a formality. I need to see your sponsorship contract. T o m pauses then lets Scheer inside. He crosses to the wall safe, taps the keys. Then pulls out the contract folder. He offers it. SCHEER Is this the only copy? TOM Why would I make copies? Do you think I want anyone else to know about this? S c h e e r accepts the folder. As Tom turns to close the safe, he sets it down. And grabs Tom from behind, by the scalp, pressing the syringe-gun into his jugular. A HISS. Tom clutches his throat like it's on fire. With a boiling gurgle, he staggers forward. Sweating, collapsing. Convulsing, belching steam. Then falling slack. His skin starts to smolder. Scheer pauses, then tosses t h e contract folder on top of him, leaving it to burn with him. 121.184 EXT. NEW GAZA HOSPITAL - PHOENIX - NIGHT E s t a b l i s h i n g . A clean facade of white steel and glass. A hatch- b a c k vehicle known as a "corsair" pulls down the parking ramp.185 INT . UNDERGROUND PARKING LOT - NEW GAZA HOSPITAL - NIGHT The corsair pulls up at the ER entrance, Lincoln at the wheel. Katherine gets out of the passenger side. A doctor is waiting - 50's, caring face. His name is DR. ABRAMS. He looks curiously at the man at the wheel. Then greets Katherine with a hug - D R . ABRAMS Katherine . . . It's good to see you. I haven't seen you since John's funeral. KATHERINE We l l I've been keeping busy. Trying to. Thanks for coming down to meet me. D R . ABRAMS Your call was a little cryptic. What is it exactly that's wrong with you? KATHERINE I t ' s not me... Not exactly. She opens the rear door of the corsair. Ester is lying on the back seat. Dr. Abrams frowns as he notices the resemblance.186 EXT . THE RANCH HOUSE - SEDONA - NIGHT The straker p u l l s up into the port.187 INT . THE STUDIO / MAIN HOUSE - SEDONA - NIGHT The shadow of Scheer moving outside the windows, looking for a point of entry. He inspects the studio door for alarms. Then elbows the glass. Reaching inside, turning the lock. He enters the studio, glancing at the sculptures. Moving through the home. S i l e n t l y , systematically, checking the rooms. He reaches the guest bedroom, looks around. Something catches his eye. Spots of blood of the linens. Eyes honing, he moves on into the kitchen. He discovers a holocom keypad on the counter. Taps some keys. The holoframe flashes "REDIALLING". The holoframe snows with static. Then a receptionist's face appears- R E C E P T I O N I S T (ON HOLOCOM) N e w Gaza Hospital, how may I help you? 122.188 INT. WAITING ROOM - NEW GAZA HOSPITAL - NIGHT - LATER Lincoln stands waiting. There are chairs but he's too tense to sit. Katherine and Dr. Abrams now enter. Lincoln looks at them, expectantly. There's a pause. Then Dr. Abrams speaks- D R . ABRAMS Your friend... she has pneumonia. At a very advanced stage. Its progress has been unchecked by her immune system. LINCOLN C a n you help her? D R . ABRAMS We have two options... One is a super- b i o t i c . But there's the risk her immune system might bow out of the fight. The other is a nodal transfusion. Katherine has agreed to be the donor. But the new antibodies may not conform fully. They m a y decide to attack the baby... LINCOLN I don't understand any of this. KATHERINE He means that by trying to help her, we could lose her. Or lose the baby. D R . ABRAMS Or , if we do nothing, both. Her immune system is... remarkably unstable. If we don't act, the infection will take over. Lincoln lowers into a chair. He feels a pain somewhere. He can't quite pin down where. Or what caused it. Or why it hurts so bad.189 INT . HOSPITAL ROOM - NIGHT Ester lies in bed, dozing, looking more relaxed. Her oxygen mask makes breathing easier. Lincoln enters and sits beside her. She stirs, meeting his eye with a faint smile. Lincoln returns it- LINCOLN He l l o , stranger. ESTER You look tired, Lincoln. LINCOLN Ester... 123. ESTER I t ' s okay. I know. Katherine told me. She sits up, lowering her mask. Her hand finding his. ESTER She told me a lot of things. About how they used a tiny part of her to make me. She said it wasn't so very different. LINCOLN What do you mean? ESTER ( t o u c h i n g her belly) F r o m this... From having a baby. Lincoln nods. A pause. Ester continues, more troubled, wheezing- ESTER She told me how they use us... And I keep thinking... about the others... the ones we left behind, about how they'll never know... how they'll... Ester ' s out of breath again, coughing. Lincoln helps her put the oxygen mask back over her mouth. Ester slumps back, relaxing. Off Lincoln's worried look, she smiles at him with her eyes- ESTER I'm going to be okay, Lincoln. LINCOLN I know. But even to his own ears, the affirmation sounds hollow.190 INT . MEN'S ROOM - HOSPITAL - NIGHT The stream of water gushes into Lincoln's hands. He splashes his face. Then looks at himself in the mirror. He looks sallow from sleeplessness. The facial hair makes him look like a shadow of his former self. For an instant he tenses at a light blinking in the glass. Blue light. Like etherscreen. Then he sees it's just a humidifier on the far wall. Tension ebbing, he splashes some more water. When he looks up again, he sees his pupils are dilating. The sense of danger. His voice comes in a cold whisper- LINCOLN No... 124.191 INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - NIGHT Lincoln emerges from the restroom, scanning for the danger's source. Figures flash past in scrubs, white coats. Then he sees it. The figure emerging from the elevator. The face of Scheer...192 INT . PREP ROOM - NIGHT A flurry of disturbance from the nurses as someone barges into the room. Dr. Abrams is prepping Katherine for the transfusion. Off the ruckus, he looks up. Lincoln comes up to them, urgently- LINCOLN We have to go. We have to get her out. KATHERINE What are you talking about? LINCOLN He's come for her. For us. D R . ABRAMS What e v e r this is about, we can't move her. She's already under sedation. Lincoln look to see Ester, asleep on the OR table beyond. LINCOLN How long before she wakes up? D R . ABRAMS The procedure takes three hours but... LINCOLN ( t o Katherine, emphatic) You'll take care of it, won't you? Take her somewhere they can't find her... Katherine , understanding, simply nods. Lincoln takes a last look at Ester, then departs. Dr. Abrams, bemused, turns to Katherine- D R . ABRAMS Katherine , what the hell's going on?193 EXT . HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - NIGHT Lincoln moves up the corridor, purpose in his stride. His black gaze fixed on Scheer, making an inquiry at the nurse's station. Lincoln doesn't even break stride. He GRABS SCHEER FROM BEHIND-- H U R L I N G HIM ACROSS THE NURSE STATION - INSTANT CONFUSION - NURSES RUNNING - PEOPLE SHOUTING - Lincoln takes off at a run-- 125. SCHEER RECOVERING - seeing his quarry through the confusion - no time for subtlety - he leaps over the nurse's station - pursuing- LINCOLN pauses at the emergency exit - checking to see his enemy is following - then pushing on through the doors into--194 INT . STAIRWELL - NIGHT LINCOLN HAMMERS DOWN THE STEPS - an alarm sounding - shouting from beyond - FOOTFALLS BEHIND HIM - deeper into the gloom- S C H E E R VAULTING THE RAIL - shortcutting t h e flights of steps - catching sight of his quarry as he pushes through a door into--195 INT . UNDERGROUND PARKING LOT - NIGHT LINCOLN BURSTS OUT INTO THE PARKING LOT - flashes of light - vehicles pulling in and out - off across the parking docks - S C H E E R BURSTS OUT IN HIS WAKE - his quarry temporarily lost - now spotting him across the lot - leaping into a vehicle - LINCOLN FIRES UP THE CORSAIR - resistors droning - jamming the throttle - lurching out - NARROWLY MISSING ANOTHER VEHICLE - S C H E E R SPINNING ROUND as the corsair blurs past - it's heading for the exit ramp - he launches towards the straker -196 EXT . EXIT RAMP - THE HOSPITAL - NIGHT T H E CORSAIR BURNS UP the parking ramp - SMASHING THE GATE ARM - plunging out into the street - bouncing across the lodestream - T H E STRAKER H U R T L E S UP close behind - into the snarl of traffic - steering expertly through - picking up the tail of the corsair -197 EXT . STREETS OF PHOENIX - NIGHT T H E CORSAIR PLOUGHS UP THE STREET - TRAFFIC SWERVING out of its path - BUOYS CLANGING as it lurches from one lane to the next - LINCOLN JAMS THE THROTTLE - the resistors buzzing, growling with energy - he has one goal - draw his enemy away from Ester - S C H E E R COOLLY INTENT at the controls of the straker - keeping a certain distance - waiting for his quarry to make a mistake -- A METRO PD OFFICER PULLS OUT - mounted on a hybrid of motorbike and jetski k n o w n as a "lode-runner" - SOUNDING THE SIREN-- S C H E E R REACTING - the PD lode-runner pulling ahead of him - he can't allow a police intervention - he slips in behind -- 126. THE METRO PD OFFICER - darting looks back - headlamps b l i n d i n g his rear-view - another vehicle is coming up behind him fast - - C L A N G - THE STRAKER I M P A C T S - glancing the PD lode-runner which wobbles, corrects - the straker d r o p s back for a longer run up-- T H E METRO PD OFFICER - yelling into his headset - inaudible over the siren - the headlamps a g a i n - the vehicle coming up behind-- - C R A S H - THE PD LODE-RUNNER fishtails - its resistors suddenly clash with the prevailing polarity - A HUGE JOLT OF INERTIA- C A T A P U L T I N G THE METRO PD OFFICER through the air - plummeting down into obscurity - THE STRAKER W H O O S H I N G OVER HIS HEAD - T H E PD LODE-RUNNER LEFT SPINNING behind - resistors vying with the polarity - the drive system melting down - FUSING, SPARKING-- - B O O M - THE PD LODE-RUNNER EXPLODES IN A FLASH OF ELECTRICAL FIRE- S C H E E R watches the fireball in his rear-view - there will be more police soon - he jams the throttle - he has to end this. LINCOLN SEEING THE STRAKER Z O O M I N G UP BEHIND - veering round another corner - the chassis tilting - A STEEP BANKING TURN - T H E CORSAIR HULL RUNNERS THUDDING across the buffers - recoil sending the chassis up against the concrete - SPARKS FLYING-- S C H E E R TURNING THE CORNER - the windshield suddenly sprayed with sparks - jerking back on the throttle to avoid a collision - LINCOLN FIGHTING TO CORRECT THE STEERING - seeing the straker d r o p p i n g back - a chance to gain distance - JAMMING THE THROTTLE- A N INTERSECTION APPROACHING - Lincoln can't correct his steering in time - the corsair careens at full res over the intersection-- C R A S H I N G THROUGH A GATE ARM - the ground dropping away into a steep ramp - suddenly the corsair is flying through the air-- C R A S H I N G - SQUEALING ONWARDS - SCUDDING ACROSS VEHICLE ROOFS, finally nose-diving into an empty bay with a DEAFENING CRUNCH-198 EXT . ENTRANCE - HOLSPAR STADIUM - NIGHT The straker p u l l s up at the smashed gate arm. In the booth, a holoserve p a r k i n g attendant greets the arrival with a smile- P A R K I N G ATTENDANT We l c o m e to Holspar S t a d i u m , home of the Phoenix Admirals, parking is fifteen currency units... 127. Scheer gets out of the straker. He looks down at the crashsite b e l o w . The parking lot, like a marina, is filled to capacity. A game is in progress. A corona of light coming from the stadium. Hoots, music, the roaring crowd. Over which, sirens can now be heard. Scheer draws the syringe-gun and heads down the ramp.199 EXT . PARKING LOT - HOLSPAR STADIUM - NIGHT - MINUTES LATER D u s t blooms from the crashsite. S c h e e r crouches, peering down at the wrecked corsair. The burst windshield, the dangling driver side door shows his quarry has escaped the wreckage. He rises and scans around. On the concrete, a trail of blood is visible.200 INT . STORAGE AREA - HOLSPAR STADIUM - MINUTES LATER The blood trail leads down a gloomy stairwell. The game is just audible overhead. Lincoln stumbles down the steps, clutching his bleeding arm. Between pain and concussion, he loses his footing and falls. He tumbles down the remaining steps to the bottom. I n the gloom we see groundskeeping e q u i p m e n t , supplies - edgers, aerators, spray rigs, drums of insecticides, herbicides. For a moment, Lincoln lies stunned. Then hears a noise and rolls over. He looks up the stairwell. A shadow is descending towards him. W i t h painful effort, Lincoln starts crawling across the floor, eyes fixed on the shadow. Tensing as A HANDGUN noses out of the darkness. Then A STADIUM SECURITY GUARD steps into the light - S E C U R I T Y GUARD You , what are you doing down here? N o w he sees Lincoln more closely - injured, his arm bleeding. S E C U R I T Y GUARD O h , Jesus... Are you okay, son? Lincoln eases a little as he sees the security guard lower his weapon. Then suddenly the guard is JERKED BACK BY THE SCALP. A HISS. Now suddenly the guard jettisons the handgun, clutching his throat like it's on fire. With a boiling gurgle, he staggers forward. Streaming with sweat. Toppling across a herbicide drum. Convulsing, belching steam. Then suddenly his body falls slack. S c h e e r is at the foot of the steps, discarding the spent ampule from the syringe-gun. Now screwing a fresh ampule into place. Lincoln turns to him, realizing what he's just witnessed is a glimpse of his own fate. He pushes himself upright, bracing. S c h e e r looks at him. Clutching his bloody arm, barely able to stay upright, but still ready to fight for life. He half-smiles- 128. SCHEER I'm jealous of you. You have a reason to live. I can't say I've ever had that... Lincoln holds his gaze, looking deep in his eyes. Then, as if scared by what he sees there, starts inching away, glancing at-- T H E GUARD'S BODY SMOLDERING - lowering, melting through the drum- S C H E E R MOVING FORWARD, the smile leaving his face. A mask of hollowness as he moves in on his quarry, the syringe-gun poised. LINCOLN STUMBLING - collapsing to his knees - hanging his head as if in surrender... then suddenly his hand flies up- - B O O M - A FLASH OF LIGHT as he fires THE HANDGUN - recovered from the ground - AN ENERGY PULSE impacting the wall, fizzling out-- S C H E E R KEEPS COMING, syringe-gun ready, blank-faced, unflinching- T H E GUARD'S BODY CRACKLING INTO FLAME - the drum splitting open-- - B O O M - ANOTHER FLASH - Lincoln fires again - clipping his enemy-- S C H E E R KEEPS COMING, a charred wound in his shoulder, relentless- T H E GUARD'S BODY BURNING - sliding into the sands of herbicide - - B O O M - B O O M - B O O M - LINCOLN KEEPS FIRING - more hits than misses-- S C H E E R KEEPS COMING, blank faced, his body PITTING WITH IMPACTS-- A BLINDING FLARE OF LIGHT - THE HERBICIDE IGNITING - THE DRUM EXPLODING - STARTING A CHAIN REACTION - OTHER DRUMS IGNITING - EXPLODING - FIRE - SMOKE - ENGULFING ALL IN A BLAZING INFERNO... D I S S O L V I N G TO:201 INT . TOP OF STAIRWELL - NIGHT - MUCH LATER A cacophony of sirens can be heard outside. A thick grey smoke gulches up from the stairwell. Shadows are visible. The sound of extinguishers. A FIREMAN climbs up, emerging from the smoke, he pulls off his breathing mask to address a waiting PD officer- T H E FIREMAN N o t h i n g . . . If there was anyone down there, they're a pile of ashes now. F A D E TO BLACK. 129.202 EXT. CEMETERY - SOME DAYS LATER P e a c e . Sunlight. A bell tolling in the background. We make out Katherine, dressed in black, standing at a grave. The headstone reads simply: "Here Lies Ester & Her Unborn Son - May They Rest In Peace". There are no dates. Katherine lays down some flowers then looks across at Dr. Abrams. As he escorts her away, we see Crowne crossing towards them. She introduces herself delicately- CROWNE M r s . Ester? My name is Ellen Crowne.203 INT . CEO'S OFFICE - THE SANGER INDUSTRIES TOWER - DAY A celestial penthouse office. Katherine enters with Crowne. Merrick and Dr. Sanger rise to greet her. Strained solemnity. DR. SANGER M y name is Henry Sanger. I'd like to offer my deepest condolences. His insincerity is transparent. Katherine just nods stiffly. DR. SANGER This is Bernard Merrick our facility director. He knew Ester personally. MERRICK An d it's a terrible loss. M o r e insincerity. Katherine nods again. Then settles in a chair. Crowne allows a respectful pause. Then begins with due delicacy- CROWNE L e g a l issues must seem trivial at this time. But the sponsorship agreement has certain conditions relating to confident- i a l i t y . D e s p i t e this tragic t u r n of events, those conditions remain binding. We want to be sure you understand that. KATHERINE I see. CROWNE T h a t said, The Institute is likewise bound by the terms of sponsorship and while we reserve every right... KATHERINE You can stop there. I know why I'm here. You wanted to know if I'm going to sue you for breach of contract. 130. DR. SANGER N o t h i n g so devious, Mrs. Ester. We simply wanted to find some way to heal the wounds from this incident. KATHERINE I don't want restitution, Dr. Sanger. The reason I agreed to this meeting was to have the chance to talk to you. DR. SANGER O f course. Please... KATHERINE I never got to meet you when I visited The Institute. It was one of your sales- m e n who led the tour. I remember how h e described the agnates a s if they were some kind of mindless organisms. More like livestock than humanity... CROWNE L e g a l l y , human rights don't apply. DR. SANGER Don't interrupt, Ellen. KATHERINE I remember how eager I was to believe him. But when I saw w h a t I'd created, in flesh and blood, when I touched h e r , it was I who felt less than human. DR. SANGER I understand.He looks at her expressively. Perhaps he really does understand. KATHERINE Ester ' s life was my responsibility and her death is my cross to bear alone. So I'm not going to sue you, Dr. Sanger... ( b e a t , a sudden ominous tone) But I am going to blame y o u . Until the day I die, I will silently curse your name. That's w h a t I wanted you to know.She drives it home with a horrible look. Sanger accepts it withdue gravity. There's an ugly pause. Katherine gets to her feet. KATHERINE An d now I'd like to leave, please. 131. CROWNE We do have other issues to discuss... DR. SANGER N o , Ellen, that's enough. I think Mrs. Ester has said all there is to say.204 EXT . STREET - OUTSIDE THE SANGER INDUSTRIES TOWER - DAY Katherine descends the steps from the entrance. She crosses to a black funeral sedan, parked kerbside. D r . Abrams stands waiting- D R . ABRAMS I hope you know what you're doing. KATHERINE I don't think they suspected anything. D R . ABRAMS J u s t understand that I've put a lot on the line for you, Katherine. KATHERINE I know... But it felt good. It felt like something John would have done.205 INT . ROOFTOP FLIGHTPAD - THE SANGER INDUSTRIES TOWER C r o w n e escorts Sanger and Merrick to the waiting whisper. CROWNE We l l , I don't know about the two of you but I'd say we got off lightly. DR. SANGER Did we? CROWNE Don't start getting maudlin, Henry. It's a little too late in the game. She shakes their hands as they climb into the whisper. Then watches it take off, ascending into the blinding sunlight. D I S S O L V E TO:206 EXT . THE SANGER INSTITUTE - SOME WEEKS LATER A i r blasts up from the giant funnel. Widening, we re-establish the huge ring, the processing plant, the giant appendages of ducting, the immutable red rocks. The shot sequence, reprising. From the processing plant, over the main complex. From the front of the complex, to the dock. 132. Following the lodeway out to the perimeter wall. The gateway now gliding open to disclose a view of the shimmering desert. Out in the distance, the institute liner emerging from the shimmer. The crosshatch insignia.207 INT . ENTRANCE HALL - THE SANGER INSTITUTE - DAY T h r o u g h the polarized glass we see the liner has docked. A TOUR GROUP is disembarking. Another parade of plutocracy, aging bloated me and brittle young women. They filter inside to be greeted by the courtesy staff, led by the ever-perky LYDIA. LYDIA L a d i e s and gentlemen, my name is Lydia and on behalf of our staff, I'd like t o welcome you to The Sanger Institute. Before we start the tour, we'll be serv- i n g r e f r e s h m e n t s in the visitor center and circulating our standard discretion agreements. I should add that today you are all very lucky because our CEO and founder, Dr. Henry Sanger, is with us and will be leading the tour personally.208 INT . VISITOR CENTER - THE SANGER INSTITUTE - DAY The tour group pick and mingle at a buffet. We isolate a casually dressed man, lightly bearded, in a Phoenix Admirals cap, crossing to Lydia. She turns to greet him with a smile- LYDIA Yes . . . Mr. Thomas, isn't it? The man tilts up to reveal his face. We see he is LINCOLN... LINCOLN I can't find my sunglasses. I think I left them on the shuttle. LYDIA We l l we're about to start the tour. But I can have someone check for you. LINCOLN Don't worry. I'll catch up.209 EXT . PROCESSING PLANT - DAY Lincoln moves quickly along the wall towards the back of the complex. Hugging the shadows, scanning for onlookers. There is the processing plant and there, the ring of funnels. The sight brings a sudden rush of memories, painful memories, horrors. 133. Lincoln steels himself, then breaks from shadow and races for the nearest funnel. He makes a running lap. His fingers grab t h e lip of the funnel and he pulls himself up. Reaching the lip, he finds the funnel mouth has been gridded o v e r . Then he hears- A VOICE (O.S.) S i r , this is a restricted area... Lincoln lowers back to the ground. He finds himself facing A TECHNICIAN in a hardhat. His uniform reads "Air Processing".210 INT . ELEVATOR - PROCESSING PLANT The doors slide open and the technician enters, stiffly. Then suddenly topples forward, pistol whipped from behind. Lincoln enters the elevator, a familiar handgun clenched in his fist.211 INT . ELEVATOR SHAFT L o o k i n g up an elevator shaft. The red pulse of the lode-poles, rippling downward as the elevator descends from the surface.212 INT . ELEVATOR - DESCENDING Lincoln is now wearing the technician's uniform. He watches the panel lights flashing down. "Level 3: Harvest" "Level 5: Labor Decon", "Level 7: Labor Quarters". His pupils are dilating but his face is set with determination. He knows what he must do. His gaze drifts down to "Level Twenty: Agnate Containment".213 INT . THE ETHER GRID The holographic rendering of containment spins in the vaulted chamber like a giant geometrical phantom. The ether blinks with blue dots in their hundreds as the agnates g o about their day.214 INT . ETHER CONTROL ROOM O v e r l o o k i n g the ether, Ethercon sits at his console. The hiss of an opening door as someone enters. Ethercon looks round. He greets the technician's arrival with an inquisitive look. Then the technician takes off his hardhat. A crosshatch on his brow. Ethercon reacts almost instantly, reaching for the console. Then instantly freezes as Lincoln presses the handgun to his skull.215 INT . CORRIDOR - LEVEL TWENTY SEVEN P a l e blue light. Ethercon leads the way down a silent corridor. Lincoln follows him, the handgun firmly levelled on his head. 134.216 INT. CHAMBER - LEVEL TWENTY SEVEN The pale blue light sustains. The chamber is reminiscent of the foundation chambers. The walls lined with tanks. But instead of amber fluid, these contain blocks of ice. Beside each tank is a grid of bio-monitors. E t h e r c o n stumbles into frame, prodded by Lincoln. Then, with a trembling finger points to one of the tanks. Lincoln holds aim on him and considers the glass facet. He wipes the condensation off the glass. Suspended in the block of ice is a shadow. A human figure. A device is attached to his stomach. Lincoln looks at the bio-monitors. A screen reads: " P R O D U C T ID: STARKWEATHER/ FOUNDATION: II/ GENERATION: DELTA". Lincoln looks across the EKG, the cardiograph, indications that Starkweather is still alive. Then he fixes on the RFI m o n i t o r . A resonant image of the brain. The shifting aura showing a level of consciousness. What thoughts must be going through that mind? The fate of the agnates s p a r e d from expiration. To be kept on i c e for future harvest. With a haggard look, Lincoln rests his hand on the glass where Starkweather hangs frozen. Connecting.217 INT . SALES HALL - THE INSTITUTE - DAY An embryo in mutated effigy hangs suspended in the amber fluid. Dr. Sanger stands at the wall of display tanks, mid-way through his sales pitch. He delivers it now with noticeably less gusto- DR. SANGER C a s e in point, the clone. Back in the beginning, the mapping of the human genome was declared a historic landmark- to break the curse of heredity, to correct congenital defect... genetic engineering became the brave new world of medical science. A bright future that led to a dark age and much of... ( a n abrupt pause, a frown) . . . l e g i s l a t i o n we know today. But while the clone laws may have narrowed the field, science marches on. Only to... ( a n o t h e r abrupt pause) I'm sorry, I'm f... S u d d e n l y he clutches his arm, emitting a guttural gasp. LYDIA DR. SANGER? S a n g e r just looks at her. Then jolts from a spasm, clawing at his chest. His knees buckling, he topples against a display case. Pawing at the glass, he slides dreadfully to the ground. 135. LYDIA He's having a heart attack! A doctor! Somebody get a doctor in here! The tour group keeps their distance, unsettled by the face of mortality. Sanger is now lying in contortion on the floor, his gaping eyes fixed on the display tank. The embryo in mutated effigy, rocking about in the amber fluid. The sight of this little human monster is one that will follow him to the grave.218 INT . DIRECTOR'S OFFICE - CONTAINMENT The glass wall looks down on the avenue and the agnates m i l l i n g beneath. Merrick sits at his console. Business as usual. Off a buzz, he taps a button. The door opens and A CENSOR bursts in- CENSOR S i r , I've been trying to contact you. It's the ether... Something's wrong. Merrick taps another button and the glass wall frosts over. It pixellates o n t o an image of his own face. A recorded playback- Merrick (P/B O N ETHERSCREEN) We l l , Starkweather, if you're watching on etherscreen - your time has come, my friend! You're going to The Island! P / B J U M P CUT TO: STARKWEATHER RUNNING IN AN ULTRAVIOLET HAZE, MEETING WHITE UNIFORMS, ZIGZAGGING OVER CROSSWALKS, DOWN RAMPS. MERRICK ( s t a b s at a key on his console) E t h e r c o n ! Ether control, come in! P / B J U M P CUT TO: STARKWEATHER RUNNING FOR HIS LIFE, LURCHING FROM IMPACTS, HOOKHEADS B I T I N G INTO HIS BACK, SPRAYING BLOOD- MERRICK An y o n e ! Somebody pick up! P / B J U M P CUT TO: STARKWEATHER DANGLING IN MID-AIR LIKE A FISH ON A HOOK -- SCHEER LOOKING UP AT HIM LIKE A CURIOUS ZOO EXHIBIT. CENSOR That's what I mean. We can't get through. The circuits are locked. P / B J U M P CUT TO: STARKWEATHER CLUMPING DOWN A CORRIDOR, C L U T C H I N G HIS OPEN STOMACH, BLOOD STREAMING DOWN HIS LEGS. MERRICK How wide is this going? 136. P/B J U M P CUT TO: CENSORS SHROUDING STARKWEATHER'S FACE WITH A WHITE HOOD -- BINDING HIS WRISTS AND ANKLES IN PLASTIC CUFFS -- CENSOR C o m m u n i t y - w i d e , sir. Everywhere. P / B J U M P CUT TO: CENSORS DRAGGING STARKWEATHER AWAY. THE LOOP OF INTESTINE PLUMPING FROM HIS BELLY. THE BLOODSMEAR O N THE FLOOR.219 INT . CONTAINMENT I N T E R C U T T I N G : Agnates a t workstations watching on visors. In the subway watching on platform banner. In the plaza watching on the glass wall. An agnate in an apartment, watching on a wall panel. P / B J U M P CUT TO: A STILL IMAGE OF STARKWEATHER'S STORAGE TANK. T H E BLINKING GRID OF BIO-MONITORS. T H E SHADOW IN THE BLOCK OF ICE. We are still in the apartment when the playback cuts out. The agnate looks around as every piece of glass dissolves to trans- parency. The mirror panels, the frosted walls, the window, which now shows no view at all. Just the gleam of a holographic lens.220 INT . DIRECTOR'S OFFICE Merrick looks down from the glass wall at the agnates m a s s e d in the avenue beneath. They are all looking directly up at him.221 INT . ETHER CONTROL ROOM Alarms sounding. The ether grid blinking with red dots. Ethercon sitting frozen at the console, the handgun pressed to his head. Lincoln stands over him. His face cast in a chill of vengeance.222 INT . RESIDENTIAL BLOCK - DAY A glass facade. A noise from within. A primal, guttural noise, building to a roar. Now warping as we drop to slow motion. The glass webbing, bursting open from within, the facade exploding in a GLITTERING SHOWER OF SHARDS... S L O W FADE TO BLACK.223 INT . BASEMENT - A YEAR LATER No windows. No clue of where we may be. A safehouse somewhere. The passage of time is marked on Lincoln's face, careworn, long hair, a full beard. He sits in front of a data tablet, his image recorded on its screen. His voice also seems older as he speaks- 137. LINCOLN I t ' s been a year since the breakout. A year in hiding, waiting for things to quiet down. I don't know how many made i t out or how many who did, survived. I know there are people called politicians trying to say it never happened. That's why I've kept this journal. To keep the truth alive. Alive... I've learned what that means but it still confuses me. In functional terms, I've been alive for ten years. In human terms, more than thirty. Human... I'm not sure about that one either. They say I'm not human because I have no mother or father. I guess I have more to learn. But one word I do understand is hope. So maybe this j o u r n a l will give hope - to those like me, who may be out there. To know t h e y ' r e not alone. My name is Lincoln S i x - E c h o and this is my testament... He sits back, contemplating the screen with an air of closure. Then he stirs at a sound. At first just a gurgle. Then a moan. Becoming the sound of A BABY CRYING. Lincoln crosses to a cot. He lifts up a baby boy, 6 months old, bawling and squirming. A WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Is he hungry again? I just fed him. Ester steps into the room, sleep-mussed, her beauty deepened by maternity. The baby reaches out for her. Lincoln hands him over- LINCOLN Lincoln Junior, huh? It still doesn't sound right. That name. ESTER I t ' s the name of his father. She lovingly kisses him. Lincoln smiles at her, then the baby, sweeping the hair from the forehead. Unscarred, blemishless. LINCOLN We should finish packing.224 EXT . JETTY - THE PACIFIC COAST - DAWN A private jetty stretches out to a pile of supply canisters. A yacht is moored. We recognized it as John's boat. And we recognize Katherine, holding the baby as Lincoln and Ester finish loading. The last canister stowed, Lincoln comes up to her. He smiles at the sight of her with the baby. Then prompts her gently- 138. LINCOLN Time to go. Katherine hesitates, part of her unwilling to let the baby go. Then she plants a lingering kiss on his downy hair and lets Ester take him. Lincoln presents her with the data tablet- LINCOLN You'll make sure this gets out? KATHERINE Yes . There are people sympathetic to the cause. I'm going to get it to them. LINCOLN Thank you, Katherine. For everything. He smiles. Katherine points to a canister left on the dock. KATHERINE Don't forget that. It has the operating manuals for the boat. LINCOLN I've been looking at them for months. KATHERINE But the maps, the charts... LINCOLN ( b e a t ; a meaningful look) I don't need them either. Katherine nods, understanding. Nothing more to say, she hugs him. Then turns to Ester with the baby. She folds them in a yearning, almost maternal embrace. Tears well in her eyes. Then the sorrow turns to laughter as the baby starts tugging at her gray hair.225 EXT . THE PACIFIC - DAWN The sun rises in the east, casting the coastline in silhouette. The light glows across Lincoln's face, at the helm of the yacht, staring back to the shore. He looks at Ester sitting beside him, the baby swaddled in a blanket at her breast. Then he looks out to the west, to the soft reach of dawn and the boundless horizon of sea. There never was an island. But perhaps there will be... T H E END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_It Happened One Night.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_It Happened One Night.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c28665d5bebe2ad3eaa6c7e87d1f942e14122ead --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_It Happened One Night.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT Written by Robert previous hit Riskin based on a story by Samuel Hopkins Adams The HARBOR at Miami Beach fades in, providing quick views of yachts, aquaplanes, and luxurious ship-craft lying at anchor in the calm, tranquil waters of tropical Florida. This dissolves to the NAME PLATE on the side of a yacht, reading "ELSPETH II," and this in turn to a YACHT CORRIDOR where a steward is standing in front of a cabin door, near a small collapsible table upon which there is a tray of steaming food. He lifts lids and examines the contents. A heavy-set sailor stands guard near the cabin door.[1] STEWARD Fine! Fine! She ought to like this. (to the guard) Open the door. GUARD (without moving) Who's gonna take it in to her? You? STEWARD Oh, no. (turning) Mullison! Come on! The view widens to include Mullison, a waiter. His eye is decorated with a "shiner." MULLISON Not me, sir. She threw a ketchup bottle at me this morning. STEWARD Well, orders are orders! Somebody's gotta take it in. (he turns to someone else) Fredericks! The view moves to another waiter, who has a patch of bandage on his face. FREDERICKS Before I bring her another meal, I'll be put off the ship first. STEWARD'S VOICE Henri! The view moves over to a Frenchman. HENRI (vehemently) No, Monsieur. When I leave the Ritz you do not say I have to wait on crazy womans. The view moves back to include the Steward and the others grouped around him. ANOTHER WAITER (A COCKNEY) My wife was an angel compared to this one, sir. And I walked out on her . ? 208 ? GUARD (impatiently) Come on! Make up your mind! A petty officer approaches. He is blustering and officious, but the type that is feeble and ineffective. His name is Lacey. LACEY (talking quicklyóstaccato) What's up? What's up? There is a fairly close picture of the GROUP featuring Lacey and the Steward. STEWARD These pigs! They're afraid to take her food in. LACEY That's ridiculous! Afraid of a mere girl! (he wheels on the steward) Why didn't you do it yourself? STEWARD (more afraid than the othersóstammering) WhyóIówell, I never thought aboutó LACEY (shoving him aside) I never heard of such a thing! Afraid of a mere girl. (moving to the tray) I'll take it in myself. They all stand around and watch him, much relieved. He picks up the tray and starts toward the door of the cabin. LACEY (as he walksómuttering) Can't get a thing done unless you do it yourself. (as he approaches the door) Open the door. We see him at the CABIN DOOR as the guard quickly and gingerly unlocks it. LACEY Afraid of a mere girl! Ridiculous. Lacey stalks in bravely, the tray held majestically in front of him, while the steward and waiters form a circle around the door, waiting expectantly. There is a short pause, following which Lacey comes hurling out backwards and lands on his back, the tray of food scattering all over him. The steward quickly bangs the door shut and turns the key as the waiters stare silently. The scene dissolves to the MAIN DECK of the yacht, first affording a close view of a pair of well-shod masculine feet, as they pace agitatedly back and forth. Then as the scene draws back, the possessor of the pacing feet is discovered to be Alexander Andrews, immaculately groomed in yachting clothes. In front of him stands a uniformed Captain, but Andrews, brows wrinkled, deep in thought, continues his pacing. ? 209 ? ANDREWS (murmuring to himself) On a hunger strike, huh? (a grunt) When'd she eat last? CAPTAIN She hasn't had a thing yesterdayóor today. ANDREWS Been sending her meals in regularly? CAPTAIN Yessir. She refuses them all. ANDREWS (snappily) Why didn't you jam it down her throat? CAPTAIN It's not quite that simple. (he shakes his head) I've dealt with prisoners in my time, but this oneó ANDREWS Absurd! (muttering) All this fuss over a snip of a girl. (suddenly) I'm going down to see her myself. He leaves with determination, followed by the Captain, and both are then seen walking in the direction of the cabin, Andrews grim. CAPTAIN This is dangerous business, Mr. Andrews. After all, kidnapping is no child's play. But Andrews ignores him and merely stares grimly forward. They arrive in front of the cabin door, where Lacey is brushing himself off, and where a couple of waiters are picking up the last pieces of the broken dishes. ANDREWS What's this! What's happened here? LACEY (pathetically) She refused another meal, sir. ANDREWS Get another tray ready. Bring it here at once. (to the guard) Open the door. The Guard unlocks the door and Andrews enters. Then we get a view of the CABIN at the door, as Andrews enters and closes the door behind him. He looks around and his eyes light on his prisoner, following which the view swings over to ELLIE, a beautiful girl in her early twenties. At the moment, she holds a small vase over her head ready to heave it, and her eyes flash angrily. At sight of her new visitor, however, she lowers the vase and sets it on a small table. ? 210 ? ELLIE What do you want? Andrews doesn't stir from the door. ANDREWS What's this about not eating? ELLIE (sitting) I don't want to eat! (raising her voice) And there's one more thing I don't want! Definitely! That's to see you. She lights a cigarette. Andrews watches her a moment. ANDREWS Know what my next move is? No more cigarettes. ELLIE Why don't you put me in chains? ANDREWS I might. ELLIE (now seen at close range) All right! Put me in chains! Do anything you want! But I'm not going to eat a thing until you let me off this boat! She stares petulantly out at the blue sky, but Andrews comes over and sits beside her. ANDREWS (tenderly) Come on, Ellie. Stop being silly. You know I'm going to have my way. ELLIE (moving away) I won't stand for it! I won't stand for your running my life! Why do you insist on it! ANDREWS (still tender) You ought to know why. Becauseó ELLIE (interrupting) Yes. I know. (she's heard it a million times) Because I'm your daughter and you love me. Because you don't want me to make any mistakes. Becauseó ANDREWS (joining in) Because marrying that fool King Westley isó ? 211 ? ELLIE (snappily) You're wasting your time. I'm already married to him. ANDREWS (sharply) Not so far as I'm concerned, you're not. (they are interrupted by a knock at the door) ANDREWS Yes? The door opens and several waiters parade in with trays of steaming food. ELLIE (starting for them; threateningly) How many times have I told you not to bring any food in here. The waiters back up, frightened, but Andrews saves them. ANDREWS Wait a minute! Don't get excited! This isn't for you. (to the waiters) Put it right here. Ellie glares at her father, and wanders over to the window seat, while the waiters occupy themselves setting the table. Andrews putters around the food, lifting the lids from which tempting aromas emanate. He shuts his eyes, murmuring "oohs" and "ahs." A close-up of ELLIE shows her, too, drinking in the inviting aromas; and for a moment she weakens. A close view of ANDREWS shows him glancing toward Ellie to see her reaction; whereupon Ellie's face (again appearing in a close-up) freezes. Then Andrews and the waiters come into view. FIRST WAITER Anything else, Monsieur? ANDREWS No. Everything seems quite satisfactory. I may want some more of that delicious gravy. I'll ring. WAITER Very good, Monsieur. The waiters bow their way out as Andrews pecks at the food. ANDREWS (making clucking noise) Heavenly! Now Ellie appears in the foreground, with Andrews at the table in the background. ELLIE (disdainfully) Smart, aren't you! So subtle. ? 212 ? ANDREWS (chewing on a mouthful of food) If Gandhi had a chef like Paul, it would change the whole political situation in India. ELLIE You can't tempt me. (shouting unnecessarily) Do you hear? I won't eat! ANDREWS (quietly) Please. I can't fight on an empty stomach. Remember what Napoleon said. ELLIE I hope you're not comparing yourself to Napoleon. He was a strategist. Your idea of strategy is to use a lead pipe. Andrews eats silently while Ellie rants at him, walking around and puffing vigorously on her cigarette. ELLIE (muttering) Most humiliating thing ever happened to me. (shuddering) A bunch of gorillas shoving me in a car! That crowd outside the justice of the peaceómust have thought I was a criminalóor something. A close view of ANDREWS intercuts with part of Ellie's speech. At the end of her speech he smacks his lips, enjoying the food with too great a relish. Then the two are seen together. ELLIE (after a pauseóstrongly) Where are you taking me? ANDREWS (carelessly) South America. ELLIE (aghast) South America! ANDREWS We leave Miami in an hour. Soon's we get some supplies aboard. ELLIE (threateningly) You'll have a corpse on your hands! That what You'll have. I won't eat a thing while I'm on this boat. ANDREWS (buttering bread) In that event, we won't need so many supplies. ? 213 ? ELLIE (exasperated) What do you expect to accomplish by all this? I'm already married! ANDREWS I'll get it annulled. ELLIE You'll never do it! You can't do it! ANDREWS (now seen close as he speaks between snatches of food) I'll do it if it takes every penny I've got. I'll do it if I have to bribe that musical comedy Justice of the Peace! I'll do itóif I have to prove that you were dragged in, staggering drunk. You probably were. (he smacks his lips) Mmmómmm. This filet mignon is divine! ELLIE (seen with her father) What've you got against King Westley? ANDREWS Nothing much. I just think he's a fake, that's all. ELLIE You only met him once . ANDREWS That was enough. Do you mind handing me the ketchup? ELLIE You talk as if he were a gigoloóor something. ANDREWS (risingóreaching for ketchup) Never mindóI'll get it myself. (he falls back in his chair) Gigolo? Why, you took the word right out of my mouth. Thanks. ELLIE (seen closer now, with Andrews) He's one of the best fliers in the country. Right now he's planning a trip to Japan. ANDREWS You're going to finance him, I suppose. ELLIE Why not? Look what he's doing for aviation. It takes courage to do what he does. And character! At least he's accomplished something worthwhile. I suppose you'd like to have me marry a business man. Well, I hate business menóparticularly if you're a shining example. ? 214 ? He grins, not at all offended, knowing she doesn't mean it. ELLIE Your whole life is devoted to just one thing. To accumulate more money. At least there's romance in what he's doing. ANDREWS (unequivocally) He's no good, Ellie, and you know it. You married him only because I told you not to. ELLIE (strongly) You've been telling me what not to do since I was old enough to remember. (screaming) I'm sick of it! And as Andrews ignores her, she starts moving around the table toward him.óNext she appears sitting on the edge of Andrews' chair, and she throws her arm around his shoulder. ELLIE (pleading sweetly) Aw, listen, Dad. Let's not fight like this any more. I know you're worried about meóand want me to be happy. And I love you for it. But please try to understand. You're not being fair, darling. This isn't just a crazy impulse of mine. King and I talked about it a lot before we decided to get married. Lookówhy can't we give it a trialólet's sayófor a year or so. If it's wrong, King and I will be the first to know it. We can get a divorce, can't we? Now, be a dear, and let me off the boat. Keeping me prisoner like this is so silly. Andrews has been listening silently throughout the speech, giving no indication of his feelings in the matter. ANDREWS (unimpressed) You'll be set free when the marriage is annulled. A close-up of ELLIE, her eyes blazing angrily, shows her slowly edging away from her father, while he continues. ANDREWS' VOICE (carelessly) So there's no use being a stubborn idiot. ELLIE (hissing) I come from a long line of stubborn idiots! ANDREWS (again seen with her; calmly) A time will come when you'll thank me for this. ELLIE (wildly) I won't thank you! I'll never thank you! ? 215 ? ANDREWS Please don't shout. ELLIE I'll shout to my heart's content! I'll scream if I want to. ANDREWS (reaching for it) Ah! Coconut layer cake. Nice and gooey, too. Just the way I like it. He is about to insert the first bite in his mouth when Ellie, her temper vanishing completely, overturns the small serving table, dumping its contents into her father's lap. The movement is so unexpected that Andrews, the fork still suspended near his mouth, stares at her stupefied. Then realizing what she has done, his eyes flash in anger. Dropping his fork, he rises and goes over to her, while she stands facing him defiantly. Without a word or warning, he slaps her a stinging blow across the cheek. For a moment she doesn't stir, her eyes widening in surprise, and staring at him unbelievingly. Then turning abruptly she bolts out of the door. Andrews remains motionless, his eyes shutting painfully; it is the first time he has struck her, and it hurts. ANDREWS (calling) Ellie! (and he starts for the door) Next on the DECK, at the open cabin door, Andrews is seen, staring off at something and an amazed, frightened look comes into his eyes. Then, as viewed from his position at the cabin door, Ellie appears standing on the rail; and with a professional dive, she leaps into the water. A full view of the DECK reveals the crew and the officers scurrying around, several of them shouting: "Somebody overboard!" ANDREWS It's my daughter! Go after her. CAPTAIN (shouting) Lower the boats! General excitement reigns; several of the crew dive into the water; others release the boat lines. Following this Ellie is seen swimming furiously against the giant waves. Next she appears as a small speck in the distance, while half a dozen of the crew are swimming in pursuit. At the SIDE OF THE YACHT one of the boats has already been lowered, and two men jump in and grab the oars. The men seem to be gaining on Ellie. In the distance several small motor boats are anchored, and over the sides of the boats their owners are fishing. Ellie seems to be headed in their direction. One of the motor boats appears closer. A middle-aged man sits on the stern, holding lazily to his line, his feet dangling in the water as the boat is tossed around by the turbulent waves. ELLIE is then again seen swimming. She looks back, and the next scene shows the men rowing toward her, and gaining on her. Thereupon we see Ellie ducking under the water. ? 216 ? The middle-aged fisherman is suddenly startled by Ellie's face which appears from under water, right between his legs. Ellie puts her finger up to her lips, warning him to shush, and he is too dumb-founded to say anything. As the pursuing boats come near, Ellie ducks under the water again and the boats scoot right by the fisherman. Then Ellie's head bobs up; she peers ahead of her, and seeing that her pursuers have passed her, she smiles victoriously. ELLIE (to the fisherman) Thanks. (and she starts swimming toward shore) The scene dissolves to the DECK of the YACHT as Ellie's pursuers clamber aboard, Andrews waiting for them. A MAN Sorry, sir. She got away. ANDREWS (disappointed but proud) Of course she got awayótoo smart for you. CAPTAIN What a hell cat. No controlling these modern girls. (murmuring) They're terrible! ANDREWS (resentfully) Terrible! Nothing terrible about her. She's great! Marvelous youngster! Got a mind of her own. Knows just what she wants. (smiling) She's not going to get it though. She won't get very far. Has no money. CAPTAIN What about that diamond wrist watch she had onóshe can raise some money on that? ANDREWS (his face falling) Holy Smoke! I forgot all about that. (to the officer by his side) Send a wireless at once, "Lovington Detective Agency. Daughter escaped again. Watch all roadsóall transports and railroad stations in Miami. Have your New York office keep tabs on King Westley. Intercept all messages. Want her back at all costs!" OFFICER Yessir. The view draws in to afford a close-up of ANDREWS staring out at the sea, his face wreathed in a broad smile; then this fades out. Part Two The RAILROAD STATION of an active terminal in Miami fades in. The view moves down to the entrance gate to the trains, passengers hur- ? 217 ? rying through it; then picks out two men, obviously detectives, who have their eyes peeled on everyone passing through. Then the view affords a glimpse of ELLIE, who stands watching the detectives. This scene wiping off, we see an AIR TRANSPORT, with several planes tuning up in the background. As passengers file through, several detectives stand around in a watchful pose. This scene wiping off, the front of a WESTERN UNION OFFICE comes into view. Several people walk in and out. At the side of the door, two detectives are on the lookout. This scene also wipes off, revealing the WAITING ROOM of a BUS STATION. Over the ticket window there is a sign reading "BUY BUS TICKETS HERE," and a line forms in front of it. Here too there are two detectives. FIRST DETECTIVE We're wastin' our time. Can you picture Ellie Andrews ridin' on a bus? SECOND DETECTIVE I told the old man it was the bunk. The view moves from them to ELLIE, who stands behind a post and is watching the two detectives apprehensively. As the two (viewed from her position) stand by the ticket window, one of them turns toward her. Thereupon, we see her slipping behind a post, concealing herself. Just then a little old lady approaches her. OLD LADY Here's your ticket, ma'am. ELLIE Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. (she takes the ticket and change from the old lady, and hands her a bill) Here. OLD LADY Oh, thank you. Thank you. ELLIE When does the bus leave? OLD LADY In about fifteen minutes. ELLIE Thank you. She picks up a small overnight bag from the floor and hurries away. She crosses to the entrance of the waiting room and disappears through the doors. The view then wings over to a telephone booth near the entrance. Clustered around the booth are half a dozen men of varied appearance. The inside of the booth is lighted, and a young man, Peter Warne, waves his hands wildly as he shouts into the phone, although it is impossible to hear what he is saying. A close inspection of the men surrounding the booth (the scene contracting to a close view) reveals them as being slightly and happily intoxicated. A short man approaches the door of the booth. ? 218 ? SHORTY Hey, what's going on here? I'd like to use that phone. FIRST MAN (a reporter) Shh! Quiet. This is history in the making. SHORTY What? FIRST MAN There's a man biting a dog in there. SECOND MAN (drunker than the rest) Atta-boy, Petey, old boy! Atta-boy!ó PETER'S VOICE I'm not going to stand for this any longer. In a pig's eye, you will!ó GROUP Is that so? That's telling him, Petey old boy. A close view of PETER WARNE in the telephone booth gives evidence of his having also imbibed freely. PETER (shouting into the phone) Listen, monkey-faceówhen you fired me, you fired the best newshound your filthy scandal sheet ever had. And the scene cuts to a New York NEWSPAPER OFFICE where the night editor, Gordon, his sleeves rolled up, sits at his desk shrieking into the phone. GORDON Say, listen, you wouldn't know a story if it reached up and kicked you in the pants. (listening) Yeah? Sure, sure, I got your copy. Why didn't you tell me you were going to write it in Greek? I'd start a new department. PETER (again seen close at the phone) That was free verse, you gashouse palooka! GORDON (at the phone in the newspaper office) Free verse, huh? (shouting) What the dickens was free about it? It cost this paper a gob of dough. Well, I'm here to tell you, it's not gonna cost us any more. ? 219 ? PETER (in his phone booth) That's okay by me! 'Cause as far as I'm concerned, I'm through with newspapers! See? I'm through with stupidity! I'll never write another newspaper story, for you or anybody else, if I have to starve. (after a pause) Yeah? What about my novel! When I get through with tható GORDON (in his office) When you get through with that, I'll have a beard down to my ankles. (at this point, Gordon's secretary enters) SECRETARY Mr. Gordonó GORDON (looking up) Huh? SECRETARY Did you know he reversed the charges on that call? GORDON What! (into the phone) Say, listen you! When you get back to New York, take my advice and stay f-a-r away from this officeóunless you don't care what happens to that funny map of yours. (he bangs down the receiver viciously and glowers at the phone) In the PHONE BOOTH Peter reacts to the phone being hung up on him. But he goes right on for the benefit of the boys. PETER (into the dead phone) Oh, so you're changing your tune, eh? Well, it's about time. But it's going to do you no good, my tough friend. It's a little too late for apologies. I wouldn't go back to work for you if you begged me on your hands and knees! I hope this is a lesson to you! He snaps up the receiver with a great pretense of outraged pride, following which the view expands to include his public. MEN Atta-boy, Peter. That's telling him, Peter. The gang is full of admiration for the courageous way he talked to the boss as Peter staggers out of the booth. PETER Give me any of his lip, will he? Huh! I guess he knows now what I think of his job! (expansively) Is my chariot ready? ? 220 ? FIRST MAN Your chariot awaiteth withouteth, oh mighty King. MEN Make way for the King. Long live the King. Make way. With head held high, he struts majestically out of sight, followed by his admirers, following which the scene dissolves to the BUS STATION. His inebriated admirers stand around the entrance to a bus, while Peter stands on the steps, his suitcase in his hand. PETER (making a grand speech) That's right, my friends. Cling to your jobs! Remain slaves the rest of your lives! Scum of the earth! Newspaper men! Not me! When I'm basking in the glorious arms of the Museówhat'll you be doing? Chasing news. You miserable worms. For what? A mere pittance! My heart goes out to you. (with arms extended and in tremolo voice) Good-bye. (and with this he turns his back and enters the bus) MEN (in the same spirit) Goodbye, Oh mighty King! Peace be with you, Courageous One! ANNOUNCER'S VOICE All aboard. Philadelphia, New York. All aboard. GROUP Look out. Get back. Farewell. Farewell. PETER Scram. The scene cuts to the INTERIOR of the BUS as viewed from the front, the view moving forward, passing the conglomerate of unprepossessing human beings who occupy the seats. Every space is taken and the occupants seem hot and uncomfortable, which adds to their uninviting appearance. Mothers cling to crying babies. A Swedish farm hand and his young wife are already busy opening their basket of food prepared for the long journey. A surly-looking hoodlum traveling alone is slumped in his seat, his cap drawn carelessly over his eyes. The moving view passes these and other characters until it reaches one unoccupied seat in the car, unoccupied except for several bundles of newspapers. Standing before the seat is Peter, his suitcase in his hand, speculating as to what disposition to make of the newspapers. PETER (calling) Hey, driver! How about clearing this stuff away! Several passengers (seen from his position in the back) crane their necks to scrutinize the intruder. Through a glass partition the driver can be seen receiving his last minute instructions from a superintendent, who stands on the running board, their voices in- ? 221 ? distinguishable. In answer to Peter's request, the driver glances back indifferently, and continues talking to the superintendent. A close view of PETER shows him arching his eyebrows, an amused acknowledgment of the disdainful attitude of the driver. He drops his suitcase and starts forward. Then we see him arriving at the glass partition, and Peter taps playfully on the pane with his finger-nails, whereupon the driver turns and pulls the window down a few inches. DRIVER (annoyed) Whadda you want! PETER (pleasantly) If you'll be good enough to remove those newspapers I'll have a seat. DRIVER (irritably) Okay! Okay! Keep your shirt on, young feller. (with which remark the driver turns away from him) PETER (looking at the back of the driver's neck for a moment, then confidentially) Just between you and me, I never intended taking it off. He wheels around uncertainly and swaggers jauntily down the aisle toward the empty seat. En route he bestows genial smiles upon several of his disgruntled fellow passengers, and he stops in front of a robust lady who at the moment is breastfeeding her baby while a lighted cigarette dangles from her lips. PETER Personally, I was raised on a bottle. (as the woman looks up at him, perplexed) When I was a baby, I insisted on it. You know why? (as the woman stares up stupidly) I never liked the idea of getting cigarette ashes in my eyes. He moves forward, leaving the woman unable to make head or tail of it; and assuming that he's crazy, she shrugs her shoulders and turns her attention to the baby. Now PETER arrives at his seat, and whistling softly, raises the window. Unhurriedly, he picks the newspaper bundles up one by one and flings them out of the window. They hit the sidewalk below with a dull thud. Thereupon a close view of the DRIVER shows him reacting violently to Peter's unprecedented cheek, and starting down from his seat. PETER has now cleared the seat of all the newspaper bundles and still whistling his favorite melody, he picks up his suitcase preparatory to placing it in the rack overhead. At this point, the driver enters the side door of the bus. DRIVER (pugnaciously) Hey, wait a minute! ? 222 ? Peter, his arms holding the suitcase over his head, turns and glances at the driver, a quizzical look in his eyes. DRIVER (coming forward) What do you think you're doing! PETER (turning) Huh? DRIVER (bellowing) The papers! The papers! Whadda you mean throwin' 'em out! PETER Ohóthe papersó He slowly lowers his arms and deposits the suitcase on the floor. PETER (now seen close, with the Driver) That's a long story, my friend. You see, I don't like sitting on newspapers. I did once and all the headlines came off on my white pants. DRIVER Hey, whadda you tryin' to doókid me? PETER Oh, I wouldn't kid you . On the level, it actually happened. Nobody bought a paper that day. They followed me all over town and read the news from the seat of my pants. DRIVER What're you gonna do about the papers? Somebody's gotta pick 'em up. PETER (turning to his suitcase) It's okay with me. I'm not arguing. DRIVER (pugnaciously) Fresh guy, huh! What you need is a good sock on the nose. PETER (turning back to him) Look here, partner. You may not like my nose. But I do. It's a good nose. The only one I've got. I always keep it out in the open where anybody can take a sock at it. If you decide to do it, make sure you don't miss. During his speech, Ellie enters from the rear and plunks herself into Peter's seat. Unseen by Peter, she places her small bag beside her. ? 223 ? DRIVER (answering Peter; weakly) Oh, yeah? PETER Now, that's a brilliant answer. Why didn't I think of it? Our conversation could have been over long ago. DRIVER Oh, yeah? PETER (exhausted) You win! Smiling, he turns to sit down. But the smile dies on his face when he finds his place occupied by Ellie, who stares out the window. PETER (now at close range, with Ellie) Excuse me, ladyó (slowly)ó but that upon which you sitóis mine. Ellie glances up at himóthen down at her buttocks. ELLIE (eyes flashing) I beg your pardon! PETER Now, listen. I'm in a very ugly mood. I put up a stiff battle for that seat. So if it's just the same to youó (gesturing with thumb) scram. ELLIE (ignoring himócalling) Driver! The driver, who has stopped to witness this new altercation, returns. ELLIE Are those seats reserved? DRIVER (pleased to discomfort Peter) No. First come, first served. ELLIE (dismissing the whole thing) Thank you. (Peter, thwarted for a moment, just glares at her) PETER (also calling) Driver! DRIVER Yeah? ? 224 ? PETER These seats accommodate two passengers, don't they? DRIVER (hating to give in) Maybe they doóand maybe they don't. Peter lifts Ellie's overnight bag off the seat and drops it on the floor. Part of her coat covers the small space by her side. This he sweeps across her lap. PETER Move over, lady. This is a "maybe they do." He plops into the seat, the other passengers around them heaving a sigh of relief. Ellie flashes him a devastating look and deliberately turns her back on him. But Peter suddenly looks down toward the floor, following which a close-up AT THEIR FEET reveals that Ellie's bag on the floor annoys Peter. With his foot he slowly moves it over to her, and Ellie's foot is seen pushing it back, whereupon Peter viciously kicks it over to her side again. Next we see Ellie glaring at him, picking up her bag, and standing on the seat depositing it on the rack overhead. But just then the bus starts forward with a lurch which unbalances her, and she falls backward right in Peter's lap. Their noses almost touch. Their eyes meet, and they glare at each other hostilely. Ellie quickly scrambles off and gets back in her seat, turning her back on him. PETER (amused) Next time you drop in, bring your folks. This dissolves to a COUNTRY ROAD, and the bus sways perilously as it speeds through the night, following which the view dissolves to the INTERIOR of the BUS, revealing Peter slumped in his seat, his hat drawn over his eyes. Ellie has her head thrown back, trying to sleep. But the swaying bus causes her head to roll from side to side uncomfortably, and finally she gives up. ELLIE (an order) Tell that man not to drive so fast. (at which Peter just cocks his head slightly) PETER Are you talking to me? ELLIE Yes. Tell that man to drive slowly. Peter stares at her a moment, resenting her officious manner. PETER (pleasantly) Okay. And much to her surprise, he sighs deeply and relaxes to his former position, shutting his eyes. She glares at him crushingly. The scene dissolves to another view of the BUS, disclosing the driver, and suddenly the bus comes to a stop. ? 225 ? DRIVER (sticking his head in to face the passengers) Rest station! Ten minutes! The view draws back as some of the passengers rise. The men stretch their legs, and the women straighten out their skirts. A close view of Peter and Ellie then shows her rising. Peter accommodatingly shoves his feet aside for her to pass, and Ellie starts up the aisle. But she suddenly stops; looks back, first at her bag and then at Peter; decides to take her bag with her, and returns to take it. She reaches for it on the rack, Peter watching her, amused. The scene dissolves to the outside of the REST STATION with several passengers walking briskly back and forth. The place is dimly lit by one or two lamp-posts, and Peter can be seen leaning against one of these posts, smoking a cigarette. The scene moving in, a close view of Peter shows him stealing a glance in the direction of Ellie. And a view, from his angle, reveals Ellie in the shadow of the bus, her bag at her feet. She slowly turns her head toward Peter and then quickly averts it. PETER (seen close) speculates about her. He glances around the place, and the scene moves about, following his gaze. It takes in the other passengers, all obviously poor and uncultured. The moving view reaches Ellie. The contrast is perceptible. Thereupon, we see Peter reacting with comprehension: No doubt about it! She doesn't belong with these passengers. Then suddenly he sees something which startles him, and we see what it is: Directly in back of her, the young hoodlum passenger slyly lifts her overnight bag from the ground and starts running with it. Ellie is oblivious of his actions. PETER springs forward. Ellie sees Peter coming toward her and is perceptibly startled. But Peter whizzes by her, and this amazes her even more. She shrugs her shoulders, perplexed, and resumes her smoking. In a few seconds Peter returns, puffing breathlessly. PETER He got away. I suddenly found myself in the middle of the brush and not a sign of the skunk. ELLIE (seen close with PETER) doesn't know what he's talking about. She looks at him, puzzled. ELLIE I don't know what you're raving about, young man. And, furthermore, I'm not interested. PETER (taken aback) Wellóof all theówelló (hard) Maybe you'll be interested to know your bag's gone. At this, Ellie wheels around and stares at the spot where her bag had been. ELLIE Oh, my heavens! It's gone! ? 226 ? PETER (sarcastically) Yeah. I knew you'd catch on eventually. ELLIE What happened? PETER That cadaverous-looking yegg[2] who sat in front of us, just up and took it. Boy, how that baby can run! ELLIE What am I going to do now? PETER Don't tell me your ticket was in it? ELLIE (opening her purse) No, I've got that, all right. But my money. All I have here is four dollars. I've got to get to New York with it. PETER You can wire home for some money when we get to Jacksonville. ELLIE Why, noóIó (catching herself) Yes . . . I guess I will. PETER (starting out) I'll report it to the driver. About your bag, I mean. ELLIE (quickly) No. I'd rather you didn't. PETER Don't be a fool. You lost your bag. The company'll make good. What's your name? ELLIE I don't want it reported! PETER Why, that's ridiculous! They're responsible for everything tható ELLIE (hotly) See here, can you understand English! I don't want it reported! (she starts away) Please stay out of my affairs! I want to be left alone. (with which she disappears from the scene) A close-up of PETER shows him glaring after her. ? 227 ? PETER (mumbling) Why, you ungrateful brat! The scene dissolves to the BUS, where all the passengers are scattering back to their seats; Peter is already seated, when Ellie arrives. A close view then shows her standing uncertainly for a moment, speculating whether to cross over his legs to get her place by the window. Peter feels her presence by his side and glances up. She tosses her head and plants herself in the seat in front of him, vacated by the young man who stole her bag. Peter takes the affront with a shrug and slides over gratefully to the coveted spot near the window. The scene dissolves to a close view of Ellie and a recently arrived fat man next to her. She has her head thrown back in an effort to sleep, but the fat man, his hands clasped over his protruding stomach, snores disgustingly, and the rumble of the flying bus accompanies him. Suddenly the bus careens, the fat man falls against Ellie, and she awakens with a start and pushes him back. The fat man's snoring goes on uninterrupted, and Ellie relaxes again; but in a few seconds the procedure is repeated, and Ellie is beside herself. She looks around for somewhere to flee. PETER, seated in back of her, in his customary slumped position, opens his eyes slightly. It is apparent he has been watching her for some time, for he grins at her discomfiture. Ellie's head turns in his direction and the grin leaves Peter's face. He shuts his eyes and pretends to be asleep. Ellie glances at Peter to make certain he is asleep. The fat man falls against her again and it is all she can stand. She starts to rise. Peter sees her coming and deliberately puts his hand on the seat next to him, still pretending to be asleep. Just as Ellie starts to sit, she notices his hand and is embarrassed. Gingerly she picks up his limp hand and places it on his knee. She then slides into the seat, sighing with relief, whereupon Peter opens his eyes and is amused. Slowly his head turnsóand he scrutinizes her, soberly and appraisingly. Ellie slowly turns her head for a glimpse of Peteróand is startled to find him gazing at her. She turns forward, her jaw set forbiddingly. The scene dissolves to the view of a ROAD. It is dawn, and in the distance, against the horizon, the bus, a mere speck, makes its lone way over the deserted country. This dissolves to a large SIGN, reading "JACKSONVILLE," and then into the BUS affording a close view of ELLIE and PETER. They are both asleep, her head resting comfortably on his shoulder, Peter's topcoat thrown over her. Then the view draws back. The bus is empty except for Ellie and Peter, the last few passengers are just leaving. PETER's eyes slowly open. He looks down at the head on his shoulder and grins. With a sigh, he shuts his eyes again and resumes his slumber. Next, at the front of the bus, the DRIVER stands staring at Peter and Ellie in this intimate position and his mouth twists knowingly. DRIVER (murmuring) Oh, yeah? ELLIE stirs, squirms a little uncomfortably and with a sleepy grunt shifts her position. Just as she settles down, her eyes open. She stares out of the window with unseeing eyes, and then closes them ? 228 ? dreamily, giving the impression that, still half conscious, she is trying to recall where she is. Apparently she does, for her eyes suddenly snap open and she lifts her head. Finally (in a scene including Peter), Ellie realizes that she has been sleeping on his shoulder, whereupon she straightens up, embarrassed. ELLIE Oh, I'm sorryó (feebly smiling) Silly, isn't it? She looks around, and her finding herself alone with Peter adds to her embarrassment. ELLIE Everybody's gone. She lifts her arms to adjust her hat and becomes conscious of his coat over her which slips. She stares at it thoughtfully for a momentóthen at Peter. ELLIE (realizing that he put it there) Oh, thank you. (she hands him his coat; ill at ease) We're in Jacksonville, aren't we? PETER Yes. ELLIE (nervously) That was foolish of me. Why didn't you shove me away? PETER I hated to wake you up. (she glances at him speculatively) How about some breakfast? ELLIE No, thank you. (she rises, anxious to get away) Thank you so much. Most uncomfortably, she edges away from him toward the front of the bus, Peter watching her leave, his interest definitely provoked. The scene cuts to the STAND as Ellie emerges from the bus. At the foot of the steps is the driver. ELLIE How much time have I? DRIVER About a half hour. ELLIE I'm going over to the Windsor Hotel. Peter appears in the door of the bus in the background, and a close view then shows him stopping to listen as he sees Ellie talking to the driver. ? 229 ? DRIVER'S VOICE The Windsor! You'll never make it in time. ELLIE'S VOICE You'll have to wait for me. DRIVER'S VOICE (aghast) Wait for you! A smile flits across Peter's face; then a wider view shows Ellie leaving the driver. ELLIE (as she goes) Yes. I may be a few minutes late. She disappears from sight, leaving the driver staring at her, dumbly; and Peter, standing in back of the driver, shakes his head in amazement. The scene dissolves to the BUS STAND later that morningóat the same spot where the bus had previously been. It is no longer there, however. A huge crowd fills the space, and the view moving down through the crowd, singles Ellie out. She has just arrived and looks around helplessly. Finally she spots a uniformed terminal guard and approaches him. ELLIE (now next to the Guard) Where's the bus to New York? GUARD Left twenty minutes ago. ELLIE Why, that's ridiculous! I was on that busóI told them to wait! GUARD Sorry, Miss. It's gone. (and he turns his back on her) Ellie's face clouds. The crowds surge about her. She looks around thoughtfully. Suddenly her eyes open in surprise at something she sees, and the view then moves over to Peter, who sits on his suitcase, looking toward Ellie. PETER Good morning. Peter is in the foreground, the guard is seen in the background. Ellie stares at Peter, perplexed. PETER Remember me? I'm the fellow you slept on last night. ELLIE Seems to me I've already thanked you for that. (turning to guard) What time is the next bus to New York? ? 230 ? GUARD (turning) Eight o'clock tonight. ELLIE Eight o'clock! Why, that's twelve hours! GUARD Sorry, Miss. The Guard leaves the scene, and Ellie's disappointment is apparent. PETER (sarcastically) What's the matter? Wouldn't the old meanies wait for you? (Ellie glares at him, disdaining to replyóthis angers him, and he continues hotly) Say, how old are you anyway? Don't you know these busses work on a schedule? You need a guardian. ELLIE (starting away) What are you excited about? You missed the bus, too. Peter looks at her a moment before replying. PETER (quietly) Yeah. I missed it, too. There is a close view of the two. She turns to him. Her interest is provoked by his tone of voice. She glances up into his face. ELLIE Don't tell me you did it on my account! (pause) I hope you're not getting any idea that what happened last night isó (she interrupts herself) You needn't concern yourself about me, young man. I can take care of myself. PETER You're doing a pretty sloppy job of it. (he reaches in his pocket) Here's your ticket. ELLIE (surprised) My ticket? PETER I found it on the seat. ELLIE (taking it) Oh, thank you. Must have fallen out of my pocket. ? 231 ? While she is putting the ticket away in her purse, Peter speaks: PETER You'll never get away with it, Miss Andrews. (this is a shock to Ellie) ELLIE (weakly) What are you talking about? PETER Just a spoiled brat of a rich man. You and Westley'll make an ideal team. ELLIE (bluffing it through) Will you please tell me what you're raving about! PETER You'll never get away with it, Miss Andrews. Your father'll stop you before you get half way to New York. ELLIE You must have me confused withó PETER (interrupting) Quit kidding! It's all over the front pages, You know, I've always been curious about the kind of a girl that would marry King Westley. He pulls a newspaper out of his pocket and hands it to her. Ellie glances at the headline hurriedly. PETER (while she reads) Take my adviceógrab the first bus back to Miami. That guy's a phony. ELLIE (looking up at him) I didn't ask for your advice. (she hands the paper back) PETER That's right. You didn't. ELLIE You're not going to notify my father, are you? PETER (looking at her squarely) What for? ELLIE If you play your cards right, you might get some money out of it. (a disdainful expression crosses his face) PETER I never thought of that. ? 232 ? ELLIE (frantically) Listen, if you'll promise not to do it, I'll pay you. I'll pay you as much as he will. You won't gain anything by giving me away as long as I'm willing to make it worth your while. I've got to get to New York without being stopped. It's terribly important to me. I'd pay now, only the only thing I had when I jumped off the yacht was my wrist watch and I had to pawn that to get these clothes. I'll give you my address and you can get in touch with me the minute you get to New York. PETER (furious) Never mind. You know I had you pegged right from the start, you're the spoiled brat of a rich father. The only way you can get anything is to buy it. Now you're in a jam and all you can think of is your money. It never fails, does it? Ever hear of the word "Humility"? No, you wouldn't. I guess it never occurred to you to just say, "Please mister, I'm in trouble. Will you help me?" No; that'd bring you down off your high horse for a minute. Let me tell you something; maybe it'd take a load off your mind. You don't have to worry about me. I'm not interested in your money or your problems. You, King Westley, your father, you're all a lot of hooey to me. He turns his back on her and leaves. A close-up of ELLIE shows her staring after him, her eyes blazing angrily. In a TELEGRAPH OFFICE, Peter addresses a girl operator as he drops a telegram on the counter, which she reads. PETER (brusquely) You send telegrams here? OPERATOR (recognizing him apparently, sarcastically) I'm just fine thanks, and how are you? (reading) To "Joe Gordon, care of New York Mail, New York. Am I laughing. The biggest scoop of the year just dropped in my lap. I know where Ellen Andrews isó" (looking up excitedly) No, do you really? PETER (impatiently) Go on. Go on send the telegram. OPERATOR "How would you like to have the story, you big tub ofóofó" PETER Mush. Mush. ? 233 ? OPERATOR "Tub of mush. Well try and get it. What I said about never writing another line for you still goes. Are you burning? Peter Warne." Well, that will be $2.60. PETER Send it collect. OPERATOR Collect? Peter (firmly) Collect. As the clerk takes the wire from him, scene fades out. Part Three The BUS TERMINAL fades in. It is night now, and the rain comes down in torrents. People scurry around to get into the buses as the voice of an announcer is heard: ANNOUNCER'S VOICE Bus for blah-blah-blah-blahóCharlestonóblah-blah-blahóand all points North to New York! This dissolves to the interior of a BUS, which is practically filled. Peter is in his seat, reading a magazine, while Ellie enters hurriedly from the rear door and starts forward. As she approaches Peter, she hesitates a second, and deliberately passes him, plunking herself into a seat in the opposite aisle. Peter turns just as she gets seated. He glances at her indifferently. A close view shows Ellie seated next to a man who sits reading a newspaper which covers his face. Her eyes are fixed forward, her lips set adamantly. A close-up of the MAN next to Ellie makes it plain that he is a typical drummer.[3] At the moment he is absorbed in a serial story, but suddenly he becomes aware of something at his feet, and without lowering the newspaper, his gaze slowly shifts downward. At this, the view moves down until it reaches Ellie's trim ankles. Her feet beat a regular tattoo on the floor; her extreme agitation is evident. The view moves back slowly, taking in Ellie's shapely leg as far as the knee. Then we see ELLIE and the DRUMMER as his gaze is still fixed on her leg. Slowly his face breaks into a lascivious grin, he lowers his paper, and turns for a scrutiny of her face. What he sees apparently delights him, for he drops his paper completelyóand smiles broadly. DRUMMER Hi, sisteróAll alone? My name's Shapeley. (Ellie favors him with a devastating look which is wasted on the drummer) Might as well get acquainted. It's gonna be a long tripógets tiresome later on. Specially for somebody like you. You look like you got class. (he surveys her from head to foot) Yessir! With a capital K. (he chuckles at his own sally) And I'm a guy that knows class when he sees it, believe you me. ? 234 ? A close-up of ELLIE, as Shapeley's voice continues, shows her glancing back at Peter, expecting him to come to her rescue. SHAPELEY'S VOICE Ask any of the boys. They'll tell you. Shapeley sure knows how to pick 'em. Yessir. Shapeley's the name, and that's the way I like 'em. Ellie again looks toward Peter. But PETER seems to have found something of unusual interest in his magazine . . . and we again see the harassed ELLIE and the irrepressible SHAPELEY, who continues. SHAPELEY You made no mistake sitting next to me. (confidentially) Just between us, the kinda muggs you meet on a hop like this ain't nothing to write home to the wife about. You gotta be awful careful who you hit up with, is what I always say, and you can't be too particular, neither. Once when I was comin' through North Carolina, I got to gabbin' with a good-lookin' mama. One of those young ones, you know, and plenty classy, too. Kinda struck my fancy. You know how it is. Well, sir, you could'a knocked me over with a Mack truck. I was just warming up when she's yanked offa the bus. Who do you think she was? Huh? Might as well give up. The girl bandit! The one the papers been writin' about. (he pulls out a cigar, and continuesóawed by the recollection) Yessir, you coulda knocked me over with a Mack truck. (he lights his cigar, takes a vigorous puff, and turns to her again) What's the matter, sister? You ain't sayin' much. ELLIE (intending to freeze him) Seems to me you're doing excellently without any assistance. (this however only brings a guffaw from the drummer) SHAPELEY That's pretty good . . . Well, shut my big nasty mouth! A close-up shows ELLIE enduring more of this as Shapeley's voice continues: SHAPELEY'S VOICE . . . Looks like you're one up on me. Nothin' I like better than to meet a high-class mama that can snap 'em back at you. 'Cause the colder they are, the hotter they get, is what I always say. Now Ellie and Shapeley are seen together, with Peter seen in the background. ? 235 ? SHAPELEY Take this last town I was in. I run into a dameónot a bad looker, eitheróbut boy, was she an iceberg! Every time I opened my kisser she pulls a ten strike on me. It sure looked like cold turkey for old man Shapeley. I sell office supplies, see? And this hotsy-totsy lays the damper on me quick. She don't need a thingóand if she did she wouldn't buy it from a fresh mugg like me. Well, says I to myselfóShapeley, you better go to work. You're up against a lulu. Well, I'm here to tell you, sister, I opened up a line of fast chatter that had that dame spinnin' like a Russian dancer. Before I got through she bought enough stuff to last the firm a year. And did she put on an act when I blew town! Ellie has scarcely listened to him, and has divided her attention between glancing back at Peter and staring at Shapeley as if he were insaneónone of which bothers Shapeley. He goes on with his merry chatter, blowing rings of smoke in the direction of the ceiling. SHAPELEY Yessir. When a cold mama gets hotóboy, how she sizzles! She kinda cramped my style, though. I didn't look at a dame for three towns. (quickly) Not that I couldn't. For me it's always a cinch. I got a much better chance than the local talent. (confidentially) You see, they're kinda leery about the local talent. Too close to home. Know what I mean? ELLIE has now reached the point where she could, without any compunction, strangle him. SHAPELEY'S VOICE (continuing over this glimpse of her desperation) But take a bird like meóit's here todayóand gone tomorrow. And what happens is nobody's business. At this time she turns helplessly toward Peter, but we see PETER being deliberately oblivious of her presence, following which the three are seen, with Peter in the background. SHAPELEY But I don't go in for that kinda stuffómuch. I like to pick my fillies. Take you, for instance. You're my type. No kiddin' sister. I could go for you in a big way. "Fun-on-the-side Shapeley" they call me, and the accent is on the fun, believe you me. (this is all Ellie can stand) ELLIE (snappily) Believe you me, you bore me to distraction. ? 236 ? (but Shapeley merely throws his head back and emits his characteristic guffaw) SHAPELEY (laughing) Well, you're two up on me now. (he holds up two fingers) PETER (approaching them) Hey, you! Shapeley's laugh dies down. He looks dumbly up at Peter, his two fingers still held in mid-air. SHAPELEY Huh? PETER (indicating his own seat) There's a seat over there for you. SHAPELEY What's the idea? PETER I'd like to sit with myóuhówifeóif you don't mind. (at which Shapeley's face falls) SHAPELEY (puzzled) Wife? PETER Yeah. Come onócome on! SHAPELEY (rising) Oh, excuse me. (edging away) I was just tryin'óyou knowóto make things pleasant. And smiling sheepishly, he sidles over to Peter's seat, his two fingers still poised in air. Peter plants himself next to Ellie and totally ignoring her, opens his magazine, and resumes his reading. Then Ellie and Peter are seen close together. She looks up at him. ELLIE If you promise not to snap my head off, I'd like to thank you. PETER (without turning) Forget it. I didn't do it for you. His voice got on my nerves. She feels herself crushed, and ventures no further comment as Peter resumes his interest in his magazine. A full view of the BUS follows, and there is silence for a while as the bus slows down and comes to a stop. Almost simultaneously a boy makes his appearance, selling magazines and candy. ? 237 ? BOY Here you are, folks. Candyópopcornócigarettesómagazinesó As Ellie and Peter are seen again, she turns and calls to the boy: ELLIE Here, boy! PETER (turning to her) What'd you do? Wire one of your friends for money? ELLIE (rummaging in her purse) No. It'd be useless. Father'd get the wire before they would. BOY (as he enters) Yes, ma'am? ELLIE A box of chocolates, please. PETER (to the boy) Never mind, son. She doesn't want it. (he gestures with his thumb for the boy to leave) BOY (puzzled) But the lady saysó ELLIE Of course I do. What do you meanó PETER (to the boy) Beat it! (and the boy, frightened by his voice, leaves) ELLIE (resentfully) You have your nerve! (she starts to rise) Here, boyó! Peter snatches the purse out of her hand and takes the money out. Ellie stares at him dumbfounded. PETER A dollar sixty! . . . You had four dollars last night! How do you expect to get to New York at the rate you're going? ELLIE (vehemently) That's none of your business. PETER (with finality) You're on a budget from now on. ? 238 ? (he flings her purse back at her and pockets the money) ELLIE Now, just a minuteóyou can'tó PETER Shut up! He returns to his magazine, leaving her staring at him petulantly as the scene fades out. Part Four SOMEWHERE ON THE ROAD at night. This is apparently on the outskirts of a town. Two local policemen and our bus driver stand in the foreground near a police booth. The rain sweeps across their faces as they talk. The passengers in the bus, which stands in the background, stick their heads out, trying to hear what is going on. FIRST POLICEMAN You won't be able to pass till morning. SECOND POLICEMAN Not even then, if this keeps up. Peter approaches the group and is then seen with the officers and the driver. PETER What's up? FIRST POLICEMAN Bridge washed outóaround Dawson. DRIVER Looks like we can't go through till morning. SECOND POLICEMAN (his only contribution) Not even then, if this keeps up. FIRST POLICEMAN Any of your passengers want a place to sleepóthere's an auto camp up yonder a piece. PETER (interested) Yeah? Where? FIRST POLICEMAN (pointing) Up yonder. See the lights? PETER Yeah. FIRST POLICEMAN That's it. Dyke's Auto Camp. PETER Thanks. ? 239 ? He dashes toward the bus. Then he appears at the side door of the bus. PETER (calling) Hey, Brató! (he is about to enter when he sees Ellie) The view moves to the rear door of the bus. Ellie stands on the bottom step. ELLIE (haughtily) Are you talking to me! PETER Yeah. Come onówe're stopping here for the night. He disappears inside the bus through the side door. With an independent toss of her head, Ellie turns and also enters the bus, but through the rear door. The scene dissolves to DYKE'S AUTO CAMP. Ellie stands alone on the porch of a small bungalow, sheltered from the rain. Over her head is a sign reading: OFFICE-Dyke Auto Co.óP. D. Dyke, Prop. She looks about her restlessly, giving the impression that she has been waiting for someone. Suddenly she is attracted by something and gazes in its direction. Then, as seen by Ellie in a long view, there appears, about twenty yards away, a small cabin, lighted on the inside; and from it Peter emerges accompanied by a manópresumably Mr. Dyke. We cannot hear what is being said; from their movements, however, it is apparent that an exchange of money is taking place. Dyke waves his hand in departure and starts toward Ellie. At the same time, Peter calls to her: PETER (shouting) Hey! Come on! We're all set. (saying which he enters the cabin) Ellie hesitates a moment, then starts toward the cabin. Now she is hurrying across the open space. En route she passes Dyke. DYKE (as they pass) Good evening. Hope you and your husband rest comfortably. Ellie keeps on running, but suddenly she stops dead and looks back at Dyke, following which a close-up of ELLIE shows her eyes opening wide with astonishment. Her impulse is to call Dyke back, to make him repeat what he saidóto make certain she heard him correctly. But Dyke is gone, and she turns and glances thoughtfully in the direction of the cabin. Then slowly the corners of her mouth screw up in an attitude of cynicism. So that's it, is it! He has given her no previous evidence of being "on the make"; yet now, with the first opportunityó. Her thoughts, however, are interrupted by Peter's voice: PETER'S VOICE Well, Bratówhat do you say! ? 240 ? As she doesn't stir, there appears a close-up view of PETER standing in the doorway of the cabin, looking toward Ellie. PETER (impatiently) Come on! Come on! What are you going to do? Stand there all night? (he disappears inside) For a long moment, ELLIE is lost in speculation as to how to proceed. Then, tossing her head defiantly, with her lips set grimly, she starts toward the cabin until she reaches it, stops in the doorway and peers in. As she does this, there is a view of the inside of the CABIN, as seen by her at the door. Except for two cots on either side of the room, a few sticks of cane furniture, a small table upon which stands an oil burner for cooking, the place is barren. At the moment Peter is attaching a clothes line across the center of the room. His suitcase is already open. And now Ellie steps inside, surveying the place contemptuously. But Peter, with his back to her, is oblivious of her presence; and as he works, he hums his favorite melody. Ellie finally breaks the silence. ELLIE (sarcastically) Darn clever, these Armenians. PETER (seen close as he turns) Yeah. Yeah, it's a gift. (but he finishes his hammering and turns to his suitcase) ELLIE (seen with Peter) I just had the unpleasant sensation of hearing you referred to as my husband. PETER (carelessly) Oh, I forgot to tell you. I registered as Mr. and Mrs. (the matter-of-fact way in which he says this causes her eyebrows to lift) ELLIE Oh, you did? What am I expected to doóleap for joy? PETER I kind of half expected you to thank me. ELLIE Your ego is colossal. PETER (blithely) Yeah. Yeah, not bad. How's your's? There is silence for a moment, and Peter proceeds with the unpacking of his suitcase. As she watches him, Ellie's mood changes from one of anger to that of sarcasm. ? 241 ? ELLIE (appearing in a close-up, her face disdainful) Compared to you, my friend, Shapeley's an amateur. (sharply) Whatever gave you an idea you can get away with this! You're positively the most conceitedó PETER'S VOICE (interrupting) Hey, wait a minute! (appearing beside her) Let's get something straightened out right now. If you've any peculiar ideas that I'm interested in you, forget it. You're just a headline to me. ELLIE (frightened) A headline? You're not a newspaper man, are you? PETER Chalk up one for your side. Now listen, you want to get to King Westley, don't you? All right, I'm here to help you. What I want is your story, exclusive. A day-to-day account. All about your mad flight to happiness. I need that story. Just between you and me I've got to have it. ELLIE Now isn't that just too cute? There's a brain behind that face of yours, isn't there? You've got everything nicely figured out, for yourself, including this. PETER This? Oh, that's a matter of simple mathematics. These cabins cost two bucks a night and I'm very sorry to inform you, wifey dear, but the family purse won't stand for our having separate establishments. (he goes back to the business of laying out his things) ELLIE (starting to leave) Well, thank you. Thank you very much, butó you've been very kind. (but the rain outside causes her to hesitate) PETER Oh, yeah? It's all right with me. Go on out in the storm, but I'm going to follow you, see? Yeah. And if you get tough I'll just have to turn you over to your old man right now. Savvy? Now that's my whole plot in a nutshell. A simple story for simple people. Now if you behave yourself, I'll see that you get to King Westley; if not, I'll just have to spill the beans to papa. Now which of these beds do you prefer? This one? All right. While he speaks he has taken the extra blanket from the cot and hung it over the clothes line. This manages to divide the room in half. ? 242 ? A close view at the door shows Ellie watching him with interest. ELLIE (sarcastically) That, I suppose, makes everythingóuhóquite all right. PETER (the previous scene returning) Oh, this?óI like privacy when I retire. I'm very delicate in that respect. Prying eyes annoy me. (he has the blanket spread out now) Behold the walls of Jericho![4] Maybe not as thick as the ones that Joshua blew down with his trumpet, but a lot safer. You see, I have no trumpet. (taking out pajamas) Now just to show you my heart's in the right place, I'll give you my best pair of pajamas. He flings them over to her, and she catches them and throws them on her cot. Throughout the scene she hasn't budged from the door, but Peter now prepares to undress. PETER Do you mind joining the Israelites? ELLIE You're not really serious about this, are you? PETER (seen at close range, going about the job of undressing very diffidently) All right, don't join the Israelites. Perhaps you're interested in how a man undresses. (and he hangs his coat over the chair) Funny thing about that. Quite a study in psychology. No two men do it alike. (now his shirt is coming off) A close view of ELLIE shows her standing stubbornly. PETER'S VOICE I once knew a chap who kept his hat on until he was completely undressed. (chuckling) Made a comical picture . . . As the scene includes both of them, Peter spreads his shirt over his coat. PETER Years later his secret came out. He wore a toupee. He lights a cigarette diffidently while she remains brazenly watching him, her eyes flashing defiantly. PETER I have an idiosyncrasy all my own. You'll notice my coat came firstóthen the tieóthen the shirtónow, according to Hoyle,[5] the pants should come next. But that's where I'm different. ? 243 ? (he bends over) I go for the shoes first. After that Ió ELLIE (unable to stand it any longer) Smart aleck! And thoroughly exasperated, she goes behind the blanket, and plops on the cot. She sits on the edge, debating what to do, feeling herself trapped. Her impulse is to leave, if only to show this smart aleck he's not dealing with a child, and she rises impetuously and moves to the window. A close view at the WINDOW shows her looking out. The downpour has not abated one bit, and the heavy raindrops clatter against the window pane in a sort of challenge to Ellie, whose jaw drops. She turns slowly back to the room, and as she does so her eyes light on the cot. It looks most inviting; after all, she hasn't had any rest for two nights. She falls on the cot again, her shoulders sagging wearily. Following this, the view reveals both sides of the blanket. Peter is already in his pajamas. PETER Still with me, Brat? (there is no answer from Ellie) Don't be a sucker. A night's rest'll do you a lot of good. Besides, you've got nothing to worry about. The Walls of Jericho will protect you from the big bad wolf. A close view shows ELLIE glancing over at the blanket. Despite herself, the suggestion of a smile flits across her face. ELLIE You haven't got a trumpet by any chance, have you? PETER gets the idea and smiles broadly. PETER Not even a mouth organ. Pulling the covers back, he prepares to get into bed, humming as he does so. PETER (humming to himself) Who's afraid of the big bad wolfó The big bad wolf, the big bad wolf. (louder) She's afraid of the big bad wolf, Tra-la-la-la-laó (he springs into bed) Ellie smiles, and wearily she pulls her hat off her head. She sits this way a moment, thoughtfully; then, determined, she looks up. ELLIE Do you mind putting out the light? PETER Not at all. ? 244 ? (he leans over and snaps it off) The room is thrown into darkness except for a stream of light coming in the window from the night-light outside the camp. Visible are Peter's face and arms as he stares ceilingward, while on Ellie's side all we can see of her is her silhouette, except for such times as she gets in direct line with the window. There are glimpses of her as she moves around in the process of undressing, and we see, or rather sense, her dress dropping to the floor. She now stands in her chemise; this being white silk, it stands out more prominently against the darkness. She picks up the pajamas and backs into a corner, following which a close-up of her head and shoulders shows her glancing apprehensively toward Peter's side of the room; and holding the pajamas in front of her with one hand, with the other she slips the strap off her shoulders. She flings her "slip" over the blanket. PETER, on his side of the room, looks toward the blanket, and reacts to the "slip" coming into sight. Then other undergarments join the "slip" on the blanket. PETER (hoarsely) Do you mind taking those things off the Walls of Jericho? (a pause) It's tough enough as it is. ELLIE'S VOICE Oh, excuse me. (and we see the underthings flipped off the blanket.) Ellie's side of the room appears, showing her crawling quickly into bed, pulling the covers over her and glancing apprehensively in Peter's directionófollowing which a close view shows PETER being very conscious of her proximity. The situation is delicate and dangerous; the room is atingle with sex. He turns his gaze toward the blanket. The view moves to the BLANKET, remaining on it a moment. It is a frail barrier. The view then moves back to Peter, whose eyes are still on the blanket, his face expressionless. A close view of ELLIE, next shows that she, too, has her eyes glued on the blanket, a little fearfully. She turns her head and gazes at the ceiling for a moment. Then suddenly her eyes widenóand she sits up abruptly. ELLIE (seriously) Oh, by the wayówhat's your name? PETER (seen close; turning his head toward her) What's that? ELLIE (both sides of the blanket coming into view) Who are you? PETER Who, me? Why, I'm the whippoorwill that cries in the night. I'm the soft morning breeze that caresses your lovely face. ? 245 ? ELLIE (interrupting) You've got a name, haven't you? PETER Yeah. I got a name. Peter Warne. ELLIE Peter Warne? I don't like it. PETER Don't let it bother you. You're giving it back to me in the morning. ELLIE (flopping back on her pillow as she mumbles) Pleased to meet you, Mr. Warne . . . PETER The pleasure is all mine. There is silence between them for a few seconds. PETER I've been thinking about you. ELLIE'S VOICE Yes? PETER You've had a pretty tough break at that. Twice a Missus and still unkissed. Ellie doesn't like the implication, and glares in his direction as Peter's voice continues: PETER'S VOICE (meaningly) I'll bet you're in an awful hurry to get back to New York, aren't you? ELLIE (hard) Goodnight, Mr. Warne. (she turns over) PETER Goodnight. He also turns his head toward the wall, and the scene fades out. Part Five A long view of the SKY, in the early morning, fades in. In the dim distance there is a speck, which, as it comes nearer, turns out to be an airplane. The drone of its motors becomes louder and louder. Then the view cuts to the CONTROL COCKPIT of the PLANE revealing TWO PILOTS. FIRST PILOT (shouting to other) The old man's screwy! ? 246 ? SECOND PILOT (who can't hear him) What's 'at? FIRST PILOT (louder) I said, the old man's screwy! SECOND PILOT (nodding his head in agreement) Yeah! FIRST PILOT (cupping his mouth) The dame's too smart for him. SECOND PILOT (nodding again, then leaning over) How'd you like to be married to a wild cat like that? The First Pilot grimaces in disgust, grabs his nose between his fingers, and goes through the motion of ducking under water. And as they both laugh, the scene cuts to the CABIN of the plane, a privately built plane which has all the equipment of a passenger ship. Andrews and one of his secretaries, a conservative-appearing man of middle age, lean over a table. This being a closed cabin, the roar of the motors scarcely interferes with the dialogue. SECRETARY Here's another wire, sir. This one's from Charleston. (as there is a close view of the two) "Checking every northbound train. Also assigned twenty operatives to watch main highways. No success yet. Will continue to do everything possible." Signed: Lovington Detective Agency, Charleston. ANDREWS Any others? SECRETARY Yessir. (holding up stack of wires) There's a report here from every State along the East coast. Want to hear them? ANDREWS (impatiently) What do they say? SECRETARY They're practically all the same, sir. (he shrugs his shoulders to indicate there is no news) ANDREWS (muttering) Amateurs! SECRETARY They're the finest detective agency in the country, sir. ? 247 ? Andrews doesn't answer him. He puffs furiously on his cigar, glances out of the window, and turns irritably to a phone by his side. He snaps up the receiver and presses a button, following which the scene cuts to the CONTROL COCKPIT, where a light flashes on the instrument board, and the pilot picks up the receiver. PILOT Yes, sir? ANDREWS (seen in the cabin) I thought I made it clear I was in a hurry to get to New York? (bellowing) What are we crawling for! In the control cockpit, the pilot reacts to the complaint and glances at his speed indicator. We then see the SPEED INDICATOR registering 180 miles an hour. The pilot looks aghast. PILOT (yelling into phone) We've got her wide open, sir. ANDREWS (irascibly) Well, step on it! Step on it! He bangs up the receiver and stares moodily out of the window. It is plain that he is worried. The view then includes his secretary, Henderson. HENDERSON I hope she's all right, sir. ANDREWS (sharply) Of course she's all right. What do you think can happen! HENDERSON (intimidated) Nothing, sir! ANDREWS Then shut up about it! Thereupon the view cuts to a close-up of an airplane motor in rapid motion, and this dissolves to the AUTO CAMP CABIN next morning, a close view showing ELLIE peacefully sleeping. But the drone of the plane overhead disturbs her, and she moves restlessly. ELLIE (murmuring in her sleep) Darn planesó She squirms around uncomfortably, and finding it impossible to resume her slumber, opens her eyes. The sun pouring in through the window causes her to squint. She sits up and stares outside, puzzled. Then remembering where she is she looks toward the other side of the cabin, listening for some sign of life. But there is none ? 248 ? and she relaxes. She falls back on the pillow, pulling the covers over her. Now PETER enters from the outside with an armful of foodstuffs, which he dumps on the table. He looks toward Ellie. PETER Heyóyou not up yet? Come onócome on! ELLIE'S VOICE What time is it? PETER Eight o'clock. He goes to the blanket which hangs between the two cots and throws something over it to Ellie. PETER Hereó ELLIE (catching the package) What is it? (opening the package) Why, it's a toothbrush! Thanks. (noticing her dress hanging freshly pressed) Youóyou had it pressed. PETER (getting things ready for breakfast) Come on! Hurry up! Breakfast'll be ready in no time. ELLIE Why, you sweet thing, you. Where'd you get it pressed? (at this the view moves with him and he goes to the blanket) PETER Listen, BratóI'm going to count to ten. If you're not out of bed by then I'm going to yank you out myself. A close view of ELLIE shows her being stubborn, but alarmed. PETER'S VOICE (counting quickly) Oneótwoóthreeófourófive ELLIE (panic-stricken) Why, you bully. I believe you would. PETER'S VOICE ósixósevenóeightónineó ELLIE (screaming) I'm out! I'm out! ? 249 ? And she jumps out of bed, throwing the cover around herself, following which Peter is seen going back to the table. PETER You'll find the showersóand thingsóright back of the second cottage. (at this Ellie sticks her head over the blanket) ELLIE (aghast) Outside! PETER Certainly, outside. All the best homes have 'em outside. ELLIE I can't go out like this. PETER Like what? ELLIE Like this. I have no robe. PETER Hereótake mine. He flings his robe over to her, and she disappears behind the blanket. PETER But make it snappy. Now Ellie has got into his robe, and appears on his side. The robe is too large for her and she makes a comical figure. As she enters, she tries to maintain her customary dignity. ELLIE (dignifiedly) Where'd you say the showersóand thingsówere? (Peter turns; when he sees her he laughs) PETER (appraisingly) Heyóyou're little, aren't you? ELLIE Where is the shower? PETER Your hair's cute like that. You should never comb it. ELLIE (leaving haughtily) I'll find it myself. She slams the door viciously, but Peter rushes over to the window to watch her; and as viewed by him, Ellie appears next walking to the showers outside the cabin. She holds her head high and struggles valiantly to maintain as much dignity as she can muster under the circumstances. Then in the cabin, at the window, Peter watching Ellie, chuckles at her, shaking his head in amusement. He starts toward the table, and the scene cuts to a moving view outside ? 250 ? the cabins, with Ellie walking past several cottages on her way to the showers. Several people stop to stare at her until she reaches her destination. There are two wooden shacks adjoining, each having a sign on them; one reads, "ShowersóMen"óthe other, "ShowersóWomen." In front of the women's shower there are several unappetizing-looking fat women waiting, and with them is a small girl. Ellie crosses over to the women's shower and disappears inside, the waiting women staring at her, puzzled. A moment elapses and Ellie backs out, being pushed by a woman, part of whose naked body is visible, and whose voice is heard in protest: WOMAN Can't a body have some privacy around here? The women who are waiting chuckle at Ellie's embarrassment as she stands aside. They certainly are making a monkey out of her decorum. The little girl keeps eyeing Ellie, fascinated. LITTLE GIRL (pointing) Don't she look funny, Mama? Ellie, wheeling on the little girl, crushes her with a devastating look, so that the little girl cringes against her mother's skirt. Ellie goes to the end of the line to await her turn, following which close-ups show the LITTLE GIRL slowly turning her head to look at Ellie, and ELLIE noticing the little girl staring at her, whereupon Ellie sticks her tongue out at her. And, in a scene which includes both, the little girl retaliates by sticking her tongue out also. This dissolves to a view of ELLIE coming out of the showers. At the same time Shapeley comes out of the men's shower, and upon seeing Ellie, his face lights up. SHAPELEY Hello, sister. Ellie ignores him, and walks toward her cabin. But Shapeley falls into step with her. SHAPELEY Sorry about last night. Didn't know you were married to that guy. Shoulda told me about it right off. (he chuckles) There I was, gettin' myself all primed for a killin', and you turn out to be an old married woman. The scene cuts to the door of PETER'S CABIN as Peter comes out, stands in the doorway, and is surprised to see Ellie and Shapeley, who are then seen (from his angle) talking. Thereupon PETER is seen again as his lip curls up a little jealously; he returns to the cabin, following which we again see Ellie and Shapeley walking. He notices the robe she is wearing, and he looks down toward her feet, the view moving down to show Ellie's legs and feet. The pajama legs are seen protruding below the robe, the cuffs of which she has turned up. Then the view moving back up to Ellie and Shapeley, he lifts her robe playfully. ? 251 ? SHAPELEY Hey, what's this? Wearing Papa's things? Now that's cute. That's what I call real lovey-dovey. Yessir. ELLIE (stoppingóher eyes blazing) If you don't get out of here, I'll slap that fresh mouth of yours. SHAPELEY (startled) SorryóI didn't mean toó ELLIE (sharply) Get out! SHAPELEY Okay. I was just trying to make conversation. Ellie leaves him abruptly, and the scene cuts to the CABIN, where Peter is now busy setting the small table. Ellie enters after a moment, while Peter has his back to the door. PETER (without turning) High time you got back. ELLIE I met some very interesting women at the showers. We got to chatting about this and that. You know how time files. She disappears behind the blanket, following which we see Peter's side of the cabin, while Ellie's voice continues from behind the blanket. ELLIE'S VOICE We must come back to this place often. You meet the nicest people! Her head bobs up over the blanket now and again as she dresses. ELLIE I saw the little Pussinfoos girl. She's turned out quite a charming creature. Peter ignores her chatter, except for an annoyed glance once in a while. ELLIE Very outspoken, too. Said I looked funny. Wasn't that cute? PETER Hurry up and get dressed. ELLIE (sticking her head over blanket) Why, Peter! Don't you want to hear about our lovely friends? ? 252 ? PETER If you didn't waste so much time on that wise-cracking drummerówe'd have been through with breakfast by this time. A close view shows ELLIE in the process of buttoning her dress. She looks up, having recognized a tinge of jealousy in his voice, which intrigues her. She starts to the other side of the blanket. Then we see her joining Peter in his part of the cabin. ELLIE Well, I hope you're not going to dictate whom I can talk to. PETER I know a couple of truck drivers I'd like to have you meet sometime. (setting a plate for her) Come on, sit down. ELLIE Thank you. (sitting down to the table; referring to the food) My, my! Scrambled eggs. PETER Egg. One eggódoughnutsóblack coffee. That's your ration till lunch. Any complaints? ELLIE (cheerily) Nope. No complaints. PETER I'd have gotten you some cream but it meant buying a whole pint. ELLIE ("sweetly") Why, you don't have to apologize, Mr. Warne. You'll never know how much I appreciate all this. PETER (gruffly) What makes you so disgustingly cheerful this morning? ELLIE Must be the Spring. PETER I thought maybeóuhó"believe you me" told you a couple of snappy stories. ELLIE He apologized for last night. (carelessly) Said he didn't know we were married. ? 253 ? PETER (passing her a doughnut) Just shows you how wrong a guy can be. Doughnut? ELLIE Thanks. (embarrassed) You think this whole business is silly, don't you? I mean running away and everything. PETER (easily) No. No. It's too good a story. ELLIE Yes, you do. You think I'm a fool and a spoiled brat. Perhaps I am, although I don't see how I can be. People who are spoiled are accustomed to having their own way. I never have. On the contrary, I've always been told what to do and how to do it and where and with whom. Would you believe it? This is the first time I've ever been alone with a man! PETER Yeah? ELLIE It's a wonder I'm not panic stricken. PETER Um. You're doing all right. ELLIE Thanks. Nurses, governesses, chaperones, even body-guards. Oh, it's been a lot of fun. PETER One consolation; you can never be lonesome. ELLIE It has its moments. It got to be a sort of game to try to outwit father's detectives. IóI did it once; actually went shopping without a body-guard. It was swell. I felt absolutely immoral. But it didn't last long. They caught up with me in a department store. I was so mad I ran out the back way and jumped into the first car I saw. Guess who was in it? PETER Santa Claus? ELLIE KingóKing Westley was in it. PETER Oh. Is that how you met him? ? 254 ? ELLIE Um-hm. We rode around all afternoon. Father was frantic. By 6 o'clock he was having all the rivers dragged. (she has been "dunking" her doughnut throughout this, Peter watching her) PETER Say, where did you learn to dunk, in finishing school? ELLIE (indignantly) Aw, now, don't you start telling me I shouldn't dunk. PETER Of course you shouldn't. You don't know how to do it. Dunking's an art. Don't let it soak so long. A dip and plop, into your mouth. If you let it soak so long, it'll get soft and fall off. It's all a matter of timing. I ought to write a book about it. ELLIE Thanks, professor. PETER Just goes to show you. Twenty millions and you don't know how to dunk. ELLIE I'd change places with a plumber's daughter any day. But before he can answer, they are interrupted by voices directly outside their window, and the view moves with Peter as he goes to the door, which he opens slightly. Thereupon Dyke is seen in conversation with two men outside the CABIN. DYKE (protesting loudly) You can't go around bothering my tenants. I tell you, there's no girl by that name here. Besides, how do I know you're detectives? FIRST DETECTIVE Show him your credentials, Mac. I'll look around. At this, Peter closes the door and turns to Ellie. PETER Detectives! ELLIE (petrified) That's Father at work, What'll I do? (appealingly, to him) Peter, what'll I do? PETER Don't look at me. I didn't marry King Westley. ? 255 ? Ellie runs around the room picking up her stuff and murmuring, "Oh, my goodness!" She reaches the window. ELLIE (now seen close, at the window) Maybe I could jump out of the window. (tremulously) Do you think they'd see me? PETER'S VOICE (suddenly) Come here, you little fool! She starts toward him. We then see him plunking her in a chair: PETER Sit down! He rumples her hair and sticks a few hairpins in her mouth. He now stands aside and deliberately talks loud enough to be heard outside. PETER (practically shouting) Yeah. I got a letter from Aunt Betty. She says if we don't stop over at Wilkes-Barre she'll never forgive us. ELLIE (a close-up showing her staring at him in bewilderment) What are you talking about? At this, Peter rushes over to her and clamps his hand over her mouth. PETER (with his hand over her mouth) The baby is due next monthóand they want us to come. Ellie looks up at him, and realizes what he's doing, she nods to him that it's all right, whereupon he removes his hand from her mouth. And now one of the detectives approaches the FRONT DOOR of the cabin. When he hears Peter's voice, he stops to listen. PETER'S VOICE She says she saw your sister Ethel the other day, and she's looking swell. The detective knocks on the door. At this we again see inside of the cabin as Peter whispers to Ellie to say "Come in." ELLIE (calling) Come in! The moment she does, Peter rushes behind the hanging blanket. He has his head stuck over it, waiting for the detective to enter, and the moment the door opens Peter ducks. The detective takes a step inside the room. ? 256 ? PETER'S VOICE (from behind blanket) I hope Aunt Betty has a boy, don't you? She's always wanted a boy. I think we'll stop over in Wilkes-Barre this trip, darling. Give the family a treat. A close view shows Ellie and the detective. They have been staring at each other. ELLIE (very sweet, calling to Peter) There's a man here to see you, Sweetheart. PETER'S VOICE Whoóme? (appearing from behind the blankets; pleasantly) Want to see me? DETECTIVE (who hasn't taken his eyes off Ellie) What's your name? ELLIE (innocently) Are you addressing me? DETECTIVE Yeah. What's your name? PETER (stepping in front of him) Hey, wait a minute! You're talking to my wife! You can't walk in here andówhat do you want, anyway? DETECTIVE We're looking for somebody. PETER Well, look your head offóbut don't come bustin' in here. This isn't a public park. While Peter has been speaking, the second detective and Dyke have entered. They walk over to Peter, the First Detective, and Ellie. PETER I got a good mind to sock you right in the nose. FIRST DETECTIVE Take it easy, son. Take it easy. SECOND DETECTIVE (crowding forward) What's up? The Second Detective's eyes fall on Ellie and he stops to stare at her suspiciously. He takes a photograph out of his pocket which he inspects. DYKE (explains) These men are detectives, Mr. Warne. ? 257 ? PETER (shouting) I wouldn't care if they were the whole police department. They can't come in here and start shooting questions at my wife! ELLIE (appearing very domestic) Don't get excited, Peter. They just asked a civil question. PETER (turning on her; very sarcastic) There you go again! How many times did I tell you to stop butting in when I have an argument? ELLIE (sharply; entering into the spirit of the pretense) Well, you don't have to lose your temper! PETER (mimicking her) You don't have to lose your temper! (in his own voice) That's what you told me the last time too. Every time I step in to protect you. At the Elk's dance[7] when that big Swede made a pass at youó ELLIE He didn't make a pass at me! I told you a million times! The two detectives and Dyke are seen watching the other two, who are now out of sight. PETER'S VOICE (screaming) Oh, no! I saw him! He kept pawing you all over the dance floor! ELLIE'S VOICE He didn't! You were drunk! PETER (now seen with Ellie) Oh, so now I was drunk! ELLIE Well, you were! PETER I'm sorry I didn't take another sock at him. ELLIE Yeah, and gotten yourself arrested! PETER Aw, nuts! You're just like your old man! Once a plumber always a plumber! There isn't an ounce of brains in your whole family! ? 258 ? ELLIE (starting to cry) Peter Warne, you've gone far enough. I won't stand being insulted like this another minute. Ellie goes over to her cot, and starts picking up her hat and things, whereupon Dyke, very much affected, turns to the detectives. DYKE Now look what you've done! FIRST DETECTIVE (apologetically) Sorry, Mr. Warne. But you see, we're supposed to check up on everybody. SECOND DETECTIVE We're looking for a girl by the name of Ellen Andrews. You knowóthe daughter of the big Wall Street mug. A close-up of ELLIE appears as their voices are heard. FIRST DETECTIVE'S VOICE Your wife sure looks like her. Don't she, Mac? SECOND DETECTIVE'S VOICE She sure does. PETER (the entire group coming into view) Well, I hope you find her. (to Ellie) Quit bawling! Quit bawling! The detectives start out, accompanied by Dyke, who is still concerned about the disturbing of his tenants. As they disappear out the door, we hear Dyke's voice: DYKE'S VOICE I told you they were a perfectly nice married couple. Their voices die. Peter stands in the middle of the room watching them go. From her side, where she has been stalling, Ellie peers out of the window until the detectives vanish. She starts toward Peter. Then they appear together, both staring out until the detectives are well out of sight. Finally, Peter closes the door and turns to her. PETER (seriously) It'll be a dirty trick on Aunt Betty if it turns out to be a girl after all. This brings laughter from them both. But Peter suddenly sobers, and he looks at her thoughtfully. ? 259 ? PETER Say, you were pretty good. Jumping in like that. Got a brain, haven't you? ELLIE You weren't so bad yourself. PETER We could start a two-person stock company. If things get toughówe can play some small town auditoriums. We'll call this one "The Great Deception."[8] ELLIE Next week "East Lynne." PETER After that "The Three Musketeers." (he strikes a pose) I'd make a great D'Artagnan. ELLIE How about Cinderellaóor a real hot love story? PETER No mushy stuff. I'm running this troupe. ELLIE (fighting) Oh, you are! Who made you the manager? PETER I did! It was my idea, wasn't it? ELLIE You always want to run everything. PETER If you don't like it, you can resign from the company. ELLIE I refuse to resign! PETER Then I'll fire you. I'll do all the parts myself. They are interrupted by the door being flung open. Dyke sticks his head in the door. DYKE Your bus leaves in five minutes. PETER Holy jumpingó! We haven't started to pack yet! And they both scurry around, throwing things carelessly into Peter's suitcase, as the scene fades out. Part Six GORDON'S OFFICE fades in, and Gordon is at his desk as his secretary enters. ? 260 ? SECRETARY Here's another wire from Peter Warne. GORDON Throw it in the basket. (as the secretary starts to do so) What's it say? (reading) "Have I got a story! It's getting hotter and hotter. Hope you're the same." Gordon snatches the wire out of her hand and tears it viciously into bits. GORDON Collect? SECRETARY Yes. GORDON Don't accept any more. The scene dissolves to ANDREWS' NEW YORK OFFICEóa richly appointed place, awe-inspiring in its dignified furnishings, which shriek of wealth. Andrews paces back and forth in back of his desk. Sitting before him is a man of fifty, with very rugged features. He is Lovington, head of the detective agency bearing his name. When the scene opens, Andrews is holding forth: ANDREWS Three days! Three whole days! And what have you accomplished!ó (in a close view at the desk) All you've shown me is a stack of feeble reports from those comical detectives of yours. I want action, Lovington! LOVINGTON We can't do the impossible, Mr. Andrews. ANDREWS What I'm asking isn't impossible. My daughter is somewhere between here and Miami. I want her found! LOVINGTON I've put extra men on, all along the way. ANDREWS It's not enough! (suddenly) Are you certain she's not with King Westley? LOVINGTON No. He's been trailed twenty-four hours a day since this thing started. He can't even get a phone call we don't know about. ? 261 ? ANDREWS (who has been pressing several buttons on his desk) I'm worried, Lovington. After all, something might have happened to her. (he is interrupted by the entrance of several employees) ONE OF THEM Yessir? ANDREWS (seeing them) Oh, Clarkówant you to arrange for a radio broadcastóright awayócoast to coast hook-up! Offer a reward of ten thousand dollars for any information leading to her whereabouts. CLARK (leaving) Yessir. ANDREWS Brownó BROWN Yessir? ANDREWS Send the story out to the newspapers. (he rips a picture of Ellie on the desk out of its frame) Some of the out of town papers may not have a picture of her. Hereówire this to themóI want it to break right away. As he hands the picture to Brown, the view moves in to a close-up of the PICTURE which dissolves to a close-up of the same picture in a newspaper, and as the view draws slowly back we see the headline over it, which reads "DAUGHTER OF BANKER DISAPPEARS TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS REWARD" The view then draws back to reveal SHAPELEY reading the newspaper. He stares long and absorbedly at the picture. Then slowly he turns his head toward the rear of the bus, and the view following his gaze passes a group of men singing "The Man On the Flying Trapeze." They are huddled together, and accompanied by a man who plays a guitar. Then the view continues moving until it reaches Peter and Ellie who join in the song, and a close-up of ELLIE shows her eyes sparkling as she sings gaily. SHAPELEY looks back at Ellie, and apparently comes to the conclusion that his suspicions are correct, for he quickly folds the newspaper, casting a surreptitious glance around to make certain he is not being watched. A diabolical smirk spreads over his face. A full view of the interior of the bus shows most of the occupants joining in the fun, singing. They seem unmindful of the discomfiture caused by the rocking of the bus, which throws them against each other. Then the view draws in to a front seat in which sit a woman and a small boy of ten. The woman's face is haggard and she sways ? 262 ? uncertainly, her eyes half closed. Her small son's frightened face peers up at her. BOY (in a trembling voice) What'sa matter, Ma? Don't you feel all right? The woman struggles valiantly to recover her composure. She presses her son's small hand in a feeble effort at assurance. A close view of Ellie and Peter shows ELLIE singing more boisterously than the rest, doing the comical song with exaggerated gestures. But suddenly her face clouds, at something she sees. ELLIE (touching Peter's arm) Peter! (as he turns) There's something the matter with that woman. She looks ill. Peter follows her gaze, whereupon we see the WOMAN. Her head rolls weakly, a pained expression on her face. ELLIE (again seen with Peter; sympathetically) I better go over and see her. PETER Don't be silly. Nothing you can do. Must be tough on an old womanóa trip like this. ELLIE (worried) Yes. We see the other passengers around Ellie and Peter enjoying themselves. One of them pokes her. MAN Hey, Galli-Curci,[9] come onóget onto it! (poking Peter) You, too, McCormack. Ellie and Peter snap into it; they are just in time for the long wail which precedes the chorus: ELLIE AND PETER (singing) "O-o-o-ohóHe flies through the air with the greatest of easeó This daring young man on the flying trapezeó" At this the scene cuts to the ROAD. The bus is caught in a muddy road, full of ruts, and at the moment wavers dangerously at an angle. The left front wheel is stuck in a deep hole, and the engine roars and clatters as the driver feeds the gas. Finally the bus moves forward, extricating the wheel; but just as it does, the right front wheel falls into another mud hole on the other side, and this time the bus seems hopelessly stuck, a close-up of the RIGHT WHEEL showing it revolving desperately, but in vain. The mud splashes in all directions, and the wheel seems to sink deeper and deeper. Thereupon this view cuts to the inside of the BUS. The bus ? 263 ? is tilted over at an extreme angle, which has thrown Ellie into a corner on the floor, where she now crouches in an undignified position. She looks like a turtle, her head being invisible. ELLIE (sticking her head out) Thank the man for me, Peter. This is the first comfortable position I've had all night. Peter, amused, is assisting her to her feet. The guitarist has continued his playing uninterrupted, and as Peter lifts Ellie, he sings: PETER (singing) "She flies through the air with the greatest of ease. This darin' young maid on the flying trapezeó (grunting) Her movements are gracefulóall men does she pleaseó" A close view of the WOMAN and the LITTLE BOY now shows the latter terrifiedly watching his mother, whose head sags wearily. Finally she topples forward in a swoon. BOY (with a moan) Ma! Ma! What'sa matter with you? (tears stream down his cheeks) Somebody help me! Somethin's happened to her! The music stops abruptly. Everyone looks up, startled. Ellie starts forward, followed by Peter. Passengers closely group around the woman and chatter. "She's fainted. Look how pale she is." Peter and Ellie step up. PETER. Get some water, somebody. (to the boy) Let me get in here, son. Ellie goes out of sight to get water. The boy cries audibly, terror-stricken, but gets out of Peter's way, and Peter lifts the woman up and stretches her across the seat. Ellie comes back with water which she silently hands to Peter, who administers to the woman and when she slowly opens her eyes, makes her drink the water. The woman looks around, bewildered. PETER (consolingly) That's better. You're all right now. Just took a little nose-dive, that's all. He assists her in sitting up. The boy's wailing is heard, and he now rushes over and throws his arms around his mother. BOY (crying) Maóoh, gee, Maó! ? 264 ? His mother clings to him, but still feeling faint, her head sways. Peter looks up at Ellie and gives her a sign to sit down beside the woman. ELLIE sits down beside her. Peter takes the boy by the shoulders. PETER Come on, son. Better give your mother a chance to snap out of it. (as the boy emits a heart-breaking sob) It's all right, son. She'll be okay in a couple of minutes. He leads the boy away, while Ellie places her arm around the woman. ELLIE You'd better rest. It's been a hard trip, hasn't it? The scene cuts to a close view of SHAPELEY who has his eye peeled on Peter, watching him, and we next see Peter and the boy, who is still sobbing quietly. They are now standing away from the other passengers. BOY We ain't ate nothin' since yestidday. PETER What happened to your money? BOY Ma spent it all for the tickets. She didn't know it was gonna be so much. (with a new outburst) We shouldn'a come, I guess, but Ma said there's a job waitin' for her in New Yorkóand if we didn't go, she might lose it. PETER Going without food is bad business, son. Why didn't you ask somebody? BOY I was gonna do it, but Ma wouldn't let me. She was ashamed, I guess. Peter reaches into his pocket for a bill, just as Ellie approaches them. ELLIE She'll be all right, soon's she gets something to eat. Peter has extracted a single bill and dips in his pocket for a smaller one. Before he can find anything, however, Ellie takes the one he has in his hand and gives it to the boy. ELLIE Here, boyófirst town we come to, buy some food. ? 265 ? (Peter glances at the empty hand and then at Ellie) BOY I shouldn't oughta take this. Ma'll be angry. ELLIE (confidentially) Just don't tell her anything about it. You don't want her to get sick again, do you? BOY (a sob in his voice) No-o. But I shouldn't oughta take the money. (to Peter) You might need it. PETER Me? Forget it, son. (rumples his hairósmiling) I got millions. BOY (also smiling) Thanks. ELLIE (her arm around the boy) Come on. Let's go back to your mother. She leaves with the boy, Peter watching her a moment, impressed by her display of humanness, before turning and leaving the scene, following which a close-up shot of SHAPELEY watching Peter, then also rising and starting out. On the ROAD, the driver is now standing in front of the mud-hole, staring at the sunken wheel dolefully, as several people stray into the scene. DRIVER That storm sure made a mess outa these roads. PETER (appearing, and seeing the trouble) Holy Smokes! You'll never get out yourself! Better phone for some help. DRIVER Phone for help? (unhappily) We're right in the middle of nowhere. There isn't a town within ten miles of here. Shapeley is just entering the outskirts of the group. He stops, looks in the direction of Peter speculatively. He has the newspaper stuck in his pocket, which he caresses tenderly. The scene expanding, Peter is then seen leaving the group. SHAPELEY (as Peter approaches) What's up? ? 266 ? PETER Looks like we're going to be stuck for a long time. (he starts away) SHAPELEY (calling to him) Say, Buddyñ Peter turns, and looks at him quizzically, and the two are then seen close together. SHAPELEY Like to have a look at my paper? He has taken it out and has it opened as he hands it to Peter. The headlines concerning Ellie and her picture shriek out at Peter. This startles him for a moment, but he manages to recover his poise. SHAPELEY Travelin' like this, you kinda lose track of what's goin' on in the world. PETER (guardedly) Thanks. (he glances from the newspaper to Shapeley, wondering how much he suspects) SHAPELEY If you wanna get anywhere nowadays, you gotta keep in touch with all the news, is what I always say. PETER (eyeing him expectantly) That's right. SHAPELEY (pointing to paper) Take that story there, for instance. Be kinda sweet if we could collect that ten thousand smackers. PETER (non-committally) Yeahówouldn't it? SHAPELEY It's a lotta dough. If I was to run across that dame, you know what I'd do? PETER What? SHAPELEY I'd go fifty-fifty with you . PETER Why? ? 267 ? SHAPELEY Cause I'm a guy that don't believe in hoggin' it, see? A bird that figures that way winds up behind the eight ball,[10] is what I always say. PETER What's on your mind? SHAPELEY (hard) Five G'sóor I crab the works. PETER You're a pretty shrewd baby. (looking around) We better get away from this gang. Talk this thing over privately. And the view moves with them as Peter leads the way toward a clump of bushes off the side of the road, Shapeley following. They are concealed from the rest of the passengers. PETER Lucky thing, my running into you. Just the man I need. SHAPELEY (smiling broadly) You're not making any mistake, believe you me. PETER I can use a smart guy like you. SHAPELEY (expansively) Say listen, when you're talkin' to old man Shapeley, you're talking toó PETER (suddenly) Do you pack a gat?[11] A close view of the TWO shows the smile dying on Shapeley's face. He looks up quickly. SHAPELEY Huh? PETER A gat! A gat! (feeling him) Got any fireworks on you? SHAPELEY (weakly) Whyónoó PETER (carelessly) That's all right. I got a couple of machine guns in my suitcase. I'll let you have one of them. ? 268 ? (Shapeley is beginning to realize he is in for something he hadn't bargained for, and stares speechlessly at Peter, who continues blandly) Expect a little trouble up North. May have to shoot it out with cops. The perspiration starts appearing on Shapeley's brow (as we see him in a close-up). Peter's voice continues: PETER'S VOICE (with emphasis) If you come through all right, your five G's are in the bag. Maybe more. I'll talk to the "Killer"ósee that he takes care of you. SHAPELEY (finally finding his voice) The Killer? PETER (seen with Shapeley; watching the latter to gauge the effect of his words) Yeahóthe "big boy"óthe Boss of the outfit. SHAPELEY (shakily) You're not kidnapping her, are you? PETER (tough) What else, stupid! You don't think we're after that penny-ante reward, do you? (contemptuously) Ten thousand bucks? Chicken feed! We're holding her for a million smackers. SHAPELEY (stammering) Say, look! I didn't know it was anything like this, seeóandó PETER What's the matter with you! Gettin' yellow? SHAPELEY (raising his voice, pleadingly) But I'm a married man. I got a couple of kids. I can't get mixed up withó PETER (gripping his arm) Sh-sh-shó! Soft pedal, you mug!óbefore Ió What're you trying to do? Tell the whole world about it! (low and menacingly) Now listen, you're in this thingóand you're staying in! Get me? You know too much. SHAPELEY (frightened out of his wits) I won't say anything. Honest, I won't. ? 269 ? PETER Yeah ?óHow do I know? (he reaches into his coat threateningly) I gotta good mind to plug you. (arguing with himself) I shouldn't take any chances on you. SHAPELEY (breaking down) You can trust me, Mister. I'll keep my mouth shut. PETER. Yeah? (he glares at Shapeley a moment silently, as if making up his mind) What's your name? SHAPELEY Oscar Shapeley. PETER Where do you live? SHAPELEY Orange, New Jersey. PETER Got a couple of kids, huh? SHAPELEY Yeah. Just babies. PETER You love them, don't you? SHAPELEY (sensing the threat; horrified) Oh, gee, Misteróyou wouldn'tóyou ain't thinkin' aboutó PETER (threateningly) You'll keep your trap shut, all right. SHAPELEY (quickly) SureósureóI'll keep my trap shut. you can depend on me, Mister. PETER If you don'tóEver hear of Bugs Dooley? SHAPELEY No. PETER Nice guy. Just like you. But he made a big mistake, one day. Got kind of talkative. Know what happened? His kid was found in the bottom of the ? 270 ? river. A rock tied around its neck. Poor Bugs! He couldn't take it. Blew his brains out. (Shapeley can't stand much more of this. He is ready to keel over) SHAPELEY Gee! That musta been terrible. (righteously) I guess he had it coming to him though. But don't you worry about me. I don't talk. I never talk. Take my word for it. Gee, I wouldn't want anything to happen to my kids. PETER Okay. Just remember that. Now beat it. SHAPELEY (grabbing Peter's hand and shaking it gratefully) Oh, thanks, thanks, Mister. I always knew you guys were kind-hearted. PETER (putting his hand away) Come on, scram! And stay away from that bus. SHAPELEY Sure. Anything you say. As he says this, he backs away from Peter, following which a close-up of PETER shows a twinkle in his eye and then, as seen by Peter, Shapeley appears walking hurriedly away. When he thinks the distance is safe he starts running. He slips and falls in the mud, picks himself up, and continues his race for life. The scene dissolves to the ROAD, at night, with Ellie and Peter walking along. It is apparent they have been trudging like this for a long time. ELLIE Poor old Shapeley. You shouldn't have frightened him like that. PETER At the rate he started, he's probably passed two state lines by this time. The exercise is good for him. ELLIE Yes, I noticed he was getting a little fat lately. (she grabs her side) Ouch! PETER What's the matter? ELLIE (grimacing) I was never built for these moonlight strolls. (protesting) Why did we have to leave the bus? ? 271 ? PETER I don't trust that chatterbox. The scene dissolves to the banks of a narrow STREAM at night. Peter is bending over, removing his shoes, and we see the two closer as they talk. PETER First town we hit in the morning, you better wire your father. ELLIE Not as long as I'm alive. PETER Okay with me, if you can stand the starvation diet. ELLIE What do you meanóstarvation? PETER It takes money to buy food. ELLIE Why, haven't youó? PETER (interrupting) Not a sou. I had some before the fainting scene. ELLIE You didn't give that boy all your money? PETER I didn't give him anything . You were the big-hearted gal. How about wiring your father now? ELLIE Never! I'll get to New York if I have to starve all the way. PETER (risingóuttering a deep sigh) Must be some strange power Westley has over you women. (he now has his shoes off and ties them to each other) How do you expect to get there? ELLIE To New York? PETER Yeah. ELLIE I'm following you. PETER Aren't you afraid of me? ? 272 ? ELLIE (confidently) No. PETER (looking at her) Okay. Hang on to these. As he bends down in front of Ellie, he gets a firm grip around her legs and throws her over his shoulder like a sack. She squeals, terrified, but Peter ignores this; and with his right hand, which is free, he lifts the suitcase and starts walking across the stream. Ellie's first fright is gone and she now rather enjoys the sensation of being carried by Peter. She lets herself go completely limp, still clinging to his shoes, which she carries by the string. As they walk, the dangling shoes keep hitting Peter's backside. PETER I wish you'd stop being playful. ELLIE (thereupon holding the shoes out at a safe distance) Sorry. (Peter takes several more laborious steps before either of them speaks) ELLIE It's the first time I've ridden "piggy-back" in years. PETER This isn't "piggy-back." ELLIE Of course it is. PETER You're crazy. ELLIE (after a silence for several seconds) I remember distinctly Father taking me for a "piggy-back" rideó PETER And he carried you like this, I suppose. ELLIE Yes. PETER (with finality) Your father didn't know beans about "piggy-back" riding. ELLIE (another silence before she speaks again) My uncleóMother's brotheróhad four children . . . and I've seen them ride "piggy-back." ? 273 ? PETER I don't think there's a "piggy-back" rider in your whole family. I never knew a rich man yet who was a good "piggy-back" rider. ELLIE That's silly. PETER To be a "piggy-backer" it takes complete relaxationóa warm heartóand a loving nature. ELLIE And rich people have none of those qualifications, I suppose. PETER Not a one. ELLIE You're prejudiced. PETER Show me a good "piggy-back" rider and I'll show you somebody that's human. Take Abraham Lincoln, for instanceóa natural "piggy-backer." (contemptuously) Where do you get off with your stuffed-shirt family? (turning) Why, your father knew so much about "piggy-back" riding that heó In his excitement he wheels around to speak to her, forgetting that as he turns she goes with him. Not finding her at his right, he swings around to his left. Naturally he takes Ellie with himóand realizing his mistake he mutters: PETER Aw, nuts! He proceeds on his way, walking faster than before. They continue this way silently for some time. Finally Ellie breaks the silence. ELLIE (persistently) My father was a great "piggy-backer." Peter raises his eyes heavenward in thorough disgust, then calmly hands his suitcase to her. PETER Hold this a minute. Ellie takes the suitcase from him, and his hand now free, he delivers a resounding smack on her backside, so that Ellie lets out a yelp. PETER (taking the suitcase) Thank you. ? 274 ? The scene dissolves to the edge of a cow PASTURE, at night, and Ellie and Peter are revealed climbing under a barbed wire fence, following which the scene dissolves to a HAYSTACK, in front. Peter sets his bag down and surveys the layout, Ellie watching him. PETER (to himself) This looks like the best spot. ELLIE We're not going to sleep out here, are we? PETER I don't know about you, but I'm going to give a fairly good imitation of it. And he busies himself laying out a bed for her, pulling hay from the stack and spreading it out on the ground. Ellie wanders aim-lessly and then moves to a rock, where she sits and watches Peter. ELLIE (after a pause; coyly) Peteró PETER (as a close view shows him still arranging her bed; grumbling) What? ELLIE'S VOICE I'm hungry. PETER (without looking up) Just your imagination. ELLIE (seen at the rock, while Peter is out of sight) No, it isn't. I'm hungry andóand scared. PETER'S VOICE You can't be hungry and scared at the same time. ELLIE (insisting) Well, I am. PETER (as both he and Ellie are seen in their respective places) If you're scared it scares the hunger out of you. ELLIE (argumentatively) Not if you're more hungry than scared. PETER (impatiently) All right. You win. Let's forget it. ? 275 ? ELLIE (after a pause) I can't forget it. I'm still hungry. PETER (tearing his hair; screaming) Holy Smokes! Why did I ever get mixed up with you! This brings silence, and he goes on building a bed for her. Then a close-up of Ellie shows her watching him. Her eyes soften. A very definite interest in him is slowly but surely blossoming, and the fact that he is making her bed adds to the intimacy of the scene. A close view of PETER shows him concentrating on his task, but he pauses a moment and turns to glance at her. It is a devouring look, which he quickly dispels by working more feverishly on her bed. PETER (muttering while he works) If I had any sense, I'd have been in New York by this time. (he emphasizes his feelings by yanking viciously at the hay as both of them are now seen) Taking a married woman back to her husband. Hunh! What a prize sucker I turned out to be. (He has her bed ready; without glancing at her) Come onóyour bed's all ready. She, watches him a moment, then rising slowly, starts toward Peter. Then she stands over her bed, surveying it speculatively. ELLIE I'll get my clothes all wrinkled. PETER (sharply) Well, take them off. ELLIE (shocked) What! PETER (shouting) All right! Don't take them off. Do whatever you please. But shut up about it. She flashes him a petulant, offended glance but it is lost on Peter, who has his back to her, and meticulously, she slips to her knees and proceeds to stretch out on the hay. The hay bed is bumpy and hard and she has quite a difficult time getting comfortable; her efforts to do so are accompanied by painful sighs. A close view shows PETER stopping to watch her, and his look is sympathetic and solicitous. Then while Ellie groans and sighs and pounds the hay with her palm, Peter steps out of sight. Ellie is unaware of his departure, so busily occupied is she with her makeshift bedding. She squirms around unhappily and finally stretches out, deciding to make the best of it. She lies on her back, her hands clasped under her head, looking up at the stars. ELLIE (seen close, as she is lying back on hay bed) You're becoming terribly disagreeable lately. Snap my head off every time I open my mouth. ? 276 ? (she waits for a reply, but receives none) If being with me is so distasteful to you, you can leave. (independently) You can leave any time you see fit. Nobody's keeping you her. (martyr-like) I can get along. She waits a second and then turns to see what effect this has on him. The fact that Peter is gone doesn't quite register at first. She looks around calmly, then is puzzled, and finally she becomes panicky. She sits up with a start. ELLIE (murmuring, frightened) Peteró (there is a pause while she listens, but nothing stirs, and there is more apprehension in her voice) Peter! Real terror comes into her face, and she is ready to cry. She gets to her feet. ELLIE (with a terrified outcry) Peter!! At this he comes running into the scene; under his arm he has a watermelon. PETER What's the matter? ELLIE (relieved) Oh, Peteró (she throws her arms around his neck and sobs freely) PETER (hoarsely) What's got into you? ELLIE (clinging to him) Oh, Peter! I was so scared. With his free hand he removes her arm from around his neck and starts away. PETER (setting the watermelon down) I wasn't gone more than a minute. Just went out to find you something to eat. ELLIE (a sob still in her voice) I knowóbutó ? 277 ? PETER (kicking the melon over to her) Here. Eat your head off. ELLIE I don't want it now. PETER (vehemently) Thought you were hungry! ELLIE I wasóbutó PETER But what! ELLIE I was so scaredóthat it scaredó PETER (exasperatedly) Holy Jumping Catfish! You can drive a guy crazy. He kicks the melon viciously out of sight, and without any particular preparation or fuss, he flops down on his bed, following which Ellie goes to her bed and lies down, too. Then a close view of ELLIE appears, and at the moment she looks far removed from the spoiled, pampered, self-reliant brat of Alexander Andrews. Instead, she is a helpless baby, clinging to Peter's protective wing. She'd be ever so grateful right now for a little civility on his part, for a little tenderness and understanding, and she glances over at him, hopefully. PETER, however, stares up at the stars, dreamily; and we then see ELLIE turning away from him, disappointed. Still, the minute Ellie turns her head, Peter looks at her out of the corner of his eye, and it's a long and steady gaze. Then suddenly he gets an idea and rises. He finds his topcoat and goes to her. PETER Might get chilly later on. (he spreads it over her) Better use this. As he bends down to tuck her in, their faces are seen in close proximity. Ellie, tremulous and fearful, has her eyes peeled on him. The situation is imminent with danger; anything is likely to happen at this moment; and she is frightened and expectantóshe knows how weak she would be, if he suddenly crushed her in his arms. Peter avoids her gaze. He, too, is a bit shaky. The temptation is there and his resistance is waning. He tucks her in and quickly turns away. Ellie's eyes, however, never leave him. Immediate danger has vanished, and it leaves her a little regretful. A close view of PETER, as he walks over to a rock and sits down, shows him nervously taking out a cigarette and lighting it. PETER You've had a lot of men crazy about you, haven't you? ELLIE doesn't respond. She has the scrutinizing, speculative look of a girl who feels herself falling in love with someone who is practically a stranger to her, as a result of which she is ? 278 ? frightened. Then a wider view includes both of them and we see that Peter, too, fights valiantly against a mounting interest in this girl, who epitomizes everything he dislikes. He creates the impression in the following scene that in his analysis of her he is trying to dissuade himself from something he is bound to regret. His attack on her, consequently, is overly vicious. PETER I guess you've pretty much had your own way with them. That's your trouble mostly. You've always had your own way. That's why you're such a mess now. He pauses a second, waiting for a protest, but Ellie offers none; she is too much absorbed in her own confusing emotions. A close view then shows PETER taking a long puff on his cigarette and exhaling the smoke, watching it vanish before he speaks. PETER (suddenly) You know what generally happens to people like you? You get your values all mixed up. You attach all the importance to the wrong things. Right now, for instance, there's only one thought in your mindóto get back to king Westley. He waits for a reaction, but a close view shows ELLIE absorbed, and she remains silent. Peter's voice continues. PETER'S VOICE Comical part of it is, it isn't what you want at all. In a couple of weeks you'll be looking for the nearest exit . . . (now seen with her) People like you spend all your life on a merry-go-round. I guess that's what makes you so dizzy. (he rises and paces a few moments) You're always chasing after something. At least you think you are. Truth is, you're just running away. (emphatically) From yourself, mostly. 'Cause you're miserable. You hate yourself. The world's full of people like you. Don't know what they want. ELLIE Do you know? PETER Sure. ELLIE What? PETER (flatly) Nothing. (after a pause) Nothing you'd give two cents for. ? 279 ? ELLIE (seen close) Try me. PETER'S VOICE I just want to be let alone, that's all. Life's swell if you don't try too hard. Most people want to get a strangle-hold on it. They're not living. They're just feverish. (now appearing with her) If they didn't get themselves all balled up with a lot of manufactured values, they'd find what they want. Peace and calm. When you get right down to it, what's all the shootin' for, will you tell me? After all, you can only eat three meals a day, only sleep in one bedó (looking up) Right now, that hay feels pretty good to you, doesn't it? Sure it does. 'Cause you were tiredóand it's the only thing around. ELLIE You sound like a hobo. PETER I am. I only work when I have to. Two years ago I got a notion and went to China. There was a war going on. Swell! After a while it got stale. I went down to Tahiti. Just lay on the beach for six months. What could be sweeter? ELLIE Doesn't sound very exciting. PETER, seen close, looks at her for a long time before speaking: PETER I guess not. I'd have given odds it wouldn't mean anything to you. (he goes over and flops down on his own side of hay) There were moments when I had hopes. When Ióaw, I'm wasting timeóYou're destined to be a dope the rest of your life. (contemptuously) I pity you. Goodnight. He turns over with a finality that precludes any further discussion, following which a close-up of ELLIE reveals that her eyes are wide open, staring thoughtfully up at the sky. The scene fades out slowly. Part Seven A ROAD fades in. It is day now, and Peter and Ellie are trundling along. Ellie limps, and wears an unhappy expression on her face. ELLIE What are you thinking about? PETER By a strange coincidence, I was thinking of you. ? 280 ? ELLIE (pleased) Really? PETER Yeah. I was just wondering what makes dames like you so dizzy. ELLIE What'd you say we're supposed to be doing? PETER Hitch-hiking. ELLIE Well, you've given me a very good example of the hikingó (strongly) where does the hitching come in? PETER (amused at her) A little early yet. No cars out yet. She spies a rock and heads for it. Then we see her seated on the rock. ELLIE If it's just the same to you, we'll sit right here till they come. (Peter comes over, sets his bag down, and prepares to wait) Got a toothpick? PETER No. But I've got a penknife. (he extracts one from his pocket which he snaps open) ELLIE Hayóin my teeth. She points to her front teeth, and Peter flicks the hay out of her teeth. PETER There it is. Better swallow it. We're not going to have any breakfast. ELLIE Needn't rub it in. (Peter takes a carrot out of his coat pocket and starts nibbling on it; Ellie looks up at this) What're you eating? PETER Carrots. ELLIE Raw? PETER Uh-huh. Want one? ? 281 ? ELLIE (emphatically) No!! (as Peter smacks his lips with satisfaction) It's a wonder you couldn't get me something I can eat. PETER You don't think I'm going around panhandling for you. (he takes a bite) Best thing in the world for youócarrots. Had a tough time getting them. If that farmer ever caught meógoodnight! ELLIE I hate the horrid stuff. While she speaks a car roars by at terrific speed. Peter and Ellie both jump up. PETER I wish you wouldn't talk too much. We let a car get away. (Ellie goes back to her rock, despondently) ELLIE What if nobody stops for us? PETER Oh, they'll stop, all right. It's a matter of knowing how to hail them. ELLIE You're an expert, I suppose. PETER Expert! Going to write a book on it. Called the "Hitch-Hikers Hail." ELLIE There's no end to your accomplishments. PETER You think it's simple, huh? ELLIE (exaggeratedly) Oh, no! PETER Well, it is simple. It's all in the thumb, see? A lot of people do itó (waving) like this. (he shakes his head sadly) But they're all wrong. Never get anywhere. ELLIE Tch! Tch! I'm sorry for the poor things. ? 282 ? PETER But the thumb always works. Different ways to do it, though. Depends on how you feel. For instance, number one is a short, jerky movementó (he demonstrates) That shows independence. You don't care if they stop or not. 'Cause you got some money in your pocket, see? ELLIE Clever. PETER Number two is a wider movementóa smile goes with that oneólike this. (he demonstrates) That means you got a couple of brand new stories about the farmer's daughter.[12] ELLIE You figured that all out yourself, huh? PETER Oh, that's nothing. Now take number three, for instance. That's a pip. It's the pathetic one. When you're brokeóand hungryóand everything looks black. It's a long movement like thisó (demonstrating) ówith a follow through. ELLIE Amazing. PETER Hm? Yeah, but it's no good if you haven't got a long face with it. In the distance a car is heard approaching, and Ellie looks up quickly. ELLIE (excitedly) Here comes a car! PETER (alert) Now watch me. I'm going to use Number One. Keep your eye on that thumb, baby, and see what happens. Peter steps forward into the road and does his thumb movement. The car approaches, but speeds right by, spreading a cloud of dust in Peter's face, leaving him staring at the departing car, nonplussed. Thereupon ELLIE (seen close) glances up at him, a satirical expression on her face. ELLIE (sarcastically) I'm still watching your thumb. Peter is still looking after the car. ? 283 ? PETER Something must have gone wrong. I guess I'll try number two. ELLIE When you get up to a hundred, wake me up. Another car is heard coming, and Peter steps forward, prepared to hail it. Then this dissolves to a long view of the ROAD as a stream of cars of every description speeds forward ("toward the camera") and vanishes. The view moving in to the side of the road, Peter is seen still in the same spot. He waves his arms, jerks his thumb, indulges in all sorts of gyrations, while Ellie remains slumped on her rock, completely worn out. Now Ellie watches Peter out of the corner of her eye, her face expressionless. Peter continues his arm wavingóbut slows down like a mechanical toy which has run out. He finally gets down to just thumbing his nose at the passing vehicles; and then thoroughly wearied, he flops down on a rock near Ellie. PETER I guess maybe I won't write that book after all. ELLIE Yes. But look at all the fun you had. (as he glares at her) Mind if I try? PETER (contemptuously) You! Don't make me laugh. ELLIE You're such a smart aleck! Nobody can do anything but you. I'll show you how to stop a caróand I won't use my thumb. The scene widens as she rises and steps forward. PETER What're you going to do? ELLIE Mind your own business. She lifts her skirt to above her knees and pretends to be fixing her garter. Her very attractive leg is in full display. Almost instantly, we hear the screaming and grinding of quickly applied brakes, and Peter looks up astonished. The scene wiping off, we then get a closer view of Ellie and Peter sitting in the back of an open Ford. It is a broken-down, rickety affair of the 1920 vintage. Ellie grins victoriously up at Peter, who stares ahead of him, glumly. ELLIE You might give me a little credit. PETER What for? ? 284 ? ELLIE I proved once and for all that the limb is mightier than the thumb. PETER Why didn't you take all your clothes off? You could have stopped forty cars. ELLIE We don't need forty cars. Peter glares at her, and Ellie's eyes twinkle mischievously, following which we get a wider view which includes the driver of the car, Danker. He is a man of about thirty, a heavy set, loose chinned person; at the moment he is singing an aria from some opera. He suddenly stops, turning to Ellie and Peter in the back seat. DANKER So you've just been married, huh? Well, that's pretty good. If I was young, that's just the way I'd spend my honeymoonóhitch-hiking. Y-e-s s-i-r! And for no reason except that he cued himself into it, he bursts forth into song gustily. DANKER (singing) "Hiking down the highway of love on a honeymoon. Hitch-hiking downó Down-down-down the highway Downó." Ellie and Peter in the back of the car react to the noise Danker makes. PETER Hey, hey, aren't you afraid you'll burn out a tonsil? DANKER Tonsil? Me? No! Me burn a tonsil? (singing) "My tonsils won't burnó As life's corners I . . . PETER (giving up) All right, let it go. DANKER (completing his last line) . . . turn." The scene dissolves to the front of a LUNCH WAGON on a deserted road, and Danker's car drives into the scene and stops. Then we see Danker turning to Ellie and Peter. DANKER How about a bite to eat? ? 285 ? ELLIE (quickly) Why, I think that would beó PETER (stopping her) No, thanks. We're not hungry. DANKER (sentimentally) Oh, I see, young people in love are never hungry. PETER No. DANKER (singing as he leaves them) "Young people in love Are very seldom hungry. People in love Are very seldom hungry . . ." When he is out of sight, Peter glares at Ellie. PETER What were you going to do? Gold dig him for a meal?[13] ELLIE (defiantly) Why not? I'm hungry. PETER Eat a carrot. ELLIE Never! (she starts out of car) I'm going in and ask himó PETER (grabbing her arm) If you do, I'll break your neck. She looks up at his glowering face, realizes he means it, and wilts under his dominant gaze. PETER Let's get out and stretch our legs. Peter gets out, followed by Ellie, and they walk away from the car. Both are silent. At the DOOR of the LUNCH WAGON, then, Danker comes out and looks around furtively. Ellie and Peter, as seen by him, appear, walking away, following which the view moves over to the Ford and drops down to a close-up of Peter's suitcase. Now Danker looks about quickly and starts toward his car. He springs into the car, steps on the starter, and is off. ELLIE and PETER hear the motor. They wheel around, and their eyes widen in surprise. ? 286 ? PETER Hey! He flings his coat at Ellie and dashes after the Ford. He is then seen running after it when the car turns around a bend in the road. Peter continues the pursuit. This scene wiping off, the FORD now makes its appearance around the bend, and as it approaches, Peter is seen at the wheel. He looks like he's just been through a fight. And as Peter rides in, Ellie comes running toward him. ELLIE (a note of great relief in her voice) Oh, Peter! What happened? Are you all right? PETER Come onóget in. ELLIE (noticing a gash in his cheek) Oh, you've been hurt! There's a cut onó PETER (impatiently) Come on! come on! (at this she runs around to get in the other side) ELLIE (as she runs) What happened? PETER (as we see them closer) Just a road thief. Picks people up and runs off with their stuff. What a racket! (by this time she is in the car) ELLIE What'd you give him for the car? PETER A black eye. (thereupon the car moves out of sight) A close view shows Peter and Ellie driving along in the Ford. Peter looks ahead, uncommunicatively. Ellie glances up at him, and it is plain that something's on her mind. ELLIE (a little self-consciously) Lookóuhóhow are theóuhócarrots holding out? Any left? Peter glances at her. He knows what a concession this is on her part, and he smiles sympathetically. PETER (tenderly) You don't have to eat the carrots. (as she looks her surprise) Just passed a pond with some ducks in it. ELLIE (with a cry of joy) Darling! ? 287 ? She reaches up and kisses his cheek, and Peter beams happily. PETER (looking worried) Haven't much gas left in this thing. Got to start promoting some. (throwing her his coat) Better take the things out of the pocket of that coat. Ought to be good for ten gallons. The scene fades out. Part Eight ANDREWS' STUDY fades in, affording a close view of King Westley. He answers every description we have had of him. He is a stiff, handsome, stuffed-shirt gigolo. He sits in a chair, leaning on a cane, his gloves loosely in his hand. The view then moves back to reveal Andrews, who, from the opening of the scene, is speaking as he paces around the room. ANDREWS I haven't changed my mind, Westley, I want you to understand that! I don't like you! I never have! I never will! That's clear enough, isn't it? KING You've made that quite evidentówith all your threats of annulment. (confident) Well, it hasn't bothered me for a minute. Ellie and I got married because we love each other. And she's proving it; as far as I'm concerned there's going to be no annulment. ANDREWS (hard) You've got a good thing and you're hanging on to it, huh? (Andrews smiles in a very superior manner) All right, You win. I'll just have to get used to you. I admit I'm licked. But only because I'm worried. I've had detectives all over the country searching for her. I've seen thousands of photographs. Fortune tellers, nuts, every crank in the country has written me. (quietly) Haven't slept one night this week. If I don't find her, I'll go crazy. WESTLEY I might have been able to help if it weren't for you. I've been watched so closely, Ió ANDREWS (impatiently) Yes. I know. Well, you can help now. I issued a statement yesterday that I've withdrawn my objections. Begging her to come home. I haven't heard from her. Apparently she doesn't trust me. ? 288 ? WESTLEY Why should she? After alló ANDREWS (interrupting) All right. That's why I sent for you. (pointing to next room) There's a room full of reporters out there. I want you to make a statementóthat you've had a talk with meóthat we've reached an understandingóthat if Ellen comes home, I won't interfere with your marriage. Will you do that? WESTLEY If you really mean it, I will. ANDREWS (strongly) Of course I mean it! I don't care whom she's married toó (softly) óas long as I can get her back. (he starts out) As Andrews opens the door, a number of reporters enter. ANDREWS Come in, boys. This is myóuhóthis is King Westley. (Westley rises) He has a statement to make. REPORTERS Hello, Westley . . . How do you do. (they group around him) The scene dissolves to the side of a lonely ROAD at night. First there is a close-up of a newspaper headline, which reads. ANDREWS WITHDRAWS OBJECTION Magnate and Aviator Reconciled "Everything all right. Come home, darling," says Westley. Then the view draws back revealing that the newspaper is in the hands of Ellie, who sits in the car alone, gazing at the headlines. Then Peter's voice is heard. PETER'S VOICE All right, Brat. At the sound of his voice, she is startled, and she quickly folds the paper and throws it out of sight. She starts to get out of the car. ELLIE (as she scrambles out of the car just as Peter comes up to her) Any luck? PETER Yeah. He finally agreed to let us have a room. ? 289 ? ELLIE What about money? PETER Talked him out of it. He thinks we're going to stay a week. I'll have to think of something before morning. ELLIE That's swell! PETER I'm glad you think so. If you ask me, it's foolish. I told you there's no sense in our staying here tonight. We could make New York in less than three hours. ELLIE I couldn't arrive in New York at three in the morning. Everybody's in bed. PETER (after a pause) Okay. (with a wave of his hand) Cottage Number Three. As they start toward it, the scene cuts to the OWNER'S CABIN. The owner of the auto camp and his wife are standing at window, looking out. She is a hatchet-faced shrew. He is meek and docile. WIFE There you goótrustin' people again. How many times did I tell youó OWNER He looked like an upright young feller to me, Ma. WIFE Yeah. They're all upright till they walk out on you. OWNER Said he was gonna stay a week. WIFE Mebbe. OWNER Worst comes to the worst, we got his car for security. WIFE (unconvinced) I don't trust him. The scene cuts to the inside of a CABIN not unlike the previous auto camp cabin in which Peter and Ellie spent a night. Peter's opened suitcase is on a chair, over which he leans. Ellie walks around, puffing at a cigarette. ? 290 ? PETER (without looking up) Well, here we are on the last lap. Ellie crosses to the window and stares out moodily. Peter removes several things from his suitcase and lays them on the bed. There is a strained silence between them, as both are lost in their own thoughts. A close view of PETER as he putters abstractedly with the contents of his bag creates the impression that he empties it tonight rather ruefully. It somehow spells finis to their adventure. PETER (strangely) Tomorrow morning, you'll be in the arms of your husband. ELLIE (seen close) turns away from the window and looks at Peter. She stares this way for a long moment before speaking. ELLIE (in a still, small voice) Yes. You'll have a great story, won't you? PETER (dryly) Yeah, swell. Peter takes the rope out of his bag. It is the one used for the "Walls of Jericho" previously. He lays it aside and then, remembering, retrieves it. For a moment he holds it in his hand, speculatively; then turning, proceeds to tack it up. The noise of the tacking attracts Ellie's attention, and Ellie (again seen close) turns and looks toward Peter. ELLIE Is that the Walls of Jericho going up? PETER'S VOICE Yep! The Walls of Jericho. (at which she turns back to the window) PETER (also seen close) stretches the rope across the room and tacks the other side. PETER (then reaching for blanket) We certainly outsmarted your father. (he throws the blanket over the rope) I guess you ought to be happy. There is no response from her, a close view revealing that she quite obviously isn't happy. They are now separated by the blanket, and Peter gets her pajamas from his suitcase and throws them over the blanket. ELLIE Thank you. (there is silence while Peter starts undressing) ELLIE (suddenly) Am I going to see you in New York? ? 291 ? PETER (laconically) Nope. ELLIE Why not? PETER glances up at the "Walls of Jericho" and after a speculative pause, speaks quietly. PETER I don't make it a policy to run around with married women. A close-up of Ellie, disclosing only her neck and shoulders, shows her slipping out of her clothes. She pausesóthen looks up. ELLIE No harm in your coming to see us. PETER'S VOICE Not interested. (at this Ellie's face falls, this is a definite rebuff) ELLIE (weakly) Won't I ever see you again? PETER (seen close) is now getting into his pajamas. PETER What do you want to see me for? I've served my purpose. I brought you back to King Westley, didn't I? (his mouth screws up bitterly) That's what you wanted, wasn't it? ELLIE is already in bed, staring up at the ceiling. ELLIE Peter, have you ever been in love? PETER crawls into bed. PETER I probably did the world a great favor at that. Got two pinheads out of circulation. (he reaches over and lights a cigarette) Cupid thinks he's doing something when he brings two lovers together. What good's that? I'm bringing two pains-in-the-neck together. I think I'll start an institutionóhang out a shingle. The view now widens to include both sides of the blanket. Ellie doesn't hear a word of Peter's attack. She is too intent on her own thoughts. ELLIE Haven't you ever wanted to fall in love? PETER Me? ? 292 ? ELLIE Yes. Haven't you thought about it at all? Seems to me you could make some girl wonderfully happy. PETER (disdainfully) Maybe. (after a pause) Sureósure, I've thought about it. Who hasn't? If I ever met the right sort of a girl, I'dó (interrupting himself) Yeah, but where you going to find herósomebody that's realósomebody that's alive? They don't come that way any more. ELLIE'S disappointment is apparent. PETER (seen close) I've even been sucker enough to make plans. (a long puff on his cigarette) I saw an island in the Pacific once. Never been able to forget it. That's where I'd like to take her. But she'd have to be the sort of a girl that'd jump in the surf with me on moonlight nightsóand love it as much as I did. (he loses himself in his romantic contemplations) You know, those nights when you and the moon and the water all become oneówhen something comes over youóand you feel that you're part of something big and marvelous. (sighing) Those are the only places to live. Where the stars are so close over your head that you feel you could reach right up and stir them around. A close-up of ELLIE at this point shows that she is affected by his stirring description of a heavenófrom which she is excluded, as she listens to him continuing. PETER'S VOICE Certainly I've been thinking about it. Boy, if I could ever find a girl who's hungry for those thingsó PETER (again seen close) has disposed of his cigarette and now stares dreamily heavenward. PETER I'm going to Swim in the surf with heróI'm going to reach up and grab stars for heróI'm going to laugh with heróand cry with her. I'm going to kiss her wet lipsóandó Suddenly stopping, he turns his head slowly, sensing Ellie's nearness; and the view, drawing back to include Ellie, shows her standing at his bedside, looking down at him yearningly. Then we see them close together: Peter's face is immobile. Ellie drops to her knees. ? 293 ? ELLIE (fervently) Take me with you, Peter. Take me to your island. I want to do all those things you talked about. Peter stares at her lovely face. His heart cries out with an impulse to crush her in his arms. PETER (after a long pause; hoarsely) Better go back to your bed. ELLIE (simply) I love you. PETER (arguing with himself) You're forgetting you're married. ELLIE (tensely) I don't care. I love you. Nothing else matters. We can run away. Everything'll take care of itself. (begging) Please, Peter. You can't go out of my life now. I couldn't live without you. (in a choked voice) Oh, Peteró Sobbing, she lays her head on his breast and throws her arms around him. All is quiet for a moment as Ellie's head rests on his breast, while Peter struggles with an overwhelming urge to pour out his heart to her. PETER (scarcely audible) Better go back to your bed. There is a lengthy pause, neither of them stirs. Then Ellie slowly raises her tear-stained face and gets to her feet. ELLIE (whispering) I'm sorry. She turns and disappears behind the blanket. Peter remains motionless. Then a close view shows Ellie, as she gets into bed, sobbing quietly. She hides her face in the pillow to suppress her sobs. It is the first time in her life that she has been so deeply hurt. A close view next shows Peter reaching over for a cigarette, which he lights. All his movements are thoughtful, meditative. He leans back and stares at the ceiling, until we see only the cigarette in his mouth as it emits slowly rising puffs of smoke. This dissolving, the cigarette is seen to be burnt three quarters down, a long, frail ash hanging perilously on. Peter is then seen as he removes the cigarette from his mouth and crushes it in a tray. He leans back on the pillow and for a moment he is quiet. Then glancing over in Ellie's direction, he calls to her: ? 294 ? PETER (softly calling) Hey, Brató! (a pause) Did you mean that? Would you really go? (he waits for a response, but none comes. He tries again) Hey, Brató He listensóall is quiet. He slips his covers off and crosses to the blanket, and peers over it. She is asleep. Her tear-stained face rests on the pillow, her arm extends over her head. It is a childlike posture. PETER is watching her tenderly. He speculates whether to awaken her and decides against it. He starts away. Peter tiptoes around the room for a few moments, deep in thought. Then as an idea which he has been turning over in his mind begins to take form, he hastily begins dressing. The scene dissolving, Peter is seen completely clothed and starting for the door when he thinks of something. He turns back, grabs his suitcase, stops to throw a kiss to Ellie, and goes out into the night. Thereupon the scene wipes off, disclosing a Gas Station along the road at night. Here Peter is talking to a station attendant. PETER All I'm asking is enough gas to get me to New York. The bag's worth twenty-five dollars. MAN (hesitatingly) Yeah, but I got a bag. My wife gave me one for Christmas. PETER ("high-pressuring" him) Listen, manóI'll tell you what I'll do. When I come back in the morning, I'll buy it back from you and give you ten dollars profit? What do you say? MAN (looking at Peter's hat) I ain't got a ható PETER What? MAN I ain't got a hat. PETER (promptly putting it on his head) Well, you got one now. óCome on, fill 'er up. While he is still talking the scene dissolves to a view of Peter driving furiously, a broad, happy grin on his face, following which several scenes wipe off in succession (denoting the passage of time) óscenes of Peter driving at high speed, causing several cows to amble out of the way; of the CAR driving into the Holland Tunnel, and of the BACK ROOM of a SPEAKEASY where Peter stands in ? 295 ? front of a small desk upon which there is a typewriter. Near him is a swarthy Italian. PETER Fine! That's fine, Tony. Now get me a drink and make sure nobody disturbs me for half an hour. ITALIAN (going out) Sure. Sure, Pete. As Peter plants himself in front of the machine, the scene dissolves to a close-up of the typewriter carriage upon which are typed the words: "óand that's the full and exclusive story of Ellen Andrews' adventures on the road. As soon as her marriage to King Westley is annulled, she and Peter Warne, famous newspapermanóand undoubtedly the most promising young novelist of the present eraówill be married." The view drawing back, Peter re-reads the last sentence, smiles contentedly, and as he yanks out the sheet, the scene wipes off disclosing the outside of GORDON'S OFFICE, the sign on the door reading: "OfficeóMr. Gordon." Gordon's secretary is at her desk as Peter breezes in. PETER (rumpling her hair) Hello, Agnes. AGNES Better not go in. He'll shoot you on sight. PETER (entering) I haven't been shot at for days. In GORDON'S OFFICE, Gordon is at his desk. He looks up when Peter enters. GORDON (rising to his full height menacingly) Get out of here! PETER (advancing) Wait a minute, GordonóIó GORDON (quietly) Get out! Peter reaches his side, and grabs him by the arms. PETER Joe, listenó GORDON Don't "Joe" me. ? 296 ? PETER Okay, Joe. Listenóyou know I've always liked you. Anytime I could do you a great turnóanytime I ran into a story that looked goodóI always came running to you, didn't I? Well, I got one now. Those wires I sent you were on the level. It's the biggest scoop of the year. I'm giving it to you, Joe. GORDON You mean about the Andrews' kid? PETER That's it. (tapping his pocket) I got it all written up. Ready to go. All I want is a thousand dollars. Upon hearing this GORDON is ready to jump out of his skin. GORDON A thousand dollars! (furiously) Get out of this office before I throw you out bodily. PETER Don't get sore, Joe. This is something you got to do for me. I need a thousand dollarsóand I need it quick. I'm in a jam. GORDON (softening) What's the thousand bucks for? PETER To tear down the Walls of Jericho. GORDON What! PETER Never mind . . . Listenósuppose I should tell you that Ellen Andrews is going to have her marriage annulled. GORDON Huh? PETER That she's going to marry somebody else. GORDON You're drunk. PETER Would an exclusive story like that be worth a thousand bucks to you? GORDON If it's on the level. PETER Well, I got it, Joe. ? 297 ? GORDON Who's she gonna marry? PETER (taking out the story from his pocket) It's all right here. Give me the thousand and it's yours. GORDON (skeptically) I wouldn't trust you as far as I could throw that desk. PETER Wait a minute, Joe. Use your bean. I couldn't afford to hand you a phoney yarn, like that. I'd be crazy. There isn't a newspaper in the country'd give me a job after that! I could go to jail! GORDON I'd put you there myself. PETER Sure. I wouldn't blame you, either. GORDON Who's the guy she's gonna marry? PETER I am, Joe. GORDON (his eyes widening) You! PETER Yeah. GORDON Now I know you're drunk. (he grabs his hat) I'm going home. Don't annoy me any more. PETER (running after Gordon as the latter starts out) For heaven's sake, Joeóstop being an editor for just a minute. (he grabs his arm) We've been friends for a long time, haven't we? You ought to know when I'm serious. This is on the level. Gordon is affected by the sincere note in Peter's voice. PETER I met her on a bus coming from Miami. Been with her every minute. (hoarsely) I'm in love with her, Joe. GORDON Well, I'll beó ? 298 ? PETER Listen, Palóyou've got to get this money for me. Now. Minutes count. She's waiting for me in an auto camp outside of Philadelphia. I've got to get right back. You see, she doesn't know I'm gone. (self-consciously) A guy can't propose to a girl without a cent in the world, can he? While Peter has been speaking Gordon stares into space thoughtfully. GORDON What a story! (picturing it) On her way to join her husband, Ellen Andrews falls in love withó (alertógrabbing paper out of Peter's hand) Lemme see that a minute. He moves to his desk excitedly, and Peter, a gleam of hope in his eyes, joins him, following which the scene cuts to the SHACK of the camp owner and wife in the early morning. The owner is suddenly startled out of his sleep by the voice of his wife calling, "zeke! zeke!" He looks up, just as she rushes into the room. WIFE I told you! I told you, you couldn't trust him! He's gone! OWNER Who? WIFE That feller last night, that's who! He was gonna stay a week, huh? Well, he's skipped. Took the car with him, too. We wouldn't have known a thing about it until morning if I hadn't took that magnesia. (pulling at him) Come on, get up, don't lay there. Let's do something about it. Thereupon the scene cuts to the AUTO CAMP CABIN affording a close view of ELLIE tossing restlessly in her sleep. Suddenly there is a loud banging on the door, and Ellie, startled, awakens. The pounding continuing, Ellie looks around, frightened. The door suddenly bursts open, and the owner and wife enter. They both glance over at Peter's side. WIFE See that. They're gone! OWNER (timidly) Looks like it, don't it? (suddenly he sees Ellie) Here's the woman, ma. WIFE (full of fightóglaring at Ellie) Oh!! ? 299 ? ELLIE (in a close view at Ellie's Bed as the owner and his wife come up to her; timidlyósitting up) What's the matter? WIFE Where's your husband, young ladyó ELLIE Husband? WIFE Yesóif he is your husband. ELLIE Isn't he here? WIFE No, he ain't! And the car's gone, too. ELLIE (bewildered) Why, he'll be back. WIFE Yeah? What makes you think so! He took his suitcase and everything. (Ellie is perceptibly startled by this piece of news) Kinda surprised, huh? It's just like I told you, Zeke. They ain't married a'tall . . . There is a close view of ELLIE as the wife's voice continues uninterruptedly: WIFE'S VOICE . . . could tell she was a hussy just from the looks of her. Ellie is lost in thought, trying to adjust herself to the idea of Peter's leaving her like this. She scarcely hears what is being said. OWNER'S VOICE Hey! You! Got any money? ELLIE (snapping out of her trance) Whyóno. WIFE (the three now seen together) Thenóyou'll have to git ! OWNER Yeah, you'll have to git . ELLIE Why, you can't put me out in the middle of theó ? 300 ? WIFE Serves you right. Oughta be careful who you take up with on the road. You can't go plyin' your trade in my camp. ELLIE But can't you wait until morningó WIFE Ain't gonna wait a minute. OWNER Not a minute! WIFE Better start gettin' into your clothes. OWNER Yeah. WIFE (glaring at him) Zeke. (he looks up startled) Git! OWNER (disappointed) Yes, Ma. As Zeke leaves, the Wife plunks herself in a chair, grimly determined to wait until Ellie gets dressed and out. ELLIE Can I use your telephone? I want to talk to New York. WIFE You ain't gonna stick me for no phone calls. You can go down to the Sheriff's office. The scene thereupon cuts to the EXTERIOR of the AUTO CABIN as Ellie emerges, the Wife standing in the doorway. In the foreground several people are scattered around the courtyard. One woman washes stockings under a pump. A man is changing the tire on his car. Ellie comes down the steps and crosses the courtyard. WIFE (shouting to her) And listen, next time better keep away from here. I run a respectable place. Ellie does not turn, but walks straight forward, trying to maintain her poise. The people in the courtyard turn to stare at her, and one of them snickers. The scene dissolves to GORDON'S OFFICE as Peter is pocketing the money. Gordon is fondling the story. PETER Thanks, Pal. You saved my life. ? 301 ? GORDON (waving the story) Okay, pete. (he drops the story on the desk and escorts peter out, his arm around his shoulder) For my dough, (smiling) you're still the best newspaperman in the business. They reach the door, which peter opens. Then they appear at the DOORWAY. Through the open door the secretary stares dumbfounded at their friendliness. GORDON S'long, kid. And good luck. Outside GORDON'S OFFICE, peter kisses the secretary as he passes through. PETER 'Bye, Agnes. You're beautiful. All women are beautiful! (he goes out) Gordon is immediately electrified into action. GORDON Oh, boy! What a yarn! What a yarn! (suddenly) Get me Hank on the phone. Gotta hold up the morning edition. While he speaks he dashes back to his desk. We then see him in his office. SECRETARY'S VOICE There's Hank. GORDON (grabbing phone) Hank! Listen. Hold the morning edition. Break down the front page. Gonna have a completely new layoutóSend a couple of re-write men in here. Don't do a thingóI got a story that'll make your hair curl. During his speech, his other phone has been ringing persistently. He has ignored it until now. He picks up receiver: GORDON (into the second phone) Yeah. Yeah. Don't annoy me. I'm busy. (he bangs up receiver, and turns back to the first phone) Listen, Hank! Dig out all the Andrews pictures. Get Healy out of bed. I want a cartoon right away. (the second phone rings impatiently, but Gordon ignores it) With King Westley in it. He's waiting at the church. Big tears streaming down his face. His bride hasn't shown up. Old Man Andrews is there, ? 302 ? too. Laughing his head off. Everything exaggerated. You knowóNow snap into it! (he bangs up the receiver, and grabs the second phone, speaking into it impatiently) Yeah. Yeah. What is it? A close view of GORDON, as he listens, shows his eyes widening with amazement. GORDON What!óEllen Andrews! You're crazy! This cuts to a TELEPHONE BOOTH where a reporter is seen speaking excitedly. REPORTER Yeah. She just phoned her father from an auto camp to come and get her. He's getting a police escort. Westley's going along, too. She's been traveling by bus. The moment she read that her father and Westley made up, she phoned in. Back in GORDON'S OFFICE Gordon is seen still at the phone. GORDON You sure that's right! Say, you haven't been drinking, have you! Okayógrab a caróand stay with them. (he hangs up the receiver and grabs the first phone) Put Hank on. (shouting) Agnes! (as the secretary hurries in) Get me a doctor. I'm about to have a nervous breakdown. (she stares at him dumbly as he speaks into the phone) Hankóforget everything I just told you. I was just having a nightmare! (he hangs upóand turns to Agnes) Call up the police department! Tell 'em to find Peter Warne. Send out a general alarm. I want the dirty crook pinched. He picks up Peter's story and flings it viciously into the wastebasket. AGNES (starting out) Yessir. (two re-write men come in, passing Agnes) MEN You want us? GORDON (wheeling around) Yeah. Shove everything off the front page. Ellen Andrews just phoned her fatheróshe's coming home. The moment she heard the old man withdrew his objections, she gave herself up. Spread it all over the place. Here's your lead: "Love Triumphant!" Step on it! ? 303 ? MEN (leaving) Yessir. Gordon goes to his desk, mumbling to himself. His eye lights on the waste basket containing Peter's story, and he is about to kick it when he stops. He stares at it thoughtfully, reaches down, lifts it outóruns through it hastilyóand then stares into space, deep in thought. The scene dissolves to an open ROAD, in the morning, as Peter flies over it in his Ford. He beams happily. He passes a gasoline truck and waves cheerily to the driver. This dissolves to a close-up of an AUTO SIREN accompanied by a prolonged wail, then to a ROAD, that morning, as four motorcycles, two abreast, speed forward, followed by a luxurious limousine, which in turn is trailed by a car filled with reporters. Next, in the LIMOUSINE, Andrews is seen in the back seat. He is accompanied by King WestleyóHendersonóLovington, and a police inspector. HENDERSON I knew she was safe. LOVINGTON (sighing) Certainly gave us a run for our money. (but Andrews is too overwhelmed with joy to listen to any of this) ANDREWS (anxiously) Can't you get them to go any faster? (at this the Inspector leans over to talk to chauffeur) This dissolves to a deserted ROAD, Peter at the wheel of his car. His high spirits find expression in his efforts to sing. PETER (singing) "I found a million dollar babyó" He is interrupted by the song of a meadowlark, whistling its strange melody. Peter listens to it a second time, then answers its call by imitating it. The meadowlark whistles again, and peter is highly amused. PETER (waving his handóto the meadowlark) Okay, pal. Be seein' you. Just then the sound of sirens is heard in the distance. Peter glances back, and as the sirens come nearer, he pulls over to the side of the road. There follows a full view of the ROAD, with peter in the foreground at the side as the police cavalcade whizzes by accompanied by the shrieking sirens. Thereupon PETER (seen close) gets an idea. PETER (to his Ford) Come on, Dobbin, old boy. We got a police escort. ? 304 ? He applies the gas and shoots out of sight, following which a full view of the road shows Peter's car trying to catch up with the parade. It outdistances him, however, and we see PETER in the Ford pressing his body forward to help the car make time. His foot pushes the accelerator down to the floor. But the police cars are now out of sight, and Peter gives up. PETER (seen close; to the carówith exaggerated dramatics) Dobbin, me lad. You failed muh. I'm afraid you're gittin' old. Thereupon the scene dissolves to a small town ROAD, where at the door of a Sheriff's office a policeman is standing on guard. The reporters hang around in front of him. Several yokels look on. The limousine and motor cycles are at the curb. And now, in a closer view, at the DOOR the policeman on guard steps aside as the door opens and Ellie, her father, and King Westley emerge. King has his arm around her. The moment they appear in the doorway, cameras click and several reporters surround them. REPORTERS Will you make a statement Miss Andrews? Was it an exciting experience? How did you travel? ANDREWS (brushing them aside) Later, boys, later. See her at home. They cross the sidewalkóto the waiting limousine, as cameras click. The scene dissolves to a ROAD, with Peter still driving. He is, however, as before, in excellent form, and is singing lustily. Suddenly, however, his eyes widen and he pulls on his brake; the car screeches and moansóand comes to a stop. PETER Take it easy, Dobbin. Remember your blood pressure. We find Peter directly in front of a slow moving freight train. Several hoboes stick their heads out of a car, and Peter waves to them. The hoboes look puzzled for a minute and then wave back. The view then swings over to an opening between the cars affording a flash of the police parade on the other side, apparently on its way back. PETER amuses himself by talking to an old flagman. PETER Better get that toy train out of here. I'm in a hurry. The Flagman grins at him in reply. By this time the last car is in sight, and Peter gets all set to move. He stops, however, to wave to a couple of brakemen on the rear platform. In the meantime, the motorcycles have started forward, and the sirens begin their low, moaning wail. Peter, attracted, turns, and over Peter's shoulder we see the parade starting. As the limousine ? 305 ? passes, we get a glimpse of the inside. Ellie lies back on King Westley's shoulder. He has his arm around her as they pass out of sight. Thereupon a close view of PETER shows him reacting to what he saw. He turns his head quickly to stare at the disappearing car, a look of astonishment and bewilderment in his eyes. Slowly he turns his head forward, staring ahead of him blankly; he can't quite make it out. Then gradually the significance of it all strikes himóand his mouth curls up bitterly. The scene wiping off, a series of NEWSPAPER HEADLINES come into view: "ELLEN ANDREWS RETURNS HOME." "MARRIAGE HALTED BY FATHER TO BE RESUMED" "ELLEN ANDREWS AND AVIATOR TO HAVE CHURCH WEDDING" "LOVE TRIUMPHS AGAIN" "PARENTAL OBJECTION REMOVED IN FAVOR OF LOVERS" "CANNOT THWART LOVE SAYS FATHER OF ELLEN ANDREWS" "GLAD TO BE HOME SAYS ELLEN" This dissolves to the anteroom of a NEWSPAPER OFFICE. The place is alive with activity, and copies of newspapers are lying around, bearing headlines relating to the Andrews story. Peter, a bewildered, stunned expression on his face, enters and crosses funereally toward Gordon's office. Several people standing around look up. PEOPLE Hi, PeteóDidya see this? Ellen Andrews is back. Gonna marry that Westley guy after allóWhat a dame! What a dame! Peter pays no attention to any of this. He reaches Gordon's door, which is open. He walks directly past Agnes and enters the office. She looks up at him, puzzled. Then in GORDON'S OFFICE, Peter walks to Gordon's desk and lays the roll of bills on it. Agnes enters, watching him anxiously. AGNES Gordon's out back some place. (seeing the money, she looks up, surprised) PETER See that he gets that, will you, Agnes? Tell him I was just kidding. (he goes out) As Agnes stares after him, puzzled, Gordon dashes in from a back door. GORDON You can't get a thing done around her unlessó AGNES Peter Warne was just in. GORDON Huh? What? AGNES Left this money. Said to tell you he was just kidding. ? 306 ? GORDON (looking at the money) Where is he? The scene cuts to the OUTER OFFICE and CORRIDOR, as seen over Gordon's shoulder through the open door. Peter is seen walking out. Gordon hurries after him. GORDON'S VOICE Hey, Pete! At the sound of Gordon's voice, Peter turns, and Gordon comes over to him. PETER Hello, Joe. Sorry. Just a little gag of mine. Thought I'd have some fun with you. GORDON (understanding) Yeah. Sure. Had me going for a while. PETER Wouldn't have made a bad story, would it? GORDON Great! But that's the way things go. You think you got a swell yarnóthen something comes alongómesses up the finishóand there you are. PETER (smiling wryly) Yeah, where am I? GORDON (slipping a bill in his coat pocket) When you sober upócome in and see me. PETER (a whisper) Thanks, Joe. He leaves, Gordon watching him sympathetically, and the scene fades out. Part Nine The LAWN of the ANDREWS ESTATE fades in. It is morning and at the moment the place is a beehive of activity. Dozens of butlers and maids hustle around setting tables. Floral decorations are being hung by men on ladders. In the background on a platform, a twenty-piece orchestra is getting ready, accompanied by the scraping of chairs, adjusting of music stands, unpacking of instruments. The scene cuts to ANDREWS' STUDY: King Westley is seated, and Andrews walks around him. They are both dressed in striped trousers, frock coat, etc. ANDREWS Well, here we are; it's all set. You're finally going to be married properly. (he waves toward the window) With all the fanfare and everything. ? 307 ? (shaking his head) I still don't know how it happenedóbut you're going to be my son-in-law whether I like it or not. I guess you're pleased. KING Why; naturally, Ió ANDREWS (drily) Naturally. (with vehemence) You're going to become a partner in a big institution. It's one of the largest in the world. KING You talk as ifó ANDREWS Someday perhaps, you might even take charge. A close view of ANDREWS shows him looking around his study despairingly. ANDREWS (murmuring) The thought of it makes me shudder. KING'S VOICE (confidently) You might be surprised. ANDREWS I hope so. However, that'll take care of itself. (taking a new tack) There's another responsibility you're taking on. One that I'm really concerned about. KING'S VOICE What's that? ANDREWS My daughter. KING (the two now seen again; lightly) Ellie? Oh, she's no responsibility. ANDREWS No? Say, listenóI've devoted a whole lifetime trying to tame that wildcat. Toughest job I ever tackled. Ever hear of J.P. Clarkson? Biggest man in the country, isn't he? Well, I tamed him . Got him eating out of the palm of my hand. I've browbeaten financiers, statesmen, foreign ministersósome of the most powerful people in the worldóbut I've never been able to do a thing with her. She's been too much for me. I'm glad you think it's easy. ? 308 ? (he bends over him) Now listenóif you'll do what I tell you, perhaps I might develop a little respect for you. You never can tell. KING What would you like to have me do? ANDREWS Sock her! A close view of KING shows him looking up, surprised, as Andrews' voice continues. ANDREWS' VOICE Sock her at least once a day. Do it on general principles. Make her know you're the boss and never let her forget it. Think you can do that? KING It's quite an assignmentó ANDREWS Try. Do me a favor. Try. It's your only chance. And hers, too. Do that for meóand maybe we'll be friendsó (muttering) Maybe. (he holds out his hand) Do we understand each other? KING (taking his handórising) Yes, sir. ANDREWS (dismissing him) Fine. I'll see you at the reception. He withdraws his hand, which he looks at disgustedlyóthe result of a jellyfish handshake. KING Oh, by the way, Mr Andrews, I thought of a great stunt for the reception. (as Andrews looks at him quizzically) I'm going to land on the lawn in an autogyro.[14] What do you think of that! A close view of ANDREWS shows him staring off at King in complete disgust. ANDREWS You thought that up all by yourself, huh? KING (unabashed) Why, it'll make all the front pages. A spectacular thing like tható ? 309 ? ANDREWS (hard) Personally, I think it's stupid! (humoring a child) But go ahead. Have a good time. As long as Ellie doesn't object. KING Oh, no. She'll be crazy about it. Well, see you later. I'm going out on the lawn and arrange for landing space. (holding out his hand) Goodbye. (but Andrews turns his back on him) ANDREWS We've done that already. KING (smiling) Yes, of course. He turns and leaves; Andrews watching him go, shaking his head sadly. ANDREWS Autogyro! I hope he breaks his leg. Andrews starts out, and the scene cuts to the HALLWAY as Andrews enters from the study. A maid coming down the stairs, he calls to her: ANDREWS OhóMaryó MARY Yes, sir? ANDREWS How is she? MARY (hesitantly) Whyóuhóshe's all right, sir. ANDREWS What's the matter? Anything wrong? MARY Oh, no, sir. No different thanó ANDREWS Yes. I know. Still in the dumps, huh? MARY Yessir. If you'll excuse me, siróshe sent me for a drink. (she leaves) Andrews stands a moment thoughtfully and then starts up the stairs, following which the scene dissolves to the UPSTAIRS CORRIDOR in front of Ellie's door. Andrews enters and knocks several times. Receiving no response, he gingerly opens the door. ? 310 ? Next Andrews enters ELLIE'S BEDROOM and looks around. The view swings around the room, following his gaze. It focuses on Ellie, who reclines on a sofa, in her bridal outfit, her head resting on the back. She stares moodily, unhappily up at the ceiling. The view then expanding to include both father and daughter, Andrews is seen staring at her a moment sympathetically. He senses something is wrong. ANDREWS (after a pause) Ellieó ELLIE (jumping up with a start) Oh, hello, Dad. ANDREWS (a close view as he goes over to her) I knocked several times. ELLIE Sorry. Must have been day-dreaming. (to hide her confusion, she reaches for a cigarette) ANDREWS (with forced lightness) Well, everything's set. Creating quite a furor, too. Great stunt King's going to pull. ELLIE (in a faraway voice) Stunt? ANDREWS Landing on the lawn in an autogyro. ELLIE Oh, yes. I heard. ANDREWS (noting her listlessness) Yes. Personally, I think it's silly, too. As he continues talking, the view moves with Ellie, who wanders over to a window overlooking the lawn and stares out, lost in thought. ANDREWS' VOICE (he goes over the Ellie) You look lovely. Are you pleased with the gown? (as Ellie does not seem to hear him, he becomes worried) Ellie! ELLIE (turning and looking at him blankly) Huh? (it just penetrates) Ohóthe gownó (distantly) Yes, it's beautiful. ? 311 ? ANDREWS (tenderly) What's the matter, Ellie? What's wrong? ELLIE Nothing. (she walks over to table and crushes her cigarette) ANDREWS You've been acting so strangely since you returned. I'móI'm worried. I haven't bothered to ask you any questionsóIó (waving his hand toward the lawn) Isn't all this what you wanted? (receiving no answer from Ellie) You haven't changed your mind about King, have you? ELLIE (too quickly) Oh, no. ANDREWS If you have, it isn't too late. You know how I feel about him. But I want to make you happy. You gave me such a scareóIówhen I couldn't find you. (smiling feeblyómeaning his heart) You know, the old pump isn't what it used to be. ELLIE (her hand on his arm) Sorry, Dad. I wouldn't hurt you for the world. You know that. She moves away from him and sits on the sofa, and Andrews watches her a moment and crosses over to her. He sits beside her, placing an arm affectionately around her shoulder. ANDREWS (tenderly) Ellieówhat is it? Aren't you happy, child? At this point she finally breaks, and impulsively buries her face on his breast. ANDREWS (after a pause, hoarsely) I thought so. I knew there was something on your mind. (there are audible sobs from Ellie) Thereóthere! They remain thus quietly for some time. Finally Andrews breaks the silence. ANDREWS What is it, darling? (receiving no answer) You haven't fallen in love with somebody else, have you? As this brings an audible sob from Ellie, Andrews lifts up her chin. ? 312 ? ANDREWS (looking into her eyes) Have you? (Ellie turns her head away, a little ashamed of her tears) Ellie now rises and walks miserably away from him, dabbing her eyes. Andrews, watching her, realizes he has hit upon the truth. He walks over to her. ANDREWS I haven't seen you cry since you were a baby. This must be serious. (Ellie is silent) Where'd you meet him? ELLIE On the road. ANDREWS (trying to cheer her) Now, don't tell me you fell in love with a bus driver! ELLIE (smiling) No. ANDREWS Who is he? ELLIE I don't know very much about him. (in a whisper) Except that I love him. ANDREWS (the great executive) Well, if it's as serious as all thatówe'll move heaven and earth toó ELLIE (quickly) It'll do no good. (wryly) He despises me. ANDREWS Oh, come nowó ELLIE He despises everything I stand for. He thinks I'm spoiled and pampered, and selfish, and thoroughly insincere. ANDREWS Ridiculous! ELLIE He doesn't think so much of you either. ? 313 ? ANDREWS (his eyes widening) Well! ELLIE He blames you for everything that's wrong about me. Thinks you raised me stupidly. ANDREWS (smiling) Fine man to fall in love with. ELLIE (whispering) He's marvelous! ANDREWS Well, what are we going to do about it? Where is he? ELLIE (sadly) I don't know. ANDREWS I'd like to have a talk with him. ELLIE It's no use, Dad. I practically threw myself at him. (she shrugs futilely) ANDREWS Well, under the circumstances, don't you think we ought to call this thing off? ELLIE No, I'll go through with it. ANDREWS But that's silly, child. Seeing how you feel, whyó ELLIE It doesn't matter. (tired) I don't want to stir up any more trouble. I've been doing it all my life. I've been such a burden to youómade your life so miserableóand mine, too. I'm tired, Dad. Tired of running around in circles. He's right, that's what I've been doing ever since I can remember. A close-up of ANDREWS shows him watching Ellie, as her voice continues. ELLIE'S VOICE I've got to settle down. It really doesn't matter howóor whereóor with whom. ANDREWS (seriouslyóimpressed) You've changed, Ellie. ? 314 ? ELLIE (seen with Andrews; sighing) Yes, I guess I have. (sincerely) I don't want to hurt anybody any more. I want to get away from all this front page publicity. It suddenly strikes me as being cheap and loathsome. I can't walk out on King now. It'll make us all look so ridiculous. (she shrugs resignedly) Besides, what difference does it make? (inaudibly) I'll never see Peter again. ANDREWS Is that his name? ELLIE Yes. Peter Warne. She starts to walk away when she is attracted by her father's surprise at the mention of the name. ANDREWS Peter Warne! (his hand has instinctively gone to his inside pocket) ELLIE (noticing this) Why? Do you know him? (but Andrews withdraws his hand. Apparently he has changed his mind) ANDREWS (evasively) Oh, noóno. ELLIE (suddenly anxious) You haven't heard from him, have you, Dad? ANDREWS (obviously guilty) Why, no . . . Don't be silly. ELLIE Oh, please, Dadó She has reached into his pocket and has extracted a letter, which she hurriedly opens and reads, following which we see a LETTER in Peter's handwriting. It is addressed to: "Alexander Andrews, 11 Wall Street." It reads: "Dear Sir: I should like to have a talk with you about a financial matter in connection with your daughter. Peter Warne." Ellie is then seen reading and re-reading the note. Her face clouds and then slowly changes to an expression of complete disillusionment. ? 315 ? ELLIE (her voice strident) Looks like that was his only interest in me. The reward. ANDREWS (taking the note from her) I'm sorry you read it. ELLIE Are you going to see him? ANDREWS I suppose so. ELLIE (hard) Certainly! Pay him off. He's entitled to it. He did an excellent job. Kept me thoroughly entertained. It's worth every penny he gets. She paces agitatedly, Andrews watching her silently. He knows what an awful blow to her pride this must be. Mary now enters with a cocktail tray which she sets on the table. ELLIE Thanks, Mary. That's just what I need. (she pours herself a cocktail) MARY Mr. King Westley is on his way up. ELLIE FineóFine! Have him come in. ANDREWS (mumbling) I'll be going. (he goes out behind Mary) Ellie swallows her drink and starts pouring herself another, as King enters. ELLIE (upon seeing him) Well, if it isn't the groom himself! You're just in time, King. A close view of the Two shows King taking her in his arms. KING How are you, Ellie? (he gives her a kiss, which she accepts perfunctorilyóbut he insists upon being ardent) Are you happy? ELLIE (releasing herself) Happy? Why shouldn't I be happy? I'm getting the handsomest man in captivity. (handing him a drink) Here you are, King. Let's drink. (she holds her glass out) Let's drink to us . ? 316 ? (she drains the glass; pouring another, as she continues) We finally made it, didn't we? KING You bet we did. ELLIE It's up to you now. I want our life to be full of excitement, King. We'll never let up, will we? Never a dull moment. We'll get on a merry-go-round and never get off. Promise you'll never let me get off? It's the only way to live, isn't it? No time to think. We don't want to stop to think, do we? Just want to keep going. KING Whatever you say, darling. ELLIE I heard about your stunt. That's swell, King. Just think of itóthe groom lands on the lawn with a plane. It's a perfect beginning for the life we're going to lead. It sets just the right tempo. (handing him a drink) Come on, King. You're lagging. (they both drink) In ANDREWS' STUDY, Andrews walks around the room, perceptibly affected by his visit with Ellie. He keeps turning Peter's letter over in his hand, apparently debating in his mind what to do with it. He finally gets an ideaóand determinedly crosses to the phone. Then the scene cuts to a HOTEL ROOM. First there is a close-up of a NEWSPAPERóa tabloid bearing a heading which reads: "LOVE TRIUMPHANT." "Interrupted Romance of Ellen Andrews and King Westley Resumed, as Father Yields. Wedding Reception to be Held on Andrews' Lawn." Below this is a page of pictures, and the view turns to each photograph. The first picture is of Ellie and King on a beach. The title over the picture reads: "Where they met." The second picture shows them in the cockpit of a plane, the heading reading: "Where they romanced." The next picture is of a small frame house with a shingle on it reading: "Justice of the Peace." Over the photograph is a caption: "Where they were married." The next picture is of the Andrews Yacht, and the title reads: "Where she was taken." Finally, the view moves down to the bottom of the page to a picture of Ellie and King, with her father between them, in front of Sheriff's office. Caption reads: "Where love triumphed." Over these pictures the phone bell has been ringing. And now PETER is seen staring, expressionless, at the newspaper. Suddenly he becomes conscious of the phone ringing; he looks upóthen goes to it. PETER (into the phone) Hello . . . Yes? . . . Who? . . . Oh . . . Why can't I see you at your office? The scene cuts to ANDREWS' STUDY, affording a close view of ANDREWS at the phone. ? 317 ? ANDREWS I leave for Washington tonight. May be gone several weeks. Thought perhaps you'd like to get this thing settled. This cuts to the HOTEL ROOM where PETER is at the phone. PETER Yeah, but I don't like the idea of walking in on your jamboree . . . Just between you and meóthose things give me a stiff pain. ANDREWS (seen in his office) You needn't see anybody. You can come directly to my study. I'd appreciate it very much ifó PETER (at his phone) Noóno. What the deuce do I want toó His eyes fall on something, and there follows a close view of a tabloid newspaper, featuring the heading: "Love Triumphant" and containing the pictures of Ellie and King. The view then moves down to feature headline reading "Groom to Land on Bride's Lawn." "King Westley plans to drop in an autogyro on the lawn of Andrews estate . . ." Peter's mouth screws up disdainfully. PETER (into the phone) Yeah, wait a minute. Maybe I will come over. I'd like to get a load of that three-ring circus you're pulling. I want to see what love looks like when it's triumphant. I haven't had a good laugh in a week. (he is still at the phone as the scene dissolves) Then the LAWN of the ANDREWS ESTATE dissolves in. It is now filled with guests, who wander around, chattering gaily. The orchestra plays. A captain of waiters in the foreground instructs his men. CAPTAIN I want everything to be just so. When the ceremony starts, you stand on the sideóstill . No moving aroundóno talking, comprenez ? The view cuts to a ROADWAY leading to the estate, and Peter is seen driving up in his Ford and squeezing in between two Rolls-Royces. The uniformed chauffeurs glare at him. But Peter springs nonchalantly out of his car. PETER (blithely, as he passes them) Keep your eye on my car when you're backing up, you guys. And as he goes, the chauffeurs look at each other, surprised. The scene dissolves to ANDREWS' STUDY, where a butler stands in front of Andrews who is seated at his desk. ? 318 ? ANDREWS Show him in. The Butler leaving, a close view shows ANDREWS reaching over and snapping on a dictograph concealed somewhere on his desk. The office coming into view again, we see Andrews rising and awaiting Peter's entrance. After a moment Peter comes in, removes his soft felt hat, and tucks it under his arm. ANDREWS Mr. Warne? PETER Yeah. ANDREWS Come in. Sit down. Peter advances into the room, looking around curiously. His air is frigid, contemptuous as Andrews studies him, and he makes no move to sit. Andrews waves to a chair and sits down himself. Peter flops into the nearest chair. ANDREWS (seen close with Peter; after a pause) I was surprised to get your note. My daughter hadn't told me anything about you. About your helping her. PETER That's typical of your daughter. Takes those things for granted. (too restless to sit, he jumps up) Why does she think I lugged her all the way from Miamió (vehemently) for the love of it? ANDREWS Please understand me. When I say she didn't tell me anything about it, I mean not until a little while ago. She thinks you're entitled to anything you can get. PETER (bitterly) Oh, she does, huh? Isn't that sweet of her! You don't , I suppose. ANDREWS (shrugging) I don't know. I'd have to see on what you base your claim. I presume you feel you're justified inó PETER (seen close now) If I didn't I wouldn't be here! (he reaches into his pocket) I've got it all itemized. ? 319 ? (and he throws the paper on Andrews' desk) ANDREWS picks up the paper and glances at it. After a moment, he looks at Peter, studying him interestedly; then he returns to the paper, and reads its contents: "Cash outlay 8.60 Topcoat 15.00 Suitcase 7.50 Hat 4.00 3 shirts 4.50 Total 39.60" Andrews looks up from the paper. This is a twist he hadn't anticipated, and he doesn't quite know how to handle it. PETER (now seen closer with Andrews) I sold some drawers and socks, too; I'm throwing those in. ANDREWS And this is what you wantóthirty-nine dollars and sixty cents? PETER Why not? I'm not charging you for the time I wasted. ANDREWS Yes, I knowóbutó PETER What's the matter? Isn't it cheap enough? A trip like that would cost you a thousand dollars! ANDREWS Let me get this straight. You want this thirty-nine sixty in addition to the ten thousand dollars? PETER What ten thousand? ANDREWS The reward. PETER (sharply) Who said anything about a reward! ANDREWS (smiling) I'm afraid I'm a little confused. You see, I assumed you were coming here foró PETER (impatiently) All I want is thirty-nine sixty. If you'll give me a check I'll get out of this place. It gives me the jitters. ANDREWS You're a peculiar chap. ? 320 ? PETER (irritably) We'll go into that some other time. ANDREWS The average man would go after the reward. All you seem toó PETER Listen, did anybody ever make a sucker out of you? This is a matter of principle. Something you probably wouldn't understand. (he burns at the thought) When somebody takes me for a buggy ride I don't like the idea of having to pay for the privilege. ANDREWS You were taken for a buggy ride? PETER Yeahówith all the trimmings. Now, how about the check. Do I get it? A close-up indicates that ANDREWS has been studying Peter throughout the scene. He is now completely won over. ANDREWS (smiling) Certainly. (he opens a checkbook and writes it out) While Andrews writes, Peter wanders around the room in an attitude of bitter contempt. Andrews rises and goes to him. ANDREWS Here you are. (as Peter takes the check) Do you mind if I ask you something frankly? (Peter just looks at him without responding) Do you love my daughter? PETER (evasively, while folding the check) A guy that'd fall in love with your daughter should have his head examined. ANDREWS That's an evasion. PETER (putting the check into a wallet) She grabbed herself a perfect running mate. King Westley! The pill of the century! (pocketing wallet) What she needs is a guy that'd take a sock at her every dayówhether it's coming to her or not. A close view of the TWO shows Andrews smiling: Here is a man! PETER If you had half the brains you're supposed to have, you'd have done it yourselfólong ago. ? 321 ? ANDREWS Do you love her? PETER (going for his hat as he replies) A normal human being couldn't live under the same roof with her, without going nuts. (going to the door) She's my idea of nothing! ANDREWS I asked you a question. Do you love her? PETER (snapping it out) Yes! (as Andrews smiles) But don't hold that against me. I'm a little screwy myself. He snaps the door open and goes out, following which ANDREWS is seen watching the door, his eyes twinkling, and the scene cuts to the DOWNSTAIRS HALLWAY as Peter comes through, moving on to the front door. But just as he reaches it, Ellie enters, accompanied by half a dozen men and holding a cocktail in her hand. They see each other almost simultaneously, and both stop, glaring. PETER (looking her over contemptuously) Perfect! Now you look natural. At this Ellie leaves her group and comes toward Peter, and a close view shows them together, glaring at each other. ELLIE (icily) I hope you got your money. PETER You bet I did. ELLIE Congratulations. PETER Same to you. ELLIE Why don't you stay and watch the fun? You'll enjoy it immensely. PETER I would. But I've got a weak stomach. He wheels around and goes through the door, Ellie looking after him, her eyes blazing. The drone of a plane motor outside is heard, and several people rush down the stairs, all excited. GUESTS Here comes King! He's just coming down! Hurry up, everybody! Come on, Ellie! ? 322 ? Immediately there is a general excitement, as guests hurry through the hallway on the way to the lawn. But Ellen does not moveóshe remains staring blankly at the door through which Peter went until Andrews enters from his study. ANDREWS I just had a long talk with him. ELLEN (her voice breaking) I'm not interested. ANDREWS Now, wait a minute, Ellieó ELLIE (sharply) I don't want to hear anything about him! She walks away from him, and Andrews, frustrated, looks at her helplessly. Thereupon the scene dissolves to a full view of the LAWN. The orchestra is playing Mendelssohn's Wedding March. The lawn is crowded with guests. In the background we see the autogyro idling. A closer view shows a small platform, serving as an altar. Over it there is an arbor of roses. Back of the altar stands a minister, ready. A reverse view reveals a long, narrow, carpeted pathway leading to the house. Both sides are lined with guests, who are murmuring excitedly. At the moment, King Westley and his best man are marching solemnly toward the altar. Back of the altar we see a high platform upon which are several newsreel men who are grinding their cameras. The guests, of whom close glimpses are caught, are now peering over each other's shoulders. King and his best man have reached the altar, and the music of the wedding march comes to a stop. The orchestra leader is looking around, apparently waiting for a signal. At the DOOR of the HOUSE a very "prissy" middle-aged man waves his handkerchief and nods his head to the orchestra leader. The orchestra leader acknowledges the signal by nodding his headóturns to his menówaves his baton, and the orchestra starts playing, "Here Comes the Bride."óThe guests whisper to each other excitedly. A great deal of stirring takes place. The door of the house slowly opensóand a parade of small flower girls emerges. They march, taking each step carefully, while they strew flowers along the path. They are well out of the way when Ellie, on the arm of her father, appears in the doorway. A view of the guests shows that they cannot contain themselves. Murmurs of "Here she comes," and "Doesn't she look beautiful?" are heard. The newsreel men on their platform behind the altar bestir themselves. This is what they've been waiting for! ELLIE and her FATHER (seen close) now make their way to the altar. Ellie's face is solemn, and her jaws set. ANDREWS (whispering out of the side of his mouth) You're a sucker to go through with this. Ellie glances at him out of the corner of her eyeóand quickly turns forward again. ? 323 ? ANDREWS That guy Warne is O.K. He didn't want the reward. Ellie keeps her eyes glued in front of her, remaining expressionless. ANDREWS All he asked for was thirty-nine dollars and sixty cents . . . that's what he spent on you. It was a matter of principle with himósays you took him for a ride. This registers on Ellie and she raises her eyesóbut her reaction is only slightly perceptible. A close view of a GROUP OF GUESTS shows two girls looking enviously in the direction of the bride. A YOUNG GIRL (whispering) I wish I were in her shoes. SECOND GIRL Yes. She certainly is lucky. ELLIE and her FATHER are seen again, and ANDREWS is still whispering to her. ANDREWS He loves you, Ellie. Told me so. This brings a definite reaction, which she quickly covers up. ANDREWS You don't want to be married to a mug like Westley. At this there is a close view of Westleyóthere is a satisfied smirk on his face. ANDREWS I can buy him off for a pot of gold, and you can make an old man happy, and you wouldn't do so bad for yourself. If you change your mind, your car's waiting at the back gate. Ellie gives no indication of her intentions. Her face remains immobile. And now Ellie and her father have reached the altar. The "prissy" man is placing them in position. The big moment has arrived. The guests are all atwitter. But a close view of ELLIE shows that she realizes that her fate is closing in on her. She looks around for a means of escape. MINISTER (starting the ceremony) Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God and in the face of this company to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony. If any man can show just cause why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him speak now or else hereafter forever hold his ? 324 ? peace. King, wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife? So long as ye both shall live? KING I will. MINISTER Ellen, wilt thou have this man to be thy wedded husband so long as ye both shall live? Then, seen at the ALTAR, Ellie makes her decision. She reaches down, takes a firm hold on her train and, pushing several people aside, runs out of the scene. Those at the altar look up, surprised, and the most startled of all is KING himself. KING (calling after her) Ellie! He starts to go after heróbut finds Andrews in his way while the outcries of the guests rise in chorus. GUESTS What's happened? Where's she going? On the platform, the newsreel men, a look of astonishment on their faces, decide to follow Ellie. A MAN Get her, Mac! She's ducking! And, as viewed by the newsreel men, Ellie is seen in the distance dashing through the gates. The guests stare dumbfounded. Following this, Andrews and King are seen together in the crowd. KING (helplessly) What happened? ANDREWS (blandly) I haven't the slightest idea. But his mouth twitches as he tries to keep from smiling. As King runs out of sight Andrews gets out a cigar and lights itóa happy smile on his face which he now doesn't try to conceal. Outside the FRONT GATE Ellie is seen in a fast roadster, as she starts away with a plunge. Her eyes sparkle. A crowd of people dash up, headed by King. They stop dead when they see the car disappear. On the LAWN the commotion runs high, and the guests chatter their amazement. A close view of ANDREWS shows him smiling with satisfaction. The scene dissolves to ANDREWS' OFFICE, where Andrews is regaling himself with a whiskey and soda. He is in a pleasantly inebriated mood when his SECRETARY enters. ? 325 ? ANDREWS (as he picks up the phone that has started ringing) Don't want to talk toódon't want to talk to anybody. Don't want to see anybody. SECRETARY But it's King Westley on the phone. ANDREWS Ooooooh. (into the phone) Hello my would-be ex-son-in-law. I've sent you a check for a hundred thousand. Yes. That's the smartest thing you ever did, Westley, not to contest that annulment. That's satisfactory, isn't it? Yeah. Well, it ought to be. Oh I'm not complaining. It was dirt cheap. (as he hangs up) Don't fall out of any windows. SECRETARY (placing a telegram on the desk) There's another wire from Peter, sir. They're in Glen Falls, Michigan. ANDREWS (reading it) "What's holding up the annulment, you slow poke? The Walls of Jericho are toppling." (to the Secretary) Send him a telegram right away. Just say: "Let 'em topple." This dissolves to the exterior of an AUTO CAMP very much like the other camps at which Peter and Ellie stayed. The owner's wife is talking to her husband. WIFE Funny couple, ain't they? MAN Yeah. WIFE If you ask me, I don't believe they're married. MAN They're married all right. I just seen the license. WIFE They made me get 'em a rope and a blanket, on a night like this. MAN Yeah? ? 326 ? WIFE What do you reckon that's for? MAN Blamed if I know. I just brung 'em a trumpet. WIFE (puzzled) A trumpet? MAN Yeah. You know, one of those toy things. They sent me to the store to get it. WIFE But what in the world do they want a trumpet for? MAN I dunno. The scene moves to the cabin occupied presumably by Peter and Ellie. The windows are lighted. There is a blast from a trumpet, and as the lights go out a blanket is seen dropping to the floor, and the scene fades out. THE END IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT Written by Robert previous hit Riskin based on a story by Samuel Hopkins Adams The HARBOR at Miami Beach fades in, providing quick views of yachts, aquaplanes, and luxurious ship-craft lying at anchor in the calm, tranquil waters of tropical Florida. This dissolves to the NAME PLATE on the side of a yacht, reading "ELSPETH II," and this in turn to a YACHT CORRIDOR where a steward is standing in front of a cabin door, near a small collapsible table upon which there is a tray of steaming food. He lifts lids and examines the contents. A heavy-set sailor stands guard near the cabin door.[1] STEWARD Fine! Fine! She ought to like this. (to the guard) Open the door. GUARD (without moving) Who's gonna take it in to her? You? STEWARD Oh, no. (turning) Mullison! Come on! The view widens to include Mullison, a waiter. His eye is decorated with a "shiner." MULLISON Not me, sir. She threw a ketchup bottle at me this morning. STEWARD Well, orders are orders! Somebody's gotta take it in. (he turns to someone else) Fredericks! The view moves to another waiter, who has a patch of bandage on his face. FREDERICKS Before I bring her another meal, I'll be put off the ship first. STEWARD'S VOICE Henri! The view moves over to a Frenchman. HENRI (vehemently) No, Monsieur. When I leave the Ritz you do not say I have to wait on crazy womans. The view moves back to include the Steward and the others grouped around him. ANOTHER WAITER (A COCKNEY) My wife was an angel compared to this one, sir. And I walked out on her . ? 208 ? GUARD (impatiently) Come on! Make up your mind! A petty officer approaches. He is blustering and officious, but the type that is feeble and ineffective. His name is Lacey. LACEY (talking quicklyóstaccato) What's up? What's up? There is a fairly close picture of the GROUP featuring Lacey and the Steward. STEWARD These pigs! They're afraid to take her food in. LACEY That's ridiculous! Afraid of a mere girl! (he wheels on the steward) Why didn't you do it yourself? STEWARD (more afraid than the othersóstammering) WhyóIówell, I never thought aboutó LACEY (shoving him aside) I never heard of such a thing! Afraid of a mere girl. (moving to the tray) I'll take it in myself. They all stand around and watch him, much relieved. He picks up the tray and starts toward the door of the cabin. LACEY (as he walksómuttering) Can't get a thing done unless you do it yourself. (as he approaches the door) Open the door. We see him at the CABIN DOOR as the guard quickly and gingerly unlocks it. LACEY Afraid of a mere girl! Ridiculous. Lacey stalks in bravely, the tray held majestically in front of him, while the steward and waiters form a circle around the door, waiting expectantly. There is a short pause, following which Lacey comes hurling out backwards and lands on his back, the tray of food scattering all over him. The steward quickly bangs the door shut and turns the key as the waiters stare silently. The scene dissolves to the MAIN DECK of the yacht, first affording a close view of a pair of well-shod masculine feet, as they pace agitatedly back and forth. Then as the scene draws back, the possessor of the pacing feet is discovered to be Alexander Andrews, immaculately groomed in yachting clothes. In front of him stands a uniformed Captain, but Andrews, brows wrinkled, deep in thought, continues his pacing. ? 209 ? ANDREWS (murmuring to himself) On a hunger strike, huh? (a grunt) When'd she eat last? CAPTAIN She hasn't had a thing yesterdayóor today. ANDREWS Been sending her meals in regularly? CAPTAIN Yessir. She refuses them all. ANDREWS (snappily) Why didn't you jam it down her throat? CAPTAIN It's not quite that simple. (he shakes his head) I've dealt with prisoners in my time, but this oneó ANDREWS Absurd! (muttering) All this fuss over a snip of a girl. (suddenly) I'm going down to see her myself. He leaves with determination, followed by the Captain, and both are then seen walking in the direction of the cabin, Andrews grim. CAPTAIN This is dangerous business, Mr. Andrews. After all, kidnapping is no child's play. But Andrews ignores him and merely stares grimly forward. They arrive in front of the cabin door, where Lacey is brushing himself off, and where a couple of waiters are picking up the last pieces of the broken dishes. ANDREWS What's this! What's happened here? LACEY (pathetically) She refused another meal, sir. ANDREWS Get another tray ready. Bring it here at once. (to the guard) Open the door. The Guard unlocks the door and Andrews enters. Then we get a view of the CABIN at the door, as Andrews enters and closes the door behind him. He looks around and his eyes light on his prisoner, following which the view swings over to ELLIE, a beautiful girl in her early twenties. At the moment, she holds a small vase over her head ready to heave it, and her eyes flash angrily. At sight of her new visitor, however, she lowers the vase and sets it on a small table. ? 210 ? ELLIE What do you want? Andrews doesn't stir from the door. ANDREWS What's this about not eating? ELLIE (sitting) I don't want to eat! (raising her voice) And there's one more thing I don't want! Definitely! That's to see you. She lights a cigarette. Andrews watches her a moment. ANDREWS Know what my next move is? No more cigarettes. ELLIE Why don't you put me in chains? ANDREWS I might. ELLIE (now seen at close range) All right! Put me in chains! Do anything you want! But I'm not going to eat a thing until you let me off this boat! She stares petulantly out at the blue sky, but Andrews comes over and sits beside her. ANDREWS (tenderly) Come on, Ellie. Stop being silly. You know I'm going to have my way. ELLIE (moving away) I won't stand for it! I won't stand for your running my life! Why do you insist on it! ANDREWS (still tender) You ought to know why. Becauseó ELLIE (interrupting) Yes. I know. (she's heard it a million times) Because I'm your daughter and you love me. Because you don't want me to make any mistakes. Becauseó ANDREWS (joining in) Because marrying that fool King Westley isó ? 211 ? ELLIE (snappily) You're wasting your time. I'm already married to him. ANDREWS (sharply) Not so far as I'm concerned, you're not. (they are interrupted by a knock at the door) ANDREWS Yes? The door opens and several waiters parade in with trays of steaming food. ELLIE (starting for them; threateningly) How many times have I told you not to bring any food in here. The waiters back up, frightened, but Andrews saves them. ANDREWS Wait a minute! Don't get excited! This isn't for you. (to the waiters) Put it right here. Ellie glares at her father, and wanders over to the window seat, while the waiters occupy themselves setting the table. Andrews putters around the food, lifting the lids from which tempting aromas emanate. He shuts his eyes, murmuring "oohs" and "ahs." A close-up of ELLIE shows her, too, drinking in the inviting aromas; and for a moment she weakens. A close view of ANDREWS shows him glancing toward Ellie to see her reaction; whereupon Ellie's face (again appearing in a close-up) freezes. Then Andrews and the waiters come into view. FIRST WAITER Anything else, Monsieur? ANDREWS No. Everything seems quite satisfactory. I may want some more of that delicious gravy. I'll ring. WAITER Very good, Monsieur. The waiters bow their way out as Andrews pecks at the food. ANDREWS (making clucking noise) Heavenly! Now Ellie appears in the foreground, with Andrews at the table in the background. ELLIE (disdainfully) Smart, aren't you! So subtle. ? 212 ? ANDREWS (chewing on a mouthful of food) If Gandhi had a chef like Paul, it would change the whole political situation in India. ELLIE You can't tempt me. (shouting unnecessarily) Do you hear? I won't eat! ANDREWS (quietly) Please. I can't fight on an empty stomach. Remember what Napoleon said. ELLIE I hope you're not comparing yourself to Napoleon. He was a strategist. Your idea of strategy is to use a lead pipe. Andrews eats silently while Ellie rants at him, walking around and puffing vigorously on her cigarette. ELLIE (muttering) Most humiliating thing ever happened to me. (shuddering) A bunch of gorillas shoving me in a car! That crowd outside the justice of the peaceómust have thought I was a criminalóor something. A close view of ANDREWS intercuts with part of Ellie's speech. At the end of her speech he smacks his lips, enjoying the food with too great a relish. Then the two are seen together. ELLIE (after a pauseóstrongly) Where are you taking me? ANDREWS (carelessly) South America. ELLIE (aghast) South America! ANDREWS We leave Miami in an hour. Soon's we get some supplies aboard. ELLIE (threateningly) You'll have a corpse on your hands! That what You'll have. I won't eat a thing while I'm on this boat. ANDREWS (buttering bread) In that event, we won't need so many supplies. ? 213 ? ELLIE (exasperated) What do you expect to accomplish by all this? I'm already married! ANDREWS I'll get it annulled. ELLIE You'll never do it! You can't do it! ANDREWS (now seen close as he speaks between snatches of food) I'll do it if it takes every penny I've got. I'll do it if I have to bribe that musical comedy Justice of the Peace! I'll do itóif I have to prove that you were dragged in, staggering drunk. You probably were. (he smacks his lips) Mmmómmm. This filet mignon is divine! ELLIE (seen with her father) What've you got against King Westley? ANDREWS Nothing much. I just think he's a fake, that's all. ELLIE You only met him once . ANDREWS That was enough. Do you mind handing me the ketchup? ELLIE You talk as if he were a gigoloóor something. ANDREWS (risingóreaching for ketchup) Never mindóI'll get it myself. (he falls back in his chair) Gigolo? Why, you took the word right out of my mouth. Thanks. ELLIE (seen closer now, with Andrews) He's one of the best fliers in the country. Right now he's planning a trip to Japan. ANDREWS You're going to finance him, I suppose. ELLIE Why not? Look what he's doing for aviation. It takes courage to do what he does. And character! At least he's accomplished something worthwhile. I suppose you'd like to have me marry a business man. Well, I hate business menóparticularly if you're a shining example. ? 214 ? He grins, not at all offended, knowing she doesn't mean it. ELLIE Your whole life is devoted to just one thing. To accumulate more money. At least there's romance in what he's doing. ANDREWS (unequivocally) He's no good, Ellie, and you know it. You married him only because I told you not to. ELLIE (strongly) You've been telling me what not to do since I was old enough to remember. (screaming) I'm sick of it! And as Andrews ignores her, she starts moving around the table toward him.óNext she appears sitting on the edge of Andrews' chair, and she throws her arm around his shoulder. ELLIE (pleading sweetly) Aw, listen, Dad. Let's not fight like this any more. I know you're worried about meóand want me to be happy. And I love you for it. But please try to understand. You're not being fair, darling. This isn't just a crazy impulse of mine. King and I talked about it a lot before we decided to get married. Lookówhy can't we give it a trialólet's sayófor a year or so. If it's wrong, King and I will be the first to know it. We can get a divorce, can't we? Now, be a dear, and let me off the boat. Keeping me prisoner like this is so silly. Andrews has been listening silently throughout the speech, giving no indication of his feelings in the matter. ANDREWS (unimpressed) You'll be set free when the marriage is annulled. A close-up of ELLIE, her eyes blazing angrily, shows her slowly edging away from her father, while he continues. ANDREWS' VOICE (carelessly) So there's no use being a stubborn idiot. ELLIE (hissing) I come from a long line of stubborn idiots! ANDREWS (again seen with her; calmly) A time will come when you'll thank me for this. ELLIE (wildly) I won't thank you! I'll never thank you! ? 215 ? ANDREWS Please don't shout. ELLIE I'll shout to my heart's content! I'll scream if I want to. ANDREWS (reaching for it) Ah! Coconut layer cake. Nice and gooey, too. Just the way I like it. He is about to insert the first bite in his mouth when Ellie, her temper vanishing completely, overturns the small serving table, dumping its contents into her father's lap. The movement is so unexpected that Andrews, the fork still suspended near his mouth, stares at her stupefied. Then realizing what she has done, his eyes flash in anger. Dropping his fork, he rises and goes over to her, while she stands facing him defiantly. Without a word or warning, he slaps her a stinging blow across the cheek. For a moment she doesn't stir, her eyes widening in surprise, and staring at him unbelievingly. Then turning abruptly she bolts out of the door. Andrews remains motionless, his eyes shutting painfully; it is the first time he has struck her, and it hurts. ANDREWS (calling) Ellie! (and he starts for the door) Next on the DECK, at the open cabin door, Andrews is seen, staring off at something and an amazed, frightened look comes into his eyes. Then, as viewed from his position at the cabin door, Ellie appears standing on the rail; and with a professional dive, she leaps into the water. A full view of the DECK reveals the crew and the officers scurrying around, several of them shouting: "Somebody overboard!" ANDREWS It's my daughter! Go after her. CAPTAIN (shouting) Lower the boats! General excitement reigns; several of the crew dive into the water; others release the boat lines. Following this Ellie is seen swimming furiously against the giant waves. Next she appears as a small speck in the distance, while half a dozen of the crew are swimming in pursuit. At the SIDE OF THE YACHT one of the boats has already been lowered, and two men jump in and grab the oars. The men seem to be gaining on Ellie. In the distance several small motor boats are anchored, and over the sides of the boats their owners are fishing. Ellie seems to be headed in their direction. One of the motor boats appears closer. A middle-aged man sits on the stern, holding lazily to his line, his feet dangling in the water as the boat is tossed around by the turbulent waves. ELLIE is then again seen swimming. She looks back, and the next scene shows the men rowing toward her, and gaining on her. Thereupon we see Ellie ducking under the water. ? 216 ? The middle-aged fisherman is suddenly startled by Ellie's face which appears from under water, right between his legs. Ellie puts her finger up to her lips, warning him to shush, and he is too dumb-founded to say anything. As the pursuing boats come near, Ellie ducks under the water again and the boats scoot right by the fisherman. Then Ellie's head bobs up; she peers ahead of her, and seeing that her pursuers have passed her, she smiles victoriously. ELLIE (to the fisherman) Thanks. (and she starts swimming toward shore) The scene dissolves to the DECK of the YACHT as Ellie's pursuers clamber aboard, Andrews waiting for them. A MAN Sorry, sir. She got away. ANDREWS (disappointed but proud) Of course she got awayótoo smart for you. CAPTAIN What a hell cat. No controlling these modern girls. (murmuring) They're terrible! ANDREWS (resentfully) Terrible! Nothing terrible about her. She's great! Marvelous youngster! Got a mind of her own. Knows just what she wants. (smiling) She's not going to get it though. She won't get very far. Has no money. CAPTAIN What about that diamond wrist watch she had onóshe can raise some money on that? ANDREWS (his face falling) Holy Smoke! I forgot all about that. (to the officer by his side) Send a wireless at once, "Lovington Detective Agency. Daughter escaped again. Watch all roadsóall transports and railroad stations in Miami. Have your New York office keep tabs on King Westley. Intercept all messages. Want her back at all costs!" OFFICER Yessir. The view draws in to afford a close-up of ANDREWS staring out at the sea, his face wreathed in a broad smile; then this fades out. Part Two The RAILROAD STATION of an active terminal in Miami fades in. The view moves down to the entrance gate to the trains, passengers hur- ? 217 ? rying through it; then picks out two men, obviously detectives, who have their eyes peeled on everyone passing through. Then the view affords a glimpse of ELLIE, who stands watching the detectives. This scene wiping off, we see an AIR TRANSPORT, with several planes tuning up in the background. As passengers file through, several detectives stand around in a watchful pose. This scene wiping off, the front of a WESTERN UNION OFFICE comes into view. Several people walk in and out. At the side of the door, two detectives are on the lookout. This scene also wipes off, revealing the WAITING ROOM of a BUS STATION. Over the ticket window there is a sign reading "BUY BUS TICKETS HERE," and a line forms in front of it. Here too there are two detectives. FIRST DETECTIVE We're wastin' our time. Can you picture Ellie Andrews ridin' on a bus? SECOND DETECTIVE I told the old man it was the bunk. The view moves from them to ELLIE, who stands behind a post and is watching the two detectives apprehensively. As the two (viewed from her position) stand by the ticket window, one of them turns toward her. Thereupon, we see her slipping behind a post, concealing herself. Just then a little old lady approaches her. OLD LADY Here's your ticket, ma'am. ELLIE Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. (she takes the ticket and change from the old lady, and hands her a bill) Here. OLD LADY Oh, thank you. Thank you. ELLIE When does the bus leave? OLD LADY In about fifteen minutes. ELLIE Thank you. She picks up a small overnight bag from the floor and hurries away. She crosses to the entrance of the waiting room and disappears through the doors. The view then wings over to a telephone booth near the entrance. Clustered around the booth are half a dozen men of varied appearance. The inside of the booth is lighted, and a young man, Peter Warne, waves his hands wildly as he shouts into the phone, although it is impossible to hear what he is saying. A close inspection of the men surrounding the booth (the scene contracting to a close view) reveals them as being slightly and happily intoxicated. A short man approaches the door of the booth. ? 218 ? SHORTY Hey, what's going on here? I'd like to use that phone. FIRST MAN (a reporter) Shh! Quiet. This is history in the making. SHORTY What? FIRST MAN There's a man biting a dog in there. SECOND MAN (drunker than the rest) Atta-boy, Petey, old boy! Atta-boy!ó PETER'S VOICE I'm not going to stand for this any longer. In a pig's eye, you will!ó GROUP Is that so? That's telling him, Petey old boy. A close view of PETER WARNE in the telephone booth gives evidence of his having also imbibed freely. PETER (shouting into the phone) Listen, monkey-faceówhen you fired me, you fired the best newshound your filthy scandal sheet ever had. And the scene cuts to a New York NEWSPAPER OFFICE where the night editor, Gordon, his sleeves rolled up, sits at his desk shrieking into the phone. GORDON Say, listen, you wouldn't know a story if it reached up and kicked you in the pants. (listening) Yeah? Sure, sure, I got your copy. Why didn't you tell me you were going to write it in Greek? I'd start a new department. PETER (again seen close at the phone) That was free verse, you gashouse palooka! GORDON (at the phone in the newspaper office) Free verse, huh? (shouting) What the dickens was free about it? It cost this paper a gob of dough. Well, I'm here to tell you, it's not gonna cost us any more. ? 219 ? PETER (in his phone booth) That's okay by me! 'Cause as far as I'm concerned, I'm through with newspapers! See? I'm through with stupidity! I'll never write another newspaper story, for you or anybody else, if I have to starve. (after a pause) Yeah? What about my novel! When I get through with tható GORDON (in his office) When you get through with that, I'll have a beard down to my ankles. (at this point, Gordon's secretary enters) SECRETARY Mr. Gordonó GORDON (looking up) Huh? SECRETARY Did you know he reversed the charges on that call? GORDON What! (into the phone) Say, listen you! When you get back to New York, take my advice and stay f-a-r away from this officeóunless you don't care what happens to that funny map of yours. (he bangs down the receiver viciously and glowers at the phone) In the PHONE BOOTH Peter reacts to the phone being hung up on him. But he goes right on for the benefit of the boys. PETER (into the dead phone) Oh, so you're changing your tune, eh? Well, it's about time. But it's going to do you no good, my tough friend. It's a little too late for apologies. I wouldn't go back to work for you if you begged me on your hands and knees! I hope this is a lesson to you! He snaps up the receiver with a great pretense of outraged pride, following which the view expands to include his public. MEN Atta-boy, Peter. That's telling him, Peter. The gang is full of admiration for the courageous way he talked to the boss as Peter staggers out of the booth. PETER Give me any of his lip, will he? Huh! I guess he knows now what I think of his job! (expansively) Is my chariot ready? ? 220 ? FIRST MAN Your chariot awaiteth withouteth, oh mighty King. MEN Make way for the King. Long live the King. Make way. With head held high, he struts majestically out of sight, followed by his admirers, following which the scene dissolves to the BUS STATION. His inebriated admirers stand around the entrance to a bus, while Peter stands on the steps, his suitcase in his hand. PETER (making a grand speech) That's right, my friends. Cling to your jobs! Remain slaves the rest of your lives! Scum of the earth! Newspaper men! Not me! When I'm basking in the glorious arms of the Museówhat'll you be doing? Chasing news. You miserable worms. For what? A mere pittance! My heart goes out to you. (with arms extended and in tremolo voice) Good-bye. (and with this he turns his back and enters the bus) MEN (in the same spirit) Goodbye, Oh mighty King! Peace be with you, Courageous One! ANNOUNCER'S VOICE All aboard. Philadelphia, New York. All aboard. GROUP Look out. Get back. Farewell. Farewell. PETER Scram. The scene cuts to the INTERIOR of the BUS as viewed from the front, the view moving forward, passing the conglomerate of unprepossessing human beings who occupy the seats. Every space is taken and the occupants seem hot and uncomfortable, which adds to their uninviting appearance. Mothers cling to crying babies. A Swedish farm hand and his young wife are already busy opening their basket of food prepared for the long journey. A surly-looking hoodlum traveling alone is slumped in his seat, his cap drawn carelessly over his eyes. The moving view passes these and other characters until it reaches one unoccupied seat in the car, unoccupied except for several bundles of newspapers. Standing before the seat is Peter, his suitcase in his hand, speculating as to what disposition to make of the newspapers. PETER (calling) Hey, driver! How about clearing this stuff away! Several passengers (seen from his position in the back) crane their necks to scrutinize the intruder. Through a glass partition the driver can be seen receiving his last minute instructions from a superintendent, who stands on the running board, their voices in- ? 221 ? distinguishable. In answer to Peter's request, the driver glances back indifferently, and continues talking to the superintendent. A close view of PETER shows him arching his eyebrows, an amused acknowledgment of the disdainful attitude of the driver. He drops his suitcase and starts forward. Then we see him arriving at the glass partition, and Peter taps playfully on the pane with his finger-nails, whereupon the driver turns and pulls the window down a few inches. DRIVER (annoyed) Whadda you want! PETER (pleasantly) If you'll be good enough to remove those newspapers I'll have a seat. DRIVER (irritably) Okay! Okay! Keep your shirt on, young feller. (with which remark the driver turns away from him) PETER (looking at the back of the driver's neck for a moment, then confidentially) Just between you and me, I never intended taking it off. He wheels around uncertainly and swaggers jauntily down the aisle toward the empty seat. En route he bestows genial smiles upon several of his disgruntled fellow passengers, and he stops in front of a robust lady who at the moment is breastfeeding her baby while a lighted cigarette dangles from her lips. PETER Personally, I was raised on a bottle. (as the woman looks up at him, perplexed) When I was a baby, I insisted on it. You know why? (as the woman stares up stupidly) I never liked the idea of getting cigarette ashes in my eyes. He moves forward, leaving the woman unable to make head or tail of it; and assuming that he's crazy, she shrugs her shoulders and turns her attention to the baby. Now PETER arrives at his seat, and whistling softly, raises the window. Unhurriedly, he picks the newspaper bundles up one by one and flings them out of the window. They hit the sidewalk below with a dull thud. Thereupon a close view of the DRIVER shows him reacting violently to Peter's unprecedented cheek, and starting down from his seat. PETER has now cleared the seat of all the newspaper bundles and still whistling his favorite melody, he picks up his suitcase preparatory to placing it in the rack overhead. At this point, the driver enters the side door of the bus. DRIVER (pugnaciously) Hey, wait a minute! ? 222 ? Peter, his arms holding the suitcase over his head, turns and glances at the driver, a quizzical look in his eyes. DRIVER (coming forward) What do you think you're doing! PETER (turning) Huh? DRIVER (bellowing) The papers! The papers! Whadda you mean throwin' 'em out! PETER Ohóthe papersó He slowly lowers his arms and deposits the suitcase on the floor. PETER (now seen close, with the Driver) That's a long story, my friend. You see, I don't like sitting on newspapers. I did once and all the headlines came off on my white pants. DRIVER Hey, whadda you tryin' to doókid me? PETER Oh, I wouldn't kid you . On the level, it actually happened. Nobody bought a paper that day. They followed me all over town and read the news from the seat of my pants. DRIVER What're you gonna do about the papers? Somebody's gotta pick 'em up. PETER (turning to his suitcase) It's okay with me. I'm not arguing. DRIVER (pugnaciously) Fresh guy, huh! What you need is a good sock on the nose. PETER (turning back to him) Look here, partner. You may not like my nose. But I do. It's a good nose. The only one I've got. I always keep it out in the open where anybody can take a sock at it. If you decide to do it, make sure you don't miss. During his speech, Ellie enters from the rear and plunks herself into Peter's seat. Unseen by Peter, she places her small bag beside her. ? 223 ? DRIVER (answering Peter; weakly) Oh, yeah? PETER Now, that's a brilliant answer. Why didn't I think of it? Our conversation could have been over long ago. DRIVER Oh, yeah? PETER (exhausted) You win! Smiling, he turns to sit down. But the smile dies on his face when he finds his place occupied by Ellie, who stares out the window. PETER (now at close range, with Ellie) Excuse me, ladyó (slowly)ó but that upon which you sitóis mine. Ellie glances up at himóthen down at her buttocks. ELLIE (eyes flashing) I beg your pardon! PETER Now, listen. I'm in a very ugly mood. I put up a stiff battle for that seat. So if it's just the same to youó (gesturing with thumb) scram. ELLIE (ignoring himócalling) Driver! The driver, who has stopped to witness this new altercation, returns. ELLIE Are those seats reserved? DRIVER (pleased to discomfort Peter) No. First come, first served. ELLIE (dismissing the whole thing) Thank you. (Peter, thwarted for a moment, just glares at her) PETER (also calling) Driver! DRIVER Yeah? ? 224 ? PETER These seats accommodate two passengers, don't they? DRIVER (hating to give in) Maybe they doóand maybe they don't. Peter lifts Ellie's overnight bag off the seat and drops it on the floor. Part of her coat covers the small space by her side. This he sweeps across her lap. PETER Move over, lady. This is a "maybe they do." He plops into the seat, the other passengers around them heaving a sigh of relief. Ellie flashes him a devastating look and deliberately turns her back on him. But Peter suddenly looks down toward the floor, following which a close-up AT THEIR FEET reveals that Ellie's bag on the floor annoys Peter. With his foot he slowly moves it over to her, and Ellie's foot is seen pushing it back, whereupon Peter viciously kicks it over to her side again. Next we see Ellie glaring at him, picking up her bag, and standing on the seat depositing it on the rack overhead. But just then the bus starts forward with a lurch which unbalances her, and she falls backward right in Peter's lap. Their noses almost touch. Their eyes meet, and they glare at each other hostilely. Ellie quickly scrambles off and gets back in her seat, turning her back on him. PETER (amused) Next time you drop in, bring your folks. This dissolves to a COUNTRY ROAD, and the bus sways perilously as it speeds through the night, following which the view dissolves to the INTERIOR of the BUS, revealing Peter slumped in his seat, his hat drawn over his eyes. Ellie has her head thrown back, trying to sleep. But the swaying bus causes her head to roll from side to side uncomfortably, and finally she gives up. ELLIE (an order) Tell that man not to drive so fast. (at which Peter just cocks his head slightly) PETER Are you talking to me? ELLIE Yes. Tell that man to drive slowly. Peter stares at her a moment, resenting her officious manner. PETER (pleasantly) Okay. And much to her surprise, he sighs deeply and relaxes to his former position, shutting his eyes. She glares at him crushingly. The scene dissolves to another view of the BUS, disclosing the driver, and suddenly the bus comes to a stop. ? 225 ? DRIVER (sticking his head in to face the passengers) Rest station! Ten minutes! The view draws back as some of the passengers rise. The men stretch their legs, and the women straighten out their skirts. A close view of Peter and Ellie then shows her rising. Peter accommodatingly shoves his feet aside for her to pass, and Ellie starts up the aisle. But she suddenly stops; looks back, first at her bag and then at Peter; decides to take her bag with her, and returns to take it. She reaches for it on the rack, Peter watching her, amused. The scene dissolves to the outside of the REST STATION with several passengers walking briskly back and forth. The place is dimly lit by one or two lamp-posts, and Peter can be seen leaning against one of these posts, smoking a cigarette. The scene moving in, a close view of Peter shows him stealing a glance in the direction of Ellie. And a view, from his angle, reveals Ellie in the shadow of the bus, her bag at her feet. She slowly turns her head toward Peter and then quickly averts it. PETER (seen close) speculates about her. He glances around the place, and the scene moves about, following his gaze. It takes in the other passengers, all obviously poor and uncultured. The moving view reaches Ellie. The contrast is perceptible. Thereupon, we see Peter reacting with comprehension: No doubt about it! She doesn't belong with these passengers. Then suddenly he sees something which startles him, and we see what it is: Directly in back of her, the young hoodlum passenger slyly lifts her overnight bag from the ground and starts running with it. Ellie is oblivious of his actions. PETER springs forward. Ellie sees Peter coming toward her and is perceptibly startled. But Peter whizzes by her, and this amazes her even more. She shrugs her shoulders, perplexed, and resumes her smoking. In a few seconds Peter returns, puffing breathlessly. PETER He got away. I suddenly found myself in the middle of the brush and not a sign of the skunk. ELLIE (seen close with PETER) doesn't know what he's talking about. She looks at him, puzzled. ELLIE I don't know what you're raving about, young man. And, furthermore, I'm not interested. PETER (taken aback) Wellóof all theówelló (hard) Maybe you'll be interested to know your bag's gone. At this, Ellie wheels around and stares at the spot where her bag had been. ELLIE Oh, my heavens! It's gone! ? 226 ? PETER (sarcastically) Yeah. I knew you'd catch on eventually. ELLIE What happened? PETER That cadaverous-looking yegg[2] who sat in front of us, just up and took it. Boy, how that baby can run! ELLIE What am I going to do now? PETER Don't tell me your ticket was in it? ELLIE (opening her purse) No, I've got that, all right. But my money. All I have here is four dollars. I've got to get to New York with it. PETER You can wire home for some money when we get to Jacksonville. ELLIE Why, noóIó (catching herself) Yes . . . I guess I will. PETER (starting out) I'll report it to the driver. About your bag, I mean. ELLIE (quickly) No. I'd rather you didn't. PETER Don't be a fool. You lost your bag. The company'll make good. What's your name? ELLIE I don't want it reported! PETER Why, that's ridiculous! They're responsible for everything tható ELLIE (hotly) See here, can you understand English! I don't want it reported! (she starts away) Please stay out of my affairs! I want to be left alone. (with which she disappears from the scene) A close-up of PETER shows him glaring after her. ? 227 ? PETER (mumbling) Why, you ungrateful brat! The scene dissolves to the BUS, where all the passengers are scattering back to their seats; Peter is already seated, when Ellie arrives. A close view then shows her standing uncertainly for a moment, speculating whether to cross over his legs to get her place by the window. Peter feels her presence by his side and glances up. She tosses her head and plants herself in the seat in front of him, vacated by the young man who stole her bag. Peter takes the affront with a shrug and slides over gratefully to the coveted spot near the window. The scene dissolves to a close view of Ellie and a recently arrived fat man next to her. She has her head thrown back in an effort to sleep, but the fat man, his hands clasped over his protruding stomach, snores disgustingly, and the rumble of the flying bus accompanies him. Suddenly the bus careens, the fat man falls against Ellie, and she awakens with a start and pushes him back. The fat man's snoring goes on uninterrupted, and Ellie relaxes again; but in a few seconds the procedure is repeated, and Ellie is beside herself. She looks around for somewhere to flee. PETER, seated in back of her, in his customary slumped position, opens his eyes slightly. It is apparent he has been watching her for some time, for he grins at her discomfiture. Ellie's head turns in his direction and the grin leaves Peter's face. He shuts his eyes and pretends to be asleep. Ellie glances at Peter to make certain he is asleep. The fat man falls against her again and it is all she can stand. She starts to rise. Peter sees her coming and deliberately puts his hand on the seat next to him, still pretending to be asleep. Just as Ellie starts to sit, she notices his hand and is embarrassed. Gingerly she picks up his limp hand and places it on his knee. She then slides into the seat, sighing with relief, whereupon Peter opens his eyes and is amused. Slowly his head turnsóand he scrutinizes her, soberly and appraisingly. Ellie slowly turns her head for a glimpse of Peteróand is startled to find him gazing at her. She turns forward, her jaw set forbiddingly. The scene dissolves to the view of a ROAD. It is dawn, and in the distance, against the horizon, the bus, a mere speck, makes its lone way over the deserted country. This dissolves to a large SIGN, reading "JACKSONVILLE," and then into the BUS affording a close view of ELLIE and PETER. They are both asleep, her head resting comfortably on his shoulder, Peter's topcoat thrown over her. Then the view draws back. The bus is empty except for Ellie and Peter, the last few passengers are just leaving. PETER's eyes slowly open. He looks down at the head on his shoulder and grins. With a sigh, he shuts his eyes again and resumes his slumber. Next, at the front of the bus, the DRIVER stands staring at Peter and Ellie in this intimate position and his mouth twists knowingly. DRIVER (murmuring) Oh, yeah? ELLIE stirs, squirms a little uncomfortably and with a sleepy grunt shifts her position. Just as she settles down, her eyes open. She stares out of the window with unseeing eyes, and then closes them ? 228 ? dreamily, giving the impression that, still half conscious, she is trying to recall where she is. Apparently she does, for her eyes suddenly snap open and she lifts her head. Finally (in a scene including Peter), Ellie realizes that she has been sleeping on his shoulder, whereupon she straightens up, embarrassed. ELLIE Oh, I'm sorryó (feebly smiling) Silly, isn't it? She looks around, and her finding herself alone with Peter adds to her embarrassment. ELLIE Everybody's gone. She lifts her arms to adjust her hat and becomes conscious of his coat over her which slips. She stares at it thoughtfully for a momentóthen at Peter. ELLIE (realizing that he put it there) Oh, thank you. (she hands him his coat; ill at ease) We're in Jacksonville, aren't we? PETER Yes. ELLIE (nervously) That was foolish of me. Why didn't you shove me away? PETER I hated to wake you up. (she glances at him speculatively) How about some breakfast? ELLIE No, thank you. (she rises, anxious to get away) Thank you so much. Most uncomfortably, she edges away from him toward the front of the bus, Peter watching her leave, his interest definitely provoked. The scene cuts to the STAND as Ellie emerges from the bus. At the foot of the steps is the driver. ELLIE How much time have I? DRIVER About a half hour. ELLIE I'm going over to the Windsor Hotel. Peter appears in the door of the bus in the background, and a close view then shows him stopping to listen as he sees Ellie talking to the driver. ? 229 ? DRIVER'S VOICE The Windsor! You'll never make it in time. ELLIE'S VOICE You'll have to wait for me. DRIVER'S VOICE (aghast) Wait for you! A smile flits across Peter's face; then a wider view shows Ellie leaving the driver. ELLIE (as she goes) Yes. I may be a few minutes late. She disappears from sight, leaving the driver staring at her, dumbly; and Peter, standing in back of the driver, shakes his head in amazement. The scene dissolves to the BUS STAND later that morningóat the same spot where the bus had previously been. It is no longer there, however. A huge crowd fills the space, and the view moving down through the crowd, singles Ellie out. She has just arrived and looks around helplessly. Finally she spots a uniformed terminal guard and approaches him. ELLIE (now next to the Guard) Where's the bus to New York? GUARD Left twenty minutes ago. ELLIE Why, that's ridiculous! I was on that busóI told them to wait! GUARD Sorry, Miss. It's gone. (and he turns his back on her) Ellie's face clouds. The crowds surge about her. She looks around thoughtfully. Suddenly her eyes open in surprise at something she sees, and the view then moves over to Peter, who sits on his suitcase, looking toward Ellie. PETER Good morning. Peter is in the foreground, the guard is seen in the background. Ellie stares at Peter, perplexed. PETER Remember me? I'm the fellow you slept on last night. ELLIE Seems to me I've already thanked you for that. (turning to guard) What time is the next bus to New York? ? 230 ? GUARD (turning) Eight o'clock tonight. ELLIE Eight o'clock! Why, that's twelve hours! GUARD Sorry, Miss. The Guard leaves the scene, and Ellie's disappointment is apparent. PETER (sarcastically) What's the matter? Wouldn't the old meanies wait for you? (Ellie glares at him, disdaining to replyóthis angers him, and he continues hotly) Say, how old are you anyway? Don't you know these busses work on a schedule? You need a guardian. ELLIE (starting away) What are you excited about? You missed the bus, too. Peter looks at her a moment before replying. PETER (quietly) Yeah. I missed it, too. There is a close view of the two. She turns to him. Her interest is provoked by his tone of voice. She glances up into his face. ELLIE Don't tell me you did it on my account! (pause) I hope you're not getting any idea that what happened last night isó (she interrupts herself) You needn't concern yourself about me, young man. I can take care of myself. PETER You're doing a pretty sloppy job of it. (he reaches in his pocket) Here's your ticket. ELLIE (surprised) My ticket? PETER I found it on the seat. ELLIE (taking it) Oh, thank you. Must have fallen out of my pocket. ? 231 ? While she is putting the ticket away in her purse, Peter speaks: PETER You'll never get away with it, Miss Andrews. (this is a shock to Ellie) ELLIE (weakly) What are you talking about? PETER Just a spoiled brat of a rich man. You and Westley'll make an ideal team. ELLIE (bluffing it through) Will you please tell me what you're raving about! PETER You'll never get away with it, Miss Andrews. Your father'll stop you before you get half way to New York. ELLIE You must have me confused withó PETER (interrupting) Quit kidding! It's all over the front pages, You know, I've always been curious about the kind of a girl that would marry King Westley. He pulls a newspaper out of his pocket and hands it to her. Ellie glances at the headline hurriedly. PETER (while she reads) Take my adviceógrab the first bus back to Miami. That guy's a phony. ELLIE (looking up at him) I didn't ask for your advice. (she hands the paper back) PETER That's right. You didn't. ELLIE You're not going to notify my father, are you? PETER (looking at her squarely) What for? ELLIE If you play your cards right, you might get some money out of it. (a disdainful expression crosses his face) PETER I never thought of that. ? 232 ? ELLIE (frantically) Listen, if you'll promise not to do it, I'll pay you. I'll pay you as much as he will. You won't gain anything by giving me away as long as I'm willing to make it worth your while. I've got to get to New York without being stopped. It's terribly important to me. I'd pay now, only the only thing I had when I jumped off the yacht was my wrist watch and I had to pawn that to get these clothes. I'll give you my address and you can get in touch with me the minute you get to New York. PETER (furious) Never mind. You know I had you pegged right from the start, you're the spoiled brat of a rich father. The only way you can get anything is to buy it. Now you're in a jam and all you can think of is your money. It never fails, does it? Ever hear of the word "Humility"? No, you wouldn't. I guess it never occurred to you to just say, "Please mister, I'm in trouble. Will you help me?" No; that'd bring you down off your high horse for a minute. Let me tell you something; maybe it'd take a load off your mind. You don't have to worry about me. I'm not interested in your money or your problems. You, King Westley, your father, you're all a lot of hooey to me. He turns his back on her and leaves. A close-up of ELLIE shows her staring after him, her eyes blazing angrily. In a TELEGRAPH OFFICE, Peter addresses a girl operator as he drops a telegram on the counter, which she reads. PETER (brusquely) You send telegrams here? OPERATOR (recognizing him apparently, sarcastically) I'm just fine thanks, and how are you? (reading) To "Joe Gordon, care of New York Mail, New York. Am I laughing. The biggest scoop of the year just dropped in my lap. I know where Ellen Andrews isó" (looking up excitedly) No, do you really? PETER (impatiently) Go on. Go on send the telegram. OPERATOR "How would you like to have the story, you big tub ofóofó" PETER Mush. Mush. ? 233 ? OPERATOR "Tub of mush. Well try and get it. What I said about never writing another line for you still goes. Are you burning? Peter Warne." Well, that will be $2.60. PETER Send it collect. OPERATOR Collect? Peter (firmly) Collect. As the clerk takes the wire from him, scene fades out. Part Three The BUS TERMINAL fades in. It is night now, and the rain comes down in torrents. People scurry around to get into the buses as the voice of an announcer is heard: ANNOUNCER'S VOICE Bus for blah-blah-blah-blahóCharlestonóblah-blah-blahóand all points North to New York! This dissolves to the interior of a BUS, which is practically filled. Peter is in his seat, reading a magazine, while Ellie enters hurriedly from the rear door and starts forward. As she approaches Peter, she hesitates a second, and deliberately passes him, plunking herself into a seat in the opposite aisle. Peter turns just as she gets seated. He glances at her indifferently. A close view shows Ellie seated next to a man who sits reading a newspaper which covers his face. Her eyes are fixed forward, her lips set adamantly. A close-up of the MAN next to Ellie makes it plain that he is a typical drummer.[3] At the moment he is absorbed in a serial story, but suddenly he becomes aware of something at his feet, and without lowering the newspaper, his gaze slowly shifts downward. At this, the view moves down until it reaches Ellie's trim ankles. Her feet beat a regular tattoo on the floor; her extreme agitation is evident. The view moves back slowly, taking in Ellie's shapely leg as far as the knee. Then we see ELLIE and the DRUMMER as his gaze is still fixed on her leg. Slowly his face breaks into a lascivious grin, he lowers his paper, and turns for a scrutiny of her face. What he sees apparently delights him, for he drops his paper completelyóand smiles broadly. DRUMMER Hi, sisteróAll alone? My name's Shapeley. (Ellie favors him with a devastating look which is wasted on the drummer) Might as well get acquainted. It's gonna be a long tripógets tiresome later on. Specially for somebody like you. You look like you got class. (he surveys her from head to foot) Yessir! With a capital K. (he chuckles at his own sally) And I'm a guy that knows class when he sees it, believe you me. ? 234 ? A close-up of ELLIE, as Shapeley's voice continues, shows her glancing back at Peter, expecting him to come to her rescue. SHAPELEY'S VOICE Ask any of the boys. They'll tell you. Shapeley sure knows how to pick 'em. Yessir. Shapeley's the name, and that's the way I like 'em. Ellie again looks toward Peter. But PETER seems to have found something of unusual interest in his magazine . . . and we again see the harassed ELLIE and the irrepressible SHAPELEY, who continues. SHAPELEY You made no mistake sitting next to me. (confidentially) Just between us, the kinda muggs you meet on a hop like this ain't nothing to write home to the wife about. You gotta be awful careful who you hit up with, is what I always say, and you can't be too particular, neither. Once when I was comin' through North Carolina, I got to gabbin' with a good-lookin' mama. One of those young ones, you know, and plenty classy, too. Kinda struck my fancy. You know how it is. Well, sir, you could'a knocked me over with a Mack truck. I was just warming up when she's yanked offa the bus. Who do you think she was? Huh? Might as well give up. The girl bandit! The one the papers been writin' about. (he pulls out a cigar, and continuesóawed by the recollection) Yessir, you coulda knocked me over with a Mack truck. (he lights his cigar, takes a vigorous puff, and turns to her again) What's the matter, sister? You ain't sayin' much. ELLIE (intending to freeze him) Seems to me you're doing excellently without any assistance. (this however only brings a guffaw from the drummer) SHAPELEY That's pretty good . . . Well, shut my big nasty mouth! A close-up shows ELLIE enduring more of this as Shapeley's voice continues: SHAPELEY'S VOICE . . . Looks like you're one up on me. Nothin' I like better than to meet a high-class mama that can snap 'em back at you. 'Cause the colder they are, the hotter they get, is what I always say. Now Ellie and Shapeley are seen together, with Peter seen in the background. ? 235 ? SHAPELEY Take this last town I was in. I run into a dameónot a bad looker, eitheróbut boy, was she an iceberg! Every time I opened my kisser she pulls a ten strike on me. It sure looked like cold turkey for old man Shapeley. I sell office supplies, see? And this hotsy-totsy lays the damper on me quick. She don't need a thingóand if she did she wouldn't buy it from a fresh mugg like me. Well, says I to myselfóShapeley, you better go to work. You're up against a lulu. Well, I'm here to tell you, sister, I opened up a line of fast chatter that had that dame spinnin' like a Russian dancer. Before I got through she bought enough stuff to last the firm a year. And did she put on an act when I blew town! Ellie has scarcely listened to him, and has divided her attention between glancing back at Peter and staring at Shapeley as if he were insaneónone of which bothers Shapeley. He goes on with his merry chatter, blowing rings of smoke in the direction of the ceiling. SHAPELEY Yessir. When a cold mama gets hotóboy, how she sizzles! She kinda cramped my style, though. I didn't look at a dame for three towns. (quickly) Not that I couldn't. For me it's always a cinch. I got a much better chance than the local talent. (confidentially) You see, they're kinda leery about the local talent. Too close to home. Know what I mean? ELLIE has now reached the point where she could, without any compunction, strangle him. SHAPELEY'S VOICE (continuing over this glimpse of her desperation) But take a bird like meóit's here todayóand gone tomorrow. And what happens is nobody's business. At this time she turns helplessly toward Peter, but we see PETER being deliberately oblivious of her presence, following which the three are seen, with Peter in the background. SHAPELEY But I don't go in for that kinda stuffómuch. I like to pick my fillies. Take you, for instance. You're my type. No kiddin' sister. I could go for you in a big way. "Fun-on-the-side Shapeley" they call me, and the accent is on the fun, believe you me. (this is all Ellie can stand) ELLIE (snappily) Believe you me, you bore me to distraction. ? 236 ? (but Shapeley merely throws his head back and emits his characteristic guffaw) SHAPELEY (laughing) Well, you're two up on me now. (he holds up two fingers) PETER (approaching them) Hey, you! Shapeley's laugh dies down. He looks dumbly up at Peter, his two fingers still held in mid-air. SHAPELEY Huh? PETER (indicating his own seat) There's a seat over there for you. SHAPELEY What's the idea? PETER I'd like to sit with myóuhówifeóif you don't mind. (at which Shapeley's face falls) SHAPELEY (puzzled) Wife? PETER Yeah. Come onócome on! SHAPELEY (rising) Oh, excuse me. (edging away) I was just tryin'óyou knowóto make things pleasant. And smiling sheepishly, he sidles over to Peter's seat, his two fingers still poised in air. Peter plants himself next to Ellie and totally ignoring her, opens his magazine, and resumes his reading. Then Ellie and Peter are seen close together. She looks up at him. ELLIE If you promise not to snap my head off, I'd like to thank you. PETER (without turning) Forget it. I didn't do it for you. His voice got on my nerves. She feels herself crushed, and ventures no further comment as Peter resumes his interest in his magazine. A full view of the BUS follows, and there is silence for a while as the bus slows down and comes to a stop. Almost simultaneously a boy makes his appearance, selling magazines and candy. ? 237 ? BOY Here you are, folks. Candyópopcornócigarettesómagazinesó As Ellie and Peter are seen again, she turns and calls to the boy: ELLIE Here, boy! PETER (turning to her) What'd you do? Wire one of your friends for money? ELLIE (rummaging in her purse) No. It'd be useless. Father'd get the wire before they would. BOY (as he enters) Yes, ma'am? ELLIE A box of chocolates, please. PETER (to the boy) Never mind, son. She doesn't want it. (he gestures with his thumb for the boy to leave) BOY (puzzled) But the lady saysó ELLIE Of course I do. What do you meanó PETER (to the boy) Beat it! (and the boy, frightened by his voice, leaves) ELLIE (resentfully) You have your nerve! (she starts to rise) Here, boyó! Peter snatches the purse out of her hand and takes the money out. Ellie stares at him dumbfounded. PETER A dollar sixty! . . . You had four dollars last night! How do you expect to get to New York at the rate you're going? ELLIE (vehemently) That's none of your business. PETER (with finality) You're on a budget from now on. ? 238 ? (he flings her purse back at her and pockets the money) ELLIE Now, just a minuteóyou can'tó PETER Shut up! He returns to his magazine, leaving her staring at him petulantly as the scene fades out. Part Four SOMEWHERE ON THE ROAD at night. This is apparently on the outskirts of a town. Two local policemen and our bus driver stand in the foreground near a police booth. The rain sweeps across their faces as they talk. The passengers in the bus, which stands in the background, stick their heads out, trying to hear what is going on. FIRST POLICEMAN You won't be able to pass till morning. SECOND POLICEMAN Not even then, if this keeps up. Peter approaches the group and is then seen with the officers and the driver. PETER What's up? FIRST POLICEMAN Bridge washed outóaround Dawson. DRIVER Looks like we can't go through till morning. SECOND POLICEMAN (his only contribution) Not even then, if this keeps up. FIRST POLICEMAN Any of your passengers want a place to sleepóthere's an auto camp up yonder a piece. PETER (interested) Yeah? Where? FIRST POLICEMAN (pointing) Up yonder. See the lights? PETER Yeah. FIRST POLICEMAN That's it. Dyke's Auto Camp. PETER Thanks. ? 239 ? He dashes toward the bus. Then he appears at the side door of the bus. PETER (calling) Hey, Brató! (he is about to enter when he sees Ellie) The view moves to the rear door of the bus. Ellie stands on the bottom step. ELLIE (haughtily) Are you talking to me! PETER Yeah. Come onówe're stopping here for the night. He disappears inside the bus through the side door. With an independent toss of her head, Ellie turns and also enters the bus, but through the rear door. The scene dissolves to DYKE'S AUTO CAMP. Ellie stands alone on the porch of a small bungalow, sheltered from the rain. Over her head is a sign reading: OFFICE-Dyke Auto Co.óP. D. Dyke, Prop. She looks about her restlessly, giving the impression that she has been waiting for someone. Suddenly she is attracted by something and gazes in its direction. Then, as seen by Ellie in a long view, there appears, about twenty yards away, a small cabin, lighted on the inside; and from it Peter emerges accompanied by a manópresumably Mr. Dyke. We cannot hear what is being said; from their movements, however, it is apparent that an exchange of money is taking place. Dyke waves his hand in departure and starts toward Ellie. At the same time, Peter calls to her: PETER (shouting) Hey! Come on! We're all set. (saying which he enters the cabin) Ellie hesitates a moment, then starts toward the cabin. Now she is hurrying across the open space. En route she passes Dyke. DYKE (as they pass) Good evening. Hope you and your husband rest comfortably. Ellie keeps on running, but suddenly she stops dead and looks back at Dyke, following which a close-up of ELLIE shows her eyes opening wide with astonishment. Her impulse is to call Dyke back, to make him repeat what he saidóto make certain she heard him correctly. But Dyke is gone, and she turns and glances thoughtfully in the direction of the cabin. Then slowly the corners of her mouth screw up in an attitude of cynicism. So that's it, is it! He has given her no previous evidence of being "on the make"; yet now, with the first opportunityó. Her thoughts, however, are interrupted by Peter's voice: PETER'S VOICE Well, Bratówhat do you say! ? 240 ? As she doesn't stir, there appears a close-up view of PETER standing in the doorway of the cabin, looking toward Ellie. PETER (impatiently) Come on! Come on! What are you going to do? Stand there all night? (he disappears inside) For a long moment, ELLIE is lost in speculation as to how to proceed. Then, tossing her head defiantly, with her lips set grimly, she starts toward the cabin until she reaches it, stops in the doorway and peers in. As she does this, there is a view of the inside of the CABIN, as seen by her at the door. Except for two cots on either side of the room, a few sticks of cane furniture, a small table upon which stands an oil burner for cooking, the place is barren. At the moment Peter is attaching a clothes line across the center of the room. His suitcase is already open. And now Ellie steps inside, surveying the place contemptuously. But Peter, with his back to her, is oblivious of her presence; and as he works, he hums his favorite melody. Ellie finally breaks the silence. ELLIE (sarcastically) Darn clever, these Armenians. PETER (seen close as he turns) Yeah. Yeah, it's a gift. (but he finishes his hammering and turns to his suitcase) ELLIE (seen with Peter) I just had the unpleasant sensation of hearing you referred to as my husband. PETER (carelessly) Oh, I forgot to tell you. I registered as Mr. and Mrs. (the matter-of-fact way in which he says this causes her eyebrows to lift) ELLIE Oh, you did? What am I expected to doóleap for joy? PETER I kind of half expected you to thank me. ELLIE Your ego is colossal. PETER (blithely) Yeah. Yeah, not bad. How's your's? There is silence for a moment, and Peter proceeds with the unpacking of his suitcase. As she watches him, Ellie's mood changes from one of anger to that of sarcasm. ? 241 ? ELLIE (appearing in a close-up, her face disdainful) Compared to you, my friend, Shapeley's an amateur. (sharply) Whatever gave you an idea you can get away with this! You're positively the most conceitedó PETER'S VOICE (interrupting) Hey, wait a minute! (appearing beside her) Let's get something straightened out right now. If you've any peculiar ideas that I'm interested in you, forget it. You're just a headline to me. ELLIE (frightened) A headline? You're not a newspaper man, are you? PETER Chalk up one for your side. Now listen, you want to get to King Westley, don't you? All right, I'm here to help you. What I want is your story, exclusive. A day-to-day account. All about your mad flight to happiness. I need that story. Just between you and me I've got to have it. ELLIE Now isn't that just too cute? There's a brain behind that face of yours, isn't there? You've got everything nicely figured out, for yourself, including this. PETER This? Oh, that's a matter of simple mathematics. These cabins cost two bucks a night and I'm very sorry to inform you, wifey dear, but the family purse won't stand for our having separate establishments. (he goes back to the business of laying out his things) ELLIE (starting to leave) Well, thank you. Thank you very much, butó you've been very kind. (but the rain outside causes her to hesitate) PETER Oh, yeah? It's all right with me. Go on out in the storm, but I'm going to follow you, see? Yeah. And if you get tough I'll just have to turn you over to your old man right now. Savvy? Now that's my whole plot in a nutshell. A simple story for simple people. Now if you behave yourself, I'll see that you get to King Westley; if not, I'll just have to spill the beans to papa. Now which of these beds do you prefer? This one? All right. While he speaks he has taken the extra blanket from the cot and hung it over the clothes line. This manages to divide the room in half. ? 242 ? A close view at the door shows Ellie watching him with interest. ELLIE (sarcastically) That, I suppose, makes everythingóuhóquite all right. PETER (the previous scene returning) Oh, this?óI like privacy when I retire. I'm very delicate in that respect. Prying eyes annoy me. (he has the blanket spread out now) Behold the walls of Jericho![4] Maybe not as thick as the ones that Joshua blew down with his trumpet, but a lot safer. You see, I have no trumpet. (taking out pajamas) Now just to show you my heart's in the right place, I'll give you my best pair of pajamas. He flings them over to her, and she catches them and throws them on her cot. Throughout the scene she hasn't budged from the door, but Peter now prepares to undress. PETER Do you mind joining the Israelites? ELLIE You're not really serious about this, are you? PETER (seen at close range, going about the job of undressing very diffidently) All right, don't join the Israelites. Perhaps you're interested in how a man undresses. (and he hangs his coat over the chair) Funny thing about that. Quite a study in psychology. No two men do it alike. (now his shirt is coming off) A close view of ELLIE shows her standing stubbornly. PETER'S VOICE I once knew a chap who kept his hat on until he was completely undressed. (chuckling) Made a comical picture . . . As the scene includes both of them, Peter spreads his shirt over his coat. PETER Years later his secret came out. He wore a toupee. He lights a cigarette diffidently while she remains brazenly watching him, her eyes flashing defiantly. PETER I have an idiosyncrasy all my own. You'll notice my coat came firstóthen the tieóthen the shirtónow, according to Hoyle,[5] the pants should come next. But that's where I'm different. ? 243 ? (he bends over) I go for the shoes first. After that Ió ELLIE (unable to stand it any longer) Smart aleck! And thoroughly exasperated, she goes behind the blanket, and plops on the cot. She sits on the edge, debating what to do, feeling herself trapped. Her impulse is to leave, if only to show this smart aleck he's not dealing with a child, and she rises impetuously and moves to the window. A close view at the WINDOW shows her looking out. The downpour has not abated one bit, and the heavy raindrops clatter against the window pane in a sort of challenge to Ellie, whose jaw drops. She turns slowly back to the room, and as she does so her eyes light on the cot. It looks most inviting; after all, she hasn't had any rest for two nights. She falls on the cot again, her shoulders sagging wearily. Following this, the view reveals both sides of the blanket. Peter is already in his pajamas. PETER Still with me, Brat? (there is no answer from Ellie) Don't be a sucker. A night's rest'll do you a lot of good. Besides, you've got nothing to worry about. The Walls of Jericho will protect you from the big bad wolf. A close view shows ELLIE glancing over at the blanket. Despite herself, the suggestion of a smile flits across her face. ELLIE You haven't got a trumpet by any chance, have you? PETER gets the idea and smiles broadly. PETER Not even a mouth organ. Pulling the covers back, he prepares to get into bed, humming as he does so. PETER (humming to himself) Who's afraid of the big bad wolfó The big bad wolf, the big bad wolf. (louder) She's afraid of the big bad wolf, Tra-la-la-la-laó (he springs into bed) Ellie smiles, and wearily she pulls her hat off her head. She sits this way a moment, thoughtfully; then, determined, she looks up. ELLIE Do you mind putting out the light? PETER Not at all. ? 244 ? (he leans over and snaps it off) The room is thrown into darkness except for a stream of light coming in the window from the night-light outside the camp. Visible are Peter's face and arms as he stares ceilingward, while on Ellie's side all we can see of her is her silhouette, except for such times as she gets in direct line with the window. There are glimpses of her as she moves around in the process of undressing, and we see, or rather sense, her dress dropping to the floor. She now stands in her chemise; this being white silk, it stands out more prominently against the darkness. She picks up the pajamas and backs into a corner, following which a close-up of her head and shoulders shows her glancing apprehensively toward Peter's side of the room; and holding the pajamas in front of her with one hand, with the other she slips the strap off her shoulders. She flings her "slip" over the blanket. PETER, on his side of the room, looks toward the blanket, and reacts to the "slip" coming into sight. Then other undergarments join the "slip" on the blanket. PETER (hoarsely) Do you mind taking those things off the Walls of Jericho? (a pause) It's tough enough as it is. ELLIE'S VOICE Oh, excuse me. (and we see the underthings flipped off the blanket.) Ellie's side of the room appears, showing her crawling quickly into bed, pulling the covers over her and glancing apprehensively in Peter's directionófollowing which a close view shows PETER being very conscious of her proximity. The situation is delicate and dangerous; the room is atingle with sex. He turns his gaze toward the blanket. The view moves to the BLANKET, remaining on it a moment. It is a frail barrier. The view then moves back to Peter, whose eyes are still on the blanket, his face expressionless. A close view of ELLIE, next shows that she, too, has her eyes glued on the blanket, a little fearfully. She turns her head and gazes at the ceiling for a moment. Then suddenly her eyes widenóand she sits up abruptly. ELLIE (seriously) Oh, by the wayówhat's your name? PETER (seen close; turning his head toward her) What's that? ELLIE (both sides of the blanket coming into view) Who are you? PETER Who, me? Why, I'm the whippoorwill that cries in the night. I'm the soft morning breeze that caresses your lovely face. ? 245 ? ELLIE (interrupting) You've got a name, haven't you? PETER Yeah. I got a name. Peter Warne. ELLIE Peter Warne? I don't like it. PETER Don't let it bother you. You're giving it back to me in the morning. ELLIE (flopping back on her pillow as she mumbles) Pleased to meet you, Mr. Warne . . . PETER The pleasure is all mine. There is silence between them for a few seconds. PETER I've been thinking about you. ELLIE'S VOICE Yes? PETER You've had a pretty tough break at that. Twice a Missus and still unkissed. Ellie doesn't like the implication, and glares in his direction as Peter's voice continues: PETER'S VOICE (meaningly) I'll bet you're in an awful hurry to get back to New York, aren't you? ELLIE (hard) Goodnight, Mr. Warne. (she turns over) PETER Goodnight. He also turns his head toward the wall, and the scene fades out. Part Five A long view of the SKY, in the early morning, fades in. In the dim distance there is a speck, which, as it comes nearer, turns out to be an airplane. The drone of its motors becomes louder and louder. Then the view cuts to the CONTROL COCKPIT of the PLANE revealing TWO PILOTS. FIRST PILOT (shouting to other) The old man's screwy! ? 246 ? SECOND PILOT (who can't hear him) What's 'at? FIRST PILOT (louder) I said, the old man's screwy! SECOND PILOT (nodding his head in agreement) Yeah! FIRST PILOT (cupping his mouth) The dame's too smart for him. SECOND PILOT (nodding again, then leaning over) How'd you like to be married to a wild cat like that? The First Pilot grimaces in disgust, grabs his nose between his fingers, and goes through the motion of ducking under water. And as they both laugh, the scene cuts to the CABIN of the plane, a privately built plane which has all the equipment of a passenger ship. Andrews and one of his secretaries, a conservative-appearing man of middle age, lean over a table. This being a closed cabin, the roar of the motors scarcely interferes with the dialogue. SECRETARY Here's another wire, sir. This one's from Charleston. (as there is a close view of the two) "Checking every northbound train. Also assigned twenty operatives to watch main highways. No success yet. Will continue to do everything possible." Signed: Lovington Detective Agency, Charleston. ANDREWS Any others? SECRETARY Yessir. (holding up stack of wires) There's a report here from every State along the East coast. Want to hear them? ANDREWS (impatiently) What do they say? SECRETARY They're practically all the same, sir. (he shrugs his shoulders to indicate there is no news) ANDREWS (muttering) Amateurs! SECRETARY They're the finest detective agency in the country, sir. ? 247 ? Andrews doesn't answer him. He puffs furiously on his cigar, glances out of the window, and turns irritably to a phone by his side. He snaps up the receiver and presses a button, following which the scene cuts to the CONTROL COCKPIT, where a light flashes on the instrument board, and the pilot picks up the receiver. PILOT Yes, sir? ANDREWS (seen in the cabin) I thought I made it clear I was in a hurry to get to New York? (bellowing) What are we crawling for! In the control cockpit, the pilot reacts to the complaint and glances at his speed indicator. We then see the SPEED INDICATOR registering 180 miles an hour. The pilot looks aghast. PILOT (yelling into phone) We've got her wide open, sir. ANDREWS (irascibly) Well, step on it! Step on it! He bangs up the receiver and stares moodily out of the window. It is plain that he is worried. The view then includes his secretary, Henderson. HENDERSON I hope she's all right, sir. ANDREWS (sharply) Of course she's all right. What do you think can happen! HENDERSON (intimidated) Nothing, sir! ANDREWS Then shut up about it! Thereupon the view cuts to a close-up of an airplane motor in rapid motion, and this dissolves to the AUTO CAMP CABIN next morning, a close view showing ELLIE peacefully sleeping. But the drone of the plane overhead disturbs her, and she moves restlessly. ELLIE (murmuring in her sleep) Darn planesó She squirms around uncomfortably, and finding it impossible to resume her slumber, opens her eyes. The sun pouring in through the window causes her to squint. She sits up and stares outside, puzzled. Then remembering where she is she looks toward the other side of the cabin, listening for some sign of life. But there is none ? 248 ? and she relaxes. She falls back on the pillow, pulling the covers over her. Now PETER enters from the outside with an armful of foodstuffs, which he dumps on the table. He looks toward Ellie. PETER Heyóyou not up yet? Come onócome on! ELLIE'S VOICE What time is it? PETER Eight o'clock. He goes to the blanket which hangs between the two cots and throws something over it to Ellie. PETER Hereó ELLIE (catching the package) What is it? (opening the package) Why, it's a toothbrush! Thanks. (noticing her dress hanging freshly pressed) Youóyou had it pressed. PETER (getting things ready for breakfast) Come on! Hurry up! Breakfast'll be ready in no time. ELLIE Why, you sweet thing, you. Where'd you get it pressed? (at this the view moves with him and he goes to the blanket) PETER Listen, BratóI'm going to count to ten. If you're not out of bed by then I'm going to yank you out myself. A close view of ELLIE shows her being stubborn, but alarmed. PETER'S VOICE (counting quickly) Oneótwoóthreeófourófive ELLIE (panic-stricken) Why, you bully. I believe you would. PETER'S VOICE ósixósevenóeightónineó ELLIE (screaming) I'm out! I'm out! ? 249 ? And she jumps out of bed, throwing the cover around herself, following which Peter is seen going back to the table. PETER You'll find the showersóand thingsóright back of the second cottage. (at this Ellie sticks her head over the blanket) ELLIE (aghast) Outside! PETER Certainly, outside. All the best homes have 'em outside. ELLIE I can't go out like this. PETER Like what? ELLIE Like this. I have no robe. PETER Hereótake mine. He flings his robe over to her, and she disappears behind the blanket. PETER But make it snappy. Now Ellie has got into his robe, and appears on his side. The robe is too large for her and she makes a comical figure. As she enters, she tries to maintain her customary dignity. ELLIE (dignifiedly) Where'd you say the showersóand thingsówere? (Peter turns; when he sees her he laughs) PETER (appraisingly) Heyóyou're little, aren't you? ELLIE Where is the shower? PETER Your hair's cute like that. You should never comb it. ELLIE (leaving haughtily) I'll find it myself. She slams the door viciously, but Peter rushes over to the window to watch her; and as viewed by him, Ellie appears next walking to the showers outside the cabin. She holds her head high and struggles valiantly to maintain as much dignity as she can muster under the circumstances. Then in the cabin, at the window, Peter watching Ellie, chuckles at her, shaking his head in amusement. He starts toward the table, and the scene cuts to a moving view outside ? 250 ? the cabins, with Ellie walking past several cottages on her way to the showers. Several people stop to stare at her until she reaches her destination. There are two wooden shacks adjoining, each having a sign on them; one reads, "ShowersóMen"óthe other, "ShowersóWomen." In front of the women's shower there are several unappetizing-looking fat women waiting, and with them is a small girl. Ellie crosses over to the women's shower and disappears inside, the waiting women staring at her, puzzled. A moment elapses and Ellie backs out, being pushed by a woman, part of whose naked body is visible, and whose voice is heard in protest: WOMAN Can't a body have some privacy around here? The women who are waiting chuckle at Ellie's embarrassment as she stands aside. They certainly are making a monkey out of her decorum. The little girl keeps eyeing Ellie, fascinated. LITTLE GIRL (pointing) Don't she look funny, Mama? Ellie, wheeling on the little girl, crushes her with a devastating look, so that the little girl cringes against her mother's skirt. Ellie goes to the end of the line to await her turn, following which close-ups show the LITTLE GIRL slowly turning her head to look at Ellie, and ELLIE noticing the little girl staring at her, whereupon Ellie sticks her tongue out at her. And, in a scene which includes both, the little girl retaliates by sticking her tongue out also. This dissolves to a view of ELLIE coming out of the showers. At the same time Shapeley comes out of the men's shower, and upon seeing Ellie, his face lights up. SHAPELEY Hello, sister. Ellie ignores him, and walks toward her cabin. But Shapeley falls into step with her. SHAPELEY Sorry about last night. Didn't know you were married to that guy. Shoulda told me about it right off. (he chuckles) There I was, gettin' myself all primed for a killin', and you turn out to be an old married woman. The scene cuts to the door of PETER'S CABIN as Peter comes out, stands in the doorway, and is surprised to see Ellie and Shapeley, who are then seen (from his angle) talking. Thereupon PETER is seen again as his lip curls up a little jealously; he returns to the cabin, following which we again see Ellie and Shapeley walking. He notices the robe she is wearing, and he looks down toward her feet, the view moving down to show Ellie's legs and feet. The pajama legs are seen protruding below the robe, the cuffs of which she has turned up. Then the view moving back up to Ellie and Shapeley, he lifts her robe playfully. ? 251 ? SHAPELEY Hey, what's this? Wearing Papa's things? Now that's cute. That's what I call real lovey-dovey. Yessir. ELLIE (stoppingóher eyes blazing) If you don't get out of here, I'll slap that fresh mouth of yours. SHAPELEY (startled) SorryóI didn't mean toó ELLIE (sharply) Get out! SHAPELEY Okay. I was just trying to make conversation. Ellie leaves him abruptly, and the scene cuts to the CABIN, where Peter is now busy setting the small table. Ellie enters after a moment, while Peter has his back to the door. PETER (without turning) High time you got back. ELLIE I met some very interesting women at the showers. We got to chatting about this and that. You know how time files. She disappears behind the blanket, following which we see Peter's side of the cabin, while Ellie's voice continues from behind the blanket. ELLIE'S VOICE We must come back to this place often. You meet the nicest people! Her head bobs up over the blanket now and again as she dresses. ELLIE I saw the little Pussinfoos girl. She's turned out quite a charming creature. Peter ignores her chatter, except for an annoyed glance once in a while. ELLIE Very outspoken, too. Said I looked funny. Wasn't that cute? PETER Hurry up and get dressed. ELLIE (sticking her head over blanket) Why, Peter! Don't you want to hear about our lovely friends? ? 252 ? PETER If you didn't waste so much time on that wise-cracking drummerówe'd have been through with breakfast by this time. A close view shows ELLIE in the process of buttoning her dress. She looks up, having recognized a tinge of jealousy in his voice, which intrigues her. She starts to the other side of the blanket. Then we see her joining Peter in his part of the cabin. ELLIE Well, I hope you're not going to dictate whom I can talk to. PETER I know a couple of truck drivers I'd like to have you meet sometime. (setting a plate for her) Come on, sit down. ELLIE Thank you. (sitting down to the table; referring to the food) My, my! Scrambled eggs. PETER Egg. One eggódoughnutsóblack coffee. That's your ration till lunch. Any complaints? ELLIE (cheerily) Nope. No complaints. PETER I'd have gotten you some cream but it meant buying a whole pint. ELLIE ("sweetly") Why, you don't have to apologize, Mr. Warne. You'll never know how much I appreciate all this. PETER (gruffly) What makes you so disgustingly cheerful this morning? ELLIE Must be the Spring. PETER I thought maybeóuhó"believe you me" told you a couple of snappy stories. ELLIE He apologized for last night. (carelessly) Said he didn't know we were married. ? 253 ? PETER (passing her a doughnut) Just shows you how wrong a guy can be. Doughnut? ELLIE Thanks. (embarrassed) You think this whole business is silly, don't you? I mean running away and everything. PETER (easily) No. No. It's too good a story. ELLIE Yes, you do. You think I'm a fool and a spoiled brat. Perhaps I am, although I don't see how I can be. People who are spoiled are accustomed to having their own way. I never have. On the contrary, I've always been told what to do and how to do it and where and with whom. Would you believe it? This is the first time I've ever been alone with a man! PETER Yeah? ELLIE It's a wonder I'm not panic stricken. PETER Um. You're doing all right. ELLIE Thanks. Nurses, governesses, chaperones, even body-guards. Oh, it's been a lot of fun. PETER One consolation; you can never be lonesome. ELLIE It has its moments. It got to be a sort of game to try to outwit father's detectives. IóI did it once; actually went shopping without a body-guard. It was swell. I felt absolutely immoral. But it didn't last long. They caught up with me in a department store. I was so mad I ran out the back way and jumped into the first car I saw. Guess who was in it? PETER Santa Claus? ELLIE KingóKing Westley was in it. PETER Oh. Is that how you met him? ? 254 ? ELLIE Um-hm. We rode around all afternoon. Father was frantic. By 6 o'clock he was having all the rivers dragged. (she has been "dunking" her doughnut throughout this, Peter watching her) PETER Say, where did you learn to dunk, in finishing school? ELLIE (indignantly) Aw, now, don't you start telling me I shouldn't dunk. PETER Of course you shouldn't. You don't know how to do it. Dunking's an art. Don't let it soak so long. A dip and plop, into your mouth. If you let it soak so long, it'll get soft and fall off. It's all a matter of timing. I ought to write a book about it. ELLIE Thanks, professor. PETER Just goes to show you. Twenty millions and you don't know how to dunk. ELLIE I'd change places with a plumber's daughter any day. But before he can answer, they are interrupted by voices directly outside their window, and the view moves with Peter as he goes to the door, which he opens slightly. Thereupon Dyke is seen in conversation with two men outside the CABIN. DYKE (protesting loudly) You can't go around bothering my tenants. I tell you, there's no girl by that name here. Besides, how do I know you're detectives? FIRST DETECTIVE Show him your credentials, Mac. I'll look around. At this, Peter closes the door and turns to Ellie. PETER Detectives! ELLIE (petrified) That's Father at work, What'll I do? (appealingly, to him) Peter, what'll I do? PETER Don't look at me. I didn't marry King Westley. ? 255 ? Ellie runs around the room picking up her stuff and murmuring, "Oh, my goodness!" She reaches the window. ELLIE (now seen close, at the window) Maybe I could jump out of the window. (tremulously) Do you think they'd see me? PETER'S VOICE (suddenly) Come here, you little fool! She starts toward him. We then see him plunking her in a chair: PETER Sit down! He rumples her hair and sticks a few hairpins in her mouth. He now stands aside and deliberately talks loud enough to be heard outside. PETER (practically shouting) Yeah. I got a letter from Aunt Betty. She says if we don't stop over at Wilkes-Barre she'll never forgive us. ELLIE (a close-up showing her staring at him in bewilderment) What are you talking about? At this, Peter rushes over to her and clamps his hand over her mouth. PETER (with his hand over her mouth) The baby is due next monthóand they want us to come. Ellie looks up at him, and realizes what he's doing, she nods to him that it's all right, whereupon he removes his hand from her mouth. And now one of the detectives approaches the FRONT DOOR of the cabin. When he hears Peter's voice, he stops to listen. PETER'S VOICE She says she saw your sister Ethel the other day, and she's looking swell. The detective knocks on the door. At this we again see inside of the cabin as Peter whispers to Ellie to say "Come in." ELLIE (calling) Come in! The moment she does, Peter rushes behind the hanging blanket. He has his head stuck over it, waiting for the detective to enter, and the moment the door opens Peter ducks. The detective takes a step inside the room. ? 256 ? PETER'S VOICE (from behind blanket) I hope Aunt Betty has a boy, don't you? She's always wanted a boy. I think we'll stop over in Wilkes-Barre this trip, darling. Give the family a treat. A close view shows Ellie and the detective. They have been staring at each other. ELLIE (very sweet, calling to Peter) There's a man here to see you, Sweetheart. PETER'S VOICE Whoóme? (appearing from behind the blankets; pleasantly) Want to see me? DETECTIVE (who hasn't taken his eyes off Ellie) What's your name? ELLIE (innocently) Are you addressing me? DETECTIVE Yeah. What's your name? PETER (stepping in front of him) Hey, wait a minute! You're talking to my wife! You can't walk in here andówhat do you want, anyway? DETECTIVE We're looking for somebody. PETER Well, look your head offóbut don't come bustin' in here. This isn't a public park. While Peter has been speaking, the second detective and Dyke have entered. They walk over to Peter, the First Detective, and Ellie. PETER I got a good mind to sock you right in the nose. FIRST DETECTIVE Take it easy, son. Take it easy. SECOND DETECTIVE (crowding forward) What's up? The Second Detective's eyes fall on Ellie and he stops to stare at her suspiciously. He takes a photograph out of his pocket which he inspects. DYKE (explains) These men are detectives, Mr. Warne. ? 257 ? PETER (shouting) I wouldn't care if they were the whole police department. They can't come in here and start shooting questions at my wife! ELLIE (appearing very domestic) Don't get excited, Peter. They just asked a civil question. PETER (turning on her; very sarcastic) There you go again! How many times did I tell you to stop butting in when I have an argument? ELLIE (sharply; entering into the spirit of the pretense) Well, you don't have to lose your temper! PETER (mimicking her) You don't have to lose your temper! (in his own voice) That's what you told me the last time too. Every time I step in to protect you. At the Elk's dance[7] when that big Swede made a pass at youó ELLIE He didn't make a pass at me! I told you a million times! The two detectives and Dyke are seen watching the other two, who are now out of sight. PETER'S VOICE (screaming) Oh, no! I saw him! He kept pawing you all over the dance floor! ELLIE'S VOICE He didn't! You were drunk! PETER (now seen with Ellie) Oh, so now I was drunk! ELLIE Well, you were! PETER I'm sorry I didn't take another sock at him. ELLIE Yeah, and gotten yourself arrested! PETER Aw, nuts! You're just like your old man! Once a plumber always a plumber! There isn't an ounce of brains in your whole family! ? 258 ? ELLIE (starting to cry) Peter Warne, you've gone far enough. I won't stand being insulted like this another minute. Ellie goes over to her cot, and starts picking up her hat and things, whereupon Dyke, very much affected, turns to the detectives. DYKE Now look what you've done! FIRST DETECTIVE (apologetically) Sorry, Mr. Warne. But you see, we're supposed to check up on everybody. SECOND DETECTIVE We're looking for a girl by the name of Ellen Andrews. You knowóthe daughter of the big Wall Street mug. A close-up of ELLIE appears as their voices are heard. FIRST DETECTIVE'S VOICE Your wife sure looks like her. Don't she, Mac? SECOND DETECTIVE'S VOICE She sure does. PETER (the entire group coming into view) Well, I hope you find her. (to Ellie) Quit bawling! Quit bawling! The detectives start out, accompanied by Dyke, who is still concerned about the disturbing of his tenants. As they disappear out the door, we hear Dyke's voice: DYKE'S VOICE I told you they were a perfectly nice married couple. Their voices die. Peter stands in the middle of the room watching them go. From her side, where she has been stalling, Ellie peers out of the window until the detectives vanish. She starts toward Peter. Then they appear together, both staring out until the detectives are well out of sight. Finally, Peter closes the door and turns to her. PETER (seriously) It'll be a dirty trick on Aunt Betty if it turns out to be a girl after all. This brings laughter from them both. But Peter suddenly sobers, and he looks at her thoughtfully. ? 259 ? PETER Say, you were pretty good. Jumping in like that. Got a brain, haven't you? ELLIE You weren't so bad yourself. PETER We could start a two-person stock company. If things get toughówe can play some small town auditoriums. We'll call this one "The Great Deception."[8] ELLIE Next week "East Lynne." PETER After that "The Three Musketeers." (he strikes a pose) I'd make a great D'Artagnan. ELLIE How about Cinderellaóor a real hot love story? PETER No mushy stuff. I'm running this troupe. ELLIE (fighting) Oh, you are! Who made you the manager? PETER I did! It was my idea, wasn't it? ELLIE You always want to run everything. PETER If you don't like it, you can resign from the company. ELLIE I refuse to resign! PETER Then I'll fire you. I'll do all the parts myself. They are interrupted by the door being flung open. Dyke sticks his head in the door. DYKE Your bus leaves in five minutes. PETER Holy jumpingó! We haven't started to pack yet! And they both scurry around, throwing things carelessly into Peter's suitcase, as the scene fades out. Part Six GORDON'S OFFICE fades in, and Gordon is at his desk as his secretary enters. ? 260 ? SECRETARY Here's another wire from Peter Warne. GORDON Throw it in the basket. (as the secretary starts to do so) What's it say? (reading) "Have I got a story! It's getting hotter and hotter. Hope you're the same." Gordon snatches the wire out of her hand and tears it viciously into bits. GORDON Collect? SECRETARY Yes. GORDON Don't accept any more. The scene dissolves to ANDREWS' NEW YORK OFFICEóa richly appointed place, awe-inspiring in its dignified furnishings, which shriek of wealth. Andrews paces back and forth in back of his desk. Sitting before him is a man of fifty, with very rugged features. He is Lovington, head of the detective agency bearing his name. When the scene opens, Andrews is holding forth: ANDREWS Three days! Three whole days! And what have you accomplished!ó (in a close view at the desk) All you've shown me is a stack of feeble reports from those comical detectives of yours. I want action, Lovington! LOVINGTON We can't do the impossible, Mr. Andrews. ANDREWS What I'm asking isn't impossible. My daughter is somewhere between here and Miami. I want her found! LOVINGTON I've put extra men on, all along the way. ANDREWS It's not enough! (suddenly) Are you certain she's not with King Westley? LOVINGTON No. He's been trailed twenty-four hours a day since this thing started. He can't even get a phone call we don't know about. ? 261 ? ANDREWS (who has been pressing several buttons on his desk) I'm worried, Lovington. After all, something might have happened to her. (he is interrupted by the entrance of several employees) ONE OF THEM Yessir? ANDREWS (seeing them) Oh, Clarkówant you to arrange for a radio broadcastóright awayócoast to coast hook-up! Offer a reward of ten thousand dollars for any information leading to her whereabouts. CLARK (leaving) Yessir. ANDREWS Brownó BROWN Yessir? ANDREWS Send the story out to the newspapers. (he rips a picture of Ellie on the desk out of its frame) Some of the out of town papers may not have a picture of her. Hereówire this to themóI want it to break right away. As he hands the picture to Brown, the view moves in to a close-up of the PICTURE which dissolves to a close-up of the same picture in a newspaper, and as the view draws slowly back we see the headline over it, which reads "DAUGHTER OF BANKER DISAPPEARS TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS REWARD" The view then draws back to reveal SHAPELEY reading the newspaper. He stares long and absorbedly at the picture. Then slowly he turns his head toward the rear of the bus, and the view following his gaze passes a group of men singing "The Man On the Flying Trapeze." They are huddled together, and accompanied by a man who plays a guitar. Then the view continues moving until it reaches Peter and Ellie who join in the song, and a close-up of ELLIE shows her eyes sparkling as she sings gaily. SHAPELEY looks back at Ellie, and apparently comes to the conclusion that his suspicions are correct, for he quickly folds the newspaper, casting a surreptitious glance around to make certain he is not being watched. A diabolical smirk spreads over his face. A full view of the interior of the bus shows most of the occupants joining in the fun, singing. They seem unmindful of the discomfiture caused by the rocking of the bus, which throws them against each other. Then the view draws in to a front seat in which sit a woman and a small boy of ten. The woman's face is haggard and she sways ? 262 ? uncertainly, her eyes half closed. Her small son's frightened face peers up at her. BOY (in a trembling voice) What'sa matter, Ma? Don't you feel all right? The woman struggles valiantly to recover her composure. She presses her son's small hand in a feeble effort at assurance. A close view of Ellie and Peter shows ELLIE singing more boisterously than the rest, doing the comical song with exaggerated gestures. But suddenly her face clouds, at something she sees. ELLIE (touching Peter's arm) Peter! (as he turns) There's something the matter with that woman. She looks ill. Peter follows her gaze, whereupon we see the WOMAN. Her head rolls weakly, a pained expression on her face. ELLIE (again seen with Peter; sympathetically) I better go over and see her. PETER Don't be silly. Nothing you can do. Must be tough on an old womanóa trip like this. ELLIE (worried) Yes. We see the other passengers around Ellie and Peter enjoying themselves. One of them pokes her. MAN Hey, Galli-Curci,[9] come onóget onto it! (poking Peter) You, too, McCormack. Ellie and Peter snap into it; they are just in time for the long wail which precedes the chorus: ELLIE AND PETER (singing) "O-o-o-ohóHe flies through the air with the greatest of easeó This daring young man on the flying trapezeó" At this the scene cuts to the ROAD. The bus is caught in a muddy road, full of ruts, and at the moment wavers dangerously at an angle. The left front wheel is stuck in a deep hole, and the engine roars and clatters as the driver feeds the gas. Finally the bus moves forward, extricating the wheel; but just as it does, the right front wheel falls into another mud hole on the other side, and this time the bus seems hopelessly stuck, a close-up of the RIGHT WHEEL showing it revolving desperately, but in vain. The mud splashes in all directions, and the wheel seems to sink deeper and deeper. Thereupon this view cuts to the inside of the BUS. The bus ? 263 ? is tilted over at an extreme angle, which has thrown Ellie into a corner on the floor, where she now crouches in an undignified position. She looks like a turtle, her head being invisible. ELLIE (sticking her head out) Thank the man for me, Peter. This is the first comfortable position I've had all night. Peter, amused, is assisting her to her feet. The guitarist has continued his playing uninterrupted, and as Peter lifts Ellie, he sings: PETER (singing) "She flies through the air with the greatest of ease. This darin' young maid on the flying trapezeó (grunting) Her movements are gracefulóall men does she pleaseó" A close view of the WOMAN and the LITTLE BOY now shows the latter terrifiedly watching his mother, whose head sags wearily. Finally she topples forward in a swoon. BOY (with a moan) Ma! Ma! What'sa matter with you? (tears stream down his cheeks) Somebody help me! Somethin's happened to her! The music stops abruptly. Everyone looks up, startled. Ellie starts forward, followed by Peter. Passengers closely group around the woman and chatter. "She's fainted. Look how pale she is." Peter and Ellie step up. PETER. Get some water, somebody. (to the boy) Let me get in here, son. Ellie goes out of sight to get water. The boy cries audibly, terror-stricken, but gets out of Peter's way, and Peter lifts the woman up and stretches her across the seat. Ellie comes back with water which she silently hands to Peter, who administers to the woman and when she slowly opens her eyes, makes her drink the water. The woman looks around, bewildered. PETER (consolingly) That's better. You're all right now. Just took a little nose-dive, that's all. He assists her in sitting up. The boy's wailing is heard, and he now rushes over and throws his arms around his mother. BOY (crying) Maóoh, gee, Maó! ? 264 ? His mother clings to him, but still feeling faint, her head sways. Peter looks up at Ellie and gives her a sign to sit down beside the woman. ELLIE sits down beside her. Peter takes the boy by the shoulders. PETER Come on, son. Better give your mother a chance to snap out of it. (as the boy emits a heart-breaking sob) It's all right, son. She'll be okay in a couple of minutes. He leads the boy away, while Ellie places her arm around the woman. ELLIE You'd better rest. It's been a hard trip, hasn't it? The scene cuts to a close view of SHAPELEY who has his eye peeled on Peter, watching him, and we next see Peter and the boy, who is still sobbing quietly. They are now standing away from the other passengers. BOY We ain't ate nothin' since yestidday. PETER What happened to your money? BOY Ma spent it all for the tickets. She didn't know it was gonna be so much. (with a new outburst) We shouldn'a come, I guess, but Ma said there's a job waitin' for her in New Yorkóand if we didn't go, she might lose it. PETER Going without food is bad business, son. Why didn't you ask somebody? BOY I was gonna do it, but Ma wouldn't let me. She was ashamed, I guess. Peter reaches into his pocket for a bill, just as Ellie approaches them. ELLIE She'll be all right, soon's she gets something to eat. Peter has extracted a single bill and dips in his pocket for a smaller one. Before he can find anything, however, Ellie takes the one he has in his hand and gives it to the boy. ELLIE Here, boyófirst town we come to, buy some food. ? 265 ? (Peter glances at the empty hand and then at Ellie) BOY I shouldn't oughta take this. Ma'll be angry. ELLIE (confidentially) Just don't tell her anything about it. You don't want her to get sick again, do you? BOY (a sob in his voice) No-o. But I shouldn't oughta take the money. (to Peter) You might need it. PETER Me? Forget it, son. (rumples his hairósmiling) I got millions. BOY (also smiling) Thanks. ELLIE (her arm around the boy) Come on. Let's go back to your mother. She leaves with the boy, Peter watching her a moment, impressed by her display of humanness, before turning and leaving the scene, following which a close-up shot of SHAPELEY watching Peter, then also rising and starting out. On the ROAD, the driver is now standing in front of the mud-hole, staring at the sunken wheel dolefully, as several people stray into the scene. DRIVER That storm sure made a mess outa these roads. PETER (appearing, and seeing the trouble) Holy Smokes! You'll never get out yourself! Better phone for some help. DRIVER Phone for help? (unhappily) We're right in the middle of nowhere. There isn't a town within ten miles of here. Shapeley is just entering the outskirts of the group. He stops, looks in the direction of Peter speculatively. He has the newspaper stuck in his pocket, which he caresses tenderly. The scene expanding, Peter is then seen leaving the group. SHAPELEY (as Peter approaches) What's up? ? 266 ? PETER Looks like we're going to be stuck for a long time. (he starts away) SHAPELEY (calling to him) Say, Buddyñ Peter turns, and looks at him quizzically, and the two are then seen close together. SHAPELEY Like to have a look at my paper? He has taken it out and has it opened as he hands it to Peter. The headlines concerning Ellie and her picture shriek out at Peter. This startles him for a moment, but he manages to recover his poise. SHAPELEY Travelin' like this, you kinda lose track of what's goin' on in the world. PETER (guardedly) Thanks. (he glances from the newspaper to Shapeley, wondering how much he suspects) SHAPELEY If you wanna get anywhere nowadays, you gotta keep in touch with all the news, is what I always say. PETER (eyeing him expectantly) That's right. SHAPELEY (pointing to paper) Take that story there, for instance. Be kinda sweet if we could collect that ten thousand smackers. PETER (non-committally) Yeahówouldn't it? SHAPELEY It's a lotta dough. If I was to run across that dame, you know what I'd do? PETER What? SHAPELEY I'd go fifty-fifty with you . PETER Why? ? 267 ? SHAPELEY Cause I'm a guy that don't believe in hoggin' it, see? A bird that figures that way winds up behind the eight ball,[10] is what I always say. PETER What's on your mind? SHAPELEY (hard) Five G'sóor I crab the works. PETER You're a pretty shrewd baby. (looking around) We better get away from this gang. Talk this thing over privately. And the view moves with them as Peter leads the way toward a clump of bushes off the side of the road, Shapeley following. They are concealed from the rest of the passengers. PETER Lucky thing, my running into you. Just the man I need. SHAPELEY (smiling broadly) You're not making any mistake, believe you me. PETER I can use a smart guy like you. SHAPELEY (expansively) Say listen, when you're talkin' to old man Shapeley, you're talking toó PETER (suddenly) Do you pack a gat?[11] A close view of the TWO shows the smile dying on Shapeley's face. He looks up quickly. SHAPELEY Huh? PETER A gat! A gat! (feeling him) Got any fireworks on you? SHAPELEY (weakly) Whyónoó PETER (carelessly) That's all right. I got a couple of machine guns in my suitcase. I'll let you have one of them. ? 268 ? (Shapeley is beginning to realize he is in for something he hadn't bargained for, and stares speechlessly at Peter, who continues blandly) Expect a little trouble up North. May have to shoot it out with cops. The perspiration starts appearing on Shapeley's brow (as we see him in a close-up). Peter's voice continues: PETER'S VOICE (with emphasis) If you come through all right, your five G's are in the bag. Maybe more. I'll talk to the "Killer"ósee that he takes care of you. SHAPELEY (finally finding his voice) The Killer? PETER (seen with Shapeley; watching the latter to gauge the effect of his words) Yeahóthe "big boy"óthe Boss of the outfit. SHAPELEY (shakily) You're not kidnapping her, are you? PETER (tough) What else, stupid! You don't think we're after that penny-ante reward, do you? (contemptuously) Ten thousand bucks? Chicken feed! We're holding her for a million smackers. SHAPELEY (stammering) Say, look! I didn't know it was anything like this, seeóandó PETER What's the matter with you! Gettin' yellow? SHAPELEY (raising his voice, pleadingly) But I'm a married man. I got a couple of kids. I can't get mixed up withó PETER (gripping his arm) Sh-sh-shó! Soft pedal, you mug!óbefore Ió What're you trying to do? Tell the whole world about it! (low and menacingly) Now listen, you're in this thingóand you're staying in! Get me? You know too much. SHAPELEY (frightened out of his wits) I won't say anything. Honest, I won't. ? 269 ? PETER Yeah ?óHow do I know? (he reaches into his coat threateningly) I gotta good mind to plug you. (arguing with himself) I shouldn't take any chances on you. SHAPELEY (breaking down) You can trust me, Mister. I'll keep my mouth shut. PETER. Yeah? (he glares at Shapeley a moment silently, as if making up his mind) What's your name? SHAPELEY Oscar Shapeley. PETER Where do you live? SHAPELEY Orange, New Jersey. PETER Got a couple of kids, huh? SHAPELEY Yeah. Just babies. PETER You love them, don't you? SHAPELEY (sensing the threat; horrified) Oh, gee, Misteróyou wouldn'tóyou ain't thinkin' aboutó PETER (threateningly) You'll keep your trap shut, all right. SHAPELEY (quickly) SureósureóI'll keep my trap shut. you can depend on me, Mister. PETER If you don'tóEver hear of Bugs Dooley? SHAPELEY No. PETER Nice guy. Just like you. But he made a big mistake, one day. Got kind of talkative. Know what happened? His kid was found in the bottom of the ? 270 ? river. A rock tied around its neck. Poor Bugs! He couldn't take it. Blew his brains out. (Shapeley can't stand much more of this. He is ready to keel over) SHAPELEY Gee! That musta been terrible. (righteously) I guess he had it coming to him though. But don't you worry about me. I don't talk. I never talk. Take my word for it. Gee, I wouldn't want anything to happen to my kids. PETER Okay. Just remember that. Now beat it. SHAPELEY (grabbing Peter's hand and shaking it gratefully) Oh, thanks, thanks, Mister. I always knew you guys were kind-hearted. PETER (putting his hand away) Come on, scram! And stay away from that bus. SHAPELEY Sure. Anything you say. As he says this, he backs away from Peter, following which a close-up of PETER shows a twinkle in his eye and then, as seen by Peter, Shapeley appears walking hurriedly away. When he thinks the distance is safe he starts running. He slips and falls in the mud, picks himself up, and continues his race for life. The scene dissolves to the ROAD, at night, with Ellie and Peter walking along. It is apparent they have been trudging like this for a long time. ELLIE Poor old Shapeley. You shouldn't have frightened him like that. PETER At the rate he started, he's probably passed two state lines by this time. The exercise is good for him. ELLIE Yes, I noticed he was getting a little fat lately. (she grabs her side) Ouch! PETER What's the matter? ELLIE (grimacing) I was never built for these moonlight strolls. (protesting) Why did we have to leave the bus? ? 271 ? PETER I don't trust that chatterbox. The scene dissolves to the banks of a narrow STREAM at night. Peter is bending over, removing his shoes, and we see the two closer as they talk. PETER First town we hit in the morning, you better wire your father. ELLIE Not as long as I'm alive. PETER Okay with me, if you can stand the starvation diet. ELLIE What do you meanóstarvation? PETER It takes money to buy food. ELLIE Why, haven't youó? PETER (interrupting) Not a sou. I had some before the fainting scene. ELLIE You didn't give that boy all your money? PETER I didn't give him anything . You were the big-hearted gal. How about wiring your father now? ELLIE Never! I'll get to New York if I have to starve all the way. PETER (risingóuttering a deep sigh) Must be some strange power Westley has over you women. (he now has his shoes off and ties them to each other) How do you expect to get there? ELLIE To New York? PETER Yeah. ELLIE I'm following you. PETER Aren't you afraid of me? ? 272 ? ELLIE (confidently) No. PETER (looking at her) Okay. Hang on to these. As he bends down in front of Ellie, he gets a firm grip around her legs and throws her over his shoulder like a sack. She squeals, terrified, but Peter ignores this; and with his right hand, which is free, he lifts the suitcase and starts walking across the stream. Ellie's first fright is gone and she now rather enjoys the sensation of being carried by Peter. She lets herself go completely limp, still clinging to his shoes, which she carries by the string. As they walk, the dangling shoes keep hitting Peter's backside. PETER I wish you'd stop being playful. ELLIE (thereupon holding the shoes out at a safe distance) Sorry. (Peter takes several more laborious steps before either of them speaks) ELLIE It's the first time I've ridden "piggy-back" in years. PETER This isn't "piggy-back." ELLIE Of course it is. PETER You're crazy. ELLIE (after a silence for several seconds) I remember distinctly Father taking me for a "piggy-back" rideó PETER And he carried you like this, I suppose. ELLIE Yes. PETER (with finality) Your father didn't know beans about "piggy-back" riding. ELLIE (another silence before she speaks again) My uncleóMother's brotheróhad four children . . . and I've seen them ride "piggy-back." ? 273 ? PETER I don't think there's a "piggy-back" rider in your whole family. I never knew a rich man yet who was a good "piggy-back" rider. ELLIE That's silly. PETER To be a "piggy-backer" it takes complete relaxationóa warm heartóand a loving nature. ELLIE And rich people have none of those qualifications, I suppose. PETER Not a one. ELLIE You're prejudiced. PETER Show me a good "piggy-back" rider and I'll show you somebody that's human. Take Abraham Lincoln, for instanceóa natural "piggy-backer." (contemptuously) Where do you get off with your stuffed-shirt family? (turning) Why, your father knew so much about "piggy-back" riding that heó In his excitement he wheels around to speak to her, forgetting that as he turns she goes with him. Not finding her at his right, he swings around to his left. Naturally he takes Ellie with himóand realizing his mistake he mutters: PETER Aw, nuts! He proceeds on his way, walking faster than before. They continue this way silently for some time. Finally Ellie breaks the silence. ELLIE (persistently) My father was a great "piggy-backer." Peter raises his eyes heavenward in thorough disgust, then calmly hands his suitcase to her. PETER Hold this a minute. Ellie takes the suitcase from him, and his hand now free, he delivers a resounding smack on her backside, so that Ellie lets out a yelp. PETER (taking the suitcase) Thank you. ? 274 ? The scene dissolves to the edge of a cow PASTURE, at night, and Ellie and Peter are revealed climbing under a barbed wire fence, following which the scene dissolves to a HAYSTACK, in front. Peter sets his bag down and surveys the layout, Ellie watching him. PETER (to himself) This looks like the best spot. ELLIE We're not going to sleep out here, are we? PETER I don't know about you, but I'm going to give a fairly good imitation of it. And he busies himself laying out a bed for her, pulling hay from the stack and spreading it out on the ground. Ellie wanders aim-lessly and then moves to a rock, where she sits and watches Peter. ELLIE (after a pause; coyly) Peteró PETER (as a close view shows him still arranging her bed; grumbling) What? ELLIE'S VOICE I'm hungry. PETER (without looking up) Just your imagination. ELLIE (seen at the rock, while Peter is out of sight) No, it isn't. I'm hungry andóand scared. PETER'S VOICE You can't be hungry and scared at the same time. ELLIE (insisting) Well, I am. PETER (as both he and Ellie are seen in their respective places) If you're scared it scares the hunger out of you. ELLIE (argumentatively) Not if you're more hungry than scared. PETER (impatiently) All right. You win. Let's forget it. ? 275 ? ELLIE (after a pause) I can't forget it. I'm still hungry. PETER (tearing his hair; screaming) Holy Smokes! Why did I ever get mixed up with you! This brings silence, and he goes on building a bed for her. Then a close-up of Ellie shows her watching him. Her eyes soften. A very definite interest in him is slowly but surely blossoming, and the fact that he is making her bed adds to the intimacy of the scene. A close view of PETER shows him concentrating on his task, but he pauses a moment and turns to glance at her. It is a devouring look, which he quickly dispels by working more feverishly on her bed. PETER (muttering while he works) If I had any sense, I'd have been in New York by this time. (he emphasizes his feelings by yanking viciously at the hay as both of them are now seen) Taking a married woman back to her husband. Hunh! What a prize sucker I turned out to be. (He has her bed ready; without glancing at her) Come onóyour bed's all ready. She, watches him a moment, then rising slowly, starts toward Peter. Then she stands over her bed, surveying it speculatively. ELLIE I'll get my clothes all wrinkled. PETER (sharply) Well, take them off. ELLIE (shocked) What! PETER (shouting) All right! Don't take them off. Do whatever you please. But shut up about it. She flashes him a petulant, offended glance but it is lost on Peter, who has his back to her, and meticulously, she slips to her knees and proceeds to stretch out on the hay. The hay bed is bumpy and hard and she has quite a difficult time getting comfortable; her efforts to do so are accompanied by painful sighs. A close view shows PETER stopping to watch her, and his look is sympathetic and solicitous. Then while Ellie groans and sighs and pounds the hay with her palm, Peter steps out of sight. Ellie is unaware of his departure, so busily occupied is she with her makeshift bedding. She squirms around unhappily and finally stretches out, deciding to make the best of it. She lies on her back, her hands clasped under her head, looking up at the stars. ELLIE (seen close, as she is lying back on hay bed) You're becoming terribly disagreeable lately. Snap my head off every time I open my mouth. ? 276 ? (she waits for a reply, but receives none) If being with me is so distasteful to you, you can leave. (independently) You can leave any time you see fit. Nobody's keeping you her. (martyr-like) I can get along. She waits a second and then turns to see what effect this has on him. The fact that Peter is gone doesn't quite register at first. She looks around calmly, then is puzzled, and finally she becomes panicky. She sits up with a start. ELLIE (murmuring, frightened) Peteró (there is a pause while she listens, but nothing stirs, and there is more apprehension in her voice) Peter! Real terror comes into her face, and she is ready to cry. She gets to her feet. ELLIE (with a terrified outcry) Peter!! At this he comes running into the scene; under his arm he has a watermelon. PETER What's the matter? ELLIE (relieved) Oh, Peteró (she throws her arms around his neck and sobs freely) PETER (hoarsely) What's got into you? ELLIE (clinging to him) Oh, Peter! I was so scared. With his free hand he removes her arm from around his neck and starts away. PETER (setting the watermelon down) I wasn't gone more than a minute. Just went out to find you something to eat. ELLIE (a sob still in her voice) I knowóbutó ? 277 ? PETER (kicking the melon over to her) Here. Eat your head off. ELLIE I don't want it now. PETER (vehemently) Thought you were hungry! ELLIE I wasóbutó PETER But what! ELLIE I was so scaredóthat it scaredó PETER (exasperatedly) Holy Jumping Catfish! You can drive a guy crazy. He kicks the melon viciously out of sight, and without any particular preparation or fuss, he flops down on his bed, following which Ellie goes to her bed and lies down, too. Then a close view of ELLIE appears, and at the moment she looks far removed from the spoiled, pampered, self-reliant brat of Alexander Andrews. Instead, she is a helpless baby, clinging to Peter's protective wing. She'd be ever so grateful right now for a little civility on his part, for a little tenderness and understanding, and she glances over at him, hopefully. PETER, however, stares up at the stars, dreamily; and we then see ELLIE turning away from him, disappointed. Still, the minute Ellie turns her head, Peter looks at her out of the corner of his eye, and it's a long and steady gaze. Then suddenly he gets an idea and rises. He finds his topcoat and goes to her. PETER Might get chilly later on. (he spreads it over her) Better use this. As he bends down to tuck her in, their faces are seen in close proximity. Ellie, tremulous and fearful, has her eyes peeled on him. The situation is imminent with danger; anything is likely to happen at this moment; and she is frightened and expectantóshe knows how weak she would be, if he suddenly crushed her in his arms. Peter avoids her gaze. He, too, is a bit shaky. The temptation is there and his resistance is waning. He tucks her in and quickly turns away. Ellie's eyes, however, never leave him. Immediate danger has vanished, and it leaves her a little regretful. A close view of PETER, as he walks over to a rock and sits down, shows him nervously taking out a cigarette and lighting it. PETER You've had a lot of men crazy about you, haven't you? ELLIE doesn't respond. She has the scrutinizing, speculative look of a girl who feels herself falling in love with someone who is practically a stranger to her, as a result of which she is ? 278 ? frightened. Then a wider view includes both of them and we see that Peter, too, fights valiantly against a mounting interest in this girl, who epitomizes everything he dislikes. He creates the impression in the following scene that in his analysis of her he is trying to dissuade himself from something he is bound to regret. His attack on her, consequently, is overly vicious. PETER I guess you've pretty much had your own way with them. That's your trouble mostly. You've always had your own way. That's why you're such a mess now. He pauses a second, waiting for a protest, but Ellie offers none; she is too much absorbed in her own confusing emotions. A close view then shows PETER taking a long puff on his cigarette and exhaling the smoke, watching it vanish before he speaks. PETER (suddenly) You know what generally happens to people like you? You get your values all mixed up. You attach all the importance to the wrong things. Right now, for instance, there's only one thought in your mindóto get back to king Westley. He waits for a reaction, but a close view shows ELLIE absorbed, and she remains silent. Peter's voice continues. PETER'S VOICE Comical part of it is, it isn't what you want at all. In a couple of weeks you'll be looking for the nearest exit . . . (now seen with her) People like you spend all your life on a merry-go-round. I guess that's what makes you so dizzy. (he rises and paces a few moments) You're always chasing after something. At least you think you are. Truth is, you're just running away. (emphatically) From yourself, mostly. 'Cause you're miserable. You hate yourself. The world's full of people like you. Don't know what they want. ELLIE Do you know? PETER Sure. ELLIE What? PETER (flatly) Nothing. (after a pause) Nothing you'd give two cents for. ? 279 ? ELLIE (seen close) Try me. PETER'S VOICE I just want to be let alone, that's all. Life's swell if you don't try too hard. Most people want to get a strangle-hold on it. They're not living. They're just feverish. (now appearing with her) If they didn't get themselves all balled up with a lot of manufactured values, they'd find what they want. Peace and calm. When you get right down to it, what's all the shootin' for, will you tell me? After all, you can only eat three meals a day, only sleep in one bedó (looking up) Right now, that hay feels pretty good to you, doesn't it? Sure it does. 'Cause you were tiredóand it's the only thing around. ELLIE You sound like a hobo. PETER I am. I only work when I have to. Two years ago I got a notion and went to China. There was a war going on. Swell! After a while it got stale. I went down to Tahiti. Just lay on the beach for six months. What could be sweeter? ELLIE Doesn't sound very exciting. PETER, seen close, looks at her for a long time before speaking: PETER I guess not. I'd have given odds it wouldn't mean anything to you. (he goes over and flops down on his own side of hay) There were moments when I had hopes. When Ióaw, I'm wasting timeóYou're destined to be a dope the rest of your life. (contemptuously) I pity you. Goodnight. He turns over with a finality that precludes any further discussion, following which a close-up of ELLIE reveals that her eyes are wide open, staring thoughtfully up at the sky. The scene fades out slowly. Part Seven A ROAD fades in. It is day now, and Peter and Ellie are trundling along. Ellie limps, and wears an unhappy expression on her face. ELLIE What are you thinking about? PETER By a strange coincidence, I was thinking of you. ? 280 ? ELLIE (pleased) Really? PETER Yeah. I was just wondering what makes dames like you so dizzy. ELLIE What'd you say we're supposed to be doing? PETER Hitch-hiking. ELLIE Well, you've given me a very good example of the hikingó (strongly) where does the hitching come in? PETER (amused at her) A little early yet. No cars out yet. She spies a rock and heads for it. Then we see her seated on the rock. ELLIE If it's just the same to you, we'll sit right here till they come. (Peter comes over, sets his bag down, and prepares to wait) Got a toothpick? PETER No. But I've got a penknife. (he extracts one from his pocket which he snaps open) ELLIE Hayóin my teeth. She points to her front teeth, and Peter flicks the hay out of her teeth. PETER There it is. Better swallow it. We're not going to have any breakfast. ELLIE Needn't rub it in. (Peter takes a carrot out of his coat pocket and starts nibbling on it; Ellie looks up at this) What're you eating? PETER Carrots. ELLIE Raw? PETER Uh-huh. Want one? ? 281 ? ELLIE (emphatically) No!! (as Peter smacks his lips with satisfaction) It's a wonder you couldn't get me something I can eat. PETER You don't think I'm going around panhandling for you. (he takes a bite) Best thing in the world for youócarrots. Had a tough time getting them. If that farmer ever caught meógoodnight! ELLIE I hate the horrid stuff. While she speaks a car roars by at terrific speed. Peter and Ellie both jump up. PETER I wish you wouldn't talk too much. We let a car get away. (Ellie goes back to her rock, despondently) ELLIE What if nobody stops for us? PETER Oh, they'll stop, all right. It's a matter of knowing how to hail them. ELLIE You're an expert, I suppose. PETER Expert! Going to write a book on it. Called the "Hitch-Hikers Hail." ELLIE There's no end to your accomplishments. PETER You think it's simple, huh? ELLIE (exaggeratedly) Oh, no! PETER Well, it is simple. It's all in the thumb, see? A lot of people do itó (waving) like this. (he shakes his head sadly) But they're all wrong. Never get anywhere. ELLIE Tch! Tch! I'm sorry for the poor things. ? 282 ? PETER But the thumb always works. Different ways to do it, though. Depends on how you feel. For instance, number one is a short, jerky movementó (he demonstrates) That shows independence. You don't care if they stop or not. 'Cause you got some money in your pocket, see? ELLIE Clever. PETER Number two is a wider movementóa smile goes with that oneólike this. (he demonstrates) That means you got a couple of brand new stories about the farmer's daughter.[12] ELLIE You figured that all out yourself, huh? PETER Oh, that's nothing. Now take number three, for instance. That's a pip. It's the pathetic one. When you're brokeóand hungryóand everything looks black. It's a long movement like thisó (demonstrating) ówith a follow through. ELLIE Amazing. PETER Hm? Yeah, but it's no good if you haven't got a long face with it. In the distance a car is heard approaching, and Ellie looks up quickly. ELLIE (excitedly) Here comes a car! PETER (alert) Now watch me. I'm going to use Number One. Keep your eye on that thumb, baby, and see what happens. Peter steps forward into the road and does his thumb movement. The car approaches, but speeds right by, spreading a cloud of dust in Peter's face, leaving him staring at the departing car, nonplussed. Thereupon ELLIE (seen close) glances up at him, a satirical expression on her face. ELLIE (sarcastically) I'm still watching your thumb. Peter is still looking after the car. ? 283 ? PETER Something must have gone wrong. I guess I'll try number two. ELLIE When you get up to a hundred, wake me up. Another car is heard coming, and Peter steps forward, prepared to hail it. Then this dissolves to a long view of the ROAD as a stream of cars of every description speeds forward ("toward the camera") and vanishes. The view moving in to the side of the road, Peter is seen still in the same spot. He waves his arms, jerks his thumb, indulges in all sorts of gyrations, while Ellie remains slumped on her rock, completely worn out. Now Ellie watches Peter out of the corner of her eye, her face expressionless. Peter continues his arm wavingóbut slows down like a mechanical toy which has run out. He finally gets down to just thumbing his nose at the passing vehicles; and then thoroughly wearied, he flops down on a rock near Ellie. PETER I guess maybe I won't write that book after all. ELLIE Yes. But look at all the fun you had. (as he glares at her) Mind if I try? PETER (contemptuously) You! Don't make me laugh. ELLIE You're such a smart aleck! Nobody can do anything but you. I'll show you how to stop a caróand I won't use my thumb. The scene widens as she rises and steps forward. PETER What're you going to do? ELLIE Mind your own business. She lifts her skirt to above her knees and pretends to be fixing her garter. Her very attractive leg is in full display. Almost instantly, we hear the screaming and grinding of quickly applied brakes, and Peter looks up astonished. The scene wiping off, we then get a closer view of Ellie and Peter sitting in the back of an open Ford. It is a broken-down, rickety affair of the 1920 vintage. Ellie grins victoriously up at Peter, who stares ahead of him, glumly. ELLIE You might give me a little credit. PETER What for? ? 284 ? ELLIE I proved once and for all that the limb is mightier than the thumb. PETER Why didn't you take all your clothes off? You could have stopped forty cars. ELLIE We don't need forty cars. Peter glares at her, and Ellie's eyes twinkle mischievously, following which we get a wider view which includes the driver of the car, Danker. He is a man of about thirty, a heavy set, loose chinned person; at the moment he is singing an aria from some opera. He suddenly stops, turning to Ellie and Peter in the back seat. DANKER So you've just been married, huh? Well, that's pretty good. If I was young, that's just the way I'd spend my honeymoonóhitch-hiking. Y-e-s s-i-r! And for no reason except that he cued himself into it, he bursts forth into song gustily. DANKER (singing) "Hiking down the highway of love on a honeymoon. Hitch-hiking downó Down-down-down the highway Downó." Ellie and Peter in the back of the car react to the noise Danker makes. PETER Hey, hey, aren't you afraid you'll burn out a tonsil? DANKER Tonsil? Me? No! Me burn a tonsil? (singing) "My tonsils won't burnó As life's corners I . . . PETER (giving up) All right, let it go. DANKER (completing his last line) . . . turn." The scene dissolves to the front of a LUNCH WAGON on a deserted road, and Danker's car drives into the scene and stops. Then we see Danker turning to Ellie and Peter. DANKER How about a bite to eat? ? 285 ? ELLIE (quickly) Why, I think that would beó PETER (stopping her) No, thanks. We're not hungry. DANKER (sentimentally) Oh, I see, young people in love are never hungry. PETER No. DANKER (singing as he leaves them) "Young people in love Are very seldom hungry. People in love Are very seldom hungry . . ." When he is out of sight, Peter glares at Ellie. PETER What were you going to do? Gold dig him for a meal?[13] ELLIE (defiantly) Why not? I'm hungry. PETER Eat a carrot. ELLIE Never! (she starts out of car) I'm going in and ask himó PETER (grabbing her arm) If you do, I'll break your neck. She looks up at his glowering face, realizes he means it, and wilts under his dominant gaze. PETER Let's get out and stretch our legs. Peter gets out, followed by Ellie, and they walk away from the car. Both are silent. At the DOOR of the LUNCH WAGON, then, Danker comes out and looks around furtively. Ellie and Peter, as seen by him, appear, walking away, following which the view moves over to the Ford and drops down to a close-up of Peter's suitcase. Now Danker looks about quickly and starts toward his car. He springs into the car, steps on the starter, and is off. ELLIE and PETER hear the motor. They wheel around, and their eyes widen in surprise. ? 286 ? PETER Hey! He flings his coat at Ellie and dashes after the Ford. He is then seen running after it when the car turns around a bend in the road. Peter continues the pursuit. This scene wiping off, the FORD now makes its appearance around the bend, and as it approaches, Peter is seen at the wheel. He looks like he's just been through a fight. And as Peter rides in, Ellie comes running toward him. ELLIE (a note of great relief in her voice) Oh, Peter! What happened? Are you all right? PETER Come onóget in. ELLIE (noticing a gash in his cheek) Oh, you've been hurt! There's a cut onó PETER (impatiently) Come on! come on! (at this she runs around to get in the other side) ELLIE (as she runs) What happened? PETER (as we see them closer) Just a road thief. Picks people up and runs off with their stuff. What a racket! (by this time she is in the car) ELLIE What'd you give him for the car? PETER A black eye. (thereupon the car moves out of sight) A close view shows Peter and Ellie driving along in the Ford. Peter looks ahead, uncommunicatively. Ellie glances up at him, and it is plain that something's on her mind. ELLIE (a little self-consciously) Lookóuhóhow are theóuhócarrots holding out? Any left? Peter glances at her. He knows what a concession this is on her part, and he smiles sympathetically. PETER (tenderly) You don't have to eat the carrots. (as she looks her surprise) Just passed a pond with some ducks in it. ELLIE (with a cry of joy) Darling! ? 287 ? She reaches up and kisses his cheek, and Peter beams happily. PETER (looking worried) Haven't much gas left in this thing. Got to start promoting some. (throwing her his coat) Better take the things out of the pocket of that coat. Ought to be good for ten gallons. The scene fades out. Part Eight ANDREWS' STUDY fades in, affording a close view of King Westley. He answers every description we have had of him. He is a stiff, handsome, stuffed-shirt gigolo. He sits in a chair, leaning on a cane, his gloves loosely in his hand. The view then moves back to reveal Andrews, who, from the opening of the scene, is speaking as he paces around the room. ANDREWS I haven't changed my mind, Westley, I want you to understand that! I don't like you! I never have! I never will! That's clear enough, isn't it? KING You've made that quite evidentówith all your threats of annulment. (confident) Well, it hasn't bothered me for a minute. Ellie and I got married because we love each other. And she's proving it; as far as I'm concerned there's going to be no annulment. ANDREWS (hard) You've got a good thing and you're hanging on to it, huh? (Andrews smiles in a very superior manner) All right, You win. I'll just have to get used to you. I admit I'm licked. But only because I'm worried. I've had detectives all over the country searching for her. I've seen thousands of photographs. Fortune tellers, nuts, every crank in the country has written me. (quietly) Haven't slept one night this week. If I don't find her, I'll go crazy. WESTLEY I might have been able to help if it weren't for you. I've been watched so closely, Ió ANDREWS (impatiently) Yes. I know. Well, you can help now. I issued a statement yesterday that I've withdrawn my objections. Begging her to come home. I haven't heard from her. Apparently she doesn't trust me. ? 288 ? WESTLEY Why should she? After alló ANDREWS (interrupting) All right. That's why I sent for you. (pointing to next room) There's a room full of reporters out there. I want you to make a statementóthat you've had a talk with meóthat we've reached an understandingóthat if Ellen comes home, I won't interfere with your marriage. Will you do that? WESTLEY If you really mean it, I will. ANDREWS (strongly) Of course I mean it! I don't care whom she's married toó (softly) óas long as I can get her back. (he starts out) As Andrews opens the door, a number of reporters enter. ANDREWS Come in, boys. This is myóuhóthis is King Westley. (Westley rises) He has a statement to make. REPORTERS Hello, Westley . . . How do you do. (they group around him) The scene dissolves to the side of a lonely ROAD at night. First there is a close-up of a newspaper headline, which reads. ANDREWS WITHDRAWS OBJECTION Magnate and Aviator Reconciled "Everything all right. Come home, darling," says Westley. Then the view draws back revealing that the newspaper is in the hands of Ellie, who sits in the car alone, gazing at the headlines. Then Peter's voice is heard. PETER'S VOICE All right, Brat. At the sound of his voice, she is startled, and she quickly folds the paper and throws it out of sight. She starts to get out of the car. ELLIE (as she scrambles out of the car just as Peter comes up to her) Any luck? PETER Yeah. He finally agreed to let us have a room. ? 289 ? ELLIE What about money? PETER Talked him out of it. He thinks we're going to stay a week. I'll have to think of something before morning. ELLIE That's swell! PETER I'm glad you think so. If you ask me, it's foolish. I told you there's no sense in our staying here tonight. We could make New York in less than three hours. ELLIE I couldn't arrive in New York at three in the morning. Everybody's in bed. PETER (after a pause) Okay. (with a wave of his hand) Cottage Number Three. As they start toward it, the scene cuts to the OWNER'S CABIN. The owner of the auto camp and his wife are standing at window, looking out. She is a hatchet-faced shrew. He is meek and docile. WIFE There you goótrustin' people again. How many times did I tell youó OWNER He looked like an upright young feller to me, Ma. WIFE Yeah. They're all upright till they walk out on you. OWNER Said he was gonna stay a week. WIFE Mebbe. OWNER Worst comes to the worst, we got his car for security. WIFE (unconvinced) I don't trust him. The scene cuts to the inside of a CABIN not unlike the previous auto camp cabin in which Peter and Ellie spent a night. Peter's opened suitcase is on a chair, over which he leans. Ellie walks around, puffing at a cigarette. ? 290 ? PETER (without looking up) Well, here we are on the last lap. Ellie crosses to the window and stares out moodily. Peter removes several things from his suitcase and lays them on the bed. There is a strained silence between them, as both are lost in their own thoughts. A close view of PETER as he putters abstractedly with the contents of his bag creates the impression that he empties it tonight rather ruefully. It somehow spells finis to their adventure. PETER (strangely) Tomorrow morning, you'll be in the arms of your husband. ELLIE (seen close) turns away from the window and looks at Peter. She stares this way for a long moment before speaking. ELLIE (in a still, small voice) Yes. You'll have a great story, won't you? PETER (dryly) Yeah, swell. Peter takes the rope out of his bag. It is the one used for the "Walls of Jericho" previously. He lays it aside and then, remembering, retrieves it. For a moment he holds it in his hand, speculatively; then turning, proceeds to tack it up. The noise of the tacking attracts Ellie's attention, and Ellie (again seen close) turns and looks toward Peter. ELLIE Is that the Walls of Jericho going up? PETER'S VOICE Yep! The Walls of Jericho. (at which she turns back to the window) PETER (also seen close) stretches the rope across the room and tacks the other side. PETER (then reaching for blanket) We certainly outsmarted your father. (he throws the blanket over the rope) I guess you ought to be happy. There is no response from her, a close view revealing that she quite obviously isn't happy. They are now separated by the blanket, and Peter gets her pajamas from his suitcase and throws them over the blanket. ELLIE Thank you. (there is silence while Peter starts undressing) ELLIE (suddenly) Am I going to see you in New York? ? 291 ? PETER (laconically) Nope. ELLIE Why not? PETER glances up at the "Walls of Jericho" and after a speculative pause, speaks quietly. PETER I don't make it a policy to run around with married women. A close-up of Ellie, disclosing only her neck and shoulders, shows her slipping out of her clothes. She pausesóthen looks up. ELLIE No harm in your coming to see us. PETER'S VOICE Not interested. (at this Ellie's face falls, this is a definite rebuff) ELLIE (weakly) Won't I ever see you again? PETER (seen close) is now getting into his pajamas. PETER What do you want to see me for? I've served my purpose. I brought you back to King Westley, didn't I? (his mouth screws up bitterly) That's what you wanted, wasn't it? ELLIE is already in bed, staring up at the ceiling. ELLIE Peter, have you ever been in love? PETER crawls into bed. PETER I probably did the world a great favor at that. Got two pinheads out of circulation. (he reaches over and lights a cigarette) Cupid thinks he's doing something when he brings two lovers together. What good's that? I'm bringing two pains-in-the-neck together. I think I'll start an institutionóhang out a shingle. The view now widens to include both sides of the blanket. Ellie doesn't hear a word of Peter's attack. She is too intent on her own thoughts. ELLIE Haven't you ever wanted to fall in love? PETER Me? ? 292 ? ELLIE Yes. Haven't you thought about it at all? Seems to me you could make some girl wonderfully happy. PETER (disdainfully) Maybe. (after a pause) Sureósure, I've thought about it. Who hasn't? If I ever met the right sort of a girl, I'dó (interrupting himself) Yeah, but where you going to find herósomebody that's realósomebody that's alive? They don't come that way any more. ELLIE'S disappointment is apparent. PETER (seen close) I've even been sucker enough to make plans. (a long puff on his cigarette) I saw an island in the Pacific once. Never been able to forget it. That's where I'd like to take her. But she'd have to be the sort of a girl that'd jump in the surf with me on moonlight nightsóand love it as much as I did. (he loses himself in his romantic contemplations) You know, those nights when you and the moon and the water all become oneówhen something comes over youóand you feel that you're part of something big and marvelous. (sighing) Those are the only places to live. Where the stars are so close over your head that you feel you could reach right up and stir them around. A close-up of ELLIE at this point shows that she is affected by his stirring description of a heavenófrom which she is excluded, as she listens to him continuing. PETER'S VOICE Certainly I've been thinking about it. Boy, if I could ever find a girl who's hungry for those thingsó PETER (again seen close) has disposed of his cigarette and now stares dreamily heavenward. PETER I'm going to Swim in the surf with heróI'm going to reach up and grab stars for heróI'm going to laugh with heróand cry with her. I'm going to kiss her wet lipsóandó Suddenly stopping, he turns his head slowly, sensing Ellie's nearness; and the view, drawing back to include Ellie, shows her standing at his bedside, looking down at him yearningly. Then we see them close together: Peter's face is immobile. Ellie drops to her knees. ? 293 ? ELLIE (fervently) Take me with you, Peter. Take me to your island. I want to do all those things you talked about. Peter stares at her lovely face. His heart cries out with an impulse to crush her in his arms. PETER (after a long pause; hoarsely) Better go back to your bed. ELLIE (simply) I love you. PETER (arguing with himself) You're forgetting you're married. ELLIE (tensely) I don't care. I love you. Nothing else matters. We can run away. Everything'll take care of itself. (begging) Please, Peter. You can't go out of my life now. I couldn't live without you. (in a choked voice) Oh, Peteró Sobbing, she lays her head on his breast and throws her arms around him. All is quiet for a moment as Ellie's head rests on his breast, while Peter struggles with an overwhelming urge to pour out his heart to her. PETER (scarcely audible) Better go back to your bed. There is a lengthy pause, neither of them stirs. Then Ellie slowly raises her tear-stained face and gets to her feet. ELLIE (whispering) I'm sorry. She turns and disappears behind the blanket. Peter remains motionless. Then a close view shows Ellie, as she gets into bed, sobbing quietly. She hides her face in the pillow to suppress her sobs. It is the first time in her life that she has been so deeply hurt. A close view next shows Peter reaching over for a cigarette, which he lights. All his movements are thoughtful, meditative. He leans back and stares at the ceiling, until we see only the cigarette in his mouth as it emits slowly rising puffs of smoke. This dissolving, the cigarette is seen to be burnt three quarters down, a long, frail ash hanging perilously on. Peter is then seen as he removes the cigarette from his mouth and crushes it in a tray. He leans back on the pillow and for a moment he is quiet. Then glancing over in Ellie's direction, he calls to her: ? 294 ? PETER (softly calling) Hey, Brató! (a pause) Did you mean that? Would you really go? (he waits for a response, but none comes. He tries again) Hey, Brató He listensóall is quiet. He slips his covers off and crosses to the blanket, and peers over it. She is asleep. Her tear-stained face rests on the pillow, her arm extends over her head. It is a childlike posture. PETER is watching her tenderly. He speculates whether to awaken her and decides against it. He starts away. Peter tiptoes around the room for a few moments, deep in thought. Then as an idea which he has been turning over in his mind begins to take form, he hastily begins dressing. The scene dissolving, Peter is seen completely clothed and starting for the door when he thinks of something. He turns back, grabs his suitcase, stops to throw a kiss to Ellie, and goes out into the night. Thereupon the scene wipes off, disclosing a Gas Station along the road at night. Here Peter is talking to a station attendant. PETER All I'm asking is enough gas to get me to New York. The bag's worth twenty-five dollars. MAN (hesitatingly) Yeah, but I got a bag. My wife gave me one for Christmas. PETER ("high-pressuring" him) Listen, manóI'll tell you what I'll do. When I come back in the morning, I'll buy it back from you and give you ten dollars profit? What do you say? MAN (looking at Peter's hat) I ain't got a ható PETER What? MAN I ain't got a hat. PETER (promptly putting it on his head) Well, you got one now. óCome on, fill 'er up. While he is still talking the scene dissolves to a view of Peter driving furiously, a broad, happy grin on his face, following which several scenes wipe off in succession (denoting the passage of time) óscenes of Peter driving at high speed, causing several cows to amble out of the way; of the CAR driving into the Holland Tunnel, and of the BACK ROOM of a SPEAKEASY where Peter stands in ? 295 ? front of a small desk upon which there is a typewriter. Near him is a swarthy Italian. PETER Fine! That's fine, Tony. Now get me a drink and make sure nobody disturbs me for half an hour. ITALIAN (going out) Sure. Sure, Pete. As Peter plants himself in front of the machine, the scene dissolves to a close-up of the typewriter carriage upon which are typed the words: "óand that's the full and exclusive story of Ellen Andrews' adventures on the road. As soon as her marriage to King Westley is annulled, she and Peter Warne, famous newspapermanóand undoubtedly the most promising young novelist of the present eraówill be married." The view drawing back, Peter re-reads the last sentence, smiles contentedly, and as he yanks out the sheet, the scene wipes off disclosing the outside of GORDON'S OFFICE, the sign on the door reading: "OfficeóMr. Gordon." Gordon's secretary is at her desk as Peter breezes in. PETER (rumpling her hair) Hello, Agnes. AGNES Better not go in. He'll shoot you on sight. PETER (entering) I haven't been shot at for days. In GORDON'S OFFICE, Gordon is at his desk. He looks up when Peter enters. GORDON (rising to his full height menacingly) Get out of here! PETER (advancing) Wait a minute, GordonóIó GORDON (quietly) Get out! Peter reaches his side, and grabs him by the arms. PETER Joe, listenó GORDON Don't "Joe" me. ? 296 ? PETER Okay, Joe. Listenóyou know I've always liked you. Anytime I could do you a great turnóanytime I ran into a story that looked goodóI always came running to you, didn't I? Well, I got one now. Those wires I sent you were on the level. It's the biggest scoop of the year. I'm giving it to you, Joe. GORDON You mean about the Andrews' kid? PETER That's it. (tapping his pocket) I got it all written up. Ready to go. All I want is a thousand dollars. Upon hearing this GORDON is ready to jump out of his skin. GORDON A thousand dollars! (furiously) Get out of this office before I throw you out bodily. PETER Don't get sore, Joe. This is something you got to do for me. I need a thousand dollarsóand I need it quick. I'm in a jam. GORDON (softening) What's the thousand bucks for? PETER To tear down the Walls of Jericho. GORDON What! PETER Never mind . . . Listenósuppose I should tell you that Ellen Andrews is going to have her marriage annulled. GORDON Huh? PETER That she's going to marry somebody else. GORDON You're drunk. PETER Would an exclusive story like that be worth a thousand bucks to you? GORDON If it's on the level. PETER Well, I got it, Joe. ? 297 ? GORDON Who's she gonna marry? PETER (taking out the story from his pocket) It's all right here. Give me the thousand and it's yours. GORDON (skeptically) I wouldn't trust you as far as I could throw that desk. PETER Wait a minute, Joe. Use your bean. I couldn't afford to hand you a phoney yarn, like that. I'd be crazy. There isn't a newspaper in the country'd give me a job after that! I could go to jail! GORDON I'd put you there myself. PETER Sure. I wouldn't blame you, either. GORDON Who's the guy she's gonna marry? PETER I am, Joe. GORDON (his eyes widening) You! PETER Yeah. GORDON Now I know you're drunk. (he grabs his hat) I'm going home. Don't annoy me any more. PETER (running after Gordon as the latter starts out) For heaven's sake, Joeóstop being an editor for just a minute. (he grabs his arm) We've been friends for a long time, haven't we? You ought to know when I'm serious. This is on the level. Gordon is affected by the sincere note in Peter's voice. PETER I met her on a bus coming from Miami. Been with her every minute. (hoarsely) I'm in love with her, Joe. GORDON Well, I'll beó ? 298 ? PETER Listen, Palóyou've got to get this money for me. Now. Minutes count. She's waiting for me in an auto camp outside of Philadelphia. I've got to get right back. You see, she doesn't know I'm gone. (self-consciously) A guy can't propose to a girl without a cent in the world, can he? While Peter has been speaking Gordon stares into space thoughtfully. GORDON What a story! (picturing it) On her way to join her husband, Ellen Andrews falls in love withó (alertógrabbing paper out of Peter's hand) Lemme see that a minute. He moves to his desk excitedly, and Peter, a gleam of hope in his eyes, joins him, following which the scene cuts to the SHACK of the camp owner and wife in the early morning. The owner is suddenly startled out of his sleep by the voice of his wife calling, "zeke! zeke!" He looks up, just as she rushes into the room. WIFE I told you! I told you, you couldn't trust him! He's gone! OWNER Who? WIFE That feller last night, that's who! He was gonna stay a week, huh? Well, he's skipped. Took the car with him, too. We wouldn't have known a thing about it until morning if I hadn't took that magnesia. (pulling at him) Come on, get up, don't lay there. Let's do something about it. Thereupon the scene cuts to the AUTO CAMP CABIN affording a close view of ELLIE tossing restlessly in her sleep. Suddenly there is a loud banging on the door, and Ellie, startled, awakens. The pounding continuing, Ellie looks around, frightened. The door suddenly bursts open, and the owner and wife enter. They both glance over at Peter's side. WIFE See that. They're gone! OWNER (timidly) Looks like it, don't it? (suddenly he sees Ellie) Here's the woman, ma. WIFE (full of fightóglaring at Ellie) Oh!! ? 299 ? ELLIE (in a close view at Ellie's Bed as the owner and his wife come up to her; timidlyósitting up) What's the matter? WIFE Where's your husband, young ladyó ELLIE Husband? WIFE Yesóif he is your husband. ELLIE Isn't he here? WIFE No, he ain't! And the car's gone, too. ELLIE (bewildered) Why, he'll be back. WIFE Yeah? What makes you think so! He took his suitcase and everything. (Ellie is perceptibly startled by this piece of news) Kinda surprised, huh? It's just like I told you, Zeke. They ain't married a'tall . . . There is a close view of ELLIE as the wife's voice continues uninterruptedly: WIFE'S VOICE . . . could tell she was a hussy just from the looks of her. Ellie is lost in thought, trying to adjust herself to the idea of Peter's leaving her like this. She scarcely hears what is being said. OWNER'S VOICE Hey! You! Got any money? ELLIE (snapping out of her trance) Whyóno. WIFE (the three now seen together) Thenóyou'll have to git ! OWNER Yeah, you'll have to git . ELLIE Why, you can't put me out in the middle of theó ? 300 ? WIFE Serves you right. Oughta be careful who you take up with on the road. You can't go plyin' your trade in my camp. ELLIE But can't you wait until morningó WIFE Ain't gonna wait a minute. OWNER Not a minute! WIFE Better start gettin' into your clothes. OWNER Yeah. WIFE (glaring at him) Zeke. (he looks up startled) Git! OWNER (disappointed) Yes, Ma. As Zeke leaves, the Wife plunks herself in a chair, grimly determined to wait until Ellie gets dressed and out. ELLIE Can I use your telephone? I want to talk to New York. WIFE You ain't gonna stick me for no phone calls. You can go down to the Sheriff's office. The scene thereupon cuts to the EXTERIOR of the AUTO CABIN as Ellie emerges, the Wife standing in the doorway. In the foreground several people are scattered around the courtyard. One woman washes stockings under a pump. A man is changing the tire on his car. Ellie comes down the steps and crosses the courtyard. WIFE (shouting to her) And listen, next time better keep away from here. I run a respectable place. Ellie does not turn, but walks straight forward, trying to maintain her poise. The people in the courtyard turn to stare at her, and one of them snickers. The scene dissolves to GORDON'S OFFICE as Peter is pocketing the money. Gordon is fondling the story. PETER Thanks, Pal. You saved my life. ? 301 ? GORDON (waving the story) Okay, pete. (he drops the story on the desk and escorts peter out, his arm around his shoulder) For my dough, (smiling) you're still the best newspaperman in the business. They reach the door, which peter opens. Then they appear at the DOORWAY. Through the open door the secretary stares dumbfounded at their friendliness. GORDON S'long, kid. And good luck. Outside GORDON'S OFFICE, peter kisses the secretary as he passes through. PETER 'Bye, Agnes. You're beautiful. All women are beautiful! (he goes out) Gordon is immediately electrified into action. GORDON Oh, boy! What a yarn! What a yarn! (suddenly) Get me Hank on the phone. Gotta hold up the morning edition. While he speaks he dashes back to his desk. We then see him in his office. SECRETARY'S VOICE There's Hank. GORDON (grabbing phone) Hank! Listen. Hold the morning edition. Break down the front page. Gonna have a completely new layoutóSend a couple of re-write men in here. Don't do a thingóI got a story that'll make your hair curl. During his speech, his other phone has been ringing persistently. He has ignored it until now. He picks up receiver: GORDON (into the second phone) Yeah. Yeah. Don't annoy me. I'm busy. (he bangs up receiver, and turns back to the first phone) Listen, Hank! Dig out all the Andrews pictures. Get Healy out of bed. I want a cartoon right away. (the second phone rings impatiently, but Gordon ignores it) With King Westley in it. He's waiting at the church. Big tears streaming down his face. His bride hasn't shown up. Old Man Andrews is there, ? 302 ? too. Laughing his head off. Everything exaggerated. You knowóNow snap into it! (he bangs up the receiver, and grabs the second phone, speaking into it impatiently) Yeah. Yeah. What is it? A close view of GORDON, as he listens, shows his eyes widening with amazement. GORDON What!óEllen Andrews! You're crazy! This cuts to a TELEPHONE BOOTH where a reporter is seen speaking excitedly. REPORTER Yeah. She just phoned her father from an auto camp to come and get her. He's getting a police escort. Westley's going along, too. She's been traveling by bus. The moment she read that her father and Westley made up, she phoned in. Back in GORDON'S OFFICE Gordon is seen still at the phone. GORDON You sure that's right! Say, you haven't been drinking, have you! Okayógrab a caróand stay with them. (he hangs up the receiver and grabs the first phone) Put Hank on. (shouting) Agnes! (as the secretary hurries in) Get me a doctor. I'm about to have a nervous breakdown. (she stares at him dumbly as he speaks into the phone) Hankóforget everything I just told you. I was just having a nightmare! (he hangs upóand turns to Agnes) Call up the police department! Tell 'em to find Peter Warne. Send out a general alarm. I want the dirty crook pinched. He picks up Peter's story and flings it viciously into the wastebasket. AGNES (starting out) Yessir. (two re-write men come in, passing Agnes) MEN You want us? GORDON (wheeling around) Yeah. Shove everything off the front page. Ellen Andrews just phoned her fatheróshe's coming home. The moment she heard the old man withdrew his objections, she gave herself up. Spread it all over the place. Here's your lead: "Love Triumphant!" Step on it! ? 303 ? MEN (leaving) Yessir. Gordon goes to his desk, mumbling to himself. His eye lights on the waste basket containing Peter's story, and he is about to kick it when he stops. He stares at it thoughtfully, reaches down, lifts it outóruns through it hastilyóand then stares into space, deep in thought. The scene dissolves to an open ROAD, in the morning, as Peter flies over it in his Ford. He beams happily. He passes a gasoline truck and waves cheerily to the driver. This dissolves to a close-up of an AUTO SIREN accompanied by a prolonged wail, then to a ROAD, that morning, as four motorcycles, two abreast, speed forward, followed by a luxurious limousine, which in turn is trailed by a car filled with reporters. Next, in the LIMOUSINE, Andrews is seen in the back seat. He is accompanied by King WestleyóHendersonóLovington, and a police inspector. HENDERSON I knew she was safe. LOVINGTON (sighing) Certainly gave us a run for our money. (but Andrews is too overwhelmed with joy to listen to any of this) ANDREWS (anxiously) Can't you get them to go any faster? (at this the Inspector leans over to talk to chauffeur) This dissolves to a deserted ROAD, Peter at the wheel of his car. His high spirits find expression in his efforts to sing. PETER (singing) "I found a million dollar babyó" He is interrupted by the song of a meadowlark, whistling its strange melody. Peter listens to it a second time, then answers its call by imitating it. The meadowlark whistles again, and peter is highly amused. PETER (waving his handóto the meadowlark) Okay, pal. Be seein' you. Just then the sound of sirens is heard in the distance. Peter glances back, and as the sirens come nearer, he pulls over to the side of the road. There follows a full view of the ROAD, with peter in the foreground at the side as the police cavalcade whizzes by accompanied by the shrieking sirens. Thereupon PETER (seen close) gets an idea. PETER (to his Ford) Come on, Dobbin, old boy. We got a police escort. ? 304 ? He applies the gas and shoots out of sight, following which a full view of the road shows Peter's car trying to catch up with the parade. It outdistances him, however, and we see PETER in the Ford pressing his body forward to help the car make time. His foot pushes the accelerator down to the floor. But the police cars are now out of sight, and Peter gives up. PETER (seen close; to the carówith exaggerated dramatics) Dobbin, me lad. You failed muh. I'm afraid you're gittin' old. Thereupon the scene dissolves to a small town ROAD, where at the door of a Sheriff's office a policeman is standing on guard. The reporters hang around in front of him. Several yokels look on. The limousine and motor cycles are at the curb. And now, in a closer view, at the DOOR the policeman on guard steps aside as the door opens and Ellie, her father, and King Westley emerge. King has his arm around her. The moment they appear in the doorway, cameras click and several reporters surround them. REPORTERS Will you make a statement Miss Andrews? Was it an exciting experience? How did you travel? ANDREWS (brushing them aside) Later, boys, later. See her at home. They cross the sidewalkóto the waiting limousine, as cameras click. The scene dissolves to a ROAD, with Peter still driving. He is, however, as before, in excellent form, and is singing lustily. Suddenly, however, his eyes widen and he pulls on his brake; the car screeches and moansóand comes to a stop. PETER Take it easy, Dobbin. Remember your blood pressure. We find Peter directly in front of a slow moving freight train. Several hoboes stick their heads out of a car, and Peter waves to them. The hoboes look puzzled for a minute and then wave back. The view then swings over to an opening between the cars affording a flash of the police parade on the other side, apparently on its way back. PETER amuses himself by talking to an old flagman. PETER Better get that toy train out of here. I'm in a hurry. The Flagman grins at him in reply. By this time the last car is in sight, and Peter gets all set to move. He stops, however, to wave to a couple of brakemen on the rear platform. In the meantime, the motorcycles have started forward, and the sirens begin their low, moaning wail. Peter, attracted, turns, and over Peter's shoulder we see the parade starting. As the limousine ? 305 ? passes, we get a glimpse of the inside. Ellie lies back on King Westley's shoulder. He has his arm around her as they pass out of sight. Thereupon a close view of PETER shows him reacting to what he saw. He turns his head quickly to stare at the disappearing car, a look of astonishment and bewilderment in his eyes. Slowly he turns his head forward, staring ahead of him blankly; he can't quite make it out. Then gradually the significance of it all strikes himóand his mouth curls up bitterly. The scene wiping off, a series of NEWSPAPER HEADLINES come into view: "ELLEN ANDREWS RETURNS HOME." "MARRIAGE HALTED BY FATHER TO BE RESUMED" "ELLEN ANDREWS AND AVIATOR TO HAVE CHURCH WEDDING" "LOVE TRIUMPHS AGAIN" "PARENTAL OBJECTION REMOVED IN FAVOR OF LOVERS" "CANNOT THWART LOVE SAYS FATHER OF ELLEN ANDREWS" "GLAD TO BE HOME SAYS ELLEN" This dissolves to the anteroom of a NEWSPAPER OFFICE. The place is alive with activity, and copies of newspapers are lying around, bearing headlines relating to the Andrews story. Peter, a bewildered, stunned expression on his face, enters and crosses funereally toward Gordon's office. Several people standing around look up. PEOPLE Hi, PeteóDidya see this? Ellen Andrews is back. Gonna marry that Westley guy after allóWhat a dame! What a dame! Peter pays no attention to any of this. He reaches Gordon's door, which is open. He walks directly past Agnes and enters the office. She looks up at him, puzzled. Then in GORDON'S OFFICE, Peter walks to Gordon's desk and lays the roll of bills on it. Agnes enters, watching him anxiously. AGNES Gordon's out back some place. (seeing the money, she looks up, surprised) PETER See that he gets that, will you, Agnes? Tell him I was just kidding. (he goes out) As Agnes stares after him, puzzled, Gordon dashes in from a back door. GORDON You can't get a thing done around her unlessó AGNES Peter Warne was just in. GORDON Huh? What? AGNES Left this money. Said to tell you he was just kidding. ? 306 ? GORDON (looking at the money) Where is he? The scene cuts to the OUTER OFFICE and CORRIDOR, as seen over Gordon's shoulder through the open door. Peter is seen walking out. Gordon hurries after him. GORDON'S VOICE Hey, Pete! At the sound of Gordon's voice, Peter turns, and Gordon comes over to him. PETER Hello, Joe. Sorry. Just a little gag of mine. Thought I'd have some fun with you. GORDON (understanding) Yeah. Sure. Had me going for a while. PETER Wouldn't have made a bad story, would it? GORDON Great! But that's the way things go. You think you got a swell yarnóthen something comes alongómesses up the finishóand there you are. PETER (smiling wryly) Yeah, where am I? GORDON (slipping a bill in his coat pocket) When you sober upócome in and see me. PETER (a whisper) Thanks, Joe. He leaves, Gordon watching him sympathetically, and the scene fades out. Part Nine The LAWN of the ANDREWS ESTATE fades in. It is morning and at the moment the place is a beehive of activity. Dozens of butlers and maids hustle around setting tables. Floral decorations are being hung by men on ladders. In the background on a platform, a twenty-piece orchestra is getting ready, accompanied by the scraping of chairs, adjusting of music stands, unpacking of instruments. The scene cuts to ANDREWS' STUDY: King Westley is seated, and Andrews walks around him. They are both dressed in striped trousers, frock coat, etc. ANDREWS Well, here we are; it's all set. You're finally going to be married properly. (he waves toward the window) With all the fanfare and everything. ? 307 ? (shaking his head) I still don't know how it happenedóbut you're going to be my son-in-law whether I like it or not. I guess you're pleased. KING Why; naturally, Ió ANDREWS (drily) Naturally. (with vehemence) You're going to become a partner in a big institution. It's one of the largest in the world. KING You talk as ifó ANDREWS Someday perhaps, you might even take charge. A close view of ANDREWS shows him looking around his study despairingly. ANDREWS (murmuring) The thought of it makes me shudder. KING'S VOICE (confidently) You might be surprised. ANDREWS I hope so. However, that'll take care of itself. (taking a new tack) There's another responsibility you're taking on. One that I'm really concerned about. KING'S VOICE What's that? ANDREWS My daughter. KING (the two now seen again; lightly) Ellie? Oh, she's no responsibility. ANDREWS No? Say, listenóI've devoted a whole lifetime trying to tame that wildcat. Toughest job I ever tackled. Ever hear of J.P. Clarkson? Biggest man in the country, isn't he? Well, I tamed him . Got him eating out of the palm of my hand. I've browbeaten financiers, statesmen, foreign ministersósome of the most powerful people in the worldóbut I've never been able to do a thing with her. She's been too much for me. I'm glad you think it's easy. ? 308 ? (he bends over him) Now listenóif you'll do what I tell you, perhaps I might develop a little respect for you. You never can tell. KING What would you like to have me do? ANDREWS Sock her! A close view of KING shows him looking up, surprised, as Andrews' voice continues. ANDREWS' VOICE Sock her at least once a day. Do it on general principles. Make her know you're the boss and never let her forget it. Think you can do that? KING It's quite an assignmentó ANDREWS Try. Do me a favor. Try. It's your only chance. And hers, too. Do that for meóand maybe we'll be friendsó (muttering) Maybe. (he holds out his hand) Do we understand each other? KING (taking his handórising) Yes, sir. ANDREWS (dismissing him) Fine. I'll see you at the reception. He withdraws his hand, which he looks at disgustedlyóthe result of a jellyfish handshake. KING Oh, by the way, Mr Andrews, I thought of a great stunt for the reception. (as Andrews looks at him quizzically) I'm going to land on the lawn in an autogyro.[14] What do you think of that! A close view of ANDREWS shows him staring off at King in complete disgust. ANDREWS You thought that up all by yourself, huh? KING (unabashed) Why, it'll make all the front pages. A spectacular thing like tható ? 309 ? ANDREWS (hard) Personally, I think it's stupid! (humoring a child) But go ahead. Have a good time. As long as Ellie doesn't object. KING Oh, no. She'll be crazy about it. Well, see you later. I'm going out on the lawn and arrange for landing space. (holding out his hand) Goodbye. (but Andrews turns his back on him) ANDREWS We've done that already. KING (smiling) Yes, of course. He turns and leaves; Andrews watching him go, shaking his head sadly. ANDREWS Autogyro! I hope he breaks his leg. Andrews starts out, and the scene cuts to the HALLWAY as Andrews enters from the study. A maid coming down the stairs, he calls to her: ANDREWS OhóMaryó MARY Yes, sir? ANDREWS How is she? MARY (hesitantly) Whyóuhóshe's all right, sir. ANDREWS What's the matter? Anything wrong? MARY Oh, no, sir. No different thanó ANDREWS Yes. I know. Still in the dumps, huh? MARY Yessir. If you'll excuse me, siróshe sent me for a drink. (she leaves) Andrews stands a moment thoughtfully and then starts up the stairs, following which the scene dissolves to the UPSTAIRS CORRIDOR in front of Ellie's door. Andrews enters and knocks several times. Receiving no response, he gingerly opens the door. ? 310 ? Next Andrews enters ELLIE'S BEDROOM and looks around. The view swings around the room, following his gaze. It focuses on Ellie, who reclines on a sofa, in her bridal outfit, her head resting on the back. She stares moodily, unhappily up at the ceiling. The view then expanding to include both father and daughter, Andrews is seen staring at her a moment sympathetically. He senses something is wrong. ANDREWS (after a pause) Ellieó ELLIE (jumping up with a start) Oh, hello, Dad. ANDREWS (a close view as he goes over to her) I knocked several times. ELLIE Sorry. Must have been day-dreaming. (to hide her confusion, she reaches for a cigarette) ANDREWS (with forced lightness) Well, everything's set. Creating quite a furor, too. Great stunt King's going to pull. ELLIE (in a faraway voice) Stunt? ANDREWS Landing on the lawn in an autogyro. ELLIE Oh, yes. I heard. ANDREWS (noting her listlessness) Yes. Personally, I think it's silly, too. As he continues talking, the view moves with Ellie, who wanders over to a window overlooking the lawn and stares out, lost in thought. ANDREWS' VOICE (he goes over the Ellie) You look lovely. Are you pleased with the gown? (as Ellie does not seem to hear him, he becomes worried) Ellie! ELLIE (turning and looking at him blankly) Huh? (it just penetrates) Ohóthe gownó (distantly) Yes, it's beautiful. ? 311 ? ANDREWS (tenderly) What's the matter, Ellie? What's wrong? ELLIE Nothing. (she walks over to table and crushes her cigarette) ANDREWS You've been acting so strangely since you returned. I'móI'm worried. I haven't bothered to ask you any questionsóIó (waving his hand toward the lawn) Isn't all this what you wanted? (receiving no answer from Ellie) You haven't changed your mind about King, have you? ELLIE (too quickly) Oh, no. ANDREWS If you have, it isn't too late. You know how I feel about him. But I want to make you happy. You gave me such a scareóIówhen I couldn't find you. (smiling feeblyómeaning his heart) You know, the old pump isn't what it used to be. ELLIE (her hand on his arm) Sorry, Dad. I wouldn't hurt you for the world. You know that. She moves away from him and sits on the sofa, and Andrews watches her a moment and crosses over to her. He sits beside her, placing an arm affectionately around her shoulder. ANDREWS (tenderly) Ellieówhat is it? Aren't you happy, child? At this point she finally breaks, and impulsively buries her face on his breast. ANDREWS (after a pause, hoarsely) I thought so. I knew there was something on your mind. (there are audible sobs from Ellie) Thereóthere! They remain thus quietly for some time. Finally Andrews breaks the silence. ANDREWS What is it, darling? (receiving no answer) You haven't fallen in love with somebody else, have you? As this brings an audible sob from Ellie, Andrews lifts up her chin. ? 312 ? ANDREWS (looking into her eyes) Have you? (Ellie turns her head away, a little ashamed of her tears) Ellie now rises and walks miserably away from him, dabbing her eyes. Andrews, watching her, realizes he has hit upon the truth. He walks over to her. ANDREWS I haven't seen you cry since you were a baby. This must be serious. (Ellie is silent) Where'd you meet him? ELLIE On the road. ANDREWS (trying to cheer her) Now, don't tell me you fell in love with a bus driver! ELLIE (smiling) No. ANDREWS Who is he? ELLIE I don't know very much about him. (in a whisper) Except that I love him. ANDREWS (the great executive) Well, if it's as serious as all thatówe'll move heaven and earth toó ELLIE (quickly) It'll do no good. (wryly) He despises me. ANDREWS Oh, come nowó ELLIE He despises everything I stand for. He thinks I'm spoiled and pampered, and selfish, and thoroughly insincere. ANDREWS Ridiculous! ELLIE He doesn't think so much of you either. ? 313 ? ANDREWS (his eyes widening) Well! ELLIE He blames you for everything that's wrong about me. Thinks you raised me stupidly. ANDREWS (smiling) Fine man to fall in love with. ELLIE (whispering) He's marvelous! ANDREWS Well, what are we going to do about it? Where is he? ELLIE (sadly) I don't know. ANDREWS I'd like to have a talk with him. ELLIE It's no use, Dad. I practically threw myself at him. (she shrugs futilely) ANDREWS Well, under the circumstances, don't you think we ought to call this thing off? ELLIE No, I'll go through with it. ANDREWS But that's silly, child. Seeing how you feel, whyó ELLIE It doesn't matter. (tired) I don't want to stir up any more trouble. I've been doing it all my life. I've been such a burden to youómade your life so miserableóand mine, too. I'm tired, Dad. Tired of running around in circles. He's right, that's what I've been doing ever since I can remember. A close-up of ANDREWS shows him watching Ellie, as her voice continues. ELLIE'S VOICE I've got to settle down. It really doesn't matter howóor whereóor with whom. ANDREWS (seriouslyóimpressed) You've changed, Ellie. ? 314 ? ELLIE (seen with Andrews; sighing) Yes, I guess I have. (sincerely) I don't want to hurt anybody any more. I want to get away from all this front page publicity. It suddenly strikes me as being cheap and loathsome. I can't walk out on King now. It'll make us all look so ridiculous. (she shrugs resignedly) Besides, what difference does it make? (inaudibly) I'll never see Peter again. ANDREWS Is that his name? ELLIE Yes. Peter Warne. She starts to walk away when she is attracted by her father's surprise at the mention of the name. ANDREWS Peter Warne! (his hand has instinctively gone to his inside pocket) ELLIE (noticing this) Why? Do you know him? (but Andrews withdraws his hand. Apparently he has changed his mind) ANDREWS (evasively) Oh, noóno. ELLIE (suddenly anxious) You haven't heard from him, have you, Dad? ANDREWS (obviously guilty) Why, no . . . Don't be silly. ELLIE Oh, please, Dadó She has reached into his pocket and has extracted a letter, which she hurriedly opens and reads, following which we see a LETTER in Peter's handwriting. It is addressed to: "Alexander Andrews, 11 Wall Street." It reads: "Dear Sir: I should like to have a talk with you about a financial matter in connection with your daughter. Peter Warne." Ellie is then seen reading and re-reading the note. Her face clouds and then slowly changes to an expression of complete disillusionment. ? 315 ? ELLIE (her voice strident) Looks like that was his only interest in me. The reward. ANDREWS (taking the note from her) I'm sorry you read it. ELLIE Are you going to see him? ANDREWS I suppose so. ELLIE (hard) Certainly! Pay him off. He's entitled to it. He did an excellent job. Kept me thoroughly entertained. It's worth every penny he gets. She paces agitatedly, Andrews watching her silently. He knows what an awful blow to her pride this must be. Mary now enters with a cocktail tray which she sets on the table. ELLIE Thanks, Mary. That's just what I need. (she pours herself a cocktail) MARY Mr. King Westley is on his way up. ELLIE FineóFine! Have him come in. ANDREWS (mumbling) I'll be going. (he goes out behind Mary) Ellie swallows her drink and starts pouring herself another, as King enters. ELLIE (upon seeing him) Well, if it isn't the groom himself! You're just in time, King. A close view of the Two shows King taking her in his arms. KING How are you, Ellie? (he gives her a kiss, which she accepts perfunctorilyóbut he insists upon being ardent) Are you happy? ELLIE (releasing herself) Happy? Why shouldn't I be happy? I'm getting the handsomest man in captivity. (handing him a drink) Here you are, King. Let's drink. (she holds her glass out) Let's drink to us . ? 316 ? (she drains the glass; pouring another, as she continues) We finally made it, didn't we? KING You bet we did. ELLIE It's up to you now. I want our life to be full of excitement, King. We'll never let up, will we? Never a dull moment. We'll get on a merry-go-round and never get off. Promise you'll never let me get off? It's the only way to live, isn't it? No time to think. We don't want to stop to think, do we? Just want to keep going. KING Whatever you say, darling. ELLIE I heard about your stunt. That's swell, King. Just think of itóthe groom lands on the lawn with a plane. It's a perfect beginning for the life we're going to lead. It sets just the right tempo. (handing him a drink) Come on, King. You're lagging. (they both drink) In ANDREWS' STUDY, Andrews walks around the room, perceptibly affected by his visit with Ellie. He keeps turning Peter's letter over in his hand, apparently debating in his mind what to do with it. He finally gets an ideaóand determinedly crosses to the phone. Then the scene cuts to a HOTEL ROOM. First there is a close-up of a NEWSPAPERóa tabloid bearing a heading which reads: "LOVE TRIUMPHANT." "Interrupted Romance of Ellen Andrews and King Westley Resumed, as Father Yields. Wedding Reception to be Held on Andrews' Lawn." Below this is a page of pictures, and the view turns to each photograph. The first picture is of Ellie and King on a beach. The title over the picture reads: "Where they met." The second picture shows them in the cockpit of a plane, the heading reading: "Where they romanced." The next picture is of a small frame house with a shingle on it reading: "Justice of the Peace." Over the photograph is a caption: "Where they were married." The next picture is of the Andrews Yacht, and the title reads: "Where she was taken." Finally, the view moves down to the bottom of the page to a picture of Ellie and King, with her father between them, in front of Sheriff's office. Caption reads: "Where love triumphed." Over these pictures the phone bell has been ringing. And now PETER is seen staring, expressionless, at the newspaper. Suddenly he becomes conscious of the phone ringing; he looks upóthen goes to it. PETER (into the phone) Hello . . . Yes? . . . Who? . . . Oh . . . Why can't I see you at your office? The scene cuts to ANDREWS' STUDY, affording a close view of ANDREWS at the phone. ? 317 ? ANDREWS I leave for Washington tonight. May be gone several weeks. Thought perhaps you'd like to get this thing settled. This cuts to the HOTEL ROOM where PETER is at the phone. PETER Yeah, but I don't like the idea of walking in on your jamboree . . . Just between you and meóthose things give me a stiff pain. ANDREWS (seen in his office) You needn't see anybody. You can come directly to my study. I'd appreciate it very much ifó PETER (at his phone) Noóno. What the deuce do I want toó His eyes fall on something, and there follows a close view of a tabloid newspaper, featuring the heading: "Love Triumphant" and containing the pictures of Ellie and King. The view then moves down to feature headline reading "Groom to Land on Bride's Lawn." "King Westley plans to drop in an autogyro on the lawn of Andrews estate . . ." Peter's mouth screws up disdainfully. PETER (into the phone) Yeah, wait a minute. Maybe I will come over. I'd like to get a load of that three-ring circus you're pulling. I want to see what love looks like when it's triumphant. I haven't had a good laugh in a week. (he is still at the phone as the scene dissolves) Then the LAWN of the ANDREWS ESTATE dissolves in. It is now filled with guests, who wander around, chattering gaily. The orchestra plays. A captain of waiters in the foreground instructs his men. CAPTAIN I want everything to be just so. When the ceremony starts, you stand on the sideóstill . No moving aroundóno talking, comprenez ? The view cuts to a ROADWAY leading to the estate, and Peter is seen driving up in his Ford and squeezing in between two Rolls-Royces. The uniformed chauffeurs glare at him. But Peter springs nonchalantly out of his car. PETER (blithely, as he passes them) Keep your eye on my car when you're backing up, you guys. And as he goes, the chauffeurs look at each other, surprised. The scene dissolves to ANDREWS' STUDY, where a butler stands in front of Andrews who is seated at his desk. ? 318 ? ANDREWS Show him in. The Butler leaving, a close view shows ANDREWS reaching over and snapping on a dictograph concealed somewhere on his desk. The office coming into view again, we see Andrews rising and awaiting Peter's entrance. After a moment Peter comes in, removes his soft felt hat, and tucks it under his arm. ANDREWS Mr. Warne? PETER Yeah. ANDREWS Come in. Sit down. Peter advances into the room, looking around curiously. His air is frigid, contemptuous as Andrews studies him, and he makes no move to sit. Andrews waves to a chair and sits down himself. Peter flops into the nearest chair. ANDREWS (seen close with Peter; after a pause) I was surprised to get your note. My daughter hadn't told me anything about you. About your helping her. PETER That's typical of your daughter. Takes those things for granted. (too restless to sit, he jumps up) Why does she think I lugged her all the way from Miamió (vehemently) for the love of it? ANDREWS Please understand me. When I say she didn't tell me anything about it, I mean not until a little while ago. She thinks you're entitled to anything you can get. PETER (bitterly) Oh, she does, huh? Isn't that sweet of her! You don't , I suppose. ANDREWS (shrugging) I don't know. I'd have to see on what you base your claim. I presume you feel you're justified inó PETER (seen close now) If I didn't I wouldn't be here! (he reaches into his pocket) I've got it all itemized. ? 319 ? (and he throws the paper on Andrews' desk) ANDREWS picks up the paper and glances at it. After a moment, he looks at Peter, studying him interestedly; then he returns to the paper, and reads its contents: "Cash outlay 8.60 Topcoat 15.00 Suitcase 7.50 Hat 4.00 3 shirts 4.50 Total 39.60" Andrews looks up from the paper. This is a twist he hadn't anticipated, and he doesn't quite know how to handle it. PETER (now seen closer with Andrews) I sold some drawers and socks, too; I'm throwing those in. ANDREWS And this is what you wantóthirty-nine dollars and sixty cents? PETER Why not? I'm not charging you for the time I wasted. ANDREWS Yes, I knowóbutó PETER What's the matter? Isn't it cheap enough? A trip like that would cost you a thousand dollars! ANDREWS Let me get this straight. You want this thirty-nine sixty in addition to the ten thousand dollars? PETER What ten thousand? ANDREWS The reward. PETER (sharply) Who said anything about a reward! ANDREWS (smiling) I'm afraid I'm a little confused. You see, I assumed you were coming here foró PETER (impatiently) All I want is thirty-nine sixty. If you'll give me a check I'll get out of this place. It gives me the jitters. ANDREWS You're a peculiar chap. ? 320 ? PETER (irritably) We'll go into that some other time. ANDREWS The average man would go after the reward. All you seem toó PETER Listen, did anybody ever make a sucker out of you? This is a matter of principle. Something you probably wouldn't understand. (he burns at the thought) When somebody takes me for a buggy ride I don't like the idea of having to pay for the privilege. ANDREWS You were taken for a buggy ride? PETER Yeahówith all the trimmings. Now, how about the check. Do I get it? A close-up indicates that ANDREWS has been studying Peter throughout the scene. He is now completely won over. ANDREWS (smiling) Certainly. (he opens a checkbook and writes it out) While Andrews writes, Peter wanders around the room in an attitude of bitter contempt. Andrews rises and goes to him. ANDREWS Here you are. (as Peter takes the check) Do you mind if I ask you something frankly? (Peter just looks at him without responding) Do you love my daughter? PETER (evasively, while folding the check) A guy that'd fall in love with your daughter should have his head examined. ANDREWS That's an evasion. PETER (putting the check into a wallet) She grabbed herself a perfect running mate. King Westley! The pill of the century! (pocketing wallet) What she needs is a guy that'd take a sock at her every dayówhether it's coming to her or not. A close view of the TWO shows Andrews smiling: Here is a man! PETER If you had half the brains you're supposed to have, you'd have done it yourselfólong ago. ? 321 ? ANDREWS Do you love her? PETER (going for his hat as he replies) A normal human being couldn't live under the same roof with her, without going nuts. (going to the door) She's my idea of nothing! ANDREWS I asked you a question. Do you love her? PETER (snapping it out) Yes! (as Andrews smiles) But don't hold that against me. I'm a little screwy myself. He snaps the door open and goes out, following which ANDREWS is seen watching the door, his eyes twinkling, and the scene cuts to the DOWNSTAIRS HALLWAY as Peter comes through, moving on to the front door. But just as he reaches it, Ellie enters, accompanied by half a dozen men and holding a cocktail in her hand. They see each other almost simultaneously, and both stop, glaring. PETER (looking her over contemptuously) Perfect! Now you look natural. At this Ellie leaves her group and comes toward Peter, and a close view shows them together, glaring at each other. ELLIE (icily) I hope you got your money. PETER You bet I did. ELLIE Congratulations. PETER Same to you. ELLIE Why don't you stay and watch the fun? You'll enjoy it immensely. PETER I would. But I've got a weak stomach. He wheels around and goes through the door, Ellie looking after him, her eyes blazing. The drone of a plane motor outside is heard, and several people rush down the stairs, all excited. GUESTS Here comes King! He's just coming down! Hurry up, everybody! Come on, Ellie! ? 322 ? Immediately there is a general excitement, as guests hurry through the hallway on the way to the lawn. But Ellen does not moveóshe remains staring blankly at the door through which Peter went until Andrews enters from his study. ANDREWS I just had a long talk with him. ELLEN (her voice breaking) I'm not interested. ANDREWS Now, wait a minute, Ellieó ELLIE (sharply) I don't want to hear anything about him! She walks away from him, and Andrews, frustrated, looks at her helplessly. Thereupon the scene dissolves to a full view of the LAWN. The orchestra is playing Mendelssohn's Wedding March. The lawn is crowded with guests. In the background we see the autogyro idling. A closer view shows a small platform, serving as an altar. Over it there is an arbor of roses. Back of the altar stands a minister, ready. A reverse view reveals a long, narrow, carpeted pathway leading to the house. Both sides are lined with guests, who are murmuring excitedly. At the moment, King Westley and his best man are marching solemnly toward the altar. Back of the altar we see a high platform upon which are several newsreel men who are grinding their cameras. The guests, of whom close glimpses are caught, are now peering over each other's shoulders. King and his best man have reached the altar, and the music of the wedding march comes to a stop. The orchestra leader is looking around, apparently waiting for a signal. At the DOOR of the HOUSE a very "prissy" middle-aged man waves his handkerchief and nods his head to the orchestra leader. The orchestra leader acknowledges the signal by nodding his headóturns to his menówaves his baton, and the orchestra starts playing, "Here Comes the Bride."óThe guests whisper to each other excitedly. A great deal of stirring takes place. The door of the house slowly opensóand a parade of small flower girls emerges. They march, taking each step carefully, while they strew flowers along the path. They are well out of the way when Ellie, on the arm of her father, appears in the doorway. A view of the guests shows that they cannot contain themselves. Murmurs of "Here she comes," and "Doesn't she look beautiful?" are heard. The newsreel men on their platform behind the altar bestir themselves. This is what they've been waiting for! ELLIE and her FATHER (seen close) now make their way to the altar. Ellie's face is solemn, and her jaws set. ANDREWS (whispering out of the side of his mouth) You're a sucker to go through with this. Ellie glances at him out of the corner of her eyeóand quickly turns forward again. ? 323 ? ANDREWS That guy Warne is O.K. He didn't want the reward. Ellie keeps her eyes glued in front of her, remaining expressionless. ANDREWS All he asked for was thirty-nine dollars and sixty cents . . . that's what he spent on you. It was a matter of principle with himósays you took him for a ride. This registers on Ellie and she raises her eyesóbut her reaction is only slightly perceptible. A close view of a GROUP OF GUESTS shows two girls looking enviously in the direction of the bride. A YOUNG GIRL (whispering) I wish I were in her shoes. SECOND GIRL Yes. She certainly is lucky. ELLIE and her FATHER are seen again, and ANDREWS is still whispering to her. ANDREWS He loves you, Ellie. Told me so. This brings a definite reaction, which she quickly covers up. ANDREWS You don't want to be married to a mug like Westley. At this there is a close view of Westleyóthere is a satisfied smirk on his face. ANDREWS I can buy him off for a pot of gold, and you can make an old man happy, and you wouldn't do so bad for yourself. If you change your mind, your car's waiting at the back gate. Ellie gives no indication of her intentions. Her face remains immobile. And now Ellie and her father have reached the altar. The "prissy" man is placing them in position. The big moment has arrived. The guests are all atwitter. But a close view of ELLIE shows that she realizes that her fate is closing in on her. She looks around for a means of escape. MINISTER (starting the ceremony) Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God and in the face of this company to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony. If any man can show just cause why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him speak now or else hereafter forever hold his ? 324 ? peace. King, wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife? So long as ye both shall live? KING I will. MINISTER Ellen, wilt thou have this man to be thy wedded husband so long as ye both shall live? Then, seen at the ALTAR, Ellie makes her decision. She reaches down, takes a firm hold on her train and, pushing several people aside, runs out of the scene. Those at the altar look up, surprised, and the most startled of all is KING himself. KING (calling after her) Ellie! He starts to go after heróbut finds Andrews in his way while the outcries of the guests rise in chorus. GUESTS What's happened? Where's she going? On the platform, the newsreel men, a look of astonishment on their faces, decide to follow Ellie. A MAN Get her, Mac! She's ducking! And, as viewed by the newsreel men, Ellie is seen in the distance dashing through the gates. The guests stare dumbfounded. Following this, Andrews and King are seen together in the crowd. KING (helplessly) What happened? ANDREWS (blandly) I haven't the slightest idea. But his mouth twitches as he tries to keep from smiling. As King runs out of sight Andrews gets out a cigar and lights itóa happy smile on his face which he now doesn't try to conceal. Outside the FRONT GATE Ellie is seen in a fast roadster, as she starts away with a plunge. Her eyes sparkle. A crowd of people dash up, headed by King. They stop dead when they see the car disappear. On the LAWN the commotion runs high, and the guests chatter their amazement. A close view of ANDREWS shows him smiling with satisfaction. The scene dissolves to ANDREWS' OFFICE, where Andrews is regaling himself with a whiskey and soda. He is in a pleasantly inebriated mood when his SECRETARY enters. ? 325 ? ANDREWS (as he picks up the phone that has started ringing) Don't want to talk toódon't want to talk to anybody. Don't want to see anybody. SECRETARY But it's King Westley on the phone. ANDREWS Ooooooh. (into the phone) Hello my would-be ex-son-in-law. I've sent you a check for a hundred thousand. Yes. That's the smartest thing you ever did, Westley, not to contest that annulment. That's satisfactory, isn't it? Yeah. Well, it ought to be. Oh I'm not complaining. It was dirt cheap. (as he hangs up) Don't fall out of any windows. SECRETARY (placing a telegram on the desk) There's another wire from Peter, sir. They're in Glen Falls, Michigan. ANDREWS (reading it) "What's holding up the annulment, you slow poke? The Walls of Jericho are toppling." (to the Secretary) Send him a telegram right away. Just say: "Let 'em topple." This dissolves to the exterior of an AUTO CAMP very much like the other camps at which Peter and Ellie stayed. The owner's wife is talking to her husband. WIFE Funny couple, ain't they? MAN Yeah. WIFE If you ask me, I don't believe they're married. MAN They're married all right. I just seen the license. WIFE They made me get 'em a rope and a blanket, on a night like this. MAN Yeah? ? 326 ? WIFE What do you reckon that's for? MAN Blamed if I know. I just brung 'em a trumpet. WIFE (puzzled) A trumpet? MAN Yeah. You know, one of those toy things. They sent me to the store to get it. WIFE But what in the world do they want a trumpet for? MAN I dunno. The scene moves to the cabin occupied presumably by Peter and Ellie. The windows are lighted. There is a blast from a trumpet, and as the lights go out a blanket is seen dropping to the floor, and the scene fades out. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_It's Complicated.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_It's Complicated.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ddb71935d43df874019834025c775a5b9a0c0800 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_It's Complicated.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + IT'S COMPLICATED Written by Nancy Meyers FADE IN:1 EXT. BEACH HOUSE - MONTECITO, CALIFORNIA - DAY 1 A late afternoon sky, a red tile roof and the Santa Barbara coast line frame this party of old friends. A trio plays Brazilian music as guests carry drinks and nibble on dessert. 2 CLOSE - ON A FOURSOME OF FRIENDS 2 The Couple who live in this house, SALLY AND TED, drink champagne as they chat with their closest friends, JANE AND JAKE. JANE is mid-fifties and has embraced that fact. She knows 50 is not the new 40 and because of that, she is still described by all who know her as beautiful. Everything about this woman's appearance screams "solid." The years have been good to JAKE. He's never lost his looks, his killer smile, or his ability to charm. He lifts his glass of champagne. JAKE Happy happy happy... JANE (reminding him) -- Anniversary. Jake pauses, wryly turns to Jane, making her smile. JAKE Some things never change. SALLY Thank God. JANE I thought maybe you were drifting. TED He was pausing. JAKE Exactly.... (sighs, raising his glass) Happy... Anniversary. You two have led an extraordinarily blessed life. (MORE) 2. JAKE(cont'd) As long as I've known you both, you've always managed to somehow do everything entirely right. JANE -- That's so true. JAKE But, honestly, how can it be thirty years!?! When did we do that trip to Spain? (looks to Jane) It was for both of our what..? JANE -- Fifteenth anniversaries. JAKE God, that was a great trip...The Two Women exchange a quick look when a tall, ADORABLE 21 YEAR OLD BOY joins the group, holding a bottle of beer. Thisis OLIVER, Sally and Ted's son. All four light up as Oliverputs his arm around his Mom. JANE Ollie, how was graduation? OLIVER It was fantastic. I can't believe I'm not in school anymore. When's Luke's graduation? JAKE Next week. JANE (correcting him) It's in three days! JAKE Sorry! I mean this week. TED Are the girls going? JANE They can't wait. Jane glances across the party and sees AGNESS, A FREE SPIRITED PRETTY WOMAN in her thirties, wearing a sarong over a bathing suit and walking directly toward them. She carries a slice of cake. Jane becomes instantly distracted and uncomfortable. 3. OLIVER How long is Luke home before he has to go back for work? JANE -- Only a week... SALLY Aw, that's it? JANE I know, I hate it. Well... (Agness joins the group, standing next to Jake) Congrats again... (puts down her champagne) Great party... OLIVER You're leaving? JANE Yeah, I have some (Agness hands Jake a piece of cake. Jane works hard at not appearing flustered) -- stuff I have to get done tonight for work... (to Jake & Agness) I'll see you two in New York. AGNESS Absolutely. Lookin' forward to it. JANE Good. Well.... AGNESS -- Jane, what are you wearing to the graduation? JANE Oh, a suit or dress, probably a suit. AGNESS Fancy. Okay.Jane smiles tightly, raises her eyebrows to Sally. 4. JAKE See you there, Janey. Where are you staying again? JANE We're at The Park Regent. You said you were at The Four Seasons, right? JAKE I don't know. (to Agness) Where are we? AGNESS We're at The Park Regent too. JANE (hates this) Oh. Good. That'll be convenient, actually. Okay, so, see you soon.. (waves awkwardly) SALLY -- I'll walk you out.As they WALK AWAY, they HEAR: AGNESS So, Ted, do you think you can help us get Pedro into El Montecito for kindergarten?ANGLE - JANE AND SALLY - WALKING INTO HOUSE SALLY (laughs) I thought it was sweet how well you and Jake were getting along. Felt like old times. JANE Yeah, well, we know how to do this by now. It has been ten years. SALLY That's crazy.Jane hugs Sally good bye, her eyes landing on Agness affectionately rubbing Jake's back. 5. ANGLE - THE FRONT DOOR as it closes after Jane. ON JAKE - AS HE TURNS BACK and sees Jane is gone. CUT TO:3 TWENTY-THREE YEAR OLD GABBY 3 in jeans and a tank top CARRYING A CARTON OF BOOKS, A YOGA MAT AND A SMALL LAMP. Gabby is Jane and Jake's middle child. But unlike most middle children, this one has never suffered from being ignored. Not a possibility with Jane as your mother. We are: EXT. JANE'S HOUSE - LATE DAY The house is modest and charming and sits on a few acres in the lush green hills of Santa Barbara. Neat rows of vegetables dot the landscape. Gabby arrives at her already packed Prius, where her OLDER SISTER, LAUREN, 26, is trying to fit everything into the trunk. Lauren is more conservatively dressed than Gabby and has an air of maturity about her. LAUREN Gabby, stop...you're never going to fit all this in... you can come back for the rest tomorrow. GABBY I can't come back t--- Gabby looks up to see HARLEY, LAUREN'S FIANCE, in a T-shirt and over-the-knee gym shorts, lugging a huge suitcase down the front path, a duffel strapped across his chest. GABBY Oh, God...that's all my clothes. HARLEY (sets the suitcase down as he sees an SUV heading to the house) (MORE) 6. HARLEY(cont'd) Okay, your Mom is home. She'll figure this out.The SUV pulls to a stop, Jane gets out. Gabby starts pulling cartons out of her trunk to make room for her clothes. JANE Gabby, you're leaving now? I thought you were going in the morning? GABBY I know but my friends are all there and they wanted me to come tonight. JANE But honey, it's gonna get dark soon. You can't see out the back window. It's Saturday night. People will be on the road drinking... LAUREN Mom, she'll be there in a couple of hours, she'll be fine. GABBY Okay, I'm leaving this stuff here. I'll be back for it in a few days. JANE Want me to drive it down in the morning? (Gabby's BLACKBERRY BUZZES, she laughs, thumbs flying) I could be there by lunch. We could go to that big Bed, Bath, and Beyond, buy kitchen stuff... Gabby, can you look up from that thing?? GABBY (looking up) I got it covered, Ma. (to Harley) Hey gangsta, help me carry these... HARLEY (exhausted) Yep....Gabby and Harley CARRY THE BOXES back into the house. Jane seems worried as she watches them. 7. LAUREN Mom, are you afraid to sleep in the house alone? JANE What are you....? No! (Lauren looks doubtful) -- I'm not! One of you is always moving out... (Gabby re-joins) But I am wondering who I'm gonna watch The Hills with? GABBY (huge hug) Mamacita... I'm gonna miss you.Jane hugs her back, but is aware of not hugging too hard. Harley joins the group. GABBY Omigod. L.A.! Okay. I'm doing this. (walks to her car) Mom, you don't happen to know where Dad is, do you? I tried calling him to say goodbye... JANE He was at Sally and Ted's. HARLEY He was? How was that? You and them at the same -- (Jane turns to him) -- not that it's in any way, any of my... was just... JANE -- It was.... (notices both girls wait for her answer) -- whatever. It was fine. GABBY Was her lunatic child there? JANE (laughs) Not this time. Gabby, call me when you get there. Do NOT forget. (MORE) 8. JANE(cont'd) (Gabby texts, deep in convo ) Gabby! GABBY I will. I'll call you! LAUREN Knock `em dead, little one. HARLEY And call us when you get there, too. And no texting and driving. Jane loves that Harley said that. Gabby gets in her car and starts off. HARLEY (puts his arm around Jane's shoulder) They grow up so friggin' fast. I hate it. Gabby pulls out of the driveway and out of sight. LAUREN Maybe you should get a dog. JANE Oh my God. Goodbye you two. Love you. HARLEY (heading for their car and getting into the passenger seat) Love you boss! As Lauren and Harley drive off, Jane turns and looks at her suddenly very empty nest.4 INT. JANE'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 4 A Woman's house. Books and art collected over years. Interesting, unexpected pieces of furniture. Jane kicks off her heels, now feeling short and alone. Deep breath!5 INT. KITCHEN 5 Cramped, but clearly a cook's kitchen. The Kids have left a few glasses and plates on the island. 9. Jane gathers them and as she rinses them at the sink, she suddenly and surprisingly feels very alone. She pauses, allows herself the moment, then forces herself to snap out of it. 7 INT. THE BAKERY - MONTECITO - DAY 7 This is Jane's other home. A large, bright, bustling BAKERY/RESTAURANT. The bakery counter could rival any in Paris. Last year, The New York Times rated Jane's pain au chocolat the best in the United States. A line waits to get in. A very relaxed Jane is behind the busy counter, easily moving between her young staff. The atmosphere is efficient and friendly. Jane adjusts a few signs on the counter, then reaches inside the display case, pulling out a tray of muffins topped with powdered sugar. She carries the tray to the open pass- through to the BUSY KITCHEN and calls to the head Baker. JANE Reynaldo... (nods to the muffins) REYNALDO Too much sugar. JANE Little bit. Reynaldo nods as Jane hands him the tray. Jane notices a line waiting to get up to the bakery counter. Knowing what to do, Jane's staff has already set out cups of coffee with lids. JANE Who wants coffee while they're waiting? Jane and the staff hand out the free coffee. JANE WALKS THE COUNTER - MOMENTS LATER refills a glass of water, checking on her customers. JANE (quietly to a Young Employee) Check on table five, will you? 10. The Young Employee nods as Jane looks up and sees a MAN on the other side of the counter. They exchange polite hellos when Jane notices PETER, tan and confident, approaching her. JANE (all smiles) Peter! PETER joins ADAM, the man who stands across from Jane. Adam is handsome in a way that sneaks up on you. There's something reserved and refreshing about his demeanor. He holds rolled blueprints. PETER Jane, I can't remember, have you ever met Adam Schaeffer? JANE ADAM No. Yes. ADAM Well.... (shrugs awkwardly ) PETER Look what we've got. ADAM (raises the blueprints) Your plans. JANE (to Peter) So excited!8 INT. JANE'S SMALL OFFICE - UPSTAIRS AT THE BAKERY 8 A farmhouse table almost fills the room. On the walls, posters for Jane's two cookbooks, framed food photos and a few reviews. Jane, Peter, and Adam sit around the table as Adam rolls out the blueprints in front of Jane. JANE (before she looks) I've been thinking about this addition for ten years. Peter and Adam watch as Jane's eagle eye examines the plan. 11. JANE Uh-huh, uh-huh. Oh, niiice....I like this wall of windows, Peter. PETER That was Adam actually. JANE Oh. (still perusing, then to Peter) Love where you put the stairs. That's so good! PETER Adam's idea...Did she hear that? JANE Oh my God, the kitchen! Finally - I have a real kitchen with four walls... It's...oh, wow...you actually understood what I wanted!Jane looks to Peter with enormous appreciation. Peter looks to Adam. PETER All Adam. Jane turns to Adam. ADAM I'm happy you like it. JANE (finally noticing him) Okay. Hi. (shakes his hand) ADAM (laughs) Hello. JANE You read all my e-mails. ADAM All 47 of them. 12.Jane smiles as her Office Manager sticks her head in the door. OFFICE MANAGER Jane, it's 10:15. JANE It is? (rises) Oh, sorry, I have a 10:30... dentist. Can you leave these and I'll make a few notes? Well, actually, I have one tiny note now. (to Adam, re: plan) In my bathroom...um...no his and her sinks. ADAM Okay, sure. No his? JANE Just hers. ADAM And you don't think in the future you might want a his? JANE Oh, God, we're talking code about my life, right? ADAM (laughs) No, no, didn't mean to be. JANE The truth is, in my current bathroom, I have two sinks and sometimes the other sink makes me feel bad. ADAM One sink. Not a problem. Can we schedule a meeting for next week? Does Tuesday work for you? JANE Tuesday's great. Eight-thirty too early? At the house? ADAM I'll be there. 13.9 INT. DOCTOR'S OFFICE - FOLLOWING 9 Way too chic for a dentist's office. Jane sits nervously in a chair in a well styled, well upholstered examination room. The door opens quickly and a handsome, crisp looking DOCTOR ENTERS. JANE Hi. DOCTOR Hi. I'm Dr. Moss. JANE (shaking his hand) Hi. Jane Adler. So, I just wanted to start with... and please don't take this the wrong way but I'm the type of person who kind of makes fun of people who get plastic surgery. DR. MOSS I understand. JANE You do? Good, because, you know, some women can look a little fake and plasticky. And in my opinion -- worse. DR. MOSS I agree. JANE Oh, that's good, so, well, as against the whole thing as I am, I do have a problem that's been bugging me. My left eyelid is really saggy. I find I'm sometimes holding it up when I'm watching TV or reading and I was wondering if that's something you could fix. DR. MOSS (looking at her closely) It's resting on your eye lashes. JANE Is it? 14. DR. MOSS (measures her lids with a very tiny ruler) Actually you have the same amount of excess skin on both sides. JANE I do? Well, I'm only interested in fixing one eye. DR. MOSS Jane, what you need to fix this is a brow lift. JANE A brow lift? Wh-what is that exactly? DR. MOSS We surgically cut at your hair line. Incision goes right across here. (demonstrates on himself by indicating a line drawn like a headband) Then we just lift the skin up a little tighter across the skull. (Jane nods, already hating this) We staple it back in place right above your ears. Recovery isn't all that bad but you could be fairly numb and you'll probably have a headache that lasts anywhere from say 3 to 6 months.10 INT. ELEVATOR DOORS OPENING 10 Jane flies into the elevator, out of breath and a little nauseous. She taps on the Lobby button. The elevator moves down. PING. The DOORS OPEN and Jane looks into an empty hallway, facing a SIGN that reads, Santa Barbara Fertility Center. Helping Couples Become Parents. Jane hears someone is about to get on the elevator, steps back toward the corner. A messy looking 5 YEAR OLD BOY dashes in. Jane recognizes him. She looks up and Jake and his wife, Agness, in oversized dark shades and a long black dress (very Angelina Jolie) get on the elevator, obviously mid-argument. 15.Agness' mood seems very dark today. They instantly shut upwhen they realize Jane is in the elevator. AGNESS Jane! JANE -- Hey.. JAKE Hiii. JANE Hello. AGNESS (pushing the Lobby button, mumbles) -- Perfect. PEDRO Jake, Jake, Jake, Jake. Jake. JAKE Hold on Pedro, I'm talking to someone.Pedro sits on the floor, crashing into the back wall of theelevator. AGNESS Pedro, up! Now!! (she snaps)Jane unconsciously holds up her left eyebrow. JAKE What are you doing in this building? JANE Dentist. JAKE You don't go to Sharon anymore? JANE Uh, no... changed.Jane looks at the fertility literature in Jake's hand just asJake slips it behind his back. An awful two seconds ofsilence, then Jane notices a tattoo of a tiger on Agness'back. It creeps her out. 16. Jake catches Jane's reaction, then thank God the doors open. Jake leans down and picks up Pedro who instantly climbs up his back. JAKE Honey, don't do that..11 As they all EXIT THE ELEVATOR, Pedro has now made his way up 11 to Jake's shoulders. Think chimpanzee. Agness' cell RINGS and as she answers it -- JANE -- See you in the Big Apple. Pedro is now resting on Jake's head. JAKE (trying to be nonchalant with a kid on his head, smiles) See you there.12 INT. JANE'S KITCHEN/DINING AREA - THAT NIGHT 12 Jane and THREE OF HER GIRLFRIENDS are mid-meal. The wine is flowing and the women are laughing. TRISHA has happily never been married. JOANNE is widowed and DIANE is divorced. They are all Jane's age and have been friends forever. TRISHA That is beyond.... JANE (laughing) -- When the three of them got in the elevator... between that and the staples and the headache for six months... it was the most insane hour of my life. DIANE -- Jake has lost his mind. JANE Oh, I don't know... DIANE I know. First of all, he was a complete prick for cheating on you. JANE Well, can't disagree with that. 17. DIANEAnd then he marries her... a knownlunatic. JANEShe has a big job. TRISHAWhy do you always say that? JANEBecause she does. She runs thewhole marketing department at KY,whatever that station's called soshe's not that big of a lunatic. DIANEJaney, come on, he cheats on youwith her, your 20 year marriageends then six months later sheleaves Jake for some random guy,has a baby, leaves that guy,marries Jake and she's not nuts? JANE (groans)Jo, you're so lucky Jerry's dead. JOANNEOh, thanks. JANENo, I mean, you never have to bumpinto him. JOANNEThat's true. TRISHA (rises to get more wine)Janey, you want to meet a guy I meton Match.com that I didn't like? JANEGee, what a great offer. I don'tthink so. TRISHAHe wasn't that awful. JANEOooo. Sounding better every minute. 18.Trisha stops at Jane's seat, refilling Jane's wine glass. TRISHA You know it's not healthy not to have sex for...however long it's been... JANE Trust me... I'm not not doing it on purpose. DIANE Okay. I don't know if this is true, but I read on line about this woman who hadn't done it in so long her vagina closed up. JANE What!!! Get out of here.All the Women SCREAM. DIANE I swear to God. It grew back together. JOANNE Wait. Was it ever one piece? DIANE All I know is, she had to have a vaginaplasty. TRISHA Ouch!!!! JANE Oh my Goddddddd. Jane flops over on the table, laughing, resting her head. JANE (lifts her head, then talks as if she's in the doctor's office) "Dr. Moss, Hi. I have a little situation that needs fixing...." TRISHA Bubbee, you want to fix your situation? Just date someone. Seriously. Anyone. 19. As Jane takes that in, we: CUT TO: 16 EXT. THE PARK REGENT HOTEL - NYC - DAY 16 CAMERA BOOMS DOWN ON Park Avenue to find Jane, the Girls and Harley, just out of a Cab. The Bellman is taking their luggage as the Girls spot their brother, LUKE, heading toward them. Lauren and Gabby run to Luke, hug him, commenting on his hair, his shoes, his jeans, his tan. Jane lights up when she sees her son, hugs him incredibly hard, kisses his cheek, then another tight squeeze. JANE Love when we're all in the same time zone.A17 INT. THE PARK REGENT LOBBY - MOMENTS LATER A17 They all cross THROUGH THE LOBBY toward the RECEPTION DESK. HARLEY So, what's up Luke? Did you decide to have the party? LUKE Oh, yeah. Big time. JANE What party? LUKE Are you guys gonna sleep over? LAUREN If you give us your bed and change the sheets. They arrive at THE RECEPTION DESK. JANE You're having a party? When? (to Reception Clerk) Hi. Adler. Two rooms...hopefully next to each other. 20. RECEPTION CLERK I have an Adler, J. in a Superior Suite, Park Avenue view. Oh, I'm sorry, here it is. Adler J -- two Standard Doubles. Sorry about that. JANE Yeah, we're not the ones in the Superior Suite. Have the other Adlers checked in yet? Just wondering. RECEPTION CLERK No, they haven't, ma'am. Not yet. Now I just need a credit card and your signature.As Jane takes out her credit card... LUKE -- Mom, is it okay if the girls come with me now and help me set up? HARLEY And by girls he means the three of us. JANE Wait. Hold on. Set up what? I have reservations for all of us for dinner. That's not happening now? LUKE I don't know. Me and my friends are having this huge thing at our apartment and the girls said they'd help us set up.. (sees her disappointment) We're going to be together all day tomorrow. GABBY -- Mom, it's his last night before graduation. JANE Okay, okay. Do you want me to help or... 21. LUKE (super sweetly) -- Love your credit card....17 INT. HOTEL ELEVATOR - MOMENTS LATER 17 Jane rides the elevator carrying both girls' jackets and carry ons as well as her own. Just as the doors are about to close, a Good Looking Couple in their early forties gets on. As they go up. The Guy has his hand around the woman's waist, his fingers fanning her butt. The Couple looks at each other, smiling privately. Jane looks away.18 INT. JANE'S ROOM - 20 MINUTES LATER 18 Two double beds. Jane lies on top of one of the beds, fully dressed, shoes off, eyes wide open.20 INT. HOTEL BAR AND RESTAURANT - TOP FLOOR - NIGHT 20 Jane ENTERS the hotel's posh bar/restaurant. JANE (to Host) Hi. Adler. One. HOST Hi. Your table's almost ready Mrs. Adler. Would you like to wait at the bar? JANE (trying to read upside down reservation list) Sure. You don't happen to have another Adler coming in, do you? Adler for two? HOST (perusing) No... You're our only Adler this evening. JANE (relieved) Thanks. ANGLE - THE BAR Jane takes a seat next to Two Hot Younger Women. 22. JANE (to Bartender) Pinot Noir, please. No, you know what? I'll have a Tanqueray Martini very dry with a twist. Jane strums the bar top, checks out the room. It's fun being in a big city. Her martini arrives, she takes a sip and HEARS something very familiar. Jake's laugh. She looksacross the bar and sees Jake talking to the bartender. Heseems to be alone. Jane waves. Jake notices her and smiles. JANE Where's your....??Jake picks up his drink and carries it to the bar stool nextto Jane. JAKE Pedro got the stomach flu so I'm flying solo. JANE Really? Didn't know you knew how to be by yourself. JAKE Any chance you could just go easy on me? Just a one night free pass. (noticing her) You look good, Janey. JANE Yeah.... JAKE You do. You always do. Your hair's shorter. JANE Longer. JAKE I like it.The Host joins them. HOST Mrs. Adler, your table's ready. JAKE Want some company, Mrs. Adler? 23. Jane gives Jake a doubtful look. JAKE -- We both have to eat. (sees Jane is hesitating) When's the last time we ate a meal together? JANE (thinks for a sec) Just the two of us? Alone? 1999. JAKE So, come on. Once every ten years.21 A HALF HOUR LATER 21 New drinks arrive for Jane and Jake. Physically, they're sitting as close as they've been in a decade. JANE So...how are things in the fertility world? JAKE (checks watch) I can't believe it took you this long to bring that up. JANE (trying not to laugh) Sperm issues? JAKE Apparently. Yes. JANE A baby?! Really Jake? So...the next time you go to a graduation, you'll be what? Fifty-eight plus... (tries to do the math) JAKE -- I think the number you're looking for is 79. JANE Okay. So. Seriously, how is that good? JAKE Why are we talking about this? I thought we were going to have fun. 24. JANE Where'd you get that idea?22 A BOTTLE OF WINE IS OPENED 22 and poured. The bar has filled up and Jane and Jake are sitting a little closer together. JAKE -- Just tell me, how long were you seeing him for? JANE Oh, please, it was five years ago. JAKE I know but I always wondered so... JANE Little jealous? JAKE Yes. JANE The man's married now. JAKE I don't care. How long? JANE Eight months. JAKE (surprised) Long.... JANE Not long.A23 LATER A23 The bar is now crowded. Jane and Jake are finally eating but still drinking. Jake is telling Jane a long story and she can't stop laughing. 23 OMIT 23 24 BRANDY TIME 24 A DJ spins for the after dinner crowd. Couples dance on the dance floor. Jane and Jake both react to the song. 25. JAKE This song reminds me of your birthday party... the one in our old house... JANE -- Oh, yeah. That was such a fun night. JAKE So fun. You wore that white halter dress.... JANE (remembering) Oh, yeahhhh.... (remembering it all, looks at Jake with a longing for her own past...) JAKE Want to dance? JANE -- No...! 25 THE DANCE FLOOR - MOMENTS LATER 25 Jake and Jane are dancing...it's familiar yet with the blush of the new. Something's going on here. Jake starts singing. Jane joins in. This is by far, the loosest we've seen her. Of course, it helps that she's drunk. They dance around one another without inhibition. A mating dance.... JANE (astonished, laughing) You're married to someone else...! JAKE Tell me about it! They both laugh then Jake pulls Jane close. JANE (sexy....) Hey.... I know you. 26. JAKE (looking deeply into her) And I know you.... CUT TO: 26 INT. JAKE'S SUITE - LATER 26 They're in bed and they've done it. They're not even entirely undressed. They're spent, sweaty, breathing heavily. Jake cups his hand on Jane's vagina, gives it a solid pat and hold. JAKE Home sweet home. JANE Oh......God......... Jane covers her face. JAKE That was one crazy ride...thought we were going to break the bed. JANE (not looking good) -- I'm having an out of body experience. JAKE Totally. You're so great, Janey. I forgot how great. Holy shit. JANE Please shut up. I'm so dizzy. JAKE And the pilates are payin' off by the way. Jane moans, OPENS THE NIGHT TABLE DRAWER, leans over and throws up into it. JAKE Oh no! Jane woozily sits up on her side of the bed, her back to Jake. Jake looks over at her. JAKE You okay? 27. JANE (starting to rise) Look the other way. JAKE Why? JANE `Cause I have to get up. JAKE Jane...I know what you... JANE Look the other way Jake!!! As Jake turns away, Jane runs to the bathroom, carrying a pillow covering her bare ass. Jake hears her throw up again. He winces.27 INT. BATHROOM 27 Jane sits on the floor, by the toilet, looking wiped out. Jake gingerly steps into the bathroom, hair a mess, wearing boxer shorts and his unbuttoned shirt. JANE (looking up at him) WHAT is wrong with us? JAKE What do you mean? This was amazing. We just had a great time. JANE A great time? This is the dumbest thing two people have ever done. (giant moan.... ) Jake sits on the edge of the tub. This is news to him. JAKE Really? I don't know.... I haven't thought it out, but off the top of my head I'd say it was smokin' hot so something about it wasn't so dumb. (she stares up at him, sick as a dog) And, FYI, I like that you stopped getting bikini waxes. You've gone native. I was into it. 28. Horrified, Jane lets out a yelp on her way to throwing up again.28 EXT. WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK - NYU GRADUATION DAY 28 The NYU Band plays Pomp and Circumstance as the Graduating Class of `09 ENTERS THE FIELD in caps and gowns. All the families in the bleachers are on their feet, applauding.29 ANGLE - THE ADLERS 29 Jane, in sunglasses, is sobbing, taking photos. Next to her are Gabby, Harley and Lauren, hooting, clapping and screaming, "There he is!!!" And next in line is Jake manning the video camera, wiping away tears. ON THE FIELD, Luke spots his gang in the bleachers and gives a broad bow. The Adlers go crazy, especially Jane, who does a finger whistle. Jake looks over at Jane with puppy dog eyes. The girls notice, assuming their Dad is emotional over the ceremony. Jane feels Jake's glare but won't dare look over at him. Gabby nudges her Mom to look over at Dad. Jane turns his way, sees that look in his eyes and starts to bawl.30 INT. RESTAURANT - DAY - NYC 30 The Family celebrates over lunch. Luke is telling a funny story about something that happened on stage at graduation. Jane is the only one not fully chiming in and laughing. She can't seem to move beyond what happened last night. LAUREN (sotto) You okay? JANE Yeah. Totally. UNDER THE TABLE Jake slips off his shoe and rubs his foot up Jane's leg and under her skirt. BACK TO SCENE Jane jumps, quickly turning it into a reaction to Luke's story. She gives Jake a private stare that says, "stop or I'll kill you." 29. JAKE I would like to propose a toast to your Mother. JANE (what???) To me? JAKE I've done my part with you guys, but Jane... you -- very talented you... GABBY Oh, God... JAKE Gabby, I'm serious. Jane, you did a magnificent job, as you always do...The Kids look at one another...what's this about? JAKE When I look at the three of you beautiful kids...all grown up, I think of all the work your mother did, much of it without my help... (starts to well up) LUKE Dude...pull it together. JAKE -- Janey, I take my hat off to you. JANE Okay, Jake. Thank you. Out of nowhere, sudden appreciation. But thank you. Really. JAKE Not totally out of nowhere, Jane...if you know what I mean. JANE (quickly) Which I don't...but... LAUREN What's he...? 30. JANE -- Have no idea. Let's move on, shall we? Jane holds up her droopy left eye. GABBY I'd like to say something too. For real. No offense to the lovely Agness or her charming offspring... (the Kids stifle laughs) JAKE -- Not nice. Harley stops laughing. GABBY I know. I'm sorry. But I just want to say I really loved today, just being with the original five... (Luke nods in agreement) -- plus Harley, but he's like one of us. I don't think we've ever done this before... Had a meal together. And hung out like this... LAUREN You mean other than the first 13 years of your life. LUKE I know what's she saying. It's been awesome....just for a whole day to be just... us. They all reflect on that one.31 INT. THE PARK REGENT LOBBY - LATER 31 The Adlers are at the Reception Desk. Jane and Jake are next to each other, signing their credit card receipts, the Kids chat behind them. JAKE (to Jane) Something feels right in the universe again, doesn't it? Jane looks at him but doesn't answer. She turns to the Kids. 31. JANE So who's coming home when? No one's told me the details.Jake's CELL RINGS. Jane half listens to his conversation. JAKE (into cell) Hey. (turns away) How's Pedro feeling?Distracted, Jane focuses on Lauren. LAUREN (responding to "Pedro") Okay, we're gonna help pack Luke up, the three of us leave day after tomorrow and Luke's home the end of the week. JAKE (rejoins, finishing his call) -- I will. Call you when I land. (slips cell away, not missing a beat) Janey, what flight are you on? JANE I'm on the uh, the four o'clock. JAKE Ah, too bad. I'm on the five o'clock. LUKE That's nuts, why don't you try to get on the same flight? JAKE Yeah, I could try. JANE It's been...great, but let's not ... push it. LAUREN He was just trying to be nice. JANE I know. Okay, I've got to hit the road, guys. (MORE) 32. JANE(cont'd) (kisses each kid as they line up) Thanks for staying. So proud of you. Be good. Call me if you need me. (she arrives at Jake, pauses, speechless) JAKE (kisses her cheek) It was really fun. JANE (painfully) It was. CUT TO:32 OMIT 3233 OMIT 3334 A TREE LINED MONTECITO LANE - MOVING SHOT - DAY 34 We are looking THROUGH A WINDSHIELD and listening to a SELF HELP BOOK ON TAPE. MALE NARRATOR (V.O.) -- Just follow a few basic rules to make your divorce a less hurtful one by breaking the cycle of conflict. ON ADAM - DRIVING MALE NARRATOR (V.O.) Accept your ex, for who she is. ADAM A very big ho. NARRATOR (V.O.) And try to remember when you fell in love and... ADAM (spotting something) -- There she goes... 33.ADAM'S POV - JANEjogging right past his car, listening to her iPod. ADAM Jane!She doesn't hear him. Adam backs up next to her. Jane slowsdown. Adam lowers the passenger window. She looks in,doesn't recognize him at first. ADAM It's Adam... JANE It's 8:30 Tuesday morning! ADAM Are we still okay? JANE Yes! Totally forgot! I'm so sorry! Can you give me a lift back to the house? ADAM (quickly cleaning up the front seat) Sure...come on in.Jane GETS INTO THE CAR just in time to hear: MALE NARRATOR (V.O.) -- But perhaps the most important lesson in going through your divorce is to learn to forgive. Forgiveness is the key to--Adam hits the CD KNOB to turn the CD OFF, but instead heaccidentally FAST FORWARDS. MALE NARRATOR (V.O.) In spite of your hurt feelings, prove to her that you can be a mature--Adam HITS THE KNOB again and this time, turns it OFF, a bitmortified. JANE Just getting a divorce? 34. ADAM Yeah. (then) Two and a half years ago. JANE Wooo. ADAM (embarrassed) It's been a process. JANE Here's the good news. In two more years you'll actually begin to feel normal again. ADAM In two more years I'll begin to feel normal? Why am I having trouble seeing that as good news? JANE Maybe that was just my experience. ADAM Oh God, I hope so. 35 EXT. HOUSE - LATER 35 Blue prints are spread on a garden table. Adam is drawing as Jane watches. ADAM -- So if we move this wall back a bit, that can bring the arch forward, which is where you really want it, right? JANE Yes, I'd love that. ADAM (sketching) Thought so. JANE I have an idea... what if we move my bedroom like six or eight feet so I can get more of the morning light? (MORE) 35. JANE(cont'd) (sees Adam hesitate) Not possible? ADAM -- Yes, but you'll wake up in the morning, open your bedroom door and fall 12 feet into your kitchen. JANE Ahhh! Forgot it was all open up there! ADAM But I get where you're headed. Let me see what I can do... This property is so great... Have you lived here a long time? JANE About ten years. I bought this place right after my divorce but it's taken me until now to be able to finally do this.... Jane and Adam are distracted when a Porsche noisily pulls up and Jake gets out wearing a suit and a chipper attitude. JAKE Good morning! (to Jane) Am I interrupting...? JANE (thrown that he's here) Hi. No, well, we were just about done. Adam, this is my ex-husband, Jake. Jake, this is Adam Schaeffer, my architect. JAKE Hi. ADAM (they shake hands) Good to meet you. JAKE (re: plans) Can I take a look? Do you mind?Adam looks to Jane for approval but too late, Jake's alreadylooking. 36. JANE Everything's not 100% worked out yet... JAKE Wow. You're finally getting the kitchen you always wanted... JANE Yeah... JAKE Huge bedroom. JANE It's not huge. (suddenly insecure) Why don't I show these to you when we get a little closer. Jane starts to roll up the blueprints, fumbles a little. Adam finishes for her. She thanks him with her eyes. ADAM So, I think next we should stake out the addition... see how it all feels - size wise... JANE Sounds great. ADAM I'll e-mail you and we'll set it up. We did good work today. Jake, nice meeting you. Jake smiles and waves as Adam exits, walking to his car. JAKE (turns to Jane) Got time for a cup of coffee? Adam can't help but sneak a look back at them. Jane waves, a bit embarrassed.36 INT. JANE'S KITCHEN - MOMENTS LATER 36 Jane moves nervously around the kitchen, opening the fridge, taking out juice... 37. JAKE Why haven't you returned any of my calls or e-mails? JANE Jake, come on. This is just too weird. We have to just never do what we did - ever again. You're an adulterer and I'm an awful person, basically. I haven't slept in days. What we did was just so wrong on so many levels. JAKE And it was so right on a couple of levels too. Admit it. JANE (finally settles) No! It wasn't! On no levels was it right! JAKE You can't say we didn't enjoy each other's company. Sitting at the bar, dancing...after dancing... (she doesn't want to be reminded) Come on, you and I haven't had fun like that in a hundred years. JANE Yes! Because we're not supposed to have fun like that! We're divorced! Are you like, what? Unhappy at home? Does she not "understand" you? Did you just want to know what it would be like with someone my age? What is this? JAKE I'd be lying if I said I never think about you, Janey. I think about you. A lot. And no, it's not perfect at home. Obviously. Look at me. I've got three grown kids and I'm going to kindergarten interviews. I'm a walking cliche.Jane shrugs. She agrees. 38. JAKEAnd I can't, literally can't stopthinking about what happened in NewYork. Fate brought us togetheronce, maybe it happened again. (she pauses...)And I know... you've moved on with your life, I get it, but you can'tdeny something real and honesthappened that night. Can't we justgo with it, see where it takes us.No one has to know. (Jane shudders)You were so great. So loose andsexy. How often do you get to belike that? You can run and openrestaurants and build your perfectkitchen but what about havingsomeone to hold you in the middleof the night...? JANENot high on my list these days. JAKEBut what if that someone is someonewho's known you since you're 23 andloved you for most of your life. JANEI forgot what a good lawyer youare. JAKEGive this a shot, Janey.... Life is short and it's tough. Don'tdiscount what we have with eachother. (he's getting to her)You know what they say... people innursing homes who have plants livelonger than the people withoutplants. JANEOh, so you're saying you think this is a healthy choice for me? JAKEHoney, I know it is. 39.37 EXT. JANE'S GARDEN - SPRINKLERS GOING OFF 37 And the plants get watered.38 INT. JANE'S BEDROOM - A LITTLE LATER 38 Jane and Jake have done it again. In broad daylight and sober. They catch their breath. JANE Oh, God, it's official. We're having an affair. JAKE Why do you need to label everything? JANE Because that's what this is. JAKE Yes, in its crassest form, maybe, if we were two other people. JANE Just because we were married for 19 years does not not make this an affair. JAKE Okay, but since we were together for so long, it's not really that wrong. JANE Really? You want to run that logic by your wife? Jane fans herself. JANE Do me a favor, you're on my side. Can we switch? I feel disoriented. JAKE Since when is this your side? JANE Since ten years ago. Please... 40.They switch sides. In the middle of this maneuver Jake landson top of Jane. He pauses. JAKE Could I interest you in a little... JANE No! They flop onto the opposite sides of the bed. Jane fansherself. So hot. JAKE (turns to her) Why do you think the sex is so much sexier this time? JANE I don't know.Jane pulls the sheet up. They look at one another. He gets her to smile. JANE I've gotta get to work. JAKE Me too. Okay... (moans as he sits up, then rises)Jake starts to get dressed. Jane watches him from bed,checking out his stomach. He notices. JAKE (indicating his belly) See what happens when you're not looking out for me. (pats it) She lets me eat everything.. pasta, cream cheese... JANE Can you hand me my robe?Jake reaches for Jane's robe, hands it to her. She indicatesJake should turn around. JAKE Why do I have to..? 41. JANE -- Because the last time you saw me standing up naked I was in my forties. (Jake can't believe this) Things look different lying down. Just...Jake rolls his eyes, turning away from her. JAKE You've gotten a little nuts. JANE (slipping into her robe) Jake, I think it would be really good for us to not talk for a few days. Okay? JAKE (turning back to her) You know what I think -- just for the record? I think we're doing something kinda brilliant. All the things that tore us apart aren't issues anymore. I'd say our problems actually went away. JANE What..? JAKE Didn't you always say you felt you weren't being heard? Wasn't that our big issue -- both of us always feeling rejected and unappreciated. Look at us now. You're so much more together, you're not exhausted all the time, you're not catering every weekend and busy all day with the kids and I'm calmer, less obsessed about work. I'm a partner. I'm there. We grew into the people we wanted each other to be! And I don't know... I appreciate things about you I couldn't even see before. JANE (not wanting to get into it) Really? (MORE) 42. JANE(cont'd) Well, you know, I'm not as good as you at remembering all the details of our... JAKE (getting dressed) -- Do you remember never having time for sex? Now look at us. We've already done it two times this week and it's only Tuesday. I swear to God, if half the couples who got divorced, could get back together 10 years later, their problems would be solved. I think we're on to something. JANE Not sure I agree and...also, we're not back together. JAKE And I know other divorced people think about this...they wonder - what if.... (fixes his tie) I think this is very French of us. JANE How is this French of us? JAKE I have a young wife but I'm having sex with my old wife. Not old, you know. Ex! (Jane nods....) I didn't mean old...39 Jane tosses Jake his jacket. They EXIT the BEDROOM and head 39 toward THE FRONT DOOR. JAKE You're doing that thing where you act like you're not listening... but think about what I'm saying, okay? (then) Do you have any of your homemade granola here? I haven't had it in so long. JANE You miss it? 43. JAKE So much. JANE We sell it for $6.50 a bag at the store. JAKE Yeah, why give it away when you can... (Jane OPENS the front door and moves him outside) Kiss good bye? Jane kisses him on the cheek. JAKE She wants to be courted! (as he heads for his car) I can do that! (turns back) And honey, thanks for the.... (indicates sex with his fingers) -- Coffee.... Jane can't close the door fast enough.40 INT. JANE'S HOUSE - NIGHT 40 Jane carries three beautiful homemade pies, arriving in THE LIVING ROOM where her Friends are gathered. Platters of food and open bottles of wine are on the coffee table. TRISHA Oh my God, now what? Three pies?! This is a feast! JANE I don't know what's going on, I have so much energy lately which I think is probably a result of... all the sex I'm having. (the Ladies LAUGH) Yeah. I'm actually not kidding. I'm having an affair. (They stare at her) With a married man. 44. DIANE What? When did this happen? Where'd you meet him? JANE Well, it... started in New York. DIANE In New York??? Last week? JANE Yeah, we did it once there and once here. Maybe more than once there, I was drunk so... TRISHA You had drunken sex with a married man in New York when you went for Luke's graduation? JANE (laughs, embarrassed) Turns out I'm a bit of a slut. (re: pies) Apple, Blueberry or Plum? DIANE Wait, wait, wait. Hold on.... You're not saying!!!! JOANNE (clueless) -- What? TRISHA (catching on) No! You're not! JANE Oh, God, but I am. I'm having an affair with Agness Adler's husband.The Women all SCREAM as Jane fans herself. TRISHA That. Is. Genius! JOANNE But also sort of wrong. JANE I know. 45. DIANEOh, please. Not that wrong. JANEI know! I'm so happy to be able totell someone. This is the most out of control thing I've ever done. Literally. You know me. DIANEYes we do. You don't do anythingwrong, or bad. Ever. So you're allowed this one. I'm sorry ... Ikinda love it. JOANNEHe was yours first. JANETrue. Not that I want him back bythe way. TRISHAOf course not. You can do betterthan Jake. JANE (a little insulted)Thanks. TRISHAI mean you've outgrown him. You'veblossomed, you feng shuied yourwhole life... Just please, don'tlet him talk you into saving him. JANEI won't... (wonders what that means) DIANEThere is something kinda perfectabout this. You don't have to cookfor him or clean up after him oractually even sleep with him.... JANEYeah, I have an Ex with benefits... 46. JANE (CONT'D) But, girls, what about the fact that I'm now the other woman? I'm the one we hate. TRISHA Oh, forget that. Agness is still the one we hate. Even in this scenario. DIANE Yeah, karma is the ultimate bitch on this one.41 INT. BAKERY KITCHEN - DAY 41 Jane walks through the busy kitchen holding a sheet of paper. Her shirt is a little more fitted. Her make up, a little prettier. She crosses to the head Baker who's just taking a tray of cookies out of the oven. JANE Reynaldo, I'm changing the breakfast menu, want to give it a little more life... (shows it to him, he seems distracted) What do you think? REYNALDO (distracted) -- What'd you do? Something to your hair? JANE I don't think so. REYNALDO Something about you looks different. Little more "caliente." JANE Caliente? Another Chef in the kitchen nods in agreement. REYNALDO You see it Eddie? EDDIE Whatever it is, it's workin'. 47. He winks at Jane as he stirs cookie batter. Jane blushes as her cell phone rings. JANE Hello. (listens) No! I didn't do this again!42 EXT. JANE'S OPEN FIELD - LATE DAY 42 CAMERA MOVES IN on Adam, waiting by a ladder in the middle of the field. Jane's addition is staked out with orange tape. REVERSE - ON JANE Rushing toward Adam. JANE Adam, I'm so sorry. My mind is just... Forgive me. ADAM If I were your shrink I'd say maybe you don't really want to build this house. JANE That's completely not true. I'm really sorry. (looks at taped off addition) Oh! I like it already! ADAM Yeah, it's feeling really good. So, this becomes your office. We come down your new hallway, the windows are all along here... JANE Great. Love it. ADAM And from here to there...wait, let me get the door for you... (opens a piece of tape) Your kitchen. (they ENTER) We're in the eating area. How's the size? (pretends to sit) We're at either end of the table. 48. JANE (laughs at Adam) Feels perfect. ADAM I thought so too. JANE (taking it all in) This is heaven! ADAM It's gonna be cool. Want to go upstairs? 43 JANE AND ADAM ATOP SIDE BY SIDE LADDERS 43 ADAM So if you were lying in bed, this would be your view. Jane breaks into a smile. THEIR POV - IN THE DISTANCE -- THE OCEAN Over this tranquil view -- A CELL RINGS. Jane takes her phone out of her pocket, sees it's Jake calling. She pauses, then pushes "IGNORE" and then promptly loses her balance. Adam immediately reaches over and steadies her. ADAM You okay? JANE (grabs her heart) Yeah. CUT TO: WATER RUNNING OUT OF A FAUCET44 INT. BATHROOM - JAKE'S HOUSE - SAME TIME 44 Water is running in the sink, even though no one's at the sink. Jake is in the shower stall, fully dressed, putting away his cell. He quietly pushes the shower door open and then carefully shuts it with a small snap. Jake fake coughs and then turns off the sink water. He checks his watch when he hears GLASS BREAKING in another room then hears Agness calling his name in anger. He leaps. 49. JAKE Coming!Jake quietly UNLOCKS THE BATHROOM DOOR and EXITS to find hispath is blocked by Pedro who sits on a tricycle staring up athim. PEDRO What were you doing in there? JAKE Going to the bathroom. PEDRO The toilet didn't flush. JAKE Yes it did. PEDRO Why were you in the shower with your clothes on? JAKE (making sure Agness doesn't hear) What are you talking about? PEDRO I heard the shower door close. JAKE What do you have, x-ray ears?Agness joins in briefs and a white tank, black bra peekingthrough. She holds a broom. AGNESS What's up Pedro? PEDRO Jake took a shower with his clothes on. JAKE Pedro! Darling... AGNESS What's he talking about? JAKE I don't speak Pedro. That's your department. 50. AGNESS (to Pedro) Don't go in the kitchen, P, I broke something. (to Jake, annoyed) Yo. Can you help? Agness EXITS back to the kitchen as Pedro stares at Jake. CUT TO:45 TWO GORGEOUS CROQUE-MONSIEURS - COMING OUT OF AN OVEN 45 These open-faced fancy French Grilled Cheese Sandwiches are carried to Jane's counter. We're: INT. JANE'S KITCHEN - EARLY EVENING Jane very professionally places the Croque-Monsieurs onto two waiting plates, adds some salad on the side. Adam stands nearby with a glass of wine, jacket off. ADAM That looks amazing. JANE It's called a croque-monsieur. It's one of the first things I learned to make when I lived in Paris because the ingredients are really really cheap. ADAM When did you live in Paris? JANE In my early twenties. I went there to take a six day pastry class and ended up staying a year working as an apprentice in a bakery. Jane places the plates AT THE ISLAND as she and Adam SIT SIDE BY SIDE. Jane raises her wine glass. JANE Thank you for taking my 47 e-mails and turning them into something so beautiful. 51. ADAM You are rapidly becoming one of the most appreciative clients I've ever had... JANE Well, I'm not all that used to being able to count on anyone... ADAM (surprised by that) Really? 46 JAKE DRIVING - SAME TIME 46 He squints, looking ahead, SEES: JANE'S HOUSE - ALL LIT UP And Adam's car parked out front. Jake turns OFF HIS HEADLIGHTS, slowly pulling around to the side of the house.47 INT. JANE'S KITCHEN - MOMENTS LATER 47 JANE I know it's none of my business but... I'm trying to figure out why someone like you is divorced. ADAM And what'd you come up with? JANE Something in the you're too nice department..? ADAM Yes, that and my wife fell in love with my best friend. Ex-best friend. JANE Oh, no! ADAM We were all on a biking trip, he and his wife, me and my wife...through Tuscany and on the last day of the trip they announced they were in love. 52. JANE That's awful. ADAM Yeah. Not a great plane ride home. JANE I can imagine, sitting there for eleven hours with your wife who you know is -- oh, that's rough. ADAM Actually they went on to Venice and I flew back with Carol, his wife. You can't imagine what it's like to sit next to someone who's been crying for ten straight hours. JANE I don't blame her. ADAM I was talking about me. Anyway, they're married now and it's pretty much an ongoing awful thing. But, you and your ex... When I saw him stop by for a cup of coffee the other morning, I thought -- Wow! That's the way it's supposed to be. You two seem to have it all figured out. JANE We're not as figured out as you'd think.48 EXT. HOUSE - SAME TIME 48 Jake, in work-out clothes, sprints across the front lawn, careful not to be seen. 49 BACK TO SCENE 49 Jane clears their dishes. JANE (laughs) You know I hope you don't feel I've been interrogating you, but... (MORE) 53. JANE(cont'd) I know what it's like to have your ex remarried and to not have so much going on in that department. I mean, do you date ever or... ADAM Uh, constantly actually. JANE Constantly? ADAM Everyone I know or have ever known has fixed me up. And then, sometimes I just meet women, I don't know how that happens, but... JANE -- But no girlfriend? ADAM Not yet.Jane stands ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ISLAND and hands Adamanother croque-monsieur. She stays on her side, like awaitress at a counter. She refills his water glass. JANE Just like to date... ADAM Actually, I find it really stressful. You know, the last time I was in the dating world was 1978. It's a little more complicated these days. I can't tell you how nice it is to have a conversation with a woman and have the pressure off. Not to mention, a home cooked meal that no one else I know could possibly cook.Jane's not sure if she feels a little hurt by that. Shesmiles, wiping the counter. ADAM That was a compliment. So you don't have a guy in your life at the moment? JANE No.... (starts to say something.) No. 54. ADAM No? EXT. JANE'S HOUSE - SAME TIME Jake rises from the bushes outside of Jane's Kitchen Window. He PEEKS in the window, balancing himself precariously on a stack of loose bricks. He sees Jane telling Adam a story and both of them cracking up. Jake leans in further to try to hear what Jane's saying when the bricks slip under his feet, he loses his balance and drops OUT OF THE FRAME. 51 INT. JANE'S HOUSE - A BIT LATER 51 Jane walks Adam to the door. He holds rolled blueprints. ADAM This was so nice and relaxing and the lavender ice cream was actually the best dessert of any sort I've ever had... like, in my life. JANE Aw, thank you. I always make ice cream when I can't sleep, so I'm glad someone was here to eat it. (opens door) ADAM (pauses...) Great getting to know you a little. JANE (nods) It was really fun. Adam waves, Jane waves. Definitely a little sweet/awkward. Jane closes her door, starts turning out lights, heading for the kitchen, when there's a QUICK KNOCK on the FRONT DOOR. JANE Woops! Coming! Jane quickly returns to the door and opens it to find: JAKE leaning in the door frame. 55. JAKE O.M.G. I thought he'd never leave. (entering) Hello Jane, you look very beautiful tonight.He takes her in his arms. JAKE Mmmmm. Love when you smell like butter. JANE (easing away) What are you doing here? JAKE Missed you. JANE It's nine o'clock. Where does your wife think you are? JAKE At yoga. Shall we do some downward facing dog? JANE Not tonight big guy.They CROSS INTO THE KITCHEN. CAMERA TRACKS. JAKE Is it really necessary for you to always say no before you say yes? I won't think less of you, you know. JANE Really, Jake, I'm a little tired, I was just gonna take a bath. JAKE Good. So, we'll just hang out. (now IN THE KITCHEN, he SEES the dinner dishes on the counter) Ooooo, is that Croque-Monsieur? Who's plate is this? Yours or his? JANE Mine. 56. JAKE (eats her leftovers, savors the taste) Oh my God, just as I remember it. JANE Don't you ever eat at your house? JAKE Pedro dictates all meals and he has a very limited palate. (sees melted ice cream) What kind of ice cream is that? JANE Lavender Honey. JAKE (immediately) Not sleeping? JANE Not at all. You? JAKE Never slept better. And my digestion is finally back on track. You've turned my world right side up, Jane. You know what this means, don't you? JANE No... JAKE That I've never really known how to live without you.52 INT. JANE'S BATHROOM 52 Jane takes a bubble bath. Jake lies on the floor, leaning against the tub, his back to her, eating a bowl of ice cream. JAKE Maybe we should be growing old together. JANE Hate to tell you, big guy, but we already grew old apart. 57. JAKE What's with the `big guy'? Is that because you think I'm fat or is it a term of endearment? JANE I have no idea why I keep saying that. I'm sorry. I'll stop. JAKE Thank you. (then) I love how quiet it is in your house. I have no quiet in my life. Ever. JANE Yeah, well, you live with a five year old. JAKE Yes...and don't forget Pedro.Jane splashes him. JANE So what does that mean exactly...? What's going on over there at your place? JAKE My marriage is... not turning out as I hoped. That's obvious.... Agness started out really looking up to me... We never used to fight but now... with the kid....lately we're all about where he's gonna go to school and now she says we need a bigger house, more help. I was thinking of cutting back at work... now that's never gonna happen. And she wants another baby before Pedro gets too old which I get but since we're always fighting... oh, God, listen to me. JANE Isn't a baby part of the deal when you marry a woman that age? 58. JAKE Is it? I guess so. She's got me booked at the fertility center every other day and she's so amped up on hormone injections I may need to find an exorcist if she doesn't calm down. (Jane laughs) I wish it was funny. (finishes his ice cream) Incredible ice cream. I'm turning around... (as he turns, Jane shrinks in the tub) Remember when we used to smoke pot and eat your ice cream in the hot tub? JANE The "hot tub"... That feels like a billion years ago. JAKE How long has it been since you... (indicates smoking a joint) JANE Me? Since before Lauren was born. JAKE 27 years?!! JANE At least.Jake slips a joint out of his shirt pocket, twirls it. JANE Are you kidding me? Put that away! It's been too long... JAKE Exactly. JANE I'm not going to.... JAKE Okay, why don't I leave this with you... (It's kind of amazing.) Maybe you'll take a few hits... (MORE) 59. JAKE(cont'd) get your sea legs, then we'll smoke the rest of it together. JANE Maybe.... Jake places the joint in a drawer. JAKE So that nerdy architect likes you...you know that, right? JANE He's not nerdy and he definitely doesn't. We're working together. JAKE I was watching when you bent down to open the oven, his eyes were glued to your ass. JANE (changing the subject) Hey, will you do me a favor?53 INT. FOYER 53 Jake is on a small ladder, changing a light bulb in the chandelier. Jane, in a robe, stands beneath him. JAKE (looking down at her, smiles) Tell the truth, Janey is this a great affair, or what? JANE I don't know. It's my first. JAKE (climbing down) We don't even have to have sex and it's fun. (arrives next to her) I wish I could sleep over. JANE I gotta tell my shrink about this. This is a lot to handle. I guess you should go ... I'm sure yoga's probably closed by now. (MORE) 60. JANE(cont'd) Oh, you got a little ice cream on your shirt. Let me get that out. JAKE It's okay...Jake takes Jane in his arms and gives her a deep hug. Helingers, kissing her neck, smelling her skin. She kisses himon the cheek. He slides her robe off her shoulder. Hesoftly caresses her shoulder, kissing it, then makes his wayup her neck. Jane gives in and kisses Jake fully on thelips. He pulls her close, her robe falling. JANE Wow, wow, wow...what's happening, Jake?The Phone RINGS. Jane pauses. JAKE Don't get it. JANE I always get it. I have three kids. (Jake wishes she wouldn't. She hesitates, picks it up) Hello. Hiii... (makes an I told you so face) You still on the plane? How was Luke when you left? Oh, that sounds like fun. Let me know what I can bring..... No! Don't have any idea where he is. (points to Jake) Okay, honey, talk to you tomorrow. (hangs up) Now I'm lying...... Lauren and Harley are giving Luke a graduation party this weekend. Sweet, huh?Jake's CELL PHONE RINGS, sees it's Lauren calling. JAKE (into phone) Hello stranger. Welcome back.Jane OPENS THE DOOR and Jake darts over for a quick kiss andthen EXITS toward his car. They wave to one another. 61. JAKE (into phone) -- Just getting in my car. This weekend? Sounds great. Let me know what I can bring... Jake looks to Jane. She shakes her head -- he's shameless. Jake shrugs. Jane watches as Jake drives off, talking on his cell.54 EXT. SANTA BARBARA STREET - EARLY MORNING 54 Jane paces outside of a medical building, holding a box from her bakery. She's clearly waiting for someone. She spots a comfortably dressed MAN IN HIS MID FORTIES holding the leash of an Airedale and approaching the building's entrance. JANE (approaching him) Dr. Allen! DR. ALLEN (surprised to see her) Jane. Hi. Am I seeing you today? JANE No, I just need to talk...and I was wondering if there was any chance you could squeeze me in for an emergency session. I'm sort of desperate for some advice. I brought you some of that coffee cake you like. Not as a bribe or anything... DR. ALLEN (checks his watch) I only have twenty minutes until my first patient. JANE That's fine. I'll talk fast. 55 INT. BUILDING CORRIDOR - UPSTAIRS - MOMENTS LATER 55 Jane, Dr. Allen and the Dog walk the corridor. 62. JANE (whispering) So, at this point, I just need some sound, unbiased guidance. Is having an affair with you know who a good thing or a bad thing? (they stop at Dr. Allen's office door) It's a bad thing, right? How could it be good? DR. ALLEN (opening his door) It's not good. It's not bad. Oh, man. Not what she needs to hear. 56 INT. OFFICE 56 Jane sits in a chair across from an empty chair. Dr. Allen turns on a few lamps as his dog settles. DR. ALLEN You know, things happen in life and our job is to find out why. What we have to do is take a real look at this. Are you ready to do that? JANE I am. Definitely. I've made a list of what this can possibly be about...at my end. Can I read it to you? DR. ALLEN (taking his seat) Of course. JANE (digging out her Blackberry) Thanks. I e-mailed it to myself. (reads from Blackberry) Okay. Am I still trying to figure out why the marriage failed? Do I want to get back together? Do we have unfinished business? Is this about revenge? Am I just... lonely? Or, is it my "caretaker" thing? (MORE) 63. JANE(cont'd) You know, the kids are finally gone and now all of a sudden Jake's back and I get to take care of him in some way...Dr. Allen nods, impressed with the work she's done. JANE And, listen, I get how therapy works, I do... We look at things, we examine them, weeks turn into months, what....? we're going on eight years, right?.... and I'm okay with that, I like it... but in this case, I need to know what you really think. Like, I'd like you to say... Don't do this, it's absolutely wrong or go ahead, you'll be fine. I actually want to be told what to do. DR. ALLEN What's interesting is I'm already seeing you open up more than I have in some time. I'm thinking, through this affair, you may learn to view the world in a different way. JANE I'm sorry. I need more concrete. Are you saying I should keep seeing him? Because, honestly, if the guilt and fear could go away, maybe I could let go a little and figure this out. DR. ALLEN I wouldn't resist looking at this. JANE (mulls that over quickly) Okay... and another way of saying that is....? DR. ALLEN Let go Jane. It can't hurt. Jane fist pumps in the air. 64.57 INT. SANTA BARBARA FERTILITY CENTER RECEPTION - DAY 57 Jake is in the Waiting Room with several other "Older" Men all with their much younger Wives. A Nurse ENTERS, holding a chart. NURSE Jacob Adler? Jake rises. One of the younger women whispers... WOMAN Have fun... 58 INT. FERTILITY CENTER OFFICES 58 The Nurse shows Jake into a windowless room with a sink, a pleather barcalounger, a TV and a DVD player. NURSE Okay, you know the drill. You can hang your things in the closest, the remote is on top of the TV and the materials are in the drawers. (cleaning the remote with an anti-bacterial wipe) Please deposit your specimen in the cup and I'll see you when you're done. She dims the light before leaving. Jake takes off his jacket, tosses it on the chair, slips off his shoes, takes off his pants, sits for a sec when his PHONE RINGS. He looks at the name of the caller. Smiles. JAKE Hi.59 JANE WALKS QUICKLY THROUGH A FARMER'S MARKET ON HER CELL. 59 JANE (on her cell) Hey, where are you? JAKE At the office. JANE Want to grab some lunch? 65. JAKE Absolutely. When? JANE Can you do it now? I have about an hour. Thought we could go to The Stanhope....get room service. (she's nervous just saying it) JAKE (rising) Be there in ten! JANE See you there, Adler. JAKE (hangs up) She's comin' back! Jake rushes to put on his pants, catches his foot in the pant's hem, hops to safety. He reaches for his jacket then grabs an anti-bacterial wipe, using it to turn the door knob.60 INT. THE STANHOPE LOBBY/CAFE - DAY 60 Harley and Lauren are having lunch in the CAFE connected to the Lobby. Harley has a clear view of the Lobby's Reception Desk. Lauren has her back to it. LAUREN -- Luke's so excited about his party. We can fit forty people in our place, can't we? HARLEY Sure, if nobody wants to sit down... (notices JAKE ENTERING the hotel) -- Hey, there's your... Harley then realizes JAKE IS signing the Register and CHECKING IN and chokes on his French Fry. LAUREN My what... (starts to turn) Harley grabs Lauren's face in his hands and kisses her, even though he's choking. He coughs while kissing her. 66. LAUREN Harley!!! HARLEY I'm sorry, I didn't mean to spit on you. I just needed to kiss you. LAUREN While you were choking? HARLEY It worked. I'm not choking anymore.Harley swallows a cough, reaching for his water, HIS EYES ONJAKE as Jake is HANDED A ROOM KEY and POINTED TOWARD THEELEVATOR. Harley drinks his entire glass of water as hewatches. LAUREN (turning) Who did you just see?Luckily Jake is now gone. HARLEY No one. Thought it was your cousin...but...Harley falls silent as he SEES JANE ENTER THE HOTEL AND CROSSTO THE RECEPTION DESK. After a sec, she's pointed toward thesame elevator. HARLEY Ohhhh my sweet Lord.... LAUREN (looks up from her salad) Now what? HARLEY Honey, I totally forgot I have a conference call at 1:15, I gotta get back to the office. Waiter! Honey, stop eating, get the waiter. Call the one over there. (pointing her away from Jane) LAUREN Harley, we can't leave, we're meeting with the Wedding Specialist. 67. HARLEY (watches as Jake waits for Jane around the corner) Yeah, you know what? Today's not a good idea to do that. (Sees Jane join Jake, they step into the elevator and immediately fall into each other's arms and kiss) Oh my God...!!! 61 INT. JAKE AND JANE'S HOTEL ROOM - UPSTAIRS - SAME TIME 61 The curtains are drawn, the lights are low. Jane, in a hotel robe, slips a cd in the cd player and we hear a mellow song, perfect for love in the afternoon. The Bathroom Door OPENS and Jake EXITS, also in a hotel robe. Jane stands across the room from him. They smile at one another. From behind, we see Jane untie her robe, letting it fall to the floor. Jake looks at her, from head to toe and back. They smile at one another, then something comes over Jake. His eyes roll back, his legs give out and he collapses against the wall. JANE Jake!!! 62 INT. LOBBY CAFE - SAME TIME 62 The Hotel's Wedding Specialist has joined Lauren and Harley's table. She holds a binder filled with photos. Harley is a mess, knowing what's going on upstairs. WEDDING SPECIALIST I adore October weddings. Let me show you what we did last October. She opens her Book of Photos for Lauren. Lauren gasps. HARLEY (rising) Honey, I'm gonna make that phone call from the... Lauren and the Wedding Specialist don't look up and don't hear him. They keep talking to each other. 68. HARLEY (nods) -- Okay. Good. You just keep doing that and I'll... They still don't look up. Harley nervously HEADS FOR THE LOBBY when he spots the HOTEL DOCTOR, bag in hand, arriving at the Reception Desk. HOTEL DOC What's the room number? RECEPTION CLERK 408. Adler. His wife said he's conscious now... HOTEL DOC (taking off) On my way. Harley stops in his tracks, freaking. Adler???63 INT. JANE AND JAKE'S HOTEL ROOM - MOMENTS LATER 63 Jake is under the covers, in his robe, a blood pressure cuff around his arm. Jane, still in her robe, paces. The Hotel Doc sits on a chair next to Jake's side of the bed. HOTEL DOC Your blood pressure's good. JANE How's his heart? HOTEL DOC Do you have a heart condition, Mr. Adler? JAKE No. And I just had a check up. JANE You did? Oh, that's good. HOTEL DOC (listening to his heart) Deep breath. So, no chest pain? JAKE None. 69. HOTEL DOC When you got dizzy, did you feel your heart was beating funny? JAKE Yes, but I was admiring my beautiful... (indicates Jane)Jane holds up her weak eyelid. HOTEL DOC -- Well that's nice to hear after all these years... (winds up his stethoscope) Did you forget to take any of your medications today? JAKE Took `em all. HOTEL DOC What all did you take? JAKE Uh....Lipitor, baby aspirin.. (whispers) Flomax. JANE (sitting on the bed) Flomax? JAKE (embarrassed) Yes, otherwise I pee 40 times a day. HOTEL DOC How long have you been taking the Flomax? JAKE Not that long. And I only take it sporadically. I have to sneak it actually. (explains confidentially) It reduces semen and that's not good for my wife right now. (to Jane) Sorry. 70. HOTEL DOC (looks over at Jane) Really..? JANE Yes, I prefer a lot of semen. Always have. (rises) Okay, well, thank you so much for coming. Looks like he's gonna live, so... HOTEL DOC (packing up) Yeah, my guess is Flomax is probably the culprit here. It can definitely give you a sudden drop in blood pressure so I suggest you stay off it for a few weeks, which apparently your wife will appreciate. (holds in a chuckle) JANE Yeah. Really good for me. The Doctor snaps his bag shut, rises. HOTEL DOC And I suggest you rest quietly for the rest of the afternoon. (to Jane) No hanky panky, Mrs. Adler. JANE No chance. I assure you.64 INT. LOBBY 64 Harley sits on a bench with his head between his legs. Lauren arrives, joins him on the bench. LAUREN Are you acting like this because of the wedding? Tell me the truth? HARLEY (head down) Not at all. Swear to God. 71. LAUREN Because I don't want to be one of those couples where the guy goes into a coma the whole time we plan the wedding. It's not worth it to me. Harley looks up, sees the Hotel Doc walk by the Reception Clerk. The Doc gives her a wink and a "thumbs up" and keeps on walking. HARLEY (deep sigh, rises) Okay! We're back in business!65 OPRAH - CLOSE - ON TV 65 In Jane and Jake's room. REVERSE - JANE AND JAKE Sitting up in bed, in their robes, watching Oprah and eating chicken soup on trays. Jake reaches for the salt. Jane eases it away from him. Jake looks over at Jane, oozing with love and appreciation. JAKE See. Just that move...you have no idea. Not everyone's like that... JANE (mutes Oprah, then:) Jake, I have a confession to make. Back when we broke up... I knew it wasn't all your fault. JAKE You mean that? You've never said that to me before. JANE I know. Because when you cheated, I didn't have to. But I think in some way, I gave up on us and I'm not sure you ever really did. JAKE I still haven't. Jake takes Jane's hand. She looks down at his wedding ring, then turns her eyes back to Oprah. A beat, then: 72. JANE Are you and Agness... still having sex? Jake doesn't answer. Jane turns, looks right at him. JAKE Only if she initiates it. Jane GROANS. JAKE I'm trying not to rock the boat at home until you and I figure this out. (sees her reaction) This is a little trickier at my end than yours. JANE Right. Yeah. Okay.... (rises...) Now I know you're gonna think I'm leaving because of what you just said, but I'm not. I really have to get back to work. JAKE (takes Jane's hand) We got really close there for a moment. She knows he's right. Jane's Cell RINGS. She lets it ring again, then answers it. JANE (into phone) Hello?66 ADAM - AT HIS OFFICE 66 ADAM (into phone) Hi, hope I'm not interrupting anything. INTERCUT JANE AND ADAM JANE Adam! Oh! Hi. 73. Jake is instantly jealous. He rises, crosses to the closet, starts dressing, his eyes glued to Jane who seems to be very engaged by Adam. ADAM I just found out there's a French Film Festival in town and that made me think of you so I was wondering if you'd like to go to the opening night tomorrow night. (a little nervous... will she accept?) JANE Oh, that sounds so fun... (Jake rolls his eyes) Let me think, tomorrow's what? JAKE (desperate, whispers) -- Say you're busy. Agness has a dinner thing tomorrow, I can come over. (Jane hesitates) Please. JANE Oh, um, you know, I'd really love to, but, my son is coming home from college the next day and I have a bunch of things I have to do to get ready... (hates lying, Jake crosses to her, smiles) I'm so sorry. ADAM No, don't worry. No problem. Maybe we can see something another night. JANE Absolutely. I would love that. Jake smiles appreciatively, crosses to Jane, hugs her. 67 ADAM HANGS UP 67 We see he is holding Two Movie Tickets. He looks at them then crosses to the desk of a Female Worker. 74. ADAM Melanie, how would you and your husband like two tickets to the opening of the French Film Festival? Reserved seats...VIP parking... FEMALE WORKER Seriously?68 INT. HOTEL ROOM - MOMENTS LATER 68 Jane and Jake are finishing getting dressed, moving about, putting on shoes, blouses, ties, jackets, belts... JAKE You'll make the whole thing? The roast chicken, the--- JANE -- mashed potatoes, sauteed string beans and double fudge chocolate cake. I know your favorite dinner, Jakey. JAKE (touched) You haven't called me Jakey in 10 years. This has been a great day for us. So, do we have a date? JANE (fixes Jake's hair) We have a date. Jake grabs his heart. Jane leans on him, a smile on her face as we begin to HEAR MUSIC. 69 EXT. JANE'S PATIO - LATE DAY - MUSIC OVER 69 Music plays from the outdoor speakers. Jane sets the table in her courtyard. She's singing along with the music. 70 A PERFECT CAKE - MUSIC OVER 70 sits on the Kitchen Counter. Jane finishes off icing the cake like the pro she is then peeks into the oven, looks at her perfect roast chicken. 71 OMIT 71 75.72 INT. JANE'S BEDROOM - MUSIC OVER 72 Jane clips the price tag off of a new dress and slips it off its hanger.73 A CLOCK ON A NIGHT STAND 73 tells us it's 8:45. ON JAKE His eyes glued to the clock. We are IN JAKE AND AGNESS' BEDROOM. Jake and Agness lie on their bed, both doing paper work. Pedro is asleep between them. Jake gets up, slipping his cell into his hand. AGNESS (not looking at him) Why are you taking your cell to the bathroom? JAKE Oh. Didn't mean to. (places it back on the night stand) AGNESS Carry him to his bed, will you? Jake carefully lifts Pedro off the bed. AGNESS (while reading) And hurry back. I'm ovulating. JAKE You are? AGNESS Why do you think I cancelled my dinner? Agness pulls her t-shirt over her head... she is gorgeous.74 INT. PEDRO'S ROOM - CONTINUOUS 74 Jake gently lies Pedro in his bed, pulls up the covers. Pedro takes Jake's hand, holds it to his chest, looking up at him. Jake offers a comforting smile and Pedro closes his eyes. 76. Jake sits on the bed and lets Pedro fall back asleep, holding onto his hand. 75 EXT. JANE'S PATIO - NIGHT 75 Candles are lit on the table, but are now low. The table is set with flowers from the garden. The wine has not been opened. CAMERA CRANES to FIND Jane INSIDE THE KITCHEN, still dressed for dinner and deep in thought. She then sighs very deeply and decisively as she turns out the lights and room by room, the house becomes dark.76 EXT. JANE'S HOUSE - THE NEXT DAY - 6 P.M. 76 The Kids cars are in the driveway.77 INT. JANE'S KITCHEN - THE SAME TIME 77 Jane, Gabby, Lauren and Harley are in the kitchen, cooking, setting the table, opening wine, chatting. LAUREN -- Oh, Mom, I keep forgetting to tell you about our meeting at The Stanhope. We went there for lunch two days ago and met with their Wedding Specialist....I think that could be the place, Mom.... JANE Two days ago you went to The Stanhope...for lunch? HARLEY Yes and guess what? We saw nothing. Jane and Harley connect. He immediately looks away. LAUREN What is that supposed to mean? HARLEY Who wants wine? Anyone? (starts pouring) GABBY (looking in the fridge) Mom, you have an insane amount of food in here, even for you. 77. JANE (taking out last night's roast chicken) I knew you were all going to be here for the weekend so I made a bunch of stuff last night. LAUREN Looks like Jake Adler's favorite meal to me. JANE (laughs) Very funny. HARLEY Very. Jane looks to Harley again when they all hear a car horn HONK. Jane LOOKS OUT THE WINDOW and sees JAKE'S PORSCHE PULL UP with Luke in the passenger seat. The Girls rush out the Kitchen door. Harley sees Jake getting out of the car and pours himself a larger glass of wine as Jane approaches him. JANE Harley? Just then, Luke enters and Jane lights up. JANE Yay!!!! (hugs Luke) LUKE (surveying all the food) Mom, this looks amazing.Harley and Luke hug, talk the talk. `Sup? Yo... JAKE (sheepishly joins the group, eyes on Jane) Hi. JANE (briskly) Hey.Harley takes a huge gulp of his wine. JAKE (holding Luke's backpack) Where should I put this...? 78. JANE (turns her back on him, making herself busy) Wherever.Harley watches their interaction tennis match style. Jakelooks at the table set for five, wishes he was joining them.He sees last night's dinner, now being served as left overs.Jane slices the roast chicken. JAKE That looks incredible. Jane looks up at him, knife poised. Is he kidding? JANE Thanks.She goes at the chicken with the knife, slicing off a leg.Jake flinches. HARLEY Jake? Glass of wine? JAKE Uh, sure. Thanks. HARLEY Jane? JANE (not looking up) No thank you.Jake's cell RINGS. He turns his back to take it. JAKE (into cell) Hi Ag... Just got here.Jane has a hot flash. Starts fanning herself. JAKE (into cell) Okay, I will. Yeah, no, I know. (turns back to the family) I'm sorry guys, I gotta hit it. JANE Bye-bye.The Girls look to Jane. 79. JAKEI have to stop at the market.Agness is making some pasta thingand she ran out of olive oil. GABBY Hey, at least she's finallycooking. JAKESo...see everybody at the partytomorrow... LAURENYeah. It's gonna be so fun. JANE (to Lauren)I told you I'm bringing someone,right? LAURENNo. Who? JANEAdam. My architect. JAKEYou're bringing your architect? JANEYes I am. JAKELike as a date? JANE (looking right at him)Yeah. GABBY I like the idea. JANEMe too. HARLEYYeah, seems like it should roundout everything really nicely. (pouring another drink)Nobody wants wine but me? 80. Luke opens a cupboard, takes out a bottle of olive oil, hands it to Jake. LUKE Here, now you can stay another five minutes. (catches Jane's eye) You have three bottles in there. JAKE Janey, can I talk to you privately? Just for a sec. Jane heads out still holding the carving knife. Harley slips the knife out of her hand. HARLEY There you go.... (to Kids) Somebody's talkin' graduation gift.78 INT. COURTYARD 78 Jane and Jake stand in the courtyard off of the Living Room. JANE What is it, Jake? What? JAKE I don't get not calling me back. JANE `Cause I don't care what your excuse is. (shuts the door to the living ) JAKE She didn't go out, Jane. She cancelled her plans and every time I tried to call or write, she caught me. I wanted to be here. JANE You know what, Jake? You were worried about rocking the boat at home? Well now you're rocking my boat and I don't like it. JAKE (stopping her) Honey, don't let one night... 81. JANEYou don't understand. I'm not evenblaming you. I fully participatedin this. But I don't want to do itanymore. The last thing in theworld I should be right now is yourmistress, sitting around at nine atnight wearing heels and perfume andblowing out candles and wrappingeverything in Saran Wrap becauseyour wife cancelled her plans. Itwas cliche and humiliating. JAKE (wistfully)You lit candles? JANEOh, shut up. Look, I've had apretty good life these past 10years. I figured it out and Imoved on. I no longer feel aloneor divorced. I just feel normal.You know how long that took, justto get my balance back? JAKENo. JANEThe point is, I'm going in thewrong direction here. But theworst part is... It's feeling likeit used to feel. All the littleuntruths that are hard to catch butadd up... JAKE-- Janey, c'mon, it was onemistake... HARLEY (joining them)-- Everything okay out here? (Jane and Jake turn)The kids are gettin' hungry... JANEYeah. We're done. (walks away, pauses in front of Harley)We were just... 82. HARLEY (as she passes) -- None of my beeswax, Jane. (once she's gone) And please never tell me. Lauren joins. LAUREN What's up? JAKE Nothin', punky. (rubs her arm) LAUREN (taking Jake back inside) Yeah? So, we're going to see you tomorrow night, for sure, right? Harley starts to follow them out when Jane grabs his shirt sleeve. JANE Okay...What did you see and what do you know? HARLEY Nothing. Really. Jane gives him a look that could get blood from a stone. HARLEY (confesses rapidly) Okay, he checked in, you arrived, you met in the elevator, possible kiss there, Doctor went up, Doctor came down, thumbs up. That's it. Have no idea what happened in between. JANE (dying...) Have you told Lauren? HARLEY No and I won't -- LUKE (joining them) Mom. Dad's leaving... 83. INT. HOUSE Jane and Harley ENTER from the courtyard just as Jake is about to leave. Jane immediately crosses to the table which now has dinner on it. Lauren kisses Jake good-bye on the cheek then joins the others who are about to sit down for dinner. LUKE (from the Dining Room) Thanks for picking me up, Dad... Jake pauses awkwardly at the door. He can't catch Jane's eye. He waves to the kids, who don't seem to notice then heads out. EXT. HOUSE Jake EXITS, turns back, looks INSIDE THE DINING ROOM, sees his family sitting around the table, talking, laughing. He heads toward his car as... JANE glances out the window at Jake as he drives off. One of the kids says something, distracting her, and she laughs...A80 EXT. LAUREN AND HARLEY'S COTTAGE - THE NEXT NIGHT A80 Harley and Luke, on ladders, are stringing paper lanterns across a small patio. Lauren crosses under them, carrying a tray of food and joins Gabby who is setting out drinks. OMIT 81 IN THE BATHROOM 81 Jane sits at her dressing table, dressed for the party. She puts on hoop earrings -- likes the way she looks. She opens a drawer to take out a lipstick. INSERT - THE DRAWER Sitting among her cosmetics is the joint Jake left for her. She looks at the joint, then looks at herself in the mirror. 84.82 ADAM - WALKING UP THE PATH TO THE HOUSE - 15 MINUTES LATER 82 He looks adorable and carries a gift the size of a book. He knocks in a playful rhythm. JANE ANSWERS THE DOOR all smiles. JANE Hey.... REVERSE - ON ADAM Very happy to see her. ADAM Hey. You look fantastic. JANE I'm feelin' a little fantastic. She OPENS THE DOOR A LITTLE WIDER and we NOW SEE she's eating a gi-normous piece of cake. ADAM (trying not to react to that, ENTERS, handing her the gift.) This is for you. JANE Really? Thank you! Come on in. (takes a huge bite of cake) Can you hold this for a sec? (hands him the cake plate) Oh my God... (takes another bite) -- this could be the best cake I ever made. You want a piece? It's like... beyond... ADAM I think I'm good. JANE (focusing on the gift) I can't believe you brought me a gift?! So nice! 85. Jane unwraps the gift, turns it around, looks at it. JANE An appointment book? ADAM I sort of assumed you didn't have one. JANE --Because I never remember our... Awww.... ADAM I took the liberty of filling in our next two meetings. And marked them with post-its and wrote them in red and then highlighted them in neon yellow. JANE Thank you! Jane kisses Adam on the cheek just as he was moving and the kiss lands on his lips. JANE Sorry. ADAM I'm not. (Did he really say that? Then, he licks his lips) Wow, that cake is good. Jane laughs a little too hard.83 INT. ADAM'S CAR - MOVING - NIGHT 83 JANE So, let me ask you something and please don't think I'm weird or out of line or anything... but do you by any chance poke smot? ADAM Do I...?? JANE I mean do you smoke pot?! I haven't asked anyone that question since I was twenty-two. 86. ADAM Uh. No, I don't. But I have. But I don't think I've had any since my kids were born...so not in like 27 years. JANE Oh my God, we have kids the same age! And I haven't had any since my kids were born either!!! Except for tonight. I had one hit off of this.Jane pulls the joint out of her purse, just as they pull upnext to a Police Car. ADAM You might not want to hold that quite so... (nods) Hello Officer. JANE (turns, SEES the Cop Car, GASPS and DROPS THE JOINT, then TURNS to Cop, waves, then:) I actually know him! Blueberry scone and a latte. (the Cop nods, pulls away) Oh my God! That was horrifying. I instantly saw myself in a mug shot. My heart is leaping out of my... (then distracted) Wow... This is the most insane dashboard I've ever seen. It's like we're in a cockpit. It's spectacular. Adam, what kind of car is this? ADAM Jane? JANE (turns to him) Hi. ADAM Did you get this high from one hit? 87. JANE Yes! I don't know what they've done to pot over the last 30 years but it rockkkkks! 84 EXT. LAUREN AND HARLEY'S COTTAGE - NIGHT 84 From OUTSIDE, we can see lots of folks in the Living Room. Candles dot the path up to the cottage door. Several Couples and College Kids are walking toward the house.85 ANGLE - BEHIND NEARBY BUSHES 85 Jane and Adam are sharing the joint. Jane takes a tiny, lady- like hit, passes it to Adam. JANE (whispers) Don't take too much, it's really strong. She blows out the smoke. Adam, on the other hand, takes a huge hit. ADAM (while holding in the smoke) I haven't had fun in almost three years, Jane. (takes another huge hit) Bring. It. On. SOME COLLEGE KIDS walk past the bushes. KID Who's got the reefer? ADAM (O.S.) (fake falsetto) No one. Keep walking please. The Kids laugh.86 INT. LAUREN AND HARLEY'S COTTAGE - MOMENTS LATER 86 Jane and Adam, two very straight laced grown ups, ENTER the party, pausing as they peruse the crowd. 88. JANE How you feeling? ADAM Totally fine. JANE Me too. Adam starts to move to the music insanely well and then just insanely. Lauren and Harley greet them. Jane greets them back with a huge hug. JANE Hi... love your dress. Hey Harls. HARLEY (that's weird...) Harls...? JANE Adam, this is my oldest, Lauren and her fiance, Harley. (giggles to Kids) We're on a date. Adam and Jane stifle laughs.87 AT THE BAR - WIDE - MOMENTS LATER 87 Jane and Adam chat with all the Kids. Looks like it's going great -- Adam is a big hit. ON JAKE - WATCHING FROM ACROSS THE ROOM Jake nurses a drink and is not looking happy. He sees the Kids disperse, finishes off his vodka, ready to make his move. ON JANE AND ADAM Now alone. They haven't seen Jake yet. ADAM (starts moving to the music - Jane laughs) By the way -- How great is this party? Let's be the last to leave. (bops to the MUSIC then SPOTS JAKE ACROSS THE ROOM, seriously eyeing him.) (MORE) 89. ADAM(cont'd) Hey, there's your ex-husb-- Uh-Oh. He's headed right toward us. Not the time to be "feeling groovy" (dances again when he sees Jake in SLOW-MO getting closer and closer) Oooo. Why so intense, big fella?Adam slides a bit behind Jane as Jake arrives with Agness wholooks inappropriately youthful. JAKE Hello Jane.... Adam. ADAM (all smiles) Hey, good to see you again. JANE Adam, this is Agness, Jake's wife... (suddenly realizing) Now that is an odd sentence for me to say since that was me for most of my life. Seriously. How weird is that? Both of us married to the same man! AGNESS (dismissing the idea) You know... it's... hey, what are you gonna do? JAKE Yeah, why go there.At this point, Adam gets hit with a severe case of the giggles. As the rest continue, he can't keep a straight face. JANE Because there, is...fascinating. I mean, when you think about it, it sort of links us in some cosmic crazy way, doesn't it, Agness? Of all the men on the planet, we both said "I do" to this guy. AGNESS Yeah. Twenty-five years apart. I know you're having like an "Ah-Ha' moment, but I think I'm gonna get a refill. Adam, good meeting you. 90. ADAM (whispers to Jane as Agness exits) She's got a really scary tattoo. JAKE Janey, can I talk to you for a quick sec? Jake nods his head toward the bathroom and heads for it. Jane looks to Adam. JANE He always needs me for a quick sec. (starts to exit) You okay? ADAM Oh, I'm very okay! 88 INT. TINY BATHROOM - SECONDS LATER 88 Jane and Jake are crammed into an extremely tight space. JAKE What's going on? You're acting insane. JANE (whispers giddily) I'm stoned. JAKE What?! You smoked the joint I gave you? JANE You told me to! It's a-mazing!!! JAKE But you weren't supposed to smoke it with him, you're supposed to smoke it with me! JANE Somebody's jealous.... JAKE Yes, of course. Why shouldn't I be... you're my... 91. JANE -- What? What am I, Jake? JAKE You're my ex-wife, lover, oldest friend and girlfriend.Jane blurts out a laugh. JANE Okay. You're hilarious. And because of that, even though I kind of hate you/love you, I'm going to let you have some... JAKE You love me? I mean, I heard "hate" had top billing, but...Jane takes the joint out of her purse, lights it up and handsit to Jake. Just as she does that, THE DOOR OPENS and HARLEYENTERS, thinking the bathroom is free. Jake quickly yankshim in, shuts the door, locks it. Harley is now caughtbetween Jane and Jake and a cloud of smoke. HARLEY Oh my God, you're smoking weed in the guest bathroom. JAKE Yes we are and we'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about this. HARLEY No. Never. Adding it to the list. JANE Care for a toke? HARLEY I don't really smoke marijuana. JANE (blowing out smoke) Me either. HARLEY Okay, one hit. JANE (looks at herself in the mirror) (MORE) 92. JANE(cont'd) Oh, my God. Is that what I look like?89 EXT. BACKYARD PATIO - MOMENTS LATER 89 A small group is dancing to a hip hop song on the patio. Adam and Agness are dancing together. They're totally into it. Jane makes her way to the dance floor as the song ends and The Beach Boys "Wouldn't It Be Nice" begins. Jake follows Jane dancing his way toward the crowd, spinning Gabby on his way. Jake takes Jane's hand...dances with her. Harley arrives next to Lauren and Gabby who watch their parents. LAUREN They must be hammered. HARLEY Or something like that. Adam glances over and sees Jane and Jake. ADAM (to Agness) Sweetest divorced couple in the world..! Agness is surprised by how happy Jake looks with Jane. JANE (spotting Adam) Hey..! (to Jake) Jake, I'm gonna.... Jane and Adam cross toward one another. Jake dies a little as Jane leaves him, her eyes on Adam. Jake doesn't notice Agness is watching him.. Jane, now dancing with Adam, looks from Adam to Jake then back to Adam and then doesn't look back at Jake again. Jake is still as he watches the woman he loves slip away. Agness has her eyes firmly on Jake, not missing any of it.90 INT. ADAM'S CAR - MOVING - NIGHT 90 Adam drives Jane home. Clearly the end of a great night. JANE Wow. Fun is not overrated, is it? 93. ADAM You know what's great? JANE What? ADAM How much I like you. JANE (really touched) Thank you... I really like you a lot too.... even though...oh.. you didn't say, "a lot". ADAM But I was thinking it. JANE So... I'm not too old for you? ADAM How can you be too old for me when I'm older than you. JANE I just figured all these women you get fixed up with are thirty-five. ADAM Your age is one of my favorite things about you. (she appreciates that) Do you think you have any more of that chocolate cake at your house? JANE Hungry? ADAM Starved!91 A BLACK SCREEN - LIGHTS POP ON 91 And we are IN THE BAKERY at ONE A.M. Jane turns on a few more lights, but keeps it a bit moody. ADAM Officially now the best date of my life. Pre or post divorce. 94. JANE Get out... All right....so basically I can make you anything on the menu or even not on the menu. Just name it. ADAM No? Really? Okay. (scans the blackboard menu) What about a... warm chocolate croissant? JANE My speciality!92 OMIT 92 INT. BAKERY KITCHEN JANE FLOURS AND ROLLS CROISSANT DOUGH as Adam, now in an apron, watches, chatting with her. Jane then places the dough in a machine called a Sheeter. The dough slides into the sheeter and then slides back out bigger and flatter. ANGLE - JANE AND ADAM - TWO STONERS watching the sheeter, mesmerized. NEXT Jane folds the flattened dough, measures it with a yard stick, then cuts it into sections. She takes one of the sections, spreads it on a marble slab and very quickly cuts it into triangles. She's a whiz at this. THEN, Jane shows Adam how to stretch the triangles of dough.... Nervous at first, he gets the hang of it. Then, Jane teaches Adam how to place a bar of chocolate in each triangle and roll it into a croissant. Laughing as they work, they make a dozen croissants... NEXT...into the OVEN. 93 INT. RESTAURANT - LATER 93 Jane and Adam sit at a table in the corner, a stack of croissants piled high between them. Music plays as Adam takes the top croissant and Jane takes the next. 95. ADAM (bites into it) Oh. Baby. JANE (smelling hers) Mmmmmmmm. ADAM It's crazy how good this is. JANE (biting into one, nods) Yeah, and I'm not even stoned anymore. ADAM Neither am I. JANE (happy about that) Oh, then...merci, Monsieur. ADAM Do you remember when I asked you the other night, if you were dating anyone and you said no... It sounded to me like you were maybe saying yes. JANE I was sort of seeing someone. But, it's over now. (Adam nods) Honestly. ADAM `Cause I'm not strong enough to fall for someone who's with someone else. Wouldn't be able to take that again. JANE I understand. I wouldn't say it was over if it wasn't.Adam takes Jane's hand in his...relieved. ADAM Great. Adam turns Jane's hand over and looks at it a bitquizzically. 96. JANE (explains) Cooking scar.... From a very hot batch of caramel... ADAM Ooooo. What about that one? JANE That one's from boiling sugar...I wasn't very skilled in the beginning. And that one is from a large French... Adam presses Jane's palm to his lips and kisses her scar. JANE -- Saute pan. Adam then kisses the burn on her forearm. Jane sighs, closes her eyes. This feeling is unexpected. She opens her eyes as Adam moves closer. ADAM Would it be okay if I...? Jane nods. He kisses her great. ADAM I was going to say, kiss you. JANE I figured. ADAM If you feel this is in any way wrong because we're working together... JANE ... I don't ... He smiles as she folds into him and they kiss and kiss and kiss again.94 OMIT 94 97.INT. JANE'S KITCHEN - THE NEXT DAY Quiet. Jane enters from the garden, humming, "Wouldn't It Be Nice." Luke ENTERS, still looking half asleep in his T Shirt and boxers. JANE Hey sleepy! What time did you get in? LUKE Have no idea. Lauren and Harley drove me home. LAUREN (joining) I'm surprised you remember that. JANE (turns to see Lauren) Hi. I didn't know you slept here.Lauren, in an open robe over drawstrings and a tank top,takes out a box of cereal. LAUREN We were playing Scattagories with Gabby and Ollie then Harley fell asleep on the couch.Harley meanders in wearing Victoria Secret Heart patterned PJbottoms and a Girl's V-neck T-shirt. LUKE Sweet. HARLEY I got cold in the middle of the night.Lauren and Jane laugh. JANE Okay, who wants what? (noticing Gabby entering) Hi baby... GABBY (looks out the front window) What's Dad doing here? 98. Everyone LOOKS OUT THE WINDOW and SEES Jake sitting in his Porsche.96 EXT. FRONT PORCH 96 Jane EXITS as Jake steps out of his car. He looks like he's had a rough night and has something on his mind. Jane cautiously looks back at the house. The kitchen windows are all open. JANE (quietly) Everything okay? JAKE I left Agness. JANE No, don't say that. JAKE She saw it my eyes, Janey. JANE Saw what? JAKE That I'm still in love with you. I admitted it, I told her about us and I've left her. For you. JANE No, no, no.... What do you mean??? Jake, this is crazy! (worried the kids will hear, whispers) Are you telling me the truth? JAKE (nods) This feels so right Jane. As Jane is about to respond, Gabby EXITS the house in her PJ's, looking confused. GABBY (from the porch) What's going on? JANE Nothing. Honey, set the table, I'll be right in. 99. GABBY Mom, you're the only one who cares if the table's set. JANE Okay, then do it for me....just go in please.Luke and Lauren join Gabby on the porch. LUKE What's up, Dad? JAKE Having some problems on the home front, just wanted to talk to your Mom for a sec.Jane shakes her head. Why did he have to say that? Harleyjoins the Kids. LAUREN Problems on the home front? Is one of you seeing someone else?Hearing that, Harley does a swift about face and goes right back inside. Jane's eyes widen toward Jake. JAKE (off Jane's cue) No, it's nothing like that. I just need to find a hotel or something for a few days `til I get my head together. GABBY It's that serious?Jake nods. LUKE Mom, can Dad stay here for a few days? He can share my room. JANE I don't think that's the best idea, Luke. GABBY Daddy, are you crying? 100.93 ON JAKE - TEARS WELLING UP 93 He turns away from the kids. The tears could be for dramatic effect, could be real. JAKE I'm sorry. All Three Kids immediately well up and look at Jane. LUKE (begging) Mom........97 EXT. FRONT PORCH DINING AREA - A LITTLE LATER 97 Jane nervously nibbles on her fingernail as the family sits silently around the table watching a ravenous Jake eat French Toast, bacon, coffee, side of fruit. His mood has been lifted. His energy is in full bloom. JAKE Mommy's the best cook in the world!98 EXT. VEGETABLE GARDEN - LATER THAT DAY 98 Jane is working in the garden. A shadow falls over her. She looks up, Jake stands before her, a cute smile breaking across his face. JAKE Thank you for saving me Janey. JANE Jake, you knew the kids were all here. Shouldn't we have talked about this? Agreed this was the right thing to do? This is so typical. Only thinking about works for you. JAKE I'm sorry, I guess I should've called before showing up. JANE -- And I'm not sure you even left Agness. Maybe she saw something last night and threw you out... 101. JAKE What's the difference? I was drowning over there. I'm not going to get that many more chances in my life to figure myself out. Janey, let's use these couple of days to see if we can make this work. JANE We can't, Jake. I told you this the other night. Please listen. JAKE But you were all pissy because you thought I stood you up. Things are different now. I'm a free man. (then) Can we just hug? I hate that you're being so distant. It's literally giving me a pain in my stomach. JANE Oh, God...Jane reluctantly hugs him. He tries to kiss her. JANE See! Too much! JAKE Okay! Good note.Jane can't help but smile. JAKE Can I help with what you're doing? Hold your basket or... JANE I'm fine.... JAKE Okay... I'm going to go to the video store and get us all a dvd to watch tonight. We'll have movie night. Just like old times. How's that? I'll make the popcorn. Just then Jane's Cell RINGS. 102. JANE Fine. (into phone) Hello... JAKE (whispers) I love knowing I'm coming back here. JANE (nods, turning slightly) Oh, hi... I slept great. How `bout you? Jake waits, but realizes Jane's not going to turn back.99 INT. FAMILY ROOM - JANE'S HOUSE - THAT NIGHT 99 The Adlers are watching The Graduate. The lights are low. Jake, shoes off, hands everyone bowls of popcorn. Jane sits in a club chair. Harley's on the floor and the Adler Kids are on one long sofa, all covered in a blanket. Jake hands them popcorn then squeezes back in, between the Girls. ON THE FLAT SCREEN - BUCK HENRY AND DUSTIN HOFFMAN BUCK HENERY Are you here for an affair, sir? DUSTIN What? BUCK HENRY The Singleman party, sir? Jane cringes as the Kids laugh. She looks over at Jake snuggling between the Kids, all eating popcorn and laughing. He catches Jane's eye and mouths. JAKE I'M SO HAPPY!!!100 EXT. JANE'S HOUSE - LATER THAT NIGHT - EST. 100 103.101 INT. HOUSE - SAME TIME 101 Jake, bare legged and wearing a robe and slippers, crosses to the KITCHEN where he finds Luke and Gabby digging through the fridge. JAKE Any leftovers? GABBY Are you kidding? (takes out an armful of Tupperware) JAKE Any of that noodle thing left? (Gabby hands it to him.) Where's Mom? She disappeared so fast after the movie. GABBY She's probably sleeping. LUKE I think she's on her computer. They all nibble out of Tupperware, leaning against various counters. LUKE Tonight was weird. GABBY So weird. Still is. JAKE I loved tonight. GABBY Yeah. That's why it was so weird. Just seeing you in your robe in our kitchen. Remember when you weren't even allowed in. Mom used to go out to the car to talk to you... LUKE (handing Gabby his Tupperware) You know, I don't even really remember you and Mom as a couple. 104. JAKE What do you mean... you were ten when we broke up. LUKE I was eight actually and I don't know...it's all foggy to me now. JAKE You don't remember us in Hawaii or all sleeping in that tent in the backyard. LUKE Yeah, of course, but I don't remember like you and Mom hugging or waking up together...Jake grabs his heart, moans. LUKE -- It's okay. I'm not damaged or anything. You've been good parents... GABBY Speak for yourself dude. I'm definitely damaged from the divorce.Harley and Lauren ENTER. Lauren turns the tea kettle on. LAUREN Hello troops. JAKE Why are you still here? LAUREN I don't know, you and Mom sleeping in the same house. Harley thought we should stay.Jake turns his beams on Harley. HARLEY She exaggerates. I just thought perhaps you might want to talk later, or ... Is that the noodle thing? JAKE Oh. Sorry. I think I ate it all. 105. GABBY Dad! JAKE I didn't know anyone wanted any.102 INT. JANE'S BEDROOM - A LITTLE LATER 102 Jane, sits on her bed, talking to Adam via iSight. On her LAPTOP SCREEN, we see Adam but he's a bit of a BLUR. JANE Wait, I can't see that one. Can you back up a little? CLOSE ON JANE'S LAP TOP SCREEN - ADAM IN HIS BEDROOM He back ups from the lens and models a rather ridiculous ski sweater. JANE (hmmm) Very festive... ADAM O-kay. Thank you. (into lens) Gift from my ex-sister-in-law. Have no idea why I kept it. (pulls sweater off) Into the pile. Hey, check out the pile, Jane. Adam POINTS HIS LAPTOP to the floor to show a HUGE STACK OF OLD CLOTHES. JANE Nice! (then) Hey, the pile's moving.... ADAM Murphy, get out of there! A small Mutt scurries out of the pile. Jane laughs. ADAM (re-enters in an odd shirt) What about this? I was in India and I had it made. (MORE) 106. ADAM(cont'd) The guy ran out of fabric so he didn't make me long sleeves. (looks down) Or short sleeves. It's weird. JANE And kinda girly. ADAM (taking it off) Not what I'm going for. (holds up a sweater) Gray sweater. Very old. JANE But cute. ADAM (slips it on) You sure? You don't have to say you like it just because you nixed the last 20 things.Jane likes this man. JANE Keep it. It's cozy. Boy, you have a lot of clothes. ADAM (looks at the floor) Uh, not anymore. Okay, we're almost done. You are helping me so much by the way. JANE -- Adam, I really have to pee. ADAM Oh good. Me too. Meet you back in thirty.... (lifting the laptop) Putting this on my desk....ON JANE'S SIDEJust a shot of Jane's Pillows on her bed. JANE'S VOICE I'm not in there...ON ADAM'S SIDE - AN ISIGHT FRAME OF AN EMPTY DESK CHAIR. 107. ADAM'S VOICE Can't hear you.103 INT. JANE'S BEDROOM - WIDE - SAME TIME 103 Jake pokes his head in, looks around, sees no one in the room. He hears Jane in the bathroom and ENTERS quietly, quickly squirms out of his boxers and T-shirt, then, DROPS HIS ROBE, and lies on his side, on the bed, completely NUDE -- elbow up, palm supporting his head -- a smile on his face. He changes his smile to a smoulder. Jake hears water running. Suddenly modest, he quickly drags over the open Laptop and places the open screen in front of his privates. He smiles, ready to be discovered. JANE A104 dries her hands at the bathroom sink. A104 104 INT. ADAM'S BEDROOM - SAME TIME 104 Adam crosses through the room on his way to his laptop.105 JANE ENTERS HER BEDROOM, SEES JAKE and lets out a SCREAM. 105 Simultaneously, ADAM PLOPS DOWN IN HIS DESK CHAIR, LOOKS AT HIS SCREEN and instantly YANKS HIMSELF AWAY in disgust. ADAM Mother of -- (looks again) Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!! Jake LOOKS DOWN AT THE SCREEN, SEES ADAM'S SCREAMING FACE AND SCREAMS BACK. JANE What are you doing in here?!!! ADAM (covering the screen with his hands) Get it off!!! JAKE (covering himself) I wanted to see you. 108. JANE Why are you naked!?! JAKE (sits up straight, the lap top shooting even more directly at his groin) Why do you think? ADAM Okay, I'm gonna be sick.Jake LEANS IN, covers Adam's eyes on the screen, which, ofcourse, does nothing. ADAM Not working! Big close up!Jake rises, now his ass gets the close up, he bends over toget his robe. ADAM Okay! Good night!Jake SPINS THE LAPTOP and the ISIGHT LENS LANDS ON JANE.Jane and Adam look at one another. No time to say anything.She's desperate. He's lost.The DOOR FLIES OPEN, the KIDS RUSH IN, just as Jake ties hisrobe. GABBY Everybody okay?No one says anything. LAUREN What's happening?Adam listens, his eyes on Jane. Jake crosses to Jane, facingthe Kids. He walks in and out of the iSight shot. JAKE Okay. Let me explain. The reason I left Agness wasn't just because my marriage wasn't working. (The Kids wait...) I've also fallen in love...back in love... with your mother. Or maybe I never stopped loving her. GABBY Is this a joke? 109. JAKE I know this is shocking, but I think this is the best thing that's ever happened to me. Your Mom and I have been seeing each other, on the side... ever since New York. LAUREN Mom, is this true? JANE (dying) That part is, but.. JAKE I found my way back home. I just hope she'll take me back. Gabby breaks down in tears. Lauren puts her arm around her. Jane starts to cry, looks at her laptop, just as she HEARS A CLICK and THE LAPTOP SCREEN GOES BLACK. JAKE Why's everyone crying? Why isn't this good news? LAUREN Because we're still getting over the divorce. LUKE Mom, are you and Dad getting back together? JANE No... we're not. Jane looks at the Kids with incredible sadness.106 EXT. DRIVEWAY - LATER - THAT NIGHT 106 The Kids, in their cars, drive down the road, away from the house. Jane stands in the driveway, watching, never before feeling quite like this. Jake EXITS THE HOUSE, holding his bag. He stops, looks at Jane. She has nothing left to say. Jake gets in his car and pulls away as Jane walks back inside.107 OMIT 107 110.108 EXT. POOL AREA/BACKYARD - MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT 108 Jane lies on a pool chaise, wrapped in a blanket, tissues in hand. She stares up at the night sky and as her eyes flutter shut, we drift off of her... DISSOLVE TO: 122 OMIT 122 123 EXT. JANE'S POOL/BACKYARD - EARLY MORNING 123 CAMERA DRIFTS ACROSS THE POOL TO JANE, asleep on the pool chaise, still wrapped in a blanket. The sprinklers go off and wake Jane. She opens her eyes, looks around, realizes she's spent the night outside. Jane sits up too fast, a tad disoriented, then quickly realizes what she must do. 124 A FRONT DOOR OPENS TO REVEAL HARLEY 124 bed-headed and still in his pj's. He approvingly looks at Jane, who stands across from him, ready to right it all. HARLEY Glad you're here, boss.125 INT. COTTAGE - CONTINUOUS 125 Harley leads Jane down the narrow hall to the Bedroom. HARLEY Now I know you don't need my advice Jane, but... JANE I got this one... HARLEY I know you do. Jane pauses, Harley nods for her to go inside. JANE'S POV - INSIDE THE BEDROOM Her Three Kids are under the covers. Lauren is between Gabby and Luke. They look like they just woke up. 111.Jane stands in the doorway. The Kids don't say a word. Janedoesn't wait. She crosses to the bed, sits on it, looks ather children. JANE Knowing how to be divorced is next to impossible... and sometimes over the years, I've thought that your Dad and I weren't quite finished. And, as it turns out, we weren't. So I went out of my comfort zone, which, I found out, if you're really honest with yourself, isn't all that comforting. So, I experimented with a part of myself. I wanted to find out if, after all these years there was still something there between us. LAUREN And was there? JANE There kinda was.Lauren smiles with her eyes. GABBY But Mom, you have to understand how bonkers this sounds to us. For two people who for years couldn't be in the same room together...to then have an affair??? You and Dad...! JANE I know...it was hard for me and I was doing it. I hope you'll forgive me for confusing you or betraying your trust, but I did this for me and for him and I realized even though your Dad and I once had something extraordinary... we no longer really fit together. But he is a part of me and always will be. LUKE So it's over now? You guys are back to being divorced. JANE For better or for worse. 112. Lauren takes her Mom's hand. Harley joins them, sitting on the other side of the bed, holding back tears. HARLEY Group hug? And as they all move into hug, we: CUT TO:126 A MOVING POV - INT. ARCHITECTURE OFFICE - DAY 126 REVERSE ON JANE walking through Adam's firm. She arrives at:127 ADAM'S OFFICE 127 Adam is on a phone call. ADAM (into phone) Yeah no problem...we can definitely do that... (notices Jane) -- James, can I call you back, someone just... Thanks. (rises) Hi. JANE Hi. May I come in? ADAM -- Sure. JANE I didn't call you last night because I wasn't sure you would take the call and then I thought that could go on for months and... ADAM -- I would have taken the call. JANE Oh. Well, anyway, it's better to say these things in person. Adam, the man I was seeing was... ADAM I think I'm up to speed on that part. 113. JANE I want you to know it didn't last long and you're divorced, so maybe you understand, when marriages end, there's doubts and hurt, and you've got kids and sometimes you wonder if you did the right thing and when the moment presented itself... ADAM -- I get it. I could imagine it...I could... JANE I told him it wasn't going to work between us but I guess he didn't believe me and unbeknownst to me, he showed up at my house yesterday. He left Agness and... ADAM -- Jane. I actually think I understand what happened but...uh...you know I'm not as macho as I appear and I think it's probably best for us not to get any more... involved because your relationship with Jake isn't really done and I know you're saying it is, but he's in love with you and for everyone's sake, that should probably get resolved. JANE Wow. So that's how grown ups talk.Adam smiles. JANE Please tell me you're not going to quit my job and ask Peter to take over because then I'll never get to see you and... ADAM I was thinking of asking Peter to step back in. JANE Oh... I hope you don't... ADAM Thanks. 114.128 OMIT 128 129 EXT. ROAD TO JANE'S HOUSE - LATE DAY 129 Jane drives home, when she notices Jake's Porsche in her driveway. She gets out of her car, finds Jake sitting on the bench swing hanging from a large oak in the front yard. Jane crosses to Jake. He moves over. Jane sees the humor in this gesture and sits on the swing with him, letting out a sigh. Side by side, they swing in the late afternoon breeze. JAKE I'm sorry. Jane doesn't answer right away. JANE How far back does that sorry go? JAKE How far back do you need it to go? JANE Way back. JAKE Consider it an all inclusive apology. From not being the husband you needed to showing up nude on your bed last night. JANE Yeah, what were you thinking with that move? JAKE That you'd find me irresistible. Jane turns to him, her eyes warming up to him. JAKE Never considered the alternative. JANE Gotta love that about you. They swing some more. 115. JAKEOh, man, can't believe I got up tobat again and blew it. JANEYou didn't blow it. We blew it.We blew it the first time around.This time... we just should'veknown better. Too much hashappened. Too much time has passed. JAKEAnd you don't think we could makeit right? JANEDoes that mean you didn't feel itwas totally right either? JAKEBeing with you Jane is the best I'mgonna be. JANEBut do you agree that it wasn'treally...? JAKEIt was complicated. JANEBegging for an answer. JAKEI thought it was good. I wanted itto be good. JANEGuess that's as close as I'm gonna get. JAKEDo you always have to be so hard onme? JANENo. I don't. JAKEI don't regret giving it anothershot. 116. JANE Probably would've been better if you hadn't been married. JAKE It may never have happened if I wasn't married. Jane looks at Jake, knowing how true that is. They sit, side by side, as they sway in the breeze. JANE I don't regret it either. They continue rocking, not much more to say. As CAMERA PULLS AWAY, we: DISSOLVE TO:130 EXT. JANE'S HOUSE - MANY MORNINGS LATER 130 It's raining. Trucks are pulling into the driveway as lumber is being taken off of a truck and covered in tarps. Jane EXITS THE HOUSE in a parka and under an umbrella. A GROUP OF CONSTRUCTION GUYS ARE huddled under a make-shift tarp. Jane crosses toward them and as the group opens to face her she spots Adam, holding blue prints. Jane is stunned he's there. ADAM Good morning. JANE Good morning. ADAM Did you know it's good luck to start building in the rain? JANE Really? ADAM (obviously lying) Yes. It's a well known, very good, really lucky omen. Thunder rattles the sky. 117. JANE (looking up) Good, I could use one. (then) Would you all like to have your meeting in the house...it's dry and I've got hot coffee...The Group thanks her and heads for the house. Adam staysback and walks next to Jane. It's a long second beforesomeone talks. ADAM Jane, I need to ask you something... JANE Anything... ADAM You wouldn't happen to have any of those amazing chocolate croissants, would you? JANE Oh.... you like those, huh? ADAM I have incredibly fond memories of them. JANE I don't have any here, but we could go into town and get some... right out of the oven. They turn toward the house and on their backs we hear: ADAM You want to do that? JANE Yeah... love to. And as they walk away from Camera, we: SLOWLY FADE OUT \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_It's a Wonderful Life.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_It's a Wonderful Life.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e7e0031363d7f0c0c890aaafa91d67cca1960ae7 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_It's a Wonderful Life.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +"IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE" By Frances Goodrich Albert Hackett Frank Capra Jo Swerling FADE IN: NIGHT SEQUENCE Series of shots of various streets and buildings in the town of Bedford Falls, somewhere in New York State. The streets are deserted, and snow is falling. It is Christmas Eve. Over the above scenes we hear voices praying: GOWER'S VOICE I owe everything to George Bailey. Help him, dear Father. MARTINI'S VOICE Joseph, Jesus and Mary. Help my friend Mr. Bailey. MRS. BAILEY'S VOICE Help my son George tonight. BERT'S VOICE He never thinks about himself, God; that's why he's in trouble. ERNIE'S VOICE George is a good guy. Give him a break, God. MARY'S VOICE I love him, dear Lord. Watch over him tonight. JANIE'S VOICE Please, God. Something's the matter with Daddy. ZUZU'S VOICE Please bring Daddy back. CAMERA PULLS UP from the Bailey home and travels up through the sky until it is above the falling snow and moving slowly toward a firmament full of stars. As the camera stops we hear the following heavenly voices talking, and as each voice is heard, one of the stars twinkles brightly: FRANKLIN'S VOICE Hello, Joseph, trouble? JOSEPH'S VOICE Looks like we'll have to send someone down – a lot of people are asking for help for a man named George Bailey. FRANKLIN'S VOICE George Bailey. Yes, tonight's his crucial night. You're right, we'll have to send someone down immediately. Whose turn is it? JOSEPH'S VOICE That's why I came to see you, sir. It's that clock-maker's turn again. FRANKLIN'S VOICE Oh – Clarence. Hasn't got his wings yet, has he? We've passed him up right along. JOSEPH'S VOICE Because, you know, sir, he's got the I.Q. of a rabbit. FRANKLIN'S VOICE Yes, but he's got the faith of a child – simple. Joseph, send for Clarence. A small star flies in from left of screen and stops. It twinkles as Clarence speaks: CLARENCE'S VOICE You sent for me, sir? FRANKLIN'S VOICE Yes, Clarence. A man down on earth needs our help. CLARENCE'S VOICE Splendid! Is he sick? FRANKLIN'S VOICE No, worse. He's discouraged. At exactly ten-forty-five PM tonight, Earth time, that man will be thinking seriously of throwing away God's greatest gift. CLARENCE'S VOICE Oh, dear, dear! His life! Then I've only got an hour to dress. What are they wearing now? FRANKLIN'S VOICE You will spend that hour getting acquainted with George Bailey. CLARENCE'S VOICE Sir... If I should accomplish this mission – I mean – might I perhaps win my wings? I've been waiting for over two hundred years now, sir – and people are beginning to talk. FRANKLIN'S VOICE What's that book you've got there? CLARENCE'S VOICE The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. FRANKLIN'S VOICE Clarence, you do a good job with George Bailey, and you'll get your wings. CLARENCE'S VOICE Oh, thank you, sir. Thank you. JOSEPH'S VOICE Poor George... Sit down. CLARENCE'S VOICE Sit down? What are... JOSEPH'S VOICE If you're going to help a man, you want to know something about him, don't you? CLARENCE'S VOICE Well, naturally. Of course. JOSEPH'S VOICE Well, keep your eyes open. See the town? The stars fade out from the screen, and a light, indistinguishable blur is seen. CLARENCE'S VOICE Where? I don't see a thing. JOSEPH'S VOICE Oh, I forgot. You haven't got your wings yet. Now look, I'll help you out. Concentrate. Begin to see something? The blur on the screen slowly begins to take form. We see a group of young boys on top of a snow-covered hill. CLARENCE'S VOICE Why, yes. This is amazing. JOSEPH'S VOICE If you ever get your wings, you'll see all by yourself. CLARENCE'S VOICE Oh, wonderful! EXT. FROZEN RIVER AND HILL – DAY – CLOSE SHOT Group of boys. They are preparing to slide down the hill on large shovels. One of them makes the slide and shoots out onto the ice of a frozen river at the bottom of the hill. BOY (as he slides) Yippee!! CLARENCE'S VOICE Hey, who's that? JOSEPH'S VOICE That's your problem, George Bailey. CLARENCE'S VOICE A boy? JOSEPH'S VOICE That's him when he was twelve, back in 1919. Something happens here you'll have to remember later on. Series of shots as four or five boys make the slide down the hill and out onto the ice. As each boy comes down the others applaud. CLOSE SHOT George Bailey at bottom of slide. GEORGE (through megaphone) And here comes the scare-baby, my kid brother, Harry Bailey. CLOSE SHOT – HARRY On top of hill, preparing to make his slide. HARRY I'm not scared. BOYS (ad lib) Come on, Harry! Attaboy, Harry! MEDIUM SHOT Harry makes his slide very fast. He passes the marks made by the other boys, and his shovel takes him onto the thin ice at the bend of the river. The ice breaks, and Harry disappears into the water. CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE GEORGE I'm coming, Harry. MEDIUM SHOT George jumps into the water and grabs Harry. As he starts to pull him out he yells: GEORGE Make a chain, gang! A chain! WIDER ANGLE The other boys lie flat on the ice, forming a human chain. When George reaches the edge with Harry in his arms, they pull them both to safety. JOSEPH'S VOICE George saved his brother's life that day. But he caught a bad cold which infected his left ear. Cost him his hearing in that ear. It was weeks before he could return to his after- school job at old man Gower's drugstore. DISSOLVE EXT. MAIN STREET – BEDFORD FALLS – SPRING AFTERNOON MEDIUM SHOT Five or six boys are coming toward camera, arm in arm, whistling. Their attention is drawn to an elaborate horsedrawn carriage proceeding down the other side of the street. MEDIUM PAN SHOT The carriage driving by. We catch a glimpse of an elderly man riding in it. CLOSE SHOT The boys watching the carriage. GEORGE Mr. Potter! CLARENCE'S VOICE Who's that – a king? JOSEPH'S VOICE That's Henry F. Potter, the richest and meanest man in the county. The boys continue until they reach Gower's drugstore. The drugstore is old-fashioned and dignified, with jars of colored water in the windows and little else. As the kids stop: GEORGE So long! BOYS (ad lib) Got to work, slave. Hee-haw. Hee- haw. INTERIOR DRUGSTORE – DAY MEDIUM SHOT George comes in and crosses to an old-fashioned cigar lighter on the counter. He shuts his eyes and makes a wish: GEORGE Wish I had a million dollars. He clicks the lighter and the flame springs up. GEORGE Hot dog! WIDER ANGLE George crosses over to the soda fountain, at which Mary Hatch, a small girl, is seated, watching him. George goes on to get his apron from behind the fountain. GEORGE (calling toward back room) It's me, Mr. Gower. George Bailey. CLOSE SHOT Mr. Gower, the druggist, peering from a window in back room. We see him take a drink from a bottle. GOWER You're late. MEDIUM SHOT George behind soda fountain. He is putting on his apron. GEORGE Yes, sir. WIDER ANGLE Violet Bick enters the drugstore and sits on one of the stools at the fountain. She is the same height as Mary and the same age, but she is infinitely older in her approach to people. VIOLET (with warm friendliness) Hello, George. (then, flatly, as she sees Mary) 'Lo, Mary. MARY (primly) Hello, Violet. George regards the two of them with manly disgust. They are two kids to him, and a nuisance. He starts over for the candy counter. GEORGE Two cents worth of shoelaces? VIOLET She was here first. MARY I'm still thinking. GEORGE (to Violet) Shoelaces? VIOLET Please, Georgie. George goes over to the candy counter. VIOLET (to Mary) I like him. MARY You like every boy. VIOLET (happily) What's wrong with that? GEORGE Here you are. George gives Violet a paper sack containing licorice shoelaces. Violet gives him the money. VIOLET (the vamp) Help me down? GEORGE (disgusted) Help you down! Violet jumps down off her stool and exits. Mary, watching, sticks out her tongue as she passes. CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND MARY AT FOUNTAIN GEORGE Made up your mind yet? MARY I'll take chocolate. George puts some chocolate ice cream in a dish. GEORGE With coconuts? MARY I don't like coconuts. GEORGE You don't like coconuts! Say, brainless, don't you know where coconuts come from? Lookit here – from Tahiti – Fiji Islands, the Coral Sea! He pulls a magazine from his pocket and shows it to her. MARY A new magazine! I never saw it before. GEORGE Of course you never. Only us explorers can get it. I've been nominated for membership in the National Geographic Society. He leans down to finish scooping out the ice cream, his deaf ear toward her. She leans over, speaking softly. CLOSE SHOT Mary, whispering. MARY Is this the ear you can't hear on? George Bailey, I'll love you till the day I die. She draws back quickly and looks down, terrified at what she has said. CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND MARY GEORGE I'm going out exploring some day, you watch. And I'm going to have a couple of harems, and maybe three or four wives. Wait and see. He turns back to the cash register, whistling. ANOTHER ANGLE Taking in entrance to prescription room at end of fountain. Gower comes to the entrance. He is bleary-eyed, unshaven, chewing an old unlit cigar. His manner is gruff and mean. It is evident he has been drinking. GOWER George! George! GEORGE Yes, sir. GOWER You're not paid to be a canary. GEORGE No, sir. He turns back to the cash register when he notices an open telegram on the shelf. He is about to toss it aside when he starts to read it. INSERT: THE TELEGRAM It reads: "We regret to inform you that your son, Robert, died very suddenly this morning of influenza stop. Everything possible was done for his comfort stop. We await instructions from you. EDWARD MELLINGTON Pres. HAMMERTON COLLEGE." BACK TO SHOT George puts the telegram down. A goodness of heart expresses itself in a desire to do something for Gower. He gives the ice cream to Mary without comment and sidles back toward Gower. INT. PRESCRIPTION ROOM OF DRUGSTORE – DAY CLOSE SHOT Gower, drunk, is intent on putting some capsules into a box. GEORGE Mr. Gower, do you want something... Anything? GOWER No. GEORGE Anything I can do back here? GOWER No. George looks curiously at Gower, realizing that he is quite drunk. Gower fumbles and drops some of the capsules to the floor. CLOSE SHOT Capsules spilling on floor at their feet. BACK TO SHOT George and Gower. GEORGE I'll get them, sir. He picks up the capsules and puts them in the box. Gower waves George aside, takes his old wet cigar, shoves it in his mouth and sits in an old Morris chair in the background. George turns a bottle around from which Gower has taken the powder for the capsules. Its label reads "POISON." George stands still, horrified. GOWER Take these capsules over to Mrs. Blaine's. She's waiting for them. George picks up the capsule box, not knowing what to do or say. His eyes go, harassed, to the bottle labeled poison. George's fingers fumble. GEORGE Yes, sir. They have the diphtheria there, haven't they, sir? GOWER Ummmm... Gower stares moodily ahead, sucking his cigar. George turns to him, the box in his hand. GEORGE Is it a charge, sir? GOWER Yes – charge. GEORGE Mr. Gower, I think... GOWER Aw, get going! GEORGE Yes, sir. INT. DRUGSTORE – DAY MEDIUM SHOT George comes out into main room. As he puts on his cap he sees a Sweet Caporals ad which says: INSERT "ASK DAD HE KNOWS" – SWEET CAPORAL BACK TO SHOT With an inspiration, George dashes out the door and down the street. Mary follows him with her eyes. EXT. STREET – DAY MEDIUM SHOT George runs down the street until he comes opposite a two- story building with a sign on it reading: "Bailey Building and Loan Association." He stops. Potter's carriage is waiting at the entrance. Suddenly he runs up the stairs. INT. OUTER OFFICE BLDG. AND LOAN – DAY FULL SHOT The offices are ancient and a bit on the rickety side. There is a counter with a grill, something like a bank. Before a door marked: "PETER BAILEY, PRIVATE", George's Uncle Billy stands, obviously trying to hear what is going on inside. He is a very good-humored man of about fifty, in shirt-sleeves. With him at the door, also listening, are Cousin Tilly Bailey, a waspish-looking woman, who is the telephone operator, and Cousin Eustace Bailey, the clerk. The office vibrates with an aura of crisis as George enters and proceeds directly toward his father's office. CLOSE SHOT Uncle Billy listening at the door. As George is about to enter his father's office, uncle Billy grabs him by the arm. UNCLE BILLY Avast, there, Captain Cook! Where you headin'? GEORGE Got to see Pop, Uncle Billy. UNCLE BILLY Some other time, George. GEORGE It's important. UNCLE BILLY There's a squall in there that's shapin' up into a storm. During the foregoing, Cousin Tilly has answered the telephone, and now she calls out: COUSIN TILLY Uncle Billy... telephone. UNCLE BILLY Who is it? COUSIN TILLY Bank examiner. INSERT CLOSEUP – UNCLE BILLY'S LEFT HAND There are pieces of string tied around two of the fingers, obviously to remind him of things he has to do. BACK TO SHOT Uncle Billy looking at his hand. UNCLE BILLY Bank examiner! I should have called him yesterday. Switch it inside. He enters a door marked: "WILLIAM BAILEY, PRIVATE". George stands irresolute a moment, aware of crisis in the affairs of the Bailey Building and Loan Association, but aware more keenly of his personal crisis. He opens the door of his father's office and enters. INT. BAILEY'S PRIVATE OFFICE – DAY MEDIUM SHOT George's father is seated behind his desk, nervously drawing swirls on a pad. He looks tired and worried. He is a gentle man in his forties, an idealist, stubborn only for other people's rights. Nearby, in a throne-like wheelchair, behind which stands the goon who furnishes the motive power, sits Henry F. Potter, his squarish derby hat on his head. The following dialogue is fast and heated, as though the argument had been in process for some time. BAILEY I'm not crying, Mr. Potter. POTTER Well, you're begging, and that's a whole lot worse. BAILEY All I'm asking is thirty days more... GEORGE (interrupting) Pop! BAILEY Just a minute, son. (to Potter) Just thirty short days. I'll dig up that five thousand somehow. POTTER (to his goon) Shove me up... Goon pushes his wheelchair closer to the desk. GEORGE Pop! POTTER Have you put any real pressure on those people of yours to pay those mortgages? BAILEY Times are bad, Mr. Potter. A lot of these people are out of work. POTTER Then foreclose! BAILEY I can't do that. These families have children. MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT – POTTER AND BAILEY GEORGE Pop! POTTER They're not my children. BAILEY But they're somebody's children. POTTER Are you running a business or a charity ward? BAILEY Well, all right... POTTER (interrupting) Not with my money! CLOSE SHOT – POTTER AND BAILEY BAILEY Mr. Potter, what makes you such a hardskulled character? You have no family – no children. You can't begin to spend all the money you've got. POTTER So I suppose I should give it to miserable failures like you and that idiot brother of yours to spend for me. George cannot listen any longer to such libel about his father. He comes around in front of the desk. GEORGE He's not a failure! You can't say that about my father! BAILEY George, George... GEORGE You're not! You're the biggest man in town! BAILEY Run along. He pushes George toward the door. GEORGE Bigger'n him! As George passes Potter's wheelchair he pushes the old man's shoulder. The goon puts out a restraining hand. GEORGE Bigger'n everybody. George proceeds toward the door, with his father's hand on his shoulder. As they go: POTTER Gives you an idea of the Baileys. INT. OUTER OFFICE BLDG. AND LOAN – DAY CLOSE SHOT George and his father at the door. GEORGE Don't let him say that about you, Pop. BAILEY All right, son, thanks. I'll talk to you tonight. Bailey closes the door on George and turns back to Potter. George stands outside the door with the capsules in his hand. WIPE TO: BACK TO DRUGSTORE INT. BACK ROOM – GOWER'S DRUGSTORE – DAY CLOSE SHOT Gower talking on the telephone. George stands in the doorway. GOWER (drunkenly) Why, that medicine should have been there an hour ago. It'll be over in five minutes, Mrs. Blaine. He hangs up the phone and turns to George. GOWER Where's Mrs. Blaine's box of capsules? He grabs George by the shirt and drags him into the back room. GEORGE Capsules... GOWER (shaking him) Did you hear what I said? GEORGE (frightened) Yes, sir, I... Gower starts hitting George about the head with his open hands. George tries to protect himself as best he can. GOWER What kind of tricks are you playing, anyway? Why didn't you deliver them right away? Don't you know that boy's very sick? GEORGE (in tears) You're hurting my sore ear. INT. FRONT ROOM DRUGSTORE – DAY CLOSE SHOT Mary is still seated at the soda fountain. Each time she hears George being slapped, she winces. INT. BACK ROOM DRUGSTORE – DAY CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND GOWER GOWER You lazy loafer! GEORGE (sobbing) Mr. Gower, you don't know what you're doing. You put something wrong in those capsules. I know you're unhappy. You got that telegram, and you're upset. You put something bad in those capsules. It wasn't your fault, Mr. Gower... George pulls the little box out of his pocket. Gower savagely rips it away from him, breathing heavily, staring at the boy venomously. GEORGE Just look and see what you did. Look at the bottle you took the powder from. It's poison! I tell you, it's poison! I know you feel bad... and... George falters off, cupping his aching ear with a hand. Gower looks at the large brown bottle which has not been replaced on the shelf. He tears open the package, shakes the powder out of one of the capsules, cautiously tastes it, then abruptly throws the whole mess to the table and turns to look at George again. The boy is whimpering, hurt, frightened. Gower steps toward him. GEORGE Don't hurt my sore ear again. But this time Gower sweeps the boy to him in a hug and, sobbing hoarsely, crushes the boy in his embrace. George is crying too. GOWER No... No... No... GEORGE Don't hurt my ear again! GOWER (sobbing) Oh, George, George... GEORGE Mr. Gower, I won't ever tell anyone. I know what you're feeling. I won't ever tell a soul. Hope to die, I won't. GOWER Oh, George. DISSOLVE TO: INT. LUGGAGE SHOP – DAY – (1928) MEDIUM SHOT It is late afternoon. A young man is looking over an assortment of luggage. Across the counter stands Joe Hepner, the proprietor of the store – he is showing a suitcase. JOE An overnight bag – genuine English cowhide, combination lock, fitted up with brushes, combs... CUSTOMER Nope. AS CAMERA MOVES UP CLOSER to him, he turns and we get our first glimpse of George as a young man. CAMERA HAS MOVED UP to a CLOSEUP by now. GEORGE Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Now, look, Joe. Now, look, I... I want a big one. Suddenly, in action, as George stands with his arms outstretched in illustration, the picture freezes and becomes a still. Over this hold-frame shot we hear the voices from Heaven: CLARENCE'S VOICE What did you stop it for? JOSEPH'S VOICE I want you to take a good look at that face. CLARENCE'S VOICE Who is it? JOSEPH'S VOICE George Bailey. CLARENCE'S VOICE Oh, you mean the kid that had his ears slapped back by the druggist. JOSEPH'S VOICE That's the kid. CLARENCE'S VOICE It's a good face. I like it. I like George Bailey. Tell me, did he ever tell anyone about the pills? JOSEPH'S VOICE Not a soul. CLARENCE'S VOICE Did he ever marry the girl? Did he ever go exploring? JOSEPH'S VOICE Well, wait and see. CLOSE SHOT – THE SCREEN The arrested CLOSEUP of George springs to life again. GEORGE Big - see! I don't want one for one night. I want something for a thousand and one nights, with plenty of room for labels from Italy and Baghdad, Samarkand... a great big one. JOE I see, a flying carpet, huh? I don't suppose you'd like this old second- hand job, would you? He brings a large suitcase up from under the counter. GEORGE Now you're talkin'. Gee whiz, I could use this as a raft in case the boat sunk. How much does this cost? JOE No charge. GEORGE That's my trick ear, Joe. It sounded as if you said no charge. JOE (indicating name on suitcase) That's right. GEORGE (as he sees his name) What's my name doing on it? JOE A little present from old man Gower. Came down and picked it out himself. GEORGE (admiring the bag) He did? Whatta you know about that – my old boss... JOE What boat you sailing on? GEORGE I'm working across on a cattle boat. JOE A cattle boat? GEORGE (as he exits) Okay, I like cows. WIPE TO: INT. GOWER'S DRUGSTORE – DAY MEDIUM SHOT The place is practically the same except that it is now full of school kids having sodas, etc. A juke box and many little tables have been added. It has become the hangout of the local small fry. There are now three kids jerking sodas. Gower is a different man now – sober, shaven and good-humored. He is behind the counter when George comes in. Gower's face lights up when he sees George. GEORGE Mr. Gower... Mr. Gower... thanks ever so much for the bag. It's just exactly what I wanted. GOWER Aw, forget it. GEORGE Oh, it's wonderful. GOWER Hope you enjoy it. George suddenly sees the old cigar lighter on the counter. He closes his eyes and makes a wish. GEORGE Oh... Oh. Wish I had a million dollars. As he snaps the lighter the flame springs up. GEORGE Hot dog! George shakes Gower's hand vigorously and exits. EXT. MAIN STREET BEDFORD FALLS – DAY PAN SHOT as George crosses the street, Uncle Billy, cousin Tilly and Cousin Eustace are leaning out of the second floor window of the Building and Loan offices. UNCLE BILLY Avast there, Captain Cook. You got your sea legs yet? COUSIN EUSTACE Parlez-vous francais? Hey, send us some of them picture postcards, will you, George? UNCLE BILLY Hey, George, don't take any plugged nickels. COUSIN TILLY Hey, George, your suitcase is leaking. George waves up at them and continues on across the street. EXT. MAIN STREET – DAY MEDIUM SHOT As George crosses the street. He spots Ernie and his cab, and Bert the motor cop, parked alongside. GEORGE Hey, Ernie! ERNIE Hiya, George! GEORGE Hi, Bert. BERT George... GEORGE Ernie, I'm a rich tourist today. How about driving me home in style? Bert opens the door of the cab and puts George's suitcase inside. ERNIE Sure, your highness, hop in. And, for the carriage trade, I puts on my hat. As George is about to enter the cab, he stops suddenly as he sees Violet (now obviously a little sex machine) come toward him. Her walk and figure would stop anybody. She gives him a sultry look. REVERSE ANGLE The three men by the cab, but including Violet. VIOLET Good afternoon, Mr. Bailey. GEORGE Hello, Violet. Hey, you look good. That's some dress you got on there. CLOSE SHOT – VIOLET She reacts to this. VIOLET Oh, this old thing? Why, I only wear it when I don't care how I look. CAMERA PANS WITH HER AS VIOLET SWINGS ON DOWN THE SIDEWALK. REVERSE SHOT – CAB As Violet goes by, George and Bert raise their heads above the top of the cab. MEDIUM SHOT On Violet's back as she goes. As she crosses the street, an elderly man turns to look at her and is almost hit by a car that pulls up with screeching brakes. CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND BERT AT CAB Ernie sticks his head out form the driver's seat. ERNIE How would you like... GEORGE (as he enters cab) Yes... ERNIE Want to come along, Bert? We'll show you the town! Bert looks at his watch, then takes another look at Violet's retreating figure. BERT No, thanks. Think I'll go home and see what the wife's doing. ERNIE Family man. DISSOLVE TO: INT. BAILEY DINING ROOM – NIGHT MEDIUM SHOT Pop Bailey is seated at the dinner table. Mrs. Bailey and Annie, the cook, look up toward the vibrating ceiling. There are SOUNDS of terrific banging and scuffling upstairs. Annie pounds on the ceiling with a broom. MOTHER (calling out) George! Harry! You're shaking the house down! Stop it! POP Oh, let 'em alone. I wish I was up there with them. MOTHER Harry'll tear his dinner suit. George! ANOTHER ANGLE Mrs. Bailey is calling up the stairs. ANNIE That's why all children should be girls. MOTHER But if they were all girls, there wouldn't be any... Oh, never mind. (calling upstairs) George! Harry! Come down to dinner this minute. Everything's getting cold and you know we've been waiting for you. GEORGE'S VOICE Okay, Mom. She goes up the stairs. Pop is smiling and poking his plate. A commotion is heard on the stairs, the boys imitating fanfare MUSIC. Down they come, holding their mother high between them on their hands. They bring her into the dining room and deposit her gracefully into Pop's lap. BOYS Here's a present for you, Pop. Pop kisses her. Mother gives Pop a quick hug, then turns with all the wrath she can muster on the two boys. MOTHER Oh, you two idiots! George, sit down and have dinner. HARRY I've eaten. MOTHER Well, aren't you going to finish dressing for your graduation party? Look at you. HARRY I don't care. It's George's tux. Annie crosses the room, holding her broom. Harry reaches out for her. ANNIE If you lay a hand on me, I'll hit you with this broom. HARRY Annie, I'm in love with you. There's a moon out tonight. As he pushes her through the kitchen door, he slaps her fanny. She screams. The noise is cut off by the swinging door. George and his mother sit down at the table. GEORGE Boy, oh, boy, oh, boy – my last meal at the old Bailey boarding house. MOTHER Oh, my lands, my blood pressure! CLOSE SHOT Harry, as he sticks his head through the kitchen door. HARRY Pop, can I have the car? I'm going to take over a lot of plates and things. MOTHER What plates? HARRY Oh, Mom – I'm chairman of the eats committee and we only need a couple of dozen. MOTHER Oh, no you don't. Harry, now, not my best Haviland. She follows Harry into the kitchen, leaving Pop and George. As she goes: GEORGE Oh, let him have the plates, Mother. CLOSE SHOT George and his father, eating at the table. There is a great similarity and a great understanding between them. POP Hope you have a good trip, George. Uncle Billy and I are going to miss you. GEORGE I'm going to miss you, too, Pop. What's the matter? You look tired. POP Oh, I had another tussle with Potter today. GEORGE Oh... POP I thought when we put him on the Board of Directors, he'd ease up on us a little bit. GEORGE I wonder what's eating that old money grubbing buzzard anyway? POP Oh, he's a sick man. Frustrated and sick. Sick in his mind, sick in his soul, if he has one. Hates everybody that has anything that he can't have. Hates us mostly, I guess. MEDIUM SHOT The dining room. Harry and his mother come out of the kitchen, Harry carrying a pie in each hand and balancing one on his head. CAMERA PANS WITH them as they cross. HARRY Gangway! Gangway! So long, Pop. POP So long, son. GEORGE Got a match? HARRY Very funny. Very funny. MOTHER Put those things in the car and I'll get your tie and studs together. HARRY Okay, Mom. You coming later? You coming later, George? GEORGE What do you mean, and be bored to death? HARRY Couldn't want a better death. Lots of pretty girls, and we're going to use that new floor of yours tonight, too. GEORGE I hope it works. POP No gin tonight, son. HARRY Aw, Pop, just a little. POP No, son, not one drop. CLOSE SHOT George and Pop at the table. Annie comes in with some dishes. ANNIE Boys and girls and music. Why do they need gin? She exits. GEORGE Father, did I act like that when I graduated from high school? POP Pretty much. You know, George, wish we could send Harry to college with you. Your mother and I talked it over half the night. GEORGE We have that all figured out. You see, Harry'll take my job at the Building and Loan, work there four years, then he'll go. POP He's pretty young for that job. GEORGE Well, no younger than I was. POP Maybe you were born older, George. GEORGE How's that? POP I say, maybe you were born older. I suppose you've decided what you're going to do when you get out of college. GEORGE Oh, well, you know what I've always talked about – build things... design new buildings – plan modern cities – all that stuff I was talking about. POP Still after that first million before you're thirty. GEORGE No, I'll settle for half that in cash. Annie comes in again from the kitchen. POP Of course, it's just a hope, but you wouldn't consider coming back to the Building and Loan, would you? Annie stops serving to hear his answer. GEORGE Well, I... (to Annie) Annie, why don't you draw up a chair? Then you'd be more comfortable and you could hear everything that's going on. ANNIE I would if I thought I'd hear anything worth listening to. GEORGE You would, huh? She gives George a look, and goes on out into the kitchen. Bailey smiles and turns to George. POP I know it's soon to talk about it. GEORGE Oh, now, Pop, I couldn't. I couldn't face being cooped up for the rest of my life in a shabby little office. He stops, realizing that he has hurt his father. GEORGE Oh, I'm sorry, Pop. I didn't mean that remark, but this business of nickels and dimes and spending all your life trying to figure out how to save three cents on a length of pipe... I'd go crazy. I want to do something big and something important. POP (quietly) You know, George, I feel that in a small way we are doing something important. Satisfying a fundamental urge. It's deep in the race for a man to want his own roof and walls and fireplace, and we're helping him get those things in our shabby little office. GEORGE (unhappily) I know, Dad. I wish I felt... But I've been hoarding pennies like a miser in order to... Most of my friends have already finished college. I just feel like if I don't get away, I'd bust. POP Yes... Yes... You're right, son. GEORGE You see what I mean, don't you, Pop? POP This town is no place for any man unless he's willing to crawl to Potter. You've got talent, son. You get yourself an education. Then get out of here. GEORGE Pop, do you want a shock? I think you're a great guy. To cover his embarrassment, he looks toward the kitchen door and calls: GEORGE Oh, did you hear that, Annie? CLOSE SHOT Annie listening through glass in door. ANNIE I heard it. About time one of you lunkheads said it. CLOSE SHOT George and his father at the table. GEORGE I'm going to miss old Annie. Pop, I think I'll get dressed and go over to Harry's party. POP Have a good time, son. WIPE TO: INT. HIGH SCHOOL GYM – NIGHT MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT At one end of the room an orchestra is playing. George wends his way through the dancing couples toward a supper table. He and Harry are carrying plates and pies. GEORGE Here you are. Several of the boys take the plates from him. George looks at them, feeling very grown up and out of place. HARRY (introducing George) You know my kid brother, George. I'm going to put him through college. Sam Wainwright comes in behind Harry, waggles his hands at his ears as he talks. SAM Here comes George. Hello, hee-haw! George swings around, delighted to hear a familiar voice. WIDER ANGLE Including Sam and Marty Hatch. Sam is assured and breezy, wearing very collegiate clothes. GEORGE Oh, oh. Sam Wainwright! How are you? When did you get here? SAM Oh, this afternoon. I thought I'd give the kids a treat. GEORGE Old college graduate now, huh? SAM Yeah – old Joe College Wainwright, they call me. Well, freshman, looks like you're going to make it after all. GEORGE Yep. Sam sees Harry and leaves George in the middle of a gesture. SAM (to Harry) Harry! You're the guy I want to see. Coach has heard all about you. HARRY He has? SAM Yeah. He's followed every game and his mouth's watering. He wants me to find out if you're going to come along with us. HARRY Well, I gotta make some dough first. SAM Well, you better make it fast. We need great ends like you – not broken down old guys like this one. George and Sam wiggle their fingers at their ears, saluting each other. GEORGE Hee-haw! SAM Hee-haw! An elderly, fussy school principal comes over to George. PRINCIPAL George, welcome back. GEORGE Hello, Mr. Partridge, how are you? PRINCIPAL Putting a pool under this floor was a great idea. Saved us another building. Now, Harry, Sam, have a lot of fun. There's lots of stuff to eat and drink. Lots of pretty girls around. Violet Bick comes into the scene and turns to face George. She is waving her dance program at him. VIOLET Hey, George... GEORGE Hello, Violet. VIOLET Hello, what am I bid? Marty Hatch enters scene. MARTY George. GEORGE Hiya, Marty. Well, it's old home week. MARTY Do me a favor, will you, George? GEORGE What's that? MARTY Well, you remember my kid sister, Mary? GEORGE Oh, yeah, yeah. SAM "Momma wants you, Marty." "Momma wants you, Marty." Remember? MARTY Dance with her, will you? GEORGE Oh... me? Oh, well, I feel funny enough already, with all these kids. MARTY Aw, come on. Be a sport. Just dance with her one time and you'll give her the thrill of her life. SAM Aw, go on. MARTY (calling off) Hey, sis. GEORGE Well, excuse me, Violet. Don't be long, Marty. I don't want to be a wet nurse for... He stops suddenly as he sees Mary, staring at her. CLOSEUP – MARY HATCH She is standing talking to one of the boys, Freddie, a glass of punch in her hand. For the first time, she is wearing an evening gown and she has gained assurance from the admiration of the boy with her. She turns around and for the first time she sees George. For a second she loses her poise, staring at him. FREDDIE'S VOICE And the next thing I know, some guy came up and tripped me. That's the reason why I came in fourth. If it hadn't been for that... CLOSE SHOT George, staring at Mary. FREDDIE'S VOICE ...that race would have been a cinch. I tried to find out who it was later... CLOSEUP – MARY Still staring at George, and smiling. FREDDIE'S VOICE ...but I couldn't find out. Nobody'd ever tell you whoever it was because they'd be scared. They know... MEDIUM CLOSEUP Mary and Freddie. Marty comes into scene, followed by George. FREDDIE ...what kind of... MARTY (interrupting) You remember George? This is Mary. Well, I'll be seeing you. GEORGE Well... Well... Well... FREDDIE Now, to get back to my story, see... Mary hands her punch cup to Freddie, and she and George start dancing. FREDDIE Hey, this is my dance! GEORGE Oh, why don't you stop annoying people? FREDDIE Well, I'm sorry. Hey! MOVING SHOT Following George and Mary as they dance. GEORGE Well, hello. MARY Hello. You look at me as if you didn't know me. GEORGE Well, I don't. MARY You've passed me on the street almost every day. GEORGE Me? MARY Uh-huh. GEORGE Uh-uh. That was a little girl named Mary Hatch. That wasn't you. A WHISTLE is heard offscreen, and the MUSIC stops. CLOSE SHOT Harry on the orchestra platform, whistle in hand. HARRY Oyez – oyez – oyez... The big Charleston contest. The prize? A genuine loving cup. Those not tapped by the judges will remain on the floor. Let's go! CLOSEUP – GEORGE AND MARY As the MUSIC starts and couples begin dancing once more, they look at each other. GEORGE I'm not very good at this. MARY Neither am I. GEORGE Okay – what can we lose? They start their Charleston. We see a SERIES OF SHOTS of various couples doing their routines, some good, some bad. CLOSEUP – FREDDIE Leaning against the railing around the dance floor, looking daggers at George. Mickey, a young punk who has had one too many, is beside him. MICKEY What's the matter, Othello – jealous? Did you know there's a swimming pool under this floor? And did you know that button behind you causes this floor to open up? And did you further know that George Bailey is dancing right over that crack? And I've got the key? Freddie needs no more. He takes the key from Mickey and turns the switch. The floor begins to part in the middle, each half sliding under the bleacher seats. Pandemonium starts. Dancers begin to scream as they try to get off. Some are so engrossed in dancing they continue at top speed. Teachers and elders start to scurry off. As the floor opens, it reveals an attractive, lighted swimming pool. George and Mary are so busy dancing they don't notice the floor opening. Spotlights concentrate on them. They mistake the screams for cheers. CLOSE SHOT George and Mary dancing. GEORGE They're cheering us. We must be good. MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT The crowd watching George and Mary dancing. They move backwards until finally they reach the edge of the floor and fall into the pool below. SERIES OF SHOTS George and Mary still trying to dance in the water – the crowd on the edge cheering them – some of the crowd leap into the pool – the principal trying to restore order, finally clasps his hands like a diver and leaps in himself. FADE OUT FADE IN: EXT. TREE-LINED RESIDENTIAL STREET – NIGHT MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT George and Mary. The night is warm with a bright moon. George is dressed in jersey sweater and oversize football pants that keep wanting to come down. Mary is in an old white bath robe. Each is carrying their wet clothes tied into a bundle that leaves a trail of dripping water. As they near the camera we hear them singing: GEORGE AND MARY (singing) Buffalo Gals can't you come out tonight. Can't you come out tonight. Can't you come out tonight. Buffalo Gals can't you come out tonight and dance by the light of the moon. GEORGE Hot dog! Just like an organ. MARY Beautiful. CAMERA MOVES WITH them as they proceed down the street. GEORGE And I told Harry I thought I'd be bored to death. You should have seen the commotion in that locker room. I had to knock down three people to get this stuff we're wearing here. Here, let me hold that old wet dress of yours. He takes the bundle of clothes from Mary. They stop and look at each other. MARY Do I look as funny as you do? GEORGE I guess I'm not quite the football type. You... look wonderful. You know, if it wasn't me talking I'd say you were the prettiest girl in town. MARY Well, why don't you say it? GEORGE I don't know. Maybe I will say it. How old are you anyway? MARY Eighteen. GEORGE Eighteen? Why, it was only last year you were seventeen. MARY Too young or too old? GEORGE Oh, no. Just right. Your age fits you. Yes, sir, you look a little older without your clothes on. Mary stops. George, to cover his embarrassment, talks quickly on: GEORGE I mean, without a dress. You look older... I mean, younger. You look just... In his confusion George steps on the end of the belt of Mary's bath robe, which is trailing along behind her. She gathers the robe around her. GEORGE Oh-oh... MARY (holding out her hand) Sir, my train, please. GEORGE A pox upon me for a clumsy lout. He picks up the belt and throws it over her arm. GEORGE Your... your caboose, my lady. MARY You may kiss my hand. GEORGE Ummmmm... Holding her hand, George moves in closer to Mary. GEORGE Hey – hey, Mary. Mary turns away from him, singing "Buffalo Gals": MARY (singing) As I was lumbering down the street... George looks after her; then picks up a rock from the street. GEORGE Okay, then, I'll throw a rock at the old Granville house. MARY Oh, no, don't. I love that old house. MEDIUM LONG SHOT – OLD HOUSE It is a weather-beaten, old-fashioned two-storied house that once was no doubt resplendent. GEORGE No. You see, you make a wish and then try and break some glass. You got to be a pretty good shot nowadays, too. MEDIUM CLOSEUP – GEORGE AND MARY MARY Oh, no, George, don't. It's full of romance, that old place. I'd like to live in it. GEORGE In that place? MARY Uh-huh. GEORGE I wouldn't live in it as a ghost. Now watch... right on the second floor there. MEDIUM LONG SHOT – OLD HOUSE George hurls the rock at the house. We hear the SOUND of a window breaking. EXT. FRONT PORCH OF HOUSE – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT We see a grumpy old man in shirt sleeves in a rocking chair on the porch. He looks up as he hears the breaking glass. EXT. STREET – NIGHT CLOSEUP – GEORGE AND MARY MARY What'd you wish, George? GEORGE Well, not just one wish. A whole hatful, Mary. I know what I'm going to do tomorrow and the next day and the next year and the year after that. I'm shaking the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I'm going to see the world. Italy, Greece, the Parthenon, the Colosseum. Then I'm coming back here and go to college and see what they know... and then I'm going to build things. I'm gonna build air fields. I'm gonna build skyscrapers a hundred stories high. I'm gonna build bridges a mile long... As he talks, Mary has been listening intently. She finally stoops down and picks up a rock, weighting it in her hand. GEORGE Are you gonna throw a rock? MEDIUM LONG SHOT The old deserted house. Mary throws her rock, and once more we hear the SOUND of breaking glass. GEORGE Hey, that's pretty good. What'd you wish, Mary? Mary looks at him provocatively, then turns and shuffles off down the street, singing as she goes. George hurries after her. MARY (singing) Buffalo Gals, can't you come out tonight... George joins her in the singing as they proceed down the street. MARY AND GEORGE (singing) ...can't you come out tonight, can't you come out tonight. Buffalo Gals can't you come out tonight and dance by the light of the moon. GEORGE What'd you wish when you threw that rock? CLOSE SHOT Man on the porch of house, listening to George and Mary. MEDIUM CLOSEUP – GEORGE AND MARY They have stopped walking and now face one another. MARY Oh, no. GEORGE Come on, tell me. MARY If I told you it might not come true. GEORGE What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say... LONG SHOT Full moon shining through the trees. BACK TO SHOT – GEORGE AND MARY GEORGE ...the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey, that's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon, Mary. MARY I'll take it. And then what? GEORGE Well, then you could swallow it and it'd all dissolve, see? And the moonbeams'd shoot out of your fingers and your toes, and the ends of your hair. (pauses) Am I talking too much? MEDIUM CLOSEUP – MAN ON PORCH OF HOUSE As George finishes talking, he jumps up out of his chair: MAN Yes!! Why don't you kiss her instead of talking her to death? CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND MARY GEORGE How's that? MEDIUM CLOSEUP – MAN ON PORCH MAN Why don't you kiss her instead of talking her to death? CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND MARY GEORGE Want me to kiss her, huh? CLOSE SHOT – PORCH OF HOUSE MAN Aw, youth is wasted on the wrong people. As he speaks, the man leaves the porch and goes into his house, slamming the front door. CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND MARY GEORGE Hey, hey, hold on. Hey, mister, come on back out here, and I'll show you some kissing that'll put hair back on your head. What are you... Mary runs off scene. George has been once more standing on the belt of her bath robe, so as she goes, her robe comes off. GEORGE (looking around) Mary... He drops his bundle of clothes and picks up Mary's robe. He cannot see her anywhere. GEORGE Okay, I give up. Where are you? CLOSEUP – BUSH AT EDGE OF SIDEWALK We see Mary's face peering out from the leaves. MARY Over here in the hydrangea bushes. MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND MARY George walks toward the bush. GEORGE Here you are. Catch. He is about to throw her the robe, when a thought strikes him. GEORGE Wait a minute. What am I doing? This is a very interesting situation. MARY (from the bushes) Please give me my robe. GEORGE Hmm... A man doesn't get in a situation like this every day. MARY (impatiently) I'd like to have my robe. GEORGE Not in Bedford Falls, anyway. Mary thrashes around in the bushes. We hear her say: MARY Ouch! GEORGE Gesundheit. This requires a little thought here. MARY (getting mad) George Bailey! Give me my robe! GEORGE I've heard about things like this, but I've never... MARY (interrupting) Shame on you. I'm going to tell your mother on you. GEORGE Oh, my mother's way up the corner there. MARY (desperate) I'll call the police. GEORGE They're way downtown. They'd be on my side, too. MARY I'm going to scream! GEORGE (thoughtfully) Maybe I could sell tickets. Let's see. No, the point is, in order to get this robe... I've got it! I'll make a deal with you, Mary. Headlights flash into the scene, and the old Bailey automobile drives in, with Harry at the wheel, and Uncle Billy beside him. UNCLE BILLY George! George! Come on home, quick! Your father's had a stroke! George throws Mary's robe over the bush and gets into the car. GEORGE Mary... Mary, I'm sorry. I've got to go. HARRY Come on, George, let's hurry. GEORGE Did you get a doctor? UNCLE BILLY Yes, Campbell's there now. CLOSEUP – THE HYDRANGEA BUSH As the car drives off, Mary, now wearing the robe, rises up from the bush and follows the car with her eyes. FADE OUT FADE IN: EXT. BAILEY BUILDING AND LOAN SIGN OVER ENTRANCE INT. BAILEY BUILDING AND LOAN OFFICE – DAY CLOSE SHOT – DIRECTORS MEETING There are about twelve directors seated around a long table. They are the substantial citizens of Bedford Falls: Dr. Campbell, a lawyer, an insurance agent, a real estate salesman, etc. Prominently seated among them is Henry F. Potter, his goon beside his wheelchair. Uncle Billy and George are seated among the directors. The Chairman of the Board is Dr. Campbell. They have folders and papers before them, on which they have been reporting. Before each of the directors there are individual reports for them to study. DR. CAMPBELL I think that's all we'll need you for, George. I know you're anxious to make a train. GEORGE (rising) I have a taxi waiting downstairs. DR. CAMPBELL I want the Board to know that George gave up his trip to Europe to help straighten things out here these past few months. Good luck to you at school, George. GEORGE Thanks. DR. CAMPBELL Now we come to the real purpose of this meeting – to appoint a successor to our dear friend, Peter Bailey. POTTER Mr. Chairman, I'd like to get to my real purpose. MAN Wait just a minute now. POTTER Wait for what? I claim this institution is not necessary to this town. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to dissolve this institution and turn its assets and liabilities over to the receiver. UNCLE BILLY (angrily) George, you hear what that buzzard... LAWYER Mr. Chairman, it's too soon after Peter Bailey's death to discuss chloroforming the Building and Loan. MAN Peter Bailey died three months ago. I second Mr. Potter's motion. DR. CAMPBELL Very well. In that case I'll ask the two executive officers to withdraw. Dr. Campbell rises from his seat. George and Uncle Billy start to collect their papers and leave the table. DR. CAMPBELL But before you go, I'm sure the whole board wishes to express its deep sorrow at the passing of Peter Bailey. GEORGE Thank you very much. DR. CAMPBELL It was his faith and devotion that are responsible for this organization. POTTER I'll go further than that. I'll say that to the public Peter Bailey was the Building and Loan. Everyone looks at him surprised. UNCLE BILLY (trying to control himself) Oh, that's fine, Potter, coming from you, considering that you probably drove him to his grave. POTTER Peter Bailey was not a business man. That's what killed him. Oh, I don't mean any disrespect to him, God rest his soul. He was a man of high ideals, so-called, but ideals without common sense can ruin this town. (picking up papers from table) Now, you take this loan here to Ernie Bishop... You know, that fellow that sits around all day on his brains in his taxi. You know... I happen to know the bank turned down this loan, but he comes here and we're building him a house worth five thousand dollars. Why? George is at the door of the office, holding his coat and papers, ready to leave. GEORGE Well, I handled that, Mr. Potter. You have all the papers there. His salary, insurance. I can personally vouch for his character. POTTER (sarcastically) A friend of yours? GEORGE Yes, sir. POTTER You see, if you shoot pool with some employee here, you can come and borrow money. What does that get us? A discontented, lazy rabble instead of a thrifty working class. And all because a few starry-eyed dreamers like Peter Bailey stir them up and fill their heads with a lot of impossible ideas. Now, I say... George puts down his coat and comes around to the table, incensed by what Potter is saying about his father. GEORGE Just a minute – just a minute. Now, hold on, Mr. Potter. You're right when you say my father was no business man. I know that. Why he ever started this cheap, penny-ante Building and Loan, I'll never know. But neither you nor anybody else can say anything against his character, because his whole life was... Why, in the twenty- five years since he and Uncle Billy started this thing, he never once thought of himself. Isn't that right, Uncle Billy? He didn't save enough money to send Harry to school, let alone me. But he did help a few people get out of your slums, Mr. Potter. And what's wrong with that? Why... Here, you're all businessmen here. Doesn't it make them better citizens? Doesn't it make them better customers? You... you said... What'd you say just a minute ago?... They had to wait and save their money before they even ought to think of a decent home. Wait! Wait for what? Until their children grow up and leave them? Until they're so old and broken- down that they... Do you know how long it takes a working man to save five thousand dollars? Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about... they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him, but to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well, in my book he died a much richer man than you'll ever be! POTTER I'm not interested in your book. I'm talking about the Building and Loan. GEORGE I know very well what you're talking about. You're talking about something you can't get your fingers on, and it's galling you. That's what you're talking about, I know. (to the Board) Well, I've said too much. I... You're the Board here. You do what you want with this thing. Just one thing more, though. This town needs this measly one-horse institution if only to have some place where people can come without crawling to Potter. Come on, Uncle Billy! George leaves the room, followed by the jubilant Uncle Billy. Potter's face is grim with hatred. The "frustrated old man" remark was gall in his veins. POTTER Sentimental hogwash! I want my motion... He is interrupted by a babble of talk, as the directors take up the argument INT. OUTER OFFICE – BUILDING AND LOAN – DAY MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT George, visibly shaken, is busy with his bag, his papers. He is worried about the outcome of the meeting. Dissolving the Building and Loan will alter his plans. Uncle Billy follows him around, chattering. UNCLE BILLY Boy, oh, boy, that was telling him, George, old boy. You shut his big mouth. (to Cousin Tilly and Cousin Eustace) You should have heard him. COUSIN EUSTACE What happened? We heard a lot of yelling. UNCLE BILLY Well, we're being voted out of business after twenty-five years. Easy come, easy go. COUSIN TILLY (reading a newspaper) Here it is, "Help Wanted – Female." MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT – DOORWAY TO OFFICE Ernie is in the doorway. ERNIE You still want me to hang around, George? MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND THE OTHERS GEORGE (looking at his watch) Yeah, I'll be right down. UNCLE BILLY Hey, you'll miss your train. You're a week late for school already. Go on. GEORGE (indicating Board room) I wonder what's going on in there? UNCLE BILLY Oh, never mind. Don't worry about that. They're putting us out of business. So what? I can get another job. I'm only fifty-five. COUSIN TILLY Fifty-six! UNCLE BILLY Go on – go on. Hey, look, you gave up your boat trip, now you don't want to miss college too, do you? Dr. Campbell comes running out, all excited. DR. CAMPBELL George! George! They voted Potter down! They want to keep it going! Cousin Eustace, Cousin Tilly and Uncle Billy cheer wildly. Dr. Campbell and George shake hands. UNCLE BILLY Whoopee! DR. CAMPBELL But they've got one condition – only one condition. GEORGE What's that? DR. CAMPBELL That's the best part of it. They've appointed George here as executive secretary to take his father's place. GEORGE Oh, no! But, Uncle Billy... DR. CAMPBELL You can keep him on. That's all right. As secretary you can hire anyone you like. GEORGE (emphatically) Dr. Campbell, now let's get this thing straight. I'm leaving. I'm leaving right now. I'm going to school. This is my last chance. Uncle Billy here, he's your man. DR. CAMPBELL But, George, they'll vote with Potter otherwise. LAP DISSOLVE EXT. SKY – NIGHT The same stars we saw in the opening sequence are once more twinkling as we hear the voices form Heaven CLARENCE'S VOICE I know. I know. He didn't go. JOSEPH'S VOICE That's right. Not only that, but he gave his school money to his brother Harry, and sent him to college. Harry became a football star – made second team All American. CLARENCE'S VOICE Yes, but what happened to George? LAP DISSOLVE EXT. RAILROAD STATION – DAY – FOUR YEARS LATER MEDIUM SHOT Characteristic activity; a number of people waiting for the train. Uncle Billy is seated on a baggage wagon eating peanuts as George paces up and down in front of him. JOSEPH'S VOICE George got four years older, waiting for Harry to come back and take over the Building and Loan. GEORGE Oh, there are plenty of jobs around for somebody that likes to travel. Look at this. (takes some folders from his pocket) There... Venezuela oil fields – wanted, man with construction experience. Here's the Yukon, right here – wanted, man with engineering experience. The WHISTLE of the approaching train is heard. GEORGE Thar she blows. You know what the three most exciting sounds in the world are? UNCLE BILLY Uh-huh. Breakfast is served; lunch is served; dinner... GEORGE No, no, no, no! Anchor chains, plane motors, and train whistles. UNCLE BILLY Peanut? WIPE TO: EXT. TRAIN – DAY MEDIUM SHOT The train comes to a stop, and Harry is among the first to get off, followed by an attractive girl about the same age as he is. George rushes into the shot, and as the brothers embrace: GEORGE (joyously) There's the professor now! Old professor, Phi Beta Kappa Bailey! All American! HARRY Well, if it isn't old George Geographic Explorer Bailey! What? No husky dogs? No sled? (to Uncle Billy) Uncle Billy, you haven't changed a bit. UNCLE BILLY Nobody ever changes around here. You know that. GEORGE Oh, am I glad to see you. HARRY Say, where's Mother? GEORGE She's home cooking the fatted calf. Come on, let's go. HARRY Oh, wait. Wait... Wait a minute. CLOSE SHOT The group, including Ruth Dakin. This is the young lady who came off the train with Harry. In the excitement of greetings she has been momentarily forgotten. She stands, smiling, waiting. GEORGE Hello. UNCLE BILLY How do you do. HARRY Ruth Dakin. RUTH Ruth Dakin Bailey, if you don't mind. George and Uncle Billy stare, astounded. UNCLE BILLY Huh? HARRY Well, I wired you I had a surprise. Here she is. Meet the wife. George is thunderstruck. He takes Ruth's hand. UNCLE BILLY Well, what do you know – wife. GEORGE Well, how do you do. Congratulations. Congratulations. What am I doing? He kisses Ruth. CAMERA MOVES WITH them down the platform. GEORGE Harry, why didn't you tell somebody? (to Ruth) What's a pretty girl like you doing marrying this two-headed brother of mine? RUTH (smiling) Well, I'll tell you. It's purely mercenary. My father offered him a job. George stops, with a sinking feeling. Uncle Billy and Ruth continue out of shot. Harry stops with George. UNCLE BILLY (as he moves off) Oh, he gets you and a job? Well, Harry's cup runneth over. HARRY George... about that job. Ruth spoke out of turn. I never said I'd take it. You've been holding the bag here for four years, and... well, I won't let you down, George. I would like to... Oh, wait a minute. I forgot the bags. I'll be right back. He runs out of the shot, George watching him. CLOSE SHOT George slowly moves after Uncle Billy and Ruth. He is thinking deeply. UNCLE BILLY'S VOICE It was a surprise to me. This is the new Mrs. Bailey, my nephew's wife. Old, old friend of the family. RUTH'S VOICE Oh, of course. I've heard him speak of you. UNCLE BILLY'S VOICE And I want to tell you, we're going to give the biggest party this town ever saw. CAMERA MOVES WITH George as he comes into the scene. Ruth detaches herself from the group and offers George some popcorn. RUTH (to George) Here, have some popcorn. George, George, George... that's all Harry ever talks about. GEORGE (quietly) Ruth, this... what about this job? RUTH Oh, well, my father owns a glass factory in Buffalo. He wants to get Harry started in the research business. GEORGE Is it a good job? RUTH Oh, yes, very. Not much money, but a good future, you know. Harry's a genius at research. My father fell in love with him. GEORGE And you did, too? Ruth nods, smiling. WIPE TO: EXT. FRONT PORCH – BAILEY HOME – NIGHT MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT Cousin Eustace is taking a photograph of the family group assembled on the porch. Flash bulbs go off, and the group breaks up. The crowd enters the front door of the house, leaving George and Uncle Billy on the porch. CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND UNCLE BILLY The latter is tipsy. He feels very high. UNCLE BILLY Oh, boy, oh boy, oh boy. I feel so good I could spit in Potter's eye. I think I will. What did you say, huh? Oh, maybe I'd better go home. He looks around for his hat, which is on his head. UNCLE BILLY Where's my hat? Where's my... George takes the hat from Uncle Billy's head and hands it to him. UNCLE BILLY Oh, thank you, George. Which one is mine? GEORGE (laughing) The middle one. UNCLE BILLY Oh, thank you, George, old boy, old boy. Now, look – if you'll point me in the right direction... would you do that? George? GEORGE Right down here. They descend the porch steps, and George turns his uncle around and heads him down the street. UNCLE BILLY Old Building and Loan pal, huh... GEORGE Now you just turn this way and go right straight down. UNCLE BILLY That way, huh? He staggers out of the scene, and as George turns away, we hear Uncle Billy singing "My Wild Irish Rose." There is a CRASH of cans and bottles, then: UNCLE BILLY'S VOICE I'm all right. I'm all right. "... the sweetest flower that grows... " EXT. HOUSE – NIGHT MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT George is standing at the garden gate. He takes some travel folders from his pocket, looks at them and throws them away. He is obviously disturbed about the latest turn of events. His mother comes out of the house and kisses him. GEORGE Hello, Mom. MRS. BAILEY (as she kisses him) That's for nothing. How do you like her? She nods toward the house, where Harry and Ruth, among a crowd of other couples, are dancing to the MUSIC of a phonograph, and can be seen through the front door. GEORGE She's swell. MRS. BAILEY Looks like she can keep Harry on his toes. GEORGE Keep him out of Bedford Falls, anyway. MRS. BAILEY Did you know that Mary Hatch is back from school? GEORGE Uh-huh. MRS. BAILEY Came back three days ago. GEORGE Hmmmm... MRS. BAILEY Nice girl, Mary. GEORGE Hmmmm... MRS. BAILEY Kind that will help you find the answers, George. GEORGE Hmmm... MRS. BAILEY Oh, stop that grunting. GEORGE Hmmm... MRS. BAILEY Can you give me one good reason why you shouldn't call on Mary? GEORGE Sure – Sam Wainwright. MRS. BAILEY Hmmm? GEORGE Yes. Sam's crazy about Mary. MRS. BAILEY Well, she's not crazy about him. GEORGE Well, how do you know? Did she discuss it with you? MRS. BAILEY No. GEORGE Well then, how do you know? MRS. BAILEY Well, I've got eyes, haven't I? Why, she lights up like a firefly whenever you're around. GEORGE Oh... MRS. BAILEY And besides, Sam Wainwright's away in New York, and you're here in Bedford Falls. GEORGE And all's fair in love and war? MRS. BAILEY (primly) I don't know about war. GEORGE Mother, you know, I can see right through you – right back to your back collar button... trying to get rid of me, huh? MRS. BAILEY Uh-huh. They kiss. Mrs. Bailey puts George's hat on his head. GEORGE Well, here's your hat, what's your hurry? All right, Mother, old Building and Loan pal, I think I'll go out and find a girl and do a little passionate necking. MRS. BAILEY Oh, George! GEORGE Now, if you'll just point me in the right direction... This direction? (as he leaves) Good night, Mrs. Bailey. WIPE TO: EXT. MAIN STREET BEDFORD FALLS – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT George is standing in the middle of the street, hands in his pockets. As a girl passes, he turns and watches her for a moment. He is obviously undecided as to what he wants to do. EXT. VIOLET BICK'S BEAUTY SHOP – NIGHT MEDIUM SHOT Violet is locking up for the night. A couple of men are crowding around her, each one bent on taking her out. There is laughter, kidding and pawing. She looks up and sees George standing there. VIOLET (to the two men) Excuse me... MAN Now, wait a minute. VIOLET I think I got a date. But stick around, fellows, just in case, huh? MAN We'll wait for you, baby. CAMERA PANS WITH Violet as she crosses the street to George. MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND VIOLET VIOLET Hello, Georgie-Porgie. GEORGE Hello, Vi. He looks her over. Violet takes her beauty shop seriously and she's an eyeful. She senses the fact that George is far from immune to her attractions. She links her arm in his and continues on down the street with him. CLOSE MOVING SHOT – GEORGE AND VIOLET VIOLET What gives? GEORGE Nothing. VIOLET Where are you going? GEORGE Oh, I'll probably end up down at the library. They stop walking and face one another. VIOLET George, don't you ever get tired of just reading about things? Her eyes are seductive and guileful as she looks up at him. He is silent for a moment, then blurts out: GEORGE Yes... what are you doing tonight? VIOLET (feigned surprise) Not a thing. GEORGE Are you game, Vi? Let's make a night of it. VIOLET (just what she wanted) Oh, I'd love it, Georgie. What'll we do? GEORGE Let's go out in the fields and take off our shoes and walk through the grass. VIOLET Huh? GEORGE Then we can go up to the falls. It's beautiful up there in the moonlight, and there's a green pool up there, and we can swim in it. Then we can climb Mt. Bedford, and smell the pines, and watch the sunrise against the peaks, and... we'll stay up there the whole night, and everybody'll be talking and there'll be a terrific scandal... VIOLET (interrupting) George, have you gone crazy? Walk in the grass in my bare feet? Why, it's ten miles up to Mt. Bedford. GEORGE Shhh... VIOLET (angrily) You think just because you... By this time a small crowd has collected to watch the above scene. Violet is furious and talking in a loud voice, and George is trying to quiet her. Finally: GEORGE Okay, just forget about the whole thing. As George stalks off, the crowd breaks into laughter, and we WIPE TO: EXT. RESIDENTIAL STREET – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT George is walking slowly past the Hatch home. He stares meditatively at the simple dwelling, then he starts walking ahead. But after a few steps he turns around and starts back. He walks past the house a few yards, turns, and starts back again. INT. BEDROOM WINDOW – HATCH HOME – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT Mary is looking out the window, watching George walk back and forth. MARY What are you doing, picketing? George stops, startled, and looks up. GEORGE Hello, Mary. I just happened to be passing by. MARY Yeah, so I noticed. Have you made up your mind? GEORGE How's that? MARY Have you made up your mind? GEORGE About what? MARY About coming in. Your mother just phoned and said you were on your way over to pay me a visit. EXT. STREET – NIGHT MEDIUM LONG SHOT George looks surprised at this. GEORGE My mother just called you? Well, how did she know? MARY Didn't you tell her? GEORGE I didn't tell anybody. I just went for a walk and happened to be passing by... But Mary has disappeared from the window. GEORGE (to himself) What do you... went for a walk, that's all. INT. HATCH HOME – NIGHT MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT Mary is running down the stairs. MARY (calling off) I'll be downstairs, mother. MRS. HATCH'S VOICE All right, dear. Mary looks in a mirror at the bottom of the stairs and fixes her hair. She is plainly excited at George's visit. She runs into the parlor and puts a sketch on an easel. INSERT: THE SKETCH It is a caricature of George throwing a lasso around the moon. Lettering on the drawing says: "George Lassos The Moon." BACK TO SHOT Mary runs into the hall, opens the phonograph and puts on a record of "Buffalo Gals." Then she opens the front door and stands there waiting for George. INT. DOORWAY – NIGHT MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT George is struggling with the gate – he finally kicks it open and starts slowly up the path toward Mary. MARY Well, are you coming in or aren't you? GEORGE Well, I'll come in for a minute, but I didn't tell anybody I was coming over here. CLOSE SHOT Mary and George are in the entrance hall. GEORGE When did you get back? MARY Tuesday. GEORGE Where'd you get that dress? MARY Do you like it? GEORGE It's all right. I thought you'd go back to New York like Sam and Ingie, and the rest of them. MARY Oh, I worked there for a couple of vacations, but I don't know... I guess I was homesick. GEORGE (shocked) Homesick? For Bedford Falls? MARY Yes, and my family and... oh, everything. Would you like to sit down? They go through the doorway into the parlor. GEORGE All right, for a minute. I still can't understand it though. You know I didn't tell anybody I was coming here. MARY Would you rather leave? GEORGE No, I don't want to be rude. MARY Well, then, sit down. George sees the cartoon on the easel and bends down for a close look at it. GEORGE (indicating cartoon) Some joke, huh? CLOSE SHOT George and Mary sitting on the divan. He is uncomfortable, and she tries desperately to keep the conversation alive. GEORGE Well, I see it still smells like pine needles in here. MARY Thank you. There is silence for a moment, then Mary joins in singing with the phonograph record which has been playing all through the above scene: MARY (singing) "And dance by the light..." GEORGE What's the matter? Oh, yeah... yeah... He looks at his watch, as though about to leave. GEORGE Well, I... MARY (desperately) It was nice about your brother Harry, and Ruth, wasn't it? GEORGE Oh... yeah, yeah. That's all right. MARY Don't you like her? GEORGE Well, of course I like her. She's a peach. MARY Oh, it's just marriage in general you're not enthusiastic about, huh? GEORGE No, marriage is all right for Harry, and Marty, and Sam and you. INT. STAIRS MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT Mrs. Hatch, in a bathrobe, and with her hair in curlers, is leaning over the banister as she calls: MRS. HATCH Mary! Mary! INT. PARLOR – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT George and Mary seated on the divan. MRS. HATCH'S VOICE Who's down there with you? MARY It's George Bailey, Mother. MRS. HATCH'S VOICE George Bailey? What's he want? MARY I don't know. (to George) What do you want? GEORGE (indignant) Me? Not a thing. I just came in to get warm. MARY (to mother) He's making violent love to me, Mother. George is aghast. MRS. HATCH'S VOICE You tell him to go right back home, and don't you leave the house, either. Sam Wainwright promised to call you from New York tonight. GEORGE (heatedly) But your mother needn't... you know I didn't come here to... to... to... MARY (rising) What did you come here for? GEORGE I don't know. You tell me. You're supposed to be the one that has all the answers. You tell me. MARY (terribly hurt) Oh, why don't you go home? GEORGE (almost shouting) That's where I'm going. I don't know why I came here in the first place! Good night! As George leaves the room, the telephone in the hall starts ringing. MARY (to George) Good night! MRS. HATCH'S VOICE Mary! Mary! The telephone! It's Sam! INT. HALL – NIGHT MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT Mary comes into the hall. MARY (almost weeping) I'll get it. As Mary comes into the hall, she stops by the phonograph, which is still playing "Buffalo Gals," takes off the record with a jerk, and smashes it against the machine. The phone is still ringing. MRS. HATCH Mary, he's waiting! MARY Hello. As Mary picks up the phone, George comes in from the front porch. GEORGE I forgot my hat. MARY (overly enthusiastic) Hee-haw! Hello, Sam, how are you? SAM'S VOICE Aw, great. Gee, it's good to hear your voice again. George has stopped, hat in hand, to hear the first greetings. MARY Oh, well, that's awfully sweet of you, Sam. (glances toward door, sees George still there) There's an old friend of yours here. George Bailey. SAM You mean old moss-back George? MARY Yes, old moss-back George. SAM'S VOICE Hee-haw! Put him on. MARY Wait a minute. I'll call him. (calling) George! MRS. HATCH He doesn't want to speak to George, you idiot! MARY He does so. He asked for him. (calling) Geo... George, Sam wants to speak to you. She hands the instrument to George. GEORGE Hello, Sam. INT. SAM'S NEW YORK OFFICE – NIGHT MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT Sam is seated at his desk, while a couple of his friends are nearby, with highballs in their hands. SAM (into phone) Well, George Baileyoffski! Hey, a fine pal you are. What're you trying to do? Steal my girl? INT. HATCH HALL – NIGHT MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND MARY GEORGE (into phone) What do you mean? Nobody's trying to steal your girl. Here... here's Mary. SAM'S VOICE No, wait a minute. Wait a minute. I want to talk to both of you. Tell Mary to get on the extension. GEORGE (to Mary) Here. You take it. You tell him. MARY Mother's on the extension. INT. UPPER HALLWAY – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT – MRS. HATCH As she hears this, she hastily hangs up the extension phone on which she has been listening. BACK TO SHOT – GEORGE AND MARY MARY We can both hear. Come here. Mary takes the telephone from George and holds it so that of necessity George's cheek is almost against hers. He is very conscious of her proximity. MARY (on phone) We're listening, Sam. SAM'S VOICE I have a big deal coming up that's going to make us all rich. George, you remember that night in Martini's bar when you told me you read someplace about making plastics out of soybeans? GEORGE Huh? Yeah-yeah-yeah... soybeans. Yeah. SAM'S VOICE Well, Dad's snapped up the idea. He's going to build a factory outside of Rochester. How do you like that? Mary is watching George interestedly. George is very conscious of her, close to him. GEORGE Rochester? Well, why Rochester? SAM'S VOICE Well, why not? Can you think of anything better? GEORGE Oh, I don't know... why not right here? You remember that old tool and machinery works? You tell your father he can get that for a song. And all the labor he wants, too. Half the town was thrown out of work when they closed down. SAM'S VOICE That so? Well, I'll tell him. Hey, that sounds great! Oh, baby, I knew you'd come through. Now, here's the point. Mary, Mary, you're in on this too. Now listen. Have you got any money? GEORGE Money? Yeah... well, a little. SAM'S VOICE Well, now listen. I want you to put every cent you've got into our stock, you hear? And George, I may have a job for you; that is, unless you're still married to that broken-down Building and Loan. This is the biggest thing since radio, and I'm letting you in on the ground floor. Oh, Mary... Mary... MARY (nervously) I'm here. SAM'S VOICE Would you tell that guy I'm giving him the chance of a lifetime, you hear? The chance of a lifetime. As Mary listens, she turns to look at George, her lips almost on his lips. MARY (whispering) He says it's the chance of a lifetime. George can stand it no longer. He drops the phone with a crash, grabs Mary by the shoulders and shakes her. Mary begins to cry. GEORGE (fiercely) Now you listen to me! I don't want any plastics! I don't want any ground floors, and I don't want to get married – ever – to anyone! You understand that? I want to do what I want to do. And you're... and you're... He pulls her to him in a fierce embrace. Two meant for each other find themselves in tearful ecstasy. GEORGE Oh, Mary... Mary... MARY George... George... George... GEORGE Mary... CLOSE SHOT Mrs. Hatch is at the top of the stairs. She practically faints at what she sees. WIPE TO: INT. FRONT HALL BAILEY HOME – DAY – SEVERAL MONTHS LATER CLOSEUP Cousin Tilly's face fills the screen as she cries: COUSIN TILLY Here they come! CAMERA PULLS BACK, and we hear the SOUND of the Wedding March. People are crowded into the rooms: family, friends, neighbors. There is a din of conversation. Mary and George appear at the top of the stairs in traveling clothes, with Mrs. Hatch, red-eyed, behind them. Mary throws her bouquet, which is caught by Violet Bick. As they come out onto the porch, we see that it is raining. Nevertheless, Cousin Eustace has his camera equipment set up and is taking pictures of the group. George and Mary dodge through the rain and a shower of rice and get into Ernie's taxicab, which pulls away from the curb. EXT. PORCH OF BAILEY HOUSE – DAY CLOSE SHOT Mrs. Bailey and Annie, the maid. MRS. BAILEY First Harry, now George. Annie, we're just two old maids now. ANNIE You speak for yourself, Mrs. B. INT. ERNIE'S CAB – DAY CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE, MARY AND ERNIE George and Mary are in each other's arms. ERNIE If either of you two see a stranger around here, it's me. GEORGE Hey, look! Somebody's driving this cab. Ernie reaches over and hands George a bottle of champagne done up in gift wrappings. ERNIE Bert, the cop, sent this over. He said to float away to Happy Land on the bubbles. GEORGE Oh, look at this. Champagne! MARY Good old Bert. ERNIE By the way, where are you two going on this here now honeymoon? GEORGE Where are we going? (takes out a fat roll of bills) Look at this. There's the kitty, Ernie. Here, come on, count it, Mary. MARY I feel like a bootlegger's wife. (holding up the money) Look! GEORGE You know what we're going to do? We're going to shoot the works. A whole week in New York. A whole week in Bermuda. The highest hotels – the oldest champagne – the richest caviar – the hottest music, and the prettiest wife! ERNIE That does it! Then what? GEORGE (to Mary) Then what, honey? MARY After that, who cares? GEORGE That does it – come here. The cab passes the bank, and Ernie sees a crowd of people around the door. He stops the cab. LONG SHOT Scurrying people under umbrellas, swarming around the bank doors. Panic is in the air. Attendants are trying to close down. Several people come running past the cab. INT. CAB CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE, MARY AND ERNIE ERNIE Don't look now, but there's something funny going on over there at the bank, George, I've never really seen one, but that's got all the earmarks of a run. PASSERBY Hey, Ernie, if you got any money in the bank, you better hurry. MARY George, let's not stop. Let's go! George gets out of the cab and looks down the street. GEORGE Just a minute, dear. Oh-oh... MARY Please, let's not stop, George. GEORGE I'll be back in a minute, Mary. George runs off up the street, toward the Building and Loan. EXT. BUILDING AND LOAN – DAY CLOSE SHOT – SIDEWALK An iron grill blocks the street entrance to the Building and Loan. It has been locked. A crowd of men and women are waiting around the grill. They are simply-dressed people, to whom their savings are a matter of life and death. George comes in with an assumed cheerful manner. The people look at him silently, half shamefaced, but grimly determined on their rights. In their hearts there is panic and fear. GEORGE Hello, everybody. Mrs. Thompson, how are you? Charlie? What's the matter here, can't you get in? No one answers. He quickly unlocks the grill door and pushes it open. Followed by the crowd, George runs upstairs and into the outer offices of the Building and Loan. INT. OUTER OFFICE – BUILDING AND LOAN – DAY MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT George, followed by the still-silent people, comes in. Uncle Billy is standing in the doorway to his private office, taking a drink from a bottle. He motions to George to join him. GEORGE What is this, Uncle Billy? A holiday? UNCLE BILLY George... He points to George's office. George turns back cheerfully to the crowd. GEORGE Come on in, everybody. That's right, just come in. George vaults over the counter. GEORGE Now look, why don't you all sit down. There are a lot of seats over there. Just make yourselves at home. UNCLE BILLY George, can I see you a minute? The people ignore George and remain standing in front of the teller's window. They all have their passbooks out. George hurries into his office where Uncle Billy is waiting for him. INT. GEORGE'S OFFICE – DAY CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND UNCLE BILLY GEORGE Why didn't you call me? UNCLE BILLY I just did, but they said you left. This is a pickle, George, this is a pickle. GEORGE All right now, what happened? How did it start? UNCLE BILLY How does anything like this ever start? All I know is the bank called our loan. GEORGE When? UNCLE BILLY About an hour ago. I had to hand over all our cash. GEORGE All of it? UNCLE BILLY Every cent of it, and it still was less than we owe. GEORGE Holy mackerel! UNCLE BILLY And then I got scared, George, and closed the doors. I... I... I... GEORGE The whole town's gone crazy. The telephone rings. Uncle Billy picks it up. UNCLE BILLY Yes, hello? George... it's Potter. GEORGE Hello? INT. POTTER'S LIBRARY – DAY MEDIUM SHOT Potter seated behind his desk, his goon alongside him. Standing in front of the desk is a distinguished-looking man, obviously the president of the bank. He is mopping his brow with his handkerchief. POTTER George, there is a rumor around town that you've closed your doors. Is that true? Oh, well, I'm very glad to hear that... George, are you all right? Do you need any police? INT. GEORGE'S OFFICE – DAY CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND UNCLE BILLY GEORGE (on phone) Police? What for? INT. POTTER'S OFFICE – DAY MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT – POTTER TALKING ON PHONE POTTER Well, mobs get pretty ugly sometimes, you know. George, I'm going all out to help in this crisis. I've just guaranteed the bank sufficient funds to meet their needs. They'll close up for a week, and then reopen. INT. GEORGE'S OFFICE – DAY CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND UNCLE BILLY GEORGE (to Uncle Billy) He just took over the bank. INT. POTTER'S OFFICE – DAY CLOSE SHOT – POTTER ON PHONE POTTER I may lose a fortune, but I'm willing to guarantee your people too. Just tell them to bring their shares over here and I will pay them fifty cents on the dollar. INT. GEORGE'S OFFICE – DAY CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND UNCLE BILLY GEORGE (furiously) Aw, you never miss a trick, do you, Potter? Well, you're going to miss this one. George bangs the receiver down and turns to meet Uncle Billy's anxious look. INT. POTTER'S OFFICE CLOSEUP – POTTER ON PHONE POTTER If you close your doors before six P.M. you will never reopen. He realizes George has hung up, and clicks the phone furiously. INT. GEORGE'S OFFICE – DAY CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND UNCLE BILLY UNCLE BILLY George, was it a nice wedding? Gosh, I wanted to be there. GEORGE Yeah... (looks at string on Uncle Billy's finger) ...you can take this one off now. An ominous SOUND of angry voices comes from the other room. George and Uncle Billy exit from George's office. INT. OUTER OFFICE – BUILDING AND LOAN – DAY MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT More people have crowded around the counter. Their muttering stops and they stand silent and grim. There is panic in their faces. GEORGE Now, just remember that this thing isn't as black as it appears. As George speaks, sirens are heard passing in the street below. The crowd turn to the windows, then back to George. GEORGE I have some news for you, folks. I've just talked to old man Potter, and he's guaranteed cash payments at the bank. The bank's going to reopen next week. ED But, George, I got my money here. CHARLIE Did he guarantee this place? GEORGE Well, no, Charlie. I didn't even ask him. We don't need Potter over here. Mary and Ernie have come into the room during this scene. Mary stands watching silently. CHARLIE I'll take mine now. GEORGE No, but you... you... you're thinking of this place all wrong. As if I had the money back in a safe. The money's not here. Your money's in Joe's house... (to one of the men) ...right next to yours. And in the Kennedy house, and Mrs. Macklin's house, and a hundred others. Why, you're lending them the money to build, and then, they're going to pay it back to you as best they can. Now what are you going to do? Foreclose on them? TOM I got two hundred and forty-two dollars in here, and two hundred and forty-two dollars isn't going to break anybody. MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT – ANOTHER ANGLE GEORGE (handing him a slip) Okay, Tom. All right. Here you are. You sign this. You'll get your money in sixty days. TOM Sixty days? GEORGE Well, now that's what you agreed to when you bought your shares. There is a commotion at the outer doors. A man (Randall) comes in and makes his way up to Tom. RANDALL Tom... Tom, did you get your money? TOM No. RANDALL Well, I did. Old man Potter'll pay fifty cents on the dollar for every share you got. (shows bills) CROWD (ad lib) Fifty cents on the dollar! RANDALL Yes, cash! TOM (to George) Well, what do you say? GEORGE Now, Tom, you have to stick to your original agreement. Now give us sixty days on this. TOM (turning to Randall) Okay, Randall. He starts out. MRS. THOMPSON Are you going to go to Potter's? TOM Better to get half than nothing. A few other people start for the door. CAMERA PANS WITH George as he vaults over the counter quickly, speaking to the people. GEORGE Tom! Tom! Randall! Now wait... now listen... now listen to me. I beg of you not to do this thing. If Potter gets hold of this Building and Loan there'll never be another decent house built in this town. He's already got charge of the bank. He's got the bus line. He's got the department stores. And now he's after us. Why? Well, it's very simple. Because we're cutting in on his business, that's why. And because he wants to keep you living in his slums and paying the kind of rent he decides. The people are still trying to get out, but some of them have stood still, listening to him. George has begun to make an impression on them. GEORGE Joe, you lived in one of his houses, didn't you? Well, have you forgotten? Have you forgotten what he charged you for that broken-down shack? (to Ed) Here, Ed. You know, you remember last year when things weren't going so well, and you couldn't make your payments. You didn't lose your house, did you? Do you think Potter would have let you keep it? (turns to address the room again) Can't you understand what's happening here? Don't you see what's happening? Potter isn't selling. Potter's buying! And why? Because we're panicky and he's not. That's why. He's picking up some bargains. Now, we can get through this thing all right. We've got to stick together, though. We've got to have faith in each other. MRS. THOMPSON But my husband hasn't worked in over a year, and I need money. WOMAN How am I going to live until the bank opens? MAN I got doctor bills to pay. MAN I need cash. MAN Can't feed my kids on faith. During this scene Mary has come up behind the counter. Suddenly, as the people once more start moving toward the door, she holds up a roll of bills and calls out MARY How much do you need? George jumps over the counter and takes the money from Mary. GEORGE Hey! I got two thousand dollars! Here's two thousand dollars. This'll tide us over until the bank reopen. (to Tom) All right, Tom, how much do you need? TOM (doggedly) Two hundred and forty-two dollars! GEORGE (pleading) Aw, Tom, just enough to tide you over till the bank reopens. TOM I'll take two hundred and forty-two dollars. George starts rapidly to count out the money. Tom throws his passbook on the counter. GEORGE There you are. TOM That'll close my account. GEORGE Your account's still here. That's a loan. Mary turns and slips out through the crowd, followed by Ernie. George hands the two hundred and forty-two dollars to Tom, and speaks to Ed, the next in line. GEORGE Okay. All right, Ed? ED I got three hundred dollars here, George. Uncle Billy takes out his wallet and takes out all the cash he's got. GEORGE Aw, now, Ed... what'll it take till the bank reopens? What do you need? ED Well, I suppose twenty dollars. GEORGE Twenty dollars. Now you're talking. Fine. Thanks, Ed. (to Mrs. Thompson, next in line) All right, now, Mrs. Thompson. How much do you want? MRS. THOMPSON But it's your own money, George. GEORGE Never mind about that. How much do you want? MRS. THOMPSON I can get along with twenty, all right. GEORGE (counting it out) Twenty dollars. MRS. THOMPSON And I'll sign a paper. GEORGE You don't have to sign anything. I know you'll pay it back when you can. That's okay. (to woman next in line) All right, Mrs. Davis. MRS. DAVIS Could I have seventeen-fifty? GEORGE Seven... (he kisses her) Bless your heart, Of course you can have it. You got fifty cents? (counting) Seven... WIPE TO: INT. OUTER OFFICE BUILDING AND LOAN – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT George, Uncle Billy and Cousin Tilly are behind the counter, watching the minute hand of a clock on the wall as George counts off the seconds. Cousin Eustace is ready to close the door. UNCLE BILLY (excitedly) We're going to make it, George. They'll never close us up today! GEORGE (counting) Six... five... four... three... two... one... Bingo! Cousin Eustace slams and locks the door, and scurries around the counter to join the others. GEORGE We made it! Look... (holds up two bills) ... look, we're still in business! We've still got two bucks left! Uncle Billy is taking a drink out of his bottle. GEORGE Well, let's have some of that. Get some glasses, Cousin Tilly. (to Uncle Billy) We're a couple of financial wizards. UNCLE BILLY Those Rockefellers! GEORGE Get a tray for these great big important simoleons. UNCLE BILLY We'll save them for seed. A toast! They raise their glasses. GEORGE A toast! A toast to Papa Dollar and to Mama Dollar, and if you want the old Building and Loan to stay in business, you better have a family real quick. COUSIN TILLY I wish they were rabbits. GEORGE I wish they were too. Okay, let's put them in the safe and see what happens. The four of them parade through the office; George puts the two dollars in the safe. CLOSE SHOT – GROUP AROUND THE SAFE DOOR As George comes out: COUSIN EUSTACE (handing out cigars) Wedding cigars! GEORGE (startled) Oh-oh... wedding! Holy mackerel, I'm married! Where's Mary? Mary... (he runs around looking for her) Poor Mary. Look, I've got a train to catch. (looks at his watch) Well, the train's gone. I wonder if Ernie's still here with his taxicab? George rushes into his office to look out the window. COUSIN TILLY (on telephone) George, there's a call for you. GEORGE Look, will you get my wife on the phone? She's probably over at her mother's. COUSIN TILLY Mrs. Bailey is on the phone. INT. GEORGE'S OFFICE MEDIUM CLOSEUP – GEORGE IS THOROUGHLY RATTLED GEORGE I don't want Mrs. Bailey. I want my wife. Mrs. Bailey! Oh, that's my wife! Here, I'll take it in here. (picks up phone) Mary? Hello. Listen, dear, I'm sorry... What? Come home? What home? Three-twenty Sycamore? Well, what... whose home is that? The Waldorf Hotel, huh? WIPE TO: EXT. OLD GRANVILLE HOUSE – NIGHT MEDIUM LONG SHOT An old-fashioned, run-down house, unpainted and warped by the weather. It once had class but has not been lived in for years. This is the house that George and Mary will live in from now on. The rain is pouring down. A faint glow of light shines out from bottom windows. George hurries into scene. He stops to make sure it is the right number before going up the steps. EXT. SIDE OF HOUSE – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT Bert and man working in rain, sorting through travel posters. MAN Hey, this is the company's posters, and the company won't like this. BERT How would you like to get a ticket next week? Haven't you any romance in you? MAN Sure I have, but I got rid of it. BERT (reading poster) Liver pills! Who wants to see liver pills on their honeymoon? What? They want romantic places, beautiful places... places George wants to go. A sharp whistle is heard. CLOSE SHOT – WINDOW OF HOUSE Ernie is leaning from the window. ERNIE Hey, Bert, here he comes. CLOSE SHOT – BERT AND MAN BERT Come on, we got to get this up. He's coming. MAN Who? BERT The groom, idiot. Come on, get that ladder. MAN (disgustedly) What are they – ducks? CLOSE SHOT – SIDE PORCH OF HOUSE Bert and the man are putting up travel posters to cover up the broken windows. BERT Get that ladder up here. MAN All right – all right. BERT Hurry up... hurry up... hurry up. MAN I'm hurrying. MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT George is approaching the front door of the house, on which a sign is hanging: "Bridal Suite." Ernie looks out through the curtain covering the broken glass of the front door. ERNIE Hiya... Good evening, sir. Ernie opens the door, revealing himself as a homemade butler. This has been accomplished by rolling up his pants and putting on an old coachman's hat. George enters. ERNIE Entray, monsieur, entray. INT. GRANVILLE HOUSE – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE ENTERS The house is carpetless, empty – the rain and wind cause funny noises upstairs. A huge fire is burning in the fireplace. Near the fireplace a collection of packing boxes are heaped together in the shape of a small table and covered with a checkered oil cloth. It is set for two. A bucket with ice and a champagne bottle sit on the table as well as a bowl of caviar. Two small chickens are impaled on a spit over the fire. A phonograph is playing on a box, and a string from the phonograph is turning the chickens on the spit. The phonograph is playing "Song of the Islands." Mary is standing near the fireplace looking as pretty as any bride ever looked. She is smiling at George, who has been slowly taking in the whole set-up. Through a door he sees the end of a cheap bed, over the back of which is a pair of pajamas and a nightie. Ernie exits and closes the door. MARY (tears in her eyes) Welcome home, Mr. Bailey. GEORGE (overcome) Well, I'll be... Mary, Mary, where did you... They rush into each other's arms and hold each other in ecstasy. EXT. SIDE OF HOUSE – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT Bert and Ernie, standing in the pouring rain, start singing "I Love You Truly." INT. HOUSE – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND MARY They remain embraced. GEORGE Oh, Mary... MARY Remember the night we broke the windows in this old house? This is what I wished for. GEORGE Darling, you're wonderful. EXT. SIDE OF HOUSE – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT – BERT AND ERNIE They finish their song, and Ernie kisses Bert on the forehead. Bert slams Ernie's hat on his head. FADE OUT FADE IN: EXT. SLUM STREET BEDFORD FALLS – DAY – TWO YEARS LATER MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT In front of one of the miserable shacks that line the street are two vehicles. One of them is George Bailey's rickety car, and the other is an even more rickety truck piled high with household goods. The Martini family is moving. The family consists of Martini, his wife and four kid of various ages, from two to ten. George and Mary are helping the Martinis move. About a dozen neighbors crowd around. Martini and George, assisted by three of the Martini children, are carrying out the last of the furniture. As they emerge from the house, one of the neighbors, Schultz, calls out: SCHULTZ Martini, you rented a new house? MARTINI Rent? (to George) You hear what he say, Mr. Bailey? GEORGE What's that? MARTINI I own the house. Me, Giuseppe Martini. I own my own house. No more we live like pigs in thisa Potter's Field. Hurry, Maria. MARIA Yes... GEORGE Come on... (to Mary) Bring the baby. (to Martini) I'll bring the kids in the car. MARTINI Oh, thank you, Mr. Bailey. Mary gets in the front seat of the car, with the baby in her arms. GEORGE All right, kids – here – get in here. Now get right up on the seat there. Get the... get the goat! The family goat gets in the back seat with the three kids. MARTINI Goodbye, everybody! GEORGE All in... The rickety caravan starts off down the street, to the cheers of the neighbors. WIPE TO: EXT. BAILEY PARK – DAY CLOSE SHOT Sign hanging from a tree "Welcome to Bailey Park." CAMERA PANS TO follow George's car and the old truck laden with furniture as they pass – we hear Martini's voice singing "O Sole Mio." Bailey Park is a district of new small houses, not all alike, but each individual. New lawns here and there, and young trees. It has the promise when built up of being a pleasant little middle class section. WIPE TO: EXT. MARTINI'S NEW HOUSE – DAY MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT George and Mary are on the porch of the new house, with the Martinis lined up before them. GEORGE Mr. and Mrs. Martini, welcome home. The Martinis cross themselves. EXT. STREET – BAILEY PARK – DAY CLOSE SHOT Sam Wainwright is standing in front of his big black town car. Sam is the epitome of successful, up-and-coming businessman. His wife, in the car, is a very attractive, sophisticated-looking lady, dripping with furs and jewels. Sam is watching George across the street. SAM That old George... he's always making a speech. (to George) Hee-haw! (wiggles his hands) EXT. NEW HOUSE – DAY CLOSE SHOT – MARY AND GEORGE ON PORCH GEORGE (to Mary) Sam Wainwright! MARY Oh, who cares. (to Mrs. Martini, giving her loaf of bread) Bread! That this house may never know hunger. Mrs. Martini crosses herself. MARY (giving her salt) Salt! That life may always have flavor. GEORGE (handing bottle to Martini) And wine! That joy and prosperity may reign forever. Enter the Martini castle! The Martinis cross themselves, shaking hands all around. The kids enter, with screams of delight. Mrs. Martini kisses Mary. INT. POTTER'S OFFICE IN BANK – DAY CLOSE SHOT Potter seated in his wheelchair at his desk, with his goon beside him. His rent collector, Reineman, is talking, pointing to maps spread out on the desk. REINEMAN Look, Mr. Potter, it's no skin off my nose. I'm just your little rent collector. But you can't laugh off this Bailey Park any more. Look at it. A buzzer is heard, and Potter snaps on the dictaphone on his desk. SECRETARY'S VOICE Congressman Blatz is here to see you. POTTER (to dictaphone) Oh, tell the congressman to wait. (to Reineman) Go on. REINEMAN Fifteen years ago, a half-dozen houses stuck here and there. (indicating map) There's the old cemetery, squirrels, buttercups, daisies. Used to hunt rabbits there myself. Look at it today. Dozens of the prettiest little homes you ever saw. Ninety per cent owned by suckers who used to pay rent to you. Your Potter's Field, my dear Mr. Employer, is becoming just that. And are the local yokels making with those David and Goliath wisecracks! POTTER Oh, they are, are they? Even though they know the Baileys haven't made a dime out of it. REINEMAN You know very well why. The Baileys were all chumps. Every one of these homes is worth twice what it cost the Building and Loan to build. If I were you, Mr. Potter... POTTER (interrupting) Well, you are not me. REINEMAN (as he leaves) As I say, it's no skin off my nose. But one of these days this bright young man is going to be asking George Bailey for a job. Reineman exits. POTTER The Bailey family has been a boil on my neck long enough. He flips the switch on the dictaphone. SECRETARY'S VOICE Yes, sir? POTTER Come in here. EXT. STREET IN BAILEY PARK – DAY CLOSE SHOT George and Mary are talking to Sam Wainwright in front of the latter's car. Hs wife, Jane, is now out of the car. SAM We just stopped in town to take a look at the new factory, and then we're going to drive on down to Florida. GEORGE Oh... JANE Why don't you have your friends join us? SAM Why, sure. Hey, why don't you kids drive down with us, huh? GEORGE Oh, I'm afraid I couldn't get away, Sam. SAM Still got the nose to the old grindstone, eh? Jane, I offered to let George in on the ground floor in plastics, and he turned me down cold. GEORGE Oh, now, don't rub it in. SAM I'm not rubbing it in. Well, I guess we better run along. There is handshaking all around as Sam and Jane get into their car. JANE Awfully glad to have met you, Mary. MARY Nice meeting you. GEORGE Goodbye. JANE Goodbye, George. SAM So long, George. See you in the funny papers. GEORGE Goodbye, Sam. MARY Have fun. GEORGE Thanks for dropping around. SAM (to chauffeur) To Florida! (to George) Hee-haw! GEORGE Hee-haw. The big black limousine glides away, leaving George standing with his arm around Mary, gazing broodingly after it. They slowly walk over to George's old car and look at it silently. WIPE TO: INT. POTTER'S OFFICE – DAY CLOSE SHOT Potter is lighting a big cigar which he has just given George. The goon is beside Potter's chair, as usual. GEORGE Thank you, sir. Quite a cigar, Mr. Potter. POTTER You like it? I'll send you a box. GEORGE (nervously) Well, I... I suppose I'll find out sooner or later, but just what exactly did you want to see me about? POTTER (laughs) George, now that's just what I like so much about you. (pleasantly and smoothly) George, I'm an old man, and most people hate me. But I don't like them either, so that makes it all even. You know just as well as I do that I run practically everything in this town but the Bailey Building and Loan. You know, also, that for a number of years I've been trying to get control of it... or kill it. But I haven't been able to do it. You have been stopping me. In fact, you have beaten me, George, and as anyone in this county can tell you, that takes some doing. Take during the depression, for instance. You and I were the only ones that kept our heads. You saved the Building and Loan, and I saved all the rest. GEORGE Yes. Well, most people say you stole all the rest. POTTER The envious ones say that, George, the suckers. Now, I have stated my side very frankly. Now, let's look at your side. Young man, twenty- seven, twenty-eight... married, making, say... forty a week. GEORGE (indignantly) Forty-five! POTTER Forty-five. Forty-five. Out of which, after supporting your mother, and paying your bills, you're able to keep, say, ten, if you skimp. A child or two comes along, and you won't even be able to save the ten. Now, if this young man of twenty-eight was a common, ordinary yokel, I'd say he was doing fine. But George Bailey is not a common, ordinary yokel. He's an intelligent, smart, ambitious young man — who hates his job – who hates the Building and Loan almost as much as I do. A young man who's been dying to get out on his own ever since he was born. A young man... the smartest one of the crowd, mind you, a young man who has to sit by and watch his friends go places, because he's trapped. Yes, sir, trapped into frittering his life away playing nursemaid to a lot of garlic-eaters. Do I paint a correct picture, or do I exaggerate? GEORGE (mystified) Now what's your point, Mr. Potter? POTTER My point? My point is, I want to hire you. GEORGE (dumbfounded) Hire me? POTTER I want you to manage my affairs, run my properties. George, I'll start you out at twenty thousand dollars a year. George drops his cigar on his lap. He nervously brushes off the sparks from his clothes. GEORGE (flabbergasted) Twenty thou... twenty thousand dollars a year? POTTER You wouldn't mind living in the nicest house in town, buying your wife a lot of fine clothes, a couple of business trips to New York a year, maybe once in a while Europe. You wouldn't mind that, would you, George? GEORGE Would I? (looking around skeptically) You're not talking to somebody else around here, are you? You know, this is me, you remember me? George Bailey. POTTER Oh, yes, George Bailey. Whose ship has just come in – providing he has brains enough to climb aboard. GEORGE Well, what about the Building and Loan? POTTER Oh, confound it, man, are you afraid of success? I'm offering you a three year contract at twenty thousand dollars a year, starting today. Is it a deal or isn't it? GEORGE Well, Mr. Potter, I... I... I know I ought to jump at the chance, but I... I just... I wonder if it would be possible for you to give me twenty- four hours to think it over? POTTER Sure, sure, sure. You go on home and talk about it to your wife. GEORGE I'd like to do that. POTTER In the meantime, I'll draw up the papers. GEORGE All right, sir. POTTER (offers hand) Okay, George? GEORGE (taking his hand) Okay, Mr. Potter. As they shake hands, George feels a physical revulsion. Potter's hand feels like a cold mackerel to him. In that moment of physical contact he knows he could never be associated with this man. George drops his hand with a shudder. He peers intently into Potter's face. GEORGE (vehemently) No... no... no... no, now wait a minute, here! I don't have to talk to anybody! I know right now, and the answer is no! NO! Doggone it! (getting madder all the time) You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it doesn't, Mr. Potter! In the... in the whole vast configuration of things, I'd say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider. You... He turns and shouts at the goon, impassive as ever beside Potter's wheelchair. GEORGE ...And that goes for you too! As George opens the office door to exit, he shouts at Mr. Potter's secretary in the outer office GEORGE And it goes for you too! WIPE TO: INT. BEDROOM – GEORGE AND MARY'S HOUSE – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE ENTERS THE BEDROOM The room is modestly furnished with just a cheap bed, a chair or two, and a dresser. Mary is asleep in the bed. As George comes in, his head is filled with many confusing thoughts, relating to incidents in his past life. POTTER'S VOICE You wouldn't mind living in the nicest house in town. Buying your wife a lot of fine clothes, going to New York on a business trip a couple of times a year. Maybe to Europe once in a while. George takes off his hat and coat, moves over to the dresser and stares at his reflection in the mirror. GEORGE'S VOICE I know what I'm going to do tomorrow and the next day and next year and the year after that. I'm shaking the dust of this crummy little town off my feet, and I'm going to see the world... And I'm going to build things. I'm going to build air fields. I'm going to build skyscrapers a hundred stories high. I'm going to build a bridge a mile long. While the above thoughts are passing through George's head, his attention is caught by a picture on the wall near the dresser: INSERT: PICTURE ON THE WALL It is the sketch of George lassoing the moon that we first saw in Mary's living room. The lettering reads: "George Lassos The Moon." GEORGE'S VOICE What is it you want, Mary? You want the moon? If you do, just say the word; I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down for you. Mary is now awake, and starts singing their theme song: MARY (singing) Buffalo Gals, won't you come out tonight, won't you come out tonight, won't you come out tonight. George crosses over and sits on the edge of the bed. GEORGE Hi. MARY Hi. GEORGE Mary Hatch, why in the world did you ever marry a guy like me? MARY To keep from being an old maid. GEORGE You could have married Sam Wainwright or anybody else in town. MARY I didn't want to marry anybody else in town. I want my baby to look like you. GEORGE You didn't even have a honeymoon. I promised you... (does a double take) ...Your what? MARY My baby. GEORGE (incredulously) You mean... Mary, you on the nest? MARY George Bailey lassos stork. GEORGE Lassos the stork! You mean you... What is it, a boy or a girl? Mary nods her head happily. FADE OUT FADE IN: MONTAGE SEQUENCE Over the following SERIES OF SHOTS we hear the voices of Joseph and Clarence in Heaven. EXT. MAIN STREET BEDFORD FALLS – NIGHT MEDIUM SHOT George is crossing the street, heading for the offices of the Building and Loan. JOSEPH'S VOICE Now, you've probably already guessed that George never leaves Bedford Falls. CLARENCE'S VOICE No! INT. HOSPITAL – DAY CLOSE SHOT – NURSE HOLDING NEWBORN BABY JOSEPH'S VOICE Mary had her baby, a boy. INT. SITTING ROOM – DAY CLOSE SHOT Mary sitting on the floor playing with a baby. A little boy is in a playpen nearby. JOSEPH'S VOICE Then she had another one – a girl. INT. GRANVILLE HOUSE – DAY CLOSE SHOTS Mary is busy hanging wallpaper and painting the old place. JOSEPH'S VOICE Day after day she worked away remaking the old Granville house into a home. INT. GRANVILLE HOUSE – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT George has just come into the hall. He is obviously tired and discouraged as he starts up the stairs. The knob on the banister comes off in his hand. JOSEPH'S VOICE Night after night George came back late from the office. Potter was bearing down hard. WIPE TO: EXT. RECRUITING GROUNDS – DAY MEDIUM LONG SHOT A group of men, obviously just drafted, marching along in a camp. JOSEPH'S VOICE Then came a war. INT. RED CROSS WORKROOM – DAY CLOSE SHOT Mrs. Bailey and other women in Red Cross uniforms busily sewing, etc. JOSEPH'S VOICE Ma Bailey and Mrs. Hatch joined the Red Cross and sewed. EXT. TRAIN IN RAILROAD STATION – DAY CLOSE SHOT Mary, with portable U.S.O. pushcart, is serving coffee and doughnuts to men leaning from the train. JOSEPH'S VOICE Mary had two more babies, but still found time to run the U.S.O. INT. FACTORY – DAY CLOSE SHOT Sam Wainwright showing set of blueprints to two Army officers. JOSEPH'S VOICE Sam Wainwright made a fortune in plastic hoods for planes. INT. FACTORY – DAY CLOSE SHOT Potter is wheeled in toward a long table around which several men are seated. JOSEPH'S VOICE Potter became head of the draft board. POTTER (reading from papers) One-A... One-A... One-A... EXT. STREET IN BEDFORD FALLS – DAY MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT Gower and Uncle Billy are conducting a bond rally from the top of an Army tank. JOSEPH'S VOICE Gower and Uncle Billy sold war bonds. EXT. BATTLEFIELD – NIGHT MEDIUM CLOSEUP Bert, in uniform, moving cautiously with fixed bayonet. Smoke and flashes of gunfire in background. JOSEPH'S VOICE Bert the cop was wounded in North Africa. Got the Silver Star. EXT. SKY – DAY LONG SHOT Hundreds of planes, flying overhead, with parachutes dropping from them. JOSEPH'S VOICE Ernie, the taxi driver, parachuted into France. EXT. REMAGEN BRIDGE OVER THE RHINE – DAY CLOSE SHOT Marty in the foreground, beckoning to soldiers to come on. JOSEPH'S VOICE Marty helped capture the Remagen Bridge. INT. READY ROOM ON AIRCRAFT CARRIER – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT Harry is fastening the helmet of his flying clothes. He waves as he exits through the door. JOSEPH'S VOICE Harry... Harry Bailey topped them all. A Navy flier, he shot down fifteen planes. EXT. OCEAN FROM DECK OF CARRIER – NIGHT LONG SHOT A flaming plane crashes into the sea. JOSEPH'S VOICE ...two of them as they were about to crash into a transport full of soldiers. CLARENCE'S VOICE Yes, but George... INT. RATION OFFICE – DAY CLOSE SHOT George, behind the counter, is trying to quiet a crowd of people all clamoring for more ration points. JOSEPH'S VOICE George? Four-F on account of his ear, George fought the battle of Bedford Falls. George shouts. GEORGE Hold on... hold on... hold on now. Don't you know there's a war on? EXT. STRET – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT George, in the uniform of an air raid warden, is patrolling his beat. JOSEPH'S VOICE Air raid Warden... EXT. HOUSE – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT Man beside lighted window pulls down the shade as George blows his whistle. EXT. STREET – DAY CLOSE SHOT George is helping load his old car with scrap paper. JOSEPH'S VOICE ...paper drives... EXT. DUMP – DAY CLOSE SHOT Wheelbarrow full of junk being dumped onto pile. JOSEPH'S VOICE ...Scrap drives... EXT. STREET – DAY MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT – CHILDREN WHEELING OLD TIRES JOSEPH'S VOICE ...Rubber drives... INT. CHURCH – DAY MEDIUM SHOT – PEOPLE PRAYING IN CHURCH JOSEPH'S VOICE Like everybody else, on V-E Day he wept and prayed. EXT. CHURCH – ANOTHER ANGLE MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT – PEOPLE ENTERING CHURCH JOSEPH'S VOICE On V-J Day he wept and prayed again. FRANKLIN'S VOICE Joseph, now show him what happened today. JOSEPH'S VOICE Yes, sir. EXT. BEDFORD FALLS STREET – WINTER – DAY George is walking along the sidewalk reading a newspaper. It is a raw, gusty day, and his overcoat and muffler flap in the breeze. Draped around one arm is a large Christmas wreath. Under his other arm are several more copies of the paper. JOSEPH'S VOICE This morning, day before Christmas, about ten A.M. Bedford Falls time... George comes to where Ernie, the taxi driver, is standing on the sidewalk. GEORGE (holding out paper) Hi, Ernie, look at that. INSERT: NEWSPAPER The front page of the paper, the Bedford Falls Sentinel. The headline reads: "PRESIDENT DECORATES HARRY BAILEY – LOCAL BOY WINS CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR". The subhead tells of a plan for a giant jubilee and parade, to be followed by a banquet, in honor of Commander Harry Bailey, U.S.N. on his way home from Washington after receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor. There's a large picture of President Truman pinning the coveted medal on Harry's bosom, in the midst of dignitaries; a picture of the transport which Harry saved. Practically the whole front page is devoted to the story. CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND ERNIE ERNIE (kidding) Gonna snow again. GEORGE (outraged) What do you mean – it's gonna snow again? Look at the headlines. ERNIE I know – I know – I know. I think it's marvelous. Gower comes running across the street from his drugstore and joins them. GEORGE (reading) Commander Harry Bailey. Mr. Gower, look at this – the second page. (gives them papers) Now look, this is for you. This is for you, this is for you. (as he leaves) See you again. EXT. STREET – DAY MEDIUM LONG SHOT Uncle Billy is walking along the street, humming happily to himself. He sees some men decorating the Court House with banners and bunting – there is a huge sign reading: "Welcome Home Harry Bailey" UNCLE BILLY (calls out) Be sure you spell the name right. INT. OUTER OFFICE BUILDING AND LOAN – DAY FULL SHOT The offices are unchanged, still small-time and old-fashioned. The same office force, albeit a few years older: Cousin Tilly and Cousin Eustace. Seated on a chair is a middle-aged man with a brief case. The outer door opens and George enters: GEORGE Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Cousin Tilly and Cousin Eustace are talking on the phone. COUSIN EUSTACE George! George! It's Harry now on long distance from Washington! GEORGE Harry! What do you know about that? COUSIN EUSTACE He reversed the charges. It's okay, isn't it? GEORGE What do you mean it's okay? For a hero? (takes the phone) Harry! Oh, you old seven kinds of a son of a gun. Congratulations! How's Mother standing it?... She did? What do you know... (to Eustace) Mother had lunch with the President's wife! COUSIN TILLY Wait till Martha hears about this. COUSIN EUSTACE What did they have to eat? GEORGE (on phone) What did they have to eat? Harry, you should see what they're cooking up in the town for you... Oh, are they? (to Eustace) The Navy's going to fly Mother home this afternoon. COUSIN EUSTACE In a plane? GEORGE What? Uncle Billy? (to Eustace) Has Uncle Billy come in yet? COUSIN TILLY No, he stopped at the bank first. GEORGE (on phone) He's not here right now, Harry. Cousin Eustace has turned away from George and caught a glimpse of the man waiting in the chair. This is Carter, the bank examiner, come for his annual audit of the books of the Building and Loan. GEORGE (on phone) But look... COUSIN EUSTACE (interrupting) George... GEORGE (on phone) ...now tell me about it. COUSIN EUSTACE (interrupting) ...George, that man's here again. GEORGE What man? COUSIN EUSTACE (nervously) Bank... bank examiner. GEORGE Oh... (on phone) Talk to Eustace a minute, will you. I'll be right back. He gives the phone to Eustace, puts down his wreath and goes over to Carter. CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND CARTER They shake hands. GEORGE Good morning, sir. CARTER Carter – bank examiner. GEORGE Mr. Carter, Merry Christmas. CARTER Merry Christmas. GEORGE We're all excited around here. (shows him paper) My brother just got the Congressional Medal of Honor. The President just decorated him. CARTER Well, I guess they do those things. Well, I trust you had a good year. GEORGE Good year? Well, between you and me, Mr. Carter, we're broke. CARTER Yeah, very funny. GEORGE Well... (leading him into office) ...now, come right in here, Mr. Carter. CARTER (as they go) Although I shouldn't wonder when you okay reverse charges on personal long distance calls. COUSIN TILLY George, shall we hang up? GEORGE No, no. He wants to talk to Uncle Billy. You just hold on. CARTER (in doorway) Now, if you'll cooperate, I'd like to finish with you by tonight. I want to spend Christmas in Elmira with my family. GEORGE I don't blame you at all, Mr. Carter, Just step right in here. We'll fix you up. INT. BANK – DAY CLOSE SHOT Uncle Billy is filling out a deposit slip at one of the desks. UNCLE BILLY (writing) December twenty-fourth... He takes a thick envelope from his inside pocket and thumbs through the bills it contains. It is evidently a large sum of money. UNCLE BILLY Eight thousand... MEDIUM SHOT – DOOR TO STREET Potter is being wheeled in by his goon. Various bank officials run over to greet him – he is reading a newspaper. Uncle Billy has finished filling out his slip, and comes over to taunt Potter, the envelope containing the money in his hand. UNCLE BILLY Well, good morning, Mr. Potter. What's the news? He grabs the paper from Potter's hand. UNCLE BILLY(CONT'D) Well, well, well, Harry Bailey wins Congressional Medal. That couldn't be one of the Bailey boys? You just can't keep those Baileys down, now, can you, Mr. Potter? POTTER How does slacker George feel about that? UNCLE BILLY Very jealous, very jealous. He only lost three buttons off his vest. Of course, slacker George would have gotten two of those medals if he had gone. POTTER Bad ear. UNCLE BILLY Yes. Uncle Billy folds Potter's paper over the envelope containing his money, and flings his final taunt at the old man. UNCLE BILLY After all, Potter, some people like George had to stay home. Not every heel was in Germany and Japan! In a cold rage, Potter grabs his paper and wheels off toward his office. Uncle Billy smiles triumphantly and goes toward deposit window with his deposit slip. CLOSE SHOT Uncle Billy and bank teller at the window. UNCLE BILLY (still chuckling) Good morning, Horace. Uncle Billy hands the bank book over. The teller opens it, starts to punch it with rubber stamps. TELLER I guess you forgot something. UNCLE BILLY Huh? TELLER You forgot something. UNCLE BILLY What? TELLER Well, aren't you going to make a deposit? UNCLE BILLY Sure, sure I am. TELLER Well, then... it's usually customary to bring the money with you. UNCLE BILLY Oh, shucks... Uncle Billy searches through every pocket he has. UNCLE BILLY (looks bewildered) I know I had... The teller, knowing the old man's vagaries, points to one of the numerous string tied around his fingers. TELLER How about that one there? UNCLE BILLY Hmm? Well, I... INT. POTTER'S OFFICE – DAY CLOSE SHOT Potter is now behind his desk. He spreads the newspaper out in front of him, muttering as he does so. POTTER Bailey... He sees the envelope, looks inside at the money. Then, to his goon, indicating the office door: POTTER Take me back there. Hurry up. (as they go) Come on, look sharp. Potter opens the door just a little, and peers through into the bank. INT. BANK – DAY CLOSE SHOT – DEPOSIT SLIP DESK Uncle Billy looks around for the money envelope. It is not there. He looks puzzled, thinks hard, then a look of concern creeps into his eyes. He starts thumping his pockets, with increasing panic, and looks in the waste paper basket on the floor. He finally rushes through the door and out into the street. INT. POTTER'S OFFICE – DAY CLOSE SHOT – POTTER WATCHING THROUGH THE DOOR POTTER (to goon) Take me back. The goon wheels him back to his desk. He is deep in thought, with a crafty expression on his face. EXT. STREET – DAY MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT Uncle Billy running across the street in the direction of the Building and Loan. INT. OUTER OFFICE – BUILDING AND LOAN – DAY CLOSE SHOT George coming from room where he has just left the bank examiner. GEORGE Just make yourself at home, Mr. Carter. I'll get those books for you. He sees Violet Bick standing there. GEORGE Oh, hello, Vi. VIOLET George, can I see you for a second? GEORGE Why, of course you can. Come on in the office here. He hears a noise, and sees Uncle Billy entering the office. GEORGE Uncle Billy, talk to Harry. He's on the telephone. George and Violet enter his private office. Uncle Billy comes hurrying in. COUSIN TILLY Hurry, Uncle Billy, hurry. Long distance, Washington. COUSIN EUSTACE Hey, here's Harry on the phone. COUSIN TILLY Harry, your nephew, remember? COUSIN EUSTACE (on phone) Here he is. Uncle Billy picks up the phone and speaks distractedly, without knowing what he is saying. UNCLE BILLY (on phone) Hello... hello... Yes, Harry – yes... everything... everything's fine. He hangs up agitatedly, muttering to himself as he goes into his own office. Cousin Tilly and Cousin Eustace look after him, dumbfounded. UNCLE BILLY I should have my head examined. Eight thousand dollars. It's got to be somewhere. INT. GEORGE'S OFFICE – DAY CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND VIOLET George has just finished writing something, and is slipping the paper into an envelope. GEORGE (hands it to her) Here you are. VIOLET (bitterly) Character? If I had any character, I'd... GEORGE It takes a lot of character to leave your home town and start all over again. He pulls some money from his pocket, and offers it to her. VIOLET No, George, don't... GEORGE Here, now, you're broke, aren't you? VIOLET I know, but... GEORGE What do you want to do, hock your furs, and that hat? Want to walk to New York? You know, they charge for meals and rent up there just the same as they do in Bedford Falls. VIOLET (taking money) Yeah – sure... GEORGE It's a loan. That's my business. Building and Loan. Besides, you'll get a job. Good luck to you. She looks at him, then says a strange thing. VIOLET I'm glad I know you, George Bailey. She reaches up and kisses him on the cheek, leaving lipstick. George opens the door for her. INT. OUTER OFFICE – DAY CLOSE SHOT As George and Violet come through the door, they are being watched by Cousin Tilly, Cousin Eustace and the bank examiner, who is still waiting to go to work on the books. GEORGE Say hello to New York for me. VIOLET Yeah – yeah... sure I will. GEORGE Now, let's hear from you... Violet sees the lipstick on George's cheek, and dabs at it with her handkerchief. GEORGE What's the matter? Merry Christmas, Vi. VIOLET Merry Christmas, George. She exits. MR. CARTER Mr. Bailey... GEORGE Oh, Mr. Carter, I'm sorry. I'll be right with you. (to Cousin Tilly) Uncle Billy in? COUSIN TILLY Yeah, he's in his office. INT. DOORWAY TO UNCLE BILLY'S OFFICE – DAY CLOSE SHOT As George opens the door he sees Uncle Billy frantically looking for the missing envelope. The office is in a mess, drawers are opened, and papers scattered on the floor and on the desk. GEORGE Unc... What's going on? The bank examiner's here, and I... UNCLE BILLY (in dismay) He's here? GEORGE Yeah, yeah. He wants the accounts payable... George stops short, suddenly aware of the tragic old eyes looking up at him. GEORGE What's the matter with you? Uncle Billy gestures nervously for George to come in. He does so and closes the door. INT. OUTER OFFICE – DAY MEDIUM SHOT Cousin Tilly is at her switchboard, and Cousin Eustace standing beside her. Carter is still waiting in the doorway to his office. Suddenly the door opens and George comes striding out. He goes directly to the safe and starts searching, but doesn't find the money. Then he goes to the cash drawer in the counter, and looks through it. GEORGE Eustace... EUSTACE Yeah? GEORGE Come here a minute. Cousin Eustace runs over to George. GEORGE Did you see Uncle Billy with any cash last night? COUSIN EUSTACE He had it on his desk counting it before he closed up. EXT. MAIN STREET BEDFORD FALLS – DAY MEDIUM SHOT Uncle Billy and George are retracing the former's steps through the snow, looking everywhere for the missing money. They pause for a moment on the sidewalk. GEORGE Now look, did you buy anything? UNCLE BILLY Nothing. Not even a stick of gum. GEORGE All right. All right. Now we'll go over every step you took since you left the house. UNCLE BILLY This way. They continue on down the street on their search. EXT. WINDOW OF POTTER'S OFFICE IN BANK – DAY CLOSE SHOT Potter is peering through the slats of the Venetian blind, watching them as they go. EXT. MAIN STREET BEDFORD FALLS – DAY MOVING SHOT George and Uncle Billy continue their search. WIPE TO: INT. UNCLE BILLY'S LIVING ROOM CLOSE SHOT A shabby, old-fashioned, gas-lit room which has been turned almost inside out and upside down in an effort to locate the missing money. Drawers of an old secretary have been pulled out and are on the floor. Every conceivable place which might have been used by Uncle Billy to put the money has been searched. George, his hair rumpled, is feverishly pursuing the search. Uncle Billy is seated behind the desk, his head on his hands. GEORGE And did you put the envelope in your pocket? UNCLE BILLY Yeah... yeah... maybe... maybe... GEORGE (shouts) Maybe – maybe! I don't want any maybe. Uncle Billy, we've got to find that money! UNCLE BILLY (piteously) I'm no good to you, George. I... GEORGE Listen to me. Do you have any secret hiding place here in the house? Someplace you could have put it? Someplace to hide the money? UNCLE BILLY (exhausted) I've been over the whole house, even in rooms that have been locked ever since I lost Laura. Uncle Billy starts sobbing hysterically. George grabs him by the lapels and shakes him. GEORGE (harshly) Listen to me! Listen to me! Think! Think! UNCLE BILLY (sobbing) I can't think any more, George. I can't think any more. It hurts... George jerks him to his feet and shakes him. Uncle Billy stands before him like a frisked criminal, all his pockets hanging out, empty. George's eyes and manner are almost maniacal. GEORGE (screaming at him) Where's that money, you stupid, silly old fool? Where's the money? Do you realize what this means? It means bankruptcy and scandal, and prison! He throws Uncle Billy down into his chair, and still shouts at him: GEORGE That's what it means! One of us is going to jail! Well, it's not going to be me! George turns and heads for the door, kicking viciously at a waste basket on the floor as he goes. Uncle Billy remains sobbing at the table, his head in his arms. WIPE TO: INT. GEORGE'S LIVING ROOM – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT Janie (aged eight) is seated at the piano playing "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing," which she practices during the remainder of this scene. There is a Christmas tree all decorated near the fireplace. At a large table Mary is busy putting cellophane bows and decorations on gift packages. At a small table Pete (aged nine) is seated with pad and pencil in the throes of composition. On the floor Tommy (aged three) is playing with a toy vacuum cleaner. We hear the SOUND of a door open and close. Mary turns and sees George enter the hall, a slight powdering of snow on his head and shoulders. INT. HALL – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT As George comes into the house. MARY Hello darling. CHILDREN Hello Daddy, hello daddy. MARY (indicating tree) How do you like it? George sneezes violently. MARY AND CHILDREN Bless you! MARY Did you bring the wreath? PETE Did you bring the Christmas wreath? GEORGE What? What wreath? MARY The Merry Christmas wreath for the window. GEORGE (gruffly) No. I left it at the office. MARY Is it snowing? GEORGE Yeah, just started. MARY Where's your coat and hat? GEORGE Left them at the office. Mary stares at him, aware that something unusual has happened. MARY What's the matter? GEORGE (bitterly) Nothing's the matter. Everything's all right. INT. LIVING ROOM – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT George slumps into an armchair and lifts Tommy onto his lap. Mary is helping Pete decorate the Christmas tree. MARY Go on, Pete, you're a big boy. You can put the star up. Way up at the top. That's it. Fill in that little bare spot right there. That's it. (to George) Isn't it wonderful about Harry? We're famous, George. I'll bet I had fifty calls today about the parade, the banquet. Your mother's so excited, she... During this scene, George has been sitting in the chair, hugging Tommy to him, and crying quietly. Mary realizes that something is seriously wrong, and breaks off. Janie is thumping away at the piano. GEORGE Must she keep playing that? JANIE (hurt) I have to practice for the party tonight, Daddy. PETE Mommy says we can stay up till midnight and sing Christmas carols. TOMMY Can you sing, Daddy? MARY (to George) Better hurry and shave. The families will be here soon. GEORGE (rising from chair) Families! I don't want the families over here! Mary leads him out toward the kitchen. MARY Come on out in the kitchen with me while I finish dinner. They exit with Tommy hanging onto George's coat-tails, and pulling at him. CAMERA PANS WITH them. TOMMY Excuse me... excuse me... INT. HALL – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT As they go toward kitchen. MARY Have a hectic day? GEORGE (bitterly) Oh, yeah, another big red letter day for the Baileys. PETE Daddy, the Browns next door have a new car. You should see it. GEORGE (turns on him) Well, what's the matter with our car? Isn't it good enough for you? PETE Yes, Daddy. TOMMY (tugging at coat) Excuse me, excuse me... INT. KITCHEN – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT They come through the door. GEORGE (annoyed) Excuse you for what? TOMMY I burped! MARY All right, darling, you're excused. Now go upstairs and see what little Zuzu wants. Tommy leaves, and Mary turns to the stove. GEORGE Zuzu! What's the matter with Zuzu? MARY Oh, she's got a cold. She's in bed. Caught it coming home from school. They gave her a flower for a prize and she didn't want to crush it so she didn't button up her coat. GEORGE What is it, a sore throat or what? MARY Just a cold. The doctor says it's nothing serious. GEORGE The doctor? Was the doctor here? MARY Yes, I called him right away. He says it's nothing to worry about. GEORGE Is she running a temperature? What is it? MARY Just a teensie one – ninety-nine, six. She'll be all right. George paces about the kitchen, worried. GEORGE Gosh, it's this old house. I don't know why we don't all have pneumonia. This drafty old barn! Might as well be living in a refrigerator. Why did we have to live here in the first place and stay around this measly, crummy old town? MARY (worried) George, what's wrong? GEORGE Wrong? Everything's wrong! You call this a happy family? Why did we have to have all these kids? PETE (coming in) Dad, how do you spell "frankincense"? GEORGE (shouts) I don't know. Ask your mother. George goes toward doorway. MARY Where're you going? GEORGE Going up to see Zuzu. We hear his footsteps as he leaves. Mary looks after him, puzzled and concerned, then comes over to Pete. PETE He told me to write a play for tonight. MARY F-R-A-N-K-I-N... INT. HALL – NIGHT MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE STARTS UP THE STAIRS The knob on the banister comes off in his hand, and for a moment he has an impulse to hurl it into the living room. Then, he replaces the knob, and goes on up the stairs. INT. ZUZU'S BEDROOM – NIGHT FULL SHOT The SOUND of Janie at the piano can be heard, the same monotonous rhythm over and over. Zuzu (aged six) is sitting up in her bed, the lamp burning beside her. She is holding her prize flower. George tiptoes in. Then, as he sees she's awake, he comes over, sitting on the edge of her bed. ZUZU Hi, Daddy. GEORGE Well, what happened to you? ZUZU I won a flower. She starts to get out of bed. GEORGE Wait now. Where do you think you're going? ZUZU Want to give my flower a drink. GEORGE All right, all right. Here, give Daddy the flower. I'll give it a drink. She shakes her head and presses the flower to her. A few petals fall off. She picks them up. ZUZU Look, Daddy... paste it. GEORGE Yeah, all right. Now, I'll paste this together. She hands him the fallen petals and the flower. He turns his back to Zuzu, pretending to be tinkering with the flower. He sticks the fallen petals in his watch pocket, rearranges the flower, and then turns back to Zuzu. GEORGE There it is, good as new. ZUZU Give the flower a drink. George puts the flower in a glass of water on the table beside her bed. GEORGE Now, will you do something for me? CLOSEUP – GEORGE AND ZUZU They whisper. ZUZU What? GEORGE Will you try to get some sleep? ZUZU I'm not sleepy. I want to look at my flower. GEORGE I know – I know, but you just go to sleep, and then you can dream about it, and it'll be a whole garden. ZUZU It will? GEORGE Uh-huh. She closes her eyes and relaxes on the bed. George pulls the covers over her. He bends down and his lips touch a tendril of the child's hair. Then he gets up and tiptoes out of the room. INT. LIVING ROOM – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT Janie is still pounding with grim determination at the piano. Pete is seated at the table writing. Tommy is playing with his toy vacuum cleaner. The telephone rings. JANIE AND PETE Telephone. INT. LIVING ROOM – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT Mary comes in and picks up the phone. MARY I'll get it. (on phone) Hello. Yes, this is Mrs. Bailey. George enters shot, and stands listening to her. MARY Oh, thank you, Mrs. Welch. I'm sure she'll be all right. The doctor says that she ought to be out of bed in time to have her Christmas dinner. GEORGE Is that Zuzu's teacher? MARY (hand over receiver) Yes. GEORGE Let me speak to her. He snatches the phone from Mary. GEORGE (on phone) Hello. Hello, Mrs. Welch? This is George Bailey. I'm Zuzu's father. Say, what kind of a teacher are you anyway? What do you mean sending her home like that, halfnaked? Do you realize she'll probably end up with pneumonia on account of you? MARY (shocked) George! She puts a restraining hand on his arm. He shakes it off. She cannot know that George's tirade against Mrs. Welch is really a tirade against the world, against life itself, against God. Over the phone we hear Mrs. Welch's voice sputtering with protest. GEORGE Is this the sort of thing we pay taxes for – to have teachers like you? Silly, stupid, careless people who send our kids home without any clothes on? You know, maybe my kids aren't the best-dressed kids; maybe they don't have any decent clothes... Mary succeeds in wresting the phone from George's hand. GEORGE Aw, that stupid... Mary speaks quickly in to the phone. MARY Hello, Mrs. Welch. I want to apologize... hello... hello... (to George) She's hung up. GEORGE (savagely) I'll hang her up! But the telephone is suddenly alive with a powerful male voice calling: MR. WELCH'S VOICE Now, who do you think you are? George hears this and grabs the receiver from Mary. GEORGE (to Mary) Wait a minute. (on phone) Hello? Who is this? Oh, Mr. Welch? Okay, that's fine, Mr. Welch. Gives me a chance to tell you what I really think of your wife. Mary once more tries to take the phone from him. MARY George... GEORGE (raving at her) Will you get out and let me handle this? (into phone – shouting) Hello? Hello? What? Oh, you will, huh? Okay, Mr. Welch, any time you think you're man enough... Hello? Any... But before he can think of an insult to top Welch's, we hear a click on the phone. GEORGE Oh... He hangs up the receiver, and turns toward the living room. His face is flushed and wet. PETE Daddy, how do you spell "Hallelujah"? GEORGE (shouts) How should I know? What do you think I am, a dictionary? He yells at Tommy, noisily playing with his vacuum cleaner. GEORGE Tommy, stop that! Stop it! Janie is still practicing at the piano, monotonously. GEORGE (savagely) Janie, haven't you learned that silly tune yet? You've played it over and over again. Now stop it! Stop it! INT. LIVING ROOM – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT The room has suddenly become ominously quiet, the only SOUND being George's labored breathing. George goes over to a corner of the room where his workshop is set up – a drawing table, several models of modern buildings, bridges, etc. Savagely he kicks over the models, picks up some books and hurls them into the corner. Mary and the children watch, horrified. George looks around and sees them staring at him as if he were some unknown wild animal. The three children are crying. GEORGE (gasping for breath) I'm sorry, Mary, Janie. I'm sorry. I didn't mean... you go on and practice. Pete, I owe you an apology, too. I'm sorry. What do you want to know? PETE (holding back his tears) Nothing, Daddy. Mary and the children stare at him, stunned by his furious outburst. There is silence in the room. GEORGE What's the matter with everybody? Janie, go on. I told you to practice. (shouts) Now, go on, play! Janie breaks into sobs. JANIE Oh, Daddy... MARY (in an outburst) George, why must you torture the children? Why don't you... The sight of Mary and the children suffering is too much for George. GEORGE Mary... He looks around him, then quickly goes out the front door of the house. Mary goes to the phone, picks it up. MARY Bedford, two-four-seven, please. PETE Is Daddy in trouble? JANIE Shall I pray for him? MARY Yes, Janie, pray very hard. TOMMY Me, too? MARY You too, Tommy. (on phone) Hello, Uncle Billy? WIPE TO: INT. POTTER'S OFFICE IN BANK – NIGHT – 8:00 P.M. MEDIUM CLOSEUP Potter is seated at his desk, his goon beside him. He is signing some papers. George is seated in a chair before the desk, without a hat or coat, covered lightly with snow. GEORGE I'm in trouble, Mr. Potter. I need help. Through some sort of an accident my company's short in their accounts. The bank examiner's up there today. I've got to raise eight thousand dollars immediately. POTTER (casually) Oh, so that's what the reporters wanted to talk to you about? GEORGE (incredulous) The reporters? POTTER Yes. They called me up from your Building and Loan. Oh, there's a man over there from the D.A.'s office, too. He's looking for you. GEORGE (desperate) Please help me, Mr. Potter. Help me, won't you please? Can't you see what it means to my family? I'll pay you any sort of a bonus on the loan... any interest. If you still want the Building and Loan, why I... POTTER (interrupting) George, could it possibly be there's a slight discrepancy in the books? GEORGE No, sir. There's nothing wrong with the books. I've just misplaced eight thousand dollars. I can't find it anywhere. POTTER (looking up) You misplaced eight thousand dollars? GEORGE Yes, sir. POTTER Have you notified the police? GEORGE No, sir. I didn't want the publicity. Harry's homecoming tomorrow... POTTER (snorts) They're going to believe that one. What've you been doing, George? Playing the market with the company's money? GEORGE No, sir. No, sir. I haven't. POTTER What is it – a woman, then? You know, it's all over town that you've been giving money to Violet Bick. GEORGE (incredulous) What? POTTER Not that it makes any difference to me, but why did you come to me? Why don't you go to Sam Wainwright and ask him for the money? GEORGE I can't get hold of him. He's in Europe. POTTER Well, what about all your other friends? GEORGE They don't have that kind of money, Mr. Potter. You know that. You're the only one in town that can help me. POTTER I see. I've suddenly become quite important. What kind of security would I have, George? Have you got any stocks? GEORGE (shaking his head) No, sir. POTTER Bonds? Real estate? Collateral of any kind? GEORGE (pulls out policy) I have some life insurance, a fifteen thousand dollar policy. POTTER Yes... how much is your equity in it? GEORGE Five hundred dollars. POTTER (sarcastically) Look at you. You used to be so cocky! You were going to go out and conquer the world! You once called me a warped, frustrated old man. What are you but a warped, frustrated young man? A miserable little clerk crawling in here on your hands and knees and begging for help. No securities – no stocks – no bonds – nothing but a miserable little five hundred dollar equity in a life insurance policy. You're worth more dead than alive. Why don't you go to the riff-raff you love so much and ask them to let you have eight thousand dollar? You know why? Because they'd run you out of town on a rail... But I'll tell you what I'm going to do for you, George. Since the state examiner is still here, as a stockholder of the Building and Loan, I'm going to swear out a warrant for your arrest. Misappropriation of funds – manipulation – malfeasance... George turns and starts out of the office as Potter picks up the phone and dials. POTTER All right, George, go ahead. You can't hide in a little town like this. George is out of the door by now. CAMERA MOVES CLOSER to Potter. POTTER (on phone) Bill? This is Potter. EXT. MAIN STREET BEDFORD FALLS – NIGHT MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT George comes out of the bank into the falling snow. He crosses the street, tugs at the door of his old car, finally steps over the door, and drives off. EXT. MARTINI'S BAR – NIGHT MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT An attractive little roadside tavern, with the name "Martini's" in neon lights on the front wall. INT. MARTINI'S BAR – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT The place is an Italian restaurant with bar. The bottles sparkle. There are Christmas greens and holly decorating the place. It has a warm, welcoming spirit, like Martini himself, who is welcoming new arrivals. The booths and the checkered-cloth-covered tables are full. There is an air of festivity and friendliness, and more like a party than a public drinking place. George is seated at the bar – he has had a great deal to drink, far more than he's accustomed to. MARTINI'S VOICE (greeting new customers) Merry Christmas. Glad you came. MAN'S VOICE How about some of that good spaghetti? MARTINI'S VOICE We got everything. During this, CAMERA MOVES CLOSER to George. Nick, the bartender, is watching him solicitously. Seated on the other side of George is a burly individual, drinking a glass of beer. George is mumbling: GEORGE God... God... Dear Father in Heaven, I'm not a praying man, but if you're up there and you can hear me, show me the way. I'm at the end of my rope. Show me the way, God. NICK (friendly) Are you all right, George? Want someone to take you home? George shakes his head. Martini comes over to his side. MARTINI (worried) Why you drink so much, my friend? Please go home, Mr. Bailey. This is Christmas Eve. The ugly man next to George, who has been listening, reacts sharply to the name "Bailey." MAN Bailey? Which Bailey? NICK This is Mr. George Bailey. Without any warning, the burly man throws a vicious punch at George, who goes down and out. Martini, Nick and several others rush to pick him up. MAN (to George) And the next time you talk to my wife like that you'll get worse. She cried for an hour. It isn't enough she slaves teaching your stupid kids how to read and write, and you have to bawl her out... MARTINI (furious) You get out of here, Mr. Welch! Mr. Welch reaches in his pocket for money. WELCH Now wait... I want to pay for my drink. MARTINI Never mind the money. You get out of here quick. WELCH All right. MARTINI You hit my best friend. Get out! Nick and Martini shove Welch out the door, then run back to help George to his feet. George's mouth is cut and bleeding. NICK You all right, George? GEORGE (stunned) Who was that? MARTINI He's gone. Don't worry. His name is Welch. He don't come in to my place no more. GEORGE Oh – Welch. That's what I get for praying. MARTINI The last time he come in here. You hear that, Nick? NICK Yes, you bet. GEORGE Where's my insurance policy? (finds it in pocket) Oh, here... He starts for the door. MARTINI Oh, no, Please, don't go out this way, Mr. Bailey. GEORGE I'm all right. Nick and Martini try to stop him, but he shrugs them off. MARTINI Oh, no – you don't feel so good. GEORGE I'm all right. MARTINI Please don't go away – please! George opens the door and exits to the street. WIPE TO: EXT. RESIDENTIAL STREET – NIGHT MEDIUM SHOT George's car comes along the empty street, through the falling snow, suddenly swerves and crashes into a tree near the sidewalk of a house. George gets out to look at the damage, and savagely kicks at the open door of the car, trying to shut it. The noise brings the owner of the house running out. OWNER What do you think you're doing? CLOSE SHOT George stands unsteadily near the car, shaken by the accident. The front lights are broken and the fender is ripped. George stands dully looking at the damage. The owner comes up, looking at his tree. He leans over to examine the damages. OWNER (with indignation) Now look what you did. My greatgrandfather planted this tree. George staggers off down the street, paying no attention to the man. OWNER Hey, you... Hey, you! Come back here, you drunken fool! Get this car out of here! EXT. BRIDGE OVER RIVER – NIGHT MEDIUM LONG SHOT George is crossing the approach to the bridge when a truck swings around the corner and nearly hits him. DRIVER Hey, what's the matter with you? Look where you're going! The truck turns onto the bridge, and George takes a narrow catwalk at the railing. CLOSE SHOT George has stopped by the railing at the center of the bridge. The snow is now falling hard. EXT. RIVER – NIGHT MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT CAMERA SHOOTING DOWN from George's angle TO the water, dotted with floating ice, passing under the bridge. EXT. BRIDGE AT RAILING – NIGHT CLOSEUP – GEORGE He stares down at the water, desperate, trying to make up his mind to act. He leans over looking at the water, fascinated, glances furtively around him, hunches himself as though about to jump. MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT From above George a body hurtles past and lands in the water with a loud splash. George looks down, horrified. VOICE (from river) Help! Help! George quickly takes off his coat and dives over the railing into the water. CLOSER ANGLE George comes up, sees the man flailing about in the water, and CAMERA PANS WITH him as he swims toward the man. MAN Help! Help! Help! EXT. TOLL HOUSE ON BRIDGE – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT The toll house keeper, hearing the cries for help, comes running out on the bridge with a flashlight, which he shines on the two figures struggling in the water below. EXT. RIVER – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT The man in the water is Clarence, the angel whose voice we have heard speaking from Heaven. George reaches him, grabs hold of him, and starts swimming for shore. WIPE TO: INT. TOLL HOUSE ON BRIDGE – NIGHT MEDIUM SHOT – GEORGE, CLARENCE, AND THE TOLLKEEPER George is seated before a wood-burning stove before which his clothes are drying on a line. He is in his long winter underwear. He is sipping a mug of hot coffee, staring at the stove, cold, gloomy and drunk, ignoring Clarence and the tollkeeper, preoccupied by his near suicide and his unsolved problems. Clarence is standing on the other side of the stove, putting on his undershirt. This is a ludicrous seventeenth century garment which looks like a baby's night shirt – with embroidered cuffs and collar, and gathered at the neck with a drawstring. It falls below his knees. The tollkeeper is seated against the wall eyeing them suspiciously. Throughout the scene he attempts to spit, but each time is stopped by some amazing thing Clarence does or says. Clarence becomes aware that his garment is amazing the tollkeeper. CLARENCE I didn't have time to get some stylish underwear. My wife gave me this on my last birthday. I passed away in it. The tollkeeper, about to spit, is stopped in the middle of it by this remark. Clarence, secretly trying to get George's attention, now picks up a copy of "Tom Sawyer" which is hanging on the line, drying. He shakes the book. CLARENCE Oh, Tom Sawyer's drying out, too. You should read the new book Mark Twain's writing now. The tollkeeper stares at him incredulously. TOLLKEEPER How'd you happen to fall in? CLARENCE I didn't fall in. I jumped in to save George. George looks up, surprised. GEORGE You what? To save me? CLARENCE Well, I did, didn't I? You didn't go through with it, did you? GEORGE Go through with what? CLARENCE Suicide. George and the tollkeeper react to this. TOLLKEEPER It's against the law to commit suicide around here. CLARENCE Yeah, it's against the law where I come from, too. TOLLKEEPER Where do you come from? He leans forward to spit, but is stopped by Clarence's next statement. CLARENCE Heaven. (to George) I had to act quickly; that's why I jumped in. I knew if I were drowning you'd try to save me. And you see, you did, and that's how I saved you. The tollkeeper becomes increasingly nervous. George casually looks at the strange smiling little man a second time. GEORGE (offhand) Very funny. CLARENCE Your lip's bleeding, George. George's hand goes to his mouth. GEORGE Yeah, I got a bust in the jaw in answer to a prayer a little bit ago. CLARENCE (comes around to George) Oh, no – no – no. I'm the answer to your prayer. That's why I was sent down here. GEORGE (casually interested) How do you know my name? CLARENCE Oh, I know all about you. I've watched you grow up from a little boy. GEORGE What are you, a mind reader or something? CLARENCE Oh, no. GEORGE Well, who are you, then? CLARENCE Clarence Odbody, A-S-2. GEORGE Odbody... A-S-2. What's that A-S-2? CLARENCE Angel, Second Class. The tollkeeper's chair slips out from under him with a crash. He has been leaning against the wall on it, tipped back on two legs. Tollkeeper rises and makes his way warily out the door. From his expression he looks like he'll call the nearest cop. CLARENCE (to tollkeeper) Cheerio, my good man. George rubs his head with his hand, to clear his mind. GEORGE Oh, brother. I wonder what Martini put in those drinks? He looks up at Clarence standing beside him. GEORGE Hey, what's with you? What did you say just a minute ago? Why'd you want to save me? CLARENCE That's what I was sent down for. I'm your guardian angel. GEORGE I wouldn't be a bit surprised. CLARENCE Ridiculous of you to think of killing yourself for money. Eight thousand dollars. GEORGE (bewildered) Yeah... just things like that. Now how'd you know that? CLARENCE I told you – I'm your guardian angel. I know everything about you. GEORGE Well, you look about like the kind of an angel I'd get. Sort of a fallen angel, aren't you? What happened to your wings? CLARENCE I haven't won my wings yet. That's why I'm an angel Second Class. GEORGE I don't know whether I like it very much being seen around with an angel without any wings. CLARENCE Oh, I've got to earn them, and you'll help me, won't you? GEORGE (humoring him) Sure, sure. How? CLARENCE By letting me help you. GEORGE Only one way you can help me. You don't happen to have eight thousand bucks on you? CLARENCE Oh, no, no. We don't use money in Heaven. GEORGE Oh, that's right, I keep forgetting. Comes in pretty handy down here, bub. CLARENCE Oh, tut, tut, tut. GEORGE I found it out a little late. I'm worth more dead than alive. CLARENCE Now look, you mustn't talk like that. I won't get my wings with that attitude. You just don't know all that you've done. If it hadn't been for you... GEORGE (interrupts) Yeah, if it hadn't been for me, everybody'd be a lot better off. My wife, and my kids and my friends. (annoyed with Clarence) Look, little fellow, go off and haunt somebody else, will you? CLARENCE No, you don't understand. I've got my job... GEORGE (savagely) Aw, shut up, will you. Clarence is not getting far with George. He glances up, paces across the room, thoughtfully. CLARENCE (to himself) Hmmm, this isn't going to be so easy. (to George) So you still think killing yourself would make everyone feel happier, eh? GEORGE (dejectedly) Oh, I don't know. I guess you're right. I suppose it would have been better if I'd never been born at all. CLARENCE What'd you say? GEORGE I said I wish I'd never been born. CLARENCE Oh, you mustn't say things like that. You... (gets an idea) ...wait a minute. Wait a minute. That's an idea. (glances up toward Heaven) What do you think? Yeah, that'll do it. All right. (to George) You've got your wish. You've never been born. As Clarence speaks this line, the snow stops falling outside the building, a strong wind springs up which blows open the door to the shack. Clarence runs to close the door. CLARENCE (looking upward) You don't have to make all that fuss about it. As Clarence speaks, George cocks his head curiously, favoring his deaf ear, more interested in his hearing than in what Clarence has said. GEORGE What did you say? CLARENCE You've never been born. You don't exist. You haven't a care in the world. George feels his ear as Clarence talks. CLARENCE No worries – no obligations – no eight thousand dollars to get – no Potter looking for you with the Sheriff. CLOSEUP – GEORGE AND CLARENCE George indicates his bad ear. GEORGE Say something else in that ear. CLARENCE (bending down) Sure. You can hear out of it. GEORGE Well, that's the doggonedest thing... I haven't heard anything out of that ear since I was a kid. Must have been that jump in the cold water. CLARENCE Your lip's stopped bleeding, too, George. George feels his lip, which shows no sign of the recent cut he received from Welch. He is now thoroughly confused. GEORGE What do you know about that... What's happened? MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT George looks around, as though to get his bearings. GEORGE It's stopped snowing out, hasn't it? What's happened here? (standing up) Come on, soon as these clothes of ours are dry... CLARENCE Our clothes are dry. George feels the clothes on the line. GEORGE What do you know about that? Stove's hotter than I thought. Now, come on, get your clothes on, and we'll stroll up to my car and get... They start dressing. George interrupts himself. GEORGE Oh, I'm sorry. I'll stroll. You fly. CLARENCE I can't fly. I haven't got any wings. GEORGE You haven't got your wings. Yeah, that's right. WIPE TO: EXT. STREET – NIGHT MEDIUM SHOT This is the same empty street where George's car swerved into the tree near the sidewalk. George and Clarence come into shot and up to the spot where George had left his car smashed against the tree. George looks around, but his car is nowhere to be seen, and the tree is undamaged. CLARENCE What's the matter? GEORGE (puzzled) Well, this is where I left my car and it isn't here. CLARENCE You have no car. GEORGE Well, I had a car, and it was right here. I guess somebody moved it. CLOSE SHOT – AT CURB The owner of the house passes with some Christmas packages under his arm. OWNER (politely) Good evening. GEORGE Oh, say... Hey... where's my car? OWNER I beg your pardon? GEORGE My car, my car. I'm the fellow that owns the car that ran into your tree. OWNER What tree? GEORGE What do you mean, what tree? This tree. Here, I ran into it. Cut a big gash in the side of it here. The owner bends down to examine the trunk of the tree, then straightens up and smells George's breath. He backs away. OWNER You must mean two other trees. You had me worried. One of the oldest trees in Pottersville. GEORGE (blankly) Pottersville? Why, you mean Bedford Falls. OWNER I mean Pottersville. (sharply) Don't you think I know where I live? What's the matter with you? The owner proceeds toward his house. George is completely bewildered. GEORGE Oh, I don't know. Either I'm off my nut, or he is... (to Clarence) ...or you are! CLARENCE It isn't me! GEORGE Well, maybe I left the car up at Martini's. Well, come on, Gabriel. He puts his arm around Clarence, and they start off up the road. CLARENCE (as they go) Clarence! GEORGE Clarence! Clarence! WIPE TO: INT. NICK'S BAR – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT It is Martini's place, but almost unrecognizable. The cheerful Italian feeling is gone. It is now more of a hard-drinking joint, a honky-tonk. Same bar, tables have no covers. People are lower down and tougher. Nick the bartender is behind the bar. George and Clarence come in. George does not notice the difference, but Clarence is all eyes and beaming. They go up to the bar. GEORGE (as they come in) That's all right. Go on in. Martini's a good friend of mine. Two people leave the bar as they approach. GEORGE There's a place to sit down. Sit down. MEDIUM CLOSEUP Nick is wiping off the bar as they sit down. GEORGE Oh, hello, Nick. Hey, where's Martini? NICK You want a martini? GEORGE No, no, Martini. Your boss. Where is he? NICK (impatient) Look, I'm the boss. You want a drink or don't you? GEORGE Okay – all right. Double bourbon, quick, huh? NICK Okay. (to Clarence) What's yours? CLARENCE I was just thinking... (face puckers up with delicious anticipation) It's been so long since I... NICK (impatient) Look, mister, I'm standing here waiting for you to make up your mind. CLARENCE (appreciatively) That's a good man. I was just thinking of a flaming rum punch. No, it's not cold enough for that. Not nearly cold enough... Wait a minute... wait a minute... I got it. Mulled wine, heavy on the cinnamon and light on the cloves. Off with you, me lad, and be lively! NICK Hey, look mister, we serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast. And we don't need any characters around to give the joint atmosphere. Is that clear? Or do I have to slip you my left for a convincer? As he says this, Nick leans over the counter and puts his left fist nearly in Clarence's eye. Clarence is puzzled by this conduct. CLARENCE (to George) What's he talking about? GEORGE (soothingly) Nick – Nick, just give him the same as mine. He's okay. NICK Okay. Nick turns away to get the drinks. GEORGE What's the matter with him. I never saw Nick act like that before. CLARENCE You'll see a lot of strange things from now on. GEORGE Oh, yeah. Hey, little fellow – you worry me. You got someplace to sleep? CLARENCE No. GEORGE You don't huh? Well, you got any money? Nick is listening suspiciously to this conversation. CLARENCE No. GEORGE No wonder you jumped in the river. CLARENCE I jumped in the river to save you so I could get my wings. Nick stops pouring the drinks, bottle poised in his hand. GEORGE Oh, that's right. A cash register bell rings off stage. Clarence reacts to the SOUND of the bell. CLARENCE Oh-oh. Somebody's just made it. GEORGE Made what? CLARENCE Every time you hear a bell ring, it means that some angel's just got his wings. George glances up at Nick. GEORGE Look, I think maybe you better not mention getting your wings around here. CLARENCE Why? Don't they believe in angels? GEORGE (looking at Nick) A... Yeah, but... you know... CLARENCE Then why should they be surprised when they see one? GEORGE (to Nick) He never grew up. He's... (to Clarence) How old are you, anyway, Clarence? CLARENCE Two hundred and ninety-three... (thinks) ...next May. Nick slams the bottle down on the counter. NICK That does it! Out you two pixies go, through the door or out the window! GEORGE Look, Nick. What's wrong? NICK (angrily) And that's another thing. Where do you come off calling me Nick? GEORGE Well, Nick, that's your name, isn't it? NICK What's that got to do with it? I don't know you from Adam's off ox. (sees someone come in) Hey, you! Rummy! Come here! Come here! CLOSE SHOT A small wreck of a man, with weak, watery eyes. Obviously a broken-down panhandler, his hat in his hand. CLOSEUP – GEORGE He can hardly believe his eyes. It is Gower the druggist. BACK TO SHOT – NICK AT THE BAR NICK (to Gower) Didn't I tell you never to come panhandling around here? Nick picks up a seltzer bottle, and squirts Gower in the face with it. The crowd laugh brutally. Gower smiles weakly as the soda runs off his face. CLOSE SHOT George, horrified, leaps up and goes over to Gower. GEORGE Mr. Gower! Mr. Gower! This is George Bailey! Don't you know me? GOWER No. No. NICK (to his bouncers) Throw him out. Throw him out. The bouncers throw Gower out the front door. George rushes back to the bar. GEORGE (bewildered) Hey, what is... Hey, Nick, Nick... Isn't that Mr. Gower, the druggist? NICK You know, that's another reason for me not to like you. That rumhead spent twenty years in jail for poisoning a kid. If you know him, you must be a jailbird yourself. (to his bouncers) Would you show these gentlemen to the door. BOUNCER Sure. This way, gentlemen. EXT. NICK'S BAR – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT George and Clarence come flying through the door and land in the snow. INT. NICK'S BAR – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT Nick at the cash register, busily ringing the bell. NICK Hey! Get me! I'm giving out wings! EXT. NICK'S BAR – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT George and Clarence lying in the snow. George has a strange, puzzled look on his face. They remain for a moment as they landed, looking at each other. CLARENCE You see, George, you were not there to stop Gower from putting that poison into the... GEORGE What do you mean, I wasn't there? I remember distinctly... George catches a glimpse of the front of the building with the neon sign over the door. It now reads "NICK'S PLACE" instead of "MARTINI'S." George and Clarence get to their feet. GEORGE (exasperated) What the... hey, what's going on around here? Why, this ought to be Martini's place. He points to the sign, and looks at Clarence. Clarence sort of hangs his head. George fixes him with a very interested look. GEORGE Look, who are you? CLARENCE (patiently) I told you, George. I'm your guardian angel. George, still looking at him, goes up to him and pokes his arm. It's flesh. GEORGE Yeah, yeah, I know. You told me that. What else are you? What... are you a hypnotist? CLARENCE No, of course not. GEORGE Well then, why am I seeing all these strange things? CLARENCE Don't you understand, George? It's because you were not born. GEORGE Then if I wasn't born, who am I? CLARENCE You're nobody. You have no identity. George rapidly searches his pockets for identification, but without success. GEORGE What do you mean, no identity? My name's George Bailey. CLARENCE There is no George Bailey. You have no papers, no cards, no driver's license, no 4-F card, no insurance policy... (he says these things as George searches for them) George looks in his watch pocket. CLARENCE They're not there, either. GEORGE What? CLARENCE Zuzu's petals. George feverishly continues to turn his pockets inside out. CLARENCE You've been given a great gift, George. A chance to see what the world would be like without you. George is completely befuddled. GEORGE (shaking his head) Now wait a minute, here. Wait a minute here. As, this is some sort of a funny dream I'm having here. So long, mister, I'm going home. He starts off. Clarence rises. CLARENCE Home? What home? GEORGE (furious) Now shut up! Cut it out! You're... you're... you're crazy! That's what I think... you're screwy, and you're driving me crazy, too! I'm seeing things. I'm going home and see my wife and family. Do you understand that? And I'm going home alone! George strides off hurriedly. Clarence slowly follows him, glancing up toward Heaven as he goes. CLARENCE How'm I doing, Joseph. Thanks. (pause) No, I didn't have a drink! WIPE TO: EXT. STREET – NIGHT MEDIUM SHOT – GEORGE MOVES INTO THE SCENE The sign bearing the name of the town reads: "Pottersville." George looks at it in surprise, then starts up the street toward the main part of town. As he goes, CAMERA MOVES WITH him. The character of the place has completely changed. Where before it was a quiet, orderly small town, it has now become in nature like a frontier village. We see a SERIES OF SHOTS of night clubs, cafes, bars, liquor stores, pool halls and the like, with blaring jazz MUSIC issuing from the majority of them. The motion picture theatre has become a burlesque house. Gower's drugstore is now a pawnbroker's establishment, and so on. CLOSE SHOT George stops before what used to be the offices of the Building and Loan. There is a garish electric sign over the entrance reading: "Welcome Jitterbugs." A crowd of people are watching the police, who are raiding the place, and dragging out a number of screaming women, whom they throw into a patrol wagon. George talks to one of the cops: GEORGE Hey... hey. Where did the Building and Loan move to? COP The Building and what? GEORGE The Bailey Building and Loan. It was up there. COP They went out of business years ago. MEDIUM CLOSEUP George sees the struggling figure of Violet Bick, arrayed as a tart, being dragged into the patrol wagon. GEORGE Hey, Violet! (to the cop) Hey, listen – that's Violet Bick! COP I know. I know. GEORGE I know that girl! The cop shoves George to one side. He looks around and sees Ernie's taxi cruising slowly by. GEORGE Hey, Ernie – Ernie! EXT. STREET – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT Ernie stops the cab, and George enters it. GEORGE Ernie, take me home. I'm off my nut! ERNIE (a much harder Ernie) Where do you live? GEORGE Aw, now, doggone it, Ernie, don't you start pulling that stuff. You know where I live. Three-twenty Sycamore. Now hurry up. ERNIE Okay. Three-twenty Sycamore?... GEORGE Yeah – yeah – hurry up. Zuzu's sick. ERNIE All right. He pulls down the flag on the meter and starts the cab. INT. CAB – NIGHT MEDIUM CLOSEUP – GEORGE AND ERNIE Ernie is puzzled by the stranger. GEORGE Look here, Ernie, straighten me out here. I've got some bad liquor or something. Listen to me now. Now, you are Ernie Bishop, and you live in Bailey Park with your wife and kid? That's right, isn't it? ERNIE (suspiciously) You seen my wife? GEORGE (exasperated) Seen your wife? I've been to your house a hundred times. ERNIE Look, bud, what's the idea? I live in a shack in Potter's Field and my wife ran away three years ago and took the kid... And I ain't never seen you before in my life. GEORGE Okay. Just step on it. Just get me home. Ernie turns to driving, but he's worried about his passenger. As he passes the burlesque house he sees Bert the cop standing beside his police car. Attracting his attention, he motions to Bert to follow him, indicating he has a nut in the back. Bert gets into his car and follows. WIPE TO: EXT. GEORGE'S HOUSE – NIGHT MEDIUM LONG SHOT The taxi pulls up to the curb and stops. MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT The cab is parked. George gets out and looks at the house. ERNIE Is this the place? GEORGE Of course it's the place. ERNIE Well, this house ain't been lived in for twenty years. EXT. HOUSE – NIGHT MEDIUM SHOT George is stopped momentarily by the appearance of the house. Windows are broken, the porch sags, one section of the roof has fallen, doors and shutters hang askew on their hinges. Like a doomed man, George approaches the house. EXT. CAB – NIGHT MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT The police car has pulled up beside the cab, and Bert and Ernie stand watching George's actions. BERT What's up, Ernie? ERNIE I don't know, but we better keep an eye on this guy. He's bats. Ernie switches on the spotlight on his cab, and turns the beam toward the old house. INT. HALLWAY GEORGE'S HOUSE – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT The interior of the house is lit up here and there, ghostlike, by Ernie's spotlight. No furniture, cobwebs, wallpaper hanging and swinging – stairs are broken and collapsed. In a voice that sounds like a cry for help, George yells out: GEORGE Mary! Mary! Tommy! Pete! Janie! Zuzu! Where are you? Clarence suddenly appears leaning against a wall. CLARENCE They're not here, George. You have no children. GEORGE (ignoring him) Where are you? (then, to Clarence) What have you done with them? INT. DOORWAY – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT Bert is standing in the entrance, with his gun in his hand. Ernie is a few feet behind him, ready to run. BERT All right, put up your hands. No fast moves. Come on out here, both of you. GEORGE Bert! Thank heaven you're here! He rushes toward Bert. BERT Stand back. GEORGE Bert, what's happened to this house? Where's Mary? Where's my kids? ERNIE (warningly) Watch him, Bert. BERT Come on, come on. GEORGE (bewildered) Bert – Ernie! What's the matter with you two guys? You were here on my wedding night. You, both of you, stood out here on the porch and sung to us, don't you remember? ERNIE (nervously) Think I'd better be going. BERT Look, now why don't you be a good kid and we'll take you in to a doctor. Everything's going to be all right. Bert tries to lead George away by the arm, but George struggles with him, trying to explain. GEORGE Bert, now listen to me. Ernie, will you take me over to my mother's house? Bert, listen! (gesturing to Clarence) It's that fellow there – he says he's an angel – he's tried to hypnotize me. BERT I hate to do this, fella. Bert raises his gun to hit George on the head. As he does so, Clarence darts in and fixes his teeth in Bert's wrist, forcing him to let George go. CLARENCE Run... George! Run, George! George dashes out of the house and down the street, as Bert grapples with Clarence, and they fall to the ground, wrestling. We see Bert kneeling, trying to put handcuffs on Clarence. CLARENCE Help! Joseph, help! BERT Oh, shut up! CLARENCE Help, oh Joseph, help! Joseph! Suddenly Clarence disappears from under Bert's hands. Bert gets up, amazed by his vanishing. BERT Where'd he go? Where'd he go? I had him right here. Ernie's hair is now standing on end with fright. ERNIE (stammering) I need a drink. He runs out of the scene. BERT Well, which way'd they go? Help me find 'em. EXT. BAILEY HOME – NIGHT MEDIUM SHOT George runs up the path to the front door of the house and raps on the door. He rings the bell and taps on the glass, when his attention is caught by a sign on the wall reading: "Ma Bailey's Boarding House." MEDIUM CLOSEUP – GEORGE AT THE DOOR The door opens and a woman appears. It is Mrs. Bailey, but she has changed amazingly. Her face is harsh and tired. In her eyes, once kindly and understanding, there is now cold suspicion. She gives no sign that she knows him. MA BAILEY Well? GEORGE Mother... MA BAILEY Mother? What do you want? It is a cruel blow to George. GEORGE Mother, this is George. I thought sure you'd remember me. MA BAILEY (coldly) George who? If you're looking for a room there's no vacancy. She starts to close the door, but George stops her. GEORGE Oh, Mother, Mother, please help me. Something terrible's happened to me. I don't know what it is. Something's happened to everybody. Please let me come in. Keep me here until I get over it. MA BAILEY Get over what? I don't take in strangers unless they're sent here by somebody I know. GEORGE (desperate) Well, I know everybody you know. Your brother-in-law, Uncle Billy. MA BAILEY (suspiciously) You know him? GEORGE Well, sure I do. MA BAILEY When'd you see him last? GEORGE Today, over at the house. MA BAILEY That's a lie. He's been in the insane asylum ever since he lost his business. And if you ask me, that's where you belong. She slams the door shut in George's face. EXT. HOUSE – NIGHT MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT George stands a moment, stunned. Then he turns and runs out to the sidewalk, until his face fills the screen. His features are distorted by the emotional chaos within him. We see Clarence leaning on the mail box at the curb, holding his volume of "Tom Sawyer" in his hand. CLARENCE Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives, and when he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he? GEORGE (quietly, trying to use logic) I've heard of things like this. You've got me in some kind of a spell, or something. Well, I'm going to get out of it. I'll get out of it. I know how, too. I... the last man I talked to before all this stuff started happening to me was Martini. CLARENCE You know where he lives? GEORGE Sure I know where he lives. He lives in Bailey Park. They walk out of scene. WIPE TO: EXT. CEMETERY – NIGHT MEDIUM SHOT George and Clarence approach the tree from which the "Bailey Park" sign once hung. Now it is just outside a cemetery, with graves where the houses used to be. CLARENCE Are you sure this is Bailey Park? GEORGE Oh, I'm not sure of anything anymore. All I know is this should be Bailey Park. But where are the houses? The two walk into the cemetery. CLARENCE (as they go) You weren't here to build them. CLOSE MOVING SHOT George wandering like a lost soul among the tombstones, Clarence trotting at his heels. Again George stops to stare with frightened eyes at: CLOSE SHOT – A TOMBSTONE Upon it is engraved a name, Harry Bailey. Feverishly George scrapes away the snow covering the rest of the inscription, and we read: "IN MEMORY OF OUR BELOVED SON – HARRY BAILEY – 1911-1919" CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE AND CLARENCE CLARENCE Your brother, Harry Bailey, broke through the ice and was drowned at the age of nine. George jumps up. GEORGE That's a lie! Harry Bailey went to war! He got the Congressional Medal of Honor! He saved the lives of every man on that transport. CLARENCE (sadly) Every man on that transport died. Harry wasn't there to save them because you weren't there to save Harry. You see, George, you really had a wonderful life. Don't you see what a mistake it would be to throw it away? CLOSEUP – GEORGE AND CLARENCE GEORGE Clarence... CLARENCE Yes, George? GEORGE Where's Mary? CLARENCE Oh, well, I can't... GEORGE I don't know how you know these things, but tell me – where is she? George grabs Clarence by the coat collar and shakes him. CLARENCE I... GEORGE If you know where she is, tell me where my wife is. CLARENCE I'm not supposed to tell. GEORGE (becoming violent) Please, Clarence, tell me where she is. CLARENCE You're not going to like it, George. GEORGE (shouting) Where is she? CLARENCE She's an old maid. She never married. GEORGE (choking him) Where's Mary? Where is she? CLARENCE She's... GEORGE Where is she? CLARENCE (in self-defense) She's just about to close up the library! George lets Clarence go, and runs off. Clarence falls to the ground, where he rubs his neck. CLARENCE (to himself) There must be some easier way for me to get my wings. WIPE TO: EXT. LIBRARY – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT Mary comes out the door, then turns and locks it. We see George watching her from the sidewalk. Mary is very different – no buoyancy in her walk, none of Mary's abandon and love of life. Glasses, no make-up, lips compressed, elbows close to body. She looks flat and dried up, and extremely self- satisfied and efficient. CLOSEUP George, as he watches her. CLOSE SHOT George and Mary, on the sidewalk. GEORGE Mary! She looks up, surprised, but, not recognizing him, continues on. GEORGE Mary! Mary starts to run away from him, and he follows, desperately. GEORGE Mary! Mary! He catches up to her, grabs her by the arms, and keeps a tight grip on her. She struggles to free herself. GEORGE Mary, it's George! Don't you know me? What's happened to us? MARY (struggling) I don't know you! Let me go! GEORGE Mary, please! Oh, don't do this to me. Please, Mary, help me. Where's our kids? I need you, Mary! Help me, Mary! Mary breaks away from him, and dashes into the first door she comes to, the Blue Moon Bar. INT. BLUE MOON – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT Small tables, booths, perhaps a counter. It is crowded. Many of the people are the same who were present during the run on the Building and Loan. Mary comes running in, screaming. The place goes into an uproar. George comes in, practically insane. Some of the men grab and hold on to him. GEORGE (shouting) Mary... (to men holding him) Let me go! Mary, don't run away! MAN Somebody call the police! ANOTHER MAN Hit him with a bottle! ANOTHER MAN He needs a strait jacket! MARY (from back of room) That man – stop him! GEORGE (recognizing some of them) Tom! Ed! Charlie! That's my wife! Mary lets out a final scream, then faints into the arms of a couple of women at the bar. GEORGE Mary! MAN Oh, no you don't! GEORGE (screaming) Mary! George can't fight through the men holding him. Desperately he thinks of Clarence, and heads for the door. GEORGE Clarence! Clarence! Where are you? EXT. SIDEWALK – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT Just as George breaks through the door, Bert arrives in his police car. He gets out and heads for the door, to run into George as he comes out. BERT Oh, it's you! He grabs for George, who lets him have one square on the button, knocking him down, then continues running down the street yelling for Clarence. Bert gets up, takes out his gun and fires several shots after the fleeing figure. BERT (to crowd) Stand back! Bert gets into the police car, and, siren screaming, sets off in pursuit of George. WIPE TO: EXT. BRIDGE OVER RIVER – NIGHT MEDIUM SHOT The same part of the bridge where George was standing before Clarence jumped in. The wind is blowing as it has all through this sequence. George comes running into shot. He is frantically looking for Clarence. GEORGE Clarence! Clarence! Help me, Clarence. Get me back. Get me back. I don't care what happens to me. Only get me back to my wife and kids. Help me, Clarence, please! Please! I want to live again! CLOSEUP George leaning on the bridge railing, praying. GEORGE I want to live again. I want to live again. Please, God, let me live again. George sobs. Suddenly, toward the end of the above, the wind dies down. A soft, gentle snow begins to fall. CLOSE SHOT – GEORGE SOBBING AT THE RAILING The police car pulls up on the roadway behind him, and Bert comes into scene. BERT Hey, George! George! You all right? George backs away and gets set to hit Bert again. BERT Hey, what's the matter? GEORGE (warningly) Now get out of here, Bert, or I'll hit you again! Get out! BERT What the Sam Hill you yelling for, George? GEORGE Don't... George? George talks hopefully – George touches Bert unbelievingly – George's mouth is bleeding again. GEORGE Bert, do you know me? BERT Know you? Are you kiddin'? I've been looking all over town trying to find you. I saw your car piled into that tree down there, and I thought maybe... Hey, your mouth's bleeding; are you sure you're all right? GEORGE What did... George touches his lips with his tongue, wipes his mouth with his hand, laughs happily. His rapture knows no bounds. GEORGE (joyously) My mouth's bleeding, Bert! My mouth's bleed... (feeling in watch pocket) Zuzu's petals! Zuzu's... they're... they're here, Bert! What do you know about that? Merry Christmas! He practically embraces the astonished Bert, then runs at top speed toward town. LONG SHOT George runs away from camera yelling GEORGE Mary! Mary! WIPE TO: EXT. RESIDENTIAL STREET – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT George's wrecked car is smashed against the tree. He comes running into shot, sees the car, lets out a triumphant yell, pats the car, and dashes on. EXT. MAIN STREET BEDFORD FALLS – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT George sees that the "POTTERSVILLE" sign is now replaced by the original "YOU ARE NOW IN BEDFORD FALLS" sign. GEORGE Hello, Bedford Falls! He turns and runs through the falling snow up the main street of the town. As he runs, he notices that the town is back in its original appearance. He passes some late shoppers on the street GEORGE Merry Christmas! PEOPLE (ad lib) Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas, George! EXT. THEATRE – NIGHT PAN SHOT – AS GEORGE RUNS BY: GEORGE Merry Christmas, movie house! EXT. BEDFORD FALLS EMPORIUM – NIGHT PAN SHOT – AS GEORGE RUNS BY: GEORGE Merry Christmas, emporium! EXT. BUILDING AND LOAN OFICES – NIGHT PAN SHOT – AS GEORGE RUNS BY: GEORGE Merry Christmas, you wonderful old Building and Loan! EXT. BANK – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT George notices a light in Potter's office window, and races across the street. INT. POTTER'S OFFICE – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT Potter is seated working at his desk, his goon by his side. George pounds on the window. GEORGE (from outside) Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter! George runs off as Potter looks up from his work. POTTER Happy New Year to you – in jail! Go on home – they're waiting for you! INT. GEORGE'S HOME – NIGHT The lights are on. There is a fire in the fireplace. The Christmas tree is fully decorated with presents stacked around. INT. ENTRANCE HALL – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT Carter, the bank examiner, a newspaper reporter and photographer, and a sheriff, are waiting in the hall for George. George comes dashing in the front door. GEORGE (excitedly) Mary... (sees the men) Well, hello, Mr. Bank Examiner! He grabs his hand and shakes it. CARTER (surprised) Mr. Bailey, there's a deficit! GEORGE I know. Eight thousand dollars. SHERIFF (reaching into pocket) George, I've got a little paper here. GEORGE (happily) I'll bet it's a warrant for my arrest. Isn't it wonderful? Merry Christmas! The photographer sets off a flash bulb. GEORGE Reporters? Where's Mary? (calling) Mary! George runs to the kitchen. He gets no answer. As he goes: GEORGE Oh, look at this wonderful old drafty house! Mary! Mary! He comes running back to the hall. GEORGE Have you seen my wife? CHILDREN'S VOICES Merry Christmas, Daddy! Merry Christmas, Daddy! INT. STAIRS – NIGHT MEDIUM SHOT The three children are at the top of the stairs. They are in their pajamas. GEORGE Kids! George starts to run up the stairs, and the old familiar knob on the banister comes off in his hand. He kisses it lovingly and puts it back, then continues up the stairs. GEORGE Pete – kids – Janie – Tommy. (takes them in his arms) I could eat you up! INT. TOP OF STAIRS – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT George and the kids. He is hugging them. GEORGE Where's your mother? JANIE She went looking for you with Uncle Billy. Zuzu comes running out of her bedroom. George crushes her to him. ZUZU Daddy! GEORGE Zuzu – Zuzu. My little gingersnap! How do you feel? ZUZU Fine. JANIE And not a smitch of temperature. GEORGE (laughing) Not a smitch of temp... INT. HALL – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT As Mary comes through the door, breathless and excited. The four men are watching with open mouths. GEORGE'S VOICE Hallelujah! MARY (to the men) Hello. (sees George) George! Darling! INT. STAIRS – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT Mary races up the stairs, where George meets her in a fierce embrace. GEORGE Mary! Mary! MARY George, darling! Where have you been? George and Mary embrace tearfully. MARY Oh, George, George, George. GEORGE Mary! Let me touch you! Oh, you're real! MARY Oh, George, George! GEORGE You have no idea what's happened to me. MARY You have no idea what happened... He stops her with a kiss. She leads him excitedly down the stairs. MARY Well, come on, George, come on downstairs quick. They're on their way. GEORGE All right. INT. LIVING ROOM – NIGHT CLOSE SHOT Mary leads George, who is carrying a couple of the kids on his back, to a position in front of the Christmas tree. MARY Come on in here now. Now, you stand right over here, by the tree. Right there, and don't move, don't move. I hear 'em now, George, it's a miracle! It's a miracle! She runs toward front door and flings it open. Ad lib SOUNDS of an excited crowd can be heard. Uncle Billy, face flushed, covered with snow, and carrying a clothes basket filled with money, bursts in. He is followed by Ernie, and about twenty more townspeople. MARY Come in, Uncle Billy! Everybody! In here! Uncle Billy Mary and the crowd come into the living room. A table stands in front of George. George picks up Zuzu to protect her from the mob. Uncle Billy dumps the basketful of money out onto the table – the money overflows and falls all over. UNCLE BILLY Isn't it wonderful? The rest of the crowd all greet George with greetings and smiles. Each one comes forward with money. In their pockets, in shoe boxes, in coffee pots. Money pours onto the table – pennies, dimes, quarters, dollar bills – small money, but lots of it. Mrs. Bailey and Mrs. Hatch push toward George. More people come in. The place becomes a bedlam. Shouts of "Gangway – gangway" as a new bunch comes in and pours out its money. Mary stands next to George, watching him. George stands there overcome and speechless as he holds Zuzu. As he sees the familiar faces, he gives them sick grins. Tears course down his face. His lips frame their names as he greets them. UNCLE BILLY (emotionally at the breaking point) Mary did it, George! Mary did it! She told a few people you were in trouble and they scattered all over town collecting money. They didn't ask any questions – just said: "If George is in trouble – count on me." You never saw anything like it. Tom comes in, digging in his purse as he comes. TOM What is this, George? Another run on the bank? Charlie adds his money to the pile. CHARLIE Here you are, George. Merry Christmas. Ernie is trying to get some system into the chaos. ERNIE The line forms on the right. Mr. Martini comes in bearing a mixing bowl overflowing with cash. ERNIE Mr. Martini! Merry Christmas! Step right up here. Martini dumps his money on the table. MARTINI I busted the juke-box, too! Mr. Gower enters with a large glass jar jammed full of notes. ERNIE Mr. Gower! GOWER (to George) I made the rounds of my charge accounts. Violet Bick arrives, and takes out the money George had given her for her trip to New York. GEORGE Violet Bick! VIOLET I'm not going to go, George. I changed my mind. Annie, the colored maid, enters, digging money out of a long black stocking. ANNIE I've been saving this money for a divorce, if ever I get a husband. Mr. Partridge, the high school principal, is the next donor. PARTRIDGE There you are, George. I got the faculty all up out of bed. (hands his watch to Zuzu) And here's something for you to play with. MAN (giving money) I wouldn't have a roof over my head if it wasn't for you, George. Ernie is reading a telegram he has just received. ERNIE Just a minute. Quiet, everybody. Quiet – quiet. Now, this is from London. (reading) Mr. Gower cables you need cash. Stop. My office instructed to advance you up to twenty-five thousand dollars. Stop. Heehaw and Merry Christmas. Sam Wainwright. The crowd breaks into a cheer as Ernie drops the telegram on top of the pile of money on the table. MARY (calling out) Mr. Martini. How about some wine? As various members of the family bring out a punch bowl and glasses, Janie sits down at the piano and strikes a chord. She starts playing "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," and the entire crowd joins in the singing. We see a SERIES OF SHOTS of the various groups singing the hymn, and some people are still coming in and dropping their money on the table. Carter, the bank examiner, makes a donation; the sheriff sheepishly looks at George and tears his warrant in small pieces. In the midst of this scene, Harry, in Naval uniform, enters, accompanied by Bert, the cop. HARRY Hello, George, how are you? GEORGE Harry... Harry... HARRY (as he sees the money) Mary – looks like I got here too late. BERT Mary, I got him here from the airport as quickly as I could. The fool flew all the way up here in a blizzard. Mrs. Bailey enters scene. MRS. BAILEY Harry, how about your banquet in New York? HARRY Oh, I left right in the middle of it as soon as I got Mary's telegram. Ernie hands Harry a glass of wine. HARRY Good idea, Ernie. A toast... to my big brother, George. The richest man in town! Once more the crowd breaks into cheering and applause. Janie at the piano and Bert on his accordion start playing "Auld Lang syne," and everyone joins in. CLOSE SHOT George, still holding Zuzu in his arms, glances down at the pile of money on the table. His eye catches something on top of the pile, and he reaches down for it. It is Clarence's copy of "Tom Sawyer." George opens it and finds an inscription written in it: "Dear George, remember no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings, Love Clarence." MARY (looking at book) What's that? GEORGE That's a Christmas present from a very dear friend of mine. At this moment, perhaps because of the jostling of some of the people on the other side of the tree, a little silver bell on the Christmas tree swings to and fro with a silvery tinkle. Zuzu closes the cover of the book, and points to the bell. ZUZU Look, Daddy. Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings. GEORGE (smiling) That's right, that's right. He looks up toward the ceiling and winks. GEORGE Attaboy, Clarence. The voices of the people singing swell into a final crescendo for the FADE OUT THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Italian Job, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Italian Job, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d426629b9b9b25665e77137fde2877f5b33c4537 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Italian Job, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + "THE ITALIAN JOB" Screenplay by Donna Powers and Wayne Powers Based on the 1969 screenplay by Troy Kennedy-Martin December 21, 2001 FADE IN: EXT. THE PORT OF GENOA, ITALY - NIGHT Forklifts RUMBLE. Workers WIPE FRAME. All the bustle and cacophony of a major seaport. We FIND ourselves focusing on ONE LARGE CRATE. With the GRINDING of gears, a crane lifts it off the dock and carries it onto a ship. INT. HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME Through night-vision binoculars, CHARLIE CROKER, 28, watches the mysterious crate. Charlie is young to run his own crew but he's a born leader. CHARLIE Lyle? SWISH PAN TO: LYLE, 21, brilliant and punctilious, fingering the keyboard of his strap-on supercharged laptop. LYLE I've got the orbital data and SV clock corrections for each satellite that gets the signal. That'll make my reading as solid as the Precise Positioning Service that only the D.O.D. can use. We're talkin' 100 meter horizontal accuracy, 156 meter vertical accuracy, .340 nanoseconds time accuracy. SWISH PAN TO: STEVE, 30, bearded. Steve has an arrogant confidence mixed with the hint of a smile. STEVE Why can't he talk like a person? CHARLIE ...Because he's not. LYLE I do need one more thing, Charlie. CHARLIE What's that? LYLE Someone to turn the goddamn homing device on. No signal, no score. CHARLIE (to Steve) Where're the Italians? STEVE Patience. INT. HUMVEE (MOVING) - SAME TIME The driver is HANDSOME ROB, 30. Riding shotgun is HALF-EAR, 35, immersed in a book: Albert Einstein Creator & Rebel. Half-Ear is a large black man with a Southern accent and a hearing aid. HANDSOME ROB What's that shit? HALF-EAR A book. It's called reading. You should try it some time. Handsome Rob holds up three fingers. HANDSOME ROB You wanna read something. Read between the lines. HALF-EAR Well here's something even you can relate to. Albert got a lotta trim. That genius thing is a babe magnet. HANDSOME ROB Lemme see that book. INT. HOTEL JEWELRY SHOP - SAME TIME The final member of the crew, JOHN BRIDGER, 50s, is a tasteful man buying a very tasteful, and very expensive, diamond necklace. The saleswoman wraps it up as he dials a number on his cell phone. STELLA (V.O.) Hello? JOHN BRIDGER Hi, sweetie. INT. STELLA'S CONDO - PHILADELPHIA - INTERCUT STELLA BRIDGER, 27, crushingly attractive, has just stepped out of the shower, hair still wet, body wrapped in a towel. STELLA Daddy. How are you? JOHN BRIDGER I'm sending you something. STELLA Really? Does it smell nice? JOHN BRIDGER No. But it's sparkly. STELLA Does it come with a receipt? JOHN BRIDGER I'm having it sent to you from the store. STELLA (toweling her hair) Why not bring it by yourself? We could have dinner. He leaves the store and heads for the HOTEL ELEVATOR. JOHN BRIDGER Be a long trip. I'm in Genoa. She doesn't like the sound of that. STELLA Let me guess. Checking out the birthplace of Christopher Columbus. JOHN BRIDGER Something like that. STELLA With your parole officer's approval. He steps into the elevator. Rides up. JOHN BRIDGER I think I've paid my P.O. my last visit. I liked the guy, but we never really connected. STELLA What are you into, Dad? Don't break my heart. You told me you were through. JOHN BRIDGER After this, I swear to you, I am. STELLA You promised me. Daddy, don't do this. The elevator door opens, Bridger steps out and starts down the hall. JOHN BRIDGER Everything's going to be fine. I've got to go now. I love you. Bye. He clicks off then uses his card key to step into the -- INT. HOTEL ROOM - CONTINUOUS He eyes Charlie, who looks pretty tense. JOHN BRIDGER Italians? CHARLIE Not yet. STEVE Don't worry, they'll come through. You can trust these guys. JOHN BRIDGER I trust everyone. It's the devil inside them that I don't trust. (then, to Charlie) Got a sec? CHARLIE My office. INT. HOTEL BATHROOM - NIGHT They step inside, Charlie closing the door. JOHN BRIDGER How you feeling, boss? CHARLIE Fine. I'm fine, fine. Bridger seems amused by that answer. JOHN BRIDGER You know what fine, stands for, don't you? Fucked-up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional. CHARLIE You've become quite the philosopher since you quit drinking. JOHN BRIDGER You don't like me sober? CHARLIE No, I'm glad. Makes you a better thief. Bridger pulls out a fine cigar, still in its wrapper, hands it to Charlie. JOHN BRIDGER For after the haul. CHARLIE Hope I get to fire it up. If Steve's Italians are a no-show, it's three months prep down the shitter and I've dragged you out of retirement for nothing. JOHN BRIDGER This is kinda nice. You being the boss with all the worries, me just along for the ride. CHARLIE Ain't you sweet... From the other side of the door, they HEAR -- STEVE (O.S.) Charlie! INT. HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Charlie takes the binoculars from Steve. He SEES TWO ITALIAN CUSTOMS INSPECTORS climbing onboard the ship. CHARLIE Your Italians. STEVE Yup. Dixie cups. CHARLIE Dixie cups? STEVE I toss 'em away if there's a problem down the road. EXT. SHIP - NIGHT In ITALIAN, the Inspectors quiz the NERVOUS CAPTAIN about the mysterious crate. One Inspector takes a crowbar and yanks out several strips of plywood, REVEALING unmarked cardboard boxes inside. The other Inspector pulls out one of the boxes and tears it open. It is filled with tomatoes. He takes a bite out of one. Nods. Everything seems to be order. The Captain looks relieved. The inspector closes the cardboard box but... Watch carefully now, because as he does this, he hits a power button on a small HOMING DEVICE and stuffs it in with the tomatoes... INT. HOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME On Lyle's computer screen, a pulsating dot appears, BEEPING, sending out precise longitude and latitude. LYLE For those about to rock, we salute you. Charlie dials his cell phone. INT. HUMVEE (MOVING) - INTERCUT Handsome Rob answers. HANDSOME ROB Yeah. CHARLIE Let's get rich. Handsome Rob pulls over. They're at the port. They can see the mysterious crate being lowered into the ship's hold. Half-Ear climbs out, taking a large duffel bag with him. CUT TO: EXT. SHIP (DOCKED) - LATER, NIGHT The Captain is doing his final checks before launch. OUR CAMERA DROPS to -- BENEATH THE WATER where we FIND Half-Ear, in scuba gear, applying Nitramon explosive primer to the hull of the ship. INT. HUMVEE (MOVING) - NIGHT Plowing through thick brush that breaks out onto a secluded beach. Handsome Rob is still behind the wheel but now Steve is in the passenger seat. Lyle, in the back, is still on the laptop, legs fidgeting like a drummer on meth. POP goes his bubble gum. HANDSOME ROB Can you chill out back there? You'd make a hummingbird nervous. EXT. UNDERNEATH THE SHIP - NIGHT Half-Ear finishes up. Speaks into the headset inside his gear. HALF-EAR I'm done. Over. LYLE (V.O.) Copy that. Enjoy the ride, cowboy. Half-Ear grabs onto the bottom rung of a ladder that is bolted to the side of the ship as it launches off the dock and into deeper water. CUT TO: TWO BRIGHT CIRCLES IN A SEA OF DARKNESS Coming closer... becoming clearer... It's Charlie and John Bridger, in scuba gear, riding torpedo-shaped Dive Propulsion Vehicles (DPVs) that pull them through the deep blue sea at a good 5 m.p.h. Both DPVs drag equipment bags. A Global Satellite Positioning Device is mounted on the handlebar of Charlie's DPV, being fed information via Lyle's laptop. A circle pulsates on the monitor, a beacon to the crate in the ship. EXT. UNDER THE BOAT - NIGHT Half-Ear still clings to the ladder. It's a wild ride. Through the headset inside his gear, he HEARS: LYLE (V.O.) Get ready. 3. 2. 1. Drop. Half-Ear lets go of the ladder. The ship's propellers speed by just above his head. WHOOSH. He removes a radio-controlled detonator. Hits the button. EXT. SHIP - ON THE CUT The hull of the boat EXPLODES. INT. SHIP'S HOLD A very neat hole on the bottom of the boat beneath the crate is opened. Water RUSHES IN and the crate falls right through the cavity, vanishing. UNDERWATER The huge, heavy crate drops down... down... hits the bottom. ON THE SHIP Chaos rules. She's taking on water fast. No way to save her. The captain orders the dinghy lowered into the water. INT. HUMVEE - NIGHT Parked in the sand at the top of the bay. Steve looks out to the bay through infrared binoculars. The ship is going down. The crew on the dingy head back to the port, which is in the opposite direction of this beach. EXT. THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA - NIGHT The DPVs are now attached by a tether to an underwater lifting bag that is used to move heavy loads through water. The crate is surrounded by our three diver-bandits. Using crowbars they pull apart the plywood. The cardboard boxes of tomatoes dump out, tomatoes spilling everywhere. And now we see what was hidden between the boxes... A large safe. They move like clock-work. Half-Ear aims an underwater light at the dial. Charlie drills a small hole near the dial. John peers inside a horoscope and lines up the three wheels of the combination lock... until the door pops open. As they stare at what's inside, they speak into their headsets, heard by all. CHARLIE Sweet Jesus. JOHN BRIDGER "That for which all virtue is sold. And almost every vice -- gold." And now we see the contents of the safe: 160 glistening GOLD BRICKS. Made in Singapore, they weigh 25 pounds and each one is decorated with the face of an exotic Balinese girl. We're talking thirty million dollars worth of gold. INT. HUMVEE (PARKED) - NIGHT They holler and high-five and it's just a great moment to be alive. Steve takes another peek through his infrared binoculars and sees -- The last vestiges of the ship hang above the waterline, then disappear. EXT. UNDERWATER - A LITTLE LATER The gold is now stacked and secured on the lifting bag. They attach an underwater parachute to the bag and hook a hose from an air tank into press of a pressure release valves which cause the parachute to INFLATE. Looking like a hot-air balloon underwater, the whole thing floats up about fifteen feet. Half-Ear holds onto its side, going along for the ride. Then Charlie and John Bridger speed off on the DPVs which are tethered to the inflatable bag. As they glide through the water towards the secluded beach, we... CUT TO: EXT. MOUNTAINOUS ROAD - FIRST LIGHT OF DAWN The Humvee climbs into the mountain ranges of the Alps. INT. HUMVEE (MOVING) The gold is in three crates in the cargo bay. Handsome Rob and Steve are still up front. The others are in the back seats, the divers out of their scuba gear. They are pouring champagne into paper cups; except for Bridger who abstains. He holds up his empty cup. JOHN BRIDGER My name is John and I'm a very rich alcoholic. And I'm going to live my life one very rich day at a time. THE CREW Alright, John! They laugh and pound their fists against the roof of the Humvee. Charlie pulls out the cigar Bridger gave him. As Bridger lights it for him -- JOHN BRIDGER You planned this one down to a t, kid. It's a gift. You saw the big picture, made contingencies, covered the angles... Hearing this, Steve looks a little jealous. JOHN BRIDGER Shit, you made thirty million dollars in gold drop out of sight without holding a gun. Who else could've pulled that off? CHARLIE You could've. I had big shoes to fill. JOHN BRIDGER Fill the shoes but don't follow the footprints. CHARLIE What're you talking about? You've lived the life. JOHN BRIDGER My life's been nothing but fake IDs, fake business cards and divorce papers. This is the only thing that's real. Bridger shows him a photograph of Stella that he keeps in his wallet. CHARLIE Stella's a beautiful girl. JOHN BRIDGER She's amazing. And I spent half her childhood in prison. This is a once in a lifetime haul, Charlie. Bring down the curtain after this one. Make a new life. Find someone amazing and be there for her. As the advice escapes Bridger's mouth -- EXT. MOUNTAINOUS ROAD A Jeep thunders out of a hiding place in the trees and blocks the road. The Humvee brakes to avoid running into it. HANDSOME ROB Shit. Click. That's the sound of a gun cocking as it's pressed against Handsome Rob's temple. STEVE Anyone acts stupid and his brains go on the windshield. They see the two Italian Inspectors jump out of the Jeep, AK- 47s leveled at the crew. Steve has double-crossed them. ON THE CREW: shocked would be a good place to start. CHARLIE What the hell do you think you're doing? STEVE Sorry Charlie. But I want the box of Cracker Jack all to myself. The Italians pull the crates of gold out of the back of the Humvee. CHARLIE You're not thinking this through. It's a stupid move. STEVE Think so? Well you're the brilliant one. The Master Planner. Isn't that so, John? Steve climbs out of the Humvee, gun still on Handsome Rob, the AK-47s aimed at the others. STEVE You bet on the wrong horse. JOHN BRIDGER We'll hunt you down. You're gonna regret this. EXT. HUMVEE Safely outside, Steve turns his gun on Bridger. STEVE No regrets, Dixie cup. BOOM. He shoots Bridger in the head. Just like that. The Italians follow suit, AK-47s SCREAMING out bursts of full automatic fire at the crew. INT. HUMVEE They duck for cover as the vehicle is riddled with gunfire. Glass shatters. Bullets ricochet. They're in the epicenter of hell. Handsome Rob jerks the steering wheel and stomps the gas. Driving blind. EXT. MOUNTAINOUS ROAD The Humvee hits the side of the Jeep, grinds alongside it, metal tearing against metal. The Humvee's right side tires precariously hover by the cliff and the raging water below. The gunners keep FIRING. Bullets rip into the Humvee's tires. EXT. HUMVEE It almost escapes, but it can't make it on shredded rubber. It careens off the road and -- SERIES OF SHOTS The Humvee plummets through the air and plunges into the raging river. INT. HUMVEE Water cascades in through the open windows. They're thrown around as the Humvee rides the rapids. WHAM. The passenger door caves in as the Humvee rams into a large rock then is swept further downstream. Through the foam and spray, Charlie looks over to Bridger. He's dead. The torrent ROARS. Only their chests and heads are above water. And that's not all. There's a WATERFALL AHEAD. EXT. WATERFALL The Humvee is palmed in its deadly embrace and hurled over. It cartwheels into the pool below, sending up a huge geyser of water. It sinks out of sight. EXT. MOUNTAINOUS ROAD - SAME TIME The crates of gold are now inside the Italians' Jeep. Steve climbs in, leaving the crew for dead. UNDERWATER - SAME TIME The Humvee strikes the surface bottom with an ominous thud. EXT. MOUNTAINOUS ROAD - DAWN The Jeep jerks to a stop. A door opens and the bodies of the two Italians, shot dead, are dumped out into the mud. Steve is alone now. Just him and the millions in gold. INT. HUMVEE - SAME TIME The water entombs them. Blood from Bridger's fatal gunshot mists the water red. They manage to get the door open. They start to swim out but Charlie won't go without Bridger. He grabs his friend's body and pulls it up with him. EXT. RIVER - SUNRISE They drag themselves ashore, Handsome Rob helping Charlie pull Bridger's corpse. Charlie is shocked, tormented, grieved, and angry beyond description. Against the rocky embankment, he holds Bridger. Not wanting to ever let go. CHARLIE (V.O.) If you would have told me that I would spend the next three years searching for Steve Bandell, I would have said that was nothing. Cause I would have spent a lifetime looking for that bastard if I had to. DISSOLVE TO: INT. OFFICE - DAY SOMEONE'S POV. A top of the line safe. The only light in the office is the beam of a penlight on the dial. GLOVED HANDS spin the dial, feeling for "contact points", areas on the dial where a slight resistance can be felt -- if you have the touch. NEW ANGLE. A woman holds the penlight in her teeth while trying to crack the safe. It's Stella Bridger, now 30. SUPERIMPOSE: Three Years Later Philadelphia She manipulates the dial. Click. She grabs the safe's lever and swings the heavy steel door open, her face a mixture of pride and relief. But before we see what's inside -- LIGHTS TURN ON. TWO COPS lurk at the doorway. FIRST COP You always work in the dark? STELLA Buzz of the fluorescents throws me off. She's all yours. The cops come closer and only now do we realize that they're on the same team. SECOND COP Damn. Chris Perley couldn't crack it. Neither could Michael Hoyt. STELLA Now you know who to call first. FIRST COP You're expensive, Stella. Those guys cut us a break on subpoena jobs. Goodwill, community service... STELLA Well I do it for the money. I'll send you the bill. SECOND COP Don't you want to see what's inside? STELLA I never look. Bye, guys. And as she walks off, they do look -- at her. EXT. STREET - DAY A car RISES INTO FRAME on a bustling street: a 1960 Mini Cooper S., a worldwide motoring icon. Its shape crouches low to the ground and its tiny 10-inch wheel-at-each-corner gives it the legendary Mini look. If when you see its headlights and classic grille it doesn't bring a smile to your face, then you've got no automobile soul. INT. MINI (CRUISING) - DAY Stella takes on the road like someone who loves to be behind the wheel of a car that claimed victory in the Monte Carlo Rally three times. She passes a minivan, a breeze with the Mini's quick, go-kart-like handling. She searches for a parking space on a street lined with SUVs. Sees a spot, it's not really a space, just a gap between two gas guzzlers, there's no way any car could squeeze in. Brake. Shift. Hard turn. She parallel parks the Mini with ease. She's right in front of -- HER SHOP Antique keys and locks dominate the storefront window with the name of the shop stenciled across the glass: BRIDGER LOCK AND SAFE COMPANY. Stella hops out of the Mini. With a poised walk she heads inside. INT. SHOP - DAY It is filled with old cast-iron safes she has rebuilt along with some new models. Stella's RECEPTIONIST greets her. RECEPTIONIST How long? STELLA Four minutes, forty-three seconds. High-five. RECEPTIONIST You're the man. STELLA So what's on the line-up? RECEPTIONIST 2:00. Home safe in Fairmount Park. Owner died and the wife never knew the combination. And Todd Milliken called. He has a prototype combination lock he wants you to test out tomorrow morning. Says he added two false contact points on the tumbler. STELLA Tell him if I don't have it opened in six minutes flat, breakfast is on me. RECEPTIONIST And there's a Charlie Croker in your office. He said you two know each other. (an aside) And he looks pretty fine for a white boy. Without a response, Stella heads over to -- HER OPEN OFFICE DOOR and sees him fiddling with her collection of safe doors that line the shelves. STELLA Charlie Croker. He turns around. Smiles. Charming. CHARLIE Hi, Stella. She steps inside. STELLA Refresh my memory. After you came to see me and told me what happened to my father, I told you I never wanted to see you again, didn't I? CHARLIE Yeah. You did. STELLA So I'm a little confused. CHARLIE I found him. At first it seems that Charlie's words have no effect on her, but then he notices that her hands are trembling. CHARLIE I can tell you where he is. STELLA I don't want to know. CHARLIE Are you sure? She doesn't answer. CHARLIE He's in Los Angeles. She doesn't respond. Doesn't ask him to go on, doesn't ask him not to. So he goes on... CHARLIE The gold bricks he stole from us were minted in Singapore and decorated with the face of a Balinese girl. I've had my tentacles out and got a call from a friend of mine and your father's, Philly Steak. Stella remembers him. STELLA When I was little he would play poker at the house and drop quarters under the table for me to find. CHARLIE He got word from an L.A. connection named Skinny Pete that a gold dealer has been buying bricks with the Balinese girl on them, three or four at a time. STELLA You ever heard the expression, cut to the chase? CHARLIE I tracked Steve down to an address in the Hollywood Hills. He's changed his last name to Frezelli. And get this: he had a Worthington 1000 installed in the house before he even moved in. We both know that you don't install a Worthington 1000 unless you have something precious to guard. STELLA Precious or not, I don't deal with ill-gotten goods. CHARLIE We boosted that gold from a terrorist group that was about to trade it for bio-weapons. Now that doesn't exactly make us Robin Hood, but maybe in our own little way we were doing a good deed. Problem is, no one in my crew can handle that safe. And I need someone I can trust. STELLA And you think that's me? Haven't you heard that I work for the other side? CHARLIE What I heard is that you have your father's touch. And he was the only safecracker I knew who could open a Worthington 1000. STELLA I'm not a safecracker. I'm a professional safe and vault technician. CHARLIE You're John Bridger's daughter. And this is our chance to set things right. That sets her off. STELLA Our chance? Who do you think you are coming in here? Stealing the gold isn't going to bring my father back to life. CHARLIE No, it won't. STELLA Then get out. EXT. STREET ó DAY Charlie comes out of her shop and starts down the sidewalk. Suddenly, Handsome Rob appears out of the crowd and is walking next to him. HANDSOME ROB How'd it go with the chick? CHARLIE I'm working on it. HANDSOME ROB I don't want her on the crew, Charlie. CHARLIE Gotta have her. Important piece of the puzzle. HANDSOME ROB There has to be someone else. What about Bill Huchins? CHARLIE Doing ten long at Levinworth. HANDSOME ROB Red O'Reilly? CHARLIE Chemo. HANDSOME ROB Martin Hernandez? CHARLIE Found Jesus. Handsome Rob stops Charlie. HANDSOME ROB I don't want a civilian to screw this up. CHARLIE She has the skill. And the motivation. HANDSOME ROB Exactly. She's emotional. You know what happens when emotion gets into it. CHARLIE It's emotional for all of us at this point. Don't kid yourself. INT. EXPENSIVE RESTAURANT/BAR - NIGHT RICHARD WORTH has his back to the bar. He's a blue blood trial lawyer with an ego that has more horsepower than a Ferrari. RICHARD It's all in my patented sideways glance. Like this... He gives a sideways glance to Stella; it's their first date. RICHARD I hit each woman on the jury with one of these. We make contact. And I know exactly what they're doing. Undressing me with their eyes. STELLA I see... What a nightmare. Someone bumps into Stella, a mumbled, "Excuse me." Nightmare continues... RICHARD The case is all but won. That's why in jury selection I choose as many women as possible. Except lesbians, of course. I can tell in sixty seconds if they're a lesbian. Want to know how I know? STELLA If they don't undress you with their eyes? RICHARD Precisely. Like that waitress right there. See? She's looking at me right below my belt. Definitely not a lesbian. A waitress is indeed looking below Richard's belt. But Stella notices that she was only looking because Richard's zipper is all the way down. She smiles. STELLA Your fly. RICHARD I am fly. And I'm da bomb. Just wait until later tonight. Suddenly a BUSBOY stumbles and a tray of drinks fall, soaking Richard's suit in red wine. BUSBOY Oh, man. I'm sorry. RICHARD You should be. Moron. What the hell's wrong with you? BUSBOY It was an accident. I'm very sorry. RICHARD Where's the manager? Richard Worth is not paying to have his suit cleaned. Damn. (to Stella) I'm going to... I don't believe this. He starts off to the bathroom and as soon as the space he was occupying empties, Charlie fills it. CHARLIE I think your date's going pretty well, what do you think? She shoots him a look that could reverse global warming. STELLA What are you doing here? CHARLIE What do you mean? I come here all the time. STELLA I don't think so. CHARLIE Sure. Lawyers, Judges, my kind of crowd. See that gentleman there, he sentenced me to 90 days in county once. We need to talk. STELLA No, you need to listen. I want you to leave. Got it? CHARLIE Hey, I paid valet parking prices to get in here, not to mention a twenty spot to the busboy to spill that drink on Mister Zipper. STELLA You -- I don't believe this. You paid someone to spill that drink? CHARLIE Actually, you paid for it. Charlie returns her wallet. CHARLIE Didn't notice it was me who bumped into you earlier, did you? Anyway, I was hoping we could get to know each other a little better before we leave for Los Angeles. I already booked your flight. STELLA You truly are a fatuous, odious man. CHARLIE I have no idea what you just said, but I like the sound of it. STELLA Well maybe you'll understand this. Hit the road, Jack -- CHARLIE Charlie -- STELLA Or you'll be sorry, Charlie, cause I'll kick you in the nuts so hard that your voice will be as high as my heels. She means it, too. CHARLIE I'm beginning to worry about this whole relationship. STELLA I'll let you in on a secret. You can't have a relationship with a pickpocket, gold robber, or any kind of thief. Charlie looks away, lets her have her point. This whole thing is getting pretty heated so when he turns back to her, he uses a whole new approach. His emotions are genuine. CHARLIE John wasn't just a man I crewed up with, he was my friend, he was the closest thing to a father I ever had. I wish to God I could bring him back. But all I can do is go after this guy, the guy that killed him, and hit him where he lives. She feels the honesty in his words but before she can reply, they're interrupted by -- RICHARD Everything alright, Stella? He's back, red wine splotched on his suit. STELLA Fine. Richard. Charlie. Charlie was just saying goodbye. But for now, Charlie is just staring at Richard, boring into to him... RICHARD Can I help you with something? CHARLIE Oh, sorry. I was just undressing you with my eyes. And with that, Charlie goes. Stella can't help but smile. EXT. STELLA'S CONDO - NIGHT She comes home, having shed her date. INT. STELLA'S BEDROOM - NIGHT She goes through a drawer and pulls out a package she hasn't looked at for years. She opens it. Inside is the beautiful necklace that her father bought her in Italy. It brings tears to her eyes. INT. CHARLIE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT He lies in bed, can't sleep. His phone rings. He picks up. CHARLIE Hello. INT. STELLA'S BEDROOM - INTERCUT She's on the other end of the line. STELLA I'm in this for one thing, Charlie, and one thing only. I want to see the look on his face when his gold is gone. He took my father from me, I'm taking this; it's the best I can do. CUT TO: EXT. STREETS - DAY Stella's Mini passes, weaves, tucks in between cars. She drives like a madman. INT. MINI (SPEEDING) Charlie feels like he's inside a video game. CHARLIE I see Drive Defensively is your motto. STELLA Don't worry. Jack Daniels never let me down. She slaps the dashboard of her car. CHARLIE By the way you drive, I'm not surprised you named your car after a bottle of whiskey. Left. STELLA Jack Daniels was chief engineer of the Mini. And I drive it exactly the way it was meant to be driven. She whips down the avenue. CHARLIE Another left. She hangs a left. STELLA We're going in circles. Who's tailing you this week? CHARLIE The possibilities are endless. EXT. STADIUM PARKING LOT - DAY The Mini parks in the middle of the huge, empty lot that surrounds Veterans Field, home of the Philadelphia Phillies. INT. MINI She looks around... STELLA Where are they? CHARLIE We're a little early. I didn't expect us to get here quite that fast. There... A Vespa pulls into the lot, headed their way. It's Lyle. Charlie starts the introductions. CHARLIE That's Lyle. Gearhead. He's who really invented Napster... QUICK CUT TO: INT. DORM ROOM - NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY - 1999 - NIGHT Below a Metallica poster, Lyle has fallen asleep on his desk. His roommate, Napster creator SHAWN FANNING, recognizable in his trademark baseball cap, sneaks a peek at Lyle's computer. CHARLIE (V.O.) At least that's how Lyle tells it. CUT BACK TO: INT. MINI - DAY And now they see a monster pick-up truck bouncing into the lot, MUSIC THUMPING from its Alpine at ear-bleeding levels. CHARLIE Half-Ear. Explosives. He lost fifty percent of his hearing in the fifth grade. QUICK CUT TO: INT. GRAMMAR SCHOOL BATHROOM - 1990 - DAY A 10 year old boy stands in front of a toilet in the stall. BOOM! Water geysers out of the bowl and soaks him. CHARLIE (V.O.) One M-80 in the toilet bowl too many. Some kids in the bathroom saw the whole thing. KID That was rad! HALF-EAR Wha'? CUT BACK TO: INT. MINI - DAY And now a RUMBLING in the distance. Stella looks. Sees a car streaking their way, almost like a mirage in the heat waves coming off the pavement. Closer. Faster. A classic Mustang. Its engine rumbles like a jackhammer. It's had some serious custom work done to it. CHARLIE Handsome Rob. Premier wheel man. He once drove all the way to L.A. just so he could set the record for longest freeway chase. QUICK CUT TO: EXT. L.A. FREEWAY - 1999 - DAY Handsome Rob's behind the wheel, flicks a cigarette butt out his open window -- We watch it hit the pavement, ashes spark, and then behind the fallen butt we see that every lane of the 405 is filled with cop cars in pursuit. CHARLIE (V.O.) Smashed the mark by twelve minutes. We now see Handsome Rob through the lens of a TV news helicopter camera. CHARLIE (V.O.) He got a hundred and ten love letters sent to his jail cell from women who saw him on TV. CUT BACK TO: INT. MINI - DAY As the cars converge in the parking lot... STELLA And what about you? CHARLIE I've been a thief since I had baby teeth. QUICK CUT TO: INT. GRAMMAR SCHOOL PLAYGROUND - DAY SEVEN YEAR OLD CHARLIE is shoved against a chain link fence by a SIXTH GRADE BULLY. BULLY Cough it up, Charlie! Charlie hands the bully a dollar bill. The bully puts it in a wallet that is over-stuffed with cash and saunters off, laughing it up with his bully pals. Charlie turns to his 2nd grade classmate who sports a fresh black eye. CLASSMATE So much for lunch. SEVEN YEAR OLD CHARLIE You need a dollar? CLASSMATE I thought he took your last one. SEVEN YEAR OLD CHARLIE He did. Charlie holds up the over-stuffed wallet that he pickpocketed from the bully. SEVEN YEAR OLD CHARLIE But I got lots more now. CUT BACK TO: EXT. PARKING LOT - DAY Doors open simultaneously. Everyone out. The crew eyes Stella. Charlie gets right down to business. CHARLIE This is Stella. She's working with us on this one. IDs? Handsome Rob hands out fake driver's licenses. LYLE (reading his) Melvin Lisp? Could I -- just once -- have a cool name? HALF-EAR (also complaining) 220 pounds? Try 180. HANDSOME ROB Try 'Deal A Meal'. LYLE I don't even have a cool nickname. CHARLIE Enough of this sewing-circle shit. Phones. Half-Ear hands out new cell phone to everyone and takes their old phones. HALF-EAR Philly Steak says these are clean as a whistle. He also got us four dozen internal chips with different numbers. Change out the chips twice a day. As Charlie hands out airline tickets -- CHARLIE We travel to L.A. separately. LYLE You still haven't told us the most important thing. What exactly is the job, Charlie? And who exactly is she? Lyle and Half-Ear have been kept in the dark until now. CHARLIE This is Stella Bridger. And we're finishing the job that we started in Italy. They're a little stunned at first. HALF-EAR Holy shit. It's about time. CUT TO: MONTAGE - LAX - NIGHT The crew deplane from five different airplanes, different air carriers. They disperse in separate vehicles. See Charlie at Avis, renting a car. See Handsome Rob renting a U-Haul panel truck. See Stella on a hotel shuttle bus. See Half-Ear on the underground Metro Rail, taking the Red Line. See Lyle in a taxi, headed south on Figueroa Street. He notices a YOUNG WOMAN HITCHHIKING. For a moment, their eyes connect. She is a beautiful waif and the feeling sweeps through Lyle: if only... But the taxi passes by. Charlie checks into Shutters, with its Victorian beach house feel and oceanfront view. Stella's at the Peninsula in Beverly Hills with its opulent lobby. Handsome Rob's at the Standard, with its kitschy decor and ironic style. He stares at a huge empty aquarium behind the front desk where a performance artist writhes and a DJ spins out rhythmic throbs. Very L.A. Half-Ear's at the new Renaissance Hollywood Hotel adjacent to the dramatic Babylon Gate and the Kodak Theatre. And Lyle's at the Downtown Bonaventure, riding up the glass elevator. Perfect gearhead hotel. EXT. SHUTTERS HOTEL - BALCONY - SUNSET The five of them sit in chairs on the balcony of his hotel room. There's a sweeping view of the Pacific. CHARLIE We need an in to get a video blueprint of the interior. We're not going into this place blind. Half-Ear, you take the first surveillance shift. Who goes in, who goes out, levels of security, you know the drill. HALF-EAR You got it. CHARLIE I also want audio surveillance on his phone. LYLE I'll hack into the phone company's central office remote observance monitoring system and fool it into thinking there's a legal tap on the line. Reroute the digital copies of his calls to our own listening post. CHARLIE How long? LYLE I'll burn through the night, have it up and running before morning. CHARLIE (to Handsome Rob) We need to know how long to get from the house to Union Station downtown. HANDSOME ROB No problemo. CHARLIE Stella. How much time will you need with the safe? STELLA I'll have it open in five minutes flat. HANDSOME ROB It's not the same as opening a safe for the cops. Your heart will be pounding in your ears. Perspiration on your fingertips. It's a whole different ball game. STELLA You get me to the safe, I'll open it. Out over the ocean, the sun is in its death throes, bruising the sky a coiling purple and orange. EXT. STEVE'S HOUSE - MORNING Nestled at the end of a cul-de-sac on Oporto Drive in the Hollywood Hills. Chrome. Glass. Carved wood. EXT. MARAVILLA DRIVE - MORNING The U-Haul panel truck is parked on the side of the road that overlooks Oporto Drive and Steve's house. INT. U-HAUL - MORNING It's been converted into their surveillance vehicle, the back outfitted with monitors and surveillance equipment. Half-Ear peers through binoculars and says his notes into a micro-cassette recorder. His binoculars focus in on the fence that surrounds the perimeter of the property. HALF-EAR (into recorder) We've got an anti-scaling fence. Hardened, electroplated steel. Hacksaw won't work. We'll need Nitramon. The binoculars SWISH PAN TO a guard booth where a guard keeps an eye on the gate. HALF-EAR Armed guard. 9MM semi-automatic in the holster. Security booth is accessible and ideal for a triple charger chemical grenade. The binoculars SWISH PAN TO four Rottweilers prowling the grounds. HALF-EAR Shit. Dogs. Why do black men hate dogs? I'll tell you why, Charlie. Because dogs are racist. That's a natural fact. Someone else deal with 'em. EXT. 101 FREEWAY - DAY A sea of cars, gridlock in L.A. Crammed in the middle of the traffic meltdown is Handsome Rob's rental car. INT. RENTAL CAR (CRAWLING) Timing out the getaway route. He's got a Thomas Guide on the passenger seat and a stopwatch ticking away but he's going nowhere fast. He futilely leans on the car horn. INT. U-HAUL - DAY Lyle's surveillance shift. He takes digital photos with a telephoto camera. ZOOMS IN on a security pad on the front door. LYLE (into micro cassette player) Advent Home Navigator Hybrid System. Monitors 132 points for intrusion, fire, and environmental hazards. Best way around it is to get a back door password, trip the alarm during the heist, then call it in as a false alarm. CUT TO: INT. STEVE'S HOUSE - OFFICE - DAY A HAND turns the dial to a Worthington 1000 vault. The vault opens and voila: stacks and stacks of gold bricks. EXT. STEVE'S HOUSE -DAY The same hand clutches a very heavy duffle bag. OUR VIEW BOOMS UP to see Steve, three years older than when we last saw him, his beard shaved away. INT. U-HAUL - SAME TIME Through his digital camera lens, Lyle watches Steve walk towards his car: a Ferrari 550 Barchetta Pininfarina. It's the first time he's seen Steve in three years. LYLE (into micro cassette recorder) 15:25. There he is. He's gained 15 to 20 pounds living off our money. And Handsome Rob, you're going to be pissed when you see his wheels. Lyle watches the security guard hit a switch in the guard booth. The gate rises like the blade of a guillotine in reverse. The Ferrari zooms away. EXT. FIGUEROA STREET - DAY Another route. Handsome Rob's rental car is in the left turn lane waiting for the light to change. INT. RENTAL CAR The light finally is a green arrow but the lady in front of Handsome Rob is so preoccupied with applying her make-up that she doesn't go until he honks but by then it's too late as she makes it through the light but he doesn't. He checks his stopwatch. Simmers. EXT. PENINSULA HOTEL - POOLS SIDE - DAY In a bikini, Stella lies on a lounge chair under a cabana, reading a copy of Vogue magazine. But as we take a closer look, we see that she's really reading the owner's manual for the Worthington 1000 safe which she's inserted in the fold of Vogue. INT. U-HAUL - DAY Charlie's shift. He sees a Latina housekeeper get into her car. CHARLIE (into micro cassette recorder) Housekeeper leaves at 17:30. EXT. COIN & BULLION STORE - EVENING Steve bangs a fist against the steel security door that covers the closed store. The steel door rises up and a Ukrainian named YEVHEN unlocks another door. He is the gold dealer that Philly Steak told Charlie about. YEVHEN You're right on time. INT. COIN & BULLION STORE - EVENING Yevhen is 50 and like many in the gold trade, there isn't a conspiracy theory that he doesn't embrace. As they make their way to a back room, he keeps his mouth in overdrive -- YEVHEN All those poor bastards out there putting their life savings in banks and S&Ls and mutual funds. What do they think -- that when the collapse comes they can depend on the government? I don't think so. Steve motions to a security camera that looms down on them. STEVE Is the camera off? YEVHEN Of course. Just like you said. I never tape you, you can see for yourself. Steve sees the red light is off. He lays the duffel bag on a table, unzips it, pulls out three 25 pound gold bricks with the face of a Balinese Girl stamped on each one. As Yevhen inspects them -- YEVHEN Governments are nothing more than puppets on the strings of the Trilateral Commission with their twisted gods. Yevhen retrieves a briefcase, opens it, presenting Steve with stacks of Ben Franklins: $100,000 worth. As Steve inspects the cash -- YEVHEN I mean, it's so obvious that in a world where NAFTA can overturn the Supreme Court, not to mention Microsoft's nefarious financial machinations, this, is our only refuge; gold. Steve closes the briefcase. YEVHEN Plus a little walking around money. EXT. 7TH STREET - NIGHT A fender bender in the middle of an intersection has traffic backed up for miles. INT. RENTAL CAR Handsome Rob checks the latest time on the stopwatch. INT. U-HAUL - NIGHT Through night-vision binoculars Charlie sees a (different) security guard open the gate as Steve returns. He watches Steve go inside his house. Through the windows, he sees him use a remote to turn on a TV. EXT. 101 FREEWAY - THE NEXT DAY A freeway sign says: UNION STATION 1/2 MILE INT. RENTAL CAR HANDSOME ROB can see the exit up ahead, but traffic is so backed up and going nowhere that it feels like it's a hundred miles away. And it's not even rush hour. Just life in L.A. Idling on the freeway, he looks at the drivers in the cars beside him. He sees a businesswoman reading the Wall Street Journal. Sees a man with his finger deep, deep up his nose. HANDSOME ROB Where's a grenade launcher when you need one? EXT. YAMASHIRO RESTAURANT - DAY Our crew walks along the pathways of Japanese gardens that wind along outside the restaurant. It's a breathtaking view from high in the Hollywood Hills. Some tourists take in the vista. HANDSOME ROB Doesn't matter what time it is. It's either bad traffic, peak traffic, or slit-your-wrists traffic. HALF-EAR You gotta ride the Metro-Rail, man. HANDSOME ROB I'm sure it's ideal for carrying a ton of gold, genius. CHARLIE What's your guesstimate? HANDSOME ROB If we had all green lights, fourteen minutes. But in the twenty times I've done it, the average is thirty- two minutes, with a top time of fifty minutes. CHARLIE Then we'll travel like Rockefeller. They don't know where Charlie is going with this, but they've been around him long enough to know it's going somewhere. CHARLIE When cars first started catching on, workers on tall ladders would use these swiveling colored boards for traffic signals. Now whenever Rockefeller would take the drive from his mansion to his office on Wall Street, the workers would make sure that he got green boards all the way. HANDSOME ROB How do we get all green lights? CHARLIE Lyle? LYLE Let me see what I can do. HALF-EAR Did you know that the first traffic signal to be patented was invented by a black man named Garrett Morgan? (to Charlie) You're not the only one who watches the History Channel. HANDSOME ROB We still need an in to get the video blueprint. LYLE Carpet cleaners? Gutter cleaners? Flower delivery? CHARLIE We'll never get by the guard unless they're certain it's legit. I'm thinking cable TV. We cut his cable, he calls the cable company. We show up. Send a cable technician into the house with a pinhole video camera while we get a feed through an RF antenna. HANDSOME ROB Who plays cable technician? Steve thinks we're all dead. But Stella knows that's not exactly true. He doesn't think Stella is dead; he doesn't know her at all. STELLA If you're all dead, I guess I'm the man for the job. CHARLIE Are you up for it? STELLA In for a penny, in for a pound. EXT. ADELPHIA CABLE - PARKING LOT - EVENING Service trucks pull into the lot. Technicians are getting out, finishing their shifts. INT. RENTAL CAR (PARKED NEARBY) Handsome Rob behind the wheel. Lyle shotgun, aiming his digital camera at the exiting workers. LYLE I'm telling you. He claims he named it Napster because his hair is so nappy underneath that cap of his. But I know the real reason. It's because I was NAPPING when he stole the idea from me. I should've been on the cover of Wired magazine. HANDSOME ROB Would you clam up. You'd give a woodpecker a headache. LYLE I'm the Napster. HANDSOME ROB Okay. You're the Napster. Heads up: cable chick. They see a female service tech getting out of her work truck. Lyle zooms his camera lens in on her Adelphia Cable work shirt. It has BECKY sewn in above her right breast. LYLE Becky. Nice name. I wonder what she calls the other one. HANDSOME ROB And it's such a mystery why you don't have a girlfriend. LYLE I had a girlfriend. Unfortunately even though the relationship ceased in an objective reality, it's still going on in my mind. (tapping his head) That woman's lived in here rent-free for four years. Lyle takes a few more pictures of Becky. LYLE Okay. All we need now is a work shirt like this one and a service truck like that one. You think Stella will be able to pull it off? HANDSOME ROB I have my doubts, but there's no talking to Charlie. LYLE Maybe he's been inserting his hard drive into her software. Clouds the judgment. HANDSOME ROB He knows better than to mix business with pleasure. (getting out of the car) Only I'm allowed to do that. LYLE Where you going? HANDSOME ROB To get a work shirt and a service truck. Lyle watches him stroll over to Becky and strike up a conversation in the parking lot. Lyle can't hear what's being said, but Becky smiles, and lest we forget, his name is Handsome Rob for a reason. INT. BECKY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT OUR CAMERA FOLLOWS a trail of clothes, hastily littered, that lead to the cable chick's bed. Lit candles are on the bedside table. The couple is asleep under a tangle of sheets. Handsome Rob has clearly mixed business with pleasure. His eyes flash open. He slips out of bed. Pulls on his pants. Reaches into her pants and removes her key chain. He selects the key to her service truck and does an old trick: he blows out one of the candles and presses the key against the warm wax, making a clear impression of the key's ridges. He returns the key chain. Takes a couple more steps, past her panties, past her bra and. He snags her work shirt. Then he's gone. INT. HANDSOME ROB'S HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Using locksmith equipment, he cuts a key that matches the impression on the candle wax. EXT. ADELPHIA CABLE PARKING LOT - DAWN Stella, wearing Becky's work shirt, arrives before any other workers. Using the key Handsome Rob made, she unlocks the door to the cable truck and gets in. EXT. NEARBY STREET - MORNING The cable truck pulls over. Charlie and Lyle climb into the back where they can't be seen. EXT. OPORTO DRIVE -MORNING The cable repair truck pulls over, parking down the street from Steve's house. Charlie gets out. He quickly uses a crowbar to lift up a sidewalk cement grate that says CABLE on it. Inside are cable wires that feed the street. He crouches over and uses pliers to disconnect one of the cables. INT. STEVE'S HOUSE - MORNING He drifts into the kitchen for a cup of coffee. He hits the remote control for a TV. It turns on but there's nothing but snow. He goes into the living room and checks out the plasma TV. The cable's not working in here, either. He hits an intercom button on his telephone. INT. GUARD HOUSE - INTERCUT A SECURITY GUARD answers the intercom. SECURITY GUARD What can I do for you, Mister Frezelli? STEVE The cable's out. See if you can get someone over here to fix it'. SECURITY GUARD Yes, sir. He finds the number and dials. INT. CABLE TRUCK (PARKED) - MORNING Lyle monitors a digital copy of the security guard's call that's being routed to his laptop. Then he takes off his headphones and tells Charlie and Stella: LYLE Whoa. I've never heard the Muzak version of Purple Haze before. CHARLIE When's the appointment? LYLE Thursday between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Charlie dials a number on his cell phone. INT. GUARD HOUSE - INTERCUT The security guard answers the phone. SECURITY GUARD Hello. CHARLIE Yes, I'm calling from Adelphia Cable. I understand your service is out and an appointment was set up for Thursday. SECURITY GUARD Yes. CHARLIE Well we have a technician working in your area who finished with an appointment earlier than expected. Will someone be there for the next hour? SECURITY GUARD Sure. That'd be great. CHARLIE Our technician will see you then. Have a nice day. SECURITY GUARD You too. Charlie hangs up. CHARLIE Let's check the camera. LYLE Stella, you're going patriotic today. Lyle puts an American flag pin on her work shirt. Then he hits keys on his laptop and an image pops up on his monitor via an RF antenna: the POV of the pin. CHARLIE He's got cable lines in the kitchen, living room, bedroom and a cable modem on the computer in the office. Try to get a 360 look at each room. And walk slowly or the image will streak. Lyle hands her some papers. LYLE I printed these up to look like paperwork from Adelphia. When you're done, ask him to sign and date the bottom. Stella looks very tense. CHARLIE How you doing? STELLA Fine. I'm fine. Charlie seems amused by that answer. CHARLIE You know what fine, stands for? Fucked- up, Insecure -- Stella joins in with him... STELLA & CHARLIE Neurotic and Emotional. They look at each other a moment... and smile. INT. RENTAL CAR (MOVING) - DAY While the others deal with the cable, Handsome Rob and Half- Ear drive down Sunset. HALF-EAR Here's our spot. They pull up in front of a strip joint. HANDSOME ROB Girls girls girls. Half-Ear pulls a switchblade out of his boot and puts it in the glove compartment. Handsome Rob gives him a questioning look. HALF-EAR Philly Steak said we'd be frisked. INT. STRIP CLUB - DAY Outside the doorway of a back room they're frisked by a BURLY MAN. He's very thorough, digging hard into their crotches. HANDSOME ROB (scowls) Y'got a great job. BURLY MAN Pays the rent, asshole. You got a problem, talk to Skinny Pete. He opens the door to the -- INT. BACK ROOM Where we meet SKINNY PETE, who is the FATTEST MAN YOU'VE EVER SEEN. He takes up an entire couch in the rear of the room. His catcher's-mitt-sized hands motion them to come closer. SKINNY PETE Philly Steak sent you? His voice is raspy, it's like a climbing-ten-floors-effort just for this guy to get out the words. HALF-EAR That's right. SKINNY PETE So was I right-on about the gold bricks or what? HALF-EAR That's really not what I'm here to talk about. Philly Steak said you could get us some supplies. The fattest man you've ever seen attempts a nod, triple-chins colliding like a train wreck. SKINNY PETE What do you need? HALF-EAR A four inch can of Nitramon. Nitramon primer. Detonating cord. Two triple charger chemical grenades. Launcher. SKINNY PETE Nine p.m. HANDSOME ROB Should we hang here? Check out the dancers? SKINNY PETE Nothing's going down here. I don't shit in my own yard, do you? HANDSOME ROB No, but I take a whizz off the deck sometimes. With his distended belly and bursting shirt, his eyes glazing with repletion, Skinny Pete writes down an address. SKINNY PETE Five thousand dollars. And don't be late. CUT TO: INT. SECURITY GUARD BOOTH -DAY Looking at a monitor, one of Steve's security guards sees the Adelphia repair truck pull up to the gate. He hits a button and the gate rises, beckoning it inside. INT. CABLE TRUCK (MOVING) Stella heads up the driveway, apprehension painted on her features. Lyle is hidden in the back. She parks next to the Ferrari and finds herself surrounded by the four Rottweilers. They snarl and flash their teeth outside her door until a shrill WHISTLE yanks their attention to -- EXT. STEVE'S HOUSE where Steve has just stepped out the front door. The dogs immediately back off. Stella gets out of the truck as Steve walks over, smiling at her. She comes face to face with the man who killed her father. STEVE It's all right. They won't bother you now. She's not sure she's going to be able to speak or pull this off. STELLA It's okay. I'm used to running into all sorts of dogs on my job. He holds out a hand. STEVE I'm Steve. STELLA Becky. She shakes his hand. She hates this, feeling his skin touch hers, but she can't betray her feelings. He stands there a moment. STELLA You want to show me the problem? STEVE Yeah. Course. This way. INT. STEVE'S HOUSE - SAME TIME She enters, moving her body to give the pinhole camera a full sweep of the entryway. STELLA I'd like to check the cable modem first. INT. BACK OF THE CABLE REPAIR TRUCK - SAME TIME Lyle watches Stella and Steve on his laptop via the pinhole camera and hears them talking through his headphones. INT. HALLWAY - INTERCUT Steve leads Stella down the marbled hall... STEVE I'll show you. They step into the -- OFFICE She turns her body so the mini-lens can stare at the gleaming black Worthington 1000 safe. Then she goes up to his desk and pretends to work on the cable line that feeds into his computer. He stares at her as she bends down... STEVE The cable guy who hooked this up weighed about 300 pounds, didn't wear any underwear, and his pants slung a little too low if you know what I mean. She tries her best to ignore his flirtatious stare and his words. STELLA There we go. Now onto the TVs. INT. BACK OF THE CABLE TRUCK - DAY Lyle sees a perfect view of the main hallway as Stella walks down it. INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY He escorts her inside. She works on the cable connection to the plasma TV. Finishes. STEVE Is it fixed? STELLA Turn it on and see. EXT. OPORTO DRIVE - SAME TIME Back at the spot where Charlie disconnected the cable. Wearing a headset with a mic, he gets the word from Lyle -- LYLE (V.O.) Now. Charlie reconnects the cable just as -- INT. LIVING ROOM Steve turns on the TV and the picture is -- STEVE Perfect. STELLA Then it looks like you're all set. Steve stares at her a moment. STEVE Have we met before? She's hoping to get out as quickly as she can. STELLA I don't think so. Sign here, please. She hands him the paperwork and a pen. He signs it. STELLA Date. STEVE You read my mind. STELLA Oh, no. I meant that I need you to put the date by your signature. It's the 26th. STEVE I know what you meant. (he smiles) This might seem a little sudden, but... would you like to have dinner with me? STELLA I don't think that'd be a very good idea. STEVE Why? Is there some kind of cable- rule against dating customers? STELLA No, it's my rule. I don't accept dates from men I've just met. I've only known you five minutes. STEVE Then I guess I'll have to sabotage my cable over and over again until you get to know me better. He's being charming, and she has to act like he is being charming, but she really wants to throw-up. STEVE Look, I'm just talking about dinner. Friday night. It's no big deal. If you don't like me, you never have to see me again. You know I'm not going to stop until you say yes. CUT TO: INT. CABLE TRUCK (MOVING) - DAY Stella drives in heavy traffic down Sunset. Charlie and Lyle are in the back. CHARLIE I know it was tough in there. STELLA He touched my hand. And he came-on to me. That slimy, disgusting man came onto me and I had to pretend that I liked it. Stella keeps her eyes forward, on the road, so Charlie and Lyle can't see her face. But Charlie catches her reflection in the rearview mirror and watches a tear glide down her cheek. She wipes it away. STELLA You do know what this means... I've created our window of opportunity. CHARLIE I know. When Steve leaves Friday night, we go in. By the time he realizes you've stood him up, we'll be long gone with the gold. CUT TO: EXT. HOUSING PROJECTS - NIGHT A different world. A different vibe. That feeling in the gut: you don't belong here. INT. RENTAL CAR (MOVING) Handsome Rob drives, Half-Ear in the passenger seat. HALF-EAR Skinny Pete. HANDSOME ROB The guy makes Jabba the Hut look like a spokesman for the Subway Sandwiches' diet. They pull over in front of the apartment building that Pete sent them to. HALF-EAR What do you think? HANDSOME ROB I'm trying not to. EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Half-Ear hits the buzzer for the apartment number on the paper from the fat man. The door to the building buzzes in response and they go inside. INT. APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Climbing stairs. From behind closed doors: TVs, crying babies, violent yelling. They start down a hallway. Ahead of them a door opens and a suitcase is put in front of the doorway. The door closes. They don't even get a glance at whomever is inside. They go to the suitcase. Half-Ear clicks open the lock for just a peek. He sees the goods. Handsome Rob starts to slide an envelope of cash under the door frame. Its sucked out of his hand by someone on the other side of the door and disappears. EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Half-Ear carefully deposits the suitcase into the trunk of the rental car. Handsome Rob closes the trunk. HALF-EAR Drive slow. We crash and we're a crater. They get into the car. INT. RENTAL CAR Handsome Rob keys the ignition. The beam of his headlights illuminate TWO HOMEBOYS. TWO MORE step out of the shadows, one right up to the passenger's door window. That one taps a 9 MM against the glass. Half-Ear lowers the window. The homeboy pats one hand against the faux-leather inside of the door, his other hand clutches the weapon. HOMEBOY What'd you put in the trunk? HALF-EAR Suitcase. The homeboy, bugging on crank, is not one to be fucked with. HOMEBOY Just gimme the keys before I pop a cap in your head. Handsome Rob takes the trunk key off the chain and passes it over to Half-Ear... who nervously drops it onto the carpeted floor. HOMEBOY Hurry up! Half-Ear reaches down for the key... but in the flash of an eye... moving so fast it almost doesn't register... we see him yank his switchblade from his boot, unleash its blade, and stab it down into the homeboy's hand. The knife goes through his hand and lodges into the faux-leather interior of the door. The homeboy suffers as Half-Ear whacks the gun out of his other hand -- while Handsome Rob keys the ignition and guns it. The other homeboys are already POPPING OFF SHOTS at the car with semi-automatic handguns. Half-Ear hits the deck. Glass shatters. INT. TRUNK OF THE CAR Bullets slam into the trunk, illuminating the darkness with streaks of light from the bullet holes. They barely miss the suitcase filled with explosives. EXT. RENTAL CAR (MOVING) The homeboy is still attached to the car door by the knife. His legs scurry to keep up with the moving vehicle but it's going too fast so pretty soon he's being dragged. Bullets whiz by him. He cries out in agony until Half-Ear has the time to yank out the knife and the homeboy rolls away on the pavement. The car makes a sharp right at the next block and pulls over. The U-Haul is waiting for them. They get out of the rental car and open its trunk. Half-Ear sees the bullet holes that surround the suitcase. An inch closer and they would've been a crater. HALF-EAR Christ. INT. U-HAUL - NIGHT They get in with the suitcase. Charlie is behind the wheel, he's been waiting for them. He hits the gas. They take off, leaving the shot-up rental car behind. CHARLIE Looks like that went without a hitch. CUT TO: INT. CHARLIE'S HOTEL ROOM - DAY An edited loop of the exterior and interior of Steve's house plays on Lyle's laptop. The crew is huddled around. CHARLIE Lyle, what's the distance from the front door to the vault? Lyle doesn't answer. CHARLIE Lyle? Handsome Rob leans over to Charlie. HANDSOME ROB He only answers to The Napster now. CHARLIE I'm not calling you The Napster. LYLE You call him Half-Ear. HALF-EAR That wasn't my idea. LYLE And him, Handsome Rob. CHARLIE That's only cause he is Handsome Rob. LYLE And I'm The Napster. CHARLIE How far? (sighs, gives in) The Napster. LYLE Five hundred yards. CHARLIE So here's the riddle. How do we get over a ton of gold from the vault to the getaway car? STELLA How wide is the hallway? The video that Stella got of the hallway plays on the laptop. Lyle calculates: LYLE Only six feet. OUR VIEW PUSHES IN FAST on Stella. QUICK CUT TO: MINI COOPER (MOVING) - DAY She's driving. Pure concentration. Then: Tires spinning over a marble floor. Then: The sideview mirrors scraping wallpaper. Then: The thin car is like a missile firing RIGHT DOWN STEVE'S HALLWAY, a hair-raising fit. CUT BACK TO: INT. CHARLIE'S HOTEL ROOM - DAY Her idea brings a smile to her face. STELLA Jack Daniels, straight up. CHARLIE Minis? STELLA We could rumble right up the front steps, bring the getaway car right to the vault, and then straight to Union Station. Handsome Rob likes it. HANDSOME ROB We'll need three to hold the gold. EXT. CAR RENTAL COMPANY - DAY Parked in the lot are shimmering Supercharged Mini Coopers, a new model that still captures the legendary Mini look and feel. Half-Ear climbs in one Mini. Lyle into another. INT. CAR RENTAL COMPANY - SAME TIME In the background, a large window overlooks the lot. Handsome Rob fills out the paperwork on the Mini he's renting while flirting with a petite COUNTER BABE. HANDSOME ROB I'd say you're a Maserati 250 S. Just 4 cylinders but can go 0 to 60 in 4.2. COUNTER BABE As long as it's a convertible -- I always like to have my top down. At the same time, in the background, we see Lyle and Half- Ear's Mini pull out of their parking spaces and BACK RIGHT INTO EACH OTHER. Just a little bumper hit. COUNTER BABE Do you know them? They get out of their cars and start yelling at each other. HANDSOME ROB Never seen 'em before in my life. CUT TO: EXT. YEVHEN'S COIN & BULLION STORE - NIGHT Steve bangs a fist against the steel security door that covers the closed store. The steel door rises up and once again Yevhen unlocks another door. YEVHEN You're early. STEVE And I'm in a hurry, okay? INT. YEVHEN'S COINS & BULLION STORE - NIGHT It doesn't seem to matter if Steve's in a hurry or not, Yevhen still runs at the mouth while heading into the back room. YEVHEN Of course the Florida vote rigging was a CIA and Mob operation. STEVE (with total disinterest) That a fact? YEVHEN You want facts? Fact: CIA officials were allowed free -- and illegal -- access to official election material. Steve puts his duffel bag down on the table. It THUDS. Once again, he pulls out three gold bricks that each weigh 25 pounds. YEVHEN Now given the sordid history in Miami of joint ventures between Central Intelligence and the Mob, which led to the unsuccessful attempts to kill Fidel Castro and the successful assassination of your President John F. Kennedy, this conjunction raises numerous red flags. STEVE And I'd love to hear more about it, but like I said... YEVHEN Don't worry, we'll have you out in no time. The cash is on its way. Steve cocks his head, as if he could not have heard right. STEVE On its way? YEVHEN My cousin is bringing it over. STEVE Your cousin? YEVHEN Yes. Cousin Mashkov. STEVE He's on his way? YEVHEN Don't worry, he will be here any minute. Steve looks up to the security camera. STEVE The tape's off? YEVHEN Of course. Believe me, he doesn't want to be on video, either. STEVE Yevhen. Didn't I tell you, many times, that I never wanted to meet with anyone but you? Yevhen sweats a bit. YEVHEN I know. But it's his cash. He uses me to launder money. I'm just a middleman. STEVE And a middleman is supposed to stay in the middle. YEVHEN But you were early. Please. Don't worry. It will be fine. My cousin's a cool guy. Like I am. STEVE What you are, is a Dixie cup. Yevhen smiles quizzically, not sure if he's being complimented or insulted. YEVHEN Dixie cup? Before the words are out of Yevhen's mouth, Steve grabs one of the 25 pound gold bricks and slaps it across Yevhen's face, shattering his jaw. Yevhen's falls to the floor and Steve lifts the brick again and rams it down onto his head with an ugly THUD. And again. And again. He then takes the gold brick -- slathered in blood -- and places it back in his duffle bag. CUT TO: INT. YEVHEN'S COINS & BULLION STORE - TEN MINUTES LATER Yevhen's Ukrainian cousin, MASHKOV, stares down at the corpse. Steve is long gone. Mashkov kneels down by the body and starts sobbing. INT. HOUSE - NIGHT Mashkov walks through a living room, past some lighting equipment and a video camera and we get just enough of a look to realize that a porno is being shot here but he couldn't care less as he makes his way into the kitchen where -- His boss, DANYA, 60, the owner of this house, is eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes at the kitchen table. They speak in a colloquial Ukrainian tongue that we SUBTITLE. MASHKOV My cousin Yevhen was beaten to death. DANYA By who? MASHKOV That's what I'm going to find out. They stop talking for a moment as one of the "ACTRESSES" comes in, plops herself down next to Danya and pours herself a bowl of cereal. She puts her hand on Danya's leg. She's young and it's a disturbing image and we RECOGNIZE HER: she's the HITCHHIKER who Lyle passed in the taxi ride down Figueroa Street when he first arrived in L.A. Danya goes back to speaking SUBTITLED UKRAINIAN. DANYA And what will you do when you find this piece of shit who killed your cousin? MASHKOV I'll hack off his limbs and bury him while he's still alive. DANYA Okay. But now we should stop talking Ukrainian, it's rude to my girl. (switching to accented ENGLISH) How are you tonight, Karen? KAREN Hungry. DANYA Then eat your Frosted Flakes. KAREN (like Tony the Tiger) They're grrrreat! Danya laughs pleasantly. DANYA Such a perfect girl. But as she eats her cereal, we see a troubled, sad look on her face. INT. RENTED WAREHOUSE - DAY The three Minis are parked inside: one red, one white, one blue. Handsome Rob and Stella are doing custom work under the hoods. Lyle is wearing the strap-on laptop and typing away. Half-Ear squeezes silver Haliburton suitcases into the Minis' trunks as Charlie enters -- CHARLIE How are our matchbox cars? HANDSOME ROB Souped. STELLA Don't let their size fool you. These were rally cars back in the day. 135 mph, 155 horsepower -- LYLE Do I get to drive one? HANDSOME ROB No. LYLE Why not? HANDSOME ROB Because you can't navigate your way out of a parking lot. Here's your ride. He pulls a blanket off a Vespa. Lyle points at Half-Ear. LYLE But he ran into me. HANDSOME ROB He's not driving either. (to Stella) You ever got a speeding ticket? STELLA Let's put it this way: I can only get insurance through companies that advertise on TV at 3:00 in the morning. HANDSOME ROB You drive. I drive. Charlie drives. CHARLIE I got us spots for three cars on a car carrier and five first class seats. Train 59 from Union Station to New Orleans. HALF-EAR That's N'Or'lins, Yankee. CHARLIE What's the word on Rockefeller? LYLE The Traffic Control Center is on the top floor of a building on Olympic and Grand. They get their data from pavement loop detectors and video image vehicle detectors. That info is fused together by specially designed algorithms to predict traffic conditions and control the traffic lights. So all I have to do now is change the data by creating my own algorithm. CHARLIE What can I do to help? LYLE I need to hard-wire into the mainframes. EXT. TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER - NIGHT Housed in a towering building on the corner of Olympic and Grand in the heart of downtown L.A. OUR VIEW RISES UP to the rooftop, where WE FIND Charlie and Lyle. OUR VIEW MOVES IN CLOSER on Charlie, who adroitly picks the lock to an access door and they climb down a short set of steps into the INT. MAINTENANCE ROOM - CONTINUOUS SHOT From an equipment bag, Charlie pulls out a silent power drill and uses it to remove an access panel from the AC vent. INT. AIR-CONDITIONING VENT - NIGHT Charlie leads, crawling through this tight space, his path illuminated by the thin beam of a penlight. INT. TRAFFIC CONTROL ROOM - NIGHT A high-tech setting with a half-dozen workers overseeing the large traffic information monitors that display multiple images. OUR CAMERA PUSHES IN on the wall of monitors and then BLACKNESS as OUR VIEW CROSSES to the -- OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL Where the 70" tall mainframe computers are housed and running. We see that the AC vent to this room is now open since Charlie and Lyle have already snuck inside. They move fast. Charlie removes the rear panels of the mainframes while Lyle adeptly hard-wires his laptop into the computers. The laptop's screen lights up. Charlie fits two false panels where the rear panels of the mainframes used to be. Lyle pulls an innocent looking filing box out of his equipment bag. He places the box on a nearby shelf where it enjoys line-of-sight to the false panels. He punches a key on his laptop and the false panels and the filing box quietly clicks into action, communicating with his laptop via infrared. His laptop now shows a guiltwork of thumbnail views from the traffic information monitors. Typing commands, Lyle is clearly operating on a higher bandwidth than the rest us. LYLE B4 X TTratio, where Bi are Fisher's linear discriminant function coefficients, SpdRat is the speed ratio, and TTratio is the travel time ratio. CHARLIE I have no idea what you're doing. Just do it fast. There. He hits the ENTER button. LYLE We own this place. CUT TO: INT. THE PANTRY RESTAURANT - DOWNTOWN L.A. - DAY Their motto: "Never closed. Never without a customer!" The place has the same decor as it did 75 years ago. It's also a spot where everyone minds their own business. One of the OLD TIME WAITERS leads OUR CAMERA to a table in the back where Mashkov sits across from a LAPD HOMICIDE DETECTIVE. He slides over an envelope of cash and a photograph of Karen. MASHKOV $2000. And this is the new girl. Fresh off the bus. One of Danya's guys picked her up hitchhiking downtown. The detective checks out the photo. DETECTIVE Those tits'd make Dracula rise from his coffin at high-noon. MASHKOV They're all yours Saturday. You can do whatever you want to her. Her name is Karen... DETECTIVE You're too generous. MASHKOV I needed a fast answer. DETECTIVE And I'm the Shell Answer Man. A guy who works the counter at your cousin's shop told me that someone named Skinny Pete had been asking around about gold bricks with the face of a Balinese girl on them. Same gold bricks your cousin was buying. MASHKOV You talked to this Skinny Pete? DETECTIVE I thought you'd want a shot at him first. CUT TO: INT. RENTED WAREHOUSE - DAY Handsome Rob does some final tune-ups on the Minis. Half-Ear loads a triple charger chemical grenade into a launcher. Charlie steps into the U-Haul which is parked in here... INT. U-HAUL Lyle is fixing glitches on his computer program. Stella is doing her nails. Charlie looks at her. STELLA You want the safe cracked, don't you? CHARLIE Yeah. STELLA Then I have to have perfect nails. Square tips have a more even surface area. Better grip, no slipping. CHARLIE Are you making this shit up? STELLA I just let you in on a valuable trade secret. LYLE Charlie. CHARLIE Yeah? LYLE Steve called to confirm a 7:30 reservation at Ago's. And as for your getaway, not even Rockefeller had it so good. CUT TO: INT. STEVE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT He's getting dressed for his date. We can tell by the way he preens in front of the three sided full length mirror, adorning himself in the most expensive fashion, that he is a vain and arrogant man. EXT. RENTED WAREHOUSE - NIGHT The three Minis pull out of the warehouse and head off down the road. The U-Haul follows. INT. CHARLIE'S MINI (MOVING) - NIGHT Leading the pack. He wears a headset and mic. CHARLIE Radio check. INT. HANDSOME ROB'S MINI (MOVING) - NIGHT He drives, Half-Ear in the passenger seat. HANDSOME ROB Got cha, boss. INT. STELLA'S MINI (MOVING) - NIGHT She follows behind Handsome Rob's Mini. STELLA Loud and clear. INT. U-HAUL (MOVING) - NIGHT Lyle drives. His Vespa is parked in the cargo bay with his equipment. LYLE Check. CUT TO: EXT. STEVE'S DRIVEWAY - NIGHT Looking sharp, Steve gets into his Ferrari. EXT. OPORTO DRIVE - NIGHT The U-Haul is idling on the side of the street about a mile down from Steve's house. The Vespa is parked behind it. From up ahead, we see the Ferrari cruising down the winding road. As it passes by. INT. U-HAUL Lyle speaks into his headset: LYLE For those about to rock, we salute you. EXT. OPORTO DRIVE - NIGHT From side streets, the Minis converge on the road and head up towards Steve's house. INT. CHARLIE'S MINI (MOVING) - NIGHT He can feel the adrenaline already starting to course through is body. CHARLIE This is it, guys. Moment of truth. He takes a sharp curve... and the moment that Steve's house should come into view... he hits the brakes, his expression turning to complete surprise. HIS POV The neighbor across the street from Steve is having the biggest party in town. The road is filled with parked cars and arriving guests. Ain't no way they're blowing the gate, launching chemical grenades or in any way robbing Steve's house in the midst of this. CHARLIE'S FACE As he takes this in, there's a KNOCK on the window. He turns. Sees a uniformed VALET. Rolls down the window. VALET Are you hear for the Baxter party, sir? EXT. OPORTO DRIVE - NIGHT We see the three Minis pull tight U-turns and head back the way they came. INT. CHARLIE'S MINI (MOVING) - NIGHT He slaps his hand against the steering wheel, fuming. CHARLIE Shit. Stella? INT. STELLA'S MINI (MOVING) - INTERCUT She already knows what he's going to say. STELLA I know. I've got a date tonight. CHARLIE You'll have to fake it. Laugh at his jokes. You need him to ask you out again. CUT TO: INT. AGO RESTAURANT - NIGHT A posh restaurant. As OUR CAMERA FINDS Stella and Steve, she is laughing at something he said, faking her way through the date. They're sitting at an intimate table. STELLA You really make laugh. He takes the lie like the compliment she wants him to think it is. STEVE So here's what I have lined up for after dinner. We'll go to Club Deep. The Ferrari always gets me to the front of the line. We'll do a little dancing... STELLA Not tonight. I don't want to be out late. STEVE Why the curfew? STELLA Let's just say I've made some wrong calls in the past. I like to take things slow, cautious. Next time... STEVE I understand. You have nothing to worry about. You can trust me. STELLA I trust everyone. It's the devil inside them that I don't trust. That saying strikes Steve. STEVE That's an interesting saying. STELLA What? He looks at her closely, really closely. STEVE There's only person I've ever heard say that. Used to say it all the time. This worries her. Because of course, she used to hear it from her father. STELLA Who was that? Under the table, he grabs her by the wrist, squeezes it like a vise. STEVE A man named John Bridger. Where did you pick up that phrase? STELLA Ow. I don't remember. You're hurting me. STEVE John Bridger was a thief. And he had a daughter. About your age. He told me that she took over a safe and lock company that he used as a front. STELLA Let go of my wrist. What is wrong with you? It's just a saying. Steve's voice is calm, so at ease that watching them you'd think this was pleasant dinner conversation. STEVE No wonder I liked you right away. Just like I liked your old man, right up until the moment I shot him in the head. Now tell me who you're working with and tell me the plan. Do it now or we'll go for a ride and I'll break every bone in your body. Stella intentionally knocks over a glass of wine. It shatters on the floor. An emergency signal... Charlie, Half-Ear, Handsome Rob and Lyle appear around the table. Steve is shocked to see the men he left for dead three years ago standing before him, very much alive. They pull up chairs from another table, encircling him for a tense and pointed talk. CHARLIE Something wrong, Steve? You look like you want to call Ghostbusters. Half-Ear furtively slides the switchblade out of his boot. HALF-EAR She's coming with us. You got a problem with that? STEVE Fine by me. But it's you that has the problem. LYLE How do you figure? STEVE You've just blown the one thing you had going in your favor, the element of surprise. And I was surprised. (he laughs unpleasantly) Jesus Christ when I saw all you guys come out of the woodwork. For a minute I thought maybe you were ghosts. But you're screwed now. (an arrogant sneer a Half-Ear) Did you figure out how to take care of my security guard? I'll hire five more. (at Lyle) You know how to bypass my alarm system? I'll have a new one installed tomorrow. (at Handsome Rob) Does it tear you up inside seeing what car I drive? I'll buy a matching one in red. (at Stella) You think you can crack my safe? You'll end up the same way as your dad. (then to Charlie, all smiles) Looks like Good Time Charlie's got the blues. CHARLIE You can wear that shit-eating grin on your face, but I know under that Versace shirt you're in a cold sweat. And you're not going to sleep a minute tonight. Cause you thought you'd gotten away with it free and clear. You thought you'd gotten rid of us. You're the one who's screwed. Right to the wall. STEVE Give it your best shot. I'll outsmart you every step of the way. And this time, I'll bury you myself. CHARLIE (taking the challenge) Get more guards. Change the alarm. Buy a dozen Ferraris. We'll still be here. Sleep tight. Charlie grabs a bread stick off the table and goes. The others follow. CUT TO: INT. STRIP CLUB - BACK ROOM - NIGHT The door bursts open as the burly man we met earlier is dragged inside at gunpoint. Five Ukrainians armed with MAC- 11 machine pistols storm the room where Skinny Pete works. Mashkov walks behind the posse. He carries a duffel bag. He takes in the sight of the fattest man he's ever seen. MASHKOV (in accented English) Do you know who I am? SKINNY PETE You work for Danya. MASHKOV Yes. And you are gonna be straight with me and everything's gonna be okay. You fuck with me, I will be ruthless. SKINNY PETE I understand. MASHKOV I don't want you to understand. I want you to overstand. SKINNY PETE Overstand... Okay. MASHKOV Because if you don't overstand, I will use this. Mashkov nonchalantly opens the duffel bag and pulls out a short-handled ax. Skinny Pete sees dried blood on the blade. MASHKOV Someone was asking about gold bars with a Balinese girl's face on them. I want the name of this man. CUT TO: EXT. SHUTTER'S ON THE BEACH - MORNING The sun shines over the ocean and the hotel. INT. CHARLIE'S HOTEL ROOM The crew is gathered. Lyle, monitoring digital surveillance on his laptop, takes off his headphones. LYLE Well we scared him alright. He's flying the coop. His security guard called Brink's Armored Car Service to confirm a 5 p.m. pick up at his house, then JetClub to confirm a MD11 cargo plane departing from the Imperial Terminal at LAX at 8 p.m. CHARLIE Confirmed? How'd we miss the first calls? LYLE They must have been cellular. The cargo plane is being chartered to Mexico City. HANDSOME ROB Only place with worse smog and traffic than L.A. STELLA Once the charter's in the air, he could change the flight path to anywhere. And good-bye gold. CHARLIE Not so fast. This is good news for us. HANDSOME ROB Good news? CHARLIE Sometimes when you're up to your ass in alligators you forget that you started off trying to drain the swamp. HANDSOME ROB Meaning what the fuck? CHARLIE We've been trying to get to the gold in the safe. Now the safe is coming to us. We'll boost it in transit. He might as well have said they'll steal the Holy Grail before sunrise. HANDSOME ROB Charlie. He could take a dozen different routes to the airport and we have no idea which one. We can't take out an armored truck during rush hour. CHARLIE We're already set to do it. Napster: how would you like to create the biggest traffic jam in the history of Los Angeles? LYLE Keep talking. CHARLIE You gridlock every route except the one we choose. Force the truck to go exactly where we want it to go. HANDSOME ROB But where do we want it? We can't shoot it out with armed guards in a Brink's. We'd lose. And even if we pulled it off, the cops would be all over us, chasing us all the way to Union Station. We're outmanned and outgunned. CHARLIE But not outsmarted. Charlie hums with focused energy. There's a term for it in horse racing. When a thoroughbred is at peak condition, and twitching with eagerness to run, he is "on the muscle." That describes Charlie right now. CHARLIE We'll do it like the Italian job. We'll make thirty million in gold drop out of sight. They're interrupted by Charlie's cell phone RINGING. This throws them all off. CHARLIE Who else has this number? HALF-EAR No one but us. It's still RINGING. Charlie decides to answer it. CHARLIE Hello? INT. OFFICE - PHILADELPHIA - INTERCUT Meet PHILLY STEAK. Or at least meet the back of his neck. Because that's where he has a tatoo that says PHILLY STEAK. PHILLY STEAK Why'd you do it? CHARLIE (informing the crew) Philly Steak. (then into phone) Do what? OUR CAMERA TRACKS AROUND to Philly Steak's face which is weathered and as leathery as a football. An old school crook. PHILLY STEAK Yevhen. The Ukrainian gold, dealer. You didn't, have to clip him, for Christ's sakes. CHARLIE Clip him? PHILLY STEAK Listen to me. You've gotta get out of L.A. Now. CHARLIE What're you talking about? We didn't clip anybody. PHILLY STEAK Well Skinny Pete just called me. Yevhen's cousin is under the distinct impression that you did. CHARLIE Why does he think that? PHILLY STEAK Because you wanted, to know about the gold with the Balinese Girl. Plus I guess Pete was under duress. This Ukrainian thinks he's Paul Fucking Bunyan. CHARLIE Do you know how to get in touch with him? PHILLY STEAK Yeah but... CHARLIE Maybe there's a way we can play this to our advantage. PHILLY STEAK Are you out of your mind? Listen to me, Charlie. Get out of L.A. Now. Cause if there's one thing I know, it's that you never mess with Mother Nature, mother-in-laws, or mother- fucking Ukrainians. INT. SAFE HOUSE - MORNING Speaking of -- Five Ukrainians lock 'n load their MAC-11 machine pistols plus an M4 carbine with a 40mm grenade launcher mounted beneath the barrel. Mashkov enters the room and tells the others in SUBTITLED UKRAINIAN. MASHKOV He's going to be on Train 59 for New Orleans. UKRAINIAN You sure your source is good? MASHKOV I'm sure. CUT TO: INT. DANYA'S HOUSE - MORNING The home where the porno was made. Karen, wearing a backpack stuffed with her only belongings, creeps into the kitchen with two 3/4" videotapes in hand. She sets them down on the counter. They say MASTER TAPE on the labels. She opens the microwave oven. Puts the tapes inside. Sets the timer for 60 minutes at the highest level and presses the start button. As the videotapes start to cook, we watch Karen flee out the door. CUT TO: EXT. HOLLYWOOD AT HIGHLAND - DAY The U-Haul is parked on the side of the noisy, congested boulevard. A large metal sheet is now mounted on the side of the panel truck. HIGH ANGLE. Parked behind the U-Haul are two of the Minis and Lyle's Vespa. We see traffic flowing through the busy intersection next to the vehicles. Then WE BOOM DOWN, really fast, right into the black pavement and -- THROUGH THE DARKNESS and out the other side, so we are now underground in the middle of the -- METRO RAIL TUNNEL where Half-Ear is at work, mounting Nitramon primer to the tunnel walls, Charlie assisting. They both wear orange jumpsuits, plus headsets and mics. HALF-EAR Did you know Einstein's 7th grade teacher told him he was a moron who'd never amount to anything? Same as mine. CHARLIE Still hope for that Nobel Prize. HALF-EAR Not me, man. But I did get my college diploma. CHARLIE No shit. I thought you dropped out of high school. HALF-EAR Got my GED after Italy then just kept going. CHARLIE How'd you manage that, all the jobs we've been pulling? HALF-EAR Quit going to strip clubs. Went to night school instead. City college is all. CHARLIE Good for you. That's a real feather in your cap. HALF-EAR I didn't want to say anything to the guys. There's a RUMBLING SOUND in the distance. CHARLIE Secret's safe with me. The RUMBLING grows unbearable as a Metro roars closer, headlights gobbling up the dark tunnel. They press themselves into a crevice in the wall. With a ROAR and a gust of wind, the Metro howls by. It makes their jaws clatter. INT. U-HAUL (PARKED) - DAY Stella's in the cargo area with Lyle who's working his laptop. It's monitor displays a string of computer code. He HEARS over his headset: CHARLIE (V.O.) Napster. How goes it up there? Over. LYLE Working on the Metro Rail system. Almost ready. EXT. MARAVILLA DRIVE - SAME TIME Handsome Rob's Mini is parked on the side of the winding road. Using binoculars, he looks down onto Oporto Drive at Steve's house. Into his headset: HANDSOME ROB Everything's quiet here. Over. INT. METRO RAIL TUNNEL - DAY The Nitramon is applied. Half-Ear closes his eyes. Charlie observes him a moment. CHARLIE You okay? HALF-EAR Ah huh. Just need a moment's meditation. CHARLIE Now? HALF-EAR I'm about to insert a wire into a detonator tube and if the wire touches the sides of tube, we'll be blown to Kingdom Come. Best to be at one with yourself. CHARLIE Take all the time you need. Another moment, then Half-Ear sets to work. Charlie holds a mini-flashlight, illuminating the intricate detonator. Very carefully, he inserts a wire into a tube. Remember, the wire must not touch the sides. The wire is half-way in when a LARGE SPIDER drops onto his hand. Frozen, he ponders this. Charlie sees the spider, doesn't know what to do. Half-Ear studies the spider... then he closes his eyes just a moment... relaxes... breathes in, breathes out... and then -- He leans forward, opens his mouth and clamps his lips over the spider, comes back up. Finishes inserting the wire. Job done, he calmly opens his mouth. The spider puts a hairy leg out and delicately explores his cheek. Half-Ear plucks it off just as delicately, depositing the spider on the wall. Charlie just shakes his head in disbelief. HALF-EAR My work here is done. EXT. OPORTO DRIVE -DAY A Brink's truck climbs the road towards Steve's house, flanked by two BMW K1200LTA motorcycles. EXT. MARAVILLA DRIVE - SAME TIME Through binoculars, Handsome Rob is still keeping an eye on Steve's house from the higher vantage point. HIS POV The front gate rises. The Brink's truck and motorcycles are let inside and head up the driveway. But then he sees a SECOND ARMORED truck drive up, also guarded by two motorcycles. And a third Brink's followed by motorcycles turns into the driveway. EXT. STEVE'S HOUSE It's a convoy of matching armored trucks... EXT. MARAVILLA DRIVE - DAY Witnessing the twist of events through his binoculars. He speaks into his headset mic -- HANDSOME ROB Problemo. INT. U-HAUL - INTERCUT The rest of the crew is now all in the U-Haul. Lyle's manning the laptop. CHARLIE What is it? HANDSOME ROB He's brought in three identical armored trucks. CHARLIE Shit. Decoys. It's like a shell game on wheels. LYLE How can I reroute the truck if I don't know which truck to reroute? EXT. STEVE'S HOUSE - (TIME CUT) - DAY The caravan of armored trucks and motorcycles now head down the driveway. The Ferrari follows behind. EXT. MARAVILLA DRIVE - DAY Handsome Rob sees the vehicles head east on Oporto. He reports into his mike: HANDSOME ROB Three Brink's trucks are leaving with motorcycle escorts, plus Steve in his Ferrari. INT. U-HAUL Maddening frustration. LYLE How're we going to figure out which truck has the gold? Charlie is just as frustrated... but in a tight spot he always comes up with an idea. CHARLIE You can monitor the traffic video cameras from your laptop, right? LYLE Yeah. CHARLIE Where's the first camera the trucks will go past? Lyle hits a command key and we now see the intersection of Woodrow Wilson Drive and Cahuenga where vehicles are driving under the traffic signal that a traffic video camera is mounted to. LYLE Cahuenga Boulevard. They all have to cross that. CHARLIE The weight of the gold will lower the suspension on the truck. EXT. CAHUENGA BOULEVARD - DAY The first armored truck makes its way through the green light. INT. U-HAUL Lyle hits the keyboard and lines of measurements appear across the image of the Brink's truck. He strikes another key, momentarily FREEZING the image. He makes a visual check of the top of the armored truck against the Cahuenga Boulevard street sign. LYLE Lines up with the top of the sign. Next... He unfreezes the first image just in time to check out the next armored truck in line. FREEZE. The top of this truck also lines up perfectly with the top of the street sign. LYLE First two are the same. EXT. CAHUENGA BOULEVARD - SAME TIME The third Brink's truck makes its way through the intersection, the Ferrari behind it. INT. U-HAUL - SAME TIME The third Brink's comes into the monitor's view. FREEZE. The top of the truck is below the top of the street sign. LYLE That's our truck! License plate AWP82092. EXT. CAHUENGA - SAME TIME We see the truck with the California plate AWP82092. OUR VIEW RISES UP until we're looking at an AERIAL VIEW as the three armored trucks and their motorcycles fan out in three different directions, with the Ferrari going in a fourth direction. EXT. HOLLYWOOD AT HIGHLAND - DAY Handsome Rob pulls up in his Mini and parks behind the other Minis. INT. U-HAUL - SAME TIME Charlie gives the command. CHARLIE Gridlock time. Lyle executes, hitting a series of keys and -- INT. MAINFRAME COMPUTER ROOM - SAME TIME inconspicuous on a shelf, the dummy file box CLICKS into action. In response, the false panels on the mainframes HUM to life and in the adjacent -- TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER The mosaic of traffic screens SPIRAL INTO DARKNESS. The workers can't believe it. They start hitting their keyboards trying to get the system up and running again. But it's useless since -- INT. U-HAUL Lyle controls the system now. A single mouse click loads his new algorithm into the computer and -- SERIES OF RAPID-FIRE SHOTS All the traffic signals in Hollywood turn green simultaneously. EXT. INTERSECTIONS See cars collide into each other. See a domino line of rear- end crashes. A motorcycle tumbling over. INT. TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER The stymied workers watch helplessly. INT. U-HAUL Lyle quickly types out some words and INT. TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER The workers see the words form on the giant screens: YOU'LL NEVER SHUT DOWN THE REAL NAPSTER! EXT. MORE INTERSECTIONS The traffic lights turn RED simultaneously. Then all turn GREEN. Then RED again. It's demolition derby time. Daisy-chains of wrecks. Cars spinning like hockey pucks. Total traffic meltdown. INT. KNX-AM 1070 TRAFFIC HELICOPTER - DAY Sweeping over a panoramic view of the greatest traffic jam in L.A.'s history is traffic anchor CHRISTINA GRIEGO. She reports what she sees: CHRISTINA GRIEGO This is Christina Griego with your drive-home traffic report on KNX. I'm looking down on Hollywood Boulevard and this is definitely a CIG alert. INT. FERRARI They're blocked in solid ahead and behind. STEVE What the hell? He turns on the radio as -- INT. U-HAUL Lyle's fingers dance across the keyboard. LYLE Opening up a space on North Highland. INT. GOLD TRUCK Stuck in the middle of it. The driver and guard, both armed, are as confused as everyone else. GUARD Get us out of here. DRIVER I'm trying. He sees a way out, a sudden opening on North. Highland. INT. U-HAUL Via a traffic video camera, Lyle sees on his laptop the gold truck, followed by two motorcycles, making the turn onto North Highland. LYLE He's taking it... Lyle hits more keys. LYLE I now command you to turn left. EXT. GOLD TRUCK It comes to the next intersection. Every light is stuck on red -- except the left turn only signal which is green. No choice. The truck takes it. INT. U-HAUL He's striking keys, an orchestral conductor, the crew his audience. LYLE I've got it on Hollywood Boulevard. Time to slow down. EXT. HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD Signals turn green, but only for three seconds, long enough for one car to gun through it at a time. At the same time, we see Charlie get out of the U-Haul and climb into the first Mini. Stella gets into the second Mini. Half-Ear joins Handsome Rob in the third. INT. FERRARI - DAY Steve gets the scoop over the radio. He can't believe it. CHRISTINA GRIEGO (V.O.) According to the police, the computers at the Traffic Control Center are down. Steve knows who did that. STEVE Sonovabitch. INT. CHARLIE'S MINI -DAY Through his rearview mirror, Charlie eyes the gold truck creeping closer. CHARLIE Gentlemen, start your engines. THREE SHOTS Starting their engines-with souped-up, throaty roars: Charlie; Handsome Rob; Stella. CHARLIE Give us the flag when you're ready. INT. U-HAUL Lyle has hacked into the Metro Rail's Control System. Starts his magic. LYLE Shutting down the rail as we speak. INT. METRO RAIL TUNNELS - SEVERAL SHOTS A Metro is speeding through the Blue Line tunnel. Suddenly it loses power and comes to an inglorious stop. Another Metro stops on the Red Line. Inside a Metro on the Westside Corridor as it stops; confused passengers stare out the glass. INT. U-HAUL His laptop shows a group of still circles that represent the stalled Metros. LYLE Tunnel's clear. Go! EXT. WALK OF FAME The three Minis jump the curb and drive right over the star- lined sidewalk... Pedestrians throw themselves out of their path... The cars run over Marilyn Monroe's star and the flowers and candles left by fans... They make a sharp turn down the cement stairs that lead to the Metro Rail platform. At the same time -- EXT. HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD The creeping gold truck is just about alongside the parked U- Haul. INT. U-HAUL Through his sideview mirror, Lyle eyes the progress of the gold truck. He gives the word: LYLE Coming into position... INT. METRO RAIL STATION The Minis roughly bounce down the second flight of stairs. The sides of the cars scrape against the metal handrails. Tourists, workers, all scamper away. INT. U-HAUL The gold truck getting closer. LYLE Five... Four... INT. METRO RAIL STATION The Minis land on the platform where everyone is waiting for the next Metro. Heads turn at the sight of these half-cars streaking by. INT. U-HAUL The gold truck is almost alongside the U-Haul. LYLE Three... INT. METRO RAIL STATION Charlie's Mini flies off the platform and lands on the rail line. The car's shocks take the hit. The other Minis follow suit, off the platform, onto the rails. LYLE (V.O.) Two... One... THE MINIS Drive past the spot where they put the Nitramon explosives. LYLE (V.O.) Do it. INT. STELLA'S MINI She brakes to a stop and braces herself as -- INT. HANDSOME ROB'S MINI Half-Ear pulls out his hearing aid, hits the remote to a detonator and -- EXT. HOLLYWOOD & HIGHLAND The section of pavement that the gold truck sits on splits apart. The road surface drops away. Smoke billowing up as The BRINK'S TRUCK FALLS... INT. METRO RAIL TUNNEL Suddenly the street, the armored truck and daylight come crashing down at us in a cloud of smoke and debris. The truck's windshield implodes. The Minis come to a stop. Half-Ear jumps out. Aims the grenade launcher. FIRES. INT. GOLD TRUCK The triple charger chemical grenade sails in through the windshield and explodes, knocking out the guards. The driver slumps against the steering wheel, the horn BLARING under his weight. At the same time: INT. U-HAUL - ON THE CUT Lyle hits a button on a remote control and -- EXT. U-HAUL Clamps unlock, releasing the heavy steel sheet from the side of the U-Haul. It SLAMS DOWN, neatly covering the gaping hole in the road like a huge manhole cover. EXT. HOLLYWOOD & HIGHLAND The motorcycles following the Brink's come to a sudden stop. The motorcycle guards watch the smoke clear. The armored truck has vanished! Vaporized in the gridlock! Gone! Pandemonium. People scatter. A man jumps out of his BMW and sprints away from the explosion. Lyle gets out of the U-Haul and runs to his getaway vehicle: the Vespa. He's about to hop on, but something stops him... The sight of the vacant, shimmering, 2002 BMW 750iL parked just ahead, keys dangling from the ignition. At the same time, the motorcycle guards climb off their bikes. Draw semi-automatic handguns. Result: more madness Bystanders flee. The BMW tears out of there, Lyle behind the wheel. INT. METRO RAIL TUNNEL - DAY The rear door to the Brink's is open. Our crew sees the Worthington 1000 inside. CHARLIE Nice work. HALF-EAR Well like Einstein almost said: genius is ten percent inspiration, ninety percent detonation. CHARLIE Let's get our gold. Stella goes up to the imposing safe. Gives it a look of momentary respect, then sets to work... INT. KNX-AM 1070 TRAFFIC HELICOPTER - DAY Christina Griego telling her radio audience: CHRISTINA GRIEGO I've seen earthquakes, mudslides, fires, riots, but this... Let me try to paint a picture for our listeners. INT. FERRARI Hearing the news over the radio. CHRISTINA GRIEGO (V.O.) There's been some kind of an explosion and a Brink's truck has just dropped down into the Metro Rail Blue Line. Steve slams the car into gear and jumps the sidewalk, passing the gridlock. He hollers into a walkie-talkie -- STEVE The truck's in the Metro Rail. Where does the Blue Line go back above ground? EXT. STREETS - SERIES OF SHOTS The motorcycle guards who were escorting the decoy trucks hear Steve over their walkie-talkies. With squeals of rubber, they turn around as one of the guards answers -- MOTORCYCLE GUARD It comes out at Flower & Pico. At the same time -- INT. METRO RAIL TUNNEL - DAY Stella works the dial, feeling for contact points. And -- EXT. HOLLYWOOD & HIGHLAND - DAY The two motorcycle guards fervently try to lift off the steel sheet that dropped down from the U-Haul. INT. METRO RAIL TUNNEL - DAY They see daylight start to stream in from above as the steel sheet slides a little. CHARLIE Stella? STELLA Shhh... We HEAR Stella's heart pounding in her ears. See the perspiration on her fingertips. STELLA You know when you said this wouldn't be the same as opening a safe for the cops? HANDSOME ROB Yeah. STELLA Did you have to be right? EXT. HOLLYWOOD & HIGHLAND - DAY The motorcycle guards strain, managing to shift the steel sheet enough so they can see the armored truck below. INT. METRO RAIL TUNNEL - DAY CLOSE SHOTS on Stella's eyes, pure concentration. CLOSE SHOTS on each number on the dial. Finally: CLICK. She grabs the safe's lever and swings the sturdy steel door open. She instinctively looks away. CHARLIE Don't you want to see what's inside? STELLA I never look. CHARLIE Trust me. You wanna look. So she does. Inside is a mountain of gold bricks... EXT. HOLLYWOOD & HIGHLAND - MOMENTS LATER The motorcycle guards heave, strain, finally getting the steel plate off. But it's too late as -- INT. MINIS - SERIES OF SHOTS Engines REV. Exhaust jets. Hands slam stick-shifts. INT. METRO RAIL TUNNEL The cars streak off deeper into the Metro Rail tunnel, headlights bouncing off the walls. INT. CHARLIE'S MINI (MOVING) - DAY It's a rush cruising down the tunnel. Taking the Blue Line. Leading the pack. But they're not home free yet. EXT. 101 FREEWAY - DAY Rush hour gridlock -- no problem. The Ferrari's 12 cylinder massive 210 hp engine bellows as it hits 120 m.p.h. in the breakdown lane. A Highway Patrol car starts chasing after it, siren wailing. INT. FERRARI (HAULING ASS) - DAY Merging onto the 110 South, Steve sees the patrol car in hot pursuit. He shifts into sixth and suddenly this car is a rocket blasting off, doing a 1/4 mile in 1.3 seconds, leaving the patrol car far behind. At the same time -- INT. SAFE HOUSE - GARAGE Mashkov and the other heavily armed Ukrainians climb into a SUV. The garage door opens and the vehicle charges out of there. And at the same time -- INT. METRO RAIL TUNNEL The three Minis speed by UNDERNEATH OUR CAMERA in streaks of red, white, and blue. INT. CHARLIE'S MINI (MOVING) He spots the proverbial daylight at the end of the tunnel. EXT. FLOWER & PICO - DAY Where the Blue Line rises up to ground level. The Minis thunder into the daylight, past the above ground platform, just as two motorcycles come flying around the corner after them. Picture this: two guards on each motorcycle with each man seated behind the driver holding AK-47s in each hand, giving them the appearance of having submachine guns growing out of their shoulders. Fingers go flat against the AK-47s triggers. Blowing SHOT after SHOT at the Minis. BAM-BAM-BAM. INT. CHARLIE'S MINI In the teeth of gunfire. Bullets explode through the back window in a cacophony of CRASHING GLASS. A shot wings his door. POP! Into headset: CHARLIE Split up! EXT. FLOWER & PICO They head off in different directions through congested downtown rush hour traffic. One motorcycle takes off after Charlie's Mini. The other goes after Handsome Rob's Mini. So Stella's free and clear except that Steve's Ferrari is barreling down Pico and coming after her. INT. LAPD HELICOPTER (FLYING) An LAPD PILOT swoops in, barking out instructions to police cars converging on the scene. EXT. CHARLIE'S MINI Turning onto Exposition, the motorcycle in pursuit, the chopper overhead. His red Mini jumps a curve, now on a wide sidewalk, accelerating full throttle for the horizon while pedestrians flatten themselves against a high-rise in fear. INT. CHARLIE'S MINI He sees someone give him the finger. Mutters: CHARLIE If you don't like how I'm driving, get off the damn sidewalk. Meanwhile: INT. HANDSOME ROB'S MINI He's got the other motorcycle on his tail, RELENTLESS GUNFIRE dogging his every move. He shifts smooth as silk, squeezing between a car he's passing and an oncoming car in the other lane. Half-Ear is trying his best to remain calm but Jesus, that was close. Suddenly, Handsome Rob veers off the road and WHAM. He takes down a chain link fence and is now in the parking lot of the: EXT. CONVENTION CENTER His white Mini catapults across the asphalt, the motorcycle still right behind. INT. HANDSOME ROB'S MINI Up ahead, he eyes the open door entrance to the Convention Center. Stomps the gas. HALF-EAR What are you doing? The turbine howls. HALF-EAR What -- are -- you -- doing? EXT. CONVENTION CENTER The Mini squeezes through the doorway and into the -- INT. CONVENTION CENTER It's the STAR TREK GRAND SLAM 2002 convention in full swing. Display tables are lined up in the cavernous hall and the Mini snakes through the maze and the Trekkies as -- The motorcycle follows right behind and the chase is really on now. THUDA THUD THUDA, the Mini's wheels climb a flight of steps. Waves of people flee the path of the little car and -- THUD, THUDA, THUD, the motorcycle follows right behind. The Mini zips down the wide Concourse Hall -- travels underneath banners of Star Trek characters that hang from the ceiling -- the motorcycle keeps up, tires tearing into the carpeting. INT. HANDSOME ROB'S MINI He shifts, swerves, avoiding people, obstacles. HALF-EAR Go that way! Handsome Rob turns, taking them down the -- WEST HALL that stretches out toward the Staples Center. WHIZ. The Mini goes by. WHIZ. The motorcycle goes by. Then -- The Mini steamrolls through the exit doors and -- EXT. CONVENTION CENTER/STAPLES CENTER It bounds down outdoor steps and ramps onto the outside entrance to the Staples Center, fitting snugly between cement pillars that are designed to keep regular-sized cars out. INT. STAPLES CENTER - DAY The Mini bulldozes through glass doors. Across the lobby. Down an aisle that leads right to -- CENTER COURT where OUR L.A. LAKERS are in the midst of practice. The Minis do look like matchbox cars next to these towering players. The car's tires leave a streak of rubber on the parquet floor. The team clears a path. The car is off the court before they know it. But now the players see the motorcycle coming down the aisle. See the guns. See security guards running after it. KOBE BRYANT picks up a basketball. The motorcycle charges across center court. Kobe aims... hurls the ball. It RAMS into the motorcycle's handlebars. The bike spins out of control and into a nasty fall, spitting off the riders while -- EXT. STAPLES CENTER The Mini crashes out the opposite side of the arena and glides right through the L.A. Sports Arch of Fame before escaping onto Figueroa. Meanwhile: EXT. SOUTH ALAMEDA - DAY The Ferrari is eating up the pavement as it hounds after Stella. Two police cars are roaring after them both. INT. STELLA'S MINI She slaps the gears into action, maneuvers tight turns around the cars in her path, just like she does at home with Jack Daniels. EXT. SOUTH ALAMEDA A cop car tries to pass the same car as the Ferrari but smashes into an oncoming vehicle. As it spins like a corkscrew -- EXT. FERRARI The rear tires spin smoke and it launches like a missile after the Mini. INT. STELLA'S MINI She keeps flooring it... the gauge rising... the customized engine screaming... But the Ferrari, like an unstoppable force, hangs menacingly in her rearview mirror. I/E FERRARI Steve RAMS into the rear bumper of the blue Mini. The bumper tears off, rolls across the pavement. The Ferrari is about to make another charge. INT. STELLA'S MINI She yanks the wheel left to avoid the hit. Suddenly finds herself in the path of an ARROWHEAD WATER TRUCK. She yanks the wheel right to avoid a collision. INT. ARROWHEAD WATER TRUCK The truck driver hits the brakes, over compensating as he turns away from the Mini and -- EXT. SOUTH ALAMEDA The truck falls over onto its side, sending those big jugs all over the road, water exploding into the air and -- The Ferrari crashes through the jugs, one rolling up the hood and over the windshield, dousing it like a car wash. The lane is blocked by the wreck. Steve makes a right turn. The police cruiser hits the brakes but not fast enough. It slams into the water truck. EXT. 5TH STREET Steve turned onto a one-way street and he's going the wrong way. A Jeep Wrangler almost runs into him head-on but both cars stop just in time. The DRIVER of Wrangler, a muscular fire plug of a guy, jumps out, furious. FURIOUS DRIVER What's wrong with you, you stupid- ass, son of a bitch, dickhead... As more invectives are hurled, Steve gets out of the Ferrari and walks towards the furious driver. FURIOUS DRIVER What? You want a piece of me? C'mon, dumbshit. Bring it on. I'll be pulling peanuts out of your asshole -- BANG. Steve shoots the guy's foot. FURIOUS DRIVER Shit! Shit! You shot me in the foot! While the furious driver hops on one leg, Steve gets into the Wrangler and takes off, abandoning the Ferrari. At the same time -- INT. BMW 750IL (MOVING) - SUNSET Lyle's coasting down Exposition Boulevard towards Union Station. Clear sailing for him. He sees a young woman thumbing for a ride. It's Karen. And he recognizes her: she was hitchhiking when he first arrived in L.A. He pulls over. To Lyle, she might be an angel in the empyrean if she wasn't, so completely, a woman. LYLE Where are you going? KAREN Away. LYLE How about far, far away? KAREN The farther the better. EXT. FIGUEROA & OLYMPIC - DAY Charlie's still having a helluva time getting rid of the motorcycle. It screams like a Banshee as it streaks up alongside the Mini. Charlie suddenly sees an AK-47 pointed right at him. INT. CHARLIE'S MINI He jerks the steering wheel and swerves off the street, driving through the parking lot of the historic Hotel Figueroa. With the motorcycle dogging his heels, he looks up at the building. It has three towers that rise up 12 stories, with a giant mural of Albert Einstein covering one of the towers (it's an ad for Apple Computers: Think different.) Suddenly the LAPD helicopter swoops down towards the parking lot, shattering the air, blowing up dirt and discarded newspapers in a rush of turbo-wash, trying to box in the Mini. INT. CHARLIE'S MINI He's got no place else to go... INT. HOTEL FIGUEROA The Mini squeezes through the entrance and into the lobby with its exotic Moroccan decor. Horrified guests catapult out of the way. The Mini drives past wooden statues, potted palm trees. The motorcycle follows the car as it streaks towards the elevator. Charlie looks back, sees the motorcycle. The elevator door opens. Some tourists step off. CHARLIE Going up? INT. ELEVATOR The Mini darts right in, not an inch to spare. Charlie reaches out the window, presses the button for ROOF. He sees the motorcycle charging after him, burning rubber across the beautiful tiled floor. Closer, closer. The door closes just in time. A second elevator opens, the motorcycle zooms inside, people screaming at the sight of the guns. EXT. ROOFTOP - DAY The doors open, PING, and the Mini reverses out, spins. LOOKING DOWN onto the building's rooftop, we see that it is shaped like a capitol E, three towers connected by a narrow strip. Each tower has its own elevator. INT. CHARLIE'S MINI He wants to drive across the rooftop strip but there's a big problem: the giant sign that exclaims HOTEL FIGUEROA in red and white neon lights blocks so much of the strip that even the Mini couldn't squeeze through. In his rearview, he sees the second elevator door open and out comes the motorcycle. He's trapped up here. But he's not about to abandon ship. EXT. ROOFTOP So he floors it, slaps the gears, hurtles to the edge of the first tower and in -- EYE-POPPING CGI SLOW MOTION SHOTS His car hurls into the wide blue empty space... The ground deliriously distant... Spiraling through the air like a football... NEXT TOWER - ROOFTOP The Mini lands right-side-up with a THUD. Charlie, rattled, looks over his shoulder and sees the LAPD helicopter rising over the rooftop, turbines SCREAMING. And here comes the motorcycle. Flying from one section of the rooftop to the next. It lands and the driver REVS it forward -- I/E CHARLIE'S MINI He speeds toward the edge of the roof and launches off towards the third tower some twenty feet away. Lands. Keeps going to the last elevator, skids to a stop. He reaches out, punches the call button. Then looks over his shoulder to witness -- THE MOTORCYCLE going full throttle to make the final rooftop to rooftop jump. But its front wheel hits the edge slightly off-kilter... It soars but with a slight downward trajectory... Towards a large window on the top floor... Then lower... And the look on the driver's face says it all as... The front wheel of the motorcycle SMACKS into the side of the building, just below the window. The guards are flung off the bike and their bodies CRASH through the window as -- A hunk of exploding metal imbeds itself in the side of the LAPD chopper and -- INT. HOTEL FIGUEROA The guards land in the Tangier Suite in a hailstorm of glass shards. I/E. LAPD HELICOPTER Smoke billows out where the hunk of metal hit. The pilot keeps it under control but it's time to go. With a WHINING THROB, the injured chopper banks away. INT. HOTEL FIGUEROA LOBBY - DAY PING. The elevator door opens. Charlie's Mini shoots out then skids out the lobby's exit. He made it. CUT TO: INT. STELLA'S MINI (SPEEDING) - DAY She checks the rearview mirror. No sign of the Ferrari. Just a Jeep Wrangler back there. Stella looks relieved. Feels like she's home free. CUT TO: EXT. UNION STATION - SUNSET Stella's Mini pulls up to the ramp of the enclosed car carrier at the end of Amtrak Train 59, bound for New Orleans. She can see the other two Minis are already inside. She gets out and hands the cargo loader a ticket. EXT. UNION STATION - NIGHT The "All Aboard" announcement goes out over the PA system. Then the Superliner train pulls out of the station, quickly picking up speed. INT. FIRST CLASS CAR - NIGHT The outside streaks by through the window. It's a happy crew. Champagne is poured. Charlie holds up his glass and gets their attention. CHARLIE I want to make a toast. Cause there's somebody missing here today, and we all know who it is. They all raise their glasses. CHARLIE To John Bridger. The most brilliant master planner of them all. We wish he was with us. We PAN ACROSS their faces. It's been a three year odyssey for them. They got the gold, but they lost someone they loved. ALL OF THEM To John. Clink. INT. CAR CARRIER - NIGHT OUR CAMERA MOVES past the three Minis parked inside... And STOPS at the last car in the carrier -- the Jeep Wrangler. Its rear hatch rises and Steve creeps out. Looks around. It's safe. He walks over to Stella's Mini. Pops open the trunk REVEALING a silver Haliburton suitcase. He unzips the case. It's filled with stacks and stacks of gold bricks, the exotic face of a Balinese girl on each one. Steve pulls out a brick, embraces it. He knows his gold. These bricks are real. But as he has a moment with his gold, BEHIND HIM, the trunks of the other two Minis RISE in unison. Then Mashkov RISES out of the trunk of the white Mini. Another Ukrainian RISES out of the trunk of the blue Mini. Four more Ukrainians slide out from underneath the Minis. They cock their M-lls. CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK. Steve hears the sound from behind him. He turns around to see the weapons pointed at him. MASHKOV Take out your gun and drop it on the floor. Steve has no choice. STEVE Who are you? MASHKOV You knew my cousin. Yevhen. STEVE I never knew anyone named Yevhen. MASHKOV Get in the trunk. Not that trunk, this one. That gold is for us. A gift from some old friends of yours. They said to tell you that they didn't mind sharing the box of Cracker Jack, as long as you didn't get any. Not even the toy surprise. The Ukrainians force Steve into the trunk of the white Mini. And for the first time, he's scared. Looking up at Mashkov, he begs. STEVE Please. Don't shoot me. Please... MASHKOV Don't worry. That wasn't the deal. I'm not going to shoot you. STEVE Thank you. Thank God. MASHKOV (to the others) He really thought I was going to shoot him. The Ukrainians laugh. Steve tries to laugh. MASHKOV No. No. I'm not going to shoot you. I'm going to hack off your limbs and bury you while you're still alive. And with that, he closes the trunk. THUD. Like the lid of a coffin. And for Steve, the world falls into BLACKNESS. INT. FIRST CLASS CAR - SAME TIME Underneath the crew's seats, we see the other two silver Haliburton suitcases filled with the rest of the gold. We BOOM UP to our five thieves... CHARLIE New IDs. Handsome Rob passes out new fake driver's licenses for when they arrive in New Orleans. LYLE (re: his fake license) Simon Quackenbush? Could I -- just once -- have a cool name? HALF-EAR (also complaining) 250_pounds? They're interrupted by the RING of Charlie's phone. He answers. CHARLIE Did you get what you wanted? INT. CAR CARRIER - INTERCUT Mashkov is on the other end of the line. MASHKOV I'm happy. During this, Lyle types commands into his laptop that is connected to a phone jack in the car. CHARLIE It was good doing business with you. Lyle hits a final command and -- INT. ENGINEER ROOM - SAME TIME signal box receives the command and -- EXT. CAR CARRIER - SAME TIME The coupler between the car carrier and the rest of the train is electronically disengaged. This causes the train to separate from the car carrier. The train speeds on without it at 100 miles per hour. The car carrier slowly comes to a stop in the middle of nowhere. CUT TO: INT. DINING CAR - NIGHT The Dining Car features crisp white linens and extended windows for scenic dining. Lyle walks over to a table where Karen is waiting for him. She looks resplendent. LYLE Is this seat taken? KAREN It is now. He sits. And as OUR CAMERA HOLDS ON Lyle, ready to embark on a new life, we -- CUT TO: THE COVER OF WIRED MAGAZINE It fills THE SCREEN. And beneath a photograph of Lyle himself, we read the headline: WILL THE REAL NAPSTER PLEASE STAND UP How The Laptop Fugitive Pulled It Off CUT TO: INT. PARLOUR CAR - NIGHT And as OUR CAMERA FINDS Half-Ear, checking out the books in the library, feeling like the wealthy man he is, we -- CUT TO: THE COVER OF PHILADELPHIA CITY COLLEGE'S ALUMNI NEWS And beneath a graduation photo of Half-Ear in his cap and gown, we read the headline: "HE WAS ONE OF M'S BEST STUDENTS" Professor Relives Memories of Erudite Fugitive CUT TO: INT. LOUNGE CAR - NIGHT And as OUR CAMERA FINDS Handsome Rob, who's already caught the eye of a woman at the bar, we -- CUT TO: THE COVER OF THE ADELPHIA CABLE INSIDER NEWSLETTER And beneath a photo of Becky the cable chick, we read the headline: "HE TOOK THE SHIRT OFF MY BACK AND I'D GIVE IT TO HIM AGAIN!" Feds Say Technician Admits to Encounter With 'Handsome' Thief CUT TO: INT. FIRST CLASS CAR - NIGHT Charlie and Stella drink from glasses of champagne. CHARLIE We did it. STELLA We sure did. CHARLIE There's something I've been meaning to ask you, Stella. But I've just been so busy lately, what with the explosion, car chase, Ukrainians and all. STELLA It has been a hectic day. CHARLIE It's about that thing you said to me back in Philadelphia. STELLA That thing? CHARLIE You said that you can't have a relationship with a pickpocket, gold robber, or any kind of thief. STELLA Oh... That thing. CHARLIE Do you still believe that? STELLA Yeah. I do. CHARLIE Well I was wondering... What about a retired pickpocket, gold robber, thief? STELLA Now that's an entirely different question. And as an enigmatic smile settles across her face, we -- CUT TO: THE COVER OF CONDE MAST TRAVEL MAGAZINE And beneath a photo of sunbathers on a glorious beach, we read the headline: LIVING THE GOOD LIFE ON THE PINK SANDS OF BERMUDA And OUR VIEW SLOWLY PUSHES IN CLOSER ON the magazine cover... CLOSER on the line of sunbathers... PANNING ACROSS their faces -- and you'd never notice unless you were really, really, looking for them... is it them?... CLOSER on the pixels... and yes, it sure is... Charlie & Stella in lounge chairs, living the good life. FADE OUT: THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_JFK.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_JFK.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..61600aca193a5f1731e8ea8a2de742c5bcf9bb66 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_JFK.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + JFK By Oliver Stone & Zachary Sklar Based on books by Jim Marrs & Jim Garrison FADE IN Credits run in counterpoint through a 7 to 10 minute sequence of documentary images setting the tone of John F. Kennedy's Presidency and the atmosphere of those tense times, 1960 through 1963. An omniscient narrator's voice marches us through in old time Pathe' newsreel fashion. VOICE January, 1961 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address to the Nation - EISENHOWER ADDRESS EISENHOWER The conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence - economic, political, even spiritual - is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the Federal Government... In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist... We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted... ELECTION IMAGERY School kids reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. WPA films of farmers harvesting the Texas plains. Rain, thunderheads, a dusty car coming from far away on a road moving towards Dallas. Cowboys round up the cattle. Young marrieds in a church. Hillsides of tract homes going up. The American breadbasket, the West. Over this we hear Eisenhower's address. As we move into the election campaign of 1960, we see the TV debates, Nixon vs. Kennedy, Mayor Daley, Kennedy victorious... Against this is juxtaposed other forces: segregation, J. Edgar Hoover, military advisors, Castro, Marilyn Monroe, Lumumba... three frames of the Zapruder film counter-cut... ending with the Kennedy inauguration and the irony of Earl Warren administering the oath as he will Kennedy's eulogy. VOICE 2 November, 1960 - Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts wins one of the narrowest election victories in American history over the Vice- President Richard Nixon by a little more than 100,000 votes. Rumors abound that he stole the election in Illinois through the Democratic political machine of Mayor Daley... (inauguration shots) At his inauguration, at a time when American males all wore hats, he let his hair blow free in the wind. Alongside his beautiful and elegant wife of French origin, Jacqueline Bouvier, J.F.K. is the symbol of the new freedom of the 1960's, signifying change and upheaval to the American public, scaring many and hated passionately by some. To win the election and to appease their fears, Kennedy at first takes a tough Cold War stance. BAY OF PIGS IMAGERY The beach, the bombardment, the rounding up of prisoners, Kennedy's public apology, Allen Dulles standing next to J.F.K., both uncomfortable with the small talk... VOICE 3 He inherits a secret war against the Communist Castro dictatorship in Cuba, a war run by the CIA and angry Cuban exiles out of bases in the Southern United States, Panama, Nicaragua and Guatemala. Castro is a successful revolutionary frightening to American business interests in Latin America - companies like Cabot's United Fruit, Continental Can, and Rockefeller's Standard Oil. This war culminates in the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961, when Kennedy refuses to provide air cover for the exile brigade. Of the 1600 men who invade, 114 are killed, 1200 are captured. The Cuban exiles and the CIA are furious at Kennedy's irresolution... Kennedy, taking public responsibility for the failure, privately claims the CIA lied to him and tried to manipulate him into ordering an all-out American invasion of Cuba. He vows to splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and fires Director Allen Dulles, Deputies Charles Cabell and Richard Bissell, the top leadership of the Agency. SECRET WAR IMAGERY Cuban rallies, footage of training camps, espionage activities, boats, cases of weapons, Robert Kennedy... John Roselli, Sam Giancana, Santos Trafficante, Richard Helms (the new CIA chief), Bill Harvey, Head of ZR/RIFLE, Howard Hunt... VOICE 4 The CIA, however, continues it's secret war on Castro with dozens of sabotage and assassination attempts under it's ZR/RIFLE and MONGOOSE programs - The Agency collaborates with organized crime elements such as John Roselli, Sam Giancana, and Santos Trafficante of Tampa, whose casino operations in Cuba, worth more than a hundred million dollars a year in income, Castro has shut down. CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS Khrushchev, Kennedy, Castro on television, meetings with Cabinet, Russian vessels in Caribbean, U.S. nuclear bases on alert, civilians going to underground safe areas... the Russian ship turning around, the country smiling... VOICE 5 In October 1962, the world comes to the brink of nuclear war when Kennedy quarantines Cuba after announcing the presence of offensive Soviet nuclear missiles 90 miles off American shores. The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the CIA call for an invasion. Kennedy refuses. Soviet ships with more missiles sail towards the island, but at the last moment turn back. The world breathes with relief but backstage in Washington, rumors abound that J.F.K. has cut a secret deal with Russian Premier Khrushchev not to invade Cuba in return for a Russian withdrawal of missiles. Suspicions abound that Kennedy is "soft on Communism." NUCLEAR TEST BAN IMAGERY Closing down Cuban Camps, McNamara speaking, Khrushchev and Kennedy, the "hot line" telephone system inaugurated, Kennedy with Jackie and children sailing off Cape Cod... Vietnam introduction, early shots, Green Berets, counterinsurgency programs, De Lansdale, leading up to the Test Ban signings... then J.F.K. at American University, June 10, 1963. VOICE 6 In the ensuing months, Kennedy clamps down on Cuban exile activities, closing training camps, restricting covert operations, prohibiting shipment of weapons out of the country. The covert arm of the CIA nevertheless continues its plan to assassinate Castor... In March '63, Kennedy announces drastic cuts in the defense budget. In November 1963, he orders the withdrawal by Christmas of the first 1000 troops of the 16,000 stationed in Vietnam. He tells several of his intimates that he will withdraw all Vietnam troops after the '64 election, saying to the Assistant Secretary of State, Roger Hilsman, "The Bay of Pigs has taught me one, not to trust generals or the CIA, and two, that if the American people do not want to use American troops to remove a Communist regime 90 miles from our coast, how can I ask them to use troops to remove a Communist regime 9,000 miles away?"... Finally, in August 1963, over the objections of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union sign a treaty banning nuclear bomb tests in the atmosphere, underwater and in space... Early that fateful summer, Kennedy speaks of his new vision at American University in Washington. JFK What kind of peace do we seek? Not a pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war... We must re-examine our own attitudes towards the Soviet Union... If we cannot now end our differences at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal... CONCLUDING KENNEDY IMAGERY Diplomats at the United Nations... Adlai Stevenson, Castor... Martin Luther King and the March on Washington (a snatch of his "I Have a Dream" speech)... Bobby Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa going at it... U.S. Steel Chairman's remarks in the steel face-off, men going to courtrooms with briefcases,... Teddy Kennedy, Rose, Joe, the Kennedy family, all teeth and good looks... and of course John campaigning, always campaigning, shaking hands, smiling, that supremely warm smile and sense of grace and ability to convey to crowds their oneness with him... forever... culminating in the more specific Texas shots... with Jackie in San Antonio, and Houston... then at Fort Worth... then at Love Field moving through the clouds toward the Dallas/Forth Worth plain which suddenly breaks into view as we descend... LOUISIANA HIGHWAY - DAY (1963) A moving car carrying two Cuban males disgorges a rumpled, screaming woman, Rose Cheramie, a whore in her thirties, lying there bleeding in the dirt. The car drives off. HOSPITAL - DAY (1963) We see Rose, badly cut but quite lucid, trying to reason with a policeman, Lt. Fruge, and a doctor - in a remote black- and-white documentary. ROSE They're going up to Dallas... to whack Kennedy. Friday the 22nd, that's when they're going to do it. In Dealey Plaza. They're gonna whack him! You gotta call somebody, these are serious fuckin' guys. DOCTOR (to the police officer) Higher'n a kite on something. Been like this since she came in. BACK TO DOCUMENTARY IMAGES We see the last close-ups of Kennedy shaking hands on the tarmac at Love Field, smiling, into the motorcade... the downtown streets of Dallas, people packing the sidewalks clear back to the buildings, hanging out of windows ten stories up, schoolgirls surging out into the street in front of the car. The President is wildly popular - except for the occasional posters calling for his arrest for treason... VOICE 7 More rumors emerge of J.F.K.'s backdoor efforts outside usual State Department and CIA channels to establish dialogue with Fidel Castro through contacts at the United Nations in New York. Kennedy is seeking change on all fronts. Bitter battles are fought with Southern segregationists to get James Meredith into the University of Mississippi. Three months after Kennedy submits a sweeping civil rights bill to Congress, Martin Luther King leads 250,000 in a march on Washington. Robert Kennedy, as Attorney General, for the first time ever vigorously prosecutes the Mafia in American life, bringing and winning a record number of cases - 288 convictions of organized crime figures including 13 grand juries against Jimmy Hoffa and his Teamsters Union. The President also takes on Big Business, forcing back steel prices, winning 45 of 46 antitrust cases during 1963 and he wants to help everyday taxpayers by ending age- old business privileges like the oil depletion allowance and the fees paid to the Federal Reserve Bank for printing America's currency. Revolutionary changes are foreseen after J.F.K.'s assumed re-election in 1964. Foremost in the political consciousness of the country is the possibility of a Kennedy dynasty. Robert Kennedy in '68, Teddy Kennedy in '76. In November, 1963 John Kennedy travels to Texas, his popularity sagging to 59% largely due to his civil rights stand for which he is particularly hated in the South. Texas is a crucial state for him to carry in '64. With him is Vice-President, Lyndon Johnson and Texas Governor John Connally. On November 21, they visit Houston and San Antonio. On the morning of November 22, he speaks in Fort Worth, then flies 15 minutes to Love Field in Dallas, where he takes a motorcade through downtown Dallas on his way to speak at 12:30 at the International Trade Mart. Later, the motorcade takes him through Dealey Plaza at 12:30... DEALEY PLAZA - THAT DAY (NOV. 22, 1963) We see a massive overhead shot of the Plaza as it lay then. Credits conclude under shot - and we have the subtitle "November 22, 1963." A young epileptic screams and suddenly collapses near the fountains in front of the Texas School Depository. He has a violent epileptic fit that attracts surrounding attention. Dallas policemen run over to him. We hear the siren of an ambulance roaring up. TIMECUT TO ambulance loading the epileptic man and taking off. AMBULANCE VOICE We are en route to Parkland. BACK TO a montage of the shooting. We see Kennedy, in the last seconds, waving, turning the corner at Houston from Main... We see TV footage and a piece of Zapruder film from before the shooting; fragmented images... CUT TO stages shots of crowd people looking on. The images are grainy to match the tone of the Zapruder film. People are on rooftops, hollering. The crowd is wild with enthusiasm. We pan past Jack Ruby and slam into him in black- and-white. The camera shows a Cuban man with a radio; a man with an umbrella; subliminals. Through open windows on the fifth floor of the Criminal Courts Building, convicts watch and holler from their jail cells. We see the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository with open windows and a vague blur of a figure and a rifle. The clock on the Hertz sign reads 12:30. VOICE We'll be there in about five minutes. A motorcycle officer paralleling the Kennedy car tries to use his radio. It's jammed. The sound of the jammed Dictabelt drives the rest of the sequence. We see Zapruder, a short middle - aged man, shooting his 8mm film from the Grassy Knoll, and then we see Jackie Kennedy - floating on film, her voice, high, soft: JACKIE KENNEDY (voice restaged) And in the motorcade, you know I usually would be waving mostly to the left side and he was waving mostly to the right, which is one reason you're not looking at each other very much. And it was terribly hot. Just blinding all of us... We could see a tunnel in front of us. Everything was really slow then. And I remember thinking it would be so cool under that tunnel. The camera rests on Jackie for a beat, and then we see the shot of the little schoolgirl skipping on the grass. CUT TO the approaching overpass. J.F.K. waves... Mrs. Connally turns to J.F.K. The shot is crazy, fractured, surreal. MRS. CONNALLY (V.O.) Mr. President, you can't say that Dallas doesn't love you. JFK (V.O.) No, you certainly can't. Then we hear the shots: the volley sounds like a motorcycle backfire. We catch a glimpse of a muzzle flash and smoke. We see a view from the street of the Texas School Book Depository - all in line with the "official" version of events. Pigeons by the hundreds suddenly shoot off the roof. Then the screen goes gray as did CBS TV's first bulletins to the country. CBS BULLETIN (full screen) We interrupt this program to bring you this flash bulletin. A burst of gunfire! Three bursts of gunfire, apparently from automatic weapons, were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas. We hear voices under this from everywhere, colliding in confusion and horror: VOICES OH NO! MY GOD THEY'RE GOING TO KILL US ALL! Be still. You're going to be all right. LET'S GET OUT OF HERE. WE'RE HIT! LAWSON, THIS IS KELLERMAN. WE ARE HIT. GET US TO THE HOSPITAL IMMEDIATELY. PULL OUT OF THE MOTORCADE. TAKE US TO THE NEAREST HOSPITAL. JACKIE KENNEDY VOICE Oh, no, they've shot Jack... I love you, Jack... Jack... they've killed my husband... CBS BULLETIN (V.O.) The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by the shooting. More details just arrived. United Press say the wounds to President Kennedy perhaps could be fatal. Repeating: President Kennedy has been shot by a would-be assassin in Dallas. Three bursts of gunfire, apparently from automatic weapons... VOICES (blending under) IT CAME FROM THERE. SECURE THAT AREA BEHIND THE FENCE. IT'S THAT BUILDING UP THERE. We hear sirens and screeching tires. The screen is still gray, randomly intercut with the end of the Nix film showing the car escaping. There are wildly tracking shots of the crowd running towards the Grassy Knoll. The camera pans up the little set of stairs. We see more faces. Someone in a suit stops our camera. Secret Service? We see the briefest glimpse from the Zapruder film. The camera moves in on the open umbrella next, then to the freeway sign, then to Mrs. Kennedy out of the car reaching for help, then to the agent rushing onto the rear fender. The car finally speeds away. The people on the other side of the underpass wave at the oncoming hearse from hell. (These are fragmented, mystifying shots. The main effect is one of blackout - of not knowing; of being in the dark, as we all were back then.) CUT TO JIM GARRISON'S OFFICE - NEW ORLEANS - SAME DAY (1963) Pause. The lovely old china clock on the wall reads 12:35. Somewhere a car backfires. We see a close-up of the clock moving to 12:36. We hear the sound of a pen on paper, scratching... We see a shot of Jim Garrison as a young air pilot in World War II; hear the sound of airplanes. The camera moves to framed photos of Jim as a young, Lincolnesque lawyer... we hear sounds of political rallies, cheering... a shot of Jim's grandfather shaking hands with President William Taft. The sound of bulldozers carries us to a shot of Jim staring at piles of decaying corpses at Dachau... a photo of Clarence Darrow... a law degree and an appointment as District Attorney of the New Orleans Parish... Mother Garrison with young Jim on the desk... another family - his own. We look across the thick desk with the chess set, A Complete Works of William Shakespeare and a Nazi helmet with a bullet hole in it... to Jim himself writing - pen to paper. We sense the quiet intellect of the 43 year old man. The clock ticks in the awful suspended silence. It's as if the air itself has been sucked from the silent room. This is the last moment of peace before the World will rush through the door in all its sound and fury - to change his life forever. The camera haywires into a close- up of Jim as he looks up... and knows. Lou Ivon, Jim's chief investigator, is already standing there in the room. He is burly, in his 30s - his expression universal for that day. JIM What's wrong, Lou? LOU Boss, the President's been shot. In Dallas. Five minutes ago. Jim is stunned. His look of horror and shock speaks the same language as on faces all across America that Black Friday. JIM Oh no!... How bad? LOU No word yet. But they think it's in the head. Jim gets up, heading rapidly for the door. JIM Come on. Napoleon's has a TV set. NAPOLEON'S RESTAURANT - THE QUARTER - DAY(1963) The midday customers all stare solemnly at the TV set high in the corner of the cafe. The manager, ashen, serves drinks to Jim and Lou. NEWSMAN 1 Apparently three bullets were found. Governor Connally also appeared to be hit. The President was rushed by the Secret Service to Parkland Memorial Hospital four miles from Dealey Plaza. We are told a bullet entered the base of the throat and came out of the backside, but there is no confirmation, blood transfusions are being given, a priest has administered the last rites. JIM There's still a chance, dammit! Come on, Jack - pull through. MANAGER (Italian, distracted) I don't believe it. I don't believe it. Here, in this country. They all look up, expectant, as Walter Cronkite interrupts on the TV: WALTER CRONKITE From Dallas, Texas - the flash apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time, 2 o'clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago. (choked pause) Vice-President Johnson has left the hospital in Dallas, but we do not know to where he has proceeded. Presumably, he will be taking the oath of office shortly, and become the 36th President of the United States. There are sounds of shock, muttering, some sobbing in the restaurant. Lou gulps down his drink. Jim sits stunned. JIM I didn't always agree with him - too liberal for my tastes - but I respected him. He had style... God, I'm ashamed to be an American today. He holds back the tears. The food comes. Lou waves it off. They just sit there. EXTERIOR KATZENJAMMER'S BAR - SAME DAY(1963) Katzenjammer's is an Irish working class bar across Canal St. In a seedy area near the Mississippi River, just off Lafayette Square. INTERIOR KATZENJAMMER'S BAR - SAME DAY(1963) A variety of loud Irish working men sit on stools watching the TV. There are a few formica tables with chairs against the walls, and an unused pool table. NEWSMAN 2 Many arrests have been made here today. Anyone looking even remotely suspicious is being detained. Most of the crowd has gone home but there are still many stunned people wandering around in Dealey Plaza unable to comprehend what happened here earlier today. On the TV, we see the scene at Dealey Plaza. The reporter has several men, women, and children gathered around him. He puts his microphone in their faces. BLACK WOMAN (crying) It's all so terrible. I jes' can't stop crying. He did so much for this country, for colored people. Why? MAN (Bill Newman, with wife and kids) I grabbed my kids and wife and hit the ground. The bullets were coming over our heads - from that fence back on the knoll - I was just so shaken. I saw his face when it hit... he just, his ear flew off, he turned just real white and then went stiff like a board and flopped over on his stomach, with his foot sticking out. CUT TO the picket fence above the Grassy Knoll. WOMAN 2 I thought... it came from up there, that building. CUT TO the Book Depository. MAN 2 I heard shots from over there. CUT TO the County Records Building. NEWSMAN 2 How many shots? WOMAN 3 About 3 to 4... I don't know. MAN 3 I never thought it could happen in America. Back in the bar, the camera moves to two patrons seated at a table by themselves, far enough away not to be heard. Guy Banister is a sturdy, imposing ex - FBI agent in his 60's, steel gray hair, blue eyes, ruddy from heavy drinking. He wears a small rosebud in his lapel. Jack Martin is a thin, mousy man in his mid - 50's, wearing a Dick Tracy hat. They're both drinking Wild Turkey heavily. The TV blares loudly across the room over their voices. BANISTER All this blubbering over that sonofabitch! They're grieving like they knew the man. It makes me want to puke. MARTIN God's sake, chief. The President was shot. BANISTER A bullshit President! I don't see any weeping for all the thousands of Cubans that bastard condemned to death and torture at the Bay of Pigs. Where are all the tears for the Russians and Hungarians and Chinese living like slaves in prison camps run by Kennedy's communist buddies - All these damned peace treaties! I'm telling ya Jack, that's what happens when you let the niggers vote. They get together with the Jews and the Catholics and elect an Irish bleeding heart. MARTIN Chief, maybe you had a little too much to drink. BANISTER Bullshit! (yells across the room) Bartender, another round... (finishes drink) Here's to the New Frontier. Camelot in smithereens. I'll drink to that. NAPOLEON'S RESTAURANT - DAY(1963) Several hours have elapsed. The clientele has grown, drinking, watching the tube with the insatiable curiosity the event engendered. People stare in from the street... There is a silence in the restaurant. TELEVISION INSERT: image of a Dallas policeman hauling a Mannlicher - Carcano rifle with a sniperscope over the heads of the press gathered in the police station. NEWSMAN 3 This is the rifle, it is a Mannlicher - Carcano Italian rifle, a powerful World War II military gun used by infantry and highly accurate at distances of 100 yards. We see images of the textbook boxes - the sniper's nest in the sixth story of the Book Depository - and then the view out the window looking down at Elm Street. NEWSMAN 3 The assassin apparently fired from this perch... but so far no word, much confusion and... CUT TO Newsman 2 at a different location or in studio. NEWSMAN 4 A flash bulletin... the Dallas Police have just announced they have a suspect in the killing of a Dallas police officer, J.D. Tippit, who was shot at 1:15 in Oak Cliff, a suburb of Dallas. Police are saying there could be a tie - in here to the murder of the President. TELEVISION INSERT: Lee Harvey Oswald, a bruise over his right temple, is apprehended at the Texas Theatre. NEWSMAN 4 The suspect, identified as Lee Harvey Oswald, was arrested by more than a dozen police officers after a short scuffle at the Texas movie theatre in Oak Cliff, several blocks from where Officer Tippit was killed, apparently with a .38 revolver found on Oswald. There is apparently at least one eyewitness. TELEVISION INSERT: Oswald is booked at the station. A surly young man, 24, he claims to the press: TV OSWALD No, I don't know what I'm charged with... I don't know what dispatches you people have been given, but I emphatically deny these charges. VOICE FROM THE BAR They oughta just shoot the bastard. The room bursts out with an accumulated fury at the young Oswald - a tremendous release of tension. On the TV we see the excitement in the newsmen's eyes; they all sense that this is the break they're looking for in the case. Garrison and Ivon watch the TV, and then Garrison stands and pays the bill. LOU One little guy with a cheap rifle - look what he can do. JIM Let's get outta here, Lou. I saw too much stuff like this in the war. As they leave, the camera holds on the image of Oswald. MISSISSIPPI RIVER WATERFRONT - TWILIGHT(1963) The sun is setting through thunderheads over the Mississippi River waterfront as Banister and Martin wobble out, drunk, down the street. BANISTER Well, the kid musta gone nuts, right? (Martin says nothing, looks troubled) I said Oswald must've flipped. Just did this crazy thing before anyone could stop him, right? MARTIN I think I'll cut out here, chief. I gotta get home. BANISTER (strong-arms Martin) Get home my ass. We're going to the office, have another drink. I want some company tonight. BANISTER'S OFFICE - NIGHT(1963) Rain pours down outside 531 Lafayette Street as Banister opens several locks on the door and turns on the lights. The frosted glass on the door says "W. Guy Banister Associates, Inc., Investigators." It's a typical detective's office with spare desks, simple chairs, large filing cabinets and cubicles in the rear. BANISTER (repetitive) Who'd ever thought that goofy Oswald kid would pull off a stunt like an assassination? (Martin waits) Just goes to show, you can never know about some people. Am I right, Jack? (Martin, frightened now, doesn't reply) Well, bless my soul. Your eyes are as red as two cherries, Jack. Don't tell me we have another bleeding heart here. Hell, all these years I thought you were on my side. MARTIN Chief, sometimes I don't know whether you're kidding or not. BANISTER I couldn't be more serious, Jack. Those big red eyes have me wondering about your loyalty. Banister, going to a file cabinet to get a bottle out, notices one of the file drawers is slightly ajar. He flies into a rage. BANISTER Who the hell opened my files! You've been looking through my private files, haven't you, you weasel? MARTIN You may not like this, chief, but you're beginning to act paranoid. I mean, you really are. BANISTER You found out about Dave Ferrie going to Texas today and you went through all my files to see what was going on. You're a goddamn spy. MARTIN (angry) Goddammit chief, why would I ever need to look in your files? I saw enough here this summer to write a book. BANISTER I always lock my files. And you were the only one here today... (stops as he hears Martin) What do you mean, you son of a bitch? MARTIN You know what I mean. I saw a lot of strange things going on in this office this summer. And a lotta strange people. Enraged, Banister pulls a .357 Magnum from his holster, cursing as he suddenly slams it into Martin's temple. The smaller man crumples painfully to the ground. BANISTER You didn't see a goddamn thing, you little weasel. Do you get it? You didn't see a goddamn thing. JIM GARRISON'S HOME - THAT NIGHT(1963) Jim and his wife, Liz, watch the television. She is in her early 30's, an attractive, quiet southern woman from Louisiana. They live in a spacious two-story wood house, suburban in feel. TELEVISION IMAGE: Reporters are jammed in the Assembly Room of the Dallas Police Headquarters as Oswald is brought through the corridor, officers on either side of him. NEWSMAN 5 (over the din) Did you shoot the President? TV OSWALD I didn't shoot anybody, no sir. I'm just a patsy. The camera moves onto Jim with Liz and the children - Jasper, the oldest at 4, holds his dad's hand. On Liz's lap, Snapper, the youngest, is asleep. Virginia, the 2-year-old, is pestering the Boxer dog... and Mattie, the heavyset black housekeeper, 35, is in tears. LIZ My god, he sure looks like a creep. What's he talkin' 'bout... a patsy? TELEVISION IMAGE: Oswald in front of the cameras, on a platform. TV OSWALD Well, I was questioned by a judge. However, I protested at the time that I was not allowed legal representation during that very short and sweet hearing. Uh, I really don't know what the situation is about. Nobody has told me anything except that I am accused of, uh, murdering a policeman. I know nothing more than that and I do request that someone come forward to give me, uh, legal assistance. NEWSMAN 5 Did you kill the President? TV OSWALD No. I have not been charged with that. In fact nobody has said that to me yet. The first thing I heard about it was when the newspaper reporters in the hall, uh, asked me that question. NEWSMAN 6 You have been charged. TV OSWALD Sir? NEWSMAN 6 You have been charged. Oswald seems shocked. NEWSMAN 5 Were you ever in the Free Cuba Movement or whatever the... RUBY (a voice in the back) It was the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Oswald looks over and spots Ruby in the back of the room, on a table. Recognition is in his eyes. The police start to move him out. NEWSMAN 6 What did you do in Russia? What happened to your eye? TV OSWALD A policeman hit me. GARRISON He seems pretty cool to me for a man under pressure like that. LIZ Icy, you mean. (shudders) He gives me the willies... come on sugarplums, it's past your bedtimes... (to Jim) Come on, let's go upstairs. (rises) Mattie - get ahold of yourself. MATTIE Why, Mr. Jim? He was a great man, Mr. Jim, a great man... Jim is moved by her. TELEVISION IMAGE: Texas D.A. Henry Wade addresses the journalists. TV WADE There is no one else but him. He has been charged in the Supreme Court with murder with malice. We're gonna ask for the death penalty. Jim moves to the phone as Liz starts the kids up the stairs. The TV cuts to stills of Oswald's life. Two newsmen sit in a studio, smoking, sharing information. FRANK (Newsman 7) So several hours after the assassination, a disturbed portrait is emerging of Lee Harvey Oswald. Described as shy and introverted, he spent much of his childhood in New Orleans, Louisiana and went to high school there. After a stint in the Marines, he apparently became fascinated by Communism and in 1959 defected to the Soviet Union. BOB (Newsman 8) He married a Russian woman there, Frank, had a child, and then returned to the United States after 30 months. But he is still believed to be a dedicated Marxist and a fanatical supporter of Fidel Castro and ultra left wing causes. He spent last summer in New Orleans and was arrested in a brawl with anti-Castro Cuban exiles. FRANK (Newsman 7) And apparently, Bob, Oswald had been passing out pro-Castro pamphlets for an organization called Fair Play for Cuba, a Communist front he reportedly belongs to. BOB (Newsman 8) And we have Marina Oswald, his Russian- born wife, who has identified the rifle found in the Book Depository as belonging to her husband. And we have... TELEVISION IMAGES: Kennedy's casket coming off the plane in Washington D.C. play under the newsman... Jackie stands there in her blood-spotted dress... we cut to the photograph of L.B.J. taking the oath of office earlier that day... and a still photo of Robert Kennedy's reaction... JIM (on the phone) Lou, I'm sorry to disturb you this late... yeah, matter of routine but we better get on this New Orleans connection of Oswald's right away. Check out his record, find any friends or associates from last summer. Let's meet with the senior assistants and investigators day after tomorrow, Sunday, yeah, at 11... Thanks Lou. GARRISON CONFERENCE ROOM - 2 DAYS LATER - DAY(1963) Jim is with his key players: Lou Ivon, chief investigator; Susie Cox, in her 30's, and efficient, attractive Assistant D.A.; La Oser, Assistant D.A. in his 40's, serious, spectacled; Bill Broussard, Assistant D.A., handsome, volatile, in his 30's; Numa Bertell, D.A. in his 30's, chubby and friendly, and several others. They sit around a conference table with a black-and-white portable TV on a side table showing the current Sunday, November 24 news from Dallas. MARINA OSWALD (on TV) Lee good man... he not shoot anyone. Camera moves to Lou Ivon, looking at paperwork. LOU As far as Oswald's associates, boss, the one name that keeps popping up is David Ferrie. Oswald was seen with him several times last summer. JIM I know David - a strange character. LOU He's been in trouble before. Used to be a hot shot pilot for Eastern Airlines, but he got canned after an alleged homosexual incident with a 14-year old boy. BILL (on phone, excited) Get Kohlman... he told somebody the Texas trip... yesterday mentioned to somebody about Ferrie... find it out. On the TV we see the first image of the "backyard photos" of Lee Harvey Oswald holding the rifle. NEWSMAN 1 These backyard photos were found yesterday among Oswald's possessions in the garage of Janet William's home in Riving, Texas, where Marina Oswald and her children are living. The picture apparently was taken earlier this year. Police say the rifle, a cheap World War II Italian- made Mannlicher-Carcano, was ordered from a Chicago mailing house and shipped to Oswald's alias A. Hidell at a post office box in March, 1963. This is the same rifle that was used to assassinate the President. The camera moves back to the staff, who watch, obviously influenced. COX That ties it up... NUMA Another nut. Jesus, anybody can get a rifle in Texas. BILL (hangs up) So it seems that Dave Ferrie drove off on a Friday afternoon for Texas - a source told Kohlman he might have been a getaway pilot for Oswald. Members of the team exchange looks of surprise and disbelief. JIM Hold your horses. What kinda source? BILL (grins) The anonymous kind, Chief. OSER I think I remember this guy Ferrie speaking at a meeting of some veteran's group. Ranting against Castro. Extreme stuff. NEWSMAN 1 We go back now to the basement of police headquarters where they're about to transfer Oswald to County Prison... TELEVISION IMAGE: The basement of the Dallas police headquarters - waiting. Men mill around as Oswald is led out of the basement by two deputies. Jack Ruby rushes forward out of the crowd - and into history - putting his sealing bullet into Oswald. Total chaos erupts... The camera is on the staff, looking. We hear gasps. ANNOUNCER He's been shot! Oswald's been shot! VARIOUS VOICES Goddamn! Look at that... Look at that... I don't believe this... Right on TV! What is going on? Who is this guy... oh Jesus. Jim is silent. LOU Seventy cops in that basement. What the hell were they doing? NEWSMAN 1 Jack Ruby... Who is Jack Ruby? Oswald is hurt. We see images of Oswald being lifted onto the stretcher, into the ambulance, and the newscaster crouching, whispering. Everybody in the room is stunned still. LOU Well, no trial now. Looks like somebody saved the Dallas D.A. a pile of work. They look to Jim. There's a pause. He is deeply disturbed. JIM (quietly) Well, let's get Ferrie in here anyway. GARRISON OFFICE - NEXT DAY - DAY(1963) The portable television plays to Jim alone, sitting in his chair smoking a pipe. We see searing images of the funeral - crowds of mourners, the casket being driven through the streets, the honor guards, the horses, the dignitaries walking behind, Jackie veiled... the faces of De Gaulle, MacMillan, Robert Kennedy. We intercut briefly to Lyndon Johnson sitting down earlier that day with the Joint Chiefs of Staff... and then a future cut to Johnson in the Oval Office (staged). The shots are very tight, uncomfortable - noses, eyes, hands - very tight. As the door opens following a knock, David Ferrie is brought into Jim's office by two police officers and Lou Ivon. Jim stands up, cordial. LOU Chief... David Ferrie. Ferrie suffers from alopecia, a disease that has removed all his body hair, and he looks like a Halloween character - penciled eyebrows, one higher than the other, a scruffy reddish wig pasted on askew with glue, thrift store clothing. His eyes, however, are swift and cunning, his smile warm, inviting itself, his demeanor hungry to please. JIM (shakes hands) Come in, Dave. Have a seat, make yourself comfortable. Coffee? FERRIE Do you remember me, Mr. Garrison? I met you on Carondolet Street right after your election. I congratulated you, remember? JIM How could I forget? You make quite a first impression. (on intercom) Sharon, could you please bring us some coffee? (Ferrie laughs; pause) I've heard over the years you're quite a first-rate pilot, Dave. Legend has it you can get in and out of any field, no matter how small... (Jim points to the pictures on his wall) I'm a bit of a pilot myself, you know. Flew grasshoppers for the field artillery in the war. Ferrie glimpses the low-volumed TV - and images of the funeral. He looks away, jittery, and takes out a cigarette. Sharon brings the coffee in. FERRIE Do you mind if I smoke, Mr. Garrison? JIM (holds up his pipe) How could I? Dave, as you know, President Kennedy was assassinated on Friday. A man named Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested as a suspect and then was murdered yesterday by a man named Jack Ruby. (on each name, watching Ferrie's reaction) We've heard reports that Oswald spent the summer in New Orleans and we've been advised you knew Oswald pretty well. FERRIE That's not true. I never met anybody named Oswald. Anybody who told you that has to be crazy. JIM But you are aware, he served in your Civil Air Patrol unit when he was a teenager. FERRIE No... if he did, I don't remember him. There were lots of kids in and out... y'know. JIM (hands him a current newspaper) I'm sure you've seen this. Perhaps you knew this man under another name? FERRIE No, I never saw him before in my life. JIM Well that must've been mistaken information we got. Thanks for straightening it out for us. (puffs on pipe, Ferrie looks relieved; images of the funeral continue on the TV) There is one other matter that's come up, Dave. We were told you took a trip to Texas shortly after the assassination of Friday. FERRIE Yeah, now that's true. I drove to Houston. JIM What was so appealing about Houston? FERRIE I hadn't been there ice skating in many years, and I had a couple of young friends with me, and we decided we wanted to go ice skating. JIM Dave, may I ask why the urge to go ice skating in Texas happened to strike you during one of the most violent thunderstorms in recent memory? FERRIE Oh, it was just a spur of the moment thing... the storm wasn't that bad. JIM I see. And where did you drive? FERRIE We went straight to Houston, and then Saturday night we drove to Galveston and stayed over there. JIM Why Galveston? FERRIE No particular reason. Just to go somewhere. JIM And then Sunday? FERRIE In the morning we went goose hunting. Then headed home, but I dropped the boys off to see some relatives and I stayed in Hammond. JIM Did you bag any geese on this trip? FERRIE I believe the boys got a couple. JIM But the boys told us they didn't get any. FERRIE (fidgeting, lighting another cigarette) Oh yes, well, come to think of it, they're right. We got to where the geese were and there were thousands of them. But you couldn't approach them. They were a wise bunch of birds. JIM Your young friends also told us you had no weapons in the car. Dave, isn't it a bit difficult to hunt for geese without a shotgun? FERRIE Yes, now I remember, Mr. Garrison. I'm sorry, I got confused. We got out there near the geese and it was only then we realized we'd forgotten our shotguns. Stupid, right? So of course we didn't get any geese. JIM I see. (stands up) Dave thank you for your time. I'm sorry it has to end inconveniently for you, but I'm going to have you detained for further questioning by the FBI. FERRIE (shaken) Why? What's wrong? JIM Dave, I find your story simply not believable. Lou and the two cops escort Ferrie out of the office as Jim turns to the television image of Kennedy's final moments of rest. The bugler plays taps. John Jr., 3 years old, in an image which will become famous, salutes his Dad farewell. The riderless horse stands lonely against the Washington sky. FBI OFFICE - NEW ORLEANS - NEXT DAY(1963) At a small press conference, the FBI spokesman reads a statement. FBI SPOKESMAN Gentlemen, this afternoon the FBI released David W. Ferrie of New Orleans. After extensive questioning and a thorough background check, the Bureau found no evidence that... GARRISON'S OFFICE - SIMULTANEOUS WITH PREVIOUS SCENE In Garrison's office see the same broadcast, on the portable television. Lou, Broussard, Numa and Jim watch. FBI SPOKESMAN (on TV) ...Mr. Ferrie knew Lee Harvey Oswald or that he has had any connection with the assassination of President Kennedy. The Special Agent in Charge would like to make clear that Mr. Ferrie was brought in for questioning by the District Attorney of Orleans parish, not by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Bureau regrets any trouble this may have caused Mr. Ferrie... NEWSMAN 9 In national news, President Johnson has announced the creation of a blue ribbon presidential commission to probe the events in Dallas. Lou looks at Jim, angry. LOU Correct me if I'm wrong. I thought we were on the same side. What the hell business is it of theirs to say that? BILL Pretty fast, wasn't it. The way they let him go. JIM They must know something we don't. (dismisses it) So, let's get on with our lives, gentlemen... we got plenty of home grown crimes to prosecute. He reaches to turn off the TV and get back to work. The last image on the TV is: NEWSMAN 9 The Commission will be headed by Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Earl Warren, and is expected to head off several Congressional and Texas inquiries into the assassination. On the panel are Allen Dulles, ex-chief of the CIA, Representative Gerald Ford, John J. McCloy, former head of Chase Manhattan Bank... Jim flicks the TV off as the overture ends. AERIAL SHOT - WASHINGTON, D.C. - DAY(1966) We look down at the White House from the plane's point of view. A subtitle reads: "THREE YEARS LATER." INTERIOR OF PLANE SENATOR RUSSELL LONG (looking out the window) That's a mess down there, Jim. We've bitten off more "Vietnam" that we can possibly chew. Jim, now 46, reads the front page of THE WASHINGTON POST which details the latest battle in Vietnam. He sits next to Senator Long from Louisiana, in his 50's, who's drinking a whiskey. They're on a crowded businessman's shuttle. We see a close-up of a newspaper article about the Vietnam war: "more troops asked by Westmoreland." LONG (continuing) Sad thing is the way it's screwing up this country, all these hippies running around on drugs, the way young people look you can't tell a boy from a girl anymore. I saw a girl the other day, she was pregnant - you could see her whole belly, and you know what she painted on it? "Love Child." It's fuckin' outa control. Values've gone to hell, Jim... Course it figures when you got somebody like that polecat Johnson in the White House. JIM I sometimes feel things've gone downhill since John Kennedy was killed, Senator. LONG Don't get me started on that. Those Warren Commission fellows were pickin' gnat shit out of pepper. No one's gonna tell me that kid did the shooting job he did from that damned bookstore. STEWARDESS Here you go, Senator Long. The stewardess brings more drinks. JIM (surprised) I thought the FBI test-fired the rifle to make sure it could be done? LONG Sure, three experts and not one of them could do it! They're telling us Oswald got off three shots with world-class precision from a manual bolt action rifle in less than six seconds - and accordin' to his Marine buddies he got Maggie's drawers - he wasn't any good. Average man would be lucky to get two shots off, and I tell ya the first shot would always be the best. Here, the third shot's perfect. Don't make sense. And then they got that crazy bullet zigzagging all over the place so it hits Kennedy and Connally seven times. One "pristine" bullet? That dog don't hunt. JIM You know, something always bothered me about that from day one, and I can't put my finger on it. LONG If I were investigatin', I'd round up the 100 best riflemen in the world and find out which ones were in Dallas that day. You been duck hunting? I think Oswald was a good old-fashioned decoy. What'd he say? "I'm just a patsy." Out of the mouth of babes y'ask me. JIM You think there were other men involved, Russell? Russell looks at Jim quizzically and laughs. LONG Hell, you're the District Attorney. You read the Warren Report - and then you tell me you're satisfied Lee Oswald shot the President all by his lonesome. JIM Russell, honestly you sound like one of those kooky critics spreading paranoia like prairie fire. I just can't believe the Chief Justice of the United States would put his name on something that wasn't true. LONG (to the stewardess) Honey, another one of these. This one's as weak as cricket pee-pee. Yessir, you mark my words, Jim, Vietnam's gonna cost Johnson '68 and it's gonna put that other varmint Nixon in - then watch your hide, 'cause there ain't no offramps on a freeway to Hell! GARRISON'S STUDY - NIGHT(1966) The study is lined with bookshelves up to the ceiling; we see photos of family, a chess set. Jim, smoking his pipe, reads in a red leather chair from one of the 26 thick Warren Commission volumes piled all over the place. Liz enters. Jasper, now 7, draws on a piece of paper on the floor at Jim's feet. LIZ Jim, dinner's just about ready... I've got a surprise for you... tried something new... Jim? Jim, dinner. JIM (lost in thought) Mmmmm... sure smells good... but Egghead, do you realize Oswald was interrogated for twelve hours after the assassination, with no lawyer present, and nobody recorded a word of it? I can't believe it. A police captain with 30 years experience and a crowd of Federal agents just had to know that with no record anything that Oswald said would be inadmissible in court. LIZ Come on now, we'll talk about it at the table, dinner's getting cold. (to Jasper) What are you doing in here? JASPER Daddy said it was all right if I was real quiet. JIM (rising to dinner) Sure it is. Freckle Face, if I ever handled a minor felon like that, it'd be all over the papers. I'd catch hell. And this is the alleged murderer of the President? GARRISON DINING ROOM - (1966) Two-year-old Elizabeth watches "Crusader Rabbit" on TV as the new one-year-old sits in diapers with Liz at one end of the dinner table. Jim sits at the other end. There are five kids now, ages 7, 5, 4, 2 and 1... and Mattie, the housekeeper. Dinner's finished, they pass plates, the children horse around... the boxer dog, Touchdown, begs for a piece of the action. Jim, not a big eater, feeds him ice cream. JIM Again and again they ignore credible testimony, leads are never followed up, its conclusions are selective, there's no index, it's one of the sloppiest, most disorganized investigations I've ever seen. Dozens and dozens of witnesses in Dealey Plaza that day are saying they heard shots coming from the Grassy Knoll area in front of Kennedy and not the Book Depository behind him, but it's all broken down and spread around and you read it and the point gets lost. MATTIE I never did believe it either! LIZ (politely listening) Uh huh... Mattie, I'll do the dishes, you take Be up now. And Elizabeth, too, your bedtime, honey. ELIZABETH JR. Nahhhh! I don't wanna go to bed! LIZ Honey, that was three years ago - we all tried so hard to put that out of our minds, why are you digging it up again? You're the D.A. of New Orleans. Isn't the Kennedy assassination a bit outside your domain? I mean all those important people already studied it. JIM I can't believe a man as intelligent as Earl Warren ever read what's in those volumes. LIZ Well maybe you're right, Jim. I'll give you one hour to solve the case... until the kids are in bed. (rising, she puts her arms around him from behind and kisses his ear) Then you're mine and Mr. Kennedy can wait 'til morning. Come on, everybody say goodnight to Daddy. JASPER (showing his drawing) Dad, look what I drew. JIM (rising) That's something, Jasper. What is it? JASPER A rhinoceros. Can I stay up another hour? Virginia and Snapper each get one of Jim's shoes as he dances with them, holding one with each hand. JIM (dancing) Pickle and Snapper, my two favorite dancing partners. As the children dance, they fall off Jim's feet, laughing and giggling. He throws each in the air and kisses them. JIM Goodnight, my doodle bugs. KIDS Goodnight, Daddy. Liz comes over, smiling. Jim takes her in his arms. LIZ One hour, y'hear? Some Saturday night date you are. (sighs) Mama warned me this would happen if I married such a serious man. JIM Oh, she did, huh? When I come up I'll show you how Saturday night got invented. GARRISON STUDY - LATER THAT NIGHT(1966) The clock on mantelpiece reads 3 A.M. Jim is alone, smoking his pipe. In the stillness, his mind crawls all over the place. The camera closes on the thickly-worded pages of the Warren Report. FLASHBACK TO the Warren Commission hearing room in Dallas, 1964. We hear thin, echoey sound as the attorneys question some of the witnesses. The overall effect is vague and confusing, as is much of the Warren Report. A Mr. Ball is questioning Lee Bowers, the switchman in the railroad yard. Bowers, in his early 40's, has a trustworthy, working-man face and a crew cut. BOWERS I sealed off the area, and I held off the trains until they could be examined, and there was some transients taken on at least one train. ATTORNEY Mr. Bowers... is there anything else you told me I haven't asked you about that you can think of? BOWERS Nothing that I can recall. ATTORNEY Witness is excused. Jim, upset, reads on... Another witness, Sgt. D.V. Harkness of the Dallas Police responds to a second attorney. SGT. HARKNESS Well we got a long freight that was in there, and we pulled some people off of there and took them to the station. We see another FLASHBACK - to the Dallas rail yards on the day of the assassination. Three hoboes are being pulled off the freight by the Dallas policemen. ATTORNEY (V.O.) You mean some transients? SGT. HARKNESS (V.O.) Tramps and hoboes. ATTORNEY (V.O.) Were all those questioned? FLASHBACK TO Dealey Plaza an hour or less after the assassination. The three hoboes are marched by shotgun-toting policemen to the Sheriff's office at Dealey Plaza. We note that they do not look much like hoboes. SGT. HARKNESS (V.O.) Yes, sir, they were taken to the station and questioned. JIM (astounded) And? (writes "incomplete") ATTORNEY (V.O.) (switching subjects) I want to go back to this Amos Euins. (voices dribble off) BOWERS (V.O.) Yes sir, traffic had been cut off into the area since about 10, but there were three cars came in during this time from around noon till the time of the shooting... the cars circled the parking lot, and left like they were checking the area, one of the drivers seemed to have something he was holding to his mouth... the last car came in about 7 to 10 minutes before the shooting, a white Chevrolet, 4-door Impala, muddy up to the windows. The camera's point of view is now from the railroad tower near Dealey Plaza. We are fourteen feet off the ground, overlooking the parking lot behind the Grassy Knoll. The shot includes this last car circling in the lot. BOWERS Towards the underpass, I saw two men standing behind a picket fence... they were looking up towards Main and Houston and following the caravan as it came down. One of them was middle-aged, heavyset. The other man was younger, wearing a plaid shirt and jacket. Inside the railroad tower, Bowers glances out, busy with the main board, flashing lights, a train coming in. BOWERS There were two other men on the eastern end of the parking lot. Each of 'me had uniforms. We see the parking lot from Bower's point of view - at a distance, but we have a sense of the cars and see the men at a distance, tow uniformed men. The parking lot is bumper-to- bumper with a sea of cars. Rain that morning has muddied the lot. These brief images are elaborated on later. BOWERS At the time of the shooting there seemed to be some commotion... I just am unable to describe - a flash of light or smoke or something which caused me to feel that something out of the ordinary had occurred there on the embankment... We feel the growing intensity: music, drums - but all blurred. We see a puff of smoke but no sound because of the window Bowers is glancing through. A motorcycle cop shoots up the Grassy Knoll incline. People run, blurring into a larger mosaic of confusion. Bowers is confused, seeing this. INTERCUT with Jim's heart pounding as he reads. Back in Dealey Plaza, S.M. Holland, an elderly signal supervisor, stands on the parapet of the railway. HOLLAND (V.O.) Four shots... a puff of smoke came from the trees... behind that picket fence... close to the little plaza - There's no doubt whatever in my mind. We see the scene from Holland's point of view - the puff of smoke lingering under the trees along the picket fence after the shooting. GARRISON BEDROOM - ANOTHER NIGHT(1966) Jim is asleep, having a tortured dream. DREAMSCAPE FLASHBACK: We see the Zapruder film, in slow-motion and J.F.K.'s face just before he goes behind Stemmons Freeway sign. Jim sits up suddenly. JIM NO! Liz stirs, shaken. LIZ Honey, you all right? (looks at watch) JIM It's incredible, honey - the whole thing. A Lieutenant Colonel testifies that Lee Oswald was given a Russian language exam as part of his Marine training only a few months before he defects to the Soviet Union. A Russian exam! LIZ (sitting up, angered) I cannot believe this. It's four- thirty, Jim Garrison. I have five children are gonna be awake in another hour and ... JIM Honey, in all my years in the service I never knew a single man who was given a Russian test. Oswald was a radar operator. He'd have about as much use for Russian as a cat has for pajamas. LIZ These books are getting to your mind, Mr. Garrison. I wish you'd stop readin' them. JIM And then this Colonel tries to make it sound like nothing. Oswald did badly on the test, he says. "He only had two more Russian words right than wrong." Ha! That's like me saying Touchdown here... (points to the dog) ...is not very intelligent because I beat him three games out of five the last time we played chess. LIZ (gives up) Jim, what is going on, for heaven's sake! You going to stay up all night every night? For what? So you'll be the only man in America who read the entire 26 volumes of the Warren Report? JIM Liz, do I have to spell it out for you? Lee Oswald was no ordinary soldier. That was no accident he was in Russia. He was probably in military intelligence. That's why he was trained in Russian. LIZ (with a quizzical look) Honey, go back to sleep, please! JIM Goddammit! I been sleeping for three years! She takes him now, gently, and pulls him down on top of her and kisses him. LIZ Will you stop rattling on about Kennedy for a few minutes, honey... come on. LAFAYETTE SQUARE - NEW ORLEANS - MORNING(1966) A Sunday, early. We see a statue of Ben Franklin in an empty square frequented by drunks who doze on benches in a little leafy park in the center of the Square. The camera moves to Jim by himself and then moves to a sedan, pulling up, which disgorges Lou Ivon and Bill Broussard. JIM Morning, boys. Ready for a walking tour? BILL At 7:30 Sunday morning? It's not exactly fresh blood we're sniffing here, boss. JIM (points) Old stains, Bill, but just as telling. TIME CUT TO Jim indicating 531 Lafayette Street, a seedy, faded, three-story building across the street from the square. JIM Remember whose office this was back in '63? 531 Lafayette Street. LOU Yeah, Guy Banister. Ex-FBI man. He died couple years ago. FLASHBACK TO the exterior of the Banister Office on a day in 1963. The door is now clearly labelled "W. GUY BANISTER, INC. INVESTIGATORS." It opens and Banister comes out in slow motion, neatly dressed, rose in his lapel - the same office and same man we saw three years before when he pistol- whipped Jack Martin. Banister seems to be smiling right at us, greeting us. JIM (V.O.) Headed the Chicago office. When he retired he became a private eye here. I used to have lunch with him. John Birch Society, Minutemen, slightly to the right of Attila the Hun. Used to recruit college students to infiltrate radical organizations on campus. All out of this office. Now come around here, take a look at this... Back to the Lafayette Square of 1966. Jim walks Ivon and Bill to the corner, to another entrance to the same building - this one with a sign that says "544 Camp Street." JIM 544 Camp Street. Same building as 531 Lafayette, right... but different address and different entrances both going to the same place - the offices on the second and third floors. Bill studies the present sign: "Crescent City Dental Laboratory", and gives Jim a puzzled look. JIM Guess who used this address? Lou gets it and glances up. We FLASHBACK TO the exterior of 544 Camp Street in 1963. Lee Oswald comes out the door into a full close-up, now clearly seen by us, and heads out into the street as Guy Banister intercepts him on the sidewalk, holding a leaflet and point to "544 Camp Street stamped on it. Guy seems miffed at Oswald, tells him something quickly, and then moves on. BANISTER (under) See this? What the hell is this doing on this piece of paper? (he moves away) Asshole. LOU (V.O.) My God! Lee Harvey Oswald. JIM (V.O.) Bull's-eye. How do we know he was here? Cause this office address was stamped on the pro-Casto leaflets he was handing out in the summer of '63 down on Canal street. They were the same leaflets that were found in his garage in Dallas. FLASHBACK to Canal Street in New Orleans on a summer day in 1963. Oswald, in a thin tie and white short-sleeved shirt, and wearing a homemade placard reading "Hands Off Cuba"; "Viva Fidel!", is hawking leaflets to pedestrians with two young helpers. A large white-haired businessman in a white suit, very distinguished, walks with a friend on Canal Street. Oswald glances at him and meets his eyes. The businessman enters an office building. This man is Clay Bertrand, later known as Clay Shaw. Some Cubans, led by Carols Bringuier, now appear. One of them, "the Bull", is heavy-set with dark glasses. More of him will also be seen. JIM He was arrested that day for fighting with some anti-Castro Cubans... but actually he had contacted them a few days earlier as an ex-Marine trying to join the anti-Castro crusade. When they heard he was now pro-Castro, they paid him a visit. CARLOS (haranguing passerby) He's a traitor, this man! Don't believe a word he tells you! (to Oswald) You sonofabitch, you liar, you're a Communist, go back to Moscow. Carlos throws Oswald's leaflets in the air and pulls off his glasses, prepared to fight. Oswald only smiles, and puts his arms down in an X of passivity. OSWALD Okay, Carlos, if you want to hit me, hit me. There is no real fight, but the police, as if pre-alerted, arrive. Arrests are made. We see Oswald in a room in the police station, talking with FBI Agent John Quigley. A calendar on the wall shows that it's August, 1963. JIM (V.O.) There was no real fight and the arresting Lieutenant later said he felt it was a staged incident. In jail, Oswald asked to talk to Special Agent John Quigley of the FBI who showed up immediately. They have a private session. Oswald is released and Quigley destroys his notes from the interview. In a television studio in 1963, Oswald debates Carlos Bringuier with two moderators. JIM But the arrest gets him a lot of publicity and as a result Oswald appears on a local TV debate that established his credentials as a Communist. BRINGUIER But you're a Communist, are you not, and you defected to Russia. OSWALD No, I am not a Communist. But I am a Marxist-Leninist. BRINGUIER What did you do when you were in Russia? OSWALD (defensive) I worked while I was there. I was always under the protection of... that is to say, I was not under the protection of the U.S. Government. Back in 1966, Jim walks with his two assistants. BILL What the hell's a Communist like Lee Oswald doing working out of Banister's? JIM Y'ever heard of a double agent, Bill? I'm beginning to doubt Oswald was ever a Communist... after the arrest, 544 Camp Street never appeared on the pamphlets again. Now here's another one for you: What would you say if I told you Lee Oswald had been trained in the Russian language when he was a Marine? LOU I'd say he was probably getting intelligence training. JIM Lou, you were in the Marines. Who would be running that training? LOU The Office of Naval Intelligence. JIM Take a look across the street. We see the Post Office building across the street. LOU Post Office. JIM Upstairs. In 1963 that was the Office of Naval Intelligence - And just by coincidence, Banister, before he was FBI, was ONI. What do they say? LOU "Once ONI, always ONI"? BILL Well, he likes to work near his old pals. Jim makes a gesture encompassing the whole Square. JIM Bill, Lou, we're standing in the heart of the United States Government's intelligence community in New Orleans. That's the FBI there, the CIA, Secret Service, ONI. Doesn't this seem to you a rather strange place for a Communist to spend his spare time? LOU What are you driving at, boss? JIM We're going back into the case, Lou - the murder of the President. I want you to take some money from the Fees and Fines Account and go to Dallas - talk to some people. Bill, I want you to get Oser on the medical, the autopsy, Susan on Oswald and Ruby histories, tax records... BILL Lord, wake me, please. I must be dreaming. JIM No, you're awake, Bill, and I'm dead serious. And we're going to start by tracking down your anonymous source from three years ago. How did you find out Dave Ferrie drove to Texas that day? RACETRACK - DAY(1966) A straggly group of people watch from the grandstands eating hotdogs and talking in small clusters. The horses are running early morning laps. Three men sit apart in the bleachers. A scared Jack Martin, three years older than when last seen, still wearing the Dick Tracy hat, sucks up coffee like a worm does moisture. He has the red puffy cheeks of an alcoholic and deeply circled, worried eyes. Bill and Jim wait. JIM You're not under cross-examination here, Jack. What I need is a little clarification about the night Guy Banister beat you over the head with his Magnum. You called our office hopping mad from your hospital bed. Don't tell me you don't remember that? Jack looks away and doesn't respond. JIM Here's my problem, Jack. You told me you and Guy were good friends for a long time? MARTIN More than ten years. JIM And he never hit you before? MARTIN Never touched me. JIM Yet on November 22, 1963 - the day of the President's murder - our police report says he pistol-whipped you with a .357 Magnum. (Martin's eyes are fixed on Jim) But the police report says you had an argument over the phone bill. Here, take a look at it. (Martin looks at the report) Now, does a simple argument over phone bills sound like a believable explanation to you? SUDDEN FLASHBACK to the night of the pistol-whipping. The camera shows Banister laying Martin's head open / the beating the humiliation. MARTIN (shaking his head slowly, dreamily) No, it involved more than that. Bill looks at Jim. JIM How much more? MARTIN (waits) I don't know if I should talk about this. JIM Well, I'd ask Guy - we were friendly, you know - heart attack, wasn't it? MARTIN If you buy what you read in the paper. JIM You have other information? MARTIN I didn't say that. All I know is he died suddenly just before the Warren Report came out. JIM Why did Guy beat you, Jack? MARTIN Well, I guess now that Guy's dead, it don't really matter... it was about the people hanging around the office that summer. I wasn't really part of the operation, you know. I was handling the private-eye work for Guy when that came in - not much did - but that's why I was there... it was a nuthouse. There were all these Cubans coming and going. They all looked alike to me. FLASHBACK to Banister's office in 1963. There are Cubans in battle fatigues and combat boots; duffle bags are lying around. David Ferrie, in fatigues, directs the Cubans as they carry crates of ammunition and weapons into a back room. Martin observes from another desk. MARTIN Dave Ferrie - you know about him? JIM (V.O.) Was he there often? MARTIN (V.O.) Often? He practically lived there. It was real cloak and dagger stuff. They called it Operation Mongoose. The idea was to train all these Cuban exiles for another invasion of Cuba. Banister's office was part of a supply line that ran from Dallas, through New Orleans to Miami, stockpiling arms and explosives. Still in 1963, we see the exterior of Banister's office. A dozen Cubans follow Ferrie downstairs into the street, and pile into several cars, duffels thrown in with them. Ferrie drives the lead car. JIM (V.O.) All this right under the noses of the intelligence community in Lafayette Square? We see the cars cross the long Lake Pontchartrain Bridge and enter a remote guerrilla training camp. Bayou and jungle are all around. MARTIN (V.O.) Sure. Everybody knew everybody. It was a network. They were working for the CIA - pilots, black operations guys, civilians, military - everybody in those days was running guns somewhere... Fort Jefferson, Bayou Bluff, Morgan City... McAllen, Texas was a big gun-running operation. At the guerrilla training camp at Lake Pontchartrain in 1963, we see scenes of basic training - shooting, obstacle courses, callisthenics - led by Ferrie and other trainers. Scattered among the Cubans are several white American mercenaries. We catch a glimpse of Oswald and glimpses of several other men we will see again, in sprinklings. JIM (V.O.) Where is Banister in all this? MARTIN (V.O.) Banister was running his camp north of Lake Pontchartrain. Ferrie handled a lot of the training. There was a shooting range and a lot of tropical terrain like in Cuba. A few Americans got trained, too. Nazi types. Mercenaries. But Ferrie was the craziest. It's night at the training camp. FBI agents race up in cars in the middle of the night, swarming over the camp, rounding up the trainees. MARTIN Anyway, late summer the party ended. Kennedy didn't want another Bay of Pigs mess, so he ordered the FBI to shut down the camps and confiscate the napalm and the C-4. There were a buncha Cubans and a couple Americans arrested, only you didn't read about it in the papers. Just the weapons got mentioned... 'cause the first ones behind bars would've been Banister and Ferrie, but I think the G-men were just going through the motions for Washington. Their hearts were with their old FBI buddy Banister. We see FBI agents loading dynamite, bomb casings, arms 155mm artillery shells, etc. Back at the racetrack in 1966, Jim listens. MARTIN Like I said, a fuckin' nuthouse. JIM And Oswald? Martin hesitates. We hear the rhythmic beating of the horse hooves and Martin sucking on the steaming cup of coffee. MARTIN (finally) Yeah, he was there, too... sometimes he'd be meeting with Banister with the door shut. Other times he'd be shooting the bull with Ferrie. But he was there all right. JIM Anything more specific, Jack? It's important. FLASHBACK TO Banister's office in 1963. Banister and Martin shooting the breeze as the straight-laced middle-aged secretary, Delphine Roberts, hurries in. MARTIN (V.O.) Yeah, one time the secretary got upset, I remember... SECRETARY I can't believe it, Mr. Banister. Lee Oswald is down on Canal Street giving out Communist leaflets supporting Castro! Banister just looks at her and laughs. BANISTER It's okay, Delphine, he's with us. Back at the racetrack... JIM Anyone else involved at Banister's level? MARTIN (shrugs) There was one guy, I don't know, big guy, business guy, white hair - I saw him come into the office once. He looked out of place, y'know - like a society guy. Can't remember his name. (thinking) Oswald was with him. FLASHBACK to Banisters office on a day in 1963. Martin is snooping in Banister's files. Cut to Martin leaving the office as a big businessman with white hair briefly talks to Oswald and then goes into Banister's private office. MARTIN He had something to do with money. I remember him cause Guy, who didn't kiss anybody's ass, sure kissed his. Banister lets the man into his private office. MARTIN Clay something, that was his name - Clay. JIM Bertrand. Clay Bertrand? MARTIN Yeah! That's it. (pause, paranoid) I don't know. Maybe it wasn't. I gotta go. JIM (to Bill) Clay Bertrand. He's in the Warren Report. He tried to get Oswald a lawyer. (to Martin) Was Kennedy ever discussed, Jack? MARTIN Sure. 'Course they hated the sonofabitch, but... JIM The assassination, Jack? MARTIN (tightens) Never. Not with me sir, never... Listen, I think I'd better go. I said enough. I said all I'm going to say. (rises suddenly) JIM Hold on, Jack. What's the problem? MARTIN What's the problem? What's the problem? Do I need to spell it out for you, Mr. Garrison? I better go. JIM Nobody knows what we're talking about, Jack. MARTIN You're so naive, mister. Martin picks his way nervously down the bleacher benches. CAR - FRENCH QUARTER - DAY(1966) Jim drives, with Numa in the front and Bill in the back. BILL Well, it's a terrific yard, Chief, but the man's an obvious alcoholic with a reputation lower than crocodile piss. JIM Does that bother you, Bill? I always wondered in court why it is because a woman is a prostitute, she has to have bad eyesight. BILL He'll never sign a statement, boss, let alone get on a witness stand. JIM When something's rotten in the land, Bill, it generally isn't just one fish, we'll get corroboration... find this Clay Bertrand. If I were a betting man, I'd give you 10 to 1 it's an alias. Start checking around the Quarter. BILL And the six of us, with almost no budget and in secret, are going to solve the case that the Warren Commission with dozens of support staff and millions of dollars couldn't solve. We can't keep up with the crimes in the Parish as it is, Chief. JIM The murder of a President, Bill, is a crime in Orleans Parish too. I didn't pick you because of your legal skill, you know. BILL Gee, thanks boss. Jim pulls the car over to park. JIM But because you're a fighter. I like a man who isn't scared of bad odds. FRENCH QUARTER SIDEWALK - DAY(1966) Jim and the others get out of the car and head towards Antoine's Restaurant. A black woman greets him. BLACK WOMAN How ya doing, Mr. Garrison? Remember me - from the piano bar at the Royal Orleans? JIM I sure do. We sang "You're the Cream in My Coffee." She laughs. Others move in on him. JIM (to Numa) Make sure we come back here, now. ANTOINE'S RESTAURANT - DAY(1966) They enter a busy lunchtime crowd in an elegant eatery. Lou Ivon and Al Oser are waiting for them as they're shown to their table by the Maitre d'. MAITRE D' Mr. Garrison, we have not seen enough of you lately. JIM Been too busy, Paul - an elected man can't have as much fun as he used to. (seeing Lou and Al) Welcome back, Lou. Find out anything on those hobos? Lou's been waiting, excited. He gives Jim blowups of the five hobo photographs. LOU They took 'em to the Sheriff's office, not the police station, and they let 'em go. No record of them ever being questioned. JIM I can't say that comes as a surprise anymore. LOU A photographer from The Dallas Times Herald got some great shots of them never published... The camera moves in on the photographs. FLASHBACK TO the "hoboes" being escorted to the Sheriff's office - as per Sgt. Harkness' earlier description. LOU ...take a good look, chief, do any of 'em look like the hoboes you remember? JIM Hoboes I knew of old used to sleep in their clothes - these two look pretty young. LOU ...not a single frayed collar or cuff, new haircuts, fresh shaves, clean hands - new shoe leather. Look at the ear of the cop... That's a wire. What's a cop wearing a headset for? I think they're actors, chief; they're not cops. Susie Cox arrives. JIM Who the hell are they, then! Hi, Susie, sit down. (to Lou) This could be it. Let's start looking for 'em. How 'bout that railroad man, Lee Bowers? Saw those men at the picket fence? LOU Graveyard dead. August this year. (Jim curses quietly) A single car accident on an empty road in Midlothian, Texas. The doctor said he was in some kind of strange shock when he died. (pause) JIM (shares the look) We need to find more witnesses, Lou. LOU There was Rose Cheramie. A whore. Two Cubans threw her out of a car on the way to Dallas. She talked to a cop from a hospital bed two days before the assassination, said Kennedy would be hit that Friday. She said she was a dope runner for Jack Ruby and that Ruby knew Oswald for years... JIM Can we find her? LOU Graveyard dead near Big Sandy, Texas in '65. Two in the morning on some highway. A hit and run. FLASHBACK to Rose lying dead on an empty highway. BILL Why not go right to the horse's mouth, chief? Jack Ruby's been rotting in a Dallas jail cell for three years. Maybe he's ready to crack? JIM If we go to him our investigation'll hit the front pages by sunrise. Blow up right in our face. Ruby was just given a new trial. If he has something to say, it'll be there. Susie, what did you find out on Oswald? SUSIE Negative on his tax records. Classified. First time I know a D.A. can't get a tax record. I put together a list of all the CIA files on Oswald that were part of the Warren Report and asked for them. There are about 1200 documents... (gives it to Jim who reads) Oswald in the USSR, in Mexico City, Oswald and the U2, a CIA 201 personnel file, a memo from the Director on Oswald, travel and activities - can't get one of them. All classified as secret on the grounds of national security. It's real strange. BILL Maybe there's more to this, Susie. The CIA's keeping something from our enemies. SUSIE Yes, but we're talking about a dead warehouse employee of no political significance. Three years later and he's still classified? They gave us his grammar school records, a study of his pubic hairs... Put it in context, Bill, of what we know about Oswald. Lonely kid, no father, unstable childhood, high school dropout - wants to grow up and be a spy, joins the Marines at 17. He learns Russian, he acts overtly Marxist with two other marines, but he's stationed at a top secret base in Japan where U2 spy flights over Russia originate. He's discharged from the Marines supposedly because his mother's sick. He stays home 3 days, then with a $1500 ticket from a $203 bank account, he goes to Moscow... FLASHBACK TO Moscow in 1959. We see shots of the city - strange and eerie black-and-white stills. Inside the U.S. Embassy Oswald slaps his passport on the table with a formal letter. Two consuls attend him. OSWALD (voice stilted) I want to renounce my citizenship and become a Soviet citizen. I'm going to make known to them all information I have concerning the Marine Corps and my specialty therein, radar operation... SUSIE (V.O.) One of the consuls, John McVickar, says Oswald's performance was not spontaneous - it seemed coached. Oswald gives an interview to a journalist. Continuing the Moscow flashback, we see Oswald talking with a female journalist in his small room in the Hotel Metropole. Again he sounds robotic. OSWALD I will never return to the United States for any reason. It is a capitalist country, an exploitive, racist country. I am a Marxist since I was 15. I've seen poor niggers and that was a real lesson. People hate because they're told to hate, like school kids. It's the fashion to hate people in the U.S. SUSIE (V.O.) The Russians are skeptical - want to send him back. Maybe they suspect he's a spy. He supposedly slashes his wrists in a suicide attempt so that they're forced to keep him, and he disappears for six weeks, presumably with the KGB. We see photos of the city of Minks, in Russia, Oswald with various friends and tourists, shots of Lee and Marina with a new baby. SUSIE Finally they shuttle him to a radio factory in Minks where he lives as high on the hog as he ever has - he's given 5,000 rubles, a roomy apartment with a balcony, has affairs with local girls. JIM Makes sense - he's a spokesman. SUSIE But he never writes, speaks, or does any propaganda for the Russians. He meets Marina, whose uncle is a colonel in Soviet intelligence, at a trade union dance; she thinks he's Russian the way he speaks, six weeks later they marry, have a daughter. NUMA Didn't someone say he didn't speak good Russian? JIM It's a contradiction, Numa, get used to them. The only explanation for the royal treatment is he did give them radar secrets. Or fake secrets. We see documentary shots of the U2 on Russian soil... Francis Gary Powers... The Summit Conference canceled... Eisenhower and Khrushchev. SUSIE (V.O.) I don't know if it's coincidence, but Oswald had a top security clearance and knew about the U2 program from his days at Atsugi Air Base in Japan. Six months after he arrives in Russia, Francis Gary Powers' U2 spy flight goes down in Russia. That plane was untouchable. Powers hinted that Oswald could've given the Russians enough data to hit it. As a direct result, the peace summit between Khrushchev and Eisenhower failed. I can't help thinking of that book Seven Days In May, maybe someone in our military didn't want the Peace Conference to happen, maybe Oswald was part of that. It gets weirder. BILL Susie, you're an assistant D.A., remember. Stick to what you can prove in court. SUSIE You want facts, Bill? Okay. From 1945 to '59 only two U.S. soldiers defect to Russia. From '59 to '60, seven defect, six return, one of them another Marine a month before Oswald. All of them young men made to seem poor, disenchanted. JIM Don't get sidetracked! How does he get back to the States? That's the point. Does he have any problems? SUSIE None! The State Department issues him a new passport in 48 hours and loans him the money to travel. He's never investigated or charged by the Navy for revealing classified information or, as far as we know, debriefed by the CIA. JIM This is a man whose secrets cause us to change our radar patterns in the Pacific! He should've been prosecuted as a traitor! SUSIE The FBI finally gets around to talking to him in Dallas and runs a file on him as a miscreant Communist type. JIM But who meets him when he gets off the boat in New York in June '62? The screen shows photos of New York: Empty docks... a ship coming in... Wall Street on a Sunday morning - Graphic Weegee- type black-and-white stills, then a photo of Spas T. Raikin. SUSIE (V.O.) Spas T. Raikin, a leading member of an anti-Communist group. JIM (V.O.) And Marina? Does she have a problem getting out? SUSIE (V.O.) None either. It's bizarre. It's next to impossible to get Russian sweethearts out. Nor does Lee have any problem getting a new passport when he wants to go to Cuba and Russia in '63. A man who has defected once already. It's crazy. JIM Dammit, it doesn't add up! Ordinary people get blacklisted for leftist affiliations! The State Department did everything short of dispatching a destroyer to Minks to insure Oswald's return. Only intelligence people can come and go like that. FLASHBACK TO a Forth Worth map factory. We see Oswald at work on photo mattes with a Minox spy camera. The camera shows close-ups of maps and then flashes to a hand in the photographic section. We see a close-up of Oswald's head in a photograph - the same headshot that will be superimposed on the Oswald photo - and a razor blade cutting mattes. SUSIE (V.O.) The next thing we know he's living in Dallas/Ft. Worth in October '62 working 6 months at Jaggars-Chiles- Stovall, a photographic firm that contracts to make maps for the U.S. Army... He starts work only days before the government reveals Russian missiles in Cuba and the crisis explodes. Oswald may have had access to missile site footage obtained by the U2 planes and works alongside a young man who'd been in the Army Security Agency. JIM Sort of like Benedict Arnold coming back to George Washington's cabinet. SUSIE Equally incongruous is Oswald becoming chummy with the White Russian community of Dallas - all rabid anti- Communists. FLASHBACK TO Fort Worth in 1963. In Oswald's cheap apartment, seven White Russians, including George de Mohrenschildt, a distinguished grey-haired man in his late fifties, are visiting Marina and Oswald, bringing old dresses, groceries, and toys and milk for the crying baby, whose cradle is two suitcases. SUSIE His closest friend is an oilman named George de Mohrenschildt who's about 35 years older than Oswald, who's only 23 and supposedly broke. De Mohrenschildt is a member of the Dallas Petroleum Club, speaks five languages and was in French Vichy Intelligence during the War. Also rumoured to have been a Nazi sympathizer and member of the "Solidarists", an international anti- Communist organization with many Eastern Europeans and ex-Nazis, many of them brought here by the CIA after the war, many of them involved in oil and munitions interests in Dallas and the Southwest. You figure it. AL Where'd you get all this Nazi stuff? SUSIE (hands him a file) Read it. They called it "Project Paperclip." JIM (V.O.) This is the guy that keeps turning up in colonial countries and each time something strange happens. Coup d'etats, presidents overthrown. He shows up on a "walking tour" of Guatemala's Cuban invasion camps just before the Bay of Pigs invasion. If we don't know he's CIA, let's circle him very probable - Oswald's handler. We see Oswald and de Mohrenschildt talking with the others and a magazine cover with J.F.K. the subject of discussion. OSWALD I think he's made some mistakes on Cuba, but he's doing a pretty good job. If he succeeds, in my opinion, he'll be a great President. And a really attractive one too - open features, great head of hair... (laughs) SUSIE (V.O.) De Mohrenschildt draws a picture of Oswald as an intellectual, well read, speaks excellent Russian, a man who adored J.F.K. JIM That's scenery. Don't get sidetracked. This is the man, bottom line, who nailed Oswald to the Warren Commission as a potentially violent man, and linked him to the rifle. TIME CUT TO Oswald's apartment on a different day in 1963. George de Mohrenschildt points out a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle in the closet, turns to Lee. GEORGE So, Lee, what are you taking a potshot at this week - rabbits or fascists? Lee's look is sickly. He freezes up. RESUME scene of White Russian gathering in Oswald's apartment. SUSIE The only Russian that suspects Oswald of still being a Communist is Anna Meller. But her Russian friend tells her "he's checked" with the local FBI and was told Oswald is all right. Anna Meller, one of the guests, glances at a copy of Das Kapital in a pile of books, and talks to another Russian man about it... Talking now to Lee and Marina are Janet and Bill Williams, a mid-American couple in their late twenties, freshly minted. SUSIE The Oswalds are introduced by George de Mohrenschildt to Janet and Bill Williams. It's through Janet Williams in October '63 that Lee gets the warehouse job, right smack on Elm Street at the Book Depository, which is owned by another oilman with ties to defense and military intelligence. JIM (V.O.) Presumably so he can now exercise his intellect stacking school texts at $1.25 an hour. We see Oswald and another man in the Texas School Book Depository in 1963. They are hauling and stacking school textbooks - an obviously lower-level job for Oswald after the map factory. We cut ahead to empty graphics of the sealed off area, the window site, the cafeteria. SUSIE (V.O.) All I can find out about the Williams' is their tax returns are classified and that Bill Williams, a descendant of the Cabots of Massachusetts, has links through his family and United Fruit to the CIA and does classified work for Bell Helicopter which requires a security clearance - so what is Oswald, a defector, doing visiting his wife in his house? Williams has a relationship at Bell with General Walter Dornberger, another one of the Nazis we brought in after the War for our missile program. He used slave labor to build the V-2 Rockets for Hitler before Bell needed him. JIM I wonder about the Williams'. Just where did the first description of Oswald come from at 12:44? No one knows. They claimed it was Brennan's, but his description came after 1 P.M. Who called? Somehow the FBI's been tapping the Williams' and picks up a call between Bell Helicopter and Janet's phone, an unidentified voice saying "We both know who's responsible." Who called? Why's the Bureau been tapping them? We see the interior of the Williams' home in Irving on a day in 1963. SUSIE (V.O.) His wife, Janet Williams, studied Russian in college and her father worked for the Agency for International Development, which works hand in hand with the CIA. She suddenly becomes Marina's best friend. Marina fights often with Lee about many things - his secrecy, the lack of money. She says Lee is not sexually adequate. Lee hits her on several occasions. Bill Williams' convenient separation from Janet allows Janet to invite Marina to move into her house in Irving. There Marina and Lee have a second daughter - while Lee, now 24, stores his belongings in Janet's garage and rents a small room in Dallas under an alias of "O.H. Lee". We see Marina and Oswald in bed at night in the Williams' house, in a tender scene. Oswald says goodbye to his child. TIME CUT TO Oswald living in a boarding house. It is at night, and he sits in his room alone. The housekeeper, Earlene Roberts, heavyset, white, in her 60's, comes in and asks him if he wants to watch some TV with her. He declines. SUSIE When he's arrested, Marina buries him with the public. Her description of him is that of a psychotic and violent man. FLASHBACK TO Marina on TV, a different person from before. MARINA I do not want to believe, but I have too much facts.. tell me that Lee shot Kennedy. JIM (V.O.) Yeah, after, they take her to Six Flags Inn in Arlington, prepare her for the interviews, teach her how she should answer - and after two months and 46 interviews, she has a nervous breakdown. (flashback) Oswald was no angel, that's clear, but who was he? BACK TO Antoine's Restaurant. BILL I'm lost, boss. What are we saying here? JIM We're saying that when Oswald went to Russia, he was not a real defector, that he was an intelligence agent on some kind of mission for our government and he remained one till the day he died, that's what we're saying. BILL And therefore because Oswald pulled the trigger, the intelligence community murdered their own commander in chief. That's what you're saying! JIM I'll go you one better! Maybe Oswald didn't even pull the trigger, Bill. The nitrate test indicates he didn't even fire a rifle on November 22nd. And on top of that, they didn't even bother to check if the rifle had been fired that day. BILL He had his palm print on the weapon. JIM It went to the goddamn FBI and they didn't find a goddamn thing. It comes back a week later and one guy in the Dallas police department suddenly finds a palm print which for all I know he could've taken off Oswald at the morgue. There's no chain of evidence, Bill. And what about the tow guns actually seen in the Depository? One an Enfield photographed by a newsman and the other a Mauser, described by Deputy Weitzman... Maybe, just maybe, Lee Oswald was exactly what he said he was Bill - "a patsy". Take it at face value. Lou, Susie, I'm going with my gut here. He's got an alias of Hidell to buy the rifle, "O.H. Lee" to rent the room, right? What's in a name, right? In intelligence, they're assumed to be fake. A name is sort of like a postbox number, a code - several different people can use the same name, right? Then why can't somebody be using Oswald's name? We see blank faces around the table. BILL But why? JIM To frame him, obviously. You got to get in your minds how the hell spooks think, Bill! They're not ordinary crooks. LOU I never could figure out why this guy orders a traceable weapon to that post office box when you can go into any store in Texas, give a phony name and walk out with a cheap rifle which can never be traced. JIM Unless he or someone else wants him to get caught. Maybe he never ordered the weapon, Lou. Somebody else did. It was picked up at the post office early morning when Oswald's time sheet shows him clocked in at his job. Lou, come alive. These things are not adding up. BILL I still have to question what the legal basis is that supports this, boss. Susie's stuff is colorful, but... JIM Let's start making some assumptions about the man. Why would he leave a path as big as Lee Harvey Oswald's? This is not a thin trail, gentlemen, it is a very wide one. Who found the evidence? Who set him up? Lou, Bill, Susie, I want you to go back and check all the sightings of Oswald in Dallas, New Orleans and Mexico in the summer and fall of '63 - see if it's the same guy. AL Boss, Oswald impersonators? Sounds like James Bond now. JIM Al, you can't tell a mink from a coonskin unless you see the fur up close. Goddamn, Sam! If we don't start reading between the lines here! Y'all gotta start thinking on a different level - like the CIA does. We're through the looking glass. Here white is black and black is white. BILL What do you think, Lou? LOU I'm just an investigator, Bill. I leave the theories to you lawyers. BILL You, Numa? NUMA A week ago I would've said this is nuts, but now ... (shakes his head) There's a lot of smoke there, but there's some fire. BILL Now you guys, come on. You're talking about the United States Government here! JIM We're talking about a crime, Bill. No one is above the law. Reduce it. A crime was committed. Let's get to work. MEDICAL UNIT - JAIL - DAY(1966) Jack Ruby, thick fudge of an angry face, flu-ridden, confronts a doctor and two guards in his cell. RUBY Christ, what the hell kinda needle is that? I just got a cold for Chrissake. I don't want any shot! DOCTOR Please relax, Mr. Ruby. This'll calm you down and clear this up. RUBY Doc, I'm telling you, I don't need any shots. DOCTOR Mr. Ruby, I don't want to involve the guards. It'll just take a few seconds. Ruby looks over at the two guards, who eye him. The Doctor gives him the injection. FLASHBACK TO Ruby's jail cell in 1964. Ruby talks to men with their backs to us. Lawyers and police clutter the cell, making Ruby hyper-nervous. The chief official's white hair and avuncular voice are all we see and hear of him; his back is to us. RUBY Then do you understand that I cannot tell the truth here? In Dallas. That there are people here who do not want me to tell the truth... who do not want me to have a retrial? OFFICIAL Mr. Ruby, I really can't see why you can't tell us now. Ruby catches the stern face of Sheriff Bill Decker from the corner of his eye, the Assistant D.A. next to him. RUBY When are you going back to Washington, sir? OFFICIAL (looks at watch) I am going back very shortly after we finish this hearing - I am going to have some lunch. RUBY Can I make a statement? If you request me to go back to Washington with you right now, that is if you want to hear further testimony from me, can you do that? Can you take me with you? OFFICIAL No, that could not be done, Mr. Ruby. There are a good many things involved in that. RUBY What are they? OFFICIAL Well, the public attention it would attract. And we have no place for you there to be safe, we're not law enforcement officials, and many things are at stake in this affair, Mr. Ruby. RUBY But if I am eliminated there won't be any way of knowing. Consequently a whole new form of government is going to take over this country, and I know I won't live to see you another time. My life is in danger here. Do I sound screwy? OFFICIAL Well I don't know what can be done, Mr. Ruby, because I don't know what you anticipate we will encounter. RUBY Then you don't stand a chance, Mr. Chief Justice, you have a lost cause. All I want is a lie detector test, and you refuse to give it to me. Because as it stands now - and the truth serum - how do you pronounce it - Pentothal - whatever it is. They will not give it to me, because I want to tell the truth... And then I want to leave this world. The camera pauses on Ruby's face. The men rise and leave in the shadows. PARKLAND MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - (1967) Jack Ruby is escorted out of the infirmary, dead of cancer. BROUSSARD'S RESTAURANT - NEW ORLEANS - (1967) The puffy, smiling face of Dean Andrews, framed by huge black glasses, talks in a Louisiana hippie argot of the 50's. The restaurant has a fancy French decor, mirrored walls, marble - it serves the cream of Louisiana society. ANDREWS Why you keep dancing on my head for, my man? We been thicker'n molasses pie since law school. JIM Because you keep conning me, Dean. I read your testimony to the Warren Commission and... ANDREWS There you go. Grain of salt. Two sides to every coin. JIM You tell them the day after the assassination you were called on the phone by this "Clay Bertrand" and asked to fly to Dallas and be Lee Oswald's layer. ANDREWS Right. JIM Now that's pretty important, Dean. You also told the FBI when you met him, he was six foot two. Then you tell the Commission he was five foot eight. How the hell did the man shrink like that, Dean? ANDREWS They put the heat on, my man, just like you're doing. I gave'em anything that popped into my cabeza. Truth is, I never met the dude. Sudden FLASHBACK to Andrews' office on a day in 1963. Clay Bertrand sits, back to us, talking to Andrews. He has close- cropped white hair. He is the same patrician man we've seen earlier with Oswald on Canal Street and in Banister's office. Andrews is evidently lying. ANDREWS I don't know what the cat looks like and furthermore I don't know where he's at. All I know is sometimes he sends me cases. So one day he's on the phone talkin' to me about going to Dallas and repping Oswald... (notices a woman, in present) Hey, pipe the bimbo in red. What ever happened to that little gal you was dating in the Quarter - from Opelousas, y'know, elevator didn't go to the top floor but tits could smother gumbo with. Jim, in present, looking briefly - a pretty girl walking in. JIM (remembering) Yeah, she was pretty, all right, but not half as cute as you, Deano. You shoulda tried a legitimate line of business. ANDREWS (chuckles) You can't ever say crime don't pay in Louisiana, Jim - only not as good as it used to. Good chowder, ain't it? JIM When did you first do business with this Bertrand? ANDREWS (bored) Oh, I first heard these street cats jiving about him back in '56, '57 when I lived down in the Quarter. JIM Street cats? ANDREWS Swishes. They swish, y'know. Young fags, you know. They'd come into my bureau needing help, no bread, and I'd say, hey man, I ain't Rockefeller, who gonna back you up? These cornmuffins go to the phone and dial... FLASHBACK TO Andrews' office on another day in 1963. We catch a glimpse of a young swish sitting in Andrew's office talking on the phone. Andrews is also on the phone to Bertrand, unseen, on the other end. ANDREWS The dude on the other end says... CLAY BERTRAND I'm Clay Bertrand. Whatever they owe, I guarantee. ANDREWS Hey, suits me fine, Daddy Warbucks - how do I get in touch with you? CLAY BERTRAND I'm around. ANDREWS (V.O.) And that's how I first heard of Clay Bertrand. JIM (V.O.) What was his voice like? ANDREWS You knew you weren't talking to some low life fag, you know. He had command of the king's English. JIM Did he pay? ANDREWS Always - like tits on a pig. I wish I had a million of those bimbettes. JIM And Oswald? ANDREWS (just a slight hesitation) Like I told to the Washington boys, Bertrand called that summer and asked me to help the kid upgrade his Marine discharge... JIM So you saw Oswald how many times? ANDREWS Three, four. He came in with a few Cubano swishes one time I remember... FLASHBACK TO a third day at Andrew's office in 1963. Oswald is in the office with two young boys. JIM (V.O.) Recall any names? ANDREWS (in present) Mario, Jose - they wear names like you and I wear clothes. Today the name is Candy, tomorrow it's Butsie. I wish I could help you, Jim. JIM Did you speak to Oswald in Dallas? ANDREWS (knee-jerk reaction) Hell, no! I told this Bertrand cat right off, this isn't my scene, man. I deal with muni court, I'm a hack in nigger town, that kid needs a hot dog. JIM Then how the hell did you get in the Warren Commission, Dean? Except through the phone records in the Dallas jail? ANDREWS (nervous moment) There were no phone records. JIM Of course there weren't. 'Cause they disappeared. And yet the Commission found you, Dean. ANDREWS I don't know how they got to me. Maybe cause I repped him here. The Feebees run background checks. On my mama's breasts, man, that's all I got. (pauses, adjusts) There wasn't no conspiracy, Jim. If there were, why the hell didn't Bobby Kennedy prosecute it as Attorney General, he was his brother for Chrissake. How the fuck three people could keep a secret like that, I don't know. It was Oswald. He was a nut job. Faggot, y'know, hated this country. As Andrews resumes eating his crabmeat Louie with gusto, Jim reaches over and grabs the fork in mid-air. JIM Dean, I think we're having a communication problem. I know you know who Clay Bertrand is. Now stop eating that damn crabmeat for a minute and listen. (gets Dean's attention) I'm aware of our long friendship, but I want you to know I'm going to call you in front of a grand jury. I took nine judges on, Deano, right here in New Orleans, and I beat 'em all. If you lie to the grand jury as you've been lying to me, I'm going to charge you with perjury. Now, am I communicating with you? Andrews puts down the fork, shaken, silent for a moment. ANDREWS Is this off the record, Daddy-o? (Jim nods) In that case, let me sum it up for you real quick. If I answer that question you keep asking me, if I give you the name of the "Big Enchilada", y'know, then it's bon voyage, Deano - I mean like permanent. I mean like a bullet in my head. You dig? Does that help you see my problem a little better? You're a mouse fighting a gorilla. Kennedy's dead as that crab meat. The government's still breathing. You want to line up with a dead man? At a nearby table, a waiter has just poured brandy on Crepe Suzettes. A blue flame hovers in the air as Jim leans forward across the table, speaking deliberately. JIM Read my lips, Deano. Either you dance into the Grand Jury with the real identity of Clay Bertrand or your fat behind is going to the slammer. Do you dig me? Andrews stands suddenly. ANDREWS You're just as crazy as your mama. Goes to show it's in the genes! Do you have any idea what you're getting into, my man? You think Jack Ruby just up and died of cancer in four weeks after he gets a retrial? That's some kinda new cancer - I'd say that's a "going out of business cancer". You got the right ta-ta, but the wrong ho-ho. The government's gonna jump all over your head, Jimbo, and go "cock-a-doodledoo!" Andrews drops his pink napkin in the crabmeat and waddles out. Jim now feels closer to the truth than ever. ANGOLA PRISON - LOUISIANA COUNTRYSIDE - (1967) From the point of view of an approaching car, the prison looms over the swamp, dogs patrolling the wire. VOICE (V.O.) District Attorney Garrison to see Prisoner 5388, Ward Block 237B. GUARD'S VOICE (V.O.) Send him on in. PRISON DORMITORY - (1967) A chief guard walks Jim and Bill into a circus-like atmosphere. In Louisiana the prisoners can wear any outfit they choose, which makes this prison look like Mardi Gras. There are many transvestites. GUARD (with evident pride) ...we don't need no gates out there, sir, we got the "swamp". Many of 'em gone in there but none come out... Hey, Willie! Willie O'Keefe, a handsome, muscled, young chickenhawk with an earring, bandana, colorful clothes, an aura of burned truth in his intense, staring brown eyes and thick country accent, sashays over. GUARD You got some company, wants to talk wid you. You behave now, boy, y'hear. TIMECUT TO the prison work area, where Willie talks, leaning against a tree looking out on a mangrove swamp. It's lunch break and other prisoners move in the background, eating, socializing. JIM I want to thank you, Mr. O'Keefe, for this time. O'KEEFE Call me Willie. I ain't got nuthin' but time, Mr. Garrison. Minutes, hours, days, years of'em. Time just stands still here like a snake sunnin' itself in the road... BILL Clay Bertrand, Willie? O'KEEFE Yeah. Clay. I met him sometime in June of '62 at the Masquerade Bar. Dave Ferrie took me there, for the express reason to meet him. JIM For sexual purposes? O'KEEFE Well... yeah. FLASHBACK TO the Masquerade Bar in the French Quarter. It's nighttime and Ferrie, Bertrand and O'Keefe sit at a back booth. Bertrand, as seen earlier, is an imposing, white- haired patrician man, over six feet tall, heavily defined bones and eyelids, in his late 40's or early 50's. BILL (V.O.) Did he pay you for this? O'KEEFE (V.O.) Twenty dollars each time. Hell, it's no secret. That's what I'm here for. They rise to leave. Bertrand with a slight limp. JIM (V.O.) Anything else unusual about him you'd be able to describe in a court of law, Willie? O'KEEFE (V.O.) I remember he had some kinda thing wrong with his left leg. He limped. Don't get me wrong, he's not one of those, you know, limp wrists. He's a butch John. You'd meet him on the street, you'd never snap. You could go fishing with him, play poker with him, you'd never snap in a million years. So one night we were over at Ferrie's place. Having a party. Sometime in the late summer of '63. FLASHBACK TO Dave Ferrie's apartment on a night in 1963. The place is filled messy bricabrac, including two dozen mouse cages for Ferrie's cancer experiments. Ferrie, Bertrand, O'Keefe, and four Cubans in battle fatigues are laughing and fooling around. Oswald is in a corner cleaning a .22 rifle with a scope on it. He looks different, unkempt, unshaven. A record player grinds out a speech in Spanish by Castro. Some other people are there as well - it's a beatnik scene: sandals, hanging out, only one woman. Ferrie is taking pictures throughout of the group horsing around, photographing Oswald. O'KEEFE ...there were about nine or ten people, Cubans, friends of Dave doing some stuff in the bush with him. Place was a mess. Dave's mind was a mess, (laughs) Y'know he had all those mice cages around cause he's working on this cure for cancer... Dave's smart - real smart - speaks five languages, knows philosophy, medicine, military history, politics. He wanted to be a priest but they defrocked him 'cause he was queer... BILL (V.O.) And that's where you met Oswald for the first time? O'KEEFE (V.O.) Yeah, strange guy. Dave introduced him as... FERRIE Willie, say hello to Leon Oswald. O'KEEFE (over the racket) How ya doing? OSWALD (sullen, to Ferrie) What the fuck's he doing here? O'KEEFE Fuck you, man. Ferrie separates them. Oswald seems to resent an outsider being there. FERRIE (to O'Keefe) Leon's in a bad mood, don't get excited, he's all right. JIM (V.O.) Would you say this "Leon" was actually Lee Harvey Oswald? O'KEEFE (in present) Fuck, yes. Hell, I'm already in jail. I got no reason to lie to you. I ain't no nigger. BILL Go on, Willie. O'KEEFE (present merging to past) ...well the party got crazier and crazier, one of those, y'know "beatnik" type things. FERRIE (to O'Keefe) We're having a little meeting here. (indicates the second player) That's Castro. Sounds like Hitler doesn't he? Sonofabitch is going to go. Real soon. CUBANS Muerte a Fidel! Muerte! BERTRAND (irritated at the noise) Oh, stop it already! What are all these people doing here anyway? I can't bear all this infernal noise. FERRIE Clara, don't be so sensitive. BERTRAND I didn't come here for a pep rally. Get all this riffraff out of here. FERRIE Okay, okay. TIMECUT TO later that night, when only O'Keefe, Ferrie, Bertrand, Oswald and three Cubans are left. O'KEEFE (V.O.) ...finally they got out of there and I found myself alone with Dave and this Leon, two of the Cubans, and this guy Bertrand. Dave pulled out his clippings which he was always carrying around. He'd been obsessed with Castro and Kennedy for months and he started in again... FERRIE (waving a clipping, drunk) Kennedy fucked us in '61, '62, and he's fuckin' us now! And that fuckin' zealot Bobby Kennedy is the fuckee! The nerve of that little asswipe closing the camps. Took all our C- 4! Took ten thousand rounds, 3,000 pounds of gunpowder, all our weapons. Next we'll be living in a world where only the cocksucking Reds will have all the weapons and we'll be surrounded. If we want a free Cuba, we gotta whack out the fucking beard. CUBAN That faggot Kennedy won't let us. Our hands are empty - how can we kill him? BERTRAND (moving with a drink, walks with a slight limp) It's a real problem getting at him. Castro's got informers on every block. FERRIE (pointing to a map of Cuba on the wall) Bullshit! There's all kinds of new stuff. I heard about rockets in an umbrella - they're tested at Fort Detrick? I can show you a dozen poisons. Stick it in his food, he'll die in three days, no trace. We can put something in his beard, make it fall out, he'll look fuckin' ridiculous without his beard. CUBAN (drunk) Why don't we just take care of the main problem? Which is that piece of shit Kennedy. He's doing all kinds of deals! Kissing Khrushchev's ass. I wouldn't even call him President Kennedy. O'KEEFE (V.O.) ...then the Cubans left and the bullshitting was going on, Dave was drunk, really drunk and he starts in with Kennedy again. FERRIE See, what Kennedy done, with him you should take a knife and stab and kill the fucker where he is now. I mean it. This is true. But I tell you something. I hope I get a week's notice. I'll kill. Right in the fuckin' White House. Somebody's got to get rid of this fucker. Oswald looks up, listens quietly. O'KEEFE Oh, c'mon, Dave, you're never gonna get that sonofabitch. FERRIE No? It won't be long, mark my words. That fucker'll get what's coming to him. And it can be blamed on Castro. Then the whole country'll want to invade Cuba. All we got to do is get Kennedy in the open. Bertrand with his arms around O'Keefe, laughs, tries to change the subject. BERTRAND David, David, always some harebrained scheme or another... Oh? What do I see here? Oooooh, let's have some more champagne, shall we! O'KEEFE (interested in Ferrie's proposal) What about the Secret Service, the cops? FERRIE (pacing, hyper) No problem if it's planned right. Look how close they got with de Gaulle. Eisenhower was always riding around in an open top. I know somebody who actually went up and touched Eisenhower once. We need to have three mechanics at three different locations. An office building with a high-powered rifle. Triangulation of crossfire is the key. You get the diversionary shot gets the Secret Service looking one way - Boom! You get the kill shot. The crucial thing is one man has to be sacrificed, then in the commotion of the crowd the job gets done and the others fly out of the country to someplace with no extradition. I could do that myself. I could fly to Mexico, and then Brazil. Oswald listens, playing with his rifle. Bertrand suddenly turns cold, flashing a look at Ferrie. BERTRAND Why don't we drop this subject... it's one thing to engage in badinage with these youngsters, but this sort of thing could be so easily misunderstood. (he squeezes Ferrie) FERRIE Ouch! O'KEEFE (V.O.) I didn't think much about it at the time. Just bullshit, y'know, everybody likes to make themselves out to be something more than they are. Specially in the homosexual underworld. But then when they got him (merging to the present) I got real scared, y'know. Real scared. And that's when I got popped. BACK TO the prison work area. Jim and O'Keefe continue talking. JIM Willie, are you willing to repeat your statements under sodium pentothal? Under the supervision of a doctor? O'KEEFE Fuck, yeah! I told you so. And you can tell'em all I told you so. JIM You realize the things you're saying, Willie, are going to be attacked by a lot of different people. O'KEEFE Bring on all the motherfuckers! Bring their college degrees in here! I got nuthin' to hide. They can't buy me. You can't buy me. I don't even need the parole. This is about the truth coming out. You're a goddamn liberal, Mr. Garrison, you don't know shit, cause you never been fucked in the ass. Fascism is here now, Facism is... JIM No one's trying to buy you, Willie. It's important to know why you're telling us this. O'KEEFE (pauses) You wanna know why? 'Cause that mother fucker Kennedy stole that fuckin' election, that's why! Nixon was gonna be one of the great Presidents 'til Kennedy wrecked this fuckin' country. Got niggers all over the fuckin' place asking for their rights, where do you think we got all this fuckin' crime now, 'cause Kennedy promised 'em too damned much. Revolution comin'. Fascism's coming back. I tell ya this - the day that Communist sumbitch died was a great day for this country. I jes' hate to think they're blaming it on some silly fuckin' Oswald who didn't know shit anyway. People should know why that sumbitch was killed. 'Cause he was a Communist. Put me on the stand, go ahead, I'll tell the same goddamn story, I'm proud of it, don't matter fuck all to me, things don't change. As he talks, Jim shares a sickened look with Bill. Whatever truth he may be telling is necessarily compromised by an attitude that could be destroyed in court. GARRISON HOME - NIGHT(1967) Jim, Lou, Al, Susie, and Numa sit around the table having an after hours conference. The kids run in and out of the room, playing. Susie is doing the talking, showing new paperwork and photos. SUSIE Your hunch was right, boss, but it's even spookier than we thought. Starting in September '63 on, two months before the assassination, there are sightings of Oswald all over Dallas, buying ammunition, getting a telescopic sight fixed, going to rifle ranges... Early November, a Dallas downtown Lincoln- Mercury dealership where he tells the salesman Albert Bogard... FLASHBACK TO the Lincoln-Mercury dealership. Oswald is deliberately kept in half or three quarter shots - a mystery figure. He kicks the tires on a used red Mercury Comet, cocky. "OSWALD" Let's take it out for a test drive. The salesman, Bogard, is hesitant. "Oswald" doesn't look like he's got a dime to his name. "OSWALD" (SENSING BOGARD'S HESITANCY) Hey, I got a lotta money coming in the next two weeks. In the next scene we see the car, driven by "Oswald", zooming up the ramp and disappearing onto the freeway. SUSIE (V.O.) ...despite the fact he has no license and from what marina says, does not know how to drive, he hits the curves like Mario Andretti at the Indy 500. Bogard later told his boss he drove "like a madman." Resume the scene at the dealership. BOGARD Three hundred bucks down, Mr. Oswald, you can drive outta here with it. "Oswald", unhappy, starts to leave. "OSWALD" Who you kidding! For this heap? Forget it... No honest working man can afford a car anymore in the goddamn country! Maybe I'll have to go back to Russia to buy a car... SUSIE (V.O.) ... really dumb dialogue like he's trying to draw attention to himself. A real moron. He walks out. The salesman remembers him as about 5'7", but we know from his draft card he was about 5'11"... LOU ...several witnesses see him on several separate days at different firing ranges. FLASHBACK TO a Dallas firing range in 1963. LOU ...one time, November 9, he decides he needs to practice on the target of the guy next to him. Says something really dumb to the guy, who says Oswald was a great shot. MAN Hey, watcha doing, boy... that's my target. "OSWALD" Hey, sorry, buddy. I just thought it was that sonofabitch Kennedy, y'know. I couldn't help myself. (laughs) JIM (in present) ...about as subtle as a cockroach crawling across a white rug. SUSIE I'll go you one better, Lou. He shows up at Silvia Odio's, a Cuban lady in Dallas working in the anti- Castro underground - remember that name, a solid witness. The two Cubans introduce him as "Leon Oswald". FLASHBACK TO the corridor of Silvia Odio's apartment in Dallas on a night in 1963. Oswald drags behind two Cubans - one is "the Bull", heavyset with a scar over his left eye, who we saw at the Canal Street incident, and the other, "the Indian", is quiet and cold. The men ring the doorbell and talk to a concerned Silvia as Oswald hangs back, watching, in the shadows. The men give her intimate information about her father, who is imprisoned in Cuba. The men chatter ad lib in Spanish. SUSIE ...the Cubans want Silvia, whose parents are political prisoners in Cuba, to help them raise money to assassinate Castro. Something about the men bothers her. She tells them she doesn't want anything to do with violence... about 48 hours later one of the Cubans calls her back... We see a shot of Silvia on the phone in her apartment intercut with a shot of "the Bull" in a gas station phone booth, on a night in 1963. THE BULL (on the phone, in Spanish) This guy Leon Oswald's great, he's kinda nut... he told us we don't any guts, us Cubans, cause Kennedy should've been whacked after the Bay of Pigs, and some Cubans should've done that, it's easy to do, he says - you know he's a Marine, an expert shooter... Silvia Odio is surprised to hear this information volunteered. "The Bull's" eyes are on "Oswaldo", outside the booth with "the Indian". They're hanging out, talking to a mystery man, an Anglo. SUSIE It's like he's giving her information she doesn't even ask for. She's scared, doesn't see them again till she sees Oswald's picture in the paper. But the Warren Commission says she has bad eyesight because they have Oswald in Mexico at this time, trying to get back into Cuba. The Cubans think he's a double agent so they won't take him. The CIA has a camera outside the Cuban Embassy and says this is Oswald in Mexico. (hands over a picture) You figure it. Jim looks at the famous photo... the camera closes in on a heavyset man who looks nothing like Oswald. Liz has come back in and overhears. AL If this is Oswald, it must be our third Oswald. JIM The interesting thing is the extent to which the Warren Commission went to make him a Communist. They got almost 150 pages and 130 exhibits of the report on this Mexico trip and the picture doesn't even match. I'm beginning to think the point of the Mexican episode was to lay the blame at Castro's door. If Oswald, or someone purporting to be Oswald, had gotten into Cuba, come back, then killed the President, the American public once again would've screamed for a Cuban invasion... Susie picks up the famous Life magazine cover shot of Oswald holding a rifle in his backyard. SUSIE I even have doubts about this photo, boss. It pretty much convicted Oswald in the public mind. Well, according to Captain Fritz, Oswald told him during his interrogation the photo was fake. FLASHBACK TO the Dallas Homicide Office in 1963. Oswald is being interrogated by Will Fritz, Dallas Homicide Chief, who shows him the original of the photo from the Williams garage. OSWALD That's not me. FRITZ It came from Janet William's garage. OSWALD Well, I never saw that picture. It is my face, but my face has been super-imposed - the rest of the picture is not me at all. I've done a lot of photographic work, and that picture was made by someone else. FRITZ So who the hell are you? Alex Hidell or Oswald? OSWALD Well, you're the policeman, you work it out. SUSIE (in the present) Oswald, who worked for Jaggars-Chiles- Stovall, did know spy photography pretty well. I took this picture to two experts. Look at the way the shadows on the nose fall in a straight line like it's high noon. But the shadow here on the ground reads like late afternoon or early morning. It's not the same time. Also look at the crop marks across the chin. It seems like his head is pasted on somebody else's body implicating him with this rifle and gun. We see a blowup of the photo - the shadows, the crop mark. SUSIE And of the two newspapers in his hands, one is Leninist, the other Trotskyite. Any genuine Socialist would know they hate each other's politics! FRENCH QUARTER - SAME NIGHT(1967) Broussard walks past a jazz wake leaving the cemetery - black flambeurs carry torches, people sing "When the Saints Go Marching in". Bill is with a local gambler type. MOBSTER Clay Bertrand? Sure I know him. He comes around the Quarter. BILL Who is he, Joe? I've been to every bar, no one wants to talk. MOBSTER I told your uncle I never met a lawman who wasn't a punk. You too, Bill, even if you're family. He's a big shot businessman. I seen him on the TV news a lot with all the other big shots. A fag, you know. Goes by another name down here. BILL (excited) What's the other name? MOBSTER Shaw. Clay Shaw. BILL (stunned) Clay Bertrand is Clay Shaw? The guy who used to run the International Trade Mart? MOBSTER Yeah, what's the big mystery? Everybody down here knows the guy. BILL So why does he call himself Bertrand? MOBSTER Who gives a shit what he calls himself? BACK AT GARRISON'S HOME -(1967) SUSIE ...now it gets positively spooky. In January, 1961 - in New Orleans, at the Bolton Ford Dealership - when the Oswald we know is in Russia - there is a man using the name "Oswald" to buy trucks for the Friends of Democratic Cuba. The salesman never saw him again, but guess who's on the articles of incorporation of the Friends of Democratic Cuba? Guy Banister. (reactions from the others) Banister has someone using the name "Oswald" to buy the trucks. Hoover, at the FBI, writes a memo dated June, 1960, that there could be someone using Oswald's passport and identity. JIM Goddamn! They put Oswald together from Day One! Like some dummy corporation in the Bahamas - you just move him around a board. Sent him to Russia, in and out, no passport problems. You got the word "microdots" in his notebook, you got the Minox camera and the electronic devices they find in his possessions, the sealed DIZ201 personnel file. For all we know, there could be a dozen Oswalds in different cities, countries - all of them leaving a trail of incriminating evidence that could easily be traced to a scapegoat after the assassination. Does the real Oswald know he's been put together? Who knows. It doesn't matter, does it? He's a low level spy, he doesn't know who he really works for... (PAUSE) Let's call it a night. (to Lou) Anything new on Ruby? The staff members, anxious to go home, have all risen... and now sigh. LOU Mobbed up all the way. Tight with the Dallas cops. I'm digging, chief. I just need 10 more men and some more dollars. JIM I know you do, Lou. I'm doing three more lectures this month. You're all doing an incredible job, Sue, Al, Numa. But this is one where if you don't nail the other guy, you're dead. (he pulls a book from the bookcase for Lou) How did Jack Ruby dies so quick? Of what? Cancer, right? A history of Nazi Germany, Lou. They were studying viral cancers as a weapon in the 30's. We learned a lot more than you think from the Nazis. Read this. Our biological warfare lab is in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Close to where the National Cancer Institute is located. Think about it. Think the unthinkable - question everything. NUMA Even my own wife, chief, (looking at his watch) Who's wondering where I am? JIM (looking at Liz) Even your own wife, Numa. Any of you want to quit, do me a favor... put us out of our misery. They all raise their hands as Bill walks in, excited. BILL I fould Clay Bertrand. They all stop, look. SUSIE Who? BILL Grab your socks and pull... Clay Bertrand is Clay Shaw... SUSIE (stunned) No!... Shaw! Director of The Trade Mart? This is incredible. NUMA Pillar of the community by day, gay bars at night. Liz Garrison is the most shaken, as she pours a fresh pot of coffee. JIM Can you get some sworn statements? BILL That's gonna be tough. Nobody's talking. JIM I think we should have him in for a little talk. LIZ Do you have any evidence against him, Jim? Clay Shaw's done so much for the city with all that restoration in the Quarter. He's well connected, all his friends, the money, people, be careful, Jim. JIM It'll be off the record, honey. I'll bring him in on a Sunday. A quiet little chat between gentlemen. Liz walks out of the room silent. There is a tense pause. GARRISON'S LIVING ROOM - EASTER SUNDAY(1967) The TV is on to the latest Vietnam Reports - combat footage. NEWSMAN 10 (announcer) In heavy fighting in Vietnam today, seven more American soldiers died and 23 were wounded. The body count for this week now stands at 67 Americans and 626 enemy soldiers killed in action. Liz plays with the kids looking for Easter eggs. The dog is barking - it's a scene of commotion. Jim is getting ready to go out. LIZ Jim, come on, honey, get down on your hands and knees and hunt for Jasper's Easter egg. JIM You know I don't like these tribal rituals, Freckle Face. I'm interviewing Clay Shaw this morning. NEWSMAN 10 (as TV cuts to President Johnson) President Johnson, meanwhile at an informal press conference, said he regretted that there is no end in sight to the war in Vietnam, where 500,000 American troops are now fighting. "We face more cost, more loss, and more agony." In his proposal to raise taxes, Johnson... LIZ (surprised) But Jim, we're going to Antoine's with the kids - like we do every year. JIM No. I told you I was going to talk to Shaw. LIZ But why in the Lord's name would you do it in the middle of Easter Sunday when you knew we were... JIM (annoyed with her look) Because when I scheduled it I didn't realize it was a holiday. You were there, why didn't you say something? LIZ Look at the calendar, for Christ's sake. You said a Sunday, not Easter Sunday. JIM I'm sorry, but it's important. Clay Shaw is important. I'm sorry. LIZ You're missing most of your life, Jim, and you don't even know it. The kids are missing out too. (harder) It's not just you making the sacrifice here, honey. JIM Look, I'll rush and be there by two, I promise. Go ahead without me. As he leaves, the camera holds on Liz. GARRISON OFFICE - (1967) Clay Shaw ("Bertrand"), in an elegant white summer suit, is shown in. Indeed, there is a slight limp to his gait which Jim notices right away. He shares a look with Bill. Susie is also in the room. Shaw's rich bassoon voice drips with dialect. Imperiously smoking a Gaulois, Shaw has about him an air of authority matched only by Jim's. CLAY SHAW Mr. Garrison - what can I do for you on Easter Sunday? JIM I'm sorry, Mr. Shaw, to interrupt this holiday, but I feel this is a conversation we might better have out of the everyday bustle in this office... SHAW (sitting) I'm not sure I understand. JIM (bringing some papers forward) Well... in an investigation we're conducting your name has come up a number of times. SHAW I wouldn't imagine where. JIM We recently talked to a number of men who claim to know you. Are you acquainted with a David Logan? SHAW No. Never heard of him. JIM A Perry Russo? SHAW No. JIM A Willie O'Keefe? SHAW No, I don't believe I know anyone by that name. JIM Mr. O'Keefe told us he met you at the Masquerade Bar down in the Quarter and several evenings later you had him over for dinner at your apartment on Dauphine Street. Do you recall that? FLASHBACK TO Clay's Dauphine Street residence, in the Quarter, at night in 1962. The butler opens the door and O'Keefe is admitted to the townhouse. Shaw appears behind the butler. SHAW (V.O.) (in present) Of course not. I don't know this man. Obviously then, I wouldn't have him to dinner. Incidentally, I do not live in an apartment. It's an 1860's house built by Gallier. I've restored it faithfully. You know I am quite an advocate of restoration. At Shaw's house, dinner is served at a long table by the black butler. The table is decorated by a sumptuous setting of silver and candelabra. Shaw uses a bell to summon the butler. JIM (V.O.) Perhaps a few more details about the evening will refresh your memory. Mr. O'Keefe told us dinner was served by a uniformed waiter - a colored man. He particularly remembers that you sat at one end and he at the other - which he found rather unusual because the table was so long. Does that bring back memories of Willie O'Keefe? SHAW (in present) Not at all. But on the other hand, I do have a lovely Chippendale dining table and I often have a friend over sitting at one end while I sit at the other. That is precisely the point of a long dining table. The splendor of the meal adds to the enjoyment of it. JIM I would imagine a uniformed waiter helps. SHAW It adds a taste of elegance for which I must confess a weakness for now and then. I call him Smedley. His real name is Frankie Jenkins - but I could hardly imagine anything more uncouth during dinner than my turning toward the kitchen and hollering "Frankie!" .. Where is this leading to, Mr. Garrison? Willie O'Keefe and Clay Shaw leave the dining table. JIM (V.O.) After dinner you paid him to have sex with you. SHAW (V.O.) (laughing) Pffft! Absolute nonsense. The Quarter is filled with vivid imaginations, my dear Mr. Garrison - grimy young hoodlums who'll say and do anything. As you well know. JIM (V.O.) ...in the course of that night, Mr. O'Keefe said a man named David Ferrie stopped by the house... along with another young man... At Shaw's townhouse, we see Ferrie coming in, with another young chicken. SHAW (V.O.) Who? JIM (V.O.) David Ferrie. SHAW (V.O.) No. I have never known anyone by that name. Of course never having met Mr. O'Keefe I could hardly have met Mr. Ferrie... JIM (V.O.) ...and that the four of you partied early into the morning hours... We see the four men in drag, smiling for the flash camera, champagne bottles in hand. Ferrie sniffs some poppers, then shoves a popper in Shaw's face. FERRIE (to Shaw) You're mine, Mary. Go get the fucking tools out, bitch. Now! I want some ass. Ferrie forces more poppers on Shaw. The camera movies to Shaw's bedroom, where Ferrie scatters a drawer full of leather tools. FERRIE (to Shaw) Come here, bitch. (Ferrie grabs Shaw by the hair) You want this? The only way you get this is do what I say. (Ferrie whacks Shaw) I'm the man. Don't ever forget it. (Shaw begs and whines) You want it? You want it? (Ferrie spits on Shaw) Fuck you and your rich friends. You're nothing but a rich whore! You're my woman! Get the cat! (to young man) Strip! Now, woman. I want to see skin. BACK TO Garrison's office. JIM (in present) Let me show you his picture. (he hands Shaw a general photo of Ferrie) SHAW (in present) No. I'm sure I've never met anyone of such a bizarre appearance. JIM Does the name Clay Bertrand mean anything to you? SHAW Clay Bertrand? Clay Bertrand? I believe there was a man with a name similar to that who worked at the Chamber of Commerce. Is that the man you had in mind? JIM No, it was not. Do you know an attorney by the name of Dean Andrews? SHAW One meets so many attorneys in my business. No, I don't believe I know Dean Andrews. Jim is getting incredibly irritated. He feels Shaw is lying. CUT TO Antoine's Restaurant, where Liz and all five kids look at menus. SNAPPER I'm hungry! When're we gonna eat! LIZ We're going to start without him and he'll be here for dessert. Snapper, you put that back! VIRGINIA I want a Shirley Temple! SNAPPER Me, too. JASPER (disappointed) When's Daddy coming, Mama? LIZ Soon. He's real sorry he can't start with us but he's promised to be here. BACK TO Garrison's office later that day. Everyone looks tired as the questioning goes on. Shaw sucks on endless Gauloises. JIM (handing a photo to Shaw) Mr. Shaw, can you identify this man? SHAW Naturally. (he looks up) Are you claiming, Mr. Garrison, that Mr. Oswald also had dinner with me? JIM (humorless) Mr. Shaw, did you ever meet Lee Harvey Oswald? SHAW You really have me consorting with a cast of sordid characters, don't you, Mr. Garrison. JIM Please answer the question. SHAW Of course not! Such a pity, that assassination. In fact, I admired President Kennedy. A man with true panache, and a wife with impeccable taste. Jim shows Shaw a newspaper clipping. JIM Mr. Shaw, this is an Italian newspaper article saying you were a member of the Board of Centro Mondo Commerciale in Italy, that this company was a creature of the CIA for the transfer of funds in Italy for illegal political-espionage activities. It says that this company was expelled from Italy for those activities. SHAW I'm well aware of this asinine article. And I am thinking very seriously of suing this rag of a newspaper. JIM It says that this company has heavily Fascist ties to the French secret army organization that tried to assassinate de Gaulle in 1960. SHAW Nonsense. What next? JIM ...and that this company is linked to the Schlumber tool company here in Houma, Louisiana - which is where their arms may have come from to David Ferrie and his Cubans... SHAW Mr. Garrison, you're reaching. I am an international businessman. The Trade Mart which I founded is America's commercial pipeline to Latin America. I trade everywhere. I am accused, as are all businessmen, of all things. I somehow go about my business, make money, help society the best I can and try to promote free trade in this world. JIM Mr. Shaw, have you ever been a contract agent with the Central Intelligence Agency? Shaw glares at him. Silence. SHAW (with powerful contempt) And if I was, Mr. Garrison... do you think I would be here today... talking to somebody like you? JIM No, people like you don't have to, I guess - people like you walk between the raindrops. SHAW (rising) May I go? Regardless of what you may think of me, Mr. Garrison, I am a patriot first and foremost. JIM I've spent half my life in the United States military serving and defending this great country, Mr. Shaw, and you're the first person I ever met who considered it an act of patriotism to kill his own president. SHAW Now just a minute, sir! You're way out of line! Susie and Bill quiet Jim down. BILL Come on, chief. (as he shows Shaw to the door) I'm sorry, Mr. Shaw, it's getting late. That's all the questions we have. Thank you for your honesty and for coming in today. SHAW I enjoyed meeting with you gentlemen, and you, Miss Cox. It was most pleasant. I wish to extend to each of you - and to each of your families - my best wishes for a happy Easter. (he exits.) JIM (beat, excited) "One may smile and smile and be a villain." Goddammit! We got one of 'em! GARRISON'S HOME THAT NIGHT (1967) Jim walks in, contrite. Liz is shutting down the house. Some of the kids are still up. JASPER Daddy! Where have you been? JIM (kisses Liz) Hi, Freckle Face. LIZ (seething) Hi. JIM Tough day. LIZ My sympathies. JIM Liz, I'm really sorry. The meeting went much longer than expected. LIZ We waited for you... hours, Jim. You could have telephoned, for God's sake. It's Easter! You promised, Jim. JIM I don't know what to say except I'm sorry. I just don't have rabbits on my mind. LIZ I think you care more about John Kennedy than your family! All day long the kids are asking, "Where's Daddy?" What am I supposed to tell your kids, Jim! JIM I don't know what to tell them. How 'bout the truth - I'm doing my job to make sure they can grow up in a country where justice won't be an arcane, vanished idea they read about in history books, like the dinosaurs or the lost continent of Atlantis. LIZ That sounds dandy, but it doesn't replace a father and a husband on Easter Day. JIM (angry, turns away) It's going to get worse, honey. GARRISON'S OFFICE HALLWAY - MORNING(1967) Jim, is coming down the corridor with Broussard, is confronted by some 20 local journalists and TV crew members. We hear a hubbub of fierce questioning - ad libs but Jim, puzzled, brushes by, seeking refuge in his office. Lou, Al, Numa and Susie are all waiting for him. The regular staff - some 30 people - are looking, wondering. Lou presents him with the front page of the New Orleans States-Item. LOU Congratulations, Boss - you're page one! We see a close-up of the headline: "D.A. LAUNCHES FULL J.F.K. DEATH PLOT PROBE - Mysterious Trips Cost Large Sums." INSIDE GARRISON'S OFFICE JIM (striding into his office reading the paper) Goddamn Sam! LOU And it ain't pretty (reading the copy) ..."the AD has spent more than $8,000 on unexplained travel and investigative expenses since November, 1966. NUMA They went to the public records and got the vouchers we requested for withdrawals. SUSIE Shaw must've gotten them on our tail. AL Could be Ferrie, Martin, Andrews, any of 'em. BILL We didn't talk to Ruby 'cause of them and they're on our asses for a measly $8,000! Jim, at his desk, finishes reading the article. A huge picture of him is on the front page. He puts down the paper, reaching for a long, gold pen that is part of the desk set. JIM They hunted down the news, it's their business. Getting angry doesn't accomplish a damned thing, but this changes everything. We either pull out now or we go through some heavy flack together. They look at each other. JIM Bear in mind, each of you, this may affect the rest of your careers, your lives... (pause) ...if any of you pull out, I assure you I will bear no ill feelings towards that person and will reassign you to regular duties. No takers. JIM There it is then. Thank you. It means very much to me. I'm giving this office $6,000 from my National Guard savings so we can continue. I will make speeches where I can to pick up additional money. Some local businessmen are putting together a fund for us and... SHARON (coming in) Mr. Garrison, what shall I tell them? They're piling up outside the door. They want a statement, the phones are going crazier than bugs on a cake. Everyone waits. Jim stands, repacks his briefcase with papers and reference books and heads for the back door elevator. JIM Neither confirm, deny, nor discuss, Sharon. Goodbye, ladies, gentlemen, I'm going home where I can get a decent day's work done. LOU IVON'S APARMTENT - NEW ORLEANS -(1967) Lou drinks a beer in front of the TV news in his small bachelor apartment. A fan is blowing. NEWSMAN 11 (editorial) Mr. Garrison's own silence on the subject has raised some interesting questions. With taxpayer money has he uncovered some valuable new evidence or is he merely saving the information which will gain for him exposure on a national level? Mr. Garrison it seems, should have some explanation. The phone rings and Ivon picks it up. LOU Yeah? DAVE FERRIE (V.O.) (very agitated) Did your office plant that garbage in the fucking paper? LOU Who is this? FERRIE (V.O.) You know damn well who it is. LOU Dave? FERRIE (V.O.) Yeah, you got it. Since you're the only straight shooter in that fuckin' office, I'd like an answer from you. Did you plant it? LOU Dave, do you think we're out of our minds? The whole building's been a zoo since that broke. We can't get a thing done. Reporters crawling everywhere. You think we want that? We see Ferrie in a phone booth on the street outside his apartment house in the French Quarter. He's a nervous wreck, watching the reporters and TV cameras surrounding his place, waiting for him. FERRIE (yelling) Somebody planted that fucking story! And somebody tipped off the press I'm one of Garrison's fucking suspects. I can't go home. I'm out on the street. The maggots are everywhere! Do you know what you've done to me? It's all over the national news now. You know what you've done to me? LOU Calm down, Dave, what? FERRIE I'm a dead man! From here on, believe me, I'm a dead man. LOU What are you talking about, Dave? You weren't mentioned in the story. Don't jump to conclusions. FERRIE You think your investigation's been all that secret? You know, when you talk to people, they talk to other people. LOU What did they... FERRIE You still questioning any Cubans? LOU Dave, you know that's where this road leads. FERRIE It leads farther than that. LOU Dave, just calm down. Meet me in the lobby of the Fontainbleau in 20 minutes. I'll have a suite reserved for you under an assumed name. FERRIE (unsure) The Fontainbleau? 20 minutes? LOU (hopeful) Yeah. Come on, Dave, come on our side. I guarantee you the boss'll protect you... (there's a long silence as Ferrie, torn, agonizes) Dave? FERRIE (dreamy) ...give me protection? LOU Yeah! He'd kill for you Dave. He likes you. Your mind. FERRIE I got no place to sleep. I'll meet you in 20 minutes. Ferrie hangs up. Pause. At his end, Lou Ivon hangs up, excited. GARRISON'S HOME - NIGHT(1967) The phone rings. Liz picks it up. Jim is watching the TV news: Martin Luther King is delivering a speech against the Vietnam War. KING (on TV) President Kennedy said on one occasion, "Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind." I pray God that America will hear this before it's too late, because today we're fighting a war I'm convinced is one of the most unjust wars that has ever been fought in the history of the world. LIZ (on the phone meanwhile, testy) No, he's not here now. And he would not take calls here if he were! So please call the office number. Thank you. (hangs up) Two of them even had the gall to come to the door this afternoon, one all the way from England. JIM Did they live? LIZ It's not funny, Jim, I'm scared. JIM Don't be. Nothing to be scared about, honey, I been through four years of war - this is nothing. The phone rings again. KING (on TV) ...sending them 8,000 miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they have not found in Southwest Georgia or East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same school. LIZ I haven't, Jim. JIM Nothing is going to happen to you. I won't let it. LIZ Leave us ALONE for God's sake! (recognizes the voice) ...Oh, it's Lou. FONTAINBLEAU HOTEL SUITE - THAT NIGHT Jim and Lou watch as Ferrie paces wildly, speeding. FERRIE I'm caught in the middle. They're after me. It's almost over. LOU Listen, Dave, why don't we order some room service, have a bite, relax. I'll stay as long as you want. FERRIE I don't know who to trust anymore. Yeah, sure I could use a pot of hot coffee and a few packs of Camels. You got anything new in the investigation? As Lou picks up the phone and orders room service, Jim answers. JIM You mean about the Cubans getting trained north of the lake? FERRIE (incoherent) Oh, you got that? Banister's pet project. Getting paid by the government to work against the government. Beautiful. What a mind he had, what a guy, Guy. He had all those files. JIM Who was paying you, Dave? FERRIE You think I was a getaway pilot for the assassination, don't you? JIM I don't know. Were you? (Dave laughs) Who you scared of, Dave? FERRIE Everybody! The Agency. The Mob. The Cubans. Yeah, follow the Cubans. Check them out. Here, in Dallas, Miami. Check out a guy named Eladio del Valle. My paymaster when I flew missions into Cuba - he's somewhere in Miami. You're on the right track. Lou writes it down. Seeing him writing makes Ferrie even more paranoid. FERRIE Hold it! Hold it! I'm not cooperating with anyone. There's a death warrant for me, don't you get it? Wait a minute. You're not bugged, are you? He feels Lou for bugs, but out of a sense of hierarchy, ignores Jim. He checks around the room - the phone, behind paintings, flower vase, light fixtures - as the batty conversation continues: LOU Dave, I always play square. No bugs. I'd love you to go on the record, but I"m in no hurry. Whenever you're ready. FERRIE (checking the room) I don't have much time. They don't even need bugs anymore. They got these fuckin' satellite waves. They put a bug in a friend of mine when he was born, right up his nostrils, subcutaneous, between his eyes. He was one of those products of a crossbreading experiment. A Nazi rocket scientist father and a Commie spy mother. You'd never believe half the shit the Agency does. (holding his neck) I'm so fuckin' tired. Haven't slept since that shit article came out. Why'd you guys have to go and get me involved with this? LOU Did we involve you, Dave, or did Clay Shaw? FERRIE That cocksuckin' faggot! He's got me by the balls. LOU What do you mean? FERRIE Photographs - compromising stuff. And he'll use 'em. The Agency plays for keeps... (checks the room for bugs) I knew Oswald. He was in my Civil Air Patrol unit. I taught him everything. A "wanna be," y'know, nobody really liked him cause he was a snitch. I treated him good. He'd talk about his kid, y'know, really wanted her to grow up with a chance, but... He got a raw deal. The Agency fucked him. Just like they're gonna fuck me. JIM Let me get this straight, now. Clay Shaw is blackmailing you? FERRIE Fuckin' A. How do you think the Agency gets people to do their bullshit? Fuck knows what they got on Oswald! Room service knocks, and Ferrie jumps and rushes to the bathroom. FERRIE Who is it? BELLHOP (V.O.) Room service. Jim whispers something and Lou goes to the door, takes the service table without letting the bellhop in. Jim, excited but trying to stay even, continues with Ferrie. JIM Was it the same Oswald, Dave, that was in Dallas, or was it an impersonator. FERRIE Same one. I didn't know no impersonator. FLASHBACK TO Ferrie at the party with Oswald (obscured) per Willie O'Keefe's witness. Jim, in the present, doesn't feel right about it. JIM Did you take a good look at the TV when they had Oswald? FERRIE (shrugs, can't be bothered) Black, black - just give it to me. (takes the fresh coffee from Lou, lights a Camel) Shit. I'm so exhausted. My neck is killing me. I've got cancer. Had it for years. I been working with mice, y'know, trying to come up with a cure. JIM Dave, can I just ask you this directly? Did you ever work for the CIA? FERRIE (laughs) You make it sound like some remote fuckin' experience in ancient history. Man, you never leave the Agency. Once they got you, you're in for life. JIM And Shaw? FERRIE Shaw's an "untouchable", man - highest clearance. Shaw, Oswald, the Cubans - all Agency. JIM What about Ruby? FERRIE Jack? Jack was a pimp. A bagman in Dallas for the Mob. He used to run guns to Castro when he was still on our side. Check out Jack Youngblood. Shit - we almost had Castro. Then we tried to whack him. Everybody's flipping sides all the time. It's fun 'n' games, man fun 'n' games. LOU What about the mob, Dave? How do they figure in this? FERRIE They're Agency, too. Don't you get it? CIA and Mafia together. Trying to whack out the Beard. Mutual interests. They been doing it for years. There's more to this than you dream. FBI fucking hates the CIA. Navy Intelligence got something to do with it too. Check out "Alan Pope" in Miami. Jack Youngblood. Bill Harvey. Colonel Roselli. The shooter, I hear, was a Dallas cop - the bagman at Ruby's club. I heard he shot his own partner. Got that? Check out the rich fucks in Dallas. H.L. Hunt. He's dirty. That's all I know. But the Agency always runs the show. Check out something called "Mongoose" Operation Mongoose. Government, Pentagon stuff, they're in charge, but who the fuck pulls whose chain who the fuck knows, fun 'n' games man - check out Southeast Asia - that's the next big number - the heroin trail. "Oh, what a deadly web we weave when we practice to deceive." JIM Then who killed the President? FERRIE Oh man, why don't you stop. This is too fuckin' big for you! Who did Kennedy? It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma. Even the shooters don't fuckin' know! Don't you get it yet? I can't be talking like this. They're gonna kill me. I'm gonna die! (he sits down, cracking, sobbing) I don't know what happened. All I wanted in the world was to be a Catholic priest - live in a monastery, study ancient Latin manuscripts, pray, serve God. But I had this one terrible, fatal weakness. They defrocked me. And then I started to lose everything. He bows his head, holding it in his hands, and his wig starts to come off in his hands. FERRIE Shit! Forgot to glue this fuckin' rug today. You know, at one time I even had a full head of hair like everyone else. And then I lost that. That fuckin' Clay Shaw. I hate the bastard. All I got left is in his rotten, bloody hands. He tipped the newspapers - I know it. That's how the Agency works. They use people, chew them up, spit 'em out. Now it's my turn. JIM (empathetic) Dave, it's going to be okay. Just talk to us on the record and we'll protect you. I guarantee it. There's a long silence. Ferrie, spent, stares at Jim. He's about to crack, but... FERRIE They'll get to you, too - they'll destroy you... They're untouchable, man... (then) I'm so fucking exhausted I can't see straight. JIM Get some rest, Dave, and you'll feel better in the morning. We'll talk then. FERRIE Yeah, yeah. But leave me alone for awhile. I got to make some calls. His eyes are going again. Deals... intrigue - thru the tears. LOU Whatever you say, Dave. I'll be home. Okay? Lou and Jim share a look. CORRIDOR OF GARRISON'S OFFICE - A FEW DAYS LATER(1967) A mob scene. Press from the U.S. and all over the world are filling the corridor. A French reporter tries to get past the receptionist as Numa passes him with a stack of mail. Also in the hall are many individual citizens who have come to give tips and theories. One of them is dressed as Satan in a red jump suit with mask, horns, tail and a pitchfork. FRENCH REPORTER (waving credentials) Paris Match. We are the largest magazine in all of France. SOVIET REPORTER My name is Bulgarinov. I am with Literaturnaya Gazeta of Moscow. AMERICAN REPORTER Bill Turner. Ramparts. A mailman, black, comes through lugging three sacks of mail. MAILMAN Coming through, out of the way. RECEPTIONIST You know who killed the President? Mr. Garrison is busy but his assistant... A camera moves by into the interior offices. MONTAGE OF OFFICE SHOTS: BILL BROUSSARD'S OFFICE A man with the demeanor of Julius Caesar walks into Bill's office. CAESAR (raising arm) Hail! Et tu, Brutus? BILL And you, too, my friend. Bill escorts him out before he gets the chance to sit down, and then heads for Jim's office. JIM GARRISON'S OFFICE Numa joins Jim with a stack of new mail. NUMA Love a duck! It takes twenty minutes to get into this office these days. Are we famous or what? Jim is reading Newsweek, deeply hurt. There are newspapers all over his desk. JIM Notorious is more like it. "Jim Garrison is right. There has been a conspiracy in New Orleans - but it's a plot of Garrison's own making"... and this - "one of the D.A.'s investigators offered an unwilling witness $3000 if only he would fill in the facts of the alleged meeting to plot the death of the President"... How can they write that? Where did they come up with this? ... (sorting through others) "A charlatan," "power-mad," a "hulking D.A." (New York Post) "Morbid Frolic in New Orleans." Bill has come in during this, completely frazzled. BILL The crazies have taken over the asylum! It's a zoo out there. NUMA Sensational garbage sells newspapers, Jim. What else is new? Look at the thousands of letters you're getting. That's where the heart of the country is. (reads from one) "Dear Mr. Garrison, God bless you for having the courage to go after the murderers of President Kennedy. Please don't stop till they're behind bars. I am a beautician here in Hannibal, Missouri, and my husband is a janitor in the local high school. We have four kids and not an extra lot of money but we enclose a contribution to help with your work. We are praying for you. God bless, Judith Hardy, Hannibal, Missouri." Numa pulls a dollar bill from the envelope. NUMA That's what it's about, boss. For every lousy article in the press there's a hundred of these. Jim is moved. Bill is not. BILL That's fine, Numa, but what about all the people who aren't writing letters. They're sitting home reading all these lies. I just heard NBC crew's in town to do a "White Paper" - not on the Kennedy killing, but on us. One of their top guys, Harry Stoner, is talking to everybody he can find about you, boss... JIM Oh Jesus, Stoner!... Why doesn't he call me? NUMA (to Bill) What do you want to do, Bill - fold up and close the store? You sound like it. BILL Look, this is bigger than all of us. We can't try a case in this atmosphere. Sharon has come in during this, signalling to Jim. SHARON Mr. Miller's been waiting. JIM (remembering) Oh! Send him in. (to Numa) Denver oilman wants to support the investigation. (specifically to Bill) Bill, I know what you're thinking, but sometimes when it makes no sense that's exactly when you just gotta stick to it, head down. Sharon shows in Mr. Miller, the Denver oilman. He's a self- assured, impressive man in his 50's with a western accent, cowboy boots and hat, and a well-cut gabardine suit. JIM Welcome, Mr. Miller. Jim Garrison. Would you care for some coffee? MILLER Yes, thank you, Mr. Garrison. Your coffee's almost Turkish down here but I could get used to it. Numa leaves. Bill indicates he'd like to sit in. Jim nods okay. Miller pays no attention to Bill. MILLER I'm glad you could find time to see me. I flew down from Denver this morning on my private jet. JIM Yes, your letter indicated you were in he oil business up there. MILLER I've done quite well in Denver, Mr. Garrison, but I have to admire someone like you - and I have the means to back up what I say. JIM We can use all the support we can get. I think these might interest you. Jim has gathered together a group of photos of the shooting. Sharon bringing the coffee. JIM They've been enlarged and show a lot of detail... MILLER Splendid, love to see them. He glances at the photo but continues on across the room, looking at the pictures on the walls. MILLER Where were you? Europe, Pacific? JIM Germany. MILLER You were lucky. I spent three years in the Pacific. (he looks out the blinds at Tulane Avenue) I've never seen an avenue with such a profusion of bail-bonding companies. Why is that? JIM (nettled by Miller's moving around) I imagine because this is the Criminal District Court Building (showing a photo) This is an enlargement of a potential shooter standing behind the picket fence. We... We see a blurry blowup of something behind the picket fence. Miller takes the photo, glances at it and sits down. MILLER I know about that shot. A terrible tragedy. (Puts the photo back on the desk) How much do you have for carrying on your investigation? JIM If you must know, virtually nothing. MILLER How many men are working with you on this? JIM Less than you would guess. Most days two to three assistant D.A.'s. A handful of police investigators. MILLER That's all you've had all this time? JIM That's it. Jim expectant of some help. A pause. Then: MILLER I admire you, Mr. Garrison. How did you manage to make your way into Guy Banister's operation? The clock is ticking. Jim shares a look with Bill. The cards are on the table. JIM That was never in he newspapers, Mr. Miller. Miller smiles, stands, paces the room. He continues to ignore Bill completely. MILLER I'm going to be very frank with you. You've done a great job, an astounding job considering the limited resources available to you. But the best you can ever hope for is to stir up a lot of confusion. You're not going to do this country any good, and you're not going to do yourself any good. (he sits back down and looks directly at Jim) You don't belong here. On this Mickey Mouse street with that cheap strip of bail bond shops. JIM The job manages to keep me pretty busy. MILLER Nonsense. You should be in a job where you can make decisions that have impact, affect the world. Here you're trying to climb up the steep side of Mount Everest. He leans forward across Jim's desk, tapping his manicured index finger on the desk. Clearly visible to Jim and to us (in a close-up) is Miller's Annapolis ring tapping. MILLER I propose you accept an appointment to the bench in Federal District Court and move into a job worthy of your talent. (he leans back and pauses) Do you have any idea, do you have any conception of how easily such an appointment can be arranged? JIM And what would I have to do? MILLER Stop your investigation... it was a magnificent effort but it's over and done with. The press is already on your behind and that's only the beginning, my boy, only the beginning. JIM How long do you think it would take me to be appointed? Jim's eyes go to Bill. He could be wrong, but it's almost as if Bill were going along with the idea now. MILLER (smiling, thinking Jim is hooked) Well, ordinarily these things take a long time. But in your case, with your record it can be expedited - easily. I guarantee it. Jim leans back, puts his feet up on the corner of the desk, waving them like fans. Bill waits. JIM Who are you, Mr. Miller? (no answer - just the sound of the overhead fan) You see that helmet over there? (the Nazi helmet with a bullet hole on his desk) I picked that up at the Dachau concentration camp when we liberated it in 1945. It was the most horrifying sight I've ever seen, Mr. Miller. Pyramids of decaying, stinking bones and skin one on top of the other. I don't enjoy looking at that swastika every day, Mr. Miller, but I keep it there to remind me of what can happen when a country turns from free democratic principles to Fascism, when a few madmen turn human beings into digits and millions sit in silence and do nothing about it. Miller waits. Bill waits. Jim comes forward with his reply. JIM Mr. Miller, you and I have met under a great misunderstanding. I haven't the remotest interest in becoming a Federal Judge. And nothing is going to keep me from going ahead with my investigation of John Kennedy's murder. Miller's entire demeanor tightens into a corkscrew of anger and danger. JIM Bill, Mr. Miller and I have finished our conversation. Would you show him out? Bill has a strange reaction - a sudden exhalation of breath as if an entire house of cards were collapsing. He rises, but Miller goes first, leaving silently. Once he's gone, Bill turns wearily to Jim. JIM Those bastards! That's proof enough right there of what we're up against. The whole goddamn Federal Government, Bill! BILL Well, they offered you the carrot, and you turned it down... you know what's coming next, don't you, boss? GARRISON'S CONFERENCE ROOM - ANOTHER DAY(1967) The staff is assembled. We see the headline in the Times- Picayune, which says: "FERRIE CALLS GARRISON PROBE A WITCH HUNT." LOU Boss, I tell you something or somebody is putting tremendous heat on David Ferrie. If we sit on our behinds any longer, I don't think the guy's going to hold on. SUSIE (raps the newspaper) Look at this bullshit! He keeps changing what he says. We can't possibly call him to a Grand Jury. JIM Susie, watch the language, would you please. AL My instinct is that Ferrie is going to keep on deteriorating, and we'll end up getting more out of him when he finally cracks. If we call him now, he might freeze up and we could lose the best shot we've ever had. LOU You don't get it, guys - he can't go down any further. We got to protect him full time. JIM (rises, looks at his watch) I have a plane to catch... going to Washington. An interesting lead, says he's closely connected to these events, but he won't come down here... I know what you're going through with Ferrie, Lou. We'll talk tomorrow. LOU I'm onto Ferrie's Cuban paymaster, Eladio del Valle, in Miami. I gotta get him in, boss. I need more men - I can't even pull the teams to watch Ferrie... This is our case! Numa rushes in with a young investigator, Williams - displaying a miniature microphone. NUMA HOLD IT, CHIEF... JIM (to Lou) You just need some sleep, Lou. It won't look so bad when... Numa makes violent signals to shut up - not to talk - sticking the microphone in front of Jim. Williams searches the walls for the bug. Numa signals everyone outside. GARRISON'S MAIN OFFICE The staff comes out into the office with Him, disturbed. JIM What the hell is... NUMA Williams found this in your office... We think the conference room is also bugged. And maybe the phones. The whole place needs debugging. The whole staff from the conference room reacts. Jim looks stunned. JIM I don't believe it! SUSIE Bugging the District Attorney's office of New Orleans! It's outrageous! Sharon has been standing there trying to get Lou's attention. SHARON It's urgent for you, Mr. Ivon. Lou goes to the phone. NUMA Well, believe what you want, boss, but we got to be more careful. All these new volunteers, any one of them could be... JIM Okay, you handle it, Numa. I don't have time for this nonsense. (to the hidden mikes loudly) We've obviously got the bastards worried now. I'm going to Washington. Everyone laughs, but the camera goes to the look of shock on Lou's face as he holds the receiver. They all look over at him; feeling the bad news before they hear it. LOU Dave Ferrie's dead. The body was found at his apartment two hours ago. Jim's look says "There goes the case." OUTSIDE FERRIE'S APARTMENT - FRENCH QUARTER(1967) Jim and his staff storm into the area, which is cordoned off by police. Members of the press are all over, yelling questions at Jim. JIM (to chief police officer) This case is in our jurisdiction. I don't want anyone from a Federal agency in here without an explicit Federal court order. You got that, Hank? (Hank looks at him weirdly) NEWSMAN 10 Was Ferrie murdered, Mr. Garrison? Do you have any leads? INSIDE FERRIE'S APARTMENT The apartment is filthy and sinister. Hundreds of mice squeal in their cages, upset by the invasion of men and light. Nothing seems to have been washed in years. There is an accumulation of furniture, college pennants, photos of young boys in training, books everywhere, ammunition, guns, a piano, maps, fake college degrees on the walls. Ferrie's naked body lies on the couch with a sheet over it. He is unwigged, his eyebrows unpainted, false teeth next to him. Jim studies the corpse as the coroner comes alongside. JIM What's it look like, Nick? CORONER I don't see any violence, Jim. Heart attack, maybe an aneurysm. Looks like natural causes. Jim picks several empty, capless medicine bottles on a table next to the sofa and looks at them. Lou and Bill come over with a typed suicide note. BILL It's addressed to no one and no signature. "To leave this life is, for me, a sweet prospect. I find nothing in it that is desirable and on the other hand, everything that is loathsome." LOU Pretty flowery for Dave Ferrie. The words from the note hang there weirdly, as Jim paces on into the apartment, one of them medicine bottles in his hand. The music grows, and a sinister feel of danger and death pervades the atmosphere. Then the sounds drop away. FERRIE'S BEDROOM Jim hands Lou the medicine bottle. LOU Proloid? JIM I took it once for a low thyroid condition... (he walks away) It raises the metabolism, Lou. (pause) Did David Ferrie strike you as the kind of person who had a low metabolism? LOU I'd say the opposite - hypertension. CLOSET IN FERRIE'S APARTMENT Jim runs an eye through Dave's closet, cluttered with shabby jackets. His eye falls on a neat but faded lace and satin, some sort of garment of priestly origin, he takes it in his hand. JIM Ferrie was the only one to express some kind of remorse about this whole thing. I think it got him killed. Susie Cox walks in, a new message written on her face. SUSIE Boss, we just got bad news from Miami. They found Ferrie's Cuban friend - Eladio del Valle - this morning, hacked to death with a machete in his car. He was tortured, shot in the heart at point-blank range and his skull was split open with an axe... LOU Jesus - if that ain't the Devil's piss! Those bastards! Jim's mood darkens, and he heads back into the living room as Ferrie's corpse is being trundled out the door. The sickness is everywhere; an oppressive mood. Bill comes up. BILL Found another note, same thing, no name, no signature. "When you receive this, I will be quite dead, so no answer will be possible. I offered you love. All I got in return in the end was a kick in the teeth." JIM Jesus, they must've been hard pressed to come up with that one. Jim, feeling ill, wanting to leave, stops the coroner before he exits... JIM (gives the coroner the empty bottle) Nick, what would happen if a man suffering from hypertension were to take an entire bottle of Proloid? CORONER He'd die pretty quick, either a heart storm or a ruptured blood vessel in the brain. JIM Can you ascertain if there's Proloid in his system? CORONER Not in a routine autopsy, but if we looked at the spinal fluid, there might be a high level of iodine, but it's difficult to know. Whatcha thinkin', Jim? JIM Well, it doesn't make sense, Nick - he was afraid of dying, then he kills himself in a way that leaves no trace, but he leaves two unsigned suicide notes. CORONER (shrugs, skeptical) If it's a suicide, I seen weirder, Jim. (exits) BILL The fact is he's gone, chief, and so's our case. LOU Not unless we go for Shaw now. BILL With whose testimony? Willie O'Keefe? A male prostitute. Jack Martini? A drunk? Vernon Bundy? A dope fiend. Shaw's got respect, the newspaper editors, the American Bar Association - they're not... SUSIE I'm afraid I'm with Bill on this one. We haven't got the goods yet. LOU We wait, Shaw's gonna get whacked. Oswald, Ruby, Ferrie, del Valle, Banister, Bowers... how many corpses you lawyers gotta see to figure out what's going on? JIM All right, all right. Break it up. BILL Where you going, boss? JIM I don't know, Bill, I just don't know. OUTSIDE FERRIE'S APARTMENT THAT SAME NIGHT As Jim, questioned by reporters, gets in his car and leaves, Bill waves goodbye to Lou and walks toward his own car, dejected. The area is cordoned off and humming with activity. Frank, an FBI man who knows Bill from previous cases, approaches him out of the crowd. He wears a hat, suit, and tie. FRANK Bill. BILL Hey, where y'at, Frank? You're wasting your time here. Big Jim gave strict orders. No FBI allowed. FRANK It's you I want to talk to, Bill. BILL (laughs) Boss would fry me in hog fat if he knew... (motions to car) FRANK (getting in the car) Your boss got a serious problem, Bill. Real serious. We know what's been going on at your office BILL (smiles) Yeah, I guess you do. FRANK You've got nothin', Bill. I'm talking as a friend now. You're riding on the Titanic. Time to jump off before you get destroyed along with Garrison. BILL Frank, I don't want to hear it. FRANK Senator Long set your boss up, my friend. This gets Bill's attention. FRANK Who do you think fed him that information? Garrison's going down. We're talking your career here, Bill, your life. You're a young guy... we know you're working that Castro thing. BILL No, I'm not... FRANK Yes, you are. Look we know Oswald didn't pull that trigger. Castro did. But if that comes out, there's gonna be a war, boy - millions of people are gonna die. That's a hell of a lot more important than Jim Garrison. (suddenly) Goddammit, look at me when I talk to you! You're too goddamn self- opinionated, now shut up. If you got a brain in that thick skull of yours, listen to me. Listen real hard. Bill, taken aback, listens. WASHINGTON D.C. - PARK(1967) Jim walks down from the Lincoln Memorial, where he is met unobtrusively by a military man in his 50's in casual clothing, hat on his head, an erect posture. They walk towards the Mall, with the Capitol building looming in the background. X Jim Garrison? JIM Yes. X (shakes hands) I'm glad you came. I'm sorry about the precautions. JIM Well, I just hope it was worth my while, Mr... The man doesn't answer. Jim, after his meeting with Miller and loss of Ferrie, is testy and suspicious. X I could give you a false name, but I won't. Just call me X. JIM I've already been warned by the Agency, Mr. Whoever. If this is another type of threat, I don't... X I'm not with the Agency, Mr. Garrison, and I assume if you've come this far, what I have to say interests you. But I'm not going to name names, or tell you who or what I represent. Except to say - you're close, you're closer than you think... Something about his manner speaks of authority, knowledge, and above all, old-fashioned honesty - the eyes looking at you straight on. He indicates a bench. X Everything I'm going to tell you is classified top secret... (significant look) I was a soldier, Mr. Garrison. Two wars. I was one of those secret guys in the Pentagon that supplies the military hardware - the planes, bullets, rifles - for what we call "black operations" - "black ops", assassinations, coup d'etats, rigging elections, propoganda, psych warfare and so forth. World War II - Rumania, Greece, Yugoslavia, I helped take the Nazi intelligence apparatus out to help us fight the Communists. Italy '48 stealing elections, France '49 breaking strikes - we overthrew Quirino in the Philippines, Arbenz in Guatemala, Mossadegh in Iran. Vietnam in '54, Indonesia '58, Tibet '59 we got the Dalai Lama out - we were good, very good. Then we got into the Cuban thing. Not so good. Set up all the bases for the invasion supposed to take place in October '62. Khrushchev sent the missiles to resist the invasion, Kennedy refused to invade and we were standing out there with our dicks in the wind. Lot of pissed-off people, Mr. Garrison, you understand? I'll come to that later... I spent much of September '63 working on the Kennedy plan for getting all U.S. personnel out of Vietnam by the end of '65. This plan was one of the strongest and most important papers issued from the Kennedy White House. Our first 1,000 troops were ordered home for Christmas. Tensions were high. In November '63, one week after the murder of Vietnamese President Diem in Saigon, and two weeks before the assassination of our President... FLASHBACK TO the Pentagon offices in 1963. X strides down a busy hall and into the offices of one of his superiors, Major General Y, a lean, cold warrior, battlefield handsome, civilian clothes, and several advisors. There's a U.S. flag on the wall. The status of Y is only clear by the sing on the desk, the name blocked by a passing figure. X ...a strange thing happened. I was sent by my superior officer, call him Y, to the South Pole as the military escort for a group of international VIP's. This trip had nothing to do with my nine years of work in Special Operations. It was sort of a "paid vacation". We hear vague ad-lib mutterings on the soundtrack indicating a friendly atmosphere, and we see stock footage of a C-130 transport flying to Antarctica and ice floes on the surface of the sea. Then, at a New Zealand airport, we see X, in a uniform, at a newsstand reading of Kennedy's assassination. The banner headline of an "Extra" edition of The Christchurch Star screams out "KENNEDY SHOT DEAD." X It wasn't until I was on my way back in New Zealand that I read of the President's murder. That was 2 in the afternoon the next day New Zealand time, but already the papers had the entire history of an unknown 24-year- old man, Oswald - a studio picture, detailed biographical data, Russian information - and were pretty sure of the fact he'd killed the President alone, although it took them four more hours to charge him with the murder in Texas. It felt as if, well, a cover story was being put out like we would in a black op. Back at the Pentagon office, we see X returning and meeting Y. The atmosphere is cordial, but Y is slightly different from before - more harried, more nervous. He turns away to light a cigarette, he doesn't want the usual conversation. X Anyway, after I came back I asked myself why was I, the chief of special ops, selected to travel to the South Pole at that time to do a job that any number of others could have done? One of my routine duties if I had been in Washington would've been to arrange for additional security in Texas. The Secret Service is relatively small, and by custom the military will augment them. I checked it out when I got back and sure enough, I found out someone had told the 112th Military Intelligence Group at 4th Army Headquarters at Fort Sam Houston to "stand down" that day, over the protests of the unit Commander, a Colonel Reich... We see an outdoor shot of the Texas Army Headquarters on a day in 1963. Inside, on the same day, Col. Reich is on the phone, puzzled. X Now this is significant, because it is standard operating procedure, especially in a known hostile city like Dallas, to supplement the Secret Service. Even if we had not allowed the bubbletop to be removed from the limousine, we'd've put at least 100 to 200 agents on the sidewalks, without question! There'd already been several attempts on de Gaulle's life in France. Only a month before in Dallas UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson had been spit on and hit. We'd have arrived days ahead of time, studied the route, checked all the buildings... We never would've allowed all those wide-open empty windows overlooking Dealey... never... We would have had our own snipers covering the area. The moment a window went up they'd have been on the radio. We would've been watching the crowds - packages, rolled up newspapers, a coat over an arm, never would have let a man open an umbrella along the way - Never would've allowed that limousine to slow down to 10 miles per hour, much less take that unusual curve at Houston and Elm. You would have felt an Army presence in the streets that day, but none of this happened. It was a violation of the most basic protection codes we have. And it is the best indication of a massive plot in Dallas. Who could have best done that? People in my business, Mr. Garrison. People like my superior officer could've told Col. Reich, "Look - we have another unit coming from so and so providing security. You'll stand down." That day, in fact, there were some individual Army Intelligence people in Dallas and I'm still trying to figure out who and why. But they weren't protecting the client. One of them, by the way, was caught in the Book Depository after police sealed it off. In Dealey Plaza, 1963, we see an Army intelligence man taking a shot with a Minolta camera. X Army Intell had a "Harvey Lee Oswald" on file, but all those files have been destroyed. Many strange things were happening that day, and Lee Harvey Oswald had nothing to do with them. We had the entire Cabinet on a trip to the Far East. We had a third of a combat division returning from Germany in the air above the United States at the time of the shooting, and at 12:34 P.M., the entire telephone system went dead in Washington for a solid hour, and on the plane back to Washington, word was radioed from the White House Situation Room to Lyndon Johnson that one individual performed the assassination. Does that sound like a bunch of coincidences to you, Mr. Garrison? Not for one moment. The cabinet was out of the country to get their perception out of the way. The troops were in the air for possible riot control. The phones didn't work to keep the wrong stories from spreading if anything went wrong with the plan. Nothing was left to chance. I bet you there were even backup teams and cars on the other side of the underpass in the event that Kennedy got through wounded. They would have moved in with vehicles like they did with de Gaulle. He could not be allowed to escape alive. The camera is on Jim, listening. This information is much greater than he ever envisioned, and he is stunned. X pauses. X I never though things were the same after that. Vietnam started for real. There was an air of, I don't know, make-believe in the Pentagon and the CIA. Those of us who'd been in secret ops since the beginning knew the Warren Commission was fiction, but there was something... deeper, uglier. And I knew Allen Dulles very well. I briefed him many a time in his house. He was also General Y's benefactor. But for the life of me I still can't figure out why Dulles was appointed to investigate Kennedy's death. The man who had fired him. I got out in '64. I retired from the U.S. Air Force. JACKIE KENNEDY I never realized Kennedy was so dangerous to the establishment. Is that why? X (chuckles) That's the real question, isn't it - "Why?" - the "how" is just "scenery" for the suckers... Oswald, Ruby, Cuba, Mafia, it keeps people guessing like a parlor game, but it prevents them from asking the most important question - Why? Why was Kennedy killed? Who benefitted? Who has the power to cover it up?... You know in '61 right after the Bay of Pigs - very few people know about this - I participated in drawing up National Security Action Memos 55, 56, and 57. These are crucial documents, classified top secret, but basically in them Kennedy instructs General Lemnitzer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, that from here on forward... FLASHBACK TO the Pentagon offices on a day in 1961. A document is moved by hand into Lemnitzer's office where we see a set of hands holding it while it's read. There's a look of surprise on Lemnitzer's face. X ... the Joint Chiefs of Staff would be wholly responsible for all covert paramilitary action in peacetime. This basically ended the reign of the CIA - "splintered it", as J.F.K. promised he would, into a "thousand pieces", - and now was ordering the military to help. This was unprecedented. I can't tell you the shock waves this sent along the corridors of power in Washington. This and, of course, firing Allen Dulles, Richard Bissell, and General Charles Cabell, all of them sacred cows of Intell since World War II. You got some very upset people here. DOCUMENTARY IMAGES flash on the screen - Allen Dulles, sweet- faced, smiling, at the Warren Commission Hearing and visiting Dealey Plaza; General Charles Cabell and Richard Bissell... X Kennedy's directives were never really implemented, because of bureaucratic resistance, but one of the results was that the Cuban operation was turned over to my department as "Operation Mongoose", which meant that people like my superior officer, General Y, took over the Cuban personnel that were being trained to invade Cuba - and the bases like the training camp at Pontchartrain in your home state that were closed down by Kennedy... and that's how the "black ops" people, people like General Y, ended up taking the rules of covert warfare they'd used abroad and brought'em into this country. Now they had the people, the equipment, bases and the motivation... check out an old CIA man, Bill Harvey - ran something called "Executive Action", which carried out foreign assassinations. Harvey was also involved with the fake defection program that got Oswald into Russia. Check out the Cabell brothers. Interesting links to this case. At Arlington Cemetery on the same day, Jim visits the grave of President Kennedy. We see the eternal flame. Jim thinks about what he should do now. The size of it stuns him. He is lost, reeling back to the past in his mind. DISSOLVE TO DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE of Dachau concentration camp: thousands of bodies are piled and bulldozed... And then back to Jim at Arlington Cemetery reliving it... only the enormity of past evil can prepare him to confront present evil. In a strange way, it reassures him. X ...don't underestimate the budget cuts Kennedy called for in March of '63 either - close to 52 military installations in 25 states, 21 overseas bases, you're talking big money. You know how many helicopters have been lost in Vietnam? About three thousand so far. Who makes them? Bell Helicopter. Who owns Bell? Bell was near bankruptcy when the First National Bank of Boston approached the CIA about developing the helicopter for Indochina usage. How 'bout the f-111 fighters? General Dynamics in Fort Worth. Who owns that? Find out the defense budget since the war began. $75 going on a hundred billion ... $200 billion'll be spent before it ends. In 1950 it was $13 billion. No war, no money. Sometimes I think the organizing principle of any society is for war. The authority of the state over it's people resides in it's war powers. Even Eisenhower - military hero of WWII - warned us about it: "beware the military - industrial complex", he said. Kennedy wanted to end the Cold War in his second term. He wanted to call of the moon race in favor of cooperation with the Soviets. He signed a treaty with the Soviets to ban nuclear testing, he refused to invade Cuba in '62, and he set out to withdraw from Vietnam. But that all ended on November 22, 1963. FLASHBACK TO the White House, 1963. Lyndon Johnson is with Henry Cabot Lodge. We see them as shadowy figures from a distance across the wide room, or near a veranda with a porch and plenty of light. Johnson, his back to us, talks in a loud, thick Texas drawl (mostly muted) and signs a document. X Only four days after J.F.K. was shot, Lyndon Johnson signed National Security Memo 273, which essentially reversed Kennedy's new withdrawal policy and gave the green light to the covert operations against North Vietnam that provoked the Gulf of Tonkin incident. In that document lay the Vietnam War. In the park with X, Jim is staggered by all this information. X ceases walking and looks at Jim. JIM I don't... I can't believe it. They killed him because he wanted to change things. In our time - in our country? X (shrugging) Kings are killed, Mr. Garrison. Politics is power, nothing more. But don't believe me. Don't trust me. Do your own work, your own thinking. JIM The size of this is... beyond me. Testify? X No chance in hell, Mr. Garrison. I'd be arrested and gagged, declared insane and hospitalized... maybe worse. You, too. I can only give you background, you got to find the foreground, the little things... Keep digging. Y'know you're the only person to ever bring a trial in the murder of John Kennedy. That's important - it's historic. JIM I haven't yet. I don't have much of a case. X (rising to leave) But you don't have a choice anymore. You've become a significant threat to the national security structure. They would've killed you already, but you got a lot of light on you. Instead, they're gonna destroy your credibility; they already have in many circles in this town. You're some kinda ego-crazed southern caricature to many folks. Be honest - the best chance you got is come up with a case, something, anything, make arrests, stir the shitstorm. You gotta hope to reach a point of critical mass where other people will come forward and the government will crack. Remember, fundamentally people are suckers for the truth, and the truth is on your side, 'bubba. I hope you get a break... Jim watches this mystery man walking away. The figure vanishes in the Washington breeze. Flags flap over some distant memorial to some distant history of the Republic. Jim rises, a decision made. EXTERIOR OF CLAY SHAW'S HOUSE - NEW ORLEANS(1967) Jim, Lou, Al, Numa and several policemen stand at the door as Clay Shaw comes to it. LOU Mr. Shaw, you're under arrest, charged with conspiracy and entering into an agreement with other persons for the specific purpose of committing the crime of murder of President John F. Kennedy in violation of... The voice dropping away as the devastated look on Shaw's face spreads, sickly, undone, his arrogant public composure gone, face now filled with terror, disbelief. LOU ...we have a warrant to search the premises. The policemen take Shaw while the D.A. staff moves into the carriage house past the butler, Frankie Jenkins. INSIDE SHAW'S HOUSE In the bedroom, Numa points out to Jim the hooks screwed into the ceiling. Al pulls out five whips, several lengths of chain, a black hood and matching black cape. Dried blood is on one whip. NUMA It's either a Mardi Gras outfit, or we got the Marquis de Sade here, chief. JIM I don't care if he was doing it with giraffes in the zoo, Numa, it's none of our business. Let's keep this side of it quiet, shall we? AL When you're in a war, boss, you use every weapon you got. JIM Not one word. That's an order. NEW ORLEANS POLICE STATION Shaw is being fingerprinted. He seems rattled. Police officers try to get the press under control. OFFICER Name? First, middle, last. SHAW Clay Lavergne Shaw. OFFICER HABIGHORST Address? SHAW 1313 Dauphine, New Orleans. OFFICER HABIGHORST Ever use any aliases? SHAW Clay Bertrand. Habighorst notes it as routinely as Shaw seems to have said it, without thinking, possibly preoccupied by thoughts of press people pushing in. OFFICER HABIGHORST Next of kin? NEWSMAN 12 Mr. Shaw - What do you have to say? MONTAGE - NEWSREEL MUSIC We see a shot of the exterior of the Justice Department in 1967. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT CONFERENCE ROOM The acting Attorney General speaks to the press. ATTORNEY GENERAL Yes, Mr. Shaw was included in our investigation and there was no connection found at all between Shaw and the President's assassin. GARRISON'S OFFICE - CONFERENCE ROOM(1967) Jim confronts a packed room. Bill is with him. JIM If Mr. Shaw had no connection to the assassination, why did the FBI investigate him? And why, if they did, is his name not mentioned once in the entire 26 volumes of the Warren Report, even it if is to clear his name? I doubt this Attorney General would qualify for my staff. We see a shot of the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. and then a corridor inside the building. A Chief Justice, looking gray and wise like Earl Warren, moves along the corridor in his black robe delivering his verdict to the press. CHIEF JUSTICE No, I don't think so. Mr. Garrison has presented absolutely nothing publicly to contradict our findings. As yet I have not heard one fact to refute the Commission determination that Lee Oswald was the lone killer. In his own office, Jim responds to Justice Warren. JIM I congratulate Mr. Shaw. Most witnesses have to wait for trial before they're allowed to produce sacred cows like the Chief Justice of the land as a character witness, who is of course not under oath and free from the laws of perjury. NEWSMAN 13 Mr. Garrison, if what you say is even partly true in this case, you realize you are damaging the credibility of our government, possibly destroying it? JIM Let me ask you... is a government worth preserving when it lies to the people? It has become a dangerous country, sir, when you can't trust anyone anymore, when you can't tell the truth. I say let justice be done, though the heavens fall. It doesn't play with the press. They shuffle off, quiet, whispering. GARRISON'S HOUSE(1967) Liz and Jim watch, silently devastated, as the NBC "WHITE PAPER" unfolds, attacking Jim. They can do nothing. Liz leaves the room, upset. HOTEL SUITE - NEW ORLEANS(1967) Julia Ann Mercer, 28, looks at Jim with sincere eyes. Her husband, a prosperous Republican businessman, watches from the corner. Jim - along with Al - has her testimony in front of him. JIM In the sheriff's report, Mrs. Mercer, it says you were at Dealey Plaza two hours before the assassination but that... MERCER Yes, it was about 11 in the morning. I was driving west on Elm Street toward the Triple Underpass, in a rented car - a blue Valiant. I'll never forget that day. FLASHBACK TO Dealey Plaza in 1963. It's a normal scene - cars, traffic, people starting to arrive for Kennedy's appearance. We catch a glimpse of Julia Ann Mercer, 23, driving, then stopping traffic. MERCER ...there was quite a bit of traffic and I was stopped alongside a green pickup truck. It was very noticeable because it was blocking traffic and it was parked with two wheels on the curb. When I saw the gun, I thought - the Secret Service is not very secret. She glances over at the man in the driver's seat. It's Jack Ruby, wearing a green jacket. Then she sees a young white man in his mid - 20's, in a gray jacket, brown pants, plaid shirt and wool stocking hat, getting out of the passenger side, going to the rear of the van, opening a tool compartment and removing a package that looks like a rifle wrapped in paper. He walks up the embankment in the direction of the picket fence. Ruby looks over and stares at Julia Ann, who turns away and notices three police officers standing near a motorcycle on the overpass bridge. Her eyes lock with Ruby's a second time and as the traffic moves, she drives on. MERCER The next morning, Saturday, I went to the FBI office and the agents showed me photographs... In the Dallas FBI office, Mercer sits at a table looking at photos. Two FBI agents stand near her showing her photos. She shakes her head "no" several times, until they put a shot of Jack Ruby in front of her. She holds it up. MERCER I picked out three pictures that looked generally like the driver of the truck and then... MERCER That's the man. FBI AGENT (to Second Agent) Jack Ruby. SECOND AGENT What about these others? You said they might be him. MERCER They look a little like him. But no, (holding up the Ruby photo) I'm sure this is the man. Back in the present, Jim continues to question Mercer. JIM You mean you identified him on Saturday, the day before Ruby shot Oswald? MERCER That's right. When I saw him on TV, I was shocked. I said to my family, "that was the man I saw in the truck." JIM (skeptical) But you didn't seem nearly so sure in your statement to the Warren Commission. MERCER That's what bothers me, Mr. Garrison. You see, they've been altered. My statements... Jim is silent. Mercer picks up the report and finds the pertinent paragraphs: MERCER This says "Mercer could not identify any of the photographs as being identical with the person she had observed slouched over the wheel of a green Ford pickup truck." That's not true. I recognized him and I told them so... They also said it was a dark green air conditioning truck, which it was not. And here... (she goes to another report) ...on the Dallas Sheriff's report. This is really strange. See that notarized signature on the bottom of each page? That's not my signature. And there never was any notary present during any of my questioning. (she hands the papers back to Jim) I guess that's all... JIM Mrs. Mercer, as a former FBI man, it's difficult to accept this. MERCER I know, but Mr. Garrison, the FBI is just not doing their job. HUSBAND I'm a Republican, Mr. Garrison, and I don't go in for this kind of government bashing, but I must tell you something's not right when they don't even bother to call Julia in front of the Warren Commission. JIM They didn't call a lot of people, Mr. Mercer. I think it's safe to say the Warren Report is a work of fiction. DALLAS CLUB - NIGHT(1967) BEVERLY, a woman of ample proportions and a big, cute Texas face, ex-club singer, meets with Jim and Lou Ivon in a nightclub not unlike Ruby's Carousel. LOU Beverly, tell Mr. Garrison about the Carousel club. BEVERLY (V.O.) Oh yes, I used to go over there a lot to see Jack and especially my friend Jada who danced there. It was the real swinging spot in town. Everybody came. Businessmen, politicians from Austin, Lyndon Johnson's friends... Dallas was a slow town back then. You chewed toothpicks, played dominos, spit and dated policemen. But Jack's was exciting. There were always cops there. Jack liked 'em around, but he used to throw the drunks out himself, 'cause he was kinda a violent- tempered man... it seemed everybody in those days knew Jack was with the Mob. The cops were "bad" back then - they'd shake you down for the money in your pocket. They put a lotta people in the cemetery, especially colored people. LOU Beverly, what about Lee? Jada and Beverly sit down at the table with Ferrie, Oswald, and Jack, with Jack doing the buying. It's too loud to hear anything. BEVERLY (V.O.) Oh, yeah. One time I came in, Jack introduces me to these two guys. He said, "Beverly, this is my friend Lee..." and I didn't catch the other guy's name. He was a weird-looking guy with those funny little eyebrows. The other guy, Lee, didn't make much of an impression either. He wasn't good-looking or nuthin', he didn't look like he had any money, and he was in a bad mood, so I didn't pay him much mind. Well, I might not remember a name, but I always remember a face. When I saw him tow weeks later on the television, I screamed, "Oh, my God - that's him! That's Jack's friend!" I knew right then it had something to do with the Mafia... Well, about a week later, after she told the newspapers she'd met this guy Lee with Jack, Jada disappears off the face of the Earth... THE CAMERA MOVES IN ON JADA BEVERLY (V.O.) Never knew what happened to her till Herman offered to sell me her wardrobe. I said, "but Jada's coming back," and I remember the way he smiled... and I knew she was never coming back. BACK TO the 1967 scene. JIM Will you testify, Beverly? BEVERLY I don't think so, sir. LOU I thought when we came here, we had an agreement. BEVERLY I just don't want to become another statistic like her. If they can kill the President, do you think they're gonna think twice about a two-bit showgirl like me? LOU We could call you in, Beverly. JIM I know the pressure you're under, Beverly. Don't think I don't. (as he exits) I understand. DISSOLVE TO DEALEY PLAZA(1967) Our view is from the roof of the building on the extreme south side of the Plaza. J.C. Price, the building engineer, in hat and overalls, points for Jim and Lou. PRICE (V.O.) ...yes, sir, right here on this spot. The shots came from near that wooden fence over there, near the overpass. The camera tightens on the picket fence. PRICE I saw a man run from this spot and go behind the Book Depository - 30 minutes later I gave this information to the Sheriff. On the overpass near Dealey Plaza, S.M. Holland, a tan, elderly, leather-faced signal supervisor, points to the picket fence for Jim and Lou. His accent is thick and rural. We saw him before, briefly, when Jim was reading the Warren Report. HOLLAND I made it very clear to the Warren people one of the shots came from behind that picket fence. I heard the report and saw the smoke come out about 6 or 8 feet above the ground, right out from under those trees. There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind... FLASHBACK TO the restaged shooting. The smoke hangs under the trees. CUT TO Richard Dodd on the overpass. He's a cowboy type with a hat and an even thicker accent than Holland. DODD (pointing) ...we, all four of us, all railroad men, standing here, seen about the same thing. The smoke came from behind the hedge - and a motorcycle policeman dropped his cycle in the street and run up the embankment... FLASHBACK to the motorcycle... BACK TO 1967. Jim and Lou walk with Dodd and Holland near the picket fence. We feel the emptiness of the area now and see the normal amount of traffic driving by. HOLLAND ...we came around here to look for tracks. It rained that morning and we found a bunch of cigarette butts. Someone'd been standing about here... The camera shows the "spot" and Lou sighting. LOU This is a good spot, chief, for the head shot. Jim looks, reliving the moment. Later Jim and Lou stand on the south side of Elm Street in Dealey Plaza talking to Jean Hill, an attractive, 30-ish teacher. Her demeanor has a rock-solid Texas back-country conviction to it; she's a woman not easily frightened. JEAN HILL I was standing here next to my friend Mary Mooman, who took the photograph when he was killed... We see a flash of the Moorman photograph - a blurry Polaroid with the President in the foreground and the picket fence in background. We will return to this photograph in more detail later. JEAN HILL I jumped out in the street and yelled, "Hey Mr. President, look over here, we wanna take your picture." He looked up and then shots rang out. Mary fell to the ground right away, shouting, "Get down, they're shooting, get down, they're shooting." I knew it but I was moving to get closer to him. The driver had stopped - I don't know what was wrong with that driver. And then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw this flash of light, in the bushes and that last shot... just ripped his head off, I mean, blood, brains, just blew everything... FLASHBACK TO the day of the shooting. We hear the sound of shots and see the Grassy Knoll from Jean's point of view. JEAN HILL I looked up and saw smoke from the Knoll. And everything was frozen - seemed like people wasn't even breathing, like you're looking at a picture - except this one guy. I saw this one guy running from the Book Depository towards the railroad tracks. And that was the same man I saw on TV two days later shooting Oswald. That was Jack Ruby. No question about it. Blurry image - we're not at all sure what or who or if... but a seed is planted. We see smoke - the same smoke Bowers saw... then Jack Ruby in a brown coat running from the Book Depository toward the railroad tracks. Then we see Jean's view as she runs toward the Knoll along with others. there are yells, shouts, and general confusion. JEAN HILL It was him I was chasing up the Grassy Knoll, thinking our guys had shot back and maybe we got one of them. I don't know what I would have done if I had caught him, but I knew something terrible had happened and somebody had to do something. At the picket fence, we see blurry images of police officers, railroad workers, cigarette butts, buddy footprints, confusion... *JEAN HILL I never did catch him. All I saw in that parking area were railroad workers and Dallas' finest. Two Secret Service types approach her suddenly, and one of them puts an arm on her shoulder. FIRST AGENT Secret Service, ma'am. You're coming with us. JEAN HILL Oh no, I'm not. I don't know you. We gotta catch this shooter - don't you realize? SECOND AGENT (grabbing her other shoulder) I said you're coming with us. I want the pictures in your pocket. JEAN HILL (V.O.) ...he put a hurt on me but good. JEAN HILL I don't have any pictures! I have to go back and find my friend Mary. Lemme alone! The two agents hustle her away. FIRST AGENT Hush! Just smile and keep walking. Hill, 32 years old that day, is shown into a third floor office of the County Courts Building - which has a view of the assassination area. Other Secret Service agents are there. Some 18 people are detained there. TIME CUT TO two men interrogating Hill. JEAN HILL (V.O.) These new people never identified themselves. They musta been watching the whole thing 'cause they knew everything Mary and me had been doing that day. I guess I wasn't too hard to find - wearing that red raincoat. MAN How many shots you say you heard? JEAN HILL Four to six. MAN That's impossible. You heard echoes ...echoes. We have three bullets and three shots which came from the Book Depository and that's all we're willing to say. JEAN HILL (V.O.) ...which is strange 'cause this is less than 20 minutes after the assassination. JEAN HILL No, I saw a guy shooting from over there. He was behind that fence. What are you going to do about it? MAN We have that taken care of. You only heard three shots and you are not to talk to anyone about this. No one, you hear? JEAN HILL (V.O.) I was scared. It was all kinda queer, but it sure felt like two and two was coming up three... and then they took Mary's five snapshots from me, sent them to Washington, and when they returned them weeks later, two of them had the backgrounds mutilated... The only one we saved was in Mary's camera. I didn't want to go to Washington when the Warren Commission subpoenaed me... so the lawyer come down here and interviewed me at Parkland Hospital. In a Parkland Hospital office in 1964, a lawyer interviews Jean Hill. A female stenographer takes notes. JEAN HILL He asked me why I thought I was in danger and I said: JEAN HILL Well if they can kill the President, they can certainly get me. LAWYER That doesn't make sense, Mrs. Hill. We have the man that killed the President. JEAN HILL No, you don't! JEAN HILL He kept trying to get me to change my story about the shots. He was getting hot under the collar, and telling the woman not to write when he wanted. JEAN HILL Look, do you want the truth, or just what you want me to say? LAWYER I want the truth. JEAN HILL The truth is that I heard between four and six shots. I'm not going to lie for you. LAWYER ...you heard echoes. JEAN HILL No. I had guns all my life. I used to go turtle shooting. LAWYER I realize you're under a great deal of stress .. it's clouded your judgement. JEAN HILL (V.O.) So off the record, he starts talking about my family, and even mentioned my marriage was in trouble like I didn't know it or something. He got angrier and angrier and then: LAWYER Look, we can put you in a mental institution. We can make you look crazier'n Marguerite Oswald, and everybody knows how crazy she is. JEAN HILL (V.O.) I knew something was crooked as a dog's hind leg, 'cause no one who is just taking a deposition gets that involved and angry... sure enough, when I finally read my testimony as published by the Warren Commission, it was a fabrication from start to finish. JIM Are you willing to testify, Mrs. Hill? Back at the Knoll. JEAN HILL (without hesitation) Damned right I would. Somebody's got to tell the truth around here 'cause the Government sure ain't doing it. DISSOLVE TO a scene inside the Texas School Book Depository in 1967. Jim and Lou walk the floor and look out the windows. Lou has a Mannlicher-Carcano in his hand with a sight and clip. We see Oswald's supposed view of the limousine as he pulls the trigger. Now, innocuous traffic goes by, but the iris of the camera tightens into a sniper's scope. LOU The Zapruder film establishes 3 shots in 5.6 seconds. Here. I'm Oswald. Time me. Lou cocks the Mannlicher for the first shot. Jim looks at this watch. Lou assumes the Oswald pose, crouched at the window aiming out. JIM Go! Lou pulls, quickly recharges the bolt, fires, recycles, fires. LOU Time? JIM Between six and seven seconds. LOU The key is the second and third shots came right on top of each other, and it takes a minimum 2.3 seconds to recycle this thing. (he recycles the bolt for firing) The other problem is there was a tree right there... (he points) Blocking the first two shots at the time they occur in the Zapruder film. JIM Didn't Hoover say something about that? The leaves had fallen off in November? LOU It was a Texas Live Oak, boss. (he shakes his head) It sheds it's leaves the first week of March. You try to hit a moving target at 88 yards through heavy foliage with this cheap 13-dollar sucker, the world's worst shoulder weapon. No way. The FBI tried two sets of tests and not one of their sharpshooters could match Oswald's performance. Not one. And Oswald was at best a medium shot. The scope was defective on it, too. I mean this is the whole essence of the case to me. The guy couldn't do the shooting. Nobody could. And they sold this lemon to the American public. JIM The Zapruder film is the proof they didn't count on, Lou. We gotta get our hands on it. LOU That means we gotta subpoena Time- Life on it. JIM (looks out the window) Why not just shoot Kennedy coming up Houston? There's plenty of time - he's out in the open - a frontal shot? Jim points the Carcano south, right up Houston Street, following a car that happens to be passing by - a convertible with an unknown woman driving. LOU I asked myself the same thing. Common sense. Even if you miss the first shot, if he accelerates you still got him for a second shot. No... the only reason for waiting to get him on Elm is you got him in a triangulated crossfire. You got him on a flat low trajectory from the front at the fence there. The camera swings to the Grassy Knoll and the picket fence as seen from the sixth floor of the Depository. LOU ...you put a third team there - in that building, on a low floor. The camera swings to the Daltex Building across the street. LOU When Kennedy gets to the kill zone, it's a turkey shoot. JIM (aiming) How many men? LOU One shooter. One spotter on a radio. Maybe three teams. I'd say these were professional riflemen, chief, serious people. Hunters... patient. It takes skill to kill with a rifle, that's why there's been no execution of an executive with one in 200 years... "3-2-1... green!" (he taps Jim on the shoulder) Or else "Abort! Abort!" Jim pulls the dead trigger, reliving the moment through the scope on a passing car. LOU Main Street's over there - the original parade route on the way to the Trade Mart. Too far right? Impossible shot. Jim swings the scope up to confront Main Street. Another car is in his sight. Too far. LOU So they changed the route to bring it this way. Moving at a normal 25 mph, they knew the motorcade would have to slow to about 10 miles per hour to make this turn. That's where you get him. The camera swings to the Houston and Main intersection. JIM Who do you think changed the parade route? LOU Beats me. City officials. Secret Service. Dallas police. They did a dry run with Chief Curry a few days before. But they didn't bother running through Dealey. They stopped right there, said something like, "and afterwards there's only the freeway," and went home. JIM You know who the mayor was? LOU No. JIM Earle Cabell. And guess who his brother is? LOU Who? JIM General Charles Cabell. Deputy Director of the CIA. Fired by Kennedy in '61 because of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, he moved back to the Pentagon, called Kennedy a "traitor". When he came to New Orleans to address the Foreign Policy Association, you know who introduced him? Our friend Clay Shaw. LOU The Warren Commission call him? JIM (shaking his head) His boss was the one on the Warren Commission who handled all the leads to the intelligence community. LOU Allen Dulles? JIM (he nods) Head of the CIA since '53. Kennedy fired them both. Cabell was his deputy for nine years. (sickened) Talk about the fox investigating the chicken coop. Now we'll have to subpoena them, Lou. LOU They're gonna love you, chief. Lou walks to another window in the empty Book Depository where Oswald supposedly did his dirty deed and looks out over the plaza, with all its ghosts. Jim and Lou are two men - with only two men's power. A terrible aloneness pervades their minds. JIM Maybe we should just call it a day, Lou. Go home. While we're still a little behind. We got two people killed, maybe more we never thought about. LOU You never got anyone killed, boss. Their actions killed them years before. If we stopped now, it'd be even more wrong. FLASHBACK TO 1963 - the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository - the same place Jim and Lou are now. Jim looks around and sees one shooter and one spotter with a lunchbox radio, in repairman clothes. Jim is watching. Neither of these men is Oswald. We hear the sounds of the motorcade below. The shooter pulls the trigger on the Carcano. A loud frightening sound snaps Jim back to the present. JIM (in present) Subpoena them, Lou - Dulles, the Cabells, Time-Life... the whole damned lot of 'em! GARRISON'S OFFICE - 9 MONTHS LATER - 1968 We see another smoke-filled conference of assistants. Paperwork is stacked in the corners almost to the ceiling; there are coffee cups and doughnuts on desks. The disorganization and lack of resources are apparent. The staff working on this project now numbers some eleven people, and there are some new investigators and assistants. We sense that the trial is drawing closer. AL The U.S. Attorney in Washington "declines" to serve our subpoena on Allen Dulles, Charles Cabell, CIA Director Richard Helms, or any FBI agent we named. JIM Well, what do you expect from a pig but a grunt. AL Without them, it's going to be near impossible, chief, to prove Shaw's connection to the CIA. We got the same problem with the governors. All of them. Reagan in California won't give us Brading, Ohio refuses Orville Townsend, Texas on Arcacha, and Nebraska on Sandra Moffet. BILL What the hell is going on? Never before has an extradition request from this office been refused. AL We haven't tried to get Julia Anne Mercer in? JIM No, she could get hurt. If you believe what's happening to these other people. NUMA She's the best damn witness we have! JIM I just don't want to do it. What else? Numa is opening another stack of letters. The dollar bills keep coming. He points to two giant stacks of mail. NUMA Hate mail here. Fan mail here. The bad news is the IRS has just requested an audit on your income from this office. JIM (he snorts) I expected that two months ago, and they're wasting their time... The bad news is the National Guard has just asked me to resign after 18 years. (we see his hurt) Well, maybe that's good news - it was never as good as combat, but this is. Bill, any more on Oswald and Shaw? BILL Yeah. They were seen together in Clinton in early September. The Civil Rights Movement was running a voter registration drive. BILL ...rumor is Shaw, a local boy, was working on some arms deal to discredit the civil rights movement. No one really knows what they were doing there, but everyone sure saw 'em. They stood out like cottonballs. I got whites and blacks saw 'em, but last time I checked there was nothing illegal with registering to vote. We still got the Negro junkie, Vernon Bundy, saw 'em talkin' at the seawall near Lake Pontchartrain. But it's tough, boss - no one wants to talk about Shaw. He's... LOU (back to present) You know you keep saying that. BILL Keep saying what? LOU You're not digging. JIM I think Clinton is a breakthrough. Shaw denies he knows Ferrie or Oswald. Is that right? It proves he's a liar. Keep on it, Bill. (a look from Lou) SUSIE This is interesting - are you ready for this? Oswald went to see the FBI two weeks before the assassination. It seems Special Agent Hosty made three routine visits to his house, supposedly to keep an eye on Marina Oswald. FLASHBACK TO Dallas FBI Office in 1963. Oswald is at the counter addressing the female receptionist. OSWALD I want to see Special Agent Hosty. RECEPTIONIST I'm sorry, he's not in. Can someone else help you? OSWALD Can I use a pen? SUSIE (V.O.) He left a note. Hosty told a Dallas newspaperman it was a warning to him to stop questioning Marina at their home when Oswald was not present. She was not a citizen, so possibly he was threatening to deport her back to Russia. TIMECUT TO FBI James Hosty confronting his agitated superior, FBI Agent Shanklin in one of his cubicles. SUSIE But what the note really said no one knows because his boss Shanklin told Hosty... SHANKLIN (reading the note) Oswald's dead now. There's no trial. Get rid of it. I don't even want this in the office. Get rid of it, Hosty. (he gives it back to Hosty) SUSIE (V.O.) Hosty tore it up and flushed it down the toilet. Waggoner Carr, the Attorney General of Texas, says he had evidence from the Dallas Sheriff's office that Oswald had been employed as an undercover informant for the FBI at a salary of $200 a month, beginning more than a year before the murder. JIM (in present) This is just speculation, people, but what if the note was describing the assassination attempt on J.F.K.? (the staff seem surprised by the thought) Come on guys, think - that's the only reason to destroy it, because if it was any kind of threat, like Hosty said, they would've kept it 'cause it makes their case against the "angry lone nut" stronger! Remember the New Orleans meeting with Agent Quigley the day he got busted? FLASHBACK TO Oswald, under arrest, meeting with Quigley. JIM ...there again Quigley destroyed the notes of the meeting. I think we can raise the possibility that Oswald not only was an informant but that he may well have been the original source for the telex we have dated November 17 warning of the Kennedy assassination in Dallas on November 22. Holds up the telex. We see a close-up: "URGENT TO ALL SACS FROM DIRECTOR." JIM William Walter, the night clerk on duty here in the FBI office, gave me a copy of this. It went all over the country. Nothing was done, and the motorcade went ahead on schedule - and this wasn't even mentioned in the Warren Report! Read it, Al. AL (V.O.) "Threat to assassinate President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, November 22-23. Information received by the Bureau has determined that a militant revolutionary group may attempt to assassinate President Kennedy on his proposed trip to Dallas, Texas, etc, etc..." FLASHBACK TO New Orleans FBI office in 1963. Walter, the night clerk, receives the teletype, reads it, and runs it. JIM (V.O.) ...shortly after the assassination, Walter says, the telex was removed from all the files in all cities, as an obvious embarrassment to the Bureau. I believe Oswald was sending information through Hosty... FLASHBACK TO a Dallas safe house in 1963. Oswald, Ruby, and several Cubans including the Bull and the Indian are talking. JIM I have a hunch that from the get go, Oswald had infiltrated this group, probably Cubans or right-wing extremists. He was at the Book Depository that day, told to be there by their handlers, either to prevent the assassination or to take part in it. They coulda told him anything, either 1) they were going to close down the plotters that day, or 2) they were going to fake an attack on Kennedy to whip up public opinion against Russia or Cuba and reverse his policies - it doesn't really matter what they told him, 'cause he was under orders, he was a foot soldier. Underneath the voice-over we hear and see Oswald, with a floor plan of the Book Depository, at the center of the group. Jack Ruby, Bull, and the Indian, two or three young Cubans and a young white shooter - the man in the plaid shirt described by Julia Ann Mercer - are also there. OSWALD (to the two young Cubans) I can get you in and up there. This is a shot out the southeast window of the sixth floor. That floor will be unoccupied between noon and one. BULL What about the elevator? OSWALD I can close it off. The only access is a stairwell. BULL We get them in as an air-conditioning unit. RUBY No. A floor refurbishing group. Got the van, the uniforms... OSWALD (his back to the screen) ...if we can get the motorcade to turn from Main onto Houston, that'll do the trick, 'cause it'll slow down to make the turn here. You can't miss. (to the two young Cubans) He's a dead duck. Ruby shares a look with Bull unbeknownst to Oswald, and then we see the looks on the faces of Jim's team. BILL I don't buy it, chief - why would the FBI cover it up? You're talking the whole FBI here. A telex that disappears from every single FBI office in the country? JIM There's a word - orders. Back in Garrison's office in 1968. SUSIE Or a cover up! Jesus, Bill, don't you have enough proof of the FBI's complicity now? BILL (to Susie) Maybe I have a little more respect for this country's institutions than you do, Susie. You tell me how the hell you can keep a conspiracy going between the Mob, the CIA, FBI, and Army Intelligence and who knows what else, when you know you can't even keep a secret in this room between 12 people! We got leaks everywhere! We're going to trial here! What the hell do we really got? Oswald, Ruby, Banister, Ferrie are dead. Shaw - maybe he's an agent, I don't know, but as a covert operator in my book he's wide open for blackmail 'cause of his homosexuality. JIM Shaw's our toehold, Bill. I don't know exactly what he is, where he fits, and I don't care. I do know he's lying through his teeth and I'm not gonna let go of him! BILL So for those reasons, you're going to trial against Clay Shaw, chief? Well, you're gonna lose! We should be investigating all our Mafia leads here in New Orleans - Carlos Marcello, Santos Trafficante - I can buy that a hell of a lot easier than the Government. Ruby's all Mob, knows Oswald, sets him up. Hoffa - Trafficante - Marcello, they hire some guns and they do Kennedy and maybe the Government doesn't want to open up a whole can o'worms there because it used the Mob to get to Castro. Y'know, Castro being assassinated sounds pretty wild to John Q. Citizen. So they close the book on J.F.K. It makes sense to me. JIM I don't doubt their involvement, Bill, but at a low level. Could the Mob change the parade route, Bill, or eliminate the protection for the President? Could the Mob send Oswald to Russia and get him back? Could the Mob get the FBI, the CIA, and the Dallas Police to make a mess of the investigation? Could the Mob appoint the Warren Commission to cover it up? Could the Mob wreck the autopsy? Could the Mob influence the national media to go to sleep? And since when has the Mob used anything but .38's for hits, up close? The Mob wouldn't have the guts or the power for something of this magnitude. Assassins need payrolls, orders, times, schedules. This was a military-style ambush from start to finish... a coup d'etat with Lyndon Johnson waiting in the wings. BILL Oh, now you're saying Lyndon Johnson was involved? The President of the United States? His voice is challenging. There's a pause. The men exchange looks and wait. JIM I know this, Bill - Lyndon Johnson got $1 billion for his Texas friends, Brown and Root, to dredge Cam Ranh Bay for the military in Vietnam. That's just for openers. BILL Boss, are you calling the President a murderer? JIM If I'm so far from the truth, why is the FBI bugging our offices? Why are our witnesses being bought off and murdered? Why are Federal agencies blocking our extraditions and subpoenas when we were never blocked before? BILL Maybe 'cause there's some rogue element in the Government! The others in the room groan at the reasoning. Bill feels embittered, cornered. JIM With a full-blown conspiracy to cover it up? Y'ever read your Shakespeare, Bill? BILL Yeah. JIM Julius Caesar: "Brutus and Cassius, they too are honorable men." Who killed Caesar? Twenty, twenty-five Senators. All it takes is one Judas, Bill - a few people, on the inside, Pentagon, CIA... BILL (he gets up) This is Louisiana, chief. How the hell do you know who your daddy is? 'Cause your momma told you so... You're way out there taking a crap in the wind, boss, and I for one ain't going along on this one. (he exits) Jim sighs, saddened. Bill was one of his best men. LOU Chief, I've had my doubts about Bill for a long time. He's fighting everything. JIM We need him back. AL Bill wasted a goddamn month trying to prove that mob boys like Barding and Jack Ruby played ball in right field with Hunt Oil. LOU I don't trust the guy. JIM (standing) Gentlemen, I will not hear this. I value Bill as much as anyone here. (Lou reacts angrily) We all need to make room for someone else's ideas, Lou, especially me. Maybe Oswald is what everyone says he is and I'm just plain dumb wrong. AL I've seen him copying files, leaving here late at night. LOU I just plain don't trust him anymore. JIM (angry) Maybe you didn't hear what I said. I will not tolerate this infighting among the staff, I warn you that... LOU (suddenly) Boss, then I'm afraid I can't continue working with Bill. Tension, silence. JIM (pause, then quietly) Are you giving me an ultimatum, Lou? LOU Well, if that's what you want to call it. I didn't ever think it would come to this. I guess I am, boss. JIM I will not have any damned ultimatums put to me, Lou. I'll accept your resignation. LOU You sure got it. You're one stubborn and stupid sonofabitch D.A. and you're making one hell of a mistake! He storms out. SUSIE Aren't you being a little hard? JIM No, I don't think I am, Susie. Anyone else? GARRISON'S LIVING ROOM - (1968) It's after dinner and toys scattered around the living room. Snapper is chasing his sister Elizabeth around. Virginia, 6, runs to the ringing phone in the living room, as her mother and Mattie, stunned, watch the news of Martin Luther King's death on TV. MATTIE My God! My God! What have they done! (angrily) It's lynchin' time! VIRGINIA I'll get it. (into phone) Hello. MALE VOICE Hello. Is this Jim Garrison's daughter? VIRGINIA Yes? MALE VOICE Virginia or Elizabeth? VIRGINIA Virginia. MALE VOICE Virginia, you're a lucky little girl. Your daddy has entered you in a beauty contest. Would you like to be in a beauty contest? VIRGINIA That sounds fun. MALE VOICE I need some information from you then. How old are you? VIRGINIA Six. MALE VOICE And how tall are you? CUT TO Jim's study, where Jim also watches the news in horror. We see TV images of Martin Luther King on the motel balcony, dead. NEWSMAN 9 To repeat - 39-year-old Martin Luther King, who preached non-violence and won the Nobel Peace Prize, was cut down earlier today by a sniper's bullets while standing on the porch of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was surrounded by his closest aides. The police say they have no suspects at this time. Mr. King... Jim, visibly shaken, slams his book down on the desk in frustration. BACK TO the male voice on the phone. MALE VOICE And you get of from school at 3 every day? VIRGINIA Yes. MALE VOICE Do you walk home? VIRGINIA Uh huh. Liz comes to the phone, a wary look on her face. LIZ (taking the phone) Who are you talking to? MALE VOICE Okay, Virginia, that's all I need to know. I'll call you again when it's time for the beauty contest. LIZ Who's this?... Hello?... Hello? After a pause, the man hangs up. VIRGINIA (excited) Mama, I'm going to be in a beauty contest! LIZ What did he ask you? VIRGINIA Well, he asked me everything. He asked me... Liz freaks out. She marches into Jim's study. LIZ Did you enter Virginia into a beauty contest? JIM (absorbed in the TV) What? LIZ (hysterical) A man just called. He asked her everything! Her height, her weight, when she came home from school. JIM (distracted) Honey, some crackpot. Martin Luther King was killed in Memphis today! LIZ (screaming) Your daughter's life was just threatened! JIM Just a crank making phone calls. Happens a dozen times a day at the office. LIZ Our home, Jim! A kidnapper, a murderer, who knows! JIM Only cowards make crank calls, sweetheart, nothing is going to happen. LIZ How do you know? How do you even know what goes on in this house anymore! You're too busy making speeches, stirring up every crazed Klansman in Louisiana after us! JIM Get a hold of yourself. LIZ I'm leaving. I'm taking the kids and I'm leaving! I won't stand it anymore. The kids, hearing the shouting, come to watch from the door of the study. JIM Honey, come on. The government wants you to be scared. They want everybody to be scared to speak out. They count on it. But there's nothing to be scared of. LIZ You and your government! What's the matter with you? Don't you have any feelings? Your daughter! What kind of man are you? Jim controls himself, shoos the kids out, closes the door. JIM I'll take them up to my mother's if it'll make you feel better. Spend a week. I'll change the locks, the phone lines, I'll even get a bodyguard, all right? Elizabeth, get a hold of yourself. LIZ Jim, before this Kennedy thing, nothing mattered to you in this life more than your children. The other night Jasper tried to show you a drawing. You didn't even notice he was there. He came to me bawling his little eyes out. Jim, he's sensitive - he needs more from you. JIM I promise I'll make more time for Jasper. LIZ Is it such a chore? I don't understand you. JIM Damn it, if I say I'll spend more time with him, I'll spend more time with him. I can't fight you and the world too, Liz. LIZ I'm not fighting you, Jim, I'm just trying to reach you. You've changed. JIM Of course, I've changed! My eyes have opened, and once they're open, believe me, what used to look normal seems insane! And now King. Don't you think this has something to do with that? Can't you see? LIZ (she explodes) I don't want to see, goddammit! I'm tired. I've had enough! They say you don't have anything anyway! Everybody in town's talking. You're ruining this man Shaw's life! You're attacking him because he's homosexual! Going ahead with this stupid "trial"! Did you ever once stop and consider what he's going through? JIM (astounded) That's not why I'm attacking him! You don't believe me - all this time you never believed me. LIZ Oh, I don't know anymore! I believe there was a conspiracy, but not the government. I just want to raise our children and live a normal life! I want my life back! The children press in at the door. Mattie, ignoring them, is enraged as she watches King's eulogy on TV. Riots are already breaking out. JIM Well so do I, goddammit! So do I! I had a life too, y'know - I had a life, too. But you just can't bury your head in the sand like some ostrich, goddammit, Elizabeth! It's not just about you - and your well- being and your two cars and your kitchen and your TV and "I'm jes fine honey." While our kids grow up into a shithole of lies! Well, I'm not "fine" about that, I'm angry. My life is fucked, Liz! And yours is, too! And if you don't want to support me I can understand that but don't you go start making threats of taking the children away. LIZ You never talked to me this way before, Jim Garrison. I'm not making any threats. I'm leaving you. I'm taking the kids to my mother's. I am - I am. She runs out, past the stunned kids, sobbing as she goes up the stairs. Jim pursues her like an angry spirit, yelling up the stairs at her. JIM Go on then, get out! Go hide someplace. Join the rest of them! They'll tell you I'm crazy. You got plenty of people'll tell you Jim Garrison's crazy. You won't have a problem filing your divorce papers on me ...somebody's got to try, goddammit, somebody! The kids move away, fearful. Quaking with rage and hurt, Jim stands there at the bottom of the stairs, strangled with pain. He takes a law dictionary in his hand and throws it across the room. Jasper and Virginia come over to him. JASPER Are we going away, Daddy? JIM Well, it looks like it, Jasper. JASPER Because of Kennedy? (a beat. Jim doesn't answer) Are the same people gonna kill us, Daddy? JIM No, Jasper, nobody's gonna kill us. VIRGINIA Do you love us? JIM Yes, of course I do, honey. VIRGINIA No. I mean like mommy loves us. She really loves us. JASPER I'm scared. JIM (bending down) There's nothing wrong with feeling a little scared, Jasper, Virginia. Telling the truth can be a scary thing. It scared President Kennedy, but he was a brave man. If you let yourself be too scared, then you let the bad guys take over the country, don't you - and then everybody gets scared. JASPER/VIRGINIA Stay with Mom, Daddy... please. JERRY JOHNSON SHOW - (1968) The band strikes up "When the Saints Go Marching In" introducing Jim, who strides in from the wings to shake hands with Jerry Johnson, the friendly-looking host. SIDEKICK And now, Jerry, here's Big Jim Garrison, District Attorney of New Orleans, Louisiana. The audience is enthusiastic. Jim smiles and waves, then sits down next to Johnson. JOHNSON Welcome, District Attorney Garrison. May I call you Jim? JIM I've been called everything under the sun, Jerry. Call me whatever you like. He reads from a script on the desk. JOHNSON First we had your charge that the Cuban exiles killed the President, then the Mob, then you said the oil billionaires did it, then you said the Minutemen and the Ku Klux Klan collaborated to do it, now your latest theory seems to be that the CIA and the FBI and the Pentagon and the White House all combined in some elaborate conspiracy to kill John Kennedy. Let me ask you, is there anyone besides Lee Harvey Oswald who you think did not conspire to kill the President? He fixes his eyes on Jim, waiting for a reply. A weariness has set in on Jim. Once more into the slaughter. JIM How many hours do I have to answer that one? Well let's just say this, Jerry - I've stopped beating my wife. (the audience laughs) Or maybe you should ask Lyndon Johnson. We know he has some answers. The audience, loving it, cheers. Johnson looks at Jim blankly, and reads the next question on his list. JOHNSON There have been a number of reports in reputable news media - Time, Newsweek, our own NBC - that you have gone way beyond the legal means available to a prosecutor, that you've intimidated and drugged witnesses, bribed them, urged them to commit perjury. What is your response? JIM Your faith in the veracity of the major media is touching, Jerry. It indicates that the Age of Innocence is not yet over. But seriously, Jerry, people aren't interested in Jim Garrison - they want the hard evidence! They want to know why he was killed and what forces were opposed to... JOHNSON (interrupting) Some people would say you're paranoid. JIM Well, if I am, why is the Government concealing evidence? JOHNSON Are they? Why would they? JIM (pulling out his briefcase) That's exactly my question, Jerry. Maybe I'd better show you some pictures so you can begin to understand what I am talking about. He pulls out a large blowup of the Allen photo of the three hoboes and starts to hold it up in front of the camera. JIM These arrests were photographed minutes after the assassination, and were never shown to the American public. They show... It takes Johnson a few moments to realize what's happening. When he does, he lunges like a cobra for the photographs, pulling Jim's arm down so the pictures are out of the camera's view. JOHNSON (sharply) Pictures like this don't show up on television! JIM (holding the picture up again) Sure they do. The camera can pick this up. JOHNSON (yanking his arm down) No, it can't! Jim swings the picture up a third time, but the stage director gives a "cut" signal - finger across the throat - and the red light on the camera blinks off. The monitor shows another camera panning the audience. JIM (quickly realizes he's about to be cut off) Those men you just saw were arrested in Dallas minutes after the assassination. They were never seen again. No record of arrest, no fingerprint, no mugshot, nothing. They all got away. The director frantically gives Johnson the "cut" sign. JOHNSON We'll be back after these messages. The audience cheers as the commercial comes on. GARRISON'S HOME - (1968) Jim comes home. His wife and two of the children are waiting in the doorway. They kiss. Al Oser interrupts. AL Jim, bad news. Bill's turned, boss. I think he's given everything we've got to the Feds. NUMA We studied the memos - there was nothing there, chief, nothing! When we went to confront him, the landlady said that sonofabitch just took off, left everything. SUSIE I'm sorry. JIM I know. LIZ (to Jim) I'm sorry. NUMA Something sure scared him. JIM Bill doesn't scare that easy. Somebody got to his thinking. He was never that good a thinker. On the TV, the news is on. NEWSMAN 9 Much is at stake tonight in California. Public opinion polls show Senator Robert Kennedy of New York leading Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota. Their anti-Vietnam War message is obviously striking a chord with the voters, and whoever wins tonight will certainly emerge as the favorite over Vice-President Humphrey to win the nomination in Chicago in August. That man now seems to be Senator Kennedy. We see a shot of Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles with his supporters. NUMA Sure sounds like he's winning. JIM He'll never make it. If he wins, they'll kill him. He wants to avenge his brother. He'll stop that war. No, they'll kill him before they let him become President. Liz shares a look with Al and Numa. AL Boss, with Broussard they have everything. All our witnesses, our strategy for the trial. We'd have to doublecheck all his work, there could be false leads... we gotta rethink this trial. We don't have a choice. JIM I don't think so, Al. You remember the Hemingway story, "The Old Man and the Sea"? (Al nods) The old fisherman manages to catch this great fish - a fish so huge he has to tie it to the side of the boat to get it back in. But by the time he reached shore, the fish had long since been picked apart by sharks and nothing was left but the skeleton. NUMA Then what are we going through all this trouble for? JIM It's a means to an end. This war has two fronts - in the court of law, we hope, against the odds, to nail Clay Shaw on a conspiracy charge. In the court of public opinion, it could take another 25 or 30 years for the truth to come out, but at least we're going to strike the first blow. LIZ And if you're wrong? JIM (rising) I never doubted for a second that I was. (softly) Will you come to the trial, Elizabeth? LIZ I don't think so, Jim... She walks out. We see the outside of Jim's house and hear crickets chirping - the purr of the suburb. Inside, the TV election results are still on. NEWSMAN 1 With 53% of the precincts reporting, Senator Kennedy continues to hold a lead of 48% to 41% over Senator McCarthy. CBS News has projected Senator Robert Kennedy the winner of the crucial California primary. Jim is in the kitchen fixing himself a sandwich. There's a strange feeling in the house. We hear the wind - a shutter sighing. Jim suddenly doesn't feel alone in the kitchen. ROBERT KENNEDY (voice over on TV) ...and that is what has been going on within the United States over the last three years - the division, the violence, the disenchantment, whether it's between blacks and whites, between poor and the more affluent, or between age groups or the war in Vietnam - we can start to work together. We are a great country, an unselfish country and a compassionate country. I intend to make that my basis for running. He waves and leaves the podium, going back through the kitchen of the hotel. Jim is frozen in his spot, shaken. The ghost of Jack Kennedy - as he was before the killing - stares at him through the kitchen, as if encased in a hologram. The hooded eyes watch Jim without expression. They're communicating, in some strange subliminal way. Suddenly shots ring out from the television and there's pandemonium. NEWSMAN 1 (shaken) SENATOR KENNEDY HAS BEEN SHOT! WE DO NOT KNOW HOW SERIOUS IT IS YET. SENATOR KENNEDY HAS BEEN SHOT. The television shows a scene of confusion. Jim walks out, looking at the TV, struck down with his foreknowledge and his inability to do anything about it. In their bedroom upstairs that night, Jim gently wakes Liz and holds her. JIM They killed him, honey. LIZ (groggily) Huh? JIM (strangled) He won... and they killed Robert Kennedy. They shot him down. LIZ (realizing, with terror) Oh no! No! I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Both of them, both brothers, oh my God! She clings to him, horrified. He caresses her hair. They look in each other's eyes. LIZ You're right, it hasn't ended, has it? He kisses her gently - They start to make love, numbed, needing each other, needing their love in an increasingly terrifying world. JIM (awkward) I wish I could've loved you more... I feel sometimes like I didn't ever.. love you or the children enough... I'm sorry. OUTSIDE THE COURTS BUILDING - NEW ORLEANS -(JAN. 1969) The scene is like a circus. Armed, uniformed guards with walkie-talkies are everywhere. Guards with rifles are on the rooftop. There are crowds of reporters from around the world and many onlookers. Everyone going into the courtroom is frisked by electronic metal detectors. INSIDE THE COURTROOM Jim, accompanied by Mattie, the maid, but not his wife, forges his way through a tightly packed crowd to the prosecution table, joining Al, Susie, Numa, and others from his team. Young law student have come to watch. The crowd is noisy to the point of unruliness. Suddenly there's a hush as everyone cranes their necks to see Clay Shaw and his attorneys, Irvin Dymond and two others, enter the court. Shaw, impeccably dressed, his high handsome cheekbones sucking on an ever- present cigarette in a porcelain filter (smoking in court was allowed then), smiles to those who greet him as if they were not really there and limps past Jim with a stony indifference. The clerk starts pounding the gavel to call the court to order as Judge Edward Aloysius Haggerty sweeps in and takes the bench. He's a stocky little Jimmy Cagney look alike with fierce blue eyes under bushy brows. The jurors - nine white men and three black men - all dressed in suits and ties, look on. CUT TO Willie O'Keefe pointing out Clay Shaw. O'KEEFE That's Clay Bertrand. That's the man I saw at David Ferrie's. Irvin Dymond cross-examines O'Keefe. DYMOND (words wafting) That's who you say you saw... a confessed homosexual, convicted of solicitation, pandering... a man who has lied about most everything, who... TIME CUT TO Vernon Bundy, a poor black man, who points at Shaw. BUNDY It was that man there, yessir. He was at the Pontchartrain wall with the man who shot the President. I remember him cause o' his limp there. DYMOND A heroin addict, injecting himself at the wall, barely conscious... TIME CUT TO Jim looking over at a strange man, Matthews, a kind of lawyer, making notes and conferring with Shaw and Dymond. Matthews seems to have some authority over both men. Corrie Collins, a black woman who is one of the CORE workers from Clinton, is on the stand. COLLINS (pointing at Shaw) ...that was the man there. He dropped Oswald off on the voter line. I remember 'cause they were the only white strangers around that morning. That big, black Cadillac of his made me think they might be FBI. TIME CUT TO the Town Marshall on the stand. TOWN MARSHALL (looking at Shaw) ...said he was a representative of one International Trade Mart in New Orleans. DYMOND ...more than five years ago, for two minutes. It's fair to say you could be mistaken, isn't it? TIME CUT TO Dymond cross-examining Dean Andrews, shaking his head. ANDREWS ...figment of my imagination... The cat's stewing me, the oyster's shucking me I told him, you got the right at-at but the wrong oh-oh... Bertrand is not Shaw, scout's honor and you can tell him I said so... SUSIE (counter-arguing) Objection, your Honor. This office has won a conviction of perjury against Dean Andrews on this matter. DYMOND Exception taken. That case is on appeal! Arguments follow. TIME CUT TO Charles Goldberg, a mild-looking New York accountant, on the stand with Dymond cross-examing. DYMOND (relishing this) Mr. Goldberg, you claim you met David Ferrie and Clay Shaw while on a vacation here from your accounting business in New York, you had drinks and, under the influence discussed killing Kennedy, is that not so? GOLDBERG I did. DYMOND Why? GOLDBERG Well, I wanted to make sure she's the same girl I sent. DYMOND I see... and why are you experiencing this paranoia? GOLDBERG (launching into his explanation) Well, you see, I've been subject to hypnosis and psychological warfare ever since 1948, when I was in Korea... We see the faces of people in the courtroom... the judge's face... obviously Goldberg is disturbed (or maybe he is telling the truth, but it doesn't play well)... Jim looks at Al sickly. AL He was one of Broussard's witnesses, chief. I'm sorry. He was totally sane when we took his affidavit. SUSIE But how does Dymond know what to ask? FUCK! We're dead. GOLDBERG When someone tries to get your attention - catch your eye - that's a clue right off. TIME CUT TO Jim calling Officer Habighorst to testify. GARRISON Your Honor, I call police officer Aloysisus Habighorst to the stand. Habighorst, the clean-cut police officer who booked Clay Shaw on the day of his arrest, starts forward. JUDGE HAGGERTY I'm going to have to ask the jury to leave the courtroom. GARRISON What? This is an ugly surprise for Jim. We see him at the bench arguing loudly with the judge. Susie, Dymond and Al are also there. JUDGE HAGGERTY I'm sorry, Jim, but the defendant did not have his lawyer present when asked. FLASHBACK TO 1967, in the New Orleans police station. Shaw is being booked. The press is there and Habighorst is questioning him. HABIGHORST Any alias? SHAW Clay Bertrand. We see a close-up on Habighorst typing this in. GARRISON (V.O.) Jesus, Ed, from time immemorial it's been standard booking procedure to ask an alias. You know that. There's no constitutional requirement that says a lawyer has to be present for routine questions. JUDGE HAGGERTY I call'em as I see'em, Jim. I'm ruling it inadmissible. GARRISON That's our case! JUDGE HAGGERTY If that's your case, you didn't have a case. I wouldn't believe whatever Habighorst said, anyway. GARRISON I can't believe you're saying this in the courtroom. JUDGE HAGGERTY (feistier) Well, I am saying it. Bring in the jury. AL We're filing for a writ to the appellate court. JUDGE HAGGERTY You do that. Dymond goes back to Shaw, very please. Shaw smokes, icy. Jim, devastated, sits, feeling it's over. CUT TO Clay Shaw on the stand. Dymond cross-examines him. DYMOND ...Oswald? SHAW No, I did not. DYMOND ...ever called Dean Andrews? SHAW No, I did not. DYMOND ...and have you ever met David Ferrie? SHAW (with a smirk of amusement) No, I would not even know what he looked like except for the pictures I've been shown. DYMOND ...did you ever use the alias Clay Bertrand? SHAW No, I did not. DYMOND Thank you... Mr. Shaw. Jim rises slowly out of his chair. JIM Well, a very great actor has just given us a great performance, Your Honor, but we are nowhere closer to the truth. Let it be noted, my office is charging Clay Shaw with outright perjury on the fifteen answers he has given, not one word of this... JUDGE HAGGERTY You're out of order, Jim Boy, now sit down. Strike those remarks!! CUT TO later in the trial. A movie screen has been installed for the jury. Jim paces dramatically, as if waiting, casting looks at the door. Members of the press pack the hot room, and a fan turns overhead. JIM To prove their was a conspiracy involving Clay Shaw we must prove there was more than one man involved in the assassination. To do that, we must look at the Zapruder film, which my office has subpoenaed. The American public has not seen that film because it has been kept locked in a vault in the Time-Life Building in New York City for the last five years. There is a reason for that. Watch. The Zapruder film (8mm) now rolls. We have seen pieces of it before in the opening of the film, but now we see it whole. It is crucial that this piece of film be repeated several times during the trial to drive home a point that is easily lost on casual viewing. The first viewing is silent except for the sound of the clanky projector. It lasts about 25 seconds, and then the lights come on. The jury is shaken. The judge is shaken. The people in the courtroom murmur. Even Clay Shaw is surprised at what he has seen. Jim says nothing, letting the truth of it sink in. Then: JIM A picture speaks a thousand words. Yet sometimes the truth is too simple for some... The Warren Commission thought they had an open and shut case: three bullets, one assassin - but two things happened that made it virtually impossible: 1)the Zapruder film which you just saw, and 2)the third wounded man, Jim Tague, who was nicked by a fragment down by the Triple Underpass. The time frame of 5.6 seconds established by the Zapruder film left no possibility of a fourth shot from Oswald's rifle, but the shot or fragment that left a superficial wound on Tague's cheek had to come from a bullet that missed the car entirely. Now they had two bullets that hit, and we know one of them was the fatal head shot. So a single bullet remained to account for all seven wounds in Kennedy and Connally. But rather than admit to a conspiracy or investigate further, the Commission chose to endorse the theory put forth by an ambitious junior counsellor, Arlen Specter. One of the grossest lies ever forced on the American people, we've come to know it as the "magic bullet" theory. CUT TO a drawing which has been put on a chair for the Jury. Jim has also moved Al, acting as J.F.K., into a chair directly behind the larger Numa, acting as Governor Connally. He demonstrates with a pointer. JIM The magic bullet enters the President's back, headed downward at an angle of 17 degrees. It then moves upward in order to leave Kennedy's body from the front of his neck - his neck wound number two - where it waits 1.6 seconds, turns right and continues into Connally's body at the rear of his right armpit - wound number three. Then, the bullet heads downward at an angle of 27 degrees, shattering Connally's fifth rib and leaving from the right side of his chest - wounds four and five. The bullet continues downward and then enters Connally's right wrist - wound number six - shattering the radius bone. It then enters his left thigh - wound number seven - from which it later falls out and is found in almost "pristine" condition on a stretcher in a corridor of Parkland Hospital. (he shows a mock-up of the "pristine" bullet) That's some bullet. Anyone who's been in combat can tell you never in the history of gunfire has there been a bullet like this. (the court laughs) The Army Wound Ballistics experts at Edgewood Arsenal fired some comparison bullets and not one of them looked anything like this one. (he shows mock-ups of comparison bullets) Take a look at CE 856, an identical bullet fired through the wrist of a human cadaver - just one of the bones smashed by the magic bullet. Yet the government says it can prove this with some fancy physics in a nuclear laboratory. Of course they can. Theoretical physics can prove an elephant can hang from a cliff with it's tail tied to a daisy, but use your eyes - your common sense - (he holds the bullet) Seven wounds, skin, bone. This single bullet explanation is the foundation of the Warren Commission's claim of a lone assassin. And once you conclude the magic bullet could not create all seven of those wounds, you have to conclude there was a fourth shot and a second rifleman. And if there was a second rifleman, there had to be a conspiracy, which we believe involved the accused Clay Shaw. Fifty-one witnesses, gentlemen of the jury, thought they heard shots coming from the Grassy Knoll, which is to the right and front of the President. Jim walks to a drawing of an overhead view of Dealey Plaza. On it are dots representing locations of the witnesses. He points to each portion. He pauses and looks out into the courtroom - Liz has entered accompanied by Jasper. Quietly she takes a seat. Jim is unbelieving at first, then very moved. He takes a beat, then: JIM Key witnesses that day - Charles Brehm, a combat vet, right behind Jean Hill and Mary Moorman, S.M. Holland and Richard Dodd on the overpass, J.C. Price overlooking the whole Plaza, Randolph Carr, a steelworker, who served in the Rangers in North Africa, William Newman, father of two children who hit the deck on the north side of Elm, Abraham Zapruder, James Simmons - each of these witnesses has no doubt whatsoever one or more shots came from behind the picket fence! Twenty six trained medical personnel at Parkland Hospital saw with their own eyes the back of the President's head blasted out. CUT TO: Dr. Peters on the stand. PETERS (describing the wound) ...a large 7 cm opening in the right occipitoparietal area, a considerable portion of the brain was missing there. (he gestures to his head) CUT TO Dr. McClelland on the stand. MCCLELLAND ...almost a fifth or perhaps a quarter of the back of the head - this area here... (he indicates his head) ...had been blasted out along with the brain tissue there. The exit hole in the rear of his head was about 120 mm. across. There was also a large piece of skull attached to a flap of skin in the right temporal area. FLASHBACK TO: Parkland Hospital Emergency Room on that day in 1963. The doctors work on the President. The wounds on the back of his head are evident but will change later in the autopsy. He is placed in a bronze casket. JIM (V.O.) Not one of the civilian doctors who examined the President at Parkland Hospital regarded his throat wound as anything but a wound of entry. The doctors found no wounds of entry in the back of the head. But the body was then illegally moved to Washington for the autopsy. CUT TO: the Secret Service team preparing to wheel the casket out. The Dallas Medical Examiner, Dr. Rose, backed by a justice of the peace, bars the way. A furious wrestling match ensues. MEDICAL EXAMINER Texas Law, sir, requires the autopsy be done here. You're not taking him with you! KENNY O'DONNELL Sonofabitch, you're not telling me what to do! Get the hell outta the way! The Secret Service agents put the doctor and judge up against the wall at gunpoint and sweep out of the hospital. JIM (V.O.) Because when a coup d'etat has occurred there's a big difference between an autopsy performed by civilian doctors and one by military doctors working for the government. FLASHBACK TO: Love Field the same day. We see Air Force One taking off and a photo of L.B.J. being sworn in. JIM (V.O.) The departure of Air Force One from Love Field that Friday afternoon was not so much a takeoff as it was a getaway with the newly sworn in President. DYMOND (V.O.) Objection, your honor. JUDGE Sustained. JIM (V.O.) On the plane, of course, Lee Harvey Oswald's guilt was announced by the White House Situation Room to the passengers before any kind of investigation had started. The "lone nut" solution is in place. DYMOND (V.O.) Objection! Your Honor! JUDGE Sustained. Mr. Garrison, would you please bottle the acid. FLASHBACK TO: the Bethesda autopsy room in 1963. The room is crammed with military officers, Secret Service men and, at the center, three intimidated doctors. Pictures are being taken as they remove bullet fragments. JIM The three Bethesda Naval Hospital doctors picked by the Military left something to be desired inasmuch as none of them had experience with combat gunfire wounds. Through their autopsy we have been able to justify eight wounds - three to Kennedy, five to Connally - from just two bullets, one of these bullets the "magic bullet". CUT TO: Jim in court with a series of drawings indicating with arrows entry and exit wounds to Kennedy's neck and head. Dr. Finck is on the stand, erect, very precise, and irritated. JIM Colonel Finck, are you saying someone told you not to dissect the neck? FINCK I was told that the family wanted examination of the head. JIM As a pathologist it was your obligation to explore all possible causes of death, was it not? FINCK I had the cause of death. JIM Your Honor, I would ask you to direct the witness to answer my question. Why did Colonel Finck not dissect the track of the bullet wound in the neck? FINCK Well I heard Dr. Humes stating that - he said... FLASHBACK TO: Bethesda autopsy room. HUMES Who's in charge here? ARMY GENERAL I am. FINCK (V.O.) I don't remember his name. You must understand it was quite crowded, and when you are called in circumstances like that to look at the wound of the President who is dead, you don't look around too much to ask people for their names and who they are. JIM (V.O.) But you were a qualified pathologist. Was this Army general a qualified pathologist? FINCK (V.O.) No. JIM (V.O.) But you took his orders. He was directing the autopsy. FINCK (V.O.) No, because there were others. There were admirals. JIM (V.O.) There were admirals. FINCK (V.O.) Oh yes, there were admirals - and when you are a lieutenant colonel in the Army you just follow orders, and at the end of the autopsy we were specifically told - as I recall it was Admiral Kenney, the Surgeon General of the Navy - we were specifically told not to discuss the case. KENNEY (in Bethesda scene) Gentlemen, what you've seen in this room is intensely private to the Kennedy family and it is not our business to... Jim turns away from the jury. His point is made. Finck is no longer on the stand. JIM In addition to which, 1) the chief pathologist, Commander Humes, by his own admission voluntarily burned his autopsy notes, 2)never released the autopsy photos to the public, 3) President Johnson ordered the blood soaked limousine filled with bullet holes and clues to be immediately washed and rebuilt, 4) sent John Connally's bloody suit right to the cleaners, and 5) when my office finally got a court order to examine President Kennedy's brain in the National Archives in the hopes of finding from what direction the bullets came, we were told by the government the President's brain had disappeared! There's a pause, and then a murmur from the court. Jim is on a roll and knows it. The faces in the courtroom are with him, absorbed, horrified. The law students are still there, they have been since day one. But it is Liz's interest that touches him the most. JIM So what really happened that day? Let's just for a moment speculate, shall we? We have the epileptic seizure around 12:15 P.M.... distracting the police, making it easier for the shooters to move into their places. The epileptic later vanished, never checking into the hospital. The A Team gets on the 6th floor of the Book Depository... FLASHBACK TO: the Book Depository, 1963. A shooter and two spotters dressed as working men move into the Oswald spot. One spotter produces the Mannlicher-Carcano. JIM (V.O.) They were refurbishing the floors in the Depository that week, which allowed unknown workmen in and out of the building. The men move quickly into position just minutes before the shooting. The camera takes the shooter's point of view: we see down the street through a scope. His spotter wears a radio earpiece. The second spotter is working out of the southeast window. JIM (V.O.) The second spotter is probably calling all the shots on a radio to the two other teams. He as the best overall view - "the God spot". Inside the Dal-Tex Building, a shooter and a spotter dressed as air-conditioning men move into a small second-story textile storage room. JIM (V.O.) B Team - one rifleman and one spotter with a headset, with access to the building - moves into a low floor of the Dal-Tex Building. At the picket fence a shooter in a Dallas Police uniform moves into place, aiming up Elm Street. His spotter has a radio to his ear. Another man in a Secret Service suit moves further down the fence. JIM (V.O.) The third team, the C Team, moves in behind the picket fence above the Grassy Knoll, where the shooter and the spotter are first seen by the late Lee Bowers in the watchtower of the railyard. They have the best position of all. Kennedy is close and on a flat low trajectory. Part of this team is a coordinator who's flashed security credentials at several people, chasing them out of the parking lot area. An "agent" in tie and suit moves on the underpass, keeping an eye out. In the crowd on Elm Street, we catch brief glimpses of the umbrella man and the Cuban, neither of them watching Kennedy, both looking around to their teams. There is a third man, heavyset, in a construction helmet. JIM (V.O.) Probably two to three more men are down in the crowd on Elm... ten to twelve men... three teams, three shooters. The triangulation of fire Clay Shaw and David Ferrie discussed two months before. They've walked the Plaza, they know every inch. They've calibrated their sights, practiced on moving targets. They're ready. It's going to be a turkey shoot. Kennedy's motorcade makes the turn from Main onto Houston. J.F.K. waves and turns in slow motion. JIM (V.O.) Six witnesses see two gunmen on the sixth floor of the Depository moving around. Some of them think they're policemen with rifles. From Houston Street we look up at the sixth floor of the Book Depository and see the shooter moving around. Arnold Rowland points him out to his wife. ARNOLD (under) ...probably a security agent. In the Dallas County Jail, Johnny Powell is one of many convicts housed on the sixth floor - the same height as the men in the Book Depository. We look across to the Depository through cell bars. Johnny and various cell mates are watching two men in the sixth floor of the Depository. JIM (V.O.) John Powell, a prisoner on the sixth floor of the Dallas County Jail, sees them. POWELL (under) ...quite a few of us saw them. Everybody was hollering and yelling and that. We thought is was security guys... JIM (V.O.) ...they don't shoot him coming up Houston, which is the easiest shot for a single shooter in the Book Depository, but they wait till he gets to the killing zone between three rifles. Kennedy makes the final turn from Houston onto Elm, slowing down to some 11 miles per hour. All the shooters tighten, taking aim. It's a tense moment. JIM (V.O.) The shooters across Dealey Plaza tighten, taking their aim across their sights... waiting for the radio to say "Green Green!" or "Abort Abort!" The camera is on Kennedy waving. A MONTAGE follows - all the faces in the square that we've introduced in the movie now appear one after the other, watching - the killers, the man with the umbrella, the Newman family, Mary Moorman photographing, Jean Hill, Abraham Zapruder filming it, S.M. Holland, Patrolman Harkness... INTERCUT with the Zapruder and Nix films on J.F.K. in the final seconds coming abreast of the Stemmons Freeway sign. JIM (V.O.) The first shot rings out. CUT TO the Dal-Tex shooter firing. We see the back of Kennedy's through his gun sight. Kennedy (stand in) reacts in the Zapruder film. JIM (V.O.) Sounding like a backfire, it misses completely... Frame 161, Kennedy stops waving as he hears something. Connally turns his head slightly to the right. Everything goes off very fast now. Repeating intercuts are slowed down with shots of Kennedy reacting in the Zapruder film. JIM (V.O.) Frame 193 - the second shot hits Kennedy in the throat from the front. Frame 225 - the President emerging from the road sign. He obviously has been hit, raising his arms to his throat. CUT TO: the picket fence shooter hitting him from the fence. We see Kennedy (stand in) from the point of view of his telescopic sight. In the Zapruder film, we see Kennedy clutch his throat. JIM Frame 232, the third shot - the President has been hit in the back, drawing him downward and forward. Connally, you will notice, shows no signs at all of being hit. He is visibly holding his Stetson which is impossible if his wrist has been shattered. CUT TO: the Dal-Tex shooter. We see Kennedy from his point of view, and the Zapruder film in slow motion. JIM (V.O.) Connally's turning now here. Frame 238... the fourth shot misses Kennedy and takes Connally in the back. This is the key shot that proves two rifles from the rear. This is 1.6 seconds after the third shot, and we know no manual bolt action rifle can be recycled in that time. Connally is hit, his mouth drops, he yells out, "My God, they're going to kill us all"... Here... CUT TO: the sixth floor shooter firing rapidly and missing Kennedy but hitting Connally (stand in). JIM (V.O.) ...the umbrella man is signalling "He's not dead. Keep shooting." James Tague down at the underpass is hit sometime now by another shot that misses. CUT TO: the umbrella man pumping his umbrella. The Cuban is looking off. The man on the curb in the construction helmet is looking not at J.F.K. but up at the Book Depository. JIM (V.O.) The car brakes. The fifth and fatal shot - frame 313 - takes Kennedy in the head from the front... CUT TO the picket fence shooter. We see J.F.K. from his point of view. He fires, and then we see Kennedy in the Zapruder film flying backwards and to his left in a ferocious, conclusive spray of blood and brain tissue. We repeat the shot. JIM (V.O.) This is the key shot. Watch it again. The President going back to his left. Shot from the front and right. Totally inconsistent with the shot from the Depository. Again - (repeats)... back and two the left. (he repeats it like a mantra)... back and to the left... back and to the left. Kennedy's car speeds off. Jackie is like a crawling animal in a pillbox hat on the back of the car. The people on the other side of the underpass wave innocently as the car speeds through with it's horrifying contents. Pigeons fly off the rooftop of the Book Depository. JIM (V.O.) What happens then? Pandemonium. The shooters quickly disassemble their various weapons, all except the Oswald rifle. CUT TO: sixth floor spotter dumping the Mannlicher - Carcano in a corner as he leaves... and then to the Dal-Tex spotter and shooter, who break down the gun and move out... and then to the spotter with the fence shooter, who quickly breaks down the weapon, throwing it in the trunk of a car parked at the fence. He walks away. The fence shooter, dressed as a policeman, blends with the crowd. CUT TO: the umbrella man and the Cuban sitting quietly together on the north side of the curb of Elm Street. CUT TO: stunned, confused, people in the crowd - some lying on the ground, some running for the Grassy Knoll. Back in the courtroom, patrolman Joe Smith is on the stand. JIM (V.O.) Patrolman Joe Smith rushed into the parking lot behind the fence. He smelled gunpowder. FLASHBACK TO: the picket fence area where, with his gun drawn, Smith rushes across to a man standing by a car who reacts quickly, producing credentials. He is one of the hoboes. There's a strange moment when the camera moves from Smith's eyes to the man's fingernails. SMITH (V.O.) ...the character produces credentials from his pocket which showed him to be Secret Service. So I accepted that and let him go and continued our search. But I regretted it, 'cause this guy looked like an auto mechanic. He had on a sports shirt and pants, but he had dirty fingernails. Afterwards it didn't ring true, but at the time we were so pressed for time. JIM (V.O.) Yet all Secret Servicemen in Dallas that day are accounted for. None were on foot in Dealey Plaza before or after the shooting, till Dallas Secret Service Chief Forrest Sorrels returned at 12:55. Back in the courtroom, Liz is totally absorbed. Jim exchanges looks with her. The camera movies in for a close - up of Jim. JIM (pausing for effect) What else was going on in Dealey Plaza that day? At least 12 other individuals were taken into custody by Dallas police. No records of their arrests. Men acting like hoboes were being pulled off trains, marched through Dealey Plaza, photographed, and yet there is no records of their arrests. FLASHBACK TO: the three hoboes being arrested ... marching across Dealey Plaza. The hoboes look familiar now. JIM (V.O.) Men identifying themselves as Secret Service Agents were all over the place. But who was impersonating them? FLASHBACK TO: men in suits, ties, and hats moving people out of the parking lot area ... turning a policeman back. FLASHBACK TO: the Cuban, putting away a radio, and the umbrella man, who now rise and leave the area in opposite directions. JIM (V.O.) And where was Lee Oswald? Probably in the second floor snack room. Eddie Piper and William Shelly saw Oswald eating lunch in the first floor lunch room around twelve. Around 12:15, on her way out of the building to see the motorcade, secretary Carolyn Arnold saw Oswald in the second floor snack room, where he said he went for a Coke... In the second floor lunchroom of the Book Depository we see Carolyn Arnold, a pregnant secretary, crossing past Oswald, who is in a booth. CAROLYN ARNOLD (V.O.) He was sitting in one of the booths on the right hand side of the room. He was alone as usual and appeared to be having lunch. I did not speak to him but I recognized clearly. I remember it was 12:15 or later. It coulda been 12:25, five minutes before the assassination, I don't exactly remember. I was pregnant and I had a craving for a glass of water. On the sixth floor of the depository, Bonnie Ray Williams is eating a chicken lunch, alone. JIM (VO) At the same time, Bonnie Ray Williams is supposedly eating his chicken lunch on the sixth floor, at least until 12:15, maybe 12:20 ... he sees nobody. On the street, Arnold Rowland and his wife look up at the sixth floor windows and we see, from their point of view, two shadowy figures... JIM (V.O.) Down on the street, Arnold Rowland was seeing two men in the sixth floor windows... presumably after Bonnie Ray Williams finished his lunch and left. We see footage of J.F.K. coming up Houston - waving. Oswald walks into the second floor lunchroom as policeman Marrion Baker runs in, gun at his side. He is about 30 feet from Oswald. Roy Truly, the superintendent, runs in a moment later. JIM (V.O.) Kennedy was running five minutes late for his appointment with death. He was due at 12:25. If Oswald was the assassin, he was certainly pretty non-chalant about getting himself into position. Later he told Dallas police he was standing in the second floor snackroom. Probably told to wait there for a phone call by his handler. The phones were in the adjacent and empty second floor offices, but the call never came. A maximum 90 seconds after Kennedy is shot, patrolman Marrion Baker runs into Oswald in that second story lunchroom. BAKER Hey you! (to Truly) Do you know this man? Is he an employee? TRULY Yes he is. (as Baker moves on) The President's been shot! Oswald reacts as if hearing it for the first time. Truly and Baker continue running up the stairs. Oswald proceeds to get a Coke and continues out of the room. CUT TO: the sixth floor, where we see Oswald as the shooter. After firing, he runs full speed for the stairs, stashing the rifle on the other side of the loft. Our camera follows him roughly down stairs - we hear the loud sound of his shoes banging on the hollow wood - to the lunchroom, where Patrolman Baker and Superintendent Truly run in. Then they start to repeat the same action as seen in the previous scene. JIM (V.O.) ...but what the Warren Report would have us believe is that after firing 3 bolt action shots in 5.6 seconds, Oswald then leaves three cartridges neatly side by side in the firing nest, wipes the rifle clear of fingerprints, stashes the rifle on the other side of the loft, sprints down five flights of stairs, past witnesses Victoria Adams and Sandra Styles who never see him, and then shows up cool and calm on the second floor in front of Patrolman Baker - all this within a maximum 90 seconds of the shooting. Is he out of breath? According to Baker, absolutely not. CUT TO: the second floor. Oswald ambles past Mrs. Reid, a secretary in the second floor office, on his way out, Coke bottle in hand and wearing his usual dreamy look... there's a lingering close - up on his face. JIM (V.O.) Assuming he is the sole assassin, Oswald is now free to escape from the building. The longer he delays, the more chance the building will be sealed by the police. Is he guilty? Does he walk out the nearest staircase? No, he buys a Coke and at a slow pace, spotted by Mrs. Reid in the second floor office, he strolls out the more distant front exit, where the cops start to gather... Outside, we see Oswald stroll out the door of the Book Depository into the crowd. He heads for the bus stop to the east. JIM (V.O.) Oddly, considering three shots are supposed to have come from there, nobody seals the Depository for ten more minutes. Oswald slips out, as do several other employees. Of course, when he realized something had gone wrong and the President really had been shot, he knew there was a problem. He may even have known he was the patsy. An intuition maybe - the President killed in spite of his warning. The phone call that never came. Perhaps fear now came to Lee Oswald. He wasn't going to stand around for roll call. Back in the courtroom, Jim continues speaking: JIM The story gets pretty confusing now - more twists in it than a watersnake. Richard Carr says he saw four men take off from the Book Depository in a Rambler that possibly belongs to Janet Williams. Deputy Roger Craig says two men picked up Oswald in the same Rambler a few minutes later. Other people say Oswald took a bus out of there, and then because he was stuck in traffic, he hopped a cab to his rooming house in Oak Cliff... FLASHBACK TO: Oswald's boarding house. Oswald enters his room, passing Earlene Roberts, the heavyset white housekeeper. JIM (V.O.) ...we must assume he wanted to get back in touch with his intell team, probably at a safehouse or at the Texas Theatre, but how could he be sure? He didn't know who to trust anymore... ROBERTS (watching TV) My God, did you see that, Mr. Lee? A man shot the President. The camera closes in on Oswald's perplexed face. Earlene peeks out the shades as she hears two short honks on a horn. Outside is a black police car driven by Tippit. Also in the car is the fence shooter, dressed as a Dallas policeman. The car drives by, honks twice, waits, then moves away. During this visual, we see the fence shooter changing his uniform into civilian clothes. JIM (V.O.) Oswald returns to this rooming house around 1 P.M., half hour after the assassination, puts on his jacket, grabs his .38 revolver, leaves at 1:04... Earlene Roberts, the housekeeper, says she heard two beeps on a car horn and two uniformed cops pulled up to the house while Oswald was in his room, like it was a signal or something... Officer Tippit is shot between 1:10 and 1:15 about a mile away. Though no one actually saw him walking or jogging, the Government says Oswald covered that distance. Incidentally, that walk, if he did it, is in a straight line toward Jack Ruby's house. Giving the government the benefit of the doubt, Oswald would have had to jog a mile in six to eleven minutes and commit the murder, then reverse direction and walk 3/5 of a mile to the Texas Theatre and arrive sometime before 1:30. That's some walking. On a street, Oswald walks alone, fast. A police car pulls up alongside him on 10th Street. Oswald leans on the passenger side of the window. Officer Tippit, suspicious, gets out to question him. Oswald pulls his .38 revolver and shoots him down in the street with 5 shots. JIM (V.O.) It's also a useful conclusion. After all, why else would Oswald kill Officer Tippit, unless he just shot the President and feared arrest? Not one credible witness could identify Oswald as Tippit's killer. Domingo Benavides, hidden in his truck only a few yards away, watches as another unidentified man (not seen before) shoots and walks away. JIM (V.O.) Domingo Benavides, the closest witness to the shooting, refused to identify Oswald as the killer and was never taken to a lineup. We see Acquilla Clemons, a black woman, looking on. She watches as two men kill Tippit. One of them resembles the fence shooter. The other one is a mystery figure, seen before in the fringes. The men walk off quickly in opposite directions. We notice a policeman's uniform hanging in the back seat of Tippit's car. JIM (V.O.) Acquilla Clemons saw the killer with another man and says they went off in separate directions. Mrs. Clemons was never taken to lineup or to the Warren Commission. Mr. Frank Wright, who saw the killer run away, stated flatly that the killer was not Lee Oswald. Oswald is found with a .38 revolver. Tippit is killed with a .38 automatic. At the scene of the crime Officer J.M. Poe marks the shells with his initials to record the chain of evidence. CUT TO: Policeman Poe marking the bullets. JIM (V.O.) Those initials are not on the three cartridge cases which the Warren Commission presents to him. On a Dallas avenue near the Texas Theatre, Oswald moves along, spooked. Police cars roar by with sirens blaring. Johnny Brewer, in a shoestore, spots him and follows him. JIM (V.O.) Oswald is next seen by shoe salesman Johnny Brewer lurking along Jefferson Avenue. Oswald is scared. He begins to realize the full implications of this thing. He goes into the Texas Theatre, possibly his prearranged meeting point, but though he has $14 in his pocket, he does not buy the 75-cent ticket. Brewer has the cashier call the police. Outside the Texas Theatre Oswald walks past the cashier, who is out on the sidewalk watching the police cars go by. A double feature is playing - Cry of Battle with Van Heflin and War is Hell. He goes in. CUT TO: 30 officers arriving at the theatre in a fleet of patrol cars. JIM (V.O.) In response to the cashier's call, at least thirty officers in a fleet of patrol cars descend on the movie theatre. This has to be the most remarkable example of police intuition since the Reichstag fire. I don't buy it. They knew - someone knew - Oswald was going to be there. In fact, as early as 12:44, only 14 minutes after the assassination, the police radio put out a description matching Oswald's size and build. Brewer says the man was wearing a jacket, but the police say the man who shot Tippit left his jacket behind. Butch Burroughs, theatre manager, says Oswald bought some popcorn from him at the time of the Tippit slaying. Burroughs and witness Bernard Haire also said there was an Oswald look - alike taken from the theatre. Perhaps it was he who sneaked into the theatre just after 1:30. Inside the theatre, Cry of Battle is on the screen. Twelve to fourteen spectators sit scattered between the balcony and ground floor. Brewer leads the officers onto the stage and the lights come on. He points to Oswald. JIM (V.O.) In any case, Brewer helpfully leads the cops into the theatre and from the stage points Oswald out... The cops advance on Oswald, who jumps up, as if expecting to be shot. OSWALD This is it! POLICEMAN Kill the President, will you? Scared, Oswald takes a swing at a policeman. He pulls out his gun. The officers close in on him from the rear and front. A wrestling and shoving match ensues. One officer gets a chokehold on Oswald and another one hits him. JIM (V.O.) The cops have their man! It was already been decided - in Washington. Outside the theatre, Oswald, his eye blackened, is led out by the phalanx of officers. They are surrounded by an angry crowd. CROWD Kill him! Kill him! JIM (V.O.) Dr. Best, Himmler's right hand man in the Gestapo, once said "as long as the police carries out the will of the leadership, it is acting legally." That mindset allowed for 400 political murders in the Weimar Republic of 1923 - 32, where the courts were controlled and the guilty acquitted. Oswald must've felt like Josef K in Kafka's "The Trial". He was never told the reason of his arrest, he does not know the unseen forces ranging against him, he cries out his outrage in the police lineup just like Josef K excoriates the judge for not being told the charges against him. But the state is deaf. The quarry is caught. By the time he is brought from the theatre, a large crowd is waiting to scream at him. By the time he reaches police headquarters, he is booked for murdering Tippit... At the Dallas police station, Dallas Police Captain Will Fritz takes a call from a high official in Washington. In the background we notice Lee Oswald continuing to be questioned by federal agents. We hear Johnson's distinctive Texas drawl but we never see him. JIM (V.O.) No legal counsel is provided. No record made of the long questioning. HIGH OFFICIAL VOICE Howdy there, Cap'n. Thanks for taking care of us down in Dallas. Lady Bird and I will always be grateful. FRITZ Thank you, Mr. President. We're doing our best. HIGH OFFICIAL VOICE Cap'n, I know you're working like a hound dog down there to get this mess wrapped up, but I gotta tell you there's too much confusion coming out of Dallas now. The TVs and the papers are full of rumour 'bout conspiracies. Two gunmen, two rifles, the Russkies done it, the Cubans done it, that kinda loose talk, it's carin' the shit outta people, bubba'. This thing could lead us into a war that could cost 40 million lives. We got to show'em we got this thing under control. No question, no doubts, for the good of our country... you hear me? FRITZ Yes, sir. HIGH OFFICIAL VOICE Cap'n, you got your man, the investigation's over, that's what people want to hear. The camera closes in on Oswald in the background. He turns to an unseen Deputy, sad. OSWALD Now everyone will know who I am. JIM (V.O.) By the time the sun rose the next morning, he is booked for murdering the President. The whole country - fueled by the media - assumes he's guilty. In an underground police garage, we see Jack Ruby being allowed in via an interior staircase by his police contact. He moves towards the outer edge of reporters, nervous. Oswald comes out with his two guards. We see a repeat of the assassination in stop time... Ruby's eyes, Oswald's... do they recognize each other? JIM (V.O.) Under the guise of a patriotic nightclub owner out to spare Jackie Kennedy from having to testify at a trial, Jack Ruby is shown into the underground garage by one of his inside men on the Dallas Police Force, and when he's ready Oswald is brought out like a sacrificial lamb and nicely disposed of as an enemy of the people. By early Sunday afternoon, the autopsy has been completed on him. Who grieves for Lee Harvey Oswald? Buried in a cheap grave under the name "Oswald"? No one. We see Oswald dying on the floor of the police station. A paramedic pushes in and starts administering artificial respiration, which only aggravates the internal hemorrhaging. At a Texas cemetery, Oswald's mother weeps. Oswald is buried with a few people present, but there are no details, no dates. We see Marina whisked out by agents. CUT TO Kennedy's funeral, which, in contrast, attracts thousands of mourners. JIM (V.O.) Within minutes false statements and press leaks about Lee Oswald circulate the globe. FLASHBACK TO X: reading about it in the New Zealand Airport, and then back to the courtroom in 1969. JIM The Official Legend is created and the media takes it from there. The glitter of official lies and the epic splendor of the thought-numbing funeral of J.F.K. confuse the eye and confound the understanding. Hitler always said "the bigger the lie, the more people will believe it." Lee Oswald - a crazed, lonely man who wanted attention and got it by killing a President, was only the first in a long line of patsies. In later years Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, men whose commitment to change and to peace would make them dangerous to men who are committed to war, would follow, also killed by such "lonely, crazed men," who remove our guilt by making murder a meaningless act of a loner. We have all become Hamlets in our country - children of a slain father - leader whose killers still possess the throne. The ghost of John F. Kennedy confronts us with the secret murder at the heart of the American dream. He forces on us the appalling questions: Of what is our Constitution made? What is our citizenship, and more, our lives worth? What is the future of a democracy where a President can be assassinated under conspicuously suspicious circumstances while the machinery of legal action scarcely trembles? How many political murders, disguised as heart attacks, cancer, suicides, airplane and car crashes, drug overdoses will occur before they are exposed for what they are? Liz watches, moved. Susie, Al and Numa are also there for the summation. Even Lou Ivon has come back to support his friend. JIM "Treason doth never prosper," wrote an English poet, "What's the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason." The generals who sent Dreyfus to Devils Island were among the most honorable men in France, the men who killed Caesar were among the most honorable men in Rome. And the men who killed Kennedy, no doubt, were honorable men. I believe we have reached a time in our country, similar to what life must've been like under Hitler in the 30's, except we don't realize it because Fascism in our country takes the benign disguise of liberal democracy. There won't be such familiar signs as swastikas. We won't build Dachaus and Auschwitzes. We're not going to wake up one morning and suddenly find ourselves in gray uniforms goose - stepping off to work ... "Fascism will come," Huey Long once said. "in the name of anti-fascism" - it will come in the name of your security - they call it "National Security," it will come with the mass media manipulating a clever concentration camp of the mind. The super state will provide you tranquility above the truth, the super state will make you believe you are living in the best of all possible worlds, and in order to do so will rewrite history as it sees fit. George Orwell's Ministry of Truth warned us, "Who controls the past, controls the future." The camera follows Jim around the courtroom. JIM The American people have yet to see the Zapruder film. Why? The American people have yet to see the real photographs and X - rays of the autopsy. Why? There are hundreds of documents that could help prove this conspiracy. Why have they been withheld or burned by the Government? Each time my office or you the people have asked those questions, demanded crucial evidence, the answer from on high has been "national security." What kind of "national security" do we have when we have been robbed of our leaders? Who determines our "national security"? What "national security" permits the removal of fundamental power from the hands of the American people and validates the ascendancy of invisible government in the United States? That kind of "national security," gentlemen of the jury, is when it smells like it, feels like it, and looks like it, you call it what it is - it's Fascism! I submit to you that what took place on November 22, 1963 was a coup d'etat. Its most direct and tragic result was a reversal of President Kennedy's commitment to withdraw from Vietnam. War is the biggest business in America worth $80 billion a year. The President was murdered by a conspiracy planned in advance at the highest levels of the United States government and carried out by fanatical and disciplined Cold Warriors in the Pentagon and CIA's covert operations apparatus - among them Clay Shaw here before you. It was a public execution and it was covered up by like - minded individuals in the Dallas Police Department, the Secret Service, the FBI, and the White House - all the way up to and including J. Edgar Hoover and Lyndon Johnson, whom I consider accomplices after the fact. The camera holds on onlookers shuffling and murmuring. Clay Shaw smirks, smoking his cigarette. The very grandiosity of the charge works in his favor. Jim is falling apart from built - up strain and fatigue. He looks over at Liz, gathering his spirit. JIM (V.O.) There is a very simple way to determine if I am being paranoid here. (laughter) Let's ask the two men who have profited the most from the assassination - your former President Lyndon Baines Johnson and your new President, Richard Nixon - to release 51 CIA documents pertaining to Lee Oswald and Jack Ruby, or the secret CIA memo on Oswald's activities in Russia that was "destroyed" while being photocopied. All these documents are yours - the people's property - you pay for it, but because the government considers you children who might be too disturbed to face this reality, because you might lynch those involved, you cannot see these documents for another 75 years. I'm in my 40's, so I'll have shuffled off this mortal coil by then, but I'm already telling my 8 year - old son to keep himself physically fit so that one glorious September morning in 2038 he can walk into the National Archives and find out what the CIA and the FBI knew. They may even push it back then. It may become a generational affair, with questions passed down from father to son, mother to daughter, in the manner of the ancient runic bards. Someday somewhere, someone might find out the damned Truth. Or we might just build ourselves a new Government like the Declaration of Independence says we should do when the old one ain't working - maybe a little farther out West. He approaches the jury. JIM An American naturalist wrote, "a patriot must always be ready to defend his country against its government." Well, I'd hate to be in your shoes today. You have a lot to think about. Going back to when we were children, I think most of us in this courtroom thought that justice came into being automatically, that virtue was its own reward, that good would triumph over evil. But as we get older we know that this just isn't true. "The frontier is where a man faces a fact." Individual human beings have to create justice and this is not easy because truth often presents a threat to power and we have to fight power often at great risk to ourselves. People like Julia Ann Mercer, S.M. Holland, Lee Bowers, Jean Hill, and Willie O'Keefe have come forward and taken that risk. (he produces a stack of letters) I have here some $8000 in these letters sent to my office from all over the country - quarters, dimes, dollar bills from housewives, plumbers, car salesmen, teachers, invalids ... These are the people who cannot afford to send money but do, these are the ones who drive the cabs, who nurse in the hospitals, who see their kids go to Vietnam. Why? Because they care, because they want to know the truth - because they want their country back, because it belongs to us the people as long as the people got the guts to fight for what they believe in! The truth is the most important value we have because if the truth does not endure, if the Government murders truth, if you cannot respect the hearts of these people... (shaking the letters) ...then this is no longer the country in which we were born in and this is not the country I want to die in... And this was never more true than for John F. Kennedy whose murder was probably the most terrible moment in the history of our country. You the people, you the jury system, in sitting in judgement on Clay Shaw, represent the hope of humanity against Government power. In discharging your duty, in bringing the first conviction in this house of cards against Clay Shaw, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Do not forget your young President who forfeited his life. Show the world this is still a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. Nothing as long as you live will ever be more important. (he stares into the camera) It's up to you. He returns to the table and sits. The courtroom is still. CUT TO: later in the same courtroom. The jury files in, having reached a verdict. Jim, prepared, sits with his staff and Liz. The jury foreman enters the courtroom. JURY FOREMAN We find Clay Shaw... not guilty on all counts. There's jubilation and commotion in the Court. Shaw stands, happily shaking hands all over... Members of the press run for the phones. In the corridor outside the courtroom, the press interviews the jury foreman. FOREMAN We believe there was a conspiracy, but whether Clay Shaw was a part of it is another kettle of fish. The camera moves to Jim, who walks out past the banks of reporters. TV lights are in his face. Liz is by his side. ENGLISH REPORTER Mr. Garrison, the American media is reporting this as a full vindication of the Warren Commission, do you... JIM I think all it proves is you cannot run a trial even questioning the intelligence operations of the government in the light of day. NEWSMAN 13 We understand that The Times - Picayune will call for your resignation - unfit to hold office. You've ruined Clay Shaw's reputation - are you going to resign? JIM Hell, no. I'm gonna run again. And I'm gonna win. Thank you very much. If it takes me 30 years to nail every one of the assassins, then I will continue this investigation for 30 years. I owe that not only to Jack Kennedy, but to my country. He and Liz squeeze hands as they walk on. DISSOLVE TO WASHINGTON, D.C. - (1970) Jim waits on the same park bench as earlier in the film, overlooking the Mall or the Lincoln Monument... as X walks up, a little grayer, a little more stooped, wearing ill fitting civilian clothes. JIM Well, thanks for coming. X You didn't get that break you needed, but you went as far as any man could, bubba. (he sits next to Jim) What can I do for you? JIM Just speculating, I guess. How do you think it started? X I think it started in the wind. Money - arms, big oil, Pentagon people, contractors, bankers, politicians like L.B.J. were committed to a war in Southeast Asia. As early as '61 they knew Kennedy was going to change things... He was not going to war in Southeast Asia. Who knows? Probably some boardroom or lunchroom somewhere - Houston, New York - hell, maybe Bonn, Germany... who knows, it's international now. CUT TO: a New York lunch club or executive dining room. From the window we have a towering view of the City. Four men in their 50's to 70's - old men, rich men, talk at a quiet table. Their figures are shadowy and we overhear their conversation obliquely, across faces flared out by sun bouncing off the skyscraper window. X (V.O.) One worried sonofabitch with a few million dollars turns to the others... with a few million dollars... and says something pretty direct like... RICH MAN 1 The sonofabitch is gonna get re- elected by a bigger vote than ever in '64. It's gonna be worse than Roosevelt. The country won't survive as we know it. RICH MAN 2 I agree, Bob, it can't go on. (he looks to Man 3) RICH MAN 3 ...and Bobby in '68? Something's got to be done. Looks pass among them. There's a pause, and then... RICH MAN 1 He's gotta go, Lou. The election's gotta be stopped. There is a breathless moment with the thought in the air. RICH MAN 1 I talk to a lot of people. I know I'm not the only one thinking this. RICH MAN 2 What's the feeling in Washington, Jack? FLASHBACK TO: the Pentagon in 1962. X (V.O.) ...so calls are made. Down to Washington. All over the world. They start talking about it. A few people here, there. Just conversations, nothing more... We see a general meeting with another general. They talk. X (V.O.) Generals, Admirals, CIA people, and probably some people on the inside of Kennedy's staff - young, brilliant Judases, ready to go to war in Southeast Asia... FLASHBACK TO: the White House, 1962. A general talks to one of Kennedy's staff - a bespectacled, bright young Harvard type. X (V.O.) ...and maybe a Vice-President getting separate memos from Vietnam, eager to get his backers the billions of dollars in contracts for Southeast Asia... In a White House office, Lyndon Johnson meets with a cabinet member, a contractor, and two military men. X (V.O.) Kennedy, like Caesar, is surrounded with enemies. Something is underway but it has no face. Yet everyone in the loop knows... The camera shows Washington, D.C. buildings from strange angles. The feeling is still, weird, angled, alien. The buildings are twisted. X (V.O.) Money is at stake. Big money. A hundred billion. The Kennedy brothers target voting districts for defense dollars. They give TFX fighter contracts only to the counties that are going to make a difference in '64. These people fight back. Their way. One day another call is made... In a Pentagon office, a man in civilian clothing is on the phone, his back to the screen. This is Mr. Y, X's superior officer. Shadows pervade the room. An unshuttered window overlooks the Potomac River and the White House. X (V.O.) ...maybe to somebody like my superior who's been running the "Mongoose" program out of Florida and who has no love for Kennedy. VOICE ON PHONE Bill, we're going. We need your help. X (V.O.) Everything's cellurized. No one has said "he must die," there's been no vote, there's nothing on paper, there's no one to blame. It's as old as the Crucifixion: the Mafia firing squad, one blank, no one's guilty because everyone in the Power Structure who knows anything has a plausible deniability. There are no compromising connections except at the most secret point. But what's paramount is that it must succeed. No matter how many die, how much it costs, the perpetrators must be on the winning side and never subject to prosecution for anything by anyone. That is a coup d'etat. Y (into phone) When? VOICE ON PHONE In the fall. Probably in the south. We want you to come up with a plan... X He's done it before. Other countries. Lumumba in the Congo, Trujillo, the Dominican Republic, he's working on Castro. No big deal. In September, Kennedy announces the Texas trip. At that moment, second Oswalds start popping up all over Dallas where they have the mayor and the cops in their pocket. Y flies in the assassins, maybe from the special camp we keep outside Athens, Greece - pros, maybe some locals, Cubans, Maria hire, separate teams. Does it really matter who shot from what rooftop? Part of the scenery. The assassins by now are dead or well paid and long gone... JIM Any chance of one of them confessing someday? X ...don't think so. When they start to drool, they get rid of 'em. These guys are proud of what they did. They did Dealey Plaza! They took out the President of the United States! That's entertainment! And they served their country doing it. JIM (in present) ...and your General? X ...got promoted to two stars, but he was never military, you know, always CIA. Went to Vietnam, lost his credibility when we got beat over there, retired, lives in Virginia. I say hello to him when I see him at the supermarket... JIM Ever ask him? X You never ask a spook a question. No point. He'll never give you a straight answer. General Y still thinks of himself of the handsome young warrior who loved this country but loved the concept of war more. JIM His name? X Does it matter? Another technician. But an interesting thing - he was there that day in Dealey Plaza. You know how I know? (Jim shakes his head) That picture of yours. The hoboes... you never looked deep enough... FLASHBACK TO: one of the hobo pictures. Next to the freight entrance of the Book Depository, Y, in a dark suit, is nonchalantly walking past the hoboes, his back to us. The camera closes in on Y. X (V.O.) I knew the man 20 years. That's him. The way he walked... arms at his side, military, the stoop, the haircut, the twisted left hand, the large class ring. What was he doing there? If anyone had asked him, he'd probably say "protection" but I'll tell you I think he was giving some kind of "okay" signal to those hoboes - they're about to get booked and he's telling 'em it's gonna be okay, they're covered. And in fact they were - you never heard of them again. JIM ...some story... the whole thing. It's like it never happened. X It never did. (he smiles tartly) JIM Just think... just think. What happened to our country .. to the world... because of that murder... Vietnam, racial conflict, breakdown of law, drugs, thought control, guilt, assassinations, secret government fear of the frontier... X I keep thinking of that day, Tuesday the 26th, the day after they buried Kennedy, L.B.J. was signing the memorandum on Vietnam with Ambassador Lodge. FLASHBACK TO: the White House, 1963. Johnson sits across the shadowed room with Lodge and others. His Texas drawl rises and falls. He signs something unseen. JOHNSON Gentlemen, I want you to know I'm not going to let Vietnam go the way China did. I'm personally committed. I'm not going to take one soldier out of there 'til they know we mean business in Asia... (he pauses) You just get me elected, and I'll give you your damned war. X (V.O.) ...and that was the day Vietnam started. CUT TO: Documentary footage of - U.S. Marines arriving in full force on the beaches of Danang, March 8, 1965... as another era begins and our movie ends. ON A BLACK SCREEN WE READ: ** In 1975, VICTOR MARCHETTI, former executive assistant to the CIA's deputy director, stated that during high - level CIA meetings during Shaw's trial in 1969, CIA director RICHARD HELMS disclosed that CLAY SHAW and DAVID FERRIE had worked for the Agency, and asked his assistants to make sure Mr. Shaw received Agency help at his trial. ** In 1979, RICHARD HELMS, director of covert operations in 1963, admitted under oath that CLAY SHAW had Agency connections. ** It is now known that in 1963, U.S. military intelligence controlled more agents than the CIA and had almost as much money to spend. It surfaced in the 1970's that the Army had long been conducting surveillance and keeping files on thousands of private citizens in the name of national security. The prime targets were dissident-left-wingers of the kind Oswald appeared to be. ** CLAY SHAW died in 1974 of supposed lung cancer. No autopsy was allowed. ** WILLIAM SULLIVAN, Assistant Director of the FBI, died in the early morning hours of November 9,177 when he was mistaken for a deer in an open field in New Hampshire. Shortly before his death, Sullivan had a preliminary hearing with the HSCA. ** GEORGE DE MOHRENSCHILDT committed suicide just hours after HSCA investigator Gaeton Fonzi located him. ** In November, 1969 JIM GARRISON was re-elected to a third term as District Attorney of Orleans Parish. In June of 1971, he was arrested by Federal Agents on charges of allowing payoffs on pinball gambling by organized crime. In September of 1973, after defending himself in Federal Court, he was quickly found not guilty of charges that appear to have been framed against him. Less than six weeks later, he was narrowly defeated for a fourth term as District Attorney. ** In 1978, Garrison was elected Judge of the Louisiana State Court of Appeal in New Orleans. He was re - elected in 1988. To this date, he has brought the only public prosecution in the Kennedy killing. ** ELIZABETH and Jim were divorced in 1978. He now lives in the same house he lived in with Elizabeth. She lives a block away. Their five children are grown. ** SOUTHEAST ASIA: 58,000 American lives, 2 million Asian lives, $220 billion spent, 10 million Americans air - lifted there by commercial aircraft, more than 5,000 helicopters lost, 6.5 million tons of bombs dropped. ** A Congressional Investigation from 1976 - 1979 found a "probable conspiracy" in the assassination of John F. Kennedy and recommended the Justice Department investigate further. As of 1991, the Justice Department has done nothing. The files of the House Select Committee on Assassinations are locked away until the year 2029. The camera moves onto the mottoes chiselled in the walls of the National Archives in Washington, D.C.: "STUDY THE PAST" "PAST IS PROLOGUE" "ETERNAL VIGILANCE IS THE PRICE OF LIBERTY" DEDICATED TO THE YOUNG, IN WHOSE SPIRIT THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH MARCHES ON. FADE OUT: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Jacket, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jacket, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..73215102668d8e8996d2cb96b0ec1243719f9bf6 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jacket, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + THE JACKET Written by Massy Tadjedin Based on a screenplay by Marc Rocco April 15, 2003 A pure white screen. Idyllic stillness. All of it looking and feeling like the heavens are supposed to. After some seconds of calm, water seems to mist the screen and the slight shifts to the left and then the right suggest this is a man's P.O.V. Then, suddenly, the white screen is tugged and we see it was a sheet covering a presumably dead man. WILLIAM STARKS (V.O.) I was 25 years old the first time I died... INT. HOSPITAL, KUWAIT, DAY One more tug on the sheet and we see, and suddenly hear, from William Starks' P.O.V. the CHAOS of the hospital around him as DOCTORS and NURSES tend as best as they can to the injured soldiers. Our glimpse of STARKS reveals a red stretcher -- soaked in blood -- and the severe head wound where a bullet's minced his skull. Then, slowly, steadily, a heartbeat is heard over the muffled sounds of the hospital and, as his pulse quickens, so does the pace of the world around him. INT. HOSPITAL, KUWAIT, DAY WILLIAM STARKS (V.O.) I remember there was so much white everywhere. And I felt peace...even though there was war around me. And I felt alive, even though I knew I was dead. INTERN #1 Come on, come on, let's tag these guys and get them out of here. An INTERN, clipboard in hand, stands above STARKS' unmoving body with another INTERN (2) beside him. INTERN 1 pulls the rest of the SHEET off of STARKS as the OTHER searches for his DOG TAGS and gently closes his EYES with her hand. INTERN #2 [Reading from the TAGS] Starks, William. Born December 25, 1966. INTERN #1 Wait, so how old? INTERN #2 25. 2. INTERN #1 [Searching through records] Here he is. William Starks. Born in Vermont. He hasn't got a family listed. The naval hospital'll figure out what to do with him. As the INTERN puts the TAGS back down, she meets STARKS' wide- open EYES -- now filled with surfacing tears, sadness, and life. She stares at them curiously and, after some seconds, STARKS blinks and a TEAR runs down his cheek -- jarring her. INTERN #2 [Calling out] Oh my God! This soldier is ALIVE! Code blue! CODE BLUE! This man just blinked! INTERN #1 He's been tagged already. Worry about the others... [then seeing STARKS blink] Oh shit! Shit! CODE BLUE! We need a doctor! Get a doctor over here now! As the MEDICAL STAFF rush over to STARKS, preparing NEEDLES and OXYGEN MASKS, STARKS merely closes his eyes and we follow the now BLOODIED white sheet as it falls to the ground... EXT. IRAQI VILLAGE, DAY A NEWSANCHOR interviews CAPTAIN ROBERT MEDLEY (30s) -- a particularly photogenic and affable participant. CAPTAIN MEDLEY The level of arms on the ground really depends. [Answering a question] But no, I'd have to say we haven't had to engage on the ground as heavily as we might have expected. NEWSANCHOR Have you lost any men today, Captain? CAPTAIN MEDLEY No. One of my Corporals took a bullet to the head, but it looks like he might make it. Looks that way... FLASHBACK TO: 3. EXT. IRAQI VILLAGE, DAY We see only the HAND, and not the man to whom it belongs, enter the frame and pull the TRIGGER on a gun. The sound pierces the air, and the bullet hits the side of STARKS' head in a FLASH, shaving the skin around it right off. EXT. AMERICAN NAVAL HOSPITAL, DAY STARKS convalesces in a navy hospital bed -- his head heavily BANDAGED and his arms suited with I.V.'s and dressings -- as a MAJOR, a LIEUTENANT and a DOCTOR stand above him. STARKS' face -- now cleaned of the blood that masked it before -- is alert, and striking. Even with the bandages, he remains well-built and strong, like a shot straight to the head would have been the only way for an enemy to take him down. DOCTOR Sergeant Starks was very lucky. A little more to the right and it wouldn't have wanted to come out... MAJOR But he's never gonna be able to remember what happened? DOCTOR It's hard to say. Sergeant Starks could have retrograde amnesia or... [lowering his voice] any form of psychological suppression. It's very common with traumas like this. STARKS [Cutting him off] Sergeant Starks is in the room, [beat] and I want to know when I'm going home. When he speaks, STARKS maintains the sharp, steady gaze of a man assured of himself, even if he is lost among his surroundings. LIEUTENANT Sergeant, you have no surviving family in the States. I'm sure you have friends or distant relatives, but unfortunately we have no record of them yet. MAJOR Captain Medley has recommended you for the Purple Heart, Sergeant. 4. STARKS lets the tribute roll right off him. He spots the CIGARETTES in the Lieutenant's pocket. STARKS Can I have one of those? LIEUTENANT Of course. The LIEUTENANT lights one for him. DOCTOR There is help for you, Sergeant. LIEUTENANT Of course there is. Their VOICES start to fade as STARKS smokes his cigarette, blowing the SMOKE upwards and following it with his eyes. He's finished with these men and everything they stand for. STARKS [V.O.] I didn't know where my home was. I just knew I didn't want to be there anymore. EXT. HIGHWAY, RURAL VERMONT, WINTER, DAY STARKS -- recovered now -- walks by himself along a long highway. He seems to be walking away from things even if he can't remember what they are yet. EXT. HIGHWAY, RURAL VERMONT, WINTER, DAY JEAN PRICE (30s) -- a hippie who happens to be a mother -- and her daughter, JACKIE (8) tremble in the cold next to their stalled car. JEAN sits next to the car, holding her knees to her chest, more like a child than her daughter. JACKIE runs her little gloved hand over her mom's ski-hatted head as she cautiously watches STARKS approach them. He cuts an arresting figure against the empty landscape. JACKIE Come on, mom. Don't fall asleep... STARKS You two ok? JACKIE Our car won't start. 5. STARKS [Looking at JEAN] What's your mom's name? JACKIE [Cautiously] Jean. STARKS takes off his backpack and kneels down. STARKS Jean? Jean, can you hear me? I need you to try to wake up, Jean. JEAN opens her eyes, stone red. STARKS Your mom take anything before this happened? JACKIE Yeah, but I don't know what. STARKS [Beat] What's your name? JACKIE Jackie. JACKIE decidedly sticks out her gloved hand. STARKS smiles and briefly shakes it. STARKS rubs a hand over his chin and cheek as he thinks of what to do. STARKS Nice to meet you, Jackie. Why don't you wrap this scarf around yourself and try to keep your mom awake while I take a look at your car. EXT. HIGHWAY, RURAL VERMONT, WINTER, DAY As Starks works on their engine, JACKIE anxiously watches her mother throw up in the distance. STARKS sees her watching and tries to distract her. STARKS What do you think of all this snow? JACKIE looks at him curiously. JACKIE [Beat] Nothing. STARKS looks at her and smiles at her honest answer; Jackie turns her head back towards her mother. 6. JACKIE But I like it I guess. STARKS Hey, can you reach the gas pedal? JACKIE Yeah. JACKIE gets behind the wheel, crouching down in the seat just enough so her foot reaches the pedal. STARKS Go ahead, turn it on. Keep pushing it. JACKIE revs up the engine and, a few coughs and sputters later, the car settles into a nice, working hum. JACKIE [Smiling] It works! JACKIE steps down. She looks like she could hug Starks and, unexpectedly, decides to. As STARKS awkwardly returns it, he sees JEAN lifting her eyes to see him holding her daughter. JEAN Get your fucking hands off my daughter! JACKIE Mom, he just fixed our car. JEAN Jackie, get in the car. NOW! JEAN reaches for a RIFLE in the back of the truck but stumbles from the nausea before she can pick it up. JEAN Look, I don't want any trouble, so... STARKS Neither do I, ma'am. I'll be on my way. JACKIE Mom, you've got it wrong... STARKS motions for JACKIE to stop as he collects his bags. JACKIE You're just gonna walk? 7. STARKS Yeah, I'll hitch a ride or something. [Beat] Let her throw it all up before she gets back behind the wheel. STARKS' DOG TAGS are tied to the ZIPPER of one of his bags. JACKIE What're those? STARKS Dog tags. [Off her blank look] They've got your name and date of birth for identification. JACKIE What for? STARKS [Beat] In case you get lost, or can't remember who you are. JACKIE [Still looking at them] Hm. STARKS unties them and gives them to her. She reads them. STARKS I think I can remember what's on them. JACKIE William Starks. [Beat] Thanks. CUT TO: INT. COURTROOM, SMALL TOWN VERMONT STARKS faces the screen with nothing but a cryptic BLACKNESS about him and a confused look on his face as a MENACING VOICE questions him. VOICE (O.S.) "Jackie" and "Jean" are the only ...things you know for certain about that day? STARKS nods. 8. VOICE (O.S.) Are you aware we have no last name, no place of residence, and no record of any physical presence for these "friends" of yours? How's that possible in this day and age? STARKS nods as a muffled "Objection" flickers away in the background... VOICE (O.S.) I may need to actually hear that answer, Mr. Starks. STARKS [Beat] Yes. With Starks' answer, the background of the courtroom is suddenly illuminated and we see that THIS IS STARKS' OWN TRIAL. The VOICE belongs to a satisfied PROSECUTION who turns to face a medium-sized CROWD watching on... INT. COURTROOM, SMALL TOWN VERMONT There are three KEY WITNESSES called to the stand: CAPTAIN MEDLEY, Starks' commanding officer in the Persian Gulf; DR. HALE, a psychiatrist; and OFFICER NASH, the cop who first came upon the crime scene. Their three testimonies are intercut to present the case against Starks quickly and confusingly -- just like it appears to himself. OFFICER NASH [Emotional] Eddie [correcting himself], Officer Harrison, was lying in a pool of his own blood -- on his back. DR. HALE William Starks could be blocking the incident. It would explain his well- systematized scheme about the little girl and her mother. A delusion as complex as that can often replace the reality of an incident like this. OFFICER NASH [Cont'd] Officer Harrison'd been shot three times. He was long dead by the time we got there. 9. DR. HALE I have heard of Gulf War Syndrome. The medical community is only beginning to gather information about it. PROSECUTION Gulf War Syndrome? What the...Why don't we start diagnosing Hard Life Syndrome while we're at it? I've gotten a lot of convictions we could overturn with that logic... CAPTAIN MEDLEY Sergeant Starks was awarded the Purple Heart. That award doesn't applaud violence or murder. [Beat] It applauds honor. DR. HALE [Cont'd] His subconscious is blocking it, the same way it began to in the Gulf, particularly as something similarly traumatizing happened to him then. The following summations are punctuated by the BLACK FADES between them and the simulated BLACK around them as they speak -- like STARKS, at the beginning of his own testimony. PROSECUTION [Disdainfully] It's not a question of whether or not he was sane when he did it?! He absolutely was. Three bullets in one man are three moral failings in another. CAPTAIN MEDLEY [Incensed] War isn't a CNN Special. Half the shit that went on couldn't be tidied into a top of the hour headline -- either 'cause it couldn't be said neatly or 'cause it couldn't be said at all. It was ugly. And they don't put ugly on TV. [Looking at Starks] If Starks did kill that officer ... [Beat] You can't hold a man responsible for a damaged mind. 10. DEFENSE For God's sake, my client said he thinks he's already died once. He doesn't know what's going on. FLASHBACK TO: EXT. MURDER SCENE, HIGHWAY, VERMONT, DUSK STARKS lies bleeding -- eyes half open -- by OFFICER HARRISON'S dead, bloodied body as falling SNOW slowly whitens them both and covers any FOOTPRINTS that may have been left behind. We hear a distant gavel delivering a distant judgment... STARKS [V.O., nearly whispered] I don't know how it happened. STARKS' eyes finally close as he lapses into unconsciousness. INT. COURTROOM, SMALL TOWN VERMONT The JUDGE nods as he hands the JURY FOREMAN back the verdict. JURY FOREMAN On the count of first degree murder, we find the defendant, William Starks, not guilty by reason of insanity. EXT. HIGHWAY, RURAL VERMONT, WINTER, DAY In his mind, STARKS is walking out of the woods as the sun sets and bounces off the snow all around him. We see JACKIE watching him walk away into the woods. JUDGE (O.S.) I hereby sentence you to be committed to a facility for the criminally insane, where I hope that doctors and the proper treatment can help you... INT. COURTROOM, SMALL TOWN VERMONT The JUDGE sentences STARKS, who stares back vacantly, like a man who checked out of his life long before this judge decided he had to. EXT. ALPINE GROVE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL, DAY A white VAN pulls up to Alpine Grove Psychiatric Hospital -- a bleak, dated facility embellished only by the barbed wire that seems to be everywhere around it. 11. STARKS' anatomy instantly and intensely separates him from the staff of the hospital and the infirm patients who might be in it. TWO MEMBERS of that STAFF lead him in. JUDGE [O.S.] Mr. Starks, I hope that someday you might be well so that we will have lost only one life in this tragedy. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM, ALPINE GROVE MENTAL HOSPITAL DR. THOMAS BECKER (overworked, dogmatic, disenchanted), DR. BETH LORENSON (30s, unassuming, perceptive), and DR. GRIES (20s, green) are convened with other STAFF at a routine hospital meeting. These doctors deal in the currency of madness every day and wear the heaviness of that burden on their faces. CHIEF OF STAFF I'd certainly say he should be considered violent, just given his case... DR. BECKER How'd he dodge a conviction? CHIEF OF STAFF His defense argued post-traumatic stress and delusional disorder. He evidently couldn't account for a similar incident during his service in Desert Storm. DR. BECKER [Beat] So why isn't he just in the psych ward of the county jail? CHIEF OF STAFF Apparently, he's a decorated vet. And had another one testify for him. Who knows? [To DR. BECKER] Tom, do you mind taking him? BECKER shrugs a nod as the Chief moves on to the next order of business... INT. STARKS' ROOM, WARD, ALPINE GROVE, DAY STARKS is shown to his room by NURSE HARDING -- stern, senior -- and her henchman, DAMON -- a BURLY ORDERLY who relishes his command, however diluted it may be. DAMON unceremoniously puts Starks' UNIFORM on the bed. He and NURSE HARDING wait at the door for Starks to change into it. 12. DAMON looks at STARKS -- his eyes inadvertently conceding that Starks is more threatening than the common senile he marshals; STARKS stares him back -- deliberately conceding that he's right. STARKS turns around -- only then looking stunned in the sterile, cotton-white room, wondering where his life disappeared to. INT. DR. BECKER'S OFFICE, ALPINE GROVE, DAY STARKS sits opposite DR. BECKER in a harsh, tiled office. STARKS wears his blue uniform and BECKER wears a doubtful expression. From STARKS' P.O.V.: the DRUGS they've already started giving him BLUR his vision of Becker. BECKER William? William, can you hear me? STARKS nods groggily. BECKER I've given you some drugs to help with your adjustment... STARKS [Cutting him off] What kind of drugs? [Beat] 'Cause these seem pretty...pretty serious. BECKER Well, your condition's pretty serious. STARKS [Beat] So they say. [Off Becker's steady gaze] What? BECKER I'm just looking at you. Does that make you uncomfortable? STARKS Depends on what you're seeing. BECKER eyes STARKS mistrustfully. BECKER You said you couldn't remember killing Officer Harrison. Correct? STARKS [Beat] You don't believe me, do you? 13. BECKER It's not my job to believe you. STARKS [Squinting to better see] You're a doctor. I would think... BECKER [Cutting him off firmly] It's not my job to believe you or to understand you. It's my job to try to cure you and if that's a no-go, then to...take some kind of care of you. STARKS [Flatly] Lucky me. BECKER looks at Starks -- his eyes casting shame upon the alleged murderer that sits before him. BECKER [Stupefied] You shot a man three times: first in his heart, then in his stomach and then...point blank, in the back of his head. And then you just...forgot all about it. A whole life erased with three easy little words: I. Don't. Know. What would it be if we could all not know what we didn't want to have to face. BECKER glances at his WATCH and gets up -- still blurred in Starks' P.O.V. It's only as he's walking off that Starks notices he has a limp. FADE TO: INT. HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, DAY From STARKS' P.O.V., we follow him walk down the hospital halls, even hazier from the medication than before. FORMS blur into one another and, on either side of him is a crazy world with crazy patients who've lost their way in it. STARKS reaches for the WALL and runs his HAND over it, trying to keep his balance. He's walking towards BECKER who stands at the end of the hall, talking to other PATIENTS. STARKS [Softly] I don't belong here. I don't... STARKS falters but stays up. He turns to see a shell of an OLD MAN looking right through him with wooden eyes. STARKS' eyes stay so completely fixed on the old man's haunting sight that he doesn't see what's ahead of him. 14. He bumps right into a HYSTERICAL PATIENT whose sudden, earsplitting SCREAMS peal interminably through the air. STARKS [Mumbling] I'm sorry. I didn't mean... I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. STARKS' fumbled efforts to help the PATIENT only feed his hysteria more. The SCREAMING is intolerable. STARKS [Forced to yell] Will you listen to me? I'm not going to hurt you. Please. I didn't mean to bump...I'm sorry. ORDERLIES and NURSES, followed by DR. BECKER, surround them now, violently pulling STARKS off the patient. BECKER, familiar with the PATIENT (HAROLD), tries to calm him. BECKER It's ok, Harold. It's ok. STARKS searches their blurred faces and stops on Becker's as they restrain him and give him more drugs. STARKS [To Becker] I don't belong here... BECKER [Angrily, to the ORDERLIES] Get him to his room. FADE TO BLACK. INT. STARKS' ROOM, ALPINE GROVE, LATE NIGHT STARKS is slowly rebounding from the drugs when he hears disquieting FOOTSTEPS in the hall, coming closer and closer... What follows happens too quickly for STARKS to react. DR. GRIES, NURSE HARDING AND DAMON -- enter Starks' room. They close the door and deftly administer a TRANQUILIZER and a GAG. STARKS has no idea what's happening to him as they drag him out, and his STIFLED CRIES ensure no one else does either. NURSE HARDING Come on, army boy. Time for some therapy. 15. INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, LATE NIGHT The first face STARKS sees as the world comes into focus is NURSE HARDING'S. Around it loom those of DR. BECKER, DR. GRIES and DAMON. A shot of the room shows a constraint-ridden apparatus hanging sternly on the wall. It is THE JACKET: an apparatus designed to encase a man's body. Made of coarse, sickly- stained red ands brown canvas and velcro restraints that would first chafe, then forever burn, the skin they're wrapped around, the JACKET looks medieval. Its appearance suggests its purpose: to slowly STRANGLE THE LIFE OUT OF A MAN. STARKS has been stripped of his blue uniform and is lying nearly naked on a burial slab in the cold of the basement. Even under the tranquilizers, STARKS formidably resists them as the ORDERLIES wrestle to strap him in. Then Starks, sensing as anyone would, that something bad is being done to him, wisely stops resisting long enough to petition them. STARKS Wait. Wait a minute... Please. BECKER motions for them to stop with his hand. STARKS blinks, trying to bring the faces above him into focus... STARKS I, I don't belong here. BECKER looks into Starks' eyes. Sanity stares back. BECKER No. I don't think you do either. [Beat] But neither of us can do anything about that. BECKER barely nods and STARKS is trussed in the JACKET with METAL CLAMPS. BECKER writes some details down, presumably about Starks' treatment. A CADAVER DRAWER -- just barely deep enough for a body or tall enough for the height of a nose -- is slid open and STARKS, already dreadfully sheathed in the JACKET, is crammed inside. The ORDERLIES slam the cadaver drawer into the wall. INT. CADAVER DRAWER STARKS is literally entombed alive. Silence. Stolen breath. They bolt the drawer and the CLANG echoes through his body. The BLACKNESS and CLOSENESS of the space choke him as his heart beats the frantic rhythm of his struggle. 16. We see only the WHITES of a pair of petrified EYES on a man who's losing it -- hyperventilating, suffocating... for all intents and purposes, dying the worst kind of a death. Combing the walls for any sign of an explanation of what's happening to him, STARKS sees a single white DOT -- almost like a fleck of dust -- flitting between undecided SHAPES in the blackness until, slowly, it grows bigger and bigger... INT. JACKET/TUNNEL PASSAGE It's now a PATTERN of WHITE DOTS that changes the more STARKS stares at it. Beneath it seems to be a smaller pattern with formless shapes and figures that STARKS tries to discern before they change into something else. Only after STARKS blinks does he start to see the WHITE of the DOTS is SNOW from a picture that is slowly and terribly coming together in the following glimpses, each hardly longer than the time between BLINKS. 1) A little river of RED marring the snow around it, spilling from... 2) OFFICER HARRISON'S mouth just seconds before his last breath. His eyes close and STARKS sees and hears a FLASH... 3) From the barrel of a GUN fired near him. BLOOD sprays STARKS' hands as he looks down at them and realizes he's in the scene and not just watching it. He looks up from his hands and sees in similar flashes... 1) The snow beneath the BLOOD changing to DIRT as STARKS stares at it. This time, the little river of RED comes from... 2) The BODIES of IRAQI villagers, all still except one... 3) That of a IRAQI WOMAN. She unflinchingly lays her hand in the entrails of a CORPSE and smears its blood on her face just before she lies back down among the dead, content to be one of them. The only SOUNDS during these dreadful images have been a trapped man's anxious BREATHS and the BEATS of a HEART pumping so fast it could be a drum... The screen goes BLACK and QUIVERS as STARKS clenches his eyes shut. 17. INT. CADAVER DRAWER Just then, as the MUSCLE beneath his eyes starts to VIBRATE, something terrible and wet falls from the ceiling of the drawer. PING! Right on his eye. The drop of WATER is enough to send this man right over the edge. STARKS' EYES roll back into his head and start to flutter, shaking the SCREEN right along them until... INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE STARKS stands outside his body, looking at the wall of drawers he is in. He bends down to look more closely at a STAIN on the floor -- DRIED BLOOD -- and as he runs his HAND over it and stands back up, he is back in the... INT. JACKET/TUNNEL PASSAGE IMAGES RACE PAST HIM too fast for him to catch anything but fleeting clips of them. The IMAGES are his MEMORY and, no matter how badly he wants to slow them down, he can't... FADE TO BLACK. INT. DINER, SMALL TOWN VERMONT STARKS sees JACKIE, 8, sitting by a window in the diner. She turns her head towards the ENTRANCE and, as she looks there, so does Starks. That is when he first lays eyes on a woman, a WAITRESS -- worn but still lovely -- leaving the diner. He is taken with her and, for the first time since he's been in the Jacket, seems calm. Just then, however, the reverie is shattered... SMASH CUT TO: INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, LATE NIGHT The drawer is yanked open to reveal STARKS' still, drenched face. BECKER, GRIES and the ORDERLIES stand above him. BECKER Take him out of it. The ORDERLIES unstrap the JACKET from his body. Blood from his chafed skin drips onto the burial slab. STARKS' eyes remain closed. BECKER William. William, can you hear me? 18. We hear BECKER's voice as it sounds to STARKS...MUTED. STARKS' EYES open only enough for him to see the PEOPLE'S FACES morph chillingly into one another's. DR. GRIES [Less muffled] Pulse is 16, temp, just a hair under 90. 'Bout right for three hours of psychosis. NURSE HARDING That's not enough, is it? BECKER looks at STARKS' battered body. BECKER [Wearily, indifferently] It's enough for now. Take him to the infirmary and let him recover there. INT. WARD, ALPINE GROVE, NEXT MORNING STARKS sits, totally disoriented, in the ward with the other, more vocally INSANE patients. He runs his hand uncertainly over the SCARS on his arm from the Jacket and looks around -- not knowing where his PARANOIA ends and REALITY begins. The OLD MAN from the previous day is moving slowly with the aid of his walker. He is far less threatening to STARKS today...just a senile man about to walk into a wall. STARKS [Getting up to help him] Let's get you a destination other than this wall. RUDY MACKENZIE -- 40s, smart eyes, fidgety, with an innocent face -- watches STARKS help turn the OLD MAN around. MACKENZIE That's Kingsley. Old bastard hears us, I'm sure. He just doesn't want to bother answering so he makes us think he can't talk. I know. I tried it on my mother for two months once before she fished out my tongue. Literally. [Beat] You're the cop killer, right? STARKS Yeah, guess so. How'd you know? MACKENZIE TV. Helps numb [makes a "crazy gesture"] any active mind. [Sticking out a jittery hand] Rudy MacKenzie. (MORE) 19. MACKENZIE (cont'd) Welcome to the village, William Starks. STARKS doesn't offer his hand, just looks back at MacKenzie. STARKS [Looking away] I'm not really in the mood to talk. MACKENZIE That's too bad. I don't believe in disposable language either -- you know, the small talk, the little talk. Chit. Chat. Useless. The game's something else though. Think about it: What can we trade with each other in the air between us? This... [running his hand through the air] is our court. [Beat, so eager it's sad] I'm ready to throw the ball. Come on. STARKS looks at MACKENZIE and sees that the constant flow of words from his mouth only masks the tragic hesitation in his eyes. A dead arm hangs limply by his side, like a weight. STARKS [Relenting] What are you in here for? MACKENZIE I tried to kill my wife. STARKS Don't you go to jail for that? MACKENZIE I tried something like 30 times. There is, as STARKS rightly figures, no suitable response to that. MACKENZIE She's bigger than me, and she's stronger than me. And I never planned on doing it. It was always in the heat of the moment. I didn't beat her or anything. Hell, she beat me. But when we'd start fighting, I'd go for the knife. Then she kept threatening to have me put away, and [looking around] she finally did. As he talks, MACKENZIE notes the SCARS on Starks' arms. Dr. LORENSON observes STARKS and MACKENZIE talking and starts walking towards them. 20. STARKS Yeah, well 30 times probably would make you seem crazy. MACKENZIE Or just plain stupid. You'd think by the twentieth time, I'd have found an alternative method. Maybe a more effective one, if you know what I mean. DR. LORENSON Morning, gentlemen. How are you doing today? MACKENZIE winks discreetly at STARKS before he replies. MACKENZIE It's a hard one for me, Dr. Lorenson. [Finally turns to face her, grimly] The world around me, it's shrinking. There's not even room for light to make its way in. [Beat] Da-da-bum! Da- da-bum! I feel like the horseman of doom is coming for me, Doc. Only today, he's not carrying flowers. LORENSON reprimands MacKenzie by turning to Starks. MACKENZIE What? It's better than fine. DR. LORENSON And you, Mr. Starks? STARKS [Already on the defense] I'm fine. DR. LORENSON Mr. MacKenzie, do you think I could talk to Mr. Starks privately? MACKENZIE Of course you can, Doc. William, it was an absolute pleasure. Thanks for playing. Just before he walks away, MACKENZIE turns around nervously and uncharacteristically looks STARKS right in the eye. 21. MACKENZIE Hey...when they talk you out to the woods tonight and invite the wolves, dance with them. [Beat] They don't eat you when there's music playing. STARKS looks at MacKenzie briskly, wondering if his words were directed or just the meandering of a nut. But MacKenzie just nods his farewell and starts humming as he walks away -- dead arm in tow. DR. LORENSON So you're ok? STARKS [Still distracted] What? DR. LORENSON I asked you if you're ok. STARKS [Suspiciously] I don't know. You tell me, Doc. You think there's anything wrong with me? DR. LORENSON I don't know. You're not my patient. STARKS looks away. Lorenson gives him a once over. DR. LORENSON You look like you've lost some weight. Are you eating? STARKS I am. One of the few things I remember doing is eating. So I guess I must be exercising it off in my dreams. STARKS looks at LORENSON, seeing if he'll respond. LORENSON looks back curiously at STARKS' pointed stare. STARKS You done with your small talk? DR. LORENSON Sure. STARKS Good. STARKS walks away slowly and WEAKLY -- a fact that doesn't escape LORENSON's observation. 22. INT. MEN'S ROOM, ALPINE GROVE HOSPITAL, DAY STARKS walks into the bathroom, keenly eyeing the thin slit of WINDOWS at the top of the wall. He walks closer to them, when he suddenly hears some STRAINED BREATHING from inside one of the stalls. He checks the first stall, pushing it open. It swings both ways since it doesn't have a lock. The sound continues. STARKS walks slowly past the second stall to the third and then... WHACK! The door swings all the way towards STARKS. BRUTALLY. He falls backwards -- his head just barely missing a fatal confrontation with the sink. DAMON, the ORDERLY, walks out. DAMON I'm sorry, Starks. Must have not seen you coming there. STARKS writhes in PAIN -- straining for his own breath now. DAMON [Leaning down close to him] Were you worried about me? [Smiling] That's so sweet. Thanks. With that, DAMON walks out, leaving STARKS on the floor. INT. STARKS' ROOM, ALPINE GROVE, NIGHT, CHRISTMAS EVE STARKS sits in his room, listening to the silence of the night interrupted by first faint, then approaching, FOOTSTEPS. Closer and closer...then harmfully near until DAMON and HARDING enter his room. They pause -- awaiting a reaction. STARKS doesn't give them one. NURSE HARDING You gonna get the fuck up? INT. HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, NIGHT, CHRISTMAS EVE STARKS walks stoically down the cold corridors to his own torture -- flanked by HARDING and DAMON on either side. INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, CHRISTMAS EVE They're all in the room. STARKS seems pretty calm. Only in a C.U. do we see his eyes register the JACKET... BECKER I'm glad to see you're cooperating this time, Mr. Starks. 23. STARKS looks at the WIDE, STURDY restraints on it. They would really hurt if you hit someone as hard as you could with them. They might even knock someone out... DAMON and HARDING move to undress him, when STARKS makes a move to do it himself. They look to DR. BECKER who NODS that it's all right. DAMON begrudgingly lets go of Starks but not before he steps on one of Starks' bare feet. STARKS doesn't flinch. He merely turns away from them and bends down to take off his pants. On his way up, he GRABS THE JACKET OFF ITS HOOK and, using it like a weapon, aims to smack it across Damon's face. DAMON deftly ducks and the JACKET hits BECKER instead. The force of the blow sends Becker down, and as he falls against the wall, DAMON and HARDING leap to restrain Starks. BECKER opens and closes his eyes, trying to get them into focus. His right cheek is cut pretty bad. DR. GRIES helps BECKER to his feet and picks his BROKEN GLASSES up off the floor. BECKER puts them on. DR. GRIES Hold him while I get the tranquilizer. DAMON Fuck the tranquilizer! I got a foot. DAMON KICKS Starks hard in the back, nearly sending him down. BECKER No. That's not necessary. BECKER looks down and sees his own BLOOD fall on the floor. He looks up at STARKS who, even in his pain, looks shocked at the force he just used. BECKER Let him go. [More firmly] I said, let him go! As soon as they let him go, STARKS lunges for BECKER -- pushing him up against the wall. STARKS stops, presumably about to harm Becker but unsure, even to himself, of what he's capable of doing... BECKER looks fearlessly into Starks' eyes. 24. BECKER [An inch away from his face] What, Starks? What are you going to do? End me just because I'm an inconvenience to you? [Beat] Just like you did with Officer Harrison? STARKS' face registers the meaning in Becker's words and a look of self-doubt crosses his face. BECKER The only thing your mind is missing is a conscience. STARKS lets go of him and, as soon as he does, DAMON and HARDING restrain him. BECKER calmly wipes the BLOOD from his face, looks at his hand, shakes his head and walks out. DR. GRIES Wait...Dr. Becker, how long do you want us to leave him in for? BECKER doesn't answer. He doesn't even turn around. DR. GRIES goes after him. DR. GRIES Just strap him in for now. And DAMON and HARDING start to... INT. BECKER'S OFFICE, ALPINE GROVE, CHRISTMAS EVE, SOME TIME LATER BECKER turns around from the window and we see that his cheek is BANDAGED. He opens a drawer, takes out some SCOTCH and pours himself a SHOT. He swallows some pills with it. After he drinks it, he looks up to see GRIES standing opposite him, watching. DR. GRIES You ok? BECKER I'm fine. DR. GRIES [Beat] Listen, I hate to bother you... BECKER Then don't. 25. DR. GRIES But... what about Starks? BECKER What about Starks? DR. GRIES Should we be... BECKER Should we be what? Trying to change him any way we can? [Beat] Yes. DR. GRIES But the Jacket? I mean...should we be leaving him in like that? BECKER [As if stunned by the question] Leaving him in? [Beat] The medication I'm given him is intended to adjust -- maybe even reset -- his violent proclivities. You know, peel away some of those layers of hate. The Jacket's merely a safe place for that to happen. The grounds and the halls -- where I can't monitor side effects I can't predict -- aren't. DR. GRIES [Still doubtful] But, but...what about... BECKER [Mocking Gries] But...but what about the gun? I mean, should he have been firing away like that? [Shaking his head at GRIES] You can't fuck up a life that's already been fucked up. [Turning away] There, there's the insurance you're looking for. DR. GRIES I'm not looking for anything. BECKER shakes his head, laughing inside at the world's stupidity. BECKER [Beat] It's Christmas Eve, Justin. Don't you have somewhere to be? 26. BECKER doesn't wait for an answer, just turns back towards the window and takes another sip of his drink. CUT TO: INT. HOSPITAL LOUNGE, ALPINE GROVE, CHRISTMAS EVE NURSE HARDING turns on the television as DAMON sits in one of the lounge chairs. NURSE HARDING Ah, man, look, It's A Wonderful Life. DAMON You got any booze? HARDING takes out a FLASK from her BACKPACK. NURSE HARDING 'Course I do. [Smiling] And it is the season for giving so let's get to it. DAMON smiles and rubs his hands together eagerly. INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, CHRISTMAS EVE A shot of the WALL OF DRAWERS, with no one in the room, just someone in the wall... INT. CADAVER DRAWER STARKS finds himself in the physically wrenching place once more. But nothing happens for some seconds. He breathes anxiously, not knowing what to expect. His heart beats steadily: THUMP...THUMP, until, finally, with each beat, a SMALL WHITE FLECK becomes two flecks...then, two dots...then, two circles...then, the WHITES of a pair of EYES with a terrific meanness in them. The EYES blink, then disappear like they were never there. The pace of STARKS' heart quickens, and the inexplicable madness surrounds him once more... EXT. MURDER SCENE, HIGHWAY, VERMONT, DUSK The SOUNDS of BOMBS RAGE around him but he's in the middle of the murder scene, watching OFFICER HARRISON lie on the floor. He turns to look over his shoulder and sees... 27. EXT. IRAQI VILLAGE, NIGHT Through a PHOSPHORESCENT GREEN NIGHT-VISION CAMERA, we see FIRE, FLESH, and RUIN littering the sand. Slowly the terrifying images shift to a naturalistic, real-time documentation of the action -- the ruin -- as it's occurring. As STARKS blinks, TEARS fall and he hears, over it all, a counseling voice... MACKENZIE (O.S.) When they take you out to the woods tonight and invite the wolves, dance with them. The TERRIBLE SOUNDS become less terrible as they fade away. MACKENZIE (O.S.) They don't eat you when there's music playing. The scene morphs slowly and the following IMAGES appear vaguely -- forming the walls of the TUNNEL around him. 1) C.U. A WOMAN'S NECK and a small child's HAND 2) INT. STAIRWAY, OLD HOUSE (STARKS' CHILDHOOD HOME) 3) C.U. A black and white PHOTOGRAPH 4) EXT. CREEK: A shot of clear water, not too deep... 5) EXT. A NEW ENGLAND BEACH 6) EXT. DESERT, IRAQ: A sublime sunset... STARKS walks up uneasily to the wall and touches the IMAGES. They move like they're liquid and, when they settle, the whole wall is replaced with one large IMAGE of a BEAUTIFUL WOMAN -- a waitress -- standing at the counter of a COFFEE SHOP, moving a STRAND OF HAIR out of her face with her hand. STARKS blinks slowly -- struck by this dream of her. He reaches out and closes his PALM around her like he might catch hold of the moment with this simple gesture. The whole WALL OF IMAGES twinkles marvelously, as we... CUT TO: 28. EXT. DINER, SMALL TOWN, VERMONT, CHRISTMAS EVE The WAITRESS (early 20s) -- tired, with kind eyes, soft skin and a beautiful mouth that hasn't smiled in a long time -- emerges from the diner. Even with no effort, she is remarkably pretty. From her UNIFORM, we know that her day was spent there. STARKS simply stares at this WOMAN who seems markedly removed from the world around her. The only fact she wears on her is that she's tired. She spots STARKS and can't help but do a double-take. Both are momentarily taken with each other, though she tries to hide any indication that she is. INT. WAITRESS' CAR She gets in her old car and starts it. As it warms up, she looks for STARKS in her REARVIEW MIRROR and sees he's still there. He starts to walk over to her when she jumps out of her car. EXT. PARKING LOT, DINER, VERMONT, CHRISTMAS EVE The WAITRESS treads angrily towards STARKS. WAITRESS Where do you think you're going? STARKS looks at her. He doesn't know anymore than she does. WAITRESS You gonna answer me? STARKS just stares. WAITRESS If you're deaf, read my lips...I don't need a psycho following me today. STARKS [Beat] I'm not deaf. WAITRESS Good. She turns and gets back in her car, slamming the door shut. She starts to drive and STARKS stares after her. 29. After a few hundred yards, she SLAMS on the brakes and turns the car round, coming back. Then she jumps out of the car and heads back in the diner, without looking over at STARKS. EXT. DINER, SMALL TOWN VERMONT, SOME SECONDS LATER She comes out -- this time PURSE in hand -- and sighs at Starks. WAITRESS [As if she owes him an explanation] I forgot my purse. STARKS nods slowly. The WAITRESS gets in her car and looks again at STARKS in her REARVIEW MIRROR. He has hardly any winter gear on him -- no gloves, no hat, no coat -- just jeans and a flannel. He looks lost among his surroundings, as much because he doesn't know where he is as because he doesn't look like he belongs there. She reverses towards him. WAITRESS In case you hadn't figured, it's Christmas Eve. You're never gonna get a cab here. STARKS [Beat] Thanks. She looks him over and then rests her hands on the wheel. WAITRESS All right. [Beat] You got somewhere you need to go, Mister? STARKS I'm not sure. WAITRESS Let me ask you that again. This time, look around and consider your options. Being cold and freezing are his options. WAITRESS [Beat] You got somewhere you need to go, Mister? STARKS [Nodding slowly] Yeah, I do. 30. WAITRESS Great, get in. INT. WAITRESS' CAR WAITRESS So, where do you want me to drop you? STARKS rubs his hand over his chin and cheek as he thinks it over. She watches him curiously. STARKS I'm not sure. WAITRESS You don't have anywhere to stay? STARKS I don't think so. The WAITRESS takes out a FLASK and a sizable SWIG from it; she swallows it smoothly, like someone used to doing so. WAITRESS Well, where are you from? STARKS I'm not sure. [Beat] I don't really know. WAITRESS Of course you don't know. STARKS Why "of course"? WAITRESS Because in my life, it wouldn't make sense for me to pick up some normal guy with a place where he's from and a place where he's going to. It'd be too simple. I probably wouldn't know how to handle a situation like that. STARKS Well, you definitely didn't pick normal or simple this time either. She looks over at him -- momentarily suspicious. He looks back innocuously; there's something innately safe about him. 31. WAITRESS At least you're honest. That's some kind of start. STARKS sees her take another DRINK from the flask. She pulls out a CIGARETTE, and STARKS lights it for her with some MATCHES. WAITRESS That's great. You're not sure where you're from or where you're going, but at least you've got manners. She laughs, noticeably more relaxed now after the drink. WAITRESS Well, you got a coat or something? STARKS [Looking down at his clothes] No. Doesn't look like it. WAITRESS Well, how'd you get here? STARKS [Beat] I was dropped off. WAITRESS Do you have a motel or something? Money? STARKS feels his pockets. STARKS No. WAITRESS Well, don't you somewhere? Stuff? Belongings? STARKS No. [Beat] Not around here. She casts a long sideward glance at STARKS, taking him and her circumstances in for herself. He looks back gently. WAITRESS All right, we'll get to my place and call around, see where I can take you. [Beat] Just don't think of trying anything. (MORE) 32. WAITRESS (cont'd) I have the biggest defense for gun control living upstairs from me. She's armed and angry even when she's asleep. INT. WAITRESS' APARTMENT, EVENING She is on the PHONE, calling various shelters. Her apartment has some pieces of mismatched furniture, along with a string of lopsided CHRISTMAS LIGHTS strewn around the WINDOWS in the room. They, more than anything else, light the place. WAITRESS [Pleading tone] I could have him there in 15 minutes. [Beat, disappointed] Hmm. Yeah, thanks. Merry Christmas to you, too. She hangs up the phone. WAITRESS Great. That was our last option. What am I going to do with you? STARKS Nothing. [Getting up] Thanks for bringing me this far. WAITRESS Where are you going? You'll freeze out there. You don't even have a coat. STARKS I'll manage. WAITRESS No, you won't. You'll die of cold out there and then I'll have to feel guilty. And I've already got more guilt than I know what to do with. [Beat] Do you want something to drink? STARKS No, I'm ok. She leaves to the KITCHEN to fix herself a drink and STARKS stares after her. Suddenly, a SMASHING SOUND is heard as something falls in the kitchen. STARKS' whole BODY TENSES UP as he wonders whether he's being taken out of the Jacket. WAITRESS Shit! That was one of my good glasses! 33. As she presumably cleans it up, we stay on STARKS who slowly gains hold of himself. She comes back, DRINK in hand and pushes the STRAND OF HAIR in her face back the same way she did when he saw her in the tunnel. Even through her weariness, she looks radiant under the Christmas lights. She takes a long SIP. WAITRESS [Noticing he's shaken] Hey, you ok? STARKS [Beat] Yeah, I'm fine. WAITRESS You know what? It's Christmas Eve. And you look clean -- I mean, you're normal-looking. [Resolutely, for her own benefit] It's Christmas Eve, and I have a couch. And sadly, no plans for the evening anyway. She looks back -- her EYES even more tired from the liquor. STARKS I'm not gonna hurt you. WAITRESS [Softly] I know. [Clearing her throat] I'm gonna go take a bath. Make yourself at home. You know, fix yourself something to eat if you're hungry or anything. There's nothing to steal, but don't be a jerk and take something anyway. And don't snoop, ok? STARKS Ok. [Beat] My name's William by the way. WAITRESS [Shakes her head] No, no. Let's not do the name stuff, 'cause you see, I don't want to meet you. I may want to help you tonight, but I don't want to know you. Honest. STARKS nods as she walks out. EXT. YARD BEHIND WAITRESS' APARTMENT, EVENING STARKS, still without a coat, collects some WOOD... 34. INT. KITCHEN, WAITRESS' APARTMENT, EVENING STARKS looks in her fridge. There's not much to work with -- just some JARS and plenty of VODKA. INT. LIVING ROOM, WAITRESS' APARTMENT, SOME TIME LATER STARKS has lit a FIRE and set out a feeble dinner for them when the WAITRESS comes out of the bedroom in sweats. WAITRESS What's this? STARKS The best I could do with what was in your fridge. She looks and sees a SANDWICH on a BUN in one plate and a SANDWICH on two different colors of TOAST on the other. Then she looks over at the fire; it's obvious from the way she looks at it that it's been years, if ever, since someone's done something like this for her. STARKS I only lit it because it was so cold in here. I'm sorry if... WAITRESS No, it's fine. [Beat, swallow] Thanks. She turns and goes in the kitchen, calling out to him... WAITRESS You want a drink? STARKS Sure. INT. KITCHEN, WAITRESS' APARTMENT, NIGHT As she makes their DRINKS, a curious LOOK crosses her face, just for a second. INT. LIVING ROOM, WAITRESS' APARTMENT, A LITTLE WHILE LATER They've sat down to eat under the blinking CHRISTMAS LIGHTS. WAITRESS This is pretty good. Considering... 35. STARKS Thanks. They eat quietly for a second. STARKS looks at her, then down at his food, still subtly stunned by it all. STARKS So you're a waitress, right? I mean...from the uniform you were wearing. WAITRESS Yup. That's me. STARKS You like it? WAITRESS [Beat] I do it. STARKS Have you always been a waitress? WAITRESS [Remembering sadly] No. I used to be a nurse. STARKS [Beat] Why'd you stop? WAITRESS Shit happens, and your life changes. 'Bout the best explanation of a lot of things that happen. [Beat] So how come you don't know where you're coming from? STARKS I don't know, but I think part of it's... STARKS looks around as he decides to be honest with her. STARKS That I don't really know what's real. She stares at him until a small sympathetic smile appears on her lips. WAITRESS Well, good for you. STARKS [Beat] Why? 36. WAITRESS [Beat] Real is overrated. STARKS smiles back uncertainly. STARKS You don't think that's crazy? WAITRESS Maybe. [Beat] Maybe not. She holds up her glass somewhat sadly. WAITRESS Sometimes I don't know the difference myself. And, you know something? I think I like it better that way. [Finishes her drink] You want another one? She goes to the KITCHEN, and STARKS clears their PLATES. INT. LIVING ROOM, WAITRESS' APARTMENT STARKS goes in the KITCHEN as she comes out with their drinks. He hears her turn on the RADIO. She lands on an OLDIES station that's playing "Girl of North Country" by Bob Dylan. INT. KITCHEN, WAITRESS' APARTMENT, NIGHT STARKS smiles a little, then realizes he remembers, and likes, the song. It's the first familiar thing for him in days. He walks out slowly to the living room, where the WAITRESS sits on the couch, drinking. STARKS moves closer to the radio, leaning into it, listening and forgetting, for a short while -- only as long as a piece of song -- everything else. BOB DYLAN If you go when the snow flakes storm When the rivers freeze and summer ends. Please see she has a coat so warm To keep her from the howlin' winds... STARKS listens close -- smiling a small, sad smile. Over the HARMONICA, we pull back and see two very lonely people passing time together the way people sometimes need to be able to. 37. STARKS This is a great song. WAITRESS You remember it? STARKS [Nodding slowly] It's like I feel like...I know who I am. I just can't remember anything that made me this person. When STARKS looks at her then, he's so close to a meltdown that it takes him a moment to fight his way out of it. STARKS But hey, who can forget those words? The man just wants simple and good things for his woman -- that she be warm and happy. How hard can that be to remember? WAITRESS May be easy to remember, but not easy to get. Being warm, maybe -- but, look, you don't even have a coat and I still have to chop wood to make a fire. [Beat] And, being happy...you tell me if that's simple. The CHRISTMAS LIGHTS flash drowsily to their own tempo. WAITRESS [re: the lights] Why don't I try to get them to stop blinking? INT. LIVING ROOM, WAITRESS' APARTMENT, AN HOUR OR SO LATER She is visibly drained, after the day and the drinks. STARKS They told me I joined the army when I was seventeen. That's when my father died and, before that, it was apparently just me and him since I was born 'cause my mom split. WAITRESS So you never knew your mother? STARKS I guess not. But, as of now, I never knew either. 38. WAITRESS I'm sorry. STARKS Yeah. [Beat] How about you? WAITRESS Never knew my father. I grew up with my mother. Actually, I grew up around my mother. She was great though. I mean, the way she was with her friends... She was this woman who had so much life in her, she had to find ways to kill some of it just to be like the rest of us. [Beat] She died young. STARKS How? WAITRESS She fucked herself up day after day and then, one day, she fell asleep with a burning cigarette. [Beat] I came home from work and she was gone. The TEARS still run after all these years. STARKS I'm sorry. WAITRESS Yeah, me too. [Softly] Every day for the last ten years. STARKS That when you stopped being a nurse? She is surprised that he gleaned the connection -- and that he'd been listening so closely. WAITRESS [Exhausted] Yeah, that's when I stopped being a nurse. I never thought I could stop being one, I wanted it for so long, but... you just can't do it anymore when you lose someone like that. You can't take care of other people. She closes her eyes and finally passes out. STARKS watches her face, lit serenely by the FIRE and the Christmas lights. It bears her grief even in sleep. 39. He covers her with a BLANKET then looks around and spots the only PERSONAL EFFECTS in the room on her mantle. He walks towards them, tripping slightly on a CORD from the LIGHTS. He stumbles but regains his balance by reaching for the wall. As he pulls himself up, he spots what is only inches away from where his hand landed on the wall: HIS OWN DOG TAGS, given to Jackie, only a couple weeks ago, hanging from a single NAIL tacked into the wall. Stunned, he stares at his NAME and BIRTH DATE scored on the metal. He looks back at the WAITRESS and then to the few PICTURES on the mantle: they are of JACKIE and her mother, JEAN. STARKS runs his hand through his hair, trying to swallow the improbability, and inexplicability, of the situation. STARKS' EYES search the room for ANYTHING that could help him figure out what's happening. On the console is an OLD PAPER and some MAIL. Totally disoriented, STARKS nearly STUMBLES on his way to the PILE. The label on the first BILL reads "Jackie Price." On the second, the same. And the third...until at the bottom of the pile, STARKS spots an OLD NEWSPAPER with the answer on its DATE: December 3, 2004. STARKS is absolutely stunned. STARKS looks over at JACKIE and, just then, the HARSH SOUND of the DRAWER being opened rings deafeningly in his ears and the image of her starts to DISSOLVE at this worst moment. He is being taken out of the JACKET... INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, LATE NIGHT It's DR. GRIES, racked with guilt, who pulls Starks out... He winces at the sight of the BLOOD and SWEAT streaked across Starks' face. DR. GRIES checks his pulse and cleans his face as best as he can with a WET TOWEL. DR. GRIES William, can you hear me? His VOICE echoes in the morgue, sounding to Starks, as it does to us, faint and distant. DR. GRIES drips some WATER in Starks' mouth. As some of it trickles out, it runs into the JACKET, burning STARKS' chafed skin. STARKS' EYES flutter and DR. GRIES pushes the drawer back in, afraid of what they've done to this man... 40. INT. CADAVER DRAWER STARKS clenches his face and pleadingly closes his eyes. FIVE SECONDS OF TOTAL BLACKNESS and SILENCE and he's back in... INT. LIVING ROOM, WAITRESS' (JACKIE'S) APARTMENT, NIGHT Only now, he's kneeling beside her sleeping FACE, just looking at it. STARKS doesn't know what's going on but her serene, sleeping face steadies him. He can only call out the name he thinks she might respond to... STARKS Jackie? Jackie? Sure enough, she answers with a STIR in her sleep. JACKIE Hm... We see, in STARKS' eyes, the unbelievable connection: she is the same little girl he met only a few weeks ago in 1992. STARKS [Swallowing, softly] Jackie? [Beat] What year is it? JACKIE [In a drunken slumber] What? STARKS What year is it? JACKIE [Barely opening her eyes] 2004. STARKS looks around as JACKIE moves in her sleep, almost falling off the couch. STARKS picks her up and, in her sleep, she WRAPS her arms around his neck. INT. BEDROOM, JACKIE'S APARTMENT, NIGHT STARKS tenderly lays her down on the bed... INT. LIVING ROOM, JACKIE'S APARTMENT, NIGHT STARKS picks up his DOG TAGS from the console, looks around, spots the TELEVISION and fumbles a bit as he figures out how to turn it on. STARKS sits down, throws back the rest of JACKIE'S DRINK and another shot and looks around nervously, unable to explain what's happening to him... FADE TO: 41. INT. BEDROOM, JACKIE'S APARTMENT, CHRISTMAS MORNING JACKIE sits in her sleep as she wakes up, clearly hung over. INT. BATHROOM, JACKIE'S APARTMENT, CHRISTMAS MORNING As JACKIE closes the MEDICINE CABINET, she sees her hungover reflection in it. She puts her face under the WATER and lets it restore some color and life in her. As she comes up, that's when she remembers the night before and the voice she barely heard in her sleep. STARKS [O.S., echoing distantly] Jackie? [Beat] What year is it? She SHOOTS UP from the sink, staring at her reflection. INT. LIVING ROOM, JACKIE'S APARTMENT, SECONDS LATER JACKIE spots STARKS asleep on the couch -- newspaper strewn all around him and the TV still on. He's holding the TAGS. She kneels down close to his face and stares at him for awhile before STARKS is jarred. He defensively GRABS HER WRIST as his EYES BURST OPEN, startling her. JACKIE [Desperately] Who are you? STARKS lets his GRIP loosen. STARKS [Beat] I'm William Starks. A short look of SHOCK cross her face before she leaps up. JACKIE Get the hell out of my house! JACKIE grabs the nearest object -- the IRON FORK from the FIREPLACE set -- and holds it, shaking, against STARKS. STARKS stays calm; he hardly expected a different reaction. JACKIE What'd you do? Snoop all over the place? You had no right. You had no right to go through anything. STARKS [Beat] I know it doesn't make sense. It doesn't even make sense to me. 42. JACKIE If you don't get out of my house right now, I'll call the police. STARKS [Remembering] Your mom was passed out on the side of the road when I found you. Her name was Jean. [Beat] She was dizzy the whole time... JACKIE [Trembling] Why would you do something like this? I tried to help you. STARKS Jackie, I'm William Starks. I can prove it. JACKIE What? Now you're gonna show me some kind of driver's license? STARKS No, I don't have anything to show you. I'm here from a mental hospital. JACKIE Well, you belong in one. STARKS [Solemnly] [Beat] You and your mom were in a truck and she kept a rifle in the back of it... JACKIE Stop it! Stop it! JACKIE covers her ears and looks at him, pleading with her eyes. STARKS' eyes plead right back. STARKS I'm sorry for upsetting you, [beat] but I'm not lying to you. JACKIE You can't be William Starks. He's dead. STARKS [Beat] What? 43. JACKIE William Starks is dead... [Beat] I've been to his grave. STARKS [Beat] What? JACKIE His body was found New Year's Day, 19...1993. At Alpine... STARKS [Finishing for her] Alpine Grove. That's the mental hospital. How do you know that? JACKIE I looked it up. STARKS How? Then he remembers -- understanding with a chill that what she is saying could entirely be true. STARKS I gave you my dog tags. JACKIE No, you didn't. They found William Starks' body dead in the snow. STARKS How'd he die? JACKIE I don't know. But he did die. STARKS falters under the news. JACKIE looks around, through her now blurred eyes, like she might find some help in the apartment. She settles for the BOTTLE of VODKA on the table, lowers the iron fork and takes a long heavy drink, then laughs nervously as she looks up. JACKIE I know what this is...I picked you up when I was drunk and you probably thought I'm just fucked up enough to fall for this. But the thing is I know what I'm doing when I drink. I just usually don't care. Right now, I do though. And I want you out. Now. 44. STARKS It's December 25th, 1993 today. JACKIE No, it's not. [Beat] It's December 25th, 2004. STARKS [Desperate] That can't be. That's...just, I mean... You're telling me I died in less than a week in the time I'm in. JACKIE I'm telling you I don't care what time you think you're in. You're not William Starks. [Beat] I don't believe in many things, but I believe in death. And it doesn't give back what it takes. So whoever you are...I did a nice thing, you've made me regret it enough already, so please, just leave. STARKS I'll leave. But look at me. Look at my face, Jackie. I'm not lying. I met you and your mother. I told you then that I'd lost my memory. [Beat] There was no one for miles around so I know you know there's no way I could have known that from a pair of dog tags you had lying around. JACKIE Please... STARKS looks at her tenderly before he turns to leave. JACKIE, a little calmer, looks at the door like he's still on the other side of it and calls out softly, and sadly... JACKIE Happy Birthday. INT. JACKET/TUNNEL PASSAGE STARKS looks around him and, we see, from bottom up, the exterior around Jackie's house melt away as STARKS suddenly faces the massacred village in Iraq. Shocked at what's happening to his body, he looks up, petrified. His body is wound as tightly as a knot. 45. EXT. IRAQI VILLAGE, NIGHT, 1991 Again, we're glimpsing the scene through PHOSPHORESCENT GREEN NIGHT VISION intermittently negotiated with real-time images. Opposite Starks stands a CRAZED IRAQI SOLDIER -- seething in anger and pointing his gun at a LITTLE BOY, presumably belonging to the MAN not five feet away. Next to Starks is an angry CAPTAIN MEDLEY, ordering STARKS to follow him. STARKS is watching himself in the scene. MEDLEY You walk on. They pick up their guns and fire at you, you stay. They pick up and fire at each other, and you walk on! STARKS He's got his gun pointed at a kid. MEDLEY That is not our problem. STARKS Yeah, well, none of this is our fuckin' problem. STARKS turns and aims his gun at a CRAZED IRAQI SOLDIER threatening to shoot a child. We hear him YELLING in Arabic. What STARKS doesn't see is another IRAQI SOLDIER (2) aiming his GUN at STARKS. MEDLEY We are leaving this site right now. STARKS doesn't hear him; he's busy perfecting his aim. STARKS [To the first Iraqi soldier] Hey! At the force of the word, the SOLDIER lowers his gun and the LITTLE BOY flees. STARKS, who is now in the scene himself, lowers his gun slightly as he approaches the SOLDIER. Neither speaks the other's language but they're both saying everything with their eyes. Neither moves his off the other. Just then, though, we see the SECOND IRAQI SOLDIER get a clear aim at STARKS. 46. He takes his SHOT before anyone else does. STARKS goes down as the skin off the side of his head is shaved off. He falls to the ground. As the rest of the picture fades to black, all that is left is previously mysterious, still haunting PAIR of EYES that we now see belonged to the CRAZED IRAQI SOLDIER. And over it all is the now more distant CLANK OF METAL as the drawer is opened and the nightmare momentarily ended... FADE TO BLACK. INT. MORGUE, ALPINE GROVE, CHRISTMAS DAY DR. GRIES, DR. BECKER, DAMON and NURSE HARDING enter the room. BECKER You left him in all night? NURSE HARDING Shit, he's probably dead. DR. GRIES [Defensively] I tried to ask you if we should leave him in yesterday... BECKER Don't get all worked up, Justin. I expected some common sense on your part and clearly I was expecting too much. [Beat] Just open the drawer. DR. GRIES We never should have done this to him... BECKER Well, what are we gonna do about it now? Nothing is Gries' answer. Still, Becker seems to share the concern. BECKER motions for them to open the drawer. They pull him out. STARKS looks cold and wrecked. DR. GRIES Is he? [Impatiently] Is he dead? BECKER feels for a pulse and seems surprised to find one. 47. BECKER No. [To Harding and Damon] Get him upstairs. INT. WARD, ALPINE GROVE, CHRISTMAS DAY DR. LORENSON walks into the ward to check on STARKS. The attending NURSE is walking around the ward. LORENSON Where's William Starks. NURSE I'm not sure. Dr. Becker had him moved. INT. HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, DAY DR. LORENSON walks anxiously down the halls of the hospital, peering into every room, looking for Starks. INT. ANOTHER HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, DAY DR. LORENSON spots BECKER walking out the DOORS of the hospital and RUNS after him, in only his white coat... EXT. PARKING LOT, ALPINE GROVE, DAY (CONT'D) LORENSON [Calling out after him] Dr. Becker! Dr. Becker!...Tom, wait! DR. BECKER stops walking and waits a moment, registering the voice, before he turns around to face Dr. Lorenson. LORENSON [Out of breath] Where's William Starks? BECKER He's recovering on the third floor. LORENSON Are you kidding me? He's not psychotic! BECKER Then how would you describe him, Beth? Merely rebellious? LORENSON He'll be a zombie in a few days, Tom. His behavior's hardly suggested he needed neuroleptics. 48. BECKER And you know that from what, a couple two-minute stares across a room? LORENSON [Firmly] He didn't need anti-psychotics, if that's even all you're giving him...? BECKER ignores Lorenson's insinuation and merely turns his CHEEK all the way round towards Lorenson so he can see the BANDAGE from the CUT Starks gave him. BECKER [Steadily] After he slashed me with a hospital instrument, I determined, in my professional opinion, that Mr. Starks, needed a little placating. LORENSON [Beat] You sure he wasn't provoked? BECKER You sure you want to begin making that kind of insinuation? [Beat] I took five stitches during a routine therapy session. LORENSON I'm sure he took some, too. BECKER [Smirking, unphased] Happens sometimes when you've got to restrain them. You watch the rest of us work. You know that. LORENSON [Appealing to him] Our patients are sick. BECKER Yes, they are. LORENSON looks at BECKER; he knows he's hiding something. LORENSON He's not gonna end up like Casey, Tom. Whatever happened to him is not going to "happen" to Starks. I don't know what you're trying to do here ...but he's not a lab animal, Tom. You can't reprogram him no matter the drugs or the treatment. 49. BECKER Jesus, you really don't let up, do you? Just because you failed your patient doesn't necessarily mean the rest of us did, too. [Beat] Sorry to tarnish your war hero's image, but he is psychotic. LORENSON looks back, starting to grasp Becker's misshapen beliefs. BECKER Now, if you'll excuse me, it's Christmas, and I have a family I'd like to see. INT. ROOM, INTENSIVE CARE UNIT, ALPINE GROVE, CHRISTMAS DAY STARKS, IV in arm, lies asleep in bed, recovering... INT. HOSPITAL, VERMONT JACKIE walks in a hospital -- with many aspects parallel to the mental hospital. White on white and, for Jackie particularly, the presence of painful memories. INT. ROOM, INTENSIVE CARE UNIT, ALPINE GROVE, CHRISTMAS DAY LORENSON walks closer to STARKS and carefully examines the BRUISES and BURNS on a body that's been badly beaten. His eyes bear his guilt. INT. NURSE'S STATION, HOSPITAL, VERMONT JACKIE waits until a nurse, CLAIRE, greets her perfunctorily. CLAIRE [Not looking up] How can I help you? JACKIE Hi, Claire. CLAIRE looks up, astonished to see her. She smiles warmly. CLAIRE Jackie, hi. How are you, honey? JACKIE I'm ok. [Beat] I need a favor. CUT TO: 50. INT. STARKS' HOSPITAL ROOM STARKS is asleep when a DARK FIGURE walks, like a GHOST, past the WINDOWED DOOR of his room. STARKS opens his eyes and snaps his neck in its direction -- fearful of everything at this point. When he looks, there's nothing there; he's not sure there ever was. The room starts to blue as he looks around it, not knowing if he is crazy... RETURN TO: INT. OFFICE, HOSPITAL, VERMONT JACKIE peruses HEADLINES and ABSTRACTS pulled up on the web: "ALPINE GROVE INVESTIGATION into the mysterious death of William Starks..." "The body of WILLIAM STARKS, the former war hero who was charged with the murder of OFFICER EDWARD HARRISON, was found on the grounds of ALPINE GROVE on January 1, 1993. STARKS was believed to have died from a wound to the head." The words and PHRASES that confirm Starks' story RISE from their couched places on the computer screen. "Local Doctor charged with medical malpractice." "Dr. Thomas Becker resigns..." "It involved the recreation of a womb-like environment." "Former patients testify to being put in instrument known as the 'Jacket'"... "Patient Rudy MacKenzie testifies..." "WILLIAM STARKS, laurelled war hero..." As JACKIE keeps scrolling, her face wears her disbelief that what STARKS was saying may have been true. Then, she sees, archived in a state newspaper, a mention of Dr. Lorenson and a particular patient, "Eugene Yazdi." "Local Boy, Eugene Yazdi, Overcomes Absence Seizure Syndrome to Win Mathematic Decathlon...with the aid of Local Doctor, Dr. Loel Lorenson." "Panelists for National Epilepsy Conference include Dr. Lorenson, Alpine Grove Hospital." INT. STARKS' HOSPITAL ROOM, DECEMBER 26TH A NURSE is checking on STARKS as he slowly wakes up. STARKS What the hell kind of drugs are you people giving me? 51. STARKS is asking the NURSE, but it's BECKER's voice that answers though Starks can't see him. BECKER [O.S.] Just something to help you sleep. STARKS panics when he hears the voice. He looks around nervously but the BRIGHT SUNLIGHT pouring into the room is blinding. He swallows as he looks at the NURSE'S FACE as she continues adjusting his pillows. STARKS [Swallowing nervously] Did you say something? The NURSE shakes her head lightly and just then BECKER steps out of the LIGHT. BECKER I said the drugs were to help you sleep. [Beat] Did you sleep well? Becker is remarkably calm, further confusing Starks' sense of reality. STARKS [Doubtfully] But I wasn't asleep. Was I? BECKER Yes. You were. You were asleep for nearly a whole day. It's December 26th, William. STARKS sits up groggily, remembering what happened to him and wondering how much, if any of it, was real. STARKS It's December 26th? STARKS examines himself -- looking at his arms, spotting the BRUISES on them. BECKER That's right, William. STARKS [Slowly figuring it out] 1992? BECKER nods. STARKS sits up -- his predicament and the room slowly coming into focus. 52. BECKER Yes. [Caustically] And that's the sun and you're on earth. [Beat] And I know you know better. STARKS begins to piece if together. BECKER, as we begin to see, is right. It is 1992 in Alpine Grove. STARKS I don't know better. All I know is that you left me in there. BECKER In where? STARKS [Uncertainly] In that thing...the Jacket. The NURSE gives Becker a knowing look -- suggesting Starks really is delusional. Becker doesn't even flinch as STARKS tries to get a better look at Becker's face. BECKER We were forced to use restrains if that's what you're referring to. STARKS That wasn't a fucking restraint. BECKER Actually, that's exactly what our equipment is. STARKS' EYES widen with alarm as BECKER reaches for the I.V. in his arm, lingering on it long enough that Starks braces himself for an ATTACK of some sort. But Becker just looks back innocently as he adjusts it. BECKER Relax. STARKS Don't act like I don't know what's real. [Beat] I'm not the one that's crazy here. BECKER [Pointedly] Of course you're not. Then he clarifies, wryly enough for Starks to catch it. 53. BECKER You're just suffering from delusions that are unfortunately part of your condition. STARKS Don't give me that. I know what's real, goddamnit! You strapped me in something and stuck me in a drawer. BECKER nods diagnostically. The NURSE's nonchalance about it as she LEAVES the room further disquiets STARKS. STARKS I didn't dream it. I may have been asleep but it wasn't a dream. BECKER sits down in a CHAIR, half-shrouded in the light. BECKER I had a patient a few years ago. His name was Ted Casey... STARKS I don't give a shit about your patient! BECKER I wasn't pausing to see if you did. [Beat] But, incidentally, you should, because you're birds of a feather. STARKS squints as he searches out Becker's face. BECKER Ted raped and sodomized a seven-year old girl. [Beat] His lawyers asked me to have a look at him because, after his deeds were done... he climbed into the trees of the forest where he killed her and woofed like a dog. He couldn't even remember his name when I spoke to him, but, curiously enough, he could speak back. [Beat] Ted never went to prison because everyone -- including me -- was convinced he was sick. So he came here. BECKER leans into Starks' view to make sure he's listening. STARKS is. 54. BECKER Then one day a little girl came with her mother to visit a relative and I caught Ted stealing looks at her -- the kind you really have to steal if you know what I mean. [Beat] I asked Ted then if he could remember what the little girl who he had... slain ...was wearing. [Beat] He gave me a look I'll never forget, and, when he answered, it wasn't with a color or any sort of physical description I'd expect. "Oh yes," he said. "I remember it. I remember it well." [Beat] Those were actually his last words I think. BECKER's expression bears a hunting mixture of anger and remorse as he recounts Ted's tale. STARKS We are not birds of a feather. BECKER Maybe not. [Beat] But I do think you're in a tree... woofing like a dog. And I'm just trying to help you the only way I can think of. BECKER gets up and, as he moves out of the light, STARKS sees his BANDAGED CHEEK, reinforcing his memory of what happened... STARKS [Provokingly] What happened to your cheek, Dr. Becker? BECKER I was careless. Happens sometimes. FADE TO: INT. STARKS' ROOM, RECOVERY WARD, ALPINE GROVE, DAY, 1992 STARKS looks out on the SNOW-COVERED GROUNDS from his room on the third floor. He seems pacified for the moment. INT. HALLWAY, RECOVERY WARD, ALPINE GROVE, DAY Everything about the dingy hospital punctuates the sad mechanics of managing madness. CATATONIC PATIENTS and dated equipment litter the hall and, as we follow a NURSE who walks among them, we spot STARKS -- ARMS suspended in air and GLAZED EYES fixed on the ceiling -- pretending to be one of them. 55. His ARMS fall and he wipes his dried MOUTH as soon as she passes. STARKS has successfully made it out of his room. She turns one corner as STARKS hustles to turn another... INT. DAY ROOM, ALPINE GROVE STARKS is almost there. As RANDOM ORDERLIES pass him, STARKS lets his posture collapse as he despondently hangs his head down so low they can't see his face. They pass, and STARKS starts scuttling towards the door to the outside. As soon as he reaches it and is outside in the cold -- with only his BLUE PATIENT UNIFORM -- Starks walks normally, like he no longer remembers the risks. Instead he remembers what Jackie told him. JACKIE [O.S.] They found William Starks' body dead in the snow. STARKS [O.S.] How'd he die? JACKIE [O.S.] I don't know. But he did die. EXT. GROUNDS, ALPINE GROVE STARKS leans down -- seemingly oblivious to the cold -- and lifts some snow to his mouth, TASTING it like a man who needs to affirm he is still alive. He's so rapt that LORENSON's VOICE takes him by surprise. LORENSON Hey. You're not supposed to be out here. STARKS stiffens as he realizes he could be in the place where his body was found. The terrible question asks itself on his face: Is this when Starks is killed? STARKS [Turning around sharply] What are you going to do to me? LORENSON Well... As LORENSON reaches into his POCKET for something, STARKS anxiously holds his breath. It's BLACK when it comes out and... a SKI HAT when it opens up. STARKS lets out his breath, relieved. 56. LORENSON [Nonchalantly] I thought I'd just ask you to come back inside with me. STARKS And if I didn't want to come? LORENSON I guess I'd ask you why. STARKS Because I don't think I'm crazy. LORENSON You're not crazy. STARKS is surprised by Lorenson's agreement. LORENSON You suffer from delusional disorder. That doesn't mean you're... crazy. It just means you're confused. And you're here, instead of in jail, because that was determined to have played a role in your killing of a police officer. STARKS [Correcting him] Alleged killing of a police officer. LORENSON You were convicted of the crime. STARKS That conviction doesn't convince me of anything. Until I know that I did it, I'm not going to accept that I did. LORENSON You may never remember at all. [Beat] Your mind's grasp of reality and the real events that have happened to you has been damaged. STARKS No. The real events that have happened to me have been fucked up. Not my mind. LORENSON seems to realize -- at least for an instant -- that he is looking at a desperate man who is persuasively, and cogently, staring back at him. 57. LORENSON [Beat] William, I'd like to ask you something if I can. STARKS Since when do people around here have to ask permission to do anything? LORENSON [Suspiciously] How's your treatment progressing with Dr. Becker? STARKS still doesn't know how much Lorenson knows, and if he should trust him. STARKS Fine. [Beat] Why made you ask? LORENSON answers first with his eyes looking over Starks' body. STARKS merely stares back tersely. LORENSON [Carefully] I just hope you'd let me know if that wasn't the case. STARKS Why, what would you do? LORENSON I could try to...make it stop. STARKS No. I don't want it to. LORENSON So it's helping? STARKS [Choosing his words carefully] [Beat] It's making me feel like a different person. LORENSON -- sensing she's not going to get any more from Starks -- turns around to go back inside. It's only as she turns her face away from STARKS that we see how nervous she is. But you'd never guess it from her tone... LORENSON [Casually] You comin'? STARKS looks towards the FENCES locking him in from every direction. LORENSON waits until she hears STARKS' FOOTSTEPS following her. She waits until STARKS has reached her. 58. LORENSON You should be careful. You could be killed if they found you out here. STARKS Believe me, I know. INT. PATIENT CAFETERIA, WARD, ALPINE GROVE, 1992 STARKS and MACKENZIE are eating opposite each other. STARKS What were you talking about the other day? MACKENZIE I wasn't talking about anything. STARKS Yeah, you were. What you said about them taking me out to the woods... MACKENZIE clams up slightly at the mention of it... STARKS What do you know about the Jacket? MACKENZIE's eyes start to twitch nervously. MACKENZIE I know you need one when it's really cold. STARKS [Cutting in] MacKenzie, listen to me. Listen. I'm going to die. MACKENZIE Mortality's actually a great thing to be familiar with. It means you're sane on some level. STARKS [Gravely] No, I mean in four days, I'm supposed to die. MACKENZIE [Beat] How do you know? STARKS The Jacket. 59. MACKENZIE grows visibly more nervous at this second mention of it. MACKENZIE Oh no, you're pretty young. Your body'll be able to handle a lot more of it than you think... STARKS No. [Beat] I mean I found out while I was in it that my body's gonna be found in four days. Just then, NURSE HARDING is upon them. She carries a ROD in her hand which she TAPS menacingly on the floor as she walks towards them. HARDING What are you two yappin' about? STARKS tenses up as he sees only the ROD, which could inflict a GASH if hit across a man's head the right way. Nearly every object could be a threat to his life as this point. MACKENZIE [Spoken like a nut] [Beat] We're talking about our ability to go forward in time, to go into the future. [To Starks] That is what we're talking about here, right? STARKS is startled MacKenzie gets it. STARKS Yeah, it is. HARDING You know something? You're two fucking freaks is what you are. STARKS [Smiling] Well, no shit, Einstein. What do you think we're doing in this place? MACKENZIE tries not to laugh but a CHUCKLE slips out. HARDING I want the two of you to shut the fuck up and eat your food. HARDING walks away with a final stare that Starks returns. STARKS [Under his breath] I gotta get back in it, MacKenzie. 60. MACKENZIE It's gonna be sticky. STARKS Why? MACKENZIE's body betrays his discomfort talking about it in its sudden jerks accompanying every word. MACKENZIE 'Cause Lorenson's got her claws in it now. When she started getting suspicious about me was when they stopped using it on me. Women! STARKS So what am I supposed to do? MACKENZIE You could still always give Becker an itch. 'Course you might get killed when he goes to scratch it, but seems to me you're saying that's about to happen anyway. [Beat] Just be careful not to walk yourself right into something. INT. HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, 1992, DAY Dr. LORENSON and DR. GRIES are walking briskly to a meeting. DR. GRIES We're late. LORENSON I wish they'd skip the formality of this annual review and just cut our budget. Our silence on the matter should be enough to appease the civic conscience without wasting an hour we don't have. DR. GRIES Maybe it's not such a waste. LORENSON looks at GRIES askance before she sets the record straight. LORENSON It's the ticking of a box on a sheet of paper no one cares about. 61. DR. GRIES They don't care about all the things we do right. [Beat] But they might ...they might care about what we're doing wrong. [Beat] That's what they should come here to look for. LORENSON can see GRIES is trying to tell her something. LORENSON What should they be looking for? DR. GRIES They should just be looking harder. LORENSON grabs GRIES' arm, sensing the import of her words. LORENSON Where? [Beat] It's Becker isn't it? He's doing stuff, isn't he? DR. GRIES Later. I'll tell you about it later. We got a session to catch now. INT. WARD 3, ALPINE GROVE, 1992, DAY STARKS is in a different ward with PATIENTS who appear more threatening and disturbed. As he is anxiously looking around -- presumably for a way out -- Starks hears one of the PATIENTS humming an eerily DISCORDANT MELODY. Looking to see who it comes from, STARKS happens to spot ONE PATIENT -- a young, fierce-looking guy -- eyeing a YOUNG NURSE, SALLY, administering medication from a dated CART. STARKS looks around the room and notes there are NO DOCTORS or ORDERLIES around. The YOUNG NURSE, meanwhile, is focused on the medicine -- oblivious to the BRUTE eyeing her. The BRUTE's not that far away when he starts walking towards the YOUNG NURSE. STARKS starts in their direction, picking up speed -- maneuvering through VARIOUS INCOHERENT PATIENTS -- as the BRUTE reaches the NURSE. He throws her TRAY down and pushes her against the WALL. She starts screaming as he pushes up against her. STARKS picks up the TRAY and strikes the BRUTE across the head with it. The BRUTE holds his head in pain as he tries to regain his balance. It's clear he's impaired. But it's also clear he understands pain. 62. STARKS [To Sally] You ok? As she NODS, her EYES dart above to the HAND about to strike him. Off her look, he ducks and turns around, punching the BRUTE in the stomach -- HARD -- but not before the piece of GLASS he held from one of the broken MEDICINE BOTTLES comes perilously close to STARKS' head. The BRUTE bowls over and STARKS looks at the GLASS terrified. Is this when he dies? The BRUTE -- incensed more than ever -- lunges at him a final time. STARKS gets him by the NECK, expertly applying PRESSURE POINTS and, after only a few seconds, subdues him. STARKS himself seems surprised that he knew how to use them. He lets out a suspended BREATH, instinctively touching his FOREHEAD to make sure he's not cut. He looks back at SALLY. SALLY Are you ok? STARKS Yeah, Why are you in this ward alone? Where is everyone? SALLY [Defensively] There's a state rep visiting so they've moved everyone around. But I've been alone before... STARKS Where are the other orderlies? SALLY In the therapy session downstairs. That's what the rep's sitting in on... STARKS Ok, listen. I want you to get out of here and lock the door behind you. I'll go get some doctors. SALLY looks at STARKS, wondering whether she can trust him. Her eyes shift to the BRUTE on the floor and she remembers that she can. 63. INT. MAIN ROOM, WARD, ALPINE GROVE, DAY, 1992 The STATE REP -- 40s, disgruntled, even drowsy -- is recognizable among a group that includes the CHIEF OF STAFF (Dr. Williams), BECKER, LORENSON and GRIES. They are presiding over a GROUP THERAPY SESSION when STARKS enters... STARKS [Calling out] Sorry I'm late, Dr. Becker. BECKER is noticeably taken aback but tempers his response. BECKER Mr. Starks, this session is for our civil patients. Damon, please take Mr. Starks back to his ward. STARKS cuts him off and threatens with his gaze. STARKS [Derisively] No. Please, Dr. Becker. You can strap me in a Jacket or even gag me, but please don't leave me out of therapy. This is where I feel like I make the most progress. BECKER relents, seeing STARKS has the upper hand -- an AUDIENCE, deranged but eager no less. BECKER Fine, Mr. Starks. You can pull up a chair for yourself. As STARKS walks across the room, it's obvious to everyone -- as they turn their heads to watch him -- that he is a physically ailing man. Using all his strength, he walks up slowly to the group, dragging a CHAIR behind him because he doesn't have the strength to lift it. STARKS sits down. BECKER Mr. Jensen, please continue. JENSEN -- a twitchy schizophrenic -- surveys the group seriously, determining whether it's safe to say what he's about to... JENSEN Well, [beat] I've been approached by the Federal Trade Organization. BECKER's not listening to a word JENSEN says. But STARKS is. 64. BECKER [Calm as ever] And what have they approached you about, Mr. Jensen? JENSEN They want me to head the Organization for the Organized. The other PATIENTS look at him in wonder as the STATE REP listens limply. BECKER The Organization...for the Organized? JENSEN That's right. Have you heard of them? BECKER No, Mr. Jensen. I have not. GROUP PATIENT 2 That's because there is no such Organization, you idiot. JENSEN That is categorically not true. Bl-bl- blatantly and manifestly NOT TRUE. I've been asked to lead them. But, if you'd heard of them, then they wouldn't be hush-hush, would they? BECKER [Wearily] What do the rest of you think? The GROUP stares at one another silently. STARKS [Loud and emphatic] Well, [beat] I know they exist. BECKER And how is that? STARKS looks at JENSEN, who looks back avidly. MACKENZIE eyes Starks nervously, like he senses what he is about to do. STARKS When I was in the Gulf, the Organization was recruiting the Organized. 65. BECKER [Incensed] Is that a fact, Mr. Starks? Because if it's not, it doesn't help Mr. Jensen. STARKS [Looking right at Jensen] It is a fact. Bona fide, and classified. LORENSON and MACKENZIE watch STARKS curiously. JENSEN I knew it! I knew it! Those little fuckers are everywhere. STARKS They recruit only the best, Mr. Jensen. [Beat] I didn't want to have to say this... Not even the DOCTORS dare disrupt the silence... STARKS But these people [pointing to the Doctors] know about it. In fact, when Presidents of this country and heads of state leave office, they come here, to Alpine Grove. They're among us right now! [Looking right at Becker] Isn't that right, Dr. Thatcher? And Jensen, I'm proud they picked you. JENSEN looks on nobly. STARKS They're always ordering us to stay calm, but how can we be calm? STARKS suddenly turns right at Becker, wrapping his message to him in the seemingly crazed theatrics of a nut. STARKS [Looking suddenly directly at Becker] All they do is give orders. That's all they have to do. And no one will ever know. All it comes down to is an order. [Beat] They've got hands everywhere. STARKS stands up, ready to SALUTE Mr. Jensen. The OBSERVERS look to BECKER for order. 66. STARKS Long live the Organization for the Organized! BECKER Sit down, Mr. Starks! Sit down, Mr. Starks! But, at that, Jensen's completely lost it. His excitement erupts in the form of him JUMPING out of his chair and eagerly and elatedly HITTING HIMSELF in the head. BECKER Sit down, Mr. Jensen! Too late. OTHER PATIENTS are on their feet, HANDS jubilantly up in the air. And, in the midst of the havoc, the speechless order is soundly delivered in Becker's NOD to Damon. RANDOM PATIENTS Dr. Thatcher! Dr. Becker! DAMON and HARDING grab STARKS while the other members of the STAFF slowly calm the other patients. LORENSON is too busy to notice them taking Starks out. STARKS winks at MACKENZIE, who smiles somewhat sadly back. CUT TO: INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, LATE NIGHT, 1992 HARDING and DAMON stand above Starks, who lies on the brutal slab, already hemmed in the Jacket. DAMON Starks, you're like a mule. You're real stubborn. But there's ways of fixin' that. All you need is a good stick. [Beat] Here's your stick. DAMON slams him in the drawer. INT. JACKET/TUNNEL PASSAGE STARKS' eyes dart about him; it sounds like something is in there with him. The sound stops momentarily and, then, out of nowhere, a DROP falls on his eye. PING! STARKS winces. He clenches his face, not knowing when the next drop will fall. His heart starts to beat more and more madly, punctuated by the DRIPS -- making a score fit only for hell. He closes his eyes and begins to die... 67. EXT. CRIME SCENE, HIGHWAY, VERMONT, DUSK, 1992 STARKS and TENNY -- 30s, shifty, a total stranger -- sit in silence in TENNY'S CAR. (We recognize the murder scene.) RED POLICE LIGHTS FLASH in the rearview mirror though STARKS doesn't see them yet. STARKS and TENNY are talking to one another. TENNY's voice takes a dangerous tone. TENNY You ever been to jail? STARKS No. TENNY nods, distracting STARKS long enough to slip a hand down his leg to the GUN he's hidden there. TENNY It's worse than war. It's worse than anywhere you've ever been. STARKS I doubt it. [Beat] I don't think prison's so bad you don't want to remember it... TENNY carefully pulls over to the side of the road, assured and cautious with each word, each move. TENNY Well, I've never been to war, but I'm sure as hell not going back to prison. STARKS [Finally spotting Harrison] What's he pulling us over for? TENNY [Still preparing himself] Recreation. OFFICER HARRISON walks up to their car. OFFICER HARRISON Gentlemen, I'm gonna need you to step out of the car, with your hands at your side please. STARKS Why? 68. OFFICER HARRISON [Sternly] Step out of the car. STARKS Ok, sir. I was just asking what for. OFFICER HARRISON This is a stolen vehicle you're driving. Now put your hands in the air, out where I can see 'em. That's the second when OFFICER HARRISON sees where TENNY'S HAND is. As he reaches for his own GUN, the situation explodes as TWO FLASHES eclipse all else. OFFICER HARRISON goes down, still holding his own GUN and STARKS jumps out of the car to check on him. STARKS Jesus Christ, what'd you do that for? TENNY looks around, still holding the GUN. Starks swallows, assessing whether to back away or not. TENNY waves his gun as he half points it in Harrison's direction. Then, GUN still in hand, he smirks nervously and looks at STARKS. TENNY Man, if you're so deaf and dumb, you ain't even worth a fucking bullet. TENNY raises the gun, then aims it away from STARKS and shoots OFFICER HARRISON once more. From the ground, OFFICER HARRISON fires back and STARKS, now lunging at Tenny, TAKES THE HIT. STARKS falls, clearly unable to get up, let alone pursue anyone. TENNY smiles sardonically and slowly puts the GUN in his back pocket as he turns to leave. This SMILE was one of the eerie FLASHES that haunted Starks in the JACKET... STARKS struggles but can't move. That's when he passes out, looking at OFFICER HARRISON from the ground, as he did in the scene before. INT. JACKET/TUNNEL PASSAGE STARKS stands in the lighted tunnel, which only gets brighter as his heart races with fear in the first seconds that he's back in there. Then he sees an IMAGE of a WOMAN'S FOREHEAD that lulls him to a calm until his heart slows and the LIGHT gradually dims... FADE TO BLACK. 69. INT. DINER, SMALL TOWN VERMONT, 2004 STARKS enters the diner, calming down even more as he spots JACKIE. She looks up, holding PLATES in her hand. She's understandably surprised and unexpectedly pleased when she sees him. She greets him with a small smile. She drops off her orders and then walks up to him. JACKIE I'll be off in 15 minutes. Can you wait till then? EXT. RAVINE, VERMONT, DAY, 2004 STARKS and JACKIE smoke in the cold, standing next to the hood of her car. JACKIE The Jacket. That's what they call it, right? STARKS Yeah. JACKIE It was banned, you know... and it led to an investigation of Dr. Becker's mistreatment of some of his patients. That's when they found out how badly he was drugging his patients... STARKS [Starting to make sense] So he was giving me all kinds of drugs... JACKIE [Nodding] Apparently. He was taking a lot of them, too. It said he was trying out behavior modification treatments that were banned back in the 70s -- "womb treatment" is the name he gave to what he did to you... STARKS [Cutting in] Womb? A fuckin' womb? What kind of animal did he come out of? JACKIE But no one knew until after... STARKS After I... 70. JACKIE nods. JACKIE [Beat] You bled to death. STARKS What? JACKIE I don't know how you got the cut to your head, but you died bleeding from it. STARKS [Digesting] And you're sure my body was found on January 1st? JACKIE nods. STARKS Do you really believe me? JACKIE I don't know. [Beat] I thought I was crazy after you left that day. I died. I still think I could be crazy. But then I replayed that night in my head -- the parts of it I could remember -- and it was like...I don't care if I was, or am. I haven't felt that way in a room with someone my whole life. [Beat] And when you left, all I wanted was... JACKIE looks around her; coupled with the cold, her sobriety is obvious. STARKS takes hold of her and holds her face close to his so that their foreheads touch. JACKIE [Softly] I want to trust you. Should I trust you? STARKS Yes. JACKIE Then we need to figure out what happened to you. It's the only thing we can do. STARKS I know. 71. JACKIE Alpine Grove still exists. I looked it up on the net. We should go there and see if there's still anyone around who might have known what happened to you. STARKS If they don't take me out before then. [As an afterthought] What's the net? JACKIE looks at him and laughs. INT. JACKIE'S CAR, 2004, DAY They are driving through VERMONT to ALPINE GROVE. STARKS looks out the window and watches her drive. STARKS I didn't kill Officer Harrison. JACKIE I know. STARKS How? Did they figure it out after I died? JACKIE No. They never figured it out. I did. Most murderers don't stop to help a drunk woman and her little girl on the side of the road. Not without hurting them. INT. ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE, ALPINE GROVE, 2004 STARKS and JACKIE sit opposite DR. MORGAN, the current young face of the hospital. MORGAN has a boyish face and a matching gullibility. DR. MORGAN I'm sorry I can't tell you more about your father's death, Mr. Starks. Our own medical examiners determined only that he died from a blunt trauma to the head but that was right around the time the Alpine Grove's staff changed and I'm afraid we didn't have the best record system before then. 72. STARKS His body was found on January 1, 1993, but do you know if that was long after he had died? DR. MORGAN No, I don't. I'm sorry. I wish I knew more. STARKS What about Dr. Thomas Becker or Dr. Loel Lorenson? There was also a Dr. Gries, I think. DR. MORGAN Well, Dr. Lorenson is still here at the hospital. If she was here at the time your father was, then I'm sure she'd be of more help to you. STARKS What about Dr. Becker and Mr. Gries? DR. MORGAN Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with Dr. Becker and Dr. Gries passed away three, four years ago. JACKIE Do you have any kind of forwarding address for Dr. Becker? DR. MORGAN Your father was here 12 years ago. I doubt the hospital would have that, if Dr. Becker is still even alive. [Beat, a little suspiciously] Is there a particular reason you need to know how your father died? STARKS doesn't waver when he answers. STARKS He was the only family I remember. DR. MORGAN [Nodding] I'll see what I can find out about Dr. Becker. And maybe Dr. Lorenson will know something. 73. INT. WARD, ALPINE GROVE, DAY, 2004 Dr. MORGAN leads JACKIE and STARKS through a ward. STARKS looks around in disbelief; it's more like a hospital now than it ever was in 1993. INT. RECEPTION AREA, LORENSON'S OFFICE, ALPINE GROVE, 2004 As they arrive outside Lorenson's office, MORGAN turns to them. DR. MORGAN Let me just tell her we're here. DR. MORGAN goes inside and JACKIE takes STARKS' HAND as they wait. It's hardly more than a couple seconds when LORENSON appears in the doorway. She looks at STARKS curiously and the two share a very lengthy, intense STARE. DR. LORENSON -- now in her 50s -- walks closer to Starks suspiciously. For his part, STARKS doesn't look as unfamiliar with Lorenson as he should; this doesn't escape Lorenson. LORENSON Hello. I'm Beth Lorenson. She puts out a hand that is trembling slightly. LORENSON It's nice to meet you, Mr. Starks... STARKS hesitates before he takes Lorenson's hand. There is something very eerie about the exchange. STARKS quickly lets go and LORENSON turns to JACKIE... LORENSON And you are...? JACKIE looks back uncomfortably. JACKIE I'm just William's friend. LORENSON looks over both of them acutely and then calmly turns to Dr. Morgan. LORENSON I think we'll be fine from here. Thanks, Stanley. 74. INT. LORENSON'S OFFICE, ALPINE GROVE, 2004 LORENSON leans against her desk while STARKS and JACKIE sit in the chairs. As they talk, each seems cautious in his exchange -- not knowing what the other one does or doesn't know. LORENSON My God you look exactly like him. STARKS I never knew my father. Did you? LORENSON Yeah, I did. [Beat] He was my most memorable patient. STARKS Why? LORENSON considers her answer. LORENSON At the end, he made me change my mind about a lot of things. STARKS You thought my father was crazy? LORENSON No. I don't think he was crazy. He needed help...but he wasn't crazy. [Beat] Your father actually helped me with a case of mine. LORENSON waits to see if STARKS knows what she is talking about. STARKS What case? LORENSON I was working with a boy named Eugene. STARKS shows no recognition but JACKIE does. JACKIE Who was Eugene? LORENSON [Peaked] He was a friend's son. [Beat] Are you familiar with the case? 75. JACKIE Just a little, when we were looking up information about William's father. How did he help? LORENSON It's complicated, but [looking at Starks] in a way, your father let me know how I'd get through to him. JACKIE How? LORENSON He just said...that I'd shock Eugene and then things would change for him. JACKIE I don't understand. LORENSON I still don't either, even after all these years. STARKS Do you know how my father died? LORENSON [Unconvincingly] I don't know how much I remember but I seem to think it was from a... cut or blow of some sort or another. STARKS How'd he get it? LORENSON [Beat] I don't know. STARKS But Dr. Morgan said you were around when my father was... LORENSON I was. But I saw a lot of cuts and a lot of blows. I'm sorry I don't know more about your father's. [Sincerely] I didn't know about everything that went on here. LORENSON says it like she's hiding something. 76. STARKS Well, do you think Dr. Becker would have any idea? LORENSON How do you know about Dr. Becker? STARKS My dad wrote some things down before he died. LORENSON looks like she's suddenly remembering something. LORENSON That's right. He did. STARKS looks at Lorenson curiously; he doesn't know what Lorenson is talking about. LORENSON So maybe Dr. Becker would know. [Beat] But, as I'm sure you know, the statute of limitations has run out for charging the hospital with any liabilities. STARKS Why would we do that? STARKS just stares at LORENSON, not knowing if he died by this man's hands or not, not knowing who he can trust... JACKIE Because Becker resigned after the charges brought against him by State Patient Advocacy Groups. LORENSON I see you've done your homework. [Beat] Alpine Grove's undergone a lot of changes since then. At the time, we didn't have the...resources to help our patients the way we needed to. [Beat] Now, we do. And things are different. STARKS I wouldn't be so sure. Like you said about back then, you might not know everything going on around here. DR. LORENSON looks right at STARKS. 77. LORENSON It's important for you to know who your father was, isn't it? STARKS [Beat] Yeah, it is. LORENSON [Eerily] It's almost as if your life depended on it. Isn't it? STARKS Exactly. LORENSON Well... [beat] let me know how your search turns out. STARKS [Beat] We will. INT. HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, DAY STARKS and JACKIE walk briskly down it, away from Lorenson's office. STARKS I don't believe a thing she just said. JACKIE Me neither. Who was the boy she was talking about, Eugene? STARKS I have no idea. JACKIE You think Lorenson kills you? STARKS Maybe. I don't know. Seems more likely Becker does, but at the very least she knows how I died. JACKIE Let's see if they have an address for Becker. I also want to figure out more about the kid you helped her with. STARKS Why? 78. JACKIE Because that's the part I believe is true. You probably did help her somehow with the boy and Eugene's name did come up over and over again on the abstracts I pulled. STARKS nods. STARKS [Beat] There's one more thing I want to see. INT. CORRIDOR [LEADING TO BASEMENT], ALPINE GROVE, 2004 STARKS, determined, now leads JACKIE. As they reach the end of the hall, we see DAMON -- now in his 50s -- look after them curiously before he goes back to his work with a PATIENT. INT. BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, 2004 JACKIE watches STARKS ignore the "Authorized Personnel Only" SIGN as he pushes the door open without so much as a pause. INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, 2004 The morgue looks exactly as before. STARKS is momentarily jarred in the room. He looks to the wall on which the JACKET hung and sees only the BARE HOOKS that used to hold it up. STARKS This was the room. They used to hang the Jacket there. [Turning to Jackie] This is where it happened. This is the room I'm actually in right now. JACKIE isn't doubtful, but it's also hard to be convinced... STARKS I can show you. It's probably in there. STARKS walks to the CADAVER DRAWERS and rests his hands on the one they put him in. Then, with great difficulty -- physical and emotional -- he opens it to see if there is anything left. He pulls it out, and there's nothing in there. 79. JACKIE Maybe this wasn't such a good idea... STARKS leans closer, locating all the proof he needs: the stained metal -- still reddened and browned with DRIED BLOOD -- and the part of the morgue slab he CLAWED his NAILS into when he was in it. JACKIE looks at it in disbelief. STARKS Yes, it was. [Softly] My fingers were the only things I could move. [Beat] Dead bodies don't bleed. And they certainly can't claw so hard they dent metal. INT. HALLWAY, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE STARKS and JACKIE are leaving the MORGUE, when STARKS spots DAMON, now hardly a hair of the bully he was before. DAMON stares at him curiously; STARKS glares back furiously. DAMON You folks ain't supposed to be down here. JACKIE We were just leaving. DAMON doesn't take his eyes off Starks. DAMON Do I know you from somewhere? STARKS You may have known my father, William Starks. DAMON smiles, remembering... DAMON That's right! Goddamn, you're the spitting image. I didn't know he had a son. STARKS He didn't either. DAMON [With a dirty laugh] I'll be damned. He musta been 12 when he had you. [Beat] You could be his ghost. 80. STARKS Did you know my father? DAMON Oh yeah, sure. He killed a cop, right? STARKS looms strangely over DAMON in this exchange. STARKS You wouldn't happen to know how he died, would you? DAMON [Slightly apprehensive] No, I don't. I just remember them finding his body. STARKS You don't know any more, Damon? DAMON [Shocked] How'd you know my name? STARKS My father used to talk about you. DAMON Oh yeah, what'd he say? Damon's eyes betray his unease. STARKS He said you were a sadistic fuck that belonged in jail. DAMON is shocked, and cowed. So much that he shakes as he looks for his bearings. DAMON Look here, I don't like you getting in my face and saying this bullshit to me... STARKS That's too bad. DAMON I thought you said you never knew your father. STARKS I didn't. [Beat] Did you have anything to do with his death? 81. DAMON I don't know what you're talking about, man. I swear. This is some weird shit you're telling me... and I don't know how come you're doing it. STARKS starts to see a shaking man who stands confused and distraught before him. STARKS He died because he bled to death from a blow to his head. Someone had to have given him it. DAMON I never touched your father! I swear! Damon's eyes are filled with dishonesty, tears and a craven FEAR. STARKS leans in closer to DAMON as he remembers... STARKS You know something, Damon? You're like a mule. You're real stubborn. But there's ways of fixin' that. All you need is a good stick. [Beat] Here's your stick. Live with it. STARKS looks like he could easily bash Damon's head against the wall, but instead he lets it go and walks away. EXT. CEMETERY, ALPINE GROVE GROUNDS, 2004, DAY STARKS is standing above his own headstone: WILLIAM STARKS, December 25, 1967 - January 1, 1993. Next to his grave is that of RUDY MACKENZIE. STARKS looks down sadly at both. JACKIE comes up behind him. JACKIE How long do we have? STARKS I don't know. JACKIE They told me Becker's in Shelbourne now. I looked him up and he was listed. STARKS looks scared and lost -- like it's all catching up to him. And like he might be being taken out of the Jacket. STARKS How far away is that? 82. PAGE MISSING 83. JACKIE kisses his SCARS -- from the war and the Jacket -- and STARKS lifts her higher so he can look at her as they make love for the first time. INT. BEDROOM, JACKIE'S APARTMENT, NIGHT JACKIE is lying in STARKS' arms, running her FINGERS over one of the SCARS on his chest. STARKS strokes her hair. JACKIE What about Captain Medley? He never told them what happened to you over there. His testimony...that coward wanted them to think you were crazy. STARKS I know. It was perfect. [Beat] Erase my sanity and you erase anything I'll ever say. JACKIE [Frustrated] Well, doesn't what he did to you make you mad? STARKS Of course it makes me mad. It makes me more than mad. Just like remembering the face of the man who killed that officer and knowing nothing more about him. But what's it gonna do for me to find them now? I can't fix everything in three days. JACKIE You've got to get yourself out of that place. They're going to kill you if you don't. STARKS I might not be able to. JACKIE It's not a prison, it's a hospital. There's got to be some way out of there and you've got to find it... She doesn't finish because it's too hard to. STARKS nods, wiping her tears and kissing her. FADE TO: 84. INT. BEDROOM, JACKIE'S APARTMENT, NIGHT, 2004 The sore sound of the DRAWER being opened stirs Jackie -- awakening her as if she heard it in her sleep. She reaches across the bed, but STARKS is no longer there. She runs her hands over the bed like he's alive in the sheets. INT. HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, NIGHT, 1992 DR. LORENSON is administering medicine to a patient in the ward, when she sees -- almost like a shadow -- a STRETCHER being wheeled down the hall. She finishes with the patient and runs to the end of the hall in search of it... INT. STARKS' ROOM, ICU, ALPINE GROVE, LATE NIGHT, 1992 STARKS lies recovering under a small light above his hospital bed. His body bears marks of the brutalization. As we pull back, we see DR. LORENSON standing guard over him at the foot of his bed. EXT. WARD, ICU, ALPINE GROVE, NEXT MORNING STARKS sits by a window -- I.V.'s in his arm -- smoking feebly, still severely weak from the Jacket, while DR. LORENSON observes him for a bit from the hall before she goes inside. LORENSON You'll die if you keep smoking those in your condition. STARKS I'll die either way. LORENSON pulls up a chair and sits opposite him. LORENSON I can't try to help you unless you let me. [Beat] I know about the Jacket. STARKS waits to see what this means. LORENSON I'm sorry for what you were put through, and I'm sorry I couldn't stop it earlier. But I promise you that I will from now on... STARKS [Cutting him off] I don't want you to. LORENSON doesn't understand. 85. LORENSON What do you mean? STARKS You have no idea what's going on. LORENSON No, I do. That's what I'm saying to you. STARKS Listen to me! You don't! The Jacket is my only chance in this place. LORENSON just thinks it's another delusion. LORENSON How can you say that in your physical condition? Do you realize that it's because you were put in it that you're as...weak as you are now? Becker's a man who's not well himself. STARKS searches for words that won't sound as crazy as he knows he appears. They don't exist. STARKS You don't understand. LORENSON Then help me understand. You know, you're not alone. A lot of Gulf Vets have begun to experience curious symptoms. What you have might well be a syndrome and, if so, it's not one we know enough about to be treating it this vigorously. STARKS This has nothing to do with that. LORENSON [Exasperated] Then what? What? [Beat] I can't guess it. You have to help me. STARKS fixes his eyes on Lorenson. He has nothing to lose but still he treads carefully. The words that follow come almost unwittingly. STARKS ...What you do not know is the only thing you know. (MORE) 86. STARKS (cont'd) [Beat] And what you own is what you do not own... And where you are is where you are not. LORENSON [Beat] Where is that from? It's as though STARKS hears his words for the first time. STARKS I don't know. [Frustrated] Remember? LORENSON Come on. Tell me what you do know. STARKS [Beat] I've seen a time that's not this time. And I'm only able to see it when I'm in the Jacket. LORENSON Well, what time is it? STARKS 2004. LORENSON nods, trying to mask his dismay but failing. STARKS You don't believe me. LORENSON [Testing him] Well, what year do you think it is now? STARKS [Exasperated] I'm not delusional. I know it's 1992. Same as every sane person. LORENSON Ok fine. Tell me about it. Tell me about the future. 2004. What does it look like? STARKS It doesn't look all that different. LORENSON The future doesn't look different? STARKS No. Not for people like me. [Beat] Not in the places I come from. 87. LORENSON What about the world? STARKS I didn't see that much of it -- same as now. I only saw it as part of my own life. LORENSON looks at STARKS, unintentionally patronizing. LORENSON Do you think you're traveling in time? Is that it? STARKS shakes his head and momentarily challenges Lorenson simply with his air of calm resolve. STARKS Not everyone in here is crazy, Doc. LORENSON searches for another approach. LORENSON [Beat] Like who? Like MacKenzie maybe? STARKS Maybe. LORENSON [Matter-of-factly] Did he tell you he tried to kill his wife? STARKS nods. LORENSON MacKenzie locked himself up in his house for two months and nearly starved himself to death before he was brought here. All because his wife left him for another man. STARKS moves to put his cigarette out and his I.V. almost falls out of his arm. LORENSON makes a move to adjust it and STARKS flinches perceptibly, startling LORENSON. STARKS [Adjusting it himself] Maybe that just makes him weak, not crazy. Or maybe he is crazy. [Beat] Still doesn't make me think I am. (MORE) 88. STARKS [Adjusting it himself] And, judging by the fact that you just told me about another patient, it doesn't even make you think I am, so what don't you work on persuading yourself first. LORENSON Why don't you help me? STARKS Because I don't have time. LORENSON Why not? STARKS I'm about to die unless I do something to stop it. LORENSON And how do you know that? STARKS Because of the future. I know what's going to happen. LORENSON William, that is just another facet of my delusions. Then, STARKS remembers the only thing that might help him. He pauses, trying to recall as much of it as he can. STARKS And what about your work with Eugene -- the kid? Is that another facet of my delusions? LORENSON -- having prepared to continue -- is bowled over at the mention of her patient. She loses all color and calm in her features. LORENSON How do you know about Eugene? STARKS You told me about him. I saw you and I think you thought I knew something about him. So you told me. LORENSON doesn't know what to say. LORENSON [Somewhat angrily] How do you know about Eugene!? 89. STARKS [Shaking his head in disbelief] You told me. It's like two parts of you talking through me. Look, judging from your reaction, there's no other way I could know about him. LORENSON There obviously is, so what don't you just tell me how you found out about him. STARKS looks at her convincingly. STARKS Some part of you suspects -- even if you don't know for sure -- that what I'm saying is true. LORENSON I don't know how you know about Eugene, but these ideas are part of your delusions. STARKS NO! They're not my delusions! Look, just leave my business with Becker to me! LORENSON One thing's got nothing to do with the other. STARKS One's got everything to do with the other. So unless you want my blood on your hands...leave what's between me and Becker between me and Becker. LORENSON backs off, jarred by Starks' assertions and fearful of his debilitating vehemence. INT. HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, DAY, 1992 MACKENZIE sits idly on one of the hallway benches until the hallway is clear of the STAFF. Then he scuttles quickly -- all the time close to the wall -- to Starks' room. INT. STARKS' ROOM, ALPINE GROVE, DAY, 1992 MACKENZIE gets inside, ducks as a NURSE passes and then taps lightly on the wall, announcing himself gladly. 90. MACKENZIE Hey, I brought you some smokes. STARKS doesn't waste any time. STARKS Lorenson said your wife left you for another man and that's when you lost it. MACKENZIE almost imperceptibly winces -- confirming the truth for Starks -- before he has to sit down. MACKENZIE Geez, how's that for a fucking "thank you"? STARKS Is it true? MACKENZIE tosses him the CIGARETTES and lights himself one. MACKENZIE She left me, I tried to kill her, I tried to kill myself. She was mean, I was weak, I was cruel so she left, I didn't plan it, didn't see it...FINE! MACKENZIE suddenly stops, distraught. When he resumes, it's in an oddly more normal tone than he's ever used before. MACKENZIE [Softly] I didn't want to see it. I'm in here because they say I have a nervous condition. [Beat] Well, here's my question, who wouldn't be nervous if they really looked at their life? [Beat] Whose life is that good? STARKS doesn't have an answer. MACKENZIE Not this luckless little mammal's. What difference is it to them? [Beat, slows down] You believe what you want to believe. One version is easier than another so you make it your own. As MacKenzie runs his hand over his forehead, he looks hurt, and sad, but strangely not a bit crazy. 91. MACKENZIE I'll tell you this though. However nuts I am, I wasn't nuts enough not to know how wrong it was to put a human being in something like that. MACKENZIE's twitching continues as he recollects it. STARKS MacKenzie, [beat] what if we are crazy? MACKENZIE [Shrugging] What if we are? There're crazier things than thinking up fictions for yourself. [Beat] Everyone does it, don't they? Even Becker. That roller coaster car pops more pills than all of Ward 3. STARKS Becker does? Are you sure? MACKENZIE I've been here for 11 years. It's my neighborhood. 'Course I'm sure. He's as drugged up as the rest of us...I guess he has to be to put up with all this. STARKS nods and MacKenzie puts his head down, suddenly vulnerable and embarrassed. STARKS lights TWO CIGARETTES. STARKS Thanks for the cigarettes. You still got a lot of problems, MacKenzie, but you're ok. MACKENZIE and STARKS smoke together quietly. INT. STARKS' ROOM, ALPINE GROVE, DECEMBER 29th, 1992 STARKS is trying to see if the windows open through the bars covering them. It's especially hard with the I.V. still connected to one of his arms. BECKER At least it's some kind of bars we've got you behind. STARKS turns, startled. 92. BECKER Hello, William. I understand you've been asking for me almost every hour. I would've been here sooner but you gave our little state visitor quite a bit to talk to me about. STARKS That's too bad. BECKER It is. But when it comes down to it, you just have to patient with them. They'd rather have their vacation, too, so they just push dealing with our "practices" off to the New Year. STARKS They make it hard for you to get away with your business, huh? BECKER Temporarily. STARKS lights a cigarette and, with that gesture, adopts the unscrupulousness of a criminal so convincingly it bears little resemblance to his usual demeanor. STARKS Makes it a little easier for me to get away with mine. BECKER looks at STARKS seriously. BECKER And what's that? STARKS My business? BECKER Yes. STARKS Getting away with things. Like whatever I may or may not have gotten away with Officer Harrison. BECKER You killed him? STARKS simply delivers one slow nod. 93. STARKS And wound up in a better cage. [Beat] But I still want to make a deal. BECKER looks understandably disgusted and STARKS proceeds with the calculation of someone who is guilty. STARKS See, the deluxe lab animal treatment I've been receiving -- well, I don't think it's worked. I woke up today and realized... [eerily lowering his voice] ...I don't think I'm cured. So really, what was the point? Torture? I think that's still sort of illegal in some states -- though we'll have to check on Vermont. And, how's this for the cherry on top: it seems my physician is a pill-popping freak. [Beat] Last time I checked, that makes some pretty good copy for a lot of these news shows. [Humbly, deftly] "I don't remember everything they did to me. I just remember the worst parts." I think I should be sitting down when I say it, don't you think? It takes BECKER some seconds to swallow this. BECKER I think...I have to think about it. BECKER cocks his head to one side as he does. Then he slowly makes his way over to STARKS and leans in closer to him. STARKS instinctively raises his hand to his HEAD -- prepared to be defensive if he has to be. If this is the moment when he's killed. But BECKER only YANKS the I.V. angrily out of Starks' arm, tearing his skin with it. BECKER I think your story needs a little fleshing out before it's ready to go. BECKER turns to leave as STARKS bleeds onto the floor. BECKER I'll say a prayer for you in Church today, Starks. Maybe the Gods can pick up where the medicine left off. 94. STARKS You sure you know where to find one? BECKER I've managed to every Sunday of my life. [Beat] Some of us are God- fearing men, Starks. STARKS And what does that mean? BECKER Means we believe in doing his work and fear what the world would be like if we didn't at least try to. STARKS smirks at the hypocrisy he sees. STARKS Becker, how do you sleep at night? BECKER You in here. [Beat] Works like a drug. BECKER leaves without looking back and STARKS closes his eyes, breathing a sigh of relief that it's over. INT. NURSE STATION, ALPINE GROVE, 1992, EVENING LORENSON, dressed to leave, stops to talk to NINA, one of the evening nurses. LORENSON Nina, William Starks is to stay in ICU all night. If anything is supposed to change, I want to be called about it. NINA Sure, Dr. Lorenson. INT. LORENSON'S HOME, VERMONT, 1992 LORENSON comes home to an unremarkable apartment to find a thin, young mother, TALIA YAZDI, and her eleven year-old mute, and seemingly retarded son, EUGENE, waiting for her outside her door. LORENSON Hi. [Beat] Sorry I'm late. 95. TALIA It's ok. [To Eugene] Hi, Eugene. EUGENE returns her greeting with a blank stare. INT. LORENSON'S HOME, VERMONT, SOME TIME LATER LORENSON sets her things down on the kitchen table as TALIA starts to tidy things around the apartment. LORENSON Talia, I need to ask you something. TALIA looks at LORENSON. TALIA What is it? LORENSON Have you told anyone about my sessions with Eugene? TALIA [With an accent] Of course not. [Off Lorenson's still doubtful look] I swear I haven't. I wouldn't do that to Eugene, or you. You know that. LORENSON Has anyone been asking about him? TALIA No. I would have told you. LORENSON nods. She believes her. INT. STARKS' ROOM, ALPINE GROVE, NIGHT, 1992 STARKS spots DAMON standing cautiously in the hall. INT. NURSE STATION, ALPINE GROVE, NIGHT, 1992 We see (but don't hear) HARDING speak to NINA as DAMON slips into STARKS' ROOM. NINA seems sufficiently distracted. INT. STARKS' ROOM, SECONDS LATER DAMON flashes a KNIFE at STARKS. DAMON No funny business or we can make this a lot fucking harder for you. 96. One look at the KNIFE and the SAME QUESTION burns once more... STARKS [Weakly] No funny business. INT. HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, NIGHT, 1992 DAMON hustles Starks down the hall as fast as they can before the NURSE or any other staff member spots them. INT. OFFICE/LIBRARY, LORENSON'S HOME, NIGHT EUGENE sits opposite LORENSON, who quietly observes him, jotting some notes down on her pad. She is intermittently holding up PICTURES for Eugene, asking him to repeat their names as if she were teaching him to read. LORENSON Eugene, this is a "TRAIN." EUGENE starts to pronounce the word when abruptly, and without any warning, he looks like he's unconscious, only with a blank stare. Lorenson quickly moves beside Eugene and watches him from up close, apparently not altogether surprised at what's happening. EUGENE doesn't even blink. The only sounds we hear from him are a couple, barely audible guttural noises. LORENSON -- exhausted -- takes off her glasses wearily and gently addresses the boy. LORENSON Come on back down here. Wherever you are...try to come on back. You'll like it, I promise. Just then, TALIA walks in with TEA, JUICE and COOKIES for Eugene and Lorenson. She spots her son in his absent, staring state and forces her face into a small, sad smile to avoid tears as she sets the tray down and the cookies before them. TALIA gently touches LORENSON'S hand. LORENSON looks at her warmly. TALIA knows how hard she's trying. INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, NIGHT, 1992 BECKER soundlessly watches as HARDING and DAMON finish strapping Starks in the Jacket. DAMON slams the DRAWER shut, sending STARKS back in. INT. JACKET/TUNNEL 97. What STARKS lacks in strength, he counteracts with his OVERWHELMING WILL. The SCREEN TREMBLES with it. One TERRIFIC, WHITE LIGHT and we... CUT TO: INT. JACKIE'S CAR, SHELBOURNE, VERMONT, 2004, DAY STARKS sits by himself in Jackie's car, parked in a gas station. He looks around, trying to make sure it really is her car. He looks in the back and sees a pair of sneakers and an empty BOTTLE of VODKA. He looks outside and sees a few people walking into the FOOD MART of the gas station. He trembles with cold as he looks down at his plaid shirt. Then, JACKIE unexpectedly appears outside the DRIVER'S WINDOW opening the car door and nearly spilling her COFFEE when she spots STARKS next to her. Seeing it's him though, she smiles warmly. JACKIE You just scared me, that's all. She leans over to him and gives him a kiss, handing him the coffee. STARKS Me, too. JACKIE Here, drink this. I'll get the heat going. EXT. MAIN STREET, SHELBOURNE, VERMONT, 2004 JACKIE speeds through the streets of Shelbourne, presumably on their way to Becker's house. EXT. BECKER'S NEIGHBORHOOD, SHELBOURNE, VERMONT, 2004 They've slowed down a little. INT. JACKIE'S CAR, 2004, DAY JACKIE reads from some directions on a PAPER as their CAR slows down on one particular street, towards one particular house. 98. EXT. BECKER'S HOUSE, SHELBOURNE, 2004, DAY JACKIE [O.S.] I think this is his house. INT. JACKIE'S CAR, 2004, DAY STARKS looks at the house, bedecked with a lopsided SNOW MAN on the front lawn. STARKS You're sure? JACKIE Yeah. I called the number yesterday to make sure. Thomas Becker, retired M.D. STARKS gets out of the car. EXT. BECKER'S HOUSE, SHELBOURNE, 2004, DAY STARKS knocks on the door. No answer. EXT. BECKER'S HOUSE, SHELBOURNE, 2004, DAY JACKIE tries to look through the windows to see if anyone's there. No one is. It looks small and dark inside. EXT. BECKER'S HOUSE, SHELBOURNE, 2004, DAY STARKS knocks again, looking down anxiously at his feet. JACKIE walks up to him from around the side of the house. They don't have the time to wait. JACKIE They're not here. STARKS They're not. JACKIE [Beat, lost] No. JACKIE notices how COLD Starks looks. JACKIE Maybe they're out. STARKS nods. 99. INT. JACKIE'S CAR, 2004, DAY STARKS rubs his hands together as he looks out the windows and sees NO CARS or PEOPLE on the street. JACKIE watches him despairingly. JACKIE How much time do we have? STARKS [Distracted] I don't know. JACKIE What? What are you thinking? STARKS There're no cars on this street. JACKIE looks around; there really aren't. JACKIE Yeah, you're right. But wait, how can that be? STARKS turns to JACKIE, thinking. STARKS I don't know. Maybe that's because this whole thing is a dream. How can you have a street with no cars on it? JACKIE I don't know. But this isn't a dream. I'm real, and so is where we are. STARKS Then why isn't there anyone around? JACKIE [Beat] I don't know. STARKS runs his hand over his head and closes his eyes in desperation. JACKIE What are you doing? STARKS doesn't answer. JACKIE William! William! STARKS opens his eyes. She sighs in relief. 100. JACKIE Maybe he's gone somewhere. He'll have to come back. STARKS starts to shake his head in disbelief, when suddenly, he realizes... STARKS Of course he will. [Beat] What day of the week is it? JACKIE It's Sunday. STARKS [Nodding] It's Sunday. JACKIE So? STARKS looks ecstatic with hope. STARKS Look where these people live. A small, beautiful, removed place. STARKS They've got lives to be grateful for. JACKIE William, you're not making sense. STARKS [Beat] They're at Church. And I bet that's where Becker is. EXT. STREETS, SHELBOURNE JACKIE and STARKS head back to the only MAIN STREET in the town. As they approach the town church, they start to see a ROW of cars parallel-parked on the street. JACKIE pulls up to the entrance of the CHURCH. INT. JACKIE'S CAR, 2004, DAY STARKS watches JACKIE get out of the car and walk up to the doors of the CHURCH. EXT. CHURCH, SHELBOURNE, 2004 JACKIE boldly opens the CHURCH door. 101. INT. CHURCH, SHELBOURNE, 2004 JACKIE sees the town seated in the Church. The PRIEST looks up at her briefly and some people turn around, but she closes the DOOR before she causes a major interruption. INT. CHURCH, SHELBOURNE, 2004 We move to the third or fourth row, where, from behind, we see a head of GREY HAIR. He slowly turns around, casting a look towards the door and revealing a glimpse of his face. Though it's aged slightly, it hasn't softened. EXT. CHURCH, SHELBOURNE, 2004 JACKIE and STARKS watch as the people file out of Church. They are leaning against her car when STARKS spots him. DR. BECKER walks beside a SMALL CHILD -- presumably his GRANDSON. JACKIE registers his formidableness with some surprise; Becker's maintained a strong physique and is hardly a shade less intimidating than he was before. Only his hand has a permanent shake now. STARKS doesn't waste any time. He heads straight for him. Almost sensing him, BECKER looks in his direction. The casual look on his face is instantly supplanted by one of DISBELIEF. STARKS You still go to Church. How's that work? Your God just doesn't notice? That it? [Beat, serious] How you doin', Dr. Becker? BECKER stops walking and looks at Starks. His GRANDSON looks at him. BECKER'S GRANDSON Grandpa? BECKER [Still looking at Starks] Sean, why don't you wait for me by the car? I'll be there in a minute. [Turning to the kid] Ok? His grandson, momentarily appeased, heads for the car. BECKER [To Starks] Can I help you? STARKS I don't know, Dr. Becker. Can you? 102. That's enough to confirm for BECKER who STARKS is. All around them, people leaving Church socialize routinely -- unaware of the haunted history being made between them. BECKER Who are you? STARKS I think you know. Your eyes say you do. BECKER [Beat] You're his son? STARKS No. I'm not his son. I'm him. [Beat] What? You look like you've seen a ghost. You can come here and touch me, old man. I'm the real thing. BECKER How...how are you here? STARKS looks at Becker -- each a terrifying reminder of the other's past. BECKER You died, Starks. Years ago, in the hospital. STARKS I know. [Beat] You killed me, didn't you? BECKER No. I didn't. I swear I didn't. I probably helped push you to kill yourself, but I didn't do it. STARKS I didn't kill myself. I died from a blow to the head. How'd it happen? I have to know. BECKER looks at him, nearly too stunned to speak. BECKER I don't know how you died. The last time I put you in the Jacket was just after you told me you remembered killing that police officer... 103. STARKS I didn't say I remembered killing him. I just repeated some words to get myself back in there. BECKER I know. [Beat] I knew that when you came out. STARKS How? BECKER Because...because you came out and said something you couldn't have possibly have known. You came back and repeated three names... BECKER falters as he recalls his offenses. BECKER Of people like you. People I was just trying to help. They couldn't get worse so I thought, with medication, they might get... STARKS Medication? What kind of meds do you chase with nights in a cadaver drawer? BECKER It was part of the treatment I intended...I didn't know what the effects would be... STARKS So, what, you guinea pig sick people to find out? BECKER The three of you weren't regular patients. You were criminals that ended up at Alpine Grove. STARKS No, we were patients. BECKER concedes after all this time. BECKER You and the others didn't seem that way then. 104. STARKS is quiet as he comes to understand how it's about to work out: if Becker tells him those names now, he essentially indicts himself. STARKS Who were the others? BECKER remembers with a hint of remorse. BECKER [Racked with remorse] Nathan Piechowski, Jackson MacGregor, and Ted Casey. [Beat] I didn't ask for you -- for any of you. You were all sent to me. STARKS looks at Becker, in astonishment. BECKER What is it? STARKS just stares at Becker, waiting for the realization to hit him, too. BECKER How did you come to know their names? STARKS You just told me. The last time I was with you was when I was in the Jacket. I'm in it right now, Dr. Becker. BECKER I don't understand... STARKS I'm in it as we speak. [Beat] You're haunting yourself right now. [Beat] I guess sometimes we indict ourselves if no one else does. You didn't make history like you wanted to, huh, Dr. Becker. It turned out different, didn't it? BECKER I didn't put you in Alpine Grove. STARKS No. [Beat] You put me on drugs and then you put me in the Jacket. 105. BECKER [Stoically] I was sorry when I heard you died. I was, but...how was I to know you didn't shoot that police officer? STARKS The same way you just said I didn't without my ever telling you. [Beat] And that still doesn't excuse what you did. Just because you had keys to a cage didn't mean you had animals inside. [Beat] You've earned your guilt, Becker. STARKS shares a last look with Becker before he walks away towards the car. INT. JACKIE'S CAR, DAY, 2004 JACKIE and STARKS sit inside the parked car as STARKS touches his head. JACKIE That's all you got from him? That bastard helped take your life away from you. STARKS No, he didn't. JACKIE What? How can you say that? He's the one that put you in that goddamn medieval...Jacket. He's probably the one who killed you. And with those words, JACKIE starts to break down. STARKS No one's killing anyone. STARKS takes her hand and runs it over his head. STARKS Touch me. I'm okay. STARKS looks at her with love, understanding and, for the first time, a sense of peace. He strokes her hair to calm her down. 106. STARKS If everything hadn't happened the way it has, then I wouldn't be here right now, sitting in a car with you, touching your face. JACKIE Why are you saying that? [Beat] We don't have long, do we? STARKS looks at her without answering. JACKIE wipes her eyes, fastens STARKS' seat belt, and seeing that Starks' EYES have started to flutter, starts driving. In the distance, the barely audible sound of the DRAWER opening, and their time ending, is heard. STARKS Where are we going? JACKIE To the hospital. EXT. HIGHWAY, VERMONT, DAY, 2004 JACKIE and STARKS speed on the highway. As STARKS sleeps, JACKIE keeps looking over at him like it's a way to make sure he stays with her. INT. HOSPITAL, VERMONT, DAY, 2004 JACKIE helps STARKS -- who's severely weakened at this point -- to the nurse's station. CLAIRE is there. JACKIE Claire, I need help. CLAIRE helps JACKIE, and they take him into a room. From afar, we hear CLAIRE asking about him. STARKS What's happening to me? Why am I getting so much weaker? JACKIE Because your body can only take so much of what they're putting you through. CLAIRE Jesus, what's happened to him? 107. INT. ROOM, HOSPITAL, VERMONT, DAY, 2004 JACKIE helps CLAIRE do for STARKS what they can; it doesn't seem like much at this point. STARKS Lorenson's the only one that could let me out of there. I need something to persuade her that I was there. Get me something to take to her. JACKIE Ok. Ssh. Rest. INT. OFFICE, HOSPITAL, 2004 JACKIE stands above a PRINTER as it prints the information she's looked up about Dr. Lorenson. The PAPER gets jammed, and that's when JACKIE completely loses it. She WRESTLES with the printer as if it were responsible for what's happening. Then she realizes she's not alone. She looks back and sees CLAIRE, watching from the doorway, with a sympathetic look in her eyes. JACKIE [In a panic] He's not...? CLAIRE No, no. [Beat] Not yet. But he doesn't have long. Are you sure you don't want a doctor to look at him? JACKIE No! It won't do any good. [Beat] Please, Claire. They won't understand. CLAIRE acquiesces with her eyes. INT. JACKET/TUNNEL PASSAGE STARKS is trapped: back on the day when Officer Harrison was murdered. FLASHBACK TO: EXT. HIGHWAY, RURAL VERMONT, WINTER, LATE AFTERNOON, 1992 (Cont'd from the scene after STARKS left Jean and Jackie's place): 108. STARKS is walking back on the same highway just after the sun has set, and just after he helped JEAN and JACKIE, on that fateful day... This time we see a CAR stop for him from a much closer distance. TENNY pulls up towards STARKS and rolls down the window on the passenger side. STARKS bends down to be able to see the driver. TENNY Hey, Mister, you need a ride? STARKS Where are you going? TENNY I'm going to Canada but I can let you ride with me up to the border. STARKS considers this. TENNY Can you drive? STARKS Sure. TENNY Great, get in. We'll switch off in a bit. We pull back and see the same SHOT, from a distance, of STARKS putting his BAG in the back and getting in. As he opens the CAR DOOR, we hear the MUSIC playing inside. As they drive off, the MUSIC fades further and further in the distance as we... CUT TO: INT. BEDROOM, JACKIE'S APARTMENT, NIGHT It's the night that they slept together, and the departure we never saw. We see, from Starks' POV, JACKIE sleeping serenely in the bed. We catch one glimpse of STARKS in the moonlight, standing naked in the doorway, before he turns and then...disappears -- having been taken out of the Jacket at that point. INT. HOSPITAL ROOM, VERMONT, 2004 JACKIE is by STARKS' side, lying on the hospital bed, next to him, smoothing his sweating head. 109. JACKIE William, please, honey, wake up. For me. STARKS' eyes flutter open. JACKIE Can you hear me? STARKS nods; JACKIE tries to continue without choking up. JACKIE I found out about Eugene. The little boy. He's the key. That's who you have to tell her about when you get back there. It's the only way to prove this to her. JACKIE's VOICE fades as we... CUT TO: INT. LORENSON'S HOME, VERMONT, NIGHT, 1992 LORENSON watches EUGENE continue to look unresponsively in the distance. RETURN TO: INT. HOSPITAL ROOM, VERMONT, 2004 (SOME TIME LATER) STARKS is awake, watching JACKIE sleep wearily on his chest. He sees the TOLL this has taken on her, just as he senses he is about to be taken out of the Jacket. He nudges her gently. STARKS Jackie? JACKIE stirs her eyes to look at him. STARKS [Somewhat urgently] Where do you live? JACKIE What? STARKS When we first met, when you were 7, where was the house you lived in with your mother? Do you remember your address? 110. JACKIE 112 Orchard Way. [Realizing, in a whisper] You're not coming back, are you? STARKS, faint, struggles to get out of the bed. STARKS You gotta stop thinking like that. JACKIE Then, where are you going? STARKS Nowhere. [Beat] I just think I'm gonna be sick. STARKS moves towards the bathroom of the hospital room. JACKIE moves to help him and he motions for her to stop. STARKS falters in the doorway when he turns to look back at Jackie -- like it might be for the last time. JACKIE [In a whisper] You come back to me... STARKS nods, then goes in and closes the door behind him. JACKIE stares after him -- alone in the total silence of the room. She listens for the slightest noise and that's when she actually hears the sound of the DRAWER being opened for herself. She realizes he's gone. She RUSHES after him, opens the door in a fit, and then, sees what she feared most: no sign of Starks. JACKIE falls to her knees, right there, on the bathroom floor and cries out like a woman only beginning to realize how unfathomably deep her heart is... INT. ALPINE GROVE, 2004 STARKS is suddenly in the waiting area outside Lorenson's office -- still severely weakened. He walks slowly to the OFFICE DOOR and feebly knocks. LORENSON answers and STARKS falls into her arms. LORENSON [Stunned] Oh dear God. INT. LORENSON'S OFFICE LORENSON has laid STARKS down on the COUCH in her office. STARKS can barely talk. He spews as much of it as he can out in his feverish state... 111. STARKS I'm William Starks. I'm not his son. And...and the kid you work with. Your friend's son...Eugene... LORENSON is stilled by the words STARKS just spoke. LORENSON I know. I know it all. Save your strength. I already know everything you're going to say. [Beat] You're in the Jacket right now, aren't you? STARKS How...how do you know? LORENSON You told me this was how it happened. STARKS I did? LORENSON Yeah. STARKS clutches his side in pain as they prepare to take him out. STARKS Who...who kills me? LORENSON You have nothing to fear, William. But when we look to see STARKS' reaction, he's not there... INT. BECKER'S OFFICE, ALPINE GROVE, EVENING BECKER is dressed to leave the hospital when he suddenly decides not to. He takes off his coat and his gloves, but not his SCARF, and walks out of his office with a decided urgency. INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, 1992 BECKER pulls STARKS out of the drawer and looks down ruefully at STARKS' scathed face. STARKS, drenched in BLOOD and SWEAT, seeks the outline of Becker's face in the light. STARKS [Whispering] Becker, I know about you. [Beat] I know what you did to your patients. 112. BECKER looses the straps around Starks' neck to help him speak. STARKS Nathan...Piechowski. [Beat] Jackson MacGregor...Ted Casey. [Beat] You didn't cure them. You killed them. BECKER momentarily loses color and his forever cool mien. After some seconds, STARKS passes out and BECKER -- hands trembling -- looks as though he might stick him back in when, instead, he starts to remove him from the Jacket himself. He silently and carefully unties each of the straps -- taking unusual care for Starks' flesh as he prepares to put him on a stretcher. INT. STARKS' ROOM, ICU, ALPINE GROVE, EARLY MORNING As the SUN starts to rise, we see STARKS -- now cleaned up -- recovering in his bed. He is unconscious. From his window, we look down and see Dr. Lorenson's car pulling into the lot... FADE TO: INT. STARKS' ROOM, ICU, ALPINE GROVE, EARLY MORNING LORENSON, still wearing her winter gear, walks into Starks' room, anxiously checking his VITALS. Her anxious expression reveals Starks' frailty. She looks to the window then and sees an empty chair with only Becker's SCARF on it. LORENSON goes to the window in time to see BECKER getting into his car. INT. STARKS' ROOM, ICU WARD, ALPINE GROVE, LATER THAT MORNING STARKS lies unconscious in the bed. The NURSE, SALLY, stops by the room to check on Dr. Lorenson. SALLY Would you like anything, Dr. Lorenson? LORENSON A cup of coffee would be great, Sally. Thanks. SALLY Is he gonna be ok? LORENSON I hope so. 113. SALLY Me, too. LORENSON looks after her as she leaves. INT. STARKS' ROOM, ICU WARD, ALPINE GROVE, MORNING, 1992 LORENSON wakes up as STARKS stirs in his sleep, slowly waking up. LORENSON You're going to be ok, William. We just need to get your fever down and we'll be able to hopefully stabilize you. STARKS Who are you kidding, Doc? You or me? LORENSON doesn't answer. STARKS Can I get some paper and something to write with. LORENSON What for? STARKS [Solemnly] I'm starting to think I'm really gonna die soon. So I'd like to write some things down. LORENSON I'm not gonna let that happen. STARKS You still don't believe me, do you? LORENSON I do believe you... STARKS No. Listen to me...the kid, Eugene... LORENSON still gets taken aback by Starks' knowledge of Eugene. STARKS No one knows you're working with him so how would I have found out? He's your friend's son, right? 114. It's true; no one could have known about Lorenson's private life. STARKS coughs, clearly in great pain. LORENSON William, I can't indulge these delusions, even when you're in this state. STARKS Listen to me. That's all I ask. LORENSON has no choice. STARKS He's having absence [pronounced "absance"] seizures when he stares off into space like he does. He has them so often that that's why he hasn't learned to speak properly. LORENSON Who told you this? STARKS You did, in the future. You figured it out because a part of you already knows this. That's how it works. [Beat] I'm just telling you something you already know, even if you haven't realized it. STARKS closes his eyes, gathering what strength he can. STARKS I don't know when it'll happen but soon I think, you'll shock the boy and it'll wake him up. LORENSON What are you talking about? STARKS You'll figure it out and you'll do good by him. That's all STARKS can manage before LORENSON sees he's about to pass out again. CUT TO: INT. LORENSON'S APARTMENT, NIGHT, 1992 115. LORENSON answers the KNOCK at her door. It's EUGENE and TALIA. LORENSON Hey. TALIA What is it? LORENSON [Finding it hard to explain] Nothing. [Beat] I don't know. I thought of something I could try. LORENSON looks at TALIA helplessly. TALIA nods and leads Eugene inside. LORENSON can't help but look down the hall to make sure no one's there. INT. STUDY/OFFICE, LORENSON'S APARTMENT, NIGHT, 1992 LORENSON sits across from EUGENE, holding up a picture of a DOG. Between them is a tray of MILK and COOKIES. LORENSON Come on Eugene, try to say it with me. This is a "DOG". EUGENE D--d---d----. But Eugene can't hold the sound of the letter long enough to make the word. An absence seizure takes hold of him as he looks out unconsciously into space. LORENSON moves closer to him. LORENSON [Softly] What's happening to you? LORENSON checks Eugene's pulse and leans in close to the boy's unconscious face like the answer is there if she just looks hard enough. LORENSON Are you having a seizure? Is that really what's going on? LORENSON spots a corner of Eugene's EYE twitching slightly, and, rushing to get a better look, takes the shade off of the nearby LAMP and holds it above his head so she can get a better look at him. 116. Just then, TALIA opens the door, startling Lorenson. She knocks over the MILK and, as it spills on the LAMP CORD -- now on Eugene's lap -- it causes an ELECTRIC SHOCK. Eugene catches it. TALIA gasps and Lorenson watches the boy in fear. The moment passes and Eugene -- more responsive than he has ever been before -- looks at his mother and Lorenson. He doesn't know what's happened but he is aware, and awake, like never before. EUGENE picks right up where he and Lorenson left off. EUGENE Dog. [To Talia] Hi. TALIA and LORENSON look at him and each other at shock. STARKS [O.S., distantly] You're going to...shock the boy and then things will change for him. LORENSON You ok, Eugene? EUGENE holds Lorenson's gaze steadily for a few moments. LORENSON [Stunned himself] Yeah, you are ok. TALIA What's happening? LORENSON [Putting the pieces together] He got a little shock. [To himself] And it's reset him. Not permanently probably...but at least for a little while. They use it on epileptic patients sometimes... TALIA But he's not epileptic. LORENSON No, but he is having seizures. TALIA looks at LORENSON. She's still confused. LORENSON's merely surprised. INT. STARKS' ROOM, ICU UNIT, ALPINE GROVE, 1992 STARKS looks up from his PAPER -- now covered in WORDS -- to see Dr. Lorenson in the doorway. STARKS still looks weak but much better than before. 117. STARKS It worked, didn't it? LORENSON nods. STARKS This is really happening, isn't it? DR. LORENSON [Beat] What do you need me to do? STARKS [Beat] Thank you. STARKS folds the LETTER. STARKS I need to get this letter to someone. DR. LORENSON I can't take you out of here in your condition... STARKS And I can't stay here in my condition. I am going to die tonight. It's already been decided. DR. LORENSON No, it hasn't. STARKS Yes. [Beat] It has. Everything up 'till today is done. Everything starting with tomorrow is up for grabs. EXT. PARKING LOT, ALPINE GROVE, 1992 LORENSON helps STARKS into the parking lot as it snows. INT. LORENSON'S CAR, DAY, 1992 LORENSON and STARKS are driving on the same, now familiar highway. STARKS You know how to get there? 118. LORENSON Sure. It's an easy address. A little far out there, but easy enough. STARKS Good. Bob Dylan plays on the RADIO. STARKS smiles as he hears him and turns the music up; the act is sad because, as LORENSON notices, it belongs to someone with an interest to live. EXT. JACKIE AND JEAN'S HOUSE, DAY, 1992 DR. LORENSON and STARKS drive up to Jean and Jackie's house. LORENSON You want me to come with you? STARKS No, I'll be ok. STARKS slowly makes his way to their front door and knocks on it as best as he can. The sound, however, is still understandably soft. STARKS waits and then reaches for the knob on the door. He opens it and looks inside. We first see his face, and the devastation on it, as we guess the sight he's laid eyes on. JACKIE is sitting at the kitchen table, still only 7 years old. Though STARKS expected it, he falters under the disappointment of seeing a girl he liked instead of the woman he loved. As she looks up at him, it's all he can do not to break down. STARKS Hi. JACKIE [Surprised] Hey. [Beat] I remember you. STARKS I remember you, too. STARKS shakes his head, looking at her. She looks beautiful, and still hopeful. Her life lays ahead of her and her fate -- when he found her in 2004 -- remains as distant as possible from this innocent, still promising image. STARKS Jackie, how have you been? 119. JACKIE smiles; she doesn't get asked that often. JACKIE I've been ok. STARKS Good. How's your mom? JACKIE Ok, I guess. STARKS nods. JACKIE smiles. It's all he can do not to crumble. STARKS Do you think I could see her? She looks at him and senses, like kids do, the desperation in his eyes. JACKIE Sure. JACKIE calls out for Jean, then runs up the stairs to get her. LORENSON has gotten out of the car and is waiting outside on the porch. STARKS remains in the doorway. Some seconds later, JEAN appears -- gaunt but in a slightly better state than we saw her before. JEAN Can I help you? STARKS Hey, Jean. Nice to see you. JEAN looks a little confused. JEAN I'm sorry? Your face looks awfully familiar, I just can't quite place it... JACKIE Mom, this is the guy that drove us home that afternoon we were stuck on the highway. The guy you yelled at for no good reason... JEAN Oh, yeah. 120. She gives him a once over, and, seeing how weakened he looks, decides intuitively he can't be much harm. She also notices LORENSON waiting by the car. JEAN There something you need? STARKS You could say that. STARKS looks at JACKIE, hesitating because of her. Sensing this, JEAN asks Jackie to leave. JEAN Jackie, go play in the snow. JACKIE Why? JEAN Just do it. JACKIE leaves and walks to the yard. STARKS watches. STARKS I can't stay long. [Motioning to Lorenson] That's my doctor and I gotta get back to the hospital. Everything I want to say is in this letter. [Beat] You can check as much of it as you can. STARKS hands her the LETTER. STARKS I won't be around when you read it...but I hope you believe it. It'd be a real shame if you didn't. JEAN looks baffled but, seeming to grasp his urgency, nods. STARKS [Beat] I should be on my way. JACKIE has been watching this exchange from the shed. When he looks over there, he catches her eye and CALLS OUT, with what strength he has left... STARKS Bye, Jackie. 121. These are the hardest words STARKS has probably ever had to say. JACKIE just stares after him, as does JEAN, as he shows himself out. STARKS Happy New Year to both of you. JEAN Thanks. You, too. EXT. JACKIE AND JEAN'S HOUSE, DAY, 1992 As STARKS is walking away, we see his eyes begin to tear in the cold -- but not from it. INT. JACKIE AND JEAN'S HOUSE, DAY, 1992 JACKIE abruptly runs after him. JACKIE Hey, wait! STARKS stops in his tracks; he clears as much sadness from his face as he can before he turns around to face her. STARKS [Beat] You be good to yourself, Jackie. JACKIE Ok. Then, suddenly, she sticks her hand for him to shake, as she did that day on the roadside; only now, it trembles slightly in the cold. STARKS takes JACKIE'S HAND and holds it in his own softly and affectionately. JEAN and DR. LORENSON look on curiously as STARKS looks in her face, at her hand in his, and then to the heavens for the means to get through this. As STARKS lets go at last, JACKIE looks back at him, sensing the connection even if she doesn't know it yet. STARKS turns and stumbles as he walks back to his car. LORENSON moves to help him, but STARKS tells her not to with his eyes. He makes his way to the car on his own. MONTAGE: INT. LIVING ROOM, JEAN AND JACKIE'S HOUSE, DAY, 1992 122. JEAN sits down and starts to open the LETTER. Starks' voice, as we hear it now, is presumably from parts of the LETTER he's written to her. INT. LORENSON'S CAR, DUSK, 1992 LORENSON looks over to STARKS, who stares painfully out the window. They drive on in silence. STARKS (V.O.) I was 25 years old the first time I died. It didn't end anything though. [Beat] Sometimes I think we live through things only to be able to tell them, to bear witness, to say this happened. INT. ALPINE GROVE, NEW YEAR'S EVE, 1992-1993 STARKS walks back through the gates of the hospital, despondently returning inside, with LORENSON at his side. STARKS (V.O.) And it wasn't to someone else. It was to me. And I lived despite it. Sometimes I think we live to beat the odds. And sometimes I agree that life can only begin with the knowledge of death. That it can all end, even when you least want it to. INT. WARD, ALPINE GROVE, EVENING MACKENZIE looks up from his game of solitaire as LORENSON helps STARKS down the hall. He holds up his hand in the gesture of hello, or goodbye. STARKS raises his hand back with an earnest smile. STARKS I'm telling you my story because it's the only way I can try to help your daughter, and you, have a better one of your own. INT. BECKER'S HOME, SHELBOURNE, 1992 We see BECKER taking his DRUGS. In his dark den, on his worn desk, is a bottle of WHISKEY. He closes his eyes as he administers to himself whatever aid he can... INT. JACKIE AND JEAN'S HOUSE, DAY, DECEMBER 31, 1992 123. JEAN is reading each page avidly, affected by this man's last words. STARKS (V.O.) It's scary...and lucky...how much we can forget. Scary because we think the past gives us our bearing, and lucky because in those moments I'm talking about, you realize it doesn't. And it never had to. INT. SMALL BAR, CANADA, NIGHT, 1992 TENNY (Officer Harrison's murderer) is at the bar ordering a drink from the BARTENDER. As he gets his DRINK, he slaps a BILL down on the counter and turns around to survey the bar... INT. JACKIE'S ROOM, JACKIE AND JEAN'S HOUSE, EVENING, 1992 JACKIE rummages in a box of her personal belongings, looking for something specific in them. She stops finally when she finds STARKS' DOG TAGS. She takes them out slowly and puts them around her neck. STARKS (V.O.) I am not a crazy man, even though they mistook me for one. I live in the same world as the rest of you. Only I saw more of it. Then, after a moment of staring down at them, she tucks them under her sweater. INT. CAPTAIN MEDLEY'S HOME, NIGHT, 1992 CAPTAIN MEDLEY holds a beer as he stares blankly at a TV broadcasting news about MIKE TYSON'S RAPE CONVICTION. Medley's barely watching the footage... INT. STARKS' ROOM, ALPINE GROVE, 1992 Dr. Lorenson helps Starks back to bed. STARKS looks up at Lorenson, thanking her without words but with his eyes. LORENSON smiles as she looks back sadly at Starks' even more weakened self. STARKS (V.O.) And the seeing is the only way you can hear what the truth around you is saying: you can always start believing in things you don't already believing in. And, while you're alive, it's never too late. 124. Then he turns and walks out, closing the door so that Starks' room and the screen darken at the same time. INT. HALLWAY, ALPINE GROVE, NEW YEAR'S EVE, 1992 TWO PAIRS of legs walk down a corridor, darkened by the night, through the now familiar passage to the basement... STARKS is not restrained this time though we don't see who is walking down the hall with him. He runs his hand over his forehead and looks at it when he's done. STILL NO CUT. They slow down their pace as they round the corner, as STARKS appears dizzier and dizzier. He doesn't stop and the PERSON beside him doesn't see how weak he is... until STARKS TRIPS. In slow motion, we hear a DISTANT, GARBLED VOICE CALL OUT... DISTORTED VOICE No! Wa...atch out! But STARKS' head hits the GLASS CASE of the FIRE EXTINGUISHER on the wall, as it was destined to. In the terrific SHOWER OF GLASS, one PIECE cuts a neat, deep, fatal GASH in Starks' head. BLOOD starts to flow. As STARKS' eyes struggle to regain their focus, we see the BLURRED, indiscernible FACE of the PERSON leaning over him to see if he's all right. The details start to make sense, even to Starks. This is the WOUND they said he died from. INT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, ALPINE GROVE, NEW YEAR'S EVE, 1992 STARKS collapses on the familiar slab, ready to be strapped into the Jacket one final time. BLOOD pours from his head onto the floor. The PERSON with him struggles to get all of Starks' weight onto the metal slab. She's doing it as carefully, and gently, as she can -- taking observable care with every strap of the JACKET, almost as if the act itself is a humane one. When the HANDS finally reach the straps around his neck and the hardest part of the struggle has passed, STARKS smiles kindly, and thankfully, into the single overhead LIGHT in the room that obscures the face of the person strapping him in. As the drawer is pushed in, one of the STRAPS gets caught on the side, CUTTING STARKS' ARM. We hear a small CRY in the room. Then the HANDS adjust the strap and slowly push STARKS in. 125. INT. JACKET/TUNNEL It's more beautiful and serene inside than it's ever been before. This time, as he travels through the tunnel, it's as though he's traveling in a heaven of his own. The IMAGES he sees are the best moments of his past -- connected in a tranquil, fluid narrative that suggest STARKS has finally retrieved his memory without it haunting him... STARKS (V.O.) I promise you, Jean. No matter how bad the days and things around you look, they look better awake than they do asleep. I can offer you some proof: when you die, there's only one thing you want to have happen...sometimes so badly it comes true, I guess. [Beat] You want to come back. PANELS: The PANELS we saw briefly are completed further now. 1) C.U. A WOMAN'S NECK as a small child's HAND touches it. 2) INT. STAIRWAY, OLD HOUSE (STARKS' CHILDHOOD HOME): STARKS, aged 9, running up the stairs, knocking a PICTURE on the wall with his elbow... 3) C.U. A black and white PHOTOGRAPH of Starks' father, a much older version of himself. 4) EXT. CREEK: A shot of clear water that's not to deep and, on its surface, the reflection of a TEENAGE BOY'S FACE before he touches it and sends it rippling... 5) EXT. A NEW ENGLAND BEACH: STARKS (20s) dressed in a black suit, holding an URN, letting the ASHES fly into the water... 6) EXT. DESERT: A SANDSTORM WHIRLS round before it's replaced with... EXT. VERMONT: A FIELD of snow. EXT. MORGUE, BASEMENT, MENTAL HOSPITAL We see now that it was DR. LORENSON who put Starks in. Exhausted from the physical strain of getting him in there, she stares at the closed drawer, like looking at it is one way to look after Starks. INT. JACKIE AND JEAN'S HOUSE, VERMONT, 1992 126. JEAN puts down STARKS' LETTER and walks out of the kitchen and watches JACKIE sitting absently on the couch, looking past the TV. JEAN kneels wordlessly beside her daughter and looks her daughter in the eye. JACKIE looks back curiously as JEAN wraps her arms around Jackie's LEGS and rests her head in her lap, holding onto her with the dearness of having narrowly missed a tragedy. FADE TO BLACK. EXT. DINER, SMALL TOWN VERMONT, 2005 Over the sounds of CARS slushing in the snow, an IMAGE fades up slowly on the screen, until we see it's STARKS, standing in the parking lot outside the diner once more. This time he seems situated, and hopeful. After a slightly longer wait than the first time, JACKIE walks out -- in the same way as before except that she wears a NURSE'S UNIFORM and an unmistakable air of vitality. Jackie looks directly at Starks and we see the same attraction between them teeming even more than before. Even as a physically injured man in jeans and a flannel, with a BLEEDING CUT on his head and no coat in the cold, STARKS is someone we see she wants to be near. Then we see JACKIE as STARKS does: she looks beautiful, alive, happy and just like the woman he never wanted to leave. She approaches Starks warmly, less suspicious of the world -- and less devastated by it -- than we remember her being. JACKIE Hey there. [Beat] You ok? STARKS revels in the moment. In their reunion. STARKS I think so. JACKIE You're bleeding pretty bad there. STARKS touches his FOREHEAD in a panic and, seeing the BLOOD on his hands, looks up at her, terrified. Sensing this, she moves closer to calm him. JACKIE It's ok. It's ok. Relax. It's just a cut. We can get it fixed. (MORE) 127. JACKIE (cont'd) But we need to get you to the hospital now. How'd you get that? STARKS I fell down. [Beat] But I'm alive. STARKS looks at her -- immensely relieved and grateful. JACKIE [Laughing a little] Yes, you are alive. But, listen, it's New Year's Day. You're not going to get a cab. Especially not here. And you're gonna freeze if you stand out here in the snow much longer. I'm on my way back to my shift at the hospital... STARKS You work there? JACKIE [Gesturing to her uniform] Yeah, I'm a nurse. Why don't you let me give you a ride... STARKS falters slightly as he walks. JACKIE helps him make it to the car, much like before... STARKS Thanks. INT. JACKIE'S CAR, 2005 STARKS can hardly keep his eyes off her when her CELL PHONE suddenly rings. JACKIE Sorry, one sec. JACKIE answers it, smiling. JACKIE Hey! How are you? [Beat] Thanks. I was just thinking about you, too. STARKS listens nervously to her conversation and the affection in her voice. JACKIE Listen, I gotta go, mom, 'cause I'm late... but, thanks. Happy New Year to you, too. I'll call you later. [Beat] Ok, bye. 128. JACKIE hangs up and looks at Starks -- feeling a little awkward after the call. JACKIE Sorry about that. It was my mom. STARKS smiles back warmly at her; he gets it more than she knows. STARKS Nothin' to worry about there. EXT. OVERHEAD, VERMONT HIGHWAY, 2005 Jackie's car pulls onto the highway, alongside the other, more modern cars on the highway. JACKIE (O.S.) How you doin'? STARKS I'm doing fine. The happy sound of their engine on the highway continues, uninterrupted, for some seconds, before, first faintly then louder, we hear a racking, all too familiar sound: the DRAWER creaking as it's opened once more... THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Jackie Brown.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jackie Brown.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9f524f56adf116dab26612eb7fb89361cbee0cc6 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jackie Brown.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Jackie Brown Screenplay by Quentin Tarantino OPENING CREDITS INT. LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT - DAY We hear the rhythm of funky seventies SOUL MUSIC. Then SHE steps into FRAME. She is JACKIE BROWN, a stewardess dressed in her CABO AIR uniform. (A little shuttle airline that flies from Los Angeles to Cabo San Lucas. Approximate flight time: forty five minutes) Jackie stands still as a people-mover slowly inches her through the airport. The CREDITS APEAR and DISAPPEAR in front of her. Jackie Brown is a very attractive black woman in her mid forties, though she looks like she's in her mid-thirties. The people-mover reaches the end of the line, she steps off. She breezes through Customs and we follow her with a STEDICAM as she strides through the airport... She gets to her gate disappears inside the plane for a moment comes back out sans flight bag picks up the microphone. JACKIE (into mike) Flight 710 Cabo San Lucas, now boarding Gate 12, first class only. With a smile on her face, she collects passengers' boarding passes as they board the plane. FADE TO BLACK TITLE CARD "ORDELL ROBBIE" FADE UP ON: EXT. FIRING RANGE - DAY VIDEO A chorus line of six beautiful bikini-clad women, all holding different automatic weapons, BLASTING away. The cheap VIDEO TITLES to: "CHICKS WHO LOVE GUNS" Play over this image. One bikini beauty is singled out. She's a gorgeous brunette named SIDNEY. Sidney stands facing camera holding a TEC-9 and describing it. SIDNEY (to camera) Hi, I'm Sidney. And I love to TEC-9. The popular TEC-9 is advertised by its makers as being tough as the toughest customer. SIDNEY'S STATISTICS: Age, height, measurements, date of birth, appear at the bottom left-hand corner. As Sidney continues her sales pitch/demonstration, a BLACK MAN'S VOICE begins talking over the video. BLACK MAN (O.S.) That's a TEC-9. It's a cheap ass spray gun outta South Miami. After a CLOSEUP of the TEC-9, Sidney FIRES the weapon. BLACK VOICE (O.S.) (CONT'D) Cost three-eighty retail. I get them for two hundred and sell 'em for eight. INT. MELANIE'S BEAHC APARTMENT - NIGHT The Black Voice belong to forty-five-year old ORDELL ROBBIE. Ordell wears clothes nice and likes wearing nice clothes. Stylish, athletic wear (Reebok), heavy, black leather jackets (Hugo Boss), warm-colored berets and baseball caps to cover his balding head are Ordell's "look." At this moment Ordell's wearing an open silk shirt. Ordell narrates the video playing on the big-screen V. (the most expensive thing in the apartment). He holds a cocktail in one hand (screwdriver, his drink of choice) and the remote control in the other, pacing the floor in his I-can-talk-anybody-into-anything voice. LOUIS GARA, who looks like he does his shopping at the Salvation Army (dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and dungarees), sits on the sofa staring blankly at the video, drinking Jack Daniels on ice. Louis, white, also in his mid forties, has lived over half of his life in penal institutions. The experience has affected both his body language and his thought process. While acutely aware of the rhythm of life inside a correction facility, in the real world his timing is thrown. It's like a song he doesn't know the lyrics to but attempt to sing anyway. The third person watching the video is the person who lives in this apartment, MELANIE RALSTON. Melanie, thirty- three, is a tanned, blonde, California beach bunny. Like the kind you se in the old Crown International movies from the seventies like "Pom Pom Girls" "Malibu Beach" and "Beach Girls," except Melanie is older than any of those girls ever are. She's dressed in her Melanie- uniform of stringy Levis cutoffs and a stringy bra top. So far Melanie has been able to make a living out of lying in the sun, always finding a generous, wealthy man more than willing to pay her rent and pick up her tabs. In her prime (twenty two) it was Japanese industrialists, film production guys, and Middle Eastern businessmen who kept Melanie. And it was places like the Bahamas, Acapulco, and the Virgin Islands where they kept her. But now, at thirty three, she lives in an apartment in Hermosa Beach, California that Ordell pays for an drops in and out of. She's curled up in a reclining chair, smoking weed from a pipe, reading Movieline Magazine and paying no attention to the video. ORDELL This TEC-9? They advertise it as being the most popular gun in American crime. Can you believe that shit? It actually says that on the little booklet that comes with it. "Most Popular Gun in American Crime," like they're proud of that shit. Ordell hits the fast-forward on his remote control. Sidney is rushed off the screen and replace by CINDY, a pretty, blonde bodybuilder clad in a red, white and blue bikini, holding a Styer Aug. ORDELL (CONT'D) Check out this body-builder chick... Now see what she got. That's a Styer aug. Styer Aug's a bad motherfucker. Listen. Ordell punches up the volume. Cindy BLASTS the Styer Aug, loud. Ordell imitates the sound of the weapon. ORDELL (CONT'D) Shit's expensive, man. Comes from Austria. My customers don't know shit about it, so there ain't no demand. (to Melanie) Baby, I could use some more ice. Melanie puts down the magazine, takes his cocktail glass from him and moves to the kitchen. ORDELL (CONT'D) But put that bad boy in a flick, every motherfucker out there want one. I'm serious as a heart attack. Them Hong Kong movies came out, every nigga gotta have a forty-five. And they don't want one, they want two, cause nigga want to be "The Killer." What they don't know, and that movie don't tell you is a .45 has a serious fuckin' jammin' problem. I always try and steer a customer towards a 9- millimeter. Damn near the same weapon, don't have half the jammin' problems. But some niggas out there, you can't tell them anything. They want a .45. The killer had a .45, they want a .45. Melanie comes back, hands Ordell his screwdriver, then sits where she was. ORDELL (CONT'D) Thanks, Baby. LOUIS Who's your partner? Ordell sits down on the couch. Melanie's reading "Movieline Inside" magazine. ORDELL Mr. Walker. He runs a fishing boat in Mexico. I deliver the merchandise to him, gets it to my customers. On all my bulk sales, anyway. Nigga didn't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out 'fore I set 'em up. Now, motherfucker's rollin' in cash. He got himself a yacht, with all kinds of high tech navigational shit on it. (back to video) AK-47, the very best there is. GLORIA, a tall, Amazonian, bikini-clad, black woman faces camera and describes the AK-47. ORDELL (CONT'D) When you absolutely, positively, gotta kill every motherfucker in the room, accept no substitute. That there is the Chinese one. I pay eight- fifty and double my money. The phone rings. ORDELL(CONT'D) Get that for me, will ya baby? MELANIE You know it's for you. Ordell just stares at her. ORDELL Girl, you better not make me go over there and put my feet to ya. Louis keeps staring at he screen. Melanie gets up, goes over to the counter that separates the living room from the kitchen, picks up the phone, says: MELANIE Hello. Puts the phone down and says; MELANIE (CONT'D) It's for you. Before Ordell knows it, Melanie is back in the reclining chair, reclining back all the way. Ordell, pissed, looks at her a moment before taking the phone. ORDELL (into phone) Yeah. (pause) Hey, Junebug, what's up Louis sits on he couch, drinking his Jack Daniels, watching the video. Melanie lies back on the reclining chair, takes a hit off her pipe, then says in a 'holding in smoke' voice; MELANIE (referring to the tape) It's boring, isn't it? LOUIS I can sit through it once. MELANIE He thinks he's Joe Gunn now. LOUIS I'm impressed. He knows a lot. MELANIE He's just repeating shit he overheard. He ain't any more a gun expert than I am. Holding up her pipe. MELANIE Want a hit? LOUIS Sure. Louis takes a hit off the pipe. MELANIE When did you get out of jail? LOUIS Four days ago. MELANIE Where at? LOUIS Susanville. MELANIE How long? LOUIS Two months shy of four years. MELANIE Four years? LOUIS Uh-huh. MELANIE What for? LOUIS Bank robbery. MELANIE Really, I'm impressed. Louis takes a drink of whiskey. MELANIE Four years that's a long fuckin time. Louis nods his head in agreement. Ordell hangs up the phone. Ordell comes back, sitting down on the other side of Louis. ORDELL See, what did I tell you? Man in New York wants a 9 millimeter Smith and Wesson Model 5946. Why does he want it? It's the gun that nigga on "New York Undercover" uses. Because of that nigga, I can sell it to this nigga for twelve-fifty. LOUIS What's your cost? ORDELL As low as two. LOUIS Are you serious? ORDELL That's what I been tellin' you. Start adding these motherfuckin' figures up, and you tell me this ain't a business to be in. The phone rings again. Ordell looks at Melanie. Melanie looks at Ordell. They have a bit of a staring contest before she gets up and gets the phone. ORDELL (CONT'D) I got me five M-60 machine guns. These came straight from the Gulf War. I sold me three of them so far, twenty grand a piece. LOUIS That's good money. ORDELL Louis, this is it, man. I'm gonna make me a million dollars out of this. I already got me a half-a- million sittin' in Mexico. When I do this last delivery, I'm gonna make me another half-million. LOUIS Then what? ORDELL I get out. Spend the rest of my life spending. Melanie sits back down in he chair. ORDELL (CONT'D) Who is it? MELANIE It's Beaumont. KITCHEN Ordell, drink in hand, picks up the receiver. ORDELL (into phone) Beaumont¢Ordell. What's the problem? (pause) What the fuck you doin' in jail? (pause) What the fuck you doin' that for? (pause) Ain't you got better sense than to be drivin' drunk carrying a goddam pistol? He listens to Beaumont on the other line - it's obvious Beaumont's starting to freak out. Ordell changes his tone. ORDELL (CONT'D) - Beaumont. Beaumont. Listen to me. Number one, you need to chill out, nigga. Bad as this shit is, this shit ain't as bad as you think it is. (pause) Course you're scared. That's what these motherfuckers get paid for scarin' the shit outta ya. That's their job. And my job is to get you the fuck home so let me tell you what is gonna happen... May I speak?... Thank you... You gonna spend the night in jail; it's too late to get you out now. Tomorrow, they gonna take you into court. I'm gonna be there. Judge gonna set your bail. I'm gonna pay your bail, they gonna cut you loose. By tomorrow night, you'll be back home, I promise. (pause) So just calm your ass down, and I'll see you tomorrow. (pause) You owe me a helluva lot more than one, nigga. (laughs) See you. Ordell hangs up the phone. CUT TO: EXT. CHERRY BAIL BONDS - DAY The store front window of Cherry Bail Bonds in Inglewood, California. The name of the business is spelled out on the window, which also includes a drawing of a fat red cherry. Ordell's BLACK MERCEDES CONVERTIBLE pulls up. Ordell in the driver's seat. Louis in shotgun position. INT. CHERRY BAIL BONDS - DAY Inside Cherry Bail Bonds, looking out through the picture window. We can read the name on the glass backwards. Ordell and Louis appears in the window and enter the building. Ordell carries a L.A. Lakers athletic bag. An unidentified MALE VOICE, obviously on the telephone, can be heard. Ordell goes toward the voice and tells Louis to "hang back." MALE VOICE (O.S.) ... the judge doesn't give a fuck about that. He's ready to habitualize you. Is that what you want - you wanna look at ten years? The voice belong to MAX CHERRY, bail bondsman. Max, a regular-Joe-type white guy in his fifties, sits behind his desk talking on the phone. His eyes raise as he sees Ordell approach him. MAX (CONT'D) (on phone) Just overnight is all. Tomorrow I'll get you out, I promise. But it means I gotta pick you up tonight. Ordell motion to the chair in front of Max's desk. Max motions for Ordell to take a seat. MAX (CONT'D) (on phone) Reggie, there ain't no two ways about it. You're spending the night in jail, but I already told you I'll get you out tomorrow. Now where are you? (pause) You're at your mother's house, aren't you? Ordell lights up a cigarette. (Viceroy). He notices a picture on the wall of Max with his arm around a big, powerfully built black man. They're both grinning. Louis pours himself some coffee from a coffeemaker into a small, white styrofoam cup. He picks up a jar of powdered non-dairy creamer that's so dry he has to break off a rock. Louis adds the rock of coffeemate to his beverage. MAX (CONT'D) (on phone) Okay. Just stay put till I come for you. (pause) Reggie, do yourself a really big favor and be there when I get there. He hangs up the phone. Ordell sits in front of the desk, smiling at him and smoking. MAX (CONT'D) How can I help you? ORDELL (indicating the Viceroy) Where would you like me to put my ash? Max looks at him for a moment. MAX Use that coffee cup on the desk. Ordell picks up the coffee cup, which still has a little bit of coffee in it, and flicks his ash. ORDELL And I need me a bond for ten thousand. Max throws a look past Ordell to Louis. ORDELL (CONT'D) Oh, that's just my white friend, Louis. He's got nothing to do with my business. We just hangin together. We're on our way to a cocktail lounge. From across the room, Louis nods his head in Max's direction. Max looks at him a moment, then back to Ordell. ORDELL (CONT'D) (returning to the photo) Who's that big Mandingo nigga you gotcha arm around? Max looks at him a moment and says; MAX That's Winston. He works here. ORDELL He's a big one. You two tight? MAX Yeah. ORDELL It was our idea to take the picture, wasn't it? Max looks at Ordell, getting his drift, then says; MAX So, you want a ten-thousand dollar bond. What've you got for collateral? ORDELL Gonna have to put up cash. MAX You have it with you? Ordell picks up his Lakers bag and puts it in the empty chair next to him. ORDELL It's in my bag. MAX You have cash. What do you need me for? ORDELL C'mon, you know how they do. Black man comes in with ten thousand, they wanna fuck with 'em. First off, they gonna wanna know where I got it. Second, they gonna keep a big chunk of it - start talkin' that court cost shit. Fuck that shit, Jack. I'll go through you. MAX Cost you a thousand for the bond. ORDELL I know that. Louis just stands, feeling uncomfortable, in the other room drinking coffee. MAX Who's it for? A relative? ORDELL Fella named Beaumont. They have him up at county. It started out drunk driving, but they wrote it up "possession of a concealed weapon." Dumb monkey-ass had a pistol on him. MAX Ten thousand sounds high. ORDELL They ran his name and got a hit. He's been in before. Besides, Beaumont's from Kentucky, and I think they're prejudiced against black men from the South out here. MAX He takes off and I gotta go to Kentucky to bring him back, you pay the expenses. ORDELL You think you could do that? Max taking papers out of the drawer... MAX I've done it. ... picking up the pen... MAX (CONT'D) What's his full name? ORDELL Beaumont. That's the only name I know. Max looks at Ordell, but doesn't ask him the obvious question. Max picks up the phone. MAX (on phone) Records office. Max on hold, looks at Ordell. Ordell smiles. MAX (CONT'D) (back on the line) Hello, this is Max Cherry. Cherry Bail Bonds. Who's this? (pause) Hi, Vicki. Look, Vicki, I need you to look up the booking card and rough arrest on a defendant named Beaumont. (pause) That's all I have. I believe it's a surname but I'm not sure. Thanks. Louis enters the area, standing over Ordell. LOUIS I'm going to wait in the car. ORDELL Sure. (to Max) We almost done, ain't we? MAX Getting there. ORDELL You go wait in the car. Wait a minute. Ordell pulls out a heavy-duty keychain with a shitload of keys on it. ORDELL Take the keys, man. Listen to music. LOUIS Which one is for the car? Ordell finds it. While he goes through the keys, Vicki comes back on the line. Max speaks with her as he fills out his papers. ORDELL (holding a key) This one's for the ignition... (holding a little black box) ... but you gotta hit this thing to shut the alarm off and unlock the door. LOUIS What do I do? ORDELL You ain't got to do nothing. Just point at it and push the button. You'll hear the car go "bleep." That means the alarm's off and the doors are open. LOUIS Okay. ORDELL Now play the volume as loud as you want but don't touch my levels. I got them set just the way I want 'em. Louis nods and goes out. EXT. CHERRY BAIL BONDS - DAY Louis walks out of the office. He goes up to Ordell's black Mercedes. He points the little black box at it. The car goes BLEEP. He gingerly approaches it, opens the door and climbs inside. INT. MAX CHERRY'S OFFICE - DAY Max hangs up the phone. MAX (to Ordell) Beaumont Livingston. ORDELL Livingston, huh? MAX On his prior, he served nine months, and he's working on four years' probation. ORDELL You don't say. MAX Do you know what he's on probation for? ORDELL Haven't a clue. MAX Possession of unregistered machine guns. ORDELL Will they consider this a violation of his probation? MAX They do consider this a violation of his probation. Your boy's looking at ten years, plus the concealed weapon. ORDELL Man, he won't like that. Beaumont don't got a doin' time disposition. MAX I need your name and address. ORDELL Ordell Robbie. O-R-D-E-L-L. R-O-B-B-I- E. 1436 Florence Boulevard. Compton 90222. MAX House or apartment? ORDELL House. MAX Now I need you to count your money. Ordell hands him the Lakers bag. Max takes the money out putting it on the desk. ORDELL Hope you don't mind me askin' where you keepin' my money till I get it back. In your drawer? Max begins counting it. MAX Across the street a Great Western. It goes in a trust account. You'll need to fill out an Application for Appearance Bond, an Indemnity Agreement, a Contingent Promissory Note. That's the one, if Beaumont skips and I go after him, you pay the expenses. ORDELL Beaumont ain't going nowhere. (he takes a pen out of his pocket) Where do I sign? Max pulls the forms from his desk, and lays them in front of Ordell. Max goes back to counting the money. Ordell reads the first agreement then says; ORDELL (CONT'D) (reading the form) Hey, Max. MAX (still counting money) Yes. ORDELL (still reading form) I was wondering. What if before the court date gets here, Beaumont gets hit by a bus or something and dies. (he puts the form down and looks at Max) I get my money back, don't I? CUT TO: A BLACK FINGER Pressing a BLACK BUTTON next to the name, "BEAUMONT LIVINGSTON". INT. BEAUMONT'S APARTMENT - NIGHT BEAUMONT LIVINGSTON, wearing no shirt, sweatpants, and smoking a fatty answers the intercom, which buzzes loudly. We can hear JAY LENO interviewing a CELEBRITY on TV OFFSCREEN. BEAUMONT (into the speaker) Who is it? EXT. BEAUMONT'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Ordell stands outside the security gate of Beaumont's Hollywood apartment. EXTREME CLOSEUP - Ordell's lips talking into the intercom speaker. ORDELL It's your benefactor, nigga. Buzz me up. EXTREME CLOSEUP - Beaumont's finger pressing the entry button. EXTREME CLOSEUP - The doorknob on the security gate, BUZZING. Ordell's hand comes into frame twisting it open. Beaumont opens his apartment door, fatty between his fingers. He sees Ordell approach. Ordell greets him, arms spread out in hug mode, with a big smile across his face. ORDELL Look at you and your free ass. Come over and give me a motherfuckin' hug. Ordell and Beaumont embrace. BEAUMONT What the fuck can I say? I'm serious, man. What the fuck can I say? Thank you... thank you... thank you. ORDELL Who was there for your ass? BEAUMONT You were there for me. ORDELL Who? BEAUMONT You. Laughing his hustler's laugh and bumping Beaumont's fist hard. ORDELL You goddam right! Beaumont laughs. ORDELL You see,ïit works like this. You get your ass in trouble, I get your ass out. That's my job. And I don't mind tellin ya, nigga, it's steady work. BEAUMONT I'm still scared as a motherfucker, Ordell. They talkin' like they serious 'bout me doin' that machine gun time. ORDELL Naw, man. They just tryin' to put a fright in your ass. BEAUMONT If that's what they want to do, they're doin' it. ORDELL How old is that machine gun shit? BEAUMONT Three years. ORDELL Three years. That crime's old, man. They ain't got room in prison for all the motherfuckers out there killin' people. How they gonna find room for you? BEAUMONT That's not what they're tellin' me. ORDELL That's why they call it "fuckin' with ya." Now you wanna hear how we retaliate? Beaumont takes a hit off the fatty and nods his head. ORDELL (CONT'D) Tomorrow I pick you up, take you to Century City, meet my lawyer. Now let me tell you a little bit about my lawyer. His name is Stacin Goins and this nigga is a junkyard dog! He's my own private Johnie Cochran. In fact, he'd kick Johnie Cochran's ass. And like Johnie Cochran, dude hates fuckin' cops. I'm serious, this man lives to fuck with the police. So as a favor, I had him look at your case. Stacin told me you aint got shit to worry about. They just fuckin' wit ya. So we sic the junkyard dog on their ass, make 'em - (he bumps fist with Beaumont) ... Stop fuckin' wit ya! Beaumont gesture inside his apartment. BEAUMONT Hey, c'mon in, man. I was just - you know - smokin' a fatty, watchin' TV. ORDELL Naw, man. I gotta be someplace. I was kinda hopin you could come with me. BEAUMONT What'd ya mean? ORDELL Look, I hate to be the kinda nigga, does a nigga a favor - then BAM - hits a nigga up for a favor in return. But I'm afraid I gotta be that kinda nigga. BEAUMONT What? ORDELL I need a favor. BEAUMONT That requires me goin out tonight? ORDELL A bit. BEAUMONT Aaaaawww man, I wasn't plannin' on goin no place. It's twelve o'clock, man. I'm home, I'm high - ORDELL Why the fuck you at home? Cause I spent ten thousand dollars gittin' your ass home. (changes tone) Look, I gotta problem. I need help, and you can help me. This has the desired effect. TIME CUT: WITH ORDELL WAITING OUTSIDE THE DOOR Beaumont comes out of the apartment, sporting Nikes and a Queen Latifah t-shirt. He locks his front door and walks with Ordell to his car. They talk the whole way. We STEDICAM in front of them the whole way. BEAUMONT What's the problem? ORDELL Well, it ain't so much a problem a a situation. Remember I sold those three M-60 machine guns outta the five I got? BEAUMONT Uh-huh. ORDELL I'm gonna sell the other two tonight. This group of Koreans in Koreatown have started a Neighborhood Watch kinda thing. And they want a few weapons so the neighborhood niggas know they mean business. So I'm gonna sell 'em my two machine guns tonight. Only problem, I aint never dealt with these Koreans before. Now I aint worried. Asians are by and large real dependable. They don't want no trouble. You might argue about price, but you aint gotta worry about them shootin' you in the back. But I got me kind of a rule. Never do business with nobody you ain't never done business with before without backup. That's why I need you, backup. BEAUMONT Man, I ain't ready to be goin' out nowhere - ORDELL - Let me finish. Can I finish? BEAUMONT Go ahead. CUT TO: TRUNK The trunk of a car is opened. Ordell bends down into the trunk and pulls out a pump action shotgun. Beaumont obviously doesn't want any part of any Ordell game that requires a pump action shotgun as a playing piece. ORDELL Now you're gonn be in the trunk holding onto the shotgun. And I'm going to tell them I'm opening up my trunk to show 'em my goods. I open up the trunk, you pop up, rack that bad boy. BEAUMONT Fuck that shit, man. I ain't shootin' anybody. ORDELL What the fuck I tell you. You don't hafta shoot nobody. Just hold the gun. They'll get the idea. BEAUMONT I ain't gittin' in that trunk. ORDELL We're only goin' to Koreatown. You'll be in there - ten minutes. BEAUMONT Uh-uh. I ain't riding in that trunk no minutes. Why don't I just ride with you? ORDELL You can't ride with me. The surprise effect is ninety percent of it. BEAUMONT Well, I'm sorry, man, but I ain't gittin' in that trunk. ORDELL I can't believe you do me this way. BEAUMONT I ain't doin' you no way. I just ain't climbin' in that trunk. I got a problem with small places. ORDELL Well, my ass has got a problem spending ten thousand dollars of my own goddam money to get ungrateful, peanut-head niggas outta jail, but I do it - BEAUMONT Look, man, I know I owe you - ORDELL - Well, if you owe me, git your ass in the trunk. BEAUMONT - I wanna help you, but I don't wanna be locked in the trunk of no car. ORDELL You think I wanted to spend ten thousand dollars on your ass? Beaumont starts to speak - ORDELL (CONT'D) Answer the question, nigga. Do you think I wanted to spend the thousand dollars on your ass? Yes or no? BEAUMONT Course you didn't. ORDELL But the only way to help you was to do that, so I did it. (pause) Okay, how 'bout this? After we're through fuckin' with these Koreans, I take you to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. My treat. Beaumont smiles. So does Ordell. ORDELL (CONT'D) Just think, man. That Scoe's special, smothered in gravy and onions. Get a side of red beans and rice. Uuuuummmmm, that's some good eatin'. Beaumont and Ordell laugh together... the Beaumont says; BEAUMONT Now exactly how long I gotta be in this motherfucker. CUT TO: TRUNK Beaumont in the trunk, holding the shotgun. The trunk lid is SLAMMED closed. EXT. / INT. OLDSMOBILE - NIGHT Ordell walks around the car, climbs into the plush interior of the Olds and turns on the engine. It comes to life with a SOFT RUMBLE. He puts a tape in the player inside the dash. The tape is labeled "ORDELL'S JAMS." Cool, old-school R&B fills the cab. Ordell cruises, moving his head to the rhythm and mouthing the words. He drives for awhile, just groovin' on the music... ... then stops. Ordell switches the engine and the music off. The cab goes black. He leans over the passenger seat, opening the glovebox. A tiny light turns on when the glovebox is opened. It's the only light in the cab. Ordell leaves it on. In silence he takes one glove out and puts it on his right hand. Then with his gloved hand, reaches in the glovebox and pulls out a five-shot .38 snubby. He closes the glovebox. The cab goes black. EXT. OLDSMOBILE - NIGHT The Olds is parked out in the middle of some urban nowhere. Ordell gets out, sticks the snubby in his pants, and walks to the back of the Olds. He sticks his key in the trunk and says; ORDELL Don't worry. It's just me. The trunk opens. Beaumont is hunched on his side with the shotgun. ORDELL (CONT'D) I was wondering. Did any federal people come visit you in jail and I should be watching my ass? Beaumont doesn't say anything. ORDELL (CONT'D) You wouldn't tell me if they did and I wouldn't blame you. Ordell takes the snubby out of his pants. Beaumont quick-racks the pump shotgun, pulls the trigger, and hears the click you hear from an empty weapon. He racks it again, CLICK then BAM. Beaumont is shot hard in the chest. He goes back into he trunk. Ordell puts one more shot in his head, BAM, tosses the weapon on top of the dead body and closes the trunk. Ordell's Beaumont problem is solved. He climbs back into the cab, turns on the engine. We hear the old-school R&B song come back on, but VERY LOW. Ordell drives the Olds away. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL - NIGHT Louis sits on a bed in a flophouse motel room, flipping from one channel to another with a remote control, drinking cocktails from a can. The phone rings. He answers it. LOUIS Hello. INT. OLDSMOBILE (PARKED) - NIGHT Ordell is sitting parked in the comfy-cozy cab of the Olds, listening to soul music with his tiny cellular phone next to his ear. ORDELL Louis, my man. Watcha doin'? LOUIS Oh, I dunno. Watching TV. ORDELL Whatcha watchin'? LOUIS Nothin' really. Just kinda goin' back and forth. They had some black girl from some black show on Jay Leno. I watched that for a bit, but I kept flippin channels cause I didn't know who she was. ORDELL Guess where I am? LOUIS I dunno. ORDELL I know you don't know. I said guess. LOUIS The moon - I dunno ORDELL I'm talkin' to you from the comfy- cozy interior of an Oldsmobile parked outside your nasty-ass welfare motel. LOUIS You're outside? ORDELL Uh-huh. LOUIS C'mon in. ORDELL Naw, man. I just told you, I'm comfortable. I ain't about to walk into that roach motel and get uncomfortable. You bring your ass out here. LOUIS I'm in my underwear. ORDELL Then put your goddam drawers on, and get your ass out here. I got somethin' to show you. EXT. MOTEL - NIGHT Louis, having just thrown on some pants, walks outside his room and sees Ordell's big, black Oldsmobile parked in front of the motel. As he approaches, the power window on the driver's side comes down, revealing a comfortable Ordell sitting back in his seat looking up at Louis. ORDELL You know what your problem is, Louis? Louis doesn't say anything, he just puts his hands in his pockets. ORDELL (CONT'D) You think you're a good guy. When you go into a deal you don't go in prepared to take that motherfucker all the way. You go in looking for a way out. And it ain't cause you're scared neither. It's cause you think you're a good guy, and you think there's certain things a good guy won't do. That's where we're different, me and you. Cause me, once I decide I want something, aint a goddam motherfuckin' thing gonna stop me from gittin' it. I gotta use a gun get what I want, I'm gonna use a gun. Nigga gets in my way, nigga gonna get removed. Understand what I'm saying? CLOSEUP: KEY GOING INTO TRUNK Trunk opens showing Beaumont shot in the chest with half his head blown off. Louis looks inside, see Beaumont, looks at Ordell, then back to Beaumont. Ordell closes the trunk. LOUIS Who was that? ORDELL That was Beaumont. LOUIS Who was Beaumont? ORDELL An employee I had to let go. LOUIS What did he do? ORDELL He put himself in a situation where he was gonna have to do ten years in the penetentiary, that's what he did. (taking out a Viceroy and lighting it up) And if you know Beaumont, you know there aint no way in hell he can do no ten years. And if you know that, you know Beaumont's gonna go any goddam thing Beaumont can to keep from doin' those ten years including telling the Federal government everything they want to know about my ass. Now that, my friend, is a clear case of him or me. And you best believe it aint gonna be me. You know what I'm sayin'? You gonna come in on this with me, you gotta be prepared to go all the way. I got me so far over a half-a-million dollars sittin' in lockboxes in a bank in Cabo San Lucas. Me and Mr. Walker make us one more delivery, I'm gonna have me over a million. You think I'm gonna let this little cheese eatin' nigga here fuck that up? Shit, you better think again. 'Fore I let this deal get fucked up, I'll shoot that nigga in the head, and ten niggas look just like em. (pause) Understand what I'm sayin'? LOUIS Yeah. ORDELL So we on the same page then? LOUIS I follow. Ordell smiles (not his hustler smile, but a genuine smile). Louis grins. They both bump fists. FADE TO BLACK: TITLE CARD: "JACKIE BROWN" The sound of airplanes landing and taking off can be heard underneath this... INT. LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT - DAY A SUBTITLE reads: "LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT PARKING GARAGE" We look down a row of cars in an enclosed parking garage at LAX. Jackie Brown, the Cabo Air stewardess from the opening credits, walks into frame. We dolly behind her as she walks down the row of cars. VOICE (O.S.) Miss Brown. She turns towards the voice/camera. Young plainclothes cop, MARK DARGUS, walks up to her, holding open his I.D. case. DARGUS Hi, I'm Detective Mark Dargus. L.A.P.D. can I ask what you have in that bag? JACKIE The usual things. I'm a flight attendant with Cabo Air. Young plainclothes cop RAY NICOLET, enters the scene. NICOLET Can I be of some assistance? As Jackie pulls the cigarettes (Davidoffs) from her purse, she says to Ray; JACKIE I doubt it. (to Dargus) Who's your friend? DARGUS This is Special Agent Ray Nicolet with Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Would you mind if we looked in that bag? Jackie lights her cigarette with a yellow Bic lighter. JACKIE Would I mind? Do I have a choice? DARGUS You have the right to say "no." And I have the right to make you wait here with Ray while I go get a warrant. And if I don't want to go through all that trouble, I could just take you in on suspicion. JACKIE Suspicion of what? NICOLET All he wants to do is peek in your bag. I'll watch he doesn't take anything. Jackie shrugs and says; JACKIE Go ahead. Dargus lays the flight bag on the pavement, gets down on his haunches, and starts feeling through her things. CLOSEUP FLIGHT BAG A soiled blouse, uniform skirt, - then a manila envelope, a fat one, nine-by-twelve. Jackie watches him straighten the clasp... ENVELOPE Opens it. Out drops several packets of one hundred dollar bills secured with rubberbands. Nicolet whistles. Dargus looks up at her. DARGUS I'd say there's about, oh, fifty thousand dollars here. What would you say Ray? NICOLET That looks like fifty thousand dollars from here. JACKIE Not saying anything at the moment. DARGUS This is your money? JACKIE If I were to tell you "no it isn't..." Dargus smiles. DARGUS You should know if you bring in anything over ten thousand you have to declare it. You forgot or what? You could get a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar fine, plus two years in prison. Now you want to talk to us about it, or you want to talk to Customs? JACKIE I'm not saying another word. NICOLET Listen, Jackie, Hope you don't mind if I call you Jackie. They're a bunch of fuckin' pricks in Customs. Something about that job makes them kinda hard to get along with. Now, do you want to talk with a bunch of suspicious, disagreeable people like them, or a couple good-hearted guys like Mark and myself. Nicolet smiles. CLOSEUP JACKIE Doesn't smile back. DISSOLVE TO: CLOSEUP JACKIE Sitting in a chair facing the two offscreen detectives. Jackie lights up a cigarette. We don't leave the CLOSEUP until noted. INT. DARGUS OFFICE - DAY DARGUS (O.S.) Hey, this is my office. There's no smoking. JACKIE Arrest me. Nicolet laughs O.S. DARGUS (O.S.) We could, smart ass... or we could work out what's known as a Substantial Assistance Agreement. That is if you're willing to cooperate. Tell us who gave you the money and who you're giving it to. Jackie doesn't sat anything... she just smokes. NICOLET (O.S.) You got a good lawyer? DARGUS (O.S.) Can she afford a good one is the question. Otherwise she'll be in Sybill Brand three weeks easy before the Public Defender gets around to her. NICOLET (O.S.) Ever heard of a fella named Beaumont Livingston? Not a word. NICOLET (O.S.) (CONT'D) Don't know Beaumont? That's funny 'cause Beaumont knows you. Well he did know you, Beaumont was found in the trunk of a car - dead. Shot twice. Once in the head and once in the chest. Jackie, she puts the "ool" in "cool." NICOLET (O.S.) (CONT'D) I had the chance to talk to Beaumont yesterday. You see, like you, Beaumont found himself in some hot water. He was looking at ten years he was pretty sure he didn't want to do and was understandably concerned. Now maybe you don't know Beaumont, but Beaumont knew you, and maybe so does the guy who blew Beaumont's head off. Not a word. DARGUS (O.S.) If you don't want to talk to us, I guess we'll just have to hand you over to Customs. Jackie puts out her cigarette. JACKIE Okay, let's go. She stares down the cops. DARGUS AND NICOLET We cut to the detective and the special agent for the first time in the scene. DARGUS You know, Miss Brown, there's basically three types of people that we come along in the performance of our duty. One is, INNOCENT PEOPLE. Victims, witnesses, innocent bystanders... You ain't any of these. Then there's two; CRIMINALS. These sonabitches have dedicated their lives to a life outside the law. That ain't you either. Where you belong is the third category. The category we refer to as LOSERS. Jackie's eyes don't even narrow at the insult. She just says without expression; JACKIE I'm not a loser. DARGUS Oh, you're both? In 1985 you were flying for TWA and got busted for carrying drugs. You were carrying them for a pilot husband of yours. He did time and you got off. But that ended your career with the big airlines. Cut to thirteen years later. You're forty-four years of age. You're flying for the shittiest little shuttle-fucking piece of shit Mexican airline that there is. Where you make a whopping twelve-thousand dollars a year. That ain't a hulluva lot to show for a twenty year career. And to top it off, you're going to jail. Now true, the judge, even with your prior, will probably only give you a year or two. But this doesn't seem like the time of life you got years to throw away. (pause) Now, we don't like trying losers like they're criminals. But in the absence of a criminal, we will try you. Now, wasn't this money given to you by an American living in Mexico by the name of Cedric Walker? Jackie remains unmoved by this monologue. Nicolet joins back in. NICOLET You know, ol' Beaumont wasn't much for talkin', either. Yeah, he told us about you and Mr. Walker, but whoever the hell it was he worked for out here, he wouldn't say. Could it be the same person you were supposed to deliver this money to? Jackie just stares at them, saying nothing. Dargus sits behind his desk, with Jackie's flight bag on it. DARGUS I'd like your permission to open this again. So we'll know exactly how much money we're talkin' about here. Jackie gets up from her chair, walks over to the desk, unzips the bag, takes out the manila envelope and drops it on the desk. JACKIE Help yourself. DARGUS While you're at it, let me see what else is in there. You mind? She reaches in the bag and brings out a pocketbook. JACKIE My pocketbook. DARGUS What's in it? JACKIE Beauty products. Nicolet takes the manila envelope. NICOLET I'll count the money. Dargus points at a clear plastic bag with pills and packets in it. DARGUS What's this? JACKIE That's my diet shit. Nicolet takes out the bills from the envelope. DARGUS Let's see what else is in there. Nicolet takes the bills and looks inside the envelope. His expression changes to a shit-eating grin. NICOLET Oh, Miss Brown? JACKIE Yeah? Nicolet pulls out a clear cellophane sandwich bag with a half-inch or so of white powder inside. NICOLET And what would this be, Sweet and Low? JACKIE What the fuck is that shit? NICOLET I know what it looks like. JACKIE You planted that shit on me. Nicolet and Dargus laugh at that. JACKIE Look, that shit ain't mine. NICOLET (to Dargus) It isn't enough for Trafficking, but how 'bout Posession with the Intent to Distribute? DARGUS Oh, I wouldn't be so sure. What with all the cash, I think I could go with Conspiracy to Traffic. JACKIE I'm tellin' you, I don't know nothin' about that fuckin' shit. NICOLET Well then, Miss Brown. Why don't you have a seat and tell us who might know something about this fuckin' shit. Jackie just looks at the two grinning Cheshire cats as the balance of power rolls over on her. CUT TO: EXT. TORRANCE MUNICIPAL COURTHOUSE - DAY A Los Angeles County Jail bus pulls up behind the Torrance Court House. INT. COUNTY JAIL BUS - DAY Jackie, now wearing County Jail blues, sits next to another BLACK WOMAN. Their hands cuffed together. The bus stops. A rough-looking FEMALE COUNTY SHERIFF unlocks the gate that encloses the prisoners. Then explains in a you-better-do-exactly-what-I-say manner, how they're going to leave the bus. EXT. COUNTY JAIL BUS - DAY MANY WOMEN, including Jackie, all wearing county blues and handcuffed to each other, exit the bus. The SHERIFFS lead them into the back entrance to the court house. INT. HALLWAY COURTHOUSE - DAY Dargus and Nicolet confer with the PUBLIC DEFENDER, an attractive blonde woman in a nice business suit. DARGUS If she'll cooperate with us, we'll turn possession with intent into plain ol' Possession, and she can bond outta here for one thousand bucks. If she doesn't help us, we'll go for the Intent and request a twenty-five-thousand dollar bond. INT. COURTROOM - DAY Jackie and the Public Defender. Jackie, in her county blues; Public Defender in her nice suit. JACKIE You tell those guys they'll have to do one helluva lot better than that before I'll even say 'hi' to them. PUBLIC DEFENDER Well, that's the State's offer. If you plead to possession and tell L.A.P.D. what they want to know, your bond will be set at one-thousand dollars. If you don't, L.A.P.D. will request one at twenty- five thousand based on your prior record and risk of flight. If you don't post it or don't know anyone who can, you'll spend six to eight weeks in County before your arraignment comes up. JACKIE Who's side are you on? PUBLIC DEFENDER I beg your pardon? JACKIE What if I plead guilty? PUBLIC DEFENDER And cooperate? You might get probation. JACKIE If I don't cooperate? PUBLIC DEFENDER With the prior? You could get anywhere from a year to five depending on the judge. You want to think about it? You got two minutes before we're up. COURT IN SESSION It's a full schedule in court today. Jackie sits with a bunch of other females wearing county blues in the defendant's area (where the jury sits during a jury trial) Dargus and Nicolet sit in the courtroom. The JUDGE reads the next case. JUDGE Brown. Case number 700324. Jackie rises amongst the other defendants. The P.D. rises. Dargus, the arresting officer, rises. JUDGE The charge is possession of Narcotics with the Intent to Distribute. How does your client plead? PUBLIC DEFENDER She wishes to stand mute, your honor. JUDGE Very well... (to Dargus) ... Detective Dargus - You're the arresting officer in his case, correct? DARGUS That's correct, your honor. JUDGE You have a recommendation for bail? DARGUS Yes, I do, your honor. Based on the defendant's prior conviction and the extreme possibility of flight due to her occupation, the State requests a bond of no less than twenty-five thousand. The Judge looks at the report, then at Jackie... JUDGE I'll set bond at ten thousand and set the date of August 14th for the arraignment. JACKIE When is that, your honor? JUDGE That's six weeks from now, Miss Brown. We'll continue this matter then. Owens, case 72242. Jackie sits down. Dargus sits down next to Nicolet. They smile and giggle together. Jackie sees them giggle like fifth graders. It fucking pisses her off. DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE We go from a CLOSEUP of a boiling Jackie, to a perspective from the back of the courtroom. We see Jackie in the defendant's area. We see the two happy detectives walk past us on their way out of the courtroom. ORDELL Sits in the back, watching the proceedings without any expression. When he's seen enough, he stands up and out of the shot leaving an EMPTY FRAME. FADE TO BLACK TITLE CARD "MAX CHERRY" FADE UP ON: INT. MAX CHERRY'S OFFICE - DAY The bathroom door in Max's office. We hear a toilet flush behind it. The door opens, and Max Cherry emerges, zipping up his pants with a TV guide in his hand. He looks up and stops dead. Ordell sitting oh-so comfortably in the chair in front of Max's desk. ORDELL Unh... unh... unh... I din't hear you wash your hands. Max looks at Ordell, then takes his place behind his desk. MAX Comfortable? ORDELL The door was opened, so I just came right in. MAX I can see that. Why? ORDELL I got some more business for ya. MAX Oh, yeah? What did he do? ORDELL (O.S.) She is an airline stewardess. Got caught coming back from Mexico with some blow. They set her bond this afternoon at ten thousand. Now, what I was thinkin', you could use the ten thousand you owe me from Beaumont and move it over on to the stewardess. MAX The bond for possession is only a thousand. ORDELL They fuckin' wit' her. They callin' it Possession with Intent. A black woman in her forties gets busted with less than two ounces on her, they call that shit Intent. Same shit happened to a movie star. It's Possession. MAX It still sounds high. ORDELL She had, I believe it was... fifty grand on her, too. There was a cop at the hearing. Young guy with L.A.P.D. wanted her bond set at twenty-five thousand, saying there was a risk of flight. Jackie being a stewardess and all. MAX Before we start talking about stewardess, let's get Beaumont out of the way first. Sitting back in the chair - almost grinning - but not quite. ORDELL Somebody already did. MAX What? ORDELL You didn't hear? MAX Hear what? ORDELL Somebody with a grudge blew Beaumont's brains out - hey, that rhymes - blew Beaumont's brains out. MAX Did the police contact you? ORDELL Very first motherfuckin' thing they did. They see I put up a big money bond on my boy, they start thinking with that where-there's-smoke-there's fire logic. They roust my ass outta bed, ten o'clock in the morning. Fuckin' scare my woman, Sherona, half to death. She thought they were gonna take my ass away for sure. MAX The stewardess. Do you know her last name? ORDELL (smiles) Brown, Jackie Brown. MAX What does she do for you? ORDELL Who says she does anything for me? She's my friend. When my friends get into trouble, I like to help 'em out. MAX Beaumont worked for you. ORDELL That's what the police thought. I told them I'm unemployed, how could I have anybody work for me? Now I bail out Jackie, I'm liable to have the police on me again, huh? Wanting to know was she doing things for me, was she bringing me that money! MAX Was she? ORDELL Is this, me and you, like a lawyer- client relationship? The lawyer can't tell nothing he hears? MAX You're not my client until you get busted and I bond you out. ORDELL If there's no - what do you call it - confidentiality between us? Why would I tell you anything? MAX Cause you want me to know what a slick guy you are. You got stewardesses bringing you fifty grand. ORDELL Why would a stewardess bring me fifty grand? MAX You want me to speculate on what you do. I'd say you're in the drug business, except the money's moving in the wrong direction. Whatever you're into, you seem to be getting away with it, so more power to you. Okay you want another bond, and you want to move over the ten thousand you put down on Beaumont to the stewardess. That means paperwork. I have to get a death certificate, present it to the court, fill out a receipt for return of bond collateral, then type up another application. An indemnity agreement - ORDELL - Jackie aint got time for all that shit - MAX - I'm telling you what I have to do. What you have to do, in case you forgot, is come up with premium of a thousand bucks. ORDELL I got it. I just don't got it on me. MAX Well, come back when you do, and I'll bond out the stewardess. ORDELL Man, you know I'm good for it. Thousand bucks ain't shit. MAX If I don't see it in front of me, you're right. It ain't shit. ORDELL Man, you need to look at this with a little compassion. Jackie ain't no criminal. She ain't used to this kinda treatment. I mean, gangsters don't give a fuck - but for the average citizen, coupla nights in County fuck with your mind. MAX Ordell, this isn't a bar, an you don't have a tab. ORDELL Just listen for a second. We got a forty-year-old, gainfully employed black woman, falsely accused - MAX Falsely accused? She didn't come back from Mexico with cocaine on her? ORDELL Falsely accused of Intent. If she had that shit - and mind you, I said "if" - it was just her shit to get high with. MAX Is white guilt supposed to make me forget I'm running a business? Ordell gives up and takes an envelope out of his pocket. ORDELL Okay, man. I got your money. But don't you ever ask me for no fuckin' favor. INT. MAX'S CADILLAC (MOVING) - NIGHT It's early evening; and Max's powder-blue Seville is driving to the County Jail with a client, a young Hispanic woman of twenty named ANITA. MAX Tomorrow I'll talk to your probation officer. Karen's a good kid, but she's mad at you, because you lied to her. This business about your grandmother's funeral ANITA I went. I did. I took my mother and little brother. MAX But you didn't ask permission. You broke a trust. If you had asked, Karen probably would have let you. I'm sure she would. ANITA I know. That's why I went. MAX But then you told her you were home. ANITA Sure, 'cause I didn't ask her if I could go. Max gives up. MAX I don't know. Maybe it's a language problem. (getting stern) Anita, you ever cause this much heartache over something that could easily be avoided, I'll never write you again. You understand? ANITA I understand. MAX I mean it. I don't care how many times your mother calls or how much she cries. Like an exasperated teenager. ANITA I understand. MAX Then say "Yes, Max. I understand." ANITA Yes, Max, I understand. INT. L.A. COUNTY JAIL - NIGHT POV THROUGH A WIRE MESH CAGE Max and Anita, side by side. Anita's hands are cuffed behind her back. MAX Dropping off and picking up. Dropping of Lopez, Anita. Picking up Brown, Jackie. We're at the admitting desk of the L.A. County Jail. Max undoes Anita's handcuffs, while a SHERIFF waits to take her away. ANITA So you're gonna call Karen tomorrow? MAX I'll call her. ANITA Won't forget? MAX I won't forget. She kisses Max on the cheek and the Sheriff takes her away. ANITA Thanks, Max. See you later. Max puts the cuffs away, sits on a bench, takes out a Len Deighton paperback and begins to read. FADE TO BLACK FADE UP: MAX Still reading his novel. We hear offscreen, a SHERIFF'S voice. SHERIFF (O.S.) Max! Here she comes. Max puts his book down and see - Jackie being led into the Admitting Area by TWO SHERIFFS. She's wearing her stewardess uniform and carrying a small envelope with her belongings in it and her shoes. When Max was imagining a woman in her forties, he had someone with a bit of wear and tear on them in mind. But this Jackie Brown's a knockout. As he watches her, she steps out of the County Jail slippers she was wearing and slips into her shoes. He approaches, handing her his card. MAX Miss Brown... I'm Max Cherry. I'm your bail bondsman. She takes the card and shakes his hand saying nothing. MAX (CONT'D) I can give you a lift home if you'd like? JACKIE Okay. INT. MAX'S CADILLAC - NIGHT Max puts his key in the ignition, when Jackie asks; JACKIE Are you really a bail bondsman? MAX Who do you think I am? She doesn't answer. MAX (CONT'D) I gave you my card there. JACKIE Can I see your I.D.? MAX You're serious? She waits. Max digs the case out of his pocket, hands it to her, then reaches up and turns on the light above them for her to see. MAX'S ID: SURETY AGENT LICENSED BY THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA JACKIE Who put up my bond? Ordell? MAX In cash. She looks straight ahead. Max shifts into drive. Max rolls down his window at the front gate. A DEPUTY comes out of the gatehouse and hands through the window Max's .38 revolver, cylinder opened. Max hands the Deputy his pass in exchange for the gun, says "thanks", then puts the .38 in his glovebox in front of Jackie. He drives on. MAX AND JACKIE (MOVING) JACKIE Can we stop for cigarettes? MAX Sure, ever been to the Riverbottom? JACKIE I don't think so. MAX It's okay. It's a cop hangout. JACKIE Couldn't we just stop at a seven- eleven? MAX I thought you might want a drink? JACKIE I'd love one, but not there. MAX We could stop at the Hilton by the airport. JACKIE Is it dark? MAX It's kind of a sports bar JACKIE That doesn't sound dark. MAX Why does it need to be dark? JACKIE 'Cause I look like I just got outta jail, that's why. You droppin' me off at home, right? There's a place by me. MAX Great. CUT TO: EXT. THE COCKATOO INN - NIGHT A big neon sign of a cockatoo sits on op of a red brick inn. INT. THE COCKATOO INN - NIGHT CLOSEUP - A KNOB is pulled out. Jackie picks up a pack of Mild Seven's cigarettes from the bottom of a cigarette machine. She crosses the bar to join Max, sitting at a small table waiting for her to return. The Cockatoo Inn is just what Jackie was looking for. A dark and red cocktail lounge in Hawthorne off of Hawthorne Boulevard by the apartment where the stewardess lives (about ten minutes from LAX) The clientele of the Cockatoo is an older, black crowd and an even older white crowd who'd been coming here years before it became a black bar. A JUKEBOX plays soft, old-school R&B. Jackie and Max sit side by side at a small table, lit by a bar candle in a red glass thing. Max drinks Bushmills over crushed ice. Jackie drinks white wine. Jackie opens her Mild Sevens, offering one to Max. MAX No thanks, I quit three years ago. As she lights her cigarette. JACKIE You gain weight? MAX Ten pounds. I lose it and put it back on. JACKIE That's why I don't quit. If I can't fly anymore, I'm gonna have a bitch of a time gettin' my brand. MAX What's your brand? JACKIE Davidoffs. I get 'em in Mexico. They're hard to find here. I was locked up with the last two getting legal advice from a woman who was in for bustin' her boyfriend's head open with a baseball bat. MAX Was she helpful? JACKIE She was more helpful than the fuckin' Public Defender. (she takes a sip of wine) I don't know - I guess what I need is a lawyer, find out what my options are. MAX You know, I figured out the other day I've written something like' fifteen thousand bonds since I've been in the business. I'd say about eighty percent of them were at least drug related. If you want, I can help you look at your options. Jackie takes the talk in a different direction. JACKIE You're not tired of it? MAX (smiles) I am, as a matter of fact. A moment of silence between them, they both take drinks. MAX (CONT'D) What have they told you? JACKIE So far I've been told I can cooperate and get probation, maybe. Or, I can stand mute and get as much as five years. Does that sound right? MAX I'd say if you're tried and found guilty you won't get more than a year and a day. That's State time. Prison. JACKIE (under her breath) Shit. MAX But they won't want to take you to trial. They'll offer you simple Possession, a few months of County time, and a year or two probation. (pointing to her drink) How 'bout another? JACKIE Sure. Max gestures to an older black cocktail waitress named ROWEN for two more. MAX You know who put the dope in your bag? JACKIE Yeah, but that's not what this was about. They were fuckin waitin' for my ass. They knew I had that money, they even knew the amount. The one who searched my bag, from L.A.P.D., Dargus, hardly even looked at it. "Oh, I'd say there's fifty thousand here. What would you say?" But all they could do was threaten me and hand me over to Customs, and I could tell they didn't want to do that. MAX They wanted you to tell them what you know. JACKIE I had 'em too. I burnt those two Starky and Hutch motherfuckers down. Then their asses lucked out and found that coke. MAX What did they want to know? JACKIE Who gave me the money and who I was giving it to. And some guy they found in a trunk with his head blown off. Said it was him who told them 'bout me. The Waitress comes with the drinks. ROWEN Can I get you two some popcorn? MAX No, thanks. Rowen exits. MAX (CONT'D) That would be Beaumont Livingston. JACKIE That's him. How do you know 'em? MAX I wrote him on Monday. They found him dead on Tuesday. JACKIE Ordell pick up his bond? MAX Same as you. Ten thousand. JACKIE The federal agent kinda half hinted Ordell might of done Beaumont. MAX You mentioned a guy from L.A.P.D., but you didn't mention the Federal. JACKIE I didn't? MAX No, you didn't. What branch? JACKIE Ray Nicolet with Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Max puts it together. MAX He's the one who wants you. JACKIE It was the other guy who busted me. MAX 'Cause if he busted you, you'd play hell bonding out of federal court. He doesn't want you mad at him, he wants you to tell him what you know. He uses you to get a line on Ordell, make a case, then take him federal. You know what Ordell's into? JACKIE I have a pretty good idea. Ordell aint no bootlegger and I doubt he's smugglin' Cuban cigars. So that only leaves one thing an A.T.F. man would be interested in. Jackie waits a moment before answering, weighs things in her mind and makes a decision. JACKIE I used to bring over ten thousand at a time. That's the legal limit, so I never brought more than that. MAX How many trips did you make? JACKIE With ten thousand? Nine. MAX He's got that kinda money? JACKIE It's all in lock boxes in a Mexico bank. But he's got a problem. He's - what do you call it when you got money, but don't have cash? MAX Cash poor? JACKIE That's it. He's cash poor. He kept on me till I finally said okay. I'll bring whatever fits in a nine-by- twelve envelope. I got paid five hundred dollars, and his friend, Mr. Walker, in Mexico gave me the envelope. MAX If you knew bringing anything over ten thousand was against the law, why not pack a hundred grand? Jackie gets exasperated. JACKIE Whatever it was had to fit in my bag and not hit you in the face if the bag was opened. This ain't solvin' my problem. I gotta figure out a way to either keep my job or get out of trouble. I'm of today, but if I can't leave the country I'm out of a job. And if I don't got a job, I can't hire a lawyer. MAX Ask A.T.F. They might give you permission. JACKIE Yeah, if I cooperate. MAX Well, Jackie, you got caught, you're gonna have to give 'em something. JACKIE But if all I can give 'em is Ordell's name - I don't really know shit about what he does or how he does it - That don't give me much to bargain with. MAX Give 'em what you got. Offer to help. Show a willingness to be helpful. You want to stay out of jail, don't you? Max looks at Jackie thinking about something. MAX (CONT'D) What'dya think? CLOSEUP JACKIE JACKIE I think maybe I have more options than I thought. DISSOLVE TO: CLOSEUP: ORDELL Sitting in his black Mercedes, parked across the street from Jackie's apartment building in Hawthorne. Johnny Cash is playing inside his car. EXT. JACKIE'S APARTMENT COMPLEX - NIGHT ORDELL'S POV Through the windshield, he sees Max's powder-blue Cadillac Seville pull up to Jackie's apartment. She gets out, ten bends down and talks to him through the window of the passenger side door. Then makes a goobye gesture and turns, walking into her apartment complex. Max drives off. ORDELL While Johnny Cash continues crooning, Ordell puts on his gloves. Then opens up his glovebox, taking out a little Targa .22 pistol. He steps out of the car, slipping the pistol into his coat pocket. We STEDICAM in front of him as he walks across the street to Jackie's apartment. Once inside the complex, Ordell passes us and WE FOLLOW BEHIND HIM, up to Jackie's ground-floor apartment door. He gives it a soft knock with one knuckle. He waits a moment, then Jackie opens the door. ORDELL How you doing, Ms. Jackie? JACKIE I was expecting you. Come in. Jackie holds the door open for him. INT. JACKIE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Ordell steps inside. He moves over by a halogen lamp in the living room. ORDELL You got some booze? Jackie still standing by the door. She doesn't look frightened. JACKIE I got some vodka in the freezer. ORDELL Got some o.j.? JACKIE Yeah. Ordell turns the halogen lamp to dim. ORDELL Well, then, why don't you be a good hostess and make me a screwdriver? JACKIE Sure. Jackie moves into the kitchen area. Ordell follows her, hanging in the doorway, while she makes the drink. Jackie doesn't turn on the light. ORDELL You gonna thank me? Taking a glass from the cupboard. JACKIE For what? ORDELL Who you think got your ass outta jail? Opening the freezer and filling a glass with ice cubes and taking out vodka. JACKIE The same guy who put me in, thanks a lot. ORDELL Hey, you get caught with blow, that's our business. Opens refrigerator, light cuts into the kitchen. She takes out orange juice, then closes the door. JACKIE It wasn't mine. Ordell has to stop and think. Jackie makes screwdriver. ORDELL Oh, shit. I bet it was that present Mr. Walker was sending Melanie. Yaaaah, he's the one musta put it in there if you didn't. Oh, man, that shit's uncalled for, baby, and I apologize. I 'magine they asked you a shitload of questions about it, huh? All that money, want to know where you got it? Jackie doesn't answer. She just walks up to Ordell handing him his yellow drink in the darkness. Ordell takes it, continues to look at Jackie. ORDELL (CONT'D) I'magine they asked who you givin' it to, too. JACKIE They asked. ORDELL And what was your answer? JACKIE I said I wanted to talk to a lawyer. ORDELL You positive about that? You weren't nervous and let something slip by mistake? If you did, I ain't mad, I just gotta know. Jackie says to his face; JACKIE You're not asking the right questions. Then she walks past him back to the living room. She goes over to the halogen lamp, turning the light up brighter, then moves by the door, still standing and looking at Ordell in the kitchen doorway. JACKIE Beaumont Livingston. ORDELL I knew it. JACKIE And they asked if I knew Mr. Walker. Ordell by the halogen lamp. He turns it back to dim. ORDELL Yeah? JACKIE I didn't tell 'em anything. Ordell moves slowly towards Jackie. ORDELL My name come up? Jackie slowly shakes her head "no." Ordell directly in front of Jackie, he gently places his gloved hands on her shoulders. ORDELL (CONT'D) You say anything about me? Jackie shakes her head "no." ORDELL (CONT'D) Well, that's mighty honorable of you. Ordell's gloved fingertips move up her collarbone to her throat, gently touching her skin. Jackie locks eyes with his, but still shows no fear. ORDELL (CONT'D) This fella Beaumont, they say what happened to him? JACKIE They told me. At this moment the film becomes a: SPLIT SCREEN On the RIGHT-HAND SIDE is Ordell with his hands barely touching Jackie's throat. On the LEFT-HAND SIDE is Max driving home in his Seville. MAX IN CAR Max drives home, an almost moony romantic look no his face. He can't stop thinking about Jackie. During the night she'd have a gleam in her eyes, the look saying; "WE COULD HAVE FUN". Unless she was appraising kinda him with the look, making a judgment and what it said was; "I COULD USE YOU". Either way it was a turn-on. Max pulls into the driveway of his small house in Torrance. ORDELL AND JACKIE ORDELL Yeah, somebody musta been real mad at Beaumont. Or they were afraid of what he might say to keep from doin some time. I'magine from time-to-time they asked you a whole shitload of questions. And you didn't give 'em no answer? Jackie shakes her head from side to side. Ordell moves his thumbs from her collarbone to the middle of her throat. ORDELL You scared of me? Jackie shakes her head from side to side without her eyes leaving his. Reaches over the seat ORDELL You got a reason to be nervous with me? With his hands on Jackie's throat, staring into the woman's eyes, from BELOW FRAME then feels something hard the fuck against his crotch. Neither break eye contact. Ordell hears a CLICK. Can't believe it. MAX IN CAR Max takes his keys, then to the glove box... THE GLOVE BOX The gun is gone. MAX Where is it? A CLOSEUP OF MAX'S GUN IN ORDELL ORDELL'S CROTCH ORDELL Is that what I think it is? JACKIE What do you think it is? CLOSEUP GUN IN CROTCH ORDELL I think it's a gun pressing against my dick. JACKIE You thought right... Now take your hands from around my throat, nigga. Ordell flashes his hustler's smile and lets go. END OF SPLIT SCREEN Jackie turns Ordell around, gun firmly in his back, and pushes him against the wall. ORDELL What the hell you doin'? JACKIE Shut your ass up and grab the wall! Jackie has Ordell against the wall and is frisking him the way a cop would. She finds the .22 pistol in his pocket ORDELL Now, baby, that's got nothin' to do with you. I just carry that. You been listenin' to them cops too much. JACKIE The cops didn't try and strangle my ass. ORDELL Damn, Jackie, I was just playin' with you. JACKIE Well, I ain't playin with you. I'm gonna unload both these motherfuckers, you don't do what I tell you. Understand what I'm saying? ORDELL Baby, I ain't come here - She shoves both guns in Ordell's back. JACKIE I said, you understand what I'm saying ORDELL I understand woman, damn! JACKIE Go sit over in that chair. Ordell moves over to a chair across from the couch. Ordell still tries bullshit... ORDELL I'm tellin' you, those cops been fuckin' wit your mind. They turn black against black, that's how they do. JACKIE Shut your raggedy ass up and sit down. Ordell sits. JACKIE (CONT'D) Put both hands behind our head. Ordell does... ORDELL This shits gettin silly now... Jackie turns the halogen lamp to light. JACKIE I gotta tell you to shut up one more time, I'm gonna shut you up. Jackie sits down on the couch, holding a gun in each hand, both pointed dead at Ordell. A coffee table lays between them. Ordell, hands behind his head, continues to mumble... ORDELL I just came here to talk. JACKIE Way I see it, me and you only got one thing to talk about. What you willing to do for me? Ordell looks at her a moment and says; ORDELL Well, I can get you a good lawyer - Jackie shakes her head "no!" JACKIE Let's get realistic, baby. Sooner or later they're gonna get around to offering me a plea deal, and you know that. That's why you came here to kill me. ORDELL - Baby, I didn't - JACKIE - It's okay. I forgive you. Now, let's say if I tell on you, I walk. And if I don't, I go to jail. Ordell, very interested. ORDELL Yeah? JACKIE One hundred thousand put in an escrow account in my name, if I'm convicted up to a year, or put on probation. If I have to do more than a year, you pay another hundred thousand. Ordell just takes in what the woman said. ORDELL I got a problem... JACKIE All your money's in Mexico. Ordell has to smile at the woman. ORDELL Yeah. JACKIE I been thinkin about that, too, and I got me a idea. TIME CUT: DOORWAY Ordell goes through FRAME, out the door, Jackie steps into FRAME, and talks with him. JACKIE I'll talk to the cops tomorrow and tell you if it's on. ORDELL (O.S.) Talk to you tomorrow. Ordell leaves. Jackie shuts the door, and leaves FRAME. FADE TO BLACK OVER BLACK We hear a knock-knock on the door. FADE UP ON: SAME SHOT DORWAY Except it's day. Jackie in a bathrobe steps into FRAME and opens the door. She says to the yet-unseen-by-camera visitor; JACKIE You want your gun, don't you? Come in. I'll go get it. She leaves FRAME, and Max enters it, closing the door behind him. Max stands by the door, a little surprised and a touch pissed at the nonchalantness. As he stands on the threshold to her living room, waiting for her to return with the gun, feeling foolish, he thinks about hauling her ass back to the stockade. That'll change her expression, he'd bet. She returns from the bedroom, gun in hand, wearing a sort of sad smile. JACKIE (CONT'D) Max, I'm sorry. I was afraid if I asked to borrow it you'd say no. You'd have to. Would you like some coffee? Then, as quickly as the anger rose in Max, it dissipates completely, leaving only curiosity. MAX If you're having some. JACKIE I am. Have a seat. Jackie head to the kitchen, making the coffee. Max sits at the dining table off of the kitchen. MAX You get a chance to use it? JACKIE I felt a lot safer having it. My milk went bad when I was in jail. MAX Black's fine. She puts a finger in the coffeemaker and starts scooping coffee in it. MAX (CONT'D) You want to hang on to it awhile? It wouldn't be legal, but if it makes - Jackie goes to the sink, filling the coffee pot. JACKIE Thanks, but I have my own now. MAX You went out this morning and bought a gun? She turns off the water. JACKIE What, I couldn't hear you? MAX You went out this morning and bought a gun. Pouring water into the coffee machine. JACKIE Let's just say I got one, okay? She turns on the coffeemaker. MAX Somebody loan it to you? JACKIE Yeah. Jackie leaves the kitchen. Max's eyes follow her to the living room. JACKIE (CONT'D) Want to hear some music? MAX Sure. Jackie ends her knees and goes through a stack of records leaned up against the wall on the floor. JACKIE I couldn't wait till I got home last night and wash my hair. MAX It looks nice. She finds a record, takes it out of the pile, removes the album from the sleeve, and places it on her stereo turntable. MAX (CONT'D) You never got into the whole CD revolution? JACKIE I got a few. But I can't afford to start all over again. I got too much time and money invested in my records. The song starts; it's an old romantic soul music number from the early seventies. MAX Yeah, but you can't get new stuff on records. Jackie picks up her cigarettes off the coffee table. JACKIE I don't buy new stuff that often. Jackie enters the kitchen door frame by Max. She lights a cigarette and stands. Max listens to the soul song. MAX This is pretty. JACKIE Uh-huh. MAX Who is this? JACKIE The Delfonics. MAX '76? JACKIE '74, I think. MAX It's nice. They listen for a moment. JACKIE I called in sick this morning. As far as the airline knows, I'm still available. MAX Are you? JACKIE I don't know yet. 'm going to talk with Dargus and Nicolet today. Do what you suggested. Offer to help and see what happens. MAX What I meant was have a lawyer do the negotiating for you. JACKIE I want to talk to them first. I know more now about Ordell's money. MAX Well, if the A.T.F. guy is the one who wants you, that'll only interest him up to a point. JACKIE It's a lot of money. About a half-a- million dollars. All of it in Cabo in safe deposit boxes and more comin in. MAX How'd you find that out? JACKIE He told me last night. MAX He called you? JACKIE He came by. MAX What?... What'd you do? JACKIE We talked. Jackie goes back in the kitchen. Coffee's almost there, but not quite. She pulls down two mugs from a cabinet. JACKIE (CONT'D) He had his doubts at first. But he's always trusted me an wants more than anything to believe he still can. MAX Why? JACKIE He needs me. Without me all that money is just gonna sit over there in Cabo. Sugar? MAX No thanks. There's gotta be other ways to get it out. She pours the coffee. JACKIE Maybe, but 'm the only one he's ever used. He can't trust his other people. They're crooks. He can try bringing I in himself, but Ordell sure don't want to go through no Customs line. Either he recruits another Cabo stewardess, or he continues to trust me. I made him feel he still can. Jackie walks to the table with the two coffee mugs and sits down. MAX How do you get it out? JACKIE Same way I been don', but first they got to let me go back to work. MAX You're gonna offer to set him up? JACKIE If I get let off. Otherwise, fuck 'em. MAX It's very possible Ordell's killed somebody. JACKIE I ain't goin' to jail, and I ain't doin' that probation thing again. Max watches her a moment Jackie takes a drink of coffee. JACKIE (CONT'D) How do you feel about getting old? MAX You're not old. You look great. JACKIE I'm asking how you feel. Does it bother you? MAX It's not really something I think about. JACKIE Really? MAX Okay, I'm a little sensitive about my hair. It started falling out ten years ago. So I did something about it. JACKIE How'd you feel about it? MAX I'm fine with it, or I wouldn't of done it, I did it to feel better about myself, and I do. When I look in the mirror it looks like me. JACKIE It's different with men. MAX You know, I can't really feel too sorry for you in that department. Jackie smiles. MAX (CONT'D) In fact, I'd make a bet that except possibly for an Afro - you look exactly the same as you did at twenty nine. Jackie smiles into her coffee. JACKIE My ass ain't the same. MAX Bigger? JACKIE Yeah. Max smiles. MAX Nothin wrong with that. Jackie's smile grows bigger. MAX (CONT'D) Does something else worry you? JACKIE I just feel like I'm always starting over. You said how many bonds you wrote? MAX Fifteen thousand. JACKIE Well, I've flown seven million miles. And I've been waitin' on people almost twenty years. The best job I could get after my bust was Cabo Air, which is about the worst job you can get in this industry. I make about sixteen thousand, with retirement benefits , ain't worth a damn. And now with this arrest hanging over my head, I'm scared. If I lose my job I gotta start all over again, but I got nothin to start over with. I'll be stuck with whatever I can get. And that scares me more than Ordell. DISSOLVE TO: INT. LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT - DAY A.T.F. man, Ray Nicolet, moves down the hallway of the big building... ten heads for the office of Mark Dargus. He reaches the closed door... raps on it. DARGUS (O.S.) Come in. Nicolet opens the door, revealing Dargus and Jackie Brown sitting in the office talking. DARGUS (CONT'D) Great, you're here. NICOLET Hey, Jackie. Jackie waves. Dargus stands up and says to Jackie; DARGUS Let me have a word outside with Agent Nicolet for a moment? JACKIE Take your time. DARGUS Thanks. NICOLET Well just be a minute. JACKIE Can I smoke? DARGUS Go ahead. The two detectives step outside and close the door on Jackie as she pulls out her cigarettes. NICOLET What's going on? DARGUS She wants to make a deal. NICOLET She sound scared? DARGUS She almost sounds scared. NICOLET What's she want? DARGUS She wants to go back to work. NICOLET What's she willing to give us? DARGUS She hasn't one into specifics yet, she's been waiting for you. NICOLET She knows it's my case? DARGUS She ain't said it, but she's not stupid, she knows it's you who wants her. CLOSEUP JACKIE Inside Dargus' office, smoking a Mild Seven. Dargus and Nicolet come back inside. NICOLET Thanks for waiting, Jackie. Now tell me, what can we do for you? JACKIE I need permission to leave the country so I keep my job. NICOLET We can look into that. JACKIE I need it tomorrow. If I don't show up for work tomorrow, I'm fired. NICOLET You know what we want. JACKIE If I'm working, I can help you. DARGUS Help us do what? JACKIE Help you get Ordell Robbie. NICOLET Oh, so now you know him? JACKIE You never asked me if I did or not. DARGUS But now you're telling us now you do. JACKIE 'Course I do - I deliver money for him. NICOLET No shit. You know how he makes hi money? JACKIE He sells guns. NICOLET You ever see him sell guns? JACKIE No. NICOLET Then how do you know he sells guns? JACKIE He told me. Besides, why else would an A.T.F. man be after him? NICOLET How can you help us? JACKIE Short of wearing a wire, I'll do everything I can to help you throw his ass in jail. And in exchange for my help, I need permission to leave the country and immunity. DARGUS You don't want much, do you? JACKIE Can you do it or not? The two cops look at each other. DARGUS (to Nicolet) It's your call. Nicolet looks at Jackie. NICOLE It's possible. FADE TO BLACK TITLE CARD: "LOUIS GARA & MELANIE" CUT TO: FADE UP ON ON TV Helmut Berger slaps a woman in the face with a newspaper, proclaiming he's the "mad dog." The film is an Italian Policier from the seventies. Melanie sits in a comfy chair long-ways, bare legs hanging over the arm. As she watches the TV, she picks up a big bong with it's own handle. He takes a hit. Melanie's dressed in her usual Melanie-uniform of shorts and a loose top. The front door opens, and Ordell and Louis walk through it carrying shopping bags. ORDELL We're back. MELANIE 'Ola! We notice that Louis is sportin' new duds. Louis' new "look" is a retro seventies-style bowling shirt and black jeans. Melanie notices the change. MELANIE (CONT'D) Hey, hey, hey. I think somebody's got some new clothes. ORDELL We been shoppin'. Can't have my boy running around lookin' like a bum on the street. LOUIS I didn't look like a bum. ORDELL But you did have a Salvation Army- thing going. Ordell notices the bong in her hand and the smoke in the air. ORDELL (CONT'D) Goddam, girl. You gettin' high already. It's only two o'clock. Melanie smiles. MELANIE It's that late? Louis sits on the couch. He smiles at the comeback. ORDELL Ha-ha-ha. I'm serious, you smoke too much of that shit. That shit robs you of your ambition. MELANIE Not if your ambition is to get high and watch TV. Melanie and Louis laugh. The phone rings. ORDELL You two a coupla Cheech and Chongs, ain't ya. (he moves towards the phone - to Melanie) Oh, that's okay, I'll get it. He picks it up. ORDELL Hello. (pause) Hey, Jackie... (throwing a hard look at Melanie) No, Jackie, I didn't get your message. MELANIE I was gonna tell you... Ordell gives her a "silence" gesture and look. Melanie trades a look with Louis like "I'm in trouble," all the while smiling like a shark. Louis smiles to himself. Melanie holds up the bong, offering him a hit. Ordell's on the phone. ORDELL No, not on the phone, let's meet somewhere. But you gotta make sure they ain't followin' you... Louis has the bong in front of him. Melanie stays in her chair long-ways. LOUIS Is it ready to go? MELANIE Yeah, there's another hit left. Louis takes it. Ordell's on the phone. INT. COCKATOO INN Jackie sits at the bar talking on their phone. We see both sides. JACKIE The Cockatoo Inn. ORDELL The Cockatoo Inn? Where's that? JACKIE It's right on Hawthorne Boulevard and Manhattan Beach Boulevard. It's red brick... ORDELL Oh, wait, you mean that place that has the big sign with a rooster on it? JACKIE It's a cockatoo. Louis exhales his smoke, does an older man cough. MELANIE You okay? LOUIS Yeah, I'm just gettin' old. I can't smoke or laugh now it seems without coughing. MELANIE Coughing opens up the capillaries. When you cough, you're getting air - in this case smoke - to parts of the lung that don't normally get used. Coughing's good - gets ya higher. My dad coughs when he smokes all the time. Ordell hangs up the phone. ORDELL (to Louis) Hey, Louis, I have to go out awhile. So since you like gettin' high so much, why don't you stay here with Melanie, get high, and watch cartoons? Louis with a smile. LOUIS Way ahead of you. Melanie laughs. Ordell takes the remote control and turns the station till he finds a channel with cartoons. ORDELL So you just watch this for the next three hours, and I'll be back. Then, when I'm through with all my business, I'll get high. I get high at night. Walk me to the door, space girl. Melanie climbs out of the chair and walks Ordell to the door, Ordell says to her in the doorway; ORDELL (CONT'D) Hope you don't mind keeping him company. MELANIE No problem. ORDELL Try not to rip his clothes off 'em they're new. Melanie gives him a sarcastic, "Oh, you're so funny" look. Ordell kisses her quick on the mouth, then says past her; ORDELL (CONT'D) I'll be back in an hour, man. Just hang with Mel. Ordell leaves and Melanie closes the door. She turns around and looks at Louis. MELANIE Want a Metrix? LOUIS What's a Metrix? She crosses to the kitchen. MELANIE It's like this major meal in a shake you drink instead of having a big meal. LOUIS It's a diet thing? MELANIE No, it's what body builders drink to beef up. LOUIS No thanks. She goes into the kitchen and starts making her Metrix shake. He looks around and spots something interesting. TWO SMALL PHOTOGRAPHS In a clear, plastic frame. Melanie, circa 1976, at about sixteen wearing roller-disco skates. Melanie, in a green setting, about five years ago, wearing a pretty Oriental- style dress, with a "smile for the camera" look on her face. The photo was obviously a picture of Melanie with somebody else that's been cut in half. Somebody's disembodied arm still rests on her shoulder. Louis picks up the photo frame. LOUIS How old were you here? She looks and sees what he's talking about. MELANIE Which one? LOUIS The roller disco one. MELANIE Fourteen. Louis walks over. LOUIS You're fourteen years old here? MELANIE Yeah. LOUIS I thought you were sixteen. MELANIE I was pretty much the same height now as I was then. LOUIS Were you a disco girl? MELANIE Noooo, I was a surfer girl. Besides, I was only fourteen. I couldn't go to discos. LOUIS So where did you go? MELANIE The beach. Or get high, drop acid at a friend's place. I was a K.L.O.S. girl. I hated disco. She hits Whip on her blender. It makes an infernal noise till she hits Stop! Carrying the blender full of Metrix, she walks over and looks at the picture. MELANIE (CONT'D) That was taken at a place called "Flippers." It was in Hollywood. Were you in L.A. back then? LOUIS No. MELANIE Where were you? LOUIS Detroit. MELANIE With Ordell? LOUIS We had done time together already. Melanie drinks her Metrix. MELANIE Were you a disco guy? LOUIS No. MELANIE C'mon, don't lie. LOUIS I don't like dancing. MELANIE Did you ever go I one? LOUIS I went to a few just to meet women. But I don't like to dance, and it's so fuckin; loud. During that whole scene I just drank in bars. (he points to the cut picture) Who didn't make the cut? MELANIE That's a picture of me in Japan. LOUIS You been to Japan? MELANIE I lived there for about nine months. LOUIS You lived in Japan, when? MELANIE About five years ago. LOUIS Who's arm is that? MELANIE That's the guy I lived with... his name was... Hir.Hirosh. LOUIS Must of made quite an impression. MEALINE I never got to know him, really. I couldn't speak Japanese, and his English was terrible. But I couldn't say anything, because his English was better than my Japanese. LOUIS That sounds like a problem. MELANIE Not really. We didn't have much to say to each other anyway. I never got to know him that well, but I knew enough to know I wasn't missing much. I keep that, because of all the fuckin' time I was there, that's the only picture I got of me in Japan. (she points beyond her shoulder) That's Japan. Melanie looks up at Louis. MELANIE Wanna fuck? LOUIS Sure. FADE TO BLACK OVER BLACK SUBTITLE: "THREE MINUTES LATER" FADE UP: LOUIS Lies on the couch on his back and Melanie sits on top of him. They're going at it like a couple of fuck monkeys. Almost on the fade up, Louis cums. MELANIE That was fun. She hops off and OUT OF FRAME. LOUIS Yeah, that really hit the spot. MELANIE (O.S.) Now that's over, let's get to know each other. INT. MUSIC STORE - DAY CLOSEUP a rack of CDs all beginning with "D" are flipped through, till it stops on one CD, "The Best of the DELFONICS." Max is standing in he soul music section o a music store. He lifts out the CD and turns it over. It has the song Jackie played this morning. He smiles and takes the CD up to the register. CLOSEUP the COCKATOO INN neon sign, unlit during the day. INT. THE COCKATOO INN - DAY Ordell walks into the dark red cocktail lounge in the middle of the day and sees Jackie sitting at the bar drinking a white wine. Old-school soul plays on the jukebox. He sits next to her. ORDELL I gotta remember this place. This is all right. Two minutes from your crib, ten minutes from your work. Not bad... A black bartender named FLOYD approaches Ordell. FLOYD What's your drink, brother? ORDELL Screwdriver. FLOYD (to Jackie) How you doin'? JACKIE I'm fine. FLOYD Yes, you are. Jackie smiles. Floyd makes Ordell's drink. ORDELL I bet you come here on a Saturday night, you need nigga repellent keep 'em off your ass. JACKIE I do okay. ORDELL You a fine lookin' woman, Jackie. I bet you do a damn sight better than okay. You think anybody followed you? JACKIE I don't think so, but it don't really matter. They know I'm meeting you. ORDELL How the fuck they know that? JACKIE I told them. Floyd comes back with Ordell's screwdriver. FLOYD Three twenty-five. Ordell digs in his pocket and gives Floyd a five. ORDELL Keep it. FLOYD Thank you, sir. Floyd leaves. ORDELL (to Jackie) You told em? You told em it's me? JACKIE They already know it's you. ORDELL Well, shit. That don't mean you gotta confirm it! JACKIE Look, the only way I can get permission to fly is if I agree to help them. Which is what I have to appear to be doing. So I give them something they already know. You. ORDELL Didja tell 'em anything else? JACKIE I told them you got a half a million dollars in Mexico, and you want me to bring it here. Ordell freaks. ORDELL You told them that? JACKIE It's true, isn't it? ORDELL What the fuck's that got to do with it? JACKIE They know I'm delivering for you. I mention the half-million - they don't give a fuck about that - They want you with guns. So I say, well, if you want proof he's getting paid for selling them, let me bring the money in. ORDELL What did they say? Jackie smiles. JACKIE Yes. Ordell smiles. They both slap palms. CUT TO: INT. MELANIE'S BEACH APARTMENT - DAY CLOSEUP - Louis taking a hit off Melanie's bong. Louis and Melanie are back in the living room, kicking back, taking bong hits. As Louis gets his hit, Melanie talks; MELANI ... so first he tries to get into the cocaine business but realizes right away that shit's too competitive. Piss the wrong person off, you get shot. So he says, fuck that - moves over to guns. You can sell guns wherever there's a demand. No one gives a shit. He acts like he's this big international arms dealer, when, come on, the only people he ever sold to were dopers. Louis finishes his hit and slides the bong back across the coffee table to Melanie. LOUIS He seems to be making out. Referring to the bong. MELANIE Is it dead? LOUIS Yeah. She starts preparing a bowl. MELANIE Well, so far he is. But you have to admit he's not too bright. LOUIS I wouldn't go so far as to say that. Melanie still preparing her bowl. MELANIE He moves his lips when he reads, what does that tell ya. Let's say he's streetwise. I'll give 'im that. He's still a fuck-up. She takes a major bong hit... holds in the smoke... then while holding in the smoke, says; MELANIE (CONT'D) He killed a man worked for him the other night. LOUIS So what are you trying to tell me? I should get out of here? Melanie lets out her stream of smoke and flashes her shark smile. MELANIE That's not what I'm saying at all. (pause) You know where he went? LOUIS No. MELANIE He went to meet that stewardess. LOUIS Does that bother you? Melanie lets out a sarcastic laugh. MELANIE Please. LOUIS You live with him. MELANIE I live here. He drops in and out. He tell you about that half-million dollars he's got in Mexico? LOUIS Uh-huh? MELANIE Course he did, he tells everybody who'll listen. That's what he's doin' with this stewardess. He's scheming how he can get it over here. LOUIS And your point is? MELANIE Let him and that stewardess get that money over here... LOUIS Uh-huh? MELANI ... and just take it from him. INT. COCKATOO INN - DAY Jackie explaining the plan to Ordell. JACKI ... I make two deliveries. The first one with ten thousand, like a dry run. They watch it. See how it works. Then we do a second delivery, when I bring in the half mill. ORDELL Naw, naw, that's too much exposure. I ain't goin anywhere near that money. JACKIE You don't have to. I told 'em you're real careful. You never pick up money yourself. You always send someone, and I never know who it is. ORDELL That's a good idea. JACKIE If you just listen, you'll see it's a damn good idea. The first time I do it they're lurking about. They see me hand the ten thousand to someone. ORDELL Who? JACKIE I don't know. One of your friends. ORDELL A woman. JACKIE If you want. ORDELL Yeah, I think a woman. JACKIE The next trip, when I come with all the money, it'll look like I hand it to the same one I did before... ORDELL But you don't? JACKIE No, I give it to someone else first. ORDELL And they follow the wrong one thinkin' she's bringing it to me. JACKIE That's the idea. ORDELL So we need two people, two women. JACKIE Can you cover that? ORDELL I got the woman covered. Where you thinkin' about doin' this? JACKIE I was thinkin' the Del Amo Mall. In the food court. ORDELL I suppose you see a piece of this for yourself? JACKIE Well, it's my plan. We're in this together. ORDELL Yeah, but it's my money, and I don't need me a partner. JACKIE I ain't your partner, I'm your manager. I'm managing to get your money out of Mexico, into America, in your hands, and I'm managing to do all this under the nose of the cops. That makes me your manager, and managers get fifteen percent. ORDELL Managers get ten percent. JACKIE That's an agent. Manager's get fifteen percent. ORDELL I'll give ya ten. JACKIE Plus the same deal as before. ORDELL I can do that. They clink their glasses together. CLOSEUP DIGITAL CLOCK It flips to 11:00 P.M. It's now getting late at night. Jackie comes home. She's dressed differently than she was at the Cockatoo. In fact, she looks like she's coming home from a date. She walks into her bedroom... kicks off her shoes... takes her earring off, putting them on the night-stand by the bed... she sees that her answering machine is flashing. She hits play. We begin a SLOW ZOOM into the answering machine. Never seeing Jackie again. The machine voice says; MACHINE VOICE (O.S.) You have on message. Sent at 8:06 P.M. Max's voice comes out of the machine. MAX'S VOICE (O.S.) Hi, Jackie. It's Max. I was just calling to find out how everything went today with A.T.F. If you want to call me, my home number is 555-6788, or you can reach me at my office, which is 555-B-A-I-L. That's also on the card I gave you when we first met - I don't know if you still have that - but it's on it - Oh, let me give you my beeper number. It's 555-7839. Okay, so I'll talk to you later. Hope everything's well. Bye-bye. MACHINE VOICE (O.S.) End of message. FADE TO BLACK FADE UP ON: EXT. DEL AMO MALL - DAY We se the huge Del Amo Mall from the parking area. A SUBTITLE reads: "DEL AMO MALL TORRANCE, CALIFORNIA LARGEST INDOOR MALL IN THE WORLD" INT. DEL AMO MALL - FOOD COURT - DAY The Del Amo Mall on a lazy midday in the middle of the week. A few people, mostly black, mill around, but it's not like it is on the weekend. The international food court, where fast-food versions of international cuisine are available to all the hungry Del Amo Mall shoppers. Jackie and Ordell sit at a table in the food court. She drinks an iced tea from Teriyaki Donut. A collection of Broadway shopping bags sit on the table. We join in mid-conversation. JACKIE The money's in a Broadway shopping bag. I get some food, and sit down here in the food court. Then your girl comes - you got somebody yet? ORDELL Uh-huh. JACKIE Who? ORDELL What'd you care? JACKIE Look, it's my ass facin' the penitentiary. You send some hard- headed roc whore, and she fucks things up. ORDELL I ain't gonna send no roc whore. The woman's cool, I promise. INT. DEL AMO MALL - U.A. CINEMAS - DAY We're outside the Del Amo UA Cinemas, a six-screen theater that's been in the Del Amo Mall since the early seventies. A small afternoon crowd is exiting the cinema, having just watched their matinee. Max Cherry is among them. He exits the theater, and strolls through the mall. BACK TO JACKIE AND ORDELL In the food court. Ordell rises from the table. Jackie moves a Broadway bag towards him. JACKIE Don't forget your bag. He takes it. We follow with Ordell out of the food court, when he stops... ... He see Max Cherry strolling through the mall. Ordell almost steps into a store to get out of view. "What the fuck is Max Cherry doing here?" As Ordell watches, he sees Max head towards the food court. MAX walks into the food court. He stands looking a all the international fast food choices in front of him. As he tries to decide, he hears from behind him; JACKIE (O.S.) Max. Max turns and sees Jackie siting there drinking her iced tea, smoking her Mild Seven, and smiling up at him. Max smiles back. MAX Well, hello. JACKIE Surprise. He approaches her table. MAX I walked right past you. JACKIE I know, ignoring me. What're you up to? MAX Catching a movie. JACKIE What'd ya see? MAX "American Prseident" JACKIE How was it? MAX Pretty good. Me and Annette Bening are goin steady. JACKIE Oh, are you? Does she know that? MAX No... (sitting down at the table) ... I don't believe she's ever heard of me. But that doesn't mean we're not going steady. BACK TO ORDELL Watching Max sit down and make himself comfortable at Jackie's table. ORDELL (to himself) What's up with this shit. BACK TO MAX AND JACKIE MAX I think falling in live with movie stars is something that happens to a man as he gets older. JACKIE Does it happen to all men? MAX Well, I'd never be so bold as to speak for all men, but as or myself and a few of my friends, that's definitely the case. There's a lot of actresses out there you like, and there's some you have crushes on. But there's always one who you love. And with her it's sorta like going steady. JACKIE And Annette's it for you? MAX For now. These relationships never last too long. With a smile on her face; JACKIE That's a goddam man for ya. Can't even be faithful to a fuckin' movie star. Max smiles. JACKIE Who was your girl before Annette? MAX Sandra Bullock. You know her? JACKIE Yeah, she's the girl who drove the bus in "Speed." She's cute. MAX She's adorable. But I had to end it. JACKIE Why? MAX I'm old enough to be her father. JACKIE How old's Annette? MAX I don't care. Gesturing to the Broadway bags on the table. MAX What're you, a bag lady? JACKIE I go back to work tomorrow. MAX You talk them into it? JACKIE They seem to like the idea. MAX Bring the money in and they follow it? JACKIE Yea, but I'm going to dress it up. Put the money in a shopping bag and hand it to someone I meet here. MAX You don't actually do it that way? JACKIE He always just picked it up at my place. But with A.T.F. involved, I want to stage it. You know, make it look more intriguing, like we know what the fuck we're doin'. Then it's up to Ray Nicolet, the A.T. F. guy to follow the shopping bag. MAX Make the delivery somewhere in the mall. JACKIE Right around here, in the food court. MAX Sit down, leave the bag under the table? Jackie nods her head "yes." MAX (CONT'D) Will Ordell go for that? JACKIE I'm helping him bring his money into America. He loves the idea. You just missed him. MAX He was here? JACKIE Yeah, we were goin' over everything. That's why all the bags. MAX I called you last night. JACKIE I know, I got your message. Ray wanted to have dinner. He wanted to talk about the sting we're plotting. That's what he calls it. A sting. He's being real nice to me. MAX You think he's got a thing for you? JACKIE Maybe. But I'm thinking it might be something like he wants the money for himself. MAX I don't follow your logic. What does his being nice to you have to do with him wanting Ordell's money? JACKIE He's setting me up to make a proposition. MAX I see. JACKIE You don't propose something like that unless you're pretty sure the other person's into it. MAX Has he hinted around? JACKIE Not really. But I knew this narcotics cop one time. Told me that in a raid, the whole package never gets back to the station. His exact words. MAX You know some interesting people. JACKIE We weren't bullshittin' either, 'cause later he was suspended and forced to retire. MAX Has Nicolet told you any colorful stories like that? She shakes her head "no." JACKIE He tries to act cool. MAX No harm in that. He's a young guy havin' fun being a cop. I know the type, trust me on this. He's more interested in Ordell than the money. If he's gonna do anything suspect, it'll be cutting corners to get the conviction; but he wouldn't walk off with the money. It's evidence. JACKIE What about you Max? MAX What? If I was in Nicolet's place? JACKIE No, I mean you, right now. Not it you were somebody else. MAX If I saw a way to walk off with a shopping bag full of money, would I take it? JACKIE You know where it came from. It's not like it's anybody's life savings. It wouldn't even be missed. MAX A half-a-million dollars will always be missed. JACKIE You're avoiding the question. MAX Okay, sure. I might be tempted. Especially now, since I'm getting out of the bail bonds business. Jackie looks at him, "wow, that was a statement," but she doesn't say anything. Max continues. MAX I have to stand behind all my active bonds, but I'm not writing any new ones. JACKIE Why? MAX A lot of reasons. But the main one would be I'm tired of it. JACKIE When did you decide? MAX It's been a long time coming. I finally made up my mind - I guess it was Thursday. FLASH ON: A RELEASE FORM With a date on it. Jackie's hand is signing her name. We WHIP UP and se her face, just as Max Cherry approaches her, handing her his business card. MAX Hi, I'm Max Cherry. Your bail bondsman. BACK TO MAX AND JACKIE JACKIE The day you got me out of jail? MAX Yeah, that night I went to pick up a guy. I hear he's staying at this house, so I sneak in, wait for him to come home. JACKIE Wait a minute. After we were together you went and snuck into a guy's house? MAX Uh-huh. FLASH ON Max is dropping off Jackie at her apartment and saying goodbye. MAX (V.O.) I dropped you off... Max finding no gun in his glove box. MAX (V.O.) Went to my office, found out you took my gun... Max in his office, taking another pistol from his drawer, and a stun gun. MAX (V.O.) Got another gun and a stun gun... BACK TO MAX AND JACKIE MAX And went to this guy's house in El Monte, and I waited for him. JACKIE What do you do when he comes home? MAX Shoot him with the stun gun. While he's incapacitated, cuff him, take 'em to County. JACKIE You do that? MAX That's my job. JACKIE Did you do it that night? MAX He never came home. But I'm sitting on the couch, in the dark, holding my stun gun and the whole house smells of mildew - So after a couple hours I think, "What am I doing here? Nineteen years of this shit? So I made up my mind, that's it. JACKIE And is that it? MAX More or less. Jackie takes a pause before saying; JACKIE I'm not sure you answered my question. MAX Which one? JACKIE If you had a chance, unemployed now, to walk off with a half-million dollars, would you take it? MAX I believe I said I'd be tempted. Jackie smiles at him behind cigarette smoke. MAX Don't even think about it. You could get yourself killed go to prison... CLOSEUP JACKIE JACKIE What if I've figured a way? Hold for a few beats, then... FADE TO BLACK. TITLE CARD: "MONEY EXCHANGE 10,000" Over this card, we hear an airplane landing. FADE UP: CLOSEUP JACKIE Back at work, standing at the exit of her plane. All the passengers are filtering out. She says goodbye. JACKIE Bye bye... Bye now... Goodbye Bye bye... Bye bye... Goodbye INT. LAX PARKING STRUCTURE - DAY Jackie, wearing her stewardess uniform, walks into the LAX parking structure, pulling her bad on wheels behind her. Nicolet and Dargus are waiting for her. NICOLET We gotta stop meeting this way. Jackie smiles. They all fall in step towards Jackie's Honda. INT. JACKIE'S HONDA - DAY The two cops and the black woman sit parked in her Honda. She, behind the wheel, Nicolet next to her in the passenger seat, Dargus in the backseat. Nicolet has the flight bag in his lap. He's taking out the manila envelope with the ten thousand inside. Their demeanor is very different from the first time they met. The three now almost act like friends. DARGUS How was your flight? JACKIE Fine. DARGUS Bet you're happy to be working again. NICOLET This is A.T.F. agent Ray Nicolet, Jackie Brown, Ordell Robbie money exchange trial run. It's three p.m., July 4th 1997. The location is the parking structure at LAX. JACKIE What are you doing? Pointing to a small mike on his lapel. NICOLET I'm recording this. JACKIE I thought you were going to let this one through. DARGUS We are. Don't worry about it. NICOLET Every step of this goes in my report. (back to report voice) I am now taking a manila envelope from the subject's flight bag. He opens it and takes out the ten thousand dollars. NICOLET (CONT'D) The envelope contains currency... all the same denomination, one-hundred- dollar bills. Now, I'm counting it. DARGUS What time do you have to be there? JACKIE Four thirty. I'm meeting a woman. DARGUS What's her name? JACKIE He wouldn't say. You gonna follow her? DARGUS She leaves, somebody'll be on her. JACKIE But you're not going to stop her? Nicolet finishes counting, then hushes them up. NICOLET The envelope contains ten thousand dollars. The subject will be delivering the currency in a... JACKIE A Broadway shopping bag. She holds it up. NICOLET A Broadway shopping bag. A large bag with handles and brown lettering. EXT. DEL AMO MALL - DAY The huge Del Amo Mall. INT. DEL AMO MALL - FOOD COURT - DAY The Del Amo Mall on another lazy midday in the middle of the week. Max rides up an escalator in the mall. He casually strolls through the mall, goes into a cappuccino bar called "BUSTA CAP" across from the food court. Walking up to the counter; MAX CafŠ mocha. BUSTA CAP GIRL You want whipped cream on that? MAX No, thanks. Max checks his watch: 4:30. He looks over at the food court and spots Jackie sitting at a table by herself. FLASH ON: INT. JACKIE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Jackie on the phone with Max, dressed for bed (long t- shirt and panties). JACKIE Think of it as money that shouldn't even be here. I mean does anybody have a right to it? INT. CHERRY BAIL BONDS - NIGHT Max in his office on the phone. MAX The feds. It's evidence. JACKIE It may be evidence once they get their hands on it, but right now it's only money. BACK TO MAX AT THE MALL He ponders his words as he watches her from a distance. INT. FOOD COURT - DAY Jackie sits at a table by herself, eating Japanese food from Teriyaki Donut and drinking an iced tea. As she eats she hears; YOUNG GIRL'S VOICE (O.S.) Is this seat taken? Jackie looks up and sees a skinny YOUNG GIRL, black, quite pretty, no older than twenty. She holds a tray filled with tacos, enchiladas, rice and beans and a giant-sized Coke. She also has a Broadway shopping bag hanging from her arm. JACKIE Have a seat. The Young Girl does. Jackie looks at her tray of food. JACKIE (CONT'D) You're hungry? YOUNG GIRL Yes'm. It would seem our Young Girl's from the South. JACKIE Put your bag on the floor, okay? Under the table, right next to mine. The Young Girl who hasn't looked right at Jackie since sitting down, bends sideways to glance under the table. JACKIE (CONT'D) Then when I leave, well, you know. What's your name? She looks up... YOUNG GIRL Sherona? ... then back down at her tray. JACKIE Go ahead, start eating. Sheronda starts eating, head down, hunching close to the tray. JACKIE (CONT'D) Would it bother you if I smoked? Without raising her head, she shakes it from side to side. Jackie takes out a pack of Davidoffs and lights one up with her yellow Bic. As she does this she observes Sheronda eating. JACKIE (CONT'D) Sheronda, can I ask you a question? Are you and Ordell married? Without raising her head. SHERONDA He say we like the same thing as married. JACKIE Do you live together? Sheronda hesitates, then says without raising her head. SHERONDA Most of the times. JACKIE Not every day? Sheronda looks up at her... SHERONDA Sometimes every day, for a while. JACKIE Then you don't see him for a few days? ... She looks back down. SHERONDA Yes'm. JACKIE You know what's in the bag you're taking? SHERONDA He say is a surprise. JACKIE Well, Sheronda, it was nice talking to you. Jackie picks up Sheronda's bag and leaves. INT. DEL AMO MALL - BUSTA CAP - DAY Max drinking his cafŠ mocha sans whipped cream, watches Jackie leave the Young Girl and with Broadway bag in hand, walk out of the food court. Max watches her walk down the mall when two young men in sport coats, jeans, and cowboy boots step out of a B. Dalton bookstore, stop her and begin talking. Knowing they must be Nicolet and Dargus, he watches one of them take the Broadway bag from Jackie and look inside. They talk for a minute - it would seem about nothing too serious. Jackie nods her head, listens to the two cops, nods her head again, and then walks off. As he watches her walk away from the cops... FLASH ON: JACKIE AND MAX ON PHONE JACKIE You said it yourself. Ray wants Ordell, he don't give a shit about the money. Money won't convict him, guns will. Yeah, sure, if it falls in their lap, they take it. If they know they got it, they'll look for it... but if they don't... BACK TO MAX AT MALL Max watches the two cops turn their attention to the young girl eating in the food court. Max watches her, too. The Young Girl continues to work her way through her Mexican food, when she turns her head to an OLDER BLACK WOMAN sitting at the next table. The older woman says something, and the younger woman hands her the ashtray Jackie was using. Max watches the Young Girl finish her food and get up from the table. She stoops down to get the Broadway shopping bag and walks out of the food court. Max watches Nicolet and Dargus let the Young Girl get a little ahead, then follow after her. They're gone. Max turns back on the older woman all alone. She finishes the coffee she was drinking and stands up, carrying - how about that? - A Broadway shopping bag. The woman heads out of the mall. Max follows her. The older woman walks past us. She heads straight for the exit. EXT. DEL AMO MALL - PARKING LOT - DAY Max follows the woman outside. She walks down a line of cars, then gets in a big, tan Mercury sedan. She drives of... ... but not before Max writes down her license plate number. FLASH ON: MAX AND JACKIE ON PHONE MAX You're rationalizing. JACKIE That's what you do to go through with the shit you start. You rationalize. I can do this, Max, I know I can. But I can't do it without you. INT. MAX'S CADILLAC - DAY Max climbs into his Seville, starts her up, and drives out of the parking lot. CLOSEUP MAX Driving down the street, lost in thought. MAX (to himself) It could work... If she handles the cops right, I could work... He hits 'play' on the dash CD player. The Delfonics fill the cab of the Caddy. CUT TO: BLACK A garage door is lifted open, revealing Ordell and Louis. EXT. STORAGE FACLITY - DAY Ordell and Louis are at Mr. Robbie's storage facility. A VAN is backed up nect to the opening. The facility is pitch black. Ordell ahs a big flashlight in his hand. ORDELL Check this out. He turns on the flashlight. He shines the beam into darkness. We see the facility is filled to the gills with machine guns, shotguns, uzis, a rocket launcher, and handguns of many types. LOUIS How much is there? ORDELL Over half-million dollars worth of merchandise. Ordell opens the back doors of the van. They start unloading machine guns and boxes of ammo. LOUIS Can I ask you about Melanie? ORDELL Sure. LOUIS What's your relationship? ORDELL She one of the women I got set up. I got Melanie in Hermosa Beach. I rent Simone a small house in Compton, and about four blocks away I got me this nineteen-year-old country girl named Sheronda. I found her waitin' for a bus two days outta Alabama, barefoot, country as a chicken coop. Took her to my house in Compton, told her it was Hollywood. LOUIS She believed you? ORDELL Hell, yeah. To her dumb country ass, Compton is Hollywood. Close as she's ever been, anyway. They both laugh together. LOUIS Do you trust Melanie? Ordell stops unloading. ORDELL If this is about you fucked Melanie, I don't give a damn. I ain't a fool. I leave you alone with a bitch like Melanie, you're gonna be fuckin' that twenty minutes after I'm out the door. So say "thank you" and I'll tell you, "you're welcome." LOUIS That's not what I meant when I asked did you trust her. Ordell looks at him. ORDELL She tryin' to work your ass against me, ain't she? LOUIS Yep. ORDELL You didn't even hafta say it. I know the woman. LOUIS Well, why the fuck keep her around? ORDELL (smiling) 'Cause she my fine little surfer gal. She can't do me no harm. Fact she think she can play you against me shows how little she knows. You could teach that bitch for days how it is 'tween me an you, she never understand a damn word. LOUIS Why do you let someone know your business you can't trust? ORDELL I don't hafta trust her, I know her. LOUIS What does that mean? ORDELL You can't trust Melanie. But you can always trust Melanie to be Melanie. Louis starts unloading. LOUIS I still don't understand why you keep her around. ORDELL I told you, man. (smiling) She my fine little surfer gal. EXT. MELANIE'S APARTMENT BUILDING - DAY EXTREME CLOSEUP - Jackie's finger presses a small black button next to the handwritten name, "M. RALSTON." EXTREME CLOSEUP SPEAKER BOX MELANIE'S VOICE (O.S.) (coming out of it) What? JACKIE Bends down to talk in the speaker. JACKIE It's Jackie. INT. MELANIE'S APARTMENT HALLWAY - DAY Jackie walks down the hallway and finds the door. She rings the doorbell. The door opens, she sees Melanie (for the first time) on the other side. Melanie, dressed in a t-shirt, cut offs, doesn't say a word - just turns around and walks away. Once Melanie leaves, she sees Ordell standing inside the apartment, screwdriver in hand, yelling after Melanie; ORDEL ... Now she's gonna pout... He turns his attention to Jackie. ORDELL (CONT'D) Hey, Jackie, c'mon in. Jackie steps inside. She sees Louis (for the first time) sitting on the couch. Ordell says to Louis, but loud enough for Melanie in the other room to hear; ORDELL (CONT'D) She gonna hafta find her sandals... find her bag... find her sunglasses... take twenty damn minutes get her ass out the door. (to Jackie) Jackie - his is Louis, Louis - Jackie. And the chick stompin' around in the other room is Melanie. Melanie comes out of the bedroom with her sunglasses, sandals, bag strung across her shoulders and her keys in her hand. She makes a bee-line towards the door without saying nothin' to nobody. ORDELL (CONT'D) You have a nice time, hear? The door SLAMS behind her. Ordell looks to Jackie, raises his screwdriver and says; ORDELL (CONT'D) Drink? JACKIE I need to talk to you alone. EXT. MELANIE'S APARTMENT - BALCONY - DAY Ordell and Jackie on the balcony. JACKIE I don't want no more fuckin' surprises. We do this the way I laid it out, or we don't do it at all. ORDELL What the hell you talkin' bout? JACKIE Sheronda passin' the money onto someone else, that's what the hell I'm talkin' 'bout. ORDELL How do you know she did that? JACKIE I was there, I saw her do it. ORDELL Well, you weren't supposed to be there. JACKIE I know, but I hung around, 'cause I figured you'd try an' pull some shit like this. ORDELL Now, hold on there. I ain't pullin' no shit. It's my money, I can do whatever the fuck I wanna do with it. JACKIE Not when it's my ass on the line you don't. We do this my way or fuck it. Ordell tries to stop the hostile back and forth. ORDELL Just chill the fuck out, Jackie. It ain't no big thing. The woman you saw was my friend, Simone. She's the one gonna be receiving the money, so I just wanted her to see how it works. She'll be here any minute. Nice woman, you'll like her. Ordell opens the sliding glass and says to Louis in the living room; ORDELL Louis, call Simone and tell her to get her tail over here. We're waitin' on her ass. Louis gets up to make the call. Ordell turns back to Jackie and smiles, holding up his screwdriver. ORDELL (CONT'D) I'm about ready for a refill. Sure I can't tempt you? INT. MELANIE'S APARTMENT - DAY Ordell and Jackie sit on stools around the kitchen counter/bar. Louis sits with them on the phone, silent. JACKIE Nicolet and Dargus stop me at the airport and mark the bills. ORDELL Man, I don't like that part. JACKIE It washes off. I tell them we're doing it the same way as before. They'll follow Sheronda. I hate the idea of leaving her for a fall. ORDELL She won't have no problems 'cause she don't know nothin'. JACKIE Are you sure she don' know about the money? ORDELL She don't know shit about the money. JACKIE What does she think she's gettin? ORDELL I told her this is a game us rich folks play, exchanging gifts. Like a scavenger hunt. She didn't know what that was neither. (to Louis) No answer? Louis shakes his head. LOUIS Uh-huh. ORDELL Hang it up, she's on her way. You gotta listen to this. This involves you. Louis hangs up the phone and joins the debriefing. ORDELL (CONT'D) No, you gonna give her a Robinson's/May bag this time? JACKIE Right, the one Simone gives me. Simone and I'll make the switch at Robinson's/May. She knows what I look like? ORDELL She saw you with Sheronda. So Simone goes to the dress department with her Robinson's/May bag. JACKIE Designer clothes. ORDELL She waits for you to go in the place where you try things on. JACKIE The fitting room. There's a sign over the door. LOUIS Why we doin' I there? JACKIE I have a hunch they'll be watchin' me. We can't risk switching bags out in the open or even in the dining area. That's why it has to be a woman, 'cause we do the switch in the fitting room. ORDELL So you come out with her Robinson's/May bag, go meet Sheronda. Simone peeks out, waits for my man Louis here to give her a signal nobody's watchin'. She leaves the store, gets in her car - mission accomplished. JACKIE Where you gonna be during all this? ORDELL I'm gonna be sittin' at the titty bar In downtown L.A. till my man over here calls me and gives me the O.K. sign. Jackie's pager goes off. She looks at it. JACKIE I gotta go. INT. MELANIE'S APARTMENT - HALLWAY - DAY Ordell walks Jackie to the elevator. ORDELL Who's paging you? JACKIE Ray, the A.T.F. guy. ORDELL That works on my nerves, you bein' so buddy-buddy with him. JACKIE If I wasn't, this wouldn't work. Now once I deliver I'll have to trust you. ORDELL Well, I've been trusting you all this time, haven't I? We agreed on ten percent of what you bring in and that's what you gonna get. They reach the elevator. She presses the button. JACKIE And a hundred thousand if I go to jail. ORDELL We're partners, Baby, sorta. I ain't gonna screw you. You haven't told me where I put it for you. The elevator arrives. Jackie steps in. JACKIE Give it to the bail bondsman, Max Cherry. He'll take care of it. ORDELL Max Cherry? You and him friends now? You tell him about this shit? JACKIE He won't know where the money came from. Only that it's money. ... the elevator shuts... As it shuts Ordell yells;... ORDELL Don't you know all them bail bondsmen are crooks... ... the door shuts. CLOSEUP ORDELL He doesn't like the last piece of new information. EXT. THE STRAND - DAY The Strand is the hip surfer street in downtown Hermosa Beach. Jackie leaves the apartment building. She walks to her car when she spots a funky little beach bar called, "Sally Leroy's." INT. SALLY LEROY'S - DAY Sally Leroy's is a beach bar with surfboards, different beer signs, and pictures of Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, James Dean, Ann Margaret, and surfers riding monster waves all over the place. The JUKEBOX plays a loud seventies rock number. BEGINNING OF SHOT The camera picks Jackie up through the window, walking into the place and going up to the bar... A female bartender in her mid-twenties, wearing a plaid workshirt, named WANDA, goes to Jackie. JACKIE Do you have a phone? WANDA Yeah, it's in the back. JACKIE Thanks. ... We follow with her to the back of the bar... the MUSIC is LOUD... the phone booth is occupied by a fat older GUY wearing surf clothes and sporting a mustache like a walrus. Jackie waits for him to finish his call... As she waits, the CAMERA MOVES BACK... until a blonde head of hair comes into the f.g.... The CAMERA MOVES around to a CLOSEUP ON MELANIE, sucking on a beer, moving her head to the music, and watching Jackie. She smiles and steps OUT OF FRAME. END OF SHOT Jackie hears behind her; MELANIE (O.S.) Hey! Jackie turns and sees Melanie holding a beer, standing behind her. JACKIE Oh, hi. MELANIE Buy ya a beer? JACKIE I'm waiting for the phone. MELANIE Good luck. That guy's been in there since I got here. JACKIE Well, I guess I better look for another one, then. Thanks, anyway. Jackie turns to leave. MELANIE I know what you and Ordell got goin'. You sit down and have a beer with me. I'll tell you a secret. Jackie looks at her a moment. JACKIE Sure. MELANIE Great... (calling to the bartender) ... Wanda! Wanda approaches. WANDA What? MELANIE This lady is thirsty. WANDA What do you want? MELANIE What's on tap? WANDA Coors, Sam, Rolling Rock, and Killian's Red. JACKIE Killian's. MELANIE Better get me another Sam's. (to Jackie) Join me in a Jaeger shot? JACKIE Uh-uh. MELANIE Gimme one anyway. WANDA You got it. Wanda goes away. Jackie and Melanie sit at the bar. The MUSIC is LOUD, and they have to talk over it. Melanie moves her head to it during the conversation. JACKIE How long you been with Ordell? MELANIE This time? Almost a year. I've known him forever. JACKIE What were you two fighting about? MELANIE He told me to go outside. (imitating Ordell's voice) "You may leave us now." It's all part of his pathetic attempt to be "the man." You know Mr. Walker don't you? Jackie nods "yes." MELANIE (CONT'D) Mr. Walker's my buddy. Ask him about Ordell. JACKIE That coke was yours, wasn't it? Melanie makes a face to show pain. MELANIE Oh, man, listen. I'm sorry about that. I hope they don't come down on you on my account. Ordell shoulda told you it was in your bag. Wanda brings the drinks. WANDA Seven dollars. Melanie digs in her purse for the money. JACKIE He said he didn't know about it. MELANIE (digging in her purse) You believe that? Yeah, well, I guess you have to trust him. (pulls out a ten) I'd have second thoughts on that, but then I know 'em. Melanie takes her Jaeger shot, lets it go down, then continues. MELANIE (CONT'D) He killed a guy who works for him the other day. JACKIE Beaumont Livingston? MELANIE You already knew that? JACKIE Kinda. MELANIE So tell me. Having all that money in your flight bag - Is it tempting? Jackie nods 'yes', as she sips her beer. MELANIE (CONT'D) I tell you. If Ordell ever sent me to carry in ten thousand dollars, that would be the last motherfuckin' time he saw me. The next trip you're gonna have over half-a-million. If you thought of cutting Ordell out, I sure as hell wouldn't blame you. Jackie smiles. MELANIE (CONT'D) You think I'm kidding? JACKIE Dreaming. MELANIE You know how easy it would be? He won't be anywhere near that mall. Pull one more switch, up front. That's it. half-a-million dollars. Need help? JACKIE (smiling) Keep it between us girls? MELANIE What's that fucker ever done for us? JACKIE (getting off the barstool) I don't think so, but thanks for the beer. Jackie leaves. CLOSEUP MELANIE Watches her go. MELANIE (softly under her breath) Chicken shit. INT. STEAKHOUSE - NIGHT Jackie and Nicolet sit at a steakhouse eating a steak dinner. Nicolet drinks beer, Jackie drinks white wine. JACKIE Ordell has a white guy working for him named Louis. NICOLET You two meet? JACKIE This afternoon before I came here. He was with Ordell at an apartment in Hermosa Beach. I don't know if he lives there, but I can find out. NICOLET You talk to him? JACKIE Not really. NICOLET His full name is Louis Gara. He just got out from serving four years in Susanville. JACKIE What for? NICOLET Bank robbery? Do you know what he does for Ordell? JACKIE I imagine shit needs to be done. NICOLET We've been following Mr. Gara, and he's definitely working for Ordell. FLASH ON: NICOLET AND DARGUS In a car, parked, on surveillance. COPS POV Louis with the van, at the storage facility. NICOLET (V.O.) They served two years together almost twenty years ago in Soledad. But he doesn't live in Hermosa Beach. Ordell's got him staying at a house in. MUG SHOT SIMONE The older woman in the mall. NICOLET (V.O.) ... Compton with a fifty-six-year- old petty thief - woman named Simone Hawkins. BACK TO BAR NICOLET Ever meet her, or they talk about her? JACKIE Not yet. NICOLET Who's the other one? JACKIE White girl named Melanie Ralston. Another girlfriend of Ordell's. NICOLET What's her story? JACKIE It was her coke I got busted with. She knows everything, but she's not part of it, and she's pissed cause she's not part of it. Ordell wouldn't even let her stay at the meeting. She tried to talk me into ripping off Ordell. NICOLET And splittin' with her? JACKIE I'm sure that was the idea. NICOLET What did you say? JACKIE I smiled and walked away. She also told me Ordell killed Beaumont. NICOLET She told you that? JACKIE Uh-huh. NICOLET Was she there? JACKIE She didn't say. NICOLET But she mentioned Beaumont by name? JACKIE Uh-huh. NICOLET Well, this sounds like a lady I'd like to have a word with. So everything's set for tomorrow? JACKIE Right. Everything's the same, except one change... INT. JACKIE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Max sits on the couch in Jackie's apartment drinking white wine. Jackie paces in front of him, white wine in one hand, Davidoff in the other, going over the details of tomorrow. One could notice a slight change in Jackie. There's a bit of an edge to Miss Brown that's bubbling underneath her cool surface. It's understandable. After all, she's been the architect of this half-a-million dollars switcheroo. She's moved heaven and earth to make all the pieces fall into place, and all the players thnk what she wants them to think. As she talks to Max she knows tomorrow all her hard work will either fail or succeed. But don't take this difference the wrong way. This edge I'm referring to is not one born out of fear (Jackie's nervous, but she's not afraid). It's more the edge an athlete might feel before an all-important competition. JACKIE I told them Ordell's changed the amount he's bringing in. MAX Do you think they bought it? JACKIE Oh, yeah. I got them thinking Ordell's real nervous. They love thinking he's scared of them. MAX You know, a good cop won't let you know he knows you're fulla shit. JACKIE All he needed was a reasonable explanation. DISSOLVE TO: BACK TO JACKIE WITH NICOLET MEDIUM JACKIE JACKIE Right. Everything's the same except one change. Ordell thinks it's just too hot right now to bring in all his money. He knows you're watching him, and he's paranoid. He's keeping his stash where it is, but he wants to bring in fifty thousand for bail in case he needs it. CUT TO: BACK TO JACKIE AND MAX MAX It'll be more than that. JACKIE Don't be so literal. Ray believed it. MAX But you still have to show him the money at the airport. JACKIE Well, you know I'm not going to show him the whole amount. He'll see fifty thousand. MAX Where's the rest of it? JACKIE In the bag underneath. MAX What if he checks it? JACKIE He won't - I mean, he didn't the last time. He'll be expecting fifty thousand and there it is - on top. MAX You're takin' a helluva chance kid. JACKIE Not really. If he finds it, I say Mr. Walker put the money in, and I didn't know nothing about it. Like the coke. MAX Then you're out and you get nothing. JACKIE Yeah, but I'm not in jail and I tried. MAX You're gonna have surveillance all over you. JACKIE That's why you don't make a move till I come out of the fitting room. MAX In a dress. JACKIE Well, a suit. There's one I had my eye on. The phone rings. JACKIE (CONT'D) Excuse me. INT. MELANIE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT EXTREME CLOSEUP - Ordell on the phone ORDELL It's Ordell. We got a bit of a change in plans here. Nothing to worry 'bout - everything's the same - except for one change. That bitch you saw in the mall, Simone. She wasn't here today, cause she split on me. (pause) Me an Louis went over to her place ,she's gone. She's gone and all her shit's gone and so's my ten thousand dollars. (pause) It ain't nothin' to worry about, girl. Everything's just like we discussed. Except when you do the switch, instead of Simone, it's gonna be Melanie. Melanie is lying on the couch, sprawled out like a cat. Louis sits at the other end of the couch. They're watching "Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry" on TV. ON TV Peter Fonda and Susan George make jokes as they're pursued by police cars. They can hear Ordell on the phone. Melanie smiling at Louis, flirtatiously and conspiratorially lifts her bare foot and rubs his arm with it. Louis turns to her and gives her a look that says: "I'm not on your side, bitch. So knock it of." Melanie sees this and takes her foot away. Louis turns back to the television. CLOSEUP MELANIE Looks at Louis for a moment, then sighs, saying under her breath; MELANIE Chicken shit. FADE TO BLACK TITLE CARD: "MONEY EXCHANGE 550,000" FADE UP: A GRAPHIC MAP With Mexico and California on it. On the Mexico side we see "CABO SAN LUCAS" with a big circle around it. On the California side we see "LAX" in a similar circle. The tiny figure of a black AIRPLANE appears in the Cabo circle. With appropriate SOUND EFFECTS it takes off from Cabo, flying towards LAX, leaving a dotted line behind it. The CAMERA moves into a CLOSEUP of the little black airplane. CUT TO: CLOSEUP JACKIE Looking down... INT. AIRPLANE BATHROOM - DAY Rearranging her bag. The five hundred thousand inside takes up half the space. She tucks lingerie around the edges, covers the money with blouses, shoes, and skirts and ties I all down tight. Then places a fat envelope with fifty thousand right on top. INT. CABIN - AIRPLANE - DAY Jackie steps out of the bathroom, walks down the aisle, and is stopped by a PASSENGER. PASSENGER Listen, Miss, I'm waiting for a drink and you spend half the fuckin' flight in the can. Soon as we land I'm making a formal complaint. JACKIE Why, because I called you an asshole. PASSENGER You didn't call me that. JACKIE I didn't? Oh, well, you're an asshole. INT. LAX PARKING STRUCTURE - DAY SUBTITLE APPEARS BELOW: "TIME: 3:00" Jackie steps into the LAX parking structure, pulling her bag on wheels behind her. Waiting for her is Ray Nicolet. NICOLET We have to stop meeting like this. They fall into step towards her car. JACKIE You said that the last time. NICOLET Well, it's true, isn't it? After his is buttoned up we could meet someplace else. What do you think? JACKIE We could, if I'm not in jail. NICOLET Oh, that's taken care of. I called the State Attorney's Office. You were no-filed this morning in Circuit Court. CLOSEUP JACKIE This information stops Jackie in her tracks. JACKIE Are you saying I'm off the hook? JACKIE'S POV Nicolet, who kept walking when Jackie stopped, looks back at Jackie. NICOLET Free as a bird. I still expect you to finish the job, though. How much do you have this time? Jackie starts walking again JACKIE Fifty thousand, like I said. He's pretty sure he's gonna need it for bail. INT. JACKIE'S HONDA - DAY Jackie and Nicolet in the parked car. Ray has the flight bag in his lap. He unzips it. He sees the clothes with the envelope on top. Jackie watches all of this. NICOLET That's fifty thousand, huh? It doesn't look like that much. JACKIE I was told ten thousand in each pack. NICOLET You didn't count it? JACKIE I never have. It's not my money. He puts the envelope back in the bag and feels through the folds of a skirt. NICOLET He might have slipped some coke in here. Did you check? Jackie, cool. JACKIE Mr. Walker promised he'd never do that again. Nicolet's fingers move to a pair of black heels wedged into the side... they touch the shoes... then move over to the envelope, opens the clasp and takes out five rubber-banded bond packets of loot. JACKIE (CONT'D) Ever been tempted? NICOLET What? To put one of these in my pocket? JACKIE Uh-huh. NICOLET If I did, I'd have to give you one, wouldn't I? Or we could take what we want. No one knows how much there is except us, right? JACKIE Yes. All those things are true. NICOLET After all, it don't belong to nobody, right? JACKIE That would be one point of view. NICOLET Yeah, well, it's not a point of view that A.T.F. shares. Once we make it evidence, it belongs to us. You are now officially out of trouble. Don't do nothing stupid, now. JACKIE How can I do anything if I'm being watched every second? NICOLET I'm glad you realize that. Saves me the trouble of pointing it out to you. (holding up the money) Put this in your shopping bag. It's what I expect to find when I look in Sheronda's. Comprende? JACKIE Si. INT. MAX CHERRY'S OFFICE - DAY Max Cherry sits behind his desk. WINSTON POWELL, the big black guy from the photo, is at the other desk on the phone. Max looks at his watch. SUBTITLE APPEARS BELOW: "TIME: 3:30" Max stands up, takes the sport coat from the back of his chair, putsit on, and walks over to Winston's desk. Winston, still on the phone, looks up. MAX I'm going out for a few hours. WINSTON (to phone) Hold on a minute. (to Max) Where you going? MAX I'm going to Del Amo, see a movie, get something to eat. WINSTON Watcha gonna see? MAX Whatever looks best and starts the soonest. WINSTON Have fun. Winston goes back to the phone. Max walks out of the office. EXT. SAM'S HOFFIN BRAUR - DAY Sam's Hoffin Braur (German for beer garden) is a strip joint bar in downtown L.A. INT SAM'S HOFFIN BRAUR - DAY Ordell's on the pay phone. A STRIPPER strips in the b.g. SUBTITLE APPEARS BELOW: "TIME: 3:47" ORDELL What the fuck are you two still doing there?! INT. MELANIE'S APARTMENT - DAY Louis stands in the empty living room, talking to Ordell on the phone. Kate Bush plays in the b.g. LOUIS I was ready to leave ten minutes ago. Ordell snaps at Louis, not so harsh Louis is forced to retaliate, but enough to express his loss of patience. ORDELL Well, you the one in motherfuckin' charge. LOUIS Well, she keeps saying 'in a minute.' ORDELL Go in there, snatch her by the hair, and drag her big ass out. This is my goddam money we're talking about. Get your ass out the door. He hangs up on Louis. Louis, pissed at being hung up on and talked to like that, hangs up the phone and turns his frustration where it rightly belongs - Melanie. Louis stomps towards the bedroom where the music's playing. LOUIS We're leaving now! MELANIE (O.S.) All right already. MONTAGE We see a montage of the individual characters in route to the mall. JACKIE In her Honda, smoking a cigarette, looking cool as usual, driving to the mall. Her car plays seventies soul. MAX In his Cadillac Seville, cruising down Hawthorne Boulevard to the mall. He plays hid Delfonics CD. LOUIS AND MELANIE In Melanie's Toyota drive towards the mall. Melanie drives singing along with Kate Bush on her car stereo. EXT. DEL AMO MALL PARKING LOT - DAY Jackie's car pulls up to a lined parking space in the parking lot. SUBTITLE APPEARS BELOW: "TIME 3:52" Jackie gets out of the Honda with her flight bag. She goes to her hatchback, takes a Robinson's/May bag, lines the first half of the bag with old paperbacks. Then takes out of the flight bag the envelope with the fifty-thousand marked dollars, takes one packet of ten thousand, and puts it in her pocket. She lines the envelope with forty thousand across the books, then fills the rest of the bag with beach towels. Then with her flight bag slung over her shoulder, carrying the Robinson's/May bag and with all the confidence of a world champion prize fighter going into the ring, she strides toward the hugs mall. INT. DEL AMO MALL - DAY Jackie enters the mall. She looks at the people buzzing around. Any one of them could be surveillance. She calmly walks down the mall, then turns into the Roinson's/May store. INT. ROBINSON'S/MAY - DESIGNER CLOTHES - DAY Jackie, in her Cabo Air uniform, walks up to a young Asian saleswoman named Amy in the Robinson's/May designer clothing area. The saleswoman smiles when she sees Jackie. AMY Can I help you? JACKIE Yes, you have a suit I've had my eye on. Jackie steps out of the fitting room wearing a real sharp, badass, black suit with a white blouse. AMY Oh, my God. You look so cool. Jackie moves over to the mirror, and checks herself out. JACKIE This looks pretty good on me. AMY Are you kidding, it looks great. You wear this to a business meeting, you're the badass in the room. But you can go out dancing in this too. It's a total power suit. Jackie studies her reflection. JACKIE I think I'm gonna just get this for today. I'm in kind of a hurry. Would you mind ringing this up while I change out of it? AMY Not a problem. JACKIE Thanks. Jackie walks into the fitting room. INT. FITTING ROOM - DAY She walks down the fitting room hallway with changing cubicles on her right, enters the last one. She closes the door and sits down on the bench in between her flight bag full of money and the Robinson's/May bag. A full-length mirror is straight I front of her. She looks at herself... when someone comes into the stall next to her. Melanie's voice comes from the other side of the wall. MEALNIE (O.S.) Jackie? JACKIE Hi, Melanie. MELANIE (O.S.) Are you getting that black suit? JACKIE Yeah, do you like it? MELANIE (O.S.) It looks good on you. JACKIE Do you got something for me? MELANIE (O.S.) You betcha. A Robinson's/May bag, like Jackie's, filled with towels, comes sliding underneath the stall. Jackie picks up her Robinson's/May bag, filled with books, towels and the marked forty-thousand dollars. She takes the loose packet of ten-thousand marked dollars and lies it on top of the bag. As she does all this Melanie continues talking. MELANIE (O.S.) (CONT'D) We coulda worked this. You know that, dontcha? You would've made out a lot better than you're going to, believe me. Jackie slides the Robinson's/May bag with money under the stall. Melanie sees the money on top and stops talking. JACKIE I put a little cherry on top. You're right. What the hell he ever do for us? MELANIE (O.S.) (quietly) Thanks. JACKIE Now be careful with that bag. You don't want it ripping open on you in the middle of the store. We hear the SOUND of Melanie leaving. Jackie then transfers the half of a million dollars out of her flight bag into Melanie's Robinson's/May bag. She sticks her uniform in the flight bag. Then takes the towels and puts them on top of the money. She grabs her flight bag and leaves, leaving behind the Robinson's/May bag filled with half of a million dollars. INT. DESIGNER CLOTHES - DAY Jackie, looking sharp in her new suit but acting a touch frantic and anxious, walks rapidly toward the sales counter where Amy waits for her. JACKIE I'm sorry, I just decided to stay in the suit - get out of that damn uniform. AMY Oh, that's not a problem. As Jackie and the salesgirl complete their transaction the CAMERA CIRCLES them, SLOWLY at first, but more RAPIDLY each go-around. They complete the transaction and as Jackie starts to leave, she stops and says to Amy; JACKIE Oh, somebody left a shopping bag in there. Looks like beach towels. She leaves. We follow her... INT. DEL AMO MALL - DAY ... Jackie walks out of Robinson's/May hurriedly into the main mall. The calm, cool stride we're used to with Jackie is completely gone. She stops, looks around, head darting from one direction to another. She looks in a panic. The CAMERA begins to twirl around her. She seems to be looking for something she doesn't see. She looks helpless and on the verge of tears. As the twirling CAMERA circles her, she screams; JACKIE Ray! Ray! I need you! Come out! She took the money. The CAMERA stops twirling. Nicolet, Dargus, and two other plainclothes cops, come running out of a store towards Jackie. As they reach her, a frantic Jackie yells; JACKIE (CONT'D) Melanie burst in the dressing room and took the money! CUT TO: EXT. PARKING LOT - DEL AMO MALL - DAY Louis and Melanie pull up to a lined parking space in Melanie's Toyota. SUBTITLE APPEARS BELOW: "TIME: 4:12" Louis is the first out of the car. LOUIS Come on, goddammit, we're late! INT. DEL AMO MALL - DAY We STEDICAM in front of them, Louis the rapid pacesetter, pulling Melanie behind him by the hand. Melanie carries the Robinson's/May switch bag. MELANIE Jesus Christ, get a grip, Louis. LOUIS We shoulda been there already and we woulda been if it hadn't been for your fuckin' around! They go inside Robinson's/May... INT. ROBINSON'S/MAY - DAY ... We STEDICAM into Robison's/May with them. We lose them for a moment behind racks of dresses and mannequins, but end up landing on Jackie in her black suit, looking in a mirror and talking to Amy on the Designer Clothes floor. AM ... You wear this to a business meeting, you're the badass in the room... We PAN away and find Louis and Melanie by a dress rack, watching Jackie. MELANIE That's a nice outfit on her. I'm gonna go over and look at this Michi Moon display. LOUIS Just stay right fuckin' here, all right? MELANIE Are you sweating? Louis' hand immediately goes to his forehead and touches dampness. MELANIE (CONT'D) Job a little too much for you? Louis shoots Melanie a hard convict look. Melanie smiles at him, feeling the stare, but too much of a natural-born smart ass to change. MELANIE I'll be over here. You're too conspicuous. Louis looks over at the fitting room. Jackie is going inside it, and the saleswoman is walking away towards him. He watches the saleswoman walk by him, then looks back in time to see Melanie enter the fitting room. LOUIS (under his breath) Goddammit, not till I tell ya. He decides he's watching the fitting room entrance too much, so he starts throwing his look around when he sees something that stops him cold. MAX CHERRY Max is looking at dresses, paying no attention to the fitting room. He thinks, 'what the fuck is Max Cherry doing here?' Max, doing what he's doing, looks up and sees Louis staring at him across the floor. Max smiles and gives Louis a wave before turning his back to him and continues to do what he was doing. He quickly looks around the store to see anything else; any more surprise guests, possible police surveillance. Everything looks normal. The saleswoman is behind the register ringing up Jackie's purchase. The few customers there are doing customer stuff. Then he sees Melanie come out with a Robinson's/May bag and head down a different aisle. He hurries down his aisle and cuts her off. Their whole fight is said tense and low. LOUIS What are you doin'? MELANIE I'm getting out of here. What do you think? LOUIS Lemme have the bag. MELANIE Fuck you. I can carry it. She tries to push past him, and he catches her by her arm and pulls her around. LOUIS Goddam you. Gimme that bag, MELANIE Watch it, dipshit. You wanna rip the fuckin' bag? LOUIS Gimme that bag before I knock you out and take it. Melanie realizes Louis ain't fuckin' kiddin'. Not only that, this old guy looks close to buggin'. She lets go of the bag. MELANIE Okay, okay. Take it. Jesus, what's wrong with you? He takes it. They start walking. We STEDICAM in front of them. LOUIS I'm carrying it. MELANIE Okay, you got it. Just take a chill pill, for christ sake. Louis has had enough of her slang and says tensely through gritted teeth; LOUIS Fuck you with your chill pill. In mid-walk, Melanie asks him; MELANIE Remember where we came in? Louis stops dead. He looks around, confused. MELANIE (CONT'D) (like a teacher on Romper Room) Nooo, that's towards Sears. We came in through Bullocks. I know where it is. Want to follow me, Lou-is? Pissed, he leaves FRAME. Melanie, wearing her Melanie smirk, follows behind. EXT. PARKING LOT - DEL AMO MALL - DAY Louis, clutching the shopping bag close to his chest, walks rapidly down an aisle of parked cars. Melanie follows close behind. We STEDICAM alongside. We walk for awhile, Louis changes direction to another aisle. WE'RE NOW IN FRONT of him. We see he has a searching look on his face. MELANIE You have no idea where you parked, do you? Louis doesn't answer. Melanie laughs. MELANIE (CONT'D) Jesus, but if you two aren't the biggest fuck-ups I've ever seen in my life... How did you ever rob a bank? When you robbed banks, did you have to look for your car then too? No wonder you went to jail. Louis could kill her right now. Just take his gun out of his pants and shoot her in her snickering face. But instead of doing what he wants, he does what he should. He doesn't answer of look back. (If he looked back and saw that Melanie-smirk, he couldn't e responsible for what happens.)He changes directions, cuts down another aisle and hopes for both their sakes she shuts the fuck up. But our Melanie just keeps on being Melanie. MELANIE (CONT'D) Is it this aisle, Lou-is? LOUIS Yeah, down the end. MELANIE You sure? They walk it; it's not it. Louis changes direction and cuts between some cars to the next one. MELANIE (CONT'D) Is it this aisle or the next one over? LOUIS This one. MELANIE You sure? In between two cars, Louis spins on her. LOUIS Don't say anything else, okay? I'm telling you, keep your mouth shut. Melanie was surprised by the spin, but is about to say something anyway when Louis put his hand up and says; LOUIS I mean it. Don't say one fuckin' word. MELANIE Okay, Lou-is. That did it! Louis whips out the Beretta Ordell gave him, shoots her... BAM... in the belly. She bounces OFF one of the cars and goes down. BAM... Louis shoots her again on the ground. One; to make sure. Two; cause it felt good. Then he hurries of for his car. WE FOLLOW IN FRONT OF HIM. He looks around, then yells out; LOUIS See, just where I fuckin' said it was! He hops in the car, and throws it into reverse. We can se Melanie's bare legs sticking out from a row of cars. Louis stops the Toyota alongside the dead Melanie, and yells through the passenger window; LOUIS Hey, look. I found it! He drives away. CUT TO: EXT. PARKING LOT - DEL AMO MALL - DAY Max Cherry's Cadillac Seville pulls up to a lined space in the parking lot. SUBTITLE APPEARS BELOW: "TIME: 4:04" Max gets out of his car and casually strolls towards the Del Amo Mall. INT. ROBINSON'S/MAY - DAY Max, hands in pocket, strolls unhurriedly through the Robinson's/May store. He walks around the store, keeping one eye peeled toward the Designer Clothes section. He walks up to a jewelry counter and begins looking at he pieces in the display case, when a pretty, young SALESGIRL comes up to him. SALESGIRL Can I show you something? MAX Not right now. I'm just killing time waiting for my wife. But thanks, anyway. SALESGIRL Sure thing. If anything grabs you, don't be shy. MAX Thanks, I won't. She goes off. He looks towards Designer Clothes and sees Jackie walking out of the fitting room wearing the cool black suit. AMY Oh, my God. You look so cool. Jackie moves over to the mirror and checks herself out. Max looks back to the jewelry display case, saying under his breath; MAX (CONT'D) (low) And away we go. Jackie looks at her reflection in the mirror. Then she lifts her eyes, meeting Max's across the room. Max gives her a nod of his head to show he approves. Jackie smiles and breaks contact, turning to Amy. We hear her say from a distance. "This looks pretty good on me." Max hears a commotion behind him and turns to see Louis and Melanie hurriedly making their way towards Designer Clothes. He turns his attention back to browsing through dresses on a rack. He sees Louis and Melanie squabbling. He sees Jackie disappear into the fitting room. He sees Amy leaving the fitting room entrance. He watches Melanie, by herself, watch Amy leave. Melanie watches the fitting room for a few moments. Gathering her courage, then makes her move, entering the fitting room. Max smiles to himself, "so far so good" he thinks. He throws a look towards Louis, only to see Louis staring dead at him with an unhappy look on his face. Max returns the look with a smile and a wave then turns his back on his before he can see a reaction. Max continues his fake browsing. He sees Melanie come out of the fitting room carrying a Robinson's/May bag close to her chest. She and Louis disappear. He sees Jackie come out of the fitting room, go over to Amy and buy the dress. Jackie goes into her act, acting agitated and distracted as she talks to Amy, pays with cash, then leaves stopping to say; JACKIE Oh, somebody left a shopping bag in there. Looks like beach towels. She's gone. Amy is left alone by the cashier counter. It's Max's turn. As Max looks at Amy, then at the fitting room entrance, he says to himself; MAX Max, old boy. You've spent nineteen years dealing with people who take incredible risks. You walk over to that counter, you're gonna find out what it's like. Max takes a few moments... ... then walks over to Amy. MAX Excuse me, but my wife thinks she left a bag of beach towels in the fitting room? AMY Yeah, I think they're back there. Go get 'em. There's nobody in there. I think they're in the last stall. MAX Thanks. Max walks toward the fitting room, enters it, walks down the length of stalls, and stops in front of the last one. He opens the door to the stall. Sitting in the corner is the Robinson's/May bag. He walks over to it, lifts out the towels, and sees all that money. He replaces the towels, picks up the bag and leaves. HE walks across the Designer Clothes, passes by Amy, says; MAX Got 'em, thanks. AMY Sure thing. Max walks unhurriedly toward the door that leads to the parking lot. EXT. PARKING LOT - DEL AMO MALL - DAY He's outside; nobody's stopped him. He keeps walking towards his blue Seville. He keeps walking unhurriedly, never looking back. He gets to his car, uses opening the car door as an excuse to look back at the mall. It's normal. Nobody's after him, nobody's watching him. He made it. It worked. Max allows himself a smile, gets into his Cadillac with his half-a-million bucks and drives away. INT. SAM'S HOFFIN BRAUS - DAY Ordell sits at the bar in Sam's drinking a screwdriver and watching a stripper strip. BARTENDER There a Ordell here? ORDELL That's me. The bartender hands him the phone. BARTENDER Don't talks all day. Ordell takes the receiver. INT. TOYOTA (MOVING) - DAY A stressed Louis drives the Toyota, calling Ordell on Ordell's tiny cellular. LOUIS It's Louis. ORDELL (now into phone) Did you get it? LOUIS I got it. Listen, there's something else I have to tell you. ORDELL When I see you. Pick me up at Sam's. You count the money? LOUIS I haven't even looked at it yet, it's still in the shopping bag. ORDELL Melanie must be dyin' to see it. (pause) Louis. LOUIS That's what I got to talk to you about. You see, Melanie was giving me a hard time - ORDELL - Not now, pick me up. Louis hears the phone disconnect. EXT. SAM'S HOFFIN BRAUR - DAY The Toyota pulls up to the back of the bar. Ordell hops in, the car takes off. INT. TOYOTA (MOVING) - DAY Oredell in the passenger seat, bends over to the backseat, grabs the shopping bag, and brings it to his lap. He looks like a kid at Christmas. ORDELL You keep drivin' down Ninth, to where they got all them car dealerships. We're gonna leave this heap in a parking lot and get one the cops don't know about. (pause) Hey, where's Melanie? LOUIS That's what I gotta tell you. She bugged me the whole time. Got pissy with me 'cause I wouldn't let her carry the bag. Started running her fuckin' mouth... I couldn't remember right away when we came out where the car was parked, so she got on me about that. "Is it this aisle Lou-is, is it that one?" She was totally fuckin' with my nerves. ORDELL So what, you left her there. LOUIS I shot her. Ordell just looks at him. LOUIS (CONT'D) I expect she's dead. Ordell still doesn't say anything... then says; ORDELL You shot Melanie? LOUIS Twice. In the parking lot. ORDELL Couldn't talk to her? LOUIS You know how she is. ORDELL You couldn't just hit her? LOUIS Maybe... but at that moment... I dunno... ORDELL You shot her twice? LOUIS Uh-huh. ORDELL So you're sure she's dead. LOUIS Pretty sure. ORDELL Where did you shoot her? LOUIS In the chest and stomach. ORDELL Well, if you had to do it, you had to do it. What we don't want is that bitch surviving on us. Anybody but that woman. Ordell shrugs it off, and digs into the shopping bag. He pulls out the towels and sees forty-thousand dollars on top of a bunch of paperbacks. His stomach drops. He just looks inside the bag for the longest time. Louis drives, oblivious to Ordell's dilemma. ORDELL (CONT'D) (quiet) Louis? LOUIS (not looking at him) What? ORDELL Where's the rest of it? LOUIS (looking at him) How much it there? ORDELL Maybe forty, maybe not that much. LOUIS You said five hundred and fifty! ORDELL (calm) So you light, ain't you. You light about a half-a-million. LOUIS Look, that's the bag she came out with. She never even put her hand in it, and neither did I. ORDELL Came outta where? LOUIS The fitting room. It went down exactly the way it was supposed to. ORDELL How long was she in there? LOUIS Maybe a minute. She came right out. ORDELL Louis, You tellin' me the truth? LOUIS Look, I swear to fucking god, she came out with that bag and I took it from her. ORDELL Then what? LOUIS We went to the parking lot. ORDELL Where you shot her. LOUIS That's right. ORDELL You sure she ain't somewhere with a half-a-million dollars I worked my ass off to earn? Louis looks at Ordell; LOUIS (quietly) Fuck you for asking me that. ORDELL Pull the car over. Louis pulls it over, and stops on Ninth. ORDELL (CONT'D) What'd you shoot her with? LOUIS It's in there. Ordell opens the glove box and takes out the Beretta. He smells the end of the barrel. He releases the magazine. LOUIS (CONT'D) What's that gonna tell you" If I was really pullin' a burn, I'd have taken two out, wouldn't I? I thought you trusted me. Ordell looks at him. Louis didn't burn him. CLOSEUP ORDELL He thinks. DISSOLVE TO: CLOSEUP JACKIE Holding a bunch of money, looking into the camera, and saying with a smile; JACKIE Gotcha, nigga. DISSOLVE BACK TO: CLOSEUP ORDELL Jackie's gonna die. He slaps the magazine back into the Beretta. ORDELL Okay, so it was Jackie Brown. LOUIS If she's got it, why didn't she take it all? ORDELL 'fore I blow that bitch's brains out, I'll ask her. LOUIS Maybe the Feds got it. ORDELL If there were nothin; in here but towels, maybe she didn't get a chance to take it from her suitcase and A.T.F. got it. But, she put these fuckin' books in here to trick our ass. LOUIS That's why I never checked it. The bag felt right. ORDELL Then she throws forty thousand in here, to rub the shit in my face, know what I'm saying? She wants me to know she ripped me off. LOUIS I don't know. Either she has it or the Feds. ORDELL Or... (pause) ... she gave it to somebody else first, before Melanie went in the dressing room. It gets real quiet in the car, as Louis remembers something. LOUIS Jesus Christ. ORDELL What? LOUIS You know who I saw in the dress department? ORDELL Tell me. LOUIS I didn't really think anything of it. No - I did wonder what he was doing there, but didn't think it had anything to do with us. You know like maybe he was there with his wife or girlfriend. ORDELL You gonna tell me who it was? LOUIS Max Cherry. Ordell has to look away from Louis, takes a beat, then looks back. ORDELL You see Max Cherry in the dress department. We're about to be handed half-a-million dollars - Man, look at me when I'm talking to you! And you don't think nothing of him being there! LOUIS Do Max Cherry and Jackie Brown know each other? ORDELL Hell, yes, they know each other. He bonded her out of county. LOUIS How am I supposed to know that? ORDELL You know the motherfucker's a bail bondsman, don't ya? You know every last one of them motherfuckers is crooked as hell? LOUIS Why should I think anything's weird, if I don't know nothin' about them knowing each other? ORDELL Man, I don't want to hear your fuckin' excuses! Louis gets mad. LOUIS I ain't givin' you fuckin' excuses, I'm givin' you reasons. ORDELL Oh, you gonna tell me the reason you lost all the goddam money I got in the world! Let me tell you the reason, motherfucker! The reason is, your ass ain't worth a shit no more! Louis turns into the hard convict on the yard, and tells Ordell; LOUIS (hard) You best back off. We hear a BAM. Louis jerks. Ordell shot him. Louis falls back against the car door, eyes wide open, staring at Ordell. Ordell takes the pistol, works the barrel up higher on Louis' side, right under him arm, and shoots him again. This time Louis' head BANGS against the car door window. He slumps over - his life gone. Ordell looks at him. ORDELL What the fuck happened to you, man? Shit, your ass use'ta be beautiful. Ordell takes the bag and gets out of the car, leaving Louis' dead body there. DISSOLVE TO: MEDIUM NICOLET NICOLET You didn't tell me you were gonna do some shopping. INT. NICOLET'S OFFICE (A.T.F. HEADQUARTERS) - DAY Jackie, still dressed in her cool black suit, sits in a chair in Nicolet's office. Davidoff between the fingers of one hand, she holds a small, white styrofoam cup of coffee in he other. Ray stands. JACKIE I thought I did. NICOLET You didn't. I would think with all this on your mind, you'd wait till after. JACKIE I got there early. I've had my eye on this suit - Wait, let's start over. I got there early. The idea was to try on the suit, see if I liked it. If I did, get them to wrap it up, and change back into my uniform. That's what Sheronda's expecting me to wear. Go meet Sheronda, give her the bag with fifty thousand, and go home. NICOLET But you didn't do that. JACKIE Because I didn't have it. Ray, I swear, Melanie came in and grabbed it. (pause) And someone killed her for it. Nicolet looks at Jackie for a moment. NICOLET Where's the bag she gave you? JACKIE She didn't give me one. I told you before, Melanie wasn't part of the plan. Ordell must of told her to do it. She bursts in, grabs the shopping bag, and takes off. What am I supposed to do, go after her? I'm in my fucking underwear. I had to get dressed before I could do anything. So I put this back on 'cause could put this on faster than I could my uniform. NICOLET You took the time to pay the saleswoman. JACKIE I had to. I was frantic. I didn't know what to do. NICOLET What did you do after that? JACKIE I went looking for you. I went straight to the bookstore, 'cause that's where you were last time, but you weren't there. How the hell else am I supposed to let anybody know what happened? You didn't tell me how to do that, did you? I knew I was under surveillance, so when I couldn't spot anybody, I started yelling. NICOLET There was a guy with Melanie? JACKIE Not in the fitting room. CUT TO: A YOUNG WOMAN A.T.F SURVEILLANCE AGENT Pretends to shop. She watches Louis grab Melanie. NICOLET (V.O.) We had our agent on you. She sees a blonde come out of the fitting room carrying a Robinson's/May bag and tussle with a tough-looking white guy. The white guy takes the shopping bag and they go. BACK TO OFFICE NICOLET This guy with Melanie, that was Louis Gara? JACKIE I didn't see him. I was in my underwear. If it was a white guy, it was probably Louis. He kill Melanie? NICOLET It's possible. You're saying you don't have any idea what happened to that fifty thousand? JACKIE I have no idea. NICOLET You'd take a polygraph on it? JACKIE If it'll make you happy. NICOLET I sure hope you haven't done anything dumb Jackie. Dargus comes to the doorway... DARGUS (to Nicolet) Can I have a word with you? NICOLET Sure. They both leave, leaving Jackie all by herself in the room, smoking. They both come back in. Nicolet continues, Dargus takes a seat in the corner saying nothing. NICOLET (CONT'D) Louis Gara's dead. L.A.P.D. found him dead in a car on Ninth. And we've lost Ordell. JACKIE I thought you were watching him. NICOLET We were, and we lost him. He walked into a strip bar sometime around three thirty and never came out. The bar was on Ninth, less than a mile- and-a-half from where Louis was found dead. It looks like Louis's friend shot him twice at point blank range. JACKIE So what happens now? NICOLET We pick up Ordell. We've got three murders we can link him to. We have the storage unit where he keeps his guns, by tomorrow we'll have a search warrant to go in and get him. And we have you. JACKIE What about me? NICOLET What about you? JACKIE Do you think I took some of that money? NICOLET I have no evidence of your taking anything. You didn't pay for your snazzy new suit with marked bills; I was glad to see that. You've been helping us out, you gave us Melanie and Louis. Melanie had a packet of marked bills stuffed in her shorts when they found her, which goes a long way backing up your story. Jackie listens. NICOLET (CONT'D) I'll settle for Ordell with the marked bills. NICOLET If you have something else going on you haven't told me about, it's between you and Ordell. All I gotta say is, you better hope we find him before he finds you. DISSOLVE TO: CLOSEUP ORDELL On the phone. ORDEL ... I can't leave here today... Mr. Walker, I ain't goin' nowhere till I get my money... You wouldn't have that fuckin' boat weren't for me. Man, I'm learnin' real fast who my friends are... Mr. Walker? INT. FILTHY APARTMENT - DAY Ordell turn to a glassy-eyed black female junkie nodding on the couch named RAYNELLE. The filthy apartment we're in belongs to her. ORDELL Can you believe that shit? Motherfucker hung up on me. Ingrate nigger. Do things for people and that's how they treat you. Goddamn girl, how can you live like this? He dials another number. RAYNELLE (stoned) Like what? ORDELL Girl, this shit is repugnant. WINSTON (O.S.) (on other end of phone) Cherry Bail Bonds. ORDELL Let me speak to Max Cherry. INT. CHERRY BAIL BONDS - DAY Winston behind his desk, on the phone. WINSTON He ain't here right now. ORDELL He leave town? WINSTON He's around. ORDELL Give me his home number. WINSTON I'll give you his beeper. CUT TO: A YOUNG BLACK COMEDIAN ON TV Def Comedy Jam plays on TV, a black comedian does a nasty stand-up routine. INT. FILTHY APARTMENT - NIGHT Ordell and Raynelle sit on the couch watching Def Comedy Jam; neither one is laughing. Raynelle's too stoned. Ordell's too tense. The phone rings, he jumps on it ORDELL Hello. INT. CHERRY BAIL BONDS - NIGHT Max on the other end behind his desk. Winston sitting on the edge of the desk listening. MAX I've been looking for you. Ordell's up and off the couch pacing. ORDELL You know who this is? MAX Mister Robbie, isn't it? I have the ten thousand you put up. Isn't that why you called. Ordell doesn't say anything. MAX (CONT'D) The bond collateral on Beaumont Livingston you moved over to cover Miss Brown, remember? ORDELL She got off, huh? MAX They decided to no-file. Tell me where you are and I'll bring you your money. Ordell doesn't say anything. MAX (CONT'D) You still there? ORDELL Looky here, I know you helped her and I know you know what I want Jackie can tell me any story come in that pretty head of hers. Long as at the end of that story, she hands over my money. She do that, we're still friends. Now, she don't wanna be my friend no more, tell her to think about ol' Louis. And if she tries to turn me in, I'll name her ass as my accessory. We'll go upstate together. Hand in handcuffed hand. Now that shit's a promise, understand what I'm sayin'? You tell her that, and I'll call you back. Ordell hangs up. Back in control. He looks to the TV. One of the COMEDIANS cracks a joke. Ordell laughs. Max looks at Winston. MAX You're right, that was Ordell. You have time, you think you could find out for me where he's staying? WINSTON Cops can't locate him, huh? MAX They don't have your winning personality. WINSTON Sure thing. I don't have to know what I'm doing, long as you know. MAX I think I do. Is that good enough? EXT. MOTEL - NIGHT A low-rent motel. We hear a phone ring inside one of the rooms. INT. MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Jackie lies on a hotel bed, wearing a long t-shirt and panties, watching TV that's chained to the wall. She answers the phone. JACKIE Hello. INT. MAX'S OFFICE - NIGHT Max on the phone in his office, alone. MAX I know where he is. This gets her attention. She picks up the remote to the TV set and zaps the sound. JACKIE How'd you find out? MAX All Winston had to do was ask around. Ordell's living in Long Beach with a woman junkie. JACKIE How does Winston find him if A.T.F. and all the local Police can't? MAX People talk to Winston. He's street, same as them, they trust him. They get busted, they know somebody who can bond them out. I thought I might drop in on him. He'll no doubt be surprised to see me. JACKIE He's liable to shoot you. MAX On the phone I told him I have the ten thousand he put up for your bond. I could bring the money and the papers for him to sign. Walk out and call the Sheriff's department. Jackie gets off the bed. JACKIE Ray wants him. MAX Everybody wants him, he's a homicide suspect. It doesn't matter who brings him in, he's gonna name you as an accessory. Jackie lights up a Davidoff. JACKIE That's why A.T.F.'s gotta make the case. I'm their witness. They wouldn't have a case without me. If it's his word against mine, who are they gonna believe? MAX It's not that simple. Phone in one hand, smoke in the other, Jackie begins pacing back and forth. JACKIE It never was, so I'm not gonna start worrying about it now. Look, Ray more or less believes my story, and he more or less doesn't care. All he really gives a shit about is getting Ordell. MAX So how do we give Ordell to Nicolet? JACKIE Get Ordell to come to your office. MAX Set him up. JACKIE Uh-huh. MAX Tell him you want to see him? JACKIE Tell him I want to give him his money. MAX Why? JACKIE I've chickened out. I'm afraid of him. He'll like that. MAX What do you tell Nicolet? JACKIE Ordell called and wants to meet me and I'm scared. MAX We get Ordell to come to my office. Nicolet - is he already there, or does he come busting in while we're chatting? Jackie takes a drag. JACKIE He's already there. MAX What if he hears something he's not supposed to? JACKIE Well, we don't let that happen, now do we? EXT. FILTHY APARTMENT - NIGHT Max at the front door or Raynelle's apartment. He pounds on the door. Ordell throws open the door. ORDELL What the fuck you doin' knockin on the door like the goddamn police? You lookin' to get shot? MAX I thought you might be asleep. ORDELL You keep fuckin' with me, you're gonna be asleep forever. He looks past Max. MAX I'm alone. ORDELL Git your ass in here. Max enters, Ordell slams the door. As Ordell turns away from the door, Maxis reaching into his coat. Ordell brings his Beretta up at Max. ORDELL You better freeze, motherfucker! Max freezes, his hand in his coat pocket. MAX You want your money? Your bond refund? He takes his hand out, it's holding stack of bills wrapped in a rubber band. He tosses it to Ordell, who catches it with his free hand. ORDELL That's all? MAX I have a bond receipt for you to sign. ORDELL You know what the fuck I'm talkin' about. You talk to her? MAX She wants to give you your money. If she didn't, there'd be cops batter- ramming the door right now. ORDELL How'd you find me? MAX Winston found you. ORDELL How the fuck did he find me? MAX That's what Winston does. He finds people who don't want to be found. ORDELL Well, bully for that nigga. You say she wants to give me the money, huh? MAX Uh-huh. ORDELL Well, give it to me then. MAX She wants to give it to you herself and collect her ten percent. She also wants to explain why she had to hold on to it. ORDELL I'd like to hear that too. Turn around and put your hands on your head. Max does this, Ordell pats him down. MAX Jackie didn't trust Melanie. She'd already tried to get Jackie to go in with her, split the half million amongst themselves. What she did was take quite a risk to see you get your money. ORDELL Lift up your pant leg. You help her? MAX All I did was walk out with it. ORDELL And you did that to protect my interest? MAX In a way, yes. ORDELL My ass be dumb, but I'm not a dumbass. Go sit over there on the couch. Max does. MAX This place stinks. ORDELL You get used to it after a while. Now tell me where my money's at. MAX My office. ORDELL And where's Jackie? MAX She's been there since Thursday night. ORDELL She wanted to see me, why wasn't she home? MAX She was afraid. ORDELL (laughs) That I gotta see. MAX She still is. She doesn't want to get shot before she can tell you what happened. ORDELL Have her bring the money here. MAX It's in the safe. She can't get at it. ORDELL Call her, tell her the combination. MAX I'm telling you, you got her spooked. She won't leave there till you have your money and you're gone. ORDELL You expect me to just walk in there? MAX If she wanted to set you up, you'd be in custody right now. When you said you'd name her as an accessory she believed you. That scares her more than anything. ORDELL That's why she's givin' up my money huh? Not that bullshit about Melanie. I didn't trust her ass neither, but I knew how to handle her. She was my blonde-headed little surfer gal. I fuckin' told Louis he could've just given her a punch in the mouth, he didn't need to shoot her. She's at your office. MAX Uh-huh. ORDELL By herself. That big mandingo nigga Winston ain't there, is he? MAX She's all alone. ORDELL I call your office, she better answer the phone. MAX She will. INT. CHERRY BAIL BONDS - NIGHT Jackie on the phone with Ordell, sitting behind Max's desk. JACKIE I'll be here. Se ya' in a bit. She hangs up the phone. Then starts dialing again... INT. RAY NICOLET'S APARTMENT - NIGHT A STEDICAM glides through the apartment, it falls on a beeper "beeping", a gun, a wallet and car keys on a dresser drawer... it leaves that and lands on a TV screen: Tom Snyder is interviewing a guest on his show ... it leaves that and falls on two empty and one quarter- filled beer bottles... it leaves that and falls on a sleeping Ray Nicolet passed out in his reclining chair. The sound of Tom Snyder and the faint beeping are heard offscreen. EXT. FILTHY APARTMENT - NIGHT They leave the apartment walking to Max's car. ORDELL All the time I've known her, I never heard her sound scared like that. Ordinarily she's too cool for school. I'm driving, gimme the keys. Max hands him the keys. They climb in. INT. CHERRY BAIL BONDS - NIGHT Jackie sitting behind the desk. She opens the drawer to her right, Max's .38 sits there. She closes the drawer. INT. CADILLAC (MOVING) - NIGHT Ordell behind the wheel, Max the passenger. Ordell plays the radio, he likes the song and turns it up. BACK TO JACKIE Sitting alone in the office, she gets up and turns off the lights. The office goes dark. No music. BACK TO ORDELL AND MAX The song plays LOUD. Ordell moves his head to the music slightly. Mak sits silently in the passenger seat, sneaking a look at Ordell every once in a while. BACK TO JACKIE Sitting behind Max's desk in the dark. She takes out her Davidoffs and lights one up with her Bic. Her face is illuminated for a moment - then it's out. She exhales a drag. No music. BACK TO ORDELL CLOSEUP ORDELL His face is ice, the music is LOUD. BACK TO JACKIE CLOSEUP JACKIE She's cool as a breeze, smoking her brand. No music. BACK TO ORDELL AND MAX Music is LOUD. Ordell's driving. Max says; MAX It's the next street. ORDELL I know where it is. MAX Turn left. ORDELL I know where to turn. BACK TO JACKIE Sitting behind Max's desk. Headlights shine in the window. She is lit by them. She puts out her Davidoff and sits back in the chair. The light source cuts off. BACK TO ORDELL AND MAX Sitting in the parked Cadillac. Ordell has just turned off the lights and turns to Max, Beretta in hand. ORDELL My money's in that office, right? MAX Uh-huh. ORDELL She starts givin' me some bullshit about it ain't there. It's somewhere else and we can go get it. (he holds up his Beretta) I'm shootin' you in the head right then and there. Then I'm gonna shoot her in the kneecap, find out where my godamn money is. I go walkin' in there and that nigga Winston or anybody else is in there, you're the first man shot, understand what I'm sayin'? MAX Yeah. ORDELL Now, is there anything you want to tell me before we get out of this car? MAX No. ORDELL You sure? MAX Yes. ORDELL You better be, motherfucker. EXT. CHERRY BAIL BONDS - NIGHT They both get out of the Cadillac. Ordell sticks his gun in his pants. ORDELL Get ahead of me and open the door. Max steps in front of him, puts his keys in the lock and opens the door. ORDELL (CONT'D) Step inside easy. Max does. Max sees; Jackie sitting at his desk in the dark. Ordell sees this, too and moves past Max. ORDELL (CONT'D) Hey, girl, what the hell you sitting in the goddamn dark for? Max sees; Ordell moves past him... then he sees the bathroom door on the left side of the desk open, throwing light into the room, onto Jackie and the figure who steps out of the bathroom... Mark Dargus. Max sees; Ordell looks to Dargus, then back to Jackie. Then Jackie says; JACKIE Mark... (raising her voice) ... he's got a gun! Max sees; Ordell almost jumps, his arm goes to the Beretta in his pants... ... just as Dargus raises his gun and SHOOTS him three times in the chest... ... Ordell drops o the ground like a sack of potatoes, he lands at Max's feet. Max looks down and sees Ordell's head by his shoes, look of panic still on his face, dead as fried chicken. Max sees Dargus come over, bending on one nee next to Ordell's body. Max looks over at Jackie, still behind the desk. She looks eyes with Max for a moment, then stands and walks over to the body. Then Max sees ONE SHERIFF DEPUTY step out of the dark holding a shogun ... then another... then Winston step out of the bathroom. DARGUS He's dead. Dargus looks up at Max; DARGUS (CONT'D) Does he have the marked bills on him? Max still shaken; MAX In his inside coat pocket. Dargus reaches in and pulls out the envelope containing the forty-thousand marked dollars. Max looks at Jackie. She looks down at the dead Ordell with no expression, just light up another Davidoff. Dargus looks up at Max; DARGUS Why were you with him? MAX I went to give him his refund, so he wouldn't have to come here. DARGUS How'd you know where he was? MAX I found out. DARGUS And you didn't tell the Police? MAX I told Jackie, and Jackie said you wanted him. Dargus looks down at he man he just killed. JACKIE Remember when Ray said you hoped you'd get him before he got me? Dargus looks up and nods his head. JACKIE (CONT'D) Well, you did. Thank you. She takes a drag on her Davidoff. FADE TO BLACK INT. CHERRY BAIL BONDS - DAY As opposed to the last scene late at night, it's early morning. Max sits at his desk, filling out a report. A SUB-TITLE APPEARS BELOW: "TEN DAYS LATER" Max hears someone go; JACKIE (O.S.) Knock knock. Max looks up and sees Jackie Brown, standing in the doorway. She smiles at him. JACKIE (CONT'D) Hey. MAX FLASHES ON Jackie behind the desk. JACKIE (CONT'D) Mark... he's got a gun! Dargus shoots Ordell, Ordell drops. BACK TO OFFICE Max smiles back. MAX Hey, you. Jackie walks toward him. JACKIE I got your package. It was fun getting a half-a-million dollars in the mail. MAX Less ten percent. JACKIE Yeah, your fee. I had to figure that out, since there wasn't no note. She sits in the chair in front of his desk. JACKIE (CONT'D) Only this isn't a bail bond, Max. MAX I hesitated taking that much. JACKIE You worked for it - if you're sure that's all you want. MAX I'm sure. Pause between them. JACKIE I'm leaving, I have my things in my car. Why don't you walk out with me? I want to show you something. Max hesitates. JACKIE (CONT'D) Come on, Max. I won't hurt you. He smiles and gets up from the desk. As she stands, Jackie says; JACKIE (CONT'D) I saw Ray the other day. Boy is he pissed he missed all the excitement. MAX What's he doing? JACKIE He's on to a new thing. He's after a guy who owns a gun shop he says is "woefully and wantonly" selling assault rifles to minors. He says he's gonna take him down if it's the last thing he does. MAX Did you tell him you were leaving? JACKIE I told him I might. EXT. CHERRY BAIL BONDS - DAY They walk outside and Max sees Ordell's black Mercedes convertible. MAX That's Ordell's. JACKIE They've confiscated all his other stuff. But this one's sorta left over. The registration's in the glove box, the keys were under the seat... What's a matter" haven't you ever borrowed someone's car? MAX Not after they're dead. She walks around to the other side of the car, and looks at him across the black Mercedes. JACKIE I didn't use you, Max. MAX I didn't say you did. JACKIE I never lied to you. MAX I know. JACKIE We're partners. MAX I'm fifty-five-years old. I can't blame anybody for anything I do. JACKIE Do you blame yourself for helping me? He shakes his head 'no.' JACKIE (CONT'D) 'd feel a whole lot better if you took some more money. MAX (smiling) You'll get over that. Jackie smiles. MAX (CONT'D) Where're you going? JACKIE Spain. MAX Madrid or Barcelona? JACKIE Start off in Madrid. Ever been there? He shakes his head 'no.' JACKIE (CONT'D) I hear they don't eat dinner till midnight. Max doesn't say anything. JACKIE Wanna go? MAX Thanks, but you have a good time. JACKIE Sure I can't twist your arm? MAX Thank you for saying that, but no. My business. JACKIE I thought you were tired of your business? MAX I'm just tired in general. JACKIE Are you scared of me? Max smiles and holds up two fingers, close to each other. MAX A little bit. Jackie smiles back. JACKIE Come over here. Max does. They give each other a long, tender kiss. She breaks it. JACKIE (CONT'D) I'll send you a postcard, partner. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Jacob's Ladder.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jacob's Ladder.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e88d83738cb0926cd794e4246c2bbeaa47db3801 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jacob's Ladder.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +"JACOB'S LADDER"byBruce Joel RubinEXT. VIETNAM - DUSKA swarm of helicopters swoops out of a yellow sky and deposits an army of men over a Vietnamese hillside.The SOLDIERS scramble over the terraced rice paddies for the protection of the jungle. Falling into coulmns, like strands of soldier ants, seventy-five men, at combat readiness, assemble on the edge of a sweltering wilderness.It is dusk. The mood is lazy, soporific. Members of one platoon huddle close to the ground smoking a joint. JERRY Strong stuff. ROD (to JACOB, a soldier squatting several yards away) Hey, Professor, how many times can you shit in an hour? GEORGE Don't bug 'im. DOUG Where are those gooks already? FRANK Some offensive. I don't even think they're out there. PAUL Jesus, this grass is something else.JACOB SINGER returns to the group, pulling up his pants. ROD Why even bother to pull 'em up? FRANK You jackin' off out there again, huh Jake? PAUL Hey, get off his back. ROD It's called philosophizing, right Professor?JACOB gives them the finger. JACOB Up yours, you adolescent scum.Laughter. SERGEANT (V.O.) Mount your bayonets. FRANK (frightened) Oh shit! PAUL Goddam! ROD Gimme that joint! JERRY Hey, something's wrong. GEORGE What is it? JERRY My head. GEORGE It's nerves. Take another toke.GEORGE reaches out, extending a joint. Suddenly he gasps and falls to the ground, his body convulsing uncontrollably. The others stand back, startled. JACOB grabs him and shoves a rifle barrel between his chattering teeth. ROD What's going on?Before anyone can answer JERRY grabs his head, screaming. He turns frantically in all directions. JERRY Help me! Help me! PAUL What the hell ... ?In seconds JERRY is spinning wildly out of control, his head shaking into a terrific blur. He crashes into FRANK with the force of a truck. FRANK slams into the ground as all the air rushes from his lungs. He begins gasping and hyperventilating. His eyes grow wide and frenzied as he gulps for air. Fear and confusion sweep across his face. The MEN watch, horrified, as FRANK's terror escalates beyond reason into all-out panic.Suddenly FRANK begins howling. He lunges for his bayonet and, without warning, attacks the MEN around him. PAUL God Almighty!PAUL spins out of the way as FRANK's bayonet impales the ground. JACOB jumps on top of FRANK and wrestles him into the tall grass. PAUL rushes to his assistance.JACOB stares at FRANK's face as FRANK struggles beneath him. It is the face of a madman. PAUL Good God! What's happening?The sudden chaos is intensified by the sound of fighting erupting behind them. Guns crackle and bursts of light penetrate the darkening sky. ROD Behind you! Look out! This is it!The MEN spin around. PAUL panics and jumps to his feet, leaving JACOB alone with FRANK. FRANK's eyes burn with demonic force as he gathers his strength. JACOB Don't leave me.Dark figures, silhouetted by the setting sun, are storming at them. SOLDIERS squint to see. It is a horrifying vision. PAUL They're coming!Gunfire explodes on all sides. Suddenly PAUL flips out. He begins screaming uncontrollably, ripping at his clothes and skin. FRANK is struggling like four men and JACOB is weakening in his effort to restrain him. Bayonets glimmer in the exchange of fire. Bodies fall. More bodies keep coming. The first wave is upon them.ROD shoots into the air. Shadowy forms hurl forward screaming like banshees. ROD, squinting, jabs with his bayonet, piercing the belly of his attacker. Agonizing cries accompany his fall. ROD yanks the bayonet out and stabs again.In the midst of this madness FRANK shoots to his feet and slams the butt of his rifle into JACOB's back. There is a cracking sound. JACOB's eyes freeze with pain. His hands rush for his spine. As he spins around one of the ATTACKERS jams all eight inches of his bayonet blade into JACOB's stomach. JACOB screams. It is a loud and piercing wail.CUT ON THE SOUND OF THE SCREAM to a sudden rush through a long dark tunnel. There is a sense of enormous speed accelerating toward a brilliant light. The rush suggests a passage between life and death, but as the light bursts upon us we realize that we are passing through a SUBWAY STATION far below the city of NEW YORK.INT. SUBWAY - NIGHTTHE WHEELS OF AN EXPRESS TRAIN screech through the station. JACOB SINGER, sitting alone in the last car, wakes up. The sounds of the scream and the grating wheels merge. He is dazed and confused, not certain where he is.JACOB glances around the empty car. His eyes gravitate to overhead advertisements for hemorrhoid perparations and savings banks. Gradually his confusion subsides. Shifting uncomfortably he pulls a thick book out of his back pocket, "The Stranger" by Albert Camus. He begins reading. Another station blurs by.JACOB is a good-looking man, of obvious intelligence. He is in his mid-thirties. It is surprising that he is wearing a mailman's uniform. He doesn't look like one.The subway ride seems to go on interminably. JACOB is restless and concerned. He glances at his watch. It is 3:30 A.M. Putting his book in his back pocket, JACOB stands up and makes his way through the deserted car.INT. SUBWAY TRACKS - NIGHTJACOB enters the rumbling passageway between the cars. The wheels spark against the rails. The dark tunnel walls flash by. He pulls the handle on the door to the next car. It is stuck. He struggles with it. A LADY sitting alone inside turns to look at him. She seems threatened by his effort. He motions for her to help. She turns away.A look of disgust crosses JACOB's face. He kicks the door. It slides open. The WOMAN seems frightened as he approaches her. JACOB Excuse me, do you know if we've passed Nostrand Avenue yet? (she doesn't answer) Excuse me. (she does not acknowledge his existence) Look, I'm asking a simple question. Have we hit Nostrand Avenue? I fell asleep. WOMAN (speaking with a Puerto Rican accent) I no from around here. JACOB (glad for a response) Yeah, you and everyone else.JACOB walks to the other end of the car and sits down. The only other passenger is an OLD MAN lying asleep on the fiberglass bench. Occasionally his body shudders. It is the only sign of life in him.The train begins to slow down. JACOB peers out of the window. Nostrand Avenue signs appear. He is relieved. He gets up and grabs hold of the overhead bar.The OLD MAN shudders and stretches out on the seat. As he adjusts his position, tugging at his coat, JACOB catches a brief glimpse of something protruding from beneath the coat's hem. His eyes fixate on the spot, waiting for another look. There is a slight movement and it appears - a long, red, fleshy protuberance. The sight of it sends shivers up JACOB's spine. It looks strangely like a tail. Only the stopping of the train breaks JACOB's stare.INT. SUBWAY STATION - NIGHTJACOB is the only passenger getting off. The doors close quickly behind him. He glances at the LADY sitting by the window. There is a fearful expression on her face as the train carries her back into the dark tunnel, out of his sight.JACOB reaches the exit, a huge metal revolving door surrounded by floor to ceiling gates. He is about to push when he notices a chain locking it shut. He stares at it in disbelief. JACOB Goddam it.He turns in a huff and hikes to the other end of the platform. As he approaches the far exit, his eyes widen. The gate there is also locked. His hands reach for his hips as he studies an impossible situation.CUT TO JACOB stepping cautiously onto the ladder going down to the tracks. A rat scampers by and he gasps. JACOB No way!He starts to climb back up the ladder but sees that there is nowhere else to go. He juts out his jaw and steps back down.JACOB is not comfortable on the tracks. He cannot see where he is stepping. His shoes slpash in unseen liquid which makes him grimace. The steel girders are coated in subway grime. The oily substance coats his hands as he reaches for support. JACOB Goddam fucking city!He wipes the grime on his postal uniform as he steps toward the center track. He reaches for another girder when it begins to vibrate. Two pinpoints of light hurl toward him. Then the noise arrives confirming his fear. A train is bearing down on him. JACOB looks frightened, not sure which way to go. He steps forward, up to his ankle in slime. He cannot tell which track the train is on. It is moving at phenomenal speed. The station is spinning. The train's lights merge into one brilliant intensity.In near panic JACOB jumps across the track as the train spins by. Its velocity blows his hair straight up as though it is standing on end. He clings to a pillar for support, gasping in short breaths.A few PEOPLE are staring at JACOB from the train. Their faces, pressed up against the glass, seem deformed. A lone figure waves at him from the rear window. The train bears them all away. Then it is quiet again. For a moment JACOB is afraid to move but slowly regains his composure. He continues to the other side of the tracks and stumbles up the ladder to the UPTOWN PLATFORM. CUT TO:JACOB smiling. The smile, however, is one of irony, not amusement. This exit too is locked. A heavy chain is wrapped through the bars. JACOB stares at it with an expression of total bewilderment.A sudden muffled scream alerts JACOB that he is not alone. His head turns but sees no one. He hears the scream again. He senses its direction and walks toward the MEN'S ROOM. A crack of light appears under the door. He can hear someone moaning inside. JACOB knocks softly and the moaning stops. The lights click off. JACOB Hey, is someone in there?There is no answer. JACOB stands silently for a moment, not sure what to do. He can hear whispering. He chews his lower lip nervously and then reaches for the door. It pushes open.The light from the station penetrates the darkness. He gasps. He sees a MAN tied naked to the stall with ANOTHER NAKED MAN grabbing quickly for his clothes. The BOUND MAN screams. BOUND MAN Fuck off! Mind your own business!A THIRD MAN spins out of the shadows, pointing a kinfe at JACOB's throat. MAN You cocksucker! Get outta here.The MAN's face is barely human. Before JACOB can even react the door slams shut. The lock engages. The crack of light reappears. JACOB can hear laughter coming from inside, followed by a scream. He backs away from the door. His face is white.JACOB turns with full fury and storms the gate. The chain gives wayto his anger. It flies apart and the gate flings open. He stands in amazement, observing the chain as it slides from between the bars and drops to the concrete below. The gate squeaks loudly as JACOB pushes it aside and clangs with an almost painful burst as he slams it shut.EXT. WILMINGTON TOWERS - DAWNJACOB walks toward the towering shadows of a massive PUBLIC HOUSING PROJECT. It is dark and the moonlight silhouettes the huge monolithic structures. JACOB passes through a vast COURTYARD dominated by the imposing shapes. Aside from his moving body everything is still.INT. HALLWAY - DAWNJACOB steps off a graffiti-festooned ELEVATOR into a long impersonal hallway. He uses three keys to unlock the door to his APARTMENT.INT. JACOB'S APT. - DAWNJACOB enters the darkness without turning on the light. He tries to navigate his way to the BATHROOM, illuminated by a tiny nightlight in the distance. His effort is unsuccessful. He bangs loudly into a table. A WOMAN"s voice calls out. JEZZIE (V.O.) Jake, is that you? JACOB What the hell did you do, move all the furniture? JEZZIE (V.O.) Why didn't you turn on the light? JACOB I didn't want to wake you. JEZZIE (V.O.) (sleepy but pleasant) Gee, thanks a lot. JACOB Where is the lamp? JEZZIE (V.O.) Where are you? JACOB If I knew I wouldn't have to ask. What did you do? I was happy the way it was. JEZZIE (V.O.) I moved the couch. That's all. JACOB Where to?JACOB crashes into it. A light suddenly goes on. JEZEBEL "JEZZIE" PIPKIN, 33, is standing in the BEDROOM door tying a man's terrycloth bathrobe around her waist. Although sleepy, disheveled, and not looking her best, it is obvious that JEZZIE is a beefy woman, juicy and sensual. JEZZIE That help? JACOB (nearly sprawled over the couch) Thanks.He pushes himself up. JEZZIE What do you think? JACOB What do you mean? JEZZIE The room! JACOB Oh God, Jezzie, ask me tomorrow. JEZZIE It is tomorrow. Four A.M. How come you're so late? JACOB Roberts didn't show up. What could I say? Besides, it's double time. JEZZIE (seeing the grease on his uniform) What happened to you? JACOB (unbuttoning his shirt as he walks to the BATHROOM) Don't ask.JACOB steps into the BATHROOM and pulls at his clothes, leaving them in a pile on the floor. He reaches for the faucet and sends a stream of water pouding against the porcelain tub. JEZZIE enjoys JACOB's nakedness. She reaches out to his chest and squeezes one of his nipples. His body tenses slightly. JEZZIE drops her robe. They enter the shower together.EXT. VIETNAM - NIGHTA DENSE RAIN falls on a dark night filling puddles of water. JACOB is crawling through the underbrush in the Vietnamese JUNGLE. His shirt is bloodsoaked. He moves slowly, creeping on his right forearm. His left arm is holding his intestines from spilling onto the grass. JACOB Help me. Someone.Suddenly a flashlight beam can be seen in the distance. It dances around the bamboo trees and draws closer to JACOB. It is impossible to see who is carrying it. The light darts near the ground where JACOB is lying and then bursts directly into his eyes.INT. JACOB'S APT. - DAYSUNLIGHT pours through the BEDROOM window. JACOB is sleeping fitfully as a bar of light saturates his face. His hand rushes up to cover and protect his eyes but the damage is done. He is awake.JACOB lies in bed for a few moments, dazed. Slowly his hand gropes along the shelf at the head of the bed, searching for his glasses. He has trouble finding them. As his hand sweeps blindly across the headboard it hits the telephone and sends it crashing to the floor. He sits up with a disgusted look on his face and searches the out-of-focus shelf behind him. Suddenly JEZZIE enters. JEZZIE You up? JACOB No. Have you seen my glasses? JEZZIE (shaking her head) Where'd you leave 'em? JACOB I don't know. JEZZIE Did you look around the headboard? JACOB (wearily) Jezzie, I can't see. JEZZIE (she scans the shelf) Maybe you left 'em in the bathroom.She leaves and returns moments later with his glasses and a large paper bag. She tosses them both onto the bed. JACOB Thanks. (he puts on his glasses and notices the bag) What's that? JEZZIE Your kid dropped it off. JACOB Who? Jed? JEZZIE (stooping to pick up the phone) No. The little one. JACOB Eli. Why can't you remember their names? JEZZIE They're weird names. JACOB They're Biblical. They were prophets. JEZZIE Well, personally, I never went for church names. JACOB And where do you think Jezebel comes from? JEZZIE I don't let anybody call me that. JACOB (shaking his head) You're a real heathen, you know that, Jezzie? Jesus, how did I ever get involved with such a ninny? JEZZIE You sold your soul, remember? That's what you told me. JACOB Yeah, but for what? JEZZIE A good lay. JACOB And look what I got. JEZZIE The best. JACOB I must have been out of my head. JEZZIE Jake, you are never out of your head! JACOB (ignoring the criticism and reaching for the paper bag) What's in here? JEZZIE Pictures. Your wife was gonna toss 'em so "what's his name" brought 'em over on his way to school.JACOB lifts the bag and pours the photographs onto the bed. There are hundreds of them. He examines them with growing delight. JACOB Look at these, will ya? I don't believe it. Jesus, these are fantastic. Look, here's my Dad ... And here's my brother, when we were down in Florida. JEZZIE Lemme see. JACOB (rummaging excitedly through the pile) Here. Look. This is me and Sarah when I was still at City College. JEZZIE (looking closely) That's Sarah? (she studies the photo) I can see what you mean. JACOB What? JEZZIE Why you left. JACOB What do you mean you can see? JEZZIE Look at her face. A real bitch. JACOB She looked good then. JEZZIE Not to me. JACOB Well, you didn't marry her.He digs through more photos. Suddenly he stops. JEZZIE What's wrong?To JEZZIE's surprise and his own, tears well up in his eyes. For a moment JACOB is unable to speak. He just stares at one of the photos. JEZZIE looks at the picture. It is an image of JACOB carrying a small child on his shoulders. JEZZIE Is that the one who died? JACOB (nodding) Gabe.JEZZIE is silent. JACOB grabs a Kleenex and blows his nose. JACOB (continuing) Sorry. it just took me by surprise. I didn't expect to see him this morning ... God, what I wouldn't ... He was the cutest little guy. Like an angel, you know. He had this smile ... (choking up again) Fuck, I don't even remember this picture.Hiding his emotions, JACOB scrambles over the bed and reaches for a pair of pants. He pulls out his wallet and then carefully puts the photo of GABE inside. It joins photos of his two other boys. JEZZIE begins shoving the remaining pictures back into the paper bag. JACOB Wait. Don't. JEZZIE I don't like things that make you cry. JACOB I just want to look ...He reaches into the pile for other snapshots. We see an array of frozen moments, happy, unfocused, obscure. Suddenly he stops and stares at a yellowing snapshot. JACOB God, this is me! (he holds up a baby photo) Look. It's dated right after I was born. (he stares at it intently) What a kid. Cute, huh? So much promise.JEZZIE surveys the scene. JEZZIE It's amazing, huh Jake? Your whole life ... right in front of you. (she pauses before making her final pronouncement) What a mess!INT. HALLWAY - DAYJEZZIE carries the garbage to an INCINERATOR ROOM down the hall. She is carrying several bags. Two of them are tossed instantly down the chute. She hesitates with the third. After a moment she reaches into it and pulls out a handful of photos. They are pictures of JACOB and SARAH. With cool deliberation she drops them down the chute. An apartment door slams shut. Quickly she disposes of the pictures remaining in her hand. JACOB opens the door to the tiny room as the bag filled with the memories of his life falls to the fire below. JACOB Ready? JEZZIE Just gettin' rid of the garbage.JACOB and JEZZIE, both wearing postal uniforms, head for the ELEVATOR. They are surprised that it has arrived promptly. JEZZIE reaches out and playfully sticks her tongue into JACOB's ear. He pulls her into the ELEVATOR. They disappear, laughing, behind its closing doors.EXT. NEW YORK CITY - DAYJACOB is driving a mail truck through the crowded streets of midtown Manhattan. As he drives he is humming to himself a rendition of Al Jolson's "Sonny Boy."JACOB stops his truck in front of a LAUNDRY on West 46th Street. He opens the back door and pulls a stack of boxes toward him. He lifts them with effort and slams the door with his foot. It doesn't close. He considers giving it another whack but the boxes are heavy. He turns instead and waddles toward the store.INT. LAUNDRY - DAYA heavyset WOMAN with a dark tan is standing behind a counter cluttered with laundry. A picture of Richard Nixon is still stapled to the wall. She looks at JACOB. WOMAN Where do you expect me to put those? I don't have any room.She tries clearing the counter, but it doesn't help. WOMAN (continuing) How 'bout over there? (she points to a table) No wait. Do me a favor. Bring 'em to the back room. JACOB They're awfully heavy. WOMAN I know. That's why I'm asking.JACOB waddles reluctantly toward the back of the store. CHINESE LAUNDERERS are hovering over piles of clothes. Steam from the pressing machines shoots into the air. JACOB (huffing and puffing) Where's Wong? WOMAN That's what I'd like to know. If you see him on the street somewhere, tell him he's fired.JACOB stoops to put the boxes on the shelf. There is a snapping sound and he winces in pain. Massaging his back, JACOB unfolds some papers for the WOMAN's signature. JACOB How was Palm Springs? WOMAN Hot. Where do I sign? JACOB (pointing to the line) You got a nice tan, though. WOMAN Tan? What tan? It faded on the airplane. I'd try to get my money back, but who do you ask? (she looks heavenward) Two hundred dollars a night, for what?She hands JACOB the wrong sheet. JACOB No. I'll take the other one. (he takes it) Right. Well it's good to have you back. See you tomorrow, probably. WOMAN If you're lucky.JACOB smiles to himself as he leaves the store. He walks carefully. His back is out.INT. MAIL TRUCK - DAYANGLE ON THE MAIL TRUCK stuck in traffic. Nothing is moving. Horns are blaring and drivers are agitated. JACOB reaches for a newspaper lying on top of his mail bags. To his shock one of the bags appears to move. Curious, JACOB pokes at it. Instantly a terrifying figure pops out from beneath it and stares at him with a frightening glare. JACOB jumps back, stunned. It is a moment before he realizes that he is looking at an old WINO who has been sleeping in the truck. The man's face is covered in strange bumps. JACOB Goddamn it! What the hell ... ? WINO (pleading) I didn't take nothin'. I was just napping. Don't hit me. I was cold. JACOB (lifting the man up) What the hell do you think you're doing? You can't do this. This is government property.He begins opening the door. The WINO begs. WINO Don't throw me out. They're gonna get me. They'll tear me to pieces.He holds on to JACOB's leg. JACOB tries to pull away. JACOB Come on. You can't stay here. WINO Please! I never hurt anybody when I was alive. Believe me. I don't belong here.JACOB gives the WINO a strange look and then escorts him from the truck. A hundred eyes peer out of motionless cars and follow him as he leads the WINO to the sidewalk. JACOB pulls a dollar bill from his pocket and places it in the WINO's hand. The OLD MAN crumples it into a ball and turns away. He has a frightened look on his face. JACOB returns to the truck shaking his head. JACOB New York!He climbs into his seat and glances into his rear view mirror. He notices the WINO edging fearfully along the side of a building. A horn honks and traffic begins moving. When JACOB looks back the WINO is no longer there.INT. GARAGE - DAYJACOB drives his mail truck into the huge POST OFFICE PARKING GARAGE on 34th Street. His mind seems distracted. He has difficulty parking.INT. POST OFFICE - DAYWe see a vast room filled with hundreds of PEOPLE sorting and moving mail.JACOB, carrying a bag of McDonald's hamburgers, walks stiffly through the aisles, his left hand rubbing his back. Several workers greet him and grab for his french fries. He offers them around.ANGLE ON a conveyor belt sorting mail. A hand reaches in, correcting mistakes. Suddenly a hamburger passes by. JEZZIE looks up and smiles. JEZZIE Jake! JACOB How's it going?She takes the hamburger and shrugs. JACOB (continuing) I'm going home. JEZZIE What's wrong? JACOB I don't know. One of these days, I'm gonna see Louis. My back's killing me. JEZZIE Now? What about the boss? He's not gonna like it.JACOB shrugs. JEZZIE (continuing) Well, I'll miss riding home with you. I was looking forward to it. JACOB I'll be glad to avoid the crush. JEZZIE I enjoy crushing into you.She grabs him and hugs him tightly. JACOB Gently. My back.JEZZIE ignores him and squeezes again.INT. CHIROPRACTIC OFFICE - DAYCUT ON A SCREAM to JACOB in a CHIROPRACTOR'S OFFICE. He is lying on a long leather padded device that looks like an instrument of torture. LOUIS, the Chiropractor, is a giant of a man, 280 pounds. He is adjusting JACOB's spine. LOUIS Come on, Jake. That didn't hurt. JACOB How do you know? LOUIS I know you. How come you're so tense today? JACOB What can I tell you? LOUIS I saw Sarah the other day. JACOB Her knee acting up? LOUIS A bit. JACOB What did she have to say? LOUIS Turn on your right side. (he turns on his left) How about the other "right?" (JACOB turns back) I don't understand you philosphers. You've got the whole world figured out but you can't remember the difference between right and left. JACOB I was absent the day they taught that in school. What did she say? LOUIS Who? JACOB Sarah. LOUIS Not much. She's like you that way. Two clams. No wonder your marriage didn't last. Put your hand under your head. Take a breath and then let it out.He makes a rapid adjustment pushing down on JACOB's thigh. JACOB groans. LOUIS (continuing) Ah, good. Now turn to your left. JACOB She talk about the boys? LOUIS She says she can't get them new coats because you haven't sent the alimony for three months. JACOB She told you that? (he shakes his head) Did she tell you about the $2,000 I'm still paying for the orthodontist? I'll bet she didn't mention that. LOUIS She said you were a son of a bitch and she regrets the day she set eyes on you. JACOB I thought you said she didn't say much. LOUIS She didn't. That's about all she said. Put your hand up. Good. I think she still loves you. Take a breath and let it out.He makes an adjustment. JACOB screams. JACOB Loves me!? She hasn't said a kind word about me in years! LOUIS Right. She doesn't stop talking about you. You're always on her mind. That's love, Jake. JACOB She hates me, Louis. LOUIS You should go back to her. JACOB What? She threw me out, remember. She wanted some professor to carry her far away from Brooklyn. Only we didn't make it. She can't forgive me that she still lives in the same house she grew up in. LOUIS Her problem is that you spent eight years getting a PhD and then went to work for the post office. JACOB What can I tell you, Louis? After Nam I didn't want to think anymore. I decided my brain was too small an organ to comprehend this chaos. LOUIS (looking at JACOB with affection) If it was any other brain but yours, I might agree. Relax, this is going to be strong. JACOB I can't relax. LOUIS Wiggle your toes.JACOB wiggles his toes. At that instant, LOUIS twists JACOB's neck rapidly. There is a loud cracking sound.EXT. VIETNAM - NIGHTTHERE IS A FLASH OF LIGHT. A MAN rushes at the camera yelling. MAN I found one. He's alive.He shines a flashlight into the lens creating rings and halos.CHIROPRACTIC OFFICE - DAYSuddenly LOUIS reappears, a halo effect still visible behind his head. JACOB God almighty. What did you do to me? LOUIS I had to get in there. A deep adjustment. Rest a moment and let it set a bit. JACOB I had this weird flash just then. LOUIS What? JACOB I don't know. I've been having them recently. (he thinks a moment, then changes the subject) You know, you look like an angel, Louis, an overgrown cherub. Anyone ever tell you that? LOUIS Yeah. You. Every time I see you. No more Errol Flynn, okay? Your back won't take it. You tell your girl friend to calm down if she knows what's good for you. JACOB Louis, you're a life saver. LOUIS I know.EXT. BROOKLYN STREETS - EVENINGJACOB is walking down Nostrand Avenue. He is singing to himself and imitating Al Jolson. JACOB When there are gray skies, I don't mind the gray skies, as long as there's you ...He hums. It is near dusk and lights are just coming on. The shop windows have a particularly garish look about them. The mannequins are dressed in inexpensive, almost tawdry, clothes and have a pathetic appearance. A few shops have set up their Christmas decorations.The ornamentation seems strangely out of place; almost blasphemous.JACOB passes a street gang standing in the doorway of a local drug store. They chortle and make taunting sounds. GIRL (shaking her tits, singing) "Hey, Mr. Postman ... "JACOB stops and stares at them. To their surprise, he begins to sing with them. He knows the words. They like that. It is a sweet moment.JACOB continues walking. He comes to a cross street. The light is green. He is still singing to himself and does not notice a BLACK CAR sharging around the corner. The car is moving at full speed, heading straight toward him. A YOUNG MAN walking a few steps behind yells out. YOUNG MAN Look out!JACOB turns and sees the car. He scoots out of the way but it swerves in his direction. The YOUNG MAN calls out again. YOUNG MAN Jump!With a huge thrust, JACOB hurls himself onto the curb as the car shoots by. Two MEN are peering at him from the back seat. They are laughing like madmen and shaking their heads. They do not look human. JACOB yells and waves his fist, to no effect. After a moment he turns to thank the YOUNG MAN whose scream had saved him, but he is gone.INT. JACOB'S APT. - DUSKJACOB and JEZZIE are lying in bed. They are a sensual couple and even in quiet, reflective moments such as this, their positioning is erotic and stimulating. Both of them are nude. JACOB's hands are clasped behind his neck and he is staring mournfully at the ceiling. JEZZIE is lying on her side, her left leg draped across JACOB's pelvis. Her head is propped up on her right arm while her left hand strokes the bayonet scar on JACOB's stomach. Neither are talking. Suddenly, out of the blue, JEZZIE speaks. JEZZIE Maybe it's all the pressure, Jake. The money. Things like that. Or your wife. JACOB Why do you bring her up? JEZZIE 'Cause she's always on your mind. JACOB When was the last time I said a word? JEZZIE It has nothin' to do with talkin'.She pauses for a while, long enough to suppose that the conversation is over. Then she continues. JEZZIE (continuing) Or maybe it's the war.JACOB closes his eyes. JEZZIE (continuing) It's still there, Jake. (she points to his brain) Even if you never say a word about it. You can't spend two years in Vietnam ... JACOB (annoyed) What does that have to do with anything? Does it explain the barricaded subway stations? Does it explain those Godforsaken creatures? JEZZIE New York is filled with creatures. Everywhere. And lots of stations are closed. JACOB They're like demons, Jez. JEZZIE Demons, Jake? Come on. They're winos and bag ladies. Low life. That's all they are. The streets are crawling with 'em. Don't make em into somethin' they're not. (she rubs his forehead) It's the pressure, honey. That's all it is. JACOB Those guys tried to kill me tonight. They were aiming right at me. JEZZIE Kids on a joy ride. Happens all the time. JACOB They weren't human! JEZZIE Come on. What were they, Jake?JACOB doesn't answer. He turns over on his stomach. JEZZIE stares at his naked back and drags her fingernails down to his buttocks. Scratch marks follow in their wake. JEZZIE You still love me?He does not respond.INT. JACOB'S KITCHEN - DAYJACOB and JEZZIE are sitting at the breakfast table. JEZZIE is reading the National Enquirer and chewing at her lip. Suddenly a drop of blood forms and falls onto the formica table top. Staring at it for a moment, she wipes it with her finger and then licks it with her tongue.JACOB is nursing a cup of coffee and staring out the window at the housing project across the way. The toaster pops. JEZZIE jumps. She gets up, butters her toast, and returns to her paper. JEZZIE Says here the world's comin' to an end. The battle of heaven and hell they call it. Should be quite a show; fireworks, H-bombs, and everything. You believe them, Jake?JACOB doesn't answer. JEZZIE (continuing) Me neither ... God, look at this. Two heads. Only lived two days. A day for each head. Could you imagine me with two heads? We'd probably keep each other up all night - arguing and whatnot. You wanna see the picture?He does not respond. JEZZIE gets up and walks over to JACOB. Standing in front of him she slowly unties her robe and lets it fall apart. She is naked underneath it. Sensuously she leans forward, unbuttons his shirt, and strokes his chest. She waits for a response from him, but there is none. He sits silently, disinterested.Furious, JEZZIE turns away. Grabbing the vacuum cleaner from the broom closet she angrily unravels the cord and switches it on. Breasts flash from beneath her gown as the vacuum roars back and forth across the floor. JEZZIE (continuing) Goddamn you son-of-a-bitch! My uncle's dogs used to treat me better than you do. At least they'd lick my toes once in a while. At least they showed some fucking interest.A NEIGHBOR bangs on the wall, shouting. JEZZIE All right! All right! All right!JACOB peers at the courtyard eighteen stories below and watches the patterns of early morning movement. Tiny figures drift purposefully over the concrete.Suddenly the vasuum cleaner goes off. In the silence, JACOB realizes that JEZZIE is crying and turns to see her curled over the kitchen table. He walks to her side and strokes her hair. JEZZIE begins to sob. After a moment she looks at him with puffy eyes. JEZZIE You love me?He nods his head "yes." She smiles coyly and rubs her hair like a kitten against his crotch. After a few moments she speaks. JEZZIE (continuing) Della's party's tonight. Why don't we go? It'll take your minf offa things. And I won't make you dance. I promise. Huh? (he nods his head in consent. JEZZIE hugs him) You still love me, Jake?He nods his head again, only heavily, as though the question exhausts him.INT. BELLVUE HOSPITAL - DAYJACOB is in the "Mental Health Clinic" at BELLVUE HOSPITAL walking through the PSYCHIATRIC EMERGENCY ROOM. It is overflowing with people. Some are handcuffed to their chairs. POLICEMEN are with them. JACOB approaches the main RECEPTION DESK. He speaks nervously. JACOB I'd like to speak to Dr. Carlson, please. RECEPTIONIST Carlson? Is he new here? JACOB New? He's been here for years.She shrugs and looks at a log book. RECEPTIONIST Not according to my charts. Do you have an appointment? JACOB (shaking his head) Look, I need to see him. I know where his room is. Just give me a pass. I won't be long. Ten minutes. RECEPTIONIST Our doctors are seen by appointment only. JACOB Damn it. I was in the veteran's out- patient program. He knows me. RECEPTIONIST (not happy) What's your name? JACOB Jacob Singer.She walks over to a file drawer and goes through it several times before coming back over to JACOB. RECEPTIONIST I'm sorry but there's no record of a Jacob Singer in our files. JACOB Whataya mean, no record? RECEPTIONIST You want me to spell it out? There's nothing here. JACOB That's ridiculous. I've been coming here for years. Listen to me. I'm going out of my fucking mind here. I need to see him. RECEPTIONIST If this is an emergency we have a staff of psychiatric social workers. There's about an hour's wait. I'll be glad to take your name. Why don't you just fill out this form? JACOB Goddamn it! I don't want a social worker. Carlson knows me.JACOB pounds the desk, rattling a tiny African violet and knocking the RECEPTIONIST's forms to the floor. She grunts angrily and stoops to retrieve them. Standing up her cap hits a drawer handle and slips off. TWO KNUCKLE-LIKE HORNS protrude from her skull where the cap had been. JACOB's eyes lock on them like radar. He backs away. She immediately replaces her cap and breaks the spell, but her eyes glare at him with demonic intensity. JACOB, freaked, angry, turns and runs toward the "In Patient" door. RECEPTIONIST Hey! You can't go in there!JACOB doesn't stop. A POLICEMAN, guarding the entrance, runs after him.JACOB charges through the interior corridors of the aging institution. A LINE OF MENTAL PATIENTS, all holding hands, is moving down the hall. They break ranks as he charges by and begin to scream. Their ATTENDANT tries to calm them down but the sight of the POLICEMAN increases their hysteria. They grab hold of him as he tries to get by. POLICEMAN LET GO! GET AWAY!INT. GROUP ROOM - DAYJACOB dashes out of view. He runs down another corridor, wildly searching for a specific room. He finds it and rushes inside. He is surprised to find A GROUP OF MEN AND WOMEN seated in a circle. They all look up at him. LEADER Can I help you? JACOB I'm looking for Dr. Carlson. Isn't this his office?The LEADER stares at him uncomfortably. After a moment he gets up and takes JACOB into a corner of the room. Everyone is watching them. The LEADER speaks quietly. LEADER I'm so sorry. Obviously you haven't ... Dr. Carlson died. JACOB (stunned) Died? LEADER A car accident. JACOB Jesus, Jesus! ... When? LEADER Last month, before Thanksgiving. JACOB How did it happen? LEADER No one knows. They say it blew up. JACOB (growing pale) Blew up? What do you mean it blew up?The LEADER shrugs and tries to put his arm around JACOB, but he pulls away. LEADER Do you want me to get someone? JACOB No. No. It's okay. I'm okay.He backs quickly to the door. As he turns to leave he realizes that all of the PEOPLE in the group are watching him intently.Unsettled, JACOB hurries back into the hallway. He is frightened and confused. Suddenly a voice calls out. POLICEMAN HEY YOU! MAILMAN!JACOB turns and sees the POLICEMAN waiting for him. His gun is drawn. POLICEMAN Hold it. Just hold it. Where the hell do you think you are? This is Bellevue, for God's sake. People running around here get shot.The GROUP LEADER pokes his head out of the door and motions to the POLICEMAN. LEADER It's alright. He's okay. POLICEMAN (nodding, reholstering his gun) Come on, get out of here. I wouldn't want to interfere with the U.S. Mail.He leads JACOB toward the lobby. JACOB does not look back.INT. DELLA'S APT. - NIGHTWE HEAR LOUD DANCE MUSIC. SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE. JACOB is with some POST OFFICE EMPLOYEES at a crowded party in a small apartment. A DRUNK is telling a bad joke and trying to hold a glass of wine at the same time. It is constantly on the verge of spilling. JACOB is fixated on it. In the background, we see JEZZIE dancing and motioning for JACOB to join her. He nods no. The DRUNK, who keeps asking people if they "get it," takes JACOB's head nodding as a sign of confusion and keeps trying to re-explain the joke.JACOB hears a strange noise and looks around. It seems to be coming from a covered bird cage. He goes over to it and lifts the cover. The BIRD is flapping its wings wildly as if trying to get out. The sound, loud and insistent, startles him. He lowers the cover.In the DINING ROOM, several people are gathered around ELSA, an attractive black woman who is reading palms. She sees JACOB and calls over the music. ELSA Hey, you! Let me look at your hand!JACOB shrugs. DELLA, dancing nearby, calls out. DELLA Go on Jake. She reads 'em like a book. JACOB No, thanks. DELLA It's fun.CUT TO A CLOSE UP OF JACOB'S HAND. ELSA is squeezing the mounds and examining the lines. What begins as a playful expression on her face turns suddenly serious. She reaches for his other hand and compares the two of them. JEZZIE looks over from her dancing and eyes the scene jealously. ELSA You have an unusual hand. JACOB I could have told you that. ELSA You see this line here? It's your life line. Here's where you were born. And this is where you got married. You're a married man, huh? Oh oh. Nope. Divorce. See this split.She studies his life line with growing concern. JEZZIE tries to get JACOB's attention. He ignores her. ELSA (continuing) You know, you got a strange line here. JACOB (examining it) It's short, huh? ELSA Short? It's ended. JACOB (laughing) Oh, terrific. ELSA It's not funny. According to this ... you're already dead. JACOB (smiling) Just my luck. CUT TO:THE DANCERS. Their movements are loose and getting looser. The music is strong and insistent. The smokey atmosphere disfigures the dancers and gives them a strange, distorted appearance. Suddenly JEZZIE breaks from the crowd and reaches for JACOB. He pulls away. Some of the MALE DANCERS call out to him. DANCERS Come on man, show your stuff.JACOB is easily intimidated. Relenting, he glares at JEZZIE and nods apologetically to ELSA. It is obvious that he is embarrassed at his inadequacy on the dance floor. MAN Come on professor. You got feet, too.JACOB tries to smile but it is pained and unconvincing. JEZZIE is playing with him, mimicking his movement. A number of DANCERS notice and laugh, which only increases his discomfort. JEZZIE's taunting has a strange effect on JACOB. He grows distant and withdrawn, even though his body is still going through the motions of the dance.A MAN taps JEZZIE on the shoulder. She spins around, smiling, and begins dancing with him. JACOB is left alone, dancing by himself. He looks away, uncomfortable.In the shadows a WOMAN kneels close to the floor. She seems to be urinating on the carpet. JACOB is shocked. Several DANCERS obscure his view. He turns around.A PREGNANT WOMAN stands half naked in the kitchen. JACOB cannot believe what he sees.In the next room, past JEZZIE, JACOB glimpses a terrifying image, a MAN whose head seems to be vibrating at such enormous speed that it has lost all definition. Something about the image compels and frightens JACOB. Slowly he approaches it. As he draws nearer to it the tortured image lets out a scream of such pain and unearthly terror that JACOB backs away.A WOMAN, laughing, grabs JACOB, spins him around, and begins dancing with him. He is totally disoriented. WOMAN Hold me, baby!She takes JACOB's arm and guides it to her back. THE CAMERA follows his hand as it reaches the smooth skin beneath her sexy, loose fitting dress. He runs his fingers up to her shoulder blades. Then, suddenly, he recoils. Her back is a mass of shoulder blades, hundreds of strange, bony protrusions. JACOB gasps. Out of the blue, JEZZIE leans into him and wiggles her tongue in his ear. JACOB, startled, jerks his head and his glasses go flying to the floor. JACOB Shit!He stoops down blindly to pick them up. Shoes just miss his fingers as he digs between dancing legs trying to recover them. Miraculously, he grabs the spectacles just before they are crushed and slips them back on. Instantly his world comes back into focus.As he stands, JACOB is surprised to find JEZZIE facing him, gyrating in wild abandon. There is a huge, satisfied smile on her face. She grabs his hand as if encouraging him to dance but it is obvious that she is dancing to her own rhythm. JACOB stares at her, confused. It takes him a moment to realize that her smile is not for him.Standing behind JEZZIE is another DANCER, his hands around her waist. They are moving together, locked in erotic embrace. It appears that he is mounting her from behind. Looking down we see that the DANCER's feet are deformed. They have a bizarre clubbed appearance and look very much like hooves. They skid and careen amidst the dancing feet.Something horrible and winglike flaps behind JEZZIE's back. We cannot make out what it is, but it elicits a primal terror. Before JACOB can react, JEZZIE opens her mouth. With a roaring sound, a spiked horn erupts from her throat. It juts menacingly from between her teeth and thrusts into the air. A CIRCLE OF DANCERS scream out in excited approval.CUT TO JACOB's face as it registers terror and disbelief. He stares at the DANCERS who are crowding around him. They have become perverse, corrupt aspects of their normal selves.JACOB grabs his eyes as though trying to pull the vision from his head but it won't go away. The music throbs. His actions become spastic, almost delirious.JACOB is out of control. His frenzy becomes a kind of exorcism, a desperate attempt to free himself from his body and his mind. WE MOVE IN ON HIM as his eyes pass beyond pain. The dark walls of the APARTMENT fade away.EXT. VIETNAM - NIGHTStrange faces in infantry helmets appear in the darkness, outlined by a bright moon that is emerging from behind a cloud. The faces are looking down and voices are speaking. VOICE He's burning up. VOICE Total delirium. VOICE That's some gash. His guts keep spilling out. VOICE Push 'em back. JACOB (V.O.) Help me!His eyes focus on the moon. Rings of light emenate from it filling the sky with their sparkling brilliance. The rings draw us forward with a quickening intensity that grows into exhilarating speed. The rush causes them to flash stroboscopically and produces a dazzling, almost sensual, surge of color. The display is spectacular and compelling.Music can be heard in the distance, growing hard and insistent, like a heart beat. Heavy breathing accompanies the sound. The stroboscopic flashes are replaced by intense flashes of red and blue light. The music grows louder and reaches a thundering crescendo. Then silence.INT. DELLA'S APT. - NIGHTThe APARTMENT reappears in all its normalcy. The neon sign is still flashing outside the window. DANCERS are smiling and sweating.Cheers and applause ring out for JACOB and JEZZIE but JACOB barely hears them. JEZZIE hugs him tightly. PEOPLE smack him on the back. ADMIRER You are out of your mind, man. Out of your fuckin' mind. WOMAN Jake, you little devil. You never told me you could dance like that. MAN Jezzie, what did you put in his drink?JEZZIE smiles while pulling JACOB to a corner chair. He plops down. His chest is heaving and he is grabbing hold of his stomach. Hie face is frightened and distorted. JEZZIE You okay? JACOB I wanna leave. Get me out of here. JEZZIE Oh, come on. It's early. JACOB (pulling JEZZIE close to him, his voice filled with paranoia) Where are we? JEZZIE (surprised by the question) We're at Della's. JACOB Where? JEZZIE What do you mean? Where do you think? JACOB Where's Della? Bring her here? JEZZIE Why? What for? JACOB Show me Della! JEZZIE (confused) Hey, I'm here.JACOB eyes her with a pleading look. Annoyed, JEZZIE leaves JACOB and crosses the room. He watches her as she goes. JACOB is holding his stomach and rocking painfully. Moments later JEZZIE returns with DELLA. DELLA Hiya Jake. That was some dance. JACOB (staring at her closely) Della? DELLA (feeling the strangeness) You want to see me? Well, here I am. JACOB I see. DELLA What do you want? JACOB Just to see you. That's all. DELLA (a bit uncomfortable) Well, how do I look? JACOB Like Della.Suddenly JACOB breaks out in a dense sweat and begins shaking. His entire body is convulsive. JEZZIE Are you feeling all right? Shit, you're burning up. Feel his forehead. DELLA (checking his forehead and cheeks) Damn, that's hot. Maybe from dancing. JEZZIE I think you should lie down.JACOB is shaking uncontrollably. People are gathering around. JEZZIE (continuing) Can't you stop it? JACOB If I could stop it, I'd stop it. WOMAN Is he sick? DELLA He's on fire. ELSA Let me help you.She reaches out to JACOB. Unexpectedly he recoils, jumping to his feet like a wild man. He begins to scream. JACOB Stay away from me! Don't you come near me! All of you. Go to hell! Go to hell, goddamn you! Stay away!JEZZIE stares at JACOB with a confused and embarrassed look. A MAN whispers to her. MAN I'll call a cab.INT. JACOB'S APT. - NIGHTJACOB is lying in bed in his own BEDROOM with a thermometer in his mouth. JEZZIE is pacing the floor with great agitation. JEZZIE I've never been so mortified in my whole life. Never! Screaming like that. I don't understand what's gotten into you, Jake, to make you do a thing like that. You're not acting normal. I've lived with too many crazies in my life. I don't want it anymore. I can't handle it. I'm tired of men flipping out on me. Shit, you'd think it was my fault. Well you picked me, remember that. I don't need this.The NEIGHBOR pounds on the wall. JEZZIE (continuing) All right! All right!JEZZIE jabs her finger at the wall. JEZZIE (continuing) If you go crazy on me you're goin' crazy by yourself. You understand?JEZZIE reaches for his mouth and pulls out the thermometer. She looks at it closely and then squints to see it better. JACOB What's it say? A hundred and two? JEZZIE I don't believe this. I'm calling the doctor.She runs out of the room. JACOB calls after her. JACOB What does it say? JEZZIE (V.O.) It's gone to the top. JACOB How high is that? JEZZIE (V.O.) The numbers stop at 107.JEZZIE is on the phone to the doctor in the next room.JACOB begins shaking again and reaches for the extra blanket at the foot of the bed. He pulls it up around his shoulders. The whole bed vibrates with his shivering. Suddenly JEZZIE rushes through the BEDROOM and into the BATHROOM. SHe turns on the bath water. JACOB What the hell are you doin'? JEZZIE Get your clothes off. JACOB What are you talking about? I'm freezing. JEZZIE Get your clothes off!JACOB gives her a confused look as she rushes back to the KITCHEN. JACOB What'd the doctor say? JEZZIE (V.O.) That you'd die on the way to the hospital. Now get into that tub.JACOB stares at her as she bursts back into the BEDROOM carrying four trays of ice cubes. She hurries into the BATHROOM and dumps them in the tub. JEZZIE (V.O.) He's coming right over. JACOB Coming here? JEZZIE (V.O.) Goddamn it. Get in here. I can't stand around waiting.She rushes out of the BATHROOM and pulls JACOB out of bed. He is shaking violently and she has difficulty navigating across the room and undressing him at the same time. She maneuvers him into the BATHROOM next to the tub. He looks down at the ice cubes floating in the water. JACOB You're out of your mind. I'm not getting in there. I'd rather die. JEZZIE That's your decision. JACOB Look at me. I'm ice cold. JEZZIE You're red hot, damn it. Get in there. I've got to get more ice.She runs out of the room. The door to the apartment slams shut. JACOB sticks his toe into the water and pulls it out again instantly. JACOB Oh Jesus!He sticks his whole foot in and grits his teeth as the ice cold water turns his foot bright red. He keeps it in as long as he can and then yanks it out, quickly wrapping it in a towel. JACOB rubs his foot vigorously to get rid of the sting and stares at the water, afraid of its pain.INT. CORRIDOR - NIGHTJEZZIE is running up and down the CORRIDOR knocking on doors and collecting ice cubes from those who will answer. She hurries back to the BATHROOM with several PEOPLE behind her carrying additional ice trays. One of the MEN is shifting the trays in his hands to avoid the burning cold.INT. JACOB'S BATHROOMAs JEZZIE enters the BATHROOM, JACOB is sitting on the rim of the tub with the water up to his calves, shivering vigorously. JACOB I can't do it. JEZZIE What kind of man are you?She unloads two trays into the water. JACOB Don't gimme that. JEZZIE Lie down! JACOB (pleading) Jezzie! My feet are throbbing! JEZZIE (calling out) Sam, Tony, come in here. JACOB Hey, I'm not dressed. SAM You got nothin' we ain't seen before.SAM and TONY grab hold of JACOB who wrestles to get away. JACOB Get the hell off me. TONY He's like a hot coal. SAM It's for your own good, Jake. JACOB Let go of me, you sons of bitches.The TWO MEN struggle with JACOB and force him into the water. TONY winces when the water hits his arm. JACOB nearly flies out of the tub. The TWO MEN fight to hold him down. JACOB screams and cries for the MEN to let him go but they keep him flat on his back. JACOB (continuing) I'm freezing! I'm freezing! Goddamn you! TONY (his hand turning red) Sam, I can't take it. SAM Don't you let go. TONY Jez, get help. My hands are killing me. JACOB Help me! Help me! JEZZIE (to TONY) Here. I'll do it. TONY Take his legs. SAM Run your hands under hot water.MRS. CARMICHAEL comes in. MRS. CARMICHAEL I have some ice from the machine. JEZZIE Bring it in. MRS. CARMICHAEL Is he all right? JEZZIE He doesn't like it. MRS. CARMICHAEL I don't blame him. What should I do with the ice? JEZZIE Pour it in. MRS. CARMICHAEL On top of him? JEZZIE He's melting it as fast as we dump it in. MRS. CARMICHAEL Okay. My husband's got two more bags. He's coming. They're heavy.TONY helps her pour the ice into the water. JACOB yells. JACOB Oh God! You're killing me! Stop!INT. A BEDROOM - NIGHTCUT TO JACOB lying in a BEDROOM we have not seen before. He is tossing and turning in his bed as though struggling to get out. Suddenly he sits up and looks over at the window. It is open and the shade is flapping. Cold air is blowing in and he is shivering. JACOB Damn! You and your fresh air.He jumps out of bed and goes over to the window. He pushes at the frame and it comes flying down with a loud bang. A woman in the bed sits up. It is SARAH. SARAH What was that? JACOB It's freezing. SARAH I'm not cold. JACOB Of course not. You have all the blankets. It must be ten degrees in here. I'm telling you, Sarah, if you want to sleep with fresh air, you sleep on the fire escape. From now on that window is closed. SARAH It's not healthy with it closed. JACOB This is healthy? I'll probably die of pneumonia tomorrow and this is healthy.He settles back into bed and pulls the covers back over to his side. He lies quietly for a moment, thinking. JACOB (continuing) What a dream I was having. I was living with another woman ... You know who it was? SARAH I don't want to know. JACOB Jezebel, from the post office. You remember, you met her that time at the Christmas party. I was living with her. God, it was a nightmare. There were all these demons and I was on fire. Only I was burning from ice. SARAH Guilty thoughts. See what happens when you cheat on me, even in your mind? JACOB She was good in bed, though. SARAH Go to sleep. JACOB She had these real beefy thighs. Delicious. SARAH I thought you said it was a nightmare?Suddenly, out of nowhere, we hear the tinkling sound of a music box. A YOUNG BOY enters the room, carrying a musical LUNCH BOX in his arms. He is wearing a long T-shirt nearly down to his ankles. We recognize him from his photograph. It is GABE. GABE Daddy, what was that noise? JACOB (surprised to see him) Gabe? (he stares curiously at his son) What are you doing ... ? GABE There was a bang. JACOB It was the window. GABE It's cold. JACOB Tell your mother. GABE Mom, it's ... SARAH I heard you. Go back to sleep. GABE Will you tuck me in? SARAH (not happily) Oh ... all right.She starts to rise. JACOB stops her and gets up instead. He whisks GABE upside down and carries him into hisGABE'S BEDROOM - NIGHTBEDROOM, licking his belly and tickling him all the way. GABE laughs and snuggles into his pillow as soon as he hits the bed. JED, 9, and ELI, 7, are both in bunk beds across the room. JED looks up. JED Dad? JACOB Jed. It's the middle of the night. (he kisses GABE and goes over to JED in the lower bunk) What's up? JED You forgot my allowance. JACOB Your allowance? It's five A.M. We'll talk at breakfast. JED Okay, but don't forget.Suddenly another voice pipes in from the top bunk. ELI I love you, Dad.JACOB smiles. JACOB What is this, a convention? I love you, too, Pickles. Now go back to sleep.He turns to leave. GABE Wait ... Daddy. JACOB Now what? GABE Don't go. JACOB Don't go? (he smiles) I'm not going anywhere. I'm right here, Gabe. (he looks at his son tenderly) Come on, go back to sleep. You can still get a couple of hours.He hugs him warmly and then walks to the door. GABE ... I love you.There is deep emotion and seriousness in GABE's words. JACOB is struck by them. GABE (continuing) Don't shut the door.JACOB nods and leaves it a tiny bit ajar. GABE (continuing) A bit more ... a bit more.JACOB adjusts the opening enough to please GABE and make him secure. GABE smiles and cuddles in his bed.INT. SARAH'S BEDROOM - NIGHTJACOB settles back into bed. SARAH turns over and gets comfortable. JACOB lies on his back facing the ceiling. He pulls the blankets up to his neck. He is overcome with feelings of sadness and longing. JACOB I love you, Sarah.She smiles warmly. His eyes close and in a matter of seconds he is back asleep.EXT. VIETNAM - PRE DAWNWE HEAR SUMMER MORNING SOUNDS, CRICKETS and BIRDS. The image of trees materializes overhead and a beautiful pink sky, just before sunrise, can be seen through the branches. It is an idyllic setting.Suddenly a strange sound can be heard in the distance, a metallic humming, growing louder. There is a scramble of feet and a sound of heavy boots moving through the tall grass. Voices can be heard. Men's voices. VOICE They're here. VOICE Thank God. Move 'em out! VOICES Bust your balls! VOICE Move it! Move it!There is an instant swell of activity. Trees and branches blur and speed by overhead. The idyllic image of moments before reveals itself as a P.O.V. SHOT. The CAMERA races out of a JUNGLE covering and into a huge CLEARING.High overhead a helicopter appears. Its blades whirl with a deafening whine. Long lines drop from its belly and dangle in mid-air. SOLDIERS leap up into the air reaching for them. The air is filled with turbulence. Tarps fly off dead bodies. SOLDIERS hold them down. Voices yell but the words are not clear. They are filled with urgency.The CAMERA leaves the ground. The edges of the sky disappear as the helicopter's gray mass fills the frame. It grows larger and darker as the CAMERA approaches. Rivets and insignias dotting the underbelly come into view. Suddenly the stretcher begins spinning, out of control. Hands emerge from inside, reaching out to grab it.Watery, womb-like sounds rise out of nowhere, the rippling of water, a heart beating. Gradually voices can be heard mumbling; distant sounds, warm and familiar.INT. BATHROOM - NIGHTJACOB's DOCTOR reaches down to help him out of the tub. Surprisingly JEZZIE and MRS. CARMICHAEL are standing there too. JACOB stares at them in total confusion. DOCTOR You are a lucky man, my friend. A lucky man. You must have friends in high places, that's all I can say.SAM and TONY appear next to the DOCTOR. They are extending their hands to the P.O.V. CAMERA. JACOB'S arms, nearly blue, reach out to them.Slowly they lift him from the icy water. JACOB takes one step onto the tile and collapses to the floor. CUT TO BLACK:INT. JACOB'S BEDROOM - DAYFADE IN sounds of feet shuffling across the carpet. A glass rattles on a tray. A television is on low in the background. Slowly the CAMERA LENS opens from JACOB's P.O.V. and we see JEZZIE puttering around the BEDROOM. Suddenly she is aware that JACOB is watching her. She smiles. JEZZIE Jake. (she places her hand on his head and strokes his hair) You're gonna be all right, Jake. You're gonna be fine. JACOB Am I home? JEZZIE You're here. Home. The doctor said you're lucky your brains didn't boil. (she smiles) What a night, Jake. It was crazy. You kept sayin' "Sarah, close the window," over and over. And talkin' to your kids. Even the dead one. Weird. You know you melted 200 pounds of ice in 8 hours. Amazing, huh? JACOB Are we in Brooklyn? JEZZIE You're right here, Jake. You just rest. (she puffs up his pillow) The doctor said you had a virus. That's what they say when they don't know what it is. You can't do anything for a week. He says you gotta recuperate. (she strokes his forehead, and gets up) Now you just lie here. Mrs. Sandelman made you some chicken soup. It'll warm you up.JEZZIE leaves the room. JACOB watches her as she goes. He seems lost and confused.INT. JACOB'S KITCHEN - DAYJACOB, unshaven, wearing his bathrobe, is sitting at the KITCHEN TABLE. PILES OF BOOKS on demonology are spread out before him. He studies them to distraction. JEZZIE is standing by the counter making sandwiches. She wraps them in plastic Baggies and puts one in a lunch box, another in the refrigerator. She is dressed in her postal uniform. JEZZIE You know, you really ought to get out today. You can't just sit around like this all the time. It's not healthy. It's not good for your mind. Go take a walk, or somethin'. Go to a movie. Christ, who's gonna know? You think I care? I don't give a shit. Go. Enjoy yourself. One of us should be having a good time. (JEZZIE knocks on JACOB's head) Hello! Anybody home? (she looks in his ear) Anybody in there? JACOB What?JEZZIE just stares at him. She does not respond. JACOB returns to his books.CUT TO CLOSE UP IMAGES OF WINGED DEMONS, real demons, with spindly horns and long tails. JACOB's huge finger, magnified, scans page after page of ancient images and archaic text. JEZZIE, enraged at his lack of attention, returns to packing her lunch box. Suddenly she spins around. JEZZIE Goddamn it! I can't stand it anymore. I've had it up to here. Go ahead and rot if you want ... You son-of-a- bitch, I'm talking to you.CUT BACK to the DEMONS. Suddenly a crashing sound catches JACOB's attention as a KITCHEN POT flies by his head. He looks up to see JEZZIE knocking pots and pans off the kitchen counter and kicking them wildly across the room. The noise is terrible. The intensity of her rage is shocking. The pots crash into every surface, knocking all his books onto the floor. And then, suddenly, she stops.JEZZIE stoops down to the floor and picks up her sandwich, stuffs it back in its plastic Baggie, and puts it back in her lunch box. She is about to leave when she stops and looks at JACOB. JEZZIE (continuing, her anger in check) I made you a tuna fish sandwich. It's in the fridge. Eat a carrot with it. The aspirin's on the bottom shelf. We're out of soap so, if for some reason you decide to wash yourself again, use the dishwashing stuff. (she walks out of the room and returns with her coat) I'm sorry I yelled, but you get on my nerves. (she bends down and makes eye contact with JACOB) Hello? Listen, I gotta go.JEZZIE sits on his lap, gives him a big kiss, and then, unexpectedly, raises two fingers, like horns, over her head. The gesture catches JACOB's full attention. JEZZIE (continuing) Look, I'm horny. Keep it in mind. (she kisses his cheek) Love me a little? JACOB (speaking with affection) You are the most unbelievable woman I have ever met. One second you're a screaming banshee and the next you're Florence Nightingale. Who are you? That's what I want to know. Will the real Jezzie Pipkin please stand up.Suddenly the telephone rings. It startles them. JEZZIE Oh shit. Tell 'em I've left.JEZZIE grabs her jacket and shoves her arm in it upside down. A pocketful of change falls on the floor. JACOB smiles. JEZZIE curses as she struggles to pick it up and get the jacket on right. JACOB gets the phone. JACOB Hello. PAUL (V.O.) Jacob Singer? JACOB Speaking. PAUL (V.O.) Paul Gruneger! JACOB Paul Gruneger! Well I'll be goddamned!JACOB indicates it's for him. JEZZIE throws him a kiss goodbye and hurries out the door. JACOB (continuing) Paul! You son-of-a-bitch, how the hell are you? I haven't seen you in what, five, six, years? PAUL (V.O.) A long time. JACOB Jesus Christ. How've you been? What's happening in your life? PAUL (V.O.) Nothin' much. JACOB Me neither. Nothing too exciting. So tell me, to what do I owe the honor? PAUL (V.O.) I need to see you, Jake. JACOB Shit, Paul. I'd love to see you. But I'm kind of laid up here. I've been sick. PAUL (V.O.) I need to see you.INT. PAUL'S CAR - DAYJACOB and PAUL are driving through EAST NEW YORK heading toward WILLIAMSBURG. The elevated trains rumble above them. JACOB pats PAUL on the back. JACOB Jesus, man, you look terrific. You must have put on twenty pounds. PAUL I work in a bakery. JACOB You're lucky. How many vets you know are even employed? PAUL Count 'em on one hand. JACOB It's almost like a conspiracy, huh? PAUL No joke. Fuckin' army! That goddamn war. I'm still fightin' it. JACOB It's not worth it. You'll never win. PAUL You tellin' me? How many times can you die, huh?PAUL looks in his rear view mirror before changing lanes. He sees a black car tagging close behind him. He pulls out. So does the car. PAUL (continuing) Still married, Jake? JACOB Nope. PAUL You and everybody else. God I hate this area. Makes me nervous. JACOB Why the hell we drivin' here? PAUL I just need to talk. JACOB You can't talk in Brownsville? PAUL I'm not sure where I can talk anymore. JACOB What's wrong? PAUL Let's get a couple drinks, okay? (he looks at his rear view mirror) Hey, take a look behind us. Do you think that car is followin' us? JACOB (turning to look) That black car? PAUL Pull the mirror down on the sun visor. (JACOB does) Just watch 'em. JACOB What's goin' on Paul? PAUL I don't know. JACOB You in trouble? PAUL Yeah.JACOB notices PAUL's left arm. It is shaking. The black car passes on the left. Both PAUL and JACOB stare at it as it speeds by.INT. BAR - DAYJACOB and PAUL are sitting in a dark booth in an obscure WILLIAMSBURG BAR. It is nearly empty. PAUL is leaning across the table in a very intimate fashion. PAUL Somethin's wrong, Jake. I don't know what it is but I can't talk to anybody about it. I figured I could with you. You always used to listen, you know?JACOB nods. PAUL takes a sip of his drink and stares deliberately into JACOB's eyes. PAUL (continuing) I'm going to Hell!JACOB's face grows suddenly tense. PAUL (continuing) That's as straight as I can put it. And don't tell me that I'm crazy 'cause I know I'm not. I'm goin' to Hell. They're comin' after me. JACOB (frightened, but holding back) Who is? PAUL They've been followin' me. They're comin' outta the walls. I don't trust anyone. I'm not even sure I trust you. But I gotta talk to someone. I'm gonna fly outta my fuckin' mind.PAUL cannot contain his fear. He jumps up suddenly and walks away from the booth. JACOB follows him with his eyes but does not go after him. A YOUNG MAN in the next booth observes the scene with interest. He looks vaguely familiar, like we have seen him before.PAUL stares out the window for a moment and then walks over to the juke box. He pulls a quarter out of his pocket and drops it in the slot. His finger pushes a selection at random. Some '60's rock hit blares out. JACOB's mind is reeling by the time PAUL sits back down. PAUL (continuing) Sorry. Sometimes I think I'm just gonna jump outta my skin. They're just drivin' me wild. JACOB Who, Paul? What exactly ... ? PAUL I don't know who they are, or what they are. But they're gonna get me and I'm scared, Jake. I'm so scared I can't do anything. I can't go to my sisters. I can't even go home. JACOB Why not? PAUL They're waitin' for me, that's why.PAUL's hand starts to shake. The tremor spreads rapidly to his whole body. The booth begins to rattle. PAUL (continuing) I can't stop it. I try. Oh God! Help me Jake.JACOB slides quickly out of his side of the booth and moves in toward PAUL. He puts his arm around him and holds him tightly, offering comfort as best he can.PAUL is obviously terrified and grateful for JACOB's gesture. A few PEOPLE at the bar look over in their direction. JACOB It's okay, Paul. It's okay. PAUL (crying) I don't know what to do. JACOB Don't do anything. (PAUL begins to relax a bit and the shaking subsides) Paul, I know what you're talking about. PAUL What do you mean? JACOB I've seen them too ... the demons! PAUL (staring at JACOB) You've seen them? JACOB Everywhere, like a plague. PAUL God almighty. I thought I was the only one. JACOB Me, too. I had no idea. It's like I was coming apart at the seams. PAUL Oh God. I know. I know. JACOB What is it Paul? What's happening to me? PAUL They keep telling me I'm already dead, that they're gonna tear me apart, piece by piece, and throw me into the fire. (he fumbles in his coat pocket and pulls out a small Bible and silver cross) I carry these everywhere but they don't help. Nothing helps. Everyone thinks I'm crazy. My mother filed a report with the army. JACOB (stunned) The army? PAUL She said I haven't been the same since then. Since that night. There's still this big hole in my brain. It's so dark in there, Jake. And these creatures. It's like they're crawling out of my brain. What happened that night? Why won't they tell us? JACOB I don't know. I don't know. PAUL They're monsters, Jake. We're both seein' 'em. There's gotta be a connection. Something.JACOB leans back in the booth, his mind racing. The YOUNG MAN in the next booth is watching them with rapt attention.INT. MEN'S ROOM - DAYPAUL and JACOB are in the MEN'S ROOM. PAUL flushes the urinal. PAUL I'm afraid to go by myself anymore. I keep thinkin' one of 'em's gonna come up behind me. Somethin's wrong when a guy can't even take a leak by himself. I've seen 'em take people right off the street. I used to go home a different way every night. Now I can't even go home. JACOB You come home with me. PAUL What about your girlfriend? You don't think she'll mind? JACOB Are you kidding? We've put up more of her cousins. You wouldn't believe how they breed down there.PAUL smiles.EXT. BAR - DAYThe TWO MEN leave the bar on a dingy side street. It is cold outside. Christmas lights seem ludicrous dangling in the bar's front window. PAUL looks at them and smiles. PAUL Merry Christmas.PAUL steps into the street and walks to the driver's side of his car. He pulls out his keys and opens the door. JACOB looks down on the sidewalk and notices a dime. JACOB Goddamn, this is my lucky day.He bends down to pick it up. PAUL inserts the key into the ignition and steps on the gas. He turns the key.THE CAR EXPLODES. Pieces of metal and flesh fly into the air. JACOB sprawls out flat on the ground as the debris hurls above him. He covers his head.EXT. VIETNAMCUT TO A HELICOPTER suffering an air bombardment. Flack is exploding all around it and the shock waves are rocking the craft violently. JACOB's eyes peer to the left.INFANTRY GUNNERS are firing rockets into the JUNGLE below. A pair of MEDICS are huddled over him. A sudden gush of arterial bleeding sends a stream of blood splattering over the inside of the windshield. The PILOT, unable to see, clears it away with his hands.JACOB screams over the roar of the chopper. One of the MEDICS presses his ear close to JACOB to hear. JACOB Help me! MEDIC We're doing the best we can. JACOB Get me out of here!EXT. BAR - DAYTHE YOUNG MAN from the bar grabs JACOB under the arms and drags him down the sidewalk. YOUNG MAN Just hold on. JACOB Where am I? Who are you?The YOUNG MAN yanks JACOB around the corner just as another explosion consumes the car. The air is filled with flames and flying debris. The YOUNG MAN pulls JACOB into the bar. YOUNG MAN Just lie still. You're okay. You're not hurt.The CUSTOMERS are in a state of bedlam. Part of the wall has blown apart and bricks and glass are everywhere. The cross from around PAUL's neck is buried in the debris. Sirens are heard in the distance. A BLACK CAR speeds off down the street. JACOB looks for the YOUNG MAN who had helped him. He is gone.EXT. FUNERAL PROCESSION - DAYA FUNERAL PROCESSION heads down Ocean Parkway.INT. JACOB'S CAR - DAYJACOB and JEZZIE are driving in an old Chevy Nova. They are dressed up. JACOB's face is bruised and he has a gauze pad over his ear. They drive in silence. JACOB appears very sad. Slowly his right hand reaches across the seat, seeking JEZZIE's. Their fingers embrace.EXT. CEMETERY - DAYThe FUNERAL PROCESSION enters the CEMETERY. Cars park along the length of the narrow road. MEN IN DARK SUITS emerge from their cars along with WIVES and GIRLFRIENDS.They are the SOLDIERS we have seen at the opening of the film, only they are older now. A small group of FAMILY MEMBERS are helped to the graveside.JACOB joins the other VETERANS as pallbearers. They carry the casket in semi-military formation to the grave.INT. PAUL'S LIVING ROOM - DAYJACOB'S OLD ARMY BUDDIES are sitting together in Paul's living room, talking. PAUL'S WIFE can be seen in the BEDROOM. Several WOMEN are comforting her.JEZZIE is talking to a small group of LADIES in the DINING ROOM and nibbling off a tray of cold cuts. PAUL'S SISTER is with her and they seem to be having a lively, almost intimate, conversation.JACOB and his BUDDIES are drinking beer. They all have a tired, defeated look about them. FRANK Did anyone see the police report? It sounds like a detonation job to me. JERRY The paper said it was electrical; a freak accident. ROD Bullshit. Someone's covering somethin'. That was no accident. GEORGE Why do you say that? ROD Cars don't explode that way. Any simpleton knows that. GEORGE But the paper ... ROD That was set. I'm tellin' you. DOUG By who? Why? Paul didn't have an enemy in the world. JERRY How do you know? DOUG Hey, you're talkin' about Paul. Who'd want to hurt him? FRANK What did he talk about when you guys went out? Did he say anything? JACOB He was upset. He thought people were following him. JERRY You're kidding. Who? JACOB He didn't know ... Demons. GEORGE (obviously struck by the word) What do you mean, demons? JACOB He told me he was going to Hell.The statement has a surprising impact on the group. There is immediate silence and eyes averted from one another. ROD What'd he say that for? What made him say that? Strange, huh? Strange. GEORGE What else did he say, Jake? JACOB He was scared. He saw these creatures coming out of the woodwork. They were tryin' to get him, he said. GEORGE (his arm shaking) How long had that been going on? JACOB A couple of weeks, I think.He notices GEORGE's beer can rattling. GEORGE He say what they looked like? JACOB No. Not really ... GEORGE Excuse me a minute. I'll be right back. ROD In one end, out the other, huh George?GEORGE tries to smile as he hurries to the bathroom. His arm is nearly out of control and beer is spilling on the carpet as he walks. ROD (continuing) Still a spastic, huh? I hope you can hold your dick better than you hold that can.No one laughs. There is an uncomfortable silence.EXT. A BACK ALLEY - DAYThe SIX MEN are walking quietly through an unpaved alley. It is already gray and getting darker. DOUG I know what Paul was talking about. I don't know how to say this ... but in a way it's a relief knowing that someone else saw them, too. ROD You're seeing ... ? DOUG They're not human, I'll tell you that. A car tried to run over me the other day. It was aiming straight for me. I saw their faces. They weren't from Brooklyn. ROD What are you tellin' me? They're from the Bronx? DOUG It was no joke, Rod. JERRY Something weird is going on here. What is it about us? Even in Nam it was always weird. Are we all crazy or something? DOUG Yeah, ever since that ...He hesitates. They all understand. ROD What's that have to do with anything? FRANK It was bad grass. That's all it was. JERRY Grass never did that to me. DOUG You know, I've been to three shrinks and a hypnotist. Nothing penetrates that night. Nothing. ROD It's not worth goin' over again and again. Whatever happened, happened. It's over. JACOB ... I've seen them, too. ROD Shit! JERRY So have I. JACOB Look, there's something fucking strange going on here. You know Paul's not the only one who's died. You remember Dr. Carlson over at Bellevue? His car blew up, too. ROD Dr. Carlson's dead? JACOB An explosion, just like Paul's. JERRY No! FRANK Jesus! GEORGE You think they're connected? JACOB (he nods) I think something's fucking connect- ed. I mean, a car tried to run me over the other day. Doug too, right? We've got six guys here going fucking crazy. ROD Not me, buddy. JACOB Okay, not you Rod. But the rest of us are flipping out for some goddamn reason. They're tryin' to kill us. Fuck it man, we need to find out what's going on. DOUG Do you think it has something to do with ... the offensive? JACOB It's got something to do with some- thing. I think we've got to confront the army. If they're hiding shit from us, we better find out what it is. ROD Come on, Professor. The army's not gonna give you any answers. You'll be buttin' your head against a stone wall. JACOB Maybe that's the only way to get through. Besides, six heads'll be better than one. ROD Not my head, buddy. Not me. I'm gettin' a headache just listenin' to you. JACOB We should get ourselves a lawyer. ROD I say you should get a shrink. DOUG Too late. I've tried. I think you're right, Jake. I'm game. JERRY Me, too. ROD You guys are fucking paranoid. It was bad grass. That's all it was. There's no such thing as demons.INT. LAW OFFICE - DAYJACOB, FRANK, JERRY, GEORGE, DOUG, and ROD are sitting on plush chairs in the LAW OFFICE of DONALD GEARY. GEARY, a red-faced man with three chins, is sucking on an ice cube. He looks at each of the men, and then spits the ice cube into an empty glass. It clinks. GEARY I'm sorry, Mr. Singer, but do you have any idea how many people come to me with the injustices of the world? It'd break your heart. JACOB This isn't injustice, Mr. Geary. The army did something to us and we've got to find out what. GEARY The army. The army. What is it with you guys? We're not talking about a trip to the library here. This is the United States Government for God's sake. This is red tape coming out of your ass. You know what I mean? JACOB Exactly. And we need someone to cut through it. We hear you're the man. GEARY Oh yeah? What am I - Perry Mason here?GEARY stands up and grabs a bag of Cheetos from a file drawer. He chomps down a few and offers the bag to the others. There are no takers. Thirsty, he downs the ice cube and cracks it between his teeth. GEARY (continuing) Okay. I'll look into it.The MEN are surprised and excited. PAUL Wow! Do you think we have a chance? GEARY What do you want, a fortune teller or a lawyer? ... I'll need sworn depositions from each of you and a list of the other members of the platoon, or their survivors. DOUG Hey, this is great. GEARY I'll tell you, if we find the military is implicated in any way, you could stand to recover quite a lot of money. Not that I can predict anything, but some class action suits of this kind have been awarded fairly generous judgements. That wouldn't be so bad, would it Mr. Singer? JACOB Doctor. (GEARY looks at him oddly) Ph.D. GEARY Ah! I thought you were a mailman. JACOB I am. GEARY (confused) Then why aren't you teaching? Why aren't you in a university? JACOB I'm too messed up to teach. GEARY (smiling) Ah! Well then, they're going to have to pay for that, aren't they?The MEN all nod in agreement.EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAYJACOB and the others exit the OFFICE BUILDING. They are jubilant, clasping hands and smacking each other on the back. We watch as they break up. JACOB heads for the subway. FRANK and another group hop a cab. As the cab pulls away we notice that a black car pulls out behind it. It follows them out of sight.INT. JACOB'S KITCHEN - NIGHTJACOB and JEZZIE are making wild and unadulterated love on the kitchen floor. The wastebasket flips over. JACOB's hand splashes into the dog's bowl. Nothing impedes their passion. JEZZIE laughs, hollers, and swoons. Hands grab hold of table legs. Chairs topple. Feet bang wildly against the stove. It is all mayhem and ecstacy. And then it ends.JACOB's face is ecstatic. He can barely talk and simply basks in JEZZIE's glow. She looks especially lovely and radiant. They lie exhausted and exhilarated on the linoleum floor. JEZZIE So tell me ... am I still an angel? JACOB (smiling broadly) With wings. You transport me, you know that? You carry me away.JEZZIE kisses him softly around his face and gently probes his ear with her pinky. JACOB loves it. JEZZIE We're all angels, you know ... (she bites his earlobe. He winces) ... and devils. It's just what you choose to see. JACOB I love you, Jez. JEZZIE I know. JACOB Underneath all the bullshit, just love. JEZZIE Remember that. JACOB You know what? I feel ... exorcised ... like the demons are gone. JEZZIE How come? The army? JACOB In a way. At least now I have some idea of what was happening. If we can only get them to admit ... to explain what they did ... I don't know. Maybe it'd clear things up in my head. I'll tell you something, Jez, honestly ... I thought they were real.Silence. Suddenly JEZZIE roars like a monster and scares JACOB half to death. They laugh and tumble back to the floor.INT. JACOB'S APT. - EVENINGJACOB emerges from the bathroom shower and pulls on a robe. JEZZIE is moving rapidly around the KITCHEN. JEZZIE I put a frozen dinner in the oven, a Manhandler. It'll be ready at a quarter of. I threw a little salad together. It's in the fridge. I also bought some apple juice, Red Cheek. Don't drink it all. Oh, and Jake, your lawyer called. JACOB He did? When? JEZZIE (grabbing her coat) While you were in the shower. JACOB Why didn't you call me? JEZZIE He didn't give me a chance. (she pauses nervously) Look, honey, don't get upset, but he's not taking your case. JACOB (stunned) What? What do you mean? JEZZIE He said you didn't have one. JACOB What's he talking about? JEZZIE I don't know. That's all he said. He wasn't very friendly. Oh, yeah. He said your buddies backed down. They chickened out, he said. JACOB I don't believe this. JEZZIE Baby, I'm sorry. I feel terrible. I'd stay and talk but I'm so late. Look, don't be upset. We'll talk when I get home. See you around midnight. (she kisses him on the cheek) Bye. And don't brood. Watch T.V. or something.JACOB'S APT./FRANK'S APT. - INTERCUTThe door slams securely. The locks set. JACOB begins instantly rifling through a desk drawer. He comes up with a frayed address book and looks up a number. He dials. FRANK (V.O.) Hello. JACOB Frank. It's Jake. Jacob SInger.We see FRANK standing at a window fingering the Venetian blinds. He does not reply. The scene intercuts between the two men. JACOB (continuing) Listen, I just got a strange call from Geary. He said the guys backed down. What's he talking about? FRANK (fingering the Venetian blinds) That's right. We did. JACOB What does that mean, Frank? I don't get it. Why? FRANK It's hard to explain. JACOB (angry) Well, try, huh. FRANK I don't know if I can. It's just that war is war. Things happen. JACOB Things happen? What the fuck are you talking about? They did something to us, Frank. We have to expose this. FRANK There's nothing to expose. JACOB Jesus Christ! Who's been talking to you? (silence) What's going on? How can you just turn away? (no response) What about the others? FRANK They're not interested, Jake. JACOB Shit! You know it's not half the case if I go it alone. We're all suffering the same symptoms, Frank. The army is to blame. They've done something to us. How can you not want to know? FRANK (pausing) Maybe it's not the army, Jake. JACOB What do you mean? FRANK Maybe there's a larger truth. JACOB What are you talking about? FRANK Maybe the demons are real. JACOB Goddamn it. What kind of bullshit is that? FRANK Listen, Jake. I gotta go. JACOB What the hell? What kind of mumbo jumbo ... ? FRANK I'm hanging up. JACOB Hey, wait! FRANK Don't bother to call again, okay?FRANK hangs up. JACOB stands holding the phone for a long time, until the high pitched whine from the receiver reminds him it's off the hook. The sound frightens him and he slams the receiver down. QUickly JACOB tears through his address book looking for other phone numbers. They aren't there. JACOB Shit!INT. JACOB'S APT.JACOB hurries into the BEDROOM and pulls an old shoe box from the closet. The box is filled with yellowing army papers, dog tags, and photos of old comrades. Beneath his discharge papers he finds a sheet scribbled with the names and addresses of platoon buddies. JACOB grabs it. Then his eyes fall on the frayed remains of an old letter. He picks it up and unfolds it with great care. The letter is written in a child's handwriting. "DEAR DADDY, I LOVE YOU. PLEASE COME HOME. JED GOT A FROG. ELI LOST MY KEY. MOM WANTS YOU TO SEND HER MONEY. LOVE, GABE." CUT TO:EXT. BROOKLYN SIDEWALK - DAYGABE, on a BICYCLE, is rushing down the sidewalk. JACOB is running alongside him, holding onto the seat. Plastic streamers trail from the handlebars. GABE is a bit wobbly, but determined. After a couple of false starts, JACOB lets go and GABE is riding by himself. For an instant, GABE looks back at his father with a huge grin on his face. JACOB is grinning, too. THE CAMERA HOLDS ON GABE as he pulls away from us and heads into the distance. CUT BACK TO:INT. JACOB'S APT. - NIGHTJACOB swallows hard as he stands there, holding the letter. Suddenly his eyes lift off the page and glance at a full length mirror mounted on the bedroom door. Something in the mirror, like the image of a child, seems to move. He looks over. There is nothing there. Curious, JACOB walks toward the mirror. As his image appears, he gasps and stops moving. To his horror and ours, it is his own back that is reflected in the mirror. The impossibility of the moment startles him. He lifts his hand. The reflection moves with him. Frightened but defiant, JACOB moves toward the mirror. The image in the mirror spins around. It is the FRIGHTENING VIBRATING FACE he saw at the party with JEZZIE. An unearthly scream comes from both their mouths. JACOB NO!!!INT. BROOKLYN COURT HOUSE - LATE AFTERNOONA huge wooden door slams open. JACOB charges through it.He is chasing his lawyer, DONALD GEARY, through a crowded court house corridor. GEARY, sweaty and unshaven, is cradling a Coke in one hand, a sandwich and a briefcase in the other. His stomach bounces wildly as he walks. JACOB Geary! Mr. Geary! Listen, goddamn it! You can't just walk away from this.GEARY keeps walking. JACOB catches up to him. JACOB (continuing) Who's been talking to you? The army? Have they been talking to you, huh? GEARY Nobody's been talking to nobody. You don't have a case, you hear me? It's pure and simple. Now leave me alone. Okay?JACOB grabs the back of GEARY's jacket and pulls him up short. GEARY (continuing) Take your hands off me!JACOB lets go. He stares into GEARY's eyes. JACOB Listen, will you listen? They're trying to get me. They're comin' out of the walls. The army's done something to me. I need you. GEARY You need ... a doctor. JACOB A doctor? And what's he gonna do, tell me I'm crazy? They've fucked with my head. I've got to prove it. You've got to do something.GEARY gives JACOB a pitiful look. GEARY There's nothing I can do.He turns and walks away. JACOB stands there a moment, and then rushes after him. GEARY is biting into his sandwich.Mayonnaise spills onto his hand. He licks it with his tongue. JACOB catches up to him. GEARY You mind? I'm eating, huh? JACOB Something's going on here. You're not telling me something. What the hell's gotten into you? GEARY I'll tell you what's gotten into me. I don't know you from Adam, right? You come to my office with this bizarro story and demand I look into it. Okay. I said I'd check it out and I did. Now I don't know what kind of fool you take me for, but you have used and abused me, and I don't like it. JACOB Used you? GEARY I talked to the Army's Bureau of Records. You've never even been to Viet Nam. JACOB What the hell is that supposed to mean? GEARY It means that you and your buddies are whacko, that you were discharged on psychological grounds after some war games in Thailand. JACOB (stunned) War games? Thailand? That's not true! How can you believe that? Can't you see what they're doing? It's all a lie. We were in Da Nang, for God's sake. You've got to believe me. GEARY I don't have to do any such thing. I'm eating my lunch, okay?GEARY takes a swig of his COKE and begins walking away. JACOB, enraged, charges after him. With a wild swipe he sends the COKE CAN shooting out of GEARY's hand. It reverberates down the corridor. GEARY is stunned. JACOB You slimy bastard! You goddamn piece of shit!With a powerful thrust, JACOB rips the sandwich from GEARY's other hand. Tossing it on the floor, he grinds his heel in it. Tomato and mayonnaise squirt onto GEARY's shoe. JACOB turns away.CUT TO JACOB walking down the COURT HOUSE CORRIDOR to the elevators. There is a look of satisfaction on his face.CUT BACK TO GEARY. He picks up a telephone and dials. Someone comes on the line. GEARY speaks quietly. GEARY He's on his way.CUT TO JACOB stepping onto the elevator. The doors close. The Muzak is playing "Sonny Boy" with Al Jolson singing. JACOB is surprised to hear it. He presses the down button for the main floor.The elevator stops at the LOBBY. The doors open swiftly. SEVERAL SOLDIERS are standing there. They approach JACOB. SOLDIER 1 Let's go, Singer.JACOB is shocked to see them. He tries to get away but two of the SOLDIERS yank him toward the LOBBY doors. SOLDIER 2 You're coming with us.INT. CAR - LATE AFTERNOONJACOB is hustled to a waiting car and shoved inside, in between two officious looking MEN. The doors lock from the DRIVER's command. ARMY OFFICIAL #1 Mr. Singer. What an appropriate name for a man who can't keep his mouth shut.The car drives off. JACOB Who are you? What do you want? ARMY OFFICIAL #2 We've been watching you for a long time. You and your friends. You've been exhibiting some very odd behavior. Frightening people with foolish talk about demons - and experiments.JACOB tries to speak but the other MAN grabs his mouth. ARMY OFFICIAL #1 You're in over your head, Mr. Singer. Men drown that way. The army was another part of your life. Forget it. It is dead and buried. Let it lie. ARMY OFFICIAL #2 I hope we have made our point, Mr. Singer.JACOB stares at the men for a moment and then goes totally berserk. Letting out a howl, he begins pounding and thrashing like a madman. He is totally out of control.With a wild leap, he grabs for the door handle. The door flies open. It flaps back and forth, slamming into parked cars. JACOB tries to jump out, but the men yank him back in. One of them pulls out a gun. JACOB sees it and goes crazy. His feet kick in all directions, slamming the DRIVER's nose into the steering wheel and shattering the side window.The car careens around a corner sending the gun flying to the floor. The men dive for it. It lodges beneath the seat. In the mayhem, JACOB throws himself out of the flapping door and sprawls onto the pavement. People look down at him as the car speeds away.EXT. BROOKLYN - LATE AFTERNOONJACOB grabs his back. He is in excruciating pain. He tries to get up, but can't move. He reaches out to people passing by, but they ignore him and hurry past.A SALVATION ARMY SANTA has been watching the entire scene. After a moment's consideration he leaves his post and ambles over to JACOB. He leans down and steals his wallet. SANTA Merry Christmas.EXT. BROOKLYN STREETS - EVENINGCUT TO THE SOUND OF A SIREN as an AMBULANCE races through the streets.INT. HOSPITAL - EVENINGAN AMBULANCE CREW rushes JACOB to a HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM. BEARER He's been screaming like a madman. You better get something in him. RESIDENT (approaching JACOB) Hi. I'm Doctor Stewart. Can you tell me what happened? JACOB My back. I can't move. I need my chiropractor. RESIDENT Your back? Did you fall? BEARER They said he slipped on the ice. May have hit his head. ATTENDANT Does he have any identification? BEARER No waller. Nothing. JACOB They stole it. RESIDENT Who did? JACOB I don't know. Santa Claus. I had my son's picture in it. Gabe's picture. It's the only one I had. RESIDENT We better get an orthopedic man in here. Is Dr. Davis on call? NURSE I'll page him. JACOB Call my chiropractor. NURSE We're doing everything we can. JACOB Louis Schwartz. Nostrand Avenue. RESIDENT I'm going to have to move you a bit, just to check for injuries. This may hurt a little. JACOB No. Don't move me.The RESIDENT ignores him. JACOB screams. RESIDENT I don't have to ask if you can feel that. JACOB Goddamn it. I want Louis. NURSE Who's Louis? RESIDENT He's out of it. I'm taking him down to X-ray.An ORDERLY pushes the gurney through a pair of sliding doors. JACOB tries to get up but the pain keeps him immobilized.INT. CORRIDORS - NIGHTJACOB begins a journey down what appears to be an endless series of corridors. The wheels of the gurney turn with a hypnotic regularity. The smooth tile floor gives way to roguh cement. The ORDERLY's feet plod through pools of blood that coagulate in cracks and crevices along the way. The surface grows rougher, the wheels more insistent. Body parts and human bile splash against the walls as the gurney moves faster. JACOB Where are you taking me? Where am I? ORDERLY You know where you are.JACOB, panicked, tries again to get up but to no effect. He glances to the side and sees mournful CREATURES being led into dark rooms. No one fights or struggles. We hear muffled screams from behind closed doors. Occasionally he glances inside the rooms and sees mangled bodies in strange contraptions, people in rusty iron lungs, and hanging from metal cages. Dark eyes peer out in horror. In one room a baseboard heater bursts into flame. No one seems concerned. A door opens. A bicycle with plastic streamers on the handlebars lies crushed and mangled. One of its wheels is still spinning. JACOB cries out but it is not his voice we hear. Rather it is a familiar unearthly roar. His whole body stiffens. As he rounds the corner he sees a figure, its head vibrating in endless terror. it is the same image he has seen before. JACOB screams.INT. ROOM - NIGHTJACOB is wheeled into a tiny ROOM. A numer of "DOCTORS" are waiting. As they draw closer JACOB notices that something about them is not right. They bear a subtle resemblance to Bosch-like DEMONS, creatures of another world. JACOB tries to sit up but winces in pain. He cannot move. He tries to scream but no sound comes out.Chains and pulleys hang from the ceiling. They are lowered and attached with speed and efficiency to JACOB's arms and legs. He screams. JACOB Oh God!The "DOCTORS" laugh. There is the sound of a huge door closing. JACOB is left in semi-darkness. Suddenly a new group of "DOCTORS" emerges from the shadows. They are carrying sharp surgical instruments. They surround JACOB, their eyes glistening as bright as their blades. JACOB is panting and sweating in fear. One of the "DOCTORS" leans over JACOB. He gasps with horror. It is JEZZIE. JACOB JEZZIE!She pays no attention to him. He stares at her, THE CAMERA TILTING DOWN HER BODY. As it gets to her foot we see it is a decaying mass, swarming with maggots. The "DOCTORS" laugh. They take great pleasure in his suffering. Their voices are strange and not human. Each utterance contains a multitude of contradictory tones, sincere and compassionate, taunting and mocking at the same time. The confusion of meanings is a torment of its own. JACOB (continuing) Get me out of here. "DOCTOR" Where do you want to go? JACOB Take me home. "DOCTOR" Home? (they all laugh) This is your home. You're dead. JACOB Dead? No. I just hurt my back. I'm not dead. "DOCTOR" What are you then? JACOB I'm alive. "DOCTOR" Then what are you doing here? JACOB I don't know. I don't know. (he struggles like an animal) This isn't happening. "DOCTOR" What isn't happening? JACOB Let me out of here! "DOCTOR" There is no out of here. You've been killed. Don't you remember?A "DOCTOR" approaches JACOB. As he turns, we notice with horror that he has no eyes or eye sockets. He extracts a long needle from his belt and positions it over JACOB's head. Like a divining rod it locates a particular point near the crown of his head. With a powerful thrust the "DOCTOR" shoves the needle into JACOB's skull and pushes it slowly into his brain. JACOB howls.EXT. VIETNAM - NIGHTCUT RAPIDLY TO VIETNAM and a replay of flashes of the opening sequence of the film. SOLDIERS with bayonets are charging over rice paddies in the dark of the night. ONE OF THE SOLDIERS charges at JACOB with a long bayonet blade and jams it into his intestines. JACOB cries out.INT. ROOM - NIGHTCUT BACK TO THE "DOCTORS". "DOCTOR" Remember? JACOB No! That was years ago! I've lived years since then. "DOCTOR" It's all been a dream. JACOB No! The army did this to me! They've done something to my brain. (he raves like a madman) Jezzie! I want my boys! Sarah! I'm not dead! I want my family!The "DOCTORS" laugh and back away, disappearing into the darkness.INT. HOSPITAL - NIGHTSuddenly a fluorescent light flashes overhead. NORMAL HOSPITAL WALLS materialize instantaneously around him. A NURSE enters the room followed by SARAH, ELI, and JED. They approach JACOB who is lying in traction, suspended over a hospital bed. NURSE He's still pretty doped up. I don't think he'll be able to talk yet and I doubt that he'll recognize you. SARAH I just want to see him. JED (eating a Snickers bar) Dad. Hi. It's us. We just found out. ELI You look terrible. Does that hurt? NURSE I'll be outside if you need me. SARAH Jake. It's me. We heard what happened. JACOB (his voice hoarse, nearly whispering) I'm not dead. I am not dead. SARAH No. Of course you're not. You've just hurt your back. That's all. You're going to be fine. It'll just take some time. JED A month, they said. ELI (trying to joke) You just hang in there, Dad. SARAH (smacking him) That's not funny. (she reaches over and rubs JACOB's brow) What a mess, huh? God I wish there was something I could do. I love you, Jacob. For whatever that's worth. I do.There is a sudden sound of "DOCTORS" laughing. JACOB jerks his head painfully, but does not see them. "DOCTOR" (O.S.) Dream on! JACOB (yelling at the unseen voice) No! Oh God. SARAH Jacob, what can I do? JACOB Save me!JACOB's plea confuses SARAH. She responds with a kiss.INT. HOSPITAL - DAYDAYLIGHT streams through the window in JACOB's ROOM. He is still in traction and looks very uncomfortable. A new NURSE enters holding a plastic container with a straw poking out. NURSE Well, don't we look better this morning? That was a hard night, wasn't it? JACOB Where am I? NURSE Lennox Hospital. JACOB I'm awake? NURSE You look awake to me. Here. (she holds the straw to his lips) Drink some of this. JACOB (staring at her intently) Where's Sarah? Where did she go? (the NURSE gives him a strange look) She was here ... NURSE No. No. You haven't had any visitors. JACOB That's a lie. My family was here. NURSE I'm sorry. JACOB Last night! They were as real as you are!The NURSE smiles and nods in appeasement. JACOB This is not a dream! This is my life. NURSE Of course it is. What else could it be?She giggles nervously. There is a funny glint in her eyes. JACOB looks away. He doesn't want to see it.OMITINT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - EVENINGThere is a loud commotion in the HALL. We see LOUIS SCHWARTZ, JACOB's chiropractor, screaming JACOB's name. LOUIS Jacob! Jacob Singer!JACOB yells. JACOB Louis! I'm here! In here!INT. JACOB'S ROOM - DAYLOUIS storms through JACOB's door followed by several NURSES and ORDERLIES. JACOB LOUIS! NURSE 1 You can't go in there! ORDERLY You're going to have to leave.LOUIS stares furiously at JACOB stretched out on the traction apparatus. He begins to yell. LOUIS Good God, Jake. What have they done? (he examines JACOB and screams at the NURSES) What is this, the Middle Ages? And they call this modern medicine. This is barbaric! Barbaric! (turning to JACOB) It's okay, Jake. It's not serious. I'll get you out of here. (yelling at the ORDERLY) What is this, the Inquisition? Why don't you just burn him at the stake and put him out of his misery?LOUIS charges over to the traction equipment and begins working the pulleys that suspend JACOB over the bed. The NURSES and ORDERLIES become instantly hysterical and start screaming. ORDERLY What the hell do you think ... ? LOUIS Don't you come near me. NURSE 2 You can't do that! LOUIS What is this, a prison? Stay back. NURSE 1 You can't. Call the police.One of the ORDERLIES lunges at LOUIS who swings back at him with one of the pulley chains. It just misses. LOUIS (to the ORDERLIES) You take one step and I'll wrap this around your neck.LOUIS lowers JACOB into a wheelchair while holding the others at bay. LOUIS (continuing) Hold on, Jake, we're getting out of here.NURSES and ORDERLIES part as he pushes him quickly from the room.OMITINT. CHIROPRACTIC OFFICE - EVENINGLOUIS helps JACOB over to an adjusting table in a room that, compared with the hospital, is comfortable and serene. He pushes a lever and the table rises to a vertical position. JACOB leans against it and rides it down to a horizontal position. Every moment is agony for him. LOUIS Half an hour from now and you'll be walking out of here all by yourself. Mark my words. (JACOB barely hears them) Well, you've done it to yourself this time, haven't you? JACOB (nearly whispering) Am I dead, Louis? (LOUIS leans over to hear) Am I dead? LOUIS (smiling) From a slipped disc? That'd be a first. JACOB I was in Hell. I've been there. It's horrible. I don't want to die, Louis. LOUIS Well, I'll see what I can do about it. JACOB I've seen it. It's all pain. LOUIS (working on JACOB's spine like a master mechanic) You ever read Meister Eckart? (JACOB shakes his head "no") How did you ever get your Doctorate without reading Eckart? (LOUIS takes hold of JACOB's legs and yanks them swiftly) Good. Okay, let's turn over gently. Right side.JACOB turns to his left. LOUIS shakes his head in dismay. LOUIS The other "right," okay? (he helps JACOB turn over) You're a regular basket case, you know that? (he moves JACOB's arm over his head) Eckart saw Hell, too.LOUIS positions JACOB's other arm, bends his legs, and then pushes down on his thigh. His spine moves with a cracking sound. JACOB groans. LOUIS (continuing) You know what he said? The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life; your memories, your attachments. They burn 'em all away. But they're not punish- ing you, he said. They're freeing your soul. Okay, other side.He helps JACOB and repositions him. Again he pushes and the spine cracks. LOUIS (continuing) Wonderful. So the way he sees it, if you're frightened of dying and hold- ing on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace then the devils are really angels freeing you from the earth. It's just a matter of how you look at it, that's all. So don't worry, okay? Relax. Wiggle your toes.JACOB's toes dance as LOUIS gives him a quick, unexpected jab to the lower vertebrae in his back. LOUIS (continuing) Perfect. We got it. (LOUIS pushes a lever and the table rises back up) Okay. Let's just give it a little try. See if you can stand. JACOB What? By myself? LOUIS You can do it. Come on. Easy. Just give it a try.JACOB steps cautiously away from the table. He moves hesitantly, with deliberate restraint. LOUIS encourages him like a faith healer coaxing the lame. His first steps have an aura of the miraculous about them. JACOB walks slowly, without help. LOUIS smiles impishly. He looks like a giant cherub. LOUIS Hallelujah.LOUIS puts his arm around him. Then JACOB tries again, gradually rediscovering his balance and strength. With each step his confidence returns. LOUIS is pleased. Then, suddenly, without warning, JACOB turns and heads toward the door. LOUIS What are you doing? JACOB There's something I've gotta take care of, Louis. LOUIS What are you talking about? You can barely stand. JACOB I'm walking, aren't I? LOUIS Jake, you need to rest. JACOB Not tonight, Louis. No more rest.He walks slowly out the door. LOUIS starts to go after him. JACOB turns around and shakes his head "no." The look on his face is firm and defiant. LOUIS stands back and lets him go. JACOB I love you, Louis.EXT. U.S. ARMY RECRUITING HEADQUARTERS - NIGHTCUT TO A SDIREN BLARING and a fire engine racing through the streets of lower MANHATTAN. A CROWD is forming. Banks of lights and television cameras amass in the cold night air. Police cars and mobile units rush to the scene.CUT TO JACOB. In one hand he is holding a brightly lit torch. In the other he is holding a container of gasoline and pouring it on the steps of the U.S. ARMY RECRUITING HEADQUARTERS. The volatile liquid splashes against his pants and shoes and runs down the pavement. A five gallon container lies emptying nearby. Gasoline belches from it insistently and pours onto the street. Bystanders back away as the gasoline snakes toward them.Television cameras and microphones are pointing in JACOB's direction, but at a safe distance. He is yelling at them, his teeth chattering from the cold. JACOB Listen to me. There were four companies in our batallion. Five hundred men. Seven of us were left when it was over. Seven! Four companies engaged in an enemy offensive that not one of us who survived can remember fighting. BYSTANDERS Use the torch! ONLOOKER Shut up! Let him talk!POLICE AMBULANCES are arriving at the scene. FIREMEN ready hoses at nearby hydrants. T.V. CAMERAS are rolling. JACOB (shouting) You don't forget a battle where 500 men were killed. They did something to us. I want to know the truth, the goddamn truth. We have a right to know. (he yells toward the cameras) Are you getting all this? I want this on national T.V. I want the whole country, the whole world to know.He holds up the torch. A loudspeaker blares through the crowd. VOICE Throw that torch away, young man. Give yourself up. You're under arrest. JACOB For what? For seeking the truth? VOICE Please come quietly. JACOB You come near me and I'll blow us all up. VOICE We're not going to hurt you. ONLOOKER Give him a chance to talk! JACOB The army will deny it. They've falsified my records. They've lied to my lawyer, threatened my buddies. But they can't threaten me. BYSTANDER You tell 'em! BYSTANDER Use the torch! VOICE Okay, let's clear the area. Everyone out.Suddenly a lighted match flies in JACOB's direction. JACOB is enraged. He brandishes the torch at the crowd. JACOB What the fuck do you think you're doing?Another match hurls toward him and dies in mid-air. PEOPLE on the fringe of the crowd begin to run. JACOB does not move. VOICE Clear the area. This is an order! JACOB What is wrong with you?We hear laughter from PEOPLE in the crowd. As JACOB looks out into some of their eyes he sees demons looking back. One of them throws another match. Crazed, JACOB runs toward them. PEOPLE jump back.Suddenly JACOB freezes. Standing on the sidelines, he sees one of the ARMY OFFICIALS who trapped him in the car. He is reaching for a gun. JACOB, stunned, yells at the top of hhis lungs. JACOB NO!With a defiant roar, he hurls the torch straight up into the air. We see it from high above the crowd spinning higher and higher. All eyes stare upward watching it in a kind of wonder. Then, reaching its apex, just below the camera, it begins its descent. The eyes of the crowd turn to fear. SOMEONE yells. ONLOOKER He'll burn us all!Screams fill the air as PEOPLE scramble to escape the potential conflagration. Only JACOB remains motionless, standing silently, almost heroically, in the middle of it all.Suddenly the torch hits the ground and a pool of gasoline ignites with a blinding flare that sends flames shooting in all directions. PEOPLE panic. T.V. REPORTERS and CAMERAMEN run for their lives. The ARMY OFFICIALS run, too. The flames travel toward the Army Headquarters and rush along the curb. Water hoses are trying to douse them as they spread. JACOB, surprisingly untouched by the fire, walks slowly through the frightened crowds, as if in a daze. Viewed through the flames the scene momentarily resembles a vision of Hell.INT. JACOB'S APT. - NIGHTJACOB, stark naked and covered with goose bumps, runs his hands under a shower spray. The water is freezing and taking forever to warm up. Anxious, he dashes past his gasoline drenched clothes, grabs a suitcase from the BEDROOM closet, and stuffs it with clothes. Then he hurries back to the shower, tests it, and jumps in.Lather covers JACOB's hair and hangs over his tightly closed eyes. His entire body is covered in suds. He is washing as quickly as he can. Suddenly he hears a noise as someone enters the BATHROOM. He tenses. JACOB Who's there? Who is it?JACOB struggles to rinse the soap from his eyes. They are burning. There is a shadow behind the curtain. JACOB (continuing) Goddamn it! Who's there?JACOB rubs his eyes, fighting to see. Suddenly the shower curtain is thrown back. JACOB backs against the wall. A hand reaches in and pulls his nipple, pinching hard. JEZZIE It's just me. JACOB Jezzie? JEZZIE Who else were you expecting? JACOB Let go! JEZZIE Where were you, Jake? Where've you been? Why haven't you called? JACOB Stay away from me, Jez. JEZZIE I want to know. You tell me! JACOB You wanna know? Turn on the T.V. Watch the fucking news!He pushes her away and jumps out of the shower.CUT TO JACOB dressing and piling the last of his clothes into his suitcase. JEZZIE, in a robe, is watching him. JEZZIE Why are you doing this to me? You can't just go away like that. JACOB I can do anything I want.She stares at him with confusion. THE PHONE RINGS. JACOB Don't! JEZZIE It might be for me. JACOB I'm not here. You haven't seen me. JEZZIE (picking up the receiver) Hello ... No. He's not here. I haven't seen him all night ... I don't know when ... What? Tell him what? (JACOB looks up) Vietnam? ... What experiments?JACOB lunges for the phone. JACOB Hello. This is Jacob Singer. (he listens with growing fascination) God almighty! ... Yes. Yes. Right. Where would you like to meet? (he listens) How will I know you. (JACOB seems uncomfortable) Okay. I'll be there.He hangs up the phone and stands silently for a moment. JEZZIE Who was that? JACOB A chemist. Part of a chemical warfare unit out of Saigon. He said he knows me and that I'll know him when I see him. JEZZIE How? JACOB I have no idea. (he thinks) I was right. There were experiments. I knew it. I knew it. My God. JEZZIE How do you know he's telling the truth?JACOB stares at JEZZIE for several moments but does not respond. The 11:00 NEWS is coming on. JACOB's image can be seen on the screen. We hear the NEWSCASTER speaking. NEWSCASTER Leading the news tonight, a bizarre demonstration on the steps of the U.S. Army Recruiting Headquarters, in downtown Manhattan. Jacob Singer, an alleged Vietnam vet ... JACOB Alleged? Alleged? NEWSCASTER ... challenged the United States Army to admit conducting secret experi- ments involving hundreds of American soldiers during the Vietnam war.JEZZIE stares at the T.V., dumbfounded. JACOB takes his suitcase and hurries to the front door. He opens it a crack and peers into the hallway. JEZZIE runs after him. JEZZIE (almost threatening) Don't leave me, Jake.INT. BUILDING CORRIDOR - NIGHTJACOB gazes at JEZZIE for a moment and then hurries down the HALL. He stops at the stairwell and looks back. JEZZIE is still standing there. She is very angry. JACOB just stares at her for a moment and then disappears down the stairwell.EXT. WESTSIDE HIGHWAY - NIGHTJACOB is standing near the WESTSIDE HIGHWAY. GROUPS OF MEN in black leather jackets are crusing the area and look at JACOB with curiosity. One MAN in particular cruises by several times and then approaches him. MICHAEL Jacob? Hi. I'm Michael Newman. Friends call me Mike.JACOB is startled when he sees him. He is the same YOUNG MAN who has appeared throughout the film, assisting JACOB in moments of crisis. MICHAEL (continuing) Surprised, huh? I told you you'd know me. I've been tracking you for a long time. I just wish I'd spoken to you before tonight. JACOB I don't get it. Who are you? Why have you been following me? MICHAEL Observation, mainly. Clinical study. You were one of the survivors.A POLICE CAR passes them on the street. MICHAEL grabs JACOB's shoulder and turns him away nervously. MICHAEL (continuing) Come on, we're not safe around here.HUDSON RIVER PIER - NIGHTJACOB and MICHAEL are sitting on a deserted WEST SIDE PIER that juts into the Hudson River. JACOB is wide-eyed as he listens to MICHAEL's story. MICHAEL So first I'm arrested, right? Best LSD I ever made, right down the drain. I figure this is it, twenty years in the joint, if I'm lucky. That was '68. JACOB Long time ago. MICHAEL (nodding his head) Next thing I know I'm on Rikers Island. Ever been there? (JACOB shakes his head) Suddenly they take me from my cell to the visitors room with those bank teller windows, you know. Four army colonels, medals up their asses, are standing on the other side. They tell me if I'll come to Vietnam for two years, no action, mind you, just work in a lab, they'll drop all the charges and wipe the record clean. Well, I'd only been in jail for thirteen hours and I already knew that Nam couldn't be any worse. JACOB Shows how much you knew. MICHAEL No shit. They had me by the balls. Next thing I know I'm in Saigon ... in a secret lab synthesizing mind- altering drugs. Not the street stuff mind you. They had us isolating special properties. The dark side, you know? They wanted a drug that increased aggressive tendencies. JACOB Yeah, sure. We were losing the war. MICHAEL Right. They were worried. They figured you guys were too soft. They wanted something to stir you up, tap into your anger, you know? And we did it. The most powerful thing I ever saw. Even a bad trip, and I had my share, never compared to the fury of the Ladder. JACOB The Ladder? MICHAEL That's what they called it. A fast trip right down the ladder. (he makes a downward dive with his hand) Right to the primal fear, the base anger. I'm tellin' you, it was powerful stuff. But I don't need to tell you. You know.JACOB can barely catch his breath, the information he is receiving is so powerful to his mind. MICHAEL (continuing) We did experiments on jungle monkeys. They bashed each other's heads in, gouged out their eyes, chewed off their tails. The brass loved it. Then they made us try it on Charlie. (he pauses) They took these POW's, just kids really, and put 'em in a courtyard. We fed 'em huge doses of the stuff. (he stops for a moment; a tear rolls down his cheek) They were worse than the monkeys. I never knew men could do such things. The whole thing still blows me away.MICHAEL stands up and begins walking in circles around the PIER. JACOB, astounded, gets up and walks beside him. MICHAEL (continuing) Anyway, this big offensive was coming up. Everyone knew it; Time Magazine, Huntley-Brinkley. And the brass was scared 'cause they knew we couldn't win. Morale was down. It was gettin' ugly in the States. Hell, you remember. JACOB Like it was yesterday. MICHAEL A couple days later they decided to use the Ladder, on one test battalion. Yours. Just in an infintessimal dose in the food supply, to prove its effectiveness in the field. They were sure your unit would have the highest kill ratio in the whole goddamn offensive. And you did, too. But not the way they tnought.JACOB is beginning to shake. MICHAEL pulls a container of pills out of his jacket pocket. MICHAEL (continuing) Hey, want something to calm you down? Made 'em myself.JACOB shakes his head no. JACOB None of us can remember that night. I get flashes of it but they don't make sense. We saw shrinks for years. But nothing they did could ever touch it. What happened? Was there ever an offensive? MICHAEL A couple of days later. It was fierce. You guys never saw it. JACOB But there was an attack. I can still see them coming. There was a fight, wasn't there? MICHAEL Yeah. But not with the Cong. JACOB Who then?He hesitates, obviously uncomfortable. His eyes grow puffy. He looks at the river for a moment and then turns to JACOB. MICHAEL You killed each other.JACOB's mouth drops open. The words hit him like a truck.EXT. VIETNAM - NIGHTGunfire explodes in the darkening sky. We are in Vietnam. JACOB is at the bottom of a trench fighting with FRANK. Chaos surrounds them. Men are screaming. The ENEMY is storming at them from the rear. ROD raises his bayonet and jams it into the belly of his ATTACKER. It is only after a series of jabs that he sees it's another American he's killed. ROD's eyes go blank with confusion and terror. ROD Oh my God! WHAT'S HAPPENING?JACOB looks up from the trench and sees a continuing wave of AMERICAN SOLDIERS bearing down on them. FRANK jumps up, knocking JACOB to the ground and slamming his rifle into JACOB's back. As he spins around JACOB sees another SOLDIER charging at him. His bayonet is aimed at JACOB's stomach. For the first time JACOB remembers the face of his attacker. He is a YOUNG MAN, about 19 years old, clean cut, wearing glasses. The two men stare at each other in terrible confusion. It seems like a moment out of time. And then the SOLDIER lurches forward and rams his bayonet deep into JACOB's abdomen.CUT TO MICHAEL BACK ON THE PIER. JACOB is ashen-faced. MICHAEL It was brother against brother. No discrimination. You tore each other to pieces. I knew it would happen. I warned them. I WARNED THEM. But I was just a hippie chemist, right? Jesus! And I helped 'em make the stuff ... I talked to the guys who bagged the bodies. They're in worse shape than you, believe me. They saw what was left. It's a blessing you don't remember. Of course the brass covered the whole thing up right away. Blamed it all on a surprise attack. he pauses) I needed to find you. The Ladder was my baby.Tears start flowing down MICHAEL's face. He wipes them with his sleeve. It takes him a moment to regain his composure. JACOB is shivering. MICHAEL takes off his jacket, drapes it over JACOB, and leads him to the wooden planks overhanging the water. They sit and gaze at the JERSEY SHORE.CUT TO A WIDE SHOT OF MICHAEL AND JACOB in pre-dawn light. MICHAEL I always suspected the effects might come back. That's why I had to follow you. I had a hell of a time getting hold of your records. JACOB If you knew, why didn't you say anything? MICHAEL The truth can kill, my friend. Five hundred men died out there. This isn't a story they'd ever want out. When Paul's car blew up I realized the scope of the thing. I knew they meant business. JACOB So why tell me now? MICHAEL Because I can get rid of the demons. I can block the Ladder. I have an antidote. We can kill them off, chemically speaking. They'll all disappear. It's chemistry, my friend. I know. I created it. Come with me. I can help.INT. HOTEL - DAWMJACOB and MICHAEL enter a sleazy HOTEL near the docks, obviously frequented by a gay clientele. JACOB is uncomfortable as they check in. MICHAEL, however, seems to know the ropes. They go to a small room. JACOB You come here often? MICHAEL Sometimes. When it's convenient. JACOB How do I know this isn't just some kind of, you know, seduction or something? MICHAEL Hey, I'm not the problem. You've got bigger problems than me.MICHAEL reaches into his pocket and casually extracts a vial. MICHAEL (continuing) I came up with the formula back in Nam but I never got a chance to use it. JACOB Never? MICHAEL I'd hoped I'd never have to. Just open your mouth and stick out your tongue. JACOB What is it? MICHAEL Don't worry. Take it. It'll free your head. Come on. JACOB (fearful) I don't know. MICHAEL "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil," but no one ever said I wouldn't be shittin' in my pants every step of the way, huh? (JACOB smiles, his mouth open) Stick out your tongue. (JACOB obeys as an eyedropper deposits a drop of liquid on the back of his tongue) That'a boy. Now why don't you just lie down and relax. JACOB One drop? MICHAEL It's strong stuff.JACOB stretches out on the bed. He stares up at the ceiling and examines its pock-marked lunar look. Long cracks and shallow craters erode the surface. It is an alien terrain. JACOB I think I'm falling asleep. MICHAEL Pleasant dreams.The words send a jolt through JACOB's body. He tries to get up but can't. He's frightened. JACOB I can't move. MICHAEL Just relax. JACOB What's happening? Help me.The ceiling begins to rumble. Cracks split wide open. Huge crevasses tear through the plaster. JACOB's world is crumbling. He stares in horror as DEMONIC FORMS attempt to surge through the rupture above him. Piercing eyes and sharp teeth glimmer in the darkness. Hooved feet and pointed claws clamor to break through. JACOB (continuing) HELP ME!Instantly MICHAEL appears standing over him. He is holding the vial with the antidote. He draws an eyedropper full of the fluid and holds it over JACOB's mouth. MICHAEL Take it!JACOB fights him, but MICHAEL forces the entire contents of the eyedropper down his throat. JACOB gags. He tries to spit it out, but can't.Suddenly the ceiling erupts in violent clashes as whole chunks break off and collide like continental plates. The collisons wreak havoc on the DEMONS, chopping and dismembering them. Body parts fall from the ceiling like a Devil's rain. Horrible screams echo from the other side. MICHAEL (continuing) Don't fight it. It's your own mind. It's your own fears.Flashes of light and dark storm over JACOB's head, thundering like a war in the heavens. It is a scene of raw power and growing catastrophe. It builds in fury and rage until suddenly the ceiling explodes. JACOB's eyes stare into the formlessness expanding around him. All space is becoming a dark liquid void.Gradually the liquid grows bluer, clearer. There is an undulating sense to the imagery, a feeling of womb-like comfort. Strange lights appear and sparkle before us like sunlight on the ocean. JACOB is rushing upward, toward the surface.With the delirious sound of water giving way to air, JACOB breaks through. To his amazement, he finds himself floating out-stretched on shimmering sunlit water. Above him are clouds of such wondrous beauty that they cannot possibly be of the earth. Pillars of golden light reach down from the heavens creating a cathedral of light. It is a vision of heaven, a vast, almost mythic paradise. JACOB is awed.A sudden movement catches his attention. He looks over and sees MICHAEL standing before him. Only MICHAEL looks different. His face seems to radiate an inner light, a transcendental beauty. JACOB is nearly blinded by his presence and must shield his eyes to look at him. MICHAEL So, how you doin'?The casualness of the words catches JACOB by surprise. He sits up. To his shock and amazement, he finds that he is back in THE HOTEL ROOM. MICHAEL is standing at the foot of the bed. JACOB is totally disoriented. His eyes move slowly around the room, taking everything in. He doesn't speak. MICHAEL (continuing) It was better than you expected, huh?JACOB just stares at him for a while and then suddenly begins to laugh. It is a huge laugh, full of energy and life. MICHAEL (continuing) And no more demons. I told you they'd be gone. JACOB I don't believe this. It's a miracle, Michael. A miracle. MICHAEL Better living through chemistry, that's my motto.EXT. GREENWICH VILLAGE - DAYJACOB and MICHAEL are walking through the STREETS OF GREENWICH VILLAGE. It is early MORNING and the sidewalks are bustling with PEOPLE. JACOB stares into their faces and beams when they smile back. MICHAEL enjoys JACOB's happiness.EXT. WASHINGTON SQUARE - DAYJACOB and MICHAEL walk through WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK. JACOB It was paradise, Michael. You showed it to me. You were there. MICHAEL Well that's good to know. JACOB Mike, it was real. It was glorious. MICHAEL Glorious. I'm not surprised. I fed you enough of that stuff to send a horse to heaven. I'm just glad you came back. JACOB I would have stayed there if I could. MICHAEL I'm sure. You've got nothing but troubles waitin' for you here.He points to two POLICEMEN on the far side of the SQUARE. MICHAEL (taking JACOB's arm) Come on.EXT. GRAMERCY PARK HOTEL - DAYThe TWO MEN head up to GRAMERCY PARK and stop in front of the GRAMERCY PARK HOTEL. Reaching into his wallet, MICHAEL pulls out a huge stack of credit cards and hands one to JACOB. MICHAEL Here. I've got every credit card ever printed. Take this. Stay here till you can arrange to get away. It's on me. JACOB No. I couldn't. MICHAEL What? You want the Plaza? Don't be foolish. Here. Take this, too. (he pulls out a business card) This is my place on Prince Street. It's got my phone, everything. Call if you need me ... but you won't. Everything's gonna work out. You just get outta town as fast as you can. The New York police can be effective when they want to be. JACOB I don't know what to say. MICHAEL Save the words ... Just send back my credit card.MICHAEL laughs, hugs JACOB, and walks away.INT. HOTEL ROOM - DAYJACOB is in a lovely MOTEL ROOM overlooking GRAMERCY SQUARE. He is sprawled out happily on the bed when there is a knock at the door. He jumps up and opens it. JEZZIE is standing there. She looks at JACOB quizzically. He smiles and takes her in his arms, swinging her into the room. JEZZIE What are you doing here? Are you all right? How do you expect to pay for this? (JACOB smiles) Everyone's looking for you, Jake. I dodged people all over the place, reporters, police. I don't know what you're gonna do. JACOB I'm gonna make love to you. That's what I'm gonna do. JEZZIE Are you out of your mind? JACOB Yep. Finally. I love you, Jez. JEZZIE God, I can't keep up with all your changes. JACOB Me neither. JEZZIE What's gotten into you?JACOB grins.CUT TO JACOB and JEZZIE lying in bed gently caressing one another. For all his ardor JACOB is exhausted from the events of the preceding day. While stroking JEZZIE's hair he begins to fall asleep. JEZZIE crawls on top of him and shoves her hand down his pants. JACOB smiles.DISSOLVE TO JACOB and JEZZIE making love. TIME CUT:DISSOLVE TO JACOB and JEZZIE lying in front of the T.V. watching a romantic movie. JEZZIE snuggles up to JACOB. JEZZIE It's amazing, you know, that a drug could change things like that, destroy a life and then give it back. It's hard to believe that the world could be so hellish on day and like heaven the next. JACOB I tell you, it was so wonderful. I felt like a little boy. I saw Paradise, Jezzie. JEZZIE It's so hard to believe.There is a knock at the door. JACOB throws on a bathrobe. JEZZIE jumps under the sheets. JACOB Who's there? BELLBOY (V.O.) It's your dinner, sir.JEZZIE's eyes brighten. JACOB opens the door. A BELLBOY wheels in a table set for dinner. He sets it in a corner of the room. JEZZIE jumps out of bed, runs to the table, sniffs at the food, and squeals excitedly. JEZZIE This is one of my dreams, Jake. Ever since I was a little girl. I never thought it would happen. JACOB Stick with me, kid.JEZZIE smiles. TIME CUT:DISSOLVE to JACOB and JEZZIE sitting next to a large window overlooking GRAMERCY PARK. They are sipping champagne. JEZZIE I want to go with you, Jake. Wherever you go. JACOB It's not practical, Jez. It'll be hard enough alone. JEZZIE I can waitress. I'm good. JACOB No. Things are too hot. Later. I'll send for you. JEZZIE Bullshit! JACOB I promise. JEZZIE Please. JACOB No. I'm a marked man, Jez. I'm the only one left. I don't want to expose you to that. It's not right for you or me. Be reasonable. JEZZIE Reasonable? Reasonable? Jake ... You're gettin' me angry. JACOB I love you when you're angry. JEZZIE Oh yeah? (her eyes twinkle suggestively) Try leavin' without me.JACOB laughs. JEZZIE doesn't. Unexpectedly she grabs JACOB and pushes him onto the bed. In seconds they are all over each other, their clothes flying in all directions. They seem as happy as could be.OMITINT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAYJACOB enters GRAND CENTRAL STATION. He checks out all the PEOPLE around him. Not a DEMON in sight. Hurrying to the TICKET WINDOW he gets in line. The TICKET SELLER looks up. JACOB Chicago. One way. For tomorrow. SELLER How many? JACOB One. SELLER That'll be $119.75.JACOB pulls out MICHAEL's credit card. The SELLER rings it up. While he is waiting JACOB notices a POLICEMAN looking at him. The stare unsettles him. The SELLER hands JACOB his ticket. He takes it and hurries into the CROWD. Looking back he notices the POLICEMAN is following him.INT. MEN'S ROOM - DAYJACOB enters the MEN'S ROOM. He hurries into one of the stalsls, drops his pants, and sits. He eyes the graffiti on the walls and then notices a wad of tissue stuffed into a hole between him and the next stall. It is moving. Suddenly the tissue falls to the floor. JACOB glances at the hole curiously and leans forward to examine it. He is shocked to see an eye staring back at him. JACOB Goddamn it! (he covers it with his hand. A pencil jabs his palm. He yells) Fucking pervert.Two lips form around the hole. A tongue wags obscenely. VOICE Dream on! JACOB (shocked) What?!The mouth is gone. JACOB hears the stall door fly open and feet running from the room. He jumps up and grabs his pants. He dashes out of the MEN'S ROOM. He hears footsteps and chases after them.INT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAYJACOB bursts into the MAIN TERMINAL. He sees someone rushing toward the main doors and speeds after him. HOMELESS PEOPLE, huddling along the corridors, watch as they run past. Escaping to the street, the MAN disappears in the holiday throngs. JACOB, crazed, stands gasping for breath. His fists dig into his coat pocket. Suddenly he feels something and seems surprised when MICHAEL's CARD emerges in his hands.OMITINT. SOHO LOFT BUILDING - EVENINGJACOB runs up the stairs in a SOHO LOFT BUILDING. It is a dingy, industrial staircase, poorly lit. He reaches a door with MICHAEL's name painted on it in large black letters. He knocks loudly. There is no answer. He pounds on it. Another door opens on the floor above. A head sticks out. MAN You lookin' for Mike? JACOB (panting hard) Where is he? MAN Don't know. Hasn't picked his mail up in days. It's not like him.JACOB has a frenzied look in his eyes. He searches around the staircase and sees a pile of lumber stacked in a corner. He grabs a two-by-four and lunges at the door. MAN What the hell are you doing?JACOB doesn't answer. He smashes wildly at the door until the lock flies open.INT. MICHAEL'S LOFT - EVENINGJACOB charges into the dark space groping for a light. He finds it. The LOFT is a disaster area. Nothing is standing. JACOB runs from room to room. In the back he discovers a large private chemistry lab. Glass vials and bottles are shattered on the floor.JACOB rifles through the cabinets. A few bottles are intact but their labels mean nothing to him.He reaches for one cabinet and notices a reddish liquid oozing out from the bottom. He opens it. MICHAEL's severed head stares him in the face. It is smiling.A scream rings out as the MAN from upstairs sees what JACOB has seen. JACOB jumps back, trips, and falls over MICHAEL's headless body. It is lying sprawled across the floor. MAN Oh my God!JACOB stumbles to pull himself up. He is in a state of unrelieved panic. He runs past the MAN and spills out the doorr. He takes two and three stairs at a time, nearly flying to the street.EXT. SOHO STREETS - NIGHTJACOB rushes into the icy air and runs wildly down the sidewalk as fast as his legs will move. With unexpected violence he charges into the side of a building. Over and over he hurls himself against it. He grabs for the bricks. His fingers insert themselves into the crevices. It is as though he is trying to merge with the wall.Suddenly JACOB turns and dashes into the street. A taxi is speeding toward him, its lights the only sign of life and warmth in the dark night. JACOB steps into its path. It is hard to tell if he is trying to stop the cab or waiting to be hit. The taxi screeches to a halt. JACOB stares at it a moment and then steps to get in. The DRIVER tries to pull off but JACOB yanks at the door and drags himself inside.INT. TAXI - NIGHTRain is beginning to fall. It streaks the windows. JACOB (barely audible) I'm going to Brooklyn. DRIVER Sorry, Mac. Not with me you're not. I get lost in Brooklyn. JACOB I know the way.JACOB reaches into his pants pocket, pulls out a twenty dollar bill, and hands it to the DRIVER. He takes it. JACOB (continuing) Look, this is all the money I've got in the world. Take me home and it's yours. DRIVER ... Where's your home?CUT TO THE TAXI heading down WEST BROADWAY, approaching the BROOKLYN BRIDGE, crossing the EAST RIVER, and driving through dark BROOKLYN STREETS.JACOB's face passes in and out of dense shadows. Every time he is bathed in light his image seems to alter. Something in him is falling away.EXT. SARAH'S APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHTJACOB gets out of the TAXI and approaches the LOBBY of SARAH'S APARTMENT BUILDING. JACOB is greeted by the DOORMAN. DOORMAN Dr. Singer. It's been a long time. JACOB (greeting him warmly) Hello, Sam. DOORMAN (noticing JACOB's battered condition) Are you all right? JACOB I'm okay. DOORMAN Do you want some help? I can call upstairs. JACOB No, don't. But thanks.INT. HALLWAY - NIGHTJACOB stops in front of the APARTMENT door and reaches his hand underneath a section of the hallway carpet. It comes back with a key. He inserts it into the lock and gently opens the door. He calls out. JACOB Hello. It's me.INT. SARAH'S APARTMENT - NIGHTSome lights are on. The APARTMENT looks comfortable and cozy. JACOB Hello? Is anybody home? Jed? Eli? Daddy's here.There is still no answer. JACOB is surprised. He peers into the dark LIVING ROOM and then walks to the KITCHEN. No one is around. A photo of JACOB, SARAH, AND THEIR BOYS is sitting on the counter. He picks it up and carries it with him through the apartment. He walks into his old BEDROOM and then into the BOYS' ROOM. The beds are still unmade. There is no one home. He sees his image in the BATHROOM mirror and turns away in disgust. He walks back to the LIVING ROOM. He is about to switch the lights on when he hears footsteps coming down the hall. He calls out. JACOB Sarah, is that you? I hope you don't mind. I needed to come home.JACOB is startled to see JEZZIE enter the room. She does not seem he usual self. She appears larger, more imposing. JEZZIE Hello, Jake. I knew you'd come here in the end.JACOB is nervous. JACOB What're you ... ? Where's Sarah? Where are the boys? JEZZIE Sit down, Jake. JACOB Where are they? JEZZIE Sit down. JACOB No! What's going on? Where's my family? JEZZIE It's over, Jake. It's all over. JACOB Where have they gone? JEZZIE Wake up. Stop playing with yourself. It's finished.JEZZIE stares at JACOB with a frightening, powerful glare. The edge of her coat rustles and flutters as she moves toward him. It is an innocent sound at first, but after a moment it transforms into something else, an obsessive flapping noise, the sound of a wing.JACOB's body feels the first waves of an inner tremor. His legs are shaking. JACOB What's going on? JEZZIE Your capacity for self-delusion is remarkable, Dr. Singer.JEZZIE begins walking around the dark living room as she talks to him. Something about her walk is very unnatural. JACOB eyes her fearfully.In the darkness JEZZIE's movements become increasingly strange and elusive. We see her pass before a shadow and disappear within it, only to reappear, seconds later, in a doorway on the other side of the room. JACOB spins around, confused. Suddenly JEZZIE is inches from his face, although it seems like there has been no time for her to get there. Her movements are totally impossible, defying all logic, all physical laws. JEZZIE (continuing) What's wrong, Jake? (she mocks him) Forget to take your antidote? JACOB Who are you? What are you doing to me? JEZZIE You have quite a mind, Jake. I loved your friends. That chemist - the Ladder. What an imagination you have!JACOB freezes. JEZZIE (continuing) And your vision of paradise ... fantastic! You're a real dreamer, you know that? Only it's time to wake up.JEZZIE has disappeared in the darkness of the room. Only the sounds of flapping wings remain. They grow louder and more menacing, whooshing past him with no visible source. JEZZIE (continuing) Your mind is crumbling, Jake. No more "army." No more conspiracies. You're dying, Dr. Singer. It's over.JACOB, frightened, turns toward the door as if to hurry out. "JEZZIE" laughs. JEZZIE (continuing) Where's to run, Jacob? Where's to go?JACOB pauses a moment and then turns to confront the terror behind him. JACOB WHO ARE YOU? JEZZIE How many times have you asked me that? How many times? JACOB TELL ME, DAMN YOU! JEZZIE (with consummate power) YOU KNOW WHO I AM.JEZZIE appears from the shadows. Her coat collar obscures her and it seems for a moment that she has no face. Then, to JACOB's horror, she turns around. He is staring at the vibrating creature he has seen so often before. Glimpsed almost in abstraction it is a living terror, dark and undefinable. Its face is a black and impenetrable void in constant vibration. Its voice is an unspeakable demonic cry, the essence of fear and suffering. JACOB pulls away from it, overhwelmed by confusion. He is rooted in fear.A sudden wind howls through the room, great gales blowing JACOB's hair straight up. It is like a hurricane pushing him into the wall. He can barely stand. He struggles to pull himself away. The flapping sound returns, charging at him from all directions. It is as if the darkness itself is swooping down, trying to envelop him. JACOB (whispering to himself) This isn't happening.New terrible sounds arise, chain saws slashing through the air, knives, and sabers ripping through space with unrelenting anger. Guns fire and explode past his head. It is as though all the sounds of destruction are closing in on him. JACOB yells but his own voice is lost in the melee. Terrified, he looks heavenward, as if crying for help.Suddenly, from the noise, a calm voice rises, speaking, as if from a distance. It is LOUIS. JACOB is shocked to hear him. He stands motionless. LOUIS (V.O.) If you're frightened of dying you'll see devils tearing you apart. If you've made your peace then they're angels freeing you from the world.The voice fades. JACOB just stands there, not sure what to do. And then the sounds return. Only now they are more terrifying than ever. Hideously loud, they become a cacophony of sounds, voices of parents, friends, lovers, the sounds of battle, fighting, and dying.JACOB looks up and sees the creature in the center of the room. All the sounds seem to emenate from it. The more JACOB stares at it the louder they become. After a moment, JACOB takes a huge breath. We sense a great resolve forming inside him. Then, slowly, courageously, he begins moving toward it.NEw and more terrifying noises assault JACOB, attempting to drive him back, but he will not be stopped. He continues walking toward the creature.In the hallway a standing lamp slams sparking to the floor. It rolls back and forth like a living thing, with a maddening hypnotic regularity. Doors slam open and closed, unlatching, snapping, shutting, with deafening force. The room itself seems like an organic presence. It is alive, angry, and threatening.The CREATURE sits in the midst of the insanity like the source of madness itself. It writhes, contorts and vibrates with unstoppable fury. JACOB, terrified, but unrelenting, continues to approach it.AS THE CAMERA DRAWS CLOSER TO THE CREATURE'S HEAD the density of its featureless form overwhelms the screen. It is like staring into emptiness itself, the ultimate darkness.With superhuman effort JACOB grabs hold of the creature. It is like grabbing hold of a live wire. His body begins shaking uncontrollably like a man being electrocuted. He is flying in all directions but does not let go. His fingers claw at the creature's head. JACOB struggles defiantly with the monster.Suddenly a terrible voice emerges from within it. CREATURE WHO DO YOU THINK YOU'RE FIGHTING!JACOB does not respond. It cries out again. CREATURE WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE FIGHTING?Deep inside the darkness JACOB begins to make out the presence of a form, something writhing and tortured lurking before us. It looks briefly like an animal until we realize it is the image of a human face. It is covered by a dark suffocating film, like a mask.JACOB digs into it with all his might and pulls it off. CUT TO:DEAD SILENCE as JACOB SEES HIS OWN FACE staring back at him from beneath the mask. It is JACOB SINGER as we first saw him on the battlefield in Vietnam. Only now his image is pale and lifeless. It takes JACOB a moment to realize that he is dead. The recognition is one of terrible confusion and pain. JACOB stares at himself for a long time as a huge cry wells up inside him. It bursts forth with devastating sadness.As that instant the whole of space seems to explode in a flash of catacylsmic power. Hundreds of images from JACOB's life flash before us, his birth, his childhood, his adulthood. The demons, the room, JEZZIE, LOUIS, MICHAEL, SARAH, all seem to assail us in a rush of blinding intensity.We are flying over a landscape of memories, zooming across a constantly changing field of images. Some of the images move, some of the people in them speak. They are not particularly significant memories, in some ways they are quite banal, but something about them is infused with life and joy. Even the painful moments resonate with vital force. Some of the moments we recognize from the time we've spent with JACOB. Some we have not seen before. There is no order to them, no logic to why they have been recalled.A newborn baby takes its first breath and screams. SARAH pulls clothes off a clothes line on a rainy day. JACOB's FATHER stands in the Florida surf as sea foam laps gently at his legs. PAUL, FRANK, and JACOB play cards on the edge of a rice paddy. GABE rides his bike into the path of an oncoming car. A child puts his ear next to a bowl of cereal, listening to it talk. A young girl standing in a doorway lifts up her blouse to show her new breasts. JACOB and SARAH slice a wedding cake that topples to the floor. JEZZIE looks at JACOB and asks "Love me a little?"And then it is over. Total silence overwhelms the screen, a wonderful soothing calm. JACOB's eyes open and he is shocked to find himself sitting on the floor in SARAH's apartment. He is all alone. The first rays of early morning sunlight are filtering through the window. Something about the apartment seems transfigured, magical. JACOB sits motionless, stunned to be back there.The faint sound of music can be heard coming from the hallway. It is warm and familiar, the tinkling of a music box. JACOB listens to it for a few moments and then something registers inside him. Curious, he gets up and approaches the corridor. JACOB Hello?There is no response. Suddenly the music stops. JACOB freezes for a moment. He sees someone standing in the shadows at the other end. JACOB (continuing) Who is it? Who's there?Tentatively JACOB moves forward. As he draws closer he begins to see the outline of a child. Then, all of a sudden, he realizes who it is. His eyes well up as he stands there, the full impact of the moment registering inside him. It's his son, GABE. He is carrying the same musical lunch box we have seen before. The young boy smiles warmly at his father. It is the smile of an angel. JACOB swallows hard. JACOB (continuing) Gabe? Gabe!JACOB runs to his son. Unable to hold back the tears, he embraces him in a rush of love and emotion. JACOB (continuing) Gabe. Oh God. I don't believe ...They hug one another over and over. JACOB, overcome, sits down on the stiars. After a moment GABE puts his arm around his father's shoulder in a gesture of surprising maturity and compassion. We sense for an instant that their roles have reversed. GABE reaches for JACOB's hand and gently encourages him to stand up.With a sweet tug GABE leads his father up the steps.Sunlight streams down from the top of the stiars, hitting the first landing. GABE is bathed in its warm glow. As JACOB reaches the landing, he too is surrounded by the comforting light.GABE hurries up the last set of stairs. JACOB turns to follow but is stunned by the brilliance of the light pouring in from above. Squinting, he cannot see his son. Then suddenly GABE steps back out of the light and takes his father's hand once more. His eyes sparkle with excitement. GABE Come on Dad ... You know what we've got? A sandbox just like the Williston's, only it's bigger and the sand's all white. You won't believe it.JACOB smiles at his son. GABE smiles at him. It is a moment of total euphoria. THE CAMERA HOLDS as they continue up the stairs. GABE (continuing) And my parakeet. Remember, the one grandma let out of the cage? He's okay. And he's talking now. He knows my name.GABE's voice slowly trails off as he and his father disappear in the intenstity of the light. THE CAMERA HOLDS on the image. For a brief but stunning moment there appears to be a huge ethereal staircase shimmering before us. It rises up into infinite dimensions. Then the brilliance of its blinding light overwhelms the screen.Suddenly the brightness condenses into a smaller light source. It holds for a second and then flashes off. An overhead surgical lamp remains stubbornly in view.INT. VIETNAM FIELD HOSPITAL - DAYA DOCTOR leans his head in front of the lamp and removes his mask. His expression is somber. He shakes his head. His words are simple and final. DOCTOR He's gone.CUT TO JACOB SINGER lying on an operating table in a large ARMY FIELD TENT in VIETNAM. The DOCTOR steps away. A NURSE rudely pulls a green sheet over his head. The DOCTOR turns to one of the aides and throws up his hands in defeat.AN ORDERLY wheels JACOB's body past rows of other DOCTORS and NURSES fighting to save lives. A YOUNG VIETNAMESE BOY pulls back a screen door to let them out of the tent. It is a bright, fresh morning. The sun is rising. THE END"JACOB'S LADDER" (DELETED SCENES)byBruce Joel Rubin---ADDENDUM 1: PROFESSOR STERN--INT. CITY COLLEGE LECTURE HALL - DAYCUT TO a huge ampitheatre-style LECTURE HALL at CITY COLLEGE. It is almost empty. No more than FORTY STUDENTS are scattered near the front of nearly three hundred seats. All are listening to PROFESSOR EMANUEL STERN who is nearing the end of his lecture. STERN Thus at the core of today's discu- sion we find four fundamental doc- trines. First, that the world of matter and individual consciousness are both manifestations of one Divine Reality.One of the STUDENTS seems about to fall asleep and keeps nodding his head. STERN Even you, Mr. Palmer, are part of it, as amazing as that may seem.MR. PALMER sits up quickly in his seat as other STUDENTS smile. STERN Second, human beings are capable not only of kowledge about this Divine Re- ality by inference but can realize its existence by direct intuition, superior even to reason.A door opens in the upper reaches of the lecture hall. JACOB enters and walks quietly down the stairs to within hearing range of the professor. STERN Third, man possesses a double nature, an ego and an eternal self, what we call "spirit" or "soul."JACOB takes a seat at one of the desks. There is a pencil lying on it which he fingers distractedly. STERN Fourth, and most important, man's life on earth has only one end and purpose, to learn to let go of the separate ego and to identify with the Divine spark within.MR. PALMER is nodding off again. STERN Almost impossible to believe, isn't it Mr. Palmer, that somewhere in that unconscious head of yours lies the source of all consciousness? PALMER Yes, Sir. Very hard. STERN (nodding his head) Well now, having reached this apotheosis there seems little, if anything, left to say. So rather than try, you are dismissed.The STUDENTS seem surprised but not unhappy with the sudden dismissal. They quickly gather their books and begin the long climb to the exits. Only JACOB remains seated. JACOB Hello Prof.PROFESSOR STERN looks up and stares at KACOB for several seconds before recognizing him. STERN My oh my. Doctor Singer. Isn't this a happy surprise?JACOB comes down the aisle and clasps hands with his old PROFESSOR. STERN (looking at JACOB's uni- form) Are you in the service? JACOB The postal service. I'm a mailman. STERN (surprised but non- judgemental) Ah. Neither snow nor sleet, nor dark of night ... I always admired that. JACOB (smiling) It's good to see you. STERN Likewise.EXT. CITY COLLEGE - DAYJACOB AND PROFESSOR STERN walk down the city streets that constitute the CAMPUS of CITY COLLEGE. STERN And how is your wife? Sarah, no? JACOB (shrugging his shoul- ders) I haven't seen her in months. STERN (understanding) Ah! JACOB I'm with another woman now. We're both with the post office, Midtown, 34th Street branch. STERN Hmm. I don't suppose there are too many philosophers in the post office? JACOB Oh, you'd be surprised. They just don't have their doctorates, that's all. STERN (he smiles) Last I heard you were offered a posi- tion in the West somewhere. Tuscon was it? JACOB Oh, that goes way back. They had a hiring freeze, one of those last min- ute things. Bad timing for me though. Middle of the war. The draft. (STERN nods his head. They walk a moment in silence) I'll tell you Prof, after Viet Nam ... I didn't want to think anymore. I decided my brain was just too small an organ to comprehend this chaos. STERN (looking at JACOB with affection) Jacob, if it was any other brain but yours, I might agree. (he pauses) Tell me, does your lady friend know what a brilliant thinker, what a sub- lime intellect she's living with? JACOB (smiling coyly) I doubt it's my mind that interests her. I tell you Prof, she's a fiery lady. STERN (with a fatherly demeanor) Well, try not to get burned. You have a great mind, Jacob. Don't let anyone tempt you away from it.INT. OFF CAMPUS COFFEE SHOP - DAYJACOB and PROFESSOR STERN are sitting at a quiet table in a nearly empty coffee shop. They are both fixing cups of tea, not speaking. Suddenly JACOB looks at STERN. JACOB I've got a problem, Prof. More Augus- tine than Kierkegaard, if you know what I mean. (STERN looks at him questioningly) I need to know about ... demons. STERN (surprised) Demons, Jacob? Why demons? Are you writing ... ? JACOB No. (he pauses a moment) I see them. STERN See them? (he smiles uncomforta- bly) What do you mean? Physically? JACOB (hesitantly) Yes.STERN pauses. He looks at JACOB. The intensity of his gaze is unsettling and JACOB reaches for his tea. The cup rattles. STERN I know very little about demons, Ja- cob, fleshy ones anyway. I know them as literary figures, biblical ones ... Dante, Milton ... but Jacob, (he pauses) this is the 20th Century. We don't see demons now. JACOB I see them, Prof. Everywhere. They're invading my life.A look of concern fills STERN's eyes. JACOB (continuing) Christ, I know how it sounds. STERN Have you considered a doctor? A psy- chiatrist? JACOB Yes. (suddenly uneasy) I don't want them. I'm not looking for analysis or drugs. It's too easy to dismiss as some kind of psychosis. (he pauses uncomforta- bly) It's more than that. I can feel it. I need you Prof. You're the only one I can talk to. STERN I don't know what to say. JACOB I need your insight, your intuition.STERN sips his tea slowly. He is thinking. STERN Demons? I don't know what to tell you. It sounds like a spiritual mat- ter to me. The problem, Jacob, is that you have no context for it. You're a renegade Existentialist suf- fering demons a hundred years after Freud. How the hell am I supposed to make it fit? JACOB I'm afraid, Prof. Nothing makes sense. (he pauses) Please help me. STERN (trying to be delicate) Jacob, I don't believe in demons, not in the empirical sense. I don't be- lieve in devils fighting for our souls. I don't believe in enternal damnation. I don't believe in other- worldly creatures tormenting us. We don't need them. We do a good enough job on ourselves. JACOB (disturbed) But I see them. STERN Look. I don't pretend to know what's going on inside your head. For all I know it's pathological and they should be pumping Valium into your veins by the quart. But if you're not willing to accept the help of sci- ence; and believe me, I admire you for that: then you'll have to do bat- tle on your own. What can I say? It's a lonely pilgrimage through our times even for the strongest souls. But to be pursued by ... demons no less ... There are no guides, Jacob. (he muses) You wanna know what I'd do if I sud- denly started seeing demons? I'd hail the first taxi that came along, shoot over to Bellvue and beg them for shock treatment. I'm no saint. JACOB Hell, you think I am? STERN I'venever understood you, you know that? You were by far the best pupil I've ever had, bar none. Intellectu- ally, you were the most original, the most imaginative. Who knows, maybe you've been "elected" to see demons. Maybe you're in touch with ... some- thing. Nothing would surprise me about you Jacob. Nothing.JACOB gazes at his old friend and mentor, frustration blazing in his eyes. They are both surprised to see tears form and run down his cheek. JACOB reaches for a napkin and dries them quickly. STERN, uncomfortable in the face of emotion, turns away.---ADDENDUM 2: THE PARTY AT DELLA'S---Suddenly a strange and terrifying spectacle unfolds before him. The DANCERS undergo a shocking transformation, a full three-dimensional alteration of their physical forms. Clothes fuse to their bodies like new skin. Horns and tails emerge and grow like exotic genitalia, exciting a frenzy among the DANCERS. New appendages appear unfolding from their flesh. Dorsal fins protrude from their backs. Armored scales run in scallops down their legs. Tails entwine sensuously. Long tongues lick at the undersides of reptilian bellies. The metamorphosis holds a biological fascination. Bones and flesh mold into new forms of life, creatures of another world.CUT TO JACOB's face as it registers terror and disbelief. He stares at the DANCERS. They are perverse, corrupt aspects of their normal selves. He is mesmerized by JEZZIE. Her flesh has grown hard and wrinkled and has the markings of a snake. Her tongue, long and curled, darts in and out of her mouth repeatedly. Her eyes are thin and domineering. They lock JACOB in their gaze. He wants to stop, to run, but JEZZIE won't release him.JACOB grabs his eyes as though trying to pull the vision from them but it won't go away. The music throbs. His actions become spastic, almost delirious. His hysteria attracts the attention of the other DANCERS.A circle forms around JACOB and JEZZIE as their frenzy transcends the boundaries of dance and erupts into an almost orgiastic display. JACOB is out of control. His fury becomes a kind of exorcism, a desperate attempt to free himself from his body and his mind.CUT TO JACOB as his eyes pass beyond pain. The dark walls of the APARTMENT fade away.EXT. VIETNAM - NIGHTStrange faces in infantry helmets appear in the darkness, outlined by a bright moon that is emerging from behind a large cloud. The faces are looking down and voices are speaking. VOICE He's burning up. VOICE Total delirium. VOICE He'll never make it. VOICE That's some gash. His guts keep spilling out. VOICE Push 'em back. JACOB (V.O.) (crying weakly) Help me!His eyes focus on the moon. Rings of light emanate from it filling the sky with their sparkling brilliance. The rings draw us forward with a quickening intensity that grows into exhilarating speed. The rush causes them to flash stroboscopically and produce a dazzling, almost sensual, surge of color. The display is spectacular and compelling. A voice can be heard in the distance. VOICE I think we're losing him.Suddenly the flickering rings begin to define a tangible image, a kind of CELESTIAL STAIRCASE, rising up into infinite dimensions. As we speed toward it, it grows increasingly majestic. The image is so awesome and other-worldly that it is difficult to grasp what is being seen.Music can be heard in the distance. It too is celestial in its beauty. Then, unexpectedly, it grows hard and insistent, like a heartbeat. Heavy breathing accompanies the sound. The image of the STAIRCASE shatters and disappears, replaced by intense flashes of red and blue light. The music grows louder and reaches a thundering crescendo. Then silence.---ADDENDUM 3: JACOB'S LIVING ROOM---INT. JACOB'S LIVING ROOM - DAYCUT TO APPLAUSE from a real television game show as JACOB switches channels on the LIVING ROOM T.V. He stops on an interview program, turns up the sound, and runs to the BATHROOM. The CAMERA stays on the television. JACOB can be heard urinating in the distance.MAC HAYES, a young, virile, and smug REPORTER is speaking. HAYES The Reverend Norman Murphy, leader of one of the largest groups supporting the Armageddon Committee, told our cameras that we are no longer dealing in decades but years.THE REVEREND fills the T.V. screen. MURPHY The battleground is being readied. Our planet is the battlefield. Our souls are the prize. All the signs point to the inevitable confrontation between the forces of good and evil. People must choose sides. There is no draft evasions in this war. All are called. All must take up weapons. Are you prepared? That's the question we ask.The toilet flushes and JACOB walks back into the LIVING ROOM and turns down the sound. HAYES Do you find people scoffing at you, Reverend? After all, there have been doomsayers for thousands of years and we're still here. MURPHY People are less apt to laugh these days. The prophecies are too close for comfort. I mean, all you have to do is watch the news. HAYES There are some who claim that your pessimism is defeatist and what the world needs now is hope, a positive thrust. MURPHY I think the time for hope has passed. The seeds have been planted. We shall reap what we've sown. (he pauses) Pessimists, no. I think we are percieved as the only realists around. HAYES Other movement leaders agree. In an interview ...Suddenly the telephone rings. It startles JACOB. He jumps. It rings again. He reaches down, turns off the T.V., and picks up the phone. His eyes continue to stare at the blank screen as he talks.---ADDENDUM 4: JACOB'S BEDROOM---INT. JACOB'S BEDROOM - NIGHTTHE BEDROOM is dark. JACOB and JEZZIE are making love. A half-smoked joint is smouldering in an ashtray by the bed. JEZZIE is poised on top of JACOB and his eyes are focused on her face.A hurricane lamp casts a warm glow over their bodies. Its flickering light plays games with JACOB's eyes and for a moment JEZZIE seems to disappear. JACOB reaches out for her breasts and his hands seem to vanish into the shadows dancing across her. With sudden, hallucinogenic impact, JACOB feels himself drawn into a starry universe opening from inside her.THE CAMERA plunges through her image into a galxy of stars and rushes toward one that is twinkling brightly. Pulsations of its light whiten the screen. Out of the whiteness appears a momentary flash of the CELESTIAL STAIRCASE, accompanied by sounds of sexual climax.The STAIRCASE sparkles for an instant and then it's gone. The sparkle becomes a glimmer in JEZZIE's eye as her face fills the screen. She looks especially lovely and radiant. Her image moves with the lamplight.JACOB's face is ecstatic. He can barely talk and simply basks in JEZZIE's glow. Slowly, she leans forward and whispers in his ear. JEZZIE So tell me ... am I still an angel? JACOB (smiling broadly) With wings. (he strokes her hair) You transport me, you know that? You carry me away.---ADDENDUM 5: DEMON IN THE WALL---INT. JACOB'S APARTMENT - DAYJACOB is sitting in a comfortable chair in his living room. He is reading. The room is dark, lit only by a reading light. The walls are mostly in shadow. The light, however, falls on one section of the wall, a portion that has been lined in fake wood paneling.JACOB's eyes suddenly lift off the page and roam over the wood grain on the wall. All of a sudden he notices something strange, an image in the grain. He stares at it. The more he stares the more precise its definition. The image of a DEMON appears in the wall.JACOB sits up quickly and stares at the walll. It is impossible to get the DEMON's image out of the grain. It seems etched, even imbedded, in the paneling.JACOB looks away and returns to his book. He is reading about archetypes and the primordial mind. But the book does not hold his attention. He is obsessed with the wall. Its molecules seem suddenly active, the wood grain suddenly animate. Layers begin to appear in the surface of the wall as the grain patterns slowly define a rocky, barren landscape.The DEMON is growing solid. Cries and screams rise up in the distance. Flames and a red glow emanate from the space extending rapidly into the wall. The image of Hell erupts before him.JACOB stands up. He can see bodies suffering beyond the wall, masses of PEOPLE wailing and enduring the torments of a fiery world. The DEMON's arm slowly extends from the plane of the wall and reaches into the room. He is huge, covered in flames and skulls, a living horror. He grabs hold of JACOB and pulls him toward the wall. JACOB tries to back away but he cannot. His face is white with fear. The DEMON draws JACOB toward the inferno. JACOB (yelling at the top of his lungs) NO!Suddenly JEZZIE appears, the light from the BEDROOM flooding the paneled wall. The DEMON vanishes instantly. JEZZIE Jake, are you all ... ?She stops dead in her tracks.CUT TO JACOB pressed up against the wall, defying gravity and logic, as though about to merge with the solid surface. His body holds there for a moment and then collapses to the floor. JEZZIE goes to him. JEZZIE Jake? Jake?He doesn't answer. He looks at JEZZIE with a blank stare. His body begins shaking.INT. JACOB'S BEDROOM - NIGHTJACOB is lying on the bed, curled up in a fetal pose. JEZZIE is stroking his hair and trying to calm him. JEZZIE It's going to be all right, Jake. It's going to be all right. Don't be afraid. I've got you now. JACOB Hold me, Jezzie. Hold me.JEZZIE wraps herself around his shivering body and warms him with her own. The image seems tender and comforting until we notice JEZZIE's tongue darting nervously in and out. It looks strangely like a snake's.---ADDENDUM 6: THE HOSPITAL---The RESIDENT injects the serum into JACOB's veins while two ORDERLIES hold him still. JACOB barely struggles. His eyes fixate on the EMERGENCY ROOM WALL. It is white and sterile. Within moments it begins to emit a reddish glow. JACOB watches with astonishment as the wall's two-dimensional surface separates into three-dimensional planes. The solid surface gives way to a DARK CHAMBER that was not there before.Out of the transmuted space CREATURES begin to form. Bosch-like DEMONS with horns and tails, undeniably of another world. Slowly several of them emerge from the wall and approach JACOB. They look like parodies of doctors and nurses, wearing traditional hospital gowns. Without a word they wheel him through the space where the wall had been. JACOB tries to scream but no sound comes out.INT. HELL - NIGHTThe DARK CHAMBER is filled with mournful CREATURES being led by DEMONS through a series of CORRIDORS. No one fights or struggles. JACOB's stretcher is moved through the darkness. He tries to sit up but is forced back down. He is obviously drugged.JACOB is wheeled into a tiny CHAMBER. A number of DEMONS are waiting for him. Chains and pulleys hang from the ceiling. They are lowered and attached with speed and efficiency to JACOB's arms and legs. The devices are manipulated smoothly and JACOB is lifted off the stretcher. The chains retract, stretching him spread-eagle in the air. He screams loudly. JACOB Oh God!The DEMONS laugh. There is the sound of a huge door closing. JACOB is left in darkness. The darkness is hallucinogenic. Fires appear beyond the boundaries of the wall; images of Dante's Inferno, souls of the dead in endless torment. JACOB is but one of countless beings sharing a vastness of torment. His own screams for help are lost in the magnitude of voices crying.Suddenly, out of the meancing shadows, a contingent of DEMONS emerges. They are carrying sharp surgical instruments. They surround JACOB, their eyes glistening as bright as their blades. JACOB is panting and sweating with fear. For an instant, one of the DEMONS looks like JEZZIE. JACOB calls out to her. JACOB Jezzie! Help me!The DEMONS laugh as she changes form. They take great pleasure in his suffering. Their voices are strange and not human. Each utterance contains a multitude of contradictory tones, sincere and compassionate, taunting and mocking at the same time. The confusion of meanings is a torment of its own.---ADDENDUM 7: JACOB'S BEDROOM---INT. JACOB'S BEDROOMJACOB is lying on the floor of his BEDROOM doing exercises for his back. He has several days' growth of beard and does not look well. His mind is drifting and only the occasional pain in his back reminds him of what he is doing. JEZZIE can be heard vacuuming the carpet in the LIVING ROOM. Suddenly the door swings open. The wail of the vacuum cleaner causes JACOB to tense. His eyes drift down from the ceiling. JEZZIE vacuums around him and seems insensitive to his presence.JEZZIE shoves the vacuum cleaner under the bed and hits something. JACOB tightens. She looks and is shocked to discover a can of gasoline and boxes of kitchen matches. It takes her a second to understand the implications of what she has found. JACOB is ready when she begins yelling. JEZZIE You're completely off your rocker, you know that? You'd think you fell on your head instead of your back. What are you planning to do, burn down the apartment along with your demons?She begins to remove the gasoline can. JACOB (yelling) Don't you touch it. (he glares at her)JEZZIE lets go of the can and grabs the vacuum. She moves it furiously across the carpet. Suddenly JACOB sees her tongue darting in and out, unconsciously. She looks strange, not human. JACOB freezes. He yells out. JACOB Who are you?The sound of the vacuum cleaner drowns out his voice. He yells again. JEZZIE sees him and turns off the machine. His voice booms out. JACOB (continuing) Who the hell are you?JEZZIE ignores the question and turns the vacuum cleaner back on. JACOB rolls over and pulls out the plug. JACOB Why won't you answer me? JEZZIE (angry) Cause you know goddamn well who I am. JACOB I don't know you. JEZZIE You've lived with me for two years. JACOB That doesn't mean shit. Where do you come from, huh? And I don't mean Indiana. JEZZIE What do you want me to say? My mother's tummy? JACOB You know goddamn well what I mean. JEZZIE You're out of your fucking mind. I'm not gonna stand around here gettin' interrogated by you. JACOB Well leave then. Go to Hell. JEZZIE (furious) You son-of-a-bitch. Who do you think you are? I don't deserve this. Who takes care of you day and night? Who cleans the floor and washes your goddamn underwear? Well, I've had it. You flip out on your own, you ungrateful bastard. I'm done holding your hand. I don't want anything to do with you, you hear? Nothing!She storms out of the room, kicking the vacuum cleaner as she goes. JACOB can see flashes of her through the open crack of the bedroom door. Occasional curses and epithets hurl through the opening along with a flood of tears.JACOB catches glimpses of her as she grabs her coat from the hall closet and as she pulls her money out of the desk drawer. He can see the lamp as she shoves it to the floor and hears it shatter as she stomps on it with her foot. There is a blur as she heads to the front door and a deafening bang as she leaves.JACOB's eyes drift up to the ceiling. They hardly blink. He stares at the plaster, chipped and cracked, above him. Suddenly the cracks begin to move. JACOB jumps up. A DEMON is materializing over his head. JACOB yells and grabs hold of the extension pole for the vacuum cleaner. With a furious cry he begins jamming it at the ceiling. Rather than blot out the evolving image his attack helps to define it. JACOB slams harder. Plaster and wood lath cover the floor. The DEMON is gone. Panting hard, JACOB reaches for matches and the gasoline can. He stops and stares at them with great intensity.---ADDENDUM 8: THE ANTIDOTE SEQUENCE---The ceiling begins to rumble. Cracks split wide open. Huge crevasses tear through the plaster. JACOB's world is crumbling. He stares in horror as DEMONIC FORMS attempt to surge through the rupture above him. Piercing eyes and sharp teeth glimmer in the darkness. Hooved feet and pointed claws clamor to break through. JACOB (continuing) HELP ME!Instantly MICHAEL appears standing over him. He is holding the vial with the antidote. He draws an eyedropper full of the fluid and holds it over JACOB's mouth. MICHAEL Take it!JACOB fights him but MICHAEL forces the entire contents of the eyedropper down his throat. JACOB gags. He tries to spit it out, but can't.Suddenly the ceiling erupts in violent clashes as whole chunks break off and collide with one another like continental plates. The collisions wreak havoc on the DEMONS, chopping and dismembering them. Body parts fall from the ceiling like a Devil's rain. Horrible screams echo from the other side.Flashes of light and dark storm over JACOB's head, thundering like a war in the heavens. It is a scene of raw power and growing catastrophe. It builds in fury and rage until suddenly the ceiling explodes.Matter atomizes instantly. Trillions of particles hurl chaotically in all directions. The walls shatter into a dazzling brightness. For a moment there is a sense of intense forward movement, a rush toward oblivion. And then, suddenly, it stops. There is absolute quiet and stillness.JACOB's eyes stare into the formlessness sparkling around him. All space has become a shining void. Gradually faint pastel colors appear like colored molecules, dancing and spinning, redirecting space into new formations. They weave patterns of intricate complexity and stunning beauty.As the colors grow brighter and more vivid their abstraction gives way to solid form. A GARDEN SCENE emerges. It is a GARDEN OF LIGHT, a vast, almost mythic, Rousseau paradise. It radiates an intense shimmering light.JACOB's eyes are cpativated by the vision before him. A sudden movement catches his attention. He looks up and notices MICHAEL still standing beside him. MICHAEL, however, is rapidly changing form. It is a full, plastic, three-dimensional metamorphosis. His very flesh seems to expand and glow with its own inner light. His face shines and radiates an almost transcendental beauty.JACOB is nearly blinded by MICHAEL's presence and must shield his eyes to look at him. MICHAEL smiles an extraordinary and joyous smile that radiates such intense luminosity that JACOB has to squint to see it.Suddenly MICHAEL steps off the ground. He rises into the air and floats above JACOB. JACOB can barely breathe as he watches him. MICHAEL rises into a sky filled with orbs and blazing lights. The lights shine on JACOB's head. He effervesces and shimmers in their glow.One of the orbs sends a burst of light exploding over JACOB. So intense is the light that JACOB grabs his eyes. As he opens them again he sees that the GARDEN is fading back into pure light. MICHAEL, too, is fading.Another burst of light and the GARDEN is reabsorbed by the void. Only the brightness remains. It is many seconds before we realize that the HOTEL ROOM is coming together, reconstructed by the light. In moments it is fully formed. Sunlight is pouring through the window. MICHAEL is sleeping lightly in a chair. He hears JACOB stare and sits up.JACOB is sitting on the bed. He does not seem to know where he is. His eyes are filled with awe. They move slowly around the room, taking everything in. He doesn't speak. MICHAEL gets up and sits beside him. He respects his silence.---ADDENDUM 9: HOTEL ROOM---INT. HOTEL ROOM - DAYJACOB enters the HOTEL ROOM. JEZZIE is already there watching the evening news. She is still in her postal uniform, lying on the bed. She taps the mattress, inviting JACOB to lie next to her. A WOMAN is crying to a REPORTER on the T.V. WOMAN It's been four days. No word. It's not like him. He's never done any- thing like this before. It's like he just disappeared from the face of the earth. REPORTER The Bureau of Missing Persons is con- founded by the continuing surge of reports ...JACOB snaps off the T.V. JEZZIE What'd you do that for? It's an in- teresting story. All these people are still disappearing. Right off the street. (staring at JACOB) Hey, what's wrong? Are you all right? JACOB I'm okay. I just don't want to lis- ten. JEZZIE You look upset. JACOB (angry) I'm not upset. JEZZIE Jake, what is it? JACOB I'm tired. JEZZIE You look terrible. What happened? (he turns away. She stares at him for a mo- ment, concerned) Jake ... is it the antidote? JACOB Goddamn it. Why do you say that? JEZZIE Look at yourself. You look like you've seen a ghost. JACOB Shit! Can't I just have a bad day? JEZZIE You can have anything you want. JACOB Then don't bug me. JEZZIE I'm not bugging you. Come and lie down. I'll give you a massage. (she taps the mattress again and JACOB joins her. She unbuttons his shirt) Where'd you go today? JACOB (evasively) Mid-town mostly. JEZZIE Oh yeah? What was happenin' there? JACOB (looking away from her) I picked up my ticket. (he pauses) I'm leaving in the morning, Jez. JEZZIE (tensing) Oh? (acting innocent) Where you going? JACOB (nervously) West. JEZZIE (growing angry) Where's West? New Jersey? JACOB Don't be funny. JEZZIE I always liked the West, west of Il- linois anyway. But you gotta give me time to pack. JACOB Stop it, Jez. Don't do that. JEZZIE Do what? I haven't done a thing. JACOB Don't play games with me. There's nothing more to say.There is a quiet rage building in JEZZIE's eyes as she continues to stroke JACOB's chest. He tries to relax and give himself over to the movement of her hand. Silently she leans over and begins licking his stomach. JACOB's eyes close. His stomach hardens. He reaches back and adjusts the pillow beneath his head. Slowly, JEZZIE works her way back up to his chest. Her tongue darts in and out suggestively. He eyes are burning with anger. Her mouth poises itself over his nipple. She toys with it for a few seconds and then chomps down hard. The bite draws blood.JACOB screams. His eyes shoot open. For the flash of an instant he sees a DEMON hovering over him, a hideous horned creature licking his blood. JACOB flies off the bed as the creature hurls to the floor. JACOB is ready to pounce on it when he sees that it is JEZZIE lying at his feet. His head begins reeling. He backs away from the bed, not taking his eyes off JEZZIE for a second. He backs to the closet and grabs his coat. JEZZIE Jake. What are you doing? Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bite. Let me get you a towel.JACOB grabs his wallet and his glasses. He backs toward the door. JEZZIE Jake, don't. You can't leave. You're not seeing things clearly. The drug's wearing off.She stands up and begins to approach him. JACOB lifts up a desk chair and holds it in front of him. Blood is running down his chest. JEZZIE Jake, don't leave me!JACOB throws the chair at the floor, opens the door, and hurries into the HALLWAY. JEZZIE scurries around the chair and runs to the door. She yells after him, but he is already gone.---ADDENDUM 10: THE END OF THE MOVIE---INT. HALLWAY - NIGHTJACOB stoops in front of the APARTMENT door and reaches his hand underneath a section of the hallway carpet. It comes back with a key. He inserts it into the lock and gently opens the door. JACOB (calling out) Hello. It's me.INT. SARAH'S APARTMENT - NIGHTThe lights are on and the APARTMENT looks comfortable and cozy. JACOB Hello? Is anyone home? Jed? Elie? Dad- dy's here.There is still no answer. JACOB is surprised. He walks into the LIVING ROOM and then the KITCHEN. No one is around. He walks into his old BEDROOM and then the BOYS' ROOM. He is surprised to hear footsteps coming down the hall. He turns around and calls out. JACOB Sarah, is that you? I hope you don't mind. I needed to come home.JACOB is startled to see JEZZIE enter the room. She does not seem to be her usual self. She seems larger, more imposing. JEZZIE Hello, Jake. I knew you'd come here in the end.JACOB is nervous. JACOB Where's Sarah? Where are the boys? JEZZIE Sit down, Jake. JACOB Where are they? JEZZIE Sit down! JACOB No! What's going on? Where's my family? JEZZIE It's over, Jake. It's all over. JACOB Where have they gone? JEZZIE Wake up! Stop playing with yourself. It's finished.JEZZIE stares at JACOB with a frightening, powerful glare. Her lips snarl. Her tongue begins darting in and out, only now it is not a nervous habit but a conscious act. JACOB's body feels the first waves of an inner tremor. His legs are shaking. JACOB What's going on?JEZZIE smiles at him. Her tongue wags and suddenly shoots from her mouth beyond human extension. JACOB recoils. JACOB (whispering to himself) This isn't happening. JEZZIE Your capacity for self-delusion is remarkable, Dr. Singer.JEZZIE's head begins to tighten and squeeze, as though she is suffering from cramps. JACOB watches in horror as her skull gives birth to pointed horns. JACOB Oh God! JEZZIE What's wrong, Jake? (she mocks him) Forget to take your antidote? JACOB (screaming) Goddamn you! JEZZIE (smiling and then laughing) I loved your chemist, Jake. The height of fantasy. And your vision of paradise. (she laughs with a hu- miliating tone) A most romantic creation. You're quite a dreamer, Jake. Only it's time to wake up.JACOB's eyes are locked on JEZZIE. His mouth is wide open. His body is shaking badly. He tries to back away from her but his legs barely move. JEZZIE There is nowhere to run, Jacob. You're home.Suddenly the pictures on the wall crash to the floor. Plaster from the ceiling breaks off in huge chunks and slams to the carpet. Light bulbs and lamps explode. JACOB runs to the door. He pulls it open and screams. He is on the edge of a fiery abyss. JEZZIE laughs with a new intensity of demonic force. JACOB spins around. JACOB WHO ARE YOU? JEZZIE How many times have you asked me that? How many times? JACOB TELL ME, DAMN YOU! JEZZIE (with consummate power) You know who I am.Suddenly JEZZIE reaches for her tongue and pulls at it with all her might. It is an act of total, unrelieved grotesqueness. With each yank the horror grows as JEZZIE literally pulls herself inside out before JACOB's eyes.The emerging creature is JEZZIE transfigured, a demonic presence beyond anything we have seen before. It is black and covered with a thick oozing slime. Its head, still recognizable as JEZZIE, is rodent-like, with piercing green eyes and terrible horns protruding from its brow. Its powerful arms have long spiked claws. Its feet are cloven hooves. Extending from its back is a long, thick, muscular tail that whips around the room with devastating force. It throws furniture crashing through the air.A sudden cracking sound emerges from the DEMON's back. Dark forms penetrate the air. JACOB is breathless as huge wings unfold and spread out to the living room walls. The sound of their flapping is deafening. The walls shatter from their blows. As they crumble darkness appears on the other side. There are no other rooms. The VOID envelops them. The INFERNO emerges in all directions. The DEMON roars. DEMON (with JEZZIE's voice) Still love me, Jake? (it laughs and reaches out to him) COME!CUT TO JACOB's face. He has gone beyond fear. An intensity of rage is building in him that we have not witnessed before. His whole image seems transformed by it. He glows like a volcano before it erupts.Suddenly he explodes. The full fury of the Ladder detonates inside him. He yells at the DEMON with all his might. JACOB NO!!!!!With a power and energy of devastating force he attacks the DEMON. JACOB is battling for his very soul and tears at the DEMON with an animalistic fury that takes it by surprise. Its giant wings flap furiously, lifting them both up off the floor. JACOB keeps fighting. He claws, bites, and rips at the wings, decimating their delicate fabric.The DEMON, shocked, and trying to gain control, crashes up through the last fragments of the ceiling. JACOB does not let go. They burst into the fiery darkness. The room crumbles beneath them and disappears into the void.The abyss opens beneath them. JACOB continues his attack. His legs are locked around the DEMON's waist. His hands dig into her eyes. The DEMON shrieks and surges downward with awesome velocity.The DEMON charges into a rocky slope, smashing JACOB into its cliffs. JACOB claws at her wings, shredding as much of them as he can reach. The DEMON takes a huge chunk out of JACOB's arm. JACOB screams, grabs a rock, and shatters the DEMON's teeth. The DEMON falls to the ground. JACOB holds on.All of a sudden the DEMON begins to shrink. JACOB is shocked and struggles to contain it. As it dwindles in size it reorders its shape. Within seconds a powerful INSECT is cupped in his hands. JACOB tries to crush it but it stings with such force that JACOB's entire body recoils. The stinging persists. JACOB hurls himself to the ground on top of his arms to hold the CREATURE down. So massive is the INSECT's attack. however, that JACOB's whole body heaves off the ground with each sting. Then the attacks subside. JACOB waits for the next blow.Suddenly JACOB's body shoots straight up. His hands fly apart as a new life form erupts between them. He holds on tightly as flesh and blood mold and expand between his fingers. The new body takes rapid shape. It is a CHILD. JACOB grasps it with all his might as it completes its identity. He is horrified when he sees it. It is his son. ELI Daddy! JACOB Oh God! ELI You're hurting me! JACOB (yelling) Stop!!!! ELI Daddy. Let go. JACOB What do you want from me? ELI LET GO!JACOB does not let up. In an instant his SON explodes into a gelatinous form, constantly undulating and changing shape. Within its translucent mass a new body is forming. JACOB stares at it with growing terror. It is himself. A terrible perplexity fills JACOB's eyes as he struggles to dig in and destroy his own image. He recoils as his own voice calls out to him. VOICE Who the Hell do you think you're fighting?The words shock him and for the first time, he lets go.Instantly the image disappears and the jelly-like mass dissolves into an oily liquid rapidly encircling his feet. JACOB looks down at the shallow pool spreading out beneath him. Its surface reflects a smoky, unearthly light.JACOB gazes into the darkness. He is all alone. The quiet overwhelms him. The only sound is his own breath. He looks around, in all directions, but can see nothing. The CAMERA holds on him as he stands waiting for the next assault, but nothing comes. He is left only with his anticipation and with hinself. He stares at the terrible darkness.A subtle phospheresence begins to glow in the liquid beneath JACOB's feet. He steps away from it, but it follows his movement. Suddenly, as if by spontaneous combustion, it bursts into flames. JACOB screams and tries to run but the flames move with him, lapping at his legs. He cannot escape them. As far and as fast as he runs the fire is with him. He yells and cries and screams as the fire eats at his lower limbs. He falls and jumps back up again, his hands charred. His eyes grow wild. JACOB Oh God, help me.Instantly the flames roar and engulf him. It is total conflagration. JACOB's skin blisters and turns black. His flesh crackles. Writhing in pain he runs through the flames but can find no freedom from his suffering.All at once JACOB stops running. He throws his hands up into the burning air and stands motionless, in absolute agony. It is a gesture of total submission and surrender to forces beyond himself. His flesh bubbles and chars but something is suddenly quiet inside him.Through the flames JACOB's dark form can be seen as it slowly sits down, like a Buddhist monk, in the midst of the holocaust. He appears a figure of sudden nobility as the flames annihilate him.Gradually the fire dies. JACOB's body, his flesh like a charred and brittle shell, sits motionless, beyond pain. An orange glow from the embers of his body slowly fades, leaving him in the final darkness.The SCREEN stays dark for as long as possible. Then, slowly, an eerie light appears in an unfamiliar sky. It backlights JACOB, revealing his silhouette. The CAMERA dollies slowly toward him. It approaches the burned and unrecognizable remains of JACOB's face. It is the face of death. The CAMERA holds on the image.Suddenly, with shocking impact, JACOB's eyes move. Within the crumbling shell of a body something is still alive, still conscious. The eyes survey the darkness and the first stirrings of a new light.It is dawn. JACOB's dark remains are suffused by a preternatural glow. Slowly, huge orbs begin to appear on the horizon. JACOB's eyes open to the growing light as they seek out the familiar in the still dark lansdcape. Gradually the orbs begin their ascent like a thousand suns rising at the same time. JACOB's eyes widen as his new world stands revealed. He is sitting in a GARDEN OF LIGHT, the Rousseau paradise he has visited once before.A sudden burst of light fills the sky directly overhead. The vegetation around him is instantly illuminated with its soft glow. Like a gentle breeze MICHAEL descends from the light and stands radiant before JACOB. He smiles and the air itself seems to brighten. MICHAEL quietly approaches JACOB's body. MICHAEL I am with you, Jacob.JACOB stares at him through dark eyes with a mixture of awe and disbelief. MICHAEL (speaking with a gentle compassion) It's all right now. It's over. You've won. You're here. (JACOB stares at him questioningly. MICHAEL reaches out his hands) Trust me.Softly MICHAEL places his hands on top of JACOB's head and begins to peel at the charred flesh. Layer by layer he strips it away. Then, with an unexpected gesture, he rips away a whole section with one quick pull. A BLAZE OF LIGHT bursts through the gaping hole in JACOB's head and beams into the air around them. It is an astounding sight. MICHAEL Come on. Don't make me do it all. (his eyes sparkle) Stand up. (JACOB's eyes are burst- ing with wonder) You can do it.Slowly JACOB begins to stir. He moves feebly at first, like an old man. His black flesh creaks and cracks and through each sudden fissure another beam of light blasts out with laserlike intensity. MICHAEL Stop hobbling. Your flesh can't hold you anymore.JACOB nods in response and takes a huge, gigantic breath. His lungs expand and suddenly all the old flesh bursts from his body as a radiant being of light breaks through beneath it. JACOB stands transfigured, filled with his own luminosity. His face is like a child's as he stares in amazement at his own hands, glowing with light.MICHAEL directs JACOB's vision to the sunrise. It is majestic, almost Biblical in its grandeur. Great rays of light penetrate vast cloud formations and descend into the GARDEN. Slowly the clouds, as if orchestrated by some higher power, begin to part. A massive light complex emerges from behind them. JACOB watches, awestruck, as the CELESTIAL STAIRWAY stands revealed. It reaches down from unknown heights, radiating an infinite power and grace. It touches down far in the distance, hovering over many acres of teh GARDEN. JACOB's eyes are filled with its splendor. MICHAEL looks at him and nods. MICHAEL Go on, Jacob. It has come for you.JACOB cannot speak. His eyes are fixed on the STAIRWAY dazzling him from afar. He can see ANGELIC FORMS moving up and down it. Suddenly, as if transported by light itself, he feels himself floating up into the air. He looks down upon EDEN sparkling below him. His mouth is wide open as he soars above it.The light pulsating from the STAIRWAY is brilliant and thrilling. JACOB's own inner light intensifies as he approaches it. The STAIRWAY grows increasingly wondrous as we draw nearer. It pulls JACOB toward it.STREAMS OF ANGELS enter the STAIRWAY like a fast flowing river. It carries them instantly within its current up beyond the visible reaches of the glittering sky. Billowing clouds glow in a parade of colors and the starry heavens seem to part as the STAIRWAY reaches beyond all known dimensions.JACOB stares at the light that is about to absorb him. It is a moment of total euphoria. He surges into the stream as the brilliant light of the STAIRWAY overwhelms the screen.Slowly the brightness of the screen condenses into a smaller light source. An overhead surgical lamp remains stubbornly in view.INT. VIETNAM FIELD HOSPITAL - DAYA DOCTOR leans his head in front of the lamp and removes his mask. His expression is somber. He shakes his head. His words are simple and final. DOCTOR He's gone.CUT TO JACOB SINGER lying on an operating table in a large ARMY FIELD TENT in VIET NAM. The DOCTOR steps away. A NURSE rudely pulls a green sheet up over his head. The DOCTOR turns to one of the aides and throws up his hands in defeat.TWO ORDERLIES wheel JACOB's body past rows of other DOCTORS and NURSES fighting to save lives. A YOUNG VIETNAMESE BOY pulls back a screen door to let them out of the tent. It is a bright, fresh morning. The sun is rising.THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Jane Eyre.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jane Eyre.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0c5cff52c7b2fbf794ee788d54b4ddc5c23f519d --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jane Eyre.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + JANE EYRE Written by Moira Buffini Adapted from the novel by Charlotte Bronte 2ND DRAFT 6TH MARCH 2008 EXT. A MIDSUMMER DAWN. THORNFIELD - THE GROUNDS. First light. Jane Eyre is running across a meadow, flushed and breathless; the hem of her plain, black dress soaked with dew. She carries a shawl and has a small bag of belongings over her shoulder. She trips, falls to her knees; looks back. Expressive eyes, open features. She is desperate. We see the house she is running from; a Jacobean battlemented mansion. Her need to escape is so great that she crawls forward until she is able to raise herself to her feet. She runs. She reaches an antique stile by a brook. She lifts herself on to it. She lands on the road. And runs. I/E. DAY. A ROADSIDE/COACH. The sun is higher in the sky. Jane exhausted, now running down a main road. Her spirts lift at the sight of an approaching coach. She flags it down. Jane empties her purse into the driver's hand. He looks at her money then suspiciously back at her. A terse nod indicates she can get in. CUT TO: Jane sinks into a dark corner. Her fellow passengers look shocked by her dishevelled appearance at such an early hour. She undertakes a tremendous effort not to betray her emotional state. She doesn't sob, she doesn't howl - although her breathing threatens to. Slowly, unable to bear the day, she closes her eyes. EXT. EVENING. WHITCROSS. Sunset. A whitewashed, stone pillar set up where four roads meet on a barren moor. The coach driver opens the door. With a curt nod he indicates that Jane must get out. She looks around, dismayed. In each direction there is open moorland for as far as the eye can see. The driver sets off at a good pace - glad to be rid of such a passenger. Jane puts her hand to her side for her bag of belongings. It is not there. She runs as fast as she can after the coach. It is receding towards the horizon. She comes to a halt, objectless, lost, alone. She pulls her knitted shawl around her. She leaves the road and sets off across the moor, into the gathering dark. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 2. EXT. NIGHT. THE MOOR. Jane is on her knees by a strange overhanging rock. The night sky is awesome; the universe is all around her. She is trying to calm herself with a prayer. EXT. DAY. THE MOOR. Jane lies on a great rock, soaking up the heat of the sun. She is like someone numb with pain. She watches a lizard crawl over the rock. She is mesmerised. EXT. TWILIGHT. THE MOOR. Jane squats in the heather and eats bilberries as the light fades. She hungrily licks the juice from her hand. EXT. DAWN. THE MOOR. Jane is asleep in the heather, her shawl wrapped around her. A red-haired child in a white nightgown lies by her side, watching her. It is Helen Burns. Helen reaches out. She touches Jane's hand. Jane wakes. She sits up. She is alone. EXT. DAY. BY A RIVER. Jane is crouched on a rock watching the waters go by. The sky is overcast. The first big drops of rain land on the stones. Jane makes no movement. A raven lands on a rock nearby. Jane is suddenly filled with a wild rage. She picks up a stone and hurls it at the bird with a raw cry. The gesture exhausts her. She watches the bird wheel away, as the rain starts to pour. EXT. TWILIGHT. A FARM BY A WOOD. It is raining hard. Jane sees a small girl come out of the farm with some leftovers. She drops them into a pigpen. CUT TO: Jane leaning into the pigpen. She picks a stiffened mould of porridge out of the mud. She lets the rain wash it. She eats it ravenously. EXT. NEXT DAY. A WOOD. It has stopped raining. Jane is huddled under a tree. She is shaking, shuddering. The life has gone out of her eyes. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 3. EXT. DAY. THE EDGE OF THE WOOD. The moors rise away above her to the horizon. Jane looks up at the sun starting to set. The clouds are red and gold. She sees a small red-haired girl in a white nightgown walking barefoot on the moors ahead of her. The girl turns, looks back at Jane. With her last strength, Jane follows. EXT. EVENING. THE MOOR. Dark clouds are banking up; the rain starts again. Jane is struggling through a marsh. Her boots are stuck. She falls. Her hand disappears into mud; her face pressed against the earth. She doesn't move. She has reached the point of despair. The girl's bare feet walk close by, as if waiting for her. Jane looks up. Where the child should be, she sees a light shining across the moor. Jane starts crawling. EXT. NIGHT. THE MOOR/MOOR HOUSE. Jane is toiling on through the lashing rain towards the light. It has become a window. A brief flash of lightning shows her a low stone cottage. Helen Burns is sitting on the gate. CUT TO: Jane is crawling through the narrow garden. On her knees, she peers through a window. On either side of a bright little fire sit two young women. They look exactly like Jane; slight, neat, dressed in black. One, Diana, has her hair slightly curled and hides her gentle eyes behind spectacles. The other, Mary, is very young; no more than seventeen. Each has a book on her knee. They are talking intimately. They look so close, so loving and the room looks so cosy that it pains Jane considerably. CUT TO: Jane knocking at the door. Hannah, an old servant answers. She is suspicious; Jane looks like a wretch. HANNAH What do you want? Jane manages to find her voice. JANE Shelter. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 4. HANNAH I can't take in vagrants. Here's a penny. Now take it and go. JANE I have no strength to go. HANNAH You can move off. And if there are others with you tell them we are not alone. We have a gentleman here, and dogs. JANE (DESPERATE) But I must die if I am turned away. The door slams shut. Jane lets out a hopeless wail. JANE (CONT'D) God help me. I will die. She turns away, her hope gone. As she collapses, she finds herself supported by a strong pair of black-clad arms. ST JOHN All of God's creatures must die. But not prematurely - and not on my doorstep I hope. Jane is lifted up. She finds herself looking into the face of the handsomest man she has ever seen; St John Rivers. He lifts her over the threshold into the warmth of Moor House. INT. NIGHT. MOOR HOUSE - THE KITCHEN. A fire is roaring in the stove. Hannah is bent over it. HANNAH We've had a beggar woman come, Mr Rivers. I sent her - For shame! Hannah falls silent as she sees Jane. ST JOHN You did your duty in excluding her. Let me do mine in admitting her. He sets Jane down before the hearth. She can barely stand. She is soaked to the bone, filthy with mud. Her skin has a ghastly pallor. Diana and Mary enter. DIANA St John, who is it? Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 5. ST JOHN I don't know; I found her at the door. HANNAH (GUILTILY) I thought her one of the gypsies from the cross. MARY She's as white as death. Jane can hold herself up no longer. Diana moves forward. She and St John catch Jane and help her into a chair. The rain hammers on the windows. DIANA Hannah, some water. MARY She's worn to nothing. She looks like a spectre. St John, if you hadn't taken her in, we would have fallen upon her dead body in the morning. DIANA Mary. ST JOHN She's no vagrant; I'm sure of it. HANNAH There's milk and bread for you. Jane tries to mouth her thanks. She sips the milk. Eats a mouthful of bread. Diana kneels at her side. ST JOHN Ask her her name. JANE I - I am J - Jane cannot speak. She's incapable of uttering her own name. She hears John Reed's voice calling from far away. JOHN REED Jane Eyre! DIANA Please, tell us how we may help you. ST JOHN Can we send for anyone? Who are your people? Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 6. The questions are deeply troubling to Jane. She is losing consciousness. She sees an image of a small girl of ten, running away through a great darkening room. Jane tries to follow her. The action draws her up out of the kitchen chair. She hears John Reed's voice again. JOHN REED (V.O.) Jane Eyre! Where are you? Jane, panicked, looking for somewhere to hide, passes out. INT. DAY. GATESHEAD - A GRAND RECEPTION ROOM. Rain hammers against the windows. Jane aged ten, looking hunted, runs in looking for somewhere to hide. She springs behind a curtain. John Reed enters; a fourteen year old, his stomach bursting out of his fancy clothes. He is holding a riding crop as if it is a sword. JOHN REED Come out, rat. I know you are in here. Come out now and I won't punish you. Jane watches him pass by her. He practises a perfect lunge. JOHN REED (CONT'D) Rat. He exits. Jane breathes a sigh of relief. She slowly pulls the curtain across, making the window a private sanctuary. There is a book lying on the seat. She opens it. CUT TO: Jane is sitting cross-legged, completely absorbed in her book - a beautifully drawn picture of a cormorant. She runs her finger over it. We hear the sound of great waves plunging on to a shore. EXT. DAY. AN ARCTIC COAST. Jane, aged ten, is sitting cross-legged on an isolated rock, her eyes locked with those of a stooping black cormorant. St John's voice comes from a long way away. ST JOHN (V.O.) Diana, Mary help me get her upstairs... The cormorant raises its wings like a great black cloak. Jane watches as it takes off and flies away. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 7. INT. DAY. GATESHEAD - THE WINDOW SEAT. Jane has her eyes closed. A great Atlantic wave hits the sash window behind her, drenching it with foam and brine. Suddenly the curtain is pulled back. John Reed stands in front of her. Jane shrinks back. JOHN REED I have been looking for you these last ten minutes. JANE What do you want? JOHN REED Say forgive me, Master Reed. JANE I have done nothing wrong. Master Reed. John grabs the book. JOHN REED Who gave you permission to read my book? JANE I wasn't aware it was yours. JOHN REED Everything in this house is mine. You're lucky to live here with gentleman's children like us. Your father had nothing. You should go and beg. Jane stares him out. John can sense her contempt. He belts her with the book. Jane hits her head on the window clasp, drawing blood. She is shocked. JOHN REED (CONT'D) That's for the look you had on your face. You bad animal. Jane snaps. She throws herself upon him, the rage in her released; pummelling, scratching, hurting him in any way she can. She is barely coherent. JANE Wicked and cruel - you are a slaver - a murderer - JOHN I shall tell mother - JANE I hate you John Reed. I hate you - Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 8. John is flabbergasted. Like all bullies, he is terrified. JOHN Mamma! Mamma! There's a rat! Rat! Jane bites him. Hard. At that moment, Mrs Reed appears on the scene. John screams. We see Mrs Reed's shocked face. She is an overweight woman pushing forty in a bright, elaborate dress. INT. NIGHT. MOOR HOUSE - A BEDROOM Dinah and Mary are gently taking Jane's soaking clothes off; one at each side of her. Jane is distressed, approaching a delirium. She resists them. INT. DUSK. GATESHEAD - THE RED ROOM. Jane is carried in and set down on a footstool by two servants, Miss Abbot and Bessie - one at each side of her. She is still resisting. BESSIE For shame, hitting your master. MISS ABBOT If you don't sit still you must be tied down! The fight goes out of Jane. She sits, defeated. Bessie, young and plump, quickly wipes her bleeding forehead. She has some compassion. Miss Abbot has none. BESSIE What we do is for your own good. If you are passionate and rude like this, your Aunt Reed will send you away. MISS ABBOT You're worse than us servants. We work for our keep; you do nothing. Pray for forgiveness Miss Eyre or something bad will come down that chimney and fetch you away. The door slams. They are gone. Jane slowly grips the edge of the stool. The room is chill, silent. Red walls and curtains, murky in the fading light. In front of Jane, a stone fireplace gapes like a mouth. Beside it, a full length looking-glass in which her pale reflection stares out. Behind her, a bed supported on pillars of mahogany, hung with red. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 9. The piled up pillows and mattresses glare in cold white. Jane's breathing is the only sound in the room. A sudden gust sends rain pelting against the windows like fingernails. A distant moan of wind seems to breathe out of the black hearth. Jane reverts her nervous gaze to the pitted mirror. Her eyes lock on the small figure trapped in the mirror's visionary hollow; her white, bleeding face, her eyes glittering with fear. It is a phantom. The eyes are black, the skin a deathly grey. Blood. Jane's breathing becomes choked with terror. She can't get her breath. We hear blood rushing through her ears. It sounds like the beating of great wings. Slowly, a light appears over her. It may be something shining in from outside. But to Jane it seems as if it is surrounding her, enveloping her. The figure in the looking glass opens its mouth. The scream, held in so long, finally rips from Jane's throat. INT. DUSK. GATESHEAD - THE FIRESIDE. At the sound of the scream, Mrs Reed, slumbering, almost jumps out of her skin. INT. DUSK. GATESHEAD - THE KITCHEN. Miss Abbott almost drops the tea tray she is carrying. INT. DUSK. GATESHEAD - A CORRIDOR. Jane is banging on the door, screaming, hysterical with terror. Bessie rushes to the door and unlocks it. Jane flies into her arms. BESSIE Miss Eyre what is it? JANE Bessie! BESSIE Have you seen something? JANE There was a light. We see Bessie's own fear as she glances into the dark room. Mrs Reed is storming towards them, furious. MRS REED Bessie, I gave orders that she was to be left in the red room until I came. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 10. BESSIE But she screamed so loud ma'am. MRS REED It is play-acting. Let her go. I know your tricks Jane Eyre and I abhor such artifice. Loose Bessie's hands, child. Mrs Reed prises Jane away from Bessie as she speaks. MRS REED (CONT'D) You will now stay here an hour longer. JANE No - Aunt, have pity - MRS REED And only when you are perfectly submissive will I let you out. JANE Please - I cannot bear it - MRS REED Silence. This violence is repulsive. JANE I shall be killed - MRS REED Get back! JANE Have mercy, have mercy I beg you - Mrs Reed throws her back into the room, slams the door and turns the key. We hear Jane's unspeakable howls of terror, her anguished bangs upon the door. Bessie is looking at Mrs Reed aghast. Mrs Reed withers her with a frozen glare. INT. DUSK. GATESHEAD - THE RED ROOM. We see Jane in her distress, hitting her head on the door. She falls back. On the floor, her arms and legs move beyond her control. She is having a fit. When it is over, we see Jane unconscious. She is lying in a pool of ghostly light. INT. DAY. MOOR HOUSE - A BEDROOM. Through the light, Jane sees Mary and Diana Rivers at her side. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 11. MARY She's awake. St John approaches in his parson's collar, blocking out the light as he looks down. Jane gazes at him remotely. ST JOHN I'm sure we'll find she's simply had a misunderstanding with her people. I hope she's not done anything deplorable; there's nothing so sad as a fallen young woman. MARY Look at the suffering in her eyes. They're like dark pools - Diana smiles at Mary's tendency to over-dramatise. DIANA She has a peculiar face; I rather like it. ST JOHN She's not at all handsome. DIANA She's so ill, St John. ST JOHN Ill or well, she'll always be plain. Jane's eyes slide away from him and close. INT. DAY. GATESHEAD - THE MORNING ROOM. A bright morning. A huge clergyman dressed in black is staring down at Jane, blocking out the sun. We see him from her POV; his expansive chest, dramatic facial hair, huge flared nostrils, frowning brows. He is Brockelhurst, the epitome of grim. BROCKLEHURST There is no sight so sad and so deplorable as that of a wicked little girl. Do you know, Jane Eyre, where the wicked go after death? JANE They go to hell. BROCKLEHURST And what is hell, can you tell me that? Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 12. JANE A pit full of fire. BROCKLEHURST And should you like to fall into that pit and be burning there forever? JANE No sir. BROCKLEHURST What must you do to avoid it? JANE I must keep in good health and not die. Mrs Reed is by the fireside in an ultra-feminine dress. She puts down her tea cup in irritation. MRS REED I've been her sole benefactress and her kindest friend. But she shows no gratitude and brings nothing but discord into my house. BROCKLEHURST What is her parentage? MRS REED She's an orphan. Her mother was my late husband's sister. On his deathbed he exhorted me to care for her. I have always treated her as one of my own. Jane silently revolts against this lie. MRS REED (CONT'D) If you accept her at Lowood school Mr Brocklehurst, keep a strict eye on her. Her worst fault is a tendency to deceit. I'm sorry to tell you that Jane Eyre is a liar. Jane's eyes flash with outrage. BROCKLEHURST All liars will have their portion in the lake burning with fire and brimstone. She shall be watched, Mrs Reed. MRS REED I wish her to be made useful, to be kept humble. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 13. BROCKLEHURST You can rest assured dear lady that we mortify our girls in the sentiments of vanity and pride. They are taught to be quiet, plain and modest. A passion of resentment is forming in Jane. BROCKLEHURST (CONT'D) We shall root out the wickedness in this small, ungrateful plant. Mrs Reed smiles sweetly. MRS REED And as for its vacations, it must spend them all at Lowood. INT. DAY. GATESHEAD - THE ENTRANCE HALL. Jane is climbing the staircase. John Reed blocks her way. JOHN So, Rat, you're being sent away. It's as I thought; you're not fit to associate with me. Jane snaps. She cries out: JANE You are not fit to associate with me! INT. DAY. GATESHEAD - THE MORNING ROOM. Mrs Reed is at her desk. Jane appears in front of her. JANE You said I was a liar. Well I am not. If I was, I should say that I loved you and I don't. I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world except John Reed. He is a liar, not I. MRS REED How dare you speak in this manner. JANE I'll never call you Aunt again as long as I live and if anyone asks how I liked you I'll say that the very thought of you makes me sick. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 14. MRS REED You wouldn't dare. JANE I'll remember how you thrust me back into the Red Room and locked me there to my dying day. Even when you knew it was haunted and I begged to be let out. People think you are good but you are bad and hard-hearted and I'll let everyone at Lowood know what you have done! MRS REED Children must be corrected for their faults. JANE Deceit is not my fault! MRS REED But you are passionate. JANE My Uncle Reed is in heaven and can see all that you do and think; so can my mother and father. They know how you hate me and wish me dead. They can see. They see everything you do and they will judge you, Mrs Reed. Mrs Reed has turned quite pale. Jane blazes with victory. EXT. DAY. GATESHEAD - THE GATE HOUSE. Bessie is waiting with Jane while her belongings are loaded onto a public coach, its top laden with passengers. BESSIE You're such a queer, solitary little thing. If only you could make yourself more appealing. Perhaps if you tried smiling from time to time, people would find you more pleasant - JANE Don't scold me Bessie. I know you dislike me - BESSIE I don't dislike you Miss; I'm fonder of you than of anyone. JANE You don't show it. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 15. BESSIE Miss Jane - Jane throws her arms around Bessie and embraces her with great force. Bessie returns the embrace, surprised, moved. Jane gets into the coach. Bessie looks up at the driver. BESSIE (CONT'D) You take good care of her. Jane's small, pale face peers out of the coach window, watching Gateshead recede. She doesn't cry. But Bessie can't stave off her tears. INT. NIGHT. LOWOOD - THE HALL. Jane, half asleep is carried out of a coach and into a howling gale. She is taken under a stone inscription: `Lowood Institution'. She is set down in front of a woman with striking features and intelligent eyes; Miss Temple. She bends down and looks into Jane's face. MISS TEMPLE What's your name, child? JANE Jane Eyre. MISS TEMPLE You are very young to be sent alone, Jane Eyre. She gently touches Jane's cheek with her finger. Jane manages the ghost of a smile. INT. DAY. MOOR HOUSE - A BEDROOM. Jane is lying back against clean white pillows. Her hair brushed and neatly plaited. Diana and Mary are full of kindness but St John's face is cold, dispassionate. JANE My name is Jane Elliott... MARY Jane Elliot. DIANA Where do you come from, Miss Elliott? Jane gives no answer. ST JOHN Who can we send for to help you? Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 16. JANE No one. There is an intake of breath from Mary. ST JOHN Do you mean to say that you are absolutely without home and without friends? JANE Yes sir. ST JOHN How did you come to be roaming the moors, Miss Elliott? DIANA Don't upset her, St John. She must not be interrogated so. JANE Mr Rivers, you and you sisters have done me a great service, the greatest man can do - you have rescued me from death. ST JOHN How are we to help you if we know nothing about you? JANE I'll tell you as much as I can. I am an orphan; brought up a dependent; educated in a charity school where I passed six years as a pupil and two as a teacher. I left a year since to become a private governess - MARY YES - JANE A good situation, where I remained until... MARY Diana, didn't I say so? Didn't I say she was a governess? DIANA We did wonder. We mean no offence but you have a certain look. Mary and I work as governesses too. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 17. JANE (with great interest) Do you? MARY We are currently trying to teach ourselves German, so we may find better positions. JANE You're not working at present? DIANA We came home only for our father's funeral. MARY He died three weeks ago. JANE I am very sorry to hear it. St John has no patience with the change of subject. ST JOHN Why did you leave your place of employment? Jane sinks back in the pillows. JANE I... It was a catastrophe. ST JOHN What did you do? JANE I am free from any blame, sir. I was happy. Jane is deeply distressed. DIANA That's enough for now, St John. MARY You must rest, Miss Elliott. The name sounds strange to Jane. ST JOHN Why did you start? JANE Because that is not my name. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 18. DIANA You haven't given us your real name? Jane shakes her head. ST JOHN Why not? JANE Because I must not ever be found. Diana and Mary glance at each other, fascinated. INT. EVENING. MOOR HOUSE - THE BEDROOM Jane is dressing herself. She stops, weakly holding the back of a chair for support, looking out of the window at the sun setting over the hills. ST JOHN (V.O.) Merciful Jesus, enlighten thou me with the brightness of thine inward light... INT. EVENING. MOOR HOUSE - THE STAIRS Diana is helping Jane down the stairs. ST JOHN (V.O.) And take away all darkness from the habitation of my heart... INT. EVENING. MOOR HOUSE - THE PARLOUR St John is praying over Jane, Diana and Mary as they sit at the table. Mary catches Jane's eye, gives her shy smile. ST JOHN Join me to thyself with an inseparable band of love... For thou, even thou alone, dost satisfy him that loveth thee... Jane finds herself staring at St John, who prays ardently. ST JOHN (CONT'D) And without thee all things are vain and empty. Amen. St John opens his eyes and looks searchingly at Jane. She immediately looks down. JANE, MARY, DIANA Amen. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 19. DIANA Welcome to our table, Miss Elliott. JANE I'd appreciate it if you called me Jane. It is my own name. MARY It's wonderful to see you on your feet, Miss Jane. Jane turns her attention to St John. JANE I trust I will not be eating long at your expense, Mr Rivers. ST JOHN You wish to be independent of my charity? JANE I wish to work, sir. Show me how to work or how to seek work; that's all I ask. DIANA You're not fit enough to work. ST JOHN My sisters have always taken pleasure in keeping injured birds but I'm more inclined to put you in a way of keeping yourself - and shall endeavour to do so, if that's what you wish. JANE With all my heart, sir. DIANA It's a shame she has no choice of helpers, St John, and must put up with such crusty people as you. ST JOHN This school you were at, Miss Elliot, this charitable institution; what did it prepare you for? CUT TO: We see a bundle of sharp twigs come down on a girl's bare neck, like a whip. CUT TO: Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 20. Jane flinches at the memory. ST JOHN (CONT'D) Was it a thorough education? JANE Most thorough. INT. DAY. LOWOOD - THE HALL. Miss Scatcherd's bitter life is in her face and voice. MISS SCATCHERD Burns, Helen Burns! Jane, aged ten, looks up. She is wearing a brown stuff frock with a puritanical cap like all the other girls. Silence reigns in the school hall. A red haired girl of about thirteen stands up; Helen Burns. Miss Scatcherd holds up an apron in which a hole has been mistakenly cut. MISS SCATCHERD (CONT'D) You're a slattern and a disgrace! Helen Burns undoes the back of her dress. The punishment is given; a dozen sharp, stinging whacks with the birch twigs. Jane is appalled. But to her astonishment and awe, Helen Burns doesn't cry; she barely changes her expression. As the strokes go on - seven, eight, nine - Helen seems like one in a trance. Jane is deeply affected. On the eleventh stroke, the door bursts open and a visiting party walks in: the Brocklehurst family. Miss Temple escorts two young girls dressed in peacock finery and two smart, bombastic ladies. Mr Brocklehurst follows. Helen's punishment is forgotten as the students rush to their feet. Jane, in a panic, drops her slate and breaks it. Brocklehurst's eyes sweep the room. They land on her. BROCKLEHURST I might have known. The new girl. Step forward, Jane Eyre. Filled with dread, Jane steps forward. BROCKLEHURST (CONT'D) It is my duty dear children, to warn you that this girl is not one of God's own lambs. We see the look of frustration on Miss Temple's face. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 21. BROCKLEHURST (CONT'D) She is a castaway and an alien in his flock and you must be on your guard against her. For this child... is a liar! He points to a tall stool. Jane stands on it. BROCKLEHURST (CONT'D) This is the pedestal of infamy - and you'll remain upon it all day. You'll receive no sustenance and no comfort, for you must learn how barren is the life of the sinner. Children, I exhort you to shun her, exclude her, shut her out from this day forth. Withhold the hand of friendship and deny your love to Jane Eyre, the liar. INT. DAY. LOWOOD - THE HALL - LATER. The hall is empty but for the small figure of Jane, high on her stool, feeling her isolation like pain. Across the room is the slightly bigger figure of Helen, hunched, the back of her dress still open, the skin on her neck raw. The sun is setting. At last Jane starts to sob. HELEN Come now, don't cry. JANE You're not allowed to speak to me. I must be shunned. HELEN Mr Brocklehurst is not a God. He's not liked or admired here - JANE He said I was a liar. HELEN JANE - JANE I am not a liar! HELEN If your own conscience approves you, then so will I. Jane is deeply gratified. JANE How do you bear it? Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 22. HELEN Bear what? JANE Being struck. HELEN I'm a trial to Miss Scatcherd. She hits me to improve me. JANE If she hit me I would get that birch from her hand and break it under her nose. HELEN You'd just be punished even more. It's part of life here. JANE I have always been excluded and alone and hated. Miss Abbott used to call me an ugly little toad. Helen approaches Jane. HELEN You're not ugly. Do you know what is inside you? JANE What? HELEN The spark of your spirit, the principle of light and thought, pure and bright, as perfect as anything created. JANE What do you mean? HELEN Your soul. Your soul is beautiful, your soul has value - more value than anything on earth. JANE Is that true? HELEN Yes. God sees your beauty. Even as you stand on that stool, there is an invisible world around you, a kingdom of spirits. It is everywhere. Angels see your pain. Angels know your innocence. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 23. JANE Angels? Helen smiles a wide smile. HELEN Do you not believe in angels? They hear the door. Helen runs back to her place; cowers. Miss Temple appears in a shaft of light at the door. MISS TEMPLE Come here, Girls. The girls approach, dreading more punishment. MISS TEMPLE (CONT'D) I shall investigate Mr Brocklehurst's claims against you, Jane. And unless they are proved, you will be exonerated. Miss Temple looks over her shoulder. MISS TEMPLE (CONT'D) Also, I understand you girls have had no food today. She quickly presses a slice of hard cake into each girl's hand and walks away. Jane and Helen look at one another, deeply moved by her kindness. EXT. DAY. MOOR HOUSE - THE GARDEN / MOORS. Jane stands between Diana and Mary high above Moor House. They are dressed similarly in bonnets and cloaks. They watch a hawk dive, their heads moving in unison. Their eyes land upon Moor House. MARY We've lived here all our lives but the house must be shut up now. JANE Why? MARY We can't afford to keep it on. Diana and I will return to our charges in a few days and St John will go to his parsonage. Down below them, St John leaves Moor House and walks towards the village. Jane watches him. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 24. DIANA It'll be a hard parting for us. We may not see him again for years. JANE Why ever not? MARY He means to be a missionary. He's going to India to do Gods's work. JANE Can he not do God's work here? MARY This quiet parish will never do for him; he almost raves in his restlessness. It breaks our hearts. DIANA St John burns with talents and ambition. But he lacks the means for advancement here. Our poverty thwarts him at every turn and so he has chosen to lay all his gifts on God's altar. MARY We've tried to persuade him to stay but in some things our brother is - he is - DIANA Inexorable as death. MARY We are now without father. We'll soon be without home and brother. Jane feels a powerful compassion for them. JANE In one thing you are fortunate. She looks over at the horizon. JANE (CONT'D) You have each other. EXT. DAY. LOWOOD - THE GROUNDS. SPRING. Jane is looking at the high wall which is the horizon of her world at Lowood. Her eyes come to rest on the main door. Two men are carrying a small coffin out of the school. Brocklehurst follows it with a menthol-soaked cloth over his mouth and nose. He becomes aware of Jane's eyes on him. He looks away. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 25. INT. NIGHT. LOWOOD - THE DORMITORY. Jane is creeping down a corridor in her night dress. She peers in through the dormitory door. It has been turned into a sanitarium. Camphor and vinegar are being burnt. Jane can hardly look at the sick girls. Miss Temple, pale with exhaustion, is speaking intimately to Madame Pierrot, the French mistress. Jane overhears. MISS TEMPLE This is the result of semi- starvation and neglected colds; Brockelhurst's idea of mortifying their bodies to save their souls. TYPHUS - Miss Temple can't say more. MADAME PIERROT Write to the governors. You must. Jane creeps on. INT. NIGHT. LOWOOD - MISS TEMPLE'S ROOM. Jane opens the door. A small bed has been set up at the foot of Miss Temple's. In it lies Helen Burns. A candle is set on a table at her side. Jane takes her hand. JANE Helen. HELEN Is it you, Jane? Have you come to say goodbye? JANE You're cold. HELEN I'm very happy. I am going home. JANE Back to your father? HELEN My father has a new wife. He'll not miss me much. JANE Then where? HELEN To my future home, where all is light. I am going to God. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 26. JANE No... Jane is devastated. She climbs into bed next to Helen. For a moment, they hold each other. Jane's tears silently fall. HELEN Don't be sad. I will escape great suffering by dying young. JANE No... HELEN I don't have any talent to make my way in life. I should be always at fault. But God is my friend. He loves me. JANE Then he must save you. HELEN He is saving me. Jane cannot articulate her distress at Helen's words. HELEN (CONT'D) I feel like I could sleep now. I like to have you near - JANE I won't leave you. HELEN You're so warm and alive. Jane, you have a passion for living. INT. DAY. LOWOOD - MISS TEMPLE'S ROOM. We see Miss Temple looking down at the bed in the dazzling, morning light. Jane, waking, has her small arms around Helen, as if fiercely protecting her. Helen is ashen, her eyes open, staring at some unseen thing. She is dead. Miss Temple lifts Jane away. MISS TEMPLE Jane... Jane realises what has happened. We hear the sound of her distress begin. She is inconsolable. JANE No, no, no - MARY (V.O.) Jane? Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 27. INT. DAY. MOOR HOUSE - THE PARLOUR. Jane is staring out at the Autumn rain. She surreptitiously wipes her tears away and smiles up at Mary. JANE Have you something for me to do? MARY You are doing something already. May I see? Jane hands her a book. She has drawn a bride. JANE That's Miss Temple on her wedding day. She was my teacher; a great influence on me. Under her guidance I became a teacher too. Mary turns the page. It shows a sketch of St John Rivers. Mary gasps in delight. She takes the book straight to St John, who is diligently working at his desk. MARY St John - JANE No, Mary, please - MARY See how skilled Jane is. St John looks at the sketch of himself. He is quite taken aback. He looks over at Jane, who is quite embarrassed. MARY (CONT'D) She is better than any drawing master we have ever had. For a moment, St John seems to be weighing up whether to be insulted or not. ST JOHN How fierce I am, Miss Elliott. JANE Mr Rivers, I wondered if you had yet heard of any work that I could do. ST JOHN I found you a situation some days ago but I've delayed telling you because the work is lowly and I fear you'll scorn it. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 28. JANE I shan't mind what I do. ST JOHN As I am poor and obscure, the help I can offer is of the meanest sort. DIANA St John, what are you going to offer her? Not washerwoman, I hope? ST JOHN When I took over the parish two years ago it had no school. I opened one for boys; I now intend to open one for girls. The school mistress will have a two-roomed cottage paid for by local benefactors and she will receive fifteen pounds a year. You can see how humble, how ignoble it is. On the contrary, Jane is deeply gratified. JANE Mr Rivers, I thank you heartily and I accept with all my heart. ST JOHN But you comprehend me? It's a village school - cottagers daughters. What will you do with all your fine accomplishments? JANE I will save them until they are wanted. They will keep. Jane smiles at him. St John is impressed. INT. DAY. MORTON - THE SCHOOL ROOM. Jane is at the blackboard in a freshly painted school room. In front of her are about twenty village girls, aged from six to sixteen. They are hanging on her every word. Jane is writing a neat line of 'a's. INT. NIGHT. MORTON - JANE'S COTTAGE. Jane's first home is like a doll's house. She walks through it from the whitewashed bedroom with its little single bed, through the parlour with its tiny fireplace into the scullery kitchen. She retraces her steps back into the parlour. She turns round and surveys it. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 29. Silence but for the crackling of the fire and the blowing of the wind. She feels glad, grateful, but very, very alone. She hears Brocklehurst's voice. BROCKLEHURST I hear you are to leave us, Miss Eyre. She spins around as if he is there. EXT. DAY. A CHURCHYARD. Brocklehurst is at the church door; Jane looking at him coldly. She holds a bunch of wild flowers. JANE Yes. Excuse me. She walks into the graveyard. There are over forty small graves marked with wooden crosses, each bearing a child's name. One of them says Helen Burns. Jane lays down her flowers. She looks up at Brocklehurst. He cannot meet her eye. We hear the voice of Mrs Fairfax. MRS FAIRFAX (V.O.) If Jane Eyre of Lowood School... INT. NIGHT. MORTON - JANE'S COTTAGE. Jane tries to quell her great unhappiness. She springs into action, straightening her furniture, stoking her fire. MRS FAIRFAX (V.O.) ...Who advertised in the Yorkshire Herald, possesses the acquirements mentioned... EXT. DAY. A ROADSIDE. Jane, younger and more hopeful, with her belongings in a small trunk, awaits an approaching public coach. MRS FAIRFAX (V.O.) ...And if she is in a position to give satisfactory references, a situation can be offered where there is but one pupil, a little girl under ten years of age and where the salary is thirty pounds a year. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 30. EXT. DAY. MORTON - JANE'S COTTAGE. Jane is in her scullery putting all her energy into scrubbing dishes. MRS FAIRFAX (V.O.) Jane Eyre is requested to send references and all particulars to Mrs Fairfax at Thornfield Hall. Jane closes her eyes, trying to banish her thoughts. It is no good. The memories crowd in. INT. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - THE GROUND FLOOR. A smiling lady dressed in black approaches her through the darkness - Mrs Alice Fairfax. MRS FAIRFAX How do you do, my dear? What a long and tedious journey you must have had of it. John is quite the slowest driver in the county. You must be cold to the bone. JANE Are you Mrs Fairfax? MRS FAIRFAX Indeed I am; come and warm yourself in here. Mrs Fairfax leads Jane up the dark corridor and into a cosy parlour. Leah, a young maidservant, follows. MRS FAIRFAX (CONT'D) Your poor hands must be quite numb; here, let me help you. Mrs Fairfax undoes the ribbon on Jane's bonnet. Jane is taken aback, unused to motherliness of any kind. MRS FAIRFAX (CONT'D) Leah, make a little hot port and cut a sandwich or two. Leah eyes Jane with great curiosity. She hurries away. MRS FAIRFAX Draw nearer the fire. John is taking your trunk up to your room. Knitting apparatus lies abandoned on a fireside chair. Mrs Fairfax moves it and gestures for Jane to sit. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 31. MRS FAIRFAX (CONT'D) I've put you at the back of the house; I hope you don't mind. The rooms at the front have much finer furniture but they are so gloomy and solitary I think. Jane can't help noticing that every surface is covered in lace, embroidery, or fine crochet. The whole room is an advertisement for Mrs Fairfax's skill at handicrafts - and testament to the hours she has spent alone. MRS FAIRFAX (CONT'D) I'm so glad you are come. To be sure this is a fine old house but I must confess that in winter one can feel a little dreary and alone. Leah is a very nice girl and John and Martha good people too, but they are servants - and one cannot talk to them on terms of equality. JANE Am I to have the pleasure of meeting Miss Fairfax tonight? MRS FAIRFAX Who? JANE Miss Fairfax - my pupil? MRS FAIRFAX Oh you mean Miss Varens; Mr Rochester's ward. She is to be your pupil. JANE Who is Mr Rochester? MRS FAIRFAX Why, the owner of Thornfield. JANE I thought Thornfield Hall belonged to you. MRS FAIRFAX (bursting into laughter) Oh bless you child, what an idea. To me? I am only the housekeeper. JANE Forgive me - Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 32. MRS FAIRFAX There is a distant connection between Mr Rochester and I - his mother was a Fairfax - but I'd never presume on it. Heavens, me, owner of Thornfield? She continues to laugh. A bashful smile is playing on Jane's lips. Mrs Fairfax is beginning to thaw her. INT. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - THE HALL / STAIRCASE. Mrs Fairfax is carrying a lamp across the great hall; the only light. Jane can perceive grandeur looming out of the darkness; Jacobean fireplace, coat of arms, head of a stag. Very gloomy, eerie. Her breath is vaporising in the cold. MRS FAIRFAX We shall have a cheerful house this winter... As Jane follows Mrs Fairfax up the stairs, light is thrown on portraits of dour, craggy, long dead ancestors. MRS FAIRFAX (CONT'D) With Miss Varens here - and with you - we'll have quite a merry time of it. INT. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - A LONG GALLERY. Dark heavy drapes, another striking portrait. A dark, voluptuous woman in an 18th Century gown, ruby lipped, one full breast exposed. Jane glances away, taken aback by the woman's bold expression and her nakedness. MRS FAIRFAX I'm sure that last winter - and what a severe one - if it didn't rain it snowed and if it didn't snow it blew a gale - last winter I declare that not a soul came to the house from November to February. Mrs Fairfax leads Jane through the wood-panelled darkness. MRS FAIRFAX (CONT'D) I got quite melancholy night after night alone. When spring finally came I thought it a great relief that I hadn't gone distracted. She opens the door to a small but delightful room. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 33. MRS FAIRFAX (CONT'D) Here. Jane looks in: a fire burning, a lamp lit by her bed, a soft quilt, pale chintz curtains. JANE OH - She is utterly speechless. Her eight years of physical discomfort and hardship are over. MRS FAIRFAX Good night, my dear. I hope you'll be comfy. JANE Thank you. Mrs Fairfax can see how affected she is - and how hard she is trying to button it down. INT. NEXT MORNING. THORNFIELD - JANE'S BEDROOM. Jane opens the curtains. She draws her breath in at the sight of the grounds. They are beautiful. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE DRAWING ROOM. Jane enters a magnificent room. Mrs Fairfax is dusting. JANE What a beautiful house. MRS FAIRFAX Mr Rochester's visits here are always unexpected. He doesn't like to arrive and find everything all swathed up, so I keep it in constant readiness. Now, come and meet Miss Varens. Did I mention she was French? INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE LIBRARY. Adele Varens, an exquisitely dressed child of eight, is chatting animatedly to Jane and Mrs Fairfax. At her side is Sophie, her nurse - a desperately shy and lonely girl. ADELE (IN FRENCH) Sophie has been crying because no one understands. Nobody can speak to us except for Mr Rochester and he has gone away. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 34. MRS FAIRFAX Would you ask her about her parents? Mr Rochester's neglected to tell me anything about her. JANE (IN FRENCH) Where did you live Adele, before you came to Thornfield? ADELE (IN FRENCH) With Maman - but she is gone to the Holy Virgin now. JANE Her mother has passed away. ADELE (IN FRENCH) Maman used to teach me to dance and say verses. When gentlemen came to see her I used to dance for them or sit on their knees and sing. May I sing for you now? JANE (IN FRENCH) Well - that would be lovely. (To Mrs Fairfax) Adele is going to show us her accomplishments. Adele adopts a lovelorn pose. She sings an operetta song; a forsaken lady plotting vengeance on her lover. Her high voice warbles with pretended emotion. The effect is rather weird. Jane and Mrs Fairfax watch, open-mouthed. MRS FAIRFAX How very French... INT. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - MRS FAIRFAX'S PARLOUR. Adele's song continues as a voiceover. Mrs Fairfax is finishing a shawl. Jane is showing Adele pictures of little objects that she has sketched. Adele names them in English. The song ends. Jane gives Adele a sketch of herself. ADELE Me! It is me! Mrs Fairfax shakes out the finished shawl and puts it round Jane's shoulders, departing before Jane can protest. MRS FAIRFAX Here. For you. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 35. Jane is delighted at the kindness of the gift. INT. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - THE LONG GALLERY Jane holds a candle, the shawl around her; the moaning sound of a gale outside. She holds her candle up to the portrait of the voluptuous woman. She stares at it curious, both as a girl and as an artist. She brings the candle close, to see how the brushwork has achieved the effect of flesh. She hears a low, knowing laugh in the darkness behind her. She is startled. JANE Who's there? Her own huge shadow is the only thing that moves. She hears the laugh again. She follows it through the darkness, alert with fear. A door clicks shut at the end of the corridor. To her relief Jane sees Mrs Fairfax approach with a lamp. JANE (CONT'D) Who sleeps up here? MRS FAIRFAX No one. This part of the house is quite empty, except for you and me. JANE I heard someone. MRS FAIRFAX You can't have done. JANE A laugh. Someone laughed. Mrs Fairfax flounders for a second. MRS FAIRFAX Oh - that must be Grace Poole. She likes to sit up here with her sewing. Rather an eccentric soul. (She shouts sharply) Grace? Grace! A door opens. Jane sees a broad-faced woman with slow, intelligent eyes. She looks as if she has just woken up. MRS FAIRFAX (CONT'D) Miss Eyre has heard a laugh. Grace looks at Jane with sly curiosity. She leaves the sewing room and opens a door through which a flight of steep steps are revealed. Grace climbs them and disappears. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 36. EXT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE LEADS. Jane is on the turreted roof, looking up at the cawing rooks - and down at the view; a white, frosted wilderness. Jane senses a presence behind her. She quickly turns. Mrs Fairfax is coming through the rooftop door. MRS FAIRFAX I thought I might find you up here. I've been waiting to pour our tea. JANE I'm not in need of tea, thank you. Mrs Fairfax approaches, concerned. MRS FAIRFAX What is it, child? You've been here three months now and I'm worried that the position is not enough / to occupy your - JANE Oh, Mrs Fairfax, no. I'm so thankful to be at Thornfield. Please don't think I'm so ungrateful as to be discontented. MRS FAIRFAX But it's a quiet life, isn't it? This isolated house; a still doom for a young woman... Jane looks out at the view once more. JANE I wish a woman could have action in her life, like a man. It agitates me to pain that the sky- line over there is ever our limit. I long sometimes for a power of vision that would overpass it. If I could behold all I imagine... I've never seen a city, never spoken with men. I've never even seen a town of any size. And I fear my whole life will pass, without ever having... Mrs Fairfax's troubled look makes Jane fall silent. Mrs Fairfax looks as if she is about to say something - then puts on her practical face, the moment of intimacy gone. MRS FAIRFAX Well now - exercise is a great cure for anything, they say. (MORE) Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 37. MRS FAIRFAX (CONT'D) I have some letters to post; will you take them? EXT. DAY. A FROZEN MEADOW. Jane is walking with purpose, carrying a bundle of letters. The exercise is lifting her spirits. The sun is sinking, turning the frost gold. EXT. DAY. A FROZEN WOOD. A brook runs close to the path; half frozen. Its slow trickle is the only sound to be heard. Jane moves slowly, acutely aware of everything around her. Further into the wood, the brook has frozen right across the path. Jane slips on it as she passes. The noise of her feet echoes. She steadies herself. She gazes at a huddle of snowdrops, their heads bowed. A crystal drop of water runs to the end of a snowdrop and begins to freeze as she watches. It is held suspended as if the whole winter is contained in it. The moon is mounting the sky. Jane hears a sound like the beating of wings. The blood is rushing through her ears. Her trance is broken by the figure of a great dog - which glides past her so close it almost knocks her off her feet. The beating is loud; not wings she realises, but the rush of an approaching horse. It is almost on top of her before she can move. Her shocked, pale face, her black garments startle both horse and rider. ROCHESTER What the deuce - The rider gets the horse under control and continues, only to have his horse slip on the ice. Both man and horse fall with a crash. The dog begins to bark, until the hills echo with the sound. The horse is on one side; the man is lying, trapped beneath it on the ice; Edward Fairfax Rochester. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Hellfire. Jane is confounded. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Pilot, get down! GET DOWN I SAY! JANE Can I do anything, sir? Rochester stares at her; a tiny black figure, surrounded by darkening frost, the low moon behind her. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 38. ROCHESTER Get back. Jane doesn't move. Rochester turns to his horse. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Mesrour. Mesrour. With much stamping and clattering, the horse clambers to its feet. Rochester seems relieved. He tries to stand himself. His ankle will bear no weight. He lets out an involuntary cry. It echoes: ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Damnation. JANE Are you injured, sir? Rochester looks at her once more. He manages to get himself off the ice. He sits on a nearby stile. Jane approaches him. She now has the moon on her face. She begins to look less like a phantom and more like a girl. JANE (CONT'D) If you are hurt and want help I can fetch someone from the village. I'm on my way there to post a letter. Rochester looks as if he doesn't believe her. ROCHESTER Where do you come from? JANE Thornfield Hall. ROCHESTER Whose house is that? JANE Mr Rochester's. ROCHESTER Do you know Mr Rochester? JANE No, I've never seen him. Rochester is trying to place her. She is a puzzle to him. ROCHESTER You're not a servant there... JANE I am the governess, sir. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 39. ROCHESTER The governess. (A slow smile) Deuce take me, I had forgotten. Examining Jane once more, he laughs a low laugh. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) The governess. Jane does not like to be laughed at. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Have you got an umbrella I can use as a stick? JANE No. ROCHESTER Then try to get hold of his bridle and lead him to me. Jane doesn't like his imperious tone. She looks at the horse; huge, trampling, nervous. Rochester is amused. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) If you would be so kind... Jane obeys. She endeavours to catch the bridle but the horse rears away. Jane falls on the ice. Rochester bursts out laughing. Jane picks herself up. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Perhaps it would be easier to bring me to the horse. Come here. Jane resists. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Forgive me. I must beg of you to come here. Jane approaches. Rochester instantly leans all his weight on her. She almost crumples under it; the first time she has ever touched and been touched by a man. She holds him up. And walks him closer to his horse. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Mesrour. The horse approaches him. Rochester calms it. He springs into the saddle, grimacing as he wrenches his sprain. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Thank you. (He bows.) Now, make haste with your letter. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 40. Rochester's spurred heel makes the horse start and rear. Jane steps back. The horse bounds away, the dog rushing in its traces. All three disappear. Jane doesn't move until the sound of hooves has faded away. Her face is flushed, her eyes glitter in the dark. I/E. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - THE FRONT ENTRANCE/HALL. Jane runs up to the front door. She pushes it open. To her amazement, there is a fire burning in the stone fireplace. The whole hall is lit. The double doors are open into the library. Mrs Fairfax is hurriedly approaching. MRS FAIRFAX Mr Rochester is here. JANE Oh? MRS FAIRFAX Go and change your frock; he wishes to meet you. JANE I have to change? MRS FAIRFAX Oh yes - I always dress for the evening when Mr Rochester is here. JANE But all my dresses are the same. MRS FAIRFAX (DESPERATELY) You must have one that is better? He's in a terrible humour; the doctor has been. His horse fell in Hay lane and his ankle is sprained. Mrs Fairfax anxiously hurries back into the library. A large dog wanders out. Jane finds herself looking at Pilot. She smiles. INT. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - THE LIBRARY. Jane enters. Rochester is in front of a superb fire - one foot bandaged and supported on a stool. Pilot is at his feet - and so is Adele, gazing adoringly at him. Rochester is looking through Jane's portfolio of sketches and watercolours. Jane feels utterly exposed - as if her diary is being read. Mrs Fairfax timidly interrupts. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 41. MRS FAIRFAX Here is Miss Eyre, Sir. ROCHESTER (Without looking up) Let her sit. Jane sits. Rochester continues to study her work. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) I have examined Adele and I find you've taken great pains with her. She's not bright, she has no talents - yet in a short time she's made much improvement. Adele is gazing at him uncomprehending, her face radiant. JANE Thank you. ROCHESTER You've been resident here three months? JANE Yes, sir. ROCHESTER And from whence do you hail; what's your tale of woe? JANE Pardon? ROCHESTER All governesses have a tale of woe; what's yours? JANE (SLIGHTLY INSULTED) I was brought up by my Aunt, Mrs Reed of Gateshead, in a house far finer than this. At ten years old I went to Lowood school where I received as good an education as I could hope for. I have no tale of woe, sir. ROCHESTER Where are your parents? JANE Dead. ROCHESTER Do you remember them? Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 42. JANE No. ROCHESTER And why are you not with Mrs Reed of Gateshead now? JANE She cast me off, sir. ROCHESTER Why? JANE Because I was burdensome and she disliked me. ROCHESTER Lowood; that's a charity school, isn't it? JANE Yes. ROCHESTER How long did you survive there? JANE Eight years. ROCHESTER No tale of woe... MRS FAIRFAX I daily thank providence for sending us Miss Eyre. She's a kind and patient teacher and an invaluable / companion - ROCHESTER Don't trouble yourself to give her a character. I'll judge for myself. She began by felling my horse. MRS FAIRFAX Sir? ROCHESTER I have her to thank for this sprain. Mrs Fairfax looks at Jane, bewildered. Rochester lifts one of her watercolours. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Adele has brought me these; are they yours? Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 43. JANE Yes sir. A swollen sea. A cormorant, a golden bracelet held in its beak. A girl's arm coming out of the water, white and deathly, her drowned figure underneath. ROCHESTER Where did you get your copies? JANE Out of my head. ROCHESTER That head I now see on your shoulders? JANE Yes sir. He turns the next. The top of a hill. An expanse of twilight sky. Rising up, a girl's shape, her forehead crowned with a star, red hair flowing; Helen Burns. ROCHESTER Who's this? JANE The evening star. Rochester gives her a direct gaze. ROCHESTER Why did you bewitch my horse? Jane cannot reply. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE NURSERY. Jane is by the blackboard, where she is writing sums. ADELE Tonight I will have my cadeaux. He always bring me a cadeaux. Mrs Fairfax breathlessly enters. MRS FAIRFAX Sorry to disturb. He's asked for your art. Jane looks at her in disbelief. JANE What for? Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 44. MRS FAIRFAX He wishes to have it. JANE Why? MRS FAIRFAX To show to his company, I should think. Is this it here? Thank you. Jane watches helplessly as Mrs Fairfax takes her portfolio. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE HALL/LANDING. Jane is crossing the landing holding Adele's hand. Downstairs, the library doors swing wide open. The sound of male laughter can be heard; gentlemen walk out into the hall. Rochester follows, walking with a stick. ADELE Monsieur! All eyes turn upon the landing. Jane tries to find a shadow to back into but there are none. Adele curtsies. ROCHESTER Ah, there she is... It is unclear whether he is referring to Adele or Jane. He makes a bow. The men are staring at Jane with great curiosity. It makes her uncomfortable. She tugs Adele away. INT. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - THE DRAWING ROOM. A box tied with ribbons sits on the table. ADELE Ma boite, ma boite! Rochester is leaning against the mantelpiece, drinking. ROCHESTER Take it away you genuine daughter of Paris and amuse yourself with disembowelling it. MRS FAIRFAX We'll open it together, shall we? Mrs Fairfax kindly leads Adele away. Jane is about to cross the room with them. ROCHESTER Miss Eyre. Sit there. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 45. He gestures to a chair by the fire. Jane obeys. She studies Rochester. He is intent on Adele, who is pulling a pink satin dress out of the box. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) I'm not fond of children. ADELE Oh Ciel! Que c'est beau! ROCHESTER Nor do I particularly enjoy simple-minded old ladies. But you might suit me - if you would. JANE How, sir? ROCHESTER By distracting me from the mire of my thoughts. Adele, irrepressible, runs across the room embracing the dress. She drops on one knee at Rochester's feet. ADELE Monsieur, je vous remercie mille fois de votre bonte... She looks up, seeking his approval. ADELE (CONT'D) That is how Maman used to say, is it not? ROCHESTER Precisely. MRS FAIRFAX Let's try it on, shall we? Adele skips off with Mrs Fairfax. ROCHESTER (TO HIMSELF) And that is how she charmed my English gold out of my English breeches pocket. Rochester notices how keenly Jane is observing him. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Your gaze is very direct, Miss Eyre? D'you think me handsome? JANE No sir. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 46. Rochester laughs. JANE (CONT'D) I was too plain; I beg your pardon. ROCHESTER What fault do you find with me? I have all my limbs and all my FEATURES - JANE Mr Rochester, it was a blunder. I ought to have replied that beauty is of little consequence - ROCHESTER Now you stick a knife under my EAR - JANE You have other qualities, sir. ROCHESTER Just so; other qualities... When I was your age I was a felling enough fellow. I might have been insulted then. You're blushing Miss Eyre. JANE Not at all. ROCHESTER And though you're not pretty any more than I am handsome, I must say it becomes you. (HE LAUGHS) And now I see you're fascinated by the flowers on the rug. Jane senses his mockery. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) I'd like to draw you out. Come, speak to me. JANE What about, sir? ROCHESTER The choice of subject is entirely yours. JANE How can I introduce a subject when I don't know what'll interest you? Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 47. ROCHESTER The fact is, Miss Eyre, I don't wish to treat you like an inferior. JANE Yet you'd command me to speak? ROCHESTER Well I probably have a right to be a little abrupt and exacting on the grounds of my superiority in age. There must be twenty years between us and a century's advance in experience. JANE I don't think you have a right to command me just because you're older. Your claim to superiority depends on the use you've made of your time and experience. ROCHESTER I've made indifferent use of both. And this is why I sit, galled by my own thoughts - and order you to divert me. Are you very hurt by my tone of command? Jane smiles. JANE There are few masters who'd trouble to enquire whether their paid subordinates were hurt by their commands. ROCHESTER Oh yes... paid subordinate; I'd forgotten the salary. Well on that mercenary ground, will you consent to speak with me as my equal - without thinking that the request arises from insolence? JANE I'd never mistake informality for insolence, sir. One, I rather like. The other, nothing free born should ever submit to - even for a salary. ROCHESTER Humbug. Most free-born things would submit to anything for a salary. But I mentally shake hands with you for your answer. (MORE) Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 48. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Not three in three thousand schoolgirl governesses would have answered me as you've just done. JANE You've clearly not spent much time in the company of schoolgirl governesses. I'm the same plain kind of bird as all the rest, with my couple of accomplishments and my common tale of woe. ROCHESTER I envy you. JANE How? ROCHESTER Your openness, your clear conscience, your unpolluted mind. If I were eighteen I think we truly would be equals. Nature meant me to be a good man, one of the better kind and as you see, I am not so. JANE Are you a villain then, sir? ROCHESTER I'm a trite commonplace sinner, hackneyed in all the dissipations that the rich and worthless try to put on life. (HE SIGHS) When I was your age, fate dealt me a blow. I was - cursed with a burden to carry through life. I lacked the wisdom to remain cool and I turned desperate. Dread remorse, Miss Eyre. It is the poison of life. Rochester takes in her open, compassionate face. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) And since happiness is denied me, I've a right to get pleasure in its stead. And I will get it, cost what it may. JANE Then you'll degenerate still more. ROCHESTER Are you preaching to me? Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 49. JANE I'm reminding you of your own words; remorse is the poison of life. ROCHESTER But, Miss Eyre, if the pleasure I was seeking was sweet and fresh; if it was an inspiration; if it wore the robes of an angel of light... what then? JANE I don't know. To speak truth, I don't understand you at all. ROCHESTER My heart has long been a charnel house. Perhaps it'll transform into a shrine. JANE Sir, I find the conversation has got out of my depth. ROCHESTER You're afraid of me because I talk like a sphynx. JANE I'm not afraid. ROCHESTER Yes you are. JANE I've simply no wish to talk nonsense. ROCHESTER If you did it would be in such a grave, quiet manner that I would mistake it for sense. Do you never laugh, Miss Eyre? This question cuts Jane to the quick. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Only rarely, perhaps. But you're not naturally austere, any more than I'm naturally vicious. I can see in you the glance of a curious sort of bird through the close set bars of a cage: a vivid, restless, resolute captive. Were it but free, it would soar. Cloud high. Jane opens her mouth to speak - but she cannot. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 50. EXT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE GROUNDS. SPRING. Jane is playing battledore and shuttlecock with Adele. Her playing is full of energy, very free. Her cheeks looks almost rosy. It is spring. JANE Just as it turns to come down - that's when you hit it. Adele serves. The game continues apace. Rochester wanders out of the open double doors of the library. He watches. Something lands at his feet. A rook's feather. He looks up at the battlements. A shape disappears, too fast to see. Rochester's features cloud over with an expression of shame and detestation. He stands in a terrible inner conflict. Jane notices him - she misses her shot. JANE (CONT'D) Mademoiselle has got to rest. ADELE Because I start to win! JANE Have mercy, Adele. Play with Pilot for a while. Rochester is leaning over the balustrade, his head bowed. JANE (CONT'D) Is our game disturbing you, sir? He looks up. A hard and cynical expression has mastered his countenance, something resolute. Jane is taken aback. ROCHESTER On the contrary. I like your game. I like this cold, hard day. I like Thornfield. Rochester picks up the black feather. He starts to walk across the grounds at a fast pace. Jane follows. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) I've been arranging a point with my destiny, Miss Eyre. My destiny stood up there by that chimney, like one of the hags who appeared to Macbeth. 'You like Thornfield?' She said. 'Like it if you dare'. Well, I dare. It's felt like a plague house for years - He turns, the whole house now in his sights. He shouts: Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 51. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) But Thornfield is my home and I shall like it! Adele is running after them. ADELE Mademoiselle - Il faut jouer - Rochester snaps at her with shocking ferocity. ROCHESTER Get back! Keep at a distance child, or go in! Adele's face crumples into tears. Rochester sees Jane's shock at his outburst. He walks away. Jane isn't sure whether she has been dismissed or not. Adele has run back to Pilot. Jane watches her. She suddenly finds Rochester is back at her side. He walks her along. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) She's the daughter of an opera dancer, Celine Varens. Celine was a beauty and she professed to love me. Her ardour was so great that, ugly as I am, I believed myself her idol. So I installed in her in a hotel, gave her servants, gowns cashmeres, diamonds - in short, I was an idiot. JANE To fall in love, sir? ROCHESTER You've never felt love, have you Miss Eyre? Your soul still sleeps. JANE Does it? ROCHESTER You're still floating gently in the stream of life, unaware of the rocks ahead waiting to dash you to pieces. JANE Were you dashed to pieces, Mr Rochester? ROCHESTER Not by Celine. How can one ever truly love a woman one has paid for? (MORE) Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 52. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) It ended when I visited her unexpectedly one night and caught her with her handsome, charmless lover. I overheard her waxing lyrical on all my defects - she was mercenary, heartless, senseless. The whole intoxication fell away like a dream. I left her money to support the little French floweret over there, whom she swore blind was mine. I see no proof of my grim paternity in her features; I think Pilot is more like me than she. JANE But you took her on? Adele is curled up, seeking comfort from the dog. ROCHESTER Some years later, I heard that Celine had abandoned the brat, disappeared to Italy and left it destitute. So I lifted it from the mud and slime of Paris and brought it here, to grow up clean in the wholesome soil of an English country garden. My one good work in a sea of countless sins. Jane is looking at Adele full of compassion. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) You listen, Miss Eyre, as if it was the most usual thing in the world for a man like me to tell stories of his opera-mistresses to an inexperienced girl like you. Adele? Adele looks up. Rochester speaks graciously. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Forgive me; for keeping Miss Eyre from your game for so long. Adele is immensely gratified by his apology. INT. DUSK. THORNFIELD / THE RED ROOM. Jane, aged ten, is walking along the long gallery. She opens a door and finds herself in the Red Room. She stares into the mirror, searching the pale face of her reflection, as if trying to find an answer. A murmur seems to come down the gaping chimney; a woman's deep sigh. Jane's throat tightens with fear. Something moves in the shadows behind her. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 53. She scans them, her eyes full of terror. Jane knows beyond all doubt that something is there. She hears a low laugh. It seems to be right next to her. She tries to scream - INT. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - SECOND FLOOR. Jane wakes. Her curtains are open; moonlight spilling in. She hears it again; the laugh from her dream, right outside her door - low and deep. JANE Who's there? Footsteps run away. Jane springs out of bed and pulls the door open. A door shuts at the end of the corridor. There is a single candle burning in its holder on the rush matting, flickering in the draft. Jane picks it up. She notices something else - a curling wreath of grey smoke. She follows its trail through the pitch darkness. It is coming thickly from a half-open door at the front of the house - Rochester's. Jane rushes in. Rochester's bed is on fire; the hangings, the curtains, all are alight. The flames are leaping. Rochester is asleep. She shakes him. JANE (CONT'D) Wake up! Wake up! Sir! Rochester only stirs. The smoke has stupefied him. Jane pulls the burning sheets off - then stops; he is naked. She takes his basin and douses the bed - soaking him. ROCHESTER Who's there? JANE It is I, Jane Eyre, sir. Jane takes the ewer and throws water on the curtains. She pulls the soggy fabric from its rail and smothers the burning couch. When all the flames are out, she rushes to the windows and opens them. Smoke billows out. She stands in the moonlight, coughing. Rochester is sitting up, staring at her. ROCHESTER What in the name of all the elves in Christendom have you done with me? JANE For heaven's sake get up. Somebody has plotted something; you must find out who. I'll light the lamp - Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 54. ROCHESTER Light the lamp at your peril. Rochester is springing out of bed. Jane turns away, mortified - having caught sight of his silhouetted shape. JANE I heard a laugh outside my door loud enough to wake me. I opened it. Someone was running towards the third floor. Rochester is putting on a dressing gown, lighting the lamp. JANE (CONT'D) And a candle was left burning in the middle of the floor. Shall I fetch Mrs Fairfax, sir? ROCHESTER What the deuce can she do? JANE Then I'll wake John and Martha. ROCHESTER Not at all. Stay here. You're shivering. Rochester gets his coat and puts it round her. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) I have to go to the third floor. Don't make a sound. Sit there. I shan't be long. He goes. Jane looks at his ruined chamber; The blackened drapes on the four poster bed, the fireplace, the huge wardrobe. It is not unlike the red room. INT. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - ROCHESTER'S ROOM. Half an hour later. First light. Jane is in an armchair. She has snuggled up in the coat. She takes in a breath, smelling its owner. She nuzzles her head against it. She closes her eyes, running her fingers down the lining. She looks up. Rochester is watching her. His expression is peculiar. She holds the coat closely around her. ROCHESTER Did you see anything when you opened your chamber door? JANE Only the candle on the ground. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 55. ROCHESTER But you heard a laugh? JANE Yes. ROCHESTER Have you heard that laugh before? JANE There's a woman who sews here; Grace Poole - She laughs in that way, I think. ROCHESTER Just so. Grace Poole - you have guessed it. Well, you're no talking fool; please say nothing about this. JANE BUT - ROCHESTER I will account for this state of affairs. Go back to your room and say nothing. JANE Yes, sir. (She takes off his coat) Good-night. ROCHESTER Is that how you're going to leave me? JANE You said I should go. Rochester approaches her. ROCHESTER Jane, fire is a horrible death. You have saved my life. Don't walk past me as if we were strangers. JANE What am I to do then, sir? ROCHESTER At least... shake hands. Rochester holds out his hand. Jane takes it. They shake. Rochester wraps Jane's hand in both of his. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 56. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) I have a pleasure in owing you my life. JANE There is no debt. ROCHESTER I knew you would do me good in some way. I saw it in your eyes when I first beheld you. Their expression did not - did not strike delight into my very inmost being so, for nothing. People talk of natural sympathies... You. Rochester is drawing her slowly closer. Jane, disconcerted, is trying to resist. JANE Good night then, sir. ROCHESTER So you will leave me? JANE I'm cold. ROCHESTER Go. At last, he relaxes his grip. She backs away. She goes. INT. DAWN. THORNFIELD. JANE'S ROOM. Jane is keeling on the windowsill, looking out at the rising sun. She is lit by its glowing rays; inspired. It's a rare feeling that prompts her mood, as new and unfolding as the day itself - happiness. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - ROCHESTER'S ROOM. Jane looks in to see Leah and Martha cleaning the soot from the woodwork and windowpanes. To her amazement, Grace Poole is there, calmly sewing rings to new curtains. GRACE Good day to you, miss. JANE What's happened here? GRACE (CANNILY) Only master reading in his bed last night. (MORE) Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 57. GRACE (CONT'D) Fell asleep with his candle lit and the curtains got on fire. Managed to put it out with the water from his stand. Did you not hear anything, miss? JANE I did. I heard a strange laugh. GRACE It's hardly likely the master would laugh when he was in such danger. Perhaps you were dreaming. JANE I was not. GRACE Then you didn't think of opening your door and looking out? Jane is infuriated. She turns on her heel. INT. EVENING. THORNFIELD - MRS FAIRFAX'S PARLOUR. Jane walks in. Their meal is laid out. JANE Has Mr Rochester not sent for us today? MRS FAIRFAX Why, he's gone away. Were you not aware? He left after breakfast. Jane takes this piece of news like an invisible shock. MRS FAIRFAX (CONT'D) He's gone to The Leas, Mr Eshton's place, about ten miles from here. I believe Blanche Ingram is there. She's a great favourite of his. JANE Oh? MRS FAIRFAX I saw her two years ago when Mr Rochester had a party here. Oh, she was a beauty; I daresay the most elegant girl I've ever seen. So tall, with raven hair cascading down her back; I don't know how she'd had it done. She sang a duet with Mr Rochester. They made a lovely harmony. (MORE) Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 58. MRS FAIRFAX (CONT'D) I was quite surprised he didn't make a proposal. Perhaps that is his intention now. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE NURSERY. Jane is at the window, brooding. Outside the rain is pouring. Adele, dressed in yellow frills, is concerned. ADELE Qu'avez vous mademoiselle? JANE (without looking at her) Nothing. Speak in English, please. Jane turns, expecting to see Adele. INT. DAY. MORTON - THE SCHOOL ROOM. Jane finds herself in front of her class. They are looking at her expectantly. She looks back at them curiously. Eager faces, plain rural clothes. She has quite lost her place. JANE Thank you, girls. You may go. INT. EVENING. MORTON - THE SCHOOL ROOM. Jane is tidying up at the end of the day. The classroom is empty. Her life is bare. It shows on her face. She looks up. St John Rivers is watching her from the door. ST JOHN Do you find the work too hard? Jane immediately puts on a sprightly face and continues clearing up. JANE Not at all. I'm getting on very well. ST JOHN Do you feel the solitude an oppression? JANE I hardly have time to notice it. ST JOHN Then perhaps your accommodations have disappointed you. They are in truth scanty enough - Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 59. JANE A few months ago I had nothing. I was wretched. Now I have a home and work; free and honest. I wonder at the goodness of God and at the generosity of my friends. St John approaches her; speaks intimately. ST JOHN What you had left before I met you, I don't know. But I counsel you to resist firmly every temptation to look back. JANE It's what I mean to do. ST JOHN We can overcome every kind of human weakness. A year ago I was myself intensely miserable. I considered my life was so wretched that it must be changed - or I would die. After a season of darkness and struggling, light broke. I heard my call from God. Put your trust in him, Jane. Let him lead you to your future. JANE Thank you. St John is turning to go. JANE (CONT'D) Why were you intensely miserable? ST JOHN A year ago, I was weak enough to fall in love. Jane moves involuntarily towards him. ST JOHN (CONT'D) Don't pity me; I have no compassion whatsoever for you. I regarded this love as a fever of the flesh; not a thing that would ever touch my soul. I scorned the weakness, fought hard against it - and won. Jane is incredulous. St John is at her desk. It is covered in her drawings. He glances through them. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 60. ST JOHN (CONT'D) I could have listened to temptation, sunk down in the silken snare and known a feverish and delusive bliss. I could have squandered my future upon it. JANE You could have been happy. ST JOHN A slave in a fool's paradise? I'd rather my life had purpose - St John suddenly snatches up a piece of paper. ST JOHN (CONT'D) Is this yours? JANE Yes. His eyes, in an instant, seem to take in everything about her. He opens his mouth to speak - then checks himself. JANE (CONT'D) What's the matter? ST JOHN Nothing in the world. He folds the paper and takes it. ST JOHN (CONT'D) Good night. He goes. Jane looks after him, puzzled. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE HALL. Mrs Fairfax approaches Jane with a letter in her hand. MRS FAIRFAX He's back in three days he says - heavens that's Thursday - and not alone. He gives directions to prepare all the best rooms. I'm to get more staff from the George Inn. The ladies will bring their maids, the gentlemen, valets. We must accommodate them all. Supplies to be got; linen, the MATTRESSES - Mrs Fairfax has worked herself up into quite a panic. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 61. MRS FAIRFAX (CONT'D) I'll get started. I'll go to the George. No, I'll tell Martha... Jane can sense that the old lady is overwhelmed. JANE May I assist you, Mrs Fairfax? We see Mrs Fairfax approach Jane in a rush of gratitude. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE SECOND FLOOR. Jane wears a housekeeper's apron over her dress. She enters Rochester's room with an armful of bed linen. It has been returned to its former glory. Adele is jumping up and down on the bed. Sophie is trying to coax her off it. Jane gives Sophie the sheets. Adele leaves the room with Jane and skids all the way down the newly polished gallery in her stockinged feet. Jane can't help smiling. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE KITCHENS. Jane sets down several bottles of wine on the kitchen table in order to dust them. The kitchen is a hive of activity - except for one lone figure sitting quietly in a chair by the fire, smoking a pipe; Grace Poole. Leah and one of the hired under cooks are talking abut her. UNDER COOK She gets good wages, I'd guess? LEAH Wish I had as good; not one fifth what Mrs Poole receives. Jane affects not to listen, but is keenly interested. LEAH (CONT'D) And she's laying it all by. I shouldn't wonder if she's saved enough to keep her independent. UNDER COOK She's a good hand, I daresay. LEAH Not everyone could do it, that's for sure, not even for the money. UNDER COOK No wonder the master relies on HER - Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 62. Leah notices Jane's curious glance. She nudges the under cook. Jane, picks up the bottles and carries them away. As she passes she hears: UNDER COOK (CONT'D) Doesn't she know? At that moment, Adele rushes in. ADELE They're here! They're here! Mrs Fairfax tries to get her apron off. She becomes flustered. Jane helps her. MRS FAIRFAX Thank you. Mrs Fairfax and Adele go. Jane looks out of the window. Her attention is focussed on two equestrians who lead the arriving party; Rochester and Blanche, the dark beauty at his side. She is laughing at something. The sun shines behind her. Jane is dazzled. She turns away. INT. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - THE SECOND FLOOR. Jane comes up the back stairs and on to the gallery, just as the ladies start to issue from their rooms. She stands back in a dark corner. There is an approach of chatter; a subdued vivacity. A flurry of multicoloured silks, lace and velvets go by. They descend the staircase as noiselessly as a bright mist. Jane steps out. She walks right into the path of Blanche Ingram, who is dressed in white. They both startle. JANE Excuse me, miss. Blanche gives her a look of ice. Rochester is at the top of the stairs. ROCHESTER Good evening. They both turn. Rochester has seen Blanche, not Jane. He offers her his arm, his gaze full of admiration. Jane sinks back into the shadows. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) May I? Blanche lays her gloved hand on Rochester's arm, barely touching him. They glide away. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 63. INT. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - THE HALL. Adele and Jane sit on the stairs, listening to Blanche and Rochester sing. Their voices thrill. Jane is trying not to feel. But when Rochester hits an exceptionally beautiful note, she involuntarily closes her eyes. Adele leans into Jane. She is crying. JANE What is it, darling? ADELE She sing like Maman. Jane, full of compassion, takes Adele back to her room. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE SCHOOLROOM. Mrs Fairfax enters in a great hurry. MRS FAIRFAX Tonight. He wants you both in the drawing room after dinner. Adele leaps up, delighted. Jane is crestfallen. JANE Not me, surely. MRS FAIRFAX It's his particular wish. JANE He was being polite. MRS FAIRFAX I'm instructed to tell you that if you resist, he'll come up and get you himself. You needn't stay long. Just let him see you and then slip away. Don't worry; no one'll look at you. INT. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - THE DRAWING ROOM/HALL Jane is delivering Adele into the centre of the company. JANE May I present Miss Adele Varens? ADELE Bon jour, mesdames, monsieurs. Jane finds it hard to get a proper impression of the guests, as she cannot raise her eyes to look at them. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 64. Adele makes a dainty curtsey - pink frock, hair in ringlets, little lace gloves. In the midst of the crowd is Blanche. BLANCHE Why, what a little puppet. LADY INGRAM (mutton dressed as lamb) Is this your ward, Mr Rochester? ROCHESTER Yes. LOUISA ESHTON (English rose; nineteen) What a love of a child. Adele blissfully disappears into a moving sea of dresses. Only one guest is still looking in Jane's direction; Blanche. Her lip curls in distaste. Jane backs into a nearby window seat; always her place of refuge. She closes her eyes. A great Atlantic wave hits the sash window behind her, drenching it with foam and brine. When she opens her eyes, Rochester is in her line of vision, standing out in a crowd of unmanly men. He senses her gaze; glances at her. Jane looks down, pulling her work on to her lap; a beaded purse. She does not lift her eyes from the beads, fully feeling the humiliation of her class - and of her love. Blanche sidles up to Rochester. BLANCHE I thought you weren't fond of children? ROCHESTER You're right; I'm not. BLANCHE Then what induced you to take charge of that little doll? Rochester turns away from Jane. ROCHESTER She was left on my hands. BLANCHE Why don't you send her to school? ROCHESTER She has a governess. Jane glances up; sees Rochester's back to her, throws her eyes down, once more. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 65. BLANCHE You should hear mamma on the chapter of governesses. I had half a dozen in my day - all detestable, ridiculous incubi - were they not, mamma? LADY INGRAM Did you speak, my lily flower? BLANCHE I said governesses. The reaction is instant. LADY INGRAM Oh, don't mention them; the very word makes me nervous! I've suffered a martyrdom from their incompetence and caprice. I thank heaven we're now done with them. BLANCHE I have just one word to say of the whole tribe; nuisance. Jane's fingers sew. Only the briefest flash of her eyes towards the company shows her mortification. Blanche has started playing a brilliant prelude on the piano. BLANCHE (CONT'D) We shall have music - and new subject, if you please. Signor Eduardo, what shall it be? ROCHESTER Donna Bianca, I give you beauty. BLANCHE Beauty? Why there's nothing new to be said. I give you back male beauty. Mamma, what's your idea of male beauty? LADY INGRAM My son, of course. LORD INGRAM Hear hear. BLANCHE Oh, Tedo's quite typical of the young men of today. They're so absorbed in the pursuit of fashion that they've forgotten how to be men at all. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 66. LORD INGRAM I say - BLANCHE A woman who neglects herself is a blot on humanity. But a man should pay no heed to his looks. (Glancing at Rochester) A man should possess only strength and valour. He could be a gentleman or a highwayman. His beauty lies in his power. ROCHESTER So a Levantine pirate would do for you? BLANCHE (QUIETLY) As long as he resembled you. Rochester laughs loudly. Jane is heading for the door. BLANCHE (CONT'D) I am serious. To my mind, a man is nothing without a spice of the devil in him. Jane closes the door on Blanche. She breathes in fresh air, nauseous. Blanche's splendid prelude drifts out. Rochester comes into the hall from the other door. Jane instantly bends down and pretends to be tying her shoe. ROCHESTER Why did you leave the room? JANE I am tired, sir. ROCHESTER Why didn't you come and speak to me? I haven't seen you for weeks. It would have been normal and polite to wish me good evening. JANE You seemed engaged, sir. ROCHESTER What have you been doing while I've been gone? JANE Teaching Adele. ROCHESTER You look pale. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 67. JANE I am well. ROCHESTER You're depressed; your eyes are shining with tears. What's the meaning of this? Jane catches sight of Mrs Fairfax, who is watching them with an expression of unease. Rochester glares at her. MRS FAIRFAX A gentleman has arrived to see you, sir. ROCHESTER Who? MRS FAIRFAX He says he's travelled a long way, from Spanish Town, Jamaica - Rochester seems winded. MRS FAIRFAX (CONT'D) And indeed I think he must have come from some hot country because he won't take off his coat. ROCHESTER Spanish Town... MRS FAIRFAX Mr Richard Mason. He says you're old friends. I've put him in the morning room. Rochester cannot speak. MRS FAIRFAX (CONT'D) Have I done wrong? ROCHESTER Not at all. Please tell him I'll see him directly. Mrs Fairfax goes. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Oh Jane - Jane. This is a blow. JANE Can I help you sir? In the drawing room, Blanche's prelude finishes to enthusiastic applause. Rochester has Jane's hand. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 68. ROCHESTER Jane, if all those people came and spat at me, what would you do? JANE Turn them out of the room sir, if I could. ROCHESTER And if they cast you out for adhering to me? JANE I should care nothing about it. ROCHESTER You'd dare censure for my sake? Jane is frightened of his passion. JANE For the sake of any friend who deserved it. Rochester lets her hand go. He steps back. He goes to the morning room. Jane peers through the door, worrying how her last words have given offence. She sees a man rising to meet Rochester; handsome but gaunt and painfully thin. His smile doesn't reach his eyes - as if his soul is not quite his own. MASON Fairfax... ROCHESTER Richard. How the devil are you? They embrace, Rochester doing a fine impression of delight. INT. DAY. LOWOOD - THE HALL. Jane is standing on the pedestal of infamy, ten years old. Helen Burns is walking towards her with something in her arms. The rising sun is all around her. HELEN He is yours. Jane looks down at the bundle. In it, is a newborn boy. Jane looks up to ask Helen for help. But Helen has gone. Jane alone with her burden, teeters on the stool. The baby starts to cry. Jane panics. The crying becomes deafening, terrifying. It is not a baby's cry but a human scream. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 69. INT. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - JANE'S BEDROOM/ THE GALLERY. Jane wakes, hearing a savage, sharp shriek of such power and intensity it seems to tear the night in two. Overhead, the sounds of a struggle begin - a deadly one. Jane hears footsteps rush past her door. She starts to pull on her dress. She hears a man's voice from above: MASON (O.S.) Help! Rochester, for God's sake come! A great stamp on the floor above; something falls with a thud; silence. Jane grabs her candle and leaves her room. The guests likewise are all issuing from their rooms; some with candles, some stumbling into the dark. The gallery is filling with terrified ladies and shocked gentlemen. Their shadows dance grotesquely on the walls. LADY INGRAM Oh what is it? BLANCHE Who is hurt? LORD INGRAM Where the devil is Rochester? Rochester comes forth from the door at the end of the gallery, holding a candelabra. ROCHESTER I'm here, be composed. Blanche flies towards him like a banshee. BLANCHE What awful event has taken place? She embraces him. Rochester patiently removes her. ROCHESTER A servant has had a nightmare, that's all. She's an excitable, nervous person and has taken a fit with fright. Jane, the only person behind Rochester, sees by the light of her candle that his dressing gown is trailing blood. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Now I must see you back into your rooms because until the house is settled, she can't be properly looked after. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 70. BLANCHE Is there anything I might do? ROCHESTER Miss Ingram, ladies, please return to your nests like the doves that you are. You'll take cold for certain if you stay in this icy gallery any longer. The candles flicker and fade as the guests make their way back to their rooms. Rochester sees Jane. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Come this way. Make no noise. INT. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - THE THIRD FLOOR. Rochester stops by a low door. He puts a key in the lock. ROCHESTER Be steady. I need you. He unlocks it. A room hung with tapestries; a four poster bed with its curtains half drawn. One part of the tapestry is hooked up over a hidden door - which lies open to an inner chamber. A dull, sickly light shines out. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Wait. He goes to the inner chamber. A grim laugh greets him. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Thank you, Mrs Poole. He locks the door. Jane shudders. He goes to the bed. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Here. Bring the candle. Jane obeys. Richard Mason is lying, one arm and all the linen soaked in blood. Jane controls her reaction and makes herself useful. Rochester is cleaning the wound. MASON Am I dying? ROCHESTER No. MASON She bit me - while the knife was in - Bit me - Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 71. ROCHESTER It was folly to attempt the interview tonight and alone. MASON I thought I might have done some good. ROCHESTER It makes me impatient to hear you. MASON She sucked the blood. Said she'd drain me - like a vampire - ROCHESTER Think of her as dead, dead and buried. Say nothing! Mason is silenced. Rochester puts the bloody sponge into Jane's hand. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) I am going for a doctor. I must leave you here with him. Sponge the blood away when it returns. Give him water if he wants it. Do not speak to him for any reason. And Richard - on pain of death - do not speak to her. Rochester takes the candelabra. He is gone. Mason is staring at Jane. There is something about the pupils in his eyes that she finds deadly, chilling. She dips the sponge in the bloody water and wipes away the trickling gore. She hears a low moan. She looks over at the door to the inner chamber, aching to know the mystery behind it. Mason makes her start by taking her wrist. He is trying to say something. Jane puts her finger to her lips. She is begging him not to speak. INT. DAWN. THORNFIELD - THE THIRD FLOOR. Rochester and Dr Carter are carrying Mason down the stairs. DR CARTER I only wish I could have got here sooner. He'd not have bled so much. ROCHESTER Jane, make sure the way is clear. Jane looks out on to the gallery. She is pale, drawn. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 72. EXT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE GROUNDS. A carriage waits. Rochester lifts Mason in to Dr Carter. Jane hands in Mason's great coat. She stands back. ROCHESTER I'll ride over tomorrow to see how you do. Goodbye, Richard. MASON Fairfax - Let her treated as tenderly as may be - ROCHESTER I do my best and have done it and will do it! The carriage goes. Jane prepares to go inside but Rochester walks her towards the orchard. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Come, Jane. That house is a dungeon, don't you feel it? JANE It seems to me a splendid mansion, sir. ROCHESTER It is slime and cobwebs. EXT. DAWN. THORNFIELD - THE ORCHARD. The orchard is a different world; the dawn light illuminating dewy trees. Rochester is silent. Jane is trying to fathom him. JANE Will Grace Poole stay here now? ROCHESTER Oh yes, don't trouble your head about her. JANE But sir - ROCHESTER Grace Poole is not the danger. He walks off, pulling the heads off flowers as he passes. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) You've noticed my tender feelings for Miss Ingram? Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 73. JANE Yes sir. ROCHESTER Keep vigil with me again, the night before I marry. For now you've met my lovely one and you know her. She's a rare one, isn't she? JANE Yes sir. ROCHESTER A strapper, a real strapper; big and buxom... He throws a cankered rose across the orchard. Jane manages to articulate her anxiety. JANE I'd do anything for you sir, anything that was right. ROCHESTER (GENTLY) And if I ever bid you do what was wrong, you'd turn to me, quiet and pale and say 'I cannot do it.' And you'd be as immutable as a fixed star. Rochester, gazing at her, seems to have decided something. He turns a corner and is gone. Jane is left alone. We hear the sound of a blow. INT. DAY. GATESHEAD - THE WINDOW SEAT. The brutal face of John Reed, aged fourteen, triumphant after hitting Jane. JOHN That's for the look you had on your face. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE BILLIARD ROOM. Jane enters as Rochester helps Blanche to line up a shot. He is leaning intimately over her. She coyly permits him. JANE Excuse me, sir. Jane has ruined Blanche's shot. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 74. BLANCHE Does that creeping creature want you? INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE LONG GALLERY. Rochester has followed Jane out of the billiard room. JANE If you please, I want leave of absence for a week or two. ROCHESTER What to do? Jane shows him the letter. JANE This is from my old nurse, Bessie. She says my cousin John Reed is dead. He ruined himself and has committed suicide. The news has so shocked his mother, my Aunt, that it's brought on a stroke. ROCHESTER What good can you do her? JANE She's been asking for me. I parted from her very badly and I can't neglect her wishes now. ROCHESTER Promise me you won't stay long. JANE Sir, it seems you are soon to be married. ROCHESTER What of it? JANE Adele should go to school. ROCHESTER To get her out of my bride's way who might otherwise trample her? JANE And I must seek another situation. I intend to advertise. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 75. ROCHESTER At your peril you advertise. Trust it to me. I'll find you a good situation in time. He is on the point of returning to the billiard room. JANE And sir? Forgive me but I have had no wages as yet. ROCHESTER How much do I owe you? JANE Fifteen pounds. Rochester looks in his wallet. ROCHESTER Here's fifty. JANE That's too much. ROCHESTER Take your wages. JANE I cannot. ROCHESTER Then I only have a ten. JANE (TAKING IT) Now you owe me five. ROCHESTER Just so. Come back for it quickly. Meantime, I shall safeguard it in here. He taps the wallet, which is in his breast pocket. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Do you trust me to keep it, Jane? JANE (SMILING) Not a whit, sir. You are not to be trusted at all. Rochester strides away, grinning. Jane turns. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 76. INT. DAY. GATESHEAD - BESSIE'S PARLOUR. Bessie, now housekeeper, is moving forward to meet Jane. BESSIE Bless you! - I knew you'd come. They embrace. JANE Bessie... I'm not too late? How is Mrs Reed? BESSIE She may linger yet a while. She's spoken of you daily. At first we couldn't tell what she was saying but when her speech came clear we heard 'Jane Eyre, get Jane Eyre.' JANE Shall I see her now? BESSIE I'll take you up directly. But look at you. What a lady you've become. Why you're almost pretty. INT. DAY. GATESHEAD - MRS REED'S BEDROOM Jane takes her aunt's hand. Mrs Reed looks very near death. JANE Aunt Reed? It is Jane Eyre. You sent for me, and here I am. Mrs Reed, with an effort, pulls her hand away from Jane's. MRS REED No one knows the trouble I have with that child. Such a burden. Left on my hands. Speaking to me like a fiend. The fever at Lowood. She should have died! JANE Why do you hate her so? MRS REED Her mother. Reed's sister - his beloved. When news came of her death he wept like a fool. Sent for the baby. Sickly thing - not strong like mine. But Reed loved it. Kept it by his bed. Made me vow to bring the creature up. Why did he not love mine? Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 77. The words are a revelation to Jane. Mrs Reed gazes at her. MRS REED (CONT'D) Who are you? JANE I am Jane Eyre, Aunt. MRS REED You. Is there no one in the room? Jane motions Bessie to go. JANE We are alone. MRS REED I've twice done you wrong. I broke the vow I made to Reed - JANE Please, don't think of it - MRS REED I am dying; I must get it out! Mrs Reed indicates a box on her bedside table. MRS REED (CONT'D) Open that box. Take out the letter. Read it. Jane obeys. She reads the letter aloud. JANE 'Madam, will you have the goodness to send me the address of my niece, Jane Eyre. I desire her to come to me at Madeira. Fortune has blessed my endeavours and as I am childless I wish to adopt her and bequeath her at my death whatever I may have to leave. Yours, John Eyre, Madeira.' Jane is stunned. JANE (CONT'D) This is dated three years ago. Why did I never hear of it? MRS REED Because I wrote and told him you had died of typhus at Lowood school. You fury. You were born to be my torment. I'll never forget how you turned on me and raged. (MORE) Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 78. MRS REED (CONT'D) You called the names of the dead down upon me. I was afraid. JANE Forgive me. MRS REED You cursed me. JANE I would have loved you if you'd let me. MRS REED My life has been cursed. JANE Please, let us be reconciled. Mrs Reed shrinks from Jane's touch. Jane wipes her tears. JANE (CONT'D) Then love me or hate me as you will. You have my full and free forgiveness. Now ask for God's - and be at peace. Mrs Reed's eyes close. INT. DAY. GATESHEAD - THE RED ROOM. The morning sun is pouring in. Jane goes to the bed. She puts her hand upon it, gently, as if thanking her uncle for all he did. She notices a picture on the wall. A miniature of a brown-haired woman with elfin eyes. Jane takes it off the wall. Bessie comes in. JANE My mother. Bessie nods. A tear rolls down Jane's face. She clasps the picture, looking round the room. JANE (CONT'D) Why ever was I so afraid? EXT. DAY. A ROADSIDE. A coach pulls up in the lane near Thornfield. Jane gets out. We hear her voice. JANE (V.O.) My dear uncle, some years ago, my Aunt Reed mistakenly informed you that I had died. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 79. EXT. EVENING. A SUMMER WOOD. Jane is walking through the wooded glade where she first met Rochester. All is green and verdant and bathed in sunset light. There seems to be life everywhere. JANE (V.O.) I am writing to tell you that I am very much alive and living at Thornfield Hall, where I am currently governess to the ward of Mr Edward Fairfax Rochester - ROCHESTER (O.S.) There you are. Jane turns. Rochester is sitting on the stile where they first met. For a moment, her every nerve is unstrung. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Just like one of your tricks to steal into your home along with the twilight. Where the deuce have you been this last month? JANE I have been with my aunt sir, who is dead. Rochester laughs. ROCHESTER A true Janian reply. If I dared I'd touch you, to see if you were real... Jane puts out her hand. Rochester takes it. He helps Jane over the stile. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Go home - stay your wandering feet at a friend's threshold. Jane lets go of his hand. JANE Thank you Mr Rochester. I'm strangely glad to get back again to you. Wherever you are is my home. Jane, knowing she has said too much, turns and runs over the fields towards Thornfield. INT. EVENING. THORNFIELD - MRS FAIRFAX'S PARLOUR Jane is on a low seat, Adele nestling close to her. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 80. MRS FAIRFAX We're expecting the announcement very soon. He went down to London only last week to buy her a new carriage. JANE Then we must accept it. He'll soon bring home his bride. Mrs Fairfax nods. EXT. TWILIGHT. THORNFIELD - THE ORCHARD Jane is alone, drinking in the beauty of the evening - looking at the gardens as if she may never see them again. She turns a corner and sees Rochester staring intently at something. His back is to her. She is about to tiptoe away. ROCHESTER Come and look at this fellow, Jane. Jane approaches, wondering how he has sensed her presence. Rochester is looking at a huge moth. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Look at his wings. He looks West Indian - I have never seen one like him, here. There; flown. They watch the moth as it flies towards the house. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Thornfield is a pleasant place in summer, isn't it? JANE I'll be sad to leave it. ROCHESTER Yes, but it can't be helped. I soon hope to be a bridegroom. JANE Have you found me a new situation, sir? ROCHESTER A situation, yes of course. It's the least I can do for a faithful paid subordinate such as yourself. You're to undertake the education of the five daughters of Mrs Dionysus O'Gall of Bitternut Lodge, Connaught. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 81. JANE Connaught? ROCHESTER You'll like Ireland. They're such warm-hearted people, they say. JANE It is a long way away, sir. ROCHESTER From what? JANE From here. From you. ROCHESTER We've been good friends, Jane haven't we? But with the Irish sea between us you'd soon forget me. Jane's great distress escapes her. JANE I wish I could. I wish I'd never come here. I love Thornfield - I've lived a full life here. I've not been trampled on or petrified or buried with inferior minds. I've talked face to face with what I reverence, with what I delight in. I've known you Mr Rochester - ROCHESTER Then why must you be torn from me? JANE Because of your bride. ROCHESTER I have no bride. JANE But you will have. ROCHESTER Yes, I will. JANE Then I must go. ROCHESTER You must stay. JANE Do you think I could stay to become nothing to you? Am I an automaton, a machine without feelings? (MORE) Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 82. JANE (CONT'D) Do you think that because I am poor, obscure, plain and little that I am soulless and heartless? ROCHESTER JANE - JANE I have as much soul as you and full as much heart. I'm not speaking to you through mortal flesh. It's my spirit that addresses your spirit as if we'd passed through the grave and stood at God's feet, equal - as we are. Rochester takes Jane in his arms. ROCHESTER As we are. Jane struggles away from him. JANE Let me go. ROCHESTER NO - JANE I'm a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you. Rochester releases her. She stands in front of him. ROCHESTER Then let your will decide your destiny. I offer you my hand, my heart and a share of all this. He gestures towards the house, the land. Jane is stunned. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) I ask you to pass through life at my side. Jane, you are my equal and my likeness. It is you I intend to marry. JANE Are you mocking me? ROCHESTER Do you doubt me? JANE Entirely. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 83. ROCHESTER You have no faith in me? JANE Not a whit. ROCHESTER You little sceptic. JANE Your bride is Miss Ingram - ROCHESTER What love have I for Miss Ingram? What love has she for me? I caused a rumour to reach her that my fortune was lost and got instant coldness. I wanted to make you jealous, to move you to love me. It's you - you strange, unearthly thing. I love you as my own flesh. You - poor and obscure as you are - please accept me as your husband. Jane begins to believe him. JANE Are you in earnest? ROCHESTER I must have you for my own. JANE You wish me to be your wife? ROCHESTER I swear it. JANE You love me. ROCHESTER I do. JANE Then sir, I will marry you. They embrace. Neither Jane nor Rochester moves. Darkness is almost complete. Still the intensity of the embrace is held. ROCHESTER It will atone. It will atone. A sheet of lightning momentarily lights up the sky. Some moments later a distant rumble of thunder. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 84. I/E. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - THE FRONT HALL It is teeming with rain. Rochester and Jane run to the front entrance. He holds his jacket around her. Lightning. They reach the dry hearth inside. Thunder. They are both euphoric, breathless, laughing. JANE I must go. ROCHESTER Good night. Good night. He kisses her. They kiss again. Jane will not let him go. JANE Good night. As Jane runs upstairs she sees Mrs Fairfax, deeply shocked. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - MRS FAIRFAX'S PARLOUR Jane wears a lilac gown. Mrs Fairfax is very concerned. MRS FAIRFAX Have you accepted him? JANE Yes. MRS FAIRFAX Well I never would have thought. Jane is hurt. JANE Am I a monster? Is it so impossible that Mr Rochester should love me? MRS FAIRFAX No, I've long noticed that you were a sort of pet of his. But you're so young and so little acquainted with men. I don't want to grieve you child, but let me put you on your guard. Gentlemen in his position... Let's just say they're not accustomed to marry their governesses. Until you are wed, distrust yourself as well as him. Please, keep him at a distance - Jane has heard enough. She turns away. JANE Thank you. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 85. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE HALL Jane, walking through, finds herself in Rochester's arms. She laughs as he raises her off the ground. ROCHESTER Is this my pale elf? This sunny faced girl with the radiant eyes? JANE It is I, Jane Eyre sir. ROCHESTER Soon to be Jane Rochester. JANE It can never be, sir. Human beings were not meant to enjoy complete happiness on this earth. It's too much like a fairy tale. ROCHESTER (KISSING HER) Let the fairy tale begin. INT. DAY. A HABERDASHER'S SHOP. Rochester is rolling out reams of beautiful silks. Jane gets more uncomfortable as she looks at them. ROCHESTER This morning I wrote to my banker in London to send certain jewels. In a day or two I hope to pour them into you lap - JANE Oh, no sir - ROCHESTER I will put the diamond chain around your neck myself - JANE I don't want jewels - ROCHESTER I'll dress you in these satins - JANE Then you won't know me. I'll not be Jane Eyre any longer but an ape in a harlequin's jacket. Put them away. Jane pushes the silks away. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 86. ROCHESTER Well for cool native impudence and pure innate pride, you haven't your equal. JANE I'm naturally proud. And hard and flinty. You ought to know what sort of bargain you've made while you've still got time to rescind it. I want only one thing from you, Mr Rochester. ROCHESTER And what's that? JANE Your regard. Jane puts her arm through Rochester's. He smiles. ROCHESTER It's your time now, little tyrant but it'll soon be mine and when I have seized you, to have and to hold, I'll attach you to a chain, like this... Rochester flicks his watch into the air. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - MRS FAIRFAX'S PARLOUR. A summer gale. The moan of the wind sounds almost human. The light is sickly, nightmarish. A great box sits on the table, which Jane is opening. Adele, Sophie and Mrs Fairfax are all looking on. Jane pulls out a pearl coloured wedding gown. She is dismayed at its opulence. She holds it up to herself. Adele starts to play with the great veil. She wraps it round herself. She becomes caught in it, tangled, distressed. INT. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - JANE'S BEDROOM. JANE Adele? Jane wakes. There is a candle alight at the end of her bed. Her eyes focus. Her wardrobe is open. Jane is unnerved. JANE (CONT'D) Adele, is that you? Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 87. A form emerges, a woman, tall and gaunt, with thick, black hair hanging down her back. She is dressed in a nightgown - like a shroud. Over her head, she wears Jane's bridal veil; a phantom bride. Jane is paralysed with terror. The form takes the veil and slowly tears it in half; bruised arms, dirt, predatory nails, neglect. The last thing to be revealed is the woman's face, pale and ghastly. Her eyes are glittering with hatred. The figure takes the candle and bends down to Jane. Her intention looks deadly. Jane's breath catches. She cannot breathe. The figure moves closer, then blows out the candle. Darkness. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - JANE'S BEDROOM. Jane wakes, lying half out of the bed. The veil is over her. She flings it away from her face. Jane sits, her terror dawning. Her breath comes in great dry sobs. She is shocked to find herself still alive. EXT. EVENING. - THORNFIELD - BY THE GATES Jane is waiting, pale with anxiety. A man on horseback approaches, a great dog at his side; Rochester. He is grinning. He pulls Jane up on the horse in front of him. She curls into his arms, desperate for his comfort and his strength. Rochester senses something is wrong. He slows the horse. ROCHESTER What is it? JANE I'm afraid. INT. EVENING. THORNFIELD - JANE'S BEDROOM. Rochester holds the torn veil in his hands. He is aghast. He cannot think what to say. ROCHESTER Jane, this is the only explanation. It must have been half-dream, half- reality. A woman did enter your room last night and that woman was - must have been - Grace Poole - Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 88. JANE It was not Grace Poole. Rochester keeps talking over her. ROCHESTER You know how strange she is. What did she do to me? To Mason? In a state between sleeping and waking - JANE I was not asleep. ROCHESTER You noticed her entrance and her actions but you've ascribed to her an appearance different from her own. That was your nightmare - JANE I know what I saw. ROCHESTER I see you'd ask why I keep such a woman in my house. When we've been married a year and a day, I promise I'll tell you. Are you satisfied Jane? Do you accept my solution? Jane clearly doesn't. Rochester takes her in his arms. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Dear God. It was only the veil... INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - ADELE'S ROOM. Jane is in an unadorned pearl wedding gown. ADELE Mademoiselle... Adele gives her a small bouquet. Jane hugs her, very moved - as if she is leaving her childhood behind. She turns to go. SOPHIE Please, you must look. Jane gazes stupefied at the stranger in the mirror. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE HALL. Rochester is waiting at the bottom of the stairs for Jane. She slows when she sees him. She finds she cannot speak. Neither can he. Mrs Fairfax is by the door. Jane can't find words for her. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 89. ROCHESTER Come. Rochester grips her hand. They quit the house. EXT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE GROUNDS. Rochester, grimly resolute, is striding at a pace Jane can hardly follow. Her satin shoes are muddy. She is becoming breathless. A rook flies over their heads, cawing. EXT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE CHURCH. Rochester is striding purposefully towards a small church of ancient design. Jane stumbles. Rochester is contrite. Jane tries to collect herself. She looks up to the sky. The rook wheels around the spire. She takes Rochester's hand. INT. DAY. THE CHURCH At the altar, Jane glances at Rochester. He is looking straight ahead at the clergyman, Wood. WOOD I require and charge you both, as ye will answer at the dreadful day of judgement when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed, that if either of you know any impediment why ye may not be lawfully joined together in matrimony, ye do now confess it. There is not a sound. Rochester still doesn't look at Jane. The clergyman prepares the rings. WOOD (CONT'D) Edward Fairfax Rochester, do you TAKE - A commotion at the back of the church. Two men rapidly enter. One of them Briggs, hurries up the aisle. BRIGGS The marriage cannot go on. I declare the existence of an impediment. Rochester moves, shaken. ROCHESTER Proceed. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 90. BRIGGS The ceremony is quite broken off. An insuperable impediment to this marriage exists. ROCHESTER Proceed. BRIGGS Mr Rochester has a wife now living. Wood is utterly dismayed. ROCHESTER (SHOUTS) Where is your proof? Briggs starts to read out a document. BRIGGS (O.S.) I affirm and can prove that Edward Fairfax Rochester was fifteen years ago married to my sister, Bertha Antoinetta Mason at St James church, Spanish Town, Jamaica. Jane looks at Rochester. She forces him to look at her. He denies nothing; defies everything. BRIGGS (CONT'D) The record of the marriage will be found in the register of that church - a copy of it is now in my possession. Signed, Richard Mason. Rochester turns to Briggs. ROCHESTER That does not prove that my wife is still living. BRIGGS She was living two months ago. ROCHESTER How do you know? BRIGGS I have a witness to the fact. ROCHESTER Produce him or go to hell. The figure by the door steps out of the shadows. It is Richard Mason. Rochester flies down the aisle, a groan of rage escapes him. He lifts his arm. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 91. MASON Good God - WOOD Sir, you are in a sacred place - Mason flinches away. Rochester swallows his rage. ROCHESTER What have you to say? MASON She is at Thornfield Hall. I saw her there in April. I'm her brother. A grim smile contorts Rochester's lips. He turns towards Jane. She remains where she was abandoned - at the altar - tiny, under he vaulted arch. The bouquet falls from her hand. Rochester walks to her. ROCHESTER This girl knew nothing. She thought all was fair and legal. She never dreamt she was going to be entrapped into a feigned union with a defrauded wretch. A tiny breath is the only noise Jane utters. Rochester pulls her from the altar to his side. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Come, Jane, come all of you and meet Mrs Poole's charming patient. Come and meet my wife. The sun outside is blinding. Jane closes her eyes. I/E. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE ENTRANCE / HALL Rochester enters pulling Jane after him, her hand still in his iron grip. Wood, Mason and Briggs follow. Mrs Fairfax, Adele, Sophie, Martha and Leah are waiting. Adele runs forward. Rochester stops her in her tracks. ROCHESTER Get back! Do not come near! Go, all of you - keep your congratulations - they come fifteen years too late! Adele has crumpled into frightened tears. Mrs Fairfax has her hand over her mouth, pale with shock. Jane meets her eye as Rochester pulls her up the stairs. A revelation. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 92. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE THIRD FLOOR. The tapestried room. Rochester glances at Mason. He unlocks the inner door with one hand; the other won't let go of Jane. Grace Poole sits by a strongly guarded fire, stirring something in a pot. Rochester leads Jane and the men into the room. There is no window, no furniture except for Grace's chair; only a mattress on the floor. GRACE Sir, you can't be bringing folk in here. It's madness. Bertha Antoinetta Mason stands, amazed at the sight of her visitors. She wears a white shift. There are black rook feathers twined in her hair; her only ornament. ROCHESTER This clothed hyena is my wife. Bertha's pose is dignified, her expression grows triumphant. She approaches Rochester - her eyes locked with Jane's. Jane gazes: fear, disgust, compassion. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) I was duped into marriage with this lunatic fifteen years ago. Briggs and Wood are deeply repelled. WOOD Let us go. We have seen enough. Bertha puts her arm through Rochester's; lays her head on his shoulder; smiles at Jane, magnanimous in her victory. ROCHESTER My own demon, Bertha. With shocking speed and strength Bertha lays her nails into Rochester's cheek. He struggles with her. Grace assists Rochester. They do not hit; they subdue. Bertha's attack is effectively contained. They have her on her knees, her arms behind her. Bertha lifts her head and screams. If a scream could express the agony of a whole soul then this would. Jane turns on her heels. She stumbles, finds the door, exits. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE SECOND FLOOR. Jane is coming down the stairs. Briggs is at her side. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 93. BRIGGS You, madam, are clearly not to blame. Your uncle will be glad to hear it. Jane looks at Briggs, only dimly comprehending him. BRIGGS (CONT'D) You wrote to your uncle, did you not? To inform him you were going to marry Mr Rochester? Mr Mason was staying with him when your letter came. Briggs gets only a blank look of puzzlement from Jane. BRIGGS (CONT'D) Mr John Eyre has been the Madeira correspondent of the Mason trading house for some years. You can imagine his distress when Mason revealed the real state of matters. Jane starts walking towards the sanctuary of her room. BRIGGS (CONT'D) He would have come himself but I'm sad to tell you that his health is in mortal decline. He implored Mr Mason to prevent this false marriage and referred him to me for assistance. I only hope that he survives long enough to hear that you are safe. Jane opens her door. She turns to Briggs. JANE Thank you. She shuts the door on Briggs and on the world. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - JANE'S BEDROOM. Jane sits on her bed. She mechanically starts taking off the blond square she has worn as a veil. CUT TO: Jane, standing in stillness with the pearl dress crumpled around her feet. CUT TO: Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 94. Jane has taken a black stuff dress off its hangar. She slowly puts her arms around it, as if it is her old self. She holds it, her eyes staring at nothing. CUT TO: Jane in her underclothes, sitting down on the bed. She closes her eyes. EXT. DAY. A DRY RIVER BED. Jane lies curled up on a rock at the bottom of a dried-up river bed. All of nature is suspended in stillness. Far away, we hear the sound of a flood loosened in the remote mountains. We hear the sound of the torrent approach. Jane doesn't move. She has no will to flee. The sound of rushing water pounds in her ears. She lies, waiting to be dashed away. We see the flood approach and hit. A dazzling whiteness of water and foam. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - JANE'S BEDROOM. Jane's room is entirely unchanged except for the fact that it is full of river water from floor to ceiling. Her bedding, furniture and belongings all sit in the room as normal - underwater. The light shines murkily in through the window to reveal Jane floating, suspended. Her hair and her garments trail out. She is alive. But she is drowned. INT. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - JANE'S BEDROOM. The moon has risen. Jane is lying in an exhausted doze on the bed. She wakes; sits up. She is faint. She recovers herself. She knows what she must do. CUT TO: Jane, dressed in black in the silver light, putting her brush, comb and brooch in a bag. She looks in her purse. She has some coins. INT. DAY. THORNFIELD - SECOND FLOOR. Jane unbolts her door, takes a step out of her room, and stumbles into Rochester's arms. He has been keeping guard. ROCHESTER JANE - Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 95. His cheek has been cut by Bertha's nails. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Five minutes more of that death- like hush and I'd have forced the lock. He examines her face. He is desperate. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) No tears. Your heart has been weeping blood. Forgive me. Rochester buries his head in Jane's arms. She automatically comforts him. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) How could I? I am a worthless sinner. Don't spare me. Rain your tears up on me. JANE I cannot. ROCHESTER I deserve a hail of fire. Jane extricates herself from his embrace. JANE I'm tired and sick. I need some water. Rochester perceives Jane's inanition. He carries her down the gallery. Jane clings on to her bag of belongings. She has nothing else left. INT. NIGHT. THORNFIELD - THE LIBRARY. Rochester has lain Jane in front of the fire. She forces herself to eat. Rochester gives her wine. She sips. ROCHESTER How are you now? JANE Much better, sir. I shall be well again soon. Rochester paces away to the fire. He comes back. Stoops his head down to Jane to kiss her. She turns her head away. ROCHESTER I know you. You are thinking. Talking is no use; you are thinking how to act. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 96. JANE All is changed, sir. I must change too. ROCHESTER Yes. There is no doubt that we both must change. I was wrong ever to keep you here; this narrow stone vault with its one real fiend. I'll shut it up. I'll pay Mrs Poole two hundred a year to care for its inmate and then no one will be harmed when she is prompted to burn people, to stab them, to bite the flesh from their bones - JANE Sir - you speak of her with hate - it is cruel. She cannot help being mad. ROCHESTER It's not because she's mad that I hate her. If you were mad do you think that I'd hate you? JANE I do. ROCHESTER Then you know nothing about me, nothing about the way I love. Your mind is my treasure - and if it were broken it would be my treasure still. You are my sympathy, my better self, my angel. I will wrap my whole existence round you. Let us leave here tomorrow. Come with me - as my wife. JANE No. ROCHESTER I'll pledge you my fidelity - JANE You can't. ROCHESTER You'll live a happy, most innocent life - JANE I must leave you, sir. Rochester cannot take this in. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 97. ROCHESTER Don't you love me? JANE I do love you - But I mustn't show it or speak it ever again. I must begin a new existence - strange scenes among strange faces. I must part from you. ROCHESTER Must be a part of me; that's what you mean. You are my wife, Jane. In truth - JANE You have a wife already. ROCHESTER I was tricked, duped into wedlock with that demon-hate, that harlot, that succubus upstairs. My father wanted her money and so I was sent to Spanish Town and the match was made. I hardly spoke with her. I was dazzled, ignorant, raw. My senses were besotted and I married her - gross, grovelling mole-eyed blockhead that I was. Rochester sits, staring at the fire. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) I lived with her for four years. She dragged me through all the degrading agonies which attend those bound to the intemperate and unchaste. Her excesses developed germs of madness and the doctors shut her up. One night, unable to bear her screaming hate and knowing I could never be rid of her, I put a gun to my head to kill myself. Jane is both appalled and moved. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) I would have pulled the trigger, died in that tropical place but for a breeze which blew in from the sea and smelt of home. With it, I came to my senses. Bertha Antoinetta Mason had abused my long suffering, sullied my name, outraged my honour and blighted my youth. It was enough. At that moment, as I decided to live, she ceased to be my wife. (MORE) Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 98. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Only my father and brother knew of the marriage and by then they were both dead. I let my connection with her be buried in oblivion and I brought her here. I have seen that she's cared for as her condition demands and that is all that God and humanity asks. JANE I earnestly pity you, sir. He sees that Jane is silently crying. ROCHESTER Jane, it's not pity that I see in your face. It's not pity - JANE Do not say it - ROCHESTER It is love. JANE STOP - They are holding each other. ROCHESTER I was wrong to deceive you. It was cowardly. I should have appealed to your spirit - as I do now - should have opened my life, described my hunger for a better existence - shown you my chains. I give you my life. I give you my pledge. Please, be my wife. JANE I can not. ROCHESTER You would be my equal. JANE How? ROCHESTER I would make it so. JANE You once told me that hiring a mistress is the next worse thing to buying a slave. ROCHESTER Not my mistress - Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 99. JANE I would not degrade you by having you live with a slave. ROCHESTER I said wife, my wife - Jane tries to rise. Rochester keeps hold of her hand. He gently pulls her down again. Comforts her. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Do you really mean to leave me? JANE I do. ROCHESTER Jane... He kisses her gently, lovingly. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Do you mean it now? JANE I do. He runs his hands over her, with great tenderness. Jane offers no resistance. ROCHESTER And now? Jane nods. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Oh Jane... Rochester lays her down. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) What friends would you offend by living with me? Who would be injured? Who would care? Jane is almost lost. She speaks in a small voice. JANE I would. ROCHESTER Jane, it would not be wicked to love me... JANE It would be to obey you. I care for myself. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 100. Jane's resolve grows. She resists. JANE (CONT'D) The more alone, the more friendless, unsustained I am, the more I must respect myself - ROCHESTER Will you listen to me? JANE I must listen to myself - ROCHESTER Will you hear reason? JANE Let me go - ROCHESTER Because if you won't I'll try violence. Jane instantly stops resisting. She looks at him with utter shock. He is above her. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) I could bend you with my finger and thumb; a mere reed you feel in my hands. Jane neither moves nor speaks. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) But your eye; resolute, free. What ever I do with this cage I cannot get at you. And it is you, soul, that I want. Why don't you come of your own free will here, to my heart? Oh come, Jane, come - JANE (CRYING OUT) God help me! All the life seems to go out of Rochester. He lets Jane go. She pulls herself away from him. She stands. He remains, his face buried. She goes to the door. Rochester turns his eyes to her. ROCHESTER You have never called me by my name. My name is Edward. Jane cannot speak it. She turns away. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 101. EXT. DAWN. THORNFIELD - THE GROUNDS. First light. Jane is running; flushed, breathless, her dress soaked with dew. She has her bag of belongings over her shoulder. She trips; falls to her knees. She looks back. For a moment she seems paralysed. She returns her gaze to the route ahead. Her need to escape is so great that she crawls forwards until she is able to raise herself to her feet. She reaches the stile; lifts herself on to it; puts her arms around the post. She holds it, as if it were beloved. Her eyes close. We hear the sound of a winter blizzard. INT. NIGHT. JANE'S COTTAGE. Jane opens her eyes. She is sitting at her fireside. Outside, a snowstorm howls. On her knee is a sketchbook. She looks down at it. Rochester's dark eye is beginning to appear on her paper. She puts a line through it; scribbles it out, blinding him. She stands up, trying to escape her thoughts. She whispers: JANE Edward. There is a loud knock on the door. Jane starts. CUT TO: Jane opening the door. Rochester is there, standing in the frozen hurricane and howling darkness. ROCHESTER Jane. Jane pulls him inside. She falls into his arms. They embrace passionately. Jane is actively pulling him towards her, delirious with love and longing. CUT TO: The exact same shot of Jane opening the door. St John Rivers is there, having waded through the drifting snow. JANE Mr St John - What on earth brings you away from your hearth on a night like this? Has anything happened? There's no bad news I hope? ST JOHN How easily alarmed you are. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 102. He takes off his cloak; stamps the snow off his boots. ST JOHN (CONT'D) The snow was up to my waist at one point. JANE You are recklessly rash about your own health. ST JOHN Nonsense. St John's eyes alight on Jane's charcoal drawing. Jane snatches it away too late. There is a moment of silence. JANE Why are you come? ST JOHN An inhospitable question. JANE I mean on a night like this - ST JOHN I got tired of my mute books and empty rooms. Besides I've been told half a story and I'm most impatient to find out the end. JANE Please... Jane motions to St John to sit. He doesn't. She becomes increasingly uneasy as he speaks. ST JOHN Twenty years ago, a poor curate fell in love with a rich man's daughter and married her. She was disowned by her family and two years later the rash pair were both dead. They left a daughter which charity received into her lap - as cold as that snow drift I almost stuck fast in. Charity carried the friendless thing to the house of its rich maternal relations. It was reared by an aunt-in-law; I come to names now - Mrs Reed of Gateshead. Jane starts. She is on her feet. ST JOHN (CONT'D) Mrs Reed kept the orphan ten years and at the end of that time she was sent to Lowood school. (MORE) Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 103. ST JOHN (CONT'D) It seems her career there was very honourable. She became a teacher like yourself, and left it, like yourself, to be a governess. She undertook the education of the ward of a certain Mr Rochester - JANE Mr Rivers! - ST JOHN I can guess your feelings but hear me to the end. Of Mr Rochester's character I know nothing but he professed to offer honourable marriage to this young girl and at the very altar she discovered that he had a wife yet alive. His subsequent conduct is a matter of pure conjecture but when the governess was enquired after it was discovered that she had fled Thornfield Hall and no trace of her has since been found. Now isn't that an odd tale? JANE Since you know so much, perhaps you can tell me how he is. ST JOHN Who? JANE Mr Rochester; how is he? ST JOHN I'm ignorant of all concerning him. St John opens his pocket book and removes a piece of paper. ST JOHN (CONT'D) Well, since you won't ask the governess's name, I must tell you. I have it written down here in black and white. He hands her the paper. On it are doodled the heads of some of her pupils. She has absently written Jane Eyre in the margin several times. ST JOHN (CONT'D) A solicitor named Briggs wrote to me of a Jane Eyre. I knew a Jane Elliott. This paper resolved my suspicion into certainty. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 104. JANE The solicitor - Mr Briggs - does he have any news of Mr Rochester? ST JOHN Are you not going to enquire why he has gone to such lengths to find you? JANE What does he want with me? ST JOHN Merely to tell you that your uncle, Mr John Eyre of Madeira, is dead; that he has left you all his property and that you are now rich. JANE What? ST JOHN You are rich; quite an heiress. Silence. Jane is flabbergasted. ST JOHN (CONT'D) Your fortune is vested in the English funds; Briggs has the will and all the necessary documents. You can enter on immediate possession. At last, Jane looks questioningly up at him. ST JOHN (CONT'D) Your forehead unbends at last; I thought you were turning to stone. Perhaps now you will ask how much you are worth. JANE How much am I worth? ST JOHN Oh a trifle. Twenty thousand pounds - but what of that? The news literally takes Jane's breath away. JANE Twenty thousand pounds? St John begins to laugh at Jane's reaction. She has never seen him laugh before. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 105. ST JOHN If you'd committed a murder and I'd found you out, you could scarcely look more aghast. JANE There must be some mistake. It's two thousand, surely. ST JOHN It's twenty. You look desperately miserable about it, I must say. Jane still cannot take it in. She frowns in disbelief. JANE Why did Mr Briggs write to you? ST JOHN You see, that is the strange thing. It makes me wonder what power or providence led you to our door. Your name is Jane Eyre. JANE Yes. ST JOHN Then I'm you namesake. I was christened St John Eyre Rivers. JANE St John Eyre - ST JOHN My mother had two brothers, one was a clergyman, your father, the other was John Eyre of Madeira. Mr Briggs wrote to inform us that the clergyman's daughter was lost. I have been able to find her out; that is all. JANE Your mother was my father's sister? ST JOHN Yes. JANE My uncle John was your uncle John? ST JOHN That is correct. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 106. JANE So you, Diana and Mary - ST JOHN We are cousins, yes. Jane is deeply moved. JANE Oh, I am glad! - I am glad! She throws her arms around St John. Tears of happiness start to flow. He, finding it peculiar to be held, gently tries to calm her. ST JOHN Here you are neglecting essential points to pursue trifles. You were utterly downhearted when I told you that you were rich and now, for a matter of no moment, you are deliriously happy. JANE Of no moment? You have sisters and maybe don't care for a cousin but I have nobody. I have been alone, always. And now three relations are born into my world full grown. Oh, I am glad. You, who saved my life - ST JOHN You must try to tranquillise your feelings. Jane finally releases him, still radiant with joy. JANE Write to Diana and Mary. Tell them to hand in notice and come home. They will have five thousand each and so will you. ST JOHN I've told you the news too quickly. You're confused. JANE Don't put me out of patience, cousin. I am rational enough. Twenty thousand divided equally between the nieces and nephews of our uncle, gives five to each. ST JOHN This is acting on first impulse. You don't know what it is to have WEALTH - Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 107. JANE And you cannot imagine - family - I never had a home. I never had brothers and sisters - A terrible thought occurs to her. JANE (CONT'D) You are not reluctant to own me, are you? St John takes her hand. She has surprised and moved him. He looks at her, seeing her anew. ST JOHN Jane, I will be your brother. EXT. DAY. SPRING - THE MOORS. Jane, Diana and Mary are running over the moors. Mary has a kite. They are as delighted as children. INT. DAY. MOOR HOUSE - THE KITCHEN. Jane is sitting at the table letting Diana style her hair. They all have new summer dresses on. There is a lightness to all three as if a great weight has been lifted from their shoulders. Diana is setting Jane's hair into curls like her own. Jane looks at herself in the mirror; softer, gentler, different. INT. NIGHT. MOOR HOUSE - THE PARLOUR. The girls each have a candle. St John kisses Mary. He kisses Diana. ST JOHN Good night. DIANA You call Jane your sister but you don't treat her as such. You should kiss her too. Jane turns to Diana, embarrassed. JANE Di, you are very provoking. As she turns back, she finds St John's face right in front of her. He kisses her. A kiss with no warmth; an experiment. He examines its effect. He is satisfied. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 108. ST JOHN Good night. INT. NIGHT. MOOR HOUSE - JANE'S BEDROOM. Jane closes the door. She puts her hand across her lips. The icy kiss has agonised her with the full force of her loneliness. She curls up in a ball, desperate. EXT. EVENING. MOOR HOUSE - THE GARDEN. A glorious summer sunset. Jane is digging at a flower bed, putting all her passion into the task. She is flushed with exertion. St John watches. ST JOHN You are wasted here. JANE Am I not being useful? ST JOHN You should look beyond Moor House, beyond the selfish calm and comfort of affluence. JANE Beyond to what? ST JOHN I go to India in six weeks. JANE So soon? - St John draws Jane away from her work. ST JOHN I can see what your gifts are and why they were given. Come with me. Jane is utterly crestfallen. ST JOHN (CONT'D) God and nature intended you for a missionary's wife. You are formed for labour not for love. I want to claim you - not for my pleasure but for God's service. JANE I'm not fit for it. I have no vocation. ST JOHN You're far too humble. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 109. JANE St John have mercy. I feel my mind shrinking - ST JOHN Don't be afraid. You are diligent, faithful, docile, courageous, gentle and heroic. Cease to mistrust yourself. I trust you unreservedly. Let me give you time to think. But know this; in you, I recognise a fellow soul, a soul that would revel in the flame and excitement of sacrifice. Jane is chilled to the bone by his words. St John leaves the garden and walks away over the moors. CUT TO: Jane leaning against the garden wall, trying to think, trying to compose herself. The sun is setting. INT. NIGHT. MOOR HOUSE - THE PARLOUR. Jane carrying a candle, opens the door. St John is at the table working by lamp light. The moon shines brightly in. JANE I used to long for a life of action, to overleap the horizon, to move in the world of men. Maybe God is giving me this. And what is there for me here? Pain and longing for what can't be. I don't know how long I would survive in India. My frame isn't strong. But I'll go with you, if I may go free. ST JOHN Free? JANE You and I had better not marry. ST JOHN Why not? JANE Because I am your sister. ST JOHN But you'll go with me. JANE Conditionally - as your curate. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 110. ST JOHN Jane, I don't need a curate; I need a wife. JANE I must have my heart and mind free, my own self to turn to. I couldn't become part of you - ST JOHN A part of me you must become or the whole bargain is void. How can I, a man not yet thirty take out to India a girl of nineteen, unless she is my wife? Don't offer God half a sacrifice. He must have all. And undoubtedly enough of love would follow to make the union right, even in your eyes. Jane is shocked. JANE Enough of love? ST JOHN Yes, quite enough. JANE St John, I scorn your idea of love. I scorn the counterfeit sentiment you offer and I scorn you when you offer it! St John is mortified. A slow rage begins to boil in him. ST JOHN I've uttered nothing that deserves scorn. JANE Forgive me but the very name of love is an apple of discord between us. My dear cousin, please abandon your scheme of marriage. ST JOHN No; and if you reject it, it's not me you deny but God. Jane is stung. St John has turned from her. His face is icy in the moonlight. JANE Do not be angry with me please. It makes me wretched. I want us to be friends. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 111. ST JOHN We are friends. I hope we can be more. JANE I cannot come as your wife. ST JOHN Why this refusal? It makes no sense! JANE If I were to marry you, you'd kill me. You're killing me now. ST JOHN (FURIOUS) I'd kill you? I am killing you? Your words are violent, unfeminine and untrue - JANE You'd kill me without drawing any blood or receiving on your conscience any stain of crime. ST JOHN What nonsense is this? JANE You'd experience no pain - but I tell you it would kill me! ST JOHN Why? JANE Because I would inevitably come to conceive love for you, because you are so talented and good, because there is such grandeur in your look. You wouldn't want this strange and torturing love; if I showed it you would find it unbecoming. And my lot would be wretched. ST JOHN (UNDERSTANDING HER) Jane... JANE You're a good man, but you forget the feelings of little people. We'd better keep out of your way lest you trample us. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 112. St John's anger has faded. He is compassionate. This is far harder to resist. ST JOHN I wouldn't trample you. You'd walk at my side towards God's altar. He'd be your solace, heaven your reward. We seek to do the greatest work, to open death's gates, to save souls. Love God Jane, love God. St John puts his hand on her forehead; Christlike. Jane is falling under his power. ST JOHN (CONT'D) Give up your heart to Him. He is love. Jane falls to her knees. St John's face is angelic. JANE If I were sure; if I were certain - She suddenly hears a voice: Rochester's; clear, urgent. ROCHESTER (O.S.) Jane! Jane! Jane! She springs away from St John, crying: JANE Oh God, what is it? She looks wildly about the room; rushes to the window. ST JOHN What have you heard? What can you see? Jane glances at him, seeing him for what he is; a cold, controlling man. She shouts: JANE I am coming! She runs out, leaving St John aghast, behind her. EXT. NIGHT. THE MOOR. Jane runs on to the moors. JANE Wait for me! She looks all around her at the moonlit landscape. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 113. JANE (CONT'D) Where are you? The moors send her question back in an echo. We see Jane's face. Her path is clear. EXT. DAY. WHITCROSS MOOR. Jane is waiting for the coach at the crossroads where she arrived, almost a year before. It comes pounding towards her. She hails it. This time, the coachman respectfully descends to take her bag and help her on. She is so confident and so changed that he doesn't recognise her. EXT. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE GROUNDS. Jane is walking through the orchard. It is wild, neglected. Its untended state worries her. She looks up. Rooks are circling, cawing. CUT TO: Jane finds herself at the side of the house. The ground is pitted with weeds. The windows are dark. She half runs round to the front. What she sees takes her breath away. The great walls and battlements are blackened with fire. Windows gape on a hollow shell. The inside of the house has collapsed. Through the hanging door, only its charred remains can be seen. Weeds grow through utter devastation. Jane gazes in horror and distress. I/E. DAY. MRS FAIRFAX'S COTTAGE Jane knocks on the door. Mrs Fairfax opens it. JANE They sent me from the inn. I've been up at the house - Jane can say no more. MRS FAIRFAX Come in, come in. JANE Is he dead? Mrs Fairfax takes Jane in her arms. MRS FAIRFAX No, no. Mr Rochester still lives. Jane is crying tears of relief. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 114. JANE Tell me - please - MRS FAIRFAX Why did you run away in the night like that? I would have helped. I would have helped. INT. DAY. MRS FAIRFAX'S COTTAGE Mrs Fairfax has sat Jane on a settle near the fire. MRS FAIRFAX He sought you as if you were a lost and precious jewel. He didn't rest. And as days turned into weeks and no word came, he grew quite savage in his disappointment. JANE He stayed at Thornfield? MRS FAIRFAX Didn't leave the house... I/E. DAY. THORNFIELD - THE FRONT DOOR/GROUNDS. Rochester, unshaven and unkempt is standing at his threshold. MRS FAIRFAX (V.O.) Shut himself up like a hermit. He only went out at night, when he walked like a ghost through the grounds. We see what he is looking at: an open carriage piled with luggage, into which Mrs Fairfax is helping Adele. Leah and Sophie are already sitting inside, dressed for a journey. MRS FAIRFAX (V.O.) (CONT'D) He'd have no one near him. Adele was sent off to school. He placed me here. Only John and Martha stayed - and Mrs Poole of course. Adele looks back at Rochester with tears in her eyes. He walks across the dark hall and slams the library doors. EXT. EVENING. THORNFIELD - THE ORCHARD. Rochester, in his shirt sleeves, is looking at the tree where Jane promised him her hand - now dying, cleft by lightning. The rising moon inhabits the sky. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 115. MRS FAIRFAX (V.O.) It was harvest time when it happened. No one knows how she got out. Rochester hears a cry from the top floor. He sets off, a look of finality on his face. INT. EVENING. THORNFIELD - THE KITCHEN. Grace Poole is asleep, her empty jug of gin beside her. MRS FAIRFAX (V.O.) My theory is that when Mrs Poole was asleep, having taken too much of the gin and water... Rochester takes Grace's keys. INT. EVENING. THORNFIELD - THE THIRD FLOOR Rochester opens the door to the inner chamber. MRS FAIRFAX (V.O.) ... The mad lady must have stolen her keys and let herself out. Bertha Antoinetta Mason, standing in the last patch of daylight thrown down from her skylight, sees that it is Rochester. She calmly walks towards him. Rochester graciously bows, indicating that she may leave. Bertha glides past him. She is free. INT. EVENING. THORNFIELD - THE GALLERY Bertha walks past an elegant vase. She tips it to the floor. It smashes. Rochester pays it no heed. INT. EVENING. THORNFIELD - THE LIBRARY. Rochester has stood Bertha at his desk. A case of jewels is open before her. She has put on a tiara, a diamond necklace, bracelets. She is gazing at a ruby brooch. She turns to Rochester. His expression is calm, resigned. Bertha begins to laugh. She takes the candelabra from the table. She admires herself in the mirror; her white shift, the black feathers, the jewels. She holds up the candelabra and sets the huge curtains alight. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 116. Rochester is impassive; he does nothing to stop her. As she passes, Rochester realises he is bleeding. She has run the brooch pin across him. INT. EVENING. THORNFIELD - THE HALL/STAIRS. Bertha knocks a lamp onto the floor. The oil springs into flames, licking the tapestries and the paintings. Rochester sees his ancestors begin to burn. INT. EVENING. THORNFIELD - THE SECOND FLOOR The conflagration is growing. Rochester sees Bertha leaving Jane's room. As he passes, he sees everything inside it being consumed by fire. He can't bear to look. EXT. EVENING. THORNFIELD - THE LEADS. Bertha is watching the rooks. Rochester goes to the edge of the roof. Bertha looks at him. The invitation is clear. Rochester is ready to die. Bertha sees the rooks wheeling away. She runs at the edge of the roof. Rochester sees her intention too late. He puts out his arm to stop her. For the perfect fraction of a second, Bertha flies. Rochester sees her fall; almost falls himself - saves himself. Life reawakens in him. Behind him, he sees Grace Poole, coughing, crawling up through the door. GRACE Antoinetta? Responsibility floods over him. He goes to her side, lifts Grace, helps her down the stairs. MRS FAIRFAX (V.O.) He didn't leave the house until everyone was out. Some say it was a just judgement on him for having her confined there all those years but for my part, I pity him. INT. DAY. MRS FAIRFAX'S COTTAGE Jane is deeply affected. MRS FAIRFAX He's alive child, but many think he'd be better off dead. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 117. JANE Why? MRS FAIRFAX When he was taken out from under the ruins, a beam had fallen in such a way as to protect him, partly - but his eye was taken out and his left hand so crushed that he lost it. The other eye inflamed and - he is blind. He's blind. Tears fall from Jane's eyes. MRS FAIRFAX (CONT'D) I know... it's a terrible thing. JANE I had dreaded worse. I'd dreaded he was mad. A great sense of urgency is coming over her. JANE (CONT'D) Where is he? EXT. DAY. FERNDEAN - THE GROUNDS. Jane is walking through forest, along a grass grown track. Her pace is fast; her journey almost at an end. She comes to a pair of rusting iron gates hanging open between granite pillars. She walks through them. She finds herself in front of a decrepit Elizabethan manor house; no garden, just a sweeping semi circle of meadow grass, which someone has cut at with a scythe. Jane stops. Standing on the threshold is Edward Fairfax Rochester. He is in his shirtsleeves. He stands strong, stalwart, brooding. His hair is still raven black. He is looking sightlessly around his domain, with the concentration of a hawk. His strength is undiminished. He walks fifteen paces from the house. It brings him into the middle of the semicircle of grass. He is close enough for Jane to see his scarred eyes. She walks towards him, silent. A few drops of rain begin to fall. Rochester puts out his right hand to feel them. He raises his face up to the sky as if he is looking for something from there. He is absolutely still; his expression, serene. Jane is very close. She steps on a twig. It breaks with a loud crack, shattering the silence. Rochester is immediately on guard, his expression turning wary. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 118. He suddenly swipes the air with his left arm; the ruin of it passing an inch from her face. Jane steps back. Rochester swipes again. She holds her breath. He seems satisfied at last that nothing is there. He turns and walks fifteen paces back to the house. He disappears into the dark interior. Jane starts to breathe again. EXT. DAY. FERNDEAN - THE SIDE ENTRANCE. Jane lightly taps on the side door. Martha opens it; she is astonished. Jane puts her finger over her lips. INT. EVENING. FERNDEAN - THE DRAWING ROOM. Rochester is in an armchair in front of his fire. Pilot is at his feet. Jane carries in a tray with a candelabra and a jug of water. ROCHESTER I can see the candles, Martha, at your side like a luminous glow. And the fire; a red haze. Pilot notices Jane. He leaps up with a whine, wagging his tail, madly. Jane spills half the water. She cannot help finding it funny. Her entrance has been ruined by the dog. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Martha? Jane giggles. Rochester's face falls. ROCHESTER (CONT'D) Martha, is that you? JANE Martha is in the kitchen, sir. ROCHESTER Who's there? JANE Pilot knows me. Will you have some more water? I've spilt half the glass. Rochester stands, holding out his hand. ROCHESTER If you are real, touch me. Jane touches his fingers; puts her hand in his. Rochester pulls her into his arms. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 119. ROCHESTER, Her hand, her shape, her size. JANE And her voice. ROCHESTER Jane Eyre - Jane Eyre. JANE My Edward, I am Jane Eyre: I have found you out. I am come back to you. For some while neither is able to speak. ROCHESTER You're not lying dead in some ditch? Not an outcast among strangers? JANE I've been with good people; far better than you, quite more refined and exalted. ROCHESTER (DELIGHTED) She insults me - JANE And I'm an independent woman. My uncle in Madeira died and left me five thousand pounds - ROCHESTER This is real. This is practical. JANE I'm here. I'm home. I am where I love best. CUT TO: Jane curled on Rochester's knee by the fire. He is running his fingers over her face, feeling its contours. ROCHESTER You're altogether a human being, Jane? JANE I conscientiously believe so, sir. She is running her hands through his hair. Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 120. JANE (CONT'D) But I see that you're turning into a lion. It's time someone undertook to rehumanise you. ROCHESTER I'm a sightless block - JANE I know. She kisses his eyes. JANE (CONT'D) And the worst of it is, I'm in danger of loving you too well for this, and making too much of you. ROCHESTER Am I hideous, Jane? JANE Very. But you always were, you know. A smile cracks Rochester's face. Jane runs her fingers over it, feeling its contours. He holds her. Silence falls. THE END. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Jason X.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jason X.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..8c3480114cba2f03aa4eef0653f08187e2a4bc9f --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jason X.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +JASON-X BY TOD FARMER REVISED ROUGH DRAFT MAY 24, 1999 FADE IN: DARKNESS. A scream rises to an ominous crescendo as we SHOCK CUT INTO - MONTAGE of fast moving clips. Death, destruction, fear. All images taken from the previous ten Friday The 13ths. AGAIN, DARKNESS. OPEN ON: The year is 2455. The place is Old Earth. Barren, void of life, a hazardous and violent planet. The sky is blood red with spiked clouds of dark gray. It is beautiful, but frighteningly foreign. BLUE LIGHTNING CRACKLES as several figures rush through a DUST STORM below. Small groups of people, wearing thick dusters, goggles and masks, work nearby. Some dig in the cracked earth, others take assorted readings with strange devices. This is an archeological expedition. CUT TO: INT. DARK PLACE The dust storm rages outside. Two figures are looking closely at a small object buried in the dirt. One of them pulls a device out of their pouch and slowly, gently picks up the object. The other uses a magnetic tool to remove the dirt. FEMALE VOICE Careful . . . MALE VOICE I know. They take off their masks and goggles. They are both young. ADRIENNE female (17) watches as STONEY male (18) studies the object closely. STONEY (reading) Not guaranteed, if used After 2198. CLOSE UP of the object. It's an unopened condom. ADRIENNE (smiles) You thinking what I'm thinking? Stoney tosses the high tech equipment over his shoulder and rips open the condom as Adrienne rips her clothes off. PULL BACK TO REVEAL They are in a half buried mini-van. It rocks violently from the raging storm outside and from the raging lust inside. BACK INSIDE THE VAN. ADRIENNE (breathless) What about Kkinsa? STONEY is desperately trying to take off her bra. STONEY It's over between us. You're the only one for me! METAL SCREECHES! THE FLOOR COLLAPSES! They fall some ten feet, RUBBLE RAINING down on top of them. INT. DARK CORRIDOR A rusty metal ladder. Debris everywhere. Half inch layers of dust cover everything. Dead. Lifeless. STONEY You okay? Adrienne sits up, shines her light down the long metal corridor. She turns her light on STONEY then sees something over his shoulder. SHE SCREAMS A BLOOD CURDLING SCREAM. We PULL BACK, out of the tunnel, through the van as the sounds of the storm drown out ADRIENNE'S SCREAM. CUT TO: EXT. BASE CAMP The digging and readings have stopped. A group approaches a time scarred shuttle and begin loading their packs into the cargo belly. FAT LOU (40), rail thin, possible female, pilot, appears at the top of the shuttle ramp. FAT LOU (yelling over the wind) Let's go! Time to load up! YLLO(33), a professor of archaeology lowers his veil. YLLO (yelling) I'm missing two! FAT LOU Shit! Temp's dropping! We should have left this rock an hour ago! BOEMAN (eyes a device) North three clicks. CUT TO: EXT. MINI-VAN - DAY YLLO and the rest of the group run into view. BOEMAN (18), husky, physical; holds out a device and checks the reading. He points to the rusted out mini-van sitting on its belly. BOEMAN (yelling) There! KICKER(30), bulky, short on temper, rushes up wearing futuristic military garb - KICKER Yo, Teach, what the fuck? YLLO We're missing two of the kids! KICKER Get your ass back to the shuttle. I'll check it out. KICKER moves past the group and into the Van. YLLO Not without me! The rest of the gang look at each other and climb into the Van. INT. ANCIENT CORRIDOR YLLO and the others climb down a rusted ladder. Metallic walls, graffiti, cluttered floors. No Stoney or Adrienne. A sign from the ceiling states - CRYSTAL LAKE RESEARCH FACILITY. They all take off the goggles and masks. The rest of the group consists of DELONGPRE(18) good looking, smart ass; JANESSA(17) sexual, scheming AZRAEL(17) SMALL, COCKY; KKINSA(16), insecure, problematic; THORGAN(17), a nerd but doesn't know it. YLLO Amazing! But, how . . I've been coming here for ten years. We never picked this up on our . . . KAY-EM? KAY-EM 14, a cybernetics science droid, removes her veil. She's gorgeous, but there's something off about her look. Something synthetic. KAY-EM 14 The air's laced with type two ozone, it reads as a solid. THORGAN Somebody wanted the place to stay hidden. KAY-EM 14 In twenty-eighty-two many of the survivors moved their facilities underground to escape . . . KICKER All right, all right, enough with the history lesson. Lets find these two quick . . so I can kick some little punk ass. Kkinsa shines a flashlight around the dark tunnel. KKINSA I have an idea, why don't you go find them and we'll get the hell out of here! KKINSA turns and finds herself face to face with - - A CORPSE! Easily two-hundred years old it hangs from the wall, impaled through the forehead by an iron spike. KKINSA SCREAMS! Kicker yanks a weapon from his back, locks and loads as JANESSA falls back and lands in the lap of another corpse. She screams! KAY-EM 14 SCREAMS at the top of her lungs. Everyone looks at the droid. KAY-EM 14 Was that out loud? DELONGPREE Thorgan, have you been screwing with . . . THORGAN grabs the head off the CORPSE, with the spike through it's head. THORGAN Cool! This is an automatic "A". Azrael dumps the contents of his bag on the ground, an old boot, some cds, and an ancient box of PLAYTEX . . . starts shoving the corpse into his pack. AZRAEL I've got my project. What are you losers gonna do? KICKER Back to the shuttle! All of you! I'll find them. YLLO Relax, Soldier boy, this is amazing. These remains are two hundred years old. Yllo's light hits a sign hanging from the ceiling. DANGER. STAY OUT. BOEMAN Creepy. THORGAN Cool. KKINSA Okay, I'm outta here. YYLO Kay-Em, any thoughts? KAY-EM 14 Girth is better than length and women prefer a shaved scrotum during oral sex. Yllo glares a Thorgan. THORGAN I'm trying to give her some personality. YLLO Well stop messing with her. I don't want a science droid with a personality. Now let's find them and get back. I want to get clearance to stay back and study this . . . KKINSA No way! I'm not staying here any longer . . . I have a life you know. A radio crackles. FAT LOU(V.O.) Hey teach! This rock's starting to freeze! Get your ass back hre! YLLO (into radio) Keep your shirt on! I'm working on it. You won't believe what we found. (calls out) Adrienne! Stoney! Yllo rushes past the corpse. The others reluctantly follow. They pass another hanging sign - Danger - THEY PASS ANOTHER CORPSE LYING ON THE FLOOR, it's torso separated from it's legs. And this is just the beginning. As they move down the corridor there are bodies everywhere. BOEMAN There was a hall of a battle down here. S they move further they break a laser beam . . . sparks fly. A WARNING VOICE sounds. COMPUTER VOICE Dan-danger. Do not enter-er. But the group keeps moving. KKINSA I feel compelled to ask why we are ignoring that. A corpse lies on the floor before them, it's skeletal hand beneath a warning written in ancient blood . . . HELP ME . . . Suddenly another CORPSE LEAPS at them, screaming like a banshee! Everyone SCREAMS - It lands on Kkinsa, who totally freaks trying to get the corpse off her. DELONGPREE and YLLO help Kkinsa fight the rotting corpse. They hear hysterical laughter and look up to see - ADRIENNE and STONEY . . . emerge from the shadows laughing uncontrollably. DELONGPREE Damnit! YLLO What the hell are you two doing?! Kkinsa eyes Adrienne, then glares at Stoney. KKINSA You're toast, mister. YLLO You're both toast! ADRIENNE You gotta see this! They turn down the right corridor, passing beneath ceiling consisting of a jumbled mess of jagged metal. THORGAN (re: ceiling) That's a strange design, don't you think? KICKER We don't have time for this shit. As they pass we see a section of the jagged metal ceiling twitch and squeeze together. That can't be a good thing . . . STONEY and Adrienne stop at a huge metal door. Above the door . . . CRYOGENICS LAB. Adrienne points to a small window in the door. DELONGPREE Yeah, so? I had Cryo 101 last year. ADRIENNE Check it out. With a smirk, Adrienne wipes the condensation from the small window in the door. Drawn from the inside, in blood, is a final warning - A SKULL AND CROSSBONES KKINSA So don't open the door. ADRIENNE Look beyond it, yesterday's news. Yllo pushes his way to the window. Shocked faces. INSIDE the blue tinted room we see a huge domed Cryo cylinder. It's massive, but our attention is pulled to the corner of the room. Curled up into a ball, is a body - female, young. YLLO Is that? KAY-EM 14 The room's still operational. She's perfectly preserved. Yllo's face lights up, grabs his radio. YLLO (into radio) Fat Lou, bring the ship to the following coordinates. Call Grendel, have them power up the labs, we're bringing in the find of the century! KICKER Now wait a minute! I don't think you should open that door. YLLO This is a science excursion corporal. Just stay out of the way. Yllo turns to the kids. He's very excited. YLLO Okay, no screwing around. This is the real thing. Do exactly what I say. Okay Thorgan, open it up. Thorgan pops the cover from a control panel and hooks up a small gadget. KKINSA You're opening the door? What about the . . . ? She points to the skull and crossbones. DELONGPREE I'm thinking we should call in some experts. YLLO This is your find people. You want to give your credit away? DELONGPREE I was just saying . . . THORGAN The cryo unit leaked. The computers sealed the room. No airborne viruses no hazardous materials. I've shut down the until. Alright, stand back. KAY-EM 14 Hold your breath. Initial cryo gasses will render you unconcious. DELONGPREE Knock you on your ass pal. They don their face masks as . . . Fshhhhhshshsh. The metallic door cracks open causing a powerful backdraft. The freezing cold air mixes with the air outside the chamber creating a strange gray gas. Ice crystals crack and fall to the floor. EXT. CRYO CELL YLLO Kay-Em! Kay moves into the room ahead of the others. INT. CRYO CELL CLOSE ON KAY-EM'S EYES They are not human. Mechanical, digital, but alluring. They dilate, open up. Colored lasers shoot forth, slicing through the gas, scanning the body. --which itself is slumped over. An icicle of frozen blood from, the wound in her shoulder, props the body up. The other enter the icy chamber. DELONGPREE I speak on behalf of the group when I say . . . that's fucked. KAY-EM 14 Female, nineteen years old, eight months . . . 34-26-34 . . . bitch is built like a brick shit house. YLLO Thorgan?!!! THORGAN Sorry. I'll fix her when we get back. KAY-EM 14 Time of hibernation 2049. Crystallization at seventeen percent. Suggest extensive Nanotech. Chances of rejuvenation eight-one percent. KKINSA What's going on? DELONGPREE She's dying. JANESSA Bitch looks dead to me. The RADIO CRACKLES . . . SERGEANT BRODSKI(V.O.) Yllo, Sergeant Brodski. Get your ass back to the shuttle!! YLLO Janessa, stretcher. (into radio) Keep your shirt on, sergeant. We have a medical emergency here not tot mention the discovery of a lifetime. SERGEANT BRODSKI(V.O.) Kicker! Get them the hell out of there! Janessa removes a Metallic cube from her backpack, clicks a button and a flat stretcher expands and hovers a few feet off the ground. Kicker grabs Yllo. KICKER We're outta here! Yllo pulls away, leans over the frozen girl, grabs the frozen string of blood and -CRACK-breaks it off. YLLO Fine, grab that end. Kicker sighs and helps Yllo lift the frozen girl and place her curled body on the stretcher. ANOTHER ANGLE As thorgan stands at the massive Cryo-Unit - THORGAN Hey check this out! Protruding from the door is the tip of a machete. THORGAN This caused the leak and there's an occupant. Thorgan yanks the door open. KICKER Don't touch that! Gas rolls out. Suddenly ALARMS SOUND and LIGHTS STROBE. KKINSA This is bad, no? THORGAN Relax, it's only a glitch in the system. JANESSA First field trip and you think you're a Scientist. Move out of the way geek. JANESSA moves to look inside the chamber. As the gas and steam clear - we hear the sound of CRACKING ICE, see a jagged mass of frozen crystals . . . and within it . . . a body. A chunk of ice CRACKS and falls tot he floor then THE MASK of JASON VOORHEES looms forward! JANESSA screams as JASON'S BODY, stiff as a board, CRASHES to the ground sending ice shrapnel everywhere! DELONGPREE Jesus, used to make the suckers big didn't they? Again, Kay-Em's eyes scan the frozen body. KAY-EM 14 Subject was dead prior to incubation. Yllo moves to get a good look at Jason. YLLO My God, look at him. Why would they freeze a dead body? (a beat) Alright, load him up, and let's get out of here! OVER HIS SHOULDER - HALL A pair of three foot metallic spiders drop on thin wires to the floor. BACK INSIDE One of Boeman's gadgets starts to BEEP. BOEMAN Er, guy? I'm picking up some movement. FZZZZT . . . Azrael screams as a laser slices into the room. His left arm falls to the ground! Kay-Em rushes to him. Her finger pops open. A needle appears. She injects him. The drugs take immediate effect. AZRAEL Cool . . . check out my arm. CLINK - CLINK, CLINK, CLINK, CLINK. HALL The metallic spiders, lasers attached to their bodies, CLANK towards our heroes. YLLO Kicker! KICKER Defense droids. I'm on it. Kicker slams the Cryo door shut as lasers slice into it. KKINSA There goes prom night. Kicker clicks at a gadget attached to his forearm. KICKER They're only class two. I can handle this. No problem. AZRAEL Not a problem?! Kay-Em injects him again. AZRAEL I'm missing a fucking arm heeeerrrr- (re:shot) Oh, that's dreamy. The lasers begin strategically slicing through hinges. JANESSA Okay rent-a-cop, do your shit. I gotta date tonight. KICKER Stand back! He pulls a gadget from his pack, punches in a series of buttons. YLLO We have to get these two back in one piece! Kay-Em turns to the frozen girl. KAY-EM 14 Subject is critical. Needs nano stabilization immediately. YLLO Kicker! Do something! ADRIENNE Oh Gawd! I wish it would stop doing that. At her feet, Azrael's arm twitches spastically. AZRAEL (drugged up) That is soooo cool! Kicker cracks the door and tosses his gadget. KAFOOM! KICKER Come on! Kicker throws open the door and starts BLASTING! Yllo and the kids follow him into the hall, the two stretches in tow. They disappear around the bend - towards the exit. A beat then . . . screaming. They run back into view. Behind them - - CLINK, CLINK, CLINK, CLINK, CLINK. A dozen laser wielding spiders make chase! Some are old and rusty, other slump over and short out, but those that work . . . work well. INT. LONG CORIDOOR Kicker is running backwards, BLASTING with his weapon. Lasers FLASHING all around our group. KKINSA Have I told you guys how much I hate this class? KICKER We need another exit! I'll hold 'em off! Teach, find a way out! BOEMAN I'm on it! KICKER Sorry kid, leave this to the pros. BOEMAN (re: gadget) Left at the end of the hall! A laser strikes the body of Jason Voorhees, breaking off a chunk of ice. THORGAN (reading from device) They're not after us. Their sensors are locked in on . . . him! Thorgan points to JASON'S STRETCHER. KICKER Leave him behind! YLLO No! He's coming with us! They round a corner . . . BOEMAN Here. We're one meter from the surface! KICKER Then duck. CHA-CHUNK . . he cocks his grenade launcher and fires at the ceiling. KABLOOM!! Rocks and falling debris reveal the violent surface above. DELONGPREE It's too high! Kicker rolls around the corner and starts blasting! KICKER Make it happen! JANESSA They're just subclass B droids. I'm so not impressed. BOEMAN Stoney, you catch. Stonet leaps, grabs the lip and tosses his feet up and over in a very acrobatic move. Boeman kneels, cups his hands to make a step. He begins tossing his friends up to Stoney as Kicker makes war in the hall! Soon, Boeman and Kicker are the only two left. BOEMAN We're clear! Let's go! Boeman leaps up, grabs the lip and pulls himself to safety. He spins around and holds his arm out for Kicker. Kicker leaps, grabs Boeman's hand. Boeman strains to pull him up as spider's cover the floor below them, then - A spider crawls up Kicker's leg - a spike shoots out into Kicker's thigh. He screams. KICKER They've got me! Let go! BOEMAN No! Boeman ROARS and pulls harder. Kicker's pack RIPS from his body - the spiders falling with the pack. EXT. SURFACE - DAY The sand storm is raging on the surface. Kicker lands on top of Boeman. BOEMAN That wasn't so bad. Kicker bites the pin from a grenade, tosses it into the hole. KICKER (yells) This will be! The others dive for the ground as - - KAFOOM! A FIREBALL rises up out of the hole! THORGAN Nice touch. BOEMAN And you said high school was boring. Our team fights the winds and rushes up the ramp of the waiting shuttle. FAT LOU is waiting at the ramp. He looks at the two stretchers. FAT LOU Oh my God . . . what the hell is . . . YLLO Just get us to the ship! Azrael stops in a panic! AZRAEL Oh shit I forgot my arm! ADRIENNE Here. Dumbass. She hands him the severed limb as they race up the ramp. The door closed, the SHUTTLE LIFTS OFF THE GROUND and soars into the sky. CUT TO: EXT. ORBIT AROUND OLD EARTH - LATE THE SHUTTLE maneauvers through the junk that now floats in orbit. Old satellites, the front quarter of a Space Shuttle, etc. INT. SHUTTLE COCKPIT Navigating through the debris, FAT LOU grabs a radio mike. FAT LOU This is Beowulf approaching from sector fifteen. Through the front windshield we see - - GRENDEL, a class IV Catamaran Transport. It looks like two huge torpedoes attached by three thin walkways. Not new, but by no means old. BERNIE(V.O.) I've got you, Beowulf. Proceed with docking. And by the way, Brodski's pissed. INT. DOCKING BAY The shuttle doors open revealing SERGEANT BRODSKI and six E-X GRUNTS standing with weapons at the ready. As the group gather their equipment and begin to move the two stretchers, Brodski stepsi n front of YLLO. BRODSKI What the hell were you thinking? YLLO ignores him, turns to his team. YLLO Get them in the lab! BRODSKI Not so fast Yllo! There's a protocol here. The E-X Grunts step in front of kids. YLLO (to the grunts) Back off! YLLO (back to the kids) Get them to the labs . . . Now! The team moves through the Grunts. YLLO What the hell are you doing? Brodski looks down at the stretcher with the young woman's body on it. BRODSKI My god! This is way over your head, pal. We need to call some experts and . . . YLLO I am an expert! BRODSKI You're a teacher. YLLO Brodski I'll talk slow so you can understand me. She's thawing. If we don't get her to the lab, she'll die, and that will be on your bald fucking head! BRODSKI What if they're carrying? Did you even check? KAY-EM 14 Subjects scan virus clean . . . Brodski attempts to shove Kay-Em out of his way . . . BUT she stands her ground . . . grabs his crotch. KAY-EM 14 Mmm, you like the rough stuff don't you, big boy? Brodski and Yllo look at Thorgan. BRODSKI AND YLLO Thorgan!! THORGAN Sorry . . . I'll fix her . . . I promise. BRODSKI How do you know that piece of cursed rock down there doesn't carry something metal tits can't detect? YLLO Well, when we rejuvenate this one you can ask her. BRODSKI Damnit, Yllo! I don't like it. YLLO I don't give a shit. This one's prime for decryonization. We're brining her back. BRODSKI I still think we should send for a team of real scientists. YLLO I am a scientist you asshole! This could be the most important discovery in 400 years. Do you have any idea what a find like this could mean? BRODSKI Right now, I care only for the safety of this crew. You don't know anything about these two - The stretcher with JASON moves by them. Brodski looks down. BRODSKI Jesus what the hell is that? YLLO That's exactly what we need to find out. Check your orders, Sergeant. I out rank you where discovery is concerned. Now step aside. I have a medical emergency to deal with. Reluctantly, Brodski steps aside. As the kids follow, Azrael bumps into DALLAS, one of the E-X GRUNTS. Azrael glares at him, brandishing the severed limb. AZRAEL Watch it punk, I'm armed. DALLAS Punk? Dallas slaps Azrael across the back of the head as he passes. AZRAEL You'll pay for that. Dallas and the grunts laugh. CUT TO: INT. GRENDEL BRIDGE FAT LOU and BERNIE, a synthetic pilot existing only from the waist up in his pilot's chair, set course for home. BERNIE Gravitation nominal. Thrusters engaged. FAT LOU (into radio) Grendel to Grendel's mother, we are enroute. GRENDEL'S MOTHER(V.O.) Copy that, Grendel. Computer ovverides deployed. See you in two days. CUT TO: INT. LABS Dark, quiet, until the lights glare on. LAB ONE doubles as a Medical Research center and Sick Bay. GLASS JARS filled with some of the strangest creatures ever seen cover the back wall. Yllo and the students bring the girl in. Their movements are hurried and economical . . .but they're excited. YLLO Get her prepped for the soup. (to Adrienne) Take the other one to lab two. ADRIENNE Yllo, this is my find. My project. I want to be in here. YLLO I know, dear, but this is too big a discovery. I need you to prep the second body. ADRIENNE But, I want . . . YLLO This is a discovery that we will all share. We have to work as a team. Now go. Stoney go with her. Thorgan and Delongpre lift the Girl onto the rejuvenation table. Stoney whispers something to Kkinsa before he exits with Adrienne. Kkkinsa nods and wheels a huge SCANNING MACHING over to the Girl. She starts the scan as Delongpree and Thorgan cut the clothes off their "find". THORGAN Have I told you guys how much I love this class? Delongpree brushes some of the melting crystals from her face. DELONGPREE She's beautiful . . . Thorgan cuts her shirt off. THORGAN Damn! Talk about your hard nipples. INT. LAB TWO Adrienne and Stoney push Jason into the lab. LAB TWO is smaller and less high-tech than LAB one. They shove JASON'S body onto the EXAM TABLE. ADRIENNE Fucking Yllo! Thinks he can push me aside. This is my find! She removes chucks of ice from JASON'S FACE. STONEY You know even though we both found this guy , I'll let you take the credits. You can take it from here. ADRIENNE Oh thanks . . . fine go. It's just another dissection. You'll only get in my way. STONEY Cool. Besides, you're into this shit. Stoney leaves Adrienne alone with Jason . . . and he is THAWING. INT. LAB ONE Yllo walks around the room, overseeing all the action. He's excited and cocky. YLLO Hands on training is rare. You should consider yourself lucky. AZRAEL Lucky?! Azrael sits in a large machine. This is . . . The NANO-TECH 2000. It can repair non-fatal injuries with the use of Nano-Technology. Azrael is scanned by the NT-2000 and so is his injury. It goes into action as articulated mechanics begin to re-attach his arm. AZRAEL Another hour and I'd have lost the arm. JANESSA Oh, was that the hand you beat off with? AZRAEL I better get extra credit for this shit. YLLO Delongpree, Status. How you doing? Delongpree cuts her underpants from her body and tosses them over his shoulder. DELONGPREE (swallows hard) I'm Okay. STONEY Well she's definitely a blond. JANESSA Oh that's scientific. DELONGPREE You think all girls from the past looked this good? JANESSA She's not that great. THORGAN 400 years . . . I bet she'll be horny. YLLO Okay, people, we need to Learn everything there is to learn about our two guests. And if all goes well, I'll mention each one of you when I make my nobel prize speech. DELONGPREE (underbreath) Yeah, right. Delongpre presses a button on the table. The edges of the table RISE UP to create a clear dome around the table. A hot gel-like substance shoots out of small tubes. The FROZEN BODY is covered in the NANO-GEL. Thorgan checks a monitor. THORGAN Everything looks good. Yllo smiles - gushing self-satisfaction. YLLO Turn up the heat. Adrienne is wearing a metal eyepiece while staring at a computer screen. No hands. ADRIENNE Done. Crystallization remains seventeen percent. INT. LAB TWO Adrienne scans Jason with a machine identical to the one Kkinsa was using in LAB ONE. COMPUTER VOICE Crystallization at sixty percent Subject classification . . . deformity. ADRIENNE Put it on the screen. A monitor lights up with a scan of Jason's body. The internal organs are distorted and bloated. She keys into the next lab. Back to lab one. ADRIENNE(V.O.) (over speaker) Guys, check out beef-cakes scan. Jason's 3-D scan appears on one of the big monitors. ADRIENNE(V.O.) Look at the brain. Within Jason's skull is a brain the size of a golf-ball. JANESSA It's just like Thorgan's. What do you think this means? Thorgan grabs his crotch. THORGAN This is what it means right here. JANESSA Small brains make your balls itch? DELONGPRE And what's with the headgear? KAY-EM 14 The mask is an artifact from a sport outlawed in twenty-twelve. BOEMAN Hockey. KAY-EM 14 A medieval sport where two teams club one another with elongated sticks. Very sexy. YLLO What do you expect from a culture that sucked its planet dry of resources. She eyes Stoney. He smiles knowingly. KKINSA This bores me. DELONGPRE She's red. Body temp 98.6. This is so cool. YLLO Prep defib and start the cell reconstruction. KAY-EM 14 presses a series of buttons. A long needle punctures the GIRL'S NECK. Jason's scan is replaced by the girl's. We see Nanotechnology going to work replacing her wounds and damaged cells. THORGAN Cool! Kkinsa and Stoney back out of the room unnoticed. YLLO Is she stable? KAY-EM 14 Subject is stable and cell reconstruction has begun. DELONGPRE Now what? YLLO We wait. I need about fifteen. Call me if there are any changes. If she farts I want a full report. AZRAEL Don't I deserve a sick day or some shit like that? Yllo exits. CUT TO: INT. STONEY'S CABIN The door swishes open. Stoney enters with Kkinsa close behind. Kkinsa raises her hand. KKINSA Adrienne?! Of all people! STONEY You're jealous. Stoney moves back. Kkinsa moves close hand raises above her head. KKINSA Adrienne?! STONEY It's over between us. You're the one I want. Kkinsa grabs the back of her shirt and pulls it over her head. KKINSA Bed! A bed slides out from the wall, hitting Stoney in the back of the legs, causing him to fall on the bed. Kkinsa straddles him. Stoney grabs her. The two fall into a feverish kiss. CUT TO: INT. LAB TWO Adrienne is prepping various medical tools. JASON'S BODY is laying on an autopsy table. Steam rises from his body as thick ooze drips from his thawing flesh. She turns on a computer monitor. ADRIENNE Prepare organ vats. Two metal sinks hiss as liquid nitrogen flows. ADRIENNE Okay big boy . . . She picks up a long, sharp chrome tool and walks over to Jason's body. ADRIENNE (continuing) . . . let's see what you're made of. CUT TO: INT. YLLO'S CABIN Yllo enters and approaches a computer console. The door behind him opens. Janessa enters. JANESSA All this science shit, makes me horny. (removes her shirt) Take off your cloths, we don't have much time. She drops her shirt to the floor. Yllo retrieves it, hands it back. JANESSA You're quicker than usual. YLLO Later. JANESSA You prefer an apple? He forces her into the hall, closes the door, locks it. He returns to the console. YLLO (to console) Secure line. Perez, Joshua, Solaras Space Lab. Connect. EXT. SOLARAS SPACE LAB - EST. A huge cylindrical ship, floats quietly. We hear a BEEPING sound. INT. SOLARAS SPACE LAB - PEREZ QUARTERS Joshua Perez rolls over, clicks on a light. He fumbles for a button, presses it. A wall monitor lights up revealing Yllo's face. INTERCUT AS NEEDED PEREZ You son of a bitch, you know what time it is? YLLO We just left old Earth. You'll never believe what we found. Yllo inserts a disk into the console. YLLO I'm sending you the files. PEREZ (testy) Yeah, yeah if this is another ancient Farrari . . . YLLO Trust me. I'm bypassing regular channels. See what kind of payday we're looking at. PEREZ (begins download) Alright, I'm . . . (reacts to file) No way . . . is this a joke? Yllo smiles. CUT TO: INT. LAB TWO Adrienne leans over JASON'S THAWING body. Oozing goo drips from the slab. She is inches away from his steaming mask. She taps it with her tool. She begins working at the straps of the mask, cutting the overgrown flesh away. INT. YLLO'S CABIN Yllo studies a monitor. On screen: a document entitled, EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS OF DISCOVERY. He talks on the secure line. YLLO Hypothetically, how much are we talking? PEREZ(V.O.) If you're for real, you're looking at a million credits for viewing rights alone. Doesn't include touring and guest lectures. When can you get them here? YLLO I'll reset our course . . . 3 hours? PEREZ(V.O.) See you then . . . doctor. Yllo's face glows with thoughts of fame and fortune. QUICK CUT TO: INT. HALL OUTSIDE YLLO'S QUARTERS Janessa has hooked up a small device to the door. She's heard every word. INT. STONEY'S CABIN Kkinsa rips off Stoney's shirt. Stoney grab her and rolls on top of her. INT. LAB TWO CLOSE ON JASON'S HAND - it curls, the frozen joints CRACKLE. Adrienne turns from Jason's mask. A large wad of goo hits the floor. She turns back to her work. Slicing flesh away from the mask. INT. STONEY'S CABIN Stoney and Kkinsa kiss passionately as they wrestle to get each other's pants off. INT. LAB TWO Adrienne tries to pry the Mask off . . . but it holds firm. She stick s a long sharp tool into an eye hole. We hear disgusting noises as she probes JASON'S EYE SOCKET. She removes the tool, and on the end is Jason's eye! Holding it close she looks at it. It is bloated and distorted. She drops it in a specimen jar and takes it over to her work station. INT. STONEY'S CABIN Kkinsa rolls on top of Stoney. She holds his arms down as she whispers in his ear. KKINSA How bad do you want it? Stoney gets his arms free and rolls on top of her. INT. LAB TWO JASON'S LEG JERKS! Adrienne turns again, then approaches. ADRIENNE Interesting. Record. Thawing has caused possible muscle spasms. She frowns at the disgusting ooze. A mixture of swamp waters, blood, and other thawing bodily fluids, puddle around Jason's body. She moves back to her work station and picks up JASON'S BLOATED EYE. She takes out an autopsy laser and cuts through the center of the eye. The laser slices through the fatty tissue as thick black goop drips out of the eye. Adrienne stares into a microscope. This is all very interesting. INT. STONEY'S CABIN Stoney lies on top of Kkinsa. KKINSA Yes . . . yes . . . that's it! . . . a moment, then both GASP as he enters her. INT. LAB TWO JASON sits up! CLOSE on ADRIENNE as she studies the dripping eye. She puts the laser down and turns to the slab and freezes. JASON IS GONE! She spins around only to find Jason standing behind her. He grabs her by the throat! She can't scream. She kicks wildly as he studies her. QUICK CUT TO: INT. LAB ONE Delongpre, Boemen, Kay-Em 14 and Thorgan wait and watch girl in the NANO-GEL. Thorgan is getting impatient. He can't find something. THORGAN Anybody seen the reticulator? INT. LAB TWO Adrienne is thrown into a work light. The room goes dark. INT. LAB ONE DELONGPRE Try next door, there was one there yesterday. Thorgan exits. INT. LAB TWO'S OBSERVATION ROOM The lights go. Thorgan looks around. Through the thick glass, where JASON is killing Adrienne, is blackness. THORGAN Wakey wakey love birds . . . Yllo's gonna be pissed if he catches you fooling around instead of working. Thorgan roots through a drawer, his back to the glass. ANTE ROOM Through the glass beside him we see Adrienne screaming. But NO SOUND. All rooms are air tight. Her head is smashed on the glass! Still screaming, her face recedes back into the darkness as Thorgan looks over his shoulder. THORGAN Bye, lovebirds . . . Stoney, you dog. He exits. BACK TO JASON As he - - DUNKS Adrienne's head INTO ONE OF THE METAL SINKS. Her body goes limp. He pulls her head up and stares at her frozen head, eyes open, mouth locked in a scream. He thumps the head against a wall. IT SHATTERS! Jason drops the body with a thud then turns to the - - DISSECTION TOOLS. He chooses a long silver cleaver. JASON'S BACK! EXT. LAB ONE CORRIDOR Jason walks into the corridor from LAB TWO, steam still rising from his cold body. He heads away from LAB ONE as soon as he's out of sight, YLLO appears. INT. LAB ONE Delongpre wakes as Yllo enters. YLLO All right, lets do this. Thorgan begin the Defib program, Delongpre, ready the drainage units. Boerman get the others in here. Boeman grabs a wall mike. INT. STONEY'S CABIN Kkinsa straddles Stoney. BOEMAN(V.O.) We've got a heartbeat! Her back arches in ecstasy. KKINSA No shit, we've got a heart beat! BOEMAN(V.O.) Stoney, you copy? She's awake. You coming? STONEY Hell yeah I'm coming! KKINSA No . . . not yet! BOEMAN(V.O.) Yes, right now! STONEY YES !!! KKINSA NO!!! NO!!! NO!!! YES!!! STONEY YES!!!!!! BOEMAN(V.O.) Stoney, put your pants on and get your ass down here! They jump up grab their clothes and rush to the door. Stoney hits the door release and the door SWISHES open revealing - - JASON VOORHEES! Standing in the hall. He swings the silver cleaver. Stoney sidesteps as Kkinsa SCREAMS. Stoney SLAMS his palm into the door panel. The door SWISHES to close but Jason's hand reaches out and stops it. ENGINES WINE as JASON STRUGGLES to force the door open. Stoney keeps POUNDING the panel, trying to make the door close but Jason's too strong! Jason grabs Stoney by the arm, jerks him into the doorway and releases the door. The door closes! Splitting Stoney from forehead to crotch! Splashed with blood, Kkinsa falls to the floor cowering . . . mumbling nonsensically. INT. LAB ONE Yllo, Janessa, Thorgan, Boemen and Delongpre anxiously huddle around the Frozen Girl's body. Probes dangle in the gel. YLLO It's time. DELONGPRE What about the others? Shouldn't we wait? YLLO I've waited long enough. Kay . . . you know what to do. Kay presses buttons. We hear the whine of something powering up . . . Brodski enters the lab. YLLO What the hell are you doing? BRODSKI My job. YLLO Fine, just stay out of my way. (turns to Kay) Hit it. An electrical noise flares THE SCREEN TO WHITE: SMASH CUT TO: INT. DARK CORRIDOR OUR VIEW FROM A JERKY POV Running, freshly killed bodies at our feet. HEAVY BREATHING. Small fists beat against a door. GIRL'S VOICE Mom! Dad! It's loose! He's loose! The door swishes open revealing the dead bodies of a couple in their forties. CLOSE ON THE GIRL We recognize her as the frozen girl. Her name, RIZZO (18), pretty. She screams. Turns. HER POV Standing at the end of the corridor, back lit and ominous is JASON VOORHEES! He marches towards her. She runs. Snatches a headset from a wall mount. RIZZO Help me! Anyone! Somebody help me! STATIC from the radio. Jason closing. She reaches down and grabs a shot gun from a dead Security Guard. Chick- chick. KABLAM! Jason keeps coming. She runs. As she rounds a corner, we see - - CRYOGENICS LAB She opens the door and enters the cold room. Slips on the wet frozen ground, nearly falls. ON JASON as he rounds the corner, sees the open door. INT. CRYO LAB Jason enters, his machete held ready. He stares at the Huge Cryo unit. Door open. Otherwise the room is empty. RIZZO(O.S.) Hey! Jason turns. Rizzo is standing in the hall, the shotgun ready. RIZZO You son of a bitch! KABLAM! Jason slides backwards on the slick floor. KABLAM! Further, he nearly falls. KABLAM! He stumbles, falls backwards into the cryo-unit. Rizzo slams her palm onto a console, the Cryo-unit door closes, JASON INSIDE. RIZZO tosses the gun to the floor and types on a keypad. Steam HISSES, engines hum to life. The Cryo-Unit, Bucks violently. COMPUTER VOICE Cryo-Unit activated. Slowly the unit goes silent, still. Rizzo stares at it, approaches slowly, staring at the fogging glass - KA-CHING! The MACHETE BURSTS THROUGH THE GLASS, slicing into Rizzo's shoulder! ALARMS SOUND. The cryo lab's main door SLAMS shut. COMPUTER VOICE Cryo-Unit leak. Lock down in progress. Security measures on line. RIZZO Nooooooo! She rushes toward the door. It won't budge. RIZZO Somebody! No! CHSHSHSHSHSH! Gas filters into the room from the leak in the Cryo-Unit. COMPUTER VOICE Subject in computer unit has reached full incubation. Rizzo begins to fade. She stumbles. RIZZO No . . . Cryo gas rolls along the floor . . . As blood pours from her wound, she reaches her bloody hand to the glass window and draws - A SKULL AND CROSSBONES. -then passes out. INT. LAB ONE RIZZO'S EYES pop open. She gasps for breath. Coughing and splitting the Gel-like substance. She's sitting in a foot of gel, naked; Yllo, Brodski and the kids around her. THORGAN That one did it! Yllo moves close to Rizzo. YLLO We should expect a moment of disorientation. WHAM! Rizzo punches Yllo in the nose. DELONGPRE Spunky . . . YLLO She broke my fucking nose! KAY-EM 14 Again proving that your ancestors were savages. BRODSKI I like her already. KAY-EM 14 Live signs full strength. Heart rate above normal - Rizzo's disoriented, confused. Gel slops all around her. RIZZO Where..? Who . . .? (shock) I'm alive. You brought me back. YLLO (rubbing his nose) Obviously so. Rizzo looks down at her body, gel dripping off her naked flesh. RIZZO What the hell is this shit? Delongpre gives her a blanket. She covers herself. RIZZO How did I get here, how did you bring me back? YLLO Nanotechnology. RIZZO Nano...but nanotechnology is impossible. YLLO We've had Nano-Tech for the last 30 years. RIZZO 30? How long was I out? Rizzo finally takes a good look at where she is. Something is very wrong in her world. YLLO The year is 2455. You've been frozen for the past four hundred years. Rizzo gasps -- a shocking revelation. YLLO Now lay back we need to do some tests and I have some questions... RIZZO JASON?! WHERE IS HE?! THORGAN The hockey player? He a friend of yours? RIZZO Hockey player? He's not a ... THORGAN He's dead! Everyone's dead! Old Earth is dead! RIZZO Old Earth? YLLO We need to do some tests...I'd like to ask you a few questions. RIZZO But...I...400 years? YLLO That's right, now if you could... Delongpre frowns at Yllo and moves to Rizzo. DELONGPRE It can wait. Let's get you cleaned up. Delongpre helps Rizzo off the table. YLLO Wait a minute...I need... BRODSKI Give it a rest Yllo. She needs some time. DELONGPRE Come on. INT. LAB FOUR Rizzo stands at a small window looking out into space. Cleaned up she is quite beautiful. DELONGPRE(V.O.) Rizzo? Rizzo is startled. She looks around. RIZZO Yeah? Delongpre comes through the door with a plate of food. DELONGPRE I thought that after 400 hundred years, you just might have a little bit of an appetite. He puts the food on a small table and moves to the window. DELONGPRE You're on Grendel, a class IV Catamaran transport. It's basically a school bus. We're on our way back to Earth II. It's finals week. She turns back to the window. RIZZO You're telling me I'm a friggen class project? Delongpre flinches, expecting to be hit. DELONGPRE (a beat) Sort of. I mean, no, not really ... She collapses onto the bed. DELONGPRE I'll give you a moment alone. Do you want me to come get you when we start the dissection? Rizzo shrugs. She's lost everyone and everything. She's lot 400 years. Delongpre backs out of the room, closing the door behind him. Rizzo stares at the pile of her old clothes. She reaches into the pocket of her tattered jacket and removes a set of keys. The key chain holds a picture...a picture of her parents. She sits on the bed and starts to cry. INT. LAB ONE As Delongpre enters all eyes turn to him. YLLO Well? DELONGPRE She needs a little time. YLLO More time...shit, she's had 400 years... Yllo laughs at his own joke. DELONGPRE That's really funny. YLLO I'd want her statements before we reach porch. Jesus, women. DELONGPRE Yeah, like you'd be a rock after everything she went through? RIZZO(O.S.) Dissection? Theyturn. Rizzo approaches Delongpre and Yllo. RIZZO Jason? He's on this ship?! YLLO Of course he is. He's the most relevant find in 400 years...except for you, of course. Look if you're worried about PR don't be. You're walking and talking. He's a stiff. You'll get the publicity. RIZZO (glares) Are you finished? Yllo nods then -- WHAM! Rizzo punches him again. YLLO God damnit! Will you stop doing that?! DELONGPRE Oh I like her a lot. BRODSKI I'm with you kid. RIZZO Where is he? BRODSKI (points) Lab two, relax. What's the matter? He's dead. RIZZO No, you're dead! You're all dead! She shoves Delongpre out of the way and out the door. INT. LAB TWO - MOMENTS LATER The others enter to find Rizzo leaning over Adrienne's headless body. YLLO Jesus! JANESSA Oh my God! Adrienne? THORGAN What have you done? RIZZO What have I done?! Idiots. Thorgan throws up. BOEMAN (into a mike) Brodski! Get to Lab two. We have an emergency! DELONGPRE Er, guys. Where's the Hockey Player? RIZZO I'll tell you where he is. He's walking around this ship, killing anything that moves. JANESSA Maybe she tripped. Brodski and Kicker burst into Lab Two, they react to the carnage. BRODSKI Jesus, God! KICKER Oh man, what the hell happened? RIZZO Jason! Can't you see? He did this. YLLO Impossible! He was dead before he entered Cryo-statis. There is no possible way he could be alive. RIZZO I didn't say he was alive. CUT TO: INT. GRID 52 Azrael moves through a maze of walls and pipes. Stea, HISSES lights STROBE. He's dressed in full military garb, a huge gun strapped to his hsoulder. STALKING POV Something watching Azrael, his back to us. Azrael moves. The stalker closes in. Suddenly Azrael hits, rolls and comes up Blasting right at us. HIS POV A HUGE ALIEN CREATURE, fangs, claws and so on, leaps at him. THe big blaster hits home. The alien DISINTERGRATES. Sitting on the floor, Azrael sighs and wipes his brow. SUddenly, another alien rises up behind him with a hideos Screech. There's nothing Azrael can do. He's a goner. Then -- FZZT! A blast from elsewhere DISINTERGRATES THE CREATURE. MOVE TO REVEAL-- DALLAS, the grunt Azreael had words with earlier. DALLAS That's nine to four, geek-boy. AZRAEL You got lucky. DALLAS You got lucky. I could have waited until he ate your head. AZRAEL Speaking of which, duck! Dallas hits the deck as Azrael FIRES, disintegrating another. Beyond it lunge a half dozen more. Dallas and Azrael scramble to their feet, take aim, when -- ONE OF THE ALIENS IS CUT IN HALF! GREEN GOO squirts from its body. AZRAEL What the?! JASON VOORHEES SLASHES THROUGH another alien, splitting it down the middle. Then another. DALLAS He's good. Azrael smiles knowingly. He takes aim and lets loose a blast at Jason. Aliens scatter as the blasts hits Jason dead on. Dallas joins in unloading on the hulinking terror. THeir assault has no effect on Jason whatsoever. DALLAS That sucks. Why won't he go down? AZRAEL Pause play. Suddenly the aliens freeze in place. Jason stares at them, then turns to Dallas and Azrael. DALLAS He's not part of the program. AZRAEL Hey cool. They brought ancient hockey guy back to life. Jason walks up to them. Titls his head like a dog hearing a high-pitched whistle. Why aren't they running. AZRAEL Hey! We're playing a game here. Get off the court! Jason raises his silver blade high. DALLAS No, we're playing a game...not you numbnuts... SLASH! The blade slices through Azrael's shoulder to the bottom of his rib cage. Blood spurts as his right side pulls away from his body. Azrael does not seem hurt, only pissed. AZRAEL Asshole that does not count as a kill. DALLAS Yes it does. AZRAEL Oh, come on! JASON is confused. He spins and slashed taking Dallas' head clean off. The head falls to the ground, then Dallas speaks. DALLAS Okay, enough of this shit. AZRAEL Alright, asshole. The sound of an ENGINE SHUTTING DOWN. Jason finds himself standing alone on a huge open court, all white, sterile. No creatures, no Dallas or Azrael. A both ends of the white garganuan room we see a small tinted glass. Azrael's voice booms over a loud speaker. AZRAEL(V.O.) Clear off the court, asshole. INT. BOOTH ONE Azrael sits before a huge console wearing a virtual reality suit. INT. BOOTH TWO Dallas is in his own suit from the opposite booth. DALLAS I don't have all day, kid. AZRAEL Yeah yeah I better call the labs, see what the hell is going on. Jason stares at the tinted glass of Azrael's booth. AZRAEL (into mike) Lab...this is AZ in the game grid. Your guy got out and runined our game. INTERCUT AS NECESSARY: INT LAB TWO The reaction to the broadcast. YLLO Azrael can you repeat that? RIZZO Get him out of there! AZRAEL (into mike) I said the guy in the mask is in here ruining our game. Jason starts to close in on Azrael's pod. AZRAEL (continuing) Send someone to the grid to pick him up. He looks lost. YLLO That's impossible. RIZZO I told you! Get them out of there! (grabs mike) Get out of there! Get out of there now! AZRAEL (into mike) All right fine, we'll head back-- Suddenly, JASON shoves his fist through the glass. DALLAS Jesus! The sounds of Azrael's DEATH broadcast over the lab. When Jason retrieves his hand, he holds a bloody mass of Azrael's insides. IN THE LAB, Brodski takes charge. BRODSKI Dallas! That you? Come back! DALLAS (into mike) Sarge! Get the fuck down here! We got a real shitstorm in the -- DALLAS fights to get out of his virtual reality suit and get himself into combat mode...BUT... JASON hears the movement. Turns, flings his silver blade. It flies across the room, throught the glass and impales Dallas' throat to his chair. The blade shrots out the electronics in the grid and plunges the room to black. INT. LAB TWO As the connection goes to static. BRODSKI (into mike) Dallas?! Dallas?! Do you copy? Nothing. Finally... RIZZO He's dead. They're both dead. You don't understand what is on this ship. This is a being that kills. That's what he does. That's all he does. And he is very good at it. BRODSKI Kicker, Sven. Get into the grid and tell me what the hell is going on! She gets up and heads for the door. DELONGPRE Where are you going? RIZZO We have to get off this ship. Yllo who has been losing control takes on the lead again. YLLO That's ridiculous. You're overreacting. RIZZO Why don't you get it? He's going to kill us all! BRODSKI I doubt that. I think we can handle whatever your ancient hockey player can throw at us. RIZZO Look! Just get everyone together, get off the ship... and then blow it to kingdom fucking come! That's the only way you're going to live. DELONGPRE You just need to relax. Rizzo ti's the future. We have soldiers on board, E-X Grunts, the baddest of the bad...and their weapons? I'm sure are slightly more advanced than what you're used to. RIZZO I hope so. EXT. GAME GRID CORRIDOR Sven and Kicker approach the door. Casually, weapons slung low. The doors hiss open, the black maw of the game grid on the other side. KICKER Damn. Are they playing? SVEN Dallas?! Azrael! Their combat sense perks up a bit. Something's not right. They turn on their lights and ready their weapons. INT. GAME GRID WIDE: Hard beams of light search for anything. Sven, as his beam hits Azrael's pod. SVEN Oh shit. From inside pod as Sven and Kicker approach. THe blood splattered inside the glass glows in the throws of their lights. Kicker breaks off to inspect the other POD Sven tries to hold down his lunch. SVEN Sarge, this is bad. The kid's His guts are ripped out. BRODSKI (over radio) Dead? SVEN Oh yeah. Kicker reaches the other POD. the darkness looms behind him as he finds his friend. KICKER (into radio) Sarge, this is Kicker. Dallas got it to. Real slice and dice. What should we do? INT. LAB TWO Everyone is in shock except Brodski...he's a pro. BRODSKI Report to weapons. We're going on a hunt. KICKER IN THE GRID KICKER Roger that. (to himself) Time to kick some ass! From behind him a shape materializes. A hand reaches out of the darkness. KICKER JUMPS! Spins around with his weapon at the ready! IT'S SVEN! SVEN Sorry! KICKER Don't friggen do that! INT. LAB TWO Brodski is in assault mode. BRODSKI Yllo, what's your head count? YLLO Looks like we're missing two. Stone and Kkinsa. JANESSA You know, Stoney's done everyone on this trip but me..what's up with that? Brodski scans the room - a tactical assessment. BRODSKI This place should be safe. Get them back here. I don't want to be hunting around and kill one of your kids by accident. As much as I've dreamed of doing that. Brodski goes to Rizzo while Yllo buzzes Stoney's cabin. BRODSKI I need to know what you know about this guy. RIZZO Don't go out there. You can't win. We need to get off this ship. That's all there is to it. BRODSKI Not an option. I'm going to hunt this son of a bitch down. Rizzo shakes her head. She can't get through to this guy. BRODSKI I've been a grunt for fifteen years. There's not a problem I can't fix with enough ammunition. Yllo is getting no response. YLLO Stoney! Stoney if you can hear me, get your ass down to the lab immediately! (beat) I'm going to see if I can find them. Yllo opens the door and Kkinsa is there! Half-naked, covered in blood. Janessa SCREAMS and the others gasp. Kkinsa falls to the floor..whimpering, in shock. Boeman rushes over to her with a blanket. KKINSA Sstoney's dead! They all look to each other, searching for what to say or do...Rizzo puts her head in her hands...not again. INT. CORRIDOR Brodski double-checks his sidearm as Yllo follows him down the hall. YLLO ALL I'm saying is dock with Space Lab, couple of hours no more. Let them take a look at our friends. BRODSKI Not a chance. YLLO JUst don't go in there half cocked. You guys have a tendency to blow shit up and ask questions later. BRODSKI You got that right. They arrive at the door of the WEAPONS ROOM. YLLO This thing could be worth a great deal.... scientifically...not to mention what the fat cats on Earth II would pay for it! Look, I'll split it with you 50/50... The door opens. The E-X Grunts are all there. Weapons in a rack on one wall. They are in various states of battle dresss. Yllo follows Brodski in. Brodski turns and faces him, his men behind. BRODSKI You sumbitch! Three dead! On my watch! If that...that thing is out there, it's dead! You got it!!! KICKER Fuckin A... BRODSKI Now get out of our way...get back to the lab and baby sit your snot nosed brats... we've got a job to do! INT. LAB ONE Yllo enters pissed off. The others are standing around not sure what to do. YLLO That bastard! Boemen turn on the tracking monitors. Rizzo walks over to Kay-em 14. Thorgon is working on her. RIZZO Robot huh? KAY-EM 14 Kay-em 14. RIZZO Barbie from hell... KAY-EM 14 Cybernetics science droid, fluent in over six... RIZZO Yeah 3cpo, I saw STAR WARS, now how about you help me get out of this coffin, Barbie... KAY-EM 14 I'm afraid I cannot assist. Rizzo is very frustrated. RIZZO I'm surrounded by idiots. KAY-EM 14 You need to get laid! Thorgon looks up from his work. THORGON Sorry, I'm working on it. DELONGPRE Are all twenty-first century girls like you? RIZZO He'll kill us all. You know that, don't you? AN ALARM SOUNDS. THORGON (re:monitor) There's been an unauthorized entrance to the Cargo Bay. BRODSKI Got it! Let's move out girls. Yllo go to Lab two and cover out backs. YLLO (into the mic) At least try to get him alive...will ya Brodski? BRODSKI (v.o.) I'll try. CUT TO: INT. CARGO DOOR - MIDSHIP kicker, sven, CONDOR, BRIGGS, and GEKO are locked and loaded. Dressed in full armor, packing massive high tech weaponry, they are a sight to see. Jason may have met his match. BRODSKI Alright, the teach requests we take this guy out at the knees. I say shoot to kill. The boys fidget with excitment. Bout time they see some action. BRODSKI So after you've killed him, put one in his knee so we can say we tried. The men LAUGH and high five. BRODSKI Go to infrared, stay in radio contact. (into headset) Teach you there? INT. LAB ONE Yllo walks in and sits at a bank of monitors. Through one, we see the team standing at the cargo doors. YLLO Yeah, I got ya. I don't see anything inside though. BRODSKI(V.O.) You just keep an eye out. YLLO Yeah yeah. Got it. Yllo removes his head set and quickly turns to a separate console. He has his own agenda. INT. CARGO DOOR - MIDSHIP BRODSKI Let's move out. The doors HISS open. INT. CARGO BAY A massive room. Boxes stacked hihg, some to the ceilin,g creating a maze. BRODSKI Two teams, Port, starboard. They split up. INT. LAB ONE The kids are standing at a schematic of the ship. Several small blips are entering the cargo area. BRODSKI(V.O.) Kicker, anything? KICKER(V.O.) Negative. Rizzo stands over Thorgan to see the monitor. THORGAN Each blip represents a trained killer. It's men like that fought off the pirates on Earth II, battled Jauntuns on the solar moons... For the moment, Rizzo looks distantly hopeful. RIZZO So, you're saying thse guys have like, lasers and stuff? They could hack him to pieces? THORGAN Exactly. INT. CARGO BAY - PORT SIDE Briggs and Geko move side by side. Condor brings up the rear. Suddenly he is jerked out of view. CLOSE ON CONDOR'S FACE, jason's hand around his throat. SNAP. The eyes go dead, the neck broken. INT. LAB ONE Rizzo sees something. Her hopes fade. RIZZO WHAT'S IT MEAN WHEN ONE OF YOUR BLIPS DISAPPEARS? All eyes turn to the schematic as one of the blips FLICKERS and FADES. KAY-EM 14 E-x Grunt Condor has flatlined. BOEMAN (into mic) Sergeant, this is Boemen... INT. CARGO BAY - STARBOARD Sergeant Brodski stops. BOEMAN(v.o.) You've lost Condor. BRODSKI Briggs, Geko, talk to me! INT. CARGO BAY - PORT SIDE Briggs and Geko stare at each other. BRIGGS He was...he was right here! BACK TO BRODSKI BRODSKI DAMNIT to hell! We're coming to you! INT. LAB ONE A BLIP flashes for a second on the screen. THORGAN You see that? BOEMAN Briggs, Geko, movement beyond the boxed fuselage. INT. CARGO BAY - PORT SIDE BRIGGS Got it. BRIGGS and GEKO split up, moving around a large metallic tank. BRIGGS INFARED POV Gun ready, he moves around the crated fuselage slowly. BRIGGS I don't see anything. INT. LAB ONE The blip flashes again. INT. CARGO BAY - PORT SIDE BOEMAN(V.O.) He's right there! In front of you! INFARRED POV reveal GEKO moving toward him. BRIGGS That's GEKO. mAYBE you kids should stay out of this. Briggs removes his gogles only to find Jason standing before him, holding Geko's body...impaled onto his silver blade. BRIGGS fires...screams. INT. LAB ONE BRIGGS(V.O.) He doesn't show up on... PAINFUL GURGLES then two more blips disappear. THORGAN (turns) Jesus, is this what it was like on your... Rizzo is cowering on the floor, her hands over her ears. She's sweating, convulsing. BOEMAN Sergeant, you've lost two more men! INT. CARGO BAy - PORTSIDE Brodski and his remaining men double-time-it to the slaughter. Briggs and Geko lie dEAD AT THEIR FEET. KICKER Jesus, Sarge, what is this thing? BRODSKI Teach! Where the hell are you?! Where's our visuals?!! INT. LAB TWO Yllo is talking on aseparate mike. Unwaakre of the slaughteri n the next room. YLLO Fat Lou, we're changing courses for the Solaras Space Lab. FAT LOU(V.O.) I'll need the sergeant's okay on that. YLLO We've got a situation here! Just do as you're told! FAT LOU(V.O.) Alright, relax. 20 minutes. Soon as we've passed Tara's rings we'll make the course correction. BACK TO YLLO. YLLO Thank you. Yllo disconnects, and turns to the other console. YLLO (into mic) Ok Sarge, what's your status? BRODSKI(V.O.) wHAT'S My status?! I've lost three men and your worthless fuck! After I kill this asshole I'm coming your Yllo! YLLO But I didn't see... INT. CARGO BAY - PORT SIDE GUNFIRE ERUPTS! SVEN(V.O.) I got him! I got him! INT. LAB ONE CHEERS from everyone except Rizzo who knows better. She shakes her head. THORGAN Yes! RIZZO Listen up duck fuckers, you can't kill this thing. BOEMAN Duck fuckers? RIZZO He's either unconcious or playing dead, whichever, he ain't really dead. Okay, you know , that's it for me. I'm outta here. DELONGPRE Outta here? RIZZO Isn't there an escape POD on this ship? Something? THORGON There's a shuttle. RIZZO Alright, been nice knowing you. Who's with me? KKINSA I'll go. BOEMEN Yllo said stay here. KKINSA Fuck Yllo! BOEMEN They got him! You're not leaving! INT. CARGO BAY - MIDSHIP Sven is kneeling over Jason's body. SVEN Big sucker too. Suddenly, Jason reaches up, grabs the back of Sven's head and SLAMS it into his mask. Sven's forehead shatters. ON BRODSKI As he races around a crate. Sven's body is within sight. His killer nowhere to be seen. BRODSKI Kicker? Where are you? Elsewhere we hear GUNFIRE followed closely by a SCREAM! ELSEWHERE Kicker crawls across the floor, blood spews from his mouth. PULL BACK TO RVEAL He's been split in half at the wait...his entrails dragging behind him.. SHUNK! A machete throught the back of the neck puts him out of his misery. INT. LAB ONE RIZZO Do something!!! THORGON Don't look at me! I'm in high school! INT. CARGO BAY Brodski runs. He's spooked. Twisting and turning in every direction. BRODSKI Find Crutch! Set up an ion field around the cargo bay. We'll torch the sucker! Yllo...you're a dead man! Brodski races toward the Cargo exit. INT. LAB TWO ON MONITOR We see Brodski racing towards us. We also see Jason, lying in wait, hidden by one of the crates. YLLO Sergeant! BRODSKI (stops) What? Yllo considers then. YLLO Nothing. On the monitor we see Brodski move forward. He never saw Jason coming. BRODSKI SCREAMS. Yllo turns his head. INT. LAB ONE The kids stand in shock, silently staring at one another, listening to the static of the dead communications. Boeman reaches over and clicks off the radio. Silence. Rizzo leaps to her feet. RIZZO Lesson number one, kiddies. You wanna get home safely then we get off this boat. Kkinsa starts t cry. KKINSA I don't understand...what does he want? RIZZO He wants to kill you...and me...and everyone on this ship. Rizzo looks at everyone. RIZZO Any questions? A side door HISSES OPEN. Yllo enters. YLLO You're not going anywhere. RIZZO You wanna die? YLLO (ignores her) Are we locked down? BOEMAN That door's the only way in or out and it won't open without the code. YLLO Then we wait. We're docking with Space Lab in less than an hour. RIZZO What good will that do? YLLO They can deal with this sort of thing. RIZZO More soldiers? YLLO Scientists. Very intellegent men. RIZZO That's great. I bet they'll kick Jason's ass at a spelling bee! JANESSA Look ice chip, why don't you just chill out and let us handle this? YLLO Try to calm down. Just think, you're going to be famous! RIZZO (to kids) Guys, please come with me! YLLO 4You're not going anywhere. Rizzo starts for the door but Yllo grabs her arms, holds them behind her. DELONGPRE Now hold on! We should hear her out! THORGAN She's obviously dealt with this guy before. YLLO Shut up! She just wants this thing dead! DELONGPRE No shit. I got no problem with that. Janessa readies a hypo. THORGAN Maybe if we knew a little bit more about what we're delaing with here... Janessa moves behind Rizzo with the sedative. Suddenly Rizzo throws her head back, Salmming it into Yllo's nose. He CRIES OUT in pain. Janessa lunges with the syringe but Rizzo snatches her wrist, grabbing the hypo, burying it into Janessa's left breast. RIZZO tNighty-night. Janessa collapses. Yllo rushes Rizzo again, but this time Boeman stands, blocks his path. CRUTCH Leave her be. RIZZO Ok, who do I gotta fuck to get off this boat? Thorgan timidly raises his hand. RIZZO Listen to me. Please. Let's get off thsi ship. Come with me. THORGAN Rizzo, a shuttle out in the middle of space? We'll die oout there. Rizzo rushes the door. There's a code box on the wall. RIZZO How do you open the damn door? YLLO You're crazy! Kkinsa punches in the code. The door HISSES open. DELONGPRE Rizzo, he's out there. RIZZO Yeah and he'll be here soon enough. (looks at Delongpre) Last chance. The others stare at her. She's crazy. RIZZO Fine. Bye. She and Kkinsa exit, the door SWISHES CLOSED behind them. YLLO (favoring his nose) Pack your shit. We'll disembark in an hour. The guys at Space Lab have the necessary equipment to contain this thing and then we can study it. But the kids aren't so sure. INT. LAB TWO Yllo enters, makes sure he wasn't followed then approaches a console. YLLO Computer on line. A series of beeps. JANESSA(O.S.) What are you doing? YLLO (jumps) Jesus! Can't you knock? (back to console) Diminish power to shutttle Beowulf. COMPUTER VOICE Power to Beowulf disengaged. YLLO (to Janessa) She's too valuable. She's not leaving this ship. CUT TO: INT. GRENDEL BRIDGE Fat Lou and Bernie prepare for course corrections. FAT LOU Disengage auto-pilot. BERNIE Disengaged. FAT LOU New COURSE, seven-eighty-one. EXT. GRENDEL CLASS IV She banks slowly to the right. INT. GRENDEL BRIDGE BERNIE On course. ETA 36 minutes, 34 seconds. FAT LOU Engage auto pilot. Suddenly, Bernie is ripped from his chair! Electricity SHOOTS through the console as Bernie's DIALOG becomes jibberish. BERNIE En-en-en-en...Eta-Eta... Fat Lou stares up in shock just before JASON SLAMS Bernie's torso ontop of her. PULL BACK TO REVEAL FAT LOU'S upper body has disappeared. In other words, Bernie now has legs. Little good they'll do him. THROUGH WINDSHIELD. Far in the distance we see a tiny space station -- SPACE LAB. A monitor reads ... SPACE LAB ETA 00:35:59 and counting. CUT TO: INT. CARGO BAY Rizzon and Kkinsa enter. RIZZO Which way? Kkinsa points. They head in that direction. Then Rizzo suddenly stops. KKINSA What? RIZZO Ssh. Rizzo pulls Kkinsa close to one of the crates. RIZZO He's in here. Kkinsa opens her mouth to scream. Rizzo slaps her hand over Kkinsa's mouth. RIZZO You scream I'll snap your neck. Got it? Kkinsa nods. Rizzo releases her. KKINSA (whispers) How do you know? RIZZO (dread) I just know. INT. LAB ONE The crew has packed their essentials and now wait to dock with Space Lab. Yll is standing before the others holding Jason's machete. YLLO We must assume the machete was an intricate part of the game of hockey. DELONGPRE I'm thinking Rizzo was right. YLLO Thinking with your dick again, Delongpre? DELONGPRE Maybe we should go with them. Like you said, your Space Lab connections can deal with this thing. At least we'll be safe. YLLO They are not going anywhere. I cut power to the shuttle. The kids and Crutch stare at him. Cold hearted. INT. SHUTTLE DOCKING BAY Rizzo and Kkinsa approach. RIZZO Open the doors. Kkinsa punches in a series of buttons. Nothing. KKINSA Something's wrong. RIZZO Keep trying! INT. LAB ONE YLLO Everyone ready? Yllo grabs a mike from a console. YLLO Fat Lou, what's the ETA? STATIC. YLLO Lou, goddamjnit! Bernie, where's Lou?! STATIC. Boeman moves to one of the consoles, clicks a few buttons. ON MONITOR We see the view from the bridge security camera. Lots of blood and the mangled combination of Lou and Bernie. THORGAN Yuck. DELONGPRE We're screwed. YLLO The ship doesn't need pilots to dock. We'll disembark and you'll see. Everything will be fine. BOEMAN Uh...that's gonna be a problem. The ship's not on auto-pilot. We're flying blind. (a beat) Thirty minutes till impact. All eyes turn to Yllo, for guidance, his back to the outer door. YLLO I guess...we'll have to go to the bridge. THORGAN But... Jason is out there. Then -- WHAM-WHAM-WHAM! The outer door bucks and dents! Everyone jumps! WHAM-WHAM-WHAM! QUICK-CUT TO: INT. SHUTTLE DOCKING BAY Over the headsets, Rizzo and Kkinsa hear the SCREAMS. RIZZO Damnit, he's got them. Kkinsa keeps trying the code box. Nothing. KKINSA Rizzo, I think Yllo must have done something. The door won't open. INT. LAB ONE YLLO It's alright. He can't get in here! WHAM! WHAM!!! But the door is starting to give. Through the confusion, Crutch moves to one of the consoles. Clicks away at the keyboard. INT. SHUTTLE DOCKING BAY The shuttle hums to life. KKINSA The power's back up! RIZZO Then open the doors! KKINSA Thirty seconds. INT. LAB ONE WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! JANESSA What do we do?!! YLLO Crutch? CRUTCH Help me up. Boeman helps Crutch to the top of a table. Crutch goes to work on a ceiling vent, removing screws. JANESSA Okay, I'm guessing you should hurry. The top corner of the door bends...Jason peers through. THORGAN Jesus, tell this asshole I don't play hockey! CRUTCH Okay! Our group starts climbing the table and into the ceiling space. YLLO Will that take us to the bridge? CRUTCH It's a maze up there, but yes. YLLO We'll engage auto-pilot! Everything'll be fine! With that, the door gives! Boeman heaves Crutch into the crawl space then follows himself. Jason pauses, staring at Kay-Em -- KAY-EM 14 Heart beat irregular...no blood flow... impossible...this....this... does not make sense. Jason's heard enough. He swings his cleaver, but Kay-Em ducks. Turns and leaps through the hole in the celing. INT. CEILING WALK SPACE Yllo grips the ledge. YLLO Move it people! Then Yllo screams. Jason has him from below. Boeman grabs his arms. BOEMAN Help me! DeLongpre grabs hold and pulls. Suddenly Yllo is jerked out of their grasp. They fall onto their backs breathing heavily. INT. LAB ONE Yllo leaps to his feet. Jason looms over him. YLLO Now hold on! Have you considered how valuable you are? Credit, fame, you can have it all. And ladies. I mean, how long has it been? Jason stands there, but his attention isn't on Yllo. It's on the machete sticking through Yllo's belt. Jason reaches for it. Yllo backs into a wall. Jason slowly removes the machete from Yllo's belt and stares at it. He drops the cleaver to the ground. YLLO (chuckles) That's all you wanted? INT. SHUTTLE DOCKING BAY The shuttle doors slide open as we hear over the headset -- YLLO(V.O.) It's okay, he just wanted his machete. RIZZO (knowingly) Three...two...one... Yllo screams. INT. CEILING WALK SPACE Yllo's SCREAMS turn to GURGLES. All eyes stare at the opening in the walkway, then -- YLLO'S HEAD LANDS IN BOEMAN'S LAP! KAY-EM 14 Now that's just gross. JASON STICKS HIS HEAD THROUGH. EVERYONE JUMPS, SCREAMS. DELONGPRE GO, GO, GO! They race down the walkway, over huge pipes and through electrical wires, Crutch in the lead. INT. SHUTTLE DOCKING BAY Kkinsa enters the shuttle, turns to Rizzo. KKINSA Rizzo, come on! But, Rizzo hesitates. We can still hear the PANICKED SCREAMS over the headset. THORGAN(V.O.) Go-go-go-go-go!!!! DELONGPRE(V.O.) He's right behind us! RIZZO Damn! (to Kkinsa) Close the door! I'll be right back. KKINSA (panicked) What?!! RIZZO I gotta go back. KKINSA But?!! Rizzo turns and races through the maze of boxes and crates leaving Kkinsa nearly insane. INT. CELING WALK SPACE KAY-EM 14 I'm quite sure I wasn't designed for this. Crutch comes to a fork in the walkway. CRUTCH Okay, we need to ... BOEMAN You forgot didn't you, you old fart? At the back of the line, Delongpre turns as Jason rounds the bend behind him. DELONGPRE Shit! Move it! He's coming! Delongpre leaps forward creating a pile out of Janessa and Thorgan DELONGPRE Go! Racing forward the group stays just out of Jason's grasp. Leaping over and under and through whatever blocks the path. DELONGPRE Faster! Jason swings his machete at DeLongpre! It just misses him. DELONGPRE FASTER!!! Crutch comes to ascreened panel. Boeman kicks it open. They leap down onto a catwalk crossing the -- INT. CARGO BAY They are twenty feet off the ground as -- Rizzo stops, stares straight up. HER POV the group races across the catwalk as Json leaps down behind them. DELONGPRE He's right on my ass! Then Jason grabs Delongpre, who screams. RIZZO, spots a gun left by one of the marines. She snatches it, points it towards Jason and Delongpre then aims a little high. FZZZT! It slices through a metal cord holding the catwalk to the ceiling. The catwalk jerks. Everyone tumbles. Jason loses his grip on Delongpre. Suddenly, METAL SCREECHES, as the catwalk gives under the weight. It RIPS in half,dumping both heroes and Jason. RIZZO dives out of the way as a pile of metal and bodies crash to the ground! Janessa sits up rubbing her head. JANESSA That was fun. Kay-Em 14 sits up, sings. KAY-EM 14 I got a brand new pair of roller-skates, you got a brand new key... JANESSA Thorgan?! THORGAN I didn't do it. The fall scattered her programming..wait. Where's? Shit! He's lying on top of Jason. He scrambles to his feet. But Jason doesn't move. THORGAN Hey, I think the fall killed him. The group slowly gathers around. Jason sits up and swings at Thorgan. Boeman pulls him out of the way just in time. Jason starts to stand when RIZZO comes up behind him. KA-FWAM! She brings the barrel of a high tech gun down on the top of Jason's head. He collapses. The surrounded faces look happily suprised. RIZZO Trust me, it's temporary. Boeman takes the gun from Rizzo. BOEMAN Better let me. THORGAN Where'd you get the gun? Rizzo gestures at what's left of Geko's body. CRUTCH The bridge is this way! They take off running. RIZZO Wait! Everyone stops, turns -- KAY-EM 14 There's not enough time. Rizzo catches up. RIZZO Forget the bridge, the shuttle's waiting! BOEMAN (to Kay-Em) What do you mean, not enough time? KAY-EM 14 (switches voice) You know what you get if you shove two bananas up your ass? Two shit covered bananas. JANESSA I think your metal lover's losing it. KAY-EM 14 (normal voice) Impact in ten minutes. It will take fifteen to reach the bridge. (switches voices, sings) Mamma's little baby love shortnin, shortnin, mamma's little baby love shotnin bread... DELONGPRE Well, I'm not hanging out here with Ms. Showtunes. RIZZO Guys!!! The shuttle? The kids look at one another as if this were a stroke of genius. RIZZO Idiots. CRUTCH This way! Crutch again leads them through the maze. Delongpre stops at another Grunt body, removes a chain gun. THorgan takes a high tech laser from another. THORGAN I feel better. Now how do you fire this damn thing? DELONGPRE Just go! I've a feeling he's right behind us! CRUTCH (jokingly) Just around this bend... Jason steps out in front of Crutch, his machete held poised in front of him. Crutch runs right up onto the blade. BOEMAN Nooooo! Alrhoguh he's meat on a stick, Crutch doesn't give up. He SLAMS his fists into Jason's torso. Thorgan turns to fire --Boeman KNOCKS the barrel high. BOEMAN You'll hit crutch! Boeman tosses his weapon to Janessa and leaps on Jason's back, locking his arms around his neck. RIZZO What are you doing? You can't save him! Delongpre smashes the back of Jason's knee with the chaingun. Jason topples on top of Boeman. Crutch is thrown free. Janessa and Thorgan help Crutch to his feet as Jason sees Rizzo for the first time in 400 hundred years. It's either love at first sight or one hell of a grudge. He leaps to his feet and races towards her. RIZZO Don't just stand there! Shoot him! DELONGPRE (to Jason) No you don't! BRAAAAAAATTTT! The chaingun dances Jason backwards. He CRASHES through the side of one of the cargo boxes. EVERYONE STOPS. RIZZO Don't stop! She jerks the gun from Delongpre and races to the crate. RIZZO You never stop when he's down! But the crate is empty. RIZZO Shit!!!! They spin around, searching. CRUTCH (weak) Forget him. Come on. Carrying Crutch, they move toward the shuttle bay. INT. SHUTTLE DOCKING BAY panel, clicks some buttons, then -- BOEMAN Uh-oh. JANESSA What?! BOEMAN Kkinsa! Open the doors! INT. SHUTTLE COCKPIT Kkinsa sits in the pilot's seat. She's terrified. BOEMAN(V.O.) Kkinsa! He's coming! Open the doors! INT. CARGO SHUTTLE BAY DeLongpre shoves Boeman out of the way. DELONGPRE Kkinsa, open the goddamn door! RIZZO Yeah, that's it, scare the hell out of here, that'll work. INT. SHUTTLE COCKPIT RIZZO(V.O.) (calming) Kkinsa, it's me, Rizzo. He's not out here right now, so please let us in. Kkinsa doesn't move. RIZZO(V.O.) Kkinsa, Crutch is hurt! We need access to the shuttle's med-kit or he'll die. INT. CARGO SHUTTLE BAY DELONGPRE Med-kit? RIZZO I guessed. INT. SHUTTLE COCKPIT Kkinsa considers. She reaches for a button marked SHUTTLE DOORS...hesitates. RIZZO(V.O.) We're going to be okay, Kkinsa. Just relax. INT. SHUTTLE DOCKING BAY Kay-Em 14 steps forward. KAY-EM 14 Allow me. I'm trained in all aspects of the human psyche. Rizzo backs away -- as Kay-Em nears the mike ... KAY-EM 14 Kkinsa, dear, it is I, KAY-EM 14... open the fucking door you silly bitch! Rizzo shoves Kay-Em out of the way. KAY-EM 14 I didn't say I was good at it. INT. SHUTTLE COCKPIT THORGAN(V.O.) Oh shit! There he is! INT. CARGO BAY SHUTTLE Jason is standing at the entrance to the Cargo Shuttle Bay. INT. SHUTTLE COCKPIT Kkinsa leans forward and presses -- LAUNCH. INT. CARGO SHUTTLE BAY The Shuttle ROARS to life and begins pulling away from the ship. BOEMAN Kkinsa! No!!! EXT. GRENDEL CLASS IV The shuttle moves slowly away from the docking position. INT. CARGO SHUTTLE BAY Rizzo opens fire! Thorgan and Delongpre join in. ANOTHER ANGLE As boxes and cargo shatter under the heaby fire. Smoke rises. It's impossible to see where Jason is. RIZZO stops FIRING. RIZZO DON'T WASTE YOUR AMMO! But, they don't let up. Boxes explode, crates collapse until -- Thorgan's gun clicks empty. Then Delongpre's. SILENCE. The smoke slowly clears revealing the rubble. THORGAN Did we get him? Suddenly, Jason again steps into the Cargo entrance. DELONGPRE We're screwed! RIZZO 400 years in the future and these pea-shooters are the best you can do?! They are trapped. Jason blocks the only exit. He slowly moves towards them. RIZZO Just make a break for the door. He'll get some of us, but that's the breaks. BOEMAN We're not leaving Crutch! RIZZO We don't have time to argue! But Jason has locked in on Rizzo. He moves towards her. JANESSA Okay, tell you what. You die, we'll run. Rizzo and the others back into a corner. Jason has them. There's nothing they can do. Rizzo holds the gun steady, waiting for point blank range. INT. GRENDEL BRIDGE THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD SPACE LAB, which was only a dot the last time we saw it, suddenly looms toward us. COMPUTER VOICE Collision eminent. EXT. GRENDEL CLASS IV The left side of Grendel SMASHES into the side of Space Lab! INT. CARGO SHUTTLE BAY Suddenly everything shifts toward the bridge. Boxes, cargo, kids, and Jason! EXT. GRENDEL CLASS IV Grendel SLIDES along SPACE LAB, ripping huge chunks of metal from both. SPARK fly. There are interior EXPLOSIONS on Space Lab, then -- KA-FOOM! Space Lab EXPLODES! INT. CARGO SHUTTLE BAY The entire ship shifts upwards. Cargo, crew, and Jason fly into the air. ELECTRICAL fires sprout up all over. Cargo boxes SHATTER, contents SPILLING. RIZZO loses her gun. EXT. GRENDEL CLASS IV Debris from Space Lab TEARS into the side of the ship and beyond. EXT. SHUTTLE One huge chunk heads right towards the Shuttle. INT. SHUTTLE Kkinsa stares out the window as the huge chunk flies toward her. EXT. SHUTTLE IMPACT! THE SHUTTLE IMPLODES! ONE BRIGHT RED FIREBALL. INT. CARGO BAY Everything piled and in tatters. Our heroes slowly regain their bearings. BOEMAN Everyone okay? THORGAN I think I broke my arm. KAY-EM 14 I seem to have misplaced mine. Kay-Em 14's right arm is missing, wires sticking out of the stump. JANESSA You geeks wanna gimmie a hand? Janessa is buried beneath a pile of rubble. Boeman helps her to her feet. DELONGPRE (quiet) We lost crutch. Rizzo stands and watches as the other sgather around Crutch's body. It's battered and twisted all out of place. Boeman falls next to the body. BOEMAN Goodbye old friend. RIZZO Okay, he was a great guy, now let's move out. BOEMAN (snaps) Could you show a little compassion?! Rizzo stares at Boeman. RIZZO Look, I'm sorry. I really am, but aren't you forgetting about ... SUDDENLY a pile of rubble EXPLODES. Jason rises, his back to them. DELONGPRE Back to the labs! But Jason has other plans. Seemingly unfazed by the past events he rushes after them. INT. GRENDEL BRIDGE COMPUTER VOICE Dam-damage port side 59 percent. Decompression 40 percent. Gravity-y rotors failing. INT. CARGO BAY Our kids race toward the door, Jason right behind them -- Thorgan slams the door panel with his good arm. SPARKS fly. The door won't open. THORGAN Oh shit. They turn as Jason looms toward them, then -- EVERYTHING STARTS TO FLOAT Cargo and debris. Our heroes. Jason. The loss of gravity and Jason's steamrollering momentum SLAMS him into the cargo doors, BREAKING them open and sending him tumbling backwards. JANESSA This is just great. KAY-EM 14 Engage magnetics. Kay-Em 14's left hand magnetically locks to the Cargo frame a ANOTHER ANGLE Jason grabs Rizzo's ankle. Boeman, floating close, punches Jason in the back of the head. Still holding Rizzo's ankle, Jason topples, spinning the two out of frame. The force of the punch sends Boeman in the opposite direction. THORGAN This is crazy, we can't do anything like this! ANOTHER ANGLE Rizzo KICKS Jason in the top of the head, sending him SLAMMING into the ceiling. A SEVERED ARM floats past DeLongpre. There's a chain gun still clutched by the hand. Delongpre grabs both and turns the gun on Jason. BRAAATTTT... Jason is sent further back, but the force of the chaingun SLAMS Delongpre into a back wall. He's knocked unconcious. ANOTHER ANGLE As Thorgan manages to grab Kay-Em 14 around the neck. THORGAN Grab my hand! Janessa takes his hand and in turn reaches out and snags the unconcious dELONGPRE'S FOOT. JANESSA Boeman, can you reach DeLongpre? We'll push you in. CARGO - MIDSHIP Jason is floating toward the other end of the Cargo Bay, unable to stop himself. BOEMAN reaches for DeLongpre. Inches away. Finally he grabs Delongpre by the locks of his hair, pulls himself closer. DELONGPRE Hey! That hurts. ANOTHER ANGLE Rizzo is floatin g up near the ceiling. She manages to grab hold of a hanging piece of busted catwalk. DELONGPRE (to Rizzo) Push off toward us. JANESSA Forget her, she's a pain in the ass. Let her hang there. Crutch's body floats into our heroes, his intestines spilling from his open gut, tangling around our heroes. THORGAN I'm gonna spew. JANESSA That ought'a help the situation. DELONGPRE Do it Rizzo! We'll catch you. RIZZO'S POV Rizzo stares at the human rope that consists of Thorgan, Janessa, Boeman, and Delongpre. RIZZO What if you miss? DELONGPRE What if we don't? ANOTHER ANGLE AS JASON steadies himself against a wall, focuses in one Rizzo, then pushes off with his feet. HE ROCKETS toward her! DELONGPRE He's coming right at you! Rizzo spots Jason and pushes off! But her aim was HURRIED... and bad. She's gonna miss them. Boeman flips in the air! BOEMAN (to Delongpre) Grab my feet! Delongpre does and Boeman reaches out and snags Rizzo. The momentum spins the human chain into a near wall --KAFWAM-- nearly breaking it apart. JANESSA Okay that hurt. BOEMAN Thorgan, pull us in. Jason SLAMS into the ceiling, then careens off of the wall -- As Thorgan pulls the group out of the Cargo bay. THORGAN What now? They watch as Jason grabs a hold of the walkway. JANESSA Shit. He's gonna send himself right at us. Jason takes aim. QUICK CUT TO: INT. GRENDEL BRIDGE COMPUTER VOICE System repair activated. Back up power on line. INT. CARGO BAY Jason again ROCKETS THROUGH THE AIR -- when GRAVITY IS RESTORED. He drops to the cargo floor like a rock! Falling cargo -- huge crates, gargantuan machines, a forklift -- buries him. Our heroes tumble to the ground. JANESSA (to Rizzo) Get off of me! They stand slowly, eyeing the rubble. THORGAN (rubbing his arm) You think it killed . . . (off Rizzo's stare) Yeah, I guess not. JANESSA Let's just get out of here. BOEMAN The ship's in bad shape. Back to the labs. Let's check out status. INT. SHIP CORRIDORS Our group makes their way back toward the labs. ELECTRICAL fires are everywhere. Systems are shorting out all over the ship. INT. LAB ONE Rizzo, in the lead, enters the lab, when the ship BUCKS and QUAKES! A portion of the hall collapses behind her. INT. CORRIDOR Boeman and the others dive back out of the way. BOEMAN Shit! THORGAN The hull's imploding! BOEMAN Rizzo! Can you hear me?! INT. LAB ONE RIZZO Yeah. Are you guys okay? Boeman peers through a crack in the collapsed hull. BOEMAN There's a red lever on the wall beside you. Pull it! Rizzo turns, spots the red lever. EMERGENCY PRESSURIZATION STABILIZER. It's bolted. RIZZO It's locked! BOEMAN Then break it! If you don't pull it, the ship's going to depressurize! Rizzo kicsk the metal leg from a table. BASHES the bolt with it, until it breaks. BOEMAN Hurry Rizzo! You have to reverse the pressurization. She grabs the lever...then hesitates. Backs away. BOEMAN What are you doing?!! RIZZO If the ship goes, so does Jaso. BOEMAN Rizzo pull the fucking lever! RIZZO No. DELONGPRE Rizzo?! RIZZO It's better this way. If we were rescued Jason would just get off the ship. You want him on your precious Earth II? INT. CORRIDOR Boeman and the other start tearing the debris out of the way! THORGAN Hurry! She's lost it! JANESSA So what else is new? INT. LAB ONE Boeman climbs through a hole in the rubble. He grabs the lever. RIZZO Boeman don't. You know I'm right. JANESSA Are you crazy?! Pull the lever! Boeman yanks the lever. As the others climb into the lab -- COMPUTER VOICE Depressurization inconclusive. KAY-EM 14 We've lost too much pressure. An hour, tops. JANESSA (to Rizzo) You happy? You've killed us all! Thorgan rushes over to the big Nano-tech machine. Places his broken arm on the slab. The machine quickly goes to work. A schematic of his arm appears on the wall. Janessa stares at him. JANESSA What's the point? Delongpre shrugs. DELONGPRE So that's it then. It seems it is. Janessa stands over Yllo's decapitated body. It's obvious their relationship went beyond just teacher/student. There is a loud METALLIC WHINE from the ship's hull. RIZZO What's that? BOEMAN THat's the sound of deep space attacking the integrity of the ship. KAY-EM 14 No... (signing) That's the sound of the men working on the chain gang. RIZZO Are there any other shuttles? JANESSA No. RIZZO Teleportation? Some way to beam us the hell out of dodge? THORGAN You read a lot of Science Fiction didn't you? JANESSA A little late to be thinking about escape, isn't it? KAY-EM 14 I'll never experience my fantasy of three sex droids, two humans, and a Knofflapod. Damn. THORGAN Am I in there? KAY-EM 14 Sory... RIZZO Hey. DELONGPRE That's a good fantasy, though. Kinky, but good. RIZZO Hey!! All heads turn to Rizzo. She's staring at a schematic of the ship. The left hull of the two hulled ship is lit up with blinking light denoting the various system failures. Rizzo points to the right hull. RIZZO What's this? DELONGPRE It's the engine, reactors, audiometers, it's the stuff that makes the ship go zoom. Rizzo points at the thin walk-ways connecting the two hulls. RIZZO Can we get through these? THORGAN Sure but what good will that do? BOEMAN When the left hull goes, so will the right. RIZZO What if we blow the walkways first? Leave Jason over here to go up with the ship? They stare at her. JANESSA You know, Yllo seemed to think we could catch this guy alive, well, he'd be worth millions. The others stare at her as if she were crazy. RIZZO Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental. JANESSA I'm just saying. RIZZO (to others) Come on. You got all these gadgets and shit. Why can't we get inside the right hull, seal up the doors and blow the walkways? DELONGPRE We'd need charges. BOEMAN We could convert fission transistors. THORGAN We're not supposed to do that. BOEMAN What are you gonna do, tell me? DELONGPRE The engine room will have molecular welders. We could seal up the hull. A moment of consideration. Could this actually work? JANESSA YeaH, GREAT IDEA! And I'll keep the big guy distracted with a blow job. THORGAN Would you? KAY-EM 14 Now this is getting exciting. DELONGPRE Remember to roll his balls around a bit. RIZZO You got a better plan? Obviously they don't. They got to work. Boeman grabs a number of devices from under a cabinet. BOEMAN I'll need system four converters. THORGAN They're back here. DELONGPRE How many? BOEMAN Bring 'em all. Let's move! Thorgan's still hooked up to the Nano-Tech machine. THORGAN Hey! I'm not ready. BOEMAN Then you better hurry. I'll blow alley one, Delongpre, you and Rizzo take there. Janessa you ready two and we'll meet up there. JANESSA You're so bossy. THORGAN You're leaving me here alone? Delongpre tosses the chaingun next to him. DELONGPRE Don't blow your foot off. They climb through the hole in the corridor and disappear. KAY-EM 14 It's just you and me, then. THORGAN Come here, might as well fix that arm. INT. CARGO BAY Boeman, Janessa, Delongpre, and Rizzo slowly move through the piles of debris. Still burning cargo creates a ghastly image of flickering shadows. DELONGPRE See anything? They move toward the rubble that had buried Jason before. CLOSE on the rubble. There is an obvious hole dug out from the middle. DELONGPRE I think I speak on behalf of the group when I say this is bad news. BOEMAN (into headset) Thorgan? You coming?! INT. LAB ONE Thorgan is fooling around in the back of Kay-Em 14's head. The nano-tech maching is doing a full diagnostics. THORGAN (into headset) Almost done. KAY-EM 14 Ow! THORGAN Oh, hush. I disengaged your pain programming. KAY-EM 14 Sometimes I just wish I had a kitten. INT. WALKWAY ONE Boeman enters, throws his pack to the ground and goes to work ttaching a device to the wall of the huge glass connector. INT. WALKWAY TWO Janessa enters and goes through the same motions. INT. WALKWAY THREE Delongpre and Rizzo attach a device to the wall. DELONGPRE Put your finger here. SHe does so. Delongpre connects several wires. Rizzo looks nervous. Delongpre notices. DELONGPRE My father wanted me to be a businessman. Silence. DELONGPRE That's why I'm here. RIZZO So, you thought you'd be cool. Go against your father's wishes? Yeah, that's grown up. Delongpre looks at her like she's crazy. DELONGPRE My father's company imports and exports. Archaeology is part of the business. We happen to get along just fine, smartass. Look, why don't you bust somebody else's balls for a change. RIZZO I thought you meant... DELONGPRE You thought I meant...too tough to apologize, huh? You must have been a very lonely girl. Silence. Neither speaks. INT. LAB ONE Thorgan rips a metallic sink from the wall. It CRASHES to the floor. THORGAN Sorry, sorry. KAY-EM 14(O.S.) Who are you apologizing to? THORGAN Good point. INT. WALKWAY ONE Boeman attaches another charge. He's sweating. Nervous. Keeps looking over his shoulder. Standing alone on this long walkway is a creepy sight. INT. WALKWAY TWO Janessa stops working, listens. KA-THUMP -- There's anoise in the Cargo Bay. She covers the mike on her headset and calls out. JANESSA Thorgan, you little shit, is that you? No answer. She quickly turns to her pack and pulls out the bottle of tranquillizer and a monster syring.e She fills this rhino syringe with a massive dosage. Enough to bring down a Rhino...or Jason maybe? She starts moving down the walkway toward the Cargo Bay. Surely she's not that stupid. INT. WALKWAY THREE Rizzo is staring at Delongpre as he works on another device. Then -- RIZZO When I was four, the ocean quit producing life. Too many pollutants. Nuclear testing, the occasional terrorist bombing...the atmosphere was shit by the time I was eight. We moved underground when I was twelve. Delongpre stares at her. He doesn't want to speak and screw up this rare moment of sharing. INT. CARGO BAY Janessa enters. Looks around. The cargo bay is dark and looming. Lights flicker. Emergency lights strobe. It's hard to make anything out. We hear Rizzo speaking Off Screen. RIZZO(O.S.) My father was an army Scientist. Genetics. The army thought they could develop humans able to survive the Earth we had created Janessa moves through the debris. ANOTHER POV We see Janessa come into view. RIZZO(O.S.) Jason seemed to have the right stuff. Physically, anyway. Radiation, cell damage, didn't matter. He just kept going. INT. WALKWAY THREE DELONGPRE Were you close to your father? Thorgan interrupts over the headset. THORGAN(V.O.) Delongpre? What did you do with the chain gun? Delongpre frowns. DELONGPRE (into mike) It's on the table where I left it! What the hell are you doing?! Hurry up! THORGAN(V.O.) I'm on my way. BOEMAN(V.O.) Thorgan, quit screwing around and come on! THORGAN(V.O.) I'm coming, I'm coming. DELONGPRE Sorry, you were saying? INT. CARGO BAY WATCHER'S POV JANESSA approaches the pile of debris where Jason was buried. RIZZO(O.S.) I got along great with my father, my mother too. Dad and the others thought they could learn a great deal from this thing the army had been keeping on ice for over a hundred years. Janessa moves the debris around with her foot. RIZZO(O.S.) They were all wrong. They couldn't control him. INT. WALKWAY THREE DELONGPRE And what happend to ...? Rizzo begins to tear up. RIZZO I couldn't save them. DELONGPRE Well, we'd be dead without you. You know that, don't you? She stares at him. DELONGPRE It's true. (chuckles) You caused enough stink that we were at least a little cautious. Of course this is the first field trip I went on that had a body count. She gives him a half smile. DELONGPRE I'm not much, but I promise, I won't let this guy get you. Another half smile. It's a sweet gesture, but what can this guy really do? INT. CARGO BAY JASON'S POV He watches Janessa from a distance. Moving slowly and silently toward her. She stands and turns as -- SERGEANT BRODSKI grabs her! She SCREAMS. He's covered in blood from a gaping wound in his gut. BRODSKI Where is everybody? What happened? JANESSA Damnit! You scared the hell out of me! BRODSKI Give me a break! What happened? JANESSA Jason. He's what happened. Then Grendel hit Space Lab. BRODSKI Space Lab?! Wait'll I get my hands on Yllo. JANESSA Yllo's dead. We...we thought you were too. BRODSKI Takes more than a steelbalde to take this old dog down. KA-THUNK! JASON"S MACHETE THRUSTS though Brodski's gut. Jason spins Brodski around and tosses him to the floor! BRODSKI Yup, that ought'a do it. Jason turns on Janessa. She stands frozen in fear. Jason raises his machete and -- JANESSA Lights a flare, blinding Jason for the moment. Then she sinks the Rhino syringe into his chest! Jason stumbles...falls hard on his ass and sits there staring at her. JANESSA Well go on! Pass out! Jason tears the syringe away and tosses it aside. JANESSA Shit. Jason starts to climb to his feet. Janessa turns to run. BRODSKI (weak) He-help me... He holds his hand out to her. Then-- BOEMAN(V.O.) I'm blowing Walkway One. Hold on. KA-FOOM! The SHIP BUCKS! Janessa runs, leaving the sergeant behind. INT. CARGO BAY - OUTSIDE WALKWAY THREE Delongpre closes the door, then -- DELONGPRE We're blowing three. Hang on. He throws a switch! INT. CARGO BAY - BRIDGE SIDE Boeman vaults over a pile of rubble. BOEMAN Janessa, we're on our way to you! INT. WALKWAY TWO Holding hands, Delongpre and Rizzo enter. They stop...stand...stare. The walkway is empty. Janessa is gone. Boeman rushes up behind them. BOEMAN Where is...? DELONGPRE You tell me! She's only set one charge. And it's not finished! With that Janessa tears into the walkway. She's out of breath. She can barely speak. BOEMAN Where have you been?!! JANESSA He....He... DELONGPRE He's coming!!! THEIR POV JASON moves through the debris. He's coming straight for them. BOEMAN Run!! They race down the length of the walkway. Jason right behind them. RIZZO We can't lead him into the other hull! BOEMAN We don't have a choice! Boeman slams the door panel. The door slowly rises. Jason approaches, stops, stares at his future victims. If he could smile with anticipation...he would. He raises his Machete -- Then stops. Lowers it. CHA-CHUNG. CHA-CHUNG. CHA-CHUNG. He turns his back on our heroes. They crane their necks to see what has pulled his attention. THORGAN marches down the walkway with KAY-EM 14. The new and imporved KAY-EM 14. Where her severed arm had once been, a chain gun is now attached. A laser cannon is mounted over her shoulder. Her body has been reinforced with steel from around the lab. Sinks, trays, you name it. She's the junk yard man's terminator. Then -- KAY-EM 14 Do I have to? THORGAN Yes, I've reprogrammed you. You are very brave. Bad ass. KAY-EM 14 Oh, alright. KAY-EM 14 INTERNAL SCAN POV We see a somewhat computerized image of Jason through Kay-Em's personal scan. One the display we see: SUBJECT: DEAD CHANCES OF FUNCTION: 100 PERCENT DOES NOT COMPUTE . . . DESTROY SUBJECT KAY-EM 14 Come on, boy. Let's see if we can open up can'a whoop ass! BRAAAATTTT! The chain gun rings! Jason is SLAMMED into the HULL DOORS. DELONGPRE Holy shit! JASON jumps up and rushes at Kay-Em who catches him and tosses him down the walkway -- BRAAAATTT! Kay-Em opens up again. Kay-Em's weaponry shoves Jason out into the cargo bay witha blur of bullets. ANOTHER ANGLE BOEMAN What are we waiting for?!! Come on!! Our heroes rush down the walkway toward the cargo bay. Boeman and Delongpre go to work setting the charges. BOEMAN (to Janessa) Where the hell were you?!! JANESSA He came for me, I had to run! THORGAN (into mike) Kay-Em, you okay? INT. CARGO BAY KAY-EM 14 Don't worry about me. I live for this shit. And with that, Kay-Em BLOWS the now standing Jason into another wall with the laser cannon. INT. WALKWAY TWO BOEMAN Toss me a chip. Delongpre pulls a trinket from his pack and pitches it to Boeman. BOEMAN Thorgan, you're brilliant. Have I told you that lately? Thorgan is standing at the end of the walkway staring into the cargo bay. He looks sad. THORGAN (quietly) See you around. INT. CARGO BAY Kay-Em 14 marches toward the downed Jason, and starts singing an old Sea Shanty. KAY-EM 14 She's the Yellow Rose of Taegu, the girl that I adore. Her cunt it smells like cock juice; she's a good two-dollar whore. You may talk to me of Seoul girls or whores from Tokyo, but the yellow rose of Taegu beats them all, I'd you know. BRATTTT!!! Kay-Em blows Jason into -- INT. HALL BETWEEN LABS AND CARGO She kicks him down the long corridor. INT. WALKWAY TWO The hull SCREAMS from the exterior pressure. The ship RUMBLES. BOEMAN I'd say we have about ten minutes tops. DELONGPRE Then stop talking and work faster! INT. LAB ONE Jason BURSTS through the debris that had been blocking the Lab! Kay-Em enters behind him. KAY-EM 14 (still singing) She was a young and charming girl; her age was scarce sixteen. JASON rushes KAY-EM 14! KAY-EM 14 She took me in and she kicked out a sailor and marine. KA-CHING!!!! His machete bounces off of Kay-Em's new armor. KAY-EM 14 She had no titties on her chest; that didn't bother me, WHAM! Kay-Em 14 back hands Jason across the room. He crashes into the glass speciments. Goo and formaldehyde covering him. KAY-EM 14 For what she had between her legs was big enough for three. INT. WALKWAY TWO Boeman and Delongpre are finishing up. BOEMAN Okay, Janessa, give me your last charge. Janessa looks around, then -- JANESSA I...I don't know what I did... DELONGPRE You lost the charge? JANESSA He was chasing me! RIZZO Can we blow it with just two? BOEMAN If we don't sever the hull completely she'll drag us down with her. DELONGPRE Then what do we do?! BOEMAN I don't know! INT. LAB ONE Kay-Em stands over Jason. And for the first time in ten films Jason is in bad shape. But still climbs to his feet...slowly. KAY-EM 14 Why you low life, scum sucking, rat dick blowing, sum bitch. Your mamma must'a had some huge balls. Of course, as anyone knows, you don't diss Jason's mother. Jason leaps, tacking Kay-Em 14! They roll into another glass case. Glass, formaldehyde and specimens rain down on top of them. Having lost his machete, Jason BASHES at Kay-Em with his fists. OVER and OVER. He catches a rhythm. Kay-Em is trapped below. INT. WALKWAY TWO DELONGPRE Well, it was a good plan. They look at one another -- hopless. Then -- BRODSKI(O.S.) You stupid bitch! Everyone jumps as Sergeant Brodski leans against the walkway door frame. He's bound his wounds with a make-shift tourniquet wrapped around his mid-section. BRODSKI Damnit to hell, you left me back there to die! BOEMAN Sergeant? We thought you were... BRODSKI Yeah, yeah. (to Janessa) Well, what have you got to say for yourself? JANESSA I don't know...sorry? RIZZO Sergeant, we could use a big bomb. BRODSKI Bomb? BOEMAN Explosive. We're blowing the walkway. The sergeant tosses his pack to the ground. BRODSKI How much you need? INT. LAB ONE WHAM...WHAM...WHAM... A RAIN of firststaking on this droid from the future. Finally, Jason stops. Straddling KAy-Em 14 he stares at his kill...until -- KAY-EM 14 (condescending) That was very good. You should feel very good about yourself right now. Good effort. (tough voice) How could you hit a girl you sumbitch?! Kay-Em 14 places the chaingun over Jason's chest. BRAAAATTTT!!!! Jason is blown across the room! KAY-EM 14 Okay, dip shit. Time to finish you off so I can go home and boink your momma with a corndog. The kinky bitch. Chaingun and laser cannon UNLEASH A MASSIVE DISPLAY on the fleshly body of JASON VOORHEES. The top portion of Jason's mask shatters! hIS RIGHT LEG IS TURNED INTO A PILE OF MEAT, then blown clean off for good measure! Jason falls on his ass! He raises his machete arm. A last ditch effort. Could he be that lucky? To throw a machete and stop this onslaught? CHA-CHING! NOPE. KAY-EM 14 (singing) Bang, bang Maxewells silver hammer came down upon his head. Doo-pee- do-do. Bang, bang Maxewell's silver hammer made sure that he was dead... Jason climbs to his one good leg but i t only serves as a better aim for Kay-Em 14. KA-FOOM! The laser cannon blows Jason's left arm to hell. KA-FOOM! KA-FOOM! Two more blasts send Jason flying through the back wall and sliding across the floor. KAY-EM 14'S INTERNAL SCAN POV This time, Jason's body doesn't move. SUBJECT: DEAD CHANCE OF FUNCTION: ZERO PERCENT MISSION OF OBJECTIVES: COMPLERED KAY-EM 14 Oh...my...god. What have I done? (crying) Thorgan! Kay-Em turns and races down the hall. KAY-EM 14 Thorgan I'm a murderer! INT. WALKWAY TWO Boeman and Delongpre hustle to set the final charge. BRODSKI Blowing the walkway? You come up with that yourself? BOEMAN Rizzo did. CHA-CHUNG...CHA-CHUNG. Kay-Em steps into the walkway. She's covered in blood. THORGAN Kay-Em! BOEMAN What are you doing back?!! KAY-EM 14 (sad) Sumbitch won't be giving us anymore trouble. RIZZO You killed him? KAY-EM 14 (regret) Blew half his skull away, one leg, one arm and left his entrails stretched across the lab. And look at me! I'm covered in his filthy blood! THORGAN You did good, Kay-Em. I'm proud of you. KAY-EM 14 A real mamma's boy that one. Dissed his mamma and he nearly threw a tantrum. Little good it did him. RIZZO His mother? BOEMAN What? RIZZO I don't know. Nothing. Suddenly the ship's hull SCREAMS. The ship BUCKS. Everyone tumbles. BOEMAN Hurry up people! We're running out of time. INT. LAB ONE Jason's body is propped up against a machine in the same position we saw it before. This mass of torn flesh doesn't move. The ship BUCKS again. The machine HUMS to life. BUZZING and BEEPING. Suddenly a laser scans Jason's body. PULL BACK TO REVEAL Jason is leaned up against the Nano-Tech machine. INT. WALKWAY TWO Thorgan runs wire to each device. THORGAN As long as they're connected we can blow them all simultaneously from a safe distance. BOEMAN Two more charges to go. INT. LABE ONE - NANO-TECH MACHINE We see a schematic of Jason's battered body on the monitor. Nano- technology is already at work. Hoses and wires now encircle Jason's body. We follow one of the hoses until it ends over -- A WASTE BEND nside we see pile of bullets. Stuff falls from the hose. Bullets from the chaingun, bullets from every previous Jason movie. A broken machete blade drops to the pile. The tip of an arrow. A couple of knives. A pair of pliers. An ink pen. The skeleton of a fish. The scanning lasers move to the stump at Jason's shoulder. We see the image as a new arm, fuzzy adn distorted, is being constructed. On the schematic, we see Jason's internal organs being repaired. By now we've figured out ...nothing good can come of this. INT. WALKWAY TWO Kay-Em 14 hits a button. The door begins to slide down slowly. THORGAN Done! BOEMAN Let's move out! BRODSKI Kid, you ever thought about the marine corp? Delongpre calls fromthe far end of the walkway, welder in his hand. DELONGPRE I need another minute. Come on! ON OUR HEROES Suddenly there is a GRINDING SOUND. Engines WHINE from behind them. The group stops and turns. The cargo door is starting to smoke. It SQUEALS as it slowly opens. BRODSKI Well fuck me. KAY-EM 14 No, fuck me. The door opens and Jason steps into the walkway. But he's no Jason we've ever seen before. His leg and arm are now SHINY METAL. His clothes are BLACK, no longer tattered. His mask is CHROME. We can't see them, but we know...his insides are in better shape than ever. THORGAN Kay-Em? Re-engage killer instinct. KAY-EM 14 Yeeee-haw!!!! BRAAAATTTTT! Kay-em firs. But, this time it doesn't seem to faze Jason. SPARKS fly as bullets vounce off of his metal limbs. Jason swings his new improved machete. It CLANGS off of Kay-Em's armor, removing a hunk of metal. Jason grabs her and swings her into the glass walkway. Glass CRACKS. One of the wires, connecting two charges severs. BOEMAN Shit! Kay-em does a back flip, kicking Jason in the chest. He's shoved backwards. Boeman attempts to splice the wires back together as the battle ensues. IT'S MASSIVE! Intellectual synthetic droid verses psychotic metallic killer. SPARKS FLY. GUNFIRE SOUNDS. Then Kay-Em does a round house kick, but Jason uses his machete as a shield. Kay-Em's leg is nearly sliced off at the knee. She stumbles...falls to the ground. THORGAN Kay-Em!!! Boeman splices the wires together. BOEMAN Done!! Then turns to see Jason approaching. BOEMAN RUN!! But Jason's too close. He grabs Boeman. ON KAY-EM As her body separates from her legs mid-thigh. CHCHHHHH! THRUSTERS IGNITE from her lower thighs. As Jason raises his machete to do Boeman in -- KA-FWAM! Kay-Em slams into him! Knocking Boeman free. Jason and the now hovering Kay-Em go at it again. CHANG! CLANG! CLUNK! Metal against metal. Kay-Em hovers up the walls, over Jason's head...but Jason has come into his own with these new body parts. She's no match. Finally -- JASON EMBEDS HIS MACHETE IN KAY-EM'S THROAT ANOTHER ANGLE Jason rears back and shoves his fist though Kay-Em's chestplate! his fist from Kay-Em's chest and wraps his metallic hand around he throat. THORGAN Kay-Em! Get away! Thorgan moves toward his robotic love but Boeman grabs him and pulls him down the hall. KAY-EM 14 That's the best you can do? Jason yanks his machete from the side of Kay-Em's neck. Severing her head from her body. It flies down the hallway behind the kids. KAY-EM 14 Is that it? Come back and fight like a man! JASON Turns his glare on our heroes racing toward Delongpre at the other end. DELONGPRE DELONGPRE Done! Delongpre lifts his welder's mask to call to the others when he sees JASON. DELONGPRE Shit, hurry! OUR HEROES Run toward the door. But, Thorgan stops. BOEMAN What...? Thorgan turns, runs back toward Jason. BOEMAN What are you doing?!! Thorgan is running to retrieve Kay-Em 14's head. It lies between he and Jason. He'll never make it! Thorgan hits the floor, slides and scoops up the head. KAY-EM 14 I think I'm going to throw up... BUT IT'S TOO LATE. Jason raises his machete from his belt and -- RIZZO(O.S.) Hey, dickhead! JASON TURNS AS -- KA-CHUNG!!!! Rizzo nails him with a metal ar. RIZZO (to Thorgan) Go! Jason stumbles backwards then whirls on Rizzo. RIZZO Oh, yeah, you remember me. He sure does. She turnsa dn runs. ANOTHER ANGLE As the others race into the engien room they turn to watch. BOEMAN Hurry! DELONGPRE Faster! Don't we have another gun? Rizzo catches up to Thorgan but they have a long way to go and Jason is gaining. JANESSA They're not gonna make it. Close the door before he gets us all. DELONGPRE They'll make it. JANESSA Close the fucking door! DELONGPRE NO! JANESSA leaps forward and hits the switch. The door begins sliding slowly shut. DELONGPRE Damnit! Boeman hits the button again. DELONGPRE (glares at Janessa) Forget it. I had to rewire it. Once it's started it won't stop. ANOTHER ANGLE JASON TWENTY PACES BEHIND INT. ENGINE ROOM DELONGPRE Get ready to blow it. Rizzo dives, slides under the closing door. Thorgan follows her lead, but his slide doesn't have the same force. He stops with the door coming down on his lower back. Luckily, Delongpre snatches his arms and yanks him through. The door closes! DELONGPRE Now! Boeman turns the switch. INT. MIDSHIP WALK WAY The charges BLOW! A FIREBALL rushes toward the running JASON! INT. ENGINE ROOM CLOSE ON DOOR AS KA-FWAM!!! JASON'S BODY IMPRINTS IN THE NOW SEALED DOOR. EXT. GRENDEL The walkway explodes, severing Grendel into two separate hulls. The left damaged hull, sinks out of view as the engine side begins to pull away. Then -- KA-FOOM!! Grendel's LEFT HULL finallay EXPLODES!! They barely amde it. INT. ENGINE ROOM The right hull BUCKS from the force of the blast. Our heroes are aireborne for a moment then crash to the floor. BRODSKI Damage? Boeman climbs to a console. BOEMAN Minimal. RIZZO We made it? DELONGPRE I think...I think maybe we did. CHEERS Thorgan looks into Kay-Em 14's severed head. THORGAN Kay-Em we made it! KAY-EM 14 Oh, goody. I'm so pleased. I'd clap if I could. Boeman CLICKS on a console keyboard. BOEMAN I've changed the course for Earth II. And I sent a distress signal. VOICE(V.O.) Roger, Grendel. What's the problem? BOEMAN (into mike) Our ship has been damaged, most of the crew dead. We need evac. VOICE Copy that Grendel. Rescue enroute. You should hit EARTH II orbit in fifteen minutes. Rescue ETA twenty minutes. CHEERS! BOEMAN We're going home people. More CHEERS. Rizzo turns to find Delonpre staring at her. DELONGPRE (big smile) See? We're not so bad. RIZZO Not so bad. There's that moment when we think the two might kiss. She takes a step toward him. Yes, they are going to kiss -- BOOM! WARNING LIGHTS. WARNING ALARMS. The sound of SUCKING WIND. AS JASON, still very alive shoves his fist through the imprinted door with his metal hand! As he rips a bigger hole to gain entrance our heroes are fighting to hold on to anything. The Hole is sucking everything not tied down out into space. Boeman is the first to reach the reactor room door. BOEMAN This way! He pulls Sergeant Brodski through the door as -- JASON Fights his way through the opening in the hull. The engines BUCK and begin to SMOKE. BOEMAN The pressures cause the engines to overheat! Hurry! Delongpre helps Rizzo and Thorgan to safety. Janessa crawls across the floor digging her fingers into the steel mesh. SERGEANT BRODKSI Lying in the door's threshold reaches out and snags her hand. JANESSA Pull me in! BRODSKI I'm pulling, damnit! But Jason grabs Janessa's ankle and jerks. She's pulled from the Sergeant's grasp. She flops around in the sucking wind as Jason watches. He lets go. She flies toward the hole, slams into it. Everything goes quiet for a moment. As he body has sealed the hole then -- SHHHHHHHHOOOOOK! She's sucked into space in a most grotesque manner. ANOTHER ANGLE BRODSKI Well, that's a shame. INT. REACTOR CORE Hug cylindrical machines run the length of this enormous room. They HUM quietly as our group enters. BRODSKI We need weapons. RIZZO Weapons? All this technology and what good has it done?! DELONGPRE It bought us some time. BOEMAN And now we're all out of it. Everyone stares at Boeman. He's standing at another console. BOEMAN The ship's depressurizing, the engines overheating. When it reaches the core, we're done. RIZZO Done? THORGAN Kaboom. DELONGPRE Again?! Jesus! RIZZO Why am I not surprised? Thorgan still clutches Kay-Em 14's severed head. KAY-EM 14 You must shut down the engines. DELONGPRE Then do it. The rescue ship can find us here right? BRODSKI Can't shut em' down from here. BOEMAN Somebody's gonna have to go back to the engine room. DELONGPRE You ain't catching my ass in there again. Brodski, still bleeding, pale, struggling to stand -- BRODSKI I'll go. The kids give him the "are you crazy?" stare. BOEMAN You're too weak. I'll go. KA-FWAM! Everyone jumps but this time it's only Rizzo. She broke a metal stand and has yanked one of the legs free. RIZZO You know, this future shit sucks. I'll fucking do it. DELONGPRE You? RIZZO (mumbling) Wait around on your asses all day. (turns to Thorgan) I'll need a distraction. THORGAN What kind of a distraction? INT. ENGINE ROOM JASON is pounding on the reactor room door. A difficult act with the continued pressure trying to suck him into space. THEN RIZZO HEY! Jason turns to find Rizzo standing in the doorway behind him. RIZZO You want some of me? Jason whirls around and lurches toward her clinging to machinery as he goes. INT. ENGINE ROOM CORRIDOR Rizzo backs slowly as Jason closes in. As he reaches the corridor, she turns and runs. RIZZO RIZZO Come on, keep up. Jason barrels toward her. RIZZO You want some of me or not? She stops at a door, but doesn't attmept ot open it. Jason comes closer..and closeer...but Rizzo doesn't move -- Jason moves in for the kill, raises his machete, and -- RIZZO Take your best shot -- SLASH! RIZZO'S CHEST IS SPLIT OPEN! RIZZO (laughs) I'm melting! I'm melting! SLASH! Her arm falls to the ground! RIZZO See now that was stupid. Persistent, yes, but stupid. Jason shoves his fist, through her chest and into the wall. RIZZO Not this time, asshole. This time I'm gonna watch you burn in hell. INT. ENGINE ROOM - CONTINUOUS The real RIZZO rips off her virtual reality helmet. RIZZO Make it fast. He's coming. Delongpre is punching numbers into the keypad. Both are wearing headsets. DELONGPRE Almost got it. ANOTHER ANGLE As Jason returns to the engine room, none too pleased at being tricked. BOEMAN(V.O.) Hurry up, guys. We've got the rescue ship on radar. RIZZO Delongpre! Out of time! DELONPRE Got it! Rizzo jersk Delonpre and both spill into the reactor corridor. Rizzo slaps the panel. the door closes! Shutting out Jason's image. DELONGPRE Damn that was close! WHAM! THE ENGINE ROOM door RIPS in half. JASON CLIMBS through. RIZZO AND DELONGPRE RUN! RIZZO (into radio) Guys, he's right behind us! THORGAN(V.O.) It's okay. DELONGPRE Okay?!! THORGAN(V.O.) Just come on, I've got an idea. They race down the long corridor toward the reactor room. JASON IN PURSUIT. INT. DOCKING BAY Thorgan is typing like mad at small portable keyboard. Boeman stares out the docking bay window. HIS POV There's damage, lots of it. BOEMAN (into radio) The docking bay was damaged after the explosion. Meet us at the airlock. INT. REACTOR ROOM corridor. DELONGPRE Got it. (to Rizzo) You ever space walked? RIZZO Oh sure, all the time. They leap through a door, closing it behind them, then keep running. BEHIND THEM KA-FWAM! Jason barrels right through the door. RIZZO (into headset) Damit, Thorgan, whatever you're doing... you'd better hurry! (growls) I hate the future! INT. REACTOR CORE Rizzo and Delongpre enter in a mad rush. Delongpre closes the door. Little good it'll do. INT. REACTOR ROOM CORRIDOR JASON kicks the door with his metallic leg! KA-FWAM! The door shatters and he stumlbes into -- EXT. CAMP CRYSTAL LAKE Forest, cabins, the lake. Everything as we and Jason remember. But somehow distroted. A strange hue covers everything. No, on second look, it's not exactly the way we remember. The trees are strange looking. Not the Pines and Oaks of Connecticut, but something foreign. The cabins look a little too advanced to be stuck in the middle of a camp. But the image will do. QUICK CUT TO: INT. REACTOR ROOM - DOCKING BAY Thorgan stands at a keyboard clicking away. Boeman is wearing a space suit. He's helping sergeatn Brodski into his. At the other end of the huge room, Jason wanders ... with confusion. THORGAN Don't worry. He can't see us. Rizzo glances out the docking bay window. RIZZO Is that...? THROUGH WINDSHIELD We see a planet much the same color as Earth, but the continents are wrong. DELONGPRE Earth II. BOEMAN(V.O.) Suit up. Delongpre leads Rizzo to a suit. DELONGPRE I'll help you in. THORGAN (into headset) Kay-Em, you've saved our lives, you know that don't you? ANOTHER ANGLE Kay-Em 14's head sits on the floor in the center of room. KAY-EM 14 It was my pleasure, my love. Perhaps if all works for the best you can rebuild me and we can try that doggie style thing again. DOCKING BAY The others stare at Thorgan...he looks embarrassed to say the least. DELONGPRE I knew you were a little sick, but Geez. ON KAY-EM KAY-EM 14 (singing happily) I get no kick from champaign, mere alcohol doesn't faze me at all, but I get a kick out of you. THORGAN (under his breath) Goodbye, my love. BOEMAN(V.O.) Thorgan, suit up. THORGAN (to Rizzo) This is gonna work. If he sticks to the program. Will he? Stick to the program? RIZZO His mother was killed before his eyes. That's what drove him insane. It'll work. DELONGPRE That sounds like Rizzo having faith in some of that future shit. RIZZO Eat me. She smiles as she jersk the helmet out of his hand. ANOTHER ANGLE Jason slowly walks beside Kay-Em 14. QUICK-CUT TO: EXT. CAMP CRYSTAL LAKE Jason is walking along the lake when he sees -- A CAMPFIRE off in the distance. LAUGHTER, SINGING. CAMPERS!!! He takes off toward the campfire, then hears -- SPLASHING. He turns. HIS POV Within the distorted lake, someone is drowning. Could it be a little boy? A little Jason from many years ago? WOMAN Help me! (gurgles) Jason help me! JASON Moves toward the beach. Steps partly into the water. HIS POV THE WOMAN, THE VOICE. IT'S JASON'S MOTHER! He turns toward the campfire, back to his mother...what to do?! Then -- JASON TEARS INTO THE WATER, TRYING TO REACH HER. MRS. VOORHEES Help me, Jason, please! Help your mother! Jason moves closer. MRS. VOORHEES Don't let me die again! As he draws near, she reaches out her hands to him. JASON Pauses staring at the please for help. He stares into her pleading face. HIS MOTHER! After all these years! He places his hand over her face, gently, then -- PUSHES HER UNDER! He holds her there. QUICK-CUT TO: INT. REACTOR ROOM KAY-EM 14 Uh-oh. That's not a part of the program. Thorgan, we've got a problem! EXT. CAMP CRYSTAL LAKE Camp Cyrstal lake begins to jerk and fade. INT. REACTOR ROOM - DOCKING BAY Everyone is suited up. Delongpre, the last, is adjusting his helmet. THORGAN(V.O.) Oh, shit. He's going to see us. DELONGPRE Well, do something! Thorgan grabs the portable keyboard and starts typing away! EXT. CAMP CRYSTAL LAKE Suddenly the image solidifies then a number of the aliens from the game grid appear. But Jason's seen these guys before. He tears through them. INT. REACTOR ROOM - DOCKING BAY THORGAN Shit! Boeman hits the door panel to the docking bay. It begins to slowly rise. BOEMAN Just a little more time. EXT. CAMP CRYSTAL LAKE Jason stands atop a pile of dead alien like some strange Conan in space. The image flickers...he catches a glimpse of our heroes at the end fo the room. He starts toward them. Then a huge white fluffy bunny with huge breasts appears before him. WHITE FLUFFY BUNNY (sings; deep african american voice) I'm'a big fluffy bunny...a big white fluffy bunny... SWISH! The bunny's head is severed. The image distortss. Again we see our heroes. Jason is closer. INT. REACTOR ROOM - DOCKING BAY The door is halway open. Our heroes start ducking under. Jason is almost on them. RIZZO Thorgan!!!! He's clicking away like a mad man. EXT. CAMP CRYSTAL LAKE A ROCK BAND appears playing some futuristic metal. Then CHEERLEADERS in scantily clad outfits. Then a MIDGIT in a cowboy hat riding by on a tricycle. We have now entered Thorgan's twisted streams of conciousness. Jason tears through the aboe. His goal now clear. The distractions no longer fool him. A volley ball court appears with naked girls bouncing around. A fat man wearing only a spiked leather Speedo. A huge turtle. A couple of goats. Nothing is stopping Jason. INT. REACTOR ROOM - DOCKING BAY Boeman reaches out and jerks Thorgan into the inner air lock. EXT. CAMP CRYSTAL LAKE The image finally disintergrates. Jason finds himself staring at our heroes. He lunges for the air lock, but -- Sergeant Brodski dives, hitting Jason in the chest and knocking him to the floor. BOEMAN(V.O.) Sergeant! BRODSKI(V.O.) Get out of here! SERGEANT BRODSKI, still in Jason's clutches, kicks at the door panel. The door starts to close as Jason begins hacking with his machete. BRODSKI(V.O.) That all you got?!! Jason hacks and hack, stabbing through the space suit, until finally, the tough old leather neck is silent for good. INT. AIR LOCK The door is sealed. RIZZO He saved our lives. Boemen hits another button, and the outer door begins to open. DELONGPRE Boeman, the ships not here. BOEMAN(V.O.) Use the thrusters and you'll be fine. We'll huddle together out there. EXT. WHAT'S LEFT OF THE GRENDEL AS THE OUTER DOOR OPENS, RIZZO UNCOMFORTABLY FIDGETS WITH HER SUIT. DELONGPRE(V.O.) Hey, easy now. He points to where her hand hovers over some buttons on her sleeve. DELONGPRE(V.O.) You wanna release your air tanks? RIZZO(V.O.) (nervous) Okay, good tip. DELONGPRE(V.O.) You'll be fine. BOEMAN(V.O.) Remember, stay calm, use your thrusters. We'll be fine. RIZZO(V.O.) Why wouldn't we be. I mean, look around. So far so good. WHAM! Jason starts pounding from the other side. DELONGPRE(V.O.) Don't worry. He can't get through that door. Delongpre's right. This isn't some thin interior door or some walkway door reinforced by a high school kid. This is an air lock door. Built to withstand laser cannons and meteors. BOEMAN(V.O.) Thrusters. CHSHSHSHSH. CHSHSH. Our group enters deep space. EXT. WHAT'S LEFT OF GRENDEL Rizzo, Thorgan, Boeman and Delongpre look tiny next to the massive right hull. They thrust slowly into space. DELONGPRE(V.O.) Rizzo, you okay? RIZZO(V.O.) No I'm not okay! I don't know what the hell I'm doing! DELONGPRE(V.O.) You're doing fine. I won't let anything happen to you, remember? QUICK CUT TO: INT. DOCKING BAY Jason finally gives up with the massive pounding. He steps back. Turns, stares at the sergeants' dead body, then looks at -- THE DOOR PANEL He preses the button the ari lock door begins to open. Air is suddenly sucked out of the room! Sergeant Brodski's body flies out into space. Everything not tied down races out along with him. ON KAY-EM 14'S HEAD AS it skitters across the floor -- KAY-EM 14 Ahhhhh! -- and right out the air lock JASON holds onto a machine until the door is open, then lets go! He shoots out into space. EXT. GRENDEL Jason flies out of the air lock. HIS POV He's rocketing right toward one of the space suits! ANOTHER ANGLE DELONGPRE(V.O.) Rizzo, did they have chinese food in your time? RIZZO(V.O.) I think I had some when I was eight. DELONGPRE(V.O.) Did you like it? RIZZO(V.O.) I think so, why? THORGAN(V.O.) He's trying to ask you out on a date. DELONGPRE(V.O.) Shut up, Thorgan! RIZZO(V.O.) Delongpre, you don't even know me. DELONGPRE(V.O.) I know you. Suddenly Rizzo is SLAMMED from behind. She and Jason go spinning away from the others. DELONGPRE(V.O.) Nooooooo!! RIZZO grapples with Jason, but JASON IS JUST TOO STRONG. Jason holds HER with his good hand and REARS his metallic hand back. He's going to punch a hole right through her helmet, most likely throat her head, when -- WHAM! Delongpre rockets into Jason, but Jason's got one of his arms sticking through one of Rizzo's harnesses. THe three go tumbling. Delongpre clings to Jason's back. DELONGPRE(V.O.) Rizzo, pull away! RIZZO(V.O.) I'm stuck! Jason reaches back, grabs Delongpre and jersk him over his head until he's holding Delongpre around the thoat. He'll pop his helmet like a cork! ANOTHER ANGLE AS Thorgan and Boeman thrust towards the tumbling mass... THORGAN(V.O.) We're too far away! BACK TO JASON AS he tightens his grip around Delongpre's neck. He can't fight back. RIZZO is fighting to untangle her harness. We can hear Delongpre CHOKING over the radio. The three are spinning even closer and closer towards EARTH II. Then, Rizzo reaches down. She grabs Delongpre's leg and CLICKS a button on her sleeve. KA-CHSSHSH!!! HER AIR TANK BLOWS! JASON IS THROWN OFF OF THEM! But he's still tangled in Rizzo's hoses. And now she has no air. Jason turns...grabs the hoses and begins pulling himself toward Rizzo and Delongpre. He has them...when -- WHAM! BRODSKI Still barely alive barrels into Jason, vlinging to his back. He turns, slashes with his knife and severs the hoses. Jason and Brodski tumble towards EARTH II. ANOTHER ANGLE Rizzo's turning blue. She's about to pass out, when -- Delongpre pulls a hose from his suit and hooks it into her tank. CHSHSHSH... AIR BEGINS TO FLOW. Rizzo takes a big GASP...coughs. DELONGPRE(V.O.) You okay?! RIZZO(V.O.) (breathing steadily) Oh great...yeah, having a great time, and you? DELONGPRE(V.O.) No thank you, you crazy old woman. RIZZO(V.O.) Old woman? DELONGPRE(V.O.) Well I mean, technically you are old enough to be my great, great, great... RIZZO(V.O.) I get it. Suddenly Boeman and Thorgan grab them. The four survivors huddle together. KAY-EM 14 Hello? A little assistance here? They turn to see Kay-Em's head floating close by. Thorgan graps at her and pulls her head into his arms. THE GROUP CHEERS. THORGAN(V.O.) Kay-em you okay? KAY-EM 14 I am now. I missed you, Thorgan. THORGAN(V.O.) I missed you too. KAY-EM 14 I love you. Those two aren't the only two. CLOSE ON RIZZO AND DELONGPRE Their glass face masks are touching. They stare into each other's eyes. RIZZO(V.O.) Chinese, huh? They laugh and turn to stare toward EARTH II. EXT. EARTH II -- ORBIT Suddenly Jason's body comes into view. It's racing toward Earth II. Brodski riding it like Slim Pickens. BRODSKI Yeee---Haaaaa!! Slowly they begin entering the atmosphere. Immediately Brodski is engulfed in flames and is gone. He was a good man...stay to the end to make sure the job was done right. Spread eagle and alone, facing the planet below, Jason continues his descent. His fingers wiggle as his chrome mask begins to heat up. It begins to glow. His metallic arm and leg glow. Flames build as he rockets towards Earth II. Flesh BUBBLES and OOZES. His legs and arms begin to flail as hunks of burning flesh fall from his body! EXT. CAMP SIGHT Four kids sit on futuristic sleeping bags around an old fashion campfire. KID # 1 Hey! Check that out! They look up and see a blaze shooting towards Earth II. KID # 2 A falling star! KID # 3 It's a meteor dickhead. KID # 2 It's still cool. It LIGHTS up the night, then -- EXPLODES IN A BRILLIANT FIREWORKS DISPLAY! KID # 1 Cool!!! From the explosion, one small smoldering chunk falls toward Earth II. EXT. CRYSTAL RESERVOIR OUR POV As the chunk falls closer and closer we see that it is a glowing chrome hockey mask! IT HITS THE WATER with a SSSSS!!!! BACK TO KIDS KID # 4 Damn! It his the reservoir. KID # 1 Let's go check it out! The others agree as they grab their flashlights and head in toward what could be a wonderful new discovery. DISSOLVE INTO: A STREAM. The hockey mask washes down the stream, comes to a halt at a pair of grusomely charred hands. THE FINGERS, TWITCH, curl around the mask, lifting it off camera. AND WE -- FADE OUT, a familiar KI-KI-KI-KI-HA-HA-HA-HA, resonating as we -- ROLL CREDITS THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Jaws 2.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jaws 2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e15db21b822212ec53ef71dcf8dfa2f722c4080f --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jaws 2.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + "JAWS 2" Final Draft Screenplay by Carl Gottlieb Based on a Story by Howard Sackler FADE IN: UNDERWATER - DAY Dramatically lit by sunlight filtering down from the surface. A dim shape, massive, threatening, swims towards us from the distance. Then it divides -- what was one is two, and the shape becomes reality; two divers in Scuba gear swimming side by side. They are wearing minimal rubber, considering the cool New England waters: "Farmer John" wetsuits with cut- off legs, assorted sport-diving paraphernalia, including an expensive camera with a flash attachment. One motions "Down there," the other signals "OK, I see it," and they dive deeper, into darker waters, where the shafts of sunlight pour into the depths, broken up by seaweed and floating vegetation into cathedral-like columns of illumination. SEA BOTTOM - DAY The wreck of the working fisherman's boat "ORCA," formerly under the command of the late Captain Quint, deceased these four years. Buried in the sand near it, still connected by rusting strands of cable, the mangled remains of a shark cage, glimmering with stainless steel highlights. A fitful flash of yellow from under a mossy beard -- a battered barrel, similarly tangled. The divers, Bert and Ernie, appear. They're fascinated by the find, and Bert, with the camera, snaps a few flash shots. The rapid sequence of flashes signals the presence of a motor drive camera. ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW Distant flashes, obscured by vegetation in the foreground. SEA BOTTOM, THE ORCA Ernie is exploring the abandoned cabin; doors open and shut, moved by invisible currents stirred by his passage. An occasional "Flash!" lights up the bottom as Bert continues snapping away souvenir shots of this local landmark. BERT'S POINT OF VIEW - CAMERA VIEWFINDER (PROCESS) Ernie floats up out of a hatch, sees the camera, and strikes a pose, clowning for the photographer's benefit. A big hand, f.g., motions him up into clear water for a formal portrait. He obliges. Now he floats in front of us, gently paddling his flippers to maintain vertical stability. One flash. Another. Then a large, dim movement in the b.g. Something's out there, moving towards us. Flash. It's bigger, bearing down like a train in a tunnel. Flash! It's on us. Flash! Teeth? Blood? Flash! Blackness, Death. OCEAN BOTTOM, INSERT The camera floats gently down and settles in the sand. A dark red mist eddies by. A last weak flash. MATCH DISSOLVE TO: EXT. OCEAN - SUNDOWN Flash! An expensive cabin cruiser, the "Diver Working" flag fluttering limply in the breeze, is riding alone at anchor. Flash! A distant lighthouse beacon winks at us. The boat rocks in the ceaseless swell. On the stern, "Elizabeth T. - Newport, R.I." A long way from home... DISSOLVE TO: EXT. AMITY BEACH - DAY A blue-and-white police jeep is bouncing over the sand. A figure in civilian clothes driving alone on some urgent mission. It's Martin Brody, Chief of Police on Amity. The jeep slows to a stop, and he takes a flight of stairs leading to a concrete patio two at a time. A classical trumpet solo is playing in the background. Brody charges through a door, then abruptly slows and starts moving warily through a hotel interior: The Holidome, a three-story extravaganza of a motel, where some sort of formal ceremony is already in progress. A banner announces: "Grand Opening Ball -- Amity Scholarship Fund Benefit." Brody crosses under a High School band, arranged dance-band style on a balcony; the trumpet player, Polo, is finishing his solo, the assembled crowd applauds politely. Brody is taking his place with some dignitaries on the dais, as the presiding authority, Amity Mayor Larry Vaughn, begins speaking. VAUGHN Thank you, Paul Lohman, for that eloquent solo. Now, for that point in the ceremonies where we formally dedicate this magnificent resort- hotel complex, a worthwhile addition to the recreational paradise we call Amity. ANGLE ON THE DAIS Seated on folding chairs, wearing their good suits, several of Amity's Selectmen, Real Estate Developer Len Peterson, and Ellen Brody, very chic. Brody slips into the vacant chair next to her. The following is conducted in urgent whispers, sotto voce, while Vaughn drones on. ELLEN Where the hell were you? BRODY Late. ELLEN I can see that. Don't you know this is a big deal? BRODY Couldn't help it. Hendricks over there... (he indicates his deputy) ...still has the keys to the jeep in his pocket, and I couldn't find the spares. ELLEN Terrific. Act as if you've been here all along. BRODY How'm I supposed to do that? ELLEN Look bored. VAUGHN (droning along) Holiday Inn joins the Amity Shores development condominium complex in a welcome expression renewed interest in Amity Island as the hub of the Northeast Recreational Vacation Wonderland. We're happy once again to be in the center of things, where the action is... We've had our share of hard times and long winters and the past few years have not been easy. But today, the sun is rising on a new Amity, a new island filled with promise. (applause) Len Peterson's Amity Shores Development is an exciting addition to our island. The Holiday Inn we stand in is likewise a new friend who we welcome as family. Amity means 'friendship' and our community extends its friendship to all who seek her shores in peace and harmony. (applause) Brody settles into polite attentiveness, acknowledging a wave from Hendricks, a politely bland young town cop in his idea of civilian finery. Hendricks is fussing with the banner on an attractive young lady in a bathing suit... ANGLE ON VAUGHN VAUGHN ...And now, Tina Wilcox, this year's Miss Amity, will cut the ribbon that officially opens this luxurious new hotel... Tina (the girl in the bathing suit) escapes Hendricks' attentions, and teeters on high heels towards the ribbon, while Phil Fogarty, the local photographer, snaps away. VAUGHN Tina was selected from more than 20 of this island's lovely young ladies in the Miss Amity competition held every spring, and she'll represent Amity Island in the Miss Massachusetts Competition in Worcester next month. When she cuts this ribbon, she will be opening our island to growth, to development, to planned expansion with full employment for our thriving community. ANGLE ON THE BAND Paul Lohman ("Polo" to his friends) is exchanging whispers with Lucy, a flute player nearby. LUCY I don't think she's such hot stuff. POLO When are we going out? You and me? LUCY Not tonight. POLO You going with Patrick? Lucy nods, Polo shrugs, and turns to Jane, a girl nearby. POLO Listen, Jane -- you want to dance as soon as we get out of these monkey suits? She nods happily, they whisper together, while we: CUT TO: ANGLE ON DAIS Martin and Ellen have been joined by their youngest son, Sean. SEAN Mom, Michael won't talk to me. BRODY (to Ellen) Shouldn't he be at home? ELLEN Mrs. Silvera couldn't come. VAUGHN This money tree, you may have noticed, is made entirely of twenty-dollar bills, donated by Len Peterson, the builder of Amity Shores Condominiums, as a gesture of goodwill towards the community. $500 as a special gift to the Amity township scholarship fund... Applause from the crowd, Len takes a bow. VAUGHN (prompting) Go ahead, Tina. ANGLE ON TINA as she reaches out with the scissors. Something catches her eye, and she winks at her boyfriend, Ed Marchand, smirking in the crowd. He winks back, and makes "Cut it" motions with his fingers. ANGLE ON THE CEREMONY Tina cuts the ribbon, and Tom Andrews, a local diver, pushes a decorated float out into the pool; sparklers sputter, balloons drop from the ceiling. VAUGHN Thanks to Tom Andrews, of Amity Aqua- Sports, for contributing the special decorations. And now, the Amity High School band. Refreshments on the patio, everyone... The band swings into "Downtown," and the crowd gets up to dance, to eat, and to break into small groups to talk. DISSOLVE TO: INT. HOLIDOME - LATER Ellen is dragging Brody over to where Len Peterson and Larry Vaughn, the mayor, are in conversation. They pass vignettes: Tina and Ed, Tom Andrews and Jane, Marge, other interesting Amity townspeople. BRODY (seeing Peterson and Vaughn) Do I have to talk to those two? ELLEN My boss and your boss. Sure. VAUGHN Hello, hello. It went well, I thought. BRODY Very impressive ceremony. Good speech. VAUGHN Thank you, thank you. You know my son, don't you? He beckons over their heads to Larry Vaughn, Jr., a young man uncomfortable in his correct tie and blazer. They exchange perfunctory greetings. PETERSON The speech was right on the money. (to Ellen) Be a love and make sure the bar's open, will you? He puts his arm around her, a little too familiarly for Brody's liking. PETERSON (to Brody) Fantastic lady. Don't know what I'd do without her. BRODY Me neither. PETERSON (looking around) Y'know, Brody -- for the first time in years it's worth putting money into this town. BRODY All of us thank you, okay? ELLEN Watch Sean for a minute? And she hands Sean off to Brody, leaving him with an over- active 10 year old, while she's gone. SEAN Can I go swimming? BRODY No. Find your brother, okay? Sean nods and runs off, happy to have a mission. CUT TO: ANGLE ON MICHAEL BRODY - NEAR THE BAND He is talking to Brooke Peters, a mop-maned teen-ager with a pleasant face. Timmy Weldon, a grade behind, lurks nearby. A plumpish, curly- haired buddy, Andy Nicholas, is enjoying a cup of punch. MIKE How old is your cousin? BROOKE Seventeen. She's a senior. MIKE I'm not crazy about blind dates. ANDY They're okay, if they got little white canes and tin cups. BROOKE That's awful. ANDY What the hell. (to Mike) Did your mom put all this together? MIKE Yeah, it's her job. ANDY Is she responsible for the punch? MIKE No. ANDY Good. It's terrible. BROOKE My cousin will be here tomorrow. MIKE Great. Sean finds them, and bursts into their group. SEAN Michael, Michael, Dad said to find you. ANDY Okay, you did that. SEAN Come on, Mikey, come on... He tugs at Mike's sleeve; Mike allows himself to be dragged off. MIKE Okay, okay. Got to go. Andy and Brooke are left standing together, Tim moves in. TIM (to Brooke) Want to dance? (she shakes her head "no") Okay. Later? On her shrug, as she turns to Andy: CUT TO: INT./EXT. HOLIDOME PATIO/TERRACE - NIGHT It's later; night has fallen, the band is playing its version of "When I Fall in Love." Many teen-agers are dancing out on the patio, some adults are dancing inside, the buffet is ravaged, Timmy is watching Brooke, who's dancing with Polo. Douglas Fetterman ("Doug") joins him, after asking Marge for a dance and striking out. DOUG Get a dance yet? TIMMY Nope. DOUG Me neither. TIMMY Who'd you ask? DOUG Tina Wilcox. TIMMY You're crazy. She's Ed's girl friend. DOUG Doesn't hurt to ask. Sometimes the most beautiful girls are the loneliest. TIMMY That's a crock of shit. DOUG I know. Bob Burnside, a tall pal of Larry Vaughn Jr.'s, turns up by their side. BOB Same tired old faces. You see Vaughn? DOUG The mayor? BOB Larry Vaughn Junior? (Doug shrugs) If you see him, tell him I got a six- pack, a blanket, and the Brebner twins. He exits, on the prowl. TIMMY No class. DOUG None at all. (pause) I wonder what the Brebner twins are doing tomorrow night. ANGLE ON BRODY AND ELLEN BRODY Can you take a little time out from your busy schedule to dance with the old man? ELLEN Why? BRODY Because they're playing our song. And sure enough, they are -- the band has turned to a Fifties slow-dance standard: "I Wish You Love." Peterson approaches. PETERSON May I have this dance? BRODY Sorry, I'm all booked up... (taking Ellen) Come, m'dear. They slowly fox trot out onto the terrace. Both of them nodding greetings to townspeople and kids -- everyone knows the chief. BRODY Remember 1959, the Jersey shore? ELLEN And how. I thought you wouldn't respect me. BRODY I did, I did. The music and the summer moon are working their magic. BRODY Listen -- what are you doing later? ELLEN Fooling around? BRODY Right. He dips with her; they look up and notice Sean, sound asleep on a bench. ELLEN Let's get the kid home. BRODY Home it is. He crosses to the sleepy Sean and hoists him with a grunt. BRODY (to the kid) You're getting a little big for this. Sean murmurs sleepily and hugs his dad. Mike, dancing with Marge, waves good-bye. The Brodys start to leave, passing a bucket with a bottle of champagne still in it. They exchange a look, nod agreement, and Brody boosts the bottle, sneaking it out of the building while Ellen giggles. DISSOLVE TO: INT. BRODY BEDROOM - DAY Brody and Ellen are snuggling under the covers while early morning light streams under the blinds. It's The Morning After, and the clothes from the night before are scattered all over the room. Brody rolls against Ellen, spoon-fashion, morning-horny. BRODY Mmmm. ELLEN MMMmmmorning... They start to move a little, then turn face to face. Outside their door, the sounds of little feet; Sean padding downstairs. BRODY Sean's awake. ELLEN Door's locked. BRODY (kissing) Good. Their bodies move under the blankets. There's a crash from the kitchen. They stop for a beat. As they resume, little feet return. SEAN'S VOICE The milk fell out of the 'frigerator. ELLEN (whispering) Put a towel down. And shh -- daddy's sleeping. SEAN'S VOICE Okay. His feet paddle off. Brody and Ellen start to slide together, passion resumes. ELLEN C'mere... Bigger feet go downstairs; Michael's up. The Brodys kiss, trying to ignore the sounds of spirited discussion between brothers over who's responsible for spilled milk. Then the sound of a car pulling into the driveway, and a horn beep. BRODY Mrs. Silvera? ELLEN Mrs. Silvera. They try to kiss again, there's a door slam downstairs, and talk between the boys and Mrs. Silvera. The Brodys look at each other and break up laughing at the morning, and themselves. ANGLE ON THE BED As Ellen and Brody, with the practice of 18 years of marriage, swing back-to-back, and put their feet on the floor, each on their side of the bed, still chuckling, up for the day. BRODY Need a ride? ELLEN As far as the office. CUT TO: EXT. AMITY STREET DAY The police jeep is driving through the picturesque streets, Brody behind the wheel, Ellen and Sean passengers. It slows near the foot of the street, dockside, where a real estate office marked "Amity Shores Development, Leonard Peterson, Pres." sits. Peterson's big Cadillac is parked illegally at the curb. It has the Amity Shores logo on its side. BRODY Some people. SEAN What's daddy doing? ELLEN Writing a ticket. Brody is out of the car, his pad in his hand. ELLEN Hey! That's my boss! BRODY Better yet. Peterson, in shirt-sleeves and a tie, hustles out of the office PETERSON Wait a minute... BRODY Too late, it's written. PETERSON Heck of a way to treat a taxpayer. (to Ellen) Don't you have any pull with the chief, here? ELLEN Do I have to? PETERSON (taking the ticket) Better get a sales kit together for after lunch. I'm taking some prospects out. Ellen kisses Brody, and starts in for her day's work. ELLEN See you later. PETERSON (to Brody) Can't we fix it up to get this made into a green zone or something? BRODY Len, pay the two dollars. Peterson shrugs and goes inside his office. Brody's attention is drawn by some noise by the dock. EXT. DOCKSIDE, AMITY - DAY Hendricks and an old codger, Red, are working on Amity's newest bit of police equipment; a blue power launch for patrolling local waters. The boat is Hendricks' personal pride and joy. HENDRICKS (to Red) Tie it off on your left. Your other left! As Red complies, Hendricks spots his boss. HENDRICKS Good morning! BRODY (walking onto the dock, Sean tagging along) Aren't you off-duty? HENDRICKS Till noon. This is on my own time. (to Sean) Hi, Shorty. SEAN I'm not short. I'm eleven. There's a hoot from a passing boat horn. Sean waves happily. ANGLE ON THE BOAT It has slowed to a halt in front of the police berth; it's a scruffy working fisherman, back from the banks with a full load. The Skipper hails Brody. SKIPPER Yo! Chief! BRODY What? SKIPPER You got a gold-plater drifting in the main channel. Big cruiser. HENDRICKS Whereabouts? SKIPPER Off the Point. No running lights, just a diver's flag. HENDRICKS (aside to Brody) Want me to run out there? BRODY On your own time? HENDRICKS Happy to do it. BRODY Then check it out. I'll be in the office. Hendricks nods, and starts the engine importantly. HENDRICKS Cast off your bow line. And your stern line. Spring line... While Red grumbles, Brody and Sean are walking up to the street. Michael and some teen-agers are headed down to the dock. ANGLE ON BRODY AND THE KIDS It's Mike, Polo, Patrick, Lucy, Brooke, Ed and Tina. BRODY Where to? MIKE No place special. Just hanging out. BRODY Sailing? Mike nods. BRODY Watch your kid brother, huh? He gets into his jeep, leaving Sean with the teen-agers. BROOKE Bye, Mr. Brody. The others ad lib appropriate greetings/good-byes, as Brody drives off in his jeep. EXT. DOCKSIDE - DAY The Kids busy themselves with their boats while Sean hovers around Mike, who's not happy at baby-sitting his kid brother. POLO Anyone want to sail to the lighthouse? PATRICK Machs nix to me. LUCY Anyone got a spare mooring line? Mine's shot. TINA I've got one... SEAN Can I go too? MIKE No. SEAN Please. MIKE I said, 'No.' Tina's in her boat, "Tina's Joy," a neat sloop. Mike is going over his "Green Machine," a sleek catamaran. BROOKE You're not going out right away, are you? MIKE Waiting for Andy. BROOKE I want you to meet my cousin. MIKE I will, I will. SEAN I want to go out with you. You need a crew, don't you? Before Sean can protest further, Mike spots his crew: Andy Nicholas, a round-faced, frizzy-haired pal, wearing a bathing suit, and carrying some scuba gear from an early-morning diving class. Marge and Denise, two other divers, are with him, with their gear. They ad-lib "good-byes." MIKE I don't need you. Andy's here. SEAN You always go with Andy. MIKE (to Andy) How was dive class? ANDY Same as always -- glub-glub, bubble- bubble, stroke-stroke. There sure is some weird shit on the bottom of the ocean. BROOKE Shells and lobsters and stuff? ANDY Mostly old garbage. Today we found a '48 Hudson. SEAN Do I have to play with the little kids? MIKE Yeah. Go on, beat it. Sean mopes away while Andy and Mike get their boat ready for sea. FOLLOW SEAN OFF THE DOCK Up on the street, where a pretty girl with a sexy face and a provocative post-pubescent walk is asking him directions. He points down at the dock. The Girl, Jackie Peters, waves at her cousin, Brooke. JACKIE Brooke! Hey! One of the boats has a portable radio going. It's playing some medium-hot salsa. Jackie does a couple of dance steps on her way down the dock. CLOSE ON ANDY AND MIKE ANDY Who's that? Quick -- I'm in love. MIKE I hope that's the cousin. BROOKE Over here. I want you to meet somebody. ANDY Lucky. Lucky, lucky, lucky. As the four teen-agers come together in a tight quartet, the music rocks up and we: CUT TO: EXT. HARBOR - DAY Later in the day, sailboats with bright colored sails and ornately painted hulls tack back and forth. Lots of chatter between boats, horseplay, splashing, and general good times. It's cruising, on water. EXT. HARBOR, ABOARD MIKE'S BOAT - DAY with Mike, Andy, Jackie and Brooke. JACKIE How fast does this go? ANDY With the right wind, 15-20 knots. JACKIE What? MIKE Real fast. He sheets in, heeling the boat over in the stiff breeze. BROOKE Far out! Jackie screams in excitement; for a city girl, this is more fun than a roller coaster. ANGLE ON A RED CATAMARAN, "SIZZLER" overtaking Mike's boat. It's piloted by Larry Vaughn, Jr., the Mayor's Son; with him is his good friend, Bob Burnside. LARRY Coming up! BOB Gangway, Turkies! It's immediately a race between the red boat -- "Sizzler," and Mike's "Green Machine." The Kids ad-lib -- "Faster," "Lookout," "Gybe, gybe." ANDY We're carrying weight. LARRY We'll take your supercargo. JACKIE Is that me? BROOKE That's you. JACKIE I've never been supercargo. Donny and Denise's boat cuts in, stealing the Sizzler's air. LARRY Hey, get out of our air! DONNY Want a passenger? ANGLE ON THE SIZZLER AND FELIX Denise hops nimbly from one boat to the other as Danny sails tight as a tick to the red cat. BOB Way to go! QUICK CUTS: FUN AT SEA The sailboats cutting up, cruising the harbor, the local teen-agers partying with each other: -- Patrick and Lucy's Sol Cat, flying its hull. -- Susie's Laser heeled 'way over' in a stiff breeze. -- Polo and a pretty girl in his sloop, "Sea Witch." -- Timmy Weldon and Doug Fetterman playing catch-up in their respective boats, the Doughdish and the Inflatable. -- Marge in her Lightening, sailing close to Ed and Tina in Tina's Joy. CUT TO: UNDERWATER NEAR THE ORCA - DAY Silent, green-blue depths. A diver, Crosby, working the bottom, running a search pattern. Another diver, Tom Andrews, running close. They signal to each other, and make another pass. Follow Tom Andrews as he skims the bottom, near the wreck of the Orca, half-buried in the silt. A diver's line runs up and OUT OF THE FRAME, TO: EXT. OCEAN - DAY Bobbing on the surface are three boats: the Amity Police launch, the deserted Elizabeth T., from Newport, flying a diver's flag, and the ScubaVue, a local diveboat operated by Tom Andrews and his partner, Crosby; it has "Amity Aqua Sports" lettered on it somewhere. Hendricks and Red are on the deck of the police boat, peering at the cruiser. HENDRICKS Rich or poor, it's nice to have money. RED Figure they split? HENDRICKS Happens every season -- someone takes off. Once we had a schooner for a month while the owners went fox hunting. A sudden eruption in the water nearby startles them -- it's Andrews, surfacing, holding up the underwater flash camera. ANDREWS This is all there is. Crosby pops up next to him, shows empty hands. HENDRICKS If that's it, that's it. The divers head for their boat, Hendricks fires up his engine, and we: CUT TO: INT. BRODY'S OFFICE - DAY Brody is trying to reason with an indignant fat man. INDIGNANT MAN I can't watch the news, I can't watch a ball game, I can't watch movies -- all I hear is that rotten kid with his rotten radio... "Breaker, Breaker..." BRODY I'll do what I can, but you're talking about a federal jurisdiction... INDIGNANT MAN (leaving in a huff) So call the FBI! POLLY Black, two sugars. BRODY Thanks. What else is out there? POLLY One petty theft, one domestic disturbance, and an exhibitionist. BRODY I'll take the exhibitionist, you handle the others. WOMAN Chief Brody? I want you to do something about my first husband. Brody is caught in the open. WHITE-HAIRED MAN Martin, you have got to demand that Grace Kinney keep her shades down. 2ND MAN What about enforcing the "No Parking" ordinance on Beach Road? BRODY In a minute, in a minute -- talk to Mrs. Prendergast, please... WOMAN (continuing) Albert keeps coming around when I'm with gentlemen friends and he throws mud on their cars... 2ND MAN (eager to be heard) Every time there's an out- of-state car in my driveway, I lose another mailbox. Those little iron sailboats cost thirty-two dollars each! BRODY (to White Haired Man) Talk to me about Mrs. Kinney. WHITE-HAIRED MAN Her bedroom window faces my oldest boy's bedroom, and she's teasing him, dancing around in a towel, or less... BRODY Dancing? Hendricks has entered, carrying the camera brought up from the bottom by the divers. HENDRICKS Chief... BRODY Hendricks. I want to go over your reports and your Form 908. They go into Brody's inner office; the uproar continues behind the door, but it's calm in here. HENDRICKS I never heard of a 908. BRODY I just made it up. It means, "Get me out of there." (notices the camera) What the hell's that? HENDRICKS Diver's camera. Tom Andrews brought it up from under that abandoned cruiser. BRODY Abandoned? It's a little early in the season for that. HENDRICKS Rich people. Home port is Newport, Rhode Island. BRODY If I had a $100,000 boat, I sure as hell wouldn't leave it anchored alone in the channel. HENDRICKS If you had a $100,000 boat there'd be an investigation. Hendricks puts the camera in an informal "Lost & Found" box sitting in the office. Brody makes the mistake of opening the door, revealing the White-Haired Man. WHITE-HAIRED MAN Grace Kinney is driving my boy to distraction. BRODY Hendricks, get a description of that dance. LARGE MAN (to Brody) Chief Brody? I want to talk to you about my daughter... she's 15, but mature for her age... WOMAN Chief, I've been telling Mrs. Prendergast that it's no good just talking about Albert, she's got to do something... 2ND MAN Look -- the township is responsible for protecting life and property, and my property is unprotected... As Brody turns to deal with the mess, we: CUT TO: UNDERWATER Looking up at the surface, where a hull floats in silhouette against the daylight. There's a commotion, and a water ski drops into view. Then another one. Pale legs churn the water. CUT TO: EXT. OCEAN - DAY Off Amity Beach, a bilious green lap-straked boat is bobbing in the water, the engine idling. Two girls are fooling around; the one in the water is Terry, the one driving the boat is Diane. TERRY Did you ever see a dolphin? DIANE Sure. They like to play. We may see some today. TERRY Great! She fumbles with her skis. TERRY Whoops, almost lost one. Can't play with the dolphins without skis... DIANE Ready? TERRY Hang on, hang on... Okay, go. Diane goes to the controls, and puts the engine into gear, starting forward. Terry waves "okay," Diane opens up the throttle, the boat surges forward, pulling Terry upright. A wake boils out from under her skis. ANGLE ON THE BEACH Ed and Tina are camped on a blanket, necking in the shelter of the dunes. There's a portable radio, a cooler with some beer, and some sandwiches -- a perfect afternoon alone. Above the dune, behind them lies the ocean, where the girls' ski boat can be seen, raising a big wake. Tina disengages, and sits up, brushing sand out of her hair. TINA Take a break for a minute, okay? ED Huh? Tina stands, and looks out to the sea, where the boat is towing Terry on the water. TINA Eddie, can we do that? (no reaction) Can we go skiing? We can use my Uncle's boat. Eddie? ED Next week. TINA With you, everything's next week. I want to go skiing soon. Tomorrow? Ed grunts non-comittally. Tina takes a beer from the cooler, and goes up on the dune to watch Terry and Diane. She waves to them, and to someone down the beach. EXT. BEACH HOUSE - DAY An old lady, Grace Witherspoon, is rocking on her porch, also enjoying the view of young people enjoying themselves. She acknowledges Tina's distant wave, and turns her attention back to the skiers. ANGLE ON THE SKIERS having a wonderful time. Terry is good, criss-crossing the wake, showing off. CLOSE ON TERRY rushing through the water, waving, stunting. TERRY Faster! Faster! She waves at Diane, who leans over the controls, to coax more speed out of the old engine. UNDERWATER following the skis effortlessly, closing in on the turbulent wake. ON THE SURFACE Terry whipping along; a fin raises near her. She glances at it, waves, thinking it's a porpoise. TERRY Porpoise! Look! A dolphin! The fin slides low in the water, heading towards her. She puts the rope around her waist, leaving both hands free. UNDERWATER Closing in on the wake, crossing it. TERRY - ON THE SURFACE The fin cuts across her path. Too late to maneuver, Terry hits the looming gray back of the Shark. The skis bump, leave the water, Terry takes a spectacular spill. The rope around her waist tows her helpless through the water, gagging her, preventing her from shouting. She flounders as Diane slows the boat to see what's happened. ANGLE ON THE BOAT turning back to see if her friend hit a submerged log or hurt herself. DIANE Terry! You okay? TERRY Help! Help! DIANE Okay, okay, coming... She still doesn't realize the gravity of the situation -- she hasn't seen the fin. ANGLE ON TERRY hysterical, pulling herself hand-over-hand up the rope, trying to get to the boat. UNDERWATER Closing in on the thrashing figure. TERRY Screaming, as the Shark rises from the deep and takes her. Suddenly she's gone, a swirl of pink froth marking the water where she went under. IN THE BOAT - DIANE Looking around for her friend, suddenly panicky. She pulls the rope hard, and tumbles backward as it comes up with nothing on it -- just a cleanly bitten end. DIANE (screaming) Terry! Then the Shark appears, blood on its mouth, lunging up and butting the stern, jarring the engine loose. Fuel spills from a ruptured line. DIANE Help! God, help! She throws things at the Shark, which slides back under the water. DISTANT ANGLE ON THE BOAT - FROM THE BEACH Diane can be seen flailing in the boat, very distant screams floating across the water; at this range they sound like the normal shrieks of teen-age girls having fun.... ANGLE ON THE BOAT - CLOSE as the Shark hits from a fresh angle, this time taking a chunk out of the boat, biting down with powerful jaws. Diane hurls seat-cushions, oars, anything she can lay hands on. She fumbles desperately in a compartment, produces a flare pistol. She cocks it and fires point-blank at the shark. CLOSE ON THE SHARK The flare hits, wet fuel glistening on the water and skin of the Shark explodes in a sheet of flame. DIANE A last flash before the gasoline explodes. DIANE No-o-o-o-o-o...! A sheet of fire, she's in the middle, screaming, aflame, the Shark forgotten. She falls into the water as the ruined boat overturns and there's an oily explosion. EXT. BEACH - DAY - ED AND TINA Ed and Tina look up as they hear the distant "crump" of the boat blowing up. EXT. PORCH - DAY Mrs. Witherspoon looks up, startled by the sudden tragedy. She gets up to go to the phone, indoors, and we: CUT TO: EXT. OCEAN - DAY - AMITY POLICE BOAT The launch is anchored at the site of the explosion, offshore. Red is fishing up bits of flotsam with a boathook. Hendricks is on the radio, talking to the shore. HENDRICKS I can't find anyone out here. They must've gone to the bottom, or drifted with the current. BRODY ON SHORE He's on the porch of tile Witherspoon house, using his portable walkie-talkie. Mrs. Witherspoon is waiting in the b.g. Nearby, we can see a sign: "BURIED CABLE: Call New England Light and Power Before Digging." The cable itself surfaces in a chain-link fenced enclosure, and climbs a power pole for distribution to the island. Ed and Tina are also there, having given statements. BRODY There should be bodies. Witnesses say two people; one in the boat, one skiing. HENDRICKS (O.S.) (filtered) I told you -- nothing here. BRODY Try dragging. HENDRICKS (O.S.) For how long? Current's moving everything around, and it's getting dark. BRODY Stay on it. I don't care how long it takes. HENDRICKS (O.S.) 10-4. Brody turns to Ed and Tina, and takes out his notebook. TINA We heard this noise, like a 'boomp' out there, and when we looked, there was just this cloud of smoke. GRACE That was the explosion. One minute they were having a wonderful time, the next, bang! BRODY GRACE I don't know what could've done that. Brody stares out at the quiet sea -- what's lurking under that calm surface? TINA Can we go now? Brody's still looking past them, towards the ocean. TINA Chief Brody -- can we go? Please? BRODY Oh, yeah. Sure. As he gazes at the ocean, we hear the sound of a distant siren, and CUT TO: EXT. AMITY - DAY An ambulance, siren wailing and red light flashing, drives on its melancholy way through the picturesque town. DISSOLVE TO: ABROAD THE POLICE BOAT - NIGHT Hendricks has the winch in operation, the cable in his hand, with big grappling hooks attached. The boat is lit by its powerful worklights. Hendricks heaves them out, watches as the current takes them, then puts the winch in gear, hauling back. RED How much longer? HENDRICKS Until we find something. RED I don't care about the overtime, I'm hungry. And cold. And most of all, bored. INSERT - THE WINCH CABLE It goes taut with a sudden strain. ANGLE ON HENDRICKS He sees it, too. HENDRICKS I think we got something. Red moves to the winch, watching warily as it slows to a near stall with the weight. RED About damn time. HENDRICKS What the hell is it? There's a strain on the cable -- it's pulling the stern of the boat down as it struggles with the weight. HENDRICKS Here it comes... ANGLE ON THE WATER lit by the harsh worklights on the deck of the launch. The cable from the winch is taut, pulling something up from the black depths. What? The coupling appears, then the hook, and an oily cable. RED Oh shit. Drop it. HENDRICKS What is it? RED Power line. HENDRICKS Oh, great. He hits the release on the winch, and the cable whines as it spins out and settles back on the bottom. Red jiggles the line, trying to free it up. RED It comes here from Cable Junction. HENDRICKS Untangle it and let's go -- We don't need a blackout on the island. RED (at the winch) Now you're talking. Let's get out of here before we do find something. DISSOLVE TO: INT. BRODY KITCHEN - DAY The next morning, the Brody family is downstairs, each getting his own special breakfast. Mike gets cereal for himself and Sean, Ellen is cracking some soft-boiled eggs, Brody is drinking coffee and smoking. ELLEN You have to smoke so early in the morning? BRODY It's good with coffee. ELLEN So's a donut. SEAN I want Fruit Loops! MIKE Eat Cheerios. SEAN You eat Cheerios. I want Fruit Loops. ELLEN Eat Cheerios. BRODY What're you guys doing today? MIKE (indicates Sean) I don't know about him -- I'm going down to the dock, maybe go sailing. BRODY Every day? MIKE What else is there to do? BRODY You could work out at the beach, make a few bucks for school. MIKE Do I have to? BRODY You'll have to make up your own mind about that. ELLEN Where's my day book? BRODY In the den. Ellen passes them on the way to the den to look for it. ELLEN He doesn't have to work all the time, it's his vacation. Mrs. Silvera enters from the service porch. MRS. SILVERA Good morning -- everyone up early today? BRODY There's a lot going on. He follows Ellen into the den. INT. DEN - DAY Ellen is rummaging around the papers on the end table, looking for her book. ELLEN Why don't you take a half day and clean this junk up? BRODY Because, I'm in the middle of a boating accident, I got only four regular cops and one secretary, and a Chief Deputy who is constantly fiddling with the police boat. He's another one. ELLEN One what? (she finds the book) Ah-ha! BRODY Boat nut. What is it about this place that makes everyone a freak for boating? ELLEN It's an island. (she pecks him on the cheek) Got to run. She heads out the door for the office. Mike approaches. ANGLE ON MIKE AND BRODY MIKE I'm going. BRODY What about tennis? Riding? Fixing up old cars? Bartending? MIKE Bartending? I'm 17. BRODY Okay, not bartending. Why on the water every day? MIKE Because. BRODY Look, humor the old man -- just be careful. MIKE (going) I'll be careful. I'll see y'later. INT. KITCHEN Mike passes through on his way out, nodding to Mrs. Silvera who acknowledges his passage. Brody is close on his heels. BRODY Don't go out if it's rough or anything, huh? We've had a lot of trouble. MIKE Okay, okay. The back door slams behind him. SEAN Can I go with you today? BRODY You stay with Mrs. Silvera, Tootsie. Okay? Sean nods, resigning himself to the inevitable. MRS. SILVERA (to Sean) You can come with me to the market. SEAN All right. BRODY I'll be at the office. Mrs. Silvera nods, and pours Sean a glass of milk. Brody sighs, and heads out the door. Sean calls after him. SEAN Bye, Daddy. I'm going to be careful, all day. CUT TO: EXT. OCEAN - DAY Sitting snug and ship-shape on Mike's Green Machine are Mike, Andy, Brooke, and Jackie. They are heeled over in a brisk wind, making good headway; sailing nearby in the b.g. are Patrick and Lucy and Donny and Denise, in their boats. LUCY (from her boat) Where're we going? ANDY Oh, out a ways. Maybe the lighthouse. BROOKE The lighthouse? ANDY No big thing, we'll see who's out there, maybe picnic. MIKE We got some stuff at the store. Ed and Tina are going to be there. BROOKE Oh, sure, they would be. JACKIE What's the lighthouse? MIKE It's an island, near here, with a lighthouse. We sometimes hang out there, you know... JACKIE Great. I got some wine. She opens her big floppy bag, revealing the top half of a jug of Mountain Red. Brooke slides over to her. ANGLE ON BROOKE AND JACKIE BROOKE (aside) The lighthouse is a make-out spot. JACKIE Now I really want to see it. BROOKE You going to fool around with Mike? (Jackie shrugs) Well, I'm not doing anything with him. She indicates Andy, who pretends great indifference. JACKIE Well, maybe I will, then. Andy does about a triple take before he regains his cool. Mike concentrates on his sailing, Jackie grins an impish, vixen grin, Brooke shrugs. CUT TO: EXT. LIGHTHOUSE - DAY spectacular view from the top of the old lighthouse, showing ocean, sandy beach, some of the Kids' catamarans pulled up on the sand, other pleasure boats cruising in the b.g. Ed and Tina are running down the stairs, laughing. ED Come on back up here! TINA Nope. ED Give me back my hat! TINA Double nope! ANGLE ON THE SAND where Andy, Mike, Jackie, and Brooke are camped around a blanket listening to a portable radio. Ed and Tina run by. ANDY Why'd they decide to move? BROOKE Too hot in the lighthouse? MIKE Too hot for those two? I can't believe it. JACKIE Is there something I don't know about? BROOKE I told you, remember? JACKIE Oh, yeah. So why aren't they doing it now? There's a little round of giggling. ANDY Maybe by now they are. MIKE They're moving pretty fast. JACKIE He's cute... ANGLE ON ED & TINA running towards a dune and over it. ANGLE ON MASSIVE SHAPE in f.g., covered with birds. Ed and Tina appear over the crest of a dune, and the frame explodes in a flurry of seagulls, suddenly disturbed. The whir and drumbeat of wings, and the shrieking of the gulls is a jarring shock. CLOSEUP - TINA reacting. TINA Yech! HER POINT OF VIEW The huge hulk of a beached, decomposing dead whale, a few birds still pecking at scraps of blubber and entrails. Big festering red holes mark its sides. DISSOLVE TO: LONG SHOT - SAND AND WHALE From the top of the lighthouse, we can see a group of interested spectators, clustered around the whale like ants at a picnic. A few more boats are beached and riding at anchor just off the shore, including the Amity police boat. Three Ants are walking towards the crowd, one of them gesturing. CUT TO: ANGLE ON BRODY, HENDRICKS AND A WOMAN She's Lureen Elkins, a marine biologist from the Oceanographic Institute, and she's skeptical. Brody is the ant whose antennae were waving in the long shot. BRODY As soon as I heard about it, I called you. This thing is big! His arms indicate big. ELKINS After we've looked, we'll talk. HENDRICKS This is it. He moves forward to clear the crowd. Some kids are poking the massive hulk with sticks. A tourist couple is snapping away with a Polaroid SX-70. The whole mess stinks, too. HENDRICKS Move back, please... back off... open it up a little... The crowd edges back, giving way to Brody and Elkins. BRODY See? What'd I tell you? ANGLE ON THE WHALE Brody is holding a handkerchief to his nose as he approaches the dead thing, indicating a huge open wound on the side. BRODY Look at that! ELKINS First things first. She produces a tape measure and gives one end to Brody. ELKINS From the tip of the snout, please. Elkins is measuring the length of the creature. She calls off numbers to Hendricks, who is officiously writing it all down, repeating numbers as he hears them. ELKINS Length, 22 feet, 8 inches. BRODY Come on, let's check the bite radius. ELKINS (cold) The what? BRODY Bite radius. You know, the size of the mouth? ELKINS The whale's mouth? BRODY The Shark's mouth. ELKINS What shark? Brody pitches his voice low, so that the crowd won't listen. BRODY The shark that did this. It was a shark, wasn't it? ELKINS We don't know that, do we? BRODY But that's what we're here to find out, right? ELKINS You don't tell me my job, and I won't tell you about yours, okay? HENDRICKS I can't hear you if you're going to whisper. MIKE Can we go now? He turns to join the kids as they slip through the crowd to return to their blanket, ad-libbing good-byes. BRODY (to Mike) You stay here a minute. MIKE Oh, c'mon. BRODY You heard me. JACKIE We'll be over by the lighthouse. MIKE I'll be right there. Wait up. They hang around, waiting for him. Elkins has reclaimed Brody's attention. ELKINS Could be a shark. But maybe not. BRODY Look, I know a little bit about sharks. ELKINS Do you? BRODY I know that this was probably a Great White Shark. Car-cadon... Caradan... He fumbles for the correct Latin. ELKINS (helping out) Carcharadon Carcharias. BRODY That's it. ELKINS Okay, so that's it. BRODY Is there one in these waters? ELKINS What makes you think there might be? BRODY Because this big fish has been bitten by some other big fish... ELKINS This is a mammal, not a fish. BRODY Jesus, don't quibble with me. I want to know if a Great White Shark did this. ELKINS Probably. BRODY That's it? Probably? Look, sharks are attracted by blood, and thrashing around... ELKINS And sound. BRODY (this is a new one) Sound? ELKINS Sound. Like sonar, or radar. They home in on irregular sounds, unusual sounds, any rhythmic low-frequency vibration. BRODY So there's one around here. ELKINS Not necessarily. These wounds could've been inflicted 30 miles out to sea, or more. None of them are immediately fatal. Currents could've carried the body 10 miles further. HENDRICKS (chiming in) We got a helluva tide this month. BRODY Could you just keep that crowd back, please? MIKE (fidgeting) Pop... BRODY You stay right here. You're going in with me. ANGLE ON BRODY AND MIKE As Elkins examines the whale, calling her observations to Hendricks. MIKE We came out in my boat. BRODY Andy can sail in it. MIKE I got a date! BRODY She'll understand. MIKE She won't. ELKINS Lower jaw displaced and lacerated by predator attempt to seize the tongue. Additional large tissue loss in the dorsal and sub- dorsal areas, as well as the caudal. Oriamal bite radius 37 inches, allowing for salt-water erosion and subsequent small predator and scavenger tissue attacks... The Kids have moved a little closer to hear what's going on between father and son. BRODY I don't want to discuss it. Elkins crosses to Brody. ELKINS It's either a Great White, or another killer whale. BRODY Can't you tell? ELKINS Not when it's like this. This animal has been ashore for 10, 12 hours, and drifting for a day, at least. Every little nibbler in the sea's taken a bite. BRODY Look -- can Great White Sharks communicate? Send out signals, or something? You know, take revenge, sense an enemy... ELKINS Don't be ridiculous -- Sharks don't take things personally. MIKE Dad, please... Brody turns on him. This at least, is something he can do something about. BRODY No more sailing. You come back with me, and that's it. MIKE Why me? BRODY Because I say so. ANDY I'll tie up at the town dock, don't worry, man. JACKIE See you later, Mikey... ED AND TINA Later, bye... (ad lib) DISSOLVE TO: INT. AMITY TOWN HALL - DAY Vaughn and Brody enter, walking through the spare, empty town meeting hall, towards the conference table. They are alone. VAUGHN I'm showing summer rentals. We got a helluva season going. BRODY We have got to talk, and we have got to talk alone. VAUGHN We're alone. BRODY Larry, I don't know how to say this, but I think we got a shark problem. A real one. Vaughn stares at him, then unlocks the door to his private office -- "Mayor" -- and leads Brody in. INT. VAUGHN'S OFFICE - DAY Small, expensively furnished in antiques, with a few symbols of Amity boosterism cluttering one wall: a photo of the beach, featuring a shark tower; an architect's rendering of the new Holiday Inn, some charts and graphs showing upward progress, a few stills of businessmen's luncheons, plaques, awards, etc. VAUGHN Are you serious? BRODY Of course. Look -- I've got some missing persons, fatalities, evidence of a large predator... VAUGHN No one has seen a shark -- no fin, no bites, nothing. Be realistic. BRODY I got a feeling. I have to act on it -- you can understand that, can't you? VAUGHN Of course I can, but can't it wait? These things cost money, and this town doesn't have much money. BRODY We have to do something. VAUGHN We have done something -- hell, we damn near went broke putting up a shark watch tower on the beach -- it's the only one in 2000 miles, y'know. BRODY I know, I know... VAUGHN And I stood by while you told the people from Ramada and Marriott that if they put up a hotel they'd need $800,000 worth of steel net around their beaches! In New England? We all lost on that one. BRODY It's still a good idea. VAUGHN Martin, when we build up our tax base a little, you can have everything you want; right now, the town's broke. BRODY Please, Larry -- there's good reason. Those water skiers... VAUGHN (interrupting) A tragedy. But that was a boating accident; no bites, no sharks, nothing but a boating accident. BRODY Two of them are still missing! VAUGHN There's always deaths in these waters that never turn up. Are they all shark victims? BRODY Maybe they are! Brody's overstated his case, and he realizes it. VAUGHN Bullshit. BRODY (shouting) Bullshit? I'll give you bullshit -- there's a dead whale out there with bites all over it! VAUGHN (shouting back) What am I, an ass? When you called me, I called Elkins, and her bosses. Nothing she saw is proof of anything. BRODY Someone has to do something. VAUGHN (back in control) Don't push it this time. If you do, it won't turn out the way you want, I guarantee you that. The two men study each other for a long moment. Then, VAUGHN I've got to get back to work. He holds the door for Brody, who walks out as Vaughn lags behind, locking up his sanctum. CUT TO: EXT. AMITY BEACH ROAD - DAY (DUSK) Brody is alone in the jeep, headed for the safety of home and family. He drives past the town's billboard: it's covered with an architect's rendering of the Amity Holiday Inn. The sign reads: "WHEN IN AMITY, ENJOY THE HOLIDAY INN." Plastered across it is an added streamer: "NOW OPEN." Barely visible underneath are older notices: "UNDER CONSTRUCTION," and "OPENING IN JUNE." As Brody passes the sign, he impulsively swings off the main road and heads down towards the beach. EXT. BEACH - DUSK Brody is on restless patrol, checking the water's edge as he continues on home. As he drives along, he sees: a clambake; some teen-agers in a group, necking and dancing; and a few solitary surfcasters and fishermen. The beach is deserted, the sun is setting, and Brody and his jeep have the sand to themselves. It's then that he sees something: BRODY'S POINT OF VIEW A big bow section of a ruined, burnt boat is bobbing in the surf just off the beach ahead. It's a piece of the waterskiers' boat; Brody heads towards it. ANGLE ON THE SURF As Brody slows his jeep just short of the water, and gets out to look at the flotsam. His shoes get wet. He backs up onto dry sand, then tries to edge closer to examine this object. It bobs up and down in the surf; Brody makes "Get in here" motions. The junk resists. BRODY Come on, give a guy a break. No response. He takes off his shoes and socks, and rolls up his trouser legs. A silly sight. He wades into the water after it. BRODY Come on. Here boy. Come to Poppa... It eludes him, and he flounders after it. A big wave breaks across his crotch. BRODY Hoo! Cold! He's almost there, it's just beyond his reach, he's got it, he's lost it, he has it again, it's slippery... BRODY (ad lib) Come here. Come on, Sweetheart. You bastard. A little closer... Here y'go... Then, he's got it --- BRODY (exultant) Gotcha! CLOSE ON BRODY IN THE WATER As he grabs the ruined wood, and pulls it towards him. Suddenly, the mass of wreckage breaks apart, and something lunges out of the mess and into Brody. SHOCK CUT CLOSEUP - "THE THING" Brody is suddenly pinned under a soggy charred horror; the gory remains of Diane, burnt beyond recognition,: flesh peeled away, discolored, charred, ruined by days in salt water. He screams, and scrabbles in the wet sand, trying to get out of the dreadful clutches of the half-human thing he's dredged from the water. ANGLE ON BRODY Extricating himself, puking, retching, splashing water on his face, washing his hands frantically, just behind him, The Thing lying on the sand, a gruesome joke played by the sea. DISSOLVE TO: INT. BRODY'S OFFICE - NIGHT - EXTREME CLOSEUP - CYANIDE BOTTLE Macro close on a pharmaceutical bottle of Sodium Cyanide, from which a syringe is withdrawing a healthy dose. Follow the syringe and reveal Brody, working at his desk in the deserted office. He is injecting the deadly chemical into some jacketed .38 hollow-point ammunition; a dozen cartridges are lined up in neat array, he is filling the last of them, sealing the points with wax from a burning red candle. The radio scanner is monitoring the local police band: routine reports faintly in the b.g. -- a slow night in pre-season Amity. ANGLE ON BRODY As a sound at the door makes him look up. He hides the odd gear as Hendricks enters, starched and crisp in his uniform. HENDRICKS Chief? BRODY In here. HENDRICKS I missed you at the funeral home. Santos said you were here. BRODY You didn't miss much. Christ, what a mess. HENDRICKS Positive I.D.? BRODY The woman passenger on the boat that blew up. HENDRICKS Oh. There's an awkward pause. Brody sees the box with the divers' stuff sitting where it was left earlier. BRODY What about that camera? HENDRICKS What camera? BRODY That one -- from the wreck. You brought it up, did you look inside it? Hendricks' guilty look confirms he didn't. BRODY Well, what the hell -- might be something worth seeing. Take it somewhere and see if there's film in it... HENDRICKS (catching on) If there is, develop it! BRODY You got it. The Deputy rummages in the locker, happy to be on the trail. HENDRICKS I know just where to go. BRODY Not the drugstore! HENDRICKS Of course not, They're closed. Phil Fogarty's place. He'll do it for me. BRODY The drugstore's closed? What the hell time is it? HENDRICKS Nine-thirty, ten maybe. BRODY Shit -- I'm late for dinner... Close up, okay? And he runs for the door, the speed-loaders with the Cyanide bullets safely in his pocket. BRODY (at the door) Oh yeah -- I'm expecting a long distance call, very important. Give them my home phone. HENDRICKS Right. Brody pats his pockets to make sure the speed-loaders are safe inside, then exits. As Hendricks watches him go, CUT TO: EXT. BRODY HOUSE - NIGHT Brody's jeep pulls up, and he gets out, beat. He is slouching towards the door when he hears the phone ring inside. He perks up, and starts to move faster. CUT TO: INT. BRODY HOUSE - NIGHT Ellen is on the phone in the den as Brody enters the house. The Kids are on the floor in front of the TV, playing an electronic video game that pings and beeps softly under the following. ELLEN (into the phone) Thank you. I'll tell him. BRODY For me? ELLEN (hanging up) Sort of -- Matthew Hooper is aboard the research vessel Aurora, presently in the Antarctic Ocean, and won't be in radio range until half-past next spring. BRODY Damn. He starts upstairs, casually concealing the towel-wrapped package of gun and ammunition. MIKE Is Hooper coming to dinner? BRODY Not till next year. He goes upstairs, Ellen waits a few beats, then follows him. CUT TO: INT. BRODY HOUSE - UPSTAIRS - NIGHT Brody comes up the stairs and goes into the bedroom, where he carefully puts the gun in the bed table. Ellen finds him. BRODY Oh, hi -- How was dinner? ELLEN Oh, perfect -- a 75 per cent family affair. Where were you? BRODY (getting up) Santos' place. They both know what that means -- the morgue. Brody goes into the bathroom and starts scrubbing his hands compulsively. INT. BRODY HOUSE - BATHROOM AND HALLWAY - NIGHT Ellen follows Brody, watches as he washes under too-hot water. BRODY Oww! ELLEN Careful. What's wrong? BRODY Nothing. ELLEN Nothing, huh? BRODY That's what I said. Is there any of that hand cleaner stuff? ELLEN Use the little brush there. Why were you at Santos'? BRODY Found one of the missing victims from that boat deal. ELLEN Oh. Want to talk about it? BRODY No. ELLEN Terrific. Mike comes up the stairs, and is starting into his room when Brody spots him; Sean is just behind him. BRODY Michael. MIKE Yeah? BRODY You want to come here a minute? Mike shrugs and crosses to his father; Sean whizzes past on into his room. SEAN Hi Dad. BRODY Hiya yourself. MIKE What is it? He expects something: this is a formal audience with the Head of The House. BRODY I got something for you to do tomorrow. MIKE I kind of had plans... BRODY Sailing? (Mike nods) Forget it. You're beached. Grounded. No more boats. MIKE Hey, come on... BRODY No backtalk! I spoke to Upton, at the beach, and he's got a job for you there. You can work until school starts. ELLEN All summer? BRODY He wanted a job, he's got one. I want to see that boat out of the water by tomorrow night. We see Sean's door opening as he peeps into the hall to see what the fuss is about. ANGLE ON SEAN'S DOOR It opens a few inches, he looks out at the grownups and his brother, decides he wants no part of this, and quietly closes the door. MIKE (O.S.) Dad, please... BRODY (O.S.) Tomorrow night. Out of the water. ANGLE ON THE HALLWAY Mike silently storms into his room, not-so-silently slamming the door as he exits. From inside the room, loud rock music muffled behind the door -- an expression of teen-age rebellion. ELLEN Not so loud! The music lowers its volume. Brody turns to go into the bedroom, to take his shoes off, to go to bed... BRODY I know what you're going to say. ELLEN Do you? BRODY (on the bed) In the city, it happened all the time -- some Kid o.d.'s on a rooftop, top, a drunk gets cut in pieces under the Brooklyn local, old people die alone in shitty apartments and three weeks later someone calls the cops because of the smell and the flies. Call the cops. What are we, immune? ELLEN It was bad, wasn't it. BRODY The goddamn smell is always the same. (he shudders at the recollection) ELLEN Are you going to be able to sleep? BRODY Yeah. I think so. (he raises his voice) Mike! Keep it down, for chrissake! Ellen gets up, and quietly closes the door. The upstairs hallway is empty, the doors closed. The Brody household compartmented and closed for the night. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. AMITY BEACH - DAY The familiar striped cabanas flank the white sands; there's a crowd of midweek seasonal tourists and locals oblivious to the tall steel tower that dominates the beach. A classy van outfitted for passengers pulls into the parking area, followed by Vaughn's Cadillac; the parking attendant waves them into a preferential area, where they disembark: Vaughn, Peterson, Ellen, and some more prospects, including a woman named Bryant and her daughter, Renee. PETERSON This is the town beach; the development naturally has its own private access, but I wanted you to see the concession area. Look at that sand -- like sugar! He scoops up a handful of the fine powder. Ellen directs the attention of the photographers. ELLEN During the summer, the sun sets right there... (she points) Over the water. Beautiful. VAUGHN (to Ellen) I'll say hello for you. Ellen nods, preoccupied. Vaughn strolls away, headed in the direction of the cabanas. Mary Nichols, a local Selectwoman, emerges from behind the counter of one of the concessions. NICHOLS Hello -- selling some more of the good life? ELLEN A piece here, a piece there, it all adds up. NICHOLS Your husband's been here all morning. What's he doing? ELLEN (good-naturedly) His job. Michael Brody, dressed in township workman's coveralls, is repainting some flaking woodwork. Sean is happily mixing paint. Vaughn joins them. VAUGHN Your dad got you working? MIKE Yeah. He continues his chore, without enthusiasm. SEAN I'm helping. VAUGHN You know where your dad is? MIKE Up there. He points at the tower. VAUGHN Oh, for Christ's sake. He crosses briskly to where Peterson is finishing. PETERSON And if you have any questions about recreational possibilities, Ellen Brody here will be happy to answer them. VAUGHN Len, can I see you a minute? Peterson excuses himself and joins the Mayor. PETERSON I think we got a couple of live ones. VAUGHN Brody's riding his tower. PETERSON (looking up) Oh, shit. BRODY IN THE TOWER sweeping the water with binoculars, restless eyes trying to scan everything, a grim watchman high over the heads of the unseeing crowd. ON THE WATER Larry Vaughn, Jr. comes skimming in close to the surf. Bob is handling the sheets, Larry is giving young Jackie sailing lessons -- at the moment he's showing her how the tiller works. He's on her like glue. JACKIE This is fun! Can we go faster? LARRY (to Bob) Trim. Bob does, Larry trims the main, and the hull lifts. JACKIE Yay! She snuggles in Larry's arms. He waves to someone. LARRY That's my dad! Jackie waves without seeing. ON THE BEACH Vaughn waves back, preoccupied. Near him, Mike Brody looks up, his face grim, jealous, and now a little nuts. He splashes paint onto the wood with angry abandon. VAUGHN (to Peterson) Wave to my son. PETERSON (waving) How the hell do we get him down from there? VAUGHN Maybe nobody will notice. Let's get them back in the bus. Mrs. Bryant approaches them, tugging her daughter. MRS. BRYANT Renee wants to know what that man is doing way up there? PETERSON He's, ah, watching. A lookout. MRS. BRYANT For what? RENEE (a precocious little girl) It's a shark tower. I saw one in Florida. He's looking for sharks. VAUGHN It's an observation platform. That's our Chief of Police. He's just checking it. PETERSON Normally, it's used for, ah, bird watching. Nature observation. Weather measurements, that sort of thing. (a little desperate) Ellen, we're running late! ELLEN Okay. Folks, if we could get back on, we'll show you the country club, and stop for lunch... At the mention of lunch, the prospects, all hungry, begin flocking back into the van. Peterson herds them along. PETERSON The country club has an 18-hole course, putting greens, and twelve tennis courts... CUT TO: BRODY IN THE TOWER still scanning. His body suddenly tenses. There's something out there. He mashes his binoculars to his eyes, trying to get a better look. HIS POINT OF VIEW (PROCESS) Through the binoculars, something big and black, moving under the buoys and into the swimming area. BRODY AGAIN He can't believe it. But looking past him, we can see it with the unaided eye: a seething dark mass, moving through the water towards the unprotected bathers. BRODY (screaming) Out of the water! Everyone out of the water! No one can hear him. A few little faces look up, unable to catch what he's saying. He starts climbing down the ladder shouting. BRODY Get out of the water! Tell everyone to get out! Now! Out of the water! ANGLE ON PETERSON, VAUGHN, AND NICHOLS reacting. VAUGHN (recalling another panic) Oh, my God... PETERSON What the hell is he doing? NICHOLS Oh, no! ELLEN, MIKE, AND SEAN Looking up, startled at Brody's sudden panic. THE WATER The dark mass almost on top of the swimmers, who are starting to look around. Most of them are oblivious to what's happening on shore. FOLLOW BRODY as his feet hit the sand and he starts running for the water, fumbling for his gun and the speed-loader with the cyanide bullets. He is bumping into people, knocking little kids over, stepping on blankets and umbrellas, a madman. BRODY Out of the water! Now! Everyone! VAUGHN Running too, half-stumbling, half-believing, remembering... ELLEN Moving after her husband, while Mike steadies Sean, holding the impulsive kid back. ELLEN (seeing something) Martin! No! ANGLE ON BRODY AGAIN The gun is out now, he's trying draw a bead on the shape in the water; chest heaving, he tries to steady his shaky grip. People see the gun and scream, throwing themselves flat on the sand, running, some of them going into the water. BRODY No! Don't go in! Stay out! Stay clear! He fires. Again. Bullets ricochet off the water, howling towards the horizon. Real panic now. Four more shots. Reloading, ejected rounds falling bright into the sand, Brody on his knees, fumbling with bullets. ANGLE ON A LIFEGUARD standing on his platform, shocked, watching the Chief of Police fumbling with his gun. LIFEGUARD It's bluefish! It's a school of bluefish! Chief! It's bluefish! ANGLE ON THE WATER It is bluefish -- a tight mass of them, churning up the water in a dark, dense group. The swimmers look around, confused by the shots and excitement. A SWIMMER What's going on? ANOTHER SWIMMER Fish! Anyone got a net? 3RD SWIMMER Someone get me a rod and reel! Laughter defuses the tension in the water; bathers move around, some getting closer to see the fish, others leaving the water to join friends and families on the sand. ANGLE ON THE BEACH where Brody is now standing, panting, coming down as a crowd collects at a safe distance around him: Ellen emerges from a group that includes Vaughn, Peterson, and Nichols. BRODY Sorry. I'm sorry. False alarm... Curious crowd murmurs as they watch this lunacy. Brody realizes he's fired his weapon, that spent shells litter the sand at his feet. BRODY Okay, it's all over, go on, it's over. No trouble... Ellen joins him. ELLEN It's okay. It's over... Brody drops to his knees, fumbling for the cyanide bullets in his gun, trying to put things in order, scrabbling in the sand for the empty shells. The crowd is curious and embarrassed. Some turn away, others drift back to their blankets, talking about what's just happened, others stare rudely. Brody is coming apart. BRODY It's all right, everything's all right... Sean emerges from the crowd, and helps his daddy pick up the bullets, Ellen moves to disperse the rudely curious. ELLEN (O.S.) Let's go, everyone... Mrs. Bryant, Len, please... CLOSE ON BRODY AND SEAN He sees Sean, his eyes fill with tears, and he grabs the kid in a fierce hug. DISSOLVE TO: INT. TOWN HALL - DAY A hurriedly called meeting of the town's Selectmen is in session: Vaughn, Peterson, and three others: Kaiser, an old man still in his grocery clerk's apron; Sansom; and Nichols, the woman on the beach. VAUGHN Brody's a good man. KAISER Nobody says he isn't. PETERSON You should've been out there. You should've seen him waving that gun, like a maniac. There were shots fired! VAUGHN He thought he had a good reason. MS. NICHOLS But that's not rational behavior! PETERSON That's what I'm saying! VAUGHN How many people were there? MS. NICHOLS Hundred! Literally hundreds. What are they going to say about us? PETERSON (to Vaughn) Larry, I'm a businessman, trying to make a buck like anybody else. VAUGHN So? So? PETERSON So it can't be done like that. The man's a menace, plain and simple. VAUGHN Look, what am I supposed to do? It's done, it's over. We have to deal with the consequences. SANSOM That's what we're here to do. VAUGHN All right. Let's go into my office, where we can have a little privacy. ANGLE FROM INSIDE VAUGHN'S OFFICE as the selectmen troop into the cramped quarters. Vaughn deliberately closes the door as they find seats around the room. VAUGHN I believe we have a quorum, and informally, I suggest we call this meeting an executive session and dispense with minutes... CUT TO: INT. BRODY'S OFFICE - DAY Brody, alone, is sitting at his desk, morosely studying a little gold statuette of a pistol marksman. What's done is done, and Brody is trying to figure out how to live with it. The phone rings, is answered in the other room. The buzzer sounds. Brody picks up his end. BRODY Polly, no calls, please... (she insists) Okay, okay. (he punches a button) Hello... Phil? Fogarty? What pictures... I'll be right down... He slams down the phone and gets up to go, suddenly possessed with a purpose. CUT TO: INT. DARKROOM - DAY Amid the equipment, clutter and proofs, some shots of the holidome opening, drying on wires. Phil Fogarty, the indignant fat man and town photographer, is locking the door behind an impatient Brody. PHIL I don't know what you did, but that kid stopped. I haven't heard one peep, not one 'breaker breaker' for days. Believe me, it's a pleasure... BRODY You said something about a camera. PHIL Sure, sure -- Jeff Hendricks brought in this camera, see, from underwater, and I didn't know how to get it open, but my brother-in-law, in Montauk, he works at a hi-fi store, and they sell cameras, so he... BRODY (interrupting) Did you get any pictures? PHIL Well, yeah, I did, that's the funny thing. You can't tell much from the negatives, I was going to blow 'em up. Here's a test I did... He holds out an 8 x 10 proof, Brody snatches it from him. INSERT - PHOTOGRAPH Brody stares down at it. Sure enough, the ghostly outlines of the Orca, underwater, a diver on the deck making a gesture at the camera. BRODY (O.S.) Oh, Jesus. That boat... ANGLE ON BRODY AND PHIL PHIL Not bad -- that's a real fast lens, probably 1.4. Look at the diffusion, though... BRODY What else you got? PHIL Let's see -- you got a minute? BRODY Come on, Phil, don't jerk me around. PHIL Okay, okay -- stand over there... He gestures, Brody steps to one side of a table with some big enamel pans for washing and developing prints. Phil switches to a red light, and takes some printing paper, putting it under the enlarger. QUICK CUTS: -- Enlarger light going on. -- Timer ticking, the hand turning. -- Quick negative images: water, boat, diver, hand, boat again, tantalizing fragments of the opening sequence projected on the enlarger's flat base. -- Hypo and Developer sloshing in a pan under Phil's hands. -- Brody staring down. INSERT (PROCESS) Quietly gaining contrast in a pan of developer, a print of what at first looks like seaweed, then is unmistakably the grinning jaws of the Great White. SUBLIMINAL FLASH CUT - SHARK A quick nightmare vision of Brody, alone in a sinking Orca, trapped in a battered cabin interior; a Great White crashes through the glass, its head huge as it lunges. INSERT PHOTOGRAPH IN DEVELOPER (PROCESS) The close-up detail of this otherwise blurred and unreadable photo is unmistakably a detail from a very close view of the snapping jaws of a Great White; if you hadn't seen it as a memory, it would make no sense at all. For Brody, the meaning is all too clear; for anyone who's never seen the monster face-to-face, it's nothing. BRODY (O.S.) (shaken) That one there. That one... Phil's hands, holding plastic tongs, gently slosh the print in the bath. The shark's features are indistinguishable from the surrounding detail. CUT TO: EXT. TOWN HALL - NIGHT Brody walks into view, and starts up the steps into the town hall, already lit from within. He's carrying a large envelope. INT. TOWN HALL - NIGHT The Selectmen (Kaiser, Sansom, Nichols), Len Peterson, and Vaughn are seated informally around the big table. PETERSON (looking up) Speak of the devil. Brody enters, carrying the envelope with the photo. BRODY Thank God you guys were all together. I got something for you. Proof! VAUGHN Martin, this is kind of an official meeting BRODY Perfect. Look at this --- He fumbles with the envelope. VAUGHN Chief -- the Board of Selectmen has a question only you can answer. BRODY (preoccupied) What? PETERSON Is Jeff Hendricks qualified to fill in as an interim Chief of Police in your absence? BRODY Temporarily? Uh... sure... The question's out of left field. Why are they asking? NICHOLS So Jeff could handle things? He knows the routine, he has the authority? BRODY Yeah. Why? PETERSON It came up during the meeting. BRODY Look -- I just got this from Phil Fogarty. It was in the camera belonging to the missing divers. It proves I was right, all along. He throws the picture down in front of them. They bend over to study it, pass it around, look at it. KAISER Seaweed? NICHOLS It's underwater, isn't it? That's why it's so dark. SANSOM I don't know -- what is it? BRODY It's a shark! A Great White! Jesus, it's right there! He snatches up the photo. INSERT PHOTO Just as before, an ambiguous pattern of light and dark; not proof of anything without Brody's inner vision. VAUGHN (O.S.) It's nothing I can see. ANGLE ON BRODY waving the picture. BRODY What are you all, blind? It's a shark. Look -- teeth, jaw, gills. PETERSON Is that what it is? BRODY You're damn right that's what it is. NICHOLS I'm sorry, I just don't see it. Sansom and Kaiser agree, ad lib, "That's nothing..." VAUGHN Martin, it could be anything. BRODY (exploding) What the hell does it take to make sense to you numbskulls? Jesus, it's right there in front of you. I know what a goddamn shark looks like, I've been through it, don't you understand? I've seen this sonofabitch before! The Selectmen look at each other in the face of Brody's agitation. Tempers are running high. PETERSON What have you seen before? This is nothing. Seaweed. Mud. Something in the lens. BRODY My ass! VAUGHN Be reasonable, please... PETERSON (to Vaughn) Forget it, he won't listen. BRODY There is nothing to discuss. PETERSON (blowing up) Will you listen to this man? Will you just listen to him? (to Brody) You really caused a panic on a public beach, you shoot up the place, God knows who could've been injured -- what if somebody decides to sue us? That could ruin us. BRODY Is that what it is? Dollars? Money? I'll pay for it. Take it out of my salary. PETERSON You don't make enough. BRODY Maybe I don't make as much money as some bullshit rip-off artists around here, but I don't work the same way. PETERSON What's that supposed to mean? BRODY It means I don't like all that grab- ass and heavy breathing with my wife, it means I know who's out to screw me here, and it means that I know something none of you know because I've been there -- and I don't want to go through that horror again. Ever! There's a long pause. VAUGHN Martin, could you wait here for a few minutes while we make up our minds about something? BRODY Go ahead, whatever it's worth. The Selectmen file into Vaughn's office, leaving Brody alone in the room. The last one in the door very carefully makes sure it's tightly shut. Brody sits alone at the table. CUT TO: INT. VAUGHN'S OFFICE - NIGHT They are sitting there, deliberating. PETERSON I won't mention his personal attack on me. NICHOLS I've never seen him like this. PETERSON And Hendricks is qualified, you heard that from his own mouth. KAISER We made a motion and it was already seconded. VAUGHN (official) Very well then. It is moved and seconded that Martin Brody be relieved of his duties as Chief of Police, his contract with the township be terminated, and that Jeff Hendricks be appointed Acting Chief in the interim. Those in favor? All the hands go up. PETERSON Anyone opposed, or is it unanimous? Vaughn's hand goes up, the sole dissent. They stare at him. VAUGHN I'm sorry, but I respect his convictions. The motion is carried. He goes to the door, and opens it. VAUGHN Martin? Could you come in please? CUT TO: EXT. BRODY HOUSE - NIGHT The police jeep pulls up and stops; although the engine's shut down, Brody still sits quietly inside the car. Then his hand appears at the window, and he drops an empty beer can onto the lawn. Clink. After a while, he drops another beer can, then another, until the "clinks" tell us he's polished off a six-pack on the way home. Not too steady on his feet, Brody climbs out of the car and starts for the door to his house. CUT TO: INT. BRODY HOUSE - NIGHT Ellen is working at her desk in the den. She is looking towards the door, expectantly -- it's been an unusually long pause between car arrival and husband arrival. Brody enters. ELLEN Hi. I closed a sale today, without Len. That's $1200 commission, if the papers go through. BRODY That's great. ELLEN Sean's asleep. BRODY That's great too. Gorgeous. He takes a long look at her. BRODY You look about 22 years old sitting there. Like you were doing homework... He goes to join her, bumping into some furniture in the dimly lit room. Ellen has a beer and sandwich half-finished on her desk; Brody takes a healthy swallow from the beer. ELLEN (sensitive) What's wrong? BRODY Ooohh, nothing. I just got fired, that's all. He tosses the photo sloppily on the desk. ELLEN What? BRODY What'd I say? ELLEN That you were fired. BRODY Then that's what I meant. Fired. Canned. Out on my fanny. The Selectmen just made Hendricks the new Chief of Police. Just like that. ELLEN Because of today? The beach? BRODY (expansively) No sweat. A blessing in disguise. Back to the city, you can go to Bloomingdale's without waiting six hours for the ferryboat... we're surrounded by water here, you realize that? Me, surrounded by water... Ridiculous. ELLEN Stop that! We're not going any place. You love it here. Tell me what the hell happened! BRODY Showed them the photo, showed them the goddamn Shark, big as life. They didn't see it. Not like me. Not like the poor son-of-a-bitch who snapped this li'l picture... He's out there, somewhere... I shot off my gun, shot off my big mouth, so they fired me... ELLEN (studying the photo) Honey, this is nothing... I don't know what it is. What did they... BRODY (going on) ...Everybody wants the job. No one wants the authority. Except Hendricks. Fine. He can go out there in that precious boat, and when he looks whitey in his big mouth he can just call me. Call me in New York... tell him to kiss my ass... ELLEN (seeing his pain) They have no right to treat you like that. You've given them everything. For four years, you've protected this town, the people on this island... BRODY Fired me! (at Ellen) I'm not a hysterical man. I'm responsible. I know what I saw... ELLEN I know you did... BRODY I try. Goddamnit, I tried... Now, I'm tired... I can't keep fighting it... I'm too tired... I'm... I'm... Brody's slipping under; the beers and the day have finally overcome him. He slumps in Ellen's arms. ELLEN You're drunk is what you are... She eases him onto the couch, tucking a comforter over his inert shape. ELLEN Take it easy... Easy... ANGLE ON THE STAIRWELL Sean comes down the stairs, sleepy, in his pajamas. SEAN Is dad home? I heard something... He comes into the darkened den. ELLEN AND SEAN ELLEN Shhhh. Go back upstairs. Daddy's sleeping. Sean finds the photo, and stares at it idly. SEAN What's this? ELLEN Nothing, sweetheart. Seaweed. She takes him by his sleepy hand and leads him out of the room, leaving Brody tucked in on the couch, dead to the world. CUT TO: INT. NEWSSTORE - NIGHT This is the Amity teen-ager's hangout -- a newsstand and pinball arcade with a minimal refreshment counter where soft drinks and submarine sandwiches are dispensed. A jukebox is blaring some n.d. rock music. Present are Donnie, Doug, Timmy, Bob, Larry Vaughn Jr., Brooke, Marge, Denise, Jane, Andy, and Mike. The boys are passing around hot-rod van and custom boat magazines; the girls are looking at Silver Screen, Tiger Beat, People, and Time. Andy and Mike are at the counter, splitting a sandwich. DOUG (holding a book) That's what I want -- a gaff rig. TIMMY Gaff rigged? Why not a staysail schooner? Go anywhere. Look at this -- the Mayan, an Alden schooner. BOB Hey, Mike -- I saw your dad over at the town hall. MIKE I know. DOUG (innocently) Did he really freak out at the beach? MIKE I don't know. ANDY Hey, it's all bullshit. Anyone want to play pong for money? No one does. There's a bustle at the door, and some couples enter from the movies: Patrick and Lucy, Ed and Tina, Polo and Jackie. There are a lot of ad-lib greetings; LARRY How was the show? ED Yech. TINA It was okay. PATRICK I'd rather go the lighthouse. LUCY Who wouldn't. POLO Anyone want to go the lighthouse? BROOKE Now? At night? POLO Nah. Tomorrow. Early, spend the day. My folks left two cases of beer in the garage. PATRICK Is it still there? POLO Nope. Got it in my boat. LUCY All-right. JACKIE Let's go for it. There's a general ad-lib agreement to organize a day's sailing picnic. TINA Mike, you going? MIKE Why shouldn't I? LARRY I thought you might still be painting the restrooms at the beach. Laughter from the gang. BROOKE Anyone want a coke or anything? They break up into pairs and trios, some going for the soda fountain, others hanging out by the magazines. ANGLE ON JACKIE AND MIKE JACKIE I'd like to go out to the lighthouse with you. MIKE I'm not sure I can. JACKIE It'll be fun, come on! MIKE Maybe you and Brooke could come over to the town beach... JACKIE No way. Everybody's going sailing. If you don't want to take me, just say so. MIKE That's not it. My dad told me not to go. JACKIE You do everything your parents tell you? MIKE No. JACKIE Good. I'll be on the dock at eight. (to the gang) Eight o'clock, everybody! They ad lib agreement. JACKIE (aside to Mike) I really want to to be there. (to the crowd) Who's bringing the wine? And who's got a quarter for the box? Brooke takes Mike aside, as Jackie goes to the jukebox. Larry is right there with a quarter, standing next to her as they select a tune. BROOKE She just likes to tease. I think she really likes you. MIKE Great. Some rock music starts, and we: CUT TO: INT. BRODY BEDROOM - DAY Ellen is asleep under the covers, Brody, still in his clothes from the night before, is sprawled on top; obviously he's stumbled upstairs sometime during the night. There's a noise down the hall, from Mike's room. Brody stirs, but doesn't wake up. CUT TO: INT. MIKE'S ROOM - DAY Mike is holding a lamp that's almost fallen -- the noise we just heard. He's almost dressed, but not quite satisfied with his image in the mirror. He takes off his clean shirt, and checks a more comfortable, worn shirt. A brief sniff to make sure it's okay for another day, and he puts it on; he tiptoes to the hall, where a noise stops him in his tracks. INT. BRODY HALLWAY - DAY Mike is frozen in his part-opened bedroom door. Sean's door opens, and little Sean, also fully dressed, comes sneaking out. SEAN (whispering) You're going out. MIKE Yeah. SEAN You're going sailing. MIKE Maybe. SEAN Take me. MIKE No. SEAN (louder) I want to go with you! MIKE Quiet! Shhh! SEAN (even louder) Michael... MIKE Okay, okay. Close your door. Sean does, and happily tiptoes with exaggerated stealth to Mike; the two of them start downstairs. CUT TO: EXT. BRODY HOUSE Michael and Sean are walking away towards the road into town. CUT TO: INT. BRODY UPSTAIRS HALLWAY - DAY Brody emerges from the bathroom, dressed in sweatshirt, and cutoffs: no uniform today. He starts downstairs, stopping only to look into Mike's room. It's empty. BRODY Good morning, America... A grin crosses his face -- "My son, the Don Juan..." He goes downstairs. CUT TO: INT. BRODY KITCHEN - DAY Brody enters from upstairs. He heats coffee. Ellen enters dressed for work. He pours two cups. ELLEN What're you going to do today? BRODY Turn in the car. Clean my desk, explain things to our sons, then maybe get shit-faced and punch your boss. ELLEN I'll give notice. BRODY Don't rush into it -- we may need the income. She pours the coffee, they drink it for a moment. BRODY Mike left early. Couldn't wait to make out. Must be a morning man. Ellen and Brody sip their coffee quietly for a few moments. Mrs. Silvera arrives, carrying groceries. MRS. SILVERA Morning. Anything special today? ELLEN Sean's not up yet. You know what he likes, just some Fruit Loops and milk. No candy. BRODY The sink upstairs is busted. Try some Drano, or a plunger, maybe. Or call your brother, the plumber, what's his name... MRS. SILVERA Frankie. He's my cousin. BRODY Frankie. Okay. Ask him if he needs an apprentice. Brody and Ellen are at the door. MRS. SILVERA Have a nice day. They leave. CUT TO: EXT. DOCKSIDE - DAY The Kids are into their boats, fitting out for a day of recreational offshore sailing. Mike and Andy are readying his Tornado, while Sean gets in the way. In the b.g., Hendricks can be seen puttering around on the Amity police boat. ANDY If you're beached, why are we doing this? For practice? MIKE Yeah. ANDY Then why are we futzing around the dock? We can make a few bucks working at the beach. Sean knocks something over, Mike snaps at him. MIKE Look -- if you're going to get in the way, you can just go home. SEAN I'm not in the way. Andy, am I in the way? ANDY You're always in the way. Marge joins them, scooping Sean up. MARGE This guy giving you any trouble? SEAN Put me down! ANDY Put him down in the water. MARGE (to Sean) You want to go out in my boat? SEAN Yeah. MIKE Would you take him? MARGE Sure. ANDY You've just made someone very happy. Marge and Sean go over to her Lightening. Brooke and Jackie come down the dock, dressed for sailing. BROOKE Mike! Are you going out? MIKE Maybe. JACKIE I thought you were grounded. MIKE I can go out if I want to. ANDY You can? JACKIE You going to the lighthouse? MIKE Why not? ANDY I could give you a dozen good reasons. MIKE (to Andy) Shut up. ANDY Okay, okay, don't say I didn't remind you. JACKIE Is there room on your boat for all of us? Mike looks: Andy, Jackie, Brooke, himself... Timmy moves in, sensing the chance of a lifetime. ANDY Well, we're pretty crowded, and I don't know when we're leaving... Timmy makes his move. TIMMY I've got room. BROOKE Great. (to Andy) That's okay -- I'll go with Timmy. TIMMY You will? BROOKE Sure. And she walks towards his boat, looking back for him to follow. He's dumbstruck by his sudden good fortune. TIMMY Fan-tas-tic! He runs to join her, untying mooring lines like crazy; they're together again at last for the first time. Andy is left shuffling with Mike and Jackie. JACKIE I'm ready. And she plops down in Mike's boat, ready to be taken. Anywhere. JACKIE Come on, you guys. ANDY Well, I don't know... Jackie flashes him one of her pouty little smiles. Why break one heart when you can break two? Or more? JACKIE Please come with us? Mike is glaring. The message is clear, if unspoken. JACKIE For me...? ANDY What the hell. For you... Andy joins them. Mike casts off, while Andy helps, and Jackie sits there, looking cute. ANGLE ON LARRY AND BOB watching what's going on. BOB I thought you said she was going with us? LARRY Let's just go sailing, okay? BOB (casting off) Want to talk about it? LARRY Want to swim home? Bob gets the message and shuts up. The Sizzler fills its sails, and points out of the harbor. WIDE ON THE HARBOR Lots of day-sailing Kids, a few bigger, adult boats, some working fishermen and sport fishers; a typical recreational boating mix. The Kids are finding the same general direction, pointing out of the harbor. QUICK CUTS -- Sails being trimmed. -- Brooke and Timmy, staring into each other's eyes as he sets a course straight for the lighthouse. -- Larry, lifting a hull, almost losing Bob. EXT. HARBOR MOUTH - DAY The Kids' boats, in a loose bunch, slipping out to sea. REVERSE - LOOKING OUT TO SEA The dive class boat, isolated near the channel, a group of Kids in wet suits and tanks assembled with three adult instructors: Tom Andrews, Crosby, and Sparky. EXT. DIVING BOAT - DAY Andrews and his assistant instructor, Sparky, are addressing the class, when Mike and Andy's "Green Machine" sails by, close. ANDREWS Hey! Nicholas! You're supposed to be in class! ANDY Today I'm staying topside. You dive for me! ANDREWS I'm going for lobster. JACKIE Great! Find one for me. ANDY With butter, if they got any... Andrews dismisses them with a good-natured wave. ANDREWS So long, turkies. He turns to his class. ANDREWS Sparky will take you down today. If everyone's got a buddy, we'll drop. The class dutifully lines up and starts going in, while in the b.g. the Kids sailboats head out to sea. Andrews' two partners, Crosby and Sparky, get ready to follow the class over. CROSBY (to Andrews) Let's get some dinner. He goes over, Andrews following. Sparky is with the class, signaling "Down;" they submerge like clumsy seals. CUT TO: UNDERWATER The class, paired up, is drifting down; Sparky offering encouragement as they descend. Andrews and Crosby are already disappearing, swimming away with strong kicks. FOLLOWING ANDREWS AND CROSBY as they go over the edge of a shelf and drop into darker, deeper waters. Crosby checks his depth, his watch, looks around... HIS POINT OF VIEW far above him, the class, going about their business. Below him, murk, depth, and suddenly, a big lunker bass. Andrews sees it, too. ANGLE - ON ANDREWS Assuming Crosby is following, he takes off, following the big lunker. Crosby, hung up in some minor equipment problem, misses seeing him go. The two men are separated. Follow Andrews as he twists and turns after the bass, going deeper, losing him in the rocks, suddenly rounding a boulder, and meeting, almost face-to-face, horror: BELOW HIM THE SHARK The Great White Shark, taking the striper in a single gulp, it's looking up at Andrews with one glassy doll's eye; it turns to face him directly, and we see the scar; ugly, red and black, charred flesh from jaw back on the right side, eyes and teeth gleaming like raw bone in the massive, uncaring face. Andrews' mouth clamps violently on his mouthpiece, then goes wide as he screams in fear into the water. Finning backwards, he ditches his weights, gulps for air, and yanks the cord on his safety vest. It balloons out, and pulls him up, surging towards the surface. The mouthpiece, useless, falls away from his lips. Eyes closed, hose dangling, Andrews hurtles upward, holding his breath in a final, fatal panic, passing a startled Crosby. THE DIVERS look over at the rocketing ascent. What's wrong? Sparky signals "up," and they begin to carefully follow him towards the surface. Crosby's already surfacing. CUT TO: DECK OF THE DIVING BOAT - DAY Andrews is on his side, bloody froth on his lips. One of the class is clinging to his legs, trying to arrest his convulsions. Sparky is holding his shoulders, trying to administer mouth-to-mouth. SPARKY Get us in! For Christ's sake, get us in! In his arms, Andrews writhes, pain knotting his limbs. Behind them, in the water, the fin surfaces, and casually turns towards... the ocean. The Shark is headed for the sea. And for the now distant Kids in their sailboats, dotting the horizon in their familiar bright colors. CUT TO: EXT. OCEAN - ED AND TINA'S SANDPIPER - DAY They are alone. In the middle distance, the rest of the Kids' sails can be seen, headed for the lighthouse in the distance. The Sandpiper's sails are luffing, they're making no headway. TINA You want to tack, or just leave her pointed up like this? ED (snuggling close) Just like this. TINA What about sailing? ED The tide's running. It'll take us to the light. TINA It'll take us to Budapest if you're not careful. Ed is lashing the rudder as they continue to drift with the current. ED First things first. He fumbles in a cooler chest, produces a bottle of wine. TINA What about the others? ED They'll be there when we get there. Might even have a fire started. TINA What're we going to do in the mean time? ED I dunno. We'll think of something. He pours the wine into the two paper cups. ED But first, a little juice... TINA And second? ED (kissing her) Mmmmmm. TINA (resisting) Wait a minute. Promise me something. ED Anything. Anything. TINA That you'll put down a blanket. I've got black and blue marks all over my butt, and my Mom's getting uptight about them. ED You got it. And he fumbles for a blanket in a locker, thumping and banging gear around as he rummages for it. Tina sips wine contentedly, satisfied to wait. UNDERWATER The Sandpiper's hull, alone above us, as the Shark rises with dreadful certainty, attracted by the erratic sounds of Ed's hasty search. ANGLE ON TINA - WATCHING THE OCEAN The terrible fin breaks the surface, about 20 yards out, then dips and disappears. Then, impossibly fast, the entire Sandpiper is lifted from underneath by a powerful surge, as the Shark lunges up against it from below, an unseen horror. Ed is knocked over the side, into the water. ANGLE ON ED as he breaks the surface, shaking the hair out of his eyes, trying to orient himself, finding the boat. He starts to swim for it, Tina extending an arm to help him climb aboard. ANGLE OVER THE GUNWALE, TOWARDS ED He has barely taken two strokes when a powerful force takes him from below the surface, rushing him towards us through the water. Tina screams. Before Ed can react to the pain, he is slammed face first into the boat. His jaw breaks, blood smears his nose and lip. His hands grab the wooden-cap rail with a death-grip. REVERSE Tina is staring down at the water, terror-stricken; Ed's arms and head are f.g., as he locks onto the boat with desperate hands. INSERT Ed's hands on the rail, knuckles white, an iron grip. With awful finality, the force pulls down, and the wood shatters and splits away as Ed's hands are pulled down and under by the awful force. TINA her mouth working silently, unable to scream, staring down at the blood and froth on the water, swirling in a grim eddy under her, the Sandpiper rocking gently in the diminishing swell. EXT. OCEAN - DAY - ESTABLISHING SHOT On the way to the lighthouse, but away from the harbor, the Kids are sailing in fairly close order: The sloops (Polo, Timmy, Marge) heeled well over in the stiff breeze, the faster cats (Mike, Larry, Donny, etc.) skimming around, tacking more often, faster and more maneuverable. CLOSE ON PATRICK AND LUCY LUCY Faster! Faster! PATRICK Coming about... She ducks under the boom, handling the jib sheets with easy familiarity. They come about and scoot off on a new tack. CLOSE ON POLO Reading the wind, trimming sail expertly, competent and alone. POLO (to a near-by boat) Great day! I think the wind's going to change... CLOSE ON TIMMY AND BROOKE He comes about, she slides into him, he holds her to steady her, she snuggles into his arms. True love, at last... He's thrilled. CLOSE ON DOUG In his inflatable, poking slowly along. Marge passes him, Sean hooting with glee. MARGE Coming up. SEAN Slowpoke! Slowpoke! Marge is faster! DOUG I'm getting new sails, then watch out. Just a question of modifying the rigging! ANGLE ON MIKE'S "GREEN MACHINE" Jackie, Mike and Andy, clipping along, Larry Vaughn and Bob in the Sizzler nearby. Mike lifts the hull, Jackie squeals in delight. JACKIE Wheee! Faster! ANDY How fast is enough? JACKIE I want to go faster! MIKE Hang on... He trims his sheets, the cat heels more, one hull flying, Andy and Jackie clinging to the trampoline. ANGLE ON THE SIZZLER Larry is carefully adjusting his tiller, Bob senses what he's doing. BOB You coming up on him? LARRY You bet. Hang on... They gybe sharply, running up behind the green cat. LARRY Coming up! Give way! ANDY Like hell! We're on the starboard tack! THE SIZZLER AND THE "GREEN MACHINE" Running close to each other; very tight two-by-two. JACKIE Don't let him pass. Faster! Mike and Larry silently fight for clean air, racing. Water splashes over them. JACKIE My hair's getting wet! ANDY So's mine. CLOSE ON MIKE'S BOAT He veers onto a less dramatic tack, sparing Jackie's hair. Larry and Bob speed by, yelling. JACKIE When do we get to the lighthouse? ANDY Soon, dark eyes, soon. MIKE The tide's turning. Andy reveals a knowledgeable side to his character. ANDY We're going to be fighting the current. (he looks up) Wind's backing around a few points, too. Jackie snuggles against Mike. JACKIE I can't wait to get there. ANDY But of course. He goes forward to trim the jib, leaving the lovebirds snuggling astern. They pull away from us, and we: CUT TO: EXT. AMITY WATERFRONT STREET - DAY Ellen and Brody are in the jeep; he's driving her to work. There's a crowd at dockside, and the town ambulance's now familiar blinking red light. Brody, out of force of habit, wheels the jeep towards the action, nudging through the crowd, which gives way to the official blue-and-white vehicle. ELLEN Hey -- it's not your job any more. I'm going to be late for work. BRODY Just one minute... He gets out, and pushes through the crowd, Ellen following. DOCKSIDE The dive boat is moored at a clumsy angle next to the Police Boat, where Hendricks has been pulling routine maintenance. The Police launch is cluttered with tools and spare parts; some non-essential piece of gear is stripped and laid out on the deck. Hendricks is on the dive boat, kneeling next to Andrews. ABOARD THE DIVE BOAT Andrews is shaking, bloody froth on his lips and chest. The shaken divers are huddled together, an ambulance attendant is wheeling a gurney into position. Crosby and Sparky are stunned. BRODY What the hell happened? SPARKY Embolism. Air bubbles in his blood. Came up too damn fast. Held his goddamn breath! He is near collapse himself. HENDRICKS Easy... CROSBY He panicked! Something scared him! An Ambulance Attendant is putting a blanket around Sparky. ATTENDANT It's okay. We're taking care of him. The other attendant holds something out to Brody. Brody examines it; a scuba mouthpiece, bitten in two, useless. BRODY How'd this happen? SPARKY Bite reflex, like a spasm. BRODY When? HENDRICKS Right after, the Kids went out? ELLEN What Kids? Who went out? HENDRICKS All of them. Mike, Junior Vaughn, Brookie Peters, Pat, Lucy -- all that whole gang. ELLEN Mike? Our Mike? HENDRICKS Yep. Looked like they were headed to the lighthouse. BRODY How long ago? HENDRICKS About an hour, maybe two. (thinking) Let's see -- I came on about eight... Brody is gone, pushing through the crowd. THE POLICE BOAT Brody is casting off lines. Ellen is on the dock, watching him. ELLEN What're you doing? BRODY Going out. HENDRICKS Uh, Chief -- look. You're not Chief any more. Brody keeps working, making ready for sea. HENDRICKS I can't let you take her out. BRODY You can't stop me. Ellen is climbing aboard, taking off her heels. HENDRICKS Mrs. Brody, look -- if he can't go, then you can't go. Neither of you can go. ELLEN I'm going. BRODY Mike's out there. HENDRICKS But I signed for the boat. You're not authorized any more. Brody starts the engines with a roar, and slams it into reverse. The boat starts out of the slip, then lunges to a halt, shuddering on its still-fastened bow mooring line. BRODY Untie that rope. HENDRICKS Please. It's my job. ELLEN I'll do it. And she moves purposefully towards the boat cleat. HENDRICKS Mrs. Brody, please... Brody is shifting gears, the boat is crabbing sideways as he puts the helm hard over. It bumps the dock, hard. HENDRICKS You're too close. Back off. BRODY Goddamnit, Hendricks, untie the rope there. Hendricks goes to the bow, jumps aboard and frees the bow line. The boat slips into reverse, the water boiling as Brody guns it away from the dock. HENDRICKS Let me. Please. He takes the wheel, eases off on the rudder, and comes about, pointing the launch out to sea. ELLEN Hurry, please. HENDRICKS What the hell, they can't fire both of us -- someone's got to be in charge, right? Which way are we going? BRODY Find the Kids. The lighthouse -- you said something about the lighthouse. Get us there. WIDE ON THE HARBOR The Amity Police Boat, Brody, Ellen and Hendricks aboard, is headed under full power out to sea. Hendricks is pumping the horn, warning boats out of the way, ignoring the rules of the road; as small boats scatter out of the way, we can see the ambulance, red light flashing, pushing out slowly through the crowd at dockside. CUT TO: ABOARD THE AMITY POLICE BOAT - DAY As they clear the harbor mouth, Brody is on the radio, Ellen is crouching in the shelter of the deckhouse, Hendricks is steering. BRODY Amity Launch to Harbor Patrol, over. HARBOR PATROL (V.O.) (filtered) Harbor Patrol. Is that you, Brody? BRODY Affirmative. Can you get your chopper airborne? PATROL VOICE 10-4, in a few minutes. He's down checking a buoy in the Bay Channel. BRODY Get him the hell over to Amity Point, the old lighthouse. Right now. PATROL VOICE What for? BRODY There's a bunch of Kids day-sailing that way. Turn them back to port. PATROL VOICE That's it? BRODY That's it. Just do it, all right? PATROL VOICE 10-4, soon as I can raise him. BRODY If they're not at the light, look for them. I don't want them out there. Get them back to port! PATROL VOICE (exasperated) Affirmative, affirmative. Turn the Kids day-sailing back to port. I heard you. Patrol out. As Brody's eyes sweep the horizon anxiously, Hendricks pours it on, and the police boat surges forward. CUT TO: EXT. OCEAN - DAY - KIDS SAILING Donnie and Denise and Susie are sailing close to each other. DONNIE Hungry? DENISE Starving. Let's go eat now. DONNIE (shouting to Susie) We're going in to eat! She nods agreement, their boats veer off from the rest and head towards the lighthouse. CUT TO: ANGLE ON THE SIZZLER as it sails close to the Green Machine. LARRY Hey! Brody! Want to race? MIKE (confident) Sure. LARRY How about a side bet to make it interesting? JACKIE That's fun! Let's race for something! MIKE Name it. LARRY Loser sails home alone. ANDY (aside to Mike) You're betting what you already got. MIKE I don't care. JACKIE I love it. ANDY Sure you do -- you win either way. JACKIE (simply) I'm supposed to. LARRY It's a bet. Once around the marker buoy? MIKE That's the pin -- the buoy. Larry is confident -- he's got the air, but Mike suddenly gybes without warning, snapping onto a new fast tack, downwind. Larry and Bob are caught by surprise, and lose precious moments as they fumble with their sails. ANDY (pulling away) Turkeys! Eat wind! MIKE Yee-hah! He pounds with glee on the canvas trampoline as their boat moves ahead, a drumming sound. UNDERWATER The twin hulls of a catamaran's hull, the muffled, eerie sound of drumming, as the water carries the tempting "thud- thud-thud" sound down to the deep. ANGLE ON DOUG IN HIS INFLATABLE falling behind as the boats change course for the marker buoy, following Larry and Mike's lead. DOUG Hey! Wait for the H.M.S. Invincible! Brooke and Timmy sail by him, laughing; Polo with them. BROOKE Can't -- we're watching a race! DOUG Since when? Who's racing? TIMMY Larry and Mike! PATRICK AND LUCY Pat and Lucy are trimming sail, moving faster. LUCY Mike and Larry are racing! Loser goes home alone! PATRICK If we beat them, they can both go home stag! Single-O! Alone! Jackie can come back in this boat! LUCY What about me? PATRICK Uh. Well. Maybe you could give Polo a hand going in... LUCY (snapping him with a rope) Your ass I will. Besides, the wind's turning with the tide. Sailing back is going to be a bitch. QUICK CUTS - SAILBOAT RACING MONTAGE -- Ropes and sails rattling through blocks. -- Sails snapping taut, filling with wind. -- Catamarans heeled over, racers hanging over the water, dangerously suspended in trapeze harnesses. -- Skippers' faces, concentrating on boat handling. AERIAL VIEW - SAILBOATS It's the chopper's point of view, as the Harbor Patrol copter from the Cape flies towards the Kids, following Brody's previous instructions. He sees the sailboats and fly that way. PILOT (filtered, into his mike) Air Patrol to Base. I have visual contact on the Kids. Going down to use the loud hailer... LOOKING UP AT THE APPROACHING COPTER It approaches the sailboats, losing altitude fast, rotor blades chuffing up a storm. The Pilot has his microphone to his lips, and his voice is blaring down at them. PILOT (V.O.) This is the Harbor Patrol. Return to port immediately. Return -- to -- port -- immediately. THE BOATS The Kids look at each other, some coming about awkwardly, others luffing, wondering what this is all about. ANDY (to Mike) Your dad must be really pissed. MIKE We better go back in. ANDY It's not going to be easy. JACKIE What's wrong? MIKE We're fighting wind and current. I though we'd be out longer, catch the incoming tide. ANDY Putz -- that won't be for hours. MIKE I was counting on hours. CHOPPER (V.O.) Return -- to -- port. MIKE We're trying, we're trying. He waves acknowledgement, and puts about. The others take their cue from him, and set a rough course back, but without much success. PATRICK AND LUCY LUCY Heading back? PATRICK Might as well. ANGLE ON THE THREE SLOOPS Polo, Timmy and Brooke, Marge and Sean. They see the faster catamarans come about and try to beat back. POLO They're turning around. LUCY Coming about, then. SEAN Are we going back? MARGE Going to try. Lighthouse, everybody... She puts about, the three of them start back towards the lighthouse, not making much headway. Doug's inflatable is the slowest, and he is now, by virtue of his position, at the head of the line beating back towards the island. DOUG'S BOAT The others in the b.g. DOUG Make way for the Carrier Enterprise! INSERT - A WEAK PATCH IN THE RUBBER It whistles and visibly leaks under the strain. DOUG looking down in dismay. DOUG Make that the Titanic. He rigs a little foot pump, and begins thumping away, trying to breath air back into the raft. INT. CHOPPER - LOOKING DOWN AT THE SAILBOATS PILOT Patrol One to Base. Looks like they're turning back. CONTROL All right, Patrol. Go back to work. You've wasted enough time. UNDERWATER Looking up at the scattered hulls of the sailboats, the turbulence from the low-flying chopper making a vast circular pattern of irregular vibrations. LOOKING UP AT THE CHOPPER It wheels around, and heads back towards land. CUT TO: ABOARD THE AMITY POLICE BOAT - DAY Rushing through the seas under full power. About three hundred yards ahead, a small, seemingly empty sailboat; Ed and Tina's Sandpiper. Further off, a day-sailing power cruiser, sport fishing. ELLEN Michael? BRODY It's not his boat. Hendricks maneuvers closer, slowing the engine, reversing in time to bring them alongside with a gentle bump. Ellen watches apprehensively as Brody drops into the little boat. ELLEN Be careful... HENDRICKS Anything? BRODY (on the Sandpiper) Nope... (he sees something) Hold on... Brody moves around on the deck of the Sandpiper, until he discovers Tina, cowering in shock; a sudden revealing of a terrorized victim. BRODY Tina! TINA (a moan) N-o-o-o-o-o-o... BRODY It's okay, it's okay. What's the matter? Tina? Honey? Hey -- TINA No! It's still there! BRODY What is it? What's there? TINA It's still there! BRODY (to Hendricks and Ellen) I need a hand here... Hendricks has gotten a blanket, and he steps over, putting it over the shivering girl's shoulders. Ellen comforts the girl. ELLEN Tina, baby... what is it? TINA Sh... Sh... Shark... ANGLE ON BRODY - FOLLOWING HIM AS HE REACTS BRODY I knew it. I goddamn well told them. He moves abruptly, stepping up onto the police launch, snapping on the radio, leaving Hendricks, Ellen and Tina on the sailboat moored alongside. BRODY Amity Launch to Harbor Patrol. PATROL COMMANDER (V.O.) (filter) This is Cape Patrol -- what is it, Brody? I heard you weren't chief anymore. BRODY Skip that. What about those kids out sailing? COMMANDER (V.O.) It's all okay -- Colby got to them. They were turning back when he left 'em. BRODY He left them? COMMANDER (V.O.) Sure. He's got work to do in Bay Channel. BRODY Get him the hell back there! We got possible fatalities! Brody out... His eyes wild, Brody looks over at the Sandpiper, then scans the nearby waters with sudden tension. BRODY'S POINT OF VIEW Ellen and Hendricks comforting Tina on the Sandpiper. Nearby, a big cabin cruiser casually trolling by. Brody pulls the police boat's air horn, the cruiser's passengers look over, Hendricks and Ellen jump at the unexpected blast. ANGLE ON BRODY BRODY I'm going out there. HENDRICKS Hey -- you can't do that. ELLEN What is it? What's the matter? BRODY Mike's out there. Brody starts the launch's motor, throwing clear the mooring line that ties the two boats together. BRODY (to Hendricks) Get her in. Get them both in. ELLEN Martin, please! HENDRICKS Chief, be sensible... BRODY Where are they? HENDRICKS About 10 degrees off your starboard bow, take a heading leeward of Sand Island, and lay her north by northeast... BRODY Never mind that shit. Just point. Hendricks complies. HENDRICKS (pointing) See where Cable Junction is? Look to the left. The lighthouse. That's it. BRODY Got it. And he kicks the engine into gear, moving the launch away and out toward the sea. ELLEN Come back! Martin! He guns the engine as soon as he's clear. Hendricks gives his jacket to a suddenly chilled Ellen, and hails the cabin cruiser, already changing course to pick them up, sounding its horn. Ellen stares after the receding boat. ELLEN My purse is on that boat. CUT TO: EXT. OCEAN - DAY - THE KID'S SAILBOATS They are trying to beat back towards the lighthouse, fighting wind and tide. Only Doug's inflatable, with its clumsy little motor, is making any headway. ANGLE ON DOUG playing at being Charles Laughton. DOUG Mr. Christian! Mr. Christian! Pump up this boat! And shave that silly moustache! Pumping, steering, he's floundering along. UNDERWATER - MOVING TOWARDS THE SURFACE The Shark has fixated on something -- one outlying shape, the easily identifiable outline of Doug's inflatable, thumping and putting. It homes in on the sound. ANGLE ON DOUG AND THE KIDS The other kids exchange banter with Doug in his raft, as he clowns for their benefit. DOUG England expects every man to do his duty... You may fire when ready, Gridley... Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead... Despite his pumping, the bulging patch bursts with a loud bang. DOUG Oh, shit. ANDY Someone pop your balloon? DOUG No problem, no problem. JACKIE Want a lifesaver? MARGE How about a skyhook? DOUG You sail your boat, I'll sail mine. A fin rises partially, almost invisible to most of the kids, but Mike notices it, believing it to be a porpoise. MIKE Hey, Fetterman -- You got company. DOUG Company? The place is a mess... Before anyone can react, the shape rises behind Doug, striking his raft a terrible blow. DOUG Whoops. CUT TO: THE OTHERS, WATCHING Not making any headway themselves, they casually watch the class clown, wondering what he's up to this time. DOUG'S BOAT a distance from the rest. It shakes, then blows up as big teeth grip it from below. Doug goes flying into the drink. The Shark has the inflatable in his teeth, and is shaking it from side to side. Doug's eyes bug out as he sees what's going on. He begins treading water, backing away as fast as he can, waving his arm in the air frantically -- "pick me up, quick..." MIKE'S BOAT MIKE Doug's down! He sails to where Doug is being carried along by the current. The inflatable is a mess -- shredded rubber and dead engine; the Shark didn't like it. ANDY Doug! This way! Doug carefully -- oh, so carefully -- strokes over to where Mike and Andy can pull him abroad. Some of the others sail closer to get a look. PATRICK What was that about? MARGE You okay? LUCY What was that? LARRY So much for the rubber duck. THE GROUP, DRIFTING TOGETHER This incident hasn't yet touched them -- no one actually saw what it was, except Doug, who's never been serious about anything. Until now. DOUG A shark ate my boat. BOB Come on. DOUG I'm telling you, a goddamn shark ate my goddamn boat! ANDY If he liked your boat, I got some sneakers he'll love. There's nervous laughter from all around as they examine the remains of Doug's inflatable. Some of those jagged rents could be made by teeth... KIDS (ad lib) ...Jeez -- what did that?... A porpoise, maybe...Nah, killer whale... I think he snagged it... I hate to pop his balloon... (Etc.) ANGLE ON MIKE'S BOAT Doug's inflatable is draped over the tip of one hull, forward. Without warning, the Shark hits. Screams, terror, confusion. Mike, Andy, Jackie into the water. CLOSE ON MIKE His head bangs on a metal fitting as the boat turns over. ON THE GROUP Patrick and Lucy ram into Timmy's boat, locking into it, knocking Timmy into the water as Brooke screams. CONFUSION As the following events take place: -- Larry's red cat rams and locks onto Mike's Tornado. -- Marge's boat capsizes, putting Sean and Marge into the drink. -- Marge scrambles up on the over-turned hull, pulling Sean up with her, just in time. -- Polo, under full sail, scoops Mike out of the water before the Shark can get to him. -- The Shark dips out of sight. SURFACE, WIDE OVER THE STERN OF POLO'S BOAT showing the results of the turmoil: ANGLE ON THE SURVIVORS As they make ineffectual, frightened moves towards grouping together, Andy is the first to gain any composure. ANDY Raft up! Raft 'em up! He reaches towards a drifting line, and pulls Timmy's Doughdish towards them, tying it off as it comes close. LARRY Tie off to your strongest point. PATRICK Anyone need an extra line? Polo has Mike and Timmy aboard his boat. Timmy is looking up from examining Mike's dazed body. TIMMY Mike's bleeding! ANDY Can you sail? POLO (testing his rudder) Yeah! We'll take him in! He starts to make sail back towards the lighthouse, on a severe, but manageable tack. Polo, Timmy, and the injured Mike sail towards safety, leaving the others behind. Tackle the job at hand, concentrating on survival. Jackie is strangely quiet; things are out of control... CUT TO: CLOSE ON A NAUTICAL CHART - DAY clearly marked: Amity Island, Amity Lighthouse, Cable Junction. Brody's nervous finger traces an approximation of his course. It fumbles, pauses, stops. ABOARD THE POLICE BOAT - DAY Brody, looking up from his chart, scans the ocean. Ahead is the Lighthouse, his immediate destination. Out of sight to the right, Cable Junction, and beyond that, 2500 miles of cold Atlantic. Brody looks up from his chart, and grabs the radio. BRODY (on radio) Amity Launch to Patrol Air Unit One. Harbor Air, where are you? CHOPPER PILOT (V.O.) (filter) This is Air One. That you, Brody? BRODY It's me. Any fix on those Kids? PILOT (V.O.) Negative. I'm still down. BRODY For Christ's sake, get going! I'm all alone out here! PILOT (V.O.) Brody, I got to switch frequencies, call my boss. We'll meet you over by Francis Shoal. Harbor Air out... BRODY Where the hell is Francis Shoal? Static. No answer. Brody realizes something BRODY I'm all alone out here. RUNBY The Amity Police Boat, under full power, surging through the heavy swell, Brody very much alone at the helm. EXT. OCEAN, NEAR THE LIGHTHOUSE - DAY We can see Brody's boat approaching. It slows as it nears the island. CLOSE ON BRODY staring, perplexed. Which way? BRODY Shit. He puts the wheel over, slewing the boat around. To the left -- the wrong way. ANGLE ON THE BOAT, LIGHTHOUSE IN B.G. It barrels off to the left. DISSOLVE TO: THE RAFTED BOATS floating in the current, drifting away from the lighthouse, towards the open sea. Floating on the wreckage and tangled boats are: Doug, Andy, Jackie, Patrick, Lucy, Larry, Bob, Brooke, Marge, and Sean. LARRY Anyone know what time it is? DOUG 3:30. MARGE Damn! Larry, Bob, Patrick, and Lucy (the practiced sailors) ad lib equal dissatisfaction. JACKIE What's wrong? BROOKE Tide doesn't turn for three hours. DOUG Low tide at Cable Junction is 7:46 p.m. ANDY What'd you do? Memorize the tide tables? DOUG I can't help it, it sticks in my mind. BROOKE (making light of it) Anyone want to play charades? No one does. PATRICK As long as we're drifting, might as well go with the flow. ANDY Not funny. PATRICK Three knot current? LUCY At least. And an offshore wind. SEAN What's after Cable Junction? BOB The Atlantic. Then Ireland. JACKIE Can't we stop? Silence from the group. BROOKE They're probably looking for us. DOUG What about the fish? LARRY Maybe it's gone. DOUG They tend to follow moving things. Maybe it's following Polo and Timmy. They consider this. BROOKE So all we have to do is land at Cable Junction and wait. PATRICK First we got to get there. LARRY How're we going to do that floating on this garbage...? BOB Anyone got another set of sails? The Kids scramble to rig whatever canvas is available. SEAN Is that big thing still out there? MARGE Shhhh. CUT TO: HELICOPTER (AERIAL) FLY-BY A panorama of open ocean; a quick fly-by to orient us: First, Cable Junction, then, a mile or so ahead, the raft. THE RAFT More sail, some improvised rigging, Patrick and Lucy trimming what there is, trying to steer the clumsy contraption. From afar, the distant sound of an approaching chopper. LARRY Hey! BOB (waving) Over here! The Kids react with enthusiasm to the arrival of the rescue chopper. ANDY Don't everyone jump around! But they ignore him. The copter is descending. INT. COPTER - DAY A one-man light spotter; the space next to the pilot cluttered with tools and floats, lashed in place. Below, seen through the plastic bubble, the raft growing larger as the chopper sets down. PILOT Air One to Base. I have a positive location on that sailing party. Disabled and adrift... (he checks chart on his knee board) ...about 3/4 miles west of Cable Junction, wind and current carrying them just about due east. I count ten juveniles. THE RAFT The helicopter is creating a lot of turbulence as it sets down, a huge circular pattern of prop-wash on the surface as the rotors slow to a halt. The Kids are waving and jubilant. ANGLE ON THE COPTER As the Pilot unbuckles, opens the door, and steps out on one pontoon; he speaks through a bullhorn. PILOT Everyone okay? Any injuries? The Kids ad-lib in the affirmative. ANDY Can you put us on Cable Junction? PILOT I got no room for passengers. ANDY How about a tow? Can you rig that? The Pilot nods. Larry heaves a line to him, the Pilot catches it and makes it fast to a convenient tie-off on the undercarriage. LARRY As soon as you get us on the island, you got to call in. My dad's the mayor... ANDY (interrupting) There's a shark... The other Kids all chime in, adding their ad-lib shouts describing what happened, calling for help, etc. It's all a noisy jumble, the Pilot ignores it, trying to do his job. ANGLE ON THE RAFT The Kids all shouting at once; Jackie is screaming. JACKIE You have to take us off! You have to! Why don't you take us! DOUG (calming her) It's an observation spotter, he doesn't have the room... ANGLE ON THE PILOT He finishes tying off, and yells through his bullhorn at the Kids. PILOT Listen. I'm going to give you an assist to get you on Cable Junction. Then I'll call in, and get the Coast Guard to send a cutter. Hang on to something. He climbs into his bubble, shuts the door, gives the Kids a "thumbs up," and starts the engine. QUICK CUTS - RAFT AND CHOPPER Engine turning over. A line tied off to one of the ringbolts on an overturned hull; it pulls taut out of the water. INT. CHOPPER, THE PILOT INTENT ON HIS JOB. The raft, Kids watching in fascination and anticipation. The whole operation, getting under way. UNDERWATER looking up at pontoons, wreckage, wind turbulence on the surface, the heavy "thud-thud-thud" of chopper blades. WIDE ON THE RAFT AND CHOPPER In the f.g., the fin rises, and starts for the scene. Follow it. CLOSE ON THE CHOPPER as it starts to lift, inexplicably. The Pilot reacts as; THE SHARK attacks one of the pontoons, biting down on it, clamping great scarred jaws onto the bulbous floats. THE RAFT Kids screaming. QUICK CUTS -- Rotor blade spinning wildly. -- Pilot's hands jerked on the delicate controls. -- Med. shot, copter shaking. -- Closeup engine and gas tanks, rotor head spinning. -- Med. closeup Pilot in buffeting cockpit. RAFT AND COPTER The Kids watch, horror-stricken, as the giant Shark hangs on the roaring copter; in the b.g., Cable Junction is looming closer. The copter tilts dangerously, the Shark bites deeper, harder. ANGLE ON THE COPTER as it tilts. Then, the unspeakable -- the blades touch the water and explode. Chunks of murderous steel break off the shattered blades and whistle through the air like projectiles. THE KIDS reacting, ducking in terror. Huge chunks of disintegrating rotors are flying all around. Masts and sails left standing before are chopped into a deadly salad. Screams. LOW IN THE WATER as blades skip and crash, the bubble of the overturned copter, Pilot trapped inside, sinks into the sea. THE COPTER COCKPIT - UNDERWATER Pilot struggling with his safety harness, trying to hit switches, working on instinct. Some air in the bubble, but water too, and sparks as electrical connections short out and burn. Then, the Shark, powering out of the murk. ANGLE ON THE PILOT - UNDERWATER as grim death batters at his fragile bubble. Screaming. The bubble cracks. Water floods, teeth snap at the slippery plastic, the Pilot fumbles for oxygen as the Shark veers off into the murk. ON THE SURFACE - THE RAFT The Kids, reacting as the broken copter sinks beneath the waves. Calm for a moment, then: LARRY Look out! JACKIE (screams) No-o-o-o! The Shark reappears, and batters at the raft. SHARK ATTACK The raft shudders, and begins to break up under the pounding. The Kids cling for their lives to masts and wreckage. Marge's overturned hull is struck a fierce blow from beneath. SEAN Help! He and Marge topple into the water. ANDY Don't struggle! Sean is bobbing in his life-vest, Marge strokes to be near him. ANGLE ON MARGE AND SEAN in the water, swimming for the apparent safety of the raft. Then, the fin, and the massive bulk of the killer, heaving up through the waves. MARGE Sean! She heaves him up out of the water, hurling him with desperation towards the safety of the floating hull. ANGLE ON SEAN screaming, hands and feet scrabbling like a monkey as he struggles for a grip on the slippery surface. Behind him, Marge helping as much as she can from the water. Then, behind her; THE SHARK rising like grey doom, then dropping out of sight. Marge is gone. UNDERWATER Marge ducking under the bulk of the Shark, shoving off with panicky reserves of strength, swimming away underwater, while the Shark takes a massive crunching bite out of a submerged hull. Follow Marge as she swims. COPTER WRECKAGE Huddled in the cracked plastic bubble, the Pilot is sucking air from his oxygen tank. He sees Marge, and slips out of his bubble, headed for her. MARGE As the Pilot overtakes her -- a moment of horror, as she thinks the Shark has found her, then relief, as the Pilot motions to the bubble, and indicates "Air." She follows him. MARGE AND THE PILOT Scuttling like two crabs into the shelter of the broken chopper, buddy breathing as he passes her the oxygen tube. The chopper tilts, and moves, breaking up on the bottom as currents move it. They struggle silently. ANGLE ON THE CHOPPER as it slips across the bottom, the current pulling it, broken parts breaking off in slow motion, dirty swirls of oil and hydraulic fluid clouding the water. CUT TO: ON THE SURFACE - THE RAFT A parallel struggle for survival, as the current separates Sean from the other Kids; Marge is gone, the little boy is clinging alone to the free-floating Lightening. PATRICK Sean! Sean! ANDY Don't move! SEAN Andy! Please help! Help! ON THE SURFACE - A DISTANCE AWAY Copter wreckage is bubbling up from underneath, like a submarine destroyed by depth charges; an oil slick, pieces of broken blade, a seat cushion, then, suddenly, the Pilot, and Marge, almost choked to death, their air run out. They cling to a section of pontoon, panting, looking around with oxygen-starved eyes. They are alone on the ocean; a half-mile away, the distant sails of the broken raft, and the low-lying shape of Cable Junction. Safe, for now... CUT TO: BRODY - ALONE IN THE POLICE BOAT - DAY He throttles down, and the boat slumps in the water. He looks around, sees nothing, in all directions. He hits his radio. BRODY Harbor Air, this is Brody. Air One, come in. Static, no answer. He tries a couple of times, checking the knobs and dials to make sure the unit's working. BRODY Harbor Air, do you read? Over? PATROL VOICE Brody? This is Patrol Base. The familiar voice is tinged with annoyance. He's had a long shift, and nothing's going right. BRODY Where the hell is Air One? PATROL VOICE That's what I'd like to know. Lost transmission at Cable Junction. BRODY Did he raise the Kids? PATROL VOICE Last transmission said ten juveniles. BRODY Yeah? Then what? PATROL VOICE Then nothing. If you see him, tell him to switch to an operational frequency, or give me a status report yourself. BRODY Did you say Cable Junction? PATROL VOICE That's what he said. BRODY When? PATROL VOICE 1530 hours. Might still be there. Base out. Brody revs up, and powers out, headed for Cable Junction. CUT TO: EXT. OCEAN - DAY - THE RAFT Sean is crying on his isolated perch, clinging to the upturned keel. The other Kids are throwing a rope, trying to get him back. Patrick heaves, and misses. LARRY Sean! Catch the rope! BOB The rope! The rope! The others shoot fearful glances at the waters. PATRICK He's got to help or it won't work. LUCY Sean, baby, please... Sean is ignoring the efforts to rescue him, paralyzed by fear, he shivers alone. Jackie is near catatonia herself, Brooke and Doug trying to soothe her. JACKIE It killed her. It ate her. BROOKE Shh. Shhh... DOUG It's okay, it's okay... ANDY Sean! Listen! Listen to me, Sean. The kid looks up dully. ANDY Goddamn it, Sean, you listen to me or I will kick your ass, do you hear me? LUCY Listen to Andy, Sean. ANDY We're throwing a rope and you better catch it, hear? Sean nods. The other Kids are encouraged. The rope is thrown -- it misses. ANDY (to Bob) Keep an eye out for that fish. Bob climbs to a vantage point, watching. LARRY Throw it. ANDY Sean! Catch it! Another miss. In his haste to help, Larry overreaches to fish the trailing rope out of the water, and falls headlong into the sea. Shrieks of fright from the others. LUCY Larry! He scrambles out, hardly wet, that's how fast he's moving. Finally -- Patrick takes the crucial throw, and the rope practically knocks Sean off his perch, but he clutches and holds it. As Andy carefully calls instructions, Sean secures the rope and the others carefully, carefully begin to pull him in. ANGLE - ON SEAN as they pull. The slippery rope is undoing itself. THE RAFT With the kids reaching out hands, sticks, rope, anything to pull the little one to safety. The ocean swells rise and fall with hidden menace. QUICK CUTS -- Hands gripping rope. -- The knot, pulling apart. -- Anguished faces, concentrating, as Patrick, Lucy, Larry, and Andy struggle to bring him in. ANDY AND SEAN Success. He's pulled to safety. They lash his little hull as tight as they can to the rest of the floating wreckage. Bob sees something. BOB Cable Junction's ahead! LUCY Can we make it? BOB I don't know. BOB'S POINT OF VIEW looking over the wreckage to Cable Junction, now much closer. Beyond it, miles of empty Atlantic. It's off to one side, and unless they can slow down or alter course, they will miss it. THE RAFT LARRY (to Jackie) You okay? She's not. Shaking, silent, eyes glazed. LUCY (alone) Dear Jesus, Holy Mary, Mother of God, help us, please... (her lips move inaudibly) BROOKE (to Doug) Keep her warm. (to Jackie) Jackie? Baby? PATRICK Can someone help me rig a jury rudder? We might steer this... Andy joins him, and they try to make a sweep or a rudder out of whatever wreckage they can use. DOUG By 7:46, when the tide turns around, we'll be twenty miles out. More, with this wind. LARRY Shut up. DOUG I can't stop thinking! LUCY (praying aloud) God, please help us, Merciful Father, in Christ's name, we beg you, help us, please, Dear God, save us, help us, please, God, help... CUT TO: BRODY'S POLICE BOAT - DAY He is rounding a sand bar off the lighthouse when he looks ahead and sees the bright sails of some of the survivors' boats. BRODY Thank Christ. He puts the helm over and heads for them. CUT TO: EXT. OCEAN NEAR LIGHTHOUSE - DAY Polo's sloop is beating back towards the harbor when the police launch bears down, Brody leaning on the air horn. The Kids signal and wave. POLO Over here! Yo! BRODY I'm coming alongside! The launch slows clumsily. Timmy gets a line around a cleat, and pulls them fast. BRODY Mike? Is that you? MIKE Pop. I'm sorry. BRODY It's okay. What happened? POLO A shark hit us out there. TIMMY Mike got knocked over. Brody goes for his radio, to report in, to call for help. MIKE I passed out, but I'm okay. BRODY At least you're safe. What about the others? The three boys look at each other. BRODY Jesus, don't freeze on me. What about the others? MIKE (tears in his eyes) Sean's still out there. BRODY What? He stops in his tracks, radio forgotten. heartsick. Mike goes on, MIKE He wanted to come. It was okay, wasn't it? It was okay before... POLO The others are ratted together. Drifting. BRODY Which way? TIMMY With the current. Towards Cable Junction. Brody jerks the mooring line holding them together, freeing it. He starts for his controls, obsessed. MIKE Dad, I'm sorry... BRODY Stay here. Don't go anywhere. Just stay here. He indicates the lighthouse, then guns his engine. BRODY Stay at the lighthouse! He roars off, headed towards Cable Junction. CUT TO: EXT. OCEAN - DAY - THE RAFT approaching Cable Junction the rafted boats are drifting towards the Cable Junction. Larry, Patrick and Andy are working on improvised tiller lines to a jury rudder made out of wreckage. Lucy has another line out to a sea anchor, trying to slow their drift. ANDY Bring her to port a little. That's it -- steady. DOUG I think we're changing course a little. BROOKE Can we land on it? LUCY If we can get to it. JACKIE We're going to die. BROOKE (comforting her) It's all right, we're okay. ANDY More to port. BOB It's all the way over. ANDY Shit. SEAN Are we going to go on the island? BROOKE You bet, kiddo. ANDY (the realist) I don't know. LARRY What the hell, we're steering for it. DOUG The wind drift is lateral. LARRY What's that mean? DOUG Sideways -- For every yard we go this way, we also slide sideways this way... His hands illustrate the predicament. LUCY But we had it! We were headed right for it! ANDY Shit. Shit, shit, shit! JACKIE We're going to miss it! The others are silent. It's true. ANGLE ON THE RAFT Larry, Bob and Brooke try to alter its course by padding. ANDY Don't! DOUG Stop paddling! LUCY But the island! ANDY The Shark. They freeze, as the raft grinds against something. UNDERWATER The inverted mast of one of the wrecked boats is snagged on the rocks on the bottom. ANGLE ON THE RAFT as it slows, then stops, hung up from below. BROOKE What is it? ANDY We're hung up on something. DOUG Maybe the bottom. JACKIE (hysteria) It's that thing. It's going to kill us now... We're going to die! LARRY Shut up! Just shut Up! BROOKE Leave her alone! BOB Lighten up, man... LARRY It's bad enough without her freaking out. PATRICK She's hysterical, goddamn it! LUCY Don't yell at her! The group dissolves in bitter exchanges. No one is rational. Lucy is the first to notice something... LUCY Wait a minute! Listen! Listen! The group subsides, only Jackie is left, keening to herself. There's a distant sound of a boat's engine. Bob spots it first, and waves. The others follow his pointing finger. BOB Over there! Coming this way! HIS POINT OF VIEW - BRODY'S POLICE BOAT under full power, heading straight for them, THE KIDS go crazy, waving, yelling, screaming, "Over here!" "Help!" "Hey!" SEAN It's Dad! ANGLE ON BRODY AND THE RAFT in the boat, coming up on the Kids fast. He throttles back, his bow wave almost swamping them as he slides past. ANDY Easy, easy -- you'll swamp us! DOUG Back down! Brody fumbles with the throttle, manages to hold his boat steady between the raft and Cable Junction island. LARRY We're hung up here. Snagged. BOB Can you get us a line? Brody finds a coil of line, makes one end fast, then throws it to the Kids on the raft. They catch it, and tie it off to a cleat. DOUG We got it! PATRICK Go ahead, slow. LUCY Be careful. Brody throttles forward, the police boat shudders under the strain as the line goes taut. ANGLE ON THE RAFT where the rope is tied off to a cleat. The wood groans, screws pop -- ANDY Whoa! Too late. The cleat rips out, Brody's boat leaps forward. DOUG Come around again! ANGLE ON BRODY'S BOAT as he repositions; he's now between the raft and the island, preparing to throw his line. He heaves, the Kids grab, they have it, they tie off again, ANDY Hang on, hang on -- we got it. You're on! SEAN Dad! Help! Brody starts to pull the raft again, when: THE SHARK surfaces, and moves purposefully towards the gap that separates the police boat from the raft. It lunges at Brody as it passes the launch; the fin hits the taut rescue line, snapping it. ANGLE ON BRODY'S BOAT Brody recoils in horror as the beast rushes past, he spins the wheel and hits the throttle, sending the launch hard to port. Out of control, it runs up on the rocks of Cable Junction. INSIDE THE BOAT as it tips up on the rocks. Brody falls, equipment and loose material breaks loose and falls. INSERT - THE RADIO held by only a few screws, it pulls out of its mount and shatters on the deck. ANGLE ON THE STERN lifting high out of the water, the screw turning in air. THE KIDS ON THE RAFT Their horrified reactions. BRODY IN THE BOAT picks himself up, and staggers to the rail, sees his predicament. BRODY Hang on! SEAN Dad! Dad! BRODY I'm okay, baby, I'm here. It's okay... He climbs over the rail, onto the slippery wet rocks, trying to get to where he can help. The Shark patrols the gap, waiting. BRODY Can you get a line to me? ABOARD THE RAFT the Kids find some line. Andy coils, and throws. CABLE JUNCTION - THE RAFT Brady catches the Kids' line. He heaves on it with all his might. Nothing. Jackie is hysterical, some of the other Kids are screaming. The Shark's fin catches the taut line, it slides up and over, Brody and the Kids are nearly pulled into the water. The raft doesn't budge. UNDERWATER the mast bends under the strain, but holds the raft stuck fast. CABLE JUNCTION - BRODY AND THE KIDS He sees the winch and hooks on his launch, and makes the towline fast to the steel winch cable; puts it in neutral. The Kids haul their line, trying to bring the steel cable to them. The shark rams their raft, impatient now. Screams and scrambling as they let go their line and try to avoid the beast. Brooke huddles with Sean, Jackie cowers alone. Larry is lashing his big buck knife to a pole, an improvised weapon. ANGLE ON THE WINCH LINE Unattended, it drops into the water. THE KIDS ANDY Get the cable in! Pull! They do, but now the winch cable is snagged under the surface. It comes taut, but doesn't budge. Brody watches, helpless for the moment. BRODY Son of a bitch is stuck! BRODY climbs back onto the boat, starts the winch engine, trying to pull the cable free. THE SHARK on the offensive now, takes an outrigger pontoon, biting it, tearing it off the raft, shaking everything. ON THE RAFT the Kids react to this fresh attack. DOUG It's killing us! JACKIE I don't want to die! Mommy! IN THE BOAT The winch smokes and stalls, the weight it's pulling almost too much. BRODY Come on, you bastard, come on, pull. Pull! THE RAFT bursts apart from the center as the Shark lunges up through the canvas trampoline of the Sizzler. The Kids, screaming, fall into the water as the attack forces the fragile structure into pieces. Only Sean, Brooke, and Jackie are left on the remaining segment. ANGLE ON BRODY watching the destruction, seeing Sean practically alone in the water. BRODY Sean! Hang on! He looks around the deck frantically, spots a rubber emergency inflatable in its case. He wrestles it off its brackets, and breaks the seals urgently. He hits the auto-inflate. BRODY'S POINT OF VIEW - SEAN Alone on the raft, Brooke and Jackie helpless nearby, the other Kids flailing in the water. The huge bulk of the Shark, fin cutting the water as it closes in on the confusion. IN THE WATER While Brody inflates the rubber raft and throws it in the water, the Kids scramble for safety, swimming for their lives. Each one is sure this moment is going to be his last. ANDY Get on the rocks! DOUG Swim for it! Andy is pulling himself towards the boat, scrambling up on the exposed wooden hull. PATRICK Lucy! Look out! ANGLE ON LUCY AND BOB As she looks over her shoulder and screams -- the monster is sliding past her, intent on Bob. The rough hide scrapes her, tearing her clothes, leaving raw bleeding lacerations on her torso. LUCY I'm bleeding! Larry and Patrick help her towards the rocks. BOB Help! He's clinging to a piece of broken boat; the Shark lunges at him. INSERT - WINCH grinding, smoking, hauling something out of the water -- heavy, slimy, dripping metal cable, the main powerline from the mainland! BRODY IN THE WATER paddling the raft towards Sean with desperate strokes, heedless of the danger around him. BRODY Hang on! Just hang on! He fights to see in the gathering gloom. Suddenly, a strange glare snaps on, then more illumination, in a series of escalating clicks. CABLE JUNCTION Silhouetted against the evening sky. Automatic timers are turning on navigation and worklights, illuminating the barren rocks and rusty steel with their glare -- throwing dark shadows, putting the surrounding water into black limbo by their contract. ANGLE ON BRODY straining to see what's going on. Looking for his son. SEAN (O.S.) Dad! Help! Daddy! BRODY I'm coming! He looks around desperately, sees Andy safe on the launch. BRODY Andy! Use the lights! The lights! ANGLE ON ANDY soaked, clinging to the rail of the launch, hearing Brody, fumbling in the cabin, turning on worklights, the boat throwing erratic shafts of powerful light from its many lamps and searchlights. Andy grabs one and sweeps the water with it, trying to help. ANDY Where are you? Chief! His light pokes and sweeps through the gloom. BRODY IN THE WATER He hears the horrendous sounds of wood and metal breaking, as the raft pounds to pieces on the rocks. He is blinded by the sweeping searchlight, the confusion of terror-stricken teen-agers screaming. It's the middle of The Inferno. BRODY'S POINT OF VIEW - SEAN Sean, standing up, reaching out to him, the Shark hitting his fragile perch, Sean tumbling backwards, towards what seems to be certain death. BRODY (O.S.) Sean! ANGLE ON BRODY as he hurls his paddle at the Shark, anything to get even, to distract it. BRODY You bastard! He looks around him wildly, searching for a weapon, finding a steel boathook. He screams at the unfeeling Shark... BRODY Come here, you son-of-a-bitch! The huge gray hulk obligingly turns towards this new irritation. Brody bangs on the raft, yelling, creating a commotion. THE SHARK SPEEDS TOWARDS HIM THE SHARK lunges at the raft, Brody sliding desperately away, smashing at the snout with his steel, the tail fin bashing him as it passes... ANGLE ON THE STERN OF THE POLICE BOAT Brody is drifting close to the cable, drawn heavy and wet cut of the water. He reaches up to it. ANGLE ON BRODY dangling his feet in the water, holding onto the cable, seeing it, inspired with a lunatic idea... BRODY Over here! You bastard! Over here THE SHARK turns, bleeding from a superficial cut on its snout, its scar glistening wet and terrible. It heads for Brody. BRODY Possessed, yelling at the top of his lungs. BRODY Come and get me! Come and get me! THE SHARK Attacking. Missing Brody, who hauls himself up out of the way in life-or-death spasm. The great jaws close, fastening onto the thick cable. Shaking it. The cable resists for a moment, then splits, layers or insulation and armor crack open, the jaws clamp harder -- 20,000 tons of pressure -- then the live copper core is reached. Zap! THE SHARK dying. Leaping and convulsing as hundreds of thousands of volts surge through its body, grounded in the salt sea. Hot white fire shimmers like a halo, the fish smokes and stinks, sputters, and dies. BRODY watching, cowering on the rubber raft to which he fell when the shark hit the cable. It's strangely silent. The lights on Cable Junction flicker and die as circuit breakers shut down the mains, protecting the line. Only the boat's worklights provide light now. BRODY Sean? No answer. Water lapping at the rocks, some Kids sobbing quietly. Brody listlessly paddles towards the wreckage of the raft, expecting the worst... ANGLE ON THE WRECKAGE Timmy's Doughdish, where we last saw Sean. There's a scrabbling from inside, and Sean appears, soaked, from under the seat where he'd fallen. SEAN Dad? Brody moves toward him, holds out his arms, taking Sean onto his raft. They paddle back towards the rocks. THE ISLAND with the Kids clinging like drowned rats to the rocks; they're wet, scared, exhausted, but safe. Sean hugs his daddy as they step onto land. SEAN They made me go with them. BRODY Sure they did... He kisses the damp forehead. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. AMITY HARBOR - DAY A crowd of worried parents and adults, Ellen and Hendricks in the forefront, are staring towards the harbor mouth. It's dawn and the sun is rising. They see something, a cheer goes up. ANGLE ON THE WATER A big Coast Guard cutter is steaming into the harbor, a little group of survivors on the foredeck. CLOSE ON THE CUTTER Brody and the surviving Kids wave to their families on land. FADE OUT: ROLL END CREDITS. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Jaws.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jaws.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..58aaf2381363b771b5ee080ad35bf559f01755ac --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jaws.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + "STILLNESS IN THE WATER" AKA: "JAWS" by Carl Gottlieb and Peter Benchley From the novel by Peter Benchley OVER BLACK Sounds of the innerspaces rushing forward. Then a splinter of blue light in the center of the picture. It breaks wide, showing the top and bottom a silhouetted curtain of razor sharp teeth suggesting that we are inside of a tremendous gullet, looking out at the onrushing undersea world at night. HEAR a symphony of underwater sounds: landslide, metabolic sounds, the rare and secret noises that certain undersea species share with each other. Also, the hint of familiar music, twisted and distorted by the depths. CUT TO: EXT. BEACH ñ NIGHT ñ SHARK'S POINT OF VIEW ñ RISING OUT OF THE WATER, LOOKING AT It is a pleasant, moonlit, windless night in mid-June. We see a long straight stretch of white beach. Behind the low dunes are the dark shapes of large expensive houses. Hear a number of voices singing. It sounds like an eastern university's alma mater, no longer distorted. EXT. BEACH ñ NIGHT ñ ANOTHER ANGLE Around a blazing bonfire, a group of young men and women, beer cans (or maybe a keg) in evidence, as well as the bota Spanish leather wine-bag much in favor by beach and ski-bum types. The group is swapping sentimental alma maters, weepily singing eastern Ivy League anthems -ñ Dartmouth, Cornell, Harvard, Penn, etc. Two young people break away from the others. They are Tom Cassidy and Chrissie. Behind them, there is considerable necking activity; Tom and Chrissie are more serious. TOM Makes a clumsy attempt at snaring Chrissie, cups her from behind. She squirms playfully out of his grasp. We discover he's not especially sober. TOM Hey! Hey hey! I'm with you, right? EXT. ANOTHER PART OF THE BEACH ñ NIGHT Tom and Chrissie are separated from the others, silhouetted against the fire, she pauses and looks at the ocean, he is plodding along in the sand, winded. Chrissie runs down the slope of the dune towards the water, leaving Tom reeling atop the dune. As she runs, she is shedding her clothes. Tom is trying to trail her by her clothes, like Hansel following bread crumbs through the woods. But Chrissie is way ahead of him. CHRISSIE C'mon! She runs headlong into the inviting sea, plunges cleanly into the water with a light "Whoops!" as the cold water sweeps over her. Behind all this, we continue to hear the sentimental, beery chorus of alma maters. Then we see it -- a gentle bulge in the water, a ripple that passes her a dozen feet away. A pressure wave lifts her up, then eases her down again, like a smooth, sudden swell. CHRISSIE Tommy? Don't dunk me... She looks around for him, finds him still on the beach, his feet tangled in his pants, which have dropped around his ankles. She starts to swim back in to him. EXT. CHRISSIE IN THE WATER Her expression freezes. The water-bulge is racing towards her. The first bump jolts her upright, out of the water to her hips. She reaches under water to touch her leg. Whatever she feels makes her open her mouth to scream, but she is slammed again, hard, whipped into an arc of about eight feet, up and down, submerging her down to her open mouth, choking off any scream she might try to make. Another jolt to her body, driving her under so that only her hair swirls on the surface. Then it too is sucked below in a final and terrible jerking motion. HOLD on the eddies and swirls until we're sure it's all over. EXT. CLOSE ON TOM ON BEACH In his shorts, laughing to himself, turning in slow stoned circles, held prisoner by his windbreaker which seems to have him in an armlock, as he struggles to free his arm from a tight sleeve. As he turns, we hear the alma maters in the background, from the fire. INT. BRODY HOUSE - BEDROOM - EARLY MORNING A shaft of morning sun blasts through the crack between the bottom of the shade and the windowsill, falling across the heads of the sleeping couple on the bed. It catches Martin Brody right across the eyes, bringing him up from sleep. The job is completed by the clock radio, which clicks on with local fisherman's report and weather. RADIO ANNOUNCER (V.O.) Hayes Landing reports conditions good, with stripers and jacks. The Coast Guard has no storm warning from Block Island to Cape Hatteras; a light chop with freshening winds, continued clear and mild... (etc.) Ellen Brody burrows her head under the covers, avoiding morning for a few precious minutes more. BRODY How come the sun didn't used to shine in here? ELLEN 'cause when we bought the house it was Autumn. This is summer. Feed the dogs. We hear the scampering toenails of two cocker spaniels scrabbling around the foot of the bed. Brody swings out of bed, wearing shorts, socks, and tee shirt. BRODY Right. ELLEN Do you see the kids? BRODY Probably out in the back yard. ELLEN In Amity, you say 'Yahd.' (she gives it the Boston sound) BRODY The kids are in the yahd, playing near the cah. How's that sound? ELLEN Like you're from N'Yawk. (gives it Brooklyn sound) BRODY Give me 30 years, I'll get it. He leads the dogs out of the bedroom and down to the kitchen. INT. BRODY KITCHEN - MORNING Brody enters, sets down some dog food, goes to make coffee, starts to fill kettle to boil water, the cold water rushes through and out the burnt-out bottom of the kettle. BRODY Did you burn another kettle? Y'know you're a fire hazard? This is the third one! ELLEN (O.S.) I never hear the whistle. BRODY Feed the dogs. Ellen Brody, a tall, attractive blonde woman, enters from upstairs. She's still slightly sleepy, not what you'd call an "Instant-On" person. Mornings are not her best time. ELLEN You want to go through those? (she indicates bag of clothes) I'm taking them to the Thrift Shop. It's Marcia Vaughn's pet charity. Pick out what you want to keep -- it's mostly your city clothes. BRODY (looking through bag, remembering) I used to wear this to the Garden. Garbage strikes. Dog shit. Muggers. (he puts it all behind) Ship it. ELLEN Don't be silly -ñ You're going to make summer better for them... Before Brody can answer, Michael, his oldest boy, enters, holding his hand. There is bright new blood on it, but he is sensibly unconcerned. It's a normal childhood scrape. MICHAEL Cut my hand. Hit by a vampire. BRODY On the swing? I told you not to play near there until I sanded it down. (to Ellen) See what your son did? ELLEN Go upstairs and bring Mommy a band- aid. Michael goes on out and upstairs. Ellen fumbles in her pocket and produces Brody's new glasses, which she holds out to him. ELLEN Don't forget these. BRODY Oh, yeah. (he puts them on) How do I look? Older, huh? ELLEN I think they make you look sexy. Brody reacts to this, and bends to kiss her lightly. Then more seriously. BRODY Sexy, hm? What was I before? ELLEN Older, sillier. BRODY (as he goes to make coffee, he fumbles with the new glasses) I don't want to depend on these things, y'know -ñ sometimes you can weaken your eyes. He looks out the window to the view beyond, discovering some new wonder in the fresh sunlit morning. BRODY'S POINT OF VIEW ñ OUTSIDE THE HOUSE Sean, the younger child, is happily romping in the summer air, enjoying the very air he breathes. BRODY Let's see... The phone rings. INT. BRODY KITCHEN ñ DAY Brody answers one of two phones on the wall. BRODY Brody... yeah, what's up... mmm... Well, what do they usually do, float or wash up? Really?... okay, I'll meet both of you at the beach in (checks watch) ...20 minutes, okay? Okay. (hangs up) First goddamn weekend of the summer. Michael reenters in bathing trunks, with a towel on his shoulder, his hand washed, holding a band-aid ready for application. Ellen takes it, and bandages the finger with care and affection. ELLEN There. (to Brody) What was that? Michael heads toward the beach. BRODY (struggling to get his shirt on over his glasses) The office. He gets his shirt on with Ellen's help. She flicks imaginary dust from the badge on his chest. ELLEN Be careful. BRODY Here? You gotta be kiddin'. He gives her a light kiss, starts to go, with his cup. BRODY Love ya. ELLEN (kissing him back) Hey Chief. Bring my cup back. At the door, he takes a windbreaker off a peg and goes on out. We can see the Amity Police shoulder patch as he goes to a van parked outside. EXT. ISLAND HIGHWAY - MORNING Martin Brody's Country Squire police wagon rushes past, taking the view to an enormous billboard depicting a typical summer day in Amity. A beautiful model splashes in the gold surf, languishing in a Solarcaine sun. AMITY WELCOMES YOU is written above her flailing arms. EXT. AMITY BEACH - DAY Three small figures in the landscape, walking the beach. The surf is rough and there is sea-floor debris strewn about from the receding tide. CLOSER ANGLE Deputy Hendricks is searching the shore about one hundred yards down wind. Meanwhile, Brody, in his casual police attire, and Tom Cassidy, still in the clothing we saw him in last night, walk down the beach. Brody fingers the missing girl's shoes, purse and clothes. In the daylight, Cassidy misconducts himself, wavering between inflated maturity and tear-blown adolescence. BRODY Christine what? CASSIDY Worthingsly... Worthington -- no one ever died on me before. BRODY You picked her up on the ferry. CASSIDY I didn't know her. BRODY And nobody else saw her in the water? CASSIDY Somebody could've -- I was sort of passed out. BRODY Think she might've run out on you? CASSIDY Oh, no, sir. I've never had a woman do that. I'm sure she drowned. BRODY You from around here? CASSIDY No. Cambridge. Harvard. My family's in Tuxedo, New York, though. BRODY You here for the summer? CASSIDY Some friends and me took a house. BRODY (genuinely curious) What d'you pay for a place just for the summer? CASSIDY A thousand apiece, something like that. There's five of us. And we each kick in a hundred a week for beer and cleaning, stuff like that. BRODY Pretty stiff. A shrill whistle makes them turn. Hendricks is fifty yards away, on his knees. He blows again, a feeble report this time. BRODY Maybe that's your girl. Brody runs toward Hendricks, Cassidy hesitates, then follows with: CASSIDY (pathetically) You can't make me look -- ! MASTER ANGLE - THE SAND DUNE A skein of seaweed garnishes the base of this isolated dune. The booming waves and fizzing surf make dialogue inaudible. Deputy Hendricks on hands and knees, looking white as a sheet. Brody tells Cassidy to wait at the foot of the dune, and ventures up. Hendricks stops him with a wave-off, saying something at the same time. Brody nods understanding and steps up cautiously and looks down. He adjusts his glasses, trying to make sense of what he is looking at. Whatever he sees has a marked effect on his entire physique. Kicking out with his foot, Brody sends dozens of angry horseshoe crabs into an escape frenzy and they boil over the top of the dune and down its slopes. Cassidy takes a few uneasy steps backwards when Brody waves him over. He shakes his head. An awkward moment. Then Cassidy shuffles forward and up the few remaining feet, his eyes looking everywhere but down. Brody says something else and Cassidy shakes his head again, eyes out at sea. Brody puts his hand gently around the quaking man's shoulder. Nodding, he starts to look down, an inch at a time. He looks. He, too, can't make out what it is at first. Then he understands. The jolt that assaults Cassidy is not unexpected. He falls backward in a sitting position as though shot. Nods yes -- it's her. Brody turns and slides off the dune, stumbling close. Hear his breathing. He looks around, envisioning the week ahead of him.... QUICK SHARP CUT Chrissie's remains, incomplete from the chest down, horribly bitten. (NOTE: See Hooper's dialog in Sc. 91 for complete description of corpse.) INT. BRODY'S OFFICE - DAY Brody walks through the door and enters his office, holding a fizzing glass of Alka-Seltzer. Polly, his sixty-one year old secretary follows close on his heels with her shorthand pad of messages and reminders. In the outer office, Hendricks and Cassidy slump into chairs, sipping from fizzing dixie cups. Brody dips into file drawers for the appropriate forms. He gently turns on Polly, who is behind him. BRODY If this is going to work, you've got to keep current stuff out here, and put 'closed' files in there. The 'Pendings' stay on my desk, okay? Brody slips behind his typewriter, putting paper in the machine with the effortless ease of years of practice. He's obviously no stranger to paperwork. He touch types, hardly ever looking down, checking his notes and listening with one ear to Polly. He is affected by what he's seen, but there's work to be done. POLLY This is in no order of importance, Chief: There's a meeting on the Amity Town Council on Aging this Monday night, Bentoncourt Hall. The Fire Inspector wants you to go over the fireworks site with him before he catches the one o'clock ferry. Mainly, you have a batch of calls about that new Karate school. CLOSE - ACCIDENT REPORT Brody has just typed the girl's name. He skips the space for Cause-of-Death, and just under it types the Next-of-Kin information he has collected from her wallet. POLLY Searle's Rent-a-Bike, the Rainy Ale, Tisberry's Hardware... they say it's those nine-year-olds from the school practicing karate on all those nice picket fences. The phone rings and Polly picks it up. POLLY It's the Coroner. Somebody pass away in the night? Brody nestles the phone between ear and collar, listening, as he turns to the typewriter. BRODY Jesus, Santos. INSERT - ACCIDENT REPORT Cause-of-Death line rolls into place. The hammers punch out: SHARK ATTACK. BRODY leans forward, staring at what he just wrote. Polly cocks her head and removes the phone from his ear. POLLY What's the matter? Brody takes a breath. A new resolve comes over him. BRODY Polly, I want to know what water recreation is on for today. POLLY Right this minute? Brody gets up and moves hastily toward the door. BRODY'S OUTER OFFICE Cassidy and Hendricks look up as Brody enters. BRODY (To Hendricks) Where'd you hide the 'Beach Closed' signs? HENDRICKS We never had any. What's the problem? A local merchant comes through the door. LOCAL MERCHANT Glad I caught you. There's a city truck with New Hampshire plates parked right in front of my... Brody pushes past him and out the door. EXT. AMITY MAIN STREET ñ DAY In the busy center of a town preparing for the big Fourth of July weekend, Brody wends his way around sidewalk activity, purpose and haste in each stride. As he turns a corner a little man in a white smock emerges from the Funeral Parlor. This is Carl Santos, Amity's part-time coroner. Santos looks both ways before crossing Colonial Drive. Brody passes Keisel's Bicycle Rental, navigating an awkward course through an odd assortment of Schwinns that line the sidewalk in front of a demolished white picket fence. Keisel intercepts Brody on the run. KEISEL (he stares at Brody's face) Wait-a-minute. (stares some more) Glasses, right? Brody nods yes, and starts to move away, but Keisel holds on to him. KEISEL Look at those fences! Little guys about eight to ten years old. And look at this! He holds up bicycle. The bicycle's spokes are bent and broken from some sort of blows. KEISEL They did that with their bare hands. BRODY Call me later in the day, okay, Harry? ANGLE - AMITY GAZETTE NEWSPAPER OFFICE - PORCH Santos emerges with Ben Meadows, the stylish, late-thirties editor of the Amity Gazette. Together they cut a beeline for the other side of the street. ANGLE - AMITY STREET Past taverns and chowder shacks, past bleacher construction and July Fourth posters, Brody enters Hardware and Sporting Goods... so overstocked that beach umbrellas, aluminum deck chairs, and rainbow beach towels splash a surplus of color from the display window to the sidewalk. INT. HARDWARE STORE ñ DAY The store proprietor is busy at work on an inventory list with a mainland delivery man. LYNWOOD Stuff's no good to me in August when the Pilgrims come in June... (to Brody) Go on and help yourself to whatever you need, Chief. Can you work the register? EXT. HARDWARE STORE AND STREET - DAY Brody emerges with enough poster-board, wooden stakes, nails, paint, and brushes to close every beach on the island. He starts back the way he came when Hendricks shoots up the street in the patrol jeep. He stops fast enough to call attention, leans out the window. HENDRICKS Polly told me to tell you there's a scout troop in Avril Bay doing the mile swim for their Merit Badges. I couldn't call them in, there's no phone out there. BRODY (hands him the sign material) Get out of there ñ take these back to the office and make up some 'Beach Closed' signs, and let Polly do the printing. HENDRICKS What's the matter with my printing? EXT. VAUGHN'S REALTY ñ DAY Revealing Larry Vaughn, the Mayor of Amity, exchanging anxieties with Ben Meadows and Coroner Santos and two other city Selectmen. They come out in a group, reach the sunlight, and squint down the street as Brody careens around the corner and out of sight. Deputy Hendricks, laden with his arts and crafts, passes them on the street front. VAUGHN What have you got there, Lenny? HENDRICKS We had a shark attack at South Chop this morning, Mayor. Fatal. Gotta batten down the beach. Vaughn and group exchange horrified looks, but we get the impression it is not in response to the shark-attack news. VAUGHN Who've you told this to, Lenny? HENDRICKS I just found out about it -- but there's a bunch of Boy Scouts in the water a coupla miles down the coast from where we found the girl. Avril Bay, thereabouts. Chief went to dry them off. VAUGHN (to Meadows) Take my car, okay? (to Hendricks) You come with us, Lenny. HENDRICKS I've got all these signs here... VAUGHN C'mon, it'll give us time to think about what they're going to say. They all crowd into a Cadillac El Dorado with Vaughn Realty signs on the doors. EXT. AVRIL BAY - DAY A flotilla of twenty exhausted Boy Scouts round a buoy that marks the official course. A rowboat with Scoutmaster using a bullhorn keeps pace, and urges the boys on. SCOUTMASTER (bullhorn effect) Let's go, Robbie. You too, Hofner. Boyle, keep your head up. Alberts, keep kicking... (etc., ad lib) EXT. ON THE BEACH AT AVRIL BAY - DAY Two older Seascouts look on with stop watches and clipboards, while some Parents shade their eyes from the sun, watching their offspring. Brody pulls up in the Amity Police jeep, and starts toward the people. Behind him, Vaughn's Cadillac pulls up and skids to a stop. In it are Vaughn, Meadows, the Doctor, maybe a Selectman, and Hendricks, with his arms still full of sign material. Vaughn intercepts Brody, the others circle around him, effectively slowing his progress through the sand to the scouts. VAUGHN Martin! (he catches up with him) Are you going to shut down the beach on your own authority? BRODY Do I need any more authority? MEADOWS Technically, you need the instruction of a civic ordinance, or a special meeting of the town selectmen... VAUGHN (the good guy) That's just going by the book. We're just a little anxious that you're rushing into something serious here. This is your first summer. BRODY Now tell me something I don't know. VAUGHN All I'm saying is that Amity is a summer town -- we need summer dollars, and if they can't swim here, they'll use the beaches at Cape Cod, or Long Island. BRODY So we should set out a smorgasbord? MEADOWS We're not even sure what it was. BRODY What else could've done that? VAUGHN (to Doctor) Boat propeller? DOCTOR I think, possibly... sure. A boating accident. VAUGHN Some weekend tramp accidentally goes swimming too far, she's a little drunk, a fishing boat comes along -- MEADOWS Remember when Fred Ganz went scalloping in his BVD's? He was going to swim to New Bedford, he said. The men all laugh, ad lib their remembrances of this foolishness. MEADOWS ...and Bill Mayhew almost caught him in his net...? BRODY (interrupting the merriment) Doctor, you're the one who told me what it was! DOCTOR I was wrong. We'll have to amend the report. MEADOWS We never had that kind of trouble here. VAUGHN I don't think you can appreciate the gut reaction people have to these things. BRODY I was only reacting to what I was told. Brody looks out to the water where the scouts are rounding another buoy on the home stretch. VAUGHN (taking Brody aside) It's all psychological, anyway. You yell 'Barracuda' and everyone says 'huh'. You yell 'Shark' and we've got a panic on our hands. I think we all agree we don't need a panic this close to the 4th of July. Vaughn indicates the beach where the Scouts are flopping out onto the sand, exhausted, glad to be finished. BRODY I can't work in a vacuum. Why don't you make Hendricks Chief? His family's been here since the Puritans -- half this island are his cousins. VAUGHN Martin, we hired the best man we could find. All ad lib agreement. VAUGHN We need someone who isn't prejudiced by old feuds or family ties, someone who can referee things. MEADOWS You have our complete support. VAUGHN Now then. We've got a vandalism problem we ought to talk about... The others surround Brody as Vaughn leads the way back to the cars, ad libbing their problem with the little karate choppers. Hendricks puts the signs back into the trunk of Vaughn's Cadillac. Vaughn waves casually to the Scouts and swimmers who are vigorously toweling off in the background. EXT. AMITY STREET - DAY In front of Amity's only Music Store, a battered old pick-up truck pulls in to the curb. Quint and his mate cross silently heading into the music store. INT. AMITY MUSIC STORE - DAY A gently tinkling bell tolls Quint's entrance. Inside the store, a ten-year-old boy is being shown a clarinet. He is playing a mellow low tone, and running "Ode to Joy." Quint looms past him like Neptune rising from the deep, and lets his hand drop on the counter with a slap that sounds like a club on flesh. The Shopkeeper abandons the little boy and meets Quint. SHOPKEEPER Hello, Mr. Quint. QUINT Four spools of Number 12 piano wire, Okay? I ordered them. SHOPKEEPER (finding them under the counter) Yessir, right here. What do those fish do, eat this stuff? QUINT They choke on it. Without waiting for it to be wrapped, he picks up the gleaming wire in his gnarled fist, and drops a bill on the counter. SHOPKEEPER Bye now. No answer from Quint, who stops and sings along with the boy. The little kid's music degenerates into a series of awkward squeaks and blurps, as Quint stares at him. Quint continues out the door, threading his way through the people in the street like some great fish. As he gets up into the cab of his pick-up, its door swings open so we can see a crude stylized shark decorating its side. It slams behind him as Quint gets in and drives away. EXT. AMITY BEACH - DAY A plump jelly-bowl of a woman plunges into the ocean. There's enough there to satisfy the most gluttonous shark. Buoyant, joyful, she splashes away in abandon. From her, we pan off to reveal other cheerful bathers enjoying that last uncluttered weekend before the season starts in earnest. ANGLE ON THE WATERLINE A Man and his dog are romping at the water's edge. The Man is throwing a stick out into the surf, the dog, a happy retriever, is bounding into the waves after it. TWO YOUNG PEOPLE ON THE BEACH A Girl and her Boyfriend leave their blanket and run for the water, playing tag, chasing each other, having a wonderful time. ANGLE ON BIRTHDAY PARTY ON THE SAND - MARTIN AND ELLEN BRODY He is sitting stiffly in a beach chair, scanning the beach with careful, cautious looks, eyeballing everything that's going on. Around their particular blanket and umbrella are a number of adults and their kids, the youngsters gathered to celebrate Michael's birthday. Ellen is dishing out ice cream and cake from a cooler chest to the raucous 10-year-olds. Michael's hand is still bandaged. MAX TAFT (an adult) Looks like another big season. Gets worse every year. MRS. TAFT And none of them from the Island. Just a lot of bother. Brody (and we) hear a shrill scream from the water. He stretches to look past the group, to see what's happening out there. BRODY'S POINT OF VIEW - THE WATER The young lady is disappearing under the water, pulled under the waves by some force. She is shrieking. She pops right up again riding the shoulders of her boyfriend, who pulled her under. She's laughing hysterically. Brody is unamused. THE ADULTS BRODY (to Taft) What? TAFT Present company excepted, but off- islanders are a pain in the butt. Pardon my French. Ellen captures Sean, and holds him playfully, an example. ELLEN What about this kid? What if he were born here. That make him an islander? TAFT Just 'cause a cat has kittens in an oven, it don't make them muffins. SEAN I'm not a muffin! I'm a boy! Brody rumples his hair and sets him off to play. ANGLE ON ANOTHER SMALL BOY, PLAYING ALONE It's Alex Kintner, and his mother, nearby, reading a novel. Alex is towing a funny rubber raft, and headed for the water. MRS. KINTNER Alex! Alex Kintner! Where do you think you're going? ALEX Water. Just once more, please? MRS. KINTNER Let me see your fingers -- He holds out his hands. MRS. KINTNER They're beginning to prune. 10 minutes more. Alex starts for the ocean. Behind him, Michael and his gang are also heading for the inviting waves. Brody is watching them go, his spine rigid with tension. MAN AND HIS DOG As Alex and the boys hit the water, we see the man throwing his stick into the waves, his dog swimming strongly after it. BRODY'S POINT OF VIEW Out beyond the kids and the dog, the Fat Lady is bobbing around, out way too far, isolated from the other swimmers. UNDERWATER VIEW - EXT. - DAY A fish's-eye view of the bathers: lots of little kicking legs, rafts with tasty arms dangling in the blue, slowing circling, favoring one raft (little Alex's). The Kintner boy's legs and arms are kicking and paddling, producing bizarre underwater vibrations of more than passing interest. Dog goes by, dog-paddling along. ON THE BEACH Brody is half-rising, looking out over the water. The Fat Lady is not where he remembered her. He scans the water anxiously. ELLEN Do you want the boys to come in? Honey, if you're worried... A Black Object swims across the water. It's the dog, breasting against the surf. ANGLE ON THE WATER - BRODY'S POINT OF VIEW It's the Fat Lady, floating, relaxing. A black object swims up to her. It's not the dog. It rears up out of the water. It's a man in a black bathing cap. They exchange distant pleasantries, he strokes away. ANOTHER ANGLE - WATER Alex Kintner, paddling around, making boat sounds, tooting, going "vroom, vroom." ANGLE ON THE BOY AND GIRL They kiss, embrace, kiss again. Strong stuff. They sink beneath the waves, knotted in an embrace. ANGLE ON MICHAEL BRODY AND HIS FRIENDS He's trying to salvage a soggy piece of birthday cake, holding it above the water, paddling with his other hand. The bandage has come part way loose, and his cut is trailing in the water. BRODY AND ELLEN ON THE BEACH Ellen is rubbing suntan oil on his back, and he is allowing himself to relax part way. His eyes still nervously scan the beach in a constant surveillance. Mr. Keisel is coming out of the water, toweling off vigorously, exclaiming to himself. BRODY (to Keisel) How's the water? KEISEL Too cold. I'm going in again Labor Day. Hope we get this weather next weekend. ELLEN You're very tight, y'know? (digs in) Right there. BRODY Ow. (he sees something) He's gotta be more careful in the water... ANGLE ON THE GANG PLAYING IN THE WATER Michael has just been drenched. He splashes back. A big waterfight ensues, the boys splashing and chopping at the water, shouting battle cries and karate whoops. Alex is paddling around near them, but not involved with them. ALONG THE WATERLINE ON THE BEACH The Man with the Dog is whistling into the ocean, looking for his dog. DOG MAN Buster! Hey, Buster! Here boy! (whistles) He continues to ad lib calling his dog, but there's no answer, no dog in the water. THE WATERFRONT A huge splash explodes in the water near the gang, an eruption of foam and spray that stops everyone cold for a moment. They stop to see who was responsible. A KID (MATHEW) Hey, no fair splashing in the eyes! Before anyone can answer, another kid (P.J.) renews the battle, whooping a karate cry, and slashing at the water with his hand like a little kung-fu warrior, advancing through the waves. CLOSE ON MATHEW, SPLASHING BACK He hits the water, which sprays up suspiciously pink. He stares at it, surprised. CLOSE ON P.J. His hands are dripping deep pink, the red matting his hair, running into his eyes. He looks down. The boys are surrounded with a deep pink slick, their little bodies ringed by a spreading stain of blood. ANGLE ON SHORE, A TOURIST AND HIS WIFE He's pointing frantically out to sea. TOURIST Something in the water. Right there! Didn't anyone see it? WOMAN There's blood in the water. ANGLE ON BRODY He leaps to his feet, nearly knocking Ellen over, and starts for the water. ELLEN What is it...? Brody is pelting towards the water. He kicks sand over an annoyed Mrs. Kintner, who looks up, just in time to hear Brody's bellow. BRODY Michael! Sean! Out of the water. Everybody out of the water! Michael! Get out! His urgency communicates itself to the others. Ellen snatches Sean up from where he's been playing in the sand. Other parents are calling their kids, hysteria mounting. People rush into the water, dragging their children and families bodily out of the ocean. The first kids coming out of the surf are frantically trying to wash the sticky blood off their bodies. The sight of the red sends the beach into a full panic. CLOSE ON BRODY He rushes into the water, up to his ankles, and suddenly stops, unable to move into deeper water. He is urging Michael out, holding his hands out to his son, who is slogging through the surf towards his dad. He stands there immobilized by the water, nervously helping people out of it onto the beach. ANGLE ON MICHAEL As he emerges from the water, Alex Kintner's raft washes in behind him, ripped in half, the water pink, the foam spreading the stain onto the sand as the wave breaks. ANGLE ON MRS. KINTNER Her voice rising into panic and hysteria with each unanswered cry. MRS. KINTNER Alex! Alex? Alex...! EXT - THE COUNTY COURTHOUSE AND COUNTY OFFICES - DAY We are looking at the closed double white front doors of the building, through which we can hear a rolling boil of agitated conversation. After a beat, they open to reveal Mrs. Kintner, looking as though she has been visited by the wrath of God; in effect, she has. Her eyes are puffy and swollen from weeping, her clothing is put on and fastened awkwardly, her gait is not normal. As she walks toward us, Quint enters with his back to us, they pass without notice; Mrs. Kintner moving out of sight, Quint leading us through the doors into the town hall. INT. COUNTY COURTHOUSE - DAY A crowd of angry men and women throng the central hallway, their voices a babble of confusion. Many of them are gathered around a roughly lettered notice that has been posted on the town's official bulletin board. It reads. "A $3000 BOUNTY TO THE MAN OR MEN WHO CATCH AND KILL THE SHARK THAT KILLED ALEX M. KINTNER ON SUNDAY, JUNE 29, ON THE AMITY TOWN BEACH." Vaughn and Brody are on the outskirts of the crowd, which includes Meadows, some selectmen, and others. BRODY Look, I've got to talk to her. This isn't a contest we want the whole country entering. MEADOWS I agree. If she's going to advertise, I wouldn't recommend out-of-town papers. Amity people could take care of this. BRODY I'm responsible for public safety around here... VAUGHN Then go out tomorrow and make sure no one gets hurt. (addressing the crowd) Everybody, could I have your attention? Since this affects all of us, I suggest we move into council chambers, where there's more room... There is a flurry and a bustle as everyone rearranges themselves and makes their way into the Amity Selectmen's Council Chambers. INT. COUNCIL CHAMBER - DAY The crowd is thronging into the large room. Already in the room is a solitary figure, standing all the way in the rear, watching everyone as they enter. Against the back wall is a large blackboard used for town business during meetings. VAUGHN Well, here we all are; anyone have any special questions? DENHERDER Is that $3000 bounty on the shark in cash or check? (laughter from all) VAUGHN That's private business between you brave fishermen and Mrs. Kintner. (to Brody) -- Chief -- BRODY (stepping in) I'd like to tell you what we're doing so far. These are some of the steps I've taken as Chief of Police... MEADOWS (leading the direction of the discussion) What's going on with the beaches, Chief? All react. BRODY I'll get to that in a minute. First, I plan to start our seasonal summer help early, and to use shark spotters on beaches open to the sea. I'd like cooperation from local fishermen, and I've also contacted the Oceanographic Institute over on the mainland. VAUGHN (Interrupting -- sotto voice to Brody) No need to involve outsiders in our business, Martin. WOMAN Are you going to close the beaches? BRODY Larry and I have also decided to close the beaches for a short time. Pandemonium. A collective nerve has been touched. VAUGHN Only 24 hours! BRODY I didn't agree to that! MRS. TAFT That official business could take all summer! MR. KEISEL Maybe it's better to close. Two opinions have been expressed, and the crowd takes sides vociferously, ad libbing assent or dissent depending on the point of view held forth. THOSE IN FAVOR MR. WISEMAN We should make sure there is no danger. MR. HASSETT I didn't raise my kids to be some fish's lunch! THOSE OPPOSED MRS. TAFT The motel is all I own -- you pull the plug on this town and I go down the drain with it. MR. POSNER Nobody's seen a shark. MR. POLK We'll lose business, we lose taxes, we lose our shirts! ANGLE ON QUINT, THE MAN IN THE BACK OF THE ROOM He has just run his large, coarse fingernails over the blackboard. He is a large, rough man, a professional fisherman marked by daily physical toil, About 45 or 50, it's hard to tell where the scars leave off and the wrinkles begin. There is a bit of the showman in him, as well as a bit of killer- whale. QUINT (after taking a deep breath) You all know me. You know what I do for a living. I'll go out and get this bird for you. He's a bad one and it's not like goin' down the pond chasing blue-gills and tommy- cods. This is a fish that can swallow a man whole. A little shakin', a little tenderizing and down ya' go. (a look to Vaughn) You gotta get this fellow and get him quick. If you do, it'll bring a lot of tourist business just to see him and you've got your business back on a paying basis. (beat) A shark of that size is no pleasure and I value my neck at a hell of a lot more'n 3,000 bucks. (a deadly look) I'll find him for three. But I'll kill him for ten. Crowd reaction. QUINT (he rises up) The bastard is costing you more'n that every day. Do you wanna stay alive and annee up the ten or play it cheap and be on welfare next winter. (a final moment) I'm gonna kill this thing... just a matter of whether I do it now -- or at the end of summer. VAUGHN Thank you very much, Mr. Quint, the Selectmen will take your offer under advisement INT. BRODY'S STUDY AT HOME - SUNSET A riffly blur, color alternating with black and white. The dizziness stops on a book page showing a black and white rendering of eight species of shark. The banner at the top of the page reads: THE KNOWN AND REPUTED MANEATERS. The riffling begins again, stops on a grizzly photograph of scar tissue on six former shark victims. Riffling -- stop. Photograph of five Ichthyologists posing on wooden stools, framed by the enormous jaws of a prehistoric shark from the family Carcharodon charcharias. BRODY his reading glasses reflecting a stack of twelve library books, all on the subject of sharks and shark attacks. The door opens and Ellen enters, quietly, in respect for Brody's mood. ELLEN Can you stand something to eat? BRODY Love a cup of tea. With lemon. Ellen walks past Brody to the window and looks out the window which overlooks the south bay. It is the hour of dusk. ELLEN Mikey loves his birthday present. BRODY Where is he? ELLEN (with a slight laugh) He's sitting in it. Brody gets up, concerned, and joins her at the window. ELLEN Honey. He has it tied up to the jetty with a double-knot. BRODY'S POINT OF VIEW Michael is sitting in the boat, but two of his young school chums are in the water, swimming around it. Brody opens the window and calls down: BRODY Son! -- Out of the water now! MICHAEL My boat's neat, dad! BRODY (turning to Ellen) I want him out of the ocean. ELLEN It's three feet deep, Martin BRODY (angry now) Michael! Come inside! ELLEN It's his birthday present, and you closed the beach, Honey. I told him not to go in the water after what happened yesterday. I don't believe he'll ever do it again. BRODY I told him not to go out until he memorized the handbook and the safety safety regulations, until he was sure of himself... Ellen's eyes drift down to the open book, which is displaying a reproduction of the famous painting "The Gulf Stream," showing a black fisherman in a small dinghy similar to Michael's being assaulted by the jaws of three man-eating sharks, circling his boat. ELLEN You heard your father! Out right now! SUNSET ON THE BEACH Hendricks and another deputy are assisting Brody. Silhouettes of townspeople look on like mourners at a funeral. In the background some workmen are taking down the shutters from a quaint summer cottage. They pause to watch the declining moments of the day. Three Selectmen also stand watching. One of them seems to be whispering bounty news to three youngish men on a nearby dune. Sounds: Surf and hammering. CUT TO: EXT. OCEAN AND PIER - NIGHT Selectman Denherder and his buddy, Charlie, a professional angler, row towards a tumble-down jetty that leads fifty feet out into the black water. DENHERDER You wanna call it a night after here? CHARLIE It's only two-thirty. What, are you tired? DENHERDER Yeah, Charlie, I got my second wind three nibbles back. Denherder hefts a bloodstained laundry bag from the wheelbarrow, revealing about a hundred feet of coiled dog chain and a large patched inner tube. Charlie takes out a monster hook and together they push the wheelbarrow onto the rickety pier that is only about five feet across. DENHERDER (reaching into the bag) Leg of lamb this time? CHARLIE Screw lamb -- let's shoot the sirloin! DENHERDER (a hyena laugh) We're blowin' half the bounty on bait -- The splintered pier sways to and fro as the men reach the end and start to work. Charlie baits the hook with a massive chunk of sirloin while Denherder secures the loose end of chain to a skinny piling. Charlie then fastens the inner tube to the chain five feet from the end of the hook. DENHERDER One more after this, then I'm going home. CHARLIE Set? Denherder tugs the chain against the piling to prove that it is. Charlie heaves the bait. Splash! The inner tube follows and both men eagerly watch as it floats seaward, the chain playing out from the wheelbarrow. CHARLIE Tide's taking it right out. Charlie lights his pipe and sits back against a piling. He turns on his transistor radio and loops one end around a fractured board. Denherder paces, bored to death. DENHERDER You do this all the time, right, Charlie? CHARLIE Twenty years. DENHERDER I can't believe that people pay money to go fishing. This is really dumb. This isn't even relaxing... it's just boring. CLOSE - CHAIN IN WHEELBARROW Suddenly zipping out, faster and faster, as both men straighten. Denherder is goggle-eyed. DENHERDER Hey! What's this? The chain is coming out so fast that it begins to drag the wheelbarrow to the end of the jetty. A section of chain tangles around the handle and flips the entire machine into the air. Both men watch dumbfounded as the inner tube, racing out to sea in a wake of white water, suddenly dips under. CHARLIE Look at him take it! DENHERDER Do I set the goddam hook? CHARLIE Let him do it! Go-go-go-go-go! It is then that the chain whips taut against the narrow pilings. CLOSE - PILING A lineup of five decrepit 2 x 4 inch pilings SNAP with a resounding CRACK. ANGLE - JETTY The end of the jetty is yanked loose. Denherder is flipped like a chip over the side and into the cold night water, where he manages to snag hold of a splintered timber. DENHERDER'S POINT OF VIEW The severed section of jetty, a joined platform of footboards, is being dragged seaward with Charlie sitting dazed on top of it, his lit pipe still going. DENHERDER CHARLIE! JUMP! Charlie rolls into the water, sputters, turns to watch the flotilla of wood draw away. CLOSE - CHARLIE looking seaward. CHARLIE'S POINT OF VIEW The end of the jetty makes a 180-degree turn and heads back in his direction. CHARLIE Holy Jesus Christ! Denherder steps up on the broken-off piling just to be out of the water. DENHERDER Get the hell out! Charlie! Swim! Charlie, inhaling terror, trying to slog to shore. The jetty is getting closer. Suddenly, an enormous black fin breaks water like a periscope, making course corrections as it comes for Charlie. Denherder jumps from piling to piling, almost losing his balance on his way to help Charlie. Charlie has reached the last pylon toward open sea, and his hands clamber for a hold. But -- INSERT - CHARLIE'S HANDS The algae is too slippery, and his fingers keep sliding back. That's when the fin behind him seems to reach up to the sky and Charlie manages, with Denherder's desperate help, to make it safely to shore. The remains of the pier float belly- up in the inlet. CLOSE ON THE HARBORMASTER OF AMITY - DAY He is sitting on a little canvas folding chair, eating a bowl of Cheerios with milk and sugar, watching a panorama of ineptitude and greed unfold before his old seaman's eyes. The Amity Pier area is a minor madhouse: out-of-state cars elbow local vehicles for parking space at the foot of the dock, and a parade of bounty-hunting townspeople, islanders, off-islanders, tourist, and others shout and push their way onto the crowded pier, each carrying some bizarre or appropriate tool for the real or imagined capture of an unarmed shark of indeterminate size. Rods and reels, drop lines, crossbows, slingshots, harpoons, shotguns, rifles, nets and tridents; every fishing supply store and sporting goods house within a hundred miles has been cannibalized to equip this weird array. ANGLE ON BRODY AND HENDRICKS ARRIVING ON THE SCENE Not having room to bring their police vehicle anywhere near this mess, they are proceeding on foot into the confusion. HENDRICKS ...So then Denherder and Charlie sat there trying to catch their breath, and figuring out how to explain to Charlie's wife what happened to her freezer full of meat. BRODY That wasn't funny. Some of the locals greet Hendricks with occasional nods of recognition, or an ad libbed "Hi, Lenny," or "Hey, Lenny." HENDRICKS Mrs. Kintner must've put her ad in Field and Stream. BRODY Looks more like the readers of the National Enquirer. ANGLE ON BOAT RENTAL - PIER An argument is in progress between and Out-of-Towner and the Boat Rental Man. OUT-OF-TOWNER You're charging me double the usual rent! I didn't come up here all the way from New Rochelle to be gouged by some Yankee Cracker! BOAT RENTAL MAN Prices go up June First every year. You want a nice cheap, leaky boat, you go down to the Hamptons. (he sees Brody) Right, Chief? ANGLE LOOKING OUT TO SEA Making its way through the channel towards the dock is a sleek, expensive runabout with the name "Fascinatin' Rhythm" on the stern. It's professionally handled, and rumbles in as it coasts in towards the dock area. Some other boats clear the way for it, zig-zagging in the harbor, causing an annoying chop. CLOSE ON BOAT Matt Hooper, a bearded, bespectacled young man with an intent look, is maneuvering the vessel peering through his windscreen at the ragtag collection of seafaring loonies all around him. BACK TO DOCKSIDE Hendricks is mediating the argument between the two men, and we can hear a plaintive "But Lenny," from the local as Brody sees something that makes him move towards the other side of the dock. We see him cross to a little boat built for two or three that is settling low in the water as a seventh man climbs in with his gear. BRODY Hey! You know how many men that's supposed to hold? MAN IN BOAT (WALTER) Whatever's safe, right? BRODY What you got ain't safe. You take some guys off or you don't go out. BEN GARDNER AND HIS BOAT, FLICKA Matt Hooper is gliding into the dockside, and Ben throws him a line to help make fast as he moors. It's a small island of courtesy in an otherwise discourteous mob. Hooper nods politely as he ties his boat up and steps onto the dock. HOOPER Hello. GARDNER Hello, back. He's standing near where Brody is finishing after his encounter with the chummers. Brody approaches Ben Gardner. BRODY You going out too, Ben? GARDNER Might give it a try. That three thousand bounty beats working for a living. (yells to his Mate) We ready? The Mate nods "Yes" and starts to prepare to get under way. Ben and his Mate move away from the dock, headed towards the channel and the open sea leaving Felix and Pratt to scamper around the dock looking for another ride. ANOTHER DOCK AREA, CLOSE BY A particularly awkward moment between a small sailboat and a couple of powerboats. The sailboat is trying to hoist sail to make it away from the pier under sail, a real yachtsman's conceit, since Hornblower himself probably couldn't navigate through this mess. Brody, a landlubber for sure, is trying to direct traffic to untangle this new mess. BRODY Just back up! No, the other way! Cut it to your left! Your other left! The big boat, your front end is out way too far. Little boat, stay still! Amidst all this, we can hear the angry shouts of the entangled crews. SKIPPER 1 (THE SAILBOAT) Dammit, a vessel under sail has the right of way! SKIPPER 2 (MOTORBOAT) You schmuck, you ain't under sail, you're goddam drifting! HOOPER (stepping in to help) Ahoy, sail! You got an oar? Well, scull it out! SAILBOAT SKIPPER Tell that stinkpotter to belay! MOTORBOAT SKIPPER Tell that ragsetter I'm going to poke him in the snoot! HOOPER Just cast off in turn and make for the channel, OK? BRODY Thanks. Brody starts back towards the shore, Hooper is by his side. HOOPER Excuse me, I wonder if you could tell me... Before he can finish, Brody spots something on shore that moves him to shout to his deputy. HOOPER (noticing something) Is that dynamite? Brody looks, and stops by a boat that's about to cast off. He holds out his hand. BRODY If that's dynamite, give it here, or don't leave port. MAN Aw, c'mon, it's just fireworks. Sharks like fireworks, it attracts them. BRODY Hand it over. The man passes Brody a cigar box filled with dynamite sticks. Brody tucks the dynamite under his arm, and continues down the pier. Hooper is still with him. All around them are two distinctly different breeds; the quiet pros, like Ben Gardner, in well-worn, comfortable clothes, with efficient, sensible gear, and the amateur crazies, with all manner of weapons and impractical, silly tourist clothing. INT. DOCK SHED - DAY Brody is on the phone, talking to his office, trying to get Hendricks' attention. He throws a handful of washers at the window. HOOPER There's a fantail launch out there that won't make it beyond the breakwater. BRODY You're tellin' me. I swear, this town has gone crazy. HOOPER Officer, I wonder if you could tell me where I could find Chief Brody? BRODY Who are you? HOOPER Hooper, Matt Hooper. From the Oceanographic Institute. (holds out his hand) EXTERIOR - OCEAN - DAY Ben Gardner's boat is in the lead with Gardner's shouting derisive comments at the crowd headed out from land. The armada is spread out and moving in a ragged circle, fifteen boats in all. One man heaves cherry bombs into the water. A smaller boat going in the opposite direction offers us Barwood, forking spaghetti leftovers into the ocean while his friend pours out a bottle of ketchup. A speedboat chugs by, one of the occupants reading instructions aloud from a book entitled "Sharks - East Coast, Vol. I." boatload of impoverished scallop fishermen throw a net overboard, full of gaps and split ends. The professionals look professional, but the landlubbers out for the $3000 make it impossible for everybody. Collisions are barely averted. THE RUBE GOLDBERG ERROR The Out-of-Towner in a small boat is bent over in a life and death struggle, his rod in a tight arc. His buddy leaps across to lend a hand. Twenty yards away in another boat the same struggle ensues. This time it's the overloaded boat with the poor scallop fishermen. Shouts of I'M ON! DIG IN! STRIKE! Then a tangle of tackle springs from the water. They have hooked each other. Joy turns to swearing. Arnold Felix stands up to applaud the mishap, while his buddy Pratt takes careful aim with his Remington 1100 12-gauge and blasts at the tackle as if it were a clay pigeon. The tangle explodes -- Both the Out-of-Towners and the Scallop Fisherman falls over backward -- ANGLE - HARRY'S BOAT Three men are aboard, one holding a rod which holds a fast arc. A few yards off stern we see a triangular dorsal fin crossing back and forth, struggling, jerking, the mighty tail threshing. One man is screaming success, the other two slapping the angler on the back. CLOSE - PRATT AND FELIX They spot it and sour. PRATT Well, get over there! He ain't caught it yet! The owner of Pratt's boat throws it forward and Pratt removes a .45 automatic from the holster of his belt. He tests it, firing once in the air. As they near the scene of the struggle, eleven other boats begin converging, until -- HARRY'S BOAT Everyone wants to get into the act. They are attacking the threshing beast with all they've got. Pratt uses his automatic, another blasts point blank with a shotgun. There are occasional water ricochets and the bounty hunters duck from time to time as bullets skip by. Finally, the shark stops threshing. FELIX AND PRATT Their boat has moved close to the shark, closer than Harry's. PRATT (exultant) Hand me that pole! Quick! One of his party in the over-filled boat grabs a gaff and leans out to grab the moribund shark. But Harry won't give up the line, still reeling in. HARRY Beat it! I hooked him! PRATT How's the family, Harry? (to the man with gaff) Go on and do it! MAN WITH GAFF We split down the middle? Pratt nods reluctantly. The man swings, lodges the gaff and hauls the shark up onto the gunwale. A paroxysm of cheers from the surrounding boats. Smoke flares are fired into the air. HARRY (a tug-of-war) Let go my shark! It is a ten-foot tiger, and what a mess -- splattered with bullet punctures, gashes, bleeding from several orifices. But it is not dead -- it kicks back to life and threatens to capsize the boat. Pratt panics and fires six times with his .45. The bullets pierce the shark's head, pass through, and split the fiberglass hull through which a flood of water rises. Everybody stands up as the boat slips beneath them. INT. MORGUE - DAY The Amity Morgue is also the Amity Funeral Home, a Victorian house that normally serves as the community's mortuary. The Coroner, a professional small-town GP, is standing by as Hooper is speaking into a sophisticated cassette recorder with a headpiece that leaves his hands free for measurement with a calibrator or calipers. BRODY Let's show Mr. Hooper our accident. With a shrug, the Coroner slides open the drawer. CLOSE ON HOOPER He is looking down as the drawer slides past him, still matter- of-fact, turning on his recorder. HOOPER Victim One, identified as Christine Watkins, female Caucasian... The sheet has just been lifted, and Hooper stares down at the lump on the slab. He stops, turns off his recorder as emotions wage war with his senses. Rationality wins, and he turns on the recorder again. HOOPER ...height and weight may only be estimated from partial remains. Torso severed in mid-thorax, eviscerated with no major organs remaining. May I have a drink of water? Right arm severed above the elbow with massive tissue loss from upper musculature. Portions of denuded bone remaining. (tense, to Brody) -- did you notify the coast guard? BRODY No, it was local jurisdiction. HOOPER Left arm, head, shoulders, sternum and portions of ribcage intact. (to Brody) Please don't smoke. With minor post- mortem lacerations and abrasions. Bite marks indicate typical non-frenzy feeding pattern of large squali, possibly carchaninus lonimanus, or isurus glaucas. Gross tissue loss and post-mortem erosion of bite surfaces prevent detailed analysis; however, teeth and jaws of the attacking squali must be considered above average for these waters. (to Brody again) -- Did you go out in a boat and look around? BRODY No, we just checked the beach... HOOPER (turns off the recorder) It wasn't an 'accident,' it wasn't a boat propeller, or a coral reef, or Jack the Ripper. It was a shark. It was a shark. EXT. DOCK AREA - DAY We open close on ugly, open shark's jaws, still oozing blood and gore. As the shark is hoisted up into the air on a gin- pole hoist dockside, Meadows is seen passing with his secretary and a photographer from the Amity Gazette. A crowd of returning fishermen from the Armada and townspeople are gathering around the fish as it is hoisted tail-up into the classic sports fisherman's trophy shot. MEADOWS Ginny, get this out on the state wire to AP and UPI in Boston and New York. Have one of them pick it up for the national and call Dave Axelrod in New York and tell him this is from me and he owes me one... let's get a picture. As he and the photographer turn to mob, we see Hooper and Brody arriving from the morgue. Hooper immediately heads towards the shark, while Brody pauses and we see a look of relief and delight cross his features. HOOPER Well, if one man can catch a fish in 50 days, then I guess 50 of these bozos can catch a fish in one day -- beginner's luck. BRODY (crossing to men around shark) You did it! Did Ben Gardner catch this? Men ad lib "No, I caught it..." "I hooked him," etc. MEADOWS Okay, everybody, I want to get a picture for the paper -- could everyone clear out of the way? He continues to call directions and move people out of the way to set up his shot. Hooper is measuring the shark. MEADOWS Could you get out of the shot, young man? HOOPER Who, me? Okay... (he drifts off) The men (Felix, Pratt, et al) get Brody to join them in the shot. The whole town and the Armada fishermen all line up in a classic "high school" graduating class shot with the victorious fishermen kneeling in front, and the rest of the Armada and Townspeople arranged behind them. Hendricks hold up the "Beach Closed" sign in ironic victory. ANGLE SHOWING VAUGHN APPROACHING THE DOCK Brody spots the Mayor coming towards the dock, and detaches himself from the group to join him. BRODY Larry, if you'd see these clowns leave, you'd never believe they'd come back with anything. But they got him! VAUGHN That's good. That's real good. Ben Meadows getting pictures for the paper. BRODY Sure he is. HOOPER AND THE FISHERMEN The men who landed the monster are in a tight cluster, debating something with Hooper, who is dwarfed by the big beer bellies and ham-fisted hands all around him. It's probable we don't even see him. The Men ad lib "What kind of shark is this?" "It's a shark like in the movies they got sharks." "It's a man-eater, for sure." "I bet it's a record-breaker," etc. HOOPER (O.S.) It's a tiger shark. Very rare in these waters, and definitely a maneater. Hooper enters the circle, and picks up where he left off, measuring the shark's teeth. Others watch him. Charlie and Denherder walk over to the shark. Charlie punches it. BRODY AND VAUGHN They are walking down to the shark together. VAUGHN Who's that young man? BRODY Matt Hooper, the specialist they send down from the Oceanographic Institute. VAUGHN (speaking to everyone) I think we all owe a debt of gratitude to these men for catching this monster. Brody and Vaughn are by now near the circle of fishermen, who are surrounding Hooper, raising their voices at him. PRATT Whadya mean, 'Bite Radius?' What's that? GAFFER Teeth are teeth, right? HOOPER I didn't say this wasn't the shark, I just said I wasn't sure this was the one... BRODY What d'ya mean? HOOPER There are hundreds of different kinds of sharks; makos, blues, hammerheads, white-tips... any one of them could've attacked. Look -- shark digestion is slow. We could open this one up, and find whatever he's been eating is still inside. VAUGHN That's disgusting! This is the largest, meanest, most vicious shark ever landed off Amity Island, and a known maneater! HOOPER Let's just cut him open and see what's inside... BRODY Why not, Larry? We could get a positive confirmation that way. VAUGHN Be reasonable, boys -- this isn't the time or the place to do some kind of half-assed autopsy on a fish. Ben... (to Meadows) do you have all the pictures you need? MEADOWS Plenty. HOOPER Wait a minute... Felix, Pratt and the others ad lib disagreement. "You're not gonna cut up my trophy," etc. VAUGHN (seeing something offstage, with low intensity) I am not going to stand here and watch this fish cut open and see some kid fall out on the dock. Besides... (he indicates off) We see Mrs. Kintner approaching, dressed in black. VAUGHN (to Brody) Chief, I'll take responsibility for this. Boys, cut this ugly sonofabitch down before he stinks up the whole island. Harve, tomorrow you and Carl take him out and dump him right in the drink. MRS. KINTNER JOINS THE GROUP She seeks out Brody, and stops in front of him. MRS. KINTNER Chief Brody? He nods, she slaps him full across the face. There is an embarrassed silence. Some people leave, following a trend that began with the first mention of cutting open the shark. MRS. KINTNER My Alex was a beautiful little boy and you killed him. Did you know that? You knew there was a shark out there. You knew a girl got killed here last week. I just found that out. But you knew. You knew it was dangerous, but you let people go swimming anyway. You knew all those things, and still my boy is dead now and there's nothing you can do about that. My boy is dead. I wanted you to know that. She stops, unable to continue. Her father takes her arm and leads her away. Pratt, Harry and the others trail off after her. During the rest of the scene, the camera tightens in on Brody to the exclusion of the others. VAUGHN I'm sorry, Martin. She's in a sick, terrible state. HOOPER Look, maybe this is the wrong time to pursue this, but I'm not sure... Before Hooper can finish, Brody's shoulders slump and he goes slack. BRODY (almost to himself) She's right. VAUGHN Let's all get out of here, this place stinks. BRODY I'm going home. He turns and leaves abruptly, surrendering the dock to Vaughn and Hooper, who eye each other with mutual dis-admiration. INT. BRODY HOUSE - NIGHT - DINING ROOM Brody and Ellen, Sean and Michael, have all finished dinner. Brody's plate is untouched, a virgin meatloaf. His glass, on the other hand, is well used, with the remnants of a stiff scotch and ice. He is staring across the table at the youngest, Sean, who makes a face at him. He makes a face back. They play this game together for a few minutes. BRODY C'mere and give Daddy a kiss. SEAN Why? BRODY Because he needs it. Sean gives Daddy the kiss. Brody shoos him and Michael off to bed. Ellen, who is feeling progressively more left out with each passing moment, gets up abruptly and clears a few dishes. Brody is not letting her into his world for the moment, and it shows. There's a knock at the door. HOOPER (O.S.) Martin Brody residence? Ellen opens the door for him. HOOPER Hi. I'm Matt Hooper. If your husband is here, I'd like to talk to him. ELLEN So would I. Come on in. Hooper enters. He's carrying a couple of bottles of wine which he picked up in town. He sits down near Brody. ELLEN Would you like something? Some coffee? HOOPER (seeing Brody's plate) Is anyone having this...? He starts in on it, as soon as someone has indicated "go ahead." HOOPER Dynamite! (to Brody) How was your day...? BRODY Swell. They exchange a long look that evolves into a slightly desperate, but shared laughter. HOOPER (producing wine) Here... one red, one white. They laugh some more. Ellen is again left out of it. HOOPER (boning his fish) Ummm. Really good. Brody begins stripping the foil off the wine, screwing in a corkscrew, etc. ELLEN My husband tells me you're in sharks. HOOPER I wouldn't put it that way. But I love sharks. ELLEN You love sharks? HOOPER I do. (he tells a story about his boyhood and a shark) But you've still got a problem here, there's a shark just off the island somewhere. BRODY How come you have to tell them that? ELLEN Excuse me, but what are you talking about? Didn't they catch the shark this afternoon? It was on the Cape station news. HOOPER They caught a shark, not the shark. Big difference. I could've proved it this afternoon, by cutting that one open and examining his stomach contents. Also, his bite was too small. Brody has the cork out of the wine. Pop. HOOPER I was lucky to find that in town -- it's an estate bottled vintage year... Brody takes the fine wine, and pours it into his drink glass filling the tumbler to the top with ice cubes, diluted scotch, and the wine. HOOPER (as Brody pours) We ought to let it breathe... Whatever. BRODY Let's all have a drink. He extends the bottle to Hooper, who politely accepts a token sip. He takes some for himself, and offers some to Ellen. BRODY You too, sweetheart... ELLEN Thank you. HOOPER (toasting) Here's to your husband, the only other rational man on the island. Day after tomorrow, I'll be gone, and he'll be the only one. ELLEN You're leaving? HOOPER Going out on the 'Aurora.' ELLEN Is that a boat? HOOPER Is it! The best-funded research expedition to ever study the shark... around the world in 18 months. ELLEN Like those Cousteau specials on television? I think it's for the kids, but I love them. HOOPER Better than Cousteau, or Compagno with computers, telemetry, Defense Department funding... ELLEN I saw a show with sea otters, and a big turtle... Mikey loved it. Made me promise to get him one. Will you live on the boat? HOOPER Yep. ELLEN Martin hates boats. Hates the water. On the ferry to the mainland, he sits in the car the whole way over. He's got this childhood thing, there's a clinical word for it. BRODY Drowning. Lemme ask you something. Is it true most attacks take place in three feet of water, around 10 feet from the beach? HOOPER Yeah. Like the kid on your beach. I wish I could've examined that shark they caught... BRODY Something else. Do most attacks go unreported? HOOPER About half of them. A lot of 'missing swimmers' are really shark victims. BRODY There's a kind of a lone shark, called, uh... HOOPER Rogue? BRODY Yeah. Rogue. Picks out an area where there's food and hangs out there as long as the food supply lasts? HOOPER It's called Territoriality. It's a theory. BRODY And before 1900, when people first starting swimming for recreation, before public bathing and resorts, there were very few shark attacks, cause sharks didn't know what they were missing? HOOPER You could say that. Brody digests all this; confirmation of facts he has gleaned in his newly acquired knowledge of the shark species. There is a long pause. BRODY Why don't we have one more drink, you and I, and then we go down and cut open that old shark and see for sure what's inside him, or not. ELLEN Can you do that? BRODY I am Chief of Police. I can do anything I want. (to Hooper) You want to come? HOOPER I'm flattered you should ask. He gets up and they both start out. Ellen watches them go. INT. BOAT SHED - NIGHT Dark, spooky shed, with shadows of boats and strange silhouettes of boat parts and scaffolding. At one end, the large, symmetrical bulk of the shark's carcass lies on a tarp. A single dark figure is bending over the dead shark. The large double doors at one end of the shed squeak open, and the Shadowy Figure moves abruptly away from the shark. The new entrants move into the shed. It is Hooper and Brody and they are continuing the conversation begun in the car on the way over. As the Shadowy Figure moves silently into a vantage point against one wall, he passes through the light from a window; it is Quint, and we only see him long enough to recognize him as he backs against the wall. HOOPER ...And it was Dartmouth Winter weekend, and she was Homecoming Queen, and I was her date; then she got into the fact that her family had more money than my family, and she was right -- her great-grandfather was in mining, and my ancestors were Yankee shipbuilders. So we broke up and I went home with some beatnik from Sarah Lawrence. BRODY What stinks so bad? HOOPER Our friend, the shark. They bend over the shape like 18th century graverobbers. HOOPER We always had a summer place on the water -- Newport, the Vineyard, so I figured I'd major in something I knew about. Oceanography, marine biology. It was that, or design racing yachts like my older brother. Hmmm. He we go. Up the old alimentary canal. Hold the light. We hear a slurp and a squish as Hooper produces a big knife and dips into the shark with a major incision. HOOPER We open the abdominal cavity and check the digestive tract. Simple. (he attends to his work) From his vantage point, Quint watches, unseen by the two men. Brody is holding the light, fighting the gag reflex, fascinated by the bizarre ritual. BRODY What's that? HOOPER Half a flounder. Hmmm... a burlap bag... a paint can... aha! BRODY What? What?! HOOPER Just as I thought. He drifted up here with the Gulf Stream, from southern waters. BRODY How can you tell? HOOPER (showing it) Florida license plate. BRODY He ate a car? HOOPER (laughs) No, but Tiger sharks are the garbage cans of the ocean. They eat anything. But this one didn't eat any people. There's nothing here... He kicks the remains around below camera. HOOPER ...Nothing. BRODY What do we do? HOOPER If you're looking for a shark, you don't look on land. You go out and chum for him. BRODY Chum? HOOPER Only one sure way to find him -- offer him a little something to eat. Chum -- blood, waste meat, fish, anything. They can sense it miles away. If he's out there, we might be able to get a closer look at him. (checks his watch) It's a good time, too. They're night feeders... EXT. ABOARD HOOPER'S BOAT - NIGHT (TANK) We see Brody, looking sick and nervous, holding on anxiously as the "Fascinatin' Rhythm" moves slowly ahead trolling at night. His glasses are already flecked with the white salt of dried seawater. He is wearing a life-preserver. Hooper is at the wheel, a chart spread in front of him, his eyes scanning the sea restlessly, checking the dials and gauges in front of him as well as the electronic depth-finding and "fish-finder" gear mounted in the cockpit. A green glow shines from the instruments on his face. Two closed-circuit TV cameras mounted below the hull flash their pictures onto monitors in the dash. In the aisle between the seats is a large container filled with unpleasant-looking bait; Hooper is long-lining for signs of shark, and chumming. HOOPER (indicating distant flashing beacon) That's the Cape Light -- we're on the stretch where he's feeding, if he's still here. Brody, bored, tired, and slightly queasy, is trying to concentrate on anything but the motion of the boat. He stares at the sophisticated electronics displays. BRODY What is all this stuff? HOOPER (ticking them off) Depth-finder, fathometer, sonar, closed-circuit TV -- fore and aft -- RDF, single side band... (points to themselves) And two loose nuts behind the wheel. BRODY Can you tell from that if a big man- eater is around? HOOPER Sometimes. (indicates display) Look here -- something big, probably a school of mackerel clumped together. And staying right with us. INSERT - ELECTRONICS SCREEN It's blipping and peeping. CLOSE ON THE TWO MEN BRODY Where'd you get all this? HOOPER I Bought it. Both sets of grandparents set up trust funds for me; stocks went up, so I don't have to touch my principal. BRODY You're at the Institute full time? Or do you have a job? HOOPER (a nerve has been touched) It is a job. I'm not fooling around like some amateur. It's my life! BRODY We gotta get back soon... WIDE ON THE "FASCINATIN' RHYTHM" AS IT SWINGS AROUND The two men looking very small and vulnerable in the open sea, the low-hanging mist obscuring their visibility in the night. CLOSE ON BRODY He hears something, his eyes widen. It is the "bump-thump" of something scraping the hull. BRODY Hey! Hooper looks up and cuts the wheel hard, as the same time dropping the engines into neutral, and then reverse. The sudden change throws Brody to his knees. BRODY What the hell? ANGLE FROM HOOPER'S BOAT: GARDNER'S BOAT "FLICKA" AWASH AND FLOATING DEAD IN THE SEA It's what they've just run into -- flooded to the gunwales, loose debris floating around, a tangle of lines and gear looking like floating garbage in the cockpit. Hooper's light sweeps across it. BRODY That's Ben Gardner's boat! It's the Flicka! Ben? Ben! Hooper cuts his engines and drifts in; he scampers out to the bow of his boat and makes a line fast to the Flicka. INSIDE THE COCKPIT OF HOOPER'S BOAT The electronic display is showing increased activity, but only Brody, who is clinging to a support for dear life, can see the blips and hear the chatter. Hooper is leaning out to look at the Flicka. THE TWO BOATS Hooper is examining the Flicka, tying a towline to it. INSERT HIS POINT OF VIEW The light picks its way across the ruined boat. The rail where a cleat once was is broadly scarred down to the raw timber, and the heady cleat has been torn bodily out of the hull, ripped out screws and all. HOOPER'S BOAT Something he has seen moves Hooper. BRODY What happened? HOOPER I want to check something. Hold my feet. He sticks his head over the side, into the black water. BRODY Don't they have lifejackets or something? An extra boat? HOOPER (surfacing) They must've hit something. INSERT, ELECTRONICS DISPLAY Blip, chatter, blip, chatter. BRODY AND HOOPER Hooper moves to get a better look, the boat rocks in the swell and from his movement, Brody clutches the rail in a death-grip. Hooper goes below decks, getting into his wet suit, buckling on a weighted belt, holding a mask and hot flashlight. HOOPER He didn't have a dinghy aboard. I'm going down to take a look at his hull. BRODY Why don't we just tow it in? HOOPER (hyperventilating) We will. There's something I've got to find out. BRODY Be careful, for chrissake. Hooper takes a last few breaths, orients himself, takes a long, hard look at the quiet, open ocean, and falls into the sea. CLOSE ON BRODY He is studying the surface, trying to follow Hooper's movements. Brody is forcing himself to stay at the edge of the boat by sheer willpower and grim determination. Brody is fascinated by the sea like a bird facing a cobra. He is very much alone. He grasps a flashlight or boathook as a fragile defense against the unknown. PAST BRODY'S BACK TO THE ELECTRONICS Beep, chatter, blip. UNDERWATER SEQUENCE - HOOPER Hooper descends in a froth of bubbles. Warily he turns a full circle with his hotlight. At first we see nothing out of place about the Flicka except that it is lying so low in the water. But as Hooper travels the bottom looking for damage, he comes across a jagged hole two-thirds of the way forward. The hole is about the size of a basketball, and the wood around it has been bashed and splintered. Hooper explores the hole with his hands, then takes the knife from its sheath and begins to dig at something. Whatever it is comes free in his hand. As he studies his find, his light wanders upward, pointing directly into the dark hole. Hooper looks up... CLOSE - HOLE Ben Gardner's dead face stares out through the hole in the Flicka, eyes and mouth gaping in frozen horror, his skin pinched like a prune. CLOSE - HOOPER bumps his head in trying to get away, seems to yell through escaping bubbles. We hear the gasping shout as a bubbling roar in the ears. His mask fills with water as he flails for the surface. Miscalculating, he bumps into the hull of his own boat, shocked, dismayed, his system jangling with adrenaline shock, his hands open, and the object he pried loose from the hull drifts down and out, falling into the eternity of the ocean bottom. He finally bursts through the surface. END OF UNDERWATER SEQUENCE THE BOAT, HOOPER EMERGING FROM THE WATER He is gasping for breath, his whole body vibrating with urgency. The salt water in his lungs combines with the adrenaline in his blood to deprive him of speech. BRODY You all right? HOOPER A White! A Great White, I found a tooth buried in the hull. He must've attacked... I knew it... Gardner's dead in there. I didn't see the mate... BRODY No shark did that to a boat! Hooper, despite his shock and surprise, is strangely elated, almost giddy with the wonder of his discovery. HOOPER Jesus Christ! A Great White! Who'd believe it! We're not talking about a shark, we're talking about a Shark! Brody sinks weakly into a chair. Brody huddles in the stern, Hooper kicks the engine in with a roar, and still a-shiver with excitement, turns the boat and its grim tow back to port. EXT. ISLAND HIGHWAY - THE BILLBOARD - DAY Next to the "Amity Welcomes You" billboard is a group of selectmen, Vaughn, Meadows, Hendricks, and another deputy standing by with paint and brushes. Brody's wagon is there, along with a few other cars. Busy late afternoon traffic is starting to pile up as early weekenders and curiosity seekers slow down to see what's happening. Behind the billboard, Brody and Hooper have gotten Vaughn to one side. They are making a closely reasoned presentation to him. BRODY There is a kind of shark called a Great White Shark that every expert in the world agrees is a maneater. HOOPER You're situation here suggests that a Great White has staked out a claim in the waters around Amity Island, and that he will continue to feed here as long as there is food in the water. BRODY There's no limits to where he can strike, and we've had three attacks and two deaths in the past few days. It happened like this before, in 1916, when a Great White killed five swimmers at Jones Beach, in Long Island. HOOPER A shark's attack is stimulated by the kind of splashing and activity that occurs whenever humans go swimming -- you can't avoid it! BRODY A 4th of July beach is like ringing a dinner bell, for Chrissake! HOOPER I just pulled a shark tooth the size of a shot glass out of the hull of a wrecked boat out there. BRODY We towed Ben Gardner's boat in, Larry; he was dead and his boat was all chewed up. VAUGHN Is that tooth here? Did anyone see it? HOOPER I don't have it. BRODY He lost it on the way up. VAUGHN What kind of a shark did you say it was? HOOPER Carcaradon carcharias. A Great White. VAUGHN Well, I'm not going to commit economic suicide on that flimsy evidence. We depend on the summer people for our lives, and if our beaches are closed, then we're all finished. BRODY We have got to close the beaches. We have got to get someone to kill the shark, we need non-corrosive mesh netting, we need scientific support... It's gonna cost money just to keep the nuts out and save what we have. VAUGHN I don't thing either of you is familiar with our problems... HOOPER I'm familiar with the fact that you are going to ignore this thing until it swims up and bites you on the ass! There are only two ways to solve this thing: you can kill it, or you can cut off its food supply... BRODY That means closing the beaches. VAUGHN Come here, I want to show you something. He leads Brody around to the front of the billboard, on which we see that some pranksters have painted a huge shark fin in the water behind the swimmer, so she looks now like a frantic bather fleeing a pursuing monster. VAUGHN Sick vandalism! Brody, that's a deliberate mutilation of a public service message! I want those little paint-happy bastards caught and hung up by their baby Buster Browns! HOOPER (who has followed them around) That's it! I'm standing here arguing with a guy who can't wait to be a hot lunch. Goodbye. BRODY Wait a minute! I need you. HOOPER Out there is a Perfect Engine, an Eating Machine that is a miracle of evolution -- it swims and eats and that's all. Look at that! Those proportions are correct. (indicates fin) I know sharks. VAUGHN You'd love to prove that. Getting your name in the National Geographic. BRODY Larry, we can re-open the beaches in August. VAUGHN August! Tomorrow is the 4th of July, and we are going to open for business. It's going to be our best summer in years. If you're so concerned about the beaches, you two, you do whatever you have to to keep them safe, but with you or without you, the beaches stay open this weekend. INT. FERRY BOAT - DAY Two cavernous iron doors. Then a crack of vertical light as six burly crewmen muscle them apart. The Amity ferry landing is approaching, people in colorful outfits waiting dockside for the first filled-to-capacity shuttle of the summer season and -- Bach's Little Fugue is the musical accompaniment to this wholly visual montage of disembarkation. The next two minutes should be treated like a "short film" taking into account all of the colors, episodes, faces and behavior of a variety of Americans who colonize Eastern resort communities for the ninety-day season. Intercut with this montage is Brody's home, where Ellen, Hooper and Brody are in sweaty, gritty all-out effort to enlist some support. Elements in this montage include: A. A train of cars trundling down the ramp, bumper to bumper. B. Young Beautiful People from Princeton, Yale, NYU, wearing knapsacks, toting luggage, babies riding in papoose rigs, energized children, senior citizens holding hands on the pedestrian ramp, a few wheelchairs. C. Hooper, bent over the phone: "I know it's a long weekend, could you get me his home phone number? D. Sidewalk vendors hawking "Shark Killed" souvenirs, big photo "Personality Posters" of the dead tiger shark hung on the dock. E. Brody: "You're acting senior officer? Where's Chief Petty Officer Feldman? Where's the Coast Guard Executive Officer?" F. Souvenir stands selling Genuine Sharks Teeth from The Amity Killer Shark, Captured This Week. G. Amity Cab Company, small blue Toyotas lined up with their college student drivers like a bomber wing. H. Hooper: "Well then, operator, could you try him in the dining room?" I. Brody: "All I get is a recording. Is there some other number I could try...?" J. Station wagons with pale winter faces pressed anxiously to the window. Cadillacs with Rear Admirals at the helm, their wives with blue hair remembering the way from years before. K. Hooper: "When did he check out? Did he leave another phone number?" L. Brody: "How can I reach him in Chambers if he's not in Chambers?" M. Little Karate Hands breaking picket fences. N. Some local delinquents about 10 or 12 years old, towing behind their bicycles a little dead sand shark with signs: "Amity Monster Shark." "Killed Here." 5 Cents a Hit." Etc. Then six blonde and tanned Coney Island meatballs descend the ramp. They all wear Men's Club Lifeguard patches and matching collegiate windbreakers. They scour the landing, looking for someone to save. The boat is empty. Everybody heading inland, anticipating the best Fourth of July ever. Already there is debris on the docks and the cleaning crew works away at it. INSIDE THE FERRY As Bach's Little Fugue ends, the six burly crewmen lean their combined weight against the Cathedral doors, closing out the light and locking in the trade. The doors latch shut with a resounding clang! ANGLE ON BRODY, NERVOUSLY WATCHING THE BEACH He is studying everything, trying to make sure he has it covered as well as possible. He almost doesn't hear the approaching roar of a small helicopter until it settles down behind him, and a Flying Officer gets out, starched, pressed fatigues, a flawless fatigue baseball cap, and slick dark aviator's sunglasses. The Steve Canyon of Amity. He presents Brody with a clipboard. OFFICER Martin Brody? (Brody nods) I'll need your signature here... here... and here. BRODY What is this? OFFICER Authorization for direct payment of flight expenses not directly connected to a normal mission of this command. (Brody doesn't understand) You pay for the gas. Brody signs. The Officer shakes his head as Brody makes an error. BRODY I signed on the wrong line... OFFICER Just erase your signature and initial your erasure. Brody complies, shaking his head. The Officer snaps him a salute, jogs lightly back to his idling copter, buckles in, and gives Brody a "thumbs up" as he lifts off in a flurry of sand and ice-cream wrappers. EXT. BEACH PARKING LOT - EARLY MORNING And this is it -- the Dawn Patrol, the only forces that the frantic phone calling produced. Hendricks, and the regular summer extra deputies. The lifeguards. Half a dozen state troopers. Some deputies from neighboring towns, and a Coast Guard ensign with a handful of regulars in work dungarees. Some of Hooper's friends from the institute. Brody and Hooper, badly in need of sleep, are watching the crew straggle in. Already the first of the holiday beach- goers are piling out of their cars in a brightly colored cascade of beach balls, umbrellas, blankets, portable bar-b- ques, radios, sun visors, reflectors, rafts, balls, tubes, and newspapers. Hooper watches one such group: A Family of Ten getting out of a camper-van. He watches in dismay as the family bumbles onto the beach for a day of fun in the sun. Brody addresses his troops, such as they are. BRODY I want to thank you guys from local agencies for cooperating, and I hope we won't actually be needing your services. But I'm glad to have you here. The Men ad lib responses: "Happy to do it," "Any time," "When's lunch?" "I hate holidays," etc. ENSIGN I want to get our lines and repellent out, so we better shove off. He nods to his men, who head for some Boston Whalers (or similar boat with surf-riding capability) and push off into the surf to patrol the swimming areas. BRODY (a last caution) We're all on one channel, so let's keep radio traffic to a minimum, okay? Everyone kind of nods acknowledgment. HOOPER I hope we get some more help. BRODY I wish it would rain... EXT. BEACH - AMUSEMENT AREA - CLOSE OF SHARK MACHINE In a shed near the bandstand, a half-dozen pinball and arcade machines sucking quarters from holiday beach-goers. A mechanical shark traverses the screen, is hit with an electric harpoon and red "blood" blossoms from its side, indicating a hit. Sounds of electronic gadgetry, people having fun. Meadows is there writing it all up for the paper. A move away from the screen of this particular machine reveals the arcade, the parking lot, and, finally, the beginnings of the panorama of the beach that July 4th has created. EXT. SOUTH BEACH - THE FOURTH OF JULY four foot surfer's swell curls and crashes on shore, riderless. The broad sandy beach is a mosaic of summer color as one thousand vacationers practice fun in the sun, but not in the water. Hot dog stands and ice cream vendors are everywhere. ANGLE - LIFEGUARD STATIONS A half-dozen lookout lofts. As many handsome lifeguards with Walkie-Talkies strapped to their trunks and loud-hailers at arm's reach. Bored, two of the hot dogs train their binoculars on some local color. ANGLE ON TV MOBILE UNIT A TV Mobile Unit Van is setting up: cables snaking to cameras, a camera with a big sports zoom sitting on the platform atop the truck, a spiffy announcer-type in a blazer with his station's call letters on the pocket. Inside the darkened control room, we can see the pale blue squares of monitors in a mosaic against one wall, facing the switcher. AT SEA Hooper is methodically patrolling in his boat. Tactically flanking a three-hundred-yard apron of black repellent are four small watch-boats. A tiny pleasure boat darts around the repellent line. Farther out, crossing back and forth, are patrol boats. To top it all off, a Coast Guard helicopter hovers and patrols three hundred feet above. INT. TELEVISION MOBILE UNIT At least eight monitors, reflecting the outputs of three cameras and two tape machines, as well as line, preview, and effects monitors. MONITOR: CAMERA 1: Holding on a group of happy citizen-bathers as they unpack their gear, wave to camera, run into the water. MONITOR: CAMERA 2: The Repellent Line, set in place by Coast Guardsmen in small boats, setting out floats, dumping repellent into the ocean. MONITOR: CAMERA 3: Close on the Bandstand, where Amity's band is playing lilting patriotic airs. After we've seen this activity, we can take a look at what's going on: the preparation of the tape segment for the six o'clock news. TV DIRECTOR Put 1 on the line. In five. 4. 3. 2. 1. Roll. On the "Tape 1" and "Line" monitors, we see Vaughn being interviewed by the Announcer in the blazer. ANNOUNCER ...and with me is the Mayor of Amity, Lawrence Vaughn. Mr. Vaughn, how about those rumors? VAUGHN How about them indeed. I'm pleased and happy to repeat the news that we have, in fact, caught and killed a large predator that supposedly injured some bathers here. As you can see, it's a beautiful day, the beaches are open, and the folks here are having a wonderful time. Amity, y'know, means 'Friendship.' MONITOR: CAMERA 1: As Vaughn speaks to us on the monitors, the monitor for Camera 1 pans over to show a Sightseeing Bus pull up in the parking area, and a horde of media vultures spilling out, carrying cameras with long lenses and tripods, telescopes, sunshades and parasols, all the equipment of the curious and none of the equipment of the holiday bather or swimmer. TAPE 1 AND LINE MONITORS: Close on the Announcer, Vaughn out of the picture. ANNOUNCER Also here today is a Marine Biologist and Research Fellow from the Oceanographic Institute, Matthew Hooper. Mr. Hooper, what've you heard? HOOPER What I've heard and what I've seen are two different things. I believe there is a large Great White Shark -- Carcharodon Cacharias - in the waters off this very beach, that he has killed and that he will kill again... Hooper's voice fades off as someone at the mixer panel dials his mike off, and brings up the Announcer's lavalier. ANNOUNCER (moving into center frame) And there you have it -- two different opinions, by men of good will. The holiday crowd here at Amity seems to be making up its own mind... The camera pans off him to a happy family headed for the beach. MONITOR: CAMERA 3: Zooms in on the puffing face of the tuba player. MONITOR: CAMERA 2: Brody and the Announcer. MONITOR: TAPE 1 and LINE: Back on the Announcer, his lips moving, but his sound turned off. We hear, instead, the sound from Monitor Camera 2, Brody and the same Announcer. BRODY I'm sorry, I just don't have the time. TV DIRECTOR Recue the machines. 2, pan off the Chief and show me some tits and ass. 1, get me some cute kids. 3... see if you got a shot at the water. MONITORS: CAMERAS 1, 2 and 3: The cameras seek out the appropriate activity as the Director calls for it. ASSISTANT DIRECTOR (holds up stopwatch) Mayor, 43 seconds, Biologist 45 seconds. That's equal time, right? DIRECTOR Right. (he presses "Talkback" button to his announcer) Jerry, come on in and look at this. (to his headset) Roll 2. In five, 4. 3. 2. 1. TAPE 2 - MONITOR: Starts showing us the assembled interview segment we've just seen, starting with the Announcer's opening remarks. ANNOUNCER (V.O. MONITOR) Amity Island is famed for its clear air and white sand beaches. But a cloud appeared... His voice is dialed under as the Announcer himself appears in the control room to watch himself on the monitors. ANNOUNCER (LIVE) Look at that shine on my nose. It's a beacon. DIRECTOR Close enough for remote. As Vaughn begins his spiel again, the other monitors show us the action on the beach. VAUGHN (V.O.) ...I'm pleased and happy... DIRECTOR Think we ought to stick around? ANNOUNCER What else you got? ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Teachers' strike downtown. CAMERAMAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Christenson, this is Al. Union says time for Engineering Five. DIRECTOR That's five minutes, guys. Coffee. ANGLE ON THE BEACH Vaughn is in his shirtsleeves, having slipped out of his jacket. He mops his brow, and surveys the beachfront. At this moment, there's nobody swimming. He approaches a familiar Selectman, nods hello, and squats beside him on the sand. VAUGHN Why don't you get in the water? SELECTMAN I don't want to wash off my suntan lotion. I'll get a burn... VAUGHN (some urgency) Nobody's going in! On an adjoining blanket, a spirited Ruth Gordon type is sitting, watching brightly as her manservant, a polished Eric Harrison type, prepares some tea from a thermos. WOMAN Is there nobody going in? What a shame. Arthur, should I be going in? ARTHUR (THE BUTLER) (pouring tea) If you'd like. He puts down the tea service, and leads her towards the water. At the edge of the sea, she stops, and he walks in. ARTHUR (as he enters the waves) It's very nice. Not too cold... Quite refreshing... Very pleasant.... He ducks his head under for a final look around. His dripping head rises triumphantly from the surf. ARTHUR No sharks, m'lady. She starts into the water, he takes her parasol, escorting her the rest of the way into the ocean. WOMAN This is marvelous! Arthur, I want to come back to this very spot. Will you make a note of where we are? WIDE - ON THE BEACH Encouraged by the sight of the Woman and Arthur, and Vaughn's quiet urgings, people begin to wander into the surf, a few at first, and then a rush, as people plunge in and begin enjoying the pleasures of ocean bathing. The Selectman goes in, his family follows, Vaughn watches it all, beaming. BOAT #7 Hendricks is on the radio while a Coast Guard spotter works the sonar. HENDRICKS Anything? Thought I saw a shadow. Over. Pan to the water. UNDERWATER As before, 400 pairs of enticing, yummy swimmers' legs, kicking like animated hors d'oeuvres. INT. HELICOPTER - AERIAL VIEW A breathtaking view. The copter spotter looks down with naked eye and binoculars. COPTER SPOTTER Nothing from up here, Daisy. Over. CLOSE - HENDRICKS HENDRICKS (into walkie-talkie) False alarm. Must be this glare. ANGLE - BEACH - CLOSE ON BRODY He is walking down the beach, threading his way through the happy hordes. Meadows nods "hello." VOICES Who's scared to go in! I was in! Up to your knees, yeah -- So come with me -- I'll go again. MEADOWS Beautiful day, Chief! A group of youngsters playing with Michael Brody's dinghy. They are hauling it toward the surf. BRODY Hey Mikey -- ! Michael turns as Brody trots toward him. BRODY You're not going to the ocean with that, are you son? MICHAEL I'm all checked out for light surf and look at it. BRODY Do me this favor just once. Use the ponds. MICHAEL Dad, the ponds are for old ladies. BRODY Just a favor for your old man. MICHAEL (confused) Sure, Dad. TV CREW - NEAR WATER TV cameramen are packing up their gear. For them it's a wrap REPELLENT LINE - COUNTY POLICEMAN Suddenly his Walkie-Talkie fizzes, and the Copter Spotter's voice overloads the speaker. COPTER SPOTTER Copter to Daisy! Red Four, Red Four! BOAT #7 - HENDRICKS Guns are up, heads turning everywhere. HENDRICKS (into walkie-talkie) Where -- ? COPTER SPOTTER Went under your -- There! The Coast Guard sonar operator spots it and pales. A slick black dorsal fin is slicing a wake toward the swimming area. SONAR OPERATOR Jesus Christ -- Shark! BEACH - BRODY Rigid and choked, he almost breaks the "send" button trying to transmit. BRODY Everybody out! Out of the water, please -- leave the water, please -- A lifeguard in a loft behind him begins blowing on his whistle. CLOSE - BRODY shouting hysterically. BRODY No whistles! No whistles! THE BEACH Dozens of bathers halfway out of the water, turn to see. More whistles, and they start toward shore. We hear panicky voices ad-libbing; "Shark," "Look Out," etc. The loudhailers sounding more urgent now, and a contagious dread seizes one person after another. Entire groups of people begin pulling toward shore, some of them obviously trying to control a growing hysteria in others. BOATS #6 AND #7 are converging, heading toward the repellent line as if tracking an underwater shadow. The fin is beyond the repellent cordons and heading into the crowds. HOOPER'S BOAT Caught on the other end of the line, he is wheeling in a broad, hot-dogger's circle turn, headed back. THE WATER - BATHERS People begin screaming. Kids are suddenly separated from their parents. Others seem to forget how to swim. One myopic little girl has her glasses bumped off and she begins to cry in blinded panic. Ellen Brody looks around frantic. BOATS #2, #3, #4 The riflemen in the boats are trying to get a bead, but too many civilians create a hazard. The Coast Guardsmen attempt to sever the repellent cord to gain access to the bathing area and the heaving fin. THE WATER - BATHERS This is a confirmation of our worst dread -- a full-blown headlong water panic. Screaming vacationers claw their way over the bodies of the less able. Some literally attempt to walk over the bobbing heads and glistening backs of others pulling for dry land. CLOSEUPS - PANIC Horrified faces. Some are stunned and wandering in slow, tentative circles, while others are helped out by friends. Five people try to mount a rubber raft. Ugly reminders that each of us is Number One. Brody enters shot, yelling into his walkie-talkie, someone charges past him to help an old man out of the water. EXT. THE BEACH Dragging the helpless from the surf. Tears well in Brody's eyes. The screaming is deafening. The TV unit is hopping up and down in rage and frustration. TV DIRECTOR Why did we wrap? Get that! Somebody get that! One thousand survivors pack the beach, standing absolutely still. A numbing cold sets in, and people shiver against each other. Muted sobs, whimpering, coughing. The six burly lifeguards huddle together like Cub Scouts. ANGLE - BATHING AREA The monstrous black fin turns a slow circle as two Coast Guardsmen manage to cut their own repellent line. All boats converge on the dynamic fin. Men raise their guns to fire. Others adlib nautical commands in a uniquely calculated fashion. CLOSE - FIN It slips sideways, revealing for the first time a tiny blue snorkel. Then appears the faces of two youngsters whom we will recall from the coven behind the dune. The fin bobs back, a beaverboard replica attached to a partially submerged surfboard. One youngster looks up and is greeted by: YOUNGSTER'S POINT OF VIEW Twenty rifles and shotguns pointed directly at him. Surrounding him on three sides. Some of the policemen start to lower their guns -- struck dumb. HOOPER IN HIS BOAT He throttles back suddenly, subsiding into his own wake, his eyes still restlessly searching. CLOSE - YOUNGSTER his only defense, he begins to cry -- and feebly raises his hands in unconditional surrender. ANGLE - ESTUARY The narrow estuary leading into the half-mile is rough today. Two children digging in the sand and unaware of the beach panic one hundred yards away look up, and the little girl points. BLACK DORSAL FIN is cruising through the narrows and toward the busy pond. HOOPER IN HIS BOAT AGAIN He sees it, and jams his throttle forward. He steers with one hand, fumbling urgently for his walkie-talkie with the other. AERIAL VIEW The circle of boats around the little pranksters, the crowds huddled on the beach, Hooper's boat suddenly arrowing towards the estuary, leaving a huge boiling wake. CLOSE ON VAUGHN He catches Hooper's boat out of the corner of his eye. Curious, he follows its progress. It's urgency finally communicates itself to Vaughn, who begins a shambling trot across the dunes towards a rise overlooking the estuary. OVERLOOKING THE ESTUARY Vaughn gets there just in time to see the disaster. He watches, helpless, trying to shout, out of breath. Stunned. ANGLE - POND Michael is tacking full-sail in his boat with a friend, Kit. Kit is admiring the shark's tooth necklace around his own neck while Michael rubs some water on the scratches left by it. The fin, huge, black and real, crosses behind them. They are not yet aware. The fin seems to circle and return. It heads toward Michael's boat when another small dinghy gets in its way -- a weekend novice just finishing a thermos of coffee when he is "bumped." The entire boat is overturned. Michael sees the fin now as it collides with him, the entire bow lifting out of the water and rolling over on the port side. Michael and Kit are thrown head first. Three heads in the water come up sputtering, the fin between them crossing back. Michael freezes. The fin comes directly at him, growing into the sky, passing him so close he could touch it, but ignoring him as it follows the flailing and panicked weekend novice. Catches him. Michael watches. That all too familiar explosion of water -- a choked off scream -- the head and upper torso of the novice passing Michael swiftly as though being carried off -- a current of blood trailing behind. THE VICTIM (passing a horrified Michael, who half extends one hand, as if to help) It's no good. I'm dead... (and he is) A renewed cry of shark! CLOSE - BRODY He turns. Oh God! Running through the slogging sand. CLOSE - ELLEN A sudden turn. She runs. CLOSE - HOOPER IN BOAT He's got the walkie-talkie to his mouth. HOOPER Block the estuary! The estuary! Three boats racing to carry out the orders. The black fin re- passing the two children, racing to get out. Hooper reaches the mouth before the others. The fin won't veer off. It smacks into the little vessel, bumping it aside. The fin is left racing into open water. Blood leavings. Hooper leaping over the side, slogging towards Michael. WIDE ON WATER Copter roars in buzzing the shark, but too late. CLOSE - BRODY AND ELLEN They are pulling Michael out of the water as Hooper splashes up. Michael is conscious but in shock -- his eyes staring at nothing. BRODY (feeling his face) He's in shock. Get blankets! People gather and Brody snatches beach towels out of their hands. They cover Michael and carry him off the beach, feet raised above his head. INT. HOSPITAL - DAY Michael is wheeled out in the bed. Brody and Ellen are there. Sean is sleepy in Brody's arms. Vaughn is waiting in the hall. NURSE The doctor said it's okay -- mild shock. He can come home in the morning. ELLEN (to Michael) Hey, big guy -- you want anything from home? MICHAEL My cars. And a comic book. BRODY (sees Vaughn) Here -- (gives baby to Ellen) Take him home. ELLEN Home... New York? BRODY No. Home here. Ellen exits. BRODY (crossing to Vaughn) Got a pen on you? VAUGHN Why? BRODY There's only one thing you're good for anymore -- signing a damn voucher. Here. It's an authorization to employ a contractor. VAUGHN I don't know if I can do that without a... BRODY (interrupting) I'm going to hire Quint to kill the fish. I want to see that shark dead. VAUGHN Maybe we can save August... BRODY Forget it. This summer's had it. Next summer's had it. You're the mayor of Shark City. You wanted to keep the beaches open. What happens when the town finds out about that? VAUGHN I was acting in the town's best interests... BRODY The best interest in this town would be to see that fish belly-up in the water with a hole in his head. You do the right thing. You authorize me. (indicates paper) Right there. Whatever it costs. VAUGHN My kids were on that beach... BRODY Just sign it, Larry. Vaughn signs, and Brody takes the paper and exits. QUINT'S HOUSE - DAY Brody and Hooper are approaching Quint's house. They enter through the big wooden doors, into another circle of Hell. Smoke and steam from two big oil drums sitting over fires fills the air. Quint and his mate, Herschel, are grinding pieces of pilot whale into chum. The whale lies bloody on the floor, its ruined carcass adding to the stench of other sharks being boiled in the drums, their tails suspended in the air. Diesel fumes and decay fill the air, and tools, ropes, broken bits of iron and engine parts litter the floor. Wall hangings of rope and floats, and buoys, barrels, tackle and gear all conspire to frame the killing floor. Brody and Hooper navigate the obstacle course. BRODY This has got to be one big violation... HOOPER (handling some gear) This is quite a place. QUINT'S VOICE Keep your hands off my stuff. He emerges from the steam and smoke. QUINT Did you bring a check? BRODY What? QUINT Cash? Or do we do this on a handshake and a promise? BRODY I'm authorized by the township of Amity to hire you as an independent contractor. We'll meet your price. $10,000. QUINT And my regular daily rate -- $200, whether we catch him or not. BRODY You got it. QUINT And incidental damages, if any... BRODY You got it. QUINT And you get the Mayor off my back with this zoning crap. Nobody tells me how to run my property. BRODY You got it. QUINT And, uh, a case of apricot brandy and you buy the lunch. BRODY Two cases. And dinner when you land. QUINT (pours drink) Try some of this. I made it myself. Brody tastes. QUINT Here's to swimmin' with bowlegged women. Herschel interrupts. He's stopped working, and is wiping his hands on a bloody rag. HERSCHEL Mr. Quint... Quint wheels to face him. HERSCHEL I'm not goin'. No sir. QUINT You want to get paid, you go. HERSCHEL Forget the money. You can't pay me enough. I ain't crazy. I worked some big mean fish with you, but I ain't goin' on this one. QUINT This is the last time I hear from you. I don't want anyone with piss for blood on my vessel. Put that blackfish on board, pump the bilges, and top off the fuel tanks, and finish up in the morning. Then you're on the beach. HOOPER You're going to need an extra hand... Quint turns to see this new voice, and starts walking towards him. BRODY This is Matt Hooper... QUINT I know who he is... BRODY He's from the Oceanographic Institute. HOOPER I've been to sea since I was 12. I've crewed three Trans-pacs -- QUINT Transplants? HOOPER -- and an America's Cup Trials... QUINT I'm not talking about day sailing or pleasure boating. I'm talking about working for a living. Sharking. HOOPER And I'm not talking about hooking some poor dogfish or sand shark. I'm talking about a Great White. QUINT Are you now. I know about porkers in the water -- (throws him some rope) Here. Tie me a sheepshank. Hooper ties the knot effortlessly. HOOPER I don't need to pass basic seamanship. QUINT Let me see your hands... He takes Hooper's hands in his own big bloody fists, and feels them as he talks. QUINT Ha. City hands. You been counting money. If you had a $5000 net and $2000 worth of fish in it, and along comes Mr. White, and makes it look like a kiddy scissors class has gone to work on it and made paper dolls. If you'd ever worked for a living, you'd know what that means. HOOPER Look, I don't need to hear any of this working class hero crap. Some party boat skipper who's killed a few sharks... BRODY (interrupting) Hey. Knock it off. I don't want to have to listen to this while we're out there... QUINT What do you mean 'We...?' BRODY It's my charter. My party. QUINT All right, Commissioner. But when we're on my ship, I am Master, Mate and Pilot. And I want him... (indicates Hooper) ...along for ballast. BRODY You got it. EXT. QUINT'S DOCK - MORNING The Mate is loading. He hands Quint the items on his check list as Quint takes them aboard. QUINT 5 lengths of 1/2-inch, 20 number 14's, straight gaff, flying gaffs, tail rope, eye splice, M-1, 20 clips, pliers, irons... As he talks, we see Hooper coming down to the dock. Wheeling a wagon behind him are two long-haired Research Assistants from the Institute. On the wagon, among other things, is a big shark cage. At dockside, Hooper checks his list, as he signs for his issue. HOOPER Powerhead, CO2 darts, hypo, regulator, tanks, depth gauge, camera, extra magazines, cage... CLOSE - ON HOOPER AND RESEARCH ASSISTANT ASSISTANT You got everything you asked for? HOOPER All of it. And thank Dr. Miro for me. And tell Borack I'll catch up with them in New Zealand. ASSISTANT This is actually a killing expedition? HOOPER An eye for an eye, you know. QUINT Hey, Squirt! You want to stow this gear or you want me to use it for ballast? It ain't good for much but bait. HOOPER (to Assistant) I'll see ya. Tell Dorothy hello. Hooper sees his gear approaching. ANGLE ON DOCK AND ORCA Quint sees Hooper approaching with the large cage. QUINT Hello, Junior. What are you? Some kind of half-assed astronaut? (to himself) Jesus Christ, when I was a kid, every little squirt wanted to be a harpooner or a sword fisherman. What d'ya have there -- a portable shower? HOOPER Anti-Shark cage. QUINT Who's inside, you or the shark? Hooper indicates "me." QUINT You're in the cage? (Hooper nods) The cage is in the water? (Hooper nods) The shark is in the water too? (Hooper nods) You're in the water with the shark. Hooper nods. Quint sings "Spanish Ladies" half to himself. HOOPER Comin' aboard... ANGLE ON DOCK, BRODY AND ELLEN APPROACHING She's carrying a little plastic shopping bag, he's wearing shiny new foul weather gear, bundled up, sweaty, uncomfortable. She gives him as good a hug as she can manage under the circumstances. ELLEN Did you take your dramamine? (Brody nods) Here. She straightens his coat, and gives him a shaving kit to carry aboard with his toiletries. From the deck, Quint whistles derisively. QUINT Hurry up, Chief, daylight's a wastin'. ELLEN Is that him? BRODY (to Ellen) Colorful, isn't he? ELLEN You going to be all right? BRODY Nothing to worry about -- I'll survive this. ELLEN I'll see you back soon. There's an extra pair of glasses in your black socks, and there's some suntan lotion and blistex in your kit. Brody nods, and holds her hand for a wordless moment. QUINT (O.S.) (sings) 'Here is the body of Mary Lee. For 15 years she kept her virginity. Not a bad record for this vicinity.' There is a sputter and roar as the Orca's diesels kick on. BRODY Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum. ELLEN (hugging him) What'll I tell the kids? BRODY Tell 'em I went fishin'! They laugh together, and exchange a short, fierce kiss. QUINT Cast off the bow line! Now your stern! Its diesels chugging, the Orca pulls away from the pier. Ellen has already resolutely turned her back on it, and is walking off the dock back onto dry land. ABOARD THE ORCA Quint has set a course out towards the open sea. He lashes the wheel, and jumps down to address Hooper and Brody, who are standing together in the stern. QUINT (to Brody) Front-Bow, Back-Stern, Port, Starboard. Aloft, Below. It's not a staircase, it's a ladder, it's not a rope, it's a line, and if you don't get it right... (indicates porthole) I'll throw your ass through that little round window. He laughs at his joke. This is probably something he tells all his charters. QUINT Now hear this. You're aboard the fishing vessel 'Orca,' and I'm her Captain, Master, Mate, and Owner. You'll jump when I holler. We're doin' a job here, and Christ, I ain't got time to watch you birds get hooks in your ass and fall overboard. Ship with me, and you'll do all right. Cross me, and I'll slap you upside your heads. Now -- if you boys are ready -- let's go fishin'. He starts moving gear around, preparing chum barrels, setting hooks, Hooper gives him a hand, Brody stays out of the way. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. THE OCEAN - NOON It is quiet as the Orca drifts along in the current, a wide chum slick spreading behind it. A couple of flag buoys spread along our perspective show us the miles the boat has gone. Quint spots something in the water -- a small blue shark attracted by the chum. He rigs a small pole with a piece of bait, and throws it over the side. QUINT Here's something for you... The shark takes the bait, Quint brutally and efficiently sets the hook, and reels the shark alongside. He hauls it part way out of the water, and sticks it with a gaff. Hooper and Brody watch. INSERT - SHARK WRIGGLING ON HOOK Tailrope dropping on him. Gaffed and bleeding, the shark is immobilized by Quint's practiced hands. He takes one of his big knives and poses for a moment beside the struggling fish. QUINT These greedy sons-a-bitches will eat their own guts. He slices into the shark's underbelly. We hear the sound of entrails plopping into the water. Brody is almost retching, and Hooper is just displeased. ANGLE ON THE WATER The gutted shark swimming in circles biting at its own entrails. ANOTHER ANGLE Fins closing in on the wounded shark. QUINT Go ahead, you cannibals. Tell 'em where you got it! SHARK FRENZY A boil of water and the flash of fins and teeth as the local sharks erupt in a feeding frenzy, jaws snapping, blood spewing, a sudden display of the fury and blind predatory drive of the fearsome species. HOOPER What's that supposed to prove? QUINT Just a little appetizer. I want our porker to know we're serving. I want to put some iron into that big yap... HOOPER AND BRODY REACT AS WE DISSOLVE TO: EXT. THE OCEAN - AFTERNOON The Orca is drifting in neutral. The ocean is like gelatin, the sun sucking heat waves from its surface. Brody at the stern, handkerchief on his head to protect from further sunburn, has been handed the slimiest job on a shark hunt: the ladling out of chum. There are several empty chum barrels. A flag buoy bobs in the wake of the boat, another waits to be tossed over the side. Brody is reeling with nausea. He opens his overnight kit and takes out a handkerchief and some Old Spice after-shave. He pours the after-shave into the cloth, presses it to his nose. Hooper is also in the stern. QUINT Keep that chum line going -- we've got five good miles. Don't break it. BRODY Who's driving the boat? QUINT Nobody. We're drifting with the current. HOOPER (using the fish finder) Nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing. QUINT (to Hooper) Hell, in the old days we went out with good charts, good sounding lead, and a damn good compass. Nowadays, these kids are afraid to go out without depth finders, radar, radio, electric toothbrush, every stupid thing... Quint opens a can of beer and drains it in one long pull, crushing the empty and throwing it over the side. Hooper drains his coffee from a styrofoam cup, and cracks it in his hand with a silly "plup." He stows the pieces in an empty chum barrel. QUINT (to Brody) Get a fresh barrel. Brody goes to unlash a fresh barrel, but can't figure out the knots. He finally tugs on a piece of rope, and it all comes loose... barrel, shark cage, and, most important, Hooper's tanks, clattering and rolling on the deck. HOOPER (jumping up) Watch it! Compressed air -- you screw around with one of those and Boom! Careful, huh? QUINT (mutters) Real fine stuff but it won't mean a thing to Mr. Whitey, of course... he didn't go to schools in electronics. He was born with what he does best. Eat. He's a swimming appetite. 'Course he might eat this stuff, but then I've seen him eat a rocking chair, too. (to Brody) Next time, ask me. DISSOLVE TO: LATER The men are in different positions on the boat. Hooper on the flying bridge. Quint in the stern, Brody hanging over the rail, puking. Quint takes a wide red strip of whale meat and a gnarled squid from the garbage pail, and searches for a No. 2 hook rig. He holds up a strip of whale. HOOPER (eyeing bait) That's pilot whale, isn't it? QUINT It ain't a Big Mac. (to Brody) The expert don't approve. What do you thing? You're closer to the situation. (laughs) Brody shades his eyes from the white sun as Quint baits up. BRODY (croaky) Why are we way out here, when the shark's back there? QUINT (snapping bait to his leader) ...'cause this is where he lives. You gotta think like they do. HOOPER (to himself) Easy for you -- they got a brain the size of a radish. Quint sits in the fighting chair. He casts off, murmuring as the line feeds out. QUINT (to Brody) Now if he weren't around, we'd of hooked something else by now, wouldn't we? But he scared 'em all away. Big lonesome son of a bitch... DISSOLVE TO: LATER Quint at ease in his chair, Brody near him, practicing tying knots. The line starts to move, a few feet at a time; both men watch. Then the line whizzes off the reel. Brody jumps up. Hooper springs to the deck. Quint puts his hand on the drag and addresses the situation softly. QUINT -- he'll gulp it down now... (making gulping noises) Hooooooo! Quint tightens drag and strikes. The line goes whizzing out. Brody runs to Quint's side. Hooper springs up to the flying bridge. BRODY You got it? QUINT (turning with the pull) Get behind me, dummy! (shouts to Hooper) Reverse her and turn -- he's taking too much line! (to Brody) Wet my reel, quick! Brody goes to get water, the boat surges, he staggers. Brody pours water on the screaming reel, nearly unspooled now. Hooper is turning the boat around and the line changes direction. QUINT (straining, muscles popping) Starboard, for Chris'sake -- Hooper steers it sharply. QUINT (to Hooper) Hey, you! Farmer! Half-speed there... HOOPER (almost to himself) Aye, Aye SIR. Stand by to repel boarders. Poop the mainsail. Argh, Jim Boy. Again the line changes direction, down this time. QUINT (to Hooper) Neutral! (to himself) Where the hell is he going? Quint reeling in like mad. QUINT Oh, this ain't foolin' me -- (rod arcs down with a surge) Sure -- try it! He ad libs brief instructions to Brody as the line rushes out and there is less tension. Quint is horsing up and down, reeling in. QUINT Makin' believe it's easy now. The line is almost vertical, and Quint shows a hint of bafflement. He reels in suspiciously. QUINT Gettin' ready to run again -- no? No? (suspicious) What's he playin' here? (reels in furiously, to Brody) Put the gloves on! (to fish) Let's see who's gonna tease who now! HOOPER Let it go, don't waste your time. QUINT (to Hooper) Down here, Hooper! Hooper is rushing down. HOOPER I don't know what it is, but it's not a shark. QUINT (bathed in sweat; hauling, reeling) Look -- you may be a big Yahoo in the lab, but out here you're just supercargo, and you'll do as I say, or you can take your gear and backstroke home. Now get down here! The leaders show above the water line. Brody is wide-eyed, waiting for that first look. BRODY The wire's showing! QUINT (to Brody) Unbuckle me -- fast! (to Hooper) Grab the leader. He ain't normal, this one... they never -- HOOPER It's too wild, too erratic. It's a marlin or a stingray. It's a gamefish. Hooper snaps the rope onto the leader and holds on. QUINT Watch your hands -- (suddenly to Brody) Grab onto this! Before he realizes what's happening, Brody is clumsily clutching at the big rod, appalled. Quint skips away for a flying gaff. He picks one, turns... That's when the leader lashes free, sending Hooper crashing backward in a serious fall, and the rod whips at Brody's forehead, drawing blood. Quint snatches up the rod and reels in. The wires have been bitten through. QUINT (to Hooper) A marlin, or a stingray. Huh. Don't ever tell me my business again. Get back up on the bridge. HOOPER (stunned) I'm okay... QUINT (to Brody) Fasten the pole. BRODY What's the point with hooks and Lines? -- QUINT Don't tell me my business! (to Hooper, points) Quarter-mile, that way. Full throttle. Hooper shakes off his dizziness and obeys. Brody watches Quint rig up a new leader, hook up the same bait. BRODY (nursing forehead, gesturing at rod and reel) How -- if they're gonna keep on breaking? QUINT What I do is trick him to the surface, got that? Then I can jab him, understand? (goes to flybridge, muttering) Think I'm gonna haul it in as if he's a catfish, like everyone else does? Brody goes inside to inspect his forehead. ON BRIDGE - HOOPER AND QUINT QUINT (suddenly, pointing) Over there! HOOPER What do you see? QUINT (still looking) At least you handle the boat all right. Stop. Here... Cut the engine. Hooper cuts the engines as Quint swings nimbly down. He stands stock still on the main deck, motioning Brody to be silent. Then picking up the newly rigged rod, Quint softshoes it over to the chair. About to sit down, he freezes. CLOSE - QUINT looking hard at something. CLOSE - BRODY staring, eyes widening. CLOSE - HOOPER moving in, surprised, interested, fascinated. THEIR COMBINED POINT OF VIEW We see the shark. First the fin... then the head and upper jaws, ten or twenty yards off the side of the boat. It finally submerges, its tail giving a final slap. ANGLE ON QUINT He puts his rod away and stares at it. And stares. And stares. Hooper is the first to break the silence. HOOPER 20 feet, if it's an inch... QUINT 25 feet. And three tons of him there. Hooper is nearly beside himself with a strange ecstasy. He leaps toward his gear. QUINT (quietly, to Brody) I never saw one that big. BRODY What do we do? Get some help? Radio in? Quint ignores him and moves off into the pilot house, where he swiftly takes out his green case, and opens it to begin to assemble something inside it. Brody is alone on the deck with Hooper. BRODY How're we gonna handle this? Hooper is contained in his own excitement. He has finally come up with what he was looking for -- an expensive Nikon through which he peers intently at the shark alongside. He is talking half to himself as he fine-tunes the range finder and focus. He is squeaking and bubbling in an unsuppressed emotional boil. HOOPER (very, very high) There's a formula! Girth, about 150 inches, squared, divide by 800 -- son of a bitch, they are not going to believe this! -- divide by 2000... three tons! (after Quint) You're right, you old fart! Three tons! (ad libs ecstasy) CLOSE ON QUINT IN THE PILOT HOUSE He is assembling the Greener harpoon gun, deftly screwing on the long wooden stock, the heavy steel barrel, and big shaft with the wicked barbs, the frame all rigged with line. Past him, on the deck, we can still see Hooper. As Quint is working with the gun, the radio suddenly squawks into life. RADIO VOICE (V.O.) Amity Point Light Station to Orca. This is Amity Point Light Station, to Orca... Quint snaps the mouthpiece to his lips. QUINT Orca here. RADIO VOICE (V.O.) I have Mrs. Martin Brody here... QUINT Put her on. ELLEN'S VOICE ...push this? Oh. It's working. Hello, Martin? QUINT This is Quint, Missus. ELLEN'S VOICE I just wanted to know if you were all right... the Coast Guard let me use their radio. Is Chief Brody there? QUINT He's busy. ELLEN'S VOICE Well... is everything all right? QUINT Just fine, Missus. We'll be back soon. Everything's fine. We haven't seen anything yet. Orca out. He snaps off the radio, and, for good measure, pulls the plug from the power source. ANGLE FROM DECK The big shark is slicing through the water just below the surface, its fin high, the big gray back glistening, the teeth gleaming. ANGLE - INCLUDING FOREDECK HOOPER (on deck) Damn it! I need something in the foreground to give it some scale. Martin! Stand here! No, to your left! He is positioning Martin frantically, trying to include Brody, the shark, and the Orca in the same frame. Quint finishes with the gun, and as a final gesture, snaps an explosive cartridge into the breech. He empties the box of cartridges onto the table, snatches up a big handful, and drops them into a pocket, and heads out on deck, bound for the bow pulpit. ON DECK Quint appears with the harpoon gun. He throws one end of the line to Hooper. QUINT Here. Rig this to the forward keg up there. He indicates the barrels on the foredeck. QUINT (to Brody) Get up there and steer her. Follow my hand, and hold 'er steady. I've got to get a clean shot at that porker's head. Quint moves up toward the bow, Brody goes up to the flying bridge to take the wheel, Hooper starts for the foredeck, but stops to rummage in his kit, throwing gear around as he desperately hunts for something. QUINT Hurry up, rig the line! ANGLE ON HOOPER He finds what he's looking for. A small, powerful strobe unit, waterproofed, a miniature signal beacon. He triggers it, and it begins to pulse with a light we can see even in the sun. Hooper scampers to the foredeck and begins to rig the light to the first barrel, as the shark begins to surface near the bow. QUINT (to Brody) Come to port. Watch my hand. Steady now... He guides Brody with hand signals. Brody tries urgently to get it right, not to oversteer, to try to hold the big boat with its throbbing diesels on the course that Quint is indicating. QUINT The line, man, the line! Hooper is rigging like crazy. FROM THE FLYING BRIDGE Brody steering f.g., Hooper on the foredeck with the barrels, Quint leaning out over the pulpit, the gun at the ready, the shark crossing inexorably in front of them. CLOSE ON QUINT Agonizing over his shot as the shark approaches, glancing back to see if the line is properly rigged and Hooper is clear of it. QUINT Get clear, damn you! The shark is in position, Hooper shouts, a moment too late. HOOPER Clear! Quint fires. The harpoon slams into the shark behind his head, half-way along the back in front of the big dorsal fin. QUINT Jesus H. Christ On a Crutch! INSERT - COILED ROPE AND BARREL The rope snaps out in a blur of violent motion, Hooper jumps back, and the barrel leaps out of its rack, pulled by the line rigged to the harpoon. It bounds forward and into the sea, past Quint, who is already reloading, mounting another steel shaft. In the distance, the barrel bobs and skips violently in the water, dragged by the shark in his merciless moves. THE FOREDECK - QUINT QUINT Now you've done it, you piss-ant. Stop and rig a goddam tinker toy to my gear. Let the bastard fight the keg for a while. He can't stay down with that on. Hooper, furious with himself, runs for the flying bridge to take the helm from Brody. THE FLYING BRIDGE, BRODY AND HOOPER Hooper has snatched the wheel, and is ramming the throttle forward as he spins the wheel in a frantic 180 degree turn. HOOPER (to Quint) Rig another keg! I'm bringing her around! His eyes dart about the ocean, looking for the barrel, as he hot-dogs the ship around in a violent expression of his own disgust with himself. HOOPER (to himself) God damn it! We had him! (to Quint) I'm coming about! He spins the wheel again, trying to make the big boat handle like a formula speedster. The decks tip and the rigging sways under the sudden strain. Brody is caught unaware, and tumbles off his feet, sliding across the deck to fetch up against a wall. the M1 Rifle is close to his hand. He stares at it. FROM THE FLYING BRIDGE Hooper is anguished, intense, trying to find the shark, spinning the wheel, compounding his error, tipping the boat in rolling turns as he crosses his own wake. Quint has turned his back to the sea, and is in the pulpit looking up at Hooper, staring at him, excluding everything else. As Quint folds his arms and stares at Hooper, we realize the sun is going down, and it's getting dark. BRODY Why don't we go in? Get another crack at him tomorrow. QUINT We got a barrel on him. We can't lose him. We stay out here until we find him. Hooper throttles back, and the roar of the diesels subsides and the boat resumes an even keel, slowly circling the ocean. BRODY Let's call in -- we can radio and have a big boat here in an hour... QUINT (grim) You hired me, remember? It's my $10,000. It's my shark... EXT. ORCA - OPEN SEA - NIGHT Throttled back to slow ahead, the boat circles the water endlessly, staying over the shark like an avenging angel. Its running lights gleam in the night, and a glow lights the interior of the pilot house. A bright strobe glints on the water winking once like a firefly. INT. PILOT HOUSE - NIGHT Brody and Hooper at the table, Quint at the wheel, keeping his eye on the light. QUINT He's up again. He corrects course slightly to keep the barrel buoy in sight. Hooper is sitting at the table, morose. Brody is staring at a couple of open cans of beans or beef stew, or some other crappy rations Quint has on board. Dirty spoons stuck in the open cans show us this has not been a formal dinner. Quint fumbles on the chart shelf and produces some of his home brew. He takes a pull, and hands it to Hooper, who takes a double. Brody touches the fresh abrasion on his forehead, where the fishing rod caught him. Quint bends forward and pulls his hair aside to show something near the crown. QUINT That's not so bad. Look at this: ...St. Paddy's Day in Knocko Nolans, in Boston, where some sunovabitch winged me upside the head with a spittoon. Brody looks politely. Hooper stirs himself. HOOPER Look here. (extends a forearm) Steve Kaplan bit me during recess. Quint is amused. He presents his own formidable forearm. QUINT Wire burn. Trying to stop a backstay from taking my head off. HOOPER (rolling up a sleeve) Moray Eel. Bit right through a wet suit. Brody is fascinated. Quint and Hooper take a long pull from the bottle. QUINT Face and head scars come from amateur amusements in the bar room. This love line here... (he bends an ear forward) ...that's from some crazy Frenchie come after me with a knife. I caught him with a good right hand right in the snot locker and laid him amongst the sweetpeas. HOOPER Ever see one like this? He hauls up his pants leg, revealing a wicked white scar. HOOPER Bull shark scraped me while I was taking samples... QUINT Nothing! A pleasure scar. Look here -- He starts rolling up his own dirty pants leg. QUINT Slammed with a thresher's tail. Look just like somebody caressed me with a nutmeg grater... Brody is drawn into their boasting comparisons. He secretly checks his own appendix scar, decides not to enter the contest. HOOPER I'll drink to your leg. QUINT And I'll drink to yours. They toast each other. Brody looks around, sees the strobe blink once through the darkened window. QUINT Wait a minute, young fella. Look. Just look. Don't touch... He starts lowering his pants to reveal a place on one hip where the tissue is scarred and irregular. QUINT ...Mako. Fell out of the tail rope and onto the deck. You don't get bitten by one of those bastards but twice -- your first and your last. HOOPER (considerably drunker) I think I can top that, Mister... Hooper is pulling at his shirt, trying to get it off, but it's tangling its sleeves, and won't come undone. HOOPER Gimme a hand, here. I got something to show you -- Brody lends a hand. The shirt slips part way off. HOOPER (indicating his chest) There. Right there. Mary Ellen Moffit broke my heart. Let's drink to Mary Ellen. The two men raise their mugs in a toast. QUINT And here's to the ladies. And here's to their sisters; I'd rather one Miss than a shipload of Misters. He drinks, Hooper follows. QUINT (shows belly) Look a' that -- Bayonet Iwo Jima. BRODY (aside) C'mon. Middle appendix -- QUINT (aside) I almost had 'im. Brody is looking at a small white patch on Quint's other forearm. BRODY (pointing) What's that one, there? QUINT (changing) Tattoo. Had it taken off. HOOPER Don't tell me -- 'Death Before Dishonor.' 'Mother.' 'Semper Fi.' Uhhh... 'Don't Tread on Me.' C'mon -- what? QUINT 'U.S.S Indianapolis.' 1944. BRODY What's that, a ship? HOOPER (incredulous) You were on the Indianapolis? In '45? Jesus... Quint remembering. CLOSE ON QUINT QUINT Yeah. The U.S.S. Indianapolis. June 29th, 1945, three and a half minutes past midnight, two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine slammed into our side. Two or three. We was still under sealed orders after deliverin' the bomb...the Hiroshima bomb...we was goin' back across the Pacific from Tinian to Leyte. Damn near eleven hundred men went over the side. The life boats was lashed down so tight to make the bomb run we couldn't cut a single one adrift. Not one. And there was no rafts. None. That vessel sank in twelve minutes. Yes, that's all she took. We didn't see the first shark till we'd been in the water about an hour. A thirteen-footer near enough. A blue. You measure that by judgin' the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know... of course the Captain knew...I guess some officers knew... was the bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signals was sent. What the men didn't know was that they wouldn't even list us as overdue for a week. Well, I didn't know that -- I wasn't an officer -- just as well perhaps. So some of us were dead already -- in the water -- just hangin' limp in our lifejackets. And several already bleedin'. And the three hundred or so laying on the bottom of the ocean. As the light went, the sharks came crusin'. We formed tight groups -- somewhat like squares in an old battle -- You know what I mean -- so that when one come close, the man nearest would yell and shout and pound the water and sometimes it worked and the fish turned away, but other times that shark would seem to look right at a man -- right into his eyes -- and in spite of all shoutin' and poundin' you'd hear that terrible high screamin' and the ocean would go red, then churn up as they ripped him. Then we'd reform our little squares. By the first dawn the sharks had taken more than a hundred. Hard for me to count but more than a hundred. I don't know how many sharks. Maybe a thousand. I do know they averaged six men an hour. All kinds -- blues, makos, tigers. All kinds. (Pause) In the middle of the second day, some of us started to go crazy from the thirst. One fella cried out he saw a river, another claimed he saw a waterfall, some started to drink the ocean and choked on it, and some left our little groups -- our little squares -- and swam off alone lookin' for islands and the sharks always took them right away. It was mainly the young fellas that did that -- the older ones stayed where they was. That second day -- my life jacket rubbed me raw and that was more blood in the water. Oh my. On Thursday morning I bumped up against a friend of mine -- Herbie Robinson from Cleveland -- a bosun's mate -- it seemed he was asleep but when I reached over to waken him, he bobbed in the water and I saw his body upend because he'd been bitten in half beneath the waist. Well Chief, so it went on -- bombers high overhead but nobody noticin' us. Yes -- suicides, sharks, and all this goin' crazy and dyin' of thirst. Noon the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura swung around and came in low. Yes. He did that. Yes, that pilot saw us. And early evenin', a big fat PBY come down out of the sky and began the pickup. That was when I was most frightened of all -- while I was waitin' for my turn. Just two and a half hours short of five days and five nights when they got to me and took me up. Eleven hundred of us went into that ocean -- three hundred and sixteen got out. Yeah. Nineteen hundred and forty five. June the 29th. (pause) Anyway, we delivered the bomb. EXT. OCEAN - NIGHT Quint has just finished his story, and we are looking across the quiet night sea to the Orca slowly circling in the night, the warm light in the pilot house barely revealing the figures of the three men inside, the red and green running lights winking along the ship's flanks. We hear the distant boom and drawn-out hoot of a whale. INT. ORCA PILOT HOUSE - NIGHT BRODY What the hell? HOOPER It's a whale out there. There's a brief, eerie pause. Quint breaks the silence by muttering into song, which he slowly swells. QUINT (singing) Show me the way to go home... I'm tired and I want to go to bed. I had a little drink about an hour ago, and it went right to my head. (etc.) Gradually, Hooper and Brody join in, and the pilothouse becomes a warm cozy place. EXT. OCEAN The Orca and its song in the night. In the foreground, the barrel and strobe light flash up into view, and behind them, the big dorsal fin surfaces, and glides ominously towards the ship. INT. PILOT HOUSE The song is continuing, and we hear the barest hint of a scraping sound from the hull deep beneath the men. Quint's eyes abruptly narrow as his sensitive ears are the first to hear the abrasion of his ship. Things vibrate on the shelves. Quint stops singing, Hooper and Brody continue a duet. The scraping repeats, and Hooper now senses it. He drops out of the song, leaving Brody singing solo. QUINT (quietly, to Hooper) Start the engines. As Brody hears this and is about to stop singing, the boat is suddenly bumped from below, and the gentle scraping turns to a violent assault somewhere on the understructure of the vessel. Water bubbles up into the hold. Brody starts, and looks at the radio. He is about to move towards it when Quint's urgent instructions stop him. QUINT He's busting the shaft! Start the pump! BRODY Where...? QUINT The bilge pumps. There -- He leaves Brody in the pilot house, and runs onto the deck, grabbing his M-1 rifle as he goes. Brody hits a switch and we hear the pumps starting. ANGLE ON THE ORCA Hooper is on the flybridge, starting the engines, but the diesels sound wrong. QUINT Cut the engines! Hooper does. HOOPER Rudder bearings? The boat is assaulted again. Quint fires over the stern, emptying a clip into the water. QUINT (to Brody) Get up forward! Watch for him! Brody moves cautiously up to the bow. QUINT Keep your eyes open, Mr. Hooper! Hooper stands ready on the bridge, Quint pacing the stern deck. QUINT Nobody sleeps! Nobody. He jams a fresh clip into the M-1. The men scan the seas around them. Quint resumes their song, louder this time, more defiant. QUINT (sings) Show me the way to go home... I'm tired and I want to go to bed. (etc.) Hooper and Brody join in from their respective positions. EXT. OCEAN, WIDE ON THE ORCA The men in place, singing, the water sparkling towards the horizon, the stars twinkling above. The sound of a distant whale in distant counterpoint. EXT. THE ORCA - DAWN Brody is at the wheel on the flying bridge, while Hooper and Quint have a hatch up on the stern, and are working together to repair the damaged rudder controls torn loose by the shark. Hooper is bucking the steel rod, while Quint is hammering away at the joint, trying to drive a new pin. The engine is idling. Bits of iron clutter the deck, along with a few rough, outsized tools and greasy rags and gaskets. QUINT More left rudder! More! Left hand down now, Chief. Brody tries to comply. HOOPER (shifting his grip) Lemme get a better angle on it. Now. Quint hammers again. QUINT He's bent the housing. You can hear it. And we can. The Orca's diesels are no longer smooth. Brody suddenly sees something, and points. BRODY'S POINT OF VIEW - THE WATER The barrel is surfaced directly ahead of them, just off the port side. They are drifting up to it. BRODY The barrel! The strobe light winks at them. Quint holds up a hand: "Quiet!" Everything stops as they watch the barrel coming slowly up on them. QUINT It's him. He takes a killing lance from the rack. Hooper gets a boathook. QUINT He's under the keg. Careful -- Hooper leans out gingerly, snagging the barrel with the hook. It bobs lightly in the water, an innocent bystander. Hooper shifts his pole, takes hold of the rope, poling it in. QUINT (suspicious) Easy -- just want to goose him up. The minute he runs, drop it or you'll lose your hands. Hooper gets the line and starts hauling it up. No resistance. It comes easily over the transom into a coil on the deck. He and Quint exchange looks. QUINT Here -- gimme. I don't see what he's been doin'. WATER - ANGLE Both men are draped over the side, their chins almost touching the water on the aft side. From the opposite starboard direction, fully unfastened from the barrel, comes the Great White. First the fin, then the conical nose and the upper border of wide, grinning teeth. It knifes through the water in absolute silence, propelling itself with tremendous speed toward the unsuspecting men. CLOSE - BRODY His instincts shine -- as does his newly-acquired sense of direction. BRODY (top of his lungs) Shark! Starboard! CLOSE - HOOPER AND QUINT They turn just in time, and a long spine-stretch saves them from instant decapitation. The Great White passes the transom, the harpoon still in its side and trailing five feet of chewed- off cable. It rolls on its side and looks at them as it passes. Past the stern the huge tail lashes out, ripping the rope out of Quint's hands, shearing a huge swath through the paint, peeling it off like a plane, taking one of the bronze letters out of "Orca." The shark begins an arc to sea, its fin cutting the water, and starts circling the boat. Quint notices his cut hand, palm bleeding, realizing how close he came to losing it. QUINT (to Hooper) Haul in that rope -- it'll foul us! (then to Brody on the bridge) Start the engine! The diesels start with a terrible grinding. QUINT Easy! It'll tear right out! HOOPER (hauling) The shaft is giving. Hooper slams the hatch, kicks the tools to one side, clearing the deck for action once again. BRODY (on bridge) That's it! Radio in for help! QUINT Shut up! Just pump her out! BRODY (coming down off the bridge) Yeah, Captain, as soon as I make a call. Brody heads for the radio in the pilot house. QUINT - CLOSE A perfectly terrible look comes over him. He raises up and starts after Brody. Brody disappears into the cabin. Quint pauses outside and sees: INSERT - QUINT'S LEAD-CENTERED BASEBALL BAT his calloused hand grabs it up fiercely. INT. RADIO SHACK Brody picks up the radio, flicking on knobs and lights on the complex console. QUINT (O.S.) Beg your pardon -- ANGLE - DOORWAY Quint appears, silhouetted in the hot light of the door, raising his bat. QUINT Duty first and pleasure after -- CLOSE - BRODY looking up in horror, covering his face. CLOSE - QUINT Quint brings down the bat with all the strength he can summon. Crash! Sparks fly, lights blink and go out, plastic and sections of metal ricochet all over the cabin as Quint demolishes the ship-to-shore radio. Quint takes a happy breath, winks at Brody and hands him the bat. QUINT Excuse me! Brody's adrenaline turns his fear into rage. His glasses are cracked or broken by flying pieces of radio. He seizes the bat, and pound the shattered radio for emphasis. BRODY Some great idea! Now where are we? Some goddamn skipper you are. You're certifiable, y'know that? You're a real treat! Certifiable! Bananas! His tirade is interrupted by an urgent bellow from Hooper. CLOSE - HOOPER Pointing at the fin. HOOPER Coming right to us! QUINT No -- comin' right at us! Slow ahead, he'll hit us head on -- (the engine clanks) Slower! Throttle back --- ANGLE - OVER THE BOW QUINT (raising harpoon) Hard to port! Hooper pulls the boat into a tight turn and Quint has a shot at the upward rolling flank. He sinks it with careful precision. QUINT Try shakin' that out! Brody emerges from the cabin as the rope zips overboard, and the barrel, changing over, catapults into the air before plunging into the ocean in a cloudy splash. BRODY (shouting to Quint) Did you get him in the head? QUINT (to Brody) No! No! No! (to Hooper) Swing around! After him! ON THE FLYBRIDGE Hooper can see the fin racing ahead of the barrel. Diving down. Up again -- Quint prepares another iron. Brody is digging in his bag. He comes up with his 2" .357 service revolver. QUINT More gas... go to half! Get me right alongside him -- The engine thuds and knocks. HOOPER (shouting down) We can't rev it up this high -- Suddenly the barrel gongs into the side of the Orca. QUINT Watch it! Hooper skillfully avoids the speeding rope. QUINT Atta boy! Quint leans to one side, harpoon over his head. The Great White breaks water and... QUINT Take two, they're small! He sinks it deep. We hear shots. As the new rope whips out, Brody can be seen standing on the gunwale, in regulation police combat pistol stance, holding his .357 in both hands, firing at the shark's head. Quint shakes his head in amused disbelief at this, as the barrel goes over. HOOPER (shouting at Brody) Don't shoot him any more! He's crazy on his own blood already! BRODY I can't stand here doing nothing! QUINT Order in the court! WATER LEVEL ANGLE He has seen the two barrels pop to the surface. QUINT (racing over) Three'll do it! He's havin' trouble with two! He yells to Hooper and Brody as he swings behind the controls. QUINT Grab yourselves a couple of poles! Quint steers "Slow Ahead," engine protesting, as he maneuvers toward the moving barrels. Quint peers down, steering closer and closer. QUINT Get ready! Now snag 'em! Together Brody and Hooper hook a barrel-rope and hold on for dear life as the shark changes course. QUINT Pull in the ropes and tie 'em onto the transom -- free ride. Brody and Hooper pull in with all they are worth as Quint helps out by wheeling in a circle. He laughs to himself, enjoying the spectacle. CLOSE - HOOPER securing the rope to a cleat but allowing the barrel to hang overboard. Brody ties his now-perfect bowline adjacent cleat. WIDE ANGLE - ORCA The boat is jarred violently from side to side as the underwater force of the Great White jerks and heaves them to and fro, up and down, side to side... ANGLE - HOOPER AND BRODY are both torn off their feet as the boat is thrust forward. FLYBRIDGE - QUINT sees the fin ahead. It is pulling the boat. QUINT Get tired! That's the idea! Here's a little reverse for you! The shark leaps partially out of the water, and the sight is both horrifying and awesome. Its jaws break water, snapping at the ropes that have him snarled and frustrated. Quint throws the Orca into neutral and shouts down: QUINT Haul in -- watch the prop! With that, Quint slides down to the prow, putting another shaft onto his gun, finding satisfaction in its heft and balance. The shark can be seen directly ahead, threshing closer. QUINT Now! Untie 'em! Quick! He'll tear us to pieces. He fires the iron, and the shark veers downward in a gushing shower of spray. HOOPER AND BRODY They are trying to untie from the cleats, but both ropes are stretched too taut. They jump out of the way, falling flat on the deck as the ropes sweep over them, knocking over objects, skeetering across the deck. A tight jerking motion, and the Orca is dragged through the water -- backwards. And much too fast. Water is splashing up over the transom in its backward wake. The engines groan and complain. QUINT Damn head is too far away. He's too big. Wrenched to one side, Quint is knocked from his feet. CLOSE - THE TWO CLEATS A moment of slackness, and then a great surge of raw strength. The rope snaps the cleats off, screws and splintered wood spraying -- and the barrels fly over the water. They disappear beneath the turbulent grey surface. The three men, breathing heavily, bruised and pouring sweat, look out at the blank water. ANGLE - OCEAN Pop -- pop -- pop. One, two, three, the barrels surface -- ready for more. QUINT (amazed at the shark's strength) He can't go so deep. Not with all those on him. Brody looks down at his feet. There is salt water up to their shoe tops. BRODY What about us? QUINT (mentally assessing the damage) Have to pump her steady, s'all. The barrels start a wide circle, each cuts through the water, pushing a wave before it and leaving a wake behind. QUINT (to Hooper) Follow him -- (to Brody) You start pumpin' out here. Quint tosses Brody the hand pump, then picks up his M-1, and checks the load. HOOPER (O.S.) (on bridge) He's heading under -- ! QUINT (incredulously) No way! He can't! ANGLE - OCEAN The barrels approaching the Orca dip below the surface, one -- two -- three. BRODY Where'd he go? Brody looks around. Hooper on the flying bridge searching in all directions. Quint is looking more appalled every second. QUINT (helplessly) He can't stay down with three barrels on him! Where is he?! BRODY Have you ever had one do this? QUINT (and he means this) No! Booming thud at the keel. Brody slides on the wet deck and Quint loses his footing, falling into Brody's arms. WITH HOOPER ON THE FLY BRIDGE It seems the only place out of reach of the shark. Quint climbs up, Brody following him, reloading his pistol. Just then, the barrels pop up ahead, veer left, and duck under. QUINT Follow him! HOOPER He's under! BRODY AND HIS POINT OF VIEW BRODY There! (points wildly) The barrels have surfaced and we see the monster shadow sliding under the Orca, seemingly endless. Violent scraping sounds. BRODY He's trying to sink us! QUINT (to Hooper) Dead astern! Zig-zag! Quint is grimly silent. Brody senses that Quint is in the fight of (and for) his life. The Orca taking evasive action. But the three barrels are closing the gap, the engines coughing and missing, destroying themselves with every rotation of the damaged shaft. BRODY He's chasing us! I don't believe it. QUINT Full throttle! To port! ANGLE ON THE BRIDGE Hooper is jamming the throttle forward, but the engine is pounding and knocking wildly. The barrels circle and move in. Quint has his rifle ready. HOOPER (suddenly giving Quint the wheel) Hold her. He leaps to his gear, trying desperately to get his dart gun. Just then, the shark attacks, breaking water and rising over the boat like a rocket; snout, jaws, pectoral fins, belly, falling sideways. A vast spray drenches the men. Quint fires into the belly, the bullets pocking the smooth whiteness. HOOPER (loading) Keep him there! Keep him! The Orca shudders from side to side. From Hooper's point of view we can the shark gripping the transom in his jaws, shaking the boat as he saws his massive head from side to side, trying to tear a chunk out of the very hull. Quint has reloaded and is firing into the fish. Brody has a wicked pointed gaff, and is swinging wildly at the snout, gashing and gouging it, trying for the eyes. The killing lust is on all three men. QUINT Throttling back! The boat surges, the shark gives a final unbalances wrench, and disengages. The dorsal fin circles off, beginning a wide loop around the boat. The engine quivers and dies, the boat without power, rolling half awash, a wounded victim. The fin dips, the barrels follow, the shark disappears beneath the waves. There is complete silence. THE THREE MEN ON DECK In the dead quiet, we can hear the lap of waves against the hull, the hoarse panting breathing of the men, the pings and pops of the cooling, dying engines. QUINT AND THE TRANSOM He eyes the stern. Huge cracks and broken timber testify to the fury of the attack. QUINT (very quietly, to Hooper) What can that gun of yours do? HOOPER Power head with 20 ccs of strychnine nitrate. If I can hit him. I can kill him. But I gotta be close. Very close. BRODY (the awful realization) You gotta go in the water... CUT TO: ON DECK, LATER Quint and Hooper are assembling the shark cage, its shiny bars the only undamaged things on deck. Brody is working too, bolting the sections together. HOOPER (in command now) Rig the cable to the roof eyebolts. The men are speaking in near whispers, quiet in the silence that surrounds them. Hooper is in his wet suit, adjusting weights, mask, tanks, etc. The cage is standing in the stern. Quint runs a line from the gin pole to the roof section. Hooper climbs in though the top. HOOPER Take me up. Brody cranks the winch, hoisting cage and Hooper into the air. Quint balances the gin pole lines, Hooper crouching in the cage, examining it for stresses; satisfied, he holds out his hand. Quint puts the spear gun into it. CLOSE ON HOOPER IN THE CAGE He examines his weapon, checking the power load, with the big wicked-looking syringe head uncapped to reveal its razor point. HOOPER Lower away, Chief. (then, to Quint) Try and keep him off me till I'm under. Hooper inside, looking out the bars of the cage, gives Brody a reassuring smile, then pops his mouthpiece between his teeth and checks his regulator. Brody steps back, and with Quint guiding the cage, begins lowering it off the gin pole boom arm into the sea alongside the boat. Brody and Hooper stare at each another as their faces pass, Hooper sliding down into the cold grey ocean. As Hooper disappears beneath the surface, Quint and Brody exchange a long look between them. UNDERWATER - CAGE HOOPER'S POINT OF VIEW Submerging. The sky, horizon, water line, clean fresh sea air then... the magnificent innerspaces, with bubbles sparkling in front of us. ANGLE - HOOPER IN THE CAGE as he floats to twenty feet Hooper never stops looking around 360 degrees. He removes the rubber guard from the needle and waits. EXT. THE SURFACE - BRODY AND QUINT Their turning heads tell us that the barrels are still circling. Suddenly, both heads stop turning. THE SEA The barrels have come to a stop. Delicately, they change course and meander toward the lowered cage. UNDERWATER - HOOPER His back is to us. He is just now completing a visual sweep and turns, eyes front into closeup and: fixes wildly on something monstrous... and fascinating. HOOPER'S POINT OF VIEW The water is clear and shafts of sunlight streak downward in the blue. From the deep gloom -- diving slowly, smoothly -- comes the shark. It moves with no apparent effort, sinuous beyond comparison. As it nears the cage, it turns, and its ghastly length passes right in front of him: first the snout, then the jaw, slack and smiling, then the black eye. Hooper tentatively reaches out. It is too far for the strychnine pole. The vinyl flesh is pocked with bullet holes, iron scars, gaffing hooks and strange open wounds that tinge the passing currents with pink. SURFACE The trailing barrels gong and scratch the keel of the Orca above. Brody and Quint leap back. HOOPER - CLOSE The shark has vanished into a cloud of rising silt. Hooper, expecting the shark to attack out of that same general direction, braces himself, pole extended through the bars, breathing faster, straining his eyes into the gloom and... we see that the shark attacking from behind him. The cage is sent careening. Hooper grabs the bars for dear life. The shark has grabbed the steel struts in its brutal jaws, shaking the cage relentlessly from side to side, bending the bars like clothes hangers. Hooper can't turn the pointed end of the pole around, his body jammed as far away from the non-rational attacker as possible. Hooper is trapped. The shark withdraws to get some running room then charges again. The bleeding snout thrust deeper into the yawing bars, the jaws snapping and twisting, two feet from Hooper's torso, the tail thrusting it forward. Hooper drops the strychnine pole between the bars and it tumbles slowly toward rapture depth. All the shark needs is one more good thrust before separating Hooper at the waistline. Through frantic bubbles Hooper fumbles with the overhead hatch cover, kicking up and out of the cage. The shark backpedals with its tail, but the broad head won't shake loose. Hooper rushes downwards, after the strychnine pole. ANGLE - SHARK The shark twists free of the cage and arrows downward after Hooper. Hooper nearly recovers the pole. Again it slips from his frightened grasp and this time disappears into a narrow abyss. Hooper turns and looks up. The Great White is lunging at him, twenty feet above. SURFACE One of the barrel ropes snakes around the cage rope and pulls taut. HOOPER - DEEP Turning to meet the monster which -- though held back for a moment by the snarled rope -- now surges forward. SURFACE - BRODY AND QUINT The Orca is listing dangerously aft, the ginpole bent almost to the breaking point. Brody is in a frenzy trying to haul up the cage. Quint attaches the end of Brody's rope to a hand-winch. The ginpole is splitting. QUINT Let go of it! The pole gives way, the rope whipping down on the gunwale... the pulling of the tonnage below is tipping the Orca, dragging it, but Quint won't give up the winch. Brody hauls on the rope barehanded. UNDERWATER - HOOPER maneuvering downward, away from the jaws... Suddenly the crazed shark veers upward for the surface. SURFACE - QUINT The winch is working faster now, Quint demonically winding it in. The crushed cage bangs against the hull then breaks water. Brody is horrified. The cage is empty! QUINT (a horrible scream) He's comin' up -- ! BRODY He's taken him! MASTER ANGLE The shark breaks water right beside the Orca, rising with a great whooshing noise. It rises vertically, towering overhead, blocking out the sun. The pectoral fins seem to reach forward. The shark, in all of its monstrous glory, falls onto the stern of the boat with a shattering crash, narrowly missing Quint and Brody. It drives the stern underwater, the ocean pours in over the transom. The jaws snap from side to side. Brody flounders backwards away from it. CLOSE - BRODY He is clinging to the mast for dear life, as the ship begins to tilt to stern, and everything starts to break loose around him. NIGHTMARE ANGLE - DECK OF THE ORCA The giant jaws are snapping irresistibly at everything: great chunks of wood torn out of the deck and superstructure. Deck chair, irons, rope, gear, beercans, bottles, Brody's bag, all are food for the insatiable maw blindly churning away. Quint is clinging next to a rack of lances: he is enraged at this ultimate violation of his territory. He snatches up a lance and hurls himself at the shark with a wordless bellow. The great head weaves side to side, the deck is at a treacherous incline, slippery with blood and seawater. Quint's footing falters and slips, he stumbles at the Mouth of Hell, the big teeth seize him and snap. Quint's roar of rage and pain is choked off as his body is clamped between the grinding, sawing teeth, and his head and legs suddenly contort as the shark's teeth meet across his torso. Blood gushes onto the deck. The remnants of his body tumble from the shark's mouth. Brody sees the horror, hears the screams -- in his desperation, he tears loose one of Hooper's remaining air tanks, and hurls it at the monster. It tumbles into the bloody well, wedging across the back of the mouth, the thick steel blocking the cruel jaws. The shark's head shakes even more violently, trying to clear the cold iron, but the tank is in to stay. DECK OF THE ORCA, LISTING BADLY To avoid sliding into the jaws, Brody scrambles on the titling deck, bracing himself in the cabin door to avoid pitching down into the bloody mouth. He fights his way into the cabin, already a shambles. Below him, on the deck, the shark lunges again, shifting weight so that the boat in now stern down, and listing to the side. Water from the sea pours into the cabin. Another lunge by the shark. The huge snout and jaws slam up against the doorframe, blocking escape, bloody, gnashing. More seawater. To stay in the cabin is to go down with the ship. Brody clambers as far from the shark as he can, against the forward wall of the pilothouse. He sees the window Hooper used before. It's blocked by barrels and debris. He breaks the side window highest above the water, edges out onto the battered bridge. The shark rolls around, now half in the water. The ship is sinking, the sea is not a viable alternative. Brody climbs up into the flying bridge. The shark is still lunging and snapping. Brody is forced to climb higher and higher as the ship slowly sinks beneath him. CLOSE - BRODY He scrambles for his life onto the flying bridge, sees the M- 1 stuck there, seizes it. OVER BRODY, LOOKING DOWN AT THE STERN He is bracing himself, aiming the rifle, taking a bead on the steel tanks, silver gleaming in the bloody shark's mouth. He fires. And fires. Bullets shatter the shark's teeth, punching holes in the dripping snout. WIDE ON THE ORCA ñ EXPLOSION With a muffled boom, the perfect symmetry of the shark is suddenly blown apart in a geyser of steel and blood as Brody's shot hits the pressurized tank. A 30-foot cloud of water, steel, shark and debris covers the sky. A gigantic convulsion hurls the Great White's mangled body into the sea. The Orca slowly begins to turn over in its death roll. UNDERWATER The shark's carcass floating down in a cloud of blood and debris. A shadow clouds the waters, and the Orca's mass begins to slip into the frame. CLOSE - HOOPER Emerging from beneath the surface, he raises his mask, spits out his mouthpiece and kicks toward Brody. SURFACE - BRODY AND HOOPER Brody is holding onto a cushion, barely afloat, relieved the shark is dead, yet stunned to see Hooper is still alive. The two men share weak laughter, which soon trails off. HOOPER Quint...? BRODY No... (notices something O.S.) You think we can get back with those? SURFACE - BRODY AND HOOPER - ANOTHER ANGLE They swim through the debris, using two barrels as floats, as dozens of seagulls feast on shark remains on the surface. BRODY What day is this? HOOPER Wednesday... No, it's Tuesday, I think. BRODY Think the tide's with us? HOOPER Just keep kicking. BRODY Y'know, I used to hate the water... HOOPER I can't imagine why. DISSOLVE TO: HIGH SHOT FROM SHORE The two tiny, miserable heroes swim ashore as the credits roll. FADE OUT: THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0791cd14f04db36fdea981dd6190c01f290a2b39 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK Screenplay by Kevin Smith OVER BLACK WE SEE: CHYRON A long time ago, in front of a convenience store far, far away-- EXT. QUICK STOP YEARS AGO--DAY We FADE IN on the block of stores (Quick Stop/RST), from sometime ago, In fact, RST isn't RST; it's THE RECORD RACK -- a 45's store with head shop paraphernalia in the window. A white-trash MOTHER (maybe seventeen) wearing a baseball cap comes into frame carrying a chubby BABY. The Baby wears an oversized t-shirt under what looks like a little bathrobe, and messily eats a CHOCOLATE BAR. There are food stamps in the Mother's hands. MOTHER Bobby-Boy stay here while mommy picks up the free cheese, 'kay? She looks up at the bright sun, shielding her eyes slightly, then looks back at the baby on the ground. She takes off her baseball cap and places it on the baby. MOTHER This'll keep the sun out of your eyes. You be good now. She walks away, leaving the baby sitting against the wall. With the backwards baseball cap and the chocolate around his mouth forming something that resembles a beard, the kid looks kind of familiar. Then, another MOTHER (also very young) decked out in a KISS concert shirt from years gone by and huge, feathered hair enters, with a black skullcap wearing BABY slung at her hip. She sees the first Baby, sitting against the wall and sets her Baby down beside him. MOTHER Don't fucking move, you little shit- machine. Mommy's gonna try to score. A PASSERBY enters, heading toward the convenience store. He takes note of the Babies and the Mother heading into the record store, and then stops and addresses her, disgusted. PASSERBY Excuse me--who's watching these babies? MOTHER The fat one's watching the little one. PASSERBY Oh, nice parenting. (walking away) Leave'em out here like that and see what happens. The Passerby walks away. The Mother flips him the bird. MOTHER FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING SQUARE! PASSERBY (waving her off) Ah, keep on truckin'. MOTHER (to baby) D'jou hear the crazy fuck tellin' me how to fuckin' raise you? Motherfucker, man! Who's he fucking think he is? What's the worse fuckin' thing could happen to you sitting outside the fuckin' stores? Fuck! The door closes, and the Babies sit there quietly for a beat. Then, they look at each other. The larger one says nothing. The smaller one says-- BABY Fuck, fuck, fuck... DISSOLVE TO: THE PRESENT JAY and SILENT BOB stand where the Babies sat. The Record Rack is now RST VIDEO. Jay is mid-chant. JAY (as a chant) --fuck, fuck, fuck, mother-mother fuck, mother-mother fuck-fuck! Mother- fuck-, mother-fuck, mother-fuck, noinch, noinch, noinch, smoking weed, smoking weed, doing coke, drinking beers! Drinking beers, beers, beers, rolling fatties, smoking blunts! Who smokes the blunts? We smoke the blunts! A pair of TEENS approach them. TEEN 1 Lemme get a nickel bag. JAY Fifteen bucks, little man. Put the money in my hand. If the money does not show, then you owe-me-owe-me- owe. (changing up to Morris Day) My Jungle Love! Yes, Oh-we-oh-we-oh! I think I want to know ya', know ya'-- TEEN 1 (digging in pockets) What the hell are you singing? JAY You don't know "Jungle Love"? That shit is the mad notes. Written by God Herself and handed down to the world's greatest band--the motherfucking Time. TEEN 2 The guys in that Prince movie? TEEN 1 Purple Rain. TEEN 2 Man, that shit was so gay--fucking eighties style. Jay suddenly grabs the kid by the throat, throwing him against the wall. JAY Bitch, don't you NEVER say an unkind word about The Time! Me and Silent Bob modeled our whole fucking lives after Morris Day and Jerome! I'm a smooth pimp who loves the pussy, and Tubby here's my black manservant! Just then, RANDAL exits the video store, locking the door behind him. RANDAL What'd I tell you two about dealing in front of the store? Drop the kid and peddle your wares someplace else, burn-boy. (walking away) And for the record, The Time sucked ass. He exits. Jay, Silent Bob, and the Teens watch him go. After a beat-- JAY Yo-youse guys wanna hear something fucked up about him and the Quick Stop guy? INT. QUICK STOP-DAY Randal joins Dante behind the counter. Dante rings up a customer, a half-eaten submarine sandwich sitting on the counter. Randal grabs it, takes a bite, and starts reading a newspaper. RANDAL Hey, can't we do something about those two stoners hanging around outside all the time? DANTE Why? What'd they do now? RANDAL I'm trying to watch Clash of the Titans, and all I can hear is the two them screaming about Morris Day at the top of their lungs. DANTE I thought the fat one didn't really talk much. RANDAL What, am I producing an A&E Biography about 'em? I'm just saying they shouldn't be loitering around the stores like they do. DANTE Neither should you, but we let you stay. RANDAL See, man--if you were funnier than that, ABC never would've canceled us. DANTE What? RANDAL Nothing. Enter Teen 1 and Teen 2, chuckling. TEEN 1 Two packs of Wraps. (beat) Yo--how was the service? RANDAL What service? TEEN 2 The one at the Unitarian church where you two got married to each other last week. RANDAL What the hell are you talking about? TEEN 1 Jay said you had a Star-Wars--themed wedding and you guys tied the knot dressed like storm troopers. TEEN 2 Yeah. And he said you're the bitch and you're the butch. Oh, sorry--the Leia and the Luke. DANTE I'm the bitch?! RANDAL Well if we were gay, that's how I'd see it. DANTE Would you shut up?! TEEN 1 (to TEEN 2) Holy shit, dude. The honeymoon's over. DANTE We're not married to each other. TEEN 1 Well, sure. Not in the eyes of the state or any real church, Skywalker. RANDAL (heading for the phone) That does it. I'm gonna do something about those two. I shoulda done a long time ago TEEN 2 In a galaxy far, far away! TEEN 1 (exiting) May the Foreskin be with you. Hand Jabba the Hutt. RANDAL (into phone) Yeah, I want to report a couple of drug dealers out in front of the Quick Stop. EXT. QUICK STOP--DAY Jay and Silent Bob are thrown against the wall outside by a COP, who frisks them. JAY What the Fuck, Serpico? What'd we do? COP We got a report that two guys were hanging around outside the stores, selling pot? JAY We don't smoke pot, yo. Teen 1 enters and hands Jay rolling papers. TEEN 1 Here're the rolling papers you wanted for your pot. And your change. Thanks. (getting in Jay's face) And The Time sucks ass! Teen 1 races off. Jay and Bob move to follow, but the Cop stops them, grabbing the rolling papers out of Jay's hand. He eyeballs the pair. COP No pot, hunh? What do you need this for? JAY What? I got a wiping problem. I stick these little pieces of paper over my brown-eye, and bam--no shit stains in my undies. (unbuttoning pants) You don't believe me? Lemme show you. Jay drops his pants and leans against the wall, looking back over his shoulder. JAY Just spread my cheeks a little and you can see the fucking stink nuggets-- COP Pull up your pants up sir, Now! Jay bends down to pull up his pants and FARTS. Silent Bob cracks up. The Cop grabs them both, leading them toward the car. COP Let's take a ride down to the station. JAY What? It's suddenly a crime to fart, motherfucker?! EXT. BRODIE BRUCE'S SECRET STASH COMIC BOOK STORE--DAY An ESTABLISHING SHOT of Brodie's store in the heart of Red Bank. BRODIE (O.S.) No fucking way! WE GO TIGHT on the huge, cartoon sign of BRODIE outside to-- INT. BRODIE BRUCE'S SECRET STASH COMIC BOOK STORE--LATER BRODIE himself, holding a stack of comics in one hand and a Dixie cup in the other, Jay and Silent Bob follow him as he puts new books in the racks. BRODIE Dante and Randal slapped you with a restraining order?! JAY Judge said if we go within a hundred feet of the stores, we get thrown into County. BRODIE So you gonna abide by the court's ruling or you gonna go Bandit-- Reynolds style? JAY Fuck yeah! You know what they make you do in county? Toss the fucking salad! I don't like this fuck's asshole; I'm gonna do it for some stranger? BRODIE I guess if you really wanted to hang out in from of a convenience store, you could just buy your own now-- what with all that money you guys made. JAY Hell yeah, bitch. (beat) Wait a second--what money? BRODIE The money from the movie, dumb-ass. JAY What the fuck are you babbling about? BRODIE (pulling a bagged-and- boarded issue down from the wall) The Bluntman and Chronic movie. (dawns on him) Oh my God--don't tell me you have no idea there's a movie being made of the comic you two were the basis for. JAY What?! Since when? BRODIE Goddamit, man-- (taps his wrist) Here's the pulse, alright. And here's your finger-- (shoves his hand down the back of his pants) --far from the pulse, jammed straight up your ass. (extracts hand and extends it to Jay) Say--would you like a chocolate covered pretzel? Brodie leads them back to the counter. BRODIE You see, kids, if you read Wizard, you'd know it's the top story this month. Check it out. Brodie hands Jay and Silent Bob a copy of Wizard, opened to the headline: Snootchie Bootchies! Bluntman and Chronic Get Big Screen Treatment! There are pictures of HOLDEN MCNEIL AND BANKY EDWARDS, as well as drawings of Bluntman and Chronic. JAY When the fuck did this happen?! BRODIE Well, after X-Men hit at the box office, all the studios started buying up every comic property they could get their hands on. Miramax optioned Bluntman and Chronic. JAY Miramax? I thought they only made classy flicks like The Piano and The Crying Game? BRODIE Yeah, well once they made She's All That, everything went to hell. So you're saying you haven't gotten a cut of the movie? Didn't Holden McNeil and Banky Edwards used to pay you likeness rights for the comic book? JAY We haven't seen a fucking dime for no movie! BRODIE Well boys, I'm no lawyer, but I think Holden and Banky owe you some of the proverbial phat cash. I mean they're making a movie based on characters that are based on you and Quiet Robert. JAY It ain't me and Quiet Robert. It's a pair of stupid-ass superheroes that run around saying "Snitchy-Nitchies" or something. BRODIE I believe it "Snootchie Boochies." Regardless--you're getting screwed. If I was you guys, I'd confront Holden McNeil and ask him for my movie check. JAY Shit yeah. We gotsa get paid. BRODIE And on that note, we cue the music. Jay lays down a House bass beat. Brodie complements it with his own beat. EXT. POTZER'S INC--DAY Jay and Silent Bob mosey past the front door of the building and knock. INT. POTZER'S INC--DAY Holden McNeil, opens the door and smiles. HOLDEN Well! I have been waiting years to do this. (smiles) Look at these morose motherfuckers right here. Smells like someone shit in their cereal. Bunngg! Jay and Silent Bob enter. Holden closes the door, following them. JAY What the fuck took you so long answering your damn door? You trying to talk another girlfriend of yours into some of that gay-ass three-way action with your buddy? HOLDEN No, I was just showering your mother's stink off me after I gave her a quick jump and sent her home. But now that you mention it-- (to Bob) Thanks, you know. You could've made the moral of that story you told me a bit more clear. Silent Bob shrugs. HOLDEN So what brings you two dirt merchants to my neck of the woods? JAY Oh, I'll tell you what our necks are doing in your woods-- Silent Bob holds up the Wizard article. JAY Where's our motherfucking movie check? HOLDEN You heard about that too, Hunh? Well, I've got nothing to do with it. That's Banky's deal. He owns the property now. I signed my half of the Bluntman and Chronic right over to him years ago. JAY Why the fuck would you do a thing like that? HOLDEN Because I'm almost thirty, for God's sake--why on earth would I want to keep writing about characters whose central preoccupations are weed and dick and fart jokes? You gotta grow, man. Don't you ever want more for yourself? (off Silent Bob) I know this poor, hapless sonovabitch does. I look in his doe eyes and I see a man crying out, "When, Lord? When the fuck can your servant ditch this foul-mouthed little chucklehead to whom I am a constant victim of his folly, and who bombards me and those around us with grade-A foolishness that prevents me from even getting to kiss a girl? Fuck! When?! Silent Bob nod like he's finally understood. Jay looks at him, hurt, and Bob tried to downplay the comment's truth. JAY I'm the chucklehead? Fuck you--you're the dumb-ass who gave away his comic, and now you ain't got no fat movie check neither. HOLDEN When you're right, you're right. I wish I'd broken off a little piece for myself. Because if the buzz is any indication, the movie's gonna make some huge bank. JAY What buzz? HOLDEN The Internet buzz. JAY What the fuck is the Internet? INT. OFFICE OF POTZER'S INC--LATER Holden's at a computer terminal. Jay and Silent bob look over his shoulder. HOLDEN The Internet is a communication device that allows people the world over to bitch about movies and share pornography with one another. (off monitor) Here's what we're looking for: "Movie PoopShoot.com" JAY (to Bob) "PoopChute." Yeaaahhh. HOLDEN This is a site full of militant movie buffs: sad bastards who live in their parents' basements, downloading scripts and trading what they believe to be inside info about movies and actors they despise yet can't stop discussing. This is where you go if you wanna hear frustrated would-be filmmakers mouth off with their two- bit, arm-chair-director's opinions on how they all could've made a better Episode One. On the computer monitor, we see the site mainpage load up. Holden begins navigating the site. HOLDEN Here. This is about the Bluntman movie. (reading) "Inside sources tell me Miramax is starting production this Friday on their adaptation of underground comic fave Bluntman and Chronic." JAY Friday?! Shit. Does it say who's playing us in the movie? HOLDEN No, but if it's Miramax, I'm sure it'll be Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. They put'em in a bunch of movies. JAY Who? HOLDEN You know--the guys from Good Will Hunting. JAY You mean the fucking movie with Mork from Ork in it? HOLDEN Yeah, I'm not too big a fan either. Though Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms. JAY Word, bitch. Phantoms like a motherfucker. Holden and Jay slap hands. Holden points at the monitor again. HOLDEN Now down here is where you can gauge the buzz. This is the Shoot Back area. It's where people who read the news get to chime in with their two cents. Here's what a guy who goes by the chick-magnet Net handle of "Wampa- One" thinks about Bluntman and Chronic. (reading) "Bluntman and Chronic and their stupid alter egos Jay and Silent Bob only work in small doses, if at all. They don't deserve their own movie." (to Jay) He's got a point. JAY Fuck him. What's the next one say? HOLDEN (reading) "Bluntman and Chronic is the worst comic I ever read. Jay and Silent Bob are stupid characters. A couple of stoners who spout dumb-ass catchphrases like a third-rate Cheech and Chong or Bill and Ted. Fuck Jay and Silent Bob. Fuck them up their stupid asses." JAY Who the fuck said that shit?! HOLDEN A guy who calls himself "Magnolia- Fan." Check out what the guy after him said: "Jay and Silent Bob are terrible, one-note jokes that only stoners laugh at. They're fucking clown shoes. If they were real, I'd beat the shit out of them for being so stupid. I can't believe Miramax would have anything to so with this shit. I, for one, will be boycotting this movie. Who's with me?" (leans back) And then there are about fifty more posts from people who agree to join Spartacus-here's boycott of the flick. JAY (grimly) I'm gonna kill all these fucks-- HOLDEN Ah, let it go. Number one, they're a bunch of jealous little dicks who use the anonymity of the Net to insult people who're doing what they wish they were doing, and number two, they're not really talking about you guys--they talking about Bluntman and Chronic. JAY But they said Jay and Silent Bob! They used our real names. It doesn't matter that there's a comic book version of us and a real version, 'cause nobody knows we're real in real life. HOLDEN Really. JAY Yeah! And all these people who read that shit think the real Jay and Silent Bob are a couple of faggots 'cause of that all these dicks are writing about the comic book Jay and Silent Bob! And maybe one night, me and Lunchbox'll be macking some bitch, and she'll be like "Oooo! I want to suck youse guys dicks off. What's your names?" And I'll be like, "Jay and Silent Bob." And she'll be like, "Oh--I read on the Internet that youse guys were little fucking jerkoffs." And then she goes and sucks two other guys's dicks off instead! Well fuck that! We gotta put a stop to these hateful sonsa- bitches before they ruin our good names! HOLDEN First off, I don't know how good your names really are. Secondly, there's not much you can do about stopping this bile. The Internet's given everyone in America a voice, and everyone in American has chosen to use that voice to bitch about movies. As long as there's a Bluntman and Chronic movie, the Net-nerds are gonna have something negative to say about it. Jay steams, thinking. Then, a light dawns on him. JAY But wait a second--if there wasn't a Bluntman and Chronic movie, then no one would be saying shit about Jay and Silent Bob, right? HOLDEN They're not saying anything about you now--they're talking about fictional characters! JAY (oblivious to Holden; to Bob) So all we gotta do is stop 'em from making the movie! HOLDEN Yeah, and kiss-off the hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties you're due in the process. Are you fucking retarded? Look, I'm probably not alone in the opinion that this flick is the worst idea since Greedo shooting first. I mean, a Jay and Silent Bob movie? Who would pay to see that? Holden, Jay and Silent Bob pause and look at the camera for a beat. Then-- HOLDEN But since it is happening, you might as well just ignore the idiots on the Internet, go find Banky, and get your "motherfucking movie check." As you so succinctly put it. That's what's important here. JAY No, Holden McNeil--what's important here is that there's a bunch of motherfuckers we don't even know calling us assholes on the Internet to a bunch of teenagers and guys who can't even get laid. Putting a stop to that is the most important thing we could ever do. (off monitor) When did it say they're making that movie? HOLDEN They start this Friday. JAY So if today's Tuesday, that gives us-- (counts) Eight days. HOLDEN It's more like three days. JAY Right. Three days to stop that stupid fucking movie from getting made! C'mon, Silent Bob-- Jay and Bob stand and look at each other, filled with purpose. JAY We're going to Hollywood. They stride off. Holden shakes his head. HOLDEN Now that's what I call the Blunt leading the Blunt. EXT. BUS STATION--DAY Jay and Silent Bob approach a bus that's labeled "Los Angeles." They nod at each other and then climb aboard. After a beat, they re-emerge. JAY Tickets? Since when did they start charging for the bus? They head toward the depot. JAY Didn't we used to ride that shit to school every day for free? EXT. HIGHWAY--DAY The bus roars past a sign that read: Leaving New Jersey. INT. BUS--SAME Jay makes his way up to the DRIVER. JAY We in Hollywood yet? DRIVER It's a three--day ride to Los Angeles, sir. We left twenty minutes ago. JAY I didn't ask you about Los Angeles. I asked you about Hollywood. DRIVER Hollywood's in Los Angeles, sir. JAY Don't change the subject! Are we in Hollywood yet or not? DRIVER Please sit down, sir. Jay glares at the Driver and heads back to his seat. JAY Why don't you take your seat Ralph Kramden-- Jay slumps into the seat beside Silent Bob. JAY I'm fucking bored, man. There ain't shit to so on this bus. Silent Bob mimes jerking off. JAY I already did that. Twice. Silent Bob shrugs, looking out the window, Jay looks across the aisle and spots a CHILD IN A HELMET playing a handheld video game. He leans over to him. JAY Yo, Gretzky--lemme get a turn. CHILD Leave me alone, little kid. The Child gives him the finger. Jay goes wide-eyed, turning to Silent Bob. JAY That fuck called me a little kid and gave me the finger! Go kick his ass! Silent Bob offers an incredulous look, as if to say, "He's ten years old." JAY You're my muscle, ain'tcha? Silent Bob kind of nods. JAY So go open a can of whup-ass on that little fuck, and get me his game! Silent Bob sighs and stands. He climbs over Jay into the aisle and stands in front of the child. He looks at him and registers doubt. He looks back to Jay, who waves him on. Silent Bob steels himself, looks back to the kid and reaches for his game. The Child emits a high-pitched scream and starts punching himself in the head. Silent Bob dives back into his seat, trying to look nonchalant. The Child stops crying. Jay looks at Silent Bob. JAY You're one tough motherfucker, you know that? EXT. HIGHWAY--DAY The bus pulls over by the side of the road. INT. BUS--DAY The Bus Driver heads down the aisle toward the back of the bus, followed by pissed-off PASSENGERS. PASSENGER They been in there going on half an hour now! Two of them! Doing God knows what! The Bus Driver bangs on the bathroom door and shouts. DRIVER This bus isn't moving another inch unless you clear out of there right now! No answer. The Bus Driver bangs on the door harder. DRIVER DO YOU HEAR ME?! OPEN THIS DOOR! NOW!! The door handle turns, the door swings wide, and massive amounts of smoke suddenly billow through the back of the bus. The smoke clears to reveal Jay and Silent Bob squeezed into the bathroom, holding a massive joint. JAY Um--I think something's burning back here. EXT. ROADSIDE--LATER As the bus pulls away, Jay and Silent Bob are revealed, left behind. JAY The whole fucking world's against us, dude. I swear to God. Silent Bob nods. Jay sticks out his thumb and starts hitching. EXT. ROADSIDE--LATER Jay and Bob are walking backwards, hitching still. JAY This sucks balls, man. How come we ain't getting no rides? VOICE 'Cause you're doing it all wrong. Jay and Bob look behind them. There's a GUY hitching as well. GUY You gotta induce the drivers a little. JAY Like how? GUY Like this. The GUY holds out his sign to them. It reads: Will Give Head For Ride. JAY Yeah, but what happens when you get in the car, and you don't make with the head? Don't they kick your ass to the curb? GUY Sure--if you don't make with the head. Jay and Bob look at him for a long beat. Then-- JAY Eww! You eat the cock?!? GUY Yeah. If it'll get me a few hundred miles across country. I'll take a shot in the mouth. JAY Yeah, but we ain't gay. GUY Well, neither am I. But have you seen the price of bus tickets lately? Shit--I don't wanna cough up two hundred bucks just to get to Chicago. JAY Well, I don't wanna cough up some dude's sperm! GUY Don't be so suburban--this is the new millennium. Gay, straight--it's all the same now. There're no more lines. Jay draws a line on the ground with his foot. JAY There's one. On this side of it, we ain't gay. GUY All hitchers do this. Why do you think people pick us up? If you get a ride, it's expected--I don't care who the driver is. It's the first rule in the Book. JAY What book? GUY The unwritten Book of the Road. A TRUCK starts to pull over to the side of the road. The Guy points to it, as if to say "See?" The passenger-side door opens. The Guy climbs into the truck and closes the door. He looks out the window at Jay and Bob. GUY Follow the rules of the Book, and you'll get where you're going in no time. Excuse me. Through the windshield, Jay and Silent Bob see the Guy go face-first into the TRUCK DRIVER'S lap. The Truck Drivers smiles, and the truck takes off, roaring down the road. Jay and Silent Bob watch the truck disappear. Then, a CAR pulls up. The NUN driving rolls down the passenger side window and leans toward them. NUN You two boys need a ride? INT. CAR--LATER The NUN drives, smiling. Jay and Silent Bob sit in the back seat, huddled close together, their eyes glued on the Nun. NUN You both don't have to sit back there. One of you can sit up here with me. Silent Bob shakes his head "no" to Jay. Jay shrugs and climbs up front. NUN So where are you boys from? JAY New Jersey. NUN What brings you to Indiana? JAY We're going to Hollywood. NUN Hollywood, hunh? That's a long ways away. JAY Yeah--we're lucky you picked us up. NUN Well, do unto others. That's what the Book says. JAY (misinterpreting completely) Wait a minute--you follow the Book, too? NUN I live my life by it. JAY Really? You? NUN Of course. You know how lonely it gets on the road? Thanks to the Book, I'm never alone--if you know what I mean. JAY I guess. This guy back there explained it to us. But I didn't think you'd be into that. NUN Are you kidding? I've dedicated my life to it. Every hour of every day. JAY Shit--you nuns are alright. NUN You live by the Book, too? JAY You picked us up, didn't you? I gotta. NUN That's good to hear. But it takes deed, not words. It's a lot easier to say you live by the Book than to actually do it. (looks at him) Can you do it? JAY You want me to do it right now? NUN No time like the present, right? Jay looks back at Silent Bob. Silent Bob shakes his head "no." Jay shrugs them flips his hair over his shoulder, and starts to bend down. JAY Alright. (he suddenly stops) You hear that? She's not a Catholic. She's a Presbyterian. Jay disappears below the dash, The Nun goes wide-eyed. EXT. ROADSIDE--DAY The Nun's car screeched to the side of the road. Jay gets kicked our of the front seat by the screaming Nun. Silent Bob rushes out too, and the car races off. Jay's wipes his mouth. He pulls a long curly hair from between his teeth. JAY Dude--she had seventies bush. EXT. HIGHWAY--NIGHT Jay and Bob continue hitching. JAY I can't believe this shit. Five hours and not a single ride. Every day, millions of people hitch to Hollywood and stop studios from making movies about 'em. But when you and me try it, it's like we're trapped in a fucking cartoon! A familiar-looking VAN pulls up in the other side of the raid, The horn beeps. Jay and Bob look at each other, shrug, and race across the street, get in. The van pulls off. INT. VAN--NIGHT Jay and Bob sit in the back of the can and stare at-- A clean-cut GUY, a Bookish woman in glasses, a red headed Beauty, a stoner DUDE, and a GREAT DANE. Jay looks at Silent Bob. JAY Zoinks, yo GUY And now we can finally solve the mystery of the Hitchhiking Ghouls! Pull off their masks and let's see who they really are! BOOKISH I don't think they are masks. BEAUTY I don't think they're Hitchhiking Girls either. BOOKISH Ghouls, you fucking moron. Not Girls. (to herself) Though I wish they were hitchhiking girls. Sexy, skimpily clad hitchhiking girls-- GUY Let's kick them out. We've got a mystery to solve. DUDE The only mystery here is why we take our cues from a dick in a neckerchief! GUY Keep it up, Beatnik! I'll feed you to the fucking dog! BEAUTY (covering her ears; shrieking) I CAN'T TAKE ALL THIS FIGHTING! JAY YO! The Gang look to Jay and Bob. JAY Youse guys need to turn those frowns upside down! And we got just the thing for that. (pulls out a bag of joints) We call them Doobie Snax. INT. VAN--WEED VISION As Jay and Bob toke up, we go all SLO-MO and 70's freaky (with the image seeming to SWIM). Through their stoned haze, we see old-school witches, skeletons, and ghouls swirling about their heads--the latter of which gets his mask taken off to reveal a man inside a costume. Jay and Bob look at the gang, then take a hit off their joint and look back. Suddenly, the gang's engaged in total debauchery: the Dude rides the windshield while the Guy cackles insanely, blindfolded by his neckerchief. Bookish and Beauty are in their underwear, making out with each other. The Great Dane looks at Jay and Bob and says-- GREAT DANE Ri, Ray rand Rirent Rob The Great Dane rolls over, revealing its RED THING sticking way out of its sheath. It's monstrous. Jay and Bob go wide- eyed. JAY Look at his fuckin' lipstick!!! He's got a stoner-boner!!! Jay and Bob smile and pass out. We cut back to the gang, who now appear as they did prior to Weed-Vision. They stare at the O.C. Jay and Bob. BEAUTY I think they passed out. GUY Great. What do we do with them now? DUDE Let's cut out their kidneys to sell on the black market and leave them in a seedy motel bathtub full of ice. BOOKISH Oh God, not again? INT. SEEDY MOTEL BATHROOM--NIGHT Jay lies in a bathtub full of ice, screaming. There's a scar on his back. EXT. KANSAS CITY PARK--DAY Jay wakes up suddenly, screaming. He startles Bob awake as well, as he clutched at this back lifting his shirt to see the scar. It's not there. JAY Holy shit, I had a horrible dream. (looks around) Yo, I'm hungry. Where can we get some breakfast? Bob looks around, and then locks on something O.C. He points, and Jay looks, smiles widely, and nods. EXT. MOOBY'S FAST FOOD JOINT--DAY An ESTABLISHING SHOT of the fast food eatery, as Jay and Bob enter. INT. MOOBY'S FAST FOOD JOINT--SAME As the pair head for the counter, Jay notices a public INTERNET TERMINAL. He tugs at Silent Bob's arm. JAY Yo--check that shit out: the Internet. Let's see if those fucks said something new about us and that stupid flick. Bob shrugs, heading for the terminal. He inserts a dollar and types, following it up with a mouse click. The pair look at the screen and go wide-eyed. JAY "Any movie based on Jay and Silent Bob is gonna lick balls, because they both, in fact, lick balls. Namely each other's." Jay and Silent Bob look at each other, wide-eyed. JAY Eww. (reading further) "Yes--they are real people. Real stupid people. Signed, Darth Randal." (to Bob) Motherfucker! It's time we wrote something back! Type this shit down. Silent Bob starts typing as Jay dictates. JAY All you motherfuckers are gonna pay. You are the ones who are the ball- lickers. We're gonna fuck your mothers whole you watch and cry like little bitches. Once we get to Hollywood and find those Miramax fucks who are making the movie, we're gonna make 'em eat our shit, then shit our shit, then eat their shit which is made of our shit that we made 'em eat. Then all you motherfuckers are next. Love, Jay and Silent Bob. Silent Bob finishes typing and presses "Return". He and Jay nod at each other, then head over to the counter line, looking up at the menu board. JAY That'll fucking show 'em. Now we eat our Egga-Mooby-Muffins, then get back on the road, get to Hollywood, and stop that fucking movie from getting made. No more hairy-bush nuns, no more dogs. We keep our eye on the prize, and not let nothing-- and I mean NOTHING--distract me. As Jay finishes speaking, he looks to the O.C. doors and freezes. A gorgeous GIRL walks through the front doors, all in SLO-MO to the tune of Prince's The Most Beautiful Girl in the World. She's bathed in light, glowing. She bats her eyelashes, gliding toward us. Jay is mouth-agape wide eyed. Silent Bob looks at him, then at the O.C.Girl. He slowly waves his hand in front of Jay's eyes, getting zero response. JAY'S POV The Girl smiles at us. His POV goes from her face, down to her breasts, then down to her crotch. Jay moves past Silent Bob and meets the Girl in the middle of the floor. He embraces her and lands a long, sweet kiss on her mouth. After a beat, he starts fumbling like a teenager to get to second base under her shirt, totally incongruous with the music. The Girl kindly tries to deter him. But it's just a fantasy. Jay's still standing there next to Silent Bob, but he is sporting a huge BONER. Silent Bob rolls his eyes. He grabs a soda cup off the counter and sticks it over Jay's boner, just as the Girl joins them in line. She smiles at the zombified Jay. GIRL (off cup) Oh my God. Do you get free refills with that? JAY Oh, what--this? I just wear this for protection. You know--so no guys try to grab my shit. GIRL Hi. I'm Justice. JAY (dreamily) And I am so fucking yours-- Silent Bob pokes Jay, who shakes of his daze. JAY I mean hi. I'm Jay. And this is my hereto life-mate, Silent Bob. JUSTICE It's nice to meet you. JAY Justice, hunh? That's a nice name. (under his breath, to Bob) Jay'n'Justice, sitting in a tree. F- U-C-K-I-N-G-- (back to Justice) So you come here often? JUSTICE Oh, I'm not from around here. My friends and I are taking a road trip, and we just stopped to grab something to eat. JAY Your friends, hunh? Where they at? JUSTICE (pointing) Out there. By that van. Jay and Bob look past Justice to see a VAN with three other gorgeous GIRLS stretching outside of it, throwing their hair around, looking incredibly sexy. Without looking at Silent Bob, Jay quietly says to him-- JAY Dude--I think I just filled the cup. INT. VAN--DAY Jay and Bob climb into the can, getting odd looks from the other Girls, Justice follows them in, tossing the fast food to her friends. JAY Ladies, ladies, ladies! Jay and Silent Bob are in the Hizz-ouse!!! SISSY Who the fuck are these guys? JUSTICE This is Jay and Silent Bob. (to Jay and Bob) Guys, this is Sissy, Missy, and Chrissy. CHRISSY Where the fuck did they come from? JUSTICE I met 'em inside. They're gonna hitch a ride. SISSY I don't know if that's such a great idea. Jussy. JAY Sure it is, Juggs. MISSY Oh my god--he just called Sissy "Juggs"! CHRISSY I'm on it. Chrissy lunges toward Jay, pulling a knife. JUSTICE Chrissy, no! Sissy stops Chrissy, shoving a burger into her hands. SISSY We're in the middle of suburbia, Chrissy. Let's try to act like it. CHRISSY And what-stupid ass little foul- mouthed bitch-boys don't get their balls cut off in suburbia? JAY (oblivious) What's with the knife? We having cake or something? CHRISSY Holy shit--he's retarded, to boot. JAY (to Silent Bob) Yo--she called you retarded. SISSY (to Justice) What's wrong with you, Justice? You do remember where we're going, don't you? MISSY That we do have a job to do? JUSTICE They're just gonna tag along for a few miles. They won't get in the way, I promise. (cutesy) Please? SISSY Fine--they can ride with us. But they're so out of here before we get to Boulder. JUSTICE Honest Injun. CHRISSY "Honest Injun"? (to Sissy) I can't believe what a pushover you are. JAY And I can't believe fine-ass bitches like yourselves eat that shit. Don't you know fast food makes girls fart? Suddenly, Jay and Bob are parted by BRENT, who's getting into the van. BRENT Say--what's all this talk about farting? Sissy, Missy, and Chrissy immediately go from disgusted to sweet and airy, totally switching characters. SISSY/CHRISSY/MISSY Hi Brent! SISSY This is Brent. He's with us, too. CHRISSY Brent, tell these sillies that girls don't fart. BRENT Of course they don't! Only skeevy stoners fart. The very white Brent puts his hand out to be slapped by Jay and Silent Bob. BRENT What up, homies? (off the Girls) Wow, Three guys, four girls-- (to Jay and Bob) What's the count boys? Jay and Bob look at each other and roll their eyes. EXT. HIGHWAY--DAY The van drives down the road. We hear singing from inside. INT. VAN--DAY Brent strums a guitar and sings, as the Girls and Jay and Bob listen, rolling eyes. BRENT Hey there mister science-guy. Don't spray that aerosol in my eye. For I don't really want to die. I'm a noble rabbit! JAY What're you guys, like a cover band or something? SISSY We're the Kansas State chapter of S.A.A.C.--Students Against Animal Cruelty. CHRISSY And we're on our way to Colorado to give Provasik a piece of our minds! Everyone lets out a whoop, except Jay and Bob. JAY What the fuck are you bitches babbling about? BRENT Hey! Watch the language little boy. There are females present. Jay and Silent Bob eyeball Brent, until Justice distracts them. JUSTICE Provasik Pharmaceuticals is a medical lab where they perform gross experiments on animals. JAY So, what kind of animals are we talking about here--like bears and rhinos? BRENT No--more like rabbits, dogs, cats... heck, even monkeys, If we don't speak for them, who will? (touches Justice's arm) Right, Jussy? Jay sees this and his eyes flare over the competition. After a beat, he relaxes. JAY Hey, uh--Brent? Can I talk to you over here for a second? Brent joins Jay, strumming his guitar. Jay addresses him confidentially. JAY Be honest, yo--you're down with this for the fine-ass pussy, right? BRENT I'm down with this because I love animals, stupid. JAY Even sheep? BRENT Of course. Sheep are beautiful creatures. JAY They are beautiful, aren't they? BRENT Oh God, yes. JAY So then you'd fuck a sheep? BRENT What is your damage little boy? You've got a sick and twisted world perspective. JAY No, you misunderstand me, Prince Valiant. I mean if you were another sheep. Would you fuck a sheep if you were another sheep? BRENT I--suppose so. JAY That's what I thought. (suddenly loudly, to all) YO! THIS MOTHERFUCKER AIN'T ONE OF US! HE JUST SAID HE'D FUCK A SHEEP! EXT. HIGHWAY--DAY The side door of the van slides open and Brent gets hurled out of the moving vehicle. Jay throws his guitar at him as well, yelling and flipping the bird as the van drives off. JAY YA DIRTY SHEEP FUCKER!!! EXT. HIGHWAY--LATER The van drives down the road. INT. VAN--SAME Missy drives. Sissy sits in the passenger seat. Chrissy kneels between them. CHRISSY What the fuck are we gonna do now? SISSY Shut up, I'm thinking. In the back, Justice studies some blueprints. Jay joins her, and she quickly folds them up. JAY Is Hollywood near where we're going? JUSTICE Is that where you guys are from? JAY Ch'yeah, right. Jersey represent! JUSTICE Oh, a Jersey Boy. What brings you all the way out here? JAY Well, we couldn't hang in front of the Quick Stop no more, 'cause of the strainen-en order, which sucks ass 'cause it's been like our home since we were kids. Silent Bob even busted his cherry there. JUSTICE (to Bob) You did? I'll bet she was a lucky girl. Bob blushes, Jay doesn't like that Justice's attention has strayed. JAY Look, fuck that fat fuck--I'm trying to tell a story here. JUSTICE Sorry. JAY Anyway, we were talking to Brodie and he said there's gonna be a Bluntman and Chronic movie. So we went to see Holden McNeil, and he showed us the Internet, and that's where we found all these fucking little jerkoffs were saying shit about us. So we decided to go to Hollywood and stop the movie from getting made. And now we're here. JUSTICE Wow. I have no idea what you just said. JAY Yeah, I get that a lot. So you like animals, huh? JUSTICE Sure. JAY That's cool. Even snakes? JUSTICE You can't exclude an animal just because it's not cuddly. Of course I like snakes. JAY How about trouser snakes? JUSTICE What's a trouser snake? Just then, a little JAY DEVIL appears on Jay's left shoulder. JAY DEVIL (to Jay) What the fuck are you waiting for? She went for the setup! Reach in your fucking pants, and pull yer cock out, bitch! That's the kinda shit girls like! Suddenly another little JAY DEVIL appears in Jay's right shoulder. JAY DEVIL 2 Right about here's where the angel's supposed to show up and tell you not to pull your dick out. But we bitch- slapped that little fuck and sent him packing, so it's smooth sailing. Let 'er rip, boy! They disappear in little puffs of smoke and Jay shoves his hand down his pants, getting ready to whip out his dick, when suddenly a little JAY ANGEL appears on his shoulder, rubbing a swollen jaw. JAY ANGEL Sorry I'm late. So what's the deal here? (looks down) Oh, shit--you're not thinking of whipping your dick out at this fine piece of woman, are you? Jay thinks, then nods "Yes." The Jay Angel rolls his eyes, and slaps him. JAY ANGEL Tell you what: look at Silent Bob. See if he thinks it's a good idea to whip your dick out. Jay looks to Silent Bob. Silent Bob looks from Jay's hand in his pants to Jay and shakes his head "no," sternly. Jay withdraws his hand from his pants. The Jay Angel nods, satisfied. JAY ANGEL That's it, boy--put the dick down. You gotta go from the heart, yo. No little perv bullshit will do for this one. Be smooth. Be Don Juan de la Nootch. Now I gotta go beat the shit out of two suckerpunching little bitches. Remember--don't pull your dick out until she asks you to. (beat) Or until she sleeping. Bunnnnggg! The Jay Angel blinks away. Justice looks at Jay, a bit confused. JAY Don't ask. (beat) So, uh--what can a pimp-daddy like me do to help the animals? JUSTICE You really don't want to help us-- JAY What the fuck are you talking about? Sure I do. I'd do anything for you. Justice smiles. Jay tries to recover. JAY I mean, youse guys! I'd do anything for youse guys. For the lift and shit. JUSTICE You sure? JAY Sure, I'm sure. I said it, didn't I. Fuck JUSTICE Well--okay. Let me talk it over with the other girls and get back to you. JAY You do that. Jay takes Justice's hand and kisses it. JAY I'll be right here. He winks at her, smiles and moves to the other side of the can, near Silent Bob. He's still smiling at Justice and winking when he looks to Silent Bob who stares at him blankly, then imitates Jay's hand-kissing back at him, Jay scowls. JAY Fuck you. Fatty. EXT. CONVENIENCE STORY--DAY The van pulls up and all pile out, stretching. The Girls head toward the store. Justice calls over to Jay and Silent Bob. JUSTICE You guys want anything from inside? JAY No, we're cool, thanks hon. Justice smiles and heads inside. Jay and Silent Bob study the front of the foreign convenience store. They look for a place to lean, try a few spots out, then settle into one. After a beat-- JAY It just ain't the same, is it? This place licks balls compared to Quick Stop. Silent Bob shakes his head "Yeah." JAY And speaking of licking balls--how 'bout that Justice chick? She is too fine. And she smells so fucking pretty. She's got a nice voice, too. And that body? Smoking. You know, she never once said "fuck off," when I was talking to her, or pulled out the pepper spray, or nothing. I tell ya, Lunchbox--she could be the one. INT. CONVENIENCE STORE--DAY Justice is at the microwave when she's suddenly surrounded by the other girls. MISSY Smooth move, Justice. CHRISSY (slapping Justice upside the head) Nice going, Four Eyes! JUSTICE Ow! SISSY Why the fuck did you let that little stoner throw Brent our of the van?! JUSTICE Oh please--if I had to listen to one more of those stupid songs, I was going to throw him out myself. SISSY We needed Brent, Justice! He was our patsy! JUSTICE We'll find someone else. Besides, I didn't see you trying to stop Jay from throwing him out. SISSY Because I didn't want to blow our cover! JUSTICE Cover, shmover--you all hated his songs, too. CHRISSY Not as much as I hate you. Justice offers Chrissy a cold glance, CHRISSY Fuck, if I don't get to kill someone soon, I'm gonna--fucking kill someone! SISSY (rubbing Chrissy's shoulders) Don't mind Chrissy. She's just a little too wound for sound. CHRISSY Then how about you help me take the edge off? Chrissy grabs Missy forcefully and the pair make out, hot and heavy in the middle of the convenience store. Other customers regard them wide-eyed. JUSTICE (to Customers) They're really good friends. SISSY (TO CHRISSY AND MISSY) Would you two knock it off? We're in the fucking heartland here! Try to blend! JUSTICE They already do--she's the milkmaid, and she's the cow. CHRISSY Oh, I'm a cow, am I? I'm a mad cow, bitch. And now I'm gonna rip your head off and fuck your spine stump. SISSY Enough! (calm to Justice) We have a very simple gang here, Justice. I'm the brains, Chrissy's the brawn, and Missy's the tech-girl. But lately, I'm having a hard time figuring out what you're doing here. JUSTICE That makes two of us. CHRISSY Shit--your name doesn't even fit the rhyme scheme. JUSTICE That's because very few names rhyme with "douchebag." CHRISSY (getting in her face) You're dancing on my last nerve, Strawberry Shortcake. (to Sissy) You deal with the weak link. I'm gonna take Missy into the dirty convenience store bathroom and hate- fuck the shit out of her. Chrissy drags Missy off. Justice and Sissy watch them go. JUSTICE And you said letting them read all that Anais Nin wouldn't amount to anything. SISSY Don't change the subject. You know what you have to do now, right? Since you let our patsy slip away, you've gotta convince the little kid and that fat guy to take his place. They've gotta break into Provasik now. JUSTICE Uh-uh! SISSY Uh-huh. You'll do it; or you're out of this gang. Just use the little one's crush to convince him, since he's so fucking in love with you. JUSTICE Jay? No he's not. SISSY What--am I blind? He wasn't kissing your hand back in the van like he was fucking Lord Byron? JUSTICE Well, maybe he was just raised with manners. EXT. CONVENIENCE STORE--DAY A GIRL walks past Jay and Bob, heading out of the store. JAY (to exited Girl) YO, BABY! YOU EVER HAVE YOUR ASSHOLE LICKED BY A FAT MAN IN AN OVERCOAT?! (to Bob) Yeah. INT. CONVENIENCE STORE--DAY Sissy continues to confront Justice. SISSY You're the one that brought the kid in, Jussy. So you've gotta make amends. JUSTICE Jay is not taking Brent's place as the patsy. SISSY That kid and his quite friend are our only options at this point. Now we got about two hours before we get to Boulder. That gives you plenty of of time to work on him. JUSTICE I'm not gonna do it. SISSY Why the fuck not? JUSTICE Because he's just to so innocent! Justice looks out the window and smiles, seeing Jay dancing alongside Bob. JUSTICE Look at him-- EXT. CONVENIENCE STORE--SAME Jay's dancing still, but now we hear what he's SINGING to Silent Bob. JAY I'm gonna finger-fuck her tight little asshole! Finger-bang and tea-bang my balls--in her mouth! Where? Where? In her mouth--balls-a-plenty in her mouth! Balls, balls, sweaty balls-- INT. CONVENIENCE STORE--SAME Sissy eyeballs Justice, who's still looking out at Jay. SISSY Who's it going to be, Jussy--him or us? Justice looks at Sissy. Sissy nods at her. Justice looks back out at Jay. INT. VAN--DAY Justice talks to Jay and Silent Bob. JAY Steal a monkey? Shit--no problem. JUSTICE It's not really stealing--it's liberating it, and-- (finally hears him) Wait a second--did you say, "No problem"? JAY Yeah, Fuck--we steal monkeys all the time. (to Bob) Right, Lunchbox? Silent Bob glares at Jay. JUSTICE It's not like it's a bad thing. It's for a good cause. JAY Oh, it for the best cause, mon cheri-- (takes her hand) The cause of love. (kisses her hand, then releases) Snoogans-- JUSTICE What the heck is that? JAY What's what? JUSTICE "Snoogans," I believe it was. JAY What the fuck do you think it means? It means "I'm kidding." JUSTICE Ohhh. Well, that's too bad. She smiles at Jay, touches his chin and heads to the front of the van. Jay plays it cool until she's out of sight, then humps silent Bob's leg like a dog. JAY (singing) I can't believe I'm gonna get some pussy for stealing a monkey! (speaking) If I'd known it was that easy, I'd've been stealing monkeys since I was like seven and shit. Jay looks at Silent Bob, who clearly disapproves. JAY Don't, motherfucker. Don't you ruin this for me. Me and Justice are gonna get married one day, so don't be giving me that "we-ain't-stealing-no- monkey" look. I'm Morris Day; you're Jerome, bitch. Don't forget that. That girl? That girl's in love with me. Up front, Justice talks to Sissy, while Missy drives. JUSTICE They're gonna do it. SISSY Good. They do their part-- (pats a video camera) And we'll do ours. Justice eyes Sissy, then slumps in her seat. EXT. PROVASIK MEDICAL LABS--NIGHT The Van rolls up across the street from the Provasik Labs, parking in front of another large building. INT. VAN--SAME Jay and Silent bob get out, along with Justice. They wear Ninja masks. Missy and Chrissy follow. JUSTICE Remember--we meet back here when you're done. You sure you're okay with this? JAY As sure as I am that you're the hottest bitch I ever seen. Chrissy lunges at Jay, Missy holds her back, dragging Chrissy away. JAY What's twisting that bitch's tits? JUSTICE Maybe it's because women don't like to be called "bitches," Jay. JAY They don't? Well how 'bout "piece of ass"? JUSTICE How about not. JAY Well, what the fuck am I supposed to call you, then? JUSTICE Something sweet, you big goof. Something nice. JAY (thinks; then) Boo-boo kitty fuck. JUSTICE (laughing) Okay. That's a start. Sissy jumps out of the van, holding the video camera, aiming it at Jay and Bob. SISSY Jay, before you go, could you say something into the camera about the clitoris. JAY What? JUSTICE (to Sissy) Man you are such a bitch-- SISSY (off Justice; to Jay) She's just a little embarrassed. See, Jussy and I are putting together this documentary for our Human Sexuality class, and we need a male perspective on the clitoris. JAY The female clitoris? SISSY Uh--yeah. JUSTICE Jay, you don't have to do this. She elbows Sissy. JAY Nah, it's cool, hon. There's a few things I can say about the clit that I's like you to hear. (clears throat; into camera) I am the master of the clit! I make that shit work! It does what ever the fuck I tell it to do! No one rules the clit like me! (off Silent Bob) Not this little fuck! None of you little fucks out there! I am the clit commander!!! Remember that-- commander of all clits! Jay proceeds to make some pussy-eating faces. Justice shakes her head at Sissy, who snaps the camera closed and smiles. SISSY Awesome. Knock 'em dead, Tiger. Sissy climbs back into the van. JAY (to Justice) So--can I get a little kiss for good luck? Justice smiles at Jay, then kisses him sweetly on the lips. JAY So--can I get a little blow job for good luck? Justice smiles and pulls Jay's mask down. He heads off, revealing Silent Bob behind him, lips puckered, handing in midair. Jay reached back into the frame, pulling Bob out. Justice watches them go. SISSY Jussy. C'mon. Justice climbs back into the van. INT. VAN--SAME Justice sits, glaring at Sissy. SISSY Hey, Lover-girl. You cock-block my authority again, you lose your fucking fronts, you got that? JUSTICE Yes, sir. Sissy takes the tape out of the camera and hands it off to Missy, beside whom is a bag full of high-tech equipment. SISSY Phase One, down. While we're executing Phase Two, you edit that tape and grab a new car. MISSY No sweat. SISSY Let's suit up. EXT. PROVASIK MEDICAL LABS--NIGHT Jay and Silent bob tuck-and-roll across the front lawn, stopping at the building. Silent Bob pulls a GRAPPLING GUN out of his coat. He fires it into the air as Jay quickly gives the "metal" sign, and the pair are lifted out-of-frame. INT. PROVASIK MEDICAL LABS--NIGHT It's dead quiet and still. Then, the pair smash through a window, landing in the floor in a ball. They lift their Ninja hoods. Jay glares at Silent Bob. JAY You fat fuck-- INT. VAN--NIGHT Missy peers through binoculars out the window. SISSY They in? MISSY You can say that. SISSY Time to shine. Let's go. EXT. VAN--NIGHT The quartet piles out of the van, and we get our first look at them: sexily geared up for action, wearing all black. They head for a SEPARATE BUILDING. Stopping at the front door. Sissy gestures elaborately to Missy, and Missy gestures elaborately back, racing away into the night. Justice offers Sissy a look. JUSTICE You are so gay. Chrissy sticks a box on the door and presses a button. On a digital readout, numbers roll until they stop on four different digits. The door lock CLICKS open. SISSY Once we're inside, I want complete silence. (holding up high-tech device) Missy whipped this up. It counts our decibel level. If it goes into the red--alarm, we're dead. So not even the slightest noise, got it? Justice blows her off. Sissy enters the building, followed closely by Chrissy. Justice lingers at the door, taking one last look back at the Provasik Building, fretting for Jay and Bob. SISSY (pokes her head back out) Justice! Move your ass! Justice heads inside. We PAN up to reveal a sign that reads: BOULDER DIAMOND EXCHANGE. INT. PROVASIK TESTING ROOM--NIGHT Jay and Bob stand there, looking around the room. It's lines with cages, all of which contain sad-looking ANIMALS. A tear forms in silent Bob's eye. Jay rolls his eyes and hits him. JAY Stay frosty, you big fucking softie. We've got a job to do. Silent Bob nods and clicks on a flashlight. The pair wade through the cages. Jay stops at an EMERGENCY BOX hanging on the wall. Inside it, there's a pistol. JAY Check this out, Lunchbox. Animal tranquilizer. This shit fucks you up like Percocets! Jay elbows the glass, breaking it. He takes the gun out and tosses it to Bob. JAY Hold this. Later, me and Justice can shoot each other with it and fuck like stoned test bunnies. Bunnggg. Silent Bob rolls he eyes and sticks the gun in his coat. The pair look through the cages, until HEAR the distinct SOUND OF A MONKEY. Jay directs Silent Bob's flashlight to the cage from where the sound emitted. He smiles. JAY (reading) "Suzanne." Boo-yah. INT. BOULDER DIAMOND EXCHANGE--NIGHT The three Girls stand at the end of a large hallway. At the other end is a glass case, full of DIAMONDS. Sissy pulls and aerosol can from her utility belt and sprays the air in the hallway. She watches the decibel monitor, which rises only slightly at the sound of the spray. Suddenly, within the mist, laser beams become apparent. Sissy hands the decibel monitor to Chrissy and takes a few steps back, shaking her hands to limber up. She then runs forward and does an impressive series of flips down the hallway, not touching a single laser beam. Chrissy checks the decibel monitor, which rises only slightly. Once Sissy's flipping comes to a stop at the other end of the hallway near the Diamond case, she makes a hand gesture to Justice. Justice nods, and proceeds to do the same series of flips down the hallway, not tripping the alarm. Chrissy checks the decibel monitor, which rises only slightly. Justice lands beside Sissy, and then Sissy gestures to Chrissy. Chrissy tosses the decibel monitor over the laser beams, Sissy catches it, and the monitor rises only slightly. Then, Chrissy proceeds with her series of flips, which are even more impressive than the other two, including running up walls and pushing into handstand flips. When she passes the last laser beam, she lands between Sissy and Justice, arms in the air like a gymnast. Then, she lets out a loud, manly FART. The decibel monitor goes red and an alarm starts RINGING through the building. CHRISSY Holy fuck--the little stoner was right-- Sissy shutters the glass surrounding the Diamonds. She ours them into a bag, and races back down the hallway, followed by Justice and Chrissy. EXT. BOULDER DIAMOND EXCHANGE--NIGHT The Girls emerge from the Diamond Exchange, just as Missy pulls up in a CONVERTIBLE. CHRISSY Boom Box! Missy tosses a metal box to Chrissy, who catches it and races toward the van, while Sissy and Justice pile into the convertible. SISSY I can't believe it. Months of planning and it's all blown by a fucking fart. JUSTICE We can't just leave them like this! That alarm's gonna bring the cops here any minute! SISSY That was always the plan, Justice! They take the heat off of is long enough until we can get out of town! Chrissy attaches the metal box to the side of the van. CHRISSY Kaboom, you little stoner fucks. The girls pull up in the convertible and Chrissy jumps into the car with them. CHRISSY It's set. Let's roll. The convertible screeches away, leaving the can sitting there. The metal has magnetically attached to the side is counting down from two minutes. INT. PROVASIK TESTING LAB--NIGHT Jay and Bob carry a large canvas bag between them. Something seems to move inside it. The head for the exit, but Silent bob hesitates, offering a sad look to the animals in all the cages. Jay hits him. JAY What the fuck are you looking at? There ain't no snacks here, man! Now we got what we came for, so let's get the fuck out! Silent Bob half-gestures to the cages, forlorn. Jay shakes his head frustrated. JAY Yeah, it's sad! But what the fuck are we supposed to do about it? Silent bob offers Jay a look. EXT. PROVASIK MEDICAL LABS--NIGHT The front doors burst open, spilling out Jay, Silent Bob (carrying their bag), and HUNDREDS OF ANIMALS--cats, dogs, birds, rabbits. All race off into the night. Jay and Bob race toward the van. Jay screams at it. JUSTICE JUSTICE! OPEN THE DOORS! Suddenly, Jay and Bob stop dead in their tracks. JAY Oh shit-- Three COP CARS screech up, the van between them and Jay and Bob. The COPS leap out of their cruisers, guns drawn. Jay looks to Bob, pissed COP DROP THE BAG! BEFORE THIS THING TURNS EXPLOSIVE! The counter on the device attached to the van hits "0," and the van BLOWS UP. Jay and Bob get thrown backwards in one direction, the Cops in the other. On all fours, Jay looks at the burning shell of the van, a tear forming in his eye. JAY Justice-- We crane up from him as he bellows-- JAY JUUUSSSTTTTIIIICCCCEEEE!!!!!! Silent Bob grabs Jay and drags him out of frame, still carrying the bag. EXT. FEDERAL WILDLIFE MARSHAL'S OFFICE--DAY We start on a sign on the door that reads: Federal Wildlife Marshal, Colorado Field Office, then pull back to see a DEPUTY opening the door and heading inside. INT. FEDERAL WILDLIFE MARSHAL'S OFFICE--DAY The Deputy enters just as a FAX is coming through at an operations board. He rips it off, reading it. His eyes go wide. DEPUTY Oh, fudge... (calling off) Marshal Willenholly! INT. BATHROOM--SAME MARSHAL WILLENHOLLY sits on the bowl, staring at Four Legged Law-Man magazine, eyeing it lustily. Below frame, he jerks off. WILLENHOLLY Yeah, you chug that ass-cock baby-- It takes two hands to hold doesn't it--? Uhhh-- As he climaxes, a ganging at the door disrupts him. WILLENHOLLY WHAT?! WHAT?! I'M READING! DEPUTY (O.S.) Sir, we got a report of a break-in at Provasik Pharmaceuticals' testing lab. Willenholly emerges from the bathroom, holding the magazine. There's a massive wet spot on the front of his pants. WILLENHOLLY Have you read this article on the mule-suckers in Tijuana? Good God, I wish that was in our jurisdiction-- I'd shut down every last one of those ass-cock chuggers, personally. The Deputy looks at the stain on Willenholly's pants, then at Willenholly. WILLENHOLLY What? "Ass" means "donkey." DEPUTY Yes, sir. (hands him a fax) WILLENHOLLY (looks at fax) Boulder, hunh? Well, gas up the jet. DEPUTY We don't have a jet, sir. And Boulder's only ten minutes away. WILLENHOLLY Then gas up the next best thing. EXT. PROVASIK MEDICAL LABS--DAY There are FIRE TRUCKS all over the place now. The burned out van is being poured over by Cops. Just then, Willenholly pulls up on a MOPED. He parks it and surveys the wreckage. WILLENHOLLY My, oh my, oh my. Who let the cats out? (thinks) Wait--is that right? COP 1 (O.S.) Excuse me--who the hell are you? Willenholly rips down the Velcro patch on his jacket, revealing a badge. WILLENHOLLY Federal Wildlife Marshal. This investigation is now under my jurisdiction. COP 1 Oh really? And why is that? WILLENHOLLY Because someone let a whole mess of animals out of their cages, sir. COP 1 Well, we believe that was just a diversionary tactic used to call attention away from the real heist over here at the Diamond Exchange. WILLENHOLLY Yeah, right. That's a believable scenario. It sounds more like something out of a bad movie. Willenholly and the Cop look at the camera. Then, another COP joins them. COP 2 Sir, the Provasik people say they've rounded all their animals up, except for one: an orangutan. WILLENHOLLY Listen up, ladies and gentlemen! Our fugitive has been on the run for 6 hours! Average simian foot speed over uneven ground--barring injuries or preoccupation with tire tubes, mites or bananas--is four miles an hour. That gives us a radius of twenty miles. COP 3 (calling out from crowd) Twenty-four, sir! WILLENHOLLY What? COP 3 Six hours times four miles an hour is twenty-four. WILLENHOLLY (doing the math in his head) Yes. Yes, you're right. My bad. Twenty- four miles. Now what I want out of all of you is a hard target search. COP 4 Excuse me, sir? WILLENHOLLY Yeah? COP 4 What does that mean, exactly--a "hard target search"? What's a "hard target"? WILLENHOLLY Well. It's--a target--that's--hard. Anyway-- COP 4 So are you referring to the search's level of difficulty? Or is the hard target the monkey? COP 3 Or the people who stole the monkey? The COPS now chatter amongst themselves, to the effect of "Yeah--It could mean that too--He's got a point--,"etc. Willenholly rubs his temples. WILLENHOLLY Okay, how about this? What I want out of all of you is a thorough search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse, and doghouse in that area! Checkpoints go up at fifteen miles! COP 1 Wouldn't it make sense to put them up at every twenty-four miles--seeing as that's how far they'd have gotten in the last six hours? They begin chattering amongst themselves again. Willenholly looks at them all, defeated. He starts to cry. WILLENHOLLY This is so frustrating. It's just so hard sometimes-- (yelling) YOUR FUGITIVE'S NAME IS SUZANNE! GO FIND HER! Another COP joins Willenholly, carrying a large, fat envelope. COP 5 Sir, this was just delivered to the station. WILLENHOLLY What is it? COP 5 It's a tape from the terrorists who're claiming credit for the break-in. WILLENHOLLY Is it VHS or Beta? You know what-- never mind. Do you have a VCR? INT. OFFICE--DAY Willenholly and the Cops stare at the O.C. TV, shocked, as the video ends. WILLENHOLLY Oh my God-- (without looking up) Have the jet gassed up and ready to go at a moment's notice. COP Sir, we don't have a jet; just a helicopter. WILLENHOLLY (dialing his cell phone) Doesn't anybody have a jet anymore? (into cell phone) Plafsky? It is Willenholly. You gotta get me on the national news, pronto. Why?! Because we may very well be dealing with the two most dangerous men on the planet! EXT. UTAH ROADSIDE--DAY Jay and Silent Bob sit close to each other, staring at-- SUZANNE (the ORANGUTAN)--who sits on a log across from them, staring back. JAY This is Jussy's monkey (to Suzanne, angrily) JUSTICE DIED FOR YOU, YOU MONKEY FUCK! Suzanne covers her eyes with her hands suddenly. Jay and Silent Bob, startle, with Jay leaping behind Silent Bob and pulling back as if he's going to strike. JAY (to Silent Bob) Do something. Tons of Fun! Silent Bob offers the ape a weak wave. Suzanne drops her hands from her face and waves back. Jay cranes his neck to see over silent Bob. JAY Is that fucking thing waving at us? Suzanne nods. Jay steps out from behind Bob. They state at the ape. JAY Holy shit? That monkey understood us! Maybe it's some sort of super- monkey! Suzanne offer them a "raspberry." Spitting as if the comment was ridiculous. Jay and Silent Bob react with surprise at this. JAY What the fuck was that for? It's not a stupid idea! I seen it in Congo? Suzanne holds her nose, as if to say, "Congo stunk." Silent Bob smiles in agreement and amusement. Jay looks at him, stung. JAY You're my bitch. You get my back. Don't go joining this chimp's side. Jay looks around the woods, formulating a thought. Silent Bob moves toward the ape, extending his hand to shake hers. JAY Yo--what if there's more super monkeys up in the lab? Maybe they're making an army of 'em up there! Holy shit! Maybe it's a conspiracy--like on the X-Files Roswell--style! JAY'S DELUSION: We enter into JAY'S HEAD and see-- INT. LAB--DAY We PAN over from a chimp in a chemist's coat measuring liquids in a pair of beakers to a chimp at a drafting table sketching blueprints for an insidious war machine. An orangutan shakes hands with a group of five well-dressed men, one of which looks like the Cigarette Smoking Man from the X-Files. JAY (V.O.) Working in secret with a crew of double-dealing, nicotine-fiending fucks that're selling out the human race, these supermonkeys will use simian science and their genius IQ's to make man and monkey alike believe that they're the superior species! EXT. BALCONY--DAY A monkey dressed like Mussolini addresses a huge crowd of apes, who wave fists in the air. JAY (V.O.) Then all it'll take is one little monkey in a spiffy suit to whip the dumber chimps into a frenzy, until they go all ape-shit and start demanding more bananas, better pay, and human flesh! EXT. FIELD--DAY Randal leads a pack of humans racing through a cornfield, and is shot in the neck. He collapses, revealing a GORILLA on horseback holding a rifle. Two other Gorillas throw a net over him. JAY (V.O.) You'll have to be faster than Walt Flanagan's Dog to outrun the warrior gorillas, who hunt humans for sport, profit, and the occasional inter- species blow-job. And if you don't wind up with a monkey hog in your mouth, you'll be captured, killed or worse... INT. LAB--DAY Cornelius and Zera-looking chimps dissect the brain of a living, screaming, Dante. JAY (V.O.) Eaten alive! EXT. QUICK STOP--DAY The Quick Stop is overrun by vines in a jungle like atmosphere. Monkeys exit the store carrying bunches of bananas. The sign now reads: Ape Stop JAY (V.O.) Then these monkey fucks'll start wearing our clothes and rebuilding the world in their image. EXT. BEACH--DAY We start on a FULL SHOT of Jay on the beach, looking up, then SNAP ZOOM OUT to REVEAL Jay kneeling before the beach buried Statue of Liberty, screaming, his arms raised. JAY (V.O.) And only those who outwit those damn dirty apes'll ever remember that it was MAN who once ruled the earth! JAY (at statue) YOU MANIACS! DAMN YOUSE!!! GODDAMN YOUSE ALL TO HELL!!! WE DISSOLVE FROM THIS IMAGE TO: EXT. UTAH ROADSIDE--DAY Another close-up of Jay's painted face. Behind him, Suzanne and Silent Bob are playing patty-cake. Jay eyes Suzanne angrily. JAY Not on my watch, motherfucker! Jay turns and rushes Suzanne, ferociously. JAY DIE, YOU SUPER-MONKEY FUCK! DIE!!! Jay trips on a root poking out of the ground and hits the dirt. Suzanne then goes over to Jay, pulls his face to hers, and kisses him on the lips. JAY Alright--you can live. For now. Silent Bob helps Jay to his feet. JAY You see that? Bitches love me. (heading off) Besides--we're in the fucking clear, yo. It's not like anyone knows we stole the monkey. INT. TV NEWS STATION--DAY An ANCHORMAN addresses the camera. ANCHORMAN I'm Reg Hartner and this is a News Now bulletin. A Provasik animal testing facility in boulder was the focus of an attack by a terroristic primate rescue syndicate calling themselves the Coalition for Liberation of Itinerant Tree-Dwellers. Or simply, C.L.I.T. A graphic of the C.L.I.T. logo appears beside him, nailing home the joke. ANCHORMAN In a videotape sent to authorities this morning, credit for the liberation of an orangutan from the lab last night is taken by these men-- A VIDEO CAPTURE of JAY and SILENT BOB from pre-break--in appears on screen. ANCHORMAN --identified in literature that accompanies the tape as Jay and Silent Bob. In this chilling clip, they make it very clear that they are in control of the C.L.I.T. On screen is the C.L.I.T. Logo. A digitized voice narrates. DIGITIZED VOICE We are the C.L.I.T. None of you are safe. Now tremble before the might of our merciless leader. The logo gives way to the video of Jay and Bob that Sissy shot before the Provasik break-in. Jay's yelling into the camera. JAY I AM THE CLIT COMMANDER!!! Coming out of the video footage, the Anchorman shakes his head, chilled. ANCHORMAN Terrifying. Here to help us understand this footage is Federal Wildlife Marshal Willenholly. PULL OUT to reveal Willenholly beside the Anchorman. ANCHORMAN Marshal, what can you tell us about the C.L.I.T.? WILLENHOLLY From the intelligence we've been able to gather, we've discovered that the C.L.I.T. is a tiny offshoot of the L.A.B.I.A. ANCHORMAN The Liberate Apes Before Imprisoning Apes movement. WILLENHOLLY Exactly. The men you saw in the video are believed to be the masterminds responsible for the frenzied C.L.I.T. activity last night. They go by the obvious code names "Jay" and "Silent Bob." (to camera) If you should come across them or any other C.L.I.T.-ies, please-- exercise extreme caution. INT. POTZEK'S INC. OFFICE--NIGHT On the TV screen is Willenholly and the video capture of Jay and Silent Bob. Holden looks up from his drawing table, shocked. ANCHORMAN (O.S.) (from TV) Marshal, how do you respond to allegations that Federal Wildlife Marshal's Office allowed the C.L.I.T. to slip through their fingers? WILLENHOLLY (O.S.) Nonsense. We're all over the C.L.I.T., Reg. HOLDEN (shakes his head) Nights like this, I miss dating a lesbian. INT. QUICK STOP--NIGHT From behind the register, Dante and Randal stare at the TV, slack-jawed. ANCHORMAN (O.S.) (from TV) Is there also speculation that Jay and Silent bob may be responsible for the Diamond Exchange jewel heist that occurred in the same vicinity of downtown Boulder last night? WILLENHOLLY (O.S.) There's nothing to suggest that, no. But these men are still to be considered very dangerous. RANDAL (to Dante) I told you that restraining order was a good idea. EXT. SEEDY MOTEL ROOMS--SAME On the second-floor terrace of a run-down, roadside motel, Sissy, Missy and Chrissy dance in their undies and drink champagne. On the first floor terrace below, Justice leans against the open sliding glass door, watching the news report on a TV inside the room with the volume turned way up. ANCHORMAN (on TV) Is that your cell phone? WILLENHOLLY (on TV) Yes, Excuse me. (on TV, into cell phone) Federal Wildlife Marshal. I'm on my way! (shuts phone; to anchorman) We got 'em. They're in Utah. (to camera) Citizens of Utah--steer clear of the C.L.I.T. Stimulation of the C.L.I.T. is not recommended. Justice turns the TV off and yells up to Sissy. JUSTICE Your tape worked. The news is all about Jay and Silent Bob's Provasik break-in, with almost no mention of the Diamond heist. SISSY (yelling down to Justice) I told you those two were the perfect patsies. Now we lay low for awhile-- just in case--and start planning the next job. JUSTICE Don't you feel any regret? Jay and Bob don't deserve this. They were really sweet. CHRISSY The only thing I regret is not gutting that little trout-mouthed prick like a fish and playing Twister with his vitals. MISSY You are so nasty. CHRISSY I'll show you nasty, you little slut. SISSY Would you two get a room? CHRISSY Fine--we'll take yours. (getting up in Sissy's face) I am gonna stain your sheets, bi- otch. Chrissy dances away with Missy, heading inside. Sissy rolls her eyes. SISSY Sarah Lawrence girls. Go figure. JUSTICE They're your gang. SISSY Oh and not yours? You know, I don't get you, Justice. You used to be all about the girl stuff: stealing, boning, blowing shit up. Now you're like this little priss with a conscience. It's really a fucking drag. JUSTICE We all gotta grow up some time. SISSY If moping around over some little boy you're crushing on is being grown- up, then pass me my Wonder Woman underoos. JUSTICE Don't you feel the least bit of guilt for what we did to those guys? SISSY Awww. Does Jussy-wussy feel all dirty about setting up her boyfriend? Then how about taking a shower? Sissy dumps the bag of diamonds over the side of the terrace. They rain down on Justice below. Just then a PIZZA DELIVERY GUY approaches the lower terrace, carrying a stack of pizzas. PIZZA DELIVERY GUY You the gals that ordered the pizzas? SISSY This dopey bitch ordered the large plain, but I could go for some hot, thick, Sicilian. PIZZA DELIVERY GUY No charge, lady. He rushes into the motel, Justice sighs, looking up at the stars. JUSTICE (quietly) I'm sorry, Jay. INT. DINER--DAY Jay, Silent Bob, and Suzanne sit at a booth, eating. Jay chews a burger while Silent Bob eats pancakes and Suzanne digs into a banana split. JAY You know, Justice died trying to save this monkey, so maybe we should keep her around. That way, we can honor her memory. Silent bob and Suzanne are oblivious, digging into their food. JAY Look at you Tubby Bitches. I'm waxing all sentimental, and you're all about a fucking meal and shit. Now ain't you glad we stopped to eat? And you were all piss-scared the cops'd bust us or something. You know what I say? (singing, a la NWA) VOICE (O.S.) (via bullhorn) THIS IS THE UTAH STATE POLICE! WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR, AND SURRENDER THE ORANGUTAN! Jay and Bob freeze and go wild-eyed for a beat. Then-- JAY You think they're talking to us? EXT. DINER--DAY There's a few COP CARS outside, and the SHERIFF is yelling at the diner through his bullhorn. Beside him are the other COPS. SHERIFF YOU HAVE SIXTY SECONDS TO COMPLY. (to other COPS) Fuck it, Let's give 'em thirty. Suddenly Willenholly rushes up, dramatically ducking behind the car, gun drawn. SHERIFF The ape. WILLENHOLLY What? SHERIFF An orangutan's a member of the great ape family. It's not a monkey. WILLENHOLLY Look, who's the Federal Wildlife Marshal here? (into bullhorn) JAY AND SILENT BOB, THIS IS FEDERAL WILDLIFE MARSHAL WILLENHOLLY! YOUR C.L.I.T. DOESN'T STAND A CHANCE. SURRENDER THE MONKEY IMMEDIATELY, AND YOU WON'T GET SHOT! INT. DINER--DAY Jay, Suzanne, and Silent Bob peer over the top of their booth, like scared rats. JAY What the fuck are you waiting for? Go out there and give 'em the monkey. Silent Bob looks to Jay, shocked. JAY Oh, what, man? I said that shit before I knew they were gonna shoot us! Yes--Jussy was a hottie, but I ain't takin' no bullet for no monkey! Bob pulls Suzanne close to him, welling up with tears. Jay rolls his eyes. JAY Oh, brother--this is like something out of fucking Benji! Look man, maybe it's not that bad back at the lab! Maybe they experiment on 'em by, like making 'em fuck a bunch of different, good-looking monkeys. We don't know! Maybe they got it real sweet! Suzanne shakes her head "no." Bob points to her, as if she's strengthening his point. JAY (to Suzanne) You stay out of this, you weepy little chimp! (looks around thinking) Fuck man, I ain't no strategist! You're the guy that makes the blueprints! I don't even have the fucking smarts of a little-- Jay's eyes fall on a scared FAMILY in a nearby booth. There's a little kid (around five or so), and he's wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a baseball cap. JAY --kid EXT. DINER--DAY Willenholly's on the bullhorn, yelling at the diner. The Sheriff looks on. WILLENHOLLY ANYONE NOT HARBORING A FUGITIVE MONKEY BETTER HIT THE DECK! WE'RE GOING TO OPEN FIRE! (to cops) Everyone has bullets in their guns, right? Jay and Silent Bob emerge from the diner, with Suzanne between them (they're holding her raised hands). She's now dressed up in the sweatshirt and jeans the kid was wearing in the diner, with the baseball cap pulled down over her face. It's a pretty piss-poor disguise. JAY Don't shoot! We're just trying to take our son out of this hostile environment! From behind the cop car, the Sheriff looks to Willenholly. SHERIFF Their "son"? WILLENHOLLY Maybe they're one of those gay couples? Jay seizes on the idea. Silent Bob nods fervently. JAY Yeah! We're gay! And this is our adopted love child! We're not from around here! Don't make us go back to our liberal city home with a tales of prejudice and bigotry in the heart of Utah! (whispers to Bob) You see the shit I gotta put up with for you! Now I got this guy thinking I'm gay! WILLENHOLLY Oh God, this is the last thing I need--a bunch of uppity homosexuals shooting their mouth off in the liberal press that the Federal Wildlife Marshal's Office persecutes gays. SHERIFF ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY! THOSE TWO MAY BE GAY, BUT THAT AIN'T THEIR SON! THAT'S THE APE! WILLENHOLLY You see this badge? I think I'd recognize an ape if I saw one. And the only thing I do recognize here is a political fiasco I'm, going to avoid by letting this butt-fucking Brady Bunch go! Jay is whispering to Silent Bob, still vexed by-- JAY And I'll tell you another thing: what if that guy shows up around the stores one day and starts telling everybody you and me are poo-gilists? How are we gonna get any pussy then, hunh? WILLENHOLLY (V.O.) YOU ARE FREE TO LEAVE, SIRS! Jay and Silent Bob look at each other, shocked. They look back out at Willenholly, who's yards away. Jay points at himself, as if to say, "Me?" WILLENHOLLY (via bullhorn) YES, YOU, SIRS. JAY (calling over) So we can just go? WILLENHOLLY (via bullhorn) Yes, sir--or ma'am. Please accept my apologies for detaining you and your unorthodox-but-constitutionally- protected-family unit. SHERIFF (amazed) Un-fucking believable. JAY I'd like to offer a big gay thank- you, sir. We'll tell all our gay friends that Utah is Gay friendly country for gays who are gay. WILLENHOLLY I'm sure Utah appreciates that. You might also want to make it clear that the Federal Wildlife Marshal's Office is also pro-'mo as well. (winks at the sheriff) And might I add, that's one fine- looking boy you're raising. JAY Well, that's 'cuz he's from my sperm. See, I knocked up a hot woman friend of ours who I also fuck on the side. So as not to be all-the-way-gay. But my tubby husband here is one hundred percent queer. He loves the cock. WILLENHOLLY He certainly looks insatiable. JAY 'Bye WILLENHOLLY 'Bye Jay, silent Bob and Suzanne head off down the road. Willenholly and all watch them go. The Sheriff is livid. WILLENHOLLY Well, it's not my way--but damned if there doesn't go one happy family. (balloon two) Now, we just shoot some tear gas into that diner, and when the two guys run out with the monkey, we'll-- Willenholly suddenly freezes, thinking. He looks to the Sheriff. WILLENHOLLY That was the them, wasn't it? EXT. ROAD--DAY Jay, Silent Bob and Suzanne are laughing. JAY I said you "love the cock"! I gotta be the craftiest motherfucker alive! GUNSHOTS RING OUT, and bullets whiz by the trio, who are now in full panic mode. Willenholly and the Cops race after them, firing. Jay, Bob and Suzanne race away, ducking bullets. JAY FLEE, FAT-ASS, FLEE!!! EXT. DAM ROAD--DAY The trio race across what looks like a bridge (but isn't), shots still ringing out. Jay spots a manhole. He points at it, screaming. JAY HEAD FOR THE SEWERS! Silent Bob pops the cover off, With bullets ricocheting all around them, Jay leaps into the manhole. INT. SEWER TUNNEL Jay lands in a sewer tunnel (like in The Fugitive). Suzanne lands on top of him. JAY Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape! (yelling up) YO LUNCHBOX! HURRY UP! EXT. DAM ROAD--DAY Bullets hitting the pavement around him, Silent bob dives into the sewer grate as well, but-- INT. SEWER TUNNEL Silent Bob gets stuck. Jay rolls his eyes. JAY You fat fuck. Silent Bob struggles while Jay and Suzanne try to pull him through the hole. JAY You just--had to--order pancakes-- didn't ya? EXT. DAM ROAD--SAME CLOSER on the running Willenholly and Sheriff. WILLENHOLLY Fire a warning shot into that bulbous ass! SHERIFF One rectal breach, coming up! INT. SEWER TUNNEL--SAME Jay and Suzanne pull with all their might. Bob strains. JAY SUCK IT IN! THINK THIN! THINK THIN!!! EXT. DAM ROAD--SAME TIGHT on the Sheriff, as he squints to aim. SHERIFF Open up and say "ahhhhh," you stoner sumbitch-- INT. SEWER TUNNEL--SAME TIGHT on Silent Bob bellowing. SILENT BOB AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! EXT. DAM ROAD--DAY The Sheriff's gun fires. INT. SEWER TUNNEL--SAME Jay and Suzanne fall backwards, as Silent Bob pops through. JAY INCOMING!!! SILENT BOB AAAIIIGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!! SUZANNE OOOOOOOOO!!! EXT. DAM ROAD--DAY The bullet ricochets off the curb, as Silent Bob's feet slip through. INT. SEWER TUNNEL--SAME Jay, Silent Bob, and Suzanne are in various states of collapse. Jay and Bob look up at the hole. JAY Just like Winnie-the-Pooh. EXT. DAM ROAD--DAY Willenholly and the Sheriff arrive at the manhole. WILLENHOLLY Wow! That was an incredibly daring escape! (to Sheriff) You must see that a lot, hunh? SHERIFF Shut up! WILLENHOLLY Sire, you're very taciturn. Willenholly starts rolling up his sleeves as the sheriff looks on. WILLENHOLLY You and your men stay up here. When I corner them, I'll call you for back-up. SHERIFF What're you doing? They're trapped. The only way they can get out of there is right here. WILLENHOLLY A Federal Wildlife Marshal doesn't wait for his prey to come to him. He comes to it. Or goes to it. Is it "comes to it" or "goes to it"? (shakes it off) I'm going in there. I'm counting on you Sheriff. Willenholly embraces the Sheriff. WILLENHOLLY You've taught me so much. Willenholly then climbs into the sewer, disappearing. The Cops look at the Sheriff for a beat, who heads O.C. saying-- SHERIFF Fuck this asshole. Let's go back to the station and get some donuts. INT. SEWER TUNNEL--DAY TIGHT on Jay, Bob, and Suzanne, looking into the distance, bathed by natural light. We HEAR the loud sounds of water rushing. JAY This reminds me of the night I fucked your mom, yo. One big-wet, smelly, gaping hole, and me wishing I had a board tied to my ass-- PULL BACK to reveal Jay, Silent Bob and Suzanne standing at the precipice of the sewer tunnel that pokes out of a DAM. Water rushed below. JAY --to keep from falling in. WILLENHOLLY PUT THE MONKEY DOWN AND YOUR HANDS UP! Willenholly aims his gun at the trio's backs. WILLENHOLLY MISTERS, DO YOU WANNA GET SHOT?!? Our heroes comply, but Jay speaks. JAY LOOK MAN--SHE DOESN'T WANT TO GO BACK! THEY'RE EXPERIMENTING ON HER! (beat) AND FOR THE RECORD, I AIN'T REALLY GAY! WILLENHOLLY I DON'T CARE! (beat) AND FOR THE RECORD, I KNEW THAT WASN'T REALLY A LITTLE BOY. JAY SURE, FOR ONE MORE RECORD-- (pointing to Silent Bob) HE LOVES COCK! WILLENHOLLY ON YOUR KNEES! Jay and Silent Bob face Willenholly and kneel. But Suzanne's still looking out of the dam. JAY See, man?! He's lining us up like fucking circus seals! Well, I'm going first--I don't want no mouthful of monkey-spit when I gotta blow this fucking G-Man. TIGHT on Suzanne, who's looking down at the raging water below. Her brow hardens with purpose. TIGHT on Suzanne's right hand grabbing Jay's right hand. TIGHT on Suzanne's left hand grabbing Bob's left hand. Suzanne leaps forward at us, pulling Jay and Silent Bob backwards. JAY GET OFFA ME!!! GET OFFA ME!!! EXT. DAM--DAY Suzanne leaps from the mouth of the tunnel, dragging Jay and Bob with her. JAY AND BOB AAAAIIIGGGGGHHHHH!!! INT. SEWER TUNNEL--DAY Willenholly goes wide-eyed, holstering his gun. WILLENHOLLY Oh, no--think you can pull a Peter Pan on me?! He races toward the mouth of the tunnel and leaps out as well. WILLENHOLLY AAAIIIGGGGHHHHH!!! EXT. DAM--DAY As Willenholly plummets, he passes Suzanne hanging by her feet off a pipe that pokes out from beneath the mouth of the tunnel. She's hanging upside down, holding Jay and Silent Bob's hands. JAY HEY LAW-DOG! SEE YOU IN HELL, COCK-- SMOKER!!! EXT. DAM BOTTOM--DAY Willenholly plummets toward the water below and ker-splashes into the drink. EXT. DAM--DAY Suzanne has pulled Jay and Silent Bob back into the mouth of the tunnel. JAY You see that shit? Damn--remind me not to get on the monkey's bad side. Yo--boost her up. So we can talk, so we can get the fuck out of here. Silent Bob lifts Suzanne over the tunnel onto the-- EXT. DAM ROAD--DAY --pavement near the manhole. She sits there, looking down. EXT. DAM--DAY Silent Bob lifts Jay over the top of the tunnel toward the road, EXT. DAM ROAD--DAY Suzanne sits by the side of the road. A car pulls into the shot. Jay and Silent Bob climb over the cliff onto the highway just in time to see-- The passenger door slamming on a TRUCK with Los Angeles plates and a sign that reads CRITTERS OF HOLLYWOOD. Suzanne is looking out the back window waving. Jay and Bob leap to their feet, chasing after the truck. JAY HEY! GET THE FUCK OFF HER, MAN! THAT'S MY EX-GIRLFRIEND'S MONKEY?! The truck speeds away in the distance. Jay and Silent Bob stand there, panting. JAY Man! Who the fuck just steals a monkey?! Silent Bob indicates themselves. JAY Oh yeah. (pissed) Well this fucking blows! We got one more day to stop those fucks from making that movie, and someone goes and takes the only thing I had left from the one woman I ever loved enough NOT to try to stick my hand down her pants! Silent Bob mimes that they should go after Suzanne. JAY Go after the monkey? How the fuck are we supposed to know where that thing's going? Silent Bob mimes in the direction the car went. Jay stares at him. JAY What? What is that supposed to mean?! Don't just fucking point like-- (imitates him) You ain't the broad in the Children of a Lesser God. Use you fucking mouth for more than eating, ya tubby bitch! Bob starts an elaborate pantomime. Jay tries to guess what he's saying. JAY You gotta take a shit? No--you gotta take a salad? Take a salad? What the fuck are you trying to say? Bob's on the verge of tears, trying to mime out his message. JAY JUST FUCKING SAY IT ALREADY?!? Silent Bob grabs Jay and screams into his face. SILENT BOB THE SIGN ON THE BACK OF THE CAR SAID CRITTERS OF HOLLYWOOD, YOU DUMB FUCK!!! Bob releases Jay, breathing heavily and storms off in the direction of the car went. Jay watched him go for a beat, then follows, muttering under his breath-- JAY Say it, don't spray it, bitch. EXT. SHERIFF'S OFFICE--DAY AN ESTABLISHING SHOT. SHERIFF (O.S.) "And might I add, that's one fine- looking boy you're raising." INT. SHERIFF'S OFFICE--DAY The Sheriff and his men stand around, eating donuts, laughing. The Station doors slam open, and Willenholly enters, soaking wet. All the Cops stare at him. SHERIFF Well, if it isn't the wildlife experts. Did you come to it or go to it? WILLENHOLLY Do you have a microwave here, Sheriff? SHERIFF We have a toaster oven. Why? WILLENHOLLY Because I need to dry my gun out so I can SHOOT YOU WITH IT ! TWICE! SHERIFF This might cheer you up. (hands him paper) Your office just faxed this over. Guy there say it's a post from an Internet chat board, signed by a "Jay and Silent Bob." Your man thinks it's a lead as to where those fellas are taking the ape. WILLENHOLLY (reading) "All you motherfuckers are gonna pay. You are the ones who are ball- lickers. We're gonna fuck your mothers while you watch and cry like little bitches. Once we get to Hollywood--" (looks up) They're going to Hollywood. EXT. HOLLYWOOD--MONTAGE We take a quick visual tour of the city, including the sign, the line of front of Krispy Kreme, the line in front of Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, the Simpson star in the Walk- of- Fame, the Rocky and Bullwinkle statue, the Beverly Center, Jerry's Famous Deli, the Hollywood and Vine sign, Mann's Chinese Theatre, the Star Wars footprints outside of Mann's, the Chateau Marmont, people on cell phones, Trashy Lingerie. HOOKERS propositioning a potential JOHN, and finally-- EXT. HOLLYWOOD BLVD--DAY We start on the street sign, and PAN DOWN to a JEEP WRANGLER that pulls up. A gorgeous woman in sunglasses drives, with Silent Bob sitting in the back seat. After a beat, Jay pops up from under the dash, wiping his mouth, looking around. The Woman sighs, and zips up her pants. Jay and Bob hop out and wave to the Woman as the car pulls away. Bob offers Jay a look. JAY What? It's not like it's cheating. Justice blew up. Two HOOKERS approach them. HOOKER 1 Hey, little man. You want some of this? HOOKER 2 How about you, Big Boy? HOOKER 1 If you've got fifty bucks we can get nasty. JAY Oh yeah? How nasty? HOOKER 2 As nasty as you wanna be, poppie. JAY Alright--first, I'll want to tongue your bung while you juggle my balls in one hand and play with my asshole with the other. But don't stick you finger in. Then. I'll wanna pinky you and put it in your friend's brown, while Silent Bob spanks into a Dixie cup. After that, I'll wanna smell your titties, for a while, and you can pull my nutsack up over my dick, so it looks like a Bullfrog. Then I want you to flick at my nuts while your friend spanks me into the same Dixie cup Silent Bob jizzed in. Then we throw the Dixie cup out. The Hookers look at him, dumbfounded, Then-- HOOKER 1 Oh, that's it honey. I quit. (walking away) This job just passed the point of no return. HOOKER 2 (to Jay) You one fucked up puppy, poppie. JAY (watching them go) What?! You said 'nasty'? (shakes his head; to Bob) Man, chicks in Hollywood are so stuck up. EXT. HOLLYWOOD BLVD.--LATER Jay and Silent Bob walk. JAY Alright, here's the plan: first, we find out where they're shooting that movie at. After we shut that shit down, we can start looking for the monkey. But before we do any of that shit, we gotta find a motherfucker in the know. Someone who's like, the mayor of Hollywood. They pass a DEALER leaning against a wall, trying to make a sale. DEALER (subtly) Crack? You want some crack? Sweet- ass rock. Get you high. JAY No man, but you want some weed? DEALER (beat) You on the job? JAY (pulling out a card) Yeah, boy. Jersey Local 408. CLOSE ON THE CARD. It reads: UNITED JERSEY BROTHERHOOD OF DEALERS, LOCAL 408. There's a graphic of a stoner beside it. DEALER I'm Los Angeles Local 305! They shake hands, slapping each other on the back like Union brothers. DEALER You guys got medical in Jersey yet? JAY Shit, no, we might have to strike in September. DEALER Norma Rae like a motherfucker. You gots to get your benefits, you know what I'm saying? JAY I hear that. Yo--maybe you can help us out. You know where they're shooting a movie around here. DEALER You in this town and you gonna ask that question? Be a little more specific. JAY It's a Miramax flick. We gotta bust it up so people stop calling us names on the Internet, even though they're not really talking about us but these characters based on us, and at the same time, find my ex-girlfriend-who- got-killed-in-a-car-explosion's monkey. Jay exhales. The Dealer stares at him for a beat. DEALER I don't know that the fuck you just said, little kid. But you touched a brother's heart, so I'm gonna help you out with some directions to the studio. JAY You know where Miramax is at? DEALER Fuck, yes. Miramax accounts for seventy-eight percent of my business. INT. E! ENTERTAINMENT NEWS--DAY After E! news logo plays. CUT TO STEVE KMETKO in studio. STEVE KMETKO Is Hollywood ready for Jay and Silent Bob? A source at the Federal Wildlife Marshal's Office tells us a posting was pulled off an Internet movie chat board that was allegedly written by the two domestic terrorists themselves. It's sending a shockwave through Hollywood. Jules Asner's on the scene at Miramax Studios, Jules? Jules Asner is in front of the Miramax Studios main gate. JULES ASNER Steve, the tenor of Tinseltown is one of terror today, after the Federal Wildlife Marshal's Office learned that hot, new terrorists Jay and Silent Bob are targeting Miramax Studios for their next campaign of blood, violence and monkey-theft. In the posting, pulled off Movie Poop Shoot.com, the gruesome twosome threatened, quote-- (reading) "Once we get to Hollywood and find those Miramax Expletive-Deleted who are making the Bluntman and Chronic movie, we're gonna make 'em eat our Expletive-Deleted, then Expletive- Deleted, which is made up of our Expletive-Deleted, then eat their Expletive-Deleted, which is made up of our Expletive-Deleted that we made 'em eat. Unquote. So far, we haven't been able to get a statement from anyone here are the studio. BACK TO STEVE in the E! Studio. STEVE Jules, word has it that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are on the lot, shooting a super-secret project. Have you seen then roaming around? BACK TO JULES at Miramax Studios. JULES No, Steve. But I did see Casey Affleck buying a soda at a concession stand earlier. STEVE But no sign of Jay and Silent Bob? JULES None whatsoever. However, to be fair, all the feds have to work with is murky videotape, so no one's even a hundred percent sure what Jay and Silent Bob look like, exactly. For all we know, they could already be on the lot. As Jules speaks, Jay and Bob walk into the frame behind her, looking up at the studio sign. They then notice the camera and start waving behind Jules. INT. SEEDY MOTEL ROOM--DAY Justice goes wide-eyed, seeing Jay and Bob on E! She hops out of her seat. JUSTICE Oh my God! Jay! No! Justice looks around, panicky. Her eyes fall on-- The diamonds, sitting atop the satchel on the table. Justice looks at the diamonds, then the TV screen. She thinks for a beat, then-- JUSTICE Fuck it. She pours the diamonds into the satchel, and shoves it in her pocket. INT. SEEDY MOTEL BEDROOM--DAY The door slowly opens in the dark bedroom, and Justice crawls to the bedside table, reaching for a set of keys. In the bed, Missy and Chrissy make out under the sheets, moaning. Sissy's banging the Pizza Delivery Guy against the vanity. Justice grabs the keys, leaving a note in their place. As she crawls back out, we PUSH IN on the note, which reads: SORRY, GUYS--BUT I LOVE HIM. EXT. SEEDY MOTEL PARKING LOT--DAY The convertible skids out, taking off. INT. SEEDY MOTEL HALLWAY--DAY There's a loud scream, then Sissy, Missy, and Chrissy rush down the stairs (in varied states of undress and sheet-wrap). Wiping their mouths. Sissy holds Justices's note. SISSY That bitch! That fucking, fucking bitch!!! (to girls) Get dressed. We're going after her. CHRISSY Fuck that, I didn't get to cum yet. SISSY Which is more important to you: a fortune in diamonds or busting a nut? Sissy and Missy race back up the stairs. Chrissy stands there still, shrugs, then digs her hand into her panties. SISSY (O.S.) Chrissy! Now! CHRISSY Fuck-- Chrissy races back up the stairs. EXT. MIRAMAX STUDIOS-DAY The E! NEWS CREW packs up. Jay and Silent Bob study the main gate. They watch the SECURITY GUARD approach a car that's just pulled up. The Guard checks the driver's pass, then lifts the gate to let the car through. Jay looks to Bob. JAY We gotta play this right. Bob nods, After a beat, the pair tear-ass past the guard booth. The GUARD leaps out of the booth, blowing a whistle and giving chase. EXT. STUDIO LOT--DAY Jay and Bob race around the building toward what looks like an open alley then smash into it, falling down. The open alley is a background painting that's being moved by some SCENICS. Jay and Bob get up, shaking off the impact. JAY I hate how fake Hollywood is. The SECURITY GUARD catches up to them now, grabbing them by their shoulders, spinning them around. SECURITY GUARD Where do you think you're going? JAY GET OFFA ME! RAAAAAPE!!! SECURITY GUARD This is L.A., sir. We don't rape our suspects in custody. We just beat them. (into walkie-talkie) Echo Base, I've got a ten-o-seven here: two unauthorizeds on the lot. Request back-up. VOICE (from walkie-talkie) I thought that was a ten-eighty-two. SECURITY GUARD No, sir--a ten-eight-two is the code for vanishing a dead hooker from Ben Affleck's trailer. VOICE (from walkie-talkie) Oh, that Affleck. Backup on the way. JAY Hey! I make you a deal: this guy'll suck your dick off if you let us go! SECURITY GUARD Contrary to what you believe, not everyone in the movie business is gay. JAY Well, how about this deal: he sucks my dick while you watch and jerk off. The Security Guard stops, looks around, then releases them, reaching into his pants. SECURITY GUARD Alright. But make is fast. And sexy. Silent Bob looks at Jay, wide-eyed and scared. JAY Dude, it's either this or jail. And you know what they make you do in jail. Silent Bob wells up with tears, slowly dropping to his knees, reaching for Jay's pants. The Security guard bends down low to watch at crotch-level. Suddenly, Jay hammers his two fists into the Security Guard's neck, knocking him out. Silent Bob falls into a sitting position on the ground, relieved. Jay looks at him. JAY Well what are you waiting for, bitch? Start sucking. Bunnggg! (looking around) Alright--where they shooting this movie at? Silent Bob points behind Jay, at the SOUNDSTAGE they're in front of. There's a LINE OF PEOPLE waiting at the door. JAY Worth a shot. Like a shot in the mouth, you gay bitch. Eww, dude--you were really gonna suck my dick. Silent Bob shakes his head "no," wide-eyed as Jay heads off. When Jay's out of frame, Silent bob shrugs like, "Yeah--I guess I was." EXT. SOUNDSTAGE--DAY Jay and Bob approach the line, as an A.D. calls out to the crowd. A.D. Alright--bar extras. Follow me. The A.D. starts leading the crowd in. Jay and Bob blend in and follow inside. EXT. HIGHWAY--DAY An official-looking car tears down the road. INT. CAR--SAME Willenholly drives, dialing his cell phone. PHONE VOICE Federal Bureau of Investigation WILLENHOLLY Yes, this is Federal Wildlife Marshal Willenholly. Can I speak with Agent Sid Enmarty, please? PHONE VOICE One moment, please. INT. AGENT ENMARTY'S OFFICE--SAME AGENT SID ENMARTY works at his desk. SPEAKER VOICE Agent Enmarty? A Marshal Willenholly calling. AGENT SID (perking up) Holy shit! Yeah, put him through. (calling off) YO! INCOMING BITCH BOY PHONER! Two other AGENTS rush in, chuckling. All gather around the phone as Sid presses the speaker button. AGENT SID Willenholly? BEGIN CROSS-CUTTING WITH WILLENHOLLY. WILLENHOLLY Sid? Hey, buddy. I'm calling because I could really use your help on this killer case I'm working. AGENT SID I'll bet, Will. What's it this time... Beaver trouble? Some kind of unauthorized marsupial trafficking? The agents crack up, stifling their laughter. WILLENHOLLY (taking it in stride) No, no--nothing like that. Say--there aren't other people listening in, are there? AGENT SID No way, man. It's just me and you talking here. WILLENHOLLY Good. I'm tracking a monkey down that's on it's way to Los Angeles, and I could use some bureau backup. AGENT SID Los Angeles, hunh? Maybe we should stake out Clint Eastwood's place. Didn't he used to drive around with a monkey that'd punch people and drink beer? The Agents crack up. Willenholly's catching on. WILLENHOLLY Am, uh--Am I on speaker phone? AGENT SID No way--Dunston! WILLENHOLLY Alright, now that's not fair. I know I didn't make it as high up as you guys, but my job's just as important. AGENT SID Calm down, Will. Don't go all... bananas on us! The Agents crack up even more, Willenholly's pissed. WILLENHOLLY I come to you as a friend--as a fellow professional--and this is the shit I get?! AGENT SID You're right, Will. Tell you what-- we'll get our best man on your case right away. You might've heard of him. He's a doctor. WILLENHOLLY (excited) Oh, a doctor? AGENT SID His name's Doctor Zaius! The Agents laugh hysterically, pounding the desk, Willenholly tears up, enraged. WILLENHOLLY SCREW YOU GUYS! Willenholly throws his cell phone across the car, the mocking laughter still emitting from it. Willenholly cries. EXT. MIRAMAX STUDIOS LOT--DAY The Red Light FLASHES outside the soundstage. INT. SOUNDSTAGE--SAME Jay and silent Bob stand amidst a line of EXTRAS. Silent Bob looks O.C. goes wide-eyed, and pokes Jay, pointing O.C. Jay looks and sees-- A COLLEGE BAR set that looks like the College Bar from Good Will Hunting, complete with CLARK (the stuffy college jerk). MATT DAMON stands off to the side, loosening up for the scene. BEN AFFLECK calls to the O.C. DIRECTOR. BEN Where are we taking it from, Gus? Gus Van Sant sits off to the side, counting a stack of money. He just shrugs. GUS I'm busy. BEN You're a true artist, Gus MATT Just take it from "It's a good course." BEN Oh, now you're the director. MATT Hey, shove it. Bounce-boy. Let's remember who talked who into doing this shit in the first place. Talking me into Dogma was one thing, but this-- BEN I'm sorry this is taking you away from whatever-gay-killers-on-horses- who-like-to-play-golf-touchy-feely- flick you're supposed to be doing this week. MATT Oh--I'm touchy-feely? I take it you never saw Forces of Nature? BEN You're like a child. What've I been telling you? Sometimes you've gotta do the safe picture. Sometimes, you do it for art. Sometimes, it's the payback picture your friend says you owe him-- They take a beat and look at the camera. Then-- BEN And sometimes, you go back to the well. MATT And sometimes, you do Reindeer Games. BEN Now that's just mean. Jay turns excitedly to Bob. JAY This has gotta be the Bluntman Flick, 'cause that's those two fucks from that Mork movie! Now all we gotta do is figure out a way to get close to them-- The A.D. grabs Jay and Bob by the arms and drags them onto the set, placing them near Ben and Matt in the scene. A.D. Just stand there and react. Don't say anything. Bob goes a little wide-eyed. Jay smiles at him. JAY (off A.D.'s comment) That's pretty funny. A.D. (calling out) Alright, people. Lock it up. Let's go for picture. Jay and Bob eye Ben and Matt fiercely, Ben and Matt are oblivious. JAY On the count of three, we rush those fucks and beat the shit out of 'em. 'Cause if they're all fucked up, they can't make the move, right? Alright, then. One--two-- CLAPPER/LOADER (O.S.) Good Will Hunting Two: Hunting Season. Jay and Bob freeze and look at each other, then O.C. The Clapper/Loader holds a clapboard in front of Ben's face. It does indeed, read: Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season. CLAPPER/LOADER Scene sixteen, take five. The Clapper/Loader claps the board closed and races off. Ben looks to Gus. BEN Action, Gus? Gus looks up from counting his money. GUS Jesus, Ben--I said I'm busy. Ben shakes his head and then starts the scene with CLARK. BEN/CHUCKIE You should check it out, it's a good course. But, you know, frankly, I found the class rather elementary. CLARK You know, I don't doubt that it was. I remember that class. It was just between recess and lunch. BEN/CHUCKIE Are we gonna have a problem, again? CLARK There's no problem. I was still just hoping you might give me some insight into the evolution of the market economy in the Southern Colonies. See, Wood says-- MATT/WILL (stepping in) What'd I say? Didn't I say you'd be back here regurgitating Gordon Wood. But you forgot about Vickers-- CLARK No, I just read Vickers, so I'm up on inherited wealth, Hunting. But you're not the angry, brilliant young mind you once were, just itching to vent your frustrations. In the background, Jay and Silent Bob get bored and head out of the shot. After a beat, they get pushed back in by the A.D. CLARK Once Sean told you it wasn't your fault, you lost the edge, William. You stopped hitting the books with a vengeance, and now I've read shit you haven't even heard about yet. Face facts, my friend--love made you a soft little pussy boy, unable to stand up to an academic showdown, like you used to. You're just no longer that good--Will Hunting. (gets in his face) Now how do you like them apples? Matt/Will turns away angrily, facing Ben/Chuckie, looking downwards, steaming. BEN/CHUCKIE I don't like the sound of them apples. Will, what're we gonna do now? MATT/WILL Chuckie-- (snarling) It's Hunting season. Matt/Will spins to face Clark with two huge guns in his hands. He blows Clark away, Jay and Bob hit the deck. Matt/Will stands there, guns smoking. BEN/CHUCKIE Apple sauce, bitch. Suddenly the door to the soundstage swings open, and the Security guard Jay knocked out rushes in, followed by other SECURITY GUARDS who comb the place. SECURITY GUARD Sorry to interrupt, sirs, but have a ten-oh-seven on our hands. BEN Wait a second! I wasn't with any hookers today! The Security Guard sees Jay and Bob crouched behind Ben, He points, screaming. SECURITY GUARD THERE THEY ARE! Ben and Matt turn to Jay and Bob, Jay smiles. JAY Affleck, you're the bomb in Phantoms, yo. Jay and Bob then race out-of-frame, closely followed by the Security guards. Matt head off, arms thrown in the air. MATT If anyone's looking for me, I'll be in my trailer trying to figure out how I got here from an Academy Award. EXT. SOUNDSTAGE--DAY Jay and Bob rush out, pulling a bench in front of the door, blocking it. They race ten feet to another soundstage across from them and head inside a door. INT. SOUNDSTAGE--SAME Jay and Silent Bob rush in to see-- Wes Craven getting ready to direct a scene with a familiar- looking GHOSTFACE KILLER and SHANNEN DOHERTY. The Clapper/Loader's clapboard reads: Scream 4 CLAPPER/LOADER Scream four, scene thirty-seven, take one. (claps it and rushes off) WES CRAVEN Action! The Killer chases Shannen around the room, falling over stuff, until she hits him with a lamp, knocking him out. SHANNEN DOHERTY Alright, you bastard! Let's see who you really are! Shannen pulls the mask off the short performer to reveal SUZANNE. Jay and Silent Bob go wide-eyed. SHANNEN DOHERTY Fucking Miramax-- (getting up) CUT! Shannen heads over to Wes, holding the mask. WES CRAVEN Shannen, usually I say "cut." SHANNEN DOHERTY A monkey? Jesus, you guys aren't even trying anymore, are you? WES CRAVEN The market research suggest that people love monkeys. Jay and Silent Bob rush in, grab Suzanne. JAY WE LOVE THIS MONKEY! They rush out. West shrugs to Shannen. WES CRAVEN See? Security Guards race through, chasing after the exited pair. EXT. LOT--DAY Jay and Bob race through the lot, with Bob carrying Suzanne. On a fake New York city street, another movie is shooting. The trio, bob and weave through the shoot, until-- At the end of the alley, a set GOLF CART pulls up, and four Security Guards pile out, forming a human wall, blocking their path. Jay and Bob stop dead, looking back to see the other Security Guards gaining. JAY What the fuck are we gonna do? Just then, a P.A. on a bike pulls up nearby. He ditches the bike and grabs papers from the large hanging basket in front. Jay and Bob look at each other, race over to the bike, and jump on, putting Suzanne in the basket. They start pedaling away furiously, closely followed by the Security Guard posse. Silent Bob peddles like mad, racing toward the Golf Cart. JAY PUNCH IT!!! Bob pops a wheelie and the Bike races up the front of the vehicle, taking flight, Below, the Security Guards stare in awe as-- Jay and Silent Bob atop the bike--with Suzanne in the front basket--go past a moon (on a billboard, on the side of a soundstage) a la E.T. Jay and Bob look down, then at each other. They smile. Then they look ahead and let out a scream. The bike crashes through a window in the side of a Soundstage Building. INT. DRESSING ROOM--DAY The Bike lands, and Jay and Bob, and Suzanne go tumbling onto the floor covered in glass. They look up to see. JAMES VAN DER BEEK AND JASON BIGGS dressed as Jay and Silent Bob, looking down as them. JAMES Holy shit--that looked like it hurt. JASON Are you guys alright? (off Suzanne) Hey! They've got a monkey! Jay and Bob look at their twins, then at each other. JAY Yo, I think that shit just kicked in. JAMES Let's get you guys on your feet. James and Jason help Jay and Silent Bob to their feet. All stare at one another, perplexed, Then-- JAY (to James) See man? Its never, "Hey--you were in Loser, or, "Dude--you rocked in Boys and Girls." It always comes back to that fucking pie! I'm haunted by it.! JAMES Well, you put your dick in a pie, dude-- JASON Enough! (to Jay) Jason Biggs. JAY Yo-you really get to third base with the Russsian chick like you did in the movies? JASON You mean Shannon? Sadly, no. JAY She's fucking hot, man. If I was you, I'd been like-- Jay mimes a series of sexual maneuvers. Jason and James look on, bewildered. JAY (off James's-look) What, man? You never did one of these? Jay starts miming again, and suddenly stops, staring at James, blown away. JAY Holy shit? You're the Dawson! JAMES It's James, actually. James Van Der Beek. JAY Yo, what's up with Pacey stealing Joey away from you? If I was you, I would've drowned his ass in your Creek and shit! JAMES I know, Because what--is Josh better looking than me? Fuck, no. I mean, who on earth is better looking that me? I ask you. JAY Joey, man! She's too fine! Yo--did you ever get to third base with her? JAMES Well, there was this one time-- (catching himself) Wait a second--who are you guys?! JASON They're our stunt doubles, dumbass. (to Jay) Right? JAY Stunt doubles for what? JAMES The movie we start shooting in a few minutes--Bluntman and Chronic Strike Back. JASON (to Bob) You're doubling me. I'm playing Bluntman, AKA Silent Bill. JAMES Bob JASON Right. And he's playing Chronic. AKA Ray. JAMES Jay! Shit, did you even read the script? JASON There's a script? Jay and Bob stare at them, blankly. Then Jay puts up his finger, indicating they should wait a minute. He gets into a huddle with Silent Bob and Suzanne. JAY These are the guys who are playing us, yo. We take them out, and bickety- bam! No movie. Silent Bob nods at Jay, then Suzanne. Suzanne heads off, leaving Jay and Bob to huddle. JASON (off Jay and Bob, to James) What's with the weird, gay huddle going on over there? JAMES What's gay about it? It's two guys talking in a corner. Man--why are you such a homophobe. JASON I'm not a homophobe. JAMES You are. You're always calling things gay. "Ooo--look at the gay huddle, dude!" Suzanne approaches them. JASON Hey--look at the monkey. JAMES Next you're going to tell me the monkey's gay. JASON He's so cute-- (to Suzanne) C'mere. Monkey. C'mere-- Suzanne pulls Jason and James out of the frame. While Jay and Silent Bob continue to huddle, the sounds of a beating are heard, O.C. JAY Alright, here's what we do: start swinging, and don't stop until those young Hollywood fucks are out of commission. Ready? Break! Jay and Bob spin to face Jason and James--only to go wide- eyed. Suzanne stands atop the fallen actors, who are bloodied and beaten and knocked out cold. She holds her hands skyward, clasped like a champion. JAY That's one funky monkey. Suddenly there's a banging at the door of the dressing room. VOICE (O.S.) Mister Biggs? Mister Van... Der-- Beek? This is Security. We've got a pair of intruders at large, and they crashed through a window we thought might be yours. JAY (to door; deepening voice) Uh--yeah. They're in here. SECURITY GUARD Do they have you hostage? Should we call your publicists? JAY NO! I mean, we kicked those guys' asses bad. They're--knocked out. EXT. DRESSING ROOM--SAME The Security Guards stand outside a door marked James. SECURITY GUARD Great work, sirs! If you let us in, we'll take over-- JAY (O.S.) (through door) NO! Me and Jason Biggs are naked in here! Together! The Security guard look at one another. SECURITY GUARD Uh--okay. We'll just be--outside the door, sirs. The Security Guards stifle a laugh, as one makes a blow job face to the rest. INT. DRESSING ROOM--DAY Bob opens an AIR VENT in the wall. He puts Suzanne into it and hands her the tranquilizer gun, miming to her. She nods, and starts crawling through the ductwork, Bob closes the vent again, and starts rifling through a nearby closet. JAY What the fuck are we gonna do?! How are we gonna get out of here without them seeing us? Silent Bob pulls a pair of hangered COSTUMES from the closet, smiling. EXT. LOT--DAY The Security Guards push a cuffed Jason and James into a waiting Cop Car. The pair are still dressed like Jay and Silent Bob. JAMES YOU'VE GOT THE WRONG GUYS! JASON HEY! DON'T YOU RECOGNIZE ME?! I'M THE PIE-FUCKER. SECURITY GUARD (to Cops) He'll be the pie--in prison. INT. SOUNDSTAGE HALLWAY--DAY Jay and Bob creep toward a door (we don't see the outfits). JAY This was a good idea, Lunchbox. In these outfits we're totally incognito. Suddenly, and A.D. appears, grabbing them by the shoulders. A.D. Mister Biggs? Mister Van Der Beek? Great--you've changed costumes already. Let's get you to set. (pulling them off) The director doesn't like to be kept waiting. INT. SOUNDSTAGE--BLUNTCAVE SET It looks like the Batcave, but it's not. Off to the side, near the monitor and chair setup, a black DIRECTOR eyeballs the hustling, white crew. DIRECTOR Look at all these crackers, Seventy million dollars and I can't even get a black grip? A white P.A. brings a cup of latte to the Director. P.A. Here's your coffee, sir. DIRECTOR (eyes the coffee) You spit in this? Because I know all you white folks are pissed off that the studio'd entrust a multi- million dollar to a brother. P.A. I didn't spit in it, sir. DIRECTOR Then taste it! Go on! The P.A. takes the cup and sips from it. He tries to hand it back to the Director. P.A. It's all good, sir. DIRECTOR No it ain't all good. Oh, you think I want it now, after your lips touched the cup? Get the fuck off my set! P.A. You the man, sir. DIRECTOR No you the Man! And that's the problem! The Director glares at the scared P.A., as he cautiously skulks off. BANKY EDWARDS approaches. BANKY Uh, Chaka? Yeah, hi--I'm Banky Edwards, the creator of Bluntman and Chronic. We met a few weeks back. I'm the executive producer. DIRECTOR/CHAKA Oh--you're the executive producer, hunh? Well go "produce" me a latte no white folks spit in--okay Fucky? BANKY Banky. I just wanted you to know that I respect your work as an artist. I'm something of an artist myself. I was the inker on the comic book. CHAKA An inker? What, like you trace? Banky's face drops as the A.D. joins them. A.D. Biggs and Van Der Beek are on the set, Chaka. CHAKA I don't see 'em. Where are they? (into bullhorn) WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE STARS OF THIS PIECE OF SHIT?! On the Bluntcave set, two massive doors open in the fake rock. Smoke pours in, and Jay and Silent Bob--now dressed as BLUNTMAN AND CHRONIC--step from the darkness. Jay and Bob survey the set, amazed. JAY This must've set 'em back a couple hundred bucks. CHAKA Look at this shit. (off their outfits) A gay hood ornament, and the color Purple. JAY Who the fuck are you? CHAKA Who the fuck am I? I'm the fucking director, is who I am. Chaka Luther King. The creator of all of this. JAY Wait a sec--I thought Holden and Banky created this shit. CHAKA And I'm stealing it. I'm taking it back for all the shit you people have stolen from us! Did you know, I came up with the idea for Sesame Street before PBS? I was going to call it N.W.P.--Niggaz with Puppets. (beat) Alright--enough small talk. Let's shoot it. Chaka heads back toward his monitor. Jay and Bob are confused. JAY Wait, wait, wait!! Aren't you gonna direct us? CHAKA I'll be directing you to the food stamps line after I fire your ass, if you talk back like that to me again! JAY But we don't know what we're supposed to do here. We didn't even read the script. CHAKA So? Neither did I. Shit, neither did the studio. (pointing O.C.) Look man, it's not hard. In this scene, the bad guy breaks into the Bluntcave. You make up some shit, fight him for a while, I film it, I yell "cut," and then head back to my trailer, where I got more white women waiting for me there than the first lifeboat off the Titanic! (confidentially) They all want a part of the movie, and I got just the part for 'em. Jay and Silent Bob go wide-eyed, as Chaka heads off. CHAKA LET'S ROLL WITH THE NEW! A.D. (O.S.) QUIET ON THE SET! THIS IS A TAKE! Chaka climbs behind his monitor. The P.A. is waiting for him with another cup of coffee. P.A. I got you another cup of coffee, sir. Spit free. Chaka smacks the coffee out of his hand and sits down. The Clapper/Loader jumps in front of the startled Jay and Bob, getting ready. After a beat, he turns to Silent Bob. CLAPPER/LOADER I just wanna say that I loved when you fucked that pie. (calling off) BLUNTMAN AND CHRONIC STRIKE BACK, SCENE THIRTY-SEVEN, TAKE ONE! The clapper/Loader shuts the clapboard and races off. From behind the monitor, Chaka calls out-- CHAKA ACTION! Jay and Bob (as Bluntman and Chronic) look at each other for a beat. Then-- JAY/CHRONIC Uh--Snootchie Bootchies. Suddenly, the wall to their left explodes. Jay and Bob hit the deck. Through the smoking rubble steps COCK-KNOCKER--the arch--nemesis of Bluntman and Chronic. He's a normal-looking man with huge, overgrown FISTS. JAY/CHRONIC What the fuck? COCK-KNOCKER You thought I'd never find your precious Bluntcave, did you, Hemp Knight? But now you and your sidekick are finally in the grasp of Cock- Knocker! JAY/CHRONIC Why do they call you "Cock-Knocker"? Cock-Knocker slams one of his huge fists into Jay's balls. Jay drops to his knees, wailing. Cock-Knocker then pulls a vibrator-looking device from his cape. He presses a button on it and a laser beam rises out of the vibrator, like a light saber. COCK-KNOCKER Any last words before I bust your balls, Bluntman? Silent Bob quickly looks right, then left. His eyes fall on-- A wall of armaments, on which hands a SILVER BONG, under the placard: BONG SABER--EXTREMELY EXPERIMENTAL. DO NOT USE. It's out of his reach. Silent Bob closes his eyes, concentrating. He reached his hand out to the Bong Saber, attempting the Jedi Mind Trick. Suddenly, the Bong snaps from the armory into Bob's grip. The Bong Saber blasts to life and Bob strikes a defensive pose. Bob rushes the astonished Cock-Knocker and the pair start light saber dueling. CHAKA (from behind monitor) Damn! Now that was one special effect! This picture's gonna make House Party look like House Party Two! A.D. Or House Party Three? CHAKA Shut the fuck up! Cock-Knocker battles Bob back. He vogues some impressive blade handling, prompting Bob to make a run for it--up the ladder of the Bong Reactor and over Cock-Knocker's head. He lands behind Cock-Knocker, striking another pose. Cock- Knocker then high- kicks Bob in the face, knocking him on his ass across the floor. Cock-Knocker rushers over to deliver a saber kill-shot, when we hear-- JAY (O.S.) YO-BITCH-FISTS! Cock-Knocker turns to see-- Jay, standing on the rotating monitor station, holding a double-sided saber. He clicks it and TWO beams emit (a la the Darth Maul light saber in Episode One). JAY Call me Darth Balls. Bunngg. Jay leaps at Cock-Knocker, wielding the double-beamed Bong Saber. CHAKA (from behind the monitor) I think George Lucas is going to sue somebody-- EXT. SOUNDSTAGE--DAY Willenholly's car screeches up, and Willenholly jumps with a shotgun. He slides across the hood of the car and lands beside the flashing red light. WILLENHOLLY (looking around) So, this is Hollywood? (suddenly full of purpose) Lights, camera, action, Jay and Silent Bob. Willenholly cocks his shotgun and heads for the door. INT. SOUNDSTAGE--DAY The door bursts open, and Willenholly charges in, firing two shots, O.C. WILLENHOLLY FREEZE YOU TERRORIST SONSABITCHES!!! Willenholly goes wide-eyed. It's not Bluntcave. We're on a different soundstage, where a kid's movie's being shot: Mooby's Grand Adventure. There's a Barney-sized MOOBY surrounded by little KIDS. The Kids stare back at Willenholly terrified. The Mooby suit has smoking bullet holes in it. Mooby collapses. WILLENHOLLY Oh my God-- (to kids) Um--sorry. That was supposed to be a warning shot. Uh--it looks like I'm on the wrong, uh--wrong set. The Kids look at the fallen Mooby. On looks angrily at the O.C. Willenholly. KID You killed Mooby-- (to Kids) LET'S GET HIM!!! The Kids charge Willenholly, who screams like a woman as he's attacked. INT. SOUNDSTAGE--SAME Jay attacks Cock-Knocker with his Bong Saber, full throttle. COCK-KNOCKER (breaking character) You are not upstaging me, Van Der Beek! Jay whacks away happily at the actor playing Cock-Knocker, hacking him up onto the ladder of the Bluntcave's nuclear reactor. Cock-Knocker climbs the ladder slightly to evade the attack, dueling Jay back with the saber in his other hand. COCK-KNOCKER (to O.C. Chaka) CHAKA--CALL OFF DAWSON! GIVE ME A "CUT"! On cue, Jay delivers a kill-shot to one of Cock-Knocker's huge fists, cutting it off (a la Empire). Silent Bob joins Jay, as Jay turns off this double-Bong Saber, Jay grins at Cock-Knocker. JAY Now whose balls have been busted, bitch? Suddenly, a gun shot rings out. All turn to see a roughed-up Willenholly, training his gun first on Jay, then Bob. WILLENHOLLY The C.L.I.T. stops here, Jay and Silent Bob! (revealing badge: calling out) Everyone stay calm. I'm a Federal Wildlife Marshal. These men are the leaders of a terrorist organization wanted for the abduction of a monkey. VOICE (O.S.) They didn't really steal that monkey. All turn to see Justice approaching from the shadows. Willenholly trains his gun on her. Jay's mouth drops. JUSTICE It was just a diversion so we could steal these. Justice pulls the bag of diamonds from her jacket, revealing them. JUSTICE And they're not the leaders of C.L.I.T. The C.L.I.T. is not real. WILLENHOLLY No--the clit's real. The female orgasm is a myth. JUSTICE (to Jay) Are you guys alright? JAY I thought you blew up, Boo Boo Kitty Fuck. JUSTICE (smiling) You remembered. (back to business) It was a frame-up, Jay. Sissy. Missy, Chrissy, and I are international jewel thieves. We were setting you up as a patsy, but I couldn't go through with it, because I... because I love you. JAY Yeah? So that means you'll fuck me, right? VOICE (O.S.) If she does, it'll be considered necrophilia. All turn to see Sissy, Missy, and Chrissy slinking from the shadows, guns drawn. SISSY Because she's gonna be one dead bitch. (to Justice) Hi, Jussy. We catch you at a bad time? MISSY You should've just let these guys go down, Jussy. JAY Hey, I wanted to go down, but I was waiting until I got to know her a little better. See, there was this little angel on my shoulder, and he said-- CHRISSY Shut the fuck up before I shoot you where you stand in your pansy red booties. JAY (looking down) Holy shit, I am wearing pansy red booties! (to Bob) Man--why the fuck didn't you tell me? SISSY Let's have those diamonds, Jussy. JUSTICE I can't do that, Sissy SISSY (points her gun at Jay) Then lover--boy gets one in the brain. CHAKA YO! All turn to look at Chaka. CHAKA Would any of you lovely ladies like a private audition to be in my movie? Justice high-kicks the gun out of Sissy's hand. It lands on the ground discharging. Then everyone starts shooting and running for cover. Jay and Silent Bob hurl themselves over the Bluntmobile. Missy and Chrissy flip over a lavish, exquisitely-packed craft service table labeled. CAST. They pop back up and start firing at Willenholly. Willenholly leaps behind a barren craft service table that holds a bag of Smarties and a dented can of RC Cola. He pops up and returns fire. When both are out of bullets, they drop back down behind the table and reload. From behind his table, Willenholly yells-- WILLENHOLLY WHY ARE YOU SHOOTING AT ME?!?! I'M JUST A FEDERAL WILDLIFE MARSHAL!!! CHRISSY TWO REASONS: ONE--WE'RE WALKING, TALKING BAD GIRLS, CLICHES! MISSY AND TWO: BECAUSE YOU'RE A MAN. WILLENHOLLY ONLY ON THE OUTSIDE! The Girls and Willenholly both pop back up and open fire again. Chaka ducks behind the monitor. CHAKA A shitload of white people with guns? Time to get my black ass out of here! He races off, passing Justice and Sissy, who circle each other defensively, striking kung fu poses. SISSY You really let me down, Justice. Throwing it all away for a little stoner with bad pronunciation. JAY (O.S.) HEY! JUSTICE (ignoring him) What's it gonna be, Sissy? Which fighting style do you want me to kick your ass in? SISSY Are you kidding me? I taught you all all your moves myself. There's not a style you can bust that I can't defend against. JUSTICE You're no match for my "Shaolin Monk." SISSY Yeah, but I can bury you with my "Crouching Tiger." JUSTICE A little "Venus's--flytrap"? SISSY I'll counter with "Dragon Crane." JUSTICE How about a little "Bitch, My Man Ain't Yo Baby's Daddy"? SISSY (beat; smiles) Bring it on. Justice rushes Sissy and instead of sleek kung fu, they launch into a down-and-dirty, girl's cat-fight; hair pulling and screaming. Behind the Bluntmobile, Jay and Bob watch all the action. JAY Yo--I hope one of 'em rips the other one's shirt off and we see some tit. Both Bob and Jay smile at each other, nodding. Banky joins them, crawling in on his belly, covering his head. BANKY Mister Biggs? Mister Van Der Beek? I just wanted to say hi. I'm-- JAY Banky fucking Edwards! Just the motherfucker we came to see! BANKY (shocked) Holy shit! What the fuck are you guys doing here?! Sissy has Justice on her belly, banging her face into the floor, screeching. Jay, Bob, and Banky continue. BANKY Stop the movie?! Are you crazy?! JAY All these assholes are calling us names on the Internet, 'cause of this stupid movie! BANKY I feel for you boys--I really do. Those Net snipers can be really cruel. But Miramax paid me a shitload of money for Bluntman and Chronic, so it occurs to me that people bad- mouthing you on some web-site is none of my FUCKING CONCERN! SILENT BOB Oh--but I think it is. Banky stares at Silent Bob, agog, Jay rolls his eyes. JAY Here we go again-- SILENT BOB Shut the fuck up. (to Banky) We had a deal with you on the comics for likeness rights. And as we're not only the artistic basis but also the character basis for your intellectual property, Bluntman and Chronic, when we said property was optioned by Miramax Films you were legally obliged to secure our permission to transfer the concept to another medium. As you failed to do that, you're in breach of the original contract--ergo, you find yourself in a very actionable position. Banky stares at Bob, even more agog, joined by Jay. After a beat, Jay adds-- JAY Yeah. Justice now has the advantage over Sissy, holding her head and kicking her in the face, repeatedly, screaming. BANKY So, what do you guys want, to go away and take your lady friends with you? JAY Shitcan this movie so we don't get called names on the Internet anymore. BANKY Even if there's no movie, people are still free to talk shit about you on the Internet. That's what the Internet's for: slandering others anonymously. Stopping the flick isn't going to stop that! In the background, we see Justice high-kick Sissy into the air. JAY Well this isn't fair! We went to Hollywood, I fell in love, we stole a monkey, we got shot at, and got punched in the motherfucking nuts! We ain't leaving empty-handed! On cue, Sissy drops from above, landing in Jay's lap. JAY What's up baby? You look good! BANKY Isn't that your girlfriend's enemy? JAY Oh yeah. (pushing Sissy off him) Get the fuck offa me, pig! Sissy races at Justice, leaping atop her, pulling her hair. Jay, Bob, and Banky continue. BANKY You guys are gonna ruin my movie career. JAY Well, we want something for our mental anguish. BANKY Tell you what: we'll settle this monetarily. I'll give you half of what I made. JAY Half?!? BANKY Half's not good enough? Fine--I'll give you two-thirds of what I made! JAY Fuck-you--you already said half? You can't take it back! Silent Bob rolls his eyes, Banky shakes Jay's hand. BANKY Done Justice throws Sissy off, onto the floor. Both get up, facing each other. SISSY Your shit is so tired, Justice! JUSTICE Call me Boo-Boo Kitty Fuck--BITCH! Justice high-kicks Sissy and she goes flying across the stage. Sissy sails toward the craft service table, landing atop Missy and Chrissy, knocking them out. Willenholly stands to see why the girls stopped shooting. WILLENHOLLY Hello? Truce? (beat) I think I killed both of them. Suddenly, he lets out a shriek and falls forward, revealing a tranquilizer dart in his ass, and SUZANNE standing behind him, holding the gun up in the air. Justice surveys her handiwork for a beat, then calls off toward the Bluntmobile. JUSTICE C'mon guys. It's over. Jay, Bob, and Banky pop up from behind the car and join her. JAY Yo, I was just about to jump in there and get your back. Then, the SOUND of SIRENS rings out in the distance. JAY Holy shit, the cops! We gotta get out of here! JUSTICE No. I'm tired of running. Justice lifts Willenholly into a sitting position and taps his face. JUSTICE You awake, Marshal? Marshal? WILLENHOLLY (tries to move but can't) Oh my God, I'm paralyzed. The monkey shot me in the ass and paralyzed me! Oh the irony! JUSTICE (off Suzanne's gun) You're not paralyzed. It was just a tranquilizer. WILLENHOLLY Jesus! Tranqued by a little monkey! My friends in the Bureau are never gonna let me live this down! JUSTICE You have friends in the F.B.I.? WILLENHOLLY (crying) They all made it in, but I failed the exam. Why the hell else do you think I became a Federal Wildlife Marshal? 'Cause I'm a joke! Justice looks toward the direction of the sirens, thinking. Then-- JUSTICE Maybe not. I can make you a deal that'll get you into the F.B.I., regardless of test scores. WILLENHOLLY What kind of deal? JUSTICE You drop the charges against Jay and Silent Bob and say you never found the ape. Make sure the world knows they're not in control of any C.L.I.T. JAY Now wait a second-- JUSTICE I'll explain later, Jay (to Willenholly) In exchange, I'll give you the diamonds I stole, and turn in Sissy, Missy, Chrissy, and myself. But I want a reduced sentence. WILLENHOLLY You'd be willing to do that? JUSTICE (off Jay) For him? I'd be willing to do anything. Justice stands and takes Jay by the hands. JUSTICE I'm an international jewel thief who's facing a jail sentence. JAY That's alright. I'm a junkie with a monkey. JUSTICE If I go to prison, will you wait for me? JAY I don't know. Will we fuck when you get out? Justice smiles and kisses Jay Passionately. The kiss should say it all, but-- JAY Don't change the subject. Will we fuck when you get out? JUSTICE Snoogans. Justice and Jay kiss again. Suzanne reached up to Silent Bob, who picks her up. She grabs his face and kisses him. Willenholly looks to Banky. WILLENHOLLY Wow. There's a lot of love in the room. BANKY Regardless of what you may have heard. I do not kiss guys. EXT. SOUNDSTAGE--LATER Justice and Jay are still kissing, until Willenholly pulls her away and loads her into the waiting Cop Car. WILLENHOLLY Sorry, Justice. We've gotta go. (to Jay: friendly) Hey--stop stealing monkeys. JAY Fuck you. WILLENHOLLY Fair enough. Willenholly closes the door behind Justice and gets in the car. JUSTICE (to Jay) Wait for me. JAY What--here? Jay looks at Justice, confused, as the Cruiser pulls away, leaving Jay, Bob, Suzanne, and Banky. They start walking down the lot. BANKY Well, boys--you're rich in love-- (indicating Jay) Well, you're in love. And to top that off, you've got your own monkey. What more could two guys from Jersey possibly want? JAY All those fucks to stop talking shit about us on the Internet, for starters. BANKY What do I keep telling you? There's not much you can do to stop that. Well, short of showing up at all their houses and beating the shit out of them, I guess. Jay and Bob suddenly freeze. They look at each other and smile. JAY (to Bob) You know--with all that money we're gonna make we can buy a lotta plane tickets. START THE JAY AND BOB KICKASS MONTAGE EXT. SKY--DAY A passenger JET flies through the sky. EXT. SUBURBAN STREET--DAY Jay and Bob stand across the street from a house. They check the address on the big ream of paper they're carrying, nod at each other, and cross the street. INT. HOUSE--DAY The doorbell rings. A MOTHER answers it to see Jay and Silent Bob standing in the doorway. MOTHER Can I help you? JAY Yes. Ma'am, Does-- (reading of paper) William Dusky live here? MOTHER Yes. He's my son. JAY May we talk to him, please. MOTHER One moment. She walks away. After a beat, a fifteen-year-old KID comes to the door. KID Yeah? JAY Yo--do you post as-- (reading off paper) Magnolia-Fan on Movie Poop Shoot.com? KID Yeah. JAY And did you write "Fuck Jay and Silent Bob. Fuck them up their stupid asses? KID Yeah, a while ago. So? Jay and Bob nod at each other, then grab the KID, pull him outside, and start beating the shit out of him on his front lawn. EXT. SKY--DAY The passenger jet flies again, this time in the opposite direction. EXT. SUBURBAN HOUSE--DAY Jay and Bob knocking at another door. Another MOTHER answers. They speak, she heads inside, and another KID comes to the door. JAY On Movie Poop Shoot.com. did you say Jay and Silent Bob-- (reading off paper) "--are fucking clown shoes. If they were real, I'd beat the shit out of them for being so stupid." KID (chuckling) Yeah. JAY Really-- Again, Jay and Bob pull the Kid outside and beat the shit out of him. INT. CONVENIENCE STORE--DAY Jay and Bob beat the shit out of a CLERK. EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING HALLWAY--DAY Jay and Bob beat the shit out of a WOMAN. EXT. RECTORY--DAY Jay and Bob beat the shit out of a PRIEST. INT. OFFICE--DAY Jay and Bob beat the shit out of a BUSINESSMAN. EXT. MOVIE THEATRE--NIGHT The marquee reads: JASON BIGGS AND JAMES VAN DER BEEK ARE BLUNTMAN AND CHRONIC! WORLD PREMIERE! The front doors open and the CROWD lets out. First we see DANTE and RANDAL. RANDAL Now that was worse then Clash of the Titans. DANTE I still can't believe Judy Dench played me. RANDAL Hey--remind me to renew that restraining order. DANTE Why? RANDAL Because I'm gonna blast the flick on the Internet tonight. STEVE-DAVE and WALT exit. STEVE-DAVE Why can't Hollywood ever make a decent comic book movie? WALT Tell'em Steve-Dave! STEVE-DAVE Would you stop saying that? ALYSSA and TRISH come out. TRISH Well, that was just another paean to male adolescence and its refusal to grow up. ALYSSA Yeah, sis--but it was better than Mallrats. At least Holden had the good sense to keep his name off of it. TRISH Why wouldn't Miramax option his other comic instead? You know--the one he drew about you and him and your relationship? ALYSSA You mean Chasing Amy? That would never work as a movie. BANKY and HOOPER exit. BANKY I'm so fucking embarrassed-- HOOPER Honey, you should be. They took your characters and reduced them to one ninety-minute-long-gay joke. It was like watching Batman and Robin again. BANKY Thanks. That means a lot coming from the guy who pretends to be Shaft as opposed to the guy who takes shaft. HOOPER I don't hear you complaining nightly. In fact, the only thing I do hear you say is "Yes, Hooper! Cradle the balls and work the shaft!" BANKY (looking around) Hey! Hey! What'd we say? Not in public! A guy behind them calls out to Banks. GUY Nice movie, you fucking Tracer! BANKY (recognizing him) You--! GUY That's right, you sonovabitch! I'm back for round two! Banky grabs the guy by the throat and starts choking him, while Hooper tries to break them up. WILLENHOLLY exits with Justice in hand-and leg cuffs and a prison uniform. They're flanked by two ARMED PRISON GUARDS. WILLENHOLLY You know, I don't get out to the movies much. But I'd have to say Bluntman and Chronic was Blunt-tastic! JUSTICE Are these leg cuffs really necessary? WILLENHOLLY Don't make me shoot you, Justice. And finally, Jay and Silent Bob come out. JAY YO! THE PARTY'S ACROSS THE STREET, FEATURING THE GREATEST BAND IN THE WORLD: MORRIS DAY AND THE TIME!!! WHIP PAN to Morris day and The Time on stage, performing "The Bird." During the song, Morris points to-- Jay and Bob, who are dancing with Suzanne and Justice (who's still in cuffs, flanked by the Guards). Jay looks to Bob, they nod at each other and-- Jay and Silent Bob, join Morris Day and the TIME onstage, and dance us out to the coda, which reads-- CODA Bluntman and Chronic Strike Back went on to make a mere 2.3 million at the box office. It was the biggest commercial failure in the history of Miramax films. The film was roundly drubbed as a bad idea by the denizens of the Internet chat boards, and over the course of the next year, while they waited for the Quick Stop restraining order to expire, Jay and Silent Bob tracked them all down and beat the shit out of them. CREDITS. THEN-- INT. NOWHERE A familiar WOMAN closes a book that's marked: THE VIEW ASKEWNIVERSE. She puts the book down, smiles at us and skips off. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Jennifer Eight.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jennifer Eight.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..65df7dcc0d8bbc600b237728f281d513cab0f61c --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jennifer Eight.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + JENNIFER EIGHT Written by Bruce Robinson June 1991 1: INT. COMMUNITY HALL. DAY. The Church of St. Peter Los Angeles. "WHOEVER YOU SEE HERE - WHATEVER YOU HEAR HERE - STAYS HERE." That's a notice on a wall. Here's another notice "NO SMOKING." Everyone is smok- ing. This is an AA meeting. There's a lot of Faces to look at. I don't know when we'll get to the one that's talking, but when we do it's like this. Eyes like glue. 50 years old with a face the color of a snuff-users hanky. He says this: BENNY .. after my third recovery my wife made me swear I'd never bring another bottle into the house. And I never did. I bur- ied it under the lawn. Cut out a turf & stood it upright with a piece of tin- foil instead of a cork. So here we are out in the yard, and she's happy because I'm getting healthy in a pair of swim- ing shorts & no way near no booze. She decides to prune the roses. Meanwhile, I'm laying there with a straw stuck in- to the fucken lawn doing a quart of red .. Curious thing about drunks. Their disease often amuses them. That's how crazy I was - I was sick for half a life till I finally found my san- ity again in these rooms. Don't take that drink - And for the one or two new faces I see here, I say this: just do it by the day. You gotta do it by the day - Don't take that drink. And keep coming to these meetings. Because here is where it works .. CHAIR Thank you, Benny .. We have a few more minutes .. Anyone else like to share? .. Ash into an ashtray and now a face. He's around 40 years old. Intense eyes & dark hair. Probably good looking when the ang- le's right. But this is a bad angle. His name is JOHN BERLIN. BERLIN My name's John .. and I'm an alcoholic .. ALL Hi, John. BERLIN I didn't intend to speak today. Matter of fact, I wasn't gonna come to the meeting .. But I wanna say a couple of things I hope may be of use, particularly as Benny says, to the new faces here. I first came into this fellowship ten months ago. I came to a meeting I was convinced was gonna be my last - how could a buncha drunks help me? - Then someone got up, I think it was Micky, and described himself as "the shit around which the universe revolved." I don't know if that was original to him - it doesn't matter, it was the first time I'd heard it, and I still can't think of a better way to describe how I felt - We all have our own place in the darkness, and I was in such a mess I could hardly fucken see - I'd lost someone very dear to me - she hadn't died - I had - I don't know whether she left coza the drinking, or whether I drank coz I knew she was gonna leave - either way, the booze won - I replaced her with alcohol & anger - I was angry with her, myself, everyone and everything - Where I was I wanted to be someplace else - any place but here - any moment but now - But here I am, and it is now, and there's a big change about to hap- pen in my life - and I'm going for it coz this time I know I'm not running away - I'm actually two miles into a 600 mile journey, and I feel good about myself going there - So I stopped off to share that with you - and to thank everyone of you, and everyone in this fellowship for letting me walk out of here, free .. 2: EXT. OAKLAND BRIDGE. SAN FRANCISCO BAY. DUSK. High above the Golden Gate. Too high for specifics. But there is something down there of interest to the Camera. Descending with the Music it seems to isolate a particular car. Too many and too distant to know which it is. But the Camera is follow- ing and already a mile up the 101 Interstate travelling north. Maybe via a dissolve. And maybe not. But red and white either way as the headlights are coming on. The Camera is closing on the highway. And a car has definitely been selected. There is nothing much of interest about it. It's a blue Mercedes sedan. Mussorgsky will choreograph the pace of these cuts. The first puts the frame directly in front of the car. In a few moments its brights snap up. And Titles continue in a dazzle of light. 3: INT. MERCEDES SEDAN. 101. DUSK. Nobody in the car except BERLIN. And a lot of cigarette smoke. Just time to wedge in a P.O.V. There's an intersection coming up. He hits the indicators and crosses lanes winding his wind- ow down. Takes a last hit at his cigarette and exits the butt. 4: EXT. FREEWAY INTERSECTION. DUSK. An instant of red as the cigarette shatters up the highway. A heavy sky of red and black cloud. The Mercedes turns off head- ing east. This time the Camera doesn't follow. Remains static over the intersection until the tail lights finally disappear. 5: INT. LIVING ROOM. HOUSE. DAWN. Bare wooden boards and the sound of singing birds. This house hasn't been lived in for years. No furniture other than a new mattress in the middle of the floor. Still in polythene wraps. BERLIN just about awake on top of it. Ten seconds of disorien- tation while he puts this together. A stone fireplace. Stairs leading to what's got to be a tiny room above. With enough ef- fort this place could be charming. But right now it's a wreck. 6: INT. KITCHEN. HOUSE. DAWN. This kitchen was out of date by 1963. A huge china sink and a fat fridge. But the cooker works and a battered old kettle is already on the gas. T-shirt and instant coffee. BERLIN checks cupboards out. Crockery includes a cup and that'll do for now. His lips articulate a silent expletive. The gas has just gone out. Tries to relight it without success. On hands & knees he explores a rubber supply pipe that snakes under the back door. 7: EXT. OPEN END GARAGE AND YARD. HOUSE. DAWN. In the garage he finds the gas cylinder. Empty and so is the bastard with it. He drags fingers through hair in frustration. Looks around at the heaps of crap that need clearing out. The view beyond he hardly cares to look at. But if he does it is as follows. Clouds massing on the horizon. Fields getting re- ady for rain. His nearest neighbor is around 200 yards away. His nearest Cow about 50. This house is remote and rural look- ing with a veranda out back. But BERLIN has no inclination for sight-seeing. As he walks away a dreary female Voice seeps in. 8: INT. LIVING ROOM/KITCHEN. HOUSE. DAWN. The Voice comes via a police scanner. Most of this dialogue's bullshit. Illegally parked autos and a few drunks still about. BERLIN sits on the mattress eating a breakfast of chewing gum and milk. He unwraps another Juicy Fruit and regrets it. Goes round his mouth like a shoe in a washing machine. A reluctant decision is taken. Spits gum at the sink as he arrives in the kitchen. Starts unloading his leather bag. A flotsam of stuff is excavated including a 9mm Beretta and a pack of cigarettes. He lights up and takes a cruel hit full of nicotine and guilt. Wouldn't need a clairvoyant to realize he's trying to give up. Something on the scanner interests him and he wanders back to the living room. There's a call going out for "David 72 Sam 3." David 72 acknowledges and BERLIN clearly recognizes the voice. "We have a 927D/ Springfield Street/ City Dump." But David 72 is already hired. "I'm outside Emersons/ I wanna be the first horrible face of her day." BERLIN exhales through a smile. The Controller needs an E.T.A. for the 927? David 72 doesn't know. Advises her to roll a couple of cars and "Secure the location." 9: EXT. HILLSIDE. SPRINGFIELD STREET. EUREKA. DAY. A Chevrolet zig-zags up a shabby canyon. It's the road to the city dump. Its final bend reveals a line of bellowing garbage trucks. Everything is backed up. Nothing moves except the car. The cause of the hold-up is explained at the top. A Sheriff's car blocks the road. A Uniform moves to wave the Chevrolet in. 10: EXT. ENTRANCE/TRACK/INFILL. CITY DUMP. EUREKA. DAY. The car parks at a weigh-house and a man in his 50's gets out. Looks like he hasn't slept in a while. And got the mood to go with it. Sports jacket and cowboy boots. A lot of laugh lines around the eyes. But you wouldn't want to get arrested by him. And especially not this morning. His name is FREDERICK T ROSS. TRAVIS You can drive down there, Sir .. ROSS I'm already walking. Where is it? One of those walking with him is a 10-year-old Kid with a Dog. TRAVIS looks almost too young to own his struggling moustache. TRAVIS On the infill. The guy from L.A.'s just gone down there .. ROSS He has? .. What's he doing here? TRAVIS He was waiting for you, Sir. Wait- ed a good while. Said he'd go down and take a look. I hope that's O.K. The track sinks through a valley of a million discarded tires. ROSS Damn A, it's O.K. With a bit of luck I'm goin home. What we got? TRAVIS A derelict. TRIMBLE They cut his throat .. The information comes from freckles and a missing front tooth. ROSS Who are you? TRIMBLE Trimble. He wears glasses and wields a rusty .22 pump-action Remington. ROSS Where do you fit in, Trimble? TRAVIS His father's the manager, Sir. The kid was up there shooting vermin, and he found the body. TRIMBLE Get ready for it, coz I'm tell- ing ya, you're in for a shock .. TRIMBLE speaks with some enthusiasm. ROSS looks back with none. They slit him from "ear to ear." Ya want me to make a statement? ROSS Not right now. No. Thank you. 11: EXT. WORKING FACE. INFILL. GARBAGE DUMP. DAY. A series of terraces have been created as the canyon fills up. Black smoke drifts from a distance at will of the wind. Gulls and bulldozers. Plus a stinking ten foot cliff of human filth. Several cars parked here including the blue Mercedes. Several On Lookers behind yellow police tape. ROSS negotiates it look- ing pissed off. Looks up and somewhere in the smoke is BERLIN. ROSS Did you bring it with you? BERLIN I hope I'm not intruding? ROSS Be my guest. What you got? BERLIN Old guy, offed himself with a knife. I can't find the knife. And the next thing ROSS is looking at is a death in the trash. A massive dozer in the background. Everything else is garbage. TRIMBLE They cut his throat. ROSS Would you get outside the tape. And tell your dad to put that fire out ... that ain't legal ... Another face here is so familiar ROSS hasn't bothered to ackn- owledge it. BLATTIS is a 32 year old local newspaper reporter. Little is visible of the body except a blood-stained raincoat. TRAVIS I wonder what would make him do a thing like that? ROSS Don't annoy me, Travis. TRAVIS No, Sir. Truck horns wail in the distance. On the horizon it's thunder. ROSS So where's the knife? BERLIN wears surgical gloves. Removes film from a small camera. BERLIN I dunno .. Guess the dozer musta shifted him? You need some hands up here to look .. ROSS You heard. Look for the knife. Swatting smoke ROSS directs anger at a fat cop called VENABLES. You, too .. Move that ass .. BERLIN hands the film to ROSS as he gets into identical gloves. You done the pockets? BERLIN No, Sir. I haven't started till Monday. I'm a "tourist." ROSS "Welcome to Eureka." By now ROSS is crouched next to the Corpse examining the wound. How long's he been feeling like this? BERLIN Week or two. Musta been on the ker- osene. Stinks like a diesel engine. BLATTIS Fucken noddle's hanging off .. ROSS Mr Blattis, of our local news- paper. You sure it's a suicide? BERLIN Uh huh .. He's well rehearsed .. BLATTIS What does that mean, Sergeant? BERLIN Cut your own throat, you're ner- vous about it, tend to hesitate. He's got three trial cuts, lower left side of the neck, before he works up courage for the big one. BLATTIS looks vaguely impressed. ROSS begins searching pockets. BLATTIS You think Popeye would know that? ROSS I don't think Popeye would be here. VENABLES (V.O.) Dead dog over here, Sir ... ROSS Find the knife. And Venab- les, is the coroner called? VENABLES Yes, Sir .. He's delayed .. BLATTIS Alright, gentlemen, I'm gonna leave you. I got a couple of questions for the paper, Serg- eant? Mind if I swing by later, wring out a tea-bag with you? BERLIN My pleasure .. Who's Popeye? BLATTIS Your predecessor. He did- n't like to get outta bed. Catch you later, Freddy T .. Off he fucks under an ailing sky. BERLIN lands a friendly grin. BERLIN So what happened to the barbecues, and fishing? ROSS Watch my lips, coz you're not gonna believe this - this is a rare occurrence. We haven't had a body in eighteen months. He finds keys and change and a sandwich in the Wino's raincoat. How does anyone dead as this lose a knife? BERLIN What about that kid, Ross? ROSS Oh, shit. Of course. The kid. (Stands to shout) Travis. Find that kid and get the knife off him. He's gonna lie to you - but he's got it - so get it. Well, go on, get on with it. Whatta you staring at? TRAVIS stares up like he just stuck his dick in a light socket. TRAVIS I think I found some- thing horrible, Sir ROSS Whatta you mean, "horrible?" TRAVIS I think I've found a hand. 12: EXT. INFILL. GARBAGE DUMP. DAY. ROSS crouches in garbage. Peers into a trash sack with assist- ance of a flashlight. "You're right. It's a fucken hand." Pas- ses the light to BERLIN. His turn to examine the ruptured bag. BERLIN Looks like a woman's hand? BERLIN finally stands. Offs the flashlight. And hands it back. ROSS What do you think? BERLIN I think you're here all day. 13: EXT. INFILL. GARBAGE DUMP. DAY. Pissing with rain and unspeakably miserable. The 'grid-search' is in progress and 50 square yards of the dump have been ripp- ed to pieces. Intermittent voices from police radios. More veh- icles down below including an ambulance with hazards revolving. Up here half a dozen arc-lights scald off vapor. BERLIN search- es under a busted umbrella. Looks up and runs into ROSS's eyes. ROSS How much longer we here? We're not gonna find nothing else .. ? He wears a rubber cape & looks like a huge pissed-off Napoleon. BERLIN We give it one more hour. Did the photographer do the dogs? ROSS The dogs? BERLIN Two dogs. He should do the dogs. And both turn towards a Voice shouting from deep in the gloom. VENABLES Sergeant - we got a brassiere over here. Looks like it could be blood. ROSS Oh, shit. BERLIN Alright, I'm coming .. Another intrusion from the radio. TRAVIS repeats the question. TRAVIS The coroner wants to know if we can release the derelict? ROSS Ask him. BERLIN Yeah, he can go ... ROSS Think I'll lay down with him. Only way I'll get outta here. Did someone say something funny? Does BERLIN just about smile. BERLIN It's good to be with you, Ross. And this is probably the only time ROSS will look happy today. ROSS Glad you finally made it, Bro ... 14: EXT. CAR PARK. POLICE STATION. CITY OF EUREKA. DAY. The Mercedes descends an incline and parks. Brown Chevys and black & white patrol cars. Dismal lights and raining like it doesn't end. BERLIN gets out and unloads the trunk (aquarium & insulated picnic box). Slams the trunk and reveals BLATTIS. BLATTIS You want some umbrella? Proffers a big yellow one plus assistance carrying equipment. BERLIN Is this normal? BLATTIS Average rainfall, 48 inches. Pisses down, October to June. Raining hard enough to hurt. A brisk intimacy across the lot. Better in the summer. You get to fucka few tourists .. He hits a security code at the door. Obviously familiar with the station. Dialogue continues as they step into a corridor. 15: INT. CORRIDOR/ADMINISTRATION. POLICE STATION. DAY. BLATTIS [BERLIN] Not married are you, Sergeant? [No.] That's good, you get to fuck a few more. So how long you known Freddy? BERLIN Freddy? Forever - he was my serg- eant when I was a kid - don't get to see a lot of each other - but we been buddies two hundred years .. BLATTIS Did he get you the job? BERLIN I think he would have if he could have - been trying to get me up here long enough - I think he may have bribed the old guy to retire .. BLATTIS Popeye wasn't old. Younger than you. They push through doors into the biggest room in the building. A dozen desks back to back and all the clutter and clatter of typewriters and paperwork and Secretaries swapping the gossip. Too many cops to describe and no time to remember them anyway. But here's one making introductions. About 60 years old. Face a mix of brick and fat. The Chief of Eureka Police is CITRINE. CITRINE Sergeants Serato, and Taylor. Any handshakes and greetings that fit in around the equipment. Mr Travis, I think you know .. BERLIN Do me a favor, Travis? Bring in the resta the stuff from my car? BLATTIS tosses his parasol "Don't lose it" and follows BERLIN. BLATTIS Did you find the knife, Sergeant? BERLIN No .. But we have a theory .. BLATTIS Kid told me he didn't take it? BERLIN Maybe he's lying to you? By now they're in an L shaped room with wood benches and bull- etin board all over the walls. Bullshit everywhere in packing cases. Dusty Playboy spreads amongst other junk on the boards. BLATTIS Is it true you found a hand? And he benches the aquarium as BERLIN loses the insulated box. Is that it? CITRINE (O.S.) Interview over, Blattis ... BLATTIS C'mon, Chief, if it's sensitive, tell me .. I'm not taking notes .. Right now the box contains camera equipment which is unpacked. CITRINE .. we got a body part. We don't know what it is - probably some kind of hospital debris - we're gonna try and check it out. O.K. Now you know as much as we do .. BLATTIS Grateful for your candor, Sir. CITRINE Then do me a favor, and keep this outta the newspaper - that dump serves a dozen different communities, we don't even know if it's ours? Till we do I don't want no one worrying about .. BLATTIS Wasn't frozen, was it, Sergeant? CITRINE Come on, Michael, outta here, the guys trying to move in. I told you what we know, something else, you- 'll be the first to hear about it .. A Woman's face around the door. "Los Angeles for Sergeant Ber- lin." And goodbye BLATTIS as Berlin reaches for the telephone. BERLIN Why did he ask if it was frozen? CITRINE That, I couldn't tell you .. And don't worry about anya this crap, by the time you're back it's gone .. CITRINE splits as BERLIN picks up "Hey, Ronzo, good of you to call." A long phone lead and he continues to unpack equipment. BERLIN (Phone) Listen, my time isn't good - but two things - really important - the bras- siere I sent you? - I need to know if those stains are human blood - and if they are, do they match the blood in the sample? - C'mon, gimme a break, I don't know anyone up here, it would take two weeks - C'mon, Ronny, I'm ask- ing nice? I really need to know wheth- er I'm interested in that brassiere? .. A cut-out of Popeye The Sailor with fist round a camera on the wall. Telephone resistance is collapsing and he breaks a smile. You're my favourite man - raining - I gotta go - Ronny - I gotta go - I got a house fulla removal men and a date at the morgue - And, Ron, Con- gratulations - you're my first call .. 16: INT. MORGUE. COUNTY HOSPITAL. EUREKA. DAY. ROSS has a Vic inhaler up his nostril. An inadequate defense. A sudden stink slams into his neck muscles. Head and inhaler travel rearward. He shifts eyes to BERLIN who scans the Bum's autopsy reports. A PATHOLOGIST comments on his handiwork into a microphone hanging from the ceiling. "Except as previously noted, the liver is not remarkable." ROSS doesn't believe it. PATHOLOGIST .. if the knife hadn't killed him, the booze would .. I nev- er seen such a bad cirrhosis .. BERLIN You say the cut's left to right? (He does) Isn't that unusual? He's left handed? He picks up a nicotine-stained left hand. Simultaneously a LAB TECHNICIAN wants BERLIN to sign in exchange for the picnic box. PATHOLOGIST I guess he was so drunk, he did- n't know which hand he was using. (Re box) What are you gonna do with it? BERLIN Depends how healthy it is. If it's any good, I'll try and get a print .. He hands the clip-board back and remembers a question for ROSS. Oh, Ross, that newspaper guy at the station, asked me if the hand was "frozen?" Why would he ask me that? ROSS Frozen? .. I've no idea .. Another fast fix on the Vic and BERLIN chews fresh gum. A need- le on a weighing machine quivers. "The liver weighs 1420 grams." A few beers wouldn't do that to you, would they? PATHOLOGIST No, Freddy .. Not a few .. 17: INT. KITCHEN. THE ROSS RESIDENCE. EUREKA. DUSK. An explosion of hugs in the kitchen. Everything happens at once. MARGIE ROSS is slim and dark and still looking "twice as pretty." She's got compliments for BERLIN too if they can get out of each- other's arms "You're looking wonderful, John." But greetings are better performed than described, so I'm leaving it to the actors. ROSS You do a rush on three pizzas? He emerges from the refrigerator wielding a bottle of champagne. MARGIE I'm not giving him Pizza. I haven't seem him for a year? I'm gonna cook him a dinner. ROSS Dinner's another night, darlin .. This is a drive-by. I got an hour .. He detours via the kitchen door to shout upstairs. "Hey. Bobby.?" MARGIE Bobby's out .. What's the hurry? ROSS Friday night at City Hall. Got a great chance to frighten the fat. MARGIE Freddy's new obsession .. BERLIN Who is who? ROSS A professional, whining, con-person bitch with an ass the size of Africa .. ROSS fights a difficult cork "You wanna get some glasses, Honey?" She's an accounts-manager, very pal- ly with our mayor, up to her elbows in fraud, and I just can't prove it .. MARGIE So tonight she confesses? ROSS Tonight I'm feeling lucky .. The cork explodes and he goes for glasses but one isn't willing. BERLIN Not for me .. ROSS What d'you mean, I just opened it for you? This is French champagne. MARGIE No it isn't .. It's Californian .. ROSS Even better. BERLIN Not today .. I'm on a diet to- day .. I'll take a diet soda .. ROSS Since when did you drink diet soda? MARGIE Stop nagging him. If he doesn't want it, he doesn't want it. You- 're quacking like an old duck .. And she's already at the fridge and popping a can of diet cola. Here you go, Honey .. You're looking wonderful, John .. I can't believe we got you here .. ROSS How's the new residence? BERLIN O.K. ROSS What does that mean? BERLIN Not too good in daylight .. ROSS C'mon, just shut your eyes until it's painted. You're gonna love it. This is "God's Country," John. 18: INT. CRIME LAB. POLICE STATION. DAY. This in huge close-up. Focus hardens on a finger tip. A shock of light. The focus adjusts and a flash bulb fires again. BER- LIN moves away from the view-finder. Chewing gum stuck to the side of the camera returns to his mouth. He activates an auto- matic rewind. It fills the silence while he heads for a phone. A lot of paraphernalia and technical type of shit. The bullet- in board is filling up. Photographs chronicle the hours spent on the dump. He dials with eyes on the pictures. A dozen cata- logue discovery of the bra. "This is Mike Blattis/I can't take your call right now/ If you have a message/You know the sound." 19: INT. DUTY ROOM/CORRIDOR/ADMIN. POLICE STATION. NIGHT. A reel to reel tape recorder the size of a refrigerator domin- ates the room. A black board details day/night/weekend shifts. T.V. security monitors. A rack of night-sticks. And of course paperwork. VENABLES crouches over a desk filling something in. BERLIN Would you drop these off for me? Sure he will and six rolls of film are handed across. "Are you winning, Sir?" BERLIN smiles and VENABLES follows him out into the corridor. A couple of Coppers on their way in. One big and morose looking called BISLEY. The other we've already met. Tay- lor is a tall balding guy with hazy reddish hair "How you doin?" BERLIN responds a happy "O.K." with eyes returning to VENABLES. You know something strange about that hand? I think it was frozen? VENABLES Frozen? BERLIN Yeah. What does that mean to you? Apparently little. They arrive in the big room. It's deserted. C'mon, Venables, you're a policeman. And policemen always have an answer? VENABLES Well, Sir .. BERLIN Well, what? VENABLES Well, we had a very bad murder here, coupla years ago. Not act- ually in our county, but south of here. Girl with no head, no hands. You didn't read about it? (He didn't) It was big shit. They had forty, fifty detective working it. Nev- er identified her. Never found the head, never found the hands .. A vacuum cleaner starts somewhere but BERLIN isn't hearing it. So it could be that some crazy's stored her hand in a freezer, and only now decided to get rid of it? BERLIN Where do I find the file on that? VENABLES In there if we got anything? I believe the code was "Jennifer." BERLIN is already looking. A last question as VENABLES leaves. Was it really frozen, Sergeant? BERLIN No. Been dead two weeks. 20: INT. CRIME LAB. POLICE STATION. DAWN. The atrophied Hand is emersed in some kind of fluid. Index and second fingers bound with wire just below the upper joint. BER- LIN reaches for steel pliers. His face remains in close-up for a nasty "snap" as he cuts a finger off. He's filling a syringe with the same fluid when ROSS walks in. "Jesus, you still here?" BERLIN What time is it? ROSS Seven thirty-five .. Here, "Town Gets Top Cop." I was gonna pin it to your wall. A newspaper featuring a small photograph and article on Berlin. Holding the Finger he carefully inserts a hypodermic needle un- der the wire. Gently shoots in fluid to inflate the finger pad. BERLIN Why so coy about the word "frozen"? ROSS Because, don't get into it ... BERLIN There's nothing in the files? ROSS Watch my lips .. Don't get into it .. The Finger pad is sufficiently restored to try and get a print. It wasn't our case, wasn't our coun- ty, and got nothing to do with that. 21: INT. CRIME LAB. POLICE STATION. DAY. A slide projector does its stuff on a sheet of card pinned to the door. Close-up of the Hand and off screen voice of BERLIN. "Notice anything weird about it?" The answer from ROSS is "No." A pen moves into frame and BERLIN points to marks on the Hand. BERLIN Look - 1 - 2 - 3/4 - 5 - 6 - 7 .. The machine shunts up another slide. Now the back of the Hand. I count eleven scars on this hand, and four that might be? .. Now I count em on my hand? Five. I'm 42 years old. This girl's about 18? How come she's got so many scars? He walks out of the projection beam and neon light flutters on. So tell me about "Jennifer?" Reaches for a pack of cigarettes and perches on a nearby stool. You know I'm gonna find out. BERLIN counts out cigarettes. And destroys them in an ashtray. ROSS It's an "unsolved." They spent 500 thousand dollars & bought emselves a dead end - You might wanna check it with Taylor, he worked the case. BERLIN I already did. What's his problem? ROSS reaches for the paper & thumb-tacks it to the wall "That." ROSS He thinks you stole his promotion. (Re cigarettes) What exactly you doin there, John? BERLIN It's a method for quitting smoking. A Zippo opens (sports L.A.P.D. insignia) and BERLIN lights up. He takes a punishing hit and exhales a lungful across the lab. ROSS That's an interesting method? Must help beat the withdrawal? Back on his feet BERLIN is about to begin more work on the Hand. BERLIN It's a technique I read about. If you smoke 60 a day, you buy three packs, throw one cigar- ette away, and smoke 59. Day 2, you throw 2 away and smoke 58 .. ROSS Why don't you throw them all away, and smoke none? BERLIN Because it's a ritual you gotta go through with. I'm down to 10. Daftest thing Ross ever heard. BERLIN is poised to make a print. ROSS You want my advice? BERLIN Maybe? ROSS Find yourself a farmer's daughter with nice big fucking tits, and shake that "bye-bye." Send it to Sacramento, John .. I sniff grief .. 22: INT. STAIRS/LIVING ROOM. BERLIN'S HOUSE. DAY. BERLIN & ROSS are opposite ends of a bed jammed on the stairs. "Bastards. I gave em a 20 buck tip." Various navigational sug- gestions from ROSS win them another stair. Plus advice from a 12 year old called BOBBY. "You gotta go left, Dad." ROSS knows he's gotta go left! Both heave as MARGIE walks out the kitchen. MARGIE You're all done except the floor. The house is a zoo of furniture. Bullshit piled up everywhere. BERLIN You're a saint, Margie, thanks .. By now she's got the apron off and her coat on. "C'mon, Bobby." MARGIE Don't forget the wagon, Darlin? And off they go via a slammed door as the phone starts to ring. 23: INT. BEDROOM. HOUSE. DAY. In they stagger. The bed goes down. And BERLIN sprawls on top of it. Devastated for oxygen. "Alright. That's it. I'm fucked." ROSS You gotta stop smoking .. BERLIN I am stopping smoking ... ROSS I don't mean this "system" shit that keeps you sucking, I mean stop .. I was exactly like you are .. I used to wake in the night - heart going so hard I coulda made love with my left tit .. If I can stop, you can .. BERLIN How'd you do it, old man? ROSS Someone bet me a dollar .. BERLIN A dollar? .. Not worth giving up for a dollar .. BERLIN manages to find air to sit. Reaches for the Ansa Phone. ROSS Alright. I'll bet you fifty? First call comes from Delaware Roofing vis-a-vis the estimate. BERLIN Fifty dollars? You got a bet. During these proceedings the machine has moved to another call. [MACHINE] [J.B./Ronzo/Got some results for you/ First/ the blood on the bra is human/ and it's not a popular brand/A.B. Neg and that's a rare one/Two/the blood on the brassie- re is compatible with the blood from the hand/Three/If you need anything else the official answer from all us Christians down here, is fuck off/Shoot me a duck/Bye] ROSS What are you gonna do, Soldier? BERLIN I'm gonna dig up "Jennifer." 24: INT. (TELETYPE)/ADMIN. POLICE STATION. NIGHT. And here's part of the "exhumation." CITRINE stares at a tele- type machine waiting for transmission on Jennifer to complete. Approximate date of birth/Approximate date of death/ Identity Unknown. Visible misgivings as he hauls it out and reads. One or two chairs already on desks. ROSS still at his pawing over documents with a detective called SERATO. Cigarette smoke and shirt sleeves. ROSS looks up and catches CITRINE as he passes. ROSS Chief, I gotta talk to ya about this fat lady? CITRINE What about her? ROSS She's making my life a misery .. I wanna give her a lie-detector test? CITRINE continues up the carpet. "Alright, we'll talk about it." 25: INT. CRIME LAB. POLICE STATION. NIGHT. A florescent glow from a T.V. monitor supplies the only light. BERLIN vacillates interest between the scanner and the screen. CITRINE (O.S.) What is that? BERLIN Laser enhancement of the finger- tip .. it's really bothering me .. See these striations right here? (Green on the screen) It's like she's always worrying the end of her finger? Rubbing it with a thumb nail, or something? But CITRINE isn't interested in finger nails. He's staring at a polystyrene torso of a faceless girl. She wears a brassiere stuffed with newspaper and a black wig. (Welcome Jennifer Two) She's almost identical to Jennifer. Slim - White - same age - bra size is even the same. Nicely made lady. CITRINE stares at the Dummy like he's gonna ask it a question. CITRINE How do you know her hair's black? BERLIN Hair on her hand. Plus Jen- nifer had raven black hair. CITRINE What is all this Jennifer stuff? He waves a handful of teletype before dumping it on a bench. These cases aren't connected, John? BERLIN Yes, Sir, I think they maybe. I think "Jennifer," and this lady got hit by the same guy? CITRINE I don't see that at all .. On the board is a super-imposed picture of a hand over a wrist. BERLIN I got four points of posit- ive comparison on the cut .. CITRINE Yeah, that's all very inter- esting, but where's the body? A question he doesn't need because he hasn't an answer. CITRINE has an eye on further photographs relevant to the Jennifer case. I don't know nothing about this "Jenn- ifer" girl, cept what some of the guys told me - but principal feature of the case was a gruesome displayal of the body. He wanted it found. So if this is the same guy, why's he hidden this one? Another question he can't answer - and this time he doesn't get a chance - BISLEY walks in with an apology for the interruption. Got a face like Humphrey Bogart's mother fucked a different guy. BISLEY Just wondered if you had time to get around to my pharmacy stuff? BERLIN You'll have it in the morning .. BISLEY Alright, I'll try again tomorrow. Bisley has gone but his tension stays. BERLIN unwraps fresh gum. CITRINE Probably making him feel a bit antsy seein it back on the wall. He worked a lotta time on this. BERLIN I thought it was Taylor's case? CITRINE Sucked in officers from all over the county. And it was the worst six months this station ever had. This is CITRINE's shop and BERLIN isn't gonna row it with him. BERLIN What do you want me to do, Chief? CITRINE I'm not telling you what to do. What I will say, is right now, that child's tricycle there is more important to me than this .. He refers to a little bicycle. Vouchered and obviously stolen. By now CITRINE is at the hinges. A pause before he disappears. Why don't you give it a minute, & stop by my office. We should talk. 26: INT. MERCEDES SEDAN. CITY OF EUREKA. NIGHT. Melted neon in the streets. A wet mid-town night. Nothing but sound of windshield wipers and click of a Zippo lighter. ROSS rides stoic passenger while BERLIN drives with festering eyes. ROSS .. what does he think it is? BERLIN [ROSS] Everything it isn't [make a left]. He even tried a "self-inflicted." ROSS It's possible. BERLIN C'mon, Ross, the bra and hand were in different bags a 100 feet apart .. They stop at a light and a beeper goes as warning to the blind. What's she gonna do? Dump her bra in one bag, her hand in the other, and wander off whistling Hey Jude? ROSS It's the garage on the far corner. BERLIN is worrying at his fingertip on the wheel of the Zippo. You can't stop it, can you? BERLIN What do you mean? ROSS Worrying - clicking - picking - You may as well be back in Los Angeles. BERLIN What do you mean, Ross? The lights change and off they go and BERLIN waits for a turn. ROSS Why don't you dump it? Mail it off. Give the fucking F.B.I. a present? BERLIN Why don't you dump the "Fat Lady?" ROSS Because I dislike her too much .. BERLIN O.K. and I'm not in love with this fukker? That's how I feel about him. ROSS No you don't. That's how you think you feel about him. That's how you feel about yourself. You won't give yourself one-fucking-minute for you. And by now they've arrived and pulled up on the garage forecourt. It's indicative of their friendship that ROSS can talk like this. Wait for me. It might not be ready. He quits the car and BERLIN watches him scurry towards a service shop. Rain beats on the roof and BERLIN looks stubbed out. A lot of cuts coming up and here are some of them. Runs a hand through his hair in unconscious frustration. A finger constantly bothers the Zippo. Eyes towards ROSS who silhouettes in florescent light. Somewhere in the background the lights change to red. Once again the beeping sound of traffic-lights speaking to the blind. Maybe he looks across but that doesn't matter. Something just happens inside his head he isn't yet quite aware of. Everything in close up. Big on the Zippo. Big on BERLIN. And he leaps out of the car. BERLIN sprints through the weather. A station wagon is still in the air at the end of an hydraulic jack. Surprise from ROSS and a MECHANIC as BERLIN arrives. Fuck the fanbelt and listen to this. BERLIN I just had this insane idea - if I'm wrong, I'll take a week off and redecorate your entire house .. Rain beats at the roof and the jack sinks the wagon behind them. She's blind, Ross - that's why all the scars - hear that traffic light? That noise is to help blind people - that's why the marks on her finger- tips? - this lady reads in Braille .. 27: INT. ADMINISTRATION. POLICE STATION. DAY. BERLIN sits at a desk at the end of the room. Nothing here but a legal pad and a phone. The pad is covered in names & numbers. Right now he's into a call and this is sounding promising."How old?" And he writes 26. "How long?" About 6 weeks ago. Hope in his eyes as he looks across to a woman called ANN. She's doing what he's doing on a different line "Wait a minute, I specific- ally said I was looking for a girl?" And all hope over because Lesley is a boy. But here comes ANN & this might be something? ANN Shasta-Trinity Institute. Line one. Sticks a sheet of notes on his desk and he junks the last call. BERLIN (New call) Hello .. Yes .. This is Sergeant Berlin .. Yes, that's right .. I believe my assistant explained? .. How long ago was that? .. Uh-huh. O.K. .. Who is who? .. Whass his name? Goodridge? O.K. I'll hold .. ROSS in transit grinning from ear to ear. BERLIN interested in little but his notes and ROSS in nothing but obvious good news. ROSS Pig Woman agreed to take a test. BERLIN I think I got something - twenty two years old, dark hair - study- ing mathematics - (Yes, yes, I'm holding) - Last seen 5 weeks ago .. 28: EXT. LANDSCAPE/ROAD. TRINITY FOREST. DAY. Mussorgsky is back on a shock cut. Big music and a shattering landscape. Juniper woods and mountains. Sunlight on fresh fal- len snow. Somewhere a long way off a car crawls up the valley. Ross's car bursts into frame and as quickly the bend snatches it away. An unexpected building in the distance. Victorian at a glance but probably later. A clock tower and fifty lifeless windows. The Chevy disappears towards its somber architecture. 29: EXT. THE SHASTA-TRINITY INSTITUTE. DAY. Pine trees and slush and parked cars. The Chevrolet swings in and parks in front of the mansion. Breath in the air and eyes on the ugly pile as they slam doors and head for its entrance. 30: INT. ENTRANCE/RECEPTION. INSTITUTE. DAY. BERLIN first with ROSS following. As soon as they hit the ent- rance they trigger a recorded voice. "YOU ARE NOW AT THE MAIN ENTRANCE. THERE ARE SIX STEPS." Midway up them with ROSS look- ing back. "RECEPTION IS THROUGH SWING DOORS AND TO YOUR RIGHT." 31: INT. PRINCIPAL'S OFFICER. INSTITUTE. DAY. GOODRIDGE is mid-50's with a beard like Abraham Lincoln. Sits far side of his desk alternating eyes between ROSS and BERLIN. The latter studies a photograph of a Girl in a file. It's pos- sible they've found Jennifer Two? "How recent is the picture?" GOODRIDGE As recent as we have .. What ex- actly is your interest in Amber? BERLIN I'm afraid I can't give you an ans- wer to that, Mr Goodridge. As I ex- plained to your secretary, we're do- ing a lotta looking, but we're not even sure it's her we're lookin for .. GOODRIDGE Then what are you hoping I'm gon- na do? Dissuade, or persuade you? BERLIN I was hopin since we spoke that you might have remembered something that would give us an idea where she is? GOODRIDGE Then you could have saved yourself a lot of driving, Sergeant. What I said on the phone's the same as I'm saying now. I got no idea where Amb- er is, or who it was took her there. He doesn't like them but not as much as ROSS doesn't like him. ROSS A blind girl can just walk out of here, and you don't know who with? GOODRIDGE You find something curious in that? ROSS Yeah, I guess I do. GOODRIDGE Then let me put your mind at ease .. Firstly, Amber isn't "blind" - she has some useful vision - and second, this isn't a prison, it's a college of higher education - a severe vis- ual disability doesn't mean my stud- ents don't value their independence as much as anybody else - and Amber was a very independent young woman - She decided to leave - so she left .. ROSS And you got no idea with who? GOODRIDGE No, Sergeant, I got no idea with who. And I might add, that in another six weeks, a hundred and fifty students will be leaving here, & driving away for their Christmas holidays with pe- ople whose name I-won't-know-either .. ROSS could sock him in the crop but the phone rings and he ex- cuses himself to answer it. Whatever he hears he isn't liking. You have an appointment with Miss Robertson? BERLIN Yes, Sir. GOODRIDGE As she's a member of my staff, may I ask what this is about? BERLIN Well, apparently, she saw Amber the weekend she left, & was briefly in the room with the guy she left with. GOODRIDGE I see .. Well, she's teaching an- other class at four .. I'd apprec- iate it if you don't detain her .. 32: INT. CORRIDOR. INSTITUTE. DAY. Looking back down a deserted corridor. Someone tried to put sun- shine on the walls with yellow paint. Somewhere a long way away there is a sound like children singing. ROSS loathes this joint. Loathes its silence. Eyes back to BERLIN as he rings a doorbell. ROSS Where is everyone? BERLIN I dunno .. I guess this is staff side of the building? Here come footsteps and the door is opened by HELENA ROBERTSON. Early 20's and blonde and not immediately beautiful. But delic- ate features than need no make up and big dark eyes. They look away for introductions as though she's shy. ROSS & BERLIN grab glances as they follow in. Neither expected HELENA to be blind. 33: INT. APARTMENT. INSTITUTE. DAY. Claustrophobia evaporates instantly. Great views down the val- ley from every window. Plus a bizarre jumble of furniture and colors. But no pictures on the walls. No friendly photographs. Nor any lights. Although the afternoon is shutting down there isn't a light in the room. ROSS elects to stay at the windows. BERLIN takes an offered chair. HELENA sits nervously opposite. HELENA What d'you wanna ask, Mr Ross? BERLIN I'm Mr Berlin. Mr Ross is right here. And Mr Ross is maybe gonna take a few notes, if that's O.K.? (She nods) O.K. .. I'd like you to tell me in what ever way you want, what you can remember about the time you spent with Amber on the aft- ernoon she left? Take your time, and nothing's too trivial, O.K. HELENA Well, I think I told you on the phone .. I went up to her room to say good-bye, and we just sat on the bed and chatted a while, while her friend was coming in and out collecting her things .. BERLIN What kind of friend? Was he a boy friend? An old friend? New friend? Lots of headshake. And lots of silences. "I really don't know." That's O.K. Can you give me any idea what this fellow was like? (Headshake) Well, d'you know how old he was? (Headshake) Alright, let me put it this way? How old d'you think I am? Twenty- six? Thirty-nine? Or fifty-three? HELENA Fifty-three. Possibly the only grin ROSS is going to get out of this place. BERLIN You must have some idea about him. HELENA When we spoke on the phone, did you know I was blonde? BERLIN No. HELENA Why not? You heard my voice? A good point. And a point taken. And BERLIN might even say so. We don't have some kind of sixth-sense, you know. Ex- cept in ridiculous novels .. Now another silence overtaken by a low whistle in another room. He used a breath freshener ... A sardonic headshake from ROSS. Well that solves the case then! And I think his name was John? BERLIN John? .. You never said that on the phone? .. What makes you think his name was John? HELENA I don't know. I guess she must have called him John? I'm mak- ing tea. Would you like some? BERLIN would but ROSS wouldn't. She leaves and whispers begin. BERLIN This looks promising .. I think this one could be it? ROSS Thank Christ we got a witness. BERLIN Let me just keep going a while. She might remember something? ROSS What? She's blind, Bro. You may as well ask one of these Beethoven guys on the piano? He thumbs a cluster of cheap busts of composers on an upright. We're better off having another pop at old Abe Lincoln down the- re? Get angry with the prick. Get some of his "useful visions" in? Someone must have seen something? Negative from BERLIN. Checked it out. Sunday and no one about. This is fucken crazy. Two hours here, two hours back, and the only word I've written is John .. A touch later and the sun is setting. ROSS stands at a window to watch it go. Watches one or two cars driving away. Watches a bird sitting outside on the fire-escape. BERLIN's voice can just about be heard off screen "You said he spoke? Can you re- member what he said?" ROSS saunters back into HELENA's answer. HELENA Well, he just said, come on, hurry up, will you, because it's starting to snow again. Empty teacups and empty notebook. ROSS sits opposite BERLIN. And I remember, he was a lit- tle breathless from carrying the cases because the elevat- or had gone out that weekend. BERLIN The elevator wasn't working? HELENA No, it has a mind of its own. A clock strikes four somewhere. And BERLIN knows he's lost it. BERLIN Can I see your hands? HELENA My hands? He takes her hands and HELENA immediately looks uncomfortable. He examines scars and she stares at him with her useless eyes. I have a class. I have to go. BERLIN Is there anything else you can tell me? Anything about him or her? Doesn't matter how small? HELENA No. Except he smoked. Like you. BERLIN Me? HELENA Yes, I could smell it on his breath, like I can on your's. A taut instant between ROSS and BERLIN. BERLIN caught out and he knows it. ROSS roars in silence "YOU LYING PIG" and writes in his notebook. The angle switches to see "BERLIN IS A LIAR." I'm late .. I really have to go .. Everyone suddenly on their feet and HELENA gets into a jacket. BERLIN D'you have a dog? Seeing Eye Dog? HELENA No. BERLIN Lotta scratch-marks on your door? HELENA Sometimes I look after friends dogs, if they go to dances, or something? ROSS Could I just refer you to this memo here, Sergeant? He tries to get his notebook under BERLIN's nose. But BERLIN isn't looking or listening but following HELENA into her hall. BERLIN Did Amber have a dog? HELENA Yes. BERLIN What color was it? HELENA I don't know. She opens the door and ROSS is barely through before it slams. 34: INT. CORRIDOR. INSTITUTE. DAY. ROSS baits BERLIN up the corridor. Ridicules in silence while counting imaginary winnings. Watch my lips! F.I.F.T.Y. HELENA walks innocent of the pantomime and BERLIN tries to ignore it. BERLIN .. if she writes, or calls, or any- thing at all, you let me know, O.K. He bells the elevator refusing to acknowledge ROSS's bullshit. I'll leave a number with the office .. Lips drill a whisper into his ear. "Fifty fucken dollars, O.K." What exactly do you teach, Helena? HELENA Music composition .. and cello .. ROSS Fifty of em. And I want em now. Meanwhile the elevator arrives triggering a Voice. "YOU ARE NOW ON THE FOURTH FLOOR." Doors slide open and Christ look at this? What kind of eye-defect needs glasses like this? Lenses like ei- ther half of a glass ball. He's early 30's and decidedly "iffy." Is he student/staff or what? As he exits they enter staring aft- er him. As the doors close the MYOPIC turns to stare after them. 35: INT. CHEVROLET. TRINITY VALLEY. DUSK. ROSS drives and BERLIN studies Amber's file. "Wanna beer?" No answer but cans appear anyway from a pack between Ross's legs. BERLIN Had a seeing Eye Dog since she was eighteen .. didn't I tell you those dogs meant something .. ROSS No, you didn't. BERLIN Alright, I didn't, but I nearly did, and if I had I'd have been right .. I knew there was some- thing about that Labrador, that dog was too good to be dead .. We gotta get back up that dump .. ROSS No way .. not me, Mister. I'm not going up there again. Might find someone's prick in a hot-dog roll. BERLIN We're going. ROSS Forget it. They got stringent hyg- iene rules. He's long gone in lime. ROSS pops cans and hands one over. But BERLIN doesn't want it. BERLIN Maybe not? I'm feeling lucky .. ROSS So am I. But where's my money? BERLIN Don't start again. If you win a bet, you can't keep winning it .. ROSS Pay me, and I shut up. BERLIN I haven't got it. ROSS Then give me that Zippo. BERLIN Why? ROSS I need some security. I don't trust you anymore. BERLIN I had one puff on a pipe. ROSS I don't want excuses, I want that weird-looking stuff called "cash." Snaps fingers "Gimme the lighter." And he does to shut him up. I'll tell you what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna do you a big favor .. Forget the 50 and I'll keep this. BERLIN What do you want it for? ROSS To throw out of the window. Does it as he says it. Bye-bye Zippo! BERLIN can't believe it. BERLIN What are you doing, Ross? I've had that 15 years! .. ROSS It's not your friend. It keeps you sucking. Remem- ber the old Bum's lungs? BERLIN I remember the old bastard's liver! I don't believe you did that. I had a great sent- imental attachment to that. ROSS You want me to stop the car? An academic question considering the Zippo went down a ravine. BERLIN No! Get me to that garbage dump! I'm gonna find that fucking dog! 36: EXT. CITY DUMP. CITY OF EUREKA. NIGHT. Gloom congeals around flashlights. A winter mist falling down. TRIMBLE and Doberman watch as BERLIN goes at it with a shovel. A dozen graves already dug and he's halfway into another. Des- pite the cold he sweats in shirt sleeves. Also breathless and rests to catch his wind. "Don't you have to go to bed?" No he doesn't. He wants to see the victim. Digging recommences with TRIMBLE supplying the light. BERLIN suddenly stops. "Get that lamp down here." White lime. Black fur. They've found the Dog. BERLIN begins an examination holding a tiny flashlight in his teeth. Eyes excitedly back to TRIMBLE and gesturing towards a bag. "That bag there. You find a knife and a paira long-nosed pliers." TRIMBLE does it relishing the snap of a switch-blade. BERLIN still busy with the light in his mouth. TRIMBLE pissed because he can't see what's happening. BERLIN removes a crump- led bullet from the back of the Labrador's skull. Holds it up for scrutiny. Small calibre. Badly distorted. "Looks like a 22?" BERLIN You didn't shoot him did you? TRIMBLE Me .. I love dogs .. Ask him? 37: INT. ANTI ROOM/ADMINISTRATION. POLICE STATION. DAY. LETTERS BIG AS A HOUSE. And Loud. The printer reciprocates as fast as its mechanics are capable. Details coming in from San Diego. VICAP Case Number/F.B.I. Case Number/Victim Status/etc etc. Letters smacking into paper too fast to read. But one de- tail is repeated constantly and underlined. "Identity Unknown." Transmission ends and BERLIN hauls at least a yard of homicide out of the machine. Can't believe what he's looking at. "Jesus. He hit six." Reads as he walks back into the big room and gets interrupted by a call. "Miss Robertson. Holding." He heads for the phone with eyes following ANN "Find Ross for me, will you?" BERLIN (Phone) Berlin .. yeah .. that's nice of you, Helena, but I already found out .. black, yes .. No, no, of course not, good of you to call .. You heard a what? .. A hollow car? A hand shoves papers at the edge of his vision. TAYLOR looks a mite cheesy. "You got a minute for this?" And BERLIN nods sure. Yes, I'm still here .. Why didn't you mention that? .. I see .. Al- right, we should talk again .. No, I'm just south of my eye-lids in it right now .. How about Sunday? 38: EXT. COAST ROAD. HUMBOLDT BAY. EUREKA. DAY. The first shining day of November. Sand dunes and an infinite stretch of beach. Behind the sea-break is a lagoon and a tiny harbor. Berlin's Mercedes descends the coast road towards it. 39: EXT. HARBOR. HUMBOLDT BAY. EUREKA. DAY. Ross's boat is a 35 foot fisherman. Shining brass and varnish. But like him it's getting on and often grumpy. This last qual- ity presently evident in both. Engine roaring and ROSS is cov- ered in oil. BERLIN has to shout above the racket to be heard. BERLIN .. I put the slug in for a ballis- tics report, the man tells me, for get it. Soft lead, it's worthless .. I think, fuck it. And fuck Citrine. I call a friend of mine in Los Ang- eles, and he runs our whole damned show through a main-frame looking for anything similar to our ladies shot with a twenty-two - you don't believe what he finds in San Diego .. ROSS detours eyes to wave at his Son. "Watch those revs there." Would you shut it down a min- ute, Ross? This is important. ROSS signals BOBBY to turn off. And the diesel splutters down. ROSS Alright, let's take a walk around the block .. I gotta buy a gasket .. 40: EXT. QUAY/HARBOR. HUMBOLDT BAY. DAY. Seagulls and sunshine and probably Saturday because the place is busy. ROSS walks with BERLIN up a wooden quay. Their journ- ey will take them across a small bridge towards a Marine Shop. BERLIN Six girls over a period of 18 months, and give or take a head or two, the M.O.'s exactly the same. Dark hair. No hands. All shot with a high velocity twen- ty-two in the back of the head. ROSS How come the F.B.I. don't put anya this together? They work- ed over "Jennifer" for months? BERLIN They possibly did - but they nev- er had a head, so they never had a bullet - and they never got an I.D. - not on any of em - never bust a homicide unless you know who your victim is - we're the first to get a positive identity. ROSS Identity of whom? You got a girl, doesn't even have a driver's lic- ense? .. She's untraceable, John .. You need fifty detectives on this. BERLIN That's what I'm here for. I want you to come and see Citrine with me? He's not gonna here it from me but I know he'd listen to you. ROSS Listen to me saying what? BERLIN I wanna take that fucking Blind In- stitute to pieces .. Every address book, every phone call, everyone in and outta there in the last 5 years .. ROSS For a dead dog? BERLIN We've fused into a major series, Ross. This girl isn't the second victim. This is "Jennifer Eight." And this is the second time they stop and stare at each other. That old Wino on the heap wasn't a suicide. He stumbled into some- thing, saw something, and whoever took him out knew how to fake it. ROSS That isn't what you said before. BERLIN I was wrong. Says it with remarkable humility considering he's the "expert." I'm going in to see Citrine this afternoon. Will you come with me? ROSS You're not .. He's in hospital .. He was trying out a new pair of skis in his hallway. The phone rings, and he goes for it, and falls off. He must be the only skier in Northern California to break a leg in his living room. They arrive at the Chandler's with BERLIN in no mood to smile. BERLIN You believe me, don't you? ROSS What does it matter what I bel- ieve? .. What you gotta worry about is what Citrine believes .. But he doesn't really believe it. And doesn't enjoy saying no. But I can't help you with this. We can't go through the door with two contentious issues, you with a mass murderer, and me with the Mayor's best friend. Do that, we lose both. I'm sorry, Bro, you're on your own. 41: EXT. TRINITY VALLEY. DAY. (HELICOPTER) The Mercedes and Music travel north. The latter made sinister by this landscape. Forest plunging into dark ravines. The sun colors the mountains red. But most of the valley is in shadow. 42: EXT. DRIVE/PARKING. SHASTA-TRINITY INSTITUTE. DAY. A high wind in the chimneys. And the view is still from above. Like someone's looking down from the top of the building. And maybe someone is? BERLIN parks it and gets out. Stretches and walks towards the institute. He looks very small from up here. 43: INT. GYMNASIUM. INSTITUTE. DAY. HELENA plays Elgar in an empty gymnasium. Sunlight streams in staining the air red. As BERLIN arrives doors on the opposite wall flap together like somebody just hurried out. Did he see someone? Perhaps not. The trees outside move a lot of shadows. Music stands. Vacant chairs. BERLIN takes one to watch her re- hearse. Realizes just how beautiful she is. And HELENA realiz- es someone is there. Before she can ask he identifies himself. HELENA Have you been here long? BERLIN No, just a minute or two .. I knocked on your door - no one home, so I followed the music .. HELENA I'm sorry. I'll get my things. BERLIN No problem. I'm not in a hurry. But she's already fussing about stuffing sheet music in a bag. Matter of fact, I saw a little restaurant place down the road. Looked kinda pretty? I thought maybe we could have some lunch? No answer but the answer is no. BERLIN finds her book for her. Alright, whatever .. Was some- one in here with you? When I came in the door was flapping? HELENA I don't think so .. No one comes here at the weekends .. 44: INT. STAIRCASE. INSTITUTE. DAY. The gale shouts its head off. The Camera looks down from above. Nothing to see except the stairwell and a hand on the banister. HELENA (O.S.) I suppose I'm the worst witness you've ever had? BERLIN (O.S.) I gotta admit, you're one of them. Just wish I knew what you meant by a "hollow car?" HELENA (O.S.) Well, some cars sound fat and some cars sound thin, and this kind of car sounded "hollow" .. Any moment now they turn a corner of the stairs into close-up. Maybe it was a foreign car? Our kinda cars sound "fat." The elevator is parked on this floor with its doors half open. Are you sure you wanna see it? It's another three floors up? Despite breathlessness he does. "How often does it break down?" Oh, all the time. They keep threatening to have it re- placed, but they never will. 45: INT. ATTIC APARTMENT. INSTITUTE. DAY. Gloomy windows and a wardrobe. BERLIN walks in leaving HELENA at the door. "I sat right there, on the bed." The bed is gone but why tell her? He checks the wardrobe. Guess what? Hangers. HELENA If I came to the diner with you, would you bring me back? BERLIN Of course I would .. His smile deteriorates as he realizes she's "staring" at him. What are you staring at, Hel- ena? .. I mean .. I'm sorry .. HELENA That's alright. You suddenly reminded me of him .. He was standing right where you are, kind of breathless, like you. Nothing happening except the wind. Then a smile as she leaves. I'll get my coat, wait for you downstairs .. And he begins an exploration. Musty bathroom with old-fashion- ed fixtures. A tap leaking behind shower curtains. Nothing in the cabinet. Nothing under the sink. Six steps and he is in a kitchen. Finally finds something worth looking for. Tears the sack out of a vacuum cleaner. Discovers a knot of hair from a black dog. Simultaneously the door slams. Shock powers him in- to the sitting room in time to hear a key turning in the lock. Hits the door and shouts. Hears footsteps moving rapidly away. 46: INT. RECEPTION. INSTITUTE. DAY. A huge Christmas poster advertises SHASTA-TRINITY ARTS/CRAFTS. HELENA sits in the deserted foyer reading Braille. The volume is the size of a phone directory. BERLIN appears via the main entrance. Windswept and wasted and surprised she's still here. BERLIN I'm sorry, someone slammed the door on me. I couldn't get out. HELENA It was probably the wind. Hellava wind that turns a key! But he says nothing. Takes the book while she gets into her coat. She's obviously made an ef- fort. A change of clothes and her hair pinned up. But she has got the sweater on inside out and the label is under her chin. BERLIN What are you reading? HELENA Hamlet. Have you read it? BERLIN No. HELENA You should. It's wonderful. By now they're at the doors with BERLIN escorting her through. 47: INT. RESTAURANT/DINER. TRINITY VALLEY. DAY. Red brick walls and help yourself to salad. All but empty and their food is yet to arrive. BERLIN is clearly having a tough time with the conversation. Basically because there isn't any. BERLIN .. I'll tell you what, if I prom- ise to stop being a cop, will you promise to stop being a witness? HELENA sits frozen like she's waiting for results of an X-ray. I mean, we don't havta sit here waiting for me to ask the next question? You could ask one, too? HELENA Are you wearing a uniform? BERLIN No. HELENA Oh. BERLIN Well, I'm glad we got the conver- sational side of lunch over with. HELENA I'm sorry .. I don't like sitting in the middle of a restaurant .. I feel like everyone's looking at me .. BERLIN There's no one "looking at you" .. There's hardly anyone in here. The only person looking at you, is me. And he likes what he's looking at. And maybe HELENA senses it. HELENA Are you married? BERLIN Was. But I don't like to talk about it. HELENA You just asked me to ask you questions. BERLIN I know, but you pick on the one time in my life I like not to remember. I was in the bad lands. Really not well. It's something that happens to a lota cops. We don't wanna talk about that. HELENA "Thoughts that lie too deep for tears." BERLIN Yeah, that'll do .. Is that "Hamlet?" HELENA No, Wordsworth .. Do you like poetry? His attention is temporarily elsewhere. A Lunch Party just arr- ived. It's clear GOODRIDGE is profoundly unhappy to see BERLIN. BERLIN I don't know, I haven't read much. I don't think poetry's my kinda thing? HELENA Do you pray? BERLIN Pray? HELENA You said, you were in the bad lands? BERLIN No, I don't pray .. Had a dream once, about God, just around the time I was getting well .. He was a nasty lookin little guy, moved into the apartment right on topa me .. I said, don't you listen to people's prayers? He said, prayers? Not often. They're Junk Mail. 48: INT. MERCEDES SEDAN. SHASTA-TRINITY INSTITUTE. DAY. Big pines either side of the driveway. The Camera sits in the back more interested in the approaching institute than BERLIN. BERLIN .. I got really sick of the street .. so I went to school and became a Scientific Services Officer, which is basically a Scene of Crime Off- icer. Then this came up, and I got what they call a Lateral Transfer .. Pulls into a parking spot and the next sound is the hand brake. I couldn't take another minute of Los Angeles .. Felt like I'd said sorry in every street in the city .. HELENA Sorry? BERLIN .. sorry your father, mother sis- ter, whatever .. I couldn't take another day of it .. Come on, I'm gonna rob you of a cup of coffee .. 49: EXT/INT. FIRE ESCAPE/APARTMENT. INSTITUTE. DUSK. BERLIN looks down from the fire escape. For the first time the place sounds busy. Cars arriving and doors slamming. Voices of Students coming back from the weekend. "Why were you out there?" HELENA waits inside and didn't realize he was back in the room. HELENA Coz I wanted to feel the snow on my face .. I think that's when I heard her call him John? Time to go and both know it. Stale shadows and growing silence. Is it snowing now? BERLIN No. Getting dark though. And his eyes are searching her so hard she must be aware of it. You think you'd know this man? If he was in the room with you again? HELENA You've already asked me that .. The silence is almost uncomfortable. BERLIN continues to stare. Amber's dead, isn't she? BERLIN Yes. I'm sorry. 50: EXT. SUBURBAN STREET. CITY OF EUREKA. DAY. Pretty houses in a pretty little street. Hills in the back and sunshine out front. BERLIN pulls up in his Mercedes and does a bit of tie adjusting as he walks up a path and hits the chimes. This could only be MRS CITRINE. A budget smile and he's inside. 51: INT. "STUDIO"/CONSERVATORY. HOUSE. DAY. Dozens of repulsive paintings. A truly repulsive painting "By Numbers" of the Mona Lisa in progress. The color codes are com- pletely fucked up. CITRINE wears a wooly hat and hates walking on crutches. BERLIN picked a bad day to come in here with this. CITRINE You're pushing this too hard. It's like you want me to say stop? You must know that's the way this is going, John? There's other work to do, why don't ya ease off a little? BERLIN Coz this is a major & we're closer to this bastard than anyone's ever been. CITRINE Then where's the body? .. Where's the body, and why's he hidden it? BERLIN He hasn't hidden it. He never made a hit this far north before, and he never read a weather forecast .. She's probably fifteen feet from the highway, three feet under snow. CITRINE Have you got a match on the bullet? BERLIN No. CITRINE Have you got a print from the hand? BERLIN No, Sir. CITRINE It could be anyone's hand. Illeg- ally disposed of hospital debris .. BERLIN It's her hand. Her scars. Her dog. Her dog's shot. And she's missing. CITRINE She's not "missing." Did she shout? Did she scream? Did he coerce her? No. She left of her own free will .. And if she gets on a plane and goes to Peru with the prick, she's still not missing. You got no case, John. BERLIN If you're not gonna hear me, Chief .. CITRINE I have heard you. You just don't like hearing me. You got this whole damned thing outta proportion. I don't know what you gotten used to in Los Angeles, but I don't believe there's a Police Chief, in this country, would put a task force together for a body part .. BERLIN We have a multiple homicide, Sir .. CITRINE We have a body part in suspicious circumstances - a tailor's dummy wearing a brassiere - and a bill for seventeen dollars for its wig! 52: INT. CORRIDOR/ADMINISTRATION. POLICE STATION. DAY. BERLIN arrives at the station in the same mood he left Citrine. Heads for his room and runs into ROSS's stare. Problems on his plate too. He sits at his desk looking uncharacteristically an- xious. What ever he's drinking isn't tea. He finds a bottle of J&B in a drawer and walks toward Berlin's freshly slammed door. 52: INT. CRIME LAB. POLICE STATION. DAY. The lab is stuffed with junk waiting his attention. (Dozens of common things made sinister by their labels and plastic sacks). ROSS delivers a dose of Scotch in a plastic cup. Pours himself another. Leans on a bench and gets into the pissed-off silence. ROSS Did he shut you down? BERLIN All but .. How you doing? ROSS I dunno, I daren't go in there - just about get her wired up, and the fucking mayor walks in - mad as hell - what are we doing fuck- ing with his staff? We should be out chasing major violators .. BERLIN I wish he'd tell that to Citrine. He almost does the whiskey but reaches for chewing gum instead. He thinks the kid shot the dog .. He looks at ROSS like what-are-you-looking-at-me-like-that-for? He didn't. ROSS Did I say he did? BERLIN You looked like you did? ROSS No, I think you'll find I looked like he could have? By accident even? He's up here spraying the scenery all day. BERLIN He didn't shoot it, Ross. And no way by accident. There's a flash-burn. It was point-blank. SERATO walks in with a cigarette plugged into his ashen kisser. SERATO Flying colors ... ROSS Say you didn't say that, Angelo? SERATO I said it. ROSS Oh my God Mother's shit. Are we in it? 54: INT. ANTI ROOM/INTERROGATION. POLICE STATION. DAY. This room and the interrogation room are linked with a one-way mirror. BERLIN looks through munching gum. EMERSON is 25 years old and many pounds of vexed flesh. But something about her ex- pression expects apology. SERATO paces the place chain-smoking. ROSS listens devastated as the EXPERT explains his lousy chart. EXPERT This is the important one. She gets a dead straight line, and that's an exceptional reading .. SERATO .. this is the stupidest thing we ever done. Fucking Citrine's gonna fire one of us for this .. ROSS I can't believe it. I just know she someway busted it. EXPERT This is an honest girl. She couldn't lie if she tried .. BERLIN Is she lying, Ross? For a moment there is an intense trust between ROSS and BERLIN. ROSS Yes. Alright fuck it. Let's go for broke. BERLIN grabs the read out. Fueled on residual anger he vanishes out the door. ROSS is fir- st at the mirror to see him reappear in the interrogation room. 55: INT. INTERROGATION ROOM. POLICE STATION. DAY. The polygraph machine looks like state of the art. A table and two chairs. BERLIN takes one and sits opposite EMERSON. She at- tempts a smile but he kills it with the intensity of his stare. BERLIN My name's Sergeant John Berlin. And the time is his. He knows what he's doing. And she doesn't. I been a policeman 17 years: 16 years 9 months of which with the L.A.P.D. I witnessed literally hundreds of lie-detector tests, and I never seen one like this? EMERSON What d'ya mean, Sergeant? BERLIN Well, look at it. Look at this line? That's the important one. Dead straight down the page. No- body gets a dead straight down the page. Even our expert says a dead straight's "exceptional." All he's doing is telling her truth. Up to her to interpret it. Thought you might wanna comment? A tongue slides through the lipstick like something being born. EMERSON I wasn't actually lying, Officer. And suddenly the only thing holding her chops up is Max Factor. He's got her on the roll now and all it needs is one more push. BERLIN You busted the box, lady! You flunk- ed it .. You lied about things you didn't need to lie about .. The only truthful statement you made's your name .. Your name is Carol Emerson? The quivering lip and flooding eyes amalgamate into a horrible sort of groan. She's bellied up and anxious to spill her beans. BERLIN better get through the door fast because he might laugh. You tell one more lie, you're go- ing in a cell. Sergeant Ross is coming in to take your statement. 56: EXT. ROSS'S BOAT. HUMBOLDT BAY. EUREKA. DAY. A wave atomizes and comes down like silver champagne. HELENA & BERLIN hang on the prow of the boat with the ocean rushing bel- ow. Another wave and more spray for HELENA. She turns like get- ting sea in your face is the best invention ever. Oilskins sat- urated and her hair streaming and she knows he's loving it too. 57: INT. WHEELHOUSE. BOAT. DAY. Sunshine & spray on the windshield. ROSS at the wheel with MAR- GIE next to him. Eyes on BERLIN & HELENA playing like children. MARGIE Such a shame .. She's a really sweet kid .. ROSS She's a doll. But I wish he hadn't brought her out here. Stairs descend to a cabin and ROSS interrupts himself to shout. Bobby, what happened to that beer? Rule one, is you don't diddle around with a witness. MARGIE He's happy, darlin .. ROSS I'm sure he is. But gettin in- to the "element" is a bad idea. BOBBY clatters up the stairs clutching a six pack of Budweiser. Tell em I'm going up the coast a way, get out of this weather. BOBBY exits the wheelhouse and walks their eyes back to HELENA. MARGIE (O.S.) Except for the hair color, she looks just like Suzanne? ROSS (O.S.) Well, that's who she is. Cept she can't run away. 58: EXT. FISHING DECK ABOVE WHEELHOUSE. BOAT. DAY. Wind over and sea content and anchored about a mile from shore. Smoke from a dying barbecue and Nat King Cole croons "Unforget- able." ROSS sports shades and sits staring down the line. Some- one plays lousy guitar and he shifts eyes into the well of the boat. HELENA teaches BOBBY to play chords. Hardly worth the ef- fort but they're enjoying it. BERLIN looks down from the oppos- ite side of the deck. His gaze interrupted by MARGIE "You want another Coke, honey?" Sure he does and her eyes travel to ROSS. MARGIE You want something, darling? ROSS I wouldn't mind another B.E.E.R. In code so BERLIN won't understand. But he and ROSS swap grins. How much longer you on that diet? BERLIN I'm doing it by the day ... MARGIE climbs the stairs with drinks and drinks a beer herself. Popped cans change the subject. This seems like a question BER- LIN doesn't really want to ask & MARGIE doesn't want to answer. How's your little sister? MARGIE She's in Europe .. BERLIN Working? Clearly a sensitive subject and ROSS decides the truth is best. ROSS She married some English prick. MARGIE He's not that bad of a guy ..? ROSS Got a handshake like a partially excited penis. The joke doesn't reach BERLIN. MARGIE's hand is on his shoulder. MARGIE Her loss, darlin .. And she heads for the lower deck. A sweet smile as she descends. Anyway, you're doing O. K. She's a sweet heart. And also playing the guitar "In My Life." And she does it well. ROSS Why's she blind, Bro? BERLIN Car accident. Slow banging of something swaying. And this exchange goes slow. Whole family wiped out. ROSS No shit. A bleeper goes on one of the lines and ROSS twists in his seat. Strap me in. Here comes another. And he winds in yet another three quarters of a pound Mackerel. Worst day's fishing I ever had .. BERLIN It's been a great day. ROSS dexterously extracts the hook with serious eyes on BERLIN. ROSS You just go easy, Brother ... (Looks at fish) Alright, we're all goin home. 59: EXT. CAR PARK AT BEACH. DUSK. Darkness in about an hour. Wide over the car park. Sand dunes surround it. Practically deserted of cars. Headlights snap on focusing attention on a station wagon exchange of good-byes. HELENA (V.O.) I really liked Margie .. Silhouettes with exaggerated shadows walk across the car park. What does she do? BERLIN (V.O.) She runs a kind of hair dress- ing and you know, beauty salon .. HELENA (V.O.) Have you known her long? BERLIN (V.O.) I was married to her sister .. The angle changes and is closer now. HELENA has taken his arm. You don't ask what I'm like? HELENA I know what you're like .. BERLIN How d'you know what I'm like? HELENA Ross told me. BERLIN Really? What did he say? HELENA He said you're quite chubby. And you have a nervous tick. BERLIN He said that? What else did he say? HELENA Just your age. BERLIN Which is what? HELENA Fifty-seven .. I don't mind .. BERLIN is more amused than annoyed. They arrive at the car and his suggestion is met with an appropriate response from HELENA. BERLIN You wanna drive? C'mon we're in a car park, miles from any- where .. There's nothing arou- nd but nothing and sand dunes .. "I can't drive a car." Doesn't like cars. But he's not hearing. C'mon it'll be fun. You can drive me around in circles .. No lady ever had a driving lesson like this before. BERLIN all but sits in her seat. Arm on the back of it. Hand on the wheel. For a split second they're doing 60. Now they're doing about 4. The Mercedes spirals in widening circles. Instructions and enc- ouragement from BERLIN .. O.K. .. Straight now .. The Mercedes straightens and heads through the dunes. "It's a big car park?" We're going along a little track. HELENA may like driving but she doesn't like the sound of that. It's O.K. It's not a public road. Headlights behind them approach quickly. Disappear and reappear as they follow the geography of the dunes. BERLIN only now bec- omes aware of them. one more dip and they slam in. Her anxiety is misinterpreted. He takes the wheel. No problem. Let him pass. The vehicle is right up behind them. As it overtakes HELENA is scared. And still scared even though BERLIN has stopped the car. It's alright, I'm sorry. It was my fault, it wasn't a good idea. HELENA That was the "Hollow Car," John. Just time to see tail lights of a van disappearing in the gloom. BERLIN A Volkswagen van? Are you sure? 60: INT. LIVING ROOM. BERLIN'S HOUSE. NIGHT. Rain lashes the windows. But a lot of improvements inside. New paint and now carpet. Not a lot of furniture but it looks nice enough. There's even a fire in the grate. BERLIN sits at a tab- le on the phone. The Voice he's hearing will [talk in brackets] BERLIN [Phone] .. [is it a two door, slide door, a what?] I don't know [Well, you gotta get closer than just a V.W. van. You- 're talking maybe 10/15 thousand veh- icles?] What happens if you just run the name "John" against all of them? Heads for a sofa. Paperback of "Hamlet." TV on without sound. [Frankly, that isn't gonna do you any good. You'll be knocking on doors all over the state. You gotta request tho- se "Jennifer" files - maybe something in them, give us some kinda reference?] Christmas ads interrupt the movie. BERLIN sighs in frustration. Starts doodling on the paperback. Shakespeare acquires glasses. I can't request anything right now .. push one more inch, I lose the lot .. [Well, listen, I'll run the Bay Area for you. But if you want a print-out of every John in California with a V. W. van, that's gotta be official. I'm sorry] .. That's O.K. Thank you, Dan .. 61: INT. CHIEF'S OFFICE. POLICE STATION. DAY. A painting of Ronald Reagan fills the screen. So awful it's al- most impressive. Next to it is a formal photograph of the City Mayor (Mr Heineman) . BERLIN continues to wait with eyes switch- ing to a picture of the Taj Mahal. "I love to paint." He turns as CITRINE walks in. "It's not great art, but I change the col- ors." Heads for his desk and sits dispensing with the crutches. CITRINE I'm shutting you down on this "blind thing," John. BERLIN Is that my punishment for embarrassing Mr Heineman? CITRINE Don't underestimate me .. the Mayor's pissed - but that's nothing to do with this - sit down - How many times have you been up at that institute? BERLIN Three or four. CITRINE I'm talking, outside the girl? BERLIN Once. CITRINE Got a letter from this Goodridge guy? Says, you're upsetting his students? BERLIN That's bullshit, CITRINE He says, you freaked one of em out? (Reading the letter) "Asking a newly blind kid if he can 'see,' is both cruel, and dangerous" .. He floats the letter across the desk and hears the explanation. BERLIN I never asked if he could "see." I just asked one or two of the stud- ents if they remembered anything? CITRINE And did they? BERLIN No. CITRINE rubs his forehead in preparation to change the subject, CITRINE I'm not a nasty man, John, I'm a nice man .. I get a lot of Christmas cards (a lot of cards on the wall) .. and I'm getting a lot of complaints. The guy you replaced was something you- 're not - a lazy sonovabitch - but the reality is, I was getting a faster ser- vice outta Popeye than I am outta you .. I can't allow this to continue, John .. If there was any argument to be had BERLIN would be arguing it. I don't want you up at that institute again .. and I'm flat-out about that .. I'm sorry, I know it means something to you - you can go tell your witness if you feel you must - but as far as you're concerned, the case is closed .. 62: EXT. CITY STREET. CITY OF EUREKA. NIGHT. Colored lights strung across the street. Symptoms of Christmas everywhere. Store windows full of trashy decorations and every- thing soluable in mist. ROSS and BERLIN develop out of it like Polaroids. Their destination is a dingy looking downstairs bar. BERLIN God, it pisses me off, Ross. ROSS No God, Brother. If there was a God, asses wouldn't be at the perfect height for kicking. 63: INT. "ANGELA'S BAR." CITY OF EUREKA. NIGHT. This is the local Copper's bar. It's full of cigarette smoke & Coppers. Laughter & sugar music. "I'll Be Seeing You." "Sentim- ental Journey." Either one of these is playing. Familiar Faces among those drinking at the bar. The forty-two-year-old BLONDE serving them is busy. She is in possession of very big breasts. VENABLES Can I buy you a beer, Sergeant? ROSS Don't try and ingratiate your- self with me, Venables. But just this once I'll have a Heineken .. and John here will have one, too. ROSS pokes VENABLES a surreptitious 20 with eyes on the BLONDE. Right now she's far end of the bar delivering a beer to BISLEY. (Look at those Amazingly Bos- oms) You wanna beer, King Jay? TAYLOR No, I gotta go .. I'm nights .. TAYLOR gets a last cough out of a cigarette before stubbing it. BLATTIS Gimme a ride? TAYLOR Sure .. And he's already gathered his shit and halfway into his jacket. How's that hand-job comin along, John? BERLIN makes a gesture he'd have trouble understanding himself. ROSS Hey, we're not talking "talk" tonight. TAYLOR No one's gonna make that Gent. Six months investigation, & the nearest we got, we thought he was a sailor. BERLIN A sailor? By now TAYLOR is moving through the crush of faces behind them. TAYLOR Yeah, in and outta Frisco on the big boats .. Every lead we had went right out to sea .. Night, night, Freddy T .. John .. BERLIN How come he's suddenly so forth- coming? I'd like to kick him right in the ass. If he'd discussed it with me, I mighta gotten somewhere .. ROSS Stop it. BERLIN I never knew about the sailor the- ory, Ross. He might have that one little thing I need in his files? ROSS John, stop it. The case is on its ass, you're closed. (Reaches for a menu.) C'mon, let it go for once .. Have a drink. C'mon, relax, drink your beer .. And just that one moment of insanity as BERLIN downs it in one. Alright .. Let's have some wine .. 64: INT. BOOTH. "ANGELA'S BAR." NIGHT. A shabby booth with black and whites of the two unrecognizable Celebrities who ate here. Hamburgers are almost over and a bot- tle of wine almost drunk. Both look tanked and especially ROSS. ROSS You gotta stop calling Los Angeles .. You're dragging L.A. around with you like an addiction. Look at the shit you're putting yourself through? For what? For nothing, I know it, I been there. Remember me? Up to my asshole in anger, living off the vitamins in cigarettes? If there's a body under the snow, fuck it. Let somebody else worry about it. You gotta accept you stopped living in that world, & try and give yourself a break in this .. BERLIN Just makes to so God damned mad .. ROSS You're a fucking great policeman, but give yourself a break. You're here 5 minutes, you find yourself a fucking homicide? .. Not many people could do that in a place like this .. And you gotta admit, there's a lot of shaky areas in this case? .. I mean, stop me if I'm going up the wrong nostril .. Waving his empty at the bar ROSS communicates need for another. How d'you know this girl isn't lying to you .. Not lying as such, but mak- ing up stuff to keep you coming back? BERLIN She wasn't lying about the van. ROSS Alright, she wasn't lying about the van. But it could have been any van? Any little foreign diesel? .. She's blind, Bro .. It's sad .. She's pro- bably lonely, and you're a nice guy to have around .. But you're getting far too far into the element, Brother .. BERLIN Sure. ROSS You don't need me to tell you what hap- pens when you get emotionally involved? BERLIN Alright, enough, Ross. You'll bring on my "Nervous Tick" ... 65: INT. ADMINISTRATION. POLICE STATION. NIGHT. Very late and the only light comes from coloured bulbs pulsing on a Christmas tree. Apparent BERLIN has had too much to drink. Makes it to his desk and shuffles at the messages. One is just about important enough to get a close-up. "TIME 18:52: SUBJECT: A MAN CALLED DAN STANLEY TELEPHONED: SAYS THERE ARE 109 JOHNS WITH VOLKSWAGEN VANS IN BAY AREA: WILL TELETYPE INFO THIS P.M." 66: INT. CRIME LAB. POLICE STATION. NIGHT. BERLIN finishes typing something. Tears it out and seals it in an envelope. Shirt sleeves and yawns. He slumps in the chair & stares at "Jennifer 8." Fuck this for a Friday night. He's had enough of it. Grabs several envelopes and turns out the lights. 67: INT. ADMIN/OFFICE. POLICE STATION. NIGHT. BERLIN emerges from one office and heads for another. J.K. Tay- lor on the door. Delivers the envelope and an his way out when something detains him. Lights on the tree strobe through venit- ian blinds. Illuminate bits and pieces of rattan. Plus a board covered in Christmas cards and a pair of steel filing cabinets. Maybe motivated by the booze? But a desk drawer is open almost before he realizes it and he searches for a key. Nothing but a bunch of business cards and family snaps. Taylor with his Moth- er Taylor with his Sister (red hair like him) and Taylor with his Dog. The drawer slams and one underneath opens. Same flot- sam of personal junk. Scotch Tape and paper clips and more bus- iness cards. A bottle of tablets and salad of loose ammo. Fuck all else and he closes the drawer. But what's this? A cane let- ter rack at the rear of the desk where he finds a pair of keys. Excitement lasts as long as it takes to try them. Don't fit ei- ther lock. Now he's staring at the shadows with nothing moving but thoughts. A few moments more and he's heading for the door. 68: INT. OFFICE. POLICE STATION. NIGHT. Massive close-up of the lock. A weird looking tool goes in and another follows it. This bastard ain't easy even for an expert. The frame widens to reveal BERLIN. He shuffles picks in a wall- et on top of the cabinet. Was that a noise somewhere? He stops to listen. wipes cold sweat away. Only thieves and foxes about. A final twist and the lock delivers. Several dozen manilla col- ored files from which to choose. A pair of folders titled Jenn- ifer travel to the desk. The first is full of press-cuttings & some gruesome looking snaps. Next file and this one looks more interesting? A notebook full of random questions/answers/comm- ents. A list of ships and sailing times. "MUST FOLLOW THIS UP" Underlined twice. "CAN'T OVER ESTIMATE IMPORTANCE." Also under- lined. Lists of numbers. Street numbers? Vehicle numbers? What- ever they might be is history because the neon just flashed on. TAYLOR stands in the doorway. The surprise is mutual. The play one-sided. This is already TAYLOR's game. Smokes his cigarette. BERLIN is up to elbows in the jam jar and up to him to explain. BERLIN .. feel like I'm getting close to this guy .. and all the time, feel like I'm sharpening a pencil with a broken load .. I'm sorry, King J .. TAYLOR What are you looking for? BERLIN Vehicle references. TAYLOR Wrong cabinet. He gestures to the right one. BERLIN feels about 2 inches tall. I'm gonna get some coffee. When you finish in here, maybe you'll let me know? .. I got a report to type up .. As he exits he tosses a bunch of keys. They crash uselessly on- to the desk. BERLIN looks like he couldn't get a fuck with mud. 69: EXT. ROAD. TRINITY VALLEY. DAY. The mood is low as it goes. And so is the angle. Ultra low beh- ind the car. Just road and a blur of tires. The frame widens & the Mercedes fills it. Brake lights on as it descends the hill. 70: INT. TRINITY VALLEY/ROAD. DAY. BERLIN in big close-up. His face like the Music. Here come the gates of the Institute. As he turns in he stamps the brakes. A van veers past him. Nothing special about it except it's a V.W. He watches it vanish up the hill with other things on his mind. 71: INT. CORRIDOR. INSTITUTE. DAY. Christmas vacations and the building sounds deserted. BERLIN's foot steps might be the only sound in the place. They stop and a bell rings. Ho tries to assemble sox* kind of appropriate ex- pression. But as soon as she opens the door it's obsolete. HEL- ENA looks pretty as flowers & delighted he's here. She reaches for his hands. And every new second makes it a tougher goodbye. 72: INT. APARTMENT. INSTITUTE. DAY. Oh Jesus look at this. She prepared him a surprise dinner. And she looks so happy about it. A pathetic little table with cand- les and Forget-Me-Nots and can of Diet Coke by his plate. He's barely through the door and goodbye is already in deep trouble. HELENA I wanted it to be a surprise. BERLIN's face gets ready for something he doesn't say. Why did she have to do this? And why didn't he tell her over the phone? 73: INT. APARTMENT. INSTITUTE. DUSK. A Schubert Sonata in the background. Candles low and the atmos- phere junk. Evening already in the room and it feels like time to go. But first he's gotta toll her something he doesn't want to hear himself. "Would you like me to make some fresh coffee?" BERLIN I have to talk to you, Helena. HELENA I know. BERLIN You know? How do you know? HELENA Coz you hardly said a word since you got here. But you been thinking pretty loud .. She stands and collects the cups and gets halfway with a smile. I'll make some more coffee. 74: INT. KITCHEN. APARTMENT. DUSK. A hiss of running water. Close on the kettle. Close on the tap. She knows what he's going to say. And now she's alone her face doesn't mask her feelings. She's missing him already. But does- n't know why. Simply knows she doesn't want him to say goodbye. She reaches high into a cupboard. Her shirt stretches over her breasts. Christ this girl has a great figure. Carting hair out of her eyes she returns to the sink. For an instant she's star- ing out of the window and right into somebody's face. Tall and weird looking. But just a glimpse before he moves rapidly away. 75: INT. APARTMENT. DUSK. BERLIN has moved to the sofa. A shaft of dead sunlight crosses the apartment. HELENA comes in making a brave face of it. Does- n't realize he's moved. "I'm here, Helena." And she smiles and changes direction. Puts the coffee tray on a table in front of him. No music now and all sounds in close-up. Close on the lip of the coffee pot as she pours. Close on the cup she gives him. Everything close in Helena's world or her world wouldn't exist. 76: EXT. (P.O.V. FROM FIRE ESCAPE) INSTITUTE. DUSK. Not a lot to look at but the man is looking in. From his P.O.V. he's fortunate. HELENA sits facing him but BERLIN has his back to the window. This sort of surveillance is always ominous and here is no exception. BERLIN's explanation comes with occasion- al use of hands. HELENA suddenly smiles so it can't be all bad. They stand and BERLIN reaches for his coat. HELENA crosses the room. Finds her Forget-Me-Nots and now they're his at the door. As he takes them he takes her hand. Kisses her finger tips and can't avoid embracing her. They kiss like awkward kids bumping noses. Finally part and disappear into the dark of the hallway. 77: INT. ELEVATOR/CORRIDOR. INSTITUTE. DUSK. BERLIN is already in the elevator. Resists doors determined to separate them. They shunt in and out perpetually informing him he's on the 4th floor. "I'll call, O.K." She nods and releases his hand. He watches her walk all the way back up the corridor. 78: INT. MERCEDES SEDAN. TRINITY VALLEY. NIGHT. Headlights follow the meandering road. Another bend and lights in the distance. In seconds he's passing the Diner. Still open with cars out front including the white Volkswagen that nearly busted his fender. He's not gonna stop. Then decides to. Makes a U and pulls in. Parks a couple of vehicles away from the van. 79: INT. KITCHEN/LIVING ROOM/BEDROOM. APARTMENT. NIGHT. HELENA finishes the dishes. Stacks a last plate and closes the cupboard. Heads back into the living room. Something about the apartment doesn't sound right? She follows the noise through a door into a bedroom. Curtains dance in the darkness and behind them she finds a half open window. Curious because she doesn't remember leaving it open? Secures it and silences the icy wind. 80: EXT. VOLKSWAGEN VAN/CAR PARK. DINER. NIGHT. BERLIN checks the driver's door. Locked and he explores with a pencil-flashlight. Moves to a slide door at the side. Simultan- eously the door to the Diner opens releasing a quartet of midd- le-aged Drunks. He dissolves while they bullshit around. Laugh- ter in chill air. The Comedian of the night keeps himself amus- ed. Jokes about getting into the wrong car with the wrong wife. BERLIN isn't laughing "C'mon, you drunken fuck. Get outta here." 81: INT/EXT. VOLKSWAGEN VAN/CAR PARK. DINER. NIGHT. A slide door rolls open and BERLIN peers in. Full of furniture and cardboard crates stenciled "TRINITY INSTITUTE - CRAFT DEPT." Worth the try but forget it. This bastard obviously has legit- imate business at the institute. Takes a last poke around with the light. Spots something red. A cigarette butt caked in lip- stick. But what's this white stuff? Some kind of powder spills from a capsule crushed in the door rails. He picks it up for a look and gets a bad one from behind! "Whatta you doing, Mister?" BERLIN finds himself facing an irate looking Woman in her 20's. A lot of red hair and freckles. But definitely more frightened than angry. His Police Department badge is an instant sedative. Gives her some crap about thefts from vehicles round here. She should keep her doors locked. She smiles and thought they were. BERLIN Got your driver's license? She hands it across and he inspects it coz that's what cops do. I noticed you coming outta the institute. You up there a lot? WOMAN Oh, it was you that nearly ran into me? BERLIN No, it was you that nearly ran into me .. You up there a lot? WOMAN I guess, more than usual this time of the year. My mother & I run an Arts & Crafts center, we buy a lot from the institutes .. BERLIN Where's your store, Amanda? WOMAN Oakland. Hands the license back and is already heading for his Mercedes. BERLIN Next pit-stop, you make sure your doors are locked. Merry Christmas. 82: INT. BATHROOM/LIVING ROOM. APARTMENT. NIGHT. If there's moonlight that's the only light. Nothing to see but a pair of large taps. Nothing to hear but a bath filling. Then something starts bleeping. It's a liquid-level-indicator activ- ated by rising water. A hand searches for taps. Shuts them off and silences the indicator. The frame expands to reveal HELENA. She moves to a hand basin. Finds a brush and fixes hair. Finds a clip and pins it up. Close as she kicks off shoes. Pantyhose descend on top of them. Walks into the living room unbuttoning her shirt. Vanishes into the bedroom and the Camera waits. Ret- urns with towels and the Camera follows back into the bathroom. A creaking hinge as she closes the door. A dressing gown hangs on a hook. She reaches for it and turns and virtually bumps in- to the Sonovabitch. Dressed in black and stealthy as a cat. He retreats a pace deeper into the darkness. Just enough light to see he wears glasses. And just enough light to see her undress. HELENA unzips her skirt. Slides it down her lags. Drapes it on a chair. Removes her shirt and hangs it on the back. She wears a white brassiere and panties. And no apologies for repetition. This is a fantastic body. She checks water temperature. Either too hot or too cold. Either way a tap goes on. Now she reaches behind her back. Unclips her bra. Gets hit with dazzling light. The Intruder is taking photographs. And if this is his turn-on he's in paradise. She stands in front of him in total oblivion. Her panties join clothes on the chair. Nov she's naked and now another picture. Again the bathroom detonates with white light. His face is concealed by the camera. But this bastard is about to run out of luck. Moves in as she silences the tap. Suddenly a lot of silence about. HELENA twists in panic. She just heard something? Didn't she just hear something? Is somebody in here? Fear kills her scream. She hits at the darkness. But he's gone. 83: INT. LIVING ROOM/KITCHEN. BERLIN'S HOUSE. DAY. Big close on telephone ringing. No one home except the machine and Camera. The former answers on behalf of Berlin [John, it's me .. please call me .. I left two messages at the police stat- ion .. they said you weren't there .. please, please, call me]. The camera moves on. Breakfast remains on the table. Newspaper still in its wraps. Out the window a bonfire rages in the yard. 84: EXT. YARD. HOUSE. DAY. BERLIN clears rubbish from the garage. Grime and sweat and the effort's got him breathless. Heaves another armful on the fire. The phone starts ringing again. This time he decides to answer. 85: INT. CORRIDOR/ADMIN. POLICE STATION. DAY. BERLIN in a hurry to get there. Footsteps tell the story. Fast up a corridor and through a door. Faces look as he crosses the department. SECRETARIES and BISLEY and ROSS. But only one face of interest. TAYLOR turns halfway through lighting a cigarette. "Are you outta your fucken mind?" TAYLOR says nothing. "If any- thing happens to that girl, I'm gonna break your fucking back." TAYLOR Just easy on the words you're putting in my face, Sergeant .. ROSS Whass going on here? A question practically every expression in the place is asking. TAYLOR His blind friend got "attacked." Angelo went up there, and some- how, it got itself in the paper. BERLIN You put it in there. TAYLOR I may have said some- thing. I don't recall. BERLIN Don't lie, Taylor. I just had this Blattis guy on the phone asking me for a comment - you gave him the whole damned case! TAYLOR Alright, I gave him the case? .. So the case is closed, so what? His indifference inflames BERLIN. Smashes the newspaper at him. BERLIN So read it! You just hung a target around her neck! TAYLOR Bullshit. BERLIN Don't you know nothing about this guy? He reads the newspapers. Col- lects the cuttings. When are they gonna find her? Now he's reading Helena Robertson's name, phrased like she's a fucking witness. You couldn't have done anything more stupid if you'd sat down & tried .. TAYLOR Hey, c'mon, country boys, let's all line up and hear the expert. BERLIN Just walk away from me, Taylor .. Now the volume is going up. Now the whole department is silent. TAYLOR You think you're the only guy ever worked a homicide? I was a big-city cop too. And I bust- ed the clock on fucken Jennifer. I know more about this man than you'll over know - and that's how I know it ain't him - you- 're investigating a soap-opera .. ROSS Alright, guys. We stop this now. TAYLOR He tells her, "bye-bye," and she gets "attacked." Well, give me a fucking break! There is no "Ser- ial Killer." Stick her name up in neon, there's still no Serial kil- ler! And I ain't the only one say- ing it. Everyone in this building is saying it. And I mean everyone. "Everyone" means ROSS. BERLIN looks at him. And his gaze hurts. ROSS Shut up, King Jay .. TAYLOR No, c'mon, Freddy, let's have this out & over. You know what everyone thinks? They think you're making a case coz you found yourself a nice piece of ass. And no one's blaming you for it, I hear she's worth the flowers. But don't come in here get- ting holy over us. Sure I put it in the paper. Coz I wanted to stop this bullshit. I don't want you drunk out- ta your head searching my office ag- ain. it's pissing me, & everyone off. BERLIN You don't know what you done, Taylor. TAYLOR If, your friend from San Diego was up here, and thought for one out of two fucken seconds, she was a danger to him, he'da taken her out weeks ago .. His cigarette is already stubbed and he's already walking away. Why don't you get yourself a dict- ionary? Look up the word "witness?" BERLIN I know what a "witness" is. TAYLOR Well, her, it ain't. That bitch is blind as a blonde fucken bat. A big mistake Mister Taylor. Mister Berlin suddenly turns into Harrison Ford. TAYLOR slams into filing cabinets right next to the Christmas tree. Gets BERLIN's forearm under his throat and fucking lucky not to get the knuckles in his gut. Both men are heaving. No volume necessary in this room of paralyzed silence. BERLIN I'm gonna do something you never did, Taylor. I'm gonna catch this bastard. And when I do, he's gon- na find out just how good a "wit- ness" she is .. Meanwhile, you be aware of me - coz I wish you ill .. BERLIN moves away and the silence is brutal. Nothing happening but bad vibes. ROSS and BERLIN exchange glances, And this shit is really bad. BERLIN vanishes into his lab and the door slams. 86: INT. CRIME LAB. POLICE STATION. DAY. BERLIN and his Dummy wearing a bra and his photographs and his rage are all alone. And that's how they wanna be. But the door opens and here is ROSS. Have to be a friend to survive in here. BERLIN Nothing you gotta say do I wanna hear right now. So save yourself saying it. ROSS I'm not in here to apologize, John. I told you what was gonna happen & it's happened? "Good-bye, Princess," & the same night she gets attacked? That's a tough one to swallow, Bro? BERLIN I'm already familiar with Taylor's opinion. ROSS You don't really believe this? BERLIN One hundred fucking per cent! .. And you know why? Coz I never told her good-bye. O.K.? Is that good enough for the "committee?" And as long as you like evaporates before ROSS can speak again. ROSS Well .. I didn't know that .. BERLIN No .. You didn't know that .. BERLIN is drinking whisky. Sticks another slug in the cup. Now realizes whose bottle this is. Slams it somewhere on the bench. Here. You left your booze in here. ROSS Who d'you think it was? Ross gets the kind of smile a smart guy wouldn't give an idiot. You think it was him? BERLIN That's a very stupid question, Ross. ROSS I'm asking it. BERLIN How the hell do I know who? Some jerk-off. Some peeping-tom prick. His hand has found the switch-blade. A nasty click as it opens. .. but definitely not him. This guy's in the trade. He's not gon- na stand there looking at her ass, if he's in the room, she's dead .. BERLIN puts the knife in his Dummy. If she's alive. She's dead. ROSS Ease off, John .. BERLIN I'm sick of this toy town shit. ROSS Everything you say sounds reason- able. But there's also a reason- able explanation for the opposite. BERLIN Don't give me that! Not another word! When you had the Fat Lady in there, and I asked you if she was lying, you looked me right in the eyes and said yes. So as far as I was concerned, she's ly- ing. And if the King of fucking England had walked in & told me different, I wouldn't have bel- ieved him - because you told me .. This atmosphere would stretch any friendship to breaking point. And now I'm telling you. I'm looking you right in the eyes and telling ya, there's a "bad man" out there, and I don't know if he's in the next room, or the next state: and I don't know what his trigger is? But if he reads her name in the newspaper, I believe he'll be inclined to do something ab- out it. I've got a bad feeling. And I been doing this too long to be wrong. There are tough eyes to look into. And ROSS finally looks away. ROSS I dunno what I can do to help you? BERLIN I dunno what I'd do with your help. I've gotta take her out of there .. ROSS What about Citrine? BERLIN Screw Citrine. He can fire me. 87: EXT. LANDSCAPE. COUNTRY ROAD. DAY. Wide over the countryside. The car is a long way off. A pretty magic looking dawn. Cows on hills and mist in the hollows. The Mercedes finally arrives. Up the track and into the (refurbish- ed) garage. Engine off and little but a sound of singing birds. 88: INT. LIVING ROOM. BERLIN'S HOUSE. DAY. HELENA sits on the sofa. She's a lousy liar and having a tough time with the phone " .. my aunt called twice .. well, soon, I hope so .. right now, I'm scared to be there .. who? .. just a second .. O.K. .. just a second.. Goodridge wants the number?" She seeks decision from BERLIN who doesn't want him to have it. HELENA (Phone) Mr Goodridge? .. I can't find it .. No .. there's no one here to read it right now .. Well, yes, I know .. of course I will .. yes, promise .. I'll get it and call you tomorrow .. And that's it except for "Goodbyes." He takes the phone and re- places it. Her expression is a toss up between guilt & anxiety. I feel really bad about it, coz they invited me for Christmas .. BERLIN Has he got your aunt's address? HELENA I don't think so .. He said the police had been calling .. want- ed to ask me some more questions .. BERLIN Who? (She doesn't know) Probably Angelo .. I'll take care of it .. Don't worry, we- 're gonna find this guy, and everything'll be O.K. .. O.K.? Only thing he fails to mention is which guy he's talking about. Anyway the subject is already changed. He notices tapes in her bag. "Would you like me to put your music on?" No, she doesn't want music. O.K. He's gonna light the fire and make them lunch. 99: EXT. WOODSHED. BERLIN'S HOUSE. DAY. BERLIN is splitting logs and HELENA is sitting an a step "watch- ing" him. She's looking almost happy with only worry in the way. BERLIN You're looking worried again, Helena? HELENA No I'm not. BERLIN You're looking more worried now than when you "decided to stop worrying"? HELENA Alright, I'm worried about Christmas. I wish I hadn't told him I'd be back .. A log tangents off. BERLIN retrieves it. Tosses it in a barrow. BERLIN He'll get over it. I'll roast us a chicken, O.K. With cand- les around it. How about that? A distant owl hoots. She knows he's smiling. She's smiling too. HELENA Wouldn't it be better if I cook it? You said, you can only boil? 90: INT. LIVING ROOM. HOUSE. NIGHT. The Music is Puccini. Part one/Act two/The Humming Chorus from Madam Butterfly. Giant close of the spinning cassette. The Cam- era remains close as it explores the room. Candle light & fire- light. Along a mantlepiece. Eleven thirty-five on a clock. Two Christmas cards. Several photographs from the happy years. One a picture of Ross & Berlin in uniform. Another features Berlin with his arm around a beautiful young lady with long dark hair. For a moment it could be Helena? But the Camera's already gone. HELENA cuddles knees in the corner of a sofa. Looks considerab- ly more relaxed. But there's a tension here and both are aware of it. Stifled yawns. She stares at him and BERLIN stares back. A billion people in love have been through this. It's bed-time. [A suggestion of Berlin's bed to be is heaped in pillows/blank- ets at the end of the couch.] "Come on, I'll take you up there." She finds his hand and stands. The Music follows them upstairs. 91: INT. BEDROOM. HOUSE. NIGHT. Moonlight through the windows. They are silhouettes. They want to embrace but in a situation like this a bedroom is the worst place to be. No sound except the Music. And what's anyone supp- osed to say? This atmosphere is about kissing and nothing more. Christ hear this Music. A sweet pulse of Puccini. Big close of lips meeting in moonlight. Now in each other's arms. They kiss. And then they're kissing. And nothing else is happening in the whole fucking universe except a telephone just started to ring. Still ringing. Still kissing. Somebody has got to give in. The phone finally gets answered. The voice at the end isn't expect- ed. But BERLIN sounds pleased to hear it. It seems one problem got solved. "I gotta tell you, Margie. You are Mrs Santa Claus." 92: INT/EXT. KITCHEN/REAR ENTRANCE. ROSS'S HOUSE. DAY. Is Ross throwing a party or opening a bar? Crates of booze and stack upon stack of beer. A bit of "where do you want it?" act- ing from BERLIN as he staggers in with a delivery of Bud. ROSS makes room on a table. Rips a beer out the plastic and pops it. BERLIN Can't thank you enough, Ross .. ROSS Don't thank me. Thank Margie. Swallowing beer ROSS exits the back door with BERLIN following. It's her invitation. And as far as Citrine in concerned, better we keep it like that. The wagon waits outside with a few crates left to unload, BER- LIN heads for his Mercedes with ROSS calling after him. "John. Here." Pulls a six pack from his supplies and throws it across. There's an old desperado in one of the cells. Why don't you give him this, and tell him happy Christmas from me? 93: INT. BEDROOM. THE ROSS RESIDENCE. DAY. The Girls prepare for festivity. They got a full length mirror. A wardrobe of dresses. A menu of shoes, What they do with them in this scene is their affair. Right now MARGIE's holding some blue number in front of HELENA."It's blue silk. You like blue?" MARGIE Not "you" blue. This isn't you. She slings the dress on the bed. It joins a pile of rehearsals. Moves deeper into her dresses and HELENA appears in the mirror. HELENA When did John divorce? MARGIE Two or three years ago. HELENA What was she like? MARGIE Suzanne? Very pretty. She was a semi- professional model. But a policeman's wife she wasn't. So one day, she just packed it and left. And his whole life went straight down the nearest toilet. HELENA What does that mean? MARGIE You know, he crashed. He just couldn't come to terms with it .. John hates to lose, and he hated losing her .. Every spare minute, he's driving down to San Diego, having a terrible time with her, getting drunk, and driving back .. you just don't believe the amount he drank .. She pirouettes with black sequins. "What do you think of black?" Evidently not much and MARGIE is getting short of alternatives. Wait a minute, I just had the most brilliant idea .. HELENA You think he still loves her? MARGIE Think he still thinks about her. But not like then. Then was an obsession. She emerges from the wardrobe with red satin high heeled shoes. Here .. try these .. if these fit, we got the perfect dress .. HELENA I haven't worn heels since I was 16. I don't think I could walk in these? MARGIE Sure you can. Anyway, parties are all about standing still .. HELENA is excited to try them out. The experiment is a success. I'll go get the dress .. It's kinda sultry .. I only wore it once, coz in reality, I can't get away with it .. HELENA You think John would like it? MARGIE I think John, would love it ... 94: EXT. HOUSE. NIGHT. The Ross residence looks like an ad for J&B. Warm yellow light from the windows. Holly wreath on the front door. The Mercedes pulls up and BERLIN gets out with his bag and suit on a hanger. A hard wind around the house. He walks inside without knocking. 95: INT. DEN. HOUSE. NIGHT. The den looks like a little museum. Walls decorated with Civil War memorabilia. One wall occupied by a cabinet of modern guns. ROSS looks like Roy Rogers trying to look like Fred Astaire. A powder blue evening suit. Ho dumps ice in a barrel full of Bud- wieser and BERLIN produces a couple of presents. "This is from Helena. And this is from me." The first obviously a music tape. ROSS holds it to his ear. "Sounds like Frank Sinatra?" And the second a bottle of (Ross tears the wrappings off) Chivas Regal! ROSS Let's do one of these right now, then we'll hide the sonovabitch. But he's already lost BERLIN's attention. MARGIE walks in with HELENA. Jesus what have you done to her? Bright red lipstick & jet black mascara and dress made of blood red sequins. Sexy it is but her it isn't. She looks like one of those big tit dopes from Tennessee. She also looks like 37 million dollars. Christ that smile works with paint. An appraisal comes from ROSS "Wow." 96: INT. LIVING ROOM. HOUSE. NIGHT. The whole house is going around in a haze of booze and colored lights and laughter. Buddy Holly supplies the music "True Love Ways" and ROSS is a victim of the nostalgia. Dances close with MARGIE. Among the kaleidoscope of passing couples are HELENA & BERLIN. Eyes closed and oblivious of everything but each other. But someone is staring at them. About forty years old with big hands. Too old for acne but the skin is bad. Got a scar on his cheek like a ladder in a stocking. He continues to stare until the dancers separate. Music ends and he's already in the crowd. BERLIN arrives with a whisper for MARGIE and next thing HELENA is on her arm heading for the stairs. Obviously a "ladies room" run. Everly Brothers next record up and SERATO appears through the crush. Spots ROSS who wants to know "What happened to you?" SERATO Duty Sergeant fucked up .. can you believe it, I'm on tonight .. "How long have you got?" "One big drink." And they head for it. Did you get my message? BERLIN No. SERATO I left a message on your machine. It wasn't me calling. Sam around? This last question to ROSS who delivers a typically large shot. ROSS Yeah .. I guess she's in the kit- chen .. We got a so-called prof- essional cook out there having a nervous breakdown over a turkey .. BERLIN Are you sure you didn't call? SERATO I spoke to old whass-his-name a couple of times. But not to her, and I never asked for her .. ROSS Her who? BERLIN Someone's calling the institute to talk to Helena. Says he wants to ask her some more questions .. SERATO Not guilty .. And he pushes off to see his wife. BERLIN looks around worried. BERLIN You got a quiet phone somewhere? ROSS Hey, John, don't start getting antsy over this tonight. It may well have been the local cops? BERLIN That's just what I wanna find out. 97: INT. BATHROOM. HOUSE. NIGHT. MARGIE fixes HELENA's lips. Big on the lipstick. Another layer of magenta is going on "Are you sure I look O.K." Her question interrupts the Revlon "You're the prettiest girl here by about two hundred per cent." MARGIE moves in again for the lower lip. MARGIE How you doing on those shoes? HELENA Don't mix very well with beer. Perhaps she is a tiny bit tipsy? MARGIE smiles and says "Press." MARGIE Girl like you should be drinking chill white wine. Press. All done. A knock on the door. "Come in" and BOBBY sticks his head inside. BOBBY That woman in the kitchen says if she doesn't get help within 10 seconds, she's gonna resign. MARGIE That woman is a disaster ... She turns to the mirror in exasperation and mends her own face. Alright, tell her I'm coming. No, wait a minute, honey. Take Helena for me, and find John? And don't let go of her hand until you do .. INT. LIVING ROOM/DEN. HOUSE. NIGHT. A pause in the Music amplifies conversation. Bullshit and beer and everyone talking about nothing. BOBBY leads HELENA through the row. Can't find Berlin and now they're in the den. The ser- ious Guzzlers have made it base. Everyone talking and everyone lying but no Berlin and BOBBY is about to make a major mistake. BOBBY I'll just go see if he's in the kitchen .. you stay right here .. Her protest is absorbed in sound. And anyway he's already gone. At once she is vulnerable. Doesn't know if she's staring at the back of a head or straight into someone's face. "Didn't we meet somewhere?" The question comes from the man with the scar. He's drunk as a dog and already got a tattooed hand around her waist. VENABLES Hey, Popeye! POPEYE Hey, Fat Guy! Gimme 2 minutes. I'm about to ask this lady for a dance? Trash aftershave and lousy breath and clearly the answer is no. If I told you I'd driven all the way from Oakland would you dance with me? Willy Nelson starts to sing. And HELENA attempts to break away. What's so special about the other guy? You like cops, don't you .. I'm a cop .. HELENA finds the top of a couch. Holds it like a raft of secur- ity. But where ever she goes this frightful mouth is following. .. let me ask you a question? How do you know the difference between one guy and another? .. Maybe you don't .. Maybe you only know the "difference" when you're dancing? (he laughs) If you knew what I looked like, you'd dance with me. I look like John Wayne .. HELENA I know what you look like. Excuse me. She navigates the back of the sofa. Collides with somebody and apologizes. "I'm sorry. Is anyone sitting there?" Enough ambiv- alence in the question for the guy not to know she's blind. No. No one sitting there. Simultaneously a pair of middle-age crew cuts occupy the sofa. A second later HELENA sits bang into one of the laps. Spilt drinks and surprise all round. Pleasant sur- prise for the victim. He's a lecherous looking old bastard and Helena's dress rides up for a damned good view of the lingerie. FLESHY VOICE Happy Christmas, Max ... MAX I normally get socks ... Every humiliation there is. However HELENA gets out of this is however she achieves it. But by the time she does she's crying. 99: INT. HALLWAY/STAIRS. HOUSE. NIGHT. A calm spot between kitchen & stairs. In the background Guests raid the kitchen for food. BERLIN looks like he should be smok- ing a cigarette. At last MARGIE comes downstairs with the news. MARGIE She wants to go back to the institute .. ROSS already arrived. BERLIN looks desolate. She can't go back. You better go talk to her .. ROSS watches him walk upstairs. His eyes an assessment of this absurd relationship. "All sorts of people fall in love, Darlin." ROSS I know .. ain't it a shame .. 100: INT. BEDROOM. HOUSE. NIGHT. A wedge of light as BERLIN walks in. Then moonlight again. HEL- ENA sits at the edge of a single bed. Hair a wreck and mascara streaks down her face. He sits identifying himself with an emb- race. Clears the hair from her eyes and kisses where the tears were. "It was an accident .. everyone has accidents." Whatever he said would be the wrong thing to say. Because he doesn't un- derstand. And her only explanation of this misery is new tears. HELENA I can't walk in these shoes .. Gently he reaches down and takes off her shoos "You don't have to dress like this for me." And suddenly the mood is different. He is amongst her tears. Kissing her mouth. Already undressing her. Her dress glides up. Silk stockings. He unclips them. She feels his hands drift down her legs. Hears the zip opening her dress. She returns his desire and helps him with her brassiere. He kisses her breasts and by now the Camera's too close to see. 101: INT. BEDROOM. HOUSE. NIGHT. HELENA asleep in BERLIN's arms. Just the worry of the wind. He kisses her and slips out of bed and everything slams into MASS- IVE CLOSE-UP. PLUS A MASSIVE AMPLIFICATION OF SOUND. THE SLIDE SNAPS BACK ON A 9 MILL BERETTA. THE MAGAZINE SHUNTS OUT. SLUGS LOADED AND MAG BACK IN. THE SLIDE TRAVELS FORWARD BIG AS A CAR. BERLIN is fully dressed. Geared up for work. Black leather glo- ves and black leather jacket. Shoves the Beretta into his belt. From somewhere a very soft sound of Christmas carols drifts in. 102: INT. STAIRS/LIVING ROOM/DEN. HOUSE. NIGHT. This is deep past midnight, The house is quiet and gone to bed. Fallout from the party everywhere. Still that distant sound of carols. BERLIN dumps his bag and walks into the den. Just dark- ness and the forgotten tape machine. Flips on a lamp and tries to open the gun cabinet. Still trying when startled by a voice. ROSS (O.S.) You can't get in there .. That's "Comanche Proof." BERLIN swings round in surprise. ROSS is half asleep on a sofa. BERLIN Jesus. What are you doin? ROSS I spose I'm drinking myself to sleep. It's Helena's Christmas songs .. they're really pretty .. "Silent Night. Holy Night" and about two inches of Chivas left. BERLIN Have you got any Glasers? (Ross does) Twenty fives? BERLIN sticks a foot on a table. Pulls a .25 Walther automatic from an ankle holster. Ejects the mag and clicks out the slugs. ROSS What exactly you doing, John? BERLIN I'm going up to the institute. ROSS Now? BERLIN This "cop" that's calling, thinks she gonna be there over Christmas. ROSS unlocks a cabinet and BERLIN is about to load the Glasers. I checked with the locals and our station, no one's called. Whoever it is, isn't the police. I think this bastard's getting worried ab- out something? .. and I think the- re's just a chance he'll turn up. ROSS Well, let's hope he does .. ROSS selects a 12 gauge Winchester and rams the mechanism open. And if he does, I'm gonna drop a bomb on the fukker. BERLIN Listen, you don't havta come? ROSS Hey .. ROSS is stuffing solid lead "car killers" into the pump action. Watch my lips. I'm your partner. 103: EXT. SHASTA-TRINITY INSTITUTE. NIGHT. This is probably a crane shot. A gale works up the valley. The institute is in total darkness. Not a vehicle out front. Not a sound except the marauding wind. Ross's Chevrolet is concealed amongst trees. Been here long enough to allow slow flurries to accumulate. It stares towards the building maybe 75 yards away. 104: INT. CHEVROLET SEDAN. NIGHT. BERLIN wears a black wool hat. ROSS a big black overcoat. Both got shit frozen out of them. A bottle available and anyone who wants a slug better help himself. Plus sleet on the windshield and a lot of stale time. BERLIN asks what time it is? And ROSS takes a heave on the booze and waits for about a week to go by. ROSS Where's your watch? BERLIN I guess by the bed. ROSS It's twenty of three. Yawns do a circuit. ROSS flops in his seat and the angle chang- es. The view from the rear covers windscreen and back of heads. A little young for you, Bro? (Gets his eyes) You think if she could see, she'd be hanging around with an old dog like you? You got a stomach growing around to meet itself behind your back. BERLIN Bull shit .. I'm in my prime .. ROSS Bits. BERLIN What d'you mean, "bits." A star-light on the windshield. Distant and nobody seen it yet. ROSS Policemen's bodies age at diff- erent rates. Look at me. Gut in its fifties. Balls in their six- ties. And feet in their eighties .. BERLIN Hit those wipers, Ross. Urgency snaps him into close-up. Big noise as wipers clear the screen. "I thought I saw a light?" BERLIN stares at the instit- ute through small binoculars. "There. Flashlight went right ac- ross those windows!" Instant excitement as the adrenalin pumps in. "Fourth floor. See it? He's fucken in there!" And suddenly everything including super-sinister Music is happening at once. 105: EXT. CHEVROLET. INSTITUTE. NIGHT. Pines singing as the gale tears into them. Clutching his Winch- ester ROSS opens the trunk. A dim light and a fluster of equip- ment. BERLIN sorts out a pair of radios. Selects a channel and ROSS whispers "What are you on?" ("local Tac.") Here come huge 12 cell flashlights and the intense whispers continue. "Local?" ROSS What if we need a back up? BERLIN We're not here. I don't want the desk to hear us .. O.K. it's channel 4 and copy? And they're already on their way. 106: EXT. BACK OF BUILDING. INSTITUTE. NIGHT. The storm bullies its way around the building. Lights approach quickly. But one of them is already fading. It belongs to ROSS. This fucker's got about 5 minutes in it. And whatever the plan was it just got changed. BERLIN looks around in apprehension - going in there alone ain't no joy - his flashlight ascends the fire escape. And there it is 2 floors up. A half opened window. BERLIN Alright. I'll start at the top, and work down. ROSS You ain't going in alone? BERLIN That's a liability, Ross. I don't want you hanging on to my shirt. Anyone but me comes down these stairs, take em out but try and keep him alive. I want this bastard living .. Takes off up the stairs. ROSS watches him vanish. (Waiting out here ain't so tasty either.) The wind rages in nearby trees. A door slams repeatedly somewhere a long way away. [Ross?] "10/2" [I'm going in.] Big on ROSS and the radio. "You take care, Bro." 107: INT. REAR STAIRWELL. INSTITUTE. NIGHT. BERLIN climbs through the window. Drops down and waits to orien- tate himself. He's on a small landing midway between flights of stairs. Different kinds of noises in here. One hundred per cent more sinister. "Ross. Ross? You hearing me?" [10/2]. "I'm going upstairs." Snaps the safety-catch on his Beretta. And it sounds ominous. Every shadow in this place is animated with foreboding. 108: INT. STAIRWELL/CORRIDOR. INSTITUTE. NIGHT. Looking down the stairwell. The light comes up. BERLIN arrives on another floor. Hard to sweat in here but he's doing it. His progress is distinctly cautious. A harsh wind rockets down the stairs flapping a pair of owing doors. BERLIN eases through in- to the corridor. At its far end is the elevator. He travels to- wards it in an eerie piston of light. [John? What's happening?] 109: EXT. REAR OF INSTITUTE. NIGHT. ROSS has moved into the shelter of a wall. Sleet passes almost horizontally. His flashlight is over. The color of a tangerine. ROSS [BERLIN] [I'm on Helena's floor .. I'm just gonna take a look at her apartment .. You O.K.] Fucken flashlight's kaput .. [Door's locked .. shit] What's happen- ing, Brother? [I can hear some- thing? .. Something upstairs?] 110: INT. CORRIDOR. INSTITUTE. NlGHT. BERLIN stares up at the coiling "I can hear footsteps .. right up above?" They disappear into the gale. Doors beat at the end of the corridor. He moves towards them and pushes out onto the stairway. Nothing but the wind. He's about to climb when an al- arming voice shocks him rigid. "YOU ARE NOW ON THE THIRD FLOOR." BERLIN is already running. Light swinging wildly as he sprints back up the corridor. Fifteen yards to elevator/stairs. Breath- less as hell he hits the radio. "Fucker's in the elevator." Al- most jumps stairs in haste. Bursts out onto the 3rd floor. Ham- mer back on the Beretta. Just in time to see the doors closing. "Get ready, Ross. He maybe coming down." But he isn't. He's go- ing up. By the time he's recovered breath the Voice is back in business. Whoever rides the elevator is now on the fifth floor. 111: INT. STAIRWELL. INSTITUTE. NIGHT. Totally breathless now. Eyes ascend faster than feet. Whine of a swinging door. BERLIN rounds the stairwell. The door's still busy. Top of the building here and the ceilings are closing in. BERLIN'S P.O.V. as he heads for that door. Closer. Three steps to go. Closer. Two steps more. One step. Reaches for it. Whamm! The door smashes into him like it hates him. So fast it hardly happened. He staggers back. His flashlight clatters downstairs. Banisters capsize as the light passes. Every shadow goes crazy. The flashlight arrives at a lower level. Rolls away and stops. Wastes power into a corner. Can't see Berlin and can't see his radio. But Ross cuts into the silence with increasing disquiet. [John? John? Are you al- right? .. Come in, John?] 112: EXT. REAR OF INSTITUTE/FIRE ESCAPE. NIGHT. ROSS savaged by the gale. In considerable anxiety. Less than a volt in his batteries. His failure to contact Berlin accelerat- es his concern by the moment. Calls repeatedly "You hearing me?" Big close on the radio. Fingers switch channels. Tries calling on five/six. Still nothing and goes to channel eight. "Come in, John?" Alright fuck it. Light or no light. He's going up there. Still calling he barges at the wind making for the fire escape. [You hear me? Just be care- ful now, coz I'm coming up] Stares up into the gloom of the iron stairs. Hardly got a foot on the first before a Figure rushes down. Dressed in black and very breathless. A powerful flashlight floods on dazzling ROSS. Is that you, John? .. Ans- wer. NOW .. Or I blow this fucken staircase to pieces. BERLIN [?] Me, Freddy. Thank Jesus the anxiety's over. The 12 gauge drops to his side. ROSS What the hell's going on up there, Brother? I been calling 10 minutes. The light remains steady and blinding and straight in his face. Hey, c'mon, John .. Talk to me ... Just the sound of breathlessness. Plus a .25 Walther automatic. Jesus Christ .. What are you doing? It glints at the peripheries of his vision and ROSS is alarmed. What the fuck are you doing? - It's me - Holy shit! - John - John - Not you - Don't shoot you crazy bastard! Two deathly flashes in quick succession. The first practically taken Ross's hand off. The second slams into his guts and he's down. The Glaser is unequalled in ferocity by any other bullet. 113: EXT. FIRE ESCAPE (ATTIC LEVEL). INSTITUTE. NIGHT. The MYOPIC JANITOR looks down. Five floors below a man lays on his back. His shotgun discharges uselessly into trees. Another man leans over him. Illuminates his agonized face with a flash- light. Shoots him again point-blank in the upper body. The MYO- PIC isn't staying for more. Hurries back along the fire escape. 114: INT. ATTIC APARTMENT. INSTITUTE. NIGHT. Wind breaks on the roof like waves. An utterly dismal room lit by a starving light bulb. The MYOPIC arrives from the fire esc- ape. Huge eyes behind those orb-like glasses. Picks up a phone and dials. Piles and piles of old newspapers. Hundreds of fuck magazines. In the kitchen section a mass of photographic equip- ment includes an enlarger on the table a flash camera. On the wall behind him a collage of snaps of half dressed girls. Plus a special enlargement of Helena standing naked in her bathroom. MYOPIC Gimme the police. Quickly. 115: EXT. REAR OF INSTITUTE. FIRE ESCAPE. NIGHT. Close on a bulb in a flashlight. The merest glimmer of energy. Barely the light to see the blood. It seeps into a long-frozen footprint in the ice. Fills it fast and expands over the sides. Somebody say this can't be happening? BERLIN crumples to knees in the snow. Dumps his light gasping for breath. Oblique light creating desperate silhouettes. BERLIN howls like a dog. Howls into his radio. "Nine - Nine - Nine." Blood all over his hands. "This is a Nine - Nine - Nine - officer down." ROSS is heaving like an old bull elephant. On the verge of unconsciousness. He tries to speak. Got hit in the throat. BERLIN fights off tears. "Don't talk old man." Repeats the emergency code but this time he can't be heard. Almost imperceptibly a Carol filters in (In The Bleak Mid Winter) and the Camera moves slowly away. BERLIN cradles ROSS's tragic head and the song drowns the raging wind. This beautiful Christmas carol will articulate rhythm of these cuts. And there will be no other sound until the sequence ends. 116: EXT. CITY STREET. CITY HOSPITAL. NIGHT. A blue emergency light. Revolving in slow motion. Like a dream. The city streets are a blur. The light accelerates into sudden reality. Ambulance plus police convoy speed to a city hospital. 117: INT. EMERGENCY ROOM. HOSPITAL. NIGHT. Close-up of MARGIE kissing her husband's lips for the last time. Tears spill down his cheeks from her eyes. FREDDY ROSS is dead. 118: INT. WAITING AREA. HOSPITAL. NIGHT. Outside in the corridor. Looking in at BERLIN. He sits head in hands on a bench. This is somebody's point of view. The camera travels up the windows. Waits at a distance as CITRINE arrives. Pajamas under his clothes. He walks with assistance of a stick. Neither say anything because both know what this is about. BER- LIN stands and hands over his badge. Exits the mag and now his Beretta. A brief word from CITRINE and he turns and walks away. 119: EXT. LANDSCAPE. BERLIN'S HOUSE. DAWN. A little house in winter meadows. Kind of pretty now it's pain- ted. Just the first tint of pink on its roof. The Carol dissol- ves into birdsong. Here comes the sun for a fine Christmas day. 120: EXT. VERANDA. HOUSE. DAWN. All new paint and all new things in expectation of happy times. A barbecue still in polythene wraps. Price tag and unconnected gas pipe shift gently in the breeze. A brand now swinging seat. BERLIN sits in it with shock wearing on. Expressionless of sor- row. Though he suffers every sorrow and guilt and regret there is. Sunlight reaches the veranda and colors the end of it red. silent and motionless he watches the lousiest dawn of his life. 121: EXT/INT. THE ROSS RESIDENCE. LIVING ROOM. DAY. Lights glow on the Christmas tree. Unopened presents still und- erneath. SERATO sits smoking in silence. Listens to a sound of plates getting stacked in another room. He looks up but not in surprise. He just wasn't aware BERLIN had arrived in the house. BERLIN Where's Margie? Stunned and stubbled and full of grief. And that's just SERATO. SERATO Taken Bobby to her sister's .. This atmosphere is unbearable and even these whispers seem laud. They were going there anyway. BERLIN Does he know? SERATO shakes his head. Loses his cigarette. And SAMMY appears. SERATO Thinks his dad's in hospital. SAMMY SERATO is 30 and pretty. She continues collecting plates. Why'd you go up there, John? Knows he's not going to get a reply and doesn't bother to wait for it. HELENA materializes from the den like a shadow. Sallow for want of sleep and glad to have BERLIN's hand to hang on to. BERLIN I want you to go to your Aunt's. A suggestion that surprises HELENA. And clearly doesn't appeal. HELENA Why can't I stay with you? BERLIN It's not possible right now. HELENA Why? BERLIN Please don't ask no quest- ions now .. Not right now .. If silence can intensify it's now. Sound of the front door and then footsteps. BERLIN freezes as MARGIE appears. Wracked with grief. Dead sickness of tears. Like she cried bones out of her face. But no weeping now. Maybe shock. Maybe brave. Maybe both. HELENA Is that Margie? MARGIE I'm here, honey. I'm right here. The strongest face in the house. And now HELENA is in her arms. Don't cry darlin .. he was a big old cop and he didn't like tears .. Dead echos of plates in the kitchen. And song of birds outside. Feels like every second in my life, was just the moment leading to this. BERLIN Margie .. MARGIE Don't. Raises her hand to silence him and this is silence Margie owns. Don't. Christ this is just awful. HELENA crying and BERLIN on the way. What's gonna happen now, John? BERLIN She has an aunt, in Vermont. I'll take her there tonight. HELENA I'm going back to the institute. BERLIN No .. not now .. MARGIE Helena can stay here if she'd like to .. I'd like her to .. I'll look after her .. and she can look after me .. I'm tired now .. I must sleep .. Footsteps again as she walks out and silence again like before. 122: INT. BEDROOM. BERLIN'S HOUSE. NIGHT. The Camera will slowly crane down on BERLIN. Fully dressed but wiped out he lays an the bad. Last thing he needs is booze. He is clearly full of it. Drifting in and out of consciousness. A nightmare either side of the line. He relives that night again. And Ross is alive again as guilt and regret demand to be heard. (ROSS) You want me to make a predict- ion? This guy ain't turning up. (BERLIN) Maybe not .. What time is it? (ROSS) Twenty-six minutes past two .. (BERLIN) You shouldn't have come, Ross. (ROSS) Don't worry .. You take your time .. I just wanna be back in time for Bobby's presents .. A memory that is too terrible to bear. BERLIN gets up and sits at the edge of the bad. Head in hands. Wants the pain to go aw- ay. But anguish is stronger than alcohol. Hears noises outside and makes it to a window. Tears curtains back revealing lights. His Mercedes hangs in space as though staring into the bedroom. 123: EXT. FRONT YARD. HOUSE. NIGHT. The Mercedes descends onto a low-loader courtesy of a car lift- ing truck. BERLIN out of his door. Almost too ruined to apprec- iate what's happening. Crane lights and flashlights and chains getting tightened. Couple of Strangers and a Kid he recognizes. BERLIN What are you doing, Travis? TRAVIS I been told to take your car in, Sir. BERLIN Why? TRAVIS I dunno, Sir. Brought you up a Chevy. Flashes his light at a standard issue (brown) police Chevrolet. I'm sorry, Sergeant. I did knock a couple times. Didn't get any reply. BERLIN You got a warrant for this? TRAVIS Yes, Sir. BERLIN Who sought the warrant? TRAVIS The man from the F.B.I. 124: INT. CHIEF'S OFFICE. POLICE STATION. DAY. The man from the F.B.I. is 50. Black suit and wing tips. All F. B.I. Investigators are either lawyers or accountants. And this fellow looks like both. When he smiles it's a decaffeinated ex- ercise. Bothers nothing but lips. This smile's always the same. BERLIN I want a 24 hour protection of Margie's house. Otherwise I'm not saying nothing. You give me that, or read me my rights, and talk to a lawyer. BERLIN looks awful. Showered and shaved but just fucking awful. CITRINE slips focus to the man. And St ANNE imperceptibly nods. CITRINE Alright, you got it. And I'll be putting an Observer in with you. BERLIN I want Serato .. (Negative) Why can't I have Serato? CITRINE Coz I'm short of men & Ang- elo won't do it .. Who ever I got free first - you get .. 125: INT. ANTI ROOM/INTERROGATION. POLICE STATION. DAY. Close on a pair of dancing needles. They react to voice-levels on a twin spool tape recorder. But no sound of yakking in here. St Anne's ASSISTANT sucks a pencil. Busy with a cross-word puz- zle. Fills in a word but the Camera isn't interested. It moves away to discover head phones. And moves closer to hear St ANNE. [Always figured I'd like to retire to a little town like this - maybe buy a boat even, do some fishing?] 126: INT. INTERROGATION ROOM. POLICE STATION. DAY. A change of chairs. A wood chair for the subject. Mobile chair for the man. Castors give him considerable freedom. Enable him to back off or move in with the intimacy of an ophthalmologist. St ANNE You fish, John? BERLIN I have done .. A side table features several pin sharp pencils. A Sony pocket recorder. Two packets of Pall Mall reds. Two yellow legal pads. The chair moves into reverse and he breaks a puke colored file. St ANNE Alright, let's not beat about the bush, what ever that may mean, and get down on it. You were specific- ally instructed by your chief, not to go anywhere near the blind inst- itute? So why did you go up there? BERLIN Because of a feeling. I had a bad feeling this man was gonna turn up. St ANNE Which man is that? BERLIN The man I detail in my report, Sir. The report that's in his hands. (St Anne knows well which man.) Is this an interview, or an interrogation? St ANNE It's an enquiry ... BERLIN I'm not prepared to be interrog- ated. I'll be interviewed as an officer, who may be expected to cooperate with the investigator. St ANNE Well, that's fine by me, John. And I'm sure that's fine by your Chief. He smiles the non-smile. Tosses his pencil down. And sits back. So you thought your man might show? BERLIN Yes. St ANNE Bit of a long-shot, wasn't it? BERLIN It was the only shot I had .. St ANNE So the one night you decide to go up there, he goes up there? BERLIN That's right. Except I'd decid- ed to go up there every night .. St ANNE Despite the wishes of your Chief? BERLIN Yes. St ANNE You were prepared to fal- sify your reports to him? BERLIN I had very good reasons for do.... St ANNE Just a second, John. I knew there was something missing. St ANNE cuts him off to pick up the phone. Obviously something vital is needed. "Could you bring an an ashtray in here? Got a coupla guys who smoke in here." And attention back to the file. You don't mind if I jump around a little this morning, do you? Just while I'm easing my way into this? BERLIN You're asking the questions, Sir .. St ANNE You had an argument with Ross? Ass- aulted one of the officers, right? BERLIN I wouldn't use the word "assault." St ANNE You got a "racy temper," Sergeant? BERLIN Not especially. St ANNE Just something they did, on this occasion, made you lose your rag? BERLIN Not they. He. Taylor put a piece in the newspaper, which in my op- inion put my witness in jeopardy. St ANNE From whom? BERLIN From the man I detail in my rep- ort. A crazy man, who to my cert- ain knowledge has killed at least eight girls. Six in San Diego, one someplace else, and one up here .. St ANNE Not a lotta support for that "scenario" though, is there? BERLIN Not a lot. St ANNE Not even from Ross? BERLIN No. St ANNE Is that why you lost your temper with him? Frustration? No one believing you? His ASSISTANT brings the ashtray. And St ANNE smiles gratitude. So what can you tell me about you man? BERLIN What do you mean, Sir? St ANNE I mean, who is he? BERLIN I don't know who he is. Who's "Jack The Ripper?" He's Jack The Ripper with an automobile. St ANNE You didn't run a profile? BERLIN No, Sir .. I didn't have the res- ources, and it isn't my expertise. St ANNE This crazy man? What makes you think he wants to eliminate Miss Robertson? BERLIN You read my report, Sir. St ANNE I'm asking a question .. BERLIN Because he reads I'm investigating the disappearance of her friend, & Miss Robertson becomes the focus of his anxiety. How good of a "witness" is she? He's crazy, but not stupid, he's intelligent. Got a flexible M. O., and he doesn't wanna get caught. St ANNE Just like "Jack The Ripper?" This is meant to humiliate and meant to annoy and it does both. Alright, we'll have plenty of time to discuss your "Mystery Man," and his "flexibility" later, Right now, I'd like to talk about the "event." 127: INT. ANTI ROOM/INTERROGATION. POLICE STATION. DAY. CITRINE rests on his cane staring through the one-way glass. A menu of anxieties. But perhaps sadness is his principal expres- sion. His eyes slide to the ASSISTANT "Can you turn that thing on?" Glad to oblige and Voices cut in. This is CITRINE'S P.O.V. St ANNE [BERLIN] Alright, the door comes back and hits you? Knocks you down? Knocks you out? For how long? [I don't know] Approximately, you figure? A minute? [O.K.] O.K. then what happened? Immediately you get up? 128: INT. INTERROGATION ROOM. POLICE STATION. DAY. BERLIN I realized the flashlight was at the bottom of the stairs St ANNE Did you check your weapon? BERLIN Maybe. It would have been instinctive. All I know was I was in possession of it .. St ANNE You didn't check it? BERLIN Not that I specifically remember. St ANNE Why not? BERLIN I don't know. I wasn't think- ing about it .. I was dazed .. St ANNE You were woozy? Confused? BERLIN I was unconscious 10 seconds ago. St ANNE I understand. Then? BERLIN Then I picked up the flashlight, tried to get Ross on the radio .. Nothing. Static. I got blood on my hand, realized my eye was cut. St ANNE Could you see out of it? BERLIN Yeah, I could see. Then I ran. Climbed out of the window, ran down the fire escape, and right at the bottom, I found Ross .. St ANNE Were you breathless? BERLIN Sure I was breathless ... St ANNE When did you realize you were no longer in possession of the .25? BERLIN Not until I was in the hospital. St ANNE You figure you lost it in the hospital? Or on the way there? BERLIN No, I thought it must have fallen down the stairwell. St ANNE [BERLIN] Like the flashlight? [Yeah] Had you been drinking that night? BERLIN It was Christmas Eve. St ANNE That wasn't my question? BERLIN Yes. St ANNE [BERLIN] How about Ross? [Sure] Were you drinking in the car? [?] There was a bottle in the car? BERLIN I think Ross had a mouthful? St ANNE But not you? BERLIN I may have had a nip? St ANNE To keep out the cold? .. Very cold that night, very windy, wasn't it? St ANNE motors off & refers to notes without looking at BERLIN. Which hand was the flashlight in? BERLIN My left hand. St ANNE And the Walther was in your right? BERLIN The Beretta was in my right hand .. St ANNE You said you didn't check it? So how d'you know which gun you're holding? The chair moves back in and its pilot has an icicle up his ass. You said you figured it had fallen down the stairs with the flashlight? You said you were confused? You pick up the flashlight in confusion, how d'you know you didn't pick up the 25? BERLIN Let's not start playing games, Mr St Anne. St ANNE Games? BERLIN I told you, I'd lost the Walther .. St ANNE You told me you didn't know you'd lost it until you were in the hos- pital? So, if you didn't know till then, it coulda been either weapon? BERLIN The gun in my hand was a Beretta. And for the record, I want that note corrected. Now, please, Sir. The dead smile and rubber in action. St ANNE changes his notes. St ANNE O.K. I'm corrected. I'm sorry, I made a mistake. BERLIN With respect, Sir, you didn't make a mistake. I know who you are, and you're far too experienced for mis- takes. Now if you have doubts over the content, or veracity of my rep- ort, I wanna be made aware of them? St ANNE Sure. BERLIN I wanna be made aware of them now. St ANNE Do you want a lawyer, Sergeant? BERLIN There you go again? "Do I want a lawyer, Sergeant?" It's a game question. What do I want a law- yer for? I got nothing to hide .. St ANNE You don't? BERLIN You know I don't. So let's quit the bullshit and get down to it. What's your "angle," Mr St Anne? For the first time St ANNE moves his chair into BERLIN's space. St ANNE Where's the little gun, Sergeant? BERLIN I've no idea. St ANNE You don't? BERLIN If it isn't in the institute, the man who shot Ross took it. St ANNE The man who shot Ross, used it .. Implications are ganging up quicker than BERLIN can focus them. And you don't know where that little twenty-five calibre Walther's gone? BERLIN confirms it. Looking very concerned. The wheels retreat. St ANNE shakes out a cigarette and takes his time with matches. O.K. Sergeant, here it is. I intend to produce evidence, that will prove you shot Frederick Ross with malice afore- thought. My angle therefore, is to pre- pare a case on behalf of your Chief, to prosecute you for first degree murder. 129: INT. ADMINISTRATION. POLICE STATION. DAY. The lights on the Christmas tree are off. That just about sums it up. The word's out and it talks in barren silence as BERLIN appears. TAYLOR and SERATO in conference at a desk. The former looks. The latter turns away. BERLIN walks the room into close- up. "Like some coffee, John?" Seems like ANN is the only benev- olent face around. She gets a lost smile & bewildered shake of his head. Disappears into his room And quietly closes the door. 130: INT. CRIME LAB. POLICE STATION. DAY. A picture of Ross fills the frame. Snapped the day they search- ed the dump. Blasted with rain. A waterproof cape and a finger raised in defiance. BERLIN shifts eyes from the bulletin board. Pours a last inch of whisky and drinks. Eyes back to the board for a last photographic/panoramic record of his time in Eureka. The photo of Ross again before his eyes sweep quickly on. Pict- ure of Amber Stone. Thumb tacks and maps and tape. Information relating to specific areas in San Diego. Carlsbad/Ocean Beach/ Point Loma. "Jennifer Seven" "Jennifer Eight." But who gives a fuck anymore? Two dead dogs on a refuse dump. And now the dead face of a Dummy. BERLIN stares till someone knocks on the door. St ANNE comes in smoking a cigarette and eating a ham sandwich. St ANNE You go home, John, get some sleep. I don't wanna talk any more today. BERLIN Aren't you gonna arrest me? St ANNE You know better than that ... He will exit when he stops speaking. Before he does he wanders the lab showing particular interest in the Dummy of Jennifer 8. I arrest you, you'll get bail, and be walking outta here anyway - and I'll have no one to talk to - Your Chief said he'd make you available to me. If you go to the store, call in, and let your duty officer know. 131: INT. BOBBY'S BEDROOM. THE ROSS RESIDENCE. NIGHT. BOBBY is in hysterics. A gale of tears. Fits his words between them. His Mom does her best to cope with his grief and her own. MARGIE Your Daddy would have wanted you to be strong .. We gotta be strong for Daddy, darling .. BOBBY I don't want her in this house .. I want my Dad. Why did she have to come here .. I want my Daddy .. 132: INT. KITCHEN. THE ROSS RESIDENCE. DAY. Fingers search out and identify phone numbers. Dial for inform- ation and HELENA whispers "I need the number for a cab, please." 133: INT. INTERROGATION ROOM. POLICE STATION. DAY. The Camera's getting closer and so is St ANNE. And today there is a definite change of mood. Still very measured. Still a pro- fessional demeanor. But a bad sense of shit about to come down. St ANNE .. there was a gale that night .. all the doors are swinging .. so this door swings back and clips you .. and down you go .. within 35 seconds of uncon- sciousness, you're back on the fire es- cape, and you're confused, really con- fused .. you don't know if Tuesdays come in two's or happen once a week .. Bit of a cold coming on and near enough for BERLIN to catch it. You see a figure coming up the stairs. Ross ain't meant to be on the stairs? He challenges you .. and this ain't a piece of wood with a nail through it .. this guy's got a 12 gauge Winchester up your nose .. and he's drunk .. and you're dizzy .. and your eye's fulla blood .. you ain't thinking good, and you're seeing worse .. Wow! .. it just went off! .. You just put him down? .. and you get hit by a Glaser, you stay down .. But he ain't dead .. Now, you realize you shot your partner .. "Oh, Suzanna, how do I get outta this?" I know .. The "Serial Killer" shot him .. And here comes the malice, John .. 17 seconds later, you put another one in his throat .. Isn't that what happened? BERLIN No. St ANNE Tell us what happened, then? BERLIN I already told you what happened .. You're looking for an inconsisten- cy, and you're not gonna find one, because I'm telling you the truth. St ANNE Tell me the truth again. 134: EXT. TRACK/FRONT YARD. BERLIN'S HOUSE. DAY. A yellow cab splashes through puddles and pulls up in front of the house. HELENA gets out and pays. No she doesn't need assis- tance. Picks up her suitcase and the cab vanishes into drizzle. 135: INT. KITCHEN/LIVING ROOM. BERLIN'S HOUSE. DAY. Back door opens and HELENA walks in. First thing she senses is cold. This place smells like it hasn't been lived in since she was last here. And last time she was here she was happy. Dumps her case and heads for the living room. Can't see it but feels the overwhelming gloom. Finds a couch and now she sits to wait. The silence is almost total. But something disturbs it. HELENA looks around. Back on her feet she tries to discover source of the sound. Finally arrives at a table lamp. She feels the bulb and it's hot. A large moth beats itself crazy inside the shade. Reaches in and turns it off & the house is in virtual darkness. 136: INT. INTERROGATION ROOM. POLICE STATION. DAY. St ANNE lights a cigarette. Attention with his notes. Sniffing a fair bit. He's acquired a toilet roll to deal with it. Occas- ionally will tear a sheet or two off to blow his nose. Glances at BERLIN "You want a cigarette?" No he doesn't "I've given up." St ANNE You have? .. How about the booze? .. How does St ANNE know? Perhaps he doesn't? Sounds like he does. Too much booze can be very dangerous .. memory black outs .. stuff like that .. His attention still with notes like a quack about to prescribe. "The Man Takes a Drink, Then the Drink Takes a Drink, Then the Drink Takes the Man?" .. Something like that, isn't it? .. Anyway .. why did you give up? BERLIN I guess I was drinking too much. St ANNE I was talking about "cigarettes?" (Score: 10 outta 10) Find yourself getting breathless? BERLIN Sure. St ANNE Specially if you're running? Which floor did the elevator run up to? BERLIN Five. St ANNE You ran up to the fifth? You must have been real breathless by then? BERLIN doesn't know where this is going but he doesn't like it. Eyes to BERLIN now and his smile looks real for the first time. We're gonna get our "observer" in here this afternoon. Keep an eye on us? (He smiles) Notorious for withholding information, the F.B.I. St ANNE makes a note. Junks the pencil. Sits back in his chair. Were you aware there was a janit- or in the institute that night? BERLIN No. St ANNE You didn't check? BERLIN There wasn't time ... St ANNE That wasn't my question? BERLIN No, Sir, I didn't check. St ANNE breaks off to blow his nose. BERLIN looks very worried. St ANNE I'm really catching cold up here? Must be all this fog? BERLIN What's the relevance of the janitor? St ANNE The janitor? Let me just ask you a question - before I forget - do you take any medication for that? BERLIN For what? St ANNE Breathlessness? BERLIN No. St ANNE Alright, let me answer your question? "What's the relevance of the janitor?" Hits the cigarette like this is the one that caused the cancer. Why don't I take you through it, from where I'm sitting .. At some time bet- ween 2 & 2:30 a.m. the janitor thought he heard a vehicle approaching through the woods. He looks out, and sees noth- ing, no lights, nothing. Figures it must be hunters. Some time later, he thought he heard something else, like a door, or a window slam? He gets up, and between half past two and a quarter of three, he makes a search - with a flashlight - of the top 3 floors. Finds nothing untoward, & goes back to his apartment in the roof. BERLIN looks grey as sick. Knows what's coming. And here it is. The flashlight you saw, was his. The "footsteps" you heard, were his. The elevator you were chasing up and down after was empty, and is prone to such activity, due to an electrical fault .. Apparently it happens frequently dur- ing gales. The gale that was swinging the door. That knocked you down. That confused you so much? And here we are, back to where I'm sitting. You wanna tell me what really went on that night? It seems St ANNE has effectively destroyed the "Serial Killer" scenario. Stubs his cigarette and waits for BERLIN's response. BERLIN Two people know I didn't kill him, Mr St Anne. One's me, and the other's the man that did. St ANNE What man? St ANNE is winning. And they both know it. And he almost grins. We just dealt with "the man?" BERLIN How d'you know the Jan- itor didn't shoot him? If St ANNE can raise an eyebrow he does. By implication BERLIN is ditching his "Killer." During this St ANNE rewinds his Sony. You're telling me it's his flashlight I saw, O.K., he sees my flashlight? And I'm coming up the stairs with a Beretta in my hand. And he's frightened. He hits the door on me. Picks up my gun. He's running. He runs into Ross, and in panic, he shoots him. The little Sony snaps to a stop and St ANNE looks at his watch. St ANNE Not unless he had a gun in one hand, and a phone in the other, he didn't. Ross was shot at ex- actly two fifty-seven a.m. The janitor put a call through to the local police, at 2:57 a.m. You obviously realize how I can get so accurate with my timing? St ANNE backs off and carefully replaces the Sony on the table. Ross switched into channel 8, & we got a recording of the whole incident. I was gonna play it to you, but I got a meeting, we'll have to do it after lunch. It's one, let's make it back by three? 137: INT. BEDROOM. BERLIN'S HOUSE. DAY. HELENA is curled up under blankets. Maybe day-dreaming but not asleep. She's maybe here to keep warm as much as anything else. Sound of a vehicle approaching and she sits to listen. The car pulls up and its engine silences. HELENA is already out of bed. 138: INT. LIVING ROOM/PORCH/FRONT YARD. HOUSE. DAY. Silhouette of a figure outside the front door. Someone rattles the handle but it's locked. And by the time HELENA reaches the door the visitor has gone. Thinking it's Berlin she twists the key and steps onto the porch. A stale winter fog settling down. Hardly a sound except her own voice. "John? Is that you?" Just the rattle of local Crows and a Bull heaving somewhere in some distant field. "John?" She cautiously descends wood stairs and walks two or three paces before bumping into a brown Chevrolet. Exploration of the car establishes nil. More confused than con- cerned she listens. Country sound and not a sound out of place Then suddenly she is alert. Something clatters somewhere. Like cans kicked in the garage? Was it the garage? "John, is it you?" 139: INT. KITCHEN/LIVING ROOM/BEDROOM. HOUSE. DAY. HELENA locks the front door. Moves into the kitchen. Locks the back door. Glum silence in the house. Nothing but an old alarm clock ticking. Then a sound like something moving. Like a door creaking open? Was it in the garage? The living room? Upstairs? She returns to the living room. Curtains drawn and almost dark. The endless silence is interrupted by a rush of water in pipes. If anybody's here they're upstairs? HELENA moves to the bottom of them "John, are you up there? It's me, darling. I got a cab." The only reply is more silence. She begins to climb the stairs. One hand on the wall. She ascends slowly. Her helplessness giv- ing way to suspicion with each new step. At the top she pushes into the bedroom "John, are you here? Darling? Are you alright?" Apparently no one is here. Certainly no one in the bed. And no one in the bathroom. She reappears with an expression suppress- ing anxiety. Feels her way past an antique wardrobe. Curiously its door is open. A full length mirror inside. Shuts it as she passes and for a split-instant the Man in the room is revealed. Almost simultaneously fingers in black leather clasp her wrist. HELENA in speechless with shock. Both she and the INTRUDER are breathing hard. The only other sound is the wardrobe door whin- ing open again under its weight. Manifests a reflection of his back. Totally in black. Black wool hat. Leather jacket. Gloves. INTRUDER Got really fucken lucky, didn't ya? He backs her to the bed and sits her before releasing his grip. The frame remains static and staring into the mirror and still on the INTRUDER's back. HELENA stares unseeing at her own face. I was getting kinda concerned about you Jenny. Like, how blind are you? Blind as your friend? Or less blind? Coz she could see, you know. Had a view outta one of em. But you don't see nothing do you? Nothing at all? He reaches into his jeans and produces a stainless steel knife. Even closed this thing is 10 inches long. A leather loop attat- ched at one and. He teases the metal in front of HELENA's eyes. Can you see this, blind girl? Not a switch-blade but by snapping it like a whip it locks out. Gimme your hand. Too terrified to obey and her inability momentarily angers him. Gimme your fucken hand. HELENA lifts her hand and he takes it. He runs the edge of the blade over her palm. Then closes her fingers around the handle. You like it? She is paralyzed except for the tears spilling down her cheeks. I cut your friend's head off with that .. Words come out she can barely hear herself. "You are a coward." You say something, Jenny? In this terrible silence she hears a double hiss of an aerosol. I'd like to cut you. I'd like to cut you so bad .. But ain't life strange? You're my little buddy now .. I guess we all got lucky? 140: EXT. CAR PARK. POLICE STATION. CITY OF EUREKA. DAY. Fog and dusk in that order. Headlights descend the slope. Park and CITRINE plus cane get out. As he crosses the lot a Uniform fires up a Harley. Next face is SERATO heading for his car. He accosts the Chief with a piece of paper. It is read with escal- ating incredulity. This would be comic if it wasn't so serious. SERATO She's in love with him, Chief, and try anything? CITRINE Are you going up there? SERATO No, I just sent Travis. I've got a call to make. CITRINE What about the man? .. Has he seen this? .. [No he hasn't] .. Alright, make your call, and get up there ... Bullshit or not, I wanna proper statement .. 141: INT. ANTI ROOM/INTERROGATION. POLICE STATION. DAY. CITRINE walks in in his overcoat. BISLEY looks across from the window. And the ASSISTANT up from a crossword. "Are they busy?" ASSISTANT No, Sir, they just got back. CITRINE Would you ask Mr St Anne to come in here a moment? The ASSISTANT does it via phone. And BISLEY looks over unhappy. BISLEY I hear I've been nominated as an official "observer?" CITRINE It's either you, or Taylor? BISLEY He don't wanna do it either. CITRINE I'll toss a coin for you. But one of you is going in today .. St ANNE comes in blowing his nose. CITRINE shoves him the mess~ age. He reads it with similar incredulity (but perhaps a touch more amusement than Citrine) "What d'you wanna do with it, Sir?" What do you wanna do with it? St ANNE Let him have it .. I don't mind putting a little salt at the edge of his plate .. 142: EXT. FRONT YARD. BERLIN'S HOUSE. DUSK. A single light in a downstairs room. The house is stifled with fog. A brown police Chevy parked out front. Here comes another to join it. As BERLIN gets out SERATO appears on the porch. He descends stairs with the impartial expression of a working cop. BERLIN I need a friend, Angelo. SERATO keeps it dispassionate. Ignores BERLIN's desperate eyes. SERATO You got one. Puts a thumb towards the house and already heading for his oar. She's a bad witness, John. But a fucking lousy alibi. 143: INT. LIVING ROOM. HOUSE. NIGHT. This isn't a good place to be. A dismal lamp supplies light. A close-up Of HELENA on the sofa. Hears a sound of booze getting poured. But nothing else in the house except for a harsh voice. BERLIN (O.S.) .. I know why you did it darlin, but you're not helping me. Every- thing they're hearing they think is a lie. Now here comes the man I'm desperate to prove exists, & whadda-ya-know, he turns up at my house, and has a "chat" with you? By now BERLIN and his glass of anaesthetic are well into frame. No one in the State of California is gonna believe that. They got the man in there - an A/1 F.B.I. inter- rogator, and he's taking me to pie- ces - doesn't believe a word comes outta my head - not a word - no one believes me - I don't believe me .. HELENA Don't say that. Don't you dare say that .. I believe you .. BERLIN I know you're trying to help me, but you don't understand. HELENA Then explain it to me. I got enough darkness, don't I? He doesn't want to. But now he's got to. And so here it comes. BERLIN The man who killed Amber is a psychopath. He was up at the in- stitute to kill you - he don't wanna kill Rose - he was there to kill you - that's the truth - and I didn't wanna tell it to you - but that's the reason I want you to stay at Margie's - coz I can't protect you here .. HELENA Why does he want to kill me? BERLIN Coz he thinks you're a witness. HELENA I can't identify him .. BERLIN He don't know that. I didn't. HELENA Then why didn't he kill me? Back at the booze and he's almost inaudible "Stop it, will you?" Why didn't he kill me, John? Something snaps in BERLIN and he throws his glass at the grate. BERLIN Will you fucken stop it. I'm not Serato .. He didn't kill you coz he wasn't here .. he isn't in the room with you, and lets you live .. And just as suddenly he's full of remorse. Takes HELENA in his arms with a lot of sorrys. But she isn't interested in apology. There's a passion in her face. And fire even in her blind eyes. HELENA Kiss me, John .. Kiss me [he does] I love you, kiss me again [he does] I love you .. Are my lips lying to you? Kiss my mouth [he does] Is my mouth lying to you? He. Was. Here. 144: INT. GARAGE. HOUSE. NIGHT. Music slams in on the cut. Berlin is about to take this garage to pieces. He searches cans and boxes and stacked timber. What ever it is his eyes are looking. The Camera looks down from ab- ove. Bits & pieces all over the floor but he discovers nothing. 145: INT. BATHROOM/BEDROOM. HOUSE. NIGHT. Close on a hand searching underside of the bath. Pipes and cob- webs. He reaches toward the taps. His hand is literally inches from the Walther (taped to the end of the tub). Fingers almost touch it. Just a fingernail away when HELENA interrupts "John?" HELENA (O.S.) I just remembered something .. And BERLIN rolls out and stares up like a mechanic under a car. He used a breath freshener. BERLIN A "breath freshener?" HELENA stands in the doorway and BERLIN is already on his feet. HELENA I heard it hiss, twice. BERLIN wipes a thought through his hair with fingers. "I don't know what that means." Walks past into the bedroom. Everything taken apart. Every drawer open and the bed heaped with clothes. BERLIN ... he's either here to take something .. or leave some- thing .. I don't find nothing .. 146: INT. LIVING ROOM. HOUSE. NIGHT. BERLIN pours last of the whisky. Looks totally snuffed out. He and HELENA sit on the same sofa but the atmosphere puts them a mile apart. A yellow pad on the table covered in notes. BERLIN swallows scotch and reads to himself "I guess we all got lucky?" HELENA You gotta stop drinking, darling. Another mouthful of scotch & she hears the glass hit the table. He's glad you're drinking. Every drink you take you're helping him. BERLIN He doesn't need my help. HELENA I know about alcohol, John. BERLIN You do? HELENA I'm blind because my father drank. That's what she knows about alcohol and he'd prefer to be dead. I lost everyone I ever loved .. I lost my hopes .. my future .. I'm in love with you, John .. I don't want them to take you away from me .. 147: INT. INTERROGATION ROOM. POLICE STATION. DAY. St ANNE is close enough to kiss BERLIN. Right into his space & talking right into his face. And today he's not in a good mood. St ANNE He humiliated you. In front of every one .. In front of a bunch of secret- aries? .. Well, that would piss any- one off? ... That would piss me off .. I'd be real mad if a guy did that to me, & called himself a friend .. Coz that ain't a friendly thing to do? .. You side with "friends" .. You don't go bitchin on them behind their back? And he suddenly switches gear. And whispers like it's a secret. He wasn't much of a "friend" at all? BERLIN Ross was my best friend. St ANNE Did you shoot your "best friend?" BERLIN No. St ANNE The next time I ask you that quest- ion, you're gonna tell me the truth. St ANNE shunts back in his chair. Expands the frame as he goes. Sergeant TAYLOR sits on a chair with his back to the wall. Cig- arettes and ashtray on the table next to his. St ANNE lights a Pall Mall and as if it's an after-thought he snaps the Sony on. [TAPE] .. "Just be careful now, coz I'm coming up." .. [Footsteps on cast iron stairs] "Is that you, John? .. Answer .. Now .. or I blow this fucken staircase to pie- ces." [Sound of someone breathing hard] BERLIN already looks devastated. He's about to got annihilated. "Me, Freddy." .. [Just the gale] "What the hell's going on up there, Brother? I been calling ton minutes." .. [Lungs heave for air) "Hey, c'mon, John, talk to me?" [Just the sound of breathless- ness] "Jesus Christ .. What are you do- ing? What the fuck are you doing? It's me - Holy shit - John - John - Not you - Don't shoot you crazy bastard! [2 shots] St ANNE clicks the Sony off & BERLIN is too stunned to breathe. St ANNE That's second degree - you wanna stop at that? Will you give me that, John? BERLIN gives him nothing but silence. A knock on the door "Come in." And the ASSISTANT hands St ANNE a note. Reads it and excus- es himself. Leaves the silence for BERLIN. But TAYLOR breaks it. TAYLOR He's offerin you a deal? Why don't you take it .. BERLIN He ain't offerin me shit. TAYLOR lights a cigarette and exhales. Something of a real red- headed fuck about him. And BERLIN would like to break his neck. You're letting it show, King Jay. TAYLOR I don't like you. But don't kid yourself .. I don't take no ple- asure sitting in on another cop .. He rolls ash off his cigarette and pushes it round the ashtray. Your an alcoholic, aren't you? (BERLIN stares) It's written in your file .. The phone rings and TAYLOR answers. Puts his red eyes at BERLIN. They want you to look in the mirror. BERLIN has to find every strength for this one. Humiliation com- pounds. Gets up and stares at his own haunted face in the glass. 148: INT. ANTI ROOM/INTERROGATION. POLICE STATION. DAY. The MYOPIC peers into BERLIN's face. St ANNE stands close with his toilet roll. Light refracts in the MYOPIC's lenses "I seen him up there quite a lot." St ANNE blows his nose "Is that the man you saw that night?" He stares again at the tormented face. MYOPIC Well .. I dunno .. it could be? St ANNE Alright, thank you, Mr Dawson .. He's escorted to the door and his space is occupied by CITRINE. CITRINE What's all this "deal" business? St ANNE on his way to the door now. He pauses for the question. St ANNE I can have him out of here on a sec- ond degree this afternoon. I own him, and he knows it. And, Chief, I'm still waiting for that warrant on his house? 149: INT. WAITING AREA. POLICE STATION. DAY. HELENA waits on a bench in the empty room. Maybe a few scruffy magazines? But nothing of use to her in here except she's near Berlin. He arrives like every hope got abandoned and sits next to her. They clasp one another's hands before she embraces him. BERLIN You don't wanna sit here any more, sweetheart .. HELENA I wanna be near you ... Something difficult to tell her and doesn't know how to say it. BERLIN I think they're gonna arrest me. HELENA I don't want them to arrest you. BERLIN It's not as bad as it sounds .. They can't refuse me bail. Raise bail of my own cognizance & find the best damned lawyer there is .. Her tears are close to his face. No one but him could hear her. HELENA Oh, John, I'd do anything, anything, to get you free. 150: INT. INTERROGATION ROOM. POLICE STATION. DAY. If the waiting room felt bad try sitting in here. Both St ANNE and TAYLOR are smoking and the Sony playing again. This is the final part of the tape. No speech but a lot of labored breath- ing. Ross groaning and now the sound of his shotgun. More desp- erate inhalations and now sound of the last shot into his neck. St ANNE .. and that one's with malice .. that one's first degree .. why don't you stop lying to me? (Clicks Sony off) C'mon, John, I can help you? Why don't you tell me the truth? BERLIN I've told you the truth. It isn't me .. I've never call- ed Ross "Freddy" in my life .. TAYLOR I've heard you call him Freddy. BERLIN You haven't. And you got no voice in here, Taylor, so keep it shut. St ANNE Tell a lotta lies, don't you? Some- thing that comes naturally to you? BERLIN I don't lie. St ANNE Prepared to lie to your Chief? BERLIN Under exceptional circumstances. St ANNE What were the circumstances that caused you to lie to Freddy Ross? BERLIN I never lied to Ross .. St ANNE You didn't? Shakes his head in confirmation. And St ANNE finds a notebook. Well, he thought you did? .. Wrote it down in his book? "John Berlin is a liar." Right here, underlined. BERLIN stares at the book & can barely credit what he's seeing. Dated the day you got your first "break" with your "Mystery Man?" You don't know why he wrote that? (He doesn't) Maybe he thought there was no "Myst- ery Man?" That the investigation was bullshit? That you were making it up? And during the next attack St ANNE will work himself into rage. Coz you wanted to be "Top Cop?" Isn't that why you went running up that gar- bage dump, so everyone could stand in awe of the "Top Cop?" Isn't that why you came up here? Coz you couldn't make it in L.A.? Get yourself a pissy lit- tle degree, come up here, and be "Top Guy?" But Ross was "Top Guy", wasn't he? Always would be Top Guy? And you know what? He did it without even trying .. Everybody loved him. He had everything you wanted, didn't he? - Great woman - Great kid? - Everything you couldn't have? - And you wanted it to go away? Coz your life was lousy, wasn't it? - A lousy life, with a lousy wife, who was fucking everyone, wasn't she? Is that why you pick on a little Blind Girl? - coz you can control her? - Is that it? - Control who she's fucking? Tears of grief and tears of rage. BERLIN can't restrain either. You wanna lose your temper with me? C'mon, John, lose your fucken temper? You're good at losing your temper?.. BERLIN No way, Mr St Anne. St ANNE Lost your temper with Ross, didn't you? C'mon, tell me the truth. Is that what happened? You had an arg- ument in the car? Lost your temper with him? Stood over him, blew his fucking larynx out with a Glaser? - Where were you aiming, John? Going for his face? Blow his fucking face away, because you hated him so much. BERLIN is a wreck of despair. But somehow he keeps his dignity. BERLIN I loved that guy .. & the hard- est thing to take in here .. is knowing he thought I killed him .. St ANNE Well, that he did .. And that do I, Sergeant Berlin .. And at last he looks pleased. Because he's got this man busted. What do you take for that breathlessness, Sergeant? Can't take anymore questions. Answers with a shake of his head. How about Aminophylline? BERLIN I don't know what that is. St ANNE You don't? It's ant anti-asthma medic- ation, prescribed for breathlessness? Produces a capsule in a plastic bag and throws it on the table. Came out of the ashtray of your car? Every cell in BERLIN's body freezes. Misinterpreted by St ANNE. But you "don't know" what it is? But he does know what it is. The pill he found in the V.W. van. You don't know how it got there? TAYLOR stares a rock drill and St ANNE stares something similar. You don't use it for breathlessness? BERLIN focuses a fragment of hope. But no sign of hope in here. I'm running outta questions, John, and you're running out of lies? I'm offer- ing you one last chance, and you better take it, or the U.S. Attorney is gonna put you in the God-damned gas chamber .. BERLIN I need .. some time .. to think Sir .. St ANNE Alright. Think about it. But don't you make a fool of me. You come in here with one more lie, and I bull- shit you not, I'm gonna press for the maximum penalty there is. And that's the death penalty, Sergeant. 151: INT. WAITING AREA. POLICE STATION. DAY. BERLIN hurries in and grabs HELENA's hand. Instantly transmits the adrenalin. They head for the door with him whispering hard. BERLIN We got a break - isn't much, but it's a break .. the man that murdered Ross gets asthma - it's not a breath fresh- ner, darling - it's an asthma inhaler .. 152: INT. KITCHEN. THE ROSS RESIDENCE. DAY. BERLIN/HELENA couldn't have been in the house longer than it's taken to call Los Angeles. MARGIE infected with the excitement although as yet she hardly knows what's going on. BERLIN paces the tiles on a long phone lead. Eyes to MARGIE while they wait. BERLIN This capsule came out of a V.W. van - I didn't even think about it - stuck it in the ashtray - if I'd been smok- ing, ita been thrown away weeks ago .. (Phone) No, Amanda - it's definitely Amanda .. Another excruciating wait plus further explanations for MARGIE. I had the van - this guy drove that van takes his medication and loses one .. (Phone) - Dan - Hearing - Are you sure? - Would you try Frisco for me? - I'll try and get a second name .. Dumps the phone and stokes anxiety in HELENA and MARGIE's eyes. No Amanda with a white Volkswagen .. You don't have a Yellow Pages for Oakland, do you? (She don't) I got- ta get down there, find that store .. Everything happens in a hurry. He embraces HELENA. She'll pray for him. Already out the back door with MARGIE in tow. A black & white parked in the drive with VENABLES stuffed inside. Plus a grim wind tearing trees. BERLIN pauses as he reaches his car. BERLIN You be careful .. This man's close .. Catches her eyes. Can barely look at them. They're full of hate. MARGIE If you find him, John. I want you to call me. I wanna know his name. 153: EXT. HILLSIDE. OAKLAND. DAY. Wide over the bay area. Wind swept and rain swept. City lights beginning to come on. In the distance the docks and far beyond the ocean. Somewhere here is a solitary phone booth. "I'm look- ing for a special type of rattan .. friend of mine recommended you, said I should ask for someone called Amanda .. You don't? O.K. .. Thank you." Followed by sound of a phone slamming down. 154: INT. PHONE BOOTH. HILLSIDE STREET. DAY. A stack of coins and a pair of ripped out Yellow Pages. BERLIN crosses off another number. Running out of craft shops and run- ning out of quarters. A new number hears the same old bullshit. But this one is answering good! Fights to keep his voice light. BERLIN (Phone) She's not there? - Let me just make sure I got the right Amanda - lotta freckles, right? .. Right .. That's right, that's her .. Well, eh, what time d'you expect her? .. O.K. I'll eh, try and pop over this afternoon. And he comes out of there running. The Chevy roars up the hill. 155: INT. ANTIQUE MARKET. CRAFT EMPORIUM. DUSK. The kind of store heads open in abandoned warehouses. A jungle of jewelry and cane furniture and ethnic junk. Many chairs of the ilk Berlin saw in the Volkswagen van. And now he's staring at its driver. His P.O.V. through windows. He watches as a red headed Girl clears the till in preparation to close up. within moments the lights are dead and AMANDA is heading for her door. 156: EXT. MARKET/WAREHOUSE. CAR PARK. DUSK. Plenty of rain to hurry in. AMANDA. drives a red Datsun. She ex- its the car park with a man in a brown Chevrolet following her. 157: EXT/INT. CAR/STREETS. SUBURBS. OAKLAND. NIGHT. The Chevy tails the Datsun through city streets. A lot of rush hour traffic. Music to go with it and it's probably Mussorgsky. A final cut and headlights are navigating the hills. Disappear and reappear as they ascend. Steep inclines and the houses are middle class. Too dark to see much now but lamp posts and rain. Still climbing the Datsun takes a side street. BERLIN keeps 50 yards behind. She turns off and parks in a sloping driveway. A white Volkswagen van at the top of it. BERLIN has already pull- ed over. Kills his lights and watches her hurry into the house. 158: EXT. STEEP STAIRS. PORCH. HOUSE. NIGHT. BERLIN just rang the doorbell. Imposes an impartial expression. But this is his last chance and he knows it. The front door is opened & secured on a safety-chain. AMANDA carries a white Cat. BERLIN I'm sorry to trouble you, but eh .. Wait a minute, don't I know you? And she stares like he does not. Before she stares like he does. You're Amanda? Remember, you near- ly ran into me? Way up in Trinity? His smile disarms the securities. And she opens the front door. AMANDA As I said, Sergeant, you nearly ran into me? What's the problem? BERLIN I'm afraid it's the "van" again. AMANDA The van? BERLIN Is it your vehicle? AMANDA No, my mother's .. You better stop in .. I'm just here to feed the cat. 159: INT. HALLWAY. HOUSE. NIGHT. So far so good. Inside without showing an I.D. he doesn't have. This is a gloomy place. She shuts the door. Shuts out the gale. BERLIN I'm sorry to worry you with this, but we had a real serious robbery, and we- 're chasing a white V.W. van? You guy came up an the computer, so as a matt- er of routine we have to check. Could you tell me who's driven it recently? AMANDA Only me and Mom .. BERLIN How about any guys on your staff? AMANDA We only got one .. He doesn't drive. BERLIN [AMANDA] Would he have lent it to anyone? [No] How bout your Dad? Husband? Boyfriend? AMANDA He is my boyfriend. My fath- er's dead, and I'm divorced. BERLIN I see ... His hopes are collapsing by the moment and nothing else is left. Would you mind if I took a look at it? AMANDA I thought this was "routine?" The Cat cries for its food and AMANDA begins to look suspicious. The only man that has driven it in the last 6 months is my uncle. And no way is he involved in a robbery. BERLIN Could I have his name? Just so I can officially eliminate him? Maybe too much charge in his head and she doesn't like the vibe? AMANDA Could I see your badge again? Sure she can and he searches for it. "Must have left it at home?" Then you better go and get it. I feel uncomfortable without an I.D. AMANDA opens the front door just long enough for BERLIN to leave. 160: INT. LIVING ROOM/KITCHEN. HOUSE. NIGHT. The emerging Music is full of threat. Like it's part of the dark- ness. Too dark to see much of anything here. A sound of somebody hammering at a door. A light outside and the Camera moves closer. Creeps towards the door as though it's going to answer. Suddenly glass shatters. The door flies open. Flashlights and Men rush in. 161. INT. CHEVROLET SEDAN. STREET. NIGHT. BERLIN stares towards the house. Music and rain and a downstairs light just wont out. Headlights go on and the Datsun drives away. 162: INT. CHIMNEY FLUE/BEDROOM. BERLIN'S HOUSE. NIGHT. A flashlight searches cobwebs and soot. Descends the chimney and TAYLOR emerges from a long-sealed-off fireplace. Blinks dirt out of his eyes and moves back into the bedroom. Upended bed against the wall and everything upsidedown. The search looks like it has been thorough. St ANNE appears at the door and TAYLOR looks over. TAYLOR We're not gonna find nothin here. 163: INT. MASTER BEDROOM. (AMANDA'S) HOUSE. NIGHT. BERLIN searches the bedroom. Anxiety and antiques. Does a vanity and now a wardrobe. Nothing much in either. But finds a shoe box full of letters in the latter. Postcards/birthday cards etcetera. 164: INT. BATHROOM. BERLIN'S HOUSE. NIGHT. Half the floorboards already up. VENABLES levers at another. The music is nervous and louder. Next floorboard is next to the bath. 165: INT. BEDROOM/WARDROBE. (AMANDA'S) HOUSE. NIGHT. Big close on a postcard (a fantasy yacht on a blue sea). The cap- tion reads "JUST ANOTHER DAY IN SAN DIEGO." Close enough to read the message ".. too hot .. asthma not too good .. as soon as I'm settled I'll write .. love John .." Next letter out is also post- marked San Diego. Inside is a happy snap of Sergeant John Taylor. 166: INT. BATHROOM. BERLIN'S HOUSE. NIGHT. Almost too close to see what's happening. But a gloved hand just found a pistol under the bath. Out it comes with BISLEY shouting. And St ANNE and TAYLOR arrive. "Got a little Walther. It's a 25." 167: INT. LIVING ROOM. THE ROSS RESIDENCE. DAY. HELENA looks at the floor and listens. MARGIE looks at the T.V. and listens. Big close on the screen. This scene will intercut between the television and those in front of it as appropriate. [1] An exterior shot of Berlin's house. Sheriff's cars parked out front. Various people come and go. One of them is Sergeant Taylor. Perpetual wind on the sound track interrupted by a V.O. MALE REPORTER Detectives spent several hours this morning at Sergeant Berlin's home .. various property was removed for ex- amination. Later in the morning, May- or Heineman arrived for a meeting with police officers from Shasta Valley .. [2] Heineman's B.M.W. pulls up outside the police station and this is conducted on the move. A Reporter asks "What's the nat- ure of this meeting, Sir?" HEINEMAN is sorry but can't comment. He pauses briefly an the steps with the wind savaging his hair. HEINEMAN (T.V.) Jim unable to say anything right now, except, this is a very sad and tragic day. John Berlin lied to us all. Lied to me, and much worse, lied to every man, woman, & child in this community .. WOMAN REPORTER (T.V.) Where was Mr Berlin arrested, Sir? HEINEMAN (T.V.) Near the Ross residence .. six a.m. .. MALE REPORTER (T.V.) Who made the arrest? HEINEMAN (T.V.) Sergeant John Taylor. Assist- ed by Sergeant Angelo Serato .. HELENA looks in utmost despair. "Is it true he resisted arrest?" You'll have to put that question to the Chief. I've nothing to add. BOBBY appears somewhere behind the Ladies. T.V. commentary con- tinues. "Meanwhile, Sergeant Berlin remains in a cell at police headquarters arraigned on what is believed to be a $500,000.00 bail. As Mayor Heineman said, this, is a 'sad day' for Eureka." Except for the one face that isn't sad and it belongs to BOBBY. 168: INT. CORRIDOR/CELLS. POLICE STATION. DAY. The cell window is reinforced glass. BERLIN smashes on it like an insane man. TRAVIS (apparently on cell duty) has never seen nothing like this before. CITRINE doesn't want to see any more. BERLIN I'll sign anything you want. Please. Bring here her .. I want Helena here .. CITRINE You ain't talking to no one, till you calm down. BERLIN I am calm .. I am calm .. But he isn't and CITRINE moves off. BERLIN cracks blood out of knuckles on the glass. Hollers up the corridor after the Chief. Get St Anne .. I want St Anne .. 169: EXT. DRIVE. THE ROSS RESIDENCE. DAY. Gale still making a mass of the trees. A police Chevy pulls up and TAYLOR gets out. Puts a knuckle on the window of a black & white. A Uniform wakes and TAYLOR interrupts his apologies "Go." And the young Cop does the drive as TAYLOR heads for the house. 170: INT. STAIRS/LIVING ROOM. THE ROSS RESIDENCE. DAY. HELENA descends the stairs with her luggage. She's towards the bottom when TAYLOR appears via the kitchen. Lights momentarily stall as the gale sucks their electricity. Ignorant of his pre- sence she loses her bags and disappears into the den. He moves after her and startles the shit out of MARGIE as she comes out. MARGIE Jesus. What are you doing here? TAYLOR Been trying to call, your line's down .. I just wanna let you know we're taking the guard off today. MARGIE heads for a table and unloads a strong-box of documents. Is she going somewhere? MARGIE I'm taking her back to the Instit- ute. Her new term starts tomorrow. He watches her select various papers aware of what she's about. TAYLOR Not gonna try and bail him are you? I really wouldn't bother, Margie .. HELENA reappears wearing a coat and TAYLOR is in generous mood. You want me to drive her? .. I'm through with my shift .. MARGIE No .. I'll drive her .. 171: INT. CELL. POLICE STATION. DAY. Here's a classic twenty-two. BERLIN is consumed with anxiety & rage. But get mad in here and get nothing. No shoe strings and no wrist watch. But a wrist-band like something medical summar- izing his charge. St ANNE sits impassive as BERLIN walks floor. BERLIN I'll sign anything you like - you write it, I'll sign it. But I want her and Margie here. I want an opp- ortunity to talk to them - that's all I'm asking? - That's my deal? .. St ANNE O.K. I'll put it to your Chief? BERLIN Well, you'd better put it to him pretty dammed quick, Mr St Anne, because if you don't, she's dead. St ANNE Didn't push her down stairs on their previous meeting, did he? BERLIN He was up there to plant the gun. St ANNE Did Taylor plant this, too? Produces a Zippo in a plastic sack and BERLIN's senses capsize. Is it yours? A question for which St ANNE expects no answer and he is right. We found "Jennifer Eight." At least, we've found a headless and handless girl. A couple of hunters found her. Maybe BERLIN asks him "Where" or maybe his expression's enough? About 4 miles south of the institute, less than 50 feet from the road. This was less than 100 feet from the body. BERLIN can't believe it and knows St ANNE wouldn't believe him. Is it yours? - (no answer) - I know it's yours? - You know it's yours? The only prints on it are Freddy's? You wanna tell me how it got there? BERLIN wouldn't believe it either. Door open and TRAVIS enters. TRAVIS Margie Ross put up your bond, Sir. St ANNE and BERLIN look surprised. And BERLIN looks at St ANNE. BERLIN Are you getting in the way of it? St ANNE examines the bail/bond paper and raises eyes to BERLIN. St ANNE I don't make the law. 172: EXT. THE ROSS RESIDENCE. DUSK. Music on the cut and this is a crane shot high above the house. A car tears up the drive with the Camera descending to meet it. BERLIN out and into the house. And still the gale howls around. 173: INT. DOWNSTAIRS ROOMS. HOUSE. DUSK. Darkness and silence. Where the hell is everyone? He quicks it to the den, Cartoons on T.V. but no one watching. With escalat- ing concern he hits the kitchen and now he's shouting upstairs. "Margie. Margie." About to climb when BOBBY appears at the top. BOBBY There's no one here. BERLIN Where are they? BOBBY Mom took her back to the institute. BERLIN freezes. He maybe says "What?" He definitely says "When?" I dunno. How come they let you out? BERLIN Is Margie with her? Is she with her? BOBBY No, she came back and went out ag- ain .. gone to see Auntie Charles .. BERLIN has already grabbed a telephone. Aware it's dead before BOBBY tells him "They're all out around here." He wanders down- stairs in apparent oblivion to BERLIN's distress. BERLIN races back to the den and new problems. Desperate to get at the guns but all cabinets locked "Where's the keys, Bobby? I need a gun." They're my Dad's guns. BERLIN Come on, Bobby, for God's sake. I wanna get the man that killed him. BOBBY stares at BERLIN as though he's staring at that very man. BOBBY I hate you .. I really hate you .. He turns away into the darkness. BERLIN looks frantic and with- out options. Smashes the cabinets with a chair. Grabs a 44 rev- olver plus a 12 gauge Remington and the slugs that go with it. 174: EXT. FREEWAY INTERSECTION. NIGHT. Wide over an intersection. Berlin's Chevy crosses a bridge and descends into lights. Music travels with him but the Camera re- mains static. Watches tail lights dissolve into a river of red. 175: EXT. FREEWAY. NIGHT. Tracking back with the car. As yet 100 yards away. Moving fast and getting closer. As it approaches a remote sound of a phone drifts in. And headlights so near now they wipe out everything. 176: INT. CHEVY SEDAN. FREEWAY. NIGHT. Starting to sleet and windshield wipers on. The phone is still ringing like it's at the end of Berlin's brain. Like it's part of his thoughts mixed up with the nightmare he's hearing again. BERLIN (V.O.) Go take a look in his office. It's fulla rattan - that's the connect- ion, that's the "link" - that's why they never got an I.D. - He kills blind girls - put their picture in the newspaper, and 99 percent of the people who know them are blind .. Intercutting BERLIN's fearful eyes with his P.O.V. of the road. St ANNE (V.O.) Havta be a real dope to kill her now, wouldn't he? I mean, we're talking real, full-blown, insane? BERLIN (V.O.) He is insane. His fucken brain's upside down. But he's also very cunning. He's not going after her with a "Pearl Handled Colt," he- 'll just push her down the stairs .. Just the sound of tho phone and the road dissolving into black. 177: INT. CORRIDOR. SHASTA-TRINITY INSTITUTE. NIGHT. A miserable corridor with the merest of lights. A phone rings somewhere at its end. HELENA is on her way up the corridor and the ringing is louder. Finds keys and walks into her apartment. 178: INT. APARTMENT. SHASTA-TRINITY INSTITUTE. NIGHT. Phone in close-up and the frame widens as HELENA heads towards it. Reaches out and is maybe a second away before it rings off. 179: INT/EXT. PHONE BOOTH. GAS STATION. NIGHT. This is a little country stop some place an the peripheries of the snow-line. BERLIN slams the phone down and runs to his car. Screeches out onto the highway and the Camera begins to ascend. The Camera climbs higher revealing somber mountains. Plus mile upon mile of road he has yet to travel. Still it ascends until the Chevrolet is reduced to an insignificance by the landscape. 180: EXT. SHASTA-TRINITY INSTITUTE. NIGHT. A panoramic over the institute wide enough to include surround- ing forest. Headlights approach down a wooded track and go out. Just possible to see a tiny Figure moving towards the building. 181: EXT. FIRE ESCAPE. INSTITUTE. NIGHT. High on the fire escape looking down. A flashlight arrives bel- ow. Eerie fragmentation of light as the Figure begins to climb. 182: EXT. CHEVY SEDAN/ROAD. SHASTA VALLEY. NIGHT. The highway is winding and narrowed with snow. Couldn't find a lousier road on which to overtake. BERLIN is right up behind a forty ton truck and he's trying to overtake. Hits the horn and tries again. Halfway past the trailer when a bend suddenly rel- eases headlights. An angry claxon and he's forced to pull back. 183: INT. BEDROOM. APARTMENT. INSTITUTE. NIGHT. Although curtains are open the room is in darkness. Someone on the fire escape looking in. A flashlight snaps on and a circle of light explores the room. Creeps across the floor and pauses at the bed. Climbs slowly to illuminate HELENA's sleeping face. 144: EXT. FIRE ESCAPE. INSTITUTE. NIGHT. Close-up sound and close-up picture. A glass-cutter scores the window. A nasty noise but you'd have to be wide awake and list- ening to hear it. A gloved fist punches the section out. Falls to the floor and shatters. And a hand reaches in for the catch. 145: INT. BEDROOM/LIVING ROOM. APARTMENT. NIGHT. HELENA is wide awake and listening. Hurrying into her dressing gown with a similar urgency to get out. She arrives in the liv- ing room as the FIGURE is clambering through the window. Panic as she blunders for the front door. Tears it open and vanishes into the corridor. He crosses the room and follows her outside. 186: INT. CORRIDOR/STAIRS. INSTITUTE. NIGHT. HELENA knows the building and moves faster than he may have ex- pected. Green dressing gown and bare feet. White nightgown and blonde hair. The man in black hurries after her. She's already at the swing doors and he's virtually running to stay with her. She bursts through the doors and rushes downstairs. He follows only seconds behind. The wind groans down as they descend. HEL- ENA turns a corner of the stairwell and momentarily disappears. For a moment he loses her! Which way did she go? Downstairs or along the corridor? His anxiety is immediately assuaged. Spots what already looks like a ghost fleeing into shadows. He takes off along the corridor. Getting breathless. But getting closer. Near enough now to sense her fear. Near enough now to grab her. TAYLOR Say night, night, dead girl. As he reaches for her she turns. MARGIE wears a green dressing gown and a blonde wig and has a very big fucking pistol in her hand. TAYLOR can't believe what he's looking at. And for an in- stant neither does MARGIE. Their surprise is mutually stunning. How can it be him? How can it be her? TAYLOR's still trying to work out how they made the switch when the first bullet smacks into his chest. Gets another as he goes down. He crumples in a deadly heap and revenge is completed with two more in the back. 187: INT. LANDING/STAIRS. INSTITUTE. NIGHT. MARGIE barges through the doors. The MYOPIC Janitor is halfway up adjacent stairs peering down. No time for introductions and no time for explanations. "Call the Police. Do it. Now." Shout- ing up at him she's already descending. "Tell em the gymnasium." 188: INT. GYMNASIUM. INSTITUTE. NIGHT. MARGIE patrols plate glass windows. Where are the fucking cops? She's shocked and looks strange indeed. Wig off but hair grips all over her head. An overcoat and shoes but still wearing the nightgown underneath. A couple of dreary lights in the ceiling. HELENA sits numb under one of them all but hidden in a blanket. MARGIE can't stand waiting any longer. "I'm gonna call them my- self." HELENA nods and sure she's O.K. to stay here. The doors settle and she is alone. Headlights cross the windows shifting the shadows of everything. Swooping the walls they move attent- ion back to the door. TAYLOR stares in and then pushes through. Worse for wear but very much alive. Discarded his leather jack- et revealing the bullet proof vest. Blood all over his T-shirt. Looks like he caught one in the shoulder. A bad burn and blood runs from his left hand. In his right hand he clasps the knife. He cracks it open like a whip. HELENA hears it and stands. Ter- ror as the footsteps approach. "Margie. Margie." But Margie is- n't around. He's less than 30 feet away. She tries to back off but is hindered by the blanket. Tries to scream but is stifled with fear. Maybe six seconds to live but this refers to Taylor. "Taylor" He swings around but this time he doesn't get time to look surprised. BERLIN blows the fucker across the room. Solid load slugs weighing an ounce each crash into him. BERLIN keeps pumping the Remington and doesn't stop firing until the magaz- ine is over. No conjecture now. This bastard is very much dead. BERLIN throws the 12 gauge aside. And maybe it means something. Maybe at last he accepts he's stopped living in that world and ready to give himself a chance in this. HELENA in his arms and this is his new world. Flashing lights and headlights flood in- to the darkness. Their embrace goes on. And this story is told. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Jennifer's Body.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jennifer's Body.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..8a2ba18286e926bff2c5519bbbc88427af9d7228 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jennifer's Body.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + JENNIFER'S BODY Written by Diablo Cody 9/20/2007 INT. LEECH LAKE WOMEN'S CORRECTIONAL HOSPITAL - DAY ANITA "NEEDY" LESNICKI, 17, sits on her hospital bed in pajamas. She's a plain-faced girl with a haunted expression. As she stares out the window, she winds colored yarn around a pair of Popsicle sticks to create a "god's eye." Out a single window, we see an imposing nine-foot SECURITY FENCE. Next to Needy, we see a pile of unopened mail scattered casually on the floor. There are letters, packages, even creepy little gifts and totems sent by admiring "fans." NEEDY V.O. Every day, I get letters. I think I get more letters than Santa Claus, Zac Efron and Dr. Phil combined. I'm kind of the shit. RAYMUNDO, a counselor raps on the door and sticks his head in cautiously. RAYMUNDO Rec time in five minutes, Needy. NEEDY Grassy-ass, Raymundo. Needy stands up and begins changing into an institutional gym uniform. As she slips off her pajamas, we can see a series of puffy, slash-like SCARS on her body. NEEDY V.O. Sometimes the letters are from people who say they're praying for me. They tell me everything will be okay if I just accept Jesus Christ into my heart. I say the words, but nothing ever happens. Nobody comes back. Nobody gets off the cross. She glances sadly at a PHOTO OF A BOY on her dresser. She touches the frame wistfully, her eyes full of remorse. NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) Occasionally I get presents from starfuckers who saw my picture in the paper and want to marry me or something. They think they can take me away from all this. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 2. CONTINUED: NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) Like I'd really date some perverted Chester with a hard-on for jailbait. I might be insane, but I'm not desperate. We see a morbid "hall of fame" of creepy photos sent in from guys. They line the mirror, grinning at us. There's even a DICK SHOT tucked in there. Needy pulls on her threadbare uniform T-shirt. It hangs down to her knees, covering her shorts. NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) A lot of people ask me if I'm sorry I did it. Needy picks up a paper cup of COLORFUL PILLS on her dresser, dumps the meds into her mouth, and dry-swallows them. NEEDY (ALOUD) I'm sorry I didn't do it sooner. She saunters out of the room in her GYM UNIFORM and BUNNY SLIPPERS. INT. LEECH LAKE HOSPITAL GYMNASIUM - MORNING Several badminton courts are set up in the gym. As an intense OPERATIC ARIA plays over the public address system, the FEMALE PATIENTS enthusiastically--almost violently--whack at the flying shuttlecocks. The patients appear to be varying levels of crazy. A TOOTHLESS WOMAN grins as she dives with her racket, clipping her partner in the leg. In the corner, one forlorn patient nurses her injured arm while another hurls her racket against the wall again and again. Counselors look on approvingly, despite how miserable their charges appear. In the background, a few sulking patients jump rope. Needy enters the gym unnoticed, padding along in her bunny slippers. NEEDY V.O. Welcome to the Mental Olympics. They're big on recreation here. Supposedly it helps us vent our aggressions. We've traded in our hatchets for rackets, our Drain-O bombs for double dutch. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 3. CONTINUED: NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) Even the cutters get in on the action when they're fully conscious. We see a GIRL swinging a jump rope who has a ladder of fresh bandages on her arms and legs. NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) Me? I'm just trying to stay invisible. Nelly shuffles over to a tetherball and takes a furious WHACK at it. INT. LEECH LAKE CAFETERIA - ONE HOUR LATER The freshly showered PATIENTS assemble for breakfast. They grab trays and settle into noisy cliques. Needy selects a single toaster pastry from the breakfast line and sits down, alone. NEEDY V.O. Personally, I think they're trying to wear us out. Keep us sluggish so there won't be an uprising. Well, those J.V. tactics won't work against me. I'm a kicker. K-I- C-K-E-R. It even says so on my chart. We briefly cut to Needy's chart, on some doctor's clipboard. We see her name: ANITA "NEEDY" LESNICKI and a few brief details about FIRST DEGREE MURDER and GRANDIOSE NOTIONS. Beneath that, we see a triple-highlighted warning in bright ink: KICKER. A NUTRITIONIST with a clipboard approaches Needy casually and eyes her breakfast plate. NUTRITIONIST Just one Toastem, huh? NEEDY (QUIETLY) I like Toastems. NUTRITIONIST That's good. But I'm not sure a Toastem can provide you with sufficient energy for your day. I'd recommend more complex carbohydrates... (CONTINUED) 4. CONTINUED: Needy scrambles to her feet and delivers a sudden, powerful ROUNDHOUSE KICK to the nutritionist's face. NEEDY I'D RECOMMEND THAT YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP! The nutritionist is KNOCKED OFF HER FEET-- as if she's been kicked by a far mightier creature than Needy-- and collapses, clutching her bleeding nose. We see that the bone has SNAPPED. The patients shriek. Chaos. As Needy is restrained by staff members, she thrashes like a trapped fish. Needy snorts up a killer LOOGIE and hocks it at the prone nutritionist. The glob nails her in the eye. It takes four STAFF MEMBERS to haul Needy away as she hollers in protest. The nutritionist curls up on the floor, cupping her bleeding nose as a ring of curious patients surrounds her. She spits out a TOOTH. INT. "THE HOLE" - SAME Needy is tossed into seclusion. Her hair is wild and her face is wet with tears. The heavy door slams behind her, leaving only a shaft of light. NEEDY V.O. I wasn't always this cracked. I used to be normal-- well, as normal as any girl under the influence of teenage hormones. But after the killings began, I started to feel, I don't know... loose around the edges or something. I was coming undone like those jeans I made in Home Ec. Falling to pieces like Patsy Cline. Shredded like moo-shu pork. Dead inside. Needy cringes as she briefly hallucinates abstract SHAPES in the darkness. Grinning skulls. Faces drained of life, half eaten. Grimaces of terror. Suddenly, soft music is piped into "the hole," ostensibly to calm the patients in solitary. Needy shudders and recoils at the sound of it. It's a CHEESY ROCK BALLAD that we'll soon hear again... (CONTINUED) 5. CONTINUED: CHEESY SONG LYRICS "Through the trees, I will find you. Heal the ruins left inside you. And the stars will remind you, we'll meet again..." NEEDY V.O. God, I hate this fucking song. Needy plugs her ears as if it physically hurts her to listen to the song. She curls up in the corner and steels herself for solitary confinement. DISSOLVE TO: TITLE: TWO MONTHS EARLIER EXT. DEVIL'S KETTLE, MN - NIGHT (TO ESTABLISH) Devil's Kettle is a quiet farming community, surrounded by dense woods and mirrored lakes. It's the kind of town that has one high school, one pizza joint, and one stoplight. On an overgrown rural route we see a rustic sign that reads "WELCOME TO DEVIL'S KETTLE- Pop. 7,036. Come See What's Cookin'!" NEEDY This is where it all went down. "Devil's Kettle" sounds twisted, I know, but the place just is named after a dumb waterfall. EXT. THE FALLS - NIGHT (TO ESTABLISH) We see the titular falls, surprisingly powerful, gushing over a rock face. NEEDY V.O. Well technically, it's two waterfalls. One of them is normal-- it empties into a river basin. But the other one goes into a hole. And it doesn't come out. The scientist guys can't explain it. They've dropped all kinds of things down there--bouncy balls, red dye, radioactive slime-- but nothing ever surfaces. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 6. CONTINUED: NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) Maybe it's another dimension. Or, you know, just really deep. EXT. JENNIFER'S HOUSE (TO ESTABLISH) - MIDNIGHT The sprawling ranch house is dark from the outside except for a single FIRST FLOOR WINDOW-- Jennifer's-- still illuminated. There's a chicken coop and a wire livestock pen in the backyard. We're definitely in deep north country. NEEDY V.O. I've probably spent years of my life in this house. Hundreds of sleepovers, thousands of aimless homework sessions, a million phone calls. I've climbed through Jennifer's window so many times. But tonight, only one of us is going to come out. INT. JENNIFER'S BEDROOM - SAME JENNIFER CHECK lies on her bed, fidgeting as she watches TV. She's a girl of 16 with LONG, MATTED HAIR and a thin, frail body. Her features are gorgeous, but she looks sick and haggard. She picks at her skin with yellowed, Nosferatu-like fingernails and chews idly on a limp lock of hair. Jennifer wears a tight T-shirt that says KETTLE HIGH FLAGS and underwear. An `80s HORROR MOVIE flickers on the TV. Jennifer half- watches, distracted. NEEDY V.O. Jennifer didn't always look this rough. Actually, she was the prettiest girl in Devil's Kettle when she wasn't so...hungry. Some recent photos on a corkboard reveal that Jennifer was indeed BEAUTIFUL AND CURVY. NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) She hadn't fed in weeks. Jennifer rolls over and glances at the window briefly. We see the OUTSIDE of the house again. It's dark and silent, but for the nearly inaudible snapping of twigs. (CONTINUED) 7. CONTINUED: Jennifer turns her attention back to the TV. Suddenly, we see NEEDY'S FACE pop up against the window, white and startling. Before Jennifer notices, the face disappears. Outside the house, the bushes rustle. Needy is crouched below the window. We hear the pulsing of her HEART as if via ultrasound. It's a wet, rhythmic sound: Sploish, sploish, sploish. Inside, Jennifer stretches and shuts off the TV. She turns out the light. A beat of silence. Then, the sound of cracking near the window. JENNIFER Huh? Needy PLUNGES through the window, screaming and brandishing a HAMMER. She takes a SWING at Jennifer's head, but misses and BURIES IT IN THE WALL, specifically in Jennifer's Fall Out Boy poster. Needy throws herself on top of Jennifer. She STRADDLES Jennifer and grips her throat, throttling her. NEEDY You'll throw me a bone, huh? Huh? You killed Chip! You goddamned monster! You...ZOMBITCH! Jennifer struggles to fight off Needy in the darkness. Her clawlike fingernails rake Needy's back and arms. Needy pulls a BOX CUTTER out of her waistband and flicks it open like a switchblade. Kshink! JENNIFER (GAGGING) Do you buy all your murder weapons at Home Depot? God, you're butch. NEEDY Know what this is for? Cutting boxes. She takes a swipe at Jennifer's CROTCH. Jennifer instinctively CLUTCHES herself and rears up in defense. We see Jennifer's mouth come down on Needy's neck. Needy shrieks as if BITTEN, but continues to strangle Jennifer, straddling her and bearing down. (CONTINUED) 8. CONTINUED: (2) Jennifer's T-shirt slides up to her armpits, exposing her breasts. For a moment, her eyes meet Needy's and she grins. It's as if she has control over Needy for a split second, sexual control... Needy recoils and SLASHES Jennifer's body left and right with the box-cutter, marking a gory, oozing "X" on her torso. NEEDY (CONT'D) (HYSTERICAL) CROSS OUT JENNIFER! Jennifer gasps, staring at her wounds in shock and disbelief. She looks back up at Needy. A beat of silence. Suddenly, THE GIRLS' BODIES LEVITATE RAPIDLY TOWARD THE CEILING. They wrestle in a bloody, screaming airborne heap, their figures entwined. Their bodies FALL, collapsing back onto the bed with a thud. Needy raises the box-cutter and plunges it into Jennifer's HEART. Blood GEYSERS from the wound. JENNIFER (CHOKING) My tit! Suddenly, the room is flooded with BRIGHT LIGHT, revealing a Needy straddling Jennifer's MUTLIATED BODY. Jennifer's breathing is a raspy death rattle. MRS. CHECK, a middle-aged woman in bad sleepwear and a worse perm rushes into the bedroom. MRS. CHECK Jennifer! What is it, baby? Oh my God! Oh my God! She pulls Needy off her daughter. Jennifer rolls over, gasping and bleeding. MRS. CHECK (CONT'D) (SHOCKED) Needy? Needy drops the boxcutter. It lands on Jennifer's copy of Flag Team Quarterly, splashing the model with fresh gore. NEEDY Is she dead, Mrs. Check? Did I get her? (CONTINUED) 9. CONTINUED: (3) Mrs. Check cradles her maimed daughter on the floor like a white-trash Pieta. Jennifer takes one last breath, vomits blood, and DIES. Mrs. Check SCREAMS. Needy SMILES. EXT. JENNIFER CHECK'S HOUSE - MOMENTS LATER Three police cars squeal up to the curb with sirens and lights engaged. OFFICER ROMAN DUDA, 22, a muscular young COP, jogs authoritatively toward the house. He shakes his head, dumbfounded. ROMAN Christ, Needy, what have you done? INT. POLICE SQUAD CAR - DAWN Needy, innocent-looking in PIGTAILS, is hustled into the back of the squad car. Her clothes and face are smeared with blood. Officer Duda starts the ignition. His partner, a hard- faced FEMALE COP, slides into the front seat. Her cap is pushed back to accommodate a huge round pouf of shellacked MALL BANGS. NEEDY Hi, Roman! How's the Force treating you? I like that jaunty cap. Blue like your balls. ROMAN How could you do this, Needy? (EMOTIONAL) You killed Jen-- Jennifer-- I mean, the victim. Are you on something? NEEDY Everything's going to be okay now. I rule. FEMALE COP Shut your mouth back there! NEEDY Hey. Didn't you used to baby-sit me in like 1998? When my mom worked the overnight at Hormel? The female cop fidgets uncomfortably. (CONTINUED) 10. CONTINUED: NEEDY (CONT'D) Yeah. Gracie, right? Gracie. I really like your hair, Gracie. How many cans of Salon Selectives did it take to erect that monument? The cop reaches into the backseat and SLAPS Needy, who hiccups with laughter. NEEDY (CONT'D) Watch it, Puffy Combs. That's police brutality! FEMALE COP You're one to talk about brutality, Ms. Lesnicki. You're looking at attempted murder. NEEDY Ugh, don't say attempted. That sounds so JV. Small time. Teeny- weeny, just like Officer Duda up there. And trust me-- I'd know. Roman swallows nervously, eyes on the road. Officer Warzak glances at him. NEEDY (CONT'D) Let's get our facts straight: I successfully committed a hard core, fully premeditated murder back there. I fucking destroyed that brat, OK? I, Needy Lesnicki, put a stop-payment on Jennifer Check. She slumps down in the backseat. NEEDY (CONT'D) Why am I even in these cuffs? I just saved every guy in this town from becoming Satan Chow. I'm a hero. FEMALE COP She's delirious. ROMAN (MUTTERING) This is going to be a circus. (CONTINUED) 11. CONTINUED: (2) FEMALE COP At least we've already got a confession. NEEDY Confessions are for pussies. You've got a declaration, Grace. She giggles maniacally. Roman turns on the radio, violating protocol. It's a soaring rock anthem-- the SAME SONG we heard being piped into solitary confinement. Both cops BRIGHTEN when they hear the song. Roman cranks the volume. ROMAN God, I love this song. FEMALE COP I know. And they've done so much for this town. ROMAN They're way more than a band, really. They're heroes. FEMALE COP Wait, this is my favorite part... Roman and the female cop begin to sing along with the uplifting, corny song: FEMALE COP AND ROMAN (in unison) "Through the trees, I will find you. Heal the ruins left inside you. And the stars will remind you, that you are home..." Needy stares out the window at the sun creeping up over the forest on the horizon. NEEDY V.O. So I killed her. Whatever. It won't undo anything. Three pulses-- three lives-- all stopped cold by adolescent bloodlust. It's hard to believe that just two months ago, me, Jennifer and my boyfriend Chip were completely normal people. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 12. CONTINUED: (3) NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) We were our yearbook pictures. Nothing more, nothing less. We see a brief montage of black-and-white yearbook stills: JENNIFER executing the splits on a football field, her smile bright. NEEDY inspecting a school newspaper layout, pen in hand, glasses on her nose. And finally, CHIP DOVE, playing a strap-on snare drum at a school pep rally, his head bent in concentration.... NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) Jesus, Chip.. The photo fades into the pep rally itself. CHIP is animated, drumming in full color... INT. KETTLE HIGH - DAY CHIP drums on the sidelines of the Devil's Kettle High basketball court. The stands are packed with BORED STUDENTS for a pep rally. Chip is 16, clean cut, and an awful drummer. NEEDY V.O. Chip couldn't drum for shit. He only knew "Land of a Thousand Dances" and the solo from "Wipeout." Lucky for him, the pep band gig wasn't too demanding. Sure enough, the band is playing "Land of a Thousand Dances." Nearby, the FLAG TEAM claps with gloved hands, picking up their flags for a choreographed stunt. Jennifer steps forward in her flag team uniform, breathtakingly beautiful. She hoists her flag aloft, twirling it. Time FREEZES as the flag unfurls. NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) If you can believe it, that's Jennifer. Yeah, the same girl I iced with the box-cutter. Only back then, we were tight. Sisters, practically. People found it hard to believe that a babe like Jennifer would associate with a dork like me. But we'd been the Wonder Twins since we were practically preverbal. Sandbox love never dies. Jennifer finishes her maneuver and WAVES to the stands. Needy waves back at her excitedly from the bleachers, small and owlish with glasses and lank hair. (CONTINUED) 13. CONTINUED: CHASTITY, a similarly geeky-looking girl standing next to Needy, rolls her eyes at this display of affection. CHASTITY You're totally lesbigay. NEEDY What? She's my best friend. The geeky girl mockingly imitates Needy's excited wave. CHASTITY You stare at her like you want to dry hump her. Needy ignores her. CHASTITY (CONT'D) Like, hump her through pants. NEEDY (INTERRUPTING) Are you jealous? CHASTITY Of what? That rich bitch? NEEDY She's not rich. INT. KETTLE HIGH HALLWAY - AFTER SCHOOL Needy digs through her locker, carefully selecting textbooks to take home. Jennifer skips up to her, smiling. JENNIFER Hey, Monistat. NEEDY What's up, Vagisil? JENNIFER You and me are going out tonight. She checks herself out in Needy's locker mirror. NEEDY Tonight? Why? JENNIFER Soft Shoulder are playing at the Carousel. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 14. CONTINUED: JENNIFER (CONT'D) And it's all-ages, for once, which means I won't have to play Hello Titty with the door guy. NEEDY What's Soft Shoulder? JENNIFER They're this indie band from the city. I saw their MySpace and the singer is extra salty. And there will be lots of other salty morsels there for you. Come on Needy, it's the weekend! NEEDY It's Thursday. JENNIFER Thursday counts as the weekend in college. And we're going to be in college twenty-three months from now. University of Northern Minnesota Duluth- woo! Needy continues loading her backpack. JENNIFER (CONT'D) Please, please you're a social disease? NEEDY I have to study. Jennifer pouts. With an outstretched finger, she draws a dramatic X in the air over Needy and boos loudly. JENNIFER (SHOUTING) Boo! Cross out Needy! Needy blushes, shrinking self-consciously. She obviously hates to displease Jennifer. NEEDY Fine. What time is the show? JENNIFER I'll pick you up at 8:30. My mom has a date with that guy who owns the ham store. NEEDY He seems nice. (CONTINUED) 15. CONTINUED: (2) JENNIFER (SMIRKING) Yeah, Mom says he's got a huge... heart. So huge he gave her a recurring bladder infection. Wear something cool, okay? NEEDY Okay. INT. NEEDY'S HOUSE - 8:45 A.M. Needy is standing in a small, dingy bathroom, trying on different configurations of clothing. NEEDY V.O. "Wear something cool" meant something very specific in Jennifer-speak. It meant I couldn't look like a nerd, but I couldn't upstage her either. I could expose my stomach, but never cleavage. Tits were her trademark. Needy wiggles her jeans a bit lower, exposing her childishly round tummy. She walks out of the bathroom into her bedroom, a frilly pink hell complete with canopy bed. CHIP DOVE is sitting on the bed, looking lost in all that pink. He raises an eyebrow at Needy's abdomen. CHIP Those jeans are hella low. I can almost see your front butt. NEEDY Chip, it's a rock show. This is my rock look. CHIP I can see, like, your womb. Needy sighs and hoists up her pants. CHIP (CONT'D) Why are you blowing me off for some dumb concert, anyway? We were supposed to have Movie Night. I even rented Orca. It's like Jaws, except with a harmless whale. (CONTINUED) 16. CONTINUED: NEEDY Jennifer needs me. She really wants to go see this band. It's extremely important to her. CHIP I've never even heard of Soft Shoulder. Which one is Jennifer stalking? NEEDY The lead singer, of course. Girls like her don't go out with drummers. CHIP Thanks a lot! NEEDY No offense. I mean, she'd probably make an exception for a drummer who was also the lead singer. CHIP Like Phil Collins. NEEDY Who's Phil Collins? CHIP Forget it. He's seminal, but whatever... NEEDY Anyway, this singer guy is like 22, so he could get locked up in the state pen if he actually dated her. But Jennifer says he's extra salty, so... CHIP Salty. You guys ever going to stop using that secret language? NEEDY "Salty" means beautiful. CHIP Then you must be soy sauce, babe. Needy and CHIP start MAKING OUT. CHIP unbuckles his belt eagerly even though they've barely begun. Needy stops. (CONTINUED) 17. CONTINUED: (2) NEEDY Jennifer's here. CHIP How do you know? Needy shrugs. A beat of silence. Then we hear the door swing open. JENNIFER'S VOICE floats up from downstairs. JENNIFER (O.S.) Needy, quit tampooning yourself and get down here! CHIP That's fucking weird. NEEDY (straightening her CLOTHES) I'd better hurry. CHIP You always do what Jennifer tells you to do. Needy pulls her NECKLACE out from beneath her shirt and flashes a heart-shaped "B.F.F." charm at Chip. NEEDY She's my best friend, Chip. Remember? This necklace is no joke. CHIP sighs, resigned. They head downstairs. INT. NEEDY'S HOUSE (LIVING ROOM) - SAME Jennifer is waiting in the front hallway. She's heavily made-up and dressed in a predictably sexy outfit. She dangles a set of car keys in front of Needy and CHIP. JENNIFER (GLOATING) Guess who's got the whip `til 11:30? A 2003 Chrysler Sebring and it's all mine. NEEDY Wow. (CONTINUED) 18. CONTINUED: JENNIFER You're lucky you get to ride with me to the club in style! She does a sexy little dance in the doorway, then notices CHIP. JENNIFER (CONT'D) Oh, hi Chip. Do you like puppies? She grabs her boobs and thrusts her chest outward at him, giggling. Needy watches jealously and MANEUVERS HER WAY IN FRONT OF JENNIFER. CHIP I think you forgot, like, two buttons. NEEDY I think she remembered two buttons. Jennifer sniffs the air. JENNIFER It smells like Thai food in here. (BEAT) Have you guys been fucking? NEEDY You're gross! She shoves Jennifer and they begin wrestling playfully. CHIP slumps against the wall, staring awestruck at Jennifer's cleavage. JENNIFER Okay, let's go to the club. The three of them shuffle onto the porch. Needy locks the door. CHIP The Carousel is not a club. JENNIFER Eat my ass, Chip. You're just jello `cause you're not invited. CHIP I'm not jello! That place is gross. Everyone there has a mustache. (CONTINUED) 19. CONTINUED: (2) JENNIFER You're totally jello! You're lime green jello and you can't even admit it. The girls scamper toward the car. CHIP (calling after them) Stop kidnapping my girlfriend! INT. THE CAROUSEL - NIGHT THE CAROUSEL is a run-down tavern at the edge of town, the kind with NASCAR posters, wobbly chairs and strands of plastic pennants crisscrossing the ceiling. It's a busy night and the bar is teeming with locals. A bartender sells a CASE OF BEER to a customer and passes it over the bar. NEEDY V.O. Chip was right. The Carousel is definitely not a club. Clubs are for attractive people in populous urban areas. Clubs have DJs and champagne and separate bathrooms for guys and girls. All we have is a broken jukebox, a few domestic taps and the Sticker Toilet. SMASH CUT TO: INT. BATHROOM - SAME We see a lone, nasty-looking TOILET covered in BAND STICKERS. BACK ON NEEDY: Needy and Jennifer enter the bar. Every guy in the joint stares at Jennifer, who snaps her "MINOR" wristband distastefully. JENNIFER God, I can't wait until I'm old enough to get wasted. Have you ever had peach schnapps? NEEDY I don't think so. (CONTINUED) 20. CONTINUED: JENNIFER Peach schnapps are excellent. They even taste good when they come out of your nose mid-puke. A teenage guy, CRAIG, passes by and waves. CRAIG Hi Jennifer. You look nice. JENNIFER (without enthusiasm) What up, Craig. She elbows Needy and makes a GAGGING GESTURE. JENNIFER (CONT'D) He thinks he's cute enough for me. No wonder he's in retard math. Jennifer pulls out a pack of Camel Wides and lights one awkwardly. Needy notices AHMET FROM INDIA, a FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENT, standing by himself away from the crowd. NEEDY Hey, it's Ahmet from India. The foreign exchange guy. He's all by himself. JENNIFER I can't believe we traded a cute hockey player for that. NEEDY He seems okay. He's got that cool elephant statue in his locker. JENNIFER Do you think he's circumcised? I always wanted to try sea cucumber. NEEDY Ew! ROMAN DUDA saunters up to Jennifer, swigging a bottle of beer. He snatches the pack of cigarettes away from her. ROMAN You're smoking dicks now, Jen? JENNIFER What? I like the Wides. (CONTINUED) 21. CONTINUED: (2) She sticks the fat cigarette between her lips and inhales pointedly. ROMAN I just bet you do. I should arrest you for possession under the legal age. JENNIFER Arrest me, pfft! You're not even out of the academy yet, Roman! ROMAN Two more months and I'm on the force for real. Then I'll be able to cuff you whenever the hell I want. He grips her wrist and twists it behind her back. JENNIFER How will I wait that long? She paws Roman's crotch discreetly. Needy winces. ROMAN Not here, babe. I gotta keep my nose clean. NEEDY (POINTING) Look, there's the band! A group of skinny INDIE ROCK BOYS are setting up their equipment on a pathetically tiny stage-- it's more like a dais. The LEAD SINGER has intense, spooky eyes, nearly obscured by a shock of hair. The locals, mostly good ol' boys, eye the band suspiciously. JENNIFER You can tell they're from the city. ROMAN Yeah, `cause they look like a bunch of faygos. JENNIFER You would think that. You're such a small-time Gomer. I wish we had more guys like that in Devil's Kettle. All stylish and shit. Needy nods dumbly. She stares at the band, awestruck. (CONTINUED) 22. CONTINUED: (3) NEEDY They look so-- so cool. She gazes at the stage, hearing only the whistling rush of ARCTIC AIR. In SLOW MOTION, the GUITARIST unsheathes his Fender Jaguar from its gig bag. He notices her staring and runs the tip of his tongue over his lips. Needy swallows hard. JENNIFER Hey, I think they need two groupies. Come on! It'll be like Almost Famous! I'll be Penny Lane and you can be the other girl. She grabs Needy's hand and enthusiastically tries to drag her toward the stage. NEEDY No! JENNIFER Don't be J.V., Needy. They're just boys. Morsels. We have all the power, don't you know that? She plants her hands on Needy's CHEST. JENNIFER (CONT'D) These things are like smart bombs. Point `em in the right direction and shit gets real. Needy shrugs free of Jennifer's grasp and follows her reluctantly across the room. The lead singer of Soft Shoulder, NIKOLAI WOLF, is already striding forward to meet them at the lip of the stage. His gait is as smooth as his shock of dyed-black hair. JENNIFER (CONT'D) Hi. Um, we just really wanted to meet you or something? I'm Jennifer Check and this is my friend. NIKOLAI I'm Nikolai Wolf, and this is my band. He reaches down and pumps Jennifer's outstretched hand. (CONTINUED) 23. CONTINUED: (4) JENNIFER (AWKWARD) Yeah! Soft Shoulder, right? I've heard you guys are super, super good at playing your instruments. NIKOLAI I hope we can live up to such...high praise. NEEDY Hey, if you don't mind me asking, why did you want to play all the way out here in Devil's Kettle? You live in the city, right? NIKOLAI Yeah. But I think it's so important to connect with our fans in rural areas. Plus, the audiences in small towns really appreciate us. JENNIFER Can I show you my appreciation right now? Needy looks at the floor, embarrassed. Jennifer's voice scales up nervously. JENNIFER (CONT'D) Like, I'll buy you a drink? I mean, I'll see if I can get you a drink. They make this great 9/11 tribute shooter? It's red, white and blue, but you have to drink it fast or it gets all brownish. NIKOLAI (GRIMACING) Mmm. Jennifer hurries off toward the bar. Needy moves self-consciously into a nearby corner, not wanting to continue the conversation with Nikolai alone. A LOCAL plugs a Loretta Lynn tune into the jukebox, with a challenging stare at the band. A DRUNK COUPLE begins two-stepping in front of the stage. Nikolai walks up to the guitar player, DIRK, and pulls him aside. Needy pricks up her ears and listens. (CONTINUED) 24. CONTINUED: (5) NIKOLAI (CONT'D) Dirk, what about her? DIRK (gesturing to Needy) Who, Training Bra Jones? Needy looks offended. NIKOLAI No, the hot one. The one who just walked away. She's it, man. She's exactly what we're looking for. DIRK You're sure she's... NIKOLAI She's a kid. We're in God's country, man. Everyone out here's a fundie bible-banger. Of course she's a virgin. Dirk hesitates. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) Dirk, we didn't haul our asses out to this corn palace for nothing! DIRK Fine. Okay. You know, I know I'm not "just the bassist." I'm a person who happens to play the bass guitar. And I would like some respect... Nikolai is already ignoring him. Needy, alarmed, emerges from her hiding place and discreetly rushes over to the bar where Jennifer is arguing with a jealous-looking Roman. He shakes his head in disgust and leaves the bar. Jennifer walks over holding an ostentatious PATRIOTIC THEMED DRINK. She laughs when she sees Needy's concerned expression. JENNIFER What? Are you scared of rock stars too? NEEDY Those guys are rank, Jen. Just forget about it. (CONTINUED) 25. CONTINUED: (6) JENNIFER I think the singer wants me. NEEDY Only because he thinks you're a virgin. I heard them talking. JENNIFER Yeah, right! I'm not even a backdoor-virgin anymore, thanks to Roman. By the way, that hurts. I couldn't even go to flags the next day. I had to stay home and sit on a bag of frozen peas. NEEDY Oh my God. JENNIFER Well, if Nikolai wants innocent, I can do innocent. I'll be Little Miss Fucking Sunshine. NEEDY He's way too old for you. JENNIFER Don't cock-block me, Needy. Piercing FEEDBACK signals the beginning of the set. Nikolai takes the mic and smiles broadly. NIKOLAI Good evening, Devil's Lake. Someone in the back shouts "Devil's Kettle!" NIKOLAI (CONT'D) Sorry. Anyway, we're Soft Shoulder. And we just want to make you happy. He WINKS at Jennifer. The band launch into the same intense, soaring song we heard in the COP CAR and the HOLE. Jennifer's eyes never leave Nikolai's. She's hypnotized, clinging to Needy's arm. Even the locals look charmed. Suddenly, a lick of FLAME appears on the wood paneling next to the stage. Needy is the first to notice. As she watches in horror, the fire is reflected in her glasses. (CONTINUED) 26. CONTINUED: (7) The flames quickly climbs up to the ceiling and begin to blaze uncontrollably. People SCREAM and scatter. Someone ineffectually tries to throw a pitcher of beer on the fire. Nikolai turns and sees the fire spreading. He and Chas exchange glances. The BASS PLAYER pitches his guitar aside and jumps off the stage, and the drummer abandons his kit. Nikolai seems perfectly cool and composed as he watches from the stage...is he smiling? CHAOS. Everyone is trying to get out of the bar at once, causing a stampede. A woman's clothes and hair CATCH FIRE and she falls to her knees. We see a BEAM fall from the roof, nearly killing AHMET FROM INDIA. Jennifer stands still in a dreamlike state. NEEDY (to Jennifer) I know where to go! Needy grabs Jennifer by the elbow and pulls her into the tiny BATHROOM. Choking on smoke, they climb onto the Sticker Toilet (which now sports a giant SOFT SHOULDER sticker on the tank) and boost each other out the BATHROOM WINDOW. Hundreds are still trapped inside, screaming. EXT. THE CAROUSEL- CONTINUOUS Jennifer collapses in Needy's arms, coughing. Needy hugs her fiercely, almost romantically. She cups Jennifer's flushed face and looks into her eyes. JENNIFER (DAZED) It's so hot, Needy. I think I'm on fire. Oh God, I'm burning! NEEDY You're okay, I promise. You got burned worse when you wore that tin-foil bikini to the beach. Everything's fine. Suddenly, a HAND clamps onto Jennifer's shoulder. Both girls jump. It's Nikolai, his forehead creased with false concern. NIKOLAI Are you girls all right? (CONTINUED) 27. CONTINUED: Needy is less than thrilled to see him. NEEDY We're great. Maybe you should try to find your band? NIKOLAI Those guys? They were the first ones out the door. Ran for the van like a bunch of Marys. Frankly, I'm ashamed of them. Needy narrows her eyes suspiciously. Muffled SCREAMS rise up from the flame-engulfed building. Jennifer covers her ears and cowers, sweat rolling down her face. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) God, it feels like hell out here. Come and hang with us in the van for a while, just until they hose this place down. JENNIFER Okay...okay... She slumps against Nikolai's chest. NIKOLAI You're in shock. Here, drink this. You'll feel better. He smoothly retrieves a plastic bottle of PEACH SCHNAPPS from his coat and holds it to Jennifer's lips. She swigs it cooperatively, dribbling down her chin. Needy blinks in disbelief at the coincidence. NEEDY Aren't you a little freaked out about this? What about all your stuff? It's probably melting, and when you get to the next stop you'll have to do like, a crappy acoustic set! Nobody likes that. NIKOLAI We'll be able to afford new gear soon enough. I have a feeling we're gonna blow up. (CONTINUED) 28. CONTINUED: (2) JENNIFER (SLURRING) I want to see your van. C'mon Needy, let's go to the van. NEEDY Why? Why should we? We have the Malibu. Let's just get out of here. We can go to El Ojo and get Northwoods Nachos with extra Badger Sauce! Please? I'm starving. JENNIFER Needy, stop it. Just stop it! She defiantly follows Nikolai toward the WHITE VAN, which is parked a suspiciously safe distance from the bar. Needy staggers after them slowly, watching. Behind Needy, the bar EXPLODES. Screams. Flames. Silence. Needy doesn't even look back as she watches Jennifer get into the van. Ash drifts into her hair like snowflakes. Nikolai takes off his shirt as he enters the van, revealing his slick, muscled white torso. NEEDY V.O. I watched her get into that van and I knew something awful was going to happen. But for some reason, I felt drawn toward them. Toward him. He was pale and twisted and evil, like this petrified tree I saw when I was a kid. EXT. PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL PARK - (FLASHBACK) We see LITTLE NEEDY, about five years old, staring up at a petrified tree in the darkness, horrified yet compelled. The tree seems to stoop forward, cracking... BACK ON NEEDY: Needy's face is fixed in the same haunted expression. Nikolai turns to look at her, his teeth bared in a vicious smile. Needy turns and sprints off in the opposite direction, away from the van and the fire. 29. INT. NEEDY'S BEDROOM - 11:00 P.M. Needy stumbles into her bedroom, overwhelmed. Her clothes are smoke damaged and her cheeks are sooty. She grabs her cheap, taped-up cell phone and dials CHIP's number shakily. CROSS CUT PHONE CALL: INT. CHIP'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS Chip's bedroom is pitch black until a cheap cell phone lights up under the covers illuminating his sleeping form, clad only in jockey shorts. CHIP (SLEEPILY) Hey, Niedermeyer. NEEDY Thank God you're there. I hoped you were sleeping with your phone. CHIP What's wrong? NEEDY Jennifer's gone. She ran off with that rock band. And the Carousel burned down. CHIP sits bolt upright CHIP Like, burned down? To the ground? Is everyone okay? NEEDY No. I think they're mostly dead. CHIP Shit. You're okay, right? NEEDY We went out the bathroom window. Everyone else was trying to use the door. It was like a stampede. The people who fainted got run over and you could hear their bones breaking. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 30. CONTINUED: NEEDY (CONT'D) There was all this screaming and popping, like a million Black Cats all going off at once. And the smell... CHIP This is real, right? This isn't just, like, some crazy dream like last time? NEEDY No! Anyway, it took me like an hour to walk home. But Jennifer's still with those creeps! They had one of those white molester vans with no windows. The back was all blacked out. CHIP Who cares about Jennifer and those douchebags with douchebag haircuts? People just burned to death. In our town! The DOORBELL chimes. NEEDY (FRANTIC) Oh cheese and fries! Someone's here. I'm alone, Chip. I'm freaked out! CHIP Where's your mom? NEEDY Swing shift. Listen, I'll call you in a minute. Stay awake. CHIP (SLEEPILY) Holla back. Needy hangs up the phone and rushes downstairs. As she passes through the shadowy kitchen, appliances HUM all around her. The silence is menacing. INT. NEEDY'S HOUSE (FRONT ENTRY) - CONTINUOUS Needy opens the door. Nobody there. She slams the door, turns around and SCREAMS. (CONTINUED) 31. CONTINUED: Jennifer is standing in the dark hallway, looking ghostly pale and smiling. Her clothes are tattered and stained-- her entire front is soaked in blood. Her makeup is smeared, and her eyes are bruised and sunken like a zombie's. She looks HORRIFYING, especially with that ghastly, clownish grin. NEEDY Um, Jennifer? Jennifer says nothing and continues to smile with blood- tinged teeth. NEEDY (CONT'D) What happened? Utter silence. Then a dripping sound. Needy looks down and sees large drops of blood spattering the linoleum. Jennifer continues to smile, staring directly at Needy. NEEDY (CONT'D) (TREMBLING) J-Jen? Jennifer lets out a horrifying banshee SCREAM, wailing at the top of her lungs. She vomits a torrent of evil- looking black bile all over herself and Needy and staggers wildly down the hallway. The bloody black bile hits the wall, splashing a framed school portrait of Needy. Needy screams and watches in horror as it slides down the wall. The bile has hundred of tiny SPINES sticking out of it, like little porcupine needles, and it appears to move by itself, oozing across the linoleum, creeping into the corners. It's truly revolting. Needy grabs Jennifer blindly and claps a hand over her mouth. Jennifer falls to her knees, her screams turning to jagged, insane laughter. Needy tries to run, but Jennifer grabs her and THROWS her against the wall with superhuman force, pinning her. Jennifer slowly, tantalizingly brushes her face against Needy's hair, her earlobe. Needy doesn't move a muscle. Jennifer's hand slides up Needy's ribcage. She presses her lips against Needy's carotid artery. We hear Needy's blood pumping, swishing. (CONTINUED) 32. CONTINUED: (2) JENNIFER (WHISPERING) Are you scared? Needy nods. Jennifer parts her lips. Then suddenly, she stops and PULLS AWAY, pushing Needy to the floor. Jennifer bolts out the front door and takes off running down the street. Needy is motionless for a moment, then stumbles toward the doorway. NEEDY (screaming after her) Jennifer! But she's long gone. INT. KETTLE HIGH - THE NEXT MORNING Moments before the first morning bell. Needy is sitting at her desk in English class, still visibly bruised from her scuffle with Jennifer the night before. She looks like she hasn't slept a wink. The mood is quiet and somber-- kids whisper about the fire and gather in groups. GOSSIPING GIRL (WHISPERING) I heard Needy and Jennifer were there and they had to fight their way out with a machete. OTHER GIRL Look, she's not even moving. GOSSIPING GIRL It's called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder... Suddenly, a figure steps in front of Needy. It's JENNIFER, looking absolutely gorgeous-- and remarkably unscathed. She smiles brightly at Needy as if nothing happened the night before. JENNIFER Happy Friday!, D-bag! NEEDY You-- you're all right! (CONTINUED) 33. CONTINUED: JENNIFER Yeah. Why wouldn't I be? NEEDY Last night. At my house. You were hurt. You had two black eyes and blood everywhere and... JENNIFER Needy, you're delusional. I got a little banged up when you made me go out that window, but I'm fine. NEEDY (DUMBFOUNDED) We had to go out that window. The bar was like, engulfed in flames! JENNIFER You do have a tendency to overreact. Remember at Girl Scout camp when you thought there was an earthquake and it was really just two guys with a ghetto blaster? NEEDY A lot of people died, Jennifer. They burned to death, or they choked, or they just got trampled. More than half of the people there didn't make it out. It's like, all over the news. National news. Kids are dead. Parents are dead. JENNIFER Anyone we know? NEEDY We know everyone! JENNIFER Sucks to be them, I guess. She giggles and reaches for her knockoff designer purse. NEEDY I don't get it. What's wrong with you? Jennifer applies lip gloss and smacks her lips together. JENNIFER What's wrong with you? I mean, besides the obvious surface flaws. (CONTINUED) 34. CONTINUED: (2) Needy rubs her eyes, stunned. NEEDY (to herself) There's no way I dreamed it. No way. She looks down at her hands. There's DRIED BLOOD under her fingernails. NEEDY V.O. Her blood was still under my nails. See, I'd been up all night scrubbing the carnage off the linoleum. INT. NEEDY'S HOUSE (FRONT ENTRY) - DAWN (FLASHBACK) We see Needy on her hands and knees in the eerie blue light of dawn, sobbing as she diligently scrubs blood and bile off the floor with a dirty sponge. The black, spiny vomit repulses her, and she gags. She reaches for a Swiffer WetJet mop and pulls the trigger. No solution comes out. She curses, hysterical and sleep-deprived. NEEDY Work, you...twat! Swiff, darn it! Swiff! Swiff! She collapses in tears on the floor. BACK ON NEEDY- PRESENT DAY NEEDY (CONT'D) (softly, to herself) Shoot. JENNIFER Don't talk to yourself. It's one of your more freakish Needy behaviors and it makes us both look like total gaylords. Needy raises her hands desperately to Jennifer, spreading her fingers to display her filthy fingernails. JENNIFER (CONT'D) Eww, you need a mani bad. You'd better find a Chinese chick to buff your situation! (CONTINUED) 35. CONTINUED: MR. WROBLEWSKI, a middle-aged teacher, enters the room. He has a gnarly-looking robotic hand and moves awkwardly. JENNIFER (CONT'D) (SMIRKING) Here comes Handi-Snack. Mr. Wroblewski clears his throat. His voice quavers. MR. WROBLEWSKI I'm sure those of you who made it here today have all heard the news. It's a dark day for Devil's Kettle, a day we can never, ever forget. A single, stifled sob rises from the class. Needy glances around the room and sees students fighting back tears. A huge JOCK weeps openly, tears spattering his swimsuit- model decorated notebook. Jennifer smirks, barely able to contain her laughter. MR. WROBLEWSKI (CONT'D) The administration here has decided that today will be a unstructured day of support and remembrance. We've lost nine precious students-- including Ahmet from India-- several parents, and a teacher, Ms. Parrish. He fights back tears. JENNIFER No way! Parrish ate shit? Needy shushes her, appalled. MR. WROBLEWSKI This tragedy is obviously beyond anything we can measure. More than ever, we need to band together and draw strength from each other. Mr. Wroblewski painstakingly retrieves a tissue from his pocket with his robotic hand and dabs at his face. MR. WROBLEWSKI (CONT'D) (his voice cracking) We can rise up. We can overcome death. Needy eyes Jennifer warily. (CONTINUED) 36. CONTINUED: (2) The jock collapses in sobs. A tiny, acne-scarred GEEK leans over and folds the jock into an unlikely hug. JENNIFER (DRY) Oh look, they're united in grief. That'll last. INT. KETTLE HIGH HALLWAY - AFTER SCHOOL The automated bell rings. Needy slings on her backpack and hurries over to CHIP's locker. He's packing up a pair of drum mallets. CHIP No band practice today. NEEDY No anything today. CHIP It's surreal, right? I mean, when just one guy dies in Devil's Kettle, it's like time stops. And now so many people are dead, nobody knows when it's okay to start again. NEEDY I feel guilty just breathing. CHIP Word. NEEDY Chip, I need to tell you something kind of weird. It's about Jennifer. CHIP What? NEEDY You know last night when we were talking and someone came to my door? That was Jennifer. But she didn't talk. She just stood there, smiling at me, but a bad kind of smile. She looked like she'd been beat up or shot or something. She was all bloody. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 37. CONTINUED: NEEDY (CONT'D) And then she barfed up this disgusting prickly stuff that was like roadkill and sewing needles all mixed together. She shudders at the memory CHIP Yuck. Like those porcupine meatballs my mom makes with the rice sticking out? NEEDY Yeah, like almost that bad! CHIP and Needy ponder the grotesque image in silence. CHIP It was probably because she inhaled a whole bunch of smoke. NEEDY No. It was something evil. CHIP You might want to talk to the school shrink, Needy. I'm not saying that to be a dillhole. I'm actually kinda concerned. NEEDY Chip, I'm a National Merit Scholar. I don't tell whoppers and I'm not crazy. CHIP I didn't say you were crazy. It's just that everyone's a little messed up about this. It's okay to feel... NEEDY Discombobulated? CHIP Yeah, you know. Fucked up. As they prepare to leave, COLIN GRAY approaches Needy. He's a cute PUNK/GOTH guy wearing black nail polish, a lip ring, and full wardrobe by Hot Topic. COLIN Hi Needy. (CONTINUED) 38. CONTINUED: (2) Chip blatantly scoots closer to Needy, eyeing Colin suspiciously. NEEDY Oh. Hi, Colin. COLIN (DRAMATIC) I heard you were there last night. In the fiery trenches. NEEDY Uh-huh. COLIN Well, I'm glad you made it out. Really. NEEDY Thanks. Colin walks away. Chip looks jealous. CHIP How are you friends with Colin Gray? I thought Colin Gray only talked to the Dead Girls. We see a group of GOTH GIRLS splayed against their lockers in full regalia. One wears an ACCORDION for no reason. NEEDY I just am. We have Composition together. He's a really good writer. You know-- he's so dark and emotional and all. CHIP Oh. I can relate. I'm also like that, even if I'm not all obvious about it like a poseur. NEEDY Walk me home? CHIP You know it. EXT. KETTLE HIGH FOOTBALL FIELD - CONTINUOUS JONAS KOZELLE, the JOCK we saw sobbing earlier, is standing at the deserted football field. (CONTINUED) 39. CONTINUED: It's a gray, overcast fall day and the wind whistles eerily through the trees. The football is set back a good a distance from the school, and Jonas is all alone. In the distance, a tiny figure slowly approaches, It starts a dot on the horizon. As it draws closer, we see it's JENNIFER. Her bright, lipsticked grin is eerie and unmistakable. Jonas glances briefly over his right shoulder, indifferent. A few seconds later, he glances again. Strangely, Jennifer ISN'T THERE. Jennifer suddenly appears on Jonas's left side, startling him. JENNIFER Hi! JONAS (ALARMED) Oh. Hey, Jennifer. JENNIFER I'm crazy-sorry about your profound loss. You are crying about Craig, right? JONAS He was my best friend. Jennifer puts her arm around him sympathetically. JENNIFER I know. I was close to him too. You know, I was there last night in that horrible place. I saw Craig a few minutes before the fire broke out. JONAS You-- you did? JENNIFER Yeah. I was probably the last person to talk to him. Like, ever. Literally. JONAS Wow. What did he say? (CONTINUED) 40. CONTINUED: (2) JENNIFER Well, we got to talking about you, actually. And do you know what he said? He said you were like a brother to him. Not a bro. An actual brother. Jonas's lip trembles as he unsuccessfully fights back tears. Jennifer cuddles closer to him. JONAS (choking up) I just can't believe he's gone. JENNIFER I know, I know. (BEAT) Hey, you know what else Craig said? JONAS What? JENNIFER Forget it. It's too intense. JONAS What? Please, Jen, you've gotta tell me! JENNIFER Well, he said he always thought you and me would make a totally bangin' couple. Isn't that so weird? JONAS He said bangin'? Jennifer reaches for Jonas's hand and slides it slowly up her shirt, placing it on her left breast. JENNIFER (WHISPERING) Feel my heart, Jonas. I think it's broken. JONAS (choking up) Mine too. (CONTINUED) 41. CONTINUED: (3) JENNIFER Come with me. Just for a while. We'll help each other get through this nightmare. It's what Craig would have wanted. Jonas nods dumbly, brainwashed. Jennifer leads him away from the field, toward the WOODS bordering the school campus. They vanish into the woods. In the distance, we see the FALLS rushing into the lake. EXT. RESIDENTIAL STREET - CONTINUOUS Needy and Chip are walking home from school, still deep in discussion. CHIP The whole night must be a total blur, right? NEEDY That's the thing, it's not a blur at all! I remember everything, in like ultra-high-def detail. The band, the fire, everything. Especially what happened after. CHIP "After" is the part I don't really get, to be honest. NEEDY Please, I need someone to believe me. Jennifer was-- she was destroyed. She was dying in my hallway, Chip. I saw. I used my CPR training to check her pulse. And I felt her dying, on the inside, I mean. I've known her so long that it's like sometimes I can feel what she feels. We're like E.T. and Elliot Ness. CHIP I believe you. Chip takes Needy's hand and squeezes it. NEEDY Thanks, Chipper. 42. INT. WOODS SURROUNDING SCHOOL - CONTINUOUS Jennifer and Jonas are in the woods. Jennifer efficiently whips off her top and bra and begins kissing Jonas hungrily. As Jonas touches her, he recoils. JONAS You feel so warm. Why are you so warm? JENNIFER (firmly covering his MOUTH) Shutties! She pulls off Jonas' shirt and digs her nails into his arms, kissing him with renewed ferocity. The woods are dead silent. A few squirrels approach the clearing, and Jonas watches them warily with one open eye as Jennifer kisses him. Then a deer wanders into the clearing. Then a fox. The animals pause in their tracks and watch, motionless. It's an eerie, unnatural tableau. Animals continue to gather. JONAS (MUFFLED) Jennifer! Jen... Jennifer is annoyed. JENNIFER What? JONAS Look! He gestures to the ANIMALS, who are watching, still as statues. A few crows alight on a nearby tree. JENNIFER Mm-hmm. They're waiting. JONAS Uh, okay... Jennifer unzips Jonas's jeans and smiles, reaching down and working him with her hand. Jonas moans, still eyeing the animals. JENNIFER Do you miss Craig? (CONTINUED) 43. CONTINUED: JONAS (STARTLED) Of course. JENNIFER Don't worry. You're going to see your buddy again. JONAS You mean like in heaven someday? JENNIFER No. She smiles and shakes her head. Jonas jerks back, creeped out. He tries to pull away from Jennifer, but she's too strong. She PINS him to the tree. We see her jaw begin to UNHINGE, like some horrible snake. Her eyes cloud over with blood... EXT. KETTLE HIGH CAMPUS - CONTINUOUS A horrible SCREAM of agony rises from the woods. Mr. Wroblewski is exiting the school, briefcase in hand. He stops in his tracks when he hears the scream. He shakes his head sadly. MR. WROBLEWSKI (to himself) God, they're feeling so much pain. Another scream, this time weaker. MR. WROBLEWSKI (CONT'D) Let it all out, kids. He heads for his Ford Festiva, then pauses as if thinking better of it. Something isn't right. He puts his keys back in his pocket and walks toward the woods to investigate. INT. NEEDY'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS Needy is preparing herself a fried bologna sandwich in the kitchen. Needy's ALBINO FERRET chases a ball across the cracked floor. Needy scrapes the sandwich out of the skillet and takes a bite. (CONTINUED) 44. CONTINUED: NEEDY Fried bologna is the bomb! (to ferret) You want some, Greedo? She tuns on the kitchen radio and is surprised to hear a very familiar song: "Through the Trees," by Soft Shoulder. Suddenly, she pauses, a look of UNEASE and even FEAR crossing her face. She stops and braces herself against the counter, her KNEES SHAKING. Something isn't right. She drops the sandwich. Greedo goes straight for it. NEEDY (CONT'D) Something's wrong... As Needy sinks to her knees, she stares straight ahead at the REFRIGERATOR. A photo magnet of JENNIFER leers back at her. She closes her eyes. A brief, near-subliminal FLASH of the carnage in the woods... The song ends, snapping Needy out of her reverie. RADIO DJ That was Soft Shoulder, the local band who became the unlikely heroes of the tragedy in Devil's Kettle last night. Eyewitnesses say the boys helped numerous people escape the inferno, risking their own lives in the process. That's rock n' roll with a conscience, ladies and gentlemen. Had a lot of requests for that one... EXT. KETTLE HIGH CAMPUS - SAME Mr. Wroblewski ventures into the woods, heading toward the clearing. At first, we can only hear mysterious sounds-- scratching and smacking. Birds and animals are closely gathered in a circle. Suddenly, Mr. Wroblewski clutches his arm and gags, realizing the animals are feeding on a huge CARCASS. A BADGER looks up, its snout soaked in blood. Mr. Wroblewski begins to scream. The animals scatter. (CONTINUED) 45. CONTINUED: A glimpse of the CORPSE: It's Jonas, of course. His entire torso has been torn open, exposing his ribs and guts. Blood and viscera everywhere, INTESTINES strewn about the forest floor like party streamers. MR. WROBLEWSKI Virgin Mother! Mr. Wroblewski falls to his knees, hollering. INT. NEEDY'S HOUSE (KITCHEN) - CONTINUOUS Needy is seated at the kitchen table. She accidentally drops the remains of her sandwich on the floor, where the ferret quickly pillages it. NEEDY Crap! Needy's mom, ANTONIA "TONI" LESNICKI, has quietly entered the kitchen in her pajamas. She's pale and sweaty, as if she's been spooked. TONI You said it. NEEDY Oh, hi, Mom. I didn't know you were awake. TONI I just had one of my night terrors. NEEDY It's four o' clock, so technically you had a day terror. TONI Right, right. I'm all mixed up since I started working swing again. NEEDY What did you dream about? TONI I dreamed some bad people were trying to nail me to a tree with hammers and big stakes and shit. Just like Jesus. She crosses herself piously. (CONTINUED) 46. CONTINUED: TONI (CONT'D) They were trying to get to you too, but I wouldn't let `em. I'm a hard-assed, Ford-tough mama bear. NEEDY (SMILING) Yes you are. TONI It's like, don't y'all touch my daughter. I'll piss on you like Calvin. NEEDY You know, I can take care of myself, Mom. TONI That's what you think. One of these days you're gonna be crying out for me and I might not be there. NEEDY Hey Mom? Did you get a chance to catch the news after you clocked out this morning? TONI No. I just did my scratch tickets, snorted a few Lunesta and went straight to bed. Is something going on? NEEDY Nothing. Forget it. TONI Don't nothing happen in Devil's Kettle. She watches the FERRET skitter across the kitchen floor. TONI (CONT'D) Anita, that ferret stinks. He needs to be washed from craw to cornhole. NEEDY Yes ma'am. Toni shakes her head and heads upstairs. 47. EXT. KETTLE HIGH CAMPUS - EARLY EVENING A hysterical SCREAM pierces the twilight. The sun has begun to set. An ambulance and four police cars have pulled up near the woods, which are cordoned off with yellow police tape. Near the woods, JONAS'S PARENTS are crying. His MOTHER screams and begins beating the ground with her fists. A stretcher is being loaded into the ambulance. OFFICER WARZAK exits one of the police cruisers. Her signature giant poofy bangs are in full effect. She rushes to comfort Jonas's bereaved mother. OFFICER WARZAK We will get the man that did this to your son. You hear me? We'll get that sick M.F. JONAS'S DAD I'll get him myself! I will! You hear me, you bastard? I'll cut off your nutsack and nail it to my door! Like one of those lion doorknockers rich folks got! That'll be your balls! EXT. ACROSS THE LAKE - CONTINUOUS The sound of Jonas's parents screaming carries across the lake. The water is eerily calm. Suddenly, a HEAD breaks the surface of the lake. It's Jennifer, gliding through the water. She looks calm and serene. The SCREAMING continues across the lake. The sirens, shouting and chaos contrast sharply with this peaceful scene. Jennifer paddles to the shore and hoists herself onto the pier, naked and dripping wet. She runs her tongue over her teeth briefly and nonchalantly picks something out from between her two front teeth, like she's just finished a delicious rib dinner. Jennifer wrings out her sopping hair and reaches for her clothes, which are neatly folded on the pier. (CONTINUED) 48. CONTINUED: Once she's dressed, she walks off into the woods, as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened. INT. NEEDY'S ROOM - EVENING Needy is sitting at her lamp-lit desk, reading an old E.C. horror comic and eating a banana. The phone rings. Needy picks it up. NEEDY Needy speaking. CROSS CUT PHONE CALL: INT. JENNIFER'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS Jennifer's hair is still wet from the lake, but she's changed into shorts and a tank top. Music blasts from her stereo. She admires herself in the mirror, popping her ass. JENNIFER I feel sooo scrumptious! She picks up a Soft Shoulder button and POKES her arm hard with the pin without flinching. Blood spurts from the wound. NEEDY Good for you. JENNIFER You know, like when you kiss a hot guy for the first time and your whole body feels like it's on vibrate. NEEDY Yeah. JENNIFER It's that good. Jennifer gazes at her arm, transfixed. She wipes the blood away-- the wound has magically DISAPPEARED. (CONTINUED) 49. CONTINUED: NEEDY Lucky you. See, I'm still kind of depressed about, you know, the giant smoldering funeral pyre in the middle of town? JENNIFER Move-on dot org, Needy! It's over. Life's too short to mope over some white-trash pig roast. She flicks a Zippo lighter and touches the FLAME to her tongue-- first tentatively, then confidently. NEEDY That's really nice. JENNIFER I tell it like it is. Besides, you should be happy for me. I'm having the best day since, like Jesus invented the calendar. NEEDY Jesus didn't invent the calendar. Jennifer giggles maniacally and sighs with happiness. Needy's call-waiting beeps. NEEDY (CONT'D) That's my other line. JENNIFER So blow it off. She casually lights her HAIR on fire. The flames leap up, then die down, leaving her entirely untouched. NEEDY It'll just be a second. JENNIFER Pooh. I'm crossing you out. She draws a mini-X in the air. Needy clicks over. It's CHIP. We get a nice trifold pie- chart illustrating the intersecting calls. CHIP is panicked and sweaty in his living room. In the background, Chip's little sister CAMILLE bangs on a piano. Red police lights flash outside the picture window. (CONTINUED) 50. CONTINUED: (2) CHIP I need to see you right now. NEEDY I can barely hear you. CHIP Camille is playing piano. Knock it off, Camille! CAMILLE You knock it off! CHIP Can you meet me at McCullum in ten? CAMILLE You knock it off, Chip! You're penis cheese! NEEDY Fifteen. Back on JENNIFER: Jennifer is impatiently dragging a razor down her arm. Blood drips onto the rug. She smiles, in awe of herself. Needy clicks back over. NEEDY (CONT'D) I have to go. JENNIFER What could possibly be more important than me and my godlike powers? NEEDY I have to meet Chip at McCullum Park. JENNIFER Chip is looking cute to me lately. So tell me, is he packing some serious pubic inches? What's the story down there? NEEDY (QUICKLY) I gotta go. (CONTINUED) 51. CONTINUED: (3) Needy hangs up the phone abruptly and grabs one of her many cardigan sweaters, heading for the door. EXT. MC CULLUM PARK - FOURTEEN MINUTES LATER The park is dark and tree-lined and appears to be a popular clandestine meeting spot for the youth of Devil's Kettle. The abandoned sand volleyball pits are full of couples making out. Needy runs past them skittishly. As she ascends a grassy hill, CHIP is revealed, silhouetted against a backdrop of twirling police lights. Needy squints at the lights, sees CHIP's house in the distance. NEEDY Why are the cops at your house? CHIP They're not. They're at Jonas Kozelle's house. He got murdered. NEEDY What?! Like, he was shot by gangbangers? CHIP (EXASPERATED) No, Needy! Do you see anyone rollin' on dubs around here? (BEAT) Someone ripped Jonas limb from limb in the woods behind the school. Ate parts of him. They found teethmarks on him-- on the body. His voice cracks. We see a brief, terrifying FLASH of Jonas's mutilated body and pain-stricken face. Needy doesn't want to believe it. NEEDY Some animals must've got to him. CHIP Human teethmarks. NEEDY Who would do that? (CONTINUED) 52. CONTINUED: CHIP I don't know. It just happened after school. No one's supposed to know yet, but my dad went over there and talked to the cops. Jonas's mom is catatonic. She's just staring out the front window like a zombie mannequin robot statue. NEEDY This can't be a coincidence. CHIP What do you mean, Needy? NEEDY A fiery death trap last night, and now a cannibal eats our starting tight-end? Come on! CHIP Don't get spooky on me, babe. NEEDY Seriously Chip. Most small towns only have something gruesome happen like, once every decade maybe. Devil's Kettle gets two nightmares in 24 hours? It's freaktarded. It's not right. CHIP What, do you think it's, like supernatural? NEEDY I don't know. I'm extremely intelligent but I obviously don't know everything. CHIP Well, the bad luck's gotta be over now, right? It can't get any worse, right? Obviously it can't. It can't. I mean, you agree, right? There won't be another victim. NEEDY You're shaking. CHIP I'm cold. It's very cold out here. (CONTINUED) 53. CONTINUED: (2) NEEDY Want my sweater? CHIP It's pink. NEEDY Pink is cool. Rap guys wear pink. She's shaking now, too. Chip leans forward and kisses her. She closes her eyes. In the chaste space between CHIP and Needy's bodies, the volleyball-pit couple fuck like rabbits. DISSOLVE TO: A SERIES OF NEWSPAPER HEADLINES The familiar Soft Shoulder ballad plays as we see a dreamy montage of headlines. The headline of the Devil's Kettle Sun-Post simply reads: "WHY?" The headline of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reads: "'BUTCHERED': Devil's Kettle youth brutally murdered in wake of devastating fire." A smaller headline on the front page of the New York Times reads: "Minnesota town rocked by grisly murder, blaze." NEEDY V.O. We were famous. We were saints. Our town's only bar had burned to the ground and our star quarterback was somebody's Quarter Pounder. The whole country got a huge tragedy boner for Devil's Kettle. And the press-- God, they couldn't get enough of our little world of shit. We see Devil's Kettle citizens holding a tearful candlelight vigil by the former Carousel site. They softly sing along with the Soft Shoulder song. MOURNERS (SINGING) Through the trees, I will find you... (CONTINUED) 54. CONTINUED: We see weeping students shoving flowers through the slats of Jonas' abandoned locker. The hallway floor is covered with teddy bears and bouquets. We see the PASSING OF TIME as the bouquets wilt and the blooms droop. The pile of discarded scratch-off tickets next to Needy's mother's bed grows steadily as the days go by. Another Star Tribune headline. This one reads: "Two weeks later, cannibal killer still at large." A smaller subhead reads "ARTS: Local band Soft Shoulder sign to major." NEEDY V.O. The days marched on as usual, but most of us were too numb to enjoy ourselves. Most of us. We see Jennifer cheerfully skipping down the school hallway in a sleazy Technicolor outfit. The rest of the kids look grey, ashen and depressed, but Jennifer pops like a Roman candle. NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) Still, we were healing. Like CHIP, we figured things could only get better. We had faith. We see clusters of cautiously optimistic kids in the school courtyard. They smile, then laugh, as if they're re-learning how to be happy. NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) We were fucking idiots. EXT. KETTLE HIGH CAMPUS - TO ESTABLISH It's late September. Leaves are beginning to drift off trees. The surrounding woods are still blocked off with yellow police tape. INT. KETTLE HIGH - MORNING Mr. Wroblewski stands solemnly in front of the class, his mechanical hand tensing and releasing nervously. Needy and the rest of the class fidget. MR. WROBLEWSKI Before the period ends, I have an announcement. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 55. CONTINUED: MR. WROBLEWSKI (CONT'D) As you know, this is the one month anniversary of the Carousel fire and also the murder of Jonas Kozelle... JENNIFER Bo-ring! We see Jennifer. She looks haggard, thin, and cranky. NEEDY (WHISPERING) Are you okay? JENNIFER No. I feel like boo-boo. My skin is breaking out. My hair is dull and lifeless. God, it's like I'm one of the normal girls! Needy smooths her own hair self-consciously. NEEDY Are you PMS-ing or something? JENNIFER PMS isn't real, Needy. It was invented by the boy-run media to make us seem crazy. NEEDY Oh. Mr. Wroblewski clears his throat, annoyed by their talking. MR. WROBLEWSKI ...As I was saying, Needy and Jennifer, I finally have some good news to share with all of you. The members of the rock group Soft Shoulder have decided to extend a helping hand to our community. A ripple of excitement in the room. A girl seated in the front row is wearing a Soft Shoulder T-SHIRT. MR. WROBLEWSKI (CONT'D) As you know, their song "Through the Trees" has become our unofficial anthem of unity and healing. So, they've decided to release it as a benefit single. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 56. CONTINUED: (2) MR. WROBLEWSKI (CONT'D) 3% of the profits will go to local families who have been affected by loss. The class is happily abuzz-- except Needy, who looks appalled. NEEDY What about the other 97%? MR. WROBLEWSKI Excuse me? NEEDY The other 97%. I mean, that's just crass. Right? She looks around for support, finding none. NEEDY (CONT'D) Crass. It means scummy. Greedy. Am I the only one who actually does the vocab drills? CHASTITY, the girl in the Soft Shoulder T-shirt, turns to face Needy angrily. CHASTITY Soft Shoulder are American heroes. NEEDY No, they're not. I was there, Chastity. They didn't actually help anyone escape the fire. I don't even know how that rumor got started. CHASTITY Rumor?! RUMOR? It's true! It's on their Wikipedia page! NEEDY Oh, that's crap... MR. WROBLEWSKI GIRLS-- NEEDY They've milked our pain-- our loss- - to get a stupid record deal! No one would even know who they were if they hadn't been playing here that night. They used us. (CONTINUED) 57. CONTINUED: (3) CHASTITY (growling, almost POSSESSED) You take that back, Needy Lesnicki! We need them now more then ever! MR. WROBLEWSKI That's enough. The BELL rings. Students get up and gather their books for the next period. INT. SCHOOL HALLWAY - SAME Needy and Jennifer slowly head toward their respective lockers. NEEDY I'm already sick of that song. JENNIFER Yeah. It's poorly produced. Could the bass be any lower in the mix? NEEDY No offense, but you look kind of drained. Is everything all right? JENNIFER I'm fine. It's just, like, wearing off or something. NEEDY What's wearing off? (ALARMED) Are you on pot? JENNIFER No, dick ridge! Just forget I said anything. COLIN GRAY, the punk/goth boy we met earlier, approaches Jennifer nervously as she exits the classroom. Needy drops behind them, eavesdropping. COLIN (to Needy) Hi. (to Jennifer, more NERVOUSLY) Hi, Jennifer. (CONTINUED) 58. CONTINUED: JENNIFER Oh, hey Colin. Listen, can I copy your bio lab again? I never got around to dissecting that kitten fetus. COLIN Sure. Actually, I sort of wanted to ask you something. JENNIFER Oh. You want to know if I'll go out with you. COLIN No! Well-- yeah. (BEAT) How did you know? JENNIFER Just go ahead with the pitch. Colin fidgets awkwardly. COLIN Well, we've been having a lot of fun in class, you and I, and I just thought maybe we could go to a movie or something. There's a midnight showing of Rocky Horror at the Bijou next weekend... JENNIFER I don't like boxing movies. COLIN It's not...fuck it. Never mind. He turns to walk down the hallway, dejected. Jennifer watches him leave. JENNIFER Wait! Colin turns around. JENNIFER (CONT'D) Why don't you just come by my place tonight? I just got Aquamarine on DVD. It's about this girl who's like, half-sushi. I guess she has sex through her blowhole or something. (CONTINUED) 59. CONTINUED: (2) COLIN Oh. Great! Okay. JENNIFER I'll text you my address. Colin walks away, grinning triumphantly. NEEDY That was random. JENNIFER I'm used to guys asking me out. NEEDY Colin's a really nice guy. JENNIFER He's into maggot-rock. He wears nail polish. Chip appears behind Needy and drapes his arm over her shoulder. Needy jumps, startled. CHIP Hi. JENNIFER (FLIRTATIOUS) Hi Chip. Needy puts her arm around Chip protectively. JENNIFER (CONT'D) I gotta go parlez French. Slam you later. Jennifer walks away. CHIP (to Needy) Talking to your good pal Colin Gray again? NEEDY No. He was just asking Jennifer out on a date. Chip looks relieved. CHIP Can I come over tonight? (CONTINUED) 60. CONTINUED: (3) NEEDY Sure. I'd like that. CHIP I went to Super Target and bought more condoms. NEEDY Thanks. CHIP Not that that has anything to do with my coming over. NEEDY I didn't assume that. CHIP Well, I'll see you tonight. Needy waves as Chip walks away. EXT. CAMERFORD STREET - NIGHT Colin Gray drives down the street in a big old boat of a classic car. He's blasting punk music on an iPod that's been rigged to the ancient AM radio. Colin holds up his CELL PHONE to re-read the directions Jennifer texted him. The street is extremely dark and silent, occupied only by a new townhouse development. The identical units still appear to be under construction. There aren't even any streetlights. The plastic sheeting over the windows flaps eerily in the breeze. Colin's brow furrows in confusion-- it doesn't even look like anyone lives here yet. He checks the phone display again. CLOSE ON PHONE: The TEXT MESSAGE reads: "trn lft on camerford and your there. first house on rt. 1004 camerford. C-ya! xoxo jen" Sure enough, the house number is 1004. Colin throws the car into park and walks up to the porch. He looks up and notices a glow coming from an upstairs window, (CONTINUED) 61. CONTINUED: Colin presses the doorbell. Nothing happens-- the house isn't wired for electricity yet. INT. CHIP'S BEDROOM - SAME Needy and CHIP are kissing on Chip's water bed. Chip fumbles for one of those "fragrance plug-ins" and PLUGS it into the wall. Needy looks over. CHIP For ambiance. It's Jammin' Jasmine. NEEDY Mmm. CHIP My mom has Holiday Scents too, if you're interested. NEEDY No, this is nice. INT. 1004 CAMERFORD - SAME Colin enters the house tentatively. It's dark, vacant, and very creepy. There's a very faint glow and soft music coming from upstairs. COLIN Yo? He stumbles over a stray 2 x 4. There are piles of sawdust and building materials everywhere-- the house is definitely still under construction. Colin looks confused. A MOUSE skitters over his sneakers. COLIN (CONT'D) Jennifer? Anyone there? The music upstairs grows slightly louder in response. Colin squares his shoulders and heads slowly up the creaking stairs. 62. INT. CHIP'S BEDROOM - SAME Needy has eased off her top to reveal an endearingly plain white bra, complete with center bow. CHIP, also shirtless, cops a feel. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a fluorescent orange CONDOM. Needy looks at the wrapper. NEEDY (READING) "Sensual Swirl?" CHIP It's supposed to make it feel good for the girl. NEEDY Oh. Cool. INT. 1004 CAMERFORD - CONTINUOUS Colin follows the music into an empty bedroom. The dark room is filled with blazing candles melting and pooling into bizarre shapes. A single BLANKET is spread out on the floor. Colin shivers. Behind him, in the doorway, Jennifer appears, her smiling face hellishly aglow. JENNIFER You made it. COLIN What's going on? This isn't really your house, is it? JENNIFER No baby. This is our house, just for you and me. We can play Mommy and Daddy. Colin is totally dumbstruck. COLIN Do you even know my last name? JENNIFER Silly. I've been sending you signals all year. Couldn't you tell? You give me such a wettie. (CONTINUED) 63. CONTINUED: She starts KISSING Colin on the neck. We can see confusion-- and fear-- in his eyes. INT. CHIP'S BEDROOM - SAME Chip fumbles below his waist, obviously struggling with the condom. Needy leans forward for a closer look. NEEDY Oh. It's got little bumps on it. I can hardly wait. INT. 1004 CAMERFORD - SAME Jennifer grips Colin's face in her hands and forcibly kisses him on the mouth. Colin succumbs, but stiffly. We hear a SCRATCHING noise. Colin pulls away instinctively and sees MICE and ROACHES emerging from the walls, skittering over surfaces. COLIN Jennifer... Jennifer looks over her shoulder and giggles. JENNIFER You scared? I thought boys like you were into vermin. She unbuttons his jeans. They fall noisily to the floor-- they're the baggy Hot Topic kind with chains and buckles galore. JENNIFER (CONT'D) Nice hardware, Ace. Colin into Jennifer's eyes. There's something horrible about her face...like she's become almost corpselike. COLIN (FAINTLY) No way... JENNIFER Oh, don't you dare pass out! I need you to be conscious. COLIN I gotta go... (CONTINUED) 64. CONTINUED: JENNIFER I need you frightened. Colin tries to jerk away, but Jennifer easily disengages his arm from its socket. A sickeningly moist SNAP. Colin cries out in pain. JENNIFER (CONT'D) I need you hopeless. She slams him to the ground and mounts him. Her jaw unhinges, opening her mouth to a horrifying, inhuman degree. Her teeth are razor-sharp and grotesquely crowded, like they belong to some horribly deformed dog. She descends on him, feeding ravenously. We see their shadows against the wall: Jennifer lunging hungrily, blood spraying up from Colin's jugular. We can hear him screaming and gargling on his own blood. INT. CHIP'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS CHIP is doggedly pumping away on top of Needy, his eyes closed in concentration. Needy's vacant eyes are suddenly brimming with tears. NEEDY (SOFTLY) Hopeless..hopeless... CHIP opens his eyes. CHIP What? Am I hurting you? Needy starts weeping. CHIP (CONT'D) Am I too big? Tears roll down Needy's cheeks. She begins moaning, then SCREAMING at that top of her lungs. She hallucinates liquid seeping through the walls, blood and lymph oozing in at the corners and windows. Then the infamous spiny black bile... Pixelated nightmares emerge from the darkness. Skulls, jesters, demons, death. It's the worst acid trip imaginable. Needy rubs her eyes frantically and continues to scream. (CONTINUED) 65. CONTINUED: CHIP immediately rolls off Needy, concerned. He grabs her and tries to shake some sense into her. CHIP (CONT'D) Needy! What's wrong? Needy continues to shriek hysterically, her voice growing ragged. INT. 1004 CAMERFORD - SAME We can still hear Colin making inhuman sounds of pain. We can only see the carnage in shadow, but it's clearly unspeakable. INT. CHIP'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS Needy clutches her throat, hyperventilating. She stands up and struggles to get dressed. Her breath rasps. Chip is freaking out. CHIP Is it something I did? NEEDY (GAGGING) It's her. CHIP Do you need more foreplay? INT. 1004 CAMERFORD - SAME Colin's thrashing limbs finally go limp. Jennifer is hunched over his remains like a jackal scooping blood into her mouth with cupped hands. We see his eyes, flecked with blood, pupils dilated. A white MOUSE crawls over his face. INT. CHIP'S HOUSE - SAME Needy races toward the door with Chip in pursuit. CHIP Needy! (CONTINUED) 66. CONTINUED: NEEDY I have to go. I'm sorry. I just... feel like something...something terrible... CHIP You feel-- What does that even mean? I'm worried about you. NEEDY I'm so sorry, Chip. I'm so sorry. Everything is just wrong. She bolts out the room, leaving Chip naked and alone. He pulls his knees up to his chest, vulnerable. EXT. CHIP'S STREET - SAME Needy runs toward her mom's CAR, a beat-up Kia parked on the curb. She climbs into the car and starts the ignition, trembling and crying. She pulls out onto the street and guns it. She swings a hard left. The streets are all almost identical, lined by working-class homes. She turns on the radio. The song is, of course, "Through the Trees" by Soft Shoulder. She pounds the dashboard, hysterical. NEEDY Fudge! Fudge! Maple fudge! Needy seizes the wheel drives recklessly down a dark, tree-lined street. Then, she sees something bright emerge from the shadows. Her eyes widen... It's JENNIFER, creeping toward the curb like an animal. She's pale in the moonlight. The entire lower half of her face is covered in blood, like a ghoulish beard of gore. She flashes a huge, deranged, toothy SMILE at Needy. Needy screams and SWERVES. The car fishtails out of control and slides into a ditch. Needy slams her foot onto the accelerator, trying to get out of the trench. She glances desperately out the side window. Jennifer is gone. Panting, Needy tries to accelerate again. (CONTINUED) 67. CONTINUED: Suddenly, Jennifer appears from out of nowhere and SLAMS her body against the windshield, her long limbs splayed like an insect's. The windshield SHATTERS. Jennifer grins at Needy through the cracking glass. Needy screams again, puts the pedal to the floor, and manages to rear up out of the ditch. Jennifer's body tumbles off the car as Needy goes roaring down the street. RADIO DJ That was, of course, Soft Shoulder. They're going to be playing a benefit concert in Devil's Kettle next month. Talk about giving back to the community! Generous guys, I tell ya... EXT. NEEDY'S HOUSE - MINUTES LATER Needy throws the car into park and races up the front walk. She unlocks the door, shaking and fumbling. She bursts into the darkened house. INT. NEEDY'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS NEEDY Mommy! Mommy? Please be home! No reply. Needy braces herself against the kitchen counter and bawls. She falls to her knees and curls up on the floor, exhausted. Her eyes drift shut. NEEDY V.O. I've always been able to feel what she feels. Just not like this. EXT. SUNNY SUBURBAN YARD - FLASHBACK - DAY Little Needy and Little Jennifer are playing Barbies in a sandbox. Needy holds a brand new, immaculate Barbie doll. LITTLE JENNIFER I'll be Perfect Prom Barbie and you be her. She tosses Needy a naked brunette doll with its hair chopped off and an arm missing. (CONTINUED) 68. CONTINUED: LITTLE NEEDY Why do I have to be Ugly Ashley? LITTLE JENNIFER You can be Ugly Ashley or Ken. Choose. She puts her hand down in the sand emphatically and suddenly HOWLS in pain. LITTLE NEEDY What's wrong, Jennifer? Jennifer lifts her hand. There's a TACK stuck in her palm and it's bleeding. LITTLE JENNIFER OWWWWWW! (trying to swear like a grown-up) Damn! Ass! Needy grabs Jennifer's hand, pulls out the tack and wipes away the blood. It's still bleeding. Panicking, she leans forward and instinctively puts her mouth to the wound. Jennifer watches quietly. Needy pulls away. LITTLE NEEDY Better. We should get a Band-Aid though. LITTLE JENNIFER We're sisters now, you know. Needy nods. LITTLE JENNIFER (CONT'D) Don't tell my mom about this. She'll make me get a shot. NEEDY I never tell on you. INT. KITCHEN - (BACK TO REALITY) Needy WAKES UP in a cold sweat, gasping. She's still on the kitchen floor. She peels herself up off the floor, disoriented. 69. INT. NEEDY'S HOUSE (BEDROOM) - CONTINUOUS Needy trudges into her dark bedroom. She strips off her clothes and stumbles into bed. JENNIFER'S VOICE What's up, Monistat? Needy flicks on her bedside lamp, petrified. Jennifer is curled up in bed beside her, reclining casually. She's freshly showered and wearing one of Needy's dorky T- shirts. Needy screams at the top of her lungs and leaps out of bed, pulling the covers with her. JENNIFER God, enough screaming already. You're such a cliche. NEEDY Get out! JENNIFER But we always share your bed when we have slumber parties. She winks conspiratorially at Needy. NEEDY What the fuck is happening? JENNIFER Whoa. I have never heard you drop the F-bomb before. What's buggin'? NEEDY I saw you! I saw you! The car...the...I... JENNIFER (MIMICKING) Buh-buh-buh. Slow down, tardy slip. You sound like a sped. NEEDY I'm calling the police. JENNIFER Go ahead, narc me out. I've got the cops in my back pocket. I'm fucking a cadet, remember? (CONTINUED) 70. CONTINUED: NEEDY What do you want? JENNIFER I want to explain some things to you. You've already seen too much and besides-- best friends don't keep secrets. Right? Needy nods, terrified. JENNIFER (CONT'D) Remember the night of the fire? NEEDY Yeah, it rings a bell. JENNIFER Well, I got pretty messed up. I almost died. You know those guys in Soft Shoulder? Totally evil. They're basically agents of Satan with awesome haircuts. I figured that out as soon as I got into their molester van. INT. SOFT SHOULDER'S VAN (FLASHBACK) - NIGHT Jennifer is crouched in the back of the van. None of the band members are speaking. Nikolai Wolf drives down a gravel road, away from the fire site and deep into the woods. JENNIFER Guys? Where are we going? NIKOLAI Shut your mouth, object. DIRK (NERVOUSLY) Nikolai... Jennifer looks around the van, wide-eyed. There's glow-in- the-dark Satanic imagery painted all over the walls: goats heads, pentagrams, and strange coded writing. She sees a few books sliding around on the floor: "Spells and Incantations," "Summoning the Beast," and a copy of the Black Mass. Jennifer springs to her feet and tries to escape out the side door. MICK, the drummer, grabs her ankles, taking her down. (CONTINUED) 71. CONTINUED: JENNIFER Are you guys rapists?! NIKOLAI You wish. Jennifer struggles again, but Mick holds her down. MICK (to band members) Hey guys? Do we even know if she's a virgin? A GLINT OF HOPE in Jennifer's eyes. Maybe if she lies she can save herself. JENNIFER Yes...yes! Of course I'm a virgin! I've never done sex ever. I don't even know how. So maybe you should find some other girl who does. Know how. NIKOLAI Told you, Dirk. You owe me a beer. DIRK (PREOCCUPIED) Sure, man. EXT. FOREST CLEARING (FLASHBACK) - NIGHT The van rumbles down an uneven forest path, deep into the woods. They arrive at the real Devil's Kettle-- roaring, ominous waterfalls. There's a crude stone altar illuminated by moonlight. INT. NEEDY'S BEDROOM (PRESENT DAY) - NIGHT Needy is still cowering on her bedroom floor, captivated by the tale in progress. Jennifer is reclining in the bed with a relaxed, supernatural glow. NEEDY What did they do to you? JENNIFER Just let me finish. So they drove all the way out to the falls. I tried to figure out an escape, but it was so dark out there... 72. EXT. THE FALLS (FLASHBACK) - NIGHT The door of the van slides open. Nikolai pulls Jennifer out of the van and hustles her into the clearing. He looks up into the sky. NIKOLAI We got a waxing moon. Perfection. MICK You're the man, Wolf. The four band members surround Jennifer, looking statuesque in their sexy rock n' roll ensembles. Without warning, Nikolai hauls off and KICKS Jennifer. She yelps and falls onto her back on the dirt. Dirk looks apprehensive. DIRK I don't know if we should go through with this. NIKOLAI (ANGRILY) Do you want to be rich and famous like the guy from Maroon 5? Or do you want to be a huge suicidal loser? DIRK (SADLY) Maroon 5. NIKOLAI Then grow a pair and fetch me the ritual! God. Dirk obediently heads over to the van. He pushes the intimidating-looking magical books aside and retrieves a single folded piece of computer paper. MICK That's it? NIKOLAI What? I found it on Google. He unfolds the piece of paper and clears his throat. (CONTINUED) 73. CONTINUED: The guys have dragged Jennifer onto the makeshift altar and are holding her down. She struggles and screams, but Dirk slaps her again. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) We come here tonight to sacrifice the body of... He tries to remember Jennifer's name and fails. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) ...this chick from Devil's Kettle. JENNIFER (WHISPERING) My name is Jennifer. NIKOLAI That's fascinating. Dirk and Mick exchange nervous glances. JENNIFER Please let me go. I'll do anything. Anything you want. Nikolai examines her with an appraising eye. NIKOLAI I only hump nines and tens. You're a seven at best, even with the chicken cutlets. He reaches into Jennifer's bra and casually pulls out a GEL BREAST ENHANCER, tossing it aside. Jennifer rears up and SPITS in his artfully rumpled hair. Nikolai smooths his `do, enraged. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) I'm gonna carve you like a pumpkin, bitch. Don't you know that me and my boys are in league with the Beast himself? He wiggles his menacingly pointy fingers in her face. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) We've spent months making offerings to the "man downstairs," and whaddya know? Satan delivered! We went from college radio to being courted by the majors in two months. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 74. CONTINUED: (2) NIKOLAI (CONT'D) But that's not enough, Jenny. We want designer drugs. We want groupies that have their own groupies. We want speedballs and stadium tours and Skittles sorted by color. In short, we want more. And to get more, we have to butcher you. And bleed you. JENNIFER (DESPERATE) Maybe you could just hire a publicist. Make some T-shirts or something. Hey, I could be on your street team! NIKOLAI Sorry, darling. JENNIFER Please... NIKOLAI (LOUDLY) Start chanting, boys. The group begins chanting jibberish in unison. Jennifer struggles, watching as their eyes go hollow and black. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) With deepest malice, we deliver this virgin unto thee. He unsheathes a huge, gleaming knife and raises it Psycho- style, admiring his reflection in the blade. DIRK Dude, that is a hot murder weapon! NIKOLAI It's a bowie knife. DIRK Bowie. Nice. Snickering, Nikolai begins to sing "Starman" by David Bowie. The group joins in merrily. NIKOLAI "There's a starman waiting in the sky..." BAND "He'd really like to meet us, but he thinks he'd blow our minds..." (CONTINUED) 75. CONTINUED: (3) As the group sings, Nikolai brings the knife down with a grin. We hear Jennifer SCREAMING, sounds of violence and clothes ripping as Nikolai relentlessly beats her and stabs her, his face contorting demonically. The band continues to sing, their voices carrying over the trees. Nikolai walks over to where the "devil side" of the falls rushes into a black hole. He drops the murder weapon into the churning water, smiling. INT. NEEDY'S BEDROOM (PRESENT DAY) - CONTINUOUS Needy's expression is both incredulous and horrified. Jennifer is totally matter-of-fact. She picks at her nails with a wooden cuticle stick from Needy's night stand. JENNIFER Being tortured would make most girls black out or something. But I'm so hard core, I was with them the whole time. I could feel them gutting me Under my ribs, up into my belly, then right through my heart. NEEDY They...killed you. JENNIFER I'm here, aren't I? She shakes her head, annoyed with Needy. JENNIFER (CONT'D) I mean, yeah. They went Benihana on my ass. It should have killed me. But for some reason, it didn't. NEEDY (SOTTO) Maybe it did. JENNIFER Whatever. Anyway, I don't really remember what happened after that. I just-- woke up a few hours later and found my way back, somehow. 76. EXT. NEEDY'S STREET (FLASHBACK) - NIGHT We see Jennifer staggering down the street, battered, mutilated and bloody. She spits a few TEETH onto the curb, clutching her chest. We see her wander toward Needy's house... INT. NEEDY'S BEDROOM (PRESENT DAY) - CONTINUOUS NEEDY I remember. JENNIFER I couldn't bring myself to hurt you. I mean, I'm a really good friend. But I felt so hungry. I had to do something. EXT. SECLUDED STREET (FLASHBACK) - NIGHT Jennifer is wandering down a rural road in a daze. She hears a faint COUGH. Jennifer stops and sees a hunched FIGURE walking down the opposite side of the street. It's AHMET FROM INDIA, the foreign student. He's covered in soot and looks traumatized. Jennifer takes a step. Ahmet takes a step. Jennifer stops. Ahmet stops. Their eyes meet. Jennifer crosses the street. Ahmet stares at her, frightened. Jennifer addresses him in a quiet, gravelly voice. JENNIFER Ahmet. You made it out. Ahmet coughs. JENNIFER (CONT'D) Are you lost? Ahmet NODS. JENNIFER (CONT'D) Does your host family know you're alive? Ahmet shakes his head. JENNIFER (CONT'D) Does anyone know you're alive? (CONTINUED) 77. CONTINUED: Ahmet shakes his head again. JENNIFER (CONT'D) Come with me. We'll sort this out. She takes Ahmet's hand. As her BLOODY NAILS dig into his wrist, his eyes widen. INT. NEEDY'S BEDROOM (PRESENT DAY) - NIGHT JENNIFER Ever since then, I just somehow knew what I needed to do to be strong. And when I'm full--like I am right now--I'm like, immortal! I can do stuff like this. Jennifer jams the CUTICLE STICK into her own forearm and drags it through her flesh. Needy screams and covers her mouth. JENNIFER (CONT'D) No biggie. Watch. She pulls out the stick. The wound seals over instantly. Needy gasps and touches Jennifer's unmarked arm. JENNIFER (CONT'D) That's some X-Men shit, right? NEEDY What do you mean, "when you're full"? JENNIFER You know. Full. Like full of tasty morsels. Needy shakes her head, not comprehending. JENNIFER (CONT'D) Forget it. You'd probably tell on me anyway. Not that anyone would believe you. You always think the world is coming to an end. NEEDY What about my mom's Kia? Why did you attack me out there? Why were you covered in blood? You didn't even look human. Jennifer rolls her eyes. (CONTINUED) 78. CONTINUED: JENNIFER You should talk to someone about these disturbing thoughts you're having. We're all concerned. Especially Chip. I think he's having second thoughts about you. NEEDY (FORCEFUL) Leave! JENNIFER My, aren't we a C-U-Next-Tuesday? NEEDY GET OUT! JENNIFER Come on. Let me stay the night. We can play "boyfriend/girlfriend" like we used to. She smiles seductively. Needy crawls further away from her, shivering. Jennifer rolls her eyes and gets out of bed. She walks over to the second-story window and cranks it open. NEEDY What are you doing? JENNIFER You said to leave. So I'm outtie- 5000. She climbs onto the windowsill. Needy watches, confused. JENNIFER (CONT'D) See you at school. She LEAPS gracefully out the window. Needy watches in stunned silence for a few moments. Then she creeps over to the window and looks out. Nothing there but the wind. Jennifer's gone. EXT. OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL BLOOD CEMETERY - DAY We're in a small Catholic cemetery. A small, neat gravel path runs through the stately old monuments into a small valley where a funeral is taking place. (CONTINUED) 79. CONTINUED: Faint moaning and sobbing can be heard. Then, a procession of 6 or 7 GOTH/EMO KIDS appears on the crest of the hill. They move forward into the cemetery, flamboyantly dressed in black capes, chains, cloaks, neon hairpieces, fishnets, mesh, 18-hole combat boots, etc. These are Colin Gray's friends. One girl scatters blood-red rose petals dramatically on the path as she stumbles along, weeping. At the bottom of the hill, Colin Gray's very conservative- looking family stands next to the fresh grave, surrounded by sympathetic mourners. NEEDY stands near the back, looking shell-shocked. There are also a few press photographers snapping photos, and of course, a Catholic priest. PRIEST We gather here today to celebrate the life of Colin Gray, who was plucked from the prime of... The priest and family are momentarily distracted by the motley crew of Goths descending on the funeral. The priest clears his throat disapprovingly. PRIEST (CONT'D) What is this disturbance? MR. GRAY These are Colin's friends. A GOTH BOY runs up to the grave and drops to his belly. GOTH BOY Colin! Take me with you! I belong down there! In the DAAAARKNESS! GOTH GIRL No, Kevin. Those are just his fleshly remains. He's among the dark angels of the realm now. Fly, Colin. Fly into the firmament. She lights a bundle of SAGE and waves it in the air. Colin's father gags, appalled. GOTH BOY Is it cool if we camp here for a few days? We want to commune with his corpse. He was our spooky homeboy. (CONTINUED) 80. CONTINUED: (2) PRIEST Children, this is a private service for family only. GOTH GIRL (to Colin's mother) Oh, right. I need to ask you something, Mrs. Gray. It's really important for me to have closure. PRIEST Young lady, have some respect for this family... MRS. GRAY (waving him off) No. It's fine. GOTH GIRL Is it true that Colin had a date with Jennifer Check the night he was killed? She says "Jennifer Check" as if it were the most disgusting name imaginable. Needy covers her face. GOTH GIRL (CONT'D) Because Jennifer Check is a social disease. She's not like us. She thinks she's so special just because she's popular and and is what "society" considers "attractive." But she's not sincere. She's about as emo as a breast implant! And she listens to Jessica Simpson and shops at Hollister. And I just know Colin would never go out with someone like that, and I just need confirmation. From you. So did he? MR. GRAY Did he...? GOTH GIRL Have a date with Jennifer Check. Colin's parents stare at the ground. GOTH GIRL (CONT'D) Oh God. Oh God. I knew it! That BITCH! I will erase her! I'll put a freaky Druid spell on her! (MORE) (CONTINUED) 81. CONTINUED: (3) GOTH GIRL (CONT'D) I'll spell her preppy ass right into the ground! The parents flinch. GOTH BOY Um, Chloe? Maybe you should be mad at the person who murdered Colin. All Jennifer Check did was invite him over to watch Aquamarine. GOTH GIRL That's WORSE! She throws herself to the ground, crying and pounding the dirt like a toddler. Colin Gray's mother buries her head in her hands and begins weeping. Mr. Gray attempts to comfort her. GOTH BOY Colin wouldn't have liked this. MRS. GRAY (losing it) Oh, you think so, Powder? Yeah, you're right! I'm pretty sure my son wouldn't have liked being eaten by a fucking CANNIBAL and buried before his eighteenth birthday! Wow, you must have known him so well! MR. GRAY Jill... The goth boy looks terrified. But Mrs. Gray's not done ranting yet. MRS. GRAY By the time they found Colin in that godforsaken house, he looked like lasagna with teeth. I'd know-- I had to identify the remains. My boy's not in the realm of the undead. He's not flying around in the firmament with magical wings of flame. He's in an overpriced rosewood box that's headed six feet downtown. She kicks the coffin to illustrate. (CONTINUED) 82. CONTINUED: (4) MRS. GRAY (CONT'D) So you can take your pain and shove it up your asses, kids. I got the monopoly on pain! The kids stare at her in awe. Needy watches as Mrs. Gray collapses into Mr. Gray's arms. EXT. KETTLE HIGH CAMPUS - DAY Two girls are hanging an homemade banner on the fence surrounding the football field. It says "TURNABOUT DANCE OCTOBER 5 -- TICKETS ON SALE." Needy walks briskly toward school, huddled in her parka. She looks totally fucked up, like she hasn't slept in days. There are hollows beneath her eyes. NEEDY V.O. They did a big memorial assembly for Colin at school, and we had to watch another presentation about curfews and the buddy system and how to deal with grief. But nobody seemed to care anymore. Sorrow was last week's emotion. We see Jennifer a few yards away, talking and laughing with some other flag team members. NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) Jennifer and I hadn't spoken since our encounter in my room. Actually, I hadn't really spoken to anyone. I was busy with research. Paranormal research. Needy gazes off into the distance with bloodshot eyes. As she stares at Jennifer, she see has a series of brief, gruesome HALLUCINATIONS: Jennifer as a grinning death mask. Jennifer as a corpse, the lower half of her face rotted away. Jennifer as a harlequin monster. Needy hears the rush of her own blood, the barely audible buzzing of flies... Chip jogs up next to her, jolting her out of her reverie. CHIP Hey. Did you buy Turnabout tickets yet? I don't get paid until next week. (CONTINUED) 83. CONTINUED: NEEDY I gotta show you something. CHIP What is it? NEEDY Not here. Behind the school. CHIP What is it? NEEDY Evidence. CHIP (WEARILY) Is this about Jennifer? NEEDY Yes, but I promise you this is the last thing I need to show y-- CHIP (INTERRUPTING) Needy, I care about you. A lot. As a person, not just a girl I made love to for four minutes the other night. And I'm scared of what's happening to you. You're acting really fucked up. NEEDY Please just let me show you. Her gaze is so intense and crazed that Chip has no option but to submit. He nods reluctantly. EXT. KETTLE HIGH CAMPUS - CONTINUOUS Needy and Chip walk to an alley behind the school. Melting snow drips off the eaves. Needy pulls out a large black binder and opens it. It's full of copies from the library and Internet printouts. The spine reads "JENNIFER RESEARCH" NEEDY Look at this. She thrusts a piece of paper into CHIP's hands. (CONTINUED) 84. CONTINUED: CHIP (CONFUSED) Demon...demonic... NEEDY Demonic transference. It's something that happens when you try to sacrifice a virgin to Satan without using an actual virgin! CHIP stares at her. NEEDY (CONT'D) I think that's what happened to Jennifer. Those guys from that band were trying to sacrifice her in the woods. But what they didn't realize is that she hasn't been a virgin since junior high! Jennifer's a total cum-dumpster! It all makes sense now! Read this... She grabs the piece of paper from him. NEEDY (CONT'D) (READING) "If the human sacrifice is impure, the result may still be attained, but a demon will forever reside the soul of the victim. She must forever feed on flesh to sustain the demon." See? CHIP looks more dubious than ever. CHIP Uh-huh. NEEDY She's eating boys! They make her strong. Really strong. And when she's hungry, she gets weak and cranky and her hair is all full of split ends. And look at this... She holds up one of the printouts. NEEDY (CONT'D) It says that before the demon feeds, it vomits a gruesome substance on its prey. Like I saw! (CONTINUED) 85. CONTINUED: (2) CHIP You--you really think Jennifer killed Jonas and Colin? NEEDY And possibly Ahmet from India. Needy is silent for a moment. She realizes CHIP will never believe her and that she'll lose him forever if she continues babbling. CHIP Really? You think she ate those guys? NEEDY No. No! Of course not! CHIP Is that what you think? NEEDY No...Listen, I'll make an appointment with Mr. Feely. I'm real sorry about this sudden onset of teenage paranoia. (ROBOTIC) My hormones and emotions are aswirl, and my moods are erratic... CHIP isn't totally convinced, but his face softens. CHIP It's all right, Needy. NEEDY This has been a crummy school year, Chip. CHIP No shit. Needy turns and pitches the black binder into a Dumpster. NEEDY Listen, I'm done with all that devil stuff. Do you know what you're wearing to Turnabout? CHIP I was thinking a suit with black shoes and a boutonniere, right here. (CONTINUED) 86. CONTINUED: (3) He taps his chest. Needy laughs. NEEDY V.O. I was so in love with him. I didn't want to mess it up with my infectious crazy. Only I wasn't actually crazy. Everyone else was crazy. But when you're the only sane one, you might as well be crazy. It's subjective, you know? CHIP What color dress are you gonna wear? I need to order your wrist corsage. NEEDY I don't know yet. CHIP How about magenta? You're definitely a winter. My mom says winters should wear regal jewel tones like magenta. Or possibly teal. NEEDY Oh yeah, your mom's an Avon lady. CHIP Well, they call them "sales reps" now. NEEDY Right. Well, I'll try to find something magenta. CHIP That'll look dope. INT. DEVIL'S KETTLE HIGH GYMNASIUM (TO ESTABLISH) - EVENING A group of student council kids are putting the finishing touches on the dance decorations. The theme is "Through the Trees" and there are papier mache trees everywhere. INT. NEEDY'S BEDROOM - EVENING Needy stands in front of a full-length mirror, wearing a big `80s-style magenta prom dress. It sags on her flat chest and looks ridiculous. (CONTINUED) 87. CONTINUED: Greedo the ferret circles her ankles. Toni, Needy's mom, appears behind her with a curling iron. TONI You look beautiful. NEEDY I look pork stupid. TONI No, you've got that tiny waist, like a fashion model. I always thought you looked like Cindy Crawford. She gently takes off Needy's glasses. NEEDY Who's Cindy Crawford? TONI One of the great beauties of our time. She's even got a mole like you, except hers is on her face. She takes a section of Needy's hair and wraps it around the curling iron. Smoke rises. NEEDY Ow! You're too close to my neck. TONI Well, if Chip gives you a hickey, you can just tell everyone I burned you. NEEDY Gross, Mom. Chip isn't that ostentatious. TONI Now that's a word you don't hear every day. Hold still. NEEDY What are you doing to my hair? TONI Hooker helmet. (CONTINUED) 88. CONTINUED: (2) NEEDY (GROANING) Aw, jeez Mom! TONI If you can't have big what-nots, you might as well have big hair! Needy stares at herself in the mirror. Despite Toni's best efforts, Needy looks like the walking dead. INT. CHIP'S HOUSE - EVENING Chip is standing in underwear and black dress socks, taking his suit out of the closet. Suddenly, there's a loud KNOCK on the door. CHIP I'm in underpants, Mom! We hear the voice of CHIP'S MOM through the door. CHIP'S MOM I need to give you something. CHIP Hang on. Chip puts on a robe and opens the door. Chip's mom is holding a SMALL PINK AEROSOL CAN. CHIP (CONT'D) Ladies' pepper spray? CHIP'S MOM I've been thinking about it for a while, and I think you need to be carrying this. There's obviously a sicko out there who likes boys. Boys your age. And I don't want you going out there unarmed. CHIP I can take care of myself. I've been using the Bowflex. In the background, we can see the BOWFLEX with clothes hanging off it. CHIP'S MOM Did you hear what Colin Gray looked like when they found him? (CONTINUED) 89. CONTINUED: CHIP Lasagna with teeth? CHIP'S MOM You heard. So unless you want to wind up looking like another exotic Eye-talian dish, take Mommy's rape spray. Chip reluctantly accepts the spray. CHIP'S MOM (CONT'D) Are you picking Needy up at her house? CHIP Meeting her at the dance. I'm gonna walk. It's so warm outside. It's like 40. CHIP'S MOM I want pictures with your sister before you go. CHIP Yes, ma'am. INT. NEEDY'S HOUSE (LIVING ROOM) - EVENING Needy is fully dressed and garishly made up. Toni holds a digital camera at arm's length and takes a shot of the two of them together. The mother/daughter photo looks ghastly. Toni's eyes are closed and Needy pouts miserably. INT. CHIP'S HOUSE (LIVING ROOM) - EVENING Chip's mother snaps a series of stiffly posed photos of Chip and his little sister, Camille. We can see the PEPPER SPRAY tucked into the interior of Chip's jacket. CHIP'S MOM One more. Back to back. Big smiles. Camille, we don't touch ourselves down there. That's our lady garden. 90. INT. KETTLE HIGH GYMNASIUM (TO ESTABLISH) - NIGHT The gym is decorated to look like an enchanted forest. A large banner reads "Through the Trees- Turnabout Dance" There are streamers and balloons everywhere in sickly shades of green and purple. A DJ plays badly-mixed pop music. Couples drift into the gym. The GOTH KIDS who were at Colin Gray's grave travel in a pack, sulking. The goth girl who loved Colin wanders through the decorations and pops every balloon she passes with a pin. As she pops them, she narrates dramatically. GOTH GIRL (popping balloon) This is my heart. GOTH GIRL (CONT'D) (popping balloon) My soul. GOTH GIRL (CONT'D) (popping balloon) Everything I once believed in. Another GOTH GIRL, looking exasperated, grabs a balloon, shoves it under her babydoll dress and pops it. GOTH GIRL #2 (MOCKINGLY) Your abortion. She rapidly shoves another one under her dress and pops it again, smirking. GOTH GIRL #2 (CONT'D) Your other abortion. GOTH GIRL I hate your guts, Madison. The girls glare at each other. Needy walks in, looking small and apprehensive in her bad `80s dress. She looks around for Chip, but he's not there yet. A few mean kids point at her dress and snicker. Needy ladles some juice into a paper cup and leans against the wall, waiting anxiously for her Prince Charming. 91. EXT. MC CULLUM PARK - CONTINUOUS Chip is cutting through the park on his way to the dance. He whistles to himself. Across the park, he sees a STRAY DOG trotting toward him. The dog pants aggressively. CHIP tries to smile, but looks uncomfortable. A few SQUIRRELS emerge from the trees, gazing curiously at him. INT. DEVIL'S KETTLE HIGH GYMNASIUM - CONTINUOUS Couples are beginning to grind against each other on the dance floor. Needy watches them longingly. She checks her Mickey Mouse watch. EXT. MC CULLUM PARK - CONTINUOUS Chip picks up the pace, jogging down the path. In the distance behind him we can barely make out Jennifer's form. She looks more spectral then we've ever seen her. Chip speeds up instinctively. Suddenly, Jennifer's about ten paces closer. Then she's closer again, as if she can fold space and time. She's ethereal, flickering. CHIP turns to look over his shoulder. INT. DEVIL'S KETTLE HIGH GYMNASIUM - CONTINUOUS The music fades out and there's a squeal of feedback from the sound system. Mr. Wroblewski walks onto the stage in a bad suit. He awkwardly picks up the mic with his one good hand and pats it with his robotic one. MR. WROBLEWSKI Can I have everyone's attention please? The students turn to look at him, annoyed by the distraction. (CONTINUED) 92. CONTINUED: MR. WROBLEWSKI (CONT'D) Welcome to the Turnabout Dance. I hope you've all had an opportunity to consume the Pecan Sandies and Cran-Grape that were so generously donated by the Parents Club. Murmuring and applause. MR. WROBLEWSKI (CONT'D) But the real treat is yet to come. It's happening right about now, this treat of which I speak. We have some very special guests tonight. They were kind enough to take a break from their sold-out national tour and play our dance for free. Needy gags on her juice. EXT. MC CULLUM PARK - CONTINUOUS Chip continues to hurry briskly along through the park. JENNIFER CHIP! CHIP makes an incoherent noise and jumps as Jennifer appears, improbably, right in front of him. She's wearing a gorgeous white formal gown and looks perfect. JENNIFER (CONT'D) Didn't you hear me calling your name? CHIP You weren't calling my name. JENNIFER Yes, I was. CHIP I couldn't hear it. JENNIFER I think you were maybe spacing out. You were like this: Derrrrr. She mimics a blank, drooling expression. CHIP I was? (CONTINUED) 93. CONTINUED: JENNIFER Yes, exactly like that. Listen, I need to talk to you about you-know- who. Our little Needy. CHIP I know. JENNIFER Are you worried? `Cause I'm super- stressed about her. God knows how I even sleep at night. CHIP She hasn't been the same for weeks. JENNIFER I think I know what's wrong with her. In fact, I know I know what's wrong with her. CHIP Then tell me. JENNIFER I feel bad telling you this. (SIGHING) Okay, you know Needy's been a total Lithium candidate since the night Colin Gray died. But that's not just because he was brutally murdered and stuff. It's because....I don't wanna say this. CHIP Say it! JENNIFER Needy and Colin were intimate. By that I mean he was poking her donut on a semi-regular basis. CHIP looks astonished and hurt. JENNIFER (CONT'D) I know this must be hard for you to hear. CHIP Needy's not like that. (CONTINUED) 94. CONTINUED: (2) JENNIFER That's what she wants you to believe. But trust me, her and Colin were doing stuff you haven't even heard of. Total varsity moves. CHIP But you were with Colin the night he was killed. JENNIFER Well, apparently he had a thing for me-- no surprise there. And I figured Needy was busy jumping your jock that night, so I agreed to a little pity date. Colin brought me to that empty house so we could have some privacy. But he wanted to go too far, so I left after a few minutes. Next thing I knew, they'd found... She sniffles, wiping her eye. JENNIFER (CONT'D) ...what was left of him. CHIP (to himself) Eye-talian. JENNIFER Huh? CHIP Never mind. JENNIFER I'm sorry you had to hear this from me. I'm just so worried about Needy. She's losing her shit. Colin was her everything. CHIP looks miserable. JENNIFER (CONT'D) I wouldn't be surprised if she winds up in the nuthouse. CHIP I just can't believe this. (CONTINUED) 95. CONTINUED: (3) JENNIFER Well, you've been talking to her more than I have. How bad is it? CHIP It's bad, man. It's bad. JENNIFER I can only imagine the paranoid theories she's come up with. CHIP Oh, you have no idea. JENNIFER I just can't believe she would do this to you. I care so much about you, Chip. CHIP glances up at her. She's earnest, beautiful. JENNIFER (CONT'D) More than I've ever had the guts to admit. INT. HIGH SCHOOL GYM - CONTINUOUS Mr. Wroblewski pauses dramatically for effect. MR. WROBLEWSKI Boys and girls, please welcome...Soft Shoulder! The heavy stage curtains part to reveal SOFT SHOULDER in all their glory. Success has treated them well-- they're glowing and wearing designer rock n' roll couture. They look like the young Rolling Stones. Needy drops her cup. Juice splatters onto the ground. NIKOLAI Good evening, babies. Are you ready for some bad vibrations? The students rush the stage, shrieking. Nikolai raises his fist and the band launches into a heavy, uptempo version of "Through the Trees." Needy looks as though she's had a revelation. A look of pure horror crosses her face. NEEDY Chip! (CONTINUED) 96. CONTINUED: She rushes toward the gym exit, tripping in her high heels. EXT. MC CULLUM PARK - CONTINUOUS CHIP is hypnotized in the glow of the streetlights. Jennifer leans forward and kisses him on the neck JENNIFER Needy didn't deserve a boy like you. EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS Needy is running toward the park in her gown. She takes off her shoes and tosses them aside, her arms and legs pumping furiously. NEEDY V.O. One thing people don't know about me is that I'm fast. I just never went out for track because I look bad in shorts. Also, Jennifer told me track was for lezzies. But I am. Fast, I mean. Even in that fucking afterbirth of a dress, I could really tear up the asphalt. She picks up the pace, cheeks puffing. NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) I had to. I was running for his life. INT. MC CULLUM PARK - CONTINUOUS Jennifer is kissing Chip. She pulls him down onto the damp, muddy grass. JENNIFER Ooh, you're so salty! CHIP Yeah, you too. JENNIFER Say it like you mean it. CHIP You're so salty. I need water. It burns. The salty burns my mouth. (CONTINUED) 97. CONTINUED: JENNIFER Say I'm better than Needy. CHIP What? Why? JENNIFER We really shouldn't be doing this. She pulls away from him, feigning a guilty conscience. CHIP (QUICKLY) You're better than Needy. Jennifer smiles, satisfied. JENNIFER Natch. She resumes kissing him enthusiastically. CHIP This feels weird. Can we go somewhere else? JENNIFER I have just the place. She stands up and starts to lead Chip toward an abandoned, fenced-off COMMUNITY POOL. It's drained and spooky and looks dangerous. CHIP Murphy Pool? I don't think we can go in there. I knew some skater guys who went in there. They got in big trouble and now they have to pick up garbage for 100 hours. Jennifer giggles and pulls him along. JENNIFER You're in big trouble anyway. Come on. She begins to climb the chain link fence. EXT. CHIP'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS Needy jogs toward CHIP's house. Exhausted and sweaty, she presses the doorbell. She falls to her knees on the front stoop, panting and wheezing. (CONTINUED) 98. CONTINUED: Camille answers the door. NEEDY (STRAINED) Well, hi there Camille! Is Chipper home? Camille has no reply. She eyes Needy suspiciously and licks a Popsicle. CHIP's mother appears and shoves Camille aside. CHIP'S MOM Needy? Is something wrong? NEEDY Where's Chip? CHIP'S MOM (CONFUSED) He left for the dance at least twenty minutes ago. He certainly should have been there by now. NEEDY He walked? Mrs. Dove, you mean to only tell me that in these dangerous, godless times-- you let your only son walk alone at night? CHIP'S MOM Well, it's only five blocks. My God, your hair is... NEEDY Which way did he go? CHIP'S MOM He usually cuts across the park. She turns to scold Camille. CHIP'S MOM (CONT'D) Camille, let's sit like a lady! No one wants to see your kiki. She turns back to address Needy. CHIP'S MOM (CONT'D) Why don't you try... But Needy's gone. (CONTINUED) 99. CONTINUED: (2) CHIP'S MOM (CONT'D) Anita? EXT. MURPHY POOL - SAME Murphy Pool is even eerier from the inside. The fenced-in deck area is littered with garbage, abandoned pool furniture and graffiti. Someone has spray painted the word "HOPELESS" on a wall. CHIP shivers and looks around nervously. Jennifer nonchalantly unzips her dress and shimmies out of it, revealing her bra and panties. CHIP Aren't you cold? JENNIFER Never, Trevor. I'm hot like magma. She prances over to the abandoned pool and begins to climb down the ladder on the side. The pool is full of filthy, freezing water. CHIP What are you doing? JENNIFER Swimming. CHIP Ha ha. JENNIFER Come on in, Chip. Show me your breast stroke. CHIP The water looks disgusting. JENNIFER It's not so bad. CHIP Are you kidding? It's totally bubonic in there. I think I see a dead possum with a Doritos bag in its pouch. And that looks like a used syringe over there... He slaps away a FLY. (CONTINUED) 100. CONTINUED: JENNIFER I'm sorry. I was just trying to make you laugh. I think now, more than ever, we need laughter. We've both lost a close friend. CHIP nods sadly. CHIP I know. JENNIFER I feel so empty. CHIP Me too. JENNIFER Please come here and kiss me again. Make all this madness go away. Chip tiptoes forward tentatively and sinks to his knees. He leans in and kisses Jennifer, who's still clinging to the ladder. The sound of buzzing flies grows louder. Suddenly, Jennifer opens her eyes. She hooks her arm around Chip's neck and lunges backward. They tumble off the ladder, into the pool. Chip SCREAMS. INT. MC CULLUM PARK - CONTINUOUS Needy runs into the park and scans the dark horizon. Her bare feet are bloody from running and her face is shiny with sweat. NEEDY (YELLING) Chip! A terrified SCREAM in the distance. Needy whips around, hikes up her skirt and starts running toward Murphy Pool. She reaches the fence and starts climbing it. She slips and cuts her hand on a broken link. CHIP screams again on the other side of the fence. (CONTINUED) 101. CONTINUED: NEEDY (CONT'D) I'm coming! She flings herself over the top of the fence, her body slamming against the concrete pool deck. Her ARM snaps. It's a compound fracture, the bone thrusting through the flesh of her arm as she screams. INT. MURPHY POOL - CONTINUOUS Needy staggers toward the pool, which is surrounded by an extraterrestrial glow. Chip's moaning is almost unbearable. Needy stares into the abyss and claps her hands over her mouth. Jennifer is waist deep in the DIRTY WATER, flinging Chip against the wall like a rag doll. He's still conscious, but his skin on his chest has been RIPPED OFF to expose his ribs. Jennifer is CHEWING happily. Chip looks at Needy, his face a mask of agony. CHIP (MOUTHING) Needy! NEEDY Holy crap! Jennifer begins gnawing on Chip's neck, so engaged in the task that she doesn't notice Needy. Needy climbs up on the diving board and crosses herself. NEEDY (CONT'D) Saint Jude, patron saint of hopeless causes: Please give me the power to crush this bitch. Jennifer looks up with demonic, bloodshot eyes just as Needy leaps off the diving board. Needy lands on Jennifer's shoulders, taking her out. She wraps her legs around Jennifer's neck and drags her under the water. Jennifer emerges. Needy grabs her by the hair and girly- slaps her furiously across the face. Then she spots the PEPPER SPRAY lying by the side of the pool. She grabs it and sprays it in Jennifer's eyes. Jennifer shrieks and vomits NASTY, SPINY GORE all over Needy and Chip. (CONTINUED) 102. CONTINUED: JENNIFER Fuck this J.V. shit! Jennifer ROCKETS straight up into the air like a goddess, hovering ten feet above the pool. Her eyes burn. Her skin is corpselike. She's drenched from head to toe in the prickly ooze. CHIP (CROAKING) She can fly? NEEDY She's just hovering, CHIP. It's not that impressive. Jennifer speaks in a metallic, demonic-sounding voice. JENNIFER God, do you have to undermine everything I do? You're such a player-hater. Needy glares at Jennifer, surprisingly fearless. NEEDY You're a jerk. JENNIFER Nice insult, Lizzie McGuire. Got any more harsh digs? NEEDY You know what? You were never a good friend. Ever. Even when we were little. You used to steal my toys and pour lemonade on my bed and make me be Ugly Ashley when we played Barbies! JENNIFER And now I'm eating your boyfriend! See? At least I'm consistent. NEEDY Why do you need him? Huh? She begins to weep. NEEDY (CONT'D) (SOBBING) Why do you need the one guy who's ever liked me? You can have anyone, Jennifer! (MORE) (CONTINUED) 103. CONTINUED: (2) NEEDY (CONT'D) The cutest guy in school. The mailman. A teacher. You could probably even have a huge star like Chad Michael Murray. So why Chip? Why him? Is it just to piss me off? Or is it because you're insecure? Jennifer floats in midair toward the pool deck and drifts down, landing on her feet. Needy crawls out of the pool and faces her down. JENNIFER I am not insecure. God, what a joke! How could I be insecure? I was the Snowflake Queen! NEEDY Yeah, two years ago. When you were socially relevant. JENNIFER I AM STILL SOCIALLY RELEVANT! NEEDY You were skinny then, too! A look of ABJECT HORROR on Jennifer's face. She reels back against the chain link fence, her eyes blazing. JENNIFER I'm gonna eat your soul and shit it out, Lesnicki. Her voice is now an unearthly growl. In the background, Chip is slowly, painfully pulling a POOL SKIMMER with an eight-foot handle off the pool deck. NEEDY (TREMBLING) I thought you only murdered boys. JENNIFER I go both ways. She HURTLES herself toward Needy, roaring, her eyes white- hot, her jaws agape. She's monstrous. Chip suddenly stumbles in front of Needy and holds the HANDLE of the POOL SKIMMER in front of them like a spear. As Jennifer flies forward at demonic speed, she IMPALES HER ENTIRE TORSO on the handle. Needy screams. There's a beat of deafening silence. (CONTINUED) 104. CONTINUED: (3) Chip collapses on the pool deck. Jennifer rises uncertainly to her feet, "shishkebabbed" on the giant skimmer. With effort, she pulls the handle out of her body in several stages. JENNIFER (CONT'D) Ow-Ow-Ow. Needy watches, and realizes Jennifer is injured. Blood drips onto the pool deck. NEEDY (SURPRISED) We hurt you... Blood trickles out of Jennifer's wound. She tries to plug the hole with her hand. JENNIFER Got a tampon? Needy shakes her head mutely. JENNIFER (CONT'D) Thought I'd ask. You seemed like you might be pluggin'. She begins to climb the fence, wincing in pain, then glances over her shoulder at Needy and Chip. NEEDY Where are you going? JENNIFER Fuck this noise. I'm out. You losers are more trouble then you're worth. She continues climbing. NEEDY (EMOTIONAL) Why give up now? He's almost dead! Get your bulimic ass back here and kill us both! JENNIFER Nah. I mean, you say I've been a bad friend all these years. I might as well throw you a bone. (CONTINUED) 105. CONTINUED: (4) She smirks and jumps over the fence, stumbling off into the distance. Needy watches her, her eyes narrowing with hate. Once Jennifer has disappeared, Needy turns her attention to Chip, who is barely alive. She stares in horror at his torn arm and exposed ribs, then falls to her knees over his body. NEEDY Oh, Chip! CHIP Needy. You saved me. NEEDY I'm gonna call for help. She reaches into Chip's pocket and pulls out his beat-up cell phone. She wipes off the prickly ooze with her hand. CHIP Oh no, I'm out of minutes! NEEDY I think 911 is always a free call. CHIP Oh yeah. You're right. Needy dials to no avail. The phone is hopelessly clogged with ooze. She knocks it against the deck. NEEDY It's not working. It's full of Jennifer-goo. Chip begins gagging and coughing. He rolls onto his back, his eyelids fluttering. CHIP (FAINTLY) Hey, I'm going somewhere... NEEDY No! You're not going anywhere! CHIP I'm toast, Needy. I'm definitely gonna die. I think I already died before you were here, but I woke up when I heard your voice. (CONTINUED) 106. CONTINUED: (5) NEEDY I love you. CHIP Yeah me too. And you look hot in that dress. NEEDY You're clearly delirious. CHIP No. When you're dying, you can see everything a lot clearer. You can see what's true and what's not. The things that are true have this glowing halo of light around them, like a picture of the Baby Jesus, or Barbara Walters when they use the special lens. And I know for sure that you're totally hot. Needy begins to sob hoarsely. CHIP (CONT'D) You'd better get out of here. The police are going to come and I don't want them to, you know, make a mistake. NEEDY I'm never leaving. CHIP But I have to go. NEEDY No! Chip's eyes close. His face relaxes. He's gone. Needy wails at the top of her lungs. She rests her head against his mutilated chest, oblivious to the blood and bone. INT. DEVIL'S KETTLE HIGH GYMNASIUM - NIGHT The dance is in full swing and students are slow-dancing. Girls rest their heads against boys' chests, only under far less macabre circumstances than Needy and CHIP's deathbed tableau. Soft Shoulder are still playing onstage, their guitars chiming melodically. (CONTINUED) 107. CONTINUED: The bass player, Dirk, turns toward Nikolai Wolf. DIRK This sucks old-man balls. NIKOLAI Shut up. It's good PR. He accidentally speaks into the mic, attracting unwanted stares from the kids. NIKOLAI (CONT'D) (to audience) I said, it's so good to be here! The students cheer approvingly, their faces bright and hopeful. Nikolai bares his teeth in a frighteningly fake smile. EXT. C0RVALLIS HIGH CAMPUS- CONTINUOUS Illuminated by lamp light, Needy limps toward the gym entrance. She's completely covered in demon-goo. Her face is bloody, her hair is full of blood and guts, and her BROKEN ARM looks gruesome. In the background, yet another oblivious COUPLE are making out. Needy stops to stare at them, her gaze calm but obviously insane. They break apart and stare back at her. GIRL What are you looking at, Clumpy? NEEDY (QUIETLY) Just watching your old man try to suck the ugly off your face. GUY What did you say? Needy bends over, casually holds one nostril closed, and does a "farmer blow." A bloody clot flies out of her nose. The guy takes a good look at Needy and blinks, startled. GUY (CONT'D) Are you supposed to be Goth or something? (CONTINUED) 108. CONTINUED: NEEDY Did you know the original Goths were a Germanic tribe that settled in Rome? They didn't wear black. They wore regular linen tunics. I don't know why nobody else knows that. The couple have already resumed making out. Needy rolls her eyes, turns away, and continues limping into the gym. INT. GYM - CONTINUOUS Needy enters the gym and slams the door shut behind her. People ignore her as she slowly walks toward the stage. They're too busy slow dancing and laughing in their respective cliques. She looks up at the stage, where Soft Shoulder are playing an insufferably long coda. Nikolai noodles through a guitar solo, then looks up and sees Needy looking directly at him, her eyes full of hate. Nikolai gulps nervously and elbows Dirk. Needy points to her eyes with two fingers, then points at Nikolai, as if to say, Gotcha. She looks completely possessed. NIKOLAI (to Dirk) We gotta get out of here. DIRK Why? NIKOLAI I think this girl's flipping out. DIRK What could she do to us? NIKOLAI Look at her. Dirk takes one look at Needy's face and takes off his guitar. Nikolai motions for the rest of the band to leave the stage. The music stops abruptly. The kids in the gym murmur and complain, confused. (CONTINUED) 109. CONTINUED: Needy tries to follow them. She limps blindly toward the stage and climbs up. Everyone watches, gasping in horror. By now the band is disappearing out the side door of the gym. NEEDY (into the mic) You didn't play your hit yet. But they're gone. Needy looks out at her classmates. They stare back. She PASSES OUT COLD. INT. CHIP'S STREET - MORNING (TO ESTABLISH) NEEDY V.O. They found Chip the following morning. The police couldn't find an explanation for the "substance" in the pool, so they chose not to mention it to the press. In fact, they treated the whole incident like a bad dream. INT. CHIP'S HOUSE (LIVING ROOM) - MORNING We see the POLICE (including newly minted officer ROMAN DUDA) informing Chip's mother that his body has been found. She collapses onto the floor, curling up into the fetal position. NEEDY Trouble was, some of us would never wake up. INT. NEEDY'S BEDROOM - DAY Needy is lying in bed, shaking, her arm in a cast. Her mother tries to rouse her. NEEDY V.O. I never went back to school after that. Didn't talk much either. My mom bought some books so she could teach me at home like crazy Christians with 14 kids do. But I wasn't a very cooperative student. Needy pulls the covers over her head. (CONTINUED) 110. CONTINUED: Toni shrugs, resigned, and tosses the book on the floor. EXT. JENNIFER'S HOUSE - NIGHT Needy is crouched outside Jennifer's window, hiding in the shrubbery. She looks almost feral, with wide eyes and a hungry expression. Through the window, we see Jennifer sitting at a vanity and combing her hair, oblivious to the intruder in her yard. NEEDY V.O. What nobody realized was that I was doing a different kind of homework. I was watching her every night. Waiting. We see Jennifer putting the comb down and examining her hair with a appraising eye. NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) Waiting for her to get weak and dull. Waiting for her to burn through the life-force she'd stolen from Chip. Needy creeps away from the window. NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) It took weeks, but I finally made my move. Remember? EXT. JENNIFER'S HOUSE - NIGHT We're seeing a FLASHBACK of the night Needy slaughtered Jennifer. Needy plunging through the window. Jennifer thrashing. The blood. The struggle. The levitation. The arrival of the police. NEEDY V.O. Even in her last moments of life, she somehow managed to be cooler than me. We see, for a moment, Jennifer's sly, challenging smile as Needy raises the boxcutter to slash her. That signature look of mastery and control. (CONTINUED) 111. CONTINUED: NEEDY She left an insanely hot corpse. We see Jennifer's mother holding her again, screaming, though all we hear is SILENCE and STATIC. Sure enough, Jennifer's bleeding body seems to be artfully, sensually draped in her mother's arms. She almost seems to be SMIRKING at us. INT. "THE HOLE" - NIGHT We're back in solitary confinement, where Needy has been narrating the whole sordid tale. She hasn't moved a muscle since beginning her story. Only a single shaft of moonlight illuminates the room. An orderly shoves DINNER through a slot in the door. It's a pile of mystery meat. Needy wrinkes her nose. NEEDY V.O. I don't even know who Needy Lesnicki is anymore. I'm a different person now. A person who uses curse words and kicks orderlies and and sees things that aren't there. A very bad, very damaged person. Needy reaches up and distractedly pulls back the neckline of her shirt... NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) But sometimes, change can be good. For instance, most occult scholars don't know this, but if you're bitten by a demon--and you live-- you just might absorb some of the demon's abilities. In the moonlight, we see Needy still has a infected- looking BITEMARK near her shoulder. She scratches it, wincing. NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) You just might get lucky for once in your miserable life. PULL BACK to reveal that Needy, still cross-legged is HOVERING five feet off the floor. Effortlessly. With visible concentration, she slowly flies up toward a narrow WINDOW positioned up near the ceiling. To anyone with normal abilities, it would be impossible to access. (CONTINUED) 112. CONTINUED: Needy reaches the window, gazes at it for a moment, then SMASHES it with surprising strength. EXT. LEECH LAKE HOSPITAL - FIVE MINUTES LATER Needy strolls across the grounds in her bunny slippers. She heads confidently toward the SECURITY FENCE and passes through it after casually mangling the bars. Only a Needy-shaped hole remains. EXT. COUNTY ROAD 9 - TEN MINUTES LATER Needy is striding purposefully down a dark country road. The hospital recedes in the background. A few RACCOONS gather by the side of the road, watching Needy as she walks past. A PICKUP TRUCK whizzes by with its windows rolled down. "Through the Trees" blasts from the radio. Needy begins to sing, a lopsided grin on her face. NEEDY (SINGING) "Through the trees, I will find you. Heal the ruins left inside you..." EXT. MURPHY POOL - NIGHT Devil's Kettle citizens are gathered around Murphy Pool, crying. It's a CANDLELIGHT MEMORIAL for Chip. Their faces are weary and sorrowful. Photos of Chip have been arranged around the edge of the fence. We see a picture of CHIP AND NEEDY on the end. Someone has brought a CD player, and the mourners sing along, their voices soaring. VIGIL ATTENDEES (SINGING) "...And the stars will remind you, we'll meet again..." EXT. COUNTY ROAD 9 - CONTINUOUS Needy holds her thumb aloft as she walks down the remote country highway. (CONTINUED) 113. CONTINUED: NEEDY (SINGING) "...We'll meet again." A small creek emptying into a stream runs parallel to the road. Needy seems something glinting at the mouth of the creek and stoops to pick it up. It's Nikolai's BOWIE KNIFE, the one he threw into Devil's Kettle, never to be seen again. Needy picks it up and tucks it into her waistband. A STATION WAGON comes rattling up the road. Needy sticks her thumb out again. The wagon pulls over to the side of the road. The driver, a grizzled older man, rolls down the window. He eyes Needy lasciviously. OLD MAN Where you looking to go, young lady? NEEDY East, toward Madison. OLD MAN East, huh? Guess I'm headed that way. But I'm gonna need you to pay me in ass, gas or grass. Got that? No free rides in this wagon. NEEDY I don't have any money or drugs, so you'll have to settle for ass. OLD MAN Fair enough. Hop in my chariot. Needy gratefully hurries into the driver's seat. OLD MAN (CONT'D) So why you headed East? NEEDY I'm following this rock band. OLD MAN Huh. Must be a hell of a group. NEEDY Tonight's gonna be their last show. (CONTINUED) 114. CONTINUED: (2) Needy smiles blithely and pops the clear Lifesaver into her mouth. The station wagon pulls off. As it sputters off into the distance, we see a road sign that reads, ironically, SOFT SHOULDER. We hear the song on the radio end, segueing into the DJ's bumper. RADIO DJ What a song. Thought we'd play that one in honor of Soft Shoulder. They're playing in Madison tonight. Should be a night to remember... The DJ's voice fades out as the car vanishes into the horizon. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Jerry Maguire.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jerry Maguire.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..3bdc908c8d104848b7f63c93f88fabf7f555fb37 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jerry Maguire.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +JERRY MAGUIRE EARTH FROM SPACE The blue marble as seen from space. We hear the calm voice of Jerry Maguire, talking just to us. JERRY'S VOICE Airight so this is the world and there are five billion people on it. When I was a kid there were three. It's hard to keep up. AMERICA FROM SPACE The great continent through mist and swirling skies. (Satellites and other pieces of skycasting equipment float by.) JERRY'S VOICE That's better. That's america. See, America still sets the tone for the world... KID ON BASKETBALL COURT A puberty-ravaged kid dribbles a basketball, stares straight at us. JERRY'S VOICE In Indiana -- Clark Hodd. 13. The best point guard in the country. Puberty hasn't been easy. Discreetly, his hand slips into his pants and scratches. Girl on a high dive she's poised. A faraway look in her eyes. JERRY'S VOICE (continuing) Becky Farling. You'll see her in the next Olympics. She launches her dive into mid-air, into nothingness. ON TEENAGE GIRL BOXER throwing punches toward the camera. 2. JERRY'S VOICE Seattle, Washington. Dallas Malloy. Went to court to be allowed to box professionally. She's 16. ON A YOUNG BASEBALL PLAYER at bat. JERRY'S VOICE Art Stallings, Indio, California. Check out what pure joy looks like. He swats a pitch -- not out of the park, it's much sweeter than that. He drills it over the first baseman's head, just out of reach of his glove. Art runs to first, laughing. Pats the first baseman's butt. Gotcha. ON GOLDEN BOY QUARTERBACK -- FRANK CUSHMAN A line of NFL scouts watch a dazzling pass from a future star. JERRY'S VOICE In Odessa, Texas, the great Frank Cushman. Cush is 20. Quarterback, role model, my client. He'll probably go number one in the draft this year. Cush turns into a closer shot. He's a living magazine cover. A YOUNG CHAMPIONSHIP GOLFER eyeing a long but level putt. JERRY'S VOICE There's genius everywhere, but until they turn pro, it's like popcorn in the pan. Some pop... The kid misses the shot, whips his club at his coach. JERRY'S VOICE (continuing) ... some don't. Hold on the kid, he's all youthful adrenalin, breathing hard. Portrait of an intense young competitor. SMASH CUT TO: 3. INT. NFL OWNERS MEETING/PALM DESERT FOUR SEASONS -- DAY A wall of new NFL merchandise. Television monitors blink with the latest endorsement films. Into frame moves JERRY MAGUIRE, 35. He walks briskly and smoothly, yellow legal tablet in hand, at home in this lobby filled with Athletes and Sports Team Owners. We hear Herb Alpert's epic instrumental, "The Lonely Bull." JERRY'S VOICE Now I'm the guy you don't usually see. I'm the one behind the scenes. I'm the sports agent. INT. NFL OWNER'S MEETING LOBBY -- MINUTES LATER Jerry sits in a red leather chair, across from an agitated General Manager. He cooly works out figures on a yellow legal tablet. JERRY Easy now, we can spread these numbers over five years... JERRY'S VOICE You know those photos where the new player holds up the team jersey and poses with the owner? Flash of photo Anonymous Athlete holds up jersey, standing next to Team Owner. Zoom in on someone's shirt-sleeve on left of frame. JERRY'S VOICE (continuing) That's me on the left. ON ANONYMOUS NEWPORT BEACH BUILDING JERRY'S VOICE Inside that building, that's where I work. Sports Management International. INT. SMI CONFERENCE ROOM -- DAY The SMI agents are a fierce, happy bunch. They sit in a carefully appointed conference room. Sports photos and posters are framed on the walls. The signs of global marketing are omnipresent. Each agent has a silver tray containing soft drinks and a glass pitcher of water. Through the glass window, we see a large office divided up into many cubicles. 4. JERRY'S VOICE Thirty-three out of shape agents guiding the careers of 2,120 of the most finely-tuned athletes alive... Near the end of the table sits Jerry Maguire. The word "millions" appears often and easily in his conversation. Shot moves in. JERRY'S VOICE (continuing) ... in this economy, sometimes emotions run a little high. INT. UNDERGROUND PARKING GARAGE -- HOUSTON -- DAY An unmarked car pulls into the underground parking facility of the Houston Police Department. A cluster of chattering media members move in on the car. ("Baja!!" "Baja, over here!!") Back doors open, and out steps Jerry Maguire with huge offensive lineman, BOBBY "BAJA" BRUNARD, 22. He is angry, and he is handcuffed. WOMAN REPORTER Was the girl 16 or seventeen? MAN REPORTER Were you aiming at anyone when you fired the shot in the 7/l1? Jerry whips in between Baja and the taunting media, blocking him off and forcing him through the glass doors into the police department. Professional smile in place, Maguire attempts spin. JERRY Listen, there's no proof of anything except that this guy is a sensational athlete. In the background, we hear baja bellowing insults at the press. INT. ATLANTA RED CARPET ROOM -- ANOTHER DAY Jerry now sits next to a towering white 27 year-old basketball player with a bad haircut. He is CALVIN NACK. They are signing a contract in the airport lounge. A little BOY approaches the player with a basketball trading card. LITTLE BOY Are you Calvin Nack? Could you sign my card? 5. Nack bends down with a kindly-looking face. CALVIN NACK I'm sorry little fella. I can't sign that particular brand of card. I can only sign Pro-Jam Blue Dot cards. The Little Boy looks confused. As Calvin Nack turns to grab an orange juice from a barmaid, Jerry smoothly dishes off a business card to the little boy. JERRY'S VOICE Lately, it's gotten worse. INT. HOSPITAL BEDROOM -- NIGHT Hockey Player STEVE REMO, 33, is a big man in a small bed. He is in traction, with concussion. DOCTOR stands nearby, shoots Jerry a look of concern. Family is nearby. DOCTOR Do you know your name? STEVE REMO I uh... wait. Wait, here it comes. I have it. My name is Steve Remo. I play for the Blackhawks. (now on a roll) You are my son. This pretty lady is my wife. And you are... Jerry nods encouragingly, presents his best "familiar" face. STEVE REMO (continuing) My agent! JERRY Yes! STEVE REMO And I gotta play this weekend, Doc. If I play in 65% of the games, I make my bonus. EXT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY -- NIGHT Remo's 14 year-old SON (JESSE) confronts Jerry outside the hospital room. He's a hulking kid, a Pop Warner football player himself. His voice is in the process of changing. 6. SON This is his fourth concussion. Shouldn't somebody get him to stop? As he talks, Jerry's cellular phone rings in his bag. JERRY (glib, easy) Come on -- it'd take a tank to stop your dad. It would take all five Super Trooper VR Warriors, right? The kid stares at Maguire. It feels as if the kid is peering into his soul... and all he sees is trash. SON Fuck you. The kid turns and exits in disgust. He leaves Jerry standing in the hallway. Devastated. Music. EXT. RENTAL CAR SHUTTLE -- DAY Jerry Maguire upset in a rental shuttle. Passing through frame. Music. Phone still ringing. INT. MIAMI HOTEL ROOM -- DAY Jerry sleeps. JERRY'S VOICE Two nights later in Miami at our corporate conference, a breakthrough. Breakdown? Breakthrough. Jerry's eyes open. Breathing strangely. Trembling, he holds onto the nightstand for grounding. He gets up, takes a few gulps of air, walks to mini-bar. Gathers some tiny ice cubes in his hand, smears them across his face. This feeling is new to him. JERRY'S VOICE (continuing) It was the oddest, most unexpected thing. I began writing what they call a Mission Statement for my company. You know -- a Mission Statement -- a suggestion for the future. 7. INT. MIAMI HOTEL ROOM -- NIGHT Jerry types, a pot of coffee and tray of room service nearby. we watch his face, alive now. There is a direct line from the deepest part of him to the words he's typing. His fingers fly. Even his eyes grow moist. JERRY'S VOICE What started out as one page became twenty-five. Suddenly I was my father's son. I was remembering the simple pleasures of this job, how I ended up here out of law school, the way a stadium sounds when one of my players performs well on the field... I was remembering even the words of the late Dicky Fox, the original sports agent, who said: SHOT OF DICKY FOX DICKY FOX The key to this job is personal relationships. As Jerry continues typing, his voice is excited now. JERRY'S VOICE And suddenly it was all pretty clear. The answer was fewer clients. Caring for them, caring for ourselves, and the games too. Starting our lives, really. SHOT OF SENTENCE: We must embrace what is still virginal about our own enthusiasm, we must crack open the tightly clenched fist and give back a little for the common good, we must simply be the best versions of ourselves... that goodness will be unbeatable and the money will appear. He pauses, and wipes his eyes, still considering the sentence. JERRY'S VOICE (continuing) Hey, I'll be the first to admit it. What I was writing was somewhat "touchy feely." He deletes it. And then -- zip -- he restores it and continues on, boldly. 8. JERRY'S VOICE (continuing) I didn't care. I had lost the ability to bullshit. It was the me I'd always wanted to be. INT. KINKO'S COPIES -- NIGHT Jerry in T-shirt stands proudly watching copies pumped out. Wired college students, band guys, other Copy People of the Night nearby. JERRY'S VOICE I printed it up in the middle of the night, before I could re-think it. Industrial, multi-pierced Kinko's copy guy examines the first printed copy of the Mission Statement. He nods approvingly, taps his heart in tribute. He slides a copy across the counter, for Jerry's approval. THE THINGS WE THINK AND DO NOT SAY (The Future of Our Business) KINKO'S GUY That's how you become great, man. You hang your ba11s out there. Jerry nods. It's 3 AM, and this guy sounds and looks like a prophet. In fact, everyone in Kinko's at 3 AM does. JERRY (self-effacing) Thanks. ON MEMOS being stuffed into mail-slots. INT. HOTEL ROOM -- MORNING Jerry splashes water onto his face. The sun is coming up. He looks younger, lighter. ON TV MOVIE (JERRY WATCHING) Suddenly, dramatic movie score. It's Dana Andrews, showing Gene Tierney the newspaper reports of her death in Laura. ("Someone was murdered in this room last night... any idea who it was?") Camera whips to Jerry, standing watching as he packs. A slight concern on his face. He moves to the phone, and dials with urgency. 9. JERRY Hi, it's jerry maguire. Uh, listen did those manuscripts get... Oh they did... No no no no no, that's fine... INT. ELEVATOR -- DAY JERRY Jerry in suit, alone with his luggage. Dry throat. clammy, holds onto the handrail to steady himself. INT. LOBBY -- DAY The lobby is filled with SMI agents. The blue Mission Statement is in evidence everywhere. Jerry inconspicuously turns the corner, yearns to blend in. It's impossible, the recognition ripples through the lobby. Underling agent BOB SUGAR, 25, is the first to grab Maguire by the shoulders. ("Finally, someone said it!") Suddenly another agent begins to clap, then reluctantly, another. Soon, the ovation rocks the lobby. (In a three-shot near the front desk, we see a 26 year-old female employee of SMI applauding with Mission Statement in hand, her sleepy son at her side.) Jerry motions for them all to stop, but clearly he could listen forever. It is a watershed moment in his life. JERRY'S VOICE I was 35. I had started my life. Swing off Maguire to find two agents standing clapping enthusiastically near the elevator. One offers gum to the other. AGENT # 1 (RACHEL) How long you give him? AGENT # 2 (CHRIS) Mmmm. A week. ON AIRPLANE WHEELS folding up into a plane, as music and credits end. INT. AIRPLANE/FIRST CLASS -- NIGHT We move past a snoring businessman, onto tired but adrenalized Jerry Maguire. He sits in first-class, working on his laptop, a pile of newspapers and magazines nearby. The WOMAN PASSENGER next to him, 3oish, finishes up a spicy phone conversation with her boyfriend. 10. WOMAN Monkeyface... monkeyface, listen... I'm not going to say it here.... no... Jerry continues to work, as his laptop now beeps. Battery's low. WOMAN (continuing) ... oh listen, I got you the perfect white shirt, at this out of the way place... no... quit trying to make me say it! Jerry shuts off his laptop and prepares for sleep. Trying not to listen. WOMAN (continuing) how about if I do it and don't say it... mmmm... see you soon... She laughs seductively and hangs up. She is still buzzed from the conversation. Jerry turns to her, surprising her. JERRY I have to ask. WOMAN (protective) What -- JERRY Where'd you find the perfect white shirt? She laughs, it's an infectious laugh -- two strangers enjoying the good life -- as we DRIFT BACK three rows, past the panel separating the cool comfort of first class from the stuffy airless and uncomfortable world of coach. We meet DOROTHY BOYD, 26. A harried passenger on this bus in the sky. Her clothes are part-contemporary, part mother- functional. She is never as composed or in control as she wants to be. Right now she is devoted to the sneezing kid in the wrinkled white-shirt sitting next to her. It is RAY, her five-year old son. Dorothy is covered in toys and books. Stuffed into the side pocket is Jerry's Mission Statement. The easy laughter from three rows ahead washes over her like cold water, as she rings again for a Flight Attendant. The overworked ATTENDANT arrives, pissed, snapping off the bell. 11. DOROTHY Look, my son is allergic to the material in these blankets - ATTENDANT That's all we have. The Attendant offers a bundle of soggy cocktail napkins and is about to exit as Ray makes a gagging noise. He's about to get sick. Both women reach for an airsick bag, and get it to his mouth just in time. Their faces are now inches apart. ATTENDANT (continuing) I'm sorry I was rude just then -- DOROTHY It's okay. We're in it together now... The Attendant now exits helpfully with the bag. WOMAN'S VOICE Don't take anything I say seriously! I love to flirt! Dorothy, irritated, leans out into the aisle to look for the heads that belong to these voices. BACK TO JERRY AND WOMAN WOMAN You're with the sports people on the plane, right? JERRY Jerry Maguire. SMI. WOMAN Bobbi Fallon. BPI. I'm producing the Coke commercials for the playoffs. JERRY Well. Good luck with that -- He nods, as he reaches up to shut off the light. Politely stifles another yawn. He shuts his eyes, settles into sleep. Bobbi leans into his darkness. WOMAN Can I just get a quick "man's" opinion from you on something? DISSOLVE TO: 12. INT. FIRST CLASS SEATS -- LATER Bobbi is intense now, unburdening, as tired Jerry listens like a priest. WOMAN And I can't say his name without laughing I want to eat him up. I want to say goodbye to every bad thought I ever had about relationships. I mean, I crave this guy... and yet... why... why did I have that affair this weekend? Does that mean I'm not in love with my boyfriend? JERRY I think you'll know when you see him at the gate. WOMAN It's the death rattle of my singlehood, right? Because I finally see the white picket fence looming and I love it/hate it/love it/hate it/ love it... you're right, I'll know when I see him. Why is it so easy to talk with you?! Tell me about your fiancee. Maguire fights another yawn. JERRY I uh... don't think we're quite at your pitch yet. WOMAN Tell me, and then you can sleep. JERRY She's an NFL publicist... amazing sense of style... former athlete... volleyball... world class... really knows how to live every moment of her life, which is why I should take a nap now... BACK TO DOROTHY Her sleeping son now silent, she can't help but listen. WOMAN'S VOICE Tell me how you proposed. I collect romantic proposal stories. 13. JERRY No no... DOROTHY (impatient) Oh, tell the story. WOMAN Oh, tell the story. BACK TO JERRY -- LATER JERRY --so our first date, she told me about her favorite place in the world, the seven pools of Hana on the island of Maui... WOMAN Gorgeous. JERRY A year-and-a-half later, we were both in Hawaii for the Pro Bowl. Now I've always hit a wall at 18 months. Every serious girlfriend lasts 18 months. It's like --ka- boom. The curse of 18 months. WOMAN That's when you need to cement, and define define define. JERRY Exactly. And the world does not need another 35 year-old bachelor. I knew I wanted to propose, so I took her there. WOMAN To the pools? JERRY To the pools. Now she's Miss Rock Climber, and I'm more the Non-Rock Climber, but we're hiking up through the pools and there's a fine mist in the air, and I have the ring in my pocket, and I'm a little nervous, I'm lagging behind, and she says to me, get this -- "Hurry up, klutz." WOMAN Oh no -- 14. JERRY Well, it bothered me somewhat. And I got quiet. And now she's quiet and we're both pouting a little, you know. And I decide I'm not going to propose. The mood is not right. Why be impulsive? Now at this point I know she knows that I was going to propose and didn't. And she knows I know. So the entire sixty mile ride back to the airport, we don't speak. And we're both good at that. We fly to Honolulu in silence. We check into the Pro Bowl hotel -- WOMAN How sad -- JERRY But wait... BACK TO DOROTHY She is now craning out into the aisle to hear this story. The plane is now quieter. She listens to the easy sound of Jerry discussing his charmed life. RAY (waking up) Mama -- DOROTHY Shhh. Mommy's eavesdropping. He sneezes, three big ones in a row. She hands him more kleenex, riveted on the story. And listens. JERRY'S VOICE Now little do I know that my assistant. has assumed that I've now proposed. So she has gotten the lounge band to actually play "Here Comes The Bride" when we walk back in. Dorothy laughs to herself, somewhat derisively. She tries to share the laugh with her son, who stares at her. 15. BACK TO JERRY -- LATER JERRY Which they do. And we're standing there. All the football guys are in the lobby, watching, there's even an ESPN crew. So I turn to her and sort of grandly say, "Well, this is me, Klutz, asking you, Goddess of Rock Climbing, to marry me." And I took out the ring, and I don't much like big scenes, but she said "yes" right there in the lobby and some of the toughest men in football wept like babies. We're getting married in February. WOMAN Jerry. You two will be together forever. BACK TO DOROTHY She takes one of her son's kleenex sheets, as an elegant Flight Attendant shuts the curtain to first class. Dorothy blows her nose, moved against her will. RAY What's wrong, mom? DOROTHY First class is what's wrong. It used to be a better meal. Now it's a better life. She pulls out the Mission Statement, aware that she's been listening to its author. She opens it and begins to read. INT. LAX AIRPORT TERMINAL -- MORNING Jerry Maguire exits the plane a few steps behind Bobbi Fallon. JERRY (quietly, like a coach) You'll know when you see him. You'll know when you see him. Bobbi scans the crowd. She spots Monkeyface, large and burly in tiger-print sweats. He looks like Mickey Dolenz. He holds flowers. 16. WOMAN Oh my God, you're right. I know. (Jerry smiles) He's not The One. He's not the One. Jerry's face falls. Bobbi Fallon moves into the embrace, faking it. Jerry moves ahead, turning back to see the doomed couple. Melancholy now, he continues forward through the crowded airport and the expectant faces of those waiting for loved ones. Music. INT. LUGGAGE AREA -- MORNING Dorothy looks through the rubber flaps of the luggage conveyor belt. She clutches a cup of coffee. In the background, other SMI agents' grab their bags and exit. DOROTHY Ray! Ray! Maguire enters picture, joining her as she looks into the dark depths behind the flaps. JERRY Can I help? DOROTHY Oh. Hi. I work in your office. I was on the junket to the conference. I'm -- JERRY I know who y6u are. You're Dorothy Boyd. You're in... wait... you're in Accounts. You have the middle cubicle toward the back with that poster of Albert Einstein morphed onto Shaquille 0 Neal's body. DOROTHY (surprised) Hmm. Pretty good. JERRY Now what did you lose? DOROTHY My son... my mind... Over her shoulder, Maguire sees Ray rounding the corner, riding the luggage conveyor belt like Washington crossing the Delaware. 17. JERRY Well, while I go look for him, why don't you hang onto this curious gentleman behind you -- Dorothy turns, is greatly relieved to see Ray, and snatches him off the belt. She bends down into his face. She speaks softly but intensely, with no frills. DOROTHY Remember "imagination?"... remember what that means? Well, this is one of my bosses so you will now IMAGINE me screaming at you right now. Do NOT do that again. Ever ever EVER. She rises, shifting back to being a somewhat relaxed young woman of 26. It's a transition she makes, oh, 500 times a day. DOROTHY (continuing) Well, thanks. JERRY Well, take care. DOROTHY And have fun at your bachelor party. Jerry pauses just a moment, but it's long enough. Dorothy freezes. DOROTHY (continuing) Oh no. JERRY No no. I knew. DOROTHY (slow sigh) Nnnnn. I just killed the surprise. JERRY No, I'm just... anxiously looking past it. I already had my bachelor party. It was called "my twenties." See you later. Jerry takes off. 18. DOROTHY I loved your memo, by the way. He stops. Turns. She flashes the well-thumbed copy in her purse. Jerry takes a step closer, interested and flattered. JERRY Thanks... actually, it was just a "Mission Statement." Ray has taken Jerry's free hand, and begun swinging on him. DOROTHY I think in this age, optimism like that... it's a revolutionary act. JERRY (eager for feedback) You think so? DOROTHY Oh tsht. Yes. JERRY I appreciate that, because some of that stuff... you know, it was two in the morning and... DOROTHY -- the part about "we should embrace what it is still virginal about our enthusiasm" -- Jerry looks slightly edgy at the naked vulnerability of his words. DOROTHY (continuing) -- "and we should all force open the tightly-clenched fist of commerce, and give a little back for the greater good.". I mean, I was inspired, and I'm an accountant. Ray, don't spill my coffee. Jerry looks more nervous, as Ray has now taken his mother's hand. He is now swinging on both of them. RAY One-two-three... swing. 19. DOROTHY Hey. To respect yourself enough to say it out loud, to put yourself out there, so openly... (shakes her head) ... I don't know, it got me. Now Jerry looks concerned, as Ray continues swinging happily. RAY One-two-three, swing. JERRY Thanks. May I offer you both a ride? DOROTHY Oh no. I'm sure it would just make your day to drive us all the way to Manhattan Beach, taking that left down to little tiny Waterloo street where you have to play chicken with oncoming traffic, and your life flashes before your eyes, but -- hey, I've obviously had too much coffee and all -- here's my sister Laurel to pick us up. Thanks, though. Bye. JERRY (amused) Dorothy. Ray. A pleasure. RAY One-two... Jerry lets Ray down easy. The kid is a little disappointed. But Maguire bows, always courtly, and exits to get his bag. He then realizes something amiss and returns quickly, pulling Ray's hand up again and completing the swing. JERRY ... three, swing. Ray is now happy, in love even, as Jerry exits. Dorothy laughs, as her sister arrives. LAUREL BOYD is 36. No make-up, no bullshit. Laurel has a pin on her sweater, which catches on dorothy's shirt as they hug. LAUREL Come on, I'm double-parked. Dorothy returns to the world of motherhood, bending down, gathering Ray's toys. She wipes at Ray's hair. 20. ("Don't put food in your hair.") She is surprised that she's a little jazzed from her encounter with Jerry Maguire. She can't help but look back at Jerry, who catches her looking. He salutes her, with mock circumstance. She returns it with a guilty smile. He disappears, and she finds herself oddly short of breath. DOROTHY (to herself) Hmmph. Whoever snagged him must be some classy babe -- INT. AVERY'S BEDROOM -- NIGHT AVERY BISHOR, 29, makes love to Jerry Maguire at fever pitch. They are standing on the bed, which is in the corner. AVERY Don't ever stop fucking me! JERRY Sooner... or later... I'll have to stop. AVERY Oh Gawd, oh yes, it's never been better. Never BETTER!! Nearby, a large and sleepy German Shepard yawns. AVERY (continuing) Never BETTER!! The dog snaps awake, a little shook. Avery suddenly yanks away. Breathing hard, she just looks at Jerry. Sex is a very serious business with Avery. AVERY (continuing) Open your eyes. (he does) If you ever want me to be with another woman for you, I would do it. I'm not interested in it. There was a time, yes, it felt normal for me, but it was a phase, a college thing, like torn Levi's or law school for you... people change, but if you ever feel like being adventurous in that way, I would do it for you. You want anything from the kitchen I'm going to get some fruit -- 21. She skips off like a colt. Jerry digests what he's just been told. JERRY (to the next room) You know. I don't think we need to do the thing where we tell each other everything! AVERY (O.S.) (laughing) Jerry, this is what intimacy is! Jerry rubs his face, as he does often when processing complex information. AVERY (0.5.) Oh -- don't forget tomorrow we have dinner with Wade Cooksey. JERRY (0.5.) I know about the bachelor party. Avery returns. Her robo body, half-lit now in the hallway, is a glorious life-long project. AVERY Who told you? JERRY One of the accountants. She makes a pissed-off sound. She then walks over, taking his shoulders and bending them forward. She is an expert at body manipulation, loosening him as she talks. AVERY Jerry. Your buddy Dooler worked his ass off to make you a tribute film. All those guys from the office are coming. Everybody loves you. Just calm down, relax, act surprised, and have an amazing time. And you'll never guess who narrates your bachelor movie. INT. FANCY HOTEL SUITE -- NIGHT Jerry enters the hotel suite and over-acts surprise. He falls down, clutching his heart, feigning an attack. He looks around for a bigger reaction than he actually gets. THE FILM -- SHOWN ON BIG-SCREEN T.V. It is hosted by MICHAEL JORDAN. 22. MICHAEL JORDAN I have often wondered where my career would have been had Jerry Maguire been my agent. The answer -- Yugoslavia. Tepid laughs, as many of the agents turn and grab furtive looks at Maguire, who stands at the back of the room with his friend BILL DOOLER. Dooler, husky, 30, looks like a beatnik on steroids. DOOLER You hear those courtesy laughs, Jerry? There is a seething wrongness at the edges of this party. JERRY Oh come on -- DOOLER This is fuckin Michael Jordan, man! They should be screaming. JERRY (eying crowd) You're imagining it. They are joined by unctuous agent Bob Sugar. Sugar is a Maguire wannabee. Puts an arm on Jerry's shoulder. SUGAR We still having lunch tomorrow, Jerry? Looks like Carl Denton tested positive for marijuana. That moves Cush solidly up to numero uno in the draft. DOOLER Oh, that'll really help this party! Let's all talk business! JERRY Dooler, you know Bob Sugar. SUGAR (smoothly) The best commercial director in the business. I hail you. DOOLER Sorry I yelled. You have exquisite taste. 23. SUGAR Everybody's having a great time. You're both nuts -- the movie's great. Sugar moves on, cheerfully. DOOLER I like that guy. (The movie, which plays simultaneously with the conversation, is a Hi-8 confessional of Jerry's former girlfriends. MICHAEL JORDAN is cut into this, nodding, as if he were actually interviewing. The effect is funny, but the confessions are brutally honest. There is The One He Was Too Good For, The One He Wasn't Good Enough For ("He hated being alone.") The Still in Love Girlfriend, The Punk Rock girlfriend ("Sports makes me ill"), The Now Married With Kids Girlfriend, The Cynical Girlfriend ("Beneath the cute exterior, more cute exterior.") The Purely Sexual Girlfriend, The Brainy Girlfriend, ("Great at friendship, bad at intimacy") and even the Girlfriend Who Does A Great Jerry Imitation (rubbing her face, she does a flawless Jerry-on-his- way-to-the-airport). All seem to agree on some basic points (and if necessary maybe Jordan narrates the following information to underscore it.) Jerry always has a girlfriend, and many met him on the first day he'd broken up with the last one. The relationship always competes with his job, and the job always wins. The final confrontation happens somewhere around the 18-month mark. Sequence ends with Avery in character, wielding a blowtorch, threatening to burn all these old phone numbers.) JERRY (wounded good sport) ... this is... uh... too funny... DOOLER They ain't laughing, man. Something's wrong. Jerry nods, takes a swig of beer. He knows the response is little more than polite. None of the other agents can keep eye contact with him. Dooler is right. On the screen, the finale features a good-humored collage of Jerry photos, cut to music. INT. SMI OFFICE -- DAY Elevator doors open. Maguire is now paranoid. He walks through the buzzing SMI headquarters, heading for his corner office. He is like an FBI man searching treetops and corners for the Gunman. Everywhere he looks is a potential Grassy Knoll. 24. He passes Fellow Agents, always smiling, giving a word of encouragement to an Agent having an emotional hallway conversation with an Athlete, even bends down to check the sheet of slides being approved by a very large but seated Basketball Player. Moving forward. There is trouble in the air, but only he seems to sense it. He turns corner and is met by assistant WENDY, who hands him a long list of calls. The sheet flaps against his leg as she moves with him toward his back office. WENDY (as in 'get ready') Marcee's here. She's already in your office. JERRY Thanks, Wendy. INT. JERRY MAGUIRE'S OFFICE -- DAY Jerry enters his corner office overlooking both the shiny waters of Newport Beach and a large mall parking lot. Already standing, reading the mail on his desk is lively MARCEE TIDWELL, 25. African-American, gorgeous, a heat-seeking smartbomb. She is also five months pregnant. JERRY Marcee. How's my favorite player's wife? MARCEE Jerry, Rod is very very upset. Tyson, no! Across the room, 4 year-old menace TYSON ceases trying to pry a plexiglass case off the wall. JERRY Tyson, hello. Tyson just stares at Jerry. Jerry has little luck with kids. He gives Marcee a quick peck and heads for the fridge. He grabs a two-pint bottle of orange Gatorade -- another habit -- and sits down at his desk. He slips into crisis mode like an old shirt. JERRY (continuing) How can I make your life better? MARCEE I know you say to take the Arizona offer, but my husband needs more recognition. (more) 25. MARCEE (cont'd) He is the biggest, fastest, raddest wide-receiver in the league. Now I don't know what you do for your four-percent --The door opens, Bob Sugar pokes his head in. SUGAR Cronin's okay for lunch? JERRY Marcee -- this is one of our agents. This is Bob Sugar, who needs to learn to knock. SUGAR Pleasure. MARCEE You've called our house, right? SUGAR Sorry to interrupt you guys. Sugar exits. Marcee resumes at the exact point, at the exact level of intensity. MARCEE Now I don't know what you do for your five-percent, but this man, my husband has a whole plan, an image... we majored in marketing, Jerry, and when you put him in a Waterbed Warehouse commercial, excuse me, you are making him common. He is pure gold and you're giving him "Waterbed Warehouse" when he deserves the big four -- shoe, car, clothing- line, soft-drink. The four jewels of the celebrity endorsement dollar. Jerry finds himself admiring her drive, and she commands the best in him. The desk buzzes, and Jerry ignores it. MARCEE (continuing) You gonna get that -- JERRY Not a chance. She smiles. 26. JERRY (continuing) Marcee, things are changing around here. You and Rod will have my total personal attention. MARCEE (upping the ante) Damn right, and you can start by taking Rod's poster and putting it where people can see it! JERRY (it's infectious) Damn right. He climbs up on the edge of his sofa, and reaches for the poster with his hanging device. True to Marcee's complaint, the poster hangs in the upper Siberian region of his wall. MARCEE Look at that handsome man, trying to build a life up there by the air-conditioner. We're coming to get ya, darlin! We are so close to having it all! ON THE POSTER -- CLOSE It is the kind of poster that is strictly the domain of second-tier players. Commanding wide-receiver ROD TIDWELL, 27, stands shirtless, hands on hips, looking vaguelyl uncomfortable. Emplazoned above his head: IN ROD WE TRUST. Elsewhere in the room, we hear the inevitable crash ("Tyson!"). EXT. CRONIN'S GRILL -- AFTERNOON Crowded outdoor restaurant in the business district. Jerry sits down opposite Bob Sugar, still making a few notes. JERRY Gimme a second here... Tidwell... Arizona contract... new glass cabinet... SUGAR You okay? JERRY (looking up) I'm fine. What's up? SUGAR I came here to let you go. 27. JERRY Pardon me? SUGAR Came here to fire you, Jerry. For a long moment there is only silence. They study each other. These are two smart boys, each one anticipating the other's next three or four moves. SUGAR (continuing) It's real, Jerry. You... you should say something. Suddenly he's flushed, a little embarrassed. JERRY Aw shit...the crowded restaurant... so there's no scene... SUGAR I know. It sucks. I suck. In a back room, the waiters are singing the restaurant's "Birthday Song" to someone else. Jerry is dying. JERRY You... SUGAR (razor sharp) You did this to yourself. You said "fewer clients." You put it all on paper. Scully was very upset. Heart attacks make some people sweeter, but not him. You did this to yourself -- Jerry's mouth opens to finish his sentence, but before he can speak, Sugar continues. SUGAR (continuing) -- although I do gotta hand it to you. For about five minutes you had everyone applauding smaller revenues. Quietly, Maguire finishes the sentence he started earlier. JERRY You... ungrateful... unctuous... 28. SUGAR (unctuous) ... dick? JERRY Dick. Maguire reaches for water. The sound of the ice cubes jangling is suddenly very loud to him. He is drowning. SUGAR Give me a little credit for doing this face-to-face! What I went through knowing I was going to do this to my mentor! Can you get past yourself for a second? JERRY You'll lose. SUGAR (musically) You wanted smaller. JERRY I'm over it. Now I want all my clients and yours too. SUGAR Jerry -- JERRY -- and I'll get 'em. SUGAR (patronizing) You'll always be my hero, Jerry. Always always always. We're bringing other elements in, we're focusing on endorsements -- it's not about handholding anymore. We're no longer babysitters -- Jerry fights the desire to use his fists. Hangs onto the table. He's starting to freak out now. Trying to calm down. Sugar's mouth keeps moving, but we hear the music in Jerry's mind. Rising percussive music. EXT. STREET -- DAY Jerry tries to move briskly down the street, through the lunchtime businessmen traffic. Back to the office. 29. INT. CRONIN'S -- DAY Sugar dines alone now. Casually whips out a portable phone. INT. SMI ELEVATOR -- DAY Jerry in the elevator, eyes wide, mind racing. Dorothy Boyd sees him, raises a hand to say hello. Decides this is not a good time. INT. SMI OFFICE -- DAY Close on Maguire as he moves through the office, heading to the back office. Music INT. JERRY'S OFFICE -- DAY Maguire rolls the fax machine over to his desk. He takes a breath, and begins to go to work. From within his bottom drawer, he withdraws a Powerbook. Then from another drawer, a phone book. And then from his inner jacket pocket, a third smaller phone book. They are lined in front of him now, as he dials. INT. CUSHMAN HOME/ODESSA -- DAY Frank "Cush" Cushman picks up the phone. Today, the young football God wears a yellow scarf on his head. He's still playing NBA Jam on his Gameboy' as he talks. EXT. CRONIN'S -- DAY Sugar at the table. Chameleon-like, he adopts the personality of whomever he talks to. SUGAR Cush. Hey Dudeboy! It's Bob Sugar. Listen, I'm callin' ya first 'cause you're the most important guy in sports... INT. JERRY'S OFFICE -- DAY Maguire on the telephone, fighting hard, as he feeds a fax into the machine at the same time. JERRY Carla, right now you're paying 25% of your endorsments to SMI, I would cut my commission by 7%... As he talks, he takes a stack of his Mission Statements, once proudly set on his desk, and sentences them to the bottom drawer. 30. EXT. STREET -- DAY Sugar strolls back to the office, talking on the portable. SUGAR You read that memo I snuck to you, the guy's tired of the job. Tired of making you money. INT. JERRY'S OFFICE -- DAY Maguire feeds a fax, types another fax on his Powerbook, all while he talks quickly on the phone. JERRY And when I got you that big contract in Chicago, and the fan poll in the Sun-Times was 93% against you, who went and found you that sympathetic journalist who turned it all around, it was me... INT. SUGAR'S OFFICE -- DAY Several other agents working the cause behind Sugar, who breezes through the calls. SUGAR He's costing you money, Debra... he's oldschool. INT. JERRY'S OFFICE -- DAY Jerry on the toilet. Not a minute to spare. JERRY SMI represents all three quarterbacks on your team, where's their loyalty going to be? You stay with me, I'd fight for YOU alone. You'd be my only client on that team... INT. SUGAR'S OFFICE -- DAY SUGAR I've got the clients. I've got the juice. INT. SMI OFFICE -- DAY Dorothy walks the center hallway with some contracts. To the right and left of her are the phones are ringing. 31. Something is amiss. She stops at the desk of fellow Accounts Exec CLEO, 32. DOROTHY What's going on? CLEO (no big deal) They fired Jerry Maguire. Did it at Cronin's. Dorothy groans softly, as she lowers herself into her seat. She is strangely affected by the news. She scoots back on her roller chair, and looks down the hallway to Maguire's office door. INT. JERRY'S OFFICE -- DAY The pace has accelerated. JERRY -- personal attention -- INT. SUGAR'S OFFICE -- DAY Sugar talks faster. SUGAR -- more money, more endorsements -- INT. JERRY'S OFFICE -- DAY Jerry talks faster than sugar. JERRY -- a family of athletes -- INT. SUGAR'S OFFICE -- DAY Sugar talks faster than Jerry. SUGAR -- the millenium, eight-hundred channels more endorsements. Think of me, think of dollars. INT. JERRY'S OFFICE -- DAY Jerry shows signs of tiring. JERRY Kathy! Hi, it's Jerry Maguire. INT. REHEARSAL ROOM -- DAY 32. KATHY SANDERS, 22 year-old figure skater, sits on a couch. Nearby are cardboard stand-ups, souvenirs of past endorsements. Also, the famous gold-medal shot from the Olympics. Kathy's adoring Mom and Dad sit next to her, listening in on the extension. The Mission Statement is folded open on Dad's lap. Kathy chokes on every other word, such is her anguish. KATHY I already heard from Bob Sugar. Jerry I want to cry for what they did to you at SMI. You helped me win that gold at the Olympics, we have history, and... oh Jerry... if we weren't in the middle of the Accura deal, you know I'd go with you! (starts to break down) Oh Jerry, oh God... There is a click on the line. She is pained and outraged. KATHY (continuing) ... Call Waiting... who could be calling me now?... She clicks the phone once. Her voice is suddenly cheery. KATHY (continuing) Hiyee. INT. JERRY'S OFFICE JERRY Still me, Kathy. She instantly starts "crying" again. KATHY Ohhhhhhhh... INT. SUGAR'S OFFICE -- DUSK Sugar crosses off another name on his list. SUGAR It's not show "friends". It's show business. INT. JERRY'S OFFICE -- DUSK Jerry on the phone. It's getting harder to crank it up. 33. JERRY Rod! How ya doing? Jerry Maguire. INTERCUT INT. TIDWELL KITCHEN/HOUSE -- DAY ROD TIDWELL, 27, begins this conversation in the kitchen. He is a powerful physical presence, and he holds a hot new cellular phone. He fixes young son Tyson a bowl of cereal as he talks. In the background, monitoring the crisis is Marcee Tidwell. ROD TIDWELL "How am I doing?" I'll tell you. I'm sweatin, dude! That's how I'm "doin." I'm sweatin my contract. I'm sweatin' Bob Sugar calling and telling me I'm blowing the big endorsements if I stay with you. I'm sweatin'. You hear what I'm saying? JERRY I hear what you're saying... TIDWELL No. I hear that you hear what I'm saying. But do you hear what I'm saying? INT. SUGAR'S OFFICE -- SAME TIME Sugar works off a wristwatch. He spends no longer than three minutes on each call. SUGAR I'll bet he hasn't even called you yet, right Jennifer? Wait, I need to cough... He covers the phone, as another agent hands him a cellular with another call on it. SUGAR (continuing) Hi, Ben, it's Sugar, hold on a second, have you heard from Maguire? You haven't???? Well, that tells you a lot. Hold on, gotta cough... Back to the other call. 34. SUGAR (continuing) So Jennifer... INT. JERRY'S OFFICE Jerry is still on the same Tidwell call. Looking at his watch. TIDWELL Alright, we're just getting started on my list of things you need to know. Take notes if you want to. JERRY (dying) Okay. INT. TIDWELL HALLWAY -- NIGHT Tidwell walks down the hallway, past clippings and citations from his career. Marcee follows, always listening. TIDWELL Good, 'cause see, I am a valuable commodity. I go across the middle. I see the ball and a dude coming right at me, wanting to kill me, I tell my brain "get killed, catch the ball." That's New York Steak, baby. Rare. And yet, nobody's giving me LOVE. Nobody's giving me PROPS. Nobody. I went to Arizona State, I'm from Arizona, I break Arizona records, I'm a Sun Devil, man!!! JERRY Now you want Arizona dollars. TIDWELL Exactly. And I'm sitting here with an ant problem, look! And my brother Tee Pee's room is flooded with water. Say hello to Jerry Maguire -- We meet the messy-haired and slightly overweight brother of Tidwell, TEE PEE, 24. Tee Pee, who lives free of charge in Rod's house, is a nakedly jealous and more political version of his brother. He says into the phone: TEE PEE Hello Jerry Maguire. 35. Tidwell takes the phone back, and continues through the house, with Tee Pee now following the procession of family monitoring the important call. TIDWELL -- the house is fallin' apart, we don't even know where we're gonna live in a year, and I'm supposed to be a "superstar," man! Are you catching my flow, here? Jerry looks at his watch. Doomed. JERRY I need a decision from you, Rod. INT. SUGAR'S OFFICE -- NIGHT Sugar has three phones going. SUGAR Killer, Steve, good decision. (next call) So it's yes, right? Excellente. (next call) Tell me it's yes... yes? YES! Tidwell enters bedroom. Marcee, Tyson and Tee Pee in tow. TIDWELL -- now to recap, I want to stay in Arizona, I want my new contract, I like you, you're nice to my wife, I will stay with you, that's what I'm doing for you, but here's what you're gonna do for me. You listening? JERRY (dying) Mmm. Hmm. TIDWELL It's a very personal, very important thing. It's a family motto. So I want to share it with you. You ready? JERRY Yes. TIDWELL Here it is. "Show me the money." (pause) Show. Me. The. Money. 36. JERRY I got it. TIDWELL Now doesn't that just make you feel good to say it? Say it with me. The lights have gone down in the city, and he hasn't had a chance to turn his own light on. He sits in the oncoming darkness, watching the blinking white lights on the phone bank on the desk. JERRY Show. Me. The. Money. TIDWELL Congratulations. You're still my agent. Tidwell hangs up. Feeling good about the decision, he enters his closet and adds today's shoes to an enormous shoe collection. Nearby, Tee Pee shakes his head. TEE PEE An African-American man running with a little ball, working for white owners and white agents. It's the iconography of rascism... (off Tidwell's dismissive look) ... but I woulda stayed at the bigger company. INT. SUGAR'S OFFICE -- DAY Sugar crosses the last call off his sheet, and throws himself on the sofa. He lands in reclining mode with a soft pooof. The younger turks watch their new leader. Victory is his. INT. JERRY'S OFFICE -- NIGHT Jerry stands at the door, holding some belongings. He looks back and symbolically flips the light switch off. Unfortunately he hasn't realized the lights are already off. So, in his final gesture, surprising himself, he has weirdly turned the lights on. EXT. CORNER OFFICE -- NIGHT Bam. Jerry's door opens. He exits his office with box. He is now in a state of advancing melancholy, slightly unhinged. Many of the other agents now try not to watch him leaving. 37. JERRY Well, don't worry! I'm not going to do what you think I'm going to do, which is FLIP OUT! JERRY (continuing) Jerry goes to a water dispenser, calming himself, and fills a small Dixie cup. Downs it and fills it again, rubbing his face.. JERRY (continuing) But let me just say, as I ease out of the office I helped build -- sorry, but it's a fact -- ON DOROTHY -- WATCHING from her cubicle. JERRY -- that there is such a thing as manners. A way of treating people... He notices the fish tank nearby. He attemps to be profound. JERRY (continuing) These fish have manners! They have manners. And now Jerry feels bravado, mixed with a wave of anger. Another cup of water as he finds power. JERRY (continuing) In fact. They're coming with me! I'm starting a new company, and the fish will come with me and... you can call me sentimental. He begins dipping into the tank, grabbing the one exotic fish that failed to escape his cup. It's a fire-tailed Peruvian beauty. He grabs a baggie from an assistant's desk, shakes out some crumbs, and dumps the fish inside. JERRY (continuing; to fish) it's okay... it's okay... Nearby, a Xerox Repair Guy watches the human train wreck. 38. JERRY (continuing) But if anybody else wants to come with me, this moment will be the ground floor of something real and fun and inspiring and true in this godforsaken business and we will do it together! Who's coming with me besides... "Flipper" here? But clearly even Flipper is not happy with the new arrangement. Panicked, he whips around the small baggie. JERRY (continuing) Anybody going with me? Silence, someone coughs, as agents and office personnel look on with equal parts pity and embarrassment. Jerry downs another small cup of water. His lid is blowing off with each second. JERRY (continuing) Wendy? Shall we? Assistant Wendy looks at Maguire. Painfully polite: WENDY I'm three months away from the pay increase, Jerry. I have to, uh... you know, stay. Jerry absorbs the blow, and takes the keys from the top of her desk. She can't look at him. Jerry stands alone, the blue Mission Statement on Wendy's desk sits accusingly in frame. There is only silence now, the loudest kind. JERRY Okay, anybody else? ON DOROTHY She looks around. Doesn't anybody believe in the very thing they were applauding three days ago? She has an odd reaction, a muscle twitch of the soul. Before she knows it, she stands boldly, unfortunately knocking a cup of coffee onto herself in the process. DOROTHY I'll go with you. (quietly, on her coffee mess) Wonderful... 39. She dabs at her pants. Next to her, Cleo looks on sadly. ON JERRY halfway across the office. JERRY Dorothy Boyd! Thank you! She gathers her things, increasingly aware of what she's done. JERRY (continuing) We will see you all again. Sleep tight! He walks to Dorothy, and together they exit down the hallway corridor, past the framed posters and awards. WIDE-SHOT rising over the huge office. For the first time, we see the full expanse of the huge SMI headquarters. And down in the corner of the frame, two small figures leave carrying boxes. JERRY (to Dorothy) Let's see how they do without us. A beat of silence, then noise returns to its normal commercial roar. A couple of fleas have been swatted off the carcass of an immense beast. INT. ELEVATOR -- NIGHT The tragic-sounding beep of the elevator passing floors. Jerry Maguire stands with Dorothy, both still charged with adrenalin. And then the first pangs of dread. There is silence. The elevator stops. A young, amorous Couple enters. Both are about 24, and the Guy presses a number five flights down. In a moment, we realize they are deaf. They sign to each other, murmuring noises of love. And then the Guy signs something, obviously powerful, because the Girl emits a delighted gasp, as does Dorothy. The Couple are truly in their own world. They kiss before exiting on their floor. And suddenly the elevator seems empty without them. JERRY Wonder what he said. DOROTHY My favorite aunt is hearing impaired. He said "you complete me." 40. They continue on in silence. INT. BUILDING LOBBY -- NIGHT Jerry and Dorothy pass through another office's party. Loud music. It's a pre-Easter party thrown for the building employees and their children. Jerry and Dorothy squeeze through with boxes and fish. EXT. SMI PARKING LOT -- NIGHT Jerry and Dorothy walk to their cars. Music in distance. DOROTHY So I know this is a bad time, but -- you will have a medical program, right? JERRY Sure. Yes. Medical, I don't know. He spaces out for a moment. Awkwardly, she touches him briefly. DOROTHY And I guess we didn't talk about money. So, I'll just dive in -- JERRY Give me your number. I'll call tomorrow. I'm just a little. I'm a little insane right now. (off her look) But it's going to be great. DOROTHY No no, I know -- They arrive at her red Camry. She writes her number on the back of a business card. JERRY But I mean really... wonderfully... (out of steam) great. DOROTHY (unsure) Absolutely. She climbs into her car, rolls down the window. JERRY And when you think about what you've done later, don't panic. 41. DOROTHY Me? No. My sister -- it's a good bet. She starts the engine. DOROTHY (continuing) That took guts. JERRY Same to you. She salutes him as she drives off. His own move, played back to him. Camera moves away from Jerry, as he stands alone in the parking lot. Salutes her in return. Herb Alpert. "The Lonely Bull." Stripped of power, his once mighty theme now seems puny. FADE TO EXT. DOROTHY'S HOME -- NIGHT Lights glow inside this small-but-cozy home on a side street in Manhattan Beach. Windows open. The sound of women's voices. INT. LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT A living room filled with ten earnest, talkative Divorced Women. This is their talk group. We meet JAN, 30, who speaks shyly, thoughtfully, covering her braces often as she speaks. She holds a too-full glass of red wine. (Much of the talk in this Women's Group will be improved by our cast of actresses) JAN I love men. I respect men. But that doesn't change the fact that most of them belong in cages... The other nine women nod with deep understanding. INT. KITCHEN -- NIGHT Dorothy does the dishes. Across the room, Laurel has her nightly cigarette, blowing smoke out the window. She is a no- frills woman. She has some time ago shut off those aspects of her life spent pursuing the opposite sex. They are in mid- argument. LAUREL What about medical? DOROTHY Of course, medical! 42. LAUREL (unconvinced) You are a single mother. You have given up the right to be frivolous. DOROTHY (irritated) If you'd read what he wrote, you would have left with him too. LAUREL (more irritated) You know how much those Well Child exams cost -- DOROTHY (overlapping) Of course I know -- LAUREL/DOROTHY A hundred and fifty dollars. LAUREL And that's just when he's well -- They talk over each other arguing for a moment and then: DOROTHY Wait. Where is he? LAUREL He's in the living room asleep. Dorothy dries her hands, flicking in a hurry. DOROTHY Wonderful. Next time you lecture me, don't leave my little boy in a room with your Divorced Women's Group... She exits in a hurry, as Laurel throws her cigarette into the garbage disposal. She has a hard time saying this, so she says it so nobody can hear: LAUREL Sorry. INT. LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT Ray dreams sweetly in the middle of this rockbed of Women's Woes. Dorothy strokes his head, as she plucks him up. In frame another woman, ALICE, 50, speaks passionately to the group. 43. ALICE Okay I've finally, finally, gotten my anger straight here. I'm going to visualize Carl being here and finally tell him -- DOROTHY Shhhh! Dorothy exits, protectively stroking her son's head. DOROTHY (continuing) Come on, buddy, we're going to bed. INT. HALLWAY-- NIGHT She stops for a moment, little boy in her hands. The enormity of the day arrives with a thud. DOROTHY (to herself) What did I do? INT. JERRY'S CONDO -- NIGHT Jerry is quickly packing for a road trip. Avery looks on. They are both in a manic state. JERRY The power move is to go unannounced. (sotto) Black suit, right? AVERY (sotto) And the egyptian cotton shirt that works with or without the jacket. (full volume) Tell me again, how was it left with Cush? JERRY (perfect imitation) "Dad says we gwan sleep on it. AVERY Ugh! JERRY (turns, with clothes) Seventy-two clients. ONE stayed. (sotto) Jacket on, tie in pocket. 44. AVERY (sotta) Good. (full volume) They're all heatseekers! All of them, everybody. You keep one superstar and they'll all follow. There's no real loyalty, and the first person who told me that, Jerry Maguire, was you. JERRY I think I was trying to sleep with you at the time. AVERY Well, it worked, and I will not let you fail. You are Jerry Ma- fuckin-guire. JERRY That's right. AVERY King of the Housecalls! Master of the Living Room! JERRY Okay, this is working. AVERY You are not a loser. Jerry stops, turns. The way she says "loser" is the most elegant of disses. She wraps her lips around it like a cheap hot dog. JERRY Who said anything about "loser?" Where do you get this word "loser?" AVERY I'm sorry. I was on a roll. I meant something else. When do you want to leave? Jerry zips his brown travel bag shut. He is packed and ready. JERRY Now. AVERY Let's go. I'll drive you. 45. JERRY (stops, an odd thought) What if I don't get him? Avery takes his bag, heads for the door. AVERY Function function function. Forward motion is everything. Cush saves all. Jerry takes a breath, exits. Music. AIRPLANE WHEELS folding up. Music continues. INT. RENT-A-CAR -- MORNING Jerry drives the bumpiest Texas backroad ever. Music continues. EXT. CUSHMAN DOOR -- DAY Jerry exits car. Adjusts the jacket. Takes the tie off too, returns to the car and tosses it inside. He walks to the front door with purpose. Suddenly an intercom crackles, jolting him with a booming and cheerful voice: MATT CUSHMAN'S VOICE No sports agents allowed! Ha ha. Jerry spots the small electronic camera pointed at him from the upper-corner of this rustic home. The door buzzes. INT. CUSHMAN HALLWAY/DEN -- DAY Jerry follows the voice down a hallway loaded with Cush memorabilia. Righteous indignation building. MATT CUSHMAN'S VOICE I'm in the back den, Jerry. He moves into the den, finding MATT CUSHMAN, 40, who stands at the living room bar. Two framed game jerseys on the wall. A large draped American flag above the bar. He is a J. Crew cowboy. MATT You like a Bloody Beer, Jerry? Beer and tomato juice -- 46. JERRY No thanks. Maguire takes a breath, and sharply begins his pitch. JERRY (continuing) Matt, I came here because in all honesty your son is just another piece of cattle to SMI. But to me -- MATT (overlapping) We decided to stay with you. On pure instinct, he hugs Matt Cushman. The move surprises them both. And somewhere out of nowhere, come a few surprising tears of relief. He has been spared. JERRY Oh, thank you. MATT Told myself -- if he shows up, we'll stick with him. JERRY You know, I'm not a hugger and yet... I can't let go. Matt laughs, as Cush lopes in from the kitchen. Little brother KEITH, 14, enters with him. CUSH Hey, Jerry, what's been going on? INT. DEN -- LATER DAY -- HANDHELD Cush, Matt and Jerry brainstorm around the ceremonial "wagon- wheel table" where decisions are made in this house. Jerry is giddy, charged up, a part of the human race again. MATT I want him to go number one in the draft, and I want him to play. JERRY It's either going to be Denver or San Diego trading up to take him. CUSH (big grin) Hell, I'll either surf or ski. I don't care. 47. MATT Denver is where he should be. JERRY I'll give it everything. MATT You know I don't do "contracts." But'cha do have my word, and it's stronger than oak. Jerry toasts Matt with a bloody beer. A good day. INT. RENT-A-CAR/TEXAS -- DAY Jerry drives back on the same bumpy road. On the radio, it's the Rolling Stones. He wants to sing along. He thinks he knows the words, but... JERRY (sings) Feelin... He realizes he doesn't know the words at all. He switches channels. Finds a Rush song, with ornate lyrics. No one will ever know what the words are. He switches again and finds "Let's Groove Tonight" by Earth, Wind and Fire. Excellent. He begins singing nonsense noises, passionately. Switches again. All he wants is to sing along with a song he knows. Finally he finds Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "Refugee." He drives through the countryside, singing the call and response of the song, like a happy idiot. INT. DALLAS/FT. WORTH AIRPORT -- DAY Jerry turns into shot. He's on the pay-phone. He's jacked. JERRY Dorothy? Jerry Maguire! Is Avery there? Where can I reach her? INTERCUT INT. DOROTHY/LAUREL'S HOUSE -- DAY Dorothy is at her home work desk. Curious and nervous about the new arrangement. DOROTHY Uh, she had to fly to Atlanta, didn't leave me her hotel number. 48. Through the back kitchen door comes CHAD THE NANNY, 29, red hair cropped above the ear. Baggy overalls. Slipping through life with little turbulence. He's with Ray, who holds pieces of wood and a hammer. CHAD The new playhouse rocks, Dotty. RAY (jumping) Yeah! DOROTHY Honey -- later, okay? (Ray jumps on her) Whoop. Wait. JERRY Hello? DOROTHY (back to phone) Sorry, that's my son and the nanny. I had the calls transferred to my home so I could go over your stuff. Chad now notices the slight excited tone in her demeanor. He sits down nearby and listens to her talk to Maguire. JERRY No, that's fine. What calls came in today? DOROTHY Wait. That's yesterday, from the other office. Today is... She flips the call record from yesterday --150 calls -- to today, which is blank. DOROTHY (continuing) ... light. JERRY Shit, it's just so frustrating to not be able to talk to Avery -- AVERY Wait a minute, it has to be one of the NFL hotels we do business with -- let me look -- but in the meantime, about this job -- 49. She reaches over Ray to get to her laptop and buzzes through a list of phone numbers. Jerry can't help but share the qood news: JERRY (importantly) Dorothy, let me tell you something, we are back. We are so very very back. I re-signed Cush. We're set. DOROTHY We are? JERRY It's all going to work. DOROTHY I just got goosebumps. She examines her own skin with surprise. JERRY (manic, quiet) It's all going to work. We're going to save the world. DOROTHY Well, I'm happy for you. JERRY Happy for us. Oddly, the phrase affects her physically. DOROTHY Happy for us... okay. Here's the number. 404-453-2222. JERRY Thanks. DOROTHY Call me later, hon. She hangs up, and looks over to Laurel and Chad. Both of them stare at her. DOROTHY (continuing) Wait. Did I just say "hon" to him? CHAD (laughing) Yeah, Dotty. You did. 50. DOROTHY Twenty six years old. I'm already saying "hon". Hug your mother quickly -- Chad looks at her, something is different about Dorothy. Laurel walks away, sharing a look with Chad. INT. DALLAS AIRPORT -- DAY Jerry is now teeming with energy, professional and sexual. JERRY Avery, I signed Cush. Again. INTERCUT INT. ATLANTA HOTEL SUITE -- DAY Avery in mid-conference with four other NFL men in background. AVERY YA-HOOOO-SIE! It is the victory call of the competitive girl, and she falls back into a chair, kicking her expensive shoes onto the bed. In the b.g. we see the hungry look of her male co-workers. Part of them lusts after her. The larger part knows she would demolish them, and pick her teeth with their bones. JERRY I know. Sorry I threw a scare into our lives there -- AVERY Don't worry about it -- I never told you what I thought of that memo either -- JERRY Well, no you didn't -- AVERY You lost your head, it happens. (quickly) I'm so fuckin jazzed! Listen. I'm going to have to fly to Chicago tomorrow, how 'bout if we meet in the Dallas airport and we all fly into New York together for the draft? JERRY It's a plan -- -- 51. AVERY I'll set it up with your girl. Woo! This is when it's good, Jerry. Enjoy it. Live it. Love it. And when I see you, I'm going to give you the best blow job of your life. He hangs up, staring at the phone. In the room with Avery, the co-workers look at each other. She is far, far out of their league. INT. DOROTHY'S CAR -- LATER MORNING -- DRIVING Dorothy Boyd speeds Jerry to the airport, the electricity fills the car. On the radio, a sports station debates the future of Cushman. as Jerry whips through a stack of sports pages. DOROTHY Avery'll meet you at the B gate at 4:15. Don't be late. Tidwell will already be there. JERRY (nods to Ray) Hey, man, you know they have big balloons built into cars? RAY No. JERRY They do, my brother. RAY (giggling) I'm not your brother! Dorothy continues, business on her mind. DOROTHY ... I put Tidwell on the same floor at the Marriott Marquis. I think it's great you're taking him to the draft. He doesn't smoke, right? I have no idea. 52. JERRY I have no idea. (continuing to Ray) So Ray, if there's an accident or something, it goes pwoooooooof -- (simulates air-bag) -- and you go booooong. And you're safe. Jerry bounces against the imaginary balloon. Ray is delighted by Jerry. Dorothy notes that he's great with her son. She pats Jerry on the shoulder. Her hand lingers perhaps a millisecond too long. She pulls away quickly, always feeling on the edge or embarrassing herself around this guy. DOROTHY Okay, have we gone over everything? Back on Tuesday, right? JERRY Yep. Have a good time at school, Ray. Wish me luck. DOROTHY RAY Luck. LUCK! Jerry nods and exits. They watch as Jerry inches into the crowded airport. Into frame, obscuring their view of Jerry, enters another Couple, who embrace each other and their small girl. It's a genuinely sweet goodbye, and we linger on Dorothy and Ray who both watch with private fantasies of the goodbye they didn't get. Mother and son look at each other, communicating volumes. They pull back into traffic. INT. DALLAS AIRPORT -- DAY Jerry struggles through the Dallas airport, is the last, of his party to arrive at the B gate in Dallas. Avery, tall and cool in plaid skirt and shades, is in combat mode. Nearby, Cush is surrounded by fans and fawning Airline Employees. ("Where do you think you're gonna end up, Cush?" "You gonna be rich, dude!") Tidwell looks jealous and ingnored as he leans against the airline counter, unnoticed. A lone kid approaches Tidwell. KID Are you Hootie? TIDWELL (irritated) No man, I'm not Hootie. Kid leaves disappointed. Tidwell sinks lower. Doesn't anyone know his stardom, his essence, his power? 53. BOARDING ANNOUNCEMENT All those disabled, and Frank Cushman can board now... INT. AIRPLANE -- DAY Jerry sits next to Cushman, who is reading Bukowski's Notes of a Dirty Old Man. Across the aisle is Tidwell, who sits next to Avery. They are a small family, and Jerry feels at home with his operation. Cush looks up suddenly. CUSH (a big thought) Jerry. Why does God sometimes reward the evil and punish the good? Jerry shares a look with Avery, who is on the other side of Cush. Her stockings swish as she crosses her legs. JERRY Let me think about that. Want something to drink? CUSH (thoughtful pause) I see what you're saying. JERRY Wait. What do you mean? The two men have now totally confused each other. Tidwell leans across the aisle to Cush, attempting comraderie. TIDWELL Hey man, I wish I had a quarterback like you in Arizona. You're the shit. Cush looks up. Compliments blow off him like a summer breeze. CUSH Thank ya. Tidwell waits for a compliment of his own, but Cush doesn't offer one. He returns to the book. Tidwell feels slighted. TIDWELL (loud mumble) Well you ain't that mothafuckin good. CUSH Say what? 54. TIDWELL I said -- last I heard, Jesus Christ was still in heaven. And you ain't even played in the NFL. Cush throws his book away, ready for anything, as Tidwell rises. Nearby passengers begin to panic. JERRY This can't be happening to me. AVERY Jerry! Do something -- Jerry throws himself in front of Cushman. JERRY HEY. Knock it off. What are you, five years old? Am I taking the kids to Chuck E. Cheese here? Grow up, both of you! We are a family. And we go to the draft in an ORDERLY FASHION. Beat. Jerry wonders if he's pushed his mealtickets around too much. TIDWELL Hey, man, I dig Check E. Cheese. CUSH Me too, dude. Especially that big old singin' Elvis Monkey. That's just insanity, man. TIDWELL Heard that. Tidwell reaches over, he and Cush exchange a fingertips five. Briefly, the two clients bond. Past Tidwell, Avery smiles engagingly at Jerry. He handled the situation well. She crosses her legs, stockings swishing. The workplace excites her. EXT. MARRIOTT MARQUIS -- NIGHT The headquarters for the NFL draft is buzzing with activity. Limo doors open and out pours Maguire and company. Media lights flick on, bathing Cush. Reporters chatter. ("Is it San Diego or Denver, Cush?N "Cush!") Fans at the outskirts are calling out to the young star ("Go get the big chi-ching, Cush!") Avery smoothly pulls ESPN into the front position. Telegenic Cush shrugs and smiles. ("I'll either surf or ski.") Jerry admires his fiancee. There is nothing more attractive than a person burningly efficient at their job. 55. Shot drifts off this media bubble to find Tidwell watching at the outskirts. He turns and exits unnoticed. INT. GIFT SHOP -- NIGHT -- LATER Tidwell hides out in the gift shop, thumbing through magazines. The chip on his shoulder grows by the minute. Elsewhere in the gift shop, he sees the very real and emotional scene of a young athlete and his mother. Both wear self-promoting colorful homemade t-shirts with the young athlete's face on it. Something about them, their pure enthusiasm, rubs Tidwell in an odd way. He almost cries, for himself, for humanity, as Jerry enters. Tidwell is embarrassed to have been caught in this misty state. JERRY At last I find you. TIDWELL (sharply) Why the fuck am I here? I feel like I'm five years late for the Prom. In a look, Jerry sizes up the situation. With a hand on Tidwell's large shoulder, he smoothly pumps up the big man's ego. JERRY Come on. Come with me. We're going to take a walk through this lobby. I want every media guy, every player rep, everybody to see you for what you are. The best- kept secret in the NFL. The biggest wide-receiver in the game. Let 'em see ya, Rod. And Whatever you do, don't sit down. Let 'em see how big you are. You ready? Let's do it. He is privately thrilled, but offers only: TIDWELL (begrudgingly) A'right. Let's walk. We hear the ripping guitar explosion of The Who's "Magic Bus" from Live at Leeds. 56. INT. MARRIOTT LOBBY -- NIGHT Maguire and Tidwell move through the brightly-lit lobby, past the reporters, the competing agents, the team representatives, the already blasted Jets fans, past even a Nike crew filming an NFL spot in the lobby. Portable phones everywhere, in every hand. There is a heavy white media light bathing everything -- as if life had become a t.v. show, and everything within it concerned making other t.v. shows. Jerry works hard, introduces Tidwell around. And Tidwell is natural, polite and charming, as they move through the pre-draft crowd. He does not sit down. Music continues. INT. MARRIOTT BAR -- DAY Tough red-headed beat reporter PATRICIA LOGAN watches Maguire and Tidwell from the opposite corner. PATRICIA Dennis, try not to laugh. Jerry Maguire brought Rod Tidwell to the draft... INT. ARIZONA CARDINALS WAR ROOM PHOENIX) -- NIGHT Arizona General Manager DENNIS WILBURN, 48, is on the phone here in the command center for the Arizona Cardinals. All around him, we see the boards and graphs for their upcoming draft selections. WILBURN Good, I hope he unloads him so I can buy a decent quarterback. Who's he talking to? PATRICIA Right now, Dallas. Ha ha. WILBURN They don't look interested do they? PATRICIA Actually... Wilburn looks concerned. INT. MARRIOTT ESCALATOR -- NIGHT Jerry and Tidwell rise triumphantly to the mezzanine level above the bright-white lobby. Maguire looks down at the scene. He breathes in the commotion. In another twelve hours, he will be at the very epicenter with Cushman. 57. TIDWELL I came all the way here for that? To walk the lobby? JERRY Yeah. And it might have even worked too. TIDWELL Let's do it again. Jerry doesn't respond. Down in the lobby, Jerry catches a glimpse of a familiar-looking agent. It's Sugar. Jerry is consumed with a thousand other thoughts, but Tidwell continues talking. TIDWELL (continuing) You believe they're shooting a Nike ad down there? Did I ever tell you my Nike story? JERRY I gotta get back to Cushman. TIDWELL Okay, I understand. I'll boil it down for ya. Fuck Nike. All they do is ignore me... Jerry turns to Tidwell, finally focusing totally on him. JERRY You know what was great about you down there? For about five minutes, you unloaded that rather expansive, let me just say "large" chip that resides right there on your shoulder, and you know what? You were brilliant. Take care. Jerry starts to exit. TIDWELL You're loving me now, aren't ya? JERRY (mock serious) I'm not about love -- I'm about "showing you the money." Tidwell nods deeply, respectfully. 58. TIDWELL Good. I was just testing ya. (beat) But just you saying that? Makes me love ya. JERRY Get some sleep. See you tomorrow. TIDWELL Sure you don't want to go out and find some karoake? I'm a very good singer, man -- JERRY Call me tomorrow. TIDWELL I might call you later! Tidwell moves off, still feeling good about the walk. A small pack of diehard Jets fans pass, looking for autographs. INT. CUSH'S SUITE -- NIGHT We glide into Frank Cushman's suite overlooking Times Square. It's filled with NFL swag -- free t-shirts, athletic bags, sweatpants, and more. Half-finished room service food abounds. Matt, Keith and Cush's stylish college girlfriend ANNE-LOUISE mill about the room, basking in the glow of the man of the moment. Cush, who holds a guitar in his lap, wears the odd combination of a Nirvana t-shirt and a NFL jacket. He signs for more room service and continues strumming the only song he knows on guitar, Cobain's "Something In The Way." Jerry enters on a rush of adrenalin. CUSH (to hotel waiter) Hey, what size are you? WAITER Eleven. CUSH (grandly) Why don't you grab a couple pairs of them new Nikes by the door -- Waiter spots a very tall stack of new Nikes by the door. WAITER Dude, you're like a God. 59. CUSH (immediately) God, you're like a dude. It's a great line, and the room breaks up. This is charisma, the future of the NFL. Waiter exits, as Cush continues strumming. And now Jerry speaks, importantly. JERRY Cush, Matt -- we have a decision to make. CUSH "It's okay to eat fish, 'cause they Don't have any feelings... JERRY Okay. San Diego just came in with a last-minute scenario. It's big. CUSH "Something in the way. Yeah." MATT Well, he's gotta go number one. CUSH "Ooooooo." JERRY He still goes number one, but San Diego wants to trade up with New England -- they want him bad. Cush turns to his curiously ambivalent father, who walks to the window and looks out at the big Jumbotron with Keith. MATT What happened to Denver? JERRY Denver got very silent about a day ago. San Diego's got a fever for Cush. This stuff tends to happen the night before a draft. People get crazy. And San Diego, you should know, is crazy to the tune of seven years for thirty. Signing bonus of eight. (beat) Million. Anne-Louise whistles loudly. She is instantly embarrassed, and puts a hand up. Sorry. In the next room, the phone is ringing. 60. MATT I don't know, Jerry. KEITH Should I unplug the phone? CUSH Reporters, Jerry. They been callin' all night. JERRY Just be friendly and say "no comment." CUSH Talking and saying nothing, man, it's an art I have not mastered. Jerry holds up a finger -- watch me. Jerry picks up the ringing phone. He offers a near-perfect imitation. JERRY "This is Cush." Suddenly, everyone is, laughing. The room lightens. INT. BOB SUGAR'S HOTEL ROOM -- DAY Bob Sugar talks on his hotel phone. SUGAR It's Sugar. He must be there, right? Just sniff or something if he's there. (Jerry sniffs, panicked) Alright, buddydude. Just remember. You're swimming with the big boys now. You let your dad do all the talking. I'm the one who got you the deal you needed. This is business not friendship. Be strong. You're global now. Sugar hangs up. JERRY "No comment. Jerry hangs up. The room is still laughing. His head is spinning. KEITH Hey, it's Cush on the big t.v. again! 61. CUSH Hell, I'm already sick of me. I got "Cushlash." More laughs. Jerry sits across from Matt, reeling quietly. He speaks casually, directly. JERRY Look, before I go back to Denver. I think we should put something down on paper. Something that says, "hey, I'm with Jerry Maguire." He pulls out a yellow legal tablet. He scribbles a few lines, as Matt looks increasingly nervous. MATT Not right now, Jerry. JERRY Do I know everything there is to know here? (silent beat) You fellas aren't talking with Bob Sugar, are you? More silence. MATT Apparently, Denver wanted to deal with him instead of you. JERRY (quickly) Said who? Sugar? MATT Hey, I'm learning as I go. JERRY So you empowered Bob Sugar to deal with Denver behind my back? MATT I'm sorry, I -- JERRY I brought Denver to twenty million. Denver deals with me all the time. You listened to Sugar? You let that snake in the door. Jerry touches the coffee table. Calms himself. 62. JERRY (continuing) It's okay. You want Denver. I'll fix this up. You didn't sign anything with Sugar, right? Another rough silence is broken by little brother Keith. KEITH (blurts) Mr. Maguire, someday I'm gonna be a famous athlete and I'm gonna sign with you'. JERRY Shut up! (beat) I'm sorry... sorry. KEITH (sympathy for Jerry) S' cool. Shot moves in on Jerry. JERRY Now. Wait. You didn't actually sign with Sugar, did you? Tell me you didn't sign. (beat) Because I'm still sort of moved by your "my word is stronger'n oak" thing -- MATT We signed an hour ago. You were in the lobby with the black fella. Jerry moans. Silently, he rises and begins to gather his things. Cush hangs on to his guitar. CUSH I'm sorry, Jerry. MATT They say it's show "business," Jerry, not show friends. Jerry takes a breath before he exits. He surveys the room, settling on Cush. Visible behind Maguire is Times Square, in all it's neon logo glory. 63. JERRY Well. Okay. Of course. You're twenty years old, and I'm just another guy in a suit. It's all business. It didn't work out. You didn't buy my product, which is, unfortunately, mm. Let me see, there's a speech that I'm supposed to make -- right! -- "I'll be out there cheering for you." "The door is always open!" See? I'm a class act. (breath, directly) But maybe this would have all worked, us being real human beings, coming through for each other, really, and now I'll never know. You'll never know. Weren't you curious? (they aren't) No. Okay, well, I'll be fine. And you'll be fine. And Keith I bope you do call me. Flushed and embarrassed, he exits. We hang a beat on the silent Cushman hotel livingroom, as Cush now continues on guitar. INT. LOBBY -- NIGHT Jerry exits elevator dazed, at full trot. The Marriott lobby is packed. He is looking for Avery. Beat reporter Patricia Logan reappears. She relishes asking brutal questions, innocently. PATRICIA LOGAN Jerry, is it true that Tidwell's had three concussions? JERRY I'm sorry... excuse me... INT. BALLROOM -- NIGHT Jerry enters the grand ballroom, looking for Avery. Endorsement placards in evidence everywhere. NFL reps and media workers move tables and work out camera and seating arrangements. Elevated in a open ESPN booth six feet off the ground, host Chris Berman records voice-overs for tomorrow's draft. Fans heckle him by singing the ESPN theme. He rolls with it, expertly. Jerry spots Avery across the empty ballroom, moving fast, passing out media packets on the empty tables. 64. INT. ADJACENT BUFFET ROOM -- NIGHT Jerry finally catches up with Avery in the empty side-room. AVERY I just heard. JERRY What do I do? How do I spin this? AVERY Oh honey. It's spun. She keeps moving, adding an extra snap to the packets. JERRY What did I do to you? She is furious with his question. Doesn't he know? AVERY It's all about you, isn't it? Soothe me, save me, love me -- JERRY Could you just stop moving? AVERY I have to finish my job -- JERRY Everything's on the fucking run! Everything -- She stops. Walks to him, framed by a bank of t.v. monitors. AVERY Jerry. You and I are salespeople. We sell -- JERRY Look, I don't want a -- AVERY It's not "love me." It's not "trust my handshake." It's make the sale. Get it signed. There shouldn't be "confusion" about that. JERRY Go ahead. Jump right on into my nightmare. The water's warm. 65. AVERY So honesty is outlawed here, I can't be honest? She turns and exits again. He follows. JERRY Tell you what -- I'd prefer loyalty.. AVERY What was our deal when we first got together? Brutal truth, remember? JERRY I think you added the "brutal." She stops, slaps down another media packet. Blows a troublesome piece of hair out of her face. AVERY Jerry, there is a "sensitivity" thing that some people have. I don't have it. I don't cry at movies. I don't gush over babies. I don't start celebrating Christmas five months early, and I don't tell a man who just screwed up both of our lives -- 'oh, poor baby.' That's me. For better or worse. But I do love you. Jerry looks at his fiancee. Standing here, watching Avery coldly clasping her media packs to her chest, she looks different to him. JERRY Avery -- She knows what's coming. She moves fast to avoid him. AVERY Don't say it. We're both ragged out right now. JERRY -- stop -- She exits back into the main ballroom. For a moment, she stops. They face off. This is it. They are quickly interrupted by overweight, talk-show voiced CURTIS WEINTRAUB, 45. 66. CURTIS WEINTRAUB Hey! Curtis Weintraub from the Sports Popper! Haven't seen you two since the Cuervo Gold Rock 'n Sock Charity Six Flags Budfest! Hello! Neither look at him, they remain fixed on each other. Curtis gets a whiff of what he walked into. CURTIS WEINTRAUB (continuing; exiting quickly) Goodbye! AVERY I'm warning you. Don't say it. You won't have another chance. JERRY Listen to me! AVERY No. JERRY It's over -- She continues moving into the next room. AVERY Didn't hear it. JERRY There is something missing here. AVERY You've never been alone and you can't be alone -- JERRY Listen to me, it's over. She can barely believe it. She blinks. AVERY No one has ever dumped me. JERRY I'm not trying to make history. 67. AVERY I did the 23 hour nose-route to the top of El Capitan in 6 hours! I can make this work. JERRY (it slips out) No. She takes a breath. It sinks in. From somewhere, the small voice of her vulnerability. AVERY Oh Jerry. JERRY (steps closer) You know I didn't ever want to hurt you. She gets an odd look, shaking her head. Starts to step away, then thinks better of it. She WALLOPS him in the face with the back of her hand. Jerry stands like a woozy boxer. She hits him again with a fist, then again in the chest. He sinks to the floor, sagging. backwards. She straddles him, addresses him fully, right in his bruised face. AVERY I won't let you hurt me, Jerry. I'm too strong for you. Loser. INT. JFK AIRPORT -- NEXT MORNING Jerry moves through the crowded airport with Rod Tidwell. Both wear sunglasses. TIDWELL You love me now, don't you? JERRY Very much. ON TV MONITOR -- ROY FIRESTONE is leaning forward, expressively, talking with a weepy athlete. INT. RED CARPET LOUNGE -- DAY Tidwell watches next to Jerry, as they wait for the flight. Jerry nurses a stiff drink. TIDWELL Everybody on this show cries now. 68. JERRY Rod -- TIDWELL (off t.v. ) You feel bad you tested positive? Quit doing blow! You feel bad about your baby girl? Why did you leave the mother? JERRY What are you doing with me, Rod? TIDWELL Huh? JERRY Don't you even see -- I'm finished. I'm fucked. Twenty-four hours ago, I was hot. Now... I'm a cautionary tale! Tidwell looks at Jerry, impassive. JERRY (continuing) See this jacket I'm wearing? You like it? I don't really need it, because I'm CLOAKED IN FAILURE. I lost the number one draft pick the night before the draft. They will teach my story to other agents on "do not do this" day in agent school. Why? Let's recap. Because a hockey player's kid made me feel like a superficial jerk, I had two slices of bad pizza, went to bed, grew a conscience and wrote a 25-page Manifesto of Doom! TIDWELL Well, boo-fucking-hoo. JERRY The least you could do is nod and act sympathetic -- TIDWELL (shaking head) No. JERRY It's a quality that might come in handy for a commercial sometime. 69. TIDWELL You are not allowed to act this way. JERRY Why not? INT. AIRPLANE -- LATER DAY They sit together. Jerry holds another drink. TIDWELL Man, I got a shelf life of ten years, tops! My next contract's gotta bring me the dollars that'11 last me and mine a very long time. I'm out of this sport in five years. What's my family gonna live on? What you get me. So I don't want to hear about ya shit, your "nya nya nya." JERRY (ruefully, to attendant) Another drink please. TIDWELL Anybody else would have left you by now, but I'm sticking with you. I said I would. And if I got to ride your ass like Zorro, you're gonna show me the money. JERRY (the hell that never ends) Oh my God. He looks straight ahead, at the airphone in front of him. EXT. PORCH -- NIGHT Dorothy finds Laurel on their small porch. There is only room for a miniature garden and one comfortable seat. Laurel sits in it. DOROTHY He's coming over. LAUREL At eleven at night? 70. DOROTHY He just lost his best client. He called from the plane. I invited the guy over. LAUREL Dotty -- this is not "guy.". This is a "syndrome." It's called Early Midlife, About-To-Marry, Hanging Onto The-Bottom-Rung Dear- God-Don't-Let-Me-Be-Alone, I'll- Call-My-Newly Long-suffering- Assistant-Without Medical-For- Company Syndrome. And if, knowing all that, you still allow him to come over, more power to you. DOROTHY Honey, he's engaged. And for the first time in my professional life, I'm a part of something I believe in. Dorothy exits. Laurel shakes her head, calls to next room. LAUREL Okay, but he better not be good looking! INT. RAY'S BEDROOM -- NIGHT Dorothy puts Ray to bed. DOROTHY 'Night buddy. This is my favorite part of your head. She kisses the corner of his forehead, rising up into the mirror. She checks her look, in spite of herself. Visible on the wall above Ray's bed, is her ex-husband's photo. Music. INT. CAB -- NIGHT Jerry in back of a cab, wearing sunglasses, three drinks later, post-flight, rolling with anything. JERRY Okay, turn here! Sharp right turn. 8831 3/4 Waterloo. The cab turns onto a very small street. Cars parked on both sides. Down the street, another pair of headlights. 71. Jerry's cab refuses to give in, in fact he floors it. Same with the oncoming car. JERRY (continuing) Yes, good, floor it, kill us!! EXT. DOROTHY'S FRONT PORCH -- NIGHT Door opens to reveal Jerry Maguire with brown bag, shoulder hang-up bag, disheveled hair and sunglasses. JERRY I'm Jerry Maguire. LAUREL (super pleasant) You seem just the way I pictured you. I'm her disapproving sister Laurel. JERRY Honesty. Thank you. INT. LIVING ROOM Jerry enters, as Dorothy rounds the corner. DOROTHY Hey you. JERRY Hi. The lights are low and his glasses are very dark. JERRY (continuing) Thanks for inviting me over. Where's the little guy? DOROTHY He's asleep. Watch out for that lamp. JERRY I'm glad you're home. That "alone" thing is... not my specialty... He ducks the lamp, barely. Laurel exits through his shot, miming "drinking" behind his back. Jerry takes off his glasses, revealing a welt and a cut below his eye. 72. DOROTHY Oh my God. JERRY Yeah. That too. I broke up with Avery. Dorothy's entire body chemistry changes in ways she doesn't quite understand. DOROTHY Too bad. JERRY Better now than later. We'll still be friends. I'm dying here. DOROTHY Jesus, it's a real gash, isn't it? JERRY And just think if I got her the ring she really wanted. Dorothy laughs. He looks at her strangely. Suddenly she feels very nervous, as he sets down his bags. DOROTHY Sorry. Uh, let me see, have a seat. I'll get you some aloe vera for that cut too. JERRY Do you have something to drink? DOROTHY Sure -- She moves to the kitchen door. She is about to exit, when Jerry begins to unburden. JERRY My brother works for the White House. He pretends he's an intellectual. He pretends he's from the east coast. She turns, not quite sure what his point is. She waits politely for Jerry to finish before exiting into the kitchen. JERRY (continuing) I was supposed to be the successful one. (more) 73. JERRY (cont'd) But I don't want to talk about it. And yet! My family. I grew up with repression as a... a religion --you don't bitch. No moaning! Head down. Do it, whatever "it" may be. My dad... he worked for the United Way for 38 years! You know what he said when he retired? He said, "I wish I'd had a more comfortable chair." 38 years he sat in it! Do you know what I'm saying, Dorothy? Repression as a religion. I'm almost as old as his chair. He rubs his face. She looks at him, and the situation slightly overwhems her. Here he is, wide-open, ripe for the taking. DOROTHY Beer okay? JERRY Yeah, thanks. INT. KITCHEN Laurel smokes a cigarette and blows it out the window. Dorothy goes for the refrigerator, finds a couple beers. LAUREL I heard. DOROTHY No kidding. I looked over and saw the shadow of two curious shoes in the doorway of the kitchen. LAUREL This guy would go home with a gardening tool right now if it showed interest. (off Dorothy's look) Wait. Use the frosted glasses. DOROTHY (surprised) Thank you. LAUREL Look, here's some of that chicken with salsa too, I warmed it up -- 74. DOROTHY That's the girl I love. LAUREL But you just gotta hear me out on one thing. You're very responsible with Ray and you know it's not right for a little boy to hear some strange man's voice in the house. DOROTHY As opposed to twenty angry women? Dorothy turns quickly and the beer, sisters and chicken collide in the small kitchen. Dorothy deftly catches the food in her t-shirt, and dumps it back onto the plate. But her shirt is now stained. She starts to quietly implode, and Laurel takes command. They know each other well. LAUREL Come on, let's get you another top -- They exit to nearby laundry room. EXT. HOUSE/WINDOW OUTSIDE LAUNDRY ROOM -- NIGHT Now camera starts to move around the house, from this window showing the two sisters in the laundry room, to the living room where Jerry sits alone. We see Ray wander into the room and stare at Jerry. INT. LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT Jerry, who is playing with a kaleidoscope on the table, looks up to see Ray. RAY Hi. JERRY Hi Ray. INT. LAUNDRY ROOM -- SAME TIME LAUREL All I'm saying. You don't have the luxury of falling for some drowning man. Be practical. Now. Which top? She holds up two tops. One is sexier with a dipped down front. The other is striped, cute, functional. 75. DOROTHY Okay, you want to talk about practical? Let's talk about my wonderful life. Do you know what most other women my age are doing right now? They are partying in clubs, trying to act stupid, trying to get a man, trying to keep a man... not me. I'm trying to RAISE a man. She grabs the sexier top, and puts it on. DOROTHY (continuing) I've got a 24 hour a day reminder of Roger, for the rest of my life. I have had three lovers in four years, all boring, all achingly self-sufficient all friends of yours I might add, and all of them running a distant second to a warm bath. Look at me, Laurel, look at me. I'm the oldest 26 year old in the world! How do I look? LAUREL Good. DOROTHY Thanks. INT. LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT Jerry and Ray have a great conversation, playing tug with a piece of rope. RAY And then my dad died and my mom took me to the zoo and I love the zoo. Do you hate the zoo or do you love the zoo? JERRY Wait. I want to tell you more about my dad. RAY Let's go the zoo. JERRY Okay. I've been hogging it. You're right. (more) 76. JERRY (cont'd) All my life I've been trying to talk, really talk, and no one wants to listen. You know that feeling? Ray nods vigorously. RAY Let's go right now. Let's go to the zoo. JERRY Aw, the fucking thing... I mean, the zoo is closed. RAY You said "fuck". JERRY Yeah I know. I did. Ray loves this guy. He pats Jerry's knee. RAY I won't tell. JERRY We'll go to the zoo sometime. Okay? I think I might have some time on my hands. Ray looks at Jerry's hands. RAY I don't see any. JERRY (points respectfully) Funny. RAY Funny... (imitates him) (hears mom approaching) I better go to bed. Ray hugs Jerry and exits. Jerry sits contemplating the kid for a moment. The door swings open and a harried Dorothy appears in the sexier top, but with a distinctly less sexy attitude, and a tray. 77. DOROTHY Drinks. Food. Plus, I called you a cab. JERRY (slightly confused) Good idea. Thank you. And we should keep our voices down a little. I have a little boy asleep. JERRY (continuing) Right. Of course. Jerry tries to twist open the beer, ripping at his palm. It's not a twist-off. She hands him an opener. He opens it, inelegantly. DOROTHY So. Our company. She watches the drunken man, who drinks. Then coughs a little. Then stands. JERRY Okay. Lil' speech before I go. He gets up, woozy, but loose. Powerfully: JERRY (continuing) Do. Not. Worry. About. Your. Job. (beat) Our company is in good shape. You and your son... we... are just fine. You still have a job. I want you to feel confident! In. Me. And I have a problem with people who talk about themselves in the third person, but let me tell you something about Jerry Maguire. His confidence nicely fueled, Jerry reaches for a fireplace poker. He begins to joust with an imaginary opponent. JERRY (continuing) Come after me and you will lose I am a survivor! Do not underestimate Jerry Maguire! I've got wits! (more) 78. JERRY (cont'd) I've got the instincts of a panther! (joust) I've got Dorothy Boyd on my side! DOROTHY Don't worry about me. I can get jobs -- JERRY We will be fine! DOROTHY -- especially one like this. JERRY And I am... He becomes very aware of himself. Acting out in a virtual stranger's small-but-comfortable living room. JERRY (continuing) I am drunk. He collapses onto the sofa, embarrassed. Shaking his head. Dorothy scoots closer in an adjacent chair. She breaks the personal barrier, carefully touching his wound with the wet tip of the aloe vera plant. DOROTHY Truth? JERRY Sure. Dorothy turns to see that Laurel's two shoes are still very visible at the kitchen door. Decides to ignore them. She gets closer. DOROTHY Sure, I care about the job. Of course. But mostly... (very honest) ... I want to be inspired. There is something inspiring about the way she says the word "inspiring." JERRY Me too. DOROTHY What you wrote inspired me. 79. He is catching a scent of that most ancient elixer. A woman's affection. Their heads inch closer together. DOROTHY (continuing) I'm working with you because of that memo... JERRY Mission... statement... They kiss. It turns rather passionate. She places a cool hand on his cheek. He places a hand on her breast. The taxi beeps outside. She pulls away. Both regard the hand on her breast. DOROTHY Well. JERRY Sorry about this hand. (he rises unsteadily) You know that feeling -- you're not completely embarrassed yet, but you glimpe tomorrow's embarrassment? DOROTHY Don't worry about it, boss. JERRY Oh shit. You said "boss." DOROTHY Yeah, I did. JERRY Now I feel like Clarence Thomas. DOROTHY No. No don't feel like Clarence Thomas. JERRY No, I do. I feel like Clarence Thomas. (the worst day ever) I'm like... harrassing you... right now. DOROTHY I may not sue. He laughs a little. Music. Unsure what more to say, Jerry rubs his face. And then: 80. JERRY Well, good evening. DOROTHY Good evening. He stands, returns the fireplace poker to her, and exits. Stumbling slightly on the first step leading down from the front porch, he recovers with style. JERRY We'll be okay. And I'm going to take my... one client and we're gonna go all the way. He takes a few more steps, re-balancing bags, coughs a little. He is a mess, and he knows it. JERRY (continuing; loving the dark humor) Hey. I'm back. She laughs, waves, and exits back into the kitchen. She regards the poker still in her hand. Laurel watches her conflicted, slightly lovesick sister. INT. CAB -- NIGHT Jerry in the back of the cab. He turns for a moment, looking back at the warm house he's just left. Something is scratching at his soul, trying to get in. Music continues. He was strangely comfortable there, as the house disappears from his view. FADE TO EXT. TEMPE PRACTICE AREA -- DAY Rod Tidwell races to catch up to a wobbly, overthrown pass. He snags it out of the air, and moves gracefully downfield. He turns back to shout at the quarterback for the wobbly pass, and slams into a padding post. Dennis Wilburn, the GM we met earlier, crosses in front of Maguire, giving him a look. Maguire forges ahead anyway. JERRY We gotta talk about his contract, Dennis. WILBURN Your timing is impeccable, Maguire. Gee, I can't imagine how you ever lost Cush... 81. Wilburn moves on, scoffing loudly. INT. LOCKER ROOM SHOWER AREA -- DAY Jerry stands in pre-season locker-room. Off-stage we hear a shower. In the b.g., one of those locker-room psych-up signs like: Injuries happen first in the mind. JERRY I started talking with Dennis Wilburn about your renegotation. Rod emerges naked, dripping wet, pissed. TIDWELL Did you tell him about the "ten million for four years?" JERRY Uh, not today, but -- TIDWELL John Taylor. J.J. Stokes. Andre Rison. I SMOKE all these fools, and yet they're making the big sweet dollars. They're making the money, and I got an agent that ain't even put the number on the table. JERRY I understand your anxiety. TIDWELL Maybe you don't. Because it's not just the money I deserve. It's not just the "coin." It's the... He says this next word royally, as if it's fine silk. TIDWELL (continuing) -- the kwan. JERRY That's your word? TIDWELL Yeah, man, it means love, respect, community... and the dollars too. The package. The kwan. JERRY (impressed) But how did you get "kwan?" 82. TIDWELL (irritated) I got there from "coin," dude. Coin, coin... kwaaaan. JERRY Great word. Towel? TIDWELL No, I air-dry. JERRY Rod, I say this with great respect, but those players you mentioned are marquee players and -- A portable phone beeps. TIDWELL Is that your porty or mine? JERRY You. Tidwell rummages in his bag. Finds one of two porties and answers the one with a Polaroid of Marcee taped to it. TIDWELL Hi baby. Yeah, I'm just breakin' in the new agent. He says I'm not marquee. I know... I know... Tidwell holds up the phone so Jerry can hear the sound of Marcee going off. TIDWELL (continuing) My wife is upset with you. INT. LOCKER ROOM MIRROR -- DAY The conversation continues as Tidwell fixes hair in the mirror. Jerry speaks to the reflection, taking him on, gesturing passionately. Tidwell, still naked, may or may not be listening. JERRY Here's what I'm saying. This is a renegotiation. We want more from them, so let's show them more from us. Let's show them your pure joy of the game, let's bury the Attitude a little, let's show them -- 83. TIDWELL (irritated) You're telling me to dance. JERRY No, I'm saying to be -- He mimes a dainty little showboat-touchdown dance. TIDWELL (little voice) "Love me love me love me... put me on t.v." (pissed) That's the iconography of rascism, man! JERRY Rod, I'm not a rascist. I'm telling you to be the best version of you, to get back to the guy who first started playing this game. Way back when you were a kid. It wasn't just about the money, was it? Tidwell gives him a look. Money was always a factor. TIDWELL Do your job, man, don't tell me to dance. JERRY Fine. He begins gathering his things. TIDWELL I'm an athlete, not an entertainer. These are the ABC's of ME. Get it? I don't dance. Jerry rubs face. TIDWELL (continuing) What's wrong. JERRY Forget it. Forget it. TIDWELL No tell me. 84. JERRY I'm out here for you! You don't know what it's like to be me out here for you. It is an up-at-dawn pride-swallowing seige that I will never fully tell you about! Okay?! Help me help you help me help you. TIDWELL You're hanging by a very thin thread, dude. And I dig that about you. Jerry has had enough for one day. JERRY (loopy, punch-drunk, arms flailing) Hey. I'm happy to entertain you! I'll see you in L.A.! Tidwell watches his agent lurch off, muttering and swaying. TIDWELL See, man, that's the difference. between us. You think we're fighting, I think we're finally talking! INT. LAX AIRPORT -- DAY Jerry moves slowly through crowded airport, preoccupied with thought. INT. JERRY'S HOME OFFICE -- LATER DAY Jerry enters, carrying bags, weary. Dorothy greets him. They are stuck in his small condo, and the scent of their previous encounter is still in the air. She hands him a list of his calls. DOROTHY Dennis Wilburn called from Arizona to say he's faxing in the new Tidwell offer on Thursday morning, and you'll be happy. JERRY (jolted into happiness) Happy. He said "happy?" DOROTHY Actually he said "glad." 85. JERRY Good. Good. Glad is good. DOROTHY Plus, you could use that commission. She hands him a financial report she's done. He takes a quick look, seeing the thorough work she's already done. JERRY I sunk most of what I had into this condo, which devalued, and -- DOROTHY You don't have to explain. JERRY Look, the other night, I want to apologize. DOROTHY (can't read her) Yeah, what happened there. JERRY We're two people working together and we can't have an atmosphere. DOROTHY I'm relieved you said that. JERRY I mean, the other night was... I felt like you understood something I could barely even say, something way down deep in the murk -- (beat) -- but we have a company here to think about. I won't ever take advantage of you in that way again. DOROTHY (evenly) Oh good. JERRY You walked out on a job for me, and I won't ruin that. DOROTHY Exactly because I know this is a time when you need to be alone with your thoughts. (more) 86. DOROTHY (cont'd) Think about everything that's gone wrong, how to fix them, and just be... alone, alone, alone. Dorothy in the background of the shot, watching his reaction. JERRY You want to go out to dinner? INT. DOROTHY'S LIVING ROOM -- DAY Dorothy looks for a jacket as Laurel helms the Divorced Women's group in the living room. Jan speaks through her whistly braces, gesturing with a too-full glass of red wine. JAN I broke up with the Cowboy. And now he's stalking me... ALICE What's the current definition of stalking? WOMAN # 1 Coming over uninvited. JAN (thoughtful) So Romeo under the trellis... was a stalker. Meaningful sounds of revelation, as Dorothy finds the jacket. INT. HALLWAY -- NIGHT Dorothy stops in the hallway to see that Jerry Maguire has arrived at the back-kitchen door. She watches unseen as Maguire shakes hands with Chad the Nanny and is hit suddenly by a flying hug from Ray. He gives the kid an athletic bag, which is filled with state-of-the-art promotional athletic wear, etc. ("Brought you some swag.") Ray continues hugging Jerry. INT. KITCHEN -- NIGHT Jerry is a little embarrassed by the affections of the kid. Dorothy enters. Expertly breezy. DOROTHY Hey, looks like you've got a fan. 87. JERRY (outdressed) Wow. That's more than a dress. That's an Audrey Hepburn movie. DOROTHY Yeah -- guess I got revved up at the idea of an evening among adults -- no offense buster. (then) You meet Chad the nanny? JERRY Yeah, I did -- am I dressed okay? I guess I didn't realize we were... He doesn't finish the words "going out on a date." The cacaphony of the Boyd home swirls around Maguire. It's a new sensation for this bachelor. DOROTHY Don't let him stay up too late. CHAD (grandly) Hey, man, tonight I'm going to teach Ray about jazz. DOROTHY Good, that'll put him to sleep early. No offense. She twirls toward the door, grabbing her purse. CHAD You know, you people have a jazz problem in this house. Laurel enters, adding to the chaos, adlibbing hellos. RAY I wanna go too. Laurel gives Ray a look. Ray backs down, as Jerry hears snatches of the Women's group going full blast in the living room. DOROTHY We'll see you soon, honey. Bye. JERRY Bye you guys. 88. Ray extends his arms, he wants a hug. Jerry bends down awkwardly to give him one, and Ray plants a kiss on Jerry's cheek. All are surprised, especially Jerry. Dorothy is struck and moved. Shot falls on Ray who watches Jerry exit with wonder. Even at his age, he knows a prize when he sees one. INT. KITCHEN-- NIGHT Laurel looks out the window, watches her sister exiting. She is equal parts jealous and protective. She spots keys on counter. She grabs them and runs out to catch her sister on the lawn. "All Shook Down." Replacements. EXT. DOROTHY'S HOUSE -- NIGHT Jerry and Dorothy exit through the many cars which we now see are parked on the street and the front lawn. The sound of the Women's group is heard in the warmly glowing house behind them. LAUREL Hey! As Jerry moves ahead to the car, Dorothy retreats so she can have privacy with her sister. LAUREL (continuing) Forgot your keys -- DOROTHY (privately) That's the first time I ever saw him kiss a man, like a dad, wasn't that just... thrilling? (eyes tear up) I mean, he must have been needing that. Women's group laughter in the distance as Laurel attempts to glue her emotional sister back together. She holds her arm. LAUREL No no. Don't cry at the beginning of the date. DOROTHY (laughing, wiping tear) Oh, knock it off! 89. LAUREL (can't help it) And don't be a shoulder for him to cry on either. We stay with Laurel as she watches her sister exit. Music continues. Lit by streetlight, Dorothy runs like a young girl, across the lawns of this car-filled neighborhood, slapping away the leaves of a tree, running to Jerry down the street. INT. ANTONIO'S RESTAURANT -- NIGHT Jerry and Dorothy sit at the table of this Mexican restaurant. In the background, Mariachis play. JERRY It was laziness1 my whole breakup with Avery. You know that thing you say, "it's nobody's fault." It's one of the great lies, right? Someone is always to blame -- if you go for it, go for it like you do a job, work at it -- DOROTHY Maybe love shouldn't be such hard work. I know, but -- Mariachis approach the table. HEAD MARIACHI A song for the lovers? JERRY/DOROTHY (too quickly) No. No thanks. DOROTHY We work together. Jerry slips the guy a few bucks to go away. They do so, reluctantly. JERRY See, you choose. If you fall for someone, if you make a commitment, you should make it work. It's only when "options" entered the picture that things got bad. I'm speaking historically now. It's a modern day concept, nueroticism -- how do I feeeeeel? -- I think the only good thing to (more) 90. JERRY (cont'd) come from this period in history is probably the movie "Annie Hall." DOROTHY (evenly) Maybe you should call her. JERRY No no no. I just underestimated her... (touches wound) her temper, I guess. Why are we even talking about this? A FLOWER GIRL approaches the table with an armful of roses. FLOWER GIRL A rose for the lady. JERRY You want a -- DOROTHY ( (scoffs) No. No way. Jerry gives her few bucks, she exits. DOROTHY (continuing) Yeah. It wasn't like my marriage to Roger was so great, even before -- (stops herself) Jerry? JERRY What? DOROTHY (simply) Let's not tell our sad stories. Jerry laughs to himself. He admires her directness. DOROTHY (continuing) I'll be right back. Quit thinking those murky thoughts, okay? We're young, we're semi-successful. Life is good. She exits and we hang on him for a moment. 91. INT. BATHROOM -- NIGHT -- MINUTES LATER Dorothy on the phone outside the bathroom. DOROTHY No, now... come on... let Chad catch the bee in a glass. He won't hurt it. Aw, buddy, you got such a good heart. I love you, I'll be home soon. Can't wait to see you. EXT. BATHROOM Sbe exits the bathroom and stops at the sight of what is happening at the table. Jerry, hand on face, is embarrassingly being serenaded by the Mariachis, who now play a mournful "Tears in Heaven." She smiles at the image, in fact the poetry charms her. Dorothy moves forward, grinning, fishes some bucks out of her pocket, and sends the Mariachis in another direction. DOROTHY Come on, let's take a walk. INT. DOROTHY'S PORCH -- NIGHT Music feathers into sounds of night. A bug buzzing from the nearby light, Jerry swats it away. JERRY Well -- this would be goodnight. DOROTHY Good night. They don't kiss. They take great care not to touch too much. JERRY I'll see you tomorrow. They don't move. On impulse, she grabs him and pulls him close. Kisses him. It's a good one. DOROTHY Good night. But they don't move. He pulls her closer by her straps. They break. She holds them up, nervous now. His lips travel down. He kisses her upper chest. She sighs deeply, she's missed this feeling. Jerry rises to kiss her lips again, tying her straps back on. Her expression says there is a decision to make. She concentrates on the styrofoam container she's brought back from the restaurant. 92. DOROTHY (continuing; breath) I think you should not come in, or come in depending on how you feel. JERRY Same to you. DOROTHY No. I have to go in. I live here. JERRY Right. I'll come in. DOROTHY Okay. Wait here a second. (beat, then) Do we really want to do this? JERRY (half-unsure) Oh hell yes. She exits, as shot lingers on Jerry. That odd moment when you've crossed the line. He takes a breath. INT. LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT Dorothy enters to find Chad watching t.v. The house is now quiet, the remains of the Divorced Women's group is still in evidence. DOROTHY He's asleep, right? CHAD Yeah, how'd it go with Sportboy? DOROTHY Still going. Chad raises his eyebrows. DOROTHY (continuing) Shhh. EXT. PORCH -- NIGHT Jerry on the porch, as Chad exits. Chad now fully plays the part of friend with seniority. Looks the taller Jerry up and down. CHAD Treat her right, man. She's... 93. JERRY (self-conscious) Yeah... well... CHAD She's great. And I know this is a little awkward, but I want you to use this. Chad ruumages in bag for a moment. Jerry is somewhat horrified at what Chad might be giving him. Out comes a cassette tape. CHAD (continuing; intense) This... is Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Stockholm. 1963... two masters of freedom, playing in a time before their art was corrupted by a zillion cocktail lounge performers who destroyed the legacy of the only American artform -- JAZZ. Jerry takes the tape, as the front door squeaks open. Dorothy shoos Chad away, quietly leads Jerry inside. INT. BEDROOM-- NIGHT Fierce, driving jazz. Dorothy and Jerry making out on bed. Getting hotter. The music gets wilder. Finally it is impossible to ignore, and Jerry collapses backwards on the bed laughing. She is left frozen, her arms open but he is gone. DOROTHY What is this MUSIC? They both crack up, and she kisses him as the music plays. He looks at her. She turns away, then back again, he's still looking at her. It's a powerful moment for her. Laughter continues, the music is ridiculous. (Their sex is a big difference from the let's-be-intense sex with Avery.) INT. KITCHEN -- NIGHT -- SAME TIME Laurel just home from work in nurse uniform, has a late-night joint and carefully blows the smoke out the window. Laughter from the next room. She pops open the styrofoam appetizers her sister brought back from dinner. DISSOLVE TO: 94. INT. DOROTHY'S BEDROOM -- MORNING Radio clicks on. It's still dark. Only the glow of the digital lamp. Jerry alone in bed. He gets up, coughs, pulls on some pants. Manuevers through a strange bedroom, steps on toys. INT. KITCHEN -- MORNING Dorothy and Laurel in the kitchen, waiting far the first possible drops of coffee. DOROTHY I'm getting him up, don't worry.' Ray will never see his mother's raging physical needs. She starts to exit, but Laurel pulls her back far a second. LAUREL First you gotta tell me something. DOROTHY No-- INT. HALLWAY -- MORNING Jerry moving dawn the hallway, hears voices. INT. KITCHEN -- MORNING LAUREL Because I'm worried that you're putting your faith in this guy who, because of the way things are going, may not have an emotional marble in his head. DOROTHY Please, if I start talking -- LAUREL Guys are just different people when they're hanging onto the bottom rung. ON JERRY listening. Pinned to the wall, listening to the kind of honesty an agent rarely hears. DOROTHY ... so what am I, for taking the opportunity, Laurel? (more) 95. DOROTHY (cont'd) Maybe I am taking advantage. Am I a bad person? All I know is that I found someone who was charming and popular and not-so-nice to me -- and he died. Okay? So why should I let this guy go, when everything in my body says This One is The One. LAUREL Easy, hon, I was just looking for fun details -- DOROTHY Oh, well, why didn't you say so? And oh, I don't know if you're interested in this detail, but I was just about to tell you that I love him. I love him, and I don't care what you think. I love him for the guy he wants to be, and I love him for the guy he almost is. I love him. They look at each other. The cat is way, way out of the bag. ON JERRY rubbing his face. RAY Hi Jerry! Dorothy leans into the hallway now, sees Jerry standing there, well within earshot. As Ray pounds down the hallway in his new over-sized shirt, brought by Jerry, Dorothy begins to crumble. The lack of control in her life is overwhelming her. DOROTHY Oh God. JERRY Easy, easy -- Jerry enters the kitchen, stands near Laurel. JERRY (continuing) I could pretend I didn't hear, but I won't, I heard everything. (to Laurel) Thank you for your honesty, as always. 96. LAUREL (frozen polite) Coffee, Jerry? JERRY Oh, no thanks. We bottom-feeders prefer cereal first -- RAY Let's have Apple Jacks! Apple Jacks it is. Dorothy, good morning, darling. He kisses her on the cheek, in full view of Ray. Dorothy, still embarrassed, not sure what is going on, reaches for cereal. Jerry sits down for breakfast. They are an odd, but fairly complete-looking family. RAY (continuing) What's going on, Jerry? JERRY A lot. We got a big fax today... we need this commission, buddy. The sisters look at each other. Ray looks around, he feels happy, but there is something else in the room. He shrugs and continues to feel happy. INT. JERRY'S HOME OFFICE -- LATER DAY Jerry and Dorothy prepare for the Tidwells, cleaning up the cramped office, unstacking chairs and making room. DOROTHY That was great of you this morning. The Tidwells honk, arriving in the driveway. JERRY (friendly, dismissive) Look, let's just root for a big offer so we can move out of this room to a real office. She feels slightly slapped down, but covers. She opens a window quickly, and busies herself with the clutter at hand. ON FAX Connecting. 97. FOUR FACES waiting for the results. Everybody has a stake in this fax. Lives are very clearly hanging on this results. Marcee shuts her eyes. MARCEE Read it to me, and don't say anything unless it's over nine. There is a stunning disappointment on the fax. Jerry's heart sinks. His face slackens. JERRY Aw shit -- Rod turns away. Dorothy shuts her eyes, as Marcee opens hers. MARCEE One-point-seven for three years. That's below average. We owe more than that... It is so very painful for her, as Tidwell slinks off to sit in a seat too small for him. JERRY I'll go back to them. MARCEE (explodes) And say what? "Please remove your dick from my ass?!" Both men look at her. The outburst has surprised even Marcee. MARCEE (continuing) I'm sorry. I'm a little pregnant right now. TIDWELL I feel like crying. I feel like breaking the room up. JERRY Okay, we don't take this emotionally. We roll with this problem. MARCEE What are you talking about -- "don't get emotional." If you ask me, you haven't gotten emotional ENOUGH about this man. 98. JERRY Marcee -- MARCEE What DO you stand for??? Dorothy looks right and left, can't hold back. DOROTHY How about a little piece of integrity in this world that is so filled with greed and a lack of honorability that I don't know what to tell my kid except take a look at a guy who isn't shouting "show me the money," he's quietly broke and working for you for free! (off Jerry's pained look) Well, I'm sorry, I'm not as good at the insults as she is. MARCEE No, that was pretty good. TIDWELL (impressed) No shit. DOROTHY In fact, you should read something that meant the world to me... She opens a drawer, and withdraws the Mission Statement. She is headed across the room to give it to Marcee, when Jerry swiftly intercepts it. JERRY Another time, okay Dorothy? DOROTHY Fine, I just -- JERRY And I appreciate that impulse. Jerry throws the Mission Statement into a bottom drawer. Camera moves to Tidwell, and we see him for the first time without his protective shield of attitude. Scared. TIDWELL Tell me what to do, Jerry. You tell me to eat lima beans, I'll eat lima beans. (more) 99. TIDWELL (cont'd) If you say take the shitty deal, that's all we can get -- MARCEE "All we can get?" TIDWELL Can I SPEAK with my agent here? Marcee is passionate. Focused on Rod. MARCEE You know what you're qonna do, Rodney. You're gonna reject this shitty contract. You're gonna play out your existihg shitty contract and go be a free agent next year and the hell with Arizona. This is us, and we determine our worth. You're a fine, proud, surviving, splendid black man. Beat. Truer words... The big man looks into his wife's eyes. TIDWELL Honey, you are just -- No one else in the world exists. They are focused totally on each other. Jerry and Dorothy in the background, just watching the intricate machinery of this marriage. TIDWELL (continuing) -- the shit. She caresses the back of his neck. He pulls her to him. He gives her a small kiss. Dorothy and Jerry look at the couple, fascinated and somewhat uncomfortable. There is a palpable forcefield around the Tidwells. They are a couple in every passionate sense of the word. After a beat: JERRY If you get injured, you get nothing. TIDWELL Won't happen. I'm strong in my mind. JERRY It's a risk. Jerry looks over to Dorothy, who grits her teeth at the implications of the decision. 100. TIDWELL Bet on me, dude. Bet on me like I bet on you. Tidwell puts his hand out. Maguire is conflicted, but he takes a breath and shakes. EXT. JERRY'S HOME OFFICE -- LATE AFTERNOON Tidwell and Marcee exit. Dorothy and Jerry on the lawn. JERRY I'll get you some quick work -- TIDWELL Good deal, man. MARCEE I'm sorry what I said back there. JERRY Don't be silly. MARCEE My husband believes in you. We're gonna make it. Bye bye Dorothy. DOROTHY Take care you guys. Tidwells exit. Finally, Dorothy and Jerry are alone. The Tidwell situation has left an ominious feeling in the air. DOROTHY (continuing) Look... I was up for a job in San Diego before I left SMI. It's with the Chargers. AIRPLANE WHEELS touching down. JERRY Don't even talk about that yet. I'll find something fast for Tidwell. We'll stay afloat. EXT. COMMERCIAL SET/TAYLOR CHEVROLET/ARIZONA -- DAY Tidwell stands on the set of a regional Arizona car commercial. It is a hot day. Three other bored, large Arizona athletes wait by a coffee machine, as Jerry's friend, director Bill Dooler appears ready to implode. Dooler is arguing with Tidwell. 101. Maguire stands slightly away, acting as referee. Nearby, a camel. DOOLER Look, Rod, just get on the camel! JERRY Bill, Rod, wait -- TIDWELL Dude, know your art form. If you put the camera down here, looking up, I look more powerful. There's no need for a camel... you got ME. JERRY Rod, get on the camel. DOOLER (shoots look to Jerry) The sponsor wants a camel -- TIDWELL Jerry, back me up. It's either the camel or me... Tidwell waves his arms, spooking the camel, who spits and stormps. Several crew members scatter in various directions. JERRY (takes the bullet) Airight. Enough. I'm pulling him out of this. This isn't what I had in mind anyway. DOOLER Then you shouldn't have begged me to hire him. EXT. SET -- LATER Jerry and Tidwell walk quickly from the set. In the background, another athlete rides the camel. TIDWELL There you go, dude. You're learning how to represent me. We ain't gonna bring Nike to their knees with some regional camel ad -- Jerry rubs his face. 102. JERRY Can I ask you a question totally unrelated to your career? TIDWELL Oh, we gonna be friends now? JERRY What do you know about dating a single mother? Tidwell warms to the personal question. TIDWELL Oh I know plenty. I was raised by a single mother. JERRY Tell me, because it's been a month, and she's about to take another job in San Diego. Tidwell is always happy to hold forth. TIDWELL First, single mothers don't "date." They have been to the circus, you know what I'm saying? They have been to the puppet show and they have seen the strings. You love her? JERRY How do I know? TIDWELL You know when you know. It makes you shivver, it eats at your insides. You know? JERRY No, I don't know. TIDWELL Then you gotta have The Talk. JERRY But I sure don't like that she's leaving. TIDWELL Well, that ain't fair to her. A single mother, that's a sacred thing, man. 103. JERRY The kid is amazing. TIDWELL (shaking head) No. A real man does not shoplift the "pooty" from a single mom. JERRY I didn't "shoplift the pooty." We were thrown together and -- I mean it's two mutual people who -- (a look) Alright, I shoplifted the pooty. TIDWELL Shame on you. SHAME on you. INT. ZOO -- DAY Jerry, Dorothy and Ray at the zoo. Ray straining at Jerry's arm. Life-changing decisions in the air. DOROTHY They offered me everything I asked for, it's only 2 hours away. I think it's good for us. Jerry feels tugged in many directions, and not just by Ray. They approach the reptile house. RAY Show me the animal, Jerry! JERRY Right up ahead, buddy -- They approach the Reptile House, where a small crowd is gathered. JERRY (continuing) -- I give you my favorite animal in the zoo. Are you ready for the weirdness, the strange perfection and truth of... RAY I'm scared. What is it? JERRY It's in a cage. Do not be scared of... A few people peel away, revealing... 104. JERRY (continuing) The Two-Headed Corn Snake. THE TWO-HEADED CORN SNAKE A friendly but confused looking reptile. The snake has two heads, both identical, both twisting and battling each other for direction. Aw-ed chatter around the animal ranges from "weird" and "wow" to "mira mira! Dos cabezas!" Few can turn away. RAY Whoa. DOROTHY (quietly) Two heads. My God... Jerry is happy to play tour-guide. JERRY Both heads have brains. Both heads eat, both heads battle for direction all day long. (meaningful) Man, can I relate. The odd animal moves forward, fighting itself constantly. RAY Me too. Dorothy just looks at the two men in her life. She turns to Anonymous Man standing nearby, staring at the animal. DOROTHY Is this a guy thing? ANONYMOUS MAN It is, and it isn't. ON THE TWO-HEADED CORN SNAKE strangely endearing, jittering and moving around the cage. EXT. DOROTHY'S FRONT YARD -- DAY A U-Haul is parked in the driveway. Inside the cab, a very sad Ray. Jerry approaches carefully. Ray does not look at him. He opens the door, scoots the kid over, and sits next to him. 105. EXT. DOROTHY'S LIVING ROOM -- DAY Laurel and Dorothy say goodbye. LAUREL You're doing the right thing. I mean, come on. You need to start your life and he... he needs a warm body to cushion the fall. Check out exhibit A on the front lawn -- POV -- THE SISTERS We see Jerry, following Chad back to the house, saying goodbye too many times. He's anxious not to be left alone. Finally Chad grabs him by the shoulders, says goodbye, as a sad Ray trudges to the cab of the U-Haul. Jerry now follows Ray to the car. EXT. DOROTHY'S PLACE -- DAY Jerry scoots a very sad Ray over, and talks to him in the car. JERRY I'm not good at this. Ray begins to cry. Jerry is incapable of dealing with it. JERRY (continuing) I'll see you this weekend, okay? Promise. Ray wails. Jerry squeezes his shoulder, it does nothing, so he exits. He rises and faces Dorothy, keys in hand. JERRY (continuing) Sure you're okay to drive this? DOROTHY This rig? Phht. No problem. JERRY So I'll see you this weekend. She accepts it casually, with a shrug. DOROTHY Airight, so goodbye and -- (simple, with shrug) I love you. Jerry blinks. 106. JERRY (too quick, weirdly) ... I love you too, you know. She reacts with an odd look. The words don't sound right, and he knows that she knows. JERRY (continuing) What -- DOROTHY Look, just in case this weekend becomes next month and next month becomes... whatever... (beat) Don't make a joke of your life. Go back and read what you wrote. You're better than the rest of them, better than the Bob Sugars, and don't forget it. He shudders a little with the intimacy of her words. She kisses him, and moves quickly toward the car, leaving him alone in frame. He grows increasingly uncomfortable. He watches her leave. JERRY Wait a second. ON DOROTHY moving to her car. She hears him. It's not loud enough for her. JERRY WAIT A SECOND! She stops, smiling very slightly to herself , biting her lip. She turns and he is now close to her. JERRY (continuing) I know a way to s... to save on Medical and rent and... look... He grips one hand with the other. Dorothy looks at his strange behavior. He looks over to the cab, where Ray is making a sad face at him through the window. JERRY (continuing) ... what if we stayed together? What if we uh... got married. 107. She looks at him. It's an odd proposal. JERRY (continuing) If I said that, would you stay? DOROTHY No no. Don't do that. Don't say that if you don't... JERRY Will you marry me? She looks at him, full of love, dabbing at her mascara. EXT. DOROTHY'S BACKYARD -- DAY Rod Tidwell sings Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" at the wedding for assorted guests gathered here in the backyard. Contrary to his own belief, Rod is not a gifted singer. In the wedding band, standing on a small stage in the corner, are Chad and Dooler. ON JERRY who stands watching, smile pasted on, with stoic FATHER and well-dressed BROTHER. BROTHER Where are all your friends? JERRY (looking around) In the band. INT. DOROTHY'S LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT We are close on Ray now as we hear the sound of a Reverend reading wedding vows. Ray holds the ring, and waits for his cue to offer it. But he has forgotten the cue. And every time the Reverend pauses, he starts to offer the ring. Dorothy's leg and hand are visible in frame. She calms him with a hand on the shoulder. And finally the cue comes and he offers the ring. INT. DOROTHY'S HALLWAY/KITCHEN -- NIGHT The bride and groom catch each other, post-wedding, in the hallway of the small home where the event has taken place. DOROTHY Wow. We actually -- 108. JERRY Yeah, we did. Giddy, Dorothy heads into the living room where Friends and relatives watch the video of the wedding. And now the enormity is evident on Jerry's face. Warm laughter in the b.g. More laughter and family noise in the background now. He holds onto a table for a moment, steadies himself. Jerry takes a breath and moves into the kitchen. Finds a beer. He turns and finds himself alone with Laurel, for the first time. She raises her beer. They toast, warily. LAUREL If you fuck this up, I'll kill you. JERRY (as she exits) Glad we had this talk! Nearby, Tidwell watches all. He moves to Jerry. Confidentially: TIDWELL You never had The Talk, did you? JERRY No. TIDWELL Well, this was another way to go. Jerry smiles. Dorothy brings Jerry a Poloraid someone took, and for a moment the couple stands awkwardly together. Tidwell rubs Jerry's shoulders a little, announcing to the room: TIDWELL (continuing) This is my agent, man! And we're all gonna have a great season! He pounds Jerry on the back, hard, shaking him like a pinata. FADE TO EXT. PHILADELPHIA PLAYING FIELD -- DAY Tidwell catches the ball, takes a vicious hit. The season is on. INT. PHILADELPHIA PRESS BOX -- DAY Across the room, he sees GM Dennis Wilburn standing with Avery. 109. He turns away, passing a monitor where elsewhere in the country, Frank Cushman is having another sensational Sunday. INT. TIDWELL LIVING ROOM/PHOENIX -- DAY This is the Tidwell family ritual of watching Rod's games on the big-screen home t.v. At the center is Marcee Tidwell. Everything flows from her. Next to her is Tyson, and then the cousins, the neighborhood friends. At this particular moment, they are all screaming for Rod, who is taking a beating, but is having a hell of a game. In front of the t.v., Tyson does the "Daddy Dance," a dance of pure joy. TYSON (proudly, to family) That's my motherfucker! Marcee reaches out and collars her dancing son. MARCEE Why don't you be the first man in your family not to say that word? And then we'll let you live. Tyson nods, wide-eyed. MARCEE (continuing) Now go kiss your daddy, quick. TEE PEE (cooly) That's why they cheer, you know. The white man sending the black man into battle... Marcee shoots him a look, as Tidwell takes another rough hit. INT. STADIUM HALLWAY -- NIGHT Jerry stands waiting. Bob Sugar nearby, greeting quarterback JOHN SWENSON. Still no Tidwell. EXT. PHILADELPHIA LOCKER ROOM -- NIGHT Finally, here comes Tidwell, moving very slowly with garmet bag. JERRY How's your head? Bubblicious. 110. TIDWELL Tidwell moves to a tan in a wheelchair, signs an autograph and moves on. Jerry alongside. The quarterback sucks, man. He's gonna get me killed. JERRY I'm a little worried -- TIDWELL I'm worried too. I'm worried that the only reason I'm here getting my brains blown loose is that you weren't asshole enough to get my ten million three months ago. INSANE FAN (interrupting loudly) FUCKIN ROD TIDWELL YOU RULE YOU RULE! I WON A FUCKIN, A FUCKIN MUG ON YOU IN MY ROTISS... ROTLISS... With great skill, Tidwell pats the fan and moves him along to other tired players. TIDWELL Peace, my drunken brother. Ahd don't discuss gambling with me. Insane fan moves to another player. Jerry proceeds carefully. JERRY We can still take the offer, Rod. TIDWELL (stops) No. Jerry regards his slightly befuddled friend. JERRY Well, just stay healthy. I will show you the kwan. TIDWELL (irritated) Hey, that's my word, okay? Tidwell wearily heads for the bus. Jerry stands in the parking lot. JERRY I'll see you in Arizona. 111. TIDWELL I'm gonna have the game of my life on Monday Night Football, and show all these motherfuckers. JERRY Take care, okay? You're my entire client roster. TIDWELL Don't I know. Now go home to your wife. JERRY What's that supposed to mean? TIDWELL Why are you even here, man? You could have told me all this over the phone. JERRY I don't know -- how's "dedication" for an answer? TIDWELL You don't want to go home, do you? JERRY Why are you doing this to me, Rod? TIDWELL I'm asking you a question -- JERRY No, you're -- TIDWELL I'm trying to talk to you. How's your marriage? Jerry looks at Rod for a moment. It is the simplest question, and one in which he has no quick answer. JERRY Not everyone has what you have. TIDWELL Then why'd you get married? I'm asking you as a friend. JERRY (shaking his head) You're jabbing at me. 112. TIDWELL I'm sorry I asked. JERRY No, I'm going to answer you. You want an answer? I'll give it to you. (beat) Loyalty. She was loyal. (unconvincing) Everything grew from there. TIDWELL That's an answer. JERRY Damn right. TIDWELL (jab) For loyalty, you buy a dog. For love, you get married. JERRY Look. I'm happy to entertain you, as always, but I have a question for you. Are we really "friends?" TIDWELL Why not -- JERRY Well, friends can tell each other anything, right? If we have our "friends" hats on -- TIDWELL (wary) I think so. JERRY (intense) Airight. Here's why you don't have your ten million dollars yet. You are a paycheck player. You play with your head. Not your heart. In your personal life? (points) Heart. But when you get on the field -- (more) 113. JERRY (cont'd) (finger rises to Tidwell's head) -- you're a businessman. It's wide-angle lenses and who fucked you over and who owes you for it. That's not what inspires people. I'm sorry, but that's the truth, can you handle it? Just a "question," Rod. Between friends. TIDWELL I don't want to be friends anymore. JERRY Fine. TIDWELL Beautiful. JERRY (angry) We still having dinner in L.A.? TIDWELL (anqry) Only 'cause my wife likes your wife! Jerry exits. Tidwell is pissed. And hurt. TIDWELL (continuing) "No heart." "No heart?" (yells after him) I'm all heart, motherfucker! He gets on the bus. INT. CRAB RESTAURANT -- NIGHT The Tidwells and the Maguires. Tyson and Ray run around the table of this family-style restaurant. Marcee is very very pregnant. They crack crabs for each other, seasoning for each other, feeding each other like one many-armed and loving body. MARCEE -- so I go to see a so-called "black" film the other day -- (then) -- honey, no more salt for you, I don't want you dehydrated for Monday Night Football. Most important game of your career. (more) 114. MARCEE (cont'd) (then) -- TWENTY minutes of coming attractions. All black films, all violent, I'm talking about brothers shooting brothers, Wesley Snipes with guns the size of our house, killing, blood flowing, cars crashing... blood blood blood blood. Is this all they think we want to see? Come on! I enjoyed Shindler's List. Give me a little credit, I mean hooo -- TIDWELL I hate you going to movies alone withoutme -- MARCEE Oh baby -- He cracks more crab, gives her the biggest piece. SHOT OF JERRY AND DOROTHY Sitting across the table, stunned, just watching this intricate and perfect marriage. SHOT OF MARCEE She takes a breath and gets a weird look. TIDWELL What baby? MARCEE Baby. Baby. Baby... INT. HOSPITAL ROOM -- NIGHT Marcee gives birth, Rod assisting. Jerry and Dorothy watch from behind thick glass. She hangs her arm on his shoulder, looks at him. Jerry stares straight ahead. Mortified, with dry throat. INT. DOROTHY AND JERRY'S BEDROOM -- NIGHT Jerry and Dorothy exhausted, alone, getting ready for bed. Dorothy sits down near him on the bed. DOROTHY What were you thinking tonight? Watching them go through the complete human emotional experience? 115. JERRY I was thinking I hope he doesn't get injured. I felt responsible. DOROTHY Sometimes I can't tell at all, what's going through that head of yours. He makes a noise. As in -- it's no big mystery. DOROTHY (continuing) And I really don't know your noises yet. JERRY Well, when you wonder, ask me. DOROTHY (unsatisfied) Okay... I will... Beat. He feels inadequate. JERRY Why do you love me? DOROTHY Why do you love me? It is, of course, the better question. And before he can answer, there is a pounding at the door. RAY Jerry, can I come in and watch t.v.? DOROTHY JERRY I'll come visit you in a Just for a few minutes, second -- buddy -- The door flies open and Ray comes bounding in, onto the bed, stations himself in the center and begins wrestling Jerry for the remote control. Dorothy watches, disconnected. A steeliness comes over her that we have not yet seen. INT. PRESCHOOL -- NEXT DAY Dorothy drops Ray at preschool, and stands in the doorway of the playroom. She watches the boys and girls playing together in a room full of bright colors and games. Music. Anxiety building. 116. EXT. RAY'S PLAYHOUSE -- NIGHT Jerry sits finishing a phone call to an advertising account exec. He has come here, to Ray's playhouse for privacy. JERRY Tonight. Yeah, the red-eye, I'll be in Arizona on Monday... Jerry adlibs some salesmanship on Tidwell's behalf. Dorothy approaches. She gives him a few phone messages, sits down. Beat of silence. He sees a look on her face that is unfamiliar. DOROTHY It's my fault. JERRY What -- DOROTHY It's not fair to you. This whole -- JERRY (instant crisis mode) Tell me -- let me help -- DOROTHY I took advantage of you and worst of all, I'm not alone. I did this with a kid. I was just on some ride where I thought I was in 1ove enough for both of us. I did this. And at least I can do something about it now. JERRY (damage control) Well -- I'm not the guy who's going to run. I stick. DOROTHY I don't need you to "stick." JERRY You want... DOROTHY I don't know -- JERRY (it slips out) ...my soul or something. 117. DOROTHY Why fucking not! I deserve it. JERRY (direct) Dorothy -- what if I'm just not built that way? DOROTHY I think we made a mistake here. But now he can't stop. JERRY What if it's true? "Great at friendship bad at intimacy." I mean, come on. It's the theme of my bachelor film -- DOROTHY I know. I watched it. I sort of know it by heart. JERRY (absorbs it) I don't like to give up. DOROTHY Oh please. My need to make the best of things, and your need to be what, "responsible"... if one of us doesn't say something now we might lose ten years being polite about it. Why don't we call this next road trip what it is. A nice long break. JERRY What about Ray? She notes the only real glimpse of ache, in that question. DOROTHY There's no question you'll be friends. Of course you'll be friends. JERRY So this break... is a break-up. DOROTHY Come on, Jerry. You know this isn't easy for me. (more) 118. DOROTHY (cont'd) I mean, on the surface, you'd almost think everything was fine. See, I've got this great guy who loves my kid -- (resolute, no tears) -- and he sure does like me a lot. Jerry Maguire, a man who speaks for a living, has nothing to say. DOROTHY (continuing) I can't live that way. It's not the way I'm "built." He moves to embrace her. She pulls away first. INT. RAY'S ROOM -- NIGHT Jerry kisses sleepy Ray goodbye. JERRY Don't wake up... And then faces the exotic fish who now resides on Ray's table. He once lived in a tank the size of a Cadillac. The fish now hangs in a too-small bowl, looking at him. JERRY (continuing; defensive) ... it was just a Mission Statement... INT. AIRPORT -- DAY Jerry Maguire stretches his arms out. A security wand passes over him. Deadness in his eyes. The glaze of the road on him. Music. EXT. SUN DEVIL STADIUM -- ARIZONA We are hovering in the sky, just above Sun Devil Stadium. The classic Monday Night Football shot from the blimp. INT. TIDWELL LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT Tidwell's family in the living room. A buzz in the air. The pregame show is on, sound-muted. Old-school on the stereo. Everybody is happy. Marcee sits in the position of honor, her new baby KAYDEE in her arms. She is a tired mother, and the family celebrates her. 119. TEE PEE He'd better not mess up on Monday Night Football. Marcee shoots Tee Pee a look. TEE PEE (continuing) What did I say? He gets nervous for the t.v. games... it's not a secret. INT. TUNNEL AREA/PRE-GAME -- NIGHT Nervous Tidwell chews a toothpick as he stands checking out the field. Nearby, some cheerleaders and a man in a Pickle suit. PICKLE MAN Nothing like Monday Night, huh? What is it, 2 billion viewers? TIDWELL (irritated) Shouldn't you be out there doing some pickle dance or something -- Pickle Man nods and goes out to dance for the crowd. VOICE Hey Rod -- hey Buddydude -- Tidwell turns. It's Bob Sugar approaching. Laser-like, ready to feed on his insecurity. SUGAR Listen, I spoke to your quarterback. He's my client, you know. And I said, "take care to get those passes down, let Tidwell look good on t.v." Tidwell looks at him, chews his toothpick. SUGAR (continuing) You should let me do more for you. I would have had you your deal by tonight. Al Michaels is a friend of mine. I would have had him on the air, talking about you, tonight, when it counts. TIDWELL Get outta here. Go. 120. SUGAR Where's your agent tonight? TIDWELL Don't know. SUGAR Rod. I know this is "uncool" to do this now, but you belong with the big boys. You belong with the money. You belong with -- Here comes Jerry Maguire. JERRY Get the fuck away from my guy, Sugar. Tidwell can't help it. He beams as he sees his agent approach. TIDWELL Jerry! You made it -- JERRY (off Sugar) Go. Flee. Sugar retreats, offering one final look to Rod, think about what I said. TIDWELL Thanks for coming. JERRY (bittersweet) I missed ya. What can I say? INT. TIDWELL HOME -- NIGHT They watch the game. GIFFORD (ON T.V.) It's a bruiser out there tonight. MICHAELS (ON T.V.) Arizona refusing to go into the quiet night of this rough football season. Come on, I'm trying to be poetic here. Tidwell takes a rough hit, and they respond loudly. 121. DIERDORF (ON T.V.) Ooof. Another rough hit across the middle on Rod Tidwell. Nothing poetic about that. INT. PRESS BOX -- NIGHT Maguire moves through the box. INT. FIELD -- NIGHT Tidwell takes a hit. Hangs onto the ball. INT. TIDWELL LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT The Tidwell clan are banging on t.v. trays and whooping loudly. But in the middle of the cheers, Marcee sees the unsettled look on young Tyson's face. She pulls him over to her, giving him preference over baby Kaydee. He is the only thing in her world, as she says: MARCEE What does daddy say? TYSON "It looks worse than it is... Marcee gives him a kiss, as Tidwell makes another grueling gain on the field. FRANK GIFFORD'S VOICE They don't pay enough for a man to take that kind of ugly hit -- MARCEE (to others) Boy, no s-h-i-t. Big laughs from the living room. Except Tee Pee. TEE PEE He's gonna have nothing left for next season. They're letting him kill himself. MARCEE Can you be quiet? TEE PEE What'd I say? INT. PRESS BOX -- NIGHT Maguire watches as Arizona's quarterback John Swenson drops back for a pass, and is sacked. 122. Philadelphia fans cheer wildly. The game is turning uglier by the minute. Jerry looks up to the monitor for a closet look at the next play. ON PRESS BOX MONITOR Swenson, the Arizona quarterback, throws a wobbly pass into the end-zone. Tidwell leaps for the catch, tucks the ball in and is promptly and brutally hit by two defenders from two different sides. This hit is bad. Worse than bad. Tidwell flips and comes down like a sack of potatoes, with a thud, ball still in his hands. His head hits the astroturf, hard. Tidwell is out cold. And the ripple effect of the injury shoots through the stadium. Jerry stares at the monitor, stunned by the sudden brutality. EXT. ARIZONA FIELD -- NIGHT We are thrust into the vortex, inside the game. Tidwell lies still on turf. Overhead, the fight music continues for a few seconds before disappearing abruptly. Players and coaches begin to gather around the still body of Rod Tidwell. TV MONITOR -- SLO-MO The hit in replay. It is brutal. And we can see a flash of his pride as he catches the lousy pass, and then... like two bulls, the Philadelphia defenders enter from each side. One cuts his legs out from under him, and Rod's taut body literally flips. The second defender then hits him at the shoulders. Tidwell lands on the back of his neck, crumpling downwards. Still holding the ball. Still. INT. TIDWELL LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT Silence. Utter silence. GIFFORD'S VOICE -- you sure hope his family wasn't watching that. And then, in a cry that gurgles from way down deep, Marcee begins to sob. Camera catches the face of Tyson, now panicked. Scared, he embraces his mother. INT. BOWELS OF SUN DEVIL STADIUM Maguire sprints through the inner bowels of the stadium. He turns the corner, into the tunnel, talking his way past a guard, heading into the bright t.v. light of the football field. 123. INT. TIDWELL LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT Gathering around the television, the family waits through a commercial for more information on Rod's injury. TEE PEE He should have kept his head tucked down. MARCEE (immediately) Shut up!!! TEE PEE I'm not putting him down, I just have a commitment to the truth. Marcee lunges for him. MARCEE Can't you be loyal to your brother who LOVES you?? (she is held back) Get out of my house! Across the room, the phone starts ringing. A COUSIN answers. COUSIN It's Jerry Maguire! EXT. ARIZONA FIELD -- NIGHT Jerry Maguire on the portable. JERRY He took a shot. He's unconscious. MARCEE I'm freakin out. Oh God I'm -- JERRY Keep the phone open. I'll call back. Stay calm. He's got some good doctors out there. MARCEE "Stay calm?" I'm freakin... JERRY Alright, I'm freaking too. But they need you to stay calm. I'll call back. 124. MARCEE My whole life is this family, Jerry. It doesn't work without him. She takes a big gulp, as Jerry watches an overzealous Trainer run out onto the field to join the cluster around the fallen Tidwell. Jerry covers phone and yells onto the field. JERRY DON'T TOUCH HIM!!! EXT. CENTER OF PLAYING FIELD -- NIGHT We're now just a few inches in front of his peaceful, sleeping face. They are all. YELLING, trying to pull him out. SHOTS OF NATIONAL TELEVISION AUDIENCES 1) A full sports bar in arizona silently watches Monday Night Football. 2) Generic living room of sports fans, all watching Tidwell pinned to the screen. 3) Generic outdoor bar-b-que as white fans watch t.V. 4) Tidwell living room. All gathered around the television. 5) Maguire straining at the sideline. ON TIDWELL -- CLOSE Dead to the world as sound disappears. There is now only silence. POV TIDWELL - SLO-MO -- SILENCE The Doctors and the Trainers are now truly panicked. We don't hear them. We see them, their motions increasingly manic. Shoving fingers in front of him. Screaming. We read their lips. ("Rod!" "Rod can you hear us!") We see the anguish and escalating fear on their faces. The Trainer leans in close, bellowing, he spreads his hands wide to clap right in front of Rod's still face. His hands head toward each other... closer... bringing with them the first inkling of sound... getting closer and then finally coming together, bringing with him the sounds of the stadium. ON TIDWELL who blinks back to life. Concerned men are yelling very loudly, right in his face. Tidwell becomes aware he is the absolute center of attention of the entire stadium. As crowd noise begins to rise. 125. TRAINER Let's get you off the field! TIDWELL Wait. TRAINER Can you feel your legs? TIDWELL Yeah. Just let me enjoy this for a minute. ON JERRY who watches. Only marginally relieved. Is he okay? ON FANS Crowd noise rises. Is he okay? ON TIDWELL Can he move? Is he okay? ON TIDWELL'S LIVING ROOM Not a breath is taken. Is he okay? He rises. Stadium explodes. At first on wobbly feet, he raises the football and for the first time -- salutes the crowd. Crowd noise doubles. ON MAGUIRE gasping for breath. ON TIDWELL Has never felt like this before in his life. It is the pure and absolute love of the spotlight. And his fans. And then... it's real and he feels it. Tidwell breaks out in a small but unmistakable move -- a flutter step. He does a high-stepping move, all his own, for about ten yards. ON JERRY MAGUIRE who watches, now in complete disbelief. Tidwell will not let go of the spotlight. ON TIDWELL'S LIVING ROOM Going absolutely nuts. Marcee hysterical, laughing and crying. 126. MARCEE (to Tee Pee) You ain't talking now, are you??? You're a silent motherfucker! Tyson watches in silent awe of his mother. BACK ON TIDWELL -- CLOSE Finishes his small but heartfelt dance. It is a personal catharsis he is sharing now with 2 billion people. TIDWELL (to himself) Nike. He moves past Jerry Maguire on his way off the field. Jerry, casually thumps his heart twice. Jerry Maguire is overcome with emotion. He sits down on a camera case, head in his hands. Behind him, a stadium cheers a new hero. OVERHEARD FAN I always knew he was great. Maguire rubs his face. Overcome. Photographers and others rush past to be closer to Tidwell. INT. TUNNEL -- LATER Jerry Maguire surrounded by well-wishers and backslappers and Sportswriters. Success has returned, in all of it's superficial grandeur. He is a star again, by association. We catch the look on Maguire's face. Try as he might, he can't manufacture the joy of the moment. There is a void. Over the heads of the heatseekers we see Dennis Wilburn nodding, holding a thumbs up. He tries to get to Maguire, but cannot. And then a commotion behind them all. REPORTER It's Tidwell! Tidwell exits the locker room. Press and media surround him. Even the grizzled old-time stadium workers reach in to squeeze him, to slap him, to touch him. He works his way to Maguire. They hug. Cameras flash. Tears roll down from beneath his purple shades. TIDWELL We did it. And now, in the middle of this emotional union, a portable phone rings. Both men reach for their porties. It's Maguire's. With anticipation, he answers. 127. JERRY Hello. (beat) It's Marcee. She says she couldn't get through on your phone. Tidwell grabs the phone, and joyously shares the moment with his wife. Jerry watches, as Tidwell leans on his shoulder. ON SUGAR AND SWENSON (WATCHING THEM) Bob Sugar watches from the nearby wall where he stands with his client, quarterback John Swenson. SWENSON Why don't we have that kind of relationship? INT. ARIZONA KAROAKE BAR -- NIGHT Rod Tidwell sings karoake, on stage. He's struggling through U2's "One." In the audience are many Arizona players, as well as most of Tidwell's family. TIDWELL One love... you got to share it... INT. TIDWELL HOME -- NIGHT Tee Pee is stuck at home, babysitting twenty kids. INT. KAROAKE BAR -- NIGHT We move past many Big Men celebrating Tidwell, singing along, sharing their Monday Night victory, onto melancholy Jerry Maguire. He watches, cellular at his side, as a YOUNG AGENT approaches. YOUNG AGENT Jerry Maguire. I'm Tommy Bendis. You don't know me, I'm a new agent, just getting started. I represent that place kicker over there. (indicates kicker) I wondered if you would sign this for me. Because it inspired me. He withdraws a well-thumbed copy of Jerry's Mission Statement. The blue cover is ripped along one edge. It clearly has served as a manifesto for this younger man's career. 128. ON JERRY MAGUIRE He feels the cover, flips through it a little. Memories flood with the passing pages. Shot holds on Jerry's face, as Tidwell continues singing in the background. Suddenly, an odd feeling. A shiver runs up and down his spine. His forehead tingles. He rubs his face. All he can do is think of Dorothy. AGENT Just make it out "To Tommy". JERRY Tommy. I love you. INT. AIRPORT -- NIGHT Jerry Maquire sprints through the empty airport, heading for the last flight out of town. Music. INT. DOROTHY'S LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT The Divorced Women's Group in session. Laurel stands near the doorway, blowing cigarette smoke into the night. Dorothy is now a part of this group. DOROTHY I've listened to you all tell a thousand sob stories, and I have been very judgmental. Frankly, I think you've all been waaaay too comfortable with your pain. Plus, Jan, you always spill your red wine on the couch. (off Jan's guilty look) I've not been fair to you. Women need to stick together, and not depend on the affections of a man to "fix" their lives. Maybe you're all correct. Men are the enemy. Murmurs of agreement. DOROTHY (continuing) But I still love the enemy. Murmurs of disappointment. 129. EXT. DOROTHY'S HOUSE -- NIGHT Jerry exits cab, holding hang-up bag. Looks at the house. On the other side of that window is a world he hopes he's still a part of. INT. LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT Jerry enters. Dorothy is seated toward the back. JERRY Hello. I'm looking for my wife. Dorothy looks up, robbed of words. Stunned, she does not move. JERRY (continuing) Alright. If this is where it has to happen, then this is where it has to happen. Dorothy says nothing. JERRY (continuing) I'm not letting you get rid of me. How about that? He shares a look with some of the other women. She's not going to say a word. Neither do they. JERRY (continuing) This used to be my specialty. I was good in a living room. Send me in there, I'll do it alone. And now I just... I don't know... but on what was supposed to be the happiest night of my business life, it wasn't complete, wasn't nearly close to being in the same vicinity as complete, because I couldn't share it with you. I couldn't hear your voice, or laugh about it with you. I missed my wife. We live in a cynical world, and we work in a business of tough competitors, so try not to laugh -- (directly) I love you. You complete me. DOROTHY Aw, shut up. You had me at hello. 130. He moves to her. They embrace. Ray watches in b.g. Jerry has given this room hope. It's on their faces. At last, even Laurel gets off on her sister's happiness, as she shares a look with Chad. JAN (sloshing wine) I think we'd better go... INT. ROY FIRESTONE SHOW -- NIGHT Roy Firestone leans forward. FIRESTONE ...your father who left the family on Christmas eve, the mother who cleaned the steps of a prison to make your tuition. The older brother who lost a leg in that tragic bass fishing accident -- Tidwell is wearing glasses now, in a somewhat scholarly mode. TIDWELL No, Roy. I'm not gonna cry. FIRESTONE -- well, Rod, your agent passed me a note before the show. He says that your deal memo has been signed by the Arizona Cardinals. Four years for ten-point-two million dollars. Playing in the state where you grew up. ON TIDWELL -- WEEPING TIDWELL I... I love everybody, man. I love my wife. My kids. Little Tyson. My new baby Kaydee. My brother Tee Pee. I love my friends, my teammates, who am I leaving out? FIRESTONE (laughing) It's only a half-hour show, Rod. ON TIDWELL'S FRIENDS AND FAMILY watching off-camera. Marcee crying too. Shot takes us to Jerry, Dorothy and Ray. 131. TIDWELL Wanna send some beautiful love out to my offensive line, just a beautiful bunch of dudes, wanna thank a beautiful individual -- God, and of course the entire Arizona organization, a little slow, but they do come around. I'm leaving somebody out... Amused and finally glimpsing the end of a long journey, Jerry leans over to Marcee. JERRY Take care, Marcee. We'll see you at the restaurant. She nods, emotionally, biting her lip. TIDWELL Oh yes. Jerry Maguire! My agent! This is a fierce, loving individual, I love this man, he is love, he is about love -- my ambassador of kwan. FIRESTONE Ten seconds, Rod. TIDWELL And I love my fans, of which he is one. Wanna thank them for all my Sundays, and of course my Monday nights too. That about says it... Jerry watches wonderously at the monitor before leaving. TV credits are rolling on the show. TIDWELL (continuing) Wait! And thank you Melvin from the Casual Man, thank you for the suit... EXT. PARKING LOT -- DAY Jerry, Dorothy, Ray exit into the daylight. They walk to Jerry's car. From across the fence, a stray baseball from a pick-up game flies into the parking lot and bounces ahead of them. Ray picks it up. In an easy fluid motion, he whips it back over the fence to the game on the other side. A few kids on the other side of the fence shout their approval of a great little throw. 132. Jerry and Dorothy stop, looking at Ray who has just shown shocking natural ability. They are quiet for a moment, turning slowly to look at each other. And then, not ready to deal with it, not even close to ready to deal with it, they say quickly to the boy: JERRY DOROTHY Come on, Ray. Ray, let's go. Happily Ray joins them as they walk to the car. A family. Music. FADE OUT THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Jimmy and Judy.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jimmy and Judy.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..99d3516303183c8a05254cfb02313fa678ab7b2b --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jimmy and Judy.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + JIMMY AND JUDY Written by Randall K. Rubin & Jon Schroder CAMERA ON: I/E. BACKYARD - SUBURBAN HOUSE - JUDY'S BEDROOM - NIGHT POV of a HOME VIDEO CAMERA shooting into the window of teenage girl's bedroom. The door inside opens. In walks JUDY OAKS-KELLEN (18), a blond haired, mousy girl, wearing only a T-shirt and panties. As she heads to the mirror we hear... Sound of skin smacking against skin and heavy breathing. Whoever operates the camera is definitely CHOAKIN' THE GOPHER. Judy combs her hair in the mirror, oblivious. The camera operator is in a whack off frenzy as he... CAMERA OPERATOR (O.C.) Oh, mmph. He's climaxed. The sounds have stopped, but the tape keeps rolling. Judy stops combing her hair as... Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: EXT. HIGH SCHOOL - THE TRACK - DAY Camera shoots from inside a car hidden camera style as Judy runs laps during her gym class. Judy, again, has no idea that she is being filmed as camera zooms in tight. She's tired, sweating profusely, and looks completely miserable. She stops running, exhausted, as the other kids pass her. Suddenly, a very Butch looking female GYM TEACHER (40) walks over and begins BERATING Judy. The Gym Teacher's face turns red as she spews insults inches away from Judy's face. We can't hear what she's saying, but whatever it is, it's cruel, harsh, and very intense. Exhausted and humiliated, Judy holds back tears as... Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: 2. I/E. JIMMY'S HOUSE - BACKYARD/KITCHEN/LIVING ROOM - DUSK Late summer evening. Camera Operator wipes dirt from the lens with his shirt revealing his face for the first time as he looks at camera. This is the first time we get even a glimpse of JIMMY WRIGHT (21). His looks are striking, even a bit awkward, but not at all unappealing. He throws a mischievously evil look at the lens, then settles his face back to normal. He spins the camera away, pointing it at the back of his house. Through the kitchen window, Jimmy zooms in on his mother (JIMMY'S MOM) (40's) idyllic version of a mom in new millennium suburban housewife clothes. She's on the phone, preparing dinner. JIMMY (O.C.) Hey Mom, heard you and Dad doing the nasty last night. Thanks for that one. By the way, who the fuck is Nancy? Camera whips over to JIMMY'S DAD in the LIVING ROOM, well dressed, rich looking and fat in his late 40's, watching baseball on TV, tired after a long day's work. He drinks from a tumbler of expensive scotch neat with an ice cube, munching on mixed nuts from a crystal bowl. JIMMY (O.C.) Hey Dad, Mom's on the phone telling her friends that you're hung like a light switch. Dad reaches into his pants to give his balls a good scratch. Jimmy gives the play by play like a baseball announcer. JIMMY (O.C.) Oh Daddy, there he goes. He makes the reach and... yes! Both balls at the same time! One heck of a double play! Eyes on the TV, Dad takes his hands out of his pants and sniffs them. JIMMY (O.C.) And the sniff to finish it off. Satisfied, Dad reaches in and grabs a handful of nuts as he continues to watch TV. We zoom out to see both Mom and Dad, each through different windows. 3. JIMMY (O.C.) Fucking freak show. CAMERA ON: INT. JIMMY'S HOUSE - JIMMY'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Dark and in silhouette, Jimmy flips on the camera by remote. It's too dark to see faces or bodies with any detail, but Jimmy's clearly having sex with a PROSTITUTE in his bed. She is young, black, and looks very much like a prostitute. As he pounds into her... JIMMY Do you like that nigger? Come on nigger, do you like it? PROSTITUTE (humors him) Oh yeah baby, I like it. By remote, Jimmy shuts down the camera. CAMERA ON: INT. JIMMY'S HOUSE - JIMMY'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Jimmy's behind the camera interviewing the Prostitute who sits up in his bed holding the sheets to cover herself. With the lights on, we can see that she's clearly unattractive. Jimmy asks his questions with a gentle confidence. JIMMY (O.C.) Okay, so. What was going through your mind when I called you a nigger? PROSTITUTE This costs you an extra fifty. JIMMY (O.C.) I know. She pauses. You can tell she just wants to leave, but is toughing it out for the extra fifty bucks. JIMMY (O.C.) Well, what did it feel like? Long pause. 4. PROSTITUTE It felt like nothing. JIMMY (O.C.) What do you mean? PROSTITUTE You ain't the first person to call me a nigger when we was fucking. JIMMY (O.C.) (not surprised) Oh. PROSTITUTE Johns call me nigger all the time. Especially white guys. Nothing new. Just dirty talk. Long, awkward pause. Jimmy Doesn't know what to say. PROSTITUTE That it? No reply from Jimmy. PROSTITUTE What about you? You like calling me nigger? You get your nut off? JIMMY (O.C.) (calmly) No. PROSTITUTE Then why'd ya call me that? JIMMY (O.C.) (O.C.) Have you ever wondered what it was like to treat someone so completely cruel that it was unthinkable? No answer. JIMMY (O.C.) I was trying to do the unthinkable and unimaginable when I called you that. I wanted to see if was even possible for me to do that. They pause. 5. PROSTITUTE Yeah, so? Jimmy speaks softly and confidently. JIMMY (O.C.) I think I want to die. Like I don't deserve to live anymore. And that I will never want to do something like that to someone again. The prostitute finds Jimmy's answer endearing. PROSTITUTE Why ya wanna die? JIMMY (O.C.) Because everyone hates me. Pause. JIMMY (O.C.) They hate me because I seek beauty and appreciate destruction. They hate my mind, my thoughts, my imagination. They hate everything about me. And I hate them. PROSTITUTE (trying not to care) Really? JIMMY (O.C.) Yep. Everyone. Everyone that knows or who has ever met me. PROSTITUTE Your parents don't hate you. Look at this room in this big 'ole house you got. JIMMY (O.C.) My parents provide me with food and shelter because they have been conditioned by society into thinking it's the appropriate thing to do. In reality they can't stand to be in the same room with me. They're fascists, brainwashed, and unforgiving. (MORE) 6. JIMMY (O.C.) (cont'd) They dismiss my feelings of ill regard towards them on simple rebelliousness of youth, but that's only because they are patently and intentionally unaware of their own hypocrisies. Prostitute looks bored/frustrated again. JIMMY (O.C.) (accidental condescension) Do you understand me? PROSTITUTE You wanna know what I think? JIMMY Yes, I really do. PROSTITUTE I think you're a spoiled ass white boy, thinks you everything, but you don't know shit. All you do is bullshit complain and there's folks out there that'd kill for all this. Jimmy doesn't react. PROSTITUTE I don't feel sorry for you. JIMMY (O.C.) (calmly) No one is asking you to. Thank you for letting me film you. Camera turns off. CAMERA ON: I/E. HIGH SCHOOL - PARKING LOT/JIMMY'S CAR - DAY Jimmy hides hidden camera style inside his car in the high school parking lot, bleachers in the distance. School is letting out as he zooms in on Judy. She's looking at the ground as she's taunted by a group of Other Harassing Teenagers, a tear streaming down the side of her cheek. Suddenly, Judy is bashed in the face with a school bag. She falls to the ground, then picks up her broken glasses as camera zooms out to catch the Girl who hit her (Mean Girl). 7. Nearby, a big, Dumb Looking Bully Type (18) taunts her as she cries. His taunts are biting and as excessive as the Mean Girl's, then he dumps a cup of soda on Judy's head as she's crying. Judy screams at the top of her lungs. The group runs off laughing. Jimmy whip pans to the Mean Girl as she laughs with her friends, then whips pans back to Judy, now on her feet, blood running from her nose and onto her white shirt. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: I/E. JUDY'S HOUSE - JUDY'S BEDROOM - NIGHT A scene we've seen before. Jimmy is off camera videotaping Judy through her bedroom window. We hear him FLOGGIN' THE DOLPHIN off screen while Judy combs her hair in the mirror. She stops when she hears... A Grown Man, (45), walks into the doorway of her bedroom. This is JUDY'S DAD. He comes in and doesn't say a thing to her. Judy doesn't acknowledge him at all and continues combing her hair as though he's not even there. He comes up behind her, then wraps his arms around her, giving her a warm hug from behind. Something's not right. The masturbation sounds STOP. Judy's noticeably uncomfortable but doesn't resist as her Father begins kissing her neck. His hand slowly creeps down to her pelvic area, his other hand turning out the bedroom light. The room goes dark. Camera flips down, then OFF... Then COMES BACK ON AGAIN Once again we're looking through the camera pointing at the window, but now it's the distorted, grainy, black and white of "Nite Shot" mode. Though we see the Judy's mirror and her dresser, she and her Father are nowhere to be found. Whatever's going on between them, it's going on out of frame, away from the view of the window. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: 8. INT. JIMMY'S HOUSE - DINING ROOM - NIGHT Jimmy films once again, hidden camera style, long lens from far away. Frame is close on Judy sitting at the dining room table. As camera pulls back, we HEAR but don't see Judy's Parents talking to Jimmy's Mom and Dad at the table. Judy is bored, completely uninterested in their conversation. JIMMY'S MOM (O.C.) So Melissa talked Gary into the SL instead of the seven series. I couldn't believe it. Judy looks over at camera, catching the fact that she's being videotaped. Jimmy keeps filming. JIMMY'S DAD (O.C.) They paid way too much. As Jimmy zooms in, she clandestinely flips off the camera. JUDY'S DAD I strictly buy American anyway. Judy gets up. Her mom stops her. JUDY'S MOM (O.C.) Where you going honey? JUDY Bathroom. As Judy leaves the table she walks towards camera as it shuts down. CAMERA ON: INT. JIMMY'S HOUSE - JIMMY'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Judy sits on Jimmy's bed, staring into the camera. She's uncomfortable sitting there. It's poorly framed. JUDY Can we start already? JIMMY (O.C.) One second. Camera shuts off. 9. INT. JIMMY'S HOUSE - JIMMY'S BEDROOM - DAY Jimmy films Judy again, better framing this time. Judy looks annoyed and uncomfortable in front of the camera. JIMMY (O.C.) Who do you hate most in the world and why? JUDY (kind of bitchy) Why? Who cares? JIMMY (O.C.) I do. JUDY God, I just wanted to come up here to say "hi" and get away from my parents' bullshit for like two seconds and you have to put the stupid camera in my face. Jimmy takes delight in Judy's displeasure of being filmed. JIMMY (O.C.) Now we're onto something. Judy wants to go and then doesn't. JUDY You're weird Jimmy. You were weird when we were kids and now you're just getting weirder. JIMMY (O.C.) Is that why you had a crush on me? JUDY (scoffs) Yeah right. JIMMY (O.C.) You didn't have a crush on me? Judy fidgets, he's got her. JUDY You're a loser. You're twenty one and you're still living with your parents. She's waiting for a response. Jimmy doesn't bite. 10. JUDY I heard that you got kicked out of college because you tried to talk your roommate into killing himself. JIMMY (O.C.) Where'd you hear that? JUDY From everyone. Jimmy waits. Judy's curious how he'll respond. JIMMY (O.C.) You wanna know the truth? JUDY Yeah. JIMMY (O.C.) He asked me if he should kill himself. I told him to look inside himself for the answer. I didn't tell him to. I didn't tell him not to. I said he shouldn't be afraid of the unknown. If he was going to kill himself, I wanted him to do it for the right reasons. JUDY I swear to God, you're a fucking psycho. JIMMY (O.C.) Like you're normal. JUDY More than you. JIMMY (O.C.) If I'm such a freak, what are you doing in my room? JUDY I was bored. Jimmy waits, assessing the situation. JIMMY (O.C.) I wanna show you something? 11. Judy looks up at the camera. Before she can answer, camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: INT. JIMMY'S HOUSE - JIMMY'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Judy sits on the edge of Jimmy's bed facing a television set. Jimmy films from behind her so he gets Judy's back and the television in the shot. The screen is static. JUDY I can't believe I'm doing this. Nothing's happening. Judy's getting antsy. JUDY (offended; turns to camera) Can you start the tape? Jimmy clicks the VCR with his remote, as Judy turns back to watch. On TV, static flips to black. JUDY Don't think this means I like you or anything. A few seconds. Nothing on TV yet. JUDY And as soon as this is over I'm going back downstairs. An image flips on the TV. BEGIN JIMMY'S REVENGE TAPE EXT. HIGH SCHOOL - TEACHER'S PARKING LOT - (ON JIMMY'S TV) - DAY Someone (Jimmy) has placed the camera on the ground and is facing a car in a parking lot at school. JIMMY (O.C.) (in bedroom) That's Mrs. Holzclaw's car. She's your P.E. teacher, right? I hated her too. Jimmy enters frame and punches a Butterfly Knife into the sidewall of Mrs. Holzclaw's car sending air HISSING as the tire sinks. 12. JIMMY (O.C.) And Bill McAllister... I went to school with his brother. They're both dicks. Tape cuts to... EXT. HIGH SCHOOL - ENTRANCE (ON JIMMY'S TV) - DAY On TV, hidden camera style (long lens from a distance) the Dumb Looking Bully Type (Bill McAllister) is taken out of school in cuffs into a waiting Squad Car. JIMMY (O.C.) (in bedroom) I planted an ounce of weed in his locker then sent an anonymous letter to Principal Lipsky. EXT. HIGH SCHOOL - ENTRANCE (ON JIMMY'S TV) - DAY Same location, different day. On TV, again hidden camera style, a girl is being rolled out of the school on a stretcher. It's the Mean Girl, the one who smacked Judy in the face with her school bag. She's placed into an ambulance. JIMMY (O.C.) I took care of her too. Jimmy clicks the television set off with his remote. END JIMMY'S REVENGE TAPE INT. JIMMY'S HOUSE - JIMMY'S BEDROOM - DAY The TV is off. All we see is Judy's back. She hasn't once turned around to face the camera during any of the clips. She sits still. She trembles but doesn't turn around. She collects herself but still doesn't turn around. Jimmy holds the camera steady. Still she doesn't turn around. She fidgets in her seat but still doesn't turn around. She now sits still on the edge of the bed like she is in a trance, but still doesn't turn around to face the camera. 13. No movement. No movement. No movement. She begins to breath heavily. Then no movement. She leans her head down towards the floor. Then no movement. Still no movement or any reaction for that matter. It's like she is in a trance and can't wake up. Jimmy (O.C.) continues to roll without budging. Still no movement. It looks like she's about to turn around. She moves her head in the direction of the camera, then assumes her original position facing the TV. Then... no movement. Still no movement. Then Judy collapses onto the bed. Jimmy, still rolling, gets off the bed and begins filming her as she lies on the floor crying hysterically. Judy cries and cries and cries and cries. She then lets out a cry from the depths of her soul. The cry is long, hard, and loud. Jimmy gets up, then stands above her with the camera. She rolls over on her back and is now facing directly into the camera. She tries to collect herself. JUDY Why did you do that? JIMMY (O.C.) I had to. JUDY Why? JIMMY (O.C.) I did it for you. 14. JUDY I don't understand. Judy tries hard to stop, but just sobs harder and louder than before. JUDY Please tell me. JIMMY (O.C.) I felt like if I didn't save you then no one else would. JUDY (screams) Please turn off the FUCKING CAMERA! A muffled voice comes through the door from downstairs. JIMMY'S DAD (O.C.) Jimmy! What the hell are you guys doing up there? Judy stops, realizing suddenly that she's been screaming. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: INT. JIMMY'S HOUSE - STAIRWAY/ENTRYWAY/LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Jimmy's behind the camera. He stands at the head of the stairs shooting down. Sounds of a dinner party just getting started come from downstairs. He walks down the steps into the party. A generic "Happy Twentieth Anniversary" sign hangs above the front door. Camera pans awkwardly to a lame K-Mart style studio portrait on the wall. It's Jimmy's parents wearing saccharine sweet smiles, Dad's hair slicked back, Mom in an overdone hair-do and in way too colorful clothing. Gifts sit on the entry-way table. Party Guests are dressed nicely and are mingling in the house, drinks in hand. Dinner is yet to start. As Jimmy moves into the... ENTRY-WAY People at the party all turn to camera, a look of shock on their faces as Jimmy walks through. More and more people react with gasps and revulsion at camera, but we can't tell why. Jimmy moves camera to the... 15. LIVING ROOM The place is full of More Party Guests. Frame moves across a huge mirror on the wall over a cocktail bar. We catch a glimpse of Jimmy's image and realize... Jimmy is completely NAKED and has PAINTED HIS ENTIRE BODY SILVER. Camera quickly turns away from the mirror as some people run from the room. One of the Female Party Guests (#1) SCREAMS. FEMALE PARTY GUEST #1 (covers her mouth) Oh my God! Jimmy keeps filming, catching people's reactions. He points the camera at a Female Party Guest #2. JIMMY (O.C.) Hey, great party, huh? I'm making a tape for my parents. Want to say something to them? Female Party Guest #2 is just too stunned to speak. JIMMY'S MOM (O.C.) Jimmy! Jimmy turns the camera at his mother who is completely shocked to see him like this. JIMMY (O.C.) Hey Mom. Happy anniversary. You want to say anything to yourself? JIMMY'S DAD That's enough. Jimmy's Dad runs into the room and throws a blanket over Jimmy's head, body and the camera. All we see is black and flashes of light from under the blanket. JIMMY'S DAD (O.C.) (muffled) Get out! Now! 16. Camera's under the blanket as we hear Jimmy's Dad pushes him from the room. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: INT. THERAPIST'S OFFICE - DAY Camera is being removed from the camera bag. As the lens pans quickly, we catch a glimpse of Jimmy smirking, holding the camera. He's way too close to the lens. He flips it around until it locks on DR. WALTERS, MFCC (40), Jimmy's not very accomplished therapist. Walters seems to have a very gentle and nonthreatening aura that suggests he's the type of person you would feel comfortable talking to. He sits by the window in his relatively uninteresting office. Jimmy has turned on the camera in the middle of their first session together. DR. WALTERS Jimmy, we discussed this. You can't tape our sessions. It's not allowed. The camera doesn't move. DR. WALTERS You know, you can't film someone who doesn't want their image and voice recorded. Technically, you're actually breaking the law. Jimmy (O.C.) doesn't respond. DR. WALTERS Does your defiance make you feel more powerful? Still no answer. DR. WALTERS Filming people makes you feel like you're in control of the situation doesn't it? Still no answer. DR. WALTERS I can sit here as long as you can. You're not going to be able to force me to participate in your little game here. 17. No movement from the camera. DR. WALTERS Jimmy, this isn't something that friends do to each other is it? Dr. Walters sits in front of the camera, trying to stay perfectly still and calm. Dr. Walters is so nice and so calm, that we start to feel sorry for him. No movement. No movement. Dr. Walters fidgets. Then holds still. Then fidgets, trying to stay calm. DR. WALTERS Jimmy, put the camera away, please. No movement. DR. WALTERS You're wasting your time and mine, Jimmy. We could be doing something productive. The camera shakes a bit. Jimmy's laughing. Dr. Walters is doing his best to stay calm. DR. WALTERS That's enough. No movement. DR. WALTERS Put it away. Nothing. DR. WALTERS Now Jimmy! Dr. Walters gets up and comes towards the camera. He grabs it just above the lens and tries to take it away. 18. DR. WALTERS Come on Jimmy. A fierce battle of tug of war breaks out. We see Dr. Walters becoming increasingly pissed off. The back and forth is suddenly getting violent, until... DR. WALTERS Gimme the Goddamn fucking camera! Dr. Walters finally gets the camera free from Jimmy. Camera shuts off. CAMERA ON: INT. JIMMY'S HOUSE - JIMMY'S BEDROOM/UPSTAIRS HALLWAY - DAY Jimmy's behind the camera, moving quickly down the hall to... JIMMY'S BEDROOM Judy is sitting on his bed. She sees Jimmy come in with the camera and freaks out. JUDY No. No filming. I'm leaving, I swear. Judy gets up to go. JIMMY Okay, okay. Wait. As Jimmy gets up to stop her, camera shuts off. CAMERA ON: INT. JIMMY'S HOUSE - JIMMY'S BEDROOM - DAY Jimmy is filming Judy, who is sitting on his bed. Her face is red, her eyes have watered up, and her nose is snotty and running from after an intense session of crying. Jimmy is catching her seconds after she's has finally composed herself. JIMMY (O.C.) Say what you said to me before. JUDY I don't know how I said it. 19. JIMMY (O.C.) Paraphrase it then. JUDY Do what? JIMMY (O.C.) Say it like you did before but it doesn't have to be exactly the same. JUDY You mean paraphrase it. JIMMY (O.C.) That's what I said. JUDY I didn't hear you. Judy stares off camera. JIMMY (O.C.) Are you ready? JUDY I'm waiting for you. JIMMY (O.C.) OK. JUDY Tell me when. JIMMY (O.C.) Now. JUDY You want me to paraphrase it? JIMMY (O.C.) (impatient) Yes! Judy thinks for a beat. JUDY I can't remember what I said. JIMMY (O.C.) Then just ad-lib. 20. JUDY Ad-lib? JIMMY (O.C.) Yes. Judy thinks for a beat. JUDY I don't know what that means. JIMMY (O.C.) (getting frustrated) It means make it up. JUDY (confused) Do you want me to make something up or paraphrase what I did the first time? This isn't working. The camera drops from Judy. JIMMY (O.C.) Let's take a break. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: INT. JIMMY'S HOUSE - JIMMY'S BEDROOM - DAY Camera's on a tripod. Jimmy sits in a chair, the back of his shoulder foregrounds Judy. JUDY I'm not good on camera. It makes me nervous. JIMMY Forget about the camera. Talk to me. JUDY OK. JIMMY Tell me what you said earlier. About me about how you felt when you saw the video. 21. JUDY (relaxes) It felt like someone had been reading my mind. She stops. JIMMY Go on. JUDY It was like someone had jumped into my head and watched what was being projected. Now Judy completely has forgotten that the camera is there. JIMMY And earlier, what you said about God. Jimmy zooms in the camera by remote. Judy's distracted. JIMMY (off her look) Tell me. Judy refocuses. JUDY I said that it felt like God had sent someone to protect me, and to look out for me. She looks at Jimmy as if he is an angel. JUDY And I said that you are the only person in my life who has ever looked after me like that. Judy tries to stifle tears, but they're starting to flow again. As camera zooms in further, Judy catches sight of Jimmy's finger on the remote and BLOWS HER FUCKING TOP, leaping from her chair. JUDY God, I hate it when you film me crying! Judy goes for the camera, struggling to get it off the tripod, she finally frees it and points it at Jimmy. 22. JUDY (O.C.) How do you like it, huh? How do you like having a camera shoved right up your ass? Camera's framed poorly, moves around a lot, goes in and out of focus, etc. JUDY (O.C.) Do you like it? Do you? JIMMY I don't like it or dislike. I'm used to it. Judy moves the camera directly in his face. The lens is millimeters away from his nose. We see an extreme close up of his nostrils. JIMMY Generally I'd place the camera further away from my nose, but if this is your preferred shooting style then I guess I'll have to adjust to it. Jimmy leans in and rests his nose on the lens. JIMMY How's this work for you? Judy pulls back and continues filming him. JUDY (O.C.) Give me a break. JIMMY OK. Now Judy's the interviewer. Her framing is not quite as adept as Jimmy's. JUDY (O.C.) So... why do you have to film everything? JIMMY I don't film everything. JUDY (O.C.) Why do you like to film me crying? 23. JIMMY I don't. JUDY (O.C.) Then why do you? JIMMY Because it's rare that I get to find someone that lets their emotions go. When a person is crying, I mean truly crying, or truly laughing or smiling or frowning or gasping. For a few seconds or minutes I get a chance to see that person's soul. And really, now that you've forced me to think about it. I think it's a very rare and beautiful thing to be afforded that opportunity. Judy is shaken and speechless. JIMMY Anything else? Judy's moved and forgets herself. Camera drops from Jimmy. JUDY (O.C.) Why me? Jimmy helps her put the camera back up on him. JIMMY Because. Jimmy sits still. Judy doesn't know what to do with that. JIMMY Why do you think? Judy doesn't have an answer. Jimmy reaches forward and takes the camera away from her and turns the interview around. JIMMY (O.C.) Why you and why me? Why are we together right now? Judy doesn't know what to say. 24. JIMMY (O.C.) Go ahead say it. I want you to. I know what you're going to say so just say it. JUDY Stop. JIMMY (O.C.) (soft) Tell me. Judy fidgets. JIMMY (O.C.) (bullies her) Tell me! Judy fidgets again, then... JUDY (blows her top) Because we're both fucking weird! Judy pauses. The pressure of the camera from Jimmy makes her feel like she has to give him more. JUDY Because we're the two weirdest kids in the world. And God made us for each other and I fucking love you, and you did all this because you love me too, and fuck everyone and everything that doesn't get it! Judy's out of breath. Camera still points at her. JUDY That's right, right? Judy stares back at the camera, longing for an answer from Jimmy. She told him she loved him. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: I/E. HIGHWAY FIRST-KISS-SMILEY-FACE/JIMMY'S CAR - DAY Jimmy is driving in his car with Judy in the passenger seat. Judy has the camera and she is interviewing Jimmy as he drives. JUDY (O.C.) Where are you taking me? 25. JIMMY To a beautiful place. JUDY (O.C.) Where? JIMMY Chuck E. Cheese. Judy and Jimmy laugh together. JUDY (O.C.) No seriously. JIMMY I can't tell you. It'll ruin it. JUDY (O.C.) Fine. Judy sulks for a second. JUDY (O.C.) Jimmy, can I ask you something? JIMMY Anything. JUDY (O.C.) Do you hate your parents? JIMMY Yes, but I understand them. JUDY (O.C.) What's to understand? JIMMY Lots of things. JUDY (O.C.) Like what? JIMMY I understand that my ascension into young adulthood triggered their descent into mid-life crisis. Generally when an only child leaves the nest, the parents begin reassessing their own lives. They see us as a younger, better version of themselves. (MORE) 26. JIMMY (cont'd) They feel abandoned by our need for privacy and insecure because we no longer seek their approval. They used to take us to baseball games and cover our scrapes with bandages, but once we no longer need Mom to nurture our bruises or Dad to be our hero it puts their roles and subsequent sense of self worth into question. JUDY (O.C.) How do you know all these things? JIMMY When you don't have any friends, don't play sports, don't go out, have no one talk to, nowhere to go, no one to listen to you, or no one to help you figure things out, you sort of have to figure things out by yourself. And without any of those things I have nothing but time to think about stuff. JUDY (O.C.) You are SO smart. JIMMY You are so beautiful. Long pause. Judy doesn't know how to react. JUDY (O.C.) You think I'm pretty? JIMMY I think you're the most beautiful person I have ever met. The most beautiful person in the universe. JUDY (O.C.) No one has ever told me that. JIMMY Get used to hearing it. JUDY (O.C.) Do you think I'm smart? JIMMY Yes. 27. JUDY (O.C.) Do you think I'm fat? JIMMY Yes. JUDY (O.C.) How could you say that? I only way a hundred and ten pounds. JIMMY Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you said flat. As in flat chested. JUDY (O.C.) I am not FLAT! Judy smacks him. JIMMY Prove it. JUDY (O.C.) I don't have to prove it. Here look. O.C., Judy is sticking her chest out for Jimmy. He looks away from the road to stare, her breasts filling out her top nicely. JIMMY I still can't tell. JUDY (O.C.) I wear a full B cup. JIMMY Show me. Take em out. JUDY (O.C.) I am not going to take them out! You take yours out. JIMMY It's already out. Judy tilts the camera down. IN A FLASH we see a lifelike dildo sticking out of Jimmy's fly, a smiley face sticker covers the head. The camera quickly shakes and spins off the image as Judy screams bloody fucking murder. 28. Jimmy laughs. Judy forgets the camera is on. She drops it into her lap, fabric from her clothes covers the frame. We can hear Jimmy and Judy laughing hysterically. JUDY (O.C.) I can't believe you did that. JIMMY (O.C.) That's why I did it. Now come on. I showed you mine, let me see yours. We hear the rustling of Judy's clothing. Camera falls to her feet on the floor of the car. There's silence. Off camera, Judy's nervously showing Jimmy her breasts. JIMMY (O.C.) Wow. Give me the camera. JUDY (O.C.) No. JIMMY (O.C.) Please, pretty, pretty please with sugar on top. Judy grabs the camera. It's pointing in Jimmy's direction, but she still doesn't realize it's on. JIMMY (O.C.) Here, I'll pull over. Jimmy pulls over to the side of the road then takes the camera. Jimmy frames up Judy. JIMMY (O.C.) Let me see 'em. Judy has a naughty and flirtatious smile. In the blink of an eye she suddenly lifts up her shirt and exposes her bra, then pulls her shirt back down. Jimmy protests. JIMMY (O.C.) That doesn't count. Come on, for real this time. JUDY I'm embarrassed. 29. JIMMY (O.C.) Don't be. You can trust me. Judy's not sure. Jimmy looks into her eyes, pouring it on. JIMMY (O.C.) You can. You can trust me with your life. Judy looks at him with a sense of admiration then hope. JIMMY (O.C.) (gently) Please. Judy gets the same sexy, naughty smile and lifts up her shirt exposing the bra, keeping it there. JIMMY (O.C.) Will you take off your bra? Judy looks nervous but gives in. She unhooks her bra from the front and exposes her naked breasts for as long as she can. Jimmy focusses the camera's attention on them. It's too much for her. She quickly pulls her shirt back down. Jimmy tilts up to a close up of Judy's face. JUDY (struggling) I just realized something. Judy's eyes are starting to well up as she tries not to cry. JIMMY (O.C.) What's the matter? JUDY I just showed you my breasts and I saw your penis and we haven't even kissed. She starts tearing up. JUDY You haven't even asked me to be your girlfriend and I did that. I'm a slut. (wiping her eyes) I don't want to be a slut. Jimmy sees she's crying. 30. JIMMY (O.C.) Will you be my girlfriend? JUDY Yes. JIMMY (O.C.) Can I kiss you? JUDY (sniffling) Yes. Will you turn off the camera? JIMMY (O.C.) I want this moment to be captured forever. I'd rather not kiss you at all than waste the opportunity to document the most beautiful moment of my life. Judy leans towards Jimmy, then suddenly attacks him and shoves the camera to the side. They are making out exuberantly. The camera shakes and wobbles. We can hear heavy breathing and the two of them smashing up against the interior of the car. Jimmy finally has the camera in position. He has one of his arms extended and now we can see the two of them kissing. Judy's devouring him in that raging teenage hormone sort of way. JUDY (whispers) I wanna see your smiley face again. We see and hear Judy whispering, her lips placed gently on the inside of Jimmy's ear. JUDY (whispering) Turn the camera off. Turn the camera off. Turn it off. Camera goes off. CAMERA ON: I/E. HIGHWAY FIRST-KISS-SMILEY-FACE/JIMMY'S CAR - DAY Judy films Jimmy driving the car. He has a huge shit eating grin on his face. 31. JUDY (O.C.) How do you feel? JIMMY Relaxed, happy, confident, studly, excited, relieved, delighted... I love you Judy. JUDY (O.C.) You do? JIMMY Very much so. I always have. JUDY (O.C.) Me too. Long pause filled with sexual tension takes over. JUDY (O.C.) Do you want to pull over again? Jimmy smiles. Of course he does. Camera goes off. CAMERA ON: EXT. BEAUTIFUL FARM - SHOTGUN SCENE - DAY Judy films Jimmy as he FIRES a twelve gage pump action shot gun off into the distance. After each shot he pumps then FIRES again. JIMMY Are you getting this? No response. Jimmy FIRES another shot. His muscles are flexing as he pumps the gage. He looks extremely violent and determined. JIMMY Come on. Are you getting this? A very turned off Judy replies. JUDY (O.C.) This is where you wanted to take me? JIMMY Yeah, what's the matter? We can hear Judy crying. The camera shakes out of control. 32. JUDY (O.C.) I wanna go home. Jimmy looks over towards the camera/Judy. He knows that he's fucked up and he feels like complete shit. Jimmy walks over to her, takes the camera and shuts it off. CAMERA ON: INT. JIMMY'S HOUSE - JIMMY'S BATHROOM - NIGHT Jimmy is standing in front of a mirror and is videotaping his own reflection. He is talking to himself and into the camera. JIMMY Don't fuck this up. Please don't fuck this up. Now he is pleading with himself. JIMMY Just try to be normal. (screaming) Just be normal! God damn it why do you have to fuck everything up? He hasn't convinced himself. JIMMY Be normal. Be normal. Be normal! Jimmy takes a breath, then shuts the camera down. CAMERA ON: INT. JIMMY'S HOUSE - JIMMY'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Jimmy films Judy who lies next to him in the bed. Her face is sweaty and red and he is still a tad out of breath. Jimmy is capturing her literally seconds after they had sex. She's somewhat bewildered, then she notices the camera. She's starting to get used to it. JUDY (big smile) Hi. 33. JIMMY (O.C.) So how do you feel now, right at this moment? Judy just sighs, basking in the afterglow. JUDY I don't know. (trying) That was soooo good. JIMMY (O.C.) You were good. What got into you? JUDY I don't know. I've just really been wanting you lately. Really bad. JIMMY (O.C.) Why's that? Judy chuckles. JUDY I'm embarrassed. I can't say. JIMMY (O.C.) Now you have to tell me. JUDY It was after yesterday. Jimmy is more than surprised. JIMMY (O.C.) Yesterday? Judy speaks as if she is going to reveal a big secret. Very quiet and cute in her mannerisms. JUDY Yeah, it was after I saw you shoot that gun. JIMMY (O.C.) You were crying. I wanted to kill myself after I did that. You were scared and you were shaking. It was the most awful thing I ever did. I didn't think I'd ever see you again. 34. Judy thinks. JUDY I was scared at first. Really scared. I didn't expect it to be so loud and you looked so mean. But then I got home and started thinking about it. About how your muscles looked and how dangerous it all seemed. It made me like... all excited, and like... Judy looks for the right word. JIMMY (O.C.) Horny? Judy laughs with embarrassment. Camera shakes as Jimmy hands it to her. JIMMY (O.C.) Here. Hold this. Judy turns the camera back on Jimmy as he leaps out of bed. JUDY (O.C.) Where you going? JIMMY One sec! Jimmy's bare ass flashes us as he heads out the bedroom door. Judy holds the camera as we hear Jimmy in the hallway. He opens a closet door, fumbles through it, then busts back into the bedroom, holding the shotgun he used out on the lake. Jimmy zooms in on Jimmy's naked upper body as he stands in front of her and begins pumping the gun and pulling the trigger. Obviously the gun is not loaded. JUDY (O.C.) That is so hot! JIMMY My dad keeps it in his closet. Here. Jimmy gives Judy the gun. Now she's holding the gun and the camera. JUDY (O.C.) It's heavy. 35. Judy points the gun at Jimmy. She lowers it, aiming right at his crotch just below frame. JIMMY Now I see the appeal. Give me the camera. Judy hands Jimmy the camera. Camera moves and shakes as she hands it over. Jimmy frames her up nicely. Now we see Judy topless, pointing the gun directly at the lens of the camera. JUDY What do you think of this? She brings the gun down, then takes the barrel of the gun and places it between her breasts, squishing them together, covering her nipples as she rubs the barrel between her breasts. JUDY Do you like that? JIMMY (O.C.) Yes. Judy takes the barrel of the gun from her breasts and near her mouth. She starts rolling her tongue over the top of the barrel slowly and seductively, then stops. It looks as if she's about to perform full mock oral sex on the barrel of the gun. JIMMY (O.C.) That is SO hot. As she is about to start to move her mouth and lips over the gun, then suddenly we hear a garage door open. Jimmy throws the camera sideways down on the bed. JIMMY (O.C.) Fuck! It's my parents! We are now seeing sideways rotated images of Jimmy and Judy panicking, throwing on their clothes as fast as humanly possible. Jimmy grabs the camera off the bed and turns it off. CAMERA ON: 36. INT. JIMMY'S HOUSE - PARENTS' BEDROOM - DAY Jimmy is hiding in the closet of his parents' bedroom. He has the door of the closet cracked and puts the lens of the camera through the crack. Jimmy's Dad enters the room. He has no idea that he is being filmed and that Jimmy is in the closet. Jimmy's Dad walks over to the dresser, opens up the top drawer and pulls something out. It's too dark in the room to tell exactly what he's pulled out, but it appears to resemble some sort of undergarment. Jimmy's Dad begins undressing, then steps out of frame. After a beat, he reappears. Now he's wearing nothing but a sequined teddy. He's totally fat, hairy, and nasty looking. He sits on the side of the bed, his back to us. Now we see that what he grabbed out of the drawer was actually a pair of fishnet stockings. He begins putting them on. When he is finished putting on his panty hose, he gets up off the bed and begins admiring his legs in a mirror. He begins to gently stroke the sides of his legs, relishing the feel of the hose over his hands and fingertips. He seems to be lip syncing the words to a song and begins to get all worked up. He shakes his hips and dances around the room for a few seconds. Now Jimmy's Dad goes to the dresser and pulls out a long brunette wig from the back of his top drawer. Putting it on, with the fishnet stockings, sequined teddy and long wig, he has transformed himself into the world's fattest, ugliest, hairiest, Cher look-a-like. Someone else enters the room. JIMMY'S DAD Hi sweety. Holy shit. It's Jimmy's Mom, and she's wearing a leather dominatrix outfit! JIMMY'S MOM Are you ready for me, you fucking slut? JIMMY'S DAD Not quite. 37. JIMMY'S MOM I don't feel like waiting. Hurry up bitch. What do you have left to do? JIMMY'S DAD I just need to put on my makeup. As Jimmy's Mom exits frame, we see Jimmy's Dad go to the mirror. He opens up the top drawer again and pulls out a little makeup bag. Jimmy's Mom re-enters, now wearing a mini leather biker's hat, carrying a riding switch. JIMMY'S MOM Come on slut. Jimmy's Dad finishes applying his lipstick and moves over to the bed. By the way Jimmy's parents are behaving, it's as if they've gone through this routine a thousand times. Jimmy's Mom drifts off screen as Jimmy's Dad gets up on all fours. Suddenly, we hear a SMACK as Jimmy's Mom hits Jimmy's Dad on his ass with the switch. He lets out deep pleasured groans as she continues SMACKING him with the whip harder and harder. He yelps, squeals, and gyrates his hips back and forth, then starts dry humping the air until she stops. Jimmy's Mom comes back through and out of frame. Jimmy's Dad pushes his belly into the bed, groaning from the pain while he waits for her return. She comes back, moving quickly across the screen wearing an enormous strap on dildo. Disappearing out of frame again, Jimmy's Dad gets himself ready for her one more time, ass up, on all fours on the bed. From behind, we can see her hand as she hikes her husband's dress up his back, then we see his face and hear him grunt as she rips his fishnets off screen. There's a pause. Nothing seems to be happening, but Jimmy's Dad is bracing himself for something. His face tightens up. Off screen, Jimmy's Mom has started mounting him from behind. Jimmy can't take it any longer. As he slowly emerges from the closet, his Mom notices Jimmy almost immediately. She jumps off her husband, screaming bloody murder. 38. Camera's shaky but it's easy to guess what's been happening. Mom's just started doing Dad from behind with the strap on. JIMMY Hi mom. Hi dad. What are you guys up to? Jimmy's Dad leaps from the bed and begins shouting. He looks completely absurd screaming at Jimmy wearing his sequined dress and wig. JIMMY'S DAD What the fuck are you doing here? Jimmy's Mom goes hysterical and begins screaming at Jimmy's Dad. JIMMY'S MOM (to his dad) I told you he would find out you fucking freak! No wonder he's a fucking psycho. Look a his father. Jimmy's Dad is beside himself with fury and throws off his wig. JIMMY'S DAD Turn off the that fucking camera! Turn off that fucking camera right fucking now god damn it! Jimmy is loving it. JIMMY Gee dad, what do you say the two of us go out to the front yard and throw some ball together? We'll have a nice friendly game of catch. Jimmy's Dad attacks Jimmy. He swings at the lens. He's one angry drag queen daddy. He begins strangling Jimmy. JIMMY'S DAD You little mother fucker. Turn off that fucking camera! Jimmy's Mom rips off her strap on dildo and begins beating Jimmy's Dad with it. Judging from the punishment she's inflicting upon her drag queen husband, the dildo apparently is made from the finest and heaviest of materials. 39. JIMMY'S MOM Stop it! You're going to kill him. Jimmy's Dad lets go. The dildo's doing the trick. JIMMY'S DAD Bitch! Jimmy's Mom keeps swinging the dildo at Jimmy's Dad even though he's let go. JIMMY'S MOM Fuck you! You think you know me? You don't know me! You piece of shit! JIMMY (laughing) Mom! Jimmy's Mom now directs her attention on Jimmy. She screams at him as she swings her gigantic strap on towards the camera. JIMMY'S MOM You little beast! You want to film something? Film this! She continues to swing the strap on as she walks closer and closer to the lens. The camera goes crazy. Loud sounds are heard throughout the room. Evidently Jimmy has been tackled. We hear wrestling and grunting. It seems that Jimmy's Dad has tackled Jimmy, or maybe his Mom, or both, but the camera is too shaky to tell just what has happened. Jimmy's Dad is still fighting. He seems to have them all pinned against the floor. He's crushing his mother. JIMMY'S DAD (O.C.) Nancy, Nancy, Nancy, Nancy! Please someone call me Nancy. My name is Nancy. JIMMY'S MOM (O.C.) (crying hysterically) Nancy, Nancy, Nancy... Jimmy please call him "Nancy" for the love of God. Call your daddy Nancy. Call him Nancy...! 40. We hear Jimmy's Mom screaming/repeating herself. We see a hand go over the lens. Jimmy and his mother and father are all in a wrestling match on the floor. Jimmy with great enthusiasm begins to sing as the camera shakes. JIMMY (O.C.) Take me out to the ball game, take me out to the crowd, buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks... The wrestling match continues as we see more hands come towards the lens. Jimmy's Mom suddenly stops screaming, as if she's been knocked out. JIMMY'S DAD (O.C.) Give me that fucking tape! JIMMY (O.C.) I don't think so Nancy. Nancy, Nancy, Nancy... After some very intense fighting, someone is finally able to shut the camera off. CAMERA ON: EXT. FOREST/MEADOW - RUNNING NAKED - DAY Jimmy has the camera and is chasing a naked (just from behind) Judy through the woods. The camera shakes and rattles, but we can definitely tell this is all in good fun. Judy screams as she is being chased through the woods. She couldn't feel more free. She begins to tire and slows down. She can no longer run and turns towards the camera. As she turns around, camera shows her from the waist up. She has a beer can in her hand and she is a little drunk. For the first time, she's completely at ease with her own body and looks perfectly natural being naked in the wilderness. She walks towards the camera smoothly and seductively. Her long hair blond hair blows gently in the wind. JUDY I'm so glad you're out. Next time your dad wants to take it in the ass, DON'T FILM HIM! 41. JIMMY (O.C.) I know. Ironic that I was the one sent to the nut house. JUDY I thought I was going to die without you. What if you and I could live here together? Forever. JIMMY (O.C.) Right here? JUDY I'm serious. Maybe not here, but eventually we'll buy some land, and we can live together on it, and be naked whenever we want. She takes a big swig of her beer. Then burps. JUDY Excuse me. What do you think? JIMMY (O.C.) I think you're drunk. Judy walks towards the camera. She puts her mouth inches away from the lens. JUDY I think you're right mister. Judy giggles, then dances around playfully in the woods. She has never felt so alive. JUDY I don't want this to ever end. I want to be here forever. I want to dance and be naked and be free, and I want us to ball our brains out everyday, and I want to feel the air on my body and I want to get drunk and not care about anything in the world. I just want us to be together in this moment. JIMMY (O.C.) I know a place like that. JUDY You do? 42. JIMMY (O.C.) Yep. We can go there one day if you want. JUDY We can? Where is it? JIMMY (O.C.) Erlanger. JUDY (doesn't buy it) Erlanger! JIMMY (O.C.) Yeah Erlanger. Everybody was talking about it in the nut house. That's ALL anybody fucking talked about was this dude who lives up there named Uncle Rodney. He supposedly has a commune where we can do this kind of thing every day. JUDY Uncle Rodney's commune? Judy smiles, almost laughing. It all sounds pretty ridiculous to her, but plays along anyway. JUDY That's funny. JIMMY (O.C.) (playfully) No, I'm serious. Judy walks back towards the camera and grabs it away from Jimmy, surprising him. JIMMY Hey! JUDY (O.C.) Okay, now it's your turn. Shot from the waist up, we now see that Jimmy's naked as well. He's at a loss as to what he should say. JUDY (O.C.) How does it feel to be a free man? Jimmy thinks. A drunk Judy is losing her patience. 43. JUDY (O.C.) Come on, come on, come on... JIMMY I'm thinking. JUDY (O.C.) Just let it go, be free. JIMMY (adoringly) You're such a hippie all of sudden. JUDY (O.C.) Come on. JIMMY No. Judy's not getting what she wants from him. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: EXT. FOREST/MEADOW - RUNNING NAKED - DAY Judy films Jimmy. The camera is close and intimate as they lie on their sides staring into each other's eyes. Judy is still naked, but is being shot in an extreme close up. JUDY (O.C.) Okay, go. Jimmy's still not up for it. Judy grabs the camera and turns it on him. JUDY (O.C.) Come on! Jimmy's turns the tables. JIMMY Okay, you really wanna hear something? JUDY (O.C.) Yeah. Jimmy takes a deep breath, a touch of intensity flashes in his eye, then... 44. JIMMY I want to go one day without masturbating. I want to liberate my penis. I want to clone you so we could have a three way and neither of us would be cheating. I want you to scrape my balls with a cheese grater... Judy starts laughing. The camera's shaking. JUDY (O.C.) That's gross! Jimmy suddenly gets serious. JIMMY And I love you. I love you so much it hurts. JUDY (O.C.) It hurts? JIMMY Like God is stabbing me in heart with a thousand knives at the same time and you're the only one who can make the pain go away. Do you love me that much? JUDY (O.C.) I love you so much, I'd rather die than be without you. JIMMY Here. Jimmy grabs the camera and points it at Judy. JIMMY (O.C.) Make me a promise... the way a husband and wife make a promise... that we will be together always and forever. JUDY You mean get married? JIMMY (O.C.) Something more powerful than marriage. It's a bond. It's our bond. It's transcendental. 45. JUDY What? JIMMY (O.C.) Transcendental. (grabs the camera) Here. Jimmy hands Judy the camera as she starts to frame him up, but they're really engaging each other's eyes over the top of the eyepiece. JIMMY It's transcendental because it transcends everything. Life, love, law, people, things... A bond so strong that our souls will become one and it can never end, even in death. If you swear on the bond, it means you'd rather die than break your promise. Judy is moved. JUDY (O.C.) That's so beautiful. JIMMY You're so beautiful. I want to love you forever. JUDY (O.C.) Swear on the bond. Swear we'll be together forever, that you'd rather die than be apart. JIMMY I swear on the bond. JUDY (O.C.) And we'll never let anything come between us, not even death. JIMMY Not even death. I swear. Nothing will come between us, ever. Jimmy stares at her, then slowly leans in for a kiss... a long, wet, toe curling kiss. Jimmy finds a way to point the camera at the kiss. 46. They break apart. Judy sighs, staring into Jimmy's eyes, then leans into him, his lips touching her forehead, their eyes closing as they feel the energy of true love. JUDY We'll be together forever. JIMMY (whispers) Together forever. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: I/E. GROCERY STORE PARKING LOT/JIMMY'S CAR - DAY Jimmy and Judy sit in a parked car outside of a huge grocery store. Jimmy and Judy sit outside a small grocery store. Jimmy films himself. Judy's in the passenger seat. He does his best news announcer impersonation. JIMMY This is action ten news reporter Jimmy Van Muffmuncher reporting to you live from the parking lot of Dick's grocery store where we're going to witness the beautiful, the talented, the amazing Judy, commit her first crime. Jimmy flips the camera around onto Judy. JIMMY (O.C.) Is there anything you would like to say to the public and your adoring fans before you go through with this? Judy gleefully plays along. JUDY Well Mr. Van Muffmuncher. I just want to say that I look forward to losing, my, um... Judy pauses to think. JUDY What did you call it before? 47. JIMMY (O.C.) Your conformist crimeless virginity. Judy snaps back into her role as interviewee. JUDY Yes, I am very much looking forward to losing my conformist crimeless virginity. I would also like to share with my fans these. Judy lifts up her shirt and exposes her bra to the camera. JIMMY (V.O.) (in his reporter voice) Thank you and thank your tits for this rare, behind the scenes look at your first crime slash moment of truth. Judy leans in pops a quick kiss at the lens of the camera. Jimmy shuts it down. CAMERA ON: INT. GROCERY STORE - DAY Jimmy is in a grocery store aisle filming Judy from way far away. We can barely make out that it is her until Jimmy zooms in tighter. She couldn't look more nervous or obvious. She is in the beer section. She quickly takes a six pack of canned beer and struggles to put it in her school bag. She walks quickly towards the exit. Jimmy follows her and catches up. Jimmy is standing next to her and he continues to film. Judy looks so nervous. JUDY Jimmy, turn it off. We're gonna get busted. JIMMY (O.C.) No way, this is the best part. A man is yelling at them off camera. MAN (O.C.) Hey you two. Stop. 48. Jimmy pans over and a store manager is standing in front of them. STORE MANAGER What the hell do you think you're doing? Jimmy and Judy have no reply. The store manager gives them his best intimidating stare. There is an extremely long pause. STORE MANAGER Turn that damn thing off. You can't be running around the store playing with a camera. It's against the store policy. Now get out of here. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: EXT. GROCERY STORE - PARKING LOT - DAY Judy is looking at the lens of the camera. She's shaking and screaming. JUDY What is the matter with you Jimmy? You almost got us caught. You're so worried about that camera. What is it? What is it! Jimmy calmly and quietly explains. JIMMY (O.C.) Twenty years from now, when we're together watching these tapes you'll realize how special this moment is. I owe it to you. And I owe it to us to capture everything and anything we do together. Judy is calmed but still is pissed. JUDY Well you freak me out sometimes. Why do you have to tape everything? It's like you have a problem or something. Judy's case isn't sticking. She treads lightly. 49. JUDY You know, most of the reason kids think you're so weird is because of it. Why do you think everybody makes fun of you? And then I have to hear it and I have to deal with it. JIMMY (O.C.) So everybody makes fun of me, huh? JUDY Yeah. Can't you give the thing a fucking rest? Jimmy's fuming. JIMMY (O.C.) And you don't want to deal with it? Well fuck them and fuck you too if you think that. I couldn't give a fuck what people say. This is my life and I want to document it. And right now me filming you happens to be the only reason I manage to get out of my fucking bed every morning! You can't take this away from me! Jimmy starts crying. Judy takes the camera. She tapes Jimmy who is sobbing. Now she is the one who speaks gently. She's trying to give him a taste of his own medicine. JUDY (O.C.) How does it feel Jimmy? How does it feel to have someone taping you while you're crying? Jimmy doesn't answer. He tries to compose himself enough to speak. Judy pushes harder. JUDY (O.C.) Tell me. Look at the camera and tell me how it feels! JIMMY You're not getting it. It doesn't matter how it feels right now. (MORE) 50. JIMMY (cont'd) What matters is that you're seeing what's inside of me and your taping it. Can you understand that? Judy doesn't know how to respond. JIMMY Can you? JUDY (O.C.) I don't know. JIMMY Well can you at least try? Jimmy is still crying. This weighs on her. JUDY (O.C.) Yes. I can most definitely try. JIMMY And you can never, ever, ever ask me to not film you or anything we do. That's the only thing I'll ever ask of you. Agreed? JUDY (O.C.) Okay. I'm sorry. JIMMY Will you swear to it? On camera, will you swear to it? Jimmy has talked himself into a good mood. Before we hear Judy's response, we... JUMP CUT TO: I/E. GROCERY STORE PARKING LOT/JIMMY'S CAR - DAY Moments later, Jimmy is now taping Judy. She has her right hand up, like a witness about to be sworn into the stand. She's all smiles as Jimmy gives her the oath to repeat back to him. JAMES (O.C.) Please raise your right hand. Judy raises her right hand. JIMMY (O.C.) Please repeat after me. I Judy... 51. JUDY I Judy... JIMMY (O.C.) Do hereby solemnly swear... JUDY Do hereby solemnly swear... JIMMY (O.C.) That I will never ask, request, or even insinuate to Jimmy to cease filming, no matter the situation. JUDY That I will never ask, request, or even insinuate to Jimmy to cease filming, no matter the situation. JIMMY (O.C.) And furthermore, I do hereby solemnly swear to commit myself to giving Jimmy his daily blowjob and will continue to perform various sex acts with the skill and enthusiasm that he has become accustomed to. Judy laughs, then screams with embarrassed excitement. Her laughter and happiness is infectious. She pounds her fists on the dashboard and laughs again. We can hear Jimmy laughing off camera as well. JIMMY (O.C.) Keep your right hand up. Judy lifts her right hand back up. She looks at the camera with a huge smile. JUDY I do hereby solemnly swear to g... THWACK! Someone has thrown a full soda can on the hood of Jimmy's car. He pans and zooms the camera over and sees a car full of Three Teenagers laughing at them. JIMMY (O.C.) Mother fuckers. Suddenly the TEENAGE DRIVER of the car appears, as if out of nowhere, running to the passenger side. Jimmy zooms out. 52. The frame catches up to him just as he spits a huge LOOGIE into the car, hitting Judy right in the face. Judy screams. The car full of Three Teenagers laugh hysterically at her expense. Jimmy hands Judy the camera. JIMMY Here, you're definitely going to want to tape this. Jimmy calmly gets out of his car as Judy tapes him through the window. We can hear her breathing heavily as she tries not to cry softly off camera. Jimmy has gone to the rear of the car. We hear the trunk open while Judy films through the windshield at the car full of laughing teens. Jimmy enters the frame carrying a baseball bat. We see him talking calmly to the driver of the car, the Kid who spat in Judy's face. Then... WHAM! Jimmy reels back and clocks the kid right in the face with the bat. The Kid falls over into the front seat of the car. Jimmy calmly walks over to the front of the car and begins bashing in the windshield. JUDY (O.C.) (to herself) Oh my God. Now rage has taken over Jimmy over entirely. He's bashing in the windshield with all of his might. The teenagers all go running from the car. A crowd starts to form in the parking lot. JUDY (O.C.) (to herself) Oh, God Jimmy... Jimmy has now completely bashed in the windshield and moves to the front of the car. He now begins smashing the other windows. Now a sizeable crowd is formed. Jimmy is seemingly oblivious to them and continues bashing the car. 53. JUDY (O.C.) (to herself) I love you Jimmy. Now it's to the point of overkill. But Jimmy won't stop. It's as if the rage he's been carrying inside of him his entire life is now coming to the surface. We hear sirens in the distance as Jimmy continues to bash the car. The car is in near shambles as we hear police sirens in the distance. Judy begins screaming. JUDY (O.C.) Jimmy stop, please stop. Jimmy... oh god, Jimmy stop. God damn it, fucking stop! Jimmy doesn't. He pounds the car harder as a police cruiser pulls up. Two policemen get out of the car. They are temporarily paralyzed with indecision. We see one of the officers trying to speak with Jimmy. He just ignores them. The policemen are oblivious to the fact they are being filmed. One of the officers gets out a can of mace and sprays it in Jimmy's face. Now Jimmy is completely freaking out. We hear him scream, but he continues to bash the car with his eyes closed. One of the cops draws his gun as Jimmy swings aimlessly towards them. He gets sprayed again with the mace and is now completely blinded. A huge crowd has now amassed outside of the grocery store. JUDY (O.C.) Oh, God Jimmy, oh God... Now the entire parking lot is filled with cop cars. Lights are flashing all around Jimmy. He is surrounded but sill continues to swing the bat. JUDY (O.C.) Jimmy... Three cops tackle Jimmy from behind. Judy throws down the camera and runs out the door. The camera is face down on the seat. 54. We hear Judy get out of the car, leaving the door open so we can hear the entire scene with much more intensity. The sounds of police sirens and radios is overwhelming. We hear a woman screaming and more sirens and cars are pulling up. More screaming and sounds on the radio is heard. We hear police chatter: POLICE CHATTER (O.C.) (over the police radios) We're going to need an ambulance stat at the parking lot of the grocery store on Route 18... More screaming and chatter is heard until someone enters the car. We don't know who it is. They turn off the camera. CAMERA ON: I/E. SANITARIUM PARKING LOT/JUDY'S CAR - DAY Judy is filming. She sits behind the wheel pointing the camera at the front door of a HIDDEN VALLEY Mental Hospital. She zooms in on a sign. Judy flips the camera around to herself. JUDY Hi baby. I miss you. (blowing a kiss) Mwaa! I'll be waiting for you when you get out. Be good and don't wait too long. Look what I did for you! Judy opens her mouth wide. She's got a tongue stud on her tongue. JUDY I can't wait to use it on you! Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: I/E. FAST FOOD RESTAURANT DRIVE THRU/JIMMY'S CAR - DAY Jimmy's pulled forward to the drive thru while Judy tapes from passenger seat. A voice squawks at Jimmy, asking for his order. 55. JIMMY Can I get a double cheese burger, no pickles, large fries and a coke? Jimmy looks at the camera. JIMMY That's what I fucking missed more than anything. Fast food. He turns back to order more. JIMMY And a number two. The Drive Thru window voice rattles off a price and tells him to pull up. Jimmy continues to camera. JUDY (O.C.) What did you do in there all day? JIMMY Masturbated mostly. JUDY (O.C.) (jokingly) You cheated on me! I want to be the only person responsible for making you cum. JIMMY I hope you're willing to be on call twenty four hours a day. JUDY (O.C.) Seriously, what did you do? What was a day in the life of Jimmy in the nut house? JIMMY Well, besides masturbating, I talked and talked and talked and fucking talked until they were satisfied. But basically I told them what they wanted to hear. I said shit like... Jimmy does an over the top mock sincerity speech. 56. JIMMY "Now that I'm finally able to talk about my problems, I now realize that my behavior was inappropriate and harmful to others." Judy laughs. JIMMY Then I figured it out. I had to cry as much as possible. Whenever someone would cry they'd call it a "break through." So I'd be like. Jimmy does an imitation of himself in therapy. He looks directly into the lens. JIMMY You start out slow, then you build it up like this... "Now I know that using violence is not the answer." Jimmy is getting progressively sappier and more over the top with his self impersonation. JIMMY Then you go like this: (snaps back into the impersonation) I was wrong, I know I was wrong and I'll never do it again. I don't want to hurt people or myself. Jimmy does an obnoxious fake cry. JIMMY Boo hoo, waaaaaa, boo-hoo-hoo, waaaaaaa. (snaps out of it) Then you always give them the obligatory hug at the end. After a couple of weeks, then they officially diagnose you with something, give you a prescription, then you're done. JUDY (O.C.) God, you're a genius. Jimmy pulls up to the drive through window and pays the Cashier who hands him the a paper bag of food. 57. Jimmy pulls away and parks. Judy continues to question him as he goes through his bag of food. JUDY (O.C.) So what did they say you have? Jimmy munches on some fries. JIMMY ODD. Oppositional Defiance Disorder. JUDY (O.C.) You're so lucky. I wish I was diagnosed with something. What does it mean? Jimmy pretends he is reading from a text book 50's industrial spoof style. JIMMY ODD is a disorder characterized by an overwhelming pattern of negative, hostile, and defiant behavior which causes severe delusions where the patient can no longer distinguish fantasy from reality. JUDY (O.C.) Wow. I love that! Jimmy smiles as he gets his burger out of the paper bag. He then opens the top bun of the burger to examine if they got his order correct. They didn't. Jimmy playfully begins to act crazy. JIMMY You see. They fucked up my order. I specifically asked for no pickles. JUDY (O.C.) (playing along) Oh, no! How will ODD Boy handle this? Will his ODD brain be able to withstand a pickle screw up at the drive thru? Jimmy goes into a cartoonish like crazy person character. 58. He begins by taking the pickles off of his burger. He puts the burger down, quickly lifts his shirt, holding it up with his chin while he places two pickles over top of his nipples. Jimmy yells. JIMMY Ooow, jeez, they're hot! I burnt my nipples with the pickles. Judy cracks up laughing. Jimmy takes a pickle off of his left nipple and dangles it directly in front of the lens. He then feeds it to Judy. We hear Judy chomping on the pickle and giggling off camera. The camera shakes then shuts down. CAMERA ON: I/E. GHETTO/JUDY'S CAR - NIGHT Judy is driving through the ghetto as Jimmy shoots out of the window. On the sidewalk, he catches glimpses Drug Dealers, a Crack Whore, a Drunk stumbling along, and Other Pretty Sketchy Characters. JIMMY (O.C.) I love the ghetto. I don't know what it is about it. I fucking love it. It's always the first place I go to when I get out. JUDY I love it when you're out of the looney bin. Do you think you might be able to try to avoid the place for a while? JIMMY (O.C.) (joking) If they don't send me to the bin, maybe they'll send me to jail. This upsets Judy. JUDY I'm serious. You act like it's no big deal when you go away! JIMMY (O.C.) (tired of it) All right. 59. JUDY No it's not all right! When you're in there I have to be out in the real world alone, by myself Jimmy. You go away and come back like it's no big deal. Well it is a big deal. I don't want to spend another day without you. Do you understand me? I'd rather die. Judy's holding back tears. JIMMY (O.C.) I'm not going back. She doesn't believe him. She's really starting to cry despite herself. He pulls his eye from the lens to look at her. JIMMY (O.C.) Judy. Judy looks over at him. JIMMY (O.C.) I promise. I swear on my life and I swear on our bond, I'll never go back. Her freak out subsides. JUDY If you swear on our bond, then I believe you. Judy lets out half cry and half yelp. Her emotions are a bit out of control. JUDY I love you so fucking much. JIMMY (O.C.) I love you too. Awkward silence. Judy looks like she wants to ask Jimmy something. JIMMY (O.C.) What's the matter? 60. JUDY I was thinking, the last time you got out we did it like five times, like as soon as we saw each other, we got naked and started doing it. And today, my parents weren't even home and I tried to do some stuff to you, but you were acting like you weren't interested. JIMMY (O.C.) I didn't mean to. JUDY Was it because you jerked off so much while you were locked up? Jimmy hands her a small bottle of whiskey. She takes a sizable gulp, makes a face, then hands it back to Jimmy. JIMMY (O.C.) No. Judy is getting upset again. JUDY (voice cracking) Then why don't you want to have sex with me Jimmy? You don't think I'm pretty anymore? JIMMY (O.C.) No, no, no! That has nothing to do with it. After I saw my dad being rammed in the ass by my mother, I kind of blocked it out, but when I was in there they kept talking to me and talking to me about it. Now I can't stop it from coming into my head. Every time I get wood, the instant replay machine in my brain projects this image of my Mom pounding into my Dad. JUDY God, that's awful. I didn't know. JIMMY (O.C.) Yeah well, you know you didn't give too much of an effort to get in my pants anyhow. You just sort of made your sex face and grabbed my crotch. 61. Judy takes another drink off the bottle of whiskey and smiles. JUDY How do you like this? While she is driving she pulls down her tank top and quickly exposes her breasts through the top of her shirt. JIMMY (O.C.) Now we're talking. Judy tries to position her body so her breasts are in frame. She begins pushing one up, then sticks out her tongue, teasing. JIMMY (O.C.) That is so hot. Judy smiles and looks over at the camera. One hand on the steering wheel and one on her breast, when... JIMMY (O.C.) Watch out! BOOM! A loud THUMP hits the car, shaking the camera. JIMMY (O.C.) I think you hit someone. Judy's in shock. Jimmy puts the camera on the floor of the car by the passenger seat. He forgets to turn it off. All we see is a close up of the floor and Jimmy's feet. JIMMY (O.C.) Stay here. Jimmy gets out of the car. We hear the car door open then close. Judy sounds like she is having a complete nervous breakdown. She's crying, but in an extremely nervous and frantic way. JUDY (O.C.) (calls to him) Oh my God, what are you doing? We have no clue what Jimmy is doing outside of the car. 62. JUDY (O.C.) Oh fuck, oh fuck. Oh my god. Jimmy? We hear a car door open and some struggling sounds coming from Jimmy. JUDY (O.C.) Don't put him in here! JIMMY (O.C.) We're taking him to the hospital. JUDY (O.C.) No, we'll get busted. Long pause, we hear Jimmy struggling off camera. JUDY (O.C.) What... what are you doing? JIMMY (O.C.) He's not breathing. He's not fucking breathing! Silence. You can feel them thinking. JUDY (O.C.) Is he dead? JIMMY (O.C.) (has decided) Pop the trunk for me. JUDY (O.C.) No. JIMMY (O.C.) Judy. JUDY (O.C.) What are we gonna do? JIMMY (O.C.) I don't know right now, but we're not driving around with a dead guy in our back seat. JUDY (O.C.) I just want to go home. Jimmy, let's leave him. He's dead. We should just go. 63. JIMMY (O.C.) Pop the fucking trunk already before someone sees us! We hear Judy pop the trunk. We hear Jimmy struggling. The camera is still on the floor of the car. More struggling as Jimmy is clearly outside putting the body into the trunk. JUDY (O.C.) (to self) I want to go home. We hear Jimmy slam the trunk. JIMMY (O.C.) (screams; frustrated) Fuck! We hear Jimmy come around to the driver's seat and open the door. JUDY (O.C.) Jimmy, I... JIMMY (O.C.) I'm driving. We hear Judy get out of the car and walk around to the passenger side and open the door, but she doesn't get in. JIMMY (O.C.) Get in. Judy doesn't respond. JIMMY (O.C.) Are you gonna fucking get in! Judy is hysterical. JUDY (O.C.) We should just leave him here. JIMMY (O.C.) We can't leave him in the middle of the fucking ghetto. Get in before someone sees us! 64. Judy's losing it. JUDY (O.C.) I don't want him in my fucking car! I want him out! Before Jimmy can respond, we see the reflection of police lights. Red and blue lights flicker against the lens. JUDY (O.C.) Oh shit! We hear Judy get in the car and close the door. JUDY (O.C.) It's the fucking cops. JIMMY (O.C.) Just shut up. She's hysterical. JUDY (O.C.) It's the cops. It's the cops. It's the... JIMMY (O.C.) Shhhhhh! Jimmy kicks the camera. We still can't see any of this. We can only hear what's happening. JIMMY (O.C.) You gotta play it cool, okay? Judy's crying gets louder. JIMMY (O.C.) Stop fucking crying. Please, I'm begging you. Stop it. We hear the cop open and shut his patrol car door. JUDY (O.C.) Oh God. He's getting out of the car. We've got a dead homeless guy in our trunk and he's... JIMMY (O.C.) SSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! 65. JUDY (O.C.) Oh, my god Jimmy, he's walking towards us. JIMMY (O.C.) SSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Just be cool. The Cop is close, we can feel his footsteps coming towards the car. Judy collects herself as best as she can. The cop taps his flashlight against the window. We hear Judy roll down her power window and we hear the voice of the Cop. COP (O.C.) Good evening. License and registration please. JIMMY (O.C.) Certainly, sir. The light from the Cop's flashlight reflects off the floor of the car and into the lens of the camera. The reflections stop. The wait is unbearable. COP (O.C.) Could you please step out of the vehicle? Jimmy gets out of the car as Judy trembles in the passengers seat. We only hear the sounds of Judy sniffling and repressing herself from crying and idle chatter of the Cop's radio. It seems like forever, then... THUMP! The car is shaking, we hear intense struggling going on outside. Judy unleashes a piercing, high pitched scream. JUDY (O.C.) Jimmy! More violent struggling is heard as Judy begins to hyperventilate. POP 66. A gunshot is fired. Judy screams. JUDY (O.C.) AAAAAHHHHHHH! POP. Another shot is fired. The car door opens, Jimmy gets in. We hear the sounds of tires squealing and the engine roaring. JUDY (O.C.) What happened? JIMMY (O.C.) Shut up! Judy's now totally freaked. JUDY (O.C.) What happened! JIMMY (O.C.) Just shut the fuck up! I don't fucking want to talk about it! Jimmy can't bully her into silence. She continues to freak out. The camera is kicked. JUDY (O.C.) I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHAT FUCKING HAPPENED! I WANNA KNOW. I WANNA KNOW. I JUST WANNA FUCKING...! Camera is kicked off and shuts down. CAMERA ON: EXT. REST STOP - SECLUDED AREA - TRUNK OF THE CAR - NIGHT A weird, digital, black and white image plays on the camera. There's no light and Jimmy's got the camera back in "Nite Shot" mode. He's standing outside of the car filming the Homeless Man who is lying dead inside of the trunk. Judy stands next to him as he films. The Homeless Man is twisted and contorted in order to fit in the small confines of the trunk. Jimmy pans back and forth and up and down his dead body. 67. JUDY (O.C.) What are you doing? JIMMY (O.C.) (it's obvious) I'm filming. JUDY (O.C.) It's dark. You can't see anything. JIMMY (O.C.) It's on infra-red. Do you wanna see? JUDY (O.C.) No, I don't wanna see. JIMMY (O.C.) He's beautiful. He really is. There's a certain serenity to death I appreciate. JUDY (O.C.) He's dead. He's in my car, Jimmy, and he stinks. I wanna go home. Jimmy keeps filming. JUDY (O.C.) I don't think I can do this. Jimmy ignores her. JUDY (O.C.) I'm not like you. I can't do this. (holds back a sob) I wanna fucking go home. JIMMY (O.C.) Yeah, well you can't fucking go home. And you will do this. You did do this. You killed him. You didn't get in the car until the cops showed up. Now we don't have a choice. You want me to go to jail? You want that? JUDY (O.C.) (softer) No. Judy settles. Jimmy is out of breath. 68. The sun is beginning to rise. The light of a new day cascades upon the dead body in the trunk. JUDY (O.C.) (half crying) What are we going to do? JIMMY (O.C.) We just need to make intelligent decisions. That's all. We'll find a way to take care of it. Then we'll go away. We'll fix it. It'll be okay. I promise. JUDY (O.C.) You promise? JIMMY (O.C.) Yeah. Come here. Jimmy has dropped the camera away from the Homeless Man. He's still rolling while he wraps his arms around her and holds her. We hear him kissing her softly. JIMMY (O.C.) It's gonna be okay. I'm gonna take care of everything. I promise. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: INT. WOODS IN NOWHERE - HOMELESS MAN ROAST - NIGHT We see and hear a huge roaring fire. Jimmy has zoomed the lens in so close that we can't tell what it is that's burning. As he pulls out, it's revealed that the dead homeless guy is roasting in the fire. JUDY (O.C.) (coughing) Oh, my god. The hair burning is making me nauseous. Judy coughs more violently before. 69. JIMMY (O.C.) Yeah, God damn. Burning bodies fucking stinks. That bum's body odor is being cooked right off him. Jimmy pokes the flaming skull with his stick. JUDY (O.C.) Jimmy! Jimmy pokes some more at the body, then flips the camera up at Judy. JUDY What? I'm not in the mood. JIMMY (O.C.) (making light) Don't have to be in the mood. Doesn't matter. The camera's on, it's on. (changes the subject) You wanna know where we're gonna go? JUDY Okay, where are we gonna go? JIMMY (O.C.) We're going to Lincoln to visit Dinko. JUDY Who's Dinko, Jimmy? JIMMY (O.C.) He's cool. And he's got his own place, and he said I could stay there whenever ever I wanted. Plus he knows about you and he wants to meet you. And he doesn't like cops, so he's not gonna call 'em. Okay? Now gimme a smile. JUDY No. JIMMY (O.C.) Gimme a smile, and I'll let you see my smiley face again. Judy begins coughing. 70. JUDY I can't get sexy with that smell. I just can't. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: INT. DINKO'S TRAILER - NIGHT Music is playing extremely loud in a funky ass trailer as Judy dances with DINKO (late 20s) a completely drunk trailer trash dude wearing a pizza delivery outfit. Empty whiskey and beer bottles are scattered throughout the tiny living room as cigarette smoke hovers around them due to a ridiculously low ceiling. Judy is dancing in a very sexy manner with Dinko who is dancing like a complete dork. Dinko has no moves, rhythm, or beat whatsoever, but dances with as much vigor as a dog on crack. Jimmy is sitting on the couch filming them dancing in front of him. Dinko is forced to scream over top of the music to be heard. He looks directly at Jimmy noticing that Jimmy's turned on the camera. DINKO Hey! The video-man. I remember that shit when we was in together. Said you video-ed everything. JIMMY (O.C.) Yep. DINKO Hey man, it's cool if you guys stay here for a while, but I have a small business to run man. There's going to be some people knocking on the door and shit. I can't have you guys answering the door or the phone. That's the only rule. Other than that man, we're going to getting fucked up together all the time. I got a shit load of crank dude, that shit is off the fucking hook. Here, take a hit. Dinko tries to hand off some crank to Jimmy. 71. JIMMY (O.C.) No thanks, I just want to film Judy dancing. Jimmy pans the camera over towards Judy. She's doing her best sexy dance into the camera. We can still hear Dinko talking to Jimmy. DINKO (O.C.) Right man. That's cool. Hey um... If I tell you to stop taping though, man, you gotta stop. I got some hard core junkies coming over here. Sometimes, if they see shit like that, they fucking flip. Crank junkies are a whole different kind of breed man. They're fucking hard core mother fuckers. You don't know what they're gonna fucking do. This one guy got paranoid about something. He used to climb on his roof to take a dump. That's the only place he would shit! How fucked up is that? Dinko laughs at his own joke. JUDY You're not even paying attention to me Jimmy. Judy takes her dancing up a notch to get Jimmy's attention. JUDY Don't I look sexy? Jimmy doesn't get a chance to respond. DINKO (O.C.) Yeah, you look real sexy baby. Real nice. Dinko starts in with Jimmy again. DINKO (O.C.) Hey, I may have some work for you if you're cool with that. Jimmy turns the camera back to Dinko while he goes to the kitchen to get a beer. 72. JIMMY (O.C.) What kind of work? DINKO You know some hustling, some good money. I'll teach you how to mix the shit. Your girlfriend too if she wants. JIMMY (O.C.) (sarcasm) Yeah. That's what I've always wanted to do. Learn to make and sell crystal methamphetamine. You're a fucking genius Dinko. Dinko is too stupid to recognize sarcasm. DINKO (big smile) Yeah, man! Fuckin' high five. Dinko high five's Jimmy and laughs again. DINKO (re: Judy) So is she, like, your girlfriend or are you guys just fucking? JIMMY (O.C.) She's my girlfriend, my best friend, and yes we fuck. And don't ever, ever fucking touch her. That's MY only rule Dinko. Judy is frustrated with Jimmy's lack of attention. JUDY (O.C.) Jimmy! Jimmy turns the camera to her. She's starting to do her best impression of a stripper dance. DINKO It's all good man. I ain't gonna touch your old lady. Shit man, she's so into you anyway. Dinko gets up and moves into the kitchen area, crossing the frame. Jimmy focusses the camera's attention on various items in the kitchen while Dinko talks. 73. There's ripped open small electronics and appliances everywhere, as if Dinko's been taking everything apart and trying to put it back together. DINKO So there's this dude. Fucker taught me everything I know about meth and shit. He'd fucking flip for your girl, man. You should go up and see him. He's in Erlanger. JIMMY (O.C.) Uncle Rodney? Camera drifts across several messy piles of papers and cardboard boxes with bags of drugs in them. DINKO (O.C.) Right, right! I forgot. Yeah, Uncle Rodney! JUDY (O.C.) You have an Uncle Rodney baby? Judy is too stoned to realize that Jimmy has already told her about Uncle Rodney. Jimmy pulls out to include Judy in the shot. She's in the kitchen doing another line of crank off a counter top. JUDY I want to meet your uncle. JIMMY (O.C.) He's not my uncle. He's not anybody's uncle. People just call him that. He's the one I told you about from the nut house. As Judy bends down to snort her line, camera drifts over to Dinko who's holding a HUGE HILLBILLY WAD OF CASH in his hand and stuffs it into a box of cereal. Jimmy zooms in on the cereal box. There's a whole bunch more cash in there. JIMMY (O.C.) I said one day I'd take you up to Erlanger one day, remember? JUDY (O.C.) When was that? Dinko throws the cash on the table. Jimmy ZOOMS OUT catching Judy in the frame. 74. JIMMY (O.C.) When we were naked. JUDY We're always naked, Jimmy. Judy wipes powder from her nose, then goes foggy for a split second, losing then catching her balance. JUDY (re: crank) Fuck... Woah, that's cool. DINKO (O.C.) That's some good shit, huh? JUDY (disoriented) Uh huh... Jimmy turns the camera onto Dinko. DINKO So you guys should like, totally go see him, man. I don't fuckin' go up there no more, 'cuz like, I got all the shit I need right here man, 'cuz my place is cool and all, but there's no fucking room here, ya know? So like you should go see him and shit. Judy steps into frame. At this point, she's in her bra and is dancing like a stripper directly in front of the camera. JUDY You like this, Jimmy? THERE'S A KNOCK at the door. DINKO (O.C.) (calls out to door) Yo! (to Jimmy) Customers call. Judy keeps on dancing in her own little world while Dinko goes to the door. Judy finishes her bottle of beer. She's pretty drunk and cranked out at this point. 75. Dinko is at the front door dealing with a customer. We can't see her and we can barely hear what they're talking about, but it seems Dinko is engaged in a heated conversation with her. He yells back into the living room from the front door. DINKO (O.C.) Yo, Jimmy. Is your girl into chicks? JIMMY (O.C.) I don't know. (to Judy) Are you into chicks? JUDY Do you want me to be into chicks? JIMMY (O.C.) (calls to her) Sure Dinko. Bring her in. Dinko brings in HAZEL,(40), a frightfully thin crank addict. She's scared, nervous, and completely strung out, and she looks like death. They stand off to the side of the room watching Judy dance. Judy realizes the woman is in the room and stops dancing. Jimmy zooms in on the woman. Looking closer we see that Hazel is in the final stages of her life/addiction. She's sweating and her eyes are bugging out of her skull. Dinko turns the music down so they don't have to scream. JIMMY (O.C.) You know what, never mind Dink. I don't think Judy's into chicks. JUDY Yeah, I'm not into chicks. DINKO Well Hazel here will do anything we want. Ain't that right Hazel? Hazel nods her head yes. DINKO You're into chicks aren't you Hazel? 76. HAZEL Um, I really just want to get some stuff and get out of here. Hazel is trembling. The party atmosphere has come to a complete halt. DINKO Shut up you fat fucking junkie and take your clothes off or you ain't getting shit. Hazel's not moving. She's reluctant. DINKO Come on! HAZEL I don't... Dinko smacks her square in the face. DINKO (screaming) Just do it, you fucking whore! Hazel starts to take her clothes off reluctantly. JUDY Jimmy. Jimmy doesn't do anything. He just keeps filming. JUDY Jimmy, stop him! JIMMY (O.C.) He's a big boy, he can do what he wants. This gives Dinko an added boost of confidence. Hazel is now in her bra and panties and is standing in front of them. DINKO Ever made a porno? JIMMY (O.C.) Not with you. 77. DINKO Well all right! Keep filming mother fucker, I'm gonna fuck this junkie for you. You guys are free to join in whenever you like. Judy is now borderline hysterical. JUDY I swear to God Jimmy if you let him go through with this I'll never talk to you again! Jimmy ignores her. DINKO You ready? You filming? JIMMY (O.C.) I'm filming. Are you going to fuck her or are you just gonna talk about it? JUDY (screaming) Jimmy! Dinko unbuckles his belt as fast as he can. Hazel begins to cry as Dinko pushes her into position on all fours. DINKO (to Jimmy) How's this? You getting good camera angles and shit? JIMMY (O.C.) Turn her ass towards the camera. DINKO (laughing it up) Take off them panties bitch... Oh yeah! Come on bitch. Move. Judy is crying profusely in the background as Dinko pushes Hazel to the ground. Jimmy zooms in on Dinko, framing out Hazel as Dinko gets himself ready to take her from behind. DINKO That's it. Just like that. Dinko looks directly at the lens of the camera. 78. DINKO We're going to be doing this shit all the time brother. JIMMY (O.C.) You think so? DINKO Fuck yeah! Dinko sees something O.C. from Jimmy, we can't see that surprises him. DINKO You don't have to hold a gun to her head man. There's plenty of other chicks we can do that to. If that's what you're into, then fuck it, I'll... BAM!!! Dinko takes a shot in the throat and falls onto Hazel. Jimmy's shot him. Judy has stopped screaming. Hazel on the other hand is freaking out, trapped under a squirming Dinko. Jimmy sets the camera on top of something, stands up and brings the gun to Judy. JIMMY Take it! Judy doesn't know what to do. Jimmy puts the gun in her hand. JIMMY Finish him off! He deserves a bullet right in the fucking face, doesn't he? Judy's in a weird cranked out place. JUDY (nervous, cranked out) Yeah. Yeah. He does. JIMMY Then do it. Judy points the gun at a still squirming Dinko. She can't bring herself to pull the trigger. 79. We can hear Dinko choking on his own blood. He struggles to move towards Judy. Jimmy's now standing behind Judy. He wraps his hand around hers, helps her point the gun and... BAM Shoots Dinko right between the eyes. Jimmy helps her again. BAM-BAM Two more shots into his chest, Jimmy's hand still wrapped around Judy's over the gun. Jimmy lets go of her hand and the gun drops to the floor. She's stunned. Jimmy comes towards camera and shuts it down. CAMERA ON: I/E. ROAD LEAVING TRAILER/DINKO'S CAR - NIGHT A rip roaring fire burns from the trailer. Jimmy is shooting out of the back of the Dinko's Car, a beat up old station wagon, as they drive away down the gravel road. JIMMY (O.C.) Good bye Dinko, mother fucker. Thanks for letting us borrow your car, and for the cash. JUDY (O.C.) And for the crank! Jimmy sits back into his seat and turns the camera on Judy. She's got a big smile on her face. JIMMY (O.C.) You feeling good baby? JUDY I feel calm. I don't care about anything. Jimmy keeps filming. JUDY What are we going to do with the car Jimmy? 80. JIMMY (O.C.) Ditch it. JUDY The crank? JIMMY (O.C.) Snort it. Give some of it away. JUDY The cash. JIMMY (O.C.) Vacation baby. Anywhere we want to go. Judy smiles. She turns and blows a kiss towards the camera, oddly serene from the drugs despite everything that's happened. To her, it's as if all is right with the world. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: INT. LAS VEGAS - WEDDING CHAPEL - NIGHT Jimmy is standing on the altar waiting for his bride to be. He is wearing a white tuxedo with black tie and ruffle shirt like Ricardo Montalban from Fantasy Island. They are being married by an Elvis impersonator and the witnesses/groomsmen are Siegfried and Roy look-a-likes. Jimmy waves to the person who is working the camera. The Elvis impersonator talks to Jimmy. ELVIS You know the video's gonna cost you twenty extra, right? JIMMY Yeah. ELVIS Well alright then. Let's get this sum bitch started! Elvis reaches down and gets a guitar and breaks into an Elvis version of "Here Comes the Bride" but to the song "You ain't Nothing But A Hound Dog." 81. ELVIS Weeeeeelllll, you ain't nothing but a young bride... walking down the aisle. The Elvis impersonator goes all out with the dance and the gyrating Elvis hips as he jams on his acoustic guitar. Jimmy motions to the camera to turn around. JIMMY Here she comes. ELVIS (O.C.) You ain't nothing but a young bride... walking down the aisle. The camera whips around and we see Judy walking down the aisle. Tears of joy run down Judy's heavily made up face as she walks. ELVIS Well, if you don't marry Jimmy, then you ain't no friend of mine. Judy makes her way over to her side of the altar next to her bridesmaids (two Cher look-a-likes). ELVIS Do you... Elvis is looking for Judy's name that's been scribbled on paper. JIMMY (helping) Judy. And here, we wrote our own vows. He hands Elvis a small piece of paper who skims it. He kind of shakes his head, smirking at what he reads, then decides to go for it. Elvis gives a quick windmill strum to his guitar and starts. ELVIS Do you Judy promise to always swallow, to never cut your hair, or have another man's penis injected into any part of your body for as long as you both shall live? The Cher bridesmaids giggle. 82. JUDY I do. ELVIS Do you Jimmy promise to always fuck Judy with enthusiasm, to take a shower once a day, and promise not to inject your penis into any part of another person's body as long as you both shall live? JIMMY I do. ELVIS Can I get the rings? Siegfried gives the rings to Jimmy who places one on Judy's finger and vice versa. ELVIS With the power vested in me by the great state of Nevada... I do herby pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride. Jimmy and Judy grab each other by the ass and begin making out. The freak show audience claps while they are making out. The applauding dies down but Jimmy and Judy continue to make out. Jimmy puts his hand up her dress as she begins unbuckling his pants. It looks like they may start fucking on the alter. Elvis jumps in to break it up. ELVIS All right you two. We got a schedule to keep. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: INT. LAS VEGAS - LAS VEGAS MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Jimmy is running through the motel room with the camera. Flashes of snorted lines of crank dust and rolled up bills are in the background as Jimmy moves through the room. We hear Judy screaming with excitement about something on the TV. 83. JUDY (O.C.) Hurry up Jimmy, hurry, hurry, hurry, shit Jimmy. You're going to miss it. Jimmy settles camera on the television. BEGIN TV NEWS REPORT On TV, Jimmy and Judy's high school year book pictures are on the screen. INT. TV NEWS STUDIO - (FOR VEGAS MOTEL TV) - NIGHT An ANCHORMAN is mid-sentence, talking about Jimmy and Judy. ANCHORMAN ...press conference in a few moments. The suspect's names are James Wright and Judy Elizabeth Oaks-Kellen... JUDY (O.C.) No it's not! I'm Judy Wright now! (sing songy, like a little girl) I'm Judy Wright now! JIMMY (O.C.) Shhhh... Shut up! ANCHORMAN ...from Burlington, Kentucky are wanted for questioning in the alleged murder of a Hamilton County Sheriff's Deputy that was killed two nights ago while on Patrol in the Over the Rhine section of Cincinnati. On a very serious note, the producers here at KPX-TV 4 would like to warn you that the images we are about to show are violent and graphic in nature and may not be suitable for young children. Once again, these are the images that were taken from a video camera that was mounted on board the patrol car. Viewer discretion is advised. Judy gasps involuntarily as... 84. INT. LAS VEGAS - LAS VEGAS MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Jimmy pulls the camera from the screen and points it at Judy to get her reaction. Her eyes are locked on the screen. Judy's face drops. We, on the other hand, are dying to see what she's looking at. Jimmy swish pans back to the TV and zooms in tight. The television fills the frame. EXT. GHETTO - COP CAR CAM (FOR VEGAS MOTEL) - NIGHT (From Sc. 37, p. 64) On screen we see something completely new. It's a black and white security cam style video image. Just as the announcer described, this is the kind of image that comes from a video camera that's mounted on the inside of a Cop Car. It's static and covered with date/time text, etc. On TV, we finally get a chance to see what transpired when Jimmy and Judy were pulled over. Judy is standing outside the cop car. The moment she sees it approach, we see her freak just a bit and get into the car quickly and suspiciously. The cop gets up, gets out of the car and goes over to the driver side to talk to Jimmy. After a few moments, he summons Jimmy out of the car while Judy waits. The Cop asks Jimmy to open the trunk. He doesn't have his gun drawn, but he is being cautious, one hand on his gun holster, the other shining on Jimmy's face with a flashlight. COP (on TV) Go ahead and open it. Jimmy stands by the trunk of the car, but he's not really obeying the Cop's commands. He's stalling. The Cop is getting suspicious. We can barely hear what they're saying to each other over the noise of traffic that whizzes by. There's an unintelligible exchange, then... the cop steps forward, raising his voice. COP (on TV) Put your hands on the vehicle. Jimmy's reluctant. COP (on TV) On the vehicle, now! 85. The Cop and Jimmy are sort of at a standoff. Jimmy finally leans over and puts his hands on the trunk. The Cop comes in close to Jimmy, pulling his hand from his gun holster and shifting it to pull his cuffs off his belt. At that exact moment, Jimmy makes his move, LEAPING for the Cop. He takes the Cop to the ground and off screen. All we see is a barely decipherable image of Judy freaking out in the passenger seat because she can't see what's going on and neither can we. About 5 seconds go by. BOOM! A gunshot is fired. It feels like an eternity, then... Jimmy pops up off the ground. He's got the Cop's gun! He hesitates, not knowing what to do. He pauses, hesitant, then shoots down towards the ground, where the cop is lying out of frame. He runs around the front of the car and into the driver seat. There's a moment of hesitation as Jimmy and Judy seem to be screaming at each other in the car, then... Jimmy slams on the gas and the car takes off into the distance. The image on the TV cuts away and back to the Anchorman. INT. TV NEWS STUDIO (FOR VEGAS MOTEL TV) - NIGHT The Anchorman speaks to camera as... INT. LAS VEGAS - LAS VEGAS MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Jimmy pans up to Judy, hoping to record a reaction. She's locked on the TV, her hand over her mouth, frozen, not knowing how to react. She turns and looks up at him. JIMMY (O.C.) I didn't want us to be apart. 86. Judy's starting to tear up. She's emotional, conflicted. She can't believe he did that for her, but she's also just come to the sober realization that he killed a cop in cold blood for her. JIMMY (O.C.) They know who we are now. (making light) Actually, we're famous now. Judy kind of half smiles. She hadn't thought of it, but she's still trying to digest the images until... JUDY That's the most romantic thing I've ever even heard of. A voice catches Judy's attention from the TV. It's an ATTORNEY type at a press conference being held by Jimmy's parents. ATTORNEY (O.C.) (on TV) ...have a few words and then we'll be taking questions. Judy looks back at the TV. JUDY Oh my God, that's my parents! And your parents! Jimmy pans back and we see... EXT. COURTHOUSE - PODIUM PRESS CONF. (FOR VEAGS TV) - DAY Jimmy's Mom and Dad with a chiron at the bottom of frame. They're at a podium with Judy's parents standing stoically in the background. Jimmy's Mom starts reading a prepared statement. JIMMY'S MOM (on TV) We are very shocked about recent events. Our son has always been a dear sweet boy who is sometimes confused, but we want him to know that we love him very, very much and just want this whole thing to be over. JIMMY (O.C.) Bitch. 87. JUDY (O.C.) Shhhh... Judy's Dad steps up to the microphone. Despite the truth, he sounds genuinely concerned. JUDY'S DAD Jimmy if you're out there, we know you're scared, but you're only making it worse. Please bring Judy back to us. We really miss her terribly. Jim walks over to the TV and... INT. LAS VEGAS - LAS VEGAS MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Jimmy proceeds to kick the living fuck out of the TV. It smashes against the wall and falls to the floor. END TV NEWS REPORT Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: INT. BUN BOY MOTEL ROOM - BATHROOM - DAY Jimmy is filming the both of them in the mirror. Judy stands above him with noticeably different hair. She has obviously given herself a homemade dye job, complete with blonde, black and punk pink streaks. Judy has an electric clipper and is about to shave Jimmy's head, who is sitting in a chair below her. She's really getting off on this and chuckles as she starts to lower the shaver to his head. JIMMY Wait a second. JUDY What? JIMMY I just want to look at myself one last time with hair. Judy is smiling and can't wait to get started. JUDY OK, that's enough. 88. She starts in again. JIMMY Stop. JUDY What's the matter? JIMMY I'm not sure about this. JUDY Come on. I changed mine. JIMMY Yeah, but you look fucking great. JUDY This was your idea Jimmy. Jimmy thinks. JIMMY Fuck it. Let's do this thing. Judy starts the shaver back up and proceeds to shave Jimmy's head. She starts right down the middle. Hair falls into Jimmy's face as Judy slides the buzzer from front to back. Jimmy now has a reverse Mohawk. He laughs at himself along with Judy. JIMMY This is the look. Judy then shaves the entire top of Jimmy's head, giving him the quintessential male pattern baldness look. He looks ridiculous. JIMMY (joking) Let's just leave it like this. Judy laughs. JUDY Don't be stupid. Judy shaves the rest of his head and now Jimmy is completely bald. Jimmy checks himself out in the mirror. 89. JIMMY I am one ugly mother fucker. Judy is stroking the top of his head with her hands. JUDY It feels funny. Jimmy gives it a feel for himself. He sticks his pinky in the side of his mouth. JIMMY I look like Dr. Evil. Judy laughs, then kisses the top of Jimmy's head. JIMMY Come on. Let's go across the street and get a shit burger. Jimmy shuts down the camera. CAMERA ON: I/E. BUN BOY - DINER/PARKING LOT/DINKO'S CAR - HIGHWAY - DAY In a booth at the motel diner, Judy is filming Jimmy while he stuffs a burger into his face. JUDY (O.C.) You're such a fucking pig when you eat. Jimmy opens his mouth full of food and comes towards camera. JIMMY Aaaaaaaaaahhh! JUDY (O.C.) Gross. That's it. I'm not taking you to the country club, ever! That didn't quite sit right with him, but he covers it up with a mock pout while he chews. JUDY (O.C.) (mocking) Awww... I'm sorry. Did I hurt your feelings? Jimmy won't respond, playful. 90. JUDY (O.C.) I'll take you to the country club. I promise. Jimmy looks up smiling. JIMMY When? JUDY (O.C.) I don't know. Judy pauses. Jimmy keeps chewing. JUDY (O.C.) Thanks for marrying me. You're my prince charming that came and swooped me off me feet. The irony is thick. Bald, lanky, 21 year old Jimmy with a mouth full of food looks like anything but Prince Charming. JUDY (O.C.) And one day, we're gonna have a house and a white picket fence and a baby. Tell me what you think we should name the baby. Jimmy stops smiling. She really believes that's going to happen one day. JUDY (O.C.) What's wrong? Jimmy doesn't want to answer. While he thinks... Something out the window distracts him. JUDY (O.C.) What? JIMMY Shhhh. Shut up. (grabbing camera) Give it to me. Jimmy whips the camera around to zoom in on what he's looking through the window. Finally, we see... Two Florence County Sheriff's Cars with their lights flashing are parked in the parking lot of the cheap motel. Jimmy zooms in on the cops as they get out of their cars. 91. JUDY (O.C.) What are they doing? JIMMY (O.C.) Shhh. The cops walk up to one of the doors to the motel room. JIMMY (O.C.) Shit. Four Florence Deputies stand outside the motel room door, ready to bust it in and raid the room. JUDY (O.C.) What? Jimmy speaks in hushed tones so that others in the diner won't hear them. JIMMY (O.C.) They're outside our room. JUDY (O.C.) Oh God, Jimmy! They know where we are. We're going to get caught! Florence Deputy #1 knocks on the door, waits a beat, then busts it down. Three Florence Deputies move in with their guns drawn. JUDY (O.C.) Jimmy! JIMMY (O.C.) (to self) Let's go. Jimmy forgets to shut the camera down. He holds it by his waist as the two quickly struggle to get the hell out of the diner. Follow along with them, camera by Jimmy's side, mostly pointing randomly at the floor of the diner or out the window. They head out the door to the... PARKING LOT Action continues, the camera still rolling without Jimmy realizing it. They run at a fast clip along the parking lot as they head toward... 92. DINKO'S CAR JIMMY (O.C.) Get in. Jimmy slides into the driver seat and throws the camera onto the dashboard. We see Jimmy behind the wheel as they drive out of the parking lot. He's in freak-out mode, afraid as hell they're going to be caught by the cops. JUDY (O.C.) They don't see us. JIMMY I know. Just shut up! Let me think. Jimmy keeps driving, his eyes darting back and forth between the road, the rear view mirror and Judy. JIMMY Are they coming? JUDY (O.C.) I don't know. I don't think so. Jimmy looks back up into the rear view mirror, still not 100% satisfied that they're not being chased. JUDY (O.C.) No. I don't think they're coming. Jimmy's still not certain. He looks for a while. Then he sighs. It seems that he knows they're not coming. JIMMY (relief) Oh, fuck. (to Judy) That was close. Jimmy drives for a bit, then notices that the camera is on and pointing at him. He reaches forward and... Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: I/E. PARKING AREA BY RIVER AFTER BUN BOY ESCAPE/DINKO'S CAR - DAY Jimmy films Judy, who is sleeping in the front seat of the car. 93. Jimmy gently wakes her. JIMMY (O.C.) Hey baby, wake up baby. Time to get up little fuck nugget. Judy opens her eyes. The first thing she sees is Jimmy filming her. Judy smiles like an infant who sees her daddy for the first time after a night's sleep. Judy, very childlike, opens her arms for Jimmy to hug her. Jimmy leans over, camera in hand, and gives her a hug. The camera shakes and goes out of focus as he's hugging her. JIMMY (O.C.) Good morning Mrs. Wright. And how are we feeling this afternoon? Judy looks around and is a bit disoriented. JUDY Where are we? JIMMY (O.C.) It's a surprise. Come on. I want you to drive us in. I want to film you when we get there. JUDY (big smile) Okay. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: I/E. RODNEY'S WUNDERLAND - BACKROAD ENTRY/PARKING AREA/DINKO'S CAR - DAY Judy drives up a gravel road as Jimmy films. They travel through the back roads in Northern Kentucky. It's nothing but woods outside the window. JUDY What am I gonna see? Jimmy doesn't answer. JUDY I hate it when you do that. Tell me! 94. JIMMY (O.C.) Nope. Keep looking. Judy drives some more. The camera is bouncing as they drive across dirt roads. Judy tries to maintain her composure, but she can't contain herself. JUDY How much further! Aaa! JIMMY (O.C.) Shhh. Just drive. Judy bites her lip and drives. Slowly, she comes around a bend as they arrive at... UNCLE RODNEY'S WUNDERLAND/PARKING AREA Judy's eyes go wide. JUDY Oh my God. Is that it? Jimmy doesn't say anything. He just keeps the camera trained on Judy. By the look on her face, what she's seeing looks pretty cool. JUDY Is this where your friend lives? Jimmy points the camera through the front windshield. Now we see what Judy was seeing... about thirty trailers, all along the water's edge. It looks like a commune for run-away teenagers with crank addictions and budding/wannabe drug dealers. The kids are throwing a combination party, barbecue, and drug festival. JIMMY (O.C.) This is where we live. JUDY We do? JIMMY (O.C.) Maybe. If you want to. For a little while. Judy doesn't respond. She just drives. Her eyes are starting to well up a little bit. She's getting emotional. 95. JUDY This is sooo amazing. It's like a dream. Judy's on cloud nine. The place has exceeded her expectations. Judy keeps driving as we see young people, all more or less the same age as Jimmy and Judy. Some live in trailers, some in tents. They watch as Jimmy and Judy drive in. Clearly new faces are of interest to them. JIMMY (O.C.) Go over here. Out the window, they approach another trailer. Clearly this trailer is more important than the others. Outside, a dorky looking douche bag type, BUDDY (20's) talks to some of the Younger People in intense language. They all look over to see Jimmy and Judy approaching. JIMMY (O.C.) Stop here. You can hear the excitement in Jimmy's voice as Judy stops the car. JIMMY (O.C.) Take it. Jimmy hands off the camera to Judy, who retrains it on the Buddy and the Wunderland Teenagers he talks to. Jimmy gets out of Dinko's car and heads up to him while Judy films. We don't hear the conversation between Jimmy and Buddy man, but clearly he's happy to see Jimmy. Buddy gives Jimmy a big hug like he was a missed relative or an old friend. It's all smiles between the two of them. Jimmy comes running back over to the car. JUDY (O.C.) Is that Uncle Rodney? JIMMY No, that's Buddy. He said Rodney's been expecting us. We're, like, celebrities or something Judy. JUDY (O.C.) Really? 96. JIMMY Yeah! He wants to meet you. JUDY Wow. Camera shakes as Judy starts out of the car. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: EXT. RODNEY'S WUNDERLAND - OUTSIDE RODNEY'S TRAILER - DAY Buddy is standing outside of a Piece Of Shit Trailer. He's the douche bag type that we saw from a distance give Jimmy a hug in the previous scene. He's surprisingly charismatic and gracious and does his best to make Jimmy and Judy feel at home. Jimmy films as Buddy gives them a walking tour of the group of trailers by the river. Judy's with them as well. BUDDY We got like thirty five trailers here. Long as we've got some that's empty you can stay in one. Sometimes people come in and we got get you a tent or-- fuck, everybody's friendly--- you can always find a bed to crash in. Jimmy's panning around the landscape. People are watching them walk with Buddy. It's almost as if they've got some kind of celebrity status because they're with him. BUDDY It don't look like much but we do some pretty good partying around here. Ya'll are welcome to stay as long as ya like. Fuck it, you can stay forever. There's only two rules. Don't mess around with the labs which are down back there... Jimmy's panning again, but BUDDY grabs hold of the lens. BUDDY Woah... No filming that shit. Seriously. That's part of rule number one. (MORE) 97. BUDDY (cont'd) Don't even go near there with the camera, and two is no cops, but fuck, seeing what kinda shit you guys got into, I don't think we gotta worry about you calling 'em up for a visit. BUDDY laughs at his own joke. BUDDY Other than that, ya'll can do whatever the hell you want, whenever the hell you want. You wanna do some of the stash at the parties, that's cool too. We'd like it if you do it, normally we'd say you gotta sell some too, but Rodney says y'all's is a special case 'cuz you ain't leaving 'til the heat's off for sure, that could be months or... shit, years for you guys. But no one up here's in a fucking hurry. Jimmy pans around capturing the natural beauty and picturesque scenery of the camp. BUDDY Look at you. Little bitch from the nut house, and you got yourself one sweet looking bride! I still can't get over the tits on this girl. (to Judy) Come here sweetheart. Jimmy pans back and catches an image of Buddy as he grabs Judy and puts his arm around her. BUDDY We're gonna have a party for y'all tonight. You know that? We have parties damn near every night, but this one's gonna be special just for you guys. (to Judy) You like that sweety? Buddy's squeezing Judy just a bit too tight. JUDY Sure Buddy. 98. BUDDY (to Jimmy) Nice piece of ass you got here. Best you keep an eye on it so it don't wander off on ya. They've arrived at a trailer. BUDDY We're here! Jimmy pans back up at the trailer that's going to be theirs. From the outside, it's a disaster, peeling paint and cracked windows. Buddy gets in front of the camera, reaching for it. BUDDY Shit! Y'all's on your honeymoon. Ain't gonna film it yourselves. Buddy pulls the camera from Jimmy's hand and points it at Jimmy and Judy. Judy waves. Jimmy looks a bit uncomfortable though he tries not to show it. BUDDY (O.C.) That's nice. Shaky amateur camera style as Buddy zooms in on Judy's chest, closing Jimmy out of frame. JIMMY (O.C.) Let's go inside. Judy turns. BUDDY (O.C.) (shouting) Hold on! Hold on! Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: INT. RODNEY'S WUNDERLAND - JIMMY & JUDY'S TRAILER - DAY Buddy films from the inside their completely destroyed trailer. Jimmy stands at the entrance with Judy in his arms, about to carry her over the threshold. They're waiting for BUDDY's cue. BUDDY (O.C.) And, three, two, one... Now! 99. Jimmy walks in through the doorway with Judy in his arms. Buddy is exuberant. He hums the bridal march, badly, as they come in. BUDDY (O.C.) All right! Look at the happy couple coming into their new home. (wedding march) Da, da, da, dum... Buddy looks down at the camera, right into the lens. BUDDY How do you turn this thing off? After a beat, camera goes off. EXT. RODNEY'S WUNDERLAND - PARTY AND BARBECUE - SALLY'S SPOT - DAY Jimmy is filming SALLY, a very sexy and very stoned 18 year old girl wearing sunglasses and cowboy hat. She speaks with a heavy southern accent. SALLY Just give your love to Uncle Rodney and you'll get it back ten times. Don't be afraid to love him and you'll learn to love yourself in return. He'll teach you the cycle, how we're all connected. If you give yourself freely and completely to him, you'll have nothing to worry about. That's what I did. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: EXT. RODNEY'S WUNDERLAND - PARTY AND BARBECUE - SAM'S SPOT - DAY Jimmy is filming Random Teens at a barbecue. Jimmy is interviewing SAM, a long greasy haired, nineteen year old wearing a heavy metal T-shirt. We see people partying and hanging out in the background. SAM is drinking beer from a can, smoking a cigarette, and looks like he hasn't showered for a couple of days. He's happy to be Jimmy's video subject. 100. SAM Ya'll are going to love it here man. See this? Sam motions behind him at the people partying. SAM This shit goes on every day. I been here for six months man and I love it. Thank God my parents kicked me out... All you got do is listen to Uncle Rodney and you'll have the best fucking time of your life. Oh, yeah. (big dopey grin) And don't fuck with him, 'cuz he'll kick your ass! Sam laughs at his own dumb joke. Jimmy shuts off the camera. CAMERA ON: EXT. RODNEY'S WUNDERLAND - DOE RUN CREEK - DAY Jimmy films a naked Judy swimming in the river the reflections of the water obscuring her body. She's free, cleansed, relaxed, enjoying the sun, and having the time of her life. She suddenly notices the camera. JUDY Jimmy, come swimming. The water's warm. JIMMY (O.C.) Is it? Judy smiles, then slips her head under the water, coming back up with a smile. She looks up at him. JUDY Come on. JIMMY (O.C.) Later. I just want to look at you now. JUDY Why? Jimmy thinks. She smiles an oh so sweet smile. 101. JIMMY (O.C.) Because you look happy, happier than you've looked in a long time. Judy smiles even wider. She floats towards camera while Jimmy zooms in on her smiling face. As she comes closer... SHE SPLASHES towards the camera, trying to get Jimmy wet. Camera shakes as Jimmy hops up to avoid be splashed. JIMMY (O.C.) Hey! Judy LAUGHS. Camera goes off. CAMERA ON: INT. RODNEY'S WUNDERLAND - JIMMY & JUDY'S TRAILER - NIGHT Faint moonlight comes into the trailer from outside. Jimmy is filming Judy as she's just gotten into bed. She sees the camera's on. JUDY Hey again. JIMMY (O.C.) So you like it here? Judy smiles again. Then... JUDY How long will they let us stay? JIMMY (O.C.) It's up to Uncle Rodney. Judy smiles at the thought of Rodney. JUDY What's he like? JIMMY (O.C.) I never met him. He's supposed to be cool, though... and weird. Weird as hell. JUDY Well if he's weird, he's great weird, whatever he is. (MORE) 102. JUDY (cont'd) If we could stay here forever, like Buddy said, I wouldn't need anything else. Judy's looking right over the lens into Jimmy's eyes. Then... JUDY The cops won't come will they? JIMMY (O.C.) Buddy said Rodney's cousin's the Sheriff or something. Do you want to meet him? JUDY (surprised) The Sheriff? JIMMY (O.C.) No! Rodney. JUDY (lights up) Can I? JIMMY (O.C.) I'm gonna see him tomorrow. Buddy says he wants to talk to me. Maybe he wants to talk to you too. JUDY He does? JIMMY (O.C.) I don't know. Buddy said he thought you were pretty. JUDY Oh my God! Judy puts her hand over her mouth. She can't believe it. JIMMY (O.C.) I told you you were. You're the prettiest girl in the world. Judy's on such a cloud nine high, she's almost in tears. She wraps her arms around him and SQUEALS with delight, pushing the camera into an awkward position as she smothers him with kisses, then squeezes him tight, like she's going to squeeze the life out of him. She whispers in his ear. 103. JUDY (whispers) I love you Jimmy. JIMMY Me too. Camera off. CAMERA ON: EXT. RODNEY'S WUNDERLAND - OUTSIDE RODNEY'S TRAILER - DAY Head to toe shot on Jimmy. Buddy, we'll find out in a second, is behind the camera. Jimmy looks at a trailer off screen. He's excited, a little off center and a little nervous. Buddy tries to film Jimmy as he's walking towards Rodney's trailer. BUDDY (O.C.) You nervous? JIMMY (lying) No. BUDDY (O.C.) I would be. JIMMY He's suppose to be cool. BUDDY (O.C.) He's more than cool man. God, you really don't have a clue do you? Jimmy stops for a second. JIMMY Um... Judy wants to meet him. I don't know if I can ask. BUDDY (O.C.) Shit man. Don't have to. She's one of his girls, man. She'll meet him. Jimmy stops in his tracks and looks at Buddy. JIMMY What the fuck does that mean? 104. BUDDY (O.C.) Relax dude... Just like you're one of his boys. Shit man, I'll give you two weeks and you'll WANT her to experience him. You may even want to, too. Jimmy looks at Buddy, not quite sure what to do with any of it. Buddy senses the tension. BUDDY (O.C.) Just go see him. Here, take your camera. Buddy extends the camera, lens forward. We can see Jimmy's puzzled look. BUDDY (O.C.) He wants you to film him, man. With the camera. He'll tell you when to turn it on, then you video. Jimmy's puzzled, but he reaches forward and takes the camera, shutting it down. CAMERA ON: INT. RODNEY'S WUNDERLAND - UNCLE RODNEY'S TRAILER - DAY Images of UNCLE RODNEY (50) going in and out of focus as he sits on the side of a king sized bed. Scars and tatoos litter his arms and neck. His eyes are bit maniacal like Charles Manson, but he's able to maintain a stoic, but nonetheless dangerous demeanor as Jimmy begins setting up the camera. Like a prison inmate or rabid dog, you get the feeling that Uncle Rodney could EXPLODE on you at any second. Jimmy moves the camera around the room so we briefly see the interior of the trailer. It's an ELABORATE triple combination of a middle eastern harem, sixties psychedelic motif, and white trash/junk-yard memorabilia. JUST OUT OF FRAME we hear a female voice crying softly, whimpering. The voice is close, in the room with us, but we can't see who's making the sounds. Uncle Rodney ignores it completely. Camera shakes, indicating that Jimmy is exceptionally nervous. 105. JIMMY (O.C.) Just one second. UNCLE RODNEY Take your time man. I want you to feel comfortable. More importantly, I want you to get this right. Finally, the camera stops shaking. Jimmy zooms out to a medium shot revealing that Uncle Rodney has HAZEL lying next to him on the bed with her head on his lap. Uncle Rodney gently strokes her hair like he's petting a dog. Hazel, in the midst of EXTREME withdrawals, cries and whimpers like a child, oblivious to Jimmy, the camera, and everything else in the world except for Uncle Rodney. She is so strung out and her cravings are so intense that she can barely speak. JIMMY (O.C.) I'm ready whenever you are. Uncle Rodney looks down upon Hazel. UNCLE RODNEY Just a second. I have to take care of my baby. Uncle Rodney admires his work. UNCLE RODNEY She's beautiful isn't she? HAZEL (begging, pleading) Please... Hazel, entrenched in a crystal methamphetamine psychotic episode, can only gasp in unintelligible spurts. UNCLE RODNEY Some people come here too far gone. Like Hazel here. The only thing I can do for her is ease her pain. Hazel rolls her body back and forth on the bed, all the while keeping her head in Uncle Rodney's lap. HAZEL Please... 106. UNCLE RODNEY (to Hazel) Shhhhh... How about a baby one? Uncle Rodney's tenderness in dealing with Hazel calms her. He's having way too much fun treating her like a baby. HAZEL Yes. Uncle Rodney takes his pinky and dips it into a small plastic bag of powder. He then places it to Hazel's nostril. She quickly snorts the tiny bit off his finger. UNCLE RODNEY (to Hazel) There you go... Hazel begins whimpering again. It wasn't nearly enough to satisfy her. UNCLE RODNEY There's something about addiction that brings out something beautiful in a person. Addiction is pure. Addiction reduces a person to an infant. And there's nothing more pure and beautiful in the world than an infant. He puts his finger to Hazel's nostril again, but this time, without any meth on the tip. She snorts with all of her might then starts crying. Uncle Rodney is toying with her. UNCLE RODNEY Hazel is no longer an adult. She's an infant and I'm the surrogate mother who provides her with much needed breast milk. It's a role that both of us have accepted and embrace. He leans over and grabs a syringe, already filled, then gently holds Hazel's arm and expertly injects the liquid into her vein. Nothing happens for several seconds. Hazel's breathing accelerates. Suddenly she sits up, her eyes go wide. Hazel clinches the bed as if she were riding a roller coaster. 107. UNCLE RODNEY (proudly) That's my girl! Then, she makes eye contact with Jimmy. A curious, frightened look comes over her face. Clearly, she recognizes him. She suddenly JUMPS from the bed and runs out of the room. UNCLE RODNEY She's a little jumpy. Uncle Rodney smiles, amusing himself with his own joke. UNCLE RODNEY Let's begin shall we? And please... I'm going to use this tape for my fans, so let's try to get this right. JIMMY (O.C.) OK. UNCLE RODNEY I apologize if any of this frightens you or makes you uncomfortable. JIMMY (O.C.) I'll be fine. UNCLE RODNEY No. You won't be fine. What I'm going to teach you will be frightening. The truth is an acquired taste but once you get to it, it's all you'll ever want. Uncle Rodney starts in on his mantra. It's obvious that he's well versed in his meandering rant. UNCLE RODNEY Those kids out there... we, the so called "undesirables" - you and me, we know the truth. You know that society doesn't want you, your parents don't want you, corporate America sure as fuck doesn't want you... You wouldn't be here otherwise. (MORE) 108. UNCLE RODNEY (cont'd) If this government had a choice, they'd gas us all in a heartbeat, exterminate us like the Jews, enslave us like niggers, cuz don't kid yourself, WE ARE the new niggers in this country. No one respects us... No one sees what we have to offer... No one has compassion for us.... They don't care, or they're too naive to see that we're a by-product of a wasteful society that has failed to educate, embrace, influence, or inspire any of us. We're societal garbage. The counter culture no longer exists. It's dead... It's been replaced by us-- Long pause. UNCLE RODNEY The garbage culture... thrown aside, imprisoned, institutionalized, systematically abused, executed, and enlisted into wars started by government ass- fuckers just to kill us off. JUST TO KILL US OFF. And every week one of you shows up here, disillusioned, addicted, angry, pissed 'cuz they tossed you aside... into the garbage. Every time someone like you shows up here the garbage culture gets a little bit stronger and they get a little bit weaker. Until the "them" and the "they" of this country run out of places to put us, to put its garbage, and the garbage OVER-FLOWS into their cities from out of the confines of the spaces that they have set aside for us. A pause, then... UNCLE RODNEY (biblical) And we will SET FIRE to their world! And we will burn it, until a living HELL REIGNS over what was their former world, and we will fornicate in their ashes! Rodney stops, almost out of breath. 109. UNCLE RODNEY That's what's here for you. That's what's here... Rodney settles himself down and takes a few deep breaths as Jimmy begins zooming out. Uncle Rodney lights a cigarette to calm himself. Jimmy keeps filming, not knowing whether Rodney is finished or just taking a break. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: EXT. RODNEY'S WUNDERLAND - FIRE PIT - NIGHT Someone (Buddy) is filming a raging party consisting of a lot of strung out young white trash junkies just like the ones Jimmy was interviewing before. It's certainly a weird bunch. They all look alike, dress similar, and have the same type of crystal methamphetamine induced facial expressions. Most of them are smoking weed and drinking forty ounce beers while dancing around a campfire and playing the bongo drums. They all seem to be having more fun than anyone should be allowed. Camera pans to Jimmy, so we realize that he's not filming. Our best guess would be that it's Buddy who's filming. Jimmy screams at the camera over the noise of the Bongo drums. JIMMY Where's Judy? Buddy's hand comes into frame as he points by the fire pit. We now see Jimmy see Judy. She dances fervently drinking a forty surrounded by tons of other drunk, happily intoxicated teenagers. Say what you might about the attendees to the event, this party is a FUCKING RAGER and Judy is happy to be the center of everyone's attention. Everyone dances faster and faster as the rhythm of drums beat faster and become more intense. It's an all out jam session. Jimmy heads to the center of the circle of people dancing around Judy. Camera follows him with a zoom as he does. JUMP CUT 110. Who knows how much later. Minutes or hours, the party rages forward. The camera spins around. The party has reached a new level of drunken absurdity. Most of those who are dancing are drunk, stoned or both. In the background, while it's too dark and hectic see anything explicit, some of the teenagers are engaged in a variety of sexual activity. Some have threesomes. Some are probably having oral sex. Still others dance around them in the foreground. Camera zooms in on Uncle Rodney. Standing just behind him, we see of flash of someone recognizable. It's a skinny woman, she looks vaguely familiar, but it's hard to get a fix with all the craziness going on. She turns her head to look over at Rodney. Now we can clearly see that this person is... HAZEL - with her eyes wide and clearly in the height of rolling on crank. AND she's saying something to Uncle Rodney that's definitely pissing him off. Bodies wipe the frame. JUMP CUT Moments later. Camera catches Judy who hasn't missed a step along the way to being a high, drunken mess. The rhythm of the drum beats is ever present. Uncle Rodney comes up behind her and wraps his arms around her shoulder, saying something to her, but we can't hear it over the noise. Jimmy approaches and they start talking. Jimmy doesn't notice, but there are about four or five of the kids, especially a couple of Rodney's Bigger Guys standing not too far behind Uncle Rodney watching the conversation intensely. It's really difficult to put your finger on it exactly, but something doesn't seem right here. Uncle Rodney lets go of Judy and puts his arm around Jimmy. With the noise of the drums and the fact that we're zoomed in from a distance, we can't hear anything they're saying. 111. Now Uncle Rodney and Jimmy are having a conversation as they move towards the camera. Though Jimmy can't see it, we can see that Rodney's Bigger Guys, the ones that were standing behind Uncle Rodney are now pushing Judy along behind Jimmy and Rodney. Though Uncle Rodney seems to be having a very light and friendly conversation with Jimmy, we continue to get the feeling that something ominous is afoot. Finally, they approach camera and we can hear them. UNCLE RODNEY I'm so glad you guys came down here. We never would have guessed you'd come and see us. JIMMY You've been awesome. Judy loves it here. Uncle Rodney's got Jimmy in an incredibly friendly one armed side hug. UNCLE RODNEY I knew she would. By the way. Rodney's face drops. UNCLE RODNEY I know what you did to Dinko. This hits Jimmy like a lead weight. Before he can react at all, and before he realizes that anything is happening, Jimmy is suddenly thrown into a headlock by Uncle Rodney. Off camera, something similar is happening to Judy. JUDY (O.C.) (screaming) What the fuck are you doing?! Jimmy, Jimmy! Judy screams his name over and over. JUDY Jimmy! Jimmy! BUDDY (O.C.) (laughing) Shut it, bitch! SMACK! Judy's been hit by Buddy off screen. 112. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: EXT. RODNEY'S WUNDERLAND - DARK WOODS - NIGHT We hear intense struggling and laughter. By the sounds we hear, we gather that Jimmy and Judy are being dragged off into the woods against their will by Buddy and Rodney's Bigger Guys, but it's too dark to tell if that is what in fact is happening. Someone unidentified is running the show and operates the camera. It's impossible to see, but it's definitely Buddy's voice. BUDDY (O.C.) Here, here, here. Right here. Judy is screaming and crying. JUDY (O.C.) Jimmy! JIMMY (O.C.) Judy? Two or three guys, it's too dark to tell, start laughing. JUDY (O.C.) (screams) Please somebody help us! Jimmy grunts, trying to break free. JIMMY Judy! RODNEY'S BIG GUY #1 (O.C.) Shut up, asshole! You wanna fucking talk! MUNCH. Somewhere in the darkness Jimmy's been kicked in the gut. The camera hits the ground. It lands right in front of Jimmy. We can still barely see what's going on, but we're close enough and there's enough flashes of light from flashlights to see that Jimmy is face down and bloody. JIMMY (defiant) Fuck you! 113. Jimmy gets kicked again just once. Then suddenly, a barrage of kicks come at Jimmy one after the other after the other. Leaves and grass and dirt and flying feet shoot at Jimmy's face as he is kicked and beaten repeatedly. The process goes on for about thirty excruciating seconds. We can't tell how much damage has been sustained, but Jimmy's not moving. He's either unconscious or dead. With one last kick, the camera is knocked aside and we don't see Jimmy's face anymore. RODNEY'S BIG GUY #1 (O.C.) Is he fucking dead? JUDY (O.C.) Jimmy! Jimmy say something! They mock her in a high pitched wining voice. BUDDY (O.C.) (mocking) Jimmy. Jimmy say something. RODNEY'S BIG GUY #2 (O.C.) Get her clothes off. JUDY (O.C.) (screaming) Noooooo! Noooooo! Judy screams at the top of her lungs over and over again as we hear them tearing at her clothes. Then they pick her up and start pulling her away from camera. Her screams get quieter and quieter... fainter and fainter. JUDY (O.C.) (extremely faint) Jimmy! Finally there's silence. The camera isn't moving. It's on the ground and in the dark. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: EXT. RODNEY'S WUNDERLAND - PARKING AREA - DINKO'S CAR - NIGHT It's completely pitch black dark. We can see nothing. We can only hear the sound of Jimmy fumbling around and breathing heavily and nervously. 114. BEGIN NITE SHOT Suddenly, we see everything, albeit in a weird black and white grainy fashion. Jimmy's flipped the camera into Nite Shot, using the fuzzy black and white mode as a tool to see in the complete darkness. He's strapped the camera to his wrist. The image is Jimmy's POV as he searches through his trunk for something. Pulling aside a duffle bag, we see the 9mm pistol that Jimmy stole from the Cop. He grabs it as camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: I/E. RODNEY'S WUNDERLAND - FIRE PIT/OUTSIDE RODNEY'S TRAIER/INSIDE RODNEYS TRAILER/PARKING AREA/DINKO'S CAR - NIGHT By the fire pit, the site where the teenage drunken of orgy took place, the bonfire has been put out and there are dozens of drunken/passed out teenagers lying on the ground in sleeping bags and in tents. Jimmy begins looking for Judy with his night vision camera. He sees a girl lying on the ground in a sleeping bag with her back turned to the camera. Her hair is identical to Judy's, but we can't see her face. Jimmy quietly steps over passed out teenagers, being extremely careful not to awaken anyone. Jimmy accidently kicks a forty ounce beer bottle that causes a loud clanking sound of glass on glass. Jimmy stops in his tracks in anticipation of someone waking up. No one does. Jimmy continues to walk towards the GIRL WHO LOOKS LIKE JUDY. Kneeling directly in front of her, Jimmy puts his hands on her shoulder and pulls the girl's front region towards the camera. The girl flips over. It's not Judy. And luckily, the girl is so severely intoxicated that she doesn't wake up. Jimmy now makes his way over to a tent. He quietly unzips the mesh entrance and extends his arm out to video tape the inside. Turns out, the person in the tent is just another passed out flunky loser. Jimmy quickly takes his arm out of the tent. 115. Jimmy gives it one last go and continues to look for Judy among the sea of passed out bodies lying on the ground. No luck. Jimmy's not too far from Uncle Rodney's trailer. He decides to make his way up. He walks, using his Nite Shot to see, through the sea of bodies until he gets up to the entrance... OUTSIDE RODNEY'S TRAILER There's a cracked glass door leaning up against the woodpile by the entrance. Jimmy steps around it, turning the lens at the glass. He briefly catches his reflection. He looks like hell warmed over, freshly bruised and cut from the recent beating. Moving forward, Jimmy makes it to the front door of Uncle Rodney's trailer. We hear music coming from inside. Very slowly and very carefully, Jimmy cracks the front door. INSIDE RODNEY'S TRAILER It's even darker inside of the trailer, but Jimmy presses forward in spite of that fact, still using his Nite Shot to see. A boom box sits by the bed, still on, playing music. Jimmy is scared shitless. In the corner of the room, in a make shift bunk, is Uncle Rodney sleeping with his arms wrapped around a girl in a spooning position. There's no doubt this time. It's definitely JUDY! They are both sound asleep and actually look very cozy lying together. Jimmy slowly walks over towards them. Each step is slower and slower, being extra careful not to wake them. Once Jimmy is within arm's length of the two of them he stops. He hesitates for a moment. He hasn't prepared himself for this particular situation and doesn't know exactly what to do. He continues filming them until he finally musters the courage to extend his non-filming arm out to tap Judy on the face. Judy remains unconscious/sleeping as Jimmy gently taps the side of her cheek. Jimmy slowly begins tapping harder and harder until the tap evolves into a poke. Still nothing. 116. THWACK! An arm comes out of nowhere and grabs Jimmy's poking hand. Jimmy has woken up Uncle Rodney! The camera shakes out of control. Uncle Rodney screams at the top of his lungs: UNCLE RODNEY Who the fuck...! Intense and furious wrestling ensues as Uncle Rodney flies out of frame then, in a split second: BAM! A gunshot goes off. We hear a Uncle Rodney collapse, followed by more gun shots. The camera has fallen from Jimmy's hand and dangles by the wrist strap. Camera comes to rest on... UNCLE RODNEY'S BLOODY FACE Jimmy's shot and killed him. Outside, footsteps hit the deck. Buddy opens the door of the trailer. BUDDY Hey! BAM, BAM, BAM! Three more rounds are fired, hitting Buddy square in the chest, knocking him down. Jimmy points the camera at a dead Buddy on his back then whip pans it back to Judy in the bed. Finally we hear Jimmy speak. JIMMY (O.C.) Judy, Judy, wake up. Fucking wake up! Outside we hear voices of some of Rodney's Other Teens. Jimmy acts fast. Judy has been drugged and is mostly unconscious and groggy, but Jimmy picks her up and gets her on her feet, shouldering her out the door. Shot continues to... OUTSIDE RODNEY'S TRAILER We hear faint voices... 117. RODNEY'S BIG GUY #3 (faint) Hey! Hey! A DISTANT GUNSHOT FIRES, but we can't see what is going on. It's too dark and the camera is too shaky as they go to... PARKING AREA Another DISTANT SHOT, then Jimmy gasps in pain. He's been shot, but decides to run, trying to carry a groggy Judy anyway. Their car is in sight as we hear guns going off and bullets whizzing by them. One hits Dinko's car. Jimmy opens the door, then places the passed out Judy and the camera in the passenger seat, climbs over her, throwing the camera into Judy's lap. We see him scramble to get the key in the ignition as we hear a BULLET HIT the driver's door. The car starts, and Jimmy throws it into gear, flooring the gas as he speeds away. JIMMY Judy? Judy? Nothing. JIMMY Judy wake up. Jimmy's voice begins to crack as he talks to/tries to wake up Judy. JIMMY (O.C.) Are you all right baby? Please wake up Judy. Judy? We don't know if Judy is dead or alive. Jimmy swerves to avoid something in the road sending the camera to the floor as camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: INT. ROAD TO BORDER MOTEL - CHEAP MOTEL ROOM - DAY Close on Judy. The afternoon light strikes a shadow across her face. Her hair's a mess. No makeup. JIMMY (O.C.) Judy, sweetie. Come on honey. I saw you waking up. 118. Judy's eyes flutter. JIMMY (O.C.) There ya go. Judy opens her eyes. She smiles when she sees Jimmy behind the lens. JUDY Hi, baby. JIMMY (O.C.) You okay? JUDY Am I with you? JIMMY (O.C.) You're with me. She smiles wider. JUDY Then I'm okay. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: I/E. HIGHWAY TO BORDER/DINKO'S CAR - NIGHT Judy's got the camera trained on herself. She talks like a child. JUDY Mexicooooooh.... Judy points the camera up at Jimmy. This is the first time we've seen him at all since he was beaten up by Uncle Rodney's group. He's a wreck. His face is puffy. His lip is cut up. His eye is swollen. He looks like a flyweight boxer who just went fifteen rounds with a heavyweight. He drives with one arm because the other one is in a bandage. JUDY (O.C.) Hey baby. Jimmy looks like a beaten man, both physically and emotionally. His bad ass attitude and rebellious charisma are seemingly non-existent. 119. For the first time, we are seeing Jimmy without his armor. He looks like any other 21 year old kid who is down, vulnerable, and confused. Not to mention the fact that he has a fucking bullet lodged in his shoulder. JUDY (O.C.) Baby? JIMMY Come on. Not the camera. JUDY (O.C.) Nooooo. It reminds me of when we first met. Just you, me, and the camera. God, do you remember how you used to freak me out? JIMMY Yeah, those were the good old days. How much money do we have? JUDY (O.C.) I don't know, why? JIMMY How do you feel about Canada? It's closer. JUDY (O.C.) Are we going together? Jimmy looks over at her. JIMMY I think I should take you home. Judy doesn't answer. JIMMY I could write you a letter. Or I could make a video saying I made you do everything. They'd believe you. You could tell them it was all my fault. You could tell them I was going to Mexico and I'd really go to Canada. Jimmy swallows. JIMMY We swore on the bond we'd never be apart... but... (MORE) 120. JIMMY (cont'd) I'll let you out of it... If you want to be out of it, I'll let you out. JUDY (O.C.) You're never leaving me, and I'm never leaving you. That's all there is to it. JIMMY Okay. Judy leans in and kisses him. JIMMY Owww. Judy comes back into the passenger seat and just films him. She likes looking at him through the lens. JUDY (O.C.) You're so handsome, you know that? Jimmy smiles as best he can with his face all messed up. Then his eyes get droopy and close. He's not responding. He's as punch drunk as you can get. JUDY (O.C.) Jimmy? Jimmy's obviously in a concussion induced daze. The car starts to drift. Judy drops the camera on the seat as we hear her leap forward to take control of the car. JUDY (O.C.) Jimmy! JIMMY (O.C.) (snaps to) What? JUDY (O.C.) Jimmy, stop the car. You're too fucked up to drive. JIMMY (O.C.) (groggy) Huh? Oh... okay. Camera shuts down. CAMERA ON: 121. I/E. HIGHWAY FINAL-SCENE/DINKO'S CAR - DAY Judy drives. There isn't much talking going on. JUDY You wanted to ask me something? JIMMY (O.C.) Do you love me? JUDY You know I do. JIMMY (O.C.) I do. The car drives. Judy just cruises along, music playing on the radio. Jimmy (O.C.) looks in the mirror but keeps the camera trained on her. JIMMY (O.C.) You know I love you, right? JUDY Yup. JIMMY (O.C.) Judy? JUDY Yes? JIMMY (O.C.) We're fucked. JUDY What do you mean? JIMMY (O.C.) Look in the rearview mirror. Judy looks up immediately. Her face drops. Jimmy flips the camera around out the back window. There's a Ohio State Trooper with its lights flashing tailing them. A lone trooper is on his radio. JIMMY (O.C.) That's it baby. We're done. Judy doesn't answer. She's short circuited. 122. JIMMY (O.C.) Just pull over. It's not worth it. Judy holds still for a second, not saying a word. The cop car CHIRPS its siren. Judy looks up. JIMMY (O.C.) Judy, what are you doing? You know this is... JUDY Don't do this. Judy looks up into the rearview mirror. Her eyes are welling up. She looks out the front windshield. Jimmy senses that she sees something. He flips the camera around through the front only to see a row of cop cars blocking the highway up ahead. He flips the camera back at her. JIMMY (O.C.) Judy? JUDY (freaks) Shut up! Judy looks straight ahead, determination on her face. She won't answer. Then... She turns the wheel hard to the right, almost carrying Jimmy into her, and takes the car onto a side road. JIMMY (O.C.) I love you. JUDY I love you too. Judy is on her own mission. JIMMY (O.C.) It's over. JUDY (soft) No. 123. JIMMY (O.C.) It is. JUDY No. The car stops short. Jimmy turns the camera to point out the windshield. They're stuck. The road has come to a dead end. JIMMY (O.C.) It's a dead end. Judy ignores Jimmy. She throws the car into reverse and tries to turn it around and head back the way she came. A faint sound of a helicopter fades up slowly from the background. JIMMY (O.C.) Do you hear that? Judy doesn't respond. She's determined. JUDY (lying) No. JIMMY (O.C.) Come on, it's over. I'll do what I said before. I'll tell them I made you do it. It'll be okay. JUDY No. I want us to be together. JIMMY (O.C.) (screams) Well we fucking can't, so pull the fuck over! JUDY Yes we can. I won't give you up. I won't let you go. No way. Jimmy pans the camera out the front windshield. In the distance, we catch sight of a road block that's been set up at the end of the dirt trail. They're screwed. There's nowhere to go. JIMMY (O.C.) Come on. Judy doesn't answer. 124. JIMMY (O.C.) Judy? She still doesn't answer. Then the car thrusts itself forward. JIMMY (O.C.) Judy! Stop it. Judy's got a look of determination in her eye. JIMMY (O.C.) Judy, what are you doing? Judy doesn't respond. O.C., she's murmuring something to herself that Jimmy can't hear or understand while she has the throttle to the floor as they barrel toward the roadblock. JIMMY (O.C.) Judy! Judy keeps going. Jimmy flips the back camera towards her. JIMMY (O.C.) Judy! Stop! Judy's murmurs grow louder. JIMMY (O.C.) Judy! Jimmy braces himself as the car continues toward the roadblock. Suddenly, Judy's murmurs get loud enough or us to hear. JUDY (murmurs) We'll be together. We'll be together. We'll be together. We'll be together... They head straight in between two cars that form the roadblock. Cops jump out of the way as the car hits head on into... THE ROADBLOCK Impact sends the camera flying against the windshield, CRACKING IT. 125. Sounds of metal twisting and glass shattering is all encompassing as the camera shakes in a violent frenzy! Camera settles on Judy's face, bloody, unconscious against the steering wheel, her neck snapped, eyes open in a death stare. Camera stays focussed on Judy for the longest time as she leans against the steering wheel. Music plays on the radio. It's JOHNNY CASH's cover of Tom Petty's "I won't Back Down". OVERHEAD SHOT of a news helicopter flying above the final scene. Looking down from above, we see what the helicopter sees: A scene of about twelve State Trooper cars, lights flashing, with Jimmy and Judy's car wrecked. Ambulances are there. Jimmy and Judy's lifeless bodies are pulled from their car as Johnny Cash's song shifts from background to score. The helicopter continues its circular pattern as the song continues and we... FADE TO BLACK. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_John Q.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_John Q.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b7ef74f48b5471f3297381bb0f4a7557e9a82154 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_John Q.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4559 @@ + + +ON BLACK: + +If I didn't have enough money, I'd be dead right now. + +- Carroll Shelby + +FADE IN: + +EXT. TWO-LANE HIGHWAY - DAY + +Mancini's "Ave Maria" fills the screen as a white BMW speeds along the road. + +CREDITS ROLL + +A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN is behind the wheel. We never see her face. Hanging from the mirror is a rosary with a crucifix. Her porcelain hand turns up the volume and the music swells. A silver bracelet dangles from her wrist. + +EXT. TWO-LANE HIGHWAY - CONTINUOUS + +A slow-moving semi obstructs her path. The woman leans out the window to see if the road is clear before moving into the oncoming lane. She steps on the gas. She's in the wrong lane and can't get over. There are headlights in the distance and the moan of an airhorn is heard. + +EXT. TWO-LANE HIGHWAY - CONTINUOUS + +Suddenly, the headlights are upon her. And airhorn blasts and she's trapped between two monstrous big rigs. She cuts the wheel hard, but too late. The oncoming truck clips her, sending her car end over end. + +SLO-MO + +The accident is violent and horrible. The BMW cartwheels along the highway in a grotesque ballet of destruction. The music crescendos and sparks fly as the car skids along the pavement on its roof. And as the BMW violently smashes headfirst into the embankment, the beautiful woman is slammed into the windshield like a crash-test dummy. + +EXT. MIDDLE AMERICAN TOWN - PRE-DAWN + +The indigo horizon shimmers with the first light of morning. Vapor spewing smokestacks dwarf brick and mortar homes. Dairy Queens, Hardee's, and Walmarts line the main drag. Stars and Stripes flutter from lampposts. + +INT. ARCHIBALD HOUSE - BEDROOM - MORNING + +A man sits propped up against pillows, his sleeping wife snuggled next to him. His name is JOHN QUINCY ARCHIBALD. His strong, handsome face is beginning to show wear and tear. From across the room, last night's news broadcast drones on the TV. The President is telling everybody how wonderful the country is doing. + +JOHN Q. watches impassively, the irony not lost on him. Suddenly, he hears a noise. Something's not right. He jumps out of bed, wearing only a pair of BVDs. + +WIFE +Honey, what is it? + +EXT. ARCHIBALD HOUSE - MORNING + +The screen door bangs open. John Q. bursts onto the porch to find a tow truck parked in front of his house. TWO TRUCKERS are winching a hook and cable to a ten year old Chevy. + +J.Q. +Hey, what the hell are you doing? + +TOW TRUCK DRIVER #1 + +What does it look like? + +J.Q. +Aw, come on. That's my car. + +TOW TRUCK DRIVER #1 + +Yeah? That's not what the bank says. + +The truckers quickly circle to the front and hop in. John Q. just watches as the truck speeds away, dragging the car along the cement. + +The neighbors now stand on their porches, staring. J.Q. turns to see his wife, DENISE, standing in the doorway. She's not a happy camper. + +Their nine year old son, MIKE, appears at his mother's side, wiping the sleep from his eyes. + +MIKE +What's going on? + +INT. ARCHIBALD HOUSE - KITCHEN - MORNING + +CLOSE ON a hand circling want-ads in red ink. J.Q. sits at the kitchen table drinking a half-filled cup of coffee, his eyes scouring the classifides. + +Denise enters, dressed in her brown and red supermarket cashier's uniform. Without speaking, she passes J.Q. and starts making breakfast. + +J.Q. +Sorry. + +Denise doesn't respond. A chill fills the air. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +I talked to the bank. They promised they'd work with me. + +DENISE +Okay. + +J.Q. +I did. + +DENISE +John, that was two months ago. + +J.Q. +We've got enough money for next month's rent. That's it. It was either the car or the house, so I thought... + +DENISE +You thought. + +J.Q. +What did you want me to do? Have us put out on the street? I'm down to twenty hours a week a the plant. They shipped off half the damn jobs down to Mexico. + +DENISE +My car is gone, John. + +J.Q. +You know I'm out there trying to find a second job. + +DENISE +What do you want me to say? That it's fine? Alright, it's fine. + +J.Q. +The car's still ours, Denise. We own it. All we have to do is wait two weeks until my check comes in. + +Mike enters dressed for school. He strikes a body builder's pose, flexing. + +MIKE +Yah! Ronnie Coleman, Mr. Olympics two years running. Yah! + +He moves to the bread box and grabs a donut. + +DENISE +Sit down, honey. Eat some breakfast. + +MIKE +(mouthful of food) +I am eating. + +J.Q. +A donut isn't breakfast. + +MIKE +Yeah it is. It's a continental breakfast. + +J.Q. +Yeah, well, you're not a continent right now. + +MIKE +Uh, Dad, what do you call North America? + +Denise sets down two plates of hot food. + +DENISE +Enough about that. You're not going to school without breakfast. Now eat. Both of you. + +Mike and John Q. wolf down their food three bites at a time. + +MIKE +I can't believe those jerks took our car, can you, Mom? + +Denise gives J.Q. the hairy eyeball. + +DENISE +No, I can't. + +MIKE +What are we going to do? You're not going to do something, right, Dad? You know what I'd do? I'd get so big and mad, I'd just go crazy and kick someone's butt. + +J.Q. +Watch your language. + +MIKE +I would. I swear. When I grow up I'll be so strong no one will ever take nothing from us. + +J.Q. +You've been watching too much of that W.W. wrestling. + +MIKE +Not wrestling, Dad. Body building. There's a big difference. + +DENISE +Alright, alright. Get your books. You're going to be late. + +Mike runs out of the room. Denise starts to clear the table. + +DENISE (CONT'D) +Give me a ride to work? + +J.Q. +Sure. + +J.Q. takes her arm. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +Baby, things will get better. I promise. I've just got to get a few paychecks ahead, that's all. + +INT. COMPUTER ROOM - SOMEWHERE IN AMERICA - NIGHT + +An amber light flashes through the darkness, followed by a rapid buzzing sound. The CAMERA PUSHES IN on a mammoth-sized printer, furiously pounding letters onto a fact sheet. We catch glimpses of peoples' names, hometowns, other vital information. Vernell Tilson, Des Moines. Arthur Friedlander, Jefferson City. Amy Podgorsky, Topeka. + +INT. JOHN Q.'S TRUCK - DAY + +John, Denise and Mike. Denise in the middle. John and Mike are playing Speedy Gonzalez. The object of the game is to pick something and then say it so fast it's almost indecipherable. Mike's got a good one. + +MIKE +Rdshxshn. + +J.Q. +Reddish Stick? + +MIKE +No. Rdshxshn. + +J.Q. +Radishes? + +MIKE +Rdshxshn. + +J.Q. +I swear to God, I'm hearing reddish stick. + +MIKE +It's a radio station. + +J.Q. +Oh, brother. You got me. + +It's Dad's turn. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +Ydugskew. + +MIKE Yogurt and stew? + +J.Q. +Yogurt and Stew? + +MIKE +Well, I don't know. Do it again. + +J.Q. +Ydugskew. + +MIKE +I give up. + +J.Q. +You're going to school. + +MIKE +Dad! + +J.Q. +Okay. One more. + +It's the longest one in history. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +Iplglgnstheflgvthntdstscvmrcndthrpblcfw chtstndsnntnndrgdndvsblewithlbrtyndjstc rll. + +Mike gives him a look. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +Pledge of allegiance. + +MIKE +Wow. That's a good one. How about you, Mom? + +DENISE +I don't want to play. You guys always make fun of me. + +MIKE +Come on, Mom. It's fun. + +J.Q. +Yeah, Mom. + +DENISE +Okay. + +Mom's not very good. You can always understand her clearly. + +DENISE (CONT'D) +Dashboard. + +The boys giggle. + +DENISE (CONT'D) +What? No good? Okay. Okay. Hold on. + +She tries to be tricky, but still it's clear as a bell. + +DENISE (CONT'D) +Antenna. + +The boys laugh at her. + +DENISE (CONT'D) +See. That's why I don't play. + +The car stops in front of the small, red brick elementary school. Kids everywhere. Mike kisses his mother goodbye. + +EXT. THOMAS EDISON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - DAY + +John walks Mike to the gate. Mike turns, serious. + +MIKE +Hey, Dad? I've got forty-six dollars I saved from my allowance. You can have it if you want. + +J.Q. +Yeah? + +MIKE +We're a family. We've got to stick together, right? + +John rubs his son's head. He's a good boy. + +J.Q. +Right. But you earned that money. You keep it. + +Mike runs toward the schoolhouse. + +MIKE +Okay. See you later! + +J.Q. +Goodbye. + +Mike turns around. + +MIKE +No, Dad. See you later. I hate goodbye. + +J.Q. +Okay, okay. See you later. + +Mike does the crab before running inside. + +MIKE +Flex Wheeler, 275 pounds. Two percent body fat. Yah! + +INT. NEIMAN MACHINERY PLANT - DAY + +Sparks. Fire. Goggles. Tires as tall as two-story buildings. John Q. and his best friend, JIMMY PALUMBO, work the assembly line. John holds a giant riveter. + +INT. NEIMAN MACHINERY PLANT - EMPLOYEE LOCKER ROOM - DAY + +Quitting time. Employees are showering, towling down, changing. John Q. is putting on a tie. + +JIMMY +What's the deal with the jacket? Who died? + +EXT. NEIMAN MACHINERY PLANT - DAY + +Cement and huge. Smoke billows from the stacks. John Q. and Jimmy make their way to their trucks. + +J.Q. +I've got a job interview at the machinery plant over in Otisville. + +JIMMY +What job? There are no jobs. + +J.Q. +I saw it in the paper. + +JIMMY +Forget it. + +J.Q. +I've got to go. Denise is going to kill me if I don't find something. They repo'd her car this morning. + +JIMMY +Oh, boy. You want me to go with you? + +INT. OTISVILLE MACHINERY PLANT - WAITING AREA - DAY + +The waiting room is packed. A lot of people needing work. John fills out the application. + +JIMMY +This is a waste of time. Four hundred people for one job. Give me a break. + +John keeps filling out his paperwork. + +JIMMY (CONT'D) +I'm telling you, somebody's son, cousin, uncle has already got this job sewn up. + +J.Q. +Jimmy, why do they put it in the paper if they're not hiring? + +JIMMY +They've got to put it in the paper to make it look good. State law or something. + +J.Q. +Give it a rest, will you? + +JIMMY +I'm just saying, it's the run around. Mark my words. It's either, 'We'll keep your application on file.' That's the kiss of death. Or they tell you that you're overqualified. Either way, you're screwed. + +A PERSONNEL MANAGER emerges from his office and reads from a clipboard. + +PERSONNEL MANAGER +John Archibald? + +INT. OTISVILLE MACHINERY PLANT - PERSONNEL OFFICE - DAY + +John Q. sits across the desk from the P.M. + +J.Q. +I've been working heavy machinery for fifteen years. I really want this job. Whatever you need, I can do. + +PERSONNEL MANAGER +I see. + +J.Q. +Hey, I could start today. + +John Q. laughs nervously as the P.M. reviews his application. + +PERSONNEL MANAGER +Your resume is very impressive. You've certainly got the experience. Frankly, you might be overqualified. + +John Q. gets the message. He pushes his chair back and starts to get up. + +INT. COMPUTER ROOM - SOMEWHERE IN AMERICA - NIGHT + +The daisy wheel buzzsaws across the page. WE SEE more names, columns, entitled STATUS, ENTRY DATE. Underneath the Entry Date heading, months and days appear: June 19, April 30. February 6. + +INT. ALL SAINTS CHURCH - DAY + +Sunday services. The congregation sings. In the third row, Mike elbows his Dad. + +MIKE +The game starts in fifteen minutes. We're gonna be late. + +J.Q. +I know. + +A few rows back, John sees Jimmy Palumbo tapping his watch. Denise gives her husband a disapproving look. John sticks his head back in the hymn book and continues singing. + +EXT. ALL SAINTS CHURCH - DAY + +The congregation pours out of the church and parishioners run to their cars. Denise stops to talk to the PASTOR. + +MIKE +Dad! + +John moves over to Denise and the Pastor. + +J.Q. +Sorry, Reverend. No time for saving souls today. Big game. + +PASTOR +Have you been saying your prayers like we talked about? + +J.Q. +Does praying for a job count? + +PASTOR +Work on him, will you, Denise? + +DENISE +He's hopeless. + +PASTOR +No one's hopeless. Good luck! + +The Pastor waves as John grabs Denise by the hand and they run to the truck and hop in. In the parking lot, kids put on their uniforms, men and women change out of their Sunday best. Cars, vans, pick-ups, "dualies" take off, tires spinning, everybody whooping and hollering. + +EXT. BASEBALL FIELD - DAY + +It's a tailgate party. Parents lugging ice chests, making sandwiches, barbecuing. In the bleachers, John, Denise, Jimmy Palumbo, and his wife, GINA, cheer on the home team. The wives are really loud. + +DENISE +Let's go, Orioles! + +GINA +Pitcher's got a rubber arm! + +The Dodger pitcher stretches, fires a fastball. The batter takes the pitch. + +UMPIRE +Ball four! + +Tommy trots down to first base. + +JIMMY +Way to go, Tommy. Good eye. Walk's as good as a hit. + +Mike steps to the plate. Family and friends cheer wildly. + +GINA +Yeah, Mike! Drive him home, baby! You can do it! + +DENISE +Hey, pitcher! Hey, pitcher! + +The pitcher smokes one down the middle. Mike swings. Nothing but air. + +J.Q. +That's okay, Mikey. Put the bat on the ball. + +The pitcher burns one on the outside corner. + +UMPIRE +Strike two! + +DENISE +Hey, ump, you're blind! I hate this pitcher. How old is he, anyway? + +GINA +He's supposed to be twelve. + +JIMMY +Twelve, my ass. Look at him. His beard just grew an inch between pitches! + +J.Q. +Don't let him rattle you, Mikey. Wait for your pitch. + +The catcher flashes fingers. The pitcher nods and fires. Mike hits a sharp ground ball between first and second. The second baseman moves over but doesn't have the angle. + +The first baseman charges the ball, scoops it on the run, then underhands it to the Dodger pitcher, who gallops off the mound towards first. + +Mike's foot hits the bag at exactly the same time the ball plops in the pitcher's outstretched glove. + +FIRST BASE UMP +SAAAAAAAAFFFEEE! + +DODGER PITCHER +No way! He was out! + +FIRST BASE UMP +Tie goes to the runner, son. + +As the Dodger pitcher argues with the umpire, the Oriole player on third base darts towards home. The Dodger pitcher wheels around and fires. Too late, the runner scores. + +HOME PLATE UMP +Saaaaaffee! + +Seeing an opening, Mike races from first to second, arms pumping, breathing hard. The Dodger shortstop sees Mike, races to the base and calls for the throw. + +DODGER SHORTSTOP +Second base! + +The Dodger catcher throws off his mask and fires the ball. + +CLOSE ON MIKE, slowing, suddenly clutching his chest, gulping for air, ten feet from the base. SMACK. The ball lands in the shortstop's glove. + +Mike wobbles, doubles over and falls face first into the dirt. The Dodger shortstop stands over Mike. He can't decide if he should tag him. Players, spectators look on dazed, shocked. + +ANGLE - BLEACHERS + +PUSH IN ON J.Q.'s FACE, panicked. TRACK HIM leaping down the bleachers, knocking over spectators, racing onto the playing field. + +J.Q. +Mike! Jesus God. + +He lifts Mike's head, holds it in his hands. Denise arrives, hysterical. + +DENISE +Mike?! Mikey, can you hear me? + +Mike is semi-conscious, eyes dilated, barely breathing. + +JIMMY +Somebody call an ambulance. + +J.Q. +I'm not waiting for an ambulance. + +J.Q. lifts Mike into his arms and races with Denise through the crowd towards the parking lot. Denise gets in the pick up and John lays Mike down in her lap before gunning the engine and taking off. + +EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY + +J.Q.'s pick up speeds along a super highway, blurring past rural pastures, farmland and cornfields. Up ahead, the oppressive skyscrapers of the city. + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - DAY + +A monolithic maze of glass and stone. John's truck screeches to a stop at the E.R. entrance. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - DAY + +It's standing room only. Bodies everywhere. Doctors and nurses move purposefully through the suffering masses. Mike in his arms, J.Q. and Denise run double-time through the crowded corridors. + +J.Q. +Help! My son can't breathe! I need help here! Can somebody please... + +A male nurse, LEO MAGUIRE, leaves what he's doing and moves towards them. He clutches Mike's wrist, taking his pulse. + +MAGUIRE +What happened? + +J.Q. +I don't know. He had a baseball game. All of a sudden he... + +Maguire passes a female nurse in the hallway. + +MAGUIRE +I need a doctor right away. Room 6. + +INT. RESUSCITATION ROOM - DAY + +Maguire helps J.Q. lower Mike onto an examination table, and immediately several emergency technicians start applying the resuscitation equipment. Their movements are swift and precise. A blood pressure cuff is wrapped around Mike's arm, an oxymeter to the tip of his finger, and sensors are stuck all over his chest. + +The E.R. doctor is MARJORIE KLEIN, early 30's. Klein is all business, assessing Mike's condition. + +MAGUIRE +Pulse is 150. B.P. 68 over 34. Collapsed playing baseball. + +J.Q. notices Maguire glancing worriedly at Klein. + +J.Q. +He was running. Next thing we know he keels over. + +DR. KLEIN +Anything like this ever happen before? + +J.Q. +Never. No, ma'am. Never. + +MAGUIRE +Pulse is seventy-eight percent. + +DR. KLEIN +Let's get him on some oxygen. + +Maguire reaches for the Oxygen tank, lays the mask over Mike's nose, turns the screw. As Mike inhales the hissing air, Klein turns Mike on his side, probes his lung and lower back areas. + +J.Q. +He's going to be alright, isn't he? + +DR. KLEIN +The lungs are wet and his liver feels enlarged. Five mil I.V. Digoxin, stat. + +Maguire moves to the counter, finds an I.V. needle, fills it with Digoxin. + +DENISE +What's the matter with him? + +Just then, another R.N. charges in. Klein "eyes" the nurse who immediately picks up on the look. + +R.N. +Mr. and Mrs. Archibald, would you come with me? + +J.Q. +What? + +R.N. +He's in good hands. Please, there's a few procedures we need to go over. + +J.Q. +What kind of procedures? + +The R.N. gently takes J.Q.'s elbow. J.Q. pushes her hand away. + +R.N. +We're going to be admitting your son, sir. You'll need to fill out the proper forms. + +DENISE +For godsakes, can't the forms wait? + +John and Denise watch helplessly as Maguire stabs an I.V. needle into Mike's vein. + +R.N. +Please, Mr. and Mrs. Archibald. It's possible your son may need a transfusion. We'll need to test you both for blood types. + +The R.N. edges them out as SWOOSH, the divider curtain is pulled shut. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - DAY + +J.Q. and Denise are escorted by the R.N. to the admitting desk. Arms bent, fists clenched, they're pressing sterilized gauze pads to their inner elbow joints. + +ADMITTING NURSE +First name, Mr. Archibald? + +J.Q. +John. + +The admitting nurse's fingers glide over the computer keyboard, inputting all vital info. + +ADMITTING NURSE +Middle initial? + +J.Q. +Q. Quincy. + +ADMITTING NURSE +And the name of your insurance company? + +JIMMY (O.S.) +John! + +J.Q. spins and sees Jimmy and Gina rushing through the E.R. doors. + +GINA +Where is he, is he okay? + +J.Q. +I don't know. They're running tests. We're waiting to find out. + +GINA +What can we do? + +Gina throws her arms around Denise, consoling her. + +ADMITTING NURSE +Your card, Mr. Archibald? + +J.Q. +Huh? + +ADMITTING NURSE +Your insurance card. I'll need to make a copy for our files. + +J.Q. pulls out his wallet, fumbles for his card, hands it to the admitting nurse. INT. PEDIATRIC I.C.U. - DAY + +J.Q. and Denise walk past rows of quiet, glassed-in rooms full of patients and life-support machines. They enter Mike's room to find REGGIE, a twenty-four year old nurse, hooking Mike up to the high monitor above the bed. + +Mike is lying supine, awake but groggy, hooked up to a heart monitor, IV drips, hideous plastic tubes up his nose, down his throat, on full inotropic support. Denise leans over, kisses Mike. + +DENISE +Hi, sweetheart. + +J.Q. +Hey, slugger, how are you doing? + +Mike smiles weakly, struggles to speak, points to the tubes. + +MIKE +I can't...talk. + +J.Q. +Relax, buddy. Get some rest. + +Mike closes his eyes. He's really out of it. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +I love you, kid. + +Denise reacts to all the flashing numbers on the monitors. + +DENISE +What's all this? + +REGGIE +This is so we can monitor Mike's vitals. Respiratory rate. Pulse oximetry. Heart rate. And this one is blood pressure. Diastolic and systolic. + +Reggie points to a bank of monitors. In the middle is a flashing number 88. + +REGGIE (CONT'D) +We'd like this top number to stay above ninety, but between eighty-five and ninety is acceptable for now. Anything less than eighty is dangerous. If his blood pressure drops, we're going to have to do something. We can't have him going below seventy again. + +DENISE +What would that mean? + +REGGIE +Seventy and below, he's in heart failure. + +Reggie exits. J.Q. and Denise watch the blood pressure monitor, holding steady at 88. Plink. Suddenly, the number drops a notch to 87. + +INT. COMPUTER ROOM - SOMEWHERE IN AMERICA - NIGHT + +Growing. Names multiplaying. Jones, Baker, Azbirjari, Hererra. The daisy wheel pounds incessantly. + +INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - CARDIO-THORACIC DEPT. - DAY + +Eight members Hope Memorial Hospital's administrative staff are seated at a long conference table. Among them are DR. RAYMOND TURNER, mid-40's, REBECCA PAYNE, Hope Memorial Hospital's Administrative Supervisor, and Dr. Marjorie Klein. + +PAYNE +The father works part-time. Mother's a cashier in a supermarket. + +DR. KLEIN +how's the family's insurance? + +She shakes her head - "we've got a problem." Payne sees J.Q. and Denise enter and she is immediately on her feet. + +PAYNE +Ah, Mr. and Mrs. Archibald. Rebecca Payne, hospital director. This is Doctor Turner, head of our cardiology department. + +J.Q. +How's our boy doing? + +PAYNE +Please sit down. + +John and Denise sit, and the lights are dimmed. Dr. Turner approaches an illuminated display of X-rays. He uses a pointer to clarify. + +DR. TURNER +This X-ray is that of a normal, nine year old heart. This one is your son's. + +John Q. and Denise stare nervously at the fleshy fist-sized organs on the translucent glass. + +DR. TURNER (CONT'D) +There are septal defects here, here, and here, which have induced a myopathy resulting pulmonary edema, and malignant ventricular ectopy. As you can see, Mike's heart is approximately three times normal size. + +He points to Mike's heart, huge in comparison. + +J.Q. +I'm sorry. I don't understand. Could you pout that in layman's terms? + +DR. TURNER +Of course. Basically, there's not enough blood being pumped by the heart, so it backs up in the lungs. Sort of like a sponge getting wet. Mike's heart is trying, but I'm afraid it's working too hard. + +J.Q. +So what's he need? An operation? + +Turner gathers himself, takes off his glasses. + +DR. TURNER +I'm afraid we're considerably beyond the point of corrective surgery, Mr. and Mrs. Archibald. Your son's heart is useless. He is going to need a transplant. + +The room goes silent. + +DENISE +He's nine. + +PAYNE +Wait a second. There are other options. + +J.Q. +What options? + +PAYNE +To do nothing. Medicate him. Keep him as comfortable as possible. You need to start thinking about quality of life now. + +DENISE +I don't understand. We were just with him. He seemed fine. + +DR. TURNER +He's going to seem fine. But as his heart gets worse, he will become increasingly fatigued, need more and more sleep, until one day, he'll go to sleep and he won't wake up. + +PAYNE +I know it's difficult, but you must face the fact that your son may not have much time left. You might want to make it a happy time. Say goodbye. + +DENISE +Oh my God. + +PAYNE +And transplantation is a high risk operation. You could lose your son on the table. You may not want to take that chance. + +J.Q. +What do you think, Dr. Turner? + +DR. TURNER +This isn't my decision. + +J.Q. +I know that. I'm asking for your opinion. Without surgery, how long does he have? + +DR. TURNER +Not long. Months. Weeks. Days. + +This is too much for Denise. She breaks into tears. John puts his arms around her, steadies her, gathers his thoughts. + +J.Q. +What would you do if it was your son? + +PAYNE +Mr. Archibald... + +J.Q. +Not you. Him. + +DR. TURNER +I'd do the transplant. Absolutely. + +J.Q. looks at Denise, who nods. + +J.Q. +Okay. Let's do it. + +DR. TURNER +The first step is to get Mike's name on an organ recipient list. Once he does, his chances are very good. Your son's an extremely rare type so there's less demand. With B-positive blood, Mike could go to the top of the list right away. + +PAYNE +It's not that simple. There are other considerations before a prospective recipient is placed on the donor list, Mr. Archibald. The cost of transplant surgery is expensive. In most cases, prohibitively so. + +J.Q. +I've got major medical. Don't worry, I'm covered. + +PAYNE +Actually, we've already checked with your carrier. There's no provision in your policy for a procedure of this magnitude. + +J.Q. +There must be some kind of mistake. My son is covered. I've got full medical. He's covered. + +PAYNE +What about you, Mrs. Archibald? Do you have coverage? + +DENISE +No. I've only been working at the market a short time. You need to be there two years before you get benefits. + +Payne flips through the Archibald family file. + +PAYNE +I see that you don't own your own home. No investments, stocks, bonds. And you have a little over one thousand in savings. + +J.Q. +Did you hear what I said? I'm telling you, I'm insured. + +PAYNE +That may very well be, but you'll have to check with your carrier on that. In the meantime, I'm afraid we're going to have to treat you as a cash account. + +DENISE +How much does a transplant cost? + +PAYNE +Transplant surgery, doctor fees, post operative treatment and immunosuppressant drugs, you're looking at two-hundred and fifty-thousand dollars minimum. + +J.Q. +What are you saying? If I don't come up with a quarter million dollars you're not going to treat my son? + +PAYNE +We have treated him. We continue to treat him. Now I understand how upset you are, sir. But with other options available, we are not obligated to cover a procedure this costly. If you opt for replacement surgery, that's your choice. But the hospital maintains a very strict policy with respect to cash patients. We require a down payment before the patient's name can be placed on the receiver list. + +DENISE +What kind of down payment? + +PAYNE +Thirty percent. Seventy-five thousand. + +J.Q. Seventy-five thousand dollars to put my kid's name on a list? + +DENISE +Our son is upstairs dying and all you can talk about is money? + +PAYNE +Yes, it takes money to provide health service. It's expensive for you and for us. My job is to keep this program alive. For everyone. Now, I'm sorry, but we need you to guarantee payment before we can place your son's name on the list. + +INT. HALLWAY - CARDIO-THORACIC DEPT. - DAY + +J.Q. and Denise move down the hallway towards the elevators. + +DR. KLEIN (O.S.) +Mr. and Mrs. Archibald? + +They turn. + +J.Q. +You don't want to treat my kid? Fine. I'll take him over to County Memorial. + +DR. KLEIN +Trust me. You don't want to do that. + +J.Q. +I don't, huh? Watch me. It's a county hospital. They have to treat him. + +DR. KLEIN +No they don't. Transplantation is always considered an elective procedure. This hospital's politics are particularly infuriating, but you're in the right place. Believe me. You want Dr. Turner. His bedside manner is terrible, but he's one of the foremost surgeons in the country. + +J.Q. +What do you want us to do? You heard Payne. We're a cash account. + +DR. KLEIN +I know it's outrageous, but don't give up. Talk to your insurance company. Check with our Human Resources Department for medical assistance, State Children's Services, Medicaid. Just don't take no for an answer. + +INT. NEIMAN MACHINERY PLANT - EMPLOYEE SERVICE OFFICE - DAY + +John sits in a cubicle across from his employer's insurance representative. + +INSURANCE REP. +You coverage has changed, Mr. Archibald. + +J.Q. +Changed? + +INSURANCE REP. +We've recently switched carriers from a PPO to an HMO. It's a less expensive policy, but unfortunately it has some restrictions. + +J.Q. +What kind of restrictions? + +INSURANCE REP. +This is how it works. Non-management, part-time employees such as yourself only qualify for second tier catastrophic coverage. + +J.Q. +But I'm not part-time. I'm a full-time employee. It's just slow right now. + +INSURANCE REP. +Sure. But your coverage is based on house worked. Like I said, you only qualify for second tier, and that has a maximum payout limit of twenty-thousand dollars. + +J.Q. +Wait a minute. I've been paying for my coverage for years. You take it out of my paycheck every week. + +INSURANCE REP. +And that's why we're going to cover you for the full twenty. + +J.Q. +Let me get this straight. You drop me from full-time to part-time, switch carriers, and now you're telling me I'm not fully covered even though I have a policy that says I am. + +INSURANCE REP. +Doesn't seem right, does it? + +J.Q. +No, sir. It doesn't. My son is very sick. If I'm not covered, I've got a serious problem. + +INSURANCE REP. +I understand that, but there's nothing I can do. You might want to try State Services. Either that, or you can file an appeal. + +J.Q. +Yeah? + +The insurance rep pushes a stack of papers towards J.Q. + +INSURANCE REP. +Here are the forms. It'll take about seven working days. + +INT. STATE SERVICES - DAY + +J.Q. and Denise at a window counter, talking to a STATE EMPLOYEE, who only knows what's on the computer screen in front of her. + +STATE REP +Says here you already have medical insurance. + +J.Q. +Not enough. + +DENISE +What little we have is already used up. + +STATE REP +I understand that. But then you don't qualify. We only give assistance to patients without coverage. Are you on Welfare? + +J.Q. +No. + +STATE REP +You should be on Welfare. + +DENISE +Welfare? We both have jobs. + +STATE REP +Oh, that's too bad. Sorry, I can't help you. Try MA. + +INT. COUNTY MEDICAL ASSISTANCE - DAY + +A county worker flips through J.Q.'s paperwork. + +COUNTY EMPLOYEE +It says here your son's condition is congenital. + +J.Q. +Yeah? + +COUNTY EMPLOYEE +Not congenitive. + +J.Q. +So what? What's the difference? + +COUNTY EMPLOYEE +Big difference. It means it's a pre existing condition, one your son was born with. A birth defect. Obviously, it pre-dates your coverage. Otherwise we could help. + +J.Q. +That's impossible. He's had clean check ups every year. + +COUNTY EMPLOYEE +I don't know what to tell you. It's right here in the report. Have you tried Medicaid? + +INT. MEDICAID OFFICES - DAY + +Another state run facility. Another employee. Another excuse. + +MEDICAID OFFICER +No. + +J.Q. +No, what? + +MEDICAID OFFICER +You don't qualify. + +J.Q. +Don't qualify? I've got a kid who's dying and I'm broke. If I don't qualify, who does? + +MEDICAID OFFICER +Lower your voice, sir. + +J.Q. +I mean, what do you guys do, anyway? Why does this service even exist? + +MEDICAID OFFICER +I'm sorry. + +J.Q. +I don't need you to be sorry. I need some help. + +INT. COMPUTER ROOM - SOMEWHERE IN AMERICA - NIGHT + +We see more of the list this time. Boldfaced columns appear: HOSPITAL/CENTER, CROSS MATCH, WEIGHT RANGE, BLOOD TYPE. + +Vernell Tilson, Des Moines, Metropolitan Hospital, Entry Date: Feb. 5, 215-240 lbs. Type "O". Status 2. Arthur Friedlander, Jefferson City, St. Joseph's Medical Center, Entry Date: April 30, 160-175 lbs. Type "O". Status 2. Mike Archibald... + +INT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - ELEVATOR - DAY + +John Q. takes the trip down with Rebecca Payne. + +PAYNE +No, no, no. You filed an appeal? An appeal is for an already existing claim. What you needed to file was a grievance. You'll have to resubmit. But that could take up to thirty days. + +J.Q. +I don't have thirty days. + +PAYNE +I know that. + +J.Q. +And, frankly, I'm tired of getting the runaround. I need my son's name on that list. + +PAYNE +Mr. Archibald, your hospital bill is in excess of thirty thousand dollars. So far, we haven't received any kind of payment. We have bent over backward to help you. + +J.Q. +Oh, is that right? + +PAYNE +Yes, sir, that is right. But there is a limit to this hospital's generosity. Once and for all, you are not covered by insurance. We will need to guarantee payment. + +J.Q. +You want money? Alright, I'll get you your money. + +INT. ARCHIBALD HOUSE - DAY + +John selling everything. Television, washer, dryer, sofa. Strangers walk through the house and make offers. Jimmy Palumbo shakes his head. + +JIMMY +You know what you should do? You should try that newsguy that does all those special investigative reports. You know the one. The guy with the hair. + +J.Q. +Yeah, yeah. + +JIMMY +The trouble shooter. Channel eight. What's his name? + +A woman offers twenty dollars for the coffee table. J.Q. takes it, pocketing the money. + +JIMMY (CONT'D) +Lampley. Tuck Lampley. + +INT. MAKE-UP ROOM - STUDIO CHANNEL 8 - DAY + +TUCK LAMPLEY, 38, with plastic hair, sits at his desk, his lunch spread all over the table. + +LAMPLEY +Tuck Lampley. Hope you don't mind if I eat while we talk. I'm up to here today, you know? Go, go, go. + +J.Q. +No, that's fine. Thanks for seeing us. + +LAMPLEY +So, what can I do you for? + +J.Q. +My son, Mike, went into heart failure playing in his little league game. I have full insurance through my work, but now they're saying they don't have to pay. + +LAMPLEY +Why not? + +JIMMY +Lots of reasons. He don't even understand half of them. + +LAMPLEY +What about the hospital? + +J.Q. +Hope Memorial Hospital. + +LAMPLEY +Yeah, Hope Memorial. Don't they have to cover it? + +JIMMY +Right, right? That's what I thought. + +J.Q. +No. The hospital says I have to pay cash. Otherwise the only thing I can do is bring Mike home and watch him die. + +LAMPLEY +Jesus. + +J.Q. +Yeah. + +Lampley is already working on the story in his head, putting all the pieces in the right place. + +LAMPLEY +Bureaucracy of the medical establishment, American family caught in the middle. + +JIMMY +Right. Big guy versus little guy. We were thinking you could do one of them special interest pieces, you know? Send donations, write your congressman. That kind of thing. + +J.Q. +Anything would help. + +LAMPLEY +What they've done to your son is outrageous, and I want to help. But I've got to run it by my producers. I've got bosses, just like anyone else. So, leave me your phone number, and I'll get back to you. + +EXT. ARCHIBALD HOUSE - DAY + +The fire sale continues. The Archibald refrigerator is carried out the front door. + +EXT. ALL SAINTS CHURCH - DAY + +After Sunday services, The pastor hands John and envelope of collection money, and the congregation wishes him luck. + +INT. MIKE'S ICU ROOM - NIGHT + +Mike is sitting up in bed. He's pale, but he's in a good mood, joking around with his he-man poses. John and Denise react to something funny he says, and the three of them are laughing. John looks at the monitor. It now reads 86. + +INT. DINER - DAY + +John, Jimmy and Gina go door to door, soliciting donations. + +INT. MIKE'S ICU ROOM - NIGHT + +J.Q. reads to Mike from a book. Mike's eyes close and John smiles as he falls asleep. As John closes the book, something catches his eye. At the far end of the ICU, a man in a coal black suit stands over a boy in a hospital bed. He is the HOSPITAL CHAPLAIN, and he is performing last rites. The boy's distraught parents hang on to each other for comfort. The chaplain kisses the crucifix, touches it to the boy's forehead, and begins to pray. + +John and Denise exchange a look. The chaplain whispers incantations and he makes the sign of the cross over the dying child. Plink. John and Denise turn. The monitor now reads 84. + +INT. ILLINOIS TRUST - DAY + +John and Denise are refused for a loan. + +INT. ROYAL GOLD & JEWELRY - DAY + +Tight on a diamond ring through a lapidary's eyeglass. There are two gold wedding rings on the counter. The jeweler nods his head, and John takes the cash. + +INT. MIKE'S ICU ROOM - NIGHT + +Mike, oxygen tubes in his nostrils, is fast asleep, the monitors chirping quietly. Denise sits by Mike's bed, hands clasped and head bowed, praying hard. John Q. walks in, catches the anxiety on her face, before seeing the cause. The monitor now reads 80. + +EXT. ARCHIBALD HOUSE - DAY + +John selling the truck. A prospective buyer inspects as J.Q. waits. He'll take it. J.Q. takes the money, drops the keys in the buyer's hand, and watches his truck drive away. + +From inside the house, the phone rings. J.Q. hurries inside to get it. + +INT. ARCHIBALD HOUSE - DAY + +INTERCUT + +It's empty. Furniture, appliances, everything's gone. Just a few boxes. John picks up the ringing phone. + +J.Q. +Hey, sweetheart. How's Mike? + +DENISE +They're releasing him. + +J.Q. +What? + +DENISE +Dr. Turner just left. They're sending Mike home in the morning. + +J.Q. +What are you talking about? They can't just send him home. I gave them money yesterday. + +DENISE +It doesn't matter. They're releasing him. + +J.Q. +But I spoke to the hospital. I took care of... + +DENISE +Yeah, you always take care of it. But it's never enough, is it? You need to do something, John. Do you hear me? Do something. + +INT. ARCHIBALD HOUSE - MIKE'S BEDROOM - DAY + +John stands in Mike's bedroom, looking at his son's things. Each thing with a memory. The pictures. The toys. The body builder posters. He picks up a photo of John, Denise, and a seven-year old Mike clowning around. Better days. + +PUSH IN ON + +J.Q.'s face, thinking, thinking. + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - MORNING + +J.Q. steps off a city bus carrying a gym bag. Windbreaker buttoned, baseball cap pulled down tight, he moves with purpose toward the hospital. + +INT. EMERGENCY WAITING ROOM - MORNING + +The broken, battered and bloodied sit on chairs waiting to be seen. + +A BABY BOY wails in the arms of his Hispanic mother, ROSA. MIRIAM, 28, hugely pregnant, sits next to her husband, STEVE, a contractor, dressed in paint-stained coveralls. LESTER, 23, a blood-soaked towel wrapped around his hand. + +MITCH, 30's, black jeans, shades, and a huge hangover, sits with his arm around his girlfriend, JULIE, a platinum bombshell. She's hurting. Her face is cut, her eyes swollen. DEBBY UTLEY, a young, sensitive nurse sits behind the admitting desk. + +MITCH +What's going on? Are we going to get seen or what? + +DEBBY +The doctor will be with you shortly, sir. + +MITCH Shortly? Shortly we could all be dead. We've been waiting damn near an hour. + +The electric doors slide open and J.Q. enters and looks around before moving quickly through and disappearing into the main hospital entrance. + +INT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - CORRIDORS - MORNING + +J.Q. moves through the corridors intently, a man on a mission. Dr. Turner escorts a wheelchair to the hospital exit. In a wheelchair is a middle-aged man, dressed in designer casuals, a Rolex wrapped around his wrist. His name is CARROLL SHELBY, and he is a transplant patient. One of the lucky recipients. His elegantly dressed WIFE walks alongside. + +DR. TURNER +You're doing great, Carroll. You've already gained back five pounds. I think you're the only patient I have who actually eats the food here. + +SHELBY'S WIFE +Thanks for everything, doctor. + +J.Q. approaches the group. His face reveals nothing. + +DR. TURNER +Hello, John. This is Mr. Archibald. His son's a patient of mine. + +SHELBY'S WIFE +Well, you're certainly in good hands. + +J.Q. forces a smile. The Shelbys say goodbye before leaving. + +J.Q. +Denise said you're letting Mike go home. + +DR. TURNER +Mr. Archibald, I'm a physician. I don't make policy decisions. That's handled by the board of trustees. + +J.Q. +You're head of Cardiac Surgery, Doctor. You're telling me a person in your position makes a recommendation, no one's going to listen? + +DR. TURNER +I make recommendations all the time. The final decision rests with the board. Not me. + +J.Q. wags a Hope Memorial brochure at Turner. + +J.Q. +You and your staff did over three hundred operations last year. It's right here on page 4 of the hospital brochure. Nice color pictures, happy faces. Three hundred plus surgeries at a quarter million a pop. That's seventy five million dollars your department took in. Couldn't you do just one on good faith? + +DR. TURNER +Please take your hands off me. + +J.Q. +I'm not asking for charity, Doc. I'll pay. I don't know how, but I swear to God, if it takes me the rest of my life, I will. You have my word as a man. + +DR. TURNER +I'm sorry. I tried to help. But it's out of my hands. + +Something in J.Q. snaps. Heart pounding, he pushes Turner through a pair of heavy metal doors and into the Emergency Room. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - MORNING + +J.Q. shoves Turner inside, pulls out a Baretta .9mm, points it at Turner's head. + +J.Q. +I'm not asking anymore, Doctor. I'm telling. Now I want a new heart for my kid. You understand? + +J.Q. drops the gym bag on the floor, unzips it, pulls out a length of heavy chain. Quickly, he wraps the chain around the power bar, threads a lock and clamps it shut. Turner marches over to a phone and picks it up. J.Q. sticks the weapon in his face. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +Don't even think about it. + +Turner hangs up the phone. + +SECURITY GUARD +Hey, what are you doing? + +J.Q. sees the stocky SECURITY GUARD, trains the gun on him. + +J.Q. +Hands over your head. Do it. + +The security guard nervously raises his hands above his head. This part wasn't covered in his training manual. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +Give me your gun. + +SECURITY GUARD +I, uh, don't have a gun. + +J.Q. reacts awkwardly, wasn't expecting this response. + +J.Q. +Okay. Then sit down. And stay down. + +The guard obediently drops into a chair. + +DR. TURNER +Mr. Archibald, I understand how upset you are, but this is not the right way to handle it. + +J.Q. +I tried your way, Doc. It didn't work. Now we're going to try it my way. + +In one of the treatment rooms, Dr. Marjorie Klein and Leo Maguire attend to a man in motorcycle leathers with a bloodied head wound. They watch J.Q. lock the ambulance entrance. + +DR. KLEIN +Mr. Archibald. What are you doing? + +J.Q. +I took your advice, Doctor. I'm not taking no for an answer. + +Several patients and medical personnel see the gun and bolt out the front door. With Turner still in tow, J.Q. hurries to the ER entrance, pulls more chains from his gym bag and secures both doors. Turning back, he sees Lester at the admitting desk arguing with Debby Utley. A clipboard with medical information forms sits in front of him. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +What's going on here? + +Lester removes the blood soaked towel. The tips of three fingers have been severed from his right hand. + +LESTER +They want me to sign. + +The pen. The hand. It's not going to work. + +DR. TURNER +Mr. Archibald, these people have nothing to do with this. You have got to let them go. They need treatment. + +J.Q. +This is a hospital, isn't it? You're a doctor. Treat them. + +J.Q. points to Lester. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +Start with him. + +Turner stands frozen. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +What's the matter, Doc? You want to see his insurance card first? + +J.Q. stands on a table addressing the room. A madman with a gun. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +This hospital is under new management, ladies and gentlemen. From now on, free care for everyone. + +Various reactions from the people in the room. + +LESTER +Far out. + +J.Q. points to the security guard. + +J.Q. +You. Come with me. + +J.Q. leads the security guard to the elevators. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +Kill the power. + +SECURITY GUARD +I don't have a key for that. + +J.Q. +You've got the keys to the city. Now do it. + +Decision time. Finally the guard inserts an Allen wrench into the lock and kills the power. J.Q. takes a crowbar from his bag and jimmies the elevator control box, busting fuses and yanking wires. The elevator looks sick. It's not going anywhere. + +J.Q. looks around and sees a snake-eye security camera bolted to the ceiling. + +INT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - SECURITY DESK - DAY + +A skinny, pimple-faced KID with a big chrome badge sits in front of a dozen closed circuit monitors. On one, a man in a baseball cap is now bashing the camera with a crowbar. Ssss! A blizzard of white snow crackles on the monitor. Confused, the pimply faced kid picks up the phone. + +PIMPLY FACED SECURITY GUARD +Uh. This is the security desk at Hope Memorial Hospital. I think you guys better get down here. We may have a situation. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - DAY + +J.Q. paces next to the windows, sizing up the room. Nearby, the Hispanic baby wails. + +J.Q. +Everybody does exactly what I say and nobody gets hurt. + +He looks around the room, everybody battered, bloodied, and bruised. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +...more hurt. + +INT. CONTROL ROOM - CHANNEL 8 - DAY + +FREDDY B., a superbright techie-geek, pokes his head into an office where Tuck Lampley is having a meeting with his BOSSES. + +FREDDY B. +This just came in over the police radio. Someone is holding Hope Memorial hostage. + +Realizing, Lampley stares at the TV executives. + +TV EXEC +Hope Memorial Hospital? Isn't that...? + +Lampley is already up and on the move. + +LAMPLEY +Is it a good enough story for you now, George? + +FREDDY B. +Do you think it's that guy with the kid, boss? + +LAMPLEY +What do you think? + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - DAY + +Maguire leads Lester back to the treatment area. Lester hands him a baggie filled with three-severed fingertips. + +LESTER Don't lose my fingers, man. Had them fingers my whole life. + +MITCH +(under breath; to Julie) +We were here before that guy. + +J.Q. +You'll get your turn. Nobody's going anywhere for a while. + +J.Q. glances at the admitting desk and sees the chair move. He lifts his weapon and moves towards it. He jumps around the corner of the desk to find Debby Utley underneath, scared to death. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +I'm going to have to ask you to join the others, Miss. + +The sound of a screaming baby is cutting through the room like nails on a blackboard. J.Q. approaches Rosa, who clutches her child defensively. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +What's the problem? + +Rosa shakes her head. She doesn't speak much English. + +ROSA +Yo no se que pasa. El llora por toda la noche. + +J.Q. +Yo pienso que tiene dolor en su oreja. + +ROSA +Si? En su oido? + +J.Q. +Porque lo toca. Mira. + +The baby's tiny fingers reach for his ear. J.Q. singles out Debby Utley. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +This kid's got an ear infection. You. + +With J.Q.'s finger pointed at her, Debby falls apart, bursting into tears. + +DEBBY +I can't. + +J.Q. +Why not? + +DEBBY +I don't know anything. It's my first. + +J.Q. gives her a look. "Oh, Jesus." + +MAGUIRE +I got it. Give him this. + +Maguire hands a bottle of gooey pink Amoxycillin to Debby. + +MITCH +Unbelievable. This place is a joke. Good think I'm not cut. I'd bleed to death in this joint. Am I right, my man? + +Mitch tries to engage J.Q. with a wink and a big flashy smile. J.Q. ignores him. + +MITCH (CONT'D) +Excuse me? Hey, brother? + +Mitch. They crying baby. The tension. It's all getting to J.Q. + +MITCH (CONT'D) +My girlfriend's in a lot of pain here. How much longer before she sees a doctor? + +Mitch gets up and tries to approach J.Q. + +J.Q. Sit down. + +MITCH +That's cool. You and me ain't got no problems. You know what I'm saying? But do me a favor, huh? Baby's pretty banged up, and we've been waiting for hours. + +J.Q. I told you once already. Sit tight. + +MITCH +That's what we've been doing. + +J.Q. shoots Mitch a look before moving to Miriam and Steve. + +J.Q. +When is the baby due? + +MIRIAM +Any minute. + +Oh, boy. J.Q. rubs his head. What else? CLANK. CLANK. The sound of the automatic doors banging against the chain is heard. + +J.Q. +What's that? + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - ER ENTRANCE - DAY + +A red & white ambulance is parked outside. THREE PARAMEDICS are pushing against the locked doors, pounding on the glass. J.Q. runs from the treatment area, sees a body laying on a stretcher. + +PARAMEDIC #1 +Open up. Got a gunshot victim here. Lost a lot of blood. + +J.Q. +Take him to another hospital. + +PARAMEDIC #2 +He won't make it. Come on. We're losing him. Open the door. + +J.Q. +(to Maguire) +You recognize these guys? + +MAGUIRE +Yeah, they're here all the time. + +Paramedics #2 and #3 are wearing blue jackets, blue pants, cordovan, cushion-soled shoes. Paramedic #1 wears the same blue jacket and pants, but his shoes are black, with leather soles. + +J.Q. +That one's a cop. + +MAGUIRE +I was here when you brought in your son. Remember me? I shot straight with you then. I'm shooting straight with you now. I'm telling you, these guys are cool. + +J.Q. studies Maguire's eyes, measures his honesty, and then unchains the door and opens it, pointing the weapon. The paramedics see J.Q.'s gun and their hands go up. + +J.Q. +You, open your coat. + +PARAMEDIC #1 +What? + +J.Q. +You heard me. Take the coat off. Cop. + +Paramedic #1 takes off his coat. There's nothing underneath. He's not police. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +Alright, then. Leave the stretcher. Go. Beat it. + +The paramedics back away and take off. Maguire rolls the stretcher inside, and J.Q. re-locks the doors. + +MAN ON STRETCHER +(name's STAWITZKY) +I gave them all the money in the register. They shot me anyway. + +J.Q. peels back a corner of the blanket, looks for weapons, recoils at the sight of the man's blood. Maguire moves in, squeezes the man's wrist, takes his pulse. + +MAGUIRE +We need to prep this man for immediate surgery. He's in boo-koo trouble. Doctor? + +DR. TURNER +No, no. This is out of my department. I'm a heart surgeon. I'm not an emergency room physician. + +MAGUIRE +You are now. + +J.Q. +Come on, Doctor. It's like riding a bike. Pretend you're getting paid. + +Turner and J.Q. lock eyes. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +Do it. + +DR. TURNER +Seventy-five milligrams Demerol IV Lidocaine, local. Two percent. + +Turner takes the man's pulse as they roll the stretcher towards the trauma room. J.Q. watches the anesthesia cup placed over the man's nose and he goes down for the count. Mitch fires a look at the stocky security guard. + +MITCH +When I get out of here, I'm suing this hospital and your security company. + +Unseen by Mitch, J.Q. has moved behind him. + +J.Q. +What makes you so sure you're getting out of here at all? + +Mitch sits back down. J.Q. leans against a wall, takes a breath. Suddenly, he hears the woop-woop of police sirens. He looks out the window and sees police cars storming the front of the hospital. The cavalry has arrived. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +Here we go. + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - DAY + +The summer sun beats down as cop cars careen into the parking lot. Behind them, an unmarked Crown Victoria plows slowly through a growing crowd. LIEUTENANT FRANK GRIMES bails out before the car stops, smoothing out the wrinkles in his rumpled suit. He reacts with surprise when he sees veteran, on-the-spot news reporter, Tuck Lampley, already on the scene with his camera crew. + +GRIMES +What are you doing here, Lampley? Shouldn't you be out exposing tragic miscarriages or justice or something? + +LAMPLEY +Yeah, well, screw you, too. + +Grimes pushes past, but Lampley dogs him. + +LAMPLEY (CONT'D) +There's a rumor floating around, Frank. Some guy's holding the hospital hostage. Needs an operation for his kid. Any truth to it? + +GRIMES +You know more than I do. + +LAMPLEY +You're full of shit. + +GRIMES +Hey, then we're even. I never believe a word you guys say either. + +LAMPLEY +This is big, isn't it, Frank? I can feel it. Come on, what do you got? + +GRIMES +Zip. Nothing. Read my lips. I just got here. But I promise, as soon as I know anything, you'll be the last to know. + +LAMPLEY +Hey, Grimes. You're a real horse's ass. You know that? + +GRIMES +Yeah, well... + +Grimes chuckles as he moves past the police barricade, sizing up his territory. He runs into swat team SERGEANT TIM MOODY, already on the scene. Moody's accompanied by the pimply faced security guard who phoned it in. + +MOODY +This guy's in for the long haul, Lieutenant. He locked down the ER, barricaded himself inside, killed the power on the elevators. We could bust down the door, but the sonofabitch might start killing everybody. + +GRIMES +Any other way in? + +MOODY +I'm working on it. + +GRIMES +How many hostages? + +MOODY +Security guard here said there could be anywhere from ten to twenty. + +GRIMES +Any security cameras? + +PIMPLY FACED SECURITY GUARD +The guy took out the one in the ER, sir. But the hospital has two covert pinpoints hidden inside the treatment facility. + +GRIMES +Pinpoint cameras? I don't understand. + +PIMPLY FACED SECURITY GUARD +The hospital's own private security. Every hospital has them, in case a mental patient goes crazy or an employee starts stealing pharmaceuticals. + +MOODY +They're hidden in the walls throughout the hospital. There's two inside the ER area. + +GRIMES +Can we get them? + +MOODY +We're setting up a video tap right now. Should be up and running in a few minutes. + +Grimes looks at the pimply-faced kid. + +GRIMES +Are you in charge of security? + +PIMPLY FACED SECURITY GUARD +No, sir. That'd be Wally Pitoniak. He's at home. It's his day off. + +GRIMES +Not anymore it ain't. Get him down here. +(to Moody) +I need to make contact with this guy. Can you get me a secure line? + +PIMPLY FACED SECURITY GUARD +Lieutenant? One of our guys is on the inside. He's got a walkie-talk. You might want to give this a shot. + +The kid hands Grimes his walkie-talkie. + +GRIMES +Alright, but put a clamp on all phone lines to the Emergency Room. If he picks up the phone, I want him talking to me. + +MOODY +Got it. + +Grimes looks around, sees more news vans arriving. + +GRIMES +And keep the media on a need to know basis. Until I say so, the press doesn't need to know nothing. Now who's in charge of this hospital? + +PIMPLY FACED SECURITY GUARD +Rebecca Payne, sir. She's off today, too. + +GRIMES +Jesus Christ. Does anyone work at this hospital? + +PIMPLY FACED SECURITY GUARD +It's Saturday. + +GRIMES +So what? People get sick on Saturday, don't they? + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - DAY + +J.Q. watches the police build-up outside. Rosa is holding her baby, who is quieter now, not crying. + +J.Q. +How old is he? Cuantos anos? + +ROSA +Ocho meses. Eight month. + +J.Q. nods. Memories. + +J.Q. +Eight months. Great age. + +Dr. Klein approaches J.Q. with Miriam. + +DR. KLEIN +I'll need to do an internal examination on this woman. + +J.Q. +Go. + +J.Q. sees Steve, the woman's husband, picking at his fingernails, anxious. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +Why'd you come to an ER? Why not go right to Maternity? + +STEVE +Miriam went into labor early. Her water broke, we called our doctor, got the service. + +MITCH +Excuse me, but I think my fiancee broke her arm. Could somebody take a look at her, please? + +J.Q. moves over to Julie, regards her black eye, her swollen face. + +MITCH (CONT'D) +She's fine, ain't she? All that and twenty-two years old. Little slice of heaven. Must be doing something right, am I right? + +J.Q. looks at Mitch. Is this guy for real? + +J.Q. +(to Julie) +What's your story? + +MITCH +Car accident. What does it look like? + +J.Q. +I was talking to her. + +JULIE +A drunk ran a red light and slammed into us. It was an accident. + +A muffled voice suddenly squawks on the security guard's walkie-talkie. + +GRIMES (O.S.) +Hello? Hello? Anyone there? + +J.Q. grabs the guard's walkie-talkie, presses TALK. + +J.Q. +Yeah. + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - COMMAND POST - DAY + +INTERCUT + +The police have cordoned off a section of the parking lot and transformed it into a command post. Police personnel invade the area. Tables, phones, and monitors are being set up. + +GRIMES +This is Lieutenant Frank Grimes of the Chicago Police Department. Are you the man in charge? + +J.Q. +That's right. + +GRIMES +Who am I speaking to? + +J.Q. pauses. + +GRIMES (CONT'D) +Come on, my friend. We're going to be doing a lot of talking today. You don't have to give me your real name, but I've got to call you something. + +J.Q. +Call me John Q. + +GRIMES +Alright, John Q. Again, my name is Lieutenant Grimes. But I want you to call me Frank. Can you do that? + +J.Q. +Sure, Frank. + +GRIMES +I'm the hostage negotiator. I've been a cop for thirty-five years and this is all I do. I don't play games. And I don't fool around. So if I say something, you can take it to the bank. Now, let's get down to it. Is anybody hurt? + +J.Q. +It's an Emergency Room, Frank. Everybody's hurt. + +Frank smiles. This guy's a comedian. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +They're fine. + +GRIMES +Good. As long as it stays that way, we can keep talking. + +Grimes walks along the perimeter of the police barricade. A crowd of lookie-loos is starting to gather. + +GRIMES (CONT'D) +Murphy's Law, John. You picked the hottest day of the year. It's a hundred degrees out here. And I'm allergic to the heat. So let's wrap this up as quickly as possible. Now, what exactly is it you want? + +J.Q. +Find Rebecca Payne, Hope Memorial's Administrative Supervisor. Tell her I want my kid's name on the donor list. + +GRIMES +Kid? Boy or girl? + +J.Q. +Boy. + +GRIMES +How old? You know, I've got two boys. Two girls and two boys. + +J.Q. +Don't handle me, Frank. I don't want to be handled. It insults my intelligence. If I don't get what I want, you're going to have a lot of dead bodies on your hands. You only need to remember two things. My kid and the donor list. You got that? + +GRIMES +Take it easy, John. The idea's not to get too excited. + +J.Q. +Mike's name goes on that list or there's going to be a blood bath in here. + +GRIMES +Alright. I hear you loud and clear. Rebecca Payne, right? I'm writing it down. Lot of cops out here, John. Are you sure you want to go through with this? + +J.Q. +I'm sure. + +GRIMES +Alright. Sit tight. You're in a tough spot, John. A lot of trouble. But if you work with me, if you're reasonable, we'll figure a way out of this. We have to have a little faith in one another. + +J.Q. +Why? + +GRIMES +Why? Because that's what faith's all about. Believing when you don't want to believe. Besides, what else are you going to do? + +J.Q. +Just tell Payne. Donor list. She'll understand. EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - COMMAND POST - DAY + +The line goes dead. + +GRIMES +Alright, what the hell is a donor list? + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - DAY + +J.Q. paces the floor. It's slower now. Everyone just sitting around, waiting to see what will happen. Debby has pulled herself together for the time being. She calls out to John. + +DEBBY +Mr. Q? Would you really do it? + +J.Q. +What? + +DEBBY +What you said about the bloodbath? Would you really shoot us? + +J.Q. +I'll do what I have to do to help my kid. + +MITCH +Aw, bullshit. He can't shoot us all. There's only eight bullets in that weapon. + +J.Q. +First one's got your name on it, Mitch. + +Mitch mumbles and kicks his feet up, sparking a cigarette. J.Q. keeps pacing back and forth, and Steve is still picking them fingernails. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +First child? + +STEVE +Yes, sir. You know how it is, kind of nervous. + +J.Q. nods, understands. + +J.Q. +What are you hoping for? Boy or girl? + +STEVE +Miriam wants a baby girl. Doesn't matter to me, as long as the baby's healthy. + +Steve stops short. Realizing his faux pas. + +STEVE (CONT'D) +I'm sorry. I didn't meant -- + +J.Q. shakes it off: "Not to worry." John notices Julie, her arm now in a sling, not broken. + +J.Q. +Who was driving? +(off Julie's look) +The car. + +MITCH +I was. What's that got to do with it? + +J.Q. +How come she got all banged up and you didn't? + +MITCH +What do you call this? + +Mitch pulls back his hair, shows off his wounds. Surface scratches on his arms and around his neck and face. + +LESTER +Somebody get this man a band-aid. + +MITCH +Shut up, smart ass. It hurts. + +JULIE +His airbag went off. Mine didn't. + +J.Q. +What kind of car do you drive there, hot shot? + +MITCH +Mercedes 500. + +J.Q. +A Benz, huh? + +MITCH +Sixteen valve. One point six liter. It does about a hundred and eighty in reverse. + +J.Q. +Wow. Pretty snazzy. What year? + +MITCH +1986. It's a classic. + +The other hostages study J.Q. Where is he going with this? + +J.Q. +Yeah, well, I've got news for you, Mitch. Mercedes didn't install passenger airbags until 1988. + +A long uncomfortable silence ensues as the group looks at Mitch, realizing the obvious. Busted. + +MITCH +I was drunk. Alright? + +Tears stream down Julie's proud face, for the first time, Mitch is speechless. He looks like a car that won't start. Finally, he gets up and walks away. + +LESTER +Well, well, well. My man, Mitch. Mister girlfriend beater. What do you got to say now, bitch? + +Maguire and Turner enter. Maguire's got a big smile on his face. + +J.Q. +How's Stawitzky? + +DR. TURNER +He's going to make it. + +J.Q. +How's it feel, Doc? Saving a life? Feels pretty good, doesn't it? + +INT. MIKE'S ICU ROOM - DAY + +CLOSE ON + +Monitor. Plink. Mike's blood pressure drops from 75 to 74. Mike is resting, eyes closed. Denise stands vigilantly by Mike's bedside. Reggie enters. Carrying an armload of medicine. He replaces the IV bag and starts to administer the meds. One after the other, Reggie injects them into the IV line, and Mike stirs. + +DENISE +What's that? + +REGGIE +Lasix. It's a diuretic to help get rid of some of the fluid build-up. But it's potassium sparing, so he needs this one to supplement. + +DENISE +And those? + +REGGIE +Dopamine. For his blood pressure. Dig for his heart. Primacor. + +DENISE +Gosh, it seems like so much. + +REGGIE +Yeah, it's a lot. This is antibiotic. + +DENISE +What for? + +REGGIE +It's prophylactic. Just in case. These two, I don't really know what they're for. Pain, maybe. + +DENISE +Pain? + +REGGIE +I don't know, Mrs. Archibald. I just do what they tell me. + +Mike groans. He feels queasy and his mouth is bone dry. + +MIKE +I don't feel good. + +REGGIE +This is going to make you feel yucky for a few minutes, buddy. But I'm going to get you some of those crunchy ice chips to chew on. How does that sound? + +Mike forces a smile, dips his head slightly. "Sounds good." Reggie leaves the room. Something catches Denise's eye. Down the Pediatric ICU, she sees the hospital chaplain again. There is a commotion. The parents are crying. And a sheet is pulled over her face of the now dead child. The chaplain tries to console the devastated mother, who screams as her child is wheeled out of the room. + +MIKE +Mom? Is Dad coming? + +DENISE +Yeah. He's coming. + +MIKE +Where is he? + +Denise steals a final look at the parents overcome with grief. + +DENISE +I don't know, sweetheart. I don't know. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - TREATMENT AREA - DAY + +Mitch is snooping around one of the treatment rooms, always careful to keep an eye on J.Q. He nearly jumps out of his skin when he sees the security guard standing next to him. + +SECURITY GUARD +What are you up to? + +MITCH +Never mind me. You're worthless. You know that? Some security guard. You should have zapped the bastard. + +SECURITY GUARD +With what? Besides, I'm not putting my neck on the line. Not for eight-fifty an hour. + +Mitch reaches, pulls a cas cart closer. He carefully slides open a drawer, steals a sharp-edged scalpel, slips it into his pocket. Next he spots a spray top cannister marked Ethychloride. + +SECURITY GUARD (CONT'D) +What the hell are you doing? + +MITCH +Looking out for number one. + +SECURITY GUARD +You want to stay alive? Sit tight and wait for the cavalry to get here. + +MITCH +Wake up, fat boy. The cops are coming in shooting. They don't give a shit about his kid. And as soon as he realizes that, we're history. + +SECURITY GUARD +Yeah? He finds out you got a scalpel, you're the one that's history, asshole. + +MITCH +Really? He doesn't look so bad to me. + +SECURITY GUARD +Listen. + +MITCH +No, listen to me, you stupid rent-a-cop. I'm not a slob. I've got a life, and it means something to me. I'm not dying in this shithole. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - DAY + +The vending machines have been jimmied open and a huge pile of candy bars and soda cans sit on the waiting room table. Everybody is chowing down. + +J.Q. +The thing I don't understand is why no one caught it before. Mike had check ups every year since the day he was born. Why didn't his doctors pick it up? + +DR. TURNER +Was he ever diagnosed with a murmur? + +J.Q. +Yeah, he was. About a week after he was born. But his doctor said that was normal. That it happens all the time. + +DR. TURNER +He might not have been tested thoroughly enough. + +J.Q. +Why not? + +MAGUIRE +You got an HMO, right? There's your answer. HMO's pay their doctors not to test. Their way of keeping costs down. Let's say Mike needed additional testing, insurance says they won't cover them. The doctor keeps his mouth shut and no one's the wiser. Little Mike falls through the cracks, and come Christmas, the HMO sends the doc a big, fat bonus check. J.Q. looks at Turner. + +J.Q. +Is that true? + +DR. TURNER +Possible. Not likely, but possible. + +J.Q. +Then Mike's doctors could have known about his condition all along? And he could have been treated years ago? + +DR. TURNER +Who knows? + +LESTER +Nothing personal, Doc, but you all are a bunch of damn crooks. + +MAGUIRE +You see,here's the problem. Over here, you've got your insurance companies who basically want you healthy or dead. That's how they make money. And over here, you've got your medical establishment, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, who don't want you healthy or dead. They want you sick. That's the way they make money. + +LESTER +It's all about getting paid, man. + +MAGUIRE +And the individual is caught in the middle of this gigantic tug-of-war. It's a game. And the end result is, people don't get the treatment they deserve. + +LESTER +Because then no one gets paid. + +JULIE +But what about that thing you guys take? That promise? What do they call it? + +STEVE +The Hippocratic oath. + +LESTER +More like the hipp-crit-cial Oath to me. How's that go, Doc? "I solemnly swear to take care of all sick folk, except those without major medical?" + +MAGUIRE +I'm telling you, it's not that far from the truth. The shit happens all the time. Paramedics bring in some accident victim gasping for his last breath. Big boys in accounting find out they can't pay, they send them packing. + +JULIE +Hospitals can't turn people away. + +STEVE +Yeah. I thought there were laws about that. + +MAGUIRE +There are laws. But there are also ways around the laws. All we have to do is stabilize them. After that, we're off the hook. + +Turner is getting hot. + +DR. TURNER +That's not how it works. + +MAGUIRE +That's exactly how it works. Maybe not up there on the fifth floor, but down here, if you ain't got no money, you get a band-aid, a foot in the ass, and you're out the door. + +MITCH +Is that how you paid for that Armani suit, Doc? + +Finally, Turner explodes. + +DR. TURNER +Shut up. Enough already. I've heard all the bitching and moaning I can stand. Sure, the system sucks. There's red tape and there's worse. There's tough luck. And if you're looking for kindness and compassion, they're in short supply these days. But some of us got into medicine to do something about it. I break my ass every day trying to make a difference, trying to plug the dam. I'm in it up to my elbows. I've seen people live who shouldn't, and the other way around. And when I say I do my best, I mean it. So don't tell me about doctors, because they're the last stop between you and six feet under. And if you all want to regard me as some blood sucking vampire, fine. I'm the bad guy. But who's holding the fucking gun? + +Turner gets up and walks into the treatment room. + +JULIE +Wow. + +MITCH +What's his problem? + +STEVE +I've got to be honest, if my kid was dying and I couldn't get help, I don't know what I'd do. + +DEBBY +Me, neither. + +STEVE +But I'd do something. + +J.Q. glances quickly at the clock. He picks up the phone, clicking the button, trying to get a dial tone. + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - COMMAND POST - DAY + +INTERCUT + +A black SWAT phone starts ringing and the policemen freeze. Where's Grimes? A COMPUTER COP runs over and calls out to the lieutenant. + +COMPUTER COP + +Sir! + +Grimes waves him off and cues his portable. + +GRIMES +This is Frank Grimes. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM + +J.Q., confused. + +J.Q. +But... + +GRIMES +The line is clipped, John. You pick up the phone, you get me. +(then) +Can I help you with something? + +J.Q. +Where are we at with that list? + +GRIMES +I'm working on it, John. But I need some time. + +J.Q. +Time I don't have, Lieutenant. + +GRIMES +I want to talk about the hostages. + +J.Q. +What about them? + +GRIMES +What's going on in there? How are they? + +J.Q. +Same as they were before, Frank. We're all just kind of waiting on you. + +At the command post, Moody is now waving his arms. Grimes moves over and looks at the monitors. The videotape is up. The images are wide and grainy. Giving him his first look at the hostages. ON THE SCREEN, J.Q. moves into frame. Moody taps the screen and Grimes nods. That's our guy. + +GRIMES +I want you to let some of them go. + +J.Q. +What for? + +GRIMES +I do for you. You do for me. Show some good faith. We've got a lot of nervous people out here, John. Make everybody breathe a lot easier if we saw some happy faces. + +J.Q. +Good faith only takes you so far. You see, I believe in the merit system. And so far, you haven't earned any points. + +EXT. COMMAND POST - DAY + +A navy blue unmarked Crown Victoria pulls up and out steps Rebecca Payne and POLICE CHIEF GUS MONROE. They are quickly ushered over to the monitors where they see J.Q.'s face on the screens. + +PAYNE +That's him. His name is John Archibald. His son's on the fifth floor, Pediatric ICU. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - DAY + +Marjorie Klein moves over with a very hysterical Miriam in tow. + +DR. KLEIN +Excuse me. + +J.Q. holds up a finger telling her to wait. + +DR. KLEIN (CONT'D) +I need to talk to you. Now. + +J.Q. +(into phone) +Can you hold on a minute, Frank? + +DR. KLEIN +This woman's six centimeters dilated and the baby is breech. I can't do anything for her here. She needs to be moved to Maternity immediately. + +J.Q. rubs his eyes and lets out a breath. He's under a lot of stress. + +EXT. COMMAND POST - DAY + +Grimes has his hand over the receiver as he barks out orders to Moody. + +GRIMES +Put people on the door. Nobody talks to the wife but me. + +Grimes sticks out his free hand to Monroe, who shakes it. + +GRIMES (CONT'D) +Good to see you, Gus. How are you? + +MONROE +Hot. What's going on? + +GRIMES +You're looking at it. + +J.Q. (O.S.) +Are you there, Frank? + +GRIMES +Yeah, I'm here. + +J.Q. (O.S.) +I changed my mind. I am going to let some of the hostages go. + +GRIMES +Great, John. That's the right thing. + +J.Q. (O.S.) +But when I do, the clock starts. You have one hour to get back to me with some good news. + +Monroe is glued to the monitors. His wheels are already spinning. Grimes covers the receiver to speak to him. + +GRIMES +Isn't it a little early for you to be here, Gus? Who called in the heavy artillery? + +J.Q. (O.S.) +I mean it, Frank. If my boy's not on the list in an hour, I promise you someone's going to die. + +MONROE +This is bad, Frank. Lot of people watching this one. Big embarrassment if it doesn't go away real quiet like. + +GRIMES +Well, give me some time. I'm working on it. + +J.Q. (O.S.) +Frank? + +GRIMES +I got it, John. I'm hearing you. One hour. + +They look on Monroe's face tells Grimes that something is wrong. + +GRIMES (CONT'D) Gus? + +MONROE +There's no time on this one, Frank. This one's just got to go away. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - DAY + +J.Q. puts down the walkie-talkie and points at Miriam and Rosa. + +J.Q. +You and you. Come with me. Maguire, give me a hand. + +MIRIAM +Mr. Archibald. Please let my husband go with me. + +STEVE +Honey, for godsakes, just do as the man says. Get out of here. + +MIRIAM +I'm not leaving you here alone. + +MITCH +Shit, I'll go. + +STEVE +Shut your face. What kind of man are you? + +MITCH +Screw you, Tyrone. + +Steve leaps from his seat and goes after Mitch, bristling with the racial slur. J.Q. moves in fast, trying to separate them. But instead of going for Steve, Mitch goes for broke and rushes J.Q. The Ethylchloride is out and Mitch sprays it into J.Q.'s eyes, temporarily blinding him. + +John tries to get his bearings but Mitch is already swinging the scalpel. As J.Q. blocks the knife, his arm is sliced and starts to gush. Mitch goes for the kill, but J.Q. grabs his arm and they wrestle to the ground, the scalpel and John's gun clattering to the floor. The element of surprise gone, Mitch is now getting the worst of it. J.Q. is getting in some heavy blows and no one is stepping in to stop it. Mitch sees the gun across the floor next to Julie. + +MITCH (CONT'D) +Julie, baby, get the gun. + +Julie gets up. + +MITCH (CONT'D) +Shoot him, honey. Shoot him. + +But instead of grabbing the weapon, she picks up the Ethylchloride, sprays it directly in Mitch's eyes from superclose range and doesn't stop. Mitch's hands fly to his eyes and he screams. J.Q. gets up and recovers his weapon, sticking it in his waistband. Julie stands over Mitch, who is still writhing in pain. + +MITCH (CONT'D) +You stupid bitch! + +Julie rears back, and with her go-go boot, she kicks Mitch square in the groin. + +JULIE +That's for beating the shit out of me. + +She kicks him again. + +JULIE (CONT'D) +That's for being an asshole. + +Once more for good measure. + +JULIE (CONT'D) +And that's for calling me a bitch. + +LESTER +Damn. + +The hostages look at Julie with newfound respect. J.Q. takes the security guard's handcuffs, drags Mitch across the floor, and manacles him to the radiator. + +J.Q. +Everybody's a tough guy. + +Grimes voice crackles over the walkie-talkie. + +GRIMES (O.S.) +Where are those hostages, John? + +J.Q. moves to the door, unlocks the chain, points to Rosa and Miriam. + +J.Q. +Let's go. Both of you. + +Rosa launches into a rapid-fire monologue of thanks. She speaks quickly, saying the word "Dios" over and over. + +DEBBY +What's she saying? + +MAGUIRE +She said she'll pray for his boy. + +Miriam kisses Steve, holds him tight. + +STEVE +Everything's going to be okay. The baby is going to be just fine. + +J.Q. puts a hand on Steve's shoulder. + +J.Q. +Get out of here. Go. + +Steve is stunned. Can't get to his feet. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +Vasta. Vasta. Let's go. + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - DAY + +The front door opens and Steve, Miriam, Rosa and the baby are released. We see Channel 8 reporter Tuck Lampley doing a live "stand up." + +LAMPLEY +The gunman has just freed several hostages who will immediately be debriefed by members of the crisis team. Will the man known as John Q. get a heart for his little boy? Time will tell. Where this leads next is anyone's guess. Live from Hope Memorial Hospital, this is Tuck Lampley. + +The hostages are hustled through the police barricade by a team of kevlar riot police. The media rush the hostages, shouting out questions and frantically trying to stick their microphones close enough. + +REPORTER #1 +Is it true an ambulance dropped off a gunshot victim after the gunman took over the ER? + +MIRIAM +Yes. He unlocked the door and let him in. + +STEVE +If he didn't, the man would have died. + +ROSA +John Q. very good man. + +REPORTER #2 +The gunman? + +ROSA +Si. Good man, el senor. + +But Tuck Lampley's attention is on the police command post where dozens of blue uniforms crowd around a small bank of monitors. Suddenly, it hits him. + +LAMPLEY +They've got a camera in there. I don't believe it. They're watching a video feed. + +Freddy B. squints through the glasses. + +FREDDY B. +How do you know? + +LAMPLEY +Well, they're looking at something, Freddy. And I need to know what it is. Can you steal it? + +FREDDY B. +No problem, boss. If they got it, I can get it. + +EXT. COMMAND POST - DAY + +WALLY PITONIAK, Chief of Hospital Security, has arrived. He and Sergeant Moody are standing over an unrolled building plan that has been stretched across the command table like a battle map. Monroe and Grimes have Rebecca Payne on the defensive. + +GRIMES +You mean all of this could have been avoided if you had just put the kid's name on a list? + +PAYNE +Don't you dare try to blame this on me. You think Mr. Archibald is the only one with a sick child? Try the HIV ward. There's a whole floor full of them. People get sick. They die. That's the way it goes. I'm faced with tough decisions every day. + +MONROE +The fact is there's a man threatening to kill innocent people because you refused treatment for his son. + +PAYNE +The fact is there are fifty million people in this country without medical insurance, sir. And there's one of me in every hospital. That's not my fault. It's just the way the country's set up. You want to change it? Write your congressman. + +Moody looks over from his map. + +MOODY +Excuse me, but why don't we just tell him his son's on the list? Doesn't that make sense? I mean, how's he going to know. + +MONROE +That's not a bad idea. + +PAYNE +You want me to put his name on the list, fine, but it's a mistake. You give in to this man, there's going to be guns in every hospital in America. + +MONROE +I don't personally care if you put the kid on it or not. That's your conscience. But give us a hand, will you honey? Work with us. Tell him his kid's going to be alright. Do you think you can do that? + +Pitoniak has indicated a spot on the schematic by circling it with a red pen. + +MOODY +Sir? Sir, take a look at this. + +Monroe moves over. + +MONROE +What is it? + +Pitoniak points to the map, marking a red "X" through the circle. + +PITONIAK +It's a phone. + +MONROE +So? + +Moody points to one of the monitors. ON SCREEN, a view of the nurse's station and beyond. And in the foreground, big and clear as day, is the RED NURSES' PHONE. + +MOODY +It's that phone. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - DAY + +More waiting. + +MITCH +So, what now? What's the plan? + +JULIE +Mitch... + +MITCH +No. I want to know. Every day you read about this kind of shit. And now we're in the middle of it. How is it going to end, John? This country, man. I swear to God. You can't go anywhere anymore without getting robbed, mugged, or murdered. Kids killing classmates, drive bys... I won't even go into a post office anymore. + +MAGUIRE +Shut up, Mitch. + +J.Q. +He's right. You know how easy it was to get this gun? One gun show. Five minutes. + +MITCH +That's right. You're just a punk with a gun. I understand your kid is sick, but what makes him better than me? I've got a life, too. + +J.Q. +Yeah, but you've got insurance. + +MITCH +So, what, you're going to shoot me? Because that's what you're telling the cops. If poor little Mikey doesn't get the very first heart available, all of us die. + +J.Q. +No, I don't want to cheat anyone. I just want my kid to have a fair shot. + +MITCH +So what's the plan, Stan? I mean, exactly? How long are you going to hold us hostage? Until your son gets a new heart? + +J.Q. +I don't know. + +MITCH +Think, Einstein. Use your head. Correct me if I'm wrong, Doctor, but hearts don't come just like that. It takes months, years sometimes. + +J.Q. +I know. + +MITCH +Then what's your move? + +J.Q. +I'm not letting my kid die! I'm out of options, alright?! I have no more ideas. This is it. The end of the road. I'm looking for an act of God. I'm looking for a miracle. + +EXT. TWO-LANE HIGHWAY - DAY + +The white BMW speeds along the highway, tries to pass the semi in front of her, and smashes into the embankment. It's the same accident as before, only this time, it's regular speed. + +INT. PEDIATRIC I.C.U. - DAY + +Frank Grimes stands outside Mike's room, just watching him through the glass. + +CLOSE ON MONITOR + +Mike's blood pressure has fallen to 68. He is asleep, each breath magnified by the hollow, mechanized wheeze of the ventilator pump. Denise sits by his side, praying hard, tears rolling down her cheeks. + +Payne arrives, and the two stand there a moment. Watching the scene, Grimes is visibly moved. Even Payne and her super bitch attitude are a little humbled. + +PAYNE +No matter how many times I see it, this is the part I always hate. + +GRIMES +Do you have any children, Miss Payne? + +PAYNE +No. No I don't. + +They move to the doorway and tap lightly on the door. + +GRIMES +Mrs. Archibald? + +Denise's wet face turns to see the cause of the intrusion. + +GRIMES (CONT'D) +Could we have a word with you? + +INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - DAY + +Denise, Grimes, and Payne by the elevators. + +DENISE +This is my fault. When the hospital told me they were releasing Mikey, I was furious. I yelled at John to do something, anything. I never thought... + +GRIMES +I understand. Is he a violent man, Mrs. Archibald. + +DENISE +No. Heavens, no. He's gentle. He's sweet. He wouldn't hurt a fly. + +GRIMES +That's not what he's saying. He's talking about killing people. Has he spent any time in the military? + +DENISE +Hey, what is this? I get what's going on here. You want me to tell you something you can use to hurt my husband. + +GRIMES +He's in a lot of trouble, Ma'am. We're going to need you to talk to him. + +DENISE +Let's get something straight, Mister. You can't use me to make a case against John. I support my husband. Whatever he does. I'm on his side. Not yours. + +PAYNE +Mrs. Archibald... + +DENISE +You, don't talk to me. I'd tell you what I think of you but I'm a Christian woman. Now you people leave me alone. I have a sick child to look after. + +PAYNE +I've decided to put Mike's name on the organ recipient list, Mrs. Archibald. The hospital will pay for everything. + +Denise looks at Payne, not daring to believe. + +DENISE +Really. + +Payne nods. This is too much for Denise. She throws her arms around Payne, sobbing tears of joy. + +DENISE (CONT'D) +Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. + +Payne pats Denise on the back, awkwardly trying to comfort her. + +INT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - CORRIDORS - DAY + +Grimes and Payne move quickly through the corridors. + +GRIMES +You're good. + +PAYNE +Excuse me? + +GRIMES +With the Archibald woman back there. Quite a performance. The sincere look, the comforting embrace. For a minute, I almost believed you cared. + +Payne's eyes flash with anger. She looks like she wants to say something, but she just turns and walks away. + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - DAY + +A restless crowd encircles the hospital, cordoned off by police blockades, uniformed cops forming a human wall around people. EMS rescue vehicles rumble onto the scene, sirens blaring. + +A police bus drives slowly into the parking lot. A SWAT team, dressed in flak jackets and riot gear, pours out. + +An armada of soft drink, hot dog and ice cream vendors smell gold, and stake out their claims. It's Saturday afternoon, and the circus is in town. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON + +J.Q. and the hostages watch Tuck Lampley on an overhead TV. Jimmy Palumbo is being interviewed. ON SCREEN, J.Q. sees the massive police build-up, swallows. He looks at the clock. 5:05 PM. Ten minutes and counting. + +EXT. TWO-LANE HIGHWAY - LATE AFTERNOON + +A red and white medical helicopter descends from the sky. The accident scene is now secured by the flashing lights of police and medical teams. The screeching sound of cutting metal is heard as the rescuers use the jaws of life. As we see the car more closely now, we notice that the woman's arm rests out the open window. On her wrist is a silver donor bracelet. + +EXT. COMMAND POST - LATE AFTERNOON + +Grimes returns to find the post empty. Nobody there except a few policemen and Sergeant Moody, who is doing a check on his walkie. + +GRIMES +What's going on? Where is everybody? + +Moody indicates the map and the monitor. + +MOODY +We're sending in one of ours through the ventilation ducts. + +ON SCREEN + +He indicates the red nurses' phone. + +MOODY (CONT'D) +If we can get the target to that phone, it's a clear shot. + +GRIMES +Is that right? + +MOODY +Yes, Lieutenant. That is right. + +GRIMES +On who's orders? + +INT. UNDERGROUND PARKING GARAGE - LATE AFTERNOON + +Police Chief Gus Monroe, Wally Pitoniak, and a SWAT Team are in strategy session. They surround a sniper decked out in HBT regalia. A green video mini-monitor is being checked and fastened to the front of the sniper's vest. In the distance, Grimes bursts into the parking garage. + +GRIMES +Gus... + +MONROE +Not one word. I don't want to hear one goddamn word out of you, Frank. + +GRIMES +I'm not going to say anything. I'm just going to go get you your red nose. + +MONROE +What did you say to me? Are you calling me a clown? + +Monroe goes after Grimes and has to be restrained. + +MONROE (CONT'D) +I swear to God, I'll kill you. + +Boys. Boys. + +GRIMES +You going to do this behind my back, you sonofabitch? + +MONROE +Check the time, Frank. Look at your watch, Frank. The guy said at a quarter after he was going to start killing everybody, and we don't have any reason not to believe him. + +GRIMES +So goddamn stupid. + +MONROE +Yeah? What's your great idea? + +GRIMES +There are no great ideas! + +MONROE +Right! Exactly. But right now I've got a shot at this guy. I don't even know what we're talking about. You know the score. You always take the clear shot. + +GRIMES +The wife has agreed to speak to him. Let her talk him down. + +MONROE +That's exactly what we're going to do. + +GRIMES +What? You use the man's wife to set him up? + +MONROE +Whatever works. Let me paint a picture for you. And I hope it's clear. What we've got is a lose/lose. If this guy starts whacking out the hostages, it's bad, right? But if we give in to this asshole, it's also bad. + +GRIMES +Bad for who? + +MONROE +It's an election year. Do you want me to spell it out for you? A, B, C. However it goes down, this guy's not going to make it. + +GRIMES +So, you kill him? That's a P.R. bonanza. + +MONROE +There's not going to be a slaughter in there. Not on my watch. You're out, Frank. + +GRIMES +Out? + +MONROE +Out. No hard feelings. But you're officially relieved of duty. I'll handle it from here. + +GRIMES +You? + +MONROE +It's not my first trip around the dance floor, you know. + +Grimes laughs out loud. + +GRIMES +Yeah. + +MONROE +Hey, I don't like it any better than you do, but I'm under a lot of pressure here. Everyone is wetting their pants on this one. Believe me, my ass is swinging in the breeze. + +Monroe turns and walks away. Grimes calls out after him. + +GRIMES +What about the hostages? + +MONROE +They better keep their heads down. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON + +J.Q. paces back and forth looking at the clock. His level of irritation is growing exponentially. + +J.Q. +Where the hell are these guys? + +Mitch is now contrite and trying to reconcile with his battered girlfriend. + +MITCH +Julie... + +JULIE +Leave me alone. + +MITCH +I'm sorry. I'm a lousy drunk, okay? I get out of control. I don't mean to, but I do and I lose my mind. But that doesn't mean I don't love you. And I'll change. I swear to God, I will. It's you and me, baby. All the girls in the club, they don't mean shit to me. It's only you. I'll get down on my knees if you want me to. Look, I'm on my knees in front of everyone. I'll even forget you kicked me in the nuts. Come on. + +JULIE +No, Mitch. This is always how it goes. You treat me like shit, then come crawling back to me like Prince Charming. Not this time. It's over. + +She takes off a big diamond from her finger and drops it on the floor. It bounces and disappears under a table. + +MITCH +Aw, come on. Don't do that. That ring cost me twenty grand. + +JULIE +Poor little rich boy. Used to getting everything he wants. Buying his way in and out of everything. + +Lester bends over and tries inconspicuously to look for the ring. The security guard gets on his hands and knees. Even Debby sneaks a peek. + +MITCH +Do you mind? Stay away from the ring, please. + +SECURITY GUARD +Hey, she don't want it. + +LESTER +yeah. Finders keepers, man. + +The hostages laugh and Mitch goes crazy. + +J.Q. +Hey, what's so funny? Does everybody think this is a joke? You all should be thinking about your own lives, hoping that phone rings with some good news. Because in about five minutes, the road is going to get a lot narrower. + +EXT. COMMAND POST - LATE AFTERNOON + +Monroe moves outside and joins the other SWAT team personnel at the video tap. Grimes follows to plead his case. + +GRIMES +But he's not a wacko, Gus. Married with a family, no history of mental illness. No radical political views. He doesn't fit the profile. + +MONROE +Don't matter. You know as well as I do that anybody can fit the profile at any time. + +MOODY +He's got a gun and he's got hostages. That's a profile. + +GRIMES +How long have we been doing this? You've got to trust me on this one. Gus, I like the guy. + +MONROE +Well I don't. I don't like nut jobs who point guns at innocent people. It pisses me off. + +GRIMES +He's not a nut job. + +MONROE +Maybe you're right. Maybe he's bluffing. Maybe he's just a nice guy with a problem. Maybe he's misunderstood and needs to blow off a little steam. Hey, it's possible. But I can't depend on that, Frank. This asshole has raised the stakes real high. And I need to match it, just in case he's not bluffing. Now, we've got five minutes before he starts throwing bodies out the door. I've got a chance to end this right now and I'm taking it. + +GRIMES +I'm telling you, you're making a mistake. + +MONROE +Yeah, well. We try harder. + +GRIMES +I want to be on the record. Monroe hands Grimes a set of headphones. + +MONROE +You can be on whatever you want. Now I got you a chair. Put these on and have a seat. + +GRIMES +Gus... + +MONROE +Will you stop already? Jesus, Frank. You're so emotional. + +On one of the monitors WE SEE the ER room and hostages. On the other, the red nurses' phone. The images are black and white and grainy. + +MOODY +(into walkie-talkie) +This is Moody. Let's go. + +INT. HOSPITAL ENGINE AND POWER ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON + +Pitoniak climbs along the narrow catwalk until he reaches the area that houses the air-conditioning unit. We hear the thunderous sound of an enormous compressor. Pitoniak reaches for the AC on/off switch. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON + +J.Q. paces. Everyone keeps looking at the clock. 5:12 PM. Three minutes to go. + +J.Q. +Some first day, huh? + +DEBBY +A little more stressful than I thought it would be. + +J.Q. cracks a smile. Just then, a loud rattle echoes through the ER, pipes clanging. + +J.Q. +What was that? + +SECURITY GUARD +Air conditioning unit just shut off. + +J.Q. +Yeah? Why? + +SECURITY GUARD +The power automatically shuts down when the thermostat hits a certain temperature. + +TIGHT ON J.Q. + +Something doesn't feel right. + +INT. DUCT SYSTEM - LATE AFTERNOON + +INTERCUT + +An armed SNIPER pops his head up and slithers along the plated aluminum floor of an AC duct, a remote mini-monitor in the palm of his hand. + +EXT. NEWS VAN - LATE AFTERNOON + +Snipers lock and load assault rifles, and Tuck Lampley's crew frantically unspools fiber optic cable line to a hospital outsource, cutting and splicing it back to the news van. + +LAMPLEY +Where's my picture? + +FREDDY B. +Coming. We just need to unscramble the police encryptment. We're almost there. + +LAMPLEY +Well, hurry up. I've got a contact in cardiology. The cops are setting up a phone call with this guy and his wife. This is going to be unbelievable. + +INT. DUCT SYSTEM - LATE AFTERNOON + +The sniper continues to crawl through the duct toward a light emanating from a louvered grill. + +EXT. COMMAND POST - LATE AFTERNOON + +Moody looks at his watch, synchronizes. Monroe does. + +MOODY +(into walkie-talkie) +Are you with a wife? Good. Let's patch it through. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON + +5:14 PM. All eyes on the clock. Hostages tired, hot, emotionally spent. Suddenly, a phone clangs. J.Q. looks around, surprised. He sees a desk phone, picks it up. Dead. He moves to another phone. Nothing. But the mysterious phone continues to ring. + +J.Q. +Where's the phone? Which phone is it? + +INT. NEWS VAN - LATE AFTERNOON + +News monitors cackle with white snow. No picture. Freddy B. works the equipment. Lampley pokes his head in. + +LAMPLEY +Come on, goddammit. They're putting the call through. + +Suddenly, an audio hook-up. The phone clanging like an alarm bell. + +FREDDY B. +Oh, yeah. We got sound. + +LAMPLEY +Good. Good. But where's the video? Come on. I need picture. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - TREATMENT AREA - LATE AFTERNOON + +J.Q. moves from phone to phone with no luck. The phone keeps ringing. Finally he moves into the corridor, spotting a red phone at the nurses' station. + +EXT. COMMAND POST - LATE AFTERNOON + +CLOSE ON VIDEO TAP + +Surreal, distorted focus, like a funhouse mirror. Suddenly, J.Q. races into frame and snatches the phone. + +J.Q. +This better be good, Frank. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - TREATMENT AREA - LATE AFTERNOON + +DENISE (O.S.) +John? + +J.Q. +Denise? + +DENISE (O.S.) +Hi, baby. We're on the list! + +J.Q. +What? + +DENISE (O.S.) +Payne was just here. Mike's name is on the list. You did it. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON + +The hostages are glued to the TV, watching covering from the outside about what's happening on the inside. + +J.Q. +Okay. Great. We're on the list. Wow. How's Mikey doing? + +DENISE (O.S.) +Not so good, baby. He looks like he's going away. + +EXT. COMMAND POST - LATE AFTERNOON + +Cops are glued to the monitor. Grimes looks on, disgusted. + +INT. MIKE'S ICU ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON + +DENISE +They've done everything they can but he keeps getting worse and worse. Oh my God, our poor baby. + +Denise cracks. Tears come and there's no stopping them. + +INT. CRAWL SPACE - LATE AFTERNOON + +The sniper pops off the grill, revealing the acoustic tile of the ceiling below. He raises the microphone to his mouth. + +SNIPER +Two zero to base camp. I'm in position one. + +MOODY (O.S.) +Go. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - TREATMENT AREA - LATE AFTERNOON + +John rests his head and closes his eyes as he listens to his wife falling apart. + +DENISE (O.S.) +You know, sometimes I think he's an angel. A real angel, sent down to keep us company for a while. + +J.Q. +It's going to be alright, sweetheart. + +DENISE (O.S.) +Are you praying for him? Are you praying for our boy? + +J.Q. +Yeah, baby. I'm praying. + +DENISE (O.S.) +Oh my God, what are we going to do? + +J.Q. +I don't know. + +DENISE (O.S.) +Maybe we should let him go. Maybe it's meant to be and we should accept it. + +J.Q. +No. Don't say it. + +DENISE (O.S.) +I don't know what else to think. The priest keeps coming. He wants to give him last rites. + +J.Q. +Denise, don't you lose faith now. Not you. You can't give up. Mikey's going to make it. I swear on my life, he's going to make it. You've got to believe. + +DENISE (O.S.) +Okay, baby. I'll believe. + +J.Q. +Is he awake? Can I talk to him? INT. NEWS VAN - LATE AFTERNOON + +On the monitors, the blizzard of white snow morphs into a clear picture of J.Q. on the phone. Mike's tired voice suddenly comes over the audio. + +MIKE (O.S.) +Dad? + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - LATE AFTERNOON + +INTERCUT + +Lampley is giving the thumbs up. They have picture. + +LAMPLEY +Are we good? Beautiful baby. You're a genius. + +Lampley puts on his most sincere look as the Channel 8 news team goes live. + +LAMPLEY (CONT'D) +This is Tuck Lampley at Hope Memorial Hospital, where we are bringing you exclusive live coverage of a phone call between the father and the son he is fighting so desperately to save. + +ON POLICE VIDEO TAP CAMERA + +WE SEE J.Q. + +Leaning against the wall. Father and son's 911 static scratched voices crackling. + +J.Q. +Mike? How you doing, buddy? You hanging in there? + +MIKE (O.S.) +Uh-huh. How are you? + +J.Q. +Me? I'm fine. Don't worry about me. + +INT. DUCT SYSTEM - LATE AFTERNOON + +The sniper crawls from the louvered grill, moving along two metal support rails. He takes a crouching position over the acoustic tile. + +INT. MIKE'S ICU ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON + +Mike is propped up in bed, now breathing with some difficulty. He's so weak, Denise has to hold the phone. + +MIKE +How come you're not here, Dad? Where are you? + +J.Q. (O.S.) +Oh, I'm kind of tied up right now. I can't get away. + +INTERCUTTING SHOTS OF TV SETS AROUND THE NATION + +Quick, jagged CUTS: American families. People in bars. TV appliance stores. Even the hostages in the ER. Awestruck at what they're witnessing. + +INT. MIKE'S ICU ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON + +MIKE +Mom says I need a new heart. + +J.Q. (O.S.) +That's right, champ. + +MIKE +What's wrong with my heart? + +J.Q. (O.S.) +Not a thing, buddy. Not a thing. We just have to put a new one in so you can be stronger, okay? + +MIKE +Okay. + +INT. DUCT SYSTEM - LATE AFTERNOON + +The sniper lifts a ceiling tile, exposing the treatment room below. There, across the room, is J.Q. talking on the phone. + +INT. MIKE'S ICU ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON + +INTERCUT + +Mike stops to catch his breath. He's really on his last legs. He just lays there a second before asking the big one. + +MIKE +Hey, Dad? + +J.Q. (O.S.) +Yeah, Mike. + +MIKE +Am I going to die? + +Denise's hand flies to her mouth. + +INT. DUCT SYSTEM - LATE AFTERNOON + +CLOSE ON THE SNIPER + +He pushes the barrel of his weapon through the opening in the ceiling and puts his eye to the scope. + +SNIPER POV + +Through the scope, J.Q.'s tormented face racks into focus, but he moves behind a partition. The shot is not clear. + +J.Q. +No, Mikey, you're not going to die. + +MIKE (O.S.) +How do you know? + +J.Q. +Hey, what good would the world be without you? Without you, there is no world. + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - LATE AFTERNOON + +Lampley stands by the news van watching the drama unfold on the monitor before him. He's a little choked up. + +LAMPLEY +Oh my God. This is the greatest thing I've ever seen. This is my white Bronco. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - TREATMENT AREA - LATE AFTERNOON + +J.Q. +Hey, Mike. + +MIKE (O.S.) +Yeah, Dad? + +SNIPER POV - SCOPE MATTE + +J.Q. moves out from behind the partition and into the open. He's a sitting duck now. + +INT. DUCT SYSTEM - LATE AFTERNOON + +The sniper cues his mic. + +SNIPER +On your call. + +INT. EMERGENCY WAITING ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON + +INTERCUT + +The hostages are glued to the TV set. Maguire, Julie, Debby, Marjorie Klein hang on J.Q.'s every word. + +J.Q. +You know how much I love you, don't you? How proud I am of you? + +MIKE (O.S.) +Yeah. + +EXT. COMMAND POST - LATE AFTERNOON + +Monroe nods at Moody. It's time. + +MOODY +(into walkie-talkie) +Take the shot. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - TREATMENT AREA - LATE AFTERNOON + +From across the room and through the ceiling, a small red light snaps on. WE ZOOM IN to see what it is. + +J.Q. +Yeah, well, I wanted to tell you that. Just in case I forgot. + +INT. DUCT SYSTEM - LATE AFTERNOON + +SNIPER POV + +J.Q. is in the crosshairs. Dead center. The red laser dot square in the middle of his back. + +J.Q. +Give me a Chris Cormeir, will you? Yah! + +MIKE (O.S.) +Oh, yeah. Chris Cormeir. He's great. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON + +The hostages attention has been so focused on the screen, none of them have realized that for John to be on TV, there has to be a camera inside the ER. Suddenly, it hits Lester. + +LESTER +What the hell. Oh, shit... + +INT. DUCT SYSTEM - LATE AFTERNOON + +TIGHT ON THE TRIGGER. As the sniper squeezes -- + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - TREATMENT AREA - LATE AFTERNOON + +J.Q. +Get some rest, buddy. Okay? + +MIKE (O.S.) +Okay. I love you, Dad. + +J.Q. +Yeah. I love you, too. + +As J.Q. hangs up the receiver, the sniper pulls the trigger. + +LESTER +Hey, John. You're on the TV, you know that? + +BANG! + +John turns as the bullet explodes from the chamber, muzzle flashing. A bullet blows through J.Q.'s shoulder, knocking him backwards against the wall. + +EXT. COMMAND POST - LATE AFTERNOON + +The echoing gunshot rumbles through the air like a thunderclap. Monroe, Moody, Grimes and Payne react as the hostages scatter. + +MOODY +He's down. We got him. He's down. + +Grimes pulls off his cans. + +GRIMES +Your kids are lucky, Gus. Their father's coming home tonight. + +MEDIA MONITORS, POLICE VIDEO TAP, TV SETS + +The cops. Lampley. America. All tuned into the -- + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - TREATMENT AREA - LATE AFTERNOON + +Sheer pandemonium. Hostages run for cover. The phone receiver swings back and forth, and a bloody J.Q. is slumped against the wall. + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - LATE AFTERNOON + +Lampley continues his live coverage as horrified crowds move around him. + +LAMPLEY +All we know at this point is that an attempt has been made on the gunman's life. Repeat. John Q. has been shot. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - TREATMENT AREA - LATER + +J.Q. sits, his shirt soaked in blood. Among all the madness, something funny happens. + +INT. DUCT SYSTEM - LATE AFTERNOON + +The sniper loses his balance and his leg crashes through the acoustic tile ceiling. He is momentarily stuck. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - TREATMENT AREA - LATE AFTERNOON + +J.Q. blinks. The wound, the hysteria, the events of the day, and now a leg sticking through the ceiling. It's all very surreal. He gets up, moves to the leg, and pulls. And the ceiling comes crashing down. + +EXT. COMMAND POST + +Stunned, Monroe, Moody, Grimes and Payne grimly watch J.Q. subduing the sniper on the video tape monitors. Their faces are in stark contrast with the chaos that surrounds them. + +MOODY +He's not down. + +GRIMES +This is very bad, Gus. + +A UNIFORMED POLICEMAN runs up with a cell phone and hands it to Monroe. + +MONROE +Not now. + +POLICEMAN +It's the Mayor, sir. And you better kill that video feed. The media's pirated the signal and the whole thing just went out live over national TV. + +As Monroe takes the phone and Moody starts barking out orders, the feed is disconnected, and the monitors go blank. + +EXT. TWO-LANE HIGHWAY - GOLDEN HOUR + +The beautiful woman's body is loaded onto the medivac. The helicopter lifts off and disappears into the darkening sky. + +INT. COMPUTER ROOM - SOMEWHERE IN AMERICA - NIGHT + +The daisy wheel keeps on turning. WE SEE the words as they're printed. Vernell Tilson. Status 2. Arthur Friedlander. Status 3. Amy Podgorsky. Status 2. And a new entry, Mike Archibald, Age 9, 85 pounds. It's official. He's on the list. Status 1. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - GOLDEN HOUR + +The sniper now sits restrained to a chair, his hands and feet bound by adhesive tape. The other hostages are somber, knowing that they are caught smack in the middle of this mess. J.Q. sits stripped to the waist as Maguire removes the bullet from his shoulder, his wheel spinning, spinning. + +J.Q. +It's over. Mikey's not going to make it. + +JULIE +But the list. + +J.Q. +What list? They're shooting at me. They're not going to help my kid. It's time to change plans. + +DR. KLEIN +What about an El-vad? + +DR. TURNER +No. + +J.Q. +What's an El-vad? + +DR. KLEIN +A left Ventricular Assist Device. It's basically a pump inserted into the chest cavity, wired to the heart to keep it stimulated. + +J.Q. +All this time there's been a way to save his life and you never said anything? + +DR. TURNER +It's not a solution. It's only a band aid. Mike's immune system may be too weak. + +J.Q. +Will it give him time? + +DR. TURNER +Not long. It's only a temporary measure. + +J.Q. My kid's down to hours and minutes, Doc. Things don't get more temporary than that. + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - GOLDEN HOUR + +The police are unceremoniously disconnecting Channel 8's pirated signal, hassling Lampley's crew, and telling them they are all going to be arrested. + +LAMPLEY +You're going to bust me? Get real. You just shot an innocent man on primetime TV. + +A roar from the crowd indicates something big is happening. J.Q. is coming outside. He's got the sniper in tow, using him as a human shield. The crowd behind the barricade is huge now, holding up signs like "Have a Heart," "Save Mike," and "John Q. Public." They scream encouragement with J.Q.'s every move. As he comes forward, police and SWAT teams train their rifles on him. + +J.Q. +Grimes. Grimes! + +Behind the barricade, Frank Grimes stands with Monroe and Moody. + +MONROE +Alright. + +GRIMES +Alright, what? + +MONROE +Let's go out there. See what he wants. + +GRIMES +But I thought you said I was out. + +MONROE +I stepped in shit, Frank. Is that what you want to hear, goddammit? Now quit breaking my stones. I need you to save my ass on this one. + +Frank Grimes smiles before grabbing a megaphone from one of the uniforms and stepping out from behind the barricade with Monroe and Moody. + +GRIMES +Hold your fire. + +J.Q. looks around at the hundreds of weapons all pointing right at him. They're everywhere he turns. He sees Grimes approaches. + +J.Q. +Look what I found. + +The crowd cheers support for their new hero. + +GRIMES +John. + +J.Q. +Who are these guys? Who the hell are you? Oh, I know who you are, the guys who tried to take me out. + +J.Q. indicates his bleeding shoulder. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +Almost. + +GRIMES +This is Sergeant Moody and Police Chief Monroe. + +MONROE +What are we doing, John? + +J.Q. +You were going to call me back. I gave you your hostages and you were supposed to call me back. But no, you want me dead. + +GRIMES +I don't want you dead. + +J.Q. +No, you want to kill me. You want to kill me so bad you can taste it. + +GRIMES +Nobody wants to kill you. + +J.Q. +Nobody wants to kill me? +(indicates the sniper) +Who is this? + +The crowd voices their displeasure in a chorus of "boos." + +GRIMES +That wasn't my call. I -- + +J.Q. +I, I, I bullshit! You tried to kill me. You tried to kill me while I was talking to my boy! + +The crowd erupts. They're getting rowdy now. The cops are getting jumpy, their rifles trained, their trigger fingers ready. + +MONROE +John, listen to me. Lieutenant Grimes had nothing to do with that. It was my call. + +J.Q. +Don't lie to me. I don't need to be bullshitted by some lying flunky cops. + +GRIMES +What are we, friends all of a sudden? All of a sudden, we owe you something? You pulled the gun. You're the one that took the hospital. What did you think would happen? You want truth Here's some truth. This is going to end up bad for you. There's only two ways out of here. Jail or dead. + +J.Q. hears the words and they sink in. He knows they're right. + +GRIMES (CONT'D) +Look around you. Look at all of it. It's crazy. You don't want to do this. + +J.Q. +I just want my life back. + +GRIMES +I understand. It's hard to be a man these days. Hard to know what the right thing is. Put the gun down, John. It's all over. You got everything you asked for. Mike is on the list. Status one. + +J.Q. +I don't believe you. + +GRIMES +I give you my word. + +J.Q. +Forgive me for being skeptical, Frank, but your word is shit! + +The crowd goes crazy, cheering and shouting out their encouragement. The faces are those of outrage and passion. Some even with tears streaming down their faces. J.Q. looks out the overwhelming display of support. + +GRIMES +Hey, what are you doing? Stay with me, John. You think these people give a shit about you? They don't. You're just the cause of the moment. Believe me, in a couple of days, they'll be outraged about something else. Nobody cares, John. That's the real truth. Nobody cares. Only you. It's only you and me out here, and all these guns pointed at you. So, what do you want to do? It's your call. + +J.Q. +I want my son. + +MOODY +What? + +J.Q. +Bring me my son. I want my son inside with me. + +MONROE +Can't do it. + +J.Q. +There's an operation that could save his life. I'm going to need some equipment but I've got two surgeons inside that are ready to go. + +MONROE +You listen to me, you sonofabitch. You give this up right now, turn yourself in. And your son will have any and every means of assistance. If not, if you keep this up, this is going to be very bad for you. + +J.Q. +Are you threatening me, Chief? Take your best shot. Oh, I forgot, you already did. No, we'll do this my way. You give me my boy, they do the surgery and then I give up. Nobody gets hurt and everyone goes home. + +Monroe studies J.Q. and considers. + +MONROE +What do you think, Frank? + +GRIMES +I say give it to him. He's not going to hurt his boy. + +Monroe takes his time making his decision. + +MOODY +Sir, the object is to get hostages out, not to let more in. + +MONROE +The boy is not a hostage. He's the man's son. Do it. + +INT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - HALLWAY - MAGIC HOUR + +Mike's hospital bed flies down the hallway. Running alongside we see Denise, Payne and nurses holding medical equipment. + +MIKE +Mom, where are we going? + +DENISE +To see your father. + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - MAGIC HOUR + +The front doors burst open and Mike's bed is rolled onto the sidewalk. COPS run alongside like secret service agents, protecting Mike, pushing a path through the crowd. + +COPS + +Coming through. Let's go. Move it back, folks. + +The mob swarms around the speeding bed, trying to get a look at Mike, who considers the circus atmosphere surrounding him. As the bed hits the police barricade, the cops take over. + +DENISE +Let me through. I'm his mother. + +But she is held back as Mike is ushered through. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - MAGIC HOUR + +Mike's bed is rolled slowly to a stop outside the ER doors. The sniper is released and J.Q. stands guard as Mike is rolled in by Turner and Maguire, before locking the door behind them. + +MIKE +Dad, where have you been? + +J.Q. +Just waiting for you, buddy. + +Mike looks up to see Dr. Turner walking alongside. He looks up at him and smiles. Mike is wheeled into a Trauma room where the monitors quickly come to life. + +INT. MIKE'S TRAUMA ROOM - MAGIC HOUR + +J.Q. looks at Mike as the medical team assess his condition, just watching helplessly as the life drains out of his body. + +J.Q. +How are you feeling, slugger? + +MIKE +I'm okay. Tired. + +Beep. Beep. The monitors whisper faintly, irregularly, Turner steps in front of J.Q. + +DR. TURNER +Out. + +J.Q. +What? + +DR. TURNER +I need some time to examine Mike and I don't need you getting in the way. It's crowded enough in here. + +J.Q. +I'll stay in the corner. + +DR. TURNER +I'm serious, John. Let me do my job. + +Turner ushers him out the door and closes it behind him. John looks up to find the hostages staring at him. Uncomfortable, he moves into a recovery room. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - TRAUMA ROOM - NIGHT + +J.Q., alone, notices the simple wooden cross hanging over the door. He stares at it a long time before kneeling, his arms resting on the bed. + +J.Q. +Bless me, father. For I have sinned. It's been a long time, so forgive me if I'm a little rusty. I know you do things your own way. But I'm finding it hard to understand why you would want Mike to be so sick. + +INT. MIKE'S TRAUMA ROOM - NIGHT + +Turner administers the meds and Mike's eyes glaze and roll back in his head. With all the drugs coursing through his system, Mike is really out of it now. But as Dr. Turner diligently attends to Mike, the boy considers him, the bright O.R. lights casting a halo around the doctor's head. + +MIKE +Are you God? + +DR. TURNER +(caught off-guard) +Yeah, kid. Yeah, I am. + +Turner continues working, and as he turns his back to the boy, he hears the question that floors him. + +MIKE +Where you been? + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - TRAUMA ROOM - NIGHT + +J.Q. +I keep waiting for you to step in and help him. But you never do. And I don't understand. I don't understand and I don't forgive. So, help me, Father. Because I'm trying. I'm really trying. + +Dr. Turner appears at the doorway and sees John on his knees. + +DR. TURNER +John? + +J.Q. looks up and Dr. Turner soberly shakes his head. The news isn't good. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - TREATMENT AREA - NIGHT + +Dr. Turner and John look through the glass at Mike resting peacefully. + +DR. TURNER +Mike's blood pressure has dropped into the mid-forties. His atrial blood pressure should be in the low teens. It's thirty-five. If I put that LVAD into him, his heart will never be able to handle the extra strain. + +J.Q. +But... + +DR. TURNER +Not buts, John. Without a new heart, he's not going to make it. + +J.Q. is devastated. It takes a few moments to sink in. + +J.Q. +Take mine. + +Turner doesn't get it. + +DR. TURNER +What? + +J.Q. +You heard me. Take my heart and put it in Mike. + +MITCH +John, buddy, you're talking a little nutsy cukoo, here. + +DR. TURNER +You can't be serious. + +J.Q. +You think I'm just going to stand here and watch my son die? You bet I'm serious. Dead serious. + +DEBBY +Wow. + +JULIE +Oh my God. + +Lester tries to comprehend the nihilistic existentialism of it all. + +LESTER +But that means you'll die, man. + +J.Q. calmly finishes Lester's thought. + +J.Q. +And my sone will live. + +DR. KLEIN +John, you can't do this. + +J.Q. +It's the only way. + +DR. KLEIN +No, you don't understand. You physically can't do it. + +J.Q. +Why not? I kill myself. You cut me open and take my heart. It's perfect. + +LESTER +The boy crazy. + +MITCH +Nutsy cuckoo, I'm telling you. + +DR. KLEIN +We just can't remove your heart and put it into Mike's body. + +DR. TURNER +There's too many unknowns. Matching a donor and receiver is extremely complicated. There's several critical tests that have to be taken. + +J.Q. +Like what? + +DR. TURNER +Cross matches for blood type, chest cavity measurements. If both blood tissues aren't compatible, there's a very high likelihood of rejection. + +J.Q. +Come on, Doc. I know all about compatibility. We've been tested up the wazoo. Mike and I are both B-Positive. Our tissues are a match. And his heart is three times normal size which means mine will fit. You know damn well we're compatible. + +DR. TURNER +No, we don't. You're an adult. Mike is strong, but the amount of blood your heart pumps may be too much for Mike. + +J.Q. +I'll take that chance. It's better than letting him die. + +DR. TURNER +Out of the question. Too risky. + +J.Q. +I'm telling you, he'll make it. + +DR. TURNER +Can't do it, John. + +J.Q. +You're telling me that if I'm laying dead on the floor, you wouldn't take my heart and put it in my kid to save his life? You'd let two people die instead of one because of a technicality? + +JULIE +I think what John's trying to do is right. + +DEBBY +Me, too. I think it's very brave. + +MAGUIRE +Yeah, it's all very noble and brave. But what do you think Mike would want? Or your wife? + +J.Q. +Mike is too young to know what's good for him. I'm his father. It's my job to protect him, and Denise would do the same thing if she was in my place. + +SECURITY GUARD +Are you saying Mike's life is more important than yours? + +MITCH +Or that it's okay that Mike grows up without a father? + +MAGUIRE +You can have more children, John. + +LESTER +What happened to Mike is bad, man. It's the worst. It ain't fair, but you can't kill yourself. Sometimes you've just got to let go and let God take care of it. You've got to accept it. + +J.Q. +Accept what? + +DR. TURNER +That Mike's going to die. + +J.Q. +No. I don't accept it. I reject it out of hand. + +John moves over to Dr. Turner to plea his case. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +I know you only think of Mike as a patient, but he's a great kid. Really. He's like magic, you know? He loves bodybuilding. You believe that? And he's funny. You'd like him, Doc. You'd really like him, if you knew him. + +DR. TURNER +I do like him. + +J.Q. +Please. You've got to help him. I'm begging you. If you ever do anything outside the rules, do this. Take a chance, please. + +DR. TURNER +I'd like to. I really would. But what you're asking crosses the line. It's completely unethical. + +J.Q. +I've crossed the line? No, you've crossed the line. The whole system has crossed the line. + +J.Q. paces around the room, his hand on his weapon, his mood very dark and threatening. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +I don't think you understand. I'm not letting him die. Haven't you figured that out by now? I don't care what I have to do. + +DR. TURNER +So, what, you're going to kill me if I don't operate. + +J.Q. +No. I'm going to kill myself. + +J.Q. puts the gun to his temple. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +And we'll just see what happens. + +LESTER +Aw, man, this is messed up. + +J.Q. +We all know how this works, people. In order for Mike to live, someone has to die. I'm the father. It might as well be me. + +J.Q. and Turner's eyes meet. Turner doesn't speak for a long moment. + +DR. TURNER +Alright. + +MITCH +Alright, what? + +DR. TURNER +I'll do it. If that's what you want. + +MITCH +Wait a minute. Are you serious? + +The room goes quiet. + +DR. TURNER +Once he's dead. Why not? + +Dr. Klein moves to Dr. Turner. + +DR. KLEIN +You're the finest surgeon I've ever known. You can't just throw your entire career for this man. + +MITCH +Yeah, you're not God. It's not up to you to decide who lives and dies. + +J.Q. +Aw, come on, Mitch. We're all going to die. + +MAGUIRE +Not for nothing, Doctor. But if you do this, you're finished. + +DR. TURNER +So, what are they going to do? Sue me? Disbar me? Evict me from the country club? + +DR. KLEIN +Raymond, you're under a lot of stress. You're not yourself. + +DR. TURNER +Yeah, well, what is myself? Because right now, I really don't know. Let's see -- + +He takes his Patek Phillipe watch off and throws it at the wall, smashing it. + +DR. TURNER (CONT'D) +I run six miles a day, drive around in my little black Porsche and date girls thirty years younger than me. Is the picture clear now? I like twelve hundred dollar shoes and I've always got a great tan. And here's the best part. Everybody kisses my ass and acts as if that's the way doctors are supposed to be, that's the reward. Reward for what? What I am is a plumber. I connect valves to tubes and tubes to valves. That's what I do. But back in that room with your son, I got a very short glimpse of my soul. And let me tell you, it's been long lost. + +MAGUIRE +But... + +DR. TURNER +This is still a hospital. There's a sick kid in there and I'm his doctor. And if there's a heart available, I'll be damned if I'm going to let it go to waste. + +The room is stunned. + +EXT. MONTANA HOSPITAL - ROOF - NIGHT + +A medivac chopper swoops down, lands on the big white cross on the helipad tarmac. The doors fly open. A medical team quickly disembarks, lifts out a stretcher with a beautiful woman's body and runs across the roof into the hospital. + +INT. MONTANA HOSPITAL - OPERATING ROOM - NIGHT + +The stretcher is rushed into the O.R. and the body is placed on the surgical table. A MEDICAL TRANSPLANT TEAM is waiting, ready. They take the body, prep for organ harvesting. + +INT. MONTANA HOSPITAL - OFFICE - NIGHT + +In another room, an UNOS OFFICIAL is notified of the beautiful woman's arrival. + +UNOS OFFICIAL +She's here? + +He gets up and is on the move, securing his wireless headset and dialing. + +INT. MONTANA HOSPITAL - OPERATING ROOM - NIGHT + +The UNOS Official moves into the OR. Everything the transplant people tell him, he repeats into the phone. + +MEDICAL TRANSPLANT PERSON #1 +Female. Donor. Thirty-three years old. Five foot seven. Liver, kidneys, usable. + +UNOS OFFICIAL +Lungs? + +MEDICAL TRANSPLANT PERSON #2 +Okay. + +UNOS OFFICIAL +Heart? + +MEDICAL TRANSPLANT PERSON #2 +Heart is good. + +UNOS OFFICIAL +Type? + +The transplant team are busy. + +UNOS OFFICIAL (CONT'D) +Come on. Blood type? + +MEDICAL TRANSPLANT PERSON #1 +(checks bracelet) +B-positive. + +INT. EMERGENCY ROOM - NIGHT + +The TVs are now off. J.Q. looks out the window at the evergrowing police build-up. There's an upbeat bound in his step, a sense of relief with the finality of the decision he's made. + +J.Q. +Come on, guys. Let's hurry it up. They could bust in here any minute. + +SECURITY GUARD +This was your plan all along, wasn't it? + +J.Q. +Last resort. You think I wanted it to turn out like this? + +J.Q. pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolds it. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +This is my will. I'm leaving my heart to my son. + +He holds up a pen. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +I need two witnesses. Don't everybody jump at once. + +LESTER +I ain't signing your death warrant. No way. + +J.Q. +Come on, people. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we all go home. + +JULIE +I'll sign. + +SECURITY GUARD +Me, too. + +They do. + +SECURITY GUARD (CONT'D) +You know something, man? You're alright. + +J.Q. +Sure am. Only one thing can stop me now. + +SECURITY GUARD +What's that. + +J.Q. +Mitch here being B-positive. + +MITCH +No, sir. Type-O.Ê Swear to God. + +For a moment the mood is light. J.Q. looks around the room at Maguire, Debby, Mitch, Julie, Lester, and the security guard. Debby can't stop crying again. + +J.Q. +Hey, you. + +MITCH +Yeah. + +J.Q. +Do yourself a favor. Start doing the right thing, huh? Life's too short. You had a good woman there. You're too smart to be so dumb. + +J.Q. looks around the room before he leaves. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +Alright, people. See you in the funny papers. + +INT. COMPUTER ROOM - SOMEWHERE IN AMERICA - NIGHT + +The daisy wheel buzzes, pounding letters onto the print page. Mike Archibald, Hope Memorial Hospital, age 9, 85 pounds. Blood type: B-positive. MATCH. + +PULL BACK TO REVEAL + +A man sitting alone in front of the computer. He rips the copy from the printer, lays it into the fax machine and dials. A piercing beep. The paper gets sucked away. + +INT. PEDIATRIC I.C.U. - NIGHT + +A fax machine chirps in the quiet PICU. Reggie picks up the fax, and as he reads, a look of disbelief. + +REGGIE +Oh, my sweet Jesus. + +Paper in hand, he sprints out of the ward and down the corridor. + +INT. MIKE'S TRAUMA ROOM - NIGHT + +John enters to find Dr. Klein checking Mike's vitals. The heart monitor reads 30. + +J.Q. +Can I have a word with him? + +Dr. Klein exits and J.Q. moves to Mike and gently wakes him up. + +MIKE +Hi, Dad. You find me a heart? + +J.Q. +Yeah, kid. We got you one. Look like you've got a guardian angel. + +Mike smiles and tries to go back to sleep. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +Try to stay awake for a minute, will you? I just need to tell you a few things. I want you always to listen to your mother. Because she's your best friend and family is important. + +He's all over the place, searching for the right words. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +And girls? You're too young for them now, but when the time comes, treat them like princesses because that's what they are. And if you say you'll do something, do it, because your world should be your bond. And if you have a chance to make money, go for it, even if it means selling out once in a while. Don't be a knucklehead like your father. Everything's so much easier with money. + +He's stumbling, trying to cram a lifetime of advice into five minutes. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +Don't smoke. And try to be kind. But if someone chooses you, be a man and stand up for yourself. And don't get caught up in the bad things, there's too many great things out there. + +J.Q. just sits there, the tears running down his face, not knowing what to say. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +Mike? + +Mike's eyes open. + +MIKE +Yeah, Dad? + +J.Q. +See you later, buddy. + +Mike closes his eyes before opening and closing his little hand. Bye bye. + +INT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - CORRIDORS - NIGHT + +INTERCUT + +Reggie races through the hospital, weaving in and out of ambulatory and pedestrian traffic. In his hand, the all important fax. + +INT. J.Q.'S TRAUMA ROOM - NIGHT + +Maguire, Klein and Turner speak in hushed tones as J.Q. reenters. When they see him, they immediately go quiet. J.Q.'s eyes are glassy, a look of finality on his face. + +J.Q. +Let's do it. + +Maguire gathers fresh, clean towels and makes a pack for the back of J.Q.'s head. J.Q. sits on the exam table, takes the Baretta and pops the clip. He then takes a single bullet from his pocket, feeds the clip and chambers the round. + +MAGUIRE +Wait a minute. This gun was empty the whole time? + +J.Q. +Aw, I'm all talk. I would never hurt any of you. Only person I ever considered killing was me. + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - NIGHT + +Reggie flies out the main entrance and into the crowd, pushing through the sea of humanity until he reaches Payne, Grimes and Monroe. + +REGGIE +Miss Payne! You're not going to believe this! We've got a match. + +PAYNE +Are you sure? + +Payne studies the fax. + +REGGIE +B-positive. Michael William Archibald. The only status one in the whole country. The heart is ours. + +INSERT FAX + +It's official. The heart is on the way. + +PAYNE +Well, I'll be damned. + +GRIMES +You really put the kid on the list? + +PAYNE +I may be a lot of things, Lieutenant, but I am not a liar. + +INT. J.Q.'S TRAUMA ROOM - NIGHT + +J.Q. readies himself before laying back on the roll of towels. + +DR. TURNER +John. Stop. I changed my mind. I won't do this. + +J.Q. regards Turner with positive affection. + +J.Q. +You're a good man, Doc. I know you'll do the right thing. + +J.Q. lifts the gun to his head. + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - NIGHT + +Reggie, Grimes, Payne and Monroe run over to Denise. + +GRIMES +Mrs. Archibald? I have some very, very good news. + +INT. J.Q.'S TRAUMA ROOM - NIGHT + +The moment has come. Everyone's face wears the intensity of it. John holds the gun up, his hand trembling. CLICK! Nothing happens. + +J.Q. +Sorry. Safety's on. + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - NIGHT + +Denise reads the fax. + +DENISE +Is this for real? + +REGGIE +You bet. The Lear Jet just landed at O'Hare. The helicopter will be here in fifteen minutes. + +Grimes offers his walkie-talkie to Denise. + +GRIMES +You want to do the honors? + +DENISE +(into walkie-talkie) +John? It's me, baby. Are you there? + +INT. J.Q.'S TRAUMA ROOM - NIGHT + +DENISE (O.S.) +John, honey? Pick up. + +J.Q. hears Denise's voice squawking over the walkie-talkie. SNAP. He shuts it off. Takes a deep breath. Flips the safety off and puts the gun to his head for the final time. + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - NIGHT + +Denise keeps triggering the walkie-talkie. + +DENISE +John? John? Oh, no. + +Desperate, she grabs the list and starts running towards the ER entrance. + +INT. J.Q.'S TRAUMA ROOM - NIGHT + +CLOSE ON J.Q.'s GUN + +Moves closer to the temple til it touches. + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - NIGHT + +Denise breaks through the police barricade. + +INT. J.Q.'S TRAUMA ROOM - NIGHT + +CLOSER ON TRIGGER as John's finger pulls it tighter. + +BLAM! + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - E.R. ENTRANCE - NIGHT + +BLAM! The sound is revealed. Not a bullet. It's Denise slapping the list up against the glass windows of the ER. + +DENISE +John! It's a miracle! They found a heart! It's a miracle!!! + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - NIGHT + +The crowd points and stares as a white medivac helicopter descends from the sky, lights flashing and lands on the roof. + +PULL BACK TO REVEAL + +Tuck Lampley, hand over his ear, shouting above the noise to bring us more exclusive coverage. + +LAMPLEY +The heart is here. Repeat. The heart for little Mike Archibald has arrived. What an unbelievable ending to this incredible, tumultuous day. + +A roar from the crowd is heard as the entrance to the ER is unlocked and the front door opens. Mitch and Debby are the first to emerge. + +LAMPLEY (CONT'D) +Oh my goodness, here we go. The first of the hostages are being released. Yes, they're coming out. There's one, two. They appear to be unharmed. But certainly exhausted from what must've been an excruciating ordeal. + +Julie and the security guard are next. And are quickly ushered away to support vehicles. + +LAMPLEY (CONT'D) +More, now. And there he is. John Q. is coming out. + +J.Q., in baseball hat and windbreaker, emerges from the hospital. + +LAMPLEY (CONT'D) +The suspect's hands are up. He appears to be surrendering. + +The police are all around him now. Pointing their weapons and shouting commands. J.Q. puts his hands behind his head, turns around, kneels and then lays face down on the pavement. + +LAMPLEY (CONT'D) +And they've got him. The police have subdued him. The handcuffs are on, and it's over. It's all over. + +The crowd voices their disapproval with the rough way J.Q. is being apprehended. They cheer their support as he is escorted to a police car. + +LAMPLEY (CONT'D) +If pictures speak a thousand words, well, I'd say these images speak volumes. And now as the bloody stand off comes to an end, we remind you that Channel 8 was here first and has brought you live, moment-to-moment, all-day coverage of "Crisis at Hope Memorial.' + +Frank Grimes takes in the whole scene. But as he glances at the suspect, a funny look comes across his face. Wait a sec - + +INT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - CORRIDORS - NIGHT + +Mike's gurney flies through the hospital corridors. Running alongside are Turner, Klein, Maguire and Denise. As well as teams of MEDICAL PERSONNEL and a man in green surgical scrubs. As they pass a police checkpoint, we notice the identity of the man in the green scrubs. It's J.Q. + +EXT. HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - NIGHT + +As J.Q. is pushed into the car, Grimes sees his real identity. It's Lester, dressed in J.Q.'s windbreaker, collar up, baseball cap pulled way down over his eyes. Grimes shakes his head. Top notch policework. Incredulous, he turns and takes the long walk to the hospital. + +INT. OPERATING ROOM - PEDIATRIC CARDIOLOGY - NIGHT + +Dr. Turner and the team work with quiet precision as Mike lays on the operating table, his chest wide open. Behind the partition glass, J.Q. and Denise hold on to each other for support as they look on. A figure in a rumpled suit settles in next to them and watches. It's Grimes. + +GRIMES +It's time, John. + +J.Q. turns, knows it's over. + +J.Q. +Can you give me a second, Frank? I just need to see this thing through. + +GRIMES +Sure. Put these on for me, will you? + +Grimes hands J.Q. a pair of handcuffs. John puts them on and the three watch the surgery. The replacement heart is taken out of its container and placed into Mike's chest. But then, something suddenly is wrong. Mike's vital signs start giving out. The gauges dropping at once. It's bad. + +NURSE #1 +Blood pressure seventy over thirty-two. + +NURSE #2 +Acute respiratory distress. + +NURSE #1 +He's fibrillating. + +MAGUIRE +I don't have a pulse. + +John and Denise look on, helpless. Dr. Turner barks out commands as the team scrambles to remedy the critical situation. + +DR. KLEIN +He's going. + +DR. TURNER +No! Come on, goddammit! I'm not losing this boy! + +Nut now the long familiar tone of the EKG is heard. FLATLINE. + +VIDEO IMAGES FILL THE SCREEN + +Various news related programming. "Crossfire," "Face The Nation," CNBC, COURT TV and "Larry King Live." Clips dissolve one into the other. + +VIDEO CLIP #1 + +NEWS REPORTER #1 +...cannot let this man free. It sends the wrong message. + +NEWS REPORTER #2 +I agree. Although he's paid a heavy price, he took matters into his own hands... + +VIDEO CLIP #2 + +NEWS REPORTER #3 +Maybe it's the wake up call this country needs... + +VIDEO CLIP #3 + +NEWS REPORTER #4 +...socialized medicine in England has worked. + +NEWS REPORTER #5 +Sure, to a point. Except when it's their life on the line, the Dutch, the English and everyone else go to their private doctors or come to America because we have the best technology. That is if they can afford it. + +VIDEO CLIP #4 + +NEWS REPORTER #6 +I think the decision we see today will tell us a lot about this country. + +VIDEO CLIP #5 + +NEWS REPORTER #7 +The long awaited verdict is expected today in the trial of John Quincy Archibald, where the jury has been deliberating... + +INT. COURTROOM - DAY + +SUPERIMPOSE: THREE MONTHS LATER + +CLOSE ON + +A gavel pounding down. The black-robed JUDGE silences the crowd. The courtroom is standing room only. Packed with cops, TV cameras, reporters, etc. + +We see Denise next to a grim-faced Jimmy and Gina Palumbo. As the jury flies into the jury box, the people take their seats. The bailiff hands the verdict card to the judge who reads it before addressing the FOREMAN. + +JUDGE +Has the jury reached a verdict? + +The foreman stands, faces the judge. + +JURY FORMAN +We have, Your Honor. + +JUDGE +The defendant will please rise. + +AT THE DEFENDANT'S TABLE + +J.Q. Archibald gets up and faces the judge. His attorney, a P.D., by his side. + +Standing next to Denise, we REVEAL MIKE - he looks healthy and rosy-cheeked. He grabs his mother's hand with anticipation. + +JUDGE (CONT'D) +The jury foreman will now read the verdict. + +JURY FORMAN +As to count one, Assault with a deadly weapon, we find the defendant, John Quincy Archibald, not guilty. + +The courtroom explodes in cheers. In the crowd, we see familiar faces: Debby, Dr. Turner, and Dr. Klein. Behind them, Maguire. + +JURY FORMAN (CONT'D) +On count two, Armed Criminal Action. Not guilty. + +The crowd again roars its approval. Steve and Miriam watch from the gallery, holding a baby girl. Even Rebecca Payne cracks a smile. + +JURY FORMAN (CONT'D) +On the final count, False Imprisonment, we find the defendant, guilty. The crowd erupts in protest. The media rush out to file their stories. + +DENISE +No! + +JUDGE +Quiet! Sentencing will be one week from today. + +J.Q. stares straight ahead and takes a breath. After a moment, the public defender leads him over to the rail, where he is greeted by Jimmy, Gina, Denise and Mike. + +PUBLIC DEFENDER +He's going to do some time. But there's not a judge in the country that will give him more than a year. And with time served, John will be home very soon. + +J.Q. leans over to talk to his son. + +J.Q. +You alright? + +Mike nods and stands there trying to hold back the tears. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +It's okay, slugger. I'll be home soon. If you need anything, ask your mother. And Jimmy and Gina will be around. + +MIKE +Don't worry. If anybody messes with us, I'll take care of it. + +J.Q. embraces his boy and moves over to Denise. + +DENISE +A year, huh? I could have lost you forever. I guess I can live with that. + +A hand taps him on the shoulder. J.Q. looks up. Sees Grimes. + +GRIMES +Time to go, John. + +DENISE +John? I'm proud of you. + +J.Q. smiles and Grimes starts to lead him away. + +JIMMY +Give 'em hell, Johnny. Don't worry about nothing. + +MIKE +Bye, Dad. + +J.Q. +Not goodbye. Remember? See you later. + +EXT. COURTROOM - MORNING + +An enormous crowd lines both sides of the granite steps. They cheer their support as J.Q. emerges. Grimes steers J.Q. out through the confusion as reporters stick their mics in J.Q.'s face. They ask ridiculous questions about justice, health care, and politics. J.Q., uncomfortable with all the attention, has no comment. He pushes past politely, head down, his attention joslted when he hears a familiar voice. + +VOICE IN CROWD +Hey, John. Good luck, man. + +J.Q. recognizes the voice, turns and sees LESTER. Both smile to each other as J.Q. is pushed further through when -- + +REPORTER +John Q.? Do you feel like your country has let you down? + +J.Q. +(quietly) +No. It's a wonderful country. + +REPORTER +I'm sorry. I couldn't hear you. Could you repeat that? + +Grimes steps forward and speaks directly into the camera. + +GRIMES +He said, "America is the greatest goddamn country in the world." Now excuse us, I have to take this man to jail. + +They push past the barricades and into the street. + +MEDIA +John Q.! John Q.! + +GRIMES +Look at all this. You're a celebrity, John. + +J.Q. +Yeah? Check with me in a couple of days. + +They move to the street and Grimes opens the car door. J.Q. climbs inside. He looks up to see the CROWD, in all its glory, cameras flashing, microphones pointed at J.Q. + +J.Q. (CONT'D) +This is ridiculous. I don't even know these people. + +GRIMES +What can I tell you? You're their hero. + +J.Q. +I'm not hero, Frank. I'm just a regular guy. + +GRIMES +Yeah, right. + +Grimes slams the door. The "cherry" light spins, the siren wops and the cop car rolls through the crowd of people. + +INT. POLICE CAR - CONTINUOUS + +On the street, J.Q. sees Mike wave to him from the sidewalk, trying to get John's attention. Mike is saying something. J.Q. turns to look closer and finally he gets it: EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS + +Mike's lips say "Thank you." + +INT. POLICE CAR - CONTINUOUS + +John winks at his boy. + +EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS Mike makes a muscle. + +INT. POLICE CAR - CONTINUOUS + +John smiles, and the car picks up speed. + +EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS + +The cop car pulls away. Away from the courtroom. The circus. Finally disappearing from view and we -- + +FADE TO BLACK. + +THE END diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Judge Dredd.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Judge Dredd.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..503826e053434b1df29750680865f710289cdd1c --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Judge Dredd.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + JUDGE DREDD Written by Steven E. de Souza Story by William Wisher & Walon Green SECOND DRAFT March 17, 1994 JUDGE DREDD FADE IN: BLACK SCREEN. NARRATOR In the third millennium, the world... changed. 1 MONTAGE (STOCK - IF DESIRED) 1 Vicious events, both natural and man-made. Earthquakes. Floods. Ice storms. War. Riots. Chaos and injustice. NARRATOR(CONT'D) Climate. Nations. Borders. All were in upheaval. Humanity itself turned as violent as the planet. Civilization threatened to collapse. And then... a solution was found. The crumbling, teetering legal system was merged with the overburdened police, creating a powerful and efficient hybrid. Trained equally in jurisprudence and combat, these new guardians (X) of Society could dispense both justice and punishment. They were (X) police, jury and executioner, all in one. They were... The Judges. 2 2 thru OMITTED thru 4 4 5 EXT. WASTELAND - DAY 5 It looks like the beginning of time... or its end. Nothing grows here. Nothing could. This is the CURSED EARTH. With a WHIRR, a SHUTTLE appears in the sky. We PAN it to a GIANT CITY WALL. A LOCK-LIKE GATE chugs open. The shuttle ENTERS. 6 INT. CITY LOCK - DAY 6 As the massive craft settles, it is sprayed down by HI-POWERED JETS. Brown dirt drips away to show eroding metal and the LOGO: "MEGA-CITY JUDGE SYSTEM - ASPEN PRISON SHUTTLE #3." P.A. SYSTEM ASPEN PRISON SHUTTLE DOCKED. (X) PAROLEES, PREPARE TO DISEMBARK. (X) The shuttle's air lock port whooses OPEN. A line of drably (X) dressed men and women exit, carrying their few possessions. (X) JUDGE DREDD 2 Rev. #1: 16/4/94 7 THE CITY LOCK - INNER GATE TO CITY - DAY 7 One by one the parolees return to society. We follow the last: HERMAN FERGUSON ("FERGIE"). Fergie's a.genius - a genius without common sense, street smarts, or muscle tone. So his career as a master criminal has gone absolutely nowhere. GATE GUARD (SCANNING HIM) Ferguson, Herman. Six month sentence Aspen Prison served. Welcome back, Citizen. Your living _ assignment is Block Y, "Heavenly Haven", Red Quad. Watch it or (X) your ass will be back in Aspen. (X) Fergie hurries through the gate. We follow him - as he stops in his tracks. He's looking at 8 A MAGNIFICENT CITY 8 Giant towers reach miles into the sky. Elevated skyways are filled with traffic. Flying Barges and Shuttles service the highest levels. Dominating all is a building shaped like an EAGLE: The Hall of Justice. Almost lost and forgotten among' (X) the towering buildings is a relic from our time: The Statue of (X) Liberty. Title Supered: (X) MEGA-CITY ONE: 2539 (X) Fergie takes another look at the gleaming city, and then his (X) papers. (X) FERGIE (X) Heavenly Haven. Sounds nice. CUT TO: 9 EXT. HEAVENLY HAVEN BLOCK - DAY 9 And it is nice - a perfect Utopian future of happy families strolling through a green urban park. CAMERA WIDENS... and we realize that the scene is a, "video poster" on a bleak and rubble-filled EMPTY LOT..Z VIDEO POSTER (taped V.0.) --oming soon, the Heavenly Haven Pocket Park. Bringing fresh air and recreation to your lives. Another design for better living from the Mega-City Council. Coming soon, the Heavenly Haven Pocket Park. Bringing fresh air... (CONTINUED) 3 9 CONTINUED: Surrounding the lot on all four sides are GIANT TENEMENTS. Weary, hungry and dirty RESIDENTS ("Rezzies") scurry by on (X; errands both lldegaannot. 10 NEW ANGLE - THE EMPTY LOT 10 A MUNICIPAL VEHICLE pulls up. A bored CITY TECH gets out, goes to the Video Poster Standee and turns it OFF in mid-ilspe. The sudden silence attracts some attention. The TECH drops in a NEW VIDEO CART which begins to PLAY as he drives away. Rezzies gather around to watch the new video. CLOSER - VIDEO) POSTER 11 Showing a monolithic BUILDING on the empty lot. VIDEO POSTER V.O. Coming soon, the Heavenly Haven Law Enforcement Barracks, bringing surveillance and security to your lives. Another design for better (X) living from the Mega City Council. lI REVERSE ANGLE 12 As this sinks in on the tenement residents. FIRST RESIDENT Our Park! They stole our park! SECOND RESIDENT Lying bastards! FIRST RESIDENT Lying Judges! A ER::! gets tossed into the VIDEO SCREEN. As it SPARKS, the residents swarm, knocking it over - then the chain link fence around the lot starts to shake, heave and collapse - :N HEAVENLY HAVEN BLOCK TOWER - UPPER FLOOR - DAY 13 WIDEN from a sign on the door: THIS LEVEL CONDEMNED. Nonetheless a group of SQUAT'T'ERS ;s living here. Several GIGGLE, ingesting some future narcotic through tubes they stuff in their noses. Suddenly, SHOUTS and BREAKING GLASS rouse them from their stupor. ZED, the meanest looking squatter, goes to the window, curious. (CONTINUED) 4 3 CONTINUED: 13 ZED Hey, Homies. The rezzies are going mental. (GIGGLING) Let's give 'em a hand. As the others start to take out weapons, we (X) CUT TO: 4 14 _..ru OMITTED thru 16 17 INT. TAXI SHUTTLE - IN FLIGHT - DUSK 17 Fergie's jammed in with other lower economic PASSENGERS. He sees a terrace pool where a number of girls are frolicking. He waves at the girls, speaks to the Shuttle DRIVER. FERGIE Right down there... I think that's Heavenly Haven. NC such luck. The craft BANKS. :..XT. TAXI SHUTTLE - NIGHT 18 As :: descends, the structures it passes grow progressively -de:. Filth and grime cover everything. The shuttle lands z.. r.e street with a WHOOSH. (X) 19 he sets out the shuttle lifts off. Fergie looks signs. FERGIE Still better than prison. BR.'.-TA':-TAT! Suddenly GUNFIRE erupts all around him. He looks ASTONISHMENT AT I'r SE ER.AL WINDOWS - HIS P . O . V . 20 As more and more frustrated residents OPEN FIRE at anything and everything. VOICES BLOCK WAR! BLOCK WAR! BLOCK WAR! Fergie runs into the building. 5 INT. HEAVENLY HAVEN TOWER - NIGHT People run in panic as bullets shatter windows. A BATTERED ROBOT FOOD CART cruises the hallway, oblivious to the people darting around it. ROBOT FOOD CART (A RECORDING) Delicious and healthful ration packs, piping hot and ready to eat..! Fergie darts around the robot, SEES a small MAINTENANCE HATCH in the wall and jumps inside. His long HOWL tells us he didn't (X) expect the long fall that results. CUT TO: 22 EXT. HEAVENLY HAVEN BLOCK - STREET LEVEL 22 A resident breaks for cover, tries to run across thestreet. BHUDDA-BHUDDA-BHUDDA. He's cut down midway. 23 INT. HEAVENLY HAVEN TOWERS - THE SQUATTERS 23 Have spread out and are firing from the windows of several ac Joining rooms. ZED Did you see that! What a fucking shot! What a fucking shot - ! Reggie h -fives him. Then an overhead THUD makes them look up a- the HEATING VENT. Zed reaches up - yanks off the grate - 24 1 E'V: ANGLE 24 Fergie tumbles into the room. Zed puts one foot on him, points his gun right between his eyes. ZED What do we have here? You a Judge, little man? The others laugh at the concept. FERGIE Me, a Judge, no, no - (SHOWING PAPERS) I live here, I mean, I'm gonna live (X) here - if - if I live - (CONTINUED) 6 CONTINUED: 24 3RD SQUATTER (TWIST) If you're a rezzie, then why are you hiding? This is a block war, man! They grab him, playing roughly with him. ZED You gonna stand up for your block, ain't ya? FERGIE Look, I'm out on parole - If I get into any trouble my ass is right back in Aspen - CLICK. Zed's gun is in his face. FERGIE (cont' d) (quickly, cheerleading) Let's go, Haven, Let's go Haven, Haven all the way - BANANA CLIPS are shoved into his hands along with boxes of :artridaes. REGGIE Reload, dipshit. BULLETS rip through the windows here. Fergie ducks, _er-_fied... drops the bullets. CUT TO: 2= - ‚Ä¢ STREET LEVEL - NIGHT - CLOSE ON TWO FIGURES 25 wearinc armored uniforms, riding ARMORED MOTORCYCLES called LAWMASTERS. Both riders wear HELMETS that conceal most of their =aces. But we can see that the leader is a woman. Her badge reads "Hershey". Suddenly BULLETS ping around her. Several ricochet off the arm ored bike. HERSHEY Take cover! 26 WIDER 26 As bullets seek them out, both riders dive off their bikes and roll into combat positions behind a low wall. Hershey's partner BRISCO is young and eager... too eager. (CONTINUED) 7 CONTINUED: BRISCO (BEHIND BARRICADE) Just like an Academy Simulation, right down to the crossfire. (RISING) I'll lead off, you follow. HERSHEY (yanking him back) This isn't a Sim, Rookie! Stand down and wait for back up! (into helmet mike) In position outside Heavenly Haven. Pinned down by fire from upper floors. CUT TO: 27 EXT. VIEW OVER MEGA - NIGHT 27 A figure close to CAMERA straddles an even bigger LAWMASTER CYCLE that makes a Harley look like a mo-ped. The rider's GLOVED HAND activates the Lawmaster's CITY MAP. HERSHEY(V.O.) Fire is coming from Level Y, repeat Y. Request back-up, nearest Judge! The map BEEPS, shows a route. The hand moves to the THROTTLE. 2E LAWMASTER - WIDER 28 -DA,RS away from the CAMERA, burning rubber. CUT TO: 29 EXT. STREET - BLOCK WAR - NIGHT 29 Hershey and Brisco are pinned down under a barrage of fire. Smoke fills the street, the sounds of automatic weapons fire, exploding glass, and screams, fill the air. Hershey tries to ae: a shot off - a bullet CRACKS her face plate - CUT TO: 3C THAT ONCOMING LAWMASTER 30 Whips around a corner - dodges a burned out vehicle. The mighty bike VAULTS the barricades and lands. A MOLOTOV COCKTAIL sails in front of it,, EXPLODES. The rider'does a WHEELIE! 8 UP ANGLE The bike parts the flames like a curtain, SMASHES DOWN right in the middle of all the chaos. The Rider gets off. 32 HERSHEY AND BRISCO 32 huddle behind their bikes at the perimeter. They react to a figure emerging from the smoke. BRISCO That's our back-up? He's a sitting duck out there. You'd think he wants them to see him. Hershey smiles ruefully. HERSHEY If that's who I think it is... he does. 33 THE FIGURE 33 Steps out of the flames. Six feet of armored justice, he was raised in a State Orphanage that taught him Duty and Honor. Now, he serves that State as Judge... Jury... and Executioner. ::is BADGE fills the frame: "DREDD". CUT TO: 34 _N':. SQUATTER'S LEVEL - NIGHT 34 Tw:st stares down, scared. TWIST Fuck. That's Judge Dredd. We gotta surrender while we can-- He starts to raise his gun over his head. Zed smacks him in the yaw with his own weapon. ZED You chickenshit bowab! He's gonna surrender to us. And then we'll blow his brains out. (shouting). Come and get us, Dredd! Zed FIRES out the window. Reggie happily joins, then the others. Finally Twist shrugs, FIRES too. REGGIE' More ammo! A terrified Fergie hands him a clip. 9 ,5 EXT. THE STREET - NIGHT The stream of GUNFIRE chews up the pavement at Dredd's feet. HERSHEY Down! You crazy futz - ! 36 DREDD 36 strides calmly over to them. DREDD He's firing a 64 laze pumper from six hundred feet. He couldn't hit me if I painted a bull's eye on my ass. (GLANCING UP) We'll keep it simple. Standard relay. Single file. I'm point. Hershey nods. Brisco, eager to prove himself, steps in front of Dredd at the Heavenly Block entrance. DREDD(CONT'D) You - last. Dredd pushes Brisco behind Hershey. Turns toward Heavenly as re draws his massive LAWGIVER HANDGUN. Dredd speaks into the ::ny computer in the breech as he aims at the door. DREDD(CONT'D) Grenade. :'ÔøΩBccM! The round knocks the steel door off its hinges. Dredd r:zxs :z aside and the Judges enter. CUT TO: 37 IN:'. HEAVENLY TOWERS - WITH THE SQUATTERS - NIGHT 37 Feraie, terrified, passes loaded ammo clips to his "friends". The WHIRR of a motor outside the hallway attracts his attention. 38 HIS POV - THE FOOD ROBOT - ON ITS ROUNDS 38 FOOD ROBOT Delicious and healthful ration packs, piping hot and ready to eat..! 39 FERGIE 39 Looks at his crazed "friends" and then backs up to the robot... CUT TO: 10 - INT. HEAVENLY HAVEN CORRIDOR - NIGHT 40 Dredd, Hershey, and Brisco stride forward. SOUND of GUNFIRE tells them they are close to their target. HERSHEY (TENTATIVELY POINTING) I think they're there - Dredd shakes his head... points. . .down. DREDD No. There. CUT TO: 40A INT. SQUATTER'S ROOMS - NIGHT 40A The squatters here are so busy FIRING their own guns out the window they don't SEE the CIRCLE OF BULLET HOLES that carve an oper.;ng above their heads! With a CRASH, the section of ceiling FALLS IN - Dredd rides it down, FIRING! 40E NEW ANGLE " 40B His shots catch most of the shooters by surprise. The few survivors throw down their weapons. DREDD This room is pacified. mcves carefully through the smoke. Behind him, Hershey and __:SCC -ump down to the floor, check the bodies. Hershey cuffs :-::se s=__: alive. 4- AT T E DOOR TO THE NEXT ROOM 41 Dreoc avcids the door, moves along the wall. Suddenly Brisco darts forward. BRISCO This one's mine! ,HERSHEY No! Dredd moves to stop him but he's too far away. Brisco kicks the door open - 11 - IN THE NEXT SQUATTER'S ROOM 4 He's face to face with Reggie, Zed, and Twist. BRISCO This room is under-- BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA! Brisco is blown backwards off his feet. 43 DREDD 43 spins around. Sees Brisco dead in the doorway. Snarls, enraged. Hershey whirls, KICKS down one of the wounded who tries to escape in the confusion. 44 IN THE OTHER ROOM 44 TWIST (SUDDENLY NOTICING) Hey. Where's the little ammo dude? As they all look for Fergie, the wall next to the door EXPLODES OPEN. Dredd enters through it. DREDD You're all under arrest. Will you surrender, or would you like your trials now? 7ne', look at him for a moment - then BLAST away. 4 45 for cover, FIRES back - but one guy has a weapon as big as a :.a_nsaw, and it's decimating Dredd's hiding place. DREDD (INTO LAWGIVER) Armor piercing! (X) I SEEP and LED change on the weapon. Dredd FIRES - (X) 4t H: S ENEMY 46 The bullet goes THROUGH his weapon, kills him! (X) 4- BACK TO SCENE 47 Dredd turns, sees Reggie and another squatter charging at him from both sides. DREDD (INTO LAWGIVER) DOUBLE WHAMMYI (CONTINUED) 12 AT-7 CONTINUED: 47 BEEP. He FIRES. Two bullets come out at once, each taking (X out a man! But Reggae`s body rolls into Dre d, knocking him off his feet! 48 CLOSE ON DREDD 48 He's lost his Lawgiver! He reaches out for it - and gets kicked in the head! CAMERA ADJUSTS to show Twist, sudd enly courageous with Dredd on the floor. TWIST (SEEING IT) Lawgiver! Awesome! And he snatches it up, and aims at Dredd's head! 49 WIDER 49 ZED (SHOUTING) Don't touch it! They're booby trapped - ! Too late. A high pitched BEEP is the only warning before the Handgun EXPLODES, knocking Zed off his feet. C NEW ANGLE 50 Zed starts to get up - sees Twist's ARM on his body! Screaming, flings it aside and jumps up - right into Dredd's KICK. DREDD Mega-City Municipal Code 334.8. Willful destruction of property. That's two years. WHAR:. He hits Zed in the face. Zed rocks, but stays up. He fries tc grab a nearby weapon, but Dredd kicks it away. DREDD(CONT'D) Code 11-5C. Illegal possession of assault weapons. Five years. Zed blocks Dredd's next blow; pulls him into a brutal embrace, slams Dredd against the walf. Again! DREDD(CONT'D) Code 7034-A. Resisting arrest. Twenty years. Dredd breaks free! Slams Zed once, twice. Zed flies back against the wall. 13 FAVORING ZED DREDD(CONT'D) 9804. Assault on a Judge with deadly intent. ZED (tough, scornful) Don't tell me. Life. CAMERA REVEALS that Zed another weapon hidden behind his back. Now, he goes for it! 52 FAVORING DREDD 52 We weren't expecting Zed's move. Dredd was. While we were blinking, he kicked a fallen weapon up from the floor and caught DREDD No... Death. He FIRES at the same moment as Zed! Zed's shot hits Dredd's ARMOR, pings off. Dredd's shot hits Zed's heart. DREDD(CONT'D) Court is adjourned. OX:TTED 5_ 54 :NT. HEAVENLY HAVEN CORRIDOR - NIGHT 54 O: er Judges and paramedics have arrived. The Judges process arres:ees and the paramedics see to the wounded. ::ersnev‚Ä¢ rooks on beside Dredd as Brisco's body is zipped into a cac an, --4 away. HERSHEY I was supposed to watch out for him. DREDD He made the mistake. Not you. Dredd cocks his head, listening. Somehow in the din and confusion he has heard something. He turns. :5 NEW ANGLE 55 The food robot is coming down the corridor, skittering around bodies and debris. Its actions are less smooth than before, and its voice seems off, too. (CONTINUED) 14 55 CONTINUED: 55 FOOD ROBOT Ummm, umm, yumm! Healthful and nutritious food rations, ready to eat! Dredd suddenly pushes forward in the crowd. Hershey follows. She watches, puzzled, as he steps in the automaton's path, takes an assault rifle from another Judge and AIMS it! DREDD (TO ROBOT) Halt! You have ten seconds to surrender. Ten. Nine. HERSHEY (PUZZLED) Dredd, It's just a servo-droid - DREDD (aside to Hershey) The guide wire in the floor isn't working. (to the robot) Five! Four! FOOD ROBOT Ah, just put your credit in your selection and - credit in the slot and-and - shit! The robot stops. The jumble of food in back spills out and Fergie uncoils from the cramped interior, still holding the scarK r.a wires he was using to manipulate the machine. DREDD Mega-City Municipal Code 1286.4: Willful sabotage of a public servo-droid. That's six months, citizen. He grabs Fergie, pushes him against the wall. DREDD(CONT'D) (taking it)- Let's see your Unicard. FERGIE Come on, give me a break, Judge uh-. (SEEING NAMETAG) D-dredd? By now Dredd has run his scanner over Fergie's chip and Fergie's dossier is zipping by. (CONTINUED) 15 CONTINUED: ( 2) DREDD FERGUSON, Herman. Forget six months: You've hacked into city droids, computers... (reading, interested) Cash machines, robot taxis... And you haven't even been out of jail for twenty four hours. (TO HERSHEY) He's habitual, Hershey. Automatic (X) five year sentence. FERGIE Five years? But - I - I had no choice, judge - He sees Dredd's impassive face, turns to Hershey's more sympathetic one. FERGIE(CONT'D) They were killing each other up there, I had to get out! I only hacked the droid to save my life! It was the only way! DREDD Not at all. You could have climbed out a window, worked your way down. Or found a turboshaft and shimmied down the cable. FERGIE Sixty stories? It woulda been suicide! DREDD Maybe. But it would have been legal. I sentence you to five years in. Aspen Penitentiary. Case closed. Take him away. s-': protesting, Fergie is hauled away. Hershey looks at Dredd. HERSHEY He might have been telling the truth. Haven't you ever heard of extenuating circumstances? DREDD ' Yes. And cowardice isn't one of them. (CONTINUED) 16 - 5 CONTINUED: (3) 5- She looks at Dredd disappointingly and we (X; CUT TO: =5A EXT. HALL OF JUSTICE - NIGHT 55A The gleaming civil and legal heart of Mega-City, shaped like (X) the symbol of the Judge System itself: An Eagle. (X) VOICE (GRIFFIN) (X) My fellow Judges, have we forgotten (X) the lessons of History? (X) =5B INT. HALL OF JUSTICE - COUNCIL CHAMBER - NIGHT 55B The CAMERA discovers the Mega-City Council of Judges, in mid- (X) session CHIEF JUST ICE FARGO, 70, sits at an elevated position (X) a: a great BLACK TAB LE. Other Judges sit on either side of him. (X) Arcng them are JUDGE MCGRUDER, a woman in her 60's, open minded (X) b:: with an ironill w ; JUDGE ESPOSITO, 50's, thoughtful, (X) accommodatin g; JUDG E YAMAMOTO, 50's, short-tempered, yet fair; (X) and JUDGE GRIFFIN , 6 0, with a mind and body as honed as men half (X) :,s agehis cl , ean f eatures can hide much. But now, they hide (X) `ng: His pass i on and sincerity make his words ring. (X) GRIFFIN(cont'd) (X) A R epublic is a body politic that (X) i s susceptible to many ills... from (X) eni nuto anarchy. And the block (X) wa r to d ay was a definite warning (X) s i gn of - (X) asser:bi\‚Ä¢ REACTS as rowdily as the British Parliament. (X) MCGRUDER (X) - of your misguided policies as (X) Urban Administrator! (X) YAMAMOTO Hold on, Judge McGruder - let's not blame the messenger! Judge Griffin HAS - œøΩESPOSITO - Griffin has been trying to get us to swallow his crime package (X) for two years now and I still have INDIGESTION - UPROAR. We sense that the room is evenly divided. A GAVEL BANGS for order with a CRACK like thunder. Everyone quiets as quickly as schoolchildren.. 17 FAVORING FARGO c_ FARGO Order, order! As presiding Justice, I only vote to break a tie. But I wish to address the question of Judge Griffin's crime package. Is there any objection? GRIFFIN This entire body owes its very existence to you, Chief Justice. (looking around) = (X ) I can ' t imagine anyone having an objection. CAMERA sweeps towards Fargo, passing over the MAP of North (X) America etched on t h e great DAIS. Only a few lights stand out (X) on all the conti nent: MEGA-CITY ONE; MEGA-CITY TWO; TEXAS CITY; (X) and the ASPEN PENAL C OLONY. All the rest is labeled THE CURSED (X) EARTH. (X) Fargo stands, eyes blazing with intelligence and intensity. (X) we sense t h at we are observing a Lion in Winter. And the lion can still roar. FARGO This body is not the first assembly (' to think that more laws and fewer choices will bring peace and order. (X) That delusion has been tried and failed before. If the citizens of Mega-City are demanding more control of their lives, that's not a threat - it's a signal! A signal to open the windows of our society and let it: breathe - (a look to Griffin) Not to bolt the door and throw away the key! My fellow Judges, I was (X) barely in my teens when I put on this badge. When the time comes for me to take it off... let me do it. knowing that it stood for Freedom... and not for Repression. He sits down. Clearly he has changed the mood of the room. JUDGE GRIFFIN Once again, Chief Justice,'you have served as a moral compass for all of us. I... withdraw my proposal. (PAUSE) I hope ... for-good. CUT TO: 18 - INT. HALL OF JUSTICE - CORRIDOR - NIGHT 56 Dredd is watching a MONITOR. VARDIS HAMMOND, grey-haired, commanding, is standing in front of Heavenly Haven Block while workers put things back in order. HAMMOND(on monitor) --fifty three people hospitalized. (X) Five of them... children. Nine dead... four of them allegedly (X) killed by a gang of squatters... who were themselves killed in (X) summary executions by Judge Dredd. (x) (X) CAMERA WIDENS as the Council Chamber doors OPEN. The Judges come out. Griffin comes over, watches with Dredd. Dredd stiffens at the approach of his superior. Griffin silently indicates for him to stand at ease. HAMMOND(CONT'D) Some people say that to be a Judge on these mean streets is bound to (X) have a certain dehumanizing effect, (X) and that we should sympathize with (X) the Judges. I agree. But the Mega- (X) City Council apparently doesn't. (X) To them, "dehumanization" isn't just (X) a buzz word (X) - it's a byword. And I'll show just how terrifyingly far (X) they've taken that thought... (X) tomorrow night. (X) (X) DREDD (turning, to Griffin) A rookie Judge died there, too. I guess he wasn't worth mentioning. GRIFFIN (WRYLY) No, that might confuse the viewers. We can't be victims, Dredd... we're the villains! (ANGUISHED) Don't they understand we need law and order? Housing car. wait... safe streets can;-., DÔøΩÔøΩDD Things will get better, sir. GRIFFIN (LEAVING) I pray you're right, Dredd. 19 - WITH DREDD S Ch As Griffin leaves, Dredd turns. As he passes the Council (X) amber, Fargo beckons to him. Startled, Dredd joins him. (X) DREDD (X) Chief Justice? (X) FARGO Four Summary Executions, Dredd. (X) Were they necessary? (X) DREDD (X) They were unavoidable, sir. Out (X) there... that's the reality. (X) FARGO W (X) e make our own reality, Dredd. (X) Maybe it ' s time for a new one. (X) Although I doubt Judge Griffin would (X) recognize a new reality if he (X) arrested it himself. (X) DREDD With all due respect, sir, how can you say that when you spend most of your time - D edd breaks off; he's said too much. But Fargo won't let him she hook. FARGO Most of my time where? DREDD At the Academy... Sir. FARGO Don't you mean at the Academy wiping Cadet's Asses? That is what they say in the squad room, isn't it? DREDD It.. doesn't matter what they say, Sir. You're the.Chief Justice of Mega City. If rt weren't for you and the others like you, we wouldn't have our justice system. There isn't a Judge in Mega-City who doesn't want to follow in your footsteps. (CONTINUED) 20 - 7 CONTINUED: 57 FARGO I'm glad you feel that way, Dredd. Because starting tomorrow you're going to spend one day a week at the Academy... teaching. Dredd takes this in his stride. DR,EDD I'd be honored. Unarmed combat, or marksmanship? FARGO (exiting, with a grin) Ethics. And as Dredd reacts, we CUT TO: 58 EXT. ASPEN PENAL COLONY - DAY 58 An ominous mountain fortress. GUARD TOWERS on every corner. WIND rattles the concertina wire on the walls. If the Cursed Earth is hell, this is hell's prison. :NT. ASPEN PENAL COLONY - WARDENS OFFICE - DAY 59 Stark, spare on creature comforts. WARDEN JUDGE MILLER paces. =rorr. time to time he looks at a small PACKAGE on his desk. CLOSE 60 sma:: SEALED BOX with a THUMBCODE LOCK. 3A0!< TO SCENE 61 looks at it, frustrated. Finally makes his decision. He picks it up, leaves the room. CUT TO: 62 INT- MAXIMUM SECURITY WING 62 Miller and two GUARDS stride through the old part of the complex. Everything gets progressively dirti er and dilapidated as they go. Finally, they reach a MASSIVE STE EL DOOR with.a computer access screen. Miller puts his thumb in the lock. MILLER' Miller. Warden. (CONTINUED) 21 - 2 CONTINUED: 6 COMPUTER VOICE Voice sample and thumbscan recognized. The DOOR OPENS. Miller turns to the guards. MILLER (cont' d) Wait here. CUT .TO: c "3 INT. RICO'S CELL - DAY 63 Miller steps inside. AUTOGUNS swivel toward him. "Read" his BADGE. BEEP. The autoguns swing away. The door CLOSES. RICO'S VOICE Hello, Warden. 64 REVERSE ANGLE 64 We're in a large circular room. In the center is an isolated PLATFORM. A curtain of BLUE LIGHT surrounds it. Behind this, :GURE draws a bead of sweat from his forehead... ansently flicks it at the energy curtain. It SIZZLES. The -icure moves CLOSER. This is RICO. RICO(CONT'D) Have you come for another... chat? MILLER A short one, I'm afraid. Duty calls. RI CO (LAUGHS ) We're both prisoners here. You behind a desk... me behind.., this. Fargo's reward for our services. MILLER When you killed innocent people you went far beyond-'service. Rico stands. Moves toward the energy curtain. Glares at Miller. (CONTINUED) 22 - -,4 CONTINUED: 64 RICO "Innocent"? A meaningless word. The innocent exist only until they inevitably become perpetrators themselves. In the end, "Guilt" and "Innocence" are merely a matter of timing. MILLER 'You're insane. RICO Am I? When did you become a perpetrator? Was it the time you found money mysteriously transferred into your account? Or the time I was sentenced to death? You've been taking bribes for years, Warden. You're a criminal. And a stupid one: You don't even know who's paying you. MILLER I don't want to know. RICO If ignorance is bliss, Warden, then (X) you must be very blissful. (WEARY) Miller, why are you here? MILLER Your mysterious benefactor has sent you a package. M:.. .er speaks into a console before Rico's laser-guarded "cell. MILLER (CONT'D) Deactivate Shield. ENERGY CURTAIN drops. The autoguns on the wall swivel toward Rico. Miller moves onto the platform, hands over the package. Rico places his thumb on the lock and it OPENS. 65 THE PACKAGE 65 Rico's JUDGE'S BADGE rests inside. Along with a PHOTOGRAPH... of Hammond, the newscaster. And... what appears to be a "Rubic's Cube" type TUBULAR PUZZLE., 23 - 6 BACK TO SCENE 6 Rico begins to manipulate the puzzle. MILLER (CURIOUS) What is that? RICO The Ancient Puzzle, Miller: The One about the Meaning of Life. MILLER (SARCASTIC) Really. And what is the meaning of Life? RICO It's over. And he AIMS the "puzzle". BLAM! 67 MILLER 67 The SHOT from the tiny weapon hits him in the throat. Gasping, ne falls onto his knees. With one hand on his throat, he staggers to the door while Rico descends from his platform. MILLER (COUGHING) Computer.. . .ac-active s-shield! COMPUTER VOICE Voice not recognized. Security Breach. Autoguns targeting. panics. Scrambles for the door. MILLER NO! BOOM' BOOM! BOOM! He's cut down ten feet from the door. 6:; OUTSIDE THE DOOR - THE TWO GUARDS 68 Jack shells into their riot gins.Charge inside - 69 BACK IN THE CELL 69 The guards only see Miller's body. Then Rico swings down from his hiding place - the turret of an autogun! He KICKS out with both feet - drives both Guards nto'the Energy Curtain. ZAP! They're instantly FRIED. 24 0 WIDER 7C Rico dismounts like an acrobat, holds his badge up towards the autoQun scanner. BEEP. The autoguns pivots away. The DOOR OPENS. Rico snatches up a weapon - steps.outside - CUT TO: 71 INT. ACADEMY -‚Ä¢ INDOOR TRAINING RANGE - TIGHT ON DREDD 71 DREDD Kevlar nine helmet and body armor. WIDEN. Dredd is LECTURING to a group of CADETS who hang on his every word. We're in a TRAINING AREA like the one "Q" ran in the Bond movies. Dredd turns. A TECH nods: Target ready. Dredd FIRES a barrage of bullets at a mannequin in Judge's gear. The bullets ricochet off. The class OOOHS and AHHS. DREDD(CONT'D) Yours, when you graduate. (PAUSE) If you graduate. 2 NEW ANGLE 72 D edd moves to another training station. Another tech nods: Ready. DREDD(CONT'D) (holding it up) Lawgiver Two. Twenty five round sidearm with mission-variable voice programmed ammunition. (INTO GUN) Signal Flare. (X) He turns, FIRES. The FLARE explodes on the wall. Again -000HS (X) and AHHS. DREDD(CONT'D) Yours, when you graduate. 73 HERSHEY - AT SUPPLY ROOM - SAME TIME 73 She is exchanging her battered helmet. Now, she notices Dredd, lingers to watch, impressed witn his style. 74 RESUME DREDD'S CLASS 74 Now he moves to several Techs who are hurriedly tweaking the most awesome LAWMASTER CYCLE we've seen. (CONTINUED) 25 - CONTINUED: 7 DREDD(CONT'D) Mark IV Lawmaster, improved model. With on-board cannon, vertical take off and landing,. flight capacity and 500 kilometer range. The head Tech gives thumbs up while the other techs step back. The class waits, expectant. The lead tech throws a REMOTE. SPARKS fly. The motor COUGHS, dies. The class GROANS. Dredd glares at the embarrassed technicians. DREDD(CONT'D) Yours... if they ever get it to work. LAUGHTER. Dredd moves to a lectern. Faces the class. DREDD(CONT'D) All of these things are nothing (X) but toys. Bottom line, final word, (X) end of the day, when you're alone in the dark... all that counts... is this. takes something from the lectern shelf, throws it down. It's all-but holy book: THE LAW. DREDD(CONT'D) And you will be alone. Because when you swear to uphold these ideals, (X) you are sacrificing whatever chance (X) you have for a Life. (X) h T e': Frown; this is not what they expected to hear from a legend. They become increasingly unnerved. ::ERS:-.EV 76 The talk upsets her, too, perhaps more than the others. DREDD'S VOICE(cont'd) For most of us t'here is only lonely death on the streets... or, for those few of us who survive to old (X) age... the prouder loneliness of the Long Walk. 26 ,... 7 7 RESUME DREDD 77 DREDD (holding up the book) Life, Liberty, and the Pursuitof Happiness. Old and noble ideas. (X) But they are what we give to (Xi others... not what we will ever receive for ourselves. Class dismissed. The class breaks up on a definite low note. CUT TO: 78 INT. ACADEMY LOCKER ROOM - DAY 78 Hershey is drying her hair with a towel. OLMEYER, a short, (X) earnest underclassman, approaches her. He's carrying a large (X) BOOK. (X) OLMEYER (X) Judge Hershey, the yearbook deadline (X) is only a week away. Have you (X) changed your mind? (X) HERSHEY (X) Forget it, Olmeyer. I'm not gonna (X) be the yearbook Centerfold! (X) OLMEYER (X) It's not a centerfold, it's a (X) calendar! And it won't be a tacky (X) 3-D hologram. The yearbook is all (X) classic print and 2-D. Here, let (X) me show you a dummy - (X) He s:ar::s to open the book. She slams it closed on his fingers. (X) HERSHEY (X) No, let me show yoou a dummy. (X) She turns his head so he can SEE his reflection. When he turns (X) back - she's gone. (X) 78A WITH HERSHEY 78A She sees Dredd at an end locker. Decides. Approaches him. (X) HERSHEY (X) Judge Dredd? (X) He looks at her, waiting. (X) (CONTINUED) 27 - ZA CONTINUED: 7R HERSHEY(CONT'D) (X; I caught your lecture today. Do... (X) do you really think that's what the (X) cadets need to hear? (X) DREDD (X) Yes. The least I can do is tell (X) them the truth. (X) HERSHEY Well, I think your truth is relative. I have a personal life. I have lots-of friends. DREDD Really. How long since you saw any of them? HERSHEY (DEFENSIVE) Well, my shifts have been changed a lot lately. Two, three months, (X) tops. DREDD You've only been on the street a year. You're still in denial. HERSHEY It's not that bad. DREDD How many married Judges do you know? HERSHEY Uh, well, my class is young. None of them have found the right... person. e lust looks at her. HERSHEY(CONT'D) Has it really been like that for (X) you? Haven't you ever been in - (CHECKING HERSELF) Haven't you ever had a... friend? DREDD Yes. Once. HERSHEY What happened? (CONTINUED) 28 - 'A CONTINUED: ( 2) 78A Dredd takes off his helmet. It's the first time we've seen his face, and it's filled with barely controlled emotion. DREDD (X) I judged him. CUT TO: 79 EXT. MEGA-CITY LOCK - NIGHT 79 Another Aspen Shuttle is docked here, steam curling up from the (X) motors. (X) 8C EXT. DOCKED SHUTTLE - CLOSER - NIGHT 80 A GROUND CREW member couples fat conduits to the underbelly of (X) the docked aircraft. Suddenly an ARM wraps around his throat. (X) He struggles and we see his captor, hanging upside down in the (X) iand,ng gear: Rico. He drops to the ground like an acrobat, (X) '-,C-ding his victim all the way down. The man's neck SNAPS on (X) impact. Rico drags the body into the shadows. (X) EX"'. MEGA CITY - NIGHT 81 Nc: a nice part of town. The FACES we SEE and the SOUNDS we (X) -:AR are unnerving. This is not the shiny part of the future. (X) W e HOLD on the scene, finally WIDEN to find Rico. Wearing the (X) :::nes of the ground crewman he killed, he walks past rows of (X) '‚Ä¢'.=:: enraptured in violent/erotic VIDEO GAMES. He's searching (X) something; And then he sees it: (X) 82 -‚Ä¢- w.ÔøΩ` a busy ever-changing SIGN: GEIGER'S BAZAAR. - PAWN - FAX BOXES - VOUCHERS CASHED. He heads inside. -r..-. JE: ER' S NIGHT 83 isre squalid pawnshop. Surplus and funk hangs from the -=::_:ered walls. The rear is divided by- a ceiling-high locked -en:e that secures the better grade merchandise. GEIGER, 50's, sccw.s as Rico enters. Puffs on a cigar. ,GEIGER We've closed for the night. RICO You're holding a package for me. I'm. Rick. GEIGER Oh, yeah... Gimme a second. (CONTINUED) 29 3 CONTINUED: F While Geiger gets it, Rico quickly scans the store. A simple security camera in the corner. A jumble of crates and large antique weapons... including a few things.that look like rusting metal warriors. Rico points to these. RICO I thought they destroyed all the ABC Warbots? GEIGER (COMING BACK) You can collect 'em if you make 'em non-functional. Like my wife. (hands him box) Here you go. Geiger pretends not to watch as Rico unlocks the box. Geiger (X) sneaks a look... sees a uniform... and a Judge's Lawgiver. Rico starts to reach inside. Geiger stops him. GEIGER Whoa, friend, whoever sent you this is no friend at all. RI CO Oh? And why's that? GEIGER That's a Lawgiver. It's programmed to only recognize a Judge's hand. You want a weapon, I can get you something nice. But if you touch that it'll take your arm off. RICO Really? grabs it! Geiger flinches - then looks puzzled. RICO (CONT'D) How do you like that? He SHOOTS Geiger at point-blank range. Geiger hits the floor. RICO(CONT'D) I must be a Judge. Rico bends, takes Geiger's keys and his cigars... then goes to the big cage. 30 - ON THE ABC ROBOT 84 A huge, armored combat veteran. We HEAR the metal cage rattle open. Rico approaches, crouches down and pulls a panel off the robot's body. Inside, the circuit cards have all been pulled from their sockets. Rico begins whistling... reveille. He pushes the boards back in, hits the RESET button. 8E WIDER 85 The ROBOT starts to WHIR. A GUSH of steam rises from its powerful torso. The eyes glow RED. It stands to its eight foot height, slowly turning like an arthritic old man. ROBOT Status. Commander. Mission. Rico strikes a match on the robot, lights a cigar. RICO Status: Personal bodyguard. Commander: Rico. Mission: We're going to war. (SMILES) Geronimo. 86 t.^.r;: 3I TTED thru 88 88 89 :NT. HAMMOND'S APT. - NIGHT 89 ::almond and his wife LILY are in their modest apartment. The ant=cues and decorations hint at a warmer era - our own. Both wear nightclothes. Hammond paces, edgy with dec ision. Lily weaves on a COMPUTERIZED LOOM. LILY Vardis, if you're right, then this Judge Dredd isn't really part of the conspiracy. HAMMOND No, of course n9t. It began before he was born. It had to have. LILY Then your report tomorrow _will destroy an innocent man. Doesn't Dredd's future bother you? (CONTINUED) 31 - 9 CONTINUED: E HAMMOND Yes. But I'm more worried about all of our futures then about Judge... The door THUDS open. Startled, they turn - 90 REVERSE ANGLE 90 Standing in the doorway is a JUDGE. HAMMOND(CONT'D) (finishing the thought) .Dredd... ELAM BLAM BLAM! The Judge's gun FIRES and we CUT TO: EXT. MEGA-CITY STREET - DAY 91 Citizens and merchants go about their business. CAMERA CRANES down, finds Dredd on patrol. Something catches his eye. He stops his Lawmaster, gets off. We FOLLOW him towards a slick we: dream of a FUTURE GULL-WINGED CAR... parked in a :ANEICAPPED ZONE. 2 edd takes out a BAR CODE READER, scans the license plate. As -.e gizmo searches its data base, the FUPPIE (Future Yuppie) CAR :v.:; runs into view with a Cappuccino in a st yrofoam cup. He "oeeos" the lock, but Dredd blocks his way to the car door. DREDD Is this your car? CAR OWNER Hey, come on... what are you gonna do, tow me? DREDD Of course not. Towing is the penalty for the first offense. This is your second violation. (into Lawg;ever ) Grenade. CAR OWNER HEY! 92 92 WIDER Dredd aims, FIRES. The caz. EXPLODES! Dredd walks casually away while the car's owner stands slack-jawed with debris tinkling around him. 32 DREDD 93 The wreck burning behind him, Dredd head back towards his bike... suddenly STOPS. He sees TWO FIGURES in front of him. And, the moment he does, he knows without. looking that there are two identical ones behind him. They're garbed for combat, yet without even the trace of humanity that seeps through a Street Judge's armor. These are the feared JUDGE HUNTERS. All have drawn weapons. The LEADER holds up a HOLO WARRANT with Dredd's PICTURE. JUDGE HUNTER LEADER Judge Joseph Dredd. You are under arrest. CUT TO: 94 INS. COUNCIL CHAMBER - NIGHT 94 CAMERA finds a broken figure here: Fargo. Ashen, he sits in the Chief Justice's seat, face in his hands. FARGO Dredd. I... I can't believe it... (LOOKING UP) Are you sure? (X) : : A " : _ - - RA ADJUSTS. We SEE Griffin is standing below him. GRIFFIN I'm afraid the evidence is conclusive. The trial will be just a formality. Fa:=c descends shakily from his seat. Moves to the window. :e =axes a pill from his pocket, tries to swallow it without ÔøΩ;_ _ f _ _r. seeing FARGO Is it possible? Dredd, homicidal too? We went through.this nine years ago... GRIFFIN We were able to‚Ä¢hide the facts then. This time, we may not be so lucky. FARGO (TURNING) What do you mean? (CONTINUED) 33 - CONTINUED: 9 GRIFFIN The victim was a reporter. The media is already sniffing around. Eventually... they'll get to the truth. FARGO (STRICKEN) About ... Janus? (X) GRIFFIN About Janus... and your part in it. FARGO How... how long have you known? GRIFFIN Does it matter? (SOFTLY) Nine years ago, when we buried the truth along with the victims, the council ordered the termination of Janus... the complete termination. You obviously a ie that order... otherwise this new disaster could never have happened. FARGO (A WHISPER) If the truth comes out, it could destroy everything we've built... we could go back to the Years of Chaos! :r;cKen, he glances over at the great map ... remembering. GRIFFIN There's a way out, Chief Justice. (PAUSE) The Long Walk. FARGO Into oblivion? You're suggesting I take it? You-fiust really want to destroy me - GRIFFIN No. I want to save the Judge system. The media won't stop digging into Dredd's case. When they get to the bottom... they'll find you. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 34 - 4 CONTINUED: (2) 94 GRIFFIN (CONT'D) But if you take the Long Walk... they'll find nothing but your honored memory. FARGO My Walk will give you the Chief Judgeship! GRIFFIN It could also save Dredd's life. CUT TO: 9 IIÔøΩ'T. JUDGE'S' COMPLEX - CORRIDOR - NIGHT 95 Hershey is being quickly escorted along a corridor by the four Judge Hunters. The place is dark and empty. JUDGE HUNTER In here. The Judge Hunters open a HOLDING CELL. Hershey steps inside. 96 1N7. HOLDING CELL - NIGHT 96 ::ershey is surprised to see the inhabitant: HERSHEY ( X ) Dredd? What's going on? And who (X) are those feebs? I've never seen (X) (X) those uniforms before - DREDD (X) They're Judge Hunters, Hershey. (X) They're the ones who come out when (X) a Judge has broken the Law. (X) Hershey reacts; she's heard of them. (X) HERSHEY (X) Judge Hunters? Then it's a full (X) trial before the Council... that (X) only happens one in a generation... (X) DREDD (X) Judge Hershey. I don't have anyone (X) else to ask... Will... will you (X) be my defense attorney? (X) HERSHEY You're under.indictment? For what? (CONTINUED) 35 - 5 CONTINUED: C DREDD Murder. (X (X CUT TO: 97 INT. COUNCIL CHAMBER - DAY 97 EXPLOSION of GUNFIRE on the MAIN SCREEN. We WIDEN. We're seeing the tail end of a SURVEILLANCE VIDEO of the murders of (X) Vardis and Lily Hammond, taken by a camera outside their apartment. (X) JUDGE MCGRUDER'S VOICE Stop Video. 98 INT. COUNCIL CHAMBER - WIDER - DAY 98 The place is absolutely packed. Every off-duty Judge in Mega-City is here. So is every Cadet from the Academy, plus the entire media brigade. We note that two oddly reassuring dements from our era are still here: A COURTROOM ARTIST (with a computer sketchpad and lightpen), and a COURTROOM STENOGR APHER with his hands stuffed into a FIST STENO KEYBOARD.) Make no mistake about it: this is a real, fair trial. And we're g oing` :., see It. MCGRUDER(CONT'D) Before we go on, I wish to make a personal comment. (TURNING) Judge Dredd. I have observed your career from its outset and I have the highest regard for you. Nevertheless, I must prosecute you to the best of my ability. 99 DR=D-- - AT THE DEFENDANT'S STATION 99 DREDD That is the Law, Judge McGruder. I would expect no less. 100 NEW ANGLE - REVEALING THE HIGHEST SEAT 100 In Judge Fargo's place sits Judge Griffin. He is wearing the uniform of the Chief Justice. GRIFFIN The Court shares in Judge McGruder's sentiments. In a way I am glad that Judge Fargo is about to begin his Long Walk. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 36 _ ‚Ä¢ÔøΩ"` 0 0 CONTINUED : 10C GRIFFIN (CONT'D) He will be spared the pain of this trial. Proceed, Judge McGruder. MCGRUDER The video you have just seen is prima fascia evidence that the defendant is guilty as charged. Mark this video People's Exhibit "A". CLERK So marked. At the defendant's station, Hershey stands. HERSHEY Objection, Your Honor. This video is inadmissible as evidence. MCGRUDER Judge Hershey, are you serious? Both of them recognized Judge Dredd! HERSHEY That is the State's interpretation. Replay dialogue. _ÔøΩEC rewinds. Then: LILY'S VOICE (X) .Doesn't Dredd's future-bother (X) you? (X) HAMMOND'S VOICE (X) Yes. But I'm more worried about (X) all of our futures then about (X) Judge ...Dredd...? (X) HERSHEY Stop video. Do you hear it? When Lily Hammond says "Dredd", it's (X) part of the conversation. And when Vardis Hammond,,sa s 'Dredd' it (X) could just as easily be the same. The suggestion that either has recognized their murderer is sheer supposition... or, in the case of the prosecution, wishful-thinking! BIG REACTION from the packed room. Griffin bangs the gavel for silence. 37 - THE DEFENSE TABLE 1r Hershey returns here to get another document. Dredd WHISPERS. DREDD Judge Hershey. I'm really glad I picked you to defend me. HERSHEY You only picked me because you didn't have anyone else. DREDD I'm still glad. (X) CAMERA FOLLOWS Hershey forward. MCGRUDER (TO HERSHEY) All right, counselor. Forget the the audio. What about the video? (X) It clearly shows - HERSHEY It clearly shows nothing! (TURNING) Your Honor, I have here an affidavit from Cadet Olmeyer, currently a Junior at the Academy. Svc IN THE AUDIENCE 102 heads of the other cadets around him swivel to look at him .:_` new regard. He does his best to look cool. 1C- TR:AL 103 HERSHEY Cadet Olmeyer is acknowledged by (X) all his instructors to be an expert in the field of still and video graphics. His affidavit states that this surveillance video is of such low definition that even after all known enhancements are used, no positive identification can be made of the killer. Since the uniform of a Judge could be counterfeit, I repeat my objection to this video being entered as evidence in this case. (turning to Griffin) I ask for a ruling. (CONTINUED) JUDGE DREDD 38 Rev. #2: 17/3/94 .03 CONTINUED: 103 You could hear a pin drop in the vast room. Everyone watching is sure they know what Griffin will say. They're all wrong. GRIFFIN Objection... sustained. The video is inadmissib e. 104 ON OLMEYER - IN AUDIENCE 104 OLMEYER ( X ) Yessss! The rest of the courtroom goes nuts. Griffin bangs for order. The BAILIFFS call out. BAILIFFS Order, order! 105 HERSHEY 105 returns to the defendant's table as the court quiets down. Olmeyer WHOOPS a second longer than everyone else. (X) Embarrassed, he quiets down, but not before Dredd notices him., DREDD That kid barely knows me and he wants to save my ass. HERSHEY Trust me. It's not your ass he's interested in. 106 JUDGE MCGRUDER 106 MCGRUDER Your Honor. I am forced now to enter certain technical evidence of a critical nature regarding (X) the Mega-City Legal system.‚Ä¢I (X) will need the Court's permission. (X) I will also need permission to (X) access the Central Computer Bank. (X) 107' HERSHEY AND DREDD 107 They look at each other, as puzzled as everyone else. (X) (CONTINUED) JUDGE DREDD 39 Rev. #2: 17/3/94 J7 CONTINUED: 107 MCGRUDER (cont'd) (X) I can think of no evidence or issue (X) more critical than the murder trial of (X) a Judge. You may proceed. (X) 107A BACK TO SCENE 107A McGruder approaches a special CONSOLE. This is one of many in (X) Mega-City that permit access to "Central" - the Judge System's main computer. Most of the consoles look alike, but this has the largest screen we will see. MCGRUDER Central. I wish to access weapons schematics, Judges division. Describe the workings of the standard Judge's sidearm, the Lawgiver Two, and especially its improvements over the earlier Lawgiver One. Central SPEAKS. Somehow its monotonous, sexless voice hints at an actual personality. CENTRAL One moment. '8 108 ,_u OMITTED thru 109 109 110 NEW ANGLE 110 COMPUTER GRAPHICS illustrating these words APPEARS on screen. CENTRAL(CONT'D) Nine years ago, the Lawgiver Model Two replaced the Lawgiver Model One. The difference lies in two areas: The computer chip and the ammunition coding. Like the Model one, the computer chip recognizes the thumbcode of all Judges. Judges may use each other's firearms; but a suspect dare not use a Judge's .weapon against "a Judge. ANIMATION reminds us of this in non-gory fashion. CENTRAL(CONT'D) However, the ammunition coding in the Model Two is not cued to the (X) thumbcode recognition chip. Instead, it is coded to the personal DNA of the Judge using the weapon. 40 - DREDD & HERSHEY I-I Listening carefully, wondering where this is going. CENTRALS VOICE This is obtained in a download from my medical files and upgraded automatically every time the weapon is reloaded. Each time a round is chambered and fired, it is tagged with the relevant DNA. NEW ANGLE 112 we slowly TIGHTEN on McGruder and her "witness". MCGRUDER Central. Were the bullets recovered from the bodies of Vardis and Lily (X) Hammond so DNA coded? CENTRAL Yes, Judge McGruder. It could not be otherwise. MCGRUDER And what was the result of the computer check of the DNA coding on those bullets? :ould swear that the computer is going for drama. CENTRAL The DNA is a perfect match for Judge Joseph--D-re--dd. _:iAMSER - WIDE SHOT 113 ?a-:der o . um . Griffin bangs for order. (X) ..EENS_ STATION 114 HERSHEY (in shock, to Dredd) DNA evidence is irrefutable! DREDD Do your job. She nods, stands. HERSHEY Your Honor... the defense rests. 41 - 5 WIDER Griffin looks at McGruder. MCGRUDER Your Honor, the Prosecution rests. GRIFFIN The Jury may be sequestered. The Foreman, COUNCIL JUDGE ESPOSITO, stands. ESPOSITO Your Honor, sequestering is not necessary. The evidence is irrefutable. (LOOKS AROUND) We have reached a verdict. In the (X) charge of Pre-meditated Murder, we the Jury find Joseph Dredd GUILTY as charged. GASPS from the audience. It's the fall of a Legend. ON GRIFFIN 116 GRIFFIN (cont' d) The defendant will stand. :4e=ore Hershey can tell him to, Dredd obeys. Griffin looks him in the eye. Dredd looks back, unblinking. GRIFFIN(CANT'D) Joseph Dredd, for this crime the (X) Law allows only one punishment: DEATH. S:OCR: rebounds from every wall. As the gasps fade away, Griffin taxes out a sealed document. GRIFFIN(CONT'D) However: I have here the last order of Judge Fargo, written this morning before he prepared for the Long Walk. (OPENING ITCH He orders that this Court be lenient with Judge Dredd, in gratitude for his years of service. (setting this down) It has always been our-custom to carry out the last order of a Walking Judge. We will so honor this one. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 42 - CONTINUED: LIB GRIFFIN(CONT'D) (NEW TONE) The sentence is Life Imprisonment - to be carried out immediately. As it is Written: Griffin picks up the book of the Law, kisses it. Opens it. And reads. ' 117 DEFENSE STATION 117 GRIFFIN'S VOICE "Let the Betrayer of the Law be taken from our Courts;" Already the Judge Hunters are coming for him. HERSHEY Dredd. I... I'm sorry. DREDD You did your best, Judge Hershey. He stands, takes her hand. DREDD(CONT'D) Thank you. GRIFFIN'S VOICE "Let the Freedom he stole from others be stolen from himself;" H T pan. e Judge Hunters pull at him. Hershey hangs on as long as she HERSHEY Dredd..! ON GRIFFIN - RAKED CAMERA 118 GRIFFIN "Let his armor be taken from him, and all his garb of Justice..." !IQ DREDD - SOMEWHERE 119 wrists manacled, head down. The Judge Hunters pull off his (X) armor, then literally rip away his uniform. He's naked, helpless. Chained. 120 (X) THRU OMITTED 120 THRU 123 43 - EXT. GATES OF MEGA CITY - SUNSET 12' It is the ceremony of The Long Walk. Judge Fargo stands alone, wearing a LONG DUSTER COAT and a wide brimmed HAT. Before him he holds his uniform, Lawgiver, and badge in a ceremonial bundle. A young FEMALE CADET in an sweet Contralo that contrasts with Griffin's bass READS from a different part of The Law: FEMALE CADET (READING) "Let his name be recorded in every place of Honor. Let him take the Law he served so well to those who have it not." The great city gate begins to OPEN. Under a fading SUNSET we SEE the forbidden land beyond: THE CURSED EARTH. We TIGHTEN on Fargo, grizzled, weary; the girl, fresh, tearful. Like so many, she reveres this man and what he represents. FEMALE CADET "Let him be written in our hearts and our memories." She hands him the Book. Receives his bundle of worldly h=_ongings in return. A young MALE CADET steps forward, hands Fargo an ancient REMINGTON. œøΩ2Z 125 _= shoved into a jammed PRISON SHUTTLE. GUARDS fling.him in (X) s=a=. The shuttle door closes, locks. GRIFFIN'S VOICE "Let him be stricken from our hearts and our memories." _2= CAR'3C 126 FEMALE CADET "Forever." A line of CADETS raises Lawgivers overhead. They FIRE a 21 GUN SALUTE. Fargo walks out. TYye gate CLOSES. (X) :27 EXT. CITY LOCK - DUSK 127 The prison shuttle FIRES its engines. (X) GRIFFIN'S VOICE "Forever." 44 - 28 EXT. MEGA-CITY ONE - LONG SHOT - DUSK 128 Dredd's shuttle THUNDERS overhead. Far below in the poisoned sand, Fargo looks up at it. CUT TO: 129 EXT. JUDGE'S COMPLEX - NIGHT 129 Lightning crackles around the Eagle's head. A floating TANKER refuels at a nearby roof top. 130 INT. GRIFFIN'S OFFICE - NIGHT 130 Griffin comes inside. His chair turns around. Rico is sitting (X) in it. Griffin looks at him in shock for a moment. (X) GRIFFIN Are you out of your mind, coming here? Griffin angrily starts forward... stops when the ABC robot moves to block his path. GRIFFIN(CONT'D) And you brought this, too? Griffin waves his hand over desk controls. The lights DIM. S:i TTERS block the windows. RICO I like to do things my way. (X) GRIFFIN Yes, I know. Like framing Dredd for Hammond's murder. RICO (SMILING) I thought that was a nice creative touch. Sort of two birds with one stone. GRIFFIN Hammond had to be silenced when he found out abut Janus! But I could have used Dredd! He practically worshiped the ground I walked on- (CONTINUED) JUDGE DREDD 45 Rev. #1: 16/4/94 t30 CONTINUED: 130. RICO Dredd only worships the Law. And he'd blow you away the minute he found out just how much you're pissing on it. Trust me: It's better this way. Let him see what it's like to freeze his ass off in Aspen. Let him see what it's like I to be me! After all... He moves closer to Griffin, smiles. RICO(CONT'D) .Dredd and I have so much in common. Why not this? Griffin looks at him, decides to drop the subject. GRIFFIN There's a lot of work to be done. RICO Yes. The Janus lab - GRIFFIN You'll see it soon enough. In the meantime... I want chaos, Rico. That block war was just the beginning. Now I want fear racing through every street... terror in every quad... panic in every block. Until those miserable rezzies think even their Judges can't save them. That's when the Council will turn to me... and to Janus. Rico moves towards the door. Pauses. RICO Fear, Terror, Panic. I think I can handle that. After all... (slight.smile) Look how quickly I brought fear in here. His smile fades and he exits. 131 OMITTED 131 132 EXT. CURSED EARTH - NIGHT 132 110-1 A HOWLING WIND blows dust across the dead landscape. The ASPEN PRISON SHUTTLE appears over the horizon. 46 - / ' 33 INT. ASPEN SHUTTLE - CONTINUOUS 133 A wide body with the amenities of a galley. Armed JUDGES (X) patrol outside a long CAGE enclosing the rows of prisoners. (X) GUARDS inside the cage are armed with STUN CLUBS. (X) CAMERA roams the ranks of hardened, brutal prisoners. Gradually (X) we realize that something is being whispered up and down the (X) rows... a slow humm that rises in level buzz and then a (X) whisper. Gradually we discern it: "dddrd...dddrdd... Dredd." (X) we reach Dredd the same time the whispers reach him. Manacled (X) I like the others, he shows no reaction to the hateful. glances (X) aimed in his direction. (X) PILOT'S VOICE (X) Attention, crew. We're changing (X) course to avoid some chop. ETA (X) Aspen Prison 11 hundred twenty two. (X) The craft BANKS, the prisoners chains clanking as they sway. A (X) mean looking PRISONER behind Dredd leans over, hisses: (X) PRISONER BEHIND HIM (X) I want a piece of you, scumbag. (X) DREDD (X) Okay. (X) W::.h a SNAP and without looking, Dredd jerks his elbow (X) ba_xwards. The prisoner is knocked unconscious. As he sags in (X) .is :hains, CAMERA ADJUSTS. The prisoner on the side of Dredd (X) we haven't seen is Fergie. Now, he stares at Dredd. Then (X) pins his hands over Dredd's.face, leaving Dre 's jaw =xÔøΩcs and parting his fingers at Dredd's eyes, like the visor in she Judge's helmet. Fergie's eyes go wide. FERGIE Dredd? What are you doing here? DREDD I was convicted of a crime. (PAUSE) Wrongly convicted. FERGIE That makes two ¬©f us. DREDD No. You got the sentence the Law required. The Proper sentence. FERGIE Proper? Five years just for saving my own ass? .It was a mistake! (CONTINUED) 47 - -1 3 CONTINUED: DREDD The Law does not make mistakes. FERGIE Yeah? Then how do you explain what happened to you? DREDD (PAUSE) I. I can't. FERGIE (X) (SARCASTIC) (X) Oh, you can't. But the "Law doesn't (X) make mistakes"? So what's this, (X) then? A bug? A glitch? Typo? (X) Fumble? Screw-up? Or maybe... (X) POETIC FUCKING JUSTICE? (X) VOICE (X) You're wasting your breath, brother (X) man... (X) 133A NEW ANGLE 133A The speaker is a menacing MAN of fifty or so, with gaunt hard muscles, the eyes of a mad prophet, and eerie religious TATTOOS. (X. Three YOUNGER MEN flanking him have similar decorations. This (X) is REVEREND ANGEL and his SONS. (X) REVEREND ANGEL(cont'd) (X) Dredd's a machine. See, any man (X) - even a Lawman - has a heart. But (X) not Dredd. He's frozen inside. (X) That's how he could make this man (X) (he indicates himself) (X) and these boys - watch while like (X) the Grim Reaper himself, he coldly (X) cut down the youngest fruit of our (X) tree. (X) ANGEL SONS (X) Amen. (X) DREDD (X ) Angel: Maybe if your youngest fruit (X) hadn't taken those hostages he could (X) be here for the family reunion. (X) As one, all the Angels lunge forward as much as their short (X) chains will allow. Fergie recoils; Dredd doesn't. But two (X) GUARDS turn at the commotion. (X' (CONTINUED) 48 - CONTINUED: .33A GUARD (X` Problem here? (X) DREDD (X) No. (X) FERGIE Actually, (X) (X) (POINTING) (X) could I sit over there-- (X) GUARD (X) (MENACING) (X) SHUT UP ! (X) The guard moves away. The Angel family stares hatred in (X) Dredd's direction. (X) FERGIE (X) (sotto, to Dredd) (X) You'd better not be my roommate. (X) CUT TO: =ÔøΩ4 IN':. DREDD'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 134 narrow window lets in the thinnest sliver of moonlight. Two armchairs, worn leather, from our era. A couple of exotic -ants, now wilted. An antique bookcase of burnished wood -a rare material in Mega-City. zcmeethinc rattles at the door. The lock GLOWS briefly... scmetr.inc SNAPS. The door opens. COMPUTER VOICE Zone A open. Please reset alarm. Hershey steps in, putting a small tool away in a belt pouch. She closes the door. Takes in the monastic feel of the place. She moves to the bookcase: A small collection of leather-bound books, maybe a dozen in all. Plato, More, Jefferson, Paine. Hershey runs her fingers over the well-worn titles. =3ÔøΩ DREDD'S BEDROOM 135 Narrow bed. A small dresser and chair... no windows. COMPUTER VOICE If Alarm is not reset, .system will signal armed response in 20 seconds. Hershey opens a drawer. A.few clothes. She slips her hands underneath, feels around, finds nothing. Opens the next drawer. (CONTINUED) 49 - -^ 35 CONTINUED: Searches. Finds a framed "viewie" on the nightstand. It shows a COUPLE in their 30's with a BABY. HERSHEY (off viewie, amused) Well. Baby Dredd. 136 CLOSER 136 At her touch, the viewie becomes briefly ANIMATED. 137 BACK TO SCENE 137 She's about to put it down - when something about its weight makes her suspicious. She turns it over, examines it - finds a HIDDEN SEAL. The frame OPENS. Inside is a second viewie. It shows Dredd, mid-twenties - and Rico, the same age. Bot are grinning: Graduation dav at the Academy. 138 CLOSE ON HERSHEY 138 She's puzzled - quite clearly, she has no idea who Rico is. COMPUTER VOICE Ten. Nine. Eight... Hershey folds the frame back up.. .slips out the door with it. COMPUTER VOICE Cancel. Thank you for your cooperation. (X) CUT TO: 139 0!.IT_._.. 139 139A EX". ASPEN SHUTTLE - IN FLIGHT - NIGHT 139A 1398 INT. ASPEN SHUTTLE - COCKPIT - NIGHT 139B The PILOT speaks into his throat mike. (X) PILOT (X) Aspen Prison, phis is Prisoner (X) Shuttle 5A. Request landing Vector. (X) The VIDSCREEN on the console flutters into life. A harried (X) ASPEN GUARD appears there. There's NOISE AND CONFUSION in the (X) b.g. behind him. (X) ASPEN GUARD(ON SCREEN) (X) Negative, Shuttle. We have a riot (XI in progress. 'Request denied. (- (CONTINUED) 50 - ,-- 9B CONTINUED: 139E PILOT (X Say again, Aspen? ( X; ASPEN GUARD (X, Repeat, riot in the Maximum Security (X; cellblock. Do not land. (XJ 140 INT. SHUTTLE - THE CAGE 140 Fergie is still tormenting Dredd, enjoying his fallen status. (X) He waits until a guard passes, then hisses: (X) FERGIE (X) Let's try it again, Dredd. You're (X) in chains. You're going to prison. (X) But you're innocent, and I'm guilty. (X) But it's still not a mistake? (X) PILOT ON P.A. (X) ATTENTION, GUARDS. LANDING HAS BEEN (X) CANCELED. REPEAT, LANDING HAS BEEN (X) CANCELED. SECURE PRISONERS FOR NEW (X) (X) FLIGHT PLAN. And that's when it happens. In that split-second of distraction (X) when the guards look up to listen, Pa Angel begins to reach for (X) (X) a guard's Stun Club! ÔøΩ4_ FAVORING DREDD 141 invciuntarily, he lunges forward - (X) DREDD (X) Look out - (X) Misunderstanding his intentions, the nearest guardZAPS him with (X) his Stun Club! At the same moment, Pa Angel getsthe other (X) guard's weapon, turns it on him! The guard DROPS.One of the (X) (X) Angel boys grabs the key card! 42 GUARD WITH DREDD 142 turns, charges forward - but two Angels have already whisked the (X) key card over their cuff's ,canners! They tackle the guard! (X) 143 SHUTTLE JUDGES - AT CAGE ENDS 143 they rush to open the cage and run inside! (X) 144 IN THE CAGE 144 A PRISONER TRIPS a Judge!..,The Judge's gun MISFIRES! (X) JUDGE DREDD 51 Rev. #1: 16/4/94 .45 THE SHUTTLE PILOT - FORWARD 145 the bullet goes through his seat! He slumps! (X) 146 RESUME CAGE 146 The entire aircraft TILTS. The Judges are swarmed by the (X) prisoners! The card keys are passed around and the overhead (X) chain RATTLES as it is pulled hand over hand, freeing the (X) manacled prisoners one by one! And all the while a BUZZ like (X) the one we heard before grows and grows: (X) CONVICTS (X) .llldrrrd...LLLDRDDD... KILL (X) DREDD! KILL DREDD! (X) 146A DREDD - ON THE FLOOR 146A punching, twisting, fighting the hands reaching for his throat. (X) As the aircraft banks steeply, he slides alon the floor with (X) his enemies. SEES a Judge's LAWGI trampled under the (X) scrambling feet. Reaches for it - reaches - reaches - (X) 146B WIDER 146B Dredd stands, FIRES! Everyone ducks! Dredd grabs Fergie from (X) the floor, hauls him forward! Dredd smashes his way to the (X) forward cage door, throws Fergie through it! Pa Angel grabs (X) Dredd by the throat and wrist - the gun falls outside the cage (X) -Dredd SMASHES the door on Pa Angel's head, locks it! (X) DREDD (X) (to Fergie) (X) Hack the Shuttle! (X) FERGIE (X) W-wha - (X) DREDD (X) Hack the shuttle, now! (X) Fergie pushes the pilot's body aside, hits controls. Meanwhile (X) the convicts are swarming against the cage door. (X) 147 THE SHUTTLE - LONG SHOT --RIGHT 147 It spirals through the air, out of control. 148 INT. SHUTTLE - NIGHT 148 Dredd jams the cage door shut, struggles forward. (X) DREDD What the hell's wrong? (X) (CONTINUED) JUDGE DREDD 52 Rev. #1: 16/4/94 R^ 148 CONTINUED: 148 FERGIE The stabilizers controls! They got hit, toot (X) CAMERA RAKES to the control panel... and a SMOKING, SIZZLING section. The craft tilts alarmingly. Dredd grabs the stick, helps Fergie try and pull up. It's useless. 149 EXT. CURSED EARTH - NIGHT 149 The shuttle spirals towards the earth. 150 INT. SHUTTLE 150 The ground rushes up - fills the main viewport - 151 EXT. CURSED EARTH - NIGHT 151 The shuttle CRASHES, skids across the ground, smashing through rocks and cacti. Stabilizer fins SNAP off. WINDOWS shatter. The fuselage breaks in two. The rear half with the engines EXPLODES while the forward cabin keeps rolling. 152 NEW ANGLE - NIGHT 152 The forward half of the shuttle comes to rest. There's one last groan of metal from the cabin, and then... silence. CUT TO: 153 EXT. MEGA-CITY RED LIGHT DISTRICT - FOLLOWING RICO - NIGHT 153 Crowded. Dangerous. In shadowy corners and dark alleys, bodies and souls are being bought and sold. Strange sounds of pain and pleasure assault our ears. Somehow even these twisted and dangerous people know not to fuck with Rico. They move out of his way almost instinctively. 154 A SCUZZY BIKER TYPE 154 suddenly flies out of a doorway, SMACKS into a pole near Rico. He shakes off the blow, wipes blood from his mouth... howls with animal fury. Charges back towards the doorway. 155 NEW ANGLE 155 His adversary appears, a whirling, lean muscular figure in leather - a woman named ILSA. Now, with four spectacular karate moves, she hits him high, low, middle - and -the coup de grace - right in the balls! 53 - S CLOSER ON THE BIKER 1 = His eyes glaze. He drops like a stone. ILSA Pathetic. She turns to leave... stops when she sees the amused eyes of the man watching her from four feet away: Rico. RICO Hello, Professor. ' 57 CLOSE ON ILSA 157 ILSA (cont ' d) (DISBELIEVING) R.. .Rico? RICO (off the environment) I see you're still researching the dark night of the soul. ILSA The research ended when they condemned you. I live here, now. You showed me that facing death was the only way to live. Her eyes glisten as she moves towards Rico, touches his arm. ILSA(CONT'D) They... they told me you were dead. ?_cc reaches out gently. . .wipes a tear from her cheek. RICO Don't go woosy on me, Professor. We got work to do. He puts his arm around her. They step over her victim on their way out. CUT TO: 1S8 EXT. CURSED EARTH - DAWN 158 MOVEMENT inside the smashed aircraft. 158A INT. WRECKED SHUTTLE - DAY 158A Helmeted JUDGE HUNTERS move through the dim wreck, using BAR CODE READERS to scan the .ID tags of the dead. SCANNERS attached to their weapons show readings. (CONTINUED) 54 - 9A CONTINUED: 158A Another Hunter steps inside through a jagged hole in the (X) fuselage. SECOND HUNTER Sir.We found tracks leading away (X) fromthe wreck. At least half a (X) dozenpeople. (X) The HUNTER SQUAD LEADER taps his helmet mike. HUNTER SQUAD LEADER This is Capture Team. No sign of Dredd. He appears to have survived the crash. Repeat, he appears to have survived. CUT TO: 1588 INT. GRIFFIN'S OFFICE - MEGA-CITY - INTERCUT - DAY 158E GRIFFIN (INTO INTERCOM) (X) You are in error, Capture Team. Dredd did not survive the shuttle wreck. No one survived the shuttle wreck. Do I make myself clear? SQUAD LEADER'S VOICE (X) Yessir. Quite Clear. 158 INT. WRECKED SHUTTLE - RESUME - DAY 158C ANOTHER HUNTER Sir! We found someone. We follow them forward. Their flashlights converge on one of the WOUNDED GUARDS. WOUNDED GUARD Thank God... thank - His eyes widen as their LASER GUNSIGHTS moves to his chest. 1581 EXT. WRECKED SHUTTLE - DAY 158D GUNFIRE erupts within and we CUT TO: 159 INT. HERSHEY'S APARTMENT - MORNING 159 Enough personal things to ;ell us she's both a danger-crazed athlete... and a romantic. (CONTINUED) 55 - ' 9 CONTINUED: She's still in sleepware, her uniform for today already laid out. She sips coffee from an Academy mug. Sits down at her apartment's Central Station. HERSHEY Central, I need to access the graphics database. CENTRAL That could take several days, Judge Hershey. The Graphic Database covers all known graphics, from the Paleoithic Era to today. Hershey opens the framed viewies she took from Dredd's apartment, slides out the one with the adult Dredd. HERSHEY (X) This should be a little faster: (X) (showing it) (X) I want you to ID this man. (X) CENTRAL (X) Even from here, I can see it's Judge (X) Dredd. (X) HERSHEY (EXASPERATED) The other man! S slides the viewie into the scanning aperture. CENTRAL (X) (all business now) (X) Scanning for identity, unknown male, approximately 200 Cm. tall, weighing 95 kilos, Skin Tone Three. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six - Suddenly the CONSOLE GOES DEAD with a BEEP. HERSHEY Central? Central? Hello? A CANNED VOICE (NOT CENTRAL) This terminal has been disconnected from the main system for a system check. You no longer .have access to the system. Thank you. The viewie pops out of the-..slot with a thunk. Hershey looks at the computer suspiciously. 56 - 160 16C 'ru OMITTED thru 63 163 164 INT. JANUS LAB - DAY 164 After all the talk about this place, we probably expected more Sure, it's bi ; but half the hi-tech gear is under dusty plastic, andhe rest is under repair. Rico sweats over a power module, straining with a wrench. RICO Come on, you piece of junk... (aside to his robot) No offense. The bolt loosens. Rico can open the panel. RICO (cont' d) Let there be Light. He flips a switch. The OVERHEAD LIGHTS come on. (Perhaps we notice that the Lab seems to be retro-fitted into a n older, metal structure with oddly irregular walls; perhap s not.) 165 LAB - NEW ANGLE 165 A PNEUMATIC DOOR OPENS. Griffin enters. He looks around, ÔøΩieased. GRIFFIN You've made a lot of progress. Good. ILSA'S VOICE Lights! About time - eyes narrow as Ilsa comes in from another area with a ÔøΩoboard. RICO (TO GRIFFIN) Griffin, I think you know Professor Haydyn? GRIFFIN (CAREFULLY) Yes. I haven't,-seen her since your trail. When she testified that you were insane... and therefore... innocent. She looks at Rico with an expression worthy of a Manson follower. (CONTINUED) JUDGE DREDD 57 Rev. #1: 16/4/94 165 CONTINUED: 165 ILSA Since then I've learned innocence is just another lie. And that the best truths come only with pain. (back to reality) And... speaking of painful truths... Here's our shopping list. She hands Griffin the digital notepad. GRIFFIN (READING) Inducers, nitrogen coils, nano- pumps... I can pull all this from Mega-City hospital. They won't even know it's gone. When can you be on-line? RICO Tomorrow. But it won't mean a thing if you can't get into Central's Janus files. They're still security locked. GRIFFIN Leave that to me. Meanwhile you have work to do... on the streets. RICO "Fear, Terror, Panic." Yes. My favorite emotions. ILSA Mine too. Rico turns, whistles at the robot like it's a dog. RICO C'mon, Fido. Walkies. The robot follows Rico and Ilsa out the door. Griffin watches (X) them go, slightly unnerved. 11 CUT TO: 165A 165A EXT. CURSED EARTH - DAY (X) The SUN sizzles into the LENS - JUDGE DREDD 58 Rev. #1: 16/4/94 55B EXT. RUINED COURTHOUSE - DAY 165B Fergie and Dredd are hanging by their handcuffs from a pole (X) which in turn has been set on the crossbeams of this ruined (X) building. Fergie is unconscious. Dredd, awakened by the crawl (X) of a SUNBEAM over his face, stirs, looks around. (X) 165C TWO OF THE ANGELS - NEARBY - HIS POV 165C They're going through gear and equipment scavenged from the (X) shuttle wreck. We have a sense of the other Angels just O.S., (X) where we HEAR VOICES and sounds of PAIN. But these.two here (X) attract our interest... especially now, when their fumbling with (X) the BLACK BOX RECORDER from the shuttle CLICKS IT ON. (X) SHUTTLE RECORDING (full of STATIC) -- is Aspen Prison. Repeat do not land... riot in...gress... Warden dead... special prisoner... PILOT'S VOICE (X) Special prisoner? Say again, Aspen. (X) You're breaking up... (X) ASPEN VOICE .didn't even know he was here. Records showed execution... Rico, Samuel Rico... killed Warden... sabotaged security system... STATIC and GUNSHOTS end the tape. (X) 165D DREDD 165D CAMERA PUSHES IN on him. (X) DREDD (X) (sotto, to himself) Rico? That's impossible... (g) O.S. SCREAM. Fergie wakes with a start, REACTS to the dramatic (X) shafts of sunlight raking the cathedral ceiling. (X) FERGIE (X) Ohmigod, I'm dead. I'm dead! (X) (SEEING DREDD) And in hell. (g) 165E NEW ANGLE 165E Reverend Angel and his sons come forward, throw down the BODY of the Shuttle Guard they have just killed. (X) (CONTINUED)' JUDGE DREDD 59 Rev. #1: 16/4/94 55E CONTINUED: 165E REVEREND ANGEL (X) Awake. Good. (X) (off the body) (X) We're running out of sinners. (X) DREDD (X) You have just committed murder. (X) The penalty isdeath. (X) Reverend Angel HITS Dredd. (X) REVEREND ANGEL (X) Silence, blasphemer! You still put your faith in a false Law, instead (X) of the one True Law! (X) FERGIE (X) (HOPEFUL) (X) Hallejuah, brother! (X) Dredd looks at Fergie suspiciously... Pa Angel looks at him with (X) odd interest. (X) REVEREND ANGEL (X) Can it be? Can it be, that from (X) the City of the Fallen, there is (X) one of the Faithful? (X) FERGIE (X) Amen, brother! Say it! (X) DREDD (X) Ah... Fergie... (X) REVEREND ANGEL (X) Boys, I believe we have a Believer (X) in the gallery. Cut him down! (X) FERGIE (X) Go tell it on the Mountain! (X) 165F FAVORING FERGIE 165F He smiles as the Angels start to release him. (X) FERGIE (X) Well, Dredd. The Law doesn't make mistakes, but I'm in like a disk, (X) and you're toast. (X) DREDD (X) Actually, youre toast: I arrested (X) the Angels oar Cannibalism. (X) (CONTINUED) JUDGE DREDD 60 Rev. #1: 16/4/94 55F CONTINUED: 165F As Fergie's expression changes, they CUT HIM DOWN. CAMERA RAKES (X) to the Angel's campfire - and human parts roasting over it! (X) REVEREND ANGEL (X) Prepare the Supplicant for (X) Sacrifice! (X) FERGIE (X) I'm not succulent! I'm not (X) succulent, look, I'm skin and - (X) CRACK! Dredd has swung his legs up, wrapped them around the (X) pole, and SNAPPED it! He and the pole fall on top of Fergie (X) and the leadmost Angels! (X) 165G FERGIE 165G Falls, dodging feet - (X) 165H WIDER 165H the Angels still standing ignore Fergie, rush Dredd! Dredd (X) doesn't wait for them to reach him - he charges! He feints to (X) Pa Angel, takes out one of the boys! Two other Angels get in (X) blows - but then Dredd snatches up Fergie's half of the pole, (X) uses it like a Kendo Master! He knocks two Angels unconscious, (X) then a third - then - WHAM! He gets knocked down himself by (X) 1651 REVEREND ANGEL 1651 who raises the metal shaft he has used over his head - turns (X) it point downwards like a spear - and then - SLAM! He's SHOT. (X) 165J NEW ANGLE 165J Fergie, beside the dazed Dredd, looks up. A JUDGE HUNTER is (X) a short distance away, SUNLIGHT gleaming off his badge. (X) Relieved, Fergie jumps to his feet. (X) FERGIE (X) I surrender! I surrender! (X) THIRD JUDGE HUNTER (X) You can't. (X) He aims at Fergie! (X) 165K DREDD - ON THE GROUND 165K seeing this, he jumps up. (X) DREDD (X) NOT (X) (CONTINUED) 61 - IK CONTINUED: 16" Another Hunter appears behind Dredd! Dredd whirls, grabs at the man's gun barrel. SLAM SLAM! The shots go SKYWARD! 165L JUDGE HUNTER #3 - BELOW 165L ignoring the unarmed Fergie, he spins, FIRES - 1E5M DREDD 165M pulls the guy he's struggling with in front of him! The BULLETS hit him! Dredd wrenches the weapon from the man's dying fingers - SHOOTS the Hunter beside Fergie! 1E5N FERGIE 165N reacts as the Hunter falls beside him, the SCANNER landing right front of his face. Dredd grabs Fergie's elbow to pull him up - but Fergie resists - points to the SCANNER - 165C SQUAD LEADER AND COMPANION - ELSEWHERE IN RUINS 1650 Hearing the SHOTS, they race in that direction. - - NT. COURTHOUSE - DAY 16E ^e last two Judge Hunters run towards the continuing SHOTS and S FX of a STRUGGLE. They climb a rubble wall, aim down at the s:,:,^ÔøΩDS - stop, confused. ANGLE - THEIR POV 165Q cf :::e.r own fallen men - and his SCANNER, its back panel __f and-wires hanging out. The scanner is replaying a video/audio LOOP of the previous struggle with Dre ! That's :ne "gunshots"! 1658 BA`K TO SCENE 16SR Too late, they realize they've been had. Dredd swings in on a beam, KICKS one Hunter into a wall! We HEAR the man's neck crack! Dredd struggles hand-to-hand with the second one. They FALL to the Courtroom floor!-' Fergie appears with a piece of timber, tries to hit the Judge Hunter with it. The gun Dredd and the Hunter are both struggling for GOES OFF. The piece of WOOD EXPLODES in Fergie's hands! Dredd forces the gun barrel towards the Hunter - SLAM! He's dead. Sudden SILENCE.' (CONTINUED) 62 - CONTINUED: 165R FERGIE We did it! We got them all! A SHAPE lunges up, close to CAMERA. It's one of the Hunters Dredd took out earlier, still alive enough to aim his weapon! Dredd aims his stolen one his trigger - CLICK! Empty! The Hunter squeezes Hunter turns - SLAM! The Hunter himself is hit! Shocked, the - gets off one last SHOT - .165S REVERSE ANGLE 165S A FIGURE silhouetted in the Courtroom door FIRES at the same moment. The last Hunter falls, dead. Dredd looks at the new arrival... his hat... his long duster coat... DREDD Fargo? BLOOD wells on Fargo's coat. e's been hit. As he sags, Dredd and Fergie rush towards him.H CUT TO: 166 INT. ACADEMY DORM - STUDENT DATA PODS - DAY 166 Through the window blinds we can see the distant Hall of Justice. We're in the Multi-media study cubicles used b Y t h e undergraduates. Olme er is at a p (X) roughs of his yearbook tacked all g over 1 thewwalls. The with WorKStation PURRS while Hershey glares at him. HERSHEY The Dance? You want me to go to (X) the Go amn Junior Dance? (X) OLMEYER (X) I've given up on the centerfold. I'll settle for a date. (X) HERSHEY We're trying to save Judge Dredd, and you're using the situation to blackmail me. That's disgraceful! OLMEYER (X) I know. But I'll never get another chance like this. (X) (POINTING) It's almost through processing the viewie. Do we have a deal? (CONTINUED) 63 - S CONTINUED: IF HERSHEY (through her teeth) Yes! OLMEYER (X) Low cut dress? HERSHEY Yes! Just do'it! OLMEYER (X) (COCKY) Graphics Analysis coming up... now. He hits a control dramatically. The screen comes up... shows :he PICTURE OF BABY DREDD AND PARENTS. Hershey stares at it in disbelief. HERSHEY Olmeyer, you stupid futz! You (X) analyzed the wrong picture! OLMEYER I did? (X) She gropes around on the desk, finds the viewie frame with the s:o: of Dredd and Rico. HERSHEY You were supposed to do this one! You just wasted three hours! c-_rrputer BEEPS. MESSAGES run by the bottom of the screen. OLMEYER (X) If this is the wrong picture, why is it full of anomalies? HERSHEY What? OLMEYER (X) Slick ones, too..-. somebody must have used a CGI-'terminal and a scan quadrupler to make this. He looks at the image, uses the mouse. HERSHEY You mean... it's not real? OLMEYER (X) Take a look. I'll drop out all the artificial pixels. 64 - 67 NEW ANGLE 167 Hershey's eyes widen in shock as, one by one, the PICTURE ELEMENTS DISAPPEAR, scan line by scan line. OLMEYER(cont'd) (X) Sky. Foreground. House. Parents... they're all fake. (TURNING) The only thing that's real is the baby. She's in shock. Maybe we are, too. (X) 168 168 hru OMITTED thru _84 184 :88 INT. CURSED EARTH COURTHOUSE - DUSK 185 Fargo lies near the judge's bench. Dredd has dressed his wound (X) and made him as comfortable as possible. Fergie is heating rations from the Judge Hunter's cruiser over a fire. He brings soup over to Fargo. Fargo tries to swallow... can't. FARGO Bury me there, under the blind lady. ^redd doesn't understand. Fargo raises his arm, points to the statue of Justice weighing her scales. FARGO(CONT'D) Judge or citizen - everyone got a fair shake. She treated them all the same. (WEAKLY POINTING) The jury sat there. Ordinary people. Worst thing we did was take justice out of their hands. DREDD No. You and the first Judges... you saved Mega-City. FARGO Yes. And almost lost our souls. (on Dredd's.look) It seemed like,,a wise idea: Create the perfect Judge. Breed courage - wisdom - integrity. The Janus Project. We used the old Council for the base material. Five DNA samples were taken, two were chosen. One was mine. (PAUSE) You were the., result. (CONTINUED) 65 - ,r-- i5 CONTINUED : Dredd is stunned -- DREDD But.., but the orphanage told me my parents were killed by lawbreakers -- they gave me that picture of them - FARGO A fake. The psychs on the Janus project came up with that story. It was supposed to motivate you into law enforcement. It worked. Both times. DREDD What do you mean, both times? FARGO (FADING ) There were... two infants created in the Janus lab. They were (X) supposed to be perfect. One was: (X) You. The other... somehow, it (X) was... mutated. Not anything you (X) could see... (indicating his head) But up here... horrible. A genetic (X) criminal that one day just went... (X) haywire. (X) (COUGHS) Guess we weren't the sterling specimens we thought. DREDD I have a... brother? FARGO More than a brother. (PAUSE) You knew him at the Academy, Dredd. You Judged him. The Council Tried him. DREDD (STUNNED) Rico? FARGO He had to be put down . But I wouldn't let them do that to you. Griffin blackmailed me into the Walk, Dredd. Don't trust him. (CONTINUED) 66 - ,- 15 CONTINUED: (2) leg DREDD Like I trusted you? FARGO I'm sorry... son. The breath goes out of Fargo's body. He dies. Dredd stares at him, his world torn apart. DISSOLVE TO: 186 EXT. CURSED EARTH - SUNSET 186 Dredd stands in the fading light, withdrawn within himself. Fergie approaches, carrying the Remington. FERGIE I buried him. Except for this. Dredd silently follows Fergie to the grave. Fergie shoves the Remington into the mound of earth as a marker. FERGIE(CONT'D) You wanna... say something? He hands The Book to Dredd. After a moment, Dredd opens it. DREDD (READING) ."What is the end of a Just Man? The Long Walk and then nothing? No; for Whoever Walks with the Law walks forever, and whoever honors the Law will trod in his path..." Dredd looks at the fresco on the wall. Sees the faded words: "LET JUSTICE BE DONE THOUGH THE WORLD PERISH." DREDD (SUDDENLY) Find food and ammunit.on. Load up that sand cruiser. FERG1 E Where are going? Dredd yanks the Remington out of Fargo's grave. We track into Dredd's face until it fills frame. DREDD To find Rico. CUT TO: 67 - 7 8'I 187 OMITTED THZ 10 95 OA MEGA-CITY STREET - NIGHT 190A A squad of Judges on Lawmasters ride into SHOT. DISPATCHER'S VOICE (X) (FUTZED) (X) Reported unrest code D-924 downtown (X) sector 12 back-up requested. (X) The Judges stop and dismount outside a pleasure arcade. They (X) enter, careful, professional. Pause. BOOM!!! The Arcade (X) EXPLODES, throwing glass, flame, and JUDGE'S BODIES into the (X) street. (X) CUT TO: =9: A WOMAN - NIGHT 191 runs down a Mega-City alley. She flags down two JUDGES on Lawmasters. Clutches at her torn clothing, pointing. WOMAN Two of them! They tried to... it was horrible! h T e Judges dismount, head that way. GUNSHOTS. SCREAMS. __rible tearing SOUNDS. ( .96 ÔøΩa.:se. TheABCrobot comes around the corner, hands stained, (X) =..__e: dingsinits armor. The woman turns. It's Ilsa. As (X) s-:= reckonsthelumbering machine, we (X) CUT TO: 192 THRU 193 = `' 3;-, =31" ' S LOCKER ROOM - NIGHT 193A Frei: ed activity as several shifts double up. JUDGE SERGEANT (SHOUTING ASSIGNMENTS) Halloway, Kampal.i,! First Emergency Shift! Mifune,ÔøΩ"Lopez, Second Emergency Shift! All of you, stay alert! Whoever's been taking out Judges knows our standard procedures! We move slowly from the showers with a Judge who moves to her (X) locker. She's surprised to find it unlocked. Puzzled, she (X) opens it - we SEE the odd..PACKAGE too late - EXPLOSION. (X` JUDGE DREDD 68 Rev. #2: 17/3/94 3C EXT. HALL OF JUSTICE - NIGHT 193C The EXPLOSION blossoms against the flank of thegreat metal eagle. As ALARMS RING we RAKE to RICO, amused. He lights a (X) cigar, tosses the match towards the distant flames. (X) CUT TO: 194 EXT. MEGA - CITY WALLS - BINOCULAR MATTE - NIGHT 194 FERGIE'S VOICE There's no way in, Dredd! 195 REVERSE ANGLE - EDGE OF CURSED EARTH - NIGHT 195 Dredd and Fergie are standing beside the Hunter's sand cruiser. Their faces are dry and their lips parched and they show the wear from this journey. Dredd has a pack of gear on his back -andFargo's Winchester. Ignoring Fergie, he continues to (X) peerat the Mega-City wall. (X) FERGIE(cont'd) (X) Hey, did you hear me? They don't (X) have a welcome mat! (X) DREDD (X) (lowering binoculars) (X) There's a way in: Six years ago two Cursed Earthers figured it out. 196 OVER THEIR SHOULDERS 196 Dredd points: Sure enough, there's a puff of FLAME at a VENT low on the wall. SMOKE rises into the sky. Then it stops. DREDD(CONT'D) The vent from the city incinerator. There's a burst twice a minute. That means that there's 30 seconds for someone to run through the tube before it flames again. FERGIE And these Cursed Earthers, they made it through? , _ (CONTINUED) 69 6 CONTINUED: DREDD Actually, they were burned to a crisp. But the theory's sound. (X) Let's go. FOOM. Another FIREBALL belches from the city wall. As Fergie (X) stares at it, Dredd starts forward. It's a few paces before (X) (X) he notices Fergie hasn't moved. DREDD(cont'd) (X) What's wrong? (X) FERGIE What's wrong? Are you kidding? Did that helmet you wore all those years compress your brain? You're gonna get me killed! DREDD (X) Fergie. There's a maniac loose in (X) the city - (X) FERGIE There's one loose out here, too! Big choice, I got! Dying of thirst or from a fireball up my ass! This is all your fault! DREDD My fault? FERGIE (X) Yes! If you hadn't arrested me, (X) wouldn't be here in the first (X) place! (X) =erc a sits down petulantly. (X) FERGIE(cont'd) (X) I'm through schlepping. I'm gonna (X) sit here until I die... or until (X) you apologize. (X) ' - DREDD (X) The Law doesn't apologize. (X) FERGIE (X) You're not a Judge anymore. (X) DREDD ' (X) I was when I sentenced you. (X) (CONTINUED) 70 - `6 CONTINUED: (2) .96 FERGIE (X; Don't get technical. Just say: "I'm (X) sorry I misjudged you. And I'll (X) never arrest you again." (X) Dredd turns around. Marches back to Fergie. Pause. Dread (X) whips a gun up, points it at Fergie. COCKS it. (X) FERGIE (X) (after a moment) (X) Apology accepted. (X) Dredd turns... walks. Fergie looks at another FIREBALL emerging (X) from the city wall.. then at the trackless wasteland he's just (X) crossed. Pause. With a groan, he races to catch up with (X) Dredd. (X) CUT TO: 1.97 EXT. MEGA-CITY STREET - NIGHT 197 SIRENS wail. FIRE burns around the corner. Several LAWMASTERS guise past. Looters run away from them. Close to CAMERA, Hershey throws two PERPETRATORS against a fen ce, cuffs them -NPRO (X) HERSHEY (X) (into radio) (X) Dispatch, I'm in Green Quad, 4-11. (X) Need pickup. (X) DISPATCH VOICE (X) we copy, Hershey. We'll bag 'em. (X) Meanwhile I have Central on line (X) for you. Can you take it? (X) S^e sakes a few steps away from her perps for privacy. (X) HERSHEY (X) Yes, patch me in! (X) CENTRAL'S VOICE (X) Judge Hershey, you paged me. How (X) can I assist you?. (X) HERSHEY (X) You can start by telling me why (X) Dredd's baby picture is a state (X) secret. (X) Pause. We can almost hear Central thinking. Meanwhile, behind (X) Hershey, a figure in a Judge's uniform approaches her Bike... (X) drops something into a storage compartment on it. Even from this distance we notice a red arming light on the object. (CONTINUED) 71 - 7 CONTINUED: 1 C The figure moves away. HERSHEY (cone,'. d ) Central. I want an answer. CENTRAL I'm sorry, I can neither confirm nor deny your statement. HERSHEY (DISCONNECTING) Get a virus! Annoyed, she turns, heads back for her bike - and that's when it EXPLODES! CUT TO: 198 :NT. INCINERATOR CHUTE - NIGHT 198 A FIREBALL ROLLS TOWARD THE CAMERA. We PAN it. As it disappears into the sky, Dredd and Fergie dive inside. DREDD Run! C=ouched over, they race up the slight slope. FERGIE (as he runs) Thirty... twenty nine... twenty eight... twenty seven... twenty six.. twenty five... _ 9 9 r,:ti : _I ? E... ND THEM 199 =e:gie's already beginning to drop back. The only guide in the dark is the slight reflection from CONDUIT on the chute floor. DREDD Stop counting! FERGIE (SOFTER) --nineteen... eighteen... seventeen... sixteen... 200 DREDD 200 FAINT light starts to fall on him. 'Then he SEES it, up ahead -the lights of Mega-City! Dredd pushes on - reaches the opening! Turns to look at..,- 72 - FERGIE 20; still halfway back! FERGIE (PANTING) Twelve... eleven - He FALLS! He tries to get up. His SHIRT is caught on the conduit! He struggles, in a panic, but - keeps counting! Ten! Oh, God, Nine! Dredd! Dredd,d) help me! EIGHT! FOR GOD'S SAKE- 202 DREDD - CLOSE 202 He looks outside - so close - looks back - so far - it's impossible to save Fergie! FERGIE (cont' d) FIVE! DREDDDDDD! FOUR! Dredd looks down - SEES 203 E CONDUIT UNDER HIS FEET 203 FERGIE(CONT'D) THREE! CAMERA RAKES back. Fergie's caught on the same conduit! 204 SESUME DREDD 204 'v::.- a-= :he strength in his body, he RIPS the conduit free from =^e floor - YANKS it forward - 205 205 As he shouts "TWO" he is whipped forward like a trout on a line! 206 C:TY MOUTH OF TUBE - NIGHT 206 per ie flies past Dredd, howling - -'FERGIE ONE! And, as a FIREBALL ROLLS RIGHT BEHIND THEM, Dredd dives out of the opening behind Fergie! 73 - 7 DREDD 2 Has landed half-buried in a mound of ashes. He looks around. DREDD Fergie? Dredd hears a muffled SOUND beneath him. He reaches down... YANKS Fergie into view. Fergie spits out a mouthful of ashes. FERGIE I'm alive. I'm alive! (seeing Dredd, less ENTHUSIASTIC) Oh. So are you. CUT TO: INT. COUNCIL CHAMBER - NIGHT 208 hief Justice Griffin, Council Judges McGruder, Espositio and Yamamoto. A MESSENGER hands a data-pad to Yamamoto, leaves. ESPOSITO (STRICKEN) Latest casualty report. (PAUSE) Ninety-six Judges have been assassinated. MCGRUDER Whoever's doing it knows all our procedures... our security measures...even our scrambled frequencies - ! ESPOSITO Now the street criminals are taking advantage of the situation. It's a nightmare! YAMAMOTO Hell, it's a Goddamn revolution! MCGRUDER We can't replaee those Judges! it takes years of training! We may never be at full strength again! GRIFFIN There is a solution. (on their desperate LOOKS) Project Janus., (CONTINUED) 74 - "^ 18 CONTINUED: 208 MCGRUDER (FURIOUS ) Chief Justice Griffin. Just mentioning that.is grounds for Impeachment! YAMAMOTO We tried to play God once! It almost destroyed the Council - GRIFFIN If this wholesale slaughter of Judges continues, there won't be a council! Janus could - ESPOSITO Come on, Griffin! A new batch of test tube babies won't solve this crisis! We don't need reliable Judges 20 years from now when they're grown! We need them today! GRIFFIN There's been over thirty years of genetic research since Janus failed. What if we could create adult subjects, fully grown andfu3ly trained at birth? We could replace the Judges we've lost in weeks. We could save our society! ESPOSITO Who knows if that's even possible? MCGRUDER Who knows if it's safe? GRIFFIN (POINTING) Central does. All I'm asking is that we unlock the Janus files and ask. That way, we at least have an option. (pause) .,' Please, let us find out. If the Council decides not to go forward... I'll accept that decision... and resign. He has their attention. CUT TO: 75 EXT/INT. HALL OF JUSTICE - NIGHT 209 WORKERS are still cleaning up after the earlier EXPLOSION. A HAND reaches into SHOT, steals UNIFORMS and EQUIPMENT... CUT TO: 210 INT. HALL OF JUSTICE - CORRIDOR - NIGHT 210 Dredd - in a stolen uniform - marches Fergie "under guard" through the building. FERGIE (WHISPERING) This is a mistake. DREDD (ALSO WHISPERING) Judges don't make mistakes. FERGIE But Fargo said you couldn't trust GRIFFIN - DREDD I don't. But I trust the Council. When I tell them about Rico... R they'll listen. they pass peers at them, but doesn't speak. They round FERGIE Just don't get us killed, Dredd. : still want that apology. 21- 211 THRU 212 212 21. CHAMBER - NIGHT 213 T^e '.:nges have all gathered around Central. One by one, they s:ecyuz, speak, put their thumb in Central's scanner. GRIFFIN Griffin, Douglas. .Chief Justice. Authorize access-to file, code name "Janus". CENTRAL Acknowledged. JUDGE MCGRUDER McGruder, Evelyne. Council Judge. Authorize access to file, code name "Janus". (CONTINUED) 76 3 CONTINUED: 2_3 CENTRAL Acknowledged. ON SCREEN, GRAPHICS show the SOFTWARE LOCKS being removed one by one from the Janus Files. JUDGE ESPOSITO Esposito, Carlos. Council Judge. Authorize access to file, code name "Janus". CENTRAL Acknowledged. YAMAMOTO Yamamoto, Gerald. Council Judge. Authorize access to file, code name "Janus". CENTRAL I have unanimous authorization for access to file, code name "Janus". Removing security blocks. .NOW. Awaiting Password command from Presiding Chief Justice. =-SC ON GRIFFIN 214 :.c:-:en on him. He's been waiting for this moment. GRIFFIN Password... Janus. moves in front of the mac hi ne, speaks tersely. GRIFFIN (cont' d) Central: Using current technology, how long would it take for Janus to produce a fully grown adult subject? CENTRAL Given the current state of genetic engineering an adult subject could be incubated in approximately eight hours. ASTONISHMENT in the room. CUT TO: 77 INT. HALL OF JUSTICE - NIGHT 21_ Dredd and Fergie are almost at one of the Council Chamber doors. PAN BACK. The Judge who stared at them earlier is following them! CUT TO: 216 INT. COUNCIL CHAMBER - RESUME 216 GRIFFIN (TO CENTRAL) In what quantity could these subjects be produced? CENTRAL Although only two subjects were produced in the original experiment, the laboratory was equipped with 20 incubators. if fully operational, 420 subjects could be produced a week. YAMAMOTO My God. We could replace our losses in a day - MCGRUDER You aren't considering this madness? YAMAMOTO No.. I'm just reacting to the possibility... a frightening possibility. ESPOSITO Yes. I for one... think this is an idea that should be forgotten. MCGRUDER I agree. Judge Griffin, please (X) restore the Security Blocks. GRIFFIN I see, now, that none of you have the force of will that these terrible times require. You will never open Janus again. So... we'll just leave it... unlocked. 216r EXT. COUNCIL CHAMBER - NIGHT 216A Dredd is about to open the door when a HAND spins him around. It's the Judge who followed..him! (CONTINUED) 78 - -^ -A CONTINUED : 216A JUDGE Dredd! I thought it was y-- That's all he says before Dredd K.O.'s him! 216B INT. COUNCIL CHAMBER - RESUME - NIGHT 216B McGruder stands, furious. MCGRUDER Griffin, this is treason! You just sealed your fate! GRIFFIN No. You've just sealed yours. Rico! 217 RICO 217 steps into the room. 218 BACK TO SCENE 218 MCGRUDER (IN SHOCK) Rico - ! A:i the Judges go for their Lawgivers. But it's too late. Rico OPENS FIRE on FULL AUTOMATIC. 219 NEW ANGLE - FAVORING GRIFFIN 219 _=_ffin averts his eyes from the moment he orchestrated. -,a1:y the gunfire STOPS. CAMERA ADJUSTS. Rico stands, smoking gun in hand. RICO Who says politics is boring? DREDD'S VOICE N00000000 - Rico whirls, looks at 220 DREDD - HIS POV - AT ANOTHER DOOR 220 He has arrived in time to see the murders! With another SCREAM of fury, He LEAPS over the fallen Judge who tried to stop him -makes a running tackle at Rico! 79 WIDER 221 Dredd takes Rico to the floor. They both roll over and over. DREDD MURDERING SON OF A BITCH - ! 222 GRIFFIN 222 tries to get a shot at Dredd, can't. Then Griffin hears ALARMS, SHOUTS, running footsteps. Griffin steps quickly in, KICKS Dredd in the head. GRIFFIN (TO RICO) Get out of here, now! Hearing people coming, Rico obeys. 22- FAVORING DREDD 223 He shakes his head, gets up - sees Rico is gone, but Griffin is =moose. Moves forward - DREDD You're mine. GRIFFIN Really? s moment we think he's going to shoot. Then he turns his points it at his own arm - fires! 224 v‚Ä¢ :nrown by the maneuver, he hesitates. Behind, him, the _:.:ers rush in, see the shocking scene: The dead council - = wo..nded Chief Justice clutching at his own bloody arm - GRIFFIN Stop him! He just killed the entire council! Dredd realizes he's fucked. He turns, runs. The Judge Hunters pause near their wounded leader; who bravely waves them on. ^.ey tear after Dredd like woJ-ves. LZ_ :NT. HALL OF JUSTICE - CORRIDOR - NIGHT 225 Dredd tears around the corner! Fergie appears from behind the hiding place he ducked into at the first shots! , FERGIE Dredd! Tell them I'm innocent! (CONTINUED) 80 - ¬Ä¢ 5 CONTINUED: 22= BULLETS rip up the wall, just missing him. Dredd grabs him by the collar and they both CRASH through doors marked "ACADEMY AND CLASSROOMS". 226 INT. ACADEMY TRAINING CENTER - NIGHT 226 BULLETS whiz past Dredd and Fergie's heads. They turn another corner, surprise a NIGHT WATCHMAN engaged in the ancient night watchman pursuit of eating a sandwich and reading a girlie magazine. NIGHT WATCHMAN Hey - ! That's all he gets out. Dredd hi-blocks him, barrels past. 227 THE WATCHMAN 227 falls, dazed. His stiff, plastic paged copy of "MEGA-SEX" lands on the floor, a 3-D animated holo pinup still posing above the open pages. 228 W_TH DREDD AND FERGIE - INDOOR TRAINING CENTER - NIGHT 228 They enter the training center and Dredd runs right towards the ,--_ Marie IV Lawmaster! Leaps into the saddle and kicks over the en=ine! Spins around and heads back the way he came, grabbing =ergie en route! 225 T. :'RAINING CENTER - ANOTHER ANGLE 229 .oht watchman gets up in time to almost be run over. Dredd __..t_nues past him just as the pursuing guards appear here. :reds drives rich_ at them! They scatter! He turns again towards a wide open corridor - but the Judge Hunters appear there, and they're smart enough to take cover behind the archway, and pour on an awesome fusillade! 2:3 C DREDD 230 Turns again - he's flanked! He spins on the bike, takes the only direction left: Back into the training room - a dead end. Al; the Judges and Guards follow, BLASTING away. 23: ON THE BIKE - WITH DREDD AND FERGIE - MOVING 231 He races directly for the WALL! His fingers stretch out, hit a control marked "CANNON". 23LA BIKE - NEW ANGLE 231A CANNON click into view... FIRE! 81 BACK TO SCENE 231B A HOLE is blasted in the wall! Now we SEE Mega-City -hundreds of stories below us! FERGIE Dredd..? Dredd, you're not gonna-- Dredd hits the button marked "AERIAL MODE". There's a BEEP and the SOUND FX we heard earlier... when the flying prototype failed. DREDD (A PRAYER) Please work. The indifferent half hearted SOUND of the Aerial Mode lifters isn't encouraging. They just GROAN. DREDD(CONT'D) P1 EASEWORKPLEASEWORKPLEASEWORK-- FERGIE OHGODOHGODOHGODOHGOD -- CRASH' They go through the irregular hole! EXT. JUDGE'S COMPLEX - NIGHT 232 =reds and Fergie fly out of the building on the Lawmaster Mark Barely hanging on, they fall silently through the air, _.ass spinning all around them. _ ke begins to turn a somersault. DREDD(CONT'D) PLEASSSSSSSSSSE - An, they. - the Aerial Mode Lifters kick in with an EERIE WHINE. "he fivÔøΩnc motorcvc a comes out of its roll wit a BLAST of rccxets - and roars upwards! IN'T. ACADEMY TRAINING ROOM - NIGHT 233 The Judge Hunters REACT as the bike disappears in an instant, streaking across the sky like a-'comet! 34 234 ru OMITTED thru 35 235 36 INT. GRIFFIN'S OFFICE - NIGHT 236 A MEDIC leaves. Griffin, bandaged, turns as Rico comes out of hiding. (CONTINUED) 82 36 CONTINUED: 236 RICO Why didn't you kill him when you had the chance? GRIFFIN It's better with him on the loose. He'll keep the surviving street Judges preoccupied while we work on Janus. (TURNING) Central. Prepare the Janus Lab for full operation. And... while you're at it... I'd like to appoint Judge Rico to the Council of Judges. CENTRAL (GUARDED) That may present some legal difficulties, since Judge Rico killed the entire Council of Judges. (PAUSE) May I suggest you Pardon him, and then appoint him? That would meet the legal requirements. GRIFFIN Excellent suggestion, Central. Do it. CENTRAL It's done. Council Judge Rico, may be the first to offer my congratulations? RICO Central... I'm touched. CUT TO: HERSHEY'S APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHT 237 Mc%,inc carefully, Dredd and Fergie walk down the corridor. Dredd's still in the stolen uniform. They come to a nameplate with Hershey's name on it. ,We WIDEN. The door has been forced oiler.. 238 NEW ANGLE 238 Dredd and Fergie look at each ether. Dredd swings the Remington out of hiding, steps inside. 83 - I INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT A total wreck. Electronic equipment still SIZZLES here. Dredd lifts a viewie of Hershey and some friends from the Academy. The three women LAUGH and wave as he touches it. FERGIE I guess you're out of friends, Dredd. 24C NEW ANGLE 240 Hershey, weapon in hand, steps inside. She's battered, beat up, and edgy. The way the light hits the room she can only see one figure. HERSHEY Up against the wall, now! The figure complies. It's Fergie. HERSHEY (RECOGNIZING HIM) Ferguson. You're the hacker we arrested. What are you doing here? FERGIE I'm with him. - =141; steps into the light. HERSHEY Dredd! '_- a moment she's elated. Then her face hardens. She holds n steady. HERSHEY (cont' d) Stay where you are. DREDD Hershey. What is it - ? HERSHEY They're dying out-there, Dredd. A hundred and eight Judges in 48 hours. Everyone who's left is on triple shifts and pseudorphin. I thought it was organized criminals, revolutionaries, something... then I was a target. DREDD You think I'm-part of this - (CONTINUED) 84 - r^ 40 CONTINUED: 24C HERSHEY I don't know what to think anymore. Dredd moves like lightning - pins her gun hand against the wall - then freezes. It's a challenge, not a threat. She glares at him - counter moves - gets an elbow against his throat! But Dredd doesn't break her hold - or turn the gun on her. It's deliberate check-mate on both their parts. DREDD (QUIETLY) Do you really think I'd hurt you? HERSHEY Secrets can hurt more than anything. She relaxes her hold on him. Throws something down. 24= NEW ANGLE 241 y-'s the picture of Dredd and Rico. HERSHEY(CONT'D) Tell me about him, Dredd. Make me believe in you again the way I did when I defended you. DREDD (SLOWLY) His name is Rico. And he killed like this once before, nine years ago. HERSHEY And he's doing it again? DREDD Him... and Griffin. HERSHEY Griffin? We have to tell the Council - ! , DREDD There is no Council, Hershey: They were all murdered an hour ago. 242 HERSHEY 242 She's been on her feet for days and this is the last psychic blow. She sags. Dredd catches her. CUT TO: JUDGE DREDD 85 Rev. #1: 16/4/94 243 INT. HERSHEY'S APT. BEDROOM - LATER 243 Hershey is on what's left of the bed. She holds a cup of coffee, more interested in its warmth than its contents. Dredd is nearby. With the borrowed helmet off, we see how haggard he looks. In the other room, Fergie putters with the wrecked computer. HERSHEY (SOFTLY) Clones. Clones, from a genetic laboratory. (pause, wryly) I guess I wasn't so bad in court after all. That's why the DNA convicted you. You and Rico are... DREDD The same. Inhuman. Defective. He just broke down, first. HERSHEY No! DREDD How many times have you said I had no feelings, no emotions? Now you know why. (x) HERSHEY ENTL Dredd.g Children were born in laboratories, even back in the twentieth century... test tube babies, in vitro fertilization. No one ever questioned their HUMANITY - DREDD It's not the same! They had parents, they embraced their humanity... they didn't hide it... fight it... question it! HERSHEY Dredd. The Janus project didn't do that to you. You did that to yourself. He turns, startled. Realizes she's right. DREDD (almost in wonder) Myself. Griffin. Fargo. Even Fergie. I've been wrong about so much... (CONTINUED) 86 - 33 CONTINUED: 243 HERSHEY Never the Law, Dredd. Never the Law. That means more than anything else she can say to him. He looks into her eyes. Fergie comes in, ends the moment. FERGIE You can forget the terminal out here. We're gonna have to go somewhere else to get in the System. DREDD (after a moment) Hershey. You just said I was never wrong about the Law. They took away my badge. I'm a convicted murderer. I have no authority any more - no legal authority. Pause. without the law as a safety net, Dredd is in uncharted emotional territory. DREDD(CONT'D) Will ...wi11 you help me, Hershey? Not as a Judge but... but... as my friend? ::'s the most ordinary request anyone could make... anyone but Dredd. Hershey understands how much it means. She fights back :ears, puts her hand on his arm. HERSHEY I'd be honored. Dredd reaches over, squeezes her hand. There's absolutely nc:n.nc sexual about it - and that makes it even more powerful. CUT TO: 244 INT. JANUS LAB - NIGHT 244 Rico is at the main control console. Behind him, Ilsa is tinkering with a cleaning d=id. . Eh : RAL The DNA sample has been taken out of frozen stasis. I am ready to begin the cloning process. RICO Slight change,. of plans, Central. I want to purge that DNA sample. (CONTINUED) 87 - 4 CONTINUED: 2,- Ilsa looks up startled as the computer WHIRRS. CENTRAL DNA sample purged. If you wish to proceed with cloning, I will require a new sample. ILSA What are you doing? RICO The same thing you are: House-cleaning. Mock-annoyed, she throws a cleaning rag at him. She turns on he droid. It moves off, polishing the floor. Curious, she icins Rico. RICO (CONT'D) Central, active the DNA sampling console. :4-nind Rico, another CONSOLE lights up. Rico crosses to it, passing by his pet robot. v:: _ .. R : CO 24 CENTRAL The sampling console is ready. rips his sleeve open to the elbow... sits down... puts his _.:rnec arm in a special steel hollow. CHUNG! CLAMPS close, ._s arm down. RICO (cont' d) Central. Take DNA sample.. .now. DRILL LIKE DEVICE descends with a frightening grind -anc STABS right into his arm! 24 _ ;_SA 246 sumps, startled - a fleck of BLOOD splatters on her clothes- 241, BACK TO SCENE 247 The drill like device retreats while another automated device slaps a plasti-bandage on Ricc's arm. The clamps OPEN. CENTRAL New DNA sample being analyzed. Scanning. Ma;rix scan complete. (CONTINUED) 88 - CONTINUED: 247 Rico pulls Ilsa into his arms. RICO (cont' d) Kiss me, Professor. I'm gonna be a father. CUT TO: 248 ACADEMY DORM - MULTI-MEDIA PODS - NIGHT 248 DARK, except for a glow in a cubicle at a bend in the=corridor. CAMERA creeps towards the light. Meanwhile, we HEAR the FOLLOWING: DREDD'S VOICE Central, I order you to give me the location of the Janus Lab, immediately! By now the CAMERA is in Olmeyer's student pod. Olmeyer, (X) Fergie and Hershey are in a corner, watching and whispering. : edd is on the other side of the cubicle, at a Central Station. ' r e's wearing his own helmet and badge again. CENTRAL I am sorry, but the location of the Janus Lab is classified information, accessible only to Chief Justice Griffin and Council Judge Rico. DREDD (EXPLODING) Rico? He's a Council Judge now? CENTRAL Actually, the onl Council Judge. Chief Justice Griffin promoted him so they could both use me to get the Janus Lab up and running. DREDD You're helping them? ,-CENTRAL Of course. They are the highest ranking surviving Judges in Mega- City. I am programmed to obey them. DREDD But they're breaking the law! Who the hell programmed you? (CONTINUED) 89 - 8 CONTINUED: 2- CENTRAL Lawyers. (PATIENTLY) Chief Justice Griffin and Council Judge Rico are my lawful superiors unless and until criminal charges are filed against them. DREDD Fine! I'll file charges! CENTRAL (CHIDING) Now, we've already been over that one: You're not a Judge anymore and you can't file charges. Flash of inspiration. Dredd excitedly signals Hershey. HERSHEY Central. This is Judge Hershey. I hereby file formal charges of murder against Chief Justice Griffin and Council Judge Rico. And I order you to give me the location of the Janus Lab so that I may personally make the arrest! CENTRAL Certainly, Judge Hershey. However, as per Mega-City Code Section 84, Paragraph "A", I need authorization from the Chief Justice to arrest a Council Judge. Similarly, as stated in Paragraph "B", same Section, I need authorization from any Council Judges to arrest a Chief Justice. In this case, that would be Chief Judge Griffin and Council Judge Rico. DREDD (THROWN) We need permission from them to arrest.. .them? CENTRAL Basically... yes. And without their authorization you cannot file charges, and without charges I cannot violate Security and tell you the location of the Lab. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 90 - 9 CONTINUED: (2) 248 CENTRAL (CONT'D) (PAUSE) I hope this is finally clear.. If there aren't any other requests, may I close this work station? These last few days have been a strain and I really need to defrag. The work station SHUTS DOWN. Dredd turns. DREDD Fergie, you've got to have something - a password, a kluge - FERGIE Central's a fuzzy A.I. - the best fuzzy A.I. ever built. If reasoning didn't work... (pause, helpless) .nothing will. DREDD Come on, you cracked the food robot... the shuttle computer - FERGIE Simple systems, Dredd! Besides, I was scared. DREDD Scared..? FERGIE Well, yeah. Those were life or death situations. That's when my adrenalin shoots up and my brain goes into overtime - but you can't predict when that's gonna - Dredd grabs him, tucks him under his arm like a newspaper, and leaves the pod. FERGIE Hey! The others are so surprised it's a second before they follow. (X) 91 - 9 INT. STUDENT CENTER - CORRIDOR Dredd strides down the hallway, holding Fergie up in the air. (X, DREDD (X) First that Goddamn computer turned (X) on me. Then, you! (X) CRASH! Fergie's head hits a LIGHT FIXTURE. The bulb EXPLODES. (X) FERGIE (X) Dredd, have you gone craz- OW! (X) Dredd steers him into another hanging FIXTURE. And ANOTHER. (X) FERGIE (X) Dredd! Stop it - OW! Are you out (X) of your - OW ! ( X ) HERSHEY (X) Dredd, you're scaring him! (X) DREDD (X) That's the idea! (X) Another BULB EXPLODES. FERGIE Damn it, Dredd, Lemme down! I'm hitting every Goddamn - 2ÔøΩC ice:- - CLOSE 250 ÔøΩ.. :his position, we can SEE the flash of inspiration on (X) s "ace. FERGIE(CONT'D) (finishing the thought) - light! V - MEGA-CITY LIGHTS 251 Ou_side the nearby window, a galaxy ofillumination. (X) FERGIE ' S VOICE - the city liah‚Ä¢ts..: 252 BACK TO SCENE 252 FERGIE (cont' d) I GOT IT! LEMME DOWN! (X) Dredd instantly obeys. Fergie's actually excited. He races (X) back to the student pod, the others right behind him. He pulls Hershey's sleeve. (CONTINUED) 92 - ," -) 2 CONTINUED : 252 FERGIE(CONT'D) Have it show you the city power grid! HERSHEY Central! I need to see the city power grid! CENTRAL, (COMING ALIVE) Certainly, Judge Hershey. I'm glad we've finally changed the subject. The first level of the city power grid comes up. Like the first page of the Thomas Guide, it's very general and low on detail. FERGIE (into her ear) Tell it to scan around all the grid sections. Random selection. HERSHEY Scan through all the grid sections. Random selection. RAPID IMAGES now: Different neighborhoods of Mega-City, all depicted as COMPUTER GRAPHICS of color and pattern. OLMEYER (X) (WHISPER) What are we doing? DREDD (getting it, a whisper) The Lab was top secret. It had to be in an out of the way place to stay secret. Right? FERGIE (NODDING) Out of the way places have low power demands. But a Genetic Lab would suck power likea motherfu- DREDD (SEEING SOMETHING) STOP! HERSHEY STOP! They all rush forward, look at the grid. It's mostly DARK, just specks of light - but there''s one PULSING HOT SPOT. (CONTINUED) 93 - ,, -2 CONTINUED : (2) 2= DREDD Red Quad, Section 5: The oldest part of Mega-City. Olmeyer turns, looks off. (X) OLMEYER (X) Did you hear something? CENTRAL It's probably just the Judge Hunters. DREDD What? CENTRAL When I was off-line a moment ago, Judge Griffin asked me if I knew where you were. Naturally, I told him yes, and gave him your location. OLMEYER (X ) Get out, quick - ! HERSHEY What about you - OLMEYER (X) I'll tell them you forced me to help you, get out! _2JX25 of pursuit are closer. Fergie yanks Dredd's arm. They _=ave. At the last moment, Hershey spontaneously kisses :,:mever. Needless to say, he's thrilled. (X) 253 W:OER 253 As :redd & Co. break to leave they're momentarily visible in the bend of the corridor. SHOTS ring out. Olmeyer makes his (X) deo_s.on. He jumps into the aisle, starts FIRING. OLMEYER(cont'd) (X) (over his.,shoulder) Hershey, run! He charges forward, firing again and again, handling the weapon like an expert! 254 THE FOUR JUDGE HUNTERS 254 Totally caught by surprise.,.,they FIRE BACK for a second, but then Olmeyer's fusillade of RICOCHETING BULLETS sends them diving for cover! 94 - DREDD, HERSHEY AND FERGIE 255 Almost at the flying cycle. Hershey hesitates at the shots. Dredd grimly pushes her towards the bike. 256 OLMEYER 256 Gun empty, he dives for cover. Three of the Judge Hunters barrel past and the forth cracks him over the head and kicks away the weapon. 257 THE FLYING CYCLE 257 ROARS into the sky! For the second time, the Judge Hunters are too late! 2.58 WITH ONE OF THE JUDGE HUNTERS 258 While his comrades radio-report, he angrily stalks back to where Olme yer i s s i tting on the floor under guard. (X) JUDGE HUNTER You're under arrest, cadet. Anything you say will be held against you. Woozy from the blow to the head, Olmeyer nods, pleased. (X) OLMEYER (X) Judge Hershey. CUT TO: 25. JANUS LAB - NIGHT 259 comes in, sees Rico and Ilsa. Crosses quickly towards - ne m . GRIFFIN Dredd got away from the Hunters. He could be on his way here right now! RICO Don't worry. He's going to be seriously outnumbered. Right, Central? COMPUTER Correct, Council Judge Rico. The new DNA sample has been multi-plexed and the gametes are already dividing. (CONTINUED) 95 - ,,-. -9 CONTINUED : 2F GRIFFIN (STUNNED) New sample..? What the hell's going on? RICO Hey, That old DNA was in there for over 30 years. Sooner or later you gotta clean out the fridge. GRIFFIN (FURIOUS) That sample was created from the finest specimens on the Council of Judges! What did you replace it with? Rico just smiles. GRIFFIN(CONT'D) My God. You? RICO Can you think of a better model? Sleek lines... strong chassis. Corners on the curves. ILSA I've test driven him. It's true. 2-: _= AND GRIFFIN - TWO SHOT 260 ..`_ pulls Rico away from her, talks in a desperate whisper. GRIFFIN Rico. You don't know what you're doing! Software or wetware, when you make reproductions, there's always the danger of a defective copy! The last time, there was one perfect copy - RICO Me. GRIFFIN Dredd! And one defective copy -Lou! You had a mutation, on the Y chromosone... RICO Yes. A mutat;on that made me the next step in human evolution. (CONTINUED) 96 60 CONTINUED: 26C GRIFFIN A mutation that made you a genetic criminal! RICO Really? What's your excuse? GRIFFIN Rico, for God's sake, listen! You're a defective copy yourself! And now you're making more copies that will be even more mutated -more TWISTED - RICO You're lying! All you care about is control! Well, the next batch of Janus Judges won't be the puppets you want... they'll be my brothers and sisters, mine to control! GRIFFIN (VOICE HUSHED) .sisters? RICO Why not? I'm going to breed some more of me... the old fashioned way. ILSA I'd like to be a fly on that wall. RICO You will be. 26- 3R_. 'IN 261 Looks from Rico to Ilsa and back again, suddenly seeing them clearly for the first time. GRIFFIN My God. I never should have started this. Never. But now I'll finish it - ÔøΩ. He draws his Lawgiver! But it has barely cleared the holster when the ABC robot grabs Griffin's wrist! It plucks the weapon from his han as if he's a child, hangs on to him! RICO Griffy. You shouldn't have done that. Fido is very loyal. (CONTINUED) 97 _ CONTINUED: 2F The robot grabs Griffin with its other hand. He's completely off the ground now. GRIFFIN (STRUGGLING) Let me go! Central! Help me! CENTRAL I'm sorry, Chief Justice. The ABC robot is not tied into my main processor. Judge Rico has sole voice control. RICO That's right, Griff. You gotta get with this hi-tech stuff. Robot: Tear off Judge Griffin's arms and legs. Save his head for last. CAMERA ADJUSTS as Griffin SCREAMS with fear - and then, as we :GHTEN on Rico and Ilsa, and we SEE the horrible SHADOWS on t:ne wall, the screams become far, far worse. cc watches with wincing amusement, like a spectator at a par: cularly rough hockey game. :=sa watches with a sick fascination and awe. -:-:ally the screams and horrible wrenching sounds STOP. There's a T The robot returns to position, metal hands stained. RICO (OFFHAND) Central. Where were we? CENTRAL Before we go on, um... may I assume that Judge Griffin has uh... retired from duty? RICO You may so assume. ÔøΩ,‚Ä¢ CENTRAL I. see. (not thrilled! Well, in the uh, absence of any other um... surviving Council Judges, you are now the Presiding Chief Justice. (PAUSE) How may I sex e you? (CONTINUED) 98 - CONTINUED: (2) 261 RICO (SMILING) Send in the Clones. LIGHTS, ACTION. The Lab is completely on line. CENTRAL The clone incubators are on-line. The first batch of clones from your personal DNA can be hatched in eight hours. Chief Justice Rico, how many copies of you would you like? RICO Let's start with... a thousand. CAMERA ADJUSTS to show the INCUBATORS as they begin to fill with PROTOPLASM. CEN'T'RAL Beginning Cloning process.. .now. And as an EIGHT HOUR COUNTDOWN begins, we CUT TO: 2 EXT. RED QUAD, SECTION 5 - NIGHT 262 Tne oldest part of the city, with buildings and architecture _rom our era and even earlier. CAMERA DOLLIES back. The Flying Lawmaster has just landed, DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF CAMERA. ÔøΩers:ÔøΩev checks her Lawgiver. Dredd swing-cocks the Remington ixe a Western Hero. FERGIE This looks like a really bad neighborhood. I'll stay here and watch the bike - DREDD (DRAGGING HIM) We might need you to shut down the Janus system. FERGIE I. knew you were gonna say that. DREDD (TO HERSHEY) Down there? She checks a SCANNER. (CONTINUED) JUDGE DREDD 99 Rev. #1: 16/4/94 262 CONTINUED: 262 HERSHEY Down there. CAMERA ZOOMS BACK. They're on the artiall ruined HEAD of (X) the STATUE OF LIBERTY! Now, t ey DESCEND into the torso. (X) 263 INT. STATUE OF LIBERTY - TORSO - NIGHT 263 Dredd, Hershey and Fergie move down through the long-neglected monument. BATS flutter past. Only Fergie ducks. FERGIE (SWATTING COBWEBS) This is fraggy. No one's been up here in a hundred years. HERSHEY (CHECKING SCANNER) Someone's sure down below. Power Surge... this way. 264 REVERSE ANGLE 264 They come down to a CURVED LANDING. They walk along the curve... to a dead end. More BEEPS. Everyone tenses. HERSHEY (PUZZLED) No wait, it moved... over to... As she turns to look around, the ABC Robot LUNGES OUT OF THE SHADOWS, grabs her off her feet! She drops her Lawgiver and scanner! HERSHEY DREDD! 265 NEW ANGLE 265 The robot holds Hershey with one hand - opens FIRE with the other! Fergie is hit! Dredd throws the wounded hacker to relative safety - swings up. the ancient Remington - FIRES at the robot! 266 HERSHEY - IN THE ROBOT'S GRASP 266 She flinches even though she knows Dredd is aiming around her. But Dredd's 30-30 bullets barely, dent the robot! 267 WIDER 267 Man and robot advance on each other like Hong Kong gunmen, BLASTING AWAY. Dredd's shots BOUNCE off the Robot's armor! (CONTINUED) 100 - A0_1 - S7 CONTINUED: 267 Some of the Robot's shots miss Dredd - some bounce off Dredd's armor - and one shot wings Dredd's shoulder. But Dredd KEEPS ON COMING! 268 THE ROBOT'S LEG 268 a bullet hits a tendon-like CONTROL WIRE! It SNAPS! 269 BACK TO SCENE 269 With an electronic SCREAM the robot GOES DOWN! But it hangs onto Hershey! Suddenly a PNEUMATIC DOOR slides OPEN. Rico and _isa are there, backlit. Both armed. RICO Enough. Dredd. Drop your gun. DREDD No. (starting to aim) Edsel, here still has another KNEECAP - T h e ROBOT looks sharply at Dredd. RICO Amusing. Robot. On a count of three... break Judge Hershey's neck. One... two... .e.: groaning, the Robot STANDS - tenses. Dredd throws down Remington beside Hershey's Lawgiver. Ilsa comes over to the V:ea=c^s. She picks up the REMINGTON... starts to reach for the R =., I AN: HERSHEY 270 s-=a-: a dance towards each other... SCENE 271 Suddenly Ilsa grins. Laughs... and kicks it away. RICO She's such a tease. (HARSHER) Inside. Dredd is taken away. CHUNG. The Pneumatic door closes, leaving Hershey and Fergie in darkness with'the robot. 101 - INT. JANUS LAB - WITH DREDD 2- He's marched between Rico and Ilsa. ILSA (OFF DREDD) He looks a lot like you. RICO He is a lot like me. DREDD I'm nothing like you. RICO The only difference between us, Joseph, is that you destroyed your life when you embraced the Law. I destroyed the Law and embraced...- life ! 273 DREDD - CLOSE 273 Dredd reacts, startled to hear this twisted version of his own earlier words. RICO'S VOICE(cont'd) And speaking of life... behold. A Sw_TCH is thrown - 2-74 A : u` STS LAB - VERY WIDE - NIGHT 274 7cr the first time we SEE it, fully operational, fully lit, =_ea^inc with cold efficiency. Despite himself, Dredd is -.pressed. Rico dances into the great room, expansive. Ilsa oes Dredd forward. RICO This is where we were born, brother! Can you feel the magic? Come... come, see where we began. W:-.H DREDD 275 Drawn despite himself, he stands beside Rico, head turned up like his clone brother's. They never looked more alike. Dredd looks into the glass of the Incubator Chambers just above him. Inside, still forming HUMAN SHAPES, male and female, suspended in milky fluid. RICO(CDNT'D) Look at them. Full of promise. The dawn of the new day. (MORE) (CONTINUED) 102 - CONTINUED: 275 RICO(CONT'D) (pause, turning) The dawn of a new species. CUT TO: 276 INT. JANUS LAB - LANDING - NIGHT 276 The ABC stands guard, Hershey still in its metal grip. She struggles but can't free herself. Fergie groans, opens his eyes. He presses one hand against his wound... then sees Hershey's predicament. Then he looks at the robot from head to toe... CUT TO: 277 INT. JANUS LAB - NIGHT 277 Rico points to the other banks of incubators. RICO Our brothers and sisters will be born in two hours. 60 today... 60 tomorrow. An endless supply of perfection to guard Mega-City forever. (turning, earnest) Dredd. I can't train them alone... wide them alone. You can help me. You have to help me: It's your (X) birthright. DREDD You get nothing from me, Rico. You've betrayed the Law. RICO You... you dare mention betrayal to me? I was your friend. More then a friend! I was oyal to you... and you Judged me! You sent me up for nine years o frozen hell in Aspen! And you dare say "betrayal" to me? He raises his Lawgiver, aims it between Dredd's eyes. RICO (dead serious) (X) Dredd. Give me your word you'll help me raise the kids. (CONTINUED) 103 - 7 CONTINUED: 2- DREDD When Aspen thaws, Rico. Go to hell. Tense seconds. Rico grins boyishly, lowers the gun. RICO Aw. You knew I couldn't pull the trigger. we're family. He steps back. His face hardens. He SHOUTS. RICO(CONT'D) Fido! 7-78 NEW ANGLE 278 CHUNG. The pneumatic door OPENS. Limping on its bad leg, the robot clanks slowly into the room, still hanging onto Hershey. Rico points at Dredd. RICO (cont' d) (POINTING) Rip his arms and legs off... one by one. Save his head for last. ^e robot turns, clanks. Extends its free hand towards Dredd! red backs up - into a wall! The robot keeps coming, moving ce:weer. Rico and Ilsa - and then -THE ROBOT TURNS - BACKHANDS 279 :=Ips over backwards, drops down a level! Ilsa runs :z-war_ - and the Robot knocks her aside, too! 280 ASTONISHED - until he SEES Fergie, hanging on the back of the his hands deep inside it working its circuits! FERGIE (A COWBOY) Yee-HAH! Now, there's one more SIZZLE and SPARK and the machine drops Hershey! HERSHEY Dredd! Catch! She throws the Remington ‚Ä¢11sa dropped to Dredd! 104 - 1 DREDD 28: whirls, FIRES down at Rico. Rico dives for cover... manages to grab his Lawgiver! He FIRES back up at Dredd! 282 ILSA 282 jumps to her feet - right into Hershey's fist! 283 FERGIE 283 hangs on to the robot as it staggers around, trying to regain control of its own movements. It stumbles back out into the corridor. Fergie sees it's reaching for him! Desperate, Fergie reaches into the robot as far as he can, throws a SWITCH! ZAP! 284 THE ROBOT - NEW ANGLE 284 :: PUNCHES its own FIST into its BRAIN. The head EXPLODES. 285 _ERGIE 285 hi=s the floor, hard. Something inside him breaks. But he still has enough strength to look up and SEE 286 ROBOT - HIS POV 286 SMOKE billows from its head. Fist still buried to the wrist in a bizarre salute, it SLOWLY TOPPLES. CRASH! FERGIE Hack you... asshole. =ercÔøΩe slumps... lies still. CUT TO: 287 :_SA AN-- HERSHEY 287 Cor...nue to struggle hand to hand. Ilsa breaks free - goes into ^.er blurring Karate moves - finishes as always with a savage K7.--K to the crotch - 258 HERSHEY - TILT UP FROM HER GROIN 288 Hershey just grins. HERSHEY You don't fight girls much, do you? She grabs Ilsa's ankle, flips her! CUT TO: 105 _ RESUME DREDD 28;' He's trying to keep Rico at bay, but he's clearly outgunned. Reloading behind cover, he SEES Fergie in the doorway. Crawls over to him. Fergie's ashen, his shirt soaked with blood. DREDD Fergie. FERGIE (WEAKLY) Say it, Dredd. Pause.Then Dredd remembers. DREDD I. I made a mistake. I... I'm sorry I misjudged you. FERGIE And you'll never arrest me again. DREDD And I'll never arrest you again. FERGIE Damn straight. e dies. Dredd closes his eyes. CAMERA TIGHTENS on Dredd as nis face fills with fury. He SEES Hershey's Lawgiver on the --cor. Snatches it up! We CRANE UP with him as he COCKS it. DREDD RICOOOOOO! wnrls, CHARGES into the open! 28 5 W:TH DREDD - RUSHING FORWARD 289 He's a one man mobile artillery charge, AIMING, FIRING and snou;..nq commands to his computerized weapon! DREDD DOUBLE-WHAMMY! BOOMERANG! SPIN DIZZY! HEAT SEEKER! ARMOR PIERCING! 290 REVERSE ANGLE 290 It's like a fireworks display as round after round of special bullet roars from Dredd's weapon, whirling all over the room! Mind totally blown, Rico tries to a'im, but then the BULLETS start to seek him out! He turns.. .runs! 106 - ' 91 WITH RICO 29: He DIVES behind some consoles! Armor Piercing rounds chase him, punching holes just above his head. Equipment SPARKS and SMOKES. Rico takes cover, lowers his voice. RICO Central! Hatch the first set of clones, now! CENTRAL The cloning process is not finished, Chief Justice Rico. The Clones will be only 60 per cent complete. RICO Fuck that, I need reinforcements! Hatch the Goddamn clones, now! CENTRAL Beginning hatching process... now. (PAUSE; SOTTO) I know we're going to regret this. CAMERA RAKES to the incubators. They begin to open. '9G DREDD 292 =DUGHS as he passes a smoking CONSOLE. Moves forward, feet :RJNCHING on glass. 293 DTI'-RTED 293 29- n_..SHEY AND 11-SA 294 they roll into the workshop area. Hershey gets a :none nob or. her. Ilsa grabs a wrench - smashes it overhead .,.. :iersney! Hershey falls! Ilsa turns, KICKS her! Hershey =es to get to he feet. Ilsa moves in, ready to deliver the r:l:inc blow. And then - she SCREAMS. 29, NEW ANGLE 295 A CLONE is oozing out of an incubator right in front of her face! bone! ; It's half formed, raw muscle and sinew barely covering 296 WIDER 296 In shock, Ilsa backs away - drops the wrench! The clone, clumsy, FALLS. Hershey recoils from it in shock - recovers her wits - and tackles Ilsa! CUT TO: 107 - DREDD 2' fumbling along in the smoke. Suddenly another half-formed CLONE rears up in his face! It mews horribly, clutches at him! Dredd FIRES a burst at it. It fa s away, vanishes in the smoke! (X) 298 RICO 298 whirls at the SHOT. FIRES at the muzzle flash! We HEAR a (X) GROAN and a THUD. Grinning, Rico races in that direction. (X) 299 299 OMITTED THRU 30= 301 302 HERSHEY AND ILSA 302 still fighting. Ilsa gets in one, two terrific blows. (X) ILSA (X) Bitch! (X) HERSHEY (X) Judge Bitch, to you! (X) Hershey CLOBBERS her with a right! (X) CUT TO: W:7'-: RICO 3 ( He rushes forward, elated. TILT DOWN to the body. It's one of (X) clones, dressed in parts of Dredd's uniform! (X) DREDD'S VOICE (X) Rico. (X) Dread is on top of a big console. (X) DREDD (cont' d) (X) Here comes the Judge. (X) - -IVES down on Rico! Each man grabs each other's wrists! (X) h T e Lawgivers both FIRE wildly. Dredd and Rico carom off (X) ec:u‚Ä¢ pment , FALL! (X) 304 3 04 tr.ru OMITTED thru 30E 305 306 WIDER 306 A short stairwell breaks their fall - and separates them at the (X) bottom! Rico rolls to his knees - still armed. Dredd is slowly (X) comina towards him - unarmed! (X) RICO GRENADE! (CONTINUED) 108 - S CONTINUED: 306 GUN VOICE All lethal rounds exhausted. Select. RICO STANDARD BULLET! GUN VOICE All lethal rounds exhausted. Select. Dredd is almost on top of him! RICO SMOKE BOMB! He FIRES! 307 DREDD 307 The round HITS HIM like a pile driver! His SHIRT catches FIRE! He falls backwards over a railing as the SMOKE coils upwards! 308 RICO 308 RICO Central! Turn off overhead lighting! HUNK. The lights GO OUT. Rico grins, runs out of SHOT! 309 T HRU 310 ::SF, AND HERSHEY 311 S::rprised by the darkness, Ilsa falls, sliding on the slick floor. TILT up. Hershey, limping, comes towards her. :lsa foot-sweeps her to the floor! CUT TO: 3:2 DREDD 312 On the floor below, chest blackened, trying to catch his breath. He REACTS as the lights go out. Seeing a LIGHT in the smoke, he crawls to it. His face falls when he sees its one of Central's EYES. DREDD Central! Can you - (X) (CONTINUED) 109 - 2 CONTINUED: 3' CENTRAL Don't expect help from me, escaped-convict Dredd. I have (X) explained your legal standing repeatedly. I advise you to surrender. DREDD Okay, you win. I'll give myself up to Chief Justice Rico. Where is he? CENTRAL (HELPFUL) Oh, he went upstairs. The lights come ON. CENTRAL (cont ' d ) Straight ahead to your right. Dredd's gone. CUT TO: EXT. STATUE OF LIBERTY - RUINED HEAD - NIGHT 31: Ricc is starting the Lawmaster Mark IV. DREDD'S VOICE RICO000! turns, too late - Dredd's tackle takes him out of the sa.: ..._e 312E _:.Os =Fc 312B ^e -and on the edge of the ruined head! The Lawgiver skids (X) cu: reach! -2 = LONG SHOT 312C High above the city, they trade punches! For a moment, Dredd has the advantage! (X) DREDD That's for Fargo! That's for the u Co ncil! That's for Fergie! (PAUSE) Wait'll I get to me. Then, even from this distance, we SEE Rico connect with Dredd's chest wound! Dredd almost folds! 110 D CLOSE AGAIN 312D Rico's almost as exhausted as Dredd. On the other hand... Dredd is in agony. RICO This... this is how you repay me (X) for telling you the truth? That (X) we were born with a destiny to rule! (X) A destiny you spit on! (X) Rico hits him on the wound again! Dredd falls, rolls to the edge of the rubble strewn platform. Rico grins, struggles to (X) full height. RICO (cont' d) (CATCHING BREATH) Joseph Dredd. I hereby Judge you. (X) To the charge of betraying your best friend... GUILTY. To the charge of betraying your flesh... GUILTY. Rico leans over the helpless Dredd. KICKS him. Dredd slips over the edge, dangles! RICO And finally... to the charge of being human when you could have been a God... GUILTY. Rico nicks up the Lawgiver. Puts it right against Dredd's head. RICO(CONT'D) The sentence is DEATH! GUN VOICE All lethal rounds exhausted. Select. 312E UP ANGLE 312E Dredd dares everything, GRABS Rico's HAND! Dredd's finger makes contact with the pistol grip. GUN VOICE DNA accepted. Select. DREDD Signal Flare! And as he SHOUTS it, he uses his last strength to smack the weapon away! IF WIDER 31- The SIGNAL FLARE ROUND FIRES, like a ROCKET! Rico, off-balance., is knocked backwards! He falls SCREAMING to his death! 312G CLOSE ON DREDD 312G He watches his brother fall. Starts to climb up... a boot steps on his hand. He looks up. 312w ILSA 312H bruised, bloody - angry! Then - WHAM! A FIST SMASHES into her haw! 312: WIDER 3121 :1sa falls next to the Lawmaster IV. Hershey reaches down for - - redd's hand - 313 r. _ .. DM-- :"TED thru 3_C 319 CUT TO: 32: DBE-i AND HERSHEY - AT THE PNEUMATIC DOOR - LOWER LEVEL 320 ::sa, cuffed, is on the floor, unconscious. Hershey helps s‚Ä¢.:=port Dredd. They look at each other. Dredd looks back in 'e lab. Nods at Hershey. She raises her weapon. Speaks into HERSHEY Grenade. BLAM! The incubators EXPLODE. LAB - WIDE 321 2HA N REACTION spreads through the lab. One by one, consoles ant wcrx stations ERUPT. The unborn clones SCREAM soundlessly as :::ev burn. ? iv E JMAT I C DOOR 322 weary, Dredd closes it. As it BLOCKS his FACE we GO TO - 322A EXT. BASE OF STATUE OF LIBERTY - NIGHT 322A A CIRCLE OF LIGHT FORMS around Rico's body. We WIDEN. A squad of JUDGE HUNTERS has appeared on Lawmasters. Dredd and Hershey come into view. DREDD (to them).. It's over. (CONTINUED) 112 - CONTINUED: 322A OLMEYER'S VOICE (X) They know, Judge Dredd. 322B NEW ANGLE 322B Olmeyer is with them, a little banged up. (X) OLMEYER(cont'd) (X) They know, now. The Judge Hunters put away their weapons. The leader=approaches Dredd, salutes. JUDGE HUNTER LEADER You saved Mega-City, sir. You're a hero. DREDD No. Just a Judge. I did my job. CAMERA ADJUSTS and we SEE that he is holding Fergie's body in ..z.s arms. DREDD(CONT'D) Here's your hero. The other Judges take Fergie's body respectfully. Hershey and (X) -ever approach Dredd. (X) OLMEYER (X) We have to reconstitute the Council, (X) Judge Dredd. You should be on it. (X) doesn't look convinced. Hershey, even less so. (X) HERSHEY (X ) No. That's not for him. (X) (TURNING) (X) This is for him. (X) CAMERA ADJUSTS. Olmeyer is holding Dredd's helmet. Hershey (X) :akes_it, puts it on Dredd. For a moment the shot matches the (X) one of Fargo and the two cadets just before his Long Walk. (X) And then Dredd, too, turns and walks. Not into the wilderness: (X) Into his City. As the CAMERA CRANES UP, we (X) FADE OUT. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Juno.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Juno.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..1265324e38b7900fb0f346e592b9851dcf798a05 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Juno.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + JUNO Written by Diablo Cody EXT. CENTENNIAL LANE - DUSK JUNO MacGUFF stands on a placid street in a nondescript subdivision, facing the curb. It's FALL. Juno is sixteen years old, an artfully bedraggled burnout kid. She winces and shields her eyes from the glare of the sun. The object of her rapt attention is a battered living room set, abandoned curbside by its former owners. There is a fetid-looking leather recliner, a chrome-edged coffee table, and a tasteless latchhooked rug featuring a roaring tiger. JUNO (V.O.) It started with a chair. INT. BLEEKER HOUSE - MOLD-O'-RIFFIC BASEMENT - NIGHT FLASHBACK - Juno approaches a boy hidden by shadow. He's sitting in an overstuffed chair. She slowly, clumsily lowers herself onto his lap. A 60's Brazilian track plays from a vintage record player. WHISPERED VOICE Do you know how long I've wanted this? JUNO Yeah. WHISPERED VOICE Wizard. EXT. CENTENNIAL LANE - CONTINUED A DOG barks, jarring Juno back to reality. JUNO Quiet, Banana. Hey, shut your gob for a second, okay? We see a teacup poodle tethered in the yard a few feet away from the abandoned living room set. The dog yaps again. JUNO (V.O.) This is the most magnificent discarded living room set I've ever seen. She swigs from an absurdly oversized carton of juice and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. BEGIN ANIMATED TITLE SEQUENCE: Juno marching down various street, pumping her arms like a jogger and chugging intermittently from the huge carton of juice. We watch her breathlessly navigate suburbia, clearly on a mission. EXT. DRUGSTORE - DAY Finally, a panting Juno arrives at DANCING ELK DRUG on the main drag of her small Minnesota suburb, Dancing Elk. The automatic doors of the store part to reveal Juno's flushed serious face. She carelessly flings the empty juice container over her shoulder and onto the curb. A group of DROPOUTS with skateboards near the entrance glare at her. She enters the DRUGSTORE. INT. DRUGSTORE - CONTINUOUS ROLLO, the eccentric drugstore clerk, sneers at Juno from behind the counter. He wears a polyester uniform vest. ROLLO Well, well. If it isn't MacGuff the Crime Dog! Back for another test? JUNO I think the last one was defective. The plus sign looked more like a division sign. Rollo regards her with intense skepticism. JUNO I remain unconvinced. Rollo pulls the bathroom key out of reach. ROLLO This is your third test today, Mama Bear. Your eggo is preggo, no doubt about it! An eavesdropping TOUGH GIRL wearing an oversized jacket and lots of makeup gapes at Juno from the beauty aisle. TOUGH GIRL Three times? Oh girl, you are way pregnant. It's easy to tell. Is your nipples real brown? A pile of stolen COSMETICS falls out of the girl's jacket and clatters to the floor. TOUGH GIRL Balls! Juno crosses and crosses her legs awkwardly, hopping. It's obvious she has to use the bathroom urgently. ROLLO Maybe you're having twins. Maybe your little boyfriend's got mutant sperms and he knocked you up twice! JUNO Silencio! I just drank my weight in Sunny D. and I have to go, pronto. Rollo sighs and slips her the bathroom key. Juno races down one of the aisles. ROLLO Well, you know where the lavatory is. (calling after her) You pay for that pee stick when you're done! Don't think it's yours just because you've marked it with your urine! JUNO Jesus, I didn't say it was. ROLLO Well, it's not. You're not a lion in a pride! (to himself) These kids, acting like lions with their unplanned pregnancies and their Sunny Delights. INT. DRUGSTORE - BATHROOM - DAY In the dim, reeking public bathroom, Juno hovers over the commode with her boxer shorts around her ankles. She clumsily tries to use the pregnancy test. We see the test box sitting on the sink. It's a TeenWave Discount Pregnancy Test. The accompanying outdated package photo is of a shrugging 80s teen with a resigned expression. The fine print on the box reads "From the makers of Sun-Glitz Lightening Hair Spritz!" INT. DRUGSTORE - FRONT COUNTER - DAY Juno holds the developing test in her hand and slaps the open test box on the front counter. Rollo scans it and bags it indifferently. JUNO Oh, and this too. She places a giant licorice Super Rope on the counter. ROLLO So what's the prognosis, Fertile Myrtle? Minus or plus? JUNO (examining stick) I don't know. It's not... seasoned yet. Wait. Huh. Yeah, there's that pink plus sign again. God, it's unholy. She shakes the stick desperately in an attempt to skew the results. Shake. Shake. Nothing. ROLLO That ain't no Etch-a-Sketch. This is one doodle that can't be undid, homeskillet. EXT. MACGUFF HOUSE - EVENING Juno walks slowly and dejectedly up the street to her house, gnawing on the Super Rope. She stops and loops the Super Rope over a low-hanging tree branch, contemplating how to fashion a noose. Juno trudges toward her HOUSE. The yard is a wild tangle of prairie grass and wild flowers. INT. MACGUFF HOUSE - JUNO'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Juno's BEDROOM is decorated with punk posters: The Damned, The Germs, the Stooges, Television, Richard Hell, etc. She picks up a hamburger-shaped phone to call her best friend, LEAH. INT. LEAH'S HOUSE - BEDROOM - NIGHT LEAH's room is cluttered with the sentimental junk that certain girls love to hoard. The PHONE rings. LEAH (answering phone) Yo-yo-yiggity-yo. JUNO I am a suicide risk. LEAH Is this Juno? JUNO No it's Morgan Freeman. Got any bones that need collecting? LEAH Only the one in my pants. JUNO (in low tones) Dude, I'm pregnant. LEAH Maybe it's just a food baby. Did you have a big lunch? JUNO It's not a food baby. I took three pregnancy tests today. I am definitely up the spout. LEAH How did you even generate enough pee for three pregnancy tests? JUNO I drank like ten tons of Sunny Delight. Anyway, yeah. I'm pregnant. And you're shockingly cavalier. LEAH Is this for real? Like for real, for real? JUNO Unfortunately, yes. LEAH Oh my God! Oh shit! Phuket Thailand! JUNO That's the kind of emotion I was looking for in the first take. LEAH Well, are you going to go to Havenbrooke or Women Now for the abortion? You need a note from your parents for Havenbrooke. JUNO I know. Women Now, I guess. The commercial says they help women now. LEAH Want me to call for you? I called for Becky last year. JUNO Eh, I'll call them myself. But I do need your help with something very urgent. EXT. CENTENNIAL LANE - NIGHT Leah and Juno struggle to drag a recliner across a well manicured suburban lawn. They make a formidable team. LEAH Heavy lifting can only help you at this point. JUNO That is sick, man. Leah busts a gut laughing. It's a stunningly accurate portrayal of Bleeker's parents. LEAH So, you were bored? Is that how this blessed miracle came to be? JUNO Nah, it was a premeditated act. The sex, I mean, not getting pregnant. LEAH When did you decide you were going to do Bleeker? JUNO Like, a year ago, in Spanish class. INT. DANCING ELK SCHOOL - SPANISH CLASS - DAY - (FLASHBACK) Bleeker and Juno are sitting at their desks, listening to a teacher lecturing about spanish. Bleeker discreetly pushes a POSTCARD to Juno with his foot. She picks it up off the floor, reads it, then looks at Bleeker, who is watching the teacher obediently. EXT. CENTENNIAL LANE - NIGHT LEAH Aha! You love him. JUNO It's extremely complicated, and I'd rather not talk about it in my fragile state. She hefts a coffee table with her bare hands. She's wearing her father's LIFTING BELT. LEAH So, what was it like humping Bleeker's bony bod? JUNO It was magnificent, man! INT. BLEEKER'S BEDROOM - MORNING CU of Bleeker putting on double socks in his Car-Bed. CU of Bleeker putting on his sweat bands. CU of Bleeker applying Runner's Glide. INT. KITCHEN - BLEEKER'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - MORNING CU of a CROISSANT POCKET warming in the microwave. EXT. BLEEKER HOUSE - MORNING PAUL BLEEKER steps onto the front porch of his house for early morning track practice. He wears a cross country uniform that reads "DANCING ELK CONDORS." He is eating some kind of microwaved snack gimmick. Bleeker is startled to discover that Juno is outside waiting for him. She has somehow arranged the living room set on the front lawn, and is seated in the armchair, chewing a pipe officiously. JUNO Hey Bleek. BLEEKER Hey, cool tiger. Looks proud. JUNO Yeah, I swiped it from Ms. Rancick. BLEEKER Cool. JUNO Your shorts are looking especially gold today. BLEEKER My mom uses color-safe bleach. JUNO Go Carole. (a beat) So, guess what? BLEEKER (shrugs) I don't know... JUNO I'm pregnant. Stunned silence. Juno pops up the footrest of the recliner and leans back comfortably. BLEEKER I guess so. (fidgeting) What are you going to do? The Dancing Elk Prep cross country team runs past Bleeker's house in a thundering herd, wearing a motley assortment of warm-ups. Their momentum stirs the crackling fall leaves. They wave and holler at Bleeker and Juno. JUNO (V.O.) When I see them all running like that, with their things bouncing around in their shorts, I always picture them naked, even if I don't want to. I have intrusive thoughts all the time. EXT. BLEEKER HOUSE - CONTINUED BLEEKER I'm supposed to be running. JUNO I know. There's an awkward silence. BLEEKER So, what do you think we should do? JUNO I thought I might, you know, nip it in the bud before it gets worse. Because I heard in health class that pregnancy often results in an infant. BLEEKER Yeah, typically. That's what happens when our moms and teachers get pregnant. JUNO So that's cool with you, then? BLEEKER Yeah, wizard, I guess. I mean do what you think is right. JUNO I'm real sorry I had sex with you. I know it wasn't your idea. BLEEKER Whose idea was it? JUNO I'll see you at school, O.K.? She mounts her bicycle and waves before riding off. BLEEKER (to nobody in particular) Whose idea was it? EXT. DANCING ELK SCHOOL - DAY Juno pushes her crappy bike into the bike rack and winds a lock around it. In the background, a group of 3 NERDS play a live-action RPG. NERD You did not! You don't have the armor. That Orc Armor you bought from the wizard doesn't have the power level to parry my hit! INT. DANCING ELK SCHOOL - CORRIDOR - DAY Juno tries to push through the masses, but the throng of students is thick and unwielding. INT. DANCING ELK SCHOOL - HALLWAY - DAY Juno rummages through her locker, which is plastered with photos of Leah and Bleeker, plus a giant poster of Iggy Pop in his heyday. She grabs a dilapidated physics textbook. A few pages slip out. STEVE RENDAZO (the same asshole who harassed her as she walked to the drugstore) passes by in the hallway. STEVE RENDAZO Hey, your book fell apart! JUNO Yeah. STEVE RENDAZO It must have looked at your face. PWAH! He high-fives his klatch of buddies and moves along. JUNO (V.O.) The funny thing is that Steve Rendazo secretly wants me. Jocks like him always want freaky girls. Girls with horn-rimmed glasses and vegan footwear and Goth makeup. Girls who play the cello and wear Converse All-Stars and want to be children's librarians when they grow up. Oh yeah, jocks eat that shit up. We see Steve looking back at Juno for a brief second with mixed feelings. JUNO (V.O.) They just won't admit it, because they're supposed to be into perfect cheerleaders like Leah. Who, incidentally, is into teachers. We see Leah at the far end of the hallway, talking animatedly with a paunchy middle-aged teacher, KEITH. LEAH (from a distance) Me too! I love Woody Allen! INT. DANCING ELK SCHOOL - SCIENCE LAB - DAY STUDENTS bustle in, as the teacher, MR. TINKER tries to maintain order. Juno heads toward her desk and sets down her bag. MR. TINKER People! We're doing our photomagnetism lab today, so find your partner and break out into fours. Juno looks up and meets eyes with her longtime lab partner: Bleeker. Sound the gong of awkwardness! Juno and Bleeker head separately over to an available lab station and unpack their bags in silence. JUNO Well! Nothing like experimenting. BLEEKER I did the prep questions for this lab last night. You can copy my answers if you need to. He slides a piece of graph paper in front of Juno without looking at her. JUNO Oh, I couldn't copy your work. BLEEKER But you copy my work every week. JUNO Oh yeah. I'm kind of a deadbeat lab partner, huh? BLEEKER I don't mind. You definitely bring something to the table. JUNO Charisma? BLEEKER Or something. The other two LAB PARTNERS, a humorless couple, join them at the station. JUNO So, who's ready for some photomagnificence? GIRL LAB PARTNER I have a menstrual migraine, and I can't look at bright lights today. GUY LAB PARTNER Amanda, I told you to go to the infirmary and lie down. You never listen. GIRL LAB PARTNER No Josh, I don't take orders. Not from you and not from any man. GUY LAB PARTNER You know, you've been acting like this ever since I went up to see my brother at Mankato. I told you, nothing happened! GIRL LAB PARTNER Something happened. Because your eyes? Are very cold? They're very cold, Josh. They're cold, lying eyes. GUY LAB PARTNER What? My eyes are not lying! GIRL LAB PARTNER Yes they are, Josh. Since Mankato, they have been lying eyes. Juno and Bleeker observe the argument like tennis spectators, fascinated by the dynamics of a real couple. BLEEKER Okay... I'm going to set up the apparatus. Juno, want to get a C clamp out of that drawer? GIRL LAB PARTNER I'm going to the infirmary. GUY LAB PARTNER Good. Call me when you're OFF the rag. GIRL LAB PARTNER Fine. Call me when you learn how to love just one person and not cheat at your brother's college just because you had four Smirnoff Ices and a bottle of Snow Peak Peach flavored Boone's! GUY LAB PARTNER Good, I'll be sure to do that, Amanda. I'll make a note of it. He furiously scrawls a fake memo in his notebook. JUNO Snow Peak Peach is the best flavor of Boone's. Right, Bleek? Bleeker reddens and continues constructing the apparatus. GIRL LAB PARTNER stalks off dramatically. Bleeker shakes his head and rifles through his textbook. INT. MACGUFF HOUSE - JUNO'S BEDROOM - AFTERNOON Juno examines a large ad in the newspaper that depicts a distraught TEEN GIRL clutching her head in a moment of staged conflict. The ad reads: "Pregnant? Find the clinic that gives women choice. Women's Choice Health Center." Juno picks up her hamburger phone and dials. For a moment, she attempts to copy the melodramatic pose from the ad, checking herself out in the mirror. JUNO (talking along with voice prompt) "Para instruciones en Espanol, oprima numero dos." She presses a few buttons in succession. JUNO Yes, hello, I need to procure a hasty abortion?... What was that? I'm sorry, I'm on my hamburger phone and it's kind of awkward to talk on. It's really more of a novelty than a functional appliance. She SMACKS the phone a couple of times. JUNO Better? Okay, good. Yeah, as I said, I need an abortion, two... sixteen... Um, it was approximately two months and four days ago that I had the sex. That's a guestimate. Okay, next Saturday? Great. She hangs up the phone. JUNO (V.O.) I hate it when adults use the term "sexually active." INT. HEALTH CLASS - DAY (FLASHBACK) A HEALTH TEACHER in slo-mo puts a condom on a banana. JUNO (V.O.) What does that even mean? Can I deactivate someday, or is this a permanent state of being? I guess Bleeker went live that night we did it. I guess he hadn't done it before, and that's why he got that look on his face. INT. BLEEKER'S HOUSE - MOLD-O'-RIFIC BASEMENT - NIGHT (FLASHBACK) We see Paulie's face at the moment of his deflowering: he's comically wide-eyed with shock. INT. MACGUFF HOUSE - DINING ROOM - NIGHT Juno, her father MAC, her stepmother BREN, and LIBERTY BELL sit at a very typical kitchen table, eating dinner. MAC shovels food while chatting about his day. MAC You should have seen this octopus furnace. I had to get out my Hazmat suit just to get up in there... JUNO (V.O.) My dad used to be in the Army, but now he's just your average HVAC specialist. He and my mom got divorced when I was five. She lives on a Havasu reservation in Arizona... PHOTO: ARIZONA TRAILER PARK JUNO (V.O.) ...with her new husband and three replacement kids. Oh, and she inexplicably mails me a cactus every Valentine's Day. INT. MACGUFF HOUSE - JUNO'S BEDROOM - DAY PILE OF NEGLECTED CACTI festering in a corner of Juno's room. JUNO (V.O.) And I'm like, "Thanks a heap, Coyote Ugly. This cactus-gram stings even worse than your abandonment." INT. MACGUFF HOUSE - DINING ROOM - NIGHT BREN is cutting up LIBERTY'S food diligently. Her nails are brilliant, holding the silverware. JUNO (V.O.) That's my stepmom, Bren... INT. BREN'S WORKROOM - DAY Bren stitches a needlepoint pillow of a dog. JUNO (V.O.) She's obsessed with dogs... EXT. BREN'S TENS - DAY Bren's nail salon in all its glory. JUNO (V.O.) ...owns a nail salon called Bren's Tens... INT. BREN'S TENS - DAY Bren chats up a customer as she applies a fresh coat. JUNO (V.O.) ...and she always smells like methylmethacrylate. INT. MACGUFF HOUSE - DINING ROOM - NIGHT Liberty Bell coughs pitifully as Bren leans over her plate. MAC So Juno, how did your maneuver go last night? JUNO Which maneuver, sir? The one in which I moved an entire living room set from one lawn to another, or the one in which I cleared a sixty-four ounce blue slushie in ten minutes? Bren speaks in her strong city accent. BREN Juno? Did you happen to barf in my urn? Mac, you know that nice urn by the front door, the one I got up in Stillwater? I found some weird blue shit, I mean stuff, gunk, in there this morning. JUNO I would never barf in your urn, Brenda. Maybe L.B. did it. We see Liberty Bell blithely pouring bacon bits onto her dinner. MAC Liberty Bell, if I see one more Baco on that potato, I'm gonna kick your monkey ass. EXT. WOMEN'S CHOICE CLINIC - DAY Juno trudges toward the front entrance of the clinic. There is a lone ABORTION PROTESTER, a teenager of Asian descent holding a hugely oversized sign that reads "NO BABIES LIKE MURDERING." LONE PROTESTER (chanting in extremely shy, accented voice) All babies want to get borned! All babies want to get borned! Juno recognizes the PROTESTER as a classmate of hers. JUNO Uh, hi Su-Chin. SU-CHIN Oh, hi Juno. How are you? JUNO Good. I'm good. (pause) Did you finish that paper for Worth's class yet? SU-CHIN No, not yet. I tried to work on it a little last night, but I'm having trouble concentrating. JUNO You should try Adderall. SU-CHIN No thanks. I'm off pills. JUNO Wise move. I know this girl who had a huge crazy freakout because she took too many behavioral meds at once. She took off her clothes and jumped into the fountain at Ridgedale Mall and she was like, "Blaaaaah! I'm a kraken from the sea!" SU-CHIN I heard that was you. JUNO Well, it was nice seeing you. She continues on toward the clinic entrance. SU-CHIN (calling out) Juno! Your baby probably has a beating heart, you know. It can feel pain. And it has fingernails. JUNO Really? Fingernails? She considers the concept, then pushes open the clinic door. INT. WOMEN'S CHOICE CLINIC - RECEPTION - DAY The receptionist sits behind a pane of bulletproof glass. The waiting room is semi-crowded, occupied mostly by pregnant women, teens and ill-behaved children. PUNK RECEPTIONIST Welcome to Women's Choice, where women are trusted friends. Please put your hands where I can see them and surrender any bombs. Juno flashes her best jazz hands. JUNO Hi. I'm here for the big show? PUNK RECEPTIONIST Your name, please? JUNO Juno MacGuff. The receptionist raises a pierced eyebrow and arranges some paperwork on a clipboard. JUNO (V.O.) She thinks I'm using a fake name. Like Gene Simmons or Mother Teresa. The receptionist hands Juno the clipboard and a pen. PUNK RECEPTIONIST I need you to fill these out, both sides. And don't skip the hairy details. We need to know about every score and every sore. The receptionist reaches into one of those ubiquitous women's clinic CONDOM JARS, and holds up a fistful of purple rubbers. PUNK RECEPTIONIST Would you like some free condoms? They're boysenberry. JUNO No thank you. I'm off sex. PUNK RECEPTIONIST My partner uses these every time we have intercourse. They make his balls smell like pie. JUNO Congrats. She takes a seat in the WAITING ROOM and rifles through a pile of old magazines. The magazine selection is lots of "mommy mags" and health related periodicals. She selects an issue of Family Digest and gingerly flips through for a few moments. Then she looks over and notices the FINGERNAILS of a nearby teen, who looks as nervous as she does. The girl bites her thumbnail and spits it onto the floor. Juno looks away, but immediately notices another waiting woman, who absently scratches her arm with long fake nails. Suddenly, she sees fingernails EVERYWHERE. The receptionist clicks her nails on the front desk. Another woman blows on her fresh manicure. Everyone seems to be fidgeting with their fingers somehow. Juno suddenly looks terror-stricken... CUT TO: PUNK RECEPTIONIST Excuse me, Miss MacGoof? There's no answer. We see that Juno's chair is EMPTY. The receptionist cranes her neck and sees the front door drift shut. Juno's figure recedes into the distance as she tears off down the street, running as fast as she can. EXT. LEAH'S HOUSE - DAY Leah's front door swings open to reveal a breathless Juno standing sheepishly on the porch. Leah sighs. LEAH What are you doing here, dumbass? I thought I was supposed to pick you up at four. JUNO I couldn't do it, Leah! It smelled like a dentist in there. They had these really horrible magazines, with, like, spritz cookie recipes and bad fiction and water stains, like someone read them in the tub. And the receptionist tried to give me these weird condoms that looked like grape suckers, and she told me about her boyfriend's pie balls, and Su-Chin Kuah was there, and she told me the baby had fingernails. Fingernails! LEAH Oh, gruesome. I wonder if the baby's claws could scratch your vag on the way out? JUNO I'm staying pregnant, Le. LEAH Keep your voice down dude, my mom's around here somewhere. She doesn't know we're sexually active. JUNO What does that even mean? Anyway, I got to thinking on the way over. I was thinking maybe I could give the baby to somebody who actually likes that kind of thing. You know, like a woman with a bum ovary or something. Or some nice lesbos. LEAH But then you'll get huge. Your chest is going to milktate. And you have to tell everyone you're pregnant. JUNO I know. Maybe they'll canonize me for being so selfless. LEAH Maybe they'll totally shit and be super mad at you and not let you graduate or go to Cabo San Lucas for spring break. JUNO Bleeker and I were going to go to Gettysburg for spring break. Leah sighs, as if there's no helping her nerdy friend. LEAH Well, maybe you could look at one of those adoption ads. I see them all the time in the Penny Saver. JUNO There are ads? For parents? LEAH Oh yeah! "Desperately Seeking Spawn." They're right by the ads for like, iguanas and terriers and used fitness equipment. It's totally legit. JUNO Come on, Leah. I can't scope out wannabe parents in the Penny Saver! That's tacky. That's like buying clothes at the Pump n' Munch. EXT. PARK BENCH - DAY Juno and Leah are sitting at a bench in a park. They slurp giant blue slushies and sift through a pile of Penny Savers. Juno has her pipe with her. JUNO The Penny Saver sucks. LEAH Yeah, but it sucks for free. They turn the pages in silence for a moment. Their lips and teeth are Windex-blue. LEAH Look at this one "Wholesome, spiritually wealthy couple have found true love with each other." (checks to see that Juno is paying attention) "All that's missing is your bastard." JUNO (reading a different page) There's a guy in here who's giving away a piano. Free for the hauling! We should put it in Bleeker's yard. LEAH You're not listening to me. JUNO No, I heard you. I just can't give the baby to people who describe themselves as "wholesome." I'm looking for something a little edgier. LEAH What did you have in mind, a family of disturbed loners who are into gunplay and incest? JUNO I was thinking a graphic designer, mid-thirties, and his cool Asian wife who dresses awesome and plays bass. But I'm trying to not be too particular. LEAH All right, how about this one? "Healthy, educated couple seeking infant to join our family of five. You will be compensated. Help us complete the circle of love." JUNO Yeesh, they sound like a cult. Besides, they're greedy bitches. They already have three kids! LEAH Hey, Juno. Juno! Look at this one. She points to the paper and motions for Juno to look. Juno scans the ad silently. We see the ad. It contains a photo of an attractive couple with ambiguous Mona Lisa smiles. It reads "Educated, successful couple wishes to..." JUNO (V.O.) They were Mark and Vanessa Loring, and they were beautiful even in black and white. EXT. BLEEKER HOUSE - PAULIE'S WINDOW - NIGHT We see Paulie's bedroom window -- festooned with childish curtains -- and the light on inside. INT. BLEEKER'S HOUSE - PAULIE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Bleeker lies on his Car-bed in his track uniform, listening to the same LP from when he and Juno went all the way. He stares between the pages of his embossed Dancing Elk Prep yearbook. We see the object of his gaze is Juno's black and white YEARBOOK PHOTO. Next to it, we see a sloppy, handwritten message from Juno. We hear Juno's voice reading the message: JUNO (V.O.) Hey Bleeker! Spank off to this with motion lotion. Just kidding (kind of.) Your best friend, Juno. Bleeker picks up the phone. It's the same HAMBURGER PHONE Juno has. He reconsiders and puts it down. There's a knock on the bedroom door. BLEEKER'S MOM pokes her dowdy head inside. BLEEKER'S MOM Paul? Are you coming downstairs to eat? BLEEKER I don't think so. BLEEKER'S MOM You ran eight miles today, Puppy. BLEEKER I'm not hungry, oddly. BLEEKER'S MOM But it's breakfast for supper. Your favorite, Paulie. I made French toast and sausage. Patties, not linkies, just like you like it. Bleeker places his hand silently on his stomach. BLEEKER'S MOM Juno MacGuff called while you were out running. She wants to know if you're coming to her little coffeehouse performance on Saturday. BLEEKER Thanks for the message. BLEEKER'S MOM You know how I feel about her. BLEEKER You've mentioned it about fifty times. BLEEKER'S MOM I just hope you don't consider her a close friend. Bleeker's mom gives up and closes the door. We see that Bleeker is clutching a pair of PANTIES in one hand, which he slowly releases as the 45 ends. INT. MACGUFF HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - AFTERNOON Bren and MAC are seated on the couch. Leah is standing nearby for reinforcements. Juno paces nervously, trying to suss out how to break the massive news. JUNO I have no idea how to spit this out. BREN Hon, did you get expelled? JUNO No. The school would probably contact you in the event of my expulsion. BREN Well, I was just asking. It seemed plausible. MAC Do you need a large sum of money? Legal counsel? JUNO No, no, I'm definitely not asking for anything. Except maybe mercy. Like, it would be really great if nobody hit me. MAC What have you done, Junebug? Did you hit someone with the Previa? LEAH Best to just tell them, man. Rip off the Band-Aid and let it bleed. JUNO I'm pregnant. Bren and Mac are predictably speechless. BREN Oh, God... JUNO But I'm going to give it up for adoption. I already found the perfect people. Leah presents the Penny Saver photos of the Lornings. JUNO They say they're going to pay my medical expenses and everything. I promise this will all be resolved in thirty-odd weeks, and we can pretend it never happened. MAC You're pregnant? JUNO I'm so sorry, you guys. If it's any consolation, I have heartburn that's like, radiating down to my kneecaps and I haven't gone number two since Wednesday. Morning! BREN (interrupting) I didn't even know you were sexually active! Juno cringes upon hearing her most-hated term. MAC Who is the kid? JUNO The baby? I don't know anything about it yet. I only know it's got fingernails, allegedly. BREN Nails? Really? MAC No, I mean the father! Who's the father, Juno? JUNO Oh. It's, well, it's Paulie Bleeker. Bren and Mac burst into shocked laughter. JUNO What? MAC Paulie Bleeker? I didn't know he had it in him! BREN (giggling) He just doesn't look, well, virile. LEAH I know, right? MAC Okay, this is no laughing matter. JUNO (indignant) No, it's not. Paulie is virile, by the way. He was very good in... chair. Leah fires a be quiet glance at Juno. MAC Did you say you were thinking about adoption? JUNO Yeah, well, there's this couple who've been trying to have a baby for five years. LEAH We found them in the Penny Saver by the exotic birds section. Bren looks understandably alarmed. Juno hastily attempts to make the situation sound more legitimate. JUNO But they have a real lawyer and everything. I'm going to meet with them next weekend. BREN Junebug, that is a tough, tough thing to do. Probably tougher than you can understand right now. JUNO Well, I'm not ready to be a mom. MAC Damn skippy, you're not! You don't even remember to give Liberty Bell her breathing meds. JUNO Once! And she didn't die, if you recall! BREN Honey, had you considered, you know, the alternative? Leah and Juno exchange glances. JUNO No. BREN Well, you're a brave young lady. You're made of stronger stuff than I thought. You're a little Viking! JUNO Cool it. BREN First things first, we have to get you healthy. You need prenatal vitamins. Incidentally, they'll do incredible things for your nails, so that's a plus. Oh, and we need to schedule a doctor's appointment. Find out where you're going to deliver. JUNO The term "deliver" is so weird. Can we not say "deliver"? LEAH How does "crap it out" sound? MAC Juno, I want to come with you to meet these adoption people. You're just a kid. I don't want you to get ripped off by a couple of babystarved wingnuts. JUNO Sure, Dad. Mac nods, satisfied, then contemplates the situation dismally. MAC I thought you were the kind of girl who knew when to say when. JUNO I have no idea what kind of girl I am. BREN (sensing tension) Why don't you girls go upstairs for a while? I think Mac's gonna blow. Juno and Leah hightail it upstairs. MAC Just tell it to me straight, Bren. Do you think this is my fault? Her mother's fault? BREN I think kids get bored and have intercourse. And I think Junebug was a dummy about it. But we have to move on from here and help her figure it out. MAC I'm not ready to be a Pop-Pop. BREN You're not going to be a Pop-Pop. And Juno's not going to be a ma. Somebody else is going to find a precious blessing from Jesus in this garbage dump of a situation. I friggin' hope. MAC (conspiratorially) Did you see it coming when she sat us down here? BREN Oh God yeah. But I was hoping she was expelled or into hard drugs. MAC That was my first instinct too. Or D.W.I. Anything but this. And I'm going to punch that Bleeker kid in the weiner the next time I see him. BREN Oh Mac, no! He's a sweet kid. You know it wasn't his idea. Mac shrugs in agreement. INT. LORING HOUSE - DAY Music plays as we see SPARSE IMAGES OF VANESSA LORING'S HANDS preparing the house for Juno's arrival -- Sprucing a vase of FLOWERS. Straightening a FRAMED PHOTO of the Lorings. Dusting off a table with one of those WETNAPS for furniture. Lining up a shelf of BOOKS. EXT. LORING NEIGHBORHOOD - PREVIA - DAY The Previa cruises slowly into the Loring's fancy gated community. Mac pulls over and parks on the curb. EXT. LORING HOUSE - FRONT PORCH - DAY Mark and Vanessa Loring have an impressive, though generic McMansion. The entire yard is unlandscaped soil. Mac presses the doorbell while Juno chews her nails uncomfortably. Both look mortified as they wait for someone to greet them. VANESSA opens the door. She's a pretty, meticulous woman in her early thirties. Very Banana Republic. VANESSA Hi! I'm Vanessa. You must be Juno and Mr. MacGuff. I'm Vanessa. JUNO Vanessa, right? MAC Hello. Thank you for having me and my irresponsible child over to your home. VANESSA Oh no. Thank you. Come on in. INT. LORING HOUSE - HALLWAY - DAY Vanessa awkwardly leads them into her home. VANESSA Can I take your coats? JUNO Sure. She takes off her hooded sweatshirt and thrusts it into Vanessa's arms who sets it on a bench. JUNO Wicked pic in the Penny Saver, by the way. Super classy. Not like those other people with the fake woods in the background. Like I'm really going to fall for that, you know? VANESSA You found us in the Penny Saver? MARK LORING appears next to Vanessa. He's a boyishly attractive guy in his mid-thirties. He glances sheepishly at Vanessa upon hearing the Penny Saver mention, then extends his hand to Mac and Juno. MARK Hi. I'm Mark Loring. I'm the husband. INT. LORING HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Mark and Vanessa usher Juno and Mac into the austere, spacious living room. A woman in a business suit sits on the couch with a briefcase in her lap. MARK This is our attorney, Gerta Rauss. JUNO (in exaggerated, growling German accent) Geeeerta Rauuuss! GERTA (straight) Nice to meet you. Mac seizes Mark's hand and pumps it heartily. MAC I'm Mac MacGuff, and this, of course, is my daughter Juno. MARK Like the city in Alaska? JUNO No. MARK Cool. Well, let's sit down and get to know each other a bit. VANESSA I'll get drinks. What would everyone like? I've got Pellegrino, Vitamin Water... JUNO A Maker's Mark, please. Up. MAC She's joking. Junebug has a wonderful sense of humor, which is just one of her many genetic gifts. JUNO I also have good teeth. No cavities. We finally got fluoridated water in Dancing Elk. She bares them frighteningly to demonstrate. Vanessa stares, unflappable. MAC We're fine, thank you. Mac and Juno join Mark and Gerta Rauss on the couch. GERTA So, Juno. First off, how far along are you? JUNO I'm a junior. GERTA No, I mean in your pregnancy. JUNO Oh. Uh, my stepmom took me to the doctor yesterday and they said I was twelve weeks. Vanessa enters with the refreshments on a tray. VANESSA Oh, that's marvelous. So you're almost into your second trimester, then? JUNO Yeah, apparently. I'm having it on May 4. VANESSA The tough part's almost over for you. I mean, my girlfriends always tell me the first couple months are the hardest. JUNO Yeah, but I hardly noticed it. I'm more worried about the part where I have to start wearing jeans with an elastic panel in the front. VANESSA I think pregnancy is beautiful. JUNO Well, you're lucky it's not you. Vanessa's looks to the ceiling. MARK (clearing throat) So, let's discuss how we're gonna do this... thing. JUNO Well, I just have the baby and give it to you, right? GERTA Mark and Vanessa are willing to negotiate an open adoption. MAC (protective) Wait. What does that mean? GERTA It means they'd send annual updates, photos, let Juno know how the baby is doing as he or she grows up. Of course, Juno's legal rights would be terminated... JUNO Whoah. I don't want to see pictures. I don't need to be notified of anything. Can't we just kick it old school? I could just put the baby in a basket and send it your way. You know, like Moses in the reeds. MARK Technically, that would be kickin' it Old Testament. Mark and Juno lock eyes. JUNO Yeah. Yeah! The way people used to do it. Quick and dirty, like ripping off a Band-Aid. GERTA Well, then we agree a traditional closed adoption would be best for all involved, then? JUNO Shit, yeah. Close it up. Vanessa is clearly ecstatic. MARK Obviously, we'll compensate you for your medical expenses. VANESSA Are you looking for any other compensation? MAC Excuse me? JUNO Well, no... I'm not going to sell the baby. I just want it to grow up with people who are ready to love it and be parents. I'm in high school, dude. I'm ill-equipped. VANESSA You're doing an amazing and selfless thing for us. MARK Vanessa has wanted a baby since we got married. VANESSA I want to be a mommy so badly! Juno and Mac stare at her. MAC You don't say. VANESSA Well, haven't you ever felt like you were born to do something? MAC Yes. Heating and air conditioning. VANESSA Well, I was born to be a mother. Some of us are. JUNO Mark, are you looking forward to being a dad? Mark is caught off guard. MARK Sure, why not? I mean, every guy wants to be a father. Coach soccer, help with science projects and... I don't know. Fatherly stuff. Mac casts a subtle, dubious glance at Mark. VANESSA Well, shall we start looking over the paperwork? Gerta has already drafted some preliminary documents. JUNO Can I use the facilities first? Being pregnant makes you pee like Seabiscuit. VANESSA Sure. The powder room down here is being re-tiled, but you can use the master bath upstairs. Go up, then turn left and on your right... JUNO Room with a toilet, got it. INT. LORING HOUSE - ENTRY/STAIRS - DAY Juno heads into the foyer and up the stairs. We see a posed photo of Mark and Vanessa in the stairwell. Their house is beautiful, but frigid. Juno rubs her arms, shivering. INT. LORING HOUSE - BATHROOM - DAY The Loring's bathroom is huge. Juno flushes and goes to the double sink to wash her hands. She opens the overhead cabinet and sees Vanessa's toiletries. She spritzes on some perfume and examines the more expensive grooming items. There's a crinkled tube of LUBE in the cabinet. Juno picks it up, fascinated. She rubs a drop of it between her hands and runs it through her hair like pomade. INT. LORING HOUSE - UPSTAIRS HALLWAY - DAY Juno opens the bathroom door and instantly BUMPS into Mark. JUNO Whoops! Yikes, I didn't expect to see you up here. MARK Sorry. I was just getting something. JUNO Did your wife send you up here to spy on me? MARK What? No! Do we come off like paranoid yuppies or something? JUNO Well, you don't just invite a random pregnant teenager into your house and leave her unsupervised. I could be a total klepto, for all you know. MARK I don't get a klepto vibe from you. Evil genius? Maybe. Arsonist? Wouldn't rule it out. JUNO I did steal a squirt of perfume. What do you think? It's Clinique Happy. She holds her WRIST up to Mark's twitching nostrils. JUNO Smell those sparkling topnotes! Mark inhales. MARK Am I supposed to feel happy now? JUNO You should be happy, Holmes. I'm giving you and Vanessa the gift of life. Sweet, screaming, pooping life! And you don't even have to be there when the baby comes out of me all covered in... MARK Viscera? JUNO Blood and guts. MARK We'd better get back downstairs ASAP. Juno mocks his use of "ASAP" silently. JUNO (halting) Wait a minute. Is that a Les Paul? Juno is staring into a room with the door slightly ajar. We see GUITARS mounted on the wall, and the edges of posters. MARK Oh. That's, uh, my room. Vanessa lets me have a room for all my old stuff. JUNO Wow, you get a whole room in your own house? She's got you on a long leash there, Mark. MARK Shut up. INT. LORING HOUSE - MARK'S "SPECIAL" ROOM - DAY The walls are plastered with FRAMED POSTERS of early-90s alt rock bands. (Mudhoney, Jane's Addiction etc.) Mark removes his LES PAUL from its moorings and hands it to Juno. JUNO It's beautiful. I've always liked Gibson better than Fender. MARK What do you play? JUNO I rock a Harmony. MARK (holding back a chuckle) Oh. JUNO What? I'm a pawn shop rocker. MARK Sorry. I swear I'm not a gear snob. Juno turns the guitar over, examining it closely. JUNO What is that, Mahogany? What happens if you crack the neck? MARK Tell me about it. I used to play in a really tight band back when I lived in Chicago, and one night we opened for the Melvins... do you know who the Melvins are? JUNO (lying) Yeah. MARK Well, we were playing with them and I busted this guitar onstage. It cost me $800 and a dime bag just to have it fixed. JUNO When was this, like '96? MARK '93. I'm telling you that was the best time for rock and roll. JUNO Nuh-uh, 1977! Punk Volume 1. You weren't there, so you can't understand the magic. MARK You weren't even alive! INT. LORING HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Vanessa, Mac and Gerta Rauss are waiting in awkward silence for Juno and Mark to return. Mac notices a brand new PILATES MACHINE sitting in its packaging in a corner of the room. MAC So. What's that thing? VANESSA A Pilates machine? MAC What do you make with that? VANESSA You don't make anything. It's for exercising. INT. LORING HOUSE - MARK'S SPECIAL ROOM - SAME Mark and Juno tool around on the guitars unplugged. They play little riffs. He teaches her a couple chords. INT. LORING HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - SAME MAC My wife just ordered one of those Tony Little Gazelles off the TV, you know, from the guy with the ponytail? Vanessa and Gerta have no response. MAC That guy just doesn't look right to me. Suddenly, a shriek of AMP FEEDBACK, followed by loud, discordant GUITAR STRUMMING can be heard drifting down from upstairs. Vanessa's looks to the ceiling. VANESSA (to her guests) Will you excuse me? INT. LORING HOUSE - MARK'S SPECIAL ROOM - DAY Mark has strapped on the Les Paul and is playing and singing. "Doll Parts" by Hole. JUNO AND MARK (quietly singing together) "Yeah, they really want you... they really want you... they really do." Building together. JUNO AND MARK (singing together and connecting) Yeah, they really want you... they really want you... and I do to. (both blush) VANESSA appears in the doorway. Juno immediately puts down the guitar. Mark doesn't notice her immediately. MARK (passionate singing) I WANT TO BE THE... (notices Vanessa) Oh, sorry honey... Mark clumsily puts down the guitar and stands up. VANESSA You guys are playing music? MARK Juno just wanted a closer look at Kimber here. JUNO Your guitar is named Kimber? MARK Yeah. JUNO That's all right. My axe is named Roosevelt. After Franklin, not Ted. Franklin was the hot one with the polio. VANESSA I think Gerta is waiting for us downstairs with some important stuff for us to go over. Mark hangs the guitars back on the wall. He and Juno exit the room, chastised. Vanessa looks to Mark in question. VANESSA Didn't mean to interrupt the jam sessions. INT. LORING HOUSE - ENTRY - DAY Juno and Mac have put their coats on and are in the process of leaving. Gerta hands Juno the DOCUMENTS. Vanessa and Mark trail behind. GERTA So, look those over and give me a call at my office if you have any questions. VANESSA Juno, we'd really appreciate it if you could keep us updated on any doctor's appointments, ultrasounds, other things of that nature. JUNO Oh. Sure. Of course you'd want to know how your kid is cooking. VANESSA So, then, you really think you're going to go ahead with this? Mac STARES at Juno gravely. JUNO Yeah. For sure. I like you guys. Juno looks at Mark. VANESSA How sure? Percentage-wise, would you say you're 80% sure, 90% sure? Mark seems visibly embarrassed by Vanessa's manic demeanor. JUNO I'm going to say I'm 104% sure. VANESSA Oh really? JUNO Look, if I could give it to you now, I would. But it probably looks like a Sea Monkey at this point, so I think we should leave it in there for a while until it gets cuter, you know? MAC I think that's a great idea. MARK That's great, right? Stellar news. Well, you guys drive safe, and we'll hear from you soon, all right? MAC All right, take care of yourselves. Juno and Mac exit. Mark shuts the door. All is silent in the foyer. Mark, Vanessa and Gerta stand motionless. Gerta pumps her fist triumphantly, trying to create a mood of celebration. GERTA (overly aggressive) All RIGHT! Vanessa buries her head in her hands and weeps hoarsely. EXT. SUBURBAN STREETS - MORNING It is now WINTER. The TRACK TEAM jogs in formation, leaving tracks in the snow. Those bastards never stop running. EXT. DANCING ELK SCHOOL - TRACK - DAY Bleeker is running alone on the track. His exhalations are icy puffs in the air. Bleeker's friend VIJAY jogs up alongside him. Vijay is a solemn, skinny boy, much like Bleeker. VIJAY Hey man. BLEEKER Oh, hey Vijay. VIJAY Did you hear Juno MacGuff is pregnant? BLEEKER Yup. VIJAY Just like our moms and teachers! BLEEKER Yup. VIJAY Did you hear it's yours? BLEEKER Yup. VIJAY What a trip, man. BLEEKER I don't really know anything about it. VIJAY You should grow a moustache. You're a real man now. BLEEKER I can't grow a moustache. It never comes in evenly. VIJAY Me neither. But I'm going to stop wearing underpants in order to raise my sperm count. See you. VIJAY jogs off. Bleeker STOPS and wipes away his sweat. INT. DANCING ELK SCHOOL - HEAD OFFICE - DAY We're looking over Juno's now FIVE MONTH PREGNANT BELLY to a school administrator filling out a slip. Juno takes the slip, turns around and smiles all the way out. INT. DANCING ELK SCHOOL - CORRIDOR - DAY Juno exits the head office and bumps into Bleeker. BLEEKER Hey Juno... A couple of us are going to the cineplex after school to donut that movie with the guy with eighteen kids. JUNO Sorry, Bleek... Going for my ultrasound. Gotta note and everything. BLEEKER Okay, cool. JUNO I'll try to drop by later. INT. DOCTOR'S OFFICE - AFTERNOON SPLOOGE! We see ultrasound goo being squirted onto Juno's exposed pregnant belly. An ULTRASOUND TECHNICIAN is using a Doppler device to view the contents of her burgeoning bump. Bren and Leah ooh and ahh at the resulting image. The tech takes measurements and types them into her database. ULTRASOUND TECH That's the feet... ALL THREE Oooh... ULTRASOUND TECH And there's a hand... The monitor reveals the baby's head. ALL THREE (various) Check that out... No way... BREN (dreamily) Would you look at that? LEAH Check out Baby Big-Head. That kid is scary! JUNO Hey, I'm a sacred vessel. All you've got in your belly is Taco Bell! LEAH Touche. JUNO (gazing at the monitor) It is really weird looking. It's like it's not even real. I can't believe there are saps who actually cry at these things. Juno and Leah look at BREN, who is dabbing her eyes discreetly. BREN What? I'm not made of stone. ULTRASOUND TECH Well, there we have it. Would you like to know the sex? LEAH Aw, please Junebug? JUNO No way. No, I definitely don't want to know. ULTRASOUND TECH Planning to be surprised when you deliver? JUNO I want Mark and Vanessa to be surprised, and if I know, I won't be able to keep myself from telling them and ruining the whole thing. ULTRASOUND TECH (condescending) Are Mark and Vanessa your friends at school? JUNO No, they're the people who are adopting the baby. ULTRASOUND TECH Oh. Well, thank goodness for that. BREN Wait, what's that supposed to mean? ULTRASOUND TECH I just see a lot of teenage mothers come through here. It's obviously a poisonous environment for a baby to be raised in. Juno, Leah and Bren become immediately defensive. JUNO How do you know I'm so poisonous? Like, what if the adoptive parents turn out to be evil molesters? LEAH Or stage parents! BREN They could be utterly negligent. Maybe they'll do a far shittier job of raising a kid than my dumbass stepdaughter ever would. Have you considered that? ULTRASOUND TECH No... I guess not. BREN What is your job title, exactly? ULTRASOUND TECH Excuse me? BREN I said, what-is-your-job-title, Missy? ULTRASOUND TECH I'm an ultrasound technician, ma'am. BREN Well I'm a nail technician, and I think we both ought to stick to what we know. ULTRASOUND TECH What are you talking about? BREN You think you're special because you get to play Picture Pages up there? Bren gestures to the ULTRASOUND MONITOR. BREN My five year-old daughter could do that, and let me tell you, she is not the brightest bulb in the tanning bed. So why don't you go back to night school in Manteno and learn a real trade! The ULTRASOUND TECH exits in a huff. JUNO Bren, you're a dick! I love it. INT. JUNO'S BEDROOM - DAY Juno lays in bed checking out the ULTRASOUND PRINT OUT. EXT. LORING NEIGHBORHOOD - PREVIA - AFTERNOON The Previa drives into the front gate of Mark and Vanessa's exclusive community. A sign on the gate reads "Glacial Valley." EXT. LORING HOUSE - ENTRY - AFTERNOON Juno rings the doorbell, shifting her weight in the cold. MARK answers the door, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. MARK Juno? Wow, I didn't expect to see you here. JUNO I've got something really cool to show you guys. Is Vanessa here? MARK No, she's working late tonight. She's trying to accrue some extra time off for when, you know... He gestures awkwardly to Juno's belly. JUNO Right. I hear they can be kind of a time-suck. MARK Come on in. You wanna Ginseng Cooler? JUNO Sure. What is it with you rich people and your herb-infused juices? MARK I don't know. Something to do with the four-packs... (adding) ...They're not bad. INT. LORING HOUSE - KITCHEN - AFTERNOON Mark leads Juno into the kitchen, where he pours two drinks. The STEREO blares in the background. JUNO Why aren't you at work? MARK I mostly work from home. I'm a composer. JUNO No shit. Like Johannes Brahms? MARK No, more commercial stuff. JUNO Like what? MARK Commercials. JUNO Oh. MARK Have you seen those ads for Titanium Power men's deodorant? JUNO (singing) Titanium Power! Get more snatch by the batch! MARK I wrote that. JUNO You're kind of a sellout, aren't you? What would the Melvins say? MARK They'd say you came a long way out here not knowing if anyone would be home. She holds up a manila envelope. JUNO Come on, you're going to want to sit down for this. INT. LORING HOUSE - DEN - AFTERNOON As they move into the living room, Juno sits down and motions for Mark to join her on the couch. JUNO Park it, dude. Mark sits down. With great fanfare, Juno retrieves a dark, glossy sheet from the envelope. It's her ULTRASOUND. JUNO Behold, good sir! The very first photo of your future child. MARK You're kidding! Mark EXAMINES the ultrasound, baffled. JUNO I think it kind of looks like my friend, Paulie. MARK (joking) Oh, is he bald and amorphous? JUNO No, he's the dad. Mark looks jolted, as if it's the first time he considered that her baby might have a father. He stands up and holds the photo up to the light critically. MARK Can you tell if it's a boy or a girl? JUNO The doctor can tell, but I decided not to know. I want it to be a big surprise. MARK Well, it can really only go two ways. JUNO That's what you think. I drink tons of booze so you might get one of those scary neuter-babies that's born without junk. MARK Junk? JUNO You know... it's parts... MARK I know what junk is. JUNO (teasing) Yeah? MARK We definitely want it to have junk. JUNO Well don't worry about it. My stepmom is forcing me to eat really healthy. She won't even let me stand in front of the microwave or eat red M&Ms. Hope you're ready. Mark chuckles. MARK Wait...do you hear that? A new SONG has begun. Mark closes his eyes in ecstasy and walks toward the stereo. Juno follows him toward the source of the music, looking perplexed by how happy he is. JUNO What is it? MARK It's only my favorite song. It's Sonic Youth doing "Superstar" by the Carpenters. JUNO (excited) I've heard the Carpenters before. Chick drummer and freaky dude. Not unlike the White Stripes. MARK You haven't heard the Carpenters like this. Listen. Mark grabs the STEREO REMOTE off the kitchen counter and turns up the volume to a roar. Mark and Juno stand in silence in the kitchen. Mark mouths along with the lyrics. MARK (lipsynching) Don't you remember you told me you loved me, baby... JUNO Hey, I like this. MARK This album is all Carpenters covers by alt-rock bands. It's called If I Were a Carpenter. It is God. I'll rip a copy for you before you leave. JUNO You don't have to do that. MARK It's the least I can do. What did you say your favorite band was? JUNO I didn't. But it's a three-way tie between the Stooges, Patti Smith and the Runaways. MARK Yeah, I definitely need to make you some CDs. At least while my kid is hanging out in there. He gestures at Juno's burgeoning paunch. Mark walks over to his music collections and starts pulling CD's. He's got a Carpenter's disc, the "No Alternative" charity compilation, and Mother Love Bone. Juno spots a VHS TAPE on the coffee table and picks it up. JUNO (reading title) The Wizard of Gore? MARK (distracted) Oh yeah. It's Herschel Gordon Lewis. He's the ultimate master of horror. JUNO Please. Dario Argento is the ultimate master of horror. Mark SWIVELS AROUND slowly on his desk chair, surprised. MARK Argento's good, but Lewis is completely demented. We're talking buckets of goo. Red corn syrup everywhere. And fake brains up the yin-yang. JUNO (examining the tape box) Frankly, this looks kind of stupid. Mark gives a look - "Oh, Really?" INT. LORING HOUSE - DEN - AFTERNOON We see some particularly memorable footage from The Wizard of Gore. Mark and Juno are watching the movie and drinking root beer floats. They're sitting dangerously close on the sofa. JUNO (watching movie) This is even better than Suspiria. You've got decent taste in slasher movies, Mark. MARK Here's to dovetailing interests. He raises his mug in a toast and Juno clinks it awkwardly. JUNO So, have you and Vanessa thought of a name for the baby yet? MARK Well, sort of. Vanessa likes Madison for a girl. JUNO (aghast) Madison? Isn't that kind of... I don't know, gay? MARK God, pretentious much? I guess everyone should have a mysterious name like Juno, huh? JUNO My dad went through this phase where he was obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology. He named me after Zeus's wife. I mean, Zeus had other lays, but I'm pretty sure Juno was his only wife. She was supposed to be really beautiful but really mean. Like Diana Ross. MARK That suits you. JUNO Uh, thanks. MARK You know, not many teenage girls in your situation would actually go through with this. JUNO I weighed my options. But after all this, I'm glad I didn't, you know, get rid of it. I want to have it. For you guys. MARK You're something else. A door suddenly slams upstairs. Vanessa's home. MARK Vanessa. Shit, you better get out of here. JUNO Why? What the big deal? MARK Nothing. She just hates when I sit around watching movies and 'not contributing.' JUNO I'll handle this. I'm really good at diffusing mom-type rage. Juno jumps up and rushes out. MARK Wait... aww, crap! INT. LORING HOUSE - KITCHEN - AFTERNOON Vanessa slides her BRIEFCASE off her shoulder and ventures into the living room. She's struggling to carry some oversized shopping bags. VANESSA Mark? Are you home? I want to show you some things I picked up. Juno intercepts her breathlessly, clutching the ULTRASOUND photo. Mark trails behind her. JUNO Hi Vanessa! Vanessa JUMPS and makes a strangled sound. VANESSA Juno! God, you startled me. What are you doing here? What's wrong? JUNO Nothing... VANESSA Then what's going on? JUNO I went to the doctor today. Vanessa is obviously entertaining some worse-case scenarios. Her eyes are wide and she's uncharacteristically ruffled. VANESSA Is the baby okay? JUNO Sure. It's the right size and everything. I even saw its phalanges today! Check this... She holds the ULTRASOUND up to show Vanessa and drapes her arm around her. VANESSA What... JUNO This is the baby. Your baby. Vanessa drops the shopping bags, sick with relief. VANESSA Oh my God... JUNO (kindly) Doesn't it look like it's waving? It's kind of like it's saying "Hi, Vanessa. Will you be my mommy?" VANESSA Yeah. Yeah, it kind of does. MARK Juno was nice enough to bring this by for us. JUNO I came over as soon as I got that cold ultrasound goo off my pelvis. My stepmom verbally abused the ultrasound tech so we were escorted off the premises. VANESSA (distracted) Oh, that's great! She can't divert her gaze from the photo. JUNO See? Nothing to worry about. Vanessa chuckles tightly, clearly embarrassed by her show of emotion. INT. LORING HOUSE - ENTRY WAY - DAY Vanessa and Mark walk Juno out. Juno peers at some shopping bags from various kids stores. JUNO Hey, what kind of swag did you score? MARK Yeah. Mall madness, huh? VANESSA Oh it's just some stuff I picked up. For, you know, the baby. Babies need a lot of things. I want everything to be just right. JUNO I thought people got all that stuff at baby showers. When my stepmom had my sister I remember she got about a million presents. They were all lame though, so I wasn't jealous. MARK I doubt anyone's throwing us a shower. JUNO Why? VANESSA Um, I think people are kind of unsure about the situation because it's not, you know, set in stone. JUNO What do you mean? You mean... (aghast) Do you think I'm going to flake out on you? VANESSA No, no, I don't think that, Juno. It's just that, we went through a situation before where it didn't work out. Juno glances at Mark and again at Vanessa. Vanessa looks embarrassed. MARK Cold feet. JUNO You should have gone to China. I heard they give away babies like free iPods. They shoot 'em out of those T-shirt guns at sports events. VANESSA (abruptly) Right. Well, Juno, your parents must be wondering where you are. You might want to head home. JUNO Naah. I'm already pregnant, so they figure nothing worse could happen to me. I gotta bounce anyway. It was nice seeing you guys again. She waves and heads for the door. MARK (to Juno) Hey, don't forget your bag. Vanessa looks pain-stricken as Mark helps Juno with her bag. EXT. MACGUFF HOUSE - NIGHT Juno kicks the snow off her shoes before she enters. INT. MACGUFF HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT Bren sits at the kitchen table with a mug of coffee and an issue of Dog Fancy. Juno enters nonchalantly, drinking a giant slushie. BREN Where the hell have you been, Junebug? JUNO I drove to St. Cloud to show Mark and Vanessa the ultrasound. And I wound up staying for a couple of hours. BREN A couple of hours? Why are you going up there in the first place? JUNO They said they wanted to know about this stuff. They said to keep them updated, so I did! BREN You could have sent it to them. Why would you drive an hour out to East Jesus, Nowhere? JUNO I don't know, I just did. And while we were waiting for Vanessa, Mark and I watched The Wizard of Gore and he burned me some CDs of weird music. He's kind of cool. A beat as Bren absorbs this. BREN That was a mistake, Juno. Mark is a married stranger. You overstepped a boundary. JUNO Listen, Bren-duhhh, I think you're the one overstepping boundaries. You're acting like you're the one who has to go through this and get huge and push a baby out of your vag for someone else. Besides, who cares if he's married? I can have friends who are married. BREN It doesn't work that way, kiddo. You don't know squat about the dynamics of marriage. JUNO You don't know anything about me! BREN I know enough. Bren rises to leave, clutching the Dog Fancy magazine. JUNO (gesturing to the magazine) We don't even have a dog! BREN Yeah, because you're allergic to their saliva. I've made a lot of sacrifices for you, Juno. And in a couple years you're going to move out -- and I'm getting Weimaraners. JUNO Wow, dream big! BREN Oh, go fly a kite. Bren STORMS out. Juno heads to the URN by the door and defiantly pours the remains of her blue slushie into it. EXT. BLEEKER HOUSE - NIGHT Juno parks her PREVIA on the street. She walks up to the house and rings the doorbell. BLEEKER'S MOM answers, visibly annoyed. Her eyes drift down to Juno's middle. JUNO (V.O.) Bleeker's mom was possibly attractive once. But now she looks a hobbit. The fat one that was in The Goonies. BLEEKER'S MOM Hi Juno. What can I do for you? JUNO I borrowed Paulie's physics notes in school today. I'm pretty sure he needs them back, or his grade could plummet to an A minus. BLEEKER'S MOM Fine. Come in. She steals another glance at Juno's belly. INT. BLEEKER HOUSE - HALLWAY - NIGHT Bleeker's mom escorts Juno wordlessly up the stairs and down the hallway to Paulie's bedroom. Juno discreetly tries to charge ahead of her, but her expanding middle prevents her from getting past Bleeker's mom. They share an extremely awkward moment wedged side-by-side in the narrow hallway. Bleecker's mom nudges past Juno and knocks on Bleeker's bedroom door. The door has a cheesy racecar-themed decoration hanging on it that says PAULIE'S VRROOOM! It looks like something a 5-year old might have. INT. BLEEKER HOUSE - PAULIE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Paulie is on the floor surrounded by old quizzes, studying like the tortured brainiac he is. Mrs. Bleeker opens the bedroom door. Juno appears. Paulie jumps, startled. JUNO Hey, don't concentrate so hard, man. I think I smell hair burning. Bleeker smiles faintly. BLEEKER'S MOM Ten minutes. She closes the door halfway and leaves. Juno rolls her eyes and pulls the door shut entirely. BLEEKER What's up? JUNO I just wanted to come over. You know, say hi. I miss hanging out with you on school nights. BLEEKER I miss it too. He nervously cracks open a container of ORANGE TIC-TACS and pours them into his mouth. JUNO (V.O.) Orange Tic-Tacs are Bleeker's one and only vice. When we made out, the day I got pregnant, his mouth tasted really tangy and delicious. INT. BLEEKER HOUSE - "MOLD-O'-RIFFIC" BASEMENT - NIGHT CU ON BLEEKER'S MOUTH AS HE KISSES JUNO FOR THE FIRST TIME INT. BLEEKER HOUSE - PAULIE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Bleeker glances at Juno's midsection, embarrassed. BLEEKER So, it looks like you're getting pregnant-er these days. JUNO Yeah. Um, I hooked up a whole private adoption thing. These married people in Saint Cloud are going to be the parents. Bleeker is visibly relieved. BLEEKER Really? What are they like? JUNO The guy is super cool! His name is Mark and he's into old horror movies and he plays guitar. I actually hung out with him today. BLEEKER Is that normal? JUNO I asked my dad and Bren not to narc us out to your folks, so we should be safe. BLEEKER Oh. That's a relief. Juno walks over to the bed and sits down next to Bleeker. JUNO I'm going to really start looking like a dork soon. Will you still think I'm cute if I'm huge? BLEEKER I always think you're cute. I think you're beautiful. Juno is caught off guard by his sincerity. JUNO Jesus, Bleek. BLEEKER Well, I do. The song playing ends, and another one begins. It's "the song," the track that Bleeker and Juno both recognize from the infamous night in the basement. BLEEKER Hey Junebug, when all this is over we should get the band back together again. JUNO Yeah. Sure. Once Tino gets a new drumhead we should be good to go. BLEEKER We could get back together too. JUNO Were we together? Bleeker picks at the carpet, dejected. BLEEKER Well, we were once. You know, that time. JUNO What about Katrina De Voort? You could go out with Katrina De Voort. BLEEKER I don't like Katrina. JUNO I totally heard you did. BLEEKER I don't. Katrina smells like soup. Her whole house smells of soup. EXT. LORING HOUSE - DAY The house is covered in fresh snow. INT. LORING HOUSE - NURSERY - DAY Mark and Vanessa stand silently in the nursery. The walls are primed slate gray. A single ANTIQUE ROCKING CHAIR sits in the corner. Vanessa beams proudly and holds two paint samples up near the wall. VANESSA What do you think? Custard or Cheesecake? MARK They're yellow. VANESSA Well, I wanted to pick something gender-neutral for now. Once we get the baby, God willing, we can create a more decisive palette. MARK Why do people think yellow is gender- neutral? I don't know one man with a yellow bedroom. VANESSA I think I'm leaning toward Custard in this light. I don't know. I should paint a small area... MARK Or you could just wait a couple months. It's not like the baby's going to storm in here any second and demand dessert-colored walls. VANESSA What to Expect says that readying the baby's room is an important process for women. It's called "nesting." MARK Nesting, huh? Are you planning to build the crib out of twigs and saliva? VANESSA You should read the book. I even flagged the "daddy chapters" for you. MARK I just think it's too early to paint. That's my opinion. VANESSA And I disagree. Mark shrugs, resigned. Vanessa points to the nursery's largest wall. VANESSA That wall is going to need something. Maybe we could put our first family picture there. MARK Hm. VANESSA Can you see it? Mark stares at the wall, looking lost. INT. RIDGEDALE MALL - DAY Juno and Leah are walking through the mall, looking bored. Juno is wearing one of Mac's giant hockey jerseys in lieu of actual maternity wear. Leah gnaws on a giant cinnamon pretzel. LEAH Yum. This pretzel tastes like a friggin' donut! JUNO Share the love, Tits! She wrestles Leah for the pretzel. Onlookers stare at them, appalled, as Leah puts Juno in a half-Nelson. JUNO (to eavesdroppers) She's assaulting me! She's denying me fresh-baked goodness! Leah claps a hand over Juno's mouth. JUNO (muffled) Hly shht! LEAH What? Juno drags Leah behind a pillar and peers out from behind it. They're watching a group of well-heeled women and their children shopping en masse. One of the women is pushing a toddler in an ultramodern stroller. And one of the women is VANESSA, looking vaguely detached. JUNO (hushed) That's her. That's Vanessa Loring. LEAH Of the Penny Saver Lorings? Juno nods. LEAH No way! She's pretty. JUNO You sound shocked or something. LEAH I just thought she'd look really old in real life. The women gather near a play area, sip Frapps and loudly discuss their outfits for an upcoming party. WOMAN #1 And I was like, "No offense, sweetie, but nobody looks good in gauchos." WOMAN #2 Especially not with her build. JUNO (mimicking the women, Peanuts-style) Wah-wah-waaah! One of the little girls in the group tugs at Vanessa's sleeve. Vanessa happily follows the little girl over to their play area and begins to play energetically with her. Juno watches intently, but Leah just snickers. LEAH She's gonna steal that kid for her collection. JUNO Right, seriously. They watch Vanessa for a few more moments. The other kids wander over toward the play area while their mothers ignore them. Vanessa continues to entertain the children. LEAH Bo-ring! Leah stands up. Juno lingers for a moment. INT. RIDGEDALE MALL - ELEVATOR BANK - A HALF HOUR LATER Leah and Juno approach the elevator. JUNO I want a huge cookie. And like, a lamb kebob. Simultaneously. LEAH God, Spermy. Must you always feed? The elevator door opens, revealing... Vanessa. VANESSA Juno? Juno tries her best to look enthused. JUNO Well hi Vanessa! What brings you to the mall today? VANESSA Just, you know, shopping with my girlfriends. LEAH You're gay? Juno glares at Leah. VANESSA (confused) No... JUNO Please excuse Leah. She's mentally challenged. VANESSA Oh, okay. So... how are you feeling? JUNO Happy? Oh, you mean like, physically. I'm good. Look, I have a snooze button now! She lifts her shirt and presses her popped-out NAVEL. VANESSA That's great. Vanessa is admiring the belly, when Juno grimaces. JUNO Dude, it's moshing all over. Vanessa looks confused. JUNO (explains) It's kicking. Vanessa nods in understanding then begins summoning the courage for an unusual request. VANESSA Um... Juno, can I -- Can I touch it? JUNO Are you kidding? Everyone at school is always grabbing at my belly. I'm like a legend. They call me the Cautionary Whale. She grabs Vanessa's hand and plants it on her stomach. VANESSA I can't feel anything. Vanessa moves her hand, wanting desperately to feel the baby. VANESSA It's not moving for me. She says this as though it's an admission of failure. JUNO Oh, you should try talking to it. They can apparently hear speech in there, even though it sounds all ten thousands leagues under the sea. Vanessa kneels down next to the swell of Juno's belly. VANESSA Hi. Hi, baby. It's me. My name is Vanessa. I can't wait to meet you. Leah gives a look to Juno as if she's about to barf. VANESSA Can you hear me sweet angel? Vanessa looks like she's giving up hope. Then suddenly, VANESSA Oh my God -- It moved! I felt it! JUNO (nods) Elbow. VANESSA Wow! It's magical. Juno smiles at Vanessa in awe of her genuine affection. EXT. SUBURBAN STREETS - MORNING The streets are covered in muddy, slushy snow. The mud is instantly TRAMPLED underfoot by the collective feet of the Dancing Elk Track Team on their morning run. INT. MACGUFF HOUSE - BREN'S DESK - DAY Bren cuts the top three inches off a pair of Juno's jeans. Then, using a sewing machine, begins attaching an elastic waistband. INT. DANCING ELK SCHOOL - CORRIDOR - DAY We're behind that same WAISTBAND, as Juno walks through the students. Now, people seem to part the waters for the belly. INT. LORING HOUSE - MARK'S "SPECIAL ROOM" - DAY Mark has the Les Paul on his lap as he stares at the boards of an awful commercial. CU - THE SCRIPT (storyboards). A kitchen scene with a kid eating a new breakfast product called -- BRUNCH BOWLZ. Annoyed and out of ideas, Mark begins an impromptu song... MARK IF YOU'RE TIRED OF BREAKFAST BUT NOT HUNGRY FOR LUNCH, MICROWAVE YOURSELF A HEALTHY BOWL OF BRUNCH! Mark drops his head, dejected. Then, the phone rings. MARK (picks up) Hello? INTERCUT WITH: INT. DANCING ELK SCHOOL - PHONE BOOTH - DAY JUNO So, I've been spending a lot of time listening to that weird CD you made me. Mark instantly smiles. MARK Oh really? What's the verdict? JUNO I sort of like it. I mean, it's cute. MARK Cute? JUNO Well, when you're used to the raw power of Iggy and the Stooges, everything else sounds kind of precious by comparison. MARK I imagine you have a collection of punk chestnuts to prove your point. JUNO Consider it your musical education. MARK I'm dying to see what you've got to teach me. JUNO Okay, stop surfing porn and get back to work. Just wanted to say hi. MARK Go learn something. Mark hangs up. Smiles. INT. DANCING ELK SCHOOL - CAFETERIA - DAY CU on Juno's tray sliding along, picking up an odd combo of pregnant food. Pull up to find Juno and Leah walking their trays to a table. LEAH God, you're getting huge. How many months has it been now? JUNO Almost eight. You wouldn't believe how weird I look naked. LEAH I wish my funbags would get bigger. JUNO Trust me, you don't. I actually have to wear a bra now. And I have to rub this nasty cocoa butter stuff all over myself or my skin could get stretched too far and explode. LEAH Hot! INT. DANCING ELK SCHOOL - CORRIDOR - DAY Juno and Leah are sitting inside an emptied awards case on the wall, eating their lunch. Juno notices that the other kids in the cafeteria can't help but glance her way. Some look derisive, others are amused. JUNO God, why is everyone always staring at me? LEAH Well, you are kind of... convex. She illustrates by making a rounded gesture near her stomach. JUNO Wow, someone's been actually doing her geometry homework for once! LEAH I don't have a choice. Keith's been grading me really hard lately. JUNO Please do not refer to Mr. Conyers as "Keith," okay? My barf reflex is already heightened these days. LEAH Keith's hot. JUNO Eww, he's all beardy! We see KEITH the teacher talking to some science kids in the background. He has a Wild America beard. He lifts a cup of coffee to his lips and slurps lustily. BACK ON JUNO AND LEAH: LEAH Did you hear Bleek is going to prom with Katrina De Voort? JUNO Katrina? Pfft, no way. He doesn't like Katrina. It must be a pity date. LEAH (shrugging) He asked her. I heard they were going to Benihana, then the prom, then to Vijay's parents' cabin. JUNO Bleeker told me Katrina's whole house reeks of soup! LEAH Oh, it totally does. I was there for her birthday about four years ago and it was like Lipton Landing. But you know, boys have endured worse things for nookie. JUNO There's no way in hell they're having sex or even holding hands. LEAH I wouldn't be so sure about that. He did it with you. He's a man now. JUNO Yeah, well, Bleek trusted me. We're best friends. LEAH Are you jealous? I thought you said you didn't care what he did. JUNO I'm not jealous, and I don't care. I just know he doesn't like Katrina and I don't think he should toy with her emotions like that. She seems so nice and all. LEAH Okay Juno, I'm really convinced. JUNO Prom is for wenises, anyway. Once you're old enough to go, it's not cool anymore. INT. DANCING ELK SCHOOL - BLEEKER'S LOCKER - DAY Bleeker retrieves a book from his open locker. Juno marches up to him, belly leading the way. JUNO Are you honestly and truly going to prom with Katrina De Voort? BLEEKER Um, hi? JUNO Leah just told me you were going with her. BLEEKER Yeah, I did ask her if she wanted to go. A bunch of us from the team are going to Benihana, then the prom, then Vijay's parents' cabin. Juno is clearly AFFRONTED. BLEEKER (meekly) We're getting a stretch limo. JUNO Your mom must be really glad you're not taking me. BLEEKER You're mad. Why are you mad? JUNO I'm not mad. I'm in a fucking great mood. Despite the fact that I'm trapped in a fat suit I can't take off, despite the fact that everyone is making fun of me behind my back, despite the fact that your little girlfriend gave me the stinkeye in art class yesterday... BLEEKER Katrina's not my girlfriend! And I doubt she was actually giving you the stinkeye. She just looks like that all the time. A GIRL strides past (obviously KATRINA) with a sour look aimed squarely at Juno. JUNO Whatever. Have fun at the prom with Soupy Sales. I'm sure I can think of something way more cool to do that night. Like I could pumice my feet, or go to Bren's dumb Unitarian church, or get hit by a ten-ton truck full of hot garbage juice. All those things would be exponentially cooler than going to the prom with you. She starts to walk away. Bleeker takes a deep breath. BLEEKER You're being really immature. JUNO (turning around) What? Bleeker BRACES himself and pushes up his lab goggles. JUNO That's not how our thing works! I hurl the accusations and you talk me down, remember? BLEEKER Not this time. You don't have any reason to be mad at me. You broke my heart. I should be royally ticked at you, man. I should be really cheesed off. I shouldn't want to talk to you anymore. JUNO Why? Because I got bored and had sex with you one day, and then I didn't, like, marry you? BLEEKER Like I'd marry you! You would be the meanest wife of all time. And anyway, I know you weren't bored that day because there was a lot of stuff on TV. The Blair Witch Project was on Starz, and you were like, "Oh, I want to watch this, but we should make out instead. La la la." JUNO Forget it, Bleek. Take Katrina the Douche Packer to the prom. I'm sure you guys will have a really bitchin' time! BLEEKER (searching for a comeback) Yeah, well... I still have your underwear. JUNO I still have your virginity! BLEEKER (looking around, panicked) Oh my God, SHUT UP! JUNO What? Are you ashamed that we did it? BLEEKER No... JUNO Well at least you don't have to walk around with the evidence under your sweater. I'm a planet! Juno picks up her BACKPACK dejectedly and slides it over her shoulder. She's about to walk away, when... BLEEKER Wait, let me take that. JUNO Huh? BLEEKER You shouldn't be carrying that heavy bag. I'll take it. JUNO Oh. It's fine. What's another ten pounds? She turns around, wipes TEARS off her cheek (making sure no one sees) and continues down the hallway. EXT. MACGUFF HOUSE - PREVIA - DAY Juno climbs ungracefully into the van. She starts the engine, then pauses to dig through her backpack for something. She produces a brush and begins brushing her hair in the rearview mirror, examining herself self-consciously. She puts on some Dr. Pepper Lip Smacker and backs out of the driveway. INT. LORING HOUSE - MARK'S SPECIAL ROOM - DAY Mark is seated at the computer, surfing a horror movie website. He has the blank expression of a bored obsessive. The doorbell rings. INT. LORING HOUSE - ENTRY - DAY Mark opens the door. Juno stands there, looking radiantly knocked-up. She holds a stack of CDs. Mark breaks into a grin. MARK Wow. That shirt is working hard. JUNO (furtive) Is Vanessa here? MARK Nope. We're safe. He and Juno smile conspiratorially. JUNO Cool. MARK Come on, I have something for you. He gestures for Juno to follow him into the house. INT. LORING HOUSE - BASEMENT - AFTERNOON The Lorings' basement is dank, cluttered unfinished and unattractive, much like Paulie Bleeker's. Mark pulls a chain to illuminate a bare bulb. JUNO Oh, Mark! Is this the baby's room? It's beautiful! MARK Hilarious. No, I just keep all of my old comics down here, and I want to show you one of them. JUNO Oh God, you're one of those guys... MARK You're gonna like this, I promise. Mark RUMMAGES through a cardboard box in the corner. MARK (extracting a bagged COMIC from the box) Here it is. He shows the COMIC to Juno. It's called "Most Fruitful Yuki." It depicts a pregnant JAPANESE GIRL kicking ass and taking names. JUNO "Most Fruitful Yuki"? What is... Oh my god, she's a pregnant superhero! MARK Isn't that great? I got it when I was in Japan with my band. She reminds me of you. Juno examines the comic. "Most Fruitful Yuki" does resemble her. JUNO Wow, I actually feel like less of a fat dork now. MARK Most Fruitful Yuki is bad ass, man. You should be proud to be the same condition. She throws a KARATE KICK in Mark's direction with a KEE-YA! Juno is sincerely pleased. JUNO Okay, how about some tunes? There's a battered portable CD player in the corner. Juno kneels down and pops in one of the discs. JUNO Now this first one is kinda slow. But it's Mott the Hoople so it's still totally rad and hardcore. Juno puts in the CD and "All The Young Dudes" fills the room. Mark Laughs. JUNO What? MARK I actually know this one. JUNO You do? MARK Yeah, this song's older than me, if you can believe that. I danced to it at my senior prom. JUNO That's almost interesting, Mark. Who did you dance with? MARK Her name was Cynthia Vogel and she was a good dance partner. Even let me put my hands on her butt. JUNO Oh man, I can just picture you slow dancing like a dork! She mockingly places her hands on Mark's waist and moves back and forth stiffly. MARK No, I put my hands on your waist. Then you put your arms around my neck. That's how we did it in '88. Mark puts his hands on what remains of Juno's waist. She drapes her arms around his neck self-consciously. JUNO Oh, okay. Like this. MARK You've never been to a dance, have you? JUNO (casually defensive) Only squares and nerds go to dances. MARK What are you? JUNO I don't know. They SWAY slowly to the music. Juno's belly bumps up against Mark. MARK I feel like there's something between us. They laugh. Juno rests her head on Mark's chest. They dance in silence for a few moments, then stop moving. Mark pulls Juno as close as he possibly can, given her expanding girth. MARK I'm leaving Vanessa. JUNO (quiet at first) What? MARK It's just not working out, but I'm getting my own place in the city... and I've got it all planned out. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time... Juno backs away. JUNO (growing) No. MARK No? JUNO No. No, you definitely cannot do that, Mark. That's a big, fat sack of no! MARK What's the matter? JUNO This isn't what we agreed on. You guys have to take care of... this! You are the chosen custodians of the big-ass bump! She GESTURES wildly to her belly. Suddenly, something matters to her far more than the approval of an older guy. MARK But I thought you'd be cool if... JUNO (interrupting) I want you guys to adopt the Buglet. I wanted everything to be perfect. Not shitty and broken like everyone else's family. Listen, once I have the baby, Vanessa is going to finally be happy, and everything will be all right. Believe me on this one! MARK A baby is not going to fix everything. Besides, I don't know if I'm ready to be a father. JUNO (aghast) But you're old! MARK I... How do you think of me, Juno? Why are you here? JUNO I don't know. I just liked being your friend. I sort of liked becoming furniture in your weird life. MARK This... (he gestures to the dank surrounding room) ...this is what my life has become. Stuff in boxes. Stuff underground. Is that so appealing to you? JUNO Yeah, I guess... Is this my fault? Is Vanessa mad at you because of me? MARK That's not the point. We're just not in love anymore. JUNO Yeah, but didn't you love Vanessa when you married her? If you love someone once, you can love them again, I know it. My friend Leah has gone out with the same guy, like, four times. You're just not trying. Mark suddenly sees Juno for what she is -- a teenage girl. MARK I'm such an idiot. I can't believe what an idiot I am. He paces over to the wall and KICKS it softly. JUNO Please don't get a divorce! God, Mark, just do me a solid and stay with your wife. MARK God, you're so young. JUNO Not really. I'm sixteen. I'm old enough to tell when people are acting like total a-holes! Juno turns to leave, then shoots one furious look back at Mark. JUNO Oh and by the way, I bought another Sonic Youth album and it's the worst thing I've ever heard! It's just noise, man! She bolts up the stairs, sobbing. INT. LORING HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAY Juno reaches the top of the stairs and scrambles toward the front door, only to be intercepted by Vanessa, who's returning home from work, carrying her briefcase and a freshly purchased NURSING PILLOW. They nearly collide. VANESSA Juno? What's going on? JUNO Nothing. It's obvious from Juno's tears and flushed face that she's lying. Vanessa instantly goes pale with fear, but she tries her hardest to seem serene and "together" in front of Juno. VANESSA (pretending to be calm) Mark? Why is Juno crying? JUNO I'm not crying. I'm allergic to fine home furnishings. See you later. She rushes toward the door. VANESSA Hold on. Juno halts. VANESSA Juno, what's the matter? MARK She's hormonal. Right, June? It's just part of the whole process. Juno looks totally betrayed. She doesn't respond. Vanessa looks at Juno's expression and knows Mark is lying. VANESSA What did you do? MARK I didn't do anything... I just... I've just been thinking. VANESSA (you've been thinking?) What? MARK Just thinking if this is really the right thing for us. VANESSA What are you referring to? She knows exactly to what he's referring. MARK I've been just wondering if we're, you know, ready. VANESSA Of course we're ready. We've taken all the classes. The nursery. The books -- MARK I know we're prepared. I just don't know if... I'm ready. Juno's face continues to fall. Vanessa notices. VANESSA (to Juno) Juno, don't worry about this. He just has cold feet. That's how boys are. The books all say the same thing. A woman becomes a mother when she gets pregnant. A man becomes a father when he sees his baby. He's going to get there. He'll get there. Juno ain't buying it. VANESSA (to Mark) Why don't we let Juno go home and we can discuss this later on, okay? MARK It all just happened so fast. We put that ad in the paper. I thought it would take months if, you know, ever and then -- boom -- Two weeks later, she's in our living room. VANESSA (quietly) She answered our prayers. MARK (ignores the comment) Ever since, it's just been like a ticking clock. This stops Vanessa. Juno looks offended. VANESSA What are you saying? A long hideous beat. MARK It just feels a little like bad timing. Another hideous beat. VANESSA What would be a good time for you? MARK I don't know. There's just things I still want to do. VANESSA Like what? Be a rock star? MARK Don't mock me. Vanessa sighs. It's done. VANESSA You're trying to do something that's never going to happen. And you know what? Your shirt is stupid. Grow up. If I have to wait for you to become Kurt Cobain, I'm never going to be a mother. Vanessa looks defeated. MARK I never said I'd be a great father. We hear the front door closing. Vanessa and Mark look over and notice that Juno has escaped the conflict. EXT. LORING HOUSE - AFTERNOON Juno runs up to her car sobbing. She struggles with the keys, but finally makes it into the Previa and drives off. EXT. HIGHWAY - AFTERNOON The Previa slides off the road and comes to a stop on the shoulder. INT. PREVIA - AFTERNOON Juno buckles over the steering wheel, crying, unwinding for the first time since she became pregnant. After a beat, she begins to gather herself. INT. BLEEKER'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Bleeker is sitting next to his bed, noodling on the guitar. He's playing a theme that we will soon recognise. EXT. CORNER STORE - NIGHT Juno lays on the hood of her Previa, contemplating her future. We push in close... when she gets an idea. She hops off the hood and scurries into the Previa where she finds a crumpled up Jiffy Lube receipt. She unfolds it and pulls out a pen, ready to write something... a note? EXT. LORING HOUSE - NIGHT It's quiet after the storm. Inside, we see Vanessa sitting alone at her perfect dining room table, drinking a glass of wine. INT. LORING HOUSE - DINING ROOM - NIGHT Vanessa takes a sip and continues to let the days events sink in. After a beat, Mark comes down the stairs to join her. MARK I called Gerta Rauss. She says she can represent both of us. They call it "collaborative divorce." It's apparently all the rage right now. And it's easy because we don't have children. VANESSA No, it's fine. Thanks for making the call, I guess. Mark nods and sits down. VANESSA We're actually, finally doing this? MARK Looks like it, yeah. VANESSA Have you found a place to stay? MARK Yeah, downtown. VANESSA A hotel? MARK It's a loft. VANESSA (lightly teasing) Aren't you the cool guy? They STARE at the wall, speechless and defeated. VANESSA I wanted a baby so bad. So bad. She buries her head in her hands. MARK I know you did. There's a LOUD KNOCK on the front door. EXT. LORING HOUSE - ENTRY - NIGHT Mark opens the door. There's a folded piece of paper sitting on the doormat. He squints and sees Juno pulling away in the van. Mark carefully unfolds the piece of paper -- it takes a minute because of Juno's proficiency in "teen girl origami." He holds it up. We can see there's WRITING on the back. MARK It looks like a bill from Jiffy-Lube. Vanessa takes the note from his hand and turns it over, examining it. VANESSA It's for me. EXT. MACGUFF HOUSE - NIGHT Juno parks her car and walks up to her house. A porch light's been left on for her, and the place looks cozy and inviting. JUNO (V.O.) I never realize how much I like being home unless I've been somewhere really different for a while. She picks a CROCUS from the unkempt garden near the porch and sniffs it. She lifts her shirt and tickles her belly with it. Then she tucks the flower into her unkempt hair. INT. MACGUFF HOUSE - KITCHEN - NIGHT Mac is alone at the kitchen table going over the family finances while drinking one of Bren's weight loss shakes. Juno enters. JUNO Hi Dad. MAC Hey, big puffy version of Junebug. Where have you been? JUNO Dealing with stuff way beyond my maturity level. Where is everyone? MAC Bren took Liberty Bell to her tot ice skating class. JUNO Tot ice skating? Tots can't ice skate. Liberty Bell's still getting the hang of stairs. MAC No, but you know Bren. She dreams big. JUNO Yeah, she does. MAC You look a little morose, honey. What's eating you? JUNO I'm losing my faith in humanity. MAC Think you can narrow it down for me. JUNO I guess I wonder sometimes if people ever stay together for good. MAC You mean like couples? JUNO Yeah, like people in love. MAC Are you having boy trouble? I gotta be honest; I don't much approve of you dating in your condition, 'cause... well, that's kind of messed up. JUNO Dad, no! MAC Well, it's kind of skanky. Isn't that what you girls call it? Skanky? Skeevy? JUNO Please stop now. MAC (persisting) Tore up from the floor up? JUNO Dad, it's not about that. I just need to know that it's possible for two people to stay happy together forever. Or at least for a few years. MAC It's not easy, that's for sure. Now, I may not have the best track record in the world, but I have been with your stepmother for ten years now, and I'm proud to say that we're very happy. Juno nods in agreement. MAC In my opinion, the best thing you can do is to find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you, the right person will still think that the sun shines out your ass. That's the kind of person that's worth sticking with. A wave of REALIZATION crosses Juno's face. JUNO I sort of already have. MAC Well, of course. Your old D-A-D! You know I'll always be there to love and support you, no matter what kind of pickle you're in. He nods toward her belly. MAC Obviously. Juno laughs and hugs her father, planting a smooch on his cheek. JUNO I need to go out somewhere for just a little while. I don't have any homework, and I swear I'll be back by ten. She salutes and dashes out of the kitchen. MAC You were talking about me, right? MONTAGE: INT. BLEEKER HOUSE - BLEEKER'S ROOM - NIGHT We push in over Bleeker sleeping in his car-bed towards the window. We look out onto the lawn to find Juno and Leah running back to the Previa, hopping in, and screeching off. EXT. BLEEKER HOUSE - MORNING Bleeker steps out of the house for his usual early-morning run. He looks down to see a message scrawled in chalk on the stoop: "BLEEKER -- CHECK THE MAIL." He walks down to the end of the driveway and opens the latch on the mailbox. At least one hundred containers of ORANGE TIC TACS come pouring out in an colorful deluge. They spill out onto the driveway. Bleeker smiles. EXT. DANCING ELK SCHOOL - TRACK - MORNING Juno waddles toward the field. The guys on the track team, ridiculously arrayed as usual, are doing hurdler stretches. They stare at her quizzically. Bleeker spots Juno approaching and jogs up to the chainlink fence. BLEEKER Did you put like a hundred things of Tic Tacs in my mailbox? JUNO Yeah. That was me. BLEEKER Why? JUNO (blushes) Because they're your fave. And you can never have too much of your favorite one-calorie breath mint. BLEEKER Well... thanks. I think I'm pretty much set until college on the Tic Tac front. JUNO You know, I've been thinking. I'm really sorry I was such a huge bitch to you. You didn't deserve that. You never deserve any of the poo I unload on you. BLEEKER You know it's okay. JUNO Also, I think I'm in love with you. BLEEKER What, you mean as friends? JUNO No, for real. I think you are the coolest person I've ever met. And you don't even have to try. BLEEKER I try really hard, actually... JUNO No, you're naturally smart. You always think of the funniest things to do. Remember when you passed me that postcard during Spanish class, and it was addressed like, "Junebug MacGuff, Row 4, Third Seat From the Blackboard"? And it said, "I'm having fun in Barcelona -- wish you were here"? That was hilarious. BLEEKER I was just bored. I only think school is awesome like, 80% of the time. JUNO Plus, you're the only person who doesn't stare at my stomach all the fucking time. You actually look at my face. And every time I look at you, the baby starts kicking me super hard. BLEEKER It does? Juno presses Bleeker's hand against her belly. BLEEKER Wizard! JUNO I think it's because my heart starts pounding when I see you. BLEEKER Mine too. JUNO Basically, I'm completely smitten with you, and I don't care if I'm making an ass out of myself right now, because you've seen me make an ass out of myself a million times, and you still want to be my friend. BLEEKER Well, yeah. You're the best friend I've ever had, even when you're being kind of evil. JUNO That's all I need from you. That's more than I could ever ask for. You're just golden, dude. BLEEKER Can we make out now? JUNO Okay. Bleeker and Juno KISS, oblivious to the gawking track team guys in the background. In the distance, near the school entrance, we see STEVE RENDAZO (the kid who always TORMENTS Juno) regarding the makeout session with a sad, envious expression. LEAH passes by, does a double take, then hurries up to the fence, rolling her eyes. LEAH (disgusted) You know, you can go into early labor sucking face like that! Juno gives her the FINGER, not breaking the clinch with Bleeker. INT. MACGUFF HOUSE - JUNO'S BEDROOM - MORNING Juno is lying on her back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. She's more pregnant than we've ever seen her. She revs a Matchbox car against the slope of her belly and lets it roll. Juno suddenly sits up, looking thoroughly freaked. She pats her lap frantically and jumps off the bed. JUNO Dad! INTERCUT WITH: INT. MACGUFF HOUSE - MAC'S WORK DESK - SAME Mac looks up from the lure he's working on. MAC (O.S.) What?! JUNO Either I just pissed my pants or... MAC (O.S.) Or... JUNO Thundercats are go! EXT. MACGUFF HOUSE - DAY Mac, Bren and Liberty Bell rush out of the house. They pile into the Previa at breakneck speed. Juno waddles behind them, protesting. INT. HOSPITAL - DAY CU of Juno wearing a puffy surgical cap. She's being pushed down the hospital corridor in a wheelchair. She bursts into giggles. Pull back to reveal her that Leah is pushing her rather aggressively. Leah jokingly steers the wheelchair into a wall. Juno feigns whiplash. Bren appears behind them and orders Juno out of the wheelchair, exasperated. She pulls off Juno's surgical cap. Leah and Juno snicker. INT. HOSPITAL - BIRTHING SUITE - DAY We see Juno is in a BIRTHING SUITE at the hospital, pacing impatiently, bent over in obvious discomfort. She's wearing her Chuck Taylors and knee socks with her hospital gown. Leah and Bren stand nearby. Juno doubles over in pain. JUNO (panicked) Ow, ow, fuckity-ow. Bren, when do I get that Spinal Tap thing? BREN It's called a spinal block, and you can't have it yet, honey. The doctor said you're not dilated enough. JUNO You mean I have to wait for it to get even worse? Why can't they just give it to me now? BREN Well, honey, doctors are sadists who like to play God and watch lesser people scream. Juno lets out a genuine shriek of pain. BREN (checking her watch) Shit. (To the doctor) Hey, can we give my kid the damn spinal tap already? INT. HOSPITAL - BIRTHING SUITE - LATER JUNO (V.O.) It really didn't hurt that bad having him. We see Juno in the process of delivery, from her POV. Leah holds one of Juno's feet and Bren holds the other. JUNO (V.O.) The best part was when I peed on Leah during labor. We see Leah holding Juno's FOOT, which is shaking. Leah's shirt is soaked. She rolls her eyes and mouths "Fuck you" at Juno. Juno's raised MIDDLE FINGER enters the frame. JUNO (V.O.) And then, out of nowhere, there it was... The doctor reveals JUNO'S BABY BOY above the sheet. JUNO (V.O.) There he was. Juno looks at the baby in awe, then her eyes begin to flutter... and she passes out. EXT. DANCING ELK SCHOOL - TRACK - AFTERNOON Paulie Bleeker is running as fast as his legs can carry him on the Dancing Elk track. There's a very sparse crowd in the bleachers. As Paulie approaches the tape, his envious teammate Vijay looks on. Bleeker's mom is seated near Vijay, holding a video camera. JUNO (V.O.) I decided to not call Bleeker to tell him that I was having the baby. He had a big meet against Manteno and I didn't want him to get all worried about me and choke. Paulie breaks the tape, winning the race. The fifteen or so people in attendance cheer. VIJAY (admiringly) His legs are as swift as his seed. MRS. BLEEKER What did you say? Bleeker pants at the finish line, dripping with sweat. ANNOUNCER P. Bleeker has just broken a district record in the 400. Bleeker looks out at the BLEACHERS, scanning them for Juno. She's not there. JUNO (V.O.) But he figured it out anyway. Bleek takes off RUNNING toward the parking lot without stopping to explain. His mother stands up, confused. INT. HOSPITAL - MATERNITY WARD - DAY A NURSE reaches into one of the maternity ward bassinets and gently lifts up a swaddled newborn baby. The nurse turns and addresses an unseen spectator. NURSE Would you like to meet your son? Pull back to reveal she's speaking to VANESSA, who stands, paralyzed, several feet away. VANESSA I have a son? NURSE (amused) You are the adoptive mother? VANESSA I have a son. NURSE Healthy kid, too. Didn't waste any time getting out. Vanessa reaches out for the baby and gingerly accepts him in her eyes. She spends a few moments just looking at him. She feels someone watching her, then looks up to see a Bren leaning against the doorway. Vanessa blinks away her tears self-consciously. VANESSA How do I look? BREN (gently) Like a mom. Scared shitless. Vanessa laughs. INT. HOSPITAL - BIRTHING SUITE - DAY Juno is curled up on her bed in the birthing room. The birth is obviously over; there's that air of stillness and accomplishment, a task completed. The doctors have cleared out. Mac sits in a chair next to the bed, looking like he's not sure what to say. He holds up a deck of Playing cards as if to initiate a game, but Juno gently pushes his hand away. Their eyes meet. His expression is helpless, hers is utterly drained. MAC Someday, you'll be back here, honey. On your terms. Juno nods and swallows. Over Mac's shoulder, a silhouette appears in the doorway. It's Bleeker in his track uniform. Juno sees him and bursts into sudden, ragged sobs. Mac glances at her, alarmed. Paulie moves toward the bed. Mac clears his throat, gets up and leaves the room. Paulie climbs onto the hospital bed and carefully puts his arm around Juno. She leans into him, letting herself go for the first time in months. INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - BIRTHING SUITE - EVENING Juno lies on the bed. She looks rested and relaxed compared to her earlier crying jag, but her face is still pink and swollen. Bleeker is curled up next to her, still in his track uniform and spikes. JUNO (V.O.) Bleeker decided he didn't want to see the baby. Neither did I, really. He didn't feel like ours. INT. HOSPITAL - MATERNITY WARD - EVENING We see Vanessa leaning over the bassinet, unable to take her eyes off the baby, touching it's hair reverently. JUNO (V.O.) I think he was always hers. INT. LORING HOUSE - NURSERY - DAY The nursery is perfectly decorated in Vanessa's immaculate taste. Nothing looks as though it's been touched. We see the antique ROCKING CHAIR sitting empty. JUNO (V.O.) It ended with a chair. We pan past the wall Vanessa had said "needed something." There's a framed note on the wall. It looks like it was handwritten on the back of a Jiffy Lube bill. We see that it says: "Vanessa -- If you're still in, I'm still in. Juno." We move to the door and get a view of Vanessa's bedroom. We see her lying in bed with a burp cloth draped over her shoulder, feeding the baby. For the first time ever, Vanessa looks disorganized, unshowered -- and incredibly happy. There are formula bottles on the bedside table and a bassinet pushed close to the bed. Obviously, she hasn't been away from the baby for a single moment. The baby reaches up and grabs Vanessa's thumb. Vanessa glows with an expression of pure bliss. EXT. MACGUFF HOUSE - DAY It's a sparkling summer afternoon. Juno wheels her bicycle out of the detached garage. She waves goodbye to Bren, who is playing in the yard with two WEIMARANERS. She looks almost as happy with her dogs as VANESSA looked with her baby. EXT. SUBURBAN STREETS - DAY Juno rides her bike aggressively down the street. Her guitar is slung over her shoulder in a gig bag. She's obviously not pregnant anymore. She looks happy, but older. JUNO (V.O.) As boyfriends go, Paulie Bleeker is totally boss. He is the cheese to my macaroni. I know people are supposed to fall in love before they reproduce, but normalcy's not really our style. As she tears recklessly down the street on her bikes, she passes the Dancing Elk TRACK TEAM, still running in outrageously skimpy shorts and bandanas. Juno RIDES up to a garage where Bleeker is sitting, tuning his guitar. EXT. BLEEKER HOUSE - DAY Juno bikes up to find Bleeker sitting on the stoop. She smiles and takes out her guitar. She sits across from Bleeker and pulls the pick out of the strings. JUNO Ready? Bleeker nods. Juno begins strumming her guitar and playing "Anyone Else But You," by the Moldy Peaches. Bleeker joins in. At first their playing is discordant, but suddenly it works. BLEEKER You're a part time lover and a fulltime friend. The monkey on your back is the latest trend. I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else but you. JUNO Here is the church and here is the steeple. We sure are cute for two ugly people. I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else but you. BLEEKER We both have shiny happy fits of rage. You want more fans, I want more stage. I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else but you. JUNO You are always trying to keep it real. I'm in love with how you feel. I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else but you. BLEEKER I kiss you on the brain in the shadow of a train. I kiss you all starryeyed, my body's swinging from side to side. I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else but you. JUNO The pebbles forgive me, the trees forgive me. So why can't you forgive me? I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else but you. JUNO AND BLEEKER TOGETHER Du du du du du du dudu. Du du du du du du dudu. I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else but you. She and Bleeker exchange glances as they play. They smile ambiguously. Juno leans over and kisses Bleeker on the cheek. Pull out to reveal the surrounding green suburb buzzing with life and summer activity. FADE TO BLACK THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Jurassic Park III.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jurassic Park III.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b46c3d11d20a960cd14c87409de9d9f533730c71 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jurassic Park III.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + JURASSIC PARK IIIWritten byPeter Buchmanrevisions byAlexander Payne, Jim Taylor and John August 1 EXT. PACIFIC OCEAN – DAY 1 A speedboat cuts swiftly through the ocean swells beneath the looming cliffs of ISLA SORNA.2 EXT. BOAT - DAY 2 Illegal Costa Rican parasail operator ENRIQUE CARDOSO helps Americans BEN HILDEBRAND and twelve-year-old ERIC KIRVY -- already wearing life-vests -- strap themselves into a two- person PARASAIL HARNESS.3 EXT. BOAT - DAY 3 Ben and Eric clamber onto a makeshift PLATFORM that hangs over the back of the board. Dangling from Ben's neck is a CAMCORDER. BEN You make sure to get us as close as you can, okay? If it's a good trip, I'll give you a little extra. ENRIQUE Don't worry. I take you close. But not too close. (rubbing Eric's head) You don't want them to eat you. Enrique heads toward the driver's seat and a large SECOND-HAND WINCH bolted to the deck. ENRIQUE (CONT'D) Ready, amigos? Ben and Eric nod excitedly and give the thumbs up. Ben lifts the camcorder to the record the action. Enrique jams the down the throttle down, and with a loud RAOR, the speedboat shoots forward. Soon the boat is whipping across the rolling ocean. Strapped together, Ben and Eric lean back over the passing water, intently watching for Enrique's signal. As the boat picks up speed, Enrique eyes the speedometer. Ben grabs the end of the RIPCORD attached to the harness. He and Eric braces themselves. Enrique finally signals with a pulling motion. He pulls the winch, Ben yanks the cord and - WOOOSH! A brightly colored PARASAIL blossoms behind the boat, hoisting Ben and Eric aloft. In a big BLOCK LETTERS on the parasail is stitched "DINO-SOAR." THE TOWNLINE unsold rapidly from its enormous reel. BEN AND ERIC climb higher and higher. ENRIQUE keeps an eye on the clients. When they reach a certain height, he LOCKS OFF the reel. High overhead, Ben and Eric are floating in wonderful, quiet splendor. The motor of the boat now sounds strangely distant. Down below, the boat enters a think blanket of FOG. Eric points excitedly at the islands as Ben films him with the camera. Then, a sudden TUG on the thing line cause Ben to drop the camera, which now dangles from his neck. ERIC What was that? A second tug...and now the faintest of screams. Ben and Eric look down to find that the boat has disappeared into the low bank of FOG. By the time the boat emerges on the far side of the mist...THEIR IS NO SIGN OF ENRIQUE. The deck is splattered with blood. As Ben considers the driverless boat... ERIC (CONT'D) Ben! Ben glances over at Eric, staring in horror at something below. Following his gaze, Ben finds that their boat is only moments away from crashing into A LARGE REEF. Sticking out of the water, the imposing reef is being battered by waves. AS THE BOAT SMASHES INTO THE REEF, it splinters into a number of pieces. A panicked Ben turns to Eric. BEN Unclip your line! Eric and Ben frantically unclip their lines. Catching an updraft, the parasailers float upward. A strong wind sends them wafting over the daunting cliffs of ISLA SORNA...4 EXT. SUBURBAN BACKYARD - DAY 4 TWO PLASTIC DINOSAURS enter the frame and do battle accompanied by a child's ferocious sounds. CHILD (O.S.) RRRRROW! GRRRRRR! WINDER TO REVEAL - CHARLIE, a three-year old boy, plays in a sandbox with his favorite toy dinosaurs. ALAN GRANT squats next to him and watches with great delight. ELLIE SATLER stands over them, an INFANT in her arms -- a picture of the perfect family. GRANT Oh, actually, Charlie, those two are herbivores. They wouldn't be interested in fighting each other. But these... (picking up two other dinosaurs) See, these are carnivores. And this one here -- see its claws -- this one here uses its claws to gouge at the throat of its opponent… As Grant demonstrates with some GRUNT and GROANS of his own, he only succeeds in frightening the boy. ELLIE (interrupting) Uh, Alan? GRANT Hmm? ELLIE He's three. Why don't you wait till he's a little older? GRANT Oh, right. (back to Charlie) Happy dinosaurs. He bounces them along the sandbox edge. Then, the sound of a CAR ENGINE turning off and a door SLAMMING is heard. ELLIE That must be Mark. (calling out) Mark, we’re back here! Ellie and Grant turn to see --MARK DEGLER coming through the gate carrying a briefcase. He's their age, handsome but not annoyingly so, with a friendly, balance demeanor. He and Ellie kiss tenderly on the lips. ELLIE (CONT'D) Good day? MARK Keeping the world safe. (re: baby) Here, let me take her. Ellie hands off the baby. ELLIE Mark, this is Alan Grant. MARK Nice to meet you, Alan. I've heard a lot about you. The two men shake hands, and we now realize it is Grant who is the stranger in this household. Little Charlie runs to his father, showing his dinosaur. CHARLIE Daddy, this is a herbabore. Grant smiles uncomfortably, a third wheel.5 INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT 5 WINDEN to a PARROT in a large cage. Grant is teasing the bird with a cookie, holding a it just out of reach. GRANT What's my name? Come on, Jack, say it. Is my name Alan? Say my name. The bird doesn't respond. GRANT (CONT'D) He used to know me. ELLIE Sorry, Alan it's been six years. Grant shrugs, gives Jack the cookie, and heads towards the table. The three adults are finishing their dessert and coffee. The The children have been out to bed. An awkward moment of silence. Uncomfortable smiles. Then -- MARK More coffee? ELLIE (relived) Yes. Great. Mark stands and collects their cups. ELLIE (CONT'D) So, Mark's working at the State Department now. GRANT Really? (To Mark)What do you do there? MARK (with mock bravado) I could tell you about it, but than I'd have to kill you. GRANT Indeed. Mark smiles, nodding. Then he goes into the kitchen. Another uncomfortable silence. ELLIE So what are you working on now? GRANT We have a new site in Montana. At least until the money runs out. ELLIE Anything good? GRANT Raptors, mostly. ELLIE My favorite. Grant leans forward, realizing Ellie's one of the few people he can talk to about this. GRANT You remember the sounds they made? ELLIE I try not to. GRANT We've done cranial scans, and raptors actually had a quite sophisticated resonating chamber. I have a theory that their ability to vocalize is the key to their social intelligence. The way they can work together as a team. ELLIE You think they could talk to each other? GRANT To a degree we never imagined. And from the cage in the corner of the room... JACK Bullshit! Both look back at the parrot. ELLIE smiles. ELLIE You taught him that.6 EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - NIGHT 6 Ellie and Grant head toward the rental car parked in the driveway. ELLIE Good luck with the fund raising. GRANT It was never easy, but before Jurassic Park, you could find money. Somewhere. Now fossils are out. Everyone wants to see a real live dinosaur. ELLIE Times change Alan. But you're the still the best. I mean that. GRANT The last of my breed. A long moment passes between them as both consider where they've ended up. GRANT (CONT'D) I'd better get going. ELLIE Let me know if I can help, Alan. You’re bad about asking for help, but please ask me. Anything, anytime. GRANT (deep down knowing he never will) Okay. Goodbye, Ellie. ELLIE Goodbye, Alan. Not sure what the right thing to do is, they finally end up with a friendly hug. They keep it short. Grant gets in his car. Starts the ENGINE. He's about to pull off when Ellie knocks on the window. He rolls it down. ELLIE (CONT'D) When I met you, I thought that one day millions of years ago, all the dinosaurs became extinct. Wiped out. But you told me otherwise. When conditions changed, dinosaurs changed. They became other things. They evolved. GRANT A well-accepted theory. ELLIE (simply) Alan don't be afraid to evolve. Grant hears her, but Ellie knows it didn't really get through. A forced half-smile, than Grant waves goodbye. Ellie watches as he drives off.7 INT. AUDITORIUM - DAY 7 The last stop on Grant's fund-raising tour, it's a public lecture hosted by some foundation. There are SCIENTISTS and STUDENTS here, but also a lot of DINO-FANS, some even with costumes. Grant finishes his speech to what was a full house -- some ATTENDEES are grabbing their coats and sneaking out. This wasn't the exciting guest speaker they were all expecting. A new slide comes up. Just black and white, and indecipherable. GRANT It's through the painstaking study of the Interior chamber in multiple specimens that we can determine this exciting correlation between the larynx and the upper plate. That lets us theorize -- theorize, mind you -- that the raptor might have been capable of bird- like vocalizations. Which as you can imagine, would be a tremendous breakthrough. He's finished, but no one seems to notice at first. Then the SYMPOSTUM LEADER stands up, leading a smattering round of APPLAUSE. SYMPOSTIUM LEADER Thank you very much Dr. Grant. Now does anyone have a question? Nearly every hand goes up. Grant doesn't seem surprised. GRANT Does anyone have a question that doesn't relate to Jurassic Park? Quite a few hands go down. GRANT (cont'd) Or the incident in San Diego, which I'll remind you, I did not witness. Now most of the hands are down. Picking one of the few remaining... MALE STUDENT Your theory on raptors is good and all, but isn't all this conjecture kind of moot? The STUDENT'S BUDDY nods in agreement. MALE STUDENT (CONT'D) I mean, once the U.N. and Costa Rica and everyone decides how to handle the second island, scientist will just go in and look for themselves. TOO-CLEVER SCIENCE REPORTER Isn't paleontology itself in danger of extinction? Recognizing those as fighting words, the symposium leader is about to step in. But Grant will take this himself. GRANT No, and let me be perfectly clear on this point. Dinosaurs lived 65 million years ago. What's left of them is fossilized in stone the actual scientists spend years to undercover. (MORE) GRANT (CONT'D) what John Hammond and InGen created are theme park monsters. Nothing more, nothing less. The class clearly disagrees with his assessment. ANOTHER STUDENT You're saying you wouldn't want to study them if you had the chance? GRANT No force on this earth or in heaven could get me on that island.8 INT. DERELICT COCKPIT - DAY 8 Looking through the cracked windshield of a junkyard plane, we see someone spray painting red circles on the outside of the glass.9 EXT. AIRCRAFT GRAVEYARD - DAY 9 NASH, a wry, intelligent mercenary pilot and soldier, is painting huge eyes the windows of a wrecked plane. Finished, he tosses the paint can through the open windows and walks quickly away from the plane. We now see that RED TEETH are painted on the craft's nose. It looks absurdly like some angry beast. We are one the edge of a dry lake bed, part of an aircraft graveyard. Wrecked planes lie all around. We hear a phone RINGING...10 INT. CARGO PLANE - DAY 10 A RINGING satellite phone rests on a stack of gun cases. UDESKY, the leader of this crew, answers it. UDESKY Udesky. (beat) Yes sir. we're good to go. I'll lock it down as soon as you drop me the payment. With the phone still to his ear, Udesky wanders out of the craft...11 EXT. CARGO PLANE - DAY 11 Udesky looks over at Nash and COOPER, another mercenary. Cooper's the quiet muscle of the bunch, a weapons specialist. He finishes loading a massive gun, essentially a hand-cannon. It's aimed at Nash's grimacing aircraft. UDESKY That's right, two of the very best I could find. No, I haven't worked with them personally, but they come with the highest recommendations. Then -- Cooper FIRES at the grimacing aircraft. A projectile rockets into the plane and EXPLODES with a fireball. Nash and Cooper exchange a satisfied smile. UDESKY (CONT'D) You've got nothing to worry about, sir. This is going to be a piece of cake. Pieces of the demolished craft come raining down.12 EXT. EXCAVATION BASE CAMP, PT. PECK LAKE, MT - DAY 12 CLOSE ON a man's hand, carefully scraping the stone away from a dinosaur fossil. We follow his hand back as he wipes off his sweaty brow, revealing him to be BILLY BRENNAN, 25, an associate professor and site manager. He's a charmer. Looking past him, we see CHERYL, 21, a junior at junior of State. She's one of a dozen COLLEGE STUDENTS working at the site, and the one most smitten with her supervisor. CHERYL Billy? I don't think I'm doing this right. He scoots over, lying down beside her. Checks her work. BILLY You need to go slowly. See, just take it little at a time. She's not listening, just watching his eyelashes. CHERYL I can never tell what's bone and what's rock. BILLY Technically, it's all rock. The calcium in the bones is replaced during fossilization. But you can feel the difference. See? Rough, smooth. Rough, smooth. He runs her bare fingers over the two different patches, showing her. After a pause, she runs her finger along his stubbly chin... CHERYL Rough. ...and along his lips. CHERYL (cont'd) Smooth. Billy may not have started this flirtation, but he's not ending it either. It's then that a SHADOW falls across them. Billy looks up to see... BILLY Dr. Grant! Grant has just returned, a bag over his shoulder. GRANT Mr. Brennan. CUT TO:12A EXT. WALKING TO THE MAIN TENTS - DAY 12A Billy takes one of Grant's bags, talking as they go. BILLY How was your trip? Profitable? GRANT We'll be broke in four weeks. BILLY Three weeks. I had to rent some equipment. The cross into one of the tents, which only has two "walls". On a dust-taped table, a dusty Macintosh is feeing data into a strange machine the size of a dorm refrigerator. A mechanical arm sweeps back and forth across a tray of fine sand. GRANT You rented an automated litter box. BILLY It's a rapid prototyper. I feed in the scan data from the raptor skull, than the computer breaks it into thousands of slices which this thing prints, one layer on top of the other. It's the future of paleontology. GRANT Not if it can't dig. The arm stops and suddenly the tray of sand shakes, dropping through holes in the bottom to reveal an object the size of a person's fist. BILLY I give you a raptor's resonating chamber. Grant hates technology, but he can't help but be amazed by the result. He lifts the strange object up, shaking out the remaining sand. Billy puts it to his lips and blows through it like a conch shell. The resulting SOUND is unique and piercing, the cry of an non-existent animal. Grant is speechless with excitement. And so he uses it again and again, producing different SOUNDS and variations. In the distance, flocks of birds rise to the sky and fly off. Billy looks up to see a MAN and a WOMAN getting out of a Cadillac. Cheryl is pointing them in the direction of the tent. BILLY (cont'd) (falsely casual) Oh, I forgot to tell you. Some visitors wanted to come by and talk to you. I told them you'd be happy to see them. maybe even have dinner with them. GRANT Absolutely not. BILLY They're here. GRANT What? Only now does Grant realize these two peopleWho were walking up to them.Putting on a friendly smile, Billy goes up to them. MAN Dr. Grant? GRANT Yes? MAN (extending his hand) Paul Kirby. Kirby Enterprises (reaching into his pocket) My card. PAUL KIRBY is a talkative optimist with no "off" switch. His wife AMANDA KIRBY, justas friendly, is harder to read. There seems to be exhaustion behind her eyes. GRANT What can I do for you, Mr. Kirby? PAUL Well sir, I am a great admirerof yours, and I have an extremely interesting proposition to discuss. Would you let my wife and I take you to have dinner tonight? Our treat. GRANT You know, I've been traveling and I'm very tired. Maybe some other time. PAUL I guarantee it'll be worth your while. Behind Kirby, Bill furtively rubs his thumb and fingers together, indicating the guy is loaded. Grant musters a weak smile. GRANT It's be my pleasure.13 INT. HELL CREEK BAR AND GRILL, JORDAN, MT - NIGHT 13 They’re only halfway through the entree, but Grant is ready to bolt. It's only Billy who's keeping him from being rude. They walk over to Paul and Amanda’s table and sit down. PAUL First off let me say as a dinosaur enthusiasts, Amanda and I have admired your work for years. AMANDA It is truly, what’s the word? Inspiring. GRANT Thank you. It's everything Grant can do just to be polite. He desperately wants to leave and get back to his dig. PAUL Amanda and I, well, we just love the outdoors. Heck we've been on pretty much any adventure tour they can come up with: Galapagos, K2, the Nile... AMANDA We even have two seats reserved aboard the first commercial moon flight. Billy nudges Grant. GRANT Hmmm. PAUL Now, for our wedding anniversary this year we wanted to do something really special, something... He places his hand on his wife's. AMANDA ...once-in-a-lifetime. PAUL We've arranged for a private airplane to take us flying over Isla Sorna. And we want you to be our guide. The Kirby's look to Grant as if they've offered him an amazing gift. But Grant just sighs and smooths the tablecloth. GRANT That's a very nice offer, Mr. Kirby, but I'm afraid I'm much to busy. If you like I can refer you to a number of highly qualified... PAUL No, no, see Dr. Grant, you're the best. You've seen these animals in the flesh. No one else has come close to you. GRANT I'm flattered, but I've taken this little adventure tour. And with the air restrictions they've imposed after the incident in San Diego, you can’t fly low enough to see anything of interest. Paul is momentarily stymied, but Amanda rallies. AMANDA You see, that's just the thing. Paul and I have special permission to fly low. BILLY How low? PAUL Well, I'm no aviation specialist. But I do know it's hell of a lot lower than anyone else. AMANDA From what I understand, it's pretty much whatever we want. GRANT That's hard to believe. PAUL Let's just say that through my business -- imports/exports, emerging markets -- I've made some friends in high places. In this case, the Costa Rican government. AMANDA Dr. Grant, you don't know how important it is for us to have you come along. It would make all the difference. Grant is trying to find another way to say no, when Paul pulls out his checkbook. PUAL And of course, we're prepared to make a sizeable contribution to your research here. Billy looks at Grant. Don't say no. PAUL (cont'd) I can write all kinds of numbers on this check. Just tell me what exactly it would take. We HOLD ON a conflicted Dr. Alan Grant. CUT TO:14 EXT. SKY - DAY 14 NNNNNRRRRRRNNNNNRRRRR... A SMALL AIRPLANE - a Beechcraft Kingair 200 Turboprop, to be exact - cruises through clear blue skies.15 INT. PLANE - DAY 15 Grant re-settles, trying to get comfortable. Billy is across from him, finishing cleaning his camera lenses before putting them back in the ragged case. GRANT Even with what I pay you, you could get a better bag. BILLY No way. This is lucky. Couple years ago some buddies and I went hang gliding off these cliffs in New Zealand. Updraft sent me right into the side. BOOM! GRANT That does sound lucky. BILLY It was this strap alone that saved my life. Got caught on a rock as I was falling. GRANT Reverse-Darwinism. Survival of the most idiotic. Because he hasn't really said it... BILLY Listen Alan, I really appreciate you bringing me along. GRANT The bones will be there when we get back. That's the nice thing about them. They never run away. (beat) And besides, you got me into this. I don't intend to be alone with these people. ON PAUL AND AMANDA sitting near the front of the plane. Paul draws a long, nervous breath and looks at Amanda. She seems just as tense. Finally finding a comfortable position, Grant puts his hat over his eyes, ready to take a nap. Done with his camera, Billy turns to someone just off screen. BILLY So how do you know the Kirby's? and we reveal... Mercenary Cooper, the weapons specialist we met earlier. He's wearing sunglasses so dark you can't tell whether he's staring at you or fast asleep. He doesn't answer. Did he even hear? And then -- COOPER Through our church. BILLY What Religion? COOPER Uh…the one that worships God and believes in being Good. 16 EXT. SKY - DAY 16 The plane continues onward.17 INT. PLANE - DAY / HOURS LATER 17 Grant slowly wakes in his chair, groggy. All the other passengers are fast asleep. Then Grant turns to his right. A RAPTOR sits besides him. The dinosaur eyes him curiously, then opens his mouth... RAPTOR Alan. And than it STRIKES.18 INT. PLANE - DAY 18 Grant wakes up with a start, disoriented. Billy is leaning over him. BILLY Alan. We're almost there. The adrenaline still surging through him, Grant turns and looks THROUGH THE WINDOW. Clouds obscure the view, than parts reveal ISLA SORNA rising majestically out of the water.19 EXT. SKY - COUNTINUOUS DAY 19 We watch the plane descend sharply to the island.20 INT. PLANE - COUNTINUOUS DAY 20 In various combinations, Grant and Billy, Paul and Amanda look out the windows at the amazingly green island. Cooper looks out through a window of his own.21 INT. COCKPIT - COUNTINUOUS DAY 21 Here we find the rest of the crew from the junkyard. Nash is piloting. A VOICE comes over their radio headsets. RADIO VOICE (Spanish accent) Unidentified aircraft approaching Isla Sorna, this is San Juan approach. You are flying in restricted airspace. Immediately turn to the coordinates two-zero-zero. I repeat redirect to... A look from Nash then Udesky switches off the radio.22 EXT. PLANE - COUNTINUOUS DAY 22 The plane now descends to a mere hundred feet above the treetops.23 INT. PLANE - CONTINUOUS DAY 23 Paul puts his hand atop Amanda's as they stare intently out the window. Billy looks to Grant. BILLY Admit it. You're excited. Grant will admit nothing. Calling back from the cockpit... UDESKY Cooper! Yell up if you see anything! COOPER (yelling back) No, I thought I'd keep it to myself. Suddenly Grant spots... GRANT There. There! An Apatosaur. Look at the coloration.EXT. ISLA SORNA – GRASSY FIELD – CONTINUOUS DAY An Apatosaur is grazing on the grass.INT. PLANE – CONTINUOUS DAY BILLY (amazed) I'm so use to seeing bones. It's weird to see skin. GRANT Mr. and Mrs. Kirby! If you look out the right you can see... But Paul just waves him away with a hand, staring intently out his window. We HOLD ON Grant a moment, thinking that odd.24 INT. COCKPIT - CONTINUOUS DAY 24 Udesky puts down his binoculars. UDESKY South shore is clear. The rest is rock. NASH Are we on? UDESKY We're on.25 INT. MAIN CABIN - CONTINUOUS DAY 25 Looking out the window, Grant notices they're flying awfully low. Just then, he hears a MECHANICAL HUM and a LOW RUSH from outside. Now wanting to believe -- GRANT That's not the landing gear? Paul, Amanda and Cooper don't respond. GRANT (CONT'D) What you're... (realizing) You can't land. Paul turns back to him. PAUL Dr. Grant if you'd just sit tight, we'll explain this all in a jiffy. GRANT This plane can not land! AMANDA It's going to be all right. Just... Grant is out of his seat, heading for the cockpit. He'll wrestle the controls if he has to. Cooper grabs him, pulling him back. Grant starts to struggle, but he's certainly no match. A well-practiced fist hits him dead on. CUT TO BLACK.26 OVER THE DARKNESS 26 we hear Amanda's voice, strangely distant but amplified. AMANDA Eric! Eric! Are you there honey? Ben! Erriccc! Her calls continue as we FADE UP to...27 INT. PLANE - DAY 27 GRANT'S P.O.V. -- blurry and disorientated. He finds himself lying on the floor of the plane. Seeing him come to, Billy helps him slowly get up. Grant's head is pounding. GRANT Tell me we didn't land. By his expression, we see Billy would have to lie. BILLY I think they're looking for someone.28 EXT. LANDING STRIP, ISLA SORNA - DAY 28 The jungle has almost reclaimed this patchy vine-covered runway. The airplane is parked at one end. Nash, Udesky, and Cooper are checking their weapons. Amanda is at the edge of the tarmac calling into the jungle on a BULLHORN. Billy and a groggy Grant emerge from the airplane. Paul trots over. PAUL Dr. Grant, are you alright? I'm sorry we had to be so... The three mercenaries are now walking into the jungle with their guns. GRANT What the hell is going on? What are they doing? PAUL Establishing a perimeter. Making it safe. These guys are really good. One of them was a Green... GRANT Mr. Kirby, trust me, on this island, there is no such thing as safe. We have to get back in this plane... Grant looks to Amanda, who shouts through a bull horn. AMANDA (on-bullhorn) ERRR-IIIC! GRANT And tell your wife to stop making so much noise! We're food to these damn animals. PAUL (yelling) Amanda, Honey! Dr. Grant says it's a bad idea! AMANDA (on the bullhorn) What? PAUL (pointing broadly at Alan) He says it's a bad idea! AMANDA (on the bullhorn) What's a bad idea? As in on cue, there is a DEAFENING ROAR from the jungle. Everyone turns toward the sound and freezes. PAUL (to Alan) What was that? Grant doesn't answer, still listening to the reverberations. Then a couple shots are heard. BILLY (low) Is it a rex? GRANT I don't think so. Billy and Paul breathe a small sign of relief. GRANT (CONT'D) Sounds bigger. Nash and Udesky come RUNNING out of the jungle, headed for the plane. UDESKY We gotta go, now! PAUL What's the problem? Can't you guys...? As Udesky and Nash sprint past Paul in interrupted by a second, closer, DEAFENING ROAR. He pales.29 INT. PLANE - CONTINUOUS - DAY 29 Udesky waits by the door, hustling everyone inside. Nash hurries into the cockpit. Everyone scrambles to a seat. Amanda climbs next to Paul. AMANDA We can't just... PAUL Don't worry, honey. We'll circle around and come back. Udesky closes the door. BILLY What about the other guy? UDESKY Coop's a professional. He can handle himself. A blood-curdling SCREAM echoes through the jungle followed by MACHINE GUN FIRE. NASH (yelling back) We're going! Udesky climbs into the copilot's seat, and Nash revs the engine.30 EXT. RUNAWAY - DAY 30 The plane starts down the runway.31 INT. PLANE - DAY 31 The passengers bounce in their seats as the plane picks up speed down the overgrown strip.32 EXT. RUNWAY - DAY 32 Suddenly, two hundred yards ahead of the plane, COOPER emerges from the jungle. He stands in the middle of the runway. waving one arm wildly. His second, badly injured arm hangs limp by his side. COOPER Come on, Nash. Slow down, buddy.33 INT. THE COCKPIT - DAY 33 Nash spots Cooper, shoots a glance at the airspeed indicator. NASH Coop, you know I can't do it pal. He slams down full throttle in an attempt to reach flying speed. Seeing that Nash has no intention of stopping, Paul shouts from the cabin. PAUL What are you doing? That's Mr. Cooper!34 EXT. RUNWAY - CONTINUOUS - DAY 34 We are looking down on Cooper from behind. As the plane approaches, A SHADOW falls over the injured mercenary. Then with brutal speed, an ENORMOUS BEAST seizes him in its massive jaws and lifts him into the air. From this angle we get only a glimpse of a long crocodilian snout, powerful clawed forearms and spiny sail rising from the creature's back.35 INT. THE COCKPIT - CONTINUOUS - DAY 35 All eyes are on the creature as it devours Cooper. Amanda turns away in horror. AMANDA Oh, my God! Paul, my God!36 INT. THE COCKPIT - CONTINUOUS - DAY 36 Looking through the windshield, we see the creature is directly in the path of the plane. Nash pulls back on the stick. The plane rises. The left propeller clips the flank of the enormous dinosaur, SNAPPING the blade. Blood sprays the windshield and side windows.37 EXT. RUNWAY - CONTINUOUS - DAY 37 The turboprop banks into the jungle, out of control.38 INT. PLANE - CONTINUOUS - DAY 38 The passengers are thrown about as the craft CRASHES through trees, tearing off a wing and pieces of the tail. Finally coming to rest in the jungle canopy, the plane settles in the trees. SILENCE. The passengers slowly recover and have a look around. Foliage blocks most windows, making it impossible to see out. BILLY Is anyone hurt? Checking themselves, everyone seems pretty much intact. Still thinking of himself as in charge... UDESKY Quiet! We're okay. Let's everybody just stay put. He attempts to turn on the cockpit radio, but it's dead. NASH Who's got the sat-phone? PAUL Right here! Paul hands the bulky phone up to Nash, who dials out. Grant unstraps himself, climbs to the back to the side door and shoves. The door opens a few inches before hitting a branch. He looks out the and lets out a quiet gasp as the ground reels THIRTY FEET BELOW. He quickly shuts and latches the door. CLOSE ON the sat-phone. pressed against Nash's ear. RECORDED VOICE We're sorry. All circuits are busy. Please try your call again later... NASH Shit! PAUL What is it? What's the matter? Amanda SCREAMS. A huge reptilian face appears in the cockpit window. Everyone else SCREAMS now. The plane LURCHES - and we hear a deep GROWL. The passengers hold tight, paralyzed. Nash buckles himself into his seat. Suddenly, the plane is YANKED from the side to side. Battered this way and that, the terrified passengers tightly grip their seats. Finally, the horrible sounds of WRENCHING METAL as the nose of the plane is RIPPED RIGHT OFF. Nash and Udesky are suddenly sitting in open air. The nose of the plane is tilting downwards, the jungle floor far below. The passengers hang almost vertically in their seats, Debris tumbles out the open end of the plane, some of it striking Nash in the head. Udesky unbuckles his seat belt and climbs back up into the cabin. Nash follows. Suddenly, a long snout with dagger-like teeth pushes past the cockpit seats, opens wide, and CLAMPS DOWN on Nash's legs. The pilot CRIES OUT in agony. The others passengers grab onto his arms, trying to pull him back. But it's no use. The dinosaur rips Nash out of their grasp and down the aisle. Nash desperately grabs on to the seat cushion, then watches in horror as the fabric RIPS AWAY. He's pulled out of the plane and dropped to the ground. A giant foot steps in the way as the snout of the creature reaches down and quickly devourers the screamingpilot. It's horrifying sight, but no one can turn away. Pleased with the appetizer, the creature comes back for the main course. Grant tries to force open the jammed rear door. Billy tries to help, but the door won't budge. The dinosaur JAMS its snout into the fuselage and lunges for Amanda in the first row. She yanks her legs back as the jaws SNAP SHUT. Behind Amanda, Billy reaches forward, UNSNAPS her seat belt and pulls her into the next row back. The others unstrap their belts and crowd into the rear of the passenger compartment. The shift in weight sends the fuselage tipping backwards.39 EXT. JUNGLE - CONTINUOUS - DAY 39 The plane breaks free of the tree limbs and DROPS tail-first to the jungle floor. It SLAMS hard, then flips over onto its roof.40 INT. PLANE - CONTINUOUS - DAY 40 The passengers are prowled on the ceiling of the plane, dazed by the impact. Everyone is cut and bruised. Out of the open cockpit, they see two approaching dino feet. A window near Amanda fogs over with condensation. when it clears, she finds herself looking right into enormous eyes. Then all hell breaks loose as the plane is SLAMMED across the jungle clearing. The passengers are hammered against the walls of the plane, tumbling like socks in a dryer. Debris, seats and luggage fly everywhere.41 EXT. JUNGLE FLOOR - CONTINUOUS - DAY 41 The plane comes to an abrupt halt as it SMASHES into a tree. A gargantuan FOOT steps on the fuselage and FLATTENS it like a paper tube.42 INT. PLANE - CONTINUOUS - DAY 42 Inside, windows EXPLODE, raining glass over the passengers. As the walls compress, Udesky becomes trapped in the rear of the plane, the others in front. BILLY Over here! Udesky dives into the narrowing gap, and Billy pulls him the rest of the way through. Billy is as terrified as the rest of them, but he thrives under this rush of adrenaline. Then a huge CLAW digs into the skin of the fuselage and begins to slowly PEEL the plane open. Grant looks up in dread at the widening tear. GRANT This way! Grant leads the group out the open end of the cockpit. They make a mad dash for the jungle. A tremendous ROAR causes Billy to look behind him. He can't help but steal a glimpse of this terrifying, but utterly fascinating, animal. Grant yanks him forward.43 EXT. JUNGLE - DAY 43 With Grant in the lead, and Udesky taking up the rear, the group tears through the jungle. Concealed by the dense undergrowth, the unseen dinosaur bears down on them -- mowing down the young trees which TOPPLE all around them. Grant spots a grove of HEAVIER TREES and leads the group into it. The dinosaur cannot fit between the trunks. It ROARS at the fleeing humans, searching desperately for a route after them. The group continues their relentless pace, putting as much distance as they can between themselves and the beast. Paul Kirby looks like he's about to have a heart attack. Even Billy is gasping for air. They stop, thinking they've outrun it. Grant directs the group through some underbrush and into --44 EXT. CLEARING - CONTINUOUS - DAY 44 Our friends stop dead in their tracks. Amanda stifles a cry. Before them lies an immense unmoving SAUROPOD. GRANT Don't worry. It's dead. Then a full-grown bull TYRANNOSAURUS rises up behind the carcass. It was feeding, its mouth mottled with blood and carrion. Grant FREEZES. GRANT (CONT'D) Nobody move a muscle. Remember: the T-Rex tracks motion. Obeying, the group FREEZES for a few long beats. Then Udesky takes off running. And T-Rex ROARS. Everyone runs. T-Rex is right behind them.45 EXT. JUNGLE - DAY 45 Dashing back the way they came, the group suddenly comes face to face with -- THE FIRST MONSTER. We now get our first full unobstructed view of the gigantic creature, SPINOSAURUS AEGYPTICUS. Over forty feet long and twenty-five feet high, the dinosaur has a bony sail along its back. Its head is crocodilian with rows of long, curving teeth. Sinewy six foot arms terminate in three fingers hands with fourteen inch claws. Nowhere else to run, the group scatters into the brush as the two behemoth predators rush forward, their ROARS thunderous. Paul and Amanda scramble into one direction, Billy and Udesky in the other. But Grant can't go anywhere - his foot is stuck between two branches. He manages to free himself as the two dinosaurs approach. They'll have to deal with each other before eating the humans. Grant dives down between two fallen trees as the Spinosaurus and T- Rex circle one another like gladiators, each searching for the other's weakness. Laying flat on his back, Grant lets out a terrified GASP as the giant foot of Spinosaurus lands across the two trunks mere inches from his face. Spinosaurus lunges forward, powerful jaw open wide. T-Rex sidesteps the assault, its tail knocking down small trees as it spins out of the way. In the tress, Paul and Amanda scurry again for cover. Between the fallen trunks, Grant attempts to get away on his hands and knees. T-Rex presses the attack, slamming its tail into the flank of its adversary. Spinosaurus is knocked back, and Grant is again forced to duck for cover. As Spinosaurus struggles to regain its balance, T-Rex dives forward. Spinosaurus is driven backwards as T-Rex tries to grip its throat. Amanda yanks Paul out of their path. They Scramble over to Billy. Now on its side, Spinosaurus fights back ferociously. It slashes at T-Rex with its long arms and razor sharp claws, then finally kicks the animal with one mammoth foot. Tyrannosaurus staggers back, wounded. Down below, Grant is splashed by the blood pouring from the dinosaur, as he slowly makes his way towards his fellow humans. Spinosaurus lunges for the T-rex with gaping jaws and manages to topple T-Rex off its feet and sends the falling dinosaur to the ground. With an earth-shuttering CRASH, the dinosaur lands between Grant and the rest of the group. The companions scurry out of the way, but as they do so, the head of the T-Rex now lands almost directly on top of them. Plastered against an immense tree, the group watches in horror as T-Rex starts to rise but is thrown back down as Spinosaurus latches onto its throat. Spinosaurus crushes the life out of its adversary, and T-Rex opens and closes its jaw a mere inches from our terrified friends. Finally, Grant reaches the others. GRANT Come on! Spinosaurus lets out a victorious HOWL, and the blood-drenched professor leads the group through the undergrowth.46 EXT. JUNGLE - DAY 46 Winded from running, Paul is caught off-guard as a furious Grant slams his back against a tree. Only one thing he wants to know -- GRANT Why did you bring us here? Paul is too startled to speak. Udesky tires to step in, but Grant gives him back a look. AMANDA Our son is on this island. We need your help to find him. Still crunched against the tree, Paul pulls out a photo from his shirt pocket. PAUL This is him. Eric. He’s thirteen now. He's just about the greatest kid in the world. Letting go of Paul, Grant takes the photo, a Sears-style portrait of the boy we saw Parasailing at the beginning. He shakes his head, disbelieving. He hands the photo to Billy. The group splits into two sides -- Paul and Amanda, Grant and Billy -- with Udesky stuck between. Dialogue overlaps in places. AMANDA He's with a man named Ben Hildebrand. BILLY Who's that? PAUL Her new boyfriend. AMANDA A friend. We were vacationing. Eric wanted to see the island and the dinosaurs, so Ben found a guy who would take them parasailing. They never came back. PAUL We called everyone, did everything we could. Because of all the controversy over this island, no one will step in. Costa Rica says it's a no-fly zone, it's their own damn fault. Guys at the U.S Embassy -- our U.S. Embassy -- said we should "accept the inevitable." You believe that? GRANT So you hired these mercenaries. UDESKY We prefer "recovery specialists." We do overseas custody issues and... GRANT (interrupting) Then you duped us into coming here. PAUL We needed somebody who knew the lay of the land. Somebody who'd been to this island before. GRANT (disbelieving) I have never been on this island! PAUL Sure you have. You wrote that book... BILLY That was Isla Nublar. This is Isla Sorna. The second island. PAUL (low, to Udesky) I didn't know, there were two islands. AMANDA Still, you have survived the dinosaurs before. You saved those kids. GRANT A few of us survived. A lot more died. And we were better prepared and better armed. (finally) How many days have they been missing? A look between Amanda and Paul. PAUL Eight weeks. Grand and Billy are speechless. It might as well be eight years. GRANT After what you've seen today, you really think your son could be alive? AMANDA He's smart, Dr. Grant. And he knows so much about dinosaurs. Before anyone else can talk, Grant puts his hand out. He wants everyone to shut up while he plans their next move. GRANT No, I'm sorry, but no. We'll savage what we can from the plane. Then we head for the coast. There may be a boat left, something to get us off this island. PAUL Dr. Grant, we're not leaving without our son. GRANT You can stick with us, or you can go and look for him. Either way you're probably not getting out of here alive. With that he leaves, A beat later, Billy follows. He has genuine sympathy for the Kirby's, but he's logical enough to know Grant is right. BACK WITH PAUL AND AMANDA They look to Udesky. PAUL What do we do? Udesky is clearly at a loss, but for everyone's reassurance he tries to mutter some brio. UDESKY Well, I think we should start searching for yourson. In the direction they're going. PAUL Excellent. They follow after Grant and Billy.47 EXT. PLANE CRASH SITE 47 The five survivors search through the wreckage, trying to find anything useful. The task is grim. Mindful of Grant's warnings, they move quickly and quietly. Udesky picks up a gun out of the swampy water. The barrel is bent almost 90 degrees, unless. Billy finds his camera, intact. Digging a change of clothes out of his suitcase, Paul steps around the side of the plane to change. He's in his underwear before he notices Amanda is also there changing. PAUL Sorry. AMANDA Nothing you haven't seen before. A beat. Amanda looks over as they get dressed. AMANDA (CONT'D) How much weight have you lost? PAUL Twenty, twenty-fire pounds. I've been swimming at the Y. AMANDA You hate to swim. PAUL People change. A nod to mean, that's the truth. PAUL (CONT'D) You look good. AMANDA So do you. They make brief eye contact, which Amanda breaks. Around the side, Billy is taking photos of a giant footprint the dinosaur left in the mud during its attack on the plane. Grant looks over. GRANT How would you classify it? BILLY Obviously a superpredator. (best guess) Suchimimus. that snout. GRANT They never got that big. BILLY Baryonyx? GRANT Not with that sail. (Billy gives up) Spinosaurus Aegypticus. BILLY I don't remember that on InGen's list. GRANT That's because it wasn't on their list. Who knows what else they were up to? Billy looks past Grant to see Paul approaching. He's struggling with the straps on his backpack. turning in circles. Billy regards him with suspicion. BILLY So Mr. Kirby, tell me, when you climbed K2, did you base camp at 25- or 30,000 feet? PAUL Thirty-thousand, I think. Closer to the top. BILLY About a thousand feet above it, actually. (closer) Most mountain-climbers remember how tall that mountains were. Paul knows he's caught. GRANT There is no Kirby Enterprises, is there? PAUL There is. I own a place called Kirby Paint and Title Plus. We're out in the Westgate Shopping Center in Enid, Oklahoma. The "plus" is for bathroom fixtures, fireplaces accessories, patio furniture. Stuff like that. BILLY I don't suppose that check you wrote us is any good. UDESKY He paid us half up front. Cash. PAUL Mortgaged everything we had to do it. Even the store. and if we make it off this island with my son, I swear, I'll make good on the money I owe you. I don't care if it takes me the rest of my life. Grant and Udesky exchange a dubious glance. UDESKY However long that is.48 EXT. JUNGLE PATH - DAY 48 Amanda, Paul, Billy, Udesky and Grant walk through the jungle. AMANDA Eric! GRANT Quiet! PAUL (loud whisper to Amanda) Stop that. Dr. Grant says this is dangerous territory. AMANDA Well we should split up or something. We can cover twice the area. PAUL No, Dr. Grant says... AMANDA Dr. Grant says this, Dr. Grant says that... PAUL Well what's the use of hiring an expert if your not going to listen to him? AMANDA Because "Dr. Grant" isn't looking for Eric. Dr. Grant is looking for the coast. PAUL Fine...and when the Tricyclatops comes after you, don't come crying to me. AMANDA Oh, don't worry about that. PAUL What? AMANDA Nothing. PAUL What did you say? AMANDA Nothing. PAUL What did you say! AMANDA Just drop it Paul! The Kirby's conversation trails off into the jungle. Udesky moves up next to Grant and Billy. UDESKY If they split up, I'm going with you. And as they continue forward, Billy spots something in the trees ahead.49 EXT. JUNGLE CLEARING - DAY 49 A parasail chute is caught in the branches of a tree. A yellow life vest hangs limply from a branch. Paul rushes over, unsnags it, and examines the label. PAUL Young adult. AMANDA Eric... UDESKY (O.S) Hey. Got something here. All turn to see Udesky holding up a camcorder encased in a waterproof shell. AMANDA That's Ben's! She grabs it from Udesky and pops open the housing. She tries the power switch on the camcorder, but the battery's dead. Udesky pull out a flashlight from his pack and looks to Amanda. UDESKY Here, give that to me. And as Udesky fiddles with the flashlight, Grant and Billy consider the parasail. BILLY It looks intact. GRANT We should take it with us to signal any planes. UDESKY (O.S) I think I've got it. Udesky has rigged the wires on the flashlight so that the batteries can be used to power the camcorder. He brings a live wire to back of the camcorder. A red power light comes on. AMANDA It works! UDESKY I don't know for how long. Udesky swings the tiny screen out and pushes play. The others crowd around. ON THE SCREEEN Eric and Ben play frisbee on the beach. PAUL (O.S.) (excited) That's him. That’s Eric! AMANDA (O.S.) I filmed this the morning they left. Ben catches the frisbee, checks his watch and motions to Eric. Eric runs over, and Ben puts his arm around him as they run to the camera. Paul reacts to this image but holds his tongue. THE VIDEO SCREEN - The image now CUTS to a shot from aboard Enrique's boat speeding towards ISLA SORNA -- the start of the movie. Eric points excitedly at the island and smiles at the camera. We replay the opening moments of the movie from Ben and Eric's perspective, soaring high until... ERIC Ben! BEN Unclip the line! THE JUNGLE - A PAN from face to face of all watching this tape with a mixture of hope and nausea. ON SCREEN - Angle again with Ben's legs in the foreground. Falling fast. BEN (CONT'D) Hand on! Hang on buddy! Now the camera penetrates the jungle canopy and the picture and sound become complete chaos: SCREAMS from the both, branches BREAKING, flashes of Ben and Eric's frightened faces as the camera is buffeted in all directions. With a lurch the terrifying descent in finally over, and the jungle floor is just ten feet away, swaying back and forth beneath Ben and Eric's feet. BEN (CONT'D) Are you ok, buddy? There's GURGLING to his voice. Ben may be more hurt than he's letting on. ERIC (through his sobs) I don't know. I think so. BEN We're okay. It's going to be okay. Here, get ready. I'm going to unhook you. The sound of PUMPLING is followed by the sight of Eric DROPPING into the frame, landing on the ground rolling. He stands and looks back up at Ben. ERIC I'm all right BEN (O.S) (weaker) We're going to get out of this, pal. And on that, the power and picture fade away. BACK ON PAUL AND AMANDA - overjoyed. PAUL See? He's okay. He's alive! Everything's going to be all right now. Amanda brings a hand to her mouth, silently nodding her head. Grant and Billy exchange a dubious look, than begin pulling the parasail out of the tree. As they do so, the sail gets caught on a branch. They pull harder. The branch bends, but the sail won't come loose. One last tug and than, SNAP. The branch breaks, the chute falls away to reveal… A SKELETON. It swings down directly at Amanda. She SCREAMS. Finally, the others are able to pull her away. As they untangle the lines, the men are able to get the first view of the remains of Ben Hillenbrand, still caught in his harness. Amanda's knees buckle. Regaining her balance, she runs off into the jungle. Paul quickly follows. PAUL (CONT'D) Amanda!50 EXT. THICKNESS - DAY 50 Reeling, Amanda comes to a stop in an area with thick undergrowth. It's danger here, very still and quiet. She tries to calm herself, but each effort to suppress just makes her more emotional. She's surprised as Paul wraps an arm around her to comfort her. But she doesn't fight it. PAUL I'm sorry Amanda. I am. And I'm sorry for the things I said about him. AMANDA No, it's... PAUL I know you liked Ben. I had no right to... AMANDA (frustrated) It’s not about him. It's Eric. He's alone out here somewhere. Our baby is all alone. Saying it aloud, the reality sinks in for both of them AMANDA (CONT'D) I guess I was hoping that with Ben around, there'd be someone to keep him safe. Checking in on clients, Udesky stops at the edge of the thicket. Something raises the hairs on the back of his neck. UDESKY Dr. Grant! He nods for the others to take a look at this. They head over, Grant at the rear. As he approaches, Billy is packing up the rest of the chute in a backpack. He stops short from what he sees. Looking down, we CIRCLE across the jungle floor. Here we find a strange, hollowed-out construction made of sod and branches. Maybe six feet around. Just now noticing the others' stare, Paul looks down into one of the bowls at his feet, a half-buried nest. It's filled with football-sized eggs, laid in a spiral. And this isn't the only nest. Amanda counts twelve in all, laid out in an oddly symmetrical pattern. The last to arrive, Grant identifies the species in a horrified instant. GRANT Raptors.And as he says the words, off in the distance, we hear the cry of some herbivores, around by the chorus of snarls. SMASH CUT TO:51 EXT. FUTHER IN THE FOREST - DAY 51 The party blasts through the forest, trying to keep up with Grant. They haven't even had time to ask -- AMANDA (to Paul) What’s a raptor? Paul has no idea. UDESKY They don't look that big. I mean, comparatively. GRANT If we came across one, we might live. PAUL Well that's good. GRANT But you never came across just one. From the back -- AMANDA Wait! Where's Billy? They all stop. The only one not there is -- Grant Billy! Billy! AMANDA (almost sotto) I thought we weren't suppose to yell. BILLY (O.S) Here! He comes in from the left. Excited, he explains to Grant -- BILLY (CONT'D) I got some great pictures of the nest. You know this proves raptors raised their young in colonies. Furious with his student. Grant just keeps moving. There's no time to stand around and argue. BILLY (CONT'D) This speaks to a larger social structure, the possibility of Darwinian altruism. It changes everything. A beat. Trying not to sound presumptuous -- BILLY (CONT'D) We could co-write a paper. GRANT Ah yes, the first rule of academics. Publish or perish.52 SCENE PREVIOUSLY OMITTED 5253 EXT. RIDGE - DAY (HOURS LATER) 53 Much fatigued, the five now mach upward towards a crest. Panting and flushed, they reach the top of the ridge and gaze into the distance. A jungle valley stretches before them. Not far off in A VAST COMPOUND - comprised of several buildings. One building alone seems to cover several acres. The weary group breathes a sigh of relief. PAUL I bet there's a very good chance Eric's in there. I'd bet my bottom dollar. Udesky and Grant share dubious looks and continue down into the valley.54 EXT. INGEN COMPOUND - DAY 54 The group emerges from the jungles and enters the compound. They walk through an overgrown parking lot, littered with abandoned vehicles. Some are lying on their side. Others are overturned completely. They're not going to be driving anywhere. A troubled Grant peers through a windshield, partially caved in, like some giant head butted the glass. (Think back to Lost World) And the group finally approaches the front doors of an enormous building. As they head up the front steps, we see something in the distance behind them: CAT-LIKE MOVEMENTS on the high ridge. To fast to see what it was. But too ominous to dismiss.55 INT. BUILDING LOBBY - DAY 55 Our friends now find themselves in a sparse, one quietly opulent corporate lobby now in the process of being reclaimed by the jungle/ Roots and ivy poke through the floor and walls. In the waiting area, the cushions of a sofas and chairs have been gnawed at and pulled apart. Dusty coffee mugs and filled ashtrays lie on the table. The water has turned brackish in a near by cooler. Sudden FLAPPING. We look up and see BIRDS nesting in the rafters. It is an eerie, haunted place. PAUL (calling out) Eric! Are you here? AMANDA Eric! All listen for a response. Nothing. Paul and Amanda exchange a despondent look. Sitting on the reception counter is an official-looking telephone. Everyone has the same thought, but no one dares. Finally - AMANDA (CONT'D) What the hell. Amanda puts the receiver to her ear. Nada. With Grant in the lead, they head deeper into the building. Unseen by the group, a fleeting SHADOW flits across the lobby's dirty windows with terrifying speed.56 INT. CORRIDOR - DAY 56 A couple vending machines stand at the one end of this long hallway covered with vines. Paul notices them and pulls change from his pocket. PAUL Let's see. I've got about a dollar seventy- five. How about you guys? Billy SMASHES IN the window of one machine with his boot. Picking through the glass, he pulls out some candy bars and chips. He checks the expiration date. CONTINUED: 56 BILLY Thank God for preservatives. He tosses the food to the others. Paul now turns to his own vending machine and SMASHES it with his heal. The glass refuses to break.57 INT. HATCHING LABORATORY 57 Grant and Billy push through a set of doors to see A CAVERNOUS HATCHING FACILITY filled with much of the same equipment we recognized from the first island, although the sheer size of this place dwarfs any of the facilities seen previously. As the group walks down the ramp and onto the floor, they begin to absorb the incredible array of technology: enormous cryonic freezer, their plug pulled years ago; empty incubators; tanks of formaldehyde with dinosaur fetuses and body parts. Machines with intricate tubing and wing arms stand beside conveyer belts cris crossing the room at different levels. AMANDA This is how you make dinosaurs? GRANT This is how you play God. Billy looks around the lab. He can't help but be impressed. BILLY Okay if I take pictures? Grant nods. Billy sets his lucky camera back down on the worktable. Two years from now, astute observers of the DVD will not that Billy doesn't actually take his camera from the bag; he was carrying it because there wasn't any room inside. Billy pulls a new roll of film from the bag and zips it shut. ACROSS THE LAB Amanda is passing a large cylindrical tanks with half-formed embryos floating in formaldehyde -- genetic experiments gone awry. Finally she reaches A GIGANTIC MANIFIED RAPTOR HEAD floating in the one tank. Something about this specimen catches Amanda’s attention. She bends forward, getting very close to the glass. She peers right into the eyes of the nightmarish creature. Then -- AN ACTUAL RAPTOR lunges at her form behind the tank. She SCREAMS. Fortunately the raptor can't get between the closely spaced tanks. Amanda runs. PAUL Amanda! GRANT Back out! Move! And as the group races through the lab the Raptors find a larger gap between the tanks.58 INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS - DAY 58 Paul leads the way, checking the door for possible escape routes or hiding places. Twenty feet behind, THE RAPTOR rounds a corner, bolting after them. Paul ducks in the closest door. PAUL In here!59 INT. DINO KENNEL - CONTINUOUS - DAY 59 The group slams the door behind them and quickly takes in the room. There are several rows of oversized steel cages, apparently used for containing young dinosaurs. Many of the cage doors are standing open. The group races down a lone aisle. Close behind, the raptor BURSTS into the room, ROARS. As the Raptor gains ground, Udesky and Billy run into one of the open cages, SLAMMING the door behind them. Grant, Paul and Amanda duck into another. Before they can swing the cage door shut behind them, however, the raptor SLAMS into it, driving the door into the cage. They are forced back against a chain-like wall, trapped in a small triangle space by the advancing door. The angry Raptor is now inches away through the cage door. Then, suddenly, the raptor looks up. We follow its gaze. The top of their triangular enclose is wide open. The eager raptor climbs up the chain-like door. Catching the tail of an idea, Amanda grabs the door and nods to the others. AMANDA Push! They push hard on the cage door, swinging it and the raptor right through the opening of the cage. Now the raptor is trapped in a small triangular space, the door going right to the ceiling. Amanda slides the door's bolt through the chain like wall, temporarily trapping the dinosaur. The raptor struggles desperately, GRAWLING AND SNARLING, but the cage door seems to be holding. As everyone rushes back to the door. The raptor begins to make a LOW, HAUNTING MOAN. As the others head for the door, Grant lingers a step, listening to the beast's simple melodic cry. It has the same tones as came from the model resonating chamber. GRANT She's calling for help.60 EXT. COMPOUND - DAY 60 The group exits the rear of the lab building and finds itself in a large equipment yard. The CALL of the raptor is still audible as they head for the tree line. Now they moan is ANSWERED from distant jungle quarters. The responses quickly MULTIPLY. To the group's dismay, they soon find themselves virtually SURROUNDED by raptor CRIES both distant and near. Grant looks around with amazement. It's vindication of his theory on raptor communication, but it couldn't come at a worse time. Responding to the growls, a herd of grazing HADROSAURS suddenly flees across the open space. Then, in the distance behind the herd A PACK OF RAPTORS emerges from the jungles, coming their way. GRANT Head for the trees! From the lab building, the raptor we left imprisoned now BURSTS out one of the doors and HOWLS to the pack -- the same cry we heard in the lab. The raptor pack moves into the hunting formation. One ALPHA-MALE RAPTOR. slightly larger than the others, leads the charge up the middle. Grant risks a looks back. But doesn't stop running. GRANT (cont'd) THIS WAY! In an effort to escape the oncoming raptors, Grant leads the group right into the stampeding heard of hadrosaurs. Suddenly, all is chaos. Hadrosaurs race past, splitting up the group. Letting the others get ahead of him, Grant looks back. Much to his dismay, the raptors are ignoring the hadrosaurs. Indeed, the pack weaves its way through the herd -- the raptors only want them. In the chaos of the stampede, everyone loses sight of each other. Up ahead, Billy trips and falls. As he rolls the strap on his camera bag breaks. He doesn't notice it's missing until he's already back on his feet and running. Amanda and Paul keep close to each other. Further back, Grant spots Billy's fallen camera back. He grabs it as he runs past. Looking back, Billy sees that Grant now has his back... BILLY ALAN! GRANT KEEP GOING! They lose sight of each other in the rush.61-19 OMIT 61-6969A EXT. EDGE OF THE JUNGLE - DAY 69A As the hadrosaurs WHIP PAST, Paul and Amanda climb up into a tree. A raptor leaps at Paul, barely missing his leg. Trying to pull Paul up, Amanda nearly loses her balance. This time, Paul catchers her. Billy climbs up a nearby tree of his own in sight of Paul and Amanda. Udesky has nearly reached a tree of his own when he finds himself HEADED OFF by a raptor. He turns to the other way, but finds THERE ARE MORE RAPTORS. He picks up a fallen branch as these dinosaurs cautiously approach. Not more than a few feet away, the leader of the trio stops, peering at him. Udesky swings hard, but the dinosaurs feints. From behind him, another raptor slashes at the back of his legs, severing his muscles. Udesky CRIES OUT and drops to the ground. IN THE TREETOPS Paul, Amanda and Billy can hear him. PAUL Udesky. AMANDA (Listening) He's this way. From here, the thick branches overlap, forming a kind of "second floor" above the ground. It's not easy, but you can move from branch to branch, tree to tree. ON THE FLOOR Unable to walk, Udesky attempts to crawl away from the animals. The effort clearly causes him great pain. Strangely, the raptors suddenly don't seem interested in him anymore. Rather, they're "talking" among themselves. Udesky is amazed to find him self still alive. Suddenly, one of the raptors SLASHES at him again. But it's delicately not a mortal blow, just a very painful one. Udesky CRIES OUT, louder this time. IN THE TREES Hearing the new cry, Paul, Amanda and Billy move faster, now finally seeing Udesky on the ground. He's face-down, barely moving but still MOANING. The raptors are gone. In the lead, Amanda starts to climb down. But Paul grabs her, holds her back. PAUL It's not safe. AMANDA We have to help him. BILLY He's right. A predator wouldn't leave a kill wounded. AMANDA He's not a kill, he's still alive. She breaks from Paul's grip and drops to the ground. She's only a foot away from the tree when ALL FOUR RAPTORS lead out from their hiding places. They almost catch her as Billy and Paul pull her back up on the limb The raptors stare up at them, angry their plan didn't work. PAUL They couldn’t climb up, so they were trying to get us to come down. BILLY They set a trap (amazed) They actually set a trap. Bored with waiting, the raptors go back to finish off Udesky, making a meal out of it. Up in the branches, the survivors are horrified and sickened. Then, from the deep in the forest, a new RAPTOR CRY. The feasting raptors look up, listening, then suddenly run off into the dark jungle. PAUL Where's Grant?69B EXT. ELSEWHERE IN THE JUNGLE - DAY 69B Climbing higher in a tree, Grant is just feet above a growing pack of raptors. He scales one branch, the next, finally reaching a perch that the dinosaurs can't jump to. LOOKING DOWN The entire pack is now standing still, watching him. In the center, the Alpha Male lets out a sort of BARK. Responding to the cry, the other raptors CALL BACK. As terrified as he is, he can't help but be fascinated by their communication. Like a hellish bird song, there's a rhythm to it, a structure. They're clearly talking about something. Under his breath, Grant is able to mimic its patterns. GRANT What does that mean? What are you saying? Of course they can't answer. They just keep using the same "phrase." Ready to ditch Billy's camera bag in order to climb higher -- he's had to hold it by the strap -- Grant finds his hand covered with a runny slime. He looks down at the camera bag, and that's the source. It's oozing out the bottom. He unzips the bag to find A BROKEN RAPTOR EGG inside, the white and green yolk still dripping from the pieces of the shell. There's another intact egg beside it. This is what the raptors where chasing. GRANT (CONT'D) God damn you, Billy. Ever the scientist, Dr. Grant tests a theory even in the face of danger: he holds up the intact egg so that the raptors can see it. They suddenly go crazy, howling the same phrase but LOUDER. GRANT (CONT'D) It means, "Give us the egg," doesn't it? "We want the egg." He gently drops the bag to the ground. Although the raptors are interested, pulling out the unbroken egg, they're still by no means placated. The song may have changed, but they still want Grant dead. They begin to jump at him, eventually, hopping up on each other’s backs. It's only a matter of time till they reach him. Grant moves to climb higher, but sees no branches he can reach. And than he hears the low CREAKING. A CRACK. The branch he's on is starting to give in. He looks down at the face of his enemies, knowing he'll be their next meal. And then, A SMALL CANISTER lands at the base of the trees, immediately SPRAYING out a thick cloud of oily fog. It's the first of FIVE CANISTERS that land in the area, creating a thick cloud. It's not just smoke though something far more caustic. As it hits the raptors they immediately recoil, those closest to the canisters SHRIEKING in pain. Tumbling in the dirt. There may be a pheremonal element to the mist as well -- they seem panicked, disoriented. Pack mentality takes over, and after the first ten raptors take off running, so do the rest, some tripping over their feet blindly. This may be dino-tear gas, but it's not good for humans either. Up in the tree, Grant's eyes immediately burn from the vapor He squints to see through the fog, where he spots A HUMAN SHAPE at the edge of the smoke VOICE Come on! They'll be back! Grant half-climbs, half-falls out of the tree, rushing to get through the heaviest of the smoke. A SMALL DIRTY HAND grabs his, pulling him along.69C EXT. JUNGLE - LATE DAY 69C Eyes swollen from the gas. Grant stumbles, barely able to see as the other person pulls him along. It's only now we can identify his rescuer as ERIC KIRBY, the boy he was brought to rescue. A lot has changed in the last eight weeks. It's not just dirt and muck -- he's the filthiest child you've ever seen -- something primal has come out in him. Something wild.69D EXT. INGEN COMPOUND - TWILIGHT 69D On the far side of the tipped over vehicle, Eric pulls open a hatch -- his hiding place. The door opens part way. Eric motions for Grant to follow.69E INT. INSIDE THE BUNKER - TWILIGHT 69E Squeezing in sideways -- it's very tight fit -- Grant finds himself in a space no bigger than the inside of a Datsun. lit by a small battery-powered lantern. This is where Eric has been hiding. The minute Grant's inside, Eric goes back to work re-sealing the door. This 13-year old boy has become astonishingly efficient at staying alive. GRANT Eric... The boy holds up a hand. He listens for a moment. He doesn't hear anything outside. GRANT (CONT'D) Eric, your parents are both here. ERIC In Costa Rica? GRANT On the island. Eric truly can't believe it. He hoped to be rescued but... ERIC They'll never make it. I mean, they can't manage when the cable goes out. GRANT You'd be surprised what people can do when they have too. Eric studies his guest, finally certain he recognizes him. ERIC You're Alan Grant, aren't you? (off surprised reaction) I read both of your books. GRANT Which one do you prefer? ERIC The first one. Before you where on the island. You liked dinosaurs back then. GRANT Back then, they hadn't tried to eat me. Grant takes a better look around Eric's tiny hideaway, impressed with what he's been able to scavenge. Among the many items we see another smoke canister, some battery-powered lanterns and lots of candy wrappers. This kid's been living on chocolate for weeks. ERIC When InGen cleared out, they left a lot of stuff behind. GRANT Any weapons, radios? Eric pulls up a long cattle prod to show Grant. ERIC Found this, but the battery's dead. GRANT It's a wonder you aren't. I'm amazed, Eric. I barely lasted 30 hours. You lasted eight weeks. The line catches Eric strangely. It's the first moment of true emotion we've seen him in. ERIC Is that all it's been? I thought it was longer. GRANT (trying to be positive) The important thing is we both made it. That's something we have in common. Eric rips into a candy bar. After a moment, he realizes he should offer one to his guest as well. Grant takes it. A lone beat. Than, Grant just has to know... GRANT (CONT'D) Did you read Malcolm's book? ERIC Yeah. GRANT What did you think? ERIC I dunno. I mean, it was kind of preachy. Chaos-this, chaos-that. And like, to me, the guy seemed kind of high on himself. Grant smiles. GRANT That's two things we have in common.69F EXT. TREETOPS - NIGHT 69F The trio is where we left them, perched up in the branches. They're far from safe, but nothing's after them for a while. In Billy's eyes, we can see a storm of guilt raging. But he hasn't said anything. Won't say anything. AMANDA We can't just stop looking. Eric and Dr. Grant are out there somewhere. PAUL I want to find them too, but we can't do a bit of good right now. For every scary thing we saw in the daylight, I'll bet there ten times more of 'em at night. (to Billy) Am I right? BILLY I don’t know. PAUL I thought you were an expert. BILLY Dr. Grant was. AMANDA Well Dr. Grant isn't here, so we're going to have to figure out what to do ourselves. Amanda is impressed by her own determinations. A long beat. AMANDA (cont'd) So what do we do? No one has the faintest clue.69G EXT. DEEP IN THE FOREST - NIGHT 69G VARIOUS SHOTS; The creatures of Isla Sorna walk past in the shadows, some looking up at the light in the trees. Suddenly, one of the creatures is attacked by another. We hear ROLLING, SNARLING, HISSING, just seeing the outline of the fight. Just as fast as it began, the fight is over, the winner snakes on the loser.69H EXT. TREETOPS - NIGHT (LATER) 69H Everyone's moved to different branches, trying to settle in for the night. Paul keeps looking over to the tearful Amanda, about to say something. He finally does. PAUL I just want you know, Amanda. It's not your fault what happened. Amanda looks over, not sure what his absolution. PAUL (cont'd) Eric has always been headstrong, and you throw Ben Hildebrand into the mix and well... AMANDA Well what? PAUL Well damn it. I don't speak ill of the dead. What I'm trying to say is, it’s was just a crazy accident. The exact same thing could have happened if he was with me. You can't go beating yourself up about it. Realizing he's trying his best, Amanda can’t stay angry with him. AMANDA This wouldn't happen if he was with you. I mean, you drive five miles below the speed limit. I totaled three cars in fives years. PAUL That one time was just the bumper. AMANDA He would have been, safe. Completely, entirely, suffocatingly safe. (beat) I would have him to see more of the world than Enid, Oklahoma. I wanted to see more of the world than Enid, Oklahoma. And so yes, it's my fault that this happened. I'm sorry that you have to be here. Really looking at her... PAUL I'm not sorry at all.69I EXT. INGEN COMPOUND - DAY 69I Morning on Isla Sorna. A low mist hangs tight to the forest floor as Eric seals up his hideaway for hopefully the last time. They start walking. Eric pulls something out of his pocket, shows it off to Grant. ERIC Know what this is? GRANT (takes it) A raptor claw. I use to have one. A fossil. ERIC Mine's new. Grant hands it back. Eric is becoming more and more a normal thirteen-year old boy. There's an innocence to him that's coming back. GRANT How much of this island have you explored? ERIC I stayed pretty close to the compound, Figured if anyone came to look for me, that's where they'd start. GRANT We need to head for the coast. ERIC Are you sure? GRANT Why? ERIC Closer you get to the water, the bigger things get.69J EXT. JUNGLE - DAY 69J Billy and Amanda wait for Paul as he comes out of the bushes, hiking up his shorts. Trying to take charge... BILLY We need to stick to the plan. Head for the coast. AMANDA What about Eric and Dr. Grant? BILLY Going to the coast was Alan's idea. If he's alive, that’s where he's headed. AMANDA What about Eric? Billy represses his instinct to say Eric's dead. PAUL (rationalizing) He's probably has a better chance by the coast as it is. Figures that all the big dinosaurs would live in the center of the island. (to Billy) Right? BILLY Sure.69K EXT. JUNGLE - DAY 69K As Grant and Eric walk, both stop, hearing a strange sound. But for a change, it's not an ominous one. It's a human one. A phone is RINGING, very faintly. Without a word to each other, Grant and Eric decide its coming from the right.69L EXT. JUNGLE - CONTUNUOUS DAY 69L Paul is picking the briars out of his socks as they hike, risking tripping on every step. Then Amanda stops short. She's the first to hear it: THE SAME RINGING. After a beat, everyone else can hear it too. And recongnition finally lights on Paul's face... PAUL My phone. Suddenly, Paul frantically searches his pockets as the others anxiously watch. AMANDA You had the phone the whole time? BILLY Where is it? PAUL I don't know. I don't have it with me. AMANDA When did you have it last? PAUL I don't remember AMANDA Think. And Paul wracks his memory... PAUL The plane. I got a call on the plane, put it in my coat pocket, and... Bust suddenly, he stops, his face is lighting with an awful realization. Amanda couldn’t bear the wait... AMANDA What?...WHAT!? PAUL I loaned it to Nash. He must have had it on him when he... The hideous implication of his words slowly sink in.69M EXT. JUNGLE - DAY 69M Still following the faint RINGING, Grant and Eric turn to find A SAIL moving through the low trees. We recognize it as the back of a spinosaurus. We might think it's any random spinosaurus, except for the RINGING coming from somewhere inside it. Grant and Eric press back against a tree, keep perfectly still as they hear the THOOOOMB, THOOOOMB, THOOOMB of the creature's footsteps reverberating. It's tail RUSTKES against the brush. It's moving behind them, and it's close. We hear the RINGING move from left to right as it passes. So far, its has no idea they're there. Looking across the clearing, Eric is startled to see PAUL AND AMANDA are no more than 20 yards away, also hiding. An involuntary reflex, Eric calls out... ERIC Mon! Dad! Grant immediately covers the boy’s mouth. But it's to late. The dinosaur has stopped. We still can't see it. We don't know how close it is. Paul and Amanda spot Eric with Grant. They're a thousand emotions at once: relieved, disbelieving, terrified, overjoyed. They want to run to him, to yell out to him, but the monster is close. Grant takes his hand off Eric's mouth. They both stay completely silent. All this time, the sat-phone is RINGING. Than it stops. And after an agonizing beat, the beast moves. At first we're not sure which direction it's headed, but finally we can tell its moving away. Once the sail is finally out of sight, Eric breaks from Grant's hold and dashes to his parents' arms. They coop him up. Hug him, kiss him, their affection unquenchable. He's crying. AMANDA (reassuring him) Sweetheart, you're okay. (reassuring herself) You're okay. (disbelieving) You're okay. PAUL Never had a doubt. Never did. Us Kirby men, we stick around, huh? ERIC We do. Looking at her grubby son, Amanda licks her shirttail, trying to rub his face clean. PAUL Honey, there's not enough spit in the world for that. She LAUGHS. It's the first times she's laughed in two months. Billy crosses the distance to Grant. GRANT We need to keep moving. BILLY Alan, I want to tell you that I'm so sorry about the... GRANT Billy, I can't talk to you now. He walks off. Billy follows him. BILLY Please, okay? Just yell at me. Call me an idiot. An asshole. Stupid. Tell me I screwed up because I know I did. Grant doesn't respond. BILLY (CONT'D) I thought if we could get a raptor back to the mainland, we could get serious money for it. Enough to fund the digging for 10 years. More. Whatever it took. Grant shakes his head, disgusted, But doesn't stop. BILLY (CONT'D) You have to believe me. I did it with the best intentions. GRANT (finally turning on him) Some of the worst things imaginable have been done with the best intentions. You rushed in with no thought to the consequences, to yourself or anyone else. (finally) You're no better than the people who built this place. Grant keeps walking, leaving Billy with his guilt.70 INT. CANYON BUILDING - DAY 70 The group enters a structure with giant windows designed to look into the canyon beyond -- only there's nothing to see but a thick fog. Toward the center of the room, a spiral staircase that leads to a lower level. With Billy lagging, Grant approaches the stairs and peers down the circular opening in the floor. There is not much to see, just fog, a glint of sunlight.71 EXT. RIVER CANYON - DAY 71 Step by step, Grant leads the group down a rusty spiral staircase below the observation room. The stairs end in a lower level. Although we're technically outside, this whole place feel strangely enclosed. There's a thick fog at this level -- clouds, really -- but far below we can see the river. And at its banks, a barge. GRANT We climb down to the barge and follow the river out to the ocean. With any luck, the Costa Rican coast guard will pick us up. ERIC Then we go home? AMANDA Then we go home. Grant leads everyone down a RAMP to --72 EXT. LANDING - DAY 72 A catwalk branches off, a SET OF STAIRS continuing down the along the canyon wall. Grant starts down the stairs. He's only taken a few steps down the rusty staircase suddenly BREAKS BENEATH HIS FEET. Paul grabs him in the nick of time. The staircase vanish into the fog. CLANFING AGAINST the canyon wall. After a few more seconds of silence, they hear the CRASH far below. AMANDA You okay? Grant nods and looks in the other direction. GRANT How about if we try this way? Their only other option is a precarious catwalk that disappears into the mist. AMANDA Do you think it goes all the way across? GRANT One way to find out. The only way to get his-near-fall is to push ahead. But his stomach turns at being so high. Amanda follows. The catwalk creaks and groans, listing slightly. She freezes mid-stride. GRANT (CONT'D) (glancing back) We'd better do this one at a time. Amanda steps of and Grant carefully pushes forward, disappearing into the thick fog. The others listen to the CREAKING of the catwalk until it STOPS ABRIPTLY. SILENCE. PAUL Dr. Grant? More silence. Then, out of the fog, a distant voice call out -- GRANT (O.S.) Come on over. One at a time. Amanda steps tentatively forwards. Eric is clinging to her. AMANDA Eric, its okay. You'll be right behind me. PAUL We're not going anywhere, I promise. As Paul holds Eric, and Amanda shares a look. Amanda We're all together now, Eric. Eric reluctantly releases her mother. Amanda starts to cross.73 EXT. REVER CANYON - FAR WALL - DAY 73 Grant has stopped at a lateral support across the catwalk, trying to get the sense of where they are and what purpose this place may have served. Seeing that the support beams are brace high arched walls of steal mesh, it becomes obvious that we are inside this vast construction. Amanda emerges from the mist and turns back to the catwalk. AMANDA (calling out) Okay! Come on, Eric!74 EXT. LANDING - DAY 74 Eric is next to go across. He's still tentative. PAUL How 'bout if I... ERIC No, I can do it. Billy and Paul look on as Eric disappears into the vapor. PAUL (muttering to himself) That's it Eric. Nice and easy...75 EXT. CATWALK - DAY 75 Eric slowly gropes his way forward. He feels a GUST OF WIND and a HEAVY THUD ahead on the catwalk which now sways beneath him. Regaining his balance, Eric peers forward, but the fog prevents him from seeing more than fifteen feet ahead. There is an EERIE SILENCE. Eric calls out timidly. ERIC Mom?75A EXT. RIVER CANYON - FAR WALL - DAY 75A Across the canyon, Grant moves across the later support. With his hand on the railing, he sends a white, hardened substance dropping into the mist. Looking up, Grant notices a large strut, covered with the same substance. Realizing what it could be. GRANT Oh, my God. AMANDA What is it? GRANT A bird cage. Then, the sound of Eric SCREAMING.75B EXT. CATWALK - DAY 75B Eric watches as A LOOMING SHAPE emerges from the fog -- a nightmarish vision stalking purposefully forward. A FULL GROWN PTERANODON, standing over seven feet high, walks upright on clawed feet, his thirty foot wings folded bat-like at his side. The creature sees Eric and fixes him with a demonic glare. Eric CRIES OUT and dashes back down the teetering catwalk. The Pteranodon ruses to its feet, spreads its thirty-foot wings and flies directly at him. AT THE OTHER END OF THE CATWALK Hearing Eric's SCREAMS, Paul charges onto the catwalk, searching in the fog. PAUL Eric! BILLY It won't hold! Suddenly, ERIC emerges from the fog, racing toward his father. And then THE PTERANODON swoops out of the fog, opens its giant rear claws, and snatches the terrified boy from the catwalk. Paul Kirby watches in stunned, abject horror as the Pteranodon carries Eric directly overhead -- PAUL ERIC! The flying reptile struggles with the boy's weight. Paul watches helplessly as Eric is carried high across the canyon. Paul runs back alone the catwalk in a desperate attempt to keep Eric in sight. Billy stays behind, moving back up the platform to try to keep the dinosaur in view. With a new idea, he races back up the stairs to the observation room. He has a way to save Eric. When he reaches the canyon wall, Paul turns a corner and runs along another enclosed catwalk leading deeper into the canyon. Grant and Amanda now come pounding down the catwalk trying to catch up with Paul. AMANDA (shouting) Paul! Where is he? Can you see him? PAUL (shouting back) I'm trying! That thing took him down this way! GRANT Split up! THE PTERANODON carries Eric deeper into the canyon. The creature's wings beat steadily overhead, and the WIND is fierce. Eric looks down and sees the river far below. The Pteranodon swoops over an isolated outcropping of rocks at the end of the canyon and drops Eric into --75C EXT. PTERANODON NEST - DAY 75C A large bowl of mud and branches the size of a satellite dish. Eric lands right on top of a pile of dinosaur bones picked clean. Mixed among is one human skull. Before Eric has time to cry out, he looks up to find SIX PTERANODON HATCHLINGS closing in on him with sharp-edged beaks. He picks up the human skull and whips it to the hatchlings. They easily duck it and keep coming.76 EXT. OBSERVATION ROOM - CONTINUOUS DAY 76 Grant looks up to see Billy leaning out over the edge of the observation platform. He suddenly realizes what Billy is about to do. GRANT BILLY! WAIT! Billy SHOUTS BACK, an excited-terrified grin on his face. BILLY I CAN GET HIM! GRANT NO! BILLY I KNOW THE CONSEQUENCES! Billy jumps off the railing and DROPS TOWARDS THE CANYON BELOW. Grant, Paul and Amanda watch as Billy FALLS past them like a stone, plummeting towards certain death. But then -- THE PARASAIL CHUTE blossoms above him. Not only does it slows Billy's descent, but he even manages to catch an updraft and begin to rise. He struggles to control the parasail, swooping dangerously close to the canyon wall, barely avoiding it. Up ahead he catches sight of Eric and steers towards him.77-80 OMIT 77-8081 EXT. PTERANODON NEST - DAY 81 Eric struggles to keep away from the hatchlings. But there's no way out of this nest. Billy SWOOPS overhead, but he's too high to reach Eric. BILLY ERIC! HOLD ON! He circles around to make another attempt.82 EXT. ENCLOSED CATWAY - DAY 82 Paul rounds the corner and finally catches sight of Eric in the nest, some fifty feet below, fighting off the hatchlings. PAUL Hang on, Eric! Paul sees an outcropping he could jump onto from here. It's a big leap, though, he might not make it. He steels himself up for the jump, then chickens out. Grant and Amanda come up behind him. Suddenly, A SECOND PTERANODON CRASH LANDS on the catwalk enclosure about them -- right next to a gaping hole in the mesh. The catwalk GROANS with the extra weight. The pteranodon JAMS its head through the hole, SNAPPING at them.83 EXT. CANYON - IN THE AIR - DAY 83 Billy circles, making his approach. In the nest, Eric kicks at the hatchlings, but they're undeterred. Billy and Eric will only have one chance. As Billy swoops past, Eric jumps and grabs onto his boot. He is yanked up and out of the nest. But than, MOTHER PTERANODON shoots past, tearing out a piece of the parasail in its beak.84-85 OMIT 84-8586 EXT. OVER THE RIVER - DAY 86 The pteranodon who landed on the top of the catwalk continues to SNAP through the hole in the enclosure. Finally the reptile's massive weight proves to much, and the entire section of the catwalk BREAKS FREE of the canyon wall and FLIPS OVER LATERALLY. Amanda, Grant and Paul are able to hang on, but so is the pteranodon, who now climbs their way.87 OMIT 8788 EXT. OVER THE RIVER - DAY 88 His parasail badly damaged, Billy tries to keep aloft. Heading as low as he dares, he yells to Eric -- BILLY Let go! Terrified, Eric falls into the river safely. He surfaces, immediately swimming to shore. Trying to gain altitude, Billy bends hard to the right. But the rigging is too badly damaged. He flies right into the canyon wall, hitting hard. Instead of tumbling down to the river, he finds himself swinging from his harness - the parasail snagged on a rock spire above him.89 EXT. BROKEN CATWALK - DAY 89 Paul, Grant and Amanda struggle to stay away from the pteranodon as it moves towards them. Suddenly. the far end of this inverted section of catwalk detaches from the canyon wall and SWINGS DOWNWARD. The force of the action sends the three tumbling directly towards the pteranodon. Miraculously, they manage to avoid its open beak. But they are all sent plummeting toward the river below.90 EXT. RIVER - DAY 90 They hit the water hard, resurfacing moments later. The current is carrying them downstream.91 EXT. CANYON WALL - DAY 91 The two pteranodons who were pursuing Billy now land on nearby ledges and consider how best to dispatch their prey. Billy frantically tries to unhook his harness, but the tension is so tight from his own weight that he can't loosen the buckles.92-93 OMIT 92-9394 EXT. RIVER BANK - DAY 94 Paul and Amanda emerge from the water by the canyon wall and find their son hiding behind a rock, searching the skies for Billy. Amanda takes Eric tightly in her arms, and Paul urges them to keep moving. Up ahead, the mesh of the aviary meets the river. Wading the shore, Grant now scans the canyon, searching for Billy. It doesn't take long to spot him.95 EXT. CANYON WALLL - DAY 95 Billy continues to struggle with the harness but to no avail. The doomed young man is suspended high up on the canyon wall like a modern Prometheus, an entire FLOCK of pteranodons gathering around him preparing to peck away his liver. And everything else. A MAMMOTH PTERANADON has landed beside him and looks him straight in the eye. The gigantic creature lunges at him. Billy dodges away as best he can. The pteranodon's frustrated bite severs a crucial juncture on Billy's harness, and Billy is able to wriggle free.96 EXT. RIVER BANK - DAY 96 Eric, Amanda, Paul and Grant watch in amazement as Billy is the last to PLUNGE DOWN into the river. GRANT He made it! Billy bobs to the surface and spots the group downstream. He waves and begins to swim towards them. Soon he nears the shore and gets to his feet, wading as he comes. Grant, Paul, Amanda and Eric hurry to meet him. Grant is overjoyed to see him alive. But his smile quickly fades as he sees THE ENTIRE FLOCK OF PTERANODONS diving down from above in angry pursuit of their lost prey. GRANT (CONT'D) Billy, look out! Billy glances behind him. He races forward, motioning fro his companions to turn around. BILLY Get back! Get back! Just then Billy is knocked down by the lead pteranodon. It strikes from behind with a brutal, calculated beak to the head. Billy stumbles and falls to the ground. Grant rushes forward with Paul right after him. Amanda takes Eric to safety down river. Billy SCREAMS as the ENTIRE FLOCK of pteranodons now swarms around him, picking him apart with their beaks and claws. GRANT Billy! PAUL It's no use, Dr. Grant. No use. Grant can't take his eyes off Billy, whose BLOOD stains the water rushing by. And now several pteranodons are heading their way. Difficult as it is to leave Billy behind, Grant and Paul make a run for it. Just as the pteranodons are about to swoop in for the kill, Alan and Paul dive back into the river...97 EXT. THE RIVER - CONTINUOUS DAY 97 ...and resurfaces on the far side of the mesh aviary wall, GASPING for air. Just behind them, the mammoth PTERANODON CRASHES into the mesh. It tears at the steel, actually ripping it in one place. At the dock up ahead, Amanda and Eric have found a rusty, waterlogged barge that's somehow still floating. Carrying a tarp-covered cage, the boat was meant for transporting dinos up and down the river. Amanda pushes them away from the dock as Alan and Paul climb on board.98 EXT. ON THE BARGE - CONTINUOUS DAY 98 The current takes the craft downstream, letting us get our first good look at the incredible AVIARY. It's a vast, domed mesh structure that spans the entire canyon. In all, a feat of remarkable engineering and unmistakable hubris. Catching their breath, our four survivors look at the cage they were caught in.99 EXT. DOWN RIVER - DAY / LATER 99 Yanking the starter rope one final time, Paul finally gets the engine to turn over, PUTTERING along. Amanda is beside him, bailing water. PAUL My own kid was right in front of me and I didn't do a damn thing. AMANDA You couldn't have made that jump. PAUL I should have tried. It should have been me on that beach back there, not Billy. AMANDA How would you have helped Eric? (he can't answer) He needs you, Paul. He needs us. PAUL He could have died. AMANDA But he didn't. And neither did you. And I'm glad about that.99A UP ON THE BOW 99A Grant is beside Eric, keeping watch, but also feeling the weight of Billy's death. ERIC Do you have any kids? GRANT No. Although I've studied them in the wild. Eric looks over, not sure what that means. GRANT (CON'T) I have a theory that there's two kinds of boys. Those who want to be astronomers and those who want to be astronauts. ERIC I want to be an astronaut. GRANT See, I was the opposite. I never understood why anyone would want to go into space. It's so dangerous. You do one thing wrong and you're dead. The astronomer -- or the paleontologist -- get to study these amazing things from a place of complete safety. And truthfully, everything you really need to learn, you can learn it from the ground. ERIC But then you never get to go in space. GRANT Exactly. The difference between imagining how things might be and seeing how they really are. To be able to touch them. That's what Billy wanted to do. The barge starts to round a bend. On the bow, Grant and Eric are the fist to see something remarkable. Eric GASPS, unprepared. We don't know yet what they see. GRANT (cont'd) I can blame the people who made this island. But I can't blame the people who want to see it. To study it. At the rear of the barge, Paul just now sees what's ahead. Awe- struck, he slows the motor and motions for Amanda to take a look. And so do we. UP AHEAD The setting sun illuminates an incredible valley filled with dinosaurs. We see armored ANKYLOSAURS with clubbed tails. Duck-billed CORYTHOSAURS. We float under the gigantic, arching necks of eighty-foot BRACHIOSAURS. With the mist from the river and the play of light, we're witnessing a kind of primal Eden. GRANT (cont'd) How's a boy suppose to resist this?100 EXT. FURTHER DOWNSTREAM - NIGHT 100 A FULL MOON passes behind clouds. THUNDER quietly rumbles, and LIGHTNING flickers in the distance. Paul is still at the wheel. The river is narrower here, and cautions must be taken to avoid the banks. As the barge begins to round another bend. a FAMILIAR HIGH- PITCHED SOUND pierces the darkness. Muffled but unmistakable, it is the RINGING SAT-PHONE. All exchange looks of sheer PANIC, expecting Spinosaurus to leap out at any moment. Grant scans the river banks. GRANT Keep quiet. Paul cuts the motor, and time seems to stop as the four stand posed for action. The barge finishes rounding the curve, and the ringing grows LOUDER. The suspense is excruciating until finally... Their eyes widen at some horrifying sight, more horrifying than anything they've yet seen. SEVEN MOUNDS OF DINOSAUR DUNG sit on the patch off treeless flat ground just beyond the river bank. As our friends consider the sight, an idea comes to them all of them almost simultaneously. With Eric still in the boat, Amanda, Paul, and Alan jump into the river and rush to the bank.101 EXT. RIVER BANK - CONTINUOUS - NIGHT 101 The three companions sprint towards the source of the RINGING. GRANT Find it before it stops ringing! And bracing themselves and hocking their breath, they PLUNGE their arms into their respective dung-heaps. After a few moments of this disgusting search... PAUL I've got something. I think I've got something! All turn to Paul. Clearing away the clinging defecation, he holds up to a beeper. And still the phone RINGS. Returning to their bleak task, they shovel the excrement with their arms. Finally: AMANDA I've got it! I've got it! Grant snatches the RINGING SAT-PHONE from Amanda's hands, presses a button, and puts it to his ear. RECORDED VOICE (ON PHONE) You too can own a time share in beautiful Guadalajara. Enjoy a meal in one of our four star restaurants, explore our coral reefs, or just walk on the beach... The Kirby’s hear the recorded voice and let out a collective, heavy sigh. Grant shuts off the phone. In all the excitement, none of them notice a fierce horned CARNOTAUR right behind them. The giant creature ROARS, ready to eat them. But as it gets in close, it smells them. Even a dinosaur won't eat something that is covered in shit. After a beat, the Carnotaur turns and walks away, back into the jungle. PAUL Can't help but be a little offended.102 EXT. BACK ON THE BARGE - NIGHT 102 CLOSE ON the cleaned satellite phone's display. The battery level indicator is FLASHING. PAUL Whatever you do, don't call the U.S. Embassy. They won't do a God Damn thing. GRANT Well, we don't exactly have a Costa Rican phone book here, so it will have to be somebody we know in the states. Someone we can absolutely count on to send help. PAUL (to Amanda) Stan. AMANDA I wouldn't trust Stan with a snowball in a blizzard. Paul glares at her. Now Eric notices something odd in the river. ERIC What's that? The others look down in the murky water. Just below the surface, A SHIMMERING WAVE OF SILVER passes beneath the boat. Then a SINGLE FISH jumps from the water. And another. And another. GRANT Bonitas. ERIC Something must've scared them. Another roll of THUNDER, this time much closer. GRANT Get the motor going. Paul moves the motor and pulls the start cord. The engine sputters but won't come to life. And now the phone BEEPS. The battery is getting even weaker. Grant makes a quick decision and DIALS. AMANDA Who are you calling? But Grant ignores the question. RING. RING. GRANT Pick up! Pick up!103 INT. ELLIE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT 103 Wearing his jammies, three-year old Charlie awkwardly picks up the phone with both hands. He has the mouthpiece next to his lips, but the earpiece is hanging out in space. CHARLIE Hewwo? INTERCUT Recognizing who it must be... GRANT Charlie? Charlie. Get your mother. Right away! A long silence. Charlie bites his lip, looks around. GRANT (CONT'D) Charlie? Are you there? CHARLIE Hewwo? The sat-phone BEEPS again, this time much LOUDER. Amanda and Eric watch Grant, realizing their fate may hang on this single call. Paul struggles without success to start the motor. Then, unseen by the group, a GIGANTIC FIN rises from the water just fifty yards from the barge. It's headed right to them and closing fast. GRANT (desperate) Charlie! It's the dinosaur man! Go get mommy, okay? CHARLIE Okay. Not sure what to do with the phone, Charlie makes a logical choice and hangs it back up. He walks away to his mom.104 EXT. BARGE - NIGHT [END INTERCUTTING] 104 Grant realizes he's been cut off. He's about to redial when WHAM! The barge is RAMMED, sending everyone tumbling. Grant manages to stay on top of the wheelhouse, but he loses grip on the phone, which falls on deck. SPINOSAURUS rises from the water, towering over the barge. As lightning FLASHES and thunder CRACKS, the dinosaur lets out an ear- splitting ROAR. It lunges at Grant with gaping jaws. Grant leaps out of the way just in time as the dinosaur RIPS OFF the entire wheelhouse. CUT TO:105 INT. ELLIE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT 105 Charlie leads Ellie into the room. Hands her the phone. Of course, it's just a DIAL TONE. ELLIE Was somebody on the phone? CHARLIE Dinosaur man. Ellie looks at him with confusion, then quickly checks the Caller ID box besides the phone. It's international, and not a number she recognizes. BACK TO:106 EXT. THE BARGE - NIGHT 106 Grant stays one step ahead of the Spinosaurus as the beast rips apart the quickly-sinking boat. It spits out the wheelhouse and bites down on the stern of the boat, ripping off a chunk. Grant is heading up to the other three when he hears the sat- phone RING. He spots it, just about to fall into the water. Dives for it, answering... GRANT ELLIE!106A INT. ELLIES LIVING ROOM - NIGHT 106A ELLIE Alan? She can hear the Spinosaurus ROAR. ELLIE (CONT'D) Alan? Alan! But he's cut off by a SECOND ROAR, the sound of someone SCREAMING. And then the line goes dead. Ellie pales. Charlie looks at her with a smile. CHARLIE (imitating) Raaaar!106B EXT. BACK ON THE BARGE - NIGHT 106B Dropping the dead phone, Grant scrambles towards the front of the boat and joins Paul, Amanda and Eric, who have taken refuge in the dinosaur cage. The fearsome beast now lifts the stern of the boat clear out of the water. The cage SCRAPES across the deck and SLAMS into the gunwale, toppling off the barge and INTO THE RIVER. Grant and the Kirby’s are still inside.107 EXT. THE RIVER - UNDERWATER - NIGHT 107 The cage sinks. The closest to the door, Paul manages to get out. The other three aren't as lucky. The cage rotates as it descends and lands on the river bottom with the door side down, trapping them inside. In the cold murky depths, they pull frantically on the bars. Debris and equipment float around them. Paul surfaces out of the breath and disoriented. Spinosaurus pushes past the boat. If anyone is going to save his family, it has to be him. And so he dives. Pushing with all his might, he manages to tip the heavy structure, just enough so Amanda, Eric and Grant can get out. Paul himself isn't so lucky. Spinosaurus grabs the cage and Paul, throwing both straight up out of the water. Paul flies twenty feet away, further from the shore. AMANDA PAUL! ERIC DAD! Spinosaurus is going after the heroic Mr. Kirby, who dives, swimming underwater. He's trying to lead it away from his family. GRANT (looking around) Up! Up! He points to a heavy crane assembly, designed for lifting cages off the large boats. Now well accustomed to fleeing on command, Amanda sends Eric up first, climbing the scaffolding like a jungle gym. All the while, they're trying to spot Paul. Grant is the last to climb, reaching the first section as Spinosaurus returns from the water, SLAMMING into the base of the crane. The whole assembly SHUDDERS, threatening to rip into the water. ERIC Where's Dad? AMANDA Just hold on. Try as it might, the beast can't climb the crane. So instead it RAMS it, SHAKES it, trying to knock them off. Eric slips, but Amanda catches him. About to shed his bag to climb higher, Grant finds one last hope. It's the resonation chamber model. A beat before he decides: It may not be the best choice, but it's the only choice. He blows through it, the same EERIE PITCH we heard before. On the third try, he's able to approximate the "egg" cry he heard the raptors give. He keeps it up, repeating over and over. Spinosaurus stops for a beat, confused How this sound could be coming from a non-raptor. But then keeps SMASHING. We can hear the mounting bolts STRAIN. Soon the whole crane will tip. But not before a MATCHING CRY is heard in the jungle. Grant stops, not certain he heard it. But there it is AGAIN. He keeps blowing. The crane is close to tipping when a single RAPTOR appears from the darkness, CHIRP-BARKING at the Spinosaur, who simply bats away. But then MORE RAPTORS come. And even MORE. Soon there are dozens gathering, circling. Grant stops signaling. All three survivors watch with horrified fascination, knowing their fate is perilous no matter which side wins. Looking at his adversaries, Spinosaurus ROARS. And suddenly the raptors attack. Spinosaurus easily handles the first few, but like ants they just keep coming. They climb up his back, slicing, into him with their razor-sharp claws. GRANT Jump! Swim for the far shore! All three drop from the crane arm into the water. Meanwhile, the fight continues. Spinosaurus rallies, shaking off many of the raptors, but they just keep coming. Their hooked claws dig in, scraping the meat to the bone. Spinosaurus puts up a brave fight to the end, but finally collapses, dead. The raptors continue to shred it to ribbons. Then one of the raptors looks over to see the survivors swimming away. But a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. It goes back to its meal.107A EXT. FAR SHORE - NIGHT 107A Grant is trying to move them along. still headed downstream. But Eric won't budge another foot. ERIC We have to keep looking for Dad. We have to. AMANDA I know. I know. I want to look for him too. ERIC then we should... She kneels down, facing him. She's just as upset as he is, but motherhood carries the burden of remaining calm. AMANDA Let me tell you a few things about you Dad, okay? He's very very very clever, very very brave, and he loves you ever very much. ERIC He loves you too. AMANDA Okay. He loves us very very much. And I know that right now more than anything, your Dad would want to know that we're safe. Okay? Eric nods. AMANDA (CONT'D) We're going to get out of this, and everything's going to be all right, I promise. A VOICE Listen to your mother. Out of the darkness steps Paul Kirby. Amanda is knocked over with surprise. Eric runs to him, nearly tackling him. PAUL Good thing I've been swimming, huh? Amanda hugs him and Eric so tightly they can't breath. CROSSFADE TO:108-109 OMIT 108-109110 EXT. BEACH - DAY 110 The foursome sit back on the wide beach, one facing each direction, keeping watch. A light rain is falling, but they don't seem to notice. Trying to keep his boy's spirit up... PAUL You remember when we went fishing last summer? And I was trying to put the boat in and the trailer sank? And then the tow truck came and tried to pull it out, but it got dragged in? And the truck driver threatened to knock your Dad's lights out? So I said I was the governor and he believed me? Eric really smiles, remembering the day. ERIC Yeah. Amanda is smiling too. She had completely forgotten the incident. PAUL That was a fun day. To Paul, after some consideration.... AMANDA We should try fishing again. PAUL You mean it? AMANDA I do. It's worth another shot. And who knows? Things might turn out differently. Her hand takes his, gently brushing off the wet sand, fingertips touching. It's a small thing, but it's a start. Sensing his cue to leave, Grant gets up and starts walking down the beach. Eric hurries to follow him. He speaks conspiratorially, not wanting to alarm his parents. ERIC The lady you called, how do you know she can help us? GRANT She's the one person I could always count on. And she's saved me more times than she realizes. I owe her everything. A long beat as they walk. GRANT (CONT'D) It's strikes me now I never told her that. ERIC You should. GRANT You're right. As they keep walking, Grant notices something rammed against the rocks ahead. It's a speedboat, its hull ripped open from the impact. And it's not just any boat either -- it's the same Dino-Soar boat that was pulling the parasail. Eric hasn’t seen it yet, so Grant stops him. GRANT (CONT'D) Eric, do you know what happened to the boat? that brought you here? Why did it crash? ERIC No. I couldn't see. GRANT Do me a favor. Go back to your parents for a minute, would you? (pre-empting objections) They look worried. Eric nods and heads back to Paul and Amanda. Grant forges on, approaching the speedboat wreckage. He doesn't know what he'll find, but he needs to look. Almost reaching his parents, Eric stops. Looks out over the ocean, where he sees TWO LIGHTS. He doesn't say anything for a moment, trying to make sure they're real. They are. And they're coming closer. ERIC (excited) Mom! Dad! They look up to see the distant lights, just now making out full forms... PAUL Helicopters. Helicopters! He SHOUTS with joy. Paul, Amanda and Eric wave their arms, making as much motion as possible. The helicopters -- big military choppers -- change direction, heading straight for them. Paul and Amanda embrace, then kiss, the moment getting the best of them AT THE SPEEDBOAT Grant looks in, prepared to see anything in the wreckage. But the cabin is surprisingly intact, just a little blood. There are three gashes on the driver's seat back. Grant measures their spacing with his fingers. ERIC (yelling over) Dr. Grant! Helicopters are coming! Grant looks down to the wet sand around him, finding a trail of three-toed tracks. ERIC (CONT'D) We're safe! GRANT (to himself) No we're not. THE FIRST CHOPPER. flies right overhead. Paul and Amanda are confused, until the second helicopter starts to land -- the first on is there to cover them. Grant YELLS at the first chopper, trying to wave it away. But the noise of the blades is DEAFENDING. GRANT (CONT'D) NO! STAY BACK! THEY'RE IN THE TREES! At the treeline, the upper branches are shaking. At first, it looks like it's just the wind off the chopper, but something more is happening. A PTERANODON flies up out of the trees, the first of twenty. It's a gorgeous and terrifying sight.110A INT. FIRST CHOPPER - DAWN 110A Terrified, the Costa Rican CHOPPER PILOT veers away, but the pteranodons are already on him. They SMASH at the windows, grabbing on the skids, The chopper rolls wildly. One over-eager pteranodon sticks his head up to high, getting decapitated by the blade.110B EXT. BEACH - DAWN 110B As the second chopper touches down on the beach, Eric, Amanda and Paul load in. Grant is running their way.110C EXT. BY THE TREES - DAWN 110C Meanwhile, the first copper is losing the battle even as it climbs higher. The helicopter suddenly tips, falling, SMASHING into the trees with a massive fireball.110D INT. SECOND CHOPPER - DAWN 110D Seeing the explosion, the SECOND CHOPPER PILOT takes off. Eric, Amanda and Paul are on board, but Grant is still running up. The helicopter passes right over him. AMANDA (to the pilot) You have to go back! We can't leave him! Seeing a ladder release by the door, Paul throws the lever. A cord- and-steel-ladder unfurls, dragging across the sand.110E EXT. THE BEACH - DAWN 110E Grant chases after us, catching a rung just as it goes over the water. Behind him, pteranodons are circling the wreckage of the first chopper and starting to go after the second. Buffeted by the wind, Grant climbs the ladder up towards the chopper. A pteranodon flies up right behind him, trying to bite. It catches Grant's shoulder. Grant spins to the far side of the ladder. The pteranodon goes to bite him again, but finds it head caught between the rungs. As it tries to free itself, it just gets more entangled. The entire ladder starts to lift, caught by the updraft from the creature’s wings.110F INT. SECOND CHOPPER - DAWN 110F Up with the pilot, Amanda sees the other pteranodons are headed back to the island, unable to keep up. AMANDA They're not following. In back, Paul and Eric get the ladder mechanism to begin to retract. It reels Grant in faster. It also reels in the pteranodon, which may be caught, but is still plenty dangerous. As Grant reaches the cabin, they shut off the ladder engine. The pteranodon is still working its way free, pulling itself closer and closer. GRANT (shouting over the noise) We have to cut it! Find something sharp! Everyone checking the cabin for a knife, anything sharp. Finally, Eric hands Grant the raptor claw. Grant uses it to rip the line. The fibers break and fray, but the pteranodon keeps coming closer. Paul throws a wrench at the pteranodon, WHACKING it straight in the head. It felt good, and damn if it didn't slow it down a little. Grant has cut through the cord. He started on the second when the pteranodon SNAPS at him, going for his hand. There's nowhere for Grant to cut without the pteranodon getting him. And idea, Grant very deliberately places in his hand on the line, pulling away at the last moment. The pteranodon itself bites through the line.110G EXT. OCEAN - DAWN 110G The pteranodon falls away from the helicopter, catching wind just before it hits the water. It circles and flies back to Isla Sorna. As horrifying as the creature was a moment ago, it's suddenly beautiful again. Each motion of its giant wings is a small symphony.110H INT. COPPER / FLYING - DAWN 110H Sitting between his parents, Eric looks back at the island in the distance. ERIC What do you think is going to happen with the dinosaurs? GRANT The population will Stabilize eventually. They'll adapt to fit different roles. ON PAUL AND AMANDA PAUL Either that, or the government will firebomb it back to the Stone Age. AMANDA I would completely support that. ON ERIC AND GRANT looking back at the island. ERIC I hope they don't. I want to come back someday. And Dr. Grant realizes... GRANT So do I.EXT. OCEAN – DAWNThe helicopter flies away across the ocean, leaving the island behind. THE END diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Jurassic Park.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jurassic Park.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ed317e1834914f77feda0368075342c70d3c5f9c --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jurassic Park.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +JURASSIC PARK First Draft by MICHAEL CRICHTON Re-write by MARIA SCOTCH MARMO 3/14/92 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------EXTREME CLOSEUP of glowing honey-colored stones. Their shapes ABSTRACTas THE CAMERA EXAMINES air bubbles and crystalline patterns.MOVING UP AND OVER this amber abstraction, the CAMERA FINDS unusualshapes and imperfections caught in the glassy stone: flecks of dirt,hairs, cracks. STILL MOVING. STARBURSTS OF LIGHT ricochet off thedifferent surfaces of the stones.CAMERA TURNS along a creamy stretch of amber. IT TURNS IN DEEPER,abstracting the picture further only to find A TINY BLUR that suddenlyRACKS INTO FOCUS - a bug, a mosquito lodged within an amber tomb. It isfolded on its back.SLOW MOTION as the tip of a fine-pointed drill bores into the ambertoward the trapped bug. Orange flecks fly. The mosquito trembles. Thedrill continues, stopping just before it touches the tiny body.A SHINY PAIR of thin needle-nose pliers reach in the borehole andextricate the mosquito remains. These are dropped on a brightly litglass slide. A conveyor belt starts, and the slide moves along.arriving under a long-lensed microscope.IN MICROSCOPIC PERSPECTIVE, a thin needle pierces the bug and delicatelyremoves a fragment of tissue.PINCERS snare the fragment, dropping it into a narrow tube. The tubeSPINS, faster and faster until it is a BLUR on the screen.THE SCREEN FLOODS with an INFRA-RED LIGHT. Gray, oval shapes rock in aneutral mist. WASH OUT TO:HOT SUN overhead in a BIG SKY -EXT BADLANDS - AFTERNOONLodged in the cracked earth are the partially-exposed fossilized remainsof A VELOCIRAPTER, a carnivorous dinosaur. WIDEN OUT to a SWEEPINGPANORAMA of a dinosaur dig, a major excavation filled with workersshoveling earth and stone, making measurements, taking photographs,scribbling notes, and conferring with each other.The center of all this activity is one man. In a roped-off area thatcircumscribes the exposed bones of the raptor, is DR. ALAN GRANT, headpaleontologist. Good-looking, late 30's, with a think beard.Grant lies on his belly, completely absorbed in a small piece of bone.A GROUP OF TWELVE STUDENTS, notebooks in hand, await his next sentence.CLOSE ON - the tiny bone. Grant's nose touches it.Grant brushes the bone with a toothbrush. Then he decides on a quickerway to clean it. He licks it. Excited by his discovery, he gets to hisfeet and addresses his students, who listen raptly. GRANT Right calcaneus of an adult female raptor. Mild stress fractures. What's this tell me?Students look at each other. A tentative hand. Grant continues. GRANT It tells me that this bone connects to the navicula which we already found articulating to the cuboid.OFFSCREEN, a woman SHOUTS to him. ELLIE (off) Dr. Grant! Dr. Grant!Grant looks up.DR. ELLIE SATTLER, late 20's, sharp-eyed, tough if she wants to be, runslike a gazelle across the arid land. Exuberant, she leaves a trail ofdust behind her.She zips by A STUDENT guarding the cordoned area. He tries to stop her. STUDENT Dr. Sattler! Dr. Grant is thinking!Dr. Grant waves her over enthusiastically with his bone and continues. GRANT So, what can we stay for sure? Stress fractures in the heel ...Uncertain students. Ellie arrives and immediately gets into it. ELLIE She jumps.Grant turns around to her and smiles. She's got it. Other students to- they knew is all along. GRANT Right as rain, Ellie. Now, why did she jump?No answer. Ellie gives it a try. ELLIE A defensive posture against a vicious, blood-thirsty T-Rex? GRANT (nodding) Perhaps. Or maybe to select the smaller, more tender leaves in the higher branches with which to suckle her young?Ellie jumps up. ELLIE I bet is was a mating ritual.Students laugh. One student eyes Grant's self-conscious smile at Ellie. GRANT The science of paleontology can't answer these questions. Novelists and artists who dream a vision of the Jurassic period can attempt these questions with their imaginations. What we scientists can say is considering the mass and kinetic articulation of these bones, this animal had a vertical leap of about twelve feet. Not as entertaining as fiction, but absolutely fact without prejudice.Ellie intrudes again. ELLIE Excuse me, Dr. Grant. But ... fact is, we're late. There's the car.She points. On the horizon, a limousine speeds toward them, leaving adusty wake.Grant sets the rules for his departure, giving instructions individuallyas Ellie pulls him away, carrying their bags. GRANT Jim, you keep making up the plaster batches. Whatever ratio you're using, it's perfect. Nora, no digging after five - when the temperature drops, those bones are just too brittle. Bill, I don't want any tourists walking over my raptor - I don't care if the Governor of Montana is with them, just you guys.Grant and Ellie continue walking. She interrupts his continued barrage. ELLIE You know, if every scientist stuck to his method like you, there would be no body of theory - no quasars, no big bang -Grant stops at the sight of the stopped limo and freezes. GRANT Jesus, a limousine. We're re-entering Hammond's world, that's for sure. (beat) Remind me why we're doing this, Ellie.Ellie is gentle. She's telling him something they've discussed before. ELLIE We're leaving the raptor dig - GRANT - at a critical time - ELLIE - because Gennaro is paying us sixty thousand dollars to observe some resort of Hammond's in Costa Rica. And that's - GRANT - enough money to keep us free of commercial affiliations for two summers. All right, all right. Good.Then, half-kidding with Ellie: GRANT Financial independence for fraternizing with the enemy? (beat) I'll do it.She laughs. But he can't quite leave. He grabs a computer printout GRANT This is all could come up with, Skip?Skip turns the printout right-side up in Grant's hand. Grant smiles. GRANT Wise guy. Let's go, Ellie.Grant and Ellie board the limo amidst many goodbyes from the students.The limo pulls away.EXT HIGH TECH BUILDING - BIOGENETIC CORPORATION HQ - SUNSETA purple sunset irradiates the exterior glass walls of the building.INT BIOGEN HQA peanut flies in the air. Then falls into a big open mouth. THOMP. MOUTH Five hundred thousand is peanuts!He tosses another peanut and misses his open mouth. This is DENNISNEDRY, a 40 year old computer programmer. He's fat, with greasy hairand a permanently wrinkled suit. His slovenly looks are wildly out ofplace on the rich leather sofa where he reclines.Across a gleaming granite coffee table is BILL BAKER, businessman. Asmooth meticulous dresser, Baker is disgusted by Nedry's sloppyappearance and voracious consumption of food and drink.Nedry finishes a coke. Over his shoulder is an impressive skyline view. NEDRY I'm not reneging. I'm re-evaluating.Nedry holds the can of coke upside-down, drains the last drops. NEDRY You think I'm a scumbag, I know.Nedry chuckles, lines up three peanuts on the table. One after theother, he throws them in the air. He gulps down two, misses one. Itskids across the glossy floor.Baker's head involuntarily cocks as he looks disgustedly at Nedry. NEDRY Look pal, you make a career in biogenetic industrial espionage, and you're bound to run across a scumbag or two. Guaranteed! Part of the job description. Look, who's to say, who is the real scumbag? After all, I know what you guys need so bad. I've heard of reverse engineering.As Nedry continues he shovels nuts into his mouth and CHOMPS and SPEAKS. NEDRY Let the other guy put in all the work, all the R and D. You take the finished product, work backwards, breaking it down to reveal its genetic code. Presto! In a few measly months you have know-how that took researchers ten years to determine. You know how much Hammond has invested of his own personal wealth? Over five billion dollars! And if you guys get the jump on his - in no time, the market's wide-open.Nedry starts the LAUGH as he EATS and TALKS. NEDRY But, boy, he's really got his product! Oh yes siree, massive, gargantuan, money- making, never-heard-of-profit-like-that product. It is a sight! Yes, indeedy!Nedry LAUGHS explosively. He begins to choke, COUGHING and GASPING.Baker is repulsed. He stares out the window as the sun sets.Nedry, in true distress, clutches his own throat. He clumsily runstoward Baker, toppling chairs as he goes. Nedry grabs Baker's hand andsqueezes it tightly, imploring Baker for help. Baker coolly shakes hishand loose and shoves Nedry to the floor. Baker looks down at the proneand desperate Nedry. BAKER Scumbag. We have a deal. That deal is not open to renegotiation. Or even re- evaluation.Bakers kneels down next to Nedry, who is beginning to turn blue. BAKER The deal stands. Take it or leave it.Baker glances at his watch. BAKER I'll give you a few minutes to decide.Nedry makes a superhuman effort just to nod his head. Baker nods backand SLAMS his fist into Nedry's solar plexus. It works.Nedry sucks in a huge gulp of air. He sits up, rubbing his belly. AsBaker leaves the room: BAKER Make sure the eggs are on that supply ship. Just make sure!CAMERA LEAVES NEDRY and exits the window. IT SWISHPANS the concretecanyons of Wall Street and enters another office.INT CONSERVATIVE LAW OFFICE - DAYDONALD GENNARO, handsome, meticulously dressed, paces the highlypolished, glassy corner suite. His boss, ROSS, is seated. He's apowerful black man who waves a prosthetic arm. ROSS We can't trust Hammond anymore. He's under too much pressure. There's the EPA, he's behind schedule, and the in- vestors are getting nervous. There have been too many rumors, too many accidents. We can't screw around with this. GENNARO I've asked Hammond to arrange independent site inspections every week for the next three weeks. ROSS What does he say? GENNARO Insists nothing's wrong on the island. ROSS You know him. Do you believe him? GENNARO No, I don't. I spent a lot of time with him five years ago when we raised the capital. And it was a wild ride. He's unpredictable, a dreamer. ROSS Potentially dangerous. We should never have gotten involved. What's our position? GENNARO The firm owns five percent. ROSS General or limited? GENNARO General. ROSS We should have never done that. GENNARO It seemed wise at the time. We all wanted the park to happen. It was in lieu of fees. ROSS In any case, I agree an inspection is overdue. Who are your site experts?Gennaro tosses a list on Ross' desk. He check it out. ROSS Will they tell the truth? GENNARO I think so. That guy Grant's a hotshot in his field, always goes his own way - ROSS - Good. You're making all the arrangements? GENNARO Hammond asked to place the calls himself. I think he wants to pretend the park is not in trouble. That it's just a social invitation, showing off the island. ROSS All right ... Good. But let's be very clear about one thing. I don't know how bad this situation actually is, Donald. But if there's a problem on that island - don't be afraid to screw Hammond and burn Jurassic Park to the ground.Gennaro shakes hands awkwardly with Ross and leaves. Ross paces. Fed-up, he whispers to himself. ROSS Costa Rica, my ass.He whacks his desk globe, sends its spinning.CAMERA MOVES IN on spinning globe as we HEAR the ROTOR BLADES of ahelicopter and DISSOLVE TO:INT/EXT HELICOPTER IN SKY - DAWNOn the helicopter tail is a little blue logo that reads: Isla Nublar.INSIDE, Grant, Ellie and Gennaro are in the right back row. Elliedozes, her head occasionally dropping onto Grant's shoulder, to hisdiscomfort. Gennaro looks at papers, trying not to look through theclear plexi-bubble at their feet. Next to THE PILOT, Nedry chews acandy bar. He offers candy to the back row.Grant loses himself, looking out the window.GRANT'S POV - the aquamarine blue of the ocean. Below the waters thereare the shadows of ample marine life. Dolphins leap in the air.Suddenly the clear scene becomes obscured by clouds.There is turbulence. Ellie wakes, glances at Grant, then out thewindow. There is mist and she absently traces her finger in it, shapinga dinosaur figure. Now land comes into view and for a moment, theisland below them eerily fits right into her doodling. PILOT That's Isla Nublar. Buckle up, the descent is a little hairy.Gennaro cinches his belt tightly and half-shuts his eyes. Nedry takesout a sandwich and cockily loosens his belt. Ellie looks every way. ELLIE This is exciting! GRANT What is, Ellie? Where are we going?Grant looks out his window. The helicopter rushes forward, low to thewater. Ahead, Grant sees the island, rugged and craggy, rising sharply GRANT Looks like Alcatraz.The pilot coughs and rubs his goggles with the back of his hand. PILOT There's bad wind shear on this peak.Grant nods. Gennaro sweats, watching the pilot tighten his own belt.Ellie smiles excitedly as the helicopter starts down. Now, A BLANKETFOG. Grant can't see a thing out his window. Ellie's startled. ELLIE How the hell is he landing this thing?No answer. Grant dimly discerns green branches of pine trees throughthe mist. Some are very close. Ellie's hands grasps her seat cushion. ELLIE This is not fun.Grant looks through the plexi-bubble at his feet. He sees the giantglowing fluorescent cross below. Lights FLASH at corners of the cross. GRANT Relax, Ellie. I'm sure they wouldn't land if it weren't safe.The copter suddenly SHAKES violently. Ellie grabs Grant's hand.Gennaro sits straight up, eyes squeezed shut. GRANT Gennaro? This guy knows what he's doing, Right? Hey, Gennaro? I'm talking to you!Another violent shake. Grant squeezes Ellie's hand back.CLOSEUP - Nedry's hand crushes a packet of crackers.Gennaro is soaked. He opens one eye and looks about, very frightened.He speaks a mantra. GENNARO No problem. Relax, relax.The pilot whispers to himself and corrects slightly. The copter sailssharply the other way. GRANT AND ELLIE Whoa!!!!CLOSE ON - the pilot jerks back the stick.THE COPTER zooms upward. Grant's beverage flips to the ground, poursacross the floor.Nedry's lunch does flying. Sandwich, candy, and cracker crumbs hangsuspended in the air. Now it all FREE-FALLS onto Nedry's lap.Grant and Ellie lean tightly into each other, ELLIE I don't like this feeling ...The pilot swings his gaze, left then right, looking at the pine forest.Trees are close, then far, then close. The helicopter drops rapidly.Ellie and Grant shut their eyes. They brace themselves for the worst.IN AND OUT OF THE MIST, the copter descends. Tail raised high, noselow, for a moment it looks like a strange bug-eyes prehistoric animalbucking in its pen. In a flash, it corrects itself. The copter touchesdown on a heli-pad. The SOUND of the rotors fades and dies.For a second, no one moves. Grant lets out a great sigh of relief.Gennaro mouths a silent prayer. The pilot stretches his fingers.Grant and Ellie self-consciously shake their hands free of each other.Nedry unbuckles and laughs as he brushes off his lap. He turns: NEDRY Just think, Gennaro - (laughs harder) - you gotta agree it's funny! These two, they dig up dinosaurs! It's wonderful, isn't it?Nedry pats Grant on his shoulder. NEDRY Dr. Bones, you're going to love this place.Nedry bursts out laughing again as he heads out the helicopter door.A smile comes across Gennaro's face. As he smiles he motions with hishands he doesn't mean any harm. Grant and Ellie stare at him. PILOT Come on folks. Gotta get back, there's a storm alert.ROTORS TURN. OUTSIDE, a man reaches the copter. He wears a baseballcap over short red hair and he's dressed in phony safari garb. Heshakes Gennaro's hand. This is ED REGIS, 35, head of Public Relations.He throws open the copter door next to Grant. Big, cheerful smile. REGIS Hi! Ed Regis. Real big welcome to Isla Nublar, Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler. Little tough landing here, I know. But you did it! Come on down, we're so happy to have you. Now, watch your step.Ellie and Grant jump into the world of Jurassic Park.EXT LUSH TROPICAL FOREST - MORNINGGrant takes in the beautiful tropical terrain. This place is theopposite of the Badlands. There is elaborate planting everywhere:huge, hairy ferns; exotic, spiked flowers; berries of every color;rushing vines. Peeking through the thick greenery are beautiful birdsand flying squirrels. The strange, prehistoric world impresses Grantand Ellie. Even Nedry and Gennaro take in the vegetal wonder.Then, the SOUND of men working, grunting from exertion. Ahead, Muldoondirects A GROUP OF WORKMEN. Flame-throwers roar and machetes fight backthe abundant foliage. As they attack a new area, Regis waves Muldoonover. Muldoon has a pronounced limp as he walks over to join them. ED REGIS This is Robert Muldoon, great African big game hunter. And he's working for us now. Doing a bang-up job, too.Muldoon rests his rifle by a tree stump and shakes with Grant and Ellie. MULDOON Ed's a little more BS than PR. Mr. Gennaro, nice to have you back.Gennaro nods warmly as Muldoon limps back to work.Regis leads on, taking Gennaro's arm and talking to him like and oldfriend. Nedry lumbers in the middle, alone. At the rear, Grant andEllie study everything they see. Grant calls to Regis but is ignored. GRANT Mr. Regis, what is the nature of this park?Ellie looks behind and sees cramped ferns spring out to capture the paththey just walked on. She nudges Grant, who has seen the same. ELLIE Aggressive growth, huh? GRANT Hammond's trademark.A distinct HOOTING in the distance. Then a loud TRUMPETING. Grant andEllie stop. Nedry doesn't look up. Regis flashes his salesman's smile. REGIS Out animals are greeting you!They pass a crude sign nailed to a tree: Welcome to Jurassic Park.Grant cringes at the sign. Ellie nudges him to loosen up. GRANT I hope this isn't one of those animatronic exhibits in a Jurassic botanical setting. NEDRY Nope.Gennaro wipes his brow. They enter a green tunnel of over-arching palmthat leads to the VISITOR'S CENTER, a modern complex in the distance.Ellie notices a large fence hidden in the brush. She nudges Grant.THEIR POV - CAMERA SLOWLY CLIMBS a fifteen foot high chain-link fence.The needle-spiked top of this fence cuts deep into the brush.This fence is only the prelude.Sprawling massively above and behind it is a thirty foot high fence.Woven throughout the fence's mesh is an intricate system of electricalwire. There is a prominent warning: DANGER! ELECTRIC FENCE: TENTHOUSAND VOLTS - KEEP OFF!CAMERA KEEPS CLIMBING to the top: ominous barbed wire, curled into thehighest growth with coiled razors glistening in the sun.Grant strains to understand. The quickens his steps to catch the others.They reach a clearing with an unfinished brick sidewalk and potted shadetrees waiting for planting. A crosshatching of tiny lizards scamper offthe walk. An empty swimming pool is being filled by A MAN with a pumpertruck. Next to him, WORKERS water the large ferns. REGIS I hope you brought your bathing suits! Doesn't this mist and these plants really create a bonafide prehistoric feeling?Regis points to a low building with glass pyramids on the roof. REGIS There's the Visitor's Center.A CRANE lowers an iron grating on top of one pyramid. An animal TRUMPETS.INT VISITOR'S CENTER - DAYCLOSE ON - the iron security grating as it fits over a glass skylight.Above, MASKED WORKERS weld it on. Sparks fly.Grant stares up at it, thinking. Footsteps echo behind him as Regis,Ellie, Gennaro, and Nedry look around the unfinished building.The Visitor's Center is two stories high, a lot of glass with exposedgirders and supports. It's incomplete: vines swing in the breeze wherethe back wall will go and undressed cables litter the floor. Even so,exhibit areas are in varying stages of completion. Behind, SEVERALSPANISH WORKERS unpack masonry supplies. GRANT Where's Hammond? REGIS Mr. Hammond is dying to see you guys.Grant strides over to an exhibit as Gennaro paces impatiently. GENNARO Hot, hot, hot. Ten billion bucks and the air conditioning sucks.Regis smiles apologetically and pushes open a large window on one of thefinished walls. Giant leaves and vines burst inside.Grant studies an exhibit in progress entitled When Dinosaurs Rules theWorld. This is a large clock that presents millions of years as hoursin a single day. Many brightly colored hours are allocated to thedinosaurs. Man receives the last second of the day. Ellie joins Grant. ELLIE The audicity of man to get here at the last second and think he runs the show.Grant smiles at her inexhaustible enthusiasm. He looks at a paintedmural of a Raptor on one of the walls in the half-completed gift shop.Nedry is at a coke machine, feeding in change. It doesn't work. HeSLAMS his hand against it, and finally, a cup drops down the chute.Upside-down. It pours. Coke splashes Nedry. He curses and exits.THE ROTUNDA - Ellie pulls Grant over to a raised, round display with acatwalk. In this unfinished display, a skeletal T-Rex and a Raptor arelocked in combat. Scaffolding is up around it, and painting suppliesare scattered all around.Regis glances at his watch, looks up, and smiles.At that moment, doors adjacent to the rotunda swing open automatically.A soothing female voice comes out of the public address system. VOICE (ON P.A.) Please come to the theater. In a moment, our film will begin.The voice goes on to give this information in a number of languages.Regis waves everyone into the theater. Nedry doesn't join them. Heclimbs the stairs to the second floor.INT SCREENING ROOM - DAYSmall and plush. Regis sits in the front, full of enthusiasm. Grant andEllie sit further behind. Gennaro stands in the back and smokes.CELESTIAL MUSIC fills the room. Mist covers and curls on the stagefloor. Colored spotlights illuminate the mist in an eerie fashion.overall effect is the touristy Where's NY? high-gloss production.years young, with a glint in his eye and very comfortable with his owneffect. He wears a white linen suit with a red rose in the breastpocket. Like an elder Carl Sagan, he addresses the group. HAMMOND Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to an ancient and mysterious world, a world long before humankind inhabited it with all out remarkable dreams and questions. Enter a world that existed one hundred million years ago. When our changing earth was the abode of magnificent creations. Today, the late twentieth century has witnessed a scientific gold rush of astonishing proportions: the headlong and furious haste to unravel the mystery of genetic engineering has become more than just a subject for science fiction writers.ON GRANT - he whispers to Ellie. GRANT - the furious haste to commercialize genetic engineering.BACK ON HAMMOND - he warms to his subject. HAMMOND Biotechnology promises the greatest revolution in human history. It will outdistance atomic power and computers in its effects on our everyday lives. We'll see square trees for easy lumbering and white trout for super visibility to fisherman. Why it will transform every aspect of human life: out medical care, our food, our health, even our very entertainment.ON GRANT - confirmed in his thinking, he whispers again. GRANT Here we go.BACK ON HAMMOND - he concludes. HAMMOND Nothing will ever be the same again. It's literally going to change the face of our planet as we know it.MUSIC SOARS. Hammond smiles appreciatively, removes his rose. A screendescends behind him. HAMMOND ... Jurassic Park. What we do here is made possible through the miracle of DNA replication, commonly known as cloning. To explain what cloning means, I'm going to need my own clone - John Hammond.Another Hammond appears, projected on the screen beside the real one. 2ND HAMMOND Hi, John! HAMMOND Hi, John.IN THE AUDIENCE - Ellie laughs aloud. Grant, shaking his head, smiles.BACK ON HAMMOND - The original speaks to the clone. HAMMOND Okay John, hold out your finger. 2ND HAMMOND Why? HAMMOND I need some of your genetic material. 2ND HAMMOND Now just a minute here, John. HAMMOND Your genetic material is the same in every cell of your body. You have a hundred billion cells. You won't miss a couple.Hammond holds his rose to the screen the pricks his clone's finger witha thorn. 2ND HAMMOND OW!!! That hurt! Hey, what's -The clone dissolves into a cascade of blood as WE SEE a magnified viewof the bloodstream. ANIMATION begins which illuminates the parts of theblood and its actions. Hammond provides voiceover for the visuals. HAMMOND John, let's look into your blood, the river of life. There's your white cells, exquisitely evolved to clean up bodily wastes. And there's a mighty nucleus, the heart and brain of a cell. This nucleus has an amazing property. It can split in half and reproduce itself. That's how it grows. And then those two can do it again. And again. Making copy after copy of itself.Back to the two Hammond's. Joined by a third, then a fourth, and so onuntil the screen is crammed with Hammond's, elbowing each other for room. NEW HAMMOND'S Hi, I'm John Hammond. Hey, I'm John Hammond. No, I am. I am. HAMMOND Come on, that's enough of this! And I thought to reproduce myself I had to do it the old-fashioned way.New mist fades out this show. The lights go up. Regis applauds. Grantjoins in the laughter with Ellie and Gennaro.Hammond jumps down from the stage and greets Gennaro and Regis. HAMMOND That's all we've got so far. A lot of fun, isn't it, Mr. Gennaro? REGIS You bet!Hammond greets Grant and Ellie warmly. Then Hammond baits Grant. HAMMOND It's been a long time, Alan. I know the preceding was not your sort of enter- tainment. Popular science - GRANT No, I don't mind popular science. I dislike the commercialization of science. It breeds a sloppiness, a disregard for method. HAMMOND Well, I don't disregard method. But think of mutation - which is nothing more than sloppy communication on the cellular level. Think how triumphant mutations have been in natural selection. Oh, but I know what you're saying. It's true that I have never been afraid to make money with science. I've always considered profit to be a measure of success, a barometer of public reaction. GRANT Mr. Hammond, the essential truth of a scientific law has nothing to do with public reaction. Water freezes at thirty-two degrees, whether you pay for it or not.Hammond turns to Gennaro. Gennaro smiles nervously at their clash. HAMMOND Donald, in bringing my old friend, Alan Grant, you've brought an excellent critic to observe the viability of my island and out venture. I look forward to winning you over, Dr. Grant. ELLIE Just what is it you're trying to clone?EXT A SPRAWLING LAWN - DAYOutside, Hammond leads Gennaro, Grant and Ellie. He points out thestaff living quarters, a group of graceful teepees. Next to theirhomes, WORKERS hang laundry and cook on grills.They pass a large Mechanical Building. The generator housed within isvery LOUD. The wind increases, rippling clothes.Suddenly, the SOUND of a speeding jeep. Grant turns.Racing across the rolling green landscape is A RED JEEP. Muldoon is atthe steering wheel. Two kids bounce happily around in the open jeep.They are TIMMY, 9, and LEX, 6, brother and sister. The jeep stops. LEX Grandpa!Hammond looks up, delighted. Arms open. Gennaro pulls him close. GENNARO (incredulous) Mr. Hammond, this is a serious investiga- tion of the island, not a weekend excursion or a social outing. We're talking about the safety of this place!Hammond waves to the children. HAMMOND I'm aware of that. But I built this place for children. You can't investigate it without their reactions. They're what this place is all about.Hammond beams to Grant and Ellie and indicates the running kids. HAMMOND My grandchildren. Genetics were kind. They're more like my ex-wife than me.Lex jumps right into her Grandpa's arms. Timmy shyly walks up andembraces him. Hammond shines. Gennaro holds in his fury.INT HAMMOND'S QUARTERS - DAYHammond ushers his guests into his own richly appointed baronial suite.Ellie looks out a small window at the tee-pees and the contrastinglifestyle below. She then focuses on the high fence, circling theperimeter of Hammond's quarters. Above is a skylight, with metal bars.Grant whispers to her, indicating the obviously modified window frame. GRANT Who makes a windows ... smaller?Timmy smacks him forehead, points to Grant. TIMMY I know you. You wrote my book. Lost World of The Dinosaurs. It's awesome. LEX Timmy's got dinosaurs on the brain. GRANT Don't worry - he'll grow out of it. ELLIE Dr. Grant's embarrassed that his book was so widely successful. He wrote if for graduate students.Hammond smiles intensely. But he's patient. He stands be a huge tablecovered with a sumptuous velvet drape. HAMMOND Although Dr. Grant suspects otherwise, this is not an ill-conceived, half-baked, poorly funded plan that I've headed. This is a plan to which I committed all of my personal resources, literally billions of dollars. And Donald Gennaro here has kindly helped me raise that sum again from wealthy Japanese. They love theme parks. I have recruited pre- eminent scientific minds from hallowed universities and we've taken the time to do things right.Lex peeks under the cloth. Hammond smiles at her and recovers the table. HAMMOND Jurassic Park is the most advanced amusement park in the world. We work with genetics - life's essential building blocks - to create new worlds. I set out to make biological attractions. Living attractions. Attractions so astonishing that they'd capture the imagination of the entire world. GRANT What exactly do you mean ... biological attractions? HAMMOND As you well know, long ago, creatures ten times larger than whales roamed our adolescent Earth. And then mass, mysterious extinction created a time barrier unscalable until ... now.BEAT. GRANT Yes? HAMMOND Dinosaurs. (superbly proud) I've been cloning dinosaurs!CAMERA PUSHES IN on Grant's incredulous face.Hammond whips off the drape, revealing a complex and detailed scalemodel of the entire resort. HAMMOND Ladies and Gentlemen, Jurassic Park. Not a resort, not a scientific conservatory, just a little piece of pre-history that every child in the whole wide world will insist on visiting.Hammond grins with delight. GENNARO At least every rich child.Grant and Ellie come forward to examine the model. The kids crowd in.CAMERA SNORKELS through the model - revealing different enclosures withminiature dinosaurs, moats, fences, roads, a river. HAMMOND Apatosaurs in the lowland. Gallimimus in the grassy plain. Dilophosaurus above the river. The mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex! 238 fabulous creatures so far! TIMMY Real dinosaurs, Grandpa? Don't they want to just kill each other?Hammond excitedly punches a button - colored display grids light up. HAMMOND Timmy, there's electric fences and moats and video surveillance at all times. There are monitors every hundred feet whatever we could plant them on the island. A computer to tabulate it all. ELLIE You created dinosaurs? Who gave you the right to do that? HAMMOND I didn't create them. I found a way to wake them up, to stir them out of their prehistoric slumber. GRANT We don't have the science. There's no source of dinosaur DNA.Hammond's proud, excited face shifts to one that divulges modestly. HAMMOND Yes ... there is.INT HALLWAY, UPPER FLOOR, VISITOR'S CENTER - DAYHammond leads Grant, Ellie, Gennaro, Timmy, and Lex out of an elevatorand down an endless corridor. A WORKMAN ON CRUTCHES passes them.They go through a series of security doors. To get them open, Hammondplaces his palm on a screen before each door. Each time, it lights upwith an x-ray-like image of his hand and each door HISSES open.CLOSEUP - Security x-ray. of Hammond's hand. BEEP. A red line writesthrough the screen. Can't get in. Complaining, under his breath: HAMMOND Glitches.Hammond tries again.INT CONTROL ROOM - DAYThe door HISSES open, revealing an elaborate technology-crammed room.In dim light, clusters of computer consoles and video monitors glow.Nedry sits in a corner at a keyboard with a pile of papers next to him,typing away. JOHN ARNOLD, 45, park supervisor, sits directing theactivities of the park and chain-smoking. There are large windowslooking out to the park, one of which is cracked and being replaced fromthe outside by a TEAM OF WORKMEN.Hammond wears a big smile as he leads in his entourage. He's theringmaster. HAMMOND And this is the right side of my brain. The entire park is safely controlled from here. John Arnold, that genius over there, is the master control operator. (with genuine concern) John, don't smoke so much, you're far too valuable a man to me. ARNOLD Oh, you'd survive just fine without me.Arnold exhales smoke and waves good-naturedly. Nedry stares darkly atHammond, who ignores him. HAMMOND Everything's controlled from here. Remote everything. Cars, feeding programs, medicine dispensers, fecal clean up - and that can be tons in a park like this. We run this place with twenty workers. This computer does it all. And it polices each and every single animal out there. ELLIE (whispers to Grant) Who polices the computer?Hammond points up. Overlooking the control room and the park is araised platform with a huge chair, like a throne in a court. A largevideo screen faces this chair. HAMMOND That's where I will watch the astonished watchers. Okay, let's go.They practically race as a group to keep up with Hammond. The securitydoor seals shit, leaving Nedry and Arnold alone again. NEDRY Thanks for the kind word, Mr. Hammond. ARNOLD Come on, Dennis, he knows your technical contributions have made it all possible. NEDRY Right.BACK ON HALLWAY -Hammond and his group turn off the corridor and reach a door marked:CAUTION: Teratogenic Substances. Timmy backs off, grabs Lex's arm. TIMMY That stuff turns you into a mutant!He contorts his face into strange shapes. As Hammond leads them all inLex pulls on his pocket. HAMMOND Don't mind the signs. They're only legal precautions.Gennaro frowns. The door opens and Lex peeks in. HAMMOND My laboratory, Lex. It will be yours and Timmy's someday.INT AMBER ROOM, LABORATORY - CONTINUING ACTIONGrant and Ellie share a baffled look. Grant stares.Grant's POV - PAN ACROSS a room filled with honey-colored glowing stonesarranged on glass shelves in large pull-out trays. Each stone is taggedand numbered.Grant leans down, studying the stones. He bumps right into Gennaro.Lex jumps excitedly. LEX It's ... gold! TIMMY It's amber. Fossilized tree sap. LEX Grandpa found gold.Grant shushes the kids and looks to Hammond. HAMMOND You're both right. Amber is our gold. The alpha or our alchemic alphabet. The precious course of our genetic material. You already know amber is the fossilized resin of prehistoric tree sap, of course.Grant and Ellie nod impatiently. Hammond sets the scene. HAMMOND Imagine - millions of years ago, tree sap flowing over insects, as it does now as I speak, in thousands of forests and backyard trees everywhere. Imagine that ancient sap trapping a little struggling insect and consuming it in a syrupy death. Millions and millions of years pass and we come along and discover this prehistoric insect. If we're lucky, he's perfectly preserved in a fossil form inside the hardened sap which is now amber. And as we examine more and more amber, we find many perished insects, including among them, biting insects - GRANT Like mosquitos - HAMMOND Like mosquitos, precisely, Dr. Grant. GRANT Mosquitos that sucked the blood of dinosaurs. That's your source of DNA material? My God! It just might work.INT EXTRACTION ROOM, LABORATORYA TECHNICIAN carefully positions a piece of amber under a fine-pointeddrill. With a nod, the technician's goggles drop from his forehead ontohis eyes and he starts up the drill. Hammond yells over the loud WHIRR. HAMMOND The extraction room speaks for itself.CLOSE ON - drillbit boring into the amber. Orange fleck fly. GRANT It does?The technician shuts the drill. Placing his hands into a mounted pairof gloves, he operates an automated pair of needle-nose pliers tocarefully lift out the remains of a mosquito. He drops this bug on aslide and places this slide on a tray full of such slides. LEX That's a million year old mosquito?A conveyor belt starts, carrying this tray on to the NEXT TECHNICIAN.The group follows. This technician puts the first slide under amicroscope. Grant watches on a video monitor as the tech inserts a longneedle into the prehistoric bug. ELLIE Put in a piece of amber, find a mosquito, drill it out. Right? HAMMOND Right. You are witnessing the extraction of tissue from the thorax of this humble insect. If this mosquito has ingested any foreign red blood cells - say it bit a hadrosaur or a stegosaurus or a T-Rex - we will extract those blood cells and obtain paleo-DNA, the how-to-build instruction book of an extinct creature. So you see, Ellie, I'm not creating dino- saurs. Fossils left behind the information, the map of how to bring them back. I'm helping them escape from the confined of time. GRANT But even thousands of mosquitos wouldn't give you enough tissue to determine a complete DNA strand. HAMMOND Right you are, Dr. Grant! More like hundreds of thousands of mosquitos are necessary to provide even a partial strand of DNA. And without a complete strand, we don't have a dinosaur.INT GENETICS ROOMA LOUD HUMMING SOUND. Along the walls are rows of waist-high stainlesssteel boxes. In the room's center are two six-foot-high round towers.At a single console, a man studies a monitor.DR. WU, 35, looks up from his study and beams at his guests. He jumpsup and knocks over his cup of coffee. ASSISTANTS clean the area as Wucomes forward and actually hugs Grant, much to Grant's embarrassment. HAMMOND Ah, I knew you two would hit it off! Dr. Grant, this is Dr. Wu, my chief geneticist. WU Finally, you are here! I've been working without the encouragement of my peers for too long. Welcome, welcome!He kisses Ellie, who takes it in stride. Gennaro, We already knows. WU Mr. Hammond never lets me publish and he's interested only in results, not in science. HAMMOND Don't forget to thank me when you pick up your Nobel prize.Hammond and Wu resume the tour. HAMMOND You are standing in the middle of the most powerful genetics factory created since the expulsion from Eden. WU These are Hamachi-Hood automated gene sequencers, those are Cray XMP's, supercomputers that take DNA information and organize it. In this room, we take fragmented or incomplete DNA strands and compare them to other incomplete strands. HAMMOND It's like finding the missing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. WU The computers make several trillion calculations to provide us with a complete DNA strand - the genetic code of an extinct animal.INT INCUBATION ROOM, LABORATORYA vast room bathed in infrared light, filled with long tables. Thefirst tables have rows and rows of centrifuges, each bearing dozens oftest tubes. Wu leads the group. GRANT Okay, you have your "complete" DNA strand. How do you grow it? WU We use unfertilized crocodile ova as our breeding medium. HAMMOND Our primordial soup. GRANT And how do you know what it is you're growing?Wu shrugs. WU Well, we have computer techniques to try and map out finds on an evolutionary basis. But mostly, we just grow it and find out what it is. If it's something we're interested in, and it survives, we keep it.Grant and Ellie share a concerned look. GENNARO And if you're not interested?Wu indicates a cabinet of chemicals with skull-and-crossbone warnings.Timmy regards the poison with excitement.Lex calls from deeper in the room. LEX Come look!Here, plastic eggs lay on the long tables, their pale outlines obscuredby a grey mist that covers the tables. The eggs are all gently rockingas TECHNICIANS roam up and down the aisles.Hammond walks ahead of the group. As Wu speaks, Hammond listens andenjoys it as though he's hearing it for the first time. WU This is the incubation room. We keep the temperature at ninetynine degrees and a relative humidity of one hundred percent. GRANT AND TIMMY Jurassic atmosphere.Timmy smiles at Grant. Hammond winks at Timmy. WU We also run a high oxygen concentration, up to thirty-three percent, so if you feel faint, please tell me right away.Lex feigns a faint, Timmy cracks a small smile. They move forward,waist-deep in the mist. A strange green light emanates from theincubators. Lex is half-consumed by the mist. She mimics the witch. LEX I'm ... melting!Ellie laughs and pulls Lex close. WU Reptile eggs contain large amounts of yolk but no water at all. The embryos must extract water from the surrounding environment. GRANT That's why you create the mist.Wu nods. Hammond just enjoys the scene as Grant and Ellie watch athermal sensor moving from one egg to the next, touching each with aflexible wand, beeping. Lex and Timmy let their hands glide over thesides of the green glowing incubators fully awed by the strange, bigeggs they hold. WU Children, please do not touch! The eggs are permeable to skin oils.Grant that very close to an egg. He sniffs it. GRANT What kind of eggs are these? Are these shells plastic? WU Yes, they are, The embryos are mechanically inserted and then hatched in this room. But we've managed to sufficiently mimic the actual biological process - these creatures rupture the plastic membrane that they're contained in when they're born. Like real births.They reach an endless row of incubators, lined up along the wall,beneath a viewing area like those found in an OB-GYN ward. WU Eggs that are determined viable spend their last couple days in our specially- designed incubators, which help accelerate the pre-natal developmental stages. Which is interesting because we're having a problem with the adult animals -Hammond claps a hand over Wu's mouth and laughs. HAMMOND There's no problem Dr. Wu can't handle. Now who wants to see the real thing?As they exit the CAMERA PANS the misty aisles, studying the eggs.EXT VISITOR'S CENTER - DAYBlue shadows of clouds sweep across an expansive green hill in front ofthe Visitor's Center.Grant and Hammond make their way down below to the loading area for thepark tour. A little ahead is Gennaro and Ellie. Gennaro chatters onwhile Ellie energetically explores the area, looking at the plants. GENNARO ... so naturally, Hammond's going to present everything in the best light. I need to know that this park is safe. ELLIE I'll tell you something that troubles me from the start. The carnivores are all well-fed and kept separated from their natural prey. That'll keep 'em alive, but it won't keep 'em happy. GENNARO How do you mean? ELLIE The carnivores will want to hunt. It's an instinct. And that instinct will have to be satisfied or suppressed.FURTHER UP THE HILL, moving slowly, Hammond eyes the pair suspiciously. HAMMOND Gennaro is putting negative ideas into Ellie's head. He's a naysayer. I have no affection for that type of thinking. GRANT Don't worry. Ellie makes her own judgments.At the base of the hill Timmy and Lex toss a baseball.EXT TOUR START - DAYThe group gathers. TWO ELECTRIC CARS glide to a stop behind them.Regis leans out of the first one. REGIS Hey! Great day for a tour! GENNARO Looks like rain to me. REGIS No! I told the rain-god to hold it off till we got back.The kids pile in next to Regis and explore the high-tech cars. Timmyfinds a a pair of very think, strange-looking goggles with dials on top.Grant, Ellie, and Gennaro climb in the second car. HAMMOND Kids, mind Mr. Regis. He's in charge now.The cars begin to move and pass Hammond. He waves.Gennaro looks back as the cars turn into the brush. Hammond waves. HAMMOND Gennaro, for once in your life, let something really move you.In the cruiser, Gennaro rubs his neck. He turns to Grant. GENNARO Ever get the feeling we're just Hammond's damn guinea pigs? GRANT I like to wait and see.Ellie motions ahead, with excitement and apprehension, to a huge gate.Regis and the kids wave behind to Grant, Ellie and Gennaro.The gate's doors swing open and the cruisers move forward. The kidssqueal out a YA-HOO that floats through the air to Grant. But Grantwears a cautious face, his skeptical eyes scan the landscape.A FANFARE of trumpets and then a pre-recorded voice speaks from aconsole in each cruiser. Video screens display a welcome message. PRE-RECORDED VOICE Welcome to Jurassic Park. You are now entering the lost world of the prehistoric past, a world of mighty creatures long gone from the face of the earth, which you are privileged to see for the first time ...Regis uses his walkie-talkie to contact Grant's cruiser. REGIS (ON WALKIE) That's Richard Kiley. We spared no expense. PRE-RECORDED VOICE We'll begin our tour today with the herbivores ...INT/EXT CRUISERS, FIRST TOUR STOP - DAYBetween massive tree trunks, a spectacular view: storm clouds touchmountaintops. Below, the lagoon ripples in pink crescents. PRE-RECORDED VOICE ... and the grasses are a species of juniper, and samples can be purchased at the gift shop. Now, if everyone will take a look to the right ...All eyes swing that way. Grant doesn't see a thing. Nor do the others.AHEAD, Timmy pulls the binoculars out of the equipment pouch and studiesthe location. Lex grabs the night goggles. Timmy pulls them from her. REGIS Look ... LEX AND TIMMY I don't see anything. Do you see anything? There's nothing there. REGIS Something's out there ...IN THE SECOND CAR, a fly buzzes on Grant's windshield. Grant hangs outhis window almost sniffing the air for some movement. Nothing.SUDDENLY the trees in front of them move! A deep trumpeting SOUND andTWO BRACHIOSAURS rumble away from the side of the road. The groundSHAKES as they walk, their BELLOWING fills the air. Led by Grant, thepassengers rise through the open top of their Land Cruisers, to look upat the dinosaurs far above.DROOPING FROM ABOVE, leaves and little branches shower on Grant. Utteramazement fills Grant's face, then his mouth breaks into a giant smilethen a laugh. He simply can't believe his eyes. His laugh becomesraucous and euphoric. GRANT Ellie! Can you imagine the excavation team seeing this!Behind him, Ellie's whole person is awestruck, immobile. Gennarosquints, straining to make sense of this unbelievable reality.IN THE CAR AHEAD, Lex and Timmy stare open-mouthed. Regis looks at theanimal and then at the group's reverie. He smiles knowingly: he's beenthere, too. He bends and whispers: REGIS Congratulations. You're the first kids in the whole wide world ever to see real dinosaurs.The kids look up at Regis with wonder in their eyes.GRANT CAN'T stop laughing. Still chewing, a brachiosaur cranes down topeer at this laughing man. The brachiosaur's huge head stops inchesaway from Grant. Grant, awestruck, stares and them -CLOSE ON - Grant as his eyes slowly roll back and ... he faints.The dinosaur casually moves away as Ellie comes to Grant's aid. ELLIE Alan? Alan? (sort of delighted) He fainted!Gennaro waves to Regis that all is okay. Grant slowly revives. Helooks back at the brachiosaur, groggily, smiling away. He looks atEllie and their eyes linger on each other longer than usual, sharing alook of serene delight.Gennaro plops back in his seat and ponders the scene before him. Aglazed look fills his face. GENNARO My God, we're going to make a fortune here!CAMERA PUSHES IN on the majestic, gentle beauty of the Brachiosaurs.JUNGLE SOUNDS DOMINATE, growing louder and louder.INT CONTROL ROOM - DAYHammond sits at his throne, happily watching the huge video screen whichdisplays the tour group. He laughs raucously and calls to Arnold. HAMMOND He fainted. I've waited fifteen years to impress that young man. ARNOLD Oh Mr. Hammond, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but Muldoon needs you by the pit. HAMMOND Oh, balls.INT/EXT CRUISERS, SECOND TOUR STOP - DAYThe cruisers come to a stop. In the distance, A HERD OF GALLIMIMUSgraze. They stand on their hind legs to get at high palm trees, thendrop gracefully down on all fours to chew. BABY GALLIMIMUS scamperaround the adults, eating leaves that drop from the larger animals. PRE-RECORDED VOICE ... Gallimimus, known as the ostrich dinosaur for the shape of its shoulders, have a very strong nesting instinct ...Grant doesn't listen. He is simply intoxicated with the pastoral beautyof the gentle, grazing dinosaurs. Suddenly, he looks away with a deepconcern. Ellie looks at him questioningly. GRANT Ellie? What the hell are we going to do with the rest of our lives?Ellie smiles at him, puzzled. ELLIE What to you mean? GRANT Can't you see it, Ellie? We're the ones that are extinct now.INT/EXT CRUISERS, THIRD TOUR STOP - DAY PRE-RECORDED VOICE ... lots more to see in the herbivore section of our park. But as we come alongside out Jurassic jungle river to the left, let's try and catch a glimpse of a very unusual and dangerous carnivore. Look across the river and above ...A lovely mossy clearing. And to the side, bounded just by a thicket ofbushes, a precipitous drop to a tropical river, lush and clear. Theriver runs fast but it is narrow. On the other side is a sharp rise. PRE-RECORDED VOICE And there they are!Standing on that natural pedestal and watching our tour come to a stopare TWO DILOPHOSAURUS, man-sized dinosaurs with gills that hang aroundtheir necks. Grant and Ellie chime in with the pre-recorded voice. ALL THREE Dilophosaurus!Timmy and Lex point enthusiastically. Regis holds them down with agentle but restraining arm. PRE-RECORDED VOICE Dilophosaurus is one of the earliest carnivores. Scientists once thought their jaw muscles were too weak to kill, but now, through the miracle of their cloning, we know Dilophosaurs spit venom, a poison which causes blindness and then unconsciousness.Their distinctive HOOT drifts across the afternoon air. GENNARO Poisonous dinosaurs, there's a liability issue without a lot of precedent.CLOSEUP of the nearly motionless Dilophosaurus. One yawns wide. GRANT (assessing) It's like a Gila monster of a cobra. It's a poison ... ELLIE Spitter!The Spitters bound off as Grant watches, transfixed. A flock of birdsburst from a tree and cross the sky. Trees filter the light. ELLIE Are we dreaming all this?EXT RAPTOR PIT - DAYA big hole in the ground, covered with a think wire mesh. Suddenly, adark claw pushes against the wire web. A SHOWER OF SPARKS. A SCREECHanimals GROWL and SNARL. An animal slams its face into the mesh. SPARKSilluminate a set of RAZOR-SHARP TEETH.Muldoon stands next to the pit, carefully loading an assault rifle.Hammond comes in a hurry. Muldoon sees Hammond and puts down the rifle.He walks to Hammond, talking before he gets there. MULDOON These raptors are too damn dangerous. One of them tunneled out this morning. He ripped a boy's arm off before I could get a bullet in him. HAMMOND A bullet? Muldoon - no! Now what? I have five left? MULDOON John, they're mean as scorpions and smart as chimps. Their little fingers make them natural cage-breakers. We should terminate the raptor program. They're just too smart. Too damn smart. HAMMOND Oh balls. I will not terminate the raptors just because they're behaving normally. They're hunters. Why can't we contain them properly?Hammond starts to walk away. Muldoon follows, he's not finished at all. MULDOON John, remember back in '88, when we started to build the containment devices? We ordered cattle prods, tasers, guns that blow out electric nets. They're all too slow for these guys. If we're going to keep the raptors, I want TOW missiles and laser-guided devices.Hammond laughs warmly. He pats Muldoon on the back. HAMMOND It's just a zoo, Muldoon. A zoo. Figure out a way to contain them. And we'll sit down and have a nice long discussion about raptors - after my guests leave, okay?Hammond walks away. Muldoon stares after him, jingling keys in hishand. Muldoon lumps over to A WORKER. MULDOON Okay! Get a 'dozer, start digging round the pit. We're gonna bury some fence. And wear your rifle when you're working!INT CONTROL ROOM - AFTERNOONHammond enters and crosses to his throne. Hammond swivels to Arnold whoexhales smoke. Nedry looks over, keeps typing. HAMMOND Where are they? Punch 'em up. ARNOLD They'll be by the trike's in a moment. Trike's sick again. HAMMOND How can you say it so matter-of-factly? The trike's. You casually accept it, but I never can. You know what it means when you say "by the trikes"? "By the trike's" means that they're out there by the species: triceratops horridus. It astounds me every time what I've done here. What magic, what alchemy. We turned a piece of a rock into a dinosaur. I will never be complacent about that.Arnold smiles and punches a button. WE HEAR the pre-recorded tour voiceand some chatter of the kids.EAVESDROPPING on the tour IS INTERRUPTED by a radio transmission to thecontrol room. Arnold slides over and shuts off the tour monitoring.The picture on the video screen is now of a cargo boat at a dock. RADIO Hello, John. This is the Anne B at the dock. I'm looking at the storm patterns just south of us. Requesting permission to leave before unloading the last three food containers.Nedry looks up quickly, listening carefully. RADIO Don't want to be stuck here if this chop gets much worse.Hammond reacts with quiet dismay. Nedry quietly gets up. NEDRY Coffee anyone?He's ignored. Arnold defers to Hammond who leans to the microphone. HAMMOND Hello skipper, John Hammond, how are you tonight? I certainly don't want to imperil anyone. But can you give us one more container of food? Then we'll feel comfortable is the storm delays your return. Could you help us out here? Of course, if it looks too choppy just go, but you'd be doing us a big favor. RADIO Well ... we'll do our best, sir. We'll get one more container off. How's that?Hammond thanks him and signs off. Arnold looks at the darkening clouds.INT/EXT CRUISERS, FOURTH TOUR STOP - LATE AFTERNOONThe cars twist through dense vegetation with a GRINDING of gears. Thefirst car comes to a jerky stop.There is a huge TRICERATOPS lying on its side, moving very slowly,breathing laboriously. HARDING, the tall, balding park vet, kneels onthe ground. He peers into the animal's mouth with a large flashlight.Before the second car can stop completely, Grant leaps out, races to thetrike. Regis tries to restrain the kids but they chase Grant and Ellie.Grant joins Harding on the ground. The trike lets out a low MOAN.She's too sick to move. Ellie and Lex squat by the animal. LEX I feel so sorry for her. She's so sick. VET We don't know what's wrong with Freda. Every six weeks she gets like this. REGIS Oh, she'll be up and around in no time. After a big night, I feel the same way.Grant very gently opens the Trike's mouth. GRANT Poor girl. What's the matter? Ellie, look at this.A dark purple tongue droops limply from her mouth. Ellie shines thelight on it, illuminating silvery blisters. Gennaro turns away. ELLIE Microvesicles. Interesting.Grant scratches one of the blisters with his ball-point pen. It oozes.The kids share a grossed-out look. LEX Doesn't she have a mommy and a daddy? HARDING We make these dinosaurs in the lab, sweetheart. But they do form attachments. Freda has a little one that follows her around, thinks Freda's his mom.Grant starts to look around. ELLIE What does she eat? Where does she feed? HARDING Animal this size takes in a minimum of six hundred pounds of plants a day. We truck in hay and meadow grasses seven times a day. That's all she touches.Grant studies the nearby grass and bushes. Timmy quietly follows Grant.Ellie lifts a huge eyelid on the triceratops. A runny eye just stares.Grant comes up triumphantly with a bouquet of weeds clutched in hishand. These weeds have little purple berries. Ellie looks over. ELLIE West Indian Lilacs! GRANT These'd give anybody a stomachache. HARDING I'm telling you, the animals don't eat don't eat that stuff.Regis keeps a babysitter's eye on the kids. Timmy comes up with ahandful of smooth stones. He approaches Grant shyly. TIMMY Dr. Grant, sir? How 'bout these? There's lots of little piles of these?Grant fingers one distractedly, then suddenly comes to attention. GRANT Hey, Ellie take a look at his. Good work, Timmy.Ellie gets up, brushes herself off, comes over and examines the stone. ELLIE Extremely smooth. Purple stains, could be those lilac berries.She and Grant smile and each other and nod. Gennaro is curious. HARDING I don't get it. GRANT Looks like your trike swallows stones to help her digest her food. Walking around, she crushes berries against the stones. And even just a little crushed berry is eventually enough, ELLIE So, she poisons herself periodically. HARDING Bet we tested her saliva for any trace of - GRANT But with the stones, she swallows them and probably bypasses any mucosal contact. Straight to the stomach. I would test her excrement. LEX Yo, yuk!A light RAIN begins. Automatically, with a soft hiss, the glass roofsof the cruisers slide shit. Gennaro taps Regis and indicates the cars. GENNARO Hey Regis, where are your rain gods? It's gonna pour. Let's finish our tour.Grant agrees, heads for the cruisers. He turns and looks for Ellie.Ellie stands by the Trike. She gives Grant a meaningful look. ELLIE I'm staying.Grant smiles at her decision. GRANT Soil samples? ELLIE You read my mind. (confidentially) I think she's sicker then they're saying. Her skin is dry and flaky. And her gums are pale. I'm going to talk to Dr. Wu. GRANT Good idea. I'll keep my eyes open.Gennaro climbs in with Grant. The two cruisers start off and Timmyturns backward to stare wistfully at Grant. Regis and Lex wave to theTrike. Grant looks back to Ellie who has already begun to work.ON TRIKE - a mosquito lands on its back. The trike's tail slaps it dead.INT MACHINE ROOM - LATE AFTERNOONWith difficulty, Nedry shoves his large body down the crawl space behinda large rack of electronic equipment. He stops and uses a suction cupdevice to lift a section of the tiled floor. He gropes among cables andpulls out a small wireless radio. He transmits: NEDRY (INTO RADIO) Jim, what the hell's with you ... I know a storm's coming, I can't ... it's all so tightly planned ... that's not enough ... ok, twenty minutes, I'll be there. Damn!Nedry returns the radio to its hiding place. He sucks in his gut tomake the crawl out of the narrow space.INT/EXT CRUISERS, T-REX FEEDING AREA - DUSKThe cruisers stop on the rise of a hill. They over look a forested area,sloping down to the edge of the lagoon. TOUR The mighty T-Rex arose late in dinosaur history. Dinosaurs ruled the earth for a hundred and twenty million years, but there were tyrannosaurs for only the last fifteen million years of that period ...Farther south, they see the graceful necks of the brachiosaurs standingat the water's edge. Their bodies, mirrored in the moving surface,break apart with the continuing drops of rain. Hear lightning rhythmic-ally pulses the sky. All is quiet except for the soft drone of cicadasand the tapping of light rain.Regis calls Grant on the walkie-talkie. REGIS (TO WALKIE) You know, Dr. Grant, Hammond likes to come here in the evening and just sit. GRANT (OVER WALKIE) Where is the T-Rex? REGIS (TO WALKIE) Good question.ON GRANT - as he takes that in, nodding to himself. Studies the land. GRANT Maybe she's down hunting apatosaurs.OVER WALKIE - Regis laughs, his voice tinny over the radio. REGIS (OVER WALKIE) Would if she could, believe me. Some- times she stands by the lagoon and stares at those animals, and wiggles those little forearms of hers in frustration. But the T-Rex territory is completely enclosed with trenches and fences. Believe me, she can't go anywhere. GRANT Then where is she?They hear A SOFT BLEATING. In the center of the field, a small cagerises into view, lifted on hydraulics from underground. The cage barsslide down. A GOAT remains tethered in the field, BLEATING plaintively.The tour group stares out their windows, expectantly.BACK ON CONTROL ROOM -Hammond, pleased, watches the giant screen that displays the tour group.Muldoon limps into the control room. Arnold looks over. MULDOON Just checking in. Everything ok? HAMMOND Look at them. Leaning out the windows, so eager. They can't wait to see it. They have come for the danger. MULDOON That's what I'm afraid of.Muldoon twirls the keys on his fingers and watches the land cruisers.BACK ON CRUISERS, T-REX FEEDING AREA -Grant watches quietly.The BLEATING becomes louder, more insistent. The goat tugs franticallyat its tether, racing back and forth, kicking. LEX What's going to happen to the goat? Is the T-Rex gonna come eat the goat?Grant senses something. He sits straight up. Looks out intently. GRANT He's here.The goat is tethered in the middle of the field, thirty yards from thenearest tree. Grant scans the tree for the T-Rex.The goat senses something too. It struggles and strains, bleatingfrantically. Suddenly the mechanical SOUND of the cage coming up. Itsbars surround the goat with safety once again. REGIS Looks like the Rex will have its snack a little later today. RECORDED VOICE The sensors don't see the Rex around. She usually comes within five minutes of hearing dinner. If she doesn't, that means she's sleeping - we might have access to her at the picnic area.Lex and Timmy let out a sigh of relief. The tension is gone. LEX I didn't want to see him get eaten. I liked the goat.BACK IN THE CONTROL ROOM -Hammond studies the large video monitor. He watches Grant and Gennaro.Their voices are heard in the control room. GENNARO (MONITORED) What is a carnivore got out? GRANT (MONITORED) There'd be no stopping it. Huge, with no natural enemies, and a suppressed hunting instinct.Hammond glares. Arnold, aware, shuts off the screen. HAMMOND Damn those people. They are so negative. ARNOLD It's natural. They can't fully appreciate that we've engineered the animals and the park for total safety. HAMMOND They comb this island like a bunch of accountants. They don't experience the wonder, the awe of it all. ARNOLD You can't make people experience wonder.Hammond gets up and stands before the big windows overlooking the park.The quartz FLOODLIGHTS outside their area COME ON with a rosy glow andthe dark jungle is opened again to their inspection.At his console, Nedry looks at Hammond. Hammond stares out the window.The RAIN PICKS UP and bounces off the window. Hammond speaks to Arnoldwithout turning. HAMMOND It's like the Garden of Eden out there. This is the most beautiful time of day. ARNOLD Better rout the tour back. They can start again sun-up tomorrow morning. HAMMOND Yup. Call the kitchen. Those kids'll be hungry when they get in.Arnold picks up the phone. STATIC. He glances over at Nedry. NEDRY Sorry 'bout that. I've taken all the lines to upload some data.Hammond's annoyed, but contains it. Arnold looks at Nedry, who smiles. NEDRY I'll clear a couple of lines for you at the end of the next transmission, sir. Here you go now, this will make it all better, Mr. Hammond.Nedry punches in a code.CLOSE ON - Nedry's fat finger punching a last key.CLOSE ON - amber video display terminal as a countdown begins.As the screen counts down from ten to zero, Nedry peers at Hammond witha steely glint in his eyes.BACK ON SCREEN - three, two, one, the countdown hits zero.Nedry's data-filled screen blinks off. Nedry looks up to the rack ofmonitors. Unnoticed by Hammond or Arnold two more monitors go blank.Then a third one.BACK ON CRUISERS, REST AREA - NIGHTThe electric cars turn up into a scenic area high above the rest of thepark. HUGE QUARTZ LIGHTS REVEAL a dramatic view down to the ocean.There the supply ship, the ANNE B, unloads its last crates.RAIN INCREASES. On the other side of the road are picnic tables, anunfinished snack bar and rest rooms. To the side of this rest area is aview of the interior of the island. A guard-rail separates visitorsTo the other side of the rest area is a concrete moat and in the back ofthis is a tall, electrified fence. Surrounding the electric fence is asmaller protective fence. PRE-RECORDED VOICE ... enjoy a healthy snack. This is also a good time to ... LEX Hey, is that bathroom working? REGIS Sure. (he uses his walkie) Rest stop.The kids take off towards the bathroom, running through the rain. Grantgets out of his cruiser, strides to Regis. He indicates the fence. GRANT Is that still the T-Rex paddock? REGIS Yes. But she never comes here. I don't know why not. Probably too much construction.GENNARO, jacket over his head against the rain, looks down to the ocean.GENNARO'S POV - THE ANNE B UNLOADS he last cargo crate.GRANT LOOKS at the concrete moat. Studies its deep curve. He looks upat the tell electrical fence with its 10,000 volt warning. He seesconventional power lines on the opposite side of the road.CAMERA EXAMINES the empty cruisers. Inside, the pre-recorded voice ischatting on. It slows eerily and stops. Video SCREENS BLINK OUT.BACK ON CONTROL ROOM -Nedry yawns loudly. NEDRY Yup! Looks like a never-ending weekend for me. I'm gonna get a Diet Coke. Don't touch my console, ok? Line will be clear in five minutes.Nedry leaves. Hammond swings around and growls under his breath. HAMMOND Slob! ARNOLD Well, at least he knows what he's doing.INT UPPER FLOOR, VISITOR'S CENTER - NIGHTNedry races through the series of security doors. He ignores thesecurity x-ray device and just SHOVES each door open with his hand.BACK ON CRUISERS, REST AREA -THE QUARTZ LIGHTS GO OUT, leaving the group in shadowy darkness and nowSTEADY RAIN. There's a ripple of surprise from the group. Regis roundsthem all up and directs them back into the cruisers. REGIS Everything's just fine. It's a temporary glitch due to the rain. No doubt, they're going to re-rout some circuits back at the mainframe. We'll have the power back on in moments. Let's get back in the cruisers, they may start up, and I'd like us all to be seated in them.The cruisers are STILL. IN THE REAR CRUISER, Gennaro turns to Grant. GENNARO I knew we shouldn't have kids here.A vivid FLASH of LIGHTNING. IN THE FIRST CAR: Lex covers her eyes.Then she looks up at Regis with a frightful face. LEX Mr. Regis, are dinosaurs ... nocturnal? REGIS No, darling, of course not. LEX Mr. Regis? What's ... nocturnal?Another LIGHTNING FLASH. Lex cries. Regis comforts her. REGIS Don't you worry about dinosaurs. They're all very safe in their paddocks just like animals in a big, strong zoo. They're not going anywhere we don't tell them to go.Timmy looks out the window excitedly.INT INCUBATION ROOM, LABORATORY - NIGHTAll those eggs on tables. No moving sensors. Nedry pulls a portableincubator away from the dozens lined up against the wall. Itselectrical cord goes flying. Furiously, Nedry fills the incubator witheggs, one after the other. NEDRY Okay, little ones! Here we go!Nedry grabs the handles of the incubator and runs with it. Theincubator careens on one wheel as he turns the corner and exits.BACK ON CONTROL ROOM -Hammond looks out the large window as the LIGHTS EXTINGUISH. He twirls. HAMMOND What's going on, Arnold? I want those lights on. I don't want my grandchildren scared. ARNOLD Jesus, the computer's gone down. HAMMOND Well, I want the computer up. This is the wrong weekend for glitches.Arnold still examines his console. He looks out with worry. ARNOLD That's not the worst of it. HAMMOND Oh yeah? Please tell me what's worse than the lights going out?Wu smashes through the door. WU All the security doors are open. Someone has been in my laboratory and the eggs have been disturbed.The camera pushes in on Hammond's face. HAMMOND Where the hell is Nedry? Where is he? Did anybody check the damn john?Hammond storms out.INT CORRIDOR, VISITOR'S CENTER - CONTINUING ACTIONHammond enters the hall. Muldoon, racing from the other direction, yells: MULDOON John, the generator's shut down. Who cut the power? HAMMOND Arnold's on it. You go out and bring back the tour right away. I don't need any of this!Muldoon is already running back the way he came.INT GARAGE - NIGHTSeveral electric land cruisers are stored in this shadowy room. Thereis a glassed-in area where Muldoon's weapons are stored: assaultrifles, tasers, tear gas canisters.To the side of the garage s Muldoon's red jeep. In the passenger sideof the front seat is a rocket launcher.Nedry storms in, wheeling his incubator. He stop suddenly and listens.Approaching FOOTSTEPS. NEDRY Oh, shit!INT BASEMENT STAIRS, VISITOR'S CENTER -Muldoon runs down a long corridor, stop with a skid and yanks open thedoor to the garage. He runs out. His boots RESOUND on the concrete.BACK ON - NEDRY'S PANICKED FACE as he listens to the footsteps.Wheezing, with great difficulty, Nedry bends his knees and strains. Witheverything he's got, he lifts the incubator waist-height. And holds it.BACK ON MULDOON - Muldoon's footsteps ECHO as they come closer and closerto the garage. Muldoon whips down the curve in the stairs. His jacketcatches on an incomplete section of banister. Yanks him to a stop.CLOSE ON - Muldoon's jacket as it RIPS, stays caught.BACK ON - NEDRY as he tries to heave higher, can't. Beads a sweat rolldown his brow.MULDOON FREES HIS caught jacket and then keep going.Nedry's face drips with sweat. The incubator slips out of his sweatypalms. Catches it with his knee. Nedry curses and with one forcefulboost, he lifts the incubator shoulder height.CLOSE ON - Muldoon's feet on long stairwell. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.NERVOUS, NEDRY BREATHES in a labored fashion. He looks this way andthat. He closes his eyes and with one superhuman effort, he heaves theincubator into the back seat of the red jeep. Nedry exhales.At that moment, MULDOON ENTERS the vestibule between stairs and garage.NEDRY EYES the shadowy figure in the vestibule. Nedry's frightened face.MULDOON STOPS and reaches in his belt. He pulls out his pistol. Hetakes out long, shiny cartridges. He loads the pistol.NEDRY LEAPS in the front of the jeep, pushing aside the rocket launcher,and zooms into the night.A moment later, Muldoon enters the garage. He sniffs at the exhaustthat still hangs in the air. He looks over and is surprised to see hisjeep gone. He bends and inspects fresh tread marks. He looks up, hisface straining to understand.EXT PARK ROAD - NIGHTNedry's red jeep flies down the park road.CLOSE ON - Nedry's wheel as he turns it.His tires skid sideways, then regain traction. The jeep bolts up asmaller access road. He skids to a stop at the top of the hill.Nedry jumps out and looks up. His high beams illuminate a huge electricfence prominently labeled: DANGER! 10,000 Volts!Two safety fences separate Nedry from the electric fence. He races tothe first one, pulls out a key chain. He tries one key, then another,and another. It fits. Nedry unlocks the gate, swings open the door.Nedry runs to the second gate. He slips in the mud. He slides to theground, dropping keys in a muddy pool.CLOSE ON - Nedry's hand frantically fishing for the key chain in themuddy water. Got them! Unlocks the second gate.He races to the electric fence. RAIN PELTS him now. Water beads on hisface. Lightning flashes on the 10,000 volts warning.He grabs the gate with his bare hand and swings it open.Nedry heads back to his jeep, his fat body strobed by its high beams.He jumps in the jeep and drives through. Behind him, the open gatesmove recklessly in the stormy night.BACK ON GARAGEEllie and Harding pull in, in their own gas-powered jeep. Muldoon iswaiting for them. Now there's a rifle slung over his shoulder. Hardingjumps out of the jeep. MULDOON Get out, get out! I need this jeep. There's a problem with the tour. Ellie, Hammond'll fill you in.Ellie is concerned, then decisive. ELLIE No! I'm going with you, Muldoon.They race out.EXT DOCK - NIGHTHeadlights blazing in the darkness, Nedry's jeep skids to a stop by thedock where the ANNE B is preparing to leave. The water is very choppy.Nedry jumps out and pulls his incubator to the ground. He begins todrag it through the mud, toward the ship. CAPTAIN FARRELL comes to meethim, along with A COUPLE MEN, who hoist the incubator easily and carryit toward the ship. CAPTAIN FARRELL Good. Glad to see you. Were you seen? NEDRY Nah. I'm back in five minutes, they'll never know I was gone. (yells after the men with the incubator) Careful with that thing! It's worth more than the ship. (to the Captain) When's the copter meeting you? CAPTAIN FARRELL It's not. The storm's coast-to-coast, nobody could land on the water. NEDRY (totally panicked) Shit! What's the backup? I don't like this. Maybe we should do it another time, I don't like it. I just don't like - CAPTAIN FARRELL Shhh! I wired Baker, he'll have a man at the dock in Puntaremas. We should be able to make that in time. NEDRY (somewhat relieved) Ten hours? CAPTAIN FARRELL Yeah, now relax. I got a lot riding on this too, you know. No one's going to mess up now. Baker's not going to mess up. His people won't let him. NEDRY Ok. Ok. Here.Nedry pulls an aerosol can out of the baggy crotch of his pants. NEDRY Look, this is insulating spray.CLOSE ON - Nedry sprays a big mound of white foam into his hand, NEDRY In about eight hours, spray down all the eggs with this stuff. It'll keep 'em warm but not too warm. I hope Baker has it together with the dock.BACK ON CRUISERS, REST AREA -Rain drums down on the cruiser. Timmy stares out at the dark. Lexstares nervously out the side window. Timmy picks up the night gogglesand snaps them on. TIMMY Hey, these thing work great. I can see in the dark and I can see far.He swivels away from the T-Rex paddock and looks out toward the ocean.He reaches up and adjusts the knob. TIMMY Hey! I wonder if that boat's still there? It is. I think they're getting ready to go.TIM'S POV - the fluorescent green image of men untying casting lines onthe boat.Another LIGHTNING FLASH and Lex SCREAMS and covers her face. She cries. REGIS Timmy, can you give her the goggles?Lex clamps her hands over her eyes. Timmy gently nudges her. TIMMY Want to look at the boat, Lex?Timmy hands her the night goggles. Lex dries her eyes and takes a peekwith the goggles toward the ocean. LEX Hey, that fat guy's down there. Is he gonna come get us and take us to Grandpa?LEX'S POV - the picture streaks but clearly reveals Nedry shouting atthe Captain. Men heave the incubator onto the ship. LEX They have one of those things from the room with all the eggs - you know, where they help the baby eggs grow up. TIMMY You mean an incubator? GRANT (ON WALKIE) What's the commotion? REGIS Let me see. Give them to men, sweetheart. TIMMY (TO WALKIE) Uh, Dr. Grant?REGIS GRABS the walkie talkie and tries to silence Timmy. He knows hegets there too late and reluctantly lets Timmy have it back. TIMMY We saw that computer guy helping 'em load an incubator onto the ship. LEX (TO WALKIE) Yeah, he's stealing them, Dr. Grant! He's stealing my Grandpa's eggs! GRANT (ON WALKIE) Nedry? With an incubator? Regis?? REGIS (TO WALKIE) (finally acknowledges) That's what they saw.ON GRANT - He looks sharply at Gennaro. GRANT (TO WALKIE) We gotta tell Hammond and Arnold right away. How far is it to the mainland?ON TIMMY - He looks at Regis. REGIS (TO WALKIE) Uh, it's a hundred miles to Puntaremas. About a sixteen hour voyage in this weather.ON GRANT - He fiddles with the radio in his cruiser. No response still. GRANT I wouldn't like to see dinosaurs running around Costa Rica. GENNARO When's the damn power coming on?INT/EXT MULDOON'S JEEP, OTHER BACK ROADSMuldoon and Ellie drive into the storm. Suddenly, he slams on hisbrakes. In front of him, a tree has fallen, completely blocking theroad. Muldoon curses, swerves around, and skids to a stop.As Muldoon gets out and assesses the situation, Ellie lodges herselfbetween the tree and the jeep. She pushes the tree with her strong legsand moves it a good five feet. Quickly, Muldoon and Ellie drag the tree.As they struggle. MULDOON Strong legs. ELLIE Lot of track in college.BACK ON CRUISERS, REST AREA -IN THE FIRST CAR, Regis drums his fingers on the dashboard. Timmy wearshis goggles and stares into the rain. Lex shifts her body around,trying to get comfortable to rest. LEX I'm hungry. When can we get going? REGIS When the electricity comes back on, honey. These cars run on electric cables buried in the road.IN THE SECOND CAR, Grant tries the radio to no avail. Gennaro smokes.Grant looks forward toward the first cruiser. He can barely make outthe car in the dark and rain. Occasionally, LIGHTNING reveals all.TIMMY PULLS GUM out of his pocket. Feels a tiny shake, looks around.He puts it in his mouth, chewing quietly. SUDDENLY, the whole carVIBRATES. Regis' sunglasses jump off the dashboard and fall to thefloor. The kids look at him. REGIS Must be turning on the electricity.Lex sits up, looks around groggily. LEX Feels like a vibration.INT T-REX PADDOCK - NIGHTThe T-Rex's huge hind feet crash down, one large foot following afterthe other in long, powerful strides.BACK ON CRUISERS, REST AREA - FIRST CRUISERThere is a thud, and then a THUD, and then a THUD. Tim and Lex share afrightened look. Now the thud grows LOUDER. There is a CRASHING SOUND,the whole cruiser SHAKES. Then silence. Then another SHAKE.CAMERA PUSHES IN TILL CLOSE - Timmy stares out with his night goggles.TIM'S NIGHTSCOPE POV IN CLOSE - T-Rex paws rest on the electric fence.Tim takes off his goggles, stares, transfixed. Regis picks them up.EXTREME CLOSEUP - of muscular forepaws with pebbled, grainy skin andthick, curved nails comfortably gripping a thick wire strand.The T-Rex moves his body forward of the brush, pushes against the fence.IN THE SECOND CRUISER -Grant and Gennaro stare out, unseeing in the rain and darkness.CLOSE ON LEX -Tears roll down her cheek. She cries silently with an unknown fear.Regis pulls the goggles from his eyes, starts to gag, checks it. REGIS Jesus Christ. LEX Bad language. REGIS Jesus Christ. The fence isn't electrified. LEX Is that bad?Regis turns, looks out the side window, away from the T-Rex.Regis is shaking uncontrollably. Suddenly he throws open his door andbolts off into the rain, leaving the door open. No move from the Rex.Regis races by the second cruiser. Grant stares out at him. TIM Mr. Regis! Mr. Regis, where are you going? LEX He just left us. He just left us all alone. Timmy, Timmy how could he do that? We're all alone! We're all alone!FLASH OF LIGHTNING. FLASH. The Rex butts his head.TIM'S POV - The fence bangs down on top of his cruiser.Timmy and Lex recoil from the scrape of the wire mesh against the car.IN THE SECOND CRUISER -GRANT AND GENNARO'S POV - through the almost obscuring rain they see thefallen fence. An unseen weight pulls on it further, causing itselectric wire to pop like over-tuned guitar strings.TIMMY REACHES -out into the rain for the open door handle.Another LIGHTNING FLASH and the creature is revealed standing betweenthe two cruisers, atop the crushed fence. His head turns back andforth, he's deciding on his prey. Grant and Gennaro or Tim and Lex?Timmy slams the door shut. He looks directly at the Rex, just a fewfeet away. The Rex turns to him, stares back.Lex SCREAMS and Timmy claps a hand over her mouth.There is a whisper over Tim's walkie-talkie. GRANT (ON WALKIE) Timmy, be quiet. Don't move.BACK ON GRANT -He snaps off the walkie-talkie.HIS POV - The rain runs in rivulets down the pebbled skin of themuscular hind legs. The animal's head is out-of-view, above therooftops of the cars. The Rex lifts its huge hind leg. GENNARO Holy shit! Any suggestions what we do now? GRANT Can't think of a thing.The T-Rex slowly circles Grant's cruiser.BACK ON TIM -He watches the beast move.BACK ON GRANT AND GENNARO -As they twist and turn, trying to find a circling Rex in dark and rain.The Rex pauses right next to Gennaro's window. He lowers his head,looking for movement inside.CLOSE ON - the beady, expressionless reptilian eye moving in the socket.Grant whispers, hardly moving his lips. GRANT Don't move.Gennaro's leg trembles uncontrollably.IN THE FIRST CRUISER -Very frightened, Lex discovers a flashlight. She flicks it on and off,distracting herself. The beam shows her eyes full of a quiet panic. LEX It's too, too dark out there.Tim waves his hands in caution.BACK ON GRANT, GENNARO, AND THE REX -The Rex bends down, bumps the windshield with his nose. Just staysthere, breathing heavily. In the distance, the flashlight goes onagain. The Rex raises his head suddenly. Grant grabs his walkie. GRANT (TO THE WALKIE) Shut that flashlight, Tim!As the Rex heads off, a casual swipe of his tail SMASHES the side of thecruiser, throwing Grant and Gennaro across the inside of the car.ON TIM -He lunges for the flashlight. Lex dodges him, keeps it lit. LEX No, it's mine. Please, I need it.Tim looks up through the sun roof. The massive head of theTyrannosaurus Rex appears. Tim watches, transfixed. Lex looks up.Irrational with terror, she aims her flashlight like a gun. Blasts him.Her flashlight beam cuts through the dark and rain - she sees the beastplainly for the first time and SCREAMS!The POOL OF LIGHT bathes the Rex's face. He smashes his head down ontothe Plexiglass bubble. It crunches, and falls into the car, crushingthe children. Tim uses his feet to push it to the side.Above, the Rex displays is gaping maw, drooling toward the opening.GRANT -watches the Rex raise his mighty head again, above the kids' cruiser.TIMMY AND LEX -have a half-instant of relief. Then SLAM. The Rex butts his headagainst the cruiser. The Rex comes back down, tries to discover hisprey inside the cruiser. Pushes his head close to the glass, looking.The dinosaur stands in front of the cruiser, his whole chest heaving,his forelimbs pawing the air.Timmy whispers to Lex. TIMMY Are you ok? Be quiet and don't move.Lex barely nods and grabs Timmy's hand.The Tyrannosaur places his head next to the car. He begins to shove thecruiser with his head. The cruiser ROCKS. The back window bursts,shards go flying.Inside, the kids are THROWN back and forth, SHOVED against each other,and finally FLUNG against the top of the car as the cruiser FLIPS.The whole world TILTS CRAZILY - trunks of palm trees slide by, theground above, the blazing eye of the rex, the tops of palm trees.The cruiser SLAMS DOWN on its side, the windows splat in the mud. Lexfalls helplessly against the side window and lies motionless. Timmyfalls beside her, banging his head. He reaches for Lex. TIMMY (softly) Lex? Lex?SILENCE. No movement from Lex.THE ANIMAL toys with the cruiser. Like a dog with its bone, thedinosaur pushes the cruiser along with his head. He pushes it past thepicnic tables toward the ripped fence and the embankment. Each shovesends the children flying again.The cruiser is pushes closer and closer to the unprotected embankment.The cruiser slams to a stop completely upside-down. The T-Rex stepsright on the cruiser, crushing the roof against the ground.INSIDE - the children crawl for their lives as the car crushes furtherdown from above and a tidal wave of mud oozes in from the sides.THE REX - gnaws at the car, grabs a tire with his teeth, It ruptureswith a pitiful pop. The Rex grabs at the axle with his teeth, begins todrag the car back. THe kids, half-outside, are pulled with the car.GRANT DANCES -with a flare! The Rex is distracted.CLOSE ON - the Rex as he ROARS. The flare gleams in his eyes.The Rex starts toward Grant. He tosses the flare over the half-standingpart of the fence. The Rex lunges after the flare.GENNARO has reached his limit. Terrorized, he leaps out and SCREAMS: GENNARO Extinct animals should stay extinct!He bolts. The Rex sees him and starts after him, THUNDERING by Grant,who stays frozen in place.Gennaro sprints for his life. He's not even a distant match for the T-Rex jogging behind him.Gennaro dives into the LADIES ROOM.INSIDE - he slams the door and shoves the trashcan against the door.POUNDING FOOTSTEPS APPROACH! Gennaro backs up into one of the stalls.LOUDER POUNDING, THE WALLS BEGIN TO VIBRATE! Gennaro assumes a 'tuck'position.ON THE INTERIOR DOOR - The Rex smashes right through the steel-claddoor. Pieces go flying.Gennaro hides amidst the wreckage as the Rex sniffs around.GRANT RUNS BACK -to check on the kids. He reaches a hand underneath the flipped car,sitting in the mud. Lex's soft voice can be heard. LEX (OFF) Dr. Grant!Grant fishes under, finds Lex's hand, drags her out. He quickly checksher for broken bones. GRANT Lex, are you okay? LEX Timmy's unconscious, he won't move.Lex SCREAMS. Grant turns to see the Rex return. He squeezes Lex tight.The animal goes right past them, back to his toy - Tim's land cruiser!The Rex BELLOWS a huge cry. Timmy awakens and sees the Rex above him.He SCREAMS.Lex, squeezed in Grant's arms, sees her imperiled brother. LEX Timmy!The Tyrannosaur looks up, GROWLS across the upside-down cruiser, opensits huge jaws menacingly, all the time staring at Grant and Lex.INSIDE THE CAR - Timmy tries to unwedge himself. A thin trickle ofblood runs down his forehead. He's jammed between the crushed roof andthe bent bench seat. He can't free himself.The Rex begins to SHOVE the cruiser toward Grant and Lex. They back upbut they have very few feet left - they're almost at the embankment.But if they don't move, they'll by crushed by the oncoming car.Grant slings Lex onto his back. She grabs her hands around his neck anddigs her feet into his sides. Grant begins to climb over the downedfence and into the embankment - it's a huge drop!Grant grabs a broken cable and lowers himself and Lex over the side ofthe embankment.Just in time as the Rex SHOVES the cruiser further. Now, the cruiserTEETERS right on the edge, turning again on its side. Tim hangs halfwayout of the car, unable to get out further.Grant, with Lex on his back, slides down the cable, rappelling down theembankment. ABOVE, the car looms over them, rocking on the edge. Lexlooks up and grabs Grant so tightly, she chokes him, unknowingly.Grant, eyes bulging, sees the danger from above. He pushes off the walland swings them toward the next hanging cable. He reaches out and -- GRABS THE NEXT CABLE just as -- the T-Rex BELLOWS and lowers her head, and gives a final shove. Timmyand the cruiser SAIL INTO SPACE. Timmy SCREAMS!Grant and Lex swing out of the way as the cruiser sails past them. LexSCREAMS, squeezing Grant's neck even tighter! They watch helplessly asthe cruiser BOUNCES off the wall and CRASH-LANDS into the top of a treeat the base of the wall.Grant and Lex stare down at the wreck in the tree. Timmy can't be seen.Grant, choking from Lex's grip, grabs her fingers. GRANT Let ... go ... please.The Rex ROARS above. They look up.THE REX paws the air, GRUNTS in frustration and STALKS off, LIGHTNINGFLASHES.EXT NEDRY'S JEEP, BACK ROADS -Nedry speeds along the rain-slick road, fish-tailing as he goes.CLOSE ON - Nedry at the wheel.NEDRY'S POV - the dark, wet road running alongside a ten-foot chain-linkfence. Suddenly, a beast-like visage blurs across the road.Nedry swerves. The jeep skids. Nedry tries to over-steer, can't bringthe careening jeep under control.The jeep crashes though the fence, bounces down a cement culvert, anddives into a raging gully.Nedry curses. He spins the wheel. The tires spin and spray. Thejeep's hopelessly stuck in the gully. From Nedry's seat in the jeep, hecranes his head around, examining his situation.NEDRY'S POV - On the opposite side of the gully, there is an equipmentgraveyard. By the titled jeep headlights, steely monsters all aroundcan be seen - discarded earth movers, graders, and tractors.Nedry gets out of the jeep, grabs the winch from the jeep's back end.and wades over to an abandoned tractor. NEDRY Shit. I'm going to have to change clothes.He loops the winch around the tractor's base. Suddenly, he stops andlooks around as he hears a gentle HOOTING. He squints, looking at thestrange steel graveyard lit by the bright beams of the jeep headlights.HOOT! HOOT! A distinctive HOOTING. Nedry looks up in fear. SILENCE.Nedry starts moving toward his jeep. Again, the HOOT! Nedry stops,looks right, looks left. A RUSTLE in the trees. Nedry's head cocks.Looking through trees, lit by the strong beams, Nedry sees a SPITTER inthe eerie mist. Now it's gone. Now it's back. It circles Nedrywarily, hunting him. Nedry stares. NEDRY I hope this is one of them herbivores.Nedry scrambles the other way, full-tilt. Hop, hop, and the Spitterdrops in front of Nedry from the other side. HOOT!Nedry jumps back, lands on his butt. The Spitter zips in from the side- HOOT!Nedry doubles back, racing through the abandoned equipment, ducking androlling under a cement mixer, spinning past a tree. He splashes downthe embankment, trying to get to his jeep. He uses the winch line tosteady himself again the raging current. He finally reaches the jeep,swings open the door - and, surging out of the water like a demonicapparition, is the SPITTER! Nedry backs away, directly into the glareof the headlights!CLOSE ON - the Spitter. It's plume opens, bright orange gills swell outlike an umbrella around its neck. Something squirts beneath its jaws.A big glob SMACKS Nedry on the arm. He brushes it off. NEDRY Gross.EXTREME CLOSEUP - the Spitter's head. The jaws puff, the hood flaresout, the neck snaps forward. And - it spits.This glob misses Nedry, splashes off the steaming headlight.VERY EXTREME CLOSEUP - The Spitter's swollen poison sacs are inflated.They fire!This glob hits Nedry in the eyes. He SCREAMS. NEDRY I'm blind, I'm blind.He falls against the jeep, rubbing his eyes. The Spitter calmly hops tothe embankment and watches the blinded Nedry weave drunkenly in thewater. Nedry grabs onto the jeep and pulls himself along toward thedriver's door. The Spitter stalks, watching him.Nedry pulls open the jeep door, thrusts his head in, slams it againstthe door frame. Now Nedry heaves his whole body into the jeep. TheSpitter's long ostrich-like legs stretch and bend in an easy gait as itcloses it on Nedry.Nedry sits behind the wheel, unseeing as the Spitter watches patientlyturns his blind eyes that way.A long beat. The Spitter leaps forward, the CAMERA PULLS BACK WIDER ANDWIDER. Nedry lets out an ear-splitting SCREAM and the car horn BLARES.INT TIMMY'S CRUISERTimmy lies against a spidered side window, his head pressed against thedoor handle. He pushes himself up on one elbow, opens his eyes, andtries to focus. Rain has nearly stopped but a light drizzle hits himTimmy tries to straighten up, but he's too dizzy. He stops and hears ACREAKING and feels the whole car gently swaying back and forth. With afurther effort, he raises his body so that he's standing with his feeton the window frame and looks out the broken roof.TIM'S POV - Dense foliage, moving in the wind, hard to see through. Anopen space and - THE GROUND, FORTY FEET AWAY!INT/EXT CRUISER - CONTINUING ACTIONTim's cruiser is lying on its side, stuck in the higher branches of atree on the hillside. TIMMY Oh shit!Timmy pulls his body up carefully, trying to get a better view. Hegrabs the steering wheel for support and it spins free in his hand.CRACK! The cruiser slips a few inches down the tree. Timmy grabs thewindow frame and freezes. The car sways in the wind.CRACK! The car slips a quick and rocky two feet. TIMMY Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!Timmy hears something. He raises his head very carefully. Climbing upthe tree, pulling himself on a nearby branch, is Dr. Grant. GRANT Timmy. Are you ok? TIMMY Thank God you're here. Where's Lex? GRANT Below. She's fine. Let's get you down.Timmy nods.Grant peers through the broken roof of the cruiser, analyzing Timmy'spredicament. He cranes his head back to examine how the cruiser issupported in the tree. Grant turns back to Timmy. GRANT Try the door you're leaning against. Nice and slow.Timmy places his weight on the two sides of the door frame and reachesbetween his legs, trying to open the door handle. Stuck. CRACK! Thecruiser drops another foot.Grant scrambles down a couple branches until he is even with the cruiseragain. He motions for Timmy to hold still.Grant reaches across to the other car door and tries the outer doorhandle. This one opens and very slowly, he pushes open the door. Grantgingerly holds it half-open in mid-air. GRANT Crawl this way. Slowly.Carefully testing his weight with each step, Timmy lowers his body down.He pushes his legs out the door. They kick in the air and slowly cometo rest on a lower branch. He lets himself down. Now he sits on abranch, a few feet below the cruiser.CRACK! The cruiser drops. Grant still hangs onto the door but now hisfooting on the branch is gone. His legs hang in space. The cruiserhangs precariously above Timmy. They're all twenty feet in the air. GRANT We're going to have to make a jump for it, Timmy. Okay?Timmy agrees. GRANT One, two, three, jump.Timmy lets go and DROPS. Grant follows. So does the cruiser. It'shurtling right at them.Timmy BANGS against the wet tree-trunk and slides down. Branches WHIPagainst his face, his hands SCRAPE against the trunk. Grant BOUNCESthem. They scramble down as quick as they can.Timmy pulls his hands along the sap-sticky surface of the tree. CRACK!Grant is stopped for a terrible instant - doubled over a branch, heflips himself over, dropping further. The cruiser jolts along, just ahalf-step behind them.Timmy dives the last six feet and HITS the wet earth with a THUD! GrantCRASHES next to him. Before they can roll out of the way, the cruiserkeeps coming. Grant and Timmy look up at it.GRANT'S POV - The cruiser dropping, dropping toward them. And finallystops, just inches away, its dented grill grinning at them, its crackedheadlight glaring.Oil drips down on Grant. He grabs Timmy, who grabs the night goggles.The two roll away. That second the cruiser SMASHES to the ground.Grant brushes himself off painfully, extends a hand to Timmy. Timmyslowly reaches up and pulls himself standing. TIMMY Thanks, Dr. Grant. GRANT You owe me one.Grant turns around in a slow, fluid circle, checking out the forest. GRANT Where'd Lex go?They hear a faint WHIMPERING. TIMMY There's Lex.He runs. Grant follows.INT DRAINPIPE -Lex is curled up inside the drainpipe. Her baseball glove is in hermouth and she is rocking back and forth, rhythmically banging her headagainst the back of the pipe. She WHIMPERS.ON THE HILLSIDE -Grant and Timmy arrive at the drainpipe and stare in at Lex. GRANT Come on out now, Lex.Lex continues to band her head. Timmy tries again. TIMMY It's your turn to wear the goggles, Lex.She shakes her head. He holds up her baseball but she doesn't look. TIMMY I found your baseball. LEX You did?But she doesn't move. Grant speaks encouragingly. GRANT Cone on, Lex, it must be cold in there. And tight. Why don't you come out? LEX I'm afraid of the "animals". TIMMY The "animals" are gone. LEX Where did it go? TIMMY I don't know but it's not here now. LEX Are there any grownups out there? GRANT I'm a grownup, Lex. Come on out. Gimmie you hand, come on, here you go. LEX I'm hungry. GRANT Me, too. We've got to get ourselves back to civilization.EXT ROADSIDERegis slowly crawls out from between a couple large boulders. He looksaround carefully. He peels mud off his face and rubs his neck.He touches his cheek.CLOSE ON Regis' swollen cheek. He rubs it with his finger. Suddenly,he swats at his own mouth. He reaches in and pulls out a leech fat withblood. He hurls it to the ground, spitting. He grabs another off hisarm and rips if off, leaving a bloody streak. He digs in his pants andpulls out another. He SCREAMS.As soon as he has done so, he knows he's made a mistake. He looksaround frantically. Sees the Rex trot down the road toward him. REGIS Noooooo!BACK ON HILLSIDE -Grant and the kids crest the hill. Grant puts on the night goggles andadjusts the dial and looks toward Regis. The kids can't see that far. TIMMY What's going on?Grant's green POV - Regis and the Rex bounding after him. Regis hugs atree, unmoving.Grant whispers to the kids. GRANT It's Regis and the Rex is after him. But it's okay. Regis knows the Rex can't see him. Evidently, he can only see move- ment. Regis'll be ok if he stays still.AFTER A LONG MOMENT, the tyrannosaur walks away, disappears into theshadows. Regis waits another long moment and releases his tree.GRANT'S POV - The tyrannosaur leaps out of the shadows and knocks Registo the ground. Regis jumps up and backs off. The animal knocks himright back down. Regis jumps up again and screams at the beast. REGIS You don't want to hurt Mr. Regis. Go away. Ed's your friend. Back off!THE REX watches him dance around. It goes toward him. This time itsjaws are open. Regis SCREAMS and in the middle, the scream cuts off.Grant lets the goggles fall off his face. They hit the ground with aMETALLIC CLINK. The Rex turns toward Grant and the kids. GRANT Let's go!Grant grabs both the kids' hands and they begin to run.BACK ON TOUR REST AREA -Drops of water splat on a big fern. Light swims in the little puddle.In the sky above, clouds hurry by, intermittently revealing a half-obscured moon.The torn fence lies in a crumpled, twisted mess. The wheel of a LandCruiser spins. A little lizard runs in place on it.The SOUND of the jeep's engine. It's Muldoon and Ellie.THEIR POV - a single cruiser lies on its side in the middle of the road. ELLIE Oh, My God! Where's the other one?Before the cruiser stops, she jumps out. Muldoon shouts a whisper. MULDOON Ellie!Ellie turns in the headlight beams. Muldoon tosses her a flashlight. MULDOON Wait up.Muldoon skids to a stop, leaps out of the car. He catches up to Ellie.They share a frightened, apprehensive look. Muldoon gets on his kneesand and touches a muddies area. MULDOON T-Rex tracks.Ellie looks out into the forest. ELLIE Then they must be out there. They must be out there. I know it. MULDOON Perhaps. ELLIE No! They're out there. MULDOON I've seen a lot of animal attacks in the bush. It's not as gory and horrifying to see as you'd think. No pools of blood or exposed bones. There is usually little or no evidence left behind. And if victims are small, a predator can kill by just shaking the little thing to death, eating it, and leave not so much as a button.A definite RUSTLING in the brush.Ellie jumps and SCREAMS. Muldoon puts his hand over her mouth andpushes her down. They both squat by the cruiser. SILENCE. Ellieswallows. Muldoon slowly gets up. Ellie follows.Their flashlights swing back and forth in the night. Twigs crack undertheir feet.Ellie hears the RUSTLE at the edge of the forest. She shines her lightinto the brush. She catches her breath. Her hand shakes.Ellie flashes her beam right, left, up, down. Jumps. Something iscoming at her, rolling at her. She gasps, steps back. It's too late.It's Gennaro. His limp body stops at her feet. She covers her mouth.Muldoon runs to her.Gennaro is face-down. Muldoon takes his pulse. MULDOON Thank God. (beat) We have to carry him. First I have to ...He stands and removes his jacket.CLOSE ON - Muldoon tears the jacket into long strips.He wraps Gennaro's wounds. MULDOON He's losing a lot of blood. Help me.Muldoon and Ellie carry Gennaro to the jeep. They lay him on the backseat. Muldoon jumps in back with him. He keeps wrapping the wounds.Ellie starts the engine, looks back at him. ELLIE Looks like you've been through this before.Muldoon looks up. MULDOON I told you I've seen big game attacks in Africa.She starts the engine. ELLIE Right.Ellie skids out of there.INT CONTROL ROOM - NIGHTThe dark room is lit with two outdoor torches. Light flickering ontheir faces, Arnold and Wu stare at the console screen. WU Why? ARNOLD Because Nedry messed with the code. That's why I'm checking it. WU But that could take weeks. What would be faster? Try keychecks.Arnold snaps his fingers, grabs Wu, ARNOLD That's true. Keychecks will give me a record of every button Nedry pushed.With a rapid series of keys, Arnold initiates "keystrokes". Thecomputer displays a short series of commands. Arnold runs his fingerdown the screen. ARNOLD Jesus, that's all he did all afternoon? He was just dicking around, maybe waiting to get his nerve up.Wu points to a line. It reads: WHTE-RBT.OBJ WU What's that? ARNOLD Some sort of object. Let's see if we can trace it.Arnold types FIND WHTE-RBT.OBJ. Nothing. He tries DEFINE WHTE-RBT.OBJ.Still nothing. LIST WHTE-RBT.OBJ. The screen fills with data. Eachline defines another security system that has been shut off: SECURITYPERIMETER FENCES OFF/ SECURITY - INTERIOR FENCES OFF/ SECURITY -LABORATORY DOORS OFF/, etc. WU What's it mean? ARNOLD It wasn't a bug. It was a trap door that fat bastard left for himself. When he hit WHTE-RBT. OBJ, it initiates a set of commands that turned the whole goddamn park off. Hammond was right about him. WU If I did that I'd leave a way to turn it back on. In case I had to. I'm sure Nedry did. You're find it.Arnold nods grimly.INT CAFETERIA - NIGHTHammond sits quietly in the deserted cafeteria, calmly spooning icecream into his mouth. This room is lit by dozens of candles.Muldoon walks in, stares at Hammond in the semi-darkness. MULDOON We found Gennaro. He'd badly injured. Harding's tending to him in your quarters. He'll be all right if we can radio for help. Your grandchildren and Grant are somewhere in the park. I believe they're alive but I don't know where they are. HAMMOND I'm sure you'll find them. MULDOON I certainly hope so. HAMMOND I'm sure we will. After all, I keep telling everyone, this park is made for children. MULDOON Just so you understand that they're missing, sir. HAMMOND Missing? Of course I know they're missing. You just said that. Look, Bob, let's not get carried away. We've had a little breakdown from the storm or whatever, and as a result we've had a regrettable, unfortunate accident. And that's all that happened. We're dealing with it. Arnold will get the computers cleaned up, and the radio and phone lines open. You'll find those kids and my good friend, Dr. Grant. I'm sure they'll want some of this ice cream. It's very good.INT HAMMOND'S QUARTERS - NIGHTDark. Ellie helps Harding get Gennaro comfortable on Hammond's couch.Blood from Gennaro's injuries stain the rich leather. Gennaro babbles. GENNARO That Rex didn't even give me his full attention. That's what hurts. I was just an afterthought. I gave him my full attention. HARDING He's had a lot of morphine. GENNARO (sings) Not enough. ELLIE I need to find Wu. I have to run a few tests in his lab. HARDING He's probably in the control room, get- ting in the way while Arnold tries to put things together.As Ellie leaves, Gennaro is singing a shanty in his morphine stupor. GENNARO Yo ho, I'll close this place down ...EXT THE ANNE B AT SEA - NIGHTThe ship is tossed around on a stormy sea. MATCH CUT TO:INT STATEROOM -The eggs are tossed around in the womb of the incubator. The swellsettles but the rocking of one egg doesn't stop. The egg cracks, asilvery line runs down its side.EXT PARK - NIGHTSomewhere in the dark park, laced by low fog, Grant, Timmy and Lex walk. LEX I'm tired. TIMMY You're too big to be carried. LEX But I'm tired-tired. GRANT Okay, Lex.Grant picks her up. GRANT Oof! You're heavy.The full moon is blurred by drifting clouds. Their blunted shadows leadthe three across an open field toward dark woods beyond. Grant is lostis thought, trying to decide where to go. GRANT I think we're still in his paddock.Lex's heavy eyes open. Her eyes grow big. She taps Grant's shoulder. GRANT What? LEX Don't you see? Don't you see? GRANT What? LEX The fence. GRANT (squinting) No. TIMMY Oh I do, right there!Lex lets herself slide off Grant and runs into the woods. Timmyfollows. Grant follows, squinting. Finally, he sees. A big smile.The kids look up at a twelve foot high electric fence. Timmy gulps. LEX Timmy's scared of heights.Timmy spins in fury. TIMMY Shut up.Lex and Timmy stare at each other. No fighting - now. They relax. GRANT Okay with the fence, Timmy?Timmy eyes it. Nods hesitantly. They start to climb. Lex climbs easily. LEX (mumbles quietly) 'Fraid of heights.Timmy climbs tentatively. A dinosaur ROARS in the distance.CLOSE ON - Timmy's foot loses its grip.Timmy hangs for a moment, held only by his straining hands.All three stop. Wait. Timmy regains his balance. Slowly, they proceedup and over.On the other side, Grant looks around. More high trees. Beyond a field. GRANT A herbivore grazing area. Excellent.Grant starts to walk toward it. Timmy stops. Lets sits on a tree root. TIM We gonna walk all night?Grant looks at his watch. GRANT Twelve hours before that ship reaches the mainland. TIM We need sleep.True, and Grant's thinking the same thing. He looks around, surveyingthe misty forest. He looks straight up into the beautiful, tall treesthat ring the wide-open grassy meadow. GRANT Up there. TIM Climb? Again? I can't climb again?Grant smiles. GRANT Sure you can.Grant checks out and rejects tree after tree. Near the meadow he findsit. A good, basic climbing tree.EXT UPPER BRANCHES OF THE TREEGrant helps Lex get comfortable on his lap. Timmy tucks himself inbetween Grant's outstretched legs. Grant looks out. Back to kids.Timmy and Lex are already snoring. Lex turns and hugs Grant close toher. She murmurs in her sleep. Grant starts to pat her shoulder whenTimmy, without waking, reaches to her and strokes her hair. TIMMY (mumbles) It's ok, Lex. Everything's gonna be okay. CUT TO:CLOSE ON - amoeba-like creatures swimming in a pool.INT INCUBATION ROOM, LABORATORY - NIGHTEllie lifts her head away from the powerful microscope.The dark room is lit by flashlight. Battery packs power the microscope.Wu paces the room, regarding his eggs with dismay. Sitting on theirlong tables with no moving wands above them - no thermal sensors. WU What is taking Arnold so long? This room is too cold. My eggs will be damaged.Ellie swings the lens to Wu. Not so interested but peers in politely. ELLIE No sign of those berries. Really interesting. There are indications of a similar virus in every tissue sample. But it's not in the ground. Could I look at some of the discarded embryos?Wu reluctantly agrees. He opens a cabinet and brings her samples. WU I'm sure you'll find your virus ... or a similar one. All animals carry many viruses in a dormant condition. It's almost impossible to say with certainty which are the same strains.Ellie begins a test on a sample. She adds a reagent and marks up aslide. As she works: ELLIE And yet from what Harding tells me, many of you animals have similar symptoms - besides the microvesicles, a lack of hunger, loss of reproductive urges, sores in the mouth and gums.Wu waves his arms. WU What the hell does Harding know? He's a veterinarian, not a pathologist.BACK ON CONTROL ROOM -Arnold pushes his chair away from his console and claps his hands asMuldoon walks in. Muldoon asks hopefully. MULDOON What is it?Arnold points to the screen. ARNOLD That's it.Muldoon comes closer. MULDOON That's what? ARNOLD I found the command to restore the original code. It resets the linked parameters. MULDOON The fences and the power? ARNOLD Right. And it does something else. It erases the code lines that refer to it. It destroys all evidence it was ever there. MULDOON Nedry could steal the eggs, get back and reset the whole show. No one would ever miss him. ARNOLD Watch this.Arnold types in a command. The screen flickers and changes. Arnold andMuldoon look out the window as lights come on through out the park. ARNOLD Hot damn! MULDOON Are the fences back on? ARNOLD You bet they are. It will take a few seconds to get up to full power, because we've got fifty miles of fence out there, and the generator has to feed the capacitors along the way. But in a half a minute we'll be back in business.Arnold points to the transparent map of the park. On it, bright redlines snake out, moving throughout the park, as electricity surgesthrough the fences. MULDOON Motion sensors? ARNOLD Got them too. It will be a few minutes while the computer counts. Then I'll tell you where Grant and the kids are and you can go and get them. But every- thing's working. Half past ten and we've got the whole thing back up and running.Muldoon picks up a phone, shakes his head. MULDOON Just hiss.BACK ON GRANT AND KIDS IN TREE -Grant snores. A mosquito buzzes around him. He waves him away andcontinues to sleep.In the distance, a tiny BEEPING. Below the towering tree, across thefield, a sensor beeps, it's green light blinks, and the beeping stops.IN THE HIGH TREE, the branches sway. Grant and the kids sleep on.BACK ON CONTROL ROOM -The glowing, glass map. Arnold and Muldoon stare at it. MULDOON What is taking so damn long? Where are they? ARNOLD There's a lot of extraneous movement out there. Branches blowing, birds, back- ground movement. It may take, ah, okay, count's finished.Muldoon looks at Arnold anxiously. Arnold looks down. ARNOLD Hmmmm. I don't see them. Maybe they're out of range of a sensor. MULDOON Shit. I don't know where they are. I wish I could go out there But I haven't got anything to use on the Rex. My rocket launcher's in the jeep Nedry stole. And going out with a big gun in the dark would be suicide.INT INCUBATION ROOM, LABORATORY - NIGHTBrightly lit again. Ellie performs tests with a centrifuge. She looksat Wu, who sits across from her in a high stool, stifling a yawn. ELLIE Why don't you get some sleep, Dr. Wu? I'm just going to run a couple more tests and then I'm going to turn in myself.Wu doesn't need to be told twice. He climbs off his stool. WU No point in everyone being exhausted.He starts to leave. He comes back and speaks consolingly at Ellie. WU I'm sure Muldoon will find Dr. Grant as soon as there is light.Ellie appreciates his effort, nods seriously, goes back to work. DISSOLVE TO:EXT OCEAN - JUST BEFORE DAWNBeautiful dark ocean. The sky is a rich blue. A morning star fades asthe sky lightens. The Anne B is a small dot on the massive ocean.INT STATEROOM, ANNE B -Eggs sit in the incubator. A hand sprays them with foam. Leaves.CAMERA EXAMINES the eggs as the foam disperses. More cracks. One eggjumps with a bolt from within. It settles. Jumps again. CUT TO:ESTABLISHING AERIAL - the primordial beauty of Isla Nublar at dawn.EXT VISITOR'S CENTER - DAWNMuldoon drives out into the park in Harding's jeep. THREE WORKERStravel with him. Each carries a rifle.EXT GRANT'S TREE - DAWNCAMERA LOOK DOWN on Grant, Lex and Timmy still sleeping in the tree. Alarge shadow falls on their quiet faces. Lex opens an eye. She SCREAMS.Grant and Timmy wake up with a start.THEIR POV - AS THE CAMERA LOOKS THROUGH THEIR LEGS AND TILTS UP rightinto the huge face of A DUCK-BILLED HADROSAUR, a gigantic dinosaur withcow eyes. Its head moves up through the canopy of the trees. Then thehead swoops way down below. And returns to Grant's level and stares athis shoe.The hadrosaur tastes Grant's shoe. The kids press tightly into Grant. LEX He gonna eat us? GRANT I don't think so. She's a ... GRANT AND TIMMY ... herbivore.The hadrosaur HONKS. Lex covers her ears. Grant smiles and motions toLex. He picks a big fruit off the tree and tosses it into thehadrosaur's mouth. CHOMP. He feeds it again. Lex and Timmy toss a few.CHOMP! CHOMP! HONK! HONK!The hadrosaur's big head swoops way down, momentarily gone.When she returns, all three quickly gather fruits and throw them intoher mouth. The hadrosaur pulls back with her giant mouthful of fruit.She pulls further and further back and then her huge head turns andmoves down.Grant, Lex and Timmy strain to see through the branches.THEIR POV - The hadrosaur is feeding four scampering, baby hadrosaurs.Letting the fruit tumble from her mouth into theirs. Lex YELLS: LEX Come here, babies! Get your breakfast!The babies run to the base of the tree. The kids toss fruits right downto them. Lex and Timmy climb lower to feed them right from their hands.Grant and the mother hadrosaur stare at each other. She sniffs hisfoot. He moves closer, straddling a branch. He lifts up her lip andexamines her gums.CLOSE ON - a ripped piece of fence stuck in her teeth.Grant yanks it out. He lets it drop to the ground. He take a largeleaf and rubs her teeth with it.CLOSE ON - her mouth as Grant's hand touches the side of her tongue. Hesees little tiny bumps.The hadrosaur lets out a low groan. Grant is puzzled, rubs harder. GRANT Like the trike. Maybe it's not the stones.HONK! She pulls her mouth away. The baby hadrosaurs turn to thehonking adult. She is leaving quickly. They follow quickly behind her.The small herd leaves, casually trampling trees as they go.EXT BACK ROADS, PARK - MORNINGMuldoon and workers drive rapidly in the jeep. Suddenly, Muldoon slamson the brakes.MULDOON'S POV - ABOUT TWENTY PROCOMPSOGNATHIDS (COMPYS), small chicken-sized scavenging dinosaurs, scramble across the road. MULDOON Where the hell are they going?Muldoon watches them cross. He thinks it over. Spins the wheel andfollows them off the road. MULDOON Let's see what's up.EXT BELOW THE TREE, PARK - MORNINGTimmy bravely jumps from a very low branch. He smiles and looks atGrant, who's already on the ground. Grant looks off in the distance. GRANT Tim, I think there's a motion sensor across the field and down there. TIM Where's Lex?ALONE IN THE BUSHES - Lex kneels. She holds a big fruit and calls: LEX C'mere boy, c'mere.She tosses the fruit.CLOSE ON - the fruit rolling away.Lex gets up and follows the rolling fruit. She picks it up. LEX It's very, very good.She tosses it again. LEX C'mere boy, c'mere.Lex's eyes scan the bushes, then stop. She smiles.LEX'S POV - hidden in the brush, a baby triceratops' eye peeks at Lex.Lex pushes the fruit closer. The BABY TRICERATOPS comes out of thebrush, squeaking as it goes. It nibbles the fruit. Lex rolls another.BACK ON GRANT AND TIM - They look around. Timmy stops, mouth open, YELLS: TIM Dr. Grant, Dr. Grant, look.Grant turns, looks OFFSCREEN. He's astonished by when he sees.HIS POV - a row of shrubs, which Lex seems to soar above. As a break inthe shrubs, it's clear that she's riding the baby triceratops. Loving it. LEX Whoa!With a whoop, Grant and Timmy chase after Lex on her triceratops.Lex rides through low brush, ducking down as she goes. Then beneath thetall trees as she enters the forest. She crosses a stream on a logbridge. Light showers down through the branches. The water shimmers.Lex in is paradise.Behind her, Grant and Timmy shout for her to stop. She waves, kicks thetriceratops like it's a horse and YELLS: LEX Giddyup!The trike takes off, in a rush. It trips over a fallen tree, downed bythe storm. The trike takes a spill and Lex goes flying. LEX Whoa!! Take is easy!She passes over the trike's head, in the air, and SCREAMS as she flies: LEX I can't swim!She SPLASHES into the stream.Timmy, first to arrive on the scene, dives in heroically. He comes upsheepish and muddy - and sees Lex standing in a foot of water.The baby dinosaur rolls to a stop, mowing down a patch of saplings asshe goes. It stands up, dizzy and out of breath.Timmy wipes mud off himself. Grant helps the kids out of the water.The baby triceratops follows them. Grant yells to the baby trike. GRANT Go home now. Home to Freda! LEX Oh, let him stay. He likes me to ride him. He could carry me instead of you, Dr. Grant. Please, let him stay,Grant shakes his head, GRANT Go! Go away. Go! Get out of here!The trike whimpers and watches the three of them walk on. Lex isheartbroken. LEX Will I ever play with him again?Grant looks across the field, abundantly beautiful in the early morning.He has to keep them going. He points across the field. GRANT We gotta get to that motion detector. It's still a ways.Lex looks behind her. In the distance, more hadrosaurs join the herdeating from the tall trees. Some cool off in a shallow lagoon. Theydrink, lowering their flat heads, meeting their own reflections in thestill water. When they look up again, their heads swivel. At thewater's edge, a baby hadrosaur ventures out, squeaks, and scrambles backwhile the adults watch indulgently.EXT OFF ROAD, PARK - MORNINGMuldoon and his workers now follow the compys on foot. The compys trailoff in different directions. Muldoon and his workers break apart totrack the different groups.A BEARDED WORKER follows his party of compys. He looks ahead and sees asmall group stopped ahead. Their heads are bent to the ground.A BALD WORKER has reached another cluster of compys. Kicking, hescatters them.Muldoon's tracking leads him to the equipment graveyard where Nedry waslost. He sees his stolen red jeep. He rushes to it. On the passengerside still sits the rocket launcher. He opens the door to retrieve it.When he leans in, his eye catches the tilted side-view mirror. Theimage is of many compys bent over the ground. He comes around, YELLING. MULDOON I found Nedry!In the distance, the call is ECHOED. BEARDED WORKER (OFF) I found him! BALD WORKER (OFF) Found him!INT HAMMOND'S QUARTERS - DAYHammond peeks in the door and sees Gennaro, heavily bandaged, dozing onthe couch. Gennaro's eyes flutter and Hammond enters and smiles. HAMMOND He, Donald. Glad you're awake. I hope you're not going to take this little mishap you had and hold it against my park. It would be terrible if the finishing funds were in any way held up.Gennaro just grins and shakes his head. He's very high on morphine. Hewants to speak but Hammond keeps talking. After each sentence, Gennaroenthusiastically agrees with a nod. HAMMOND You really shouldn't have gotten out of the vehicle. The park is actually quite safe. A disenchanted worker sabotaged some equipment. Arnold, Muldoon, and Wu, all loyal employees, are righting damage as we speak. GENNARO Oh good, 'cause I love the park! It's more than we ever dreamed! Those brachiosaurs are so big! And those Spitters - (he spits) - incredible! I only have one problem. Aren't we going to have pterodactyls? (he frowns, smacks his forehead) Oh, they'd fly away!Gennaro looks off, watching the imaginary pterodactyls fly away.Hammond takes out a bag. HAMMOND Take a look at these, Donald. Have you seen these? These are great.Hammond dumps things out of the bag. They are souvenirs of the park. HAMMOND Wind-up toys. Spitter umbrellas.Gennaro is thrilled. HAMMOND I got some great t-shirts. Dinosaur bingo, hey ...Hammond leans closer. HAMMOND Wu says he can make a foot high triceratops. We'll sell pets as living souvenirs. Bio-engineered to eat only food we sell, of course.Gennaro can't take it. Great idea! He high-fives Hammond repeatedly.Harding enters and gently taps Hammond on the shoulder. HARDING You'll have to bear with him, Mr. Hammond. He's doped to infinity and back.INT INCUBATION ROOM, LABORATORY - DAYSunlight pours through the windows. Ellie sits with her head in hands.She looks around and wanders the lab. Notices a drawer, slides it open.X-rays. She shuffles through, finds some marked: FREDA.Ellie snaps on a viewing light at her lab station. She studies the X-ray. She looks up in surprise. Studies it again.The viewing light is snapped off. Ellie looks again. Wu stands there. WU Who gave you permission -Ellie attacks back. ELLIE I'm here to investigate this park. And there's plenty you haven't told me. WU That's absurd. ELLIE These bones aren't fully formed. WU You're qualified to interpret x-rays of living dinosaurs? I doubt it. It took me many months to learn. Y I'll tell you something else, Freda isn't an adult, just a huge juvenile. WU You're making a lot of assumptions here. ELLIE Right. What the hell is going on, Wu?They stare at each other in the bright sunlight. HAMMOND (OFF) Growth hormones.The two swing around. Hammond stands in the sharp shadows of the room. WU She didn't have a right to explore my lab. HAMMOND Let's not argue, Wu, we have a serious problem. (to Ellie) These animals don't last. There is a regularity, a predictability about when they die. It's always ... very young. We don't know why. Given time, I'm sure Wu will figure it out. It's just ... WU Just some adjustment in the code is required. HAMMOND But there are deadlines. The park opens next summer. And it requires full-grown specimens. So Wu uses growth hormones to achieve the desired size in a short amount of time. But they all keep dying and we don't know how to stop it.Ellie and Wu stare at Hammond. He steps forward. The light is so hotbehind him that his appearance is like an apparition. HAMMOND I was going to tell you all this myself, Dr. Sattler, after Gennaro stopped breathing down my neck. That's why I wanted you and Dr. Grant here on my island - you have to help me keep the dinosaurs alive. Won't you please help me? CUT TO:IN THE SKY, the sun momentarily burns through the clouds -INT HAMMOND'S QUARTERS - DAYEllie enters. On the couch, Gennaro snores lightly. In a chair nearbyHarding sleeps, a roll of gauze grasped in his hands.Ellie walks over to the large model of the park that Hammond revealed.She looks at the miniature dinosaurs that sit in different sectors ofthe park. She picks up the plastic Rex, examines it, drops it back in.She brushes by Harding and studies Gennaro's pasty, sleeping face. Airblows in and out of his dry lips. She examines the gauze wrapped aroundhis wounded leg. It seeps with blood.INT CONTROL - DAYArnold works at his console. Hammond and Wu lean over his shoulder.Ellie bursts in, very agitated. Hammond looks up. ELLIE Gennaro's losing a lot of blood. He needs transfusions. We gotta get a rescue helicopter. Arnold, what's with the phones? ARNOLD Ah hell. I just can't find it.He sips his coffee and stares bleary-eyed at the screen. ELLIE Find what? ARNOLD Nedry jammed all the communication lines. He inserted some command, a lockout into the program code. I can't find it, because I gave that restore command and it erased part of the program listings. WU So? Just reset - shut the system down and you'll clear the memory. Everything will be in the normal wakeup mode. ARNOLD Shut the system down? WU And reset. ARNOLD I've never done that before. And I'm reluctant to do it. Maybe it's true, all systems will come on, but maybe they won't. ELLIE Look, there is a sick man here who needs medical attention or he'll die. Four people are out there, missing in your park. We need search teams. We have to have a phone or radio.Arnold still hesitates. ELLIE Well? ARNOLD Well, it's just that the safety systems don't function with the computer shut down and -Ellie boils over. ELLIE - turn the goddamn safety systems off! Can't you get it through your head that we have no choice?Arnold looks at Hammond, who now stares out into the park. Withoutturning, Hammond nods his consent. ARNOLD Okay.Arnold gets up and goes to the main panel. He opens the doors anduncovers the metal swing-latches over the safety switches. He pops themoff, one after another. ARNOLD You asked for it. And you got it.He throws the master switch.The control room goes black. All monitors go black. Arnold, Wu andEllie stand in the dark. ELLIE How long do we have to wait? ARNOLD Thirty seconds.EXT FIELD IN THE PARK -Grant and kids walk through a clearing. Lex stops. GRANT What is it? LEX I hear something. GRANT Come on.Timmy looks around. The morning is still and peaceful. Branches aremotionless. Only a little bird jumps from one branch to another. LEX Hear it now? TIMMY You're hearing things. Come on, we gotta get back and warn them about the boat.Lex hesitates but doesn't want to be left behind. She runs betweenGrant and Timmy. Then they all hear it.HONKING. It comes from the herd of duck bills behind them. First thehonking of a single animal, then another animal joins in, then anotherand another, until the whole herd has taken up the honking cry. TIMMY What's going on? GRANT They're agitated.The duckbills twist and turn. They hurry out of the water, circling theyoung ones to protect them.With a ROAR, the T-Rex bursts from the trees, just a hundred yards awaystraight toward the hadrosaurs. LEX I told you I heard something!The earth SHAKES. A low rumble is heard and felt as the hadrosaurs beginto run in a parallel direction to the course of Grant and the kids. GRANT Outta the way, kids! Run!Grant grabs Lex, lifting her bodily off the ground, and carries her likea football. Timmy runs beside them.Hadrosaurs run alongside of them. Grant hears the crashing of trees.He takes a glance over his shoulder.GRANT'S POV - a flurry of flamingos takes flight and spooks the herdinto changing direction. The hadrosaurs swerve and charge right intothe path of Grant, Lex and Timmy. They all SCREAM.BACK ON CONTROL ROOM -The quiet black room. Hammond stands by the big window. His pensivepresence affects all in the room.Arnold looks at his illuminated watch. ARNOLD Memory should be cleared by now.He pushes the main switch back on. Nothing on. ARNOLD Damn.Arnold pushes the switch off and then on again. Still nothing. Heglances at Hammond's back. Sweat forms on his brow. ELLIE What's wrong? ARNOLD Oh hell! I have to turn the safety switches back on before I restart the power.Arnold flips on three safeties, and covers them again with latch covers.Holding his breath, he turns on the main power switch.First, there is the computer beep. Ellie jumps. Then relaxes. Thelights come on. The screens hum. Hammond's shoulder twitches slightly. ARNOLD Thank God!The room is jubilant. Hugs and cheers. Ellie picks up a phone. ELLIE Arnold! They're still not working. ARNOLD No, it sounds dead but after a reset, all system modules have to be brought on line manually.Arnold quickly goes back to work at his console. Hammond turns. WU (to Hammond) Arnold's about to get the phones up.Arnold pushes the chair back. ARNOLD Okay, we're up again!Ellie grabs the phone back up. ELLIE No we're not. Phones still dead.Arnold swings her way. ARNOLD Can't be - HAMMOND My God, look at this, Arnold.Hammond points to the transparent map. A tight cluster of dots by thelagoon move in a coordinated way. Moving fast, in a kind of swirl. ELLIE What's happening? ARNOLD (tonelessly) The duckbills. WU My good God. ELLIE What? ARNOLD It's the Rex ... HAMMOND They've stampeded ...BACK ON THE HADROSAURS - LOW ANGLE ON THE STAMPEDE -Grant and kids run for their lives. Behind them the duckbills chargewith surprising speed. Their enormous bodies charge in a tight group,kicking up dirt, rocks, whole trees as they thunder along.CLOSE ON - a charging duckbill as he HONKS, eyes wild with fear.A horrible ROAR of the T-Rex sends a duckbill infant squealing andstruggling to stay out from underfoot.CLOSE ON - A huge adult foot almost tramples the infant.Frightened and confused the infant scampers even deeper into themaelstrom. The frenzied herd raises a great cloud of yellow dust.GRANT AND LEX AND TIMMY run wildly. The stampede is very close behindGrant and the kid's faces are covered with sweat and dust.Another deafening ROAR of the T-Rex.Grant leads them toward a rocky outcrop with a stand of big conifers.The animals continue to close.CLOSE ON - the running feet of the stampeding animals. The groundVIBRATES every time it is struck by the huge feet.GRANT AND THE KIDS scramble onto the rocks. They frantically tuck inbetween big boulders as the the herd reaches them. Lex shields herdusty face with her hands as she wedges deeper between the rocks. Grantpushes her down deeper and looks up from between the rocks.GRANT'S POV - the immense legs of the first hadrosaur to pass. Anotherslams its big tail against the rocks, leaving a splash of hot blood.Stampeding legs send clods of dirt flying in the air. Above, even thebirds are running. Disoriented, they fly frantically along.GRANT AND THE KIDS are enveloped in dust. Just shadows of huge bodieswith giant limbs. BELLOWS of pain as animals wheel and circle.A boulder is dislodged and it rolls toward Timmy. He dives out of hisrocky hiding place. The boulder continues on toward Grant and Lex.They dive after Timmy. The group buries itself anew in a group of thickroots tangled amidst smaller rocks. The boulder continues on, SMASHINGthe rocky enclave they have just left.Grant and the kids huddle and watch the last under-bellies oscillateabove them. The stampede goes past. They lie there, unable to move.They watch the herd trample on.CLOSE ON - The Rex's foot as it crushes a motion sensor.Lex SCREAMS. Grant and Timmy cover her mouth.The T-Rex hunts down the herd. He targets his prey. A young hadrosaur.As the hadrosaur gallops into the shadowy treeline, the Rex lungesfiercely. The Rex and its victim are enveloped in dust.Grant holds Lex close. She watches the terrible cloud with a quiethorror. Timmy makes the first move to leave. TIMMY Let's go. Now!The herd's remainder gallops off into the safety of the deep jungle.Grant, Lex and Timmy run in the opposite direction.BACK ON CONTROL ROOM -Hammond, Arnold, Wu, and Ellie watch the monitor as the dust slowlyclears. Hadrosaurs scatter.Now the Rex is calm and quiet. BACK TO CAMERA, he gnaws on something. HAMMOND No! Oh no! He make a kill. He killed one of my animals! Where's Muldoon? ARNOLD I'm sorry, Mr. Hammond. HAMMOND My animals! My animals!Muldoon enters, limping in. Hammond is very upset. HAMMOND Where have you been? My Rex killed a hadrosaur. You should be out there, doing something. MULDOON I just came to tell you - you're minus one computer expert.EXT BY THE RIVER, PARK - DAYThe water rushes a few hundred yards away. Grant and the kids havefinally rested enough. Grant nods to Timmy. GRANT We'll walk by the river. That leads back to the Visitor's center. LEX Not me. I'm not walking anymore. TIMMY Come on Lex, I'll carry you. LEX Nope. Too scared.Timmy looks up at Grant. Grant kneels down by Lex. Lex embraces Grant. GRANT You ready?She wipes her tears. LEX Can we go on the raft? Then we don't have to walk so close to the animals! GRANT What raft?Lex points to a low concrete maintenance building with bars. It istwenty yards away. LEX Where I found Freda's baby.Grant start to stand. He's thinking. GRANT It's still mid-morning. I bet we have at least ten miles to go. If we take the raft along the river, we can make much faster progress. TIMMY Let's do it.INT MAINTENANCE BUILDING -Grant stumbles deep in the gloomy recesses of the building. He pushespast drums of herbicide, tree-pruning equipment, spare tires, coils ofcyclone fencing, huge fertilizer bags, stacks of ceramic insulators,empty motor-oil cans, work-lights and cables. GRANT Lex, I don't see any raft.Timmy looks at Lex. Where is it? Lex doesn't know. TIMMY Keep going.Grant keeps pushing through bags of cement, lengths of copper pipe,piles of green mesh. Two plastic oars hang on the concrete wall. GRANT Bullseye!Timmy is relieved. Lex smiles. LEX Told you!Grant grabs them. Looks around, still - GRANT No raft. Where did you see it, Lex? LEX Actually, I never really saw one. Just assumed. GRANT Assumed?She nods. Grant and Timmy resume looking.IN THE REAR OF THE BUILDING - Lex walks below a barred window. Slats oflight fall on her back. She sees a dark closet door ajar. She brushesthe handle. It swings opens and two bright orange life preservers fallon her, knocking her to the ground.LEX SCREAMS, frantically pushing the life preservers off.Grant's head pops up. Timmy runs to her side. She is wrestlingirrationally with the life preservers. Timmy drops to the ground. TIMMY Lex! Lex! You're okay, you're okay!Lex is overcome with fear. Timmy grabs a preservers and puts it on. TIMMY Look, Lex! Look!She looks at him, realizes, and bursts out laughing. Timmy laughs withher. Grant joins them. He sits on a box and laughs. GRANT I'm afraid there's no raft.Grant gets up. He reaches for the hands of the kids. Timmy sees it -the box Grant sat on is labeled: RAFT STORAGE. Timmy smiles..AT THE RIVER'S EDGE -Grant pulls a cord.With a LOUD HISS, the rubber begins to expand uncontrollably, jerkingand jumping like a wild marionette. Then, with a whopping HISS-WHAP! itpops fully open on the deck: a large bright yellow rubber raft.Timmy and Lex climb in, wearing the life preservers. Grant gets in andpushes off with his oars.The small disturbance causes the cicadas to ROAR. The raft drifts outinto the lagoon. Grant fixes his oars into the oarlocks.Grant surveys the river. GRANT Looks pretty calm.THUMP. The raft stops moving. They are aground. Lex looks overboard.She reaches in about elbow deep.Grant stands and puts the oars in the water. He pushes with all hismight. There is a long scraping sound of the raft against the mudfloor. But it moves. And the raft goes into deep enough water.A general sigh of relief as they gently float downstream.A WIDE AREA OF THE RIVER -Grant energetically works the oars.CLOSE ON - Lex lets her hand trail in the water. LEX I'll row, Dr. Grant. GRANT No.But he's sweating and takes a moment to rest. Lex looks down at herhand in the water. It still trails. LEX Hey, we're still moving.Grant looks into the water. She's right. GRANT There's a current.Grant lays back against the rubber gunwales, closes his eyes. The twokids look at him. LEX You can't sleep. GRANT (eyes closed) I'm not sleeping... yet. LEX I'll do it!Lex picks up the oars and begins. TIMMY We gotta warn them about the boat.Grant opens one eye and looks up at the sun in the sky. He sighs andtakes up the oars again. He rows powerfully with the current.A BEND IN THE RIVER -Current picks up speed. The water begins to rush and ROAR. TIMMY Cool!White foam crashes on the raft and sprays the kids. They burst outlaughing. Grant smiles at them, but there is concern in his eyes.ANOTHER BEND -Now the raft is really racing. The kids hold on tightly as the raft isrocked. White water crashed over, drenching the kids. When Grant takesa moment to look, he is soaked by a huge wave.The raft tosses right and left. Timmy holds the rubber grips. He'syanked to one side. He's knocked to the raft floor. Quickly gets hisgrip again. SHOUTS to Grant. TIMMY Thought is looked calm? GRANT Guess I was wrong.Grant looks ahead. The river widens. The raft really starts to fly.Lex, gripping very tightly, looks out. Water sprays her again andagain. Her face is serious. LEX I can't swim!Grant grabs the raft's tie line and pulls it out of its rubber rings.He lashes it around Lex and Timmy. Then he ties it around one of therubber grips. GRANT Hold on real tight.They go flying down the river. The ROAR deafens.The raft lifts out of the water. And crashes down, rocking every way.Jagged rocks appear. Grant uses his paddle as a club to push off therocks and the rushing shoreline. The kids duck from sudden overhangingtrees.Grant looks ahead. He blanches.HIS POV - the surging edge of a tumultuous waterfall.They're almost there. At the huge waterfall, water rushes violently,heaving over the magnificent precipice.Timmy tries to tighten Lex's vest but is thrown back down . He YELLS: TIMMY Hold my hand. Hold my hand when we go.The raft spins in the rushing water. Everyone is thrown around.The rope holding the kids to the raft tautens. The oars are wrestled outof Grant's hands and go flying through the air, spilling over the edge.At the last moment, Grant spots a tree branch arching over the cascade.With all his might, he stands and holds his balance long enough. to lethis hands smash into the overhanging branch.They stop right at the waterfall's edge.Grant struggles mightily to hold onto the branch. But the water keepsrushing. His strength ebbs. TIMMY Don't let go!Grant's veins pop out in his arms. His hands start to slip off the wettree bark. Lex watches his hands slowly lose their grip.The rubber raft jumps and leaps below him. Water pours into the raft.Lex tries fruitlessly to let it out. Timmy holds down Grant's feet. TIMMY You can do it! GRANT I'm trying. I'm trying ... Ooooo!!! ....His hands slipping, slipping ... GRANT No!!!!! CUT TO:CLOSE ON - The T-Rex, face down in the mud.INT CONTROL ROOM - AFTERNOONArnold, Wu, Muldoon, and Ellie stare raptly at the monitor. MULDOON Son-of-a-bitch. He's taking a nap. Hasn't been this well fed ... ever.Hammond is above, in his throne. He calls down: HAMMOND Could he drown in that position? That's a very valuable animal. MULDOON I know it's a valuable animal.Muldoon takes a step up toward Hammond's throne and the two arguequietly back and forth. In the foreground, Wu calls Arnold over. WU What's that, John?Wu points to the screen behind Arnold's head. In the upper right-handcorner, it blinks a yellow warning: AUX PWR LOW! Ellie regards it. ELLIE You running on auxiliary power? ARNOLD I'm not. WU Looks like you are. ARNOLD Can't be. WU Print the system status log.Arnold nods and rapidly strikes keys. In the corner, a printer whirs tolife. Moments later, it spins out a single page. Arnold tears it off.Ellie continues to stare at the screen. It now flashes red: AUX PWRFAIL! An alarm klaxon BLARES.Hammond holds his ears against the noise. He stands up.The room lights begin to FLASH. They're reflected in Hammond's eyes.Hammond ROARS above the chaos. HAMMOND What the hell is going on?Onscreen, numbers begin to count backward from ten. Hammond lurches.At zero, the lights go off, the monitors, even the computer. Just thealarms keep screaming. HAMMOND You're ruining my ordered, precise park!Arnold ignores him, keeps pressing buttons. Hammond rushes towardArnold. Arnold looks over his shoulder in surprise. Hammond SCREAMS. HAMMOND Fix my park, Arnold! Fix it!Arnold crosses his hands in front of his face, blocking Hammond'sattack. Hammond grabs Arnold's wrists and the two twirl to the ground.Breathing heavily, Hammond clutches his hand to his own chest.Arnold stands up, brushes off. He puts himself together, looks atHammond. He SHOUTS over the siren: ARNOLD I know it's hard, I know it's hard, but I'm going to put it all back together for you - I promise. I willBACK ON RAFT AT WATERFALL -Grant still clings to the overhanging branch, holding the raft fromtoppling over the crashing waterfall. Lex and Timmy hold onto his legs.The ROAR of the water diminishes. And the flow subsides from a ragingcurrent to a rolling river. And then to a gentle stream. A trickle.Nothing.Grant slowly relaxes, lets go. So do the children. Around the raft,the water level begins to drain. Gradually, Grant and the kids are leftin the raft sitting in just a few puddles of water. Around them,various pumps and other equipment is exposed where it was once coveredby rushing white water. LEX The waterfall stopped. TIMMY Waterfalls aren't supposed to stop. GRANT I think they cut the power. Hey -He points and the three of them look over the edge where the waterfallonce poured. There's a shimmering rainbow and beyond that, in the mistis the visitor's center. GRANT Well, there's our pot of gold. Let's go, kids.They grab his hands and clamber out of the raft, running toward shore.BACK ON CONTROL ROOM -Muldoon pulls open the blinds and the hot sun filters in, so the room isalternate patches of bright and dark.In a hot corner, Ellie squats over a prostate Hammond, mopping his browwith a cool cloth. He murmurs, only barely intelligible. HAMMOND Told him, fix my park, fix my park.Wu brings the printout to Arnold. The printout is a chronologicalrendering of control room events since the restart. It is clear theyhave been running on auxiliary power. Wu yells above the alarm: WU You shut down as six thirty-four this morning, and when you started back up, it was with auxiliary power. ARNOLD Jesus. The auxiliary generator fires up first and then that's used to start the main generator because it needs a heavy charge. The main generator has to be manually reset. WU Outside? In the generator building?Arnold nods. Muldoon points to a line in the printout:06:35:22 WARNING: FENCE STATUS (NB) OPERATIVE - AUX POWER MULDOON This doesn't mean the fences have been off since six-thirty, does it?Arnold grabs the paper, looks at it, slams it down. ARNOLD Backup power doesn't generate enough amperage to power the electrified fences, so they were automatically kept off. That's also why we had no phones or radio. MULDOON All of the fences? ARNOLD Yes. MULDOON Including the velociraptor mesh? ARNOLD (disgusted, exhausted) Yes, yes, yes.In the corner, Hammond lifts his head and Ellie gently helps him to asitting position. HAMMOND Do you mean those raptors could be loose? ARNOLD I'm afraid so. MULDOON No, no way. Last time, it took 'em two days to chew through that mesh. But give 'em enough time, they'll get out. We better get that power on now. HAMMOND Regardless, check the pit. Make sure there' five of them there.EXT VISITOR'S CENTER - AFTERNOONMuldoon and Arnold run across the lawn. Muldoon carries his rocketlauncher at a ready position. In the distance, the alarm still SOUNDS,lights FLASH a continued warning.They reach the maintenance building where the generator is housed. Itsfamiliar him has been replaced by its own alarms. The closer theyapproach, the louder and brighter these alarms are. Grey steam poursout of the vents of the building, obscuring everything. ARNOLD What's that steam coming out of my generator room? MULDOON Relax, it's just refrigerated air. There's a leaky cooling pipe. I fixed it a couple times before but the original installation was at too sharp an angle.Arnold accepts this. He is about to enter when Muldoon instructs him. MULDOON Just go and turn on your generator, then get right back to the control room.Arnold lights a cigarette and disappears into the steam-shrouded door.EXT RAPTOR PIT - AFTERNOONMuldoon inspects an extremely discouraging sight. The thick mesh thatcovered the pit has been chewed through and ripped open. With heavy gunin one hand, Muldoon shines his flashlight into the pit. It's empty.Muldoon looks up.MULDOON'S POV - the dense forest surrounding the Visitor's Center.Muldoon examines the ground. He locates the raptor prints leading awayMuldoon breaks into a run.INT/EXT GENERATOR ROOM - AFTERNOONMuldoon comes back to the generator room still running full-tilt. Hekicks open the door. Steam pours out. Standing in the thick steam,Muldoon yells for Arnold. No answer. He steps in the doorway andshines his flashlight around.MULDOON'S POV - Only the dark abstract shapes of rakes and coiled ropesand small machinery can be seen in the steam.Muldoon yells again. No answer at all. Muldoon curses and leaves.As soon as Muldoon is gone, there is movement. Even above the sirens,an animalistic breathing, grunting can be heard. Obscured by steam andflashing lights, a reptilian claw clutches a shadow. A pack ofcigarettes falls to the ground, spilling out on the floor.INT CONTROL ROOM - AFTERNOONMuldoon enters and confronts Hammond, Ellie, and Wu, MULDOON Raptors chewed their way out. All five are out there. ELLIE Arnold's not with you?Muldoon looks around grimly. He shakes his head. MULDOON I was hoping he was back here already.Hammond takes charge. HAMMOND This is why my quarters were specially fortified. To assist in an emergency just like this one. Let's go. Muldoon, round up the workers. They'll go with us too.Muldoon stares at Hammond, then drops it. They prepare to go. ELLIE Wait. What about Arnold?EXT HILLSIDE, PARK -Grant and the kids come over the hill. Timmy sees the big fence and theVisitor's Center close behind. TIMMY We're home!Lex and Grant happily run down the hill.EXT ELECTRIFIED FENCE IN PARK - AFTERNOONGrant and the kids stand in the long shadows of the electric fence.This huge fence is much higher than what Timmy has had to climb. Grantturns to him apologetically. GRANT Sorry, Tim. We gotta climb up. TIM That's all right, Dr. Grant. You owe me one.EXT HAMMOND'S QUARTERS - AFTERNOONWu stands at the open sliding gate of the perimeter fence surroundingHammond's quarters.. Next to him is Ellie. Behind both of them,launcher at the ready, is Muldoon. Watching from the window above,Hammond waves. Ellie and Wu wear radio headsets. MULDOON Okay Wu, I'll have you covered at every moment. But this shell carries quite a punch, so if you're too close, it'll take a piece of you. Ellie's on the headset with you. If another ones come at you, let her know. Then Ellie - you start jumping and yelling. The buggers are easily distracted. They'll come running and let Wu get that power on. Then both of you, get behind this fence as quick as possible.Wu and Ellie nod seriously and test radio contact. We starts his wayacross the lawn, Muldoon limps behind with his launcher. Ellie standsready at the open gate.Wu takes slow steps. Muldoon follows. Wu is just five feet away fromthe door to the generator building.CLOSE ON - Wu's tense face.THE ATTACK is sudden and fierce. It comes from the brush. The raptorleaps onto Wu in an instant. Wu and the raptor roll on the ground. Wustruggles for his life. Muldoon can't get a safe shot. He SCREAM: MULDOON Wu, get away. Give me room to shoot.Ellie comes running away from the safety of the gate. She jumps up anddown, waving her hands, and SCREAMS: ELLIE Hey you cretaceous dromaeosaur, you can't catch me. Hey, come and get me, you flat-snouted Mongolian beast. Hey!The Raptor is distracted by this. He lets Wu go for a moment, shakinghim loose from his bloody jaws. Instantly, Wu rolls away. Muldoonfires the rocket launcher. With a SIZZLE, the missile fires. BOOM!Direct hit! The raptor is blown to tiny pieces.Muldoon grabs Wu and pulls the injured man to safety. MULDOON You ok?In reply Wu gets to his feet, looks where the Raptor was. WU Now, there's four.Muldoon helps Wu back inside the fence. He waves for Ellie to come inand join them.Ellie takes off toward the generator building. She YELLS: ELLIE I'm going in. Muldoon, cover the door after I go in. Wu, guide me!Muldoon yells for her to wait but stops when he realizes that this maybe their best plan.Ellie races like a gazelle across the open lawn. She's very fast andgraceful. She ducks into the generator building.Above it all, Hammond watches at the small viewing window.BACK ON - GRANT AND KIDS AT FENCEThe three are at the top of the fence now. Grant carefully lifts Lexabove the barbed wire and she grabs onto the other side of the fence tobegin the climb down. Grant grabs Tim and lifts him next. Tim's tenseface is a river of sweat.INT GENERATOR BUILDING -Ellie finishes the stairs and feels her way along the basement wall.Her face is lit by a flashing yellow light. She bangs her head on apipe. She rubs her head. ELLIE Damn, I banged my head. WU (OVER RADIO) Oh that's good, that must be the water pipe. You're really close now, there's a cabinet just above your head. Reach up and open it. The handle turns to the left.Ellie turns the handle. The cabinet opens. WU (OVER RADIO) It's a large throw-switch. Pull it down, count to three, and push it back up. That's all there is to it.Ellie throws it down. She counts: ELLIE One -BACK ON GRANT AND KIDS -Just a few feet from the bottom of the fence.BACK ON ELLIE - ELLIE Two -BACK ON GRANT AND KIDS -Grant and Timmy jump down. Lex is just behind. Her sneaker catches inthe fence pattern. She pulls on it.BACK ON ELLIE - ELLIE Three!She throws the large switch back.BACK ON LEX -She jumps off the fence. Her sneaker comes off, falls to the ground.CAMERA PUSHES IN ON LEX - it celebrates her narrow escape.Grant casually leans against the fence to help Lex with her shoe.NOTHING! STILL NO ELECTRIC FENCES!The Visitor's Center is in sight. They all turn to each other. Elated. LEX We did it! TIM We made it!Lex jumps up and down. Grant smiles, high-fives Timmy.BACK ON ELLIE -The siren and the flashing lights stop. The room lights go on. Ellieturns to go back upstairs. Her foot slips, she falls to the ground.She has slipped on a pool of blood. She jumps up, recoils.It's Arnold. She squelches a SCREAM, covering her own mouth.SMASH! Ellie SCREAMS as a raptor lunges at her. He jumps down fromabove the water pipe Ellie banged her head on.Ellie turns and races toward a ventilation shaft. She dives into it.The raptor gets there a second late and smashes against the shaft wall.Ellie pushes herself against the shaft wall and, using her legs to pushagainst the wall, begins to climb up.The raptor smashes against the shaft again and gets inside. Elliescrambles up. The raptor snarls and spits but it is momentarily pinned.Ellie continues her scramble up the shaft. At ground level, she slamsher feet hard against a vent, popping it open. Scraping the wall andbanging against pipes, she races toward the door.EXT GENERATOR BUILDING - CONTINUING ACTIONEllie runs full-tilt toward the fence surrounding Hammond's quarters.Wu, injured, lies within the safety of the fenced area. Muldoon standswith his rocket launcher just outside the fence waiting for Ellie.Ellie screams to him as she speeds across the lawn. ELLIE Raptor!The raptor EXPLODES through the door of the generator building afterEllie.Muldoon fires at the raptor. Misses. No time to reload.The raptor gains on Ellie. Muldoon ducks inside the fence's heavy gate.He slides the gate half-shut, waving Ellie on.Ellie dives inside the safety of the fence, losing her headset as shegoes. The gate is almost closed. The raptor lunges.Muldoon slides shut the heavy gate, bashing the raptor's head with allhis might. The raptor shudders, caught in the gate. Stunned, for asecond, it doesn't move.Ellie and Muldoon run to the building. They push open the steel-cladsecurity door and dive inside. Wu limping, chases after them. With acurse, Muldoon pushes the door back open, waves for Wu.ELLIE AND MULDOON'S POV - Wu runs frantically. The raptor jerks out ofthe gate, inside of the fence. He races after Wu. WU Keep it open! I'm coming!Wu runs faster. The raptor gains on him. Wu screams, runs spastically.Wu and the raptor are neck-and-neck, equally close to the open door. ELLIE Come on, Wu! Come on! Run!The raptor is inches from Wu. Both are closer and closer to the door. ELLIE They're coming inside! WU Help!Wu and the raptor are at the door. MULDOON No they're not, Ellie.Muldoon slams the door shut on Wu and the raptor. Wu's screams arehorrific.INT HAMMOND'S QUARTERS - CONTINUING ACTIONEllie drops to her knees, her chest heaving, pulls her headset off witha bleeding hand. Muldoon, affected, turns to her. MULDOON I couldn't compromise everyone's safety.Ellie nods, catches her breath. ELLIE Why didn't the power go on? MULDOON You just reset the power. Now the computer has to be booted.Muldoon looks out the tiny barred window of the security door.MULDOON'S POV - There is already almost no sign of Wu. The gate to theperimeter fence slides shut. The raptor looks up. He is trapped withinthe perimeter fence of Hammond's quarters.CAMERA SLOWLY TILTS to the viewing window above. Hammond stares down.INT VISITOR'S CENTER -Grant and kids walk through the open security doors. All is empty andquiet. They call out but there are no answers. LEX Where did everybody go?Grant thinks. GRANT Probably your grandfather's quarters. Let's go.A DISTANT BELLOW. Grant reconsiders. GRANT Actually, stay here.He corrals the kids into the half completed enclosure of the Gift Shop. LEX No, I want to stay with you.Grant looks around tensely. GRANT No, keep an eye on things round here for me. I'll be back with the others. TIMMY What about -Grant looks at Timmy. GRANT I'll radio the ship as soon as I find somebody. (beat) You're in charge now. Don't move from here ... unless you have to, ok?Timmy nods. Lex is happy, sinks to the floor. LEX Goody! I'm gonna rest.She finds a box of wind-up dinosaur toys. She winds one. Sends itwalking to Timmy. TIMMY Tired! He carried you the whole way.Grant slips off into the concealing shadows of the skeletal display ofthe T-rex and raptor in combat. He looks back above his own shoulderinto the menacing jaws of the skeletal raptor. He shouts back. GRANT Be right back.INT HAMMOND'S QUARTERS -It's a madhouse in the crowded baronial quarters of Hammond. Gennaro issinging at the top of his-lungs while Harding tries to restrain him.Scared Workers huddle together, many are injured. Hammond sits on thefloor, in a meditative trance.Ellie and Muldoon stare out the window.THEIR POV - The raptor is jumping in the air. With every jump he comescloser to leaping onto the roof of their small building.Muldoon regards his rocket launcher ruefully. ELLIE Why don't you just nail that bastard? MULDOON No more ammo. I requisitioned six charges but the bean-counter - (he thrusts a finger at Hammond) - cut it down to two.Ellie looks up to the ceiling. There is a large glass skylight withcrisscrossing iron bars casting an ominous shadow in the sun.EXT THE ANNE B AT SEA - DAYThe ship continues along smooth sunlit sea. Land is in distant sight.INT STATEROOM -The cracked egg is nudged open. The cute scaly head of a six-inch babyraptor nuzzles its way out of the shell. It shakes off a few pieces ofclinging shell and immediately begins to devour one of the remaining eggs. CUT TO:CLOSE ON - The wind-up dinosaur skitters across the polished floor. Itbands against the the wall again and again.Timmy looks down at it and smiles at Lex. LEX Any candy behind the counter? TIMMY Hungry? LEX Starved.Timmy looks behind the counter. He sees boxes of goods. He moves astack of umbrellas out of his way. Lex gets up and pulls one out. TIMMY Nothing. LEX Let's go to the kitchen.She smiles and pops to her feet. Timmy's not sure. TIMMY Dr. Grant said - LEX - let's go. We'll come right back.CLOSE ON - Timmy's torn face. He's hungry, too.He makes the right decision. TIMMY Nope. We're waiting here till Dr. Grant gets back. He'll help us get some -Interrupted by A SOUND. A rhythmic, horrible BREATHING. Now somelight and rapid STEPS. And a SNIFFING. It's definitely an animal.Lex backs off in a hurry. She knocks the umbrella over. It skirtsacross the floor. It spins and opens by itself. Printed on it is theferocious face of the Spitter, the sides of its bright poisonous gillsspinning to a stop.The breathing gets closer and closer. The children huddle together in acorner of the gift shop. They SCREAM.It's A RAPTOR, lean and ferocious. More like a cyborg than a hunter, itstudies the kids from just outside the gift shop entrance. His eyesflick back and forth between the two pieces of meat.Timmy grabs the box of toy dinosaurs. He winds one up and sends it offacross the hall. The raptor glances over at the moving toy. Timmygrabs another, whispers as he winds it. TIMMY Start winding now!Lex and Timmy wind toy after toy, send them across the hall. The raptorleaps, crushing one in its jaws. Others waddle by. The raptor dodgesand darts, grabbing this one, smashing that one.The kids go running out into the hall. They race down the VisitorCenter corridor. Timmy pulls Lex behind him toward the restaurant. LEX Where are we going? TIM The kitchen!INT/EXT HAMMOND'S QUARTERS -With a huge leap, the raptor finally makes it to the roof of Hammond'squarters. He jumps lightly onto the skylight. Glass shatters over theassembled guests and workers below. Total commotion and SCREAMS.The raptor immediately begins to gnaw at the iron bars that block theskylight. Below, they shake off shards of glass and huddle in thecorners. Ellie turns to Muldoon. ELLIE How long? MULDOON Well, they seem to be getting faster all the time. I would say - fifteen minutes.Ellie notices something out the window. It's Grant approaching thegate. She hammers on the glass.Grant's hand reaches for the knob.The raptor stops gnawing, its ears perked up.Ellie screams and screams.Grant notices some of Wu's remains inside the gate. He stops and looksup. At the window, Ellie waves her arms, warning him not to enter.Grant stops. He sees Wu's headset on the grass, reaches through thefence, grabs it, puts it on.Ellie jumps up and gets her headset. She barks into it. ELLIE There's a raptor on the roof of this building. Open that gate and you're a dead man.Grant stares up at Ellie in the window. He waves. She presses her handto the glass. GRANT Ellie, I'm go glad - ELLIE Shut up and listen. We have about fifteen minutes here. The computer has to be rebooted. That'll turn on the electric fences. Besides the raptor stuck in here with us, there are four more ...Grant races back to the Visitor's Center as she continues to fill him in.INT KITCHEN, VISITOR'S CENTER - CONTINUING ACTIONThe kids hurtle through this huge, industrial kitchen. The kitchen is amaze of turns, from the hot lamp pickup area to the rows of stainlesssteel burners to the chopping blocks to the potwashing area. The kidsdart and duck from one area to the next, taking shortcuts under tables,crawling behind counters, scattering pots and pans behind.Relentlessly, with a casual speed, the raptor stalks them. It avoidstheir obstacles with a casual grace and when it cannot fit through theirshortcuts, it just continues around.Timmy pulls open the large silvered door of the freezer. Lex starts tohurry inside. Timmy grabs her. TIMMY We'll freeze to death in there. LEX He's going to eat us!Timmy reaches into the freezer and grabs a pile of steaks. He tosses onetoward the raptor. The raptor gobbles it in one bite. Timmy shoves Lexout of the way and begins to toss the steaks on the floor. One after theother, he tosses them, in a row, closer and closer to the open freezer.The raptor mechanically gobbles the steaks, following their path. Hecontinues right into the freezer to grab the last of Tim's bait.Tim leaps and slams the heavy freezer door shut. Lex comes running andthrows her small weight alongside of Timmy's. TIMMY PUSH!The heave and the lock catches on the door. From inside, there is astrangled CRY and the door is slammed repeatedly. The metal panels ofthe door buckle but they do not break. The door hinges bend and curvebut they do not give.The kids collapse in relief on the kitchen floor. In just a moment,Timmy is back on his feet. LEX What is it, Timmy? TIMMY I just remembered something. Raptors are born in large litters. There's probably more coming. We gotta hide.He grabs her hand and they run out of the back entrance of the kitchen.There's a stairway and they race up.INT GIFT SHOP -Grant, wearing his headset, calls for the kids and looks around the giftshop with concern. He sniffs the air and examines the crushed winduptoys. He sees some animal scales on the floor. He hears a NOISE aboveand begins to run.INT UPPER FLOOR HALLWAY, VISITOR'S CENTER -The kids hear this NOISE too and it's closer to them. They bust into -INT AMBER ROOM, LABORATORY -The kids knock over trays of stones as they rush through this room.INT EXTRACTION ROOM, LABORATORY -Automated drills whir as Tim and Lex crash through, knocking equipmentto the ground. The drills still whir on the ground.INT GENETICS ROOM -The Hamachi-Hood sequencers explode in a heap of punch cards andmagnetic tape as the kids race by.INT INCUBATION ROOM, LABORATORY -The kids slide into this room. They race to its far corner, pastincubators and display cases of chemicals. They look back and see -KID'S POV - A raptor happily gorging itself on a table of eggs. He'sbeen in this room, their place of refuge, the whole time.CLOSE ON - The raptor's glistening eyes register the children.He begins to stalk. The kids SCREAM. This time there is nowhere to go.The raptor closes in on the kids. Timmy feebly stands in front of hisyounger sister.CLOSE ON - The raptor licks its lips, lizard-like.At the other end of the room, GRANT ENTERS quickly. He surveys thesituation. Quickly, he grabs an egg off a table. He reaches into oneof the chemical cabinets with POISON WARNINGS prominently displayed. Hecomes out with a syringe and a vial.The raptor is almost on the kids. Grant coughs conspicuously. Theraptor whirls, studies Grant. He looks back at the children.Grant speaks into the headset. GRANT (TO RADIO) Talk, Ellie, just keep talking.He tosses the headset on the ground. Ellie's voice crackles out. Theraptor studies it, transfixed.Grant injects the egg, then gently rolls it on the ground. The raptorforgets the headset. He comes forward and sniffs the egg, then sucks itup, swallowing it whole.The raptor turns back to the kids. He takes two steps toward them,tenses to pounce - and keels over. DEAD.The kids race around the dead raptor to Grant. Grant grabs his headsetas the three run out of the room. Grant addresses Timmy as they run. GRANT Timmy, you know anything about computers? TIMMY Well, I just got an XT at home. I told my Dad I wanted a 386. GRANT Ok good, you're elected.INT CONTROL ROOM -Grant and Tim and Lex study the quiet room. Grant speaks calmly intohis headset. GRANT (TO RADIO) Okay, we've reached the computer room. Who can tell Timmy how to reboot? ELLIE (OVER RADIO) Ah, Alan, nobody here knows how to boot the computer. Please hurry, we've only got a couple minutes left. GRANT Tim, you got to book the system. They reset the power and there are no phones. We gotta turn on the fences and we gotta stop that ship. LEX Are they going to be ok? GRANT If we can get help very soon. TIMMY Sshh, you guys, I'm thinking.He studies a grid on a large console. He reaches out and touches a partof the screen. There is a beep and a warning sign - INVALID ARGUMENT.PLEASE TRY AGAIN.BACK ON HAMMOND'S QUARTERS -The raptor has chewed almost all the way through the bars. Panic below.In the middle of it all, Ellie is focused, listening on her headset.BACK ON CONTROL ROOM -Timmy tries something else. BEEP. Lex raises a hand. Grant stops her. GRANT (TO RADIO) Ellie, we're working as fast as we can here.Timmy tries a screen section. BEEP. Again. BEEP. Again. BEEP. BEEP.Timmy shakes his head. In desperation he stabs at the keyboard belowthe touch screen. He punches the ESCAPE button.The screen lights up a new message - SYSTEM RESET COMPLETED. ALLSYSTEMS NORMAL.BACK ON HAMMOND'S QUARTERS -The raptor has just chewed through. He squeezes his body into the spaceas the bars ELECTRIFY. Spastically, the raptor jerks back and forth asthe current flows through him. He can't get out.Finally, with a WHIMPER, he stops struggling and slides through thespace he created. With a THUMP, he drops to the floor below.Ellie, Muldoon, Hammond and the workers look on in shock.BACK ON CONTROL ROOM -Grant cheers and hugs Timmy. Lex whoops. ELLIE (ON RADIO) Ok, we're all right here for now. Thanks. GRANT (TO RADIO) Don't mention it. It was Timmy. ELLIE (ON RADIO) But there's still one more raptor. So be careful.Timmy is pushing menus and submenus on the touchscreen now.COMMUNICATIONS - RADIO - VEHICULAR ... He gets the one he wants.He indicates the radio-mike to Grant. TIM I think this is the boat. They called it the Queen Anne or something.Grant grabs the mike. GRANT Queen Anne, do you read me? Queen Anne?The radio crackles to life. RADIO This is the Queen Anne B? I copy. What's up? GRANT Report your position! RADIO Ah, we're just about to dock here in Puntaremas. Who wants to know? Please identify yourself.Tim punches the screen which displays FARRELL, FREDERICK D. (CAPT.)Grant reads it and nods. His voice is tough as nails. GRANT Try this for identification, Captain Farrell. You are in possession of stolen biological materials. If you don't turn that boat around and return to Isla Nublar immediately with your contraband cargo, you will be found in violation of Section 509 of the Uniform Maritime Act, you will be subject to revocation of license, penalties in excess of fifty thousand dollars, and five years in jail. Do you copy?SILENCE. GRANT Do you copy, Captain Farrell? RADIO I copy. All ahead stern.A blinking light on a map indicates that the ship is pulling away fromthe harbor. Grant nods to Timmy who terminates the radio contact. TIMMY What's the Uniform Maritime Code? GRANT Who the hell knows?Grant and Timmy start to celebrate again when Lex interrupts. LEX What good does that do? To have the ship turn around?Grant turns to her seriously. GRANT Well it gives us ten more hours. (to Timmy) Let's see if we can raise the Costa Rican Coast Guard on that thing.The last raptor smashes into the control room through Hammond's viewingwindow. Glass goes flying. Grant and kids go running into the hallway.INT ROTUNDA -With the raptor in hot pursuit, the kids and Grant come flying. Tim andLex jump over the railing, leaping onto the skeletal display. Grantgoes for the stairs, jumping down them three at a time.The raptor goes after the kids, scrambling over the balcony onto thedisplay. The kids scamper down the display, knocking paint cans andtools off the scaffolding as they go. The raptor is just one beatbehind, and his snarling face is splashed with red paint as he chases.The kids burrow into the rib cage of the Rex. They break off floatingrubs and hurl them back at the raptor. The raptor is undeterred,closing the gap on the kids.The kids are stuck at the end of the rib cage - it's closed off by theskeleton and they can't break through. They're imprisoned. The raptoris pushing through the rib cage, bones crackling as it goes.Grant leaps up the scaffolding, grabs a beam, swings his weight onto it,and slams it into the T-Rex's neck. The neck shatters and the massivehead of the T-Rex drops free.It falls directly onto the last raptor, squashing him flat. Dead. GRANT (grimly) And then there were none.EXT HELICOPTER PAD - DUSKMuldoon leads his workers onto an army helicopter. Two workers carryGennaro on a stretcher. Ellie boards with the kids on each side of her,holding her hands.Grant and Hammond walk together, toward the helicopter. HAMMOND Dr. Grant, don't abandon this beautiful place. I need a man just like you to help me get my park back on its feet again. And it will be on its feet again. GRANT We have to leave now.Hammond stops. HAMMOND Oh you don't know. There are wonderful plans in the works, sites already purchased for Euro-Jurassic and Jurassic Japan.Grant is unimpressed. He holds a hand out to Hammond. Hammond tries anew approach. HAMMOND Don't you see I've exalted human potential here? You must see it. You must feel it. I called back a life form. Listen, Dr. Grant, don't go. Be a part of this. I'm inviting you to do just that - let the others go, if they want. GRANT You interrupted natural law. There are regulations, rules that nature follows that make her knowable. HAMMOND You mean there are rules that nature follows that create barriers to our knowledge. GRANT Barriers? Like the seasons? The earth spinning, orbiting the sun? The entire solar system in interlocking motion. Our own beings in biological step with it all. Mr. Hammond, you've disrupted the pattern and look what it's done! HAMMOND I know what it's done. I've made triceratops and gallimimus and a T-Rex. I've got a batch of iguanadons being born on Tuesday. What do you say to that? GRANT Don't count on it. Now get in.Grant jumps in the copter, holds out a hand to Hammond. GRANT You created mutant forms that you further mutated to create amusement attractions. You made biological puppets with heartbeats and an early death sentence. HAMMOND I created genetic miracles! GRANT You created a park to generate a profit- making merchandising operation. HAMMOND The merchandise is just a by-product. Souvenirs for people to reflect on the wonder. You fainted when you saw the brachiosaur. Alan, look, let's not argue. The problem is that my employees were not up to par with my dream. They failed me. The park, I promise you, is safe. It really is.Grant grabs Hammond's arm, starts to tug. GRANT You park is doomed. Now come with me. HAMMOND It is not! It's blooming! In the throes of labor! You are one more more negative voice in a universe of negativity. You'll amount to nothing. You'll be a bone-brusher all your life. I pity you.Hammond pulls his arm away and strides away from the helicopter just asthe ROTORS START UP. Hammond's suit whips in the wind. Grant calls tohim, reaching out his arm. GRANT Come back, Mr. Hammond! It's over!Hammond keeps walking. He disappears over a grassy knoll.Grant's outstretched hand drops to his side when THE ATTACK comes.With a huge bellow, the T-Rex comes charging at the helicopter. THEPILOT screams for all to board as he starts to lift off.The Rex bites onto the copter skid as the copter tries to escape. Thecopter angles dangerously as the Rex holds on.Ellie fires a fire-extinguisher into the furious face of the Rex and itsjaws relax. The copter escapes and starts to climb high into the sky.The Rex paws after it, then drops down to four legs and gives the coptera final swipe with its tail.The tail SWISHES through the air and CRACKS against the plexiglasswindshield which fissures and pops. The pilot struggles to maintainaltitude and manages to keep the craft in the air.With a ROAR of its own, the copter breaks into the blue sky and soars.away, leaving an angry T-Rex alone. Unnoticed by the frustrated Rex,Hammond slips away and walks into the jungle.IN THE COPTER -SLOWLY PAN the exhausted faces of Muldoon and his workers, Lex and Timmyholding onto each other, and Grant huddles next to Ellie. He reachesout and puts an arm around her shoulder. She reaches up and pulls hisarm close. ELLIE They're so beautiful. They're condemned, aren't they? Even those embryo fragments had the same viral contamination. GRANT I have a theory.Ellie looks up in surprise. She give him a big smile. ELLIE You have a theory?Grant smiles back at her. GRANT I think that they could never completely isolate the dinosaur DNA. There was always some microscopic mosquito contamination. But at the molecular level, that was enough. Every dinosaur received the same genetic massage, the encoding that every mosquito gets to terminate life after a season. ELLIE So the very process itself was flawed.She's sad. Grant hugs her. Over her shoulder he gives a parting glanceto the island. A green jewel in a blue sea. Suddenly it is obliteratedby clouds.CAMERA PANS AWAY AND SWOOPS DOWN from the copter. IT CROSSES the sky.THE CAMERA DESCENDS to Isla Nublar, slowly reveling in its naturalbeauty and finally coming to earth in the midst of the verdant jungle.IN THE JUNGLE - MAGIC HOURHammond slowly climbs a steep hill covered with creeping growth. Healmost reaches the top when he slips. He falls to the soft ground androlls. He tumbles helplessly, rolling and spinning down the sharp drop,finally coming to a complete stop in a shallow pool of water. Facedown, his head splashes into the puddle. No movement. Just the sound oflabored breath.CAMERA PANS to Hammond's hand, half-submerged in water. CAMERA MOVESINTO EXTREME CLOSEUP as a mosquito lands on his hand. RACK OUT AND DISSOLVE TO:EXT OCEAN - NIGHTThe army copter circles lower and lower as it finds the Queen Anne B,slowly drifting across the moonlit water. FADE OUT. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Jurassic Park_ The Lost World.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jurassic Park_ The Lost World.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e9bff8e90af061eeaedcee599888557ef08df0cb --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Jurassic Park_ The Lost World.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +THE LOST WORLD JURASSIC PARK Screenplay by David Koepp based on the novel by Michael Crichton EXT. TROPICAL LAGOON - DAY A 135-foot-luxury yacht is anchored just offshore in a tropical lagoon. The beach is a stunning crescent of white sand at the jungle fringe, utterly deserted. ISLA SORNA 87 miles southeast of Nublar Two SHIP HANDS, dressed in white uniforms, have set up a picnic table with three chairs on the sand and are carefully laying out luncheon service -- fine china, silver, crystal decanters with red and white wine. PAUL BOWMAN, fortyish, sits in a chair off to the side, reading. MRS. BOWMAN, painfully thin, with the perpetually surprised look of a woman who's had her eyes done more than once, supervises the settings of the table. She looks up and sees a little girl, CATHY, seven or eight years old, wandering off down the beach. MRS. BOWMAN Cathy! Don't wander off! Cathy keeps wandering. MRS. BOWMAN (cont'd) Cathy, come back! You can look for shells right here! Cathy gestures, pretending she can't hear. BOWMAN (eyes still in his book) Leave her alone. MRS. BOWMAN What about snakes? BOWMAN There's no snakes on a beach. Let her have fun, for once. FURTHER DOWN THE BEACH, Cathy keeps wandering away, MUTTERING to herself as her parents' quarreling voices fade in the distance. CATHY Please be quiet, please be quiet please be quiet... Rounding a curve in the beach, her parents disappear from view behind her. A RUSTLING sound draws her attention, and she turns, toward where the thick jungle foliage gives way to the sand. A large bush, maybe twelve feet tall, is moving, its branches swaying and shaking. Curious, Cathy walks up to the bush, which abruptly stops moving. A small, lizard-like animal, dark green with brown stripes along its back, steps out from the bush. Only about a foot tall, it stands on its hind legs, balancing on its thick tail. It walks upright, bobbing its head like a chicken. CATHY Well, hello there! The animal (a COMPSOGNATHUS) just stares at her. Cathy squats down on her haunches. CATHY (cont'd) What are you? A little bird or something? She opens her hand. She's got a handful of goldfish crackers. CATHY (cont'd) Are you hungry? You want a goldfish? The compy bobs forward a few steps, cautiously. CATHY (cont'd) Come on. I won't hurt you. The compy draws closer. Cathy holds the cracker in the palm of her hand. The compy gets closer still -- -- and hops numbly up onto Cathy's palm. Her arm dips a bit under the weight, but it's not that heavy, and she holds it up easily. It bobs its head, scarfs up the goldfish, and eats it. Enchanted, Cathy breaks into an enormous grin and returns her hand, calling back over her shoulder. CATHY (cont'd) Mom! Dad! You gotta come see this! I found something! She turns back. Thirty more compys have come out onto the sand. They're standing there, bobbing anxiously, staring at her from a few feet away. Cathy's smile fades. She turns her head slowly to the right. TWENTY MORE COMPYS have come in from that side, forming a semi-circle, bobbing and CHIPPING as they surround her. CATHY (cont'd) (terrified) What do you guys want? BACK ON THE BEACH, the table is set. Mrs. Bowman calls out. MRS. BOWMAN Cathy, sweetheart! Lunch is ready! From around the curve of the beach, a flock of birds bolts from the jungle trees as Cathy's shrill SCREAMS suddenly pierce the air. MRS. BOWMAN PAUL! She takes off, running down the beach, Mr. Bowman leaps out of his chair and follows, and all available deck hands race off to help, kicking up geysers of sand behind them. DOWN THE BEACH, Mrs. Bowman stops dead in her tracks when she rounds the bend in the beach. We don't see what she sees, but we hear the frenzied SQUEAKING of the strange compys. Mr. Bowman and the Hands race past her to help Cathy as Mrs. Bowman lets loose a horrified, slack-jawed SCREAM, her mouth a perfect oval. DISSOLVE TO: INT. BOARD ROOM - DAY Mrs. Bowman's screaming face dissolves slowly over the YAWNING face of a bored CORPORATE EXECUTIVE, TWENTY OTHER EXECUTIVES sit around a conference table in the boardroom of a monied corporation. All are in expensive suits, most are over sixty. There are rows of BACKBENCHERS too, whispering in their lawyers who sit behind their clients, whispering in their ears. Empty coffee cups and fast food containers on the table hint that everyone's been here a long time. A familiar VOICE resounds through the boardroom as we move down the long table, pat the grim faces of the board members. VOICE (O.S.) The hurricane seemed like a disaster at the time, but now I think it was a blessing, nature's way of freeing those animals from their human confines. Of giving them another chance to survive, but this time as they were meant to, without man's interference. The source of the voice is JOHN HAMMOND, the founder of InGen and creator of Jurassic Park. But he's not in the room. His image is on a closed circuit TV screen, which has been wheeled up to the end of the table. And he doesn't look good. He's terribly infirmed, propped up in bed, his face pale and drawn, medical equipment BEEPING around him. HAMMOND (cont'd) There are some corporate issues that are not about the bottom line. We have so much still to learn about those creatures. A whole world of intricate, interlocking behaviors, vanished everywhere -- except for Site B. Please. Let's not do what is good for more men at the expense at what is best for all mankind. The CHAIRMAN, seventyish, nods awkwardly to the television. CHAIRMAN Thank you, John. Mr. Ludlow? He turns to PETER LUDLOW, late thirties, a man with the anxious look of someone who insists the buck stop on his desk. Ludlow flips open a file, pulls out a stack of black and white eight by tens, and tosses them on the table. LUDLOW (an accent similar to Hammond's) These pictures were taken in a hospital in Costa Rica forty-eight hours ago, after an American family on a yacht cruise stumbled onto Site B. The little girl will be fine, but her parents are wealthy, angry, and very fond of lawsuits. But that's hardly new to us, is it? (takes a paper from the file) Wrongful death settlements, partial list: family of Donald Gennaro, 36.5 million dollars; family of Robert Muldoon, 12.6 million. Damaged or destroyed equipment, 17.3 million. Demolition, de-construction, and disposal of Isla Nublar facilities, organic and inorganic, one hundred and twenty-six million dollars. The list goes on, gentlemen -- research funding, media payoffs. Silence is expensive. He's warming up. Not a bad performer. LUDLOW (cont'd) This corporation has been bleeding from the throat for four years. You, our board of directors, have set patiently and listened to ecology lectures while Mr. Hammond signed your checks and spent your money. You have watched your stock drop from seventy-eight and a quarter to nineteen flat with no good and in sight. And all along, we have held a significant product asset that we could have safely harvested and displayed for profit. Enormous profit. He reaches out to a model on the table and gives it a shove, sending it sliding down the length of the table in front of them. It's a mini-mall version of a zoo. Cages hold tiny replicas of various kinds of dinosaurs while Boy Scout troops and Tourists look on in wonder. LUDLOW (cont'd) Enough money to wipe out four years of lawsuits and damage control and unpleasant infighting, enough to not only send our stock back to where it was but to double it. And the one thing, the only thing standing between us and this asset is a born-again naturalist who happens to be our own CEO. Well, I don't work for Mother Nature. I work for you. Two of his Backbenchers distribute documents from a stack. Ludlow takes one and reads from it. LUDLOW (cont'd) "Whereas the Chief Executive Officer has engaged in wasteful and negligent business practices to further his own personal environmental beliefs -- Whereas these practices have affected the financial performance of the company by incurring significant losses -- Whereas the shareholders have been materially harmed by these losses -- Thereby, be it resolved that John Parker Hammond should be resolved from the office of Chief Executive Officer, affective immediately." Mr. Chairman, I move the resolution be put to an immediate vote. Do I have a second? BOARD MEMBER I second the motion, Mr. Chairman, Please poll the members by a show of hands. The CHAIRMAN signs heavily, feeling like a traitor. He can't bear to look at Hammond on the TV monitor. CHAIRMAN All those in favor of InGen Corporate Resolution 213C, please signify your approval by raising your right hand. It starts slowly, guiltily, but every hand in the room goes up. Ludlow sits back, victorious. Hammond, furious, raises his right hand, which holds a remote control, and points it at the TV screen. It goes blank. CUT TO: EXT. WELDER'S YARD - NIGHT Sparks fly out the windows and doors of a shed in the middle of a welder's yard. Scrap iron and steel lies everywhere. Somewhere inside the shed, a phone RINGS. The WHOOSH of the arc welder shuts off. DIETER STARK, a big barrel-chested man of forty or so, his face streaked with soot and grime, steps outside with a cordless phone, a cigarette dangling from his lips. DIETER Yeah. He takes a deep drag while someone talks on the other end. He smiles and blows out a cloud of smoke. CUT TO: INT. NEW YORK SUBWAY - NIGHT Smoke turns into steam as a subway THUNDER into a station underneath Manhattan. The door WHOOSH open, spit out some COMMUTERS and suck up a few more. A tall man hurries down the platform, limping heavily, moving as fast as he can. The subway doors begin to close, but just before they meet -- -- the man jams a cane in between, stopping them. The man is IAN MALCOLM, fortyish, dressed in black from head to toe. There's a hard wisdom in Malcolm's eyes that may not have been there's a few years ago -- he know what you think, and he doesn't care. INT. SUBWAY CAR - NIGHT MALCOLM finds a seat on the crowded subway car and sits down. He looks awful. Tired. Weathered. He notices a CURIOUS MAN across from his is staring at his. Malcolm looks away. The Curious Man still stares. Nervy, the Curious Man gets up and approaches. MALCOLM (under his breath) Shit. The Curious Man sits down next to Malcolm, grinning. MAN You're him, aren't you? MALCOLM Excuse me? MAN The guy. The scientist. I saw you on TV. (conspiratorially) I believed you. No response from Malcolm. The guy leans in even closer. MAN (cont'd) Roooooarr. MALCOLM (a withering look) I was misquoted. I was merely speculating on the evolutionary scenario of a Lost World. I never said I was in any such place. He gets up and moves to another seat on the car, away from the Curious Man. As he sits down, he notices two other COMMUTERS across from him are staring at him. He looks at them. They looks away. He pulls the collar of his coat up tight around him. Nowhere to hide. INT. JOHN HAMMOND'S APARTMENT - NIGHT A UNIFORMED BUTLER has a question: BUTLER Whom shall I tell Mr. Hammond is calling? MALCOLM stands in the foyer of an expensively decorated Park Avenue apartment. MALCOLM Ian Malcolm A door opens and a little dog comes YAPPING out of the back. It bounds straight at Malcolm, GROWLING, jaws SNAPPING. It lunges -- -- and Malcolm BATS it away with one swift swing of his cane. The dog rolls across the floor and slinks away, WHINING. The Butler looks at Malcolm disapprovingly. BUTLER Not an animal lover? MALCOLM Not really. INT. HAMMOND'S BEDROOM - NIGHT MALCOLM enters a darkened bedroom. JOHN HAMMOND lies in the bed we saw earlier, on the other side of the room; Medical equipment has been disguised as well as possible among the furniture and flowers, but the sheer abundance of it tells us that whatever has stricken him is going to win this battle. HAMMOND Ian! Don't linger in the doorway like an ingenue, come in, come in! Malcolm steps further into the room. HAMMOND (cont'd) It's good to see you. It really is. How's the leg? MALCOLM Resentful. HAMMOND When you have a lot of time to think, it's funny who you remember. It's the people who challenged you. It is the quality of our opponents that gives our accomplishments meaning. I never told you how sorry I was about what happened after we returned. Noticing Hammond's deteriorated condition, Malcolm finds it hard to sustain anger. MALCOLM I didn't know you -- weren't well. HAMMOND It's the lawyers. The lawyers are finally killing me. MALCOLM They do have motives. Why did you want to see me? Your message said it was urgent. HAMMOND You were right -- and I was wrong. There! Did you ever think you'd hear me say that? Spectacularly wrong. Instead of observing those animals, I tried to control them. I squandered an opportunity and we still know next to nothing about their lives. Not their lives as man would have them, behind electric fences, but in the wild. Behavior in their natural habitat, the impossible dream of any paleontologist. I could have had it, but I let it slip away. (pause) Thank God for Site B. Malcolm just looks at him for a long moment. MALCOLM What? HAMMOND (a spark in his eye) Well? Didn't it all seem a trifle compact to you? MALCOLM What are you talking about? HAMMOND The hatchery, in particular? You know my initial yields had to be low, far less than one percent, that's a thousand embryos for every single live birth. Genetic engineering on that scale implies a giant operation, not the spotless little laboratory I showed you. MALCOLM I don't believe you. HAMMOND Isla Nublar was just a showroom, Ian, something for the tourists, Site B was the factory floor. We built it first, on Isla Sorna, eight-some miles from Nublar. MALCOLM No, no, no, no, no, no . . . HAMMOND After the accident at the park, a hurricane wiped out our facility on Site B. We had to evacuate and leave the animals to fend for themselves. And they did. For four years I've fought to keep them safe from human meddling, now I want you to go there and document them. MALCOLM Are you out of your mind? I still have nightmares, my reputation's a joke, my leg is shot -- you think I need more of that? HAMMOND It would be the most extraordinary living fossil record the world has ever seen. MALCOLM So what? Hammonnd picks up a thick file folder from the night table near to him and open it on his lap. Inside, there are memos, charts, maps and photographs. HAMMOND I've been putting this together for over a year. (MORE) I have personal suggestions for your entire team, phone numbers, contact people. They won't believe you about what they're going to see, so don't bother trying to convince them. Just use my checkbook to get them there. I'll fund your expedition through my personal accounts, as such money and equipment as you need, but only if you leave immediately. If we hesitate, all will be lost. MALCOLM John . . . HAMMOND You'll need an animal behaviorist, someone with unimpeachable credentials. I believe you already know Sarah Harding. She's got theories about parenting and nurturing among hunter/scavengers I bet she'd be dying to prove on a scale like this. If you convince her to go, it'll be a major coup. When she publishes, the scientific community must take it seriously. Malcolm just shakes his head, flipping through the file sadly. HAMMOND Your documentation, you should use forensic photographic methods, Hasselbladt still cameras, high definition video. When the trick photography analysts take your evidence apart, make it impossible for them to say there was enhancement or computer graphic imaging. Oh, this is very important -- avoid the island interior at all costs. Stick to the outer rim. Everything you need to know can be found there. Vindication lies on the outer rim. Malcolm gently closes the file and pushes it back to Hammond. MALCOLM I'm not going, John. HAMMOND (fatigue returning) Ian, you are my last chance to give something of real value to the world. I can't walk so far and leave no footprints; die and leave nothing with my name on it. I will not be known only for my failures. And you will not allow yourself to go down in history as a lunatic. You're too smart. You'e too proud. Dr. Malcolm. Please. This is a chance at redemption. For both of us. There's no time to equivocate, we must seize it now, before -- He stops, staring over Malcom's shoulder. Malcom turns. PETER LUDLOW, still in his overcoat, is standing in the doorway to the bedroom. He looks back and forth from Hammond to Malcolm suspiciously. LUDLOW Hello, Uncle John. Dr. Malcolm. Malcolm doesn't answer. He seems to know Ludlow, and dislikes him. LUDLOW (cont'd) Did I interrupt something? Malcolm turns back to Hammond. MALCOLM Find someone else. CUT TO: INT. HAMMOND'S APARTMENT/FOYER - NIGHT In the foyer, LUDLOW hands MALCOLM his coat, just a trifle rudely, and shepherds him to the door. LUDLOW So, you two were just, uh, telling old campfire stories, were you? MALCOLM Do me a favor. Don't pretend for a second that you and I don't know the truth. You can convince Time magazine and the Skeptical Inquirer of whatever you want, but I was there. LUDLOW You signed a non-disclosure agreement before you went to the island that expressly forbade you from discussing anything you saw. You violated that agreement. MALCOLM You cost me my livelihood. That on which I relied to support my children. LUDLOW If your university felt you were causing it embarrassment by selling wild stories to Hard Copy, I hardly see how I am to-- MALCOLM I didn't tell anything, I told the truth. LUDLOW You version of it. MALCOLM There are no versions of the truth! This isn't a corporate maneuver, it's my life. LUDLOW We made a generous compensatory offer for your injuries. MALCOLM It was a payoff and an insult. InGen never-- LUDLOW InGen is my livelihood, Dr. Malcolm, and I will jealously defend its interests. People will know what I want them to know when I want them to know it. Ludlow tosses something to Malcolm, hard. It sails across the foyer, upright, and Malcolm reaches out and catches it with one hand. It's his cane. LUDLOW (cont'd) Don't forget that. Malcolm stares at him for a long moment. Finally, he turns and walks away. But he does not out of the apartment. Instead, he walks directly past Ludlow, crosses the living room, and steps back into Hammond's bedroom, closing the door behind him with a determined CLICK. INT. HAMMOND'S BEDROOM - NIGHT HAMMOND looks up, hopeful, as MALCOLM comes back into the room and walks over to his bed. He reaches down -- -- and picks up the file folder. MALCOLM Do you have a satellite phone? CUT TO: INT. MOMBASSA BAR - DAY ROLAND TEMBO, late sixties, skin like leather and the diamond hard look of a cobra, sits at a table in the middle of an African cafe/bar in Mombassa. It's daytime and the place is half full, mostly with locals, but there are a few obnoxious TOURISTS too, Americans on safari who somehow found the local handout. They're a noisy bunch, but Roland tunes them out, calmly eating his lunch and drinking a beer while he reads a book, eyeglasses hanging low on his nose. Roland suddenly stops reading and furrows his brow. He looks up. He SNIFFS the air once, then smiles and calls out a person's name. ROLAND Ajay? He turns around. AJAY (AH-jay) SIDHU, a wiry East Indian in his late forties, is standing behind him, caught trying to sneak up. AJAY (delighted) How did you know? ROLAND (taps his nose) That cheap aftershave I send you every Christmas, you actually wear it. I'm touched. Sit down, sit down, what brings you to Mombassa? AJAY You. Tell me, Roland, when was the last time you answered your phone? ROLAND Last time I plugged it in, I suppose. Why? Behind them, the group of TOURISTS, all men, laughs loudly. One of them, the MOST OBNOXIOUS TOURISTS, berates the WAITRESS. AJAY I got a call from a gentleman who's going to Costa Rica, or thereabouts. If he's to be believed, it's a most, uh, unique expedition. And very well-funded. ROLAND Well, I'm a very well-funded old son of a bitch. You go. The Most Obnoxious Tourist bellows for the Waitress. His buddies LAUGHS. Roland throws a glance, annoyed. AJAY But alone? We always had great success together, you and I. ROLAND Just a little bit too much, I think. AJAY How do you mean? ROLAND A true hunter doesn't mind if the animal wins. If it escapes. But there weren't enough escapes from you and me, Ajay. I've decided to spend a bit less time in the company of death. Maybe I just feel too close to it my-- The Waitress comes to the Tourists' table and the Most Obnoxious Tourist actually paws her ass. Roland is out of his chair in a second. ROLAND (cont'd) (to Ajay) Excuse me. Romand walks over to the Tourists' table, says something to the Waitress in the local dialect, and she walks away, behind him. He stares down at the Most Obnoxious Tourist. ROLAND (cont'd) You, sir -- are no gentleman. TOURIST Is that supposed to be an insult? ROLAND I can think of none greater. The Tourist looks at his Buddies and laughs. TOURIST Buzz off, you silly old bastard. ROLAND What do I have to do to pick a fight with you, bring your mother into it? TOURIST Are you kidding? I could take you with one arm tied down. ROLAND Really? IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FLOOR, the Waiter finishes tying a man's wrist to his belt in the back of his pants with a napkin. He pulls the knot tight and the man turns around. It's Roland, with his arm tied down. The Tourist stands across from him. TOURIST I mean my arm. POW! Roland punches him square in the jaw. The Tourist reels, stunned. Enraged, he lunges at Roland, swinging with both arms. Roland bobs, neatly ducking the punches, waits for the Tourist to turn around, and POPS him thrice in the face. The Tourist spins and goes down to the floor, face first. A cloud of sawdust and a loud CHEER from the locals rise up in the bar. BACK AT HIS TABLE, Roland drops the napkin on the table and sits back down with Ajay. In the background, the Tourist's Buddies hurriedly carry their fallen cohort out of the bar. ROLAND Sorry. We were saying? AJAY You broke that idiot's jaw for no reason other than your boredom. Tell the truth, Roland. Aren't you even interested in knowing this expedition's quarry? ROLAND Ajay. Go on up to my ranch, take a look around the trophy room, and tell me what kind of quarry you think could possibly be of any interest to me. Ajay just smiles. CUT TO: EXT. AFRICAN SAVANNAH - NIGHT The African savannah appears in shades of fluorescent green, seen through night-vision goggles. An ANIMAL YELP comes from the left and the green vista sweeps abruptly toward it. The world blurs momentarily, then comes into focus on a field of long grass. The grass ripples in a complex pattern as animals move stealthily through it. One animal head pops up above the grass for a split-second, teeth bared, a white stripe between its eyes. SARAH HARDING pulls the goggles away from her face. SARAH Hyenas. Ace Face is the striped snout. Sarah is thirty, with a compact, athletic body built for the outdoors. She loos through the goggles again, sweeping ahead of the hyenas to their prey. It's a herd of African buffalo, standing belly-deep in the grass, agitated, bellowing and stamping their feet. Sarah turns to MAKENA, her African assistant. SARAH (cont'd) They'll try to take down a calf. Come on. MAKENA Closer? Sarah scurries up and over a rock face. Makena follows. Closer now, they watch as the hyenas rush the herd, running through it, trying to break it up. MAKENA (cont'd) You know, we could see everything from up on the edge of that cliff. SARAH No way. MAKENA But the view would -- SARAH No cliffs. (into a pocket recorder) F1 headed sough, F2 and F5 flanking, twenty yards. F3 center. F6 circling wide east. Can't see F7. While she talks, breathless, fascinated by the drama before her, Sarah continues to creep closer and closer to the action. Makena follows, with growing unease. MAKENA Sarah. SARAH F8 circling north. F1 straight through, disrupting. Herd moving, stamping. There's F7. Straight through. F8 angling through from the north. She's practically on top of the animals now. MAKENA Dr. Harding. Makena has a hold of Sarah's sweatshirt and is tugging her back, at least trying to slow down her progress as Sarah, wide-eyed with fascination, creeps even closer. Suddenly there is a tremendous BELLOWING and the grass right in front of them rips apart, trampled under the feet of the hyenas as they cluster around a fallen buffalo calf. They yelp and jump, their muzzles bloody. The adults move aside, making room as the hyena pups come forward, squealing to get at the kill. Sarah's eyes shine with excitement and she moves even closer, whispering into the tape recorder. SARAH Brooding behavior in evidence at the kill site, pups are ushered forward and adults help them eat, pulling flesh away from the carcass and-- A telephone rings. Sarah stops in mid-sentence, unsure if she heard what she thought she heard. It rings again, the unmistakable CHIRPING of a cellular phone. Sarah and Makena both move at once, pawing at a backpack. SARAH (cont'd) (a frantic whisper) I thought you turned it off! Two hyenas look inquisitively in the direction of the phone. Sarah comes up with it and jabs at a button in irritation. SARAH (cont'd) Yes?! Someone speaks on the other end. Sarah rolls her eyes. SARAH (cont'd) Ian. This better be important. Sarah doesn't say anything for a long moment, just listens as the voice on the other end talks. And talks. SARAH (cont'd) When? CUT TO: INT. MOBILE FIELD SYSTEMS - DAY Ian Malcolm's leg, badly scarred, is bared and draped over the end of a bench. Two sandbags are fastened to his ankle and MALCOLM is lifting them, painfully rehabbing his injury while talking on a satellite phone. MALCOLM We leave in twenty-four hours. Five member team. Behind them, the SPARKS of a acetylene torch fly as WORKMEN make modifications on several vehicles, including a dark-green Mercedes Benz AAV (all-activity vehicle). The hood of the AAV is up and the V-6 engine has been pulled out; a new, smaller engine is lowered in its place. To one side are two long trailers, connected by an accordion-like passageway, like on a subway car, allowing one to be towed behind the other. MALCOLM Eddie Carr's handling all our equipment and he'll be there to maintain it. He's designing special field trailers now, top of the line mobile research units. EDDIE CARR, fortyish, is barking out orders to the Workmen. EDDIE No, no, look at the plans, Henry, you can't place that strut laterally, it has to be crosswise, LOOK AT THE PLANS! From the ceiling, a large metal age CRASHES down, landing next to them on the floor with a deafening CLANG. They leap back and look up. A WORKMAN waves from a scaffolding. WORKMAN Sorry, Eddie! Specs say it can't deform at 12,000 PSI, we had to test it Eddie bends down to inspect the cage, which is rectangular, constructed of inch-thick titanium-alloy bars. Malcolm hangs up the phone and walks up, joining him. MALCOLM Any damage? EDDIE Minimal. MALCOLM "Minimal" is too much. It has to be light, it has to be strong -- EDDIE Light and strong, light and strong, sure, why not, it's only impossible. God save me from academics. MALCOLM You are an academic. EDDIE Former academic. Now I actually make things. I don't just talk. MALCOLM You think I'm all talk, Eddie? EDDIE (doesn't look at him) It doesn't matter what I think. MALCOLM Is there anything we've forgotten? Anything at all? Behind them, someone CLEARS THEIR THROAT. Eddie and Malcolm turn around. KELLY MALCOLM, an African-American girl around twelve years old, stands in the doorway to the garage, a duffel bag slung over one shoulder. She looks at Malcolm and breaks into a wide grin. KELLY Hi, Dad. MALCOLM Kelly! What are you doing here? She drops the bag on the floor, and wraps her arms around him in a warm embrace. He responds stiffly. KELLY Vacation. I'm all yours. You didn't forget, did you? She pulls back and looks at him. KELLY (cont'd) Did you? CUT TO: INT. EDDIE'S OFFICE - DAY KELLY is slumped in a chair in Eddie's office next to the construction floor. Outside the glass windows work on the vehicles continues unabated. MALCOLM hangs up the phone. MALCOLM Okay, Karen is expecting you in half an hour. You only have to stay with her one night, she'll put you on a bus in the morning and your mother will be at the station when you get there. KELLY I don't even know this woman. MALCOLM Well, I do, and she's fantastic. She'll take you to the museum, maybe to a movie if you play your cards right. You're going to have a fantastic time. KELLY Stop saying fantastic. Where are you going? MALCOLM I can't tell you. But I'll be back within a week. KELLY My vacation is over in a week. MALCOLM I'll make it up to you this summer. I promise. KELLY I'm your daughter all the time, you know. Not just when it's convenient. MALCOLM Very hurtful. Your mother tell you to say that? KELLY No, Dad. I have thoughts of my own once in a while. From the construction floor, EDDIE calls out. EDDIE (o.s.) Dr. Malcolm! Malcolm looks at her, trying to make peace. Quickly. MALCOLM Is that kid still bothering you? KELLY Which one? MALCOLM You know, at the bus stop. With the hair? KELLY That was about a year ago. MALCOLM Well, is he? KELLY No. Richard talked to his parents. MALCOLM That Richard. EDDIE (o.s.) Ian, come here a minute! KELLY (to Malcolm) I could come with you. MALCOLM Out of the question. You'd miss the gymnastics trials. You've been training for that for a year. KELLY I don't care about the trials, I want to be with you. I could be your research assistant, like I was in Austin. MALCOLM This is nothing like Austin. Forget about it. KELLY You like to have kids, you just don't want to be with them, do you? He looks at her, hurt. Eddie calls out a third time, impatient now. Grateful for the escape, Malcolm gets up and heads for the door. He pauses guiltily. MALCOLM I'm not like you wan me to be. I've what I can be. He leaves. INT. MAIN FLOOR - DAY While MALCOLM and EDDIE argue over something in the background, KELLY circles around the trailers and looks up at the windows. They're all made of tempered glass, fine wire mesh inside it. She looks around, to see if anybody's watching. They're not, so she quickly slips inside the front trailer. INT. TRAILER - DAY Inside, the trailer is a miracle of planning and design. It's divided into sections, for different laboratory functions. The main area is a biological lab, with specimen trays, dissecting pans, and microscopes that connect to video monitors. Next to it there's an extensive computer section, a bank of processors, and a communications section. All the lab equipment is miniaturized and built into small tables that slides into the walls. Everything is bolted down. She notices a large map on the wall. Off the coat of Costa Rica, there is an area that has been circled in heavy black ink. Kelly puts a finger on the map, crossing westward, through the Pacific Ocean. Thegre are dozen s of islands out here, but in the highlighted region, there is a semi-circle of five. Matanceros. Muerte. Tacano. Pena. And Sorna. Underneath the whole island chain, there is a bold legend. "The Five Deaths," it says. Slowly, an ocean barge starts to chug its way across the face of the map, leaving a wake that rolls the printed letters of those three ominous words. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. OPEN SEA - DAY The map dissolves slowly away as the barge SPALASEHS through five foot ocean swells in the open sea. The barge is crammed with equipment, the AAV, trailers, a jeep, and the members of Malcolm's team. ON THE BOAT, MALCOLM stands in the bow, riding the choppy seas. Next to him, DR. JUTTSON, fortyish, holds onto the railing, seasick. He SHOUTS over the DRONE of the boat's engines. JUTTISON (as the waves pound the boat) Couldn't -- we just -- airlift -- into the -- island? MALCOLM Dr. Harding insisted we go by sea! Helicopters are too disruptive. These aren't piles of bones you'll be studying this time, Dr. Juttson, they live, they breathe, and they react! Juttson looks at him skeptically -- -- and throws up. AT THE BACK OF THE BOAT, NICK VAN OWEN, a good-looking American in his late twenties, is sitting amid a pile of video cameras and other photographic equipment, playing with a Game Bow. SARAH HARDING, dressed in field gear, sits down next to him. SARAH So what's your story, Nick? NICK I was a cameraman for Nightline for six years, been freelance since '91. Do a lot of work for Greenpeace. SARAH That must be interesting. What drew you there? NICK Women. 'Bout eighty percent female in Greenpeace. SARAH Very noble of you. (of the noisy Game Boy) You don't think you're bringing that thing onto the island, do you? Nick grins and shuts it off. NICK Hey, I wouldn't want to spook the woolly mammoths. SARAH You think this is all a joke? NICK Oh, please. How am I supposed to keep a straight face when -- (gestures to the black-clad Malcolm) -- Johnny Cash here tells me I'm going to Skull Island? SARAH (not amused) Ian's a very good friend of mine. NICK He doesn't need a friend, he needs a shrink. SARAH I believe in him. But her face says even she has her doubts. NICK Come on, there's only one reason any of us are here. His check cleared. She looks at him. SARAH Drop the cynical pose. You can't pull it off while playing Donkey Kong. The boat's CAPTAIN, a Costa Rican, points ahead and SHOUTS to them. CAPTAIN There it is! They all turn and look out over the bow. Up ahead, shear, reddish-gray cliffs of volcanic rock rise dramatically out of the fog-heavy ocean. CAPTAIN (cont'd) Isla Sorna! The boat ROARS ahead, plowing into a heavy wreath of fog. The mist swirls and encircles it. EXT. ISLAND FIORD - DAY A narrow inlet cuts through the steep cliffs, leading to the island interior. The barge bursts through the fog at the mouth of the fiord and heads deeper into the island. EXT. LAGOON - DAY Lush green plants drip everywhere in this verdant lagoon. Sulfurous yellow steam issues from the ground, bleaching the nearby foliage white. In the distance one can hear the cries of JUNGLE BIRDS. The boat is now beached and the CREW flips the tarps off the AAV, the jeep, and the trailers. The trucks back down a narrow ramp and onto the soft clay shore at the edge of the lagoon. There is a large three-toad animal imprint in the clay at the water's edge, and the AAV backs right over it, swapping its track for the animal's. MALCOLM is at the edge of the water with the CAPTAIN. MALCOLM Be back in three days, but keep the satellite phone on and your radio tuned to the frequency I specified in case we need you sooner. CAPTAIN Don't worry. I've lived around here all my life, these islands are completely -- In the distance, they hear the faint, strange ROAR of a very large animal. The Captain looks at Malcolm, eyes wide. CAPTAIN (cont'd) -- safe. CUT TO: EXT. GRASSY PLAIN - DAY The jeep tows the double trailer to the edge of a grassy plain just beyond the lagoon, overlooking the interior of the island. The noon sun is high overhead; below, the valley shimmers in midday heat. EDDIE connects a flexible cable to the jeep's power winch and flicks it on. The cable turns slowly in the sunlight. Moving along the length of it, we see the cable leads to a pile of aluminum, some kind of strut assembly painted a camouflage color. As the winch pulls the cable tight, the jumble of thin struts begins to move, slowly rising into the air. The emerging structure climbs, spidery, struts unfolding, fifteen feet into the air. The light house at the top (the cage that was tested back at Eddie's workshop) is now just beneath the lowest branches of the nearby trees, which almost conceal it from view. NICK lights a cigarette and carelessly tosses the match on the ground. Malcolm notices. MALCOLM Listen. I know you all have probably concluded that I'm out of my mind. Is it our imagination, or did the trees behind Malcolm just sway slightly? MALCOLM (cont'd) That's all right, for now. But just humor me and be careful. No, it's not our imagination, there they go again. Whole trees shivering and swaying from left to right and back again. MALCOLM (cont'd) Even if you think I'm harmless and deluded, I promise -- Now the trees CREAKS and GROAN as they sway. Everyone has seen it, and now Malcolm turns around too. MALCOLM (cont'd) -- this place is for real. CUT TO: INT. DOUBLE TRAILERS - DAY It's quiet inside the trailers that serve as their command post/living quarters. The books are lined up neatly on the shelves. The computers sit, booted up and awaiting data input. All the way in the back, past the spare tires and life preservers and canned food and bottled water, up in one storage bin all the way on top, there's a RUSTLING SOUND. A plastic student ID card pops out in the cracks under the bin's door. A photograph in the lower right hand corner of the card is visible -- it's Kelly, Malcolm's twelve-year-old daughter. The card wriggles against the lock and, with a soft CLICK, the door pops open. KELLY herself tumbles out, wrapped in several blankets and carrying a mason jar half full of a yellowish liquid. We can guess. She leaps to her feet, blinks the light out of her eyes, and bolts to the back of the trailer as fast as she possibly can. She races through a narrow door and SLAMS it shut. A sign on the door says "RESTROOM." Inside, a SIGH of relief is heard. CUT TO: EXT. JUNGLE TRAIL - DAY Along a stream bed, the jungle trees still shiver. NICK loads a three quarter inch tape into his heavy video camera and chews anxiously on a piece of gum. SARAH and DR. JUTTSON are beside him as the group nervously follows the GROANING forest trees to their right. At the rear, EDDIE and MALCOLM walk side by side. Eddie is carrying a heavy silver rifle, an aluminum canister hanging beneath the barrel. He shows it to Malcolm, his voice low and urgent. EDDIE Lindstradt air rifle. Fires a subsonic Fluger impact-delivery dart. He cracks open the cartridge bank, revealing a row of plastic containers filled with straw-colored liquid. Each is tipped with a three inch needle and carries a bright yellow warning tag -- "EXTREME DANGER! LETHAL TOXICITY!" EDDIE (cont'd) I loaded the enhanced venom of Conus purpurascens, the South Sea cone shell. Most powerful neurotoxin in the world. Acts within a two-thousandth of a second. Faster than the nerve-conduction velocity. The animal's down before it feels the prick of the dart. From their right, the shaking trees seen closer now. By walking down the stream bed, the humans are tracking right along with the animals as they move in the foliage. MALCOLM (to Eddie) Is there an antidote? EDDIE Like if you shoot yourself in the foot? Wouldn't matter. You'd be dead before you realized you'd accidentally pulled the trigger. Ahead of them, thick foliage blocks the path of the dried up stream bed to the height of about fifteen feet. But around them, the CRASHING sounds get louder and closer, the swaying trees shiver right beside them. Eddie raises the rifle in defense as the trees right at the edge of the stream bed sway and part. Above the foliage, they see the sudden movement -- -- of a row of STEGOSAUR fins. The spade-shaped fins run along a ridge down the middle of the animal's back, about three feet tall each. The group freezes, amazed, and as the stegosaur continues on, they get a good look at it through a break in the foliage. It's a large dinosaur with a small head, a thick neck, and a huge lumbering body. A double row of plates runs along the crest of its back, and it has a dragging trail with long spikes in it. The gum drops out of Nick's mouth, FLOPS onto his shirt, and sticks there. NICK Oh -- JUTTSON -- my -- EDDIE -- God! SARAH It's beautiful! A second stegosaur, a baby about a quarter the size of the first animal, breaks through the foliage, following the adult. While the group is reaching to that, the earth vibrates and a third stego, by far the biggest of the three, walks out of the foliage right behind them, crossing within ten feet. Apparently unconcerned about these little creatures in their environment, the stegos continue on across the stream bed. Sarah raises a still camera and shoots pictures. Her shutter is muted, so that a muffled CLICK is all that's audible. Juttson raises a pocket recorder to his lips and whispers into it breathlessly. JUTTSON Stegosaurus, family Stegosauridae, infraorder Stegosauria, suborder Thyreophora. Length, adult male, estimate twenty-five to thirty feet. His breathy words turn into almost helpless laughter, of all things, as he can't contain his astonishment. Eddie covers his mouth, trying to keep him quiet. SARAH (to Juttsn) That was a pair bond! A family group, even, long after that infant was nestbound! JUTTSON I want to see the nesting ground! Nick turns to Malcolm, eyes like saucers, and makes a futile, wordless, boy-was-I-wrong-on-this-one gesture. Malcolm smiles, leans over, and TAPS softly on Nick's video camera. Nick raises it to his shoulder and flicks it on as the group continues on into the bush after the animals. IN THE BUSH, the baby wanders away from the group and ambles over near where Sarah crouches in the bushes. Sarah raises her camera again and silently SNAPS a picture. She WHISPERS to Juttson, who is beside her. SARAH Lone nest -- not colonial. I don't see an egg clutch... She gestures and Juttson peers through a pair of field glasses. JUTTSON (whispering back) The empty shells are crushed and trampled. The young stay in the birth environment, that's conclusive! SARAH Not without a shot of the nest. She sees an opportunity. As the baby heads back to its parents, Sarah scoots right along with it, moving behind it, using its body as a shield to block her from the view of the other two. Nick and Eddie's faces whiten in alarm. Nick reaches out to stop her, but he barely gets hold of the sole of her boot before she pulls away from him and duckwalks out into the clearing. IN THE CLEARING, Sarah slinks along behind the baby stego as it walks back, toward the nest, chewing the branches it carries in its south. She raises up sightly, squeezing off pictures of the herd, ever better as she gets closer. BACK AT THE HILL, the others can only watch her, aghast. NICK She's gutty. MALCOLM She's nuts. IN THE CLEARING, Sarah keeps moving closer. The baby passes a small grouping of rocks and Sarah ducks behind them. She's now in a perfect position to photograph the nest, and she squeezes off picture after picture from this ideal vantage point. She shoots the last picture on the roll -- -- and the camera's autowinder WHIRS to life. Sarah looks down in horror as the camera's motor WHINES loudly in her hands. Th noise startles the animals. The male turns toward her the plates on its back bristling. Sarah gets to her feet and starts to move away, slowly. The male turns away from her and swings its tail, spikes extended. It WHIZZES through the air, right at her, but Sarah leaps back at the last second -- -- and the tail's spikes THUD into the dirt where she was. Sarah CRUNCHES to the ground and the three stegosaurs dart away, disappearing into the bush, moving surprisingly quickly for animals their size. The others run to Sarah, help her to her feet, and pull her back, against a massive tree trunk. But the tree trunk lifts right up off the ground. It's no tree, it's a DINOSAUR'S LEG, a massive one, six feet across, God knows how many feet high. The Group gasps and looks up as a MAKENCHIASAURUS, an enormous saurupod over a hundred feet from nose to tail, lumbers away from them. The Group stares in wonder as the mamenchiasaur stops and HONKS furtively, its long neck stretched out above them. Now a second mamenchiasaur neck cranes out of the surrounding forest trees and wraps around the first. The first mamenchiasaur THUNDERS around in a semi-circle, getting into position behind the second. Nick swings his video camera straight up and the group suddenly finds itself in the middle of a mamenchiasaur mating. The mighty tails swing and SNAP around them as the two animals come together, and trees start snapping and falling, CRASHING to the jungle floor. The group panics and bolts for cover toward the only place where the trees are not falling -- which is directly underneath the animals! Amid HONKS and BLEATS, the swinging tails continue to deforest the jungle around them. The noise and chaos is deafening, drowning out the LAUGHTER and SCREAMS of the fascinated and terrified group. There is a momentary lull and the group dashes out from underneath the animals, disappearing into the thick forest. A SHORT DISTANCE AWAY, the Group collapses to the ground, breathless, chests heaving with wild, frightened laughter. Sarah goes to Malcolm and throws her arms around him, exhilarated. SARAH Ian, you're not insane! I'm so glad! JUTTSON (out of breath) Dr. Malcolm -- the world -- owes you an apology. CUT TO: EXT. JUNGLE TRAIL - DAY Suddenly, the Gathereres are taking their expedition a lot more seriously. They march quickly back to base camp, their energy and excitement palpable. NICK strikes a match and raises it to a cigarette with a shaking hand, but SARAH leans in and blows it out. SARAH No more smoking. We leave no scent of any kind. No hair tonics, no cologne, seal all our food in plastic bags. We will observe and document, but we will not interact. MALCOLM That's a scientific impossibility, you know. Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Whatever you study, you also change. Nick ejects the used videotape from his camera and pulls out a sharpie, to label it. NICK What should I call this? "Jurassic Pork?" Eddie, next to him, laughs. SARAH (still to Malcolm) And let's forget about the high hide. We can't do this kind of work up in a tower, we need to be out in the field, as close to the animals as possible. JUTTSON I'm not surprised stegosaur lived in a family group, but there's never been anything in the fossil record to prove the carnivores did. SARAH Why wouldn't they? Look at hyenas, jackals, nearly all species of predator birds -- JUTTSON That doesn't say a thing about T-rex, they could have been rogues. Robert Burke certainly thinks they were. SARAH We've got to see one to find out. Is there any -- MALCOLM No way. NICK Oh, my God. SARAH -- way we could safely -- NICK Oh, no! He takes off, running as fast as he can, down the trail, toward base camp. They look ahead, in the direction Nick is running. A plume of black smoke is rising up over the trees. EDDIE Fire! CUT TO: EXT. BASE CAMP - DAY NICK bursts out of the trees and races toward the thick plume of smoke. In the middle of the base camp, someone has neatly built a campfire surrounded by stones. Flames burn in the middle. Nick races over to it and stomps it out as the OTHERS emerge from the trees behind him. MALCOLM A campfire?! Nick grabs a jug of water, but Sarah steps in. SARAH No! Water mixes the smoke billow, use dirt! They start to kick and rake dirt onto the fire with their hands and feet. Eddie and Dr. Juttson jump in and help out. MALCOLM Who the hell started a campfire?! VOICE (o.s.) It was just to make lunch. Malcolm turns toward the source of the voice. KELLY stands in the doorway of the trailer, sheepish. KELLY (cont'd) I wanted it ready when you got back. The whole group stares, stunned, none more so than Malcolm himself. MALCOLM Oh ... man. CUT TO: EXT. BASE CAMP - LATER Later, and base camp is a blur of activity. SARAH, JUTTSON, NICK, and EDDIE are hard at work, burying the remains of the fire, sealing their food in plastic bags, loading camera equipment, packing up specimen containers and other information-gathering equipment. MALCOLM, meanwhile, is lecturing Kelly. MALCOLM You know you were putting yourself in a potentially dangerous situation, but you didn't bother to find out how dangerous before you leapt in. You don't have the faintest idea what's going on on this island! SARAH (loading a backpack) What do you want to do, Ian, lock her up for curiosity? Where do you think she gets it? JUTTSON (to Nick) Do you have chromium tapes? The others fog in high- NICK -humidity, I know. (waving a tape) Highest lead density on the market. EDDIE (to Malcolm) We've got a lot of heavy marching ahead of us. I'm not carrying anybody. KELLY I can keep up. MALCOLM You're going home. I'm sending a radio call for the boats. We'll all go down to the lagoon and wait for them. SARAH Lighten up, Ian, you sound like a high school vice-principal. MALCOLM I'm her father. KELLY Sure, now. Nick leans over and whispers to Eddie, gesturing to Malcolm and Kelly. NICK Do you see any family resemblance here? MALCOLM You can't stay, Kelly, that's it. It's too dangerous. SARAH If it's so dangerous, why'd you bring any of us? KELLY You're wrong, Dad. I do know what's going on on this island. MALCOLM How could you possibly? KELLY Because you said so. Maybe nobody else believed you, but I always did. He looks at her, touched. Nick mutters to Eddie again. NICK The kid scores with cheap sentiment. SARAH Ian, if we recall the boat now, we've made two invasive landings in one day. That'll have to go in any paper I write, and it will leave room for people to say our findings were contaminated. You know the academic world as well as I do, once they smell blood in the water, you're dead. Our presence has got to be one hundred percent antiseptic. That means if we bend a blade of grass, we bend it right back the way it- A low sound has been rising while she speaks, and now it comes BOOMING over the jungle around them, a THUNDEROUS racket that shakes the very ground beneath them. Suddenly, three C-130 military cargo planes THUNDER overhead and ROAR toward the island interior, flying very low. The planes are enormous, fat-assed creatures, their rear cargo doors hanging open. AT A RIDGE, the members of the gatherer expedition hit the dirt and peer over a ledge, watching as the airplanes bank and circle over a specific spot. Eddie raises a pair of field glasses. DOWN BELOW, huge metal equipment containers are shoved out the back of the cargo bays. They SNAP off trees like matchsticks, CRUSH flat anything foolish enough to exist where they want to land. Now MEN pour out the rear of the planes, their low-altitude parachutes billowing open behind them. UP ON THE RIDGE, Nick looks at Sarah. NICK You were saying something about antiseptic? CUT TO: EXT. HUNTERS' CAMP - DAY Metal container doors CLANG to the ground, jeep engines ROAR to life in a cloud of thick black diesel smoke, blue laser barriers SIZZLE and BURN through foliage as this group of HUNTERS establishes a perimeter around their new camp. PETER LUDLOW, dressed in brand new Banana Republic safari wear, steps into the center of the camp and surveys the surroundings. He turns to DR. ROBERT BURKE, a ragged, pony-tailed man in wire-rimmed glasses. LUDLOW Welcome to your dream come true, Dr. Burke. Burke has a detailed set of satellite recon photographs that he spreads out on the hood of a jeep. BURKE I believe the large herbivores forage in open plains, like bison, which would explain the great variety of heat dots we're reading in the flatlands around this waterhole. Right -- here. LUDLOW Then that's where we're going. Burke flips open a manifest that he will carry with him at all times. Inside, there are dozens of sketches of various kinds underneath. As each vehicle ROARS out of the equipment container, Burke slips a waterproof eight by ten card with an icon of the various dinosaurs on the island into a slot in the dashboard. BURKE (calling them off) Hadrosaurus! Carinthosaurus! Maiasaurus! As the procession goes on, Ludlow turns to DIETER STARK, the man we saw welding earlier. LUDLOW This is as good a place as any for base camp. First priority is the laser barriers, I want them all up and running in thirty minutes. Half an hour, understand? Dieter nods and turns to some of the HUNTERS, who number about twenty in all, that are working nearby. But someone steps in front of Dieter, cutting him off. It's ROLAND TEMBO, the hunter from the bar in Mombassa. ROLAND Cancel that, Dieter. LUDLOW What? Why? Roland points to a stream running nearby. ROLAND Carnivores hunt near stream beds. Do you want to set up base camp or an all-you-can-eat people bar? LUDLOW (thinks) You heard his, Dieter. Find a new spot. And remember, we're after herbivores only -- no unnecessary risks. Dieter SIGHS and goes to work. Roland puts an arm around Ludlow and pulls him aside. ROLAND Peter, if you want me to run your little camping trip, there are two conditions. First -- I'm in charge, and when I'm not around, Dieter is. Your job is to sign the checks, tell us we're doing a good job, and open your case of scotch when we have a good day. Second condition -- my fee. You can keep it. All I want in exchange for my services is the right to hunt one of the tyrannosaurs. A male. Buck only. Why and how are my business. If you don't like either of those conditions, you're on your own. Go ahead and set up your camp right here, or in a swamp, or in the middle of a rex nest, for all I care. But I've been on too many safaris with rich dentists to listen to any more suicidal ideas. Okay? LUDLOW (what else can he say?) Okay. ROLAND Good lad. CUT TO: EXT. JUNGLE The jungle foliage shivers, quakes, and finally falls as the Hunters' convoy ROARS into the hart of the jungle. DIETER STARK stands in the front of the lead vehicle, the "speedbird," waving the convoy forward, his Driver (CARTER) at the wheel beside him. LUDLOW is in the back seat of the speedbird next to DR. BURKE. ROLAND and AJAY, his tracker, are in the second jeep. They look up as the brakelights on the speedbird flash and the car stops, forcing the rest of the convoy to halt as well. In the front, the speedbird flashes its lights at something in front of it. Dieter climbs out, plainly irritated. He walks around the front of the car and sees -- -- four PACHYCEPHALOSAURS eating grass in the middle of the jungle trail. They're about five feet tall, thick, heavy-set animals whose distinctive feature is an enormous skull casing, a tall, impressive crown that rises on the tops of their heads. Dieter doesn't seem impressed. He looks back at Ludlow, who look at Dr. Burke. Burke stands up in his seat, a look of wonder on his face. BURKE Pachycephalosaurus! LUDLOW Carnivore? BURKE (enchanted) Huh? No! No, herbivore, late Cretaceous. Very unusual plant eater, see that distinctive domed skull? That's nine inches of solid bone. LUDLOW (who cares?) Just get them out of the way, Dieter. DIETER COME ON, MOVE IT!! The pachys look up at him sluggishly, still eating, like cows chewing their cuds. As unimpressive with him as he is with them, they go back to their grass. DIETER (cont'd) Oh, for God's -- He slings his rifle off his shoulder and aims it at the closest animal. Behind him, Roland has climbed out of the second jeep. ROLAND Dieter. This is a round-up, not a war. Use your powers of persuasion. Dieter gestures to the speedbird to pull ahead, which it does, slowly, toward the animals. The pachys look up, alert, but do not move. Dieter walks toward them. DIETER Come on, come on, don't have all day! BURKE (going on to no one in particular) See, the pachy's neck attaches at the bottom of its skull instead of the back of its head, as with reptiles. The speedbird draws closer. The first pachy stares at it intently. The lead vehicle gets closer, closer -- -- and BANGS into the pachy, knocking it back a few feet, out of the way. BURKE (cont'd) So when it lowers its head, its neck lines up directly with its backbone -- BEHIND DIETER, Ajay is staring at something on the ground at his feet. He takes a few steps further into the foliage, then turns back toward Roland. AJAY Roland. UP AT THE FRONT, the pachys turn and hop away. Dieter turns and heads back to the speedbird. As he reaches for the door, a VOICE calls "look out!" from behind him. Dieter spins around, just in time to see -- -- the first pachy in full charge. It SLAMS headfirst into the speedbird, SMASHING the headlights and denting the grill. BURKE (concluding his lecture) Which is perfect for absorbing impact. Dieter turns and runs around to the front of the car. The pachy has backed up for another run and is now CHARGING RIGHT AT HIM. Dieter retreats, quickly, and rips open the passenger door to protect himself. SLAM! The pachy clobbers the door, sending Dieter flying against the car, knocking the wind out of him. In the other jeeps, the rest of the HUNTERS stand up or lean out the window for a better look, laughing. POW!! The pachy head-butts the tire next to Dieter. It bounces off, tumbles to the ground, and rolls to its feet as Dieter gets to his knees and crawls toward the back of the speedbird. But the pachy is quicker and lunges at Dieter again. He's forced to hit the dirt and crawls quickly underneath the speedbird, just as the animal SLAMS into the rear of the vehicle. Now the other three animals join the jun. Ludlow and the Driver have to cover their heads as the animals lunge at the car again and again, SMASHING the steel-meshed windows and MANGLING the quarter panels. The rest of the group watches, vastly amused. A FEW STEPS INTO THE JUNGLE, Ajay and Roland are staring at something on the ground -- an animal footprint, three-toed, enormous. AJAY It matches the pictures. ROLAND It certainly does. Roland gets up and goes back to his vehicle, ignoring the pachy demolition derby that continues up at the speedbird. Roland opens a case in the back of the jeep, revealing -- -- his gun. It's an antique elephant gun, a double barreled .600 Nitro Express. Nearly a hundred years old, it's still in immaculate condition, its rosewood stock buttery smooth, bisons delicately engraved along its silver breach. The barrels are twenty-four inches long, topped with an ivory bead foresight at the business end. Roland scoops up the gun, breaks the breach, and pulls two rounds of ammunition from his shirt pocket. Four inches long and three-quarters of an inch in diameter, these are the largest full metal jacket cartridges ever made. He slips one into each barrel and heads back into the bush. Roland pauses before he goes, as if noticing the animals trashing the speedbird for the first time. ROLAND HEY! The pachys all freeze, staring at him. Roland waves one hand, HISSES sharply between his teeth -- -- and the pachys scatter, back into the jungle. Takes care of that problem. Roland turns and heads back into the jungle, calling out over his shoulder to Ludlow. ROLAND (cont'd) Don't worry about us. We'll catch up. LUDLOW Where do you think you're going?! ROLAND To collect my fee. And with that he disappears into the foliage. The Driver of the Speedbird drops it into gear and the battered car GROANS forward. As it moves ahead, it reveals DIETER, lying underneath it, ego bruised worse than body. IN THE JUNGLE, Ajay takes a step into the bush, but at a ninety degree angle away from the direction in which the animals tracks lead. ROLAND Ajay. Ajay turns. Roland points in the direction in which the footprints lead. ROLAND (cont'd) I'm no tracker, but even I can read this spoor. AJAY Do you wish to go where the animal has been, or where the animal is? Roland smiles. Ajay sets off in his direction and Roland follows. CUT TO: EXT. ISLAND RIDGE - DAY Seen from a ridge above them, the hunters' convoy continues to plow through the jungle. But how the hunters themselves are being tracked, followed by the GATHERERS. They scurry along as fast as they can, trying to keep pace with the moving vehicle below. EDDIE Why didn't you tell us about these guys, Ian?! MALCOLM Because I didn't know! I don't have the faintest idea what they're doing here. NICK (angry) Ruining everything, that's what they're doing. You could choke on the diesel smoke already! SARAH Ian, nothing we observe will be valid if we're trailing along in the wake of an army. Kelly has a pair of binoculars and is studying the vehicles as they move below. KELLY "InGen." What's InGen? MALCOLM Where does it say that? KELLY On the side of that one truck. Malcolm takes the binoculars and stares down there himself. JUTTSON InGen is a genetics corporation, isn't it? NICK (to Malcolm) Is that who we're really working for?! Gene splicers?! MALCOLM No! We're an independently funded expedition. SARAH Funded by whom? MALCOLM John Hammond. JUTTSON But he's the head of InGen! NICK You gotta be kidding. (to Malcolm) You dragged me out of Greenpeace to be a corporate stooge? You couldn't get anybody else? KELLY Yeah, what have you done, Dad? SARAH We'd better keep moving, or we'll lose them. The group moves on ahead, but Malcolm lingers, angry, staring through the binoculars. MALCOLM What are you doing to me, John? CUT TO: EXT. THE CAVES - DAY AJAY and ROLAND make their way through the foliage and come into a small clearing, where a cluster of caves is carved into the rock. Ajay freezes, gesturing ahead, to the cave on the far left. Roland pulls up a handful of grass and releases it on the breeze. It floats back between his legs. That's good. He proceeds toward the cave, carefully, Ajay behind him. They can see nothing beyond the yawning mouth of the cave, only a black interior. Roland pauses, looking down. On the ground to his right he sees the partially eastern leg of a creature. It's old, crawling with white maggots and flies. Roland continues on. Closer to the cave, he now passes the skull of a large animal, some of the flesh and green skin still adhering to the bone. It, too, is covered with flies. Still he continues on. A short rise leads into the cave, and they edge up it. From inside the cave, they can hear an odd SQUEAKING sound, very high-pitched. Crawling now, Roland and Ajay scale a four-foot circular rampart of dried mud, and peer into -- -- the tyrannosaur nest. It's flattered inside, about ten feet in diameter, completely encircled by earthen walls. A BABY TYRANNOSAUR, about four and a half feet long, is in the center of the nest. It has a large head, very large eyes, and its body is covered with a fluffy red down, which gives it a scraggly appearance. It SQUEAKS repeatedly, tearing awkwardly at the remains of a chunk of animal flesh, biting decisively with tiny, sharp teeth. The cave itself is a foul boneyard. ANIMAL CARCASSES litter the edges, flies BUZZ in the captive air. Roland raises a bandana to his nose to cover the stench. He turns to Ajay and WHISPERS. ROLAND It's the rex nest. Ajay nods. The baby tyrannosaur hears the whisper and looks up, cocking its head in curiosity. AJAY Make a blind here? Wait for the buck to return? ROLAND (shakes his head no) If the nest is upwind, so are we. When he comes back, he'll know we're here before we have a chance. The truck -- In the nest below, the baby SQUEAKS angrily at the intruders. ROLAND (cont'd) -- is to get him to come where we want him. The baby SQUEAKS again, indignant. Roland turns and looks down at it. Thinking. CUT TO: EXT. RIDGE - DUSK As the sun glows bright orange on the horizon, NICK raises a pair of binoculars to his eyes and peers down at the vista below the ridge. In the lenses of the binoculars, we can clearly see a mixed herd of midsized herbivores -- HARDOSAURS, PACHYCEPHALOSAURS, and CALLIMIMUSES -- racing across the plain below. MALCOLM, also staring through binoculars, lies on the ridge beside him. SARAH is several feet behind them, her back pressed against a tree, unwilling to go to the lip of the ridge. THROUGH NICK'S BINOCULARS We see a shaky point of view of the herd running. The binoculars whip to the right -- -- revealing a jeep chasing the herd Not just one jeep, in fact, but a whole FLEET OF HUNTER PURSUIT VEHICLES! There are two herding jeeps, one motorcycle, as speedier mini-jeep, and, further behind, a container truck and a wrangler's pickup truck. Although there's a great deal of commotion below, up here it's almost eerily silent. ON THE RIDGE, Nick lowers the binoculars, angry. When he raises them again, the sun FLARES off the lens -- EXT. THE PLAIN - DUSK -- and when the brilliant flare clears, we're right down in the middle of the roundup. Engines ROAR, wheels spin and dig in the dirt, men SHOUT and radios SQUAWK as the hunter vehicles pursue the fleeting herd they're flushed. The HUNTER SHOUT and SHRIEK with glee, incredulous and thrilled by the spectacular animals they're pursuing. HUNTER LOOK AT THESE THINGS! HUNTER 2 THEY'RE BEAUTIFUL, MAN, THEY'RE BEAUTIFUL!!! One of the pursuit vehicles (a "snagger"), pulls ahead of the others. DIETER STARK stands in the passenger seat, holding a long pole with a noose dangling from the end of it. He swings the pole out over the side of the jeep and SHOUTS to the driver. DIETER FASTER! The Driver hits the gas and the snagger leaps forward, gaining on the herd. Aware of the danger behind them, the herd veers to the right, toward the cover of thick jungle -- -- but the motorcycle ROARS in from the right side, cutting them off, herding them back out into the open. BACK IN THE CONTAINER TRUCK, PETER LUDLOW stands in a "conning tower," a command post in the heaviest pursuit vehicle. He BARKS into a walkie-talkie. LUDLOW Alive, Dieter, and uninjured! BACK ON THE SNAGGER, the Driver can barely keep up with the twists and feints thrown by the herd ahead of him. Dieter CURSES and throws the lasso pole into the back of the jeep. Ludlow's voice continues over the radio in Dieter's jeep. LUDLOW (o.s.) Those are very expensive animals! Can you hear me?! DIETER (to the Driver) Turn that off! The Driver SNAPS off the radio as Dieter grabs a long-barreled rifle from the back of the vehicle. THE MOTORCYCLE guns it again, forcing the herd back into the middle of the plain. From the trees to the left, two heads on enormous necks rise up in alarm. Two APATOSAURS are startled from the bush and lumber out across the middle of the plain. The herd doesn't even break stride, but keeps running, scampering after the giants and stampeding right between their massive legs. One smaller pachycephalosaur bolts loose, but the motorcycle cuts it off and herds it back into the middle, which now takes the motorcycle right through the rising and falling legs of the apotosaurs. The bike chases the pachy out the other side, and as the apatosaurs disappear into the distance, the cycle isolates the juvenile. Another truck, a "scissor rig," spots the isolated animal. High in the back of the truck, a HUNTER mans a tranquilizer cannon, drawing a bead on the pachy as the cycle runs it down. He FIRES and the tranquilizer dart hits the animal in the neck. Its pace slows and another HUNTER from the truck tosses a lasso around its neck. They crank a winch, reeling in the animal. As the truck gain on it, two six-foot padded arms with what look like heavy airbags on the insides open up on the front of the truck. As the animal is pulled in, the scissors close with a hydraulic WHIR, trapping the animal between its airbags. Now a pick-up rig ROARS up and drops its back gate. The scissor rig rolls forward, depositing the squirming pachy in this dino-contaiment vehicle. Two HUNTERS throw levers on the side of the scissor bars and the scissor rig backs away, leaving the animal, still pinched between the bars, imprisoned in the back of the pick-up rig. The Hunters quickly fit new scissor bars onto the scissor rig and it takes off, back into the hunt. BACK ON THE SNAGGER, Dieter, rifle in hand, drops down into the passenger seat, whips a harness over himself and CLICKS it into place. He jabs his thumb into a flashing red button in the dashboard. Immediately, a motor underneath the seat HUMS to life and the seat itself telescopes, extending a good four feet out to Dieter raises the gun, picks a CARINTHOSAUR, a red-crested herbivore, from the rear of the fleeting herd, and takes aim. BANG!! The carinthosaur staggers as a tranquilizer dart sticks in its left hindquarter. UP ON THE RIDGE, there is utter quiet. Nick and the others stare wordlessly at the spectacle below. DOWN ON THE PLAIN, the snagger SHUDDERS to a halt in the dirt, kicking up a huge cloud of dust and dirt. The motorcycle spins to a stop beside it, its DRIVER pushing his mask up to reveal his sweat and dirt-streaked face. The wrangler truck backs up and drops its rear door, which CLANGS heavily to the ground. FOUR WRANGLERS carrying wire noose poles and chains race down the ramp and out of the truck. Dieter jumps off the snagger. He puts down his tranquilizer gun, picks up a long steel rod, and walks forward slowly. Ahead of him, the carinthosaur is still on its feet. The sedated animal staggers, fighting to retain its balance while it is surrounded by the wary Wranglers. DIETER Easy -- easy -- not too close! Full extension! The Wranglers adjust their poles, extending them another three feet, which allows them to stay further from the reeling, ten foot tall animal. DIETER (cont'd) Now! Almost as one, the Wranglers flip their noose over the stunned animal's neck. It thrashes, but the Wranglers hold their poles tightly, surrounding and immobilizing it. UP ON THE RIDGE, Nick turns away. He can't watch. DOWN ON THE PLAIN, a bolero-type device, a rope with a round weight at either end, whips around the carinthosaur's legs. The animal THUDS to the dirt with a SNORT of a defeat. Ludlow steps up next to Dieter and both of them stare down at the helpless animal. Ludlow's breathing heavily, eyes glowing. The animal is still thrashing, pumping its legs crazily. Dieter turns a knob on the side of the steel rod he's holding and thrusts it into the defenseless animal's neck. A blue arc of electricity CRACKS and dances over the carinthosaur's body. The animal convulses in pain, a horrible, high-pitched SQUEALING rips the air. DR. BURKE, their paleontologist, hurries forward with a syringe. He draws a certain amount of tranquilizer from a bottle and injects it into the animal's thigh. CARTER, Dieter's Driver, steps up with a can of spray paint and quickly tags the animal with an ID number in day-glo orange. Dieter pulls the card with an icon of a carinthosaur from the dashboard of the jeep and marks a black X over the drawing of the animal. DIETER Next case. CUT TO: EXT. RIDGE - NIGHT Night has fallen over the island. The hunters have established base camp in an area they have trampled and cleared just below the ridge. Blue laser fences encircle the perimeter. Inside, half a dozen tents are set up around a central campfire. The vehicles are all parked at one end, away from the tents. At the other end, there is a row of at least a dozen "capture containers," cages that hold the imprisoned dinosaurs they have already rounded up. SARAH, MALCOLM, and NICK stand at the edge of the ridge above, looking down at the scene. Sarah stands a bit further back from the others, not wanting to get too close to the edge. VOICES waft up to them, raucous, LAUGHING, some even SINGING. DR. JUTTSON has a pair of night-vision binoculars trained on the cages. JUTTSON Carinthosaurus -- compsognathus -- triceratops -- pachycephalosaurus -- or small scavengers only. Malcolm, also with binoculars, furrows his brow, seeing something below. THROUGH MALCOLM'S BINOCULARS, he sees PETER LUDLOW, standing in the middle of the camp, pointing, giving orders. ON THE RIDGE, Malcolm drops the binoculars. MALCOLM Ludlow. That's why Hammond was in such a hurry for me to get here. He knew they were coming. He gives the binoculars to Sarah, who moves forward gingerly. MALCOLM (cont'd) You okay? SARAH (irritated) Heights, I can't help it. Put your arm here, will you? She puts his arm around her waits, to steady her while she is close to the cliff edge. JUTTSON What do they want? MALCOLM They want their money back. To InGen, this island is nothing more than a bed investment. JUTTSON We should get back to base camp. Eddie's waiting for us. MALCOLM I can't believe Peter Ludlow's running all this. SARAH He isn't. Check out the guy walking past the fire. She hands the binoculars to Malcolm. THROUGH THE BINOCULARS, Malcolm sees ROLAND, who's walking with AJAY, weapons and equipment slung over their shoulders. SARAH (o.s.) I've seen him before. In Brazil. He and that guy with him were spearhunting jaguars. Said it was immoral to go after them any other way. He's not just a hunter, he's a philosopher. Kind of guy who beats you up with your own argument. BACK ON THE RIDGE, SARAH (cont'd) He's the one in charge. MALCOLM Well, if that's true -- the man in charge just left camp. Nick, who has been quietly fuming next to them, now steps forward. NICK Then this is our chance. MALCOLM Our chance to do what? NICK I don't know these guys, but I know 'em. I've seen 'em on Japanese whalers, French barges trying to dump barrels of nuclear waste in the North Atlantic. They're all the same. They spray us with water cannon when we try to stop 'em, sink our boats, and then call us crazy. He rummages through his pack, coming up with various tools. A hunting knife. A bolt cutter. NICK (cont'd) Nobody has to come with me. I've done this before. SARAH Why, Nick. You are a tree-hugger. He looks at her, hurt. NICK There' no reason for name calling. MALCOLM Dr. Juttson, please take Kelly back to camp right away. Leave the other car for us and we'll meet you there in an hour or so. KELLY What are you guys gonna do? MALCOLM (signs) Exactly what John Hammond wanted us to do. CUT TO: INT. TENT - HUNTER'S CAMP - NIGHT In the hunters' supply tent, a case of twelve-year-old scotch sits open amid crate after crate of weapons and ammunition. PETER LUDLOW reaches in and pulls a bottle out. EXT. JUNGLE - NIGHT In the jungle, LUDLOW approaches a small clearing. ROLAND is bent over a small stake in the ground, chaining something to it. As Ludlow approaches and walks around him, he sees what protest. Roland looks up. ROLAND Offering a little incentive. Ludlow laughs and shakes his head. He takes a drink and offers Roland one. Roland accepts. Ludlow notices Roland's gun leaning against a tree. LUDLOW What kind of gun is that? ROLAND My father's .600 Nitro Express. Made in 1904. Karimojo Bell gave it to him after he took down his last elephant. 8700 foot pound striking force. LUDLOW How close do you have to be? ROLAND Forty yards. Less, maybe. I assume it'll take a slug in the brain case to bring him down. LUDLOW Why not just use a scope and a poison dart and snipe him from a hill? Roland just looks at him. ROLAND Or a laser beam from a satellite? Ludlow leans down, close to the baby rex, and examines it while it thrashes on its chain. Its mouth has been bound shut with a leather strap. LUDLOW You rally think this'll draw the parent? ROLAND I once saw a bull elephant die charging a jeep. All the jeep had done was startle the bull's calves. I saw a lioness carry wounded prey four and a half miles, all the way back to its den, just to teach its cubs how to finish off a kill. LUDLOW Killing lessons? Heartwarming. ROLAND Rex won't be any different. It'll come. LUDLOW You're kidding yourself. An adult T-rex cares about one thing -- filling its own belly. It acts the way people wish they could, that's why everyone's fascinated by it. If people had the chance to see one dinosaur and one only, ninety-nine percent would -- He stops, an idea on his face. LUDLOW (cont'd) Wait. Why not? Sedatives... growth inhibitors... ROLAND What? LUDLOW I hadn't planned on bringing carnivores back because of the liability risk, but I only thought of adults, it never occurred to me -- (close to the animal) You are a billion dollar idea, my little f- CRACK! The tyrannosaur, even with its jaws clamped shut, lunges at Ludlow's face, head-butting him right across the bridge of the nose. Ludlow staggers back, WAITING in pain, clutching his bleeding face. Roland laughs. Ludlow, like an enraged child, snatches up Roland's gun and brings the butt down viciously on the rex's leg. The bone breaks with a dry SNAP and the animal HOWLS in pain. Roland lunges and throws Ludlow to the ground, but the damage is done. ROLAND What the hell you do that for?! As his pain eases, Ludlow feels a bit foolish, but he attempts to cover. LUDLOW Had to. To keep him still for the trip. ROLAND You've broken its leg! LUDLOW We've got to transport it seven thousand miles. Would you prefer it bit off the leg of a crew member? He gets up, brushes himself off, and heads back to the camp, trying to salvage his dignity. Roland watches him go. CUT TO: EXT. EDGE OF HUNTERS' CAMP - NIGHT At the edge of the hunters' camp, NICK, SARAH, and MALCOLM scramble down a hillside and stop at the edge of the laser barriers. There are three beams, each about two feet apart, the tallest almost six feet off the ground. Nick reaches the edge and crouches. Sarah, helped by Malcolm, steps up onto his back and jumps over the top, landing with a CRUNCH. Nick is next, given a boost by Malcolm, who is then left alone on the other side. He backs up a few steps, jogs right at the lasers, then springs off his good leg -- -- and does the Fosburry Flop right over the top. He lands with a THUD, to the silent admiration of the other two. FURTHER IN THE CAMP, the three of them creep along, hiding behind a stack of fuel barrels. They lean around the edge for a look. They're directly behind the row of vehicle. They move, into the open, covering the ground between them and the jeeps. Reaching them, Nick hits the dirt and wriggles under the first one. Malcolm and Sarah stand lookout. UNDER THE JEEP, Nick pulls the bolt cutter from his back pocket. He squirms along until he finds the jeep's fuel line -- -- and he snips it. He ducks out of the way just as the stream of fuel begins to pour into the dirt. MALCOLM AND SARAH move slowly down the line, standing watch as Nick crawls out from under the first jeep and proceeds to the second. They hear another SNIP, then keep moving, to cover him as he moves to the third. From in the distance, Malcolm hears a sound, a faint, high-pitched SCREECHING. He turns and looks to that direction. EXT. JUNGLE CLEARING - NIGHT It's the baby T-rex, still SCREENING. Up in a nearby tree, ROLAND and AJAY have spread some broken branches crosswise to form a high hide of their own about ten feet off the ground. They wait. Roland raises his binoculars. The light of the camp spills all the way out here, illuminating some of the jungle. He scans it, searching for any sign of movement. EXT. HUNTERS' CAMP - NIGHT Back in the camp, Sarah, Malcolm, and Nick have finished with all of the vehicles except the badly battered one, which is parked some distance away, undergoing repairs. The motor pool area is now a soggy lake of spilled gasoline. The saboteurs walk casually across the camp, unnoticed in the drunken revelry. They pass several tents, the shadows of the partiers visible as they move inside. They continue across the camp and arrive at the other side -- -- to face the caged animals. The carinthosaur that was tranquilized earlier stands there dully, eyes heavy and glassy, still under the effects. They pass a stegosaur, its row of fine bristling. And finally they reach the largest cage, which houses a triceratops the size of a pickup truck, Nick pulls out his trusty bolt cutters. He looks at them, a glint in his eye. NICK Hang on. We may encounter some turbulence. INT. HUNTERS' CAMP - NIGHT In one of the hunter tents, PETER LUDLOW leans over the satellite recon pictures of the island, planning the next day's assault with DIETER and DR. BURKE, their paleontologist. There are small wooden dinosaur models scattered around the photos, indicating where certain species can be found. BURKE If you're really interested in infants, we'll have better luck at the seaside, because the sands offer a cushioning surface where the egg clutches can -- can -- He trails off. A low RUMBLING sound can be heard outside, and the little wooden dinosaurs start shaking on the board. They look at each other. The RUMBLING gets louder. Outside, someone SHOUTS; on the board, the little dinosaurs start hopping and bouncing from the vibrations, the SHOUTS outside turn to SCREAMS, they turn and look at the back of the tent -- -- and the triceratops bursts right through the canvas! EXT. CAMP - NIGHT HUNTERS go flying as the tent-covered triceratops, its horns tearing through the canvas, RUMBLES across the camp. Men SHOUT in alarm, the triceratops BELLOWS in anger and confusion, chaos reigns. In the crush of PEOPLE running every which way, MALCOLM and SARAH are swept off in one direction while NICK is buffeted in another. They SHOUT, but cannot be heard over the frey. The triceratops, blinded by the canvas shroud, stomps right through the fire in the middle of the camp AND THE TENT BURSTS INTO FLAME. Now really upset, the animal panics and lashes out in all directions, blasting through tents, demolishing and/or setting ablaze anything that gets in its way. Its considerable hindquarters SLAM into a parked jeep, sending it rolling across the camp. The jeep flattens the largest tent and SLAMS down on its side. Its broken gas line SPRAYS gas over the ground, the gas hits one of the dozens of small blazes the triceratops has left in its wake, and the flame shoots up the ribbon of gas. The jeep explodes. OUT IN THE JUNGLE CLEARING, Roland and Ajay, up in the tree, leap to their feet as a fireball rises up from the camp in the distance. ROLAND What in God's -- ! BACK IN THE CAMP, the rest of the newly-freed animals now storm through the camp. The blue laser barriers bounce crazily and go out as the sending units are trampled underfoot by the fleeing animals. AT THE RIDGE OF CAMP, Nick takes advantage of the downed lasers to slip part the bordere of the camp and disappear into the jungle in one direction, while Malcolm and Sarah vanish in the other. The burning tent, which was the equipment tent, now detonates in a series of smaller EXPLOSIONS. Dieter and several others are knocked to the ground by the series of concessive blasts. He drags himself up onto all fours, charred and bruised. A burning tire rolls slowly past him, spinning to a stop -- -- at ROLAND's feet. Dieter looks up at him. ROLAND Last time I leave you in charge. OUT IN THE JUNGLE, Nick breaks out into the jungle clearing, the same one where Ajay and Roland had their blind. He sees the baby tyrannosaur chained to the stake. NICK Sick bastards. He goes to the animal, which now BLEATS in pain, its broken leg hanging at an odd angle. With one strong tug, Nick pulls the stake out of the ground. BACK IN THE CAMP, Roland surveys the destruction. The fire has spread and several tents are now tongues of flame flapping in the air, the animals are gone or going, and their personnel are scattered and terrified. PETER LUDLOW, breathless, face smeared with dirt, and smoke, staggers up to Roland. LUDLOW What in Christ's name is going on?! ROLAND Isn't it obvious? He holds up the sniped padlock from one of the animal cages. NICK (cont'd) We're not alone on this island. CUT TO: EXT. JUNGLE - NIGHT MALCOLM and SARAH race back up onto the ridge trail, where the green AAV is parked. NICK bursts around from the other side of the car. SARAH Nick, thank God, we didn't know if -- Malcolm opens the rear door. NICK Wait, don't --- With a piercing SHRIEK, the BABY TYRANNOSAUR, now in the back of the AAV, flings itself at the open doorway, jaws SNAPPING just short of Malcolm's nose. MALCOLM HOLY SHIT!! He SLAMS the door. DOWN IN THE HUNTERS' CAMP, Roland hears the commotion up on the ridge and looks up. ROLAND Do we have anyone up there? BACK UP ON THE RIDGE, Malcolm is confronting Nick. MALCOLM ?! NICK It has a broken leg! MALCOLM So do it a favor and put it out of its misery! NICK No! Get in the car before they hear us! He runs around and leaps in the driver's seat. Sarah slips into the passenger seat, quickly, leaving Malcolm no choice but the rear. CUT TO: EXT. JUNGLE - NIGHT The AAV SLAPS through the jungle foliage. From inside the car, we can hear the baby tyrannosaur SCREAMING in anger. INT. AAV - NIGHT The baby writhes on the base seat next to Malcolm, who has flattened himself against the door, as far away from the animal as possible. SARAH Ian, close the window, it's going to wake every predator in the jungle! Malcolm leans over the enraged animal and cranks up its window. The tyrannosaur SLASHES with one of its powerful hind legs, ripping the flesh of his forearm. He SHOUTS in pain. Outside, the listening jungle whizzes by. EXT. HIGH HIDE - NIGHT Up in the high hide, EDDIE, DR. JUTTSON, and KELLY are standing watch, scanning the jungle for any sign of their returning comrades. Juttson yanks the night-vision binoculars away from his face as he spots the AAV, pulling up to the base camp a couple hundred yards away. JUTTSON There they are! They all turn and look, but Eddie furrows his brow, watching them pull the wounded animal from the back seat. EDDIE What is that they have with them? EXT. CAMP - NIGHT SARAH and NICK carry the SCREECHING baby tyrannosaur in their arms, headed for the trailer. MALCOLM, holding his bleeding arm, isn't far behind. INT. TRAILER - NIGHT SARAH and NICK bring the SCREAMING infant to the metal dining table and hold it down. MALCOLM is right behind them. MALCOLM This is exceedingly unwise. Sarah turns away from a drawer of medical supplies, holding a small syringe. Her shirt is streaked with blood from the baby's injured leg. SARAH Too late to worry about that! Hold him together, Nick! Nick tightens his grip on the animal and Sarah makes an injection into its thigh, over its loudly voiced objections. MALCOLM Just do whatever you have to do and get it out of here as quickly as possible. Sarah picks up a small ultrasound transducer and runs it over the animal's leg. A green and white skeletal image appears on a monitor next to the table. SARAH Okay, there's the metatarsals -- tibia, fibula -- there it is! See it? That's a fracture, just above the epiphysis. They peer closely at the monitor. NICK That little black line? SARAH That little black line means death for this infant. The fibula won't heal straight, so the ankle joint can't pivot when he stands on his hind feet. The baby won't be able to run, and probably can't even walk. It'll be crippled, and a predator will pick it off before it gets more than a few weeks old. MALCOLM Can you set up? SARAH (thinking) It has to be temporary, something that'll break apart and fall off as the animal grows... MALCOLM Think fast, Sarah. The tyrannosaur, still in pain, SHRIEKS again. EXT. HIGH HIDE - NIGHT Through their binoculars, the rest of the group watches the trailer carefully. Even inside, the animal's SCREECHES are clearly audible. Kelly is getting scared. KELLY What are they doing? Why don't they hurry?! EDDIE Give me the radio. From the trailer, the baby lets out a long, plaintive SHRIEK -- One by one, Eddie, Kelly, and Juttson turn around and stare into the night jungle. INT. TRAILER - NIGHT NICK holds the animal while SARAH fits an aluminum foil cuff around its injured leg and paints it with a coating of resin. MALCOLM, at the window, stares out anxiously. The animal thrashes again. NICK Give it more morphine! SARAH We'll kill it with too much, we'll put it into respiratory arrest! I'm almost done. Damn it, I need another adhesive, something pliable I can -- Her eyes fall on Nick. She holds out her hand, urgently. SARAH (cont'd) Spit! He spits his bubblegum into the palm of her hand. The baby rex CRIES OUT again. EXT. HIGH HIDE - NIGHT From the swaying jungle, there is another answering ROAR. And this one's closer. In the high hide, the rest of the group stares, trembling. In the distance, a flock of birds SHRIEKS and takes flight as the tops of some trees move, a whole section of forest suddenly coming alive, as if brushed by wind. But it's not the wind. They hear noises, THUDS in the jungle. And then another section of forest trembles. Closer. Another flock of birds bursts out of the treetops and swarms past the high hide. KELLY What is it? Dr. Juttson puts an arm around Kelly, instinctively pulling her closer to him. Eddie WHISPERS urgently into the walkie-talkie. EDDIE Sarah, come in! JUTTSON It's moving. Fast. INT. TRAILER - NIGHT There is a radio box mounted on the far wall of the trailer. The speaker BUZZES urgently with Eddie's VOICE. EDDIE (o.s.) Sarah, Malcolm, can you hear me?! On the table, Sarah is frantically molding Nick's bubblegum into place on the makeshift splint. But the baby rex, regaining its strength, is thrashing again. SARAH Hold it down, Nick! NICK I'm trying! EDDIE (o.s.) (from the radio) Is anybody there?! Malcolm moves to answer the radio, but Sarah SHOUTS to him. SARAH Ian, get the bottle of amoxicillin and fill a syringe! Quick injection of antibiotics and I can get it out of here! Forsaking the radio, Malcolm moves to the medicine drawer and comes up with what she wants. Working fast, he draws twenty cc's of the pink liquid. EDDIE (o.s.) (still from the radio, now desperate) SARAH OR IAN, ANSWER ME! They ignore him as Sarah grabs the syringe and makes the injection. EDDIE (o.s.) WHATEVER YOU BROUGHT INTO THE TRAILER, GET IT OUT NOW! EXT. HIGH HIDE - NIGHT Eddie has given up on whispering as he clutches the radio desperately. EDDIE WE ESTIMATE TWO LARGE ADULTS HEADED IN YOUR DIRECTION! I REPEAT -- INT. TRAILER - NIGHT Nick, Sarah, and Malcolm spin around at hearing that terrible piece of information. MALCOLM Oh, Christ. He bolts over to the wall speaker and hits the button. MALCOLM (cont'd) Let me talk to Kelly, is she-- A deafening ROAR sound from just outside the trailer, followed immediately by a CRASHING sound. They whirl and look to the window, just in time to see -- -- the AAV tumbling by, rolling on its side! There is another ROAR, and the baby, on the table, ROARS in response. Outside the window, the head of a full-grown TYRANNOSAURUS REX lowers and peers inside. Malcolm, Sarah, and Nick all freeze in absolute terror. The rex outside GURGLES, making material cooing noises. The baby rex, calm for the first time, GURGLES back. But across the trailer, in the opposite window, ANOTHER T-REX HEAD SUDDENLY APPEARS. This one ROARS, deeply, a roar so low and loud it rattles anything in the trailer that isn't tied down. NICK What do they want?! MALCOLM What do you think they want?! SARAH That's impossible, they can't have the sensory equipment to track it all the way here! MALCOLM Current evidence seems to be to the contrary, wouldn't you say?! GIVE IT TO THEM! Nick, hands shaking, grabs the shoulder video camera he used earlier. He whips out the cassette that's in there, hurls it into an open duffel bag with half a dozen others, SLAMS a fresh cassette in, and flicks the "ON" switch. Sarah and Malcolm, meanwhile, hurry to the other end of the trailer, carrying the baby rex. Outside, the two adult rexes stay with them, walking in the same direction, watching them through the window. EXT. TRAILER - NIGHT Seen from outside, the light inside the trailers clearly illuminates Sarah and Malcolm as they carry the bay rex. The adult rexes tower over the trailer, twice as tall and nearly as long. They walk slowly alongside it, hunched over, watching their infant. INT. TRAILER - NIGHT At the door to the trailer, Sarah un-muzzles the frantic baby. SARAH Ready? Malcolm reaches for the door handle. NICK Wait! He dives down on the floor under them, pointing the video camera up at the door, getting the best shot. Malcolm takes a breath, turns the knob, and throws open the door. Outside, the enormous rex heads pause for a moment, staring, surprised. Although terrified, Sarah actually starts to sing. SARAH (softly) Born free, as free as the wind blows. As free as the grass grows -- MALCOLM Are you insane?! SARAH I swear to God, it works with lions sometimes! There we are -- your baby is free -- The baby, excited, wriggles free of them and lands on the ground outside. Not wasting a second, Malcolm SLAMS the door shut. The three of them freeze, not daring to breath. Outside, they can hear the SNUFFLING and COOING of the animals as they inspect their young -- -- and then the soft THUD of their footsteps, growing fainter as they move away. From the wall, EDDIE'S VOICE comes over the radio, relieved. EDDIE They're going back into the jungle. CUT TO: EXT. HIGH HIDE - NIGHT EDDIE, JUTTSON, and KELLY sag back against the railings of the high hide. EDDIE Thank God. Thank God. MALCOLM'S VOICE comes over the radio. MALCOLM (o.s.) Kelly? Are you all right? She takes the radio, her voice shaky. KELLY Uh huh. CUT TO: INT. TRAILER - NIGHT MALCOLM is at the radio. MALCOLM Wait there. I'll come up in a minute. Don't move, understand? KELLY (o.s.) I understand. Malcolm slump against the wall of the trailer. SARAH and NICK sit on the floor leaning against the opposite wall, completely drained. Sarah pulls out her pocket recorder and speaks shakily into it. SARAH Note to Dr. Juttson -- Tyrannosaurus rex does nurture its young. They laugh weakly. NICK There's, uh -- there's an unwritten rule when a news crew is in a war zone. You stop the van every two miles and decide whether or not to go on. Whether or not you feel lucky. One "no" from anybody in the group and you turn around right there, no question asked, nobody embarrassed. (pause) Well? Do we go on? Immediately: SARAH No. MALCOLM No. NICK No way. They all laugh. MALCOLM All right. I'm satisfied with the evidence we have right now. I feel vindicated. John Hammond will too. (to Sarah) Do you have enough to publish? SARAH They will come after me. But I can collect some stool samples, for DNA with that, Nick's tapes, and the rest of you to back me up, it should stand when we get back. MALCOLM (getting up) Then the only thing left to do is make sure we do get back. I'll call the mainland on the satellite phone and have them send the boat right now. This expedition is over. He goes to the desk and picks up the heavy gray satellite phone that's resting in a battery pack. The front panel lights up, a brilliant green. But from the wall speaker, the radio CRACKLES and EDDIE'S VOICE breaks through, soft and empty. EDDIE (o.s.) Oh, God. I am so sorry. Malcolm and Sarah look at the speaker box. MALCOLM What the hell is he sorry f- A low RATTLE sneaks into the trailer. Malcolm, Sarah, and Nick takes a step forward from the walls, looking around. The RATTLE gets louder, the trailer shakes and vibrates, everything in it starts to BANG against the walls -- -- and something huge SMASHES into the side of the trailer. They're all thrown against the far wall, there is an earsplitting CRACK of electricity, the entire trailer rocks and sparks a brilliant blue, and then everything goes black. The satellite phone flies out of Malcolm's hands and SMACKS against the wall. It lands on the floor, its number pad still glowing green. Nick crawls over and looks out one of the windows. Outside, the flank of one of the tyrannosaurs wipes past the window, revealing the second tyrannosaur, charging straight at the trailer! NICK HANG ON TO SOMETHING! They hurl themselves at the nearest solid object and hang on for dear life. The charging rex SLAM into the side of the trailer, which rocks up on one side, BANGS back down, and is quickly RAMMED again by the furious animal. This time the entire trailer rolls over, completely upside down. Sarah, Nick, and Malcolm let go of their precarious handholds and drop onto the ceiling. The tables, chairs, lab equipment, everything that's bolted down clings to the floor above them; everything that isn't RAINS DOWN ON THEM. But the rexes aren't done. The trailer JOLTS INTO MOTION, sliding forwards. SEEN FROM OUTSIDE, the upside down trailer, which is the rear of the two trailers, slides along the muddy ground, pushing up earth in front of it. IN THE TRAILER, SARAH They're pushing us! Malcolm, frantic, crawls up to a window to get a look outside. He looks down and sees a T-rex footprint in the earth outside as they move past it. He cranks his head to get a look at the direction in which they are being pushed. His eyes widen at something he sees outside the window. MALCOLM Oh, God. SARAH What?! MALCOLM They're pushing us over the cliff. Sure enough, out the back window, we see a few more feet of muddy earth, and then nothing but inky black. The three of them look at each other for a moment -- -- and then crawl like hell toward the other end of the trailer. The opposite end reaches the edge of the cliff and starts up to tip ever-so-slightly downward. They reach the accordion-like connector and Malcolm crawls into it. THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD OF THE FRONT TRAILER, which is right-side-up, Malcolm can see the two rexes hard at it, pushing the front end of the trailer. IN THE REAR TRAILER, Nick has a pretty good grip at the top of the trailer, but Sarah can only cling to an air vent in the ceiling as stuff starts to roll and tumble past her, headed downhill. The angle increases, the trailer dips, and now stuff starts to freefall, right past her, some SMASHING her in the head. Malcolm, still in the connecting tube, grabs hold. Sarah, starting to be pulled downward, paws at the refrigerator, getting a g rip on the handle. The door, held by a safety latch, doesn't open. Below Sarah, debris falls to the rear window of the trailer. Through the CRACKING glass, we can see the surf, CRASHING five hundred feet below. The refrigerator bolts suddenly CRUNCH free of the wall. The box strains on its power cord. Still clinging to the handle, Sarah swings wildly as it starts to come loose, swaying above her. The safety latch on the door gives, it swings open, and a shower of food BANGS off of her as gravity empties the contents. Sarah loses her grip and plummets through the now-vertical trailer. She SCREAMS, covers her head, and SMASHES into the rear window. The glass spiderwebs, but does not break. FIVE HUNDRED FEET BELOW, an enormous wave POUNDS the rocky shore. Above, Sarah is a tiny figure, sprawled out on the glass, held invisibly by the breaking window. IN THE TRAILER, Nick SHOUTS to her. NICK SARAH! DON'T MOVE! Sarah, stunned by the fall, blinks a few times, regaining her senses. She looks down, at the crashing surf so far below. For a person with a fear of heights, this is a real drag. As she stares, the rocks seem to move even farther away from her. She blanches; the world spins around her. SARAH OH... GOD ... please... Her breath fogs the cracked glass. Slowly, she tries to get up, caaaaaarefully pulling herself up to her hands and knees. But as she puts pressures on her hands, the glass CRACKS even more, tiny spiderwebs shooting out around her fingers. The whole glass panel sags, bowing out around the bottom of the trailer. UP ABOVE HER, Malcolm looks down and sees the satellite phone precariously balanced on one leg of the kitchen table, its number pad still glowing green. Nick is closest to it. MALCOLM Nick! Grab the phone! SARAH looks to her right, at a metal grating that runs along the wall of the trailer. She shifts her weight, leaning on one hand to reach for the grating with the other. NICK reaches for the satellite phone, its antenna just six inches from his outstretched fingers. SARAH leans toward the metal grating, all hairline cracks shoot out around her pivot hand, shaking through the glass. The splintered glass spread like a disease, it reaches the edge of the frame -- -- and her hand CRACKS right through the glass. She GASPS and pulls her hand out, but now she knees SMASH through the glass. NICK has two fingers on the phone, but suddenly the whole trailer shudders and the heavy phone tips off the table leg and falls. NICK SARAH LOOK OUT! SARAH lunges for the metal grating and clings to it just as the heavy phone whizzes past her head and SMASHES into the glass, opening up a huge hole in the center of the back window. UNDERNEATH THE TRAILER, glass, food, lab equipment, and the precious satellite phone fall out the broken window and SMASH on the rocks far below. IN THE CLEANING, the trailers are split, like an L, the rear trailer hanging straight down, the forward one resting on the edge of the cliff. Satisfied with their work, the T-rexes turn and lumber back into the jungle. IN THE TRAILER, Sarah climbs carefully up the metal grating. Above her, Nick lowers himself as far as he can, reaching for her. ON THE CLIFFSIDE, we realize the hanging trailer halted its descent because one corner of it is wedged in the branches of a tree that grows out from the muddy cliff. But now those branches SPLINTER. IN THE TRAILER, Malcolm sees the bellows, the connector between the trailers, stretch as the lower trailer JERKS and dips lower. BELOW HIM, Sarah mountain-climbs through the trailer's kitchen, inadvertently kicking the faucet on as she struggles for purchase. OUTSIDE, the tree branch SNAPS and the trailer jerks, stretching down again. The bellows expands to its full length, stretching like a Slinky. INSIDE, Nick knows he has to hurry. He climbs down, bouncing off the built-in furniture, moving ever closer to Sarah. But Sarah slips and loses her grip, dropping a few feet. She gabs hold of the sink, the flowing water spraying her face. EXT. JUNGLE - NIGHT EDDIE CARR is in the driver's seat of the jeep, racing through the jungle as fast as he can. EDDIE Hang on -- hang on -- The foliage SMACKS the windshield, then clears suddenly, revealing the endangered trailers on the cliffside ahead of him. The jeep bounces through the deep footprints left by the rex and SKIDS to a halt. INT. TRAILER - NIGHT Sarah loses her grip on the sink and falls, SMASHING into the frame of the half-broken rear window again. OUTSIDE, Eddie bolts out of the car and runs to the front trailer. He SHOUTS in through the broken front window. EDDIE HEY! HELLO?! IN THE REAR TRAILER, The three look up from their precarious positions. MALCOLM WE'RE IN HERE! GET SOME ROPE! OUTSIDE, Eddie turns and run back to the jeep. He grabs a coil of rope, secures one end around a tree, and hurries back to the trailer. IN THE REAR TRAILER, Eddie dashes over the mess in the front trailer and crawls out into the extended connector. He peers over the edge, down into the second trailer, and tosses the rope. EDDIE Catch! The rope falls through the center of the trailer, its end dangling all the way out the smashed rear window. But the trailer SHUDDERS, starting to move again. SARAH We're sliding! EDDIE Climbs up if you can! OUTSIDE, Eddie runs out of the trailer in time to see the wheels dragging forward through the mud as the weight of the dangling trailer pulls the whole thing toward the edge of the cliff. He runs for the jeep and grabs hold of the power winch on the front grill. Behind him, the trailer rolls closer to the edge of the cliff. Eddie races back to the trailer, pulling out a length of cable behind him. He runs up to the still-moving trailer, dives for its towing hook, the cable goes taut -- -- and he falls short. Just by six inches, but he's out of cable. EDDIE Damn it! INSIDE THE TRAILER, Nick and Sarah are now together, clinging to the rope near the bottom of the trailer as it shifts around them. Malcolm is further up, also clinging to the rope. OUTSIDE, dirt and rocks pile up around the wheels and spill over the edge of the cliff. Eddie, back at the jeep, reels out more winch cable. He turns and races back to the trailer just as gravity starts to LIFT THE FRONT END OFF THE GROUND! Eddie dives again, and this time the cable hook CLICKS securely into the trailer's towing hook. The trailer lurches toward the edge of the cliff and stops. But the jeep is jerked forward by the sudden pressure. IN THE TRAILER, Malcolm clings to the rope in the middle of the trailer while Nick and Sarah try to struggle up it, but a sudden dig knocks them back, and their hands slide down the line. SCREAMING, they slide through the trailer and their feet SMASH through the remains of the rear window. Regaining hold of the rope at the very end, the two of them now find themselves hanging out of the rear end of the trailer, dangling over the rocky shore below. IN THE JEEP, Eddie hits the gas and the tires slosh in the mud, trying to get a grip. The jeep pulls just enough to lower the front trailer back to earth. But the tires spin, fighting to hold it there. ON THE CLIFFSIDE Sarah and Nick dangle, desperate. IN THE JEEP Eddie CHUNKS the shifter into four wheel drive and GUNS the engine. As the motor ROARS, the sound is topped by another ROAR, in the distance. And this one's not a machine. But Eddie doesn't hear it. He GUNS the engine again. There is another ROAR from the jungle. Eddie hears this one. He darts a look at the side view mirror. In it, he sees one of the TYRANNOSAURS bolt out of the jungle behind him. He GASPS and looks at the other side view. In it, he sees the OTHER REX racing toward him. The tyrannosaurs STOMP forward to confront the ROARING jeep. The first rex bends over, CHOMPS down on the rear tire, and lifts the car to its teeth. But the spinning tire LINGS in the rex's mouth, burning it. Surprised by the fight in this foe, the rex loses its grip and the jeep BANGS back down onto the ground. Eddie, horrified, dives down under the steering wheel, to get away. The gas pedal pops up -- -- which makes the trailer pitch over the side of the cliff. But the rex STOMPS down on the jeep to prevent its escape. The trailers stop. Now the rexes lean down, over the jeep, and focus on Eddie, who still covers under the steering wheel. The first rex SNAPS at him, hitting the steering column with it, leaving Eddie fully exposed. He SCREAMS and the second rex lashes in, seizing him in its teeth and tossing him out of the car. Eddie pops up into the air between the two rexes, both their heads flash at him at the same time, and in a split-second, he disappears between their teeth. Now completely ignored, the jeep rolls freely forward and the trailers drop over the edge of the cliff. INSIDE THE TRAILER, Nick, Sarah and Malcolm cling to each other and the rope as the trailers fall around them. The windows flash by as the trailers plummet, equipment BANGS and SCRAPES them, but they hold on to the rope, still tied to the tree, for dear life. ON THE CLIFFSIDE, the trailers slide the rest of the way, exposing the three, who pop out the space where the front windshield was. Dangling from the rope, they look up and see the jeep, which is now rolling to the edge of the cliff. It falls, past them, and the whole mess EXPLODES on the rocks below. Finally, it is silent, except for the sound of the surf. EXT. CLEARING - NIGHT It's quiet up here too, the rexes nowhere to be seen. At the cliff, a hand appears from over the edge. Then another. SARAH pulls herself up, back onto solid ground, then comes NICK, then both of them reach over and help MALCOLM up over the edge. They collapse there, in the mud, completely exhausted. MALCOLM (softly) Eddie? He looks at the other two. They glance around, then drop their heads. Sarah hears a SOUND in the distance. SARAH Oh, God. Now what? From the edge of the jungle, a cris-cross of flashlight beams moves toward them. But rather than the three or four that would signify their own group, there are nearly twenty of them. The HUNTERS, PETER LUDLOW is in the lead, ROLAND and AJAY with him. DIETER is there too, shepherding KELLY and DR. JUTTSON along in front of him. Malcolm sees Kelly, they call out to each other, and race together. Malcolm falls to his knees and hugs her as tightly as he possibly can. MALCOLM Are you all right?! Anything broken? KELLY I'm fine, I'm fine, I was scared, I thought you, are you okay?! MALCOLM I'm fine... I'm fine... Roland looks around, at the mess that was their base camp. ROLAND (mostly to himself) That's what you think. CUT TO: EXT. RUINED BASE CAMP - NIGHT In the ruins of the first team's base camp, the survivors of the night's two separate catastrophes stand face to face, in a heated argument. MALCOLM sits off to the side, still holding Kelly in his arms, just looking down at the ground and shaking his head. There's something about his posture of defeat that is far more ominous than any of the hot tempers that are flaring. LUDLOW rants to SARAH while DIETER looms menacingly over NICK. LUDLOW Trespassing, sabotage -- you could go to jail just for being here, did you know that? SARAH Don't start a legal argument with me, this island isn't your property, and neither are these animals! DR. JUTTSON has encountered DR. BURKE. JUTTSON What are you doing here, Burke? There's no TV cameras, what's the point? BURKE Dr. Juttson, you exist outside the classroom. I am amazed. Dieter continues to get in Nick's face. NICK Are you looking for a problem? JUTTSON (an urgent whisper) Everyone, keep your voices down! ROLAND Back off, Dieter. JUTTSON Listen to me, by moving the baby rex into our camp, we changed the adults' perceived territory! LUDLOW Their what? SARAH (she understands) Oh, God. JUTTSON That's why they persisted in destroying the trailers, they now feel they have to defend this entire area! We're not safe here. LUDLOW (of Sarah and Nick) Thanks to you people. SARAH Hey, we came here to observe, you came here to strip-mine the place! It's a looter mentality, all you care about is what you can take. ROLAND None of that matters. Our communications equipment's been destroyed. If your radio and satellite phone were in those trailers that went off the cliff, and I'm guessing by the look on his face -- He points at Malcolm, who is still off to the side, sitting in stunned silence. Malcolm looks up and nods, slowly. The grimness of their situation sinks in. ROLAND (cont'd) We are stuck here, ladies and gentlemen. And we're stuck together. CUT TO: EXT. HUNTERS' CAMP - NIGHT Back in the hunters' now-demolished camp, members of the two groups combine their diminished supplies. They have half a dozen large plastic containers of water, thirty-seven containers of food, ranging from Ziploc bags to aluminum tins, a variety of weapons, mot of them borne on the hips or shoulders of the HUNTER team, the charred and scraggly remnants of several pieces of now-useless electrical equipment, a flare gun and several flares, somebody's tattered paperback ("Crime and Punishment"), a box of Hershey bars, and a cartoon of Marlboros. ROLAND supervises the assembling of the resources, which are displayed in front of him. LUDLOW, NICK, SARAH, JUTTSON, and MALCOLM, who is still holding KELLY close to him, are with him. They hold their discussion in quiet tones. ROLAND If we can't stay in the rex's territory, we have to move tonight. SARAH Move where? Our boat's not coming for two days, your airlift is waiting for an order you have no way to send -- Ludlow refers to the charred and trampled satellite photographs of the island, which are still mostly legible. LUDLOW There's a communication center, here, in the old worker village. Hammond put in some kind of renewable power source replenishing. It may still work. If we could get there, we could send a radio call for the airlift. NICK How far is the village? LUDLOW I said if we could get there. NICK Well, how far is it? LUDLOW A day's walk, maybe more. That's not the problem. ROLAND What is? LUDLOW The velociraptors. Malcolm looks up sharply. LUDLOW (cont'd) Our infrareds show their nesting sites are concentrated in the island interior. That's why we planned on keeping to the outer rim. Malcolm shepherds Kelly away from the conversation and mutters something to her quietly in the background. DIETER What are velociraptors? JUTTSON Carnivores. Pack hunters. About six feet long, three or four hundred pounds, and very, very fast. Dieter brandishes his weapon. DIETER I think we can handle ourselves against them. Malcolm rejoins the conversation, alone. He keeps his voice low. MALCOLM No. I'm quite certain you can't. ROLAND Look, we have two choices. We can hike back down to the lagoon, where we can sit for two days, in the open, next to a heavily used water source while we're waiting for your boat to arrive, or we can head for the village, where we might find some shelter and we can call for help. MALCOLM We'd never make it past the raptors. Trust me, I have some experience in this matter. Roland looks at him. ROLAND That may be. But you weren't with me at the time. Malcolm just shakes his head, then turns and walks back to Kelly. Roland turns to the others. ROLAND (cont'd) Load up. Let's get this moveable feast underway. CUT TO: EXT. ISLAND - NIGHT The SURVIVORS set forth, marching through the jungle in a column. Two HUNTERS strap on small shoulder-mounted servo-flashlights. Wires run from the lights end in sensor pads which they stick to the skin of their necks. Thus attached, when the hunters turn their heads, the servo-lights turn with them, illuminating whatever direction they look in. MALCOLM screws the barrel into the Lindstradt rifle and slings it over his shoulder as he marches, limping heavily. He looks down at KELLY, who is marching alongside him. His face shows the deepest of regret. He shakes his head, cursing himself. MALCOLM Damn it. He looks away as Kelly looks up at him, questioning. ROLAND falls into step with Malcolm and notices his limp. ROLAND You all right? Malcolm looks at him, then looks away without answering. ROLAND (cont'd) Wrong question? MALCOLM You ever heard of Gambler's Ruin? ROLAND What's that? MALCOLM A statistical phenomenon. Says everything in the world goes in streaks. It's real, you see it everywhere -- in weather, in river flooding, in baseball, in blackjack, in stock markets. Once things go bad, they tend to stay bad. Bad things cluster. They go to hell together. ROLAND Feeling a bit blue, are we? Malcolm glances at Kelly, who has taken a slightly faster pace and is a few steps ahead of them now. MALCOLM Just -- flawed. Very deeply flawed. ROLAND Why did you come here? MALCOLM So that others would know about this place? ROLAND Why should they? MALCOLM Because it exists. ROLAND It'll still exit if they go on not knowing, won't it? MALCOLM Yes. And people will live in the absence of truth. ROLAND So the truth is more important to you than your life? MALCOLM (lowers is voice) I don't care about my life. But if I'd ever thought for a second that she would be in danger -- Roland follows his gaze forward, to Kelly, who's about ten yards ahead now. ROLAND She yours? AHEAD OF THEM, Kelly can hear their voices, faint, but clear. They are not as far away as they think they are. MALCOLM (o.s.) I'm afraid so. I don't know what the hell I'm doing with kids. I never should have had her. Kelly's face shows she heard that part. BEHIND HER, Malcolm, unaware, continues with Roland. MALCOLM (cont'd) Why are you here? ROLAND Somewhere on this island, there exits the greatest predator that ever lived. And the second greatest predator must take him down. MALCOLM But why? ROLAND You remember that guy, about twenty years ago, I forget his name, but he climbed Everest without any oxygen, came down almost dead. And they asked him, "why did you go up there to die?" And he said "I didn't. I went up there to live." MALCOLM (nods) It's called self-testing. But in your case, it sounds more like self-destruction. A uniquely human characteristic. In fact, human beings destroy things so well that I sometimes think that's our function. Maybe every few sons, some animal comes along that kills off the rest of the world, clears the decks, and lets evolution proceed to his next phase. Maybe death and destruction are our job, maybe we're supposed to destroy ourselves and every other living thing that- Every person on the trail within earshot has stopped and is staring at Malcolm, shaken by his words. Roland grabs Malcolm by the shirt collar and pulls him close, GROWLING in his ear. ROLAND Tell you what. You can see whatever you want to, to me, but you will not spew any more nihilist rants at anyone else in the group. I'm fighting panic, and you push the wrong buttons. Understand? Malcolm just blinks. This guy's in charge. CUT TO: EXT. JUNGLE - DAWN As a purple dawn dissolves the night sky, the SURVIVORS stagger on, exhausted. Some are starting to tire, and there are spaces in the column. MALCOLM's limp seems to be getting worse. NICK reaches out, to take Malcolm's pack, but Malcolm swats his hand away. KELLY, still ahead of him, falls into step with SARAH. KELLY I don't think -- my dad doesn't think we're going to make it. Sarah looks at her. SARAH Your dad is wrong. About a lot more than he knows. She puts an arm around her. Kelly looks up at her, grateful. The long march continues. UP AT THE FRONT, NICK catches up to ROLAND. NICK I think you should call a break. ROLAND Another half hour. NICK Some of them won't make another half hour. We didn't come this far to start dropping in the middle of the jungle. If you don't call it, I will. Roland looks at him, steely, then SHOUTS to the group. ROLAND FIVE MINUTES BREAK! Immediately, the marchers drop where they stood, absolutely drained. AT THE REAR OF THE GROUP, DRS. BURKE and JUTTSON are bickering. JUTTSON I can't believe you're still angry about that. BURKE You know, it's very easy to criticize the first person who studies something. JUTTSON No, it's easy to criticize sloppy research and hasty conclusions. NEARBY, MALCOLM checks Nick's bag of videotapes, making sure they're still dry and undamaged. Sarah comes up, watching him. SARAH You know, even if we do get those tapes back, people are going to say it's just another hoax. Ian Malcolm's alien autopsy. MALCOLM Maybe. Maybe not. SARAH Ian, they will misplace our evidence, shoot holes in our testimony, and say some special effects genius created the animals. The only way people will ever believe that dinosaurs exist is if you dump a T-rex in the middle of times Square. He doesn't look at her. She sits down beside her. SARAH (cont'd) There's something more important that you should be thinking about instead. BEHIND THEM, Dr. Burke, furious, has stalked away from Juttson and sits down on a rock. H does a double take, noticing something behind the rock. He leans over and picks it up. It's an oval shape about eight inches long, with a pebbled exterior. A dinosaur egg. Burke's face lights up, fascinated, and he carefully pieces the egg in a satchel he wears over one shoulder. AT THE REAR OF THE GROUP, DIETER STARK pulls a wad of toilet paper from his pack, drops the pack on the ground, and turns to the Hunter nearest him -- CARTER, his driver, who has his back turned. DIETER Wait here for me, would ya Carter? He steps off the path, into the jungle. But as we come around the front of Carter, we see he's wearing a Walkman, the headphone BLARING tinnily in his ears. And he didn't hear a word. EXT. THICK OF THE JUNGLE - DAY Only a few feet off the path, it's primary forest, the growth so thick that almost all sunlight is obscured. DIETER claws forward until he finds a suitable spot to relieve himself. He clears away a bunch of leaves and debris and raises his hand to his belt buckle. He freezes, hearing something we didn't. He glances around, head darting, alert to any danger. Nothing there. Just a few distant ANIMAL CALLS-- -- and s SCURRYING around to his left. Dieter snaps his head in that direction. At first, he sees nothing, but as he moves closer, gun extended in front of him, he sees a small dinosaur, a COMPSOGRATHUS, the same chicken-sized animal Cathy saw on the beach so long ago. DIETER It's not polite to -- He pulls the steel rod out of a loop in his belt and touches it to the compy's back. The blue bolt of electricity CRACKS and dances over the compy's body and it convulses in pain. DIETER (cont'd) -- sneak up on people. The wounded compsognathus scurries back into the jungle, whimpering. Dieter clambers through the foliage ten or twelve paces, pushes aside two large palm fronds, and steps out into -- -- more jungle. He stops, puzzled, not sure if he went back or forward. He looks behind him. He pauses, recalculating the path he took coming into the jungle, MUTTERING to himself, gesturing with his hands, retracing his steps. He adjusts his angle slightly to the right and heads off in that direction. But after five or six hard-fought steps, he stops again. Still nothing but jungle. DIETER HEY! CARTER! YELL OR SOMETHING, I GOT TURNED AROUND IN HERE! ON THE TRAIL, Dieter's cries are faint, but audible. The only Marchers hear enough to hear him is CARTER, but the Walkman is blaring in his ears. DIETER (o.s.) ...Carter... me?... IN THE JUNGLE, Dieter hears that SCURRYING sound again, this time from his right. He adjusts his angle again and SCRAPES through the foliage, moving faster and faster. Panicking, he ties to run, but the roots rise high out of the ground in the jungle, and he trips on one and falls flat on his face. He looks up. The SCURRYING sound comes again, this time ten times louder than before, like a hundred feet coming at him. Dieter GASPS as something rushes in at him. He whirls to his right. Whatever it is rushes in from that side as well. And the left. And behind him. Dieter scrambles up into a sitting position -- -- and laughs. He is surrounded by at least forty compys now, the same as the one he wounded. For a long moment, they just stare at him. Slowly, he brings his gun around, to point it at them. DIETER Easy -- wait -- one more sec- As one, the compys SHRIEK and hurl themselves forward, covering Dieter's body. Their teeth and claws FLASH as they each try to grab a scrap of his flesh, tearing savagely. Dieter SCREAMS and flails, waving his arms and legs wildly. Some of the tiny animals lose their grip and sail off, SMASHING into trees or the ground. But dozens of others hang on, and Dieter falls over backwards, now lying on his back on the ground. Hysterical, he fights like hell to get to his feet, SCREAMING, shaking, swatting the compys loose. He spins, and that tactic seems to work, as the compys themselves begin to panic and drop off of him. But he also loses his grip on his weapon, which goes flying, landing in the thick foliage five or six feet from him. Losing the attack, the compys turn and dart away en masse, stopping ten yards away from him. But they turn and regroup, facing him in a line, hopping up and down, CHIRPING and SHRIEKING. Dieter bounds into the foliage, looking for his gun. But the compys follow him in and he's forced to flee, abandoning his lost weapon. Ten feet on, he stops, knowing he's screwed without the gun. He turns to face the pursuing compys. They stop. Dieter charges them, SHOUTING, waving his arms. The compys turn and run. Dieter stops. The compys stop. They stare back at him. There is a moment of quiet, then they start to hop again, CHIRPING and SQUEALING. Dieter, tired of this game, turns and runs away. The compys follow. EXT. JUNGLE - DAY From the front of the convoy, ROLAND SHOUTS out. ROLAND Break's over, move on! The exhausted marchers drag themselves back to their feet and start to march again. At the rear of the group, someone taps Carter, who is still listening to his music. Carter gets up, hoists his backpack, and marches away. Behind him, Dieter's pack is left, forgotten, on the jungle trail. EXT. DEEP IN THE JUNGLE - DAY DIETER stumbles along, exhausted. He reaches the edge of a stream that runs under the foliage, and his feet slip on the stones. He falls, into the rocky stream. Behind him, the army of compys pours over the little hill he just crested. They disappear for a moment, down an incline -- -- And then swarm over his body. In a frenzy of splashing, Dieter shrugs them off and crawls away, through the stream. He gets to his feet but falls again, this time over a log. A geyser of water splashes up in the air behind the log as Dieter drops out of sight. The compys leap over the log and disappear from view too, throwing up their own splashes of water. SCREECHING, CHIRPING, and the sound of TEARING flesh mixes with Dieter's SCREAMS. Now, as more compys leap over the log and splash into the water below, the geysers that shoot up into our field of view are pink. And then they're a deep, deep red. CUT TO: EXT. JUNGLE - DAY The group has stopped again. Near the rear, SARAH, NICK, MALCOLM, LUDLOW, and ROLAND are in a tense conversation with CARTER. ROLAND How long ago was this? CARTER Seven, eight minutes. Roland looks at them, thinking. Finally: ROLAND Then he's dead. Nobody tells the little girl. Last thing we need is screaming hysterics. He turns and heads back to the front of the column. SARAH We have to send someone to look for him! ROLAND You go if you like, but we're not waiting for you. MOVE IT OUT!! They look at each other, appalled, but the column starts to move. Numbed, shocked, but left with no choice, they move on, one by one. CUT TO: EXT. ISLAND RIDGE - DUSK The column of MARCHERS has finally reached the island ridge, where they are silhouetted against the setting sun. They're taking a break, sprawled out on rocks or over the ground. MALCOLM sits next to KELLY, who's sitting on a log. MALCOLM You okay? She doesn't look at him, just gets up and walks away, going to sit over next to SARAH. Malcolm watches, pained, but Sarah puts an arm around her and makes a "she's okay" gesture to Malcolm. AT THE RIDGE, ROLAND steps up to the very edge and peers into the island interior. From his vantage point, he's able to see all the way to the far side of the island, a rim of herd black cliff, miles away. Between here and the cliffs there is nothing but gently undulating jungle. He refers to one of the satellite recon photos. ROLAND Looks like the worker village is down in there, about a mile and a half northeast from the base of these cliffs. MALCOLM is next to him. MALCOLM There must be a game trail, some kind of path that goes down there. Roland looks around at the exhausted MARCHERS. ROLAND They'll have to rest before we look for it. Eat. Sleep. Two hours. Then we hit it. CUT TO: EXT. CAMPSITE - NIGHT The group has made camp in the jungle. The mood is somber, most of the MARCHERS asleep already. Three or four tents have been put up. IN ONE TENT, KELLY sits quietly in a corner, her eyes wide, knees hugged up to his chest. SARAH comes in. SARAH There you are. Your dad's looking for you. KELLY I doubt that. Sarah takes off her outer shirt and hangs it over a bar to dry the broad red smear across its front. SARAH Oh, come on. Go talk to him. KELLY Why? He likes to be alone. I can stay with you. IN THE CAMPSITE, all is still. The nocturnal jungle HOOTS and BUZZES around the sleeping marchers. In his tent, ROLAND abruptly sits up. As if he heard something. He looks out the open flap. In the middle of the campsite, he sees AJAY stop in his tracks, head cocked. Roland gets up and goes outside, joining Ajay in the middle of the camp. ROLAND You hear something? AJAY No. I feel something. Roland looks at him. This isn't so good. He looks out at the shifting jungle. He notices a thin plume of smoke rising up over the trees just barely outside the edge of camp. ROLAND Oh, no. IN SARAH'S TENT, Kelly and Sarah have laid down on top of sleeping bags, trying to get a few minutes' rest. Sarah's shirt hangs over them, swaying in the gentle breeze coming through the open flap. As the shirt dangles there, swinging softly from side to side, we notice the broad red smear across the front. Oh, that's right -- it's blood. The baby T-rex's blood. AT THE RIDGE OF CAMP, the thin plume of smoke leads down to a tiny cooking fire that's been lit by DR. BURKE. He's set a small frying pan on top of it, and now he CRACKS the dinosaur egg he picked up earlier into the pan. Roland and Ajay run up behind him. ROLAND (hisses) ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?! Burke leaps out of the way as Roland kicks dirt on the fire. BMBB! Roland, Ajay, and Burke all freeze. What was that? IN SARAH'S TENT, Sarah and Kelly sit up. They felt it too. BMBB! AT THE COCKING FIRE, ROLAND Get my weapon. Ajay turns and trots away a few steps, then stops cold, staring down at the ground. BMBB! A recent rain has all left puddles scattered around the camp, and impact tremors now create ripples in the puddles -- concentric circles spreading to the outer edges. BMBB! IN SARAH'S TENT, Sarah and Kelly are frantically sealing up any opened food into Ziploc bags. BMBB! Now they leap into Sarah's sleeping bag, to seal themselves, and draw the zipper up, all the way around. Outside, the silhouette of the rex's head passes by the tent. Sarah works faster, her fingers struggling to close the last few inches, but -- -- the rex head pokes through the flap of the tent. It sniffs, SNORTING the air in and out. It looks around the tent. It sniffs Sarah's hanging shirt, the one that is stained with the blood of the baby tyrannosaur. The adult tyrannosaur GURGLES again, COOING and cocking its head curiously. In the sleeping bag, Sarah and Kelly's eyes are barely visible, wide in panic. The rex sniffs and nudges the bag, trying to figure out what this thing is. It rolls the bag over once, decides it's uninteresting, and then rises, straights up -- -- taking the whole tent with it! The stakes pop out of the ground as the tent rises high up into the air and flutters away, leaving the sleeping bag fully exposed on the ground beneath it. IN THE CAMPSITE, the SECOND TYRANNOSAUR now steps out of the jungle, joining the first. Panic hits the camp as the sleeping HUNTERS wake up. Many of them start to run. Roland scrambles toward his tent, where he can see his weapon lying near the open flap. As he draws close, an enormous T-rex foot stomps down on the tent, driving the rifle deep into the mud. Roland, weaponless, stands frozen, watching as the panicked Hunters flee in all directions. ROLAND FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, DON'T RUN! But they ignore him, sweeping him up in the wave of flushed prey that pours across the campsite. Some toss random and ill-aimed GUNSHOTS back at the rexes. ACROSS THE CAMPSITE, NICK bursts out of the crowd, sees Kelly and Sarah struggling to get out of the sleeping bag, and grabs each by an arm. He rips them to their feet and sweeps them off ahead of him, into the jungle. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CROWD, MALCOLM, blinking back sleep, stands a good head above the rest of the panicking crowd. Frantically, he scans the group. MALCOLM KELLY? KEEEEELLLY?! But he can't see her. AT THE EDGE OF CAMP, the two rexes join forces, herding the fleeing Hunters into a narrow ravine. UP ON A ROCK RACE, Roland scrambles up a steep rock face. No way in hell he's going down that ravine. He sees Malcolm, still in the middle of the camp, start to head for the ravine. ROLAND MALCOLM! OVER HERE! Malcolm runs over and hurls himself at the rock face, scrambling to climb up the smooth, steep boulders. Behind him, one of the rexes spots him and lunges across the camp toward him. ROLAND (cont'd) FASTER!! Malcolm gives it everything he's got, clawing his way up the rock face -- -- and rex draws closer and pounces at his legs -- -- and Roland reaches down, grabs Malcolm by the hair and pulls him up, out of the rex's grasp. The rex falls short, but he's close enough that we can hear his teeth SNAP together, closing around nothing but air. It turns, sees easier prey in the fleeing Hunters, and takes off after them. Malcolm lands on top of the rock ledge with a CRUNCH. Roland unceremoniously dumps a fistful of hair in his lap. IN THE RAVINE, Kelly, in the middle of the fleeing crowd with Sarah and Nick, hears her father screaming her name and looks up. Malcolm and Roland are on the rock ridge above them, keeping pace. MALCOLM (shouting) KELLY, UP HERE! But Kelly continues to flee, as the rexes are in the ravine now, and drawing closer to the group. Some Hunters try to leap up and scale the rocks, but the ravine is deepening, there's no way out. One rex grabs hold of a Hunter in its teeth and hurls him against the rock face. The second rex picks up another Hunter and snaps its massive head left and right quickly, to break its victim's neck. The Hunter goes flying forward and crashes into -- -- CARTER, Dieter's driver, who stumbles and falls. The rest of the fleeing humans run around or over him, but when the rex lifts its foot, we see Carter is actually stuck to the bottom of it -- -- and when the animal takes its next step it CRUSHES him into the earth. UP ON TH ROCK FACE, Malcolm is frantic. MALCOLM I gotta get down there! DOWN IN THE RAVINE, it's obvious no one is going to outrun the rexes, and Nick knows it. He bursts ahead of Sarah and Kelly and spots something off to his left. It's a waterfall, apparently right in front of a sheer rock face. But there's something about the way the water is falling that tells him something. NICK SARAH KELLY COME HERE! He grabs each of them and hauls them forward, running straight at the waterfall. Apparently, he intends to jump right into the rock, and he's dragging them along with him. SARAH WHAT ARE YOU- NICK JUMP! The three of them spring right at the waterfall and disappear THROUGH the water. DR. BURKE, fleeing along with everyone else, is watching as they vanish. BEHIND THE WATERFALL, there is a small recess, which is what Nick had hoped for. It's small, only four or five feet deep, but it's just enough for him, Sarah, and Kelly to cover behind the flowing water. Breathless, terrified, they can hear the mayhem outside. NICK Shhhh... shhhh... With an enormous SPLASH, something bursts through the cascading water and crashes into them. Dr. Burke. BURKE Get out of the way! He pulls his way up against the far wall, as far away from the water as he can. FOOOOM! Now another shape bursts through the watery curtain. A Tyrannosaur head. Burke gave away the hiding spot. The four SCREAM as the rex's jaws SNAP left and right, searching for them, falling just inches short. They squeeze as far back against the wall as they can get. The rex can't quite get its head all the way through the opening -- -- so it uses its tongue. A long, dark blue shape slithers out of its mouth and touches the humans, trying to wrap around them, to pull them out of the cave. Burke, blind with panic, forces himself even further into the cave, which pushes Kelly further out. SARAH STOP IT YOU'RE PUSHED HER OUT STOP IT! But Burke doesn't listen, throwing elbows to make room for himself. His movements dislodge a portion of muddy earth, and a flurry of enormous cockroaches, eight or nine inches long each, pour out of the wall and swarm over his face and neck. Burke SCREAMS and instinctively leaps away, toward the flowing water. And that's all the leverage the rex needs. It curls its tongue, wrapping Burke up in it and pulling him between its teeth. SCREAMING hideously, he is dragged out, through the waterfall, and disappears. Sarah, Nick, and Kelly stare in horror as the white screen of water turn pink. UP ON THE ROCK FACE, Malcolm and Roland see the rex walk away from the waterfall with Burke, leaving the hiding place unmolested. Malcolm is nearly hysterical. ROLAND She's okay! They'll stay in there, she's okay! IN A JUNGLE CLEARING, routed Hunters emerge from the gully at the edge of he jungle. Ahead of them, there is a large open plain covered by long "elephant" grass. AJAY, running along with them, stops abruptly at the edge of the grass, SHOUTING to the others. AWAY NO! DON'T GO INTO THE LONG GRASS! Not in the frenzy, they ignore him. Behind Ajay, the enormous shadows of the two pursuing tyrannosaurs stop as well, holding up at the edge of the jungle. Ajay, torn between a sense of responsibility and his better judgement, opts for the former and races into the grass after the other Hunters, waving his arms. UP ABOVE THEM, Roland and Malcolm come out onto a rocky ledge that has a view of the plain below. Roland can see the Hunters leaving trails as they plow through the grass. ROLAND Elephant grass! ON THE PLAIN, the groups of Hunters wades into the middle of the long grass. One of them stops and turns, looking back at the jungle trees. HUNTER They gave up! They're not chasing us! There are CHEERS, SIGHS OF relief. In the distance, AJAY'S VOICE can be heard, faintly calling to them to come back. Up on the rock in the distance, they can see Roland, waving his arms madly. But in the giddiness of their escape, they pay it no mind. They continue plowing into the high grass, anything to get further away from the tyrannosaurs. ABOUT FIFTY YARDS AWAY, the tops of three animal heads rise up slowly, backlit by the full moon. In the distance, the heads can seethe Hunter party. The heads descend, back into the grass. BACK WITH THE HUNTERS, they continue forward, oblivious. Now behind them, four more heads rise up in the grass. As then descend. On all sides of the Hunters, the grass ripples as animals move forward toward them, undetected, inexorable as torpedoes. And these torpedoes are on target. One Hunter is suddenly dragged down, yanked silently below the surface of the tall grass. In his place, a long, lizard-like tail rises up as the animal drops its head to make the kill. Behind him, two more Hunters are taken down, and two more animal tails rise up in their place. A Hunter ahead hears the RUSTLING and turns. His face turns white as, behind him -- -- a VELOCIRAPTOR springs out of the grass. Velociraptor runs upright on its powerfully muscled hind legs, the second tow of each foot bearing an extra-large curved claw, carried in a retracted position, with which it slashes on attack. Like now. This raptor SNARLS and SLAMS into the body of the Hunter, taking him down. A feeding frenzy ensues. The Hunters run in all directions, but are pulled down and vanish into the twitching long grass. Another raptor enters from the right, leaps high into the air, past the full moon, SLAMS into the chest of more human prey, and takes him down, into the grass. Behind them, Ajay's face falls, defeated. He looks around, realizing he too is now stranded in the middle of the long grass. Around him, four torpedo trails head straight for him. Ajay simply closes his eyes. UP ON THE ROCK, Roland turns away from the carnage, pained. CUT TO: EXT. RUINED CAMPSITE - NIGHT SARAH, MALCOLM, KELLY, NICK, ROLAND, DR. JUTTSON, and PETER LUDLOW stand in the ruins of their campsite, their ranks decimated, spirits shattered. Roland is at the hole in the ground where his tent once was. He has pulled his .800 Nitro Express from the mud and more or less cleaned it, now he's checking the loads. Kelly, nearly catatonic with fear, clings to Sarah, and it doesn't look as if she'll ever let go. Malcolm, who is on his knees picking through the wreckage of a tent, looks over at them, but Sarah waves him off -- "she's okay." Roland appears, standing over the group. He looks at Malcolm, who has found the Lindstradt rifle, intact. ROLAND How many rounds did you find for that weapon? MALCOLM Four, counting the one in the chamber. ROLAND Don't let it out of your hands again. (to Sara, but looking at Kelly) Can the kid walk? SARAH Ask her. ROLAND Can the kid walk? KELLY I can. I can walk. While he addresses the group, Roland straps on one of the servo-lights, the shoulder-mounted flashlights that follow your gaze. ROLAND We're going to find a path down into the interior of the island. Load up whatever you think you need, and I mean need. If you can't carry it indefinitely, don't bring it. We'll hit the worker village in a couple hours and be out of here before dawn. AT THE EDGE OF CAMP, Roland bends over one of the three-toed footprints left by the rex. Behind him, the rest of the group is packing up, slinging the remnants of their equipment over their shoulders. Roland bends over and SNIFFS the footprint. It's filled with a liquid of some kind. He takes his canteen, dumps the remaining water into the ground, and plunges the canteen into the footprint, filling it. Ludlow hovers over his shoulder. LUDLOW What is that? ROLAND Piss. Ludlow doesn't ask. NOW AT THE FIRE, Roland stares down at the ashes of the cooking fire that led to such disaster. He grabs a handful of the ash and shoves it in his pants pocket. CUT TO: EXT. VALLEY OF DEATH - NIGHT ROLAND and LUDLOW (who, along with Sarah and Malcolm, is also wearing a servo-light now) maneuver down a rugged hillside and come out in a flattened area. Ludlow GASPS, looking ahead in wonderment. MALCOLM breaks through the hillside's foliage a moment later. He too stares in amazement. SARAH and KELLY come next, then NICK, then JUTTSON. One by one, they all stop and stare. SARAH God help us. They're standing in a flat, sandy area lined with boulders at the sides. The flat area stretches fifty yards from side to side and as far as they can see ahead. But that's not what amazes them so. Everywhere, the sand is dotted with dinosaur skeletons. Some are huge, apatosaurs, sixty feet from head to tail tip. Others are smaller, herbivores of many different kinds. The more intact skeletons lie on their sides, their ribcages arcs of pale bone. but just as many have been ripped apart, bits of carcass tossed in every direction. NICK I do not feel lucky. ROLAND Keep moving. They march on, tiny figures moving among the mountainous skeletons by the light of the full moon. Roland notices one carcass in particular, a recent kill. It's an enormous HADROSAUR with fresh bites taken out of it. He bends down, studying the soft earth around it for footprints. FURTHER ON, Malcolm looks up, noticing the bony shapes around them, which fall in heavy shadows like cell bars, seem to be changing. He turns, and his servo-light shines on the bones. But they're not bones any more at all, they're pipes, the animal graveyard now given over to the lifeless skeletons of manmade objects -- twisted, rotting machinery. LUDLOW We made it! They hurry over a small rise -- EXT. WORKER VILLAGE - NIGHT -- and find themselves at the edge of what was once Isla Sorna's worker village. The size of a football field, the town is divided by a main street that's dotted on both sides by stores, residences, cafes, a gas station. All the way at the far end is a large, blocky, four-story building. But the town is a mess. The hurricane that hit here must have been ferocious, for everywhere things are smashed, broken, upended. And the jungle has stepped into the breath, growing up, around, and over everything. Huge root systems snake through the street, making it almost impassable. MALCOLM The jungle. It's always ready to return. Roland catches up and looks at Ludlow. ROLAND Where's the power and radio setup? LUDLOW Operations building. Far end of the street. A light rain falls as they start down the street, carefully, silently, Roland and Malcolm with their weapons at the ready. They pass the skeleton of a fallen water tower. An empty gas station, its vine-snarled pumps now useless. The only sound is the low mechanical HUM of the servo-lights as they follow the group's gazes obediently. Every few feet, the group encounters strange, grayish lumps that lies in random places in the middle of the street. Malcolm, curious, stops and taps one of them. It's a rock-hard. Nick looks over his shoulder. NICK Lava? MALCOLM No. NICK What are they? MALCOLM I don't know. Finally, they reach the operation building, at the far end of the town. LUDLOW The radio rig is inside. It runs directly from the geothermal generator, so power shouldn't be a problem. ROLAND Good. He pulls out his canteen. Ludlow watches as he screws the top off, moves toward the building, and starts splashing the contents on the outside of it. The rest of the group just stares at him. MALCOLM What's he got in there? LUDLOW Piss. SARAH What? LUDLOW Don't ask me. The guy's completely out to lunch. NICK What in God's name would he want with- Roland rejoins them. ROLAND Tyrannosaur urine. I don't want anything to do with it, and neither does any other animal on this island. This building is now demarcated as the rex's territory. As long as you stay in that building, you'll all be safe until the helicopter comes. He drops his pack, swings his gun off his shoulder, and checks the load. Dr. Juttson looks fearful. JUTTSON Where are you going? ROLAND After the rex. I saw a fresh kill back in the valley with tyrannosaur tracks all around it. If I'm not back in time, don't wait for me. SARAH You've got to be kidding. ROLAND Runs against my nature to hole up in a cave and wait. LUDLOW Do you think the rex might have the infant with it? ROLAND Possible. Ludlow takes off his hat and turns to Nick. LUDLOW You know how to work a radio, don't you? SARAH You're going too? LUDLOW I lost everything I came after on this trip, but one T-rex in one theme park could single-handedly bail InGen out of Chapter 11. He takes a slip of paper from the brim of his hat and hands it to Nick. LUDLOW (cont'd) This is the broadcast frequency. ID yourself as "Harvest Leader." You know what to tell 'em. MALCOLM You gentlemen feel you have to do this now? ROLAND Now's the perfect time. The animal just fed, so it won't stalk us for food. Predators don't hurt when they're not hungry. Ludlow double checks the clip on his semi-automatic rifle -- NICK No. -- and SMACKS it back into the belly of the gun. NICK (cont'd) Only humans do. CUT TO: INT. COMMUNICATIONS ROOM - NIGHT The console of a sophisticated radio set-up glows brightly, all green, red, and yellow. NICK tunes the dial to a specific frequency. The radio WHINES and HISSES tuning in. NICK (into microphone) CQ, CQ. This is InGen Operation Harvest Leader to Harvest Base. Come in, please. The remaining SURVIVORS, minus Ludlow and Roland, shine their flashlights around the dusty, vine-hung interior of the communications room. On the wall a row of chrome letters says "We Make The Future," but the words are obscured by a tangle of vines. Mushrooms and fungi sprout from the carpet. On one wall, there is a mural of what the completed Jurassic Park would have looked like. Big hotels, Ford Explorers with tourists leaning out the windows taking pictures, big crowds at the fences around the animal exhibits. But none of it came true, and now even the mural is runny and dust-covered. There is a pause, filed only with radio static. Sarah looks at Nick tensely, waiting. Finally, a VOICE comes over the radio, clean as can be. VOICE (o.s.) Go ahead, Harvest Leader. They all breath a sign of relief. CUT TO: EXT. MAIN STREET - NIGHT With Roland and Ludlow gone on the hunt and the rest of the group inside the operations building, main street stands deserted and silent. Nearly deserted, anyway. Moonlight shadows lengthen at one end of the street -- -- and FIVE VELOCIRAPTORS STROLL INTO TOWN. CUT TO: EXT. VALLEY OF DEATH - NIGHT ROLAND AND LUDLOW are back in the valley of death, standing amid the giant skeletons of long-dead animals. Roland bends down, checking the carcass of the freshly-chewed HADROSAUR he saw earlier. A set of giant three-toed rex tracks leads away from the carcass, down the stream bed. Roland follows them. Ludlow follows Roland. As they near a bend in the stream, Roland looks down, at the surface of the water. A pattern of ripples moves toward them, washing over their ankles. Roland follows the ripples with his eyes. From up head, around the bend, he can hear the sound of an animal eating and drinking. A very large animal. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pinch of the ashes from the cooking fire that he scooped up earlier and releases that on the wind. They float there for a second, suspended, then blow back at him. LUDLOW We're downwind. Good. Roland darts a contemptuous look at him. He puts a finger to his lips, gesturing for silence, then steps up, onto the shore. Ludlow follows. They creep forward, toward the sounds. They round the bend and Roland hits his belly, edging up over a small rise. Over the rise, he sees the TYRANNOSAUR, about a hundred yards ahead. It's stooped over the stream bed, drinking. Like a bird, it dips its head in the water and then straightens up, to let the water fall down its throat. A dozen COMPYS are at the water as well, drinking. Roland gently FLICKS the safety on his gun to "off." Ludlow edges toward the cover of a low-hanging branch. As he puts his weight on one knee, it presses down hard on the middle of a small stick, which CRACKS in half. Roland turns, eyes blazing. Out in the open, the tyrannosaur snaps its head sharply as well, staring in the direction of the sound. But since Roland's own head is turned, he doesn't see the dinosaur's reaction. Roland holds a warning finger out to Ludlow. Roland turns his head back. The tyrannosaur is gone. FURTHER ON, the trail of three-toed tyrannosaur footprints stops abruptly. Roland stops too, gesturing for Ludlow to freeze behind him. Roland glances both ways, looking for any sign of the track. To the right, the ground gives way to hard black volcanic rock. A short distance behind them, the rock is solid, a massive, green, pebbled boulder ten feet high. Roland frowns and WHISPERS in Ludlow's ear again. ROLAND We took to the rock. LUDLOW Why? In front of Roland, a palm frond sways gently in the night breeze. Roland's eyes widen. He pulls out another pinch of campfire ash and releases it on the wind. This time, the ash blows off, straight away from him. ROLAND Wind shift. They freeze, terrified. Behind them, the enormous green pebbled boulder -- -- opens an eye. That's no boulder, that's the MALE TYRANNOSAUR, standing rock-solid still, its natural camouflage blending into the surrounding foliage perfectly. Very slowly and almost silently, the rex brings its head all the way around until it is staring directly down at them from about ten feet away. Roland and Ludlow stand frozen, their back to the rex, unaware of its presence. Until it exhales. The soft SNORT of its breath isn't quite audible, but it brushes the hair on the backs of their necks ever so slightly. Their hearts drop into their stomachs. Ludlow speaks, his voice a queasy HISS. LUDLOW It's... behind... us. ROLAND (the very softest whisper) It's just fed. It won't attack unless it's threatened. Don't move. As the rex silently cocks its head, sizing up the danger from these intruders, it breathes again. A few strands of Ludlow's hair flap in the exhalation. He closes his eyes, near tears. He can't take it. His eyes dart, glancing down at the weapon he holds in his hands. Unfortunately, it's extended in front of him, away from the rex. He risks another HISS. LUDLOW If I don't move, I can't shoot it. ROLAND Let it go, Peter. The animal won. Behind them, the rex appears satisfied. It starts to swing its massive head around, back toward the jungle. It lifts one great leg and takes a step into the trees. Roland signs and closes his eyes, relieved. But Ludlow seizes the opportunity. He whips his weapon around and drops to one knee. ROLAND (cont'd) NO! The rex is infinitely quicker. Ludlow just has time to squeeze off a short burst of semi-automatic gunfire when the animal whirls, takes one elegant step forward, and POUNCES. Ludlow's bullets rip harmlessly through the foliage between the rex's legs as its big head snaps forward and comes down, jaws wide. They close around Ludlow's body, lift his straight up into the air, and toss him once, readjusting their grip so it is firmly around his midsection. The whole combination of movements takes but half a second. By the time Roland turns around, the animal has pivoted and darted back into the jungle, carrying Ludlow, still SCREAMING and writhing in its mouth. Roland raises his gun, to draw a bead on the animal, but through the shivering trees, he can only see that the tyrannosaur is gone. CUT TO: INT. COMMUNICATIONS ROOM - NIGHT MALCOLM SARAH, NICK, KELLY, and DR. JUTTSON wait nervously in the communications room. An empty can of Dr. Pepper sitting on one of the countertops begins to RATTLE. They look over at it, confused, as the lightweight aluminum can CHATTERS on the formica counter. Other objects in the lab begin to rattle too. Glass jars CLANK against one another, books start to drop off the shelves, a stool shudders across the floor. KELLY What's going on?! Above them, the rotting wooden roof of the building starts to actually tear away, chunks of moldy timber flying up into the night. They look up, a deafening ROAR fills the room -- -- and a helicopter's searchlight floods in! As the chopper dips lower, looking for a place to land, the violent prop wash rips away huge chunks of the roof over their heads. INT. HELICOPTER - NIGHT Up above the operations building, the helicopter circles. The roof of the building is all arches and rotten timber, impossible to land open. Below, the PILOTS see the SURVIVORS through the torn roof of the building. They wave frantically, their flashlight beams piercing the night sky. PILOT There they are! The Co-Pilot scans the street below, but it's choked with overturned cars and fallen trees. CO-PILOT No LZ in the street, too much debris! PILOT Check the other buildings! The Co-Pilot nods and they peel off, swooping over the rest of the village. At the far end of the street, the Co-Pilot brings the searchlight to bear on the large, flat roof of a three story building. The Pilot gives him a thumbs-up. EXT. MAIN STREET - NIGHT MALCOLM, SARAH, KELLY, NICK and finally DR. JUTTSON run out the front of the operations building. At the end of the street, they can see the helicopter as it descends slowly over the building, to land on its roof. MALCOLM There it is! Happily, the group double-times it down the street, headed for the chopper. Again, those strange rock formations are everywhere. Some seem to be on the sides of buildings, as if they once dripped there and then turned to stone. This time Sarah pauses at one that is dripping over to the side of a car like solidified lava. Her face falls as a thought occurs to her. SARAH Ian. It's guano. MALCOLM What? SARAH These formations. They're dried -- MALCOLM Birdshit? A VELOCIRAPTORS jumps onto a fallen tree trunk behind them. They don't see it. NICK Who cares? Let's go! Unaware of the raptor's presence, they resume their trot toward the helicopter. Behind them, the raptor crouches and SNARLS, but the sound is lost under the WHINE of the helicopter's engines. It springs, covering the distance between them quickly. The animal SLAMS into JUTTSON, the last person in the group, and takes him down. Juttson is thrown forward, into the others, who fall like dominoes. Juttson SCREAMS, his voice an unnatural, high-pitched SQUEAL, as the raptor flips him over and lowers its jaws into him. Sarah looks up, panicked. Her eyes widen at the sight of a SECOND RAPTOR, this one running straight at hr at top speed. She buries her face in the dirt, covering her head with her hands -- -- and the raptor's foot SLAMS into the ground between her legs as it bounds over her and dives onto Juttson, joining the first raptor in the kill. Panicked, the group scatters in all directions. Kelly jumps up and scrambles into the middle of the street, where she hits the dirt and crawls under a fallen shed in the middle of the road. Malcolm rolls over to the space where Kelly was, but she's gone now. He looks around frantically. MALCOLM Kelly?! KELLY?! Sarah rolls onto her feet and sprints toward the building nearest her. Behind her, a THIRD RAPTOR gives chase, bounding after her with horrifying speed. Sarah runs flat-out, but her speed is nothing compared to the raptor's, and it gains on her rapidly. The walls of a structure of some kind close in around Sarah, and as she leaps across a leather seat and SLAMS a door behind her, we realize she's crawled into the back seat of an abandoned car. But the car door is thin protection against the charging raptor, which SLAMS into the window, head first. The window spinderwebs, but does not yield. The raptor crumples to the ground. Sarah looks up, through a three inch hole in the middle of the web. The raptor leaps back to its feet and plunges its nose into the tiny hole, thrashing, widening it. Sarah SCREAMS and the animal forces its entire head through the hole, SNAPPING its jaws just short of her face. She hurls herself over the seat and into the front as the animal penetrates even further into the car, but its torso will not fit through the window opening. It pulls away. In the front seat, Sarah gets some very bad news. There's no windshield. The raptor springs up onto the hood, its claws CLATTERING on the sheet metal, and tosses its body through the opening -- -- just as Sarah hurls herself out the door. While the raptor struggles to right itself in the front seat, Sarah runs to the nearest building, ducks inside, and SLAMS the heavy wooden door. CUT TO: EXT. GAS STATION - NIGHT MALCOLM races between the idled gas pumps and into the gas station building, closing the door behind him. A moment later, a raptor bounds after him, SLAMMING into the door. Meeting resistance, it bounces off, notices the plate glass window next to the door, and pounces at that. The window SHATTERS and the raptor clings to the ledge, staring inside, its tail hanging out. Just as it gets inside, Malcolm opens the door and comes back out, keeping the place of wall between them. He pulls the Lindstradt rifle off his back and tries to take aim -- -- but the raptor whirls and springs, forcing him back inside, through the door again. Willing to play along, the raptor turns and jumps through the window again. INT. GAS STATION - NIGHT Balancing on the window frame, the raptor HISSES and crouches, ready to spring at Malcolm. Malcolm takes cover behind the door, which is hanging open between them. He raises the rifle. Th raptor springs into the door, BLASTING it off its hinges, knocking Malcolm right through a window behind him. But the door SMACKS up against the wall, covering the window, preventing the raptor from following Malcolm out that way. For the moment. EXT. GAS STATION - NIGHT Malcolm flies through the window and CRUNCHES to the ground. He GROANS in agony and rolls off his bad leg, which is twisted unnaturally beneath him, and claws in the mud for the gun. ROUGH HANDS reach down, grab him by the shirt, and haul him to his feet. It's NICK. He drags Malcolm away, but in the commotion Nick's duffel slips off his shoulder and lands in the street, spilling some of the precious videotapes. Malcolm scoops them up. NICK Come on! MALCOLM Where's Kelly? NICK She's with Sarah! They race off, down the street. CUT TO: INT. KILN HOUSE - NIGHT High above SARAH, we see she is standing alone in a three story kiln house, a windowless shed used for firing pottery and other construction projects. Catwalks lined with heavy chains hang above her, and onto the floor below, she turns in circles, wondering what to do now. From outside the kiln house, she hears SCRATCHING, digging sounds. From the other side of the door comes an animal SNORT, and a small puff of dust and dirt billows up through the crack along the ground. ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR, the claws of one of the raptors dig furiously, trying to tunnel underneath. INSIDE, Sarah runs to the opposite wall, falls to her knees, and starts digging a tunnel of her own, clawing frantically at the ganging tools always and CLANKS as it tears at the earth below it. Sarah digs faster. So does the raptor. With about eight inches of space under the wall, Sarah grabs hold of the bottom of one of the plans and pries it up as hard as she can. It snaps off with a loud CRACK. At the door, the raptor stops digging. It's silent for a moment. Sarah has a good foot and a half of space under her wall now. She starts to lower her body into it -- -- JUST AS THE RAPTOR'S CLAWS FLASH THROUGH FROM THE OTHER SIDE! Sarah falls back, SCREAMING, leaps to her feet, and jumps up, grabbing hold of one of the catwalks above. She starts to climb, up, anywhere up, as the RAPTOR now squirms and thrashes its way inside, coming in through her hole. Sarah climbs, hauling herself up, leaping from one catwalk to another. The raptor leaps up onto a catwalk as well and follows her. EXT. KILM HOUSE - NIGHT A window in the slanted roof of the kiln house EXPLODES in a shower of glass as SARAH kicks through it and climbs outside. CUT TO: EXT. MAIN STREET - NIGHT Nick drags a badly limping MALCOLM down the main street. They can see helicopter at the far end, engine ROARING and searchlight playing over them as they draw closer. They approach a rusted, abandoned pickup in the middle of the street -- -- and a RAPTOR leaps on top of it. Its claws CLACK on the roof as it goes into its pre-attack crouch. They don't stick around to negotiate. Nick hauls Malcolm off into the nearest building. INT. WORKER HOTEL - NIGHT NICK and MALCOLM hurry inside and SLAM the door behind them. They're standing in the lobby of a hotel of some kind, probably used for overnight guests and day workers who had to spend the night. The room and staircase wind around a large, open-aired central area four stories tall. They SHOUT at each other, frantic. MALCOLM We can't stay in here! NICK We're sure as hell not going back out there" MALCOLM This is single-wall construction! It's just a shack! NICK It'll hold! MALCOLM For sixty seconds, maybe! Look at this! (RAPS on the door with his knuckles) You could- With a CRASH, the wood SPRINTERS around the lock and the door swings open violently. Malcolm is thrown aside, landing hard on the floor. A VELOCIRAPTOR stands HISSING in the doorway. Nick throws his weight against the door. SLAMMING it hard against the raptor. Malcolm rolls over and paws the gun off his back. SLAM! The raptor charges the door again, this time BLASTING it off its hinges, knocking Nick to the floor beneath it. The raptor turns and SNARLS at Malcolm. Malcolm swings the gun around -- -- the raptor lunges at him -- -- Malcolm's finger closes on the trigger -- -- and the raptor lands on top of him. The weight of the animal CRUSHES him into the floor, but the gun barrel now stands between them. The raptor CHOMPS down hard on the barrel, its teeth GRINDING on the metal, and SNAPS its head, to tear it from Malcolm's hands. Malcolm pulls the trigger. The raptor's eyes pop wide as the dart SLAMS into the back of its throat. It makes a GURGLING sound, then convulses violently and rolls off of Malcolm, yanking the gun from his hands as it falls and dies. Nick scrambles out from under the door. Malcolm tries to wrench the gun from the raptor's clenched jaws, but it won't budge. NICK (helping him out) Head for the roof! MALCOLM I have to find Kelly! NICK I think she's with Sarah! MALCOLM DAMN IT, BE SURE!! CUT TO: EXT. MAIN STREET - NIGHT KELLY remains huddled under the fallen shed, trembling with fear. She holds her breath and freezes, as just outside, only two feet from where she's hiding -- -- a RAPTOR'S FEET pick their way past her, down the middle of the street. Kelly closes her eyes and suppresses a scream. CUT TO: EXT. ROOFTOP - NIGHT NICK and MALCOLM burst onto the roof of the now-burning hotel and SLAM the door behind them. The helicopter is now only three rooftops away. They turn and head for it, Nick in the lead, but there's an eight foot gap between the buildings. MALCOLM It's too wide! Nick looks around, desperate. A fallen power pole leans against the building they're standing on, its lines gone slack. NICK Help me push this! Malcolm understands. He and Nick throw a shoulder into the pole and give it a mighty push, tipping it over in the other direction. One good hard shove and it falls to the far building, THUDDING against it solidly. Its power lines are not taut, a lifeline from this rooftop to the next. Nick grabs hold and starts to pull himself across the gap, hand over hand. Behind them, the door of the building SPLINTERS and CRASHES open as a raptor throws all its weight into it. Malcolm leaps onto the power line without hesitation and starts pulling himself across. But even with the door wide open, the raptor on the other side hesitates. It SNARLS and backs away, refusing to come out onto the roof. ON THE OTHER ROOFTOP, Malcolm lands next to Nick on the second rooftop. They look back at the frightened animal, which takes tow steps out onto the roof, SNARLS, and backs into the doorway again. NICK It's afraid to come onto the roof! Malcolm looks around, at the rooftop. Strange bits of scrap and debris seem to have been arranged there, in an odd, concentric pattern. MALCOLM Something's wrong. NICK Look! Sarah! He points to the roof of the kilm house, in the distance. Malcolm turns, and sees SARAH crawling across the tile. His face turns white. MALCOLM SHE'S ALONE!! CUT TO: EXT. KILM HOUSE ROOF - NIGHT SARAH has problems. Still on top of the kilm house, she reaches the edge and pushes off the roof, leaping to the roof of the next building. She lands at the peak of the intersection of the two sides of sloping roof. As she pulls herself up -- -- a RAPTOR appears on the rooftop behind her. In full stride, it leaps, sails over her, and lands on the roof ahead of her. Sarah swings to her left and starts to crawl down the slope, away from the raptor. Suddenly the roof board under her SPRINTERS and CRACKS under her weight. The whole section pulls up and starts to slide off the roof. Sarah, clinging to it, rides the roof planks down, away from the raptor. She looks over her shoulder, down -- -- and sees ANOTHER RAPTOR, waiting for her on the roof of the building below. Sarah quickly rolls off the sliding section of roof, which keeps sliding, falling. The raptor below jumps up, just in time to get WHACKED in the head by the falling roof section. Sarah tries to cling to the Spanish tile roof, fingers and nails slipping on the slick ceramic surface. She slides all the way to the edge, grabs hold of the gutter, and dangles there, suspended above one raptor and trapped below another. The raptor above works its way down. The one below leaps up, at her dangling legs. She has left them in time with its jumps, to avoid losing her feet. This can't go on for long. Desperate, she pulls one of the Spanish tiles up from the roof and hurls it at the raptor below. It hits the animal in the head, for all the good that does. But Sarah keeps on, pulling and throwing more tiles. She edges to the right, toward a fresh supply. The raptor above edges even closer, claws CLICKING on the slick roof. Something interesting is happening. As Sarah pulls the loose tiles free, the ones above slide down, to take their place. Sarah sees this and pulls more free, knocking them out of the way as fast as she can. Suddenly an avalanche of loose tiles breaks loose and the footing underneath the raptor above disintegrates. The animal's feet flail and grasp, it slides towards the edge amid the tumbling tiles. Sarah, seeing it coming, swings in close to the building, hugging it as closely as she can. The raptor falls off the roof, right past her -- -- and CRUNCHES into the raptor below. Both animals SNARK and attack one another. Now Sarah, her grip exhausted, falls too, landing right next to the enraged animals. They fight and roll, RIGHT OVER HER. She GROANS and hugs the wood below her, the raptors continue to thrash and bite, they roll back, toward her, she rolls out of their way -- -- and plunges through a hole in the roof. INT. LAB - NIGHT Sarah falls through the roof of a deserted laboratory and lands in the tray of an old-fashioned hanging fluorescent light fixture. One end of the fixture's support SNAPS, it drops at a 45 degree angle, Sarah slides out the other end and CRASHES through a window. EXT. STREET - NIGHT Sarah lands in the mud in the street below. CUT TO:EXT. BETWEEN TWO BUILDING - NIGHT With a THUD, MALCOLM lands in the mud between two other building, one of which he has just climbed off of. Panicked, he leaps to his feet and starts to SHOUT. MALCOLM Kelly! KELLY! CUT TO: EXT. MAIN STREET - NIGHT SARAH sprints down the main street as fast as she can, toward the building on which sits the helicopter. Above her, she can see NICK has now reached the helicopter and is waving to her. Sarah reaches the fallen water tower, which is next to the helicopter building, and starts to climb it. ELSEWHERE IN THE STREET, KELLY is still covering underneath the fallen shed. In the distance, she can see the helicopter. But she is trembling with fear, unable to move. The whole shed suddenly RATTLES as something heavy hits it outside. Kelly's mouth drops open to scream, but her terror is so complex that no sound comes out. She raises her hands in self-defense, whatever's outside ROARS with effort, the entire shed is suddenly RIPPED right up off of her, and she looks up -- -- into her father's eyes. KELLY Dad! MALCOLM Come on! He grabs her by the hand and they take off down the street. ON THE ROOFTOP, Sarah emerges at the top of the water tower structure and leaps onto the roof, into Nick's arms. NICK Where's Kelly? SARAH Where's Ian? Eyes wide with panic, they both turn and look down at the street below, where they see KELLY and MALCOLM, racing at top speed down the middle of the street -- -- WITH A VELOCIRAPTOR CHASING THEM. DOWN IN THE STREET, Malcolm and Kelly have a twenty yard advantage on the animal. They're pretty fast, but it's faster. Above them, Nick and Sarah are at the edge of the roof, SHOUTING and urging them on. They push it, faster. They reach the base of the fallen water tower, the jumble of struts and metal poles that Sarah climbed. MALCOLM CLIMB! Kelly leaps ahead of him and grabs hold of one of the poles, pulling herself neatly up to her feet and reaching for the next one. Malcolm stretches and makes the same effort, but for him it's much harder. Below them, the raptor springs and SLAMS into the struts, shaking the whole structure. It pulls itself up. Higher up, Kelly climbs fast, hands gliding over the poles. She breaks out into the open, where a long, narrow pole runs on a slight incline up to the roof. She scampers across it, running the balance beam. She reaches the other side, on a ledge below the roofline, and looks back. Malcolm is at the other end, hesitating, drained, breathing hard. KELLY DAD, COME ON! Below him, the raptor closes in. Malcolm sets out across the beam, his legs shaking. He places his feet carefully, he doesn't have nearly the balance Kelly did. The raptor draws closer. KELLY (cont'd) FASTER! Malcolm slips. One foot twists right off the bar and he spins, arms flailing, trying to regain his tenuous balance. But he overcompensates and his whole body, wrenches out from under him. He falls, the bar SMACKS him hard in the chest, knocking the wind out of him, and he drops, flipping right off the bar and bouncing painfully through the maze of bars below. He drops right past the pursuing velociraptor, CRUNCHING to a halt in a nest of bars ten feet off the ground, probably cracking a rib. Kelly SCREAMS from above him. KELLY (cont'd) DAD! She stares down in horror at her father. Wrenched in among the bars, Malcolm is helpless as the animal crouches only six feet above him now, with an open attack route. The animal SNARKS and goes into its pre-attack crouch. Up above, Kelly wipes the palms of her hands on her jeans and leaps out into space, grabbing hold of one of the bars. The raptor springs. Kelly spins around, over the top of the bar, and, at the very peak of her trajectory, she lets go. The raptor sails through down from above, feet first, SLAMMING both of them squarely into the raptor's side, sending it hurtling into space. She lands hard and awkwardly, CLANGING into the spidery scaffolding next to Malcolm as the raptor SMASHES to the ground below. But Kelly manages to hold on. KELLY GET UP! She grabs hold of Malcolm and pulls him to his feet. ON THE ROOF, Kelly and Malcolm appear over the roofline. The PILOTS SHOUTS from inside. PILOT LET'S GO LET'S GO LET'S GO!! Malcolm and Kelly scramble toward the helicopter. But at the opposite side of the roof, a RAPTOR claws its way over the edge as well. Malcolm sees it and they lunge for the helicopter, but the animal is far faster. It's only ten feet away, then five, they're surely done for this time, when -- -- KA-BOOM! There comes the loudest single gunshot anyone has ever heard, and the raptor flies off its feet and lands ten feet across the roof, dead. They look up, to the source of the gunshot. It's ROLAND, standing at the edge of the roof, holding his smoking .600 Nitro Express. But there's no time for celebration, as suddenly the helicopter's left skid CRACKS right through the surface of the roof. PILOT HURRY! THE ROOF'S GIVING WAY! The skid dips even further, ripping right through the thatch-and-wood construction. Kelly, who had one foot in the helicopter, loses her balance -- -- as the roof caves in beneath her. MALCOLM KELLY! She falls, SCREAMING, through the hole and down, into the building below. ONE FLOOR DOWN, Kelly lands with a CRUNCH on the floor immediately below the roof, about nine feet down. But her landing is cushioned by an inordinate amount of straw and leaves that have been arranged there. She lifts one hand, and a yellowy, viscous substance drips off of it. It's yolk. She looks around, noticing half a dozen large, oblong shapes. Eggs. Above her, Malcolm is scrambling, climbing down to her through the wreckage of the CREAKING, crumbling roof. MALCOLM Kelly! I'm coming! Kelly climbs to her knees, but behind her, a large, dark shape is moving. Rising. Unfolding, in a way. IT'S A PTERANODON. Yep, flying dinosaur. The enormous animal raises its head, a brilliant blue crest extending two feet behind its long, saber-like beak. It SQUAWKS at Kelly in fury. She can only stare, spellbound. Malcolm reaches her and grabs hold as the angry animal unfurls its massive twenty-two foot wingspread. ON THE ROOF, the helicopter lurches as it sinks further into the crumbling roof, and now the skids are getting tangled in the debris. Roland races over to the hole, climbs in a few feet, and starts kicking at it, making it larger. ROLAND Give me a ladder! IN THE PTERANODON NEST, Malcolm tries to haul Kelly back up the way he came, but a SECOND PTERANODON now appears from the depths of the building, SCREECHING in fury at these invaders who have landed in the middle of their clutch of eggs. An emergency rescue ladder drops through the hole in the roof. Malcolm grabs Kelly with one arm and the ladder with the other and they start to climb out of the nest. ON THE ROOF, Malcolm and Kelly climb the ladder and are pulled into the belly of the chopper just as two enormous beaks break through the surface of the roof around them. The pteranodons are emerging. MALCOLM GO GO GO GO GOG GO! The helicopter lurches up a few feet, but it yanked to an abrupt stop. The engines WHINE, the chopper just hovers there. PILOT We're snagged on something! They loos down. BOTH PTERANODONS have come out through the hole in the roof and are clinging to the skids of the helicopter. They flap their gigantic wings in unison, and drag the helicopter off, into the air, away from the nest -- -- and let go. Freed, the helicopter gains altitude quickly. IN THE HELICOPTER, the PILOTS gape as the pteranodons coast along, right next to the helicopter. PILOT Hang on! If I tip it hard, I can cut 'em with the rotors! SARAH NO! Don't! They're not attacking! They look out the windows, where, indeed, the magnificent animals are merely accompanying them, flying escort as the chopper gains altitude. SARAH (cont'd) They're protecting their nest. That's all. That's all they're doing. Kelly, completely drained, sits between Sarah and Malcolm, each of whom has a protective arm around her. She sags against her father's chest, nothing left. He holds her tight and WHISPERS in her ear. MALCOLM Thank you. Kelly, thank God. Thank God for you... IN THE NIGHT SKY, over the island, the helicopter steadily gains altitude. A hundred feet. Three hundred. A thousand. As the helicopter is clearly leaving the island, the pteranodons now peel off, their job done. One of them banks sharply, right in front of the moon. The moonlight silhouettes it, shining right through its membranous wings, lighting it up like a Halloween skeleton. Below, the tiny green island melts away into the vastness of the wine-dark sea. CUT TO: EXT. TYRANNOSAUR NEST - NIGHT Elsewhere in the forest, it's not such a happy story. PETER LUDLOW, still alive, drops through the air and CRUNCHES to the muddy ground. Dizzy, bleeding, the breath knocked out of him, he opens his eyes and sees a sloping bank of dried mud. From behind him, he hears a CHIRPING sound. He turns. He's in the tyrannosaur nest. The BABY TYRANNOSAUR faces him, still with a strange aluminum-foil cast on its leg. The baby SQUEAKS with excitement as it toddles toward him. Ludlow scrambles to his feet, unsure what to do. Both ADULT TYRANNOSAURS stand outside the nest, staring down at him. The baby runs toward Ludlow, so he turns and runs away. But in an instant, the male brings its head down, knocking Ludlow to the ground. Then it raises its head again. Watching. Waiting. Ludlow gets up again and tries to run, but now the female rex strikes, knocking him over again. Ludlow tries to crawl away, on all fours. The male bends down and closes its jaws around one of his legs, holding it tightly. Ludlow SCREAMS -- -- and the rex bits down decisively. The bone breaks with a dry SNAP. Ludlow HOWLS in pain, unable to move, and the baby toddles forward eagerly. Ludlow can only stare as it leaps up, onto his chest, and opens its jaws wide. Peter Ludlow SCREAMS. CUT TO: EXT. CEMETERY - DAY Snow falls in a gray midwinter sky. In a cemetery, a group of fifty MOURNERS is grouped around a gravesite next to a coffin that is festooned with cascades of flowers. On a table, there is an array of framed photographs -- -- of JOHN HAMMOND. A MINISTER reads from the Bible while the Mourners wipe away tears. IAN MALCOLM stands a respectful distance from the group, KELLY right beside him. Malcolm's face is blank, tired, his sunburn out of place with the white winter setting around him. At gravesite, a Young Woman turns, looking back over her shoulder. About sixteen, she's lovely, with long blonde hair and an honest, open face. She notices Malcolm, recognizes him. She nudges a Young Man next to her, about thirteen years old. The Young Man turns and breaks into a smile just as welcoming. As the ceremony breaks up, they walk over to him. MALCOLM Hello, Lex. Tim. LEX stands on her tiptoes and kisses Malcolm on the cheek. TIM extends a hand and Malcolm shakes it. MALCOLM (cont'd) This is Kelly. My daughter. They nod their hellos. LEX I'm glad you came, Dr. Malcolm MALCOLM I'm sorry about your grandfather. TIM Thank you. LEX We were going to call you, in a few days. Tim and I have been thinking, and we've decided we want people to know about the island. About what we all saw. TIM We think it's something our grandfather would want us to do. MALCOLM (pause) Why? LEX Because it's true. Malcolm looks at her for a long moment. MALCOLM I know, Lex. But even if we're the only ones who ever know, it'll still be true. You see, I've decided that if the world found out about what your grandfather created, it wouldn't be around for very long. LEX But -- it was real. You can't let people go on saying it's not. MALCOLM That's the thing about reality. He looks down at Kelly. MALCOLM (cont'd) Even when people stop believing in it, it doesn't go away. Kelly smiles and takes his hand, her slender fingers interlocking with his. EXT. JUNGLE - DAY Back on Isla Sorna, we float over the deserted worker village, moving lightly, as in a dream. MALCOLM (V.O.) Do you feel the cold wind blowing on your face? That's real. We sweep low, landing on the roof the helicopter took off from, the nest below now careful rebuilt with straw and scrap, a dozen unblemished eggs in the middle of it. MALCOLM (V.O.) Do you see the four of us, standing here together, alive? That's real. A PTERANODON land gently on the nest. Ever so carefully, it positions itself over the eggs, lowers itself to roosting position, and folds its giant wings around its body. MALCOLM (V.O.) And maybe that's still that matters. The animal raises its head, opens its beak, and SQUAWKS approvingly up at the heavens. FADE OUT \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Kafka.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Kafka.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..29d15eabef1b180f7af99c483ea19563c630f5ba --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Kafka.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +KAFKA by Lem Dobbs PRAGUE - MORNING The Old Town is quiet. It's very early in the twisted streets of this ancient ghetto. Dark corners casting a medieval spell over a modern century oblivious to their romance and mystery. The River is the dividing line. Elegant gardens on the opposite bank embracing the monotonous solemnity of the New Town, tower steeples silhouetted against the sombre sky. An empty motor bus rattles along a deserted street. A Gothic bridge links the two halves of the strange city. Its half-moon arches becoming circles as they meet their reflections in the water. Thin mist swirls over the cobblestones above. A few boats in the water. Fishermen casting their lines in silence. One or two lights now burning in buildings beyond. In the Old Town Square the great clock on the cathedral strikes six. CUT: A MAN'S FACE His eyes filled with terror, beads of sweat crawling on his brow. He stands in the middle of a murky courtyard, perfectly still. Waiting. Watching. The balconies overlooking on successive floors, looming all around him, are empty. All is quiet. The man's name is EDUARD. He dares not move for fear of missing a single sound. And then he hears it. A small noise of movement nearby. He runs. TINY ALLEYWAY He runs alone in the dim light of the deserted morning. CROOKED PASSAGEWAY Running for his life. NARROW LANE Running on sheer pumping fear, long after the verge of collapse. BLACK TUNNEL Coming out into the light, but by no means out of danger, he allows himself a brief pause, gasping for air, just for a moment looking back into the gloom, starting to retreat again even as he does, then turning running ... WINDING STREET He runs on, past boarded-up houses and shuttered inns, strange relics of the Middle Ages casting frightening shadows. AROUND A CORNER Eduard appears suddenly, quickly flattens himself back against the large notice board that covers the wall here, layers of expressionistic theatre and film posters pasted on it. He breathes painfully in short bursts, as silently as he can. He watches the corner he's just come from, the ornate archway through which any pursuer must emerge. Nothing there. But then a shadow moves. Eduard's shoulders tense. His eyes widen. He holds his breath. The shadow ... spreading ... Eduard edges away ever so slowly, keeping his unblinking gaze on the archway, backing off, one arm brushing the notice board as he feels his way along it, macabre images on the posters, some torn and incomplete, revealing other fragments behind, Eduard's eyes staring constant, no noise here at all and -- A HAND! clamps over his face from behind. All of a sudden and out of absolutely nowhere and not a thing he can do about it. But he tries, his hands coming up to grip the arm that grasps him, an arm of iron. The hand is huge. It covers Eduard's face almost entirely, only one eye gaping bloodshot through the fingers, ghastly fingers that, just for a second, seem almost inhuman, perhaps even fingers that seem incompatible on the same hand, a hand covered in scar tissue, starting to squeeze as it pulls Eduard swiftly away. CUT: A ROW OF TYPEWRITERS - DAY Clacketing incessantly under slightly more agile and refined fingers. Beyond these, another row of desks. And beyond that another, the office workers in their neat suits tapping away. And beyond that another, at which one worker scribbles furiously at his figures, the next rolls a new sheet into his typewriter, the next answers his clanging telephone, the next rifles through the pages of a massive record book, the next sits erect in his chair playing his machine like a piano, and the last, by the window, dusty light streaming across him, contemplatively taps the end of a pencil onto his desk. This is KAFKA. A rather tall young man with a kind, sensitive face. sensitive perhaps because his eyes, ears, and nose seem slightly bigger and more inquiring than most, and his gaze one of almost unrelenting intensity. He's looking off at something now. A desk, not very far from his own. But empty. The chair pushed squarely under it. The typewriter covered. Kafka is wondering why -- when his concentration is interrupted. BURGEL Kafka. Kafka turns to see BURGEL, a creep. BURGEL The keeper of the files is still waiting for your final summation of the Erlanger claim. KAFKA I gave it to him yesterday. BURGEL (doesn't understand) You didn't give it to me. KAFKA No, I left it in his office. BURGEL Did you see him? KAFKA I've never seen him. I don't believe there is a keeper of the files. BURGEL He's usually in the storage room sorting things out. He can't close the file on a case until he has the concluding report. KAFKA He has it, he just hasn't noticed it yet, all right? BURGEL Who's to say he ever will? He's a timid old man and quite careful not to tread on anyone's toes -- In fact, I'm the only one he trusts and he wouldn't even look at a document if it didn't first come through me. Burgel just won't go away. Kafka tries to get on with his work. BURGEL In an organization as efficient as ours, if a document once in a great while gets lost it might never be found at all. KAFKA (tiring of this) Burgel, I thought it would be easier, as long as I was passing -- BURGEL But I'm the messenger. An error like this damages my credibility. KAFKA Your credibility -- yes, it's well known. BURGEL (flushed) When I deliver a message the very act of delivering it, you might say, gives it an official stamp, and only in this way are both the sender and the receiver satisfied that it was delivered at all. KAFKA I'll commit that to memory. They stare at each other with mutual antagonism. BURGEL Your position in this firm is not unassailable. He waddles away. KAFKA Has one more look over at the empty desk before returning to his work. THE OFFICE The desks make a checkerboard pattern of the huge floor as Burgel calculates his path among them. CUT: LODGING HOUSE - MIDDAY Kafka comes up the stairs to the top landing. He knocks on a door. Waits. Knocks again. Leans a little closer to listen for a moment, then goes away back down the stairs. GROUND FLOOR Kafka comes through the door that divides the stairs from the hall, goes to knock on the door of the first apartment down here. BIZARRE VOICE Yes? KAFKA I'm sorry to disturb you -- I wonder if you know where my friend Eduard is? BIZARRE VOICE I can't hear you! -- You'd better come in. APARTMENT Kafka comes in tentatively, seeing the CONCIERGE in a far corner of the cluttered room, in bed, covers tucked right up to her chin. KAFKA -- I didn't want to bother you. CONCIERGE Well, you have. What do you want? KAFKA (pointing upstairs) My friend Eduard, I wonder if you've seen him? He hasn't been in to work, I thought he might be ill. CUT: STAIRS The Concierge trudges up to the top floor, Kafka following guiltily. KAFKA You didn't have to get out of bed -- I could have taken the key. CONCIERGE Yes, I'm sure you could. She treats him like dirt. EDUARD'S ROOM The door unlocks and the two of them come in. Kafka goes to open the window curtain. He turns around to see the Concierge already poking about in drawers. He ignores her and looks around the room on his own. Eduard isn't here. Nothing else seems out of place. He wonders instead how he can dissuade the Concierge from her unbelievable snooping. KAFKA Well, he's not here. The Concierge takes a tie from one of the drawers and models it over her own ample chest. KAFKA Do you think you ought to do that? She looks at him indignantly. CONCIERGE The manners of a tramp! It's my house, isn't it? CUT: OFFICES - AFTERNOON Kafka is in another section of the building, finding his way through a department he's vaguely unfamiliar with. He searches out a particular person -- a strikingly beautiful woman with flaming hair and wild eyes. KAFKA Miss Rossmann? GABRIELA looks around from a file cabinet. KAFKA I'm Kafka -- I work upstairs in Accident -- GABRIELA I know. KAFKA You're a friend of Eduard Raban's. GABRIELA Why would you suppose so? KAFKA Oh -- well, I thought he once mentioned -- GABRIELA (shuts file cabinet) One of you must be mistaken. He follows her to a counter where someone stamps the document she thrusts forward without even glancing at her or it. KAFKA I'm sorry, but I just wondered -- GABRIELA (brushing past him) Excuse me, I have to copy this for Central Docketing by 2:30. Kafka watches her go -- then notices some smarmy young clerks giggling over what they suppose was a romantic rebuff. CUT: KAFKA'S DEPARTMENT Burgel sees Kafka coming back in toward his desk, immediately walks to intersect him. BURGEL You're late -- I knew it would happen one day. Kafka ignores him utterly, leaving Burgel standing clutching his files with a sour expression. Kafka pauses at Eduard's desk, still untouched, then continues on to his own. OFFICE OF THE CHIEF CLERK Partitioned off from the rest, but commanding a full view of all. Through the glass windows the CHIEF CLERK, a stern- Looking fellow, notices Kafka and takes his watch out of his pocket for a look. CUT: THE OFFICE BELL - EVENING RINGS, signalling the end of the work day. The office workers clear their desks, start to leave. OFFICE STAIRWELL The office workers stream down the stairs that wind around a central elevator shaft, the gated elevator grinding upwards at the same time. When Kafka reaches the ground floor he passes a pair of SENIOR PARTNERS conferring together -- and does a double-take when he hears his name mentioned -- then sees the two men shake hands conclusively and turn away. Kafka continues walking away himself, worried about his future. OUTSIDE The office workers pour out of the building, all going in different directions. Three of them get jammed in the doorway, untangle themselves, and Kafka is the next to emerge. CUT: THE CONTINENTAL COFFEE HOUSE - NIGHT A lively place, crowded with chattering, smoking, arguing students, poets, painters ... Kafka joins a group of friends. It's clear that this is a regular gathering and, from their warm reception, considered incomplete without him. MARGARETE -- This is our friend Anna who works with us on the magazine. KAFKA Hello. ANNA I've been hearing all about you. Kafka cringes. ERNST Don't worry, Kafka -- I championed your virtues. KAFKA I'd like to hear them. JULIUS Anna's new to the city -- we wouldn't frighten her needlessly. KAFKA I've lived all my life in this city -- it frightens me. As it draws me closer into its web. STELLA -- This is an ancient lament. KAFKA No, but do you realize why? -- it has no present. ANNA -- I'm hoping to live in the Old Quarter. KAFKA Even the so-called New Town isn't so new. Only the people. People of the future living in buildings of the past. (abruptly) Has anyone seen Eduard? MARGARETE Who? My friend Eduard from the office -- I've brought him here lots of times -- you used to marvel at his travel stories. JULIUS Oh, him. KAFKA What d'you mean, oh him? He's a perfectly nice person, he's never missed a day before. ERNST Perhaps he's taken up with those traveling players you two were so fond of. KAFKA No, it's me who always wanted to run away with them -- except that that life would be far too hectic for me. I'm worried about him, no one's seen him. STELLA Haven't you ever called in sick and gone roaming about, free of responsibility to anyone, if only for a day? KAFKA When you work for a medical firm you can't call in sick. They know malingerers like a dog knows fleas. ANNA You work in the insurance department? KAFKA You have been hearing the sordid side then. MARGARETE Be pleased -- you constantly inspire people to take an interest in your life. ANNA I should think it's very interesting work. Kafka shrugs shyly. KAFKA My father always said I had no ambition. CUT: NEAR THE FRONT DOOR - LATER Smoke heavier in the air, the coffee house more crowded with strange groups of characters. Kafka and his friends preparing to leave. STELLA The cabaret will be packed this time of night -- we'll never get in. JULIUS Well, it has to be the cabaret because there's nowhere else to go. MARGARET Home, I think. JULIUS Home? MARGARET (head on Ernst's shoulder) You know I can't stay up late. VOICE Home is the last resort -- BIZZLEBEK The owner of the voice. A man sitting at the bar nearby, turning on his stool to face them. A dissipated dandy of a man. ERNST (introducing him) -- Do you know Bizzlebek -- the gravedigger? BIZZLEBEK Stonecutter, if you please. MARGARETE Sculptor, if only he'd admit it. BIZZLEBEK No one should admit being an artist unless they're paid for it. If you go to the cabaret mention my name -- they'll find a table for you. Turning round again. ERNST Bizzlebek has ways and means denied lesser mortals. It comes from working in the cemetery all day -- he's able to transcent the physical world. Bizz1ebek turns round again, with a bored sign. BIZZLEBEK No -- it only makes me view people dispassionately as so many ... slabs. He looks about, characterizing various coffee house types: BIZZLEBEK Quartz ... slate ... gravel ... granite ... flint ... (and then) Marble. It's GABRIELA from the office. Kafka is surprised to see her, instinctively walking over to where she's sitting at a far table. JULIUS My God, look, he's marching forward willingly to make human contact. Anna smiles. She's interested in Kafka. (Which means we must see this warm attractive girl as a threat, a curse, a trap!) GABRIELA --On the other hand, is an enticement. Kafka can't help walking towards her. Sitting with her own friends, though there is something less than friendly about them. Two men, two women. GABRIELA (as Kafka comes over) Hello again. KAFKA I've never seen you here before. GABRIELA Have you looked? Kafka feels as awkward as she knows he feels. He looks to her friends, expecting an introduction, but no one makes a move. KAFKA Well -- nice to know life exists outside the office. GABRIELA (ironic) Yes. Kafka nods goodbye and walks away, berating himself for banality. CUT: OUTSIDE - NIGHT Kafka resists going along with the others. KAFKA No, really, I have to go home too. MARGARETE We're keeping him from his true vocation. JULIUS I know, he consists of writing. We wouldn't be his friends if we didn't threaten his solitude! Julius is a little drunk. The others help him with his coat. ANNA Has a private moment with Kafka. ANNA Where do you live? KAFKA Up there. He gestures in the direction of the River, and the castle that looms on a far hill beyond, huge and brooding, regally dominating the city. ANNA I tried finding a place on Castle Hill when I arrived. I wanted to share the majesty. (The majesty of marriage is what he fears she represents. This innocent scene could very well be a subjective Kafkaesque nightmare as sinister in its own way as any of the more outright horrific scenes to come.) KAFKA It's only majestic from here. When you get closer you see it for what it really is. ANNA What is it really? KAFKA A glorified office block. They keep all the old records there -- the final resting place for facts and figures that have ceased to matter in the world of the living. ANNA Well, as long as I admire it from afar it shouldn't worry me if it's hollow. (The castle of marriage tempts him -- but would suffocate him.) KAFKA It's more than hollow. It's stillborn. For all its size it serves no purpose. It's just there -- like death -- hovering over a breathing city. THE OTHERS Turn back into the picture. Margarete pats Kafka sympathetically. MARGARETE Don't worry about your friend -- I'm sure he'll turn up. ERNST (a parting word) What are you working on, Kafka? KAFKA I'm writing a story about a man who wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a giant insect. His friends glance at each other surreptitiously and don't know what to say -- other than goodnight KAFKA Turns to go -- when he notices Bizzlebek leaning listlessly in the coffee house doorway. A figure in the shadows. BIZZLEBEK I've read your stories. They're fantastic. KAFKA (not sure if he believes him) I don't know what you could have read. BIZZLEBEK Just what you've published. KAFKA -- In magazines nobody reads. BIZZLEBEK I read the one about the penal colony. KAFKA (cautious) Did you? BIZZLEBEK The needles inscribing the judgement into the flesh of the man. (looks impressed) Very good. Kafka suspects he's being mocked. But perhaps not. Bizzlebek steps out, buttoning his coat. BIZZLEBEK If I could sculpt as well as that, I'd be quite proud of myself. He's already quite proud of himself -- tossing his scarf over his shoulder with a flourish -- and striding off into the night. CUT: THE CASTLE - NIGHT Seen from just below, from the ancient cemetery that borders its high, impregnable, imperial walls. The all-seeing-eye of the city. An awesome edifice. THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER Kafka walking across from the Old Quarter toward the New Town. He passes some working-class types who seem vaguely threatening. Do they mutter some remark behind his back? CUT: ALCHEMISTS' ROW - NIGHT A bizarre street. Tiny little houses that look fashioned by a toymaker, all bunched tightly next to each other, forming a continuous rooftop of odd configurations and angles and pointed chimneys. The street named after practitioners of the black arts and dark sciences who inhabited it in the Sixteenth Century. Kafka's house is toward the back, a light shining from the single upper window. Through it, Kafka is seen sitting at the only desk that really matters to him -- his writing one. KAFKA'S ROOM He's struggling to get a sentence right -- rereading it to himself. KAFKA "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from disturbing dreams he ... from unsettling dreams ... uneasy dreams ... Gregor Samsa ... Gregor ...?" (wondering) Carl. George. Rudolf ... Suddenly there's a loud KNOCK on the front door below. DOWNSTAIRS Kafka opens the tiny front door of this almost-miniature little house. Two intimidating MEN stand outside, one tall, one short, wearing similar black suits and grim expressions. CUT: ANOTHER DOOR - NIGHT Kafka tries to match the exacting pace of his two warders, flanking him as they walk him along a corridor, through another doorway. MORGUE Kafka tugs his collar up a bit, his breath visible in the air. He has a feeling what's going to be under the sheet on the lonely trolley in the middle of the room before the first man summons him over to it. Kafka goes. The first man yanks the sheet off the face in one quick movement. The face of Eduard. White and bloated, the tongue jutting, the eyes bulging. Kafka recoils, stepping back instinctively. SECOND MAN (still behind Kafka at the door) You know him? KAFKA ... Yes. FIRST MAN His name is Eduard Raban? KAFKA ... Yes. And now he hears a stirring in a dark corner. He looks up again. A third man steps out of the shadows where he's been quietly standing and walks over to Kafka. He is a severe man, stolid, dedicated, and never smiles. He reminds Kafka of his father. MAN (with an introductory nod) Inspector Grubach. CUT: INSPECTOR'S OFFICE - NIGHT The Inspector behind his big desk. Kafka in front of it. INSPECTOR Kafka -- is that your real name? KAFKA Yes. Yes, of course -- why wouldn't it be? INSPECTOR When was the last time you saw Mr. Raban? KAFKA Wednesday. We left the office together. INSPECTOR Did you go anywhere afterwards -- to have a drink perhaps? KAFKA No, we said goodbye outside the building. He went off, as usual, toward his house. INSPECTOR (consulting papers) Your office is the Workmen's -- KAFKA -- Accident and Compensation Association. INSPECTOR Where you've been employed for seven years. KAFKA Eight -- and seven months. INSPECTOR Engaged in the manufacture and distribution of ... pills and so forth. KAFKA Well -- other departments are, yes. INSPECTOR Would you describe your relationship with the dead man as close? KAFKA Yes. Since he came to the office, almost three years ago, we've been quite good friends. (pause) How was Eduard ... INSPECTOR He was found in the River. Could he swim? KAFKA I don't know. INSPECTOR Was he depressed? KAFKA No. He didn't seem to be. Do you think he drowned himself? INSPECTOR Grown men don't normally fall into the river, do they? KAFKA No, I suppose not. INSPECTOR (closing the file) He might have had a drink or two, despite what you think. KAFKA (as the interview seems to be over) Can I ask -- how you found me? INSPECTOR His landlady knew of no other friends to refer us to. KAFKA I don't think he really had any. He had no family either. INSPECTOR We know that. Pause. KAFKA He wasn't a lonely man, though. INSPECTOR What makes you think so? KAFKA ... Just a perception. CUT: HALLWAY Kafka comes out of a door that closes behind him. He stands and waits. At a high desk a POLICEMAN is reading a newspaper. Without even looking up from it he extends his arm and pushes Kafka slightly to one side so he's no longer blocking the light. Two other MEN are here waiting, sitting on a bench, sharing a private joke. Kafka glances down at himself, wondering if his appearance could in any way inspire ridicule. The door opens again and the Inspector is back. INSPECTOR I don't usually involve myself with you people in the Old Quarter -- but the River runs its own course. It won't be the last time it deposits its unwanted debris on my doorstep. Pause. KAFKA Probably not. INSPECTOR Anyway, I'd like you to reflect that in me you have -- I won't say a friend, because we're complete fencers, of course -- from distinctly incompatible social classes -- but to some extent, shall we say, an interested third party. KAFKA I'll bear that in mind. INSPECTOR (hands Kafka his card) -- Should you happen upon anything that might be relevant. He nods curtly at Kafka, and shuts his door. THE TROLLEY With Eduard's sheet-covered form on it, coming down the hall, the SQUEAKING WHEELS of the thing loud on the wooden floor. KAFKA The noise causes him to turn around. He watches the trolley as it's pushed past. CUT: AN OFFICE TROLLEY - DAY Similarly coffin-like, loaded with files. KAFKA Edges out of the way to let it by, feeling as though it has been made for him, is waiting for him. He walks on to the Chief Clerk's office. CHIEF CLERK'S OFFICE Kafka comes in. KAFKA You wanted to see me, sir. CHIEF CLERK (indicates a chair) Sit down, Kafka. Kafka does. And the Chief Clerk stands up. He paces up and down a bit, making Kafka awfully nervous before he finally clears his throat and starts to get to the point. CHIEF CLERK You've been with the firm for nearly nine years. You've done your work diligently, there are no complaints on that score. But there's more to the job than the work -- there are other people to consider -- and frankly, Kafka, we eel your social situation could bear improving. KAFKA ... My ... social situation? CHIEF CLERK You keep too much to yourself -- you're a lone wolf. It makes me uneasy, and if it makes me uneasy I can't imagine the impression you make on lesser employees. The Chief Clerk, towering over him, also reminds Kafka of his father. Kafka tries putting up a defense. KAFKA To do my work well, I have little time for -- CHIEF CLERK You must make the time. Where do you go off to in the lunch hour? KAFKA I usually take lunch by the River. CHIEF CLERK It's not healthy, Kafka -- not for you and not for your workmates. At the annual dinner this month you again failed to make an appearance. KAFKA I did not realize it was obligatory. CHIEF CLERK Have you never wondered -- and I mention this only in passing -- (as he paces past and Kafka turns his head) why other clerks have advanced to more responsible positions while you, who have been here longer, have not? KAFKA No, sir. CHIEF CLERK Attitude, Kafka. It doesn't matter how well you do your work -- you still see it as something to be gotten on with rather than something to take an active interest in. KAFKA (leans forward in rebuttal) Well, I -- CHIEF CLERK (keeps pacing) Oh, I know you got along with that poor fellow -- what was his name? KAFKA -- Eduard -- CHIEF CLERK -- Yes -- Raban -- but he was too much like you -- even more so perhaps. He wasn't here as long as you, so I didn't know him as well -- but I could see the influence he was having. I simply want you to be aware of this because you'll be happier for it. Kafka merely nods, starts to get up. CHIEF CLERK In any case -- don't ask me why -- the word has come down you're to be promoted. Kafka sits back down in the chair. CHIEF CLERK Your colleague's death has helped precipitate the need, though I can tell you it's been under consideration for some time. You're to be given two assistants and a commensurate rise in salary. (sits back behind desk) That's all. Kafka nods once, starts to go again. CHIEF CLERK Kafka. Kafka turns. CHIEF CLERK I understand you fancy yourself an author. KAFKA (almost visibly cringes) In a small way. CHIEF CLERK You might find a more athletic hobby -- put some color in your cheeks. He returns to his paperwork. Kafka leaves. OUTSIDE CHIEF CLERK'S OFFICE Walking away, Kafka notices Gabriela striding along an office corridor -- and sneaky Burgel confronting her. GABRIELA She looks distressed, walking tall as if to bolster her composure. Sneaky Burgel does not help matters by characteristically appearing from the sidelines. BURGEL Good morning -- (she ignores him) Or should I say good afternoon? GABRIELA Say what you like -- no one pays the least attention. BURGEL (walking quickly alongside her) Oh, don't they? I think you underestimate my station in this office and overrate your own. GABRIELA Not today, Burgel. Send one of your memos, write up one of your communiques, but for God's sake don't bother me today. BURGEL It's my place to offer advice, not yours -- and by advising the Chief Clerk of your unpunctuality it's certainly not my situation that's compromised, if that's what you're implying. GABRIELA (stops to glare at him) You're just doing your job. BURGEL It's what I'm paid to do. GABRIELA You're detestable. BURGEL And you're late! Suddenly, in a terrific release of pent-up emotion, she slaps him hard across the cheek, the first of what would be a flurry of blows if not for the fact that the unexpected force of it throws Burgel reeling backwards before she can deliver any more. Instead she rushes away, very upset. KAFKA As startled as the rest of the office by the incident. Burgel recovers, straightening up in shock and embarrassment. He immediately resolves to march directly to the office of the Chief Clerk. Seeing him coming, Kafka quickly starts away. CUT: THE ASSISTANTS - DAY OSKAR and LUDWIG. They look almost the same. At first glance almost identical. It's only a closer inspection that shows them to be imperfect twins. Dressed in matching suits. One is sitting on Kafka's new desk, the other in Kafka's new chair. They're rummaging about in his papers, and whenever one selects a particular document for closer scrutiny, the other promptly snatches it out of his hand. KAFKA Coming this way, has paused, having spotted the weird duo. THE ASSISTANTS Continue with their mischief until one of them notices Kafka coming and nudges the other so strongly he almost falls over. They're both standing at attention, looking guilty, by the time Kafka arrives. KAFKA My assistants, I presume. ASSISTANTS Yes -- that's us. Kafka smiles at them, half in friendliness, half in amusement at their quirky appearance. KAFKA (offers his hand) I'm Kafka. Oskar responds first, but Ludwig knocks his hand out of the way to get there first. LUDWIG (shaking hands) Ludwig. OSKAR (now it's his turn) Oskar. KAFKA You look like brothers. ASSISTANTS Yes -- we do. KAFKA Have you worked here long? ASSISTANTS No, no, no -- quite a long time, yes. Kafka doesn't quite know what to make of these two, but they seem pleasant enough fellows and they're looking at him with such wide-eyed innocence he doesn't know what more to say to them. So he turns to look around the new area he's been assigned -- a burrow all to himself now -- even a personal clothes peg on the wall for his coat. The Assistants make stupid faces at each other behind his back, but look serious again when he turns around. KAFKA Well, we'd better move things from my old desk. ASSISTANTS Look at each other with identical frowns, then back at Kafka. Oskar nods, as if to say "oh, all right, if we must." And Ludwig grins. CUT: KAFKA'S NEW OFFICE - DAY Kafka types up forms. He hears some noise and glances over his shoulder to see how the Assistants are getting on -- they're sharing another desk, facing each other, and seem to be working quietly, though with pouting expressions. Kafka rolls a new form into the typewriter -- when a shadow falls over the page. GABRIELA Eduard and I had lunch together one day ... and you saw us. Kafka looks up at her. He nods. KAFKA On the Embankment. CUT: THE EMBANKMENT - MIDDAY Kafka and Gabriela stroll by the River, Kafka finishing off his lunch as they go, occasionally offering tidbits to Gabriela who either samples or refuses them. GABRIELA I was having an affair with Eduard. (notes Kafka's reaction) He didn't tell you? KAFKA No. GABRIELA He would have. You were his best friend. A better friend than me. KAFKA I suspected that he -- well. GABRIELA What? KAFKA That he was -- satisfied in that regard. I didn't want to pry. GABRIELA (throws her hair back proudly) It's not that we wanted to deceive anyone -- but you know how these things are looked upon at the office. Kafka lets out a smile at that. Gabriela is suspicious of smiles. GABRIELA What's funny? KAFKA This morning it was suggested to me that my own sense of office fellowship could bear improving. GABRIELA As long as it's on their terms. If your work and your private life don't correspond to their specifications you're labelled a dangerous agitator -- with no recourse whatsoever. The gnarled, barren branches of a nearby tree shiver over the two of them. KAFKA How long were you and Eduard -- GABRIELA Two or three months, that's all. (adds) -- I seduced him. HIGH TERRACE A flight of stone steps takes them up here to this vantage spot overlooking the River and the city beyond. Kafka stands by a railing -- and the huge, distorted shadow of SOMEONE looms suddenly on the high wall under him. GABRIELA You know as well as I do that he didn't commit suicide. Kafka looks at her. KAFKA No, I don't. I'm amazed that anyone is able to bear life with any assurance at all. GABRIELA Eduard didn't see it as something that needed bearing. KAFKA The police would know the difference, wouldn't they? GABRIELA Do you think people in the New Town care what happens over here? (nodding across the water) This will always be the ghetto. KAFKA He wasn't robbed. He was identified by his wallet. GABRIELA And you believe everything the authorities tell you. KAFKA When I have no reason to doubt. GABRIELA The very fact that they're authorities should give you reason. People will do anything to protect their own interests. For all you know he was killed at the hands of the police. KAFKA -- What could he have done to warrant that? For a moment she seems about to tell him, but then looks away. Kafka follows her gaze. IN THE DISTANCE Someone else has paused at the embankment wall further away to stare at the roiling water. He's too far away to see clearly. Probably nothing sinister about him at all. Still ... GABRIELA Turns back to Kafka. GABRIELA Are you free tonight? KAFKA Tonight? GABRIELA There are some people I'd like you to meet. Can you come to the Musil district at eight o'clock? KAFKA ... All right. Her eyes lock on his for a moment. She's beautiful. He's fearful. GABRIELA You almost married recently, didn't you? KAFKA Last year. I -- it was broken off. GABRIELA Eduard wanted to marry me. KAFKA And you ...? GABRIELA I'm suspicious of men who want to marry. I believe they think it's the only thing that will make them equal to their fathers. THE SHADOW ON THE WALL BENEATH Disappears, the ominous black mass flowing off the large flat surface as abruptly as it arrived. While up there on the terrace we see Gabriela walk away from Kafka. KAFKA Stays where he is a moment, watching her. He may have found his ideal woman. KAFKA (then follows behind her) -- I don't know the Musil district. GABRIELA (without turning) You won't have any trouble finding it. CUT: FAT MEN - NIGHT Sit laughing, jowls gyrating, around a table filled with an abnormal amount of food. One of them stops laughing then, and the others follow suit, one after the other in turn, until they're all silent, looking at the same thing. We're in a fancy restaurant, and the other customers have also turned away from their dinners for the moment to stare at the Man in Black who stands before the Fat Men. The man wears a black mask as well. He presents the Fat Men with a covered tray. They look at it, then back at him -- but he's walked away. They look at the tray again -- and one of them lifts the cover. Underneath lies the classic black bowling ball -- with a fuse burning at the top. The Fat Men all try to stand up at once but -- BOOM! Their booth explodes with them in it. At the doorway, holding a revolver loosely in one hand to discourage heroes, the Man in Black turns calmly to face the stunned restaurant. MAN IN BLACK (hoarse voice) Long live anarchy! He leaves. Fire in his wake. CUT: THE OLD TOWN - NIGHT Kafka walks the crooked streets -- in the direction of the plume of smoke and illumination coming from the burning restaurant. In the dark distance behind him there seems to be a person following him. NOISY BEER SHOP Neighborhood denizens have come out, hearing all the excitement not far away. Kafka walks past. He looks behind him, but the following figure has gone. TWISTED LITTLE STREET Kafka comes around a curve -- and sees ahead a dark figure a black cape standing waiting under a lone lamppost. When Kafka gets a bit nearer, the figure starts to walk slowly away, as if expecting Kafka to follow. DIRTY YARD The dark figure walks alongside a row of black window panes, turning around the corner where they end. Kafka follows around the corner -- and through a dingy doorway. A LOPSIDED STAIRWAY Leads him up to a large attic. Warning shadows. ATTIC Gloomy except for the light around a table at a far end. Kafka advances, seeing Gabriela sitting there with her same companions from the coffee house. Kafka stops in front of the table. VOICE FROM BEHIND Please sit down. Kafka turns to see the last of the group come in, having obviously tailed him all along. A burly man with a BEARD. The leader of this anarchist cell. Kafka sits down, in between a SOLEMN man with a moustache and a woman with a POCKMARKED face. The seedy YOUTH who led him in completes the circle. BEARDED ANARCHIST We'll save the introductions. (takes his seat) We don't know yet if you're friend or foe. KAFKA Strangers make better foes than friends. Will you tell me who you are altogether, if not individually? POCKMARKED ANARCHIST Heralds of a new age -- does that sound immodest? BEARDED ANARCHIST You could say we represent the unofficial view of a well-ordered society. KAFKA (to Gabriela) Ah -- we're back to the "authorities" you spoke of. GABRIELA They're ubiquitous. What we try to do ... is make them a little less so. BEARDED ANARCHIST Quite a disturbance tonight, yes? And perhaps you recall last month -- the explosion at the Municipal Courthouse that sent one of the examining magistrates to join the heavenly choir. KAFKA (disbelieving) ... Was Eduard one of you? YOUTHFUL ANARCHIST The last to join us, the first to leave us. Gabriela darts a fierce look at her overly-flippant colleague. And Kafka is sad about his dead friend for a different reason. KAFKA ... Why take me into your confidence? POCKMARKED ANARCHIST That's obvious, isn't it? We have an opening for a new member. After a moment's pause, Kafka stands up. GABRIELA I nominated you as a possible candidate. You were Eduard's good friend. He read me some of your work. KAFKA I've hardly published enough for anyone to draw conclusions from. GABRIELA You strike me as a man with a defined notion of injustice -- a high concern for the lot of your fellow men. And yet you're able to remain an outsider. With the concomitant air of ... superiority? BEARDED ANARCHIST In short, a higher man. It's what we want. It's what we need. Kafka notices that the Bearded Anarchist has a tattoo on the back of his hand. KAFKA The distance to my fellow man is for me quite a journey. As for being an outsider, it's never been a matter of choice. YOUTHFUL ANARCHIST (as Kafka starts to leave) -- They may have instituted proceedings against you. KAFKA (turns) What proceedings? POCKMARKED ANARCHIST Preliminary investigations may already be underway. BEARDED ANARCHIST You were his friend. One link is all they need. Kafka sits down again. He tries not to be distracted by the Solemn Anarchist who says nothing but who takes an uncommon interest in seeing how many matches there are in the matchbox he's been fiddling with. GABRIELA The day he died, Eduard was called up to the Castle. Did you know that? KAFKA (shakes his head) What of it? GABRIELA He was summoned to help correct a minor discrepancy of some sort in the Medical Records Division. Apparently one of his claims was relevant. POCKMARKED ANARCHIST -- Merely in the interests of order, you understand. The officials at the Castle like to cover their tracks. GABRIELA He was never seen alive again. KAFKA And you still maintain -- what? That he was murdered. GABRIELA He was murdered. A skylight casts moonglow over the proceedings. BEARDED ANARCHIST As you can imagine, a pass into the Castle -- hardly ever granted -- was an opportunity we couldn't ignore. YOUTHFUL ANARCHIST The Castle represents every anachronism that needs to be destroyed if progress is to be made. BEARDED ANARCHIST As you know, it's not the most accessible location. Far from being depressed, Eduard was particularly excited when he brought us the news of this chance invitation. He set off that evening carrying one of our custom-made briefcases instead of his own. GABRIELA (gauging Kafka's reaction) You're shocked at the thought of Eduard tossing a bomb through a window. KAFKA I have no right to be, I know. My experience with real life is practically nil. GABRIELA When you only see someone sitting at a desk all day, it's liable to create a false impression. KAFKA People must think the same of me -- a quiet, dependable person. BEARDED ANARCHIST You don't have to accept everything as true, my friend. You need only accept it as necessary. GABRIELA As the bomb never went off, we can only assume he was caught with it -- and summarily executed. POCKMARKED ANARCHIST -- Merely in the interests of order. BEARDED ANARCHIST The formality of a trial would be too costly for them. They're beginning to understand that it's the ensuing news of our actions that incites support. KAFKA Propaganda of the dead? YOUTHFUL ANARCHIST The Castle will deny he was there any longer than his business required. They're just file clerks up there. No doubt he was handed over to the police with the utmost discretion. BEARDED ANARCHIST In any event, we've felt no repercussions as yet. Eduard must not have talked. You're the one they contacted. KAFKA So that's who my foes are -- policemen and file clerks. Law and order, you might say. The Solemn Anarchist looks up from his matchbox. GABRIELA You think what we're doing is so wrong? And what are you doing? Pursuing goodness? For what? To answer to some supreme tribunal? KAFKA My only concern is the human tribunal. Isn't it yours? GABRIELA Yes -- which is why "quiet, dependable people" have to take charge of their own lives. KAFKA At the cost of others? You accuse people of murder without trial -- apparently without irony. Did you go to the Castle with Eduard? (apparently not) Then you have no idea what really might have happened that night at all -- even before or after he got there. He stands to leave again. GABRIELA Your human tribunal will betray you. Just as its members will be betrayed when they find no supreme one Kafka starts walking away. GABRIELA Join us, Kafka. Kafka keeps on going, the anarchists growing smaller as they're left behind in their far corner of the long attic. GABRIELA It's sheer folly for anyone to try to pull through alone. CUT: MANIACAL LAUGHTER - BEFORE DAWN Seeming to emanate from pitch blackness -- but then suddenly, fast, out of a tunnel under a bridge come running three terrified VAGRANTS, roused from slumber and scared out their wits by the ghastly, crazed CACKLING chasing after them, ECHOING under the arches. They're at the river's edge, all running wildly, slipping and stumbling, every man for himself, as they desperately try to escape from whatever madness is closing in behind them. Now from out of the tunnel appears their pursuer, seen only from the back, literally shaking with insane, involuntary, howling LAUGHTER. A horrific human hyena, far further gone than the sad wretches he's cornered here on this foul, moss-covered ledge in the cold wind. Seeing him, the vagrants freeze in their various positions -- then turn in panic to flee again as he starts after them, moving like an animal, a killer predator, laughing horribly as he goes. The First Vagrant, propelled by fright, manages to make a stunning leap up a wall to grab onto some overhanging chains and pull himself up. The Second Vagrant finds himself trapped at the edge of the ledge -- with the Laughing Man choosing him as the one to go after first. He turns and jumps into the river. The Laughing Man, face still unseen, turns toward the climbing vagrant instead -- who clambers over the top just in time as the Laughing Man's fingernails claw the moldy wall beneath him. The Third Vagrant has made it to some steps, and down them -- glancing back to see the Laughing Man coming after him -- to the small patch of muddy beach at the bottom, grey river water lapping at his ragged shoes. He doesn't know what to do -- he doesn't know how to swim! The Laughing Man is running down the steps now. The Vagrant starts wading out into the water, crying out in fear as the HOWLS behind him come closer and closer -- he throws himself forward, splashing vainly -- and feels the Laughing Man grabbing his ankles, pulling him back. The Vagrant's screams join the Laughing Man's insane giggles as they thrash around violently in the water. The Laughing Man drags the Vagrant back to the beach, then back up the Steps, the Vagrant struggling helplessly, his head banging from step to step, his hands flailing around but finding nothing to clutch onto, his screaming going unheeded in this lonely part of the sleeping city. The Laughing Man drags him on, back to the slippery ledge and along it, dragging the Vagrant on his back through a filthy sewer alongside the wall, the Vagrant's cries choked by the stagnant water, but continuing as the Laughing Man drags him back into the dark tunnel, under the bridge, the two of them disappearing into the blackness again, their combined SHRIEKING louder than ever as it ECHOES horribly around the damp stone, then dimming as they go deeper and further away, unseen, until the screaming and the laughter can no longer be distinguished. CUT: KAFKA'S OFFICE - MORNING Kafka walks toward his desk. Nearing, he sees the Assistants laughing in lunacy between themselves. They hush up immediately when they notice him, and are pretending to work when he arrives. He watches them out of the corner of his eye as he arranges himself at his chair. KAFKA How was your evening? At this sign of sympathy they immediately scuttle their chairs closer to him. ASSISTANTS Fine -- terrible. KAFKA (uncovering his typewriter) What was the matter with it? OSKAR (indicating Ludwig) He can't sit still. Just when we arrive at a nightclub he wants to go to another one. LUDWIG (to Kafka) You look tired. OSKAR (interrupting) Gabriela Rossman was here looking for you. Do you know her? KAFKA (looking up) Do you? OSKAR We saw her naked once -- didn't we. He elbows Ludwig violently. LUDWIG Women are all you have on your mind! OSKAR She went to the roof to sunbathe one lunch hour -- we watched her changing. KAFKA I didn't realize you'd been here that long. OSKAR You mean because it's been a while since there was a sunny day? What a good detective you are. LUDWIG They keep switching us from department to department. He doesn't mind because he can't sit still. OSKAR We used to be in the supply section, carrying boxes of medicine about but we dropped too many of them. LUDWIG It's not too bad working here. Kafka stands up, pleased for them in their innocence. KAFKA You don't think it's a horrible double life from which there is probably no escape but insanity? The Assistants look at each other, perplexed by this attitude. LUDWIG No. KAFKA I'm glad for you. He starts to go. OSKAR (calling after him) You should be content, you know! The stick-like figure of Kafka turns into the long center aisle, walking between the endless rows of busy desks. He sidetracks, taking a shortcut along a narrower aisle toward the exit he's heading for. Another clerk is coming the other way and they both at the same instant turn sideways to sidle efficiently by one another, an almost balletic maneuver, perfected after years of office experience, nothing more than a short breath of air passing between them. CUT: GABRIELA'S SECTION Kafka working his way toward Gabriela's desk -- but he stops before he gets to it, a familiar shiver running through him. THE DESK Empty. The chair pushed squarely under it. The typewriter covered. KAFKA Stares at it -- then at the ermine Mr. Burgel who has once again popped up out of nowhere. BURGEL Are you looking for Gabriela Rossmann? KAFKA Yes. Burgel bows sarcastically to hand Kafka an envelope. Then chuckles spitefully, obviously knowing something Kafka does not. He walks off, leaving Kafka uneasy. CUT: EDUARD'S LODGING HOUSE - DAY Kafka bounds up the stairs. EDUARD'S LANDING The door to his room is open. Kafka goes in. EDUARD'S ROOM Kafka comes in. Gabriela is here, gathering up Eduard's belongings from drawers. GABRIELA (hardly glancing at him) I'm collecting Eduard's things. If there's anything you want, take it or I'll give it to charity. KAFKA (taking her note from his pocket) Burgel gave me this -- what does it mean? GABRIELA (now looks up) Burgel! -- I didn't leave it with him. KAFKA (going closer) Why were you given notice? GABRIELA They're not obliged to tell. KAFKA It couldn't be for that incident with Burgel the other day. GABRIELA Of course it could -- Burgel's been trying to get me thrown out as long as I can remember. He could've killed Eduard. KAFKA You don't believe that. GABRIELA I wouldn't put it past him. She's stuffed the last of the clothes into a small bag, goes to take the few other possessions from shelves and elsewhere. Kafka notices that he's standing by a dumbwaiter. For lack of anything better to do he pulls the rope to bring it up. It's filled with more clothes. Gabriela comes over with her bag, holding it out for him as Kafka puts the clothes in -- but not as many clothes as they thought. Behind the bundle, hidden at the back, is a briefcase. Gabriela recognizes it. Kafka sees her surprised reaction. He removes the case and carefully flips the latches. Inside, a complex mechanism, wires connected to a clock -- and a clump of dynamite. Kafka just looks at it sadly. He closes the case. KAFKA It seems I knew Eduard a little bit, after all. GROUND FLOOR OF BUILDING The ratty old concierge peeks up the stairs inquisitively. In the doorway of his room, a LODGER clips his fingernails at a little folding table, neatly lining them up. The concierge turns and notices. CONCIERGE Lodgers! Not one of them thinks to spare me such spectacles! She slams the door on him then returns to her own apartment, slamming that door too. The hallway is empty now. EDUARD'S ROOM Gabriela turns to Kafka. GABRIELA You might think -- I thought so myself at first -- that Burgel's too insignificant to be dangerous. But that's the very reason to beware! It's the small men to watch out for -- the ones who substitute method for character. KAFKA (sighs at her relentlessness) Now you've fallen into his trap. When he goes to bed at night Burgel dreams of inspiring as much fear in others as they inspire in him. GABRIELA It's still easier for you to understand suicide, isn't it. She's got his number. He's so in awe of her he has to turn away -- looking out the room's small window. KAFKA That street down there -- I always used to call it the approach road for suicides. It leads straight down to the bridge and the River. GABRIELA Burgel hated Eduard. And me. I'm sure he knew about us -- and I'm sure it drove him mad. KAFKA Burgel doesn't like anybody! GABRIELA He used to like me -- very much more than I liked him. KAFKA He's jealous, yes, but that jealous? He's too cautious. Gabriela clears some more items off a mantelpiece with a sweeping gesture. GABRIELA Of course he is -- the Castle precincts are not the safest part of the city after dark. People disappear up there regularly. If you want to lie in wait for someone, that's the place to do it. KAFKA Now you're saying Eduard was lured there? GABRIELA (puts away the last few books) How often does one of our clerks have business in the house of records? KAFKA I've heard of it happening. GABRIELA And Burgel is the bringer of messages, isn't he? KAFKA Usually. Putting the bag down, Gabriela goes closer to Kafka, so close he almost cowers. GABRIELA Or what if there really was an error? -- I don't know what kind -- any kind that needed correcting -- and what if Burgel was responsible for it? One mistake -- even a small one in a firm like ours -- it could cost him a promotion. KAFKA First these nameless authorities were the root of all evil, now it's insignificant Burgel. If indeed there was a mistake -- and a minor one at that -- you're suggesting someone went to a lot of trouble over something so trivial as to not matter at all. GABRIELA What seems important to these people is not determined by the amount of work it entails -- you're far from understanding the authorities if you believe that. KAFKA Now Burgel's one of the authorities? She turns away from him, reddening. GABRIELA For all his big talk he is. Does he really have access to the Directors of the firm as he always claims? -- or only the Deputy Managers -- people of no importance whatsoever. Someone ought to follow him for a change. Kafka sees an opportunity to go to her, to try to calm her, to make a timid approach to this woman. KAFKA You won't make any sense of it while you're upset. -- But she breaks away. GABRIELA Burgel is only there for one purpose -- to spy on the employees and report any and all indiscretions, real or imagined. If he didn't send Eduard to the Castle, you can be damn sure he's in league with whoever greeted him there. (very upset now) All those bastards are in league with each other -- why can't you see that! She takes hold of him as if to shake some sense into him -- but really because she needs someone to hold. KAFKA ... I don't see anything. I see a message on its way to me -- with all the right answers. Only it never arrives -- it's always just on its way. Gabriela doesn't seem to be listening. She's looking around. the little room, as if it's someone else she's holding ... GABRIELA Eduard ... Her head against his, Kafka tentatively touches her hair and she pulls away, the spell broken. GABRIELA Your ignorance of the way things are here is so appalling that it makes my head spin to listen to you and compare what you say and have in mind with the real situation! She storms out, vehemently picking up her bag on the way out, and slamming the door quakingly behind her. Kafka is too astonished at her behavior to make a move for a moment, then he glances at the bomb-case she's left behind, then he goes out to the landing. GABRIELA Rushing down the stairs in anger, tearing open the door at the middle landing and slamming that one too once past it. KAFKA Following her down. GABRIELA Coming down the final flight of stairs, disappearing through the door at the bottom, slamming that one as well. KAFKA Almost caught up with her, coming down to the last door. GROUND FLOOR HALLWAY Kafka comes through the door from the stairs, out of breath, and stops. He's too late. The hallway is empty. The front door at the end of it is shut. He makes a face and a moment later starts to go back up. Then stops again. Turns. Looks back at the front door. ... The one he didn't hear slam. OUTSIDE The front door opens and Kafka steps out. He stands on the stoop. He looks up the street one way. Deserted. He looks down the street the other way. Deserted. CUT: INSIDE - DAY Kafka leads the police Inspector back along the lodging house hallway. The two subordinate policemen follow behind. INSPECTOR You said she was extremely upset. People who are extremely upset -- Kafka -- are given to disappearing in a hurry. They go and calm down for a day or so and then they come back. They've come to the door to the stairs now. KAFKA But that's just my point -- she was more than upset, she was livid. She slammed every door on her way downstairs -- except that one. (points at front door) I was just behind her and I didn't even hear that one shut -- not at all. INSPECTOR That's not what I call conclusive evidence of an abduction. KAFKA If someone was waiting here in the hallway to spirit her away, wouldn't they have shut the door as quietly as possible? The Inspector stares at him. The two other policemen roll their eyes at each other. CUT: EDUARD'S ROOM Kafka keeps his eye on the two policemen as they poke around, one of them getting close to the dumbwaiter. INSPECTOR Why would someone want to kidnap this woman -- the name is Rossmann? He says it rather derisively, separating the syllables of the name. KAFKA You told me to contact you if anything relevant came up -- Gabriela is relevant. When I spoke to you before I didn't know she'd been seeing Eduard. INSPECTOR That's been noted. But where does it lead us? Unless you have something more to add. KAFKA She's missing. I went to her house and she hadn't returned there. The policeman at the dumbwaiter peers down the shaft -- but then moves on. INSPECTOR She lost her job today. Just between you and me, I'd probably go away and brood a bit myself. He signals his men, time for them to go. STAIRWAY The two Policemen lead the way back down, the Inspector behind them, Kafka remaining on the top landing. KAFKA (manages to blurt out) Maybe it's true then what she said. INSPECTOR (pauses) What did she say? KAFKA That the police may have allegiance to something other than truth. The two other policemen look at each other ominously. The Inspector turns to them, giving them a look, and they go off down the stairs. The Inspector plods back up to Kafka Like a stern parent. They confront each other, Kafka trying not to cringe too baldly. Scary shadows around the bizarrely-angled stairway. KAFKA -- She didn't think Eduard committed suicide. (then) Any more than I do. (then) She was convinced of it. Pause. INSPECTOR I'm going to say something, and I hope it's quite clear because I won't be repeating it. People treat Kafka like a child. And other people seem big to him anyway. The Inspector leans his face very close. INSPECTOR We don't have to hunt for criminals. We're drawn towards them. The guilty show us the way. He leaves Kafka alone on the top landing. CUT: CONTINENTAL COFFEE HOUSE - NIGHT Kafka comes in, looks around, doesn't see his friends anywhere. But at the bar, at his usual perch, is Bizzlebek, the coffee house habituÈ. BIZZLEBEK Where are your friends? Kafka turns and looks at him. KAFKA Good question. Who are my friends ... would also be of interest. CUT: TABLE Bizzlebek sits listening to Kafka's tale of woe. KAFKA (staring into steaming coffee cup) Gabriela was right -- it's easier for me to understand suicide. I'm a practicing suicide. BIZZLEBEK (slightly mocking as ever) -- In what sense? Kafka stares at men and women around the coffee house -- couples, holding hands, kissing. KAFKA Bachelorhood is just the slow form. The bachelor doesn't sew seeds. Only the moment matters. The space he occupies grows smaller and smaller -- until the only space right for him is his coffin. Pause. BIZZLEBEK These strange stories you write -- they come naturally, do they? KAFKA Naturally? -- that's not the word I would have chosen. BIZZLEBEK (seriously) Where do you get your ideas? (quickly) Only joking -- I'm just joking. (laughing) Let's go to a brothel then, Kafka, come on. KAFKA I haven't got the energy. I mean, I have to conserve my energy. BIZZLEBEK Why do you work in that hideous insurance office? -- dealing with people who fall off ladders. Now take me -- I make my living as a stone mason. It's not my art -- but it's the tools of my art. You could be -- a journalist. Kafka shakes his head sadly. He's obviously heard argument before. KAFKA That would be even worse -- it would be a compromise. BIZZLEBEK Success or nothing? KAFKA No -- not even success. My writing is not for making a living -- it's for living. Not for other people, it's for me. He stares at a woman who reminds him slightly of Gabriela -- a sexy woman and the man with her treating her as a sexy woman. KAFKA ... I'm the exile. Gabriela was right about that too. CUT: CHARLIE CHAPLIN - EVENING Being chased around a table by a big bearded man in flickering black-and-white. AN AUDIENCE Watching, laughing. A great sea of grinning teeth and teary eyes. Except one. Kafka sits grimly alone near the back. But suddenly he's not alone -- the Bearded Anarchist has sat down in front of him -- and now turns round, startlingly. BEARDED ANARCHIST We have another theory. And the Pockmarked Anarchist is suddenly sitting beside him. POCKMARKED ANARCHIST We may have attached too little importance to the reason Eduard was summoned to the Castle to begin with. And the Youthful Anarchist is behind him, thrusting his head suddenly forward. YOUTHFUL ANARCHIST -- To correct a small discrepancy, you may recall. The Solemn Anarchist is on Kafka's other side -- but he just watches the movie. POCKMARKED ANARCHIST -- Ah, but what if it wasn't? BEARDED ANARCHIST -- Small. YOUTHFUL ANARCHIST -- What if it was a large discrepancy? Kafka's head keeps turning around as they speak. POCKMARKED ANARCHIST Yours is a very powerful and important firm -- it has a lot at stake. BEARDED ANARCHIST Perhaps Eduard was closer than he knew to discovering it and so had to be silenced. YOUTHFUL ANARCHIST -- Or he was even more an innocent victim than that -- he was chosen to bear the blame if the crime was uncovered by anyone else. POCKMARKED ANARCHIST -- The crime so scandalous that the poor young clerk committed suicide rather than own up to it. KAFKA That's mad. POCKMARKED ANARCHIST -- Oh, yes, it's mad. The Solemn Anarchist suddenly laughs -- probably at Charlie Chaplin. KAFKA -- You said so yourself the firm is large and powerful. If the discrepancy really was something big, Eduard's responsibility would still have to be small. No poor young clerk could find himself in such a fix. POCKMARKED ANARCHIST (sarcastic grunt) When a scapegoat is needed, my friend ... BEARDED ANARCHIST We have to know what he was working on at the time of his death. KAFKA He worked on routine claims. His visit to the Castle was probably as minor a mission as he said it was. POCKMARKED ANARCHIST Why are you so aggressively unimaginative? Eduard is no longer the only casualty. KAFKA Then why haven't I been -- YOUTHFUL ANARCHIST -- Kidnapped or murdered? Because your connection with Eduard was obvious and above board -- not as easily misconstrued. BEARDED ANARCHIST -- Not secretive, therefore not suspicious. POCKMARKED ANARCHIST -- Gabriela, on the other hand, had made an enemy of this man Burgel. KAFKA (head turning, exasperated) Oh, Burgel! Gabriela was having an affair with Eduard. They were both members of this group. If any crime's been discovered and people are paying for it, I'd look to yourselves! POCKMARKED ANARCHIST The loyal civil servant. I suppose you'll deny that shortchanging the workers to whom compensation is due is standard company policy. BEARDED ANARCHIST It wouldn't surprise us if the discrepancy was between medicines sent and medicines received. YOUTHFUL ANARCHIST -- People die for such discrepancies. Kafka's head is spinning -- and the Solemn Anarchist suddenly looks at him. SOLEMN ANARCHIST (the hoarse voice of the restaurant bomber) We must have a look at Eduard's file. cut: STORAGE SECTION - DAY Kafka follows the KEEPER OF THE FILES along labyrinthine alleys between shelves packed with files. Walls are obscured by columns of documents tied together, piled on top of each other. There's Hardly room to move. Stacks of files are everywhere, balancing precariously, even falling from time to time, from sheer Pressure in all directions. KEEPER (vexed) "Raban" -- that'll be nearly at the back of the alphabet. KAFKA It usually is. KEEPER (snaps at him) I'm not obliged to give you access, you know -- not without authorization -- but I'll make an exception this one time. They turn down another row, walking further, turning again. Kafka keeps flinching as thick bundles of documents CRASH down around him, narrowly missing him. KEEPER (oblivious to the danger) I'm overworked as it is. (finds the right section) "Raban" did you say? KAFKA Yes. Isn't it there? The Keeper of the Files is rifling through folders -- causing others to fall out onto Kafka who tries to catch them. KEEPER (pauses) Wait a minute. "Raban?" Where have I heard that name? KAFKA He's the clerk who died last week. From the insurance department The Keeper of the files looks extremely displeased. He pushes past Kafka, going back the way they've come. KAFKA (follows anxiously) What's the matter? KEEPER Why would we keep files on dead employees? All old files are sent up to the Castle. Do you think we have room for two hundred years worth personnel records? KAFKA (dodges another paper landslide) It's gone out so quickly? KEEPER Whenever an employee departs, shall we say, it's up to the head of his department to requisition his file, reassign any outstanding claims, and send it off. KAFKA -- You mean my Chief has it. Documents come crashing down and we can't see Kafka and the Keeper anymore. CUT: THE CHIEF CLERK - DAY Looks up from his desk and sticks his chin out, which is his way of asking Kafka what the hell he wants. Kafka dares to come in. KAFKA Excuse me, sir -- I understand you have Eduard Raban's file. CHIEF CLERK I do. KAFKA I wonder if I might look to see if there's an address for family -- I thought I'd like to write to them. The Chief Clerk has little time for such sentimentality. He gives Kafka a little exasperated look before reaching down to -- a right hand desk drawer -- which Kafka notices -- and taking out a folder. CHIEF CLERK No -- just as I thought -- no entry for family. Kafka nods a bit, wondering what to do now. CHIEF CLERK Was there something else? KAFKA No -- I just -- I feel a sense of obligation. He was my friend -- if I can be of any help -- closing his affairs. CHIEF CLERK (putting file away again) No, there's only one report to complete. I'll be doing it myself and submitting it to the Castle today or tomorrow. KAFKA (as ingenuously as possible) I see -- it's just the Erlanger claim then. CHIEF CLERK (looks up) The Orlac claim. KAFKA Sorry, yes -- well -- thank you, sir. The Chief Clerk watches him as he starts to leave. CHIEF CLERK Kafka. Kafka reluctantly turns. CHIEF CLERK You're too sensitive. Let your friend rest in peace. (returning to paperwork) I've known suicides. Such a song- and-dance about nothing. Kafka nods once. KAFKA Yes, sir. The Chief Clerk looks at him with seemingly genuine misguided concern. CHIEF CLERK Give it up. He goes back to his paperwork. Kafka leaves. OUTSIDE CHIEF CLERK'S OFFICE Kafka shuts the door behind him, breathes a sigh of relief. CUT: THE KEEPER OF THE FILES - DAY Looking very annoyed, leading Kafka back through the stacks. KEEPER If it was Accounts you wanted why did you ask for Employees? KAFKA Orlac is an account? KEEPER It's a factory in the northern mountains. One of our best customers. (as they disappear around a corner) Without a proper request I'm not obliged to do this, you understand -- but I'll make an exception on this one occasion. ANOTHER ROW Kafka glances nervously around as shelves CREAK threateningly under the weight of documents. Up on a ladder, the Keeper of the Files finds the Orlac folder. KEEPER At least the account is current even if the employee isn't. He pulls it out -- with great difficulty. The Orlac file is very, very thick. Kafka prepares himself to catch it, but the Keeper of the Files manages to hand it down to him without serious injury. Still, it's quite cumbersome and heavier than Kafka expects. KEEPER (coming down ladder) That place has so many accidents, it's a good thing the type of peasants who live up there don't seem to have any trouble propagating their race. Kafka winces at that slur but says nothing about it. KAFKA (leafing through pages) All these in the last year? KEEPER You must have read about it in the papers -- there was a terrible cave-in. It wouldn't have been so bad, but even the Medical Officer for the district was killed! KAFKA I did read that. They gave him a posthumous medal. KEEPER (nods) Dr. Murnau was the bravest of men. He spent an entire career in those backwaters with no regard for personal gain. A great loss. KAFKA (a particular document) This is the cross-reference of clerks who've worked on Orlac claims? KEEPER (nods) Is your friend's name among them? (Kafka shakes his head) Then he only worked on the one case. (taking file back again) Your Chief will send me the final summation when he's finished with it. KAFKA Once a file's been sent to the Caste, is it possible to recall it for review? KEEPER (going back up ladder) Of course not. Only by a Director of the firm. Who'd want to let in all kinds of riff-raff off the streets? KAFKA What good are records if they're not open for public inspection? KEEPER (stuffing file back in place) These laws have been with us for centuries -- how can you doubt them? KAFKA What if I petitioned one of the Directors? KEEPER (coming back down) You do not summon them -- they summon you -- and this, of course, hardly ever happens, if at all. The Directors are an eccentric lot and by nature cautious. KAFKA Where do our records go to in the Castle? KEEPER (starting to walk away) We're a medical firm, aren't we? They go to the Medical Records Section. KAFKA I could always apply there. KEEPER It so happens, my dear simple sir, that the Head of Medical Records at the Castle is one of the Directors of this firm. Kafka scowls, and follows the Keeper of the Files in silence. CUT: THE OFFICE - EVENING Kafka works at his desk, finger tapping at an adding machine. He checks the office clock -- nearly the end of the day. THE ASSISTANTS One is sweeping the floor. The other is scribbling at their desk. His pen blotches his paper. He has a fit and crumples it up and throws it down. KAFKA Looks over at the Chief Clerk's office -- sees him writing intently at his desk, pausing to turn on a lamp. THE ASSISTANTS The sweeping one bangs his knee against a desk and starts hopping about. The pen of the other one leaks again. He crumples up his new sheet and flings it away even more angrily than before. Then he examines his pen, determines that the cap at the back is loose, and starts banging it on his desk in an attempt to tighten it -- while the other assistant keeps jumping around holding his hurt kneecap. KAFKA Glances over his shoulder at them, starts to say something -- but then notices Burgel, not far away, sometimes blocked by other employees, walking in the direction of the Chief Clerk's office. THE ASSISTANTS The one assistant has just fixed his pen when the other one, still hopping around, bumps into him, causing him to knock over a bottle of ink. The two of them start shoving each other about. Kafka whirls around, can't ignore them any longer. KAFKA Do you mind! The Assistants look at him, surprised at this outburst. OSKAR -- I was just trying to finish some work! KAFKA You mean you've actually begun some? LUDWIG (pointing at Oskar) -- Just because he's done nothing today, he doesn't want me to show him up! Oskar tries to lunge at Ludwig, but Kafka holds him back. KAFKA My assistants! You might as well have fallen from the sky for all the thought that was spent in choosing you! The Assistants look at each other sheepishly. Then smile at Kafka, submissively or mockingly, it's hard to tell. OSKAR It's not our fault. We're naturally nervous. LUDWIG And we're upset too. KAFKA What's the matter with you? OSKAR I can't make a simple statement without him taking issue with it KAFKA -- You should meet my father. LUDWIG We've been together too long. His personality is overflowing into mine and vice versa. OSKAR -- How would you like to be in a horrible situation like that? KAFKA He wouldn't. It's the nightmare of his life. But now he's distracted again -- noticing Burgel walking away from the Chief Clerk's office (without ever having seem him actually enter it). And Burgel is carrying a parcel under his arm. KAFKA (to Assistants again) All right, you might as well go home -- go on. The Assistants do as they're told, Oskar returning to his desk to clear up, turning his back on Ludwig -- at which Ludwig immediately rushes up very close behind him and shakes his fist strenuously at him, turning away quickly when Oskar turns around again to try and catch Ludwig at it. Kafka isn't paying them any attention anymore. He efficiently cleans up his own space, keeping an eye on the Chief Clerk's office. When the office bell RINGS the Chief Clerk immediately turns off his desk lamp, puts on his overcoat, and shuts his office light on his way out. Kafka doesn't think twice. He forces himself to start walking to the Chief Clerk's office. Other departing office employees crisscross past him, but he walks in a straight line, businesslike, toward the Chief Clerk's office. He has a piece of paper in his hand. He enters the Chief Clerk's office, holds the paper out to drop on the Chief Clerk's desk -- but lets it slip off onto the floor. When he bends to retrieve it he quickly opens that bottom drawer where Eduard's file was -- but it's now empty. CUT: DARK STREET - EVENING Burgel walks along, adjusting the parcel under his arm. KAFKA Following him. CUT: ACROSS THE RIVER Burgel heads into the Old Town. KAFKA Pauses in some shadows. He glances up at the distance, the way Burgel is going, up at -- THE CASTLE Almost glowing as it's outlined against the blue of the darkening night. CUT: WHORES Giving Kafka the eye as he goes past doorway after doorway filled with their frightening/tempting forms. But he tries never to lose focus on the small form of Burgel further up the street. Men milling about, up and down the street, prostitutes roaming amongst them, Kafka negotiating his way through. An urgent moment when he almost loses Burgel -- then sees him turning down an alley. Kafka hurries after him, avoiding a pair of drunken louts in the way. FURTHER ON The Castle visible, but still a little in the distance. Kafka comes into view. He sees Burgel entering a building. CUT: UPSTAIRS HALLWAY Very dingy. Burgel leaves the top of the stairs and walks down to a room at the end. DOWNSTAIRS Kafka waits momentarily at the bottom, then goes up. HALLWAY Peeking around the corner, he sees a YOUNG GIRL embracing Burgel in her doorway before letting him in. CUT: OUTSIDE Kafka comes out of the building. He hears a noise, turns around, sees Burgel and the girl on the tiny baroque balcony outside her room. Kafka retreats into the shadows. He watches the girl unwrap the parcel Burgel's given her. She smiles as a box of chocolates is revealed. KAFKA Watches -- with an expression of guilt, sadness? Until a door suddenly opens at his back. A MAN shuffles out past him. A rather ugly WOMAN in a dressing gown holds the door open, giving Kafka a cursory look. Beyond her inside, a quick glimpse of MASOCHIST yelping as he's whipped. WOMAN Well, what're you waiting for? She's nodding him inside. Kafka backs away from her and her invitation. CUT: DIRTY YARD - NIGHT Kafka heads for the dilapidated building or the anarchists. DINGY DOORWAY He goes through. A MOUSE scurries past him across the threshold. THE LOPSIDED STAIRWAY Leads him up to the attic. THE BEARDED ANARCHIST Watches Kafka's approach. But sees nothing. His eyes are wide open, but lifeless. Kafka stops at the anarchists' table. They're all lying around it on the floor except for the Pockmarked Anarchist who's slumped over it, her face sunk in a pool of her own blood. The Youthful Anarchist lies on his back, mouth open, still dribbling red. The Solemn Anarchist seems less than solemn due to the almost comic, convoluted, broken-backed position he's in. And the neck of the Bearded Anarchist is all twisted. Kafka just stares in disbelief -- then SCRATCH! -- a noise from a spiral staircase close by, leading to the roof. Kafka looks around in panic -- the attic entrance is too far to run to and there's nowhere else to hide. THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE A man appears from above (MR. PICK). Legs draped in expensive trousers, the skirt of his high-buttoned coat flowing around them due to the breeze from the roof. MR. PICK'S VOICE -- Come on -- there's no one up there. We're going now. He raises his arm up to help down whoever it is he's talking to. We hear a strange GROAN. Followed by the appearance -- unclear, from the back, face hidden, or otherwise blocked by Mr. Pick -- of A STRANGE hunched figure. He moves in a halting, cowering way. Mr. Pick helps him down the steps. MR. PICK That's it -- it's all right -- you've done very well. Mr. Pick's voice is reassuring, though he has a dark, diabolic face. They're at the bottom of the staircase now, Mr. Pick leading his odd companion toward the exit. The odd companion lurches towards the dead anarchists, but Mr. Pick restrains him. MR. PICK Never mind them -- they'll be attended to. KAFKA Pretending to be one of the dead anarchists. Hiding under the large body of the Bearded Anarchist. Trying hard to emulate his lack of movement. Blood from the Bearded Anarchist's ear drips onto Kafka's face. He tries to blink it away while his other eye remains fixed on the two figures walking away to the doorway until they're through it and gone. After a moment, he unloads the Bearded Anarchist and softly hurries over to the attic doorway. STAIRS The Strange Man utters another low moan as Mr. Pick leads him like a dog down the creaking old steps. KAFKA Comes cautiously out onto the landing. He leans over the bannister, watching the two figures slowly going down the long stairs, vanishing from sight at a certain turn of the staircase on every floor and coming into view after a moment or so. CUT: STREET OUTSIDE Mr. Pick and the Strange One walk away. KAFKA Follows at a respectable distance. He pauses when he hears a WAGON -- looking back at the anarchists' building to see it pulling up outside. The DRIVER jumps to the ground. Kafka looks from the wagon to the two men walking away in the distance and makes his choice -- continuing after the two men. CUT: THE QUARRIES - NIGHT On the outskirts of the city, beyond the Castle. Mr. Pick and the Strange Man approach. Some distance behind them, Kafka takes cover behind a tree, watching. Mr. Pick leads the Strange Man down the central quarry to where a third man, a LABORER by the look of him, is waiting. Kafka finds a vantage point somewhere above the central quarry. He flattens himself on the ground and peers over the edge. In the quarry, Mr. Pick steps back a pace from the Strange Man as they meet up with the Laborer and suddenly grabs the Strange Man, pinning his arms behind him, baring his chest or the Laborer to stab a dagger into! Kafka is shocked by the abruptness of this. He sees the Strange Man slump to the ground. He crawls a little closer. He sees the Laborer replace the knife in its sheath on his belt, then help Mr. Pick drag the Strange Man off to some side shadows where they dump him. Kafka strains forward a little, trying to make out their faces -- and the ground gives way! MR. PICK AND THE LABORER Spin around at the noise. KAFKA Lands at the bottom of the incline, dazed. He's still quite far away from the other end of the quarry where they are. MR. PICK AND THE LABORER Look at each other once -- then go after the intruder. KAFKA Sees them coming. Scrambles to his feet. It takes him a split second to establish his options. Namely, the best route is back up the way he came. If only he can get up it again as fast. Mr. Pick and the Laborer start to run. Kafka starts to climb. The incline is steep. The gravel is loose. He slips back down. Mr. Pick and the Laborer are gaining speed. Kafka digs his fingers into the dirt, pulling himself up with all his might, even though his shoes don't sustain holds. Mr. Pick is a better runner than the burly Laborer. He's almost there. Kafka slips back down again. Mr. Pick could almost grab him -- but Kafka literally throws himself up the slope again, gasping -- and Mr. Pick stretches but can't reach that far and Kafka's nearly at the top again -- Mr. Pick climbing after him now -- and Kafka's arm comes over the edge, he struggles over, kicking gravel back down in Mr. Pick's face. Mr. Pick slides back down to the bottom -- and Kafka's gone. The Laborer fell over Mr. Pick as he came crashing back down, now Mr. Pick pushes him off in one direction while he goes another. CUT: SLOPING STREET Escaping back into the Old Quarter, Kafka runs downhill. But even the momentum doesn't carry him as fast as he'd like. SMALL SQUARE A number of streets branching off. Kafka sees Mr. Pick coming down one of them -- and the Laborer coming down another. Kafka runs off along a third. CIRCUITOUS PASSAGE Kafka runs. Looks behind him. Mr. Pick is coming. He runs faster, under a weird archway. Looks behind him. Mr. Pick and the Laborer are coming. Kafka darts down a side street. SIDE STREET Another twisting little road. He winds around one corner only to be met by another, the end of this street impossible to determine. BEHIND HIM Mr. Pick and the Laborer are catching up. KAFKA Turns another corner and finds himself at the bottom of an incredibly long flight of steps. A staired street. On and on and on. He doesn't know if he can make it. MR. PICK AND THE LABORER Come around -- look at the steps -- look at each other. They take deep breaths and start up. THE TOP Here they come, huffing and puffing. THE BOTTOM Kafka comes out from behind an extravagantly designed iron gate grillwork. He sneaks away, back the way he came. CUT: THE CENTRAL QUARRY The body of the Strange Man lies face down where it was dropped. Kafka walks toward it, looking around nervously in case anyone's coming. Someone is. When he gets to the corpse he hears the sound of an approaching WAGON. He crouches quickly by the body to do what he's come here to do -- turn it over to look at -- THE FACE Of a monster. Horribly disfigured, scarred and stitched. And it isn't the kind of patchwork mess caused by acid or accident. There seems to be design behind it. Human design. And beneath all this warped, mutilated flesh, almost unrecognizable ... the features of the vagrant snatched from the River. KAFKA'S FACE Revulsion. He goes. THE WAGON Parks above the quarry. The evil-looking Driver jumps down and pulls a large sack off the back. He starts down into the quarry. KAFKA Appears over another edge. He looks over at the wagon. He sees that now the back is loaded up, and covered by a sheet of tarpaulin. CUT: THE ANARCHISTS' ATTIC - NIGHT All the bodies are gone. Even the floorboards and pieces of furniture that might have had blood stains on them have been torn away and removed. Kafka stands alone. CUT: THE CITY - NIGHT An eerie moon shines over the Castle. KAFKA'S HOUSE He comes in. Before taking off his coat, he finds in a pocket Inspector Grubach's card. But what can he do again without evidence? He puts the card back in the pocket. CUT: KAFKA'S DESK - BEFORE DAWN He sits writing into the night in his little room under a low ceiling. KAFKA'S VOICE "-- oh, and thank you for the suit from Father, although I don't know why he didn't simply return it. If it's too small for him why do you immediately suppose it will fit me? ... Your son ... Your loving son ... Your somewhat loving son ... Your occasionally loving son ... Your incapable-of-loving son ... Your absolutely-bored-to-death-with-any- kind-of-family-life son ..." The BARKING of a DOG outside distracts him. He stands up to stretch by his open window -- and we SEE that he's wearing a suit that's far too big for him, sleeves overhanging his skinny arms and ands, trouser bottoms drowning his shoes. He looks out at the sky which is turning blue. THE BRIDGE Two men walk across the river. A WAGON Rolls along one of the moribund streets of the Old Town. The Driver swivels in his seat, looking over his wide shoulder, as if to see if he's being followed. The glint in his eye suggests Evil. KAFKA'S ROOM Kafka puts a stamp on his letter, then adds it to the stack of obsessive correspondence already piled on one corner of his desk. CUT: THE OFFICE - EVENING With an ink-pad stamp, Kafka POUNDS the date onto a succession of documents. THE OFFICE CLOCK Strikes six. THE ASSISTANTS Jump in unison when the BELL goes off. Then in their hurry to leave start shoving all their papers and whatnots haphazardly into various drawers, opening and slamming them regardless of whether or not the contents are fully inside, resulting in a lot of crumpled documents and snapped pencils. BURGEL Suddenly hovering by Kafka's side, handing him something. BURGEL The Chief Clerk would like this ready for tomorrow morning. (oily) He says it should only take you an extra hour or two. CUT: THE OFFICE - NIGHT Dead silence after the daily racket of typewriters and telephones and adding machines. Kafka works alone in the utterly deserted office building. He looks out the window and sees a POLICEMAN walking by on the street below. He thinks again about going to the law -- but goes back to work. He hears a SOUND. He looks around. A sort of a SCRATCHING sound. It's coming from the other end of the office somewhere. Maybe the bathroom. Kafka walks slowly back there. At the bathroom door he pauses momentarily, then turns the handle to go inside. BATHROOM SCRATCH, SCRATCH. Kafka looks for the source of the sound -- and in sudden startled shock instantly finds it -- where a huge arm has just been thrust through a small, high window -- and the ugly hand at the end of the arm is feeling around for the window-latch. Kafka starts backing away -- as the hand flips open the latch -- and now the window, swinging open with a bang, and the rest of the intruder starts coming into view -- out before all of him appears Kafka has run out and slammed the door behind him. OFFICE Kafka pulls a desk across the bathroom doorway. BATHROOM The MANIAC -- because that's what his posture and breathing, seen from the back, suggest -- lurches into the bathroom from the window. OFFICE Kafka grabs his coat -- and an umbrella off a rack. He looks back at the bathroom -- the desk rocking back and forth as the intruder behind the door pushes. Kafka runs away. HALLWAY He runs to the elevator, sliding open the gate. OFFICE CRASH! The desk tips over as the bathroom door is forced open. ELEVATOR Kafka descending. The elevator cranking slowly downwards. Then, nearing the ground floor, it slows down even further. Then it suddenly stops dead. Kafka reaches for the walls to steady himself. He looks through the gate, assessing the distance to the ground floor below. He tries the gate but it won't open. KAFKA (calls down there) -- Help! HELP! He looks around the tiny space of the elevator. The roof hatch. He reaches up, pushes it open, starts to climb up -- and YAAHH! -- the Maniac's face appears in the opening! It's another monster face -- this one even worse than the one Kafka uncovered at the quarries. A groaning, drooling, misshapen lump of wrinkled tissue. And its owner's arms now come through to stretch after Kafka. Kafka beats them back with the umbrella while still trying to pull the unyielding gate open. The Maniac yelps as Kafka bashes the umbrella up at him, dodging his head out of the way each time the umbrella sweeps back at him, swinging his thick arms wildly to ward off blows and try and snatch the umbrella for himself. He finally retreats under the barrage of blows and Kafka quickly takes the opportunity to lever open the gate with the umbrella. The Maniac's face reappears overhead. Kafka stabs the umbrella up at him some more -- and the Maniac manages to grab it. Kafka sits down on the elevator edge to jump down to the ground floor and -- THE MANIAC Lunges forward from above, scooping both arms down in a vain attempt to catch Kafka just as he drops out of sight -- landing on the ground floor with a roll. The Maniac HOWLS at his failure, his features even more horribly contorted, Practically filling the small opening of the roof hatch as he SHRIEKS. And as his atrocious face comes CLOSER and CLOSER and CLOSER -- one of his eyeballs falls out! -- POP! -- out of the socket suddenly -- dangling into the elevator, hanging by a single sinewy bloody thread. The Maniac cries out and reaches for the eyeball, bringing it back up to try and stuff back in place ... STREET OUTSIDE Kafka runs away from the office building, in horror, off into the night. CUT: KAFKA'S STREET - NIGHT He stands at a corner, looking at his own house, scared even to go home. But everything seems normal. He starts walking there. But when he reaches his front door: VOICE Did you think you'd be safe back in your little burrow? Kafka turns. One of the Assistants stands next to him. OTHER VOICE No matter how deep a hole you dig for yourself, the beast will always find you. Kafka turns the other way. The other Assistant is on his other side. Kafka looks between the two of them. OSKAR We're to take you to the Castle. Kafka might have expected this. KAFKA So. You're the guides up there. And we thought it was Burgel. One of the Assistants draws a revolver. The other chuckles. LUDWIG They wouldn't let Burgel into the Castle. You should look upon this as a great favor. Kafka starts walking the way a flick of the revolver indicates, the Assistants flanking him. KAFKA I don't want any favors from the Castle -- just my rights. LUDWIG We answer directly to Ekman, the Senior Partner -- he practically runs the Castle. In a case like this you're better off dealing with the highest authority -- even though it's equally futile. OSKAR When you speak to him you have to lean quite near his right ear because the left doesn't work so well. AROUND THE CORNER They head up in the direction of the Castle. KAFKA For all your incompetence I was beginning to think you were at least loyal to me. You're very good ham actors. OSKAR -- Just doing our job. KAFKA It's a farce. LUDWIG We think you'd better accept your position instead of pointlessly annoying us. KAFKA What position? Being prosecuted in a case like this means having already lost it. OSKAR Still, we're probably closer to you at the moment than any of your fellow human beings. KAFKA Close only by virtue of antithesis. One of the Assistants keeps making a show of wiping his brow, though it's by no means hot. ANOTHER STREET Kafka walks stiffly between the Assistants, the three of them almost locked together as one unit, like lifeless matter. KAFKA (shaking his head) My assistants. I should have known. Nothing is given to me. I have to acquire everything. OSKAR (laughs) It's all right to be sarcastic in private to us -- because we have a sense of humor -- but when we're up at the Castle we suggest you don't make a fuss. It would spoil the not unfavorable impression you make in other respects. LUDWIG Frankly, we don't understand why you've even bothered pursuing this business. KAFKA It would be more accurate to say that it has pursued me. OSKAR But your goal is so hard to reach. Do you think the official network would surrender to one man? We would never think of attempting anything remotely as difficult. LUDWIG My mother used to tell us of the young man who decided to ride to the next village and how she was afraid that -- not even mentioning accidents -- the span of a normal happy life might fall far short of the time needed for such a trip. Kafka suddenly points at the ground. KAFKA You've dropped some money. The Assistants immediately bend their heads to look -- and Kafka bangs them together as hard as he can. The Assistants sit on the ground in a stupefied daze while Kafka's running footsteps echo around the dark street. CUT: CONTINENTAL COFFEE HOUSE - NIGHT Bizzlebek, perched on his usual stool, turns to see Kafka at his side. KAFKA You work in the cemetery. BIZZLEBEK A man must eat -- (raises glass) And drink. KAFKA The Castle cemetery. CUT: CEMETERY - NIGHT Ancient tombstones crumbling with age, slanting out of the ground at bizarre angles, and cluttered so close together that a way can scarcely be made between them. Bizzlebek leads Kafka along the crooked little pathways, overgrown with crawling weeds, upwards towards the high section of the cemetery under the dark wall of the Castle. Bizzlebek, who knows his way around, seems more cheerful here than we've seen him before. Kafka more fearful. Wind WHISTLES. Leaves RUSTLE. CREAKING trees cast ghastly shadows. Scary tombs, all shapes and sizes, strange symbolic symbols on them, mystical figures and designs. Trying to keep up with Bizzlebek, Kafka spots a horrendous shape looming ahead of him. He starts to bypass it -- and jumps when a tall plant brushes against him. BIZZLEBEK (waits for Kafka) Are you sure you wouldn't prefer going through official channels? The awful dark shape turns out to be no more than a particularly large tombstone, crumbled in places to give it an animal-like suggestion. KAFKA Official channels -- a lot of good they've done me. My only hope is to approach the officials personally. He keeps walking -- and we SEE that he's carrying the bomb- briefcase he found at Eduard's. BIZZLEBEK -- I'm flattered, of course, to be considered a friend -- even without knowing all the details. (Kafka doesn't take that cue) -- To see such determination is reward enough for me. KAFKA The Kafka men are famous for it, you know. Delivering meat barefoot in the depths of winter, picking up sacks of flour with their teeth -- A BIRD rapidly swoops down from a tree, zipping past Kafka's head with a shrieking SQUAWK! KAFKA (gulp) -- Oh, yes, determination runs in the family. BIZZLEBEK There is one thing I'd like you to tell me. KAFKA I'm trying to find things out myself -- that's the whole point. BIZZLEBEK What made you think I'd be able to get you into the Castle? KAFKA The cemetery is nearer the Castle than anywhere else -- wasn't it part of the Castle originally? -- I always assumed there'd be a gate or something. (stops again, concerned) Isn't there? BIZZLEBEK In a manner of speaking. CUT: HIGHER GROUND - NIGHT They're at the graves at the very back of the cemetery, right up against the bottom of the Castle wall that stretches high above them into the black sky of night. Trees quiver around them. Shadows dance. Bizzlebek pauses at a particular grave, apart from the others, more hidden by overgrowth. He runs his fingertips over the old, strangely lettered inscription. He looks around the graveyard, making sure they're alone, then he moves to one side of the stone and leans his weight against it, pushing. It shifts and slides open, uncovering the hole that lies beneath. BIZZLEBEK I was restoring some stones here in the upper section one day -- and I found this. KAFKA (unclear) An empty tomb? BIZZLEBEK A cenotaph -- a monument to someone whose remains ended up elsewhere. But look -- Having lit the lantern he's brought with him, he holds it over the dark hole -- revealing a shaft and the rungs of a ladder. BIZZLEBEK The Castle gates were blockaded in the time of the great plague -- it's an escape route. (offers Kafka the lantern) Don't get stuck. KAFKA (accepts it) Not a chance. I'm the thinnest person I know. THE SHAFT Kafka starts to climb down, shoes loud on the rungs affixed to the stone wall of this well. But then he remembers something, pops back up. KAFKA -- You appreciate my writing. BIZZLEBEK (taken aback) Yes. KAFKA Will you do me a favor then? BIZZLEBEK Another one? KAFKA If I don't see you later -- go to my house and find my notebooks -- and destroy them. All my manuscripts -- just burn them. Please. BIZZLEBEK What an extraordinary request! KAFKA It's my last and final one. BIZZLEBEK Then its authority is in doubt. KAFKA A true friend would do it. BIZZLEBEK Not necessarily. (a pointed look) A wife would. CUT: SECRET PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT A stooping Kafka makes his way along this gloomy underground artery, the lantern lighting the way. He comes to the end of it and what appears to be a little door. He bends low to listen at it -- then unlocks the latch. He pushes -- and the door moves forward. OTHER SIDE Kafka stands up -- and he's inside a big filing cabinet drawer. He steps out of it and looks around. He's in an entire room full of file cabinet drawers. A morgue of file cabinet drawers. He shuts the one he came out of before walking away. "D-7" says the label on the outside of it. CUT: VAULTS AND CRYPTS Kafka makes his way through the shadows down here in the underground depths of the Castle. A fiery glow and noise comes from an archway ahead of him. When he gets to it and looks through he sees a sweating STOKER shoveling coal into a giant furnace. CUT: NEAR THE END OF A THIN PASSAGEWAY A sudden door SLAM. Kafka dodges back around a corner. He HEARS: the quick cry of a man's agony, a scuffle of shoes on hard stone floor, a dull thud, a wave of peculiar shouts, running footsteps, more mumbled mingled voices -- which soon die out, leaving silence. AROUND THE CORNER Kafka walks slowly, straining his neck a bit in expectation of whatever lies ahead. The passage brings him to a row of dungeon cells. A line of doors with a barred window in each. One of them isn't closed -- and lying across the threshold is the Laborer who chased Kafka from the quarries the other night. The knife is gone from his sheath and his scull is caved in, a wooden stool lying on the floor beside him. At the other end of the row of cells another door swings open at the top of a few steps. SUDDENLY fingers spear through the bars of another cell to touch Kafka! A GAUNT MAN inside. GAUNT MAN You've killed him! Like a dog! Kafka dropped his lantern in surprise, and shrinks back, CRUNCHING glass. GAUNT MAN -- They won't like that. Not a bit! KAFKA I didn't -- The inhabitants of the other cells start RATTLING their bars and beseeching Kafka. He looks around, bewildered and horrified. Hideous faces looking back at him. GAUNT MAN You'll incriminate the rest of us! Let me out too! Shuddering, Kafka is moving away, making it through the shocking gauntlet, toward the door at the other end. HORRIBLE VOICES Help us! -- release us! GAUNT MAN (yelling above the din) You're in the bowels now, my friend! You've thrown yourself in it now! A HAGGARD MAN who may have had his tongue cut out gestures desperately at a lever on the wall to unlock the cells. Kafka starts to tentatively reach for it -- when there's a sudden SHRIEK beside him. He whirls to see, behind more bars, the raving, convoluted face of the creature that stalked him at his office (whose loose eye has now gone completely) -- BANGING violently against his door. GAUNT MAN Let me out -- I'm all right -- they haven't treated me yet! We can go together! But now the evil Mr. Pick appears at the end of the passage from which Kafka came -- a gun in his hand. MR. PICK You! Kafka yanks the lever and runs away. Mr. Pick FIRES after him, starting to chase -- but the prisoners are coming out of their cells -- coming for him. CUT: SPIRAL STONE STAIRWELL Kafka runs upwards, around and around and around. ANOTHER FLOOR Here is a part of the Castle Kafka can understand -- office workers toiling away. Kafka walks past one long row of them, SCRIBES sitting at a single endless desk. They look like students under examination, hunched over their writing, a virtual conveyor belt of paperwork. In the center of this floor is an actual conveyor -- a chain pulley running slowly up and down, presumably throughout the entire Castle, through small holes in the floor and ceiling. There are little pockets on the chain which the clerks continually pluck papers out of and slip papers into. The ink bottle of one of the scribes runs dry. He takes it over to a sink with three taps -- Hot, Cold -- and the third one he turns -- Ink. CUT: CORRIDOR Kafka passes a FRIENDLY CLERK. FRIENDLY CLERK Are you lost? Kafka nearly laughs at the enormity of the question. KAFKA I'm, uh, looking for the Medical Records Section. Pause. FRIENDLY CLERK Oh, you're miles away. From here you'll want to go left, left again, right, right again, left then right, right then left, and take the Blue Staircase. KAFKA Thank you. FRIENDLY CLERK (going on his way) -- I haven't seen you here before. KAFKA No ... KAFKA He stands there, a man in a suit with a briefcase in an antiseptic corridor. KAFKA ... I'm new. CUT: UNDERGROUND CELLS Mr. Pick leans against a door, trying to keep back the howling horde of prisoners pushing from the other side. Another JAILER joins him, helping him to try and push the door closed. Then a SECOND JAILER too. A bestial hand reaches through and Mr. Pick presses his pistol muzzle into the outstretched palm -- BANG! -- A book falls to the floor like a pistol-shot -- and Kafka hides back in shadows hoping no one heard. He's in a round -- LIBRARY -- Surrounded by books from floor to ceiling, even on the tall door through which he entered. A sliver of light gives it away -- and on the other side of it he hears FOOTSTEPS. But they pass by. There's another sliver of light indicating another door in the books opposite him. He walks over and pulls on the shelves. Here the dark wood is merely a disguising cover for the shiny modern steel he discovers on the other side of it And he finds more than that as he enters -- THE LABORATORY A real mad scientist's workshop. Chemicals of bizarre colors rush and FIZZ through mazes of glass pipes and beakers, in some places boiling and steaming, in others frosting or freezing. Circuits and test tubes flash and glow as sparks and filamentary arcs CRACKLE with electric incandescence. insane instruments and devices, interconnected with complex wires, perform strange and villainous functions. It's the most modern setting we've yet seen -- but at the same time all this futuristic technology seems somehow archaic, as if put together from old, familiar materials and elements, both eccentric and eclectic. The chain that runs through the floors of the Castle carrying documents runs up and down through the laboratory too. Amidst this feast for the eyes, what Kafka now focuses in on a simple cigarette -- left smoking in an ashtray. And by the look of the ash, not very long ago. Kafka looks around anxiously -- notices an archway leading to another room. CUT: UNDERGROUND CRYPT Mr Pick and the two Jailers can't hold back the dreadful prisoners any longer. Mr. Pick runs, letting the Jailers fend for themselves. CUT: LABORATORY - SMALLER ROOM Kafka comes into what looks like a small museum -- vertical glass cases in which naked BODIES float suspended in preserving gelatin solution. Kafka seems deadened himself by all that he's seeing -- until he sees someone he recognizes. The Bearded Anarchist. Kafka goes closer. Looking down, he sees that the Bearded Anarchist has a hand missing. The other anarchists are here in glass cases too. Now with a gasp Kafka turns around -- looking for Gabriela -- but she's not here. CUT: MAIN LAB Holding himself together, and with new determination etched on his face, Kafka walks to the center of the lab -- and an operating table. Ignoring the implications of the table, he sets down the bomb-briefcase -- flicking the latches to open it. The sight of the explosive mechanism inside causes him a moment's hesitation, but a look round at various animal parts hanging from hooks above the table or bobbing in jars alongside sinister implements laid out in preparation for an operation renews his anger -- and he decisively turns the dial on the bomb's timer-clock, setting it to the maximum allowance of one hour. He closes the case and locks its latches. The case begins to TICK. Kafka takes it to a dark spot beneath the mass of elaborate laboratory equipment, hides it under there, and leaves. CUT: CORRIDOR Kafka tries finding his way back the way he came. END OF CORRIDOR Kafka looks down a long dark staircase -- a hint of light glowing at the bottom. BOTTOM OF STAIRCASE Just as he reaches the light something lunges at him from one side! It's the Laughing Man, hysterical as ever, face now SEEN for the first time, SCREECHING, salivating, eyes watering. The human hyena. His grin contorts his face from ear to ear, his CACKLING is truly terrifying, and the hand he stretches forward has a tattoo on it (Bearded Anarchist's hand) -- a hand too big for his wrist -- reaching, reaching, reaching for Kafka. CUT: DARK OFFICE - NIGHT The Laughing Man pushes Kafka down into a chair and shakes with uncontrollable sobbing shrieks. Someone else is sitting in darkness behind a huge desk (MURNAU). His hand holds out a small vial. The Laughing Man grabs it and leaves, gulping down its contents voraciously. MURNAU I assume you're wondering ... what all this has been about. Kafka tries to see into the shadows. KAFKA Are you the Head of Medical Records? The door behind Kafka opens again and an officious bureaucrat (EKMAN) comes in. He sits in a chair and looks at Kafka. MURNAU (to Ekman) He's come on his own initiative. (to Kafka) -- Not something we encourage, mind you, but we like to know it exists. And he's stood up. MURNAU What it amounts to is simply this ... He's coming around the desk. He's drying his hands on a towel. MURNAU A piece of paper was delivered to the wrong clerk. It was essential he bring it back to us. These complications have arisen because he had friends -- like you, among others -- friends unlikely to let a sleeping dog lie. He tosses the towel onto the desk. Ekman looks irritated by this. KAFKA ... A piece of paper ... MURNAU A mere slip. (coming forward) Your friend Mr. Raban dealt only with claims that came in, another department being responsible for compensation that goes out -- this is correct? He places a fatherly hand on Kafka's shoulder. MURNAU (not quite in the light yet) Through a very unfortunate -- and I might add extremely rare -- mishap, a document intended for the one department was sent to the other. And for the first time -- though your friend wasn't aware of it -- two and two could have been put together to make one. KAFKA (again) ... A piece of paper ... MURNAU (face bending into the light) You see, Kafka, in all cases relating to the factory at Orlac -- which is what this paper referred to -- the authority that puts in a request and the authority that grants it is, to all intents and purposes, the same authority. And he's an impressive, imposing figure of authority himself. You'd probably trust him. You'd certainly respect him. But if you look into his eyes, he's frightening. CUT: UNDERGROUND CRYPTS Mr. Pick runs from the crazed prisoners chasing him. Fires his gun back at them, dropping one or two -- but then runs out of bullets. The prisoners slowly surround him. He backs away. One of those chains that run throughout the Castle has its base here. Mr. Pick keeps backing up, unavoidably, the deranged prisoners closing in -- until he falls backwards with a cry into the grinding wheels of the chain-system. Caught up in the chain, he's carried aloft with it, up to the ceiling. The chain is the lifeline of the Castle and does not, could not, ever stop. Instead it forces Mr. Pick to go along with it, his head CRACKING through the glass or wood "manhole" cover through which the chain passes. CUT: MURNAU'S OFFICE Kafka tries not to flinch in the presence of this deadly figure. MURNAU -- You seem amused. KAFKA It only amuses me in that it gives me an insight into the ludicrous bungling that in some circumstances may decide the life of a human being. Ekman sighs -- as if at a difficult child. MURNAU It's merely a matter of expediency. It's imperative that my room to maneuver not be hindered by ... bureaucratic ramifications. Ekman, who doesn't hear very well, directs one ear in particular back and forth between the other two. Kafka just keeps looking at the charismatic man pacing around him -- who's now lighting an expensive cigarette of the kind that was in the ashtray at the lab. MURNAU -- If an obscure official up there in the distant mountains so far away from civilizing influences happens to meet with an unfortunate accident -- and should he tragically die in spite of the District Medical Officer's strenuous efforts to save him -- the firm wants to see the next of kin pacified and the disposition of the remains handled with the greatest possible ... efficiency. KAFKA (becoming clearer) "Accident and Compensation" -- no one can accuse the firm of not supplying exactly what it promises. MURNAU (to Ekman) I believe we've exceeded his expectations. KAFKA (virtually to himself) I had the grandest of financial plots in mind, the most malevolent of personal motives, conspiracy theories extending to every ... authority I could see. (looks up) And I find you. A body snatcher. Murnau laughs. MURNAU Life is more than a Chinese puzzle, my friend. CUT: FLOOR OF CLERKS Uniformly, like a chorus line, the infinite row of clerks turn their heads from their single endless desk when they hear an awful NOISE: Mr. Pick is breaking through from the floor below. The inexorably rising chain has hauled him floor by floor through the Castle, breaking open holes too small for his body, shredding him along the way, and still carrying him upwards ... CUT: CASTLE CORRIDOR Kafka walks along with Murnau and Ekman. The Laughing Man holds Kafka's arm. KAFKA And I suppose Dr. Murnau didn't die in a cave-in. You killed him to free the Position of Orlac Medical Officer for your own ends. MURNAU Yes, well -- we're looking for a new village now. If we stay too long at one source ... people become suspicious. They pass another of those grinding chains carrying memos and inter-office directives up and down. MURNAU But you're quite right that he didn't die in that cave-in. In fact, he didn't die at all. He was simply recalled -- by himself. As well as being Head of Medical Records here and a Director of your firm -- I'm Dr. Murnau, of course. The Laughing Man giggles crazily. LIBRARY The Laughing Man, subdued for a moment, merely smiles a little, opening the door to let Kafka in first, guarding him close. Dr. Murnau then leads the way across to his laboratory door. MURNAU May I ask where your two warders are? KAFKA Lying in the gutter where they belong. Murnau laughs, but then has to stop as it encourages the Laughing Man, bringing forth a mad chuckle or two from him. MURNAU Pity. They're an amusing pair, didn't you find? Absolute innocents. He pushes the tall door open into his lab. LABORATORY Murnau spreads his hands proudly as they enter, displaying his amazing factory. MURNAU I so rarely get the chance of showing my work to anybody -- anybody capable of appreciating it, that is. You might say I'm a student of human reaction. Ekman, who's seen it all before, goes to lean somewhere, bored. KAFKA The fact that it's live bodies you practice your trade on doesn't seem to matter to you. MURNAU On the contrary, it matters a great deal. We're engaged in immensely important research here. I'm a revolutionary too, you know -- but a much more pragmatic one. As if in response to that the Laughing Man convulses anew. Ekman immediately turns to a shelf for another vial and goes to give it to the Laughing Man. MURNAU -- I can't very well administer experimental treatments to corpses -- and if they become corpses, why, they have their uses too -- that's why speed is essential. Living tissue, even if its owner has passed on, is our most valuable acquisition. The Laughing Man gulps down the potion and starts to calm down a little. MURNAU We've tried transfusions on our ... volunteers. Unfortunately, far from infusing superior characteristics it's tended to make them insane -- murderous even -- a condition we've had occasion to make use of. THE HIDDEN BOMB-CASE TICKING lightly away. The clock inside the bomb-case, becoming visible as if by X-Ray, is SEEN to be a matter of minutes away from blast-off. THE LAB Murnau walks to where the elaborate distillation processes are going on. The very section where Kafka hid the bomb. Kafka wipes his brow, quickly, conscious of Ekman staring at him. Murnau gazes obsessively at his contraptions, his piercing eyes following the routes of the flowing chemicals. MURNAU -- And the new patients they bring me aren't usually as dexterous as you've been in evading us. Not perfect specimens by any means, but not the type of person who'll be missed either. KAFKA What have you done with Gabriela Rossmann? MURNAU As a matter of fact you've caught us in a state of considerable excitement. Our latest preparation we believe -- we pray -- is perfected. It should take years off her. He's concocting another potion now, pouring an acidic-looking liquid from one container to another. Kafka is looking increasingly worried. MURNAU And if not -- well, there are always what I call my caprices of vivisection. He glances at the dangling animal parts. And now, finished mixing his cocktail, he picks up some sort of suturing tool, pressing the trigger on it to start the end burning and SIZZLING. MURNAU Actually, if it weren't for the aberrant dilemma posed by someone like yourself -- continually asking for out-of-date files -- I'd probably give up my revisionist policies altogether. I'm sure what we have to do is start instead at the very inception -- with the embryo -- from a single cell even. (leers at Kafka) The lure of the Golem -- the man-made man. You appreciate that, I know. Ekman takes Kafka by the arm to lead him toward the operating table. The Laughing Man moves in closer too, emitting a psychotic chortle. MURNAU To corrupt the image of man and then offer redemption ... This is the dawn, Kafka. A new man is being born here. A more resilient man ... A superman. Kafka attempts an escape around the operating table, but the Laughing Man blocks his way and corrals him back to where he was before. Dr. Murnau holds out the sinister aperitif for Kafka to take and drink in toast. MURNAU To a new world -- of Gods and monsters. The glass comes closer and closer to Kafka's lips -- if he leans away from it any further he'll be lying on the operating table -- but now a WRENCHING noise makes everybody turn. The body of Mr. Pick, bloody and ragged, is dragged up with a SMASH through a breaking floor-panel by the great chain. Kafka has his chance. The next time anyone looks at him he's holding the nozzle of the burning device under Ekman's throat, finger on the trigger. -- And on the other side of the laboratory a wide elevator platform rises into view -- carrying the prisoners from the dungeons! KAFKA Throws Ekman aside and runs away. EKMAN Falls to the floor, holding his hands up over his head with a SCREAM as the ghastly creatures from the depths converge on him -- but they pass him by -- intent on getting Murnau. The last out of the elevator is the most horrible BEAST-MAN yet -- and we finally see the use to which various animal-parts have been put. MURNAU Just stands by the operating table, waiting for them. He knows there's no way out and he's far too practical a man to waste energy running or screaming. CUT: DOORWAYS Kafka running through the Castle, through door after door after door after door, leaving them all banging behind him, back and forth. CUT: THE LABORATORY Ekman stumbles to his feet, watching in horror as the prisoners of the Castle strap Murnau to his own operating table. One by one, the prisoners file past the intricate surgical tools neatly laid out on white cloth. Each prisoner selects the implement of his choice. Ekman, too, runs away out of the laboratory. The Laughing Man, snickering, isn't sure whose side he's on. But then, LAUGHTER BUILDING, he goes to join the others in line. CUT: DOORWAYS Kafka still running in the maze -- through a final door. And he finds himself right back in -- THE LIBRARY With the brightness of the laboratory facing him through its open door. Horrible SOUNDS coming from in there. THE HIDDEN BOMB-CASE Almost time. KAFKA Running again, through the maze of corridors. He HEARS running footsteps behind him -- looks back to see Ekman running after him. Ekman catches up -- but runs past Kafka in his panic to escape -- out onto a metal walkway around a central area of offices. THE LABORATORY Murnau can't be seen, only the deranged men huddled closely around the operating table. THE HIDDEN BOMB-CASE Abruptly stops ticking. THE CENTRAL OFFICES The floors SHUDDER as the BOOM in the laboratory is heard and felt. The metal walkway breaks and Ekman goes sliding off it -- while Kafka manages to hang on. He ducks his face down as glass from all the surrounding office windows SHATTERS and SHOWERS -- and then paper starts sailing down all around. Literally a hailstorm of documents. On the floor below where he fell, Ekman tries to stand, but the falling flurry of paper keeps him at bay. He waves his hands wildly trying to see his way through it all, but it's too much. Now his feet are trapped in it. It's starting to rise around his legs. Papers are fluttering down from floors and floors of surrounding offices above, filling the air. Ekman suffocates and drowns and disappears in the paper piling up around him -- one lone arm and hand the last we see of him. THE LABORATORY Totally wrecked -- and jutting out of the broken walls are burst pipes -- spurting red, blue, and black INK everywhere. THE CENTRAL OFFICES Kafka is managing to climb back onto the unsafe metal walkway -- when ZING! -- a bullet ricochets near him. The Assistants! They've nearly fallen through another doorway where the walkway on that side broke, but got each other stuck in the door just in time. One of them is wildly FIRING a revolver in Kafka's direction. The other tries to grab it and both FIRE it together in all directions. Kafka runs away, avoiding a snake of broken wire, flipping about, SPARKING off the metal. The Assistants, shoving each other, extricate themselves back through their doorway to find another way to chase Kafka. THE LABORATORY The burst ink pipes drip empty. The sound of maniacal LAUGHTER abruptly stops. The ink has filled the lab halfway to the ceiling. It's covered everything and every ... body. A last bubble pops, leaving a lake of ink with a surface smooth as glass. CUT: UNDERGROUND FILE VAULT Kafka has found his way back here -- rushing in. But wait: Which file cabinet did he come out of? He's surrounded by file cabinet drawers all alike. He starts running around, pulling open drawers, trying to find the secret doorway through one of them. SPIRAL STONE STAIRCASE Here come the Assistants, running round and round. UNDERGROUND FILE VAULT Kafka runs round and round, opening drawer after drawer. He finds the one! Jumps in! Pulling it closed after him just as -- -- the Assistants stumble in. They look at each other, then immediately start rushing around opening drawers. They run back and forth and all around, bumping into each other, making themselves dizzy. LUDWIG (pulls open a drawer) Oskar! OSKAR (turning from another) Ludwig? -- But Ludwig just pulls out a file folder. LUDWIG This is filed incorrectly! OSKAR Here too! They're all in a dreadful muddle! They start trading files back and forth, trying to put the system back in order. The attention span of squirrels, they've forgotten all about looking for Kafka. CUT: CASTLE GATES - DAWN Opening. The police Inspector enters the main courtyard. Behind him come the two secondary policemen. Behind them, obscurely, a few more. CASTLE COURTYARD He and his men pause, reacting ... ... as the few wretched survivors of the Castle prison stagger out of the shadows to greet them. CUT: EMBANKMENT - MORNING On the Old Town side of the River. Foggy. KAFKA Walks slowly, tiredly. He looks up at the sky, but the sky is a silver shield against anyone who looks for help from it. FURTHER ON Kafka stops. Turns. Did he hear something other than the wind and the water? FURTHER ON He passes through a small park, approaching a gate on the other side of it. Leaves RUSTLING. Mist swirling around him. He opens the gate and -- BOO! GABRIELA Standing there, half in shadow, in profile. Her glorious profile. KAFKA Gabriela! -- you did get away. GABRIELA I knew you walked this way to work. I wanted to find you before they did. KAFKA -- I've just come from the Castle. It's over. GABRIELA (her eye glancing far away) Over? It's only over when you can crawl to a clean little spot on earth where the sun sometimes shines and you can warm yourself a bit. Kafka is beginning to sense something quite wrong with her. KAFKA Gabriela ...? GABRIELA Should I tell you why I joined our late lamented nihilists? Why I became a murderer? Because murder ... is bliss. (looks at him) It's easier than you might think to absorb and assimilate Evil -- once you've adopted its procedure. Kafka just watches her ... The breeze sings in the air. GABRIELA Have you ever watched a person deteriorate? Day by day. I don't mean in a spiritual sense. Kafka doesn't answer. She turns fully to him. The other side of her beautiful face is ... fungus. Alive. Seething. Frothing. Bubbling. Kafka backs away a couple of steps. GABRIELA Only two steps back? Even the man they left to guard me retreated further than that. KAFKA I -- I found your jailer. GABRIELA This is the result of their elixir of youth. They were to come and check on it during the night. I contrived to miss the appointment. KAFKA They're dead now. We can get help. GABRIELA I know how they reward failure. If they saw this I'd be rotting in the quarries by the afternoon -- with all the others. KAFKA There's a new potion -- he said it was perfected. GABRIELA I know there is. And you're what I have to bargain with. For now you're the last one in their way. KAFKA I told you, they're dead. It's finished. GABRIELA Why should I believe a man who never believed me? They're absolutely right, you know -- guilt should never be doubted. It's easier that way. Kafka starts to back away some more. Gabriela starts to follow him. GABRIELA I think you've just escaped for the moment. Just as I did. As Eduard did. As they let us do. But only for the moment. KAFKA No -- not this time. GABRIELA I know better than you what people will say when they have to. When they brought me in for questioning I informed on my friends the very first day. KAFKA -- Listen to me -- GABRIELA I do. Always. You understand the world better than any of us, Kafka. And what it's becoming. (pause) I've always held you in the highest regard. And suddenly she's slashed a knife across Kafka's chest. He shouts in pain, staggering backwards. She comes after him. KAFKA -- Gabriela! She comes after him, blade glistening. Kafka does his best to run. THE BRIDGE Kafka giddily staggers forward, one arm wrapped around his bleeding chest, Gabriela close behind him. Too close for him to get away. He turns to face her as he reaches the bridge and as she comes upon him again with the knife, raising his arm to block the thrust and hold her wrist back. She's strong, though, made more so by her madness. She forces him down to the ground, straddling him, the knife pushing closer. Kafka gasps in pain, finally succumbs, no longer able to hold his hand up in defense, simply shutting his eyes with a terrible sigh to await the fatal stab. It doesn't come. Almost. But not quite. Gabriela's arm pauses, shaking in the cool, cloudy air, her sleeve trembling in the breeze off the River, the sharp blade, inches from Kafka's throat, flashing in the new day's light. Gabriela stares away over the River, the destroyed half of her face in shadow again, the other more strikingly beautiful than ever. As Kafka watches, passive, she gets off him and slowly walks to the wall of the bridge, letting the knife drop from her hand along the way. Kafka manages to lift himself to his knees, clutching his wound. He looks up. Gabriela in one graceful movement climbs over the wall and throws herself into the River. Kafka lowers his head. CUT: CONTINENTAL COFFEE SHOP - MORNING Quiet in here. Breakfast business not as crowded as evening. Kafka sits alone at his usual table. Looking dazed, almost in shock. Mostly just tired. Waiting. He sips from his coffee cup. He COUGHS a little into his napkin -- and notices blood on it. He has a pen in his hand. Tapping it slowly on a newspaper on the table ... Bizzlebek comes into the coffee house. He sees Kafka sitting in the far corner and gives a grand smile and wave. But then he notices Kafka's other friends entering and he'd rather not have to deal with them -- so he gives Kafka a "catch you later" gesture and turns onto his own usual stool at the bar. Kafka stares at his friends over there. They're taking off their coats and greeting other people. The girl, Anna, is the first to start walking to join him. He starts to write, a first line that has occurred to him, the pen moving as if he can't help himself ... KAFKA'S VOICE Dearest Father ... Anna's approaching. Kafka just watches her coming. He knows he'll end up going out with her, sleeping with her, getting engaged to her ... We see the future on Kafka's face KAFKA'S VOICE You asked me recently why I maintain that I am afraid of you ... CUT: KAFKA'S HOUSE - NIGHT Alone again in his little room, Kafka writes on into the night. The famous "Letter To His Father" is pages and pages long. We notice too that his chest has been bandaged. He COUGHS a little as he forces himself to keep writing. KAFKA'S VOICE Naturally things cannot in reality fit together the way the evidence does in my letter -- life is more than a Chinese puzzle. But in my opinion something has been achieved which so closely approximates the truth that it might reassure us both a little and make our living and our dying easier. FADE OUT FADE IN WATERFRONT WHARVES - MORNING The Assistants sit on a big packing crate, brushing soot from their suits, shaking dust out of their hair, fiddling with the rips in their jackets and trousers. LUDWIG We could go back to the office. Explain ourselves to the Chief Clerk. OSKAR They'd drive us away. That Kafka's made things very hot for us. LUDWIG I understand he was wounded in the lung. OSKAR (sulky) It doesn't matter. It's too late for all of us. LUDWIG (looks at O.) What's to become of us now? Oskar has a long think. OSKAR (looks at L.) Amerika. That's the place to go. Ludwig jumps off the box and gapes at Oskar, tremendously impressed by this brainstorm. LUDWIG Everyone in Amerika has a toaster in their building! Oskar jumps down from the box. OSKAR Then that's the place for us! LUDWIG Amerika for us! OSKAR Amerika! And, linking arms, they do a strange dance along the quay ... \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Kalifornia.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Kalifornia.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c2f10569e7ebbe5b9fb5bba476ca694b8211bc3e --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Kalifornia.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + "KALIFORNIA" Screenplay by Tim Metcalfe Based on a story by Stephen Levy and Tim Metcalfe SHOOTING DRAFT EXT. - NIGHT It's raining like hell. Flashes of lightning reveal momentary glimpses of a decayed urban/industrial landscape. Far below us, a mysterious glistening wet rock lies engulfed in the drowning earth. We descend toward the rock. Sporadic flashes of lightning distort our perspective of the stone. It looks strangely beautiful, like a diamond stuck in the dark mud... Closer... Closer... Suddenly, STRONG MALE HANDS cut across the frame and wrench it free from its muddy grave. Even closer... And we discover that the underbelly of this beautiful rock is teeming with every kind of slithering repulsive insect... FLASH!!* Lightning obliterates the frame. (* FLASHES OF LIGHT from lightning, car headlights, photographic strobe units and flashlights are used throughout the following sequences as recurring transitional devices.) CITY STREET EXT. NIGHT We can barely see the darkened street in a run down part of an inner city -- what we can see looks half demolished. Flash!! Through chain link fencing, the blinding headlights of a 70'S CHEVY arc into frame. For an instant we see the fleeting image of a PRETTY TEENAGE GIRL. On her feet a pair of bright red high heeled shoes. The Chevy pulls up next to her. INT. 70'S CHEVY - NIGHT FLASH!! An oncoming car's headlights streak across the beat up Chevy's windshield... revealing... THE DRIVER, 45ish, as he leans across the passenger seat and opens the car door. The pretty teenage girl slides into the car. Dressed only in a skirt and T-Shirt, she's soaked to the skin. Make-up runs down her face and her hair sticks to her bare shoulders. She seems nervous... scared even. PRETTY TEENAGE GIRL Thanks. As she closes the car door the man notices that her hand has been injured. It's bound with coarse white toweling and stained with blood. In her other hand, she clings tightly to a cheap yellow leather purse. He reaches forward and puts his hand on the gear-shift, the back of his hand brushing against her leg, she moves away. He slides the gear-shift into drive. Another car's headlights flare the windshield as he pulls out into the night. INT. ROOFLESS OLD WAREHOUSE - NIGHT Suddenly... a powerful photographic strobe light ignites! Revealing a decrepit warehouse interior. Silhouetted briefly against the paint chipped walls are two figures: A man, BRIAN KESSLER, 25, short chopped hair dressed in black on black, and a woman, CARRIE LAUGHLIN, 25, short black hair and tight black clothes. Carrie holds a 35mm still camera, an umbilical cord runs to a strobe light. Brian holds a flashlight in one hand, a tape recorder in the other. He begins speaking into the tape recorder. BRIAN Her father worked the night shift here. Most nights he'd bring her with him. (pause) She was eleven years old. His flashlight scans the ominous environment. Carrie takes flash photo. EXT. CONSTRUCTION SITE - NIGHT Emerging from the blackness... The same strong male hands that unearthed the rock now pulls his rain soaked jacket clear of his torso. A crude bandage wrapped around one of the fingers. The rock is slipped up under his jacket... up against his bare chest. The jacket is pulled down to conceal the rock and the faceless figure drifts away. INT. ROOFLESS OLD WAREHOUSE - NIGHT The beam of Brian's flashlight sweeps through the darkness, revealing another room. BRIAN This is it. This is the where he'd take her whenever he had the urge to molest her. The flashlight finds the corner in question. Flash!! The warehouse lights up again, revealing a huge machine room. BRIAN Of course! Nobody would have heard her cries over the noise of the machines. INT. 70'S CHEVY - NIGHT A male hand wipes the steamy condensation clear of his car's front window. The windshield wipers swipe incessantly at the constant sheet of rain beyond. DRIVER Damn! This defroster never works... The driver fidgets blindly with the various levers and knobs. He finally manages to get the defroster and heater to work. The girl leans forward into the stream of warm air. PRETTY TEENAGE GIRL ...Mmm... feels good. She closes her eyes, lets it blow across her face. He watches her. His eyes linger on her body. DRIVER Have a problem with your car? She pulls her wet hair off her bruised face and gives him a nervous smile. PRETTY TEENAGE GIRL No. (beat) My problem's with men. He throws a curious look at her, then back to the highway. INT. ROOFLESS OLD WAREHOUSE - NIGHT Brian's flashlight moves around the room. BRIAN This is where she murdered her first victim. They found his body over in the corner, shot through the head. The flashlight continues to search through the darkness. BRIAN They found her second victim over there. Another flash!!!!! INT. 70'S CHEVY Very close on the girl's yellow purse... as the metal zipper is pulled open. The driver notices her opening the purse. PRETTY TEENAGE GIRL Okay if I smoke? DRIVER (unconvincingly) ...sure. The driver watches as she reaches into the purse... out a soggy pack of matches. She looks at them... I look to the driver. PRETTY TEENAGE GIRL My matches are all wet. You got a lighter? DRIVER (scans the dashboard) Yeah. It's here somewhere. It's my wife's car. Ah... there it is. He pushes the cigarette lighter in to heat. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the girl's hand slip back in her purse. And stay there. She stares at the car lighter and... waits. The driver glances at her, then back to the lighter. INT. ROOFLESS OLD WAREHOUSE FLASH!! As another strobe light ignites. Tape recorder hand, Brian continues... BRIAN She lured them here with the promise of sex. (beat) Imagine the anger and hatred she must have felt returning to this place. Did she use that to help her pull the trigger? Carrie snaps another shot. Flash!! The blinding flash illuminates the night rain streaming in through the fractured remains of the ceiling. CARRIE Shhhhhhhhh. Brian stops talking. Carrie scans the darkness. From the quiet... A Thunderous Roar!! INT. 70'S CHEVY - NIGHT A Blinding Flash!! As... a semi-trailer crosses paths with the 70'S CHEVY. Close on the girl. An intent expression on her face as she watches and waits... for the cigarette lighter to eject. His hand reaches deeper into her purse. The Driver tenses as he sees this. Suddenly... POP!! The lighter ejects. The Driver reaches for the dash. The girl hurriedly lifts something out from inside the bag. The Driver yanks the lighter out... and whips a look to the girl. INT. ROOFLESS OLD WAREHOUSE Brian's flashlight sweeps across the shadowed remains of the rafters and catwalks. Scanning... Listening... Brian and Carrie glance tentatively at each other... Then slowly Carrie lifts the portable strobe unit upward until it is pointing into the rafters. Carrie fires a shot, triggering a brilliant Flash!! CUT TO: Flash! Out of the inky black... The glistening wet rock emerges, hurtling downwards... Tumbling end over end through the night rain... INT. 70'S CHEVY The girl pulls a pack of cigarettes out of her purse. She looks curiously to the driver whose hand is trembling slightly. PRETTY TEENAGE GIRL What's the matter? DRIVER (unconvincingly) ...nothing. The girl reaches out, steadies his trembling hand... and pulls the red hot coil to the cigarette between her lips. When... in a THUNDEROUS CRASH!! The glistening wet rock comes smashing through their windshield!!!! EXT. FREEWAY - NIGHT The CHEVY brakes... Skids across the rain-slicked pavement and turns a somersault, landing upside down on its hood. ANOTHER ANGLE: CLOSER The CAMERA DRIFTS ACROSS the fractured front end of the overturned CHEVY. The twisted hunk of metal hisses... steams... groans. The front tire spins lazily to a halt on its mangled axle. IN THE BACKGROUND - HIGH OVERHEAD We see a man standing on a highway overpass. He's leaning on the railing and calmly looking down at the wrecked car. CLOSER EARLY GRAYCE, 25, athletic build, big watery eyes, jet black hair, stands by the railing. Rain streaks down his expressionless face. He dropped the rock. EARLY'S POV - THE 70'S CHEVY Lying in the deserted highway. The Driver crawls out covered with blood. Still clutched in his hand is the car cigarette lighter. Its red hot coil extinguishing quickly to a faint glow. ANGLE: CLOSER ON EARLY Calmly looking down with no pity. Even closer... Water running down his face. Closer yet... On his eye... And right into the dilated pupil. As we enter it -- it's like being in a dark winding tunnel filled with the hum of dynamos and the loud rhythmic pumping of powerful machinery. FROM SOMEWHERE IN THE BLACKNESS The distant echo of a Woman's voice. KIM (O.S.) Are you dead or alive? INT. APARTMENT - BRIAN'S EAR - LATER THAT NIGHT Still hearing the whine from some tremendous dynamo, we emerge from the inside of BRIAN'S RIGHT EARDRUM, pulling back far enough to see his face. KIM (O.S.) Brian? Brian is distracted, distant, not paying attention to the game of "Twenty Questions" that he is playing. BRIAN Dead. KIM (O.S.) (sarcastic) Obviously! NEW ANGLE A small party in progress. Graduate student types, smoking, drinking. The usual. Carrie and Brian stand out in this group, their look is more stylized, their attitude less complacent. Carrie, in particular, looks restless. CARL Man or woman? BRIAN Man. Carrie tunes in and pays attention to the game. CLAUDIA Real or fictional. BRIAN Real. CARRIE Ted Bundy. Brian's eyes dart to Carrie. The look on his face tells everyone she nailed it. Brian gets up to get another drink. Several people laugh, amazed that Carrie knows Brian so well. CLAUDIA What a guess! CARL Doesn't count, she's disqualified. CARRIE Why? CARL Because you've been living with him, and his thesis for the last year and a half. (beat) He's probably been researching Ted Bundy all week. PETER Carl, you are the world's worst loser! Carl looks over to Carrie. She gives him the finger and a cheeky smile. CAROL, sitting next to Carrie, asks... CAROL Any word from that gallery? CARRIE Not yet. CAROL Nervous? CARRIE ...Apprehensive. Let's not forget these are the people who banned the Mapplethorpe show. Anyway, California's loaded with galleries. CAROL (nods toward Brian) You mean 'Ted Bundy's' finally agreed to leave? Carrie watches Brian disappear into another room. CARRIE ...Soon as he finishes his thesis. CAROL Listen, Eric's been "finishing" his for over three years now. Carrie lights a cigarette. Her frustration is showing. CARRIE Yeah, well Brian's got 'til the end of the summer, then I'm outta here. She gets up and begins weaving her way through the crowded room. Carol follows. CAROL I'm sorry, but I just can't see you veggin' out in LA-LA LAND. CARRIE Oh, I don't know... I think that once I dye my hair blonde, buy a string bikini and cultivate that tan... I could be veggin' out with the best of 'em... (does a valley- girl/beach bunny) Like fer shurr! Carrie and Carol share a strained laugh. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. APARTMENT KITCHEN - FEW MOMENTS LATER The room's crowded with people. There's a lot of noise -- "shop talk," banter. Clipped conversations overlap, as we find Brian with his friend Eric. They are in the midst of making a blender of margaritas. BRIAN I'm talking about the mind and culpability of a serial killer. Someone who has no ability to distinguish between right and wrong should not be imprisoned, let alone executed. Eric dumps in a handful of ice cubes as Brian pours in the booze. ERIC Oh, here we go again. Let's just lay it all at the altar of misfiring synapses, amok biochemicals and horrendous childhoods. BRIAN Look, it's a fact, most of these people suffer from a severe chemical brain imbalance. (beat) That enough Tequila? ERIC Probably not... Brian pours in the rest of the bottle. BRIAN (to Eric) The answer is research and treatment under hospital supervised conditions, not the electric chair! Eric looks for triple sec in the cupboards. PETER overhears them on his way to the refrigerator. PETER Yeah, until it's your mother's head they find in the refrigerator. He pulls open the refrigerator door and grabs two beers. Carrie steps up behind Brian. BRIAN Executing the killer wouldn't bring my mother back. CARRIE Thank god! Brian turns to see Carrie now behind him. She wraps her arms around his neck. BRIAN (sarcastic to Carrie) Ha, ha. ERIC Yeah, but it'd sure make you feel better, wouldn't it? BRIAN No, it wouldn't make me feel better. Peter finds triple sec in the refrigerator. PETER ...Looking for this? Eric takes the triple sec from Peter and pours some in the blender. He turns it on. It whines. CARRIE (to Brian) If I have to listen to one more "tweed" talk about his dissertation, I'm going to throw up. ERIC (to Brian) Label it anyway you want, the bottom line is these people are evil, plain and simple. BRIAN (continuing with Eric) Okay, now you want to talk about good versus evil? Well then let's start with Adam and Eve and the snake. CARRIE Who do I have to blow to get out of here? BRIAN (reconsiders) A... I gotta go. EXT. LUCKY STREET GRILL A relic from the fifties with large glass windows. The rain has stopped but the streets are still wet. Early's piece of shit Grand Prix pulls into the lot. He gets out and walks into the diner. INT. DINER - NIGHT The place is almost empty. Early, still wet from the rain, walks to the counter and sits down. He calls out to the kitchen. EARLY Coffee and a bowl of chili, please. WAITRESS (O.S.) ...Be right there. The only other customer is an OLD MAN, sitting at the counter nearby nursing a cup of coffee. His face half hidden under a rain soaked hat. Early selects a tune from the countertop juke box. OLD MAN'S POV Out of the corner of his eye he sees a bug (from the concrete block) crawl out of Early's sleeve and onto the counter. OLD MAN (from beneath his shadowy brim...) The Antichrist'll be a woman, in a man's body. Seven heads and seven tails. Early gazes at the Old Man curiously, then calls out to the waitress... EARLY Make that to go. Early notices the small bug crawling across the counter. He leans closer to it and watches it. After a moment, he THWACKS it off the counter with his thumb and finger. The bug lands on the hot iron griddle with a SIZZLE! EARLY glances at the Old Man again... then scoots over one stool closer to him. Early seems curious to want to get a glimpse under the brim of the Old Man's hat. IN THE BACK KITCHEN AREA The waitress is bagging Early's order to go... when the front door slams shut! FRONT DINING AREA The waitress re-enters the room. It's empty. Neither the Old Man nor Early are there. With Early's food in hand, she makes her way along the rear of the counter toward the front door. She glances around curiously. On the griddle, the remains of something black and charred smoulders. Closer to the entrance, she stares at the front door. The sign that hangs in its window has been turned... the backside which faces her reads "OPEN." AT THE FRONT DOOR She wonders about the sign for a moment, then stares curiously out the window... not a soul in sight. She locks the door and begins closing up for the night. She turns to make her way to the rear of the diner then notices something. Slowly she moves along the side wall, past a number of highbacked booths. HER POV Sitting on one of the funky old leather seats in a booth are a pair of RED HIGH HEELED SHOES (the same pair worn earlier by the Pretty Teenage Girl). The Waitress glances nervously about the interior. No one in sight. AT THE BOOTH She reaches down slowly and picks up the pair of shoes. Looks at them closely. Stares at the inside lining. Then suddenly out of the quiet... a voice. EARLY ...Size 6. The Waitress spins a startled look to the booth beyond hers! Early leans out from behind the highback partition. EARLY That's right ain't it, size 6? The Waitress... smiles, nods shyly. EARLY Happy birthday Adele. ADELE Early, you are so sweet. This is ADELE CORNERS. She's 17, pretty, uneducated and Early's girlfriend. She steps over to him, gives him a kiss, then sits down on the seat across from him. She starts to try on her new shoes. ADELE I feel kind of like the wizard of oz, you know when she gets the red shoes. EARLY Well Dorothy, why don't you hand me that chili there. She passes the bag to Early. He digs in. Between bites, he glances over to Adele who's enthusiastically pulling on the new shoes. INT. BRIAN AND CARRIE'S LOFT APARTMENT - LATER THAT NIGHT A door swings open spilling light into a darkened room. Brian and Carrie, a little drunk, return home from the party. Their apartment is in an old converted industrial building in a funky low rent part of town. Brian walks ahead, Carrie trails behind him, peeling off her clothes. She begins unzipping her dress, unnoticed by Brian. BRIAN Tonight turned out to be pretty interesting. CARRIE The party? She grabs a leather cap that sits on a chair. BRIAN The warehouse. I'm not that drunk. CARRIE It was definitely the high point of the evening. Carrie's dress falls to the floor. BRIAN (getting excited) Just being there where it really happened. It was different... more visceral. CARRIE Mmm... I love it when you talk like that. Brian is at the foot of the bed, he turns to see... Carrie has transformed. She has stripped down to her black bra and panties, fishnet stockings, a nightporter style leather cap. A surprised Brian stands there a moment. Looking at Carrie. She looks great. OMITTED Carrie pushes Brian back onto the bed. OMITTED Carrie climbs on top of him. She kisses his neck. Slowly starts working her lips across his chest and down his stomach. EXT. EARLY'S TRAILER - MORNING A solitary trailer sits alongside a run down house. INT. EARLY'S TRAILER - MORNING Through the soot tinged atmosphere, sunlight filters in past the curtained windows. Early is lying face down in bed, his right arm extended over the side. Adele is in the kitchen half dressed, and unsuccessfully attempting to iron one of Early's shirts. She realizes the iron is out of water, she sets it down and steps to the sink and fills a glass with water. As she does she glances at a cactus on the counter. OMITTED ADELE You thirsty Lucy? OMITTED She waters her small cactus (Lucy). ADELE Bet that feels good, don't it? NEW ANGLE - THE REFRIGERATOR Adele smiles then notices that a photo held to the fridge by a decorative magnet has fallen to the floor. She picks it up. ADELE Now if that ain't Momma's little angel. Adele puts it back onto the fridge. It is a photo of a young Early with his mother. In the photo Early appears to be about ten or eleven. he stands next to his mother. Her arm is draped over his shoulders, she is holding a drink. A cigarette butt dangles between her fingers. Nearby a portable radio is tuned to music, when the local radio jingle comes on and segues to the news. NEW ANGLE ON EARLY A handkerchief bandana is tied around his head and over his eyes. The NEWSCASTER'S voice gets louder. NEWSCASTER (O.S.) ...two more victims last night, when a twenty pound rock smashed through the windshield of their car... CLOSER - EARLY'S FACE Slowly he reaches to his face and lifts the bandana up off one eye. Even closer on his left eyelid. It flutters... pops open and blinks. Now... his eyeball stares right at us. The pitch black pupil contracts in the morning light. The newscaster's voice continues to amplify... NEWSCASTER This was the third such attack in the past month and while an extensive police operation is underway... no arrests have yet been made. The newscaster's voice quickly fades away. Early calmly closes his eyes and drifts back to sleep. EXT. EARLY'S TRAILER - LATE MORNING Early emerges from the trailer drinking a bottle of beer. He looks around the yard, it's full of various kinds of useless junk. He walks over to his car. Adele appears in the doorway of the trailer in her bathrobe. ADELE Early... She glances around to make certain that no one's looking, then 'flashes' her body to Early with a giggle. ADELE Have a good one. Early smiles. Adele turns back into the trailer then, remembers... ADELE Oh... I forgot to tell you, Mr. Diebold was by again yesterday. Early looks at the run down house next door where Diebold lives. A beat up red pick-up is parked in front. ADELE He said, if he ain't got the rest of his money by the end of the month, he's gonna "kick us the... (spells the word fuck to avoid saying it) F-U-C-K outta here." Early works his jaw, thinking. EARLY He said that, huh? Cursed in front of you? Adele nods. ADELE You gonna talk to him? Early gets in his car. EARLY If he comes back, don't answer the door. Early revs the raspy engine. ADELE Suppose he hears me inside? Adele's words are unheard as Early pulls away flinging his beer bottle at a couple of chained PITBULLS in Diebold's front yard. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BRIAN AND CARRIE'S LOFT - AFTERNOON Brian enters the darkened loft interior. BRIAN I picked up some Chinese. Did you hear from the gallery? Brian turns the corner, he's immediately greeted by a series of erotic images being projected on the far wall. They are slides of Carrie's photographic work. In regard to the nature and content of Carrie's photographic work, her photographs address the sexual collision of opposites. "What if's." The subjects of her photographs are hypothetical and highly unlikely partners. Studies in contract. Moments of passion. BRIAN (tentative) You got your slides back. From across the room, he hears Carrie's disembodied voice. He drifts toward the couch. CARRIE Yeah, same old shit. Too graphic... not suitable for mass consumption... one of those... I forget. Who cares. Brian finds her slumped down on the couch. He sits down. She's got a drink in her hand. A bottle on her lap. She continues to click through the slides. As she rambles on, it's obvious that she's definitely under the influence of something 90 proof. CARRIE Christ Brian I'm dying here... you are too, you just don't know it yet. You're too busy working on that damned thesis... And, thing is... when you finally do finish it, it's just gonna get filed away on some shelf at the University Library... then what? Brian can see she's upset. Drowsy from the booze. He just watches her. Listens. Her words linger in his head. CARRIE (continues) I thought you wanted to be a writer. BRIAN (quietly) ...I do. CARRIE Then you can write anywhere. Let's get out of here, while we still can. BRIAN Carrie, come on... we can leave anytime we... CARRIE No we can't. We can never leave once you start talking about tenure... and vacation pay... and parking privileges and... oh shit! let's just go to California now, right now, before it's too late. BRIAN ...just like that? CARRIE Just like that. Load up the Lincoln... point it West... stop when we hit the fucking ocean. The bold graphic sexual photographs of Carrie's continue to accentuate her comments. CARRIE That's half the kick anyway. Doing something you've never done before. Experiencing something... different. Something... unpredictable. Brian notices an envelope on the floor nearby. He picks it up. Opens it. Inside, he finds the photographs Carrie took at the warehouse. Interested, he shuffles through them. He becomes more and more intrigued with what he sees. BRIAN ...These are great. He glances over to Carrie... she's fallen asleep. He reaches over and quietly pulls the drink glass from her hand. EXT. EARLY'S TRAILER - LATE AFTERNOON Early's Grand Prix has a head of steam up as it tears across the drive and hangs a hard right into his parking space next to the trailer. Suddenly, Early hits the brakes hard! Another car is parked there. INT. EARLY'S TRAILER Early spills through the doorway. EARLY Adele, who's car's that out... Early spots his PAROLE OFFICER standing in the bedroom area snooping around. He has a prosthetic hand which he uses to search through Early's things. PAROLE OFFICER She's not here. The Parole Officer hiccups throughout the scene. EARLY What are you doin' here? I ain't supposed to be at the Parole Office 'til tomorrow, two o'clock. Early notices the man looking through some of his letters and papers. PAROLE OFFICER Social call. The Parole Officer opens one of the closet doors, pilfers through things inside, as if searching for something. Early is getting pissed off but says nothing. PAROLE OFFICER You're supposed to call me when you lose your job Early. I stopped by the mirror factory today, you left quite a mess behind there. EARLY Wasn't my fault... He lifts his crudely bandaged middle finger. EARLY ...It was dangerous there and they treated me like shit. Parole Officer steps over to the refrigerator, opens it, snoops around inside. PAROLE OFFICER (swallows a hiccup) Yeah... Well you never have been 'treated right'... Have you? (hiccup) Your father was pickin' on you when he threw you out of the house for stealing the tires off his truck. The Marines misunderstood you when they gave you that dishonorable discharge. He finishes with the refrigerator and continues his search through the drawers and cabinets of the trailer. PAROLE OFFICER (hiccup) ...The police were way out of line when they stopped you from beating that bartender half to death. And no doubt God'll be pickin' on you on Judgement Day... EARLY I ain't got nothing against God. It's the people he let come into the world... lot of them should have been stopped at the door. What are you looking for? The Parole Officer ignores the question. He steps up to a sink overflowing with dirty dishes. PAROLE OFFICER That girlfriend of yours ain't much for housekeeping, is she. Early dismisses the place with a glance. EARLY I'm thinking about moving... Early opens the refrigerator, grabs a bottle of beer. EARLY Maybe down to Texas... Probably get some work on them offshore oil rigs. Hear the pay's good... hell, the weather's got to be better'n here. Early sits down at the table. The Parole Officer steps over to him. PAROLE OFFICER What are you talking about? You know you can't leave the state. (hiccup) What you can do is get a job. The Parole Officer pulls a slip of paper from his shirt pocket, sets it on the table. PAROLE OFFICER You be at this personnel office, Friday, three o'clock sharp. EARLY What is it? PAROLE OFFICER ...Janitor's job. EARLY Oh man... come on, I don't want no janitor job. Early lifts his beer for another drink. The Parole Officer's prosthetic hand snaps tight around the neck of the beer bottle, just inches from Early's lips. PAROLE OFFICER Hey, I don't give two shits about what you want or don't want... I'm telling you to be there Friday, three o'clock sharp or the sheriff will be here for dinner. You understand? With that Early looks up at the man, almost defiantly, then stands up. The Parole Officer hiccups again. Early stares at him for a moment. EARLY You oughta think about putting a bag over your head... Might cure them hiccups. The Parole Officer shakes his head in disgust and walks out of the trailer to his car. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. BRIAN'S DESK IN ANOTHER PART OF LOFT APARTMENT - NIGHT Brian's in the midst of working his way through pages and pages of thesis notes scattered atop his desk. Using chopsticks he shovels Chinese straight out of the carton as he studies Carrie's warehouse photographs. CARRIE'S POV As we approach Brian from behind, moving closer, closer. NEW ANGLE - BRIAN'S DESK Carrie steps up behind him. She's rubbing her eyes, having just awakened. A hangover beckons. Brian notices her. BRIAN Hey. I didn't have the heart to wake you. CARRIE Thanks. What are you doing? BRIAN Well, I sat down with my tapes and your photographs, which are great by the way... and I started writing. Carrie grabs his container of Chinese and takes a few bites. Listens. CARRIE So how's it going? BRIAN ...I think it's the best stuff I've done. Carrie glances over his shoulder at his writing. BRIAN ...and I think I know why. CARRIE Why? BRIAN Because I was there. And for a moment that night I understood how she came to pull the trigger. CARRIE (sarcastic) This mean your finally going to finish your thesis? BRIAN Look, fuck the thesis. I think there's a book here. Your photographs and my research, together. CARRIE A book on the warehouse murders? BRIAN A book on some of the most infamous murderers in America. I want to go to where they lived and where they killed and I want you to photograph it. Brian reaches down to the floor and pulls a large map of the United States up and lays it out on his desk. He traces a route West. Along the way, specific locations have been circled. BRIAN What I'm thinking is, we can drop down through Tennessee, across Arkansas and into Texas, from there it's a straight shot into California. (pause) "We don't stop... until we hit the fucking ocean." OMITTED CARRIE It's about fucking time, Kessler! I'd just about given up on you. BRIAN We don't have enough money, but we'll figure something out. Carrie steps up to Brian. BRIAN ...It's either the best idea I've had in a long time... or there's way too much MSG in this stuff. Brian looks at the container of Chinese in his hand. Carrie takes it from him, sets it down on the road map. Kisses him. EXT. EARLY'S TRAILER - DAWN Early exits the trailer and climbs into his Grand Prix. INT. GRAND PRIX Early tries to get the engine to tick over. Then... He sees JOHN DIEBOLD, his landlord, emerge from his house and begin lumbering toward the Grand Prix. The two panting ugly-ass pitbulls trot alongside their master. DIEBOLD (shouts) Hold on a minute there boy! EARLY Shit! Early tries the engine again. Still won't start. Diebold, getting closer. The dogs are barking. DIEBOLD Goddamit, you're gonna settle up that rent here and now. Hurriedly, Early tries the engine one more time. It starts. Grinning from ear to ear, Early pulls away before Diebold and his dogs reach him. Pissed, Diebold grabs a rock and hurls it, hitting Early's car. The car stops, dead in its tracks. DIEBOLD I've had it with your bullshit boy. I want my money. INT. GRAND PRIX Early looks in the rear-view mirror and sees... Diebold standing there confrontational. Early throws the gearshift into reverse... EXT. EARLY'S TRAILER Tires screeching, the car surges toward Diebold and the dogs. Scared shitless... Diebold begins back peddling. Confused, the pitbulls bark, then follow suit. Early laughs as he stalks Diebold. Diebold jumps out of the way of the Grand Prix just as it pulverizes his portable barbecue. Early shifts it into drive and barrels out of the drive. NEW ANGLE - DIEBOLD As soon as the Grand Prix is out of sight... DIEBOLD (hollering) You sonofabitch! Come back here! Furious, he turns to find Adele staring at him from the window of her trailer. DIEBOLD That's it! You tell him... I want you both the fuck out of here by Sunday or I'm gonna call the Police. Adele starts laughing, she tries to hide it with her hand. DIEBOLD ...You won't be laughing come Sunday little girl. Muttering to himself, he turns back toward his house. He then notices what Adele is laughing at. One pitbull is trying to hump the other. DIEBOLD Elvis! Get the fuck off him! NEW ANGLE - ADELE Peering out at him from the trailer window laughing at the dogs. EXT. PARKING LOT - UNIVERSITY Brian pulls up in his BLACK '62 LINCOLN CONTINENTAL. The suicide doors and leather interior have seen better days. Brian locks his car and walks into the building. INT. LOBBY OF THE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING - AFTERNOON Brian steps up to a large bulletin board. He sees several 'Ride-Share' notes to various cities on the board. He pins a Ride-Share note onto the board. We see the note is headlined in red - "CALIFORNIA" CAROL You know, they say one of these days... Brian glances over his shoulder. BRIAN (sarcastic) ...the whole thing's going to slide into the ocean... Yeah, I know. Carol peers over Brian's shoulder and reads the note. CAROL "Looking for someone to take turns at the wheel and share expenses... on a week long cross country blue- highways tour of historic murder sites..." (beat) You gotta be kidding. Who in their right mind would want to do that? BRIAN ...I would. Brian smiles at her and walks away. CAROL (watching Brian walk away) Like I said... She shakes her head. EARLY Where's the personnel office at? Carol turns to see Early. RITA (points down the hall) First door on the left. She walks away. Early's eye catches the bulletin board, he sees in bold red marker - "CALIFORNIA." EXT. EARLY'S TRAILER - LATE THAT NIGHT Adele steps out of the trailer. ADELE Early? She walks carefully around the junk piles. It's dark; hard to see. She comes to the edge of a deep dark hole and peers in... She can't see anything but hears the rustling of a shovel digging. ADELE Early? You down there? The sound of digging stops. EARLY (from inside the hole) What's up Adele? Dinner ready? ADELE Almost. After a moment's hesitation, Early resumes his digging. ADELE Early... The digging stops again. ADELE Tell me more about California. The moonlight illuminates his face when he looks up at her. EARLY Well... for one thing... They think faster out there, on account of all that warm weather they got; cold weather makes people stupid, that's a fact. ADELE I guess that'd explain why there's so many stupid people around here. EARLY Yeah, and in California you never have to buy fruit 'cause it's all on the trees everywhere you turn... (beat) ...and, 'course there ain't no speed limit out there, and all drugs are legal... And I heard your first month's rent is free; state law. I figure 'til we get settled we can just move around month to month... ADELE What'll we do out there? EARLY Well... the very first thing we're gonna do... is get us a couple of six packs of Lucky Lager and climb up on toppa' that famous Hollywood sign and howl at the moon... Early lets out a playful howl, as Adele looks up over her shoulder at the moon. ADELE You know... I read once... Ain't nothin' on that big old moon 'cept some old golf balls those astronauts left behind. EARLY Bull. That ain't right... Government sends people there all the time, just don't want us to know about it. Adele smiles and begins walking back to the trailer. ADELE Don't be long now, dinner's 'bout ready. EARLY I heard that. After a moment, Early climbs out of the hole and stands in the moonlight for a moment. We see that he's completely naked except for a pair of high top steel toed work boots. Early gazes up into the night sky, looking at the cold white moon. EXT. BRIAN AND CARRIE'S LOFT - DAWN Brian exits loft carrying two bags. Carrie is also carrying a bag, and smoking a cigarette, as they walk to the car. CARRIE What did he sound like on the phone? OMITTED BRIAN Real polite. Kept calling me 'sir.' Brian throws the bags in the open trunk with the other bags. BRIAN (grins) I like that. CARRIE I still think we should have met them first. BRIAN Beggars can't be choosers. They were the only ones who answered the ride share note, remember? Carrie bows her head and folds her hands in mock prayer. CARRIE Please God, we're gonna be stuck with these people for a week, don't let them be as boring as Brian's friends. Anything... but that. Brian throws a needling glance to Carrie and slams the car hood shut. They both get into the car, Brian behind the wheel. INT. LINCOLN BRIAN Oh, yeah... He had a real thick accent right outta "Deliverance." (quotes from the movie) "Still? Who said anything about a still? Get ya ass up in them woods!" CARRIE Funny, very funny. Brian starts the car. It backfires loudly startling Carrie. Brian laughs. BRIAN (quoting again) "Aintry? This river don't go to Aintry." EXT. LINCOLN ON STREET The engine revs again and the Lincoln pulls away down the street. EXT. BUS STATION - DAWN PAN UP from Adele's new red high-heeled shoes. We hear Adele speaking with an unfamiliar tone of authority to her voice. ADELE We shouldn't be doin' this, Early. You leavin' the state, ridin' around with strangers... besides, what kinda people would want to stop at places where other people was murdered. The camera slowly reveals Adele... and the fact that she is alone as she voices her concerns. Then from behind her Early approaches. Just in time to hear... ADELE What if they're dangerous? EARLY They ain't dangerous Adele. They're writers. Startled, Adele drops her shoulder bag. It lands on top of a couple of cardboard boxes and a beat up old duffle bag -- all their possessions. A few personal items spill out of it. ADELE Early Grayce! She kneels down to pick things up. ADELE (changes subject) Did you settle things with Mr. Diebold? EARLY Yeah I left him with the car... We're all squared up now. EARLY'S POV As Adele picks up her spilled personal possessions, Early notices her prized cactus in the bag. EARLY What's this? He angrily reaches in and grabs it. ADELE Early! She reaches for the cactus but misses. EARLY What kind of a person would carry a cactus in her purse! Adele bites her lip almost crying. Suddenly, Early looks past Adele to see something, Adele turns too. NEW ANGLE The Lincoln comes gliding into view. INT. LINCOLN - PULLS INTO BUS STATION - DAWN Through the windshield we see Early... Adele by his side. CARRIE You've got to be kidding me, they look like Okies! Brian honks the horn, Early waves back. CARRIE Jesus... They've probably got five bucks between them. Turn around. BRIAN Lighten up... ON EARLY AND ADELE ADELE Geez, they look kinda weird. EARLY You just smile, let me do all the talking. ADELE How many times you gonna tell me that? EARLY (smiling at Brian) As many times as it takes. EXT. BUS STATION Brian stops the Lincoln and gets out. He approaches Early and shakes his hand, then Adele's. BRIAN Hi I'm Brian... Early, and you must be Adele. An awkward moment as everyone just stands there... until Brian reaches for Adele's bag. BRIAN Let me help you. Brian picks up her bag and carries it to the Lincoln. Adele is instantly won over by the gesture -- Early leery of it. INT. LINCOLN Carrie watches as Brian and Early carry their things to the trunk. Carrie leans forward and sets the trip odometer to zero. When she sits back up, Adele is standing at her window. ADELE Hi, I'm Adele. CARRIE (reserved) Carrie. She turns away from the window... ADELE (shyly) I like your hair. Carrie turns back, rolls down window... CARRIE ...Pardon? ADELE ...I said, I like your hair. CARRIE ...Thank you. She turns and sees Early reflected in the side mirror watching her. He grins at her, Carrie looks away. NEW ANGLE: FROM INSIDE THE TRUNK OF THE LINCOLN Brian crams the last of the bags in, as Early watches. BRIAN Tight fit. EARLY Best kind. Brian looks to him, Early grins and winks. Brian slams the Lincoln trunk lid shut. SCREEN TO BLACK EXT. EARLY'S BURNING TRAILER - DAWN From the blackness... The camera rises from a pile of rubble. As it ascends we reveal Diebold's pitbulls howling and digging at a mound of fresh earth where Early's hole used to be. The crackling flames of a nearby fire illuminate the scene. Deep in the distance, the wail of approaching sirens. ANOTHER ANGLE Reveal that it's Early's trailer and car that are on fire. INT. TRAILER Flames consume the magazine photos of Elvis and Priscilla, Farrah and Ryan, Early and Adele. Along with them, the black and white photo of young Early and his mother. EXT. BUS STATION - DAWN - OVERHEAD ANGLE On the Lincoln as it exits the Bus Station. The camera descends toward a lone trash can, to find there, lying amidst the debris inside... Adele's cactus. EXT. CITY STREETS - MORNING The Lincoln passes through on its way out of town. INT. MOVING LINCOLN - MORNING Brian behind the wheel, Carrie riding shotgun. Early and Adele are sitting in the back seat. An awkward silence prevails. Brian clears his throat. BRIAN Uh, we can stop somewhere if you and Adele haven't had time for breakfast, Early. EARLY Well, it's like this, Mr. Kessler. BRIAN Brian. EARLY Well, it's like this, Bri'. I don't eat much in the mornin', never have. Maybe a beer once in a while; Lucky Lager's my favorite. Brian raises his eyebrow a tad, but is not really curious about it. ADELE It's because of what he read in a book once... That folks needin' breakfast is a myth, or whatever, put out by those cereal people. A glance passes between Brian and Carrie. Is she for real? CARRIE'S POV - IN VANITY MIRROR Early motions Adele not to talk so much. NEW ANGLE BRIAN So what do you do Early? EARLY Oh... I do some work up at the Merrick Mirror factory, or I used to... ADELE One night we figured out how much bad luck he must have comin' from all them mirrors he broke... (beat) Four hundred and ninety four years to work it all off... After he dies, he'll have to keep coming back to earth over and over and over... CARRIE Karma. Adele and early show no sign of understanding the word. ADELE What? CARRIE Karma... (beat) You know, if you do something bad to somebody fate will pay you back by something bad happening to you. ADELE That French ain't it? Carrie glances at the odometer on the dash... THE FIRST MILE clicks over. EXT. LINCOLN - OUTSKIRTS OF THE CITY Everyone takes a last look at the familiar countryside. Carrie is snapping photos of the twisting concrete overpasses and the gloomy grey sky beyond. INT. LINCOLN Adele watches Carrie, intrigued by the obvious skill Carrie shows with the camera. Brian glances into the rear-view mirror at Adele. BRIAN So Adele, did Early happen to mention the places we'll be stopping at? ON ADELE'S REFLECTION IN MIRROR... then Early leans in front of her. EARLY Yeah Bri' I did. Adele leans against Carrie's front seat. ADELE (to Carrie) Are you takin' the pictures? CARRIE (surprised) ...Yeah. ADELE Is it hard to learn? CARRIE Not really. Early pulls Adele back toward the back seat. EARLY (to Brian) You gonna talk to the people who did those murders? BRIAN That's a good idea. Unfortunately most of them have been executed. EARLY ...Too bad. EXT. LINCOLN Lincoln drives off down the highway. EXT. EARLY'S TRAILER - LATER Police and Firemen sift through the smoking ruins of Early's trailer. The Parole Officer pulls up in his car, he gets out and approaches a Police Officer. PAROLE OFFICER What happened? POLICE OFFICER Who are you? PAROLE OFFICER His Parole Officer. POLICE OFFICER Right, I talked to you on the phone. They say it's a torch job, that sound like your boy? PAROLE OFFICER Could be. POLICE OFFICER Where would we find him? PAROLE OFFICER Hell if I know, crazy son of a bitch said he was thinking of moving to Texas. POLICE OFFICER Without his car? We see the smoldering remains of Early's Grand Prix. In the background Diebold's pitbulls are being dragged away by a Dog Wrangler. POLICE OFFICER What about the owner of the house... (reads from note pad) ...this John Diebold, any idea where he might be? PAROLE OFFICER No, but I can tell you he's not gonna be too happy about this. From inside Early's hole we hear a voice call out. LABORER (O.S.) Jesus Christ! Parole Officer and Police Officer turn back toward the trailer, as people rush to the site. NEW ANGLE - OVERHEAD The camera aerials down past those gathering around the freshly dug hole to... a Laborer standing at the bottom of the pit. Alongside his shovel, we see that a man's arm has been unearthed. LOW ANGLE UP TO THE TOP OF THE HOLE The Police and Parole Officer join several others standing there. PAROLE OFFICER ...Diebold? POLICE OFFICER ...That'd be my guess. PAROLE OFFICER Looks like somebody cut off his ring finger. POLICE OFFICER Well now I'd say that's the least of Mr. Diebold's problems. The two men look to one another... as others begin to unearth the body. EXT. MOVING LINCOLN DRIVING DOWN COUNTRY ROAD Close up, Diebold's ring on a hand twisting open a bottle cap. Pull back to reveal that it is Early as he opens a bottle of Lucky Lager beer and takes a sip. On the back seat between them sits a brown paper bag. Adele reaches into the bag and pulls out a cheap pocket camera. Excitedly she rips open the box and pulls out the camera. She leans over and kisses Early. ADELE Thank you. Early reaches in the bag and pulls out a small plastic bottle of mineral water and an orange juice. EARLY All right, who gets the... (can't pronounce name) ...water. Carrie turns around, Early hands her the water. Early leans forward and hands Brian the orange juice. EARLY Here you go Bri'. Got a couple a bags of chips and some jerky, just holler if you want some. Then Early reaches past Brian to the rear-view mirror and hangs a plastic St. Christopher statue around it. EARLY Can't hurt. BRIAN How much do I owe you? EARLY Forget it. Adele struggles to understand the camera instructions on the side of the box. She leans forward and shows Carrie her camera. ADELE (embarrassed) Guess I don't know the first thing about cameras. Carrie deliberates her response for a moment, then... CARRIE Well, the first thing... is you need film. Preferably black and white. Carrie pulls a roll of film out of her bag and takes Adele's camera to load. ADELE You wouldn't have any color film, would ya? CARRIE ...Yeah, sure. She pulls a roll of color film out of her camera bag and quickly snaps it into the camera. ADELE I like things in color, pink, purple, and red. I dunno, black and white is kinda... boring. Carrie points the camera at a smiling Adele and snaps the first picture. CARRIE You just aim and press the button. Adele takes the camera. INT. LINCOLN Adele focuses her camera at the scenery out the side window of the car. ADELE Look, Pigeon Forge! ADELE'S POV Road sign to Pigeon Forge. EXT. LINCOLN Adele leans out the side rear window to get a better view. ADELE I've heard of that! It's where Dolly Parton has her park. "Dollywood". I just think that's so clever. Hollywood. Dollywood. Get it? With that, she plops back down into the back seat. INT. LINCOLN EARLY (under his breath) Shush, Adele. ADELE Early, can we stop there... just for a little while. EXT. HIGHWAY As we see the car disappearing into the distance, we can still hear Adele rambling on. ADELE (O.S.) ...I've always wanted to go there... It could be such fun. FADE OUT: EXT. LARGE ISOLATED OLD FARM - AFTERNOON The Lincoln approaches on a dirtroad and passes a mailbox with the name "BAXTER" on it. The Lincoln turns into the long driveway. INT. LINCOLN - SAME TIME Brian begins talking into a small portable tape recorder. BRIAN The Novaks are all gone but the fence that Michael Zaruba was hired to put up is still here. He glances to Carrie, who fires off several photos of the fence and yard. The Lincoln continues slowly down the long drive... Up ahead through the windshield Brian sees a beautiful old farm house. BRIAN The Novaks embraced the young drifter as one of their own. EXT. LINCOLN The Lincoln slows to a halt. Carrie and Brian exit the car and begin walking toward the house. Early follows. Adele, uncertain about what's transpiring, trails behind. ADELE Hey you two. Brian and Carrie turn to see... Adele training a camera on them. ADELE Give me a smile now. Brian and Carrie look to one another then force a weak smile. Early jumps in and throws a pair of devil's horns up behind Brian's unsuspecting head as... the shutter clicks. Brian and Carrie quickly turn their attention back on the house. BRIAN (continues into tape recorder) Neighbors said he was a quiet young man, who was often seen pushing the children on the swing set. An unusual bird house and a tricycle sit in the front yard. To the side of the house are the remains of an old swing set. Carrie finds an interesting angle on the swing set, with the house in the background, SNAP! She fires off a shot. BRIAN (continuing) Everything was fine until the day the family ran out of work for Michael, and had to ask him to leave. As Carrie frames up another shot, Early crosses in front of her camera. Realizing he is in Carrie's photo he stops and poses. Carrie looks to Brian. BRIAN Sorry, Early... Could you step out the way, for a second? Early is surprised that they don't want him in the photograph. He wanders away from the front of the house. Meanwhile, Adele photographs the moment. BRIAN The first one to die was the nine year old daughter... Just then... A NINE YEAR OLD GIRL comes running from around the side of the house. She stops dead when she sees all of them. Carrie snaps a final photo. BRIAN Hello. The little girl scans all their faces. BRIAN ...My name's Brian, what's yours? The little girl remains silent. Brian rolls a look to Carrie then back to the little girl. BRIAN ...Could I speak to your parents? After an awkward pause, the little girl silently crosses the yard to the porch and opens the front door. GIRL (rudely) Pa! There's more of them. EXT. REAR OF HOUSE - SAME TIME Looking into the house through a kitchen window we can see into the entrance hall and through to the open front door. Brian waits outside on the porch, as the little girl enters the house looking for her father. Inside the kitchen, right next to the window, is a side table with a telephone and a purse on it. Suddenly... Early's reflection appears in the window; he has obviously seen the purse. AT THE FRONT DOOR Brian motions for Carrie to join him. AT THE SWING SET Adele watches Brian and Carrie for a moment, then loses interest. She stands on the seat of the swing and begins swinging. AT THE REAR OF THE HOUSE Early tries to push up the kitchen window. It barely lifts three inches before jamming. Through the room we see the little girl and her father step to the front door. EXT. FRONT DOOR A MIDDLE AGED FARMER with tanned leathery skin. He is not happy. Brian extends his hand... BRIAN (friendly) Hi, my name is Brian Kessler. The father says nothing and does not respond to the extended hand. Brian retracts his hand. BRIAN (continues -- less confident) I'm a writer, I'm working on a book about famous murderers. AT THE SWING SET Adele swings higher. Her summer dress ripples in the wind. A smile on her face. EXT. KITCHEN WINDOW Early's entire arm is through the opening. His shoulder presses against the window pane. But still he can't reach the purse. So, he grabs the tablecloth and begins pulling it toward him. The purse slides closer, inch by inch. All the while, he keeps one eye on the Farmer across the room. EARLY'S POV (ACROSS THE ROOM) The Farmer's back is turned to the kitchen as he listens silently to Brian. BRIAN ...I'm sure you're aware that this is the Novak house... AT THE SWING SET Adele swings even higher. She's lost in the moment. Euphoric. EXT. FRONT DOOR BRIAN (corrects himself) ...I mean, this was the Novak house... (pause) With your permission I'd like to come in and photograph... Before Brian can finish, the man slams the door in his face. INT. KITCHEN (ANGLE ON FARMER) The Farmer turns away from the front door. FARMER (muttering) Goddamned ghouls... IN THE KITCHEN We see that Early and the purse have gone. EXT. FRONT DOOR Brian is surprised. He just stands there a moment. He's not sure whether to knock again. EXT. SWING SET The empty swing sways back and forth. EXT. LINCOLN Brian and Carrie walk back to the car. BRIAN (upset) We could have been in and out of there in less than ten minutes... CARRIE Hey, I got some great stuff... it's okay. Brian continues on in a huff until Carrie breaks stride and stops. She pulls him next to her. CARRIE It's okay... okay? Brian glances back at the house. She interrupts his glance, kisses him. BRIAN (continuing on the heel of the kiss) ...That house is part of American history now, whether he likes it or not. They enter the car. EARLY Forget about it Bri'. I wouldn't be surprised if that Karma thing don't come back and get him. Carrie, surprised at Early's new found philosophical belief. She looks into her side view mirror... And sees Early smiling back at her. Carrie looks away... CARRIE'S POV Shifts from the mirror to the house in the background... as the car pulls out of the driveway, the little girl watches from her porch. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. - LINCOLN PULLS UP TO MOTEL AND PARKS. INT. MOTEL RESTAURANT - NIGHT A small roadside diner. A fair number of people inside having dinner. Adele, Early, Carrie, and Brian are seated at one of the tables. AT THEIR TABLE Carrie watches Early eat with a kind of horrible, rude fascination. He has no table manners at all. He eats with his elbows on the table, fork wedged in the fist of his right hand. All the while, he chews with his mouth open. He's serious about his "eating." BRIAN (studying his map) Well we've come three hundred miles so far. Not a bad day's haul. Early doesn't bother to respond. He keeps eating. BRIAN You got any family or friends in California, Early? CU ANGLE ON EARLY With a piece of bread he mops up the gravy on his plate. EARLY (chewing) Nope... You? ANGLE UNDER THE TABLE Early's foot itches... He tries to scratch it but it doesn't do any good. BRIAN (O.S.) No. ADELE (O.S.) Me neither. How 'bout you Carrie? CARRIE (O.S.) No. ANGLE - THE GROUP As Brian folds up the map. Early takes off his boot, then his well-worn sock. Carrie's look of disgust grows as Early brings his foot up onto his lap and scratches it while he eats. Carrie puts her fork down: dinner is over for her. ADELE ...Well, least we got each other. That's somethin'. OMITTED OMITTED Brian looks up, sees Carrie's expression... Then what's causing it... Early mops up the last bit of food on his plate. He notices Brian and Carrie staring at him and slowly puts his foot back down on the floor -- then the sock. Brian picks up the check to see the total... Starts pulling his wallet out... Isn't quite sure how to bring up the tab to Early. EARLY Thanks Bri', I'll get the next one. (prompts Adele) Think it's time we hit the sack. Early winks at Brian, Carrie catches the wink. Early and Adele get up and head for the door. Adele waves goodnight. ADELE (to Carrie) Sweet dreams. INT. CARRIE AND BRIAN'S MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Close on Carrie, she is reflected in a mirror. Reveal, Carrie wearing only a T-shirt is at the vanity angrily brushing her teeth. In the bathroom next to her, a bath is running. In the adjacent bedroom, Brian is in the bed working on his notes. INT. BATHROOM CARRIE (spits out a mouthful of water) You mean because I object to having somebody take off their shoe and scratch their foot while I'm eating I'm prejudiced? INT. BEDROOM - SAME TIME BRIAN (reading notes) He can't help the way he was raised. I kinda feel sorry for him. INT. BATHROOM Carrie pauses in brushing her teeth. CARRIE Feel sorry for him? Obviously you didn't get a whiff of that sock? BRIAN (O.S.) Bitch, bitch, bitch! CARRIE (under her breath) Up yours. BRIAN I heard that. INT. BATHROOM Carrie finishes brushing her teeth. Secretively she gives Brian the finger... BRIAN (O.S.) ...heard that too. Carrie glances at the bath water running in the tub. It's rusty brown and disgusting. She pulls the plug on the bath idea. INT. EARLY AND ADELE'S MOTEL BATHROOM ROOM - SAME TIME The tap is running at the sink as Early empties the stolen purse. He adds the last few coins to a small pile of cash. EARLY Can you believe thirty bucks for this room... for what? A lumpy mattress, that crummy TV and a crapper. ADELE (O.S.) Early, sing me a song. Early continues to sift through all the items from the purse. EARLY Which one. INT. EARLY AND ADELE'S MOTEL ROOM Adele starts to sing a song. OMITTED Early start sing with her... As the song ends. ADELE (laughs) Hey can we go to that Chinese restaurant when we get to Los Angeles? You know, to see all them famous footprints? ON EARLY IN BATHROOM Early reaches down into the bottom of the purse and pulls out a pair of glistening stainless steel scissors. EARLY Only if they let me put mine down too. He stares at the scissors curiously, then switches off the bathroom light. DARKNESS BRIAN (O.S.) Look Carrie, we're gonna be stuck with these people for a week... Click, a light is turned on. Revealing... INT. BRIAN AND CARRIE'S ROOM - SAME TIME Brian has turned on the nightstand light. He and Carrie are lying in bed. BRIAN ...And all I'm saying is I think we ought to try and get along with them. That's all. CARRIE You try, I'm gonna pretend they're with somebody else. BRIAN Carrie. CARRIE I don't want to talk about it. Brian turns the light off. From the blackness... CARRIE Pretty smooth how he stiffed us on dinner? Brian switches the light back on. BRIAN He didn't stiff us. He paid for the gas remember. Silence... Brian reaches out for the light... when CARRIE I'm telling you he's nearly broke and we're going to end up paying for those two. Brian decides to leave the light on. He moves closer to Carrie. He slides up against her backside. He reaches for her under the sheets. Kisses her neck. BRIAN You finished? Carrie pushes her body up against his in response. CARRIE ...Um, maybe... maybe not. Brian's mouth moves down along her back. He slips beneath the sheets. From the expression on her face, she obviously approves... Yet she can't resist slipping in another remark... CARRIE ...Um... Funky fucking sock. Carrie rolls over on her back. Brian moves on top of her. Kisses her stomach. CARRIE ...and what's with that hair? Is that grease or motor oil or what? Carrie reaches down and grabs two fists full of Brian's hair. She pulls him to her. He slides up along her chest, kissing her. Things heat up. She reaches out, grasps his arms. Pulls him closer. CARRIE ...you believe that tattoo? Looks like he had another girls name there and carved it out. Brian bites at her neck. She stops talking. His sweating shoulder presses against her face. She turns her head to encourage him. In the dresser mirror... she sees their shadowy reflections. Their bodies atangle under the sheets. CARRIE ...and that body odor. Their reflection in the mirror intrigues her. Intoxicates her. His aggression excites her. She pulls him into her. The metal bedframe bangs against the motel wall repeatedly as they make love. Then slowly, the camera bisects the plaster and lumber divider and emerges in the next room... TO FIND Early leaning quietly against the same wall. Listening to them. As he does, he uses the scissors to cut through the crusty bandage on his finger. Then, across the room he notices Adele in bed asleep... the scissors stop. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. EARLY'S MOTEL ROOM - MORNING Early exits his motel room, opens a bottle of Lucky Lager against a soda dispenser, and walks over to the motel diner. INT. MOTEL DINER Early enters the diner drinking his morning beer. Adele is not with him. He spots Brian and Carrie seated opposite one another in one of the booths. He walks up to their table and drops down uninvited on the seat next to Carrie. BRIAN Morning... Early lifts his beer bottle in salute. EARLY Bri'. CARRIE Where's Adele? EARLY She wasn't feeling so good. The WAITRESS arrives with a menu, offers it to Early. WAITRESS Breakfast? EARLY (burps) Nah... Don't eat breakfast. Never have. The Waitress notices Early's bottle of beer. WAITRESS Ah sir... sir. She gets Early's attention. WAITRESS (concerned) We ah... don't have a liquor license here. So I'm afraid... EARLY Well don't be, I got plenty more where this one came from. The Waitress gives him a curious look and walks away. Just then, Brian look past Early... A surprised expression crosses Brian's face. Early turns to see... Adele approaching the table. Her hair has been crudely chopped to resemble Carrie's. It looks like shit. CARRIE (at a loss for words) You cut your hair. Adele smiles, pleased with Carrie for noticing. She sits down next to Brian. ADELE Early cut it. (smiles at Early) ...Once he gets an idea in his head there's no holding him back. Carrie looks to Brian curiously. Adele is distracted by a small cactus on the window near the table. BRIAN Nice job Early. Carrie notices Adele's 'new' (stolen) purse... We see the wheels turning in Carrie's head. How? Where? OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. MOTEL - LATER Early walks toward the Lincoln. It is parked outside Brian and Carrie's room. The front door is ajar, he pushes it open. He sees Carrie's reflection in the bathroom mirror, she's in her underwear, pulling on her jeans. Early watches her for a moment. There's no mistaking what's on his mind... as his eyes scan her body. Carrie pulls on her T-shirt, steps out of the bathroom and sees Early just outside the door. EARLY ...Need a hand with those bags? CARRIE No, thanks, I can manage. INT. MOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME Carrie turns back to the dresser and gathers up the last few things. She glances into the dresser mirror looking for Early's reflection at the door, but he's gone. Relieved, she turns the corner to grab her bags and finds Early standing right there! Looking at her. He startles her. EARLY I got 'em. He picks up her bags and walks out of the room. Carrie watches him, then she steps to the doorway. BRIAN (O.S.) All set? CARRIE (startled) Fuck! BRIAN Take your time. CARRIE LOOKS BACK TO EARLY CARRIE'S POV - EXT. MOTEL Early places the bags in the Lincoln's trunk. Adele sees Early carrying Carrie's bag, Adele looks jealous. EXT. MOTEL In the foreground Carrie's door closes. TO BLACK. EXT. LINCOLN/HIGHWAY - LATER Lincoln passes through frame. INT. MOVING LINCOLN - NOON Brian at wheel, Carrie next to him loading her camera. Early in the back seat, Adele next to him pulls out some make up from her bag, we see the little cactus from the motel lobby. She begins to put on some lipstick. Early reaches into the frontseat and grabs the manuscript that sits between Brian and Carrie. EARLY (starts to read) This the book your writing? BRIAN It's just a work in progress, kinda rough. EARLY This guy killed a mess of people. BRIAN Who? EARLY Henry Lucas. BRIAN Henry Lee Lucas. Well he was only convicted of killing eleven but he claimed to have killed over three hundred. EARLY Wonder what all them people done made him so mad? Brian looks to Early in his rear-view mirror. BANG!! The front tire blows... the car lurches. Brian reacts, pulling the Lincoln to the side of the road in a dusty halt. EXT. LINCOLN/HIGHWAY - NOON Brian and Early unload the trunk to get to the spare tire. AT THE RIGHT FRONT TIRE Brian struggles with the wheel and the jack. EARLY Here Bri' let me do that. Early takes over. He pulls off his shirt, jacks the car up and begins replacing the wheel with ease. EARLY How did he get away with it for so long anyhow? BRIAN He almost always killed strangers. Spent years moving on from one place to another. That made it real hard to track him down. Carrie scans the landscape with her camera. She sees Adele walking around a small roadside graveyard. She is reading the epitaphs on the headstones. Carrie fires off a few shots. Then she sees Early, she can't help but notice Early's lean body. She zooms in on his muscles and prison tattoo. Click!! Early completes the task. Together he and Brian begin putting everything back in the trunk. Suddenly, from behind, Adele jumps onto Early's back, surprising him. He gives her a "horsey ride" around the Lincoln. ON CARRIE She notices Early's wallet on the ground. ON EARLY AND ADELE She's riding him, covering his eyes playfully. ON CARRIE She picks up the wallet. BENEATH THE LINCOLN Early's feet galloping. ON CARRIE She opens the wallet to find two one dollar bills inside. WITH EARLY AND ADELE As they come around the side of the car and to a stop in front of Carrie. She holds up his wallet... watches his eyes. CARRIE You dropped this. ADELE Early Grayce if this ain't your lucky day. She hands the wallet back to him. Something between them goes unspoken. EXT. A GAS STATION - LATER THAT DAY The Lincoln pulls in. INT. LINCOLN BRIAN I guess it's your turn to pay Early. Early nods and Brian looks over to Carrie, making sure she heard. The four of them get out of the car. EXT. GAS PUMP ISLAND Early starts toward the gas station store. He checks his wallet, two dollars left. Carrie and Adele lean against the car. Carrie lights up a cigarette. She watches Early to see what his next move will be. Brian removes the gas cap and sticks the gas pump nozzle in. It pumps away. CLOSE ON THE GAS METER It starts turning over... $$$$$ Click... Click... Click... EXT. GAS STATION (crossing the tarmac)... with Early. His face expressionless. His mind racing... EXT. GAS PUMP ISLAND Brian walks around the Lincoln; checking the tires. Carrie watches Early intently. CLOSE ON EARLY He walks toward the entrance. HIS POV Inside the store he sees a video surveillance camera. It worries him. Distracts him momentarily. Suddenly from behind him... o.s. A car horn HONKS LOUDLY! Early turns to see a late model Mercedes behind him. He just gazes at the driver. Aggravated, the driver leans on the horn and motions Early out of his way. Early stares at the man a moment longer, then steps to one side and lets the car pull past him. WIDE ON THE GAS STATION A FAT MAN in his late thirties exits from behind the wheel of the Mercedes. Early watches him as he takes a money clip from his pocket and walks toward the entrance to the mini market. EXT. GAS PUMP ISLAND The gas meter dial continues to go around. $$$$$ Click... Click... Click... NEW ANGLE The girls leaning against the car. Adele watches Carrie take a drag on her cigarette. ADELE I used to smoke before I met Early. But he broke me of that. Her remark gets Carrie's attention. CARRIE Broke you? ON EARLY He watches the Fat Man inside the office. EARLY'S POV - EXT./INT. GAS STATION The Fat Man pays THE ATTENDANT for gas and is handed the restroom key. EXT. GAS PUMP ISLAND Brian walks to the front of the Lincoln. He passes Carrie and Adele... ADELE Early don't think women should smoke or curse or drink liquor. CARRIE So you don't do any of those things. Carrie takes a quick look to the mini-market. She's lost sight of Early. ADELE Better not, or Early'd whip me. CARRIE (back to Adele) He whips you? INT./EXT. BATHROOM The Fat Man turns the key and enters the bathroom. The door starts to swing shut behind him, but... TWO FINGERS catch it before it does. ADELE (O.S.) Only when I deserve it. EXT. GAS PUMP ISLAND Brian lifts the hood of the Lincoln... Reaches for the radiator cap. INT. BATHROOM The Fat Man is standing at the urinal. He has a ureterostomy bag he's emptying, when... Early's hand hits the blow dryer. A whirring sound fills the room. The Fat Man turns his head. Early lunges at him from behind, yanks his head back and rips a switchblade across his throat! EXT. GAS PUMP ISLAND - CU A BLAST of steam from the radiator startles Brian! INT. BATHROOM The Fat Man clutches at his throat. Sees the blood on his palms. He looks up in shock. Early pounds the man's head into the wall. EXT. GAS PUMP ISLAND Brian checking the oil, pulls out the dip stick. NEW ANGLE: CU Black oil runs down the metal blade. INT. BATHROOM The Fat Man falls to his knees against the urinal. His hand grasping the lever. The urinal flushes. Water flows. The Fat Man's blood mixes with it. The urinal overflows. The blood tinged water spills onto the white tile floor. Early pries the dead man's fist off the lever. EXT. GAS PUMP ISLAND Brian slams the Lincoln's hood shut. INT. BATHROOM Early struggles to turn the fat corpse over. EXT. GAS PUMP ISLAND Brian steps up to the gas nozzle and pulls it out of the car. INT. BATHROOM Early reaches in the dead man's pocket and removes his money clip. EXT. GAS PUMP ISLAND The gas meter stops turning. INT. BATHROOM Early calmly washes his hands in the beat up ceramic sink. He pulls a comb from his pocket and combs his hair in the mirror. EXT. GAS PUMP ISLAND Brian pulls a squeegee across the front windshield. Water washes the dirt away. INT. BATHROOM - EXTREME CU The bloody water spiralling down the drain hole. EXT. GAS STATION Early exits the bathroom... and runs straight into Brian, about to enter. EARLY (friendly) Hey Bri'... ah... You don't want to go in there. It's a real mess, if you know what I mean. Brian glances at the bathroom door. Down below, a thin stream of the Fat Man's blood begins to trickle out from under the door... just barely touching the toe of Brian's shoe. BRIAN That bad? EARLY ...Then some. Early puts his arm around Brian and turns him back toward the car. AT THE CAR Adele takes a photo of them, approaching. The attendant steps up to Carrie. ATTENDANT (to Carrie) Comes to twenty eight dollars. CARRIE Talk to him. Carrie points to Early. As Brian and Early approach the car, Early pulls out the money clip. EARLY Call it an even thirty. Early peels off thirty bucks from the money clip. He sees Carrie watching him, Early smiles. EARLY I'll drive Bri'. Hearing that, Carrie climbs into the back seat. Adele climbs over the backrest into the frontseat. EARLY Adele, get in the back. She climbs again into the backseat. EXT. LINCOLN CRUISING INT. LINCOLN DRIVING DOWN THE ROAD - DAYTIME Early is driving. Brian riding shotgun, is making some notes in his manuscript. Adele is teaching a reluctant Carrie to play a card game called "SNAP." ADELE ...Hey you're good. Thought you said you never played before? CARRIE I haven't... I'm a fast learner. ON EARLY AND BRIAN EARLY ...They never caught that Black Dolya Killer, huh? BRIAN Dahlia, no. EARLY Now why is that? BRIAN Some people think it's because he never killed again. He just disappeared back into society. EARLY You don't sound too convinced 'bout that? BRIAN I always thought it was the work of a serial killer. Anyone who took that much time and care bisecting another human being must have been enjoying it and would have done it again. And again. Until someone stopped him. EARLY That your... "theory", ain't that what they call it? BRIAN Yeah. EARLY You wanna hear mine? Carrie listens in as she continues to play cards with Adele. BRIAN (amused) Sure. EARLY Ain't you goin' to record it? Brian picks up his tape recorder. BRIAN (into tape) Early Grayce, June twenty third. Brian hands Early the hand held tape recorder. EARLY (into tape) Well I'll just bet he's still alive. Old, livin' in some trailer park or somethin' somewhere, but still alive. Thinkin' every night 'bout what he done. Goin' over and over it in his mind. How smart he was for getting away with it. Carrie is chilled by the intensity of Early's remark. She watches him out of the corner of her eye. SMACK! Adele's hand hits the pile of cards and she wins the game. Startled, Carrie turns back to Adele. ADELE (to Carrie) You lose! BRIAN (to Early) I suppose anything's possible. Brian puts one leg across the other and goes back to his notes. NEW ANGLE: CLOSE UP BRIAN'S SHOE Revealing... the blood encrusted toe of his shoe. NEW ANGLE: CU ON EARLY EARLY You ever play any pool Bri'? EARLY'S POV Up ahead a HONKY TONK BAR with a large sign "POOL TABLES, BOWLING & MUSIC" EXT. COUNTRY ROAD The Lincoln passes by the LARGE SIGN. BRIAN (O.S.) I can hold my own... EXT. MOTEL - DUSK A high angle looks down on the modest cluster of rooms below. The motel sign pulses erratically in foreground. Moths flicker about the light. CLOSER The Lincoln is parked in front of Brian and Carrie's room. The horn honks. Early is behind the wheel, engine running. Brian steps out of the motel room. CARRIE (O.S.) Hey Minnesota Fats! Carrie appears at the door holding her camera. CARRIE (sarcastic) Don't forget your key. She hands Brian the key. BRIAN Why'd I open my big mouth? Brian takes the key and walks to the car. Carrie sees Adele standing outside her door. Brian enters the Lincoln. CARRIE (to Adele) Why didn't you go with them? The Lincoln pulls away. ADELE I told you how Early feels 'bout a woman drinking. CARRIE How'd you meet Early? Carrie swings the camera around to Adele, and snaps off a shot. ADELE (grins) I was hitchhiking' one day and he picked me up. At first I wasn't gonna get in on account of his car was in such sorry shape. I said, "I ain't never seen a white man drivin' a car like this." Carrie snaps another shot of Adele. Every once in a while Adele feels like she should be "posing" for the shots that Carrie's taking of her. So, occasionally, as she carries on her conversation with Carrie, she does. CARRIE'S POV THRU CAMERA ADELE (continues) An' he said right back, "You shouldn't judge by appearances little lady... this vehicle might just be a flying saucer disguised as a car, for all you know." CARRIE'S POV THRU CAMERA - AS SHE ZOOMS IN TIGHTER ON ADELE ADELE Well, I got in and we got to talkin', and the next thing I know, I'd moved in with him in this old trailer. (beat) Hey! Wouldn't it be something if we all ended up sharing a house together in California? ON CARRIE She lowers the camera from her eye and studies Adele. CARRIE You know I can fix that haircut for you, if you want? ADELE You can? EXT. BOWLING ALLEY BAR - NIGHT A nondescript "joint" on the outskirts of town. American cars. American pickup trucks parked outside. The Lincoln pulls into foreground and parks. Early gets out of the Lincoln and looks around. EARLY I wonder if there's any "doors" out here? Brian exits the Lincoln and looks at Early questioning. EARLY You know... "openings" to other dimensions. (pause) I read there are a lot of them out West, mostly in the desert. They say if you know what you're doing, you can travel anywhere in the Universe in a matter of seconds. Wouldn't that come in handy? Brian looks at him blankly. He can't think of a thing to say in response. Early walks toward the entrance of the bar. Brian joins him. BRIAN By the way, I'm not much of a pool player. EARLY Shit, it ain't hard to play pool. I can teach you everything ya need ta know. BRIAN Yeah? EARLY Hell yeah! I'll even spot ya a few points first game. BRIAN Wait a minute. You're gonna hustle me? EARLY Nah... how much money have you got? They both laugh and enter the bar. CARRIE'S MOTEL ROOM - SAME TIME Adele is sitting in a chair in front of the dresser mirror drinking a beer. Carrie is cutting her hair. In the mirror Adele watches Carrie for a moment. She notices the cigarette dangling from her lips. ADELE How do you get your cigarette to stay there like that. Carrie looks in the mirror. CARRIE I'm cool. ADELE Could I try that? Carrie takes out a fresh cigarette and hands it to Adele. Together they stare into the mirror with their dangling cigarettes. Adele drops her cigarette, as she reaches down for it she notices Carrie's portfolio. ADELE What's this? CARRIE It's a portfolio of my work. ADELE Your pictures. Can I see 'em? CARRIE Sure. Adele grabs the black leather binder and sets it in her lap. Carrie continues to cut Adele's hair. Adele opens the binder and takes a look at the first erotic image and slaps the cover back down. She's embarrassed. ADELE Jesus! Carrie watches her in amusement. After a moment, Adele reconsiders, and opens the book. She gazes at the shocking photograph. ADELE You took this picture? CARRIE Took 'em all. Carrie resumes cutting Adele's hair. Adele thumbs through several photographs. CARRIE That's me. ADELE No it is not! CARRIE Hold still. ADELE Sorry. Boy I'll tell ya, if Early found a picture of me like that I'd be black and blue for a week. Adele notices Carrie's scowl in the dresser mirror. Carrie stops cutting. CARRIE (suddenly serious) You shouldn't let him do that to you... ADELE Do what? CARRIE Adele... are you serious? ADELE (defensive) You think Early's bad to me, don't you? CARRIE Yeah. Carrie starts cutting Adele's hair again. ADELE Well... You're wrong. I ain't saying Early ain't never hit me... but he never hurt me. When Carrie doesn't respond, Adele grabs Carrie's scissor hand and stops her from continuing. Carrie looks at Adele's reflection in the dresser mirror. ADELE (continues) ...When I was fourteen years old three boys raped me in the back of a truck, and beat me so bad I was in bed for almost four months... (beat) ...I feel safe with Early, most the time he treats me pretty good. And I know he wouldn't let nothin' like that ever happen to me again... Carrie is speechless, Adele looks in the mirror at her new haircut. ADELE Hey, that ain't so bad now. INT. BOWLING ALLEY BAR The patrons are young men and women. Eighteen to thirty. The River's Edge kids today. Leather. Ludes and Beer. Wasted. Rowdy. We follow one of the waitresses through the bar... As she passes by a pool table one of the players, A LARGE YOUNG CRACKER, makes a grab at her... LARGE YOUNG CRACKER When you gonna give me so o' that! She spins safely out of his reach. WAITRESS Maybe when you grow up a little sonny. Some guys, close enough to hear her over the noise, laugh at her put down. She moves on until she reaches... Brian standing near a small high table. Early's not with him. She sets four beers down on the table. Brian tries to talk to her over the music. He leans in close. His mouth to her ear. BRIAN These aren't Lucky Lager, I ordered Lucky Lager. WAITRESS Sorry honey, 'ain't nothin Lucky around here. The waitress laughs. Brian smiles and glances around the room. He notices the Large Young Cracker staring at him. ACROSS THE ROOM Early steps out of the bathroom and makes his way back to Brian. NEW ANGLE ON BRIAN He watches the waitress disappear into the crowd, then turns to find the Large Young Cracker in his face! YOUNG CRACKER What did you say to her city boy! The Young Cracker is obviously very drunk. BRIAN Nothing, I jus... YOUNG CRACKER (cuts him off) What's a jism gargling cum drunk fairy like you looking at a pretty girl like that for anyway? The Young Cracker doesn't notice Early return from the bathroom. He moves in next to Brian. Early is relaxed and nonchalant as he looks over the Young Cracker. He leans closer to Brian. EARLY (matter of factly) You'd better hit him first Bri', 'cos it's comin'. With his eyes on Brian, Early grabs a beer. Brian is scared, and confused, with one ear and one eye on the Young Cracker, the other on Early. YOUNG CRACKER This yur' boyfriend? BRIAN (dumbfounded) What? EARLY Hit him. Early looks at the beer. EARLY (angry) Bri' this shit ain't Lucky Lager! Early takes a swig off the beer, grimaces and sprays it out. It hits the Young Cracker. The Cracker looks down at his shirt in shock. Early is oblivious. YOUNG CRACKER (to Early) Hey Asshole! Brian is frozen, confused, doesn't know who to address. Early continues to ignore the Young Cracker. BRIAN They don't stock it here Early. YOUNG CRACKER (to Early, furious) Why you fuckin'... The Young Cracker moves to hit Early. Early swiftly smashes his beer bottle into the oncoming face. The Young Cracker doubles over clutching his face in agony. Early kicks him in the face, sending the Young Cracker to the ground. Early finishes him off with several more kicks from his heavy work boots. Two large tough guys approach Early and Brian. Brian's heart racing, Early cool as a cucumber. Instead of taking on Early, they stop, reach down and drag the unconscious man away. The waitress returns to their table. WAITRESS Sorry about that, he's always causing trouble. She sets down two beers and two shots, doubles. WAITRESS These are on the house. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. CARRIE AND BRIAN'S MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Carrie and Adele split the last bottle of beer between them. They are sitting on the floor and Adele has Carrie's foot in her lap. She's painting Carrie's toenails bright red. Neither of them is feeling any pain. ADELE My momma's a beautician. Guess that's where I get it from. She wouldn't hear of my moving in with Early... on account of his just getting out of jail and all. Ain't seen her in nearly a year now. I wish she'd call me, just once. CARRIE (interrupting) What's Early been in jail for? ADELE (reluctantly) Carryin' a gun. CARRIE ...Anything else? ADELE An' resistin' arrest... At least that's what the Police said. CARRIE Jeez... Adele! Adele realizes she has said too much, looks at her watch. ADELE I'd better be goin'. It's late. Adele hastily weaves her way out the door. CARRIE Great. Carrie stares down at her feet. Red toenails. Cottonballs between the toes. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. THE BOWLING ALLEY BAR Early and Brian exit the bar. They make their way to the Lincoln. On the way... EARLY Got to see a man about a mule. Brian looks at Early, doesn't understand. EARLY Gotta take a piss. Early branches off behind the car. EARLY Any reebs left in the back seat? Early starts to take a leak. EARLY Aaahhhhh... (relief) That's what we used to call a beer when we was kids... Beer spelled backwards. Brian reaches in the back seat and grabs the last Lucky Lager. He crosses to the other side of the car and hands Early the beer. BRIAN Last one. Early stares at the last of the Lucky Lagers. EARLY ...Well I probably drunk more than my share, anyway... you go on an' have it. BRIAN No, it's all yours. It's on me... for saving my ass back there. Early takes the beer. EARLY Hey, that's what buddies are for, right...? Early polishes off the rest of the bottle and heaves it into the woods. EARLY (voice drops almost to a whisper) You know those doors I was talking about? Found two of them back in Kentucky. Shit, I wasn't even looking for one the first time. Me and the boys are just swingin' our sickles by the side of the road, and I turned around and there it was... this door with this bright blinding white light all around it... course I'm thinkin' I must be sunstroked or somethin'... so I close my eyes figurin' I'll count ten and it'll be gone right... so I'm countin'... (he closes his eyes) ...1-2-3-4-5... an' I'm 'bout ta piss myself right... -6-7-8-9... 10. An' I open my eyes slow, spectin' it won't be there right... When Early opens his eyes, he sees a concerned look on Brian's face. EARLY (unconvincingly) ...and it wasn't. An awkward silence. Then Early starts laughing. Brian follows suit. They both climb back in the car. Their forced laughter trails off. Brian shifts the Lincoln back into gear and segues awkwardly... BRIAN What were you "swinging a sickle" for? Early stares at Brian. For a moment Brian is unsure what Early will say, or do? Then Early grins... EARLY For... 'bout three years. Brian brakes their eye contact, looks back out onto the highway and just drives off. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. INT. BRIAN AND CARRIE'S MOTEL ROOM - LATER The door opens revealing Brian silhouetted in the doorway. Under the influence of Lucky Lager, he fumbles with the key... gets inside and noisily shuts the door behind him. Carrie remains stonily silent, in the dark. BRIAN Gotta see a man about a mule... What's wrong? A few seconds pass. CARRIE The same thing that's been "wrong" the whole trip. Your good buddy Early. Carrie, in bed, switches on the side table light. Reveals Brian leaning on the wall trying to get his shoes off without falling over. BRIAN Who said he's my good buddy? CARRIE You sure been acting like you were... (redneck accent) ...Out whoopin' it up, a drankin' and ever' thang. Brian points to the empty beer bottles on the table. BRIAN Hey come on, you two were drinking too... so what's the big deal. Brian throws his shoes somewhere and heads toward the bathroom. CARRIE Yeah, and you should've seen how terrified she was that he'd find out. He beats her. BRIAN How do you know that? CARRIE She told me... (adding) ...but only when she "deserves" it. Did you know he was in jail? BATHROOM Brian turns on the light. Takes a piss. A long one. BRIAN Yeah, for stealing a car. Aaahhhh. Suddenly, from right behind him: CARRIE (O.S.) Bullshit! Startled, Brian turns to see Carrie. CARRIE ...He told her it was for carrying a gun, but the truth could be murder for all we know. No response from Brian. Carrie walks away. LIVING ROOM Carrie steps over to the bed, pulls the sheets back. Brian leans out the bathroom door: BRIAN Stop being so fucking melodramatic! If it was murder he'd still be locked up or on parole, in which case he wouldn't be allowed to leave the state. CARRIE Maybe he wasn't allowed to leave! Geezus Brian! Brian smacks himself on the forehead (a sarcastic "how stupid of me!") He pulls his shirt off over his head, and admits... BRIAN (sarcastically) Of course! The accent, the clothes, and those table manners!... He's got to be a mass murderer! (pause) What else could he be? He switches off the bathroom light, steps out of the doorway, and begins to pull his jeans off. Carrie climbs into bed. BRIAN You know, it wouldn't even surprise me if he turned out to be... a Republican! Brian tosses his jeans and moves toward the bed. Carrie switches off the the only light in the room. In the dark, we hear a thud as Brian trips over a chair. BRIAN Goddamnit!... my fucking toe! EXT. BRIAN AND CARRIE'S MOTEL ROOM - A MOMENT LATER Carrie leaves the motel room, ice bucket in hand. CARRIE (to Brian inside room) Try not to lose consciousness 'til I get back. EXT. MOTEL CORRIDOR At the far end of a narrow hallway, Carrie finds an ice machine rumbling away noisily. The only illumination, a single fluorescent light bulb, hangs suspended above it. AT THE ICE MACHINE With her arm buried inside the ice machine, Carrie scavenges for what little ice there is... when, out of the corner of her eye, she notices... SOMEONE standing at the other end of the corridor. The silhouette of a man. Carrie stops. Her eyes scan the claustrophobic hallway for another way out. There is none. She tries to ignore the situation. Grabs another handful of ice cubes. The man approaches. Carrie stops again. Her mind races. The man's face slowly becomes visible as he nears the fluorescent light. It's Early. EARLY Ain't you done enough drinking for tonight? CARRIE ...Brian hurt his foot. Early reaches past her into the ice machine and grabs a solitary cube. He puts it in his mouth, sucks on it. His torso is drenched in sweat. He catches Carrie staring at him. EARLY Sometimes... Don't know why it is... I get so hot I can't stand it. I just start sweating like a dog. You ever get like that? CARRIE (tenuous) No. Early spits the ice cube back into his hand. He presses it against the back of his neck. EARLY I can feel it start to run down my neck... (he turns his back to show her) ...and down my back... right into my pants. Carrie follows a bead of ice water as it slides down between his shoulder blades and along his back. EARLY ...and everything starts stickin' together... keeps running down the back of my legs like two rivers racin' for my boots, see who gets there first. He snaps a look back to Carrie and finds her looking at his ass. She diverts her glance. EARLY You never get that hot, huh? Carrie shakes her head no. Early looks in his hand to see that his ice cube has melted. CARRIE I gotta get back before this ice melts. Carrie tries to slip past him. He reaches back into the machine, momentarily blocking her exit. He grabs another ice cube. His face only inches from hers. EARLY ...never? CARRIE No, never. Excuse me. He pops the ice cube in his mouth and lets her pass. EARLY You like Skynard? No response, Early chews up the ice cube. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. LINCOLN LEAVING THE MOTEL - NEXT MORNING The car crawls out of the parking lot. INT. LINCOLN Carrie is driving. Brian is contending with a major hangover. There is still a silent tension between Brian and Carrie from the argument the night before. Early is in the back with Adele. Brian moves his head and moans. ADELE My daddy always took sauerkraut juice and tobasco sauce for a hangover, mixed in one egg not two, and some tomato juice... From the front seat, Brian's hand springs up in a desperate plea for an end to Adele's colorful description. BRIAN I'm okay, thanks. Brian rolls down his window for some fresh air, as the car pulls away. EXT. LINCOLN ON HIGHWAY - MOMENTS LATER THE CAR IS HEADING DOWN A COUNTRY ROAD. INT. LINCOLN Carrie glances over at Brian, who is now asleep next to her. She looks up into her rear-view mirror... CARRIE'S POV: IN THE MIRROR Early is asleep, leaning against the door. Adele is rummaging through a large canvas bag on the seat next to her. Suddenly... The wail of an approaching ambulance gets Carrie's attention. It roars by. Carrie glances in the mirror again. The next instant, unexpectedly... EXT. LINCOLN She furiously pulls the car off the road to an abrupt halt. INT. LINCOLN Brian's heads bangs against the side window. BRIAN What! What! Carrie nods toward the back seat. Brian turns and sees Adele looking back at them questioningly. Beside her, Early rustles. BRIAN What is it? CARRIE Look again! Brian notices that Adele's rummaging has revealed an automatic pistol in the open canvas bag. Brian stares at it. Early's eyes open. EXT. PARKED LINCOLN - LATER A deserted plain. It's very quiet here. Until the silence is broken by the sound of gunshots. Reveal Early teaching Brian how to shoot. A row of tin cans are set up on a rusty old car. It's obvious that Brian's enthralled with the idea of shooting the gun. Even if he isn't hitting anything. EARLY Only thing my old man ever gave me is that goddamn .45. Brian fires off another shot, misses again. EARLY Bri', you're jerkin' it when you pull the trigger, hold it real steady. Nearby stands an unhappy Carrie. Adele pulls her yoyo out of her pocket. ADELE Boys'll be boys. Carrie doesn't respond. Adele offers the yoyo to Carrie. ADELE You know any tricks? Carrie shakes her head no. Adele withdraws her offer. ADELE You wanna learn some? Again Carrie declines. Her steely gaze returns to Brian. ON EARLY AND BRIAN Early helps Brian to hold the gun. EARLY Steady... Breath in... now let half of it out, and... fire. BANG!! The can flies off the tree stump. Brian turns to Carrie to see her reaction... but she's already on her way back to the car, and she's furious. Concerned, Brian starts to follow after her... But Early grabs his attention. EARLY Bri, I want you to keep this gun... consider it a present. Never know, California could turn out to be a dangerous place. Brian gazes at the gun resting in the palm of his hand. EXT. AN EMPTY HIGHWAY - DAY The Lincoln rolling along. INT. LINCOLN Brian is driving. Carrie keeps to herself. In her side mirror she catches a glimpse of Early curled up in Adele's lap. She watches a moment longer... and realizes that they are making out. Beginning to kiss and touch one another. EXT. HIGHWAY NEAR ABATTOIR - LATE AFTERNOON The Lincoln turns off the main highway onto a dirt road. In the distance, we see a large rundown building. INT. AN OLD DESERTED ABATTOIR - AFTERNOON The Lincoln pulls up to the ramshackle structure. Brian glances to the back seat to make a remark to Early and Adele and sees that they are amorously engaged. Brian and Carrie start to gather their stuff. Carrie opens the glove compartment, inside are boxes of film... and the .45 automatic. She takes a few packs of film, and closes the glove compartment. EARLY Tell ya Bri., I'm still a little sleepy,... think Adele and me are gonna take us a fiesta. CARRIE (pissed off) Siesta. Carrie reaches over and takes the keys from the ignition, locks the glove compartment and pockets the key. Both she and Brian exit the car. As they start to walk toward the structure Brian hears a sound, he turns back to see. Adele leaning forward into the frontseat as the lincoln's big white top starts to come up. INT. ABATTOIR Even in daylight, the interior of the dilapidated old building is equal parts unnerving, austere, and menacing. The last rays of sunlight stream through what remains of the windows. The light falls on a long ominous row of wicked looking meat- hooks hanging from the ceiling. Carrie is getting her camera equipment ready. She's quiet and uncommunicative. NEW ANGLE CLOSE, on a small audio cassette player as it comes to rest on a giant butcher block table in the center of the room. Brian pops a cassette in the player. CARRIE What's that? BRIAN A copy of a tape they found. He recorded everything. Camera in hand, Carrie begins to move about, despite the fact that this place repels her. Brian presses a button on the audio cassette player. The small tinny speaker plays a bad recording of something we slowly come to realize is the unmistakable sounds of a woman being tortured and pleading for her life. FLASH!! FLASH!! Carrie fires off a series of shots from different angles. Brian scans the place trying to imagine what happened. Screams from the audio tape bounce off the walls. BRIAN (speaks into his small hand held tape recorder) His mother had him working in here before he was eight years old... killing animals with a sledgehammer that was bigger than he was. Brian and Carrie walk through the remains of a doorway into another room. BRIAN When she was pissed at him, she'd beat the shit out of him and lock him in here overnight... The pleas for help and screams on the tape subside to a steady whimpering. BRIAN (continuing) ...Eventually the boy wakes up one morning, picks up that sledgehammer and starts hurting back. FLASH!! FLASH!! Carrie takes a few more shots of the ominous interior. Then she stops, turns and walks out of the room. She's had enough. Brian follows after her. BRIAN There's more... CARRIE I'm finished. Carrie stops to pick up the rest of her gear. BRIAN Look... I know you're pissed off about the gun, and I don't blame you... Carrie wheels around to face him. CARRIE Brian, I'm not pissed off. God damm it, turn that thing off. She switches off the cassette player. CARRIE I'm scared. A week ago you would never have even thought to pick up that gun. This afternoon you're out there wielding it around like Clyde fucking Barrow, for Christ's sake! What's with you? BRIAN Okay, it was a cheap thrill, it was stupid, I admit it, alright? (pause) But let's not blow this. Not now... Let's just get the photos. CARRIE I can't believe I agreed to do this. OMITTED BRIAN Oh come on, don't give me that shit... you wanted to take these photos as much as I wanted you too. CARRIE Wrong! I was willing to do whatever it took to get you up off your ass and on the way to California... There's a big difference. Carrie storms out of the place. She exits the tunnel, and makes her way toward... THE LINCOLN As she approaches it, through the rear windshield she sees... Early and Adele fucking wildly! Carrie wants to turn away, but she can't stop watching them. Fascinated, she raises the camera to her eye and zooms in on them. THROUGH CARRIE'S CAMERA LENS: ON EARLY AND ADELE Early is sitting against the back seat. Adele is straddling him. Carrie's finger finds the shutter button. Early's arms move up under Adele's dress... Her hands press up against the roof. She's trembling... Wavering... Carrie's finger presses down on the button, CLICK!! Then in one swift movement Early sweeps Adele onto the back seat. Close on Early's face. He's sweating... Lips moving... Talking dirty to Adele. Keeping her finger on the button, Carrie rapid fires through a whole roll of film. She's oblivious to the whine of the motor drive once all the film is shot out. Then unexpectedly!! Early looks directly into the camera, at Carrie. And smiles... And continues to fuck Adele. A chill rushes through Carrie, she almost drops the camera. She runs back toward the tunnel... and right into Brian's arms. He startles her. She pulls away from him. CARRIE Brian I want him out of our car! BRIAN Why, what did he do? CARRIE Brian get him out of the car. Next gas station either he leaves or I do! OMITTED EXT. DESERT - DUSK The Lincoln passes through frame. In the background, the surreal image of an industrial complex bathed in an eerie artificial light. INT. LINCOLN PULLS INTO A GAS STATION - TWILIGHT An electrical storm is in full swing. EXT. GAS STATION The Lincoln barely comes to a stop at the pumps before Carrie storms out of the car and heads toward the gas station interior. She leaves Brian to break the news to Adele and Early. INT. GAS STATION The only person inside is a YOUNG MALE ATTENDANT. He's watching TV behind the counter as Carrie enters. On the TV we see a NEWSMAN. We only catch fragments of what he is saying because the storm outside is affecting the TV reception. CARRIE Twenty dollars in the tank and a carton of cigarettes. In fact, each time the lightning flashes occur all of the electrical power at the station is affected. The fluorescent lights outside and inside begin to flicker and falter sporadically. NEWSMAN ...the ex-mental patient with a history of arrests is still at large... Static. Carrie looks at the TV, watches for a moment. It doesn't hold her attention. She looks away and notices Adele leaving the car. Adele walks toward a Coke machine at the other end of the gas station. ATTENDANT Here's your cigarettes... Carrie turns back toward him. ATTENDANT ...And change. Better be careful, looks like a bad one coming. Where you headin'? CARRIE California. ATTENDANT Hear it never rains there. Must be nice. He buttons up his rain coat and goes out into the night to gas up the Lincoln. Carrie pulls a pack of cigarettes from the carton, nervously lights one up. She looks out the window toward the Lincoln. EXT. GAS PUMPS Through flashes of lightning and thunder she sees Brian in the car talking to Early. Early listening quietly. Brian looking adamant yet apologetic. The attendant fills the Lincoln's tank. INT. GAS STATION Simultaneously, as Carrie watches this... Behind her on the TV screen... A wave of interference scrambles the picture. NEWSCASTER ...we would like to repeat... Static. NEWSCASTER ...there is a nationwide manhunt for... Static. INT. GAS STATION - ON THE TV The static clears and the Newscaster appears. NEWSCASTER (O.S.) ...is believed responsible for the murders of his landlord John Diebold... Static. EXT. GAS PUMPS - TIGHTER ON LINCOLN Brian's still talking -- using his hands to explain. Early is watching him with a resigned expression. INT. GAS STATION - ON THE TV A video tape image of a familiar gas station recorded by a surveillance camera. NEWSCASTER ...of the fatal stabbing and robbery of Mr. Joseph Davies Robbins... NEW ANGLE ON CARRIE She stares at the TV with growing horror as she notices a familiar black Lincoln in the background. In mid-ground, a male figure approaches the video camera unknowingly. Slowly, Early's image becomes visible. NEWSCASTER If you see this man... Carrie panics, turns toward the door and runs smack into the arms of a dripping wet Early Grayce! Early stares at her and drops his bag to the ground. EARLY I ain't ridin' in no bus... bitch. Then... Early notices himself on the TV. NEWSCASTER (O.S.) ...call your local police or FBI... Static. Early grabs Carrie around the neck and yanks her into the back office. He pushes her down onto a chair. EARLY You just sit there and keep your mouth shut. He searches behind the cash register and finds a sawed-off shotgun. He shuts the TV off. EARLY I knew that boy'd have a hogleg here somewhere. The Attendant rushes back in from the pouring rain. Early points the sawed-off shotgun at him. EARLY Get over here. Early forces him into the office. EARLY Sit your ass down in that corner. Adele enters the adjacent room. She checks out the various vending machines in search of candy. Early taps on the window and motions her into the office. She sees Carrie in the chair, scared to death, and Early aiming the gun at the Attendant. ADELE Early, what're you doin'? EARLY Go back to the car and keep Brian there. I don't want him in here... (beat) Do it Adele... Now! Adele looks back at Carrie, then hurries out. Early empties the cash register. EARLY What's your name, boy? ATTENDANT (very scared) Walter Livesy. EARLY Think. I might just have to kill you Walter. How do you feel about that? ATTENDANT Not so good. You sure you have to? EARLY I don't know. Wish I did. CARRIE Early, just think... EARLY Shut your mouth. INT. LINCOLN Adele opens the door on the driver's side looking scared. Brian is in the passenger seat. He's looking in the glove compartment for a map. The .45 automatic Early gave Brian is clearly visible. Adele stares at it. BRIAN Adele, what are you doing back here? Adele gets in and starts looking under the seats. ADELE ...Lost my purse... Could you help me look for it? It's probably under the seat. INT. GAS STATION The Attendant is reaching up, handing Early the money from his pockets. Carrie is seated in front of him. EARLY Where you from Walter? ATTENDANT (nervous shake) Vernon, Florida. EARLY Never heard of it, any huntin'? ATTENDANT Turkey mostly. EARLY Turkey's are real smart. Smarter than most people think... Early rips the phone out of the wall. EARLY Tell you what Walter, you lie down there now... You make sure you stay put for a while after we leave... Okay? The attendant nods yes. ATTENDANT ...Mind if I hold that Bible? EARLY What do you need a Bible for? The attendant has no response. EARLY You think I'm goin' to kill you. Well that'd make me a liar then wouldn't it? ATTENDANT No sir. Early takes the Bible off the desk and hands it down to the Attendant. EARLY Here you go. The frightened young man lies face down on his stomach clutching the Bible and starts to pray. On the counter next to him Early notices a large stuffed "happy face" display. "Free with every 20 gallon purchase." He grabs one, stares at its face curiously. EARLY (mumbles to himself) I wonder if Adele would like one of these? (beat) Nah... Suddenly... He puts the barrel of the gun between the "happy face" eyes... Points it at the back of the attendant's head. Carrie begins to scream. Early pulls the trigger. The blast explodes the "happy face" and rips into the back of the Attendant's head, killing him. INT. LINCOLN - SIMULTANEOUSLY A thunderous crackle of lightning all but masks the gunshot. The rain starts pouring down. BRIAN What was that? Adele stares blankly back. INT. GAS STATION The room fills with billowing down stuffing. As the stuffing floats to the floor it sticks to their hair, skin and clothes... EARLY (surprised at the feathers) What the fuck! INT. LINCOLN Brian opens the door to leave. EXT. GAS STATION Early drags Carrie out of the office toward the car. Brian sees them running toward the car. They spill into the back seat. Brian sees Carrie is upset. BRIAN Carrie, what's wrong? (to Early) Early, we went through this already, you have to leave. From the back seat Early wipes some more feathers from his face, then points the Attendant's gun at Brian's head. EARLY (spits out a feather) 'Fraid not Bri'... Drive Adele. Adele starts the car. She pulls out of the station and into the rainstorm. INT. GAS STATION The last of the feathers fall like snow. The whole room is now white except for a red stain around the head of the dead Attendant. INT. LINCOLN - A MOMENT LATER The car moves down the highway. Early in the back seat is still trying to brush away feathers. EARLY Hate to be an Indian-giver but I'm gonna have to ask for my gun back. Brian reaches in the glove compartment. He removes the gun and hands it to Early. BRIAN (to Early) What happened back there? Carrie sits in the corner of the back seat, covered in feathers but not even noticing them. CARRIE He shot him in the head... oh God! Adele turns to the back of the car to face Carrie. ADELE (raising her voice) He did not, you liar. Take that back. The Lincoln swerves off onto the side of the road. Adele looks to the front again and steers it back onto the highway. CARRIE He's a killer, Brian... He's fucking insane. EARLY Everybody just shut up! Early picks some more feathers off himself. EARLY You two just cooperate and do what I say, and we'll all arrive safe and sound in California, as planned... unless, of course, Adele don't kill us first with her driving. NEW ANGLE - EXTREME CU The St. Christopher statue swings from the rear-view mirror. The windshield wipers sweep back and forth against the pouring rain. EXT. AN ISOLATED ABANDONED STORE - NEXT MORNING The Lincoln pulls up at the rear of the store. Adele exits carrying a couple of bags of Chinese take-out food. INT. ABANDONED STORE Adele enters the decrepit store. The others are inside. Brian and Carrie are tied up. Brian watches Early intently as he takes one of the bags from Adele. He begins opening one of the carry out containers. EARLY What the hell is this stuff? ADELE It's Chinese food. It was the only place open. You said you was starving, you'd eat anyth... Early opens another container. Stares curiously at the contents. EARLY Yeah but, what is it? ADELE I don't know, they didn't speak too good English. Early sets the container down. EARLY And just what exactly are the Chinese doing here in the middle of the American desert anyway?... Didja get the beer? Adele somewhat reluctantly hands Early a bottle of beer from a second bag. EARLY ..."Chink" beer! Early notices that Brian is watching him intently. He mistakes Brian's interest for hunger. EARLY Oh hell, I'm sorry Bri. Adele, honey, untie Brian, he's starving over there. (pause) Carrie, you want some? Carrie doesn't respond at all. Adele unties Brian. Early pulls out his gun, puts it on the table next to him. Brian sits across from Early. He watches as Early rummages impatiently through the carry out paraphernalia. EARLY Where's the damn forks and spoons at! Frustrated, Early finally takes a gulp of Chinese food right out of the container. It goes down rough. EARLY ...Is it just me, or has this whole trip been goin' downhill ever since we ran outta Lucky Lager? Brian picks up a pair of chopsticks, then reconsiders, puts them back down and, like Early, gulps from the container. NEARBY, Carrie sits quietly. As she listens to the two men talk... she notices something on her arm. She lifts her arm up to get a closer look. HER POV She sees that a few of the white down feathers still cling to her. Closer... and she sees that one of the tiny feathers is tinged with blood. The Gas Station Attendant's. It freaks her. ON BRIAN AND EARLY BRIAN (quietly) How many people have you killed Early? Early stops... thinks for a moment. ON CARRIE She tries to brush the bloodied feather away... but with her hands bound, she can't reach it. ON BRIAN AND EARLY EARLY Well now, how many people d'you see me kill? Brian shakes his head. BRIAN None. ON CARRIE In quiet desperation, she raises her arm to her lips... and blows the solitary blood tinged reminder away. ON BRIAN AND EARLY Early stares at Brian. EARLY ...Well then, that's how many I killed. BRIAN (unconvincingly) If you say so. EARLY Damn right I do. ON ADELE Adele watches the tiny down feather drift to the floor. ON BRIAN AND EARLY Early picks up a different container and gulps some down. After a moment... EARLY You never killed anyone have you Bri'? Brian shakes his head no. EARLY You never even seen anybody killed, right? Brian stops eating and looks at Early. BRIAN What are you getting at? Early leans closer to him. EARLY You wanna tell me how'n the hell you gonna write a book 'bout somethin' you don't know nothin' 'bout? Eye to eye, the two men stare at one another. Brian has no answer. EARLY Ya see what I'm sayin'? (beat) Ha! BRIAN (nervously mimes the same) ...Ha. Early goes back to gulping down his dinner. This time he gets a spicy one. EARLY (a nod toward the carry out container) ...watch out for that stuff, it bites. Brian gazes at the cluster of Chinese carry-out food containers. An ironic reminder of an earlier conversation. He lets out a weak ironic laugh. BRIAN (recollecting to himself) ...way too much MSG. EXT. LINCOLN - TRAVELING - DAY INT. LINCOLN DRIVING DOWN BACKROADS - DAY Early is behind the wheel, not a care in the world. Adele sits beside him playing with her camera. She turns and aims the camera at Brian and Carrie in the back seat, their hands are bound. ADELE Smile. Neither makes any attempt at smiling. Adele snaps their photo anyway. In the front seat, she sits quietly for a moment then leans over to Early and whispers something to him. EARLY No way. I guarantee you he was breathing when I walked outta there. Adele sits back quietly. Carrie wants to speak but doesn't. EARLY Hey... Ain't we getting near the next murder site... Bri? BRIAN Forget about it, doesn't matter. EARLY Hell it don't... (beat) ...Hand me Brian's map there Adele. One day I'm gonna pass some store and see your book in the window. Me and Adele gonna buy a copy for our coffee table. NEW ANGLE Carrie silently fuming in the back seat. Brian stares at the rope that binds his wrists. EXT. OLD DESERTED MINE AREA - LATER THAT DAY The Lincoln drives down the dirt access road and stops. They all get out, Early unties Brian and Carrie. EARLY Figured your hands might be starting to hurt. Early looks down the hill to the old mine building. EARLY Let's have a look. You girls coming? Carrie's steely gaze answers Early's question. ADELE Can I just wait here? Early leans into the car and picks up Adele's camera. EARLY Don't worry Bri', I'll take the pictures. (to Adele, with a kiss to her cheek) ...you stay here with Carrie. (to Carrie) You run off... Bri' pays the price. Karma, remember? Pistol in hand, Early follows Brian down the hill. Adele begins nervously playing with her yoyo. Carrie watches as Brian and Early disappear around a bend in the dirt road. Out of the corner of her eye, she hones in on Adele's yoyo. Adele becomes increasingly intense about manipulating the yoyo, controlling it. Until she's lost in it. A momentary refuge. ADELE This is called walk the dog. NEW ANGLE - EXTREME CU A huge excruciatingly tight shot of the yoyo in slow motion. Its string unraveling as it spins downward. Carrie pulls her gaze away. CARRIE'S POV The desolate surrounding landscape, a bright blue sky, the scrubbrush. And no one who can help them. Carrie turns and looks over her shoulder down the hill. EXT. OLD MINE BUILDING The old mine building, rusted and deserted since the late '20's. EARLY So tell me... what happened here? BRIAN Two brothers, prospectors, lived here. Up until a few years back. Flash! -- Early takes a photo with the Instamatic. EARLY (coaxing) ...and? BRIAN They picked up hitchhikers... young men... and brought them back here. Early scans the grounds. EARLY Where'd they do it? Reluctantly Brian leads Early toward the old mine building. At the opening, Early hesitates. EARLY Bri. Brian stops in his tracks. EXT. LINCOLN - TIGHT CLOSE UP Adele's yoyo skitters across the gravel road surface. EXT. OLD MINE BUILDING Brian turns back to Early. EARLY This ain't going to give me nightmares, is it? EXT. LINCOLN - TIGHT CLOSE UP Then in a snap!... the yoyo recoils into Adele's palm. CARRIE'S POV A distant empty ribbon of road. ON CARRIE Her eyes searching for anyone who could help. ADELE (O.S.) This is one of my favorites... rock the cradle. INT. OLD MINE BUILDING Brian and Early are silhouetted against the dying sky. Flash!! Early takes another photo. BRIAN ...They asked them just before they were executed why they did it. They said "to be famous." (beat) Why do you do it? Flash!! Early takes a flash photo of Brian, momentarily blinding him. EARLY Do what Bri? Early moves slowly toward Brian. BRIAN We both know you didn't have to kill that gas station attendant. Brian's eyes dart nervously to the gun dangling in Early's palm. Flash! EXT. LINCOLN - TIGHT CU In slow motion Adele's hands manipulate the yoyo and string. INT. OLD MINE BUILDING BRIAN You wanted to. (beat) Why? Flash! Brian flinches. Early remains silent as he closes in on Brian. BRIAN It make you feel good? Powerful? (Flash!) Superior, what? Come on Early, tell me something. (Flash!) Were you angry? Early's boot lands toe to toe with Brian's shoe. BRIAN (tentative) Who are you angry with Early... your mother, your father? Eye to eye, the two men stand there. EARLY You want to know about my daddy, I'll tell you about my daddy, Bri... EXT. LINCOLN Carrie walks over to Adele at the car. Adele doesn't miss a beat with her yoyo. CARRIE Adele, listen to me... Early's sick; he should be in a hospital. Adele screws up the trick. She pulls the yoyo off her finger and throws it in the back seat. She leans into the front seat and cranks the radio up to the max. Closing her eyes, she begins moving to the music, and tries to ignore Carrie. CARRIE (shouting over the music) The police are after him, he's a murderer! ADELE (uncertain) ...That's not true. CARRIE (shouting) What? ADELE (shouting back) That's not true! NEW ANGLE A POLICE CAR pulls into frame, unnoticed by Carrie and Adele in the background. INT. POLICE CAR MALE OFFICER Let's take a look. FEMALE OFFICER I'll call in the plate. The Male Officer exits, unlocking his holster. The Female Officer picks up the police radio and calls in the license plate number. EXT. LINCOLN NEAR MINE AREA The radio is blaring. Adele continues to dance despite Carrie's pleas. CARRIE (shouting) ...I wouldn't lie to you, Adele. . . I saw him kill that man. ADELE (defensive) Early didn't kill nobody, he wouldn't do that. I don't know why you're saying those things. You ain't my friend. With that, Adele stops her dancing and turns away from Carrie... To see the Male Officer walking toward them. ADELE Please don't say anything Carrie. The Male Officer continues toward them. It looks like he's talking to them... but his voice is inaudible under the deafening radio. NEW ANGLE: FAVORING THE TWO POLICE OFFICERS The Female Officer sticks her head out of the police car and yells to her partner. He turns to listen. FEMALE OFFICER We got a match, I'll call for back up. As the Male Officer turns back, he sees Adele reach into the front seat of the Lincoln. The Male Officer draws his revolver and levels it at Adele. NEW ANGLE: FAVORING ADELE AND CARRIE Click! Adele shuts the radio off, total silence. As Adele leans back out of the car, she turns, facing directly into the barrel of the Male Officer's gun. MALE OFFICER All right ladies, I want both of you to slowly step away from the ca... BANG! A single gunshot rings out! The Male Officer jerks back and falls to the ground. Adele screams! Carrie whips a panicked glance around and sees... Early running toward them. Brian, bewildered, follows behind. BRIAN'S POV (RUNNING) Ahead of him, he watches Early race past the wounded Male Officer. He kicks the Officer's revolver out of reach and rushes toward the police car. Early fires his gun repeatedly as he charges the car! The Female Officer pulls her gun and starts to get out of the car, when... a shot shatters the windshield hitting her in the chest. She collapses back onto the seat. ON BRIAN He stops at the sight of the wounded Male Officer. Shocked, he watches the man writhing in pain. His hands clutching his crotch. His blood oozes into the dirt. Early approaches the police car. He sees the dead cop and hears the radio dispatcher. POLICE RADIO Officer needs help, shots fired, six Adam five, one eighty-seven, suspects wanted in multiple murders. Location unknown, last seen... Brian is not sure what to do. He looks around... sees the Officer's handgun lying in the dirt. He takes a step toward it, when... another gunshot rings out! Brian stops. Looks to the police car. He sees Early standing there, smoke belching from the dashboard... the police radio is dead. Early walks back toward Brian and the others. He steps over to the injured Male Officer on the ground. EARLY Tell me that don't hurt. Early picks up the wounded cop's gun. He hands it to Brian as he trains the .45 automatic at Brian's chest. EARLY Shoot him. You'll be doing him a favor. Brian looks to Early in disbelief. OMITTED BRIAN No, no, I can't. Early cocks the pistol and pushes the barrel to Brian's head. Brian looks down at the wounded cop who is writhing in pain. EARLY (No,) It's the answer to all them questions of yers. Brian won't do it. He drops the gun to the ground. EARLY Now you'll never know. Early cocks his pistol. BRIAN ...Don't do it. Early, look at him, look at his face. That's not your father. Early stares at the wounded cop's face. EARLY I know that. That there is a policeman in a world of pain. And this is what you call a mercy killin'. Early shoots the cop again. The cop lays still. Early reaches down and takes the dead cop's handcuffs. He casually points the little camera at the dead cop. Flash!! EXT. LINCOLN - ON BACKROADS - LATER The Lincoln hurtles down the road. INT. LINCOLN Early driving. Adele in the passenger seat looks bewildered. Carrie and Brian in back, handcuffed, eyes hollow with exhaustion and fear. Then out of the quiet... EARLY I'm still waiting. Adele looks across the seat to Early. Her face drained of all expression. EARLY (disappointed) Not so much as a simple "thank you." Adele at a loss. Finally... confused... ADELE (empty) ...thank you. EARLY Thank you for what? (becoming aggravated) What are you thanking me for Adele? ADELE (hesitantly, she admits) ...I don't know. EARLY Well Adele... it was for... (screaming at her) ...saving your fucking life back there! She shrinks away from him. EARLY (gesturing with his fingertips a fraction apart) Darlin' you were 'bout that far from spendin' the night at the morgue. You understand? CARRIE He wasn't going to shoot her, you murdering son of a bitch! Early looks into the rear-view mirror. Brian tries to defuse the situation. BRIAN Carrie... stop it. CARRIE (explodes) What the fuck is wrong with you Brian!? If you'll stop taking notes for once and open your eyes... you'll see that he is a homicidal fucking killer. He is... for real! BRIAN Shut up Carrie, please... just shut up! EXT. LINCOLN ON DESERTED HIGHWAY - SUNSET The Lincoln drives along an old deserted highway passing occasional gas stations and dilapidated motels. INT. LINCOLN ON DESERTED HIGHWAY - SUNSET Early is driving. He notices something in the distance. EARLY'S POV - NIGHT Off in the distance... an oasis of greenery. OMITTED Sequence omitted from original script. EXT. THE MUSGRAVE HOUSE - ARIZONA/UTAH BORDER - DUSK A home in a secluded valley near the desert. It has a cactus garden. The garden is illuminated so it can be enjoyed at night. Reveal... the Lincoln parked by the front door. EXT. LINCOLN - CLOSER Adele gazes out the passenger-side window. She's enthralled by the sight of all the cacti. ADELE ...I luv' cactuses 'cos they're so strong. Don't need much care really. Reveal Brian handcuffed to the steering wheel beside her. He cranes his neck to see out the rear window... BRIAN'S POV Early steps up to the front door of the house and rings the bell. Carrie stands beside him. A light comes on inside. The door slides open a crack and MRS. MUSGRAVE, an attractive older woman with silver hair, peers out with a puzzled look. INT. LINCOLN - SAME TIME Adele rambles on. ADELE (far away) ...You can forget about 'em forever and then look at 'em and they're doin' even better than before. BRIAN (watching the house) Adele... we gotta do something before Early kills someone else. BRIAN'S POV Of Early and Carrie as they are let into the house. INT. LINCOLN Adele is still rambling on about her interest in cacti. ADELE ...There ain't nothin' can kill 'em. They can live for two even three hundred years. BRIAN Adele for god sake please lis... ADELE (she glances over to Brian) There ain't nothing we could do. Once Early sets his mind on somethin', well thats the end of that. Adele drifts back to the cacti. INT. MUSGRAVE LIVING ROOM - A LITTLE LATER CLOSE ON A PORCELAIN CACTUS One of many we now reveal to be atop a fireplace mantle. Adele leans in against the mantle and scrutinizes the cactus. Carrie and Brian sit on the floor, back to back, their arms bound around the leg of a piano by a pair of police handcuffs. Mrs. Musgrave is standing nearby. She's overwhelmed. Numb. She pours herself a glass of bourbon. MRS. MUSGRAVE (to herself) It's just like in that dream I had. If only I had seen their faces. She takes her drink and sits down on the couch nearby. Adele drops down quietly on the chair next to her. ADELE (tries to cheer Mrs. Musgrave up) You've got beautiful cactuses here, I just love 'em. My momma used to keep a garden. Mrs. Musgrave downs most of her drink with the first try. Distressed, her head slumps down. EARLY (O.S.) (from the kitchen) Hey Bri... You ever stop to think that if you switched the two letters in your name... (entering the room) ...it would spell Brain. Early, his pistol wedged in his belt, appears from the kitchen eating a sandwich. Between bites... He walks over and rips the phone out of the wall unit. He glimpses Mrs. Musgrave. EARLY What's wrong with her? ADELE (sorry for her) She had a dream that somethin' like this was gonna happen. Early notices the glass of bourbon in her trembling hands. He steps over to her and takes the glass away. EARLY I'll bet she did. He sets the glass down next to a recent picture of Mrs. Musgrave and an ELDERLY MAN with silver hair. EARLY Where's your husband? MRS. MUSGRAVE (lying) ...I'm a widow. Early looks at her, he doesn't believe her. EXT. MUSGRAVE HOUSE - NIGHT Everything is quiet beneath the star studded sky. The same elderly man pictured with Mrs. Musgrave is studying the sky through a powerful telescope. MR. MUSGRAVE is an amateur astronomer. o.s. the SOUND of a door opening. Then footsteps. MR. MUSGRAVE (excited) Is that you Peaches? Come, you must see Saturn tonight. The rings are sensational! INT. STUDY - GLASS DISPLAY CASE Early leans into frame, staring at the display case. EARLY'S POV Inside of it is a four foot long replica of the first ATOMIC BOMB, "Fat Boy." Faded newspaper articles on the wall indicate Mr. Musgrave had something to do with the bomb's initial construction. An old photo on the bookshelf shows a much younger Mr. Musgrave in a '50's kitchen. He is laughing and embracing a '50's style female mannequin. MR. MUSGRAVE (O.S.) My oh my, this is quite rare, quite rare indeed. Come have a look... Early's eyes drift over to a set of golf clubs that sit in the corner of the room. MR MUSGRAVE'S POV - THROUGH TELESCOPE The planet Saturn and its glorious rings. MR. MUSGRAVE (O.S.) Peaches? OMITTED THWACK!! The planet turns into a blur of light... then blackness. INT. LIVING ROOM - SAME TIME - ON BRIAN AND CARRIE Brian and Carrie are still cuffed to the piano, in the background we see Mrs. Musgrave and Adele looking out the window into the backyard. BRIAN (whispers to Carrie) You gotta talk to her. She looks up to you, she'll listen to you. CARRIE I tried talking to her at the mine. It didn't work. BRIAN Then try again, (it's our only chance.) EXT. HOUSE - LATER Early is leaning on a golf club looking through the telescope. ADELE (O.S.) Early? He pulls his eye away as Adele arrives. ADELE (excited) Early, Mrs. Musgrave has the most beautiful little guest house out back and... well, no one's stayin' in it... it's just empty. And she said if me and you wanted to, well maybe we... Suddenly, o.s., a scream pierces the moment! Early and Adele turn toward the doorway to see Mrs. Musgrave screaming. The older woman's eyes staring past Adele to the floor nearby. Adele follows the terrified woman's gaze to find... Mr. Musgrave's body lying on the floor. A bloodied wound in the back of his head. All of Adele's enthusiasm drains from her face. EARLY (to Mrs. Musgrave) Well 'Peaches'... you're a widow now. Mrs. Musgrave collapses to the floor. INT. LIVING ROOM - SHORT WHILE LATER Brian and Carrie are still cuffed to the piano. Across from them, Early sits in an overstuffed chair looking through Carrie's collection of erotic photography. EARLY (to Brian) Have you seen this one? That don't leave much to the imagination now does it? He looks at another photograph. Confused, he turns it upside down, stares at it. INT. THE DEN - SAME TIME Mrs. Musgrave is laid out on the couch. Adele, deep in thought, watches over the older woman. Finally Adele reaches into her purse, pulls out her small potted cactus then walks across the room to a table. Its top is covered with small potted cacti. She gently places hers among them. ON MRS. MUSGRAVE Mrs. Musgrave begins to regain consciousness. Her eyes open to find... Adele standing over her. Adele brings her finger to her lips -- Shhhh. INT. LIVING ROOM Early looks through several more photos. He stops on one of a nude woman's torso. Early looks at it for a moment... then extends the photo out toward Carrie, comparing it to her. EARLY (smiles and shakes his head in disbelief) That's you ain't it? Carrie doesn't answer him. Then, in the background directly behind Early... Adele and Mrs. Musgrave quietly appear. Carrie notices them as they start to cross the hallway to the kitchen. Early sees Carrie's eyes glance past him. He turns to see why... when... CARRIE (O.S.) You're right Early... Early stops. Looks back to Carrie. Brian also turns to her curiously. CARRIE ...It is me. Do you like it? Early looks at the photo again. Adele and Mrs. Musgrave now cross safely to the kitchen. Carrie eyes meet Early's. He smiles, pulls the nude photo of her close to his face... and licks it. INT. KITCHEN - SAME TIME Adele quietly opens the back door. ADELE Go on now... please. Mrs. Musgrave is confused, is it a trick? She looks into Adele's eyes... and knows it's not. The old lady turns and walks out into the dark desert. Adele stands at the open door, watching Mrs Musgrave escape. ADELE (in a whisper) ...Call me. INT. LIVING ROOM - A MOMENT LATER Early finishes looking through the photographs. He closes the cover of the portfolio. EARLY Well they say there's room fur all kinds in California... and that's where we're gonna be this time tomorrow. California. (beat) Adele honey? INT. KITCHEN EARLY (O.S.) Adele? Early enters, and sees Adele standing at the back door. Adele turns to face him. Early looks past her into the night and realizes what she's done. He strides across the room pulling the pistol from his waistband. AT THE KITCHEN DOOR Early pushes Adele out of the way. EARLY (shouting) Peaches! Come on back here. There ain't nothin' for you to be afraid of. EARLY POV - EXT. CACTUS GARDEN Aside from the occasional pools of light illuminating the cacti, it's very dark. There's no sign of Mrs. Musgrave. INT. KITCHEN He steps outside and starts firing his gun into the blackness... bullets THUNK into the cacti. EARLY (shouting over the gunfire) Nobody wants to hurt you Peaches! ADELE Early! Stop!! Desperate, Adele grabs a large potted cactus. She rushes toward Early. Swinging the cactus like an unwieldy bat, she pummels the side of his head. He stumbles forward, disappearing into the darkness. Adele stands outside the kitchen door, bewildered. Then... EARLY (O.S.) Oww! Oww!! -- FUCK!!!! Early re-emerges from the shadows. Adele's eyes widen when she sees him. His cheek has long bloody gashes where the cactus ripped the flesh. EARLY (perplexed) Honey... What do you think you're doin'? Adele starts to cry. EARLY Oh, n'jus what in hell you crying 'bout? I'm the one got hit. ADELE I changed my mind, Early. I'm not gonna climb up that Hollywood sign with you... I decided. I think your mean, and you hurt people. A look comes over Early's face that we've never seen before. That he's never felt before. Hurt. He doesn't know how to deal with it. And he definitely doesn't like it. INT. LIVING ROOM - SAME TIME (INTERCUT WITH PREVIOUS SCENE) BRIAN Carrie, watch for Early. CARRIE What are you going to do? BRIAN I'm going to try and lift the end of the piano. If I can... slide your cuffs free. Carrie glues her eyes to the kitchen doorway. Brian presses his back up under the belly of the piano and using all his strength manages to lift the piano an inch off the floor. Carrie slides her cuffs out from under the leg. CARRIE What about you? BRIAN I don't know. Carrie's eyes dart back toward the kitchen. Then she notices a chair nearby. CARRIE Can you lift it again? Just lift it, hurry. Carrie grabs the chair. As Brian lifts the piano, she pushes the chair beneath the underside of it. It holds the piano suspended an inch off the floor. Brian drops to the floor and slips the cuffs free. When... a solitary gunshot rings out from the cactus garden. A moment later, Early steps quietly into the room. He's pulling the last few cactus needles from his face. He sees Brian and Carrie standing. EARLY You two been busy in here. BRIAN What happened to Adele? EARLY Well, let's put it this way. (beat) I need me a new woman. A shocked silence. Brian and Carrie look to one another. Carrie moves toward the kitchen but Early stops her! Brian rushes at him. Early sticks the .45 automatic in his face! EARLY Sorry about this Bri... He starts to squeeze the trigger. CARRIE (desperate) Early, don't. Early stops. He looks to Carrie. CARRIE I'll do whatever you want. You want me to go with you, I'll go with you. Just don't kill him. Early deliberates the situation, then eases up off the trigger... and smiles to Brian. Then, without warning, he hits Brian over the head with the butt of the .45 automatic. Brian falls to the floor unconscious. OMITTED EXT. MUSGRAVE HOUSE - EARLY MORNING As Early finishes tieing one of the replicant bombs, Little Boy onto the hood. He reaches down and grabs a six pack of beer on the ground and shoves it in the back seat, then slides into the driver's seat next to an anxious Carrie. Carrie is now wearing one of Adele's floral dresses. EARLY Think anyone will notice? Carrie doesn't answer, Early laughs. INT. LINCOLN Early looks out over the expanse of the desert. He sees a dirt fire road. EARLY I'll bet there's a 'door' out there... save us some time. Carrie doesn't understand what he means. Nonetheless, she nods her head in agreement. EXT. MUSGRAVE HOUSE The Lincoln heads out, past the cactus garden, into the darkness. THE LINCOLN'S HEADLIGHTS REVEAL Adele's lifeless body on the ground near her beloved cacti. FADE TO BLACK WITH THE DEPARTING HEADLIGHTS INT. MUSGRAVE LIVING ROOM - MORNING Brian is handcuffed on the floor. His eyes open slowly as he begins to regain consciousness. He senses someone behind him. He pivots around to see Mrs. Musgrave kneeling down to help him. EXT. DESERT - SAME TIME In the distance, a cloud of dust reveals the Lincoln, traveling at high speed along the dirt fire road. INT. LINCOLN - SAME TIME Early still behind the wheel. Carrie sits up against the passenger side door. She is tense and guarded. Out the window, nothing but empty desert. EARLY Pass me a beer hon'. Carrie quietly responds. She kneels on the front seat and reaches into the back. She grabs a bottle by its neck, and pulls it from the six pack of beer. Bottle in hand, she hesitates a moment... NEW ANGLE: EARLY'S POV IN THE DRIVING MIRROR Early watches Carrie. EARLY You wanna hit me with that, huh? NEW ANGLE Carrie reconsiders and sits back in the far corner of the front seat. CARRIE (not looking at him) No. She hands the bottle to him. Early reaches out for the beer, but instead of taking it, he clasps his hand over hers. He looks at her and begins to squeeze... EARLY Stop lyin'... I can see right through you. Early squeezes even harder -- Carrie begins to wince with pain. She waits for the glass bottle to shatter in her hand. EARLY Who d'ya think you're foolin'? (beat) I know you better than you think... CARRIE (confused) ...You're hurting me... Early hits the brakes. The car screeches to a halt in a cloud of dust. Early squeezes on her hand even harder and begins to drag her toward him. EARLY I seen the way you been lookin' at me since we met... Snappin' my photo when you thought I wasn't lookin'. Wanting me... Carrie turns her head away. Early pulls her closer. EARLY I saw you when I killed that boy... He grabs her hair with his other hand... Pulls her head around -- forcing her to look at him. Early has Carrie right up against him, looking right into her eyes. EARLY (whispers) You were plenty hot. CARRIE (explodes) You sick twisted fuck! You don't know shit about me. She struggles trying to free herself. Early, his face only inches from hers, smiles... EARLY Sick... some people might say takin' photos of me and Adele humpin' in the back of the car is sick. Carrie struggles even harder, but Early tightens his hold. EARLY ...You know what I mean? CARRIE ...I know I'd love to smash this bottle right in your fucking face. Suddenly... Early releases Carrie, taking the beer from her. Carrie retreats back into the corner of the passenger side. EARLY That's better... Honesty... I like that in a woman. He gives her a grin, then opens the bottle. EARLY But I'll tell ya... when we get to California, we're gonna have to do something 'bout that gutter mouth of yours. Early takes a gulp of beer. EXT. LINCOLN - SAME TIME Early throws the bottle of beer out the window (it ain't Lucky Lager), slams the Lincoln into "drive" and accelerates along the dirt road. INT. MUSGRAVE LIVING ROOM MRS. MUSGRAVE He's pulled out all the lines. The nearest phone is twenty miles east of here. Brian notices an old pickup truck parked outside. EXT. MUSGRAVE HOUSE - THE NEXT MOMENT An anxious Brian hustles into the cab of the pickup truck. Some tools are in the back. Brian still wears the handcuffs around his wrists. Mrs. Musgrave stands near the front door. BRIAN Which way did they go? MRS. MUSGRAVE (pointing) He took the fire road. BRIAN Take your car and get to that phone. Call the police. Brian starts the pickup and drives off. EXT. DESERT - LATER The wind has picked up. An old wooden gate blocks the fire road. On either side, barbed wire as far as the eye can see. The Lincoln roars into frame and powers through the barrier. The gate smashes into splintered pieces of wood. INT. LINCOLN - SAME TIME Carrie leans against the passenger door. Early's eyes scan the open desert -- looking for the elusive 'doors.' Carrie reaches for her pack of cigarettes. Early, without a word, reaches out and takes the pack from her. He crumples it up and throws it out the window. NEW ANGLE Carrie's eyes go to the instrument panel. The temperature gauge is in the red. EXT. DESERT The pickup truck arrives at a crossroads and skids to a halt. Brian tries to guess which direction to take. Then he spots Early's discarded beer bottle up ahead. The truck accelerates straight ahead, tires spinning. EXT. DESERT - LATER, THE SUN IS ON THE HORIZON The winds continue to escalate, blowing harder and harder. The Lincoln approaches on the fire road. A trail of steam is streaming out from under the hood, blinding Early's view. Finally, Early slams on the brakes and skids 180 degrees to a halt... Steam pours out of the Lincoln's grill. The Lincoln has had it. Early is indifferent and looks around. About a hundred yards away, barely visible through the growing sand storm, an old 1950's style building. INT. LINCOLN Early opens the back door. He grabs a box of supplies (some rope, a kerosene lamp etc.) EARLY Come on. Carrie slowly begins to respond. She slides across the front seat. NEW ANGLE: CLOSE ON THE INSTRUMENT PANEL Carrie's hand crosses frame and pulls out a knob on the dash. EXT. DESERT - LATE AFTERNOON The sun is starting to set behind a distant mountain range. In the far distance... The pickup truck, revealed by its trail of dust, crosses the vast landscape. EXT. '50'S DESERT HOUSE Early and Carrie struggle through the growing sand storm. Carrie throws a last curious glance back to the Lincoln as they reach the front door. INT. '50'S DESERT HOUSE The front door is kicked open. Early enters the room with Carrie in tow. CLOSE ON EARLY He looks around the room... A smile forms on his face. EARLY Howdy, my name's Early Grayce and this is my girl Carrie. I hope you don't mind us bargin' in like this but a... we was on our way to California when our car broke down, and... EARLY'S POV (AS HE EXPLAINS) A living room fully decorated in '50's furniture. Sand covers everything... Including... A FAMILY OF FOUR MANNEQUINS placed around the room: The father sits in front of the TV... The mother (the same mannequin as in Mr. Musgrave's old picture) is toppled over a kitchen counter... The little girl is seated at a table... The little boy is playing with his toy plane on the floor. EARLY (O.S.) Well... it's gettin' pretty rough out there, so if it's all the same to you, we'll be staying the night. EXT. '50'S HOUSE Early slams the front door shut. CAMERA PULLS AWAY - REVEALING The building is a single story '50's home of extremely cheap construction. It's in bad condition. EXT. DESERT - THE SMASHED WOODEN GATE The last rays of the setting sun reveal the pickup truck heading toward the smashed remains of the wooden gate. The pickup truck hurtles through the opening left by the Lincoln. NEW ANGLE On a collapsed old wooden sign. It lies on the ground a few feet away from the gate posts. "DREAMLAND" - NUCLEAR TEST RANGE DANGER - KEEP OUT INT. '50'S DESERT HOUSE - NIGHT Wind and sand blow freely through the remains of the windows. A solitary kerosene lamp dimly illuminates the living room area. Its flickering light finds... Early, stripped to the waist, crouched over the broken TV set. He fidgets with the knobs. Then the mangled rabbit ears antenna. Carrie sits on some blankets in the corner next to the couch. She's scared to death. Her eyes scan the battered room. Debris everywhere. Amidst all of it, Carrie's erotic photographs have been placed about the room. ON EARLY Still unable to get the TV to work, he smacks it a good one on the side. With the smack!... Carrie whips her look back toward Early... To find he's lost interest in the TV. He turns toward Carrie. Stares at her for a moment. Then with a hint of a smile, he begins to move toward her. The time has arrived. He reaches down, grabs her by the shirt and pulls her to her feet. Carrie doesn't resist. He's rough with her as he kisses her on the lips. Carrie pulls her mouth away from his. She seems confused, unsure of her feelings. Early watches her, until her eyes come back to his. Then she steps forward crowding her body against his, as she slips one hand around his neck and kisses him deep and hard... Suddenly Early breaks the kiss and backhands Carrie hard across the face. She lands on the floor several feet away, the palm of her right hand is bleeding. Early looks down to his waist to find a large piece of glass protruding from his side. He pulls the glass shard out, blood drips down his side and onto his jeans. Carrie gets up and races into the back bedroom, frantically looking for a way out, there is none. On the bed the two adult mannequins now lie naked. They have been placed, intertwined in a grotesque sexual position. Carrie turns and rushes back toward the door. Early intercepts her and throws a punch to her stomach, which doubles her over. Then Early sends a second punch to her face, she stumbles backward, landing onto the bed amongst the mannequins. Early begins undoing his belt. EARLY (friendly) You'll like it... A violent gust of wind sends several of the erotic photos swirling through the air. One of the photos whips across Early's chest. The wind holds it there momentarily. EARLY Not a lot, but you'll like it. Early peels Carrie's photo off him, the blood from his wound covers the back of it. He slaps it against the nearest wall. It sticks. He walks toward her. INT. PICKUP TRUCK - BRIAN'S POV The high winds have turned into a full fledged sandstorm. Brian is still driving dangerously fast. The dim lights of the old pickup illuminate only a short stretch of dirt road ahead and the swirling sand. He passes a road sign: 'DEVASTATION DRIVE' Then... As the pickup truck comes around a corner Suddenly... directly in front of him -- Headlights!! Brian reacts... too late!! The pickup truck ploughs into the vehicle, and tumbles end over end through the open desert, before finally coming to an abrupt halt. INT. '50'S DESERT HOUSE - NIGHT With each thrust of Early's body, Carrie's badly bruised face contorts with pain and hatred FADE IN: EXT. DESERT Sand blows in through the smashed windshield of the wrecked pickup truck. Brian is upside down with his eyes shut. A trickle of blood runs down his face. Camera booms up a dirt slope to reveal the Lincoln, beyond it on the hill above sits the desert house. The glow of the kerosene lamp is visible through the windows. FADE OUT: EXT. DESERT HOUSE - DAWN The storm is over... No sand blowing. No wind. No nothing. COMPLETE SILENCE!!!! The dawn light reveals the devastated '50's house to be one of a cluster, set at the end of a 'Doom Town' cul-de-sac. INT. '50'S HOUSE - SAME TIME In the darkened bedroom, Early's solitary figure rustles atop the bed. Slowly, he awakens. His eyes open. Across the bed, a pair of handcuffs is locked around the bedpost. In the other cuff is Carrie's motionless hand. Then, out of the corner of his eye, Early sees something in one of the nearby rooms. Curious, he stands, shoves the .45 automatic in his waistband and walks toward the hallway. As he passes through the living room and enters the hallway, his face contorts with a strange sense of wonderment. EARLY'S POV A blinding light is shafting through cracks and broken gaps around the front door frame... It looks like a magical "door" shrouded in a wall of light! ON EARLY In disbelief he pulls his gaze away from the "door"... and sees through a window at the opposite end of the house... the morning sun rising. With that he turns his attention back to the front door! EARLY I knew there was doors out here! He walks toward the doorway of light. He grins as he opens the "door" and steps through it. The sunlight momentarily blinding him. EARLY'S POV A black shadow hurtles toward him out of the brightness... Eventually it blocks out all the light until... WHAAMM!!!! EXT. DOOR A blow knocks Early back through the doorway. He slams to the ground, on his back. The gun falls from his jeans and slides across the floor. A look of joyful amazement over the blood covered remains of his face, he tries to get up, but can't. EARLY'S POV Brian, silhouetted, steps into the doorway. He holds a shovel raised, ready to deliver a second, fatal blow... but when he sees Early incapacitated on the floor, he lowers the shovel to his side. His handcuffed hands reach down and picks up Early's gun. He trains it on Early, then walks around him to enter the house. Brian's eyes slowly adjust to the interior... EARLY'S POV From on his back, Early looks out the open "door." He sees two large shards of glass standing vertical in the sand, reflecting the sun's rays back toward the house. He realizes that the glass, placed there by Brian, is what created the effect of the "door." He starts to laugh. EARLY (laughing) That was damn tricky of you Bri. Brian searches for Carrie. BRIAN Carrie... Carrie... it's over. ON BRIAN He moves into the back bedroom and finds Carrie. She is crouched on the floor, handcuffed to the bedframe. He moves to help her. As he gets closer, he sees her badly bruised face and realizes what's taken place throughout the night. Brian stops. The sympathetic expression on his face changes. With hatred in his eyes, he pivots around, strides out of the bedroom and moves toward the front of the house to Early. in the front room Gun in hand, Brian rushes back into the room. He wields the pistol toward the ground where Early lay... but Early's not there. Brian's eyes dart around the room... then suddenly, from behind him, Early grabs him! He wrenches Brian's head back and whips his belt buckle knife toward his throat! Brian manages to lift his hands to his neck an instant before the knife tears through his flesh. The knife slices a vicious wound across the back of Brian's right hand. He drops the gun to the floor. Brian elbows Early in the ribs and pulls away from him. He reaches to the ground for the gun, but Early kicks him in the stomach and sends him crumbling to his knees. EARLY Go ahead Bri, ask me something. (beat) You wanna know how I'm feeling'? Well I'd say I'm feelin' pretty damn good. On all fours, Brian reaches out for the gun, but Early kicks it across the room. EARLY How 'bout you? You feelin' good? Another kick to Brian's chest. The wind rushes out of him. EARLY ...'Cause you sure don't look so good. (beat) Or maybe you're feelin'... powerful. That it, you feeling powerful? Superior? I know I am. Early unloads a ferocious kick to the side of Brian's face! His head snaps back, his handcuffed arms buckle and he falls flat to the ground. EARLY What? Am I angry with my daddy? Now why would I be angry with my daddy... you're the one hit me with the shovel. And you're the one's gonna wish you hadn't. With one last effort, Brian manages to pull himself back up to his knees. He focuses on the gun ahead of him and tries to crawl toward it. But Early's foot shoves Brian. He flips over onto his back, landing in front of the bedroom doorway. Early moves toward him, knife in hand. As Early moves toward Brian, unexpectedly from inside the doorway, the torso of the female child mannequin whips past. Her hardened molten face slams into Early's bloodied face. Early stumbles backward. Brian crawls for the gun and grabs it. From his knees he turns, steadies the weapon, takes a quick breath... and fires. Hitting Early square in the chest! Early falls to the ground on his back. Brian lifts himself to his feet. He sees that Carrie has dragged the bedframe to the doorway, and in her free hand she holds the child mannequin by the leg. Gun in hand, Brian steps over to Early. Early's body is still. Blood oozes from the hole in his chest. On a silver chain around his neck is the key to Brian and Carrie's handcuffs. Brian reaches down and grabs the keys... when suddenly Early's arm springs up from his side. His hand grabs Brian's shirt collar. Brian is startled by the move, then realizes that Early's hold is weak. His fingers tremble. Finally his arm drops back down to his side. EARLY Hey Bri... I think I need a doctor. What d'ya say? The two men stare at one another for a moment... then Brian, with one hand still on the handcuff keys, shoves the .45 automatic firmly under Early's chin. CLOSE ON BRIAN BRIAN ...Sorry 'bout this Early. o.s. BANG!! rings out as... CLOSE UP on the chain and keys snapping free from Early's neck. CLOSE UP on Brian's handcuffs hitting the dusty wooden floor. CLOSE UP on Carrie's handcuff swinging empty against the rusty bedpost. TRANSITION TO: A montage of the photographs taken throughout the journey. Last image: A book "On The Road To Madness" By Brian Kessler. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Kate & Leopold.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Kate & Leopold.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9ee1aea69d5d5df4f5b0b1097cc452ded1bd637c --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Kate & Leopold.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + "KATE AND LEOPOLD" Screenplay by James Mangold and Steven Rogers Based on a story by Steven Rogers FADE IN: INT. VICTORIAN ESTATE - 1895 - DAY CLOSE UP: Ornate antique GRANDFATHER CLOCK strikes 2:15. The credits begin to roll. Calligraphy place cards are painstakingly hand-written in preparation for a formal reception. Servants meticulously clean an elaborate crystal chandelier. Hands rapidly shine silver cutlery. Fresh flowers arranged in several enormous vases. INT. KITCHEN - DAY Kitchen clock strikes 2:15. Poultry plucked. Feathers everywhere. Steaming copper pots boiling over. Platters prepared with decorative garnish. Extravagant tiered cake is lavishly iced. A glob of frosting enters a pair of puckered lips. The perpetrator, a fey, pompous, HEAD VALET, seriously considers the texture and flavor of the icing, then gives the PASTRY CHEF a withering, sour look. The valet, oblivious to the chef's fury, gathers a prepared silver breakfast tray and checks his pocket watch. 2:15. INT. BEDROOM - DAY Antique bedside table clock -- just past 2:15. The valet throws open velvet drapes, sunlight FLOODS the room revealing a figure sleeping soundly in a massive oak framed bed. The valet puts down the tray, pulls back the quilt. The dozing figure gives the valet a deliberate, angry KICK. Flinching infinitesimally, the valet crosses to the closet, selects three suits and holds them up for inspection. From beneath the puffiest of pillows, AN EYE reluctantly opens. A weary arm points decisively to the riding outfit. EXT. ESTATE - DAY The riding outfit is adorned by LEOPOLD, Duke of Albany, a dashing, virile man in his 30's. GALLOPING with great abandon, he expertly leads his horse up hills and over hedges. He sends gardeners shaping the grounds fleeing from his path. In the background, lanterns are being strung throughout the estate. Rugs are beaten out of open windows. INT. HALLWAY - EVENING Large hallway clock -- 6:15. A pair of boots track a freshly scrubbed floor as Leopold heads carelessly up the stairway. Three steps behind, the valet snaps his fingers signaling the staff to clean up the mess. SERIES OF CLOSE UPS Gaudily framed portraits of somber relations. A bird sits listless in a gilded cage. Hot water is poured into a bath. Carriages begin to arrive. Orchestra leader signals the musicians to play. Guests fill the ballroom in formal attire. INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT Leopold stares haughtily into a full length mirror. He wears only dotted linen drawers and a black silk top hat of the period. He flexes slightly. The valet hastily fastens a corset around his mid-section from behind. Leopold eyes his reflection seductively. He becomes bored. He turns to his right. The valet spoons sorbet from a silver saucer into his mouth. He turns back to the mirror to watch himself eat. The valet pats his mouth dry. He affects a pampered STRUT, crossing the room as the valet sprays a mixture of perfume and powder into the air. Leopold thrusts out his arms walking through the mist, turns and saunters back to his favorite place, in front of the mirror. Finally, as if weighing a great decision, Leopold hands his hat to his valet and nods firmly into the mirror. CLOSE UP Fine linen undervest slides over his head. Black twilled worsted trousers pulled up to his waist. The buttoning of his hard, white, roll collar. A cream suede glove stitched in black slides over his hand. A perfect tight bow tie is tied around his neck. An elegant black tuxedo jacket with silk facings and tails to the knees is fitted to his torso. His hair is sleeked with oil and centrally parted. His eyebrows are brushed with a tiny silver comb. His cheeks are pinched. A red silk handkerchief is placed in the bosom of his lapel. Leopold stares into the mirror. The effect is DAZZLING. He raises one eyebrow. Then, in a voice you could pour over a waffle: LEOPOLD You dance like a herd of cattle, Miss Fairchild. You are a rare woman who lights up the room... simply by leaving it. He bows. As he rises, the reflection of Leopold's UNCLE OTTO, a pampered, effectual man in his 60's, appears behind Leopold in the looking glass. UNCLE OTTO Tell me Leopold, do you plan to join us downstairs after completing this one-sided flash of wit? LEOPOLD I despise affairs of this sort, Uncle Otto. No one really listens to anyone else. If you attempt it, you will see why. UNCLE OTTO You judge everything too severely. I wonder what would happen if you were to cast that critical eye inward? LEOPOLD You do not wonder at all. You merely ask in order to state your own opinion. UNCLE OTTO We are all concerned about you. LEOPOLD Ahh, here it comes. UNCLE OTTO Your life does not seem to have any direction. At the age of 25 a man is too young to do anything well. At 35 he is too old. Now is your time to take action. Tell me, what is it you want to DO with your life? LEOPOLD (wearily) I do not know. UNCLE OTTO (just as weary) Your ignorance cramps my conversation. (he slaps Leopold's face twice rather quickly) Wake up! This is your one and only life. Every man has the chance to make a difference. DO something! Leopold, stung, takes a moment to compose himself. LEOPOLD I am most grateful for your surveillance and for your sympathy. I assure you there is no need for concern. I am as effectual and attentive... as my position allows. UNCLE OTTO Life is not position, Leopold. It is action. (he straightens Leopold's tie) I will see you downstairs promptly. In the appropriate frame of mind. He leaves. Leopold stares into the mirror, snaps his fingers. The valet hands him a glass and pours a small shot of brandy. Leopold shoots him a look. The valet fills the glass higher. Leopold drains the glass and heads to the doorway. He hesitates, taking a deep breath and a long pause. Finally... THE VALET (grandly) Go spread joy. Without looking back, Leopold leaves the room. INT. BALLROOM - NIGHT Music fills the air as the creme de la creme of Victorian society gather inside. Leopold holds a prearranged dance card. He looks at the names and finds his first partner is MISS TREE. Leopold looks upward helplessly at an unrelenting God. INT. BALLROOM DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT A profoundly self-conscious Leopold dances energetically into frame with MISS TREE, an ancient, elfin, yet amazingly SPRY woman who gapes up at him searchingly, unblinking. Leopold opens his mouth to speak, can think of nothing suitable to say, and clamps his mouth shut. They dance out of frame. INT. BALLROOM DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Leopold dances into frame with CLARA, a BEAUTIFUL girl of 19. He glances at her and smiles. She titters, turning away shyly. They whirl around the dance floor. His smile grows into a broad grin. Caught up in the excitement, Clara beams up at him... happily revealing a mouth full of missing, inky teeth. Leopold, face frozen in a formal smile, dances on. INT. BALLROOM DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT Leopold lumbers into frame with MISS FAIRCHILD, a woman of immense girth. With great dignity and extreme difficulty he maneuvers her around the floor, looking everywhere except her enormous bosom. LEOPOLD You dance like an angel, Miss Fairchild. You light up the room. I thank you. Miss Fairchild curtseys heavily. Leopold glances at his card, sees the name Miss Serena Clacket and shudders. He spots a VERY LOVELY WOMAN hidden amongst the guests. She scribbles in a small note pad, occasionally glancing around. Hiding his dance card, he saunters over. LEOPOLD Good evening. I do not believe I have had the pleasure. The young woman stares vacantly at Leopold until she realizes he is addressing her. She puts her pad away. CARLSON ...Julia Carlson. Leopold takes her hand and kisses it gently. CARLSON I'm sorry. Will you excuse me? LEOPOLD (slightly tipsy) You are not from the area, are you? CARLSON (smiles and shakes her head "No") Are you? LEOPOLD This is my estate. CARLSON Really? (looking around the room) Well it's not home but it's much... Leopold regards her curiously. The orchestra starts up. There is a hubbub amongst the guests. LEOPOLD Shocking! The TA-RA-RA-BOOM-DE-AY. CARLSON The? Oh, that's from Paris, isn't it? LEOPOLD It is a scandal nonetheless. Leopold spots Uncle Otto observing him from across the room. LEOPOLD Miss Carlson, do me the honor? CARLSON I'm afraid I'm not much of a dancer. LEOPOLD (smiling seductively) Truly I would be in your debt. Any admonition would be erased simply by presenting a partner as lovely as yourself. CARLSON No, no. Really, I... Leopold stiffly holds out his arm. A beat. Carlson, stuck, takes it WITH HESITATION and is escorted to the dance floor. They dance. ALL but Leopold and Carlson gaily sing "TA-RA-RA- BOOM-DE-AY." Leopold, flushed, looks quite smitten. Carlson, shy at first, eventually smiles brightly. LEOPOLD I suppose we really ought to sing along. CARLSON (embarrassed) Oh, golly. They half sing, half speak the TA-RA-RA-BOOM-DE-AY, their emphasis on "BOOM." Laughing giddily, their dancing becomes freer, picking up speed. The room SPINS. Finally: CARLSON (breathless) Thank you for the dance. It was lovely. I hope it wasn't too awful for you. LEOPOLD Not at all. It was most enlightening. There is a slight pause. The Grandfather CLOCK strikes midnight. CARLSON I really must be going. LEOPOLD I won't hear of it. CARLSON (moving away from him) No, I'm quite late as it is. LEOPOLD I shall see you to the door... CARLSON (stopping him resolutely) You're very sweet. I had a wonderful time. (she watches him, memorizing his face. Then firmly) Goodbye. Leopold takes a glass of champagne from a passing waiter. He watches Carlson pass through the crowd and out the courtyard door. He surveys the room. After a moment he follows her. EXT. GARDEN - NIGHT Leopold makes his way through the manicured garden in the dark. He hears an EERIE METALLIC SOUND. He slows down, brushes back the thicket. The silhouette of a woman is revealed. She is once again writing in her notebook. LEOPOLD Miss Carlson? Carlson spins around quickly, panicked. Leopold STOPS. Partially hidden in the brush, a sleek, oddly shaped, MECHANICAL device. It's door open, lit from within, casting a weird glow. LEOPOLD Good God... CARLSON What are you...? You frightened me. Leopold moves toward the contraption and is about to touch it... LEOPOLD What sort of mechanism is this? Carlson shakes her head, unsure of how to proceed. LEOPOLD Answer me! CARLSON It's perfectly all right. It's... Leopold carefully examines the apparatus, stepping inside. Carlson FREEZES. CARLSON (carefully, deliberately) Listen to me. Please. Move very slowly. Step out of the machine. Step out and I'll explain whatever you want to know. LEOPOLD What is this? Who are you? His hand comes to rest on a glowing red lever. CARLSON Oh, God. She YANKS on his arm. Instinctively he pulls away, accidentally thrusting the lever into action. Carlson falls from the machine. CARLSON (suddenly frantic) Get out of there! Get out now! The machine LIGHTS UP. LEOPOLD Miss Carlson... I... CARLSON No!!! The compartment door snaps shut. CARLSON Shit!! There is a BRIGHT WHITE FLASH. Blackness fills the screen. CUT TO: INT. N.Y.C. LABORATORY - 1995 DAY The compartment door slides OPEN revealing DR. KAU, 30's, an Asian doctor with a THICK BROOKLYN ACCENT. Her face full of enthusiasm drops as she sees the unconscious Leopold. DR. KAU Shit!! She turns to her co-workers, warning them. DR. KAU Shit!! She looks back at Leopold. DR. KAU Shit!! Her co-workers, DR. PLODDER, austere, authoritative, DR. DRAKE, muddled and timid, peer inside the compartment door. DR. DRAKE Good God! DR. PLODDER Everybody stay calm... Lock the front door. Dr. Drake and Kau make a move to inspect an unconscious Leopold. DR. PLODDER No, no, no. You mustn't touch him. The consequences could be catastrophic. DR. KAU He could be hurt, or even dead. DR. PLODDER ...All right. Touch him. They approach Leopold. Dr. Kau finds Carlson's note pad on the ground next to Leopold. She reads the last entry. DR. KAU ...But I'm stuck and it's only a dance and he IS the seventh Duke of Albany... They all look at one another, then back at Leopold. DR. DRAKE Carlson...! DR. PLODDER (racing from the room) Give me a minute... DR. KAU Shit! INT. LAB - KATE'S OFFICE - DAY KATHERINE COLES, a radiant workaholic, types frenetically into the computer while talking on the phone, trying hard not to sound upset. KATE Who's upset? People fall in love, they have to climb back out. (she laughs but she is not smiling) So, what? We'll just be friends now, Right? She stops typing and listens for a while. She runs her hand through her hair. KATE I see. Well I appreciate your honesty. (using her middle finger she pushes up her glasses) No. I'll just think of this as surviving another dating accident. Take care or good luck or whatever I'm supposed to... The line goes dead. KATE ...say... Goodbye. Dr. Plodder bursts in. Kate sees his distress and instantly becomes very centered. DR. PLODDER She's back. KATE (rising) That's impossible! She wasn't supposed to return until... DR. PLODDER Kate. It's Carlson. Something went wrong. He hands her Carlson's note pad. Slowly, she sits down. KATE ...The 7th Duke... INT. LAB - DAY KATE (all business, reading from a printout) ...of Albany. He was the... IS the son of Emery and Eliza. He was of no actual importance until he vanished at the turn of the century without a trace. It was a sensation. In the 30's they even made a movie about him. "The Tenuous Duke" with Ronald Coleman. DR. DRAKE (absently) I love Ronald Coleman. KATE Despite much speculation and a nation wide investigation, a body was never found. He was never heard from again. DR. KAU Until now. There is a stunned silence. They stare at Leopold in awe. DR. DRAKE We've altered the course of history. DR. KAU We never should have started this... KATE Calm down. DR. PLODDER What are we going to do? We can't keep him here. Imagine if anyone found out! KATE Think. Just, think. Rationally. Now, no one would believe such a stupid mistake could be made because no one would believe any of this is possible. So. We fix this. We keep this to ourselves and we fix it. Fast. They all nod in agreement. KATE Dr. Kau, research all our data. 1st priority: Locate Carlson. Drake, determine the reciprocal correlation's connected to the 19th century. Work 24 hours a day if necessary. In the meantime... one of us will have to take charge of him. She forces back panic. Only the tremor in her voice gives her away. KATE This is a major scientific opportunity. It doesn't get any better than this. Imagine. Researching the behavior, the physical and emotional characteristics of a century ago! Utilizing technology available to us today... He's a gold mine! DR. PLODDER He's a man, Kate. Not a guinea pig. KATE And while he's here, he's ours. Any volunteers? No one moves. DR. DRAKE We'll draw names. Whoever is is picked will be responsible. Agreed? They nod reluctantly. Drake writes out names and throws them in a cup. The silence becomes deafening. Finally: DR. KAU I'll do it. All the scientists face her. DR. PLODDER You'll look after him? DR. KAU No, I meant I'll pick the name. She reaches in. They wait with mounting suspense. Finally SHE TURNS TO KATE. The scientists follow her gaze. A beat. KATE Fine. Leopold stirs. He blinks at the group. LEOPOLD Where...? What has happened?! The doctors, caught off guard, SMILE BENIGNLY. They surround Leopold as a group, not knowing where to begin. Finally: KATE Your Grace... Um... Hello... Weee aaare a smaaall part of a laaarge research team. A project funded by the government of the United States. LEOPOLD (regarding their appearance with distaste) Oh. Americans. I see... KATE Yes, um... For the past six and a half years we've been conducting scientific experiments on density and flexibility in the dimensions of time and space. DR. DRAKE Yes, uh... Quite by accident we came upon a formula utilizing Tachyons... particles traveling faster than the speed of light, which allowed us to... fold time so to speak. DR. PLODDER Yes. Bend it between the cracks of the dimensions. DR. KAU Yes. They all laugh nervously. Leopold does not. DR. DRAKE Now, while that wasn't the original purpose of our experiment, we opted to pursue it, well, privately, on our own. DR. KAU Borrowing funds already provided. KATE We journeyed to your time because it was the quickest path to follow. We debated long and hard whether we should use this knowledge at all. Believe me, it was never our intent to disturb the past... DR. DRAKE Merely to discover if the expedition were possible. As your presence here confirms... we are very disturbed. Leopold nods at them as if they are insane. DR. PLODDER The problem facing us is not only HOW to get you back, but WHEN, you see? KATE We certainly don't want to miscalculate. Send you to a different era entirely. Leopold starts to speak. DR. PLODDER Rest assured, no harm will come to you. You'll be well looked after by Dr. Coles. LEOPOLD Dr. Coles...? I do not follow. What do you mean, get me back home?... Where am I? Awkward pause. Leopold looks carefully around the room for the first time: modern mechanical equipment, data shifting and changing, giant cooling devices, bright neon lighting. The doctors are silent. LEOPOLD Answer me!... (slowly) Would you have me believe... I am being detained, at present in the HEREAFTER?... The time to come? DR. PLODDER (carefully) It is the year nineteen hundred and ninety-five. LEOPOLD ...19...? Leopold leaps up. The doctors follow him around the room. LEOPOLD You're insane! All of you! This is impossible! DR. PLODDER Leopold, calm down! LEOPOLD A voyage through time! What do you take me for? Did you bring me here by force? DR. DRAKE We're scientist, not seditionists. LEOPOLD (truly panicked) Let me out of here! I won't stand for this another moment! He's out the door. INT. UNDERGROUND HALLWAY - DAY Leopold moves quickly, fearfully through the darkly lit hallway, the doctors close behind. KATE Leopold, wait! DR. KAU You don't know what you're doing. DR. PLODDER Just listen to what we have to say! It is too late. Leopold throws open the door and runs upstairs. EXT. STREET - DAY Blinding sunlight. Skyscrapers. Automobiles. Traffic lights. Road construction. Modern day pedestrians. Helicopters. Car alarms. Leopold stands frozen, overwhelmed, taking it all in. LEOPOLD 19...? The doctors reach him. He collapses to the ground. CUT TO: INT. CAR - DAY Kate and Dr. Kau talk quietly. Leopold, tightly holding onto his seat and the back door, gazes out the window in utter disbelief. KATE Squab. DR. KAU Squab? KATE I remember reading they ate a lot of squab. DR. KAU Squab... Do you have a squab? KATE (quietly. On the verge of panic) I don't know! DR. KAU Pull yourself together! (turning to Leopold) Are you all right back there? Leopold, trembling, gapes at the sights, every day sounds, magnified. Perspiration runs down the side of his face. Kate watches him in her rear view mirror. KATE You're going to be fine you know. There's nothing to worry about. I have everything under control. Dr. Kau stares at Kate in concerned silence. KATE (quietly to Dr. Kau) We'll never get away with this. INT. BEDROOM - THE NEXT MORNING Leopold awakens alone in his room. He sits up with a jolt. His stomach sinks as he realizes THIS IS NO DREAM. He slowly rises to his full stature, moving to the window he looks out on the modern day city, shaking his head in awe. He makes his way to the bedroom door and tentatively touches the knob. There is a KNOCK on the door. Leopold JUMPS back and runs to the bed: The picture of dignity. KATE How are you feeling? (no response) I thought you might like some tea. LEOPOLD I insist on being returned home immediately. KATE I understand. We're doing our best. LEOPOLD I wish to speak with your employer, Dr. Coles. KATE You're speaking to him. LEOPOLD You are not suggesting that you are Dr. Coles? She smiles. LEOPOLD Miss... uh? KATE Dr. Coles. If you like, you could call me Miss Dr. Coles or if that's too much, how about just plain Kate? LEOPOLD (coldly) A WOMAN of science? KATE Hard to believe? LEOPOLD But a woman's brain cannot obtain enough knowledge to posses a truly scientific mind. KATE (jotting this down) Interesting. Nevertheless, we've come a long way baby. LEOPOLD (confused) Are you attempting to be humorous? KATE I'm attempting to be informative it's just coming out humorous. Leopold regards her dubiously. KATE (clinically) Look, modern social science clearly states that a woman's place in society marks the level of that civilization. A science career for a woman is now almost as acceptable as being a... a... waitress. Cream and sugar? LEOPOLD Young lady, I... Surely it is not expected that I remain here with you indefinitely... Unchaperoned? KATE (pen poised) Does that make you nervous? LEOPOLD Certainly not! KATE (writing) Then what are you getting so red about? It's a very large apartment... with locks on all the doors. LEOPOLD The idea! My dear Miss Coles... KATE Dr. Coles. LEOPOLD Honey... KATE (she puts the pad down) Let's get one thing straight right now. My name is Kate or Katherine or if you insist Dr. Coles. (she rises) Take a good long look, Leopold. I am a 20th century American woman with a Doctorate and a commission and independence. I am not your "young lady" or your "pretty Miss" or your "honey." Is that clear? Leopold watches her with great interest. Finally: LEOPOLD Honey... For the tea. KATE ...I'll get it for you. Kate grabs the teacup grandly and leaves the room. INT. KITCHEN - MORNING Kate rummages through every drawer, shelf and cupboard searching for the honey. Finally, she spots the honeybear and squeezes honey A TAD TO VIOLENTLY into the tea. She tries posing "confidently" then checks her reflection in the toaster. INT. BEDROOM - MORNING Kate returns "confidently" with the tea and a plastic smile. LEOPOLD Thank you... Has it been decided what it is I am to do while I am being held here? KATE Oh, just some laundry, the cooking, a little light housework... Leopold doesn't react. KATE (clearing her throat) I took the liberty of preparing a simple schedule to efficiently utilize your time while incorporating you into my routine. (she hands him a schedule) As you can see, my day begins with meditation and yoga from 6:30 to 7:00. She moves in close to him, making Leopold uncomfortable. KATE YOU will arise at 6:45, shower and change and at 7:15, we breakfast together. 7:45 we begin the days work. At 10:45 Dr. Kau arrives to observe you in your natural routine as I research the data that will enable you to return home. At 1:15 we lunch together. 2:15 you answer a daily questionnaire, I type up my notes. At precisely 6:15 you will enjoy 15 minutes of FREE TIME, then, at 6:30, I listen to Tom Brokaw while making dinner as YOU write down any questions that come up during your day. At 7:00, we dine together. If you need me at any time you may ring this bell. She rings a tiny dinner bell. He is about to speak. KATE Now, Mondays and Wednesdays I have computer science class, Tuesdays I have therapy. IF I have a date, I'm usually home by 9:15. During these periods you may read any of the books I've picked out for you in your room. I organize my next days work at 10:30, 11:35, David Letterman, 12:40 I'm in bed. (she takes a breath, smiles at him) Next day we begin again. Simple? LEOPOLD (after a beat, with great dignity) ...At what time shall I WEE and POOH? Kate is forced into a stunned silence. CHARLIE'S VOICE Kate? I'm home. KATE Oh. Yes. Our chaperone is here. LEOPOLD Your father? KATE Sort of. My brother. LEOPOLD Visiting? KATE For the past two years. Charlie can never know about this project. We'll tell him you are a... overly distinguished colleague staying here as our guest. From Canada. Which would explain your lack of familiarity with our customs and so forth LEOPOLD (aghast) A CANADIAN? KATE Make yourself comfortable. I'll check in on you later. I think this is going very well, don't you? Leopold looks at her blankly. KATE Okay. If you need anything, just ring. Kate tinkles the bell, fumbles for the knob and heads out. P.O.V. still on Leopold. KATE (V.O.) (shouting) Charlie! Leopold reacts. CHARLIE (V.O.) (screaming just as loud) What? KATE (still shouting) Come here I wanna talk to you. Leopold listens at the door. He slowly opens it, takes two steps out, peers around the corner, then quickly steps back in. He takes a DEEP FRIGHTENED BREATH and slowly deflates. INT. CHARLIE'S STUDIO - MORNING Charlie sits on the couch smoking a cigarette surrounded by his paintings. He is a likable twentysomething with a big mouth. CHARLIE What did I do? KATE (removing his coffee from the table, setting it on a coaster) RINGS! And what did I say about you smoking in the house? CHARLIE You were against it. KATE Correct. You're back early. (She takes away his cigarette) CHARLIE Hey!... Are you all right? You look funny. KATE Funny ha ha or funny odd? CHARLIE Both. KATE That all depends. How was your trip? CHARLIE Why? KATE If it was good I'll tell you the truth. If it was rotten I'll have to butter you up first. CHARLIE Butter me up. KATE Have you been working out? No, I'm really starting to see results. Are you comfortable there on the couch? CHARLIE Very. KATE Good. Cause you'll be sleeping there the next few nights. CHARLIE Kate! KATE You have to be out of here by 8 and you can't be back before 6. We have an important man working with us with very unusual needs. The company is insisting he stay here. CHARLIE What about a hotel? KATE This man requires around the clock attention. CHARLIE I meant for me. KATE Thank you, Charlie. (she kisses his forehead) I owe you one. CHARLIE You owe me nine. What am I supposed to do all day? KATE (as if having an epiphany) You could get a job! CHARLIE Kate, the entire point of being an artist is that I don't have to work. Who is this guy? KATE Well, I can't tell you much because... KATE AND CHARLIE I'm not allowed to discuss what goes on at the office. KATE Well I'm not. Anyway, it might be interesting to have someone else to talk to. It gets so quiet around here sometimes I feel like I've gone deaf. CHARLIE Does he have a label? KATE Leopold. CHARLIE LEOPOLD? Is he anything like his name? KATE He's exactly like his name. CHARLIE Then you owe me ten. INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY Leopold PEEKS around the entrance to the living room. Confident it's unoccupied, he majestically walks inside: Up to date gadgetry, Charlie's modern art work, bright fashionable furniture. Leopold recoils. His eyes come to rest on the television set. The ON OFF buttons loom large. He looks around the room then brazenly presses the button ON. Instantly, REGIS and KATHY LEE loudly berate each other before an excited crowd. Leopold jumps back several feet, hands flailing in front of him as if shooing away a bee. He quickly, yet cautiously, slams the power OFF. LEOPOLD Horrible! He quickly scurries out the hallway. He stops abruptly. He remains very still. Composing himself, he turns and deliberately faces the room. After a moment, he purposefully steps back inside. He makes a large ARC around the television set, is confronted by one of Charlie's sculptures and makes an ARC around that. He finds himself in front of a light switch and gingerly examines it. As he does, track lighting ILLUMINATES the room. He looks at the lights then back at the switch. He flicks the lights ON and OFF, trying to figure out the precise moment in the transfer of power, laughing in spite of himself. Kate and Charlie enter. They watch Leopold flicking the lights, laughing like a madman. Charlie gives Kate a look. KATE (explaining) He's from Canada... INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT Leopold sits at the head of the table, Kate and Charlie banished to either side. Leopold chews his dinner incessantly. LEOPOLD (finally) What is this? KATE It's called Hamburger Helper. LEOPOLD It is beyond help. Please serve the next course. He pushes his plate away. KATE I'm afraid there is no next course. If you make a list of the foods you like, I'll pick them up at the store for you. LEOPOLD Is all food here this... textured? CHARLIE Mine's good. LEOPOLD Please understand, I am used to a different sort of preparation. Where I come from a proper meal is the result of reflection and study. A recipe is merely a theme which an intelligent cook can plan each time with variation. Charlie gives Kate a look. LEOPOLD Several courses are served. Menus are often prepared days in advance, timed to perfection. It is said, without the culinary art, the crudeness of reality would make life unbearable. CHARLIE In Canada? LEOPOLD (after a beat. Firmly) In Canada. CHARLIE We have a saying here. "Shake and shake the catsup bottle, none will come and then a lot'll." He pours catsup on his dinner. LEOPOLD How interesting. CHARLIE Since you're such an expert on fine cuisine, why don't you make dinner tomorrow night? LEOPOLD It should be obvious to you that I am NOT a domestic. You may take my plate. CHARLIE I have my own, thank you. KATE Charlie... CHARLIE Who died and made me Cinderella? LEOPOLD Young man, there is a distinct impertinence to your voice. CHARLIE It's part of my charm. LEOPOLD Suppress it. KATE (changing the subject) Leopold... Since you're our guest here, there are several cultural events you might enjoy seeing. Charlie has season tickets to the ball game. Perhaps you'd like to take that in? LEOPOLD What is it? CHARLIE What is it?? KATE Or the Opera or the Ballet? CHARLIE What is it?? KATE Charlie, there's no rule that says everyone has to be interested in baseball. CHARLIE No, but I believe there is a rule that says everyone has to have HEARD of it. LEOPOLD Dr. Coles, your brother Charles attitude and demeanor are unacceptable. If I am to stay on here you must have a serious talk with him regarding respect and civility. KATE CHARLES, could you help me with the dessert in the kitchen? CHARLIE In the kitchen? KATE IN the kitchen. Excuse us. Kate and Charlie leave. The camera remains on Leopold, sitting alone, calmly sipping his wine. VOICE OVER FROM THE KITCHEN: CHARLIE I don't believe this guy! KATE Try to be nice to him. CHARLIE I'm always NICE! KATE Please Charlie, as a favor to me. CHARLIE He gives me the creeps. Leopold reacts. He listens self-consciously. KATE He's different that's all. CHARLIE What was that crack about domestics? KATE Charlie, this is important to me. CHARLIE You're not going out with him, are you? KATE Eeuuu! I may be desperate but I'm not a lost cause. CHARLIE Kate, this is me. I've seen the guys you bring home. KATE I've done countless favors for you! Now I'm asking for just one little thing... CHARLIE (overlapping) Oh, all right! All right! All right! They emerge from the kitchen, beaming. KATE (after a beat) We forgot the dessert. CHARLIE You know,... I don't know if I mentioned it... but that is one fine looking suit. INT. KATE'S BEDROOM - 6:30 A. M. Radio alarm clock -- 7:45 a.m. Louis Armstrong begins to sing, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off." Dressed in yoga clothes Kate sits on her bed in the lotus position. She bangs the gong and closes her eyes. A bell rings. Kate flinches but does not open her eyes. KATE (too sweetly) What is it, Leopold? The bell rings louder, interrupting Kate's routine. KATE (eyes closed, screaming like a fishwife) WHAT IS IT, LEOPOLD?! Leopold's bell rings with determination. Kate is off the bed and out of the room. INT. KITCHEN - MORNING Kate enters and stops short. Leopold sits at the table ringing a BELL. The dishwasher is open and SPRAYING WILDLY, the blender has spread breakfast shake EVERYWHERE, water is BOILING OVER on the stove, refrigerator, freezer, and every cupboard door is OPEN. Garbage disposal runs FULL BLAST. LEOPOLD (calmly amidst the chaos) I cannot seem to find the tea... CLOSE UP: Leopold's hand rings a bell with irritation. INT. CHARLIE'S BEDROOM - EVENING Leopold, Kate, and Charlie stand in front of Charlie's open closet. Leopold selects clothes from Charlie's wardrobe. LEOPOLD No... No... No. Good God, no!... Perhaps... He tosses them aside carelessly as Charlie seethes. CLOSE UP: Leopold rings his bell. INT. HALLWAY - EARLY MORNING Kate and Charlie form a line to the bathroom. Kate checks her schedule and bangs on the door. KATE Leopold, your time is up! What's he got, a girl in there? INT. BATHROOM - EARLY MORNING Leopold Luxuriates in the bathtub wearing a "Whitecap" marveling at the whirlpool and the instant hot water. He picks up a can of shaving cream and inspects it in wonder. It SPRAYS. CLOSE UP: Leopold rings his bell. Nothing happens. He discovers the clapper has been stolen. INT. KATE'S STUDY - AFTERNOON Kate types, talks and researches simultaneously. She looks up and stops suddenly. Leopold appears wearing MANY oddly assorted layers of Charlie's clothes, a bandanna bow tie, Irish woolen cap, bicycle gloves, aluminum baseball bat walking stick. He poses foppishly. LEOPOLD I should like to read about modern currency during my bath tonight. See that the tub and basin are scrubbed up. Remnants remain of this afternoons shave. Kate nods at him stupefied. Due to the many layers of clothing, he imperiously leaves the room walking as if wearing skis. INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT Leopold rings a BIG NEW COWBELL. No one responds. INT. CHARLIE'S WORKROOM - NIGHT (CONTINUOUS) He discovers Kate at her computer, Charlie reading a book. Each are wearing a walkman. He stands in front of them and rings his cowbell furiously until they look up. INT. STUDY - DAY Leopold studies his questionnaire, Kate researches Victorian customs. They simultaneously look up and gaze at the other. A beat. Embarrassed, Kate dons her glasses and Leopold shuffles papers. They look up again. Then down. Then get back to work. INT. KATE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Kate sits on her bed with her laptop watching David Letterman. She glances up, laughs out loud. She looks at the dark empty room. No one is there to share it with. Closing her computer, she holds her pillow close to her. She slowly moves to the window and looks out. INT. LEOPOLD'S BEDROOM - NIGHT A text book with Leopold's picture inside. Leopold reads the brief summary of his life with heartbreaking astonishment. He moves to the window and looks out. EXT. N.Y.C. APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Kate and Leopold gaze out of their windows. The camera slowly pulls back until they are swallowed up by the city. INT. KATE'S STUDY - AFTERNOON Kate scans her notes as Leopold paces dully about the room. KATE In our last session you intimated there was a symmetrical system regulating the social order of conformity spanning your era. I found this particularly intriguing If I can just find it in my notes... A fire engine races by. Leopold dashes to the window then turns back, excited. LEOPOLD The fire brigade! Kate stares at him blankly. She munches RICE CAKES and drinks water FROM THE BOTTLE. A beat. She returns to her notes. LEOPOLD This is insufferable! I refuse to be spied upon, skipped over, or shuffled about any longer. I have yet to venture outside this cell. Before I go mad a more suitable arrangement must be found. KATE Found it. LEOPOLD (startled) A resolution? KATE No I meant I found my notes. LEOPOLD Dr. Coles! Changes are in order. KATE I can hear you. LEOPOLD (under control now) Miss Coles, as we are to remain here together, there are certain conditions I insist are met and maintained. I no longer wish to be peeped at, mocked... KATE I never... LEOPOLD (calmly) Or interrupted. Jot this down. Breakfast at 12. Luncheon at 4. Diner at 8. A horse should be made available from 1 to 3. KATE A horse? In New York City? LEOPOLD Yes. Also, I feel very strongly about your style of dress. I do not care for it. (Kate looks up) I cannot believe it is the prevailing taste for women to appear masculine and unkempt. If this is the fashion, have it altered. Kate rises. LEOPOLD That is all for the present. He grandly hands her a napkin. LEOPOLD CRUMBS, my dear! KATE (infuriated) Thank you! Brushing herself off, she heads to the door. LEOPOLD Dr. Coles. I have been acquainted with many women in my time, yet I am compelled to say that the modern woman is by far the least attractive I have ever encountered. KATE (rising to the occasion) And I have a news flash of my own. Leopold waits. KATE You sir, are no Ronald Coleman! She storms out. INT. LAB - EARLY MORNING Dr. Drake enters Dr. Kau's office with two pints of Haagen Dazs. DR. DRAKE Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Swirl or Peach? DR. KAU Peach. They dig in. DR. DRAKE Any luck? DR. KAU Yea. Lots of luck. All bad. No information exists detailing what happened to Carlson. I've been working for weeks and I'm not any closer than when I began... How are you doing? DR. DRAKE My cholesterol level is up 70 points. Kate enters, exhausted, deposits an armful of papers on Dr. Drake's desk. Kate has pencils tucked behind her ear, through her hair, and in her mouth. DR. DRAKE Thank you, Kate... How're you managing with Leopold? KATE Fine. Fine... Why? What did you hear? DR. DRAKE Nothing. I was just asking. KATE Oh. Well, it's fine. He's a delight. Everything's under control. DR. KAU Keep up the good work. (after she's gone) She seemed a little scattered. Do you think everything's all right? DR. DRAKE Katherine Coles is the most capable person we have on this project. If anyone can handle the delicacy of this situation, Kate can. DR. KAU So there's nothing to worry about? DR. DRAKE Absolutely not. INT. CHARLIE'S STUDIO - EARLY EVENING KATE GONE? GONE WHERE?! (Charlie shrugs) Charlie we've got to find him! CHARLIE (working on a VERY STERN portrait of Kate at her computer) Are you crazy? This is the first time all week my eyes aren't darting to the top of my sockets every five minutes. KATE When did he leave? CHARLIE I don't know. An hour ago? He said he wanted to take a walk. KATE And you let him?? He's not allowed to go outside! CHARLIE Is he being punished? KATE We've got to find him! You stay here in case he finds his way back. And while you wait you'd better pray he's all right. If anything happens to him, anything at all, EVERYTHING we've worked for will have been destroyed. She heads out the door. Charlie follows. INT. LIVING ROOM - EARLY EVENING CHARLIE Kate, calm down. KATE And YOU'LL be responsible. Understand? (she grabs her coat and purse) CHARLIE What's the big deal? Who is this guy? Kate takes a LONG pause. KATE Leopold... is not really from Canada. EXT. KATE'S APARTMENT BUILDING - LATE AFTERNOON Peaceful. The sun sets. Pigeons rest on window sills. Suddenly: CHARLIE (V.O.) OH MY GOD!!! The pigeons take flight. EXT. CENTRAL PARK - EVENING Leopold leaves Central Park profoundly lost. Looking both ways in the wrong direction, he crosses the street. SCREECHING brakes, HONKING horns, FURIOUS shouts with Leopold, horrified, caught in the middle. He makes it across shaking and dazed. A motorist pulls along side of him. WOMAN MOTORIST You stupid fucking son of a bitch. Next time I'll hit ya. Fucking moron. Leopold GAPES, appalled. A Hansom carriage slowly treads into Central Park. Leopold watches until it disappears. INT. KATE'S GREEN A.M.C. PACER - NIGHT Kate drives slowly, searching for Leopold. Cars honk with mounting anger. CABBY What're ya waiting for lady? An invitation? KATE I'm sorry! I'm sorry! She continues searching, trying hard to remain calm. EXT. TIMES SQUARE - NIGHT Huge buildings. Neon lights flashing. Garbage in bundles. Calvin Klein Ads. In the center of it all, Leopold, jostled BADLY by the crowd, tipping his hat to all the ladies. He enters a deli. INT. DELI - NIGHT Leopold, appalled by the prices searches for money. He has none. LEOPOLD (to the counter man) $7.95 for a sandwich? Is that correct? COUNTER MAN You gotta problem with that? LEOPOLD It seems rather pricey to me. COUNTER MAN So don't buy one. LEOPOLD I shan't. COUNTER MAN So shan't! He moves on. LEOPOLD Yes, I... I would be happy to sample one however I'm afraid I haven't the finance with me just now. If I could establish a credit with you, I will have someone come round with the funds tomorrow. COUNTER MAN You will gladly pay me Tuesday for a hamburger today, is that it? LEOPOLD (a little confused) I believe so. Yes. COUNTER MAN Get the fuck outta here. LEOPOLD I beg your pardon? COUNTER MAN Get out. Fuckin' Wimpys piss me off. LEOPOLD May I remind you, merchant, that I am the customer in this establishment and as such require your attention and the utmost respect. I do not accept this modern convention of desecrating one's patrons with such contemptuous disregard. YUPPIE WOMAN You tell him. LEOPOLD Need I add that without our patronage you would not own that unwashed counter behind which you spew your filthy mouth? COUNTER MAN Where do you get off? You don't even have any money. LEOPOLD Don't be irrelevant... I'm browsing. COUNTER MAN Not in my store you're not. He comes out from behind the counter. He's big. LEOPOLD (very superior) Do you intend to physically escort me out...? EXT. STREET - NIGHT Leopold is thrown out of the store and on to the street. LEOPOLD Did you see what he did? Did you see that? No one responds. Leopold is left sprawled on the street. Thunder is heard. EXT. N.Y.C. - NIGHT Gargoyles at New York City Library, The Dakota, the Bowery, Alphabet City. EXT. CLAIRMOUNT STABLES - 4 A.M. Pouring rain. Leopold stands in front of the stables beaten and drenched. A car drives by, screeches to a stop, and hastily backs up along side Leopold. KATE Leopold! Leopold, get in. Leopold stares at the car. Kate runs out, opens the door and helps him in. She dashes back into the drivers seat. INT. CAR - 4 A.M. KATE (nearly in tears, trying to dry him off) Leopold! Oh, Leopold thank God you're all right. I didn't think I'd ever find you. You had us all so worried. Oh, Leopold! She hits him hard. KATE Don't you ever go out again without my permission, do you hear me? I was frantic. You could have been killed a hundred times over. I never would have known. She rests her head on the steering wheel, exhausted. She pulls herself together and looks at him. KATE Leopold, are you all right? LEOPOLD (looking deep into her eyes for the first time) I wish to go home. KATE Okay. I'll get you home in a jiffy. LEOPOLD (badly shaken) No... I wish to go home. Kate gently observes Leopold who stares rigidly straight ahead. INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT CHARLIE (on the phone) I don't know. It's just Leopold. Like Cher. Or Goofy. Kate and Leopold walk in wet and exhausted. CHARLIE Never mind they just walked in. Jesus. You look horrible. KATE Charlie, don't start. I haven't been this angry at you since you got me into that pyramid thing last year. If you make a wisecrack I'm going to burst into flame. CHARLIE It wasn't a wisecrack. You do look horrible. KATE I'm too tired for this now. I'll just save it up and kill you tomorrow. Help Leopold out of his things and lets get him to bed. LEOPOLD I've something to say. To the both of you. I... Nothing is what it seems. After witnessing mere weeks of this age it is painfully apparent I am outside of my acquaintance... I don't know how to proceed. I frankly... am in need of assistance. I'm sorry. I'm not very good at this. In the event you have missed it, I am apologizing. There is a long pause. CHARLIE About time. (he shakes Leopold's hand reluctantly) Welcome back. (he leaves) KATE Don't mind him. His heart would be in the right place if he had a heart. Surliness runs in my family. LEOPOLD I understand. It practically races through mine. KATE (shocked) Leopold, you made a joke. I mean one that's not at my expense. That's good. They look at each other just a second too long. LEOPOLD We'd better get to bed... That is... KATE Yes... I start work... (she looks at her watch) in three and a half hours. LEOPOLD Oh, dear. They self-consciously head to their respective rooms. KATE It's fine. I'm used to it. LEOPOLD You mustn't get too used to it. You'll find life passes you by awfully quickly. Kate is struck by his vulnerability for the first time and is moved. She catches herself quickly however. LEOPOLD Thank you for... KATE (waving it away) Oh! They stand at their bedroom doors. LEOPOLD Well, goodnight then. KATE Leopold?... I don't have a clear handle on this. Perhaps I was wrong keeping you confined to the apartment all this time. I don't know when you'll be able return home... Tomorrow I'll start preparing you for the outside world. And... We'll find your way back. I promise. Leopold smiles, still shaken. A beat. They slowly close the doors to their respective rooms. INT. HALLWAY - BRIGHT SUNNY MORNING Leopold, dressed for an outing knocks on Kate's bedroom door. KATE (V.O.) Yes? Leopold enters. Kate stands in a slip calmly looking at Leopold. Leopold immediately turns, facing the door. LEOPOLD Oh! I beg your pardon. I, I, I, was merely... I didn't... KATE Is there something you want, Leopold? LEOPOLD I merely wanted to see... that is, inquire, on your availability, for an outing... My assimilation and so forth. KATE Yes, we have a lot of work ahead of us. I'll be out in a minute. LEOPOLD Yes, of course. Splendid. He reaches around behind his back and fumbles for the knob. He finally finds it and goes out. Kate smiles. CUT TO: EXT. N.Y.C. - DAY the Brooklyn Bridge, the Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center, 5th Avenue. EXT. 5TH AVENUE - DAY Kate and Leopold exit The Gap. Leopold awkwardly wears hip Gap casual clothes, a baseball cap on his head. LEOPOLD Are you certain this is correct? Kate places the cap backwards on his head. She nods approvingly. KATE Certainly I'm certain. Leopold watches himself in store windows. He CAN'T comprehend it. Kate leads him into Barney's. INT. BARNEY'S - DAY Leopold stands before the mirror wearing a classic dark suit. He looks FANTASTIC. A fact that is not lost on Kate. LEOPOLD Now really. Isn't this better? Kate nods back begrudgingly, her breath taken away. EXT. N.Y.C. - DAY Lincoln Center, Columbus Circle, Gristedes. INT. GRISTEDES MARKET - DAY Kate selects a shopping cart, begins to push it. LEOPOLD Allow me. Kate walks ahead. Leopold, maneuvering a cart with a broken wheel, hasn't the knack and bangs into everyone and everything in the aisle. LEOPOLD Sorry. Oops! Careful there. So sorry. CUT TO: CLOSE UPS: Leopold scrutinizing vegetables in cans, cereals for kids, bottled water, instant soup, feminine hygiene supplies. CUT TO: The check out line. As their groceries are being rung up, Leopold spots The Sun, a newspaper with the headline: Woman Sees Satan in her Microwave Oven. Leopold eagerly shows Kate. LEOPOLD Have you seen today's paper? KATE Put it back. LEOPOLD But... KATE Back! Leopold reads the paper totally enthralled. EXT. STREET - DAY Kate and Leopold walk down the street, a bag in each arm. Leopold eyes Kate suspiciously. LEOPOLD Dr. Coles, why is it you are not married? KATE Women are longer defined by the men they're married to, Leopold. I have a career. I haven't found a man who fits in with that yet. LEOPOLD Yet people still marry? KATE (defensively) I've heard of cases. They continue to walk, Leopold noticeably studies Kate. Finally: LEOPOLD I suspect there is something wrong with you. KATE There's nothing wrong with me! LEOPOLD Perhaps it is the way you present yourself. KATE I don't know what you're talking about. LEOPOLD There is some sort of problem when a woman reaches thirty and insists on remaining single. KATE You think I'm THIRTY?! LEOPOLD What? KATE Do I look THIRTY to you? LEOPOLD It was an arbitrary number. KATE You chose it specifically opposed to a lower number. LEOPOLD I didn't mean it. KATE ...Thirty! LEOPOLD I apologize... How old are you? KATE (sharply) I'm thirty! But you're the first person whoever told me I looked it! LEOPOLD I'm sorry. Leopold spots a formal dress in a store window. He takes a good long look at Kate, smiles, then quickly walks inside. Kate continues down the block. KATE And it's not that I insist on remaining single. Believe me. Everyone dreams of finding somebody to share their life with. To give someone all the love they've been hoarding since they were a kid. I'm no different. But one has to be sensible. I have a career and a life that's filled with... She looks around. Leopold is gone. KATE Not again... She starts off down the street, stops, and enters ROBERTA'S, an upscale boutique. INT. ROBERTA'S - DAY Kate races in. Leopold talks with a saleslady. KATE What do I have to do? Put a leash around your neck? LEOPOLD (to the saleslady) She is the woman to whom I was referring. You see the problem? SALESLADY (giving Kate the once over) Yep. KATE (staring down at her clothes then back at the two of them) What?... What? INT. ROBERTA'S - DAY From behind the dressing room door, Kate shouts to the others with irritation. KATE This is ridiculous. I don't have time to... (she shrieks) Do you know what this dress costs? Let's get this over with. I'm coming out. Nobody laugh. Kate leaves the dressing room in a huff COMPLETELY UNAWARE that she is STUNNING. KATE Satisfied? Leopold and the saleslady stare at her with pleasure. KATE ...What? She turns and looks at herself in the mirror. Leopold stands behind her, pulls back her hair, brushes away her bangs. LEOPOLD You have a lovely face. Even Kate cannot deny that she is lovely. She stares at herself for a long while. LEOPOLD (quietly) We'll take the dress. They become aware of their close proximity. They nervously part. INT. LIVING ROOM - LATE AFTERNOON Kate sits Leopold down on the sofa. She turns on the TV and hands him the remote control. LEOPOLD What is this? KATE The drug of the 20th century. She aims the remote at the TV, changing channels. He's spellbound. INT. DINING ROOM - EARLY EVENING Dinner is served. Kate waits patiently for Leopold who sits on the sofa watching the TV. KATE Leopold, your dinner's getting cold. LEOPOLD I'm coming. He does not move a muscle. INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Kate and Leopold sit on the sofa eating their dinner and watching TV. On the screen, a Looney Tune. Leopold enjoys this especially. Kate reaches for the remote but Leopold grabs it territorially, refusing to relinquish it. KATE (making notes) It's a guy thing. INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Leopold asleep on the sofa still clutching the remote control. Kate comes in with a blanket and settles it over Leopold. She glances around the room, then slowly bends down close to capture a better look at his face. After a moment she catches herself, takes herself in hand and sits down at her computer. She opens her notes and types. Her fingers slow down to a crawl and come to a stop. She looks up at Leopold lost in thought. She smiles. Reaching for a soda, she accidentally knocks a picture to the floor. In a SMASHED frame, Kate and CARLSON drunkenly mug for the camera. Kate pales noticeably. She looks from the picture to Leopold. Slowly, she begins pecking away at the keys. She does not look up again. INT. LAB - LATE AFTERNOON Kate gives Leopold a tour of the lab stopping by Dr. Drakes area. Hidden behind chalk boards, calculator paper, and several empty Haagen Dazs containers, Dr. Drake searches for solutions. KATE ...Now within that astronomical structure, Dr. Drake here is searching for a pathway between your time and the present. He'll find it too if his arteries don't harden first. LEOPOLD Astounding. KATE Once that is discovered, the search begins for the exact time and date travel will be possible. They move to Dr. Kau's area. LEOPOLD (to Dr. Kau) How are you proceeding? Dr. Kau merely grunts. Leopold looks at Kate. KATE Don't take it personally. Once Dr. Kau starts working, you just have to wait until her batteries run down. We're all pretty much like that. They head into Kate's office. INT. KATE'S OFFICE - DAY Kate gathers her belongings, Leopold snoops at her notes. LEOPOLD The complexity of this equation is astonishing? Can you really comprehend all that? KATE (simply. Almost apologetically) I'm a genius. LEOPOLD You're quite exceptional Dr. Coles. (a beat) That is to say, you all are. KATE Thank you. And may I say that sometimes, in DIM light, you're not so bad yourself. They stand together, Leopold grinning sheepishly. KATE Oh my God! Is that the time? I'm late. Therapy. Every Tuesday night. LEOPOLD May I accompany you? KATE You mayn't. LEOPOLD I am not certain I understand therapy. KATE No one does. That's why therapists can charge so much. As she gathers her belongings, Leopold spots a very high heeled red shoe in Kate's bag. LEOPOLD What exactly transpires during therapy? KATE Leopold. A gentleman does not ask those questions. Come on, we'll get you home. LEOPOLD I am perfectly able to travel homeward myself. Kate looks at him skeptically. LEOPOLD Really! I have finance and our address. I shall take a cabbie. Kate hesitates. LEOPOLD You are late. I insist. I am NOT a child. Dr. Coles. KATE All right. Don't bite my head off. She shakes her head and walks out the door. EXT. N.Y.C. STREET - LATE AFTERNOON Kate heads down the stairs of a subway station. A few feet behind, Leopold cautiously follows. INT. SUBWAY STATION - RUSH HOUR Kate waits in line at the turnstile. Leopold, a ways back, grimaces noticeably at the smell. Kate heads through. Leopold follows banging painfully into the bar. A NUN hurriedly bumps into him from behind. He tries pushing the bar but it doesn't budge. He turns around to step out of line but it is already too long. He stands NOSE to NOSE with the nun. LEOPOLD I can't seem to... NUN (impatiently) Oh, for heaven's sake... The nun deposits her token and SQUEEZES them both through as the train arrives at a deafening pitch, startling Leopold. He spots Kate entering the train and jumps into the car in the nick of time. The train departs, Leopold pressed awkwardly against the glass. EXT. N.Y.C. STREET - EARLY EVENING Kate races from the subway station, entering the Arthur Murray Dance Studio. Leopold, thoroughly disheveled, follows at a distance. INT. DANCE STUDIO - EVENING Elderly Blue haired couples chat amongst themselves, men on the right, women on the left. Kate, in dance clothes, out of breath, stumbles in, making a b-line for the women's side. MRS. PINCUS I was worried. I thought you weren't going to make it. KATE (smiling happily) Miss my lesson? This is the only thing I have to look forward to all week. Is that a new dress Mrs. Pincus? Mrs. Pincus executes a fancy spin, proudly showing off her purchase. Across the room, MR. Pincus beams in anticipation. An elderly, overly made up dance instructor enters. She claps her hands together loudly. INSTRUCTOR All right, kids. Pair up! The men slick back their hair. The women straighten their gowns. Kate stands to the side, self-consciously studying the floor. The men take their places on the dance floor. They flick their hand twice, inviting their women to dance. Cooly, elegantly, the women approach their partners. After a while Kate looks up, relieved. She stands alone. Ballroom music plays. The couples effortlessly shift between steps and turns. Kate dances with an imaginary partner, stumbling, more than a beat behind, counting, animated, a concentrated YEARNING look spread across her face. The instructor approaches with a look of resignation. INSTRUCTOR Don't think so much, Katie. FEEL the music. KATE (sweating) I am! INSTRUCTOR Dancing should not be work. It should be a vacation the body takes from the mind. Let the music wash over you. KATE (frustrated) It is! INSTRUCTOR Repeat after me: I've got the muusic in me. KATE I've got the muusic in me. INSTRUCTOR & KATE (overlapping) I've got the muusic in me! INSTRUCTOR Keep telling yourself that. Kate does. Her instructor shakes her head and moves away. Across the room, through the window, Leopold watches, moved. LEOPOLD'S P.O.V. -- Over the music, beyond the swirling couples, Kate remains in the corner, dancing with her imaginary partner, fighting valiantly for the right steps, muttering to herself, dancing alone. INT. LAB - MORNING Dr. Kau SLAMS a large book on Dr. Plodder's desk startling him. DR. KAU I've located her. DR. PLODDER You didn't! Is she all right? DR. KAU No. She's really not. Photograph of a SWEATSHOP 1896. The conditions are APPALLING. Positioned among the workers, Julia Carlson, thin, ragged, worn out, stares helplessly into the camera. DR. KAU It was taken a year after she arrived. Look at her face! We have to get her back. DR. PLODDER Christine, this morning I spoke with the head of funding. They're talking about canceling the project. DR. KAU What?! They can't do that! DR. PLODDER There's still time. Nothing has happened yet that can't be undone. We'll get her back. We'll put this behind us and we'll get her back. The doctors stare at the photograph. Powerless. CUT TO: INT. CHARLIE'S STUDIO - DAY Charlie and Leopold work at their easels. Leopold sighs HEAVILY. CHARLIE Is there something on your mind? There is a pause. LEOPOLD This is rather difficult for me. CHARLIE ...Uh huh...? LEOPOLD I have been in the salon contemplating the reception I have received by the various tradesmen I have visited. I've determined I am lacking the dexterity of modern intercourse. CHARLIE Of what?? LEOPOLD Social skills. CHARLIE Oh. LEOPOLD I realize our association has been rather distant and I bear you no ill will. CHARLIE You can imagine my relief. LEOPOLD The fact is... I need help. CHARLIE Why not ask Kate? LEOPOLD I would appreciate the masculine point of view. CHARLIE Why not ask Kate?... That was a joke. Leopold looks worried. Charlie puts down his brush. CHARLIE Well? Let's see... I guess we could start by removing that great big stick from up your... Let's start with your walk. LEOPOLD My walk? CHARLIE You don't walk right. (gently) You strut. LEOPOLD (very defensive) STRUT? CHARLIE Strut strut strut. You walk into the bathroom it's like I'm watching a parade. Walk across the room. LEOPOLD I will not. CHARLIE I know you won't. You'll STRUT. You asked for my help. Trust me on this. As Leopold struts across the room Charlie shakes his head and spontaneously begins to hum Sousa's Stars and Stripes March. Leopold becomes more and more agitated. As the song crescendos: LEOPOLD That's enough! Really! You walk. Charlie hops up, casually walks around the room and begins to hum a more relaxed version of Stars and Stripes. CHARLIE (between choruses) See? Easy. Relaxed. You try. Leopold begins humming the more casual version of the song and mimics Charlie. CHARLIE That's better. Now, try to enjoy your walk. It's a beautiful day. The sun is shining, the peasants are singing. INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY VOICE OVER: Charlie and Leopold joyously singing The Stars and Stripes. As the song builds: Charlie enters leading Leopold throughout the room. Leopold matches Charlie EXACTLY step by step so tightly they appear to be one person marching happily about. CUT TO: EXT. N.Y.C. - DAY Chinatown, Little Italy, chess in Washington Square Park. EXT. WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK - DAY Leopold and Charlie explore the city. Leopold works diligently on his walk. A beautiful woman walks by in a revealing outfit. Charlie catches Leopold watching her and smiles broadly. CHARLIE Interesting? Leopold, caught leering, turns away sheepishly and smiles. Charlie pats Leopold on the back. Stops. Pats his back again. CHARLIE What the hell is that? LEOPOLD What? CHARLIE Leopold, are you wearing a corset? LEOPOLD Naturally. Cracking up, Charlie good-naturedly puts an arm around Leopold's shoulder. Leopold attempts the same pulls away. INT. BLOCKBUSTER RECORDS - NIGHT With a headset on, Charlie listens to music. Leopold watches. CHARLIE What'd ya say was the name of this number? LEOPOLD Tchaikovsky. Waltz of the Flowers. CHARLIE (deadpan) Pretty. Charlie stops the music and places a headset over Leopold's ears. Leopold watches calmly. Charlie selects a song. Instantly, Leopold's shoulders rise up to his ears. His mouth opens wide. CHARLIE Megadeath. High Speed Dirt. After a bit, Charlie turns the music off. Leopold's shoulders go down but his mouth stays wide open. Astonished. EXT. CENTRAL PARK - DAY Charlie and Leopold walk through the park. A rubber softball hits Leopold squarely on the head. LEOPOLD What in the world...? A couple race over. The man is BLACK. The woman is WHITE. Their child, ELIZABETH, 7, follows wide eyed and apprehensive. MAN Sorry! We're so sorry. Are you hurt? WOMAN She's another Babe Ruth. We had no idea. Are you okay? Leopold regards them curiously. WOMAN What do you have to say for yourself, Elizabeth? ELIZABETH I'm sorry! Leopold stares hard at the modern familial scene. He doesn't speak. After a long moment: LEOPOLD Is this your child? MAN Yes. Charlie braces for the worst. The little girl stares at Leopold. LEOPOLD I see. WOMAN C'mon honey, lets go. ELIZABETH I want my ball. LEOPOLD Just a moment! (bending down to Elizabeth, firmly) Pick a hand. She picks his right hand. Nothing. She picks his left. Nothing. Leopold looks surprised then pulls the ball from his ear. She takes the ball and smiles at him. LEOPOLD My mother's name was Elizabeth. (then to her parents) She's a beautiful child. You're very lucky. MAN What do you say, Elizabeth? Elizabeth makes an embarrassed face. MAN Thank you. Charlie and Leopold continue through the park, Leopold lost in thought. Charlie watches him in surprise. They walk on. INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT Leopold talks animatedly. On the table -- Pumpkin pies, pizza pies, and pot pies. LEOPOLD I understand pumpkin pies, pizza pies, and pot pies. But I wish someone would explain Eskimo pies. He eats a large spoonful of pudding. Kate and Charlie exchange a worried look. LEOPOLD You smoke Camel's, you wear Old Spices, and you drink Mountains Dew. It's revolting. (to Kate) The pudding tonight is excellent. Another thing I've noticed, everyone is in a great rush today. Instant Oatmeal, Instant Coffee, Speed Stick, Minute Maid. You'll find there's much to be said for moderation and languor. He eats another spoonful. LEOPOLD Mmmm. Is it tapioca? KATE It's margarine. LEOPOLD (taking the spoon out of his mouth) It's marvelous. CHARLIE Well, I'm off. KATE Me too. Work to do. Where are you going? CHARLIE I'm meeting everyone over at Caffeine. It's this coffee house we go to. KATE Say hello to Dennis for me. LEOPOLD Who is that? CHARLIE Dennis is this really good looking friend of mine who doesn't know Kate's alive because SHE doesn't know how to flirt. KATE As a rule I don't like to associate with really good looking people. It makes me feel really... I don't know... Smart. But Dennis is a nice guy. CHARLIE And he always picks up the check. LEOPOLD Sounds enjoyable. I shall join you. CHARLIE What? KATE That's a wonderful idea! Leopold mentioned how he wanted to meet... People of quality was it? CHARLIE Ahhhhh? LEOPOLD If you'd rather I didn't go... KATE Nonsense! Charlie, you don't want to hurt Leopold's feelings. He's going to think you don't want him to go. CHARLIE Oh it's not that. It's just that it's sort of a vulgar crowd, is all. I'm not sure you'd have such a good time. LEOPOLD A little ribald humor? I'm not as big a stick in the mud as you might think! I'd enjoy a gay night out, kicking up my heels. There is an awkward pause. Leopold is so enthusiastic and sincere that despite a feeling of disaster Charlie relents. CHARLIE Finish off your Parquet and we'll go. Charlie gives Kate a look of death as we: CUT TO: EXT. CAFFEINE - NIGHT Charlie and Leopold approach Caffeine, a trendy coffee house. Charlie looks in the window. CHARLIE There they all are. Now one more thing. Throw the words "like" and "you know" into a sentence whenever possible. It's how people talk today. LEOPOLD Proper speech does not cease to exist simply because it is ignored. CHARLIE Please? LEOPOLD Charles, you needn't fret. I have the walk down pat. I will not give myself away. Like. CHARLIE (looking in the window) Oh shit! (correcting himself) Shoot. LEOPOLD What is it? CHARLIE Patrice. See that girl? The blonde one? She's so inconceivably hot. INT. CAFFEINE - NIGHT Patrice, a tall blonde sits at a large round table, talking. She is very beautiful. EXT. CAFFEINE - NIGHT LEOPOLD She's very pretty. CHARLIE She's mine. LEOPOLD Congratulations. CHARLIE Ok not exactly mine. But I saw her first. LEOPOLD I understand. CHARLIE Okay. I guess we should go in. I don't suppose we could tell everyone you don't speak English? LEOPOLD Of course not. Let's go inside. Leopold walks his casual walk inside, followed by a very reluctant Charlie. INT. CAFFEINE - NIGHT Charlie's friends are sitting at a table talking. They are a relaxed and friendly group. Charlie and Leopold approach. ALL (ad lib greetings) Charlie! Where've you been? etc. CHARLIE Hi. Uh everyone, this is my friend, Leo. BILL Hey. LEOPOLD Hey. DENNIS Waz up? LEOPOLD Waz up? PATRICE How are ya? LEOPOLD How are ya? CHARLIE (after a beat) Leo's staying with us for a while. Charlie pulls out a chair for Leopold but Leopold sits next to Patrice instead. Patrice takes out her cigarettes. LEOPOLD May I? PATRICE Help yourself. Leopold takes a cigarette, lights one for Patrice, then his own. LEOPOLD Thank you, my dear. CHARLIE (at a loss) Um?... (all look at Charlie) ...I have nothing to say. LEOPOLD You did not tell the truth about Patrice, Charles. DENNIS AND BILL CHARLES?? CHARLIE What did I tell you, LEO? LEOPOLD He informed me you were inconceivably HOT, but I think you're lovely. Exceptionally lovely. PATRICE Thank you, Leo. CHARLIE (to the waitress) Check please. INT. SUBWAY - NIGHT The subway car is inhabited solely by Leopold, Charlie, and the oldest Ukrainian woman in New York City. Despite the fact that the train is empty, they are all seated on the same bench. Charlie stares straight ahead refusing to even look at Leopold. The Ukrainian woman hangs on every word. CHARLIE Just drop it Leopold. LEOPOLD But Charles, it is so ridiculous. I am not interested in her. CHARLIE Hah! LEOPOLD In any case the problem is not with me but with you. (quietly) You have no idea what it takes to go about courting a woman. From what I've witnessed tonight, it is symptomatic of your entire generation. CHARLIE (almost speechless) You are some piece of work, Leopold. LEOPOLD Now I do not wish to get personal... Charlie bursts into ironic laughter and looks at the old woman. She rolls her eyes. LEOPOLD But you have been of great assistance to me and I feel this is one area where I can be of some real help. CHARLIE I'm fascinated. Go on. LEOPOLD Now, why was I successful with this young lady and why did you so miserably fail? CHARLIE What makes you think she likes you? LEOPOLD Well she gave me the number of her telephone and I assumed it meant... CHARLIE Go on. LEOPOLD As I see it, the girl hasn't an inkling of your intentions. And it's no wonder. You, Charles, are a Merry Andrew. CHARLIE A what? LEOPOLD A Merry Andrew. CHARLIE I am not!! LEOPOLD Everything plays like a farce to you. The more wit, the less courage. I believe the modern woman desires passion, protection, sensitivity. No woman wants to be romanced by a buffoon. (the old woman shakes her head) Banter and repartee are fine but you must add to that a different sort of playfulness. CHARLIE You think I should pounce? LEOPOLD I'm saying you must treat her with respect. Any oaf can attempt a crude pass. A woman of Kate's stature would never respond to an artificial tactic. CHARLIE Kate? LEOPOLD What? CHARLIE You said Kate. LEOPOLD I did not. CHARLIE Yes you did. Didn't he say Kate? The old woman nods. LEOPOLD We are discussing your problem. CHARLIE Not anymore. You like my sister. LEOPOLD Charles... CHARLIE She has trouble with men, you know. LEOPOLD Perhaps she has not met the right one. CHARLIE She has met the right one. HUNDREDS of times. But she pulls back. She cuts herself off. You turn around and suddenly you're dating a Sphinx. LEOPOLD One never can tell. CHARLIE Does Kate know how you feel? LEOPOLD No... CHARLIE Have you made your intentions known to her? LEOPOLD No... CHARLIE Who's the Merry Andrew now?! I think you're all talk and no action. What are you waiting for? LEOPOLD I do not know if there is a future in it. CHARLIE Well Leopold, no one ever does... CUT TO: INT. LEOPOLD'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Kate enters with an arm load of Leopold's discarded clothes. She drops them on his bed and begins to hang them in his closet. A notebook falls from his pants pocket. She puts it on the bureau. A beat. She quickly picks it up, sits on the edge of the bed and starts to read. KATE (reading out loud) Royal family -- Uncouth. Making Out -- slow soulful kissing... Woman as equals?? She flips a page. KATE Who drove the Chevy to the levy and why was it dry? Kate smiles. She flips the page. KATE Eyes shine when she talks about... science. Raises her voice when she knows she's wrong. BOSSY, BOSSY, BOSSY. Lose my train of thought when I see her smile. Most beautiful when she's angry. Honorable heart... Peasant feet. The front door is heard slamming. Kate, alarmed, stuffs the notebook back in Leopold's pocket. She races to the door; glances back at the notebook, turns off the light and scurries from the room. INT. HALLWAY - LATER THAT NIGHT The corridor is darkly lit. Kate leaves the bathroom as Leopold enters. They collide and separate but remain close together. Both are dressed in pajamas and speak softly. KATE Ooops. Bread and butter. LEOPOLD What's that? KATE Bread and butter. It's an old saying... Well not to you I guess. You say it when you pass someone in a cramped space. As close as bread and butter. LEOPOLD I see. KATE So. Did you have a good time last night? LEOPOLD It was very interesting. KATE Did you find that person of quality? Leopold looks at her a moment. LEOPOLD Yes. I did. KATE Well... fine. (there is a pause) I guess it's time to turn in. LEOPOLD Yes. KATE Goodnight. She reaches her door. Leopold stops her. LEOPOLD Kate? She turns. Leopold grasps for the words but the habit of inaction returns. LEOPOLD Goodnight. (he slowly closes the door) INT. PATRICE'S APARTMENT BUILDING - DAY Charlie stands at Patrice's door with a large painting. He looks over at Leopold hiding the next doorway over. Charlie knocks. She opens the door. CHARLIE Hi. I brought you some flowers. He hands her the flower filled painting. PATRICE Charlie! CHARLIE Miss Wochuchowski? I was wondering if you would do me the great honor of accompanying me to the cinema tonight. And allowing me the privilege of escorting you to dinner afterwards. Patrice shyly studies the painting. PATRICE It's beautiful. Charlie quickly looks at Leopold pleadingly. He really does not want to say this next part. Leopold, however, is adamant. CHARLIE (deadpan) Gracing me with your conversation and company would mean the world to me. There is a long pause. Patrice watches Charlie in disbelief. PATRICE Um... 7:00? CHARLIE 7:00 is fine. I'll call for you then. They smile at each other for a long moment. LEOPOLD (silently mouthing) Goodbye. CHARLIE Goodbye. (she closes the door) It worked! LEOPOLD Of course it did. CHARLIE Leopold, I... I'm... I have no idea what to do next! LEOPOLD Charles. Leave everything to me. CHARLIE Not so fast, buddy. You're next. INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY Kate is by the bookshelf gathering reference books on time and space. Leopold enters. He is suddenly embarrassed and doesn't know how to proceed. LEOPOLD Good morning. KATE Good morning. You're up early. She moves to her computer on the other side of the room. Leopold follows. Before she can sit down, Leopold pulls out her chair. She falls to the ground. He rushes to her side immediately. LEOPOLD I'm terribly sorry!! KATE Happens all the time... She opens a reference book and slowly begins typing at her computer. There is a pause. LEOPOLD Dr. Coles?... ah, Kate? I was wondering... She stops working and looks at Leopold. LEOPOLD What it is you're working on. KATE Oh. It's my computer. She resumes her work. LEOPOLD I see. Actually I meant the work itself. KATE I'm researching the correlations between your time and the present. Leopold stares blankly. KATE I'm TRYING to get you home, Leopold. LEOPOLD Oh. Charlie peaks in, signaling Leopold, spurring him on. LEOPOLD I have never seen a woman work as diligently and extensively before. KATE It's made me the man I am today. LEOPOLD It's quite a beautiful day, have you noticed? Perhaps you would permit yourself some time off and grant me the privilege of escorting you around the city this fine Spring afternoon. KATE Oh, I'd love to but I can't. I've got too much work to do. Ask Charlie though. He'll go with you. LEOPOLD I'm afraid it really wouldn't be the same. It is YOUR company I am seeking. Surprised, Kate turns around and looks at Leopold. KATE (gently) Oh, Leopold. I'm so sorry. I can't. LEOPOLD I see. Some other time then. KATE Yes... Thank you. Leopold sits at the far end of the room. Kate takes a moment then resumes typing. She STOPS and sits back in her chair. After a long moment, she subtly unplugs the computer with her foot and starts banging on the top of it. KATE Oh for crying out loud. Would you look at this? Leopold? The computer's on the blink again. (she bangs harder) Cheap piece of equipment. I can't... LEOPOLD Maybe if you... KATE NO, no, it does this all the time. Just have to wait it out. LEOPOLD I see. KATE Darn. LEOPOLD ...Perhaps it is a sign? KATE Oh, you think? (she smiles at Leopold) EXT. CENTRAL PARK - DAY Leopold trots his horse expertly along the horse path. Kate follows, clutching the horses neck, bouncing like a clown. KATE I... I must have gotten a funny horse... Leopold turns and rides around Kate. LEOPOLD Allow me. EXT. CENTRAL PARK - DAY Bethesda fountain. Boats on Central Park Lake. Couples in Sheeps Meadow. Holding the reins of Kate's horse in one hand, Leopold grasps Kate's waist with the other as they ride a single horse through the greenery of Central Park. EXT. MOVIE THEATRE - THE THALIA - DAY A revival house. On the Marquee: "The Tenuous Duke" starring Ronald Coleman. INT. MOVIE THEATER - DAY Kate and Leopold eat popcorn, Milk Duds, M & M's, and large drinks. The lights go down and the movie begins. The enormity of the medium strikes Leopold at once. He involuntarily leans back in his chair grabbing Kate's shoulder, watching attentively. After a bit: LEOPOLD Is that supposed to be my hair? Do you see how they think my hair looks? Kate looks over at Leopold and nods. Through his eyes, she too experiences movies for the first time. She moves close to him. EXT. N.Y.C. - DAY Grammercy Park, The Guggenheim Museum, Central Park Plaza, The Metropolitan Museum. EXT. METROPOLITAN MUSEUM - DAY Kate and Leopold bound up the steps, entering the museum. INT. MUSEUM - DAY Modern art exhibit. Leopold stares blankly at an empty white canvas. He turns to Kate questioningly. KATE That's simplicity in it's purest form. It speaks volumes in it's nothingness. Whiteness representing emptiness. Hopelessness. It's bleak. Bleak! Leopold eyes the painting skeptically. They move to the next object d'art. A toilet. LEOPOLD Aaand this represents...? They burst into giddy laughter. KATE Absolutely nothing. They round the corner, moving to the next room. Leopold's smile fades. CLOSE UP: A painting of privileged Victorian society. Shaken, he gazes at a painting in a dream-like state. LEOPOLD (very quietly) I'd almost forgotten how beautiful it was. Truly. Beautiful. Kate smiles sadly at Leopold. They slowly walk out. INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT We hear keys in the lock and laughter outside as Kate and Leopold enter. LEOPOLD (laughing) M & M's, CBS, FBI. KATE VIP, VHS, VCR. They collapse on the couch. LEOPOLD Ah, JFK, PDQ, XYZ. KATE I don't know. K.D. Lang. LEOPOLD I don't know how you keep up with it. I'm exhausted. KATE So am I. LEOPOLD I'll tell you what. Why don't I prepare dinner tomorrow night? I never have before. I mean even before I hit town. "Hit town" How's that? I can't imagine what it'll taste like, but I don't think it will be any worse than your cooking. KATE Leopold, I have a date tomorrow night. LEOPOLD I see. KATE A blind date. LEOPOLD Oh, I'm so sorry. KATE No, that just means I haven't met him before. It was set up through friends. LEOPOLD Ah! KATE A hazard of single life... I'm turning in. Kate gets up. Leopold automatically stands. LEOPOLD Another time then. KATE I'm sorry. LEOPOLD It's quite all right. As she gets to the door, she stops. KATE Leopold? I had a wonderful time today. I can't remember the last time I took the day off and just played. I'd forgotten how beautiful this city can be... I want to thank you for that. LEOPOLD The pleasure was mine. Kate smiles at Leopold and goes out. INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Charlie, in a tie, is standing with Leopold at the dining room table. Kate wearing too much makeup for her date, runs into the bathroom in a BRIGHT RED DRESS. CHARLIE It's a very fancy restaurant, Leopold. Are you sure you can teach me everything there is to know? KATE (from the bathroom) Just don't swipe the silverware and give yourself away. CHARLIE Nobody's talking to you. LEOPOLD It is very simple. I will be your date. Just behave as you normally would and I'll correct you along the way. Now, escort me in. Charlie and Leopold move across the room. After a beat, Charlie magnanimously gestures for Leopold to go first. Leopold gives his approval. Kate rushes out of the bathroom in a tight BLACK dress. Leopold and Charlie elegantly walk to the table. Charlie sits down, pleased. Leopold remains standing, incensed. CHARLIE Now what? Leopold takes a cloth napkin, hits Charlie upside the head. Hard. LEOPOLD Pull the chair for a lady! Clod. KATE (V.O.) No name calling. LEOPOLD (to Kate) Well, really! Charlie stands up and pulls out the chair. As Leopold sits, Charlie pushes the chair in to hard. LEOPOLD You're not shoveling coal into a furnace, Charles. Glide the chair in gently. Gently. Try it again. Charlie gently glides Leopold to the table. He remains standing, not sure what to do next. LEOPOLD Well, sit down! CHARLIE Now don't burst a vein or anything, but there are quite a few knives and forks here. How do I know what each one's for? LEOPOLD Merely start from the outside and work your way in. CHARLIE What kind of beer should I order? LEOPOLD Beer! CHARLIE I WAS KIDDING! KATE How do I look? Leopold and Charlie stand. Kate poses in the gown picked out by Leopold. Leopold smiles brightly. LEOPOLD You look exquisite, Katherine. KATE (almost sadly) Thank you, Leopold. She looks at Leopold not knowing what to say. Finally CHARLIE This is a tie I'm wearing. KATE You look very nice, Charlie. CHARLIE Yes. I know. The doorbell rings. KATE That must be him. LEOPOLD Your bland date? KATE Blind date. CHARLIE Remember to breathe, Kate. And don't use to many big words. You'll scare the poor slob away. KATE (moving to the door) This is always the scary part. (she sings) "Open the door to my, Mystery Date." She opens the door and looks straight up. Leopold and Charlie peer in closer to get a better look. In the doorway stands LARRY, great looking, very tall, a winner. LARRY Hi. Kate? KATE Larry? Kate turns back to the others with a frozen smile. KATE Well, I'm off. LEOPOLD (giving Larry the once over) Kate, may I have a word with you? KATE Now? LEOPOLD Yes. (as they cross the room) I DON'T like the look of him. KATE What are you talking about? LEOPOLD Cad. I can spot one a mile away. (he helps her with her coat) I shall escort you out myself. I will act as your chaperone. KATE That isn't necessary. I'll be fine. LEOPOLD It is no trouble. KATE Goodnight, Leopold. LEOPOLD But... KATE Goodnight. She is gone. Leopold stares after her, dejected. INT. SPORTS BAR - NIGHT Kate and Larry are led to their table. Larry sits down. Kate remains standing. LARRY (friendly) Sit down. KATE (sighs) Thank you. (she sits) LARRY So. How am I doing? KATE I beg your pardon? LARRY How am I doing? First date. You pleased? You disappointed? KATE Undecided. LARRY I see. He snaps his fingers to get the waiters attention startling Kate. She laughs nervously. LARRY So. What did Jeannie say about me? KATE About you? Ah, she said you were tall. LARRY 6'3. KATE And nice looking. LARRY Thank you. KATE Thank her. And that you persevere ardently on Wall Street. LARRY Well, I work there... KATE (after a beat) That must be very interesting. LARRY (laughing) You've obviously never worked on Wall Street. KATE (laughing along for the hell of it) No. Their laughter subsides. After a beat: LARRY What else did Jeannie say about me? INT. THE FOUR SEASONS - NIGHT The Maitre d' of this very fancy restaurant shows Charlie and Patrice to their seats. Charlie motions Patrice to go first just as Leopold has instructed. The Maitre de pulls out Patrice's chair. Charlie gives him a look to back off. Charlie effortlessly glides Patrice to the table and takes his seat. PATRICE Have I told you how much I liked your painting? CHARLIE (beaming) Twice. PATRICE If you get tired of hearing about it, let me know. I have to admit I was sort of surprised when you called. I didn't think you liked me, Charlie. CHARLIE When I first saw you, I thought... (he makes his jaw drop down to the floor) PATRICE What do you think now? Charlie smiles and places her hand over his heart. Then he makes his jaw drop again. Patrice laughs happily. INT. SPORTS BAR - NIGHT Kate and Larry are eating their dinner. KATE Aaand that's about all Jeannie said. What did Jeannie say about me? LARRY (smiling) She said you were enormously sexy, had a great body, but you don't put out. KATE Quite a compelling portrait. LARRY (turning on the charm) Would you say it's an accurate portrait? KATE (leaning into Larry) A masterpiece. INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Leopold slowly carries a dinner tray to the dinning room table. He moves to the window and looks out. After a while he pours a glass of wine. INT. SPORTS BAR - NIGHT As they eat their dinner Larry drones on. LARRY So this guy wants to invest $50,000 in a stock that's no good. Here's what I do... Kate stares absentmindedly at Larry, her mind somewhere else. She looks down at the fork in her hand. She switches to the proper one, reflecting on Leopold's etiquette. She notices her napkin lying flat on the table. She reaches for it. INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Leopold unfolds his napkin and puts it on his lap. He begins to eat his dinner. Slowly. Elegantly. Alone. INT. SPORTS BAR - NIGHT Kate places the napkin on her lap. She stares at it a long while. Finally she looks up at Larry. EXTREME CLOSE UP OF LARRY LARRY I'm telling you the guy was a DICK! A total ASSHOLE! KATE (jarred awake) Who? LARRY Jeff Murray. The guy I've been talking about. Hello? KATE (realizing her feelings for Leopold, smiling radiantly at Larry) Goodbye. Then as she leaves, a parting shot. KATE Don't get up. INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Sound of keys in the lock, then Kate bursts through the door. KATE Leopold? The living room is dark and empty. She goes through the living room, past the hallway, into the bedroom. KATE Leopold? His bedroom is empty. He is not there. KATE Oh, Leopold... She runs into Charlie's studio and stops short. Next to Charlie's stern paintings, Leopold's portrait of Kate shines in the moonlight. She wears an antique dress. She is lovely. Kate sees herself as Leopold sees her and is touched. She turns and collides head on with Leopold. KATE Oh! LEOPOLD Bread and butter. He is wearing gloves and an apron. He rubs his bruised head, inadvertently leaving a trail of suds along his face. LEOPOLD You're back early. Did you enjoy your date? KATE (happily) No. She moves in close, trying to remove the soap from his face. KATE Here, you've got some... He wipes his face making it much worse. LEOPOLD Is it gone? KATE (laughing) No. She uses the apron to wipe away the soap. They gaze at each other and become serious. KATE (softly) A funny thing happened to me on my bland date this evening, Leopold. I really can't explain it. This puffed- up, puritanical, blundering, greenhorn kept popping into my mind all night long at the most inopportune times. I couldn't get rid of him. LEOPOLD How inconsiderate. KATE Yeah, it was. The harder I tried, the more persistent he became. He's conceited and inflated and unseasoned and it doesn't seem to matter... He's 134 years old but I can't get him out of my head. LEOPOLD Is he there right now? KATE Right here. Larger than life. LEOPOLD I'll protect you... They kiss. A long romantic passionate kiss. LEOPOLD Dr. Coles, would you grant me license to dine with you tomorrow evening at eight o'clock? KATE Permission granted. LEOPOLD Until tomorrow, then. They separate. A beat. Leopold gestures for Kate to go first. They head down the hallway together into their separate rooms. INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The table clock chimes eight times. Leopold enters from the kitchen dressed perfectly in the most UP TO DATE style. He carries a casserole dish. A second later Kate enters from the hallway. She is wearing an OLD FASHIONED, ANTIQUE DRESS. She looks lovely. LEOPOLD (a little startled) You look beautiful. KATE YOU do. What have you got there? Leopold opens the casserole dish. KATE Hamburger Helper! LEOPOLD I know you like it. Kate smiles. She looks behind him into the kitchen. A COLOSSAL MESS. Leopold lights the candles and pulls out her chair. This time she's prepared. He slides her chair to the table. INT. LIVING ROOM, LATER THAT NIGHT The candles have burned down, casting a romantic glow throughout the apartment. Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" plays. Kate and Leopold sit on the couch sipping wine. LEOPOLD Tell me more. KATE Um, where was I? So after my father died I had to go to work. LEOPOLD Have you had many jobs? KATE Many. I got fired from all of them. I'm the most unskilled person I know. But they were just survival jobs while I was still in school. I always knew I wanted to go into science like my father. And I did. LEOPOLD Do you miss him? KATE I think about him every day. He was courtly, just like you. LEOPOLD I think you are a remarkable woman Katherine Coles. KATE You just don't get out much. You'd be surprised how remarkable I'm not. LEOPOLD No, it is you who would be surprised. They kiss. Anxiously they stare into each other's eyes. They kiss again. Slowly, Kate leads him to her bedroom door. They look at each other, deciding. Deliberately, cautiously, Kate opens the door. LEOPOLD Kate... Kate puts her fingers over Leopold's lips. Gently she leads him inside. They slowly embrace as the door closes. INT. BEDROOM - THE NEXT MORNING Sunlight floods the room. Clothes are scattered about. Two figures lie curled up together sleeping in bed. One of the figures rolls around. The covers are pulled back revealing: CHARLIE Good morning. PATRICE Morning. They kiss. CUT TO: INT. LIVING ROOM - MORNING Leopold wearing a bathrobe is pouring coffee. The table is set for a huge breakfast. Kate also in a robe enters from the hallway. There is a moment of awkwardness as they see each other for the first time. KATE Morning. LEOPOLD Good morning. They kiss shyly. Kate notices the feast. KATE Look what you've done! LEOPOLD It's nothing. KATE Nothing? My own mother never made me a breakfast like this. LEOPOLD I will have to have a talk with her. KATE Leopold... LEOPOLD Kate... KATE About last night... LEOPOLD Please sit down. He pulls out a chair for her and kneels beside her. LEOPOLD Kate, I had never before been a considerate man. I had, with astonishing complacency, squandered my life, waiting for some incentive to force me into action. You have made me see how rare our time here really is. I am most beholden to you Kate. And always will be. KATE I sense the word "BUT" entering into this any minute now. Leopold takes her hands in his. She looks at him defensively, bracing for worst. LEOPOLD Do me the honor Katherine, of becoming my wife. Kate lets out a very girlish, high pitched scream LEOPOLD Shall I take that as a "yes"? KATE Leopold! Did you just ask me to marry you? LEOPOLD I love you, Kate. KATE That's entirely beside the point... You're moving way too fast here. Shouldn't we date first? I mean it's obvious the first one went well... LEOPOLD Where I come from that's pretty much the way it works. KATE Leopold, even though last night we... loved each other, that doesn't mean this morning we're engaged. It just doesn't work that way now. LEOPOLD (taking a ring off his fingers and placing it on hers) I have loved you since I first set eyes on you. I cannot imagine my life without you beside me. I want to marry you, Kate and make an honest woman of you. KATE Oh Leopold, sit down. They switch places. Leopold sits and Kate kneels beside him. KATE Relationships these days are much more complicated than that. Women today have certain freedoms that men have been taking advantage of for centuries. You must have been aware of that. If you think about it clearly, it should be obvious to you that marriage between us is out of the question. LEOPOLD Do you not love me Kate? KATE (almost inaudible) Don't ever think that... LEOPOLD Then consider my proposal. KATE I'll think it over but I can tell you now the answer is... He kisses her. It's impressive. KATE (out of breath) Possibly. LEOPOLD (a knowing smile) I need you beside me. I will not give up easily. KATE (smiling) Do what you have to do... Charlie enters. Kate and Leopold become extremely selfconscious. CHARLIE Morning. LEOPOLD AND KATE (too casual and too chipper) Morning! Charlie is immediately aware that something is not quite right. He studies the two of them and nonchalant sits at the table. Kate and Leopold serve themselves breakfast. LEOPOLD (to Kate) Coffee? Kate nods. As Leopold pours, they look at each other shyly. CHARLIE (after a pause) I would like some coffee. KATE Of course. Say when. She pours Charlie's coffee until it overflows. CHARLIE (deadpan) When. KATE Sorry. As Kate wipes up the table, Charlie notices her ring. He eyes Leopold suspiciously. Leopold concentrates on his plate. Charlie gives Kate a questioning glance. She smiles at him, looking both innocent and guilty at the same time. After a beat: CHARLIE Uh huh. All smile privately and sip their coffee without another word. CUT TO: INT. LAB - NIGHT Buried behind open books and crumpled up paper, Kate labors in earnest. She stops suddenly, almost violently, and studies the notes in front of her. The coffee cup falls from her hand and breaks. DR. KAY (calling from her office) Kate, are you all right? KATE Fine! I'm fine. She covers her papers and self consciously cleans up her mess. She sits down slowly and peeks at her notes. She has SOLVED THE PUZZLE that will send Leopold back. She looks up in disbelief and glances through her window around the lab. Everyone is hard at work. Helplessly, she stares back at the paper on her desk. She pulls open her drawer and takes out the picture of Carlson. She stares at it for a long time. She opens her mouth to call for the others, stops, and looks at the photo. Slowly, with great indecision, Kate crumples up the paper. She returns the picture to the drawer. After a long moment, she opens a book, feigning research, her mind a million miles away. INT. KATE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Leopold and Kate sit on her bed watching David Lettering. Kate clutches her pillow close to her. She looks over at Leopold concentrating on the TV with furrowed brow. She smiles sadly. She takes her pillow and flings it off her bed. She snuggles up to Leopold. They watch TV. Together. EXT. N.Y.C. - DAY Central Park in full bloom, Botanical Gardens, The Frock Museum. INT. RESTAURANT - DAY Leopold and Kate eat lunch. Leopold scans a newspaper. On the TV over the bar, Bob Dole is speaking out against gun control. LEOPOLD Public office is apparently still the last refuge for the incompetent. Show me a man who does not want his gun registered and I'll show you a man who should not own a gun. What is a pee-pee girl? KATE What are you reading? LEOPOLD The Village Voice. After much consideration, I have decided it is time I join the work force. KATE As a pee-pee girl? LEOPOLD Perhaps not that, but I am determined to acquire honest employment. KATE Leopold, I don't know if that's such a good idea. LEOPOLD Kate, my life back home was beneficial to no one. I want my new life to have value. I won't make the same mistakes twice. KATE You have to be patient. LEOPOLD I could conceivably wait my whole life away. KATE You're awfully cute when you get causey. LEOPOLD I will not waste any more time. I must make a difference. INT. BLOOMINGDALES - DAY Customers fill the aisles. In the center of it all, Leopold is hard at work. He holds a bottle of perfume. LEOPOLD Try our fragrance? Would you like to try our new fragrance today? RICH CUSTOMER What is it? LEOPOLD It is called, POISON. He squirts some at her. RICH CUSTOMER Oh! I don't think so. Have you got PASSION? LEOPOLD I beg your pardon? RICH CUSTOMER Elizabeth Taylor's Passion? LEOPOLD Next aisle over. She leaves. Leopold looks after her. LEOPOLD (after a beat) Give your mother-in-law what she really deserves this season. Give her some POISON. INT. KATE'S LABORATORY OFFICE - MORNING The doctors enter Kate's office and closes the door. KATE Hi. (the doctors remain silent) What's the matter? There is a long pause. Slowly Kate realizes the doctors are on to her. She puts down her pen. KATE So you know. DR. KAU We had to go through your computer to access information. Your calculations have been verified and the final course has been set. Leopold goes back a week from Friday 1:17 a.m. DR. PLODDER How long were you going to keep it a secret, Kate? DR. DRAKE Were you even going to tell us at all? KATE I'm not sure. DR. PLODDER Not sure? What can you be thinking? You can't alter the course of history and assume everything will be okay. It won't be. He has his own destiny to fulfill in his own time. KATE (quietly) You don't understand. DR. DRAKE (gently) He's going back, Kate. DR. PLODDER It's over. Kate nods. The doctors slowly leave the room and close the door. Just the sound of the clock ticking. Kate sits at her desk very still. KATE No... No, no, no. INT. KATE'S BEDROOM - EARLY EVENING Charlie knocks and enters. CHARLIE There you are. I've only been hollering for the last... He sees her face. Kate's eyes are red and swollen. She lays out Leopold's belongings. CHARLIE Kate? What is it? What happened? KATE (very detached) It's time. Leopold's going back. CHARLIE Kate... KATE Yup. I'll get his things together. Tell him tonight. He goes to her. CHARLIE Are you all right? KATE (pulling away) I'm fine. CHARLIE You don't look so fine. KATE Well I am. It was wonderful having him here, Charlie. He was of invaluable assistance to the project. (she shrugs) I'll miss him. CHARLIE You'll miss him? KATE I will. CHARLIE Goddamnit Kate, you love the guy! Kate remains silent. CHARLIE Kate, don't do this. Please. It's not right. KATE What am I supposed to DO, Charlie?? I can't go back. He can't stay. I can't let him go. I'm not equipped to deal with this, Charlie. I don't know how. CHARLIE Listen to me, Kate. Don't! Don't be the ice princess. KATE (beginning to tear up) I'm not! CHARLIE You are. You can't live your whole life under a microscope. You've got to tell him how you feel. KATE (breaking down in his arms) It's too much, Charlie. It's just too much. CHARLIE You owe it to him. KATE I didn't know I could feel like this. I really didn't know. INT. FANCY FRENCH RESTAURANT - NIGHT LEOPOLD So I looked him right in the eye and said, 'Ego is nature's compensation for mediocrity.' I turned and I walked. He never said a word... He probably didn't understand it... Kate? KATE (cold) What? LEOPOLD Are you all right? You're awfully quiet. KATE I'm fine. LEOPOLD How was your day? KATE (taking a long pause) It's time. Leopold looks at her. KATE We're sending you back. LEOPOLD (slowly pushing his plate away) When? KATE A week from Friday, early morning. LEOPOLD No! KATE It was a mistake, Leopold. It's out of our hands. We can't POCKET people from history like stolen jewels. We haven't the right... I'm sorry. We'll miss you. LEOPOLD Is that all? KATE What do you want me to do, fall apart? You'd still be leaving. It wouldn't solve anything. LEOPOLD Who is this woman sitting across from me? KATE What do you want me to say, Leopold? LEOPOLD Tell me that you love me as I love you. Let me hear you say it. Kate remains silent. Leopold abruptly throws money on the table. LEOPOLD I will not do this. I'm sorry. We starts out. KATE Leopold! EXT. STREET - NIGHT Leopold walks out of the restaurant trying to remain calm. His emotions get the best of him. Finally, exhausted, he winds up walking along Central Park South. Hansom Carriages wait to be taken out. He approaches slowly. He stops along side one of the cabs and strokes the horse's head. He looks at the horse for a long time. Then he looks at the skyscrapers surrounding him, deciding what to do. He lays his face against the horse's head, torn. CUT TO: INT. LIVING ROOM - EARLY MORNING Kate sits at the dinning room table behind empty Sara Lee boxes, pints of ice cream, beer bottles, and is working her way through the cookie dough. Leopold enters through the front door, DISHEVELED. LEOPOLD Good God. Look at you. You look awful. KATE You should see what I'm looking at. LEOPOLD I went back to the restaurant. They told me you went out looking for me right after I left. KATE That was pound cakes ago. Where were you? LEOPOLD I had a lot to think over. KATE Such as? LEOPOLD Just where I stand around here. There is a long pause. KATE (quietly) We should have come up with something together. I might have been spared ten or seventy pounds. LEOPOLD Is that an apology? KATE I'm sorry for what I said. Leopold goes to her. He gently prys cookie dough from her hands. LEOPOLD I'm not going anywhere. KATE Yes you are... LEOPOLD I'm not going. I'm staying here with you. KATE But? You can't! We have no right to... LEOPOLD It is my destiny. It is my decision. KATE Have you thought about what you'd be sacrificing? Your influence? Your authority? They kiss. KATE Your family, your whole way of life, everything? They kiss. KATE You're not just feeling sorry for me because I ate the contents of the refrigerator, are you? They kiss. LEOPOLD I love you, Kate. The single most miraculous event in my life was not how I arrived here, but that when I did, I found you. KATE (overwhelmed) Here comes the mushy part! LEOPOLD After much consideration I've come to the conclusion I no longer desire a large estate with a full staff and ornate grounds. KATE That's good, because if you're staying I'll probably get fired again. What do you desire? LEOPOLD A beautiful wife, a small home in the middle of nowhere, lots of children, and fine schools with PMS meetings every other Sunday. KATE ...PTA? LEOPOLD PTA. KATE I love you too. I do, Leopold. I love you, too. They kiss. INT. LABORATORY - DAY Leopold and Kate sit calm and resolute. The doctors are in an uproar. DR. PLODDER This is outrageous! I won't allow it! LEOPOLD The decision is not yours to make. DR. PLODDER Do you realize what you're saying? You're tampering with fate, preordinance, and God himself. LEOPOLD We do that every day, doctor. It is called CHOICE. DR. KAU Dr. Carlson is still over there. You can't simply abandon her. We have to get her back. KATE Do you think I'm not aware of that? Do you think a minute goes by that I don't feel responsible for her? But SOMEONE ELSE CAN GO. DR. KAU Only one person can return. The capsule accommodates only one person. Leopold has to find her. LEOPOLD Perhaps she does not wish to return. Perhaps she's found greater happiness in her new life. It happened to me. KATE Maybe this is her destiny. Maybe she's of more important use back there. DR. KAU Julia Carlson died in the Center Factory fire of 1897, two years after she arrived. She was 37 years old. There is a stunned silence. DR. DRAKE Dear lord. DR. KAU She was a friend, Kate. She was never expected to sacrifice her life for this experiment. I won't be a party to it. I know what I'm asking... There's no way we can force you to go. Just think it over. INT. BEDROOM - 2:30 A.M. A clock is ticking loudly. Kate and Leopold lie back to back. KATE You're going back aren't you? LEOPOLD I keep seeing that poor woman's face. She was terrified. KATE You said you wouldn't leave me... I've never been lucky. Not one time. LEOPOLD Six months ago I wouldn't have given it another thought. I wouldn't have lost a moment's sleep. You've changed me, Kate. There is no turning back. KATE I wouldn't WANT you to change. That's what's tearing me up inside. Either way I lose... You've changed me too. I can't go back to my old life anymore. I can't live like that again. God my heart is pounding like a drum. I've never been so scared in my life. Take me with you, Leopold. God. Take me with you. LEOPOLD You don't realize what you're saying! You don't understand the kind of life you'd lead. What you'd be giving up. KATE I'd be with you. LEOPOLD I can't ask that of you. KATE Just ask me... Just ask. LEOPOLD Come back with me. She slowly turns. She embraces him. KATE Yes! EXT. N.Y.C. STREET - NIGHT Dressed to the nines, Leopold leads a blindfolded Kate through the street. She is clumsier than usual. KATE Where are you taking me? LEOPOLD This is something I've wanted to do for a long time. She takes off her blindfold and looks up at the sign: ROSELAND. KATE Leopold? LEOPOLD This will be very therapeutic. He takes her arm and escorts her in. INT. ROSELAND - NIGHT Leopold leads Kate to the dance floor. He opens his arms and Kate steps in the way she was taught in class. Leopold pulls her close. This time there is no pretending. Partnered together, they shine. They move beautifully, effortlessly. It's almost more than they can bear. As the music plays, they stop. Leopold holds Kate tightly. They look at each other for the longest time. CUT TO: INT. LABORATORY - EARLY MORNING Large screen computers are working overtime. Kate, Leopold, and Charlie accompany the doctors to the capsule. It is nearly time. DR. DRAKE The time tables have been set. Just strap yourself in and you'll be fine. DR. PLODDER You have only a twenty four hour leeway before the machine is set to return to us. You must find Carlson within that time frame and get her on board or there will be little chance of her finding a way back. LEOPOLD I understand. DR. DRAKE It's been a real pleasure. You have a much nicer smile than Ronald Coleman. LEOPOLD The privilege was mine. DR. KAU Goodbye Leopold, and thank you. (she gives him a kiss) LEOPOLD Oh, my. DR. KAU Don't worry. We'll send Kate to you... as soon as possible. I'll see to it myself. LEOPOLD See that you do. DR. KAU You have my word on it. The doctors leave. DR. DRAKE Four minutes and counting. CHARLIE Well? I'll make this quick. Goodbye. He sticks out his hand. LEOPOLD Goodbye. (impulsively Leopold embraces Charlie) I shall miss you Charles, more than you know. CHARLIE I'll miss you too, Leopold... You're the only one who knows how to program the VCR... Take care of my sister. LEOPOLD I will. CARLSON You better. Take care of yourself too while you're at it... So long. KATE I don't have any words for this. LEOPOLD I will see you soon. KATE I know. LEOPOLD You'll be with me all the time. KATE I know. I brought you something. She takes out a ring and slips it on his finger. KATE So you wouldn't forget me. LEOPOLD Kate... KATE So you wouldn't think this was all a dream. They kiss. KATE Don't forget about me. LEOPOLD I love you, Kate. KATE Wait for me. LEOPOLD For as long as it takes. KATE I will come back to you! I will! LEOPOLD I'll be waiting. They kiss again for the last time. DR. DRAKE It's time Leopold. Leopold holds Kate's face in his hands. Very slowly they part. Leopold takes his place in the machine and straps himself in. He places one hand on the red lever and the other against the glass pane on the door. Kate comes over and places her hand over his. Wordlessly, they say goodbye. After a moment, Dr. Kau gently moves Kate away. Dr. Plodder silently raises his arm, signaling Leopold. DR. PLODDER 9 8 7 6 5 4... Leopold shifts in his seat, his eyes never leaving Kate's, his hand still against the glass. Kate smiles tenderly at Leopold. DR. PLODDER 3 2 1! Dr. Plodder drops his arm signaling Leopold. Leopold pulls the lever, still gazing at Kate. There is a blinding FLASH of light, then darkness. INT. LAB - MONTHS LATER Kate raises her head. She sits at her desk surrounded by the doctors. DR. PLODDER I cannot in good conscience let you go. It's out of the question. DR. DRAKE I can't be a part of it either Kate. I'm sorry. DR. KAU It's too big a risk. Kate rises and moves to the window. She is a full NINE MONTHS PREGNANT. DR. PLODDER We cannot guarantee your child's safety. It's that simple. KATE He's waiting for me. I can feel it. Oh, Leopold... She gazes out the window, searching the horizon. CUT TO: EXT. A SMALL FARM HOUSE - EVENING Down from the horizon, a farm house. LEO COLES, 5 years old, rocks on his front porch swing. Using his bare hands as puppets he carries on a conversation. JULIA CARLSON pulls up in her car. CARLSON Hi. Does Katherine Coles live here? LEO Yeah. (yelling inside) MOM?? CARLSON You're Leo aren't you? You don't remember me but I knew you when you were yea big. (she holds her hands an inch apart) LEO Yeah. CARLSON I'm Julia. I'm an old friend of your mothers. LEO (proudly) We had spaghetti at our house 4 times this week. Kate comes out on the porch. She looks lovely. KATE Leo you don't have to holler like that. I'm not deaf... CARLSON Kate? KATE ...Carlson?! The two women scream, run to each other and embrace. KATE Carlson, I don't believe it. It's been... I don't know how many years. What are you doing here. CARLSON I came to see you, sweetie. KATE You remember my son, Leo? CARLSON We've just been getting acquainted. KATE Well, come inside. Come inside. INT. KATE'S HOUSE - NIGHT Kate heads straight for the kitchen. Carlson scans the living room before joining her. Although rustic on the outside, the inside of the house is furnished with antiques and is Victorian in style. KATE (covering her agitation) Would you like some tea? I wish you had called before you come over. It would have given me a chance to straighten up the house... myself... my life. Tell me what you've been up to. Catch me up on everyone. I heard you received some big endowment or something. I was going to write, then call, but... She picks up the cup and saucer but it shakes so violently she has to put it down. CARLSON It's all right, Kate. I understand. There is a LONG PAUSE. Carlson gets the tea ready. Finally: CARLSON You'd leave in 9 days. That's not a lot of time to get your affairs in order... And I warn you, it's nearly impossible for an intelligent woman back there. Kate stands by the back door, looking out at Leo. CARLSON He's a fine boy Kate. Leopold would be proud. We're aware of your situation but we felt when the time came, you deserved the option. Kate nods, trembling slightly. INT. FARM HOUSE - NIGHT Kate stands in the doorway as Carlson drives off. LEO Who was that lady? KATE Just an old friend. LEO What she want? KATE (she looks at Leo) Nothing important. You brush your teeth? Leo shows off his teeth. KATE Then give your old mom a hug and go to bed. (Leo gives her a hug and a kiss) Good night, cookie. LEO Good night. Kate wraps herself in an old blanket and moves through the house turning off the lights. It is very guiet. All we hear are Kate's footsteps and the sound of the clock ticking. She makes her way upstairs, enters her bed room. She sits down by the window at her desk. She sits a long time lost in thought. She slowly pulls open a drawer and from deep inside pulls out an old photo album. She opens it and begins to look through. CUT TO: THE PHOTO ALBUM Inside, old black and white photographs, newspaper clippings, magazine articles trace Leopold throughout his life. A photograph of Leopold looking as he did the night he departed this world. He stands stiffly beside his family for a formal portrait. Very discreetly, he points to a ring. It is the same ring Kate gave him. A newspaper article shows Leopold donating $100,000 to establish a scientific center researching studies in time and space. A magazine picture shows Leopold, the sole male figure, marching to give women the vote. A photograph of a large formal wedding. Leopold, around FIFTY, stands alone in the wedding party, surreptitiously pointing to his ring. A magazine article shows Leopold in his SIXTIES establishing a scholarship program for studies in physics. He is surrounded by academia and subtly points to his ring. A photograph of Leopold around SEVENTY shaking hands with Albert Einstein and smiling broadly for the cameras. A professional photograph of Leopold at SEVENTY FIVE, sitting regally in a chair. Beside him, an EMPTY chair. He rests one hand on the back of the chair. The other he holds against his chest, showing off the ring. An obituary with the headline, "Philanthropist, 80, dies in bombings. A tear falls on the page. Kate cries silently, looking out the window. The camera follows her gaze past her property... CUT TO: INT. BANQUET ROOM - YEARS LATER LEO, 24 and his BRIDE take to the floor for the first time as husband and wife and are greeted with applause. Kate, older, beautiful, hair cut short, looks on in wonder. Charlie, standing with Patrice and their 6 blonde children, approaches Kate and leads her to the dance floor. KATE He's so YOUNG, Charlie. CHARLIE He's old enough. KATE Look at that idiotic expression on his face. CHARLIE He's happy. KATE Of course he's happy. All weddings are happy. It's the living together afterwards that causes all the trouble. Julia Carlson, under dressed, over anxious, enters the banquet hall. She stands at the back of the large room, searching. Couples fill the dance floor. Across the expansive room, over the tops of heads, Charlie and Kate bob amongst the guests. Leo cuts in. As they spin, in the briefest of seconds, Kate spots Carlson. She pales. They TURN. Kate peers over Leo's shoulder. Her eyes lock with Julia's. Julia nods with purpose. Kate holds onto Leo tightly, not wanting to let go. She buries her head in his chest. KATE Oh, you're so young... I love you, Leo. Always remember that... From behind, her shoulders shake as she cries. LEO Mom, we're only moving to Denver. KATE I know, cookie. I know. INT. CONTROL BOOTH - NIGHT From behind a glass partition, Carlson works at her console. A monitor counts away the seconds. 59, 58, 57... In the darkened lab, Kate, dressed in early 1920s attire, straps herself in and smiles tearfully. Their voices echo in the lab. KATE Well... CHARLIE I know. Me too. They embrace each other for the last time. KATE What will I do without you, Charlie? CHARLIE (softly) Live happily ever after. CARLSON (pushing the intercom button) Kate, it's time. LEO (emotionally) Here. It's a letter for my father. Tell him about me and... um, tell him I love him. I want him to know me. KATE Leo... LEO Mom, I want you to go. KATE But... He puts his finger to her lips. He looks to his wife then back at Kate. He nods his head. LEO Go. They force themselves to smile, trying to get through the moment. CARLSON Ready! Charlie, Leo and his new bride stand back. Inside the craft, the only light comes from the glowing red lever. Carlson raises her arm, signaling Kate. Then to her staff: CARLSON 9, 8, 7... Kate presses her hand against the glass as a final goodbye. She grabs the lever with her other hand and turns away, staring straight ahead. Charlie puts his arm around Leo. CARLSON 3, 2, 1! There is a BRIGHT WHITE FLASH. Kate is gone. The others stand there motionless, stunned. The screen is BLACK. EXT. A LARGE VICTORIAN ESTATE - 1924 - NIGHT A FLASH of light illuminates the forest at the Albany estate. A BEAT. Kate races from the forest onto a massive lawn, stumbling in mud as she hurries to the mansion's entrance. INT. BALLROOM - NIGHT Huge double doors open to reveal -- AN ORNATE BALLROOM. The creme de la creme have gathered and dance. Kate overwhelmed, rushes down an elaborate staircase. Half way down she looses a shoe. She hesitates briefly then continues to the dance floor. In the center of the floor, Leopold, looking very distinguished and attractive, dances with a flirtatious young woman. Try as she might, Leopold keeps her at a distance. FLIRT (brushing his shirt front) I just love a starched white shirt. It's so elegant. LEOPOLD Thank you. FLIRT Skeeky. LEOPOLD Yes. You dance like an angel Miss Beall. You light up the room around you. I thank you. FLIRT (with a big smile) Thank YOU. The music changes: A LIVELY CHARLESTON. Leopold heaves a sigh of relief and makes his way through the crowd, up the staircase. The dancers become an intricate maze, a dead end at every turn as Kate searches each male face. In the foreground, Leopold is stopped by a woman midway up the stairs. As they chat, Leopold reaches down and picks up the muddy slipper, offering it to her. She turns in a huff, flouncing down the stairs. Simultaneously, in the background, Kate desperately looks for Leopold. Leopold studies the slipper as he makes his way up the stairs. He slows down, hesitates and STOPS. Very slowly he turns around. He becomes very still. TEARS well up in his eyes. The ballroom clock strikes MIDNIGHT. Kate climbs an opposite staircase to get a better view then STOPS. In her heart SHE KNOWS. Slowly she turns. Leopold stands quietly at the bottom of the stairs, gazing up at her. He extends his arm, showing her THE RING. He offers her his hand. The crowd, the room, THE WORLD AROUND THEM, DISAPPEAR. Their eyes lock. As she descends the staircase, THE YEARS MELT AWAY. Kate's short hair grows long, cascading around her shoulders. The fine lines around Leopold's face are gone. They see themselves through each other's eyes, at the moment of youth, when they fell in love. Leopold bends down, places the slipper on Kate's foot. He rises, looks down at his hands and then up at Kate. His hands are caked with mud. She smiles helplessly. Not caring, he wraps his arms tightly around her. MUSIC begins to play, a slow waltz. He nods to her. She takes a deep breath. Her head bobs in rhythm. She begins to count silently. Leopold smiles, counting along. THEY DANCE... An elderly couple watch Leopold with interest. LORD WHITEHEAD Who is that dancing with Leopold? LADY WHITEHEAD I've never seen her before. Kate and Leopold dance past. They are older. As they gaze into each other's eyes, they twirl. THE LOOK OF YOUTH RETURNS. At the center of the floor they stop dancing. THEY KISS. The rest of the world dances around them. Over this background... THE SCRAPBOOK PICTURES BLEED ONTO SCREEN. The old formal wedding photo becomes a photograph of Kate and Leopold the perfect bride and groom, both discreetly point to their rings. Kate stands with Leopold as he establishes a scholarship for studies in physics. The old photograph of Leopold and Albert Einstein changes to include Kate, waving and smiling broadly for the camera. The professional photograph becomes a double portrait. It shows the two in their 70's, sitting regally in matching chairs. They hold hands and smile serenely. Staring directly into the camera, they show off their rings. SLOWLY the scrapbook closes... Kate and Leopold dance, the music swells as they become lost in the crowd. The clock CHIMES. Slowly we... FADE OUT: THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Kids Are All Right, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Kids Are All Right, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..7952365c2a54341008267ed1a403fb299eafb2b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Kids Are All Right, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg August 3,2009 FADE UP ON:1 1 The humming stillness of an American suburb on a summer's day: nannies push strollers, joggers jog, mailmen deliver, dogs are walked, kids shoot hoop in wide open driveways. On a quiet, tree-lined street we pick up two young athletic- looking boys riding bikes. LASER ALLGOOD (15) and his friend, CLAY (15). Like bats out of hell they pass block after block of charming, evenly spaced houses until they round a corner and drop their bikes in front of a large ranch house. INT. CLAY'S HOUSE - MOMENTS LATER2 2 They walk inside. We HEAR a baseball game on TV in another room. INT. CLAY'S, BATHROOM - LATER3 3 Clay pounds on blue pills with a hammer, reducing them to powder. Laser watches. LASER I don't know, dude. Clay cuts the powder into lines with a school ID card. CLAY B minus in geometry, yo! This shits the bomb! Clay rolls up a dollar bill and takes a snort. Then hands the rolled up bill to Laser. CLAY (CONT'D) Add it up, son. Laser takes the bill, bends over and snorts a line. INT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - GIRL'S BEDROOM - DAY4 4 Part Oxford reading room, part teenage girl's lair. Leaning against the bed we see JONI ALLGOOD (18). It's her room. She pours over a game of Scrabble. Sitting next to Joni is her best girl friend, SASHA, (18). Sasha's checking out Joni's FACEBOOK PAGE. 2. Joni's best guy friend, JAI (18) sits across from her, calculating his next Scrabble move. SASHA Oh my God, Joni, there are so many hotties in your class. You are so gonna hook up the first week. JAI Just cause you're a 24 hour drive- thru doesn't mean everyone else has to be... SASHA Hey, she worked her ass off! She deserves some hot jock sausage! Jai looks repulsed, and hurt. SASHA (CONT'D) (flip) Whatever. Why don't you guys just do it and get it over with? Joni and Jai blush. They're both too scared to admit their crush on each other. SASHA (CONT'D) What? I'm just asking. JAI Uh, maybe because we're friends... SASHA Oh, really...? Sasha turns to Joni like an agent provocateur. INT. CLAY'S HOUSE - TV ROOM - LATER5 5 Laser and Clay wrestle on the floor while Clay's DAD watches a baseball game on TV. They bump into the couch. Clay's dad looks back, menacing. CLAY'S FATHER Hey, ladies! Take it down a notch. The boys keep wrestling, wired from the pills. Again, they knock into the couch. Clay's dad spins around, pissed. CLAY'S FATHER (CONT'D) What did I just say?! 3. The Dad grabs Clay, pulls him off of Laser and over the couch. He gets his son in a headlock, forcing the boy's face into his big fat sweaty armpit. Both Dad and Clay enjoy the brutal play. Clay laughs manically. CLAY Let me go! CLAY'S FATHER Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. CLAY Dad, your pits smell like burnt ass! Get off me! As Laser observes this male-bonding between father and son, we note a trace of longing on his face. OMITTED.6 6 OMITTED.7 7 INT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - DINING ROOM8 8 Joni, Laser and JULES ALLGOOD (40's) fair-skinned, attractive, sit before well prepared dinner. Still buzzing, Laser taps his fingers incessantly on the table. JONI Laser! Knock it off! LASER What?! I'm not doing anything. EXT. HOUSE - ESTABLISHING - MAGIC HOUR9 9 NIC ALLGOOD (late 40's) pulls up into the driveway beside a beat up white TRUCK covered in AA slogan bumper stickers. INT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - DINING ROOM - EVENING10 10 Nic enters. Drops her bag and heads for the table. NIC Hi guys. Sorry I'm late. 4. JULES Don't worry. We just started. NIC 27 fibroids. All in the lining.She kisses Jules. JULES Honey, that's disgusting. We're eating. JONI Did you do that laparoscopically? NIC That's right, Smart Girl. And we got `em all.As Nic settles in... NIC (CONT'D) Hey, whose truck is that? JULES Mine. NIC Yours? JULES For the business. NIC What business?.. (getting edgy) The gardening? JONI (protective) Isn't it landscaping. JULES Yes, thank you very much. NIC (strained) Okay... (then) Do we have any Cabarnet left? JULES I didn't look, honey. 5.Nic gets up and goes to the kitchen for wine. Laser's cellphone RINGS. He answers it. LASER Hey, what's up?Jules puts her hand on Laser's arm. JULES Laser, no phone calls at the table. LASER (into phone) Lemme hit you back.Laser hangs up. Nic re-enters with a large glass of red. NIC (sitting down) Who was that? LASER Nobody. Clay.Jules and Nic share a look. Jules starts making maternalwindshield wiper strokes with her thumb on Laser's arm. JULES Can I ask you something? What do you get from your relationship with Clay? LASER What do you mean, "get"?Laser looks down at Jules' thumb on his arm. JULES Do you feel like he's the kind of person who will help you grow? LASER Mom, you're windshield wiping me. NIC Hey, did you start on those thank- you notes for your birthday gifts? JONI Not yet. But I will... 6. NIC I just think it's easier to knock them out when it's fresh. JONI Yeah, I know, I'll do them tonight. NIC Great...I mean, you don't want to have to start with an apology. You know? Then it's embarrassing. JULES Okay, honey. She got it. Let it go. NIC Okay, I'll let it go... (then) I mean, if it was up to you, our kids wouldn't even write thank-you notes, they'd just send out good vibes. Nic takes another swig of vino and smiles at Joni through increasingly plum-stained teeth. NIC (CONT'D) I can't believe my baby's 18. JULES I know... NIC (devolving into baby talk) Big girl. You're a big girl... JONI Mom... Joni mimes wiping her teeth. Embarrassed, Nic starts licking at her stained teeth. INT. JONI'S BEDROOM - LATER THAT NIGHT11 11 As Joni cranks out thank-you notes, Laser enters. JONI What? Laser looks nervous. 7. LASER Have you thought any more about, you know, making that call...? JONI Yeah. I don't want to. LASER Okay...I was just wondering if you changed your mind. JONI I haven't. He starts to leave, but her answer bugs him. He turns back. LASER How can you not even be curious? JONI Sorry, Laser. I just don't want to, okay? I'm leaving soon and I don't want to deal with that right now. (co-dependent leak) And also, that could really hurt moms' feelings... LASER God, why do you worry about them so much? They don't even have to know about it! JONI Look, you can do it when you turn 18, okay? LASER I never ask you for anything. Laser walks out of the room. Joni feels horrible. INT. NIC AND JULES BEDROOM - THAT NIGHT12 12 Nic and Jules lay in bed watching TV, unwinding from the day. NIC I just don't understand why you bought the truck now. 8. JULES Because if I'm starting this business I need something to haul my equipment in. NIC Okay. It just seems a little cart before the horse. JULES What does that mean? NIC Sweetie, you don't even have any clients yet. JULES Well you're the one who's always telling me to "act as if!" NIC (back peddling) That's true. I do. You're right.The women settle back. Nic sees Jules feels bad. NIC (CONT'D) Look, I'm sorry. It's good you bought the truck. Its proactive.Nic caresses Jules' arm, wanting to make it better. NIC (CONT'D) Hey...Jules doesn't look at Nic. She keeps her eyes on the T.V. NIC (CONT'D) Wanna watch a movie?Jules perks up. Nic immediately regrets her suggestion. JULES A movie-movie? NIC Yeah. We haven't done that in a while.MINUTES LATER -- NIC AND JULESare cozied up side-by-side facing the TV. 9. ANGLE ON - THE TV The volume is turned low on TWO NAKED MEN lying on a chaise longue. One guy fellating the other. INT. STAIRCASE - SAME13 13 Joni tiptoes up a dark staircase and enters an office off the mom's bedroom. She heads for the desk and stealthy opens a drawer. She rummages though with clear intention. She pulls out a FOLDER and studies the cover. We see the words: "Pacific Cryo Clinic: Bringing your dreams to life." INT. BEDROOM - MOMENTS LATER14 14 ANGLE ON - THE BED We now only see Nic. Jules has slipped under the blanket, and is now between Nic's legs. We see Nic trying to get into it, but having a hard time. NIC I don't like the guys in this one. They're too shaved. JULES Don't focus on it. NIC How about the one with the biker gang? JULES We left it in Hawaii. Jules wrestles with the blankets. Wants them out of her way. NIC (pulling them back up) I'm cold, honey. JULES Sorry. I couldn't breathe. Jules wrangles the blankets, trying to cover her partner. The transition is awkward and Jules gets caught in the top sheet. As Nic repositions herself, she leans on the VOLUME CONTROL BUTTON and suddenly the porn is blasting at full volume. 10. MAN IN MOVIE Suck that fat cock mother-fucker... NIC Shit!! Where's the remote?! MAN IN MOVIE I'm gonna fuck that tight ass!... Jules and Nic both dive for the remote. It's lost under the mass of bedding. They struggle to find it as the grunting and 70's disco music blares. INT. OFFICE - JONI15 15 Joni turns to the wall, confused. She hears the porno music pulsing though. INT. BEDROOM - MOMENTS LATER16 16 Nic finally recovers the remote and hits mute. NIC Jesus Christ! Nic flops back, traumatized. NIC (CONT'D) The whole neighborhood heard that! JULES No, they didn't. NIC Well, that was a vibe kill. Jules looks defeated. INT. OFFICE - MOMENTS LATER17 17 Joni turns back to the file on the desk. She flips though some pages of documents and stops. CLOSE ON a PHOTO of a 4 YEAR-OLD BOY standing in a sandbox looking straight into a camera with a big, open grin. MATCH CUT TO: 11. EXT. FARM - DAY18 18 We see that boy, 35 years later, carrying a box of tomatoes and putting them in the back of a truck. This is PAUL, Joni and Laser's biological father. INT. PAUL'S RESTAURANT - "WYSIWYG" - DAY19 19 Paul walks in carrying the box of tomatoes. He approaches TANYA, (30's) the restaurant's super sexy hostess. PAUL How you doing, foxy? TANYA Mm, flapjack, you're smelling ripe. PAUL Oh, sorry... TANYA No, I like it. It's earthy. PAUL What can I say. I've just been out there, you know...hoe-ing. (looking at the seating chart) How's it looking tonight? They stand close to each other, peering at the chart. TANYA Gonna be tight. PAUL Really... Paul's cell rings. He gives Tanya a hand squeeze and heads for the kitchen, answering. PAUL (CONT'D) Hello. WOMAN'S VOICE Hi, is this Paul Hatfield? PAUL It is. Who's this? 12. WOMAN'S VOICE My name is Wendy Minter. I'm calling from The Pacific Cryobank. PAUL Okay. What can I do for you? WENDY I just need to confirm that you donated sperm with us between 1991 and 1993. At the mention of the word sperm, Paul goes pale. PAUL Yeah...I did a little bit of that back then... INT. KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS20 20 Paul enters. The kitchen is humming with COOKS prepping for the dinner rush. He looks around for a quiet spot. WENDY As you know the Cryobank has a confidentiality policy which prohibits us from releasing your identity without your consent. A cook, MARGO, approaches Paul to speak with him. Paul nods: "Can't talk." Hands her the box of tomatoes. PAUL Uh-huh. Paul heads to the back of the kitchen, searching for privacy. INT. PANTRY - SAME21 21 Paul moves into the pantry, finds the farthest corner. WENDY (O.S.) Well we've been contacted by a young woman conceived using your semen, and she's asked if you'd be open to having contact with her. Paul's speechless. OMITTED19 19 13. INT. TANYA'S HOUSE - BEDROOM - NIGHT22 22 Paul and Tanya enjoy a hot, sweaty fuck. LATER THAT NIGHT23 23 Paul gets dressed while Tanya lays on her messy bed. TANYA You must of figured you'd get a call at some point. PAUL Not really. I mean I was 19 when I did it. It was so long ago...I just figured no one actually used my stuff. Tanya moves closer to him, flirty. TANYA Why? I'd use it. PAUL (ignoring the innuendo) This is so weird. I mean, a part of me's really curious... TANYA So what are you gonna do? PAUL I don't know. INT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - DINING ROOM24 24 Joni and Jules play scrabble at the table. Joni's cell rings. She grabs it off the counter and answers. JONI Hello? EXT. PAUL'S HOUSE - BACK YARD - DAY25 25 Paul anxiously paces his overgrown back-yard on his cell phone. He picks weeds as he talks. Conversation intercut. 14. PAUL Hi, I'm looking for Joni Allgood. JONI This is she... PAUL Hi. This is Paul... (clearing his throat) Uh, your donor...? JONI Oh! Hi...Joni shoots up out of her chair and starts leaving the roomto get some privacy away from her mom. PAUL Is this a good time to talk? JONI (flustered) Yeah... JULES Where are you going? It's your turn.Joni doesn't answer. She just walks out to her backyard. PAUL So... (doesn't know what to say) How are you? JONI I'm good. How are you? PAUL I'm well, thanks.Banal, awkward pause. Paul jumps in to fill the void. PAUL (CONT'D) So, Wendy at the Cryobank said you call--Joni cuts in, nervous and businesslike. 15. JONI Actually, my brother asked if I'd call you because I'm 18 and he's only 15 which is too young to call-- anyway, he'd like to meet you...if you want to... PAUL (thrown) Your brother? JONI Yeah. Well, technically my half- brother. Each of my moms had a kid, you know, with your sperm... PAUL No. I didn't know. JONI Oh. PAUL Both of them? JONI Yeah. PAUL Like in two? JONI Uh huh. Like in gay. PAUL Good deal. I love lesbians. Paul cringes at his lameness. Joni doesn't know what to say. OMITTED.26 26 EXT. "WYSIWYG", PARKING LOT - NEXT DAY27 27 Joni and Laser get out of the car and head to the restaurant to meet Paul. They're both clearly nervous. JONI I just don't want you to have big expectations. 16. LASER Will you quit saying that? I don't have any expectations. JONI Okay. I'm just saying he might be weird. I mean, he donated sperm... LASER Well if he hadn't done it, you wouldn't be here. So respect, yo! INT. "WYSIWYG" - DAY28 28 Paul sits alone at a table facing the entrance. He nervously checks the door as customers enter. MINUTES LATER- Joni and Laser enter the restaurant. They look nervous too. ANGLE ON PAUL He studies them for a beat, sees them looking around. Figures they must be "his kids." They look in his direction, spot him. He raises his hand, stands. They walk over. The moment is rife. Paul holds out his hand to Joni. PAUL Joni. Hey. Nice to meet you. JONI Nice to meet you too. Paul holds out a hand to Laser. PAUL And Laser, right? LASER Right. PAUL Very cool name. LASER Thanks. 17. PAUL Thanks for making the trek all the way over here. No one knows what comes next. PAUL (CONT'D) Cool, I got a table set up for us out here... Paul turns and leads them out to the outdoor dining area. EXT. OUTDOOR DINING AREA - MINUTES LATER29 29 They all sit eating. Paul can't help but study their faces. PAUL Listen, feel free and ask me anything you want, okay? (off their stares) Or we can just hang out. That's fine too. Whatever you guys want. LASER/JONI Okay. Paul presses on, trying to break the ice. PAUL Anything you want to ask me, Laser? LASER I...uh...I didn't really have any specific questions... PAUL (helping him out) That's fine. I'd love to know about you guys. What about you, Joni? What are you up to? JONI Uh, well, I just graduated high school. I'm starting college in the fall. PAUL Oh yeah? Congratulations. 18. LASER Joni's the brains in the family. She won a National Merit Scholarship. PAUL Shut the front door! LASER Yeah. And she got like an 800 on her Verbal SAT. JONI Okay, Laser... LASER What? I'm just saying you're really smart. JONI No, I just work harder than you. PAUL Don't stress it, Laze. School wasn't my thing either and I turned out okay. LASER (re: his name) Laser. PAUL I'm sorry. Laser. (beat) So tell me about you, Laser. What are you into?Laser freezes. So his sister jumps in. JONI Laser's an amazing athlete. PAUL Oh yeah? LASER Did you play any sports in school? PAUL I played a little basketball in junior high. 19. LASER That's it? PAUL Pretty much. The whole "team" thing got on my nerves, you know like, "Hey, let's go kick some ass, man!" What about you? LASER I play some Soccer. Basketball. Baseball. You know, team sports.Paul realizes he's put his foot in his mouth. PAUL Hey, I wasn't bagging teams in general. Teams are great. I'm just weird like that. LASER Yeah, I like teams.We can tell Laser is growing frustrated at his inability toconnect with Paul. Joni jumps in. JONI So this is your place? PAUL Yeah, I've been working on it for a while. I also have this organic co- op farm down the road. We use a lot of the stuff we grow there for the restaurant. JONI (excited) That's so cool. I'm totally into local. LASER (busting her) You are? JONI Uh, yeah Laser! I've been like trying to get moms to buy local for forever.Laser tries again to reconnect. 20. LASER So, like, do you raise pigs and stuff? PAUL No. No pigs... (beat) But it's a great spot. You guys should come check it out sometime. JONI Yeah...Definitely... Excited, Joni turns to Laser. He seems uninterested. EXT. WYSIWYG, PARKING LOT - DAY30 30 The kids and Paul exit the restaurant. Paul walks to a classic BMW motorcycle. Lasers tries to hide his awe. LASER Is that yours? PAUL Yeah. You like motorcycles? LASER Yeah, but...our moms are kind of anti-motorcycle. JONI And by "kind of" he means they'd kill us if we ever rode one. PAUL That's too bad. They're fun. Time to say goodbye. Again, no one knows the protocol here. After an awkward beat, Paul holds out his arms for hugs. PAUL (CONT'D) Well it was great to meet you guys. He and Joni hug. PAUL (CONT'D) I hope this was okay. JONI Yeah...totally...thank you. Now Paul and Laser share a somewhat awkward man-hug. 21. PAUL Really nice to meet you, Laser. LASER Yeah. Joni gives a quick wave to Paul. She turns to go and Laser follows. Paul watches them walk away. He looks stirred up by the meeting. INT. JONI'S CAR - DAY31 31 Joni and Laser head back home. JONI I just never pictured him that way. I just...I don't know...He was so cool and interesting. I can't believe that was him...He was so nice, you know?... LASER I guess... JONI You guess? LASER Yeah... JONI God, Laser! You're the one that wanted to meet him so bad! LASER I know. JONI Well what did you think of him? LASER I don't know. He seemed kind of into himself. OMITTED30 30 22. INT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - TV ROOM - LATER THAT NIGHT33 33 Nic and Jules are cuddled up affectionately on the couch watching cable. They see Laser on his way out of the house. JULES Hey bug, come here. We're watching "Locked Up Abroad: Uganda." LASER I saw it. It was gnarly. NIC Where are you going? LASER Clay's. Jules and Nic shoot each other a concerned look. NIC Don't be back late, okay? LASER I know. JULES Can I have a hug before you go? LASER Mom... JULES Just a quick one. Please! LASER Hug her. That's what she's there for. Laser leaves. Nic hits mute on the TV, looks at Jules. NIC Ugh. Maybe we should just sit him down and ask him already. JULES What? "Are you and Clay fucking?" NIC "Exploring" is the word I'd use... 23. JULES And what if he is "exploring?" This is the age for that. Why should we care? NIC We shouldn't... (then) I just don't understand why he's exploring with that loser. JULES Look, we don't even know what the deal is. We're jumping to conclusions. NIC I feel like he has so much potential and he's just wasting it.Nic's comment hits a nerve in Jules. JULES What are you trying to say? NIC What do you mean, what am I trying to say? JULES It feels like there's some subtext here. NIC What are you talking about? JULES I don't know: Like mother like son? Is that it? Both of us aimless, wandering in the darkness, "wasting our potential?"Nic won't go there. NIC Okay, honey, you're on a whole other tangent and I have no idea what you're talking about. JULES Well, maybe it hasn't risen to the plane of consciousness for you yet. 24. NIC Yeah. Maybe not. Nic clicks the volume back on, freezing Jules out. INT. PAUL'S RESTAURANT - AFTERNOON34 34 Paul and Tanya sit at the bar, eating family-meal. TANYA So what were they like? PAUL Sweet. They were really good kids. The boy's kind of a sensitive jock and the girl's kind of innocent but whip-smart and super cute. TANYA Sounds like you connected. PAUL Yeah, we kinda did. TANYA Where'd you leave it? PAUL We didn't really leave it anywhere. Brooke, the sexy Wiccan volunteer, comes up to Paul bearing a basket of freshly-picked fruits. BROOKE Hey Paul. Paul leans over the basket. PAUL Whatcha got? Oh cool. First strawberries of the season. BROOKE Don't they look awesome? I thought you should have the first taste. And with that, she smiles, hands him the basket and leaves. 25. TANYA (mimicking Brooke) "I thought you should have the first taste...of my pussy." Paul can't help smiling at the nasty talk. PAUL Whoa... INT. NIC AND JULES BEDROOM - AFTERNOON35 35 Clay rummages through the top drawer of Jules' dresser. Laser stands behind him, uncomfortable. LASER Dude, I don't think they smoke pot. CLAY Hold up. Clay freezes. CLOSE ON a row of sex toys including a fancy pink, Japanese "all-in-one" dildo and a few DVD's. CLAY (CONT'D) Whoa! Clay turns on the dildo. It starts to gyrate. CLAY (CONT'D) Yo, it's alive! LASER Dude, put it back!! Laughing, Clay throws the dildo back in the drawer. Then he grabs one of the DVDs and spins back around. CLAY Dude, we're watching this. INT. LASER'S ROOM - DAY36 36 Laser and Clay sit on the bed. They look at each other. Then Laser hits play. ON SCREEN We see a COP giving a young MAN a BLOW-JOB. Laser and Clay sit motionless, shocked, disgusted, riveted. 26. CLAY Think the whole thing's like this? LASER Want me to fast-forward? Clay doesn't answer. They just keep watching. OMITTED37 37 OMITTED38 38 EXT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - DRIVEWAY - DAY39 39 Jules pulls her truck into the driveway, almost running over Laser's bike. INT. LASER'S ROOM - DAY40 40 Laser and Clay are still watching the porn...as Jules walks in the room. JULES Laser, you left your bike out... Laser reflexively grabs for the remote. As he fumbles for it, Jules sees what they're watching. She looks mortified. INT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - KITCHEN - THAT EVENING41 41 We enter a family conference already in progress. Nic and Jules act calm but are inwardly mortified that their 15-year-old son found their porn. NIC Laser, your mom and I accept you and love you unconditionally? You know that, right? LASER Yeah. NIC And you know you can be open with us about anything. 27. LASER Yeah, I know.Jules steels herself for a frank discussion. JULES Laser, is there anything you want to talk about? LASER Like what? NIC Anything. Anything on your mind.Laser cracks his knuckles. LASER Well there is something.Nic and Jules share a look. "Here we go." LASER (CONT'D) It's more of a question, really. NIC That's okay. JULES We won't judge you.Laser looks at his moms. Nic and Jules brace themselves. LASER Why do you guys watch gay man-porn?Nic and Jules look at each other, thrown. NIC Well, first I have to say we rarely watch that movie--Jules touches Nic's arm. JULES Honey... NIC And secondly, I really don't appreciate you snooping around our room. Was that Clay's idea? I have to say again, I don't like him. He seems untended...! 28. JULES Honey, that's not what he asked-- NIC (snapping) Fine. Do you want to answer his question?! JULES Well, sweetie, human sexuality is complicated. And sometimes, people's desires can be...counter- intuitive... (soldiering on) For instance, since women's sexual responsiveness is mostly internal, sometimes it's exciting for us to see sexual responsiveness more, you know... (beat) ...externalized.Laser looks at them, still baffled. JULES (CONT'D) Like with a penis. LASER But like, wouldn't you rather watch two women doing it? JULES You would think that. But in most of those movies, they've hired two straight women to pretend and the inauthenticity is just unbeara-- NIC Okay, that's enough! Laser, your mom and I have a sense there's some other stuff going on in your life and we just want to be let in. LASER What do you mean? JULES Are you having a relationship with someone? NIC You could tell us, honey. We'd understand and support you. 29. Laser looks confused. How did they find out about Paul? LASER I just met him once. Nic and Jules share a worried look. NIC What do you mean once? JULES Did he find you on-line?! LASER What?! NIC Who did you meet once? LASER Paul! I met him with Joni. NIC Who's Paul?! JULES Why was Joni there?! LASER She set it up. NIC Forget the set-up! Who is Paul?!! LASER Our sperm donor. Jules and Nic go white. LASER (CONT'D) Wait, did you guys think I was gay?! INT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - LATER42 42 Joni has been pulled into the family conference. Nic and Jules are trying to remain as calm as possible. Nic slugs a gulp of wine. 30. JULES Look, guys, we understand why you'd be curious about your biological father. That's totally natural. NIC But why didn't you tell us? JONI Because we knew you'd be upset. NIC WE'RE NOT UPSET!! Jules calms her riled-up partner. JULES Honey... (to Joni; expressing her upset more calmly) We just wish you'd have included us in your thinking. But what's done is done. You met him, and now you guys can move on-- JONI (sheepish) Actually... (beat) I want to see him again. JULES LASER You do?! You do?! JONI (CONT'D) (to Laser) Yeah. I was gonna tell you. NIC Whoa! Whoa! No. No way. (regaining dominance) Nobody is seeing anyone until we meet him! Joni looks at Laser. They knew this would happen. INT. NIC AND JULES' BATHROOM - NIGHT43 43 Nic and Jules do a post-mortem as they floss. 31. NIC Yeah, I get it. He's their biological father and all that crap but it still feels really shitty. Like we're not enough or something, you know? JULES Of course I know. I don't want to time-share our kids with someone. Especially when it's Joni's last summer home. No way. When Jules leaves the room Nic pulls a clump of long, wet red hair out of the sink. NIC Jesus, Jules! The plumber was just here! Nic throws the clump of hair in the trash. INT. NIC AND JULES BEDROOM - MOMENTS LATER44 44 NIC (getting tactical) Look, we need to be smart about this. If we act like grubby bitches, we're just gonna make it worse. JULES I know... NIC Let's just kill him with kindness and put it to bed. JULES I'm with you, honey. (then) We're gonna get through this, okay? Nic smiles. She loves when Jules shows confidence. NIC I love you, chicken. The women bump fists. They have a plan. JULES I love you too, pony. 32. EXT. STREET - AFTERNOON45 45 Paul rides slowly down the street, checking addresses. He pulls over and cuts his engine in front of the Allgood house. OMITTED46 46 INT/EXT. ALLGOOD FRONT DOOR - AFTERNOON47 47 Paul rings the bell. Waits. The door opens and Nic and Jules are there smiling with "kill him with kindness" faces. NIC Paul! It is so great to meet you. I'm Nic. This is Jules. Paul shakes their hands. PAUL Hi, great to meet you two. JULES I hope the traffic wasn't too bad. PAUL No, I've got my bike so...I just sort of weave through. Nic clocks the motorcycle, stifles the impulse to judge. NIC Great. Well, come on in. As they enter, Paul holds out a bottle of wine. PAUL This is for you. I don't know if you guys like wine... Nic takes it. NIC Are you kidding? We love it. (checking the label) And a Petit Syrah. What a treat! Let me get some glasses. Nic leaves Paul by the stairs with Jules. Little silence. Jules steals a look at him, unable to contain her curiosity. 33. PAUL Beautiful house. How long you guys lived here? JULES Almost ten years. Wait, has it been that long? (rambling nervously) We moved right after Laser broke his leg, I remember that because we had a ramp for a while, so that would have been...ten, no, nine? No, ten years this fall. Paul nods, smiling at her nervousness. PAUL Okay. Laser and Joni enter. Joni lights up when she sees Paul. Jules watches Paul hug her. Uncomfortable, she heads for THE KITCHEN -- Jules finds Nic's pouring herself a sizable glass of wine. JULES You okay? NIC (not okay) Yeah. Fine. Jules feels her inner co-dependent swelling in her chest. JULES Go easy on the wine, hon. It's day time. NIC Okay. And same goes for the micro- managing... EXT. ALLGOOD PORCH - AFTERNOON48 48 Everyone sits at the picnic table. JULES I hope the food's okay. Joni told us you own a restaurant. 34. PAUL The food's great. Can't go wrong with salmon and corn.Nic finishes a glass of wine as Jules takes note. NIC So Paul, did you always know you wanted to be in food-services industry?Paul smiles at Nic, trying to disarm her. PAUL Well, I always liked food. NIC No, I was asking because I remember reading in your file, back when we were looking for, you know, sperm, anyway, you said you were studying international relations. PAUL Oh yeah. Wow, that was a long time ago. Yeah, I was considering it, but then I dropped out of school. JONI You dropped out of college? PAUL Yeah, it wasn't my thing. NIC (squinching) No? Why's that? PAUL It just seemed like a massive waste of money after a while. I mean, I wasn't "doing" anything. I was just sitting on my ass listening to people spout off ideas I could've just as easily learned reading a book.Paul sees that his little rant may be alienating the moms. PAUL (CONT'D) I'm not saying higher learning uniformly sucks. I mean, college is great for some people. (MORE) 35. PAUL (CONT'D) Joni, I'm sure you're gonna love it. That's just me. I'm just weird that way. (beat) Which is probably why I ended up in the food-services industry. LASER See what he did there, mom? You said "food-services industry," then he said "food-services industry..." NIC Yeah, I got it, Laser. Thanks. (apropos of nothing) So, Paul, what about your social life? PAUL My social life? NIC You know, are you married, divorced, seeing anyone? JONI Mom! NIC What? We're getting to know Paul. PAUL No, never been married or divorced. I date a little, but I'm just kind of focused on my work right now. NIC Oh.Paul wants a break from the heat. PAUL So, how'd you guys meet?Jules smiles, embarrassed. Nic jumps in. NIC We met at UCLA. I was a resident in the ER and Jules had an emergency. JULES My tongue went numb. 36. PAUL Really?THUD! We turn to see Laser, pounding his head on the table. JULES Laser, that's not nice. LASER What's not nice is subjecting your kids to the same story 1000 times! PAUL (ignoring Laser) What happened to your tongue? JULES I don't know. I just lost all the feeling in my face and tongue and I thought I might gag and then, you know... PAUL Choke? Die?... JULES Yeah...exactly... NIC Well it was pretty clear to me she was just having an anxiety attack and she'd be fine. PAUL So what'd you do for her? NIC Gave her a Vallium. Tried to get her to relax, talk, move her tongue around. LASER Mom, that's gross! JULES (ignoring Laser, to Nic) Actually, she started teasing me and that really helped. NIC I was trying to distract you. 37. JULES I know. And it worked. You were really funny. NIC You were really pretty.Nic reaches over and caresses Jules' hand. Joni rolls hereyes, embarrassed. JULES So that's it. My tongue started working again. NIC And we've been glued at the hip ever since. PAUL That's a great story. JULES (beaming) We like it.Laser and Joni share a look. PAUL So Nic, I know you're a doctor. How `bout you, Jules? What do you do?Jules never likes this question. JULES Well, I, you know, I studied architecture in college... PAUL Right... JULES But I'm not an architect. I mean I was on my way to becoming one. But I quit before the kids were born. PAUL Well, that happens... JULES When they got a little older, I started a Balinese furniture import business... 38. PAUL Right on. JULES Yeah. But that didn't work out. PAUL Well, business aren't easy-- JULES Actually, I'm in the process of starting a new business. PAUL Good for you. What kind? JULES Landscape design... (before he can respond) But not like a gardener! I mean, yes, there's a gardening component to it, but the real work is to create unique, eco-friendly outdoor spaces that harmonize with the surrounding environment. Do you know what I mean? PAUL Absolutely.In Nic's mind, Jules is drowning in verbiage. So she jumpsin to save her. NIC Hey Paul, did Joni tell you about her graduation speech? PAUL No, she didn't. NIC It was incredible. So full of wisdom and hope... (turning to her Joni) Hon, go get it. I'm sure he'd love to hear it... JONI (blushing) No, mom, I'm sure he wouldn't... 39. NIC Sure he would. Come on. Go get it... JONI (getting upset) No, it's okay... NIC Sweetie, don't be embarrassed. JONI I'm not embarrassed! Jesus! Give it a rest already!This outburst stuns Nic into silence. Her daughter has neverspoken to her like this. Laser stands up. LASER I'll get the ice-cream. JONI (standing up) I'll help you.Joni and Laser leave the room. Nic pours herself the last ofPaul's Petit Syrah. Jules smiles, covering her anxiety. JULES (softly) Honey, that's your forth glass. NIC Actually, it's my third. But thanks for counting.Paul turns to Jules, trying to revive the mood. PAUL Hey, I was just thinking. You know, I bought this place last year and the backyard's a wreck. Would you be interested in working on it? JULES (insecure) Oh, that's okay. PAUL No, seriously. I don't have time to work on it myself. 40. JULES Thank you. That's really sweet. Why don't you think about it. PAUL Why? I just did. (then) I mean, if you're not up for it that's okay-- JULES (jumping on it) No! I am! (getting excited) I'm up for it!... Jules smiles at Nic: "Isn't this great? My first client." Nic looks less than pleased. OMITTED.49 49 INT. HARDWARE STORE - DAY50 50 Nic pushes a cart piled high with gardening supplies. Jules grabs a couple BAGS of fertilizer, throws them on top. NIC ...I'm just saying, the plan was to limit his involvement-- JULES You're unbelievable. You're all over me about getting clients, I finally get one and you're-- NIC He's not just a client, Jules. , He's our sperm donor! Have you ever heard the phrase "Don't Shit Where You Eat?" JULES Yes, and I think it's disgusting. The two separate, go down separate isles. When they rejoin, Nic is contrite. NIC I'm sorry. He just seemed sort of...self-satisfied to me. 41. Jules grabs the olive branch. JULES Yeah, he was working the whole "alternative" thing pretty hard. NIC (mimicking) "I just need to get outside and `do' things, not sit on my ass and learn. But that's just me. I'm weird that way." They both laugh. Nic's funny sometimes. EXT. PAUL'S HOUSE - ECHO PARK - DAY51 51 Jules drives slowly up the hill looking for Paul's address. She sees the house and pulls in the driveway next to an old truck and a motorcycle. EXT. PAUL'S HOUSE - BACK YARD - DAY52 52 Jules and Paul walk through Paul's backyard, evaluating. JULES ...We could do a kind of a Secret Garden thing with trellises and topiary... (clocking his face) ...or something more Asian, minimal, with a rock garden feel. It's up to you... PAUL What do you think? JULES Personally, I'm tired of minimal. I'm into more is more. Let's not try to tame the space. I think it would look great all lush and overgrown and fecund... PAUL Fecund? JULES I'm sorry, you know, fertile... 42. PAUL No, I love that word. You just don't hear it that often. (thinking) More is more. Yeah. Let's do that. Jules is staring at Paul. PAUL (CONT'D) What? JULES Sorry, I just keep seeing my kids in your expressions... Jules looks more intensely at Paul's face. JULES (CONT'D) You and Laser have the same mouth. PAUL You think so? JULES Yeah. The observation strikes Paul. Suddenly, he's feeling a kind of fast-tracked intimacy with Jules he hadn't expected. EXT. BACKYARD - ALLGOOD HOUSE - EVENING53 53 Jules and Laser play Ping-Pong as Nic gets home with Chinese take-out for the family dinner. NIC What's the score? JULES Pretty close. Laser cranks a forehand that whizzes past Jules. LASER 20-3...match point. NIC So how'd it go today? JULES Great. We settled on a concept. 43. NIC What is it? JULES It's hard to explain. You have to kind of see the space to get it. NIC (to Laser) Laser, did you write Pup-pup a Get Well card? (off his silence) Laser! What do I have to do?! I bought you a card. I left it on your desk. All you had to do was-- LASER Mom, settle! I will... NIC Don't tell me to settle, mister. And if it's not in the mail by tomorrow morning, we're not going to the Dodger game Saturday. LASER Whatever, I have other plans anyway. NIC What other plans? (off his silence) I'm asking you a quest-- LASER I said I'd do something with Paul! Laser serves a rocket, whizzing past a flailing Jules. He tosses the racquet on the table and leaves. Nic yells: NIC You used to be so cute! EXT. ALLEY - DAY54 54 We cut onto Paul and Laser, looking out at something. Laser is holding a DIGITAL VIDEO CAMERA. PAUL This may not be a good idea. 44. CLAY (O.S.) Are you filming?! We cut to Clay on a skateboard on the ledge of a brick wall. He's preparing to ride the ledge, jump a dumpster and land his board on the ground. PAUL (to Laser) He's not gonna make it. (calling to Clay) Clay, you're not gonna make it! LASER I think he may be right, dude. Maybe this isn't such a good idea. CLAY Will you quit being a man-gina and run the camera! I'm only doing this once so keep my shit in frame! Laser sighs, then holds up the camera. Paul looks at Laser, wondering why he puts up with this guy. VIDEO CAMERA'S POV: We watch as Clay psychs himself up with an assortment of deep breaths and head-slaps. Finally, he starts down the ledge. He starts his jump, catches air and hits the edge of the dumpster and falls. We see him go into the dumpster and land with a nauseating THUD. Paul and Laser rush up and look over the edge. PAUL/LASER ARE YOU OKAY?! There's Clay, his arm bent at a disturbing angle, in agony. CLAY Did you get that?! LASER Seriously, dude, are you okay? CLAY I'm fucking fine! Fuck! Did you fucking get it?! EXT. STREET OUTSIDE CLAY'S HOUSE - LATER55 55 Paul and Laser walk over to Paul's truck. 45. PAUL Maybe next time we can hang out just you and me. LASER Clay's cool. He's just gets a little amped sometimes. PAUL That's not amped. That's being a dick. LASER He's not a dick, that's just his way. PAUL Okay...I just didn't like the way he was talking to you. LASER (defensive) Well, you don't know him. PAUL (back-peddling) You're right...I don't... LASER Hey, can I ask you a question? PAUL Sure. LASER Why'd you donate sperm? PAUL Well, it's a lot more fun then donating blood.Laser doesn't laugh. Paul realizes he's gonna have to give a"non-joke" answer. PAUL (CONT'D) I don't know, I guess I thought, you know, if I can help somebody in need, somebody who wants a baby...Laser's not really buying that. LASER So you did it to help people? 46. PAUL It was a long time ago... LASER How much did you get paid? PAUL Why do you want to know? LASER I'm just curious. PAUL I don't know, like 60 bucks a pop. LASER That's it? PAUL It was worth more back then. You know. With inflation... (off Laser's look) Hey, I'm glad I did it... Laser doesn't quite buy Paul's altruism. He looks over at him, then away. INT. JONI'S ROOM - DAY56 56 Jai and Joni and Sasha play Scrabble. Sasha checks out the photos of Paul on Joni's phone. SASHA Hello? Donor Dad? Stone cold fox. JAI Must you take everything beautiful and make it dirty? SASHA I'm just saying. Spermster's a hottie. Is he single? JONI Okay, first of all, ewww. Second, he's a really good person and I'd prefer it if you didn't taint him with your whore juice. Sasha hops up, energized by the banter. 47. SASHA Fair enough, hairy muff. I'm outta here. You love birds can split my letters... Sasha splits and suddenly the room is thick with nervous tension. JONI You want to keep playing? JAI Sure. As Jai incorporates Sasha's tiles into his own, we see Joni gathering her nerve to make a move. Jai probably feels it but in his nervousness he can't look at Joni. JAI (CONT'D) Sometimes I feel sorry for Sasha, you know... JONI Yeah... Joni starts to move in, her face draws closer to Jai's, inch by inch. Somehow, deep down, Jai can sense her moving towards him which exhilarates and freaks the shit out of him at the same time. To the point where he lets slip... JAI It's like she has to sexualize every experience, you know? It's just sad... That stops Joni in her tracks. JONI Yeah, it is. It's really sad. Jai's sabotaged the mood and they both know it. INT. NIC AND JULES' BATHROOM - NIGHT57 57 Jules walks in to find Nic in sexy satin man-PJ's, sitting at the rim of a RUNNING BATH. There are candles burning. JULES Wow. What's this? 48. NIC Come here. Sit down.Jules takes a seat beside her. Nic holds her hand. NIC (CONT'D) I'm sorry I've been such a bitch lately. I know I'm not being my highest self. JULES Yeah, well... NIC You've been really patient with me. I just want you to know that hasn't gone unrecognized.Nic gives her a long, sweet kiss. Jules is warming up. NIC (CONT'D) Get in.CUT TO - JULESIn the tub, revelling in the warm bubbly water. Nic issitting on the ledge, massaging her feet. JULES Oh god, chicken, that's the spot. NIC How's the water? JULES Perfect. You wanna come in? NIC In a bit. You enjoy it first.Nic goes deeper with the massage. Jules' eyes roll back. NIC (CONT'D) Oh, I forgot the lavender salts.Nic starts to get up. Jules grabs her hand. JULES No, don't stop... NIC No, I meant to put `em in.... 49. Nic gets up and sashays to the door. NIC (CONT'D) Don't move... Nic exits. Jules sinks back, wishing Nic had stayed. CUT TO JULES - MINUTES LATER58 58 Still waiting. Getting impatient and upset. JULES Nic?!! No response. CUT TO THE KITCHEN --54 54 Nic is on her cell with a patient, a glass of wine in her hand. Jules walks in wearing a bathrobe. Nic turns. Raises a finger and mouths: "Sorry..." NIC No, we're planning on being here through mid-August so... (beat) No, I promise, I'm not going anywhere. Jules' face drops; she turns and leaves. OMITTED.59 59 INT./EXT. PAUL'S HOUSE - DAY60 60 Paul watches Jules work in his backyard. Luis hauls shrubs. INT. PAUL'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - LATER61 61 Paul and Jules stand at the kitchen table, looking over her sketch for the yard. JULES Look, I'm gonna go to the nursery in the morning so we should probably make sure you're signed off on the Bougainvillea... Jules looks over at a pan on the kitchen counter. 50. JULES (CONT'D) What's that? PAUL Strawberry rhubarb pie. Fresh from my garden.Paul hands her a fork and she takes a big bite. Her eyesroll back in her head. PAUL (CONT'D) Good, huh? JULES Oh my god. That is criminal. PAUL Have more. JULES No, please, just take it away... PAUL You had one bite. JULES I have another you may as well just tape it to my ass cause that's where it'll end up. PAUL Hey now, don't go negative on your ass.Jules blushes at all this talk of her ass. JULES So...you're good with the plants? (off his silence) Look, we don't have to do that. We could do go in a totally different direction if you-- PAUL No, I'm just thinking. Hang on. (covers his eyes) Yeah, I'm good with the plants. JULES Sorry. Sometimes I mistake silence for criticism. 51. PAUL I wasn't criticizing you. JULES No, I know...I just... (beat) Sometimes Nic can be a little critical, you know. She's a perfectionist. PAUL That doesn't mean you have to be negative.Jules looks away. We HEAR a knock from the back. LUIS (O.S.) Excuse me, Senora? Hello?Jules turns, sees Luis standing at the glass door. JULES What's up? LUIS 5 o'clock. JULES Yeah. Okay.Jules wants Luis to leave her alone. But he's not going. LUIS Same time tomorrow? JULES Yes! Same time!Luis leaves. Jules turns back to Paul, laughs nervously. JULES (CONT'D) Okay. I'm gonna take off too... PAUL (in Luis's accent) Same time tomorrow?Jules pushes Paul, laughing. JULES That's mean.Paul hands her a Tupperware with some of the pie in it. 52. PAUL Here, take this... JULES No! PAUL Just give it to the kids. JULES Okay! God, you're such a pusher! Jules grabs the pie and gives him a kiss on the mouth, almost as a mistake. Before they know it, they're making out. Jules snaps back, freaked. JULES (CONT'D) Whoa. I'm sorry. That was...I don't know where that came from... PAUL (freaked himself) It's okay... JULES Okay. I'm gonna go now... Jules starts backing away, acting as if nothing happened. PAUL Jules...? JULES (overcompensating) ...but I shall return! Jules bolts for the door, clutching her pie. Paul watches her go, stunned by what just happened. INT. NIC AND JULES BEDROOM - NIGHT62 62 Nic's in bed reading a magazine. Jules gets in bed, paranoid. Nic puts her magazine down. NIC So how'd it go with Paul? JULES (jumpy) What do you mean? 53. NIC I don't know. Did you break ground? Did you dig in? I don't know the terms. JULES No, we just talked...conceptually. NIC Oh, so it was less of a "doing" day, huh? Was he okay with that? JULES You know, maybe we should lay off the Paul digs a little. NIC Okay. You're right. Chastened, Nic looks back at her magazine. Jules rolls over. JULES And I also think we should start composting. OMITTED63 63 EXT. URBAN FARM - ECHO PARK - DAY - MOS64 64 Sweating and dirty, Joni and Paul pull radishes from the ground. They're in a zone together. Paul takes off his sun- hat and put it on Joni's head. PAUL You got your mom's fair skin. You didn't get my Mediterranean genes... JONI Thanks... Joni's cell rings. She looks. Rolls her eyes. JONI (CONT'D) Ugh. Ignore. Joni hits the ignore button, puts her cell away. PAUL Who's that? 54. JONI My mom, Nic. She's making me insane. PAUL Why? What's she doing? JONI She's treating me like I'm 12. It's like she doesn't want to admit I'm an adult. PAUL She's your mom. That's her job. JONI What? To smother me to death? That's not her job. PAUL Well, if you want things to be different, you've got to make that happen. That's your job. EXT. SUBURBAN STREET - MAGIC HOUR65 65 Laser walks with Clay. Clay sports a homemade arm-cast for the skateboard mishap we witnessed earlier. CLAY That jump was cake, dude! I so could've made it. LASER You were like 20 feet short, dude! There was no way. CLAY Yeah, well if Paul wasn't there I could have landed it. That guy creeps me out. LASER Whatever. CLAY He's kind of a fag, dude. Tryin' to act all like your dad and shit. Laser doesn't know how to respond so he ignores the comment. A stray DOG comes up to them. Laser stops to pet it. 55. LASER Hey buddy. Good boy.Laser sees the dog has no tags. He looks around for anowner. The dog nuzzles Laser for affection. LASER (CONT'D) I've seen this dog around. I wonder if he's lost. CLAY Let's pee on his head. LASER What?Clay unzips his fly. It's difficult with the plaster cast. LASER (CONT'D) Dude, don't do that. CLAY Come on. Hold him...Clay yanks the dog by his scruff. LASER Dude, Quit it! CLAY (mocking) Duuude, quit it!Suddenly, Laser gets it. His friend is the tool. He grabsthe dog and smacks him to get him to run away. LASER Go! Run! Get out of here!The dog TAKES OFF. Clay shoves Laser. CLAY Why are you such a fag?!Laser shoves Clay back hard. LASER Why are you such a dick?!Clay HITS Laser in the mouth. Laser touches his lip. Seesblood, and walks away. Friendship over. 56. EXT. URBAN FARM PARKING LOT - ECHO PARK - MAGIC HOUR66 66 Paul and Joni walk to his motorcycle parked in the dirt lot behind them. Paul grabs his helmet off the bike, hands it to Joni. PAUL Here, put this on. Joni takes the helmet and puts it on. Paul fastens the buckle for her. They get on the bike and take off down the hill. EXT. ECHO PARK TO THE WEST SIDE - MAGIC HOUR67 67 Paul takes Joni home on his motorcycle via Sunset Boulevard. She holds Paul tightly. INT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - EVENING68 68 The ladies sit in the living room watching TV. JULES Relax. She'll get home when she gets home. NIC Quit telling me to relax! They go back to watching TV. After a beat, we HEAR a motorcycle pull up. NIC (CONT'D) What the fuck...! EXT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - CONTINUOUS69 69 Paul and Joni climb off the bike. Nic storms out of the house to intercept them by the sidewalk. NIC Funny how someone conveniently forgot to tell me they were driving home on a motorcycle! JONI Mom... 57. NIC You know how many people I've seen come into the hospital paralyzed from motorcycle accidents?! PAUL I'm a very safe rider... NIC That is so not the point I'm making! Joni knows this is something I'd never allow. JONI Mom, I'm 18 years old! I won't even be living here in like next month! NIC Yeah, well, you're living here now! JONI Yeah, well why don't you get a jump on it and pretend like I'm not!Joni storms off. Nic glowers at Paul. NIC She's never talked to me like that. PAUL (trying to soften it) You know, Nic. If you eased up on the restrictions, maybe there'd be less tension... NIC (marinated in sarcasm) Really? You think so, Paul? Is that how it works?Jules walks up to intervene. JULES What's going on? NIC Oh, nothing. Paul's just giving me child-rearing lessons. PAUL I was just saying-- 58. NIC Listen, when you've been a parent for 18 years, come talk to me! PAUL I was just making an observation. NIC Yeah, and I need your observations like I need a dick in my ass! Nic storms off. Jules follows. Paul watches, shell shocked. OMITTED70 70 INT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - JONI'S BEDROOM - LATER THAT NIGHT71 71 Nic knocks on the door. Get's no response. NIC Joni? (silence) I was just upset. You know how I feel about motorcycles. Joni opens the door. JONI (patronizing) I know how you feel about them. But I'm an adult now and you have to respect that. Goodnight. Joni closes the door on her. OMITTED72 72 INT. PAUL'S HOUSE - DAY73 73 From his house, Paul watches Jules working on her knees in the garden. CLOSE ON Jules' thong peaking out of her jeans. Luis walks across Paul's field of vision, interrupting his reverie. INT. PAUL'S HOUSE - LATER74 74 Jules steps tentatively into Paul's house. 59. JULES Paul?Jules walks further into the house. She looks anxious. Paulopens his office door and sees Jules in the hall. PAUL Hey. What's up? JULES Look, I'm sorry about last night. I'm really embarrassed. PAUL Don't be. She's the one who wigged out. JULES I know, she's just going through a lot of stuff right now... PAUL Jules, it's okay. You don't have to defend her.They stare at each other, unsure how to act. JULES And look, I just want you to know, about the other day, the kiss, that's not something I...do. PAUL Yeah, I sensed that.She takes a step toward him, feverish. JULES I just wanted to clear the air.They stare at each other. It's like watching two magnets. PAUL The air is clear.Jules grabs Paul and starts smothering him with kisses.It takes a second for Paul to get his bearings, but when hedoes, he starts kissing her back with equal fervor, pushingher up against the wall, wedging his hand between her legs. JULES Paul, I can't! 60. PAUL You don't want to?! JULES No, I do! It's just... (urgent whisper) I have a guy outside! Overcome with lust, Jules wraps her legs around his waist and Paul walks her into... HIS BEDROOM75 75 Quick cuts of their awkward ravenous gropings. Somewhere between slapstick and animal. He pulls her hair back hard. She loves it. She pulls his hair back harder. He yelps. She pulls down his underwear. Her eyes widen. It's been decades since she's seen a hard cock in the flesh. JULES Oh. Well. Hel-lo! Cut to them fucking. It's gawky and passionate. Somewhere in the middle of it, Jules starts laughing. PAUL What? JULES Nothing. Paul flips her on her hands and knees and they go at it some more. She keeps laughing. Paul goes harder to make her stop. The paces grows quicker. They're getting closer. And then... LUIS (O.S.) Hello? Excuse me, Senora Allgood?! They stop mid-thrust. JULES You gotta be fucking kidding me! She dislodges from Paul and starts dressing furiously. INT./EXT. PAUL'S HOUSE - DAY76 76 Jules runs out to meet Luis, waiting patiently at the door. 61. JULES What's up? LUIS Where do you want the stones? JULES (catching her breath) The stones? Over by the fence. Luis stares at his employer. She looks totally disheveled. Jules starts feeling her hair, smoothing it into shape. JULES (CONT'D) (defensive) What? I was using the bathroom. (then) Do you need to use the bathroom? Luis stares at her feet. She looks down. She's barefoot. EXT. PUBLIC PARK - DAY77 77 Paul and Laser shoot hoop. There's a tense-ness to their patter. Laser takes the ball and steps to the top of the key and shoots. Drains it. LASER That's H. PAUL I know. Laser steps up to left side of the basket, calls his shot. LASER Lay-up. PAUL Hey, don't take it easy on me cause you're winning-- Laser does a trick behind the back lay-up. Nails it. Then tosses the ball to Paul. PAUL (CONT'D) Nobody likes a show-off. LASER Hey, can I ask you a question? 62. PAUL Oh god. Okay. Hit me. LASER When you die do you want to be buried or cremated? PAUL That's your question? LASER I want to be cremated. PAUL I think I'd rather be buried. LASER Why? That's just taking up more space in the earth. PAUL I don't know, something about the idea of being burned into this chalky powder and sprinkled-- LASER What do you care? You won't even be conscious. PAUL That's true. I guess I just want to be in a place where people can visit me. LASER (growing animated) But why?! You'll be dead! You won't even know they're there! INT. WYSIWYG - RESTAURANT - NIGHT78 78 Joni and Sasha are at a table eating dinner. Tanya has temporarily joined them. Sasha checks out Tanya's oversized African bead necklace. Joni watches Paul charm customers. SASHA God, I love your necklace! Where'd you get it? TANYA I don't know, some flea market-- 63. SASHA In Africa? TANYA No, more like Pasadena. SASHA Well, it's really awesome.Paul saunters up to the table and stands behind Sasha. Hemindlessly places his hand on Sasha's shoulder. PAUL Sorry guys, I need to steal Tanya back now.Sasha clocks Paul's hand. She carefully and without lookingback places her hand on top of his. SASHA That's okay, Paul. TANYA (getting up) Well ladies, it was fun talking with you. SASHA/JONI You too.Paul pulls his hand away from Sasha's and walks off withTanya. Sasha turns to Joni. SASHA Okay, I'm sorry but your donor daddy is giving me the sex vibe. JONI No he's not. He wouldn't do that. SASHA Why not? He's not my dad. JONI God Sasha, that's totally gross! Not everybody wants to have sex with you, okay? Especially when you act like a slut. SASHA Fuck you. 64. JONI Well it makes you seem insecure and desperate. SASHA I'm not insecure and desperate! I'm just a normal sexual person! And maybe you'd get that if you weren't so uptight! JONI Fuck you. I'm not uptight! INT. RESTAURANT - NIGHT79 79 Nic and Jules dine with their friends, JOEL and STELLA. Nic's drinking like a fish. STELLA Oh my god, these heirloom tomatoes are insane. JULES Joni brought some home from Paul's garden the other day. They were huge! Nic tightens at the mention of Paul. JOEL So, the kids have been spending time with him? NIC Oh, yeah, they're spending all kinds of quality time together. STELLA (senses the sarcasm) Well, it's great they like him so much. You know, you hear these stories about kids meeting their donors and the guys end up being nothing like they were on paper. NIC No, everyone's getting along famously. Apparently Paul can do no wrong... Nic grabs a passing waiter by the arm. 65. NIC (CONT'D) Can we get another bottle of the Seavey Cabernet?Jules gives Nic a look. Joel and Stella feel the tensionbetween them. STELLA Hey, have you guys tried those AÁai fruit packs? JULES No, but they're pushing them like crack at Whole Foods. STELLA I know. Joel's addicted. JOEL What I do is I throw one in the blender with some bananas, frozen strawberries and hemp milk and I'll tell you, it's sensational.Nic slaps her forehead. NIC Oh, just fucking kill me...Everyone stiffens. Jules is embarrassed. JULES Honey... NIC I'm sorry guys, but I just can't, with the fucking hemp milk and the organic farming and heirloom tomatoes. (mocking-voice) "Oh no, don't throw that in the trash, no man, you gotta throw that into the composting bin so the fucking worms can shit all over it and turn it into glorious multch and we can all feel better about ourselves." God! What a bunch of bullshit!Nic takes a big swallow from her glass. Jules windshieldwipes Nic's forearm. 66. JULES (sotto) How about some green tea, honey... Nic slams her glass on the table. Explodes. NIC You know what, Jules?! I like my wine! Okay? So fucking sue me! And fyi, red wine has a chemical called Resveratrol in it, which has been proven to significantly extend human lifespan! JULES Yeah, if you drink a thousand bottles a day! NIC Fuck you. Nic storms off. Jules turns to Joel and Stella, ashen. JULES I'm sorry. INT. RESTAURANT BAR - MINUTES LATER80 80 Jules walks over to the bar. Nic is sitting in the corner. JULES What the hell is going on with you? NIC This whole Paul thing is driving me crazy! I feel like he's taking over my family. Jules tries to bring it down. She yells in hushed tones. JULES No. He's not! NIC (nerves fraying) Okay! Okay. I'm sorry. I'm just exhausted... JULES Maybe you need to take some time off and recharge. 67. NIC (self-pitying) Sure, and who's gonna pay for that?Jules looks pissed off, and hurt. NIC (CONT'D) Look, I'm sorry, I just feel like I'm carrying the whole load here. JULES Because that's the way you like it! That's the way you keep control!This is Jules' break-point. NIC What are you talking about? JULES Oh come on! You hated it when I worked! You wanted me at home, taking care of the kids. You wanted a wife! NIC That is just not true! JULES You didn't trust any of those nannies! And you sure as hell didn't back my career! NIC What are you talking about? I just helped you start another business! JULES Yeah, so you can feel better about yourself! NIC No, so you can feel better about yourself! JULES Are you even attracted to me anymore?The BARTENDER holds out the bottle of Cabernet. BARTENDER Do you still want this? 68. NIC No. Just the check please. JULES AND PAUL81 81 Fucking again in his bedroom. Jules writhes beneath him, her eyes closed. Paul seems to be in some kind of zone. He stares at her, enthralled. CUT TO: POST - COITUS82 82 Jules and Paul lie naked in the bed. Jules slithers around the covers, stoned on post-coital endorphins. JULES God, I feel so drugular right now. (sitting up quickly) I really want a cigarette! Do you have any? I haven't had a cigarette since Laser was born. Do you smoke? PAUL Sometimes. But I don't have any here. Want me to run to the store? JULES (bouncing off the walls) Yeah. Wait, no. Don't. Sorry. Jules pops up on her knees, getting in his face. JULES (CONT'D) Do you think I'm just like some sad- sack middle-aged lesbian? PAUL God, that's it. I was trying to figure out how to describe you to my friends. Thank you. Jules punches his arm, mock hurt. They start rough-housing. Then kissing. Then the phone rings. JULES You want to get that? PAUL No. I want to get this... 69. Paul grabs a handful of Jules' ass. Jules throws her leg over Paul and climbs up for another round. Suddenly, Joni's voice echoes through the machine. JONI (ON MACHINE) Hi Paul. It's Joni. I just wanted to apologize for my friend, Sasha. I was really embarrassed when she put her hand on your-- Paul grabs the receiver. PAUL Hey, Joni. I'm here... Jules visibly recoils. PAUL (CONT'D) Listen, don't worry about your friend. Jules pales. She mouths: "What are you doing?!" Paul gesticulates: "I'm sorry!" PAUL (CONT'D) No. Honestly. I didn't even notice... Jules throws on her clothes and starts to leave. PAUL (CONT'D) Hey, Joni? Can you hold on a second? Paul grabs Jules' wrist and mouths "wait!" Jules rips her arm free and walks out. MOMENTS LATER - JULES83 83 walks outside and is stunned to find Luis already back from Home Depot, sneezing and wiping his nose. JULES Did you go to Home Depot? LUIS Yeah. I just got back. JULES That was fast! 70. LUIS Yeah, no lines.His look of confusion trips off her paranoia. She'sconvinced he knows everything. JULES What's that look? LUIS What look? JULES The look you're giving me right now! LUIS That's no look. That just my face. JULES Look, I'm not gonna play this game with you! You need to keep your judgements to yourself! LUIS Senora, I didn't give no looks! JULES I don't ask you why you keep blowing your nose constantly! I mean, if you have a drug problem that's your business... LUIS I don't have no drug problem! I have the allergies! JULES Then why are you a gardener?!Luis stares at Jules, innocent. LUIS Cause I love the flowers. JULES Look, this isn't gonna work. I'll pay you through the end of the day and then we're done.Jules walks past a totally confused Luis. 71. INT. NIC AND JULES BEDROOM - NIGHT84 84 Jules lies on her side. Nic shuffles to get to close to her. Jules moves away, still pissed at her. Nic realizes she needs to make amends. INT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - KITCHEN - NEXT MORNING85 85 The family sits in silence, having breakfast. Nic looks around the table, feeling like a pariah. NIC Look, I know you've all been enjoying your time with Paul. And I know I haven't been as open to him as everyone else and this has caused some...friction...between us. But I'd like to try and change that... Everyone keeps eating, uncommitted. "And...?" NIC (CONT'D) So I was thinking. Maybe it would be nice if we all had dinner at his house sometime. That way, I could get to know him a little better, and I could see all the good work mom's been doing with his backyard. Nic looks at Jules and smiles. Everyone nods. They recognize this is a big step for Nic. OMITTED86 86 EXT. PAUL'S HOUSE - BACKYARD - DAY88 88 Paul walks out to check on Jules. She's sweating her ass off, shlepping stacks of heavy mulch across the yard. PAUL How's it going? JULES Okay... 72. PAUL Here, let me help. Paul takes some of her load and together they transport the sod to the other side of the yard. Neither know what to say. Paul stares at her, waiting for her lead. JULES We can't be doing this... PAUL I know... JULES I'm married... PAUL ...and the kids... JULES Yeah, and I love Nic. PAUL I know... They stare at each other and we cut to... INT. PAUL'S BEDROOM - LATER89 89 Paul and Jules lie in bed. Jules looks nauseated. Paul offers her a pack of smokes. PAUL I got you some cigarettes. JULES (ignoring him) Jesus, what's wrong with me? I shouldn't have fired Luis like that. That was totally wrong... PAUL Come on. Don't be so hard on yourself. Things get messy sometimes... JULES That wasn't messy. That was fucked up. I'm totally fucked up... 73. PAUL I think I'm really falling for you. JULES Paul, don't... INT. PAUL'S BATHROOM - LATER90 90 Jules takes a shower, washing off the evidence. She looks nauseated by her lack of willpower. INT. WYSIWYG - LATER87 87 Tanya walks over to Paul who's on his computer. She flops on the couch next to him. He doesn't look up. TANYA Pretty good night. That table had like 5 bottles of wine. PAUL Wow. Yeah. Good night. TANYA Joni's pretty. She's got some of your genes. PAUL I think she looks more like her mom actually. But thank you. TANYA It's cute seeing you in dad mode. PAUL Yeah? TANYA Yeah. (lowering voice) It makes me want to fuck you. PAUL (uncomfortable) Oh yeah?... TANYA Yeah... Tanya moves imperceptibly closer. 74. TANYA (CONT'D) I've been missing our sleep-overs. Paul finally stops what he's doing. PAUL Yeah, it's been a while. TANYA You want to meet up later? Paul hesitates. He doesn't know how to say no. PAUL Tanya, you're so sexy and beautiful, but I don't think we should do that anymore. Tanya's face drops. TANYA What happened? PAUL You know, our thing is really fun and easy, but...I don't want to be 50 and still "hanging out." You know? If I really want a family then I have to stop getting in these situations that don't go anywhere. Paul just looks at her. Tanya gets it. TANYA (welling up) Oh. Paul knows enough to say nothing. Tanya gets up and walks off. TANYA (CONT'D) Fuck you. Paul sits there, feeling like an asshole. EXT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - MAGIC HOUR91 91 The family packs into the Volvo to head to Paul's. 75. INT. PAUL'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - MAGIC HOUR92 92 Paul gets dinner ready with Joni and Laser as his sous-chefs. Both kids seem really jazzed to be cooking with him. IN THE BACKYARD -EVENING Jules tours Nic around the backyard, looking a little freaked out as she shows her the work she's been doing. JULES I'm gonna do some planting over there so it won't look so bare... NIC It looks great, honey. Very indigenous. I'm so proud of you. Nic kisses Jules spontaneously. Jules looks nauseous again. They head back up the stairs, toward Paul's house. NIC (CONT'D) Hey, so how's that guy Luis working out? JULES Oh, I had to fire him. NIC (surprised) Really?! JULES Yeah, he had a drug problem. NIC Whoa. What kind of drugs? JULES Blow, I think... INT. PAUL'S HOUSE - DINING ROOM - LATER93 93 Nic flips through Paul's album collection, including Joni Mitchell's Blue. INT. PAUL'S HOUSE - DINING ROOM - NIGHT94 94 Everyone digs into the meal, enjoying themselves. Especially Nic, who's committed to redeeming herself. 76. PAUL Hey Nic, I think you're gonna love this `98 Screaming Eagle. NIC You know what, I think I'm gonna stick with water tonight. But thank you so much.The Allgoods look at Nic: this is a first. NIC (CONT'D) God, Paul, this steak is delicious. What's the seasoning? PAUL I just mist it with a little truffle oil.Nic looks at Jules and smiles in full overcompensation mode. NIC What a good idea. We should try that. Right, honey? JULES (taken aback by Nic's cheerfulness) Mmm-hmmm. NIC And it's done to perfection. PAUL So it's not too rare? NIC No, it's perfect. Juicy. Tender. Exactly what rare's supposed to be. PAUL Good. A lot of people in the restaurant order a steak rare and they freak out at the slightest sight of red. NIC Ugh, isn't that annoying? That happens to me all the time when I'm grilling. 77. PAUL Don't people know that rare means red? NIC Right?! It means bloody! PAUL Exactly! They should see what rare looks like in Argentina. The cow's practically still mooing.Laser chuckles at Paul's joke, then reigns it in. Joni triesto insert herself in the conversation. JONI I really want to go to Argentina. Buenos Aires is supposed to be-- NIC (interrupting) ...So Paul, I was checking out your album collection over there. Quite the eclectic mix... PAUL Thanks... NIC You don't meet too many straight guys who love Joni Mitchell.Joni glares at Nic: stop being such a Paul hog. PAUL Oh yeah, you a Joni Mitchell fan? NIC (smug) Not really. We just named our daughter after her. PAUL Cool. Right on... NIC What's your favorite Joni album? PAUL I think I have to go with "Blue."Nic raises her hand in a testify. 78. PAUL (CONT'D) Yeah? You too?They high-five across the table. NIC Oh God, I probably spent half of high school in my room crying to that album. That record kills me. PAUL I know, it never lets up, you got "River," "California..." NIC "A Case of You..." PAUL "All I Want.." NIC Mmm!!Nic pulls her hands to her chest, shuts her eyes...and startsto sing. NIC (CONT'D) I am on a lonely road and I am traveling traveling, traveling, traveling/Looking for something, what can it be/Oh I hate you some, I hate you some/I love you some Oh I love you/when I forget about me...Jules, Paul and the kids watch, open-mouthed as Nic soldierson, skipping ahead to another verse. NIC (CONT'D) I want to talk to you/I want to shampoo you/I want to renew you again and again/Applause, applause/ Life is our cause/When I think of your kisses/My mind see-saws...Nic takes a breath. Just as Paul's about to say something,Nic resumes her unfortunate solo. NIC (CONT'D) Do you see/do you see/do you see how you hu-urt me baby/so I hurt you too/then we both get/soo-ooo- ooo blue... 79.Nic stops, eyes still closed. She's connected to a part ofherself she rarely lets herself visit. The moment ispunctured by her smart-ass 15-year-old son. LASER Don't quit your day job, mom. PAUL Hey. It's hard enough to open your heart in this world. Don't make it harder. LASER You're right. (to Nic; contrite) I'm sorry, mom.Nic looks at Paul. Stunned. Then looks at Jules and pointsto Paul. NIC I like this guy.Paul looks at Joni. PAUL You didn't tell me you were named after Joni M. JONI It's just so dorky. I don't really like to bring it up. PAUL I think it's cool. NIC (getting up) Hey Paul. Where's your bathroom? PAUL Just around there.On her way to the loo, Nic turns back to Paul. NIC You know what? I think I will try some of that Screaming Eagle. 80. INT. PAUL'S BATHROOM - CONTINUOUS95 95 Nic washes her hands at the sink. Something catches her eye. She lifts Paul's hairbrush from the shelf in front of her and examines it. She reaches into the bristles and pulls out... A few strands of long red hair. Nic pales. CUT TO Nic on her knees in Paul's shower, pulling a clump of tell- tale red hair from the drain. CUT TO Nic skulks out of the bathroom. She looks out and b-lines for the bedroom. CUT TO Nic pulling pillows off Paul's bed. Her look tells us she's found hair here as well. THEN WE CUT TO Nic sitting back down at the table. She looks drained. Nobody notices. The sound drops out. NIC'S POV: Paul and Jules talking comfortably. Joni and Laser chiming in, smiling, one big happy family. REVERSE ONTO NIC: Totally disconnected. Shell-shocked. She wants to scream but it feels like she's trapped in cement. Things slow way down... OMITTED96 96 INT. NIC AND JULES' BATHROOM - THAT NIGHT97 97 Nic and Jules perform their nightly ablutions. Jules is sonic-caring her teeth. 81. JULES (through the sonic buzz) Well, you and Paul seemed to get on like gang-busters... NIC You're sleeping with him, aren't you. JULES (freaked) What? Nic turns to her, eyes red with anger. NIC Just be honest with me. Don't make me feel crazier than I feel right now! JULES Where is this coming from?! NIC I found your hair in his drain! JULES (scrambling) What? I was working. I got dirty so I took a shower. NIC Oh yeah? You take a nap, too? Jules pauses a second too long. The jig is up. INT. NIC AND JULES' BEDROOM - MINUTES LATER98 98 The truth has come out. Nic is so angry she's calm. NIC Are you in love with him?! JULES No! NIC What, are you straight now?! JULES No. It has nothing to do with that! (MORE) 82. JULES (CONT'D) (beat) I've just felt so cut off from you lately... NIC Oh, right, so it's my fault! JULES No! Who said anything about fault? Just listen to me! NIC I'm listening! What?! JULES I just needed... NIC What? To be fucked? JULES No, appreciated! NIC It's always what I'm not doing for you, isn't it? Well here's what I don't to you. I don't work out my issues by fucking other people! Nic starts heading for the door. Jules follows. JULES He's not just "other people!" NIC No, you had to go fuck our sperm donor! You couldn't have picked a more painful way to hurt me... JULES Where are you going?! NIC I need water! My mouth is dry! Nic opens the door. There's Joni and Laser, looking devastated. They've been listening to the whole thing. INT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - DAWN99 99 Jules wakes up looking crusty from a rough night on the couch. She looks like she hasn't slept at all. 83. INT. LASER'S ROOM - DAWN100 100 Jules enters and walks over to her sleeping son. She gently nudges him awake. JULES Hey Laser. Honey? Laser turns over, semi-conscious. LASER What? She sits down on his bed. JULES Listen, I know you and Joni heard what's going on. I just want you to know that what happened with Paul and me is over. There's nothing going on now. LASER Okay. JULES I know you might need some time to process your feelings around this, but I just want you to know that I'm here for you if you want to talk about anything. (beat) Is there anything you want to talk about? LASER (leave my room) Not really. JULES (fighting the impulse to push it) Okay then. Go back to sleep. Jules pats her son and leaves. INT. JONI'S BEDROOM - DAWN101 101 Jules enters and touches Joni's shoulder. JULES Joni? 84. JONI I don't want to talk to you. JULES Can we just-- JONI I said I don't want to talk to you!! JULES Okay. I'm sorry. Jules slowly retreats to the door. INT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - KITCHEN - MORNING102 102 Jules drinks coffee at the table. Nic walks in, dressed for work. Jules looks at her, wanting to "process." But Nic isn't in the mood. She grabs a banana from a bowl and walks out. Jules feels like a leper. OMITTED.103 103 INT. SASHA'S ROOM - AFTERNOON104 104 We can tell Joni's been crying and downloading the whole thing to Sasha. SASHA How's Nic doing? JONI She's a wreck. I've never seen her like this before. Joni's cell rings. She gets off the bed, looks at the phone. It's a picture of Paul. SASHA Is it him...? Joni nods gravely, answers. JONI (cold) Hello. 85. EXT. PAUL'S FARM - AFTERNOON105 105 Paul's walking through rows of swiss chard, cell phone to his ear. Conversation Intercut. PAUL Hey Joni, how you doing? JONI You're such a phony. Beat. PAUL Excuse me? JONI You act like you're so groovy and together but you're not. You're a shitty person! PAUL What happened? JONI With my mom?! PAUL Listen, can I just come and talk with you-- JONI What's wrong with you?! PAUL Joni... JONI Don't call me anymore. Joni hangs up and start crying. Sasha hugs her. EXT. PAUL'S FARM - CONTINUOUS106 106 Sweaty, nauseous with remorse, Paul turns around to find fetching young Brooke, waiting for him with a wicker basket of huge cucumbers. BROOKE Hey Paul, look at these cukes... 86. Paul holds up his hand at her. This girl symbolizes every bad choice he's ever made. He gives her the universal, "Leave Me Alone" gesture. Brooke looks embarrassed. EXT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - BACKYARD - AFTERNOON107 107 Jules sits on a lawn chair smoking a cigarette. Her cell rings. She answers. EXT. STREET - AFTERNOON108 108 Paul walks down the street, wigging out. PAUL Hey, it's me. I just talked to Joni. Conversation intercut. JULES Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I should have called you. Jules sucks a big, anxious drag off a cigarette. PAUL What happened? JULES Nic saw my hair in your bathroom. PAUL The other night. JULES Yeah. PAUL Fuck... JULES Yeah. Beat. PAUL Listen, it's all out in the open now. Let's make this happen. 87. JULES Paul... PAUL No, I'm serious. Fuck it. Let's get the kids together and do this thing. JULES Paul, come on... PAUL No! I'm sick of this life. I want a family. I'm ready-- JULES (eye rolling) Jesus, Paul! I'm gay! Jules tosses the phone away from her. EXT. HOUSE PARTY - BACKYARD - NIGHT109 109 Joni and Sasha stand at the makeshift "bar". Joni's downs several Tequila shots quickly. SASHA Slow down, tiger. Across the room, Joni spots Jai chatting with a WAIFY GIRL in a sundress. Joni drops one more Tequila shot and walks up to Jai and Waify girl, interrupting them. JONI I like the scruff. It's sexy. Waify girl juts out her hip territorially. WAIFY GIRL Uh, `scuuuse me... JONI You're excused. (then back to Jai) Hey, can I talk to you? Joni leads Jai to a private corner. 88. She leans in and kisses Jai. And Jai actually returns the kiss. And it's completely sweet and intimate. But then the kiss starts to morph as Joni's energy turns manic, intense, less romantic than emotionally needy. We see Jai start to pull away. But Joni keeps holding him, wanting more. Finally, Jai breaks off the kiss. JAI Joni...Joni... JONI What? Joni looks pained, embarrassed. Jai keeps holding her hands. JAI Are you okay? JONI Yeah, I'm fine... Joni pulls free and escapes, leaving a confused Jai in her wake. INT. NIC AND JULES BEDROOM - NIGHT110 110 Jules walks in to find Nic, awake, in bed. JULES Just getting another pillow. The couch is kind of saggy. NIC Is your back okay? Jules perks up: is this an invitation to share the bed again? JULES It's a little ache-y. NIC You should take some Advil. Guess not. Suddenly they hear bumping and loud footsteps downstairs. 89. INT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT111 111 Jules walks downstairs to find Joni stumbling toward her bedroom. JULES Hey. How was the party? Joni tries to avert her mom's questioning gaze. JONI Fine. JULES How big was it? JONI I don't know. Medium...ish... Jules takes in the glassy look in her daughter's eyes. JULES Are you drunk? JONI No. Nic enters from the stairs, having caught the last piece. NIC I hope you had a designated driver. JONI Why? I'm not drunk. NIC Well, you seem drunk to me. JONI Yeah, well, you should know. NIC (furious; incredulous) What did you just say to me?! JONI I'm going to bed. Joni starts to leave. Nic grabs her. NIC No, you're not! I'm not done talking to you! 90. Laser opens his door and watches the scene progress. JONI What do you want from me?! I did everything you wanted! I got all A's! I got in everywhere I applied! Now you can show everybody what a perfect family you have! JULES Don't talk to your mom like that! Joni spins to face Jules. JONI You're really gonna tell me how to act? Now?! JULES Hey, I'm still your mother. JONI Whatever... Jules reaches out and Joni backs away, sickened. JONI (CONT'D) Don't touch me! Joni heads for her room. JONI (CONT'D) I'm so sick of both of you! EXT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - DAWN - MOS112 112 The sun rises on this formerly happy home. INT. ALLGOOD LIVING ROOM - MORNING113 113 Jules wakes up on the couch. Sits up. Rubs her aching back. INT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - JONI'S BEDROOM - DAY114 114 Joni packs for college. The room is littered with half- filled packing boxes. She picks up a pile of clothes from the corner and sees the farmer's hat Paul gave her. She puts it aside, not sure what to do with it. 91. EXT. PAUL'S BACKYARD - DAY115 115 Paul looks around his newly landscaped yard. It looks more abandoned than revived. INT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - NIGHT116 116 The family has their last supper - before Joni leaves. NIC Did you pack that lamp I gave you? JONI Yeah. NIC Well, we can always get stuff up there, too, if you need it, I mean if the room's dark or you need extra bedding... JONI I'm not going to Siberia, mom. Jules looks at the family unit, misty. JULES I can't believe this is our last dinner together. LASER Oh God, are you gonna cry? Jules looks at her son, fed up. JULES I wish you were gay. You'd be so much more sensitive. The doorbell rings. JONI It's probably Sasha. I'll get it. Joni runs to the door. Opens it. It's not Sasha. It's Paul. JONI (CONT'D) (shocked) What are you doing here? 92. PAUL I needed to talk to you before you left. JONI There's nothing to talk about. PAUL I just want to apologize again for what happened. I can't tell you how much I regret it. EXT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - SAME117 117 Joni walks out for privacy, closes the door behind her. JONI So like, everything that happened between us. What was that? Was that just bullshit?! PAUL No, it wasn't bullshit at all. I know I don't seem credible right now but I really care about you... Paul struggles to keep his emotions in check. PAUL (CONT'D) ...and I just hope someday we'll be able to see each other again. Do you think that could maybe happen? JONI I don't know... Joni looks down welling up. JONI (CONT'D) I just wish you could've been... PAUL What? Joni chokes back tears. JONI Better... Paul and Joni look up at each other when the door suddenly flings open. Nic is there, fuming. 93. NIC You've got some balls, mister! PAUL Nic, hold on... Nic walks toward he and Joni. Joni ducks back inside. NIC No, you hold on! Let me tell you something, you really hurt my kids! PAUL Well, they're kinda my... NIC (cutting him off) No! They're not. This is not your family. This is my family! You're just a fucking interloper... Jules joins Nic, concerned things are getting out of hand. PAUL I didn't mean to hurt anyone... Paul and Jules share a look as Nic deals the coup de grace. NIC If you want a family so much, go out and make one of your own! Nic heads back inside and slams the door behind her. Paul stand alone, spinning. After a moment he spontaneously looks back into the house. Laser is staring at him through the window. Their eyes lock and Paul give Laser a contrite smile. That's the final straw for Laser. He grabs his plate and walks out of view. Reeling, Paul heads for his motorcycle. He gets on the bike, helmet in hand. Turns on the ignition. He picks up the helmet and pauses, shaking in the hell of his own making. Losing it, he hurls the helmet at the motorcycle. INT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - TV ROOM - THAT NIGHT118 118 Laser, Joni and Nic watch "Locked Up Abroad" Jules walks in front of them, picks up the remote and turns off the TV. JULES I need to say something. 94. Everyone sits up. Jules acts stoic but she's wrecked. JULES (CONT'D) Look, it's no big secret your mom and are in hell right now. Bottom line...marriage is hard...really fucking hard. Just two people, slogging through the shit, year after year, getting older, changing. It's a fucking marathon, okay?! Everyone is silenced by the outpouring. Jules soldiers on. JULES (CONT'D) So sometimes you're together so long, you just stop seeing the other person. You just see weird projections of your own junk. And instead of talking to each other, you go off the rails, and act grubby and make stupid choices. Which is what I did. And I feel sick about it because I love you guys and I love your mom and that's the truth. Sometimes you hurt the ones you love the most. I don't know why. Maybe if I read more Russian novels I would... Nic looks down, overwhelmed by it all. JULES (CONT'D) Anyway, I just wanted to say how sorry I am about what I did and that I hope you'll forgive me eventually. (awkward) Thank you. And, without further ado, Jules hands the remote back to Laser and departs the field. Everyone's silenced by Jules' rambling apologia, especially Nic. OMITTED.119 119 INT. JONI'S ROOM - MORNING120 120 Joni wakes up. She looks around her room. There's nothing on the walls. The floor is covered with boxes taped and labeled. It's time to go. 95. EXT. ALLGOOD HOUSE - DRIVEWAY - DAY121 121 Nic and Jules stuff the last of Joni's things in the back of their station wagon. Laser and Joni bring the last of the boxes out of the house. INT. VOLVO STATION WAGON - DAY122 122 The Allgoods are on the road, heading to college. OMITTED.123 123 EXT. COLLEGE CAMPUS - DAY - ESTABLISHING124 124 The station wagon passes through the campus. INT. STATION WAGON - DAY125 125 As they drive past buildings and dorms, Joni sees STUDENTS swarming the campus. She takes it all in, nervous, excited. Nic and Jules steal looks back at Joni, feeling her nervousness, wishing they could take it away. EXT. STREET - DAY126 126 The Allgoods pull up to the curb, get out. Laser piles Joni's boxes on his skateboard. EXT. FRONT OF DORM - DAY127 127 Laser dollies Joni's boxes though the corridor and while Joni and the moms follow behind. INT. DORM ROOM - MOMENTS LATER Nic and Jules follow Joni to the door. They all jam up at the threshold. JONI Guys, it's okay. I got it. Nic and Jules get the hint. They move back and Joni enters the room alone. Nic and Jules quietly turn and leave. 96. INT. JONI'S DORM ROOM - BEDROOM - LATER128 128 Joni stands among her bags and boxes looking around. She goes into her suitcase and pulls out her linens. She starts making her bed but suddenly stops mid way. She stares out toward the hallway. Finally she moves to the doorway and looks out. She realizes her family isn't there. EXT. DORM BUILDING - DAY129 129 Joni exits, looking around to find her family. The station wagon is gone. She looks panicked. Her pace quickens as she makes her way down a hill toward the road. Finally Joni sees the Volvo heading towards her. The car pulls over to the curb and everyone gets out. Joni looks vulnerable. She tries to cover it. JONI Where'd you go?! NIC We had to move the car. JONI I thought you left. JULES We wouldn't leave without saying goodbye. NIC Give us some credit. And suddenly, everyone realizes...this is it. It's time to say goodbye. First Laser comes up and hugs Joni. LASER It's gonna be weird not having you at home. JONI Sorry to leave you alone with them. LASER It's okay. I can handle it. Laser backs up. Then the moms both come up and hug Joni, tears streaming down their faces. 97. JONI Guys, come on... (beat) Look, I'll talk to you soon. Joni tries to detach from the hug. But her moms won't let go. They keep holding her and crying. Slowly, their tears begin to break Joni down. Trapped in their loving embrace, Joni's feelings rise up, unbidden, overpowering her. She starts crying. The moms hold her tighter, which makes her cry even harder. Soon she's sobbing in her mothers' arms, as all the pressure, resentment and anger she's felt starts seeping out of her. Nic and Jules feel their daughter letting go. They hold her tight to comfort her. They keep holding her until a calm sets in. The hug breaks apart. Nic pushes the hair from Joni's face. Joni gives her moms one last smile. Laser, Jules and Nic get back in the car. Joni stands watching as they drive off and her new life begins. INT. STATION WAGON - DAY130 130 The family drives home. Jules is at the wheel. Nic's in the passenger seat, eyes red and puffy. Laser's in the back. No one speaks, everyone's lost in their own worlds. Finally Laser breaks the spell. LASER I don't think you guys should break up. A long beat. NIC No? Why's that? LASER I think you're too old. Both Nic and Jules crack smiles. Their son's rudeness is unsurpassed. But then his words have an unexpected gravity. 98. NIC Thanks, Laser.Jules, disarmed and slightly smiling, reaches over and putsher hand on Nic's leg. She gives it a gentle squeeze anddoesn't let go. Nic looks over to Jules, finally disarmed.Nic reaches for Jules' hand and holds it tight. Nic andJules look at each other, and then away.Laser watches his moms holding hands from the back seat.Their small gesture is what he needed. He smiles to himself,grateful for a sign.FADE OUTTHE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Kids.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Kids.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..6eb7b867548806bac72425350258db42b28e0f2a --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Kids.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + Kids Harmony KorineBLACK SCREENThe very loud sound of people having sex. The sounds of deep moaning and sexual huffs and puffs. After a few seconds the sound grows even louder. It should sound as if the two people are fucking into a microphone. The sounds should be painful and raw.GIRL (O.S.)Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, oh yes.INT. BEDROOM - DAYThe face of a very pretty young girl with long blond hair. Her face is inches from the CAMERA, the CAMERA is above her, looking down, almost like the POV of the person she's having sex with. She id breathing extremely heavily; her face is red-hot and sweaty. Every time she moves, she makes a deep moaning noise. She looks likes she's on the verge of pain and ecstasy.GIRLOh yes, Telly it hurts, oh yes, oh yes, please Telly, Telly.The CAMERA backs up to reveal Telly having sex with the girl. Telly is seventeen years old. He is short, dirty, slightly muscular, he has an interesting face, he is a street-smart punk, He is biting his bottom lip, the two of them are sweating like mad, the sound of the bed post smashing against the wall combines with the rhythmical moaning of the two.RAPID FADE TO BLACKBACK IN TIME - BEFORE THEY HAD SEXTelly is in bed with the girl. The two of them are sitting up in the big bed that is raised high of the ground. Telly is naked except for a tight pair of white underwater. He is sitting above the blankets with his legs spread apart. The girl is partially covered, she is wearing a black bra, one of her nipples is poking through. The two of them are very sweaty, they both have messed up hair, there is a great feeling of heat and wetness.The windows to her room are open, the sound of outside of outside traffic is circulating. There is a small fan on her dresser that is blowing from side to side. Socks, shirts, and pants are lying on her hard wood floor. The room is neat except for the clothing. A large poster of the Beastie Boys hangs on the wall. She has many stuffed animals on her bed and dresser drawer, she also has a small dollhouse in the corner.Telly and the girl are looking at each other.The girl speaks slowly and softly, she has a very innocent beauty about her.TELLYYou know what I want to do?GIRLYeah.TELLYWhat do I want to do?GIRL You want to fuck me. But you can't fuck me.TELLY(smiling)Why?GIRLBecause, you know why. You know.TELLYBecause your a virgin?GIRLBecause I'm a virgin and I don't want no baby.TELLYYou think I want a baby? When you're with me, you don't have to worry about that kinda stuff.GIRLWhy is that?TELLYBecause I like you. I think you're beautiful. I think if we fucked you would love it. You wouldn't even believe it.GIRLI wouldn't believe it?TELLYI don't know. I just think that you would love it.GIRLBut, I don't know. I'm just scared that things would change. Between us.TELLYWhat things? I'm telling you, nothing's going to change. (he begins to caress her cheek and hair)I want to make you happy. That's all.Telly scoots up to the girl and starts to kiss her. He sticks his tongue in her mouth. They kiss.TELLY(whispering)You know it won't hurt. I'll be gentle. I promise.GIRL(whispering)Do you care about me?TELLY(whispering)Of course I do.RAPID CUT TO BLACKAN EXTREME CLOSEUP OF THE GIRL'S FACEAs she screams in total agony. Telly and the girl are on the bed having sex. All the lights are on. This scene should look very white and bleached out, very electric and shocking. Everything should be exposed as Telly takes advantage of the virgin girl.TELLY (V.O.)(slowly)Virgins. I love 'em. No diseases, no loose as a goose pussy, no skank. No nothin. Just pure pleasure.CUT TO BLACKTHE CREDITS ROLL INAs soon as the scene ends, so does the sound of the two having sex. Very fast, very hard-paced music accompanies the credits. The music should be strong enough to maintain the intensity of the scene, Hard-core, Punk.CREDITS STOPFADE IN:INT. UPPER EAST SIDE APARTMENT BUILDING - STAIRCASE - DAYTelly gently shuts the door. He has a huge smile on his face. He looks down the center of the staircase and spits. He watches his spit fall down till it smacks against the floor. He runs down three flights of stairs as quickly as possible. He jumps down the last four steps and bumps into the side of the wall. He is very happy. He runs down the skinny hallway and smacks the metal mailboxes.EXT. UPPER EAST SIDE - SIDEWALK - DAYTelly exits the building. CASPER is sitting on a middle step. He is reading a comic book and drinking a 40oz. Bottle of malt liquor. The bottle is wrapped in a brown paper sack. As he sips his drink he laughs at his comic book.Casper is Telly's second half. The two have been best friends since grade school. Casper is small and funny, everyone likes him, he has a quick temper, and he isn't scared to fight someone twice his size. Telly provides Casper with a sense of adolescent wisdom. Casper makes Telly happy; he's a smart ass, he has a strong New York accent, an assortment of tattoos, and crooked teeth. Telly and Casper are always together, They help each other to survive.Telly smacks Casper on the back of his head. Casper is startled and spills a little bit of his beer onto his shoes.CASPERShit.TELLY(smiling)Was up bitch?Casper looks at Telly smiling.CASPEROh shit what happened?Casper is very excited. He stands up and pulls Telly's arm.TELLYWhat do you think?CASPERYou fucked it?Telly laughs and Casper jumps up and down.CASPERI knew you fucked it! I sat out her for like two hours! That girl was like twelve, and you hit it up!TELLY(pounding his chest)Who am I? Who am I? The mothafuckin' virgin surgeon.They both start to laugh.They move off the stairs and start walking down the sidewalk. The two of them are walking down the street, obvious to everything but themselves talking.CASPERWell, how was it?TELLYOh my god, so good. That girl can fuck.CASPERShe can fuck?TELLYHell yeah. That bitch was bleeding. When I first put it in she screamed real loud. I saw her bite down on the pillow.CASPEROh shit. How long did it take?TELLYDid what take?CASPERHow long did you fuck her?They cross the street, paying no attention to speeding cars. Casper is listening to every word that Telly says. Casper seems much happier than Telly. Telly is laid-back. Casper is hyper as he jumps up and down and claws Telly's arm.TELLYWell it took me longer than I thought it would take. It took like 15 minutes to talk her into it. But once it was on, we fucked for a good half an hour. I had to keep taking it out and putting it back in. It hurts the first time.CASPERYeah.TELLYBut then when she got into it. She really got into it. It was good.CASPERHow did she smell? Did her puss stink?Telly puts his four fingers together and then puts his hand in front of Caper's nose.TELLYTake a whiff.Casper takes a huge whiff, the snot in his nose makes a loud sound as he smells Telly's fingers.CASPEROh man, it smells like butterscotch.TELLYHell's yeah. She was so clean.CASPEROh man, that's the best.TELLYYou could tell she took care of herself. She had all these powders and creams in her bathroom.CASPERLet me smell it again.Telly lifts his fingers once again, as Casper breathes in the odor. CASPERThat's why virgins are the best. I love that smell.As they walk down the street, joggers, men in business suits with briefcases, ambulances, and women with baby carriages all pass by.TELLYYou know what else?CASPERWhat?TELLYI can tell that she had just entered puberty.CASPERHow?TELLYWell, I was flipping through a picture book of her and her family, right. CASPERRight.TELLYAnd there was this picture of her painting Easter eggs or something. And I said, you were cut when you were little.CASPERYeah.TELLYAnd she goes, yeah that picture was taken less than a year ago. I look younger without my makeup.Casper starts to crack up.TELLYAnd I looked at her, and thought to myself Oh my god, this girl is a baby.CASPERYeah.TELLYAnd for a second I felt a little bit guilty. You know, because she's young and all. And then I was like, oh shit, that turns me on. I wanna fuck this little baby girl.They both laugh.CASPERFuckin perverted bastard.They continue to laugh and walk.TELLYI'm telling you Casper. I think I'm getting addicted to that shit.CASPERTo what? Virgins?TELLYYeah. It's like all I think about now. Not just that, it's like lately during sex, I start dreaming about these complex fantasies.CASPERWhat do you mean?TELLYI mean I'm dreaming about going all out, crazy shit.CASPERYou mean like fucking two virgins at once.TELLY(laughing)That would be good. But I mean more like. I don't know. Like when I was having sex with her, I kept thinking how much I would like to put it in her ass. Just to see what would happen.CASPER(laughing)She's probably smash you in the fucking face.TELLYI don't know about that. She was pretty into it. But I wasn't gonna try. The whole thing is, you just gotta take it slow. Show 'em some respect.CASPERDid you tell her that you loved her?TELLYLike. Like. Never love. Love is for low-level virgin seduction guys.They stop walking. Casper takes the last sip of his beer, then throws it toward an orange trash can. He misses the can and the bottle smashes in the middle of a busy street.CASPERShit.TELLYWhat do you want?CASPERGet another forty.(burps)Smoke a blunt.TELLYAre you hungry?CASPERHell yeah. Fuckin starvin. Wait up a sec.Casper takes two steps away and starts urinating in someone's bushes. People walk by and stare.TELLYYou wanna go to Paul's house?CASPERWhat for? That guys a dick.TELLYI'm sue he's got food. He's always got those microwave burrito things in his freezer. CASPERYou think he's got any herb?TELLYI don't know, he quit dealin but I'll bet he'll smoke us out.CASPERYou think?TELLYProbably.CASPERHe lives on 76th?TELLY78th.CASPERDen less go Joe.He zips up his pants.They start walking again. Casper is carrying a folded up comic book in his hand.CASPERTelly.TELLYYeah.CASPERDid she suck your dick?TELLYA little bit. But I didn't really want her to.CASPERWhy?TELLYI don't know. That's too easy. I mean getting a virgin to suck your dick. That's so easy.CASPERIt is right.TELLYI want to knock her guard down. I mean there's a whole philosophy behind it. Having a virgin suck your dick, that's basic because there's nothing lost.CASPERIt's no big deal, right?TELLYRight. But when you deflower a girl, that's it. You did it. You were the one. No one else can ever do it.CASPERYeah. The way I see it. My outlook on the this situation is.(they both start laughing)It's like getting fame, you know what I'm saying. It's like, if you died tomorrow, and fifty years from now all the virgins you fucked are gonna remember you because you were their first.TELLYYep.CASPERThey're gonna tell their grand kids.(mimicking an old lady)That Telly. He sure was good in the sack!The two of them are laughing, their conversation has gotten them very excited.They walk in front of a Korean grocery. The grocery has a small outdoor produce section, juice, fruit, sodas, etc. A KOREAN GUY with flip-flops and headphones is sitting on a tall wooden stool.TELLYYou thirsty?CASPERYeah, I feel dehydrated.TELLYYou got any money?CASPERThree pennies and a ball of lint.TELLYYou down with the boost?CASPER(whispers)Unzip my pack, yo.He turns around and Telly quickly unzips his backpack.INT. KOREAN GROCERY - DAYThe grocery is your basic traditional market with a lunch buffet. Behind the cash register is a middle-aged KOREAN MAN. He is watching a small black and white television set.The two boys enter.Casper walks straight to the back where they keep the beer. Telly circles the buffet and then walks up to the cash register.TELLYUh, let's see here, would you happen to have diss digg?KOREAN STORE OWNER Whah?TELLYDiss digg. I'm curious if you have it?KOREAN STORE OWNERWhah is dissdee?Casper is going through the beer section. He pulls out two 40oz. bottles of and puts them on the floor.TELLYDiss digg, diss digg, diss digg.KOREAN STORE OWNERI no understand you. Maybe crazy.A round mirror is reflecting Casper putting the bottles into his backpack.TELLYI'll ask you one last time. Do you have diss digg?KOREAN STORE OWNERWhah you say? Dissdee?Casper runs up to the counter and grabs his crotch.CASPERHe said This Dick, mutha fucka! Can't you understand English?The two of them both run out the door.Telly taps the Korean man who is sitting outside. The man looks in the opposite direction while Casper grabs two peaches and puts them into his pocket.The two boys run off.The Korean man gets off his stool. He pulls his headphones off his ears.KOREAN MANStupy fucky boys! Fucky!He looks at his fruit stand and puts a peach in the spot that Casper previously stole from.EXT. UPPER EAST SIDE - APARTMENT - DAYCasper and Telly are walking down the street. Casper is eating a peach and drinking his 40oz. beer. Telly is also drinking.CASPERYou know like in "The Wonder Twins" they share everything.TELLYThe cartoon?CASPERYeah. "The Wonder Twins". You know.(mimics the cartoon)Activate in the form of, a glass of water.TELLYYeah.CASPERWell, those guys share everything, right?TELLYRight.CASPERAnd once I saw this episode where they pretended they were each other. Where they lived the other's life for a day. You know those guys share everything, right?TELLYRight.CASPERAnd it got me thinkin. How fun it would be to share each other's girl.TELLY(laughing)Yeah, that would be fun but I don't like any of the girls you go out with. Like that one girl with two teeth and a clit ring.CASPERNo, I'm serious man. I'm dead ass. Do you wanna try? We could be like the fuckin X-rated "Wonder Twins"! The two of them start laughing and jumping on each other. Telly spits out a mouthful of beer.CASPER(laughing)Can you do it man?TELLY(laughing)Can I do it? I just brooke her cherry. I imagine I can make her do anything. Bark like a dog, jump through a ring of fire.Casper is jumping up and down on Telly's shoulder.CASPEROh man. I fucking love this guy.The two of them walk off laughing.EXT. PAUL'S APARTMENT BUILDING - DAYA medium sized apartment building on the Upper East Side. Cars are speeding by the front of the building. Cabs drive by and beep their horns.Telly and Casper are sitting on the front steps. Telly rings one of the buttons. The bottom switchboard is plastered with skateboarding stickers and "Legalize Marijuana" stickers. A Vespa scooter is parked on the outside in front of the building, it also has stickers on it.Telly rings it again. It is a very hot day, both boys are wiping sweat from their bodies.PAUL(from box)Hello?TELLYIt's me. Telly.PAUL(from box)Hello?TELLY(loudly)Paul it's Telly. Open up.A buzz is heard.There is a little girl sitting on the bottom step, playing with a doll. Casper runs down and gives her a peach. Then he runs back up.Telly and Casper enter the building.The little girl tosses the peach to the ground.INT. PAUL'S APARTMENT BUILDING - DAYThere are about ten guys in the apartment. There is almost no furniture, just two white couches and a few plants in the corner. There is a big TV in the center of the floor. A Nintendo with several wires is hooked up to it. There are various games spread out. A couple of boys are huddled around the game, as they watch the guy play, they breathe in the wip-it's. The boys are all young and spread out. There are people lying on the couch, on the floor, on the phone, in the kitchen smoking pot and doing wip-its. They are all colors and sizes.Casper and Telly go to each person and greet them with a handshake. Some people they hug. They say "Was up," to everyone.They both sit down on the floor and continue to drink their beers.Paul sits down besides them.PAULWhat are you guys doing?TELLYNothing. We just wanted to come by and see what you were up to.PAULYou want a wip-it?TELLYNah.CASPERYeah.Paul puts his hand on his big pocket and gives Casper a cartridge. Casper breathes in the wip-it and then smiles really big.CASPERI love these shits.PAULThey're good for you. Vitamin C for the new generation.Paul hands Casper another cartridge.CASPERThat's why I like 'em. They wake my brain up.Casper does the wip-it.STANLEY, a tall black kid with dreads, walks out of the kitchen. He has a cordless phone in his hand. Casper continues to do wip-it's. One after another.TELLYSo, how many people live here now?PAULI don't know, eight or nine.TELLYWhere does everyone sleep?PAULEverywhere. Fuckin flophouse. We're still short on the rent. If you want, you and Casper can move in. You guys can share the bathtub.STANLEYYo Telly. Jennie says what's up.TELLYJennie who?STANLEYJennie. You know.CASPERThat girl you boned last year. Remember?TELLYMan I haven't seen her in forever. What the fuck's she up to?INT. RUBY'S ROOM - DAYFive girls are sitting in a small room. They are smoking. They're all in a circle laughing. The girls are all good friends. A few of them have rings in their lips and eyebrows. A big dirty fish tank is on one of the bookshelves.Ruby is a nice looking girl, age 17. She is Spanish, her hair is slicked back, she chain-smokes.Jennie is a 15 year old high school sophomore. She is white. She is very pretty, with an uncommon touch of innocence about her.The next episode is going to jump-cut back and forth between Paul's apartment and Rubby's room. These scenes should be handheld.Ruby hangs up the phone.RUBYTelly says was up.JENNIEI knew he wouldn't want to speak to me. That dick.RUBYYou still mad at him?JENNIEOf course. How am I gonna forgive him after what he did?!SUSANWhat did he do?Ruby cuts of Jennie.RUBYHe stole her virginity. He took it away and now it's gone forever.Laughter.JENNIEYeah. But it's not even the fact that he devirginized me. It's the fact that after it was done he never spoke to me again. He talked all this bullshit and then just broke out.LINDAThat's the kinda shit he's into. Telly is known for that stuff. He fucked Amber the same way.SUSANAnd Susan too.JENNIEBut he was all like, Oh Jennie I like you so much. Trust me you'll love it, I'm not gonna use you. I promise. He was poppin mad jazz.More laughter from the group.They all speak very quickly, almost to the point where you can't understand them.SUSANFirst times are always wacked. Just be glad you didn't lose your virginity in the backseat of a rental car.RUBYThat shit is nothin. I remember, I had just turned 14. With this fuckin asshole who was like 18. I don't even remember his name. I think it was John or Jake or something. I remember he had a brother named Lentil because I would always joke and call him Lentil Bean. This was away at like sleep away camp with your friends and shit.JENNIEOh yeah.Laughter.RUBYAnd we did it in the bush. Like outside around midnight. I got fucking mosquito bits all over my ass. And we thought everyone was sleeping, but they obviously weren't because everybody knew. And it was out on the grass somewhere. And it hurt like a motha, oh my god the pain!Laughter.LINDA(cracking up)That's the shit! That's the shit!Linda slaps hands with Ruby.RUBYThe pain. The fucking pain!JENNIEAnd you feel like you're being ripped open inside.RUBYYou are being ripped open.JENNIEI know.RUBYDid you bleed?JENNIEI didn't bleed.RUBYYou didn't?JENNIENo, I didn't bleed.SUSANI bled. I fucking bled all over the sheets.DIANEMe too.RUBYI bled. I bled like on the condom, there was blood everywhere. And you know what he started singing? He started singing "Sunday Bloody Sunday." That stupid fucking song.Everyone is cracking up.RUBYI was like... I was like... No. They sang that the whole sleep away. My reputation!DIANEIt doesn't even matter though. It's such bullshit. The reputation is bullshit.RUBYI know.DIANEYou know.JENNIEYep.DIANEI don't give a fuck. I have sex and I like fucking.RUBYHell yeah. I love. I love sex.JENNIEForeplay. Foreplay.LINDA(smacks hands together)Yep. That's the best way. It's that boom boom boom.RUBYRight. You know it's not like... You know there's a difference between sex, making love, and fucking!LINDAYep.RUBYMaking love is like.LINDASweet.SUSANSlow.RUBYIt's grandmother style.Jennie is cracking up and pounding Ruby's back.LINDAYeah.RUBYIt's like...LINDAYou know what it's like. It's like when you really love someone, it's like awww.RUBYYeah.LINDAIts like. But it gets boring. It's boring.RUBYIt's really slow. It's slow boring.SUSANYeah.RUBYIt's very monotonous.LINDAYeah. And sex is just like, yeah let's have sex,SUSANIt's like yeah whatever. But when you fuck. You wanna fuck that person. You're like ripping each other's hair out. Ooooh.She pulls her hair, everyone laughs.RUBYRight. You're like it's just this instinct. It's like this animal instinct is taking over you. It's like...JENNIEPassion...RUBYBoom!!! Boom!!!INT. PAUL'S APARTMENT - DAYSome of the guys are sitting in front of the couch doing wip-its. Casper is chewing on a microwave burrito and watching the guy next to him play Nintendo. He is blowing into the burrito.They are in the midst of a conversation.STANLEYYeah, yeah, yeah!PAULThat's the one thing. They expect you to be so gentle, so kind...ZACKWhen most of time you just wanna be all. Pounding on that shit.STANLEYThat would be the best if you could just be. Excuse me can I borrow your hole Miss? It'll only take a little while. I'll give it right back.Laughter.TELLYBut that's the thing. Girl's like it slow. They like romance. They like things to be sweet and romantic.CASPERYep.TELLYI mean I've been with a lot of girls I know.CASPERYeah me too nigga.INT RUBY'S ROOM - DAYIn the midst of their conversation.SUSANYou know... You know a lot of times sex gets in the way. Has that ever happened to you?LINDAYep.SUSANYou know. Because sometimes the foreplay is just so good. And then when it actually comes time for sex. It's like the worst letdown.JENNIEYep, yep. But he has to know what he's doing and where he's going. Because they can like touch you for hours and they won't ever know.RUBYHell yeah, they don't know.They all start laughing and clapping hands and snapping fingers.JENNIELike where are your erogenous zones?RUBYMine?JENNIEMine are like my neck and my chest.LINDAYeah. Mine are my toes. Oh my God if someone sucks my toes I'll come in like ten seconds!RUBYYeah. It depends. Cause like this one time with Eric, when we got blasted at his house. And Smash J and DJ Flipper was there...LINDAOh shit.RUBYAnd we were blasted, and he must have been dumb horney. And he just pulled me over to the bed. And they were in the room, like getting dressed, like getting ready to go to go to DiscoSUSANRight.RUBYAnd we were like underneath the sheets. We were going at it like crazy. Oh my God that shit was so good! It was like hard...SUSANYeah.RUBYHe was like sucking my tits. He was fucking fingering me. But that shit was nice and hard.She starts pounding her fists.RUBY (CONT'D)I was like ripping his hair out. And we kissed like so hard that our lips were busted. And that shit was so good. It was crazy.They slap hands and laugh.RUBY(laughing)He was like ripping my hair. I was like oh yeah.(moving her hips back and forth)Work it.They all crack up.SUSANYou know why I decided to go out with Alex.JENNIEWhy?SUSAN(starts laughing)He has the best fucking fingers I've ever had.She holds up her middle two fingers and starts shaking them back and forth. Everyone is cracking up.SUSAN(still laughing)I was like yes! I'm going out with him!LINDAThat's right. That's why foreplay is better than sex.SUSANYep.LINDABecause he can like climax you up to that...JENNIE... Point.LINDAYep. Where just one more move and you would be like crazy.She snaps her fingers.RUBYYep.LINDABut then the sex gets into the way and you're like: What happened! What the hell happened?!RUBYYeah it's the biggest disappointment!SUSANYeah. And it takes them either too long or too short to come. Have you ever had someone that took foreverRUBYTo come?SUSANYeah. I had sex with Jake, and it took him like an hour and a half.LINDAYeah. The shit gets wacked. Fifteen minutes.RUBYYeah. Fifteen minutes to a half an hour. Hard and deep.LINDAMe. I can only take it up to fifteen minutes. Cause I get bored.RUBYYeah I get bored.LINDAI start thinking about what I'm gonna eat afterwards.SUSANYeah, eat. I got real thirsty too.Laughter.INT. PAUL'S APARTMENT - DAYContinued talking.Casper is playing the video game. He is playing with a great deal of intensity.CASPERYou know what I notice?ZACKWhat?CASPERI notice that girls love to give head. It's like a secret pastime hobby for them. Or somethin'.STANLEYSome girls.CASPERAll girls. They love it. I know.Casper's game finishes.CASPER(under his breath)I hate this game.TELLYNo. Casper's right. Girls love it. They just act like they don't in front of their friends.PAULYeah. But when it's just you and them. That's like the first thing they go for.Casper starts a new game.CASPERI know. They love it. That's why girls live longer than guys. 'Cause sperm has vitamin C.INT. RUBY'S ROOM - DAYIn the midst of their conversation.JENNIEI hate sucking dick!RUBYYeah. 'Cause they fucking shoot you in the eye, the face, the ear.JENNIEAnd sometimes it takes a long time, and you're fucking gagging.RUBYYeah. And then it hits that little thing.(pointing to the back of her throat)That little punch bag. What is it? The tonsils. The esophagus, whatever.JENNIEYeah. And you're not getting anything out of it.RUBYAnd it's like. How much more can I bob here? You know.LINDAAnd you don't get shit out of it.SUSANHave you ever swallowed it before?JENNIENo.SUSANMe neither.RUBYI have.They all laugh.RUBYIt was... it was.SUSANIt's like sweet and sour, and salty butter.RUBYNo, no, no. You can't get that taste out of your mouth. Until you eat something.SUSANYeah.RUBYYou can drink like there's no tomorrow but you still can't get that sperm between the teeth out. It's so disgusting.Laughter.RUBY (CONT'D)The only way you can get it out is like if you eat like a real meal.INT. PAUL'S APARTMENT - DAYContinuing the conversation.Telly is looking straight into the CAMERA.TELLYAll I know is that condoms suck. They don't work. They break. They slip off. It's impossible to feel anything. They make your dick shrink. But I still use 'em. Or at least I did once.INT. RUBY'S HOUSE - DAYLaughter accompanies their conversation.JENNIEI mean. Telly is the only guy I've ever had sex with. You knew that.DIANENo. I didn't know that. I thought you got with A.J. too.JENNIENo, we just messed around.INT. PAUL'S APARTMENT - DAYContinued talking.PAULThat's the whole thing. You know if you look at it. I mean all you hear about is disease this and disease that. And everyone's dying. And you better wear a condom or else. But the truth is. I don't know any kids with AIDS. No one I know has ever died from that shit. It's like some weird make-believe story that the whole world believes.TELLYYep.Playing the video game.CASPERYeah. It's a great big fraud.INT. RUBY'S ROOM - DAYContinued talking.RUBYI've known the past of all the people I've fucked without a condom. Like I know one of the people got tested and was negative.LINDAYeah.RUBYAnd I know that one of them fucked like two other girls, who were both virgins, so I knew he was safe.LINDAYeah.RUBYAnd the other person I just fucked, which was a mistake. But I went to the clinic last week with Jennie.Jennie looks embarrassed.RUBYI made her get tested with me because I didn't want to go alone.LINDADid they ask you a lot of questions?INT. TESTING CLINIC - DAYRuby is sitting across from a BLACK NURSE. The nurse has a clipboard in her hand. She is sitting at a small desk that is cluttered with papers and pictures of her kids. The room is decorated on shades of bright yellow. There are pictures of clowns on the wall. There is a large paper diagram on the wall that traces, step by step, the process of inserting a condom.Ruby is chewing gum and tapping her feet. She scratches her elbow.The black nurse is very overweight; she talks with a strong New York accent. She sips a coffee mug that reads "I love Mom."BLACK NURSEHow old you?RUBY17.INT. TESTING CLINIC - DAYJennie is sitting across from a very skinny WHITE NURSE. The nurse has a clip board in her head. Spanish rock music is sleeping through the walls. A small desk fan is rotating back and forth. The room is dirty.Jennie is sitting in a chair. She looks very pretty and child-like. She is facing downward and her hair is falling into her face.Jennie speaks in a low voice.WHITE NURSEHow old are you?JENNIE15.INT. TESTING CLINIC - DAYThe black nurse scratches her scalp and it makes a noise.BLACK NURSEHow many people have you had vaginal intercourse with?RUBYUmm. Altogether? BLACK NURSEYes. Altogether.RUBYHmm. I'd say eight, maybe nine.BLACK NURSEHow many times have you gone unprotected?RUBYWith four of them, I didn't use any kind of protection. Wait, maybe it was three.INT. TESTING CLINIC - DAYThe white nurse scribbles something down.WHITE NURSEHow many people have you had vaginal intercourse with?JENNIEOne.WHITE NURSEWere you protected?Pause.JENNIENo.An EXTREME CLOSEUP shot of a pencil checking the NO box.INT. TESTING CLINIC - DAYThe black nurse takes a long sip from her mug.BLACK NURSEHave you ever had anal intercourse?RUBYYes.BLACK NURSEWith how many people?RUBYUmm. Three I believe. But I'm not sure.BLACK NURSEWere they wearing condoms?RUBYUh. Yes. Twice they weren't. Two times they didn't.INT. TESTING CLINIC - DAYThe white nurse sticks her head a few inches from the fan and lets the wind blow her sweaty face.WHITE NURSEHave you ever had anal intercourse?JENNIENo.INT. TESTING CLINIC - DAYThe black nurse has a big smile on her face.BLACK NURSEOkee dokey. You should come back in seven days and we should have your results.INT. TESTING CLINIC - DAYA CLOSEUP of Jennie's face.JENNIE(timidly)Thanks.EXT. ENTRANCE OF AN UPTOWN TRAIN STATION - DAYCasper and Telly run down the stairwell. People enter and exit.INT. TRAIN STATION - DAYCasper and Telly run down the stairs. They look around to see if there is any transit security. They simultaneously walk up to the turnstile and pull back the revolving metal guard. Then they slip through very nonchalantly.A short BLING GUY is playing the accordion. He is standing up and tapping his feet. He's playing "Danny Boy". In front of his feet is a large leather briefcase with dollar bills and scattered change.Casper and Telly walk up to the Blind Guy. They watch him for a second, then Casper starts to clap with his beer in his hand. He starts to smile really big.Telly sees Casper smiling and then he begins to smile.CASPERMan, this guy is really good.TELLYHe looks like my uncle.Casper looks at the money collection.CASPERI bet he makes hella money.A train comes speeding by.Casper walks next to the Blind Guy and starts dancing really funny. Telly starts to laugh. Some guy in a business suit walks by and throws some change in the collection.INT. TESTING CLINIC - WAITING ROOM - DAYTypical waiting room. Big sofas and chairs. A table is in the middle of the floor, magazines and pocketbooks. A water jug is in the corner. A ceiling fan is circling fast up above.An assortment of men and women of different races and colors. They look mainly middle class. Jennie and Ruby are the youngest people in the room.A man in a three-piece suit slowly walks by. Jennie tries to see his face but he is turned the wrong way. Ruby continues to talk.The same fat black nurse walks out with a clipboard. She begins to cough tremendously.RUBY... I don't know, I think he's mad at me, but who cares...Ruby and Jennie stop talking and look at the black nurse. She is coughing uncontrollably. She looks like a large shaking figure. A skinny nurse walks by, pounds her on the back, and she stops coughing.The black nurse has a smile on her face, her eyes watery. She turns and looks at Ruby.BLACK NURSEWoowee! It must have been something I ate!(coughs then smiles)Ruby, follow me.Ruby stands up and looks at Jennie. Ruby crosses both her fingers and raises them in the air.RUBYWish me luck.JENNIEGood luck.Ruby follows the black nurse. This should be one long shot, as Ruby follows the nurse through the hectic testing clinic. The two of them enter the same room as before.INT. WAITING ROOM - DAYThe skinny white nurse picks up a folder with Jennie's name on it. She opens the door to the waiting room and looks at Jennie sitting down with her eyes closed.WHITE NURSEJennie.Jennie stands up and smiles. She walks towards the door.INT. TESTING CLINIC - DAYRuby is sitting down in a chair. The black nurse picks up a file from the back of the door. She opens it and smiles.BLACK NURSE(cough, pause)Well, girl. You tested negative for all sexually transmitted diseases and infections.RUBYYes!BLACK NURSEYou're clean.RUBYOh my God. I can't tell you how nervous I've been. I couldn't sleep last night.BLACK NURSENow you gotta be careful.The black nurse pulls out a bunch of pamphlets.BLACK NURSEHere take these pamphlets home and read them.INT. TESTING CLINIC - DAYJennie is standing up. She is hugging herself. The white nurse is sitting down at her desk. The nurse looks real closely at the folder and then shuts it.WHITE NURSEJennie. You've tested positive for the HIV infection.JENNIEWhat?WHITE NURSEThe test isn't one hundred percent accurate. You should...JENNIEI tested positive?WHITE NURSEI'm sorry.JENNIEBut I only had sex with Telly.The nurse is quiet. JENNIEI just got tested to keep Ruby company.INT. SUBWAY CAR - DAYTelly and Casper are sitting side by side. Casper is holding a 40oz. bottle of beer. The train is semi-crowded; all seats are taken and there are a few people standing up. The train shakes. They are headed downtown.Casper and Telly are looking at the couple directly across from them. They are two unattractive lower-class Spanish people, they are holding hands and kissing.TELLYI wanna fuck Darcy.CASPERWho?TELLYDarcy. Benny's little sister.CASPEROh. You like her?TELLYYeah. I like her. I've wanted to get with her for a while now.CASPERDarcy?TELLYYeah. She's so little, so pretty, and innocent.CASPERYeah. She's only 13.TELLYIt's funny. Last weekend at that block party. Remember?CASPERYeah.TELLYShe was handing out those watermelon slices. And I sat down over on the other side, And I watched her.CASPER(excited)Yeah.TELLYI watched her eat the watermelon. And all this juice started running down her chin and onto her shirt.CASPER(smiling)Yeah.TELLYAnd after about two seconds, I got the biggest hard-on.Casper starts laughing.TELLYI'm not joking. I wanted to take my dick out and start jacking right there. At that point and moment, Darcy was like a vision of perfection.CASPERI know what you mean.TELLYAt that moment, at that block party, she represented everything holy about a virgin.CASPERShe hangs out at Nasa. She promotes for them.TELLYI'm gonna fuck her tonight. I swear to God I'm gonna fuck her.CASPER(laughing)How are you gonna fuck two virgins in a day? That shits gotta be against the law.TELLYI don't care motha fucka. I'll bet you money she fucks me.CASPERBet.The two of them shake hands.CASPERYou wanna run by the park and see what everybody's doing? Get zooted?TELLYI guess so. I gotta stop off home too.At this point the sound of the subway door is heard. A black man with no legs pushes himself through with his hands. He has a large container filled with change. As he enters, his cup of change is heard smashing back and forth. His face is even with people's knees. A random few stuff change and dollar bills into his cup. He sings as he pushes his way through the cat. He has an afro pick sticking out the back of his head. He is wearing a shirt that says "KISS ME I'M POLISH".LEGLESS MAN(singing)I have no legs. I have no legs. I have no legs. I have no legs.As he pushes his way closer, Casper starts checking his all his pockets. When he gets about three feet away, Casper stands up and throws some pennies into his cup. He sits back down next to Telly.The legless man stops and smiles at Casper.LEGLESS MANThank you. God bless you.CASPERYeah. Bless you back.The legless man makes his way into the next car.TELLYI don't understand why you do that.CASPERWhy I do what?TELLYThat.CASPERWhy I give pennies?TELLYYeah. Why you give money.CASPERDid you look at that guy? What the fuck. He had no legs.(motions to his waist)He had no half his lower body. He's gotta shit out of his ribcage.TELLYThat's just it. It's elitist. It's reverse elitism. Because you give money to whoever is the most fucked up. I notice what you do.CASPERWhat are you talking about?TELLYWhenever you see someone who's really messed up, especially amputees and retards. You give them money. But if it's just a regular bum, you pass them by.CASPERSo.TELLYSo. These people live on the same streets. It's just that you reserve your money for those people who are massively fucked up. The regular bums aren't poor enough for you, you gotta give it to the bottom of the barrel scum fucks.CASPERSo. You never know when you can end up like that.TELLYRight.CASPERI'll tell you why. Because when I was little, I had a fat cousin, cousin Luke. And he used to make fun of the handicapped. And one day he had a bad stomachache. So he drank a bottle of Pepto and his ass blew off.TELLYShut up.CASPERI'm telling you the truth. And after that, I've always givin' my money to retards. Because that's the reverse of what he did.Telly is laughing.CASPERSo really, it's good luck.TELLYGood luck?CASPERYeah, good luck. I mean what the fuck. The guy had no legs.They both laugh.INT. TELEPHONE BOOTH - DAYRuby and Jennie are squeezed into a telephone booth. They are on a busy street. People are walking by the cars are in a standstill gridlock. It is very loud outside. Everyone is beeping their horns and screaming out windows.Ruby looks very dazed and confused. Jennie is nervous and shaky.Jennie picks up the phone and puts it to her ear. She searches her pockets for a quarter and comes up empty. She begins shaking her hands back and forth.JENNIERuby. Do you have a quarter?Ruby hands her a quarter. Jennie dials her house.JENNIE(into phone) Peter, is Mom there? No, I need to speak to Mommy... Peter where's Mommy? No, I can't talk to you right now. Yeah... I hear it... look just tell her... No never mind... Go watch television.She hangs up the phone and starts to cry. Ruby puts her arm around Jennie.RUBYShh. Come on, it's gonna be OK.JENNIEThat's it. I'm gonna have to tell my little brother, I'm gonna die. I can't make him his lunches anymore.RUBYCome on. Don't cry. We'll work it out.JENNIEI only did it once and...A man with a beeper walks up and taps on the phone booth.PHONE BOOTH MANYou usin the phone?RUBYGet the fuck outta here man!PHONE BOOTH MANWhat?RUBY(screaming inside the booth)I said get the fuck outta here before I smash your fucking face in mothafucka!!!JENNIEI gotta go. I gotta find Telly.RUBYDon't go anywhere. Stay with me.JENNIEI gotta find him.Jennie squeezes by Ruby and pushes open the door to the booth.RUBYI'm coming.JENNIENo. I just gotta go find him.Ruby grabs Jennie's arm and Jennie pulls away. Jennie starts walking and wiping the tears out of her eyes.RUBYJen!Jennie looks back at Ruby and then starts running down the street.RUBY(screaming)Jennie!Jennie is running down the street full speed. She is passing all the people on the sidewalk. Then she darts across the street and through the traffic. Some people stare. She continues to run as the CAMERA follows her for a full block. She bumps into people and pushes them away.EXT. TELLY'S HOUSE - DAYTelly and Casper walk up to the house. Telly lives in a flat on St. Marks; downtown. Two Spanish hoodlums are sitting on the front steps. Telly and Casper walk up and slap their hands. Casper looks for some place to hide his beer. One of the hoodlums puts his hand out and Casper gives it to him.Telly opens the door with his key and Casper follows close behind. They walk straight to the end of the hallway and enter.Telly's house is cluttered. The house is nice but organized. The kitchen has pots and pans hanging from the ceiling. There is a Matisse poster hanging in a frame. Large bookshelves filled to the gills with books. Big plush couches in the living room, a rocking chair in the corner. A small wooden piano. A scattered game of Monopoly is on the dinning room table, a few cats roam the house. On the wall are pictures of Telly as a young boy, and large family portraits.Telly and Casper walk into the living room, then enter the kitchen. Telly's mom is in the kitchen breast-feeding a small baby. She has her hair pulled back and her breast out. There is a small television set on the kitchen counter that she is watching.TELLYHi mom.MOMHi Telly. Where you been?CASPERHi.MOMHi Casper.Telly goes to the refrigerator and takes out a big jug of Kool-Aid. Casper gets the glasses down from the cabinet.TELLYWe were out trying to find a job.Pouring the Kool-Aid.MOMAny luck?CASPERNo none.MOMSo, what are you gonna do for money this summer?TELLYI don't know. Find a job.(pause)Hey can I borrow some money?Casper is staring at Telly's mom as she breast-feeds.MOMSorry. Dad made me promise not to give you any money until you find a job.TELLYBut then I won't need your money.MOMThat's right.Casper is staring at Telly's mom's breast.CASPERMan, Telly, your little brother is getting big.TELLYYeah.Telly walks out of the kitchen and up the stairs, Casper slowly staggers behind. As they walk up the stairs, Telly pulls his shirt off and wipes his underarms and chest.Casper pulls Telly's arm.CASPERHoly shit man, your mom's got good titties.TELLYShut the fuck up.The two of them enter Telly's parents room.INT. TELLY'S PARENT'S BEDROOM - DAYThe bedroom is messy. There are clothes lying on the bed and floor. There is an exercise bike in the corner. Museum posters are on the wall. Tampons on the dresser.Casper follows Telly into the bedroom. Telly sticks his head out the door to make sure his mother isn't coming.Casper picks up a tampon and starts playing with it.Telly opens his mother's shoe closet. All her shoes hand from a big wooden door. He goes directly to a pair of black dress pumps. He pulls out the shoes and puts them under his arm, then he puts his hand in the shot slot and pulls out a pair of shoulder pads with a rubber band rapped around them. He pulls off the rubber brand, and in between the shoulder pads is a small wad of cash. He takes out the cash and sits on the bed counting it.Casper is pushing the tampon back and forth inside the plastic shell.CASPERHow do these things work?Telly is counting the cash.TELLYTwent, twenty-five, thirty-five, forty-five, fifty.Casper is looking at himself in the mirror.CASPERHow much you gonna take?TELLYI don't know. How much do you want?Casper is looking at teeth in the mirror.CASPERAbout ten. Fifteen is good.TELLYFifteen for me.He puts fifteen dollars in his back pocket.TELLYTen for you.Casper is scrapping his teeth with the tampon while looking in the mirror.Telly stands up and hands Casper the ten dollars. Caper puts the money in his back pocket.Telly picks up his mother's shoulder pads and puts the remaining cash between them. He stuffs the shoulder pads into the shoe slot. He picks up his mother's black pumps and puts them into the slot. He shuts the door.Telly picks up his shirt and walks out of the room.Casper throws the tampon into the trash and follows Telly.INT. TELLY'S ROOM - DAYHis room is a total mess, worse than imaginable. His clothes, the furniture, piles of porno magazines and science books, are all covered with candy wrappers and potato chip bags. His television is on a scrambled station. He has one big poster of Albert Einstein on his wall. He has a water bed. He has a few small plants next to his windowsill.There is a cat sleeping next to his bed.TELLYGet the fuck out of here cat!Telly kicks the cat out his door. Casper shuts the door.TELLYYou think Darcy is gonna be at Nasa tonight?CASPER Yeah probably.Telly picks up the small spray bottle used for watering plants, he begins to spray his face and chest.CASPERYo, you got any weed around here?TELLYNaw. But we should run by the park and get a dime. Maybe Darcy will be at the park.Casper is sitting on the water bed, he is pumping one of Telly's small ten pound dumbbells.CASPERYo. I'm gonna get buff dude.TELLYYou are?CASPERYeah. The other day, some sort of Chinese bitch told me I'd look good with muscles.Casper is pumping and making faces.CASPERI'm gonna get mad diesel. I'm gonna fuck any nigga that tries to step to me.Telly is wiping his body off with a towel from the floor. He sniffs his arms and then picks up a stick of deodorant and applies it.TELLYYou want some?Casper is still pumping.CASPERNah.TELLYWhy not? You stink.CASPERThat shit gives me a rash all under my arms and around my stomach. I like my odor. It's fuckin natural.The CAMERA stays on Casper while he continues to pump his dumbbell and look at his arm.INT. TELLY'S KITCHEN - DAYMom is watching a soap opera on television. The baby is in a small rocker on the counter. She is rocking it back and forth with one hand while smoking a cigarette.TELLYMom.MOMShh.TELLY(whispering)I'm gonna go out for a little while.MOMWhen are you gonna be back?TELLYNot too late.MOMFour-thirty in the morning?TELLYNot too late.Casper and Telly walk to the door.TELLYHey Mom. Are you sure I can't get any money? Just a few bucks.MOMIf I had it, maybe. But right now I don't have a penny to my name.TELLYAll right.Casper waves good-bye.MOMBye.Casper and Telly leave. Telly slams the door behind him. The baby wakes up and starts to cry.MOMShit.EXT. PAUL'S APARTMENT BUILDING - DAYJennie walks up the stairs to Paul's apartment. She takes her finger down the list of names.She rings his bell. Paul sounds really messed up.PAUL(from the speaker, laughter and noise)Hello.JENNIEHello Paul. Is Telly inside?PAUL(laughing)Is Telly there?PAULThis is Paul. Who is this?JENNIEIt's Jennie. Just tell me if Telly is there.PAUL(drunkenly, laughter)Oh hi Jennie. Do you want to come make out with me?JENNIEI'm fucking serious. Where's Telly?PAULTelly's not here right now. I believe he went downtown. Casper too.Jennie walks down the stairs. A little white girl is sitting on the bottom stair, playing with a black doll. The doll has no hair and it's dress is ripped. She looks up at Jennie.LITTLE GIRLMy dolly is black... Lucy.The girl sticks her doll out so Jennie can hold it.EXT. WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK - DAYCasper and Telly are standing by the chess tables. The park is very busy. Every chess table is being used. People are riding bikes and roller-blading. Strong men are doing pull-ups on the monkey bars while guys walk by with ghetto blasters. A state of public frenzy.A Rastafarian drug dealer with a big dread cap is standing a little bit away from Telly and Casper. He is approaching everyone as they walk by him.DRUG DEALER(fast and slurred)... Sess... Smoke, hash, shrooms, valium, coke... Sessamila.CASPERYo, was up Ras!RASAh Caspa! Was up little blood clot?Casper and Telly walk up and shake his hand.CASPERNuffin. You gots?RASShoot yeah boy. Fuckin best herb. Uptown shit boy.TELLYNone of that twigs and pebbles shit.Another guy trying to sell drugs walks up, but Ras just pushes him away.Telly pulls the money out of his back pocket.Ras pulls out a dime bag and pushes it open. He looks around and then puts it in Casper's face.RASFucking good skunk.CASPERSmells delicious.Casper starts to laugh.Telly goes to hand the drug dealer the money. Ras looks around to make sure it's safe.RASThrow it down.He points to the floor; then throws the weed on the ground. Telly drops two five dollar bills.CASPERThanks Ras.RASCaspa!!!Ras laughs. The two of them slap hands. Ras slaps Telly's hand and walks away.EXT. UNDER THE ARCH - WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK - DAYThe park is extremely crowded. The kids hang out in front of the arch by the fountain and around the sides. There are about ten kids skateboarding. The fountain is on and the mist is spraying the kids. Girls in hip-hop fashion are lined up all around. A few kids are drawing graffiti in little black books. There are maybe twenty kids hanging out around the fountain, in front of the arch.Casper and Telly walk up to the center of the action.They greet their friends sitting on the edge of the fountain. Skateboarders ride up and slap their hands. As they greet their friends, they kiss the girls on the cheek and a few of them on the lips, they slap hands with the guys and embrace some with a hug.Telly and Casper go down the line, greeting everyone. This process takes a while, as they interact with everyone down the line.HAROLD is a skinny black skateboarder with a funny face. He rides up to Casper and hugs him.HAROLDCasper! Was up kid?CASPERNothen B. HAROLDWhere you at?CASPERRight here.HAROLDWhere you goin tonight?CASPERMaybe Nasa. I don't know.HAROLDYou goin?CASPERYeah.HAROLDI'm goin. You on the list?CASPERProbably. Fuck that, I'll sneak in. I need some female vagina tonight.HAROLDI had a female vagina last night.HAMILTON, a short black guy with a Gilligan hat, walks up.HAMILTONYo Cass, you got any boom?Telly is sitting on the cement benches talking to MISHA, a pretty young girl with a belly button pierce.CASPERYep. You got a Phillie?HAMILTONPresto.Hamilton pulls out a long Phillie cigar. Then he squeezes in between Casper and another guy.Casper pulls out his dime bag and sniffs it. The he puts it in front of Hamilton's nose.HAMILTONYou got that here in the park?CASPERYep.HAMILTONBreak that shit up.Casper is smushing the pot up. Hamilton is taking the plastic of the cigar. In this shot they go through the complete process of rolling a blunt. The next sequenceshould be done with fast edits.HAMILTONCut it.Hamilton cuts the cigar down the center with his long thumbnail.HAMILTONScrape it.He then scrapes all the tobacco out of the center and onto the ground. HAMILTONLick it.He then licks the outer paper till it gets very damp.HAMILTONDump it.Casper starts putting the weed inside, Hamilton licks it, then pulls out a lighter and dries it.HAMILTONAnd smoke it.Hamilton puts it in his mouth.HAMILTONYou wanna start off?Hamilton looks at Casper and puts the blunt in his face.CASPERNaw, you got it Ham.Hamilton smiles.HAMILTONAll right.He puts the blunt in his mouth and lights it. A big flame shoots up as it catches the end of the Phillie. Hamilton takes a few big puffs and then blows the smoke away.HAMILTONTake two pulls and pass.Hamilton passes the blunt to Casper. A bunch of kids start huddling around Casper as he puffs.STEVEN, a skinny Spanish kid with gold front teeth, walks up.STEVENYo can I fuck wit dat?Casper smiles and blows smoke in his face.CASPERYeah boy!Casper hits it again and then hands it to Steve, who takes immense hits.Two male homosexuals in short shorts walk by holding hands.Steven turns his head and notices them. He exhales the smoke out of his nose.STEVENLook at that.HAROLDThat shit is sick. Fuckin faggots.CASPER(screaming at the top of his lungs)Fuckin faggots!!!Everyone starts laughing.CASPER(as loud as possible)Faggots!!!Casper rubs his throat. People continue to laugh.CASPERMy throat.Telly is sitting away on the cement benches under the tree. He is talking to Misha.MISHAHow can you hang out with Casper? He's such a jerk.TELLYYou think so?MISHAYeah. I've always hated that kid. He used to eat glue in like seventh grade.TELLYHe still does.MISHAI hate 'em.TELLYIt's not his fault. He had a hard life.MISHAYeah?TELLYYou've heard the stories right?MISHANo.EXT. NEW YORK SIDEWALK - DAYBack in time. Casper is a little boy, age 11. He is walking down the sidewalk with a lunch box and a "Casper the Friendly Ghost" T-shirt. He is wearing his hat on backwards.Music accompanies this entire episode.TELLY (V.O.)Well, one day Casper had a stomachache and he got permission from his teacher to leave school early and go home.Casper walks up to a nice middle-class home, it could be in Queens or Brooklyn, it doesn't matter. He pulls out a key and opens the door. He enters his home.INT. CASPER'S HOUSE - DAYThe house is dark. Plastic on all the furniture. A velvet picture of Christ is hanging on the wall in the hallway. Very simple and plain, a generic adobe.Casper enters his house and flips on a lightswitch.TELLY (V.O.)So he walks into his house and hears some strange noises.The sounds of his mother screaming from upstairs. CASPER'S MOM(screaming from upstairs)Get away! Get away! Help! You monster! Please help!Casper puts his lunch box down and walks to the first stair to listen to his mother's screams.TELLY (V.O.)The noises were coming from upstairs. In his parents room.Casper's mom continues to scream from upstairs.TELLY (V.O.)So, this freaked the hell out of Casper. He was just a little kid and he wasn't sure what to do.Casper moves off the step and runs into the kitchen.TELLY (V.O.)So he ran and got a big knife. The same knife his pops used to cut the turkey on Thanksgiving with.He opens a drawer full of silverware and pulls out a humongous glistening knife. He picks it up, and it shines on his face.As his mother screams he looks up at the ceiling with the knife in his hand.CASPER'S MOM(screaming from upstairs)Stop! Please stop! Oooh help!Casper runs up the stairs, he is holding the knife straight out.TELLY (V.O.)So he heard his mom's screams, and knew that she was in trouble. It sounded like she was getting ready to be killed. Like someone was kicking her in the head.Casper runs down the hall and opens the door to his parents room.What he sees is very shocking. His face becomes extremely animated.Casper's mom is on the bed. She is completely naked except for a pair of bright red high heel shoes. In between her legs is a man wearing all black, including a black ski mask and motorcycle boots. He is having sex with Casper's mom. He has her arms pinned down on the bed. He is grunting like a pig.Casper watches for a moment in awe.MAN IN BLACKBitch. You fuckin bitch. Fuckin bitch. Slutty whore.The man in black slaps Casper's mom hard on her naked ass.CASPER'S MOM(screaming)No! Stop! Get off me!She is struggling to get loose.TELLY (V.O.)So Casper opened the door and he saw some big guy with a ski mask fucking his mother. What a sight for an 11 year old kid.Casper runs up to the bed. He climbs on top of the bed with the big knife in the air, all the while the man in black is having sex with his mother. And they don't even notice Casper at first.TELLY (V.O.)And he goes and jumps on his parent's bed. And for a second he just looks and watches.Casper takes his knife and starts stabbing the guy in black, over and over. His mother is kicking and trying to stop him. All the while, she is screaming outrageously and blood is pouring out.TELLY (V.O.)And you know. Casper loved his mom, he didn't want anything to happen to her. So he started stabbing this guy, over and over. But it was a mistake.Casper's mom is kicking Casper as he stabs the man.Casper is biting his tongue as he stabs the man.The man falls off the bed and onto the floor.Casper's mom is going totally nuts. She is completely naked, with blood all over her body. There is blood all over the sheets. His mom is clawing her face in complete hysterics.CASPER'S MOMYou fuck!!! It's your father!!! We were playing a game you fuck!!! That's your father!!! We were just playing!!!Casper looks very confused as he looks at his naked mother. He has the knife in his hand, and a little blood on his T-shirt and cheek.Casper's mom continues to yell at him.CASPER'S MOMCasper, you fucker!!! Oh, my god!!! Help me God!!!Casper looks at his mother, then he looks at the dead guy on the floor. He bends down and takes off the mask. It's his father.CASPER(calmly)That's my dad.CASPER'S MOM(crying)You fuck. You killed your father!TELLY (V.O.)So Casper killed his father. He came home with a stomachache and ended up murdering his pops. It was a very embarrassing thing.EXT. WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK - ON A CEMENT BENCH - DAYTelly is in the same spot talking to Misha.TELLYSo that's why Casper is how he is.MISHAOh god. That's horrible.A quick shot of Casper smoking a blunt and laughing with his friends.TELLYYep.MISHAHoly shi. That's all true?TELLYNo. I was just kidding.MISHA(outraged)What?!TELLYI lied. His dad is still alive. He works for the post office.EXT. WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK - ON THE FOUNTAIN - DAYCasper and all his friends are passing around the blunt, which by now is almost gone. All that is left is a roach and Casper is sucking on it really hard.Casper breathes out the smoke and then passes the roach to Hamilton.CASPERYo, that weed is mad good.Hamilton gets ready to puff.HAMILTONHells yeah. Gimmie a taste of the mothafuckin chronic.Casper rubs his eyes.Hamilton puffs on the little roach.Casper grabs somebody's skateboard and stands on it. He starts rolling around slowly and doing some tricks.The other kids continue to smoke. They watch Casper and laugh.Casper is slowly trying to do tricks, but he's so stoned that he just falls off.As he skates in front of is friends he doesn't pay any attention to where he's going.A tall HOODLUM with gold front teeth is walking by. He is wearing all Polo and a thick white Fila headband. He is biting down on a chew stick.The hoodlum walks by. He has a certain ominous strut. He is looking at the ground as he walks. He takes the chew stick out of his mouth and looks at some girl's ass as she walks by. He makes a little noise with his mouth.As the hoodlum walks by, Casper is rolling backward, not paying attention. He rolls into the hoodlum's heels. Casper falls down and laughs. Everyone watching laughs, including Telly who is still sitting with Misha.Casper jumps up and grabs his skateboard. The hoodlum is turned around. Casper walks up to him with a smile.CASPERYo, sorry money.The hoodlum is a good seven inches taller than Casper. He puts his arms out like he's upset.HOODLUMYeah watch the fuck where you skate. You know what I'm saying?CASPER(smiling)Yeah, watch where you walk dukes.HOODLUMWhat?CASPERNuffin G. Just forget it.HOODLUMWhat the fuck yo? You wanna catch a beat down?Casper throws his skateboard down. He quickly turns around and pulls his pants up. He runs right up to the hoodlum and he looks up at him.CASPERSup then? Sup?HOODLUMCome on bitch. Throw your fists up.EXT. THE CEMENT BENCHES - DAYTelly and Misha are watching. Telly stands up.TELLYUh oh. Casper's in the mix.He quickly walks up.EXT. THE FOUNTAIN - DAYAll the guys jump up and start screaming.STEVENOh shit. Throw down.Steven and all the guys run up and surround the hoodlum. They all start screaming taunts. "Fuck 'em up Casper!"Casper is inches from the hoodlum. They are both in a fighting stance. Casper keeps pulling his pants up. Casper has a huge smile on his face, like this is his favorite thing in the whole world.CASPERSup. Sup.HOODLUMCome on nigga. Sup, sup then? Stop faking moves.CASPERI'm gonna fuck you up bitch.They are both right about to swing.Everyone in the whole park has turned their attention to the scuffle.All of a sudden, out of nowhere, Harold runs up behind the Hoodlum and with the truck of his skateboard, smashes the guy in the back of the head. A huge thud is heard and the hoodlum just kinda falls forward on his knees.Casper, with a big smile, steps back and kicks the guy in the face as hard as he can.Everyone gets in a big circle around the fallen hoodlum. They're all screaming. Even the girls are screaming. "Fuck 'em up!"Harold continues hitting the hoodlum with his skateboard.Hitting him on the legs and stomach.Casper is jumping up and down on the hoodlum's head.CASPER(everytime he kicks the guy he says this)Suck my dick! Suck my dick! Suck my dick!All of a sudden, all the skateboarders in the park, including Hamilton and Steven, take their boards and start smashing this guy, over and over.The hoodlum is on the ground holding his head, as everyone frantically tries to kill him.The focus should be on the face of the skateboarders. How much they are enjoying this. They continue to pound him, over and over, like animals in on the prey.This should look very scary, as twenty guys try to kill the fallen hoodlum. Even little kids are in the middle, beating the guy.Telly looks up to the sky. He makes a loud noise as he clears his throat, like he's gathering mucus. Then he puts his arms down and stops some of the kids from hitting the hoodlum. His face is completely cracked and bloody. Telly steps over him and spits a huge phlegm wad onto his face.Casper, still smiling, kicks the guy in the face.CASPERSuck my dick, Suck my dick. Suck my dick.Everyone stops kicking the guy and they all get kinda silent and look at him. He looks completely twisted, bloody, and dead.Casper bends over, right in his face.CASPER(smiling)Now get in my way! Bitch.CUT TO BLACKINT. / EXT. TAXICAB - GOING DOWNTOWN - EVENINGJennie is in the back of a speeding cab. She is looking out the window. Her face looks sad.The TAXI DRIVER is a funny looking old man. He's wearing a jockey hat and a Hawaiian shirt. He has air fresheners hanging from the mirror. He is chewing on a big wet cigar. He has a half shaved beard. He looks like a dirty old man.Jennie looks dazed.As the taxi driver drives, he looks in his mirror at Jennie. He pulls his cigar out of his mouth and then puts it back in.Jazz is playing on the radio.TAXI DRIVERExcuse me. Can I ask you a question?Jennie just shrugs.TAXI DRIVERCan I ask you a question? I'm sorry. I don't mean to be a pest.JENNIEWhat?TAXI DRIVERWell, I don't mean to be a pest. It was just that I was looking at you. And you look upset. I liked looking at you, but your face looks upset. And I was wondering if I could be of any assistance? Maybe I could cheer you up or somethin. Help make you happy. Who knows? Somethin maybe.As the taxi driver talks, he looks in the mirror, and then looks at the road. He is driving fast and clumsy. He pulls out his cigar and then puts it back in his mouth.JENNIENo. I'm OK. Thanks.TAXI DRIVERYou're OK?JENNIEYeah.TAXI DRIVERBecause gee, you don't look OK. I mean your a very beautiful young lady. It's just that you look troubled that's all...JENNIEYeah well, it's been a bad day.TAXI DRIVERA bad day! You wanna hear a bad day? Yesterday my son was smashed over by a car and when my wife found out she collapsed on the floor. She had a minor heart attack. Partial paralysis. But I don't let myself get sad. No way. Not me. It's not good for the soul.The taxi driver begins to laugh a really squeaky laugh.JENNIESorry.TAXI DRIVEROh it's OK. That's life. Maybe tomorrow I'll win lotto. Who knows? You don't. No one does.Jennie continues to look glumly out the window.TAXI DRIVERYou know. I could tell you were sad by the way your eyes drooped. Like an adopted kid. That's the way an adopted kid's eyes look. All sad like that. All droopy and sweet. Like the honey that I lick off my finger.He starts to laugh. Jennie continues to look sadly out the window.TAXI DRIVERWould I be prying if I asked you what was wrong?Jennie is silent.TAXI DRIVERMiss, would I be prying?JENNIEEverything is wrong.TAXI DRIVERNo, not everything? The sun is still shinning. It's a beautiful day out. Some things are OK. Right?JENNIEYeah, I guess so.TAXI DRIVERDid you and your boyfriend just break up?JENNIENo.TAXI DRIVERAre you in trouble with the law?JENNIENo.TAXI DRIVERAm I getting warm?Jennie smiles. The taxi driver looks in the mirror and sees Jennie smiling.TAXI DRIVERNow that's it. A smile. You look like a prom queen when you smile. Like a glamour girl.JENNIEYeah?TAXI DRIVEROh yeah, sure. When I was a kid I had a crush on the prom queen. Darlene Louis. She had a big black mole in the center of her face that used to get me so excited. Darlene Louis. You know you look a little bit like her.JENNIEThanks.TAXI DRIVERYeah. Right around the cheeks and chin. Boy did I have a crush on her. She was the first girl I ever put my tongue in her mouth.He stops at a red light and turns around to look at her.TAXI DRIVERHey look. Whatever it is. Just forget about it. Life's too short. Make yourself happy. I'll give you an example. When my golden retriever passed away. God rest his soul. (he punches the roof of the cab)I was lonesome. I missed him. So I got a tattoo.He pulls up his shirt and reveals a tattoo of a dog on his forearm. It says "Bruno" in big letters.TAXI DRIVERNow how do you like that? Now he's with me forever.The light turns and he starts driving.TAXI DRIVERI swear to God. Sometimes he barks. I can hear him straight off my arm. Ruff, ruff, he goes.JENNIEYeah?TAXI DRIVERYeah. I'm not saying you should get a tattoo. But you should make yourself happy.JENNIEWhat if you can't make yourself happy? What if everything falls apart?TAXI DRIVERWell then, I don't know. You know what you do then? You forget. Block it out. I remember when I was a little boy. My grandmother told me to be happy. She said. She said, "Leon, my darling little grandson. If you want to be happy don't think. Don't bump into any walls. If you stutter. Don't talk" And I took her advice. And look at me now. Couldn't be happier.He starts to laugh.A quick shot of his identification badge. He has a really goofy smile and he's wearing the same Hawaiian shirt.TAXI DRIVERThat's life.Jennie is smiling.JENNIEYour a real philosopher.TAXI DRIVERYeah. I was gonna write a book but I can't spell.He pulls up on Washington Square Park. He slams on the brakes and turns around in his seat.TAXI DRIVERWell here we are, Miss.Jennie pulls some money out.TAXI DRIVERAw, don't worry 'bout it. The rides on me.Jennie has the money up to the glass. TAXI DRIVERAll right, all right, I'll take it. But forget about the tip.He takes her money.JENNIEThanks. Bye.The taxi driver sticks his head out the window.TAXI DRIVEROh yeah. Oh Miss. Miss. When you smile, God notices. That's why the sun is shining.He points up to the sky before pulling away.EXT. LOWER EAST SIDE - APARTMENT BUILDING - EVENINGTelly is standing in the road in front of Darcy's apartment building. Casper, Harold, Steven, and two other girls named KIM and JOY are all leaning against and sitting on a parked car. Casper and Steven both have a quart of malt liquor in their hands.Telly is looking straight up. He puts his hands together and raises them to his mouth.TELLY(screaming)Darcy!!!(pause)Darcy!!!Bennie, a skinny 18 year old, sticks his chest out the window. He's chewing on an apple and not wearing a shirt.He looks down at TellyTELLY(yelling)Hey Bennie. What's up?Bennie is munching on his apple.BENNIENuffin. What do you want?TELLYIs your sister home?BENNIEYou want Darcy?TELLYYeah.BENNIEHold on. Let me see if she's here.He sticks his head inside and screams.BENNIE(his voice from upstairs)Darcy!!!Casper is sitting on the car, he has his arm wrapped around Kim.CASPERHurry up man. Let's be out. I wanna go swimmin.TELLYHold up man.Darcy sticks her head out the window. She is very pretty, very young, clean, and innocent.DARCYHey.TELLYHey. What are you doin right now?DARCYI was just getting ready to take a bath.TELLYDon't take a bath. Come swimmin with us!KIMHi Darcy.DARCY(smiles, waves)Hi Kim. Hi Joy.TELLYCome on. Come swimmin with us.DARCYRight now?TELLYYeah. Come on.DARCY(looks inside)Hold on.Telly walks over to the other guys.JOYSo this is your new girl, huh?TELLYI hope so. For now.JOYYou like 'em kinda young right. Babies?TELLYI like 'em new. Not like you.JOYFuck you.Everyone starts laughing. Telly pulls the beer our of Casper's hand and starts chugging it.CASPERDamn bitch. Don't kill it.Telly hands the bottle back to Casper.HAROLDYo, you think we killed that guy?CASPERNa.HAROLDYou sure?CASPERI don't know. But all I know is that I kicked him so many times my fuckin' toe feels broken.HAROLDYo, we might have killed him. You think?STEVEI don't think we killed him. Because after it was through, I saw him twitch.CASPERYeah, he was crawling around and shit.HAROLDMan we fucked him up.CASPERHell ya. We broke that mothafucka.JOYYou guys are fucking sick. You know that?CASPERThat's OK. Cause that's how I'm livin.HAROLDYep.Casper slaps hands with Harold.Darcy walks out of her apartment building. She is wearing a bikini top with baggy denim jean shorts. Her hair is pushed back and she has a backpack on.As she walks out of the building, Telly's eyes light up.DARCYReady.Telly walks up to Darcy and kisses her on the cheek.TELLYYou look nice.EXT. WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK - EVENINGJennie is standing under the arch. She is looking for Telly.Misha is sitting on the fountain talking to some guy.Jennie walks up to Misha.MISHAHey girl was up?Jennie kisses Misha on the cheek.JENNIEJust a lot of crazy shit.MISHAYeah?JENNIEYeah. Have you seen Telly around?MISHAYeah. Speaking of stupid shit. Him and his ape ass of a friend Casper, they all just almost killed some kid.JENNIEWhat happened?MISHAI don't know. Just some messy little scrap. You know that bullshit.JENNIEDo you know where he went?MISHAI'm not sure. He said something about meeting Darcy. I think he likes her now.JENNIEWho, Benny's little sister?MISHAYeah. She should be at Nasa tonight. Why you lookin for him? You like him now or sometin?Jennie just looks at Misha.EXT. PUBLIC SWIMMING POOL - NIGHTThe pool is closed. Large black gates surround the premises.All the kids are climbing up the gates. Casper is the first one to the top and just jumps over. Eventually everyone follows.They all walk up to the pool and start taking their clothes off.Casper pulls his shirt and pants off. He looks over at Kim, who is wearing G-string underwear.CASPERGeez Kim. Your body looks fuckin good.KIMThanks.CASPERIt's funny how sometimes you can't tell if a girl has a nice body until you see her without her clothes.Kim smiles.Harold starts imitating a strong man. He starts flexing his muscles. He's wearing a pair of baggy boxer shorts. Then he turns to Joy.HAROLDHey Joy. You ever see a black man's lasso?JOYWhat?Harold pulls out his penis and starts twirling it around.JOYHAROLD!!!She starts jumping up and down. Everyone is cracking up. Harold has his dick in his hand.HAROLDHi ho Silver and away!!!Harold jumps in. Steven pushes Casper in and Casper takes Steven with him. Joy and Kim jump in together.CASPEROh shit it's fuckin cold.They start splashing each other.Darcy and Telly walk over to the other side and sit down on the edge of the pool with their feet in the water.Telly starts smiling at Darcy. He cups a little bit of water in his hands and pours it on her thigh.Everyone else is in the water making noise and splashing around.DARCYOoh. You're gonna give me goose bumps.TELLYIs it cold?Darcy puts some water in her hand and does the same thing.TELLYYou know I've been thinking about you lately.DARCY(surprised)You have?TELLYYeah. After I saw you last week.DARCYAt the block party?TELLYYeah.Darcy smiles. She looks a little bit embarrassed.TELLYI was lookin for you all day today.DARCYYou were?TELLYSure. I even thought about you when I woke up.A quick three second flashback of him having sex earlier that day with the young virgin girl. It's very loud as she screams.TELLYI was like. I gotta find Darcy. Where is she at? I was lookin all over.Darcy smiles.Joy and Kim are sitting next to each other on the steps in the shallow end of the pool. Steven, Harold, and Casper are in the water in front of the girls.Joy and Kim are both wearing bras.CASPERI'll give you a dollar if you let me suck on your tit.Kim kicks water in his face.CASPERNo I'm serious. Can I suck your tit? Either of you guys. I don't care.HAROLDYeah me too.KIMCasper, why do you think I would let you suck on my boobs?CASPERI don't know. Your just sitting there. And your tits look clean to me. It makes me want to suck on 'em.Telly is sitting in the same spot, talking to Darcy.DARCYI thought you had a girlfriend.TELLYNaw. I'm not seeing anybody. What about you?DARCYNo. I can't. My mom won't let me have boyfriends.TELLYShe won't? Why not?DARCYI don't know. I guess it's cause my sister Nicki had a baby when she was like 15. She was really young so my mom is like very protective over me.TELLYYeah. I can understand that.Back to the shallow end with Casper, Steven, Harold, Kim, and Joy.HAROLDI truth or dare you guys to kiss each other.JOYSure. We kiss all the time.They both smile at each other and kiss softly on the lips. As they part, they smile.CASPERYou guys are dykes right?KIMNo.JOY No.STEVENThen how can you kiss each other like that?Harold makes a strange face.HAROLDYeah. How can you do that shit?KIMIt doesn't matter. It just feels good. That's all.JOYYeah. It's not like we're gay. It's just kissing another person, a friend.Joy grabs Kim's hand.KIMYeah.JOYIt's no big deal.CASPERI don't know. I just never seen girls that did that shit before. But I think it looks nice.HAROLDYeah. Do it again.Telly and Darcy.TELLYYou should come back with me to Steven's house.DARCYTonight?TELLYYeah. His parents are away. It's gonna be a bug out.DARCYI don't know. I'm supposed to go to Nasa tonight.TELLYCome on. You can rave on another night.She looks at him.TELLYCome on. It'll be fun. We'll just bug out. There should be a bunch of people. It'll be fun I promise.DARCYYeah?TELLYYeah. It'll be nice. It'll be a change of pace. That club shit gets boring.EXT. OUTSIDE NASA - RAVE - NIGHTThis is the line to Nasa. People are lined up and down the block waiting to get inside. All the kids are wearing rave clothing which resembles clown suits with stack shoes and huge colorful hats. It looks like a hip-hop circus.Jennie is walking quickly past everyone on line. She comes to the front.SID, a short gay Chinese boy with orange hair, is carrying a clipboard guest list under his arm and has a Sesame Street purse in his other hand. When he sees Jennie, he walks up and unclips the rope.SIDJennie! Was up girl?Sid bends over and gives Jennie a kiss.JENNIEHi Sid.After Jennie walks in, Sid reclips the rope.Jennie walks up the stairs and past the security guards and metal detectors.SECURITY GUARDHi Jennie.Jennie smiles and walks by.Nasa is like a giant warehouse. It has hallways and rooms. Kids invade every inch of the club.As Jennie walks in, the Techno music grows very loud. The music should sound as if you were stuck in a fast-paced video game.Kids are running around everywhere. The CAMERA follows Jennie through the club as if it is seeing everything Jennie sees.The dance floor is packed with kids holding flashlights and sucking on pacifiers.As she walks through the darkened hallways, people are against the walls making out.As she gets to the end of the hallway, there is a big crowd of people. She jumps to see what everyone is looking at.FIDGET, a short white guy who is very hyper and speaks very quickly, runs up to Jennie and grabs her wrist.FIDGETJennie, Jennie. How do you feel?JENNIEFine Fidget. What's all this?FIDGETOh man. You gotta see this. It's a spectacle. A real spectacle.Fidget pulls Jennie through the crowd.FIDGETNow look at that. Amazing sexual exploration.There are three girls and one boy making out against the back wall. The boy is wearing an afro wig. They all have their clothes on, but they are all going at it like crazy.Two of the girls are making out with each other while they rub the boy. The other girl is kissing the boy while he is feeling on her body.Jennie looks surprised. The other kids are laughing and yelling at them.One of the girls making out looks at the crowd and sticks her tongue out.GIRLYou don't have to look at us. It's not a free show.She continues making out.Everyone laughs. The music is loud and adds to the intensity of the scene.JENNIEWho are they?FIDGETI don't know. I've never seen any of them before. Cornballs from Jersey on X. Feelin the effex.Fidget looks at Jennie, she looks depressed.FIDGETCome on Jennie. Jen.He pulls her by the wrist. He takes her into the bathroom. In the bathroom there are kids in big circles smoking pot and buying pills.FIDGETI got a present for you.He digs in his pocket.JENNIEWhat is it?FIDGETBang up stuff.He pulls out a pill.FIDGETThis makes Special K look weak. It's a euphoric blockbuster.JENNIENo, Fidget, I...FIDGETCome on Jennie. You look sad. Just take it.JENNIENo...FIDGETHere. Swallow.He puts the pill in her mouth, and she reluctantly takes it.FIDGETNow you'll be floatin up in Techno heaven. Don't worry, tricks are for kids.INT. STEVEN'S HOUSE - NIGHTSteven's house. It's a big mess. Almost no furniture except for a ratty couch and a television set.Hip-hop music is playing.There are about 15 kids in total, mainly boys. Everyone is running around and drinking.Some kid is throwing water balloons out the window. Another kid is jumping off the couch and trying to put footprints on the ceiling. Another boy is urinating into a plant in the corner of the kitchen.There are a bunch of boys and girls on the ground lying on top of each other laughing.Everyone is smoking and drinking.A chubby girl with braces is talking to Casper. She is drunk.CHUBBY GIRLHey Casper. Why do they call you Casper?CASPER'Cause Casper is my name.CHUBBY GIRLBut that's not your real name. No one's name is Casper.CASPERDamn bitch. That's my name. Why do you always ask me the same shit? Why don't you go lose some fucking weight?Harold is in the corner with one shoe off. He is sitting next to a pretty oriental girl. He is holding a beer in his hand.HAROLDCome on. Let me kiss you.She turns her head.HAROLDJust let me kiss you. Lemme kiss your neck. You look pretty.He starts pulling her head, she is resisting.HAROLDCome on. Just one kiss.Steven is lying in the middle of the floor with Kim. The two of them are making out. Steven is rubbing in between her legs, she is wearing baggy jeans and her hips are moving with his hand, from side to side. Joy is on the couch watching, looks excited.Hamilton is in the bathroom throwing up. INT. NASA - NIGHTJennie is sitting on a platform next to a huge speaker. The noise is extremely loud. She looks very dazed, Her head is propped up against the speaker. She is watching all the kids dance.TAMARA, one of her friends, walks up and tugs on her leg.TAMARADance!JENNIEWhat?TAMARACome dance.JENNIEI don't feel so well. Have you seen Telly anywhere?TAMARATelly is at Steven's. There's a bunch of people over there. Come on dance.She pulls Jennie's leg. Jennie jumps down.JENNIETelly is at Steven's?TAMARAI guess so.Jennie puts her hand on her forehead. She looks dizzy.JENNIEOh my God. What's going on?Tamara hands Jennie a drink.EXT. IN FRONT OF STEVEN'S HOUSE - NIGHTTelly and Darcy are kissing each other in front of the apartment building.TELLYDo you like kissing me?DARCYYes.He kisses her again.TELLYDo you like me?Darcy nods.DARCYUh huh.TELLYI think you're like the best girl I've ever kissed.Darcy kisses Telly. She begins to suck his bottom lip.TELLYI don't even want to talk, but I gotta tell you that when I first saw you last week, I, I couldn't stop thinking about you. You've been stuck in my head.DARCYCome on.TELLYNo. No, I'm serious. I'm not joking. I just like you. That's all.DARCYI like you too.He starts kissing her neck and chin.INT. / EXT. TAXI - NIGHTThe car is very dark. Jennie is in the backseat, scooted all the way in the corner.It is silent except for the sound of the bumpy ride.Everything is silent for a while as Jennie looks more and more upset. She has a quart in her hand.JENNIE(silently as she looks out the window)I'm not gonna die. Jennie sheds a few tears and then wipes them off with the hand she is holding the beer with.INT. STEVEN'S APARTMENT - NIGHTThe lights are all almost out in Steven's apartment. Music is still playing. Everyone is either making out or passed out. The chubby girl is watching television and eating potato chips.Steven has Kim propped up against the couch. Hr shirt is off and the two of them are passionately kissing. She is making loud moaning noises.Telly walks up to him and taps him on the head.TELLYHey Steven. Yo Steven.Steven continues to make out.TELLYCome on man. Steven.Steve turns his head, he looks sweaty and red.STEVENWhat man? What is it?TELLYYo, let me get in your parent's room man. Just fir a litte while.STEVENI can't man.TELLYCome on Steven hook me up. Do me this solid.(he whispers)Come on man. I gotta get Darcy alone. She's gonna let me fuck her man. Please.STEVENShit. All right. But don't fuck with anything OK?TELLYOK.Steven puts his tongue back in Kim's mouth.INT. / EXT. TAXI - NIGHTJennie is drinking a beer in the backseat of the taxi. She looks upset.INT. STEVEN'S PARENT'S BEDROOM - NIGHTThe bedroom is very neat and orderly.Telly walks in and immediately turns off all the lights. He turns on the small light by the bed. It casts a dim glow.He turns around and pushes her against the door. He starts kissing her really hard. She is responding but a bit slow and shy.DARCYI'm nervous.TELLYTrust me. Don't be nervous.He starts feeling her up.INT. STEVEN'S APARTMENT STAIRWELL - NIGHTJennie is slowly walking up a staircase. She looks drunk and sick.Music is heard from Steven's house.INT. STEVEN'S HOUSE - NIGHTEverybody is making out; the house is really quiet except for the stereo. People are all over the floor, some of them are passed out.Harold is asleep on top of the Chinese girl, in the corner.INT. BATHROOM - NIGHTCasper is sitting in the bathtub with the legs hanging out. He is smoking a joint.Hamilton is sitting with his head on the toilet.Casper moves to give Hamilton a hit off his joint. Hamilton puts his hand up and nods.CASPERPussy.Casper takes another hit.INT STEVEN'S APARTMENT - NIGHTThe door is open. Jennie stumbles in. She looks for the lightswitch but can't find. She starts walking around the room, looking at everyone making out, trying to distinguish if it's Telly or not.As she walks she trips on Steven's leg.Jennie looks down.JENNIESorry.Steven doesn't notice.INT. STEVEN'S PARENT'S BEDROOM - NIGHTTelly and Darcy are in bed. Darcy is mostly under the covers. Telly is on top of the bed. He is naked except for his underwear.Darcy is wearing a bra.Telly is brushing her hair back with his fingers.This scene should resemble the first scene.TELLYI like you so much. I think you're beautiful. I think if we fucked you would love it. You wouldn't believe it.DARCYHow do you know?TELLYI just know. I know you'll love it.DARCYBut I'm scared Telly.TELLYI'm telling you. There's nothing in the world to worry about.DARCYNothing?Telly scoots up and kisses her.TELLYNothing. I'm telling you I just want to make you happy. That's all. Just trust me.DARCYI don't want you to hurt me.TELLYI don't want you to hurt you. I'll be gentle.DARCYDo you care about me?TELLYOf course I do.INT. BATHROOM - NIGHTCasper is in the bathroom kicking his legs up and down against the tub.Hamilton is passed out. His head resting on the toilet seat.Casper is singing loudly.CASPER(singing to himself)I'm Casper the friendly ghost. I'm Casper the friendly ghost. Gee you know I'm the most. The girls love me because I'm Casper. The dopest ghost in town. Fuck yeah. Yee haw. Fuckin...Jennie walks into the bathroom.JENNIECasper.CASPERHey Jennie. Long time no see. What are you doing here?JENNIECasper, where's Telly.CASPERWhat do ya want with Telly? That guy has enough bitches.JENNIE(almost in tears)Casper, where is he?CASPERDon't look for him. He's doing fine. He's gotta girl. He's fuckin her right now in Steven's parents' room. So do ya know Joe.Jennie runs out of the bathroom.CASPER(to himself)What are you worried about for him?INT. STEVEN'S PARENT'S BEDROOM - NIGHTAll the blankets are off the bed.The room is lit only by the lamp next to the bed.Darcy and Telly are under the covers having sex. Darcy looks like she's in a considerable amount of pain.The two of them are breathing loudly in unison.The door next to the bed creaks open. Jennie looks through the crack.INT. HALLWAY IN FRONT OF DOOR - NIGHT Jennie is looking at Telly having sex.INT. BEDROOM - NIGHTThe headboard is smacking back and forth.Darcy is moaning.TELLYThat's it. You're doin fine. Come on Darcy. That's it.He looks up at the door and notices someone is watching.TELLYShut the fucking door!!!Jennie slams the door shut.Telly continues having sex with Darcy.INT. HALLWAY IN FRONT OF DOOR - NIGHTJennie is weak and crying. She runs to the empty couch and continues to cry.She puts her feet against her chest like a little baby. She continues to cry.Everyone else is asleep.The CAMERA watches her crying on the couch. The sound of her crying mixes with the scream of Telly having an orgasm.FADE TO BLACKWhen it fades back in, everybody is asleep. It is completely quiet. The television is on fuzz. People are sleeping on top of each other.Jennie is asleep on the couch.Even Steven's cat is asleep in front of a small fan on the kitchen table.The house is completely quiet.INT. BATHROOM - NIGHTCasper is awake. He climbs out of the tub and steps over Hamilton's legs.He looks at Hamilton asleep on the toilet. Then Casper bends over and flushes it. It makes a loud noise but Hamilton doesn't budge.INT. LIVING ROOM - NIGHTCasper stumbles out of the bathroom. He walks into the living room and looks around at everyone.Casper walks into the kitchen. There are a bunch of empty quart bottles lying on the butcher block. He picks one up and twirls it around, but it's empty. Then he picks up another one and drinks the remaining fuzz. A little bit of fuzz runs down his cheeks.Casper walks back into the living room.He walks over to where Harold is asleep and just looks at him for a second.Then Casper walks down the hallway to the door in front of Steven's parent's bedroom. He opens the door wide and looks at the two, both naked and asleep in each other's arm.CASPER(to himself)Lucky fuckin bastard.Casper shuts the door.He walks back through the hallway and into the living room.When he gets in the living room, he looks around, then he flops down beside Jennie on the couch. He puts his hands down his pants and starts itching.Casper looks beside his feet and sees Steven sleeping with his head on top of Kim's stomach.Casper continues to scratch his balls. Then he looks over beside him at Jennie scrunched up asleep.Casper looks around to see if anyone is awake in the room. Everybody is asleep.He scoots up close to Jennie and looks at her.Casper nudges her shoulder.CASPER(whispering)Jennie. Jennie.Jennie does not respond.As Casper takes his hand off her shoulder, he gently rubs her breasts.He moves his hand down her stomach and gently between her thighs. He caresses her. She does not feel anything.Casper bends over and puts his face by her ear.CASPER(whispering)Jennie. Please wake up. It's me Casper. Jennie.She does not respond.Casper starts kissing Jennie's ear. She swats her shoulder.Casper gets up and looks at her. He stares at her stomach and crotch.He puts his hands on her jeans and then he undoes her belt. He is very careful not to make any abrupt movements.As he unclips her jeans he watches her face to see if there is any kind of response.CASPER(whispering)Jennie. Don't worry. It's me Casper.He slowly pulls her pants down. She is wearing teddy bear underwear. Casper throws her pants to the ground and then he looks at her legs. With his fingertips he starts caressing her soft skin.Then he gets off the couch and onto his knees. He puts one leg on his shoulder and the other on the couch. He looks at her and then pulls her panties off.Casper quickly undoes his pants and gets in betwen her legs.He puts her hands around his shoulders.Jennie is sort of coming to but she has no energy. She makes some noise but she is passed out and powerless.Her eyes are closed the whole time. She is not aware of what is happening.JENNIE(slurred and unconscious)Don't. Please don't. No. No.Casper starts situating himself. She is totally limp.CASPERShh. Don't worry Jennie. It's me Casper.Casper has his knees on the floor as he takes advantage of Jennie.Jennie moves her arms a little bit. Casper is breathing fast and heavy.CUT TO BLACKAs the scene ends in blackness, the sound of Casper's heavy breathing persists. Then it slowly fades out and everything is silent.EXT. OUTSIDE MANHATTAN - DAYThe birds are chirping. People are going to work. Stores are opening. Homeless people are just waking up from doorway slumber. Morning in Manhattan.As Telly does his V.O., the CAMERA will show everyone asleep in the apartment. It will go all around the room as daylight enters through the windows. The CAMERA also watches Telly and Darcy asleep in each other's arm's.TELLY (V.O.)When you're young. Not much matters. When you find something that you care about, then that's all you got. When your young. A lot of the time fucking is all you have, hen you go to sleep at night, you dream of pussy. When you wake up, it's the same thing. It's in your face, in your dreams, you can't escape it. Sometimes when you're young, the only place to go is inside. That's just it. Fucking is what I love. Take that away from me, and I really got nothin.The CAMERA focuses on Casper. He is sitting up awake on the couch. All his clothes are off.He looks straight into the CAMERA.CASPERJesus Christ. What happened?RAPID CUT TO BLACKROLL FINAL CREDITSTHE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..19daf9958348b9f02e671088632c8dbe110c3365 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + TABLE OF CONTENTS PROLOGUE 1. "2" 2. The Comatose Bride 3. The Man From Okinawa 4. Showdown at House of Blue Leaves 5. Yuki's Revenge 6. "Can She Backe A Cherry Pie..." 7. The Lonely Grave of Paula Schultz 8. The Cruel Tutelage Of Pai Mei 9. Elle and I 10. The Blood-Splattered BrideOVER BLACKWe hear labored breathing.BLACK FRAMEQUOTE APPEARS: "Revenge is a dish best served cold" - Old Klingon Proverb -QUOTE FADES OUTWE STAY ON BLACK...breathing continues...Then a MAN'S VOICE talks over the breathing; MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Do you find me sadistic? CUT TO:BLACK AND WHITE CU of a WOMANlying on the floor, looking up. The woman on the floor hasjust taken a severe spaghetti-western-style gang beating. Herface is bloody, beaten up, and torn. The high contrast B/Wturning the red blood into black blood.A hand belonging to the off-screen Man's Voice ENTERS FRAMEholding a white handkerchief with the name "BILL" sewn in thecorner, and begins tenderly wiping away the blood from theyoung woman's face. Little by little as the Male Voicespeaks, the beautiful face underneath is revealed to theaudience.But what can't be wiped away, is the white hot hate thatshines in both eyes at the man who stands over her, the"BILL" of the title.In another age men who shook the world for their own purposeswere called conquerors. In our age, the men who shake theplanet for their own power and greed are called corrupters.And of the world's corrupters Bill stands alone. For while hecorrupts the world, inside himself he is pure. BILL'S VOICE (O.S.) I bet I could fry an egg on your head about now, if I wanted to.He continues wiping away the blood. BILL'S VOICE (O.S.) No kiddo, I'd like to believe, even now, you're aware enough to know there isn't a trace of sadism in my actions... Okay - Maybe towards these other jokers - bot not your.OVERHEAD SHOTWe see for a moment, A WIDE SHOT looking down at the woman onthe floor. Bill (from behind) bent down over her. Four othersin black suits, standing over her (three are female, one ismale). And about four DEAD BODIES lying in their own blood.We also see we're in a wedding chapel that's been redecoratedby blood death and gunfire. And firstly or lastly, dependingon the viewer, that the woman on the floor is dressed in awhite bridal gown.This woman is our Heroine, and from this moment forth shewill only be referred to as The BRIDE.Back to CU of The BRIDE.The BRIDE on the floor. Her pretty face is wiped clean. BILL'S VOICE (O.S.) No Kiddo at this moment, this is me at my most masochistic.While still in her CU The Bride speaks for the first time inthe picture. She looks up at the man standing over her andsays; THE BRIDE Bill, I'm pregnant. It's your baby.After saying the "y" in "baby", we hear a BANG and The Bridereceives a bullet in the side of her head. CUT TO:BLACK SCREEN: Presentation Credit "The 4th Film by QUENTIN TARANTINO" CUT TO:B/W CU of a Young MAN in a TUXEDO. Shot to death.The BRIDE speaks to us in a VO; THE BRIDE (V.O.) That's Tim, Arthur's best friend.CU A PRETTY YOUNG WOMAN in a frilly pink dress with twobullet holes in her. THE BRIDE (V.O.) That's his girlfriend Janeen.CU A PLUMP YOUNG WOMAN, shot to death, wedding bouquet stillclutched in her dead fist. THE BRIDE (V.O.) That's my best friend from work Erica.AN OLDER MAN IN A BLACK SUIT shot fulla holes. THE BRIDE (V.O.) That's the minister. I think his name was Reverend Hillhouse.A DEAD OLDER WOMAN by his side in an old-fashioned flowerprint dress. THE BRIDE (V.O.) That's his wife.A DEAD OLDER WOMAN slumped over an organ. THE BRIDE (V.O.) Organ player, don't know her name.A YOUNG MAN IN A TUXEDO WITH HIS FACE BLOWN OFF. THE BRIDE (V.O.) That's Arthur. Arthur Plympton. The name on his driver's license was Charles Arthur Plympton, but for some reason he preferred Arthur. Maybe if he went by Carles people would have called him Charlie. If that was his reason for going by Arthur I can understand it. Nothing wrong with the name Charlie, except he didn't look like a Charlie, he looked like an Arthur. Obviously you'll have to take my word on this. Speaking of names, I was about two seconds away from becoming Mrs. Charles Arthur Plympton.And then finally, The Bride. THE BRIDE (V.O.) And that, that's me. I'm the Bride.We do a DISSOLVE from the Bride looking dead in the bridalgownToThe Bride, still in B/W, still in a bridal gown, but theasswippin she took in the scene before must have been in thepast, because she looks like a million dollarsnow.......three million even.INT. CAR (MOVING) - NIGHTThe Bride behind the wheel of a Volkswagen Karman Ghiaconvertible. Her long blodne hair whipping in the wind. APROCESS SHOT PLAYS behind her. THE BRIDE (V.O.) Looked dead, didn't I? Well I wasn't, but it wasn'T for lack fo trying, I can tell you that. Actually Bill's last bullet put me in a coma. A coma I was to lie in for five years. When I woke up, ...I went on what the movie advertisements refer to as a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. I roarded and I rampaged and I got bloody satisfaction. In all, I've killed 33 people to get to this piont right now. I have only one more. The last one. The one I'M driving to right now. The only one left. And when I arrive at my destination..... .... I'm gonna Kill Bill.TITLE SEQUENCEAs a female-sung ballad of heartbreaking lament plays on thesoundtrack, we see the credits of "Kill Bill" play over theBride in her bridal gown, driving to the film's climax.The sequence ends with the Bride arriving at Bill's home. WE FADE TO BLACKBLACK FRAMETITLE APPEARS: Chapter one "2" CUT TO:EX CU The BRIDE's EYEBALL IN GLORIOUS COLORWE CUT OUT ONE...TWO...THREE...TO ACU of The BRIDE IN GLORIOUS COLORShe's sitting in a parked pickup truck. Her eyes focused onsomething.The BRIDE'S POV:A very homey three-bedroom house in the affluent suburb ofPasadena, California. A purple Dodge Neon sits parked in thedriveway. A tricylce, a big wheel, and a few toys sprinklethe grass on the front yard. A mailbox with the name "TheBELLS" on it sits out in front of the lawn. We hear but don'tsee ice cream truck bells.SUBTITLE APPEARS AT SCREEN BOTTOM: "The city of PASADENA, CALIFORNIA"We hear a Car Door Open and Close....THEN....The Bride Walksinto the shot, heading for the front door.EX CU: A long, white female finger pushes a doorbell.EXT. RESIDENTIAL PASADENA STREET - DAYThe front door opens and an attractive black HOUSEWIFE thesame age as The Bride stands in the doorway.The Housewife's face shows immediate recognition of theblonde on her doorstep.The BRIDEon the porch; we do a quick Shaw-Brothers-style Zoom into hereyes.FLASHBACK - SPAGHETTI WESTERN STYLE(That means our Heroine is remembering something, and we seeit with an orange filter.) We're back inside the weddingchapel. The Bride is taking the beating of her life by fourpeople in black suits. A black woman PUNCHES HER in theface... WE see it's the black housewife, five years earlier.The BRIDE ON THE PORCHWe Zoom quick out of her eyes to CU, a VENGEANCE THEME PLAYSLOUD ON THE SOUNDTRACK. (Whenever we hear this themethroughout the picture, we'll quickly learn what accompaniesit is The Bride goin Krakatoa all over whoever's ass happensto be in front of her at that moment.) As the Vengeance Themeplays, a Vein in The Bride's forehead begins to pulsate. Whenthe Vengeance Theme stops, The Bride ATTACKS The Housewife.INT. HOUSEWIFE'S NICE HOME - DAYThe white woman and the black woman FLY into the center ofthe living room, CRASHING onto her coffe table in front ofthe sofa.These two wildcats go at each other savagely, TUMBLING OVERthe couch, clawing and scratching all the way, landingtogether on the plush carpet.The HOUSEWIFEKICKS The Bride, sending her CRASHING backwards into thesmall table where the phone, a note pad (for messages), andthe mail is kept.The Housewife scrambles up on her feet, but is caught by aFLYING TACKLE from behind by The Bride that sends them bothinto........An ornamental iron and tempered-glass bookcase that hasframed family photos, display toys, some African art, and acollection of painted commemorative plates depicting thenegro experience in the American military. Starting with aplate featuring Cripis Atkins in the revolutionary war, negrotroops in union blue during the civil war, Buffalo soldiersfighting Indians, the Jim Crow troops of the first world war,the colored troops of world war two, Korea, Vietnam, andfinally Colin Powell....The Bride and The Housewife CRASHTHROUGH all this reducing everything to rubble.They land hard on the floor covered in broken glass, lockedin grapple, each trying to get the best of the other one,...When The Housewife HEADBUTTS The Bride in the nose.The HOUSEWIFEhops off The Bride, runs into the kitchen, opens a drawer andcomes out with a HUGE MOTHERFUCKIN BUTCHER KNIFE.The BRIDErises from the floor, and WHIPS OUT a KNIFE in a sheathhanging from her belt known as a SOG. (A SOG is a long,double-edged knife that's as sharp as a razor, and is whatNavy Seals use to kill humans with.)The Bride backs up into the mess of the now totallydemolished living room.The two woman stalk each other, each holding her blade, eachlooking like they know how to use it, each waiting for theother to make a mistake so they can plunge their blade deepinto the other one.Blood and sweat dript off of the faces of the two womenlocked in life and death combat..........When The back kitchen door opens, and a FOUR-YEAR-OLDLITTLE GIRL, carrying a lunch box steps inside. FOUR-YEAR-OLD GIRL Mommy, I'm home!The two warrior women whose eyes reflect only combatconcentration, suddenly switch upon hearing the four-yearold's voice. The Housewife's eyes flash a look of pleading tothe eyes of The Bride.The Bride seems to answer back; "Okay."The Black woman and the white woman hide their edged weaponsbehind their backs, as the Four-Year-Old Little Girl walksinto the newly destroyed living room.The Housewife switches to her mommy voice. THE HOUSEWIFE Hey baby, how was school?The Little Girl is flabbergasted at the mess, and thecondition of her mother, who looks like she's just been in abar room brawl. LITTLE GIRL Mommy, what happened to you and the T.V. Room? THE HOUSEWIFE Oh, that good for nothin dog of yours, got his little ass in the living room and acted a damn fool, that's what happened. LITTLE GIRL Barney did this?She says it with the slightest hint of skepticism, then triesto enter the living room. THE HOUSEWIFE Now baby, you can't come in here, there's broken glass all over the floor, and you gonna cut yourself.The little girl's eyes go to the blonde lady in the livingroom who she ain't never seen before, who also looks likeshe's been fighting.The Bride smiles at the confused Little Girl. THE HOUSEWIFE This is a old friend of mommy's I ain't seen in a long time. THE BRIDE Hello sweety, I'm *(BLEEP)*, what's your name?* Whenever during the picture somebody says The Bride's realname, it will be BLEEPED OUT ON THE SOUNDTRACK, ...that is,till I want you to know. *The shy, suspicious little girl doesn't say anything, shejust stares at the blond lady. THE HOUSEWIFE Her name is Nikki. THE BRIDE Nikki. What a pretty name for such a pretty little girl. How old are you Nikki?Nikki still says nothing, only stares. THE HOUSEWIFE Nikki, *(BLEEP)* aked you a question. NIKKI (to The Bride) I'm four. THE BRIDE Four years old, aye. You know I once had a little girl. She'd be five right now. Maybe you two could of played with each other. THE HOUSEWIFE Now baby, me an *(BLEEP)* have some grown-up talk to talk about, so you go in your room now and leave us alone till I tell you to come out.The child doesn't move, so the mother repeats herself. THE HOUSEWIFE (snapping her fingers) Nikkia - in your room - now.The little girl slowly walks away and disappears behind thedoor of her bedroom.The two women turn to face each other, masquerade and combatboth finished. THE HOUSEWIFE Want some coffee? THE BRIDE Yeah, sure.The two women move into the kitchen. The Bride re-sheaths herSOG, and The Housewife puts the butcher knife back in thedrawer.The Bride sits down at the kitchen table, while The Housewifepours both of them coffee. THE HOUSEWIFE Cream and sugar? THE BRIDE Both, please.As The Housewife fixes the coffee, we hear The Bride'sVOICEOVER ON THE SOUNDTRACK: THE BRIDE (V.O.) This Pasadena homemaker's name is Jeanne Bell. Her husband is Dr. Lawrence Bell. But back when we were acquainted, five years ago, her name was VERNITA GREEN. Her code name, was "COBRA"..... Mine was BLACK MAMBA.The two combat artists sit at the kitchen table, drinkingcoffee out of Vernita's coffee mugs. THE BRIDE Were you expecting me? VERNITA Yes and no. Bill got in touch with me right after you woke up, and then again a little later after your episode in Japan. (pause) So I suppose it's a little late for a apology, huh? THE BRIDE You suppose correctly. VERNITA Even if I was sincere? THE BRIDE Oh. I'm quite positive you're sorry, now.Vernita says to the Bride across the table furiously but withlow volume; VERNITA Look bitch, I need to know if you're gonna start anymore shit around my baby girl! THE BRIDE You can relax for now. I'm not going to murder you in front of your daughter. VERNITA That's being more rational than Bill led me to believe you were capable of. THE BRIDE Well that's a demonstration of Bill's complete ignorance when it comes to the subject of me, and what I'm thinking, and what I might do. It's mercy, compassion, and forgiveness I lack, not rationality.She pauses for effect -- the ham. THE BRIDE I'll wait for now, but I won't wait for long. I'll allow you to choose a time and place for us to meet again, preferably as far away from Nikki as possible. I could have just HIT you, I didn't, I demand respect for that. Since this is not a HIT, consider it a DUEL. And as two former Deadly Vipers, we will observe Viper rules of honor. One on one - no help - no bushwhackin - no treacherous weapons - on weapon of choice - our skill and our bodies.Vernita says her name; VERNITA *(BLEEP)* THE BRIDE - I'm not through telling you. Failure to keep our date, or duplicity of any kind, will result in me putting a xoxo hollow point bullet into the back of your skull from a window of a building across the street from Nikki's elementary school. Now, feel free to respond. VERNITA Look...I know I fucked you over. I fucked you over bad. I wish to God I hadn't, but I did.The blonde listens to the black woman with a poker face. VERNITA If I could go back in a machine I would, but I can't. All I can tell you is I'm a different person now. THE BRIDE I don't care. VERNITA Be that as it may, I know I do not deserve mercy or forgiveness. However, I beseech you for both on behalf of my daughter. THE BRIDE -- Bitch, you can stop right there.The B-word stops Vernita short, almost like a cold-handedslap in the face (it should affect the audience that way aswell). THE BRIDE (leans in close) Just because I have no wish to murder you before the eyes of your daughter, does not mean parading her around in front of me is going to inspire sympathy. You and I have unfinished business. And not a goddamn fuckin thing you've done in the subsequent five years - including getting knocked up - is going to change that. VERNITA You have every right to wanna get even -- THE BRIDE -- But that's where you're wrong, Vernita. I don't want to get even. To get even, even Steven. I would have to kill you, go into Nikki's room, kill her, then wait for your old man, Dr. Bell, to come home and kill him. That would make us even. No, my unborn daughter will just hafta be satisfied with your death at her mother's hands.Vernita knows no matter what else is said, blood will spill. VERNITA When do we do this? THE BRIDE It all depends... When do you want to die? Tomorrow? The day after tomorrow? That's about as long as I'll wait. VERNITA How bout tonight, bitch? THE BRIDE Spendid. Where? VERNITA There's a baseball diamond where our little league has its games, about a mile from here. We meet there around two-thirty in the morning, dressed all in black, your hair in a black stocking, and we have us a knife fight, we won't be bothered. I have to fix Nikki's cereal.As they continue to talk, Vernita pulls down a cereal bowlfor her daughter and lays it on the kitchen counter. THE BRIDE Bill said you were one of the best ladies he'd ever seen with an edged weapon.Vernita moves to another kitchen cabinet, and pulls down abox of the sugar cereal, "Kaboom." VERNITA Fuck you, bitch, I know he didn't qualify it, so you can just kiss my motherfuckin ass, Black Mamba. (snorts to herself) Black Mamba, I shoulda been motherfuckin Black Mamba.As the two females continue to talk, Vernita reaches her handinside the cereal box. THE BRIDE Weapon of choice? And if you want to stick with your butcher knife, I'm cool with that. VERNITA Very funny.Vernita FIRES A GUN from inside the cereal box at TheBride........ The bullet explodes out of the cardboard box, and HITSthe coffee mugh directly in front of The Bride, BLOWING IT TOSMITHEREENS.The Bride THROWS HERSELF ON THE FLOOR....Vernita pulls the gun out of the cereal box and FIREESagain......The bullet HITS THE FLOOR of the tiny kitchen......The Bride moves under the kitchen table, then using herback, LIFTS THE TABLE OFF THE GROUND, RAMMING IT STRAIGHTINTO Vernita, pinning her flat up against the table top, andthe kitchen counter.While her left hand holds the table, her right hand goes tothe SOG on her belt, her fingers wrap around the blade'sgrip, lifting it up out of the sheath and PLUNGING IT THROUGHTHE TABLE TOP up to the handle, with all the SOG's steelentering Vernita's abdomen.The table falls back to the floor with the dying homemakerpinned to it. The two former colleagues meet eyes. VERNITA Sorry, bout the bushwhack. Please don't... THE BRIDE Do to your daughter, what you did to mine... (she takes her hand) ...I won't.Vernita dies.The Bride removes her Sog, looks up and sees little Nikkistanding in the doorway of her room. The little girl sees hermother dead on the floor, lying in her own blood. And shesees the blonde lady standing over her mother, bloody knifestill in her hand. But oddly enough, Nikki doesn't cry. Thelittle girl locks eyes with the big girl, and holds herstare.As she talks to the little girl, she removes an alreadystained with blood white handkerchief with the name "BILL"sewn on it. And the blonde wipes the girl's mother's bloodoff her blade. THE BRIDE It was not my intention to do this in front of you. For that I'm sorry. But you can take my word for it, your mother had it coming. When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I'll be waiting.And with that apology, statement, and invitation, The Bridewalks out the kitchen side door, leaving the little girl toher mourning.EXT. VERNITA'S HOME - DAYThe Bride walks down the dead woman's driveway to hervehicle. She glances at the lawn toys one more time as shemakes here getaway.She climbs into her big, yellow pickup truck, with the words"Pussy Wagon" written across the flatbed's hatch door in apimpy font. She takes out a ringed notebook and turns to apage that's headline reads; DEATH LIST FIVEOn the pager are five names numbered going down the pagewritten in red ink.The first name has a line drawn through it with black ink.The second name on the list is; VERNITA GREEN COBRAThe Bride takes a black felt pen and draws a line throughVernita's name. Turns on the truck's engine and drives out ofthe residential district. FADE TO BLACK.OVER BLACKTITLE CARD: Chapter two The comatose BrideFADE UP ONCU The comatose Bridelying in her hospital bed, wide open unblinking sightlesseyes, that constantly stare yet see nothing. The Bride is atthe beginning of her comatose journey.A SUBTITLE APPEARS:under her face. "Five years and four months earlier in the city of El Paso, Texas"Although we're only in a tight CU, we can tell a few things:one, she's in her hospital room; two, she's alone; three,it's night; and four, one hellva RAINSTORM is poundingoutside.EXT. EL PASO GENERAL HOSPITAL - NIGHTThe rain pisses down in buckets in front of the hospital...WHEN...The wheel to an Alfa Romeo rolls into FRAME and stops.The car door opens and two yellow galoshes step out into thewet night.OVERHEAD SHOTA red umbrella opens as rain falls down.CU the back of a head wearing a yellow rainslicker hood,framed by the red umbrella above it, which water cascadesdown and beats a rhythm against.The figure in the yellow rainslicker with the red umbrella(who we can guess is female) starts walking towards thehospital. WE GO TO SPLIT SCREEN Left Side Right SideCU The Bride's unblinking The back of the yellowcomatose sleep. slicker - walking in the rain towards the hospital's entrance. CU her yellow galoshes slapping against the wet asphalt, and splashing through puddles.CU The Bride in her coma CU the hospital's electrical doors - WOOSH - OPEN. We follow behind the woman in the raincoat as she walks from outside into the hospital down the hall, and into the ladies room door.CU The BRIDE EX CU OF A WHITEin her coma WOMAN'S SHAPELY BAREFOOT ANKLE AND LEG stepping into a sheer, white stocking. INSERT: OF THOSE LONG, WHITE LEGS STEPPING INTO A WHITE NURSE'S UNIFORM. INSERT: OF THE ZIPPER IN THE BACK ZIPPING UPWARDS. INSERT: OF WHITE, SHEER STOCKING FEET STEPPING INTO WHITE NURSE'S ORTHOPEDIC SHOES. - INSERT: OF A SYRINGE NEEDLE STUCK IN A VIAL The liquid is drawn up into the syringe. SOME WRITTEN TEXT APPEARS BELOW IMAGE THAT READS: "A lethal cocktail of Bill's own concoction. He calls it, 'Goodbye forever'." INSERT: THE DEADLY SYRINGE IS PLACED ON A NURSE'S TRAY INSERT: A LITTLE WHITE NURSE'S CAP IS PLACED ON TOP of the woman's blonde head.INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - NIGHTThe door marked "ladies" is opened, and a beautiful 6-footblonde in a white nurse's uniform, with a matching white eyepatch over her left eye, steps out, carrying the nurse's traywith the "Goodbye forever"-filled syringe on it.She walks down the corridor towards The sleeping Bride'sroom.SUBTITLE UNDERNEATH BLONDE NURSE: "ELLE DRIVER Member of The DEADLY VIPER ASSASSINATION SQUAD codename: CALIFORNIA MOUNTAIN SNAKE" END OF SPLIT SCREEN STAY WITH ELLE'S SIDEINT. THE BRIDE'S HOSPITAL ROOM - NIGHTThe Bride, alone in her bed, alone in her coma, alone in herroom.Elle Driver opens the door to her room and steps inside.The female assassin approaches the comatose woman.EX CU ELLE DRIVER'S EYE AND WHITE EYE PATCHlooking down at her sleeping target, victim, rival, andopposite number.EX CU The BRIDE'S EYESwide open - blank stare.Elle standing over The Bride's hospital bed, says to her; ELLE I might never of liked you. Point in fact I despise you. But that doesn't suggest I don't respect you. You were a master of a profession that's most difficult to master. Dying in our sleep is a luxury our kind is rarely afforded. My gift to you.As she lifts the syringe off the tray....Her cell phone RINGS....She curses to herself...there can be only one person on theother end....she answers it. ELLE Hello, Bill. (pause) Affirmative. (pause) Comatose. (pause) I'm standing over her right now. (pause) What!The female assassin turns away from the wide-eyed stare ofThe Bride, and paces the hospital room talking in the cellphone. ELLE Don't fuckin ssshhh me! If you think I came all the way down to Texas - in a dog and cat rainstorm no less - just to tuck sleeping beauty in bed - you got another fuckin thing comin - (pause, then real loud) You don't owe her Shit!! (then again, but quieter) You don't owe her shit. (pause) Man, fuck that bitch! (pause) Oh you're not are you? Well Bill, you never leave a job half done. A great teacher taught me that once, he looked a whole lot like you.Elle pauses as Bill on the other line has his say. We don'thear his side, we stay with Elle as he talks. We can tell byher face, he's making some sense. After awhile she answersback; ELLE I guess. (pause) No, I don't need to guess, I know. (pause) Affirmative. (pause) I love you too, bye bye.The female assassin puts the phone away and looks down at Thecomatose Bride with the open eyes. Even though her face isexpressionless, she almost seems to be smiling. ELLE Thought that was pretty funny didn't ya? Word of advice shithead, don't you ever wake up.Elle leans closer to the Bride's face. ELLE Ya know now I get a better look at you, you're not so damn pretty. Yeah, you go that Venus thing going for you but...ya know, now I get a closer look at you you're kinda weird looking. You got this big nose that doesn't fit with the rest of your face, your eyes are two different sizes. And look at your skin...My complexion is way better than yours --The Bride does one of her motor reflex functions...She SPITSin Elle's face.Elle springs up, wipes the spit off her cheek and looks downat The comatose Bride in her bed. ELLE Oh, no you didn't.She grabs The Bride by the front of her hospital gown.......Yanks Her up to a sitting position......And PUNCHES her hard in the face three times. ELLE If you ever take your ass out of this Goddamn bed for as long as you fuckin live, I will beat you into the ground, bitch!INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - NIGHTElle Driver in her nurse's uniform, angrily walks down thehallway. She passes by a DOCTOR, STRUGGLING WITH A PATIENTBLEEDING PROFUSELY on a gurney. DOCTOR (yelling) Nurse come here quick, we're losing this man!Elle doesn't even look back. ELLE Tough titty, I quit.She walks out of the SHOT. FADE TO BLACK.BLACK FRAMETITLE CARD: Five years later. CUT TO:INT. THE COMATOSE BRIDE'S HOSPITAL ROOM - NIGHTThe CAMERA is in a corner of the ceiling, looking down on thecomatose Bride, who lies motionless in her bed.WE HEAR the sound of a BUZZING MOSQUITO, doing loop de loopsand figure eights in the air, looking for some warm blood.The BUZZING stops....MACRO CUof mosquito on The Bride's forearm, its stinger dug in herflesh, visibly drawing blood from its host.CU MOSQUITO'S FACEdrinking her blood.MACROSHOT OF MOSQUITO ON FOREARMdrinking blood...when The Bride's hand comes into FRAME andSQUASHES the bug flat. Her fingers FLICK the dead bug away.CU The Brideher wide-open eyes, that have stared in a constant gaze forthe last five years,finally...slowly...softly...shut.BEATThey SUDDENLY POP OPEN.The BRIDE SITS BOLD UPRIGHT IN BED.She has no idea where the fuck she is. WE DO A SHAW BROTHERSSTYLE QUICK ZOOM INTO A CU OF HER FACE.QUICK CUT TO A FLASHBACK SPAGHETTI-WESTERN STYLEback at the wedding chapel, gun pointed down at our face.THE BARREL EXPLODES LEAT AT US - BANG!QUICK CUT BACK TO The BRIDE IN HER HOSPITAL BED,BANK still echoing in her ears. She lets out a SCREAM OF PAINand her hand goes to the side of her head, as if she werejust shot.Her hand feels the metal plate embedded in the side of herskull where the hole was. She knocks against it with herknuckle...it goes...TINK...TINK.Suddenly she says out loud; THE BRIDE My baby.Her hand goes down to her belly, unly to find it not swollenbut flat. She doesn't understand, lifts up her hospital gownand sees a JAGGED SCAR which runs down her abdomen. Herfingertips trace it.She quickly looks at the palm of her and and counts thelines.MACRO CU The LINES IN HER PALM look like a road map.She stops counting, shocked; THE BRIDE (to herself) Five years.She counts again. THE BRIDE (a statement) Five years.The Bride's two eyes fill with tears as she realizes her babyis long gone.WHEN SUDDENLY...She hears the STEP...STEP...STEP...OF BILL'S BOOTS WALKINGTOWARDS HER ROOM....WE SEE THE CINEMATIC EQUIVALENT OF A COMIC BOOK THOUGHTBALLOON by her head. INSIDE OF IT WE SEE BILL'S BLACK BOOTSwalking across the wood floor of the wedding chapel.INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR (THE BRIDE'S FLOOR) - NIGHTWe see a HOSPITAL ORDERLY'S bright red and white Reebokssoftly slapping against the smooth surface of theinstitution's floor. They make a sound nothing like Bill'sshoes. SCREEN GOES TO SPLIT SCREEN LEFT SIDE RIGHT SIDEThe BRIDE listening to them Orderly's Reeboks walkinggetting closer. WE HEAR the down the hospitalSTEP...STEP...STEP...in time corridor.with Orderly's sneakers. CAMERA MOVES UP TO Orderly's face, leading two TRUCKDRIVERS.The Bride HEARS BILL'SVOICE SPEAK FOR THE ORDERLY; BILL'S VOICE ORDERLY (in time) (in time) She's right in here. She's right in here. SPLIT SCREEN FINISHES STAY WITH The BRIDE'S SCREENThe Bride decides the best course of action, till she getsher bearings, is to play possum. She throws herself back downon the bed, just as the three men enter her room.They see just what they expected to see, The Bride lying inher bed in her coma.She duplicates her comatose eyes-wide-open-fixed stare.Except knowing she's awake, and sees everything in front ofher, creates a slightly different effect.The Bride, however, while she sees the Two Truckdrivers forwhat they are, when she sees The Orderly she sees Bill, whenThe Orderly talks she hears Bill. WE HOWEVER WILL NEVER SEEBILL'S FACE COMPLETELY.The Orderly takes her shee covering off, and hitches up herhospital gown till her blonde pussy is exposed. He does kindof a "TA-DA" presentation of her vagina. THE ORDERLY Now is that the cutest little blonde pussy you ever saw, or is that the cutest little blonde pussy, YOU-EVEA-SAW?Trucker #2 (Gerald) would tend to agree, Trucker #1 (Warren)fronts. WARREN I seen better.CU The BRIDEEYES WIDE OPEN PLAYING POSSUM. She can't believe she's beingexhibited in this manner. A look of chagrin crosses hertrying-to-be expressionless face, "I've seen a fuck loadbetter than you, fatass." THE ORDERLY Yeah, in a movie - maybe. But I know damn well this is the best pussy you ever saw you had touchin rights to. The price is seventy five dollars a fuck gentlemen, you gittin your freak on or what?The Truckers pay the bill of fare.As The Orderly counts The Truckers' money, he lays out therules; THE ORDERLY Here's the rules; Rule number one; no punchin 'er. Nurse comes in tomorrow an she got 'er a shiner - or less some teeth, jig's up. So no knuckle sandwiches under no circumstances. And by the way, this little cunt's a spitter - it's a motor reflex thing but spit or no, no punchin. Now are we absolutely positively clear about rule number one? TWO TRUCKERS Yeah. THE ORDERLY Rule number two; No monkey bites, no hickeys - in fact no leavin no marks of no kind. But after that, it's allll goooood. Her plummin down there don't work no more, so feel free to cum in 'er all ya wont. Keep the noise down - try not to make a mess, and I'll be back in twenty.The Orderly turns to leave, then remembers something, andturns back. He takes out the most disgusting jar of vaselinein the history of cinema, and hands it to Warren. THE ORDERLY Oh by the way, not all the time, but sometimes this cunt's cunt can get drier than a bucket of sand. If she dry, lube up with this and you'll be goo to go. BON-APPETIT, gentlemen.And with that, The Orderly's gone.The BRIDE'S POV:As soon as he leaves the Two Truckers start giggling. Warrenbegins to unbuckle the belt that lies beneath his belly.While he looks down to accomplish this, The BRIDE'S POVBLINKS. GERALD Hey Warren, she just blinked. WARREN He said she can't blink. GERALD I know what he said, I'm tellin ya she just did.Warren drops his Levi's to his ankles. WARREN Just wait, when I get through with this little dumbbell, she gonna stand up and recite the Gettysburg Ad-dress.Warren begins to climb up on the bed and mount The Bride.Before he does he stops, and looks back to Gerald. WARREN Hey, Gerald. GERALD Yeah? WARREN This shit ain't no peep show. Go out in the hall and I'll let ya know when it's your turn. GERALD Awww c'mon, I gotta leave the room? WARREN I can't get no errection wit you lookin at me, so go on. GERALD Well, just hurry up then.Gerald leaves the room; we go out with him in the hallway.INT. HALLWAY (HOSPITAL) - NIGHTGerald paces, waiting for his turn behind the door.THEN...He hears behind the door a commotion, then Warren SCREAM LIKEA BITCH. He bangs on the closed door and says; GERALD He man, keep it down in there, I can hear your ass out here.More falsetto SCREAMS behind the door...THEN...The HEAVY THUD of a body falling. Not what the expected.INT. THE BRIDE'S ROOM - NIGHTGerald pushes open the door to see one hellva sight. Hisbuddy, bloody and lying motionless on the floor, and TheBride lying haphazardly on the bed, in her coma.He moves to his buddy, who's dead. Then moves to The comatoseBride... Who SUDDENLY SPRINGS TO LIFE, GRABBING him by thefront of his shirt, YANKING HIM DOWN TO HER, and PLUNGING theI.V. NEEDLE in her arm DEEP INTO HIS TEMPLE, THEN TWISTING ITAROUND and AROUND, turning the right side of his brain intoscrambled eggs a la The BRIDE.She tosses the now brain-dead Gerald to the floor.The BRIDEupon waking, without leaving the bed where she lay the lastfive years, has just killed two men. She throws off thebloody blankets, whips her legs off the side of the bed, andtries to stand - THEN QUICKLY FALLS OUT OF FRAME. WE HEAR THECRASH BELOW FRAME.The Bride is flat on the floor. Her legs and feet don't work.Which means she's stuck on the floor with only a functioningtop half, and a completely useless bottom half. What's a girlto do?INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - NIGHTThe elevator doors open, and The Orderly steps out.BACK TO The BRIDEShe hears the sound of Bill's boots approaching the room...STEP...STEP...STEP...She sees Gerald has a Trucker's knife in a holster attachedto his belt. Her hands removes it.The Orderly swaggers down the hall to The Bride's room, redReeboks slapping against the smooth floor.CU The BRIDEShe SNAPS the knife's BLADE OPEN in her CU.The Orderly pushes open The Bride's door, stopping in shock.The ORDERLY'S POV:He sees an empty bed with bloodstains on it, Two deadTruckers on the floor, and no Bride. ORDERLY Oh shit!WE GO TO SLOW MOTION as he freaks, Then PAN DOWN HIM... Pastshirts - pants - to his Reeboks...Once on the floor WE SEEThe BRIDE, curled up low next to the doorway, behind hisankles, knife ready. WE GO BACK TO 24 FRAMES A SECOND. Hesteps into the room; when he does The Bride reaches out andSLASHES both of his Achilles tendons.The STANDING ORDERLYlets out a "YELP," adn FALLS OUT OF FRAME.IMPACT CUTThe Orderly HITTING the floor face first. The boy is stunned.The BRIDE (Confined to the floor)crawls over and drags the stunned fucker across the floor,placing his melon head between the door and the door frame.Then taking the door in her right hand. SLAM! SLAM! SLAM!SLAMMING HIS HEAD THREE TIMES BETWEEN THE DOOR AND THE DOORFRAME.The ORDERLYlies on the floor in a stange state of consciousness. He's inboth excruciating pain, and quite sure he's lost his mind,since at this moment he's lying on the floor, looking up atThe comatose Bride asking him questions. THE BRIDE Where's Bill? THE ORDERLY (hurt and confused) Who? SLAM!He screams. THE BRIDE Bill! Where is Bill! THE ORDERLY I dunno no Bill. SLAM! THE BRIDE I saw him here myself..... SLAM! ....Now do you tell me where he is, or do I beat your fuckin brains in? SLAM! THE ORDERLY Please please stop, don't hit me again! THE BRIDE Where is Bill? SLAM!Suddenly The Bride sees the gold coke straw around his neck,that she thought she'd seen earlier on Bill. She snatches itfrom around his neck. THE BRIDE Where did you get this from? THE ORDERLY That's mine. SLAM! THE BRIDE Bullshit! I saw Bill wearing it in this room ten minutes ago. SLAM!Then The Bride looks down and sees two tatoos on theOrderly's hand - one spelling "B.U.C.K." on each finger ofhis left hand. And another spelling "F.U.C.K." on the fingersof his right.The Bride seems to look inside her own mind - Whenever shedoes this A SPECIAL THEME MUSIC WILL PLAY (We'll call it herREMEMBERING THEME).WE DO A QUICK SHAW BROTHERS ZOOM INTO HER EYES -We see Buck enter her room that first night, five yearsago.... He's holding in his hand one of those big flashlightsyou use in a tent when camping. -- It gives off a soft bluelight. Buck examines The Bride through the blue. BUCK Well, ain't you the slice of cutie pie they all said you wuz. Well Ma'am, I'm from Longview Texas, my name's Buck, and I'm here to fuck.He starts to unbuckle his belt.WE ZOOM OUT OF HER EYES INTO A CU. The REMEMBERING THEME CUTSOFF. She looks down at Buck and says; THE BRIDE Your name's Buck, right? And you came to fuck, right?A "how the fuck does she know look," crosses his face.The Bride looks down at him....The VENGEANCE THEME BEGINSPLAYING LOUDLY ON The SOUNDTRACK, and the VEIN IN HERFOREHEAD BECOMES PRONOUNCED and begins to PULSATE IN TIMEWITH The MUSIC. Every time The Bride comes face to face witha tormenter, this Theme will play on the soundtrack. By midmovie this music should drive the audience wild with orgasmicanticipation of the carnage to come......and With the door in her hand and one mighty slam, thisLongview Texas boy is sent to the Promised Land.She searches the dead man's pockets, coming up with a brownwallet that says on it, "BIG EL PASO PIMPIN," loaded withlettuce. She also pulls out a set of car keys on a pickuptruck key chain that has the words, "Pussy Wagon" on itwritten in a pimpy font. She gathers up all these items, andGerald's knife, then begins to strip Buck of his orderlyuniform.INT. UNDERGROUND PARKING LOT - NIGHTThe elevator doors to the hospital's underground parking lotopen, revealing The Bride in Buck's orderly scrubs in awheelchair.She wheels out of the elevator fast into the parking lot. Herarms spinning the wheels as she goes down the line of cars,looking for a pickup truck that Buck would own...she stops.What made The Bride stop. The ass end of a big, yellow 4x4hard-body pickup truck, with flames painted along the side,and the words, "PUSSY WAGON," written along the flat-bedhatch door. Pimpy font.The Bride looks at Buck's key chain in her hand.EX CU CAR KEY in truck door lock, it turns.EX CU TRUCK DOOR LOCK POPS UP OPEN.INT. BACKSEAT OF BUCK'S TRUCK - NIGHTThe Bride pulls herself up into the backseat of Buck's pickuptruck. Once in the backseat, she shoves the wheelchair away.It rolls out of control down the parking ramp, and CRASHES.Now The Bride's lying vertically in Buck's truck's backseat.Seemingly out of danger - at least out of sight - but she'sstill stuck hiding in the hospital. And until she regainsfull use of her legs and feet, this little Bride ain't goinanywhere or doin anything.Lying flat, with the back of her head propped up against thedoor, her long, lifeless legs stretched out in front of her,her two bare feet at the end of them, pointing to the sky,the Bride focusses her eyes, her stare, her thoughts, herstrength, and all her concentration....on her big toe.SLOW ZOOM INTO BIG TOE....SLOW ZOOM INTO HER FACE....SLOW ZOOM INTO BIG TOE....SLOW ZOOM INTO FACE. THE BRIDE (monotone) Wiggle your big toe.Toe doesn't move an inch. THE BRIDE Wiggle your big toe.It doesn't move. THE BRIDE Wiggle your big toe. (VOICE OVER) As I lay in the back of Buck's pickup truck, trying to will my limbs out of entropy, I could see the faces of the cunts who did this to me, and the dick responsible. Members all of Bill's brainchild; "The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad."TITLE SEQUENCEFor what looks like a 60's television show about an ALL-GIRLHIT SQUAD, complete with its own LALO SHIFFRIN THEME MUSIC.Against a BRIGHT ORANGE BACKGROUND, A SNAKE WITH SIX HEADS(All different breeds), DONE IN A COOL BUT LOW-BUDGET SPEEDRACER-STYLE OF ANIMATION, rears its heads to strike.The IMAGE FREEZES... AND THE SHOW'S TITLE (In an especiallycool font) AND LOGO (The black silhouette of five sexy galseach with a samurai sword hanging from their hip, and one guyin a black suit) APPEAR BENEATH IT. "The DEADLY VIPER ASSASSINATINO SQUAD the D.iV.A.S."The SHOW CAST CREDITS START:WE SEE The BRIDE doing something cool...FREEZESCREEN GOES ORANGE except for a SCOPE-SIGHT RIFLE GRAPHICWITH CROSSHAIRS over The Bride's face. OFF TO THE SIDE IS HERIDENTIFYING CREDIT;"Starring(The Bride's real name is covered by a stamp that reads)CLASSIFIED asBLACK MAMBA"A beautiful Japanese woman wielding a samurai sword - FREEZEORANGE B.G. SCOPE-SIGHT GRAPHIC"StarringO-REN ISHII asCOTTONMOUTH"VERNITA GREEN doing something cool - FREEZESAME GRAPHIC"StarringVERNITA GREEN asCOBRA"The older, male doing something cool - FREEZESAME GRAPHIC"Starring BUDD asSIDEWINDER"ELLE DRIVER doing something cool - FREEZEORANGE B.G. SCOPE-SIGHT GRAPHIC;"StarringELLE DRIVER asCALIFORNIA MOUNTAIN SNAKE"As the DEADLY VIPER ASSASSINATION SQUAD OPENING THEME PLAYSWE SEE VARIOUS SHOTS of The Vipers (all dressed alike in thesame BLACK, SKINTIGHT CAT SUITS, except for Budd, the malewho wears a BLACK SUIT) all doing exciting shit. It ends withthe reappearance of the six-heades snake logo, and the six,black silhouettes.The FINAL CREDIT APPEARS;"Created and Produced by BILL"WE MOVE INTO A HEAD and SHOULDERS CU OF The BRIDE'S BLACKSILHOUETTE. THE BRIDE (V.O.) Now after five years of beauty sleep I knew absolutely nothing about my enemies' strengths weakness or whereabouts. But as fated by God vengeance would have it, I who knew nothing - knew one thing. As sure as God made little green apples...WE MOVE FAST TO O-REN ISHII'S SILHOUETTE, The SILHOUETTEBECOMES A POSED PICTURE OF O-REN in all her Deadly Viperglory. THE BRIDE (V.O.) (continued) ....if O-Ren Ishii, the first name on my Death List, was still alive... she'd live in Japan. O-Ren Ishii, made her first acquaintance with death at the age of eleven.FLASH ONCU O-REN (11-years old), hiding under a bed, watching......her FATHER (dressed in the uniform of a sergeant for theAmerican Army) fighting THREE YAKUZA GANGSTERS. He kills onewith his bare hands. The other two slice him to death withsamurai swords......and her MOTHER being raped by the same men. When theyfinish, they SHOOT her.Little O-Ren watches, hidden from sight, withi the eyes andface of a stone. THE BRIDE (V.O.) It was at that age, a half-Chinese, half-Japanese American Army brat witnessed the murder of her Master Sergeant father. And the rape, then murder of her mother at the hands of Japan's most ruthless Yakuza boss, Boss Matsumoto. She swore revenge...luckily for her, Boss Matsumoto was a pedophile.SHOCK CUTO-REN ON TOP OF BOSS MATSUMOTO PLUNGING A HUGE KNIFE INTO HISCHEST. A STREAM OF RED BLOOD SHOOTS UP OUT OF HIM like ageyser. Boss is naked, O-Ren wears a Japanese schoolgirluniform. THE BRIDE (V.O.) At thirteen, she got her revenge.The Boss's screams cause TWO OF BOSS'S MEN to run into theroom, only to be SHOT DOWN by O-Ren, as she removes a gunfrom a holster strapped to her thigh.The 20-YEAR OLD O-REN ISHIIon a rooftop with a high-powered, scope-sight rifle up to hereye. Her EYE is HUGELY MAGNIFIED in the SCOPE. THE BRIDE By twenty, she was one of the tip top of female assassins in the world.She fires.INT. CAR - DAYA Central American General riding backseat of his governmentvehicle. TWO BEAUTIFUL LATIN WOMEN in one- piece bathing suitssit on either side of him. They both wear sashes down theirfront; one reads, "Miss Panama," the other reads, "MissVenezuela." As we cut to this shot, he has both hands on eachof their bare knees. He's laughing as the TOP OF HIS HEAD isBLOWN OFF.The 23-YEAR OLD O-REN ISHIIstands before Bill and The Bride. (Bill is not clearlyviewed.) THE BRIDE (V.O.) At twenty-three she joined Bill's Deadly Vipers...The 25-YEAR-OLD O-REN ISHIIBEATING UP the pregnant Bride with the other Vipers... THE BRIDE (V.O.) At twenty five she did her part in the killing of eight innocent people, including my unborn daughter, in a small wedding chapel in El Paso Texas. But on that day, five years ago, she made one big mistake...POSED FIGURE of the BRIDE in all her pre-beating bridal gownglory. THE BRIDE (V.O.) ...she Should of killed nine. However, before statisfaction would be mine, first things first...CU The BRIDE IN BUCK'S TRUCKAn hour and a half later from the last time we saw her. THE BRIDE Wiggel your big toe.CU The BRIDE'S BIG TOEwiggles - slightly. THE BRIDE Hart part's over. Now let's get these other piggies wiggling. FADE TO BLACK.BLACK FRAMESUBTITLE APPEARS: "Thirteen Hours Later"BEGIN MUSIC MONTAGEFADE UP ONINT. UNDERGROUND PARKING LOT - DAYPavement of the parking lot. We HEAR a CAR DOOR OPENOFFSCREEN, then The Bride's bare foot comes from above FRAME,stepping down INTO The SHOT.She walks around to the driver's side and climbs in.She sticks Buck's ignition key in its slot and turns.The truck's engine RUMBLES to life.She spies a pair of Elvis T.C.B. SUNGLASSES lying on thedash. She puts them on.EXT. TEXAS STREETS/ INT. TEXAS STORES - DAYThe Bride drives Buck's big, yellow pussy wagon all over ElPaso buying supplies.WE FOLLOW Her bare feet into a clothing store.Her feet, legs, and ass slip into a new pair of LEVI'S.Her hands grab a pair of CHERRY BROWN COWBOY BOOTS.Then slips on the cowboy boots.Chooses another TOP.And finds a warm JACKET.She opens Buck's "BIG EL PASO PIMPIN" wallet, and pays forthe items.She emerges from the store wearing her new outfit, and climbsback in the truck.She drives, stopping at a DEPARTMENT STORE, and walkinginside.She picks up a SHOVEL, a HAND PICKAXE, a big CAMPINGFLASHLIGHT, a MAP OF TEXAS, a writing NOTEBOOK, and a bunchof RED and BLACK FELT PENS.While the Bride is buying items in the department store we'llCROSSCUT........with her driving the pussy wagon up to a low-rent motelcalled, "The Texican".......Her Registering with the OLD BASTARD of a desk clerk,getting the key, and paying him out of the "BIG EL PASOPIMPIN" wallet.......her drawing a bath in the bathroom of the motel room...Shampoo is taken off the shelf of the department store......conditioner......a bar of soap......hot water runs out of the bathtub faucet......steam rises off the hot bathwater......she pulls down a bunch of bath products, like bubble bath,salts, apricot this - kiwi that, we see her pour all theitems in the bathwater......then we see her bare foot enter the bathwater......then Lower her whole body into the bathwater......now submerged in the warm bathwater, by herself, perfectMUSIC CUE ON SOUNDTRACK, she begins to cry...her poor hearthas been shattered and five years of tears come flooding outof her.She cries for her baby...She cries for the motherhood robbed from her...She cries for all the innocent people at the wedding chapel,who died simply because they were unlucky enough to cross herpath...She cries for the betrayal at the hands of her lover...She cries for the treachery at the hands of her comrades...She cries for the five years of life snatched from her...She cries for the countless violations she endured whileincapacitated...And finally, she cries for all the misery she will cause theundeserving......enroute to Bill's retribution. Retributionthat begins the minute she steps out of this bathtub.She curls up into a fetal position inside the tub of warmwater...weeping.We DOLLY back...to give our heroine some privacy...WEDISSOLVE through the bathroom door...Till we're on the otherside, filming a closed door with crying on the other side.When she's finished shedding tears, is when she'll beginshedding blood.When the bathroom door opens, the woman that emerges, hasclosed out all of her emotions...save from one...revenge.It's that woman, in her new outfit, that climbs into theyellow pussy wagon, puts the T.C.B. Sunglasses over her eyes,and starts the engine that sets into motion the gory story tofollow.END OF MUSIC MONTAGEEXT./INT. BUCK'S TRUCK DRIVING IN DESERT (MOVING) - NIGHTPOV THROUGH WINDSHIELD:The truck shines its headlight beams on an open patch ofprairie wasteland. We see dirt, rocks, plants, and an oilderrick pumping up and down.The Bride STOPS the truck.Taking her flashlight with her, The Bride walks into theheadlight beams towards one rock on the ground in particular.She lifts it off the ground, there's an X on it's underside.She smiles. If the X hadn't been there, she would have takenit as a sign that her vengeance quest was never meant to be.But as it is there, it would appear that fortune has smiledon The Bride and her bloody intentions.She walks back to the truck, takes the shovel and the handpickaxe out from the flatbed, reaches into the truck cab andCHANGES THE MUSIC TO A POUNDING HEAVY METAL ANTHEM.CU The BRIDE'S COWBOY BOOTSnext to the X ROCKIN TIME WITH The METAL, The Bride's cowboy boots count outten paces from the rock.When the boots stop, the flashlight ENTERS THE SHOTilluminating the spot, THEN...the shovel ENTERS, strikingdeep in the unmarked earth.EXT. TEXAS DESERT - NIGHTDeep in the middle of Fuck-Knows Texas, lit by the headlightsof Buck's 4x4, The Bride digs a hole in theground......TILL...She HITS SOMETHING HARD.She gets down on her knees, hacking away at the dirt with thehand pickaxe, till a large box covered in plastic isrevealed. She hoists it up out of the earth.She rips off the plastic, revealing a large, green Armyfootlocker, untouched by the condensation of being buried inthe ground for over five years. Flipping the two locks open,she lifts the lid, placing the big camping flashlight on therim.Unfolding a sleeping bag long-ways, she bought at thedepartment store. The Bride begins collecting the contents ofher buried treasure, and laying them on the sleeping bag.We see her remove them from the footlocker, one by one.The HEAVY METAL CONTINUES ON THE SOUNDTRACK.2 9mm AUTOMATICS, w/ AMMOand HOLSTERS.1 small HAND GUN, w/ AMMOand HOLSTER (which fits around the thigh).1 SNUB NOSE .38w/ ANKLE HOLSTER.1 double-edged SOG KNIFEw/ HOLSTER1 MOSSBERG PUMP ACTION SHOT GUN w/ AMMO1 SILVER STEEL BOOMERANG, w/ a double-sided razor's edgew/ HOLSTER.1 old fashioned STRAIGHT RAZOR1 BLACK VERTICAL ATTACHE CASE.She flips it open, and inside broken down into four separatepieces is a HIGH-POWERED, SCOPE-SIGHT RIFLE.1 MANILA ENVELOPE.She reaches in and pulls out a PHOTOCOPY OF HER SONOGRAM.There on the page is a photocopy of her unborn baby girl. Afierce grimness crosses her face as she places the sonogramback in the envelope.1 CLEAR ZIP-LOCK BAG containing a PHONY I.D. and BANK BOOKboth w/ the name "CANDY RALSTON" on them. Reaching back inthe locker she pulls out the final item,1 SMALL KEY attached to a "DEALY VIPERS" KEY CHAIN.She rolls up the weapons in the sleeping bag, and drives off.The HEAVY METAL CONTINUES...CU SIGN reading, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF TEXASINT. COMMONWEALTH BANK OF TEXAS - DAYCU The BRIDEstanding at a teller window, she holds up her key.INSERT: 1 BANK BOOK and 1 DRIVER'S LICENSE w/ The Bride'sphoto on it and the name "CANDY RALSTON" on each.INT. SAFETY DEPOSIT VAULT - DAYThe Bride, with a big athletic bag slung over her shoulder,watches a TELLER remove four safety deposit boxes.INT. PRIVATE AREA - DAYWhere you look isnide your safety deposit box by yourself.The Bride opens up the first box......It's filled w/ CASH.She opens up the second box.......It's filled w/ CASH.She opens up the third box........It's filled w/ CASH.She opens up the fourth box........She Takes out a BAG. Inside the bag are 14 FORGEDPASSPORTS and DRIVER'S LICENSES in 14 different names.Also in the box, is one COMPACT REFRIGERATOR CASE. She opensit, inside are 2 BEAUTIFUL HANDMADE GOLD SYRINGES and 1 VIALOF FLUID.A SUBTITLE APPEARS UNDERNEATH: TRUTH SERUM of Bill's own concoction. He calls it, "The Undisputed Truth."AS The HEAVY METAL CONTINUES...WE see The BRIDE leaving thebank, all the weapons she needs, all the money she needs,taking the first step on her bloody trail...A RINKY DINK GRAPHIC OF A MAP OF JAPANThe tiny figure of a black AIRPLANE flies over the map,leaving a dotted-line trail behind it. We move into the blackairplane and DISSOLVE toINT. AIRPLANE (FLYING)OVERHEAD SHOTof the Bride in her passenger seat, flying to Japan. We seeshe's holding a clean white handkerchief. She's sewing thename "Bill" in the corner.END OF MUSIC MONTAGE.BLACK FRAMETITLE CARD: Chapter Three The MAN From OKINAWA FADE UP ONINT. SUSHI BAR (OKINAWA, JAPAN) - DAYThe ENTRANCE to a tiny sushi bar, covered by a Japanesecurtain....SUBTITLE APPEARS: "The City of OKINAWA, JAPAN"....The fabric is moved aside, and The Bride enters the shot,and the tiny establishment.The little fish and sake bar is the definition of the wordcozy. Besides The Bride, the only other person inside is TheSUSHI CHEF, who smiles at her behind the midget bar.This Japanese man in his mid-fifties greets the tall, blondewestern girl with a turned-on-for-the-tourists affability. SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) English? THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) Almost -- American. SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) Ahhhh,...America, welcome... Welcome... My English -- Very good.The Bride smiles at this and walks further inside. Shedoesn't come across as one of the world's deadliestassassins, but instead as a sweet, slightly airheaded,American tourist. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Domo.The Sushi Chef gives an exaggerated look of surprise, andsays; SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) Oh, "Domo", Very good -- very good, you speak Japanese? THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) Nooo, just a few words I learned since yesterday. - May I sit at the bar? SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) Sure sure sure - sit. What other words did you learn - excuse me --The Sushi Chef YELLS IN JAPANESE, to someone OFFSCREEN.The Bride thinks the restaurant so small it's almost hard toimagine there could be a back room to it.Before getting a response from whoever it was he was yellingto a moment ago, The Sushi Chef turns back to The Bride. SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) -- What other Japanese you learn?The Bride puts on a thinking face. THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) Oh...let's see..."Arigato." SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) "Arigato"...Very good. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) ..."Ah-So"... SUSHI CHEF (JAPANESE) "Ah-So!" You know what "Ah-So" meansfl THE BRIDE "I See." SUSHI CHEF I see - Very good. THE BRIDE I already said "Domo", right? SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) Yes. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) "Kon-netie-wa."The Sushi Chef goes "Oooh" like he's just discovered theanswer to a mystery. SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) ..."Kon-nichi-wa"...repeat please. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) "Kon-nichi-wa?"Saying with surprise and admiration; SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) Most impressive...you say Japanese words, like you Japanese.The Bride smiles and lets loose with a girlish giggle. THE BRIDE Now you're making fun of me. SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) No no no - serious business. Pronunciation - very good. You say "Arigato" ...like we say "Arigato." THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) Well, thank you - I mean...arigato. SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) You should learn Japanese - very easy. THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) No kidding, I heard it's kinda hard.Whenever the Sushi Chef doesn't either hear your orunderstand you, he yells the word; SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) What!And everybody always speaks LOUDER and CLEARER immediatelyafterwards. THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) I always heard it was difficult. SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) Yes yes yes - most difficult. But you have Japanese tongue. THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) Maybe I was Japanese in another life.The Sushi Chef proclaims as if he should know; SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) Most definitely, most definitely Japanese in another life.He sets an order of colorful, raw fish in front of the youngblonde woman, that not only looks good, it looks beautiful. THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) How did you know tuna's my favorite? SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) What! THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) Tuna's my favorite. SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) Ah, thank you very much.He YELLS OFFSCREEN in Japanese agai. A little BALD JAPANESEMAN with a shitty attitude, comes out from the back room. Heheads for the tall blonde asking in a grumbly voice inJapanese, "What she wants to drink?" THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) (to the bald man) I beg your pardon?The Sushi Chef pantomimes drinking. SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) - Drink - THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) Oh yes, a bottle of warm sake. SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) Ahhh sake, (he holds up his thumb) Very good.In Japanese he YELLS/ORDERS the warm sake, the little BaldMan disappears. The Bride takes a bite out of her fish. SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) First time in Japan? THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) A-huh. SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) What! THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) Yes, this is my first time.As the chef slices the next portion with a large knife, heasks; SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) What brings you to Okinawa? THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) I came to see a man. SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) Aaahh, you have friend live in Okinawa? THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) Not quite. SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) Not friend? THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) I've never met him.The Sushi Chef continues slicing..... SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) Who is he, may I ask? THE BRIDE Hattori Hanzo.There's a break in the Sushi Chef's slicing. After a beat, hebrings a bloody finger INTO FRAME and sticks it in his mouth.The little Bald man appears with a bottle of warm sake, hepours one for The Bride, then disappears again.As The Bride sips the sake, she looks at the chef.As The Sushi Chef sucks his finger, he looks at The Bride.The Sushi Chef drops the voice he had been using up to thatpoint...and IN JAPANESE SUBTITLED IN ENGLISH asks; SUSHI CHEF (JAPANESE) What do you want with Hattori Hanzo?The Bride answers in Japanese; THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) I need Japanese steel. SUSHI CHEF (JAPANESE) Why do you need Japanese steel? THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) I have vermin to kill. SUSHI CHEF (ENGLISH) You must have big rats you need Hattori Hanzo steel. THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) Huge.INT. HATTORI HANZO'S ATTIC - DAYThe trap door in the floor opens up, and HATTORI HANZO (SushiChef), climbs inside the room, followed by The Bride.The room has many handcrafted samurai swords in hand-carvedwooden sheaths resting on wooden racks running the length ofthe second half of the attic.The Bride walks down the row of Japanese steel, looking andtouching the shiny wood. She looks behind her to Hanzo who isstill by the trap door, and says; THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) May I?The Sushi Chef answers in ENGLISH; HANZO (ENGLISH) Yes you may.....She starts reaching for one... HANZO (ENGLISH) ...try the second one down in the sixth row on your left.She finds it lying sleeping in its shiny, black sheath.Her hand lifts it from the rack.She UNSHEATHS the steel, partially....then with GREATFLOURISH....completely.Hanzo's mouth froms a smile. HANZO (ENGLISH) Funny, you like samurai swords...He pulls a baseball out of his pocket. HANZO (ENGLISH) ...I like baseball.THEN SUDDENLY - HE THROWS THE BASEBALL HARD, right at TheBride's head....QUICK AS A WHIP, SHE SLICES THE BALL IN HALF, IN MID AIR.The two perfectly cut baseball pieces, hit the floor.He gives her a slight nod, then crosses the attic towardsher. HANZO (JAPANESE) I wanted to show you these.... However someone as you, who knows so much must surely know, I no longer make instruments of death. I keep these here for their ascetic and sentimental value. (he takes both sword and sheath from her...) Yet proud tho I am of my life's work... (...he closes them together) I am retired. THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) Then give me one of these. HANZO (ENGLISH) These are not for sale. THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) I didn't say, sell me. I said, give me. HANZO (ENGLISH) And why should I be obliged to assist you in the extermination of your vermin? THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) Because my vermin, is a former student of yours. And considering the student, I'd say you had a rather large obligation.Hattori Hanzo goes to a dusty window, and writes the name,"BILL" on it with his finger.The blonde girl nods her head yes.The proud warrior moves over to the door in the floor,throwing it open.He points into a corner... HANZO (JAPANESE) ...You can sleep there........starts to descend.... HANZO (JAPANESE) ...it will take me a week to make the sword........before his head disappears, he says; HANZO (JAPANESE) ...I suggest you spend it practicing....he closes the door behind him.She smiles slightly...then moves over to the window, takesout a handkerchief, and wipes Bill's name off. FADE TO BLACK.OVER BLACKTITLE APPEARS: "One week later"Under black we hear Hattori Hanzo's voice in Japanese andread the subtitles; HANZO (V.O.; JAPANESE) I'm done doing what I swore an oath to God 28 years ago to never do again. I've created, "something that kills people." And in that purpose I was a success. FADE UP ONCU HATTORI HANZO HANZO (JAPANESE) I've done this, because philosophically I'm sympathetic to your aim.EX CU The HANZO SWORDTRACKING EX CU of the Hanzo sword in its shiny, black woodsheath. At the base of the sheath, by the handle, he's carvedthe face of a lioness... HANZO (V.O.; JAPANESE) I can tell you with no ego, this is my finest sword. If on your journey, you should encounter God, God will be cut.CU HANZO. HANZO (JAPANESE) Revenge is never a straight line. It's a forest. And like a forest it's easy to lose your way...to get lost... to forget where you came in. To serve as a compass, a combat philosophy must be adopted that can be found in the secret doctrine of the Yagu Ninja. And now my yellow haired warrior, repeat after me;We go back and forth between CU of HANZO reciting thedoctrine like a samurai drill instructor and the Briderepeating it. HANZO (JAPANESE) "When engaged in combat, the vanquishing of thine enemy can be the warrior's only concern...The Bride repeats this... HANZO (JAPANESE) ...This is the first and cardinal rule of combat...The Bride repeats this... HANZO (JAPANESE) ...Suppress all human emotion and compassion...The Bride repeats this... HANZO (JAPANESE) ...Kill whoever stands in thy way, even if that be Lord God, or Buddha himself...The Bride repeats this... HANZO (JAPANESE) This truth lies at the heart of the art of combat. Once it is mastered... Thou shall fear no one... Though the devil himself may bar thy way...The Bride repeats this... Her eyes look at the greatest makerof swords on this earth and says; THE BRIDE Domo.EX CU The Hanzo Sword,her white hand with her long fingers COMES INTO FRAME andremoves the beautiful, artful instrument of vengeance. FADE TO BLACK.OVER BLACKTITLE CARD: Chapter Four SHOWDOWN at HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES CUT TO:A BLANK PIECE OF DRAWING PAPERA hand comes in and, as the Bride talks over this image,draws with a piece of charcoal, a portrait of the geisharegaled O-REN ISHII. THE BRIDE (V.O.) When fortune smiles on something as violent and ugly as revenge, at the time it seems proof like no other, that not only does God exist, you're doing his will. At a time when I knew the last about my enemies, the first name on my death list, was the easiest to find. But of course, when one manages the difficult task of becoming queen of the Tokyo underworld, one doesn't keep it a secret, does one?The charcoal drawing gets color and becomes ANIMATED, turninginto a JAPAMATION O-REN...JAPANESE ANIMATION SEQUENCEWe see Japamation-style images of The Bride's verbiage. THE BRIDE (V.O.) At the age of twenty, Bill backed his Nippon progeny financially and philosophically in her Shakespearian-in-magnitude power struggle with the other Yakuza clans, over who would rule vice in the city of Tokyo.Japamation images of O-Ren and her Army, taking on ANOTHERYAKUZA ARMY, among falling cherry blossoms.WE CUT BACK AND FORTH between cartoon images of this and thereal life real McCoy samurai sword battle.O-Ren's ability is simply amazing. THE BRIDE (V.O.) When it was all over, it was the geisha-regaled O-Ren Ishii that proved the victor.INT. JAPANESE NIGHT CLUBO-Ren has just become the official leader of crime in thecity of Tokyo. The six Yakuza clan bosses, each with TWOBODYGUARDS standing behind them, toast their new leader, withmuch laughter and drinking...all except one...BOSS TANAKA. THE BRIDE (V.O.) And just in case you're wondering how could a half breed Japanese Chinese American become the boss of all criminal activity in Tokyo, Japan,... I'll tell you. The subject of O-Ren's blood and nationality came up before the council only once. The night O-Ren assumed power over the crime council.Boss Tanaka is the picture of angered ambiance among thealcohol-fueled frivolity. THE BRIDE (V.O.) The man who seems bound and determined to break the mood is Boss Tanaka. And what Boss Tanaka thinks is...Boss Tanaka brings his fist down on the table, smashing theplate in front of him into itty bitty pieces.The party comes to a halt as all eyes go to the leader of theTanaka Crime Family. CRIME FAMILY LEADER #2 (JAPANESE) Tanaka? What's the meaning of this outburst? This is a time for celebration. BOSS TANAKA (JAPANESE) And what exactly should I be celebrating? The perversion of our illustrious council?The Bosses all react with shock and outrage...O-Ren remainscool. She raises her voice for the first word, but lowers itfor the rest of the sentence. O-REN (JAPANESE) Gentlemen...Boss Tanaka obviously has something on his mind. Allow him to express it. BOSS TANAKA (JAPANESE) My father... (looking at a clan head) ...along with yours and... (looking at another) ...along With yours, started this council. And while you drink like fish and laugh like donkeys, they weep in the afterlife over the perversion committed today.The BOSSES react again...O-Ren; O-REN (JAPANESE) Silence! (then composed) Of what perversion do you speak, Tanaka?Boss Tanaka looks at the female half-breed American and says; BOSS TANAKA (JAPANESE) I speak, Mistress Ishii,....of the perversion done to this council, which I love more than my own children,...by making a half Chinese American its leader.Then...Faster than you can say Jimminy Cricket,...O-Ren's samurai sword is unsheathed...Boss Tanaka's head is liberated from its body...The head hits the floor...And from the spot between its shoulder blades, a geyser ofblood shoots up in the air.The BOSSES who were shocked at Tanaka's words are even moreflabbergasted at O-Ren's resonse.The two bodyguard's, standing behind Boss Tanaka, hands go totheir swords and draw them.O-Ren turns her blade in their direction.The Bosses and their bodyguards say nothing,...only watch.The lady looks across at the two men and says in andauthoritative voice; O-REN (JAPANESE) Fight me or work for me.They look at her for a moment, then they lower their swords. O-REN (JAPANESE) Drop them on the ground.They do. O-REN (JAPANESE) Get behind me.They do. O-REN (JAPANESE) Get on your knees.They do. O-REN (JAPANESE) Put your foreheads on the floor.They do. O-REN (JAPANESE) Keep your mouths shut.You better believe they do.The mistress' eyes got to the other bosses looking at her.As she speaks English, bodyguard translators translate fortheir bosses. O-REN I'm going to say this in English so you know how serious I am. As your leader, I encourage you to -- from time to time and always in a respectful manner, and with the complete knowledge that my decision is final -- to question my logic. If you're unconvinced a particular plan of action I've decided is the wisest, tell me so. But allow me to convince you. And I will promise you, right here and now, no subject will be taboo...except the subject that was just under discussion. O-REN (JAPANESE) (to a bodyguard) Hand me that head.He picks it off the floor and meekly offers it to the Queen.She takes it by the hair and holds it up as she speaks. O-REN (ENGLISH) The price you pay for bringing up either my Chinese or my American heritage as a negative is, I collect your fuckin head. (now completely American) Just like this fucker here. Now if any of you sonsabitches got anything else to say, now's the fuckin time.Nobody says anything. O-REN (ENGLISH) I didn't think so. (pause) Meeting adjourned.EXT. THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES - JAPANESE RESTAURANTThe entire O-Ren Ishii crew moves through the restaurant. TheCUSTOMERS all look up now as the crew passes. The restaurantstaff acts as if the Shogun himself has just showed up ontheir doorstep demanding a meal. No doubt if the meal is notsatisfactory the staff will gladly slice off a finger. Thedoor to a private dining room is slid open, the crew stepsinside, the door is slid shut.INT. PRIVATE DINING AREA (RESTAURANT) - NIGHTThe private dining area of the Japanese restaurant. Thepatrons are surrounded by white paper walls. The CAMERACIRCLES around O-REN ISHII.Sitting in between her, two personal bodyguards, the Yubarisisters, YUKI AND GO GO. The Yubari sisters are younger thanO-Ren; Yuki is sixteen and Go Go is seventeen. Both girls aredressed in Japanese schoolgirl uniforms complete with plaidskirts and matching blazers.FLASH ONEX CU OF AN EYEBALL (The BRIDE's)On her right is her French and Japanese lawyer, SOFIE FATALE.FLASH ONEX CU OF AN EYEBALLThe bunch of mop-topped young men, who all wear black suits,white shirts, thin black ties and Kato masks over their eyes,are her soldiers, "The CRAZY 88."FLASH ONEX CU OF AN EAR, The Bride's fingers come into FRAME and moveblonde hair out of the sensory appendage's way.And finally there's a tall dark American in a black suit sansKato mask -- that's O-Ren's head of security, MR. BARREL.They're all drinking and having a good time as Sofie tells ajoke in Japanese. THE BRIDE (V.O.) The mop tops in black suits and Kato masks were O-Ren's soldiers, "The Crazy 88." The two young girls in the schoolgirl uniforms are her personal bodyguards, the Yubari sisters. Yuki, aged sixteen, and Go Go, aged seventeen. The pretty lady who's dressed like she's a villain on Star Trek is O-Ren's best friend and her lawyer, Sofie Fatale. And finally, the American in the black suit but sans Kato mask, O-Ren's head of security, Mr. Barrel.SUDDENLY O-Ren hears something. Like a deer in the forest,her head springs up on alert. It's almost as if she'slistening to The Bride's narration.The Bride's NARRATION SUDDENLY STOPS IN MIDSENTENCE --O-Ren removes a SMALL DAGGER-DART from the folds of her robeand THROWS IT in the direction of the sound.CU The BRIDE dressed in a kimonoon the other side of the private dining room's paper wall.The DART FLIES THROUGH The PAPER, STREAKS BY HER FACE, almosttaking off the tip of her nose in the process.INSERT: DART EMBEDS ITSELF IN A WOOD POST.O-Ren's action instantly brings the room's frivolity to ahalt. Mistress Ishii silently orders Go Go and Yuki toretrieve the eavesdropper.INT. JAPANESE RESTAURANT - NIGHTThe white paper door to O-Ren's dining room SLAMS OPEN. Yukiand Go Go step into the corridor.All trace of the Bride has vanished.They look out over the restaurant, patrons look normal.Whoever was there is gone now.Go Go removes the small dagger from the wood post and theYubari sisters go back into the private dining room, SLAMMINGthe door behind them.ONE SHOTCU The BRIDEat the bar, in her kimono, drinking a colorful cocktail. Sheobserves all the activity by O-Ren's private dining room.When the Yubari sisters go back inside, the Bride climbs offher barstool and goes through the restaurant...into theparking area...and up to her rental car. She opens the door.Takes off her Japanese kimono, underneath is a one-pieceyellow track suit with a black stripe going down both sides,like the one Bruce Lee wears in "Game of Death." She tossesthe kimono in the trunk, then removes the sheathed Hanzosword. With the sword of vengeance in her hand, we follow herback inside the restaurant. She looks upstairs to the O-Rendining room. We see Yuki Yubari and Sofie Fatale, slide openthe door, and walk down the stairs together. When they get tothe bottom, they give each other a kiss goodbye, and Yukileaves the restaurant, while Sofie makes her way to thebathroom...only to have The Bride, now dressed in her BruceLee yellow outfit and samurai sword in her hand, bar her way. END OF SHOTBACK AND FORTHbetween CU's of the two women, face to face. SOFIE (JAPANESE) (to Bride) Can I help you? THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Yes, I am looking for the attorney of O-Ren Ishii, Sofie Fatale. Would that be you? SOFIE (JAPANESE) I'm Mistress Ishii's attorney. How can I help you?The Bride PUNCHES her in the face.INT. O-REN'S PRIVATE ROOMAside from drinking like fishes, what is the queen of theTokyo underworld - Mistress O-Ren Ishii - and her privatearmy doing when we cut back?Singing karaoke, of course.It's Crazy 88 MIKI's turn at the mike and he's having a whaleof a good time singing Dionne Warwick's "Walk On By," inJapanese....WHEN...A COMMOTION is heard being made by the restaurant staff andthe other patrons, from the other side of the white paperwall...Just as they all start to notice it, they hear; THE BRIDE (O.S., JAPANESE) O-Ren Ishii! You and I have unfinished business!The Crazy 88 spring to their feet. One slides open the door.They see O-Ren's lawyer, Sofie Fatale, standing in the middleof the restaurant, her left arm completely outstretched, handgripped around a post. She has a terrified look on her face.Before anybody on O-Ren's side of the room can say anything...The Bride steps out from behind Sofie.O-REN'Sreaction shows how effective the element of surprise turnedout to be. She says The Bride's name softly to herself; it'sBLEEPED OUT.The BrideThe VENGEANCE THEME BURSTS ON THE SOUNDTRACK...The Vein onher forehead begins to pulsate. WE DO A QUICK SHAW BROTHERSZOOM INTO HER EYES. A SPAGHETTI-WESTERN FLASHBACK of O-Renbeating the shit outta her at the wedding chapel ISSUPERIMPOSED OVER HER EYES. The FLASHBACK DISSOLVES, we ZOOMBACK INTO A CU, the vein stops pulsating, and the theme STOPSPLAYING OVER THE SOUNDTRACK, LEAVING A CLEAN, COLORFUL CU ofThe Bride loaded for bear.She raises her Hanzo sword, and Slices off Sofie's Arm at theShoulder with one stroke.SOFIESpewing and Gushing Blood from her stump, twists her body inagony, painting the floor and the walls with giant Splashesof Red, as her body hits the floor, twitching in bothsurprise and shock.The CRAZY 88run out into the dining area and create a human wall betweenthemselves and their Mistress.MR. BARREL AND GO GOtake positions on either side of O-Ren.O-RENseated in a shogun's seat, rises furiously to her feet. O-REN (JAPANESE) You bastard!The Bride does a swipe in the air with her sword; Sofie'sblood flies off the blade.The entire floor of the dining room lies between the twowarring parties. The Bride vs. The Crazy 88The restaurant's STAFF and PATRONS sit or stand rigidly infear.O-Ren says loudly to the room; O-REN (JAPANESE) Sorry everybody, but I'm afraid we're going to have to close the place. There's some private business that we must attend to now.The Staff and The Customers Stampede the exits.The Bride, The Crazy 88, and O-Ren hold their ground withoutmoving a muscle, till the dining room, as well as the entirerestaurant known as "The House of Blue Leaves," is desertedof every human not engaged in the face- off that precedescombat.O-Ren gives a simple order; O-REN Miki.MIKI, one of The Crazy 88 (The little one), steps forward,unsheaths his sword, and yells at the yellow clad blonde. MIKI (JAPANESE) You had it coming bastard!Raising his samurai sword high, he Charges, Screaming ABanzai Scream...The Bride turns to face him.Miki Charging and Screaming...The Bride slowly raises the Hanzo Sword into StrikingPosition.Miki Charging and Screaming, almost on top of her.The Bride, sword in position, waits for her opponent toarrive.Miki arrives at his destination, he Swings...The Bride Swings...The Hanzo Sword Slices Miki's inferior blade in half. Mikilooks down at the impotent weapon in his hand.The Bride Thrusts her sword through Miki's abdomen, thenLifts the little guy off the ground straight up in the air.Miki screaming, Impaled on her blade like a fish at the endof a spear. Held up in the air, restaurant light fixtures inthe B.G.O-Ren and her crew watch stunned.The Bride Drops the shishkabobbed Miki into the koi pond thatstarts outside the restaurant and ends inside, with a hugeblue splash. Koi pond - Blue water - Orange and yellow fish -Red blood - Dead man.The BRIDElooks up from the pond, across the length of the floor, intothe eyes of O-Ren Ishii.She takes one step forward, hears the slightest noise, Twirlsthe samurai sword in the air once, drops to one knee, andthrusts the sword into the beige-colored carpet- coveredfloor. The sword sticks in the floor half way...The Sound of human death rises from underneath the floor...OVERHEAD SHOTLooking down on The Bride at one end and O-Ren and her crewat the other. A Red Circle appears where the blade is buriedin the floor...The red circle grows larger...and larger...andlarger...and larger still...Leaving the sword stuck in the floor, handle stickingstraight up in the air, The Bride rises up from her one knee,and straight and tall, staring down the queen of the Tokyounderworld.O-Renher eyes narrow with rage. She screams out another order; O-REN (JAPANESE) Tear the bitch apart!The six remaining Crazy 88 unsheath their swords at the sametime with a GREAT SOUND EFFECT.They circle the Bride.The BRIDEInside the circle of Combatants who surrounded her. She Whipsthe sword out of the floor and raises her blade diagonally infront of her. Her eyes are reflected in the shiny steel.Holding her sword in the diagonal position, The Bride can seereflected in the shiny blade, whoever stands behind her.The six Crazy 88 Attack...The BRIDEdoes a Zatoichi-like SWISH-SLASH-SWISH with her steel blade.Four boys die an immediate samurai blade-inflicted death,SCREAMING GRUNT, TWITCHING BODY, FROZEN IN THE STANCE IT WASSLASHED IN, RED BLOOD SQUIRTING FROM WOUNDS, THEN A CRASHINGCOLLAPSE TO THE FLOOR.The last two put up more of a fight...but then one of them isSLASHED and FALLS and the last one is SLASHED AND CRASHESTHROUGH the restaurant's big picture window.EX CU The EYESof The Bride, pointed down at the bodies by her feet,...BEAT...they Look back up at O-Ren.O-RENstanding in between Go Go and Mr. Barrel. Her eyes narrow.The BRIDEswipes the air with her sword, the blood of the deadattackers flies off.GO GO and MR. BARRELunsheath their swords.WHEN...We hear a LOUD SOUND of many ENGINES behind the Bride. Thenbehind her, through the broken pictures window we seeseventeen motorcycles pull up to the parking lot. All theriders wear black suits with kato masks, and all carrysamurai swords.The BRIDElooks from the reinforcements to O-Ren.O-RENsmiles. O -REN (ENGLISH) (to the Bride) You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you? THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) (to O-Ren) You know, for a second there, yeah I did.O-Ren smiles... O-REN (ENGLISH) Silly rabbit...Both O-Ren and the Bride finish the phrase together,... O-REN/THE BRIDE ...Trix Are for kids.This is something they used to say back when they foughtalongside of each other as "Vipers."The seventeen Crazy 88 reinforcements come running into therestaurant and with drawn swords surround The Bride.As a HEAVY METAL COMBAT BEAT begins to PULSATE ON THESOUNDTRACK, The Boys and The Bride have a Spaghetti WesternStand-off.We do a 360 INSIDE the CIRCLE of The Crazy 88, who surroundthe yellow-haired warrior. Not all have Samurai swords; oneJUGGLES TWO HATCHETS, another TWIRLS A THREE-STAFF TRIPLEIRON over his head.As the Heavy Metal music builds...We Cut to various Shots ofThe Two Opposing Forces Preparing to Strike....Hands on SwordHandles...Feet finding Combat Stance...etc.......Until Heavy Metal reaches its Breaking Point......At that point, the Metal EXPLODES OVER THE SOUNDTRACK...INTIME WITH The BRIDE EXPLODING INTO A VIOLENT KILLING MACHINEON SCREEN.As she matches skill with the army of black-suited boys, armsflailing, silver blade Clashing and Slashing, long blondehair whipping like a whirling dervish.......She's a Goddess of War Venus.Not only is the FIGHT CUT TO THE HEAVY METAL MUSIC, but TheBride seems to be somewhat dancing to it as she fights.This explosion of furious violence is punctuatedCINEMATICALLY BY THE COLOR IN THE FILM POPPING OFF, and thefight being filmed in HIGH CONTRAST BLACK AND WHITE, turningthe squirting, spewing geysers of BLOOD FROM CRIMSON RED TOOIL BLACK.Many members of The Crazy 88 are Sliced, Slashed, andliberated from the limbs they were born with at The Bride'sblade.Some SPECIFIC MOMENTSWhile Clashing swords, The Bride whips the silver Boomerangout of its holster, and Throws it.......It Twirls Through the Air......Embedding itself longways in one of the boy's faces.The Bride does a Mid-Air Somersault over the head of anAttacker, landing solid on her feet behind him...Slash, he'sOut.The Bride is knocked to the floor, her Attacker stands overher to Spear the young blonde, Her Legs Spring Up In The Air,Ankles Lock Around The Boy's Neck.She throws him down to the ground. With his neck still in thevise-like grip of her ankles, She removes The SOG Knife fromits sheath and Plunges it Deep Into The Boy's Chest.While still on the ground, an Attacker Charges at her.Yanking the Boomerang out of the Dead Boy's Face, She SendsIt Flying in the Charging Man's path......Boomerang Twirling Through the Air Close to the Ground......Chopping Off the Charging Attacker's Foot in Mid Step, hefalls flat.The Bride jumps up onto an attacker's shoulders. She locksher legs around him so he's helpless at shaking her off....she swings down with her sword, and cuts the man's handsoff.So while the helpless man with no hands screams, the now ninefoot tall Bride fights with the others.When she's through she brings the blade across the man she'sperched on's throat. He falls to his knees, bringing theBride back to the floor like an alevator.As soon as her soles touch ground, she's off his shoulders,somersaulting on the floor, bringing her blade up between anattacker's legs into his groin.He lets out a scream, as she yanks her blade free.ONE ATTACKER steps out from the rest, "The Best One." HeTwirls his sword expertly, challenging the young woman to,"Come get a piece."The Bride does a screaming charge towards him.......Sword raised, The Attacker stands his ground, calm -steady, waiting for the blonde-haired locomotive tocollide.....They meet.....SWING - CLASH - DANCE - SEPARATE - SWING - CLASH - SPIN -CLASH - LOCK - TWIRL - SEPARATE -They match each other blow for blow, till one makes amistake. It's the male. The Bride's swing, that's neitherclashed or blocked, slices off his right arm....The arm, still gripping the samurai sword, drops to thefloor.The Bride pushes the Hanzo Sword right through the middle ofhis chest.Only half of the Crazy 88s that started the fight remainalive, or intact...They start to approach...The Bride, stillholding the sword that's still impaling the skilled Attacker,backs up, keeping his body between her and the remainingkillers.Like a boxer, The Bride uses the momentary break in theaction, to rest on her feet.....THEN...yanks the blade fromhis chest cavity....The Body Twitches - Spasms - Grunts andCrashes to the floor.The Attackers start to close in...The Bride readies herselffor their attack....THEN (in perfect time with the HeavyMetal)...Drops to the floor on her back, Spinning like a top.She Swings and Slashes and Cuts down below at their legs andfeet, like some hellish samurai sword-weilding turtle flippedover on its shell....Many black-suited, mask-wearing boys drop to the ground....Still Spinning like a break dancer, she spins up on top ofher head, and Pops back up on her feet.And then there were seven.The seven remaining sword-weilding, black-suited boys movedout of range of the Bride's blade when she dropped to thefloor. Now spread out, they make a large half-circle.The Bride, slowly points the tip of her blade to the floor,lowers herself to one knee and slightly bows her head. Inrepose.EX CU The Bride's eyespointed up, watch them move closer, COLOR COMES BACK INTO THEFILM. We see her face is splashed with blood.O-RENWHIPS OPEN a red fan.GO GO stands by the restaurant's junction box, she flips theswitch.The room goes dark.The Crazy 7 make a wide circle around the blonde who's stillon the floor.......Looking down on her breathing hard in the shadows. As shebreathes in and out, The FACE OF A LIONESS IS SUPERIMPOSEDOVER HER FACE.Breathe in (Bride) - Breathe out (Lioness) - Breathe in(Bride) - Breathe out (Lioness) .....The Bride rises to her feet...The Crazy 7 move in a circle around The Bride, she moves in acircle inside of their circle, all eight of them move inrhythm with the Metal...The Heavy Metal Music builds....to a big finish...THEN bothMusic and The Bride Explode!WIDE SHOT - FRAMED LIKE A KABUKI STAGEWith the lights off, The White paper wall the eight killersfight in front of turns a Psychedelic Bright Blue. The snowfalling outside is reflected against the paper wall likeblack snow falling on a blue shadow puppet stage.The eight samurais are Black Silhouettes against the bluebackdrop. They begin to combat in a dance of blood, steel anddeath. The Bride does a sword-weilding dosey-doe with allsword-weilding partners.She CLISH-CLASH-CLISH-CLASHES with all of them - Theyseperate - stalk each other for a moment to the beat - thenCLISH-CLASH-CLISH-CLASH again, with The Bride killing orhacking the limbs of one unlucky dance partner at eachencounter - Sometimes during the separation, The Bridecrouches down low in repose while the others continue tocircle stalk...THEN...She Strikes again.We Cut in closer whenever we need to.Finally the last of O-Ren's soldiers falls to the Bride'ssword.GO GOStanding by the junction box, flips a switch turning thelights back on. The electricity shines light on...The BRIDESplashed all over with blood. Blood painting the floor, wallsand ceiling. Dead bodies, several limbs, and horribly woundedmen who have yet to die, litter the ground.With a big "Whoosh" in the air, the blood of O-Ren'ssubordinates fly off the blonde avenger's blade.Then saying to the foes who litter the ground. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Those of you lucky enough to still have your lives. Take them with you. But leave the limbs you've lost. They belong to me now.The wounded men, crawl out of the restaurant.The yellow-haired crimson-covered woman, looks to the lastremaining combatants...Mr. Barrel, Go Go Yubari, and O-RenIshii.Go Gosteps forward and removes her weapon, it's not a samuraisword. It's a heavy metal ball at the end of a long chain.She begins TWIRLING it above her head. Each rotation makes aWHOOSH sound in the air.BALL AND CHAINin a 3-D-like effect, the metal ball comes right at us.The BRIDEducks out of the way, the heavy ball destroying a large chunkof wood post behind her.Go Goeyes focused on her enemy...WHOOSH....WHOOSH....WHOOSH...shelets fly...The ball and chains wrap around the blade of the Hanzosword......Go Go yanks......the Hanzo sword FLIES out of her grip.GO GOsmiles...then...WHOOSH...WHOOSH...The BRIDEremoves her boomerang and THROWS it at Go Go.The BOOMERANGTWIRLS through the air heading right for Go Go.BAMThe young bodyguard swats it out of the air with her ball andchain. She lifts up her chain and the boomerang lies bent, onthe floor. She looks across at her opponent...WHOOSH...WHOOSH...WHOOSH..she LETS FLY. It Strikes the Bride in thechest, knocking her on her back......Go Go twirls it over her head and sends it towards theBride on the floor. The Bride rolls out of the way, the metalball PUNCHES a hole in an overturned table instead.The weaponless Bride wrestles a table leg loose from itspurpose.She hops up on a table, table leg in hand, ready to fight.Go Go hops up on a table...As they fight they hop from table to table...Go Go throws her ball and chain......The Bride - QUICK AS A WHIP...BATS it away with the table leg.Go Go lets loose with the balls and chain...it wraps aroundthe Bride's ankle...Go Go YANKS......The Bride's leg is yanked out from under her, she FALLCRASHING through another table.Go Go jumps on top of the Bride, attacking her with a samuraishort sword. The Bride uses the table leg to block it.The women fight fiercely, locked in grapple, each face uglywith struggle. Go Go lets her left earlobe get too close tothe Bride's mouth...the Bride BITES DOWN on it. Go Go screamsas the lower part of the appendage is bitten off, and sherolls off the Bride. The Bride comes at her, bringing thetable leg -- WHOOPS UPSIDE HER HEAD -- WHOOP-WHOOP-SIDES-HERHEAD.The girl in the schoolgirl uniform falls on her back, anddelivers a powerful "C.K." to the Bride from below, droppingher to her knees.O-Ren is UP, and wraps the chain around the Bride's neck andbegins to strangle.The chain digs into the Bride's throat.The Bride brings the table leg, which has a couple of nastylooking nails in it, hard against the Japanese girl's thigh.The nails cut through the plaid school uniform skirt into herflesh...the Bride rips out the nails, taking some leg meatwith them.Go Go lets out a horrific scream.The Bride brings the table leg down on the toe of the younggirl's white tennis shoe. The nails stick in, the white shoebecomes stained with red.Go Go SCREAMS letting loose of the chain...falling on thefloor.The Bride unwraps the chain around her neck, and beginsbreathing air into her lungs.Go Go tries to escape, dragging her fucked-up leg with her...The Bride rises from the floor and begins, twirling Go Go'sweapon above her head.Go Go, fast as she can, climbs up the stairs to the secondfloor...The Bride stands at the bottom of the stairs, twirling theball and chain over her head.Go Go frantically, and in great pain, climbs the stairs...She gets to the top.The Bride lets loose with the ball and chain...It HITS the female bodyguard and one half of the Yubarisisters, smack DAB in the back of the head.CU GO GOWe see her face as she's delivered a death blow right behindit. We see behind her eyes and features, her life and spiritshatter like a teapot.Like a discarded rag doll, Go Go Yubari TUMBLES down thestaircase landing in a pile at the Bride's feet. Dead beforethe tumble began.The Bride throws the ball and chain to the floor. Her eyes goto the last two remaining combatants......Mr. Barrel and O-Ren Ishii. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Any more subordinates for me to kill, O-Ren?Mr. Barrel says; MR. BARREL One last one. THE BRIDE You're Mr. Barrel, right? MR. BARREL And you're Black Mamba. THE BRIDE Our reputations precede us. MR. BARREL Apparently. THE BRIDE Tell me Mr. Barrel, why don't you wear your Kato mask? Are you and iconoclast?Mr. Barrel takes out a kato mask on a stick, like from a 17thCentury costume ball, and holds it over his eyes. MR. BARREL I don't like that rubber band. It fucks up my hair. THE BRIDE You shouldn't work for her. MR. BARREL Too late. THE BRIDE It's not too late to quit. MR. BARREL Do you have choices? THE BRIDE No. MR. BARREL I know exactly how you feel. THE BRIDE This has nothing to do with You and I, and everything to do with me taking satisfaction from that bitch behind you. And there's absolutely positively no way I'M going to leave here without taking that satisfaction. So Mr. Barrel, you have to stand aside. And that means you must quit, right now. MR. BARREL I can't. THE BRIDE Yes you can. MR. BARREL No I can't. THE BRIDE Don't say "Can't", there are no "Cant's." Yes - You - Can.....O-REN ISHIIScreams at her "...last line of defense;" O-REN (ENGLISH) What are you waiting for? Are you on a date? Attack her you fool! THE BRIDE Oh my God... (pause) ...She just called you a fool. She just called you a fool in front of me. Not only am I your opponent. I'm a female fellow countryman. And you're going to risk your life - to say nothing of harming me - for a woman who refers to you as a fool?O-RENis furious, and slaps Mr. Barrel on the shoulder. O-REN (JAPANESE) Attack, Goddamn you!The Bride acts like she's embarrassed to witness what shejust saw.Mr. Barrel spins in O-Ren's direction shooting her a lookshe's never seen from him before.He then looks back to the Bride.Her eyes are waiting for his. She says with just theslightest hint of plea in her voice; THE BRIDE I'll owe ya one.He looks at her a BEAT longer...then says as he resheaths hissword; MR. BARREL The things I do for a pretty face.INSERT: The Blade sliding back down into the Sheath, TheHandle locks into place with a Click.He looks back over his shoulder at his former Mistress, andsays; MR. BARREL (JAPANESE) I quit.O-Ren fries and egg on her head.Then with his sheathed Sword in his right hand, and his lefthand in his pants pocket, he walks across the carnage-strewnroom and out the front door. As he walks, when he's parallelwith the Bride, He stops and says; MR. BARREL About that one you owe me. THE BRIDE Yes? MR. BARREL I'm gonna collect someday, you know? THE BRIDE I'll be disappointed if you don't.He continues walking without a look back. Before he Exits therestaurant, he throws a look in Sofie's direction, Who'slying minus her arm in a pool of her own blood, and says; MR. BARREL Tough luck bout that arm Sofe.He exits the Movie.O-REN and The BRIDEmatch eyes. The Japanese gal says; O-REN (ENGLISH) Very funny. (pause) Your instrument is quite impressive. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Domo. O-REN (JAPANESE) Where was it made? THE BRIDE Okinawa. O-REN (JAPANESE) Whom in Okinawa made you this steel? THE BRIDE This is Hattori Hanzo steel. O-REN (JAPANESE) YOU LIE!!The Bride just smiles at her rival's response.O-Ren's composure returns. O-REN (JAPANESE) Swords however never get tired. I hope you've saved your energy. If you haven't, you might not last five minutes. (pause) Have you seen the garden in this establishment? THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) No. O-REN (JAPANESE) Oh, you really should. It's quite beautiful. Allow me.O-Ren moves out of the position she's stood in for the entirebattle. She steps on the doormat of a corpse, that serves thesame purpose of a bottom step, and moves over to the whitepaper wall and slides it open....REVEALING.........A WHITE WINTER WONDERLAND, set against a Jet Black sky.A Snow-covered Japanese Garden awaits right outside. Snowfalls from the sky (Slightly artificial, not phony - butOperatic/Theatrical). O-Ren stands next to the Bride in thedoorway looking out into the white night. O-REN (JAPANESE) As last looks go, you could do worse.The Queen of the Tokyo Underworld steps outside...The Bride follows her...INT. SNOW-COVERED JAPANESE GARDEN - NIGHTAs snow falls around them, they stand the correct distancefrom one another.COMBAT MUSIC BEGINS PLAYING, but not Japanese drums - SpanishFlamenco Guitar.......The Bride Unsheaths her Sword Quickly...Holding it out infront of her...Tip of Blade pointed at O-Ren...Sword's Handleand her Fingers wrapped around that handle, up by hercheek...Her eyes are Reflected on the Blade...Snow fallsaround her.O-Ren begins walking forward towards the Bride...She raisesup her Sword, still in its sheath, in front of her facevertically...then begins slowly unsheathing it...Snow fallsaround her.O-REN'S FEETWhite socks in wooden clogs, walk forward, Crunching Snowunderneath them...The BRIDEHolding Sword...Eyes reflected in Blade...her Yellow SneakersCrunching snow underneath them...O-RENwhen her Sword is fully unsheathed, the Japanese combatartist holds both arms straight out at her sides, Sword inone hand - Wood sheath in the other, like a bird........The Two Women circle each other....They SWING - CLASH - DANCE - SEPARATE...CIRCLE...SWING -CLASH - DANCE - SEPARATE...O-REN LEAPS in the airdoes a Somersault over the Bride's head, landing behind heropponent. She brings her Sword down in a Slashing Swing...SLASHING The BRIDEacross her back - Spinning her around...O-Ren goes in for the kill...The Bride meets her blade... TheBlades Clash and Lock...The Two Women's faces come togetheras the Blades become entangled...O-Ren moves her arm in a counter-clockwise motion thatloosens the grip enough to bring her sword handle hard intoThe Bride's mouth...Knocking her backwards over a small, stone bench - Flat onher ass in a koi pond.- The Combat Guitar Stops -O-Ren doesn't charge the fallen blonde, She laughs; O-REN (ENGLISH) Silly Caucasian girl likes to play with samurai swords. Bill might of humored you, but you will find neither humor nor mercy at my blade. Now unless you intend to commit sepeku among the koi, stand up and fight. You may not be able to fight like a samurai, but you can at least die like a samurai.The Combat Guitar starts again...As The Bride slowly risesout of the koi pond. She brings up her sword and Says Calmlyto O-Ren in Japanese; THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Attack me. With everything you have.The Two Women Clash Swords furiously, their attack ends withThe Bride's Striking O-Ren - not fatally - but deep. Theyseparate......breathing hard...Cold Air coming out of their mouths liketwo locomotives...O-Ren looks down to her wound, then back up to The Bride. Therespect for the Bride's ability is transparent.The Two Women Circle Stalk each other again...Red Blood running down Yellow Legs onto Yellow Sneakers...Wooden Clogs crunching the Snow, Blood trail dripping downlegs staining White Socks with Red...They Attack, the Geisha figurine and The tall western girlwith the mane of Whipping Blonde Hair. They Swing - Twist -Turn - Clash, matching blow for blow till they both back off.Both Women are out of breath and have to stop to recuperate.As they both drink the harsh cold air into their lungs,leaving red blood stains in the white snow, the two femaleshave the same thought. The next clash will be their last. O-REN (JAPANESE) I apologize for ridiculing you earlier. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Accepted.They continue breathing... THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Ready? O-REN (JAPANESE) Yes.The Flamenco Guitar begins again, as The Two Women Circleeach other for their final attack.With all the quickness and skill at their command, they clashin a superb display of Samurai Swordplay...TILL...They Findthemselves on opposite sides of a garden wall......The Bride and O-Ren both begin Running diagonally throughthe snow, Swords held up high, Facing each other, Continuingto run even after they passed the wall, Screaming theirSamurai hearts out...UNTIL...They both SWING......can't tell who got who...A SCALP OF LONG, BLACK HAIR FLIES THROUGH THE AIR, landing inthe white snow.CU O-REN ISHIIfacing away from the Bride. Sword still in her hand. We seeshe doesn't have the TOP OF HER HEAD ON. A touch of her BRAINis exposed. Blood Droplets streak her face like raindrops.The Queen of the Tokyo Underworld, who's regime has justended with one swing, stares off into space. O-REN (ENGLISH) That really was a Hattori Hanzo sword...Her sword FALLS from her grip...in the snow by her feet. O-REN (ENGLISH) I always dreamed of owning one...O-Ren FALLS to her knees, toppling forward.Left Cheek in the snow, just barely alive, She says; O-REN (ENGLISH) Did he make it for you? THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) Yes.The Last thing she says before she dies; O-REN (ENGLISH) ...He must of liked you.With her cheek resting against the snow, her eyes close andshe's gone.The BRIDEremoves a white handkerchief (The One we saw her sewingearlier with "Bill" in the corner), and uses it to wipe theblood, once belonging to the first name on her death list,off her Hanzo Steel.EX CU THE HANZO SWORDis returned back to its sheath. The LION'S HEAD that Hanzocarved into the wood seems pleased. CUT TO:The BRIDEnow wearing a yellow, faceless motorcycle crash helmet on herhead, stands FRAMED in a TRUNK SHOT.SOFIE FATALEMinus an arm, lies curled up in the trunk of her MAZDA XOXO.The BRIDE slams the trunk, SCREEN BOES BLACK...The MAZDA driving down the road at supersonic speed.The BRIDEbehind the wheel wearing her crash helmet. It looks like aninsert from "GRAND PRIX."POV THROUGH WINDSHIELDcar speeding...then stopping.BLACK SCREENThe BRIDE lifts up trunk lid, we look up at her FRAMED in theTRUNK SHOT. Helmet on head making her faceless, gold DeadlyViper syringe in her hand.When she speaks it comes out of a VOICE BOX at the bottom ofthe helmet. Turning her voice deeper and electronicallyspooky. The two women speak Japanese to each other. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) I've kept you alive for one reason. Information. Being O-Ren's lawyer, I take it you're familiar with Bill? SOFIE (JAPANESE) Yes. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) In fact, I'd guesstimate, you worked for Bill before O-Ren, and that's how it is you came to work for O-Ren. Am I correct? SOFIE (JAPANESE) Yes. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) I thought so. Give me the arm you have left. SOFIE (JAPANESE) Why? THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) I want information. Now gimme your arm.Sofie offers up her remaining arm.She injects Sofie with the gold syringe. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) The cocktail racing through your bloodstream at this moment is Bill's own recipe. He calls it "The Undisputed Truth."Sofie is injected. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Okay, first things first. Where was the other Yubari sister? Yuki? SOFIE (JAPANESE) Yuki's sick. She went home early. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Do tell? What's wrong with her? SOFIE (JAPANESE) She has a cold. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Awwww poor baby. What do you think she'll do when she finds out what happened? SOFIE (JAPANESE) She'll wail with grief. SHOCK CUT TOYUKI YUBARI upon hearing the news of her sister's death...She SCREAMS!BACK TO SOFIE SOFIE She'll drink excessively.BACK TO YUKIBig bottle of sake in her mouth pointed bottom up.BACK TO SOFIE SOFIE She'll start trouble.BACK TO YUKIsitting at a bar in drunken stupor. An OLDER JAPANESE MAN ina business suit sits next to her at the bar...he puts themake on her. BUSINESS SUIT (JAPANESE) Do you like Ferraris?Yuki staring out into space, says with a drunken voice; YUKI (JAPANESE) Ferrari...Italian trash.She slowly turns to face the older Japanese man in thebusiness suit. YUKI (JAPANESE) Do you find me hot?The man in the business suit giggles at her boldness; shegets annoyed; YUKI (JAPANESE) Don't laugh! Do you want to fuck me, yes or no? BUSINESS SUIT (JAPANESE) Yes.THEN...He lets out a GRUNT coming from below.We see she has stabbed him in the belly with a samurai shortsword, and is slowly dragging the blade across his abdomen,creating a big red grin across his mid-section.TWO SHOT YUKI AND BUSINESS SUITYuki focused, Business Suit penetrated...She opens him upmore...he feels every inch of the blade's progress. YUKI (JAPANESE) How bout now, big boy, do you still wish to penetrate me...Blade cuts deeper... YUKI (JAPANESE) Or is it I who has penetrated you.And with her last line, does the final disemboweling slicethat sends his insides spilling out onto the barroom floor.BACK TO SOFIE SOFIE (JAPANESE) When she stops shedding tears, she'll start shedding blood. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Best guess, what will she do? SOFIE (JAPANESE) I don't hafta guess, she'll come after you. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Will she ever give up? SOFIE (JAPANESE) She won't have to. When she finds you, I don't know who will win. But what I do know is, she will find you. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Is she more skilled than I? SOFIE (JAPANESE) Skilled won't be the word. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Don't be coy with me, bitch. What would be the word? SOFIE Crazy.The Bride takes this in...then moves on. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Okay, now I want all the information on the Deadly Vipers,... What they've been doing and where I can find them.EXT. TOKYO GENERAL HOSPITAL - NIGHTThe big hospital of TOKYO is located by a hill by thehighway. Sofie's MAZDA pulls off the highway to the side.The Bride hops out of the car, runs to the back, opens thetrunk, takes out Sofie's body, and rolls it down thehill....Sofie stops rolling in front of the entrance of thehuge hospital. CUT TO:CU SOFIEin a hospital environment. Bill's voice speaks to her OFFSCREEN; BILL (O.S.; ENGLISH) Sofie, Sofie, my Sofie, I'm so sorry. SOFIE (ENGLISH) Please forgive my betrayal --He shhhh's her off screen; BILL (O.S.; ENGLISH) -- no more of that. I invented that truth serum. Once it entered your bloodstream, you no longer had a choice. SOFIE (ENGLISH) But, still -- BILL (O.S.; ENGLISH) -- But still -- nothing, except my aching heart over what she's done to my beautiful and brilliant Sofie. (pause) If you had to guess why she left you alive, what would be your guess? SOFIE (ENGLISH) Guessing won't be necessary. She informed me.BACK TO THE BRIDE AT THE TRUNK THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) I'm allowing you to keep your wicked life for one reason and one reason only. So you can tell him, in person, everything that happened here tonight. I want him to witness the extent of my mercy..., by witnessing your deformed body. I want you to tell him, all the information you just told me. I want him to know what I know. I want him to know I want him to know.Then with SUPERMAN X-RAY VISION we see through the helmet tothe Bride's face inside as she says the last line. THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) And I want them all to know, they'll all soon be as dead as O REN. WE CUT TO ACU of SOFIEWE PAN to a CU of YUKIBill says off screen; BILL (O.S.; JAPANESE) If O-Ren was number one, unless she's being tricky, Vernita Green will be number two. YUKI (JAPANESE) Where is Vernita Green? BILL (O.S., JAPANESE) Los Angeles. Vernita's in Pasadena. But the woman you want will hold up in a low budget motel, fifteen of twenty minutes away from stepping on board a plane departing LAX. If I had to bet...I'd say Hawthorne.Yuki blows a pink bubble gum bubble, it pops and she says inEnglish; YUKI (ENGLISH) California, here I come. CUT TO:CU HATTORI HANZOHe's sewing something that requires a lot of concentration.CU The BRIDE'S BARE BACKWhat he's sewing is, the NASTY SLASH O-Ren gave the Bride onher back, closed with a simple needle and thread.CU The BRIDElies naked on her stomach, head up, chin resting on herfolded hand, feeling no pain at the needle piercing herflesh. The sleeping giant is awake, and in her eyes we seeshe's filled with a terrible resolve.As Hanzo sews, he recites in Japanese the Yagu mantra, theBride recites in Japanese after him.EX CU: O-REN ISHII'S name written in the Bride's notebookwith the number one next to it. A black felt pen comes intoframe and draws a line through the name. FADE TO BLACK.BLACK FRAMETITLE CARD: Chapter five YUKI'S REVENGEWe hear music under this card...MONTAGE OF YUKI coming to Los Angeles cut to music.We see YUKI dressed in her Japanese private schoolgirl outfitwith white blouse, plaid skirt, bobby socks, blazer, andbarrettes in her hair, flying on a jet enroute to LosAngeles. She paints her fingernails with bubble gum-colorednail polish.Yuki walks through LAX.Yuki standing next to a CAR SALESMAN on a California car lot.She points at a car in front of her.We see her cool convertible sports car and her fingerpointing at it.We see Yuki behind the wheel of the sports car, driving asfast as she can through the twists and turns of the HollywoodHills, laughing all the way.We see Yuki running around all over LA, Hollywood andDisneyland taking pictures with her disposable Barbie camera. SPLIT SCREEN YUKI'S SIDE THE BRIDE'S SIDEPHOTO: Yuki with the The Bride on an airplaineHollywood signin the b.g., flying to Los Angeles.she points to it.PHOTO: Yuki in front of the The plane lands in L.A.Chinese Theatre.PHOTO: Yuki at Grauman'sChinese Theatre, wearing a The Bride walks off thecowboy hat, in front of Roy plane with the otherRogers' and Trigger's hand passengers.foot and hoof prints. Sheholds her fingers like asix-shooter.PHOTO: Yuki posing with a The Bride walkingcelebrityshe's bumped into. through LAX.Yuki behind the velvet ropesof a Hollywood premiere withthe other fans. She watchesthe STARS walk the red carpetwith her autograph book in herhand.YUKI screaming on a roller-coaster.PHOTO: At Disneyland. Doinga Bonnie and Clyde-style posewith a Captain Hook. Andanother photo in betweenChip N' Dale.CU YUKI CU The BRIDEwalking, stalking, and walking through LAX.eating huge ice creamwaffle cone. SPLIT SCREEN (CONT'D) YUKI'S SIDE THE BRIDE'S SIDEWe see Yuki is tailing the We see The Bride isBride through LAX. being followed by Yuki. Our heroine is unaware.Yuki driving her sports car. The Bride renting aStalking. motel. We see Yuki's car drive by in the B.G. through the motel's picture window.MEDIUM CU of Yuki wearing a YUKI'S POV:whiteuniform, and taking The Bride entering hermoney. Her eyes watch yellow pickup trucksomething off screen. parked in front of Vernita's house.We see Yuki is dressed like EX CU: VERNITA GREEN'San ice cream man, and is name in the Bride'sselling ice cream to kids notebook. She draws afrom an ice cream truck on black felt pen throughVernita's block. the name. THE BRIDE (to herself) Two down, and three to go.CU Yuki's face as she watches The Bride driving awaythe Bride drive away. from the scene of her latest victory.CU Yuki, smiles. Now's the YUKI'S POV: The yellowtime. pussy wagon drives away.Yuki, at night, sitting in YUKI'S POV: Thethe surveillance seat of her exterior of the motel,sports car. Her hands are the Bride is staying in.busy below frame. The motel is located on a Hawthorne residential street. Her yellow pickup truck is parked on the street. SPLIT SCREEN (CONT'D) YUKI'S SIDE THE BRIDE'S SIDEYuki loading an Israel The Bride, on the phone,compact sub-machine gun booking her flight outthat lays on her plaid of LA to Texas, as sheskirt lap. packs her crap inside her motel room. The Bride carries her stuff, the Hanzo sword, her money in a backpack, and her other stuff in a canvas duffle bag.CU YUKI watches. Weapon She carries the stufflocked,loaded, and ready. from indoors toShe makes a line of baby outdoors to the yellowblue powder on the pickup.dashboard, then snorts itup her nose.A SUBTITLE APPEARS UNDERNEATH:DRUG of Bill's own concoction.He calls it, "The Blues."The drug affects her. Now'sthe time.Yuki gets out of the car YUKI'S POV: We see theand heads for the Bride from a distance,oblivious Bride. by her truck.Cu Yuki walking towards the YUKI'S POV: ApproachingBride. the Bride from behind. A camera behind Yuki as she walks, holding the sub-machine gun behind her back. FULL SCREENWe stay with Yuki's side as she stops across the street fromthe Bride. During their face-off we only see the Bride at adistance.The Bride is in the b.g., back to us packing her trunk, justabout ready to make a clean getaway...WHEN...Yuki yells to the figure across the street. YUKI (JAPANESE) Conigute wa!We see the back-turned figure of the Bride slightly freezeupon hearing the Japanese greeting. Without turning aroundshe says; THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Conigute wa. (pause) Yuki? YUKI (ENGLISH) Bingo!THRILLER MUSIC begins on the soundtrack.The Bride turns around to face the young avenger. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Can I help you? YUKI (JAPANESE) You can kill yourself.Yuki giggles. YUKI (JAPANESE) Taking a trip? THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) I was. YUKI (JAPANESE) You still are. One way. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) I know you feel you must avenge your sister. But I beg you...walk away.Yuki giggles. YUKI (JAPANESE) You call that begging? You can beg better than that.Yuki giggles. Then she takes out a flashlight, and switcheson the beam. YUKI (JAPANESE) Can I see your face? I've heard your beauty is exquisite. I would like to see for myself. THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) Sure.Yuki shines the flashlight beam in the Bride's face. YUKI (JAPANESE) Ohhhh,...look how pretty your face is. Oooohhh,... I want to touch it. THE BRIDE Domo. YUKI (JAPANESE) Your face is so pretty, I just want to put both of my palms against your cheeks and give you little tiny kisses.Yuki then shines the flashlight up into her own face. YUKI (JAPANESE) How do I look? THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Very pretty. YUKI (JAPANESE) You're just saying that 'cause I told you how pretty you are. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Yuki, you're gorgeous. YUKI (JAPANESE) Really? Is that how you'd describe me to somebody if I wasn't here? Yuki's gorgeous? THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) You bet.Yuki giggles. THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Don't make me kill you. YUKI (ENGLISH) Okay.Yuki removes the Israel sub-machine gun from behind her backand FIRES A LOUD INTENSE VOLUME of firepower at The Bride.The Bride dives out of her way, just as her yellow pussywagon is demolished by the ammo.The Bride, with her samurai sword in her hand, and herbackpack full of money, takes off running across a couple offront lawns...Yuki chases her with machine gun fire...The Bride LEAPS over a long hedge...disappearing Behind it.Yuki runs after her, firing all the way, destroying thehedge...The Bride darts across the street, she hits the ground androlls under a Volkswagen van.Bullet FIRE EXPLODES all around the Bride as she rolls out onthe other side. She removes her 9mm automatic and returnsfire from behind the van.Yuki yells to her in English; YUKI (ENGLISH) You think you're safe! I say; Ha!She takes out a hand grenade, removes the pin with her teeth,and slides it towards the Bride.The Bride sees the live hand grenade skidding and sliding onthe asphalt towards her...She takes off running...as the Volkswagen van EXPLODES BEHINDHER.She cuts through the backyard of a house -- THE CAMERA TAKINGOFF WITH HER -- over their fence, in the backyard over thefence into another yard. She trips, falling into the otherhouse's swimming pool. Instead of splashing around, the Brideswims like she was in the Olympics, till she's in the shallowend. Without breaking her stride, she runs out of the pool.Now with her gun out, the sopping wet Bride gets to the frontof the house. It's located on a cul de sac.WHEN...Yuki's sports car pulls up at the end of the street.Both women see the other.Yuki hits the gas, firing her machine gun out the window ofher car as she speeds down the dead-end street.The Bride, runs across lawns and hides behind parked cars onthe street, as the bullets rip up homes, lawns, andautomobiles.When Yuki's car reaches the end of the dead end,...She jerks the wheel...SPINNING the car around, pointing it in the oppositedirection.SHE HITS THE GAS AGAIN...SHE PULLS THE MACHINE GUN TRIGGER AGAIN...BULLETS TEAR UP the cars lining the street.In the hail of bullets, the Bride tries to fire back.Yuki reaches the end of the street and spins the car around.She gets ready to make a third pass.Some PEOPLE in the house behind the Bride, look out of theirfront door.The Bride yells at them; THE BRIDE Stay in your house and stay down on the floor!Yuki speeds after her, but this time she pops the curb anddrives across the front lawns on the street heading right forher.The Bride runs into the house she's in front of.She runs through the living room, to the kitchen and the backdoor, but the kitchen's where the family that lives here ishiding and they block the door.Yuki's sports car pulls up in front of the house. She standsup in the convertible. Takes out a grenade, pulls the pin andsays; YUKI (JAPANESE) Time for the rabbit to come out of her hole!She lobs the grenade up on the porch, then throws herselfface down on the lawn.The porch and the front of the house explodes into splinters.Everybody in the kitchen is blown back.Realizing there's no getting out of the back door, the Brideruns back into the living room that's now missing a wall, andruns up the home's staircase leading to the bedrooms.Yuki steps into the house, sub-machine gun in hand...The Bride makes it to the top of the stairs, and is justabout to disappear behind the upstairs hallway wall...WHEN...Yuki fires up at her, hitting her twice in the leg.The upstairs hallway, two bedroom doorways line both sides ofthe hallway. The Bride crashes to the floor -- SCREAMING --blood pours out of her gunshots.Yuki charges up the stairs...machine gun blazing, tearing upthe house.The Bride aims her 9mm where she expects Yuki to emerge.Yuki gets to the top of the stairs, and steps into thehallway.The Bride fires...The Bride's bullet wings Yuki in the left breast, knockingher through a bedroom doorway. THE BRIDE (to herself) Gotcha!Yuki screams like a little girl at the pain. She yells fromthe doorway into the hallway; YUKI (JAPANESE) You fucking bitch! You shot me in my breast! They're not fully developed yet, you fucking asshole! Now I'm always gonna have a dimple!The Bride answers Yuki back with an imitation of Yuki'sgiggle, which makes the youngin blow her top. YUKI (JAPANESE) Piss me off!She fires her machine gun around the corner, tearing upeverything around the Bride.When the young girl stops firing, the Bride yells; THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Yuki, in about two minutes there's going to be an army of police here. So if you're gonna kill me, now's the time.From her hiding place, Yuki snorts a line of baby bluepowder. It gives her energy. THE BRIDE (O.S., ENGLISH) So what's it gonna be bitch?Slapping a new clip in her machine gun. YUKI (JAPANESE) That fucking does it!Yuki comes around the corner FIRING her machine gun in theBride's direction, ripping up everything around her.The Bride lying flat on the floor fires her 9mm.The explosion of ammo creates the hysteria of warfare combat.Yuki charges the Bride, Kamakazi style.Three more bullets rip into the Bride, the Bride fires up atYuki, hitting her three times in the body, knocking her offher feet, and sending her tumbling down the stairs.The Bride shot up, pulls herself to the top of the stairs.She sees Yuki lying at the bottom, dead.Yuki's face, dead, eyes closed...then they pop up open...Guess what...she's not dead. Though she's bloody and herschoolgirl uniform is filled with bullet holes she rises. Herhead turns in the direction of the Bride...The Bride sees this and can't believe it...They lock eyes......Yuki, who no longer has the machine gun, takes out adeadly looking knife and snaps it open with a smile thatbuilds to a scream...She charges up the steps at the Bride.The startled Bride fires at her...the 9mm's empty...Yuki charging up the steps, yelling, knife raised high...The Bride, hurriedly removes the pistol she keeps in herankle holster.Yuki chargin...The Bride cocks back the hammer......Yuki charging, getting closer...The Bride FIRESBullet hits Yuki, stops her for a quarter of a second, butshe keeps charging...The Bride fires again...Yuki jerks but keeps on charging...Bride fires...Yuki jerks, but keeps charging...Bride fires...Yuki jerks, keeps chargin, almost at her, knife raisedhigh...The Bride FIRESYuki jerks, but keeps charging, knife ready to do its duty...The Bride fires, but her gun jams...Yuki leaps on her with the knife...They struggle for a moment......TILL......The Bride realizes Yuki's dead. She tosses her to theside. THE BRIDE Goddamn, what a wildcat.INT. NURSE OWEN'S HOME - NIGHTThe phone rings and a black woman in a nurse's uniform with aname tag on it that reads, "B. Owens," answers the phone. NURSE OWENS Hello.CU The Brideon her cell phone, a business card in her hand, with a numberwritten on the back that says, "B. Owens," and her phonenumber. She's bleeding from her five bullet holes. Sitting ina pool of her own blood. She's starting to tremble. We can'tsee where she's at, but it's somewhere surrounded by woodplanks. The moon shines into the structure. THE BRIDE Hello, I'm calling Nurse Owens -- NURSE OWENS Who is this. THE BRIDE You don't know me, but -- NURSE OWENS -- And I don't want to neither. NowI don't know how you got my number,but you can just rip that shit up,because -- THE BRIDE-- I've been shot five times -- NURSE OWENS-- Stop, I don't wanna hear nomore. I got problems of my own. THE BRIDEI'm dying. NURSE OWENSThen bitch, you better callyourself a ambulance, cause I don'tdo this shit no more. THE BRIDEI can't call an ambulance. NURSE OWENS-- No, you can call a ambulance,you just don't want to. But if yourass is really dying, you ain't gotno motherfuckin choice. THE BRIDEI do have a choice, and I'mchoosing to call you. If you refuseto help me, I'll die. And that willbe your choice. NURSE OWENSBitch, I don't even know you! THE BRIDEWhat do you need to know? I'm fromEarth, I'm a woman, I'm dying, andonly you can help me.Her last line has an effect on the hard-hearted nurse. NURSE OWENS Okay, where you at? THE BRIDE I'm in Hawthorne. I'm hiding in a kids treehouse. It's a street called, "Dimmick". 1-7-3-6 Dimmick Avenue. There's a bunch of police cars and firetrucks, about two blocks away. NURSE OWENS Whatcha do, crawl two blocks? THE BRIDE If you can't walk, you better crawl.Nurse Owens likes that last line. NURSE OWENS You got you some money dontcha, or am I doin this out of the goodness of my heart? THE BRIDE You come and get me, today's pay day. NURSE OWENS You ain't too far away. You gonna bleed to death I get there in a half a hour? THE BRIDE Probably. NURSE OWENS Okay, I'll be there in fifteen minutes. THE BRIDE Is that Pacific Standard Time, or C.P.T.? NURSE OWENS Just you better be there when I get there, and you better be shot five times, and your bony ass better be on your last motherfuckin legs. THE BRIDE How do you know I have a bony ass? NURSE OWENS You sound like you have a bony ass.The Nurse hangs up the phone.INT. TREEHOUSE - NIGHTThe Bride sits in her own blood waiting for Nurse Owens.Nurse Owens' head pops up from the door in the floor. THE BRIDE Glad you made it. NURSE OWENS There's cops all over here, I had to be cool. They tend to notice things like Negroes sneaking around people's backyards.The nurse hands the Bride a big bottle of Wild Turkey. THE BRIDE What's that? NURSE OWENS This shit's gonna hurt, and I ain't got no anesthetic. (refers to the bottle) So git busy.INT. NURSE OWEN'S KITCHEN - NIGHTOVERHEAD SHOTThe Bride laid out on Nurse Owens' kitchen table, while thenurse extracts the bullets.The Bride screams.The TV is turned up loud to hide the screams.The fifth slug is placed in an ashtray next to threecigarette butts and other balls of lead.The Bride, drunk as a skunk, says to her savior; THE BRIDE That fuckin smarts.Smoking her menthol Kool, Nurse Owens says; NURSE OWENS Yeah, bullets are bad news. In the future, you should avoid them if you can. THE BRIDE I'll keep that in mind. So, do I have a future? NURSE OWENS You'll live to kill again. THE BRIDE Splendid.She passes out. FADE TO BLACK.BLACK FRAMETITLE CARD: Chapter six "Can she bake a cherry pie."EX CU SLOT IN DOORis slid open revealing two male eyes on the other side. DOORMAN (O.S.) Yes? TWO EYES (O.S.) I heard you had a game? DOORMAN (O.S.) Who are you? TWO EYES (O.S.) They call me Bill. DOORMAN (O.S.) Bill what? BILL (O.S.) That, no one ever calls me.A FEMALE VOICE FROM OFF SCREEN says to the Doorman; FEMALE VOICE (O.S.) Open the door Alburt, let's see what this Bill looks like.The door opens revealing BILL to the other side of the door,and for the first time, to the audience. He looks cool.INT. HOTEL ROOM - NIGHTBill looks inside and sees a fancy hotel room converted intoa crap game. A crap table has been erected in the middle ofthe suite. SEVEN MEN stand around the table trying theirluck. All playing has stopped at the opening of the door.One woman in a beautiful black dress, stands at the head ofthe table...It's her game...her name is L.F. O'BOYLE.Bill stands in the doorway. ALBURT the doorman, who wears atux, waits for L.F.'s word. L.F. O'BOYLE Are you a policeman, Bill? BILL Not anymore?L.F. laughs. L.F. Let him play, Alburt.Bill steps inside and the game continues in earnest. L.F. (to the players) We now return to the game already in progress. The point is nine gentlemen, nine is the point...As Alburt frisks him, Bill takes in the room. There are fiveother men all wearing black tuxedos, all carrying samuraiswords (as is Alburt), all working for Miss O'Boyle. In hishand Bill holds his sheathed Hanzo sword. Referring to thesword; ALBURT I'll take that. BILL You'll have to.The two men stare... L.F. Now now boys...Mr. Bill, do you intend to start any shit with that sword? BILL I give you my word of honor, I will start nothing. L.F. Good enough for me. (back to game) ALBURT Miss O'Boyle required a two-hundred dollar membership fee. BILL That's rather pricey. ALBURT You wanna play for free, go to Vegas. You start now you'll be there by sundown.Bill takes out a roll of bills that would choke a rodeo bullto death. He peels off two hundred. BILL I think I'll stay here. I'm thirsty. ALBURT That way.Bill walks over to the suite's bar, a YOUNG WOMAN tends it. BILL Beer. BARTENDER Twenty dollars. BILL Twenty dollars for a beer? BARTENDER High cost of living shooter. You don't like it, go to Vegas. You can get a prime rib dinner there for 3.95. BILL What am I going to do, I'm thirsty. (throws a 20 on the bar) Pour the beer.The Bartender produces a dixie cup, and a can of Budweiser.She pops the top and fills the cup, leaving half of the beerinside the can. She then offers only the cup to Bill. BILL (pointing to the can) I don't get that?The Bartender slowly shakes her head, no.He lifts the dixie cup to his lips, and says; BILL Cheers.Bill approaches the table with his dixie cup of beer. L.F. Gentlemen, let's see if the new kid in school wants to play right away. (to Bill) How bout it new kid, you wanna handle my bones, or do you just like to watch?Dropping his money roll on the table... BILL I came to play.Color L.F. impressed. L.F. Boys take a look at this man, he's what Webster's calls, a gambler. The dice belong to you , sir.With her table stick, she pushes the dice to Bill. He takesthem and inspects them. L.F. I hope you're not implying anything, friend? BILL (as he inspects dice) I'm not implying anything.Alburt starts to move from his position by the door. ALBURT That did it fuckhead, you're out the door --L.F. motions him back to his position.The players watch L.F. And Bill, an opposite ends of thetable, trade quips.Bill looks from the dice to L.F. BILL You looked me over when I stood in your doorway. I'm looking you over as I step up to your table. If I don't know, I don't throw. L.F. Are you satisfied? BILL More or less. L.F. I think we're getting into a antagonistic relationship. BILL Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were trying to take my money, and I was trying to take yours. L.F. It's just a game.Bill throws ten thousand dollars on the table, the roomreacts. BILL If you're game, take my bet sportsman. L.F. Covered.Bill smiles as he rolls the dice in his hand, thenthrows...7...The room reacts...L.F. smiles and pushes themoney and the dice back to Bill with her stick. He picks uphis winnings, tosses them back on the table, and says; BILL Shoot it all.The room reacts. L.F. Covered.He holds the dice in his fist...and throws...5... L.F. The point is five, gentlemen, five is the point.Bill throws...5...more reaction...more money... BILL Shoot it all. L.F. Covered.He shoots again, he wins again...L.F. MOVES THE MONEY in front of him.Bill picks up the stack of moola...L.F. Stands behind hertable, stick in her hand, eyes on her opponent.In the midst of this silence, his beeper goes off. His eyesgo to it. It reads; ELLE DRIVER.He raises his eyes from the beeper to L.F., casually tossesthe green on the felt and says; BILL Shoot it all. L.F. Pretty lucky tonight, huh? BILL Play a game of luck long enough you're bound to meet some lucky people. L.F. You know we've never been properly introduced, I'm L.F. O'Boyle. BILL And I'm not interested. L.F. No, you're rude. Why so rude rude boy, I'm only trying to be friendly. BILL I didn't come here to make friends. I came here to shoot a little crap. But then your boy over there hits me up for a two hundred dollar privilege to play fee -- L.F. -- That's a membership fee, good for -- BILL-- You and nobody else. You sell atthe bar a half can of warm piss, attwenty bucks a shot. How much didthe six-pack cost you? 5.60, 5.65?You're greedy O'Boyle. You're justtoo Goddamn greedy. You know what Ilike to do when I meet greedypeople? Take every fuckin thingthey got. Leave em with nothing. L.F.So that's your game, you want toteach me a lesson? BILLI wanna burn you down. When I'mthrough with you, you won't have apot to piss, or a window to throwit out of. You'll thumb a ride outof L.A. wearing a barrel. L.F.I could always save myself thishorrible fate by not taking yourbet. BILLTo be replaced by a different fate.The embarrassing truth that you runa gutless game. I won't forget it.I'm sure these gentlemen won'tforget it. I'm sure they'll tellpeople who won't forget it. And wewon't come back. If we don't comeback, you won't get our money.Couple of weeks, you won't have agame. L.F.You got a big mouth, lucky boy. Andthe idea of taking everythingyou've won away, and sending youout the door with nothing but a redface, is so appealing to me, that Iwill take your bet. But.....notwith those dice. BILL Oooohhh, that's.... L.F. The house's perogative and you know it.She holds out her palm and two new pair of dice (black) areplaced in her hand by one of her bodyguards. She sets thedice on the table, and moves them in front of Bill with herstick.Bill looks down at them. L.F. Maybe you would like to change your bet? BILL Yes I would.....Shoot it all.....Against myself.His hand scoops the dice off the table.He catches the young lady by surprise. L.F. What? BILL Did I stutter, I'm changing my bet. I'm betting I don't make it.From the door Alburt says; ALBURT You can't do that. BILL Oh yes I can. It's the shooter's perogative, and she knows it. L.F. Covered.He throws........................BOXCARS.The spectators go apeshit.Bill scoops up his money and looks to the lady who's game hejust busted. BILL Can I use your phone? L.F. Sure it's next to the bed.INT. BED AREA OF HOTEL ROOMBill sits on the bed talking with Elle Driver on the phone.In the b.g. L.F. is throwing everybody out. L.F. Game's over, get out! Get the fuck out! No more tonight, go home.... BILL (into phone) Vernita's dead? When? (pause) What about her family? (pause) Nice to see Kiddo hasn't gone completely apeshit. No idea where she is? (pause) Okay that did it, we're going to Texas and talk sense into Budd before (BLEEP) makes him number three.He looks over and L.F. is sitting on the floor of the bed.All the players have left, only L.F. and her five tuxedo boysremain. BILL We're going to have a talk about this later. (pause) Well, I'm not exactly among friends at the moment. (pause...he laughs) I'll keep that in mind, bye bye.He hangs up. BILL Got a nose problem? L.F. I said you could use my phone. I didn't say I wouldn't listen. BILL This is true. L.F. You didn't burn me down you know? BILL Course not. First rule of any house, ya gotta have LUCKY GUY comes in and wipes the place out insurance. L.F. If there weren't losers it wouldn't be a game.Standing up, folding his winnings into his inside jacketpocket, looking at L.F. and her boys, he says; BILL I sincerely hope you mean that.Without another word he exits the hotel room.Nobody makes a move to stop him.L.F. O'Boyle and her henchmen stand still as they wait forthe sound of the elevator in the hall.The Bride's Voice comes on the soundtrack; THE BRIDE (V.O.) What L.F. O'Boyle didn't know was, the real game was just beginning. Bill was on the job, and she was the target. Now Bill was the greatest assassin of the 20th century. In fact the term HITMAN was coined for him. And he rarely performs actual assassinations anymore. However every once in awhile - to keep his hand in - he does. Only he plays a game. He doesn't start big trouble...he lets them start it. If they do, they're dead. If they don't, not only won't he perform, he'll take the hit off the market. It's kind of fun watching people gamble when they don't know they're gambling, isn't it?They hear the elevator in the hall.L.F. O'Boyle tells her men; L.F. Get my money back. Don't kill him. Chop off all his fingers.Alburt smiles.The Five men go out the door.INT. HALLWAY HOTELThe Five tuxedo-clad bodyguards hit the hallway, only tosee....BILL, with his Hanzo sword unsheathed, standing at theend.This wasn't expected, they unsheath their swords.He Charges at them.In the hotel's hallway, Bill cuts through the five men. Hismastery of the Hanzo sword in his hand is peerless. He cutsthrough the first four rather quickly. The fifth one, Alburt,is the most skilled, but he too falls under the master'sblade.INT. HOTEL ROOML.F. O'Boyle hides in her room, holding a gun, pointed at thefront door.She sits in bushwhack mode, waiting for Bill, or anybody forthat matter, to step through the doorway.WHEN...The window her back is up against SHATTERS, and a blackgloved hand reaches inside and GRABS her by her hair, andYANKS her out the window.EXT. HOTEL WINDOW LEDGE - NIGHTBill on the ledge of the hotel window (the 26th floor),outside L.F. O'Boyle's room.He's yanked her outside and he's dangling her over the sideby her hair. BILL Do you know a Jessica?L.F. Is too hysterical to answer. BILL Well, she knows you.He drops her..................... SHE FALLS.......................................SHE SPLATS.Bill watches her all the way down. When he's confident herfall was fatal, he leaves the ledge. FADE TO BLACK.BLACK FRAMETITLE CARD: Chapter seven "The lonely grave of Paula Schultz"EXT. BUDD'S TRAILER - DAYA small camper trailer sits all by its lonesome in the middleof a barren Texas wasteland.A SUBTITLE APPEARS under this image; "The city of Austin Texas."A fist knocks on the trailer door.It opens, revealing Bill's brother, BUDD. Not the SlickWillie Budd with the black suit and the silver-tipped blackcowboy boots we saw earlier at the wedding chapel massacre.No, the Budd we see now is the Budd who climbed into a bottlefive years ago, got himself comfortable, and decided to livethere.Bill, looking like a cool million, stands out in the dirt anddust of Budd's lot of land, looking up at his brother in hisnatural habitat. In the B.G. we can see Elle Driver loungingin the passenger's seat.Budd, surprised by the visitor, says; BUDD Great day in the morning. Brother Bill livin up to his familia obligation. BILL How ya doin' Budd? BUDD Oh, you know my life, Bill, just a mad rush of wild parties and wealthy women.Budd squints into the sun at the woman in Bill's ear. BUDD Is that that tall blonde one-eyed Viking bitch in the passenger seat? BILL It's Elle. Want to say hello? BUDD Never said "bye," can't seem to think of a reason to say, "hi."INSERT: INT. - BILL'S CARElle inside, blasting both the stereo and the airconditioner. She watches the brotherly scene play out throughthe car windshield. Obviously there's no love lost betweenElle and Budd. BUDD What'd ya wanna talk about? BILL Are you not going to invite me in? BUDD No. BILL May I ask why not? BUDD It stinks in there, that's why. Now what's so important it requires a reunion? TIME CUTThe estranged brothers continue their conversation. Budd sitsin the doorway of his trailer, bottle of jack in his hand.Bill stands. BUDD You tryin to tell me she cut her way through eighty-eight bodyguards 'fore she got to O-Ren? BILL No. There wasn't really eighty eight of them, they just called themselves The Crazy 88. BUDD Why. BILL I dunno, I guess they thought it sounded cool. Anyhow, she had about 26 or 27 around her when (BLEEP) attacked. They all fell under her Hanzo sword.The mention of a Hattori Hanzo sword gets Budd's attention. BUDD She got 'er a Hattori Hanzo sword?Bill nods his head, "yes." BILL She has a Hanzo Jingi sword. BUDD He made her one? Didn't he swear a blood oath never to make another sword? BILL It would appear he's broken it.Budd doesn't say anything at first...THEN; BUDD Them Japs know how to carry a grudge don't they? Or is it just you tend to bring that out in people? BILL (pause) I know this is a ridiculous question before I ask, but you by any chance haven't kept up with your swordplay? BUDD Hell, I pawned that years ago. BILL You pawned a Hattori Hanzo sword? BUDD Yep.The disrespect is pain. BILL It was priceless. BUDD Not in El Paso it ain't. In El Pso I got me 250 Dollars for it. BILL Since it was a gift from me, why didn't you offer me the chance to buy it back? BUDD Because that would've required me to acknowledge your existence. Drunken bum though I may be, I don't need booze that bad. But who the hell gives a crap anyway. That bitch ain't gittin no Bushido points for killin a white trash piece of shit like me with a samurai sword. I'm a bouncer in a titty bar, Bill. If she wants to fight me, all she gotta do is come down to the Club, start some shit, and we'll be in a a fight. BILL -- Budd, you need to listen to me. I know we haven't spoken for quite some time, and the last time we spoke wasn't the most pleasant. But you need to get over being mad at me, and start becoming afraid of Bea. Because she is coming, and she's coming to kill you. And unless you accept my assistance, I have no doubt she will succeed.Budd sees Bill's true concern for his welfare.Bill tries to charm his brother. BILL Can't we forget the past, and look at the happy side of all this?Budd chuckles. BUDD And what would that happy side be? BILL She's brought "the boys" back together.Budd is touched by Bill's concern and chuckles to himself. BUDD I appreciate the concern on your face, but there's a difference 'tween "the boys", time can't erase. I don't dodge guilt. And I don't Jew outta payin my comeuppance. That woman deserves her revenge. And we deserve to die. But then again, so does she. So I guess we'll just see now, won't we.EXT. THE MY-OH-MY-CLUB - DAYThe My-oh-my Club, is the sleazy titty bar that Budd worksat. His job is tossin out the riff-raff that's worse thanhim, out on their ear - minus a few of the teeth they hadwhen they came in. His beat-to-shit pickup truck pulls up tothe front, and he climbs out of the automobile.INT. THE MY-OH-MY-CLUB - DAYBudd walks into the wood-paneled titty bar. No strippin goinon yet, just a few BARFLIES drinkin. The owner, TED, yells athim as he walks by. TED You're late, Budd, this shit ain't school, ya know.Budd doesn't say anything, he just moves towards the back,passing by a STRIPPER serving drinks. STRIPPER Hey, Budd. BUDD Hey, Lucky.ANOTHER STRIPPER walks out of the ladies' room and says tohim; STRIPPER Hey, Budd, honey, the toilet's at it again. There's shitty water all over the floor. BUDD I'll take care of it, Suzie Pie.EXT. THE MY-OH-MY-CLUB - NIGHTA brand new, enormous red pickup truck pulls into the parkinglot and stops.The BRIDEsits behind the wheel, looking at the bar and the bar's frontdoor. Using the rearview as a mirror, she grabs her longblonde hair and pulls it back to a ponytail with arubberband. Then places a baseball cap on the top of hernoggin that reads, "STUBB'S BAR B-Q." She steps out of thetruck's cab. She's dressed like a little Texas two-stepper.Levi's, cowboy boots, and a "HARLEY DAVIDSON: LOUD AND PROUD"tee-shirt.INT. THE MY-OH-MY-CLUB - NIGHTThe Bride walks into the club just as the band on stageexplodes into honky tonk guitar. She walks up to the bar andoders a; THE BRIDE Shiner.The BARTENDER gives her a beer bottle of Shiner Bock. As shedrinks the Texas brew...SHE.......Watches the BAND.......The crowd......Looking for Budd among the crowd......She sees him......He's the bouncer......She observes him......he's sitting on a stool, observing the crowd, moving hishead to the music...SHAW BROTHERS ZOOM into her eyes; VENGEANCE THEME plays onthe soundtrack.Her hand removes her sog from its sheath. She moves throughthe crowd of Texas two-steppers, sog in hand, towards Buddsitting oblivious on his stool....WHEN...Suddenly a BIG COWBOY stands up from his table -- spillingevery bottle and glass on it -- and BARFS all over.Budd curses to himself, and heads over to the disaster area.The Bride...observes Him...CLEAN UP THE PUKE.EXT. TEXAS HIGHWAY - NIGHTAs the music from above continues, we see Budd driving hispickup on an empty highway home from work.He passes by The Bride's new red pussy wagon parked on theside of the road. After he whizzes by, she starts up themotor, but doesn't turn the lights on. She follows him,hanging way back in the dark.Budd driving, not seeing the automobile cloaked in darkness,trailing him.EXT. BUDD'S TRAILER HOME - NIGHTBudd pulls his pickup truck in front of his small camperhome. He walks inside, shutting the door behind him.The Bride rolls to a stop...Observing the lonely trailer outof her windshield...Texas tear-ass music begins coming out of the camper....Wesee his figure pass the camper window, once or twice.The Bride chooses her weapon -- Hattori Hanzo's samuraisword.She doesn't say anything, nor will an actress of UmaThurman's caliber indicate her feelings, but the astutemember of the audience will read the significance of herchoice. His current status be damned, the Budd who owes TheBride satisfaction was a warrior. And it's that Budd sheintends to send to his maker.She takes a black stocking cap, and slips it on top of herskull, tucking her blonde hair underneath...THEN......Rubs black make-up under both eyes, on top of botheyelids, and down the bridge of her nose...THEN...Disconnects the cab lights above her, opens the truck door,and slips out unseen into the Austin Texas night air.THEN...On her belly, Hattori Hanzo sword in sheath in hand, shecrawls across the desert floor towards Budd's trailer.THEN...Somewhere in the vast outdoors a cat jumps on a rat. Theirfight makes a LOUD racket.The Bride stops and buries her face in the dirt.From inside the trailer, we hear the needle being lifted offthe phonograph.From a distance we see: The shadowy figure of Budd lookingout the window of the camper.The Bride keeps her face in the dirt.The figure of Budd at the window, seems to dismiss the soundhe heard for what it was -- a rat meeting its end at theclaws of a cat.The curtain closes again.The needle is placed back on the phonograph.CU The BRIDEface in the dirt...One Mississippi...Two Mississippi...hereyes look up towards the trailer...All's clear...She beginscrawling towards the trailer again....She's now right outside the trailer home...We can hear thesound of Budd sitting in a chair rocking back and forth.She hears the sound of a screw top unscrewed...The sound ofpouring in a glass...The sound of a glass being laid heavy ona table.Crouched low on the balls of her feet, she, with great care,slowly and silently unsheathes her Hanzo sword.Through the bottom slit in the door, she sees the distortedimage of Budd's feet on the floor.She slowly rises...removes her black stocking cap...blondehair falls around her shoulders...sword in right hand...lefthand grabs the front doorknob...QUICK as a Texas lizard on glass -- She brings the sword'shandle down hard on the door lock --EX CU Cheap Lock Busting.She flings the front door open...The BRIDE'S POV:Brother Budd sitting calmly in a rocking chair, moving backand forth to the Texas twang on his turntable, cradling aDOUBLE-BARREL SHOTGUN aimed right at The Bride.SERGIO LEONE CU:The Bride Blinks.Both barrels BLAST in our face.The BRIDEstanding in the doorway is HIT SMACK DAB in the chest, andPROPELLED THROUGH the AIR BACKWARDS.Landing hard on her back in the dirt.Budd casually rises from his rocking chair and lifts theneedle off the phonograph, cutting off the music.Then with shotgun in hand, stands in the doorway of thetrailer looking down at The Bride.BUDD'S POV:The Bride laid out in the dirt below him -- Sword separatedfrom her grasp -- Bloody mess down her front -- Groan fromher throat.Budd steps down from the trailer onto the dirt, standing overThe Bride. BUDD Bet your sweet ass that don't sting like a bitch.More groans coming out of The blood splattered Bride. BUDD You done got a double dose of rock salt, right in the ole tit. Now not havin tits as fine or as big as yours, I can't even imagine how bad that shit stings...He lowers down on his haunchers, over her. BUDD ...But I don't wont to neather.The Bride, hurting and incapacitated from the shotgun blast,still nevertheless defiant, SPITS a gob of bloody saliva,right in ole Budd's face.Budd, gob of spit running down on his cheek and nose. Thecowboy removes a red bandana from his back pocket, and wipesaway the goo. Then his eyeballs go down to the spitter. BUDD Now I know when it comes to a rock salt burn, you're feelin pretty much like a expert bout now. But truth be told, you ain't felt all rock salt's got to offer till you took a double dose in your backside.With the help of his cowboy boot he rolls The Bride over ontoher stomach, exposing her butt.SNAPPING the barrel closed, he takes aim and FIRES bothbarrels -- EXECUTION STYLE -- right into her keister.The Bride does the one thing she has yet to do with anyopponent during the movie up till now. Her head rears backand she lets out a SCREAM! BUDD That gentled ya down, didn't it? Yep...ain't nobody a badass with two barrels of rock salt dug deep in their backyard.THEN...Almost mercifully, the man once known as "Sidewinder," sticksa syringe in her arm, dropping her unconscious.THEN...Knocking down a swig of Jack Daniels, he removes a smallsilver cell phone from his pants pocket, raises the antenna,and presses one button on the panel.INT. ELLE DRIVER'S GYM - NIGHTThe six-foot tall, long-haired blonde with the codename"California Mountain Snake," is doing a savage boxing workoutwith her COACH.This is one white bitch who can kick some serious FUCKIN ass.With one mighty blow from her huge right arm (synched to thesound of a CAR CRASH), her boxing Coach buys the farm.Elle on cell phone. We cut Back and Forth. ELLE Bill? BUDD Wrong brother, you hateful bitch. ELLE ....Budd? BUDD Bingo. ELLE And what do I owe this dubious pleasure? BUDD I just caught me the cowgirl, ain't never been caught.This gets Elle's attention. ELLE Do you mean what I think you mean? BUDD If you think I mean I got 'er, you thought right. ELLE Did you kill her? BUDD Not yet I ain't. But I can sure do it easy enough. She's so gentle right now, I could preform her coup de grace with a rock. ELLE What are you waiting for, run outta liquid courage. BUDD No. It's just...I ain't killed nobody in a long Goddamn time. And just 'tween you, me, and Jesus Christ, kinda made me a promise I wasn't gonna. Be that however it is. Back when I did kill people...I got paid for it. Just don't seem right...turn amateur this time of life.We stay on Elle's side for the following exchange. BUDD (O.S.) Anywho, guess what I'm holdin in my hand right now.We cut back to Budd's side. And what he's holding is TheBride's Hattori Hanzo sword. BUDD A brand spankin new Hattori Hanzo sword. And I'm here to tell ya Elle, that's what I call sharp. ELLE How much? BUDD Oh, that's hard to say. Seein it's priceless and all. ELLEI'll give you a hundred thousanddollars for it. BUDDI'm sure you would. But I'll take,one million. ELLEJeez Budd, who'd ever guess youwere such a capitalist. I thoughtdrunks like yourself were beyondsuch monetary concerns? BUDDWell Elle, a million dollars buys awhole lotta Jack. ELLEWhy then are you selling it to ahateful bitch like me, when youknow Bill would pay more? BUDDIf I'm gonna drink myself to death,...it won't be on Bill's dollar.It's gonna be on yours. ELLEWhat's the terms? BUDDYou buy a ticket to Texas, and I'llsee you here tomorrow mornin. Yougive me a million in foldin cash,I'll give you the greatest swordever made by a man. How's thatsound? ELLESounds like we got a deal. One condition. BUDD What? ELLE You kill her tonight. (pause) And one more thing. BUDD You said one condition. ELLE It's a caveat to the same condition. BUDD What? ELLE She must suffer to her last breath. BUDD That Elle darlin, I can pretty damwell guarantee. ELLE Then I'll see you in the morning millionaire. CUT TO:OVERHEAD SHOT - EXT. CEMETERY - NIGHTWe look down on a spooky Texas graveyard...Tombstones...Graves...Dirt...Low-hanging fog. This could bethe opening shot of a Texas zombie movie. We also see TWO MENWITH SHOVELS (one which is Budd, the other which is ERNIE)digging up a grave. Budd's beat-to-shit pickup is in the shottoo. Its headlight beams shining on the two men. And last butnot least, The Bride, bound and gagged, lying in the flatbedof Budd's pickup.The BRIDEShe begins to come to from the shot in her arm.Some dried blood lies caked around her wounds. Rope binds herwrists tightly together in front of her.A big leather cowboy belt is wrapped tight around her cherrybrown cowboy boots. Her eyelids flutter open...and she seesstars. A giant, black Texas night sky full of them.She has no idea where she is.She turns her head to the left and sees,Back window and Cab of truck.She turns her head to the right and sees,Hatch Gate to flatbed.She listens...she hears,Crickets...The sound of Two Men Digging...One of the Men sayssomething to the other in Spanish...THEN...She hears one of the Shovels HIT something buried...The Two Men speak to each other in Unsubtitled Spanish...THEN...We hear them Lifting something heavy, we might assume is acoffin. The Bride however knows not what to think.BOOM...They set it down.She hears boots approaching the flatbed, The crunching ofleaves leading in her direction...TILL...With a CLANG and a SCRAPE the latches on the Gate of theflatbed are Yanked Out, and it lowers open with a CRASH.Revealing Budd, looking down on her. BUDD Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey.The grabs her by her collar, and yanks her out of the truck.She FALLS to the dirt HARD.Once in the dirt, The Bride sees an Old Coffin that's beendup up.Next to it is a brand new pine box coffin, straight out of"Fistful of Dollars." And a freshly dug grave, with a pile ofdirt next to it, in front of an old tombstone that reads;"PAULA SCHULTZ."Budd and Ernie stand over her.The Bride just GLARES up at the two tormentors, with the onlyweapon she has left, the contempt in her stare.Budd turns to Ernie and says in SPANISH, subtitled inEnglish; BUDD (SPANISH) Look at those eyes. This bitch is furious. You grab her feet, I'll get her head. (ENGLISH) Got anything to say?The Bride knows how these fiends derive satisfaction, and shewon't give it to them. BUDD (SPANISH) In America white women call this the silent treatment. (laughing) And we let 'em think, we don't like it.The two fiends laugh, then bend down to lift The Bride andcarry her over to the pine box. She struggles with her boundlegs and arms...Both men DROP her to the ground. Budd whipsout a can of mace from his pocket. BUDD Hey hey hey, wiggle worm, look at this.He holds the can of mace spray by her eyes. She stops. Hereyes go to the nozzle of the spray can, then to Budd. BUDD Looky here bitch, this is a can of mace. Now you're goin underground tonight, and that's all there is to it. But, when I bury ya, I was gonna bury you with this.He removes a flashlight from behind his back and turns on thebeam. BUDD But if you're gonna act like a horse's ass, I'll spray this whole Goddamn can in your eyeballs. Then you'll be blind, burnin, and buried alive. So what's it gonna be sister?Her eyes move to the right, indicating the flashlight. BUDD You may be stupid, but at least you ain't bloody stupid.The two men lift up The Bride, and carry her over to the pinebox and place her in.Budd puts the flashlight inside.He picks up the pine lid, and is just about to place it overthe coffin...WHEN......He locks eyeballs with The Bride......her eyes hold his for as long as she can,THEN......he places the lid over her face, closing the coffin.THEN......with a hammer and nails the two men seal the coffin shut.INT. PINE BOXDark, excerpt for the cracks of light seeping through betweenthe lid and the box. However with each nail pounded in, morelights is cut off...TILL......the only light left, is the crack by The Bride's head. Thelast hammered nail obliterates that light source.The Bride lies in TOTAL DARKNESS.EXT. CEMETERY - NIGHTThe two men lift the pine box, and set it in the grave.Budd scoops up a shovel full of dirt...INT. PINE BOXEX CU HER FINGERS turn on the flashlight.CU The BRIDELIT by the flashlight beam...BAM......a shovel of dirt has just landed hard on the lid, makingThe Bride jump...BAM......More dirt. She reacts again.BAM...The dirt just keeps falling, the bams becoming softer witheach new shovelful.The Bride is starting to perspire...her breathing becomingmore rapid and panicked...her heartbeat begins to echo insidethe pine box.We've never seen her like this before.She's starting to lose it...She lets out a SCREAM...SheSCREAMS again...Her bound-at-the-wrist hands move to thelid...She pounds on it...Her bound feet kick up at it...Shestarts to cry...She's getting hysterical...Her fingers beginclawing at the wood lid...TILL...They're ripped open and bleeding...Leaving Blood Trails on the wood.TILL...She exhausts herself. All this while, she's been screamingthe words we can't even imagine coming out of her mouth; THE BRIDE Help me.The Bride halts her hysteria.She wipes her eyes, and runs her hands down her face,mentally sending the little girl she became, back to wherevershe came from. The woman we know as The Bride is back. Shetalks to herself. THE BRIDE Well, now that you've had a nice, good cry, let's figure out how to get out of here? You're breathing like you just been fuckin. Calm down...close your mouth, and start breathing short breaths, through your nose.She does. The Bride continues in VO; THE BRIDE (V.O.) That's a lot better. But you're still too agitated. Can you hear your heart? It's like I'm buried alive with Buddy Rich. Turn off that flashlight.Fear comes into her voice as she combats herself. THE BRIDE (V.O.) No! I can't turn off the light. Yes you can. The darkness will have a calming effect. Now turn off that fucking light.She does. The screen goes Jet BlackEXT. CEMETERY - NIGHTBudd and Ernie are finished filling the grave. The oldcoffin, with the body of Paula Schultz, in the back of theflatbed. Before they climb into the truck and drive away,Budd lays a dozen red roses on The Bride's grave.INT. BUDD'S TRAILER (MOVING) - NIGHTBudd behind the wheel. Ernie in the passenger's seat. Carradio playing Mexican music. Budd's silver cell phone rings. BUDD (into phone) Yellow?INT. AIRPLANE (FLYING) - NIGHTElle Driver sits in a seat on a passenger jet enroute to thegreat state of Texas. She calls Budd on the airplane phone. ELLE Didja do it? BUDD Elle darlin, she's sufferin as we speak.A smile spreads across Elle's face. She rests her head backagainst the seat's headrest. Her eyelids close. She slightlyparts her lips...and lets out a; "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"This is the face of satisfaction. FADE TO BLACK.BLACK FRAMETITLE APPEARS: Chapter eight "The cruel tutelage of Pai Mei"FADE UP ONEXT. MOUNTAIN RANGE - CHINA - DAYWe see a beautiful mountain range in the middle of China.A SUBTITLE APPEARS UNDERNEATH: "SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE OF CHINA"A VOICE OVER SPOKEN BY BILL, tells us a story over thislandscape; BILL (V.O.) Once upon a time in China, some believe around the year, one-double knot-three.As Bill tells this story, it will be illustrated On Screen byfootage from Old Shaw Brothers Martial arts flicks of the70's. Especially Films that feature Chinese Actor LO LIEH asthe old, white-haired, white-eyebrowed Villian "PAI MEI." BILL (V.O.; CONT'D) ...head priest of The White Lotus Clan, Pai Mei, was walking down the road, contemplating whatever a man with Pai Mei's infinite power would contemplate -- Which is another way of saying, who knows. When, a Shaolin monk appeared on the road traveling in the opposite direction. As the monk and the priest crossed paths...Pai Mei -- in a practically unfathomable display of generosity, gave the monk the slightest of nods. The nod, was not returned. Was it the intention of the Shaolin monk to insult Pai Mei? Or, did he just fail to see the generous social gesture? The motives of the monk, remain, unknown. What is known, were the consequences. The next morning Pai Mei appeared at the Shaolin Temple, and demanded that the temple's head Abbot offer Pai Mei his neck, to repay the insult. The Abbot, at first, tried to console Pai Mei, only to find, Pai Mei was inconsolable. So began, the massacre of the Shaolin Temple, and all sixty of the monks inside, at the fists of the White Lotus. And so began, the legend of Pai Mei's Ten-Point Palm - Exploding Heart Technique. THE BRIDE (V.O.) What praytell, is a ten-point palm - exploding heart technique? BILL (V.O.) Quite simply, the deadliest blow in all of the martial arts. He hits you with his fingertips, at ten different pressure points on your body. And then, he lets you walk away. But once you've taken five steps, your heart explodes inside your body, and you fall to the floor dead.We see on screen Pai Mei demonstrate this technique on fiveshaolin monks. Who after being hit...take five steps...thenfall to the floor dead.EXT. JEEP (MOVING) - DAYBill and The Bride, years earlier, driving in a jeep throughthe mountains of China, enroute to PAI MEI's. THE BRIDE Did he teach you that? BILL No. He teaches no one the ten-point palm - exploding heart technique. But he is Nietzsche's psalm personified. If Pai Mei doesn't kill you, he will make you stronger. Now one of the things I always liked about you, Kiddo, is you appear wise beyond your years. Then allow me to impart, a word to the wise. Whatever - WHAT - EVER - Pai Mei says, Obey. If you flash him - even for an instant - a defiant eye, he'll pluck it out. And if you throw any American sass his way, he will snap your back and your neck like they were twigs, and that will be the story of you.EXT. THE WHITE LOTUS TEMPLE - DAYThe Bride sits in the jeep, by herself, parked in front ofthe Priest Pai Mei's home located high up on top of WhiteLotus Mountain.For over 100 years, his home used to be the temple of theWhite Lotus Clan, and he was the temple's head priest. Thetemple served as a home to over 60 priests and disciples. Butnow - the year 1990 - the White Lotus Clan is no more. Allthe priests have died. All that remains, is a very old man,who once upon a time, some worshipped as a god and somefeared as a devil...neither was wrong.A huge stone staircase of one hundred steps climb up a hillleading to Pei Mei's home. Bill climbs down to the jeep. BILL He'll accept you as his student. THE BRIDE Caught him in a good mood, aye? BILL More like a sadistic one.She climbs out, and gets her bag out of the back.Bill casts a glance at the stone steps he just decended. BILL Just seeing those steps again makes me ache. You're gonna have plenty of fun carrying buckets of water up and down that fucker. THE BRIDE Why did he accept me? BILL Because he's a very very very old man. And like all rotten bastards, when they get old, they become lonely. Not that that has any effect on their disposition. But they do learn the value of company. THE BRIDE When will I see you again? BILL That's the title of my favorite soul song of the Seventies. THE BRIDE What? BILL Nothing. When he tells me you're done. THE BRIDE When do you think that might be? BILL That my dearest, all depends on you. Now remember, no backtalk, no sarcasm. Least not for the first year. You're going to have to let him warm up for you. He hates Caucasians, despises Americans, and has nothing but contempt for women, so in your case, that may take a little while. Adios.ZOOM...The jeep speeds off down the road...leaving the Bride allalone, somewhere in the middle of China.She begins the journey before her by ascending the 100 stepsto Pai Mei.INT. THE WHITE LOTUS TEMPLEThe huge temple is exactly like it must have been a hundredyears ago, except now it's empty and dusty.The Bride enters, She's winded from climbing up those fuckinsteps. THE BRIDE (yelling) Hello!Her Voice ECHOES in the cavernous temple.PAI MEI's VOICE ECHOES back; PAI MEI'S VOICE (O.S.) Up the stairs, yankee woman!A beautiful (but dusty) Mahagony staircase leads to Pai Mei'sprivate chamber. THE BRIDE (to herself) More stairs, Jesus Christ.The still unseen Man's voice BOOMS back; PAI MEI'S VOICE (O.S.) If it is Christ you seek, turn back now.She climbs the wooden staircase.INT. PAI MEI'S PRIVATE CHAMBERPAI MEI'S POV: We see through Pei Mei's pupils, through asheer scarlet scrim that hangs down in front of his sittingarea. The Bride enters the room.She approaches the old man, reaches the edge of his sittingarea in front of the scrim, lowers to one knee and bows herhead.* From here on end, whenever ENGLISH is spoken by The Bride,or every once in awhile by Pai Mei, it will be spoken inENGLISH IN LIVE SYNCH SOUND. However, whenever MANDARIN issupposedly spoken, it comes out of their mouths as DUBBEDENGLISH like in a 70's Shaw Brothers Chop Socky Flick. THE BRIDE * Teacher, I am unworthy to be your student --Pai Mei is still unseen. PAI MEI'S VOICE * Your Mandarin is lousy. I can't understand a single word you say. It causes my ears discomfort. You are not to speak unless spoken to. Do you understand Mandarin any better than you speak it? THE BRIDE * I speak Japanese very well -- PAI MEI'S VOICE * I didn't ask if you speak Japanese, or Mongolian, for that matter. I asked if you understand Mandarin? THE BRIDE * A little, I am still learning. PAI MEI'S VOICE * You are here to learn the mysteries of Kung Fu, not linguistics. If you can't understand me, I will communicate with you like I would a dog. When I yell, when I point, When I beat you with my stick!Her head remains bowed, eyes to the floor.WE CUT TO PAI MEIHe's just like he was in the films earlier. Long White Hair,Long White Beard, Long White Eyebrowes, same long flowingWhite Robe. Everything's the same, except he's older, byabout a hundred years. He sits stone still in his sittingarea on the other side of the sheer scarlet scrim. PAI MEI * Bill is your master, is he not? THE BRIDE * Yes, he is. PAI MEI * Your master tells me you're not entirely unschooled. What training do you possess? THE BRIDE * I am proficient in a combination of Tiger and Crane style. And I am more than proficient in the exquisite art of the Samurai Sword. PAI MEI * (he makes a SNORTING SOUND) The exquisite art of the samurai sword. Don't make me laugh. Your so called exquisite art, is only fit for Japanese fat heads. You really are a silly ass.This brings up The Bride's eye...She GLARES at the old man. PAI MEI * Impudent dog! You dare glare at me!She lowers her eyes. THE BRIDE * I'm sorry master -- PAI MEI * -- Silence! I do not wish to hear your unintelligible excuses.Pause...THEN...Pai Mei softly LAUGHS to himself, and strokes his long whitebeard... PAI MEI * Your anger amuses me. Do you believe you are my match? THE BRIDE * No. PAI MEI * Are you aware I kill at will? THE BRIDE * Yes. PAI MEI * Is it your wish to die? THE BRIDE * No. PAI MEI * Then you must be stupid. Rise stupid, and let me get a better look at your ridiculous face.She rises.CU The BRIDEthrough the scrim, eyes down.Pai Mei laughs to himself again; PAI MEI * You breathe hard. The one hundred steps robbed you of your wind. So your stupidity is matched only by your weakness. Is there anything you do well? -- Oh yes, you speak Japanese. I despise the Goddamn Japs. I would of thought an American would be immune to their pompous posturing. Apparently I was wrong. Go to that drawer.The blonde woman goes to a large wooden drawer. She opens thedrawer; it's filled with just about every type of edgedweapon. PAI MEI * Remove the sword.The Bride removes a large heavy steel Chinese Sword.Pai Mei rises from his sitting position, for the first time,parts the scrim, and approaches the Bride. PAI MEI * Let's see how good you really are. Try and land a blow. If you land a single blow, I'll bow down and call you master.The Bride doesn't need a second invitation, she ATTACKS withthe sword.He deftly moves out of the way.The fighting style is now like an old Shaw Brothers film,with Pai Mei dodging at will all of her rapid sword slashes.Quick and skillful as her moves are, they're also full ofEffort and Frustration. While Pai Mei effortlessly moves outof the sword's path.He's amused, and Speaks while they fight; PAI MEI * Come now woman, can't you even hit an old man?She tries more... PAI MEI * Your ability really is quite poor.He STRIKES her with a blow to her chest, delivered with anopen palm, that sends her flying back hard against the wall.She clutches her chest, and coughs up some blood.Pai Mei laughs as he strokes his long white beard. PAI MEI * Ha ha ha ha ha! I've fought cripples who posed more of a challenge. Now fight, goddamn you!She ATTACKS with a wild cat's fury.He HOPS and DUCKS and DODGES her sword easily.He LEAPS HIGH UP IN THE AIR, and LANDS STANDING on the Bladeof her Sword.The Bride looks down the blade of her sword and can't believeit.Pai Mei smiles at her and says; PAI MEI * From here you can get an excellent view of my foot.He does a BACKFLIP off the sword, kicking the Bride in theface in mid-somersault sending her CRASHING THROUGH A WOODWALL.The Bride emerges from the hole in the wall.Pai Mei stands waiting for her, TWIRLING THE SWORD in hishand like a cheerleader twirling a baton, till the twirlingSTOPS. The sword's handle is pointed towards the Bride. PAI MEI * Give up? Or care to try again?The BRIDE'S FACEshows determination. Not to win, not even to land a blow,that she knows is impossible. This man's ability is trulyamazing. However be that as it may, she's determined not toquit, and through not quitting, she's determined todistinguish herself in his eyes...in some way.She takes the sword from him and tries again.But this time, Pai Mei keeps grabbing her arm that holds thesword, manipulating it into positions that would do the younggirl harm...Like bringing the blade up against her otherarm...Poised to cut it Off. PAI MEI * That blade's sharp. Careful not to cut off your own arm....Then he TWISTS her arm, till the blade's against her ownthroat.......Then TWISTS again till it's against her hip......Then TWISTS again while KICKING her leg, till the blade'sedge is against her thigh... PAI MEI * If you can't fight any better than that, what use do you have for a leg?He lets go of her arms, she swings furiously at him......he calmly SPINS out of the way. Then, he KICKS her in thestomach, doubling her over, then he brings the Sword betweenher legs, Blade Edge against her Crotch. PAI MEI * Now that really would be a shame.He takes the sword from her grasp...SWINGS once...The BLADES's against her jugular.He SWINGS twice...The BLADE's against the pocket of her throat.He SWINGS a third time...The BLADE's against the nipple of her right breast. PAI MEI * Your swordsmanship is amateur at best.He tosses the sword in the air, catching it by the tip of theblade. Then like a mallet, brings the handle end down hard onthe top of The Bride's head. She lets out a howl, and fallsto the floor, holding the lump on her noggin. PAI MEI * I'm a hundred and fifty years old, and you can't even make me break a sweat.He CHOPS the sword in half with his hand. PAI MEI * Let's see your Tiger and Crane style match my Eagles's Claw.Again she ATTACKS...again he eludes.Like a Gordon Liu and Lo Lieh film, they do their animalstyle martial arts dance.As she STRIKES and he BLOCKS...he yells out; PAI MEI * ...pathetic.....terrible...you idiot, you should've landed that blow...you call that crane?... Enough, I grow bored.With little effort on his part, he reaches out and GRABS herwrist, TWISTS...She's on the floor, with her arm stuck out inthe air behind her, her wrist still between his fingers. Hecould literally break her arm in half. PAI MEI * I asked you to show me what you know, and you did. Not a goddamn thing.He TWISTS her wrist......The pain is excruciating..... PAI MEI * Like all yankee women, the only thing you know how to do is order in restaurants and spend a man's money.He TWISTS more...She CRIES OUT. PAI MEI * Excruciating isn't it? I asked you a question!Through gritted teeth, she answers; THE BRIDE * Yes! PAI MEI * I could chop off your arm at will. I think I shall.He raises his other hand to chop off her arm.The Bride SCREAMS in ENGLISH; THE BRIDE No please don't! PAI MEI * If you wish to speak romantic languages, you've come to the wrong place. THE BRIDE * Please don't cut my arm off! PAI MEI * It's my arm now. I can do with it what I please. If you can stop me, I suggest you try. THE BRIDE * I can't! PAI MEI * Because you're helpless? THE BRIDE * Yes! PAI MEI * Have you ever felt this before? THE BRIDE * No! PAI MEI * Compared to me you're as helpless as a worm fighting an eagle, aren't you? THE BRIDE * Yes!!! PAI MEI * THAT'S THE BEGGING!He lets go of her wrist. She cradles her still-throbbing arm. PAI MEI * Is it your wish to learn how to make others as helpless as you were? THE BRIDE * Yes. PAI MEI * Can you cook? THE BRIDE * Yes. PAI MEI * I'll be the judge of that. (pause) Draw me a bath...your training will begin tomorrow. That arm is still mine. You may lose it yet. TIME CUTEXT. WHITE LOTUS TEMPLE - DAYPai Mei stands in front of a wood wall three inches in frontof him. His right fist is cocked back by his breastplate,he's concentrating on a certain spot on the wall.The Bride stands behind him, watching.He lets out a SCREAM, and puts his fist THROUGH THE WALL.He turns to the new student; PAI MEI * Since your arm now belongs to me, I want it strong. Can you do that? THE BRIDE * I can, but not that close. PAI MEI * Then you can't do it. THE BRIDE * I can put my hand through that at six inches. PAI MEI * And you could shoot a man from a rooftop with a scope-sight rifle, if you so desired, but this is not what I asked. What if your enemy is three inches in front of you, what do you do then? Curl into a ball? Or do you put your fist through him.He HITS the wall again leaving another hole. PAI MEI * Now begin.The Bride takes her place in front of the wall. She HITS it.Only managing to stain the wall with the blood from herscraped knuckles. Then again. And again....INT. DINNER TABLE - NIGHTBoth Pai Mei and The Bride sit at the dinner table. Pai Meiconcentrates on eating. The Bride's hand is scraped bloody.She tries to eat a bowl of rice with chopsticks, but herfingers won't work. She puts down the sticks and takes ascoop of rice with her fingers.Pai Mei WHACKS her on top of her head with his stick. PAI MEI * If you want to eat like a dog, I will make you live and sleep like a dog. Outside. If you want to live and sleep like a human being, pick up those sticks.She does.THE WOOD WALLThe Bride HITTING it.She looks at her fucked-up hand, then to the wall,hesitating....Then Pai Mei's behind her. PAI MEI * It's the wood that should fear your hand, not the other way around. No wonder you can't do it, you acquiesce to defeat before you even begin.He walks off in a huff.EXT. PIT - DAYPai Mei and The Bride stand at the edge of a large, rounddeep pit, dug in the earth (by the Bride). PAI MEI * In that pit, is a rat.We see one lone rat in the huge pit. PAI MEI * In the sky, is a bird.Pai Mei brings a golden bow and arrow into Frame, and SHOOTSup in the sky.A BIRD FALLS to the earth with a golden arrow stuck throughit. PAI MEI * You are to go into that pit, and catch that rat, with your bare hands. If you catch the rat, I will deem you the victor, and tonight you will dine on bird. But, if you can't catch the rat by sundown, I'll deem the victor the rat. And because of the disgrace to my student, I will be forced to kill it. And then I will force you, to consume his body. Because to be my student, you must develop a taste for victory.She hops into the pit, gets down on the ground, lock eyeswith her rodent opponent, and goes after it.The BRIDEPracticing her Tiger/Crane combo Kung Fu.MORE wall....At NIGHT punching the wall in front of her in her sleep.Trying to catch the rat to no avail.WHEN...A golden arrow kills the rat.She looks up and sees Pai Mei, golden bow in his hand,looking down on her. It's sundown.She stands, dusting herself off (she's dirty from the chase)and looks at her teacher.She picks her dead foe up from the earth, and removes thegolden arrow. Then with the rat in her hand, she looks up toher teacher. THE BRIDE * I acknowledge defeat at the paws of this rat. However, I will not eat this filthy vermin. What I will do... (she RIPS the rat open like a pomegranate) ...is consume his victorious heart. (she snatches the tiny heart from the rodent's carcass. Holding it between her fingers.) But tomorrow, you kill a big bird.She POPS the tiny rat heart in her mouth, and begins to chew.Pai Mei looking down on her, says; PAI MEI * How does victory taste? THE BRIDE * Bitter.We do a Shaw Brothers ZOOM into a CU on Pai Mei, he gives anaffirmative NOD and GRUNT.The BRIDE'S FISTgoes through the wall. THE BRIDE (to herself) Wow!INT. PAI MEI'S PRIVATE BATHROOM - DAYPai Mei splashing by himself in his huge bathtub, when hehears a noise. PAI MEI * Woman, is that you who disturbs my meditation?She answers from outside the door; THE BRIDE'S VOICE (O.S.) Yes, teacher. PAI MEI * Enter.She does, bowing to one knee. PAI MEI * What news do you find so worthy, as to disrupt my bath? THE BRIDE * I did it teacher. I put my fist through the wall. TIME CUTPAI MEI and the BRIDElooking at the hole in the wall. PAI MEI * Very good. Would you care to demonstrate?She moves in front of the wall.....Takes her position...Herright hand in a fist -- Locked and loaded into position....With Her left hand she reaches out and touches the wall whereshe'll strike....Like she's transferring her energy into thewood...She removes her left hand...and...STRIKES!She hits it HARD, but her fist doesn't go through.Her eyes sneak a look at the old man, who wears noexpression. THE BRIDE * I think you watching is making me nervous. PAI MEI * Not only that, it has you speaking before you were spoken to. Try again.She does.And when she does, she DOES it.CU PAI MEIhe says in ENGLISH; PAI MEI Impressive.She immediately goes down to her knees; THE BRIDE * Thank you teacher --He just as immediately, lifts her back up. PAI MEI * You still fight better than you speak. Finally, a woman who understands what's important.THEN...He MOVES the wall one inch in front of her. PAI MEI * Begin again.Then the old man leaves to finish his bath.The blonde gal begins again....Fist against wood...noeffect....starting all over. CUT TO:BACK TO COFFIN, SIX FEET UNDERPITCH BLACK -- The Flashlight Beam turns on. CU The BRIDE inProfile. Her breathing is normal. We can hear the soft beatof her heart inside the pine box. Her composure is back.Taking the flashlight, she Shines the beam on the lid aboveher....Along the line of the coffin's rim and the lid wheremany nails meet....Then down to her Red Cowboy Boots, boundby a leather belt around her.Raising her knees, as much as the coffin will allow, andwiggling her feet, she slips her bare feet our of the bootsand the belt's binding...Then, using her bare feet, then herbound-at-the-wrist hands, to pass one of the boots up toher...When the red boot is in her grasp, she turns it upsidedown....The STRAIGHT RAZOR falls out.Opening the razor, she slices through the ropes that tie herwrists, till both hands are free.She positions the flashlight so its Beam Shines on the coffinlid. The lid's about an inch and a half from the tip of hernose, about three inches from her hand.THEN...AS COMBAT DRUMS BEGIN TO BEAT ON THE SOUNDTRACK, she beginsto concentrate. Her eyes focus on the wood above her, herleft hand reaches out, touches the pine, passing her energyto it......Her long, white fingers, ball up into a FIST.......and that FIST begins STRIKING the coffin lid above her.With each Strike she lets out a KARATE SCREAM...AGAIN...And AGAIN...Her FIST SMASHES into the wood, leaving BLOOD on the lid...AGAIN...And AGAIN...A crack in the lid...AGAIN...Dirt begins to sift through the cracks onto the Bride...AGAIN...More dirt...AGAIN...Even more dirt...AGAIN...THE LID SMASHES and dirt pours into the coffin like water...THEN...Through six feet of dirt, we watch, the Bride - DIG - CLIMB -SWIM - SPROUT - BURROW - trough the earth like a sproutingplant and a burrowing mole combined, clawing for surface air.EXT. PAULA SCHULTZ'S GRAVE - NIGHTA SHOT straight out of an Italian horror film. We see thetombstone of "PAULA SCHULTZ," and the mound of dirt over hergrave.WHEN...The Bride's hand breaks the surface...then like one ofFulci's Zombies, Claws, Digs, and Pulls herself from motherearth's womb.Once extracted from her (almost) final resting place, sherolls over on her back, exhausted. She drinks in the night'sair as if it were gulps of water.DIRT is in, on, and under every crack, crevice, and wrinkleon her body.SHE looks like a beautiful sculpture, made out of dirt.INT. DINER - NIGHTA Texas diner across the street from the graveyard. A YOUNGSODA JERK stands behind the counter, waiting for a customer,when he sees something approaching through the restaurant'sbig picture window that makes him look twice.SODA JERK'S POV:Through the picture window, we see the Bride, emerge from theTexas night, and walk towards the diner looking for all theworld like a six-foot tall female version of the Peanutscharacter "PIG PEN." With each of her footfalls, a smallermushroom cloud of dust comes off her.The dirty blonde, walks into the diner, sits on a stool atthe counter directly across from the Soda Jerk, and says; THE BRIDE I'd like a glass of water. FADE TO BLACK.BLACK FRAMETITLE CARD: Chapter nine "ELLE and I" CUT TO:CU ELLE DRIVERBehind the wheel of a hot black and gold Trans Am, drivingfull out on top of the desert's surface. Spanish Rock comingout of her powerful speakers.EXT. DESERT BUDD'S CAMPER - DAYThe car stops in front of Budd's camper. She shuts off thecar and the radio.The camper door opens, Budd squints outside through thebright gold, hot desert morning, at the Tall Blonde Girl withone Good Eye. BUDD Want some breakfast?INT. BUDD'S CAMPER'S KITCHEN - DAYBudd and Elle in the tiny kitchen of Budd's tiny camper. Ellesits a the kitchen table, a black suitcase by her feet. Buddstands at a blender making them both breakfast margaritas, ashe finishes telling the tale of last night. ELLE ...So that's called a Texas funeral? BUDD Yep. ELLE I got to give it to ya Budd, that's a pretty fucked up way to die. What's the name on the grave she's buried under? BUDD Paula Schultz.Budd turns on the NOISY blender, as Elle writes down the namePaula Schultz on a small notepad, placing it back inside herpocket. As the blender MASHES ICE, Elle looks around and seesthe Bride's Hanzo sword in its sheath, leaning up against theT.V. In the front room. Budd shuts the blender off. ELLE Can I look at the sword? BUDD That's my money in that black case, isn't it? ELLE Sure is. BUDD Well then, it's your sword now.The tall blonde girl steps into the living room, takes theHanzo sword, and sits back down on the kitchen chair.She slowly removes the Japanese steel from its wood sheath. ELLE So this, is a Hattori Hanzo sword.Budd answers as he fills up two former peanut butter jarswith breakfast margaritas. BUDD That's a Hanzo sword alright. ELLE Bill tells me you once had one of your own.Pause. BUDD Once. ELLE How does this one compare to that one? BUDD If you're gonna compare a Hanzo sword, you compare it to every sword ever made -- wasn't made by Hattori Hanzo. Here, wrap your lips around this.He hands her her margarita, she takes a sip. He takes a gulp. BUDD So, which "R" you filled with? ELLE What? BUDD They say the number one killer of old people is retirement. People got'em a job to do, they tend to live a little longer so they can do it. I've always figured warriors and their enemies share the same relationship. So now you ain't gonna hafta face your enemy on the battlefield no more, which "R" are you filled with, Relief or Regret? ELLE A little bit of both. BUDD Bullshit. I'm sure you do feel a little bit of both. But I know damn well you feel one more than you feel the other. The question was which one?Elle looks right at him with her eye, and says; ELLE Regret. BUDD Yeah you gotta hand it to the ol' girl. I never saw nobody buffalo Bill the way she buffaloed Bill. Bill useta think she was so damn smart. I tried to tell him... Bill, she's just smart for a blonde.He looks over at Elle and grins.Elle looks at him. ELLE Want your money?She gestures to the black suitcase by her feet.He smiles and lifts it up on the table, unzipping it open.Lying inside is a cool million, the thousand dollar bills areinside stacks of a hundred thousand each. At the sight of allthis lettuce, Budd lets out a whistle. BUDD Great day in the morning.He lifts a stack out of the bag, then another, thenanother...and when he lifts the third stack out, he looksdown and sees a BLACK MAMBA SNAKE coiled underneath.The Black Mamba opens its WIDE JAWS...and LEAPS RIGHT ATBUDD......STRIKING Budd in the face repeatedly in blurred succession(three times in the face, and once in the forearm).Budd topples out of the kitchen chair onto the floor, bundlesof money fall with him.Elle takes a sip of her Margarita.The Black Mamba leaves Budd and goes under the refridgerator.Elle looks down, Budd lies on his back on the kitchen floorat her feet. His face is already grotesquely swollen andwhite as a sheet. The serpent's extraordinarily potent venommakes a full-frontal assault on the cowboys's nervous system. ELLE Oh, I'm sorry Budd, that was rude of me wasn't it? Budd -- I'd like to introduce my friend, The Black Mamba. (gesturing towards the refridgerator) Black Mamba -- this is Budd. You know before I picked up that little fella, I looked him up on the internet. (she removes her notepad from her pocket) Fascinating creature the Black Mamba. Listen to this, (reading from the notepad) "...In Africa, the saying goes, in the bush, an elephant can kill you. A leopard can kill you. And a Black Mamba can kill you. But only with the Mamba, and this has been true in Africa since the dawn of time, is death sure. Hence its handle; Death Incarnate." (looking up from the paper) Pretty cool, huh? (back to paper) "...Its neurotoxic venom is one of nature's most effective poisons, acting on the nervous system causing paralysis. The venom of a Black Mamba can kill a human in four hours, if say bitten on the ankle or the thumb. However, a bite to the face or torso can bring death from paralysis within twenty minutes. (up from paper to Budd) Now you should listen to this cause this concerns you. (reading from the paper) The amount of venom that can be delivered from a single bit can be gargantuan. (looks up from paper) -- You know I've always liked that word Gargantuan, and I so rarely have an opportunity to use it in a sentence. (back to paper) "If not treated quickly with anti venom, 10 to 15 milligrams can be fatal to human beings. However, the Black Mamba can deliver as much as 100 to 400 milligrams of venom from a single bite."Elle finishes reading and puts the paper away. She looks downat Budd at her feet, going through all the symptoms she justdescribed. ELLE Now in these last agonizing minutes of life you have left, let me answer the question you asked earlier, more thoroughly. When it comes to that bitch, I gotta lotta "R's" in me. Revenge is one. Retribution is another. Rivalry is definitely one. But I got another "R" for that bitch you might be surprised to find out. Respect. But right at this moment, the biggest "R" I feel, is Regret. Regret that maybe the greatest warrior I have ever met, met her end at the hands of a bushwhackin, scrub, alacky piece of shit like you. The woman deserved better.Budd, dying, watches from the floor as Elle takes out hercell phone and presses one button. The other party comes onthe line, but we never hear their side. ELLE (into phone) Bill...Elle. I have some tragic news. (pause) Your brother's dead. (pause) I'm sorry baby.Budd tries to make a sound from the floor, Elle calmly placesher foot over his mouth. ELLE (CONT'D) She put a Black Mamba in his camper. (pause) I got her, sweety. (pause) She's dead. (pause) Let me put it this way. If you ever start feeling sentimental, go to Austin, Texas. When you get here, walk into a florist and buy a bunch of flowers. Then you take those flowers to Huntington cemetery on Fuller and Guadalupe, look for the headstone marked "Paula Schultz", then lay them on the grave. Because you will be standing at the final resting place of BEATRIX KIDDO.WE FLASH ONThe BRIDE'S DRIVER'S LICENSE (the real one), with both herpicture and the name, BEATRIX KIDDO. Yes, that's her realname.FLASH ONCLASSROOM of 1st Graders on the first day of class.A 1st GRADE TEACHER reads roll call; 1ST GRADE TEACHER Melanie Harrhouse.WE WHIP PAN ACROSS A bunch of kids to an EX CU of 1st graderMELANIE HARRHOUSE. MELANIE Here. 1ST GRADE TEACHER Beatrix Kiddo.WHIP PAN TO AN EX CU OF The grown-up BRIDE, THE BRIDE Here.BACK TO ELLE ON PHONE ELLE I'm so sorry baby. --Look, I can get there in about four hours, should I come over? (pause) No no no no no, you need me baby. I'm there. (pause) Okay, I'm leaving now, go smoke some pot or something. I'll be there soon.She hangs up the cell phone, and looks down at the dead manunder her shoe.Picking up the Hanzo sword, she climbs down on the floor onher hands and knees to pick up the fallen money.CU The BLACK MAMBAout from under the refrigerator, behind Elle...Elle senses it. And slowly turns her head to look back..Both Black Mamba and Elle Driver LOCK EYES...ZOOM INTO BOTH CU's tighter and tighter, till Elle says; ELLE Bring it on, bitch.The viper known as death incarnate, LEAPS at Elle.Elle flicks her wrist slightly. She doesn't even swing theblade. She just holds it.The snake's head touches it, and is immediately SEPARATEDfrom its body.ELLE'S EYES look down at the Japanese steel in her hand.HANZO BLADEa smidgen of crimson blood is on the silver steel. ELLE Now that's what I call sharp.EXT. BUDD'S CAMPER - DAYElle exits the camper with both the sword and the blacksuitcase in her hand.She climbs into her gold and black Trans Am, starts up theengine, turns on the radio....WHEN......she thinks she hears something...she looks out herdriver's side car door window...ELLE'S POV:The dirty BLONDE BRIDE behind the wheel of her new, enormousred pickup truck, HEADING RIGHT FOR HER...CU The BRIDEbehind the wheel, HEADING RIGHT FOR HER...VEGEANCE THEMEPLAYS ON SOUNDTRACK.CU ELLEher jaw drops open. She's gobsmacked. Not only does she seethe dead walk, she sees the dead behind two tons of metalcoming at her at 100 MPH...CRASHThe Red Pickup T-BONES the Trans Am, the gold and black carFLIES through the air, then ROLLS OVER AND OVER about fivetimes in the desert sand and dirt...ending upside down.The dirty blonde looks out her windshield at the wreckage ofthe black and gold sports car. A smile with the slightesthint of satisfaction, spreads across her face.She hops out of the truck and into Budd's camper.INT. BUDD'S CAMPER - DAYAs she walks through the door, Budd's dead, swollen bodygreets her. As does her serpent namesake, dead on the floorfrom decapitation.She begins searching the camper, quickly, for something inparticular. We don't have the slightest clue what it couldbe.FLASH ONEX CU The BRIDE'S EYE - Watching.The BRIDE'S POV:Budd's camper, seen from up high looking down.The BRIDEsearching the camper.FLASH ONEX CU Her EYE.The BRIDE'S POV:Budd's camper, Budd exits by himself.The BRIDEsearching the camper.FLASH ONEX CU The BRIDE'S EYE.The BRIDE'S POV:She watches from a high perch, Budd practicing with a ...SAMURAI SWORD.The BRIDEsearching under his bed, she sees a sword on the floor,resting in a shiny, black wood mahagony sheath. She removesit from its hiding place.WOOD SHEATHIts one of Hanzo's sheaths. She opens it. It is a Hanzosword. Near the handle, etched in the steel, are the Englishwords; "To My Brother Budd, The Only Man I Ever Loved, fromBill."She closes the sheath, this will do. She sees a pair ofcowboy boots. Picks one up and places the sole of the bootagainst the sole of her foot. Her feet and this man's bootare around the same size. She slips her dirty feet in them.She's good to go.EXT. DESERTElle crawls from the wreckage of the Trans Am, holding theHanzo sword, looking like she's just been in a car wreck.A cut on her head makes blood run down the side of her face.Luckily for her, not the side with the good eye.The camper door swings open. The Bride emerges from Budd'shome, looking like a Barbie doll that's been dug up after tenyears buried in the backyard, carrying a Hanzo sword. Everyfootfall creating a cloud of dust.The two women, each carrying a samurai sword, face each otherin showdown position.A shark smile spreads across Elle's face. ELLE Bravo, Bea. I actually thought that alacky had got the best of you. THE BRIDE You thought wrong.The Bride unsheaths her sword with great flourish.Elle does the same. ELLE (referring to the sword) What's that? THE BRIDE Budd's Hanzo sword. ELLE He said he pawned it. THE BRIDE Guess that makes him a liar, don't it?Without raising their swords into position, the two blondewarriors circle each other. THE BRIDE (question) Elle? ELLE (answer) Bea. THE BRIDE I was wondering, just 'tween us girls, what did you say to Pai Mei for him to snatch out your eye?FLASHBACK - SPAGHETTI WESTERN STYLEof Pai Mei SNATCHING out Elle's eye with his Eagle's Claw. ELLE I called him a bastard. THE BRIDE Oooh, not so good. ELLE Were I to do it over again, I'd bite my tongue. THE BRIDE One more question? ELLE Shoot. THE BRIDE Where's Bill? ELLE Villa Quatro. THE BRIDE Gulf of Mexico?Elle nods her head 'yes.' THE BRIDE You wouldn't lie to me now? ELLE Why lie?Elle raises up The Bride's Hanzo sword into position.The Bride raises up her sword. THE BRIDE I saw what you did to that little Mamba in there. Want to try that on somebody your own size? ELLE I intend to.The Bride completely drops her sword stance and her samuraibearing. THE BRIDE Oh Elle, I should warn you before we get started. Hattori Hanzo swords are extremely sharp. They can take a little getting used to. Careful not to cut your own arm off. ELLE I don't rattle, bitch!The Bride brings her sword back into combat position. THE BRIDE You're gonna bleed though, you're gonna bleed a lot.THEN...SPAGHETTI WESTERN MUSIC EXPLODES ON THE SOUNDTRACK.The two blonde warriors....swords in position...no longercircle each other....but instead move forward...closer andcloser to each other....one baby step at a time...CU OF GIRLS.EX CU'S OF:Their separate GRIPS on the SWORD'S HANDLE.Their FEET moving closer.The Bride's eye.Elle's eye.The Tips of each other's Blade.Their Blonde Hair.As the Operatic Spaghetti Western Music Builds to acrescendo...we CUT BACK AND FORTH between CU's of the twowomen that get TIGHTER AND TIGHTER as we ZOOM in CLOSER andCLOSER....UNTIL...We reach the THEME'S CLIMAX....Both women let loose with a Samurai Grunt and Swing.EX CU: TWO SILVER BLADES CLASH.EX CU: BLONDE HAIR WHIPPING.EX CU: TWO SILVER BLADES CLASH AGAIN.TWO SHOT: The TWO WOMEN WARRIORS stand their ground, STRIKINGand DEFENDING...When they stop, no one's been touched.The TWO WOMEN - Swords in attack position - stare across tothe other one, as they prepare for their next attack...Now they begin to circle again.CU THEIR FEET making a circular walk.They ATTACK...EX CU BLADES MEET -- However this time we don't know who's onthe left or the right. One Blade maneuvers around the other.EX EX CU: of TIP OF BLADE SLICING OPEN SKIN, about a quarterof an inch. It looks like a scalpel cut. No blood. Just skinseparating. We don't know who's cut.The TWO WOMEN stand and face each other. Neither knows ifit's them who has been struck. Neither woman bleeds.We feel a count of...One Mississippi...EX CU: ONE SILVER BLADE, clean as a whistle.EX CU: ONE SILVER BLADE with a smudge of CRIMSON BLOOD on itsTIP.We feel a count of Two Mississippi...ELLE,BLOOD begins to PROJECTILE SPRAY out of a slice in Elle'sneck only a quarter of an inch long. The Blood does not exitthe neck as liquid but as a FINE RED MIST, like that of anaerosol can, we even HEAR the slight SPRAY WHISTLE. Ellefeels nothing. She turns her eyes towards the sound of thespray, and sees the blood escaping her like air from aballoon. She lifts her hand and places it in the path of thespray, it's immediately BATHED IN RED.Elle drops the Bride's sword.As her blood continues to escape, both women look across eachother.The effect is that Elle Driver is a balloon and her life isescaping before both their very eyes. And now looking acrossat each other, the two women see the other for the firsttime, not as adversaries, or opponents, or as rivals, or asbitches...but as sisters.Elle no longer has enough life in her to stand up...She fallsto her knees in front of The Bride.......then as she dies, she leans the side of her head againstThe Bride's standing body. Her blood runs down The Bride'sleg. As she passes on, Elle gently wraps her arms around theBride's leg.The Bride's hands go down to Elle's long blonde hair, andbegins gently stroking it, easing her pain as she expires.Only in death do they find the sisterhood that could havebeen theirs.WIDE SHOTThe Bride standing, Elle on her knees, the desert surroundsthem.The BRIDEputting a shovel down.WIDE SHOTThe Bride has finished burying Elle. She sticks a jerryrigged wood cross in the ground as a marker. Then using hersog;WOODEN CROSScarves the name "L. DRIVER" on the cross.Then drives away in the big red pickup.SPAGHETTI WESTERN MUSIC ENDS FADE TO BLACK.BLACK FRAMETITLE APPEARS: Final chapter "The blood-splattered BRIDE"INT. BILL'S HACIENDA - DAYBill on the patio of his beautiful hacienda home (named VillaQuatro) located on the beach in Mexico. At the moment Billpartaking of his current hobby......Flower Arranging.With his hands among various flowers of BRIGHT COLORS, hesorts and prunes a very pretty arrangement.EX CU the BRIDE'S EYE....watching....Bill's Mexican housekeeper, JOSEPHINA, appears on the patio. JOSEPHINA Mr. Bill, you wanted me to tell you to leave now. BILL (finishing up) Yes, I got to go and meet the Duchess. (referring to the flowers) Do you like it? JOSEPHINA Oh yes Mr. Bill, it's very pretty. BILL Why don't you put it on the dinner table, so we can enjoy it tonight. JOSEPHINA (she takes it) Good idea, she'll love it.As he heads out the patio, he tells her; BILL Oh and Josephina, take the remaining flowers and spread them around the house, if you would. JOSEPHINA Yes, Mr. Bill.He exits the patio, then turns around and pops his head backin. BILL You know I just had a great idea. Take the roses, and spread the petals on the bed I just got for her. That'd be a nice thing to come home to, wouldn't it, a bed of roses. JOSEPHINA Oh, she'll love that Mr. Bill. BILL You wouldn't mind doing that for me, would you Josephina? JOSEPHINA No, not at all.FLASH ONEX CU The BRIDE'S EYE....watching....We follow behind Bill as he moves through his house...Heslips on his jacket...Grabs his keys...TWO energetic GERMANSHEPHERDS follow him out the front door onto his driveway.On his way to his silver Porsche, he roughhouse plays withthe dogs, speaking to them in Spanish. When he gets to thesports-car, the dogs won't leave him alone, and one jumps onthe Porsche. He yells at it in Spanish; BILL (SPANISH) Get the fuck off the car, Lucy, Lucy, down!FLASH ONEX CU The BRIDE'S EYE...watching...The gates in front of Bill's Hacienda home open, and hissilver Porsche hits the streets running.FLASH ONEX CU The Bride...watching...A SUSPENSE THEME PLAYS OVER THE SHOTS of The Bride's Eyeevery time we cut to it. Over the SHOTS OF BILL DRIVING wehear a SPANISH TRAGIC LOVE BALLAD, coming from the car radio.BILLdriving his convertible as the beach WHIZZES by in thebackground.The Bride's eye.Dirt Road, lined by greener than green trees, the Porschekicks up dirt ZOOMING down it.CU BILLdriving as the Spanish love song plays.The Bride's eye.A striking but antiseptic-looking INSTITUTION of some sort,surrounded by the beautiful foliage of Mexico. Bill's silverPorsche drives up its driveway.The Bride's eye.INT. INSTITUTIONThe institution is not Spanish in style, but on the contraryit's a clinical new-age box-like structure made up of clearglass doors and walls and the color beige.Bill walks through the glass doors, to a lone Asian FEMALERECEPTIONIST, her desk is the only furniture in the lobby. InJAPANESE he explains to her his reason for being there.EX CU The BRIDE'S EYE...watching...we now leave any shot of Bill not from theBride's perspective. The SUSPENSE THEME is STRETCHED TIGHTERand TIGHTER as we look through the Bride's POV and listen toher VO; THE BRIDE (V.O.) The attentive audience members among you will have probably noticed, that all my kills have been straight up fights.The Bride's POV: The Glass-enclosed Institution, and Billstanding by himself in the empty lobby. THE BRIDE (V.O.) Y'all figured I'd face him with my Hanzo sword, aye? Well, I figured Bill figured the same thing. I am the product of three godfathers. Bill, Pai Mei, and Hattori Hanzo. Different teachers teach you different things. But one thing I learned from all three, was "in combat, the opponent that does the unexpected, can usually expect to be the victor." Bill would never see this coming. Not from me. And least any of you judge me a bushwhacker, remember...It was Bill who taught me how to shoot.As the Bride has said these things, WE'VE seen INSERTS of herputting together her high-powered scope rifle. Snapping onthe scope sight. Setting the FOCUS through the CROSSHAIRS.Loading the heavy-duty AMMO. Curling her long white fingeraround the rifle's TRIGGER.SCOPE SIGHT POV: Bill's head in between the Crosshairs.SUSPENSE THEME is STRETCHED TIGHTER STILL...it will soonbreak.WIDE SHOTlooking through the Institution's glass wall. The elevator inthe lobby opens...and A LITTLE GIRL steps out, and runs intoBill's arms. A LITTLE GIRL about five years old. A FIVE-YEAROLD LITTLE GIRL with blonde hair. Bill picks up the LittleGirl and lifts her HEAD into the CROSSHAIRS of the SCOPESIGHT.SUSPENSE THEME SNAPS into an OPERATIC WAIL...EX CU: The Bride's finger, pops off the trigger.EX CU: The Bride's eye, A HUGE TEAR FALLS OUT...We move outof the eyeball, into a MEDIUM CU of The Bride, tears fallingdown her face...She can't believe what she's lookingat...that's her daughter...She's alive...Her REMEMBERING THEME PLAYS...FLASH ONThe Bride remembering, while she was in her wide-eyed comastate, lying on an operating table, as DOCTORS AND NURSESperformed a Cesarean childbirth on her. The NEWBORN INFANT ispassed to other hands above her wide-eyed unblinkingexpressionless face.CU of The BRIDEIn one moment, Bill has managed to suddenly change the game.EXT. LONG LONG LONG EMPTY ROAD IN MEXICO - DAYSilence, except for a few birds.THEN...WE HEAR the Roaring of an Engine, and the Silver PorscheWHIZZES into FRAME.INT. PORSCHE (MOVING) - DAYBill behind the wheel, his little girl asleep in thepassenger seat. He sees something ahead.A convertible Volkswagen Karman Ghia enters the road headingin the opposite direction. It's a long long long way off, butit will get closer every second.Bill senses something about this automobile, and throws aglance at his sleeping child.His cell phone RINGS, he answers it. BILL Hola.INT. THE BRIDE'S CAR (MOVING) - DAYThe Bride behind the wheel of the convertible, her longblonde hair whipping in the wind, talks to Bill for the firsttime in five years and six months. THE BRIDE Hello Bill. BILL Kiddo, is that really you? THE BRIDE Oh, it's me all right. BILL I hear you were driving a truck? THE BRIDE My pussy wagon died on me. Who's your little friend?He glances down at the sleeping child. BILL Oh, you mean the little tow head next to me, who looks extraordinarily like you? THE BRIDE Yeah, that one. BILL Her name is B.B.The Bride gets choked up again, emotion betrays her voice. THE BRIDE B.B.? BILL Yes. Do you approve?She wipes her eyes. Her hand moves under her shirt,fingertips rest on scar. THE BRIDE Yes. Can she hear us? BILL Not now, she's in dream land. THE BRIDE How old is she? BILL What do you mean by that? THE BRIDE How many years has she been alive? BILLDon't ask how old she is, ask, ifshe's five. THE BRIDEIs she five? BILLAren't mothers like God, aren't yousupposed to automatically know? THE BRIDEI did and I do. (pause)I want to meet her. BILLHave dinner with us at my haciendatonight. She's expecting you. THE BRIDEWhat do you mean? BILLI knew you were on your way, so Itold B.B. Her mommy was coming tosee her. THE BRIDE (confused)What have you told her about me? BILLThat you were sick, that you wereasleep, but one day you'd wake upand come back to her.And she asked me, "If Mommy's beenasleep since I was born, how willshe know what I look like?" Towhich I replied, "Because Mommy'sbeen dreaming of you." And shesaid, "Then I'm gonna startdreaming of her." So I gave her a picture of you -- THE BRIDE -- which one? BILL The one I took of you in Paris, sitting on the steps with the baguette in your hand. Since she was one and a half years old, she's slept with that picture of you next to her bed.The EXACT PHOTO DISSOLVES OVER The Bride's face, thenDISSOLVES AWAY. THE BRIDE You know, prettier photos of me do exist. BILL And she's seen them. But the one she wants looking after her while she sleeps is the one of you holding bread. (pause) We normally have dinner around seven, is that convenient? THE BRIDE Yes.Pause....The cars get closer... THE BRIDE When do we cross swords? BILL Well, it just so happens, my hacienda comes with its very own private beach. And my private beach, just so happens to look particularly beautiful bathed in moonlight. And there just so happens to be a full moon out tonight. So, swordfighter, if you want to sword fight, that's where I suggest. But if you wanna be old school about it - then we can wait till dawn, and slice each other up at sunrise, like a couple real life honest to goodness samurais. As per usual Kiddo, I'll leave the big decisions up to you.The cars will soon pass... THE BRIDE Do me a courtesy? BILL Anything. THE BRIDE Slow down as we pass...I want another look at her. BILL Wear something nice tonight? THE BRIDE I have a dress all picked out. BILL Will I like it? THE BRIDE You said I looked beautiful last time you saw me in it. BILL I'll dress up too.His foot moves off the gas, slowing the car; her foot doesthe same.The cars in SLOW MOTION start to pass.The Bride looks into the other car.We ZOOM past Bill to the little girl in the passenger seat.We go ONE FRAME AT A TIME till the car moves past us, to Billholding a pistol with a large silencer pointing right at ourface. He FIRES. It emits only a tiny PHOOF.The Bride throws herself across the passenger seat as thedriver's side window EXPLODES over her head.The two cars pass each other.The Bride straightens herself in the driver's seat. She looksin the rearview as Bill and her daughter drive away. Grabbingthe cell phone she screams in it; THE BRIDE You fucking maricone!Bill on his cell, eyes on rearview. BILL Now you just wait one second there little missy. Unless I'm confused, we are trying to kill each other aren't we? Now I wasn't planning on taking a shot at you in front of the squirt, but, she is asleep. And if you're gonna forget everything I ever taught you, and gawk like you ain't got good sense, I'm gonna take a shot, am I not? THE BRIDE Did she wake up? BILL Of course not. She's like you that way. I look forward to this evening. It was great speaking with you, Bea.He hangs up.INT. WHERE HATTORI HANZO SLEEPS - JAPAN - NIGHTHattori Hanzo lies sleeping on his mat...WHEN...His phone wakes him up in the middle of the night...Hehurriedly answers it. HANZO (JAPANESE) (in phone; groggy) Hello....INT. MEXICO HOTEL - DAYThe Bride's on the phone, calling Japan, in tears. THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) Hattori! HANZO (ENGLISH) Beatrix, what's wrong? THE BRIDE (ENGLISH) She's alive! My baby girl's alive! CUT TO:INT. THE BRIDE DRIVING TO BILL'S VILLAThe same shot we saw during the opening credits. She'sdressed in a white bridal gown, the exact replica of the oneshe was bushwhacked in.Over her CU we DISSOLVE TO A CU OF HANZO talking to herearlier on the phone. HANZO (JAPANESE) Half of Bill's strength, lies in his talent for the unexpected. If you intend to vanquish this man, and claim your daughter, you must not only expect the unexpected. You must do the unexpected.WE DISSOLVE BACK to The Bride.We see the same shots as before of The Bride driving up toBill's villa, through his iron gates, and parking by hisfront door. We see TWO BLACK-SUITED MALE SATELLITES approachher.Now comes the new stuff.She climbs out of her vehicle, goes to the back, opens theboot, and removes her MOSSBERG PUMP ACTION SHOTGUN.The two satellites freeze...She SLIDES THE PUMP once, and FIRES.ONE is BLOWN APART by the blast.She SLIDES THE PUMP a second time...BLAST.TWO buys the farm.She slides the PUMP again......and BLASTS the front door, kicking it open and steppinginside.INT. BILL'S VILLA - NIGHTANOTHER BLACK-SUITED SATELLITE hurries down the stairs,reaching for his weapon...She FIRES the shotgun into his kneecap...He TUMBLES down the stairs landing at her feet.She points the shotgun straight down at his face. THE BRIDE Hello Manny.She FIRES...Then moves further into the house.Apparently, this is the do-the-unexpected part of her plan.Fuck the charade, storm the camp, kill everyone she comesacross, send Bill to hell, scoop up her daughter, and headfor parts unknown.So far, so good.She enters the butcher block kitchen, and finds Bill's cookand housekeeper, Josephina.Josephina stares at the shotgun barrel pointed at her. THE BRIDE Hello Josephina. JOSEPHINA Hello Miss Beatrix.She grabs the housekeeper, and shoves her into the kitchenpantry. THE BRIDE Stay in here and don't come out. If you leave this room I'll shoot you, comprende? JOSEPHINA Yes.She closes the pantry door, and moves into the hallwayleading to the living room.With her back against the wall, holding her weapon tight, shemoves down the hall. As she creeps, an unseen Bill yells toher from around the corner. BILL'S VOICE (O.S.) Kiddo! If you're through shooting the servants, I'm in the living room. You remember how to get to the living room, don'tcha? Go down to the end of the hall, and make a left.Back against the wall she creeps down the hall to the end.She pumps the slide, and TURNS THE CORNER - SHOTGUN RAISED -READY TO FIRE...WHEN...EX CU The BRIDE'S EYES - blink once.EX CU HER FINGER comes off the trigger.What the Bride sees in front of her is, Bill in a tuxedo,holding a small, orange squirt gun pointed at her. Standingnext to him is five-year-old little B.B., dressed up in avery pretty party dress, arm outstretched holding a orangesquirt gun, aimed at The Bride.The three look at each other for a moment, then Bill says; BILL (loudly) Bang Bang!Then he suddenly clutches his abdomen like he's just beenshot. BILL Oh B.B., Mommy got us.B.B. lowers her gun and plays out a big dying scene alongsideher dad...Bill falls to the floor. BILL Oh, I'm dying...I'm dying...B.B. parrots this. B.B. Oh, I'm dying...I'm dying...Bill on the floor, says up to his little girl; BILL Fall down sweetheart, Mommy shot you.The little girl falls down pretend dead.The Bride, still absentmindedly pointing her weapon at them,is truly thrown.Bill delivers his lines from the floor, spoken like a dyingbreath; BILL You did it Quick Draw Kiddo. You are-the fastest.And with these last words, pretends to die.But then while pretending to be dead, he speaks in a dramaticnarrator's voice. BILL But...little did Quick Draw Kiddo know,...that five-year-old B.B. Gunn was only playing possum, due to the fact she was impervious to bullets.B.B. raises her head off the floor and says; B.B. (to Mommy) I'm impervious to bullets, Mommy. BILL (to B.B.) Hey, get back down there, you're playing possum.The little girl's head drops back down.Bill continues his dramatic narration; BILL So, as the smirking killer approached, what she thought, was a bullet-ridden corpse,...that's when the little B.B. Gunn fired.B.B. springs up holding her tiny orange squirt gun and says; B.B. Bang bang!The Bride continues watching in gobsmackery.Bill raises his head off the floor, and says to her in hisnormal voice; BILL Mommy, you're dead - so die.The Bride shakes off her confusion, and acts out a big deathscene fo her little girl. THE BRIDE Oh, B.B., you got me. I should have known, you are the best.She falls to the floor and pretends to die.The little girl in her party dress, runs over to the big girlin her wedding dress, and kneels over her mommy.Mommy opens her eyes. B.B. Don't die Mommy, I was just playing.From the floor, looking up at her daughter, she speaks to herfor the first time. MOMMY I know baby.They embrace each other. B.B. I waited a long time for you to wake up, Mommy. Did you dream of me - I dreamed of you?The female killer says to her daughter as mommieness beginsto creep into her voice; THE BRIDE Every single night, baby.She holds her daughter out at arm's length to get a betterlook at her. THE BRIDE Now let me look at you. My my my... What a pretty girl you are. B.B. You're pretty too, Mommy.B.B. starts stroking her mother's long blonde hair. THE BRIDE Thank you.All of a sudden, Bill has joined them on the floor. BILL When I showed you Mommy's picture, tell Mommy what you said.The little girl gets shy. BILL C'mon shy girl, you know what you said, tell Mommy, it'll make her fell good.As she strokes her long blonde hair, little B.B. says; B.B. I said - I said - You're the most beautiful woman I ever saw in the whole white world. BILL That's the truth. That's what she said.B.B. points to Manny's blood, which splashed a little on theBride's wedding gown. B.B. What's that? MOMMY Oh, Mommy spilled something on her dress. B.B. Blood? MOMMY No. Kool-Aid. Do you like Kool-Aid? B.B. No. BILL Do you not like it, or do you not know what it is?Parroting Bill; B.B. I do not know what it is. MOMMY Well, it's a very tasty beverage that I used to drink, when I was a little girl. It comes in a lot of different flavors and colors, and it's really good. Maybe we should fix some sometime. Want to do that?The little girl gives a big nod, yes. BILL Speaking of fixing and drinking and eating, I think it's dinner time don't you?B.B. does an exaggerated nod, yes. BILL (to Mommy) When you were doin all that fancy shootin, you didn't happen to shoot a nice Mexican woman about forty five years old, did ya? MOMMY No. BILL (wiping imaginary sweat off his brow) Whew, then dinner should be done. (shouting to the other room) Josephina! You can come out now, we're ready for dinner. JOSEPHINA (O.S.) Yes, Mr. Bill.He offers his hand to Mommy, and helps her to her feet. Thensays to B.B.; BILL Want to go on top of the world?She says excitedly; B.B. Yeah!He scoops the little girl up, puts her on his shoulders, andas the mommy and the daddy and their little girl walk throughthe house towards the dinner table, Bill and B.B. Sing TheCarpenter's song, "Top Of The World." It's obviously one oftheir songs.INT. DINNER ROOM - NIGHTThe dining room of Bill's house. The family, mother fatherand daughter, sit at the dinner table eating. BILL B.B., don't you think Mommy has the prettiest hair in the whole wide world? B.B. Yes I do. BILL In fact it's better than pretty. What's better than pretty? B.B. Gorgeous. BILL Very good, gorgeous. Mommy is gorgeous.The Bride shows no sign of thawing around Bill. BILL You know baby, Mommy's kinda mad at Daddy. B.B.Why? Where you a bad daddy? BILLI'm afraid I was. I was a real baddaddy. (to Mommy)Our little girl learned about lifeand death the other day. (to B.B.)You want to tell Mommy about whathappened to Emilio? B.B.I killed him. I didn't mean to, butI stepped on him and he stoppedmoving. BILLEmilio was her goldfish. She camerunning into my room holding thefish in her hand, crying, "Daddydaddy, Emilio's dead." And I said,"Really, that's so sad. How did hedie?" And what did you say? B.B.I stepped on him. BILLActually young lady, the words youso strategically used were, "Iaccidentally stepped on him."Right? B.B.Yeah. BILLTo which I queried, "And just howdid your foot accidentally find itsway into Emilio's fishbowl?" Andshe told me no no no, Emilio was onthe carpet when she stepped on him. (beat)Hummmmmm, the plot thickens. Andjust how did Emilio get on thecarpet? And Mommy, you would havebeen real proud of her, because shedidn't lie. She said she tookEmilio out of his bowl, and put himon the carpet. And what was Emiliodoing on the carpet, baby? B.B.He was -- flapping. BILLAnd then you stomped on him? B.B.Uh-huh. BILLAnd when you lifted your foot up,what was Emilio doing then? B.B.Nothing. BILLHe stopped flapping, didn't he? B.B.Uh-huh. BILLAnd you knew what that meant,didn't you? B.B.Uh-huh. BILLWhat did that mean? B.B.He was dead. BILL (to Mommy)She told me later, that the secondshe lifted up her foot and saw himnot flapping, she knew he was dead.Is that not the perfect visualimage of life and death? A fishflapping on the carpet, and a fishnot flapping on the carpet. Sopowerful even a five-year old childwith no concept of life and deathknew what it meant. Not only didshe know Emilio was dead, she knewshe had killed him. So she comesrunning into my room, holdingEmilio in both of her little hands -it was so cute - and she wanted meto make Emilio better. And I askedher, why did she step on Emilio?And she said, she didn't know. ButI knew why. You didn't mean to hurtEmilio, you just wanted to see whatwould happen if you stepped on him,right? B.B.Uh-huh. BILLAnd what happens when you stomp onEmilio, is you kill him. And youdiscovered that, didn't you? B.B.Uh-huh. BILLSo we drove down to the beach, hada little funeral, and gave Emilio aburial at sea. And right now I'msure he's happy as can be, swimminaround in fish heaven.But the point being, our childlearned two very important lessons.One, about life and death. Theother, somethings once you do, theycan't be undone. I knew just howshe felt (to B.B.)You loved Emilio, didn't you? B.B.Uh-huh. BILLWell sweety, I love Mommy, but Idid to Mommy what you did toEmilio. B.B.You stomped on Mommy? BILLWorse. (making his finger a gun)I shot Mommy. Not pretend shoot,like we were just doing. I shot herfor real. B.B.Why? BILLI don't know. B.B.Did you want to see what wouldhappen? BILLNo, I knew what would happen toMommy if I shot her. What I didn'tknow, is when I shot Mommy, whatwould happen to me. B.B.What happened? BILL I was very sad. And that was when I learned, somethings once you do, they can never be undone. B.B. What happened to Mommy? BILL Why don't you ask Mommy. B.B. Are you okay Mommy. Does it hurt? BILL No sweety, it doesn't hurt anymore. B.B. Did it make you sick? MOMMY It put me to sleep. That's why I haven't been with you B.B., I've been asleep. B.B. But you're awake now, right? MOMMY I'm wide awake, pretty girl.EXT. PORCH - DAWNBill sits on the steps of his porch in the back of the housedrinking a glass of red wine. The steps lead to the beach andthe sea.Beatrix steps out onto the porch, and sits down on the stepsacross from him.Between them the dawn sky breaks. BILL Did she go to sleep easy? THE BRIDE It took her a little bit. She was excited. She's quite the little chatterbox. BILL Well, if she doesn't like you, you got to kill her to say hello. But if she likes you, you can't shut her up. She's a chip off the ole blonde in that regards.He holds up the bottle of vino. BILL Red wine?She shakes her blonde head, no. BILL C'mon, Bea, you're a whole lot more fun with a couple glasses of wine in ya.She gives him a look. BILL (pointing towards the beach) We're going to go out there and have at it, aren't we?She shakes her blonde head, yes. BILL Well, I've already had a glass. So unless you want to win by an unfair advantage, you should have a glass of wine. So we're both on the same footing wine wise.She holds out the empty glass, and he fills it with red. BILL You know, there's an old man down here, his name is Esteban Viharo. He was a pimp. I knew him when I was a child. He was a friend of my mother's. I told him about you. When I showed him your picture he smiles and said; (imitating his accent) "Yesss, I see the attraction." He told me a story about taking me to the movies when I was five. It was a movie which had Lana Turner in it. And whenever she would appear on screen, he said I would stick my thumb in my mouth and suck it, to an obscure amount. And he knew right then, this boy will be a fool for blondes. THE BRIDE Who would of ever thought you'd be such a good father? BILL Well not you, that's for damn sure.She gives him another look. THE BRIDE Must we have to endure your little zingers? BILL No we mustn't. But if you're going to say sentences like that, in the future, I will resist the temptation. THE BRIDE Baby, you don't have a future.Bill drinks some wine. BILL I sent you to L.A. and you never came back. I thought you'd been killed. Do you know how cruel it is to make someone think someone they love is dead? I mourned you. Then in the third month of my mourning, I track you down. I wasn't trying to track you down, I was trying to track down - the fucking assholes - who I thought killed you. And when I find you, what to I find? Not only are you not dead, you're getting married - to some fuckin jerk - and you're pregnant? How do you expect me to react? THE BRIDE Why do you think I hid? BILL Why did you leave in the first place? You have cold eyes towards me now. I understand their temperature, but they were warm the second to the last time I saw them, or was that just my imagination? THE BRIDE No.The Bride decides to tell all. As she tells this story, partswill be shown on the screen.To give herself a running start with the story she starts itoff in Japanese; THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) You sent me to L.A. to kill that lady scoundrel, Lisa Wong.Bill interrupts her. BILL (ENGLISH) You are you talking in Japanese?The Bride explodes; THE BRIDE (ENGLISH)What the hell do you care what Italk in? Don't you know when tokeep your mouth shut? I'm trying totell you what you want to know, ifyou'll just shut up and listen andstop talking! Now may I continue? BILLYou're right, I'm wrong, continue. THE BRIDEThe morning I left, I threw up. Idon't feel like speaking inJapanese anymore - on the plane, Ithrew up. When I got to my hotel, Ithrew up. So naturally I startedthinking, maybe I might bepregnant. So I bought one of thosehome pregnancy kits. Went back tomy room and took the test. Thelittle strip said blue. I was goingto have a baby. I tried to callyou, but you weren't there, so Ijust thought I'd call back later. BILLBut you never did. THE BRIDE- Would you shut up, I'm trying totell you how I feel. BILLMy apologies, please continue. THE BRIDESo I just figured I'd call you backlater. I was just so happy, I puton music and danced by myself inthe hotel suite, holding my littleblue strip.What I didn't know, was at some legof my journey, I was spotted. Withme in Los Angeles it didn't takeLisa Wong long to figure outsomeone put a hit out on her. Soshe sent an assassin of her own to kill me in my hotel room. As I was dancing in euphoria, the killer came down the hall.There's a knock on the hotel room door.The Bride stops dancing and goes to the door's peephole.PEEPHOLE POV: A pretty KOREAN WOMAN in the blazer and skirtoutfit of a hotel manager. She's holding a basket of flowers.The Bride says through the door; THE BRIDE Hello, can I help you? HOTEL WOMAN Hello, I'm Karen Kim, I'm the hospitality manager of the hotel. I have a welcome gift from the management.Seeing it through the peephole. THE BRIDE Oh, it's beautiful. But I'm kinda busy at this second, could you possibly come back later?As she talks, she accidentally drops the blue strip, shebends down to pick it up...WHEN...A SHOTGUN BLAST BLOWS A HOLE in the door, right where thebent over woman was previously standing.Karen kicks open the door, Pump Action Shotgun in hand.The Bride's on her back, on the floor below her.Karen aims the shotgun down at her.With her foot, The Bride kicks the front door.It SLAMS BACK HITTING Karen in the face.The Bride scrambles to her feet, running for cover.Karen pushes the door aside, steps into the room, and FIRESthe shotgun The Bride's way.The Bride DIVES out of the way.The BLAST DESTROYS the side of the room it HITS.The Bride comes up from the floor with her SOG in her hand,and THROWS IT across the room at Karen...Karen BLOCKS the thrown knife with her shotgun. The bladesticking in the weapon's wooden stock. She removes the knife,and drops it to the floor.The Bride is a sitting duck. There's nothing she can doexcept wait to get shot. KAREN So you came here to kill Lisa Wong, huh? Well that's my sister, bitch. I'm Karen Wong, and I've come here to kill you.She raises the shotgun, and takes aim at The Bride... THE BRIDE Wait a second!Karen stops. THE BRIDE Yes, I'm an assassin. Yes I did come here to kill your sister. But I'm not gonna do that now. KAREN Oh, I know you're not -- THE BRIDE - listen to me! I just found out, right now - not two minutes before you blew a hole in the door, I'm pregnant.Karen looks at her, "what?". THE BRIDE On that table is the home pregnancy kit. On the floor by the door is the strip that says I'm pregnant. I'm telling you the truth, I don't want to and I won't kill your sister. I just want to go home. KAREN What is this, bullshit story number twelve in the female assassin's handbook? THE BRIDE Any other time you'd be a hundred percent right. But this time you're a hundred percent wrong. I'm the deadliest woman in the world, but right now I'm scared shitless for my baby. Please, you hafta believe me. Look at the strip, it's on the floor.Karen looks over to the door, and sees the tiny strip on thefloor. KAREN Sit down on that bed and put your hands behind your head.The Bride complies. Karen bends down and picks the strip offthe floor. Then takes the package it came in and reads thedirections on the box. THE BRIDE Blue means pregnant. KAREN I'll read it myself, thank you.It is blue, Karen's starting to believe her. KAREN Okay, say I were to believe you, what then? THE BRIDE Just go home. I'll do the same.Karen does...She starts backing out of the room...before sheleaves, she says; KAREN You fucked with the Wong sisters.BACK ON THE PORCH THE BRIDE Facing Karen Wong, was the most frightening moment I have ever experienced. And that includes three years with that evil bastard Pai Mei. Before that strip turned blue, I was a woman, I was your woman. I was a killer, who killed for you. Before that strip turned blue, I would have jumped a motorcycle on to a speeding train ...for you. But once that strip turned blue, I could no longer do any of those things. Not anymore. Because now I was a mother. A mother who only had one thought on her mind. Please don't harm my baby. Can you understand that? BILL Yes. But why tell me now, and not then? THE BRIDE You wouldn't have let me go. Specially once you found out I was pregnant. You would've tried to talk me out of it. It would have been a big scene. I just said fuck it.Starting to get mad. BILL Fuck who? THE BRIDE Bill, you couldn't know I was pregnant, once you knew, you'd claim it, and I didn't want that. BILL That's not your decision to make. THE BRIDE Yes, but it's the right decision. And I made it for my daughter. Everybody on this earth deserves to start with a clean slate. But with us - my daughter would be born into a world she shouldn't be. Robbing her of the one thing everybody deserves. She would be born with blood stains. I had to choose. I chose her.She takes a sip of wine. It's morning now. And now it's herturn. THE BRIDE You know five years ago, if I had to make a list of impossible things that could never happen. You performing a coup de grace on me by bustin a cap in my crown, would be right at the top of the list. (beat) I'd've been wrong, wouldn't I?Bill listens stoney, then; BILL I'm sorry was that a question? Of impossible things that could never happen - yes in this instance you would have been wrong.The Bride listens stoney, then; THE BRIDE Well? BILL Well what? THE BRIDE Explain yourself. BILL I already have. When I told you the story of when I thought you were dead. Didn't you get how badly I felt? THE BRIDE You call that an explanation? BILL Well if that's too cryptic let's get literal. (beat) There are consequences to breaking the heart of a murdering bastard. You experienced some of them.That's his explanation.She hears it.They both understand one another. THE BRIDE You and I have unfinished business. BILL Baby, you ain't kidding.They both laugh. BILL You know how proud I am of you, don't you? THE BRIDE Yes. BILL You know I was rooting for you, don't you? THE BRIDE I figured. BILL You know on that beach out there I want you to be the victor?She nods her head, yes. BILL You also know you're going to have to defeat me. I can't just give it to you, even though I want to. THE BRIDE It won't be necessary for you to give me anything. I've surpassed you. I'll take it. BILL Well, as they say in Missouri, show me.EXT. THE BEACH - MORNINGAs the blue waves of the Gulf of Mexico crash on the beach,The Bride in her bridal gown, and Bill, his tuxedo jacketoff, face each other in a combat stance.The BRIDEBreeze blowing her blonde hair, holding her Hanzo sword inits sheath.BILLstares across the sand to the figure of the Bride, hisstudent, facing him at sunrise with a weapon he taught her touse. This is where all who teach combat artistry may end up.Facing a Frankenstein monster of their own creation. Heremoves his Hanzo sword from its sheath with GREAT FLOURISH.WIDE SHOTThe two combatants...quite far from each other...they intendto charge/attack...stand in showdown stance.The BRIDEThe VENGEANCE THEME EXPLODES ON THE SOUNDTRACK.She takes her combat stance. But what she doesn't do isremove her sword from its wood sheath. The fist of her lefthand is wrapped around the wood sheath's center. Her rightempty hand, raises and makes a beckoning gesture to Bill.Then with a face completely devoid of emotion, says inJapanese; THE BRIDE (JAPANESE) Attack me.She's facing him, sword in sheath, hand far from handle, in astanding still position, not moving a muscle of blinking aneye, staring her laser beams in Bill's direction waiting forhis attack.He stands in a combat position, sword raises in a combatgrip, to charge her. BILL (to himself) That's my girl.He screams a samurai scream...and charges her...She stands motionless...Unblinking...Watching him coming...No fear....No expression...We go back and forth, close, wide, low.TILL...They meet...Using only her left arm, with the sheathed Hanzo sword in itsgrip, she blocks all of his blows, right arm unmoving down ather side...sort of like Pai Mei did to her earlier...hissword and her sheath lock together...they're close to eachother, she brings up her right arm, sticks out two fingers,and hits Bill on ten different pressure points on his body.Then hits him straight on in the heart with her palm. Hisbody jolts, like he's just had a heart attack...he coughs upa little blood...he looks at her.Their faces are very close...The face of the cold ice woman Ninja, melts away before oureyes, and the face of Beatrix Kiddo is filled once again withcompassion. BILL He taught you the ten point palm exploding heart technique? THE BRIDE Of course he did. BILL Why didn't you tell me?She doesn't have an answer.She looks at him apologetically; THE BRIDE I don't know...Because...I'm a...bad person.He smiles at her duplicitly, and says with blood on his lips; BILL No. You're not a bad person. You're a terrific person. You're my favorite person. But every once in awhile...you can be a real cunt.They smile at each other.Then...Bill turns his back to her...And walks five steps in the opposite direction...with eachstep his heart swells, on the fifth...It BURSTS...WE HEAR A SOUND, like of a tire blowout...He falls to the beach...dead.The Bride walks over to his body.She unsheaths her Hanzo sword.Blood lies in a pool, by Bill's mouth.She dips the tip of the blade in the blood, leaving thetiniest of crimson smudges.She then removes the Bill handkerchief, and wipes Bill'sblood from off the blade onto the white cloth.She lets the Bill handkerchief drop onto his body.The Jingi sword Hattori Hanzo created, just for her, for thispurpose, has come to the end of its journey.Beatrix, in a moment of enormous generosity, allows herself,one final tear, shed for her corrupter, her enemy, the fatherof her child,...her MAN. The tear is for her as well. Forshe's very aware she will never ever be completely any otherman's WOMAN.EX CU The Hanzo BLADE slowly sliding into the wood sheath.EX CU the single teardrop, sliding down her cheek.The blade disappears inside the sheath.The teardrop falls of her chin.Her journey, her revenge, her victory, her unfinishedbusiness, is completed.The Bride exits the beach.Bill doesn't.SERIES OF SHOTS END FILMAs a female voice sings a song on the soundtrack.We see the Bride, get B.B.The Bride and B.B. are driving away.The Bride and B.B. eating in a coffee shop.The Bride and B.B. in a motel room. They both wear bathtowels and both of their blonde heads are wet. The Bride sitsbehind her on the bed, combing the little one's head.The Bride spooning B.B. from behind, both of them are asleep.It's the morning...B.B. Sits on the motel room bed, watching Saturday morningcartoons on T.V.INT. MOTEL ROOM BATHROOM - MORNINGThe Bride is on the floor of the motel room bathroom, cryingher eyes out.She shoves a towel in her mouth so B.B. won't hear her.We wonder for a moment what's wrong...Till we see her face in CU...Her tears are tears of joy.She can't believe this is even happening.Her daughter is alive. They're together. They get to beginagain.She covers her mouth so B.B. won't hear her crying and getworried or confused.But as the deadliest woman on the planet, lies on the motelroom bathroom floor, smile on her face, twinkle in her eyes,happier than she's ever been, she thinks one thought. Overand over again....Thank you god...thank you god...thank you god...thank yougod.She washes her face in the sink, when she's presentable, shewalks out of the bathroom, jumps on the bed with her baby,hugs her from behind as the two watch Saturday morningcartoons.TWO SHOT CUBoth blonde heads, the big one and the little one, next toeach other, watching T.V.The lioness has been reunited with her cub, and all is rightin the jungle. CUT TO:BLACK FRAMETITLE APPEARS: WRITTEN & DIRECTED By Quentin Tarantino \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Killing Zoe.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Killing Zoe.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0d481af23916ff9bc0244a53733c7a4380730f68 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Killing Zoe.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + KILLING ZOE Written by Roger Avary FADE IN: INT. TAXI CAB - MOVING - DAY Rain falls on the rear window of a taxi parked in the taxi zone of the Charles de Gualle Airport. Aside from the incessant tapping of rain on the roof of the cab we hear the sounds of the airport: the almost monotonic loudspeaker declaring in French that loitering is not permissible and that should any bags be left unattended that they will be destroyed; the honking of the horns from other automobiles; the unintelligible chatter of people as they get their bearings. Inside the cab, playing on the radio, is Angelique Kidjo's funky song "Batonga". Then, the rear door to the cab opens and in an EXTREME CLOSE UP we see ZED, a young man with wild, almost mesmerizing eyes shielded by small round glasses, and with a head of nappy red hair. His face has drops on it from the flurry outside. He settles himself, then looks to the CAB DRIVER, an easy going Senegalese/Frenchman, in the front seat. ZED Hotel Mondial. CAB DRIVER Le Mondial. Tres bien. He starts driving. CAB DRIVER Avec cette pluie ca risque de prendre un moment. L'autoroute est ferme. A cause du 14 Juillet. He drives for a while. CAB DRIVER [Do you mind the radio?] Zed looks at the meter, francs are clicking away. He also looks at the cab driver's license, his name is Moises Du Bois. CAB DRIVER [Do you want me to turn the radio off?] ZED (realizing he's being asked a question) I don't speak French. The driver turns around. CAB DRIVER (in broken English) Ah. American? ZED That's right. CAB DRIVER That's good because I speak a little English. Zed nods. CAB DRIVER I asked if you mind the radio. Music. You know. Zed shakes his head "no". CAB DRIVER (with a smile) Super cool. Zed adjusts his watch. ZED What time is it? CAB DRIVER Time, time, time. I don't know. Daytime. Zed forgets the adjustment for now. CAB DRIVER Are you in town for business? ZED Yes. CAB DRIVER It's a nice hotel. Your hotel. Very big rooms. He looks at Zed in the rear view mirror. CAB DRIVER Do you know Paris? ZED I've been here once before. When I was younger. The cab driver smiles. CAB DRIVER Those were the days. They drive for a while. CAB DRIVER Married? ZED I beg your pardon? CAB DRIVER Do you have a wife? ZED No. (then after thinking about it for a while) Why? CAB DRIVER Well, if you need a wife for the night... (searching for the right words in French) Une escorte. Pour vous faire visiter. (then back to his broken English) For business. I give you my number. Very nice girl. French. Like when you were young. He lifts his hand and shows his index and middle finger tightly extended together, then he crosses them. CAB DRIVER Know what I mean? Zed smiles at this and nods. CAB DRIVER Speaks the language of love. Take you to heaven and back. You just tell me and I set it up. Zed shakes his head and laughs. CAB DRIVER What you laughing at? You let Moises set it up. She treat you right. She treat you fine. Zed can do nothing but smile at the thought of it. DISSOLVE TO: INT. HOTEL - HALL - DAY A long, empty hallway of a moderately priced hotel. From around a corner comes a BELLBOY carrying Zed's one bag. Zed is right behind him. They come up to room 6A and the bellboy unlocks the door. INT. HOTEL ROOM - DAY The door to the room opens and the bellboy, followed by Zed, walks into the room. He puts Zed's bag onto one of those luggage holders and proceeds to show him the room. Sitting on the bed is a large air freight package. BELLBOY (in broken English) Your package...It arrived in the last night of before last night. He points to the telephone. BELLBOY Ah...telephone, for the room service. He motions toward the bathroom. BELLBOY The toilet. He opens the closet door. BELLBOY To hang the clothes. He points to a control console next to the bed. BELLBOY From here you can operate the television. Then he pauses at the door before he goes out. Zed reaches into his pocket and takes out some French money, he starts fingering through it. Then, the bellboy takes the liberty of showing Zed which bills to give him. BELLBOY (after getting what he wanted) Merci. He starts to leave. ZED Oh, wait. The bellboy turns around. ZED What time is it? BELLBOY (confused) What time is it? ZED (pointing at his watch) Time. BELLBOY Ah. Yes. Il est presque huit heures moins dix. The bellboy clicks his heels and walks out the door. Zed looks around the room, still wondering what time it is, and takes a seat on the bed. Obviously tired from the flight Zed unbuttons his shirt a bit and lays back on the bed next to the package. Before he dozes off to sleep he takes his watch off and places it on the bedside table. He is asleep. FADE TO BLACK: INT. HOTEL ROOM - LATER - DAY Zed's bed, while still made, looks like it's been slept in. Sitting on it is the ripped open air freight package. Inside of it is a black steel briefcase. The shower is on and from the look of things Zed is in it. On the bedside table we see Zed's watch. It reads 12:10 P.M. Next to it is the phone. Next to the phone is a piece of folded paper with Moises' name and a phone number that reads: 45.63.53.37. INT. HOTEL ROOM - BATHROOM - SHOWER - DAY Zed is in the shower letting the water run directly into his face and cascade down his body. He opens his mouth and freely drinks the water, then he spits some out with a spurt. Then he stops, attentive, listening for something. He turns the shower off. Then he hears it again, the knocking on the door. INT. HOTEL ROOM - BATHROOM - DAY Zed grabs a towel and climbs out of the shower. He makes his way toward the knocking. INT. HOTEL ROOM - DAY Zed walks to the door to his room with the towel wrapped around his waist. He opens it. In the hall is ZOEY, a cute French girl of not more than twenty. She's chewing on gum the way a schoolgirl might, but she looks like no girl Zed ever went to school with. ZOEY Bonjour. ZED (a little awkwardly) Bonjour. Zed opens up the door and lets her in. She checks out the room and places her bag on the bed. Then she makes her way to the window for a view of the city. ZOEY Wow. Vous avez une belle chambre. Je ne suis jamais venue dans cet hotel. She turns to him, but in the process takes the time to examine every detail of the room. ZOEY Ca sera 150 francs de l'heure. Toute la nuit pour 700. D'avance. Et faudra porter un-- ZED I...don't speak French. She blows a bubble. ZOEY It's okay. She takes a seat on the bed. ZOEY It will be one thousand francs for all night. In advance. Zed takes the money out of his wallet and gives it to her. ZOEY We can do it now if you want. ZED Well, let me just dry up. ZOEY Okay, but it's not necessary. He goes into the bathroom and starts drying himself. She puts the money in her bag and then turns on the television from the remote console. A French talk show comes on. She changes the channel until she comes to a station playing F.W. Murnau's silent classic, "Nosferatu". She smiles and sits back to watch. ZED(O.S.) (from the bathroom) What's your name? ZOEY Zoe or Zoey. Which ever you like. ZED(O.S.) My name's Zed. ZOEY (smiling at this) That's funny. We both have Z names. Zed comes walking out of the bathroom drying his hair. His pants are on. ZED What was that? She notices his pants. ZOEY You can take those off. The pants. ZED I'd rather watch you get undressed first. ZOEY (matter-of-factly) Alright. She stands up and starts to lift her top off. He stops her. ZED Slower. He lays down on the bed. She stands there looking at him and then smiles. ZOEY Alright Mister America. Zed. Then, with Zed laying on the bed and watching her, she slowly, seductively strips in front of him, never taking her eyes from his eyes, until she is totally naked. ZOEY Slow enough for you? Then, like a cat prowling for it's prey, she crawls over the bed to him and begins to unbuckle his pants. She removes the pants and climbs on top of him. They begin to make love. On the television, "Nosferatu" silently plays. Zoey and Zed quicken their pace with an urgency one can't resist during a moment of passion. She cries out and lowers herself to his grasp. An IMAGE overcomes her mind. They quicken to an almost violent speed and then expire, both satisfied. She begins to kiss him multiple times over the face. ZOEY C'etait formidable. She rolls over, still hugging him, purring like a kitten. They rest there for a while...holding each other. ZOEY I'm cold. She takes the covers and crawls under them, so does Zed. ZOEY Zed? ZED Yes? ZOEY Moises told me you were in town for business. ZED Yes. ZOEY What kind of business? ZED Why? ZOEY I don't know. I'm just curious. ZED Do you ask all your clients questions? ZOEY No. Just the ones I like. ZED So you like me? ZOEY Yes. ZED Why? ZOEY Because you're...a good person. I run into some real creeps. You know. ZED How do you know I'm a good person? ZOEY Body language. We fit together. ZED All men and women fit together. Hell, even some men fit together. ZOEY No, but you know, we clicked. You made me orgasm. Do you know how often I orgasm with a man Moises sets me up with? ZED No I don't. ZOEY Usually never. They're almost always fat like pigs. Zed laughs at this. ZOEY And you make me feel safe. That's something more important than the orgasm. An integral part maybe of the orgasm. ZED I never really thought of it like that. ZOEY Well, it's true. Zed nods at this. ZOEY Turn off the television. Zed reaches over and turns it off from the console. ZOEY So I mean it when I tell you Zed, I like you very much. ZED Well, I like you too Zoe. ZOEY Honest? He nods. ZOEY Why? For the same reason? Any man can orgasm. Even with his own hand. Zed stares ahead as he thinks of an answer. ZED Well, I like your honesty. You're open. Unlike most prostitutes I've been with. She doesn't like the sound of this. She slaps him. ZOEY I am not a prostitute! Zed is a little surprised at this. ZED Really? Can I have my francs back then? ZOEY I'm a student. And to pay for the classes I became an escort. It's my choice to sleep with you. ZED I see. ZOEY What? You don't understand. ZED No, I do. ZOEY Hey, it's not easy. ZED I didn't say it was. ZOEY I'm here because I want to. ZED Okay, okay relax. What school do you go to? ZOEY The Centre du Art, Paris. ZED That's really interesting. What kind of art do you study? ZOEY Not any of the old shit. ZED Oh. ZOEY I have a day job too. Three times a week. She rolls onto her back and stares into an imaginary world as she talks to Zed. ZOEY But someday there will be only my art. ZED What kind of things do you paint? ZOEY I don't paint. I make things. Objects. Not like sculpture. Like life...but with no narrative. I want when someone looks at one of my objects for there to be no reference to the world. Void of feeling, emotion...void of destiny. Those are left for me. They belong only to me. If someone else can see into it...then it is no longer mine. I have failed. And I would destroy it. I don't care how much cash they would offer me. It would be shit. I can't tell you how many objects of mine have been destroyed. They told too much about me. And if someone wants to know something about me...I'll tell them myself. The way I'm telling you. She looks back at him. ZOEY What I do I do only for the objects. ZED I'd like to see one of these. ZOEY What? So you could see the work of a whore? He decides to put a stop to this once and for all. ZED Zoey. I'm sorry for calling you a prostitute. I didn't understand the difference. ZOEY The difference is a prostitute would have lied to you about her orgasm. He gives her a kiss. ZED If these things you make are as true as you are...I'm sure they're as indescribable. Perhaps, someday, you'll make one...about me. ZOEY If I do...you'll never know which one it is. Because I'll be the only one who understands. I'll be the only one who can look into it and see where in my life it came from. Zed is unable to speak. They look into each others eyes for a long moment, hearing the sounds of the city drift in through the window. Then she leans forward and gives him a soft understanding kiss. DISSOLVE TO: INT. ZED'S ROOM - NIGHT Zed is asleep. Zoey is asleep in his arms. There is a knocking at the door. Zed opens his eyes. The knock becomes a pound. Zed gets up and puts on his pants. Zoey gets up and looks around. ZOEY (groggily) What time is it? ZED I have no idea. Night time. There is more pounding on the door. ZOEY I'm going to take a shower. She trots off naked to the bathroom and starts the shower. Zed walks over to the door and opens it up. Standing in the hall is Eric, a Frenchman of Zed's age wearing baggy French-style clothes. ERIC (with a thick accent) Hey you madman! Zed's happy to see him. ZED Eric. Come in. They hug. ERIC What happened to you? I thought you were going to call. Eric walks in and starts to notice the traces of wild love making around the room. ERIC (smiling) Oh I see. You have been busy. ZED Sorry, I asked the hotel to give me a wake up call. ERIC That's good, but now I am here. So let's go. We have a lot to talk about. ZED What about the girl? ERIC Is she your girlfriend? ZED No. ERIC Fuck her. He peeks into the bathroom. ERIC She's a dishrag whore. Kick her out. ZED I'll let her stay here tonight. ERIC Don't be silly. It's dangerous. Eric walks into the bathroom. INT. HOTEL ROOM - BATHROOM - NIGHT Eric walks up to the shower and knocks on the door. Zoey is obviously surprised to see him. ERIC (in French with English subtitles) [Okay. Get out of the shower. It's time for you to leave.] ZOEY [Fuck you.] Eric opens up the door and yanks her out of the shower. ERIC [No. Come on you fucking slut!] She shrieks. ZOEY [Let go of me you shit!!] He drags her out into the room, she is dripping wet. INT. HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT Zed can't believe this. ZED Eric. ERIC (to Zed) Don't worry about her. (to Zoey in French) [Why don't you just go back to your pimp and suck his black dick!] She bites his hand. He yells in pain. ERIC God damn it! He kicks her in the butt and sends her toward the door. ERIC [Get the fuck out of here you fucking whore!] He opens the door and throws her into the hall. INT. HOTEL - HALL - NIGHT Naked, Zoey falls into the hall. Eric slams the door shut. She is instantly back on her feet and screaming as she pounds on the door. ZOEY [Give me my clothes you asshole!] INT. HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT She is pounding on the door. ERIC (looking at his hand wound) God damn it. Look at my hand. ZED (shocked at the whole incident) Jesus Eric. ZOEY(O.S.) Ouvres! Je veux mes habits! Eric listens. ERIC Oh shit. Her clothes. He picks up her clothes and her bag, opens the door, and throws it into the hall just long enough for her to yell at him. ZOEY (almost too quick to understand) Tu te prends pour qui espece de connard!? ERIC La ferme! He slams the door shut. Then he turns to Zed. ERIC So tell me, what have you been up to? Zed sits down on the bed. ZOEY(O.S.) Allez vous faire enculer tous le deux! ZED Eric, I liked that girl. ERIC Oh. Well, then why didn't you stop me. ZED Because you were on a rampage. ERIC Look, your whole life you've done nothing but fuck whores. A girl like that will give you AIDS. Why don't you find a nice girl in the suburbs? ZED Because when you need to get off you don't want to have to date for months to do it. ERIC Just use your hand like me. ZED Sometimes you just need honesty...and security. ERIC I don't understand. Anyway, it's too late. Get dressed, let's go out and meet the boys. ZED Okay, let me take a shower. ERIC No, in Paris it's good to smell like you've been fucking. It will make them respect you. ZED Oh. ERIC Just put on a shirt and a sport coat. Zed starts to get dressed EXT. BOULEVARD SAINT MICHEL - NIGHT The McDonalds on the corner of Boulevard Saint Michel and Rue Soufflot is bustling. Eric's Citroen screeches around the corner on it's way past the Pantheon and into the heart of the fifth Arrondissment. INT. ERIC'S CAR - MOVING - NIGHT Eric and Zed are driving through the streets of Paris in Eric's car. The grooving Ryuichi Sakamoto song "Triste" is playing on the radio. ERIC I'm glad you came. How long has it been? ZED Years. ERIC It's amazing, you know? Here you are. One day in America. Now here. ZED Well, to be honest there really wasn't much happening for me in the states. ERIC But in Paris your old friend Eric has a job for you, so you came. That's good. ZED How could I resist your invitation? ERIC You would have been stupid to. ZED So what have you been doing here? ERIC After school I spent some time in Algeria studying African philosophy. And then I bummed around. You know. For fun. For a while I worked at Le Figaro. The newspaper. ZED Really? ERIC Yes. With an assumed Masters degree. And lately we have just been bombing fascists here in Paris. You know, like terrorists. Zed looks over at him. ERIC It's fun. CUT TO: INT. ERIC'S FLAT - OUTER STAIRWELL - NIGHT Eric and Zed walk up the stairs to the fifth floor where Eric's flat is. On the top landing there is a dead cat laying. Zed and Eric notice the cat as Eric is opening the door. There is also a telephone coming out of the neighbors door. ERIC The people next door are on holiday. We took their phone. If you want to make a long distance call, go ahead. ZED Is that cat dead? ERIC I don't know. I think it's asleep but it's been there for days. Eric gives it a kick. No response. ERIC I guess it is dead. They walk into the flat. INT. ERIC'S FLAT - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Eric's flat consists of a good sized living room area with a connected kitchen and a small bedroom in the back. In the front of the living room there is a small balcony where the sounds of the city pour in. The room itself is a general mess. A bunch of guns are piled in one corner of the floor. Hung up on the wall is a huge, French "Dressed To Kill" poster. Some Brazilian Gilberto/Getz music is playing. Sitting at the table playing cards are three men: FRANCOIS, RICARDO, and JEAN. Sitting on the couch rolling a cigarette with hash is CLAUDE and OLIVER. They all turn as Zed and Eric walk in. ERIC Hello. They all return the greeting. ERIC (to Zed) Okay. This is Francois, Ricardo, Jean, Oliver, and Claude. Got it? ZED I will. ERIC They all know who you are. (to the rest of them) Ne soyez pa salauds. Offrez une biere au plus grand perceur de coffres. Oliver stands up and walks to the kitchen. OLIVER (with an English accent) Zed, would you like a beer? ZED Thanks. OLIVER Don't think of it. CLAUDE (to Zed) Come. Sit down. INT. ERIC'S FLAT - KITCHEN - NIGHT The kitchen is an absolute pig stye. Dishes are piled up in the sink and on the counter. Oliver grabs a glass that has some old beer in it and empties it. He scratches some filth off of it and pours some beer into the glass. INT. ERIC'S FLAT - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Zed takes a seat on the couch next to Claude. Suddenly, a SPIDER MONKEY dressed in a little Uncle Sam costume comes screeching up onto Zed's lap and then up onto his head, the whole time clawing at his eyes. Eric, amused, turns from the men playing cards and smiles. CLAUDE (to Zed) Easy. Don't scare him. He just wants to claim you. Zed is frozen as the monkey climbs around him and then onto Claude's shoulder. CLAUDE Let me introduce you properly. This is Enrique. The monkey screeches. CLAUDE He likes to be called Chim Chim, but we don't always get what we like...do we? Again, the hideous creature screeches. CLAUDE (to Enrique) Tais-toi! (then to Zed) Do you like hash? Then Eric interrupts. ERIC (jokingly) Don't sit next to that junkie. CLAUDE Ahhhhhh! Claude throws a lit cigarette at him which explodes into a mass of sparks. They laugh. ERIC (to Claude) That little shit monkey of yours pissed on my Billy Holiday albums. Next time he's out the door. (to Zed) Zed, come here. Zed gets up and goes with Eric to the bedroom. On the way Oliver hands him the glass of beer. OLIVER Here you go mate. ZED Thanks. Oliver sits down next to Claude. INT. ERIC'S FLAT - BEDROOM - NIGHT Eric's bed has probably never been made. In fact, this room looks a lot like Quentin Tarantino's old apartment. But, there is a certain order to all this chaos. Eric pulls out a blueprint and spreads it out over the bed. ERIC Don't ask me where we got this. ZED Okay. ERIC On Bastille Day, all the banks are closed. He places his hand on the blueprint. ERIC But this one. BIP. The Banque Internationale de Paris. And for being greedy capitalists perhaps they will remain closed next Bastille day. Yes? Zed smiles. ERIC We will go in and shut the bank down. Now, look at this. Eric pulls out a complex electronic schematic. ERIC As you can see, only one person can start the alarm. (he hands it to Zed) The concierge, at this desk. (he points it out on the blueprint) We will take care of him. Then we can close the bank. No one will know the difference since every other bank will be closed. ZED (turning the schematic around) Are you sure he won't push the alarm? ERIC Ahhh! He's right next to the door. We'd have to be totally incompetent not to stop him. Don't worry about that. He points to the main floor vault. ERIC Here. This is where they keep the days reserve cash. Okay fuck that. He flips the page to the lower level blueprint. ERIC There are many vaults downstairs, but this is the vault we must get into. This is where the real prize is. ZED What kind of vault is that? He checks the blueprint. ERIC Ah...Swiss made. A Caliber. ZED Caliber? (he thinks about it) It'll take three hours. ERIC No, that's too long. ZED That's how long it'll take. ERIC Well shit. It's too long. We have to be in and out. (he snaps his fingers) Like that. Or there will be suspicion. A little time is okay...but too long and... He shrugs his shoulders in an "I don't know gesture." ZED Well hold on a second. (pointing to the blueprint) What's this? Eric looks down at the blueprint. There is a small passage connecting the main vault to an adjacent vault. ERIC Another vault. ZED No this. Eric looks closely at the blueprint. ERIC I don't know...it connects the two vaults. ZED Well, what kind of vault is this other one? ERIC (reading the blueprint) Also Swiss, but this one is a Poseidon. ZED Why would those two vaults be connected? ERIC I don't know. ZED Because I can get into this vault in half an hour. Maybe less. ERIC But this entry way is too small to get the platen out. We have a lot of merchandise in there. ZED No, don't you see? We get in through this secondary vault and take this passage to the other main vault. From the inside I could open the Caliber vault in five minutes. ERIC You could open it in five minutes? ZED From the inside it's easy. ERIC (excited) Hot damn. That is our answer. ZED Okay. When is Bastille day? ERIC Tomorrow. ZED Tomorrow!? We're doing this tomorrow? ERIC But of course. ZED It's impossible. ERIC It's not impossible. Everyone knows what to do. ZED I don't know what to do. ERIC You don't need to know shit. Just get into the vault and we'll do the rest. ZED I haven't even seen the bank. ERIC Fuck the bank. Before we do a job we live life. It's better that way. Okay? ZED (unsure) Okay. ERIC Good. Now we do heroin! CUT TO: INT. ERIC'S FLAT - BATHROOM - NIGHT EXTREME CLOSE ON: Eric making heroin. The heroin powder is put into a spoon with some lemon squeezed into it, then a little bit of tap water. Huddled around Eric are Francois, Ricardo, and Oliver. OLIVER (so high he's wobbling) You have to look at the Starship Enterprise as a metaphor for the human brain. No one is really listening to Oliver. Eric takes out a lighter and cooks it to a boil. OLIVER (continuing) Spock is the right hemisphere of the brain, all logic and intellect. Mc Coy is the left hemisphere, stricktly emotional. And Kirk is the unseen observer. He drifts between the two. Back and forth, as it might be, caught between the two thought processes. ERIC [Cotton.] Ricardo hands him a cotton ball. OLIVER (continuing) It's really quite brilliant you know. That's why Star Trek is and always will be a hit show. Eric places the cotton ball in the spoon with the mixture. ERIC (to Oliver) [Here, shut up and hold this.] He hands Oliver the spoon and takes out a needle. Using the cotton as a filter he draws the heroin into the syringe. Then, he holds the syringe up and starts tapping it. ERIC [Don't want to get air bubbles in my veins.] They all laugh at this. INT. ERIC'S FLAT - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT In the meantime, Zed is sitting on the couch with Claude and Jean. Claude is rolling a hash and tobacco cigarette. Jean is chopping up some powder heroin on the glass of a small picture. JEAN Do you want heroin? ZED No, I want to be sharp for tomorrow. Jean and Claude laugh at this. JEAN No. A little bit of heroin, some hash, a beer...and you're just right. Jean snorts a line. Claude offers Zed the spliff. Zed shakes his head "no". CLAUDE Okay. JEAN (recovering from the snort) That's good. Eric, Francois, Ricardo, and Oliver come out of the kitchen laughing. Eric, Ricardo, and Oliver take a seat on the couch opposite Zed. Francois sits on the floor. Eric rolls up his sleeve. ERIC (to Ricardo in French) [Hold my arm.] (then to Zed) My vein is like a rock. Ricardo takes hold of his arm and squeezes. Eric inserts the needle into his vein and draws out a little blood. It mixes with the heroin, then he pumps it in...then back into the syringe, then all the way back in. He withdraws the needle. Ricardo lets go of his arm. Eric is in bliss. His eyes roll back into his head. He looks like he's on the verge of falling asleep. Then Jean takes another snort. Pretty soon everyone is smoking and getting high, shooting up, and drinking more beer. Then Jean holds out a piece of folded aluminum foil with some heroin in it. JEAN (to Zed) Try some. It's called chasing the dragon. The Chinese have been doing it for centuries. ZED I don't think so. JEAN Oh, but you must. It will make you feel as though the rest of the world is in a bubble of glass and that you're rubbing up against it like a bad windshield wiper. They stick the aluminum foil with the heroin in it up next to his face. They then light the bottom of the foil with a lighter. Before Zed knows it, he's inhaling a silky ribbon of smoke. Suddenly our plane of focus wildly shifts and we... FOCUS DISSOLVE TO: INT. ERIC'S CAR - MOVING - NIGHT Ricardo is racing Eric's car through the streets of Paris weaving in and out of traffic. Next to him is Oliver, and in the back seat is Zed and Eric. They're giving the very stoned Zed a whirlwind tour of the sights. A car speeds up next to them. In it is Francois, and Claude, with Jean driving. They are racing with Ricardo through the streets. The Patrick Hernandez song "Born To Be Alive" is blasting away on the radio. ERIC There. That's Notre Dame. But before Zed can even look it has past by. RICARDO Do you like French cars? All Zed can notice is that the speedometer is at 160 kilometers per hour. He tries to calculate what that is in miles per hour. ZED (answering Enrique's question) Yes. RICARDO I like the Cadillac. Fifty-two to seventy-five. Very nice. ERIC Up here you can see the Eiffel tower. Zed is in too much of a blur. He leans over to Eric. ZED Is tomorrow really Bastille day? ERIC Yes, tomorrow we pull the biggest job in French history. And spend the rest of our lives in Monte Carlo. The drunken Englishman, Oliver, belches and then cheers. EXT. PARIS STREET - NIGHT The two cars are franticly racing through traffic. INT. JEAN'S CAR - MOVING - NIGHT Jean is very intent on beating them to whatever location it is they're going to. Claude, in the seat next to him, gives him some advice. CLAUDE [Faster, faster...go faster. Let's beat them!] Francois laughs and coughs out a cloud of smoke. EXT. PARIS STREET - NIGHT Jean's car makes a dangerous lane change across traffic and cuts off Ricardo. INT. ERIC'S CAR - MOVING - NIGHT Ricardo swerves as he passes a joint to Eric. RICARDO [Shit! That bastard.] ERIC (to Ricardo) Watch it! Don't crash my car. Eric takes a big hit. ERIC Over here is where the male prostitutes sell themselves. Do you see? No, Zed doesn't see. Suddenly, everyone in the car is shouting out the windows. OLIVER (out the window) Fucking fags! ERIC (also out the window) Suce ma bite?! RICARDO Perverts d'homosexuels! Eric laughs. ERIC (into Zed's ear) This is good to have you here. We could not do this without you. Zed nods. ERIC Everyone has agreed to give you double shares. That's good. Zed nods, delirious. ERIC You know I have AIDS. From the needle. Zed can't believe this. He's not sure if what he heard was what he thought he heard. ZED Really? Then Eric sees something. ERIC Okay, up here is the Arc de Triomphe. They take a sharp turn. CUT TO: INT. CELLAR - NIGHT Eric, Zed, Francois, Ricardo, Jean, Claude, and Oliver are all walking down some dank stone steps into a cellar. Somewhere crazy Raymond Scott Toy Jazz music is playing. An old wine cellar has been converted into a Toy Jazz club. Nothing fancy...dirt floors, chairs and small tables scattered about...but the arched brick ceilings make for great acoustics. ON STAGE a BAND is playing away. In the audience sit about TWELVE FRENCH PEOPLE, all enjoying the music. AT THE BUFFET In the back of the club near the doors some tables have been set up with a buffet of local cuisine on it. Behind the tables are two rotund but happy French women MIRELLE and JOSEPHINE. Eric, Zed, Francois, Ricardo, Jean, Claude, and Oliver walk in and immediately start blabbing away in French to Mirelle and Josephine. Eric hands them some money. ZED'S TABLE Everyone enters and takes seats at various parts of the club. Oliver sits next to Zed. OLIVER So, how long have you known Eric? ZED Well, Eric's mother is American. OLIVER Yeah, and his dad's French. ZED They're divorced. And she and his father had some kind of six month split plan set up. So every six months he would come back to the states. We were best friends. Eventually he and his mother had a falling out and he stayed here. It's been...years. OLIVER Well, it's good to have you here. Eric speaks fairly highly of you. Say, he says you're a big fan of Viking films. ZED Well...I suppose. I used to be, when I was young. OLIVER Oh they're the best. Helmets with horns on them. Shit. That's fucking genius. He starts laughing. OLIVER How 'bout Toy Jazz? You like it? Zed watches the players on stage and then nods. ZED Yeah...I guess. OLIVER I love it. It's really good, you know? Like real music. It has a heart and culture all it's own. It's, like, jazz for dwarves...or guys in Leiderhosen. Total purity of essence. ZED Yeah. OLIVER Hungry cannibals'd like it. Then Claude comes up to them with some glasses and a bottle of red wine. CLAUDE Here, you must drink some of this wine, it's good. He pours Zed a glass. Oliver passes on the wine. OLIVER (to Claude) Non merci, c'est de la merde. CLAUDE (to Oliver) La ferme. C'est du bon vin. (to Zed) The fucking English. Zed sips some. He's in no real shape to tell if the wine's good or not. ON STAGE Suddenly, it seems as though the bands music gets louder. The horns really start to scream and the room becomes a delirium of music. The band stands up. IN THE AUDIENCE The people watching start to dance, if not in their seats then right in front of everything. ZED'S TABLE Suddenly, Zed notices something... ON STAGE Eric is up on stage playing a trombone right alongside the band. ZED'S TABLE Zed blinks but it's true. Oliver and Claude start laughing. OLIVER Look at him. He's crazy. ON STAGE And surely he must be, yet, in a strange way, he's keeping up with the other musicians and sounding pretty good. Eric is all smile as he plays with them. Sweat is running down his face but he's caught up in the moment. ELISE, a woman from the audience has jumped up onto the stage, caught up in Eric's frenzy, and is dancing about like James Brown. Then, the music crescendos and Eric hands the trombone back to a musician. The set is over. Eric skips off the stage and walks over to where Oliver, Claude, and Zed are sitting. EXT. BOULEVARD SAINT MICHEL - NIGHT The McDonalds on the corner of Boulevard Saint Michel and Rue Soufflot is bustling. Eric's Citroen screeches around the corner on it's way past the Pantheon and into the heart of the fifth Arrondissment. INT. ERIC'S CAR - MOVING - NIGHT Eric and Zed are driving through the streets of Paris in Eric's car. The grooving Ryuichi Sakamoto song "Triste" is playing on the radio. ERIC I'm glad you came. How long has it been? ZED Years. ERIC It's amazing, you know? Here you are. One day in America. Now here. ZED Well, to be honest there really wasn't much happening for me in the states. ERIC But in Paris your old friend Eric has a job for you, so you came. That's good. ZED How could I resist your invitation? ERIC You would have been stupid to. ZED So what have you been doing here? ERIC After school I spent some time in Algeria studying African philosophy. And then I bummed around. You know. For fun. For a while I worked at Le Figaro. The newspaper. ZED Really? ERIC Yes. With an assumed Masters degree. And lately we have just been bombing fascists here in Paris. You know, like terrorists. Zed looks over at him. ERIC It's fun. CUT TO: INT. ERIC'S FLAT - OUTER STAIRWELL - NIGHT Eric and Zed walk up the stairs to the fifth floor where Eric's flat is. On the top landing there is a dead cat laying. Zed and Eric notice the cat as Eric is opening the door. There is also a telephone coming out of the neighbors door. ERIC The people next door are on holiday. We took their phone. If you want to make a long distance call, go ahead. ZED Is that cat dead? ERIC I don't know. I think it's asleep but it's been there for days. Eric gives it a kick. No response. ERIC I guess it is dead. They walk into the flat. INT. ERIC'S FLAT - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Eric's flat consists of a good sized living room area with a connected kitchen and a small bedroom in the back. In the front of the living room there is a small balcony where the sounds of the city pour in. The room itself is a general mess. A bunch of guns are piled in one corner of the floor. Hung up on the wall is a huge, French "Dressed To Kill" poster. Some Brazilian Gilberto/Getz music is playing. Sitting at the table playing cards are three men: FRANCOIS, RICARDO, and JEAN. Sitting on the couch rolling a cigarette with hash is CLAUDE and OLIVER. They all turn as Zed and Eric walk in. ERIC Hello. They all return the greeting. ERIC (to Zed) Okay. This is Francois, Ricardo, Jean, Oliver, and Claude. Got it? ZED I will. ERIC They all know who you are. (to the rest of them) Ne soyez pa salauds. Offrez une biere au plus grand perceur de coffres. Oliver stands up and walks to the kitchen. OLIVER (with an English accent) Zed, would you like a beer? ZED Thanks. OLIVER Don't think of it. CLAUDE (to Zed) Come. Sit down. INT. ERIC'S FLAT - KITCHEN - NIGHT The kitchen is an absolute pig stye. Dishes are piled up in the sink and on the counter. Oliver grabs a glass that has some old beer in it and empties it. He scratches some filth off of it and pours some beer into the glass. INT. ERIC'S FLAT - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Zed takes a seat on the couch next to Claude. Suddenly, a SPIDER MONKEY dressed in a little Uncle Sam costume comes screeching up onto Zed's lap and then up onto his head, the whole time clawing at his eyes. Eric, amused, turns from the men playing cards and smiles. CLAUDE (to Zed) Easy. Don't scare him. He just wants to claim you. Zed is frozen as the monkey climbs around him and then onto Claude's shoulder. CLAUDE Let me introduce you properly. This is Enrique. The monkey screeches. CLAUDE He likes to be called Chim Chim, but we don't always get what we like...do we? Again, the hideous creature screeches. CLAUDE (to Enrique) Tais-toi! (then to Zed) Do you like hash? Then Eric interrupts. ERIC (jokingly) Don't sit next to that junkie. CLAUDE Ahhhhhh! Claude throws a lit cigarette at him which explodes into a mass of sparks. They laugh. ERIC (to Claude) That little shit monkey of yours pissed on my Billy Holiday albums. Next time he's out the door. (to Zed) Zed, come here. Zed gets up and goes with Eric to the bedroom. On the way Oliver hands him the glass of beer. OLIVER Here you go mate. ZED Thanks. Oliver sits down next to Claude. INT. ERIC'S FLAT - BEDROOM - NIGHT Eric's bed has probably never been made. In fact, this room looks a lot like Quentin Tarantino's old apartment. But, there is a certain order to all this chaos. Eric pulls out a blueprint and spreads it out over the bed. ERIC Don't ask me where we got this. ZED Okay. ERIC On Bastille Day, all the banks are closed. He places his hand on the blueprint. ERIC But this one. BIP. The Banque Internationale de Paris. And for being greedy capitalists perhaps they will remain closed next Bastille day. Yes? Zed smiles. ERIC We will go in and shut the bank down. Now, look at this. Eric pulls out a complex electronic schematic. ERIC As you can see, only one person can start the alarm. (he hands it to Zed) The concierge, at this desk. (he points it out on the blueprint) We will take care of him. Then we can close the bank. No one will know the difference since every other bank will be closed. ZED (turning the schematic around) Are you sure he won't push the alarm? ERIC Ahhh! He's right next to the door. We'd have to be totally incompetent not to stop him. Don't worry about that. He points to the main floor vault. ERIC Here. This is where they keep the days reserve cash. Okay fuck that. He flips the page to the lower level blueprint. ERIC There are many vaults downstairs, but this is the vault we must get into. This is where the real prize is. ZED What kind of vault is that? He checks the blueprint. ERIC Ah...Swiss made. A Caliber. ZED Caliber? (he thinks about it) It'll take three hours. ERIC No, that's too long. ZED That's how long it'll take. ERIC Well shit. It's too long. We have to be in and out. (he snaps his fingers) Like that. Or there will be suspicion. A little time is okay...but too long and... He shrugs his shoulders in an "I don't know gesture." ZED Well hold on a second. (pointing to the blueprint) What's this? Eric looks down at the blueprint. There is a small passage connecting the main vault to an adjacent vault. ERIC Another vault. ZED No this. Eric looks closely at the blueprint. ERIC I don't know...it connects the two vaults. ZED Well, what kind of vault is this other one? ERIC (reading the blueprint) Also Swiss, but this one is a Poseidon. ZED Why would those two vaults be connected? ERIC I don't know. ZED Because I can get into this vault in half an hour. Maybe less. ERIC But this entry way is too small to get the platen out. We have a lot of merchandise in there. ZED No, don't you see? We get in through this secondary vault and take this passage to the other main vault. From the inside I could open the Caliber vault in five minutes. ERIC You could open it in five minutes? ZED From the inside it's easy. ERIC (excited) Hot damn. That is our answer. ZED Okay. When is Bastille day? ERIC Tomorrow. ZED Tomorrow!? We're doing this tomorrow? ERIC But of course. ZED It's impossible. ERIC It's not impossible. Everyone knows what to do. ZED I don't know what to do. ERIC You don't need to know shit. Just get into the vault and we'll do the rest. ZED I haven't even seen the bank. ERIC Fuck the bank. Before we do a job we live life. It's better that way. Okay? ZED (unsure) Okay. ERIC Good. Now we do heroin! CUT TO: INT. ERIC'S FLAT - BATHROOM - NIGHT EXTREME CLOSE ON: Eric making heroin. The heroin powder is put into a spoon with some lemon squeezed into it, then a little bit of tap water. Huddled around Eric are Francois, Ricardo, and Oliver. OLIVER (so high he's wobbling) You have to look at the Starship Enterprise as a metaphor for the human brain. No one is really listening to Oliver. Eric takes out a lighter and cooks it to a boil. OLIVER (continuing) Spock is the right hemisphere of the brain, all logic and intellect. Mc Coy is the left hemisphere, stricktly emotional. And Kirk is the unseen observer. He drifts between the two. Back and forth, as it might be, caught between the two thought processes. ERIC [Cotton.] Ricardo hands him a cotton ball. OLIVER (continuing) It's really quite brilliant you know. That's why Star Trek is and always will be a hit show. Eric places the cotton ball in the spoon with the mixture. ERIC (to Oliver) [Here, shut up and hold this.] He hands Oliver the spoon and takes out a needle. Using the cotton as a filter he draws the heroin into the syringe. Then, he holds the syringe up and starts tapping it. ERIC [Don't want to get air bubbles in my veins.] They all laugh at this. INT. ERIC'S FLAT - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT In the meantime, Zed is sitting on the couch with Claude and Jean. Claude is rolling a hash and tobacco cigarette. Jean is chopping up some powder heroin on the glass of a small picture. JEAN Do you want heroin? ZED No, I want to be sharp for tomorrow. Jean and Claude laugh at this. JEAN No. A little bit of heroin, some hash, a beer...and you're just right. Jean snorts a line. Claude offers Zed the spliff. Zed shakes his head "no". CLAUDE Okay. JEAN (recovering from the snort) That's good. Eric, Francois, Ricardo, and Oliver come out of the kitchen laughing. Eric, Ricardo, and Oliver take a seat on the couch opposite Zed. Francois sits on the floor. Eric rolls up his sleeve. ERIC (to Ricardo in French) [Hold my arm.] (then to Zed) My vein is like a rock. Ricardo takes hold of his arm and squeezes. Eric inserts the needle into his vein and draws out a little blood. It mixes with the heroin, then he pumps it in...then back into the syringe, then all the way back in. He withdraws the needle. Ricardo lets go of his arm. Eric is in bliss. His eyes roll back into his head. He looks like he's on the verge of falling asleep. Then Jean takes another snort. Pretty soon everyone is smoking and getting high, shooting up, and drinking more beer. Then Jean holds out a piece of folded aluminum foil with some heroin in it. JEAN (to Zed) Try some. It's called chasing the dragon. The Chinese have been doing it for centuries. ZED I don't think so. JEAN Oh, but you must. It will make you feel as though the rest of the world is in a bubble of glass and that you're rubbing up against it like a bad windshield wiper. They stick the aluminum foil with the heroin in it up next to his face. They then light the bottom of the foil with a lighter. Before Zed knows it, he's inhaling a silky ribbon of smoke. Suddenly our plane of focus wildly shifts and we... FOCUS DISSOLVE TO: INT. ERIC'S CAR - MOVING - NIGHT Ricardo is racing Eric's car through the streets of Paris weaving in and out of traffic. Next to him is Oliver, and in the back seat is Zed and Eric. They're giving the very stoned Zed a whirlwind tour of the sights. A car speeds up next to them. In it is Francois, and Claude, with Jean driving. They are racing with Ricardo through the streets. The Patrick Hernandez song "Born To Be Alive" is blasting away on the radio. ERIC There. That's Notre Dame. But before Zed can even look it has past by. RICARDO Do you like French cars? All Zed can notice is that the speedometer is at 160 kilometers per hour. He tries to calculate what that is in miles per hour. ZED (answering Enrique's question) Yes. RICARDO I like the Cadillac. Fifty-two to seventy-five. Very nice. ERIC Up here you can see the Eiffel tower. Zed is in too much of a blur. He leans over to Eric. ZED Is tomorrow really Bastille day? ERIC Yes, tomorrow we pull the biggest job in French history. And spend the rest of our lives in Monte Carlo. The drunken Englishman, Oliver, belches and then cheers. EXT. PARIS STREET - NIGHT The two cars are franticly racing through traffic. INT. JEAN'S CAR - MOVING - NIGHT Jean is very intent on beating them to whatever location it is they're going to. Claude, in the seat next to him, gives him some advice. CLAUDE [Faster, faster...go faster. Let's beat them!] Francois laughs and coughs out a cloud of smoke. EXT. PARIS STREET - NIGHT Jean's car makes a dangerous lane change across traffic and cuts off Ricardo. INT. ERIC'S CAR - MOVING - NIGHT Ricardo swerves as he passes a joint to Eric. RICARDO [Shit! That bastard.] ERIC (to Ricardo) Watch it! Don't crash my car. Eric takes a big hit. ERIC Over here is where the male prostitutes sell themselves. Do you see? No, Zed doesn't see. Suddenly, everyone in the car is shouting out the windows. OLIVER (out the window) Fucking fags! ERIC (also out the window) Suce ma bite?! RICARDO Perverts d'homosexuels! Eric laughs. ERIC (into Zed's ear) This is good to have you here. We could not do this without you. Zed nods. ERIC Everyone has agreed to give you double shares. That's good. Zed nods, delirious. ERIC You know I have AIDS. From the needle. Zed can't believe this. He's not sure if what he heard was what he thought he heard. ZED Really? Then Eric sees something. ERIC Okay, up here is the Arc de Triomphe. They take a sharp turn. CUT TO: INT. CELLAR - NIGHT Eric, Zed, Francois, Ricardo, Jean, Claude, and Oliver are all walking down some dank stone steps into a cellar. Somewhere crazy Raymond Scott Toy Jazz music is playing. An old wine cellar has been converted into a Toy Jazz club. Nothing fancy...dirt floors, chairs and small tables scattered about...but the arched brick ceilings make for great acoustics. ON STAGE a BAND is playing away. In the audience sit about TWELVE FRENCH PEOPLE, all enjoying the music. AT THE BUFFET In the back of the club near the doors some tables have been set up with a buffet of local cuisine on it. Behind the tables are two rotund but happy French women MIRELLE and JOSEPHINE. Eric, Zed, Francois, Ricardo, Jean, Claude, and Oliver walk in and immediately start blabbing away in French to Mirelle and Josephine. Eric hands them some money. ZED'S TABLE Everyone enters and takes seats at various parts of the club. Oliver sits next to Zed. OLIVER So, how long have you known Eric? ZED Well, Eric's mother is American. OLIVER Yeah, and his dad's French. ZED They're divorced. And she and his father had some kind of six month split plan set up. So every six months he would come back to the states. We were best friends. Eventually he and his mother had a falling out and he stayed here. It's been...years. OLIVER Well, it's good to have you here. Eric speaks fairly highly of you. Say, he says you're a big fan of Viking films. ZED Well...I suppose. I used to be, when I was young. OLIVER Oh they're the best. Helmets with horns on them. Shit. That's fucking genius. He starts laughing. OLIVER How 'bout Toy Jazz? You like it? Zed watches the players on stage and then nods. ZED Yeah...I guess. OLIVER I love it. It's really good, you know? Like real music. It has a heart and culture all it's own. It's, like, jazz for dwarves...or guys in Leiderhosen. Total purity of essence. ZED Yeah. OLIVER Hungry cannibals'd like it. Then Claude comes up to them with some glasses and a bottle of red wine. CLAUDE Here, you must drink some of this wine, it's good. He pours Zed a glass. Oliver passes on the wine. OLIVER (to Claude) Non merci, c'est de la merde. CLAUDE (to Oliver) La ferme. C'est du bon vin. (to Zed) The fucking English. Zed sips some. He's in no real shape to tell if the wine's good or not. ON STAGE Suddenly, it seems as though the bands music gets louder. The horns really start to scream and the room becomes a delirium of music. The band stands up. IN THE AUDIENCE The people watching start to dance, if not in their seats then right in front of everything. ZED'S TABLE Suddenly, Zed notices something... ON STAGE Eric is up on stage playing a trombone right alongside the band. ZED'S TABLE Zed blinks but it's true. Oliver and Claude start laughing. OLIVER Look at him. He's crazy. ON STAGE And surely he must be, yet, in a strange way, he's keeping up with the other musicians and sounding pretty good. Eric is all smile as he plays with them. Sweat is running down his face but he's caught up in the moment. ELISE, a woman from the audience has jumped up onto the stage, caught up in Eric's frenzy, and is dancing about like James Brown. Then, the music crescendos and Eric hands the trombone back to a musician. The set is over. Eric skips off the stage and walks over to where Oliver, Claude, and Zed are sitting. EXT. BANK - DAY EXTREME CLOSE ON: The door to the bank. Francois puts a sign on the door that reads: [Closed for Bastille Day]. CUT TO: INT. BANK - SUB LOBBY HALL - DAY The sub lobby teller and the sub lobby guard #2 rendezvous with the sub lobby assistant. SUB LOBBY TELLER (to assistant) [Do the phones work?] SUB LOBBY ASSISTANT [They went dead.] SUB LOBBY TELLER Merde! They walk out into the sub lobby. INT. BANK - SUB LOBBY - DAY The sub level teller and the sub lobby assistant walk into the sub lobby just as Eric, Zed, Oliver, and the bank manager start coming down the stairs. At the sight of Eric and his men the sub lobby guard #2 aims his weapon but does not fire because of the bank manager. Eric presses his Uzi against the bank manager's neck. ERIC (to the guard) [Drop the gun!] He doesn't. ERIC [Drop your gun now and nobody dies!] After a moments thought about this, and the fact that Oliver has a sawed-off aimed at him, he slowly puts his gun on the floor. ERIC [Good boy.] They descend down the stairs into the sub lobby. Oliver takes his gun. CUT TO: INT. BANK - LOBBY - DAY Francois, Ricardo, and Jean have finished herding everyone behind the teller windows. Claude is on his way downstairs. CLAUDE [I'm going to check things out downstairs.] RICARDO (to the people) [Now! On the ground! Face down!] Then, for effect, he kicks a man. CUT TO: INT. BANK - SUB LOBBY - DAY Claude comes downstairs with his gun raised. CLAUDE [All clear down here?] Everyone turns. ERIC [Take these two upstairs. And chain the gate to the sub lobby shut.] Oliver pushes the sub lobby guard #2 and the sub lobby assistant toward Claude. Then he hands him a chain. Claude can barely maintain his enthusiasm. CLAUDE [The phones and video are down! We're locked up tight!] (then in English) We fucking did it! He takes the two upstairs. Eric smiles through his teeth at the bank manager. ERIC [Any others I should worry about?] BANK MANAGER [No.] ERIC (to Oliver) [Well, just to be sure--] Then, from one of the safety deposit booths a sound is heard. All eyes turn to it. Oliver walks up to it and kicks the door in. The stodgy customer is kneeling in it. He instantly holds his hands high. OLIVER [Freeze motherfucker!] Eric walks up, gun in hand. ERIC [Who the fuck are you?] STODGY CUSTOMER [Please don't shoot me!] OLIVER [On the ground!] He does. ERIC (to the bank manager) [Making a deposit I hope.] (he smiles to Oliver) [Bring him with us.] They all make their way down through the sub lobby hall. INT. BANK - RESERVE VAULT AREA - DAY They're herding the men through the hall. BANK MANAGER (to the sub lobby teller) [Vault locked?] SUB LOBBY TELLER [Yes.] ERIC [Shut your fucking mouths!] BANK MANAGER (to Eric) [The vault doors are shut and time locked. You won't be able to open them.] They walk through a doorway into the storage/elevator area. INT. BANK - STORAGE/ELEVATOR AREA - DAY Eric pushes the manager and the others through the doorway. ERIC (to the bank manager) [You think we're fucking amateurs? You think we're stupid? I've got news for you...we planned ahead my friend!] Eric pushes them infront of the Calibre vault door. ERIC [Now save us a lot of time and just open the vault.] BANK MANAGER [No.] ERIC [Okay.] He releases the bank manager and stuffs the barrel of his handgun into the sub level tellers mouth. ERIC [Open the vault.] The teller's eyes widen. BANK MANAGER [I cannot.] ERIC [Oh.] (to the teller) [Can you?] BANK MANAGER [No. Once closed only I can open it.] ERIC [Then open it.] BANK MANAGER [I cannot.] The sub lobby teller's eyes plead with the bank manager. Zed is watching the whole affair nervously. ERIC [Do you understand that I'll kill her if you don't open this fucking vault?] BANK MANAGER [Do you understand that this is an international reserve bank? Robbing it is punishable by life imprisonment.] Eric fires. The back of the sub lobby teller's head paints the wall red. ZED Jesus fucking Christ! The bank manager, shocked as he is, looks at Zed. He knows he's an American. The sub lobby teller's body slumps to the ground. Eric grabs the stodgy customer and puts the gun to his temple. ERIC [Open the vault door or I'll kill this man next.] The bank manager is freaking out, but after what was probably the most horribly agonizing internal debate, he holds his ground. BANK MANAGER [I still cannot open the vault.] ERIC [Come on. It's only things in there. This man is flesh and blood.] BANK MANAGER [I will not open the vault.] ZED Eric no! I can open the vault! ERIC Shut the fuck up! (then to the stodgy customer) [You're a customer in this bank and this is how they treat you. Do you have a family?] He nods his head "yes". ERIC [Would you like to see them again?] He nods his head again. ERIC (to the manager) [This man has a family he would like to have Bastille day dinner with tonight. So save us some time and open the vault.] After losing about a pound of sweat... BANK MANAGER [No.] Eric quickly removes the gun from the customers temple and fires two shots into the bank manager's face. The bank manager falls against the vault door and onto the floor. ERIC Fucking idiot. (then to the stodgy customer) [You seem like a nice man. Tonight at dinner think about how lucky you are and how much you love your family.] He starts nodding his head. STODGY CUSTOMER Oui. ERIC (to Oliver) [Take him upstairs.] Oliver takes the customer upstairs to the rest of the people. Eric rips off his mask. ERIC Don't you ever conflict with me during work again! Do you hear!? Zed off his clown mask. ZED You didn't have to shoot any of them! ERIC (patronizing) Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were in charge now. Nobody told me. (his temper flares) If he had opened the vault it would have saved us a fucking hour. He charges into the reserve vault area. INT. BANK - RESERVE VAULT AREA - DAY They enter and Eric walks up to a bathroom door. ZED Eric. It's just that we've gone from being thieves to murderers. ERIC Oh fuck it doesn't matter! Here you get the death penalty just for robbing a federal bank. ZED I thought the death penalty was abolished in 1980? ERIC Ohhhh! That's what they tell you! But who cares? I need to take a piss. Eric enters the bathroom. ERIC (on his way into the bathroom) Why don't you open the vault? Zed looks at the bathroom door close. After a fuming pause he turns and walks back toward the Poseidon vault door. CUT TO: INT. BANK - LOBBY - DAY Francois peeks through the venetian blinds of the windows to the outside. FRANCOIS [Looks clear.] In the meantime, behind the teller windows guarding the people who are laying on the floor, Jean and Ricardo are in the middle of a conversation. Oliver is sitting on the counter, having just brought the stodgy customer upstairs. Also here now are the sub lobby assistant and the sub lobby guard #2. JEAN [What do you mean you're not sure if the alarm went off or not?] RICARDO [I mean I'm not sure.] JEAN [Well, either it did or it didn't.] RICARDO [And I'm not sure.] JEAN [Well, do you think it did?] RICARDO [I just fucking told you, I don't know.] JEAN [Take a guess.] RICARDO [It didn't.] JEAN [You're sure?] RICARDO [No. It's just a guess.] JEAN [Well what kind of a fucking guess is that? You're saying it could have.] RICARDO [Yes.] JEAN [Well that's fucking great. Why didn't you just kill that asshole to begin with. I knew I should have been the one to kill him. You're always so damn slow.] RICARDO [Shit these masks are really hot.] CLAUDE [I know, I've got fucking sweat stinging my eyes.] In the meantime Zoey is on the floor, unsure of what is going on. CUT TO: INT. BANK - VAULT ANTECHAMBER - DAY Zed opens up his steel briefcase. Inside of it are all sorts of electronic gear and tools. He takes out a tape measure and some callipers and measures out a point on the vault door. He marks the point with a piece of chalk. CUT TO: INT. BANK - MEN'S BATHROOM - DAY In one of the stalls Eric is preparing a syringe. He has just cooked the heroin and is now tapping on it to get the bubbles out. CUT TO: INT. BANK - VAULT ANTECHAMBER - DAY Zed takes a power drill out from the briefcase and attaches a special diamond tipped bit. He measures the depth he wants to drill to and then marks the bit with a yellow pencil. He places his ear to the vault and taps the spot. CUT TO: INT. BANK - MEN'S BATHROOM - DAY Eric readies the needle and slaps his vein. He is shaking but trying to remain as still as possible. He places the needle at the end of a track on his arm and inserts it. CUT TO: INT. BANK - VAULT ANTECHAMBER - DAY Zed starts drilling into the point he marked with the chalk on the vault door. CUT TO: INT. BANK - MEN'S BATHROOM - DAY Eric's eyes roll back into his head as the heroin fills his vein. He drops the needle to the floor and sits back to enjoy the rush. DISSOLVE TO: INT. BANK - LOBBY - DAY Zoey is sitting on the floor next to the other bank hostages. CUT TO: INT. BANK - VAULT ANTECHAMBER - DAY EXTREME CLOSE ON: Zed's drill bit. It burrows into the steel wall of the safe spewing out spiral shavings. CUT TO: INT. BANK - LOBBY - DAY Zoey looks at all the people sitting around her. They're all scared. Jean, Ricardo, and Francois are talking amongst themselves. JEAN (in French to Ricardo) [Do you know one?] RICARDO [Let's see. Okay. An unfortunate fellow was locked up in prison doing five to ten for armed robbery. All he could think of the whole time was eating pussy.] Zoey looks up at them telling the joke. RICARDO [The day finally came for his release. He walked out of the prison with a new suit and fifty francs the officials had given him, and made a bee-line for the whorehouse in the nearest town. Slamming his fifty francs on the front desk, he said, "I wanna eat some pussy."] Jean is already laughing. RICARDO [I'm not done. Listen. "Where've you been," said the greasy fellow behind the desk, "fifty francs won't get you a close look these days."] Zoey glances at all of the people. Then her eyes lock with the concierge security guard. RICARDO ["Listen buddy," said the ex-convict, pulling him out of his chair by the shirt collar, "I wanna eat some pussy, and I want it now!"] The concierge security guard lifts his pant leg slowly. RICARDO ["Okay, okay," gasped the proprietor, "I'll see what I can do." So the ex-con followed him through to the very back of the warehouse through some stained, tattered red curtains, and into a grimy little room where a bedraggled looking whore lay spreadeagled on a filthy bed. "She's yours for fifty francs," said the proprietor, and the fellow went at it.] Zoey notices that on the concierge security guard's leg is an ankle holster with a small .38 pistol on it. His fingers begin to unsnap the safety harness on it. Her eyes widen. RICARDO [After a little while, he came across a piece of egg. "That's funny," he thought to himself, "I don't think I had egg for breakfast." But he spat it out and kept eating away. Next he found a piece of chipped beef wedged between his front teeth. "I'm sure I haven't eaten chipped beef this week," he thought, but kept on. Then he came across the corn. "What is this?" he said, "I think I'm going to be sick."] The concierge security guard unsnaps the safety. Zoey knows he's going to make his move. RICARDO ["Ya know," says the whore, "that's what the last guy said."] Before they can even laugh the concierge security guard whips out the .38 and fires three shots. Two of them hit Ricardo in the chest. He falls to the ground. The other hits Francois in the arm. In an instant Jean is firing his machine gun into the group of people huddled on the floor. Everyone is screaming and trying to get away. Machine gun fire cuts through the concierge security guard killing him dead. Unfortunately, the wild spray of bullets also rips into three of the tellers, four of the customers, and the loan officer, killing them all. People are trying to flee but Claude fires his gun into the ceiling. CLAUDE [No one fucking moves!] Jean has jumped up on the table and is aiming at the people. JEAN [Shit! What happened!?] CUT TO: INT. BANK - VAULT ANTECHAMBER - DAY Zed looks up hearing the commotion. Eric comes running out of the bathroom and into the storage/elevator area. ERIC What is it? What's going on? Zed gets up to go upstairs. ZED I don't know. ERIC No! You stay here. Eric runs upstairs. CUT TO: INT. BANK - LOBBY - DAY Francois is on the ground holding his arm. He keeps rolling back and forth in pain. Ricardo is dead. Jean, Claude, and Oliver are waving their guns around ready to kill someone any second. JEAN [Nobody fucking moves! Nobody fucking moves!] Claude motions to the dead security guard. CLAUDE [The gun! Somebody get it!] Oliver goes over to the dead security guard, the whole time waving his gun at people. OLIVER [Don't fuck with me! Don't fuck with me!] He grabs the gun from the dead security guards limp grip. Eric storms in. He isn't wearing his mask. ERIC [What the fuck is going on!?] Zoey notices Eric, she remembers him. OLIVER (pointing at the dead man) [This crazy fuck shot Ricardo!] Eric looks over at Ricardo and then at the carnage. Then everybody notices he isn't wearing a mask. JEAN (quietly) [Eric, your mask.] ERIC Oh shit. Then Oliver yanks his off. OLIVER Who gives a damn if they see us or not anyway! I can't see a fucking think in this! Everyone takes their masks off. ERIC [Is this what happens? Is this what happens when I walk away for five minutes?] CLAUDE [He had a hidden gun.] ERIC (mimicking a little child) [He had a hidden gun.] (then back to normal) [I don't care!] Then, one of the bank customers, a MALE TOURIST, speaks up. MALE TOURIST (holding up his passport) This is insane! I am a U.S. citizen! You must let me go! Eric looks at him. MALE TOURIST I'm an American! American! I'm just here exchanging dollars. If it wasn't for my country you'd all be speaking German! Eric is tired of this outburst, he shoots him. Everyone screams. ERIC (to the people) [I have had enough of this nonsense! The next person that speaks will die!] Everyone is quiet. Francois is sitting on the floor bleeding from his arm. JEAN [Eric, I'm sorry. Things got out of hand. But we're in control now.] ERIC [Good. Let's try to keep it that way. God what a mess.] CLAUDE Eric ERIC [What the fuck is it now!? You want me to hold your hand as you take a piss?] CLAUDE [I have a question.] ERIC [What?] CLAUDE [Do we know if the alarm went off or not?] ERIC [Yes.] CLAUDE [We do?] ERIC [Yes. It didn't go off. If it had the police would be here and our whole plan would be fucked. But they're not here, and our plan isn't fucked. So if there aren't any more fucking stupid questions I'll go downstairs and see if we're in yet. Is that okay with you?] Claude nods. Then, the phone rings. Everyone looks at it. ERIC [I thought the phones were dead.] It rings again. OLIVER The phones are dead. Eric grabs a WOMAN TELLER who is crying hysterically and lifts her to her feet. He drags her to the ringing phone. ERIC [Answer it!] She is crying too hard. Eric puts his gun to her head. ERIC [Answer it or you will die.] She slowly picks up the phone. WOMAN TELLER (answering phone through tears) Banque Internationale de Paris. She pauses, then hands the phone to Eric. WOMAN TELLER [It's for you.] Eric takes the phone and pushes her to the floor. He puts the receiver to his ear. ERIC (into phone) [Hello.] (pause) [Who is this?] Eric motions to Oliver to check the windows. Oliver runs over and peeks out the blinds. OLIVER Oh my God! The police! ERIC (into phone) [What do you want?] Eric looks around at the dead bodies. ERIC (into phone) [We're all fine in here.] Oliver is pacing back and forth wildly. He starts loading extra ammo into his weapon. ERIC (into phone) [No. I'll tell you what, you go fuck yourself you fucking pig. You send anyone near this building and I'll kill the first person I lay my hands on. I've got plenty hostages here to kill so don't even think of coming in.] (pause) [Just stay put. We'll call you when we're ready. In the mean time, have a nice day.] Eric hangs up the phone, and then leaves it off the hook. CLAUDE [The silent alarm must have gone off after all!] ERIC [Shut the fuck up! The alarm didn't do shit. For all we know your idiot shooting brought them here. Anyhow it doesn't matter. Nothing has changed.] JEAN [My God! The police! What are we going to do?] ERIC [Nothing. We don't have to do anything. The plan stays the same, just slightly different.] Then Eric catches sight of Zoey, their eyes lock. Eric smiles and winks. Then he turns to Jean with a whisper. ERIC [If the police decide to come in...kill them. And if you don't mind, stack those bodies somewhere else. This place is a fucking mess and it's bad for morale.] Then he takes off downstairs, smiling. Jean is a little stumped. INT. BANK - RESERVE VAULT AREA - DAY As Eric walks down the stairs and through the reserve vault area a look of intense concentration washes over his face. You can see that a trillion calculations are being made in his brain...the question is: are there any answers? CUT TO: INT. BANK - VAULT ANTECHAMBER - DAY Zed is drilling now with a hand drill. He removes it and blows into the hole. Shavings come out. Eric comes trotting into the antechamber whistling. ZED (turning to Eric) What's going on? ERIC Nothing. They were just scaring them. ZED Well, did you tell them to stay quiet? ERIC Yes. They're assholes. Just having fun. Zed looks into the hole. He has drilled into the vault door, revealing some wiring. ZED Fucked up my drill bit. ERIC It's okay. You can buy another one. Zed takes out a volt meter from his briefcase and inserts the two prongs into the hole. ZED Cross your fingers. Eric does. The volt meter's needle jumps. ZED Perfect. ERIC Excellent. What next? ZED We find the fuse box. It'll probably be upstairs. Zed gets up. ERIC It's okay. I'll find it for you. ZED No. I need to see it myself. Zed jumps up and into the storage/elevator area with Eric close behind him. ERIC I think it would be better if I looked for you. I could-- INT. BANK - STORAGE/ELEVATOR AREA - DAY Instead of walking upstairs, Zed finds the fuse box right in the next room. ZED Hold on. Here she is. Eric is a bit relieved. Zed opens it up. ZED Let's see. He looks through the fuses and then finds the one he wants. ZED Okay, you throw this fuse switch off and then back on when I call to you. Any other switch may set off the alarm. Eric smirks. ERIC Oh, I wouldn't want to do that. ZED (serious) Got it? ERIC (nodding) Got it. Zed goes back to the vaults. INT. BANK - VAULT ANTECHAMBER - DAY Zed trots back to the Poseidon vault door and quickly grabs a little gizmo from out of his briefcase. It is a little home- made black box with a series of LED's on it and two wires coming out of one side with alligator clips on the end. Three other wires are also coming out of it. He slips the alligator clips into the hole and latches them. He then tapes one of the wires to the vault itself. The two remaining wires he hooks up to a large twelve volt battery. ZED Come on sweetie don't fail me now. He looks toward the door leading to the reserve vault area. ZED (calling to Eric) Ready?! ERIC(O.S.) (calling back) Ready! Zed turns on his little box, the LED's start flickering. ZED Now! The lights go out and then back on. There is a whirring sound from the vault door. The LED's quickly go from red to green. There is a loud, heavy clicking as the vault door unlocks. ZED Open seasame. Zed smiles and swings the door open revealing the interior of the Poseidon vault. Eric comes running in like a kid on Christmas morning. ERIC It worked! He and Zed hug. ERIC Oh my God it worked! Zed looks into the Poseidon vault at the passage connecting it to the main vault. It is covered by a small locked cage. ZED I can get through that lock in a minute. ERIC Then do it. We don't have all day. Zed enters the Poseidon vault. INT. BANK - POSEIDON VAULT - DAY Zed goes to the gated passage which isn't much more than a window in one upper side of the vault, but it's enough to get him into the main vault. Eric is right behind him. Zed takes a twirl at the combination lock. ZED Dime store brand. Three minutes max. ERIC Good. Then, there's a gunshot. The bullet comes from the Calibre vault through the window and almost hits Zed. Zed falls backwards onto the floor. ZED Fuck! ERIC Merde! Then there's another gunshot. The bullet ricochets through the vault. ZED Jesus Christ! Scrambling on their hands and knees Zed and Eric crawl out of the Poseidon vault. INT. BANK - VAULT ANTECHAMBER - DAY They take cover. Another shot is fired into the vault. Zed and Eric look into the vault. ZED Another security guard? ERIC Must be. ZED I think I stained my pants. ERIC Me too. Oliver comes running in with his gun ready for action. OLIVER What is it?! I came down to see how things were going and heard shots! ERIC Some asshole in the vault. Oliver takes cover and cocks his gun. OLIVER We've got guns. Why don't we just storm in and blast his fucking ass! It's three against one! Let's give it the old-- ERIC Quiet! OLIVER I'm just trying to be helpful. ERIC Just let me think. OLIVER You don't have to snap at me. Eric peeks into the vault. ERIC (calling into the vault) [Hey you. Nice shooting. Play time's over. Why don't you throw out your gun?] VAULT GUARD #1(O.S.) (calling from main vault) No! Oliver and Eric look at each other and smile. ERIC [Come on. We don't want to kill you.] VAULT GUARD #1(O.S.) [You'll have to!] ERIC (quietly to Zed) What is this guys problem? (then to the guard) [Come on! You're making me impatient. I don't have all day.] VAULT GUARD #1(O.S.) [Look, don't take it personally. This is my job.] Oliver and Eric look at each other and shrug. Then Eric sees something in Zed's briefcase. It looks like grey clay. ERIC [Then take a paid vacation. We won't tell if you won't.] There is a pause. During this time Eric takes the clay and pushes a detonator into it. ZED (quietly) What the Hell are you doing? Have you gone mad? VAULT GUARD #1(O.S.) [Sorry. I can't.] ERIC [Well, look, we're going to give you fifteen minutes to change your mind. Okay?] VAULT GUARD #1(O.S.) [Okay.] Zed starts to grab the plastique away from Eric. Eric resists. ZED (holding his voice down) That's too much. It's dangerous. ERIC I like danger. (then to the guard) [Changed your mind yet?] Eric creeps into the room and activates the detonator. Zed and Oliver run for cover. VAULT GUARD #1(O.S.) [No. And I'm not going to. Why don't you just take the money from the other vaults?--] Eric tosses the bar of plastique through the caged window and makes a break for it. There is a huge explosion in the adjoining main vault. The walls quake and a fireball bellows out of the caged window, blowing it open. The vault guard #1 screams and then goes silent. CUT TO: INT. BANK - LOBBY - DAY Francois, Claude, and Jean are forcing customers to drag dead bodies into a cube. The room shakes and everyone looks toward the hall that leads to the stairs. The hostages, whose nerves are already shot, start crying. FRANCOIS [Should we see if they're okay?] JEAN [No. They're just blasting the vault open.] CLAUDE [What does it matter now? We're fucking surrounded by police.] CUT TO: INT. BANK - VAULT ANTECHAMBER - DAY Dust has blown out of the vault and is settling on Oliver, Zed, and Eric, who is laughing like a madman. Zed is looking at him like he's crazy. ZED You asshole! You could have killed us all. ERIC But I didn't! Let's go check out the damage. Eric gets up and walks into the Poseidon vault. Before Zed follows him he looks at Oliver who doesn't know what to think. INT. BANK - POSEIDON VAULT - DAY Eric laughs. ERIC Zed look! He points to the caged window. It's been blown off it's hinges. ERIC I beat you! I opened it in under three minutes. He starts laughing and then crawls through the connecting passage into the Caliber vault. Zed, with his briefcase, follows. ZED (to Oliver) Go around and wait at the main vault door. When I tell you, open it up. OLIVER Right. When you tell me, I'll open it up. ZED Right. OLIVER Right. Zed crawls through the opening. OLIVER I'll be at the other vault waiting for you to call to me. INT. CALIBER VAULT - DAY The main vault looks like what a vault would look like if it were blown up from the inside. On the floor is the still smoldering body of the security guard. The room is incredibly smokey. Zed squeezes through the opening. Then, Eric, grinning like a schoolboy, emerges from the smoke with a brick sized bar of pure gold. ERIC Look at it! We're all rich! The smoke clears and we see that on the far side of the vault there is a huge platen on wheels with bricks of gold stacked onto it. Eric starts laughing. ERIC We're rich! Zed looks at him like he's crazy. ERIC We're rich! ZED We're not out of here yet. ERIC Yes but we're rich! Zed takes a seat at the vault door. The backside of a vault door looks like an incredibly intricate clock. Zed removes the Plexiglass shielding. ERIC I'm going to show the others. He squirms out of the entry with the brick of gold. Zed shakes his head and goes to work setting dials and using his voltmeter to test electrical points. CUT TO: INT. BANK - LOBBY - DAY Claude is talking to Jean. CLAUDE [What? You think we may actually get out of this? You're fooling yourself.] JEAN [Why are you such a pessimist?] CLAUDE [Are you kidding me? Look at this mess.] Jean surveys the mess, the crying people. CLAUDE [This is nothing. Imagine the police outside. We're dead men.] Eric walks in from the rear stairs. In his hand is a brick of gold. ERIC [Jean, Francois, Claude...look at this.] They see the gold. JEAN [You did it! You got in!] ERIC [Zed is opening the vault now. This is a taste.] Eric holds the bar of gold up for all the people to see. ERIC [Look at this and tell me I'm not brilliant.] WOMAN CUSTOMER (crying) [You're a monster! And you'll never leave this place alive!] Eric shoots her with his Uzi. ERIC (to the hostages) [None of you are worth half of this single bar. Remember that.] Francois, Jean, and Claude look at each other. CLAUDE [Eric...can I speak with you?] ERIC [Of course.] CLAUDE [In private.] ERIC [There's no need. I have nothing to hide. What is it Claude?] CLAUDE [Well...we're surrounded by the police and we have no way out. What are we going to do?] Eric slaps him across the face. ERIC [What are you doing Claude? Talking of all this false doubt. What do you think we're going to do?] Claude is hurt, not physically but emotionally. CLAUDE [I don't know...not the original plan.] ERIC [Obviously, since Ricardo fucked us up and didn't kill the concierge fast enough. And killing all these assholes-- ] (motioning to all the customers) [--isn't going to do us a damn bit of good now, is it?] CLAUDE No. ERIC [No. Because we'll need them as hostages when we get on the plane.] CLAUDE [We're going on a plane?] Eric pats his shoulder. ERIC [Claude, you are a mental giant. Leave the plans up to me and just kill people if they get out of line, okay?] CLAUDE [Okay.] Eric turns and starts to walk toward the downstairs. ERIC [I'm going to see how things are going.] INT. BANK - REAR STAIRS TO LOBBY - DAY Eric is whistling while he walks, he pauses to perform a quick magic trick, then he continues. INT. RESERVE VAULT AREA - DAY Eric walks into the reserve vault area. He stops. He hears something. A scratching sound. He looks at it's source, TWO POLICEMEN, decked out in black flak jackets and gas masks are starting to come out of a sewer manhole. Eric's eyes widen. He takes his silencer out of his coat and fixes it to his handgun. Then, like a man with intent to kill, he rapidly approaches them. The one who came out of the manhole turns just in time to see Eric fire into his chest. Then, Eric aims the gun into the tight crawlspace and fires into the other man. For safe measure he empties his gun into the tiny causeway. He drops the gun into the hole and then shoves the other policeman into it. He then pushes a large utility wagon over the manhole cover to stop anyone else from coming in. INT. BANK - REAR STAIRS TO LOBBY - DAY Eric comes running out from the reserve vault area and up the stairs to the lobby. INT. BANK - LOBBY - DAY Eric rushes into the lobby. ERIC [They want to fuck with me!? They want to fuck with me!?] He puts the phone on the hook. It instantly rings. He answers the phone. ERIC [You want to fuck with me!? I'll show you what happens to people who fuck with me!] He throws the phone to the ground and looks at Zoey. ERIC [The moment of truth my love. You knew it would come.] He grabs Zoey and lifts her to her feet. ZOEY (screeching) No! Then, the assistant manager stops him. ASSISTANT MANAGER [No! What ever it is you're going to do have mercy!] Eric suddenly calms down. ERIC [Have mercy?] ASSISTANT MANAGER [Yes.] ERIC [With her.] ASSISTANT MANAGER [Yes.] ERIC [That's sweet.] (to Zoey) [You have quite a reach my lovely. Is he one of your clients?] He pushes Zoey to the ground. ERIC [It's a deal.] ASSISTANT MANAGER [Thank you.] ERIC [Don't mention it.] He grabs the assistant manager and at gunpoint forces him to the main entrance. CLAUDE [Eric! What are you doing?] ERIC [Clearing up the "how full of shit am I" question the cops are asking themselves right now.] The assistant manager is putting up a bit of a struggle but Eric simply forces him along. Everyone waits until suddenly they hear a burst of gunfire from outside. They all scream. Eric walks back into the bank, he picks up the phone. ERIC (into phone) [Hello.] (pause) [Yes. I'll hold.] (then to Claude) [I'm holding.] After a little bit of a wait someone comes on the other end of the line. ERIC (into phone) [Hello.] (pause) [You don't know the fucking half of it. So just shut the fuck up and listen. Try any more stunts and I'll fucking really go crazy.] (pause) [Well that's good because if you faggot cops even think of it I'll kill some more people. Hear?] (pause) [No. None of that. We won't trade. That never works. Not in the movies, not in real life. Understand? We're going to get into our van, with a couple of people, go to the airport, and fly out of this shit hole city. And you're not going to follow us.] (pause) [Who do you fucking think is going to supply the plane? Us? No, you fucking imbecile, the French taxpayers would be a good second guess for you. You're really pissing me off. You think I'm a fucking amature?] He covers the mouth piece. ERIC (to Claude) [I fucking hate cops.] CUT TO: INT. BANK - CALIBER VAULT - DAY Zed is sweating as he works away at the back of the door. He glances over what he's done and makes a calculation on a calculator. Then, there is a groaning sound. Zed, terrified, spins around. Another groaning sound. The vault security guard isn't dead. His body is charred and he's not moving but he's very much alive. VAULT GUARD #1 [I'm going to die...] Zed can't believe what he's seeing. He moves over to the body, leaving his work behind. VAULT GUARD #1 [I'm going to die...please hold my...hand. I don't...want to die...alone.] Zed hovers over the body, afraid to touch it. He gives it a nudge with his foot. The body groans and then exhales the longest exhale ever. Zed kneels down next to the body. ZED Are you still there? Nothing. Zed puts his hand to the neck of the vault guard #1 and checks for a pulse. Nothing. Zed sits there for a moment looking at the corpse, then, like he wants to get out of there as soon as possible, he scrambles to the door and starts adjusting several switches. He has wired a battery to two leads. He takes out a wire cutter and snips a wire. There is a sudden barrage of whirring and clicking sounds as the vault unlocks. Zed calls to Oliver from the passage. INT. BANK - STORAGE/ELEVATOR AREA - DAY Oliver is staring at the dead bodies of the manager and sub lobby teller. ZED(O.S.) (distant, calling from the vault) Oliver, now! Open the vault! Oliver turns the large wheel and opens the Caliber vault door. With some amount of energy the door opens. Standing inside is Zed. ZED Open seasame. He steps out of the vault. ZED Do you want to give me a hand? OLIVER Sure. Oliver puts his gun down and they go into the Calibre vault. INT. BANK - CALIBER VAULT - DAY Oliver sees the huge platen of gold bricks. Zed puts his steel briefcase on top of it. OLIVER Holy mother. ZED Here, help me with this. CUT TO: INT. BANK - LOBBY - DAY Eric slams the phone down and then in a fit of rage tears the phone from the wall. ERIC Merde! He grabs his machine gun and aims it at the sub lobby guard #2. The sub lobby guard #2 braces himself for gunfire. Eric fires into him. He is dead instantly. Everybody screams. Eric fires into his dead corpse until his gun runs out of bullets. ERIC [That's what you get!] Claude puts his hand on Eric's shoulder. CLAUDE Eric. Eric looks at him. ERIC [The fucking police won't budge. I kill a man and they don't care. They say they don't make deals with terrorists. It really fucks up my plan.] CLAUDE [And what if we gave up?] Eric can't believe this. ERIC (laughing) [Claude, look around you. We're not talking prison here. You know. The cops will give in. You start killing women...they give in. They're all so fucking much in love with women!] Then he looks at Zoey. ERIC [What are you looking at you fucking whore?] She doesn't want to say a thing that'll upset him. ERIC [Are you afraid I'll tell these people that this is only a day job for you?] She shakes her head "no". ERIC [What? So they know that you're a--] The sub lobby assistant speaks up. SUB LOBBY ASSISTANT [Leave her alone.] Eric cracks the butt of his gun into the man's face. ERIC [Shut up!] He clicks another clip into the Uzi and grabs Zoey by the collar and lifts her to her feet. ERIC [My only mistake was not to make an example of a woman to begin with.] CUT TO: INT. BANK - CALIBER VAULT - DAY Zed takes the dolly and starts wheeling the platen of gold out. Oliver helps him. OLIVER This is unbelievable. Look at all of this. It's wonderful to touch. ZED Just help me steer this out. They maneuver out of the Calibre vault. INT. BANK - STORAGE/ELEVATOR AREA - DAY They come out of the Calibre vault with the huge platen. OLIVER Do you think we should get some cash also? ZED What for? OLIVER Well, you never know. They start maneuvering the platen toward an elevator. ZED Money is too easily traceable. You'd never be able to spend it. And forget about exchanging it. OLIVER That's true. ZED No sir. Your best bet is to get these bars melted down in Tunisia or Korea. OLIVER Eric knows someone in Portugal. ZED Or Portugal. They get into the banks private freight elevator. INT. BANK - FREIGHT ELEVATOR - DAY Zed closes the door and pushes the button to go up to the ground floor. CUT TO: INT. BANK - LOBBY - DAY Eric is dragging Zoey by the hair toward the door when she grabs his groin and starts squeezing. Eric lets out a shrill scream and whacks the butt of the Uzi into her face. But she won't let go. Her years as a prostitute have taught her to ignore pain. She grabs hold of the gun hand. ERIC (groaning) [You fucking bitch!] A few bursts of the Uzi go off and one shell stitches Eric's foot red. Eric lets go and falls to the ground. Claude, Jean, and Francois suddenly become attentive to what's going on. Zoey starts firing the Uzi but can't control it. She showers the room with bullets. She starts to run toward the back office blindly firing the gun in the direction of Claude, Eric, Francois, Jean, and the other hostages. Then, a tear gas cannister break through the top windows and start clouding the place up. Eric whips out his switch blade and hops on his bloody red foot. ERIC [Bitch!] CUT TO: INT. BANK - FREIGHT ELEVATOR - DAY Zed is waiting for the elevator to arrive. ZED Do we have a covering of some kind? OLIVER A what? ZED You know. Something to cover this with. It'll look kind of conspicuous leaving the bank with a platten of gold. OLIVER Oh, it won't matter. The police know what we're up too. ZED Police?! What do you mean they know what we're up too? OLIVER You don't know? We've been discovered. But Eric has them under control. Zed is frantic. ZED No I didn't know! How many police? OLIVER The building is surrounded. The elevator doors open onto the ground floor to the sound of automatic gunfire. Zed walks out into the back office. INT. BANK - BACK OFFICE - DAY Suddenly, from the back office, Zed sees Zoey blasting away an Uzi and running toward the rear stairwell. Eric is in the lobby limping around. The other gang members are ducking from her fire. Then, her clip runs out. She sees Zed, their eyes lock. An IMAGE overcomes Zed. She runs down the stairs to the back. ERIC Kill her! Kill her! Oliver aims his gun to fire and Zed pushes it up. Oliver's gun discharges into the ceiling. Oliver and Zed begin to struggle. INT. BANK - LOBBY - DAY Zed and Oliver collapse out of the back office and into the lobby. They tumble onto the floor. Eric hobbles over to them, his gun aimed at Zed. ERIC What the fuck are you doing!? CUT TO: INT. BANK - RESERVE VAULT AREA - DAY Zoe is near tears. She drops the empty machine gun to the floor and starts walking toward the sub lobby. CUT TO: INT. BANK - LOBBY - DAY Eric leans down to talk to Zed. Oliver and Jean are watching. Francois and Claude are more worried about the tear gas. CLAUDE [They're trying to smoke us out Eric!] FRANCOIS [What do we do!?] Eric waves them off with a brush of his hand. He's concentrating on Zed. ERIC Do you really love your bitch whore girlfriend that much? She's really fucked with your mind. ZED Eric...what are you talking about? Eric lifts him to his feet and holds him up against the knife. He turns him toward the smoke and whispers into his ear. ERIC Look at it. It's all for us. The smoke. The attention. They have no idea of who they're dealing with. They have no idea what kind of men we are. ZED (thinking Eric is a madman) What kind of men are we? Eric looks at him and gives him a soft kiss on the cheek. ERIC You can no longer be in our club. You forfeit your cut of the pie. Zed laughs, there's not gonna be much of a pie to eat. ZED What about our friendship? ERIC Shit Zed. I haven't seen you in years. You hardly know me. He slashes Zed across the face with the switchblade. Zed falls backwards and tumbles down the stairs like a rag doll. ERIC Never let a girl come between two men. He walks down the hall toward the gold. ERIC Now let's try to get out of here. Eric walks into the back office. The others look at each other. Suddenly a black figure runs across the bank behind the shadows, Francois sees it and nervously fires. In the background the distinctive sound of European police sirens wail as more cars pull up to the outside of the bank. Also, an UNINTELLIGIBLE VOICE is blaring orders over a bullhorn. FRANCOIS [The police! They're entering the building!] Suddenly all of them start firing like blindly into the smoke. Francois runs back to Eric who has walked up to the elevator via the back office. INT. BANK - FREIGHT ELEVATOR - DAY Eric caresses his hand across the bars of gold. ERIC (to himself) [Smoother and more giving than the most selfless human being. You're beautiful.] Francois runs in. FRANCOIS [Eric!] ERIC [Jesus, what now?] FRANCOIS [The police are coming in! We're doomed!] ERIC [Get a hostage.] FRANCOIS (frantic) [They don't give a fuck about the hostages!] CUT TO: INT. BANK - LOBBY - DAY Jean becomes a berzerker and runs out into a cloud of smoke and throws the tear gas container into the thick cloud. Then he turns to the police and holds his own gun to his head. JEAN [Don't make me!] A single bullet passes through his torso. As Jean falls to the ground he lets loose a round of gunfire into the ceiling. Oliver is still firing, his face is red like a crazed man. From behind the counter the sub lobby assistant grabs a hold of Claude and wrestles him to the ground. The other customers start to flee for cover. Oliver sees the fracas between the sub lobby assistant and Claude. It looks like the sub lobby assistant is getting the upper hand. Oliver swings his gun around and sprays machine gun fire at them...killing them both. CUT TO: INT. BANK - SUB LOBBY - DAY Zoe walks up the stairs out, not only are they locked but a cloud of tear gas is pouring into the downstairs sub lobby. Suddenly, Zed stumbles in. Zed is like a zombie. Then he notices Zoe in the stairwell. They lock eyes. ZED (almost delerious) Zoe... She steps down into the sub lobby, machine guns crackle in the background. She runs up to him just as he slumps to the ground. ZOE (holding him) My Zed. They've hurt you. She dabs a cloth to his cut face. He holds it on. ZOE (trying to comfort him) You're going to be okay. In many countries scars on the face are a symbol of heroism. To proudly display a flaw like a badge...is to wear a badge of truth. He takes her hand. ZED Be serious Zoe...I can stick my tongue through my cheek. CUT TO: INT. BANK - LOBBY - DAY The police are now laying it on heavy. Francois comes out of the office. FRANCOIS Oliver! Let's get a hostage! OLIVER This is the end! Francois is ripped into by machine gun fire. Oliver races past him. CUT TO: INT. BANK - SUB LOBBY - DAY Tear gas is starting to fill the room. Zoe stands Zed up. ZOE Listen to me. We're going to lock ourselves into one of the air tight vaults...if any of them are still open. They start walking toward the reserve vault area. CUT TO: INT. BANK - FREIGHT ELEVATOR - DAY Eric hops into the elevator and closes the door, just as Oliver runs up, firing toward the police. Eric is laughing manically as he leaves them behind. OLIVER Bastard! Oliver turns to where the police will surely be coming in. CUT TO: INT. BANK - RESERVE VAULT AREA - DAY Zoey and Zed rush into the reserve vault area. Zoey notices that the downstairs reserve vault is closed. ZOE Merde! The vault has been closed. ZED What about the others? The gunfire upstairs has subsided and has been replaced by unintelligible POLICE VOICES. ZOE Listen...there's no gunfire. Zoey quietly opens the door opposite the vault that leads to the rear stairs to the lobby level. INT. BANK - REAR STAIRS TO LOBBY - DAY Zoey peeks up the stairs just in time to see Oliver bolt for the stairs. OLIVER (to police) Motherfuckers! A volly of gunfire rips into Oliver but he stands his ground and fires into the police. OLIVER You wanna fuck with me? You wanna fuck with me? I'll show you who you're fucking with! He starts blasting away. Terrified, Zoey leads Zed to the storage/elevator area. ZOEY C'mon, we'll be safer in here. CUT TO: INT. BANK - STORAGE/ELEVATOR AREA - DAY The elevator door opens, Eric steps out and looks around like a caged animal. ERIC [Think!] Then, Zed and Zoey appear from the hall to the reserve vault area. Eric turns to them with his gun raised, when he sees them he lowers it. ERIC Zed. They all stand there for a moment, the gunfire cracking away upstairs. Eric is more casual than he should be. ERIC (matter-of-factly) What's your girlfriends name? ZED Zoe. ERIC Zoe. (to Zoey in French) [Zoe, come here to me.] Zoey spits at him. Eric laughs and aims the gun at her. ERIC [Killing you would just be gravy, so don't fuck with me.] ZOEY [Go ahead you slob. Shave my ass!] Eric smashes the side of her face with the gun and then grabs a hold of her arm. Zed tries to stop Eric but Eric aims the gun at him. ERIC Zed no. I'll kill you. It means nothing to me, our friendship. ZED (starting out calm and then building to a scream) Eric...there's no fucking way out of here! ERIC Oh but you're wrong. This is my way out. This dime store couge with her motor driven ass. You find your own. Zed rushes Eric and Zoey starts scratching. Eric drops the gun but quickly whips out his knife. She tries to get away from Eric but he has a hold on her shirt. Eric swipes at her with the knife and grazes he back. Then Eric slashes toward Zed who jumps back. Zoey falls to the floor. ERIC Come Zed...I'm going to cut you like a sausage. Zed is standing between Zoey and Eric. ZED Zoey, get out of here! She scrambles away. He swipes at Zed. Zed jumps back down the hall toward the reserve vault area. INT. BANK - RESERVE VAULT AREA- DAY They rush out toward the stairs. ERIC Did you see how she ran? Did you see how she ran? She doesn't care about you. Fucking pussy only cares about pussy. Look out for number one. What do you say Zed? He swipes again. ERIC I will kill you. And once I kill you Zed, I'll get out of here. I'll fuck your bitch up the ass and give her AIDS...if she doesn't already have it. What do you say to that Zed? He swipes and Zed grabs a hold of the knife by the blade. Eric pulls it free and the knife falls to the floor. Zed takes this opportunity and kicks Eric in the face. Eric reaches for the knife. Zed, his hand bloody, dives onto Eric. Zoey also jumps onto them and starts yanking on Eric's hair. She plunges her nails into his face. ERIC Fucking bitch! Zed is rabbit punching Eric from underneath. Then, Eric grabs a hold of Zed's balls and squeezes. Zed lets out a shrill scream. Eric starts elbowing Zoey in the face. The three of them lay there on the floor wriggling like worms, unable to move because each is putting the other through such agony. Then, Oliver, shot up and bloody haplessly stumbles into the room. His body is a mass of bullet wounds. OLIVER Ox! Where is thy yoke!? He clumsily falls dead to the ground, his shotgun slides near Zoey, Zed, and Eric. The sight of the gun gives Eric the strength only a madman could posses. He rolls over and throws Zoey off him. Then, he smashes his forehead into Zed's nose, bursting it. Eric, deftly, rolls over and grabs the gun. He gets to his feet and cocks the pump action. ERIC Fuck both of you. Then he notices the lack of gunfire upstairs. Eric turns back to them. ERIC Au revoir. He aims to kill Zed. ZOEY No! Then, all of the French policemen, decked out in their assault gear and wearing gas masks, storm down the stairs. At the sight of Eric about to execute Zed they raise their guns. FRENCH POLICEMAN #1 [Stop!] Eric stops. It becomes quiet. Then, Eric looks back down at Zed and braces for the shotgun kick. ERIC I give you little kiss. Ciao. He squeezes the trigger and... CLICK The police open fire with their French made assault machine guns and fill Eric with bullets. Instead of falling he does a scarecrow dance as his body is painted red. The wall behind them explodes as plaster sprays all over Zed. An IMAGE overcomes Eric. Eric's dead body slumps to it's knees and flops on top of Zed. Zed pushes the body off and tries to drag himself to Zoey. Zoey runs up to him and holds him. The police all charge into the secondary vault area and secure the downstairs. Zoey is crying as she holds Zed. The police have their guns aimed at the two of them. Zoey looks up. ZOEY (to the policemen) [I work here. This man is a customer...he needs medical help.] They take their guns away and kneel next to him, seeing if he's okay. FRENCH POLICEMAN #2 [How bad do you think his wounds are?] The other policeman, unable to tell because of Eric's blood, simply shakes his head. FRENCH POLICEMAN #1 (to Zoey) [Are you alright?] Zoey starts to cry. DISSOLVE TO: INT. BANK - LOBBY - DAY Zoey and Zed, bandaged up, are being aided by all of the French policemen as they walk through the bank. Smoke is still clearing, but the bodies of customers and bank robbers alike litter the area. PARAMEDIC's, wearing all white, try to help the injured, they assist Zed and Zoey. FRENCH POLICEMAN #1 (to Zoey and Zed) [There's an ambulance outside.] (he looks around) [My God. What a Bastille Day.] Zed's attention is caught by two OTHER POLICEMEN carrying a body bag. FRENCH POLICEMAN #3 (to French policeman #1) [This one's the ringmaster. We need an I.D.] No longer interested in Zoey or Zed, he goes to check out the body. ZOEY The hospital? ZED No. ZOEY Come on. I have a car. Zoey puts her arm around Zed and helps him out of the bank...never to return. DISSOLVE TO: INT. ZOEY'S CAR - MOVING - DAY Zoey is driving. Zed looks like he's been in a burning building. ZED I'm so tired. ZOEY We'll go to my flat. You can rest there. Do you feel pain? ZED No...it was mostly his blood. ZOEY I have a shower. You can clean up there. ZED Thank you Zoe. He looks at her. ZOEY My name is not Zoe. Not any more. He looks forward at the streets of Paris. ZOEY You'll get well. Then I'll show you the real Paris. They drive away. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_King Kong.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_King Kong.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..53924f3903ac71b4c9b77c8e205daeb353548248 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_King Kong.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + KING KONG Written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson Based on a Story by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace 1. EXT. CENTRAL PARK - DAY CLOSE ON: A scrawny MONKEY scratches. ANGLES ON: Defeated, listless ANIMALS, in the bleak environs of a dilapidated ZOO. WIDER: It is CENTRAL PARK ZOO in depression era NEW YORK. The PARK itself is like a GARBAGE DUMP, dotted with squalid SHANTY TOWNS. Against these BLEAK IMAGES, the SOUND of a BRIGHT, BRASSY SONG fades up: Al Jolson, singing "I'm Sitting on Top of the World". The sky line of MANHATTAN rises in the background, a grim steaming jungle on this cold FALL day. I EXT. NY STREETS - DAY LONG continues over: IMAGES: The CROWDED STREETS of NEW YORK ... beneath the bustle is a sense of despair. LONG SOUP LINES snake along the STREETS. The HUNGRY search through RUBBISH BINS for FOOD. SKYSCRAPERS rise steadily upwards as more people are evicted from their homes. HOMELESS sleep amid steaming VENTS and GARBAGE STREWN GUTTERS. Intercut: INT. VAUDEVILLE THEATRE - NIGHT SONG continues over: I SANNY, an old-time VAUDEVILLIAN, hurriedly fixes a large DROOPY MOUSTACHE on to a YOUNG WOMAN'S TOP LIP ... this is ANN DARROW. IMAGES: Weird and wonderful snatches of VAUDEVILLE ACTS follow ... singers, jugglers, boxing ladies. E Intercut with: EXT. NY STREETS - DAY The COLOR and MUSIC contrast with the SOUP LINES and SLUMPED SHOULDERS of the REAL WORLD. INT. VAUDEVILLE THEATRE - NIGHT ANGLE ON: ANN on STAGE ... dressed as an ELEGANT GENT, she launches into `I'm Just Wild About Harry' with HARRY, a larger- than-life PERFORMER dressed in a FRILLY DRESS, BRASSY RED WIG and FALSIES. 2. MANNY's CHARACTER joins in ... SNEEZING LOUDLY and causing ANN to take a SUDDEN PRAT FALL. nd so the ROUTINE BUILDS ... ANN and HARRY singing and dancing ... MANNY SNEEZING ... ANN falling. The AUDIENCE look on with bored expressions on their faces. All except ONE MAN at the BACK, who is LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY. CLOSE ON: ANN throwing everything into her ACT ... SWEAT rolls down her face ... she tries not to get distracted by the LAUGHING, WHEEZING MAN. WIDER: A SMATTERING of APPLAUSE from the TINY AUDIENCE. 40 PEOPLE in a THEATRE designed for 500. Crash cut: INT. DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT CLOSE ON: MANNY in the NOISY, CROWDED DRESSING ROOM, which is full of VAUDEVILLE PERFORMERS in various stages of undress. MANNY fires off a loud comical SNEEZE. He looks around at the others. ANNY That's a funny one! Isn't that funnier? HARRY It's hysterical, Manny. As long as we're laughing we won't be crying over the box office. Talk about depressing. ANGLE ON: ANN sitting down at a MIRROR, starting to take off her VEST ... a book entitled "ISOLATION" by Jack Driscoll lies half open on the counter top nearby... ANN Twenty girls in feather boas prancing around like circus ponies! That's depressing! ANGLE ON: MAUDE, a BLOWSY SINGER, lighting up a cigarette. MAUDE (fondly) I love a good chorus line! CLOSE ON: ANN brushing her HAIR. TAPS, a young tap dancer, leans across and picks up the book. TAPS What's this? ANN It's a play. 3. MANNY Who wrote it, Annie? TAPS Some guy - Driscoll. reading the jacket of book) From the Federal Theatre. AUDE Don't knock it, honey - at least they get an audience. ANN It'll pick up .... Ain't that right, Manny? The DRESSING ROOM goes suddenly quiet ... MANNY looks away, refusing to meet ANN's eye. ANN (cont'd) (trailing off) It always does. EXT. DRESSING ROOM ALLEYWAY - NIGHT MANNY and ANN emerge from the STAGE DOOR, into an ALLEYWAY. Night and winter are setting in ... MANNY splutters out another LOUD SNEEZE. MANNY The trick is to start the build right at the back of your throat... (sneezing comically) Works well out through the nose too. ANN Have you eaten today? MANNY (sheepish) Oh, I'm not hungry. Don't worry about me. ANN Hey - you're all I've got. ANN slips her arm through MANNY'S ... ANN (cont'd) Come on - take me to dinner. MANNY You think the kitchen'll still be open on Third? 4. ANN Soup and biscuits - perfect. Cut to: EXT. VAUDEVILLE THEATRE - DAY WIDE ON: The VAUDEVILLE THEATRE. The DOOR is chained closed. WORKMEN are up ladders, taking the HOARDINGS down SIGN and putting a large sign up: THEATRE CLOSED TILL FURTHER NOTICE ... ANN (calling out to Harry) Hey! Harry, what's going on? ANGLE ON: ANN ... rattling the HEAVY STEEL CHAINS that are LOCKED around the DOORS to the VAUDEVILLE THEATRE ... ANN(cont'd) Hey, open up! We work here. A WORKMAN up a LADDER smirks down at her. LADDER MAN Not anymore. A MOTLEY collection of VAUDEVILLE PERFORMERS cluster on the SIDEWALK ... near them an incongruous assortment of PROPS and COSTUMES litter the STREET ... MAUDE (calling at some WORKMEN) It's all right for you! We haven't had a pay check in two weeks - how we going to eat? ANN They're not going to get away with this. LOSE ON: MAUDE looks bleakly at ANN ... AUDE They just did. ANN tries to gather up PROPS - MANNY's BROOM, her TOP-HAT, HARRY'S parasol ... MANNY (O.S.) Ann ... Annie! It's no use. ANN turns ... Manny is standing quietly to one side. ANNY (cont'd) The show it's over - it's done. 'm done. I'm leaving, Annie ... I'm going back to Chicago. I'm sorry ... ANGLE ON: ANN stares at MANNY in shock .. 5. MANNY (cont'd) I'm sorry, Ann. Ever since you were small people have been letting you down. But you gotta think of yourself now. You should try out for that part. ANN looks at him warily ... MANNY (cont'd) It's what you've always wanted. Oh, I know what you're thinking - every time you reach out for something you care about ... fate comes along and snatches it away. MANNY, grabs ANN'S hand ... MANNY (cont'd) But not this time, Annie ... not this time. LOSE ON: ANN as she digests MANNY'S words ... the LOUD rumble of an EL TRAIN thunders overhead ... EXT. NY STREETS - DAY ANGLE ON: WESTON, a NEW YORK THEATRE PRODUCER, strides out of his office, a copy of VARIETY tucked under his arm ... ANN (faux nonchalance) Oh, hello Mr. Weston?! WESTON turns and sees ANN ... he quickens his step. WESTON Oh, Jeez ... ANGLE ON: ANN falls into step beside WESTON as he hurries along the BUSY SIDEWALK. WESTON (cont'd) Look, Miss ... I told you already; call my office - leave your resume with my secretary. ANN doggedly follows WESTON ... ANN Why would I want to do that when we can talk about it in person? WESTON Because that's what a smart girl would do. ANN But I already sent you my resume - you returned it unopened. 6. WESTON What can I say? Jack Driscoll's very particular about who he works with. ANN Please, just an audition - that's all I'm asking. WESTON esus - you don't give up, do you? ANN Mr. Weston, I know this role backwards. ESTON ell, that's too bad - because we just gave the part to someone else. Sorry, kid - the play is cast. They are standing outside an ITALIAN RESTAURANT ... WESTON goes to enter ... ANN catches a glimpse of PLATES of FOOD and GLASSES of WINE. She quickly looks away. WESTON catches the glance and stops. WESTON (cont'd) Look - I know times are tough. You want my advice? Use what you got. You're not bad looking - a girl like you doesn't have to starve. HOPE flickers in ANN'S EYES as WESTON fishes into his POCKET for a PEN and BUSINESS CARD. He scribbles down an address. WESTON (cont'd) There's a new place, just opened. (handing to her) Listen, princess - this gig ain't the Palace, you understand? Ask for Kenny K. Tell him I sent you. WESTON hands her the BUSINESS CARD ... ANN looks down at the address, not recognizing it. She looks at him questioningly. ESTON (cont'd) (evasive) Just play the date, take the money and forget you was ever there. CLOSE ON: ANN staring down at the piece of paper in her hand. INT. NY SCREENING ROOM - DAY LICKERING B&W IMAGES: TIGERS ROARING ... BRUCE BAXTER, in a PITH HELMET, stalking through undergrowth ... He raises his rifle and fires! CLICK! The gun is JAMMED. BRUCE turning to CAMERA, speaking soundlessly. 7. CLOSE ON: A SLEEPY looking LION. A PIECE of MEAT is lowered into frame ... DENHAM appears briefly holding the MEAT. He is attempting to STIR the yawning ANIMAL into life. CAMERA TILTS UP briefly revealing the bars of a CAGE. PRESTON'S FACE appears C above a CLAPPER BOARD ... "TAKE 5" LOSE ON: CARL DENHAM sitting in the smoky SCREENING ROOM. He is nervous ... his eyes flick from one INVESTOR to the other ... trying to read the room. ZELMAN How much more is there? ASSISTANT Another five reels. ZELMAN Lights up. Light floods the room as the washed out image on screen is extinguished. DENHAM notices a sleazy looking INVESTOR wake up with a start. THUGGISH INVESTOR This is it? This is what we get for our forty grand, Denham? Another one of your Safari pictures? LEAZY INVESTOR You promised us romantic scenes with Bruce Baxter and Maureen McKenzie. DENHAM Come on, fellas - you know the deal - we agreed to push Maureen's start date so she could get her teeth fixed. THUGGISH INVESTOR It's not the principle of the thing - it's the money. ELMAN Carl - you've been in production for over two months - DENHAM Trust me, Bruce and Maureen are gonna steam up the screen - once we get them on the ship. Z ELMAN What ship? DENHAM The one we've hired to get to the location. DENHAM hurriedly pulls himself up - as ZELMAN turns on him. 8. ZELMAN What location? Carl - you're supposed to be shooting on the back-lot. DENHAM Yes, I understand that - but fellas, we're not making that film anymore - and I'll tell you why. DENHAM gets out of his SEAT and moves to the FRONT of the ROOM. DENHAM (cont'd) The story has changed, the script has been rewritten. DENHAM turns to face the room, whipping a TATTERED MAP out of his pocket. DENHAM (cont'd) Life intervened! I've come into possession of a map. growing excitement) The soul surviving record of an unchartered island, a place that was thought to exist only in myth ... until now! ZELMAN Whoa! Carl - slow down! SLEAZY INVESTOR Is he askin' for more money? THUGISH INVESTOR He's asking us to fund a wild goose- chase. DENHAM I'm talking about a primitive world ... never before seen by man! The ruins of an entire civilisation - the most spectacular thing you've ever seen! (dramatiC pause) That's where I'll shoot my picture! SILENCE for a beat ... And then - SLEAZY INVESTOR Will there be boobies? DENHAM is momentarily SPEECHLESS. DENHAM Excuse me, boobies? 9. SLEAZY INVESTOR Jigglies, jablongers, bazoomers! ... In my experience people only go to these films to observe the ... undraped form of the native girls. DENHAM What are you - an idiot? You think they asked De Mille to waste his time on nudie shots? No - they respected the film maker, they showed some class! Not that you'd know what that means - you cheap low-life! ZELMAN shifts uncomfortably in his seat as THUGGISH shoots him an ANGRY LOOK. ZELMAN Would you step outside for a moment, Carl? DENHAM looks at them ... the INVESTORS avoid EYE CONTACT. INT. SCREENING ROOM LOBBY - DAY AS DENHAM STEPS INTO THE LOBBY, PRESTON, HIS LONG SUFFERING ASSISTANT WAITS ON A SOFA. DENHAM points suddenly to the GLASS OF WATER on the TABLE next to PRESTON. DENHAM Gimme that - quick! PRESTON hands him the WATER. PRESTON You won't like it, it's non-alcoholic! DENHAM empties the GLASS into a POT PLANT. DENHAM Preston, you have a lot to learn about the motion picture business. ANGLE ON: DENHAM quietly places the GLASS against the SCREENING ROOM DOOR, and presses his ear against it. INT. NY SCREENING ROOM - DAY ZELMAN looks to the INVESTORS. ZELMAN Don't write him off fellas. He's hot- headed sure, but Carl Denham's made some interesting pictures, he's had a lot of ... near success. 10. THUGGISH INVESTOR (interrupts) He's a preening self promoter ... INT. SCREENING ROOM LOBBY - DAY CLOSE ON: DENHAM listening ... THUGGISH INVESTOR (O.S.) (through the door) ... an ambitious no-talent! The guy has "loser" written all over him. ELMAN (O.S.) Look, I understand your disappointment. HUGISH INVESTOR (O.S.) He's washed up - It's all over town! SLEAZY INVESTOR (O.S.) He can't direct. He doesn't have the smarts. INT. SCREENING ROOM LOBBY - DAY THUGGISH INVESTOR This jumped up little turd's gonna bankrupt us. ZELMAN The animal footage has value? SLEAZY INVESTOR Sure ... Universal are desperate for stock footage. THUGGISH INVESTOR Then sell it! Scrap the picture! We gotta retrieve something from this debacle. Z ELMAN nods ... gestures to the YOUNG ASSISTANT. ZELMAN Get him back in. ANGLE ON: The YOUNG ASSISTANT opens the DOOR, steps into the LOBBY which is ... YOUNG ASSISTANT Mr. Denham? ... EMPTY. 11. EXT. NEW YORK STREETS - DAY ANGLE ON: DENHAM and PRESTON hurrying down the CROWDED SIDEWALK - struggling under the weight of 8 FILM CANS! DENHAM is glancing back over his shoulder. DENHAM I want the cast and crew on the ship within the hour. RESTON o Carl, you can't do this! DENHAM Tell `em the studio's pressured us into an early departure. PRESTON It's not ethical! DENHAM hat are they gonna do - sue me? They can get in line! I'm not going to let them kill my film. ANGLE ON: PRESTON follows DENHAM, who steps off the curb ... and flags a CAB down. He cuts across the BUSY ROAD, PRESTON hurrying behind. RESTON ou realize none of the camera equipment is on board. We have no permits ... no visas ... DENHAM hat's why I have you, Preston. RESTON We have no insurance, no foreign currency - in fact, we have no currency of any kind - ANGLE ON: DENHAM looks back across the STREET and notices an angry INVESTOR heading towards him. DENHAM Get in there! PRESTON suddenly finds himself BUNDLED into the back of a CAB. PRESTON ho's gonna pay for the ship? QUICK MOMENT: The SLEAZY INVESTOR grabs at the PARTIALLY OPEN BACK WINDOW of the CAB. SLEAZY INVESTOR Get out of there! 12. DENHAM hurriedly WINDS the WINDOW SHUT ... the SLEAZY INVESTOR yelps with PAIN, as he yanks his JAMMED FINGERS away from the CAB! DENHAM tep on it! SLEAZY INVESTOR (furious) You're finished, Denham! ANGLE ON: PRESTON sprawled on the SEAT, amid a PILE of FILM CANS, as the CAB speeds away! DENHAM on't worry Preston - I've had a lot of practice at this: I'm real good at crapping the crappers. CUT TO: LATER ... AERIAL WIDE: DENHAM'S CAB cruises along the CROWDED STREETS of NEW YORK. DENHAM And two dozen of Mr. Walker's finest ... PRESTON (O.S.) Red label, 80% proof - packed in a crate marked "lemonade". INT. NY CAB - DAY ANGLE ON: PRESTON and DENHAM sit on the BACK SEAT. PRESTON is feverishly scribbling on his NOTEPAD. DENHAM You got it ... and tell Maureen - she doesn't have six hours to put on her face. If she wants to be in this picture, she's gotta be on that boat! PRESTON She doesn't want to be in this picture. DENHAM looks at him blankly. P RESTON (cont'd) Maureen pulled out. DENHAM She pulled out?! RESTON Yesterday. I told you. 13. DENHAM (suspicious thought) You said we were shooting in Singapore, right? That's what you told her? PRESTON But we're not shooting in Singapore. DENHAM exasperation) Goddammit, Preston! All you had to do is look her in the eye and lie. DENHAM turns away, his brain whirring ... thinking hard ... DENHAM (cont'd) I gotta get to a phone ... talk to Harlow's people. PRESTON he`s unavailable. HIGH WIDE: DENHAM'S CAB wends it's way through BUSY NEW YORK streets ... DENHAM (O.S.) Myrna Loy? Clara Bow? Mae West? PRESTON Mae West?! No! She has to be a size four! INT. NY CAB - DAY ANGLE ON: PRESTON and DENHAM sit on the BACK SEAT. PRESTON ou gotta get a girl who'll fit Maureen's costumes. DENHAM (sudden inspiration) Fay's a size four! PRESTON es she is, but she is doing a picture with RKO. DENHAM looks away, muttering to himself ... DENHAM ooper huh? (darkly) I might have known. 14. EXT. NY STREETS - DAY ANGLE ON: The CAB screeches to a SUDDEN HALT in MID-TRAFFIC ... DENHAM jumps out, leaving PRESTON in protest ... PRESTON We gotta delay the shoot - shut production down ... We can't sail tonight! DENHAM Not an option. RESTON Carl! DENHAM I said I'd find a girl. DENHAM turns and looks at PRESTON briefly. DENHAM (cont'd) For Godsake, Preston - think like a winner. Call Jack ... I need that Goddamn screenplay! ANGLE ON: DENHAM leans in the window, PRESTON looks on PERPLEXED. DENHAM (cont'd) Defeat is always momentary. DENHAM bangs the CAB ROOF with his hand, and then strides off confidently along the street. EXT. BURLESQUE THEATRE - EVENING CLOSE ON: A series of PHOTOS of SEMI NAKED WOMEN, with feather boas and peacock fans ... gaudy banners proclaiming Miss Lily Rose ... Delaware Du Boise ... Velvet Cushions ... W IDER: DENHAM is standing outside a tacky BURLESQUE THEATRE. He straightens his tie and heads towards the DOOR. ANGLE ON: A couple of LARGE GIRLS, followed by a SMALLER GIRL, arrive for work and enter the BURLESQUE THEATRE ... DENHAM eyes the BIGGER GIRLS, then chooses to follow the SMALLER ONE. ANGLE ON: DENHAM is reaching for the DOOR HANDLE to go inside, when he suddenly pauses, his eye caught by the REFLECTION in the GLASS DOOR ... LOSE ON: ANN ... standing in the MIDDLE of the SIDEWALK. She is unaware of DENHAM watching her. ANN stares grimly at the BURLESQUE HOARDINGS, the FLYER clutched in her hands, a small knot of anger forming in her stomach. LOSE ON: DENHAM's HAND lets go of the DOOR. His eyes lock on ANN through the sea of PEDESTRIANS. 15. ANN angrily CRUMPLES the FLYER, drops it in the GUTTER and walks C away from the THEATRE. LOSE ON: DENHAM ... watching her leave. EXT. FRUIT STALL - EVENING A BUSY FRUIT STALL on the SIDEWALK. The VENDOR is hurriedly handing out APPLES and pocketing NICKELS. ANGLE ON: ANN walks slowly by ... her eyes on the FRUIT. She glances at the VENDOR, SWIPES an APPLE from the TRAY, and quickly moves on, slipping the APPLE into her POCKET. ANN'S arm is suddenly GRABBED! The ANGRY VENDOR pulls her hand out of her pocket, which is still clutching the stolen apple. VENDOR (angry) You gonna pay for this? ANN tries to pull away. The VENDOR's grip on her arm tightens. DENHAM (O.S.) Excuse me ... ANGLE ON: DENHAM steps up behind them up HOLDING a NICKEL ... DENHAM (cont'd) Ma'am, I think you dropped this. ANGLE ON: THE VENDOR snatches the NICKEL from DENHAM'S fingers. INT. NY DINER - EVENING ANGLE ON: ANN is eating from a FULL PLATE, trying to disguise her HUNGER. DENHAM walks over carrying a CUP of COFFEE. DENHAM Vaudeville huh? I worked Vaudeville once... that is a tough audience. If you don't kill them fast, they kill you. ANN Mr. Denham - I want you to know that I'm not in the habit of accepting charity from strangers, or for that matter ... taking things that don't belong to me. D DENHAM t was obviously a terrible misunderstanding. ANN It's just that, I haven't been paid in a while ... 16. DENHAM mock sincerity) That's awful. Anyway, Ann - may I call you Ann? DENHAM leans forward ... lowering his voice. DENHAM (cont'd) ... You wouldn't happen to be a size four by any chance? ANN pauses mid way through a mouthful of food, her appetite suddenly draining away. She abruptly stands. DENHAM (cont'd) No! Oh God, no! You've got me all wrong. Miss Darrow, please! I'm not that type of person at all! ANN What type of person are you? DENHAM I'm someone you can trust, Ann. I'm a movie producer. (sincere) Believe me, I am on the level, no funny business. Please, sit down - Please ... Please. ANN hesitates a moment before sitting down once again. DENHAM (cont'd) (pitching the film) Ann, I want you to imagine a handsome explorer bound for the Far East. ANN You're filming in the Far East? ANGLE ON: DENHAM looking her in the eye and lying. DENHAM Singapore. On board ship he meets a mysterious girl. She's beautiful ... she's fragile ... haunted ... ANN looks up ... caught by the tale DENHAM is weaving. DENHAM (cont'd) She can't escape the feeling that forces beyond her control are compelling her down a road from which she cannot draw back. It's as if her whole life has been a prelude to this moment - this fateful meeting that changes everything. And sure enough, against her better judgement - 17. ANN She falls in love. DENHAM Yes! ANN But she doesn't trust it. She's not even sure if she believes in love. DENHAM Oh really? ANN If she loves someone - it's doomed. DENHAM Why is that? ANN Good things never last, Mr. Denham. An awkward pause ... ANN looks away, having revealed too much. DENHAM considers her a beat, realising something ... DENHAM So you're interested? ANGLE ON: DENHAM hurriedly gathering up his hat and coat. DENHAM (cont'd) That's settled then. I don't want to rush you - but we are under some time pressure here. ANN Well I really - DENHAM Ann? I'm telling you, You're perfect - look at you! You're the saddest girl I ever met ... you're gonna make `em weep, Ann - you're gonna break their hearts! ANN See, that's where you're wrong, Mr. Denham, I make people laugh, that's what I do. ANN suddenly STANDS. ANN (cont'd) Good luck with your picture. DENHAM follows ANN to the DOOR ... DENHAM (growing desperation) Ann! Miss Darrow! Please! 18. I'm offering NHAM(cont'd) DE you money, adventure, fame ... the thrill of a lifetime and a long sea voyage. You wanna read a script? Jack Driscoll's turning in a draft as we speak. ANN stops and turns. A ANN Jack Driscoll? DENHAM ure. Why - wait! You know him? ANN Well, no - not personally. I've seen his plays. DENHAM, sensing her interest, starts to get excited. DENHAM What a writer, huh? And let me tell you Ann, Jack Driscoll doesn't want just anyone starring in this picture. He said to me, "Carl, somewhere out there is a woman born to play this role ..." (quiet realization) And as soon as I saw you, I knew - ANN (uneasy) Knew what? DENHAM It was always going to be you. SLOW PUSH IN on ANN as she realises she is standing on the brink of a life changing moment. EXT. NY DOCKS - NIGHT ANGLE ON: The CROWDED DOCKS ... a clutter of SHIPS and SHANTY TOWNS. A CAB drives onto the DOCKS. DENHAM hops out and holds the door open for ANN, who emerges carrying a BATTERED SUITCASE. ANN stares at a LARGE OCEAN GOING LINER that rises above her. ANN (awestruck) Is this the moving picture ship? DENHAM Not exactly ... it's actually this one over here. ANGLE ON: DENHAM is striding towards a RUSTY BATTERED TRAMP STEAMER on the OTHER SIDE of the WHARF! This is "The Venture". 19. DENHAM (cont'd) Don't let appearances deceive you. It's much more spacious on board. HAYES Haul away ... ROUGH looking SAILORS are working hard to get the boat under way. Hurried activity everywhere, crates being loaded; smoke begins pouring from the stacks ... DENHAM crosses and talks to MIKE and HERB who stand next to some film gear. DENHAM Is this all of the equipment? This is all of it? We're taking the Bell and Howell? Good. You got all the lenses - you got the two and the six? PRESTON (O.S.) Carl! DENHAM Yes - to MIKE and HERB) Get it on board, fellas. Come on. A NGLE ON: PRESTON hurrying down the GANGWAY. He rushes up to DENHAM ... his eyes flick to ANN, but he pulls DENHAM to one side. PRESTON (urgent whisper) They're on their way. I've just had word. DENHAM Who? PRESTON (whisper) Men in uniform. The studio called the cops! A FLASH of FEAR crosses DENHAM'S FACE ... DENHAM calls across to a TALL FIGURE who is supervising the loading of the ship. DENHAM Englehorn! Cast off! Hoist up the mainsail - raise the anchor, whatever the hell it is you do - we gotta leave. ENGLEHORN I cannot do that ... we're waiting on the manifest. DENHAM What? Who? English - please! 20. ENGLEHORN (dryly) Paperwork, Mr. Denham. DENHAM leans in conspiratorially ... DENHAM (low voice) I'll give you another thousand to leave right now. ENGLEHORN You haven't given me the first thousand yet. DENHAM glances at ANN, flustered and embarrassed. DENHAM Can we talk about this later. Can't you see we're in the company of a VIP guest? ENGLEHORN's gaze falls upon ANN ... ENGLEHORN Ma'am... ANN Ann Darrow. ENGLEHORN So you are ready for this voyage, Miss Darrow? ANN Sure... ENGLEHORN Nervous? ANN Nervous - no. Why? Should I be? ANN looks taken aback ... ENGLEHORN It isn't every woman who would take such a risk. DENHAM throws PRESTON a look! PRESTON (hurriedly) Why don't I show Miss Darrow to her cabin? DENHAM Wonderful idea, thank you, Preston. 21. PRESTON Miss Darrow, if you'd just - Hi, my name is Preston, Carl's assistant. DENHAM pulls his CHEQUE BOOK from his JACKET POCKET. DENHAM Two thousand - it's a deal ... Will you take a cheque? ENGLEHORN Do I have a choice? E EXT. VENTURE/NY DOCKS - NIGHT ANGLE ON: PRESTON goes to lead ANN up the GANG WAY past some rough- looking sailors, onto the SHIP - "THE VENTURE". PRESTON Please, follow me. If there's anything that you need ... `excuse me fellas, if there's anything that you need please don't hesitate to ... ask ... PRESTON turns back to see ANN hesitating at the bottom of the GANG WAY ... an unnerved expression on her face ... ANN steps forward ... Deep breath, she follows PRESTON. INT. ENGINE ROOM - NIGHT BEEFY SAILORS shovel COAL into the SHIP'S FURNACE ... another cranks a valve on the pistons. INT. DENHAM'S CABIN - NIGHT ANGLE ON: DENHAM enters his CABIN looking FLUSTERED. He is STARTLED to find JACK DRISCOLL waiting for him. DRISCOLL is a WRITER, well dressed in a SHABBY sort of way. DENHAM Jesus, Jack - you scared me! DENHAM crosses to a cabinet and breaks into a CRATE OF JOHNNY WALKER. DENHAM (cont'd) Listen, if anyone comes to the door, don't open it. You haven't seen me ... say I got depressed and committed suicide. Say I stuck my head down a toilet! holding up a bottle) You want one? 22. JACK No! I can't stay, Carl. I have a rehearsal for which I am now ... checks WATCH) ... three hours late. JACK throws a FEW SCRIPT PAGES across the TABLE. DENHAM What's this? JACK It's the script. DENHAM This is a script? Jack ... this is fifteen pages. ACK I know - but they're good! You've got fifteen good pages there, Carl! DENHAM I'm supposed to be making a feature length picture. JACK You told me I had more time. I'm sorry. Look I gotta go. DENHAM Jack - No - you can't do this to me! I have a beginning but I need a middle and an end! I gotta have something to shoot. The SHIP'S ENGINES roar into life ... JACK stands to leave. JACK You got my notes - I gotta go. See you. CLOSE ON: DENHAM looking DISMAYED. He stares blankly at the RUSH of ACTIVITY through the PORTHOLE WINDOW behind JACK. OV: The VENTURE'S CREW hurriedly RELEASE ROPES in preparation for the ship's imminent departure. DENHAM'S expression slowly CHANGES ... DENHAM Alright, fine. We might as well settle up. JACK looks ASTONISHED as DENHAM pulls out his CHEQUE BOOK. JACK You're going to pay me? 23. DENHAM I'm not going to stiff a friend. ACK I've never known you to volunteer cash before ... DENHAM How does two grand sound? JACK Sounds great! DENHAM Thought it might. DENHAM'S eyes flick to the WINDOW ... sees SAILORS are hauling up the GANGPLANK. NGLE ON: A SAILOR CRANKS a series of VALVES as the SHIP'S PISTONS crank in to life. DENHAM signs the CHEQUE, and hands it over with a FLOURISH ... D DENHAM (cont'd) (signing with a flourish) Voila! JACK snatches the CHEQUE and turns to leave. JACK Thanks... JACK glances at it. JACK (cont'd) Carl ... you've written "Two Grand". DENHAM takes the CHEQUE back ... DENHAM So I did ... Sorry about that (screwing it up) Let's start from the beginning. DENHAM (cont'd) (writing) "Two Thousand Dollars" ... ANGLE ON: The ship's PISTONS PUMP faster. DENHAM looks up at JACK, a confused look on his face. DENHAM (cont'd) It is the 29th, isn't it? JACK (anxious) Come on - it's the 25th, Carl, the 25th! 24. ANGLE ON: JACK suddenly realises the SHIP is about to leave. DENHAM I'm sorry. Let me just ... It'll just take a second. DENHAM screws up the CHEQUE again! The VIBRATION of the ENGINES picks up. JACK heads for the DOOR! JACK Never mind, pay me when you get back! DENHAM (knowing) Alright ... okay ... INT. ENGINE ROOM - NIGHT CLOSE ON: THE SHIPS GAUGES SPRING INTO ACTION. EXT. VENTURE STERN CRANE DOWN the stern of the ship as the PROPELLER kicks into action. INT. SHIP'S CORRIDOR - NIGHT NGLE ON: BRUCE BAXTER walking along the CORRIDOR, with PRESTON following behind laden with LUGGAGE. BRUCE is in his early thirties ... He is QUICK WITTED, SOPHISTICATED and CHARMING... but his career as a SCREEN ACTOR has badly stalled. PRESTON Your cabin's just down here, Mr. Baxter. May I say how excited we are to have you back with us, Sir. ANGLE ON: JACK is hurrying down the corridor towards the DOOR. He feels the SHIP MOVING! He suddenly collides with BRUCE, who thrusts a SUITCASE at him. BRUCE Be a sport and lend us a hand. JACK Oh, Christ! JACK looks desperately out of the PORTHOLE, doubles back and BOLTS AWAY. BRUCE (dryly) Appreciate the help, fella. PRESTON Let me get the door for you - welcome to your state room sir. 25. INT. BRUCE'S CABIN - NIGHT ANGLE ON: BRUCE is clearly unimpressed with the TINY CABIN. He reacts to the SMELL. RESTON know, that's not a nice smell is it? I'm sure it'll disperse in a day or two. Did I ever mention how much I love your work, Mr. Baxter? I've seen every one of your pictures ... even the silent ones. RUCE I haven't made any silent ones. BRUCE gently closes the DOOR in PRESTON'S FACE - leaving him silently CURSING to himself in the CORRIDOR. EXT. VENTURE WHEELHOUSE - NIGHT ANGLE ON: The PROPELLER CHURNS through the WATER ... ENGLEHORN watches the VENTURE pull away from the dock ... Satisfied, he enters the WHEELHOUSE ... ENGLEHORN Dead slow ahead both, Mr Hayes. HAYES Dead slow ahead both, Captain. EXT. VENTURE/NY DOCKS - NIGHT ANGLE ON: JACK emerges from the labyrinthine SHIP INTERIOR and rushes to the RAIL of the SHIP ... he freezes in HORROR! JACK Oh Christ! ANGLE ON: The SHIP is PULLING AWAY from the DOCK ... 6 feet ... 7 feet ... JACK contemplates JUMPING for a MOMENT: JACK (cont'd) Goddammit! EXT. NY DOCKS POLICE CARS race along the docks towards the VENTURE, SIRENS wailing. EXT. VENTURE DECK - NIGHT JACK SLUMPS on the DECK in DESPAIR. He's missed his chance to get off the ship. 26. DENHAM steps up behind JACK, just as a POLICE CAR, followed by ZELMAN and the INVESTORS, pull up on the DOCKS in the DISTANCE. DENHAM I keep telling you, Jack, there's no money in theatre. CUT TO: EXT. NY DOCKS - NIGHT The INVESTORS leap out of the car. SLEAZY INVESTOR No, no, no! EXT. VENTURE DECK - NIGHT The VENTURE steams past the LIGHTS of MANHATTAN. DENHAM You're much better off sticking with film. JACK I don't do it for the money, Carl. I happen to love the theatre. DENHAM o, you don't. JACK looks at him exasperated as DENHAM casually taps his PIPE on the RAIL of the BOAT. DENHAM (cont'd) If you really loved it, you would have jumped. EXT. NY DOCKS - NIGHT WIDE ON: ZELMAN throws his hat to the ground in anger as THE VENTURE pulls away from the docks. EXT. NEW YORK HARBOUR - NIGHT WIDE ON: The VENTURE steams away from the DOCKS, passing under the MANHATTAN BRIDGE. INT. ANN'S CABIN - NIGHT CLOSE ON: ANN tests her mattress with her hands. ANN straightens & turns, perching on the edge of the BUNK. 27. PRESTON (apologetic) I hope you find it to your liking... it's quite comfortable. Your towels and linens are underneath the bed. That is the wash basin. I know, that's not a pleasant smell - is it? I'm sure it'll disperse in a day or two. RESTON dances over to the WARDROBE. PRESTON (cont'd) The closet ... your costumes - I hope you'll find everything is in order. If there is anything that you need, please do not hesitate to ask...fresh water, perhaps? I can bring it to you personally. PRESTON is interrupted by a knock on the CABIN DOOR... ANGLE ON: The DOOR opens and DENHAM enters. He thrusts a bottle of JOHNNY WALKER SCOTCH into ANN'S HANDS ... DENHAM Knock knock! We can't have our leading lady deprived of the necessities of life. to PRESTON) Do me a favour - run a bottle down to Jack. It'll fend off his migraine. PRESTON They're still trying to find a place for him to sleep. DENHAM (to PRESTON) You told him my typewriter is available for hire? RESTON Yes - he didn't take it well. PRESTON departs down the corridor. ANN (confused) Mr. Driscoll ...? DENHAM turns and looks at ANN. ANN (cont'd) He's on board? DENHAM Jack has his heart set on coming. Call me a softie - I couldn't say no. 28. INT. SHIPS HOLD - NIGHT ANGLE ON: CHOY is showing JACK to his sleeping QUARTERS, carrying BLANKETS. JACK stares in DISBELIEF at the DINGY HOLD strewn with STRAW BALES and EMPTY ANIMAL CAGES. He reacts to the SMELL. CHOY This room very comfortable, plenty dim light ... fresh straw. JACK What'd you keep down here? CHOY Lion, tiger, hippo - you name it. Jack What, do you sell them to Zoos? CHOY Zoos ... circus ... (lowers voice) Skipper get big money for rare animal. (alarmed) Careful! Camel have bad accident on floor. Stain unremovable ... JACK looks down. He's standing in a dark, viscous PUDDLE OF GUNGE. CHOY (cont'd) (lowers voice) Skipper catch any animal you want. He do you real good price on rhite wino. E ENGLEHORN (sternly) Choy! ANGLE ON: CHOY clams up as ENGLEHORN strolls into the hold. ENGLEHORN (cont'd) My apologies for not being able to offer you a cabin. Have you found an enclosure to your taste? JACK (dryly) Spoilt for choice. ENGLEHORN surveys a COUPLE OF LARGE CAGES. ENGLEHORN What are you, Mr. Driscoll, a lion or a chimpanzee? JACK opens a CAGE large enough to sleep in. 29. JACK Maybe, I'll take this one. He steps back with SURPRISE as a WOODEN CRATE TOPPLES, spilling out a LARGE MEDICAL BOTTLE. CHOY looks up in SHOCK as the BOTTLE ROLLS towards ENGLEHORN who coolly TRAPS it with his FOOT. E ENGLEHORN I told you to lock it up. CHOY (scared) Sorry, Skipper! Lumpy said - ENGLEHORN (interrupts) Lumpy doesn't give the orders. What are you trying to do? Put the whole ship to sleep? Get them out of here! ENGLEHORN hands the BOTTLE to a nervous CHOY. JACK stares at the CRATES stacked in the CAGE. CLOSE ON: Piles of BOTTLES, all marked "Chloroform". EXT. VENTURE - DAY WIDE ON: The VENTURE ploughs through a HEAVY SWELL. INT. BRUCE'S CABIN - DAY NGLE ON: BRUCE pins movie posters from some of his previous films on his cabin wall ... He steps back, admiring them. INT. SHIPS HOLD - DAY ANGLE ON: JACK, sitting in the hold, TAPPING on an OLD TYPEWRITER propped up on BOXES. He is clearly very QUEASY, as he tries to stay focussed on the TYPEWRITER KEYS. He sees JIMMY carrying a TRAY come into view, he COUGHS and CLAMS UP. JIMMY Compliments of the chef - ANGLE ON: JIMMY unloading the BOWLS of GREY looking STEW from the TRAY. LOSE ON: JIMMY puts the BOWL next to JACK ... who takes one look at it, and SQUEEZES his eyes closed. JACK (O.S.) Oh Christ - oh God! JIMMY Lambs brains in walnut sauce. 30. The CAGES and ROPES SWAY with each roll of the WAVES ... JIMMY walks away. ANGLE ON: JACK looking very nauseated ... HAYES (O.S.) Jimmy! JIMMY spins round, a guilty look on his face. HAYES (cont'd) You run those ropes up on deck like I told you? JIMMY Doing it now, Mr. Hayes. ANGLE ON: JIMMY tries to slip past, but HAYES grabs his WRIST. HAYES How about you return Mr. Driscoll's pen first? CLOSE ON: An expensive FOUNTAIN PEN drops from JIMMY'S HAND and clatters to the floor. QUICK as an eel, JIMMY scampers AWAY. HAYES shakes his head, and picks up the PEN ... hands it back. HAYES (cont'd) He doesn't mean any harm. I'll keep him out of Jyour way. ACK No, it's okay. HAYES It's just he likes it down here, it's where I found him ... four years ago ... stowed away in one of them cages. His arm was broken in two places, he was wilder than half the animals in here. Still won't tell me where he came from - all I know, it wasn't any place good. EXT. VENTURE DECK - DAY ANGLE ON: JIMMY is sorting NETS up on DECK. Nearby HAYES rests against the railing. HAYES You gotta straighten up. You don't want to be on this ship for the rest of your life. JIMMY I do. 31. HAYES No, you don't, Jimmy. You wanna get yourself educated. Give yourself some options. Take this serious. JIMMY I do, Mr. Hayes, I do! Look, I've been readin'. JIMMY pulls a battered book out of his coat pocket. HAYES takes the book. It has a painting of a TRAMP STEAMER on the cover and the title: HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad. HAYES Where did you get this? JIMMY (prevaricating) I borrowed it ... HAYES flicks the book open and sees "Property of New York Public Library" stamped on the interior of the dust jacket. JIMMY (cont'd) ... on long term loan. Look at this. JIMMY points to the printed byline on the back of the book. JIMMY (cont'd) "Adventures on a Tramp Steamer". See - just like us. EXT. VENTURE/OCEAN WIDE ON: The VENTURE as it cuts through open OCEAN. INT. ANN'S CABIN - DAY ANN is holding a copy of JACK'S PLAY "ISOLATION" ... she is standing in front of a mirror rehearsing her introduction. ANN It's nice to meet you Mr. Driscoll - I'm actually quite familiar with your work. (trying again) Oh yes! ... Hello, Mr Driscoll - it's so nice to meet you! Actually, I'm quite familiar with your work. I'm a huge fan! (one more time) I've read everything you've ever written. ANN'S face falls in DESPAIR - she can't get rid of her nerves about meeting the famous JACK DRISCOLL. 32. INT. MESS ROOM - DAY A few sailors are finishing BREAKFAST. PRESTON, HERB and MIKE are seated at a TABLE. ANGLE ON: MIKE packing away his HEADPHONES and SOUND RECORDING EQUIPMENT. M IKE I'm gonna have the ships' engines all over the dialogue - sea gulls, camera noise, wind and Christ knows what else! DENHAM I don't care, Mike! You're the sound recordist - make it work. ANGLE ON: ANN in the CHIFFON DRESS, hesitating in the doorway of the MESS. DENHAM looks up and signals her over. DENHAM (cont'd) Ann! Come on in! Let me introduce you to the crew! This is Herb - our cameraman ... ANN reaches out to shake HERB'S hand. HERB Delighted to meet you, ma'am. And may I say what a lovely dress. ANN Oh! This old thing! I just - threw it on! PRESTON (confused to DENHAM) Isn't that one of Maureen's costumes? ANN (hurriedly) What does a girl have to do round here to get some breakfast! DENHAM Lumpy! You heard the lady! ANGLE ON: LUMPY looking up. He is simultaneously shaving a SAILOR and stirring PORRIDGE. LUMPY Fancy some of me ... ah ... Porridge aux walnuts? 33. DENHAM turns back to ANN, who is staring at MIKE, who has his head down, scribbling in a NOTEBOOK. DENHAM ANN, I don't believe you've met - ANN That's alright Mr. Denham, I know who this is ... ANGLE ON: ANN, who is staring at MIKE in quiet awe. He glances up at her, nervously. ANN (cont'd) Thrilled to meet you. It's an honour - to be part of this. MIKE (bewildered) Gee, thanks! ANN Actually - I am quite familiar with your work. ANGLE ON: DENHAM raises a quizzical EYEBROW. MIKE Really? ANN Yes, and what I most admire - is the way you have captured the voice of the common people. MIKE Well - that's my job. ANN I'm sure you've heard this before, Mr Driscoll, if you don't mind me saying - you don't look at all like your photograph ... A NGLE ON: JACK at the bar, holding a cup of COFFEE. He turns and glances at ANN. MIKE Excuse me? DENHAM Wait a minute! Ann - ANN (to DENHAM) Well, he's so much younger - in person. (turning back to MIKE) And much better looking. 34. JACK starts to walk over to the table. DENHAM ANN! Stop! Stop - right there - ANGLE ON: MIKE staring past ANN'S shoulder. ANN I was afraid you might be one of those self obsessed literary types. You know - the tweedy twerp with his nose in a book and his head up his - JACK snaps his BOOK closed. ANN turns around ... her face drops. JACK looks at ANN, who stares at him MORTIFIED. JACK It's nice to meet you too, Miss Darrow.. INT. SHIP'S CORRIDOR/BRUCE'S CABIN - DAY RUCE bumps into JIMMY who hurries away looking shifty. BRUCE enters his CABIN ... A moustache has been drawn on all his POSTERS. BRUCE looks annoyed ... then takes another look. CLOSE ON: BRUCE glancing in the mirror - imaging himself with a moustache. Not bad. EXT. VENTURE - DAY WIDE ON: The VENTURE ploughs through a HEAVY SWELL. DENHAM (V.O.) She's standing at the railing ... she doesn't know it yet, but they're sailing towards disaster. You got that? JACK (V.O.) She turns ... The First Mate is staggering towards her - there's a knife sticking out of his back! INT. SHIPS HOLD ANGLE ON: JACK, sitting in the hold, TAPPING on an OLD TYPEWRITER propped up on BOXES. He is clearly very QUEASY, as he tries to stay focussed on the TYPEWRITER KEYS. DENHAM is pacing the HOLD, sucking on a PIPE. DENHAM ait a second, we're killing off the First Mate? 35. JACK That's assuming she knows who the First Mate is. DENHAM Come on, Jack! It was an honest mistake. Ann is near-sighted - it could happen to anyone. JACK I was joking, Carl. DENHAM The point is: she's horrified. She has to look away. And that's when she sees it. JACK See's what? What? ANGLE ON: Unseen by either DENHAM or JACK, JIMMY has snuck down in to the HOLD ... DENHAM (dramatic) The island. JACK (taken aback) We're filming on an island now? When did this happen? DENHAM Jack, keep your voice down! I don't want the crew getting spooked. JACK Why would they get spooked? What's it called? DENHAM looks SHIFTY. DENHAM All right ... It has a local name, but I'm warning you, Jack, it doesn't sound good. ANGLE ON: JIMMY, his attention caught as he eavesdrops on the conversation. JACK looks at DENHAM in GROWING FRUSTRATION. DENHAM (cont'd) (quietly) They call it ... (muffled) JIMMY POV: DENHAM leaning in and murmuring to JACK. 36. JACK What's wrong with this place? DENHAM There's nothing officially wrong with it. Because technically it hasn't been discovered yet. JACK gives up, feeling too seasick to argue ... JACK (resuming typing) Okay ... alright ... so we arrive at ( this place ... typing) S ... k ... u ... CLOSE ON: DENHAM looks up in time to see JIMMY listening ... Their eyes meet ... DENHAM tries to hush JACK - too late. JACK (cont'd) l ... l ... Island. EXT. VENTURE/OCEAN - DAY NGLE ON: The SHIP moves through GREY SEAS ... Dolphins swim alongside. EXT. VENTURE DECK - DAY IDE ON: DENHAM is FILMING ANN and BRUCE. Clustered around are his crew, HERB and MIKE and PRESTON. DENHAM All right everyone, from the top. And ... action! ANGLE ON: BRUCE saunters up to ANN, who is leaning on the rail, staring out to sea, in full hair and make-up. ANN I think this is awfully exciting! I've never been on a ship before. BRUCE I've never been on one with a woman before. ANN I guess you don't think much of women on ships, do you? BRUCE No, they're a nuisance. ANGLE ON: DENHAM looking intently at JIMMY and HAYES who are further down the DECK ... talking quietly. 37. ANGLE ON: HAYES shoots DENHAM an ALARMED LOOK. ANN (O.S.) Well, I'll try not to be. BRUCE (O.S.) Just being around is trouble. ANN (O.S.) Well! Is that a nice thing to say! BRUCE (O.S.) It's a dangerous thing, having girls on ships. They're messy and they're unreliable! DENHAM (distracted) Cut! Great! NGLE ON: DENHAM'S gaze returns to JIMMY and HAYES who are huddled in a group with three more SAILORS ... word is travelling fast. DENHAM (cont'd) Bruce, wonderful performance. You can relax for ten minutes. ANGLE ON: BRUCE looking pretty pleased with himself. DENHAM (cont'd) That was very natural... I felt moved. JACK looks on in disbelief. B ANGLE ON: BRUCE walking past JACK ... RUCE hat do you think, Driscoll? The dialogue's got some flow now - huh? JACK It was pure effluence. BRUCE beefed up the banter ... JACK Try to resist that impulse. BRUCE It's just a little humor, Bud - what are you, a Bolshevik or something? JACK watches as BRUCE saunters off ... he turns back to DENHAM. JACK Actors. They travel the world but all they ever see is a mirror! 38. JACK looks up to see ANN looking dismayed, a MIRROR COMPACT, in her hand ... She quickly snaps the COMPACT shut and turns away. CLOSE ON: JACK - taken aback. INT. SHIP'S CORRIDOR - DAY ANN is making her way to the BATHROOM. She looks up as JACK rounds a corner coming the other way. They walk toward each other. SUDDENLY the ship sways, JACK is thrown forward, but ANN manages to hold her BALANCE. JACK Good legs. ANN looks at him SHARPLY. JACK (cont'd) Sea legs - I meant - you know ... sea legs. Not that you don't have good legs, I was just ... JACK trails off as ANN edges past him, averting her eyes. JACK (cont'd) ... making conversation. Jesus! (calling) Miss Darrow! ANN stops and turns ... JACK (cont'd) About the scene - today, with you and Bruce - ANN I know, it wasn't what you wrote. But Mr Baxter felt very strongly that when a man likes a woman - then he must ignore her. And if things turn really hostile ... no? JACK Interesting theory. ANN I know ... I should have - JACK It wasn't what I had intended ... but it - ANN I'm sorry - I was ... 39. JACK You made it your own ... ANN I was nervous. JACK It was funny, actually ... you were funny. ANN Please - don't say another word. Good night. ANN goes to close her CABIN DOOR. ACK Miss Darrow ... ANN looks at him. JACK (cont'd) You don't have to be nervous. EXT. VENTURE DECK - SUNSET CLOSE ON: DENHAM standing behind the CAMERA with HERB and MIKE. DENHAM is caught up in the scene and is EMOTING FURIOUSLY. NGLE ON: ANN RUNNING out on to the DECK of the VENTURE in a GLITTERING GOWN. She is SIGHING and CRYING in a MELODRAMATIC kind of way ... A NGLE ON: JACK approaching, he is reading pages in his HAND, he looks up just as ... ANN turns, TEARS on her cheeks.. lit by the GOLDEN RAYS of the SETTING SUN. ANN stares at JACK, momentarily forgetting where she is. He stares back at her. CLOSE ON: DENHAM catching the EXCHANGE of LOOKS. He takes the script pages off JACK and shoos him away ... EXT. WHEELHOUSE - DUSK ANGLE ON: DENHAM & ENGLEHORN talk out the front of the WHEELHOUSE. INT. WHEELHOUSE - NIGHT CLOSE ON: ENGLEHORN'S POV of SHIPPING CHARTS. DENHAM We're close. Head south-west. 40. ANGLE ON: ENGLEHORN leaning over SHIPPING CHARTS. DENHAM hovers nearby in the doorway. ENGLEHORN There's no land south-west for thousands of miles. It takes us way outside the shipping lanes. ENGLEHORN turns and confronts DENHAM. ENGLEHORN (cont'd) I won't sail blind in these waters. DENHAM 'll make it worth your while. NGLE ON: ENGLEHORN ... tempted by the offer of more money, but his instincts are telling him to not to agree. ENGLEHORN There's nothing out there. DENHAM hen you've nothing to lose. ANGLE ON: ENGLEHORN: conflicted. EXT. VENTURE/OCEAN - DUSK IDE ON: THE VENTURE steams on as the SUN falls slowly behind the horizon ... INT. MESS ROOM - NIGHT ANGLE ON: DENHAM & PRESTON are seated at a table, talking quietly. ANGLE ON: HAYES enters the MESS ... HAYES saunters over to PRESTON & DENHAM. HAYES If someone were to tell you this ship is headed for Singapore, what would you say? 41. ANGLE ON: LUMPY is standing quietly honing a knife with a whet- stone ... it makes a L sharp sound ... LUMPY I would say they was full of it, Mr. Hayes. We turned south-west last night. LOSE ON: DENHAM looks up sharply ... HAYES is standing over him. DENHAM Gentlemen please, we're not looking for trouble - ANGLE ON: JIMMY enters the MESS from behind him... JIMMY No. You're looking for something else ... PRESTON glances warily at DENHAM. DENHAM takes in the situation and decides to front up. DENHAM (quietly) Yes .... we are. We're gonna find Skull Island! We're gonna find it, film it and show it to the world. For twenty five cents you get to see the last blank space on the map! LUMPY I wouldn't be so sure of that. PRESTON What do you mean? LUMPY Seven years ago, me and Mr Hayes - we were working our passage on a Norwegian barque. HAYES We picked up a castaway - found him in the water - he'd been drifting for days. LUMPY His ship had run aground on an island, way West of Sumatra. An island hidden in fog. He spoke of a huge wall, built so long ago - no one knew who had made it ... A wall a hundred foot high ... as strong today as it was, ages ago. PRESTON Why did they build the wall? SILENCE ... 42. LUMPY The castaway - he spoke of a creature, neither beast nor man, but something monstrous, living behind that wall... DENHAM A lion or a tiger. A man-eater. That's how all these stories start. PRESTON (to LUMPY) What else did he say? LUMPY Nothing. We found him the next morning ... he'd stuck a knife through his heart. NGLE ON: PRESTON looking ASHEN ... DENHAM breaks the GRIM MOOD. DENHAM orry fellas, you'll have to do better than that. Monsters belong in B movies! NGLE ON: PRESTON & DENHAM making a rapid exit. HAYES If you find this place - DENHAM and PRESTON stop and turn back ... HAYES (cont'd) If you go ashore with your friends and your cameras ... you won't come back ... Just so long as you understand that. INT. ENGINE ROOM - NIGHT The ENGINEERS shovel more COAL into the FURNACE ... The relentless rhythm of the SHIPS PISTON'S PUMPING UP and DOWN continues ... INT. PRESTON'S CABIN - NIGHT PRESTON LYING AWAKE FREAKING OUT intercut with close ups of THE MAP WITH THE WORDS `FOG'. WIDE ON: THE STERN of the VENTURE cuts through the swell then AERIAL up over the top of the boat. INT. VENTURE HOLD - NIGHT t is late at night. JACK sits on his make shift bed, his typewriter balanced on his lap ... intent on what he is writing. 43. EXT. VENTURE DECK - DUSK ANGLE ON: ANN DANCING with JIMMY, much to the AMUSEMENT of GATHERED CREW ... CHOY is singing Marie's Wedding accompanied by some SAILORS playing various MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. CLOSE ON: JACK watching her ... INT. VENTURE HOLD - NIGHT NGLE ON: JACK continues typing. EXT. WHEELHOUSE - NIGHT ANGLE ON: DENHAM scanning the HORIZON with BINOCULARS, ENGLEHORN comes out of the WHEELHOUSE ... some charts in his HAND ... INT. WHEELHOUSE - NIGHT HAYES is manning the WHEEL. ENGLEHORN is staring at the CHARTS, a CIGARETTE in his hand. There is a PALPABLE sense of tension in the AIR. HAYES (tense) How long do you expect us to stay out here? ANGLE ON: ENGLEHORN puts his cigarette out, ignoring HAYES. INT. ANN'S CABIN - NIGHT ANN is pacing the cabin. She is wearing a SHAWL over pyjamas. She smiles as she turns pages of a loose leaf manuscript. ANN looks up at JACK. ANN (surprised) You're writing a stage comedy? JACK I'm writing it for you. ANN looks at him, taken aback. ANN Why would you do that? JACK Why would I write a play for you? ANN Yes. 44. JACK Isn't it obvious? ANN Not to me. JACK Well, it's in the sub-text. ANN I guess I must've missed it. JACK It's not about words ... ANN looks at him uncertainly ... as JACK moves towards her ... He takes her in his arms and kisses her. CUT TO: INT. WHEELHOUSE - NIGHT CLOSE ON: THE RADIO OPERATOR receiving MESSAGE. CUT TO: INT. ANN'S CABIN - NIGHT CLOSE ON: JACK and ANN still KISSING. CUT TO: INT. WHEELHOUSE - NIGHT ANGLE ON: The RADIO OPERATOR hands a piece of paper to ENGLEHORN. RADIO OPERATOR Message for you, Captain. EXT. VENTURE/OCEAN - NIGHT AERIAL: The VENTURE cuts a wide arc through the sea as the SHIP slowly turns ... EXT. WHEELHOUSE - NIGHT NGLE ON: DENHAM, RUNNING up the STAIRS to the WHEELHOUSE. DENHAM (calling) What's going on? 45. INT. WHEELHOUSE - NIGHT HAYES manning the WHEEL, looks at DENHAM briefly ... DENHAM Hayes! Why are we turning around? LOSE ON: ENGLEHORN enters the CABIN ... DENHAM (cont'd) (blustering) Englehorn, you can't just ... ENGLEHORN (curt) Outside! EXT. WHEELHOUSE, VENTURE DECK - NIGHT ENGLEHORN There's a warrant out for your arrest. Did you know that? I've been ordered to divert to Rangoon. DENHAM nother week - I haven't got a film yet. Please - I have risked everything I have on this! ENGLEHORN No, Denham - you risked everything I have. D DENHAM What do you want? Tell me what you want? I'll give you anything. ENGLEHORN regards DENHAM with cool detachment ... ENGLEHORN I want you off my ship. ENGLEHORN heads back to the DOOR of the WHEELHOUSE. ENGLEHORN (cont'd) Set a course for Rangoon, Mr Hayes. EXT. OCEAN - NIGHT IDE ON: The VENTURE as it ploughs through the SWELL. EXT. VENTURE DECK - NIGHT DENHAM is leaning over the railing. 46. DENHAM I'm finished. It's over for me, Jack. JACK How did you think this would end, Carl? INT. WHEELHOUSE, VENTURE - NIGHT CLOSE ON: HAYES at the WHEEL, looking down at the SHIP'S COMPASS ... it is swinging wildly to and fro. HAYES (calling) Captain ... CLOSE ON: ENGLEHORN looks at the compass with CONCERN. He takes the wheel from HAYES. ENGLEHORN Check our position. Use the stars. ANGLE ON: HAYES steps outside the WHEELHOUSE, carrying a SEXTANT. ... he looks up at the SKY and his face hardens with concern. ANGLE ON: ENGLEHORN looks across as HAYES appears at the WHEELHOUSE DOOR. HAYES (ominous) There are no stars, Captain. CUT TO: EXT. VENTURE DECK - NIGHT CLOSE ON: The MAP as it SLOWLY rotates in JACK'S HANDS. CLOSE ON: DENHAM leaning on the RAILING staring absently out to SEA. Behind him JACK is looking at the MAP in his HANDS. JACK What is that? DENHAM (distracted) What? CLOSE ON: JACK'S EYE is caught by something on the PAPER. He shifts the MAP around, turning it upside down. JACK That. JACK walks over to the railing and hands the MAP to DENHAM. 47. DENHAM I don't know ... what is it, a coffee stain? DENHAM looks hard at the map, suddenly a look of intrigue dawning on his face. SLOW PUSH IN on a STRANGE SMUDGE-LIKE MARKING ... LOSE ON: DENHAM is CAPTIVATED ... CLOSE ON: DENHAM slowly looks up from the MAP, a look of HOPE kindles in his EYES. CLOSE ON: the STRANGE SMUDGE-LIKE MARKING. An IMAGE begins to become clear - a GORILLA-LIKE FACE. ON THE SOUNDTRACK: the sudden blast of the SHIP'S FOG HORN. DENHAM's eyes shift upwards ... AT THAT MOMENT a GUST of WIND plucks the MAP from DENHAM'S HAND and blows it overboard ... whirling it out to SEA ... EXT. OCEAN - NIGHT ANGLE ON: The MAP FLOATING on the INKY WATER as the VENTURE steams away ... . .. into a HUGE BANK of FOG that seems to melt out of the DARKNESS! Another BLAST from the FOG HORN echoes across the silent ocean. EXT. VENTURE DECK - NIGHT RESTON moves along the DECK ... Staring uneasily at the FOG. VARIOUS ANGLES: Even the seasoned crew look unnerved. ANGLE ON: JIMMY up in the CROW'S NEST ... he is reading HEART OF DARKNESS by torchlight. EXT. OCEAN - FOGGY NIGHT IDE ON: The VENTURE sails into THICKENING FOG. INT. WHEELHOUSE - FOGGY NIGHT ANGLE ON: ENGLEHORN at the WHEEL ... he barks at the HELMSMAN. ENGLEHORN Station the for'head lookout, and get me the depth by lead-line! 48. HELMSMAN Aye, Captain. The HELMSMAN hurries away. EXT. VENTURE DECK - FOGGY NIGHT WIDE ON: The VENTURE steams through the FOG BANK ... ANGLE ON: A CREWMAN throws a LEAD-LINE over the side. CONCERNED CREWMEN hurry to their stations. CREWMAN (calling) Thirty fathoms ... no bottom! INT. WHEELHOUSE - FOGGY NIGHT HAYES is tense. ENGLEHORN remains focussed, his eyes fixed ahead. ENGLEHORN Reduce speed, steerage way only. HAYES swings the TELEGRAPH LEVERS. HAYES Dead slow ahead, both. (beat) You should stop the ship. ANGLE ON: ENGLEHORN spins the WHEEL. ENGLEHORN 15 degrees Port. (beat) We're getting out of here, Mr. Hayes ... we'll find clear conditions. CREWMAN (O.S.) (calling) We have seabed! CLOSE ON: HAYES rushes out of the WHEELHOUSE. EXT. VENTURE DECK - FOGGY NIGHT ANGLE ON: the CREWMAN with the LEAD LINE shouts up at HAYES. CREWMAN (alarmed) Twenty-five fathoms! INT. WHEELHOUSE - FOGGY NIGHT ANGLE ON: HAYES rushes to the WHEELHOUSE DOOR. 49. HAYES We're shallowing! ENGLEHORN looks with despair at the THICKENING FOG ahead. He starts spinning the WHEEL. ENGLEHORN 20 degrees starboard! HAYES (urgent) Captain, you don't know where the hell you're going! ENGLEHORN glares at HAYES. ENGLEHORN Get me another reading! HAYES leaves ... HAYES (yelling) Another reading! EXT. VENTURE DECK - FOGGY NIGHT ANGLE ON: JACK looks alarmed as CREWMEN hurry past. DENHAM walks away from him, towards the front of the SHIP. CREWMAN Twenty-two fathoms! INT. WHEELHOUSE - FOGGY NIGHT ENGLEHORN peers uneasily out at the FOG ... ENGLEHORN Douse the lights! HELMSMAN Aye, aye Captain ... EXT. CROWSNEST - FOGGY NIGHT ERIAL: THE VENTURE sails through FOG. CREWMAN (calling) Ten fathoms! ANGLE ON: JIMMY looking around ... confused. CLOSE ON: JIMMY'S eyes SUDDENLY WIDEN in DISBELIEF ... he leaps to his feet, unable to summon the power of speech! 50. ANGLE ON: A HUGE ROCK FACE looms out of the FOG straight AHEAD! JIMMY (yelling) Wall! There's a wall ahead!!! EXT. VENTURE - FOGGY NIGHT ENGLEHORN ... a look of DISBELIEF on his FACE. W EXT. VENTURE - FOGGY NIGHT IDE ON: The VENTURE sails directly towards a HUGE WALL which rises up 200 feet into the sky! The SHIP is DWARFED by the monstrous structure. INT. WHEELHOUSE - FOGGY NIGHT ENGLEHORN stares at the LOOMING WALL, unable to believe his eyes ... he starts SPINNING the WHEEL hard to STARBOARD! ENGLEHORN Stop engines! ANGLE ON: HAYES slams the TELEGRAPH to "STOP" EXT. VENTURE DECK - FOGGY NIGHT ANGLE ON: DENHAM is drawn to the FORWARD RAILING of the SHIP, looking up at the VAST WALL of ROCK towering over them in AWE. EXT. VENTURE - FOGGY NIGHT WIDE ON: The VENTURE SLOWS, but its weight is carrying it forward ... EXT. CROWSNEST - FOGGY NIGHT NGLE ON: A TERRIFIED JIMMY braces himself for impact. INT. WHEELHOUSE - FOGGY NIGHT ENGLEHORN searches desperately through the thick FOG. EXT. CROWSNEST - FOGGY NIGHT NGLE ON: JIMMY, a look of TERROR on his FACE. EXT. VENTURE- FOGGY NIGHT RUNCH! The BOW of the SHIP crumples in to the WALL! 51. EXT. VENTURE DECKS - FOGGY NIGHT NGEL ON: ANN rushes out of a door, on to the DECK, alarmed at the PANIC on the SHIP. ANGLE ON: DENHAM looks in utter AWE at the WALL. INT. VENTURE WHEELHOUSE - FOGGY NIGHT CLOSE ON: ENGLEHORN yells at HAYES. ENGLEHORN Give me some power! Half astern, both! HAYES Half astern, both, Captain! EXT. VENTURE DECKS - FOGGY NIGHT NGLE ON: JACK looks with horror as a JAGGED ROCK looms out of the FOG off the starboard bow. JACK Rocks! EXT. CROWSNEST - FOGGY NIGHT ANGLE ON: JIMMY spinning around as he sees ROCKS surrounding the SHIP. JIMMY (yelling) Rocks to starboard ... to port ... rocks everywhere! INT. VENTURE WHEELHOUSE - FOGGY NIGHT ANGLE ON: ENGLEHORN lets go of the WHEEL rushing towards the WHEELHOUSE DOOR. ENGLEHORN Take the wheel, Hayes! ANGLE ON: ENGLEHORN rushes on to the DECK and looks with HORROR as he realises his SHIP is trapped amid a LABYRINTH of ROCKS. EXT. OCEAN - FOGGY NIGHT he VENTURE lolls WITHOUT POWER in the heavy swell. The HEAVY THROB of the ENGINES regain strength ... the reverse propellers pull the ship away, but still without adequate control. 52. EXT. VENTURE DECK - FOGGY NIGHT ANGLE ON: ANN hurries up the STAIRS ... she clutches the RAILING for support and reels off balance, literally FALLING into JACK'S ARMS as the side of the VENTURE CRUNCHES against rock. EXT. VENTURE - FOGGY NIGHT The IMPACT sends the VENTURE into a SLOW SPIN. As the SHIP sinks in the trough of a WAVE, MORE ROCKS emerge from the WATER around it. EXT. VENTURE DECK - FOGGY NIGHT JACK looks down at ANN - he still has hold of her. INT. WHEELHOUSE - FOGGY NIGHT ANGLE ON: ENGLEHORN staggers into the WHEELHOUSE, slamming the TELEGRAPH LEVER forward. ENGLEHORN Full ahead! ENGLEHORN takes the WHEEL from HAYES. EXT. VENTURE DECK - FOGGY NIGHT HAYES runs OUTSIDE HAYES Rocks to port, Captain! EXT. OCEAN - FOGGY NIGHT ANGLE ON: The VENTURE rides the SWELL towards CAMERA. SUDDENLY! A SICKENING GROAN OF METAL ... as the VENTURE RUNS AGROUND on HIDDEN ROCKS! HAYES looks in HORROR as he comes within inches of the rock outcrop. EXT. VENTURE DECK - FOGGY NIGHT ANGLE ON: DENHAM watches as a HUGE STONE FACE - part of the ROCK OUTCROP they have grounded on - slides to a halt just off the VENTURE'S BOW. Weathered ... eroded away ... carved by the hand of some ANCIENT PEOPLE. NGLE ON: A breathless JIMMY scuttles backwards as the CROWSNEST settles against the ROCK. 53. ANGLE ON: ENGLEHORN shuts the engines down as his ship GRINDS sickeningly against the rock ... ... STUCK FAST. PANDEMONIUM ON DECK! NGLE ON: HAYES, unable to believe his eyes as he STARES up at the LOOMING ROCK. DENHAM stares at the EERIE SILHOUETTE of an ISLAND, visible through the thinning FOG. JAGGED PEAKS rise from a ROCKY SHORELINE. CRUMBLING RUINS cling to BARREN CLIFFS. ANN steps closer, a LOOK of total DISBELIEF on her FACE. INT. VENTURE ENGINE ROOM - FOGGY DAWN CLOSE ON: JETS of WATER are squirting into the ENGINE ROOM, through cracks between RIVETED PLATES. HAYES supervises STOKERS frantically opening valves on the PUMPS. OLD MATTRESSES are being shoved up against the LEAKS. ENGLEHORN arrives, looking GRIM. ENGLEHORN Hayes! HAYES he's taken a pounding ... ENGLEHORN What about the prop? HAYES Shaft's not bent, far as we can tell, but she's stuck hard against the rock - A LOUD GROAN as the SHIP shifts against the ROCKS. At that moment JIMMY comes bursting into the ENGINE ROOM. JIMMY Captain! You'd better come up quick! EXT. VENTURE DECK / OFFSHORE SKULL ISLAND - FOGGY DAWN ANGLE ON: ENGLEHORN, HAYES and JIMMY emerge onto the DECK as the MILKY LIGHT of DAWN washes over the SHIP. CLOSE ON: HERB holds the CAMERA as DENHAM cranks the HANDLE. POV: A WHALER - a small lifeboat - is being ROWED away from the VENTURE towards the SHORE of the ISLAND. DENHAM, JACK and ANN, HERB, MIKE, BRUCE and FOUR SAILORS are packed into the tiny boat. 54. HAYES You want me to bring them back? ENGLEHORN I don't give a damn about Carl Denham ... I want this ship fixed and ready to float on the next high tide. We're leaving Mr. Hayes. EXT. SKULL ISLAND COAST - DAY IDE ON: The WHALER rows towards the ISLAND passing great STONE RUINS jutting out of the WATER. The HUGE WALL rises out of the WAVES and disappears INLAND. NGLE ON: DENHAM is balanced at the front of the BOAT, filming as the SAILORS row ashore ... DENHAM (quietly) Can you believe this, Jack? ... Skull Island! We got our picture! ANGLE ON: JACK as he STARES up at the RUINS ... CLOSE ON: ANN, as if COMPELLED, turns and looks over the side of the BOAT, into the SEA ... her breathe catches! ANN'S POV: Beneath the WATER the HIDEOUSLY, DISTORTED FACE of a FALLEN STATUE gapes up at her ... ANGLE ON: ANN sitting huddled to one side of the BOAT ... drawing her RAIN-SLICKER closer around her ... ANN'S FINGERS edge across the seat and curl over JACK'S HAND ... WIND WHISTLES through the GAPING HOLES in the EDIFICE ... a CREEPY MOANING SOUND that mixes with the DEEP BOOM of the CRASHING WAVES EXT. SKULL ISLAND SHORE - DAY NGLE ON: The WHALER runs onto a tiny, stony BEACH. SHEER CLIFFS rise straight up from the SHORE. DENHAM, JACK, ANN, BRUCE, HERB, MIKE, PRESTON and TWO SAILORS clamber out. INT. ANCIENT STAIRCASE - DAY IDE ON: DENHAM leads HERB, PRESTON, JACK, ANN, BRUCE, MIKE and the TWO SAILORS up a DARK, VAULTED TUNNEL. They look in silence at the primitive signs of civilisation. ANGLE ON: ANN looks up the STAIRCASE nervously ... taking in the sight of the HUMAN SKULLS lining the walls. 55. EXT. VENTURE - DAY JIMMY looks up, hollow-eyed ... in his hand is the copy of "HEART OF DARKNESS". HAYES stands nearby. ANGLE ON: JIMMY closing the BOOK, an ashen expression on his FACE. JIMMY Why does Marlow keep going up the river, why doesn't he turn back? HAYES shrugs) There's a part of him that wants to, Jimmy. A part, deep inside himself that sounds a warning, but there's another part, that needs to know ... that needs to defeat the thing which makes him afraid. CLOSE ON: HAYES pauses, filled with a sudden sense of DREAD. He reluctantly turns, his eyes drawn to the creepy CARVED HEAD towering above the SHIP. HAYES v/o "We could not understand, because we were too far ... and could not remember, because we were travelling in the night of First Ages ... LOSE ON: DENHAM obsessed ... cranking the handle of his CAMERA. HAYES V/O (cont'd) ... of those Ages that are gone, leaving hardly a sign and no memories ... INT. BURIAL CHAMBER - DAY DENHAM leads the GROUP across a RICKETY BAMBOO BRIDGE, spanning a section of BROKEN PATH. They pass BROKEN TOMBS, burial niches containing glimpses of MUMMIES. AHEAD ... DAYLIGHT streams in as they near the end of the STAIRCASE. They make their way over large stone blocks, caved in from above ... QUIET, TENSE. EXT. NATIVE VILLAGE/WALL - DAY THUNDER RUMBLES overhead as DENHAM, JACK, ANN, HERB, BRUCE, PRESTON, MIKE and 2 SAILORS clamber out of the RUINED TUNNEL MOUTH. DENHAM stays low, and hurries to a VANTAGE POINT. The OTHERS FOLLOW ... 56. HAYES V/O We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there, there you could look at a thing monstrous and free." CRANE UP: to reveal a PLATEAU below them, covered with the RUINS of an ANCIENT BURIAL GROUND ... stone MAUSOLEUMS and TOMBS, smashed open and destroyed. EXT. VENTURE - DAY ANGLE ON: JIMMY closes the BOOK. JIMMY (quiet) It's not an adventure story - is it, Mr. Hayes. HAYES (quiet) No, Jimmy, it's not. HAYES' EYES drift back to the STATUE. JIMMY follows his GAZE. EXT. NATIVE VILLAGE/WALL - DAY ANGLE ON: DENHAM as he leads the group into the village. SPREAD among the RUINS is a VILLAGE - a crude shanty town, created by a more recent and far less sophisticated culture ... ramshackle GRASS and BAMBOO HUTS. ANGLE ON: PRESTON looking around, UNNERVED ... PRESTON It's deserted ... ANGLE ON: DENHAM cranking the CAMERA as he rolls film on the VILLAGE. DENHAM Of course it's deserted. Use your eyes, Preston. The place is a ruin! Nobody's lived here for hundreds of years. At the moment they hear the sound of the SOBBING of a HUMAN CHILD ... ANGLES ON: ANN, PRESTON, JACK, DENHAM, HERB ... not knowing if they heard what they just heard ... ROW UPON ROW of sharpened BAMBOO SPIKES line the top of the WALL. CLOSE ON: DENHAM ... His eyes suddenly widen in disbelief. 57. ANGLE ON: A SMALL CHILD standing on the DUSTY PATH ahead of them. She stares up at them, with weird FERAL EYES. THE CHILD slowly raises an arm towards the watching GROUP ... in a pointing gesture. A suspended moment ... DENHAM steps forward. ANN (whispering) Mr Denham ... I think we should go back. DENHAM will handle this. DENHAM pulls a NESTLE BAR from his pocket and walks up to the CHILD. DENHAM waves the chocolate around. DENHAM (cont'd) Look chocolate ... you like chocolate? The CHILD'S EYES drill into DENHAM. RAIN STARTS FALLING. DENHAM (cont'd) Good to eat! Take it ... take it! The CHILD steps back. DENHAM grabs the CHILD by the wrist and attempts to press the chocolate bar into her HAND. The CHILD struggles and CRIES OUT! BRUCE. For Godsake, Denham, leave the native alone. JACK She doesn't want the chocolate! ANGLE ON: VILLAGERS begin to melt out of the shadows, OLD PEOPLE, YOUNG PEOPLE, WOMEN stare HOLLOW-EYED at DENHAM as he wrestles with the CHILD. he CHILD sinks her TEETH into DENHAM'S WRIST. He yells, releasing his grip. The CHILD runs off ... in to the arms of an OLD WOMAN ... 58. The GROUP starts to nervously walk forward, DENHAM gestures impatiently. DENHAM t's alright - it's just a bunch of women and old folks ... they're harmless. ANGLE ON: ANN looks STARTLED as MIKE suddenly LURCHES past her. ANN Mike? MIKE turns, gasping, staring at her helplessly! And then FALLS face forward, a JAGGED SPEAR stuck in his BACK! ANN steps back in HORROR and SCREAMS! A RUMBLING, BESTIAL ROAR fills the VILLAGE as if in answer to ANN'S CRY ... LOUD and CLOSE ... for a brief moment everyone freezes ... F AST ACTION: NATIVE MEN emerge as if from NOWHERE ... before anyone can react, they are roughly SHOVED and PULLED into the MIDST of the FURIOUS NATIVE MOB. In the SHADOWS the agitated WOMEN of the VILLAGE start rocking and wailing in unison. IMAGES: STRANGE FACES, smeared with MUD ... SCREECHING MOUTHS. BRUCE is HELD BACK by SEVERAL NATIVES as he struggles. JACK pulls ANN close to him, trying to protect her. ANN is wrenched from him ... She struggles against her captors ... ANGLE ON: A OLD-WOMAN moves through the midst of the VILLAGERS ... her gaze fixed on ANN, muttering curses, eyes burning with a dark fury ... DENHAM is YELLING at the NATIVES ... he is SHOVED to the GROUND. The NATIVES SHRIEK. One of the SAILORS is DRAGGED forward, his HEAD pushed against a FLAT STONE SLAB, and CLUBBED TO DEATH. ANGLE ON: In the midst of the CONFUSION, JACK sees the OLD SHA-WOMAN screaming at ANN. She starts chanting with rising HYSTERICS ... SHA-WOMAN (chanting) Larri yu sano korÍ ... Kweh yonÍ kah`weh ad-larr ... torÍ KÙng. CLOSE ON: JACK struggles, fists flying - he is clubbed and DROPS like a stone. ANN SCREAMS ... the BEAST ROARS in the DISTANCE! 59. DENHAM punches a NATIVE ... they haul him forward and thrust his HEAD onto the BLOOD SPLATTERED STONE ... NATIVE CLUBS rise into the air ... .. a GUNSHOT! The NATIVES hesitate, as if STUNNED ... then SCATTER. ENGLEHORN, HAYES and an ARMED GROUP of SAILORS race into the VILLAGE! ENGLEHORN roughly hauls DENHAM to his feet. ENGLEHORN Seen enough? W EXT. VENTURE - NIGHT IDE ON: As EACH WAVE hits the VENTURE, it GROANS and SCRAPES against the ROCKS - SHIFTING SLIGHTLY. EXT. VENTURE DECK - NIGHT NGLE ON: ENGLEHORN, desperate ... yelling at his CREW, above the HOWLING WIND. ENGLEHORN (yelling) Lighten the ship! Anything that's not bolted down goes overboard! ANGLES ON: As WAVES crash against the STRANDED SHIP, LUMPY, JIMMY, CHOY and the other SAILORS throw TABLES, CHESTS ... KITCHEN EQUIPMENT into the SEA. INT. DENHAM'S CABIN - NIGHT DENHAM is swigging from a HIP FLASK. HERB and PRESTON are gathered gloomily around a TABLE, while DENHAM strides around the ROOM, swigging and talking in a animated fashion. The STORM BATTERS and CRASHES outside. DENHAM We got away. We gotta be grateful for that gentlemen. PRESTON What about Mike? He didn't get away - he's still there! DENHAM (sharply) Mike died doing what he believed in! He didn't die for nothing. And I'll tell you something else - I'm going to finish this film - for Mike. 60. I'm going to NHAM(cont'd) donate the DE finish it and proceeds to his wife and kids - because that man is a hero and he deserves nothing less! HERB Hear! Hear! INT. ANN'S CABIN - NIGHT ANN alone in her CABIN, is overwhelmed by a terrible SENSE of FOREBODING ... SUDDENLY! A WAVE crashes against her WINDOW! SHE SPINS AROUND IN FRIGHT. As she turns slowly she catches sight of her terrified reflection in the MIRROR. EXT. ROCKS - NIGHT ANGLE ON: NATIVES are moving towards the VENTURE ... UT TO: INT. ANN'S CABIN - NIGHT A growing sense of UNEASE fills ANN with DREAD. CUT TO: EXT. ROCKS - NIGHT ANGLE ON: using LONG BAMBOO POLES, A NATIVE silently VAULTS from ROCK to ROCK over the STORMY SEAS ... towards the GROUNDED SHIP E EXT. VENTURE DECK - NIGHT NGLE ON: A SKULL ISLANDER LANDS on the BACK DECK of the VENTURE UNSEEN! He CROUCHES in the shadows ... INT. MESS ROOM - NIGHT CLOSE ON: JACK sprawled on a BENCH SEAT in the MESS ... a LOUD METALLIC CREAK wakes him up. He rolls over, tries to focus ... he touches his hand to the back of his HEAD ... when he withdraws his hand ... his fingers are covered in BLOOD. SUDDENLY LUMPY and a SAILOR pick the TABLE up from under him and carry it outside. CUT TO: 61. INT. ANN'S CABIN - NIGHT CLOSE ON: ANN, a sense of foreboding... EXT. VENTURE DECK - NIGHT ANGLE ON: JACK staggers on to the BACK DECK, clutching a railing to steady himself. He suddenly discovers a NATIVE NECKLACE on the DECK ... ... JACK stares at the NECKLACE, decorated with a MONKEY SKULL, a look of HORRIFIED REALIZATION growing. JIMMY is racing past, JACK grabs him: JACK Where's Ann? JIMMY She went to her cabin. INT. ANN'S CABIN - NIGHT ANN alone in her CABIN. She looks down and notices her HANDS are TREMBLING. UDDENLY! Her CABIN door starts to rattle. She swings around in FRIGHT, to see cabin's DOOR HANDLE - which is turning ... ANGLE ON: ANN'S FACE as her CABIN DOOR opens ... INT. VENTURE CORRIDOR - NIGHT ANGLE ON: JACK desperately pushes past CREW in the CROWDED, panicked CORRIDOR, trying to get to ANN'S CABIN ... EXT. VENTURE - NIGHT WIDE ON: The VENTURE at the MERCY of the RAGING SEAS as it moves even closer to the REEF. INT. VENTURE CORRIDORS - NIGHT ANGLE ON: JACK loses his footing as the SHIP lurches VIOLENTLY. He lands on the floor ... CLOSE ON: JACK looks down the length of the CORRIDOR ... the DOOR of ANN'S CABIN is swinging open. INT. ANN'S CABIN - NIGHT LOSE ON: The SHIP ROLLS as JACK staggers into ANN'S CABIN ... SHOCKED to find it EMPTY with clear signs of a STRUGGLE. 62. INT. WHEELHOUSE - NIGHT ANGLE ON: HAYES desperately trying to control the WHEEL. EXT. VENTURE - NIGHT WIDE ON: The VENTURE floats free! A LOUD CHEER goes up from the CREW! INT. WHEELHOUSE - NIGHT ANGLE ON: ENGLEHORN shouts the command ... ENGLEHORN Wheel amidship ... Full ahead, both engines. EXT. VENTURE - NIGHT IDE ON: The VENTURE plows between the JAGGED ROCKS off toward OPEN SEA ... INT. ANN'S CABIN JACK bursts into the CABIN. CLOTHES are SCATTERED EVERYWHERE. clearly a sign of a struggle. JACK Ann! INT. VENTURE CORRIDOR - NIGHT NGLE ON: JACK races down the CORRIDOR finding a DEAD CREW MEMBER lying below the STAIRS! EXT. SKULL ISLAND SHORE - NIGHT ANGLE ON: ANN in the NATIVE'S GRIP ... they are being PULLED through the STORMY SEAS onto the SHORE, by the other NATIVES HAULING on a ROPE. ANN is HALF DROWNED. The VENTURE is barely visible moving through the SEA SPRAY. EXT. VENTURE DECKS - NIGHT ANGLE ON: ENGLEHORN comes out of the WHEELHOUSE - JACK is on the LOWER DECK. JACK (O.S.) top! Stop! Turn back, we have to turn back! 63. ANGLE ON: ENGLEHORN turns - he can hear the alarm in JACK's VOICE. JACK (cont'd) They've taken Ann! CLOSE ON: ENGLEHORN, he glances back at the ISLAND as the VENTURE ploughs towards the open sea. ANGLE ON: An ORANGE GLOW of FIRELIGHT is VISIBLE, emanating from the NATIVE VILLAGE. EXT. NATIVE VILLAGE/WALL - NIGHT NGLE ON: ANN being DRAGGED through a FRENZY OF FEARFUL Skull Island NATIVES. GLIMPSES of WAILING ... COWERING ... CHANTING. FLAMES BLAZE along the TOP OF THE WALL. CLOSE ON: A withered old WOMAN, EYES RED in some DRUG induced TRANCE, speaks in TONGUES. ANN is forced to her knees. The OLD WOMAN splashes some foul LIQUID into her face ... younger WOMEN tie BRACELETS on her wrists. EXT. VENTURE DECKS - NIGHT ANGLE ON: COVERS are pulled off lifeboats as the SHIP'S CREW gather EQUIPMENT. CLOSE ON: HAYES yelling commands: HAYES All hands going ashore ... CRASH CUT TO: INT. ENGLEHORN'S CABIN - NIGHT HAYES V/O ... report to stations! Jump to it! ENGLEHORN LIFTS UP THE WINDOW SEAT ... revealing a ROW of TOMMY GUNS hidden there. ANGLES ON: GUNS are handed out. EXT. VENTURE DECKS - NIGHT ANGLE ON: EQUIPMENT and RIFLES are THROWN IN. The ENTIRE SHIP'S CREW is MOBILIZING. HAYES (V.O.) What the hell are you doing? You want that boat to sink? Stow those rifles midships - come on, hurry it up! 64. ANGLE ON: DENHAM surreptitiously supervises HERB and PRESTON as they load CAMERA EQUIPMENT on board one of the BOATS ... ANGLE ON: JACK loading a BOX of AMMUNITION on to the other BOAT ... he looks tensely at the FIRES burning on the ISLAND. ANGLE ON: The TWO BOATS are swung out and LOWERED. HAYES (cont'd) Lower away! EXT. VENTURE - NIGHT he TWO BOATS ROW AWAY from the SHIP, packed with SHIP'S CREW ... in one BOAT are DENHAM, PRESTON and HERB - clutching CAMERA EQUIPMENT. ANGLE ON: JACK in the OTHER BOAT, looking GRIM and DETERMINED. EXT. SKULL ISLAND COAST - NIGHT ANGLE ON: the TINY BOATS are tossed in the RAGING SEAS. SAILORS try to STEER them towards the SHORE, as they bounce off ROCKS and STATUES. EXT. TOP OF WALL - NIGHT LOSE ON: FLAMING TORCHES ignite POOLS of OIL along the length of the TOP of the WALL. ANGLES ON: ANN'S WRIST'S are TIED outstretched to BAMBOO POSTS. She is on the SUMMIT of the WALL, lit by the flickering FLAMES ... looking out onto DARK TREE TOPS. F LAMES DANCE ... DRUMS BEAT in a RITUALISTIC FRENZY. ANGLE ON: SKULL ISLANDERS knock away WOODEN PLUGS, releasing the FLAMING OIL to pour down rough CHANNELS hewn into the STONE of the WALL ... it runs and falls down CHUTES into POOLS carved into the GROTTO WALLS. WIDE ON: The CLIFF WALLS light up as FLAMES within LARGE CARVED CHAMBERS create huge backlit PAGAN FACES. FIRELIGHT dances across the nightmarish JUNGLE ... DISTANT TREES start to TREMBLE, their canopies swaying as if PUSHED by an UNSEEN FORCE. CLOSE ON: ANN ... looking on with HORROR at the MOVEMENT in the JUNGLE below her. She struggles against the ROPES, to no avail. CLOSE ON: The OLD WOMAN, eyes rolled up in her head. LOSE ON: A NECKLACE is placed over ANN'S head. 65. ANGLE ON: A SHAMAN starts BEATING out a RHYTHM on a LOG DRUM ... SKULL ISLANDERS fall to their KNEES ... a MOANING WAIL rises ... the DRUMMING builds to a FRENZIED CLIMAX. WIDE ON: On the OTHER SIDE, the WALL falls away vertically into a ROCKY GROTTO, leading into the DENSE TANGLED JUNGLE of SKULL ISLAND. SUDDENLY ANN feels herself DRAGGED FORWARD ... the POSTS she is tied to are MOVING, pulling her TOWARDS the EDGE of the WALL! ANN digs her heels and tries to PULL AGAINST it, but is unable to stop herself being HAULED OFF THE WALL ... . .. into thin air! ANGLE ON: SKULL ISLANDERS lowering the BAMBOO ALTAR STRUCTURE DOWN, slowly releasing the flaxen ROPE. ANN is dangling from the POSTS by her WRISTS, as the HINGED FRAMEWORK swings her out over the CHASM, LOWERING her towards a ROCK PROMONTORY on the EDGE of the FOREST. NGLE ON: ANN is LOWERED onto the ROCK PROMONTORY, which resembles an ALTAR ... ANN struggles to free herself, but she is tied fast to the posts, a TINY FIGURE illuminated by enormous GLOWING CARVINGS ... the WALL towering up behind her. ANGLES ON: ANN squirms ... as the FOREST BELOW HER BROILS and SEETHES! TREES are violently SWAYING ... above the crescendo of the NATIVE FRENZY, ANGRY BESTIAL ROARS can be heard. SKULL ISLANDERS line the TOP of the WALL, their WAILING and CHANTING interrupted by a LOUD SPLINTERING SOUND. EXT. SKULL ISLAND SHORE - NIGHT The SHIP'S BOATS pull up at the foot of the great STAIRCASE. JACK leaps out of the BOAT and races up the stairs. EXT. WALL GROTTO - NIGHT CLOSE ON: ANN lifts her head ... something VERY BIG is moving towards HER. ANN catches a BRIEF GLIMPSE of a HUGE DARK SHAPE propelling itself THROUGH the JUNGLE ... the OILY SMOKE from the FIRES hangs in the air, OBSCURING HER VISION ... she can now only hear the CREATURE'S MOVEMENTS and BREATH as it draws ever closer. ANN cowers back, pulling at her bonds. A MASSIVE SHAPE moves through the air ... The ground SHAKES with a sudden force of IMPACT! ANGLE ON: ANN stands trembling, as the swirling smokey cloud slowly DISSIPATES ... a GIANT LEATHERY FOOT is visible. CLOSE ON: ANN balanced on a knife-edge of TERROR. 66. A SUDDEN PUFF OF WIND INSTANTLY CLEARS THE VEILING SMOKE. ANN slowly LOOKS UP, her face filled with DREAD. The SKULL ISLANDERS reply in UNISON ... a piercing WAIL, from the TOP of the WALL. ANN'S strength suddenly DRAINS from her legs, and SLUMPS between the POSTS. Before her is ... KONG! A 25 FOOT TALL MALE GORILLA! KONG stares at ANN for a beat, leaning forward on his KNUCKLES ... then prods her with his finger. SUDDENLY ... GUNSHOTS! EXT. NATIVE VILLAGE/WALL - NIGHT FRENZIED MOVEMENT: SAILORS, lead by ENGLEHORN, race into the VILLAGE firing WARNING SHOTS in the air ... SKULL ISLANDERS SCATTER in TERROR ... EXT. WALL GROTTO - NIGHT IDE ON: KONG in front of ANN ... HE RISES to his full height and BEATS HIS CHEST! KONG'S HUGE HAND snatches ANN and roughly PULLS her free of her bonds. DEAFENING ROAR! ANN SCREAMS! CLUTCHING her tightly, KONG carries ANN away from the ALTAR. EXT. NATIVE VILLAGE/WALL - NIGHT FRENZIED MOVEMENT: SAILORS, lead by ENGLEHORN, race into the VILLAGE firing WARNING SHOTS in the air ... SKULL ISLANDERS SCATTER in TERROR ... ANGLES ON: The SKULL ISLANDERS melt away into the darkness ... vanishing as fast as they appeared. ... from behind the WALL, the DISTANT CRY of ANN screaming for help, following by an EARTH SHUDDERING ROAR. ENGLEHORN (staring upwards) What in God's name was that? JACK (sudden realisation) Behind the wall! 67. ANGLE ON: JACK rushes to the BASE of the WALL and begins to climb ... DENHAM hurries to the massive, heavily fortified gate. C LOSE ON: DENHAM staring through the LATTICE WORK of sharpened bamboo ... DENHAM'S POV: A fleeting glimpse of KONG disappearing into the depths of the jungle. In his HUGE FIST KONG clutches ANN! EXT. TOP OF WALL - NIGHT NGLE ON: JACK has reached the top of the WALL ... he races to the EDGE peering over it. Nothing ... only the primitive ALTAR, and beyond, DARK JUNGLE dissolving into BLACKNESS. JACK'S POV: The EMPTY ROPES binding ANN'S WRISTS swing from the ALTAR POSTS. JACK (disbelief) She's gone! EXT. NATIVE VILLAGE/WALL - NIGHT ACK is hurrying down from the WALL. JACK She's gone! CLOSE ON: DENHAM in SHOCK ... his mind racing, fuelled by FEAR. Gradually his breathing slows and another part of his brain kicks into gear. JACK makes brief eye contact with DENHAM, who quickly looks away. JACK (cont'd) Carl? What is it? (realizing) You saw something ... LATER ... ANGLE ON: BOXES of AMMUNITION and GUNS have been brought up from the beach. Lids are prised open ... AMMO distributed. DENHAM is surrounded by JACK, ENGLEHORN and the SAILORS. ENGLEHORN You can take Hayes and fifteen others. I'll put a guard on the gate until you return ... The rest of you, stay with the ship. JACK grabs his PACK and WALKS away TOWARDS THE GATE, with LUMPY & JIMMY following. 68. HAYES Not you, Jimmy. JIMMY Com'on Mr. Hayes, look at `em. None of them knows a which way to point a gun. HAYES takes the RIFLE out of JIMMY'S HANDS. HAYES Stay here. JIMMY Miss Darrow needs me! HAYES No! CLOSE ON: JIMMY, crestfallen. ANGLE ON: DENHAM by the CAMERA BOXES with HERB and PRESTON. DENHAM (quietly) Bring the tripod - and all of the film stock. HERB You wanna go with the six inch lens? DENHAM The wide angle will do just fine. CLOSE ON: PRESTON slings the FILM STOCK BAG over his SHOULDER. ANGLE ON: JACK, PRESTON, HAYES, LUMPY, CHOY, BRUCE and 8 SAILORS as ENGLEHORN surveys the GROUP. DENHAM and HERB are HAULING CAMERA EQUIPMENT. ENGLEHORN You got guns, you got food, you got ammo. You got twenty-four hours. BRUCE Twenty-four hours? ENGLEHORN This time tomorrow we haul anchor. CLOSE ON: JACK ... as he slings his GUN on his shoulder, turns and HEADS through the GATE. EXT. SKULL ISLAND JUNGLE - NIGHT WIDE ON: The VOLCANIC ROCKS form a JAGGED, TORTURED LANDSCAPE of DEEP CREVASSES and TOWERING CLIFFS. The vegetation is THICK, the JUNGLE DARK. ANCIENT GNARLED TREES twist out of the ground, thick LICHEN and long MOSSES hang from branches and TANGLED VINES. STEAM RISES from festering SWAMPS ... 69. HAYES is LEADING DENHAM, JACK, PRESTON, LUMPY, CHOY, BRUCE and EIGHT SAILORS. HERB is limping along with the heavy CAMERA on his shoulder. The atmosphere is TENSE ... unseen creatures scurry in the darkness, fleeing from the approaching humans. HAYES puts his hands up ... the GROUP stops ... a STRANGE, LOW MOAN echoes from the SURROUNDING JUNGLE ... The MEN stare into the darkness ... watchful, on edge ... EXT. KILLING GROUND - NIGHT CLOSE ON: ANN in KONG'S HAND, being tossed around like a rag doll as KONG RUNS through the FOREST. NGLE ON: KONG propels himself through the JUNGLE with EASE, barely disturbing the forest, moving with GRACE along a well used route. LOSE ON: ANN held fast in his GRIP. She is FLUNG wildly around as KONG BOUNDS across CHASMS, LEAPING over rivers. ANN'S FEVERED POV: The JUNGLE SPINNING and BLURRING by. She tries to brace herself against KONG'S FINGERS, but the rigors of the journey knock her sideways like a RAG DOLL. WIDE ON: SHAFTS of MOONLIGHT play on the faces of grotesque STATUES set into a MOSSY CLIFF. ANGLE ON: ANN clutched tightly in KONG'S HAND. She is rigid with FEAR. KONG squats down ... he LOOKS CLOSELY at ANN. CLOSE ON: KONG ... we see him clearly for the first time. A very old, brutish BULL GORILLA. Years of survival have left SCARS on his face. One EYE LID is mangled and his JAW is CROOKED ... leaving a huge yellowed INCISOR TOOTH jutting up. KONG stares at ANN ... she dare not move; only her RAPID BREATHING belies her INNER TERROR. ANGLE ON: ANN is suddenly swung UPSIDE DOWN and SHAKEN ... the ceremonial NECKLACE falls from ANN'S NECK. CLOSE ON: ANN'S HORRIFIED FACE ... she sees HUMAN REMAINS amongst the NECKLACES! Bones ... skulls! A WHIMPERING SOUND escapes from the back of her throat. SWIRLING UPSIDE DOWN POV: The NECKLACE lands on the ground - amid DOZENS of OTHER NECKLACES littering the clearing. ANGLE ON: ANN is lifted UPWARDS ... KONG'S LIPS curl in a low, slow SNARL. ANN looks at KONG, aghast, and in this moment her heightened sense of FEAR gives way to something more fundamental: SELF PRESERVATION! 70. KONG'S FINGERS start to OPEN - ANN seizes her chance! She suddenly PROPELS herself off his HAND! ANN DROPS 12 feet and lands heavily at KONG'S FEET. She rolls amongst grinning HUMAN SKULLS and LEG BONES ... staggers to her feet and RUNS! KONG rises up with a ROAR, but ANN is already disappearing into the JUNGLE! EXT. DENSE JUNGLE - NIGHT NGLES ON: ANN desperately powering through the DENSE UNDERGROWTH. She throws herself over huge FALLEN LOGS, through TANGLED VINES. . She GLANCES BACK ... .. TREES are FALLING, KONG is smashing through the undergrowth after her! ANGLE ON: With surprising AGILITY and GRACE, KONG sweeps down from above and SCOOPS ANN off the ROCK. She barely has time to CRY OUT before being CARRIED AWAY, as KONG disappears into the DEPTHS of the ISLAND. EXT. TANGLED VINES - NIGHT CLOSE ON: JACK ... hearing ANN'S DISTANT SCREAMS! JACK Ann! ANGLE ON: JACK starts RUNNING towards the SOUND. DENHAM and the OTHERS follow ... JACK is barging through THICK TANGLED VEGETATION, which is growing between huge moss covered FALLEN COLUMNS. KONG'S ENRAGED ROAR echos through the JUNGLE. JACK (cont'd) (yelling) Ann! EXT. TANGLED VINES - NIGHT ANGLE ON: The GROUP pause at the sound of ANN'S TERRIFIED SCREAM. CLOSE ON: JACK'S ashen face. EXT. DENSE JUNGLE - NIGHT ONG LEAPS ACROSS CHASMS as he CARRIES ANN through the JUNGLE. EXT. KILLING GROUND - DAWN ANGLE ON: JACK picks up ANN'S NECKLACE ... a LOCK of BLONDE HAIR still tangled within it's STRANDS ... 71. WIDE ON: DAWN LIGHT brightens the SKY as the GROUP survey the KILLING GROUND. LUMPY Christ! It's a bleeding bone yard! (horrified realization) They've been ripped limb from limb. JACK (calling) ANN! Ann! ANGLE ON: DENHAM casts an eye over the DEBRIS STREWN GROUND ... his gaze rising to a HUGE GASH in the FOREST ... DENHAM POV: TREES have been RIPPED from the earth where KONG has SMASHED a path through the JUNGLE ... ANGLE ON: HAYES notices a SAILOR with a WOOLLEN HAT pulled down over his head ... the SAILOR has turned away from the GRISLY REMAINS. HAYES bats the hat off the SAILOR'S HEAD ... it's JIMMY. JIMMY Just keep walking, Mr. Hayes. Pretend you didn't see me. HAYES esus, Jimmy! HAYES snatches the GUN off him ... JIMMY defiant) Hey! I need that! HAYES (angry) I'm not giving you a gun! JIMMY You were younger than me when they gave you one! HAYES I was in the army. I was trained - I had a drill sergeant! CLOSE ON: JIMMY looks at HAYES. IMMY quietly) I just wanna help bring her back. HAYES's expression softens. He hands the gun back to JIMMY. HAYES Don't make me regret it. 72. EXT. ROUGH TERRAIN - DAY ANGLE ON: The GROUP'S NERVES are FRAYED ... as they continue slogging through the difficult TERRAIN. HUGE INSECTS fly around them, AND THE GROUP try in vain to SWAT them away. ANGLE ON: LUMPY shooting WILDLY at a HUGE BUG ... HAYES growling) Conserve your ammunition! LUMPY GLARES at HAYES ... and SHOOTS one last time at a HUGE BUG ON A NEARBY TREE ... EXT. RUINED VALLEY - DAY ANGLE ON: SLIDING FEET ... down a VINE strewn slope. ULL BACK to reveal ... the GROUP have emerged from the JUNGLE into a NARROW VALLEY, deep in the heart of SKULL ISLAND ... The VALLEY is less than 75 feet wide, flanked by sheer CLIFFS. JACK looks up and down the VALLEY ... he wipes his brow .. the SUN is high, it is hot out of the SHADE. ANGLE ON: LUMPY stumbling forward with a hacking SMOKER'S COUGH. LUMPY I'm knackered! I've gotta have a breather. LUMPY flops down on the ground, and grabs a cigarette from behind his ear and lights up. JACK watches as OTHER SAILORS follow suit. JACK Hey fellas - we don't have time for this. We've lost too much ground already! Come on, - get up! HAYES (quiet) They're not about to quit on you. Cut them some slack. JACK stares at HAYES and then sighs, resigned. HAYES calls to the MEN ... HAYES (cont'd) Alright, you got five minutes! Everybody stay in sight! ANGLE ON: DENHAM grabs the CAMERA from HERB. Nearby PRESTON sets up the TRIPOD. 73. DENHAM (hushed) Over here. I wanna get a wide shot of the valley. NGLE ON: DENHAM as he arrives at the top of the SLOPE, he turns at the sound of a STRANGE NOISE ... PUSH IN: ON DENHAM ... a look of AMAZEMENT dawning on his FACE. CLOSE ON: JACK kneels down and stares at an unmistakable indent in the sand: a GIANT FOOTPRINT! LUMPY Bloody Nora! JACK looks up to see SAILORS gathering around. JIMMY Is that what took Miss Darrow? LUMPY (sagely) There's only one creature capable of leaving a footprint that size ... ALL look up at LUMPY ... LUMPY (cont'd) The abominable snowman! A ripple of FEAR spreads throughout the CROWD. The RATTLED SAILORS mutter agreement. There is random chatter of turning back. HAYES kneels down beside JACK ... HAYES (quiet) It's gotta be - what? Twenty - twenty- five feet? JACK (grimly) Carl saw it. Let's ask him. HAYES looks over his SHOULDER ... HAYES Denham! no answer) Where'd he go? ANGLE ON: JACK walking up the VALLEY. JACK Carl!!! 74. WIDE ON: DENHAM, BRUCE and HERB arrive at the TOP of the VALLEY A ... they stare transfixed at a HERD of grazing BRONTOSAURS. NGLE ON: DENHAM is cranking the CAMERA ... DENHAM low) Walk forward, Bruce. BRUCE What?! ANGLE ON: a HERD of TWELVE BRONTOSAURS are slowly moving through a WIDE CLEARING ahead. DENHAM You're the star of this picture! Get into character and head towards the animals. ANGLE ON: BRUCE nervously SHUFFLES forward ... BRUCE What the hell kind of place is this? (beat) Are you sure about this, Denham??? Don't we have a stand-in for this type of thing? DENHAM need you in the shot, or people will say they're fake. BRUCE Nobody's gonna think these are fake! SUDDEN flash of MOVEMENT! CARNOTAURS are circling the HERD. ANGLE ON: the BRONTOSAUR HERD looking EDGY and RESTLESS! DENHAM ou're making them nervous! No sudden movement. BRUCE I'm not moving. A LOW RUMBLING SOUND can now be heard ... the GROUND starts to SHAKE ... PUSH IN: on BRUCE as he realizes what is about to HAPPEN! BRUCE (cont'd) (under his breath) Mother of God ... ANGLE ON: BRUCE suddenly turns and runs! ANGLE ON: HERB is starting to get NERVOUS as DENHAM determinedly continues filming ... 75. WIDE ON: A sudden FALL of ROCKS ... Jack looks up! ANGLE ON: The MEN look NERVOUS as the GROUND starts to TREMBLE beneath their feet! JACK turns and sees: BRUCE running down the hill ... JACK What is it?! Where's Carl? BRUCE slows down, attempting to appear CALM. BRUCE He's - he's ... um ... well, he's up there ... filming. A LOUD ROAR! BRUCE bolts like a STARTLED RABBIT! SEVERAL nervous SAILORS jump up and start running. ANGLE ON: JACK cautiously moves uphill towards the source of the LOUD RUMBLING SOUND. A NGLE ON: DENHAM and HERB appear on the brow of the HILL. They are running flat out towards JACK! Seconds later a HERD of BRONTOSAURUS stampede down the hill after DENHAM and HERB! DENHAM Run Jack! JACK Holy Christ! HAYES (yelling) Go Jimmy - Run! EVERYONE TURNS and FLEES! ANGLE ON: JACK running ... he looks back and sees DENHAM trip and fall! The STAMPEDING DINOSAURS storm towards DENHAM down the NARROW VALLEY! CLOSE ON: DENHAM is frozen to the spot, staring at the CAMERA, which is lying directly in the rampaging DINOSAUR'S PATH. JACK turns back ... he attempts to drag DENHAM to his FEET, as DENHAM struggles to grab hold of the CAMERA and TRIPOD. JACK Leave it!!! DENHAM No!!! 76. DENHAM and JACK scramble to their feet and start to RUN! DENHAM cradles the CAMERA and TRIPOD in his ARMS, as the BRONTO PACK bears down on them from behind! Spectacular TRACKING SHOT: ... The PACK of 15 CARNOTAURS are CLOSING IN on the BRONTOSAURUS HERD! A CARNOTAUR leaps onto the back of a FLEEING BRONTOSAUR, causing it to falter and slide against the cliff. TWO MORE CARNOTAURS leap onto the ailing BRONTOSAUR as the rest of the pack stream past. DENHAM, JACK and the OTHERS are running as fast as they can ... JACK glances over his shoulder - the WALL of THUNDERING BRONTOSAUR LEGS are about to ENGULF THEM! A NGLE ON: JACK and DENHAM suddenly find themselves in a SEA of HUGE LEGS - like wildly pounding Redwood tree trunks! The CARNOTAURS are snapping and snarling at the LEGS ... they see the MEN! Their only hope of survival is to stay WITHIN THE STAMPEDE, out of reach of the MEATEATERS! QUICK IMAGES: THE GROUP in the SEA of LEGS ... a SAILOR trips and is CRUSHED UNDERFOOT. A COUPLE OF SAILORS jump clear of the BRONTOSAURS - only to be set on by the CARNOTAURS. JACK ... DENHAM ... SAILORS ... everyone is running madly, dodging BRONTOSAURS, CARNOTAURS and trying not to fall! A CARNOTAUR focuses on JACK ... it skillfully weaves IN BETWEEN and UNDER the BRONTOSAURS and emerges right behind JACK, it's SNAPPING JAWS inches away from his head! ACK suddenly SIDE-STEPS, and SHOULDER-BARGES the CARNOTAUR SIDEWAYS - under a BRONTOSAUR'S LEGS. The CARNOTAUR is instantly trampled! BRUCE is managing to stay ahead of the stampede - possibly RUNNING FASTER than any human before him! A CARNOTAUR races out in front of the stampede and bears down on BRUCE with incredible speed! BRUCE desperately waves a TOMMY GUN at the CARNOTAUR ... TOWARDS THE STAMPEDE! JACK sees it coming ... JACK (yelling) No!!!! BRUCE FIRES, missing the CARNOTAUR ... ... but he hits the LEAD BRONTOSAUR, following behind, in the chest. The BRONTOSAUR COLLAPSES AT TOP SPEED! It CARTWHEELS OVER, it's huge NECK and TAIL thrashing out. The OTHER BRONTOSAURS PLOUGH INTO IT, tripping and rolling! JACK and the SAILORS suddenly find themselves in the middle of an amazing FLESHY FREIGHT TRAIN PILE-UP! SAILORS are crushed as BRONTOSAURS come down on top of them! A CARNOTAUR is squashed when TWO BRONTOSAURS slam together. JACK rolls against a rock as MOUNTAINS of BRONTOSAUR TUMBLE all around him. 77. DENHAM throws himself onto the ground, shielding the CAMERA. n the space of seconds, the MIGHTY HERD OF BEHEMOTHS is reduced to a VAST PILE of DEAD or WOUNDED ANIMALS ... The CARNOTAURS immediately go to work, leaping onto BRONTOSAURS, ripping into fleshy stomachs. J ACK crawls past huge HEAVING BELLIES and TWITCHING LEGS ... he staggers out of the DINOSAUR PILE-UP ... he turns back at the SOUND OF LOUD HISSING - a CARNOTAURUS is climbing over a DEAD BRONTOSAUR, it's gleaming eyes intent on JACK. The CARNOTAURUS leaps ... BAM! BAM! BAM! The CARNOTAURUS is riddled with BULLETS and falls DEAD at JACK'S FEET! HAYES hurries towards JACK, clutching his TOMMY GUN! HAYES (yelling) Go! Go! HAYES sends the rest of the MEN up a steep ROCKY SLOPE ... they SLIP and SLIDE on the SLIMY MOSS-COVERED ROCKS. JACK doesn't move. He looks around in mounting panic. JACK (frantic) Carl!? Carl?! Get up! DENHAM limps out of the PILE-UP, bloodied and covered in DUST - the CAMERA in his arms. HAYES blasts at another CARNOTAURUS - it TOPPLES BACKWARDS. HAYES Run! EXT. SLIMY SLOPE - DAY The GROUP are desperately scrambling up the STEEP ROCKY SLOPE - slipping and sliding on the WET MOSS ... FOUR SURVIVING CARNOTAURS follow in pursuit ... the MEN start sliding backwards in their panic. The CARNOTAURS are sliding too, but their powerful legs are working furiously, propelling them closer and closer to the flailing SAILORS! A SAILOR loses his footing completely ... he rolls past TWO CARNOTAURS before being grabbed by the JAWS of the THIRD. The MEN grab hold of WEEDS, ROCKS ... ANYTHING, to get away from the DINOSAURS. They are crawling towards a network of NARROW FISSURES between HUGE ROCKS ... which the CARNOTAURS cannot squeeze through. ANGLE ON: HERB is scrabbling up as best as he can with his bad leg ... DENHAM moves towards him, reaching desperately ... 78. DENHAM Herb! Come on! HERB (gasping) Mr Denham ... ! Take the tripod. DENHAM Come on Herb - I'm pulling you up. Come on, hold on to your end. HERB (gasping) You gotta go!! DENHAM I'm not going anywhere without you! HERB You gotta leave me! HERB is straining to hold the TRIPOD when his GAMMY LEG gives way ... he SLIPS and ROLLS into the path of an oncoming CARNOTAUR! CLOSE ON: DENHAM reacting in SHOCK as HERB is KILLED by the frenzying CARNOTAURS. EXT. JUNGLE RUINS - DAY ANGLE ON: KONG drops ANN onto the ground. She LANDS in a LIFELESS heap. KONG has dropped ANN in a small RUINED COURTYARD, it's WALLS are cracked and split by encroaching JUNGLE CREEPERS. IDE ON: KONG circles around ANN who lies MOTIONLESS on the GROUND. He PRODS her ROUGHLY with a FINGER ... no response. KONG GROWLS ... PRODS AGAIN ... ANN lies STILL. LOSE ON: ANN ... she slowly OPENS HER EYES! ANN looks warily towards KONG. EXT. EDGE OF SWAMP - DAY ACK, DENHAM, HAYES, BRUCE, JIMMY, LUMPY, CHOY and PRESTON clamber down a JAGGED ROCK face into lush sub-tropical VEGETATION. They are followed by a few surviving SAILORS - a bedraggled GROUP ... CUT, BRUISED, COVERED in DUST, SOAKED in SWEAT. Most of the GUNS are lost. AILORS slump to the ground, EXHAUSTED. They are on a NARROW CLEARING at the edge of a MISTY SWAMP. SHEER CLIFFS rise out of the SWAMP on both sides of the SHORE. HAYES Jimmy, do a head count. I wanna know how many injured and how bad - 79. LUMPY (interrupting) Injured? Four of us are dead! CLOSE ON: DENHAM reaches with a trembling hand for his HIP FLASK. He takes a big SWIG ... and stands staring out over the SWAMP. PRESTON sits on A TREE STUMP nearby. PRESTON It's not your fault. What happened to Herb - it's no ones fault. DENHAM (soft realization) You're absolutely right, Preston ... And I'll tell you something else. Herbert didn't die for nothing. He died for what he believed in and I'm gonna honour that. CLOSE ON: DENHAM reaching for that moment of self justification. DENHAM (cont'd) He died believing there is still some mystery left in this world - and we can all have a piece of it - for the price of an admission ticket! (excited) Goddammit Preston we're gonna finish this film for Herb. We'll finish it, and donate the proceeds to his wife and kids. CLOSE ON: PRESTON, he has heard this all before. WIDE ON: BRUCE stands amongst the SEATED SAILORS. BRUCE (desperate) We gotta get back to the ship. Englehorn sails in nine hours. JIMMY So? We gotta find Miss Darrow. BRUCE Hey, did you hear me? We're gonna be stranded here! BRUCE becomes aware of JACK staring at him COLDLY. BRUCE self consciously clears his THROAT. BRUCE (cont'd) Miss Darrow was a great gal - no question. She was a wonderful person. It's a terrible loss. We're all gonna miss her. 80. JACK I always knew you were nothing like the tough guy you play on screen - I just never figured you for a coward. BRUCE Hey, pal, wake up. Heroes don't look like me - not in the real world. In the real world they've got bad teeth, a bald spot and a beer gut ... be seeing ya. BRUCE walks off. HAYES turns to the rest of the GROUP. HAYES Anyone else? A couple of SAILORS shuffle forward towards BRUCE. EXT. JUNGLE RUINS - DAY WIDE ON: KONG SITS on the EDGE of a RUIN, surveying the JUNGLE. He SITS with his BACK to ANN, in the crumbling remains of an enclosed ENTRY AREA ... which also provides the only way out. ith a splintering rip, KONG pulls off one of the DINOSAUR'S LEGS and starts EATING it. ANGLE ON: ANN, having feigned unconsciousness, she now cautiously searches for a way to escape. C LOSE ON: ANN LIFTING HER HEAD, risking a quick look around. The WALLS are TOO STEEP to attempt an escape ... ... but there is a NARROW STAIRWAY across the COURTYARD, leading down into the JUNGLE. INCH by INCH ANN starts to EDGE FORWARD, CRAWLING on her STOMACH towards the STAIRS. KONG is CHEWING NOISILY ... he SHIFTS HIS WEIGHT, half turning ... ANN FREEZES. ONG GLANCES at ANN, who has resumed her LIFELESS POSE. KONG doesn't appear to notice she's moved several feet. He continues EATING ... ANN again starts to EDGE FORWARD ... she is STARTLED when some CREEPY INSECTS swarm out of a CRACK in the FLAGSTONES, inches from her FACE! With only a few feet left to go, ANN quietly rises and scurries towards the STAIRWAY. She clambers into the NARROW PASSAGE - finally out of KONG'S SIGHT! Glancing back over her shoulder, ANN hurries down the STAIRWAY towards FREEDOM! 81. EXT. BOTTOM OF STAIRWAY/JUNGLE - DAY ANN pauses at the BOTTOM of the STAIRS, listening for sounds of KONG. All is QUIET ... she glances back up the stairs ... no sign of him there ... ... gathering all her strength ANN emerges from the PASSAGE and makes a bold run across the CLEARING towards the cover of the JUNGLE! THUD! KONG'S FIST SLAMS DOWN in FRONT of ANN! She GASPS and tries to change direction ... THUD! Another FIST blocks her way. KONG GROWLS ANGRILY! ANN swings around and FACES KONG ... he SNARLS at HER, FURIOUS and DEADLY. NGLE ON: ANN suddenly ducks under KONG'S ARM and makes a last ditch attempt to escape! She is half way across the clearing when she TRIPS and FALLS! NGLE ON: KONG bounds over to ANN, SLAPPING his HANDS on the GROUND in a frenzy of excitement - he utters a GUTTERAL SQUEAL. CLOSE ON: ANN, flat on the ground, eyes shut, lying still. ANGLE ON: KONG .. circling around ANN, SUSPICIOUS. He PRODS her a couple of times ...no response. KONG moves on ... ANN'S EYES flick OPEN! At that moment KONG doubles back - CATCHING her out! ... ANN SPRINGS UP, looks at KONG for a desperate moment, wonders if she should run, decides she'll never make it ... and takes another PRATFALL!! KONG cocks his HEAD! He GRIMACES, baring his teeth and CIRCLES her. ANN repeats the COMIC FALL! KONG SLAPS his HANDS on the GROUND, SHAKES his HEAD and GROWLS. ANN starts to draw upon her VAUDEVILLE ROUTINE, swaying drunkenly and falling, then bouncing back up ... working her timing around KONG'S reactions - he grows increasingly ENGAGED. NGLE ON: ANN BOUNCES UP ... PANTING ... BEADS of SWEAT trickle down her face. Her EYES dart between the JUNGLE and KONG, she's looking for her chance ... ... but KONG is a DEMANDING audience. He wants more ... he wants ANN to fall down again. KONG PRODS ANN ROUGHLY, knocking her OFF HER FEET. She FALLS to the GROUND ... WINDED. KONG slaps his hands on the GROUND, and lets out another EXCITED GROWL. He thumps the GROUND with his FISTS, and SHAKES his HEAD, delighted with the GAME. 82. ANN tries to get up - KONG pushes her over again! This time she stays on the GROUND, breathing HEAVILY. HUMP! THUMP! THUMP! KONG wants more! He tries to PROD ANN into getting up and is STARTLED when she HITS his FINGER AWAY! ANN (gasping) No! I said no! KONG cocks his HEAD ... he THUMPS his FISTS on the GROUND. HUMP! THUMP! THUMP! ANN (cont'd) (gasping) That's all there is ... there isn't any more. KONG RISES TO HIS FEET, and BEATS his CHEST, towering over ANN. His HUGE FIST rises into the air and comes SLAMMING DOWN straight TOWARDS ANN! CLOSE ON: ANN shuts her eyes ... KONG'S FIST THUDS into the ground inches away from her. THUD! Another FIST SLAMS into the GROUND! ANGLE ON: KONG ROARS and beats his chest in a dramatic display of ANGER and FRUSTRATION. He rips a TREE from the ground as his ANGER spirals into violent MADNESS. LOSE ON: ANN as the GROUND SHAKES with the fury of his RAGE. For a brief moment KONG and ANN lock in EYE CONTACT! C LOSE ON: KONG stares at the small figure in his hand who is waiting for DEATH to come. In this moment an UNFAMILIAR feeling wells inside him ... a half formed emotion he hasn't experienced much in his long life: he feels a connection to this tiny creature. The SPARK of RAGE goes out in KONG'S EYES ... KONG stares at ANN as a confusion of feelings wash over him. ONG pulls back from ANN ... overcome by sudden UNCERTAINTY. He knows only that she has somehow disarmed him ... and this has in turn, DIMINISHED his power. KONG starts to BACK AWAY from ANN - slowly at first, until DOUBT and FEAR compel him to move faster. Suddenly he turns away. ANN watches as KONG lopes off. He pulls himself up and over a RUINED WALL and DISAPPEARS from SIGHT. ANGLE ON: ANN, rising to her feet, finally free of her captor. 83. EXT. THICK JUNGLE - DAY NGLE ON: ANN hurrying through the JUNGLE ... pushing THROUGH thorns, TANGLED in VINES ... she is EXHAUSTED, THIRSTY. EXT. LOG CHASM - DAY IDE ANGLE: DENHAM, JACK, HAYES, LUMPY, JIMMY, PRESTON and the remaining CREW have arrived at a DARK, VINE ENTANGLED CHASM ... spanning the narrow, but deadly RAVINE is a SINGLE FALLEN TREE. WEAK SUNLIGHT filters through the DARK CANOPY above casting a SICKLY GREEN HUE over the place. IDE ON: HAYES, followed by JIMMY, leads the GROUP across the SLIMY, MOSS covered LOG ... the going is treacherous. ANGLE ON: DENHAM struggling with the CAMERA ... JACK follows HAYES ... LUMPY helps CHOY. They put one foot in front of the other, trying not to let the DROP unnerve them. ANGLE ON: HAYES suddenly stops ... tensely scanning the DARK RUINS on the other side of the CHASM ... CREEPY POV: ... something is watching the MEN on the LOG. J IMMY (low voice) What is it? HAYES motions for JIMMY to be quiet. He stares intently into the DARKNESS of the FOREBODING RUINS. JIMMY (cont'd) (whispering) Mr. Hayes ...? HAYES turns and looks at JIMMY. HAYES If anything happens, I want you to run! Understand? JIMMY I'm not a coward - I ain't gonna run. HAYES (gently) It's not about being brave, Jimmy. CLOSE ON: JIMMY looking at HAYES uneasily, as he continues across the LOG. EXT. FAR EDGE OF CHASM - DAY NGLE ON: HAYES is the first to step off the LOG, to the safety of the FAR BANK. 84. Ahead, some RUINS have collapsed, creating a LONG DARK TUNNEL. CLOSE ON: HAYES ... peers into the DARKNESS of the TUNNEL. ANGLE ON: A PAIR of GLEAMING EYES, reflecting LIGHT ... rushing towards HAYES. HAYES o back! Back across the log! The GROUP on the LOG FREEZE, start to BACK AWAY, slipping and sliding on the WET MOSS. JIMMY I ain't gonna run. HAYES Get Jimmy out of here. ANGLE ON: HAYES... SHOOTS into the DARKNESS of the TUNNEL. KONG rampages out of the TUNNEL MOUTH! He SNATCHES HAYES with one SWEEP of his HAND. CLOSE ON: HAYES in KONG's HAND ... IMMY yells! KONG's GAZE turns toward the MEN on the LOG! JIMMY No! Let him go! (to HAYES) Kill him! Kill him! HAYES (to KONG) Look at me! Look at me! JIMMY (desperate) Bring him down! Mr Hayes! SLOWLY HAYES begins to lift his PISTOL up ... KONG's GAZE locks back on HAYES ... HAYES deadly calm) You've gotta run, Jimmy. IMMY No! I ain't gonna run. HAYES Do as I say. (to JIMMY) G o with Jack ... All of you. KONG stares at HAYES a BEAT ... HAYES suddenly raises his PISTOL at KONG to shoot! 85. HAYES (cont'd) Run! ANGLE ON: KONG HURLS HAYES at the SAILORS ... he flies over their heads like RAG-DOLL and smashes against the FAR WALL of the RAVINE with a sickening CRUNCH. JIMMY No! JIMMY runs at KONG, blinded by tears of GRIEF and RAGE ... JACK KNOCKS him down and SHOOTS at KONG. JACK (desperate) Shoot him! WILD SHOOTING from the SAILORS, as they try to maintain BALANCE on the LOG. KONG ROARS ... DESPERATE SAILORS try to back across the RAVINE. KONG runs towards the LOG ... KONG'S FIST smashes at the LOG, knocking the men off balance. A SAILOR plummets off into the CHASM below. EXT. THICK JUNGLE - DAY NGLE ON: ANN hurrying through the JUNGLE ... hearing the sound of gun fire. ANN Hey! Here! Over here! She runs up the bank towards the noise. EXT. FAR EDGE OF CHASM - DAY IDE ON: KONG has LIFTED the END of the LOG! JACK, DENHAM, LUMPY, CHOY, JIMMY, PRESTON and THREE SAILORS hold on for dear life ... as KONG vigorously TWISTS and SHAKES the LOG, bucking the MEN into the air. ANGLE ON: DENHAM skates on the MOSS and his CAMERA slides away, becoming WEDGED in the fork of a STUMP. LL AROUND panicked SAILORS are SHOOTING WILDLY, but fear and lack of balance throws their AIM OFF. WO SAILORS FALL ... CHOY scrambles for something to grab. CHOY Lumpy! Help me! LUMPY desperately tries to reach CHOY'S hand ... but CHOY slips away into the ABYSS. 86. KONG ROARS with FRUSTRATION, and TOSSES the ENTIRE LOG into the CHASM! QUICK IMAGE: DENHAM, PRESTON, JACK, JIMMY and LUMPY gripping the LOG as it FALLS! QUICK IMAGE: PRESTON thrown off the LOG halfway down ... he manages to GRAB onto a ROCKY SHELF. ANGLE ON: PRESTON is nearest to the FAR BANK ... he LEAPS, and MANAGES to catch hold of some hanging VINES, hauling himself up to safety. ANGLE ON: The LOG plummets into a web of VINES, which arrest its FALL and sends it FLIPPING end on end, throwing the MEN CLEAR into mid-air... DENHAM, JACK and LUMPY land in SOFT MUD which cushions the impact of the LANDING. EXT. VALLEY EDGE - DAY ANN suddenly spins around ... the DISTANT SOUND of approaching FOOTSTEPS through the dense JUNGLE. A flicker of hope in ANN'S eyes! She starts hurrying towards the FOOTSTEPS! CLOSE ON: ANN sees a distant PLUME of SMOKE - over FOUR MILES AWAY ... she hesitates. She SLOWLY turns towards the SOUND of the FOOTSTEPS, which are now VERY CLOSE. Suddenly a LARGE 8 foot tall CARNIVOROUS DINOSAUR is in the GLADE before her! NGLE ON: ANN as she quietly backtracks. The CARNIVORE pauses, as if SENSING something. It's NOSTRILS twitch. She ducks behind a WIDE TREE. NGLE ON: ANN PEERING around from behind the TREE ... ... there is another CARNIVORE BEHIND HER! It snares at her ... and pounces! ANN leaps away ... she barely has time to start running before the CARNIVORE GIVES CHASE! ANGLE ON: ANN races past the first CARNIVORE ... the creature turns it's head ... and soon BOTH DINOSAURS are pursuing ANN. EXT. HOLLOW TREE GLADE - DAY NGLE ON: ANN desperately heads towards the TANGLED ROOT SYSTEM of a HUGE TREE. She throws herself forward, as the CARNIVORE'S JAWS snap above her head. NGLE ON: ANN ROLLS and SCRAMBLES into a HOLLOW under the ROTTEN TREE. ANGLE ON: The CARNIVORE CLAW at the TREE, trying to get at ANN. 87. ANN is lying beneath the ROOTS ... all she can see are LEGS and SLAVERING SNOUTS! The DINOSAUR RAM'S it's nose into the NARROW GAP. SUDDENLY ... ANN sees the LEGS of one of her pursuers LIFT off the GROUND - it's taloned feet thrashing in mid-air. he SECOND CARNIVORE turns and FLEES into the JUNGLE, as ANN is forced to watch the twitching legs SHUDDER and FLAIL. The SOUND of BONE CRUNCHING ... CRACK! The CARNIVORE'S LEGS SPASM and go limp. ANN is completely still, she dare not breathe ... whatever killed the CARNIVORE is now inches from her hiding PLACE. CLOSE ON: ANN'S FACE ... as she sees something CRAWLING above her. CLOSE ON: A DARK HOLE, beneath the tree ... Long FEELERS probe along the ROOF of the hole as a HUGE CENTIPEDE CRAWLS towards her. ANN doesn't move as it inches towards her face. Suddenly she feels another crawling up over her shoulder. ANN FREAKS! She desperately scrambles away from the CENTIPEDES ... rolls out on the OTHER SIDE of the TREE and stands to RUN... ... TOWERING above her, with the DEAD CARNIVORE hanging limply from it's HUGE JAWS, is a TYRANNOSAURUS REX! ANN starts RUNNING! The TYRANNOSAUR crashes after her with the DEAD CARNIVORE still in it's MOUTH... as SHE races through the JUNGLE, dodging TREES, leaping over FALLEN LOGS, smashing through BUSHES, the TYRANNOSAUR POUNDING ever closer in pursuit. ANN can feel its hot sour BREATH blowing on the back of her neck! The HUGE JAWS of the HUGE BEAST open INCHES from ANN'S HEAD! E EXT. VALLEY EDGE - DAY NGLE ON: ANN slips down a MUDDY BANK, rolls over a LOG, and CRASHES NOISILY through a THICKET of PALMS ... EXT. FALLEN TREE GLADE - DAY ANGLE ON: ANN'S LUNGS are bursting, but the TYRANNOSAUR is GAINING on her ... she manages to scramble onto a FALLEN TREE that juts out over a small CLIFF. ANN clings onto the MOSSY LOG, and crawls towards the END ... the TYRANNOSAUR cannot possibly follow her. She falls amongst the roots, lying as flat as possible, praying the TYRANNOSAUR doesn't see her. It seems to work and IT walks off. ANN HESITANTLY SITS up, thinking that she is at last free, only to turn and discover another is behind her! With an almost delicate movement, the TYRANNOSAUR nudges the LOG with it's head ... causing it to lurch dramatically! The TYRANNOSAUR pushes HARDER, sending ANN over the SIDE ... 88. she just manages to grab hold of a BRANCH as she FALLS. ANN hangs on desperately ... SHE SCREAMS! ANN is HELPLESS ... The TYRANNOSAUR positions it's HEAD for the FINAL LUNGE - gaping JAWS OPEN impossibly WIDE ... AT THAT MOMENT: KONG CHARGES! KONG meets the TYRANNOSAUR HEAD-ON at FULL SPEED! He swings, with his FOOT smashing the TYRANNOSAUR against the FALLEN LOG ... ANN loses her GRASP and FALLS ... as the DINOSAUR SPRAWLS onto the ground beside her ... in a flash, KONG CATCHES HER mid-fall ... ROLLING AWAY as the TYRANNOSAUR LEAPS UP and tries to take another swipe. EXT. SKULL ISLAND JUNGLES - DAY AST FEVERED ACTION: A pair of CARNIVOROUS DINOSAURS leap towards HER! They cling onto KONG'S ARM, clawing furiously, snapping at ANN! LOSE ON: Saliva flies from wild, snapping jaws. WIDE ON: KONG rolls over, THUMPING his arm against a TREE, crushing a DINOSAUR. ANN is WINDED ... she clings to KONG'S FINGERS as he strangles the second BEAST with one hand, snapping it's NECK with a BONE CRUNCHING sound. UDDENLY! A SECOND TYRANNOSAUR ATTACKS!!! He comes charging into shot, grabbing KONG'S ARM in his JAWS! KONG ROARS, sending both TYRANNOSAURS SPRAWLING TO THE GROUND. The FIRST TYRANNOSAUR scrambles back to it's feet! KONG holds ANN protectively as he braces himself for the FIGHT OF HIS LIFE. The TWO TYRANNOSAURS CIRCLE him ... when SUDDENLY! A THIRD TYRANNOSAUR comes from behind. T hey ATTACK KONG and ANN ... a BREATHTAKING FIGHT to the DEATH. KONG fights like a madman on three separate fronts ... Not only does he have to do battle with the TYRANNOSAURS, he is also PROTECTING ANN - constantly transferring her from ONE HAND to THE OTHER as the TYRANNOSAURS SNAP AT HER HEELS. KONG punches and smashes with his fists, but he also uses wrestling-style headlocks and flips ... for a brief moment, ANN rolls free on the ground and has to dodge 25-foot DINOSAURS and the GORILLA, as the frenzied fight THUNDERS all around her. The FIRST TYRANNOSAUR is taken out when KONG LIFTS up a HUGE BOULDER and SMASHES it against the TYRANNOSAUR'S HEAD. KONG and the TWO TYRANNOSAURS slide down on to a ROCKY OUTCROP. KONG outs the SECOND TYRANNOSAUR in a HEADLOCK, FLIPPING it over his shoulder, and throwing it down into the CHASM. CLINGING ONTO THE LEDGE KONG PULLS THE FIRST TYRANNOSAUR OFF THE LEDGE ... BUT AS IT FALLS it SNAPS AT KONG'S FOOT. E 89. KONG ROARS IN PAIN AND TOGETHER THEY FALL DOWN INTO THE CHASM ... DOWN INTO THE VINES. KONG CONTINUES TO FIGHT THE TYRANNOSAUR, AS ANN IS LEFT SWINGING, CAUGHT UP IN THE VINES ... TOWARDS THE SECOND TYRANNOSAUR. HE SNAPS AT HER AS SHE COMES WITHIN INCHES OF HIS JAW. WIDE ON: KONG SEES AND CLIMBS UP TOWARDS IT, PULLING IT DOWN. THEY ALL TUMBLE DEEPER INTO THE CHASM, AND SUDDENLY ANN FINDS HERSELF DANGLING FROM THE JAWS OF THE TYRANNOSAUR ABOVE THE JAWS OF ANOTHER! KONG SWINGS AND KICKS THE TYRANNOSAUR IN THE HEAD ... ANN LOSES HER GRIP AND PLUMMETS DOWN ... VINES BREAKING AS SHE FALLS. AND more SMASHING AGAINST THE CHASM WALLS ... SHE FALLS AND LANDS ON THE HEAD OF ANOTHER. FALLS AGAIN. SHE LANDS IN THE SWAMP. RUNS. IT CHASES. EXT. CLEARING - DAY WIDE ON: ANN faces the TYRANNOSAUR! SUDDENLY KONG THUDS DOWN BEHIND HER ... GLARING AT THE DINOSAUR ... ANN FINDS HERSELF CAUGHT BETWEEN THE TWO BEASTS. ANN WEIGHS UP HER OPTIONS BETWEEN BOTH ... and for a moment ANN & KONG LOCK EYES. SHE THEN BACKS BENEATH THE LOOMING FIGURE OF KONG. T HE TYRANNOSAUR SNARLS at KONG and he ROARS BACK ... KONG THROWS ANN GENTLY to the side as HE and the TYRANNOSAUR LUNGE at each other. KONG GRABS HIS JAWS in BOTH HANDS forcing it OPEN and BITING the TYRANNOSAUR'S TONGUE. HE ROLLS the TYRANNOSAUR over and over, using all his strength to force the TYRANNOSAUR'S JAWS OPEN before RIPPING them clean APART at the HINGE! The TYRANNOSAUR sprawls back, DEAD. KONG is PANTING HEAVILY ... he has been BITTEN, RAKED and CUT. He puts his foot on the LAST TYRANNOSAUR and BEATS HIS CHEST, TRIUMPHANTLY with a DEAFENING ROAR. WIDE ON: KONG KICKS THE DINOSAUR OUT THE WAY. KONG ROARS ANGRILY - his blood is up, he is ready to take on the world. HE STANDS NEXT TO ANN, BUT HE WON'T LOOK AT HER DIRECTLY. SHE TRIES TO HIS ATTENTION BUT HE LOOKS AWAY. HE LUMBERS AWAY. KONG has DEADLY INTENT in his EYES. ANN watches as he DISAPPEARS into the JUNGLE. ANGLE ON: ANN, CONFUSED for a minute ... THEN RUNS AFTER HIM. ANN Wait! ANGLE ON: ANN is roughly SWUNG into the air, as KONG bounds off into the DEEP JUNGLE INTERIOR. ANN as she is suddenly SNATCHED UP by KONG and SWUNG ROUGHLY on to his SHOULDER. CLOSE ON: ANN HANGS ON for dear life as KONG GALLOPS into the JUNGLE. KONG moves SWIFTLY and POWERFULLY through the JUNGLE with ANN on his SHOULDER ... 90. ANGLE ON: ANN as she looks up at the GIANT GORILLA ... the tension seems to go out of her body, she relaxes into his HAND ... for the first time since coming to SKULL ISLAND she feels SAFE. EXT. BOTTOM OF CHASM - DAY CLOSE ON: JACK STIRRING, immediately hearing the SCUTTLE OF INSECTS. HE ROLLS OVER and see's HUGE SPIDERS CRAWLING INTO THE PIT. HE staggers to his FEET ... REACHING INTO HIS PACK and PULLS from it A FLARE. THROWING it at the SPIDERS they CRAWL OFF. DENHAM is lying nearby. JACK Carl!!! DENHAM STIRS, MUMBLING IN PAIN BUT ALIVE. JACK SEES JIMMY. CLOSE ON: JIMMY is looking VACANTLY into space, JACK kneels down. JACK (cont'd) Jimmy? CLOSE ON: JIMMY looks up at JACK, there are tears filling his eyes. He falls into JACK'S arms softly sobbing. ANGLE ON: DENHAM sitting up... dawning realization in his eyes. LUMPY, his back to CHOY ... he HOLDS CHOY'S HAND ... but CHOY'S FINGERS SLIDE LIMPLY out of LUMPY'S HAND ... LUMPY TURNS TO CHOY .. ONLY TO SEE THAT HE has DIED. NGLE ON: HAYES' eyes closed, his FACE peaceful, lying DEAD on the floor of the RAVINE. ANGLE ON: DENHAM PEERING over a ROCK. The wreckage of the CAMERA lies smashed and broken on the CHASM floor ... a thin, shiny, thread of black FILM trailing from the smashed CAMERA body like spilt innards. DENHAM reaches out and touches the EXPOSED FILM ... his dreams DESTROYED. WIDE ON: THE FLARE SLOWLY DIES. CLOSE ON: JACK cradling JIMMY in his ARMS. HE LOOKS UP as he SEES the INSECTS CRAWL BACK. ANGLE ON: a HUGE six-foot CARNIVOROUS MAGGOT-THING squirms out! It crawls blindly towards LUMPY and CHOY! ANGLE ON: LUMPY pulling CHOY'S BODY to safety, but both are ATTACKED by LARGE INSECTS, the size of dogs! JACK tries to PULL THE GIANT CRAB-SPIDER OFF LUMPY, but instead it TURNS on him! More GIANT CRAB-SPIDERS JUMP at JACK. 91. LUMPY and CHOY are CONSUMED by the nightmarish BUGS. ANGLE ON: DENHAM is WIELDING a short stick like a CLUB ... he smashes the HUGE BUGS in a psychotic explosion of RAGE, pulverizing their bodies into the DIRT! All around, MONSTROSITIES OF NATURE emerge from DANK BURROWS and crawl towards the JACK, DENHAM and JIMMY ... these are HUGE INSECTILE MUTANTS - combinations of SPIDERS, CRABS, MANTISES and CENTIPEDES! SUDDENLY JIMMY notices the TOMMY GUN sticking out of JACK'S PACK. GRABBING IT he aims at the INSECTS on JACK. BAM! BAM! BAM! The GIANT INSECTS are blown apart! JACK looks wildly around for DENHAM. THEY SEE that they're SURROUNDED BY SPIDERS. ANGLE ON: JACK desperately swings at the INSECTS with a STICK, whacking and stabbing them. BAM! BAM! BAM! GUNSHOTS RING OUT. SPIDERS SWARM out of HOLES in the CLIFF AND DIE. JACK spins around ... confused. ANGLE ON: ENGLEHORN and a COUPLE of SAILORS OPEN FIRE from the LIP of the CHASM, SHOOTING the SPIDERS into SMITHEREENS! ANGLE ON: BRUCE SWINGS down from above, clinging to a VINE ... GUN BLAZING! BRUCE proceeds to lay waste to the INSECTS ... those not blasted apart, scurrying away, back in to the darkness. EXT. JUNGLE - DAY Moving purposefully along a well-known route to his LAIR, KONG launches himself across a LOW CHASM ... one hand reaching out to clutch at THICK VINES on the other side ... SUDDENLY! The THICK VINES TEAR AWAY from the side of the CHASM WALL ... KONG falls backwards. ANN still clutched protectively to his CHEST he lands with a THUD! ANN looks up alarmed! KONG scrambles to his feet, GROWLING ... he places ANN on the GROUND pushing her protectively behind him. KONG POV: LOOMING out of the CHASM WALL is a HUGE FACE! CLOSE ON: ANN as her expression suddenly changes from FEAR to DAWNING COMPREHENSION. ANN walks past KONG ... who emits another LOW, WARNING GROWL. ANN It's alright ... it's okay ... ANN reaches the WALL and begins to pull away more of the VINES and CREEPERS to reveal ... 92. A life-size and very life-like eroded STATUE of a SITTING GIANT GORILLA ... the IMAGE of KONG ... ANN turns back excitedly to KONG, trying to make him understand. ANN (cont'd) Look - it's you ... "Kong". See ... you. "Kong". This is you. KONG looks from ANN to the HUGE STATUE ... KONG POV: ANN is dwarfed by the STONE MONOLITH. PUSH IN on KONG ... a growing sense of REALISATION as he comes to understand the STATUE is in fact a reflection of himself. CLOSE ON: KONG looking down at his hands ... it's as if he is seeing his GNARLED, LEATHERY FINGERS for the first time. ANN moves towards KONG ... he looks at her ... there is a VULNERABLE EXPRESSION on his FACE ... FEAR and SADNESS well in his EYES. EXT. SKULL MOUNTAIN - DUSK In VERTIGO-INDUCING shots, KONG climbs HIGHER and HIGHER - up into the HIGHEST PEAK of SKULL ISLAND ... carefully cradling ANN in his hand. A sudden FLAP OF WINGS and FLICKERING SHADOW causes KONG to pull ANN close to his chest as a sinister BAT-TYPE CREATURE lunges at her ... these SCAVENGERS hover in the SKIES around SKULL MOUNTAIN ... they have eight-foot wing spans and TALONED FEET. Their faces are more reptile than bat. 93. EXT. KONG'S LAIR - DUSK WIDE ON: KONG steps out of a LARGE ROUND CAVE onto a LEDGE that juts out high over SKULL ISLAND ... This is KONG'S LAIR ... Over the ledge is a DIZZYING DROP of at least 1000-feet down to the JUNGLE. The "VENTURE" can be seen - moored off the TIP of the ISLAND, some three miles away. NGLE ON: KONG gently places ANN on the GROUND ... ANN watches as he moves away and sits to one side of the LEDGE. The SKY is a FIERY ORANGE as the SUN goes down ... SILHOUETTING the FIGURE of KONG ... CLOSE ON: ANN looks around the CAVE taking in her STRANGE SURROUNDINGS ... her eyes fall upon a HUGE GORILLA SKULL and SKELETON which lie within the recesses of the CAVE ... ANN turns and looks back at KONG ... realizing these are the BONES of his FOREBEARS ... that KONG was not always alone. SUDDEN flutter in the DARK recesses of the LAIR, a SINISTER SOUND, sends ANN scurrying towards KONG ... ONG won't look at her. ANN breaks into a few tap steps ... NO RESPONSE. She leans down and picks up some STONES ... JUGGLING them, attempting to amuse him as she did before. KONG's gaze remains averted ... He looks out over the JUNGLE CANOPY. ANN follows his GAZE, taking in the RUGGED LANDSCAPE which is bathed in the last EVENING RAYS of the SUN. She stares out to sea, a RAIN CLOUD casts shadows over the OCEAN. ANN (softly) It's beautiful. KONG sits QUIETLY staring out over the JUNGLE ... she looks up at him. ANN (cont'd) Beautiful. ANN places her HAND against her heart. ANN (cont'd) Beau-ti-ful. KONG'S BIG PAW unfurls beside ANN ... she hesitates for a moment, then CLIMBS into it. ANGLE ON: KONG gently lifts ANN ... 94. WIDE ON: KONG with ANN, high above the JUNGLE, as the last of the DUSK LIGHT FADES. EXT. LOG CHASM - DAY LOSE ON: HANDS reach down as ENGLEHORN and a SAILOR PULL PRESTON up the last stretch of the ROPE ... ENGLEHORN turns and sees JACK climbing towards the TOP of the D CHASM ... TWO SAILORS reaching down to help him. DENHAM Thank God. ENGLEHORN Don't thank God, thank Mr. Baxter ... CLOSE ON: BRUCE PULLING HIMSELF UP THE ROPE, gasping from exertion. ENGLEHORN (cont'd) He insisted on a rescue mission. Me? I knew you'd be okay ... CLOSE ON: DENHAM looks up to see ENGLEHORN standing at the top of the CHASM. ENGLEHORN is watching him IMPASSIVELY. ENGLEHORN (cont'd) That's the thing about cockroaches; no matter how many times you flush them down the toilet they always crawl back up the bowl! ANGLE ON: DENHAM as he rises to his feet. DENHAM ey buddy! I'm outta the bowl! I'm drying off my wings and trekking across the lid! ENGLEHORN LOOKS at DENHAM a BEAT and then LOOKS across the CHASM in SURPRISE. DENHAM FOLLOWS HIS GAZE. WIDE ON: JACK at the TOP of the opposite side of the CHASM ... a solitary figure, bloodied and torn. ENGLEHORN Driscoll ... don't be a fool! Give it up, it's useless ... She's dead. DENHAM (quietly) She's not dead. Jack's gonna bring her back. ENGLEHORN turns to DENHAM. 95. DENHAM (cont'd) And the ape will be hard on his heels. We can still come out of this thing okay - (pause) More than okay. Think about it, you've got a boat full of chloroform we can put to good use. ENGLEHORN looks at DENHAM for a BEAT and then LAUGHS. ENGLEHORN You want to trap the Ape? I don't think so. DENHAM Isn't that what you do? Live animal capture? I heard you were the best. ENGLEHORN stares at DENHAM for a moment, it is impossible to know what he is thinking. DENHAM (cont'd) Jack! JACK looks at DENHAM D ... DENHAM raises a hand in salute. DENHAM (cont'd) (calling) Look after yourself! JACK Keep the Gate open. DENHAM Sure thing, buddy! Good luck! ANGLE ON: JACK turns to go ... and disappears up the DARK TUNNEL. DENHAM (cont'd) I'm sorry. EXT. THICK JUNGLE - DUSK ANGLE ON: JACK struggles through the JUNGLE ... he breaks into CLEARING and STOPS SHORT as he see's the VAST VISTA of the MOUNTAIN in front of him. INT. KONG'S LAIR - NIGHT ANGLE ON: MOONLIGHT steams into the CAVE ... KONG sits on his LEDGE, HE CRADLES ANN IN HIS ARM. CLOSE ON: ANN SLEEPS PEACEFULLY in his HAND. ANGLE ON: KONG gently lifts ANN ... he STARES at her ... his FINGER touches ANN'S HAIR. 96. EXT. KONG'S LAIR - NIGHT ANGLE ON: JACK is climbing up through ROCKS towards KONG'S LAIR! BAT-THINGS flutter ... AGITATED ... SENSING an INTRUDER. CLOSE ON: JACK freezes. NGLE ON: A LARGE NUMBER of BAT-THINGS are GATHERING amid the STALACTITES that hang from the ROOF of the CAVERN. He scans the LAIR for any sign of ANN ... but can't see her. The OLD BONES of a LARGE GORILLA lie across the CAVE from JACK. ACK CLIMBS higher INTO THE CAVE until at last he's on THE LEDGE WITH KONG. ANGLE ON: JACK moves forward, towards KONG. He stays in the SHADOWS of the ROCKS. JACK CRAWLS FORWARD onto the LEDGE. EXT. KONG'S LAIR - NIGHT ANGLE ON: JACK creeps CLOSE to the SLEEPING KONG'S BACK ... his SHOULDERS gently heaving with each breath. LOSE ON: JACK crawls past KONG'S FEET ... he looks in AMAZEMENT. ... ANN is ASLEEP in KONG'S HAND! LOSE ON: KONG GROWLS ... JACK SPINS AROUND ... KONG is growling in his sleep! JACK is less than 8 FEET away from ANN. CLOSE ON: ANN'S eyes OPEN. For a MOMENT she stares blankly at JACK ... then REALISATION arrives quickly - he has come for her! She looks at JACK with disbelief. LOSE ON: JACK looks at ANN, drawing a finger to his lips ... neither DARES to move, or make a sound. ERY SLOWLY, JACK rises and steps towards ANN. He gestures for her to stay motionless in KONG'S PALM. NGLE ON: The salivating, carnivorous BAT-THINGS flutter out of the CAVE and SWARM around the LEDGE ... their FEAR of KONG is overwhelmed by the tempting SIGHT of JACK and ANN. KONG STIRS. CLOSE ON: JACK extends his HAND towards ANN ... she reaches out ... their FINGERS TOUCH ... ... and KONG'S EYES SNAP OPEN! 97. TIME seems to SLOW: JACK attempts to GRAB ANN'S WRIST, but KONG'S FINGERS CLOSE around ANN with stunning SPEED! KONG ROLLS to his FEET, pulling ANN away from JACK! NGLE ON: KONG SNARLS at JACK, who now stands HELPLESSLY before him. The BAT-THINGS SWARM above KONG. ANN (yelling) Jack, run! ANGLE ON: KONG SWATS at JACK with his FREE HAND. ANN struggles and KICKS in his GRASP. A ANN (cont'd) (yelling) No! KONG places ANN high on a SMALL LEDGE and CHARGES at JACK! NGLE ON: JACK ROLLS to the SIDE, KONG'S FISTS smashing DOWN around him! ONG STAMPS on JACK, who DIVES CLEAR, just as the HUGE FOOT pummels into the GROUND. CLOSE ON: JACK is LYING on the GROUND with KONG rearing above him ... there is NO ESCAPE! CLOSE ON: KONG'S EYES, blazing with DEADLY INTENT. He LIFTS his FOOT, ready to SQUASH JACK like a bug! AT THAT MOMENT! ANN SHRIEKS in PAIN! KONG spins around ... ANGLE ON: ANN is under ATTACK from the BAT-THINGS ... they are FRENZYING around ANN, sharp CLAWS lashing her! She cowers against the ROCK FACE, trying to protect herself. CLOSE ON: KONG ... ROARING with ANGER ... he abandons JACK and CHARGES at the BAT-THINGS! The FRENZIED BAT-THINGS ATTACK KONG EN MASSE as he snatches ANN from the LEDGE. They strike at KONG and ANN like a swarm of giant bees. KONG ROARS and THRASHES OUT at them in a FRENZY! NGLE ON: KONG puts ANN down against the ROCKS, so he can use BOTH HANDS to strike at the DEADLY BAT-THINGS. With every sweep of his ARM, several BAT-THINGS are KNOCKED TO THE GROUND, but OTHERS claw at his HEAD and BODY. A NGLE ON: JACK seizes his CHANCE! He rushes along the EDGE of the CLIFF towards ANN ... under the cover of an OVERHANG. 98. JACK and ANN are inches away from each other right behind KONG'S FEET! ACK grabs ANN'S HAND and leads her towards the only possible escape route - the EDGE of the LEDGE, 1000 FEET above the JUNGLE! JACK grabs a LARGE VINE, testing it's strength. He turns to Ann. JACK (urgent) This way! Come on! JACK pulls ANN to him and clambers over the EDGE of the DIZZYING DROP. EXT. LEDGE - NIGHT WIDE ON: JACK and ANN desperately CLIMB down the THICK VINES that hang over the LEDGE ... hand over hand ... the SOUND of KONG ROARING above, as he battles the BAT-THINGS. EXT. KONG'S LAIR - NIGHT ANGLE ON: SEVERAL BAT-THINGS are gripping and CLAWING KONG'S BACK in an effort to weaken the huge ape ... he suddenly POUNDS HIS BACK against the WALL of the CAVE, SQUASHING THEM ALL! The surviving BAT-THINGS wheel away from KONG, HISSING ANGRILY ... 16 lie on the cave floor, STUNNED or DEAD. They FLUTTER towards the BACK OF THE CAVE, preparing their NEXT ATTACK. KONG LOOKS for ANN ... she has GONE! EXT. LEDGE - NIGHT ANGLE ON: JACK and ANN are 60 FEET down the VINE ... JACK is trying to SWING towards the ROCK FACE ... SUDDENLY! They start RISING! WIDE ON: KONG is PULLING on the VINE! He lifts JACK and ANN towards HIM, like a fisherman reeling in a catch. ANN tightens her grip on JACK'S SHOULDERS as BAT-THINGS flutter around THEM. A NGLE ON: JACK and ANN are HELPLESS ... KONG almost HAS THEM! BAT- THINGS dive towards JACK and ANN! A BAT-THING CLAWS at JACK'S HEAD. He releases ONE HAND and GRABS it's TALONED ANKLE. ACK (yelling) Hang on to me! 99. ANN hangs onto JACK for dear life, as he GRABS the BAT-THINGS OTHER ANKLE. ANGLE ON: JACK and ANN DESCENDING RAPIDLY ... the BAT-THING furiously FLAPPING it's WINGS, but unable to stop the SPIRALLING plunge past the CLIFF FACE. SOUNDS of KONG ROARING WITH GRIEF FROM THE LEDGE. EXT. RIVER - NIGHT The BAT-THING wobbles crazily in the sky, rapidly LOSING ENERGY ... JACK looks down - a FAST FLOWING RIVER is 50 feet below. He RELEASES HIS GRIP! ANN SCREAMS as she and JACK fall into the RIVER ... they are immediately picked up by the current and SWEPT AWAY. JACK and ANN are carried into the RAPIDS, swept down a small WATERFALL, surfacing into a FAST-FLOWING, but less violent part of the river. INT. KONG'S LAIR - NIGHT KONG ROARS with ANGER and GRIEF. EXT. VILLAGE WALL WIDE ON: The VILLAGE WALL AND SURROUNDING, as KONG'S ROAR echoes out over the ISLAND. CLOSE ON: DENHAM & ENGLEHORN as they hear KONG'S ANGER. EXT. RIVER BANK - PRE-DAWN ANGLE ON: Half drowned JACK and ANN swim to the side of the RIVER, hauling themselves up on the MUDDY BANK. KONG'S POV as he CRASHES THROUGH THE JUNGLE in HOT PURSUIT. AN ENRAGED KONG is visible ... quickly descending from his mountain lair! EXT. DENSE JUNGLE - PRE-DAWN ANGLE ON: JACK and ANN racing through the JUNGLE. EXT. WALL GROTTO - DAWN NGLE ON: LOW ANGLE of the WALL and ALTAR. A LOW THUNDERING SOUND reverberates ... BIRDS LIFT off from TREES. 100. SUDDENLY! JACK and ANN appear from the undergrowth, RUNNING towards the CHASM and WALL ... the ALTAR BRIDGE has been raised, and hangs just out of reach. ACK (yelling) Carl! OW ANGLE: The TOP of the WALL is deserted ... ANN Please! Somebody help us! SOUNDTRACK: A ROAR ... growing louder ... ANN casts a nervous glance over her shoulder. TREES CRASH to the GROUND as KONG SMASHES his way through the JUNGLE towards the CLEARING ... ANN looks at the deserted wall. ANN (cont'd) (ashen) They've gone. JACK (yelling) Carl? Oh Christ! Carl? EXT. NATIVE VILLAGE/WALL - DAWN CLOSE ON: DENHAM silently listens to his FRIENDS calling. IDER ON: PRESTON, ENGLEHORN, BRUCE and JIMMY are waiting nearby. PRESTON Drop the bridge! Do it now, for chrissakes! DENHAM (quiet) Not yet ... wait. The GROUP react to KONG'S ROAR - now VERY CLOSE. A SAILOR with a MACHETE hovers near the ROPE, ready to cut it on DENHAM'S COMMAND. DENHAM (cont'd) Wait ... PRESTON (incensed) No Carl ... PRESTON suddenly leaps to his feet and SNATCHES the MACHETE. He slices through the ROPE ... 101. EXT. WALL GROTTO - DAWN NGLE ON: The BRIDGE DROPS, just as KONG explodes from the JUNGLE! J KONG sees ANN and charges forward! ACK and ANN race across the BRIDGE, getting to the other side just as KONG LEAPS the CHASM. JACK leads ANN through the HOLE in the DOOR ... KONG SMASHES through the BAMBOO defences. EXT. NATIVE VILLAGE/WALL - DAWN ANGLE ON: JACK and ANN run into the VILLAGE ... it looks deserted. DENHAM suddenly rises and walks past them towards the GATE, fixated on the ROARING BEAST, smashing at the TIMBERS. CLOSE ON: ANN ... seeing GROUPS of SAILORS crouched behind rocks, with GRAPPLING HOOKS at the ready. PRESTON lies to one side, a RAG held against his BLEEDING FACE. ENGLEHORN gripping a CRATE OF CHLOROFORM BOTTLES. ENGLEHORN (shouting) Now!!! ANGLE ON: KONG SMASHES through the GATE! For a BRIEF MOMENT KONG makes EYE CONTACT with ANN ... she looks at him DESPAIRINGLY. He reaches towards her ... DENHAM to ENGLEHORN) Bring him down! Do it! ANGLES ON: SAILORS THROW GRAPPLING HOOKS at KONG, HAULING on the ROPES. A ANN No! JACK Are you out of your mind? Carl! BRUCE rushes forward, pulling PRESTON to his feet, hustling him towards the TUNNEL EXIT. ENGLEHORN yells at SAILORS poised on the TOP of the WALL. DENHAM Drop the net! ANGLE ON: The SAILORS drop BOULDERS attached to a LARGE SHIP NET ... KONG is PUSHED to the GROUND by the WEIGHT. CLOSE ON: DENHAM turns to ENGLEHORN. DENHAM (cont'd) Gas him! 102. ANN (sobbing) No! Please - don't do this! CLOSE ON: JACK holding ANN back. JACK Ann ... He'll kill you! ANN No, he won't. ANGLE ON: KONG trying to get up ... ENGLEHORN hurls the CHLOROFORM BOTTLE at KONG, smashing it on the ground right under his face. ANN (cont'd) No! KONG breathes in the cloud of CHLOROFORM, he tries to push himself up. ENGLEHORN Keep him down! SAILORS throw BOULDERS down from the TOP of the WALL, pummelling KONG'S HEAD. ANN breaks away from JACK, rushes at ENGLEHORN, grabbing his arm just as he prepares to throw another CHLOROFORM BOTTLE. ANN Stop it! You're killing him! ENGLEHORN Get her out of here! Get her out of his sight! JACK takes ANN'S ARM ... DENHAM yells at him, as KONG'S RAGE intensifies. DENHAM Do it! CLOSE ON: ANN STARES up at JACK. ANN Let go of me ... CLOSE ON: JACK, he STARES at ANN, torn about what to do. His eyes flicker towards KONG. He makes his decision. A NGLE ON: JACK pulling ANN by the HAND towards the TUNNEL ENTRANCE. She struggles to break free. CLOSE ON: KONG WATCHING ANN being DRAGGED AWAY ... he EXPLODES with ANGER, suddenly RISING to his FEET, ripping the NET to PIECES! He SWINGS the ROPES AWAY, sending HAPLESS SAILORS flying through the AIR! 103. CLOSE ON: DENHAM looks on in HORROR, as his PLAN to CAPTURE KONG falls apart. SAILOR We can't contain him! ENGLEHORN Kill it! DENHAM No! ENGLEHORN It's over, you Goddamn lunatic! DENHAM I need him alive! ENGLEHORN Shoot it!!! ANGLE ON: ENRAGED KONG throwing SAILORS and overturning STONE BUILDINGS. CLOSE ON: JIMMY, gripping a TOMMY GUN, stands in front of KONG ... his POSE reflecting HAYES' last stand. ENGLEHORN pulls JIMMY away by the collar, shoving him down the path. ENGLEHORN (cont'd) Jimmy - get out of here! Get to the boat! (yelling) All of you! Run! ONG climbs DOWN THE WALL. EXT. BEACH - DAWN ANGLE ON: JACK running with ANN towards a waiting BOAT ... ANN fights as JACK tries to LIFT her on BOARD ... both turn! JACK Get in the boat! ANN (distraught) No! It's me he wants. I can stop this - KONG stampedes down towards the COVE ... JIMMY stands his ground with his TOMMY GUN. ACK yells at BRUCE. JACK Take her! BRUCE takes ANN, as ENGLEHORN leaps into their BOAT ... he yells to the SAILORS. 104. ANN Let me go to him! ENGLEHORN Row! Get the hell out of here! ANGLE ON: JACK pushes JIMMY into the SECOND BOAT. ACK Jimmy! No! JACK tries to prevent JIMMY from shooting at KONG, as SAILORS push their BOAT away from the shore. CLOSE ON: DENHAM finds a CRATE of CHLOROFORM BOTTLES on the FLOOR of the BOAT. He snatches one up ... prepares to throw. ANGLE ON: JIMMY manages to fire a BURST at KONG ... KONG CHARGES in FURY and THUMPS his FIST down on the BOW of the BOAT. A NGLE ON: DENHAM is flung into the water, still clutching the CHLOROFORM BOTTLE. ANGLE ON: KONG flings the BOAT against the COVE WALL, smashing it - sending JACK, JIMMY and SAILORS into the SEA! ANN looks on in horror as JACK SURFACES, holding onto JIMMY, who is COUGHING SEA WATER. KONG turns to ANN'S BOAT ... he looks at her ... ANN Go back! KONG PAUSES at the SOUND of her VOICE ... as if sensing her fear for him. ENGLEHORN Hold her! BRUCE holds ANN as ENGLEHORN suddenly FIRES a HARPOON into KONG'S KNEE ... KONG ROARS in PAIN and SINKS into the water. ANN is sobbing with DISTRESS. ANGLE ON: ENGLEHORN starts LOADING a SECOND HARPOON ... DENHAM scrambles on to a ROCK, clutching the CHLOROFORM BOTTLE. DENHAM Wait! ENGLEHORN ignores him, intent on killing KONG with his next HARPOON. A NGLE ON: KONG starts CRAWLING painfully towards ANN. ENGLEHORN has almost finished LOADING. ANN Leave him alone! 105. ANGLE ON: DENHAM steadies himself on his rock as KONG crawls past. He hurls the CHLOROFORM BOTTLE ... it smashes against KONG'S FACE. KONG starts choking on the GAS. ANGLE ON: JACK in the sea, holding the unconscious JIMMY, watching ANN from across the void of water ... KONG starts to succumb to the GAS ... he reaches for ANN. ANN watches KONG'S HAND reach out to her .... But she can no longer help him ... she has failed to stop this happening. CLOSE ON: ANN turns away from KONG ... as he slumps into unconsciousness. CLOSE ON: ANN and JACK make EYE CONTACT across the water .... She starts to CRY. JACK is unable to offer her any comfort. ANGLE ON: DENHAM steps up to the UNCONSCIOUS KONG: DENHAM he whole world will pay to see this. We're millionaires, boys. I'll share it with all of you! In a few months his name will be up in lights on Broadway! "Kong - the Eighth Wonder of the World"! SMASH CUT TO: EXT. BROADWAY THEATRE - NIGHT ANGLE ON: NEON LETTERS announce "KING KONG - the EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD!" on a HUGE GLITTERING marquee. WIDE ON: The bustle of TIMES SQUARE on a WINTER'S NIGHT, the colorful LIGHTS reflecting in newly FALLEN SNOW. A n EXCITED and CURIOUS CROWD are converging on the THEATRE - cabs are pulling up ... a QUEUE is forming ... SCALPERS are selling tickets outside the door. LOSE ON: BILLBOARDS outside the THEATRE proclaim "Relive the adventure of the Century ... see Miss Ann Darrow offered to the Beast!" INT. THEATRE DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT ANGLE ON: ANN is seated alone in a DRESSING ROOM, she is putting on STAGE MAKEUP. There is an emptiness in her face. She appears DISCONNECTED, her thoughts on things far away. EXT. BROADWAY THEATRE - NIGHT ANGLE ON: CROWDS flowing into the THEATRE. 106. INT. BROADWAY THEATRE LOBBY - NIGHT WIDE ON: The THEATRE LOBBY is teaming with people, handing COATS and HATS to the CHECK-IN GIRLS on the CLOAKROOM. ANGLE ON: DENHAM who is WARMLY GREETING ZELMAN along with the SLEAZY and THUGGISH INVESTOR ... both of whom have STARLETS hanging on their arms ... A NGLE ON: PRESTON watching from the BALCONY. He is looking at DENHAM. REVERSE ON: DENHAM glancing up, catching the STRANGE LOOK in PRESTON'S EYE ... ANGLE ON: DENHAM turns away and turns on an INSTANT SMILE for a waiting PHOTOGRAPHER. PUSHING IN ON: PRESTON ... ON THE SOUNDTRACK a sudden burst of UPROARIOUS LAUGHTER! DREW V/O Look at yourself! Look at what you've become! INT. ARTY THEATRE - NIGHT ANGLE ON: EDGAR, a young man, DRESSED as a WOMAN is pulled to one side by his FRIEND, DREW. They are on the STAGE SET of a HOTEL LOBBY. A LARGE BOWL of FRUIT sits on a DECORATIVE SIDEBOARD. DREW No woman is worth this! EDGAR This woman is worth it. I've gotta win her back. I don't care what it takes. DREW She's not gonna buy it for a second! EDGAR Shuddup and hand me the grapefruit. EDGAR proceeds to stuff a LARGE GRAPEFRUIT down his BRASSIERE. THE AUDIENCE BREAKS into LAUGHTER. THE CAMERA PANS along a row in a SMALL FRINGE THEATRE, and comes to rest on a THEATRE PROGRAMME in the hands a MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN. The front cover reads: "Cry Havoc" by Jack Driscoll. PULL FOCUS to reveal: JACK sitting behind the WOMAN, intently watching the stage ... ANGLE ON: JAYNE a BLONDE ACTRESS who looks similar to ANN, and THELMA, her CONFIDANT, entering THE HOTEL LOBBY from the other side of the STAGE ... 107. THELMA Tell me everything - every little detail! They sit on a SOFA as EDGAR takes a seat in an ARMCHAIR nearby. JAYNE So, he took me to a fancy French restaurant ... THELMA French, huh? JAYNE Anyway about half way through the whore derves - he clutches my hand ... THELMA He clutches your hand?! EDGAR (falsetto) It felt like the right thing to do at the time. (falsetto) Oh! I'm sorry - I couldn't help but over-hear! The TWO WOMEN look at him a beat before turning back to each other. JAYNE He's looking into my eyes - THELMA And that's when he told you how he felt? JAYNE No - he never said it. THELMA He never said it?! EDGAR (falsetto) He probably thought he didn't need to say it. AUDIENCE LAUGHS! THELMA Then how does she know that it's real? JAYNE He said it was not about the words. THELMA Please - if you feel it, you say it. It's really very simple. 108. JAYNE He said we'd talk about it later. Only there was no later ... CAMERA PUSHES IN on JACK .... AYNE (cont'd) It never happened. (reflective) I just thought that maybe this one time, things might actually work out - which was really very ... LOSE ON: JACK, hearing his own words ... JACK/JAYNE ... foolish .... UDDENLY JACK stands and making his way past surprised AUDIENCE MEMBERS, heads for the EXIT. HELMA Men! They'll give you the world ... But they let the one thing that truly matters slip through their fingers. All for the sake of three little words! EDGAR (indignant) The three hardest words in the English language! AUDIENCE MEMBERS break into fresh LAUGHTER as JACK leaves the THEATRE. EXT. ARTY THEATRE - NIGHT WIDE ON: JACK strides out of the SMALL THEATRE, pulling his collar up against the cold. Above him, a simple BILLBOARD advertises "Cry Havoc, a new play by Jack Driscoll" INT. BROADWAY THEATRE WINGS - NIGHT CLOSE ON: CARL DENHAM quietly waiting in the WINGS of the HUGE BROADWAY THEATRE. It is a moment of calm ... he is feeling a mixture of PRIDE and ANTICIPATION. The SOUND of KONG BREATHING - a RASPING WEAK GROWL - causes DENHAM to flick his eyes to the darkened AREA behind the CURTAIN. INT. THEATRE DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT ANGLE ON: ANN in HER DRESSING ROOM pulling on her COSTUME. 109. INT. BROADWAY THEATRE - NIGHT WIDE ON: The HUGE AUDITORIUM is filled with nearly 2000 people. The EXCITEMENT in the air is PALPABLE. WIDE ON: The LARGE CROWD APPLAUDS as DENHAM strides onto the stage in the GLARE of THE SINGLE SPOTLIGHT. He waves enthusiastically to the AUDIENCE, basking in the acclaim he has wanted for so long. DENHAM hank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Ladies and Gentlemen, I am here to tell you a very strange story ... a story of our adventure in which seventeen of our party suffered horrible deaths! Their lives lost in pursuit of a savage Beast, a monstrous aberration of nature! But even the meanest brute can be tamed. Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, as you will see, the Beast was no match for the charms of a girl - a girl from New York ... who melted his heart. Bringing to mind that old Arabian proverb ... INT. THEATRE DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT CLOSE ON: ANN, now in a WHITE VELVET GOWN, a look of SADNESS in her EYES. DENHAM V/O cont'd) "And lo the Beast looked upon the face of Beauty and Beauty stayed his hand ... and from that day forward he was as one dead ..." A VOICE interrupts ANN'S contemplation. STAGE MANAGER You're on, Miss Darrow, five minutes. ANN stands up ... INT. BROADWAY THEATRE STAGE - NIGHT DENHAM basking in the SPOTLIGHT. DENHAM nd now Ladies & Gentlemen, I'm going to show you the greatest thing your eyes have ever beheld. He was a King in the world he knew but he comes to D you now ... a captive! DENHAM lifts his ARMS ... 110. DENHAM (cont'd) Ladies and gentlemen: I give you Kong - the Eighth Wonder of the World!! STAGE MUSIC strikes up. INT. BROADWAY THEATRE STAGE - NIGHT WIDE ON: With a DRAMATIC FLOURISH the CURTAIN slowly rises to REVEAL: KONG sitting slumped and unresponsive, his WRISTS MANACLED to a STEEL SCAFFOLD. Other MANACLES and CHAINS secure his ANKLES, NECK and WAIST. There is a BIG GASP from the AUDIENCE ... KONG'S sheer size is OVERWHELMING. CLOSE ON: DENHAM ... euphoric, as the collective GASP of 2000 PEOPLE washes over him. NGLE ON: KONG's head lolls, as if he is barely aware of his surroundings ... DENHAM Don't be alarmed, ladies and gentlemen. It is perfectly safe. These chains are made of chrome steel! WILD APPLAUSE! EXT. NEW YORK STREETS - NIGHT ANGLE ON: JACK, jostled on a crowded NEW YORK STREET hurrying rapidly along the sidewalk. JACK crosses the BUSY ROAD, heading straight towards the BROADWAY THEATRE. INT. BROADWAY THEATRE STAGE - NIGHT WIDE ON: DENHAM on stage with KONG ... DENHAM dramatic) Observe if you will, I am touching the beast! I am actually laying my hand on the twenty-five foot gorilla. DENHAM reaches up and touches KONG'S LEG. KONG'S foot twitches slightly causing DENHAM to jump back in fright ... LOSE ON: JACK enters the AUDITORIUM. ANGLE ON: DENHAM signals to the STAGE HANDS in the WINGS ... 111. ANGLE ON: A STAGE HAND begins to CRANK a WINCH ... the CHAINS at KONG'S WRISTS tighten ... the AUDIENCE GASP as KONG is SLOWLY FORCED to his FULL HEIGHT ... ANGLE ON: JACK walks into the BACK of the BALCONY of the darkened AUDITORIUM. He quietly makes his way down the SHADOWED AISLE. NGLE ON: DENHAM turns back to face the AUDIENCE ... DENHAM (cont'd) We have in the auditorium tonight, a surprise guest. The real life hero of this story ... the man who hunted down the mighty "Kong"! CLOSE ON: JACK as he watches DENHAM, unnerved by the SPECTACLE. DENHAM (cont'd) The man who risked all to win the freedom of a helpless female! A big hand for ... Mr. Bruce Baxter! ANGLE ON: BRUCE striding on stage, dressed as the Great White Hunter. UGE AUDIENCE ACCLAIM! DENHAM shakes BRUCE by the hand, slapping him on the BACK as if they were OLD FRIENDS ... BRUCE turns and acknowledges the ADULATION of the AUDIENCE. A LINE of DANCERS, dressed as cheesy NATIVES appear from either side of the stage. They dance to the beat, playing to KONG, who stares impassively at them. A PULSATING DRUM BEAT begins to fill the AUDITORIUM! DENHAM (cont'd) Ladies and Gentlemen, imagine if you will an uncharted island ... a forgotten fragment from another time ... And clinging to life in this savage place, imagine a people untutored in the ways of the civilised world. A people who have dwelt all their lives in the shadow of Fear! In the shadow of ... "Kong"! CLOSE ON: JACK ... staring TRANSFIXED at the STAGE. EHIND him in the DARKNESS of the AUDITORIUM a FIGURE rises from a SEAT. PRESTON (quietly) He was right ... JACK turns to find PRESTON standing beside him ... 112. PRESTON (cont'd) ... about there still being some mystery left in this world ... CLOSE ON: PRESTON stares down at the figure of DENHAM, standing to one side of the STAGE ... PRESTON (cont'd) (softly) And we can all have a piece of it ... for the price of an admission ticket. ANGLE ON: PRESTON turns to look at JACK ... JACK'S EYES flicker towards the SCAR which runs down one side of PRESTON'S CHEEK ... JACK (quietly) That's the thing you come to learn about Carl ... his unfailing ability to destroy the things he loves. ANGLE ON: DENHAM as he strides to the FRONT of the STAGE ... DENHAM lease remain calm, Ladies and Gentlemen - for we now come to the climax of this savage ritual ... the Sacrifice of a beautiful young girl! The CROWD erupts into WILD CHEERS! he LIGHTS DIM ... The DRUM BEAT increases ... The NATIVE DANCERS fall to their KNEES in WORSHIP as a PLATFORM rises from beneath the STAGE ... DENHAM (cont'd) Behold her terror as she is offered up to the mighty "Kong"! A big hand folks for the bravest girl I ever met! Miss Ann Darrow! A DRAMATIC SILHOUETTE of a WOMAN dressed in a WHITE SILK GOWN. She is tied to a wooden ALTAR, her BACK to the audience. CLOSE ON: KONG, a flicker of HOPE in his EYES. The TINY FIGURE tethered to the ALTAR looks up! For the first time KONG sees her FACE. A NGLE ON: KONG utterly CONFUSED; this is NOT ANN, but a woman in a blonde wig, dressed to look LIKE HER! ONG roars! FAKE ANN thrashes around SCREAMING unconvincingly! FAKE ANN No! No! Help me, no! 113. ANGLE ON: KONG staring at FAKE ANN with mounting CONFUSION and ANGER! CLOSE ON: JACK as he realises it is not ANN on stage. He turns to PRESTON. JACK Where is she?? INT. BROADWAY THEATRE STAGE - NIGHT CLOSE ON: JACK glances at PRESTON, who turns away looking UNCOMFORTABLE. JACK (urgent) Where's Ann? PRESTON I've no idea. I heard he offered her all kinds of money and she turned him down flat. INT. SHOWGIRL'S THEATRE - NIGHT SLOW, DREAMY MUSIC ... A FEATHERED FAN sweeps across a FACE to reveal ... ANN. WIDER: ANN dancing in a LINE of CHORUS GIRLS, all identically dressed ... ANGLE ON: A MALE DANCER slides into VIEW ... the STAR of the SHOW ... the WOMEN behind him, merely window dressing. PUSH IN: on ANN as she goes through the motions of the routine ... a look of DISTANT SORROW on her FACE. INT. BROADWAY THEATRE STAGE - NIGHT CLOSE ON: PHOTOGRAPHERS push forward, LIGHT BULBS flash at KONG who ROARS ANGRILY. DENHAM signals to BRUCE to join him ... behind them we can see the FAKE ANN still performing her feigned terror ... DENHAM Here's your story, boys - "Beauty and the Man who saved her from the Beast". ANGLE ON: JACK watching from the BALCONY ... he STARES at KONG who is BREATHING HARD through his NOSTRILS ... JACK can feel KONG'S mounting ANGER. JACK (turning to PRESTON) We have get these people out of here - 114. JACK'S eyes turn to the AUDIENCE seated nearby ... he gets up and attempts to usher people out. JACK (cont'd) Everyone has to leave. CLOSE ON: KONG, his ANGER growing as he struggles against his chains. PRESS MAN 2 How did you feel, Mr. Baxter - when you were on the island? BRUCE Well to be honest with you, I had some anxious moments ... The MEMBERS of the PRESS all nod, understandingly ... BRUCE (cont'd) For a while there it looked like I wasn't going to get paid ... But as it turned out, Mr. Denham here has been more than generous - CLOSE ON: DENHAM ... DENHAM et him roar! It makes a swell picture!!! ANGLE ON: DENHAM and BRUCE as they POSE for the PHOTOGRAPHERS. ANGLE ON: JACK heading down the STAIRS, trying to convince members of the audience to leave. JACK Head for the exits ... AUDIENCE 2 Get your own seat Buddy - you ain't having mine. The CONFUSED AUDIENCE continue to APPLAUD ... CLOSE ON: The FAKE ANN'S EYES suddenly WIDEN as: KONG rips one of his MANACLED HANDS FREE! AKE ANN lets out her most CONVINCING SCREAM! JOURNALISTS and PHOTOGRAPHERS start backing away, snapping pictures as they retreat ... FLASHBULBS POP ... KONG COWERS BACK shielding his eyes ... ROARING in DEFIANCE! ANOTHER DEAFENING ROAR!!! DENHAM looks up, AWESTRUCK, as he sees KONG TEARING FREE of the rest of his CHAINS!! The AUDIENCE BEGIN TO RISE from their SEATS ... PANIC sets in! 115. AAAARRRRRGH!!!!! The FAKE ANN tethered to the ALTAR screams again for help! KONG reaches across and picks her up, HURLING the FAKE ANN and the ALTAR across the wide AUDITORIUM! LOW MOTION: LINKS snapping ... CHAINS breaking, BOLTS lifting from the FLOOR! With a MIGHTY FLOURISH, KONG rips off his WAIST RESTRAINTS and is at last completely FREE! The AUDIENCE RUSH the EXITS in a COLLECTIVE STAMPEDE! KONG swings from the STAGE into the FRONT ROW SEATS ... STOMPING and CRUSHING the slower moving PATRONS! EXT. BROADWAY THEATRE - NIGHT ANGLE ON: PATRONS rush out of the THEATRE into the street. INT. BROADWAY THEATRE STAGE - NIGHT KONG ROARS and hurls a PLASTER CORNICE across the length of the THEATRE - straight at JACK! ONG is now below the BALCONY LEVEL ... n that moment KONG turns ... and sees JACK! For a brief second their EYES LOCK! NGLE ON: KONG using his amazing STRENGTH to SWING up to the UPPER LEVEL BOXES ... with a LEAP he jumps on to the BALCONY ... the BALCONY crumbles under his WEIGHT ... sending DOZENS OF PEOPLE plummeting into the STALLS. ACK turns and RUNS for the DOOR as KONG struggles to REACH him. JACK reaches the EXIT, turns and looks back at KONG, a mixture of DREAD and AWE on his FACE. CLOSE ON: DENHAM remains in the middle of the THEATRE mesmerized by the spectacle of KONG'S unleashing power! EXT. BROADWAY - NIGHT ANGLE ON: JACK emerges from the THEATRE, all around him PANICKED PEOPLE run in TERROR! BOOM! JACK turns in time to see ... The VAST THEATRE WALL explodes onto the street, showering PEOPLE and CARS with BRICKS and STEEL ... KONG bursts into the MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!!! ANGLE ON: JACK stares up in horror as KONG heads straight for him ... JACK is going to DIE! 116. With an ANGUISHED ROAR the HUGE GORILLA stumbles past JACK into the BRIGHT LIGHTS of TIMES SQUARE ... he hasn't seen JACK! KONG spins around reacting with terrified confusion to the STRANGENESS of CARS, TRUCKS, TRAMS, LIGHTS ... screaming people everywhere! J ACK watches as KONG'S FEAR builds to a growing sense of ANGER and FRUSTRATION! ANGLE ON: KONG circles TIMES SQUARE ... snatching up any WOMAN with BLONDE HAIR ... desperately looking for ANN! ODGING bits of FLYING DEBRIS, JACK tires to push his way through CROWDS of FLEEING PEOPLE towards KONG... AR WINDSCREEN POV ... KONG STOMPS on the CAR in FRONT, LIFTS FOOT and STOMPS over CAMERA. ANGLE ON: A TRAM heading straight for KONG ... the GIANT GORILLA THRUSTS out an ARM PROTECTIVELY ... KONG pulls his arm back ... TRAM firmly attached! KONG'S FIST is CAUGHT in the TRAM'S WINDOWS! CLOSE ON: JACK ... as he realises what KONG is doing ... JACK (under his breath) Oh Jesus ... ANGLE ON: JACK as he watches KONG heading off down BROADWAY. CRASHING off BUILDINGS KONG CAREENS out of TIMES SQUARE ... EXT. NEW YORK SHABBY THEATRE - NIGHT ANGLE ON: ANN emerges from a SHABBY THEATRE, just as SEVERAL POLICE CARS drive past at SPEED. ANN runs to an INTERSECTION and looks up the STREET. Several blocks away PANDEMONIUM is erupting outside a BROADWAY THEATRE. ANN starts to RUN. EXT. BROADWAY/NEW YORK - NIGHT JACK spies a CAB that has STOPPED in the MIDDLE of the ROAD ... it's DRIVER watching the scene, MOUTH AGAPE! ANGLE ON: JACK jumping into the BACK of the CAB. He gestures towards KONG! JACK Follow that ape! ANGLE ON: The CAB DRIVER jumping out of the CAB. CABBIE It's all yours, Buddy! 117. ANGLE ON: JACK scrambling into the FRONT SEAT of the CAB ... he throws it into GEAR and heads off after KONG! ANGLE ON: KONG reacts like a CORNERED ANIMAL in a BLIND PANIC ... FLAILING his arms in PANIC, the TRAM swinging through the air and SMASHING into BUILDINGS like a GIANT CLUB! NGLE ON: JACK drives the CAB DOWN BROADWAY ... swerving to MISS bits of TRAM that disintegrate off the FIST of KONG ... JACK accelerates, straight through the LEGS of the GIANT GORILLA! ANGLE ON: the CAB SPINS so that it now is facing KONG! ANGLE ON: KONG ... his FIST about to SMASH down on a TRAM full of PEOPLE! The BLARE of a CAR HORN makes him turn ... he hesitates ... realizing who is behind the wheel of the CAB! ACK'S POV ... as KONG comes closer. PANICKING DRIVERS PILE into each other. JACK desperately tries his door, but it won't open, he is WEDGED IN by CARS on either side. KONG LIFTS THE CAR directly in front - HIGH ABOVE HIS HEAD, throwing it into a BUILDING. EXT/INT. STREETS/CAB - NIGHT CLOSE ON: JACK'S FOOT depresses ACCELERATOR. The WHEELS are SPINNING WILDLY ... in a CLOUD OF BURNING RUBBER, the CAB speeds down the ROAD, weaving in and out of the path cut by KONG'S DESTRUCTION. KONG BOUNDS AFTER THE CAB, running on all FOURS with incredible speed. JACK crosses an INTERSECTION, driving up on the SIDEWALK to get a CLEARER DRIVING LANE ... PEDESTRIANS scatter - not only from the CAB, but from KONG who is in HOT PURSUIT. T he CAB SLEWS across the STREET, disappearing up a TINY ALLEY, only just wide enough for the CAB, but TOO NARROW for KONG. JACK glances back at KONG, ROARING with frustration at the ALLEY ENTRANCE. EXT/INT. HERALD SQ/CAB - NIGHT JACK speeds out of the ALLEY and CROSSES the TRAFFIC FLOW, causing much BRAKING and HORN action. He gets SLOWED in THICK TRAFFIC ... KONG BURSTS his way out of the ALLEY ENTRANCE ... RIGHT IN FRONT OF JACK'S CAB!!! JACK SWERVES on to the SIDEWALK ... 118. JACK steers the CAB wildly along the SIDEWALK scattering PEDESTRIANS in all directions! KONG follows in HOT PURSUIT! ACK sends the CAB into a couple of TIGHT TURNS ... he rounds a bend and DRIVES straight into a FRUIT VENDOR'S STALL! ANGLE ON: The CAB, covered by the RUINED STALL, SLAMS into the WALL of a BUILDING. JACK is thrown forward on IMPACT ... KONG rounds the corner and BOUNDS PAST JACK'S CAB ... hidden beneath the RUBBLE ... KONG searches for the CAB, ROARING in FRUSTRATION! KONG'S HUGE EYES glance in the WINDOW, just as: KONG suddenly FREEZES! He inclines his HEAD; unsure if what he is seeing is REAL. KONG'S POV: ANN is walking towards him! KONG tentatively inches TOWARDS ANN! ANN stops ... KONG stops. They stare at each other for a long moment ... ANN offers KONG a small SMILE, and reaches her HAND out hesitantly towards his ARM. K ONG gently picks ANN up ... his EYES never leaving her FACE. ANN holds tightly on to his HAND and they DISAPPEAR into the night. EXT. CENTRAL PARK - NIGHT IDE ON: KONG carries ANN through the snow covered trees of CENTRAL PARK ... SUDDENLY he finds himself stepping on to the FROZEN POND ... ANGLE ON: The GIANT GORILLA slipping on the ICE ... as soon as his hand hits the ice he slips ... KONG stands up and growls ... he slips again, spinning this time ... it becomes a game ... CLOSE ON: ANN realizing what is happening ... She starts to LAUGH. LIGHTS spin past ... it is a brief moment of respite ... SUDDENLY! BULLETS RAIN down on KONG & ANN ... KONG rears back in FRIGHT. NGLE ON: MILITARY TRUCK as it launches ROCKETS at KONG. COMMANDER Fire! 119. MORE RAIN down as SMASH! The ICE CRACKS under the weight of the MORTAR FIRE ... ROARING with ANGER KONG struggles out from the FROZEN POND and flees ... back on to the STREETS of NEW YORK. EXT. NEW YORK STREETS - NIGHT KONG bounds out into the streets, swaying to avoid the bullet fire, angrily smashing cars out the way. ANGLE ON: The TRUCK flipping through the AIR as KONG continues on his way through the STREETS ... KONG ROARS DEFIANTLY as the GUN'S BARREL swings in their direction! The STREETS are TEEMING with these VEHICLES as the ARMY spreads out across town in the hunt for KONG. ARMY VEHICLES are RACING along the QUIET STREETS ... an ARMORED CAR is firing at KONG ... followed by a TRUCK carrying a MOBILE SEARCHLIGHT. KONG bounds into a construction site, climbing with ease up through the frame. A MILITARY TRUCK races through the STREETS of NEW YORK ... still firing at KONG. ANGLE ON: ANN clutches KONG as he BOUNDS along the roofs at HIGH SPEED! ANOTHER SEARCHLIGHT FINDS HIM! ... and ANOTHER! The ARMY are closing in. MACHINE-GUN FIRE rips past him as he LEAPS another GREAT DISTANCE across the STREET. ANN clings on, shutting her EYES. As BULLETS WHIZZ around him, KONG LEAPS ACROSS THE STREET - 10 stories high! He LANDS on the opposite ROOFTOP and BOUNDS AWAY. ANGLE ON: JACK running along the STREET, following a STREAM of POLICE and MILIARY VEHICLES. RMORED CARS and MOBILE SEARCHLIGHTS converge on KONG ... ahead of him, across the CAVERN of 34th STREET, rises the SHEER WALL of the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING!!! A n MOBILE ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUN screeches to a HALT on 34th STREET. ANGLE ON: An ARMY COMMANDER shouts rapid orders to his MEN. COMMANDER Standby to fire! The CAPTAIN runs up to the ARMY COMMANDER ... 120. CAPTAIN I can't give that order! Sir, the ape's holding a girl - ANGLE ON: The ARMY COMMANDER brushes past the CAPTAIN ... COMMANDER (drily) Then I guess it's her unlucky day. shouts to his GUNNERS) Take aim! CAPTAIN Sir ...?! COMMANDER (to his GUNNERS) Shoot to kill! (yells) Fire! POV: Looking up CROSS-HAIRS at KONG, high on the side of the building - a SITTING DUCK. A SUDDEN BLOOM of FIRE erupts from the GUN BARREL speeding straight towards KONG and ANN! ANGLE ON: KONG leaps across 34th STREET just as BOOM! The MISSILE hits the BUILDING'S ROOF! WIDE ON: KONG smashes into the SIDE of the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING! GLASS RAINS DOWN 12 STORIES TO THE STREET as KONG uses WINDOWS for HAND and FOOT HOLDS. He is ONE-HANDED - his other hand still holding ANN protectively to his CHEST. JACK runs forward amidst the noise and confusion he stares up at the long length of the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING ... USH IN: JACK staring at the unguarded, darkened entrance to the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING ... EXT. EMPIRE STATE BUILDING/MANHATTAN - PRE DAWN Looking at MANHATTAN from the HARBOUR ... the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING rises from the MIDTOWN area like a giant solitary finger, reaching for the heavens. WIDE SHOT ... KONG climbing the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, silhouetted against the LIGHTENING SKY. LOOKING DOWN ... ANN clings to KONG'S SHOULDER, a DIZZYING 1000 foot drop to the street below. KONG climbs onto the OBSERVATION DECK of the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING. He gently places ANN down ... a CHILL WIND catches at her DRESS. ANN looks up at KONG ... BLOOD slowly seeps from his numerous WOUNDS ... 121. KONG sits still, staring out across the CITY ... To the EAST the sun is rising, casting an soft glow over buildings ... glinting off the WATERS of the EAST... ONG looks down at ANN ... he gestures with his hands ... touching his heart ... ANN looks at him confused, he repeats the gesture ... CLOSE ON: ANN, she understands ... ANN (whisper) Beautiful ... Here, high above the squalor and the noise and confusion, the city lies quiet, almost peaceful ... ANN (cont'd) Yes ... yes it is. WIDER ... KONG cradles ANN in his HAND as they SHARE the moment. WIDE ON: KONG and ANN sit on the LEDGE, watching the SUN RISE. SIX NAVAL BIPLANES suddenly ROAR INTO SHOT, sweeping low over the DOWNTOWN BUSINESS DISTRICT ... and closing in on KONG. These are TWO-SEATERS, armed with TWIN MACHINE-GUNS for the PILOT, and a flexible MACHINE-GUN for the OBSERVER. CLOSE ON: PILOT'S FINGER on trigger. A COLD WIND blows ANN'S hair as she watches the PLANES approach. KONG is UNEASY about these BUZZING PREDATORS as they CIRCLE above him. The NAVAL PLANES peel off into an ATTACKING DIVE at KONG. DOWN GUN-SIGHTS ... drifting left and right as KONG grows in size ... LOCKED ON! KONG is suddenly FEARFUL ... he INSTINCTIVELY pushes ANN towards the BUILDING'S WALL! The PLANES split to either side of KONG, ZOOMING straight at him! KONG ROARS at the PLANES, as if issuing a CHALLENGE. ANN is screaming ... ANN (cont'd) No!!! THE SIX NAVAL PLANES fly at KONG from different directions! MACHINE-GUNS START FIRING! KONG ROARS ... and SNATCHES at the NAVAL PLANES as they ZOOM by ... he FLINCHES as he is HIT BY BULLETS! 122. KONG clambers onto the SIDE of the BUILDING and begins climbing to the UPPER MOST LEVEL...attempting to DRAW the PLANES away from ANN ... CLOSE ON: The MASKED FACE of a PILOT as he heads straight for KONG. ANGLE ON: KONG swipes at the MOORING MAST and sends it crashing down to the streets below. WIDER ON: KONG stands atop the BUILDING, ROARING & DRUMMING HIS CHEST in ANGER. ANGLE ON: ANN as she desperately begins to climb up a SERVICE LADDER on the outside of the STEEL DOME ... EXT. EMPIRE STATE BUILDING/MANHATTAN - DAWN NGLE ON: KONG ROARS in pain as the bullets hit ... As the PLANES fly past he SNATCHES at them ... CLOSE ON: A GUNNER ... ANGLE ON: KONG recoils in pain as each bullet hits... HE ROARS IN PAIN. ANGLE ON: KONG leaps into the AIR smashing at the last PLANE ... the GIANT APE falls through the AIR ... The CRIPPLED PLANE spins out of control ... plummeting towards the street! he PLANES continue their attack as KONG tries each time to SWAT at them. INT. EMPIRE STATE BUILDING - DAWN ANGLE ON: JACK RACES into a LIFT and hurriedly punches the BUTTON ... nothing happens ... LD SECURITY GUARD Hey, hey, nobody past this point. You can't go in there. JACK pushes past the OLD SECURITY GUARD! ANGLE ON: JACK races round a corner ... races into the SERVICE ELEVATOR ... the doors slowly close. EXT. EMPIRE STATE BUILDING/MANHATTAN - PRE DAWN The continued assault ... POV: through the gunners sight as bullets attack KONG. ANGLE ON: ANN continues to climb the ladder, SHE is nearing the top. 123. SUDDENLY a PLANE FLIES straight at KONG. He LEAPS out the way and FALLS... KONG smashes into the SIDE of the BUILDING ... one hand still grasping onto the UPPER LEVEL ... the TOP of ANN'S LADDER gives way ... HIGH ANGLE ON: ANN dangling precariously in mid-air as she desperately tries to hold on to the STEEL RUNGS ... her fingers slip ... ANN FALLS! KONG stretches out and catches ANN in his HUGE PAW ... behind him the planes are circling preparing to dive once again ... KONG reaches through the BROKEN WINDOWS and puts ANN in the GLASS- IN UPPER-OBSERVATION DECK ... ANN tumbles to the GROUND. Before she can stand another BURST of GUNFIRE rakes the BUILDING! WINDOWS SHATTER! GLASS FLIES all around ANN. BULLETS SLAM into the BACK of KONG! KONG circles the building trying to get away from the PLANE but it continues to follow him. NGLE ON: KONG leaping back on to the top of the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING ... He grabs the PLANE'S WING, spinning it around and around ... NGLE ON: The PLANE CRASHING in to one of the OTHER PLANES ... both PLANES plummet to the ground. INT. OBSERVATION DECK, EMPIRE STATE BUILDING - DAWN NGLE ON:ANN staggers to her FEET and races outside to the balcony, desperately looking for KONG. KONG looks FEARFUL ... he is WEAKENING from his BULLET WOUNDS. ANGLE ON: ANN climbs the SMALL STAIRWAY which leads to the STEEL DOME ... E EXT. UPPER-LEVEL, EMPIRE STATE BUILDING - DAWN KONG, clearly weakened, looks out across the city to the approaching PLANES. THE PLANES are CIRCLING in the DISTANCE, preparing for an ATTACK RUN. INT. ELEVATOR, EMPIRE STATE BUILDING CLOSE ON: JACK watches the LIFT FLOOR INDICATOR as it slowly rises. 124. EXT. UPPER-LEVEL, EMPIRE STATE BUILDING - DAWN ANGLE ON: A LONE PLANE as it NEARS it's TARGET. CLOSE ON: THE PILOTS FACE... CLOSE ON: KONG musters all his remaining strength and in one last challenge, rises up ROARING at the APPROACHING PLANE... ANN races between KONG'S LEGS to the EDGE of the BUILDING ... she frantically waves at the PLANES, screaming as loud as she can! ANN No! No! CLOSE ON: THE PILOT ... seeing ANN, he decides not to fire. ANGLE ON: KONG, now barely clinging to the top of the building, gently picks up ANN and STARES AT HER ONE LAST TIME. HE places her GENTLY down on the ground ... IDE ON: THE PLANES as they fly at KONG. GUNFIRE SMASHES into KONG. ANN looks up ... KONG grasps the side of the BUILDING ... She crawls over to him, clutches his FINGERS, hugging them, trying to COMFORT HIM. TEARS STREAM DOWN HER FACE ... KONG slowly lifts her in his HAND ... he looks beyond her ... ALL SOUND FADES AWAY ... except for a gentle breeze ... The FEAR leaves KONG ... he looks at ANN with TENDERNESS and LOVE. LOSE ON: KONG ... as the light in his eyes slowly fades and goes out. KONG topples back ... disappearing from sight. WIDE ON: KONG plummeting away ... Towards the ground FAR BELOW. ANGLE ON: ANN as she moves towards the edge of the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING ... she stares down at the STREETS BELOW ... overcome by a sense of utter despair ... CLOSE ON: ANN ... for a brief moment she wants to do nothing more than follow KONG ... ANGLE ON: JACK as he climbs on to the ROOF ... he looks at ANN. SLOWLY ANN turns and faces him ... her grief still trapped inside her ... JACK can see in her eyes how close he is to losing her. ANN stares at him a beat ... tears begin to spill from her eyes. Slowly she rises to her feet and walks hesitantly towards Jack. ACK gently embraces her. She wraps her arms around him. 125. WIDE SHOT: JACK and ANN holding each other as dawn light washes over them. EXT. FIFTH AVENUE - MORNING CROWDS are gathering to STARE at KONG'S BODY. A SWARM of JOURNALISTS converge on KONG ... light-bulbs flashing ... ANGLE ON: TWO PHOTOGRAPHERS climb onto KONG'S CHEST ... CAMERAS AIMED right at KONG'S FACE ... they jostle for position. A POLICEMAN drags them off ... POLICEMAN Come on, boys, move on! Show's over! Stay back! Behind the line! As the NATIONAL GUARD begin holding the CROWD of ONLOOKERS BACK. SOLDIERS pose for PHOTOS. CLOSE ON: PHOTOGRAPHER 1 staring up the long length of the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING ... the distance that KONG has plummeted. PHOTOGRAPHER 1 Why'd he do that? Climb up there and get himself cornered? The ape musta known what was comin'. PHOTOGRAPHER 2 It's just a dumb animal - it didn't know nuthin'! ANGLE ON: DENHAM pushing through the CROWD. He stares at KONG, DREAD, REALIZATION dawning on his face. PHOTOGRAPHER 2 (cont'd) What does it matter? The airplanes got him. PUSH IN ... on DENHAM staring at KONG, an ASHEN expression on his face. DENHAM It wasn't the airplanes ... The PHOTOGRAPHERS stare at DENHAM ... expectant. DENHAM (cont'd) ... it was beauty killed the beast. ANGLE ON: DENHAM turns and slowly walks away from CAMERA. FADE TO BLACK THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_King of Comedy, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_King of Comedy, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c2ae45980d74b16a71bc8f57d5d7c32e01046177 --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_King of Comedy, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + FADE IN:1 EXT: MIDTOWN MANHATTAN STREETS - DAY Behind the opening credits, we watch a montage of RUPERT PUPKIN making his daily rounds as a messenger delivering manila envelopes and packages to various New York offices, always courteous and polite in his demeanor, PUPKIN is an attractive-looking young man just past thirty and dressed in a stylish blue suit, broad tie and wide-collared shirt. His shoes are neatly polished, his hair carefully groomed. As the montage continues, we see that he has finished his deliveries and is walking rapidly towards his destination. It turns out to be a television theater north of Times Square whose marquee announces THE JERRY LANGFORD SHOW. It is dusk and the show is about to break. There is a very small crowd already positioned at the stage door -- a few young girls, a few curious passers-by who have stopped to see who will emerge. Three professional autograph hunters are clustered together: MAE, a lady in her sixties, wears a red velvet dress, a lace hat and much too much rouge. SIDNEY is in his mid-twenties, tall, badly-complexioned, slicked hair but otherwise neatly dressed. He carries a brown lunch bag. CELESTE is an enormously fat woman in her mid-thirties. She wears a large cape to conceal her obesity. A middle-aged MAN, dressed in a corduroy suit, emerges from the backstage door which is guarded by a large, white-haired POLICEMAN. The non-professionals in the crowd just peer at the MAN but MAE immediately steps in front of him with her autograph book raised. MAE (to the MAN) Are you somebody? MAN No, honey, I'm just a working stiff. The MAN keep walking and MAE returns to her cohorts just as PUPKIN arrives. MAE Hi, Rupert. CELESTE (coolly) Hello, Rupert. SIDNEY Who did you get? PUPKIN (distractedly) Nobody.PUPKIN carefully places himself near the door, a step ortwo away from the other professionals. MAE (to SIDNEY) I got Mr. Raf Vallone outside 21. CELESTE (to SIDNEY about PUPKIN) He'd never tell you anyway, Sidney. MAE Then I got him again at the Pierre at four o'clock. SIDNEY Be a dear, Mae. I don't happen to have Mr. Vallone. MAE You know what I want for him. SIDNEY But I have only six Barbra's left. You know how difficult she is to work with. MAE I don't have her even once. CELESTE (to MAE) Maybe Rupert would help you.PUPKIN shoots a hostile glance back at CELESTE. SIDNEY Would you do that, Rupert? You don't feel about Barbra the way I do. MAE I'll give you Mr. Burt Reynolds too. CELESTE (needling RUPERT) Look, Sidney, Rupert doesn't do that sort of thing. SIDNEY How about it, Rupert? I'll give you whoever you want.SIDNEY starts pulling little white cards out of his paperbag and reading them off. SIDNEY Rodney Dangerfield ... Richard Harris ... Liza Minelli ... and she's not so easy to work with either ... Louise Lasser! CELESTE You're wasting your time.PUPKIN has been trying to remain apart from the otherthree. Finally he turns to SIDNEY. PUPKIN Look, Sidney. I'm just not interested. This isn't my whole life, you know. CELESTE What's that supposed to mean -- that it's my whole life, or Sidney's or Mae's? MAE It is so my whole life. CELESTE Shut up, Mae. What about your mother? Isn't she part of your life? MAE It's her whole life too.The show breaks. The doors swing open and people pour out.The crowd around the backstage door swells. POLICEMAN (to the crowd) If you want Jerry's autograph, give me your piece of paper and I'll send it backstage.A number of people in the crowd hand in pieces of paper.PUPKIN is standing next to a young couple, about collegeage. The YOUNG GIRL has just sent in her paper. PUPKIN (to the GIRL) What are you going to do with Jerry's autograph? YOUNG GIRL I don't know. Maybe I'll sell it. BOYFRIEND I'll tell you what she's going to do with it. She's going to pin it on her bulletin board and have an orgasm.The YOUNG GIRL laughs unself-consciously. CUT TO:LANGFORD's limousine waits directly in front of the stagedoor. MAE has engaged the CHAUFFEUR who stands at thedoor of the car in conversation. CHAUFFEUR (wearily) No, Mae. MAE I don't mean now. CHAUFFEUR No, Mae. MAE I'll get right out.The CHAUFFEUR, smiling, shakes his head. CUT TO:A plain-looking GIRL in a black raincoat and black, floppyhat stands on the street side of the limousine,carefully watching MAE and the CHAUFFEUR talk. CUT TO: MAE But I've never been in one.We hear a cry as a celebrity emerges from the backstagedoor. MAE turns and goes back towards the door. CUT TO:The POLICEMAN is handing out the autographs. SuddenlyLANGFORD emerges, flanked by three PAGES, husky young menin their early twenties dressed in theater uniforms.There is screaming and some yelling of LANGFORD's name.LANGFORD pays no attention. Smiling nervously, he makeshis way towards the limousine. The CHAUFFEUR stands atthe rear of the car, holding the door. LANGFORD entersthe car and then suddenly springs back. The GIRL in theblack raincoat and black hat has hidden herself in theback seat of the limousine. The three PAGES, who havealready turned and headed back toward the theater, hearthe commotion and swing around. The GIRL, who we shallcome to know as MARSHA, hides herself in the far end ofthe limo, so two of the PAGES go around to the far sideof the car and start pulling her out while the third PAGEmoves into the limo from the street side. She fightslike a wildcat, but the PAGES slowly manage to drag herout. During the struggle, LANGFORD stands amid the crowd,a bit shaken. PUPKIN stands next to him, staring at him.When finally catches LANGFORD's eye, PUPKIN smilespleasantly. PUPKIN (to LANGFORD who barely listens) How the hell did that girl get in there? Jesus, they certainly don't give you very good protection, do they?LANGFORD says nothing, glancing nervously at PUPKIN. PUPKIN Look at you here. Who the hell is watching you? Any one of these freaks could just walk right up to you and do whatever he wants.A couple YOUNG GIRLS are pressing against LANGFORD. FIRST GIRL Oh, Jerry. How can we get to talk to you? PUPKIN Just a minute. This is crazy.PUPKIN straightens up for action. PUPKIN (yelling at the crowd) Okay! Stand back!PUPKIN wades through the crowd towards the limousine,pushing SIDNEY and MAE among others out of the way.LANGFORD follows in the path PUPKIN is clearing. PUPKIN Didn't you hear me?!? Come on, people, have a heart.The PAGES have succeeded in pulling the GIRL out of thefar door of the limo just as PUPKIN and LANGFORD arriveat the near door. The CHAUFFEUR has been blocked by thecrowd from opening the door so PUPKIN opens it. PUPKIN Stand back! (To LANGFORD) Go ahead, Jerry.LANGFORD slips in quickly. He looks up at PUPKIN who isholding the door, smiling pleasantly. LANGFORD Thanks. Thanks very much. PUPKIN stares at LANGFORD for a moment and then slides into the limo next to him, closing the door behind him.2 INT: LIMO - NIGHT PUPKIN I hate to bother you like this, Jerry, but could I speak to you for a minute. LANGFORD I'd like to but ... PUPKIN I know you're a busy man. I promise not to take very long, really. But I need your advice. PUPKIN looks down at his hand which has been badly scratched. PUPKIN You don't have a handkerchief, do you? Jesus, these people will kill you for a cufflink. LANGFORD hands him a monogrammed handkerchief, then checks his watch. PUPKIN Thanks. If you have to be somewhere, I don't mind talking as we drive. You can drop me off anywhere. LANGFORD Sorry, but I've got a strict rule never to ... PUPKIN I put myself on the line for you, Jerry. Reluctantly, LANGFORD signals with his head to his CHAUFFEUR to start moving. As the car moves through New York traffic, PUPKIN and LANGFORD talk. PUPKIN Thanks, Jerry. I'm grateful for this chance to talk to you ... I hope I'm not boring you. LANGFORD I'll let you know. PUPKIN Really? Fine. I'm Rupert Pupkin, Jerry. I know that the name itself doesn't mean very much to you but it means an awful lot to me, believe me. Maybe you've seen me outside your show and wondered who I am. Well, right now, I'm in communications but, by nature, I'm a stand-up comedian. I know what you're thinking -- 'oh no. Not another one.' And I wouldn't take up even one minute of your time if I wasn't absolutely convinced of my talent. I'm really good, Jerry, believe me, I'm dynamite. Now you're probably wondering if I'm so good why haven't you caught my act somewhere, right? LANGFORD Well ... PUPKIN Well, up to now, I've been biding my time, developing my act slowly and carefully so that when my big break finally comes, I'm ready -- like you were that night Paar got sick and you sat in for him. I was there that night, in the theater. That was the most important night of my life, until tonight, of course.PUPKIN fishes a cigarette case out of his jacket pocket,flips it open and offers one to LANGFORD. LANGFORD No thanks. I don't smoke.PUPKIN returns the pack to his pocket. PUPKIN Me neither. I just carry them as a courtesy. How about a cough drop? LANGFORD (smiling indulgently) No thanks. I don't cough. PUPKIN I try not to but sometimes, you know ... Am I making any sense? LANGFORD (smiling) Go on. PUPKIN Well, that night you did Paar, I walked out of the theater like I was in a dream. All of a sudden, I knew what I wanted. I started catching your guest appearances on Sullivan and taping them and, when you got your own show, it got to be a kind of regular thing. I studied how you built to your one-liners, nice and relaxed like you were chatting, and how you delivered the jokes without leaning too much on them, without saying "here's the punchline, folks." And I watched the way you played off dead audiences, how you let those long silences build until people couldn't stand it and then the way you got them off the hook with that slow smile. You were my college of comedy, Jerry, like a kind of teacher, a friend. I know it sounds crazy, but when you watch someone every night ... But that's all in the past. What I'm trying to say is this. I'm ready now. I've finished the course. And I'm thinking as we sit here talking "Is this it? Is this that one big break?" Is it, Jerry?There is a long pause. PUPKIN Jerry? LANGFORD Look ... er ... what was the name? PUPKIN I'm Rupert, Jerry. LANGFORD Look, Rupert. I know what you're saying. But things don't work that way. You can't just walk onto a network show without any experience. You've got to start at the bottom ... PUPKIN But that's where I am! LANGFORD You've got to work your way up, learn your trade in front of live audiences, start playing the little clubs. PUPKIN But that can take years, Jerry! Look at me. I'm already 31 years old! People my age are way ahead of me. I've got some catching up to do and I need your help. What do you say, Jerry? All I'm asking you to do is listen to my act. That's all. Is that asking too much? LANGFORD I get calls from agents every day. All they want ... PUPKIN I tried getting an agent. I did, Jerry. But you know how it is. You can't get an agent unless you're working and you can't get work unless you've got an agent ... or unless you know somebody. And the only person I know is you, Jerry. There is a long pause. LANGFORD Look, why don't you call my office. PUPKIN Could I?!? Oh, I knew you'd say that, Jerry. You don't know how many times I've had this conversation in my head. And this is the way it always turns out. That's why I had to sort of invite myself into the car tonight. I know it's kind of presumptuous and I really appreciate the time you've given me. But breaks like this don't just happen. You have to make your own breaks. The limousine starts slowing down as it pulls up before U.N. Plaza. It stops. LANGFORD gets out. PUPKIN follows.3 EXT: U.N. PLAZA APARTMENTS - NIGHT LANGFORD turn to PUPKIN, looking to get rid of him as cleanly and gracefully as possible. LANGFORD extends his hand. PUPKIN goes to shake it but his hand is wrapped in the handkerchief. He extends his left hand. LANGFORD shakes it awkwardly. LANGFORD Nice meeting you, Rupert. I hope it all works out for you. PUPKIN Thanks, Jerry. I don't know how to repay you. I'm a little short on cash this evening, but, if you don't mind some good, hearty food, I'd be honored to take you to dinner. LANGFORD Thanks, but some people are waiting for me. PUPKIN Oh, I understand. Well, then, maybe I could repay you with a joke. LANGFORD is starting to walk into the building. PUPKIN Wait a minute. How's this? The first night you do your show from the coast, you open this way. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, it's great to be back here in Southern California where you can wake up in the morning and listen to the birds coughing ... " LANGFORD (nodding but unsmiling) Not bad. Maybe. PUPKIN calls after LANGFORD who heads for the entrance to his building. PUPKIN Consider it a gift. Hey, Jerry! How about lunch? My treat! LANGFORD (turning back before he enters the building) Call my office. PUPKIN waves with his bandaged hand, notices LANGFORD's handkerchief and unwraps it. PUPKIN (to the handkerchief) Thanks, Jerry. The CAMERA MOVES IN for a CLOSE-UP of PUPKIN in a kind of daze. FADE TO:4 INT: SARDI'S RESTAURANT - DAY PUPKIN and LANGFORD stand at the edge of the foyer, waiting for the Maitre d' to seat them. VINCENT, the owner, spots them and hurries over. VINCENT I'm sorry, Mr. Langford. (To PUPKIN, angrily) How did you get in? LANGFORD That's alright, Vincent. Mr. Pupkin's a friend of mine. VINCENT (puzzled) Oh, I see. PUPKIN That's alright. Now if you'd be good enough to find us a nice table. PUPKIN pushes a five dollar bill into VINCENT's hand. VINCENT Certainly. This way, please.VINCENT leads PUPKIN and LANGFORD to the "bullpen," aselect spot in a corner of the restaurant. VINCENT Here you are. Enjoy your lunch, gentlemen. LANGFORD Is Eddie here today, Vincent? VINCENT I'll send him over.A WAITER arrives and hands them the menu. WAITER Our specialty today is Rizzofino Dolce Acqua a la Marinara con Spezi. Very good. PUPKIN Sounds like a new opera. LANGFORD Fine. What comes with it? WAITER Me.The three laugh. PUPKIN Fine. For two. WAITER Very good.The WAITER leaves. PUPKIN You look tired, Jerry. LANGFORD It shows, does it? It's all these problems with the show. That and the custody suit. PUPKIN I was sorry to read about that, Jerry. Charlene never should have gotten the kids. If there's anything I can do. LANGFORD I appreciate it, Rube. Just talking about it a little with you helps.Eddie arrives. He is a small, slightly-bald man withgreying hair and a goatee. He wears a foulard under anopen-necked shirt. He carries a long sketch pad. Heimmediately sets up a small easel and starts sketching. PUPKIN Hasn't Eddie already done you? LANGFORD Never mind. You were saying ... PUPKIN Well, I've been giving a lot of thought to your situation, Jerry, ever since I saw you starting to lose ground in the ratings. And I think I know what the problem is. Too many of the same faces. LANGFORD Yeah? PUPKIN Sure, people are getting tired of these people who live off game shows and talk shows and can't really do anything. They've seen 'em and heard 'em till they can't stand it anymore. LANGFORD You know, maybe you're right, Rube. PUPKIN I'm sure I am. When a show runs out of surprises, it loses its audience.A YOUNG GIRL stands before PUPKIN and LANGFORD. She handsPUPKIN her autograph book. PUPKIN What's your name, dear? GIRL Dolores. PUPKIN (writing) To Dolores, who sensed greatness. Rupert Pupkin. GIRL (reading it) Thanks, Mr. Pupkin.The GIRL leaves. PUPKIN You see what I mean? What you need on the show is some unknown quantity, some brilliant talent making his television debut. Imagine the suspense. Who is this young guy? How will he do with the eyes of all America on him? Something like that has got to help. LANGFORD And that's where you come in. PUPKIN Why not? Believe me, Jerry, I'd give you the credit you deserve and I'll stick with you. Anytime you need me, I'll be there, doing a few minutes at Guild scale. LANGFORD I'd be grateful, Rube. I really would. EDDIE All finished, Mr. Langford. EDDIE turns the caricature so PUPKIN and LANGFORD can see it. It's a picture of the two of them, facing each other and smiling. PUPKIN Oh, Jerry, you sneaky ... LANGFORD Looks good, Eddie. The WAITER arrives with a bottle of champagne. PUPKIN What's this? WAITER Compliments of Mr. Sardi. EDDIE hangs the picture of LANGFORD and PUPKIN on the wall behind them among the hundreds of other caricatures -- from Bankhead to Sid Caesar to Bette Davis. The CAMERA PANS over these. We hear the champagne pop. PUPKIN'S VOICE How does your afternoon look? LANGFORD'S VOICE What have you got in mind? PUPKIN'S VOICE Well, we've still got time to catch the Cubs and the Mets out at Shea. LANGFORD'S VOICE Why not? But first, a toast. To you, Rube and your success. PUPKIN'S VOICE Thanks, Jerry. FADE TO:5 EXT: U.N. PLAZA - NIGHT PUPKIN Thanks, Jerry. PUPKIN takes LANGFORD's handkerchief and folds it reverentially, tucking it carefully into his breast pocket. He claps his hands together a few times for joy and dashes into the street to hail a cab. CUT TO:6 INT: LANGFORD'S APARTMENT LANGFORD enters his apartment. It is tasteful, modern, spacious and empty. A floodlight shines on a single setting at the end of a long dinner table. He walks over to a large aquarium and sprinkles some food for the fish. LANGFORD (to the fish) Say hello to Jerry. On a shelf above the aquarium stand three pictures, one of two boys, roughly eight and eleven, flanked by a shot of each boy alone. LANGFORD walks to the end of the table where a covered dish and a New York Post await him. He lifts the covered dish which reveals a large, cold salmon. LANGFORD (to the fish) Say hello to Jerry. LANGFORD begins poking at the fish with his fork. The phone rings. He answers it. LANGFORD Yeah. GIRL'S VOICE It's Marsha, Jerry. Did you get my note? I left it on the back seat. Did you get it? I dropped it there before they pulled me out. Those guys hurt me, Jerry. (pause) Jerry? LANGFORD (icily) Who gave you this number? MARSHA'S VOICE Don't be angry with me, Jerry. I didn't know what else to do; I've been trying you every five minutes, I miss you, baby ... Jerry? LANGFORD hangs up the phone and then takes it off the receiver. LANGFORD Say goodbye to Jerry. He shakes his head wearily, returns to his dinner and turns to the inside pages of the New York Post. CUT TO:7 EXT: LEXINGTON AVENUE IN THE SIXTIES - NIGHT A cab pulls up in front of an all-night florist shop. PUPKIN dashes out of the cab and into the florist's. The cab waits. CUT TO:8 EXT: LEXINGTON AVENUE IN THE SIXTIES - NIGHT PUPKIN dashes out of the florist's clutching a single red rose. He hops back into the cab which starts moving. CUT TO:9 EXT: A STREET OFF BROADWAY - NIGHT The cab pulls up in front of Gil's Steaks and Chops, a restaurant of little distinction that has a few checkered tableclothed tables in the rear and a long bar at the front. PUPKIN stares through the window of the bar at RITA, the bargirl, an attractive, somewhat shopworn blonde in her late twenties. PUPKIN enters. CUT TO:10 INT: BAR-RESTAURANT PUPKIN goes to the near end of the sparsely-populated bar. PUPKIN Miss! RITA comes over. PUPKIN smiles knowingly. PUPKIN A beer please, Miss. Something imported. RITA Heineken's alright? PUPKIN Fine. RITA serves him a Heineken's. She stares at him, searching his face. PUPKIN How have you been, Rita? She stares again. RITA You're not Rupert Pupkin!PUPKIN smiles broadly. RITA How the hell did you find me? PUPKIN Sally Gardner, I met her after a matinee. Aren't you glad to see me? RITA Sure, sure. How is old Sally? PUPKIN The same, I guess. You know, two kids, a nice husband, living in Clifton. RITA It figures. PUPKIN A lot of the kids in our class have moved back. RITA What are you doing here? PUPKIN I just thought I'd say hello. Here, I brought you a little something. RITA (recognizing his style) Oh, yeah, Mr. Romance. PUPKIN Don't forget to put in an aspirin. It lasts longer.RITA fills a glass of water and puts in the rose. RITA Nothing's gonna keep it alive in this place. PUPKIN How have you been, dear, sweet Rita? RITA I don't have an aspirin. PUPKIN Maybe a Rolaids would work.PUPKIN pulls out a pack of Rolaids and hands one to RITAwho smiles vaguely and drops it into the glass. RITA Well, what are you up to these days, Rupert? PUPKIN Didn't you know you'd see me again? RITA You still going to the movies? PUPKIN You're looking as beautiful as ever. RITA Oh, yeah. I was a real knockout. PUPKIN I thought so. RITA Well, here I am. Local cheerleader makes good. PUPKIN I voted for you for Most Beautiful. RITA Yeah? PUPKIN I didn't have the nerve to tell you then, but I guess it's alright now. RITA Well, nothing terrible's gonna happen, if that's what you mean.There is an awkward pause. PUPKIN stares admiringly atRITA. RITA Well, how are things with you, Rupert? PUPKIN Great! Everything's starting to break. RITA Is that right? PUPKIN Yeah. As a matter of fact, that's why I'm here. I've known about this place for a long time. I just didn't want to make my move until I had something to offer you. Everything's a question of timing.RITA stares at PUPKIN as he rattles on. PUPKIN What's the matter?RITA shakes her head in disbelief and chuckles. RITA Jesus Christ, Rupert Pupkin! PUPKIN (smiling) The two of us are often confused. He's the one with the famous father.PUPKIN waits for a laugh. RITA just keeps shaking herhead. PUPKIN looks around. PUPKIN (critically) You like this place?RITA shrugs. RITA Why, you got something better? PUPKIN Maybe. RITA What? PUPKIN What are you doing tonight? RITA Tonight?RITA starts laughing. PUPKIN (smiling reluctantly) What's so funny? RITA (still laughing) You call me up all junior and senior year. Night after night after night, right? And every time I'm wondering 'when is this guy going to stop talking and ask me out?' Well, now I know the answer. August twelfth, nineteen seventy-six. It only took you ten, eleven years to work up to it. PUPKIN If I had asked you out? Would you have gone? RITA Oh, no. PUPKIN Why not?RITA starts laughing again. RITA Because I thought you were a jerk! PUPKIN You see! I was right! But that guy isn't me anymore. I look at my picture in the yearbook and I don't even recognize myself. I'm not the same guy, Rita.A bull-necked MAN in his early forties enters. He wavesa brief hello to RITA as he walks by. RITA smiles andthe MAN takes a seat at the far end of the bar. MAN Rita! RITA (to PUPKIN) Excuse me a minute, honey. PUPKIN I'm not honey! I'm Rupert.RITA goes to the far end of the bar and serves the MAN abeer. They chat briefly as PUPKIN watches uneasily.Finally PUPKIN downs his beer and raises his glass. PUPKIN Miss! Miss!The MAN gets RITA's attention for PUPKIN. RITA returnsto PUPKIN and serves him another beer. PUPKIN I'm in the mood to celebrate tonight. Why don't we go to this nice restaurant I know, talk over and times, get to know each other all over again. RITA And then? PUPKIN Well, tomorrow night I thought we'd go out again, talk some more, get to know each other even better. RITA How much? PUPKIN How much what? RITA How much do we have to get to know each other? PUPKIN I don't understand. RITA (emphatically) How much do we have to get to know each other before we start talking about that job? PUPKIN I'm not talking about any job. RITA Then what's this big offer you were talking about? PUPKIN You'll see. Right now I'm asking you for a date. How about it? RITA I'm sorry, Rupert. But I'm busy. PUPKIN Busy? RITA Yeah. Busy. PUPKIN But this is the biggest night of my life. RITA I've already got a date.The MAN at the end of the bar raises his glass. MAN Rita!RITA goes to the far end of the bar. She pours him anotherbeer and settles against the bar, resuming her chat withhim. PUPKIN looks for a moment and downs his beer. Heraises his glass. PUPKIN Miss! Miss!RITA returns to him. PUPKIN Is that your date? RITA None of your business. PUPKIN What do you want to go out with him for? RITA He's a good friend of mine. PUPKIN Tell him you're busy. RITA What's so important about tonight? PUPKIN Everything! You don't understand. RITA No. I don't. It's been really nice seeing you, Rupert. Thanks for dropping in. But I've got some work to do. RITA leaves PUPKIN and returns to the far end of the bar where she once again resumes talking with the MAN. PUPKIN sits for a moment, gets up slowly and heads for the john.11 INT: THE JOHN - NIGHT He enters the john and goes to the farthest of the three urinals. A moment later, the MAN enters. He goes to the nearest of the three urinals. The two men stare at the wall before them but the obvious tension between them renders them both incapable of relieving themselves. PUPKIN glances over at the MAN's face, then immediately turns back to the wall as the MAN turns to look at him. The MAN glances quickly at PUPKIN and then returns to staring at the wall. PUPKIN sneaks a furtive glance at the MAN's penis. The MAN sneaks a furtive glance at PUPKIN's penis. CUT TO:12 INT: THE BAR - NIGHT PUPKIN emerges from the john, followed a moment later by the MAN. They resume their seats at each end of the bar. A third MAN has come in and is seated midway between PUPKIN and the MAN. PUPKIN Miss! RITA walks over reluctantly. PUPKIN Listen to me for a second. RITA I have work to do, Rupert. PUPKIN Just listen. I'm at the start of something really big. I don't want to talk about it here but it's going to happen soon and it's going to be great -- for both of us. RITA No kidding? PUPKIN So see that guy some other night. MAN Rita!RITA turns to go. PUPKIN But I haven't finished!RITA returns to the MAN and pours him another beer. PUPKINsits for a few moments, then downs his beer quickly. Again,he raises his glass. PUPKIN Miss! Miss!The MAN leans over the bar and tells RITA something. Sheopens a bottle of beer and hands it to the MAN who slidesit down the bar towards PUPKIN. As the beer reaches themiddle of the bar, the THIRD MAN seated midway betweenPUPKIN and the MAN raises his beer glass to take a sip justas the sliding beer bottle passes under his hand. Thebottle stops right in front of PUPKIN who takes it andslides it back with equal force. At this moment, the THIRDMAN in the middle has finished his sip and has just placedthe THIRD MAN's glass on the counter. The beer bottlecollides with the THIRD MAN's glass, creating a mess. RITAglares at PUPKIN as does the THIRD MAN. PUPKIN shrugs anapology and RITA cleans up the mess. RITA (to the THIRD MAN) I'll get you another one.As RITA cleans up the mess and pours a fresh beer, the MANwalks down the bar towards PUPKIN. He leans over him andputs a supposedly friendly paw on his shoulder. PUPKINglances distastefully at the MAN's hand on him. MAN (to PUPKIN) Look, friend. I'm trying to have a nice civilized conversation with the young lady. Be a good little lad, huh, and give us a break.PUPKIN looks up at the MAN who pats him on the back in agesture of fraudulent friendship and menace. PUPKIN burps.With an effort, the MAN controls his temper and returns tohis seat at the end of the bar. PUPKIN instantly raiseshis glass. PUPKIN Miss! Miss!The MAN advances towards PUPKIN with another bottle ofbeer. PUPKIN watches passively as the MAN pours half thebottle into PUPKIN's breast pocket and slams the half-emptybottle on the counter. The MAN walks down to the end ofthe counter where a smiling RITA is waiting.PUPKIN again gulps his beer down. RITA and the MAN stareat PUPKIN expecting him to raise his glass and call foranother beer. PUPKIN just sits there. After a fewmoments, RITA and the MAN resume their conversation, butthey keep glancing over at PUPKIN, expecting him tointerrupt them with a call for beer at any moment. PUPKINcontinues to sit there. Just as RITA and the MAN havesettled back into their conversation, PUPKIN falls like astone from the barstool onto the floor. He liesmotionless. RITA and the MAN look at PUPKIN for a momentwhile the handful of other patrons glance at him and returnto their drinks. RITA leaves the bar and goes to the rearof the restaurant, disappearing into the kitchen. As shedoes, the MAN walks over to where PUPKIN is lying inertand prods him cruelly with his foot. MAN C'mon, schmuck, wake up so I can kick your ass outta here.The MAN turns to the kitchen to see if RITA is returning.As he does, PUPKIN carefully opens one eye, grabs a freechair from a nearby cocktail table, rises and bangs the MANsmartly over the head. The MAN falls, out cold. PUPKINstraightens up quickly as the other patrons look on withinterest. PUPKIN brushes off his suit, which is blue, justlike the MAN's, and stands above the MAN just as the MANstood above him, his back to kitchen. RITA emerges fromthe kitchen with the owner, MR. NICHOLS and a large blackCOOK. RITA (to NICHOLS) He was making trouble one minute and the next he was on the floor.RITA automatically reaches out as she talks for what she thinks is the MAN's arm. Instead, PUPKIN turns around smiling, leaving her too startled to speak. NICHOLS and the COOK lift the MAN to his feet. COOK Okay, buddy, here we go. NICHOLS and the COOK lead the MAN, who is still groggy, out of the bar as RITA continues to stare at PUPKIN with a mixture of curiosity and amusement. RITA Okay, Tarzan. Where do we eat tonight? CUT TO:13 INT: CHINESE RESTAURANT ON UPPER WEST SIDE - NIGHT We are in the kitchen watching two dishes being chopped, shredded and boiled in deep fat. The activity is frantic. WE FOLLOW the two dishes as a WAITER carries them from the kitchen to a booth where PUPKIN and RITA are talking. It is a painfully plain restaurant, shaped in a rectangle, with booths lining either side and a row of little tables in between. At the back is the kitchen and two phone booths, facing each other. An old Chinese WOMAN mans the cash register by the door. The WAITER sets the dishes down before RITA and PUPKIN and clears an enormous plate of spare rib bones from RITA's place. RITA hands the WAITER her empty cocktail glass. RITA and PUPKIN are facing one another. RITA Another one, Chan. PUPKIN (to WAITER) Chopsticks, please. The WAITER nods and leaves. RITA So all this time you've been thinking about me, huh? PUPKIN That's right, Rita. RITA What kinds of things were you thinking? PUPKIN drops his eyes shyly. RITA starts laughing. RITA Oh, ho! Those kinds of things! Shame on you, Rupert. PUPKIN Rita, I assure you there was ... RITA Rupert Pupkin is an unclean person! PUPKIN Come on, Rita. People will hear. RITA (in a whisper) Rupert Pupkin is an unclean person. Oh, come on, Rupert. Relax. Have a little fun.WAITER arrives with RITA's drink and chopsticks and a beerfor PUPKIN. PUPKIN This is a very important evening to me, Rita. RITA Did you know your nose wiggled when you talked? PUPKIN It does? RITA Yeah. Just the tip. Like a rabbit. (pause) Hey, are we gonna eat or what? I'm starving.PUPKIN serves RITA. RITA It always looks like they put worms in this stuff. PUPKIN Just taste.RITA tastes. RITA Well, I guess it won't kill me. PUPKIN This is supposed to be the finest Cantonese cuisine in the city. RITA Yeah? Then what happened to the tablecloths?PUPKIN drops his eyes. RITA Oh, don't worry about it. This is fine. (She takes a long drink) I'm having a good time. So you've been devoted to me, huh? PUPKIN I used to see you at the Garden every year. RITA Oh, the Follies. That was the right name for 'em. How did you know which one was me? We all looked like chickens. What I mean is, we all looked like the same chicken. I thought it was gonna be Rita Keane in the Ice Follies and I wind up looking like Henny Penny.RITA chuckles to herself. PUPKIN You just didn't get the breaks. RITA Breaks, bullshit! My parents didn't have the money for the right coach. But what difference does it make?She starts laughing to herself. RITA I remember once we were down in Atlanta and the ice machine broke down. We did three hours of slush. Everyone was falling on their faces and hopping up with their arms open for a bow like the whole thing was planned. And the people ate it up. PUPKIN I liked the show. RITA Yeah? The Follies? You really must have been carrying the torch. What did you think when I got married? You knew I got married? PUPKIN I knew it wouldn't last. RITA You think I should have married you, instead, huh? PUPKIN Peter Drysdale! Really, Rita! RITA If he'd only been hit by a train. He was worth a helluva lot more dead than alive, I can tell you that.RITA raises her glass to the WAITER who is standing nearby,talking with another WAITER. As she does, a nice-lookingyoung MAN sitting in the middle aisle raises his glass ofbeer to her and drinks it, as a kind of toast. RITAsmiles briefly and her eyes return to PUPKIN. The YOUNGMAN is seated behind PUPKIN, facing RITA. The WAITER comesover and collects the glass. Throughout the rest of thescene, a subtle flirtation continues between RITA and theYOUNG MAN. PUPKIN Are you seeing anyone?RITA starts for a moment, thinking PUPKIN has caught herlooking at the YOUNG MAN. RITA What do you mean? PUPKIN I want to know about the competition, that's all. RITA Well, tomorrow night, I've got a date with Joe Namath -- you know Joe. And Thursday --- let's see -- PUPKIN I'm serious, Rita. RITA (imitating him) I'm serious, Rita. (In her own voice) Sure I see people. I'm not a nun, Rupert. I see a lot of people. PUPKIN Anyone special? RITA (chuckling) You mean am I "going steady"? Rupert, I'm thirty-one years old! PUPKIN What about that guy tonight? RITA Him? PUPKIN Why him? RITA What am I supposed to do, huh? Sit home watching TV? He's just some guy. He's got his own aluminum siding business. He comes into the city sometimes, that's all. PUPKIN You don't go out with him for his money?!? RITA Oh, horrors! Look, Rupert, what do you think they pay me in that dump? Ninety-five bucks. And you don't get the world's greatest tippers in there either. Somebody has to take care of me. PUPKIN That's what I want to talk to you about, Rita.The WAITER arrives with RITA's drink. PUPKIN Who's your favorite movie star? RITA You are, Rupert. Especially your nose. PUPKIN Just tell me. RITA Is this some kind of game? Are you going to tell me something about my character? PUPKIN You'll see. Give me his name. RITA I can't think of anybody. PUPKIN You've got to have one, Rita. Everybody does. RITA Okay. Okay. Let's see. (pause) Marilyn Monroe.PUPKIN slowly pulls out a leather-bound book from hisinside jacket pocket. RITA Oh, Rupert! Are we going to exchange phone numbers!?PUPKIN expertly flips to a middle page in the book and,keeping the book open, his finger pointing under a name,he turns the book to RITA. RITA That's her name. PUPKIN Her name! She signed this herself, especially for me.RITA starts flipping through the book, curious about theother names. She isn't paying any attention to what PUPKINis saying. PUPKIN She wasn't a great actress but she had a real gift for comedy. She died tragically, you know, alone, like so many of the world's most beautiful women. I'm going to see that doesn't happen to you, Rita. RITA Who's this one?PUPKIN checks the book. PUPKIN Burt Reynolds. RITA Oh yeah, the guy with no clothes. Who's this? PUPKIN Mel Brooks. RITA And this? PUPKIN Carol Burnett. RITA No kidding. How about this? PUPKIN Glenda Jackson. RITA Never heard of her. PUPKIN (pointing to other names) And that's Woody Allen and there's Ernie Kovacs -- he's dead -- and that one's Lauren Bacall. RITA You don't really know any of these people? PUPKIN Take a look at this.PUPKIN flips to one of the back pages and shows a name toRITA. RITA (squinting) I can't make it out. PUPKIN Try. RITA This is really weird handwriting!Exasperated, PUPKIN follows the name in question with hisindex finger. PUPKIN Rooooper .... RITA (guessing) Redford! PUPKIN That's Robert Redford. RITA It is? PUPKIN No! It's ... it's Rupert PupkinPUPKIN tears out the page and hands it to her shyly. RITAjust stares at it and back at PUPKIN. PUPKIN Don't lose it. It's going to be worth something in a couple of weeks.RITA start laughing. PUPKIN That's what I've been trying to tell you. Things are really breaking for me. I'm ticketed for stardom.RITA laughs harder, despite efforts to be serious. PUPKIN Only a couple of hours ago, I was talking to Jerry Langford, the Jerry Langford. Stop it, Rita!RITA pulls herself together for a moment. PUPKIN We were talking about my doing my act on his show. RITA (suppressing a smile) Your act? PUPKIN Get that guy you knew from Clifton out of your head right now. You're looking at Rupert Pupkin, Rita. Rupert Pupkin, the new King of Comedy.RITA starts laughing hysterically, in spite of herself. RITA (getting a grip on herself) I'm sorry. PUPKIN Why not me, Rita? A guy can always get what he wants if he's willing to pay the price. All it takes is a little talent and sacrifice and the right break. If you've got a friend in the right place, that's all it takes. And that's exactly what I have going for me right now. After all, crazier things have happened.RITA listens silently for a moment, then begins to giggle.As PUPKIN resumes speaking, we CUT between RITA and theYOUNG MAN. Their flirtation picks up steam. The YOUNG MANraises his eyebrows as if to ask, "Are you interested inme?" She smiles. All the while, PUPKIN rattles on. PUPKIN You just don't realize what a shot on the Langford Show can mean. That's coast to coast, national TV, a bigger audience than the greatest comedians used to play to in a lifetime. A shot like that means a free ticket on the comedy circuit -- Flip Wilson one week, Cosby the next, then Sonny and Cher or Carol Burnett. And you've always got those other talk shows to fall back on -- Carson, Griffin. And all that leads straight in one direction, Rita -- Hollywood! That's when we really start living. How does this sound to you -- a beach house in Malibu, right on the ocean. You'll get a beautiful tan, believe me. And we'd keep a suite at the Sherry. That's the only place to stay when you're big. We could get something on a top floor and look down on all our old friends in Clifton and just laugh. How does that sound to you? RITA It sounds wonderful, Rupert, and I really hope you get what you want. But it's getting late and I'm a working girl. You know what I mean?The telephone at the back of the restaurant starts ringing.A WAITER in the background moves slowly to answer it. PUPKIN You going to spend the rest of your life in that place? Is that what you really want, talking about nothing with nothings? I thought you wanted something a little better than that and that's what I'm offering. Every King needs a Queen, Rita. I want you to be mine. What do you say? RITA You really want to help me out? You see this. (She points to her lower back molar) A hundred seventy-five bucks. If you could spare fifty, say, until next Monday, that would keep three people really happy -- me, my landlord and my dentist.During RITA's speech, the WAITER has been working his wayfrom the phone booth towards the front of the restaurant. WAITER Telephone for you, Miss. RITA (looking puzzled) Me? Nobody knows I'm here. You didn't tell anybody, did you? PUPKIN No. RITA (getting up) What the hell's going on?CAMERA FOLLOWS RITA, who walks to the back of therestaurant and picks up the dangling receiver in one of the two facing booths, the other of which is occupied.14 INT: THE PHONE BOOTH - NIGHT RITA Hello? MAN'S VOICE Hi. RITA Who is this? MAN'S VOICE Who do you think it is? I've been staring at you all evening. RITA Where are you? The YOUNG MAN taps forcefully with his index finger on the glass door of his booth. RITA, hearing the noise, turns around and finds herself staring at the YOUNG MAN. She smiles. CUT TO:15 INT: THE RESTAURANT - NIGHT PUPKIN at the table looking over the check. He gets out a ten dollar bill. RITA emerges from the booth in nervous high spirits. RITA (with repressed gaiety) You know who that was -- the bar. I have to go back to work. PUPKIN How did they know you were here? RITA (gathering her things) I guess I must have told them. They need someone right away. PUPKIN (accusingly) You don't even care, do you? RITA Oh, no. I do. Really! PUPKIN It's not the bar, Rita. Don't tell me it's the bar. RITA Don't be angry. It has nothing to do with you. I had a nice dinner, really. It was great seeing you again. PUPKIN stare at her icily. RITA Come on. Let's see a smile. PUPKIN Why don't we finish the evening up at the bar together? End the evening where it began? RITA After what happened there? PUPKIN Well, I could at least drop you off! RITA (hurriedly making up her face) That's okay. Really. I can manage. Why don't you just go to a movie or something? Don't let me spoil your evening. PUPKIN But that wouldn't be right. RITA gets up and stands before PUPKIN. RITA (firmly) Look, Rupert. It's been a lot of fun, really. I'll see you sometime, huh? PUPKIN But Rita! RITA starts moving towards the door. RITA Come on, Rupert. I'm in a hurry. RITA marches out with PUPKIN trailing behind. He throws the check and the ten dollar bill at the CASHIER.16 EXT. THE STREET - NIGHT CAMERA FOLLOWS PUPKIN as he streaks out the door and jumps into the adjacent doorway, immediately peering down the street. He spies the YOUNG MAN and RITA walking about three quarters of a block down and follows them, keeping out of sight. They turn occasionally to see if he's around, then stop turning. They go around the corner and disappear into a large apartment building. PUPKIN rushes after them, positioning himself across from the building. He searches the windows for some clue as to where they have gone. Finally a set of lights go on on the fourth floor and a MAN's shadow is seen closing two sets of blinds. CUT TO:17 INT: THE APARTMENT BUILDING FOYER - NIGHT PUPKIN enters the building and finds himself in a small entranceway. The door to the lobby is locked. Next to the door, on the wall, are listed the tenants, their apartment numbers and a button next to each name. There is an intercom speaker. There are eight apartments listed on the fourth floor, running from 4A to 4H. PUPKIN looks them over, takes a deep breath and pushes 4A. CUT TO:18 INT: YOUNG MAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT It is an extremely well-furnished studio apartment with all the requirements of a contemporary bachelor pad -- an imitation bearskin rug, nice bookshelves including an elaborate stereo system, recessed lighting, including a soft spotlight on the Queen-sized bed with its pseudo-satin cover. The YOUNG MAN and RITA stand in the middle of the room. RITA looks about uneasily. No intercom buzzer sounds. YOUNG MAN Welcome to the pleasure dome. RITA You don't kid around, do you? YOUNG MAN (smiling) I do alright. What's your libation? RITA Huh? YOUNG MAN Your potion. Your drink. RITA Bourbon and soda. Make it light. The YOUNG MAN goes to his chic little bar and starts fixing RITA a strong bourbon and soda. He also fixes himself a strong scotch and water. As he works, they talk. YOUNG MAN You from the South? RITA Me? YOUNG MAN That's what Southern people drink. Lots of bourbon. RITA What do people from Jersey drink? YOUNG MAN I make it a point to study things like that. It's important to know people's backgrounds, their tastes, their culture. It gives you a little head start. The YOUNG MAN turns from the bar and hands RITA her drink. YOUNG MAN I'm Chet. Whom do I have the pleasure of serving? RITA I'm Mary. YOUNG MAN Pleased to meat you, Mary. (He lifts his glass) To our evening. CUT TO:19 INT: THE ENTRANCEWAY - NIGHT PUPKIN stands before the intercom. WOMAN'S VOICE Who? PUPKIN Rita Keane. I want to talk to her. WOMAN'S VOICE Rita Keane? PUPKIN That's right. Oh, never mind. I must have the wrong apartment. WOMAN'S VOICE There's no Rita here. PUPKIN I know. I know. I'm sorry to bother you. WOMAN'S VOICE You must have the wrong apartment. PUPKIN I'm sorry. PUPKIN pushes 4B. CUT TO:20 INT: YOUNG MAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT RITA is seated on the couch. The YOUNG MAN is putting a record on the phonograph. Once again, the intercom doesn't sound. PUPKIN has drawn another blank. YOUNG MAN Leisure is America's fastest growing industry. Did you know that? Think about it. Short work weeks, more vacation. People need something to do with all that time and that's where I come in. Leisure Villages, Inc. We buy land an hour or so outside your metropolitan centers. We set up the bungalows, dig some lakes, lay out a golf course, you know, fix the whole place up so it's usable. Then young, personable guys like me show the people around. It the guy seems tight, we point out the investment factor. If he's a swinger, well, the bungalows are very private. If he's a sports nut, we talk up skiing and fishing and tennis. The phonograph starts playing Burt Bachrach. YOUNG MAN What's your work, Mary? The YOUNG MAN walks back to her and stands over her. RITA Me. I fly for National. YOUNG MAN (delighted) No kidding? RITA What's that smell? YOUNG MAN Sandalwood incense. It seemed very you. CUT TO:21 INT: THE ENTRANCEWAY - NIGHT PUPKIN yells into the intercom. PUPKIN I said I'm sorry! We hear the intercom at the other end click off. PUPKIN pauses a moment and pushes 4C. CUT TO:22 INT: YOUNG MAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT RITA and the YOUNG MAN are seated on the couch. Still no buzzer. As the YOUNG MAN talks, RITA is staring at a woman's shoe lying underneath a small table that holds a lamp. YOUNG MAN Did you know that you have remarkable hair? RITA Yeah? You know what? I feel like going to a movie. YOUNG MAN Now? RITA Sure. Why not? It's only twenty of ten. We can make a ten o'clock show. The YOUNG MAN takes her hands and looks deep into her eyes. YOUNG MAN Why don't we make our own movie? RITA No. I don't think so. YOUNG MAN Don't be so uptight. Give it a chance. RITA I want to go to the movies, that's all. YOUNG MAN We can go to the movies later. RITA pulls her hands away. RITA Let's stop playing games, okay. I'm not a kid. YOUNG MAN You have something against pleasure? RITA I'm just not interested in being tonight's ritual sacrifice, okay? YOUNG MAN Shall I freshen up your drink? RITA shakes her head. YOUNG MAN (growing irritated) What exactly did you think we were going to do up here? CUT TO:23 INT: THE ENTRANCEWAY - NIGHT PUPKIN pushes 4D and waits. MAN'S VOICE Yeah? CUT TO:24 INT: YOUNG MAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The YOUNG MAN is practically sitting on RITA's lap. He has RITA backed up against the end of the couch. YOUNG MAN Look, if you've got sexual problems let's talk about them. It helps clear the air. RITA There's nothing wrong with me. YOUNG MAN Then it's me? RITA I don't even know you. YOUNG MAN Then find out. Sex is a great way of breaking down barriers. RITA I don't think so. YOUNG MAN I'm sure this could lead to something beautiful. The YOUNG MAN kisses RITA roughly. YOUNG MAN Passive resistance, huh? RITA Let's just write this thing off as a big mistake. What do you say? YOUNG MAN What's wrong with me? RITA Nothing. I just want to go home. YOUNG MAN I can see I'm not turning you on. RITA (smiles) You noticed that, huh? YOUNG MAN Come on. What's wrong with me? RITA You really want to know? YOUNG MAN Yeah. RITA How can I put it? Well, it's like you've got your fly open and your tongue hanging out. CUT TO:25 INT: THE ENTRANCEWAY - NIGHT PUPKIN, growing more frantic, pushes 4E. CUT TO:26 INT: YOUNG' MAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The YOUNG MAN is all over RITA. No buzzer sounds. YOUNG MAN I'm really a very sensitive person. RITA Come on. Get offa me. YOUNG MAN Sometimes I write poetry. RITA pulls herself away. RITA No! YOUNG MAN So you wanna play hard to get, huh? The YOUNG MAN grabs her. CUT TO:27 INT: THE ENTRANCEWAY - NIGHT PUPKIN, even more desperate, pushes 4F. OLD LADY'S VOICE ø Que es, por favor? CUT TO:28 INT: YOUNG MAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The YOUNG MAN is strong-arming RITA who is beginning to get frightened. RITA Come on. Let's talk this over. YOUNG MAN I admire you very much. I respect you, Mary. RITA (her eyes beginning to fill with terror) You're hurting me. YOUNG MAN I'm only doing what you want. RITA (pleading, on the verge of tears) Oh, please. CUT TO:29 INT: THE ENTRANCEWAY - NIGHT PUPKIN, frantic, pushes 4G. CUT TO:30 INT: THE YOUNG MAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The YOUNG MAN has RITA securely pinned and is starting to undo her blouse. She is desperate. YOUNG MAN Afterwards, you'll thank me. The buzzer sounds with great force. It is one, long, protracted blast that breaks the YOUNG MAN's concentration. RITA takes advantage of the distraction to grab her bag and rush out as the buzzer continues to sound. CUT TO:31 INT: THE ENTRANCEWAY - NIGHT PUPKIN still has his finger on 4G as RITA rushes out the EXIT door next to the elevator and comes rushing towards him. She is numb and emotionally exhausted. PUPKIN Rita! RITA (in desperation) What do you want? RITA keeps walking out of the entranceway and onto the street. PUPKIN is at her side. PUPKIN Don't be angry with me. I was worried about you, that's all. RITA Just go home and leave me alone. PUPKIN take off his jacket and puts if around RITA's shoulders. PUPKIN (quietly) Here. You'll need this. It's getting chilly. RITA I'm so bad. I'm such a dummy. PUPKIN Don't say that, Rita. Everyone does crazy things. RITA Not all the time. PUPKIN I'll get us a cab. PUPKIN rushes into the street and hails a cab. CUT TO:32 EXT: WEST 56th STREET BETWEEN EIGHTH AND NINTH AVENUES - NIGHT WE SEE the taxi pull up in front of one of those middle-class tenements -- a fairly well-preserved six-storybuilding with a fire escape running up the front. PUPKINhelps RITA out of the taxi. A dime bounces at PUPKIN'sfeet. CAB DRIVER'S VOICE Stuff it, big spender!PUPKIN pays no attention. He walks RITA to her frontstoop. RITA Well, I guess you're entitled to come up for coffee. PUPKIN That's okay, Rita. You're tired and I know I'm not always the easiest guy to be with.There is a pause. RITA (puzzled) What do you want, Rupert? PUPKIN (softly) You don't understand anything, do you? I love you, Rita. I want to change your life ... if you'll only give me a chance.RITA just shakes her head sadly. PUPKIN Look, what if I arranged it so you could meet Jerry? You'd have to believe me if you heard it from him. RITA There's no ... PUPKIN I'll arrange that, Rita. We'll all go out to dinner some night or maybe out to his place, on a weekend. You'll see. The trouble with you is you've got no faith. Now go to bed and get a good rest and I'll see you in a couple of days.PUPKIN gives RITA a very gentle, sweet kiss on theforehead. PUPKIN (gently) Now run along in. RITA just stares at him. PUPKIN Go on. RITA turns slowly and goes in. She looks back. PUPKIN is gone. FADE TO:33 EXT: MADISON AVENUE AND 48th STREET - DAY PUPKIN carries a large manila folder into 424 Madison. As usual, he is impeccably dressed. CUT TO:34 INT: OFFICES OF KOERNER-LIBERMAN TRAVEL - DAY It is a large corner office, broken up by glass dividers. A RECEPTIONIST sits at a desk facing the door. PUPKIN enters. RECEPTIONIST Yes. PUPKIN hands the RECEPTIONIST the package. PUPKIN I need somebody to sign. You can sign anything you want -- Cary Grant, Art Carney, I don't care. The RECEPTIONIST signs. PUPKIN Would you mind very much if I used your phone? It's local. RECEPTIONIST Don't be, long. Dial nine. PUPKIN takes out a little piece of paper from his suit pocket and dials a number. PUPKIN (tense, nervous) May I speak to Jerry Langford, please? Thanks ... Jerry Langford, please. Rupert Pupkin ... Jerry knows. I'm calling at his request ... I see. That's alright. I'll call him again. RECEPTIONIST That's not Jerry Langford, the ... PUPKIN (smiling proudly) That's right. Thanks for your phone. CUT TO:35 EXT: TIMES SQUARE - DAY PUPKIN approaches Times Square phone booth. He rests a few folders on a trash basket just outside the booth. He enters the booth and dials. PUPKIN Jerry Langford, please ... May I speak to Jerry Langford, please ... Rupert Pupkin, I called earlier ... I see. How long do you expect that'll last? Oh, fine. I'm at (PUPKIN checks the number on the phone) CH 4-1482 ... I'll be here for another half hour, forty- five minutes. Please be sure he gets my message. Thanks. PUPKIN hangs up. CUT TO:36 EXT: TIMES SQUARE - DAY A SHOT of the clock on the Allied Chemical Building. It reads 10:10. A nearby record store starts blasting music into the street through a loudspeaker. The music serves as background for a montage in which we CUT BETWEEN the clock, which moves in bites towards 11:30 to Broadway as it looks to PUPKIN in the booth -- that cavalcade of hustlers, whores, housewives, kids, weirdos and working people; and SHOTS of various people waiting to use the phone -- their impatience, anger, disgust. Each time one of them arrives, PUPKIN pretends to thumb through the phone book and dial a number. WE WATCH him chatting with animation until the waiting party leaves. Then WE SEE him push the coin return to retrieve his dime. Finally, PUPKIN takes a last look at the clock. WE SEE that it reads 11:30. He leaves the booth and goes to the trash basket. His packages have been swiped. CUT TO:37 EXT: AN UPPER BROADWAY HIGH-RISE OFFICE BUILDING - DAY WE SEE PUPKIN enter. He is watched by a plain girl of about twenty in a black raincoat and a floppy black hat whom we recognize as MARSHA. CUT TO:38 INT: A CORRIDOR IN THE HIGH-RISE OFFICE BUILDING - DAY PUPKIN emerges from the elevator and walks down the corridor looking for the door the Jerry Langford Show offices. He finally finds it and enters. CUT TO:39 INT: THE RECEPTION AREA OF THE JERRY LANGFORD SHOW OFFICES - DAY A bored, plump, middle-aged RECEPTIONIST sits behind a large desk that holds a phone receiver connected to a small switchboard. PUPKIN presents himself. RECEPTIONIST Yes sir? PUPKIN Mr. Langford, please. RECEPTIONIST Your name? PUPKIN Pupkin. Rupert Pupkin. The RECEPTIONIST puts a call through. Wide-eyed, PUPKIN observes the blow-ups of Langford talking with various celebrities. FADE TO:40 INT: A TELEVISION STUDIO - DAY LANGFORD is seated at his desk on stage and PUPKIN is his guest. WE SEE television cameras and in the background, the control room. PUPKIN You know the secret of dieting, Jerry? Grapefruit. It's good for you. It's filling. And it's low in calories. LANGFORD (to the camera) Take note of that, you ladies. PUPKIN As a matter of fact, yesterday I went to the outdoor market near where I live and I bought twenty grapefruit. The grocer looked at me and said, "What are you gonna do with all those?" So I bent over and told him (in a confidential tone) "I'm gonna take 'em back to Florida and set 'em free!" LANGFORD and the AUDIENCE laugh heartily. FADE TO:41 INT: THE RECEPTION AREA -- DAY RECEPTIONIST (holding the phone and talking to PUPKIN) I'm sorry, Mr. Pupkin, but Mr. Langford's secretary has no record of any appointment. PUPKIN Pardon me? RECEPTIONIST Mr. Langford's secretary has no record of any appointment. PUPKIN Well, technically speaking, I don't actually have an appointment. Jerry asked me to call him today and when I couldn't get through, I thought ... As PUPKIN talks, a VISITOR has entered and stands behind him waiting for the RECEPTIONIST's attention. RECEPTIONIST I see. (Into the phone) He says Mr. Langford asked him to call. (To PUPKIN) Mr. Langford's secretary wants to know what this is in reference to. The RECEPTIONIST glances past PUPKIN to the VISITOR waiting. RECEPTIONIST (to PUPKIN) Would you mind talking to her yourself? The RECEPTIONIST hands the phone to PUPKIN and occupies herself with the VISITOR. PUPKIN Hello? ... Jerry and I discussed my being on the show last night and he told me to call ... No. I don't mind. PUPKIN hands the phone back to the RECEPTIONIST. PUPKIN I'm supposed to wait. The RECEPTIONIST listens to the phone for a moment and then hangs up. The VISITOR has just disappeared into the back offices. PUPKIN stands there, smiling politely at the RECEPTIONIST who returns a professional smile. PUPKIN Who was that gentleman? (PUPKIN indicates with a glance to the entrance to the back offices that he is referring to the VISITOR) RECEPTIONIST Mr. Gangemi.PUPKIN draws a complete blank but wants to appearknowledgeable. PUPKIN Oh, I see. Mr. Gangemi. RECEPTIONIST He takes care of our air conditioning.CATHY LONG emerges from the back offices. She is a tall,modishly-dressed, attractive woman in her early thirties. CATHY LONG Uh ... Mr. Pupkin? PUPKIN Yes? CATHY LONG I'm Cathy Long. PUPKIN I'm Mr. Pupkin. CATHY LONG Can I help you? PUPKIN I'm sorry, but you are? CATHY LONG I'm Bert Thomas' assistant. PUPKIN Bert Thomas? CATHY LONG He's our executive producer. PUPKIN Oh, yes. I'm sure he is. But, you see, I've already talked directly with Jerry about my being on the show and he told me to get in touch with him. I'm just here to follow up on that. CATHY LONG What do you do, Mr. Pupkin? PUPKIN Stand-up comedy. CATHY LONG Fine. Where are you working? PUPKIN Well, right now I'm developing new material. CATHY LONG I see. Well, as soon as you start performing again, let us know where you are and I'll send my assistant down to check you out. PUPKIN Sure. Sure. But that's not necessary, Miss Long. Jerry and I already went over all this. CATHY LONG Does Jerry know your work? PUPKIN (nodding) Yes. I don't think he does. CATHY LONG You don't happen to have a tape or a demo that we might listen to? PUPKIN Oh, sure. I've got lots of tapes. That's no problem. CATHY LONG Good. Why don't you just send one to us and I assure you we'll listen to it promptly. PUPKIN Great. I'll do that. I can see that'd be a lot easier for Jerry. Thanks a lot, Miss Long. CATHY LONG Don't mention it, Mr. Pupkin. Now, if you'd excuse me ... PUPKIN Sure. Sure. Thanks again.CATHY LONG leaves. PUPKIN, left standing there, smiles atthe RECEPTIONIST who returns another professional smile. PUPKIN (to the RECEPTIONIST) Thanks. CUT TO:42 EXT: THE UPPER-BROADWAY HIGH-RISE OFFICE BUILDING - DAY PUPKIN comes out of the building elated. He is immediately confronted by MARSHA. PUPKIN continues to walk as MARSHA skips beside him. MARSHA I've got to speak to you for a minute. I'm Marsha. PUPKIN Yeah. I know. MARSHA Look. Did Jerry say anything about me last night? PUPKIN I'm really in a hurry, Marsha ... MARSHA Was he angry? ... In the car last night, I saw you. Did he talk about me? PUPKIN I thought that was you. That was some stunt. MARSHA What did he say? PUPKIN We didn't talk about you. MARSHA You know Jerry? PUPKIN Yeah. MARSHA thrusts an envelope into PUPKIN's hands. MARSHA Give him this for me. PUPKIN Why don't you ... MARSHA Because I can't! Please. I need your help. You'll be my friend forever. Come on. I'll buy you something. What do you want? She takes a great messy bunch of bills out of her raincoat pockets and jams them into PUPKIN's hands. PUPKIN I don't want this. MARSHA Take it. I can get all I want. PUPKIN shrugs and pockets the money. PUPKIN Okay. I'll try. MARSHA (turning cold) Don't try. Do it. Remember. We just made a deal. PUPKIN stares at the envelope. MARSHA And don't open it. It's private. PUPKIN Okay. Okay. MARSHA How soon can you get it to him? PUPKIN I don't know. Couple a days. MARSHA (menacingly) You'd better. MARSHA turns and walks in the direction from which they came. CAMERA FOLLOWS PUPKIN who walks on for a block or so, then opens the envelope. It contains a set of apartment keys, a scrap of hand-knitted woolen cloth and a note in lipstick that reads: "I've made you a sweater, honey. Come try it on. I miss you. Love, M. 74 East 83rd Street, Apartment 2B!" He takes out the moneyMARSHA gave him. There are wads of tens, twenties and fifties with a sprinkling of fives and ones. CUT TO:44 EXT: A TIMES SQUARE HOTEL - DAY The hotel is just one step up from a flophouse. WE SEE PUPKIN enter. CUT TO:45 INT: PUPKIN'S ROOM - DAYPUPKIN enters. WE SEE that it is a small room, furnishedby the hotel in the plainest way. Nicely-done home-madecollages of show business figures decorate the drab greenwalls. The room is neat and clean. PUPKIN goes directlyto a plain table which holds two tape recorders -- one asmall cassette the other a large table tape recorder. Hepicks up the microphone of the larger one and speaks intoit. PUPKIN Testing. Testing. Testing.In the following montage, we hear in the background thereplay of his "testing, testing testing" and variousother noises -- a bit of his voice taped, a burst oflaughter, the squeal of a tape recorder sent fast-forward,a sudden burst of applause, a scrap of theme music. At thesame time, the CAMERA PANS about the room. We lookat the collages which include all the obvious show businessfigures, with a heavy emphasis on comedians from Chaplinand Keaton to Sid Caesar and Woody Allen. The collagesalso include such varied figures as Jimmy Carter, JuliaChilds, Tom Seaver, David Brinkley, Muhammad Ali, CliffordIrving, Walter Cronkite and Mark Spitz. There is a specialKennedy section -- John F. and Bobby framed in black,Jackie in mourning and a picture of Teddy. There is also atrio of assassins -- Sirhan, Oswald and James Earl Ray.There is also a talk show collage with a photo of Langfordin the center like a sun surrounded by Snyder, Walters,Carson and Griffin. One bookshelf holds a veritablelibrary of comedy -- joke books, biographies of comedians,treasuries of American humor. Another shelf holds scoresof tapes in their own little boxes, each one neatly marked,i.e., "LANGFORD MONOLOGUES: 7/5/72 to 9/9/72." "MISC.MONOLOGUES 6/13/68 to 8/1/69." CUT TO:PUPKIN sitting before the tape recorder lost in thought.Finally, he starts the larger recorder and lifts the mike. PUPKIN First, Miss Long. Thanks very much for your help at the office and for passing this along to Jerry. I appreciate it more than you know.PUPKIN stops the tape recorder and thinks again for a fewbeats. He then starts the large recorder. PUPKIN Now, Jerry. Before I begin, I just want to thank you for listening to this material and for the opportunity that you've given me. You know, lots of people think that guys like you, you know, people who have made it, lose their feeling for struggling young talent such as myself. But now I know from experience that those people are just cynics, embittered by their own failure. I know, Jerry, that you're as human as the rest of us, if not more so. (pause) Oh well, I guess there's no point going on about it. You know how I feel. So let's get on with the show. The best of Rupert Pupkin! I've sketched out this little introduction in order to save you a little time. So close your eyes and imagine it's exactly six o'clock. You're standing in the wings and we hear Rick Ross and the Orchestra strike up your theme song.PUPKIN pushes a button on the cassette and we hear thetheme song of the Jerry Langford Show, followed by thevoice of BERT CANTER, the announcer. BERT CANTER'S VOICE And now, direct from New York, it's the Jerry Langford Show! Tonight, with Jerry's special guest ...PUPKIN deftly shuts off the cassette and substitutes hisown voice for that of CANTER's. The large tape recorderkeeps rolling. PUPKIN ... the comedy find of the year making his television debut, Rupert Pupkin, the King of Comedy!PUPKIN rapidly races the cassette tape forward, then pushesdown the "play" button. We hear a burst of thunderingapplause. PUPKIN lets the applause run for a while andthen shuts it off. The large recorder keeps rolling. PUPKIN Now you come on, Jerry, and do your monologue. Then, when the time comes, this is how I see you introducing me. You'll say something like this. "Ladies and Gentlemen we're going to do something a little bit different tonight. It isn't often that you can call someone a sure thing in the entertainment business. After all, the verdict is always in your hands. But I think after you've met my next guest, that you'll agree with me that he's destined for greatness. So, now, will you please give your warmest welcome to the newest King of Comedy, Rupert Pupkin!!!" PUPKIN pushes the cassette and we hear another enormous burst of applause. PUPKIN lets it run, listening intently. He stands up and faces a wall of his room, still holding the microphone. WE SEE that the wall is covered by a huge blow-up of an audience laughing and applauding. CUT TO:45 INT: THE LANGFORD TELEVISION STUDIO - NIGHT WE SEE a real audience laughing and applauding. CUT TO: PUPKIN strides triumphantly onto the stage, nodding to acknowledge the applause. He stops center stage as the television cameras maneuver about him. CUT TO: A SHOT of the "APPLAUSE" sign flashing, then stopping. Still, the applause goes on. CUT TO: PUPKIN raises his hands to quiet the audience. After a few moments the applause dies down, except for a pair of hands in the center of the orchestra. PUPKIN peers out to see who is still applauding. CUT TO: RITA, in the middle of the audience, applauds enthusiastically. CUT TO: PUPKIN on stage. PUPKIN gives RITA a special smile and nod. PUPKIN Will somebody tell that lovely lady that the applause sign is off. The audience laughs. CUT TO:46 INT: PUPKIN'S ROOM - DAY PUPKIN stands facing the "audience" still holding the mike. PUPKIN That's a possible introduction, Jerry. Now let's move on to my act. CUT TO:47 INT: THE RECEPTION AREA OF THE LANGFORD SHOW - DAY PUPKIN is pacing. He is wearing another suit, this one a broad-lapelled-grey. He is freshly shaved, is hair neatly combed, his shoes carrying a bright shine. He clutches a small flat box, neatly wrapped with the words 'FOR JERRY LANGFORD" written clearly across the top in large print. CATHY LONG emerges from one of the back corridors into the reception area. CATHY LONG Yes? PUPKIN (suddenly a bit shy) I didn't want to take any chances with this ... uh ... Miss Long, so I ... uh ... thought I'd just bring it here myself. He hands CATHY LONG the package as though it contained nitroglycerine. CATHY LONG We talked about this this morning, did we, Mr. ... ? PUPKIN Pupkin. Rupert Pupkin. CATHY LONG Oh, yes. It's been some day. (pause) Well, I certainly appreciate your bringing this over, Mr. Pupkin, and we'll listen to it as soon as possible. PUPKIN Fine. Er ... you don't have any idea how soon that might be? CATHY LONG Well, you can try checking with us tomorrow. We might know something by then. Otherwise, it'll have to be Monday. PUPKIN What if I just sort of waited around here today, just in case? I'll stay out of the way. CATHY LONG You'd just be wasting your time, Mr. Pupkin. We won't know anything until tomorrow at the earliest. PUPKIN Oh, I wouldn't consider it a waste of time at all. I'd be glad to do it. CATHY LONG Look, why don't you try us tomorrow. Okay? PUPKIN Tomorrow? ... Right. I'll do that. Thanks a lot, Miss Long. And thank Jerry. CATHY LONG smiles at PUPKIN and goes, leaving PUPKIN staring at a picture of LANGFORD on the wall. WE FIX on LANGFORD a moment and PULL BACK to see LANGFORD in what PUPKIN would imagine his office to be.48 INT: AN OFFICE - DAY A large, corner office furnished in royal red, with high ceilings and a huge desk. Potted palms and hydrangeas rest on a marble floor. LANGFORD is moving about restlessly, clutching PUPKIN's tape in one hand and waving it about. PUPKIN is seated on a comfortable couch. LANGFORD Dynamite! This is dynamite! PUPKIN (shyly) You think so, Jerry? LANGFORD Look, I've been at this for fifteen years, Rupert, and I haven't come up with anything like this -- not me, not any of my writers. PUPKIN (smiling with obvious pleasure) Well, I'm glad you like it, Jerry. LANGFORD Tell me something, Rube. (pause) How do you do it? I'm not asking to use the material myself. I just want to know how you (LANGFORD waves his arms in a gesture of frustration) how you do it. PUPKIN Well, I don't know if I can explain it, really. LANGFORD Come on. Try, Rube. PUPKIN Well, it just sort of comes. I think about my life, see, mainly about the worst parts, all the awful things, and I just try to see them in a funny light. That's all. LANGFORD (eagerly) Is that what you do? The worst parts, and then you look at them in a funny light? Is that what you do? PUPKIN More or less. It's hard to describe how its happens. LANGFORD But that's just it, Rube. It doesn't happen for me. Why do you think the show is in so much trouble? By the time I've done my monologue, everyone has switched to Carson. Maybe if you did a little writing ... ? PUPKIN Sure, Jerry, I'd do anything I could to help out. LANGFORD You would? Great. Why don't you come out to my place this weekend and we'll hash it out. I'm having a few of my friends but we should be able to get a little work in. PUPKIN Would you mind if I brought someone? LANGFORD (smiling) A girl, Rube? PUPKIN A very special girl, Jerry. LANGFORD I'd love to meet her.49 THE HIGH-RISE OFFICE BUILDING ON UPPER BROADWAY - DAY PUPKIN emerges, lost in thought. Suddenly he notices MARSHA waiting nearby. She doesn't see PUPKIN. He sneaks off. CUT TO:50 EXT: U.N. PLAZA - DAY It is a bright morning. LANGFORD, attempting to camouflage himself by wearing a cap over his eyes and his trench coat collar turned up, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses, walks out of the building. A DOORMAN is standing by the door. DOORMAN Cab, Jerry? LANGFORD That's alright, thanks. WE FOLLOW LANGFORD as he walks. Some people don't notice. Others stare but leave him alone, a few commenting to their companions and pointing at him. A CAB DRIVER pulls alongside. DRIVER Hey, Jerry. My brother can sing and juggle at the same time. How about puttin' him on your show? LANGFORD keeps walking. DRIVER How about it, Jerry? LANGFORD Sorry, I'm off duty. CUT TO:51 EXT. A MANHATTAN STREET - DAY LANGFORD stands at the corner, next to a middle-aged COUPLE. WOMAN You're Jerry!! LANGFORD pulls his cap a little more tightly around his eyes. WOMAN You know something. (She giggles) I undress in front of you every night and Larry here doesn't mind at all. LARRY I can't get anything started with her until you're off the air. Your show is ruining my sex life, Jerry. LANGFORD Well then, you'll just have to put on a better show than I do. CUT TO:52 EXT: BROADWAY, A FEW BLOCKS SOUTH OF LANGFORD'S OFFICES - DAY WE WATCH LANGFORD continue to walk, feeling what it is to be a celebrity out in public. After a few beats, we CUT TO:53 EXT: BROADWAY - DAY WE SEE MARSHA trailing LANGFORD. LANGFORD notices her and starts walking quickly. MARSHA walks quickly. LANGFORD starts jogging. MARSHA starts jogging. Finally, LANGFORD breaks into a sprint. MARSHA runs after him. LANGFORD disappears into his office building. MARSHA arrives several seconds later. MARSHA Jerry! God damnit! Just as MARSHA turns around, PUPKIN, unaware of her, walks cheerfully into the building. CUT TO:54 INT: RECEPTION AREA OF JERRY LANGFORD SHOW OFFICES - DAY PUPKIN enters. The same middle-aged, plump RECEPTIONIST is seated behind the desk. RECEPTIONIST Yes, sir? (recognizing him) Oh, hi. PUPKIN Hi. How are you? RECEPTIONIST Not bad. PUPKIN I'm fine. RECEPTIONIST Can I help you? PUPKIN I'd like to see Jerry, please. RECEPTIONIST You are ... ? PUPKIN Mr. Pupkin. RECEPTIONIST Just a minute.The RECEPTIONIST dials a number. RECEPTIONIST Mr. Pupkin is here ... That's right ... (to PUPKIN) She'll be with you in a minute. PUPKIN Who? RECEPTIONIST Miss Long. PUPKIN But I wanted to see Jerry. RECEPTIONIST Mr. Langford's not in. Miss Long will take care of you. PUPKIN Alright.PUPKIN paces for a few beats. He smiles at theRECEPTIONIST. A beat later, CATHY LONG comes out,carrying the tape in its box. CATHY LONG Mr. Pupkin? PUPKIN How are you today? CATHY LONG Fine, Mr. Pupkin. Thank you for your tape. We listened to it with great interest. And, frankly, Mr. Pupkin, we saw a lot of good things in what you're doing. We feel you have good potential. Very good potential. PUPKIN (smiling) Thanks. CATHY LONG That's why I'll be honest with you, Mr. Pupkin ... PUPKIN Yes? CATHY LONG We just don't think you're ready yet. PUPKIN (baffled) Not ready? CATHY LONGWell, we just don't feel right nowthat you're right for Jerry. PUPKIN (rapidly, half-listening)Right for Jerry. Sure. CATHY LONGSome of the material ... some of theone-liners, for instance ... PUPKINYes? CATHY LONG... were not very strong. PUPKINYou didn't care for some of the jokes,is that it? CATHY LONGThat"s right. PUPKINGood. Good. I can take care ofthat right way. Thanks. Just tellme the ones you think should go.That would be a big help. (to theRECEPTIONIST) This is great. (toCATHY LONG) Which ones? CATHY LONGWell, it's not just that, Mr. Pupkin.You see, Jerry likes to panel hisguests, you know, chat with themafterwards. PUPKINSure. Sure. CATHY LONGAnd frankly, we just don't feel you'vegot very much to talk about right now. PUPKINBut I've got my whole life to talkabout! CATHY LONGWhich is interesting to you, I'm sureand to your wife ... and to a fewfriends. But we feel that you shouldkeep developing your act. Test it insome live situations. There are anumber of clubs in the city you can try. And after a reasonable period, get in touch with us again and we'll be glad to send someone down to check out your progress.PUPKIN stares at her for a few moments as the tension grows. PUPKIN May I ask you a question, Miss Long? CATHY LONG Of course. PUPKIN Are you speaking for Jerry? CATHY LONG Let's put it this way, Mr. Pupkin. Mr. Langford has complete faith in our judgment. PUPKIN I'm sorry to have to say this, Miss Long, and I certainly don't want you to take it personally, but I have to tell you that I don't ... I don't have faith in your judgment. CATHY LONG Well, I'm sorry you feel that way, Mr. Pupkin. But I'm afraid there's nothing that can be done about that. PUPKIN No ... No ... I'm afraid I'll have to disagree with you again. CATHY LONG (with strained politeness) That's your privilege, Mr. Pupkin. Now, if you'll excuse me, please, I have some things to do. I'm sorry the news isn't better.CATHY LONG turns to go. PUPKIN Miss Long?CATHY LONG turns back. PUPKIN When are you expecting Jerry in? CATHY LONG He won't be in until very late this afternoon. PUPKIN That's fine. Thank you.CATHY LONG stares at PUPKIN for a moment, glances at theRECEPTIONIST and then goes. PUPKIN takes a seat in thereception area. He smiles once more at the RECEPTIONIST.The RECEPTIONIST drops her eyes. A few beats go by. CATHYLONG passes by the entranceway and glances at PUPKIN.PUPKIN continues sitting there. RECEPTIONIST Is there anyone else you would like to see? PUPKIN That's alright. I'm happy just waiting.A few beats pass in silence. RECEPTIONIST Well, would you mind waiting outside, please, Mr. Pupkin? This is a reception area, not a waiting room. PUPKIN I understand.PUPKIN remains seated. A few more moments pass. SeveralOFFICE PERSONNEL pass by the entranceway and glance atPUPKIN. After a few more beats, a large, plainly-dressedMAN in his mid-fifties emerges from the back offices. Hegoes over to PUPKIN, who stands. OFFICIAL Mr. Pupkin? I'm Raymond Wirtz, in charge of security for the Langford organization.WIRTZ puts his arm on PUPKIN's shoulder and, as thefollowing dialogue unfolds leads him out the door, downthe corridor and into the elevator. WIRTZ Now I think you understand that we have certain rules here that are essential to the smooth functioning of our operation. PUPKIN Sure. Sure. WIRTZ And that without these rules, we really wouldn't be able to function at our best. You follow my point?PUPKIN nods. WIRTZ Now one of these rules is that only authorized personnel and those having official business with our organization are permitted on our premises. And that's why I'm asking you, Mr. Pupkin, to cooperate with us. They have reached the elevator and WIRTZ has pushed the button. PUPKIN You want me to leave the building. WIRTZ That's right. It's nothing personal, Mr. Pupkin. Just doing my job. The elevator arrives. WIRTZ signals with his head that PUPKIN should enter. PUPKIN gets in. WIRTZ Have a pleasant day. CUT TO:55 EXT: STREET OUTSIDE THE LANGFORD BUILDING - DAY PUPKIN comes out and takes up a position outside the door, preparing to wait for LANGFORD. MARSHA sees him and comes over to him. MARSHA Well, did you give it to him? PUPKIN (out of a daze) Huh? MARSHA Did you get my letter to him? PUPKIN He's not in there. MARSHA Look, if you don't want to give it him, okay. I'll get somebody else. But don't try to con me. PUPKIN I told you I'd try and I will. I'm going to wait for him right here. MARSHA Give me the envelope, huh? PUPKIN Sure, but ... MARSHA I saw him go in myself! PUPKIN Who? MARSHA Jerry! PUPKIN But they said he wasn't in. MARSHA Just give me the envelope. PUPKIN When did he go in? MARSHA Ten minutes ago! That's when. PUPKIN You sure? MARSHA Look, I saw him my ... PUPKIN And he hasn't come out? MARSHA I've been standing right here. Now how about it? PUPKIN turns and goes back into the building. MARSHA yells after him. MARSHA I'm staying right here! CUT TO:56 INT: RECEPTION AREA OF THE JERRY LANGFORD OFFICES PUPKIN enters briskly and goes up to the RECEPTIONIST. PUPKIN (with authority) Tell Jerry Langford I'm here, please. RECEPTIONIST I'm sorry, sir. Mr. Langford's not in. PUPKIN I happen to know he is. So would you please tell him I'm here. RECEPTIONIST I'm sorry. He's not in. PUPKIN You're putting your job on the line, lady. The RECEPTIONIST starts making a call inside. PUPKIN glances at her and walks right in to the inner corridors. He starts peering into the open doors of the offices that line the corridor. The whole place is like a gigantic maze. OFFICE PERSONNEL pass by him, taking no notice of him. He continues wandering around desperately, completely lost. A few beat later, he spots WIRTZ leading a pair of SECURITY GUARDS. PUPKIN keeps peering into offices quickly as he flees. The GUARDS and WIRTZ finally catch up to PUPKIN at the steno pool and, after a brief chase around the pool, they catch PUPKIN and subdue him. They start dragging him out past the eyes of the OFFICE PERSONNEL. PUPKIN (calling as he is dragged) Jerry! Jerry! (to WIRTZ) You're going the have a hell of a lot of explaining to do! (calling) Jerry! WIRTZ You had your warning, Mr. Krupkin. PUPKIN Jerry! Help me. Jerry! CUT TO: A CLOSE-UP of PUPKIN as he is dragged out. PUPKIN (screaming) Jerry! CUT TO:57 EXT: LANGFORD BUILDING LOBBY AND EXIT - DAY WE WATCH the SECURITY GUARDS and WIRTZ pitch PUPKIN out into the street. WIRTZ If we see your face again, Mr. Pupkin, we'll call the police. PUPKIN Start looking for a new job! MARSHA comes straight up to PUPKIN who is brushing himself off. His eyes are glazed and distant. MARSHA Well? PUPKIN Huh? MARSHA Does he have it? PUPKIN (abstractedly) Don't worry. I'll get it to him. MARSHA Yeah? When? There is a pause. PUPKIN This weekend. He asked me to go out there, to his house. CUT TO:58 THE BAR-RESTAURANT WHERE RITA WORKS - DAY PUPKIN enters the bar-restaurant. Through the window WE SEE him talking to RITA. He is voluble, animated. She looks skeptical, with a wry smile on her face. Finally WE WATCH him extract an answer from her. She shrugs, smiles and says yes. He comes walking out the door, his hounded expression softened by a smile. CUT TO:59 INT: THE FITTING AREA OF A MEN'S STORE - DAY WE WATCH PUPKIN getting fitted in a new suit, attended by a SALESMAN and a TAILOR. CUT TO:60 INT: LUGGAGE SHOP - DAY WE WATCH PUPKIN buy a suitcase. CUT TO:61 INT: CARTIER'S JEWELERS - DAY WE WATCH PUPKIN perusing the beautiful diamond, sapphire, and emerald rings and we take a few moments to PAN OVER these beautiful jewels as he sees them. Finally, he picks out a splendid ring with a single, middle-sized sapphire and hands a surprised SALESLADY the money in cash. CUT TO:62 INT: SUBURBAN TRAIN - DAY PUPKIN and RITA are seated side by side. Since it is Saturday morning, the train is sparsely populated. A CONDUCTOR has just finished taking PUPKIN's tickets. RITA is edgy. PUPKIN is strangely calm and a little remote. He is wearing his new suit. RITA What are we going to do? PUPKIN (patiently) Look, I told you, I've got some work to discuss with him. That's all. RITA But what about me? PUPKIN You're with me. RITA That's fine, but while you two are talking, what am I going to do? PUPKIN You can chat with the other guests. RITA I'm sure they'll be thrilled hearing about the wonderful world of draft beer. (pause) Let's tell 'em I'm a model, okay? PUPKIN What? RITA If they ask what I do, let's just say I model. You don't mind pretending just a little, do you? PUPKIN If it make you feel better. There is a pause. RITA This is a gas! Too bad nobody'll believe it. (pause) After you guys are done working, what happens? Are we going out someplace, or what? PUPKIN I'm sure Jerry has something arranged. There is another pause. RITA What do these people do for fun? Do they party or do freaky things or just get drunk or ... I mean, What do they do? PUPKIN I guess they just sit around and talk and enjoy each other's company, like anybody else. RITA Talk?!? What can you talk about for three or four hours?! PUPKIN What do you mean? They've got plenty to talk about. They do things. All kinds of interesting things happen to them and then they talk about them. What do you think Jerry's show is all about? RITA Yeah, a cocktail party with no drinks. That's what all those shows are. At least they help you get to sleep. There is a pause. RITA (glumly) Boy, this is going to be some great weekend. I thought we were gonna have some fun. PUPKIN (smiling) Just take it easy, Rita. Everything's going to be fine. WE MOVE IN for a CLOSE-UP of PUPKIN who is fading out. FADE TO:63 EXT: A NEO-CLASSICAL MANSION It is a large white house with colonial columns set in the middle of a palatial estate whose rolling lawns are punctuated with fine old trees. We circle around to the back where LANGFORD, a handful of his FRIENDS (which can be familiar television celebrities) and PUPKIN and RITA are just finishing a lavish lunch on the patio. A pair of SERVANTS are clearing the table and serving the coffee and desert as the scene unfolds. As we arrive, we hear a loud burst of laughter. PUPKIN is regaling the COMPANY withstories. PUPKIN Oh, you have no idea how bad it's gotten in New York. Now the muggers are so efficient that, each time they jump you, they take your name and address and put you on a mailing list. (the COMPANY chuckles) And once you're on the list, you're in real trouble, like this friend of mine who was mugged thirty-two times on his way home from work. (a little laughter from the COMPANY)A SERVANT places the desert, a little, elegant tart, infront of PUPKIN and RITA. PUPKIN (to SERVANT) Thanks.The SERVANT smiles. As PUPKIN continues his story, heglances occasionally at RITA who has begun to nibble at hertart. PUPKIN also glances conspiratorially at LANGFORDwho smiles back. PUPKIN So what my friend does is get himself a dog, one of those huge German Shepherds. One night, he's walking the dog in Central Park when he hears this voice behind him. (in a German accent) Okay, Harry, drop your vallet and keep your hantz over your head or I bite your little fanny off.The COMPANY breaks up. ONE GUEST (to LANGFORD) Looks like you've found yourself a winner, Jerry. LANGFORD (looking at PUPKIN) He's the one who found himself a winner.RITA looks up, smiles and blushes. The rest of the COMPANYsmiles benignly and grows attentive as RITA returns toeating her tart. Suddenly she bites down on somethinghard. She fishes it out of her mouth and looks at it. TheCOMPANY giggles. It is the ring PUPKIN purchased atCartier's. The COMPANY applauds lightly and laughs.LANGFORD lifts his wine glass. LANGFORD To Rita and Rupert -- a short engagement and a long, happy marriage. The COMPANY drinks with murmurs of "Hear! Hear!" RITA and PUPKIN beam. RITA looks lovingly at PUPKIN. A SECOND GUEST (the PUPKIN) Have you set a date? PUPKIN (looking pointedly at LANGFORD) Oh, yes. A THIRD GUEST I hope we're all invited. PUPKIN Everyone's invited. CUT TO:64 INT: THE LANGFORD TELEVISION STUDIO The theater is packed. World Series bunting hangs from the balcony and the front of the stage. We hear RICK ROSS and the ORCHESTRA strike up Mendelssohn's Wedding March. Down one aisle walks RITA, accompanied by the MAN whom PUPKIN hit over the head at the bar. Down the other aisle marches PUPKIN, accompanied by LANGFORD. The AUDIENCE cheers wildly. The two COUPLES walk to the stage where a white- haired OFFICIAL awaits them. BERT CANTER stands at his side. PUPKIN and RITA disengage from their ESCORTS and stand before the OFFICIAL. The music stops and the AUDIENCE grows quiet. OFFICIAL We are met here in these extraordinary circumstances to join this man and this woman in holy wedlock. But, before we begin, let me voice a personal word of thanks to you, Rupert and to you, Rita, for choosing me to perform this prestigious ceremony. Because we are on prime time, I am going to discard my customary remarks in favor of a few personal reflections. When I was principal at Clifton High and these two were students, I had very little faith that Rupert here would amount to very much. But like his teachers and his fellow students, I underestimated this fine young man. Some say that this misjudgment is directly tied to my recent dismissal as head of the Clifton School System. But let me take this opportunity to set the record straight. Knowing that Rupert and Rita here were most certainly destined for a great career and a lifetime of happiness, I voluntarily stepped down. I would only here add my own wishes to those of millions of viewers for their continued health, wealth and boundless success. The OFFICIAL looks quickly past RITA and PUPKIN. OFFICIAL We'll be back to marry them in a minute, right after this word. FADE TO:65 INT: THE TRAIN - DAY PUPKIN and RITA are seated as they were. We hear the CONDUCTOR calling. CONDUCTOR'S VOICE Greenwich. Greenwich next stop. Greenwich. PUPKIN and RITA grab their small suitcases and quickly move down the aisle towards the door. CUT TO:66 INT: A SUBURBAN TAXI - DAY RITA is peering out the window. PUPKIN is still lost in thought. RITA Look at that one. How'd you like to live in that?!?! Or that one! What do you figure these run? The taxi stops in front of a walled lot behind which is visible a handsome English stucco home. PUPKIN (to DRIVER) What's this? DRIVER This is it. RITA It's gorgeous! PUPKIN is genuinely puzzled. PUPKIN (to DRIVER) You sure? DRIVER Look, friend, I wouldn't want to tell you how many times I made this trip. (pause) That'll be three seventy-five. PUPKIN, still puzzled, hands him a five dollar bill. PUPKIN (abstractedly) Keep it. The DRIVER gets out and puts PUPKIN and RITA's bags, which he had stacked on the front seat, onto the sidewalk. DRIVER Thanks. If you need a ride back, just ask the guy for Wayne. That's me. The CAMERA PULLS BACK as PUPKIN opens the gate and he and RITA walk up the drive. CUT TO:67 EXT: LANGFORD'S HOUSE - DAY PUPKIN and RITA stand before the front door. PUPKIN rings, After a few beats, the door is opened by an Indonesian HOUSEBOY. PUPKIN walks in right past him, RITA following behind. CUT TO:68 INT: LANGFORD'S HOUSE - DAY PUPKIN hands the HOUSEBOY the two suitcases as he talks. PUPKIN You must be Jonno. I'm Rupert Pupkin and this is Rita Keane. Mr. Langford's expecting us. Jonno nods politely but uncertainly. JONNO (uncertain) Mr. Langford asked you to come? PUPKIN That's right. Would you mind taking those up? Jerry and I have some work that may oblige me to stay overnight. JONNO But Mr. Langford's not here. PUPKIN Out playing golf, right? JONNO (still puzzled and unsure) That's right. PUPKIN Maybe he'll finally break a hundred. JONNO Maybe it's better if you came back ... PUPKIN (interrupting) That's alright. We don't mind waiting. PUPKIN walks from the foyer into the living-room, leaving JONNO staring after him holding the bags. RITA walks into the living room after PUPKIN. RITA (worried) The table's only set for one. PUPKIN That's from breakfast. Relax, will you? CUT TO:69 INT: LANGFORD'S KITCHEN - DAY JONNO is on the phone. A black lady COOK stands at his side. JONNO (into the phone) Let me talk to Jerry Langford please ... I know he is ... It's important. CUT TO:70 INT: LANGFORD'S LIVING ROOM - DAY It is a handsomely furnished room, done in old American antiques and other tasteful pieces. There is a grand piano heavy with pictures in one corner and wall-to-wall bookshelves that are mostly full and mixed with a balance of classics and modern popular reading. The whole room marks LANGFORD as a man of discernment. The shelves also house a fine stereo and a small, discreet bar. RITA and PUPKIN walk in like strangers in paradise, awed by the obvious elegance and expense the room reflects. PUPKIN (as though he owned it) How do you like it? RITA (admiringly) I could live here. PUPKIN (smiling proudly) It's the only way to live.RITA stands in the center of the room, ill at ease, whilePUPKIN strolls about comfortably, picking up an ashtrayhere, a cigarette case there, inspecting the artifacts forinscriptions, clues, hints about LANGFORD's character andlife. RITA How come he isn't here? PUPKIN You heard the guy. He's out playing golf. RITA Didn't you tell him when we'd get here?PUPKIN continues to move about the room, fielding RITA'ssuspicious inquiries effortlessly. PUPKIN We didn't have time to iron out the details. Now just relax. We're the first guests, that's all. RITA (interrupting) That Jonno character hadn't even heard of us! PUPKIN (a little irritated) It probably slipped Jerry's mind. He has better things to think about than what he tells his houseboy. RITA It's just not time way I expected it, that's all.There is a pause. PUPKIN continues his investigation. Hehas moved to the grand piano in the rear of the room. RITA What do we do now?PUPKIN is looking at a picture of an American Gothic couplestanding in front of a wood-frame house. As he comments onthe pictures, the CAMERA PANS over them. They form a kindof slide-show of LANGFORD's life. PUPKIN These are Jerry's parents. His father runs the Post office in Wolverine -- that's in North Dakota.PUPKIN then fixes on a picture of an eleven-year-old boystanding next to a puppet stage with a puppet (obviouslyheld by the boy) staring at its master. PUPKIN This one was in Newsweek. He started giving these puppet shows when he was still in grade school.WE SEE a picture of a very young LANGFORD seated before amicrophone with some celebrity. PUPKIN And this is from his quiz show in St. Louis. Can you believe it? RITA Sure I can. PUPKIN That was the name of the show.WE MOVE to a picture of LANGFORD smiling at JACK PAAR. PUPKIN And here's when he wrote for Jack Paar. He made a hundred and fifty a week and look at him now.Another picture of LANGFORD with a group of women sittingin a studio. PUPKIN And this is his morning show.A picture of LANGFORD standing in a park with his two boys,eleven and eight. PUPKIN And his kids. He's divorced.RITA, who has been only half-listening, has picked up asmall, beautifully enameled cigarette box. RITA Look at this. I love these kind of things. Look at the work. I've got this thing about boxes.RITA puts it down reluctantly, picks it up, then puts itdown again. CUT TO:71 INT: THE KITCHEN - DAY JONNO is holding the phone, waiting. The COOK stands, looking at him. JONNO Mr. Langford? ... I'm sorry to disturb you ... CUT TO:72 INT: THE LIVING ROOM - DAY RITA has just finished fixing herself a drink. She takes a large sip and starts pacing around. PUPKIN is seated. RITA How much longer are we gonna have to wait? PUPKIN I don't know. Until he gets back. RITA. Do we have to just sit here? PUPKIN He should be back pretty soon. RITA Doesn't he have any music or anything? Let's get a little life into this place. It's like a funeral parlor. She walks over to the stereo and opens the cupboard beneath it, revealing rows and rows of records. RITA This is more like it. She pulls out a record. PUPKIN Come on, Rita. RITA Come on, yourself. She puts the record on. Frank Sinatra starts singing "They Can't Take That Away From Me." She takes a big sip of her drink, puts it down and comes over to PUPKIN. RITA How about a little spin, handsome? PUPKIN (pulling back) Here? RITA snuggles into PUPKIN and starts dancing him around. He resists feebly. RITA Come on, Rupert. I came up here for a good time. PUPKIN gives in and starts dancing with her in the style of the 1950's, elbow out, arm up, box step. After a few moments, PUPKIN closes his eyes. He has reached a moment of perfect bliss, his dream girl in is arms. They dance silently as we hear Sinatra singing. SINATRA'S VOICE The way you wore your hat, The way we danced till three, The memory of all that -- Oh no, they can't take that away from me, No ... they can't take that away ... from ... me. The orchestra plays. RITA You never could dance, could you? PUPKIN How would you know? RITA Oh I danced with you a couple of times -- at the Sigma U party. PUPKIN You were there with Tommy Winston. RITA You didn't ask me. PUPKIN That's the one time I did ask you and you went with him anyway. RITA Well, I couldn't go with you! PUPKIN Why not? RITA Be serious, Rupert. CUT TO:73 INT: THE DINING ROOM - DAY JONNO stands a few feet from the kitchen door, staring at RITA and PUPKIN dancing in the living room, an unbelieving, anxious expression on his face. CUT TO:74 INT: THE LIVING ROOM - DAY The music has stopped momentarily and PUPKIN and RITA disengage. PUPKIN looks lovingly at RITA. PUPKIN Well, it's all ended happily and that's what counts. RITA grows jumpy under his gaze. She looks around. RITA I wonder what the rest of this place looks like? PUPKIN I'm sure it's all very nice. RITA (gaily) Well, there's only one way to find out. RITA scampers over to the stairs and pauses on the first step. RITA You coming or not? RITA bounds up the stairs. PUPKIN Rita! CAMERA FOLLOWS PUPKIN up the stairs. CUT TO:75 INT: UPSTAIRS - DAY There is no sign of RITA. PUPKIN Where are you? There is no answer. CAMERA FOLLOWS PUPKIN from room to room. They are all guest rooms, neat, pretty, clean. PUPKIN Come on, Rita. This isn't funny. Finally, PUPKIN opens the door to another room. CUT TO:76 INT: A BEDROOM - DAY It is clearly LANGFORD's bedroom with a few clothes strewn about, and other signs of being lived in. RITA lies on the bed. PUPKIN (shocked) What are you doing, Rita? RITA I love it! All those millions of women out there dying to change places with me right now. PUPKIN Come on. We shouldn't be here. RITA Relax, will you. Let me have a little fun, for Christ's sake. RITA gets off the bed and runs into the john. CUT TO:77 INT: A LAVISH BATHROOM - DAY RITA Look at this. It's nicer than my whole apartment. PUPKIN enters the large, beautifully done bathroom. RITA examines her face in the mirror. PUPKIN (urgently) Let's go, Rita. RITA Boy, I really need some sun. PUPKIN Rita, this is Jerry's ... RITA Lay off, will you, Rupert. PUPKIN But we have no right ... RITA picks up a can of shave cream and squirts a large dollop in PUPKIN's face. WE COME IN for a CLOSE UP of PUPKIN's face, buried under shaving cream. PUPKIN That wasn't funny, Rita. RITA hands him a towel. RITA Here. She looks around. RITA Now for something that smells nice. She swings open the cabinet with a flourish. The door swings open violently and the mirror shatters against something as pills and bottles tumble into the sink. PUPKIN and RITA stand there, staring at each other. RITA begins to laugh, but her laugh is cut short by the slam of the downstairs door. CUT TO:78 INT: THE FOYER LANGFORD has entered, drawn and businesslike. JONNO and the COOK have moved out to greet him. LANGFORD (looking around) Where are they? JONNO I was going to call the police but then I thought to myself 'what if they are Mr. Langford's friends?' We hear some whispers and scuffling at the top of the stairs. LANGFORD, JONNO and the COOK look up. PUPKIN comes bounding down the stairs jauntily with RITA following cautiously behind. PUPKIN has large traces of shaving cream behind his ears and on his neck. PUPKIN Hi, Jerry. We were just freshening up. PUPKIN stops at the base of the stairs, turns around, and waves RITA down. PUPKIN (to RITA) Come on, Rita. No need to be shy. PUPKIN smiles conspiratorially at LANGFORD. RITA comes slowly down. PUPKIN Jerry, I'd like you to meet Rita Keane. Rita, say hello to Jerry! RITA (tentatively) Pleased to meet you.LANGFORD nods imperceptibly, his face tense, his eyesalert. RITA, reading her frigid reception, looks toPUPKIN who walks blithely past LANGFORD into the livingroom, toward the bar. PUPKIN What's your pleasure?PUPKIN glances at the small mess he has left on the bar andturns back to LANGFORD who has moved into the living roomwith JONNO and the COOK a few steps behind. PUPKIN flashesLANGFORD an apologetic smile. PUPKIN (to LANGFORD) We've already taken the liberty, so to speak. Rita was a little nervous. It isn't every day she meets someone like you. LANGFORD What's going on here? PUPKIN We've been sitting around, waiting. That's all. How was your golf game? JONNO I told them you weren't here. COOK That's right. PUPKIN He did, Jerry. He was very helpful. We had to take an early train. There was nothing else until after one. (pause) I brought the material. It's upstairs, in my bags. (pause) Where is everybody? LANGFORD Who? PUPKIN The other guests! (in a confidential tone) We're getting a little hungry, to tell you the truth. LANGFORD (as though confirming what PUPKIN said) You are. PUPKIN (backing off) But we don't mind waiting, do we, Rita?RITA says nothing. She has sensed something terriblywrong and is slowly backing away from PUPKIN. LANGFORD You know, I could have you arrested, both of you. PUPKIN (seizing the idea) You know you could! And there'd be absolutely no way we could prove we belonged here. I never thought of that. LANGFORD Well, you should have before you ... PUPKIN (still fixed on the idea) Maybe we could work up a routine about that, about a guy who throws all his friends in jail. Let's talk about that. LANGFORD (sharply) Let's not. PUPKIN Sure, Jerry. Whatever you ... LANGFORD (exasperated) Look, if you've got something for me to sign, let's have it and get it over with so I can get back ... PUPKIN (interrupting) That wouldn't be right, Jerry. Not in your own house! LANGFORD (summoning his last bit of patience) I have a lot of work to get to. (to JONNO) How did they get here? PUPKIN We took a taxi, Jerry ... But don't worry about us. You go ahead and do your work and we'll just take a stroll around until lunch is ready. LANGFORD You're a little thick, aren't you? PUPKIN (smiling as though complimented) Well, maybe a ... RITA What's he's saying, Rupert, is that he wants us out. PUPKIN Don't listen to her, Jerry. She doesn't understand anything about us. RITA Don't get me into this. LANGFORD (to JONNO) Call the station.JONNO goes back into the foyer, followed by the COOK. LANGFORD There'll be a cab here in a few minutes. Now if you'll just wait at the gate ... PUPKIN Look, Jerry, if I've said anything out of line, let's chalk it up to inexperience, okay? I'll just go upstairs and get my tape and we can start working. It shouldn't take long and then you'll have the rest of the afternoon to yourself. LANGFORD I've told you just as clearly as I can. I want you out of here and I want you out now. Scram, beat it, vamoose, out! Is that plain enough!RITA deftly pockets the enamel box. PUPKIN But what about my material? When are we going to go over it? RITA Come on, Rupert, the man wants us to go. PUPKIN Tell her she's wrong, Jerry! RITA Look, Mr. Langford. I didn't know anything about all this. I hardly know this guy. I haven't seen him in years. PUPKIN Rita! RITA So if there's anything I can do, any way I can make this up to you. PUPKIN She's nothing, Jerry. She's just some girl who works in a bar. Don't let her spoil things.LANGFORD starts herding RITA and PUPKIN towards the door. LANGFORD Come on. Let's go. PUPKIN All I'm asking is fifteen minutes. That's all. Just long enough to listen to my act. Is that asking too much -- fifteen minutes of your day against my whole life? LANGFORD I'll call the police if I have to.LANGFORD realizes he is being hard. He stops for a moment. LANGFORD I have my own life, that's all. PUPKIN But what about me, Jerry? What about my life? I made plans -- based on what you said. You can't just turn your back on me. LANGFORD I'm not telling you again.There is a long pause as the truth finally sinks in. PUPKINjust stares at LANGFORD with disbelief that turns to anger. PUPKIN So this is the way it works when you're big, huh? You just play with people. Is that part of the kick, Jerry? (pause) I can see I was all wrong about you. All wrong.RITA starts tugging at PUPKIN. RITA Come on, Rupert. PUPKIN (to RITA) Shut up! (to LANGFORD) You weren't my friend at all, were you? You were just playing some kind of game with me. Well, that's not going to stop me, Jerry. I'm just going to work a little bit harder, that's all, use a little bit more enterprise. And not count on anybody. That's where I made my mistake. I can see that now. PUPKIN picks up the pair of small suitcases. PUPKIN (glaring at LANGFORD) Come on, Rita. We're wasting our time. CUT TO:79 EXT. LANGFORD'S FRONT DOOR - DAY PUPKIN strides out with RITA following. She casts LANGFORD an apologetic glance as she goes. The door slams behind them. They walk down the path silently for a few moments as the CAMERA PULLS UP, following them in an OVERHEAD SHOT. We hear them start talking as they make their way towards the gate. RITA (baffled and angry) What did you think was going to happen? You think he'd just ... ? What's the matter with you? (pause) You can't just walk into a guy's house! And what about me? What did you ... PUPKIN (interrupting in a calm but firm voice) Shut up, Rita. I'm thinking. CUT TO:80 EXT: OUTSIDE THE U.N. PLAZA - DAY CUT TO:81 INT: A NEW MERCEDES BENZ - DAY MARSHA sits at the wheel of this lavishly appointed sedan, her face made up as though she were going to a fancy party. PUPKIN sits on the other side of the front seat. His ex-pression has changed somewhat from the PUPKIN we have seen.He is less wide-eyed, less innocent, tougher. MARSHA (whining) How much longer?!? PUPKIN Do you want him or not?There is a pause. MARSHA You sure he's in there? PUPKIN Certain. MARSHA (with obvious delight) My parents are going to be furious!PUPKIN pulls a toy revolver from his jacket pocket and looksit over. MARSHA glances at it. MARSHA It looks real. PUPKIN That's the whole point. (gesturing with his head towards the entrance of the building which is some 50 yards away) Pay attention.MARSHA looks towards the entrance. A few beats pass. MARSHA What if he doesn't come down? PUPKIN He will. MARSHA But what if he doesn't? PUPKIN We'll come back tomorrow. MARSHA And wait again? PUPKIN Look, you're going to have him all to yourself. What else do you want?A MAN resembling LANGFORD walks out the entrance. PUPKIN Is that him?!? MARSHA No. PUPKIN You sure? MARSHA Sure I'm sure. That looks too much like him. PUPKIN What do you mean? MARSHA When it's him it doesn't look like him. PUPKIN Keep watching. PUPKIN closes his eyes and rests for a moment. MARSHA That's him. PUPKIN's eyes snap open. WE SEE LANGFORD, concealed in his trench coat, dark glasses and tightly pulled cap start walking east. MARSHA What should I do? PUPKIN Wait a second and follow him. CUT TO:82 EXT: A STREET GOING EAST - DAY LANGFORD is walking innocently towards his offices. The Mercedes prowls a quarter of a block behind. CUT TO:83 INT: THE MERCEDES - DAY MARSHA What about here? PUPKIN Too busy. Keep going. CUT TO:84 EXT: ANOTHER EASTBOUND STREET - DAY LANGFORD continues walking. The street is practically empty. CUT TO:85 INT: MERCEDES - DAY PUPKIN Go past him and stop. CUT TO:86 EXT: THE SAME EASTBOUND STREET - DAY WE STAY with LANGFORD as he walks. WE SEE the Mercedes pull past him. Suddenly PUPKIN is IN THE FRAME, walking side by side with LANGFORD. PUPKIN Just keep walking or I'll kill you right here. LANGFORD looks at PUPKIN in terror. He falters a bit, out of fear. PUPKIN I said keep walking. This is a gun in my pocket and I've got nothing to lose. LANGFORD (who keeps walking) What do you want? PUPKIN Just keep walking and don't talk to anybody. I'll tell you what to do. A MAN coming the other way stops and stares at LANGFORD out of curiosity. PUPKIN and LANGFORD keep walking. They get to where the Mercedes is waiting. PUPKIN jabs LANGFORD in the ribs with the gun. PUPKIN Get in! LANGFORD Look, this is ... PUPKIN (interrupting) Just shut up and get in. LANGFORD gets in the front seat. PUPKIN follows. CUT TO:87 INT: THE MERCEDES - DAY LANGFORD moves to the middle of the front seat. MARSHA Hi, Jerry. LANGFORD looks over and recognizes MARSHA. A CLOSE UP records his reaction of sheer terror. CUT TO:88 EXT: A BROWNSTONE-LINED STREET IN THE EAST EIGHTIES - DAY WE SEE LANGFORD get out of the Mercedes which is parked in front of a fire hydrant. LANGFORD follows MARSHA into a brownstone. PUPKIN walks behind LANGFORD. CUT TO:89 INT: MARSHA'S APARTMENT - DAY PUPKIN, LANGFORD and MARSHA enter. It is an absolutely stunning studio apartment, furnished lavishly by Marsha's parents for their daughter in antique furniture suitable for a woman of fifty. MARSHA has imprinted her own stamp on the apartment in two ways: First, the place is abso- lutely chaotic. Secondly, there are a number of blow-up pictures on the wall. A picture of LANGFORD sits on the bureau. There is a big brass bed with an ornate brass frame at the foot. LANGFORD stares at MARSHA and PUPKIN. PUPKIN closes the blinds and turns on the lights. MARSHA trains the gun on LANGFORD. PUPKIN finishes his work and takes the gun back. PUPKIN I didn't like being so rough out there, Jerry. But I wanted you to know that I meant business. I didn't want anything happening to you over some misunderstanding. LANGFORD just stares at him, frozen with fear. PUPKIN Now I know you're wondering what this is all about. Actually you've got nothing to worry about. You just do what I tell you and by, say, midnight, you'll be safe and out of here. Of course if you try anything clever, I'll kill you -- or Marsha will. She knows how to use this too. LANGFORD You realize what you're saying. PUPKIN Come on, Jerry. This isn't a spur of the moment thing. Give me a little credit, will you. PUPKIN looks over to a small phone table with a chair next to it. He motions to it with his head. PUPKIN (to LANGFORD) Sit down. LANGFORD docilely sits by the phone. PUPKIN Now, you're going to call your office and tell them this: that unless a man who identifies himself as the King is allowed on the show tonight as the first guest, they'll never see you alive again. LANGFORD What? PUPKIN I'll say it again ... CUT TO:90 INT: BERT THOMAS' OFFICE - DAY It is a large office in two pieces. A SECRETARY sits in the smaller part next to the door of the larger section. Her phone is ringing. She answers. THOMAS' SECRETARY Bert Thomas! ... He's in a meeting, Mr. Langford ... I see. CUT TO:91 INT: A CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY THOMAS, a young, trim executive in his late thirties, in modish dress, sits at the table with several other PEOPLE, including CATHY LONG. They are sipping coffee from con- tainers. There are memos and lists and other papers on the table. The SECRETARY stands at the doorway. THOMAS and the others are looking up at her. SECRETARY He says it's urgent. THOMAS (smiling) Yeah? Well, tell him I'll call him back. (to the others) It's that Martino kid, the impressionist. CUT TO:92 INT: MARSHA'S APARTMENT -- DAY LANGFORD sits by the phone with PUPKIN a few steps away, holding the gun and MARSHA looking on. LANGFORD looks desperate. PUPKIN Then try again! CUT TO:93 INT: BERT THOMAS' OFFICE - DAY An irked BERT THOMAS wearily picks up the phone. THOMAS Yeah? ... Okay, Martino, let's stop the bullshit ... what? ... Okay, I'm listening. WE WATCH THOMAS' expression as it turns from skepticism to concern bordering on alarm. THOMAS Give me that again? ... Wait a minute. What do we call our second cameraman? CUT TO:94 INT: MARSHA'S APARTMENT - DAY The scene is as before, only now LANGFORD is sweating a bit. LANGFORD (into the phone) Helen Keller. PUPKIN (warning) No tricks, Jerry. CUT TO:95 INT: BERT THOMAS' OFFICE - DAY THOMAS is still at the phone. THOMAS Don't do anything, Jerry. Stay right there. Tell him we'll do anything he wants. Tell him to cool it. Are you okay? ... Look, tell him to call us about five, okay. We'll let him know what to do. And don't do anything stupid. THOMAS puts down the phone. THOMAS (calls to his SECRETARY) Vivien! THOMAS' SECRETARY appears at the doorway. THOMAS Get me the number of the F.B.I. right away. And get me Crockett's office. And keep your mouth shut about this. CUT TO:96 INT: MARSHA'S APARTMENT - DAY LANGFORD is standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, wearing a sweater that matches the patch of cloth we saw in the envelope MARSHA gave PUPKIN. PUPKIN is still training his pistol on LANGFORD and MARSHA is appraising the fit. MARSHA (to PUPKIN) What do you think? PUPKIN Looks fine. MARSHA (to LANGFORD) I had to guess on the sleeves. (to PUPKIN) He gets to keep it, doesn't he? PUPKIN Sure, if he isn't dead. CUT TO:97 INT: THOMAS' OFFICE - DAY THOMAS is on the phone. THOMAS (panicky) I know he's in a meeting and I don't care. I've got to talk to him! ... No, he can not call me back. Don't you understand? This is an emergency ... NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! CUT TO:98 INT: MARSHA'S APARTMENT - DAYLANGFORD is seated on a chair whose back is pressed rightup against the high, ornate brass bedstead at the foot ofthe bed. MARSHA trains the gun on LANGFORD now. PUPKINis unpacking a suitcase. He takes out a handsome blue suit,ruffled shirt, a bow tie, black shoes, underwear, socks,shaving equipment, soap, a hairbrush, a clothesbrush, asmall shoe shine kit, aftershave lotion, deodorant and adozen or so rolls of inch-and-a-half wide adhesive tape.He removes this stuff from a suitcase that is barely bigenough to hold it -- so the mere packing of all this para-phernalia into such a small space represents something of anachievement. As he takes the stuff out, he talks toLANGFORD, his back turned to him. PUPKIN This wasn't an easy decision for me, Jerry, believe me. For one thing, I knew it meant we could never be friends again and that hurt me. It's hard to lose a friend, even one who has let you down. You always hope you can patch things up. You know, a guy like me doesn't make friends that easily.PUPKIN pauses a moment, then turns to LANGFORD, his voicefilled with emotion. PUPKIN Why didn't you just listen to the tape when I asked you? Then I wouldn't have to be doing all this. Was it really too much to expect -- a few minutes of your time to listen to something I'd worked on my whole life?LANGFORD's eyes shift rapidly. He is obviously calculatinghow to deal with PUPKIN. LANGFORD (with disarming charm) Hey, if that's what's bothering you, let's go over to my office and listen to that tape right now. PUPKIN Are you crazy, Jerry? Do you know what would happen to me?MARSHA listens to this exchange a bit nervously. Gesturingto her gun, she says: MARSHA Am I going to have to hold this thing all day?PUPKIN sees she has lowered it practically to her side. PUPKIN (to MARSHA) Just keep it on him. (to LANGFORD) You know, Jerry. Friendship is a two- way street. All that time I was worrying about you and your ratings and everything, you couldn't have cared less about me.LANGFORD thinks rapidly for a beat or two. LANGFORD You're right. You know that? I was thoughtless. It's just that when you're doing a big show, it's hard to tell who your friends really are. I was wrong. I apologize. Why don't we just shake hands and forget the whole thing? PUPKIN (suspiciously) That's easy to say, Jerry. LANGFORD But I mean it. I'll tell them that the whole thing was a joke and then we can go to my office and listen to that tape. Come on. What do you say?LANGFORD rises with his hand extended toward PUPKIN. MARSHA (to LANGFORD, sharply) Sit down!LANGFORD looks to PUPKIN. MARSHA I said sit!LANGFORD reluctantly sits down. PUPKIN (to MARSHA) What's the matter? You heard what he said. MARSHA All of a sudden, with a gun on him, he wants to make up and be friends. And, once he's out the door, what happens then? PUPKIN What happens then, Jerry? MARSHA You get to his office and they jump you, that's what happens, Rupert. PUPKIN She's right, Jerry. LANGFORD Not if I tell them not to. This is Jerry, Rupert, I give you my word. PUPKIN (to MARSHA) He gives me his word. MARSHA Yeah? And what else? Come on, Rupert, I'm sick of waiting. PUPKIN And what else, Jerry? LANGFORD Come on, Rupert. My word's good enough, isn't it. PUPKIN stares at LANGFORD for a few beats. Then he shakes his head sadly and says in a very quiet, discouraged voice. PUPKIN No, Jerry. It's not. (to MARSHA) Keep the gun up! PUPKIN comes over to LANGFORD with a few rolls of adhesive tape in his hand. PUPKIN I'm sorry to do it this way, Jerry, but I'm no good at knots. Just put your arms up and out, okay? LANGFORD spreads his arms back against the brass bedstead. As PUPKIN goes to tape them, LANGFORD tries to grab him, but, with sudden, demonic force, PUPKIN pins him against the bedstead. They are practically nose to nose. PUPKIN Oh, no, Jerry. None of that. Now hold still. CUT TO:99 INT: A LARGE EXECUTIVE OFFICE - DAY We are in the office of WILSON CROCKETT, president of the National Broadcasting Network. CROCKETT sits behind his desk, facing a group which includes several other NETWORK EXECUTIVES, BERT THOMAS, CATHY LONG, F.B.I. INSPECTOR PATTEN, and his assistant, GIARDELLO. They are in the midst of debate. PATTEN Look, I tell you, the bureau is doing everything possible to locate Mr. Langford. Right now our men are out checking out every radical group in this city. AN EXECUTIVE Radical? PATTEN They're willing to sacrifice their leader in order to get their message across, aren't they? You've got to figure that this is a desperate outfit. I don't know who they are anymore than you do. But I do know I've got to stop them. Otherwise, what you're seeing here is just the first of a whole wave of these kinds of kidnappings. THOMAS (upset) Does this mean we're not supposed to put him on?!? PATTEN Who am I addressing, please? CROCKETT That's Bert Thomas. He produces the show. PATTEN I'm only saying, Mr. Thomas, that we can't allow this to reach the public. When the kidnappers call in, of course you're going to be cooperative. Promise them anything they want. After all, this King character is going to have to show up sooner or later. And once we get our hands on him, he'll tell us where Mr. Langford is. PATTEN grinds his fist into his palm. CUT TO:100 INT: MARSHA'S APARTMENT - DAY WE SEE PUPKIN in the shower, shampooing. CUT TO:101 INT: THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE The scene is as before. PATTEN Sure. Let him go on if you have to. It's just a taping. You can always erase him afterwards, can't you? (pause) All I'm saying is this: don't put him on the air. THOMAS That's fine, Inspector, but let's say he finishes his bit and you've worked him over ... PATTEN Questioned him, Mr. Thomas. There is light laughter. THOMAS Okay, questioned him and he still won't talk. We get to eleven thirty and what do we do? Do we air him or what? There is a heavy pause. PATTEN I would say no. THOMAS But they might kill Jerry! CROCKETT (breaking in) Okay, Burt. (to PATTEN) Thank you, Inspector. We appreciate your position and we'll do all we can to cooperate with you. But I have to tell you right now that, if it comes down to it, we're not taking any chances with Mr. Langford's life. PATTEN I understand but ... CROCKETT (interrupting) If your men haven't been able to locate Mr. Langford by air time, we're going to have to put this King guy on, no matter what he's said. After all, Inspector, what's ten or fifteen minutes of talk show time against a man's life? CUT TO:102 INT: MARSHA'S APARTMENT - DAY WE SEE PUPKIN in his new suit and ruffled shirt, impeccably groomed, standing next to the bed. He is talking to LANGFORD but we don't see anyone but PUPKIN. PUPKIN Open. (pause) Bite ... Good. He is wrapping LANGFORD's mouth shut but all we see is that he is doing something. PUPKIN Can you breathe? Both ways? In and out? WE PULL BACK TO SEE LANGFORD nodding. He is strapped to the bed with tape and encased like a mummy, only his eyes and nose showing. PUPKIN has wrapped him in tape from tip to toe. MARSHA emerges from the kitchen stirring something. PUPKIN (to MARSHA) You've got until around midnight. Have a good time. (to LANGFORD) So long, Jerry! Wish me luck. PUPKIN leaves. CUT TO:103 INT: BERT THOMAS' OFFICE - DAY The phone rings. BERT THOMAS' SECRETARY answers. THOMAS' SECRETARY Bert Thomas! Who's calling please? (her voice grows tense) Yes, Mr. King. CUT TO:104 INT: BERT THOMAS' DESK - DAY THOMAS sits by his phone. There is a large machine, looking like a large tape recorder, attached to the phone and monitoring the call. GIARDELLO is at a second phone and starts placing a call. PATTEN stands next to THOMAS. There are two other PLAINCLOTHESMEN in the room, CROCKETT and CATHY LONG. PATTEN (quietly to THOMAS) Keep him talking. THOMAS nods and picks up the phone. THOMAS Yes? ... Yes, Mr, King. We understand. Everything's been arranged. Now if you'll just tell me a little about the nature of your material, so that we can ... CUT TO:105 EXT: UPPER EAST SIDE MANHATTAN STREET - DAY PUPKIN stands in a public phonebooth on a streetcorner. PUPKIN (into the phone) I'll tell you everything you need to know at the studio this evening, Mr. Thomas. I appreciate your co- operation. Goodbye. PUPKIN steps out of the booth and starts walking downtown. CUT TO:106 INT: MARSHA'S APARTMENT - DAY Late afternoon. MARSHA is setting the dining room table for two. She talks as she works. MARSHA I've got so much to tell you I just don't know what to begin with. Are you okay? LANGFORD mumbles incoherently through his gag and tape. MARSHA Good. Tell me if you're not. I guess you're wondering why I do stuff like this. I think it's because I'm a Leo, but my shrink says I'm pathologically rebellious and self-destructive. You don't think I'm self-destructive, do you? LANGFORD, mummified, again mumbles and struggles a bit in his bonds. MARSHA I knew you wouldn't. That's 'cause you're the only person in the world who really understands me. CUT TO:107 INT: CROCKETT'S OFFICE - DAY CROCKETT sits behind his desk. With him are BERT THOMAS,CATHY LONG and three other EXECUTIVES. CROCKETT Can Randall* sub for Jerry?[*Tony Randall is one of any number of substitute hosts.] THOMAS His agent's calling us back but it looks good. I only told him Jerry's sick. CROCKETT Well, if worse comes to worse, Canter can always carry it. (to CATHY LONG) Let me see your list.CATHY LONG hands CROCKETT a blue piece of paper. Heglances over it quickly. CROCKETT Any one of these a writer? THOMAS (pointing to a name on the list) McCabe. The Vanishing Siberian Tiger. CROCKETT He's out. CATHY LONG What if we don't run this King guy? Who'll fill the time? CROCKETT We'll stretch the other guests. But I think we're going to wind up running him. For one thing, we've got to think about Jerry. FIRST EXECUTIVE And from a news point of view, we've got a responsibility to air this story. CROCKETT Exactly, Lou. (pause) I mean, who would you rather watch -- some tiger expert or a live kidnapper. A SECOND EXECUTIVE But nobody's going to know he's a kidnapper. They'll think we've gone crazy. CROCKETT Then they'll read about it in the papers tomorrow and, believe me, tomorrow night, everyone in America will be watching Jerry talk about his experience. And he can put this King guy on rerun. THOMAS You're going to put him on twice? A THIRD EXECUTIVE What if his stuff's unusable? SECOND EXECUTIVE And remember what Patten said about ... CROCKETT Hold on. (pause) We can always edit the guy. And, as for a wave of these things, I just don't buy the idea that there are that many people out there crazy enough to spend their lives in prison for a few minutes on television. CUT TO:108 EXT: MADISON AVENUE IN THE SIXTIES - DAY PUPKIN walks purposefully down the street. CUT TO:109 EXT: OUTSIDE THE JERRY LANGFORD SHOW THEATER - DAY The street is quiet. Suddenly three cars pull up and some dozen PLAINCLOTHESMEN get out. Two wait outside the theater; the ten others disappear inside through the backstage entrance. CUT TO:110 EXT: MIDTOWN MANHATTAN STREET - DAY PUPKIN is now walking cross-town, towards the theater. CUT TO:111 EXT: LANGFORD THEATER -- DAY A line of some 100 PEOPLE has gathered outside the theater. A sign at the bottom of the poster showing Langford reads "Tonight's Guest Host: Tony Randall." CUT TO:112 INT: THE TELEVISION STUDIO From the POV of the stage, WE WATCH six PLAINCLOTHESMEN descend into the orchestra and take widely scattered aisle seats. When the last has taken his seat we ... CUT TO:113 EXT: THE LANGFORD THEATER - DAY Depending on the season, it is either dusk or late afternoon. The USHERS swing the doors open and the TICKETHOLDERS file in. CUT TO:114 EXT: A MIDTOWN MANHATTAN STREET - DUSK PUPKIN is crossing Broadway, a few blocks from the theater. CUT TO:115 INT: STUDIO At the center of the stage, a pretty MODEL used solely to test color quality sits in Langford's chair as several MEMBERS of the Tactical Patrol Force admire her considerable cleavage. A number of TECHNICIANS go about their work. CAMERAMEN move to and from their stations. CUT TO:116 INT: CORRIDOR LEADING FROM THE BACKSTAGE DOOR TO THE STAGE Four PLAINCLOTHESMEN are gathered behind the stage door. They watch ZSA ZSA GABOR (or some other sexy talk show celebrity) enter and then return to talking among themselves. CUT TO:117 EXT: THE TELEVISION THEATER - DAY TO EARLY EVENING The situation appears normal. Only the regular backstage door GUARD, a big, grey-haired man, stands at the door. Nearby two other young MEN, in colorless suits, stand talking. We WATCH CLARENCE MCCABE, a writer, his plain WIFE and her PARENTS arrive in front of the theater, locate the backstage entrance and present themselves before the GUARD. MCCABE (a bit pompously) Good evening, officer. This is the backstage door I take it? GUARD Your name please? MCCABE Clarence McCabe, the writer. And this is Mrs. McCabe and her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Leroy Solters of Cleveland. GUARD (checking his list) I'm sorry, sir. I don't see you here. MCCABE I'm on the show tonight, officer. GUARD Well, you're not here. MCCABE (getting a bit agitated) Look, Cathy Long gave me instructions to present myself at a quarter to six. May I see her please? GUARD I'm under strictest orders tonight to admit only authorized personnel. MCCABE (huffy) This is absurd. (to the others) Wait right here. MCCABE marches past the GUARD and rushes to the backstage door. He opens it. The GUARD trails behind. GUARD Stop him! CUT TO:118 INT: THE BACKSTAGE CORRIDOR - EVENING The four PLAINCLOTHESMEN jump MCCABE and start pulling him downstairs. MCCABE Hey! CUT TO:119 EXT: OUTSIDE THE THEATER - EVENING PUPKIN arrives at the backstage door. Seeing no one, he walks in. CUT TO:120 INT: A ROOM IN THE BASEMENT OF THE THEATER - EVENING MCCABE has just been hustled before PATTEN. PATTEN Are you the King? MCCABE looks baffled. CUT TO:121 INT: BACKSTAGE - EVENING PUPKIN is looking for a familiar face. He approaches a CAMERAMAN. PUPKIN (getting CAMERAMAN's attention) Excuse me. The CAMERAMAN looks up. PUPKIN I'm the King. CAMERAMAN Yeah? CUT TO:122 INT: THE BASEMENT ROOM - EVENING PATTEN is sitting behind a desk. MCCABE is standing before him, still securely held by four PLAINCLOTHESMEN. PATTEN Don't talk to me about tigers! CUT TO:123 INT: BACKSTAGE - EVENING. PUPKIN approaches the STAGE MANAGER. PUPKIN (to STAGE MANAGER) I'm the King. STAGE MANAGER (smiling) What can I do for you, your highness? CATHY LONG passes by. She spots PUPKIN, and walks swiftly over. CATHY LONG What are you doing here, Mr. Pupkin?!?! CUT TO:124 INT: MARSHA'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The lights are dimmed. Music is playing on the phonograph. Two candles burn on the elegantly-set dinner table. MARSHA stands in the middle of the room, in front of LANGFORD. She is singing. LANGFORD is still encased in tape. MARSHA (singing to the music) "I'm gonna love you, Like no one's ever loved you, Come rain or come shine, Happy together, unhappy together, And won't it be fine." CUT TO:125 INT: THE BASEMENT ROOM - NIGHT Now PUPKIN stands before PATTEN, held by PLAINCLOTHESMEN who frisk him and hand PATTEN the autograph book. GIARDELLO stands next to PATTEN. PATTEN (to the PLAINCLOTHESMEN) I hope you brought me the right guy this time. (to PUPKIN) Where's Jerry Langford? PUPKIN (to GIARDELLO) Are you on the show? PATTEN No, Mr. King. That's my assistant, Mr. Giardello. PUPKIN I want to see someone on the show. PATTEN Well, you tell us where Mr. Langford is and we'll let you see anyone you want. PUPKIN Just get me someone from the show. PATTEN starts browsing through the autograph book. PATTEN Come on, Mr. King. Let's not fool around. (looking up from the book) Should we know about any of these people? PUPKIN (gesturing to the book) That's Orson Bean. PATTEN I see. (to GIARDELLO) Check these out.GIARDELLO starts looking through the autograph book. PATTEN Now are you going to talk to us, or not? PUPKIN Sure I'll talk. Just get me someone from the show. PATTEN (to GIARDELLO) Get that Thomas guy in here.GIARDELLO leaves. PATTEN We haven't much time, Mr. King.PUPKIN looks towards the door. PATTEN Let's start with your name. PUPKIN Rupert Pupkin. PATTEN That's your real name? PUPKIN Yes sir. PATTEN You an American? PUPKIN Yes. PATTEN Then why do you people do these things?THOMAS enters. He scrutinizes PUPKIN. PUPKIN Are you on the show? THOMAS Yes. I'm Bert Thomas.PUPKIN pulls thin piece of neatly typewritten paper fromhis inside jacket and hands it to THOMAS. PUPKIN Here's the introduction to my act. Please make sure Mr. Randall follows it exactly as I've written it. PATTEN nods to THOMAS who takes the paper and reads it as he leaves. PATTEN Okay. How about helping us, Mr. King? PUPKIN What about make-up? I need make-up. PATTEN (to PLAINCLOTHESMEN) Put some color in his cheeks. CUT TO:126 INT: MARSHA'S APARTMENT - NIGHT MARSHA has finished a half bottle of wine. She is eating a beautifully decorated piece of stuffed capon and talking through her tears. MARSHA (crying) It was the second lead! I'd never gotten a part in my life and here I get the second lead. And what does Daddy say? SHOT of LANGFORD still bound from tip to toe. MARSHA Not "Marsha, that's wonderful" or "we're proud of you" or anything. Oh no. He starts lecturing me on how I should have tried out for Emily! Now do you understand, Jerry! MARSHA gets hold of herself. She swallows a couple of pills and swills them down with some wine. MARSHA (calmer) My doctor says I shouldn't get excited. MARSHA picks at another piece of capon. MARSHA This is the best I ever made it. You want some? LANGFORD, the mummy, nods. MARSHA picks up the plate across from her, fills it with food, and pulls a chair up next to LANGFORD. She undoes the tape around his mouth and picks a sock out of his mouth. MARSHA Now open. Marsha's going to feed her Jerry. CUT TO:127 INT: BACKSTAGE - NIGHT Two young GIRLS are working on big cue cards copying from the piece of paper PUPKIN has given THOMAS. TONY RANDALL stands next to THOMAS. The two of them watch. RANDALL is going over the lines. CUT TO:128 INT: THE BASEMENT ROOM - NIGHT PUPKIN has obviously been worked over. He is sweating. PATTEN How about it, King? PUPKIN If I'm not on that show, Jerry Langford is dead, I promise you. PATTEN nods to his PLAINCLOTHESMEN again who start working PUPKIN over. CUT TO:129 INT: THE TELEVISION STUDIO - NIGHT The beginning of the taping is seconds away. Everyone is in his place. The STAGE MANAGER is counting down from five on his fingers. At zero, he points across to RICK ROSS, the orchestra leader, who strikes up the familiar Langford Show theme song. CUT TO:130 INT: THE CONTROL ROOM - NIGHT Four TECHNICAL ENGINEERS are seated along a large console containing a multitude of small television screens. One screen shows the spotlight falling where Randall will enter. Another shows the logo of the Langford Show. Another shows nothing in particular. Behind the TECHNICIANS, stand CROCKETT and the EXECUTIVES we have seen in the previous scenes. A TECHNICIAN is giving instructions to the CAMERAMAN. TECHNICIAN Hold on two. Hold. Hold. Come on, Keller. Get it framed! CUT TO:131 INT: THE TELEVISION STUDIO - NIGHT The theme song is playing. BERT CANTER stands off-cameraat one side of the stage before a microphone. CANTER Now! Direct from New York! It's the Jerry Langford Show with guest host Tony Randall and his special guests -- Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz, pundit Gore Vidal, the one and only Zsa Zsa Gabor and another of Jerry's taped exclusives, an interview with Prince Ranier of Monaco. As always, Rick Ross and the Orchestra and me, Bert Canter. And now ... say hello to Tony!!!!!! CUT TO:An APPLAUSE sign flashes like crazy. The AUDIENCE cheerswildly. In the back, we notice a handful of TACTICALPATROLMEN scattered about. RANDALL strides on stagebriskly, accepting the cheers of the crowd with his armsraised. He nods and then his eyes fix on those hastilywritten outsized cue cards. He reads them with a mixtureof professionalism and wry distance, wanting to disown thewords without seeming silly. RANDALL Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. Thank you very much. I have some sad news for you. Earlier today, my writing staff was executed in Central Park by the network firing squad so there'll be no sensational Randall monologue this evening.The AUDIENCE cheers derisively. RANDALL No embarrassing displays of emotion, please. (the AUDIENCE laughs) Instead, we're going to do something a little bit different this evening -- a lot different if you ask me. We're going to give you a glimpse into the future. It isn't often that you can call someone a sure thing in the entertainment business. After all, the verdict is always in your hands. But I think tonight, after you've met my first guest, you'll agree with me that he's destined for greatness -- in one way or another. So will you please give your warmest greeting to the newest King of Comedy, Rupert Pupkin!!!!The music plays. The APPLAUSE sign flashes. The AUDIENCEapplauds heartily -- and nobody appears to fill thespotlight at the edge of the wings. The spotlight holds for what seems like an eternity. CUT TO:132 INT: CONTROL ROOM - NIGHT TECHNICIAN Just hold. Three. Pick up the audience. CUT TO:133 INT: THE STAGE - NIGHT Finally after what seems like an eternity, PUPKIN emerges, straightening his jacket a bit and trying to crane the kinks out of his neck. He is a bit tense but very high and in full command. As he delivers his monologue, PUPKIN is more confident, comfortable and self-assured than we have ever seen him. PUPKIN Good evening, ladies and gentleman. Let me introduce myself. My name is Rupert Pupkin. I was born in Clifton, New Jersey, which was not, at that time, a federal offense. (laughter) Is there anyone here from Clifton? (silence) Good. We can all relax. Now, I'd like to begin by saying that my parents were too poor to afford me a childhood but the fact is nobody is allowed to be really poor in Clifton. Once you fall below eleven thousand you're exiled to Passaic. My parents did, in fact, put down the first two payments on my childhood. Then they tried to return me to the hospital as defective. But, like everyone else I grew up in large part thanks to my mother. If she was only here today I'd say, "Hey, mom. What are you doing here? You've been dead for nine years?" (laughter) You should have seen my mother. She was wonderful -- blonde, beautiful, intelligent, alcoholic. (laughter) We used to drink milk together after school. Mine was homogenized. Hers was loaded. (laughter) Once she was picked up for speeding. They clocked her doing fifty -- in our garage. (laughter) When they tested her they found that her alcohol was two per cent blood. They took away her license and she died shortly afterwards. We used to joke together Mom and me, until the tears would stream down her face and she'd throw up. (laughter) And who would clean it up? Not Dad. He was too busy down at O'Grady's throwing up on his own. In fact, until I was sixteen, I thought throwing up was a sign of maturity. While the other kids were off in the woods sneaking cigarettes, I was hiding behind the house with my fingers down my throat. (laughter) I never got anywhere until one day, my father caught me. Just as he was giving me a final kick in the stomach, for luck, I managed to heave all over his new shoes. "That's it," I thought. "I've made it. I'm finally a man!" (laughter) As it turned out, that was the only time my father ever paid any real attention to me. He was usually too busy out in the park playing ball with my sister, Rose. And, today thanks to those many hours of practice, my sister Rose has grown into a fine man. (laughter) Me, I wasn't especially interested in athletics. The only exercise I ever got was when the other kids picked on me. They used to beat me up once a week, usually Tuesday. After a while, the school worked it into the curriculum. And, if you knocked me out, you got extra credit. (laughter) Except there was this one kid who was afraid of me. I kept telling him, "Hit me! Hit me! What's the matter with you? Don't you want graduate?" As for me, I was the only kid in the history of the school to graduate in traction. The school nurse tucked my diploma into my sling. But my only real interest, right from the beginning, was show business. Even as a young man, I began at the very top, collecting autographs. (laughter) CUT TO:134 INT: MARSHA'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Dinner is over. MARSHA is sitting next to LANGFORD. As LANGFORD speaks, it is obvious that he is turning on the charm for strategic reasons. LANGFORD That was a wonderful dinner, Marsha. I want you to know how much I enjoyed it. MARSHA We can do it again. LANGFORD I'd like to show you my gratitude. But it's a little difficult, like this. LANGFORD indicates his bonds. MARSHA. (in a tone of intimacy) Let's say I took all this off. What would you do to me? Tell me. CUT TO:135 INT: THE TELEVISION STUDIO -- NIGHT We break in on a great burst of laughter. PUPKIN is just finishing his monologue. PUPKIN A lot of you are probably wondering why Jerry couldn't make it this evening. Well, he's tied up -- and I'm the one who tied him. (laughter) You think I'm joking, but that's the only way I could break into show business -- by hijacking Jerry Langford. (laughter) I'm not kidding. Right now, Jerry Langford is strapped to a bedstead somewhere in the middle of this city. (laughter) Go ahead. Laugh. But the fact is ... I'm here. Tomorrow you'll know I wasn't kidding and you'll think I was crazy. But I figured it this way: better to be King for a Night than Schmuck for a Lifetime!!! (laughter) Good night ladies and gentlemen. God bless you. The AUDIENCE applauds heartily. The music plays. And TONY RANDALL salutes PUPKIN with a wave of his hand. PUPKIN goes off stage after soaking up the applause. CUT TO:136 INT: THE WINGS - NIGHT A group of PLAINCLOTHESMEN seize PUPKIN and march him briskly through the backstage corridor towards the backstage door. CUT TO:137 EXT: THE BACKSTAGE DOOR - NIGHT A handful of PEOPLE are waiting, among them the autograph hunters, MAE, CELESTE and SIDNEY. MAE, out of a reflex of thirty years, immediately extends her autograph book towards PUPKIN, then, recognizing him, immediately pulls it back. MAE (to PUPKIN) Who did you get? PUPKIN says nothing as he is hustled into a limousine. SIDNEY and CELESTE look on. MAE trails after PUPKIN and the PLAINCLOTHESMEN. MAE (to PLAINCLOTHESMAN) Could I have a ride? The PLAINCLOTHESMAN says nothing and starts getting in the limo. MAE I've never been in one. The limo pulls away. CUT TO:138 INT: INSPECTOR PATTEN'S DOWNTOWN OFFICE - NIGHT PUPKIN stands among a crowd of PLAINCLOTHESMEN who have obviously been working him over. PATTEN sits behind his desk. GIARDELLO is at his side. The clock on the wall reads 10:20. PATTEN Okay, Pupkin. We'll start all over again. Where is Langford? You know, we're going to find him sooner or later. PUPKIN I'm trying to tell you, Inspector. You let me walk out of here, right? And as soon as I'm seen my act on the show -- as soon as I'm sure they've really put it on -- I'll tell you where Jerry is and you'll get him back safe and sound. PATTEN Fine, Pupkin. Then why don't you watch the show here with us? That way we're all happy. (to GIARDELLO) What channel? GIARDELLO Seven. PATTEN We get that one in fine. So what do you say, Pupkin? PUPKIN Look, I'll say it again. You let me go now. PATTEN motions to the PLAINCLOTHESMEN wearily with his head. They drag PUPKIN off. PATTEN looks up at the clock. CUT TO:139 INT: MARSHA'S APARTMENT - NIGHT MARSHA is frantically attempting to unwrap LANGFORD. With each pull of the tape, LANGFORD yelps. There is a small tangle of unwrapped tape collecting around LANGFORD's feet and sticking to MARSHA's clothes. LANGFORD Watch my hair! MARSHA I'm sorry, baby. We hear the sound of tape ripping. LANGFORD Ow! MARSHA I'm sorry. CUT TO:140 INT: PATTEN'S OFFICE - NIGHT PUPKIN is hustled before PATTEN again. A PLAINCLOTHESMAN Still nothing. PUPKIN glances at the clock. It is 11:05. PUPKIN I've got to get out of here. PATTEN You're not going anywhere, Pupkin. Now, where is he? PUPKIN I'm telling you, Inspector, if I don't see that show where I want to see it, Jerry Langford is dead. My people have instructions to execute him unless they hear from me by midnight. PATTEN glances apprehensively at GIARDELLO. PATTEN Just where is it you want to watch this show? CUT TO:141 INT: MARSHA'S APARTMENT - NIGHT LANGFORD is half unwrapped now. The place is covered with yard after yard of tape. MARSHA is working frantically to finish unwrapping LANGFORD who is helping now that his arms are free. LANGFORD Ow! God damnit! Not so fast! MARSHA (working frantically) We haven't all night, baby. MARSHA rips the tape off LANGFORD. LANGFORD OW!!!! MARSHA Oh, I love you, baby. I love you so much. CUT TO:142 EXT: BROADWAY - NIGHT A limo drives down Broadway, followed by an unmarked car. CUT TO:143 INT: THE LIMO - NIGHT PATTEN and GIARDELLO sit up front, with the DRIVER. PUPKIN sits in the back between two PLAINCLOTHESMEN. The limo pulls up in front of the bar-restaurant where RITA works. PATTEN turns around in the front seat to address PUPKIN. PATTEN Here we, are, Pupkin. I don't know what this is all about, but as soon as you've seen yourself, you're going to talk to us or I promise you, you'll never see daylight again. PUPKIN I'll need a couple of minutes, Inspector. PATTEN What?!? PUPKIN After it's over, I want a couple of minutes. And I'll need ten dollars. Does anyone of you gentlemen have my wallet? PATTEN Don't push me, Pupkin. PUPKIN A condemned man's last request, Inspector. PATTEN Well, I'll tell you right away, the answer is no, Pupkin. PUPKIN It's not much of a ransom, Inspector ... PATTEN (losing his temper) Look, I'm drawing the line, that's all! No ten dollars and that's it. (emphatically) No -- ten -- dollars!!!! You understand?!? PUPKIN (in mollifying tones) Sure. Sure, Inspector. No ten dollars ... PATTEN (appeased) Okay. PUPKIN ... and no Jerry Langford.There is a pause as PATTEN stifles himself. PUPKIN Come on, it's getting late, Inspector. PATTEN (exploding to one of his MEN) Go ahead. Give him his goddamned ten dollars! Give him twenty! I don't care. Just get him out of here!One of the PLAINCLOTHESMEN in the back opens the door andPUPKIN and the other PLAINCLOTHESMAN get out. The unmarkedcar has pulled up behind the limo and other PLAINCLOTHESMENstand next to it. PUPKIN and the two PLAINCLOTHESMEN startwalking the ten yards or so to the bar-restaurant. CUT TO:144 INT: THE BAR-RESTAURANT - NIGHT PUPKIN marches in flanked by the PLAINCLOTHESMEN. The clock over the bar reads 11:30. RITA looks up from talking with a CUSTOMER and sees PUPKIN. She says nothing. She just looks at him. There are five CUSTOMERS at the bar. A working class COUPLE in their late fifties are half-stewed, the man telling the woman that her friend, Maud, isn't really her friend because she wants $150 for a used refrigerator. A few seats down, two MEN in their mid- forties, in wind-breakers are locked in an intense but inaudible conversation. And, close to the television set which hangs over the far end of the bar sits a MOUSY MAN with glasses, who looks like an accountant. He is sipping a beer, his eyes fixed on the set where the CBS late movie is just showing its logo. PUPKIN marches up to the bar. PUPKIN (urgently to RITA) Turn on Langford. Seven. MOUSY MAN Hey! I'm watching this. RITA keeps staring at PUPKIN. PUPKIN Just turn it. Come on. MOUSY MAN I was here first, mister. You can't just walk in like this. It isn't fair. RITA glances at the MAN. PUPKIN can't wait. He vaults onto the bar and turns the set to the Langford Show, just as, on screen, he walks from the wings onto the stage to the applause of the studio audience. Perched atop the bar, standing next to the image of himself, PUPKIN looks down at RITA, a smile of pride and triumph on his face. CUT TO:145 MONTAGE -- NIGHT PUPKIN walking onto television screens in various homes across America -- in a chic New York living room, in a suburban bedroom, in the parlor of an Indiana farmhouse, in a kitchen where a COUPLE is in the middle of a raging domestic quarrel, in an otherwise dark bedroom where a COUPLE is in the throes of lovemaking, in a bar, a station house, in a television store window display. CUT TO:146 INT: MARSHA'S APARTMENT -- NIGHT MARSHA has just removed her dress and stands in her bra and panties as LANGFORD unwraps the last tape from about his ankles. The room is swimming in tape, like an enormous boa constrictor gone mad. MARSHA moves towards LANGFORD, her arms open. MARSHA Oh, baby. Baby. LANGFORD frees his ankles of tape just in time to side-step MARSHA and moves quickly to the dining room table where he grabs the gun. He trains it on her. LANGFORD Stop! MARSHA moves toward him. He pulls the trigger, releasing a plastic pellet that hits MARSHA in the stomach, stinging her. MARSHA Ow! LANGFORD glances down in horror at the gun which he now realizes is a toy and looks up in horror to see MARSHA, bigger than life, bearing down on him. MARSHA Don't be afraid of Marsha, baby. CUT TO:147 INT: BAR-RESTAURANT - NIGHT The CUSTOMERS are watching the conclusion of Pupkin's monologue, along with the PLAINCLOTHESMEN and PUPKIN. WE COME IN a split second after a joke. The CUSTOMERS laugh, with the exception of the MOUSY MAN who is waiting, in bad humor, for Pupkin's act to finish. The PLAINCLOTHESMEN laugh reluctantly. PUPKIN, no longer standing on the bar, but back down with the others, watches with fascination. RITA watches grimly, occasionally glancing at PUPKIN. PUPKIN on TV But I figured it this way: better to be King for a Night than Schmuck for a Lifetime. (audience and CUSTOMERS laugh) Good night, ladies and gentlemen, and God bless you. The television audience applauds and the CUSTOMERS applaud and cheer in good humor except for the MOUSY MAN. The HALF-STEWED MAN leans across his WOMAN to yell at PUPKIN as the two FRIENDS in windbreakers congratulate PUPKIN at the same time. There is a brief moment of carnival excitement. HALF-STEWED MAN FIRST FRIEND Hey, that's pretty good. (to PUPKIN)Schmuck for a Lifetime! How do you think up all(to the WOMAN) You know that stuff?who he's talkin' about?Your brother! SECOND FRIEND HALF-STEWED WOMAN It's a trick, that'sWhat about your all. Larry can do itbrother? as good as him. HALF-STEWED MAN MOUSY MANWhat about him? Is it over now? HALF-STEWED WOMAN FIRST FRIENDHe's another one. He's funnier than Larry. Larry just makes a lot HALF-STEWED MAN of faces.(getting a little angry)I told you to shut up about MOUSY MANmy brother. (to PUPKIN) Well, if nobodyShe doesn't know nuthin'. minds ...PUPKIN takes all this praise and excitement with a shysmile of satisfaction, glancing at RITA from time to timefor her reaction. She merely stares at PUPKIN with a sadexpression on her face. PUPKIN Come on, Rita. Don't spoil the party. (to the CUSTOMERS) Drinks all around on me. HALF-STEWED MAN (in a loud voice, to HALF- STEWED WOMAN) What about the hundred and fifty? We never saw a penny outta your brother. HALF-STEWED WOMAN That's because my brother is a family man, not like Phil.The argument between the HALF-STEWED MAN and his WOMANcontinues at the end of the bar. The two FRIENDS haveresumed their intense conversation. PUPKIN (to the two FRIENDS) What'll you have? FIRST FRIEND I'm okay. Thanks, pal. SECOND FRIEND Me, too.The MOUSY MAN has climbed up on the bar and has turned theTV back to the late movie. He sits enthralled by a sceneof violence courtesy of Tony Curtis as the BostonStrangler. PUPKIN looks down the bar at the STEWED COUPLEto offer them drinks, but they are lost in an argumentover the relative merits of their brothers. PUPKIN turnsto the PLAINCLOTHESMEN. PUPKIN I don't suppose you're allowed anything. (to RITA) I guess nobody's in a celebrating mood. How about you? You want something? FIRST PLAINCLOTHESMAN It's getting time, Pupkin. PUPKIN In a second. RITA (in a sad, serious voice to PUPKIN) That was true, wasn't it? ... about the kidnapping.PUPKIN nods and shrugs. PUPKIN Now you can say you knew me. That's something, anyway. FIRST PLAINCLOTHESMAN Come on, Pupkin. PUPKIN (to RITA, in a quiet, tender voice) I guess I've got go. Take care of yourself, will you. And when you're bored -- you know, when you're brushing your teeth or something, give me a thought, okay? RITA Okay.The PLAINCLOTHESMEN lead PUPKIN out of the bar. The twoFRIENDS are still buried in their intense, privateconversation. The PLAINCLOTHESMEN and PUPKIN walk pastthe HALF-STEWED COUPLE. HALF-STEWED WOMAN It's okay to talk about my sister, but we can't say nuthin' about Phil, is that it? HALF-STEWED MAN (to PUPKIN) She's just had one too many. The PLAINCLOTHESMEN lead PUPKIN onto the street.148 EXT: THE BAR - NIGHT As they walk the few steps to the car, the FIRST PLAINCLOTHESMAN turns to PUPKIN. FIRST PLAINCLOTHESMAN I just don't get it, Pupkin. You're gonna spend eight years in the can -- "minimum" -- and for what? SECOND PLAINCLOTHESMAN Yeah, Pupkin. You threw it all away. PUPKIN (vaguely) We'll see. WE CLOSE IN on PUPKIN, smiling. FADE TO:149 INT: THE JERRY LANGFORD SHOW STUDIO - NIGHT The STAGE MANAGER is counting down. At zero, he points to RICK ROSS who launches the orchestra into the Langford Show theme song. BERT CANTER, standing stage right, speaks into the mike. CANTER And now! Direct from New York! The Jerry Langford Show, starring Jerry's special guest, out on bail, Rupert Pupkin, the kidnapping King of Comedy!!!! The AUDIENCE applauds mightily and the FINAL CREDITS roll. As they roll, the music to the Langford Show continues and WE WATCH a MONTAGE that shows PUPKIN progressively taping LANGFORD to the back of a brass bedstead on stage as the two of them talk and laugh. By the end of the MONTAGE, LANGFORD is once again mummified and PUPKIN, having finished, bows and smiles. WE CLOSE on a FREEZE-FRAME CLOSE UP of PUPKIN in ecstasy. FADE OUT.December 15, 1976 draftScreenplay by Paul D. Zimmerman \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_King's Speech, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_King's Speech, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..78ac26ad04e92d2d0a38d089ba3d36984c5bce9f --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_King's Speech, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + THE KING'S SPEECH Written by David Seidler OPEN ON:1 INT. BATHROOM, YORK HOUSE, LONDON - DAY (MID-1930'S) 1 A shimmering surface of cold water - held in an immense, free standing, white enamelled bathtub with gilded lion's legs - bulges in SLOW MOTION to the chords of Handel's "Trumpet Volunteer". A head emerges. White gloved hands, in livery, rush to envelope the surfacing naked wet body in white towels.2 INT. DRESSING CHAMBER, YORK HOUSE - DAY 2 The ritual continues with crisp military precision. CLOSE ON the Royal Coat Of Arms stamped in gold: lion and unicorn embrace a shield divided into four quarters with harp, thistle, and more lions denoting England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The shield is surmounted by a crown. This emblem is on a cuff-link fastened on a starched white shirt. Trousers, pressed to a knife-edge, are held for stockinged feet and gartered legs to be inserted. Mirror-polished boots are laced tight. Jacket, held ready. Arms, shoulders, chest received. Glistening medals attached to front of jacket create a dazzling field of ribbons and medallions. Epaulets, edged with gold braid tassels, are adjusted. Polished buttons are fastened. Multi-coloured collar clasped shut. White ostrich feathers, topping a tri-corner hat, are fluffed and placed upon brilliantined hair. PAN DOWN to the handsome features of Albert, Duke of York, known to his family as BERTIE. He's in his late thirties, the second son of King George V, the reigning King of England. He conveys a sensitivity which appears in conflict with the manner in which he's been bedecked. Reflected in a full length mirror, Bertie tells himself: TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 3. BERTIE You look like a Christmas tree. He smiles wanly.3 EXT. INNER COURTYARD, YORK HOUSE, 145 PICADILLY - DAY 3 THE ROYAL STANDARD flaps atop a gleaming chrome grill. Liveried footmen open the doors of a stately Austin Princess. Bertie exits York House with his young wife - ELIZABETH - considered by all to be one of the loveliest women in the land, truly an English rose. Golden Labradors and Corgis appear from all directions, weaving between them, barking boisterously, creating a happy chaos. Elizabeth and Bertie glance upwards and wave. Two little girls, LILIBET and MARGARET ROSE, aged eight and four, wave back from their nursery window.4 INT/EXT. AUSTIN PRINCESS, HYDE PARK CORNER - DAY 4 Bertie nervously lights a cigarette. Elizabeth pats his hand. ELIZABETH Buck up, Bertie. The BBC said it wouldn't rain. BERTIE'S POV - Speaker's Corner with its assortment of orators, prophets, protestors, and onlookers gathered around soapboxs, agreeing, disagreeing, shouting comments. Others carry placards, sing protest songs. A miners' strike is the focus of the day. A large, rather untidy workingman with a florid rosacea nose spots the passing Austin and stares at the occupants. REVERSE ANGLE - Bertie's face stares back. The first drops splatter against the glass. Elizabeth sighs. ELIZABETH (CONT'D) Never trust the wireless. Bertie's face is obliterated by the increasingly heavy downpour, which segues into a GARGLING sound. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 4.5 INT. BBC BROADCASTING STUDIO - DAY 5 A gentleman in a tuxedo, carnation in boutonniere, is gargling while a TECHNICIAN holds a porcelain bowl and a towel at the ready. The man in the tuxedo is a BBC NEWS READER. He expectorates discreetly into the bowl, wipes his mouth fastidiously, and signals to ANOTHER TECHNICIAN who produces an atomizer. The Reader opens his mouth, squeezes the rubber bulb, and sprays his inner throat. Now, he's ready. He looks to the control room. The FLOOR MANAGER begins a count-down: five... four... three... two... BBC NEWS READER Ladies and Gentlemen: good afternoon. This is the BBC National and World Programmes taking you to Wembley Stadium. He speaks in flawless pear-shaped tones. There's no higher creature in the vocal world.6 EXT. WEMBLEY STADIUM - DAY 6 ELEVATED SHOT looking down on a sea of dripping black umbrellas hiding the spectators from view. Bertie and Elizabeth takes their places in a row of gilded chairs with the other dignitaries. They are: KING GEORGE V - a barrel-chested man with Naval beard and uniform, accompanied by his wife. QUEEN MARY - an elegant but icy grande dame. DR COSMO LANG - a tall, unctuous, churchman with a high, domed, balding head, and a perpetual expression of moral superiority. WINSTON CHURCHILL - a politician of sixty, as portly as Lang is lean. They are bantering rivals in ambition. STANLEY BALDWIN - the Prime Minister of the day. Heavy-browed. His hair, as always, parted down the middle. NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN - Chancellor of the Exchequer. Tall, thin, lugubrious, with the expression of a quizzical chicken hawk. A BBC technician places a huge imposing microphone suspended on springs next to the stadium equipment. It looks frightening, even to us. Bertie's shoulders brace as though expecting a blow. Elizabeth sees his terror. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 5. ELIZABETH Why wasn't he told? COSMO LANG Ten million people listening around the world, Mam. Possibly more. (as though Bertie didn't exist) His brother, and father, have been broadcasting since last year. The King, growing impatient, hisses: KING GEORGE V Get on with it. Show what you're made of! Bertie moves forward diffidently, without an ounce of confidence, knowing deep within he's doomed. His stomach knots, chest muscles contract, constricting his breath. BERTIE Luh-luh-lords, la-la-ladies, gen-tell-men. It is a shock to realize this is a man with a profound stutter. A man who cannot speak in public. Lang whispers to Churchill. When Lang whispers, everyone can hear. COSMO LANG I wouldn't miss His Highness' maiden voyage for all the world. And on such an important occasion. Lang really is a piece of work. For ease of reading, Bertie's stutter is not indicated from this point on in the script. BERTIE No doubt you wish the Prince Of Wales was standing before you today. POV - a sea of dripping umbrellas. No response. This is going to be a torment for him, and his audience.7 INT. BBC BROADCASTING STUDIO - DAY 7 A glowing dial on the face of a studio radio. Everyone listening intently. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 6. BERTIE (ON RADIO) (stuttering profoundly) Be that as it may...my brother David is attending to other duties in the furthest parts of this vast Empire... The radio falls silent. Eyes widen in concern.8 EXT. WEMBLEY STADIUM - DAY 8 Bertie stands frozen, his mouth agape, jaw muscles locked. He knows he's considered by all, especially himself, unfit for public life. Elizabeth is devastated. KING GEORGE V Just needs more practice.9 EXT. HARLEY STREET - NEW DAY 9 TRACKING SHOT - rain splatters on brass plaques denoting Dr This or Dr That, specialists in various maladies. Halt at a plaque that reads: LIONEL LOGUE, SPEECH SPECIALIST.10 INT. RECEPTION ROOM, LOGUE'S CHAMBERS, HARLEY STREET - DAY 10 Umbrella stand, coat rack, wooden waiting bench: that's all. The door is flung open and Elizabeth enters, drenched, her hat decorated with white silk roses, now limp. A veil covers her features. She waits. Coughs. No response. Calls imperiously: ELIZABETH Are you there? From behind a door: LIONEL (O.S.) In the lav. Princess Elizabeth is not used to this sort of thing. She's further appalled by the loud gurgling of a toilet being flushed, and startled by the entrance of - LIONEL LOGUE. He's in his forties, tall, with piercing eyes and charismatic features. His demeanor is friendly, but professional. The accent, although Australian, is not heavy, he is after all a speech therapist. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 7. LIONEL (CONT'D) "How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?" ELIZABETH Pardon? LIONEL Iago...world's greatest villain. Just wants to be bad. Sorry, no receptionist.He offers to shake hands. She doesn't take it, even thoughshe's gloved. ELIZABETH (with sang froid) I'd be more comfortable in your office. LIONEL That's for clients. Where's Mister J? ELIZABETH He doesn't know I'm here. LIONEL That's not a promising start. ELIZABETH My husband's seen everyone. They were all useless. He's given up hope. LIONEL A bit premature. ELIZABETH Because he hasn't seen you?Lionel doesn't disgree. ELIZABETH (CONT'D) You're very sure of yourself. LIONEL I'm sure of anyone who wants to be cured. ELIZABETH Of course my husband wants to be cured! His position requires public speaking upon occasion. A torment. I fear the requirement may grow more frequent. LIONEL He should change jobs. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 8. ELIZABETH He can't. LIONEL Indentured servitude? ELIZABETH Something of that nature. LIONEL Well, have your `hubby' pop by and give his personal history. I'll make a frank appraisal. ELIZABETH Doctor...Logue tries to object but she over-rides. ELIZABETH (CONT'D) ...I do not have a "hubby". We never talk about our private lives. Nor do we `pop'. You must come to us. LIONEL Sorry, this is my game, played on my turf, by my rules.The lady lifts her veil. ELIZABETH Perhaps you'll make an exception?He recognizes her instantly, and is clearly impressed, yetrefuses to be intimidated. LIONEL I thought the appointment was for "Johnson"? ELIZABETH A name used during the Great War, when the Navy didn't wish the enemy to know His Royal Highness was aboard. LIONEL I'm considered the enemy? ELIZABETH You will be, should you continue to be un- obliging. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 9. LIONEL For my method to succeed there must be mutual trust, complete honesty, and total equality. That process takes place in my consultation room. No exceptions. ELIZABETH In which case... (re-lowering her veil) I should have kept my pledge. I promised my husband I'd stop seeking "The Great Cure." I've wasted your time. And mine. She exits, closing the door firmly behind her. LIONEL Bloody hell, I buggered that. WACK! The sound of something solid meeting leather.11 EXT. SOUTH KENSINGTON STREET - LATE AFTERNOON 11 A foot kicks a ball. Lionel is returning home from work. He's a well-known fixture locally. Some lads are playing footie. One of them passes the ball to Lionel who, despite briefcase and rolled brolly, dribbles skillfully before passing the ball and entering a modest brownstone.12 INT. LOGUE'S ENTRYWAY AND STAIRWELL - LATE AFTERNOON 12 As Lionel mounts the stairs he's set upon by three sturdy boys - VALENTINE, IAN, and PETER - with handkerchiefs tied around the lower portions of their faces and armed with broomstick swords. VALENTINE Stand and deliver! LIONEL (falling into the game) `ow dares molest...Jack The Ripper?! The boys scream with delight and a sword fight ensues - Lionel using his brolly. LIONEL (CONT'D) Beware, Highwaymen, or I'll run yee through. PETER We're Swagmen, not Highwaymen, Dad. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 10. LIONEL Oh. (then) Beware, jolly Swagmen, I'll skewer yer gizzards. Lionel wife - MYRTLE - appears at the head of the stairs; a sweet-faced, down-to-earth woman. MYRTLE You'll all hang from the gallows if you don't come for tea. LIONEL Boys, I think we'd best go up.13 INT. LOGUE'S DINING ROOM - EVENING 13 Logue, Myrtle, and the boys are finishing at the table. LIONEL Had a visit from a lady today. MYRTLE Another spoiled silly? VALENTINE May we be excused? LIONEL You must stay, bored stupid, listening to your parents' inane conversation. THE BOYS (grinning) Thanks, dad! LIONEL And mum. THE BOYS And mum! They start to leave. MYRTLE Take your plates. The boys grabs their plates and exit. After a moment... MYRTLE (CONT'D) No wonder about the silly. You're so good at what you do. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 11. LIONEL At what I do. (then, deliberately being `theatrical') Twas a Lady with a capital L. MYRTLE Oh, Lionel, that'd get us home in grand style wouldn't it?! LIONEL She came on behalf of her husband. Which is not the proper way. I told her I was fully booked. Myrtle is clearly disappointed LIONEL (CONT'D) She was...too high and mighty. Know what I mean. She does. There's an unspoken code between them. MYRTLE We wouldn't want that. Covers her letdown. MYRTLE (CONT'D) Hard to feel sorry for that sort. Silence, then: LIONEL Had a call. Wish me luck? MYRTLE Course, Lionel. Loads and loads.14 INT. CHILDREN'S NURSERY, 145 PICCADILLY - NIGHT 14 Elizabeth, fashionably attired for an evening-out, is curled on a bearskin rug reading "Peter Pan" to the girls. ELIZABETH "Mr. and Mrs. Darling and Nana rushed into the nursery too late. The birds were flown." Bertie enters, handsome in a tuxedo. Elizabeth closes the book. ELIZABETH (CONT'D) Tomorrow, Chapter IV, `The Flight'. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 12.The two little girls clap with joy. MARGARET ROSE Oh, to fly away! BERTIE Weren't they lucky.Within his family, Bertie's stutter is virtually absent. LILIBET One would have to learn to fly properly of course. MARGARET ROSE Now a Daddy story! BERTIE Can I be a penguin instead?He drops to his knees and waddles. In his tux he looks like apenguin. The girls giggle, but are undeterred. LILIBET The horsie story, please. BERTIE Ah well.Called upon to perform, the stutter returns slightly. But thetwo girls listen raptly, ignoring their father's minorimpediment, and it fades. BERTIE (CONT'D) Once upon a time there were two horsies. A white horse that went clip clop clip clop through Hyde Park. And a black horse that went clip clop clip clop through Hyde Park. They met in the middle of Hyde Park. The white horse said "neigh". The black horse said, "neigh". The white horse continued on, clip clop clip clop through Hyde Park. The black horse continued on, clip clop clip clop through Hyde Park. And that's the end of the story. Now off to bed.As the girls exit: LILIBET A silly story really. But Father tells it rather well.The girls have gone. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 13. BERTIE David called. He said come round to The Fort on Friday and stay for dinner. ELIZABETH Will she be there? BERTIE I suppose. ELIZABETH Seriously? BERTIE Seriously, she'll be there. ELIZABETH I think I meant... is David serious? BERTIE About our coming? ELIZABETH About her! BERTIE A married American? Twice divorced? He can't be. ELIZABETH She can.15 INT. STAGE OF A LONDON THEATRE - NEW DAY 15 Movements behind a curtain. MUFFLED VOICE (UNSEEN) Now? From the auditorium: DIRECTOR Now! Someone pushes through a gap. Its Lionel. LIONEL "Now..." Falters, begins again. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 14. LIONEL (CONT'D) "Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York..." His elocution is crisp and flawless. His acting, however, is unconvincing. LIONEL (CONT'D) "And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths..." DIRECTOR (interrupts crisply) Thank you. Beautiful diction...but I don't hear the cries of a deformed creature yearning to be King. Lionel struggles to maintain a semblance of dignity. LIONEL What do you suggest? DIRECTOR Continue to do whatever you do, and hope it gives you a great deal of satisfaction. Crushed, Lionel retreats behind the curtain.16 EXT. BUCKINGHAM PALACE - NEW EVENING 16 Cold and austere mausoleum illuminated by floodlights. On the parade ground, Grenadier Guards in red coats and black bearskin busbies drill stiffly like toy soldiers. Viewing stands are beginning to fill. The King's voice is heard: KING GEORGE V (O.S.) Stride boldly up to the bloody thing, stare it square in the eye, and talk to it as you would to any decent Englishman.17 INT. THE KING'S STUDY, BUCKINGHAM PALACE - EVENING 17 The King's study resembles a naval captain's cabin. Both men are uniformed for a state occasion. Bertie regards the BBC microphone as though it were an alien. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 15. BERTIE I d-d-don't thu-thu-think I c-c-can.In the presence of his father, Bertie's stuttering returns infull form, his breathing short and shallow, the muscles inspasms. KING GEORGE V Show who's in command. If you don't, this devilish device will change everything. Used to be, all a King had to do was look reasonable in uniform and not fall off his horse. Now we must creep cap in hand into people's homes that smell of boiled cabbage, and speak nicely to them. We're reduced to that lowest, basest of all creatures...we've become...actors! Don't give me a look of defeated pathos. This is a family crisis! BERTIE Father, we're not a family, we're a firm.His father shoots Bertie a surprised look. Does the lad have abrain after all? KING GEORGE V We're the oldest, most successful, corporation in the world and sitting on thrones is our business! But any moment now we may be out of work. Your brother came to me the other day, livid a certain lady has been refused an invitation to my Silver Jubilee. I pointed out she wasn't a lady and most definitely wasn't his wife. BERTIE What did David say? KING GEORGE V She made him sublimely happy. I said: that was probably because she was sleeping with him. "I give you my word we've never had immoral relations." "As my son, as Prince of Wales, as my heir, do you solemnly swear your friendship with this woman is an absolutely clean one?" "I do", he said. "Look me in the eye," I said. "On my honour" he said. Stared straight at his father... and lied. BERTIE Oh my brother... TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 16. KING GEORGE V When I'm dead that boy will ruin himself, this family, and this nation, within twelve months. Who'll pick up the pieces? David's friend, Oswald Mosley? His black-shirt British Union of Fascists are marching through London. Hitler terrorizing half of Europe, Stalin the other half. Who'll stand between us, the jackboots, and the proletarian abyss? You?A red light attached to the mike begins a series of warningblinks. BERTIE What're you going to say? KING GEORGE V The usual guff. The Archbishop writes it. My people love to hear me say it. Spoken fluently, of course.They're interrupted by the entrance of the BBC News Reader andTechnicians. KING GEORGE V (CONT'D) That's the chap who taught me how to use this contraption. You touch your chin with your thumb and the `thing' with the end of your little finger. Splendid fellow.SQUISH. Assisted by the Technicians, the News Reader sprays histhroat. BBC NEWS READER Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, this is the BBC, broadcasting direct from Buckingham Palace upon the occasion of the Royal Silver Jubilee. His Majesty: King George the Fifth. KING GEORGE V (to the mike) "I can only say to you, my very very dear people, that the Queen and I thank you from the depths of our hearts for all the loyalty and - may I say so? - the love with which this day and always you have surrounded us. I dedicate myself anew to your service for all the years that may still be given to me."The News Reader, terribly moved, whispers to his Technicians: TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 17. BBC NEWS READER That's how a King speaks. (adds with splendid false modesty) I showed HM how to do it.18 EXT. BUCKINGHAM PALACE - NIGHT 18 The edge of the crowd is visible. One can sense a vast sea of humanity. When the glass doors of the upper balcony open the murmur becomes a ROAR. When the King steps out, it becomes tumultuous.19 EXT. BALCONY, BUCKINGHAM PALACE - CONTINUOUS 19 The King is joined by Queen Mary and the Archbishop of Canterbury, other Royals, and dignitaries. The noise is deafening. The King beckons impatiently for someone still inside to join them. It's Bertie, with Elizabeth. BERTIE They didn't come to see us, Father. KING GEORGE V Pretend. BERTIE Where's David? KING GEORGE V Bedding his American whore. Come, join the fun! (aside to Elizabeth) You'll have to do a lot more of this. I'm sending him to the Midlands. With all the factory noise they won't hear a word he says. The King goes back to waving. Elizabeth is stunned at the prospect. The ROAR of the crowd segues into the ROAR of machinery.20 INT. MIDLAND FACTORY - NEW DAY 20 Huge industrial wheels whir in neutral. WORKERS are lined up dutifully to hear the visiting Royal. Bertie's lips move, but with the noise he cannot be heard. Elizabeth watches in relief. Then a FOREMAN, trying to be helpful, signals. The machinery halts, the factory falls silent. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 18. At first the momentum of speaking without being heard carries Bertie forward. BERTIE What's needed is cooperation... Hearing his own voice reverberate through the cavernous factory brings Bertie's stutter back in full form. BERTIE (CONT'D) ...buh-buh-between the cuh-cuh-classses... One of the workers sullenly pulls a chain, releasing a blast from a steam whistle that drowns Bertie out.21 EXT. AUSTIN PRINCESS DRIVING THRU HYDE PARK - NEW DAY 21 THE ROYAL STANDARD fluttering.22 INT. AUSTIN PRINCESS - DAY 22 Elizabeth and Bertie in the back. BERTIE Is this necessary? ELIZABETH You know perfectly well. As they pass a corner news stand, the headline chalkboard reads: PRINCE OF WALES TELLS MINERS "SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!" ELIZABETH (CONT'D) Neglects to tell them what must be done, how its to be done, and who's to do it. BERTIE David has `the touch'. They adore him. As the Austin halts for lights, people stare to see who's inside. Some point. BERTIE (CONT'D) I'll wager they're saying: There's the useless one who can't speak.23 INT. LOGUE'S WAITING ROOM - DAY 23 Bertie and Elizabeth enter. She explains in a whisper: TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 19. ELIZABETH There's no receptionist.Elizabeth glances nervously at the lavatory door. ELIZABETH (CONT'D) (loudly) The Johnsons.From the inner office. LIONEL (O.S.) Not finished yet.Elizabeth is relieved its not coming from the lav. BERTIE How'd you find this physician? ELIZABETH (poker-faced) Classifieds; next to "Saucy model, Shepherd's Market".Bertie smiles despite his mood. ELIZABETH (CONT'D) Comes highly recommended. Charges substantial fees in order to help the poor. (realizes) Oh dear, perhaps he's a Bolshevik?! BERTIE I'm not sure I want to see this fellow. ELIZABETH I'm not sure he wants to see you.The consultation room door opens and a working class young woman- ANNA - comes out; then realizes with a gasp who they are. Sheretreats rapidly back into the consulting room. ELIZABETH (CONT'D) Perhaps this was a mistake.After an uncomfortable moment, Anna returns, attempting to beproperly formal, and stutters: ANNA You can go in now, "Mr. Johnson". BERTIE I'm not actually Mr ... TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 20. ANNA (whispers, terrified) I know. (then to Elizabeth) Dr Logue says... LIONEL (O.S.) Lionel! ANNA Lionel says...wait here if you wish. Or, it being a pleasant day, take a stroll. (to the consultation room) Was that alright? LIONEL (O.S.) Bloody marvellous. ANNA (choking up) Thank you...Lionel. Anna flees quickly. LIONEL (O.S.) Mr. Johnson, do come in. The Yorks look at each other.24 INT. LOGUE'S CONSULTATION ROOM - DAY 24 A totally different universe from the Spartan waiting area. A world of books - piles of them spilling everywhere. Two slightly shabby, but comfortable armchairs. Well-worn Turkish rug. Hotplate and two chipped mugs. Model airplanes hanging from the ceiling. Recording apparatus. The walls are pearl grey and smoky blue. BERTIE My wife's favorite colours. Here, in a doctor's office, Bertie's stutter returns. LIONEL Glad we have something in common. Bertie's head bangs into one of the models. LIONEL (CONT'D) My lads build them. Make yourself comfortable. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 21. BERTIE Please... LIONEL What? BERTIE You're too close. Five paces is the rule of thumb. LIONEL That might be difficult in this office.Bertie perches uneasily on the edge of an armchair. LIONEL (CONT'D) Nice girl, Anna. Worried she wouldn't find a husband if she couldn't speak. Tried to convince her men will find her even more attractive as a silent partner. The perfect woman. Sorry, bad Australian joke. Why'd your wife change her mind and ask for an appointment? BERTIE I can't discuss that. LIONEL What can we talk about? BERTIE That's better. When speaking with a Royal one waits for the Royal to start the conversation and chose the topic. LIONEL Your joking. That won't work here. BERTIE I admit if one waits for me to start a conversation one can wait a rather long time.Silence. They stare at each other. BERTIE (CONT'D) You call this making me comfortable? LIONEL You call this being forthcoming? BERTIE Aren't you interested in treating me? TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 22. LIONEL Only if you're interested in being cured.More silence. LIONEL (CONT'D) Cuppa tea? BERTIE No thank you. LIONEL I need one.Turns on the hot plate. LIONEL (CONT'D) Any idea what you're letting yourself in for? BERTIE Apparently a great deal of rudeness, Doctor Logue. LIONEL Call me Lionel. BERTIE I prefer Doctor. LIONEL I prefer Lionel. My family calls me far worse. What shall I call you? BERTIE The Duke of York is appropriate. LIONEL Oh please. BERTIE Your Royal Highness then. LIONEL Much more informal. BERTIE Prince Albert? Or Frederick? Arthur? George? I've lots of names to choose from. LIONEL How about Bertie? TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 23. BERTIE (flushes) Only my family uses that. LIONEL That's what I'll call you then. We must be true equals. BERTIE If we were equal I wouldn't be here, I'd be at home with my family and no-one would give a damn.Bertie starts to light a cigarette from a silver case. LIONEL Don't do that.Bertie gives him an astonished look. LIONEL (CONT'D) Sucking smoke into your lungs will kill you. BERTIE My physicians say it's good for stuttering, relaxes the throat. LIONEL They're idiots. BERTIE They've all been knighted. LIONEL Makes it official then. House rules: no smoking. BERTIE I thought here we're "equal". LIONEL As a monarchist I thought you'd appreciate these are my digs and here I rule. No smoking. What was your earliest memory? BERTIE I beg your pardon? LIONEL First recollection of the world? TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 24. BERTIE (stutter growing in intensity) I'm not here to discuss personal matters. LIONEL Why're you here then? BERTIE (exploding) Because I bloody well stutter! And you bloody well can't fix it!!! LIONEL Temper. BERTIE One of my numerous faults. LIONEL Do you stutter when you think? BERTIE Don't be ridiculous. LIONEL One of my many faults. How about when you talk to yourself? BERTIE I don't talk to myself! LIONEL Come on, everyone natters to themselves once in a while, Bertie. BERTIE Stop calling me that! LIONEL Shan't call you anything else. BERTIE Then we shan't speak!Silence. The jug has boiled. Lionel makes himself a cup of tea. BERTIE (CONT'D) Must I pay for this? LIONEL Loads. Now: when you talk to yourself, do you stutter? TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 25. BERTIE Of course not! LIONEL Proving your impediment isn't a permanent internal fixture. BERTIE When I give a speech...I bloody stutter!!! LIONEL Bet you a bob you can read flawlessly, right here, right now. BERTIE (bitterly) Easy money. You're on. LIONEL See your shilling then. BERTIE Royals don't carry money. LIONEL How convenient.Logue fishes a coin from his pocket and puts it on the table. LIONEL (CONT'D) I'll stake you. Pay me back next time. BERTIE If there is a next time. LIONEL Correct, I haven't agreed to take you on.During this, Logue has uncovered a piece of apparatus, arecording device with earphones. He sets a blank disc onto theturntable and positions a microphone, then hands Bertie an openbook. Bertie glares at it defiantly. BERTIE I certainly can't read The Bard. LIONEL `Easy money'.Bertie reads, stuttering badly and getting worse. BERTIE "To be or not to be, That is the question. Whether it is wiser..." There! TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 26.Reaches for the coin. LIONEL Not so fast. BERTIE I proved I can't read. LIONEL You proved you can't listen.Hands Bertie a pair of heavily padded earphones. Bertie doesn'twant to take them. LIONEL (CONT'D) A princely bob is at stake.Bertie reluctantly puts on the earphones. Logue turns a dial.LOUD MUSIC is heard. Bertie takes off the earphones. The musicstops. BERTIE You're playing music. LIONEL I'm aware. BERTIE How can I hear what I'm saying?! LIONEL Bertie, you're Royal. Surely a prince's brain knows what its mouth is doing? BERTIE You're not well acquainted with Royal princes, are you? LIONEL I want to demonstrate that when you can't hear your voice, you don't stutter, thus proving your impediment is not innate. BERTIE Rubbish.Bertie replaces the earphones. Again, the LOUD MUSIC. His lipsmove as he reads, but all that can be heard is the music.Finished reading the passage he takes off the earphones and themusic ceases. He reaches for the coin, but Logue snatches it. BERTIE (CONT'D) I was terrible. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 27. LIONEL Flawless. BERTIE I know how I sound! LIONEL Would I lie to a prince of the realm to win twelve-pence? BERTIE I've no idea what an Australian might do for that sort of money. Logue puts the record in a brown paper dust jacket and hands it to Bertie. LIONEL Souvenir of our first and presumably last encounter. Bertie glances at the record. POV - the label: HMV His Master's Voice.25 INT. WAITING ROOM - DAY 25 Elizabeth, trying to be gracious, has been cooling her heels with a working class MOTHER and her young son WILLIE. LIONEL I'm finished with your husband. BERTIE I'm finished with Doctor Logue! LIONEL Lionel. They exit curtly. WILLIE'S MUM Was that...? LIONEL Certainly not. How's it going, mate? WILLIE'S MUM William isn't trying hard enough. LIONEL Willie? TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 28. WILLIE Ddddddoooing ggggggggood. LIONEL Why am I not surprised?26 INT./EXT. AUSTIN PRINCESS ON LONDON STREET - DAY 26 The Yorks are being driven home. As they pass Speakers' Corner, Oswald Mosley's blackshirt British Union of Fascists are out in full force. BERTIE The bloody man did parlour tricks and cheated me out of a shilling. In fury he rolls down the window and is about to throw away the record. Elizabeth stops him. ELIZABETH They'll see. He quickly rolls up the window. The sound of an approaching aircraft engine.27 EXT. PRIVATE LANDING STRIP, SANDRINGHAM ESTATE - NEW DAY 27 A grass strip cut into the moors. Bertie waits beside a shooting break, the stiff breeze whipping his coat, as a small plane lands and taxis. The cockpit canopy slides back and the pilot leaps out, removing his leather helmet and goggles, revealing hair gleaming like gold, perfect teeth flashing a dentist's smile. This is - DAVID - the Prince of Wales, Prince Charming, the media's darling, a sun god descended from the skies accustomed to being worshipped by all. DAVID (teasing with a false stutter) Hello, B-b-bertie. B-b-been waiting long? BERTIE Three days. Where've you been? Bertie stutters badly in the presence of his brother. DAVID I was busy. BERTIE So was I. Elizabeth has pneumonia. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 29. DAVID She'll recover. Bertie shoots him a look. BERTIE Father won't.28 INT./EXT. SHOOTING BREAK ON SANDRINGHAM LANE - CONTINUOUS 28 David drives. Badly. DAVID He's doing this on purpose. BERTIE Dying?! DAVID Some sod tipped him off Wallis is getting a quickie divorce and we're going to make our marriage a fait accompli. As an act of pure spite, Father's trying to depart prematurely in order to complicate matters. The break almost careens off the lane. BERTIE You believe that? DAVID Wallis explained it. She's terribly clever.29 INT. KING'S BEDROOM, SANDRINGHAM - DAY 29 The King is propped up in bed, wrapped in his favorite faded Tibetan dressing gown, hooked to an oxygen tank. He's surrounded by his wife, Queen Mary, his two eldest sons, his Secretary - CLIVE WIGRAM - his personal physician - DR DAWSON, and a NURSE. Wigram presents a tray with papers and pen. WIGRAM The Instruments Of Succession, Your Majesty. The King is so feeble he can barely make his mark. Glares at David. KING GEORGE V You're next? God help us. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 30. He waves them out of the room, but beckons Wigram to come close, and whispers something in his ear. WIGRAM At the appropriate moment, Your Majesty. The King nods.30 INT. DINING HALL, SANDRINGHAM - NIGHT 30 Clear soup is being served at the immense table. Places set for five, but only Bertie and his mother are seated. The clinking of silver and china. Finally: QUEEN MARY I want my jewelry divided equally. Elizabeth gets first choice. She's not greedy. BERTIE May I remind you, you're not the one who's dying, Mother. QUEEN MARY Where are the others? BERTIE Lord Wigram and Dr Dawson are making arrangements. QUEEN MARY What sort of arrangements? BERTIE They didn't say. QUEEN MARY And David? Fetch him.31 INT. LIBRARY, SANDRINGHAM - CONTINUOUS 31 David, hunched over a table, appears to be sobbing. He doesn't hear Bertie's discreet knock. Seeing his brother crying, Bertie is deeply moved, puts a comforting hand on his shoulder. David pulls away as though touched by a leper and covers the receiver in his hand. DAVID I'm on with Wallis! (as though Bertie didn't exist) (MORE) TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 31. DAVID (CONT'D) I know, darling, a talk, even a lovely long talk, is a poor substitute for holding tight and making drowsy. Nor making our own drowsies either, as we've had to do far too often lately. (kisses the phone) Til then, sweet love. (hangs up) Wally misses me terribly BERTIE Mother says you're late for supper. David glares at a clock. DAVID Clocks set five minutes in advance, so as not to be late. When I'm King I shall set them back!32 INT. DINING HALL, SANDRINGHAM - CONTINUOUS 32 Bertie and David enter to find Wigram and Dawson with their mother. QUEEN MARY Lord Wigram has requested permission to order the coffin. Nobody wants to take responsibility. The Queen looks to David. He nods. They're interrupted by a BUTLER. BULTER The Archbishop of Canterbury. DAVID Who the hell invited him?! QUEEN MARY Nobody. Don't swear. DAVID Somebody should bloody well dis-invite him. Father swears. WIGRAM That would be rash. QUEEN MARY You're not your father. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 32. WIGRAM His Grace can be a persistent enemy. We need friends. David knows he's referring to the Simpson affair. DAVID Show the toad in. Lang is already sweeping towards them. COSMO LANG Whatever can I contribute in this dreadful hour?!33 INT. LIBRARY, SANDRINGHAM - LATER 33 The men are huddled, with cigars and port, composing a news release. Bertie acts as secretary. COSMO LANG "Tranquilly"? "Serenely"? WIGRAM Peacefully. The others nod. COSMO LANG "The King's life is moving peacefully to its..." "Termination"? WIGRAM Close. COSMO LANG "...to its close." WIGRAM As a man of letters you're heaven-sent to assist in the editing of our press communique. Lang beams. WIGRAM (CONT'D) I'll telephone this through to the BBC and alert The Times to hold the morning edition. The problem is...if we're to keep to schedule...time is running out. The clock is approaching midnight. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 33. DAVID Is my father late for death? WIGRAM We wouldn't want the news delivered by the disreputable afternoon press, would we? The brothers look at him. He expains: COSMO LANG Who knows what sensational side issues those tabloids might report. DAWSON Perhaps a peaceful termination? All eyes on David.34 INT. KING'S BEDROOM, SANDRINGHAM - NIGHT 34 The nurse looks aghast as Dr Dawson administers an injection. DAWSON Three quarters of a gram of morphia and a gram of cocaine injected into the distended jugular vein. NURSE No! that's... DAWSON You may leave. She does so, sobbing. Everyone watches silently as the King's breathing slows, the twitching jugular subsides, then all movement ceases. Dawson takes the pulse, and consults his watch. David sets the hand of the room's big clock back by five minutes. DAWSON (CONT'D) Time of expiration, 11:55 pm. On schedule. Queen Mary curtsies in homage to the new King, taking her eldest son's hand and kissing it. When she looks up...her eyes are chilling. QUEEN MARY Long live the King. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 34.35 INT. BERTIE'S STUDY - NIGHT 35 Bertie, in despair and grief, has been describing to Elizabeth what happened. BERTIE The look in mother's eyes, it was...ghastly. He notices something on his desk, the record Logue made. POV: the label - His Master's Voice - stares up at him. He releases his emotions in an outburst of anger. BERTIE (CONT'D) What's this bloody thing doing here?! ELIZABETH Bertie... BERTIE The man was a total fraud! He picks up the record and is about to smash it against the edge of his desk, then realizes the mess that would make and tosses it into a waste paper basket. Then changes his mind. BERTIE (CONT'D) Would you like to hear? ELIZABETH Not particularly. BERTIE Well I think you should. You should know what goes on. Telling me he could help me read flawlessly. Lying bastard! Listen to this babble! Bertie takes the record from the trash and walks to a Victrola stand, lifts the arm, places the steel needle, expecting to hear his stuttering voice. Instead, what he hears is flawless and flowing: BERTIE'S RECORDED VOICE "To be, or not to be, - that is the question: - Whether `tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?" (the needle sticks) (MORE) TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 35. BERTIE'S RECORDED VOICE (CONT'D) "...sea of troubles, and by opposing end them? And by opposing end them? And by opposing..." Bertie lifts the needle. He and his wife stare at each other; there are tears in her eyes. The ROAR OF A HUGE delirious crowd is heard, growing in volume. The roar becomes chillingly recognizable: "Zeig Heil! Zeig Heil! Zeig Heil!" GO TO BLACK: Hitler, giving one of his mass rally speeches, continues. The brass numbers 10 appears on the blackness. It is:36 EXT. 10 DOWNING STREET - NEW NIGHT 36 The black front door of the Prime Minister's residence. The Fuhrer's tirade continues as CAMERA moves through the door into 10 Downing Street itself.37 INT. 10 DOWNING STREET - CONTINUOUS 37 CAMERA explores the dwelling, during which Hitler grows louder and more shrill, until:38 INT. BALDWIN'S STUDY - CONTINUOUS 38 The glowing light of an illuminated dial of a radio, listened to by Churchill and Baldwin. They wear black armbands. WINSTON CHURCHILL Turn that devil off! The hysteria stops. WINSTON CHURCHILL (CONT'D) If only one could do that so easily in real life. BALDWIN Chamberlain thinks that Hitler can be reasoned with. WINSTON CHURCHILL Neville is an old woman. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 36. BALDWIN That's the direction its going, Winston. You're out of step. WINSTON CHURCHILL We'll see who trips and falls. BALDWIN Enough pleasantries. I've asked you here because you seem to be the only sensible member of the King's camp. WINSTON CHURCHILL Nice of you to say so, Stanley. BALDWIN Is he willing to be reasonable? WINSTON CHURCHILL Depends on the definition. BALDWIN (bluntly) Has he seen the light? WINSTON CHURCHILL He has. Baldwin brightens. WINSTON CHURCHILL (CONT'D) Our Monarch basks in the warming rays of a celestial orb. Her name is Wally. Baldwin's face clouds once again.39 INT. LOGUE'S CONSULTATION ROOM - NEW DAY 39 A headline screams: HITLER RATTLES SABRE. Lionel is at his desk reading the newspaper as his sons sprawl on the floor building a model airplane. VALENTINE Dad? LIONEL Mmmm? VALENTINE Time for a Shake, dad. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 37. LIONEL (pleased) You sure? THE BOYS Shake! Shake! Shake! Clearly this is a much loved ritual. Lionel disappears into a closet. IAN Bet its the Scottish Play. VALENTINE Othello! PETER Perhaps something with Falstaff? Ominous thumps within the closet. LIONEL (FROM INSIDE THE CLOSET) "Art thou afeard?" THE BOYS Caliban! Lionel lumbers out of the closet, a pillow stuffed into his jacket to create a monstrous hunchback. His acting, performed just for his children, is quite magical. LIONEL "Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twanging instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices, That, if then I had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open, and show riches Ready to drop upon me; that, when I waked, I cried to dream again." The lads are enthralled. The DOOR BELL RINGS. Lionel is not expecting anyone.40 EXT. ENTRANCE TO LOGUE'S CHAMBERS, HARLEY STREET - DAY 40 The Austin Princess waits at the curb. Bertie is at the door. He rings the BELL again. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 38. BERTIE'S VOICE Doctor Logue?41 INT. LOGUE'S CONSULTATION ROOM - CONTINUOUS 41 Lionel is stunned, covers: LIONEL Must be a tradesman. Off you go, lads. Mum should be home from work. The boys gather their things, deposit the model plane on a chair, stow the building materials in a box, and exit the back way. Lionel goes to the door, but doesn't open it. BERTIE'S VOICE Logue...? Logue, expressionless, doesn't respond.42 EXT. ENTRANCE TO LOGUE'S CHAMBERS - CONTINUOUS 42 Bertie is torn: part of him wants to flee, yet he desperately needs to be let in. He knows what must be done. This is a huge step for him. BERTIE Lionel...it's Bertie. The door opens. LIONEL My condolences. I didn't expect you. BERTIE Thank you. I didn't expect to be here. May I come in? LIONEL No. BERTIE What? LIONEL My wife doesn't think it's a good idea. BERTIE Your wife? LIONEL Myrtle. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 39. BERTIE Myrtle? Myrtle's never met me. I've never met Myrtle. May we discuss Myrtle in private? Its not proper talking about our women on the street. Lonel gives him a look, but lets him him.43 INT. WAITING ROOM TO LOGUE'S CHAMBERS - CONTINUOUS 43 As they enter Bertie notices: BERTIE What happened to your shoulder? Lionel hastily removes the pillow, tosses it away. LIONEL Sore back. BERTIE What's your Myrtle got to do with me? Elizabeth doesn't much care for you either, but here I am. LIONEL That woman has style. BERTIE Which is why she dislikes you. You're far too familiar. (referring to the consultation room) May we discuss this properly?44 INT. LOGUE'S CONSULTATION ROOM - CONTINUOUS 44 They enter: LIONEL You look dreadful. BERTIE Another example of exactly the sort of thing you don't say to a Royal. And you're too close. LIONEL But you're not Royal in this room. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 40. BERTIE Which is precisely why Elizabeth dislikes you.He starts to sit. LIONEL Not there!CRUNCH. A model airplane was nestling in the armchair. LIONEL (CONT'D) Curtis bi-plane, now a Curtis mono-wing. BERTIE Oh I say, I'm terribly sorry. Tell your lads I'll buy a new one.Lionel takes out the box of model building gear the boys left. LIONEL You don't have any money. I'll fix it. So, Bertie, what brings you here? Your father's death?Bertie is silent. LIONEL (CONT'D) Mine lay rigid, fists clenched angrily at his sides, daring the Reaper: take me, you bastard! BERTIE What was he angry about? LIONEL I was a great disappointment. BERTIE Thought he'd be proud of you. LIONEL So did I. BERTIE A man of stature? LIONEL A clerk. BERTIE Oh. (pause) (MORE) TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 41. BERTIE (CONT'D) I was informed, after the fact, my father's last words were: "Bertie has more guts than the rest of his brothers put together." (pause) Couldn't say that to my face. (then) Your mother? LIONEL Coughed herself to death when I was young. BERTIE Oh. LIONEL I remember going to the theatre with her. Not real theatre...traveling players. BERTIE I've been to Australia. LIONEL Not where I lived. BERTIE (blurts) My brother. That's why I'm here. LIONEL What's he done? BERTIE Can't say. LIONEL I'm going home now. BERTIE You must undersand, I can't puh-puh-puh...His jaw and throat muscles constrict. LIONEL Try singing it. BERTIE Pardon? LIONEL Know any songs? BERTIE "Swanee River".TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 42. LIONEL Very modern. BERTIE Happens to be my favorite. LIONEL Sing it. BERTIE Certainly not. (fascinated by the plane repairs) May I help? Always wanted to build models. Father wouldn't allow it. I had to collect stamps. He collected stamps. LIONEL Only if you sing. Goes like this... (sings) "Way down upon the..." BERTIE I know the words! (sings) "Way down upon the Swanee River. ..." Etcetera. LIONEL You didn't stutter. BERTIE Of course I didn't stutter, I was singing! One doesn't stutter when one sings! (realises) ) Oh... (then) Well I can't waltz around on State occasions warbling! LIONEL You can with me. BERTIE That's because you're peculiar. LIONEL I take that as a compliment. Cut some struts from the balsa. Sorry, hard to show you what to do at five paces. Would you like a cup of tea? BERTIE No. Yes. Thank you. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 43.Lionel fires up the hot plate. LIONEL You were about to sing an aria concerning your brother. BERTIE I'm not crooning to the tune of "Swanee River!" LIONEL Try "Camptown Races" then. (sings) "The Arch of C, he said to me, doo-dah doo- dah..." That sort of thing. BERTIE I can't talk, or sing, about your future King, doo-dah, doo-dah... LIONEL My future King? He's your future King too. Did that cause friction? Knowing he'd grow up to be King, but you wouldn't. BERTIE Certainly not. I've always looked up to David. Water's boiling.Lionel makes the pot. LIONEL Two lumps or one?Bertie, a bit abashed, holds up three fingers. BERTIE I've a sweet tooth. To tell the truth... LIONEL Always preferable. (referring to plane wing) Cover it with tissue. BERTIE ...it was a relief. Knowing I wouldn't be King. LIONEL Why's that?Lionel hands him a mug of tea. Bertie realizes it's chipped andpossibly none too clean. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 44. BERTIE I wouldn't have to give speeches!Reaches into his jacket for his cigarette case. LIONEL No smoking. What's the age difference?While Logue isn't looking, Bertie surreptitiously wipes the rimof the mug with his handkerchief. BERTIE Eighteen months. LIONEL But for eighteen months you would've been King?! BERTIE We didn't think about it that way, doctor. (sings) Doo-dah doo-dah. (then) David and I were very close. LIONEL As you said: eighteen months. BERTIE As brothers! LIONEL How close? BERTIE Young bucks... You know. LIONEL I don't, or I wouldn't ask. Did you go after the same girls? BERTIE Upon occasion. LIONEL Princess Elizabeth? BERTIE (flares) What an extraordinarily rude thing to say! (quickly under control) David did try to be her beau at one point. Before I met her. She wouldn't have him. (MORE) TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 45. BERTIE (CONT'D) Not like my father...he and his brother, when they were young, kept a girl in St John's Wood and shared her on alternate nights.An uncomfortable silence. Too much has been said. LIONEL Now dope the other wing. Did David tease you? BERTIE They all did. "Buh-buh-buh-Bertie". Father encouraged it. "Spit it out, boy!" Thought it would make me stop. Is this necessary?! LIONEL Otherwise the paint will eat through the tissue. BERTIE I mean the damn questions! LIONEL Mandatory. Tell me more about your storybook childhood. What was your earliest memory? BERTIE You asked that before. LIONEL This time I'd like an answer. BERTIE Being born. LIONEL How can you remember that? BERTIE December 14th. LIONEL I don't understand. BERTIE "Mausoleum Day". Prince Albert departed on that date. I was named Bertie to placate Great Grandmamma Victoria. In return, she hated me because it reminded her of her grief. (stutter growing in intensity) (MORE) TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 46. BERTIE (CONT'D) Let's stick to medical history please. I'm naturally left handed, which was considered inappropriate. LIONEL And? BERTIE I was punished. Now I'm right handed. LIONEL Anything else? BERTIE Bandy legs. Also considered inappropriate.Lionel waits. BERTIE (CONT'D) Metal splints were made...worn night and day...very painful. Now I have straight legs. This is so...tawdry! I need your services as a Speech Therapist, not Grand Inquisitor. Are you available? Or will it be: "Myrtle says no?" LIONEL You sound angry. BERTIE Yes, I told you, I have a temper. LIONEL Angry at me, or at your brother?Bertie remains stubbornly silent. Then blurts: BERTIE He's fallen in love! LIONEL How dreadful. BERTIE With the wrong sort of woman! LIONEL What's wrong with her? BERTIE She's American. LIONEL Some of them must be lovable. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 47. BERTIE This one's divorced. Twice. Mrs Wallis Simpson of Baltimore. I want David to be happy, but the family, the Church, the nation, won't have it. LIONEL Can't they fornicate privately like adults? BERTIE If only! David used to prefer married women because there was no possible attachment. But now... LIONEL "Queen Wallis of Baltimore"? BERTIE Please. LIONEL Does sound a bit iffy. BERTIE I made a smudge! LIONEL Touch it up. BERTIE You want me to beg for help? LIONEL I advise you never to beg. Especially if you might be King. BERTIE Don't say that! LIONEL I see. For reasons you cannot disclose, fearing ramifications you will not explain, you feel sufficiently anxious to embark upon a course of therapy in which you have no faith? You already owe me a shilling.Bertie takes a coin out of his pocket, hesitates, then offers itto Logue. BERTIE I brought it along. You won, fair and square. I'll pay you generously.Lionel pockets the coin. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 48. LIONEL I'll continue to ask questions. BERTIE That's what I was afraid of. LIONEL (admires the plane) Nice job.Bertie sees Lionel glance at his watch. BERTIE You've someone waiting? LIONEL I do now. BERTIE I'd apologize to them in person, but... LIONEL You don't wish to be seen? Slip out the back way. BERTIE After the funeral...it may be even more difficult. To remain unobserved. LIONEL You're having second thoughts.Bertie's silence is confirmation. LIONEL (CONT'D) I ask too many questions? BERTIE Perhaps the wrong sort. LIONEL (writes an address) We live in South Kensington, small apartment, but no one would see you. (added incentive) Lots of planes. BERTIE You know, Lionel, you're the first ordinary Englishman... LIONEL Australian. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 49. BERTIE ...I've ever really talked to. Sometimes, when I ride through the streets and see a `bloke' I'm struck by how little I know of his life, and how little he knows of mine. Cuts both ways. As Bertie is about to leave, Lionel requests casually: LIONEL And if you decide to come, bring the Duchess. She might be helpful. BERTIE She might. If I asked. Very nicely. (at back door) And how will Myrtle take to our coming into your home? LIONEL Not sure. She isn't speaking to me. (pause) Wants to go home. (pause) After the funeral then? Bertie doesn't answer. Exits. Logue is left holding the plane. He goes to the waiting room door. LIONEL (CONT'D) How're you doing, Willie? WILLIE'S MUM (speaking for her son) Still can't say a sentence. LIONEL Willie? WILLIE Iiiiiii'm much bbbbbbbetter. LIONEL Well done. A drum roll is heard. Thrum. Another... Thrum! Thrum!45 EXT. ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL, WINDSOR CASTLE - NEW DAY 45 Funereal bagpipes wail, joining the measured drum-rolls. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 50.On the balcony of the Castle, decorated with black bunting, is ahuge BBC microphone, and arrayed in front of it a row ofuniformed dignitaries wearing Naval hats of the Napoleonic Wars,replete with ostrich feathers.One of the dignitaries reads a declaration: DIGNITARY Whereas it has pleased Almighty God to call to His mercy our late Sovereign, King George the Fifth of blessed and glorious memory...During this, INTERCUT to the REVERSE ANGLE, showing a massivemilitary parade, mainly Navy personnel, wending its way throughthe main street of Windsor towards the Castle, accompanying agun carriage on which rides the King's coffin, draped with theRoyal standard, on which rests the Royal Crown topped by aMaltese Cross.David is seen - very serious. DIGNITARY (CONT'D) ...that the High and Mighty Prince Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David is now become our only lawful King.Canons are fired.Startled by the salute, a large flock of blackbirds rise up andstreak across the wintery sky.A MURMUR, then a shocked GASP, as the gun carriage transverses atram track and tilts precipitously. Suddenly the Royal Crowntumbles and falls, knocking off the Maltese Cross. COSMO LANG (O.C.) Oh bloody Hell! WINSTON CHURCHILL (O.C.) A bad omen, Your Grace?The Archbishop and Churchill are watching the events from theshadows at one end of the balcony.Below - a scramble to restore the Cross to the Crown, andreplace both atop the coffin. COSMO LANG Don't be disingenuous. For our late King's crown to fall from his coffin is not a fortuitous portent. What ever is going to happen next? TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 51. WINSTON CHURCHILL Is that be the motto of the new reign? Indeed, will there actually be "a new reign"? COSMO LANG Winston! I'm deeply shocked. WINSTON CHURCHILL You don't look it. COSMO LANG My function requires me to appear serene. WINSTON CHURCHILL That may be increasingly difficult to maintain. I've been informed by no less an authority than the Prime Minister that our populace has no objection to Royal fornication, but will never tolerate adultery. COSMO LANG Well, since we cannot acquire a new populace, perhaps we need a new King? WINSTON CHURCHILL My turn to be profoundly shocked.Neither look the slightest traumatized. COSMO LANG Scoff, Churchill! Go on... scoff! But you more than others know full well we'll soon be under siege from the forces of darkness. WINSTON CHURCHILL The winds of war...a gathering storm? COSMO LANG Oh, you do have a way with words. And who would you suggest to rally the troops, the nation, the Empire, the world?INTERCUT to Bertie in the funeral cortege, looking frail andpale. COSMO LANG (CONT'D) A man who cannot speak? In Nuremberg stadium, Herr Hitler mesmerizes millions, whilst the Duke of York cannot successfully order fish and chips. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 52. WINSTON CHURCHILL Would you prefer the next brother? INTERCUT to Henry, the Duke of Gloucester. WINSTON CHURCHILL (CONT'D) A bi-sexual former drug addict? The unwashed moralistic populace will adore that! COSMO LANG The youngest, perhaps? INTERCUT to George, the Duke of Kent. WINSTON CHURCHILL Now there's dimness. COSMO LANG I must admit...unburdened with brain. WINSTON CHURCHILL Thus we're left with David, the rightful heir, who speaks beautifully, even if he talks nonsense. Below, the coffin is entering the Chapel. WINSTON CHURCHILL (CONT'D) Come, let us bury one king, before we attempt to bring another to his knees. They exit.46 EXT. BUCKINGHAM PALACE - NEW DAY 46 Re-establishing shot. The Royal standard flies bravely.47 INT. CONFERENCE ROOM, BUCKINGHAM PALACE - CONTINUOUS 47 Bertie waits at a table with a group of immaculately attired courtiers and dignitaries. This is the Coronation Committee. The chair at the head of the table is empty, everyone waiting for its occupant. He finally arrives. David. He gestures for Bertie to come into the corridor, but deliberately leaves the door open so the committee can hear snatches of Bertie's ensuing humiliation. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 53.48 INT. CORRIDOR, BUCKINGHAM PALACE - CONTINUOUS 48 David has a habit of constantly fingering his tie. DAVID Hear you're taking elocution lessons, lad. BERTIE Pardon? DAVID Diction. Speechifying. That's the word around Town. BERTIE Merely trying to overcome my dreadful impediment... DAVID (OVER-RIDES) I'm the brother who speaks. Or do you wish to have a go? BERTIE Good lord no! I hope to... DAVID Replace me? Well...today's your chance. He thrusts a document into Bertie's hands, then pokes his head into the conference room. DAVID (CONT'D) My brother will read the Coronation Plans. BERTIE (whispers urgently) I'm not prepared! DAVID (whispers back) As a Boy Scout...and you are one, aren't you, very much a Boy Scout...you must always be prepared. Nice and loud, so everyone can hear. Bertie looks at the pages, his throat constricts, his chest tightens and his hands begin to shake. BERTIE I...I...I thu-thu-think we should tuh-tuh- table the document. He attempts to return it to David, but his brother won't accept. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 54. DAVID Tell the others how Mrs Simpson is to be accommodated in a special alcove above the altar. Now I'll be off. See you at Balmoral this weekend, Buh-buh-Bertie. In the room, they are appalled. Bertie stands frozen and shattered.49 INT/EXT. AUSTIN PRINCESS ON SOUTH KENSINGTON STREET - NEW DAY49 The lion rampant flutters on the bonnet of the Austin. Inside, Bertie, wearing a black armband, gestures for the driver to stop. Pulling his homburg over his brow, Bertie wraps his scarf around the lower portion of his face. Then catches his reflection in the rearview mirror. Tells his driver: BERTIE Wait down the road.50 EXT. SOUTH KENSINGTON STREET - CONTINUOUS 50 Not wanting to draw attention to his destination, Bertie has disembarked several buildings away from Logue's address. He makes his way hurriedly. WACK. A soccer football hits him on the back. He wheels around. The group of local lads look at him unabashed. LOCAL LAD Kick it `ere, aye, Guv? Bertie kicks it. A fine high shot. LOCAL LAD (CONT'D) Nice one. They go back to their game. Bertie rings Logue's bell. A brief pause. Bertie glances nervously, hoping not to be recognized. Lionel opens the door. LIONEL To be honest, wasn't sure whether to expect you. BERTIE I wasn't sure either. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 55. LIONEL Something happened? Bertie stares at his mentor. Nods. BERTIE (as they enter, referring to his hat and scarf) Do I look like a spy? LIONEL With a toothache. They disappear inside.51 INT. STAIRWELL, LOGUE'S FLAT - CONTINUOUS 51 Bertie has to pick his way through discarded toys and sporting equipment, explaining to Logue: BERTIE I was totally unable to speak. LIONEL You seldom stutter with me anymore. (referring to the mess) The boys are a bit untidy. BERTIE Because you're paid to listen! LIONEL Like a verbal geisha girl?52 INT. LIVING AREA, LOGUE'S FLAT - CONTINUOUS 52 Bertie looks around the cluttered, but pleasant room: comfortable furniture a bit battered by the boys, antimacassars to hide the wear spots on the arms, family photos everywhere, well-used Turkish rug on the floor. LIONEL Home. BERTIE What more does a man need,eh? Lionel stares, unsure if he's being patronized. LIONEL Coming from a man who's lived all his life in castles and palaces. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 56. BERTIE Somebody has to live in them. LIONEL Somebody does. Ushers Bertie into his study.53 INT. LOGUE'S STUDY - NEW DAY 53 Bertie stands shattered, lost in his painful memory. BERTIE I couldn't say anything! LIONEL You could've refused. Don't you know any rude words? BERTIE What a bloody stupid question! I just said one. Bloody. Bloodybloodybloody! LIONEL Perhaps a touch more vulgar? BERTIE Certainly not. LIONEL To prove you know how. BERTIE Bugger! LIONEL A public school prig could do better. BERTIE Well bloody bugger to you, you beastly bastard! LIONEL Hardly robust. BERTIE Shit then. Shit, shit, shit! LIONEL See how defecation flows trippingly from the tongue? You don't stutter when you swear. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 57. BERTIE Because I'm angry! LIONEL Get angry more often. Do you know the f- word? BERTIE Fornication? LIONEL Oh Bertie... BERTIE Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck! LIONEL Bravissimo! Now a resounding chorus of... BERTIE Bloody, bloody. bloody! Shit, shit, shit! Bugger, bugger, bugger! Fuck, fuck, fuck!A pounding on the wall. MYRTLE (O.S.) We have children...! BERTIE (whispers) This is your fault! LIONEL Sorry, pet! Won't happen again! MYRTLE (O.S.) I should hope not! BERTIE Apologies, Mrs. Logue. LIONEL First time I've heard you laugh. BERTIE Royals aren't allowed emotions in public. LIONEL Which explains a lot.Bertie is in no mood to be provoked. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 58. BERTIE What do you want me to do, dammit!? Stage my next public appearance as an obscene operetta?! LIONEL Your next public appearance should be very well rehearsed.Without thinking, Lionel instinctively reaches out to pat Bertiesupportively on the shoulder.Bertie pulls back in offended shock. All the warning signalsinstilled in him are going off. BERTIE Don't take liberties! You're a dangerous man, Logue. Who sent you? LIONEL Anyone in mind? BERTIE The lurking shadows. Courtiers and peers...the whole panoply of a class which once ruled the nation which once ruled the world, afraid of losing their last vestige of privilege if the monarchy is further debased. LIONEL Your wife was the one who sought me out. BERTIE Because, dear sweet deluded woman, she believes in me! LIONEL But you don't share her belief? Why come here? BERTIE I'm beginning to ask myself that very same question. Your sailing close to the edge, don't push me, Doctor Logue. LIONEL Lionel. BERTIE I came here because I was taught from childhood to serve a purpose, and that purpose is to serve. Duty is our sole justification for privilege. (MORE) TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 59. BERTIE (CONT'D) I came here because I was under the illusion you might help me perform that function! LIONEL Not to worry. They say the King can do no wrong. BERTIE He can bugger things up! And I am not the King. Mrs. Simpson is seeking a divorce. The Coronation is set for the 12th of May. Her decree becomes final on the 27th of April. That gives them two weeks to marry and put this issue to rest. LIONEL And if Mr Baldwin stops them? BERTIE That would be a tragedy. I pray to The Almighty they succeed. I'll do anything within my power to keep my brother on the throne. LIONEL Does that include debasing yourself? BERTIE If necessary! LIONEL Your brother knew perfectly well by giving you a document without warning... BERTIE Are you saying he wanted me to fail? LIONEL Are you insisting he didn't? In the future we can parse any document into manageable phrases. You can sing them, swear them, rehearse them til you get the rhythm and flow; that, combined with your growing confidence...Bertie doesn't want to hear. BERTIE Growing confidence? Growing dread!!! You're a wicked man, Lionel Logue, trying to get me to thrust myself forward as an alternative to my brother. Trying to get me to commit treason! TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 60. LIONEL Trying to get you to realize you need not be governed by fear. Again, why did you seek me out? To take polite elocution lessons so you could attend posh tea parties?! BERTIE How dare you! I'm the brother of a King...the son of a King...back through untold centuries. You presume to instruct me on my duty? A jumped-up jackeroo from the outback? The disappointing son of an embittered clerk! You're a monster, Doctor Logue. I'm going to Balmoral to spend a pleasant country weekend with my beloved brother. And these sessions are over!54 INT. STAGE OF SMALL REGIONAL THEATRE - NEW DAY 54 Closed curtains. Someone fumbles behind it. LIONEL (BEHIND CURTAIN) Now? Lionel pushes his way through the gap in the curtain. A PROVINCIAL DIRECTOR replies from a seat in the auditorium. (Not the same Director as in the earlier audition scene.) DIRECTOR Were you told? We aren't for London. Playing the provinces. LIONEL Outer Mongolia? DIRECTOR Available, are we? LIONEL Nothing prevents. DIRECTOR I believe that's called "desperate for a part!" Previous experience? LIONEL Australia. DIRECTOR You have played the provinces. Righto! Let's hear what you can do. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 61. LIONEL Caliban? DIRECTOR Make him deformed. Audiences like that. LIONEL Of course. (rallies himself) "Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not." As magical as Lionel was when he performed for his boys, here he's stiff and painfully stilted. LIONEL (CONT'D) "Sometimes a thousand twanging instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices..." DIRECTOR (interrupts) Thank you! Don't abandon your day job. Next! Logue bows his head.55 INT. LOGUE'S DINING ROOM - NIGHT 55 Lionel enters and sits dejectedly at the table. Myrtle and the boys eat in silence. Finally: LIONEL You may leave. VALENTINE Haven't finished yet, Dad. (realizes) Oh! Right! THE BOYS Thanks, Dad. Thanks, Mum. They exit. Myrtle knows something has happened. MYRTLE Lionel? Lionel takes five slim folders out of his jacket pocket and puts them on the table in front of Myrtle. She studies them, stunned. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 62. MYRTLE (CONT'D) Tickets? Home? LIONEL First class. A long pause as Myrtle digests this. MYRTLE What about your... LIONEL Willie's a problem...not much progress. The others have been referred. MYRTLE What'll you do when we get home? LIONEL Try not to act the toff. Teach perhaps. MYRTLE You could... LIONEL No! I'm not good enough! MYRTLE You gave it a try, Lionel. LIONEL Yes, I had a go. Thanks to your patience. (grief overwhelms him) I just bloody well wasn't good enough! MYRTLE (studying the tickets) Oh Lionel! This must've cost you. CHOP! CHOP! CHOP! The sound of an axe.56 EXT. GROUNDS AND TERRACE, BALMORAL - NEW DAY 56 A woodsman's axe CHOPS into the thick trunk of a massive tree. Nearby, a bulldozer cuts into the green turf and rich soil. The felling and earth removal are being watched by Churchill and Lang from a distant terrace. In the background a jazz band in white tuxedos syncopates pertly. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 63. WINSTON CHURCHILL Five hundred year old oaks! Part of the hill! Removed to improve the view! COSMO LANG How ever does she do it? Inside the ballroom, seem through open French doors, an afternoon dance is being held. Churchill and Lang look in.57 INT. BALLROOM, BALMORAL - CONTINUOUS 57 At the epicenter, a dashing couple: David, the very picture of insouciance, and clinging to his arm, dripping in jewelry, a rather small, angular, dark haired woman, with a high brow and square jaw - MRS WALLIS SIMPSON. Her most attractive physical feature is her back, displayed fully by a dress that plunges to her nates. Surrounded by their entourage, they are the apex of chic. Watching from the sidelines: WINSTON CHURCHILL Erotic sexual techniques beyond polite imagination? I realize of course, that may be outside your personal experience. Winston exchanges his empty champagne flute for a full one from the tray of a passing footman. COSMO LANG You've the Devil in you today. WINSTON CHURCHILL If anyone should know, it would be Your Grace. COSMO LANG All aspects of mankind are within my venue. Did you know, HM has trouble with his glands? Churchill almost chokes on his champagne. WINSTON CHURCHILL I'd not appreciated Your Grace was so well versed concerning things testicular! COSMO LANG They were severely damaged by the measles when HM and his brother were naval cadets. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 64. WINSTON CHURCHILL A veritable encyclopedic font of scatological information. COSMO LANG Apparently it affects the quality, although not the quantity, of HM's endeavors. WINSTON CHURCHILL And the brother? COSMO LANG Unscathed. Two daughters. I shepherd my flock in all matters, Winston, including multiplication. They make their way inside. In the distance an Austin Princess can be seen making its way up the stately tree-line avenue.58 INT. AUSTIN PRINCESS, BALMORAL ESTATE - CONTINUOUS 58 Bertie and Elizabeth are dressed for the party. BERTIE We must try to be pleasant. ELIZABETH Your father not dead six months, and That Woman throws, "A garden potty." P-o-t-t-y. She's sleeping in your mother's bedroom. And I know perfectly well she calls me `the Dowdy Duchess", and "Cookie".59 INT. BALLROOM, BALMORAL - DAY 59 At the buffet table Churchill helps himself copiously. WINSTON CHURCHILL Has it occurred to you, as it has only occurred to me, that a Monarch with a gland problem, who realizes he cannot produce issue, might not wish to be King...? knowing his lack of issue may well become a major issue indeed. COSMO LANG A dazzling concept...beautifully phrased. A FOOTMAN announces: TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 65. FOOTMAN Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of York. Wallis sweeps forward to greet them, but Elizabeth sails past, announcing to no one in particular: ELIZABETH I came at the invitation of the King. David turns and bows formally. Elizabeth cursties in return. Wallis quickly returns to David, taking him forcefully onto the dance floor. The Yorks go in the other direction. To the side, Churchill and Lang watch David and Wallis do a brisk Turkey Trot. WINSTON CHURCHILL According to the F.B.I.... she is, after all, one of their citizens...our Monarch does not possess exclusive rights to Mrs. Simpson's sexual favours. Hitler's Ambassador, Count von Ribbentrop, has been sending her 17 carnations every day...one for each time they've slept together. COSMO LANG Good Lord, Winston, we must see to it this Empress of the Night does not become Queen of England! WINSTON CHURCHILL Vividly put. Churchill has spotted Elizabeth in a side room. WINSTON CHURCHILL (CONT'D) Allow me to test new waters.60 INT. PORTRAIT GALLERY, BALMORAL - CONTINUOUS 60 Churchill makes his way to Elizabeth, who is standing in front of a portrait of George IV. ELIZABETH I don't need to be told I behaved badly. WINSTON CHURCHILL On the contrary, Mam. Court etiquette decrees royalty must be greeted by the official host. In this case: the King. You behaved impeccably. As always. (MORE) TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 66. WINSTON CHURCHILL (CONT'D) (referring to the painting) A relative? ELIZABETH Distant. WINSTON CHURCHILL (referring again to the painting) You're well aware, of course, George IV's wife, Mrs. Fitzherbert, was very common indeed...and previously married. She signed an agreement that she could never become Queen, and their children could not be Royal. A rather sensible morganatic arrangement. ELIZABETH That was a very long time ago. You're stirring with a rather large spoon, Winston. Keep in mind, I'm also a distant relative of Lady Macbeth. WINSTON CHURCHILL I would disremember at my peril.David is coming briskly down the corridor, struggling to open achampagne bottle, followed by Bertie determined to catch up.Elizabeth and Churchill leave the brothers alone. BERTIE David... DAVID Wally wants more champagne. I have to fetch it. She prefers that. BERTIE Been trying to see you... DAVID Been terribly busy. BERTIE Doing what? DAVID Being King. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 67. BERTIE Where did you get that American accent? David...Father's not dead six months, yet you've put Mrs. Simpson in the suite used by our mother? DAVID Mama's not still in bed, is she? BERTIE That isn't funny. DAVID Ssssssorry, d-d-dear b-b-oy! BERTIE Please. No more of that.A moment of silent confrontation. David backs down. Sort of. DAVID Didn't realize you cared. BERTIE This could end in disaster. DAVID This will end splendidly. With Wallis as my wife. BERTIE Whatever will she call herself? DAVID Queen of England, I suspect. Kings do marry. Empress of India. The whole bag of tricks. BERTIE David! The upper classes are terrified anything which clouds the monarchy makes their situation more dangerous. Hunger marchers are singing the "Red Flag" in front of Westminster...demanding a republic...I've seen them... DAVID Herr Hitler will sort that out. BERTIE Who'll sort out Chancellor Hitler?TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 68. DAVID He's much maligned. By the Jews, according to Wallis. And she's very clever about politics. BERTIE The man's a monster! Our position must remain clear. DAVID Why's that, old chap? BERTIE We are a German family! DAVID Didn't bother anyone during WWI. And Kaiser Willie was our uncle. BERTIE Because we took an English name! Windsor. Because we are England. We are the heart and soul of this nation. That must never change. DAVID Are you already in charge? BERTIE I'm trying to warn you. DAVID Am I being threatened? BERTIE David, your role is to consult and to be advised. DAVID Sounds like you've studied our wretched constitution. BERTIE Sounds like you haven't. DAVID I won't be a lackey to an unwashed politician like Stanley Baldwin! BERTIE He's your Prime Minister. DAVID And I'm his King!TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 69. BERTIE If you refuse to listen to our Government, they have no choice but to resign. DAVID I'll form another. There's Winston. He'd love to be P.M. We'll create a King's Party. BERTIE To fight a general election in which your marriage is the only topic? DAVID I'd risk anything and everything for Wallis. Don't I have rights? BERTIE Privileges. DAVID Not the same thing. BERTIE No. DAVID Yet an ordinary man may marry for love. BERTIE We're not ordinary men, David! We were bred to be profiles on a coin. If you were ordinary, on what basis could you possibly claim to be King?! DAVID What's the point then? Just to look posh? You know...your speech is much improved tonight. Hardly a hesitation. Yearning for a larger audience, are we? BERTIE Don't say such a thing! DAVID Is my young brother trying to push me off the throne? Sounds positively medieval. BERTIE I beg of you, don't do this to my wife, my daughters, to me. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 70. DAVID The politicians will give in. See you at my Coronation...Bertie. The champagne cork finally POPS. He strides off.61 EXT. 10 DOWNING STREET - NEW DAY 61 Establishing shot of the Prime Minister's residence. WINSTON CHURCHILL (O.S.) Nice of you to invite me to your digs, Stanley.62 INT. BALDWIN'S STUDY, 10 DOWNING STREET - DAY 62 Baldwin and Churchill are alone together. No love lost between these two men. BALDWIN As you may have guessed... Churchill is silent. Balwin waits, then: BALDWIN (CONT'D) ...I intend to resign. The Royal scandal has weakened my position considerably. Churchill, on the edge of his seat, can't suppress an anticipatory grin. Baldwin takes pleasure in deflating it. BALDWIN (CONT'D) No need to volunteer your services, Winston. Neville Chamberlain will take my place, once this Royal matter is settled. As Chancellor of the Exchequer he already lives next door. WINSTON CHURCHILL My opportunity to redecorate will come soon enough, Stanley. BALDWIN Will it? Well, enough chit-chat. The question of a morganatic marriage, as a possible solution, has been put to the Dominion Prime Ministers. After all, HM is their King too. Baldwin has a sheath of telegrams in hand. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 71. BALDWIN (CONT'D) Australia: no. WINSTON CHURCHILL David feels there aren't that many people in Australia. BALDWIN Canada: no. Union of South Africa: an inappropriate marriage would create a permanent wound. The Irish Free State: states it is not really their affair, and, bluntly, our English King may marry any whore he wants, they'll be well out of it. WINSTON CHURCHILL Bloody Irish. BALDWIN New Zealand...wavers. WINSTON CHURCHILL Ah, the Kiwis! BALDWIN Being rather remote, they've not even heard of Mrs Simpson. Hardly a winning hand. Silence. BALDWIN (CONT'D) This is not about true love, Winston. This is about who's in charge. Does the King do what he wants, or what his people want him to do? Does the King own his nation, or does the nation own their Monarch? WINSTON CHURCHILL He won't budge. BALDWIN Nor will we.63 INT. PLAYROOM, YORK HOUSE - NIGHT 63 Winston Churchill is incongruously inspecting a rocking horse. Unable to resist, he sits on it gingerly, rocking back and forth lost in a reverie. Eyes closed he extends his right arm as though holding a cavalry saber. Bertie enters startling him. BERTIE Don't dismount.TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 72. WINSTON CHURCHILL Good of you to see me at this late hour. BERTIE Thought you were in David's camp? WINSTON CHURCHILL I was. (takes a piece of paper from his pocket and reads) "I am now free to tell you how I was jockeyed out of the Throne." BERTIE Good Lord! My brother wrote that? WINSTON CHURCHILL Wallis wrote it for him. I'll burn it. I fear your brother is like the child in a fairy story, given everything in the world, but they forgot his soul. Quite happy to bring his nation to the brink of civil war just as we face global conflict. BERTIE We're not coming to that?! WINSTON CHURCHILL Oh, there'll be war, alright. (takes out another piece of paper) Your brother held conversations with the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, your cousin, a ranking member of the Nazi party. I have the Scotland Yard intercept: "Who is King here? Baldwin or I? I myself wish to talk with Hitler, and will do so here or in Germany." I doubt England is ready to return to absolute monarchy. BERTIE Surely his motives are misunderstood? WINSTON CHURCHILL "If I don't get my way, when the war comes, Hitler will crush everyone, including the Americans. The British may not want me as their King, but I'll soon be back as their leader." His intent seems crystal clear. BERTIE Winston?! Don't take him seriously! TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 73. WINSTON CHURCHILL Mugs for his cancelled Coronation will soon be on clearance sale. BERTIE You're willing to go along with this?! Changing horses in mid-stream is a perilous maneuver!!! WINSTON CHURCHILL Depends how badly the horse you're on stumbles. BERTIE It's not too late, Winston, you could form a government on his behalf. WINSTON CHURCHILL I must decline. Reluctantly. The rocking horse CRACKS. Churchill gets to his feet. WINSTON CHURCHILL (CONT'D) Sorry. (starts to exit, then) I've written a new speech for him. BERTIE I don't want to hear it! Ever! WINSTON CHURCHILL It does have a rather nice turn of phrase.64 EXT. MONTAGE OF BRITISH STREETS - DAY 64 It is December 11th, 1936. If practical use the actual recorded broadcast (truncated). In London, Birmingham, Edinburgh, country hamlets and cathedral towns...the streets are deserted. Stragglers hurry indoors to be near: THE GLOWING DIAL OF A RADIO DAVID (V.O. RADIO FILTER) At long last I am able to say a few words of my own. Until now it has not been constitutionally possible for me to speak. A few hours ago I discharged my last duty as King and Emperor. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 74.65 INT. PLAYROOM, YORK HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 65 Bertie and Elizabeth listening to the radio with the two princesses royal sitting at their parents' feet. Bertie battles his emotions. DAVID (V.O. RADIO FILTER) Now that I have been succeeded by my brother, the Duke of York, my first words must be to declare my allegiance to him. MARGARET ROSE (whispers) Daddy, who broke our rocking horse? BERTIE (whispers) A giant. Elizabeth holds a finger to her lips: shush. DAVID (V.O. RADIO FILTER) This has been made less difficult to me by the sure knowledge that my brother has one matchless blessing, enjoyed by so many of you, and not bestowed on me -- a happy home with his wife and children.66 INT. LOGUE'S PARLOUR - NIGHT 66 The glow of a radio dial. Lionel and Myrtle sit in armchairs, the radio on a side-table between them. DAVID (V.O. RADIO FILTER) I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love. Lionel gets up to turn it off as David's voice concludes: DAVID (V.O. RADIO FILTER) (CONT'D) We all have a new King. I wish him and you, his people, happiness and prosperity with all my heart. God bless you all! God save the King! Logue strokes Myrtle's hair. LIONEL I too "married the woman I love."TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 75. MYRTLE You married a shop girl. LIONEL A wonderful lass. Someone I can talk to heart to heart. MYRTLE Using simple words and short sentences. I'm very ordinary. LIONEL That's why we're suited. I'm just an ordinary bloke. MYRTLE Ordinary? You're a man with wild dreams, Lionel. Mine are so very small. A job, a husband, a home. Raising our sons. That's all I ever wanted. LIONEL Me too. MYRTLE Is that why, every day, you've spent hours with a man who's about to be King? LIONEL That relationship is now past tense. MYRTLE Yet, for as long as you could, you did what you wanted. LIONEL I wanted to be a great actor. That's what I wanted. MYRTLE And failing that... LIONEL I certainly failed! MYRTLE A great healer. Always...'great'. Where does a shop girl fit in? LIONEL Very snugly, into my heart! Always have, always will. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 76. MYRTLE Trouble is, Lionel, when you say that, I still believe it.67 INT. INNER COURTYARD, YORK HOUSE - DAY 67 The Royal standard on a gleaming car's bonnet. Bertie stands uneasily in the uniform of an Admiral of the Fleet as the driver opens the door. Bertie realizes its a Rolls. BERTIE Where's the Austin? DRIVER The Palace changed it, Your Highness. BERTIE I liked the Austin. DRIVER So did I, sir. The two girls wave from their open playroom window, and call: MARGARET ROSE You look like a chicken. LILIBET A rooster. He waves, and gets in.68 EXT. ST. JAMES PALACE - THAT DAY 68 A formal voice announces: MASTER OF THE COUNCIL (O.S.) His Majesty will address the Accession Council and take his oath.69 INT. ANTECHAMBER, ACCESSION COUNCIL - CONTINUOUS 69 Bertie looks at himself in a full length mirror, making last minute adjustments to his uniform. Staring at his reflection: BERTIE How did this happen to you? TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 77.70 INT. ACCESSION COUNCIL CHAMBER - CONTINUOUS 70 Bertie walks to the podium like a man to the gallows faced with an array of the Privy Councillors, members of the House of Lords, the Lord Mayor of the City of London, the Aldermen of the City of London and the High Commissioners of the Commonwealth countries. All the old symptoms reappear: the tightening of the neck muscles, the protruding Adam's apple, the jaw locking. BERTIE My Lords, members of the Accession Council, I meet you today in circumstances which are without parallel in the history of our Country... Its going to be a terrible performance. He bows his head in humility. And shame.71 INT. PLAYROOM, YORK HOUSE - THAT DAY 71 Elizabeth is playing quietly with her daughters when the door opens and Bertie appears, still in full regalia, straight from the Accession Council. He holds his arm out, expecting them to run to him for a hug and kiss, his solace after the ordeal. They remain where they are. BERTIE Daddy's home. They curtsy formally. LILIBET & MARGARET ROSE Your Majesty. Bertie is devastated. Elizabeth takes him quickly out into the corridor.72 INT. BERTIE'S STUDY, YORK HOUSE - DAY 72 BERTIE I don't want to lose you. ELIZABETH How could you possibly? BERTIE Being what we both dread most. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 78. ELIZABETH Dear, dear, man, I refused your first two marriage proposals because, as much as I loved you, I couldn't abide the thought of living in the Royal gilded cage. Then I realized...you stuttered so beautifully...they'd leave you alone. She takes his face in her hands tenderly. ELIZABETH (CONT'D) If I must be Queen, I will be a good Queen. The wife of a very great King indeed. (then) You know what you must do.73 INT. LOGUE'S CONSULTATION ROOM & WAITING ROOM - NEW DAY 73 Logue is working with Anna. She's reading smoothly and with great intensity. ANNA "Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths Enwrought with golden and silver light, The bbb..." Gets stuck. LIONEL We haven't much more time together. Give it a go. The doorbell RINGS. Logue is annoyed. LIONEL (CONT'D) There weren't any more appointments today. The bell RINGS again. He yells: LIONEL (CONT'D) Piss off! (gently) Anna? ANNA "The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light..." The door opens and Bertie enters the waiting area. Hearing Anna he stops outside the consultation room and listens. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 79. ANNA (CONT'D) "I would spread the cloths under your feet, But I, being poor, have only my dreams. I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."Silence. LIONEL (softly) Read it to him. If he doesn't profess his love, he's not a man.Anna nods earnestly. ANNA Thank you...Lionel.She exits via the Waiting Room and almost runs into Bertie. Onrecognizing him, she bobs her head. BERTIE That was lovely. Don't take any guff. ANNA Can I tell my Harold that's what you said? BERTIE I'd be honoured.She dashes off.Logue comes to the door of the Waiting Room, in effect blockingBertie's way in. LIONEL Johnson, isn't it? Have you an appointment? BERTIE Want me to beg? LIONEL I told you, Kings don't beg. BERTIE I believe this time a bit of begging might be required. Elizabeth says I must eat humble crow. LIONEL Its "crow" or "humble pie". Take your pick. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 80. BERTIE (gathering resolve) I was frightened and took refuge in being `Royal'. What I said was unforgivable. And... LIONEL And? BERTIE (blurts out) What's the one essential thing a King must do? He must believe he is King. How can I possibly do that? For pity sake, Lionel, I beg you: get me through! I'll pay you another shilling. LIONEL What're friends for? Logue steps aside, letting Bertie in. BERTIE I wouldn't know.74 INT. LOGUE BEDROOM - NIGHT 74 The double bed is piled high with clothing, a suitcase at its foot. Myrtle is sorting. She hears Lionel enter behind her. At first, she doesn't turn. Lionel remains silent. MYRTLE I've got the boys sorting their things. Your office will be a chore... Realizing something is amiss, she turns, and knows instantly what Lionel's going to tell her. Her hand goes to her mouth to stifle her emotions.75 INT. BERTIE'S STUDY - DAY 75 Bertie is with visitors: Churchill and Lang. There's a slight but discernible change in his demeanor. COSMO LANG We asked to see Your Highness because there's the urgent question of what to call your brother. Aside from the obvious. Bertie is not pleased with His Grace's joke, but lets it pass. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 81. BERTIE What do you suggest? COSMO LANG Mr. Edward Windsor? All he deserves. BERTIE What has my brother given up on his abdication, other than the throne?They look at each other, unsure. BERTIE (CONT'D) Wouldn't it be a good idea to find out before coming to me? He cannot be Mister, as he was born the son of a Duke. Which makes him a Lord at the very least. WINSTON CHURCHILL Very well, Lord E.W. it is. BERTIE And as a Lord of the realm, he's entitled to be elected to the House of Commons. Heading a King's Party. COSMO LANG Unacceptable! BERTIE So you prefer he takes a seat in the House of Lords? Again, on behalf of a King's Party? Is that acceptable? WINSTON CHURCHILL Certainly not. BERTIE But if he's made a Royal Duke, and called His Royal Highness, he cannot stand for Parliament. Nor may he speak or vote in the House of Lords. COSMO LANG (realizing) Oh I say... BERTIE The Duke of Windsor it is. Gentlemen.He exits abruptly.Churchill and Lang gather their things stunned. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 82. WINSTON CHURCHILL Not exactly a dummy, is he?76 EXT. FACADE OF D.HENRY LTD. LEATHERGOODS, KNIGHTSBRIDGE - DAY 76 Myrtle is in the shop window, arranging handbags, luggage, and briefcases.77 INT. D.HENRY LTD. - CONTINUOUS 77 In the store Myrtle can be seen dressing the window, while in his glass office the OWNER, a portly bald gentleman with a Dickensian air, is deep in concerned conversation with a man in trench-coat. The Owner keeps glancing worriedly in Myrtle's direction. The two men nod, shake hands. The fellow in the trench-coat leaves. The owner beckons another shop-girl over and whispers something to her. She heads towards Myrtle. BERTIE (O. S.) "Let's go gathering hearty heather with the gay brigade of grand dragons."78 INT. LOGUE'S STUDY AND PARLOUR - DAY 78 A wall divides the study from the living area, allowing the action in both spaces to be viewed. IN THE PARLOUR: Elizabeth waits, ill at ease. IN THE STUDY: LIONEL Splendid. Here's another. "She sifted seven thick-stalked thistles through strong thick sieves." At home, twenty-five times, in rapid succession. BERTIE Those are my hardest sounds. Lionel gives him a look. BERTIE (CONT'D) Oh. LIONEL Shall we invite your wife in now? TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 83.Logue goes to the door and starts to open it. He shuts itquickly. LIONEL (CONT'D) I wasn't expecting Myrtle for several hours!IN THE PARLOUR: Myrtle has entered, definitely unhappy. SeeingElizabeth, she's even less happy, and flabbergasted. MYRTLE Milady? ELIZABETH "Your Majesty", the first time. After that, "Ma'am". Not Malm as in Palm, Mam as in ham. I'm informed your husband calls my husband Bertie and my husband calls your husband Lionel. I trust, however, you won't attempt to call me Liz.IN THE STUDY: Lionel stands listening, ear to the door. BERTIE How're they getting on? LIONEL As to be expected.IN THE PARLOUR: Myrtle announces: MYRTLE You may call me "Madam Logue".Myrtle's at a loss knowing what to do with a Duchess. MYRTLE (CONT'D) May I offer you a cup of tea, Ma'am? ELIZABETH Thank you, Madame Logue, but I'm waiting to be summoned.Silence. MYRTLE You don't like my husband. That's what I was told. ELIZABETH I was told the same.IN THE STUDY: TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 84. BERTIE Do we remain in hiding? LIONEL I'm not going out there!IN THE PARLOUR: MYRTLE What do you dislike about my Lionel? ELIZABETH I don't wish my husband to be demeaned. What don't you like about mine? MYRTLE I don't want my Lionel getting hurt. ELIZABETH There's only one thing can save him now: success.IN THE STUDY: the men are growing increasingly nervous. BERTIE We're being cowards. LIONEL Of course. We're sensible men. BERTIE You should go in. LIONEL Me? You. BERTIE Why me?! LIONEL You're the Royal. BERTIE Being a monarchist, I recognize these are your digs. Therefore: here you rule. Therefore: you go in.Urged by Bertie, Logue opens the door.IN THE PARLOUR: Logue enters, pretending total innocence andsurprise, followed by Bertie, also trying to keep the pretense. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 85. LIONEL Oh! Hello, Lady Elizabeth! Oh! Hello, Myrtle darling! What a pleasant surprise.Myrtle stares at him and takes her revenge. MYRTLE Will the Yorks be staying for dinner?Logue and Bertie look panic-stricken. Elizabeth comes to therescue. ELIZABETH A previous engagement. LIONEL Some other time, love.Logue ushers Elizabeth into the study, giving Myrtle a nervouslittle wave. She glares and exits.IN THE STUDY: LIONEL (CONT'D) Glad you had a chance to meet Myrtle.Bertie stifles a snort. Elizabeth glares at him. LIONEL (CONT'D) (to Elizabeth) Good of you to come. ELIZABETH Harley Street is far too public. What is my function here? LIONEL For me to show you how to pitch in. ELIZABETH Oh dear, I may not be a `pitch in' type. LIONEL Piece of cake. (to Bertie) Please assume a supine position on the floor. ELIZABETH What?! LIONEL Firm support is needed. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 86.Bertie dutifully lies on the floor. LIONEL (CONT'D) Breathe deeply...expand your chest... now your stomach...deep into the diaphragm. Splendid. How do you feel? BERTIE Full of hot air. LIONEL Well on your way to becoming a qualified political speaker. Again...Bertie inhales deeply. LIONEL (CONT'D) ... and hold. Now, Princess Elizabeth, be so kind as to sit on your husband's stomach. ELIZABETH Good grief. LIONEL Gently of course.Elizabeth sits gingerly on Bertie's stomach, askingsolicitously: ELIZABETH Are you alright, Bertie?Bertie nods. LIONEL Now exhale slowly...down goes Princess Elizabeth...inhale slowly...nothing rushed, expanding your chest fully, extending the column of air til it hits the diaphragm...and...up comes Princess Elizabeth. Exhale...down goes Princess Elizabeth...inhale...up comes Princess Elizabeth. You get the idea. Doesn't have to be Princess Elizabeth of course, but I thought you'd prefer your wife to one of the staff. Now comes the fun part. ELIZABETH There's actually more?Bertie springs to his feet while Logue opens a window. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 87. LIONEL You will now shout the vowel sounds, all five of them, as loudly as possible, each to last no less than 15 seconds. There's poor coordination between your larynx and diaphragm. Princess Elizabeth, you can be the official timer. ELIZABETH Vowel sounds? Shouted at an open window? On a public street? LIONEL Anyone who can stand at an open window vibrating loudly in full view of the world can learn to give a public speech. ELIZABETH They can also be considered quite dotty. Don't even contemplate it! BERTIE Sorry, dear, doctor's orders. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa... (stops) She's right, those two chaps are staring at me. ELIZABETH They're always looking at you. LIONEL (startled) You're followed? ELIZABETH Royal scrutiny, Doctor, best get used to it. BERTIE ...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy... ...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee... (to Elizabeth) Are you timing this? iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii... ooooooooooooooooooooooooo... uuuuuuuuuuu.79 INT. LOGUE'S DINING ROOM - LATER 79 The family eat in tense silence TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 88. VALENTINE May we be excused? LIONEL No.The unhappy meal continues. PETER (mumbles) We don't want to hear you fight. LIONEL We're not fighting. Your mother isn't talking. MYRTLE You wish me to speak my mind? LIONEL Boys, leave. THE BOYS Thank you, Dad! Thank you, Mum!They exit hurriedly. MYRTLE Lionel...without warning, I arrive home to find the Queen in my parlour. LIONEL A Duchess, she hasn't been crowned yet. MYRTLE Lionel, don't quibble! LIONEL What'd you think of her? MYRTLE Does it matter!? She's the Queen and he's the King forgodsake! What're they doing here?! LIONEL Why'd you come home so early? MYRTLE Lionel... LIONEL They came for help. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 89. MYRTLE What role are you auditioning for now? Royal saviour?! Who's going to help us?! This will bring us down, Lionel. You know it will. LIONEL When that poor chap first walked into my office, he was a slim, quiet man with tired eyes and all the outward symptoms of the person upon whom a habitual speech defect has set the sign. You saw him today; once more there was hope. MYRTLE You're not listening to me!She gets up angrily and starts carrying dishes to the kitchen.He follows her back and forth. LIONEL Myrtle, I love you. MYRTLE You say that, but you don't listen when I say, in so many ways, how desperately I want to go home, how I never, ever, intended to stay here. This was to be a holiday trip to see `Mother England', and you turned it into quite something else. What happened, Lionel? We went to Wembley Stadium, next thing...you'd cashed in our tickets.He's silent. MYRTLE (CONT'D) Very well, I shan't talk of this ever again. I will, as always, be supportive of your endeavours. LIONEL Myrtle... I don't deserve a wonderful woman like you. MYRTLE How right you are. LIONEL But why'd you come home so early? MYRTLE Lionel...I was let go. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 90. He's stunned. MYRTLE (CONT'D) Inquiries were made...Mr Falkoff wouldn't say who...afterwards it was: `With your hubby treating a personage that high and mighty, you won't be needing employment with us, will you, Mrs Logue?' LIONEL (anguished) Why?! MYRTLE They're frightened, Lionel. Of what seems so far above them. I sympathize. I'm frightened too. LIONEL Oh, Myrtle. My love...80 WESTMINSTER ABBEY - NEW DAY 80 Establishing shot of this architectural icon. COSMO LANG (O.S.) Winston, you do read the newspapers?81 INT. WESTMINSTER ABBEY - DAY 81 A massive cavern of stone statuary and stained glass. The center piece of this particular section is the throne of Edward the Confessor. Scaffolding is in the process of being erected to supply lighting for the Coronation. Archbishop Lang and Churchill inspect it with satisfaction. WINSTON CHURCHILL Only the vulgar ones. Churchill pours two nips of whiskey into metal cups nested in a hip flask. WINSTON CHURCHILL (CONT'D) To our new King. COSMO LANG Let's sincerely hope. They look at each other in silence. WINSTON CHURCHILL Is this a `slightly pregnant pause'?TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 91. COSMO LANG They say he is dim. WINSTON CHURCHILL Demonstrably untrue. COSMO LANG They say he has epilepsy. WINSTON CHURCHILL Patently erroneous. COSMO LANG Fragile, prone to illness... WINSTON CHURCHILL Some correctness in that. COSMO LANG ...and will die prematurely. They predict he'll be unable to complete the Coronation. WINSTON CHURCHILL What do you propose? Shorten the ceremony? Or no ceremony at all? COSMO LANG My idea exactly! WINSTON CHURCHILL I believed so. But what we need is a pageant of pomp and pomposity to impress the world. COSMO LANG What we need, and what we'll get, may be two rather different things. Did you hear his pathetic attempt at the Accession Council? He'll never be able to speak in public. WINSTON CHURCHILL So, we plonk a tinsel crown on his head and lock him in a closet? Who then will spiritually lead this great nation into war? Who will address the far flung corners of the Empire, rallying all to our defense? COSMO LANG Well... WINSTON CHURCHILL The Head of our Church? Is that what you have in mind? TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 92. COSMO LANG Would it be such a calamity? WINSTON CHURCHILL Best ask our new King.Bertie has entered with Logue. Lang spins around. COSMO LANG Your Majesty. WINSTON CHURCHILL Excuse me, sir, duty calls.He exits quickly. Cosmo continues nervously as they walkthrough the Abbey, the Archbishop pointing out the preparationsin progress, particularly a booth for broadcasters. BERTIE Is this the scene of the crime? COSMO LANG What a peculiar thing to say. BERTIE Referring to my assault upon the ears of the listeners. COSMO LANG Ah, yes, wireless is indeed a Pandora's Box. I have, however, categorically said no to the BBC's new "radio-with-pictures" gadget. Imagine, the unwashed viewing us as we blow our noses or scratch our bottoms. BERTIE Radio with pictures?! COSMO LANG It is called..."television". Happily, with a transmission range of only fifteen miles this "TV" thing has no future. We shall, however, be forced to permit cinema; the product of which I shall personally edit. BERTIE That'll keep you busy, removing all my stops and starts. COSMO LANG Unless of course you'd prefer a quiet ceremony? TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 93. BERTIE What exactly do you mean? COSMO LANG Something...discreet...private. We could pre-record an edited version to be broadcast to the world. Or even find an actor with a similar voice.Logue has arrived and comes out of the shadows. LIONEL A King based upon deception?Cosmo takes Bertie aside. COSMO LANG If your gentleman from Security would give us space, we could discuss this in private. BERTIE You mean my bodyguard,"Crusher?"Giving Lionel a scathing look, Lang continues speaking to Bertieconfidentially. COSMO LANG Fret not. As I assured our nation in my recent broadcast: "When his people listen to their new Monarch they will note an occasional momentary hesitation in his speech. But to those who hear it, it need cause no sort of embarrassment, for it causes none to him who speaks." You see, I've paved the way. But should you wish to avoid further stress... LIONEL Why not paint him pink and cover him with sequins? COSMO LANG Pardon?! LIONEL If you wish to call attention to his anxiety. COSMO LANG Does your bodyguard know to whom he's speaking? He certainly doesn't know his place!TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 94. BERTIE Doctor Lionel Logue, my speech therapist. COSMO LANG Therapist?! I'd no idea! Had I known Your Majesty was seeking assistance I would've made my own recommendation. BERTIE Dr. Logue is to be present at the Coronation. COSMO LANG Impossibly to find room. Even for a Doctor. LIONEL Just Lionel. BERTIE Behind the chair of Edward the Confessor. COSMO LANG The Royal Box!? Your Family will be seated there. BERTIE Which makes it most suitable. COSMO LANG Perhaps I might be able to add a very small stool. BERTIE Two comfortable chairs. One for Madam Logue. She's a close friend of my wife. The Queen. COSMO LANG I'll have someone attend to it. LIONEL And now, if you don't mind, we need the premises. COSMO LANG My dear fellow, this is Westminster Abbey! The Church must make preparations. LIONEL So must Bertie. COSMO LANG Bertie?! We do not call the King: "Bertie"! TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 95. LIONEL I do. During waking hours we'll need the facilities. It'll be a closed set. No observers. BERTIE Those are my wishes, Your Grace.Lang nods curtly and exits. BERTIE (CONT'D) You've made a dangerous enemy. LIONEL Wouldn't want him as a friend. BERTIE And don't ever call me Bertie in public.A moment of confrontation. Lionel knows he's overstepped. LIONEL Tell me... BERTIE I sense one of your dreadful questions on the horizon. LIONEL Do you really want to be King? BERTIE Knew it! I haven't any choice. LIONEL You can be a wounded King who stumbles through his Coronation. Or, as the Arch of C so archly suggests, no Coronation at all. Always a choice. BERTIE What's this, you wait til Westminster Abbey, then ambush me? LIONEL I'm simply asking questions... which you seem unable to answer. BERTIE I'm a sacrificial lamb being led to slaughter! Damn you! TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 96. LIONEL Quite possibly. But at least I know what I want. You haven't the foggiest. BERTIE (explodes) I WANT TO BE HEARD!His words reverberate through the empty abbey. LIONEL That's quite different. Let's get down to work then, shall we?Bertie glares at him. LIONEL (CONT'D) As soon as you and Elizabeth enter the West door, you'll be greeted with the hymn "I Was Glad When They Said Unto Me." You won't actually be that glad, because they sing it for a great long time.Bertie follows Logue deep into the bowels of the `Abbey'. LIONEL (CONT'D) You'll then show yourself to the various sides of the Abbey as the Archbishop announces four times in a loud voice, "Sirs, I here present unto you..." Have you decided your name for when you become King? For when you become a different person? BERTIE George. LIONEL Like your father? BERTIE Like my father. LIONEL Not Albert? BERTIE Given the current situation...too Germanic. LIONEL "Sirs, I here present unto you, GEORGE, your undoubted King!" TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 97. "George, your undoubted King!" echoes through the Abby. DISSOLVE TO:82 INT. AN OFFICE IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY - NIGHT 82 Lang is on the phone. The door is open. While talking he watches the work preparations. On the phone he tells someone: COSMO LANG I've made inquiries.83 INT. LOGUE DINING ROOM - NIGHT 83 Logue enters and sits at the table. Myrtle serves him. MYRTLE A bit dry. Tried to keep it warm. LIONEL Mmm... Kedgeree! Lovely. MYRTLE You look done in. LIONEL I've news for you. You're coming to the Coronation. MYRTLE I've news for you. I'm not! LIONEL You must. MYRTLE Stand in the rain hoping for a glimpse? LIONEL Royal Box. You and I. Stunned silence, then. MYRTLE Lionel...I'd need a new dress. LIONEL Rather thought you might. Valentine calls from the next room: TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 98. VALENTINE (O.S.) Dad! Phone! For you! LIONEL Won't be a sec. He exits. Myrtle waits. Looks at herself, bemused, reflected in a glass-fronted cabinet. Even does a curtsey.84 INT. WESTMINSTER ABBEY - THAT NIGHT 84 The last of the preparation crew are being scurried out by Lang. He gives a final, satisfied, look at the cavernous space, like a director preparing the stage for a final scene. He quotes Shakespeare, extremely pleased with himself: COSMO LANG "The play's the thing, wherein I'll catch the conscience of a King." He exits. THE CAMERA explores various elements: The Throne of Edward the Confessor. Beneath it, a large rough-hewn stone: The Stone Of Scone. Leaning against the Throne, a huge sword, set there for the next Coronation rehearsal. Majestic stained glass windows of saints, kings, and martyrs. Rows of pews, worn with centuries of use. Graves of the mighty: kings, poets, and statesmen. This Abbey holds the history of a nation. Footsteps resonate. Lionel enters. Trips over one of the gravestones. LIONEL Bertie? Blast! Stepped on Lord Byron. Bertie...? Lights snap on skewering Lionel. Bertie steps into view wearing a coat against the night chill of the stone cathedral. BERTIE This is not a rehearsal, "Doctor" Logue.TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 99. LIONEL Ah, the Star Chamber inquisition. I wondered when that would happen. And I'd promised Myrtle a new frock. BERTIE (barely controlled) "Just call me Lionel"! Never did you call yourself `Doctor'. We did that for you. No diploma, no training, no credentials. Just a great deal of nerve. LIONEL Want to hear my side of the story? BERTIE There isn't a "your-side-of-the-story". This is my story. And you've ruined it! Its not just the Coronation, terrifying enough, its the radio speech to millions afterwards, and the speech after that, and for the rest of my failed miserable life! LIONEL (softly) Wembley Stadium... BERTIE You dare remind me?! LIONEL I was there. BERTIE Then you knew from the start I was hopeless?! LIONEL My son, Valentine, asked, "Could you help that poor man?" I replied, "He's too old for me to manage a complete cure, but I could very nearly do it, I'm sure of that." BERTIE Lying bastard! LIONEL I knew I could help you. You refuse to believe? BERTIE In you?!TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 100. LIONEL In yourself. BERTIE Who the hell do you think you are?! LIONEL A failed actor. BERTIE Actor? LIONEL Father wanted me to be a doctor, but I couldn't cut flesh. So I worked in the mines, recited in pubs... BERTIE An actor?! LIONEL When the war came, by the time I was ready to be shipped out, the first casualties were limping home. Poor buggers, broken in bone and spirit. `Lionel, you're good with your mouth, see if you can help these poor sods.' The shell-shocked were the saddest. Most stuttered profoundly. Far worse than you. Muscle therapy helped somewhat, but I found I had to go deeper, as you might well imagine. BERTIE I know nothing of those poor men! LIONEL I think you do. They had cried out, and the universe had not listened. So they'd lost faith in their voice. My job was to make them shout in righteous anger: "I have the right to be heard!" BERTIE I suppose that helped them, did it? LIONEL Make inquiries. BERTIE Inquiries have been made! No credentials. LIONEL But a lot of success. No training was given. (MORE) TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 101. LIONEL (CONT'D) Not in Western Australia, not at that time. I simply knew what to do. When the war was over I kept being a therapist to earn a living. When the lads were old enough, I thought, "Alright Lionel, you've always wanted to be an actor, one last go." I pretended it was our trip home to Mother England, the Great Australian Pilgrimage. BERTIE To Harley Street?! LIONEL Cashed in our return tickets. I had three months rent. BERTIE So you set yourself up on Harley Street as an actor? Harley Street, don't you know, is for doctors! LIONEL The plaque says, `L. Logue. Speech Specialist'. No mention of a medical degree. No mention of any degree. Some of the diggers I'd helped had come to England. They made referrals. My practice flourished. My acting, however, did not. BERTIE Well enough to deceive me. LIONEL Lock me in the Tower. BERTIE I would if I could! LIONEL What crime? BERTIE You've saddled this nation in its moment of peril with a voiceless King. Destroyed the happiness of my family...all for the sake of ensnaring a star client you knew you couldn't possibly assist!Lionel sits down on the chair of Edward the Confessor. Leaningagainst it is the great two-handed sword of St. George. BERTIE (CONT'D) What're you doing? Get up!TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 102. LIONEL I'm tired. BERTIE You can't sit there! LIONEL Why not? It's a chair. BERTIE It's the Chair of Edward The Confessor! The throne upon which every King for six and a half centuries has been crowned. LIONEL It's falling apart. People have carved their initials into it. Needs a stone to keep from blowing away. BERTIE That's the Stone of Scone! The Stone of Destiny that was once Jacob's pillow. LIONEL You believe such ballocks I don't care how many royal backsides have sat on it, it's a building block with handles attached. You're just like me, an actor with tawdry stage props you choose to believe are real. BERTIE Listen to me... ! LIONEL Listen to you?! By what right? BERTIE Divine right, if you must! I'm your King!!! LIONEL Noooo you're not! Told me so yourself. Said you didn't want it. So why should I listen to a poor stuttering bloke who can't put one word after another? Why waste my time listening to you? BERTIE Because I have a right to be heard! LIONEL Heard as what?! BERTIE A man! I HAVE A VOICE!!! TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 103. LIONEL (quietly) Well then...you're cured. BERTIE Stop trying to squirm off the hook. LIONEL Bertie, you'll make a bloody good king. And you know it.Bertie stares at him.A familiar voice is heard from the shadows. VOICE Your Majesty?The Archbishop of Canterbury. COSMO LANG You'll be relieved to learn I've found a replacement specialist. Impeccable credentials.There's a long silence. BERTIE That won't be necessary. COSMO LANG The matter's already been settled. For your own well-being. BERTIE What did you say? COSMO LANG Your Majesty's function is to consult...and to be advised. You didn't consult, but you've just been advised. BERTIE Now I advise you, so listen carefully. ...in this personal matter I will make my own decision. COSMO LANG May I remind you, you do not place the crown upon your own head. BERTIE And may I remind you, it is my head upon which the crown is placed! TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 104. COSMO LANG This will end badly. Lang turns on his heel. Lionel ignores what has just happened. LIONEL In hushed tones the BBC commentator paints a picture for the world, as you stand at the altar divested of your robes. Trumpets echo through the Abbey. The incessant rain clears miraculously as a shaft of sun streams through the stained-glass window catching your golden tunic and bathing you in light like a mediaeval knight. And you are King! The faint CLICKING WHIR of a film projector is heard.85 INT. ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY'S SCREENING ROOM - NEW DAY 85 On the screen: archive footage of the Coronation, capturing the pomp and ceremony. Cigar smoke rises up. The voices of Churchill and Lang can be heard. COSMO LANG (O.S.) I was much moved WINSTON CHURCHILL (O.S.) There were tears in my eyes too, Your Grace, particularly when I saw you and the Dean of Westminster cannoning into each other. COSMO LANG (O.S.) That's been edited. WINSTON CHURCHILL (O.S.) More tears when our new Monarch started towards his throne, only to be brought to an abrupt halt owing to one of the Bishops treading on his robe. COSMO LANG (O.S.) To the world, all went splendidly. WINSTON CHURCHILL Amidst a vitrine of glittering jewels, bobbing tiaras, and heaving bosoms. The footage freezes momentarily. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 105. COSMO LANG (O.S.) Now, Winston, I have something which will bring tears to your eyes. The archive footage continues, but it is not of the Coronation. David and Wallis visiting the Fuhrer in Germany: Hitler gallantly kissing Mrs Simpson's hand while Goring and the Duke of Windsor beam; David giving the Nazi salute. FREEZE FRAME. The lights come on. For once, Churchill is speechless. COSMO LANG (CONT'D) There's no doubt: David is planning a comeback. And will succeed if our King continues to falter. Though Bertie miraculously survived the Coronation he continues to stumble very badly indeed. Soon he must broadcast to the world. Hitler will be listening. David will be listening. Stalin and Roosevelt will be listening. Everyone will be listening. God help us. BERTIE (V.O.) (stuttering very badly) "In this grave hour... "86 INT. LOGUE'S CONSULTATION ROOM - NEW DAY 86 Bertie and Logue are rehearsing. BERTIE "In this grave hour... " Sorry. LIONEL Try again. BERTIE "In this grave hour... " LIONEL Turn the halts into pauses, during which you say to yourself, "God save the King". BERTIE I say that all the time, but apparently no one's listening. LIONEL Use the silence. Long pauses add solemnity to great occasions. BERTIE Then I'm the solemnest king who ever lived. Lionel, I can't do this! TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 106.Logue tries to protest, Bertie over-rides. BERTIE (CONT'D) If I am to be King...where is my power? May I form a Government on my own, appoint or dismiss a Prime Minister, chose an Ambassador, levy a tax or declare a war? None of these things. Yet I am the seat of all authority. Why? Because the Nation believes when I speak, I speak for them. Yet I cannot speak!Logue totally ignores the outburst. LIONEL Take it from the top. "In this grave hour..." BERTIE (hesitates, then) "In this grave hour, p-p-perhaps..." LIONEL Go on... BERTIE The letter`P' is always difficult. LIONEL Get a running start, put the words all together. `Perhaps-the-most-fateful...' BERTIE "In this grave hour...perhaps-the-most- fateful...in our history..." LIONEL Beaut. BERTIE "... I send to every household of my peoples...both at home and overseas..." LIONEL (SINGS) Doo-dah, doo-dah. BERTIE "...this message... " LIONEL (SINGS) Five miles long... TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 107. BERTIE "...spoken with the same depth of feeling for each one of you... as if I were able..." LIONEL In your head, now: "Bugger, bugger, bugger! Damn, damn, damn! All those bloody blighters are going to have to listen to me!" Can you dance? BERTIE What? LIONEL Helps relax the body. (goes to record player) Waltz? BERTIE I prefer pipes. LIONEL Thought you might. (starts a bagpipe record of "Scotland The Brave") Dance with me. One, two, one-two-three- four. One, two, one- two-three-four. "For the second time..." one-two-three-four "... in the lives of most of us..." one, two, one-two-three- four "... we are at war." Three, four.Dancing at arm's length with Logue, Bertie repeats: BERTIE "For the second time... in the lives of most of us... we are at war." One-two- three. (continues on) "Over and over again... we have tried to find a peaceful way... out of the differences... between ourselves... and those who are now our enemies." Bugger, bugger, bugger! Fuck, fuck, fuck! LIONEL You'll be ready. BERTIE (pause) The shilling you won... still have it? LIONEL Of course. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 108. Bertie holds out his hand, demandingly. Somewhat hurt, Lionel hands it over. BERTIE I'll return it. Bertie leaves with the shilling, exiting the back way. Logue opens the waiting room door. LIONEL Willie! Where's your mum? WILLIE (stuttering painfully) She had to work. LIONEL You've been waiting here, alone, all this time? Willie nods again. Then, haltingly: WILLIE I heard the King. LIONEL Did you? WILLIE He sang. And shouted rude words. LIONEL He did. Willie beams. LIONEL (CONT'D) Would you like to sing, dance, and shout rude words? WILLIE (NO STUTTER) I would! LIONEL Why am I not surprised?87 INT. KING'S STUDY, BUCKINGHAM PALACE - NEW NIGHT 87 The dreaded BBC microphone. The room has been transformed into an ad hoc broadcasting studio for this all-important occasion. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 109.The BBC News Reader and Floor Manager are there, along with asmall cluster of technicians putting finishing touches to theirequipment. FLOOR MANAGER Think he'll manage? BBC NEWS READER I've heard he may not even show.The Floor Manager tries to warn him with his eyes.Bertie has entered with Elizabeth and Logue. The Reader wisheshe could sink into the floor. Bertie says nothing, butapproaches the looming microphone, while Logue and Elizabethwatch nervously. BERTIE `Walk up to the bloody thing boldly, stare it square in the eye, man to man.' BBC NEWS READER (placating) If you'll be so kind, to let me show you... BERTIE I already know. My father taught me.He spreads the fingers of one hand, touches the apparatus withthe little finger, thumb to chin.The Reader scurries off and tells the others. BBC NEWS READER His father taught him. I taught his father. BERTIE (testing the microphone) Bugger bugger bugger...bloody bloody bloody... ELIZABETH Bertie, do make sure that's not switched on! LIONEL You're going to be splendid. And if you're not? BERTIE They'll bloody well have to listen to me anyway. Right? TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 110. LIONEL Bloody right.Lang and Churchill have entered. Elizabeth forces herself togreet them graciously. ELIZABETH Mr. Prime Minister, Your Grace, how kind of you to join us. COSMO LANG Wouldn't miss this for the world. (to Churchill) Congratulations. Neville didn't last long, did he? Talking to Hitler. WINSTON CHURCHILL My tenure will be shorter, if the King fails tonight.Bertie and Logue speak privately. BERTIE No matter how this turns out, I wish to thank you. For asking such dreadful questions. What can I do in recompense? LIONEL (lighty...yet seriously) I've always wanted to be knighted. BERTIE Sorry. That would raise too many questions. LIONEL (pause, then) Understood.Bertie takes something from his pocket. BERTIE Your shilling. Told you I'd give it back. LIONEL Keep it for good luck. BERTIE No, you won this, fair and square.The object is a silver medal. Bertie pins it to Logue's jacket. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 111. BERTIE (CONT'D) Made from the melted coin. Designed it myself, hope you like it, Lionel old friend. May I call you that? LIONEL My greatest honour, Bertie. (then) One final question. BERTIE Oh dear. LIONEL Do you believe you're King?A very long pause. BERTIE Almost.The red light on the microphone starts to blink. Logue joinsthe others.The Reader is at a smaller microphone near the ad hoc `broadcastbooth. Five, four, three, two... BBC NEWS READER Good evening, this is the BBC National and World programme, broadcasting from Buckingham Palace. His Majesty, the King.During this, Bertie's hands begin to shake, the pages of hisspeech rattle like dry leaves, his throat muscles constrict, theAdam's apple bulges, his lips tighten...all the old symptomsreappear.Several seconds have elapsed since the Reader finished. Itseems an eternity.Elizabeth grasps the sides of her chair with white knuckles.Lang's eyes roll heavenward.Churchill studies the situation, ready to leap into the breach.Bertie and Logue stare at each other.Logue smiles, perfectly calm, totally confident in the man he'sworked with. His confidence is contagious.Bertie takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. His handsgrow steady, his throat muscles relax...all the things he'spracticed. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 112.88 INT. LOGUE'S PARLOUR - NIGHT 88 The luminous dial of a wireless. Unbearable silence. Then: BERTIE (V.O. RADIO FILTER) In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in our history, I send to every household of my peoples, both at home and overseas... This is being listened to by Myrtle and the boys. The boys look at their mum. Suddenly they explode with cheers as the radio address continues:89 INT./EXT. MONTAGE OF VARIOUS LOCATIONS IN ENGLAND AND AROUND 89 THE WORLD - NIGHT OR DAY, DEPENDING ON LOCATION In homes, pubs (where we see the man with the rosacea nose), clubs, hotels, boarding houses, factories, mines, prisons, a shearing shed in New Zealand, cattle station in Australia, sites in India, South Africa, loci around the Commonwealth and Empire. China. Japan. The Kremlin. The White House. Hitler's mountain top wolf den. The South of France (where David and Wallis listen dolefully.) During this, the address continues, with dramatic pauses to be sure, but no real hesitations. BERTIE (V.O. ON RADIO) ...this message spoken with the same depth of feeling for each one of you as if I were able to cross your threshold and speak to you myself. For the second time in the lives of most of us we are at war. For we are called, with our allies, to meet the challenge of a principle which, if it were to prevail, would be fatal to any civilized order in the world. It is the principle which permits a State, in the selfish pursuit of power, to disregard its treaties and its solemn pledges; which sanctions the use of force, or threat of force, against the sovereignty and independence of other States. Such a principle, stripped of all disguise, is surely the mere primitive doctrine that might is right, and if this principle were established throughout the world, the freedom of our own country and of the whole British Commonwealth of Nations would be in danger. (MORE) TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 113. BERTIE (V.O. ON RADIO) (CONT'D) But far more than this - the peoples of the world would be kept in the bondage of fear, and all hopes of settled peace and of the security of justice and liberty among nations would be ended. This is the ultimate issue which confronts us. End the montage with a return to the exterior of Buckingham Palace. Outside, stand solemn crowds, listening to the speech on loudspeakers. PAN THEIR FACES, the faces of England, stalwart and resolved. BERTIE (CONT'D) For the sake of all that we ourselves hold dear, and of the world's order and peace, it is unthinkable that we should refuse to meet the challenge. It is to this high purpose that I now call my people at home and my peoples across the seas, who will make our cause their own. I ask them to stand calm, firm, and united in this time of trial. The task will be hard. There may be dark days ahead, and war can no longer be confined to the battlefield. But we can only do the right as we see the right, and reverently commit our cause to God.90 INT. THE PRINCESSES PLAYROOM - NIGHT 90 The two girls listen to their father on the radio. BERTIE (V.O. ON RADIO) If one and all we keep resolutely faithful to it, ready for whatever service or sacrifice it may demand, then, with God's help, we shall prevail. Lilibet's expression tells it all - she can hear it, her father is truly King.91 INT. KING'S STUDY/BROADCAST ROOM, BUCKINGHAM PALACE - 91 CONTINUOUS Bertie, in his quiet way is totally in command, and utterly magnificent. Everyone in the room is awed as he concludes: TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 114. BERTIE (CONT'D) We may all find a message of encouragement in the lines which, in my closing words, I would like to say to you: `I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year, "Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown." And he replied, "Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way.'" May the Almighty Hand guide and uphold us all.IN THE AD HOC `CONTROL BOOTH' AREA - the Manager makes a `cut'gesture to Bertie, he's off the air, the red light on themicrophone goes out. The Manager points, and the red light onthe Reader's microphone goes on. BBC NEWS READER This concludes the BBC broadcast of the King's Speech.Another `cut' gesture from the Floor Manager, the red light goesout and the transmission is concluded. The Floor Manager looksto the Reader. BBC NEWS READER (CONT'D) (softly) He wasn't perfect. (barely controlling his tears) Not perfect... But by God... He moved me.AT THE MAIN BBC MICROPHONE - Bertie waits for the verdict of hispeers. Churchill first: WINSTON CHURCHILL Couldn't have said it better myself.The ultimate compliment. Lang next. COSMO LANG I'm speechless. ELIZABETH (softly) Thank God.She goes to Bertie and kisses him tenderly on the cheek, takeshis hand, then Logue's. TKS/Seidler/09/17/08 115. ELIZABETH (CONT'D) Well done, Bertie. Well done... (for the first time) ...Lionel. Well done.She leaves the two men together. LIONEL I always called you Bertie. Today, I call you King.He offers his hand. But instead of taking it, Bertie takes himby the shoulders and gives him a hug. This is a long way fromthe five pace rule. The last barrier has fallen.Scroll:CARD 1 - KING GEORGE VI RALLIED HIS NATION DURING WWII, UNITINGTHE COMMONWEALTH, REFUSING TO LEAVE LONDON DURING THE BLITZ. HEDIED ON FEBRUARY 6TH 1952. HE WAS KNOWN AS 'THE GOOD KING'.CARD 2 - LIONEL LOGUE PASSED AWAY SHORTLY AFTER HIS FRIENDBERTIE. HIS STORY REMAINS UNKNOWN. EVEN IN AUSTRALIA. THE END \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Kingdom, The.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Kingdom, The.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..755b835457a2ae436fd0ffdad7ecba4ab048758d --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Kingdom, The.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + THE KINGDOM Written by MATTHEW MICHAEL CARNAHAN 8/18/20061 OMITTED - SEE 68A 12 INT. WASHINGTON, DC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - DAY 2 We're in a kindergarten classroom of 25 SIX YEAR OLDS. All sitting on the floor, legs crossed. Sitting in front of the kids is Little KEVIN FLEURY, flanked by his mom LYLA FLEURY and his dad RONALD FLEURY, in a dark suit. Little Kevin has a large cardboard square with pictures from different stages of his life taped to it. He's telling the class about the photos. We're TIGHT ON the pictures. TIGHT ON the young faces. TIGHT ON Fleury. KEVIN FLEURY This is my Fredricksburg house and my grandma Ruth playing with my skateboard ramp. It's a Tony Hawk jump ramp. A little girl, MICK raises her hand. KEVIN FLEURY (CONT'D) Mick? Silence from Mick MICK I forgot what I was going to say. Kevin points to another picture. KEVIN FLEURY This is me at my second birthday party with my mom and my dad. That's my cake. Fleury looks down sweet at his son. KEVIN FLEURY (CONT'D) This is me with my mom at the zoo and this is my dad and me and my grandpa Willie. Kevin points to another photo. KEVIN FLEURY (CONT'D) And this is me and my dad and my grandpa Willie at my dad's office. KINGDOM 8/18/06 2.The kids all lean forward and squirm as they try and getcloser to the pictures. MISS ROSS, the pretty twenty fiveyear old teacher watches from the side. MICK Where's your gun? LITTLE BOY Yeah, where is your gun?Pretty much all the kids get in on this now. Everyone wantsto see Fleury's gun. Fleury makes eyes at Miss Ross. She'sgiving him a `no fucking way' hard eye. FLEURY I'm assuming that there are no bad guys in this room. Isn't that right? I mean, are you guys good guys or bad guys? THE WHOLE CLASS GOOD GUYS! FLEURY Right. So why would I have brought my gun to a room full of good guys?This silences the class. Miss Ross keeps things moving,pointing to a photo. MISS ROSS What's that picture? KEVIN FLEURY This is me and my dad playing Battleship at my dad's apartment.Mick's hand goes back up. KEVIN FLEURY (CONT'D) Mick? MICK What is a battleship? KEVIN FLEURY (abruptly) My parents are divorced.A beat. Lyla and Ron look down at Kevin, stalled... KINGDOM 8/18/06 3. KEVIN FLEURY (CONT'D) But that's OK `cause the most important thing is to know that everybody loves each other. This hits a bit hard on Lyla and Ron. Miss Ross jumps in. MISS ROSS So, who's that in that picture up on top? KEVIN FLEURY That's my fish, his name is Jaws and he's a really mean fish. CONTINUED:3 OMITTED - SEE 68A 34 INT. WASHINGTON DC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL- CONTINUOUS 4 Kevin is still going strong. KEVIN FLEURY My mommy is a Think Tank worker and she is really, really smart. She went to two colleges and has three computers. CONTINUED:5 OMITTED - SEE 78A, 87 56 INT. WASHINGTON DC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - DAY 6 Kevin's pointing to a picture of Ronald holding him as a tiny newborn. KEVIN FLEURY This is the day that my daddy says is the happiest day of his life. MISS ROSS Really. His happiest day! Can you tell us about that day, Mr. Fleury? Fleury smiles, looks out at the class. KINGDOM 8/18/06 4. RONALD FLEURY I sure can. That was December 4th and that was the day that we spent the whole day in the hospital waiting for this guy right here to come out of Kevin's mom's tummy. And we waited and waited but he wouldn't come and we kept waiting and finally the doctor said `OK...he's not gonna come out on his own so we got to go get him.' And well,Fleury stops, checks in with Miss Ross. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) Can I tell this story? MISS ROSS Go for it. RONALD Fleury So they take her and put her on a special bed and they give her some medicine so she doesn't feel any pain then they take out this tiny little knife and make a tiny little cut right here in her tummy.The kids are mesmerized... MISS ROSS Then what happened? RONALD Fleury Then the doctor put her hands way up into Kevin's mom's tummy. WAY IN! And then you know what they did?A little girl, LU LU: WIDE EYED LU LU What did they do? RONALD FLEURY They started to pull and pull and pull... they had something in there and it started coming and they were pulling and the doctor all of the sudden said "STOP!"The class is frozen. Fleury has them. KINGDOM 8/18/06 5. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) They stopped pulling and the doctor looked up at me and said `Hey, Mr. Fleury - you ready to have your world rocked?' And I just stared at her and she pulled this little head up out of that belly. And it was him. His head. And I looked down at him and screamed "Kevin!!" And he looked down at me and screamed "Daddy!!" The kids are howling! CUT TO:7 EXT. AN UNKNOWN ROOFTOP - LATE DAY 7 A Muslim family sits together at a table under a tented- canopy: 32 year-old MAN nervously chewing on a toothpick, and his 8 and 15 year-old SONS. The 8yo leans his weight into an old MAN hunched and obscured by his grandson - this is his Grandfather. He gently rubs the Boy's head with an ancient left hand. The Boy finger-paints in Arabic script, right to left, getting paint on the table. Read the translation: There is no God but Allah. The Grandfather's face is down, obscured by his shumagh: the head-wrap worn by some Muslim men. Never a clear view of his face. His 32 year old Son and eldest Grandson sit next to them, the Son talking quietly on a cell phone, chewing that toothpick, eyes set on something in the distance: A Security Gate three hundred yards away, the entrance to some sort of compound. The Compound looks like a walled-off subdivision, most of which we can see from this high up. The landscape is foreign. Scrub desert. Ten miles beyond, on the horizon: the shimmer of a modern skyline. Surreal monolithic shapes made more so by the heat. Muted yells-claps-screams waft in from that Compound now... Catches the youngest Grandson's attention. Eyes lift up from his painting: the yells-claps-screams are coming from a softball game mostly visible behind the Compound's reinforced walls that extend a mile in each direction. Played on the only stretch of green grass visible from this vantage.8 OMITTED 8 KINGDOM 8/18/06 6.9 EXT. COMPOUND MAIN ENTRANCE - LATE DAY 9 Sounds from the softball game much louder now, just over the walls. Security perimeters two checkpoints deep before you get to the main gate. A maze of concrete Jersey-barriers to slow all entering vehicles: give machine-gun emplacements flanking the entrance plenty of time to shred those vehicles if need be. Middle-Eastern Police platoons. 500 lbs. lift- gates to dissuade any vehicle that just tries to ram through. SERGEANT HAYTHAM: a lean, 27 year-old Middle-Eastern Policeman in-command of the Entrance. Sweats through his uniform. A late-model Range Rover with blacked-out windows queues up. All the windows roll down: just a single, portly White WOMAN behind the wheel, her INFANT CHILD in a car-seat in front. Two other Uniformed Officers mirror-scan the bottom of the Rover. A brief exchange, as Haytham checks his ID: DRIVER How are you today, Sergeant? HAYTHAM Sun is shining. Wind is blowing. How bad can I be doing? DRIVER I like that, "Sun is shining..." A tight smile from Haytham. The other Officers are checking the inside of the Rover now. They nod to Haytham, Haytham hands the ID back to her. Windows rolls up. Lift-gate goes up. Range Rover pulls away, navigating the zig-zag jersey barriers.10 INT. COMPOUND - NEXT MOMENT 10 Stay with the Range Rover as it moves deeper into the complex. Think middle-class Phoenix suburb circa 1960: stucco homes sandwiched between dormitory style apartment blocks, concrete and rock where grass should be. The Range Rover passes a tank with a caged SOLDIER on top sitting behind a fifty caliber GUN. A Police Land Cruiser parked in the middle of the road is the last of the security. Official markings, emergency lights in the grill. KINGDOM 8/18/06 7.11 EXT. UNKNOWN ROOFTOP - SAME MOMENT 11 The Son studies the compound through binoculars, while the youngest Grandson squints to study the softball game: Interest cut with jealousy. More muted cheers float. Behind and above him, his Grandfather's voice, rough as sand, to his 32 year-old Son, in Arabic: GRANDFATHER (O.C.) Hang up the phone. If they're not ready now, no words will change it.12 EXT. COMPOUND SOFTBALL DIAMOND - NEXT MOMENT 12 Another Middle-Eastern POLICEMAN takes in the motley competition: half-smiling, half-smirking at a plump-pink White Man cheering on his plump-pink 9 year-old Son sliding into third. WHITE MAN GET DIRTY! Safe. Clapping and Hoots. The PITCHER: an older White Man in his middle forties visibly frustrated. A 25 year-old African- American Batter steps to the plate now. Pitcher turns to his Fielders: PITCHER STEP IT UP NOW! (back the Batter) Ready for my knuckle-curve? The Batter just stays focused as the Pitcher tosses a high- lob. Batter smacks the ball a mile high, deep to left. The teammates of the plump-pink Boy on third: TEAMMATES TAG UP! WAIT `TIL SHE CATCHES IT- PITCHER (spins, points up at the ball) -COMIN' HOME! A 14 year-old Indian girl sprints underneath the fly-ball: sets up, catches it, juggles it, drops it. We pick up different families on the grass nearby: A young WOMAN helps her five year old DAUGHTER untangle a yo-yo. A black COUPLE doing a crossword puzzle together, the wife's head on her husband's lap. KINGDOM 8/18/06 8.13 EXT. UNKNOWN ROOF TOP - SAME MOMENT 13 The muted reaction to the dropped ball. The whole Family, save the youngest Grandson, intently focused on two Officers walking up to that Police Land Cruiser parked in the middle of the road, well inside the compound: no blinks now. The youngest still enthralled by the softball game, the cheers, the running, the shorts and t-shirts. We see his Grandfather's left hand stop rubbing the Boy's head, and move to the Boy's temple, placed like a blinder so he can't see what's about to happen. In Arabic: GRANDFATHER Don't stop watching the game.14 EXT. INSIDE THE COMPOUND WALLS - NEXT MOMENT 14 Noises from the softball game close again. Track these two Officers on foot walking toward the Police Land Cruiser ala shift change: nonchalant but quick.15 INT. POLICE LAND CRUISER - SAME MOMENT 15 The Driver eyeing the two approaching Officers: something off about them. Uniforms wrinkled, one with a full beard. Driver turns to his Partner, in Arabic: DRIVER You have a copy of the duty rost- -POP-POP-POP before the Driver finishes. The Officers on foot rapid-firing 9MM pistols. The Driver and Passenger hit multiple times instantly, crumble lifeless in their seats before anyone has time to process the sounds, link them to an attack. The two firing `Officers' move low-fast like professionals: rip the fresh bodies from the Cruiser, jump in. The new Passenger rips an AR-15 rifle off the center console. The new Driver lays rubber into the Compound.16 EXT. UNKNOWN ROOF TOP - SAME MOMENT 16 The youngest Grandson wide-eyed, startled, watches as every member of the Security Details in and around the Compound go prairie dog: search with necks extended, eyes wide -- what the fuck was that? The Boy tries to turn his head away from the game to look for himself: Grandfather just pushes his head back to the game, voice harder now, in Arabic: KINGDOM 8/18/06 9. GRANDFATHER (O.C.) I said keep watching the game.17 EXT. COMPOUND MAIN ENTRANCE - SAME MOMENT 17 Haytham instantly sprints toward another nearby Police Land Cruiser as most everyone else ducks. In Arabic: SERGEANT HAYTHAM LOCK DOWN! Then points at the Officer in the Driver's seat: SERGEANT HAYTHAM (CONT'D) MOVE!18 EXT. COMPOUND SOFTBALL DIAMOND - SAME MOMENT 18 Game forgotten. Parents up, screaming for loved ones, moving fast toward the parking lot. The Middle-Eastern Officer that has been watching the game hustles onto the field, next to the Pitcher, waves people toward him. Gathering but sporadic gun-fire in very near distance. WATCHING OFFICER (accented English) COME TO ME! FOLLOW ME! People immediately flocking around the authority figure. CUT TO: The 14 year-old Indian Girl running in, more puzzled than scared: why is that Cop wearing a jacket in this heat? BACK TO: The Officer rips a yellow gun-shape from his jacket pocket. The Pitcher sees it, instinctively tries to rip it away from him. Gets a handful of collar, pulls as violently as he can, shreds the front of the Officer's coat: a white linen vest with a bulge in-front underneath the jacket...19 EXT. UNKNOWN ROOF TOP - SAME MOMENT 19 The youngest grandson's wide-eyed face. Then we see the Grandfather's right-hand slide down the other side of his youngest Grandson's face, coming to rest on his other temple: making sure he's still watching the Softball diamond now. The Grandfather's right hand: missing an index and middle finger. KINGDOM 8/18/06 10.20 EXT. COMPOUND SOFTBALL DIAMOND - SAME MOMENT 20 Panic. The Officer swings the yellow gun-shape, what we now realize is an electric drill crudely modified into something else, bashes the Pitcher's face with it. Those that had gathered have turned, are sprint-stumbling away... The Officer closes his eyes, depresses the drill trigger, vanishes before we comprehend the massive release of blue- black chaos, expanding in an ever-wider sphere. Immediate surroundings dissolve: players, parents, stands, cars, the light standards surrounding the field and parking lot.21 EXT. CINDER-BLOCK CONCESSION STAND - SAME MOMENT 21 Located behind straight-a-way center field, at the nexus of four fields. We see it from profile as shock-wave and shrapnel blast the structure: another Officer hiding behind it staggers out now, sprawls ugly: balance fucked from a blown inner-ear. He also wears a jacket, and holds a modified yellow plastic power drill. Moves uneasy toward screams in the nearby parking lot.22 EXT. SOFTBALL DIAMOND PARKING LOT - NEXT MOMENT 22 The off-balance Officer stops over a 30 year-old African- American woman pinned under a Toyota. She hyperventilates, her bare leg and open-toed sandal kick at air. The Officer's breathing calms: the sight of exposed skin as divine reassurance. CLOSE-UP: the vented rear of the drill as the 14.4 volt motor sparks blue. A second blue-black explosion that shreds the parking lot as cars smash into one another desperate to escape.23 EXT. ADJACENT STREET - NEXT MOMENT 23 Panicked women walking dogs. Frozen. A Police Land Cruiser with bullet-scarred windows roars around the corner. Stops near the women. They smile: cavalry to the rescue. Then a man with leans out the window with an AR-15: point-blank staccato. Tracers exit bodies, drill asphalt. The Land Cruiser rolls, spraying passing homes indiscriminate...24 INT. JACKED LAND CRUISER - NEXT MOMENT 24 Tearing through the streets, Passenger firing at all signs of life. Sits back for a lightning-quick re-load. Leans back out -- before he can begin firing again- KINGDOM 8/18/06 11.25 EXT. COMPOUND STREET - SAME MOMENT 25 -another Police Land Cruiser from nowhere hammers their Driver's side. Vicious. The Passenger is launched out his window, head-first into the curb. Both vehicles smoke- screech. Momentary pause after the a massive collision. Then Sergeant Haytham, 9MM in-hand, falls from the Second Land Cruiser. Stalks bloody to the Passenger side of the jacked Land Cruiser still slowly rolling backwards, leaking all it's vital fluids, it's snapped drive-shaft leaving a groove in the pavement. And Sergeant Haytham empties his clip into the interior while walking along side. The Officer Haytham told to 'move,' rips himself from the Passenger's side of their vehicle, bleeding profusely, screaming something unintelligible into his handheld radio.26 EXT. UNKNOWN ROOF TOP - SAME MOMENT 26 Just the youngest Grandson's horrified eyes: he had no choice but to see it all, carnage painted permanently. His face still held tight between his Grandfather's hands. In Arabic: GRANDFATHER (O.C.) Our Time is not a peaceful one. God has left it to us to make it so. Hold on those deep, young, brown eyes. Those young brown eyes finally blink. CUT TO:27 INT. WASHINGTON DC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL- LATER 27 Everyone eats snacks that the Fleurys brought. Kevin's the center of attention. Fleury's passing out juice boxes. Fleury's cell phone vibrates. TIGHT ON THE ID: 911. Fleury's mid-juice-pass, answering his phone at the same time. Kevin looks to his Dad, already grimacing. Fleury walks away from the kids. RONALD FLEURY (surprised) Fran? KINGDOM 8/18/06 12.We hear Fran's voice as though we're on the line with him:raspy-ragged, like he's been crying. FRAN (O.S.) You getting this yet? RONALD FLEURY Hey, I'm at Kevin's school. What's goin' on? FRAN (O.S.) I'm sorry, Brother. (beat) Riyadh. Many Dead.Fleury's demeanor shifts to HARD immediately. RONALD FLEURY Where exactly? FRAN (O.S.) The Al-Rahmah Western Housing Compound. Oil Company employees. Hit a company picnic. RONALD FLEURY How? FRAN (O.S.) Big. Broad daylight. Blew up a softball game. (tears) Kids, Brother.Fleury looks at the kids eating and laughing. KEVIN FLEURY Dad?Fleury smiles best he can at his Son. Into the phone: RONALD FLEURY When? FRAN (O.S.) Just went off -- twenty minutes ago. Two bombers. A Shooter crew as diversion...it's just awful. RONALD FLEURY Fran, I'm rollin' right now. Let me call you back: I gotta ring bells KINGDOM 8/18/06 13. FRAN MANNER (O.S.) Go. I'll be here.Fleury hangs up, walks to Kevin, kneels down - oblivious toeveryone watching. RONALD FLEURY Son, I gotta go to work. KEVIN FLEURY We're gonna do ceramics... RONALD FLEURY I gotta go to work... KEVIN FLEURY (points to the phone) Who was that? RONALD FLEURY Big Fran -- you remember him? KEVIN FLEURY (beat, thinking) Uncle Fran? Put peanuts in his Coke so he could drink and eat all at the same time? RONALD FLEURY (smile) Where he's from in South Carolina that's called fine-dining, Bud. KEVIN FLEURY What happened? RONALD FLEURY (beat) Something bad. KEVIN (impression of his Dad) `Lotta bad people out there...' RONALD FLEURY (smiles, already homesick) I love you.Kisses his boy's forehead hard. KEVIN FLEURY You gonna go see him? KINGDOM 8/18/06 14. RONALD FLEURY I'm gonna try... Looks at Lyla who's been through this drill too many times, knows this face. Ronald can only give a little shrug, which Lyla gives right back. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) (to Lyla) Can you get a ride? She nods yes. Miss Ross nearby, surprised by this: MISS ROSS Where's your husband going? LYLA FLEURY Ex-husband, and God knows. Then a wave of fear ripples across her face. She hesitates, then calls after him: LYLA FLEURY (CONT'D) BE SAFE. Ronald turns, gives a little Cheshire grin, puts the phone back up to his ear.28 EXT. AL-RAHMAH HOUSING COMPOUND BLAST SITES - EVENING 28 The shattered softball diamond and parking lot. Emergency lights swirl from everywhere. Acrid smoke. FRANCIS MANNER (FBI LEGAT, US Embassy) is giant. The kind of American that only grows in tiny southern hamlets. Military whitewalls, short-sleeves, khaki Dockers, a thick Casio G- shock, FBI credentials visible on a chain. Hangs up his phone. Lifts his eyes: Hell from one side of the frame to the other. Saudi teams setting up portable lights that bathe the horror in industrial incandescent. Columns of black smoke. Fleets of emergency vehicles. 100 uniformed men. Another 200 in bio-suits combing the ball field, the parking lot. Fran has to do something/anything. Move through the horror with him now. His hands shake, his face already dirty with soot. Jumps in with a Saudi team pulling a half-burned WOMAN out of a smoldering Range Rover. She fights them, gouging Fran's face, trying to get back in. She is the woman we met at the gate of the compound. She wants her baby. KINGDOM 8/18/06 15. Fran bloodied, just kind of steps away from the woman. Leaves the Saudi emergency team to fight with her. Backs away until he feels grass under his feet. The woman's screams reverberate. Fran just sits in the grass. Staring at the woman, her shattered soul. Forces himself to look away. Eyes come to rest on a child's baseball cap: ragged holes ringed with black stains: where blood dried on the blue felt. VOICE (O.C.) (immediately behind) Fran. You gotta stand Big Man... Fran turns to find REX BURR: 5'7" fireplug. A long silence. Fran points to the hat: FRANCIS MANNER Rex, how old were you when your hat was that small? We watch tears well in Rex's eyes... REX BURR You gotta stand, Big Man. Fran does. Wipes his hands on his pants. Slack-jaw hopeless. The first moments in what will be weeks of reverse- engineering the murders of unknown dozens. He and Rex step to a group of WALKING-WOUNDED. A NEIGHBOR doles out mugs of coffee. Most everyone from the compound is out, pondering the proximity. SAUDI emergency teams sprint past. Fran spits, settles in: FRANCIS MANNER We need to get everyone back, then get all their- SOMETHING HUGE EXPLODES over their shoulders, 50 yards away. The Attack's coup de grace: wait for people to lift up their heads, hit them again. Five times the size of the suicide bombs. Shreds emergency vehicles, nearby homes and apartment buildings. Kills Saudi rescuers by the bushel. Fran is crushed by a flying portable light standard. Rex is blown into the man handing out coffee. The walking wounded get decimated.29 EXT. AL-RAHMAH HOUSING COMPLEX - NEXT MOMENT 29 Slowly lift up and hold on Al-Rahmah as it burns. Black smoke and flame pour skyward from the site of the coup de grace explosion. Massive crater. Screams. Chaos postcard. KINGDOM 8/18/06 16.29A EXT. WASHINGTON, DC HOUSE - DAY 29A Establishing shot.29B INT. FRAN MANNER'S WASHINGTON, DC HOUSE - DAY 29B Fleury sits with GLENDA MANNER... a toy remote-control robot comes into the room. Little Teddy Manner (5) peeks his head around the corner of a door. GLENDA It was... I don't know what time it was... the dishwasher's broken...I was waiting for the dishwasher... The doorbell rang - I thought it was... it wasn't the dishwasher guy...It wasn't. It wasn't. Glenda breaks down, starts to completely lose it. Her little boy Teddy climbs up onto his mother.29C INT. FRAN MANNER'S HOUSE - TEDDY'S ROOM - LATER 29C Fleury sits on the bed with little Teddy looking at a beautiful black and white photo of Fran holding a new born Teddy up over his head. Eye to eye. Little Teddy shows Fleury his toy helicopter. His dad's soldier boots. Fleury can't take it.29D INT. FRAN MANNER'S HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - LATER 29D Fleury stands with Glenda. FLEURY Glenda, I want you to look at me. A PAUSE: Fleury freezes up on a shock of raw emotion, struggling to contain himself. FLEURY (CONT'D) Please... I'm going to take care of this. Whoever did this... I give you my word. Whoever did this will pay. I can't change this, but I can promise you that I will make someone pay for this. KINGDOM 8/18/06 17.30 INT. HOOVER BUILDING, FBI HEADQUARTERS - DAY, EST 30 Startling quiet in contrast. AGENTS cluster beneath 32-inch Televisions suspended from the ceiling. Tuned to Al-Jazeera, CNN, BBC, etc. Most eyes focus on the double-bloody scoops from CNN. Volume low: CNN REPORTER ...1 hour ago: blasts in Saudi Arabia, in or around the `Al- Rahmah' western housing complex near Riyadh. More than 100 feared dead, including children. The Saudi Foreign Minister has released a statement calling this a `heinous act possibly committed by foreigners...' BBC REPORTER ...homes to thousands of Westerners and other non-Saudis who work in the Kingdom, there have been several attacks on these compounds in the last five years. As such, they have become very tight in terms of security, with both the Saudi National Guard and police taking command. Fleury walks under the televisions. A folder in-hand, heading down a long hallway, subordinating his fury to tasks-at-hand.31 INT. COMMAND & TACTICAL OPERATIONS CENTER (CTOC) - NEXT 31 MOMENT Fleury enters, steps to a podium, opens his folder. 50 Agents seated lecture hall-style. Steam from fifth, sixth cups of coffee. Plasma screens behind show still-images of the crime cribbed from Al-Jazeera. Throughout the scene, Fleury constantly refers to a roster of his ERTs. RONALD FLEURY Numbers so far: 100+ dead, 200+ injured. The target was a softball game. Rumor is the Killers wore Saudi police uniforms. (beat) Special Agent Fran Manner was killed. KINGDOM 8/18/06 18.JANET MAYES, 29 years-old, stifles a sob in the front row.Fleury steps from behind the podium, puts a hand gently onJanet's shoulder, leans in and whispers something no one butJanet hears. Whatever his words, they give back hercomposure. She nods. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) So was Rex Burr from State.Fleury lets the news absorb as he steps back to the podium.No one says a thing. Fleury lifts his eyes again, realtrouble maintaining control... RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) Fran was the best among us...we'll feel this loss the rest of our days... (beat, moment to regroup) Grant, take stabs at bomb sizes.GRANT SYKES. 50 years-old. Virginia State Trooper beforejoining the FBI. Law-and-order formidable: sharp-smartCharlottesville accent. Studies the images for a beat... GRANT SYKES From the craters, looks like they used a High Explosive... possibly military grade: can't fit that much TNT into a vest. 20, 30 pounds of PETN: they got it. Semtex or C-4: they could get it. The third there, God knows...that crater looks like a plane dropped a 500-pounder... RONALD FLEURY Obviously a secondary blast after the initial devices used to lure first responders to the scene. Don't know anything about where or what it was yet. GRANT SYKES This is how they do it.ADAM LEAVITT. 34 years-old, sought-after Investigator.There's a constant, intense grind to this guy, a mind andmouth incapable of quiet. He paces around the room, theneagle-eyes the bomb images... starts surge-scrawling crudediagrams of the blast site on a piece of loose leaf. Feelsmore like nervous doodling than work. Not looking up from hisdrawing: KINGDOM 8/18/06 19. ADAM LEAVITT I already know the answer, but any chance in Hell we get to go over there, use our hands? RONALD FLEURY If you already know the answer Adam, why ask the question?Fleury circles Leavitt's name on the roster. Leavitt neverstops drawing. SYKES We're not seeing this kind of planning and execution anywhere else...these ain't hot-wired artillery shells waiting for Humvees to roll by. (pointing at the screens) These hits are coordinated: planning, timing, and big, broad- daylight balls- JANET MAYES (almost trance-studying the images) Yeah, So... did they all happen during daylight?Another great question. Fleury looks over to AGENT #1 on hisimmediate right, an egg-head type with a big binder in frontof him. Everyone's eyes follow. Agent #1 flips quicklythrough the binder, back-and-forth, searching. Fleury crosseshis name off of his roster. Then: AGENT #1 Yes. At least the first parts of the attacks.Everyone smells it: that's big -- more proof these attacksare being carried out by one, very skilled Terror Cell. JANET MAYES We had two others...North of Riyadh and the oil thing. What was that? ADAM LEAVITT The Refinery... Ras Tenura Refinery. JANET MAYES Yeah, south of Jeddah. Same thing: daylight, suicide bombers. Right? (MORE) KINGDOM 8/18/06 20. JANET MAYES (CONT'D) Same thing. Followed by machine gun crews. Collect and kill. ADAM LEAVITT Yup. RONALD FLEURY This is not new in concept. It is new in scope. It's bigger. Very sophisticated. Command and control was flawless. They found the largest kill zone they could and they did it... they did it by being patient. ADAM LEAVITT Any rumors or confirmations of uniforms being used in the other two attacks?Fleury circles Mayes' name on the ERT roster. AGENT #1 (from memory) No. I know this is the first for that. GRANT SYKES That's `worst case scenario' if you're still asking for my stab, Sir. A crew who can build bombs this big, with this level of eyes- on control and detonation coordination... has access to Saudi uniforms now...I mean...Baby Jesus. LEAVITT Anyone take credit?Fleury checks from his notes. FLEURY Abu Hamza. Saudi Al-Qaeda. Bin- Laden-wanna-be. We know he was in Afghanistan, then moved to Iraq. Now he seems to have come home. He's clearly becoming increasingly active... ADAM LEAVITT If it is Hamza, he's definitely turning up the volume over there. (MORE) KINGDOM 8/18/06 21. ADAM LEAVITT (CONT'D) Not to beat a dead horse, Sir, but if there was ever a time to get boots on Saudi sand... Sykes studies Leavitt with what is best described as substantial skepticism. Fleury circles Sykes' name on his roster. JANET MAYES They can't afford to appear as if they are losing any kind of control. They lose control over their country, their people...then they risk losing control over the oil. They won't let us in. No way. Fleury's P.O.V.: His open folder on the podium. A memo printed on Department of State letterhead. Pulls the memo, reads it aloud, calm laced with rage. RONALD FLEURY From the State Department, one hour ago: `We are in agreement with the Saudi security assessment that any additional American presence on Kingdom soil represents reckless risk. Therefore it is the Secretary of State's position that only after the situation has been evaluated and contained, should the Federal Bureau of Investigation activate Rapid Deployment.' (folding the memo) The National Security Advisor and the Attorney General agreed. (beat) I'm going to get us access. Keep your go bags hot. It's gonna come fast. Leavitt stares at Fleury as he moves fast out of the room. ADAM LEAVITT (beat) Well... I guess he's gonna go get us some access. (beat) How's he gonna do that? Sykes just hard-eyes Leavitt.31A SEE 29A - 29D (MOVED, NOT OMITTED) 31A KINGDOM 8/18/06 22.32 INT. SAUDI NATIONAL GUARD PRISON - UNKNOWN TIME 32 COLONEL AL-GHAZI, Saudi Police, 45 years-old, mustache as thick as Sykes'. A firecracker-loud crack makes him flinch. He stands in the back of the room, not participating in the interrogation. Just observing. Clearly not happy about what he's observing. His POV: The Officer from the second Land Cruiser that rammed the fake and killed those inside, Sergeant Haytham. slab- cuffed and being worked over hard buy a couple of thick- fisted SAUDIS.. Silent tears roll off his cheek, left ear split ghastly. A MAN standing far right of him beats him: the firecracker sound again. Al-Ghazi looks away, biting his tongue. Obviously wants this over. In-charge of the interrogation: GENERAL ABDUL MALIK. He doesn't appear sadistic, but very determined to get the truth from Sergeant Haytham by any means necessary. Those distinctions blur easily. Malik gives a `hold-up' signal. The following exchange in Arabic: GENERAL ABDUL-MALIK No falsehoods, Sergeant Haytham. What was your involvement? SERGEANT HAYTHAM Killing those I saw responsible. GENERAL ABDUL-MALIK So none could be questioned? SERGEANT HAYTHAM (puzzled, angry) I don't understand. A nod from General Malik: another vicious crack. GENERAL ABDUL-MALIK You were born and raised in Suweidi- SERGEANT HAYTHAM -that is not a crime- GENERAL ABDUL-MALIK -it should be. SERGEANT HAYTHAM It's not. KINGDOM 8/18/06 23. GENERAL ABDUL MALIK Do you know Abu Hamza? SERGEANT HAYTHAM I do not. GENERAL ABDUL-MALIK Your brother was killed fighting the Americans. True or false? SERGEANT HAYTHAM I am not my brother. GENERAL ABDUL-MALIK Your brother-- SERGEANT HAYTHAM I am NOT my brother! GENERAL ABDUL-MALIK TRUE or-Al-Ghazi interrupts. COLONEL AL-GHAZI He has answered the question.Malik shoots Al-Ghazi a unequivocal SHUT THE FUCK UP hardeye. Then back on Haytham. GENERAL ABDUL-MALIK We found six more uniforms than you were assigned in your possession -- that is a crime: especially when you consider the Attackers wore our Uniform...Another nod, another crack. Al-Ghazi, flinching, becomes morealert. SERGEANT HAYTHAM Uniforms?General Malik in Haytham's face: GENERAL ABDUL-MALIK Truth! SERGEANT HAYTHAM I sweat. I'll say it again because it is true. I need more uniforms because I must change during shifts...look at my shirts. KINGDOM 8/18/06 24. GENERAL ABDUL-MALIK I am not interested in your sweat. SERGEANT HAYTHAM -then look at my jackets. Please. Permanent stains...no matter how many times they're cleaned... Colonel Al-Ghazi grimacing now, leaves the room. 33 INT. SAUDI NATIONAL GUARD - STORAGE - NEXT MOMENT 33 We follow. Al-Ghazi hustling into an evidence storage room. Searching. Finds a Locker labelled `Haytham.' Opens it. Pulls out several shirts still in the plastic dry-cleaning sheaths: yellowed, permanent stains on the armpits of each.34 INT. SAUDI NATIONAL GUARD PRISON - INTERROGATION ROOM 34 Al-Ghazi walks back into the room with the shirts, lays them down on the table in front of the General -- all business. COLONEL AL-GHAZI He's telling the truth. The only sound for a long, unsettled moment: Sergeant Haytham's labored breathing. Malik looks at the shirts, then Al-Ghazi, hesitates, steps away. GENERAL ADBUL-MALIK You were injured when you used your vehicle to protect your country. Do you understand? Al-Ghazi moves in, begins uncuffing Haytham's bloody-raw wrists, hard-eyeing Malik the whole time. These men clearly don't like each other.35 EXT. SAUDI NATIONAL GUARD PRISON - LATER 35 Al-Ghazi and Haytham sit alone. Al-Ghazi smokes. Haytham looks down at his feet. COLONEL AL-GHAZI Look at me, Haytham. Haytham slowly looks up at Al-Ghazi. KINGDOM 8/18/06 25. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) You saved lives today. I believe that. You served your country. I believe that. HAYTHAM I love my country. COLONEL AL-GHAZI I believe that, Haytham... Haytham Holds Al-Ghazi's eyes a good long beat... HAYTHAM I love my country... Al-Ghazi slow nods. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (beat, breaks eye-contact) You will have your revenge for what needed to be done to assure them you weren't involved. Haytham never blinks. Eyes hard. Stoic. Clear.36 EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. STREETS - NOON 36 GRACE looks like a barrel-chested lineman. A four-man security detail behind. He and Ronald Fleury walk side-by- side. Janet Mayes just behind them. DIRECTOR GRACE Everyone's terrified, so nothing moves. Paralysis. You and your team aren't going anywhere. (beat) And this meeting is just a circle- jerk, Ronnie: Attorney General Young's going to go through the motions because protocol says we get an appeal. We'll be on record, but expect nothing more. Nothing from Fleury. DIRECTOR GRACE (CONT'D) Can you handle this? Keep your mouth shut when people way above you say things you'll hate? KINGDOM 8/18/06 26. RONALD FLEURY (beat) Yeah, sure. No problem. DIRECTOR GRACE (re: Janet) What about Agent Mayes? RONALD FLEURY Ask her. DIRECTOR GRACE (to Janet) What about you? JANET MAYES I'll be fine.37 INT. ATTORNEY GENERAL GIDEON YOUNG'S OFFICE - NOON 37 Fleury, Grace and Mayes enter. Handsomely decorated, expansive: a lifetime of notable handshakes framed in black and white. The biggest is a picture of Young and Billy Graham that could be titled, `lucky for you, we have all the answers.' Gideon Young sits behind his Federalist-era oak desk: a marathoner's build, a smile too bright-perfect for his age. Two others in-attendance. A pear-shaped 54 year-old man with a Midwest-honest, ruddy-oval face: Ellis Leach, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Department of State And a 51 year-old Hispanic woman in conservative Chanel: enough femininity without diminishing toughness: Maricella Canavesio, Deputy National Security Advisor, White House DIRECTOR GRACE I apologize if we're late- GIDEON YOUNG They were early. DIRECTOR GRACE You know Special Agent Fleury? GIDEON YOUNG I do. KINGDOM 8/18/06 27. DIRECTOR GRACE This is agent Janet Mayes, she's one of our Arabic experts.Janet stares at Young, looking mildly in over her head. GIDEON YOUNG OK. The latest.Grace sits, nods to Fleury: you're up... RONALD FLEURY Two suicide bombers. Rumors they were dressed as Saudi Police. We believe this is the work of Saudi terrorist named Abu Hamza.Young just stares at Fleury kind of odd like a kid staring ata mushroom flavored Popsicle. GIDEON YOUNG Go on.Fleury continues: RONALD FLEURY A Shooter crew served as distraction. After the initial attack there was a lull to allow Saudi Emergency Teams...and our own attaches...to collect. Then a secondary blast was triggered, aimed at those first responders. So they targeted families and rescuers with one attack. (mildly sarcastic:) I think that's a clear signal that their definition of `Enemy' is expanding. MARICELLA CANAVESIO My God. GIDEON YOUNG Let us never forget how cheap life is over there. Now...I have seven minutes before my next meeting, so who's talking first? (to Fleury and Grace, slow like a Kindergarten teacher:) You two digested the memo? KINGDOM 8/18/06 28.Stoic nods from each. Ellis Leach raises his hand, a tonethat's worlds away from Young's. ELLIS LEACH I'll go first if that's okay Maricella? (off her `yeah, sure' nod) First, I'm sorry about Fran Manner.Gideon Young remembers, nods along solemnly. DIRECTOR GRACE As we are about Rex Burr. ELLIS LEACH I met with Prince Thamer at the Saudi embassy fifteen minutes after I heard this morning's news. After speaking with Thamer, I advised we withhold additional US personnel because a big part of the religious justification for these bombs is the presence of current US personnel. More boots on Saudi soil make an already combustible situation more so. I know that's not the answer you want, but...Motions to Maricella: the floor is yours. MARICELLA CANAVESIO My two cents: The Saudis haven't asked for FBI help. Sounds like they've done just the opposite. If we force the issue, that could further anger an utterly important ally that shares a 1000-mile long border with Iraq. GIDEON YOUNG (to Grace and Fleury) It's all rock-solid logic. DIRECTOR GRACE (beat) We would just like to be on record as saying we think we should go ASAP- GIDEON YOUNG That's not going to happen KINGDOM 8/18/06 29.Young stands: we're done. Fleury's look: that's it? Young'salready collecting his briefcase, jacket- GIDEON YOUNG (CONT'D) (mock sincerity to the room:) -so as we present this to the public, let's - as best we can - try to view this through an FBI Agent's eyes. (beat...To Grace:) And please let me know if there's anything else we can do for you.Meeting seems over. Not quite. Fleury can't keep his mouthshut. RONALD FLEURY Sir, how would you imagine it looks viewed through an FBI agents eyes? GIDEON YOUNG Pardon me? RONALD FLEURY I'm interested in how you think this situation is viewed through our eyes.Young, eyes on a Republican-gold Rolex, instantly perturbedthe meeting isn't ending. GIDEON YOUNG It's some variation on vengeance... When one of your own is killed, Agents lose their analytical powers - kind of a greatest strength, greatest weakness thing... RONALD FLEURY If I wanted vengeance, I'd have whispered `Rex Burr' into Ellis's ear right when we walked in. (beat)Eyes migrate to Fleury -- RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) This isn't Terrorism, ma'am. It's just Serial Murder. MARICELLA CANAVESIO What's the distinction? KINGDOM 8/18/06 30. RONALD FLEURY To call this massacre an act of terrorism... that implies a specific political agenda. To me, these killings are so futile and unbalanced that they feel utterly sociopathic- more like Charles Manson than Osama Bin Laden...Fleury looks to Mayes. She clears her throat. Delivers thefollowing with utter precision. JANET MAYES (beat, fuck it: Go) Al Qaeda lost the first phase of this war, so a new, zero-sum phase has begun: if you won't join us, we'll let loose the truly talented Murderers... Abu Hamza. He will kill so many of you that the resulting humiliation of the Saudi Royal Family will cause an exodus, a rebellion, both. Because the Royal Family simply cannot protect you or yours any longer.Fleury studies Janet with solid respect. He gives Janet asubtle nod: "Nice work." RONALD FLEURY When she says talented, she's not talking about the walking-bombs who can sneak past any and all security, nor the hi-jackers tough enough to take an airliner. We're talking about the Man who teaches them how... JANET MAYES --the operational commander who organizes, trains, plans, encourages. That is who we're fighting. RONALD FLEURY If we don't get inside Saudi Arabia within 36 hours, there is no chance we catch the killer responsible for Al-Rahmah. None. KINGDOM 8/18/06 31. ELLIS LEACH Okay. I believe it all. So doesn't your team in that country represent the kind of target one of these `Masters' would die for? Trade ten of their own for one of you? RONALD FLEURY To not engage these criminals out of fear for our personal safety is just another way of saying `uncle.' Fleury takes another deep breath. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) I'll say it another way: Evidence starts to go cold after twenty four hours. If we can't get in now, we will not find the man or men responsible for this crime. We couldn't do it at Khobar; we couldn't do it in Yemen; we have barely scratched the surface in Iraq. And we are on verge of not doing it here. They are getting stronger, we are getting weaker. I just lost a very good friend and I would very much like to go and do my job. Beat. GIDEON YOUNG (chuckle) That was spirited... let's all thank God Special Agent Fleury doesn't make policy decisions. He'd turn the FBI into Patton's Third Army. Young stands. Fleury contemplates career-ending violence.38 EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. - DAY 38 Janet, Fleury and Grace walking the rows of seven-foot bronze soldiers. Street-cart hotdogs from foil wrappers. DIRECTOR GRACE (to Fleury) I see the look in your eyes. That look is trouble: old school, play ground shit, vengeance... KINGDOM 8/18/06 32. RONALD FLEURY It's not vengeance. DIRECTOR GRACE It ain't justice. It's stronger. We've all been there. I have. Vengeance is always dirty, Ronnie. RONALD FLEURY I just can't sit this out. I can't watch this not get dealt with. Not again. (a beat...) Know what my high school football coach used to say to me? DIRECTOR GRACE What? RONALD FLEURY "HIT SOMETHING." All night long, Coach Bailey would scream "HIT SOMETHING." Every play. DIRECTOR GRACE That's good coaching. RONALD FLEURY I'm fixing to go hit something, boss. You with me? DIRECTOR GRACE How you gonna do it? RONALD FLEURY The Saudis covet good PR as much as their Oil: 15 of 19 hijackers on 9- 11 means most Americans will never stop asking if that Saudi Oil is worth it. It's all about press. DIRECTOR GRACE Few more moves and it's Total War, Ronnie. The only time Treason is palatable is when it's done righteously and completely...Fleury digesting Grace's words: moments pass. Then he looksto Janet. JANET MAYES Oh, I'm in...Not a question. I'm definitely going. KINGDOM 8/18/06 33.39 INT. LOCAL COFFEE JOINT - 5:30 PM, EST 39 Elaine Flowers, Senior Correspondent, Washington Post: Coffee amp'd, deep black raccoon eyes - heavy wrinkled khakis. Fleury sits across from her. We've entered mid-scene: RONALD FLEURY What's your take? ELAINE FLOWERS Looks like every overthrow in history: once the guys with the guns are no longer trustworthy, the government's days are numbered. RONALD FLEURY White House call you with a spin? ELAINE FLOWERS You kidding? We don't talk since I broke the Vice President's guy cooking dirty intel on Iran. They hate me. What's up, Fleury? RONALD FLEURY How hard you gonna hit the Royal Family in your column tomorrow? ELAINE FLOWERS With a sledgehammer. RONALD FLEURY With the bombings? Or other things... ELAINE FLOWERS What's "other" than the bombings? RONALD FLEURY I know you're tracking Al Haramain. ELAINE FLOWERS Is that what you want to talk about? Saudi officials making donations that end up... What? Blowing up trains in Paris? Buses in London? RONALD FLEURY Sometimes. Seems that just might happen. (MORE) KINGDOM 8/18/06 34. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) We got some other stuff: Missing girls out of a Houston Four Seasons Hotel that was heavily populated by some "Saudi officials." Little things...Flowers eyes go WIDE. Smiling... ELAINE FLOWERS Murder...Hookers...Houston? Can I take some notes? RONALD FLEURY I'm not saying that. ELAINE FLOWERS Are you saying anything? RONALD FLEURY I need a favor. ELAINE FLOWERS I don't do favors, Ronnie. RONALD FLEURY When it's real and it will be real... I'll come to you with what we have first. It's yours. Exclusive. ELAINE FLOWERS OK. RONALD FLEURY You call Thamer at the Embassy. Tell him that the FBI is getting real close to laying out some major Saudi VIP indictments relating to newly uncovered charity financing out of a Boston investment firm. We're gonna freeze a lot of Saudi cash and roll out some major embarrassment. ELAINE FLOWERS Can I mention Houston? RONALD FLEURY It's a free world, baby. Ask him to comment. ELAINE FLOWERS He won't. KINGDOM 8/18/06 35. RONALD FLEURY Tell him that I'm running the investigation. ELAINE FLOWERS OK. RONALD FLEURY Tell him that I'm not the nicest kid on the block. ELAINE FLOWERS That would be accurate. RONALD FLEURY I want fifteen minutes with him tonight. ELAINE FLOWERS Wow. OK. And I get what? RONALD FLEURY I come to you first. No one else. ELAINE FLOWERS What's really going on here, Ronnie? You going strong over Fran Manner? Fleury just stares at her. RONALD FLEURY I'm just trying to do my job, Elaine. That's it. Call Thamer. ELAINE FLOWERS I'll see what I can do.40 EXT. WILLARD HOTEL - WASHINGTON DC - NIGHT 40 Frenetic Doorman-Valet ballet. 2 black Suburbans with red- blue diplomatic plates swing onto the round-about. A bald, waif-like 38 year-old Saudi MAN gets out of the lead vehicle. Fleury waiting outside, eyes on his watch. To Thamer: RONALD FLEURY Get back in. KINGDOM 8/18/06 36.41 INT. DIPLOMATIC SUBURBAN - MOMENTS LATER 41 A big bodyguard sits up front. Fleury sits in back, aims the AC vents his way. Prince Thamer sits next to him. Bright lights from the trail suburban illuminate the interior. Prince Thamer looks more than a bit baffled. RONALD FLEURY Too many people we both know were at the bar. It's a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness. PRINCE THAMER I had an interesting conversation with a reporter from the Post. RONALD FLEURY She can be a bit of an exaggerator... I'm sure things were somewhat over-stated. I see myself as friend of Saudi Arabia. I just need a little cooperation, that's all. PRINCE THAMER What kind of cooperation?? RONALD FLEURY Full cooperation: my Team cleared to land at Prince Sultan Air Base. Tomorrow. We want to help in a very muscular way, quickly. PRINCE THAMER Next month would be as soon as... Fleury takes a beat. RONALD FLEURY This goes one of two ways. First: The FBI with the White House go on the kind of aggressive PR "Saudi Royal Family Decaying Monarchy" bender that just can't help but hurt. Really hurt. And I don't care how many Chinese are lined up to buy the oil. You know it's gonna hurt. PRINCE THAMER My family is not decaying- KINGDOM 8/18/06 37. RONALD FLEURY And then we bring the hammer down hard as hell: Bust Al Haramain - we got direct links from Riyadh - two wives donating ten million to three Arab-American cultural centers in Boston. Then what gets kind of not- funny is how some of that cash found its way to Jakarta and some Mosques that have these training camps built right next to them. It's kinda funny... you got little kids playing over here, and some not so little kids playing with guns over here. That's kinda odd. PRINCE THAMER You have no proof of this. RONALD FLEURY We're getting there, Sir. And I haven't even brought up the two girls still missing out of Houston. This is big. It is real. And I know you only care so much about public American opinion, Sir. But the story will be covered... Big...Thamer is clearly rattled. Fleury is starting to crack thisman. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) And this ain't the Metro section. It's above the fold, just below the date. Words like these get syndicated to papers like the Omaha World-Herald, The Terrell Tribune -- You ever been to Terrell, Texas? PRINCE THAMER What is your point?Fleury looks back to him. RONALD FLEURY Last I heard, 112 people lost their lives in your country. One of them was a good friend of mine. I want in and I want in immediately.That's a rock solid answer. KINGDOM 8/18/06 38. PRINCE THAMER Define "immediately." RONALD FLEURY Right now immediately. Fleury looks back at the Ambassador. A stare down. FLEURY If your phone doesn't work international, you can borrow mine. Prince Thamer slowly reaches for his phone as Fleury opens his door. FLEURY (CONT'D) I'll just be right out here.42 EXT. DIPLOMATIC SUBURBAN - MOMENTS LATER 42 Fleury waiting. Intense. The window rolls down, Thamer looking up at Fleury. The following is fast, tight negotiating: PRINCE THAMER (trying to maintain cool) We cannot allow 100 agents- RONALD FLEURY -4. With a 25-man security detail- PRINCE THAMER -even 25 more armed Americans could spark rebellion- RONALD FLEURY That's too bad. PRINCE THAMER Saudi Security. That's non negotiable. You cannot bring guns into the Kingdom. RONALD FLEURY Men in Saudi Police uniforms are why we're talking now. PRINCE THAMER They would be hand picked. KINGDOM 8/18/06 39. RONALD FLEURY Whose hands? PRINCE THAMER Mine. Fleury blinks. PRINCE THAMER (CONT'D) Trust me...that's the only hope of this happening. FLEURY If anything happens to me or my team... It's on you. Understood? PRINCE THAMER Cool it with the John Wayne, Mr. Fleury. Fleury just stares. PRINCE THAMER (CONT'D) You can have a week- RONALD FLEURY -seven-day or work-week? PRINCE THAMER Work week. Five days. No guns. Hands shake.42A EXT. SAUDI SHACK - NIGHT, SAUDI TIME 42A No "charm." Corrugated tin. A faded blue plywood door. No one in sight. On the side of the house: a battered satellite dish...43 INT. SAUDI SHACK - NIGHT, SAUDI TIME 43 A tiny framed Saudi National flag in the middle of a wall: green with a white sword underlining script that reads: There is no God but Allah. No other decoration. The none-too-muffled sounds of traffic: a lone window overlooking a four-lane boulevard. Then the Athan (call to prayer) for the Isha (last of the five daily prayers) trumps the traffic noise. KINGDOM 8/18/06 40. Sergeant Haytham enters, bandaged, blank, then a small smile crosses his face. An old man's weathered voice, in Arabic: OLD VOICE (O.C.) Just in time. Haytham's P.O.V.: His FATHER, glass-frail, lying in a bed, a small TV nearby, on but soundless. Haytham goes into a routine: rolls out two prayer mats, steps to his Father, reaches down to pick him up. His Father readies himself -- stops everything when he sees the bandages up close, the black bruises with outer rings of purple covering 1/2 of his Son's cheek. Looks into his boy's eyes. HAYTHAM'S FATHER What happened? Haytham not returning the gaze, hoists his Father into his arms -- pain shoots up his arms from his damaged wrists. SERGEANT HAYTHAM You haven't heard about the attack? HAYTHAM'S FATHER I choose not to listen anymore. What happened to your face? SERGEANT HAYTHAM (beat) An attack today. HAYTHAM'S FATHER Look at me. Haytham looks into his father's eyes now. No words. Haytham's eyes well with tears. After a long silence: HAYTHAM'S FATHER (CONT'D) Is this how they now treat the men who protect them? Can you look at me? You cannot, can you? Can you look at yourself? Haytham stares at his father. HAYTHAM'S FATHER (CONT'D) You are protecting the true enemies of God.44 INT. AL-GHAZI'S HOUSE - SAME 44 KINGDOM 8/18/06 41. INTERCUT WITH THE HAYTHAM SCENE: Al-Ghazi sits on pillows on the living room with his WIFE and three DAUGHTERS. A television is on, playing "MAN SAYARBAH AL MILIOUN" the Arabic "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire." Al- Ghazi's children are playing a game with peas, trying to guess which one of his hands Al-Ghazi is hiding the pea. When a girl guesses correctly, he eats a pea. From outside, we hear the call to prayer. Al-Ghazi and his family all move to prayer mats in his living room.45 INT. ONE ROOM APARTMENT - SAME 45 Haytham continues carrying his Father to the prayer mats. Gently sets him down, Kneels down himself, carefully rolls his Dad to his stomach. Then stands to help tuck his Father -- in obvious, great arthritic pain -- into a kneeling prayer position. Kisses his father on the top of his head. And both pray.46 INT. AL-GHAZI'S HOUSE - SAME 46 Al-Ghazi praying with his family.47 EXT. ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE - MIDNIGHT 47 A Load-Master buckling down two paletts of shrink-wrapped gear in the belly of a C-130. Sykes and Leavitt sit on a stack of FBI paletts, their feet gently tapping on battered forensic cases. Mayes approaches from the parking area. ADAM LEAVITT (beat, re: Janet) What was Fran Manner to her? GRANT SYKES He taught her how to shoot, she taught him most everything else. (beat) Celebrated graduation at the IHOP in-town until some Townie called Janet something...Something not very nice. Townie didn't see Fran coming outta the Head. But he definitely felt Fran's uppercut shatter his jaw. KINGDOM 8/18/06 42. ADAM LEAVITT Fran didn't get bounced for that?Points to Fleury's dirty Jeep arriving. GRANT SYKES SAC Fleury took care of him. ADAM LEAVITT How? GRANT SYKES If I knew how I'd be SAC Sykes. I do know the post in Riyadh was part of the deal Fleury cut to save Fran's career.Leavitt looks up at Mayes as she gets within ear-shot, plopsdown next to them. ADAM LEAVITT (beat) What did SAC Fleury whisper in your ear this morning? JANET MAYES (smart-ass smile) `Grant's age is a liability.'The three turn as Fleury approaches. Walking fast, clear sense of purpose. FLEURY Thanks for volunteering. LEAVITT Actually, I didn't volunteer. FLEURY Thanks anyway. LEAVITT We're going to Riyadh? FLEURY Yup. SYKES State department said yes? FLEURY Nope. KINGDOM 8/18/06 43. LEAVITT White House said yes? FLEURY Nope. LEAVITT Anybody said yes? FLEURY Not really. LEAVITT Are we bringing security? FLEURY Nope. Fleury walks onto the plane. Leaving the three on the tarmac. LEAVITT This is going to suck so bad. And the three follow Fleury onto the massive plane. 48 OMITTED 4849 INT. C-130, AIRBORNE - LATER 49 Silent. Just the lull of jet engines. The big, long boring is just beginning. Janet and Leavitt play Scrabble. Sykes sits nearby. Fleury sits up front, wide awake. ADAM LEAVITT What can four people do in five days? Really? GRANT SYKES Aren't you the one who demanded to go this morning? ADAM LEAVITT I meant the FBI. I didn't mean "me." Small smile from Leavitt. The Scrabble continues... KINGDOM 8/18/06 44. ADAM LEAVITT (CONT'D) (to Janet) What's it like on the ground? GRANT SYKES Mars. JANET MAYES I'll be looked at with what I can only describe as disdain, pretty much the entire time we're on the ground... kind of like South Virginia. GRANT SYKES Go easy on my kin. JANET MAYES It's a very confused culture. Extremely religious. Had nothing; wanted nothing. Sixty years ago, they hit oil. Simple religious men become trillionaires... a schizophrenic nation is born. The royal family, who we back, and everyone else. Intercut with the Scrabble.50 OMITTED (SEE 42A) THRU 53 5054 EXT. PALACE GROUNDS - NIGHT, SAUDI TIME 54 Three-Suburban convoy turns up a driveway, waved past a guard post bristling with automatic weapons and into the circular drive of a massive, walled palace. Impersonal wealth. Two dozen SANG troops on security detail. Two Humvees equipped with anti-aircraft missiles parked 100 yards apart. Colonel Al-Ghazi out of the middle Suburban. Frisked by SANG, rough: no love lost.55 INT. IMPERSONAL PALACE - SAME MOMENT 55 Al-Ghazi is passed to a silent, boundless staff holding serving platters jammed with cups of mint tea. A mammoth foyer. KINGDOM 8/18/06 45. PRINCE SA'AD BIN KHALED (Saudi Interior Ministry) steps out from a 20-foot high doorway: nebbish, thin, bloodshot eyes magnified by thick glasses. His hand over his stomach: Napoleon's ulcers. A quick wave to Al-Ghazi.56 INT. PRINCE'S PRIVATE OFFICE - NEXT MOMENT 56 10' X 20' gold/glass desk over a 50' X 50' rug in a 100' X 100' marble room. Al-Ghazi greets the Prince formally: kiss the right shoulder near the clavicle. The Prince's tongue chalk-white for some reason. In Arabic: PRINCE BIN KHALED Four FBI Agents will be allowed to land at Prince Sultan Air Base this evening. Al-Ghazi: more than mild shock. PRINCE BIN KHALED (CONT'D) General Abdul-Malik, Chief of Investigative Services for the National Guard has been put in- charge of solving this crime. Clearly not sitting well with Al-Ghazi. COLONEL AL-GHAZI I know the General. I attended his interrogation of one of my men. (beat, putting it kindly:) The General does not have investigative experience. PRINCE BIN KHALED Attackers wore YOUR uniform. Police Uniforms. Some of your men may have been involved with this Cell, may still be involved. You're lucky to have a role at all. Al-Ghazi silent. The Prince pulls an anti-acid tablet, puts it in his mouth: that's why his tongue is chalk-white. PRINCE BIN KHALED (CONT'D) And your role will be critically important: make sure the Americans leave our country as alive as when they arrive. Five days they will be our guests. Understood? KINGDOM 8/18/06 46.57 INT. C-130 - NIGHT 57 Final descent beginning. More stars above than lights below. Landing in the middle of nowhere. Sykes sitting near Fleury, getting his game-face on. GRANT SYKES What's going on in there? RONALD FLEURY (getting his bearings) I'm good. Sykes puts his hand on Fleury's chest. GRANT SYKES Feels like you got a beast in there, Fleury. RONALD FLEURY (beat) I'm good GRANT SYKES "Good" is 6:00 am Sunday morning when your kid climbs into your bed, buries himself into you... sun's creeping through the windows - soft. Birds and wind-chimes... that's "good." A BEAT as Fleury looks at Sykes. RONALD FLEURY I'm OK...You don't think I'm OK? GRANT SYKES (small smile) I think you're not entirely clear right now. That's OK, but you got to know that. You want to go - we go. I got you, but you got to check yourself. RONALD FLEURY I'm checked. GRANT SYKES OK. I'm just checking that you checked. Fleury stands up. KINGDOM 8/18/06 47.57A INT. C-130 COCKPIT - NIGHT, SAUDI TIME 57A Fleury pops his head into the cockpit. Two AIRFORCE PILOTS sit at the controls. RONALD FLEURY How we doing? PILOT #1 About a half hour out. RONALD FLEURY They gonna let us land? PILOT #1 We've been talking to them about an hour or so... they know we're coming. RONALD FLEURY Good. PILOT #1 You don't mind my asking, but what the hell you all gonna be doing down there? RONALD FLEURY Hunting... PILOT #1 Hunting...? I think of hunting, I think quail in Tennessee, deer in Pennsylvania. What kind of hunting you all gonna do in Saudi? RONALD FLEURY Big Game hunting.58 EXT. MASSIVE, CLOSED DOWN MILITARY COMPLEX - NIGHT 58 PRINCE SULTAN AIR BASE, SAUDI ARABIA. Our C-130 touches down smooth on Saudi soil.59 INT. C-130 CARGO HOLD - NIGHT, SAUDI TIME 59 Engines winding down to nothing. The team standing, slinging bags over their shoulders. Groggy but pumped. Fleury looks at his team, last bit of advice before game-time. KINGDOM 8/18/06 48. RONALD FLEURY Heads on a swivel.60 EXT. PRINCE SULTAN AIRBASE - NIGHT, SAUDI TIME 60 The cargo door locks into place on Saudi tarmac. Fleury and the Team outside the plane now, bags dropped at their feet. 90 degrees even this late. Look-up: light washing over a small, formal Saudi military team in front of two caskets draped in American flags, and a small convoy of bullet-proof black Suburbans. Adam Leavitt will never forget this first glimpse of Saudi Arabia: surreal. Tears in Janet's eyes as she glimpses the caskets. Colonel Al-Ghazi steps up, offers his hand to Fleury. Fleury and Al-Ghazi shake: COLONEL AL-GHAZI Colonel Al-Ghazi. RONALD FLEURY Special Agent Ronald Fleury. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (beat: the caskets) Your two fallen comrades, Mr. Manner and Mr. Burr. Three men multi-task hustle to forklifts, start them up. Into the cargo hold, pulling out paletts. Things moving orderly- fast now. The Americans just kind of step back, dazed. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) Passports and credentials. Please. Sergeant Haytham, driving one of the suburbans, steps forward with kevlar vests for our crew. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) Thank you to keep these on whenever you are outside of Al-Rahmah. JANET MAYES We brought our own. The crew hits their bags, pulls out their vests. Another OFFICER checks each team member's FBI badge and passport. Stops at Leavitt's: an Israeli stamp on his passport. Leavitt's quick: KINGDOM 8/18/06 49. ADAM LEAVITT Israeli stamp in my passport? COLONEL AL-GHAZI (in Arabic to the Officer) That is not our concern. Al-Ghazi takes the passports and badges, hands them back. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) I'm also to collect your sidearms. This is like handing over your first-born. Fleury goes first. Haytham puts each weapon in a padded case. GRANT SYKES And I usually just toss it on the kitchen table... COLONEL AL-GHAZI (small smile) If each of you would please get into the middle vehicle.61 INT. MIDDLE SUBURBAN, RIYADH SUBURBS - NIGHT 61 The speedometer at 110 m.p.h. Haytham navigates with his left hand. Prayer beads hang from the rearview mirror. Al-Ghazi in the passenger seat, right hand rubbing another set of prayer beads down to nubs. The team in the back rows: all staring at the prayer beads on the mirror. JANET MAYES (whispering to Leavitt) Wouldn't need the power a' prayer if there were 2 hands on the wheel. ADAM LEAVIIT 110 miles per hour... How do you keep so calm? I mean, really? Is it breathing-- JANET MAYES --Shhhh.... RONALD FLEURY If somebody was tailing us it'd be obvious. This is just standard operating speed. Al-Ghazi on the edge of his seat, no belt, scanning for threats: sidewalks, traffic, rooftops. KINGDOM 8/18/06 50.His left hand hand wrapped around the stock of an Mp-5machine gun. Fleury takes in a deep breath: let's see whothis guy is. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) Colonel, have you ever been to the US? COLONEL AL-GHAZI I have been there only once. I spent four days at Quantico... I saw your Michael Jordan play for the Washington Wizards.Small laughs. RONALD FLEURY You don't know what you missed... you should have seen him play for our Chicago Bulls.Fleury nods to Sykes, giving him the go to start in with theBad Cop. Throughout the following exchange, we stay TIGHT ONFLEURY: in control, using Sykes to ask the questions he"diplomatically" does not want to ask. GRANT SYKES You have portable lights on-scene? COLONEL AL-GHAZI (loses his smile) Yes. But your team cannot work nights.Janet looks to Leavitt, then Fleury: `what did he say?'Fleury looks to Sykes, `Keep going...' GRANT SYKES We only have seven days: we work around the clock. COLONEL AL-GHAZI Five days. And you are not safe at night. GRANT SYKES We're safe during the day?Fleury is about to step in when- COLONEL AL-GHAZI (in Arabic, shocking) WATCH IT-SLOW! KINGDOM 8/18/06 51.A truck 200 yards ahead in the middle of an abrupt U-turn.Over the median. Dust cloud. Heading back our way. Somethingbig in the truck's bed. Our vehicle shimmies as Al-Ghaziflinches, drops his prayer beads. Mp-5 up to the Colonel's sight-line, muzzle tracking the truck. Leavitt leans awayfrom his window as the vehicles pass: streetlights show twofarmers, a camel sitting in the bed. Missed their left turn.A long, nearly comical moment. ADAM LEAVITT (smartass) I don't like camels. Fleury cycling through different angles. Continues: RONALD FLEURY Colonel, do you believe Abu Hamza was responsible for this attack? COLONEL AL-GHAZI We don't know. RONALD FLEURY Were Saudi Police involved in the attack? COLONEL AL-GHAZI We don't know that either. RONALD FLEURY Any word on what that third big blast was?Al-Ghazi getting tired of the questions: exhausted himself. COLONEL AL-GHAZI Not yet. GRANT SYKES You interviewed witnesses? COLONEL AL-GHAZI (short-fuse burning) We're trying. No one who was close enough to see the things we would like to know, lived. GRANT SYKES Were any of the uniformed bombers brother-officers?No answer. KINGDOM 8/18/06 52. GRANT SYKES (CONT'D) Do you know yet? No answer. Team feeling the tension. Fleury steps in and takes charge. RONALD FLEURY You don't know the source of the blast, don't know if your own Officers were involved, but you won't let us work nights? Al-Ghazi stanches an explosion. Haytham looks over at his Colonel: rarely ever seen him like this. Looks in the rear- view mirror to see Sykes, the man giving the Colonel fits. Sykes catches him looking back, gives him a quick wink into the mirror. TIGHT ON Haytham's face: the guilty little smile you give when someone takes your boss to task. COLONEL AL-GHAZI 47 of my `brother-officers' were blown into hundreds of pieces that will take months to collect. 80,000 Officers total, across the country, at four uniforms apiece. Thousands of people who can sew forgeries. Apologies that I don't have definitive answers. (beat) You're still not working nights. Fleury stays quiet, studying, calculating, thinking: we got a Handler that's going to be tough to handle.62 OMITTED 6263 INT. GIDEON YOUNG'S OFFICE - EVENING RUSH HOUR, EST 63 Director Grace already sits in front of Young's desk. DIRECTOR GRACE Good afternoon, Sir. Young says nothing, just pulls a memo from his bag, clears his throat -- still no eye-contact -- reads aloud like a poor man's Orson Welles: GIDEON YOUNG `Sunlight is indeed the most powerful disinfectant. (MORE) KINGDOM 8/18/06 53. GIDEON YOUNG (CONT'D) In that spirit I come before this Judiciary Committee with a painful admission. (beat) Simply: I've lost all confidence in the FBI, especially it's uppermost echelon. Entrenched and outmoded, the Leadership has shown itself fearful of the pioneering thought this Committee and I have tried to imbue. It is thus an Agency at contretemps, hindering our every effort.' And by `Committee' I mean the fucking SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON TERROR...Young finally makes eye contact: expecting something likefear, remorse, back-pedalling... DIRECTOR GRACE Senators? Then I'd change `outmoded' to `outdated,' `echelons' to `ranks' and what in God's name is `contretemps?' These guys aren't the best and brightest-Young's face flashes red, seething: GIDEON YOUNG -never take the Lord's name in vain in this office- DIRECTOR GRACE -but you can say `Fucking?'Young apoplectic now: ready to end the Director right there,when Grace leans in, lets the vague threat of physicalcontact manifest. DIRECTOR GRACE (CONT'D) You're going to the Senate Select Committee, but not to the President who appointed you. Why's that? (beat) I bet the President wasn't the audience you thought he'd be: I'll bet he realized you can't have Voters asking why the second- longest serving FBI Director gets fired for doing his job, for sending Agents into Saudi Arabia, seven months from mid-term elections- KINGDOM 8/18/06 54. GIDEON YOUNG -you really want to bet? Grace snaps his ID badge off his lapel, puts it on the table. DIRECTOR GRACE I do. Young's pallor tells us his bluff has been called. Goes silent. Grace smells it, finishes him now: DIRECTOR GRACE (CONT'D) Westmoreland made all us Officers write our own obituaries during Tet, when it looked like the Cong were going to end it all right there. Once we clued-in that life was finite, the loss of it no longer scared us: the end comes no matter what, it's just a question of how you want to go out: on your feet or on your knees. After that, we went out and pulled triggers until barrels melted. And Vietnam lasted another seven years. (beat) The lesson extends to this career: I ACT, knowing the end of this job will come, no matter what. You should do the same. Grace waits: nothing else from Young. Stands, snaps his ID badge back on his lapel, walks out. DIRECTOR GRACE (CONT'D) I'll forward Fleury's reports.64 EXT. OUTSIDE AL-RAHMAH HOUSING COMPLEX - NIGHT, SAUDI TIME 64 The convoy brakes impossibly close to a checkpoint. Waved through perimeters staffed by SANG and Police. Fatigues, automatic rifles, peering at the tinted windows.65 INT. MIDDLE SUBURBAN - NEXT MOMENT 65 Crew arrives at a crime-scene that spans the immediate horizon. White tents with SANG sitting under each. Industrial lights outline shattered buildings, idle heavy equipment, bombed-out automobiles. TIGHT ON MAYES looking out. KINGDOM 8/18/06 55. JANET MAYES That's one of the great horrors of television: Crime scene manipulation. They say a TV camera adds pounds to actresses. Isn't that what they say? ADAM LEAVITT Who's "they?" JANET MAYES That is what they say. Doesn't add to crime scenes. Television cameras shrink them. Misrepresent. No smells. Poor sound. Limited view. TV always makes them look smaller. You can't feel the hatred on television. TIGHT ON FLEURY: Quiet and focused, taking everything in. FLEURY ...heads on a swivel, people.66 EXT. AL-RAHMAH COMMUNITY CENTER - NEXT MOMENT 66 Two more security perimeters of SANG surround the Community Center: blinding portable lights, heavy machine guns mounted in the backs of Humvees track the convoy as it comes to a stop: every troop on-guard. The Team tentatively exits: 100 pairs of glares from heavily-armed SANG. Soldiers descend on the Teams' bags, paletts of equipment. Long leers at Janet: not so much `sexual' as `wary.' Janet goes for her own bag. Haytham goes for it at the same time. Their hands accidently touch. Haytham pulls back fast, embarrassed. JANET MAYES EASY. Janet notices the nasty marks around Haytham's right ear.67 INT. AL-RAHMAH COMMUNITY CENTER - NEXT MOMENT 67 Florescent lights make it ugly. Haytham dumps duffel-bags by their bunks, SANG stack steel travel-boxes from the paletts inside. No windows, AC cranked to `coldest.' Americans sealed- in - in the name of comfort. KINGDOM 8/18/06 56.Janet's area made obvious with a floral partition. Sheimmediately folds it, puts it into a corner. Haytham watchesher undo his work. COLONEL AL-GHAZI The bathrooms are through that door. I will be here tomorrow morning so we can begin. FLEURY What time tomorrow morning? COLONEL AL-GHAZI Sunrise. RONALD FLEURY What time is sunrise? COLONEL AL-GHAZI (beat) When I knock.Al-Ghazi and Haytham leave. The doors close behind them, thenthe sound of a key turning in a lock. The Americans look on,half-disbelief, half-comedy: locking us in. GRANT SYKES That's against fire code. JANET MAYES They don't have fire codes. They don't have codes other than codes of war. They'll lock us in and dial up some kind of earth movers if they want to. You know that, Sykes. Dig a big hole and push us in. Fill it up and no one comes calling. You're in the jungle now, baby.Silence as the crew digests this odd little verbal outage. ADAM LEAVITT (smiling) You alright, girl? JANET MAYES Watch it, boy. ADAM LEAVITT Just asking... JANET MAYES Unpack. KINGDOM 8/18/06 57.Everyone hits their own bags first. FLEURY (to himself) Saudi slow roll...Fleury pulls out his laptop, wakes it up from sleep mode.Eyes a photo of Kevin on his desktop, picks up the phone. LYLA FLEURY (on phone) Hello? RONALD FLEURY Hey... How are you? How's my boy? LYLA FLEURY We're just fine. How are you? Where are you? RONALD FLEURY I'm here... (quick beat) Lemme talk to my boy.A BEAT as Lyla passes the phone to Kevin. KEVIN FLEURY (O.S.) Daddy? FLEURY What you doing? KEVIN FLEURY (O.S.) I'm talking to you. What are you doing right now, Daddy? Right now? FLEURY I'm missing you. KEVIN FLEURY (O.S.) Where are you? FLEURY I'm in Saudi Arabia. KEVIN FLEURY (O.S.) Did you see Big Fran?A Beat... KINGDOM 8/18/06 58. FLEURY Yeah... I saw him... (PAUSE) I saw him. KEVIN FLEURY (O.S.) Is he still tall? FLEURY Yeah... Yeah...he's still tall. Silence... as Fleury takes a beat to collect himself. KEVIN FLEURY (O.S.) Daddy? Are you still there? FLEURY Yeah, buddy. I love you. Keep your eye on your mama. Be the man. KEVIN FLEURY (O.S.) You, too Daddy. FLEURY I'll call you tomorrow. I love you. KEVIN FLEURY (O.S.) Bye, Daddy. Fleury begins unpacking.68 EXT. AL-RAHMAH COMMUNITY CENTER - 4:30 AM 68 Pre-dawn: Eight black suburbans parked on the side street: waiting. The doors of the first four open in-unison. 20 Arab, suited SECURITY GUARDS exit. Al-Ghazi unlocks the door to the compound: the team stands dressed, waiting. CLOSE-UP: The Team steps out to see massive, organized security. From one of the vehicles exits a middle aged AMERICAN - sweating a bit, hanging back, watching. This is US Deputy Chief of Mission, the Embassy's second-in-command: DAMON SCHMIDT. Another 100 Security CONTRACTORS remain vigilant: SNIPERS on roof-tops, in machine-gun nests. Schmidt approaches Fleury. KINGDOM 8/18/06 59. SCHMIDT (big smile) You are in so much trouble. FLEURY Is that right? SCHMIDT For sure. I mean, I don't know how you did it. Nice work, but if you live through this, which I put at about fifty percent - if you do, your balls are gonna get stretched and beaten on. Dig that?Fleury stares at this freak show. Schmidt sticks out a paw. SCHMIDT (CONT'D) Damon Schmidt. State Department. I'm in charge of getting you out of here.PRINCE BIN KHALED and his INNER-CIRCLE exit a Suburban andapproach: All in traditional dress. The Prince locks eyeswith Fleury.IN THE BG, forklifts rumble-hiss to life, placing Jerseybarriers around the community center. SCHMIDT (CONT'D) Don't let go of his hand first. Major disrespect.One of the inner-circle, without a word, takes off the FBI-emblazoned windbreaker worn by Leavitt and places it on ashort-sleeved Janet. Careful not to touch skin.Only then does Prince Bin Khaled approach. A lonePHOTOGRAPHER follows: snapping pictures. Differentdefinitions of personal space: four inches separation as BinKhaled greets each Team member in accented English. Janetlast: the pictures suddenly stop. The Prince gives a littlecurtsy, no words, steps back to Fleury: the pictures re-start. Bin Khaled holds Fleury's hand sixth-grade boyfriend-style. PRINCE BIN KHALED (in Arabic) This is our level of commitment to bringing Terrorists to justice:Motions to the Americans. No more unflattering a portrait:pre-coffee, post-twelve hour flight, hours unpacking... KINGDOM 8/18/06 60.As the cameras start flashing. Angle on Al-Ghazi and Haythamplaced to stand next to the Americans. Haytham clearly notcomfortable with this kind of attention. PRINCE BIN KHALED (CONT'D) We've invited American legal officials into our Kingdom despite current difficulties between the US and Islam. They will observe our advanced investigative techniques, offering helpful hints. (to Fleury in English) You will please honor me with your presence tonight at my home. (beat, a stunted nod) Yes.The Prince turns back to the convoy. Entire entouragefollows. One of the Security Contractors catches the jacketJanet hurls back at him, tosses it to Leavitt. Convoy gone.The team turns: 100 glares again. Fleury blinks out thecamera flashes, takes in all the eyeballs.Fleury looks up at a retreating Damon Schmidt. SCHMIDT Nice pictures. You guys ready to go home now?Dead eyes from Fleury. He's clearly not amused. SCHMIDT (CONT'D) OK. If you change your minds, I got a plane fueled up and ready to go - got your name all over it...He points a finger gun at Fleury. SCHMIDT (CONT'D) Strap your kevlar on tight, people.SCHMIDT takes off. Sykes by Fleury. GRANT SYKES Slow roll... gonna be like when you go deep sea fishing in Florida and you pay seven hundred bucks for the boat and you sit in the ocean for hours and the crew jumps around and screams and points and you think your constantly about to bag a Marlin but you never do and they keep pointing and jumping and- KINGDOM 8/18/06 61. FLEURY Enough.Haytham walks off by himself, shaking off the shady Royalphoto vibe, looking back at the Americans. From behind him: POLICE OFFICER You're willing to die to protect your enemy?Haytham turns. An older POLICE OFFICER stands with a GROUP ofSANG twenty feet behind him, eyeing Haytham.Back to Fleury: he looks to Al-Ghazi. RONALD FLEURY What did the Prince say? COLONEL AL-GHAZI (beat) That there are more rules than just not working at night. RONALD FLEURY What rules? COLONEL AL-GHAZI You are here as observers. Not investigators.Fleury tries to remain cool. RONALD FLEURY That's not accurate--Al-Ghazi ignores Fleury. COLONEL AL-GHAZI --I need to make sure the sites are secure. Then you can begin observing.Leavitt looks around at the Security as Al-Ghazi hustles off: ADAM LEAVITT (to Fleury) How could they get more secure?The Team slowly realizes they're not going anywhere yet, dumptheir bags in a pile, already disgusted.In the distance, the group of SANG stare back at our team. KINGDOM 8/18/06 62.68A INT. LOCATION UNKNOWN - TIME UNKNOWN 68A Hold on an empty 2' X 1' X 6" balsa wood box set on a dirty linoleum floor. Ancient hands line the balsa wood box with bricks of putty- gray plastic explosive. We immediately notice the right hand is missing the index and middle fingers. The hands insert bright-red blasting caps into the explosives, lengths of detonating-wire emanating from each cap. Another set of stronger, younger, in-tact hands gently pours a mixture into the box now. Ball bearings, children's jacks, marbles, razor blades, roofing nails. Everything malevolent densities and angles. Some pieces bounce out, run along the floor. The younger hands then start pressing/molding the pieces of soon-to-be shrapnel into the putty-gray plastic explosives.68B EXT. AL-RAHMAH COMMUNITY CENTER - LATER 68B Al-Ghazi and General Malik stand outside. The Athan sounds for Dhuhr. 100 soldiers immediately drop to their knees.69 INT. AL-RAHMAH COMMUNITY CENTER HOOPS COURT - 9:00 AM 69 TIGHT ON FLEURY: focused, Thinking. Sykes next to him. O.C. The Athan sounds again for Dhuhr. SYKES Well, this is going well... FLEURY Saudi Slow Roll. Sykes and Fleury lean against the locked door, staring at the pathetic sight before them: Janet's truly awful jumper... that somehow swishes every time. Before she lands, cocky and smooth: JANET MAYES Good. KINGDOM 8/18/06 63. Then the metallic swish of the all-weather net. Leavitt boxes out air for the non-existent rebound, grabs the ball, chest- passes it Great Santini-hard back to Janet who softly sucks in the pass. Playing in their cargo pants and hiking boots. LEAVITT How do you do that? Janet gently bounce-passes it back: JANET MAYES Check. LEAVITT Don't say `good' again. Janet takes the check from Leavitt: before he can react, she drains a 30-footer. Same cockiness, different word: JANET Bueno. Fleury with Sykes still standing in the same spot. Looks up: Al-Ghazi coming into the building. Fleury ready to vent until something surprises him: breathless, Al-Ghazi has broken a wide-sweat hustling back to the Americans. Fleury's face relaxes. He pulls a bottle of water out of a cooler, hands it to Al-Ghazi. COLONEL AL-GHAZI I am sorry for the time. (beat) You won't need you gear. Fleury can't help a small smile. FLEURY (to Sykes, himself) Of course we won't.70 EXT. AL-RAHMAH - MOMENTS LATER 70 Hands in pockets. Soak in the aftermath: shallow but wide crater, shredded backstop, nearby buildings torn, blood baked into dirt. Fifteen cars. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (O.C.) The remaining rules: you cannot touch evidence, question anyone without me present, touch Muslim dead, or leave my sight at anytime: your safety is my primary concern. KINGDOM 8/18/06 64. FLEURY I would have thought your primary concern was investigating a crime. COLONEL AL-GHAZI And you would be mistaken.Sykes looks over to Fleury. Crooked smile. SYKES (to Fleury) I think it's one of those "something happens to us... his head comes off" kind of deals. (to Al-Ghazi) Is it one of those kind of deals, Colonel? Al-Ghazi ignores Sykes. FLEURY So, if you're not running the investigation...who is?Al-Ghazi motions to 50 MEN in uniforms different than his:SANG troops digging, bagging evidence, marking the scene withred-flags. COLONEL AL-GHAZI The National Guard's Military Police Brigade is conducting the investigation. My orders begin and end with your health.The Team: so we're on Tour. Fleury still silent. ADAM LEAVITT I thought the SANG were soldiers-- COLONEL AL-GHAZI --the bombers didn't wear a soldier's uniform. They wore mine.Fleury finally speaks, asking the most important question: RONALD FLEURY Who is in charge of the investigation then?Al-Ghazi points to a Man we've seen before, General Abdul-Malik. Haytham's Interrogator. He pours over a table 20 feetaway: maps, blueprints, utility schematics spread before him. KINGDOM 8/18/06 65. COLONEL AL-GHAZI General Abdul-Malik. He's given us permission to walk through each crime-scene. RONALD FLEURY To walk through? Are you kidding me? COLONEL AL-GHAZI I am not.Starting to get heated. RONALD FLEURY Get him over here now and let's clarify this situation. COLONEL AL-GHAZI There is no lack of clarification. RONALD FLEURY There sure as hell is! I don't know what kind of game you're playing but you got the wrong guy, Colonel Al-Ghazi! That was not the deal- COLONEL AL-GHAZI (getting hot) This is not a game show, Mr. Fleury! There are no deals made here. There is me telling you what you may or may not do and there is you doing it.Beat. As Al-Ghazi stabilizes... COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) You will be permitted to walk through the crime scenes. When we have determined that it is safe.A stand off. Fleury eyes Al-Ghazi. Trying to figure this guyout.Sees something that looks like a flash of embarrassment in Al-Ghazi's eyes: unable to perform his profession, relegated toTour Guide. Leavitt begins taking notes. Haytham sees hisnotebook, snaps his fingers at Al-Ghazi who looks, nods: lethim. RONALD FLEURY OK. KINGDOM 8/18/06 66. Fleury tight-grins. Looks off. In one of the apartments, he sees a PERSON looking down at them from behind a curtain. He tries a new tactic. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) How have you guys been doing with the witnesses? AL-GHAZI What witnesses? Al-Ghazi just stares at Fleury. FLEURY I'm guessing there are a bunch of Americans, Brits... Australians? Someone must have seen something. I'm sure they're just dying to talk to you guys, seeing as how the killers were wearing your uniforms. That must be a real confidence booster for them. Al-Ghazi silent, staring. FLEURY (CONT'D) Let me talk to them. Al-Ghazi looks unsure. He was not expecting this.71 EXT. RIPON FAMILY HOME 71 Fleury and Al-Ghazi walk up the front walk. Fleury noticing kids bikes, hockey gear, a comfortable easy chair covered in fur outside on the front porch, toy guns.72 INT. RIPON FAMILY HOME - MOMENTS LATER 72 Fleury sits with the RIPONS: EARL (40s) JANINE, his wife (30s), and MADDY, Earl's mother (late 60s). Earl sits on an ugly couch, a plywood sheet right above their heads. Everyone uneasy save the CAT in Maddy's lap. Fleury waves off a bottle of water from Janine. Al-Ghazi hovers awkwardly by the front door. AWKWARD INTERVIEW: EARL There's still a couple of hundred of us living on the compound. KINGDOM 8/18/06 67. RONALD FLEURY Why Saudi Arabia?A moment as Earl and Janine get a bit defensive: EARL Neither of us did anymore schooling than Electra High, Electra Texas. RONALD FLEURY OK.Al-Ghazi sees Janine smile, squeeze Earl's hand tighter. EARL And the jobs here pay twice what you'd make in Midland or the Gulf a' Mexico. Plus the house is free.Earl's mother Maddy looks at Fleury, pets the cat. JANINE RIPON I call it combat pay. This place has gone Guns - Guns - Guns. RONALD FLEURY So has Everyone else now. JANINE My girlfriends in Texas spend their combat pay on diamonds... I spent mine on a safe room. RONALD FLEURY (chuckles) Two nights back. Can you start one second before you knew anything was wrong? JANINE We didn't really see anything. Just hit the ground and hustled to the safe room. Closed our eyes and prayed. It was so fast. So loud. RONALD FLEURY So you really didn't see anything. MADDY I hit the deck. Horrible. JANINE Not `til after. Just the screams-- KINGDOM 8/18/06 68. EARL -- the kids... they were screaming. That got me out of the house. Those kids. FLEURY Which kids were those? JANINE The Jackson kids. Tracy Jackson next door was murdered looking out her window...front of her children. No safe room over there... (right at Al-Ghazi) Not even the Men that did this should die in front a' their babies. Fleury lets moments pass. Earl rubs his wife's leg, trying to comfort her. Al-Ghazi hides emotion. RONALD FLEURY She live with her husband? EARL Aaron. RONALD FLEURY (beat) If I'm facing your house, is the Jackson home to the right or left? JANINE Left. Fleury looks out the window towards the Jackson house.73 EXT. JACKSON HOME - SAME MOMENT 73 Next door to the Ripons. Fleury knocks. Door opens: a sad MAN with black bags under dying eyes. Disgusted-resigned breath through a half-open mouth. Silver watch and Polo insignia... sees Al-Ghazi, eyes come alive, teeth grit. RONALD FLEURY Mr. Aaron Jackson? AARON JACKSON (re: Al-Ghazi) Get him away from me- KINGDOM 8/18/06 69. RONALD FLEURY -easy, Sir. He's a friend to us- AARON JACKSON -I don't know either one a' you. RONALD FLEURY I'm Special Agent Ronald Fleury of the FBI. This is Colonel Al-Ghazi with the Saudi State Police- AARON JACKSON -the Police: they attacked.Al-Ghazi quietly backs away, walks away. Fleury looks afterhim, turns back to Mr. Jackson who stares after Al-Ghazi:hate. Fleury unsure what to do next. AARON JACKSON (CONT'D) I just put my boys down for the first time in two days. I can't wake `em and sure as hell can't be gone if they stir on their own. RONALD FLEURY Can I come back? AARON JACKSON (too loud) WHY? RONALD FLEURY Your boys...Jackson remembers the warning he just spoke... RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) To ask about two nights ago.Fresh tears re-animate his face: AARON JACKSON When my wife's jaw was shot off in front of our sons? My sons who sat with her while she bled to death? Couldn't speak because she didn't have the bottom of her face and I wasn't home and my baby boys are destroyed for life and my five year- old had a box of band-aids in his hand when I finally got home? KINGDOM 8/18/06 70. Silence outside of Mr. Jackson's sobbing. Fleury sick to his stomach. Desperate to let this man alone. No eye contact. RONALD FLEURY ...I won't pretend to know... Aaron Jackson settles, wipes away tears, appreciates the honesty. Then bites back into his rage: AARON JACKSON Kill everyone that had something to do with this. Everyone related to them. Everyone who knew them. (beat) And all you'd be doing is their recruiting for them... It's an entire generation: not small and isolated like they say. But a generation that thinks what they did to my wife, to my children, is a "calling"... RONALD FLEURY Up the street, there was a wreck, did you see any- AARON JACKSON -notice how it wouldn't take a lot to disguise your friend (points to Al-Ghazi) as a Mexican? Think he couldn't handle crossing our deserts? Look around! RONALD FLEURY Aaron- AARON JACKSON (explodes) -LET ME FINISH GOD DAMN YOU- A child's scream from inside. Piercing. Scary. Jackson goes red, clenched fists, steps to Fleury who takes an instinctive step backward, guard-up. Jackson stops, spins back inside. A door slam that rattles the plywood sheet covering the shattered window. The screams become night terror shrieks.74 EXT. JACKSON HOME 74 A LONG, SAD BEAT, as Fleury and Al-Ghazi stand alone in front of the Jackson house. KINGDOM 8/18/06 71. RONALD FLEURY (to Al-Ghazi) Can we tour the compound? Can we please do that? Slow nod from Al-Ghazi.75 EXT. BOMB SITE - LATER 75 The team tours the site. As they fan out. They walk casually, but focused through the first bomb site. An inquisitive Mayes, already peering into a mostly in-tact car, halfway out of its parking spot. Al-Ghazi and Haytham watch the Americans like mother-hens. JANET MAYES He or she almost made it. Fleury steps, looks inside: blood and safety glass coat the seat. Janet points to keys in the ignition: still at the `on' position. Then the stick-shift, pulled to the back right: reverse. The shift-knob bloody... JANET MAYES (CONT'D) (beat, quieter) Makes me think of the Trade Centers -- the people on the floors above the impacts -- no matter how fast or strong or smart you are, if you're in the wrong spot, `it' will not let you get away. FLEURY That's what makes this a War. Sykes notices something on the ground... he picks up a military detonator, discretely hands it over to Fleury. Fleury quietly pockets it.76 EXT. THIRD BLAST SITE - MOMENTS LATER 76 Structures 100 feet away look like they've been hit with a God-sized sawed-off. The crater: 25-feet wide, 7-feet deep. Blackened frames and bits of vehicles circle the crater. The bottom of the crater filled with water. A syphon-pump works overtime. No SANG Investigators around. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (O.C.) About one hour into the rescue. KINGDOM 8/18/06 72. ADAM LEAVITT Hit a water main? COLONEL AL-GHAZI No -- from the tanks of this fire engine: that's the water that didn't evaporate in the blast. Al-Ghazi points to a mass of black metal: looks like a fire truck the way a Jackson Pollock looks like the Mona Lisa. Leavitt and Grant stand back. Quiet: GRANT SYKES (eyes on Fleury) Hole is the case. See, there's "evidence" down in that hole. You understand evidence? Little things that are "clues." Clues can be very helpful to a fella when he's trying to solve a crime. COLONEL AL-GHAZI I understand that. GRANT SYKES Glad to hear it. So can we get in there? COLONEL AL-GHAZI No. Sykes holds Al-Ghazi's gaze. Smiles. GRANT SYKES OK. Fleury is taking in the entire crime scene. He notices a four story building half a mile off the perimeter. He watches Al-Ghazi rip at a chunk of floorboard wedged into the mud, bag it himself, search for someone to give it too. Nobody. Sets it down. Stands, wipes his hands hard on his pants. Fleury could swear the dirt stains are intentional: trying to feel like he's doing something.77 EXT. DESERTED STREET, AL-RAHMAH - MOMENTS LATER 77 The Land Cruiser Haytham rammed - driver's side crushed, bullet holes, out-of-control skid-marks, asphalt scars from the snapped drive shaft... KINGDOM 8/18/06 73.Fleury is moving around the scene, restaging the shoot out.Instantly lining up the angles.Leavitt's taking digital snaps of the shattered Land Cruiser.Through the viewfinder: the caved-in door. Two snaps.A SANG passes Adam, his gun aimed a touch high. ADAM LEAVITT (to Fleury) A little high... FLEURY (to SANG, "Lower," in Arabic) Watt-tee... ADAM LEAVITT Watt-tee fuck (alt: "Watt-tee hell...") is his gun doing up so high? COLONEL AL-GHAZI (to Fleury) This vehicle was stolen. Two drivers murdered. A team outside the blast-radius...shooting at anything. Everyone. (beat) Sergeant Haytham ended this part. ADAM LEAVITT (to Al-Ghazi) Are the Shooters in-custody- SERGEANT HAYTHAM -dead.So Sergeant Haytham speaks English... FLEURY Were any of these shooters your men? SERGEANT HAYTHAM No.Fleury's thinking, looking into the car. Searching thehorizon, he spots a distant apartment building providing aview of the crime scene. KINGDOM 8/18/06 74. FLEURY They got into the compound. Somehow...took control of this vehicle. I'm guessing they didn't politely ask whoever was in this car if they could take it for a little ride? Fleury gets in the car, checking out ballistic shreds in the back of the passenger seat headrest. AL-GHAZI No, they didn't. There were two officers in the car. Both were executed. FLEURY I understand that. Those men were your men-- SERGEANT HAYTHAM -- they were. They were Police. FLEURY I'm sorry. Al-Ghazi offers the slightest of nods to Fleury. FLEURY (CONT'D) Where was this car when they hit it?a77A EXT. AL-RAHMAH - MAIN GATE a77A Al-Ghazi leads our team to the main gate. Sykes and Fleury follow close. COLONEL AL-GHAZI Security is a combination of the police and military. Leavitt and Mayes lag behind a bit. Leavitt makes eye contact with a YOUNG SAUDI behind the .50 caliber. JANET MAYES Good news is that if he shoots you, he's gonna shoot you sitting on an American tank... with an American- made bullet. So, it's kind of "all in the family." KINGDOM 8/18/06 75. ADAM LEAVITT How about we get into those American Suburbans... with their American A/C... Al-Ghazi continues the tour as Fleury once again notes the familiar apartment off in the distance.77A EXT. AL-RAHMAH - SECURITY STATION CAR PARK - LATER 77A A car port. Fleury and team moving around the area. Fleury picks up some broken glass from the ground. FLEURY The car was parked here? AL-GHAZI Yes. FLEURY Backed in? AL-GHAZI Yes. Fleury studies the scene. FLEURY They were attacked from the front. Must have assumed the killers were fellow officers... Have any of these men been identified? COLONEL AL-GHAZI Not yet. We will check certain neighborhoods. It is likely that the four men prayed at the same Mosque. JANET MAYES The same Mosque is enough to identify them, link them to a cell? COLONEL AL-GHAZI Yes. If the Mosque is in Suweidi. ADAM LEAVITT Suweidi? KINGDOM 8/18/06 76. JANET MAYES Suweidi is a known militant stonghold. Al-Qaeda could recruit from storefronts.On Fleury: he looks back at the homes, then up and around: Helocks on the OBSERVATION BUILDING in the distance. FLEURY Can we go to check out some of these surrounding buildings? COLONEL AL-GHAZI Why? FLEURY Seems reasonable that the Planner had to observe and based on Hamza's past history, it's consistent that he would want to video the attack. Is that true? Is that accurate? COLONEL AL-GHAZI That is true. RONALD FLEURY Well, in order to video, in order to observe, you need a view.Fleury points to one particular building. FLEURY That building sees all three crime scenes.Al-Ghazi looks up to the building. Back to Fleury. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (beat) It's outside the walls- ADAM LEAVITT -c'mon now. This is insane: we got enough security to invade Suweidi, let alone that building- COLONEL AL-GHAZI -no you don't. FLEURY (to Al-Ghazi, respectful) Could you ask? (MORE) KINGDOM 8/18/06 77. FLEURY (CONT'D) We're already seeing the crime- scenes individually -- why not all at once? COLONEL AL-GHAZI Any answer will take- FLEURY -time. I understand. Fleury speaks slowly and clearly now: like he's cementing his words in his own head as he speaks them. FLEURY (CONT'D) You have to ask the General, then the General would ask the Prince. Does it go higher or is that... is the Prince the end of the chain? Al-Ghazi hesitates, can't help but be charmed. Fleury clearly knows when to step-on or lay-off the gas. He's smooth... and HIGHLY EFFECTIVE: Al-Ghazi nods `yes' to the strange half- question. FLEURY (CONT'D) We'll be at the Community Center. (beat) Janet, wanna play hoops?78 INT. AL-RAHMAH COMMUNITY CENTER HOOPS COURT - NOON 78 We're in the big gym as our team sits and waits. Leavitt taps on a laptop. Janet shoots free throws by herself. JANET MAYES This is the kind of radical circumstance that could have seriously upped Shaq's free throw percentages. Take a man. Ship him off to Riyadh. No phones, constant threat of death, no girls, no hip hop. Nothing... just free throws. Shaq, he'd be shooting at least seventy percent. Lakers would still be together. Kobe and Shaq lovers forever. Leavitt calls to Fleury. LEAVITT Hey, Boss... check this out. KINGDOM 8/18/06 78. Fleury moves over to Leavitt. Checks out the screen. LEAVITT (CONT'D) Just posted half hour ago. IMAGES ON THE COMPUTER: ARABIC EXTREMIST WEBSITE. Video footage shot from the rooftop of all three bombings and some of the machine gun killings. LEAVITT (CONT'D) So self congratulatory. Makes me sick. Fleury studies the footage. Backs it up plays it again and again. 78A INT. LOCATION UNKNOWN - TIME UNKNOWN 78A A set of stronger, younger, in-tact hands gently pours a mixture into a box now. Ball bearings, children's jacks, marbles, razor blades, roofing nails: everything malevolent densities and angles. Some pieces bounce out, run along the floor. The younger hands then start pressing/molding the pieces of soon-to-be shrapnel into the putty.79 EXT. RIYADH SUBURB NEAR COMPOUND - AFTERNOON 79 Five car convoy moving quickly through the city.80 EXT. SPOTTER APARTMENT- LATER 80 Our convoy pulls up in front of the apartment. They exit the vehicles. Our team stands surrounded by a 50-man security detail, rifle-stocks to shoulders. Double-time it - outside the walls now, hostile territory. Two-man sniper teams out front. Al-Ghazi ten steps ahead. A SANG five car security CREW pulls up, tracking Fleury and company. A stand off between the two police forces.81 EXT. SPOTTER APARTMENT - NEXT MOMENT 81 The SANG Officer in-charge steps to Al-Ghazi. In Arabic: SANG OFFICER This is unacceptable. KINGDOM 8/18/06 79. COLONEL AL-GHAZI It's cleared with General Abdul- Malik. We have five minutes here. SPECIAL FORCES OFFICER We were told they must remain in the vehicles... COLONEL AL-GHAZI That is not true... SPECIAL FORCES OFFICER They must stay in the Toyotas- COLONEL AL-GHAZI -report me then when you get in- touch with the General--Officer reaches down from nowhere and hammers Al-Ghazi open-handed as Al-Ghazi tries to step past. Collective shock.In that breath, Haytham punishes the Officer with a left-cross: knees buckle before he comprehends what hit him.Haytham's kick follows, catches the Officer in the sternum ashe hits ground.Al-Ghazi shakes it out, trades blows with the SANG second in-command.Leavitt moves, catches a rifle butt to the shoulder after twosteps. Fleury aims, drills the Soldier that butted Leavitt:instant night-night. Another SANG steps up. Fleury throatshim, knee caps him, and grabs his weapon before the dude hitsthe ground.Fleury can obviously fight... all the above happens in fourseconds.Then, a `knock-it-off' gunshot aimed at the sky pops one-footfrom Janet's head. We hear what she hears: one half-second ofthe shot, then the big ring. On her knees immediately, handover her ear. In response: heavy-caliber gunfire flies: groupflinch-n-crouch. The warning shots from a .50-caliber mountedon a Humvee racing this way from Al-Rahmah: dust plumes fromthe speed. Members of the security detail and the SpecialForces go Mexican stand-off. JANET MAYES Tell me it didn't burst-tell me it didn't burst- KINGDOM 8/18/06 80. Al-Ghazi the first to her, touching her hand to pull it away from the ear. A SANG nearby sees this: spits two inches from Al-Ghazi. Al-Ghazi leans to Janet's non-ringing side: COLONEL AL-GHAZI No blood. The Humvee now slides to stop ten feet from the fracas. General Abdul-Malik out of the passenger seat, in Arabic: GENERAL ABDUL-MALIK WHO FIRED? That Soldier's hand goes up sheepish. Two men out of the Humvee's backseat break him down, face first in the dirt: cuff him, lock him in the vehicle. GENERAL ABDUL-MALIK (CONT'D) AND WHY? SPECIAL FORCES OFFICER (standing, doubled over) A disagreement. The General grabs the Officer by the back of his head: an abusive Dad. Walks him to the side. GENERAL ABDUL-MALIK (back to Al-Ghazi) FIVE MINUTES. Al-Ghazi looks back down at Janet, at Leavitt's bruise, at the man Fleury knocked out. Angry. Impressed: fought alongside him. Haytham hasn't moved an inch, not even when the General came, chin raised to an entire platoon: say when. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (to Fleury) Five minutes. The SANG move back. The team staggered, slowly remembering why they're here in the first place, finally make their way to the Roof Top.82 EXT. ROOF TOP - CONTINUOUS 82 Fleury finds a table with a view. Tabletop: holes and finger- paint stains. Al-Ghazi three feet away. Both look in the same direction: two Tigers being held back. KINGDOM 8/18/06 81.Fleury's studying the housing compound through a video camera, comparing the images on his camera with what he saw posted on the internet. FLEURY You've seen the images of the attack posted on the internet? AL-GHAZI Yes. FLEURY Look for yourself. Al-Ghazi takes the camera from Fleury. He lines up the same shots we saw posted on Leavitt's computer: clearly a match. This is where they shot the video AL-GHAZI He was here... Another long moment. Al-Ghazi looks at the table, discardedtrash: the Capri Sun containers, the candy wrappers. RONALD FLEURY Formed the plan up here: saw everything he could hit. (beat) Way too pretty a' plan to have been fully hatched on just one visit. He came here a couple times.Al-Ghazi quiet for a long while. Then he reciprocates: COLONEL AL-GHAZI The man who did this is a Saudi - this place, this neighborhood... if foreigners were up here, someone would say something.Fleury looks over to the two dozen LOCALS peering out withsuspicion at them on the rooftop. FLEURY I see. COLONEL AL-GHAZI Nobody's talking. Here, many people love Hamza - they think of him like Bin Laden. Like your Robin Hood. Fleury smiles small at whatever just passed between them. Al-Ghazi stays stoic, then looks straight at Fleury: KINGDOM 8/18/06 82. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) A man who thinks of something like this ...while maybe his family played around him... scares me more than I have words to express. Shaytan... RONALD FLEURY (refocusing) Two big answers in two small minutes. Imagine if we had a couple days together.Al-Ghazi pauses. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) I'm sure the General is good guy...and I'm just as sure he's no Investigator.Al-Ghazi stands still, silent. Fleury reaches into hispocket. Reveals the detonator to Al-Ghazi. Al-Ghazi reachesto take it. Fleury holds it for a BEAT... RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) Let me help you.He hands the detonator to Al-Ghazi. Al-Ghazi now pockets it.A BEAT... COLONEL AL-GHAZI We break now: too hot to work outdoors. Then we will leave for the Palace. RONALD FLEURY And I imagine that will run until sundown? COLONEL AL-GHAZI (beat) I had televisions delivered to your quarters to pass the downtime.Fleury just nods back. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) Miss Mayes will not attend this evening. Men only.Fleury looks over to Janet. Hurt, yet extremely defiant, shelooks ready to attack anything that comes near her. KINGDOM 8/18/06 83. FLEURY You want to tell her that?83 EXT. CHEVY SUBURBAN, RIYADH SUBURBS - EARLY EVENING 83 Cobra gunships covering the convoy as it blurs past police checkpoint after police checkpoint. Intersections shut down. Bracketed front and back by Saudi Humvees.84 INT. CHEVY SUBURBAN, RIYADH SUBURBS - NEXT MOMENT 84 Al-Ghazi in the passenger seat, hand on the stock of his Mp- 5: again searching for threats. Our team in back, freshly scrubbed, collared-Polos as formal as anyone thought to pack. Team frustration has evolved into angry acceptance. The convoy zipping alongside a wall now: desert-orange in color, twelve-feet high, blue ottoman tiles running the length of the wall's horizontal center-line. COLONEL AL-GHAZI We're here. The helicopters peel off at steep angles, the sound of the rotors reverberating in your chest. Leavitt watching them go: ADAM LEAVITT Big wall. COLONEL AL-GHAZI It's a big palace.85 INT. PRINCE BIN KHALED'S PALACE - DAY 85 Majlis - a Saudi political ceremony in which Saudi citizens and local politicians (most aristocratic and exclusive) are permitted a brief audience with the Prince. A bizarre receiving line of sorts. Our team moves through a massive marble hallway towards the ceremony. ADAM LEAVITT How many Princes are there? COLONEL AL-GHAZI Over 5000. RONALD FLEURY They all get palaces this big? KINGDOM 8/18/06 84. COLONEL AL-GHAZI Some get bigger. ADAM LEAVITT Who pays for all this? GRANT SYKES General Motors, Ford, Chevrolet... ADAM LEAVITT Hey, man - I drive a Hybrid. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (a beat...) The Prince will ask you about your flight, the accommodations...lite subjects. If he offers you the chance to hold his Raptors, don't flinch: it's a compliment. ADAM LEAVITT (to Grant: genuine worry) What's a Raptor? Damon Schmidt appears.85A INT. PRINCE BIN KHALED'S PALACE - LATER 85A The Prince sits on a sea of pillows. There are several small flat screens playing business reports, CNN and Al-Jazeera. Seen from behind the Prince: everyone but Leavitt standing next to faces we've never seen. The table holds six gold serving platters. Enough food to kill a famine, tended by a frenzy of servants. Sykes puts a hand over his cup to stop the constant tea re- fill. Leavitt stands to the Prince's left, thick leather glove on his hand, a falcon perched on it. Leavitt holds it away from the rest of his body like he's already made peace with losing the arm. Servants hold three others close-by. PRINCE BIN KHALED His talons slice bone. ADAM LEAVITT Super. KINGDOM 8/18/06 85. PRINCE BIN KHALED That's my most prolific Hunter. I'm trying to teach his friends there by example, but I fear it's something you're born with or not. Do you agree, Mr. Ronald? Innate or not at all? RONALD FLEURY I do. PRINCE BIN KHALED (nodding: I could tell) What have you seen so far of our Kingdom? -- and know I can arrange tours anywhere within our borders.When I bull-rush our hosts you'll know it: In his quiet, calm-amidst-the-bullets tone: RONALD FLEURY I've seen that the man who planned the worst crime in your Kingdom's history is without a doubt Saudi...Pin-drop silence in response to Fleury murdering the Prince's"lite subjects," his attempt to extend the gilded circle-jerkby offering tours. Bin Khaled's face sinks to gray againafter the excited pink of talking about his Falcons. His handslowly moves back over his stomach: Napoleon's ulcers. AsFleury speaks, people unconsciously put their tea-cups down,look up at him with wide-eyes. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) ..and that if you walk 300 kilometers from the compound, you will find a rooftop where the attacks were planned. I've seen that the person in this room "born with it" is right there... (points at a gawking Al- Ghazi) Everything I just said came from Colonel Al-Ghazi: his observations of the scene while he was protecting us. And I think you're absolutely right Sir: that kind of instinct can't be taught: not to Falcons. Definitely not to SANG Generals. Innate or not at all. (beat) You want the murder to stop as much as I do. Let us help. KINGDOM 8/18/06 86.The Prince stares at Fleury, cataloguing everything Fleuryjust said. Stands. In Arabic: PRINCE BIN KHALED Colonel Al-Ghazi, a word. As the Prince walks out with Al-Ghazi, he signals anothercorps of servants to serve another round of cups: coffee.Dinner over. A servant takes the Falcon from Leavitt just ashe was starting to smile at it.Fleury sips his coffee. Schmidt and Sykes approach. GRANT SYKES That was impressive. RONALD FLEURY Think it will work? GRANT SYKES Yeah. Maybe. I mean, you can only play the "I'm going to the press card" like three more times. So, maybe. RONALD FLEURY They're paranoid and overly self- protective. DAMON SCHMIDT They aren't protecting anyone. There's no conspiracy. They're just terrified. Finally. The Saudis have finally seen the Monsters they helped create, because those Monsters have come home. And if Saudis don't catch Saudi Monsters, that's the end.Fleury opens his mouth to interrupt. DAMON SCHMIDT (CONT'D) (right through Fleury's attempt to speak) And that end could come double- quick if they let the US "Shaytan" catch those Monsters for them. (Fleury silent, gets it) Because that's what the Saudi on the street suspects: the only thing keeping the Royal Family upright is American evil. KINGDOM 8/18/06 87. GRANT SYKESThat's dead on accurate. Veryimpressive. That's why they'remaking it hard on us, and that'swhy he wants to help `em turn thescrews. RONALD FLEURYThey can have every shred of credit- DAMON SCHMIDT-you see the slums on the way in? RONALD FLEURYYeah. DAMON SCHMIDTSee that even though their homesare falling down, they hadsatellite dishes bolted on? RONALD FLEURYYeah... DAMON SCHMIDTEveryone already knows you're here.Credit? If the Saudis cracked thisCell while these servants werepouring coffee, Al-Jazeera stillleads the story with your Team. RONALD FLEURYHave you been to the crime-scene? DAMON SCHMIDTNo- RONALD FLEURY-if you had, you'd see the evilwork of real Talent. The kind thatdoesn't stop until it's forced. DAMON SCHMIDTAnd the path to Hell is paved withgood intentions. RONALD FLEURYYou having fun? DAMON SCHMIDT (genuine smile)Beats hell outta visa-stamping. (smile vanishing) (MORE) KINGDOM 8/18/06 88. DAMON SCHMIDT (CONT'D) You're on an island. I hope you know how to get off. RONALD FLEURY By catching Abu Hamza. Raising his coffee, toasting Fleury's cup: DAMON SCHMIDT Then here's to you. Let's bet: when this Colonel Al-Ghazi comes out, he's in-charge of the investigation -if so, you set me up on a date with Janet Mayes.86 INT. CHEVY SUBURBAN, RIYADH SUBURBS - NIGHT 86 100 m.p.h. Semi-grins from the Team: how the fuck did he do that? Al-Ghazi on a cell, rattling orders in excited Arabic: COLONEL AL-GHAZI ... every investigator on-scene by midnight, 50 more portable lights, three more pumps- RONALD FLEURY (to Leavitt) Do me a favor and tell Janet that she and Damon Schmidt got a date when he gets back to the States. Al-Ghazi points into darkness... COLONEL AL-GHAZI The rules still stand. (beat) But tomorrow will be a new day.87 INT. UNKNOWN LOCATION - SAME MOMENT 87 TIGHT ON blasting caps, military detonators, nails, wing- nuts, bolts, jacks, marbles... young hands feed lengths of detonating wire through pre-drilled holes on a wooden cover. The cover is attached to the box with nails and a rubber mallet: no sparks. The wires are braided into one, clipped to a lead on a servo-motor attached to the box-top. A vehicle is being fitted with tire guards and heavy-duty crash bumpers - all as a man quietly talks. KINGDOM 8/18/06 89. WIDEN to reveal the MAN, being VIDEOTAPED: foretelling of new threats, face obscured by his head wrap. Several other MEN watch and listen. TIGHT ON the man's eyes. REVEAL PHOTOS on a nearby table: the Al-Rahmah compound, Fleury with Al-Ghazi, Leavitt and Mayes, Sykes and Haytham. CUT TO:88 EXT. AL-RAHMAH COMMUNITY CENTER - MORNING, SECOND DAY 88 Half-assed gardening party. Al-Ghazi worked through the night, hasn't slept since we last saw him. Looks like it. COLONEL AL-GHAZI From now on, any evidence you find you hand over. Al-Ghazi smiles... COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) I'm "all ears," Special Agent Fleury. RONALD FLEURY We should start with the dead shooters. COLONEL AL-GHAZI They had no identification on them. Fingerprints and dental have come up empty. RONALD FLEURY Can we photograph all three of them? Couple hundred copies each... COLONEL AL-GHAZI No problem. RONALD FLEURY Good. If it's OK with you, I'd like to suggest we split up as follows... Sykes and Leavitt can't help small smiles. Finally getting to work. KINGDOM 8/18/06 89A.a89 EXT. BLAST SITE - MORNING a89 Sykes climbs down into the mud hole. GRANT SYKES (from the crater) Fellas, what we want to do is get this water out of here... see what's really going on. Understand? No reaction from Saudi police GRANT SYKES (CONT'D) C-VIN hunting--Data Plates-- Something drivable blew up. That's pretty obvious. Feels like ANFO to me, boys--Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil. Let's dry this hole and see if we can't figure what she was. Gotta pump? KINGDOM 8/18/06 90.89 EXT. BLAST SITE - LATER 89 Grant at the Crater. Three brand-new industrial-sized pumps draining it. 30 Police INVESTIGATORS watch Sykes. GRANT SYKES (to the Saudis) Got to get a little dirty, people. Crawl up in it. Make deep contact. You get that? Dead, confused stares from the Saudis into the mud hole... Sykes happy as a pig in shit. GRANT SYKES (CONT'D) Get nasty, dirty, filthy. He smiles, watches another Officer write Saudi translations on the stainless-steel paint cans into which you load evidence: shrapnel, soil, DNA, shells, etc.90 EXT. DEATH SQUAD SCENE, AL-RAHMAH - SAME MOMENT 90 A JUNIOR OFFICER double-times it to Al-Ghazi with a stack of photos: Rough head-shots of the three dead SHOOTERS. Fleury takes some, hands the rest back to Al-Ghazi. RONALD FLEURY Have him pass these out to the compound security. See if anybody knows them. Fleury, Leavitt, and Al-Ghazi walk past the Land Cruiser Haytham took out. 15 Police INVESTIGATORS on-scene: Leavitt stops, drops his bag. Al-Ghazi introduces him to the Officer in-charge. Leavitt opens his evidence kit. A couple of Police can't help but sneak a peek, checking out what the American's got inside.91 INT. RIPON HOME - LATER 91 Fleury stands with Al-Ghazi back in the Ripon home. RONALD FLEURY Would you mind doing one more thing for me? KINGDOM 8/18/06 91. EARL No, Sir.Fleury pulls out the photographs. RONALD FLEURY Could you tell me if you recognize any of these men?Fleury puts the three photographs down on the dining roomtable: not pretty pictures. Earl and Janine study the photos. JANINE ...Horrible.A few moments, then: EARL I don't know any of them.Fleury thinks a minute. Looks outside. FLEURY I'm just wondering. That chair out side. Looks like it gets a lot of wear. Looks comfortable. EARL That my mom's chair. FLEURY See, that's exactly what I was thinking. I'm guessing she spends a lot of time sitting outside? EARL All day. FLEURY She must pretty much see it all. Right? EARL She does. FLEURY Where is she? EARL She's sleeping.Pause: Fleury slow nods, then... KINGDOM 8/18/06 92. FLEURY Let's wake her up.TIME CUT:Maddy up at the dinning room table, looking down at thephotos. MADDY I've seen him. RONALD FLEURY Where?Maddy thinking... MADDY Like, a week ago. Twice I've seen him. Watering...With the garden crews. I remember he was wearing a Liza Minnelli T-shirt. I thought that was funny. RONALD FLEURY What about the others? MADDY (closer examination) No. Just him. I remember the T- shirt. I remember thinking it was odd...? RONALD FLEURY What, the Liza Minelli shirt? MADDY No. I do think Liza Minelli's gone odd, but that wasn't it. RONALD FLEURY What was odd? MADDY He was a Saudi. The gardener. RONALD FLEURY Yeah. MADDY Saudis, like Americans, don't do manual labor. Blowing leaves is beneath them. KINGDOM 8/18/06 93. Fleury looks to Al-Ghazi for confirmation. Al-Ghazi nods. RONALD FLEURY (to Maddy) Thank you. Fleury and Al-Ghazi start to leave. EARL Who is he? Fleury looks back to Earl. RONALD FLEURY That's one of the many things we're trying to find out...92 EXT. RIPON FAMILY HOME - NEXT MOMENT 92 Al-Ghazi gives the photo of the IDENTIFIED SHOOTER to an AIDE waiting outside. AL-GHAZI Find out if he worked with the gardeners. The aide takes the photo, starts walking away. AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) RUN! Freaked, the aide about jumps out of his skin...starts running.92A EXT. BLAST SIGHT - DAY 92A Sykes has a SAUDI WORK CREW digging in the hole, pulling out pieces of charred metal. He is slowly laying out the pieces and studying them like a puzzle, trying to figure out what the hell blew up.93 EXT. MOBILE FIELD MORGUE - SAME MOMENT 93 Janet and Haytham approach a 2000 square-foot M.A.S.H. Tent attached to refrigeration units. KINGDOM 8/18/06 94. FROM VARIOUS ANGLES: SANG OFFICERS look down at the Americans, dead eyed, watching them work.94 INT. MOBILE FIELD MORGUE - NEXT MOMENT 94 The Muslim dead wrapped in white linen according to the Sunna. Western bodies lie separated from Arabs. A Saudi TECHNICIAN blankly hands Janet and Haytham lab coats to cut the cold. Three Police OFFICERS in the tent with them: Watching Janet. Haytham is looking uncomfortable as if he is embarrassed to be seen with the American woman.95 EXT. JACKSON HOME - LATER 95 Fleury knocks at Aaron Jackson's door. A pause, the peep hole darkens. A longer pause, then the door opens. Aaron Jackson doesn't look any better. Same shirt. Packed boxes. Suit cases. Jackson is clearly getting out of Dodge. RONALD FLEURY (beat) How are your Sons? Jackson's eyes shrink-wrapped in tears. After a long silence with no answer, Fleury hands him a sheet of paper: RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) That's the name of a clinical psychologist. Works with Embassy kids...apparently very good at explaining violence- AARON JACKSON -what do you know about what my kids need? What they saw? What the rest of their lives might be like? RONALD FLEURY (beat) I thought maybe your Boys...without their Mom anymore...might ask you why sometime... KINGDOM 8/18/06 95.Aaron Jackson begins shaking his head yes. Tears flow free:sorrow and gratitude. He hangs on to Fleury's hand for a verylong time. Silent apologies. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) I will find the man responsible for the death of your wife. We're close. AARON JACKSON (beat) Tomorrow it'll be somebody else's wife.Fleury quiet. RONALD FLEURY Then tomorrow I'll come back.Fleury turns his head: Al-Ghazi approaches on the next lawndown with three JUNIOR OFFICERS. Fleury nods goodbye toJackson.Fleury approaches Al-Ghazi, holds up the Shooter's photo. COLONEL AL-GHAZI The gardener. We know who he is. He's on several watch lists.Fleury - a slight nod of satisfaction. RONALD FLEURY We know where he lives? COLONEL AL-GHAZI We will very soon. RONALD FLEURY You don't seem very excited. COLONEL AL-GHAZI These are always the easy ones to catch. Rarely does it lead to the planners. (beat) I want to take you somewhere. RONALD FLEURY Where? COLONEL AL-GHAZI To someone who may be able to help us catch Hamza. KINGDOM 8/18/06 96.96 EXT. BLAST SITE - DAY 96 Ten Police Investigators in the crater with Grant. Outside the crater: pieces of vehicles laid out outside: 1/2 of a door, 1/4 of a front axle, bits of engine. Five feet away from that: stacks of bagged evidence, two dozen evidence containers. Sykes clambers out of the hole, streaks of re-animated mud where sweat streams out of his hairline, mad-dashing for his chin. A chunk of metal in one hand, something small in the other: a marble. He drops it in the appropriate cannister then steps to a chunk of metal: one half of an alternator. Sykes stares down at the pieces of completely mangled metal. He studies a piece of twisted, half-melted iron. Thinking... He walks over to a second larger piece of twisted metal. Starts trying to fit the two pieces...like a puzzle.97 INT. MOBILE FIELD MORGUE, PRESENT DAY - NOON 97 The dead, oblong faces of the dog-walkers. Janet uses forceps to pull a wing-nut from one of the dog-walkers. Places it on a sanitary table littered with shrapnel: tiny bits of colored glass, ball-bearings, parts of razor blades, spent slugs, and scraps of unidentified metal.98 EXT. BLAST SITE - CRATER 98 Sykes still works the two large pieces of trashed iron. Until something clicks. The fit. Sykes looks down at the connected metal. SYKES It's a gurney. Sykes looks down at the mud colored DIGGERS. SYKES (CONT'D) Who's missing an ambulance? Just stares from the Saudis. SYKES (CONT'D) Could somebody please go get Sergeant Haytham? Confused stares from the Saudis. KINGDOM 8/18/06 97. SYKES (CONT'D) (loud) Sergeant Haytham! Inside the crater: water-level down to the ankles. Three Saudis dig around what looks to be one of the dualie-style back tires. Re-positioning to get a better grip, Sykes notices the top of what looks to be a sizeable, ragged hole, still mostly submerged. Pointing: GRANT SYKES Here. Sykes slogs over. He drops to his knees, reaches his hand in, all the way to his shoulder, the side of his face to the water: void. Out of the crater, Sykes points to a Bobcat earth-mover, in Arabic: GRANT SYKES (CONT'D) Who has the keys?99 INT. / EXT. MOBILE FIELD MORGUE - SAME 99 Janet stands with the Saudi Pathologist. She prepares to take a fingerprint from a body. As the moves in to touch the Arab hand, one of the GUARDS unloads in her direction - a full guttural Arabic assault. No idea what he's saying, but it's obvious he's furious. Haytham starts firing back. This is an un-translated argument. We sense that the guard is doing more than expressing his displeasure regarding Janet. This seems to be personal. Janet's getting very nervous. A frightening display. Then, Haytham turns: HAYTHAM You cannot touch any Muslims. Janet takes a breath as the Police hard-eye her. JANET No problem. Can I still touch Americans? HAYTHAM Of course. Janet moves back to the American dead, as the Saudi Tech continues with the Muslims. She pulls another shard of COLORED GLASS from a wound.100 INT./ EXT. SUBURBAN - DOWNTOWN RIYADH 100 KINGDOM 8/18/06 98.SERIES OF SHOTS:A two car convoy drives deep into the city. The Convoy is forced to stop across the street from a gasstation as a construction crane backs into a drive way.Al-Ghazi and Fleury stare across the street as a large gastruck fills up the heavy tanks of a Saudi gas station. FLEURY What's gas running a gallon out here, Al-Ghazi? Penny gallon?Al-Ghazi smiles. COLONEL AL-GHAZI It was an American. An engineer named Karl Twitchell. Hired by Saudi Arabia to find water. He didn't find so much as a dried oasis, but he found this. Enough oil to turn the earth.Fleury stares out as the oil spills out overflowing from thestation tank. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) They say my country sits on over 1 trillion more barrels of recoverable oil. RONALD FLEURY A trillion reasons for our Leaders to hold hands another one hundred years. COLONEL AL-GHAZI A trillion reasons to keep fighting. For both sides of this War. (beat) I think our oil has begun destroying more than it creates. RONALD FLEURY Agreed. KINGDOM 8/18/06 99. COLONEL AL-GHAZI I'm 46 years-old. (beat, tired) I have three daughters. And I find myself in a place where I no longer care about `why' we are attacked. I only care that 100 people woke up a few mornings ago had no idea it was their last. When we catch the Man who murdered these people, I don't care to ask even one question...I just want to kill him...stop him. (beat, a bit embarrassed) Do you understand? RONALD FLEURY Yes, I do. A long moment. Just road noise. We see two men, as different from each other as they could be, yet made from the same things. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) Is your first name `Colonel?' COLONEL AL-GHAZI (a small smile) Faris.100A INT. MOBILE FIELD MORGUE - CONTINUOUS 100A A glazed Haytham works with a Pathologist on the Muslim bodies. Their own collection of foreign objects. Janet pulls free 1/2 of a marble from a burrowed hole: explains the shards of colored glass. Cleans it in saline, holds it up to the light. We stare at it with her. Janet begins piecing together glass shards - reconstructing a MARBLE.101 EXT. DEATH SQUAD SCENE - DAY 101 Police Investigators eat lunch under a tent 50 yards away with Leavitt. Then a red laser-sight moves across him: Three MEMBERS of his Police security-detail: smirking, pretending to fidget with an AR-15's aperture. Leavitt stares. Subtle defiance. Nobody blinks. Silent moments pass. KINGDOM 8/18/06 100. The smallest of the detail reaches over, pulls the cocking device of the rifle: round in the chamber, so stop looking at us.102 INT. BOMB SITE - CRATER 102 Sykes, covered in mud, digging, searching for any signs of identification amongst the charred, mangled metal.103 EXT. INTERNET CAFE - LATER 103 The small convoy pulls up next to a run down, late seventies chunk of architecture which looks like a combination bombed dentist office/ accounting firm. Weird. Two TEENAGERS in Tu- pac T-shirts smoke in front. Fleury, Al-Ghazi and a couple of Police head for the blacked out front door.104 INT. INTERNET CAFE - CONTINUOUS 104 Moving up two flights of stairs. Dark, rundown shredded carpet. Old hip hop - cheap bass, thin speakers. Smoke. Everything grows in intensity as they move up the stairs. Two more TEENAGERS skulk past. FLEURY (half joking to Al-Ghazi) Feel like I'm back home in Detroit. Al-Ghazi keeps moving up and into what is definitely on Fleury's top ten list of the most bizarre places he's ever been. FLEURY'S POV: Two rooms: First is some kind of snack/smoke/TV lounge. FILIPINOS serve drinks. Packs of young Saudi MEN drink Cokes, tea, coffee, and smoke. Odd Saudi talk shows mix with hip hop. Behind, another room: bigger, overflowing with stacks of mis- matched computers. Dozens of them. Dozens of Saudi TEENAGERS plugged in. Head-phoned and mic'd. All chain smoking, all fully plugged in to CALL OF DUTY (an American war game) on line. These kids play with rabid intensity, smoking and screaming and killing. KINGDOM 8/18/06 101. Al-Ghazi moves through the crowd. A small middle aged SAUDI spots Al-Ghazi. They exchange words. Al-Ghazi waves Fleury to follow. Fleury does and follows Al-Ghazi through the computer room, into a back office.105 INT. INTERNET CAFE - BACK OFFICE - CONTINUOUS 105 A middle aged Saudi: TALAL. He sits behind a cluttered desk. Art books and computers everywhere. He gets up and embraces Al-Ghazi. Al-Ghazi then turns to face Fleury. COLONEL AL-GHAZI At one time, Talal was Arafat's senior bomb-maker and planner in the occupied territories. He joined Bin-Laden when Al Qaeda brought the fight to the Royal Family. RONALD FLEURY (beat) OK. Shouldn't we arrest him or shoot him or something? Small smile from Al-Ghazi. COLONEL AL-GHAZI He turned himself in last year during an amnesty. He's now part of a new government effort to balance the experience of Saudi Youth. RONALD FLEURY This place is community service? COLONEL AL-GHAZI If America figures out a way of keeping their kids off the computers please let us know. RONALD FLEURY Why did he turn himself in? Before Al-Ghazi can answer, Talal begins talking to him in Arabic. Al-Ghazi translates: COLONEL AL-GHAZI `You only come after I see there were bombs. (MORE) KINGDOM 8/18/06 102. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) Did you know Bin Laden put 5 million-dollars on my head? Why shouldn't it be 10?'Subdued laughter. Then Talal becomes quiet, grave. Al-Ghazicontinues the translation: COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) The Man who made War on Al-Rahmah is someone my age -- this kind of skill is learned over decades.Talal looks at Fleury now, speaking directly to him throughAl-Ghazi: COLONEL AL-GHAZI (O.C.) (CONT'D) A Man who can plan the mass-murder of women and children, then go home at night to his own and sleep soundly...? That kind of Man is supremely difficult to catch. RONALD FLEURY (through Al-Ghazi) How does he know he slept soundly?Colonel Al-Ghazi hesitates, then relays Fleury's question. Talal stares: eyes touched by war-blood-atrocities committed.Someone who believes he's going to Hell. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (O.C.) (translating) Because he hasn't stopped. You stop when their faces don't let you close your eyes... RONALD FLEURY (through Al-Ghazi) Is that why you quit? COLONEL AL-GHAZI (O.C.) (translating) 17 days without sleep will make you quit anything.Two TEENAGERS stick their heads into the office. They're madabout the sharing of a computer. Talal puts a fast stop toit. It's obvious he's good with these young boys. He smilesas he speaks to Al-Ghazi.Al-Ghazi translates to Fleury. KINGDOM 8/18/06 103. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) He says he makes my job easier. Here, at least they only fight and kill on computers.Al-Ghazi shows Talal the detonator. The old man studies it. Al-Ghazi and Talal speak in Arabic about the detonator. Al-Ghazi looks to Fleury, translates. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) He says that there are several ways to get American military equipment like this detonator but not many men in Saudi Arabia that know how to get them. FLEURY How do they get them? COLONEL AL-GHAZI Usually smuggled from Iraq by corrupt soldiers working with the Americans. FLEURY Could Hamza get this equipment? Al-Ghazi asks Talal. COLONEL AL-GHAZI Without question. Yes, he could. RONALD FLEURY (through Al-Ghazi) How do we find him?He thinks for a moment, then speaks. The boys chuckle as Al-Ghazi continues translating: COLONEL AL-GHAZI Prayer. Luck. Handshakes.Fleury looks at Al-Ghazi, doesn't quite get it... RONALD FLEURY (to Al-Ghazi) Well, I think I get the `prayer' and `luck' parts...Talal slowly stands, Al-Ghazi helping him up, moves toFleury. Reaches his hand out to him, quietly: KINGDOM 8/18/06 104. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (O.C.) (translating) His hands will feel like this. Fleury shakes Talal's hand, turns it over: index finger gone. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (O.C.) (CONT'D) (translating) Every Amir at some point gets bitten by his work.106 EXT. BLAST SITE - DAY 106 The Bobcat digs into the crater, over the unknown hole. Already a large pile of dirt. Another sizeable scoop down about two feet: nothing. Haytham now stands over the crater watching Sykes. Leavitt has joined him. GRANT SYKES Whatever this is, it blasted-off like NASA. Haytham yells to the Machine Operator in Arabic: SERGEANT HAYTHAM Driven in at an angle... go deeper... Another gouge of earth: 4 feet. Nothing. Grant sits back. GRANT SYKES `High-order explosion' doesn't do it justice: what's left a' this looks like it was put through a wood-chipper. Leavitt rubs his eyes: adrenaline long gone. Looks at his watch: time passing fast. Sykes drops to his stomach, reaches in with the TRENCHING TOOL to see how much farther the hole goes: a metallic `clink. An oxygen tank. The kind used in ambulances. Nozzle assembly gone, burst in the explosion with a force that drove it several feet into solid ground. Haytham takes a razor blade, scratches off samples of the soil and carbon for explosive residue into a fresh cannister. Then takes a wet rag, begins cleaning the tank to reveal Arabic script... SERGEANT HAYTHAM (to Sykes) Hospital Identification... Ambulance identification. KINGDOM 8/18/06 105. GRANT SYKES Do you know this hospital? SERGEANT HAYTHAM Yes. GRANT SYKES Call it in.107 INT. AL-RAHMAH COMMUNITY CENTER 107 Now a mini command post. Al-Ghazi works phones with Fleury and Mayes by his side. Sykes and Leavitt muddy, sitting on their cots. Leavitt tags evidence from the shootout. Al-Ghazi hangs up, looks to Fleury. COLONEL AL-GHAZI The ambulance was reported stolen from King Fahd Hospital last Wednesday, three days before the bombing. RONALD FLEURY OK. COLONEL AL-GHAZI There's more: I told you it wouldn't be hard to find the soldiers. RONALD FLEURY (focused; to Al-Ghazi) What you got? COLONEL AL-GHAZI The stolen ambulance had a twenty man crew that rotated shifts on it. We checked all twenty men. One of them, Muaath Hazmi is now of interest to us. RONALD FLEURY Why? Al-Ghazi reaches for the photo of the dead shooter/attacker. COLONEL AL-GHAZI Because this gentleman is Fathi Hazmi, Muaath's brother. KINGDOM 8/18/06 106. RONALD FLEURY Where's Muaath? COLONEL AL-GHAZI I'm going to show you.108 EXT. SUBURBAN RIYADH STREET - AFTERNOON 108 A five block radius has been sealed off by Police Vehicles. Fleury and his team are at the outer perimeter, crouched behind barricades at the entrance of a cul-de-sac. They're not allowed anywhere near the line of fire. They sport bullet-proof vests and helmets: look like reporters in a war-zone. Police turn away cars, neighbors. Snipers stand posted on near-by rooftops. Helicopters audible overhead. Street deserted. GRANT SYKES We never get to do anything fun. JANET MAYES Sykes, I'm guessing you don't even remember how to load your gun. GRANT SYKES That's not funny. ADAM LEAVITT She's not trying to be funny. GRANT SYKES I'm a very good shot. JANET MAYES I'm sure. Haytham hands Al-Ghazi a walkie-talkie, in Arabic: COLONEL AL-GHAZI Neighbors clear? VOICE (O.S.) Yes. COLONEL AL-GHAZI Activity or communication? VOICE (O.S.) Snipers have seen nothing. No telephone line into the house. KINGDOM 8/18/06 107. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (beat) Allahuakbar. Go. Two black Suburbans roll around the corner: out-fitted with running boards and hand rails upon which a 12-man SWAT team rides: 3 on each rail, 2 vehicles. SWAT team: military fatigues, black hoods, Mp-5 close-quarter sub-machine guns. Flying down the cul-de-sac: Half-way down the street, one of the Snipers open fire: BOOM-BOOM-BOOM. That moment an RPG fires wide of the lead Suburban. Over Al-Ghazi's walkie- talkie, in Arabic: VOICE (O.S.) ONE DOWN! RPG! The two SWAT-Teamers at the front of the running boards open up with their MP-5s one-handed: the front of the house puffs, bursts, disintegrates. Suburbans rip to a stop. SWAT off, move fast. Three toss flash grenades into and around the house. Massive flash-bangs. Six through the front door. Six sprinting around back. Loud AK-47 bursts from inside now...screams. Then an RPG fired inside: the rushing sound and yellow-white flash past two windows. A section of the far left wall of the house detonates from the inside out. More mechanical, silenced thwacks from the SWAT Mp-5s. Silence. Then voices from Al-Ghazi's walkie-talkie. Ambulances round the corner, fly toward the house: VOICE (O.S.) (CONT'D) CLEAR.109 INT. TARGETED HOUSE - MOMENTS LATER 109 The team enters, wide-eyed. Four men in civilian garb, all dead: multiple bullet wounds. An Officer with four 8 X 10 mug- shots, matching them to the dead faces, dropping mug-shots on respective chests. Once he's finished, a police photographer takes new pictures of each. At the far side of the House: engineers use 2x4s to support the wall hit with the RPG. All of it has the feel of standard Saudi operation procedure. Al-Ghazi appears from the back of the house. Bends over each of the four dead men: lifting each of their hands, examining the backs of the hands quickly. GRANT SYKES Prints are on the other side... KINGDOM 8/18/06 108. COLONEL AL-GHAZI I'm not looking for prints. I'm looking for fingers. Stands after the last: a look of controlled frustration that Fleury files. Then Al-Ghazi motions to Sykes and Fleury.110 INT. REAR OF THE HOUSE - NEXT MOMENT 110 Back to the rear of the house: stacks of plastic explosives, buckets of shrapnel, two Paramedics working feverishly on a SWAT Officer hit multiple times. Fleury goes about his business like a man isn't dying six feet away. Sykes is a kid in a candy store: rummaging through explosives, blasting caps, shrapnel. RONALD FLEURY JANET... Janet makes her way back. Immediately moves to the wounded SWAT Officer. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) He's gone... This shrapnel look like the stuff you pulled at the morgue? JANET MAYES (distracted) Yeah... I pulled so much it's hard to remember it all. RONALD FLEURY Bolts? JANET MAYES Yes. RONALD FLEURY Wing nuts? JANET MAYES Yeah. RONALD FLEURY Razor blades? JANET MAYES Sure. KINGDOM 8/18/06 109.Al-Ghazi begins tossing the room, motions to Fleury: help.Fleury moves to him. RONALD FLEURY (calling back) ADAM... GRANT SYKES C-4...Al-Ghazi dumps desk drawers: pictures of government-lookingbuildings, walled-compounds. Lays them out in rows, studyingeach. Leavitt appears, focuses on the C-4 immediately. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (O.C.) -the front gates of every other western housing compound in Riyadh.Everybody looks at the Colonel, pointing at the pictures: COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) And Embassies: Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, England... ADAM LEAVITT (beat) The Coalition...Leavitt steps, scans the pictures, picks up two inparticular: buildings with scaffolding and heavy equipment. ADAM LEAVITT (CONT'D) These are all countries with Troops in Iraq -- Japanese and Italian embassies are under construction? COLONEL AL-GHAZI The entire Diplomatic Quarter is being retro-fitted to sustain bigger bomb blasts.Janet pops her head in: JANET MAYES -the Prince's Convoy just showed.Al-Ghazi's face: fear. RONALD FLEURY This is bullshit. You know it. Meaningless. There's no leader here. These are kids. That's it. KINGDOM 8/18/06 110. Al-Ghazi says nothing. JANET MAYES We're out of here. RONALD FLEURY Yes, that's it. Smile for the cameras, body-bag some children. Wrap it up, but us -- out. I get it. COLONEL AL-GHAZI I'm sorry.111 EXT. FRONT OF TARGETED HOME - MOMENTS LATER 111 Prince Bin Khaled touring the scene: reporters, photographers, his personal top-line security detail: the business suits and boots, the special ops M-4s. All on edge to be in a Saudi neighborhood. Rahman, looking like he needs sleep and vitamins. Lecturing in Arabic: PRINCE BIN KHALED Only in death will our enemies realize Allah never permits defiance of his almighty will. Damon Schmidt trailing behind the Prince's detail. The Prince locks Al-Ghazi with a mad-dog stare in-between lesson points. One of the Prince's inner-circle heads straight for Al-Ghazi, in Arabic: INNER-CIRCLE Take the Americans inside now and keep them out of sight. You will be spoken to about their presence here.112 INT. TARGETED HOUSE - NEXT MOMENT 112 The Team sitting on the floor, below the window sills, away from the holes and doors. Al-Ghazi standing, looking out the window at the spectacle. Damon Schmidt steps in: sees dead bodies and goes ghost, almost collapses. Leavitt pops up, helps him sit. RONALD FLEURY You need water? A quick `no' nod: like the second before you lose lunch. KINGDOM 8/18/06 111. ADAM LEAVITT You really ought not look at this. DAMON SCHMIDT (pointing at the dead) That fella got shot right through his God damn nipple... JANET MAYES Don't stare too long. It'll start living in your dreams.Janet's voice causes Schmidt to immediately force composure. DAMON SCHMIDT No -- I know. RONALD FLEURY You do? (beat) How did you know we were here? DAMON SCHMIDT The Prince has Men at Al-Rahmah. COLONEL AL-GHAZI What Men? DAMON SCHMIDT Ask him. (beat) 3 vehicles will stay behind when the Prince and Press leave. You'll convoy straight to BA flights into Dulles -- last minute fares come out of your budget, by-the-by. Tried to swing upgrades, but check at the counter.Pissed, reproachful head-shakes. DAMON SCHMIDT (CONT'D) (beat; color returning) Turn those frowns upside down, people. This will be pitched as a stunning Saudi-only counter-punch that killed those responsible for Al-Rahmah. Al-Jazeera will play up an FBI presence, we'll play up their ties to Terror as checkmate. And everyone that was so righteously pissed back home is gonna eat crow. (MORE) KINGDOM 8/18/06 112. DAMON SCHMIDT (CONT'D) Already a rumor that the guy who wrote our State Department memo- RONALD FLEURY -Ellis Leach? DAMON SCHMIDT You know him? He's gonna be put out to pasture: made an example of by the President to ensure all levels of government get tough on Terror. (right at Fleury) You won the hand on the River card. RONALD FLEURY We didn't win shit, Schmidt. These are teenagers... children with pictures that someone far senior has provided them. DAMON SCHMIDT -kidding me? You mean those are Terrorist targets? Holy Wow. Momma, don't let your children grow up to be cowboys. (beat) Just get ready to go home and revel in the fact that for the next few weeks your shit won't stink.The phone rings that instant. Leavitt hands it up to Fleury.Schmidt holds his hand up to Janet: high-five -- she gives itup slowly, warily, semi-charmed: DAMON SCHMIDT (CONT'D) (to Janet) Double or nothing that's a congratulatory call. RONALD FLEURY Hello? (beat) Yes, Sir. We're all here and healthy. I'm sitting next to their corpses but this may not be over. These don't feel like anything resembling senior leadership- (beat) -thank you Sir. I do. (MORE) KINGDOM 8/18/06 113. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) Please do me one favor before we board: warn every `Coalition-of-the- Willing' or whatever the hell we're calling our Iraq allies now, that pictures of their Riyadh embassies were found in this Cell's safe- house.113 INT. SUBURBAN - LATER 113 Flying down a highway. Haytham driving. Sykes up front. The rest of the team crammed in back: Fleury next to Al-Ghazi; Mayes and Leavitt on the back bench. Everyone spent. Grant stares up at a distant jet climbing-out. The police radio belching calm codes and calls every few seconds. RONALD FLEURY (to Al-Gahzi) What do you think? Al-Ghazi looks up at Fleury, slowly shakes his head. AL-GHAZI Amateurs. It's a small win. RONALD FLEURY Yeah. A beat. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) I'm thinking about New York - February 26, 1993. The first time they tried to hit the Trade Towers. GRANT SYKES I'm thinking about going straight to Dan's, gonna order six PBRs- JANET MAYES -Pabst? ADAM LEAVITT Keep it real. You ever drink PBR, Haytham? HAYTHAM No. GRANT SYKES Any beer? KINGDOM 8/18/06 114. HAYTHAM (small smile) No. GRANT SYKES Now...that's just unreasonable. Good Police work and problem drinking are like a chicken and egg thing: which enables the other?In the back, Al-Ghazi can't help a small smile either.Fleury's not into it. All business, pissed, clearly does notwant Pabst. RONALD FLEURY (to Al-Ghazi) Remember how we caught that cell? AL-GHAZI Yes. Car bomb. He went back to pick up his deposit on the rental car. RONALD FLEURY Four hundred dollars. For four hundred dollars, he was caught. Stupidity. Catching the cell was easy. Just like this. The cell came back.Fleury looks at Al-Ghazi. He knows the win is small. Alsoknows that's all she wrote, for now. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) I'll be back. COLONEL AL-GHAZI Yes, you will.The POLICE BAND suddenly squelches loud with excited Arabic.Everyone perks, leans up to listen to the urgency. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) (translating radio chatter) Religious demonstration in progress. Back near the City Center.A small collective smirk, sigh of relief. Fleury turns in hisseat. KINGDOM 8/18/06 115. GRANT SYKES I'm serious. Beer will open up your subconscious. Canned beer especially. Give you instincts they can't teach- Fleury notices the Suburban bringing up the rear has dropped back. RONALD FLEURY (looking back) Is he responding to the call? Dropped back... COLONEL AL-GHAZI (O.C.) (turning) What? Al-Ghazi and Fleury both looking back to the following Suburban now. Dropped back, sunglasses and blank faces staring back at them. Fleury looks to the overpass above - he sees a YOUNG MAN on a cell phone. As they pass, the kid runs to watch them from the other side. Al-Ghazi gets to the CB radio, in Arabic: COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) Tighten up- -the trailing Suburban doesn't `tighten up.' It falls further back. Fleury instinctively turns, wide-eyed -- out the window: a small brown truck swerves out of the opposing lanes, flying across the desert median, aimed at the Convoy. Without hesitation Fleury reaches over Haytham, rips the steering-wheel right, nosing away from the approach...114 114 THRU 116 OMITTED 114117 EXT. SAUDI HIGHWAY - SAME MOMENT 117 Our Suburban on two wheels: The lead Suburban turns the same direction a twitch too late. The small brown truck detonates. The lead Suburban takes a massive fraction of the explosion broadside, essentially shielding our vehicle. Flame spits through the lead vehicle as it spins, flips onto its roof. KINGDOM 8/18/06 116.118 INT. OUR SUBURBAN - NEXT MOMENT 118 Off-road now, violent impacts on bare rims shedding rubber.119 EXT. HIGHWAY ATTACK AFTERMATH - NEXT MOMENT 119 The lead Suburban: tortoise on its back, engulfed, still sliding. Fleury's Suburban fish-tailing. The Lead Suburban blows in-half now as the gas tank ruptures. A football-sized shard of metal explodes through our windshield-120 INT. OUR SUBURBAN - SAME MOMENT 120 - and smashes straight out the back, taking the rear cargo door with it. The shock of it causes Haytham to lose control in earnest now. The Suburban flips, barrel rolls. Violent pounding inside the vehicle. Motion stops: upside down, just the roar of the big Detroit V-8 red-lining, wheels spinning in air. Everyone dazed, border-line unconscious. Fleury's bell rung the worst, trying to function, get his bearings. Fleury touches Leavitt's face, can barely see through the gathering smoke that smells like oil. RONALD FLEURY You whole? ADAM LEAVITT Think so- Leavitt unbuckles his seat belt and smashes head first into the ceiling -- running FOOTFALLS approach, quick yell-yips in Arabic: commands? The Driver and three other Police Officers from the trailing Suburban. Smoke fills the interior now: thank God these Police Officers have ripped open a door: saviors. They grip Leavitt by his hair because it's the only thing they can grab. Alarmed, Al-Ghazi begins to scramble for Leavitt. COLONEL AL-GHAZI This is not right! KINGDOM 8/18/06 117. Haytham gets a good look at the driver, recognizes him as the officer who shamed him at the compound on day one. Haytham moves to unbuckle. Fleury's trying to claw towards Leavitt. Throwing upside down punches at the air. Unbuckles himself now. RONALD FLEURY WHAT THE- JANET MAYES (panicked) ADAM! WHAT -- WHAT ARE THEY DOING? Alarm rising, everyone else unbuckles and smashes into the ceiling as horizons go flip-flop confusion.121 EXT. HIGHWAY ATTACK AFTERMATH - NEXT MOMENT 121 Leavitt's throwing punches as he's dragged with velocity to the trail Suburban, idling. Pistol-whipped viciously, repeatedly until they're able to kick him inside. Another Officer from the trailing vehicle steps up with an AK-47, pulls back the cocking mechanism, ready to spray the dazed occupants of our Suburban- -the Officer's ankles and shins detonate. POP-POP-POP-POP from the driver's seat: Haytham. Screams from the would-be shooter at double volume. Haytham keeps firing as the Officer, hit multiple times, falls hard. The trailing Suburban hesitates, slams into our Suburban just as Fleury is getting out of the wreckage. Everybody else still inside, knocked silly. The trailing Suburban backs up quick. Fleury instinctively goes for his holster: empty for days now. RONALD FLEURY GUN! Trailing Suburban accelerates away now, as Janet struggles out. Haytham's 9 MM in-hand racked open: empty. Fleury steps away from the now black smoke pouring from the vehicle -- in the passenger seat of the trail Suburban, he sees the Officer that checked passports at Prince Sultan Air Base. GRANT SYKES -DOOR HELP- Fleury rips Grant's door open. Trapped smoke billows, clears: Grant's arm closest to the outside of the vehicle dangles at an unnatural angle, bleeding badly. KINGDOM 8/18/06 118. GRANT SYKES (CONT'D) Can't release-Fleury begins sawing Grant's seat-belt with a jagged piece ofmetal. RONALD FLEURY Hands up -- you're gonna fall-Sykes still does, ugly. Fleury and Janet rip him free of theSuburban.Haytham's pulling shotguns, handguns, ammo from the flippedvehicle. Haytham pointing ahead, to the fading roster-tail.In Arabic: SERGEANT HAYTHAM They're going to disappear...Desperate, Fleury looks in the direction of the fleeingSuburban: the rooster-tail it leaves getting smaller. Al-Ghazi nods, swings his head to thesnarled/wrecked highwaytraffic. PEOPLE hesitantly step toward uniforms they trust oninstinct. Haytham dumps the pile of weapons at the Team'sfeet, re-loads his 9MM. Janet ties a half-assed tourniquetaround Sykes' reminder of an arm.Al-Ghazi steps toward the approaching crowd: they see hisstate, his gun, and turn back: panic starts to infect thelarger mass, then the topper--AUTOMATIC GUNFIRE from somewhere. Glass-dirt-metal burstsaround us: this attack is still going.Fleury looks up: just the roof of an old Mercedes on themedian, dirt kicked up behind them, running behind lines ofstopped-wrecked traffic now. The barrel of a rifle held highout the window like a taunt. Accelerating for another openingto finish the job.Scared motorists devolve into terrified motorists. Many haveabandoned their vehicles to sprint into the desert, the restgo smash-'em-up derby-folly: 50 panicked drivers aiming forthe same spots. Fleury snatches an M4A1 from the stackdropped by Haytham, up to his shoulder, hustling toward thenext break in traffic. The Mercedes is approaching at 80 MPH. RONALD FLEURY (back to his crew) GET DOWN! KINGDOM 8/18/06 119.Al-Ghazi starts screaming in Arabic, motioning frantically tothe CITIZENS who have turned back, running toward them, inArabic: COLONEL AL-GHAZI DOWN!Fleury's view blocked by fleeing Saudis: just intermittentflashes of the Mercedes braking hard, massive dust cloudbehind them, sliding toward the opening Fleury pre-sighted.Intermittent wild shots fired from the SUV, vaguely in ourdirection.Fleury flips a switch on the left side of the rifle, justforward of the handle: full-auto. Takes a deep, measuredSniper's breath, eases the stock snug aimpoint up to hisright eye, and without hesitation lets loose the entire clipperfectly: one heartbeat before the Mercedes hits the gap.The right side of the Mercedes shreds just as it appears.Fleury's clip gone in a flash, yet more rounds still hit theMercedes: Al-Ghazi four feet away, firing his own salvo froma knee. Something bright red pops against the driver's sidewindow now, the Mercedes rip-slides to a stop. Commotioninside. Wild, half-aimed shots back at us.Then it starts up again. Al-Ghazi bolts toward the line ofstopped traffic. Searching for something big, empty, stillrunning. Fleury right on his heels. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) WE MOVE NOW OR WE LOSE HIM.Early 90's Land Rover. Desert tough. Driver long-gone,exhaust plumes pumping out. Al-Ghazi dives into the Driver'sseat, Fleury shotgun. Guns it to the rest of the Survivors,an eye on the rooster-tail of the Mercedes he and Fleury justshredded, heading the same direction as Leavitt's kidnappers.Al-Ghazi jumps out, ushers Haytham into the Driver's seat. InArabic: COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) You know Suweidi -- you know how to go fast.Fleury helps Sykes into the rear. Janet loads the weapons.Jump in.The Land Rover spits it's own tell-tale plume as it sprintsaway down the median, dodging traffic, in desperate pursuit.Startling silence comes sudden now as the fight moveselsewhere. Receding engines. Petering screams/shouts. KINGDOM 8/18/06 120. Hold on the flipped, still burning/still smoking Suburbans. Surreal in the sun/smoke/haze.122 INT. TRAIL SUBURBAN - SAME MOMENT 122 Driving as fast-hard as possible. No regard for anyone/thing. Passport Officer up front pulls a cell-phone. A THIRD AND FOURTH in the back still beating and zip-cuffing Leavitt.123 INT. LAND ROVER - NEXT MOMENT 123 Janet's sitting with Sykes in the rear, readying weapons and ammo. She hands him twin Berettas - Sykes' double-fisting despite his wound, looking forward to a fight. SYKES Nobody's gonna hurt Leavitt but me. Driver's Seat P.O.V.: on the median, 95 MPH, dodging abandoned and escaping cars. High-beams flashed on-off-on- off, constant horn, gaining on the Mercedes' rooster-tail ahead of them.124 INT. TRAIL SUBURBAN - SAME MOMENT 124 Powering deep into the Suweidi neighborhood. Skid-stopping and backing into an alley between broken down three story buildings.125 INT. LAND ROVER - SAME MOMENT 125 Haytham scanning as he drives: straining to see the plume from the second attacking vehicle way ahead, blending with other fleeing, scared motorists. We watch as the distant plume cuts hard left, at a high rate of speed... then DISAPPEARS.126 INT. UNKNOWN ROOM - SAME MOMENT 126 Quiet. The 32 year-old son we met on the rooftop is on his cell phone again, speed-assembling an ancient VHS camera atop a tri-pod. THE SON (in Arabic, frantic) DO NOT COME HERE! Intercut with the Mercedes Driver yelling frantic into his cell phone: KINGDOM 8/18/06 121. MERCEDES DRIVER (Arabic) He's been shot! BE READY. Back in the room, A HUGE MAN dressed in paramilitary black, face wrapped in his shumagh, so only the eyes are visible, stands in front of a sheet hung from the ceiling, quietly practicing/reading a speech for an imaginary audience. Lots of gesticulating and head movement. The handle of large knife sticks from his waste band. Door BURSTS open, bottom hinge rips from the jamb. Leavitt is slammed to the ground. Passport Officer shoves the practicing Speaker out of the way- Turns to the wide-eyed 32 year-old. PASSPORT OFFICER NOW. HURRY. Leavitt's face already swollen-black-bleeding, scanning the room with terrified fury in his eyes. He sees the handle of the knife sticking from the Huge Man's waistband. His tears leak all at once. The Officer takes the knife, turns to Leavitt: dirty 11-inch blade...127 INT. LAND ROVER - NEXT MOMENT 127 Haytham searching for the turn-off: where the rooster-tail they were following cut left, died. At the last minute, he sees tire marks headed down an embankment into a decrepit, decaying apartment block neighborhood. Haytham cuts hard, fish-tails. Sykes' head SMASHES into the rear-side window, starring it. They're being lead into Riyadh's most hostile neighborhood. AL-GHAZI We should not be here... JANET'S POV: scanning for the trail Suburban and the Mercedes - she can't help but notice the neighborhood. Halfway past an intersection, Fleury yells: RONALD FLEURY BRAKES-REVERSE-TO THE RIGHT... Haytham brakes, reverses: the Suburban. KINGDOM 8/18/06 122.128 INT. LAND CRUISER / EXT. SUWEIDI - NEXT MOMENT 128 Without hesitation Haytham pulls across the cramped street, surrounded by the same decaying buildings. Ahead: CIVILIANS huddled behind cars, poking heads out from behind shacks. A second passes: these people know where the attackers went. Al-Ghazi locks eyes with a little boy... he quickly-quietly just shakes his head no. In the back, Sykes has fallen on his back. He looks up through the window: sees a shape jet past on the top of the closest building -- three stories up: the little boy was nodding a warning- What follows is fast, chaotic, eyes-closed combat: GRANT SYKES -GET OUT OF- -big BOOM of close-in shells. As Haytham throws it in reverse and punches, the front of the Rover shreds. The windshield bursts. Engine dies: tachometer and speedometer needles bottom out instantly. Haytham and Al-Ghazi tuck into the dash. Fleury tries to get as close to the backseat floor panels as possible. Janet covers Sykes. A Thump-Thump-Thump can be heard on the roof: A GRENADE thrown with too much arm by the guy Sykes spotted bounces off the roof and into the Land Cruiser. Frantic, Fleury swats it out. The blast releases a massive airburst and bits of shrapnel into the vehicle, starring windows, rocking it: creak of shocks and struts. Fleury lifts up now, grabs the M-4: returns fire indiscriminately through the windows at any and all surrounding rooftops. That provides cover and reminds everyone in the car they're armed. Janet exits with a rifle: firing out the back door, more covering fire. Civilians who were ready to see a massacre scurry now that it's a fight.129 EXT. ROOF TOP - NEXT MOMENT 129 A SHOOTER: black-hood, black T-shirt, old-school red-white- black Air Jordans, snub-stock AK, an open, filthy North Face backpack at his feet holding spare clips, God knows what else. Shots from below keep him two feet away from the ledge, firing down in random sweeps, head turned like he's lighting a fire-cracker. KINGDOM 8/18/06 123. We see things from above, three stories down, a sweep of blindly-fired shells pop the asphalt inches from Fleury's head, soiling his face in black-top debris. But Fleury never stops firing back, his own head slightly turned, flinching on reflex. Air Jordan grabs another grenade just before he disintegrates: Fleury's three-feet away with the riot gun. Another rack and blast to make sure A.J. stays down for eternity. Fleury spots and bull-charges a second SHOOTER: Ballistic Chicken, Fleury wins. A sound... Fleury spins, racking the riot gun, aims and FREEZES: 2 six year old BOYS stare from the doorway.130 EXT. SUWEIDI STREET - NEXT MOMENT 130 Haytham crouches in front of the Land Cruiser. Rocks thrown now from somewhere: KIDS peeking from behind shacks Palestinian-style. He's pelted in the side of the head. Janet and Sykes move to a stopped vehicle and take cover. From the rooftop, Fleury yells down to the men on the ground. FLEURY (O.C.) I CAN SEE THE MERCEDES... BLOOD- TRAILS RIGHT UP TO AN APARTMENT IN THE NEXT BUILDING-131 EXT. ROOF TOP - SAME MOMENT 131 Fleury's P.O.V.: an Apartment complex that looks like a roadside motel: exposed stairwells, walkways, entrances. A puddle in front of one of the front doors on the third floor. Then we look right, one street over: civilian FIGURES, some in traditional dress, starting to mass. FLEURY MOB FORMING NEXT BLOCK! He drops the riot gun, picks up the AK from the man he just killed, pops a new clip from the backpack, slings the backpack over her shoulders. Starts to hustle down.132 INT. UNKNOWN ROOM - SAME MOMENT 132 Gunshots reverberating from outside. Echoes. The 32 year-old, hands shaking with nerves, screwing the camera into the tri- pod: set-up almost complete. The Passport Officer is posted at the door: head poking out, weapon up and ready. KINGDOM 8/18/06 124. We can hear Arabic yells down what sounds like a hallway. Passport Officer barks something back. The Driver of the Trail Suburban squats, pinning Leavitt's head down with his knee, knife near a long, white expanse of neck. The Huge Man sits on Leavitt's stomach, keeping him in place. Leavitt trying to gasp for breath: eyes-wide panic. DRIVER READY? Just as the 32 year-old nods yes, Leavitt explodes with his last bit of effort: kicks just enough to nudge the Camera, trying to knock it over. The 32 year-old gets his hands on it as it falls, almost catches it, slips out, smacks the ground, battery pops off. The Driver and Huge Man both begin hammering Adam. PASSPORT OFFICER (O.C.) (in Arabic) GOD DAMN HIM! 32 year-old picks the camera up again, trying to re-attach the battery as Adam fights for his life. Spit and claws and snot and blood rage.133 EXT. CINDER-BLOCK APARTMENTS - NEXT MOMENT 133 Running down side stairs, Fleury spots a grenade launcher poking from a door, next-door to the apartment with blood- pool in front. RONALD FLEURY RPG! Empties his clip into that vicinity: windows shatter, wood splinters. The grenade launcher recedes. Janet and Al-Ghazi start to run. The launcher fires from its new position...The trail suburban DETONATES. Al-Ghazi and Janet knocked flat on their asses for second and third times: dazed. Fleury searching: I know that Fuck with the RPG is reloading, how do I kill him. Drops the bag off his shoulders, pulls a grenade out, fires it as hard as he can: 40 yards on the fly. Bounces just on the third floor landing-134 INT. ENEMY APARTMENT - SAME MOMENT 134 -RPG Soldier just locking the new rocket tube in, brings the reticle up to his eye. Grenade blast splits through what's left of the front window. KINGDOM 8/18/06 125. Big flinch-tense on his part: rocket fires inside, roars down the hall, hits two feet in-front of the door Passport Officer has been peaking out of. Massive, contained detonation. Passport Officer vanishes. The 32 year-old and his camera are blown through the Driver waiting to saw Leavitt's neck. Because Leavitt was held so tight to the floor, he escapes the worst of the blast. Still fucked up. Leavitt's P.O.V.: ears roar with the ring, no sounds. 32 year- old and Driver lay in a heap on the floor. Huge Man's on his back, trying to get up. Leavitt breathes, rolls to the Driver and the boy: grabs driver's blade. Hand to hand war as Leavitt gets his payback. He does not stop.135 EXT. CINDER-BLOCK APARTMENTS - SAME MOMENT 135 Sykes takes cover between two cars, holding down the rear, firing warning shots and screaming football plays to freak out the LOCALS. SYKES THIRTY EIGHT RAZOR MAD DOG!!! He fires above the crowd, as Janet heads into the building. Two LITTLE KIDS slowly approach carrying water, obviously terrified at the sight of the wounded American. Sirens and helicopters sound in the distance.136 EXT./INT. CINDER-BLOCK APARTMENTS - NEXT MOMENT. 136 Base of the stairs: Mayes joins Fleury and a dazed Al-Ghazi & Haytham. COLONEL AL-GHAZI A tunnel networks through all these places... they use attached civilian Apartments, innocent families. JANET MAYES I do not like these people. RONALD FLEURY We go in the front door. Haytham - cover the stairs. Janet - hallway. Watch the side doors. Watch your backs. Silent nods. Bracing for war... KINGDOM 8/18/06 125A. They move 3 levels up the stairs into the building, following the blood-trail from the SUV to the Apartment. PEOPLE step out of their doors. Al-Ghazi aiming at them: COLONEL AL-GHAZI (in Arabic) INSIDE!137 INT. / EXT. APARTMENT 303 - NEXT MOMENT 137 The puddle of blood, a trail leading under the door. The front wall/window/entrance of the next apartment down, still smoldering from Fleury's grenade. No sounds, words. Our team: fingers on triggers, weapons to shoulders, sights-aligned. Ten feet back. Shoulders already flexed with tension, expecting a suicidal blast at any moment. Janet grabs another grenade, moves to secure the hallway. KINGDOM 8/18/06 126. Intercut Sykes outside. Haytham on the stairs. RONALD FLEURY (beat, to Al-Ghazi) Is Allah on the other side of that door? Al-Ghazi raises his prayer beads to Fleury. AL-GHAZI (beat) I think were about to find out, my friend. Fleury moves forward: I'm primary through the door. Al- Ghazi's right with him. Fleury gets three-point-stance low, hits the door like Jim Brown. Scattered gunfire. Fleury opens up in response. Fleury never stops forward motion. Stumbling headlong into a kitchenette, hard into a refrigerator and cabinets, firing the whole time. Al-Ghazi blasting anything that looks like a body. Straight mop-up operation.138 INT. CINDER BLOCK APTS - HALLWAY - SAME MOMENT 138 Securing the hallway, Mayes steps into a charred apartment through doors blown off hinges. She heads in deeper, towards the bedroom. Finds the closet - it tunnels into the apartment below. She peers into the hole-- JANET MAYES ADAM?! KINGDOM 8/18/06 127. -- sees a bloody knife below thrown by an unseen hand. Janet: wide-eyed horror, about to pull back, when she is YANKED into the hole by her hair.139 INT. UNKNOWN ROOM - NEXT MOMENT 139 Huge Man ATTACKS Janet. Vicious hand to hand blows. Still tied, Leavitt does what he can, kicking at the attacker. Adrenaline morphs Janet from scared and out-sized to desperate and equally vicious. This is SAVING PRIVATE RYAN shit with Leavitt as the observer. He's no coward - he's doing everything he can. Huge Man overtakes Janet, slow-choking her... she's gasping, dying... Janet has a knife out and is shredding the big man's back right thigh and ass. BOTH SCREAMING. From nowhere, Fleury ends the fight with a butt-end baseball-swing of the shot gun to Huge Man's head. Janet: fucked up, but alive. JANET MAYES (to Leavitt) Sykes is going to kick your ass. Al-Ghazi follows Fleury into the room. Leaning to Janet, Fleury sees Leavitt, puts his hand on his head. Leavitt's somewhere else, tears in his eyes, just taking deep, measured breaths. RONALD FLEURY Everybody OK? Slow nods from Leavitt and Janet as Fleury cuts Adam's ties. FLEURY There's at least three more of them. As Janet's eyes catch on something: a sheet/half-assed backdrop hung from the ceiling has been nearly pulled down - exposing a crude square cut out of the wall - a path into another Apartment. Janet points to the hole in the wall. This isn't over: a seven-year old GIRL peers out at her, shaking, tears in her eyes. Janet tries her best Motherly smile. JANET MAYES It's okay Little One. KINGDOM 8/18/06 128. The little girl backs away. Janet gets up, steers Leavitt outside. Sits him down. Hands him a Glock. Fleury and Al-Ghazi step through the hole. Janet follows. A blood trail snakes through Little One's room, out her door, and deeper into another apartment. Little girl long gone into the main part of the Apartment. Then, Arabic SCREAMS, the metal-crashing sound of automatic GUNFIRE. Sirens overheard outside now.140 INT. ATTACHED APARTMENT - NEXT MOMENT 140 Hustle cautious into the apartment. Haytham stands in the room already: the muzzle of his AK still smoking, held on a man down. The other occupants of the room are a cowering FAMILY: KIDS and a couple of real OLD FOLKS, all terrified. A little boy cries by himself, huddled in a corner. The collateral damage of random violence. Janet quick scans the room. LOCKS EYES on the traumatized little boy, his innocence draining as she watches. Can't take her eyes away. TIGHT ON HAYTHAM: Taking this all in: The violence. The terror of this family, the defiance on the faces of these young souls. Al-Ghazi, post-game shakes, a tear running down his cheeks, spattered in blood, stares at Fleury. The man Haytham shot is not dead: ragged gasps. Fleury and Al-Ghazi lock eyes, then take in the tragedy of the room -- kids their children's age, never to be the same. Al-Ghazi to the room, In arabic: COLONEL AL-GHAZI Is everyone alright? Silent stares from the Saudis. The little girl Janet saw earlier, eyes still on Janet, moves to her brother - he holds her tight, his eyes down. Janet kneels, heart-breaking, holds her hand out: I can help you little one. The Little Girl holds a fist out to Janet, tears in her eyes: okay. Janet slowly crouches over to her, the older women's eyes on her, piercing. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) (to the little girl, in Arabic) It's okay. KINGDOM 8/18/06 129.Little One trembles. One of the women in the corner calls toher in Arabic, sharp. Janet just strokes the back of herlittle bloody fist. Her little hand opens, shaking: this is agift for you.Janet's face ghost white: Little One is trying to give her amarble...Al-Ghazi steps closer, sees the marble. Processes things.Immediately looks over at the huddled mass: THE GRANDFATHERstaring right back at him. We now see the old man clearly. Al-Ghazi shaking, slowly steps to him, hands out... COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) (in Arabic) Let me help you up, Old Man...The old man nods a `no.' COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) (in Arabic) GIVE ME YOUR HANDS!Al-Ghazi rips Grandfather up now. The family screams. Al-Ghazi pulls the old man's hands from under his thobe: missingfingers. Bends at the knees to look the Old Man right in hiseyes, lifts his chin with his hand. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) (dazed, starting to realize) ...Hamza. The old man looks up at Al-Ghazi: rage and defiance. COLONEL AL-GHAZI (CONT'D) I got you. Abu Hamza, you are under arrest.ABU HAMZA stares, hatred burning into Al-Ghazi. NASSAR You are a traitor to your country... a traitor to your God. COLONEL AL-GHAZI I am no traitor to my God. You are.Al-Ghazi's chest explodes before we hear the booms: the 15year-old Grandson, firing a cheap, nickel-plated 9MM.Everybody drops. The family huddles that much closer to thefloor. Al-Ghazi falls back to the floor, pulling Grandfatherwith him. KINGDOM 8/18/06 130. Fleury's standing stock still, out-of-body now: He can only see a teenager built like a river-reed, like his own Son... not a Murderer who just shot his friend. Quiet-sick: RONALD FLEURY ...Don't... The 15 year-old steps to the doorway, pulls the trigger again: the cheap 9MM jams. Janet lifts up with her AK, aims it at the boy's chest. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) ...drop it, Son...please... ...The teenager wiping his tears: so he can see clear enough to clear his jammed weapon. Half young boy, the other half something much more dangerous...Expert movements from his hands, racking back the slide, thumbing the still smoking shell from the ejector, letting the slide go, racking another round into the chamber. Then... Fleury finally pulls his trigger. Utter Distortion as the old man reaches for the teenager's fallen hand gun. Janet, screaming, raises her gun towards the old man as Al-Ghazi shoots the old man in the chest. Sobbing, the little boy runs to his fallen grandfather. Janet, still screaming, covers the family. The Grandfather whispers something we cannot hear in the Little Boy's ear. TIGHT ON HAYTHAM taking it all in: the bleeding, dying teenager; his hysterical sister; Hamza choking, clutching for his grandson. CHAOS, CONFUSION, CONFLICT swirling in Haytham's eyes. A platoon of SAUDI POLICE slowly enter the room. Janet goes to the shot 15 year old, starts trying to stop the bleeding... Fleury reaching for the dying Al-Ghazi, cradling him. Tears spill as his eyes move from the dying boy to the old man, back down to Al-Ghazi. Fleury grasps Al-Ghazi's hand, as a Saudi man would. RONALD FLEURY (CONT'D) You got him. You got him... You got him.141 EXT. CINDER BLOCK APARTMENTS - LATER 141 KINGDOM 8/18/06 131. WIDE ON THE CRIME SCENE. From the air as choppers hover and SOLDIERS swarm. SMASH TO:142 INT. CONVOY - SAUDI ARABIA 142 One last convoy heading out of town. Fleury, Leavitt, Janet, and Sykes: battered war scars, million mile stares. 143 EXT. PRINCE SULTAN AIRBASE - LATER 143 Our crew watch from a deserted terminal as a C-130 touches down. Haytham enters: came to say good-bye. The team's first smiles -- collective. Fleury stares at Haytham...thinks about what he's seen the past few days...how he has come to admire this Kid. Haytham smiling, bandaged himself. Halting and awkward, he shakes Janet's hand. HAYTHAM (in Arabic) Thank you. JANET MAYES Thank you, Lieutenant Haytham. Haytham says good bye to Leavitt and Sykes. Comes to Fleury. Hands him a beautiful wooden prayer bead necklace. HAYTHAM May peace be with you. FLEURY May peace be with all of us, my friend. The two men shake hands. 143alt OMITTED 143alt KINGDOM 8/18/06 132.144 OMITTED 144 145 OMITTED - SEE SCENE 150 145 A146 OMITTED A146 B146 OMITTED B146 KINGDOM 8/18/06 133.146 INT. WASHINGTON FIELD OFFICE - CUBICLE - DAY 146 Fleury, Sykes, Leavitt and Janet sit around Janet's cubicle. Bandages, awkward silences, and 1000-yard stares. Subpoenas stacked on the corner of Janet's desk. Leavitt quiet, obviously fucked up. Grace approaches. DIRECTOR GRACE We're going to testify next Tuesday. Fleury's going first. I'm gonna go through it with each of you one on one in advance - make sure we're all on the same page. If they ask if we've talked about this, the answer is unequivocally "No." OK? (beat) You did outstanding work over there. I'm proud of you. You hold your heads high. SILENCE from the team. DIRECTOR GRACE (CONT'D) Ronnie, you ready? RONALD FLEURY Yeah. Grace turns to leave. Fleury gets up to follow. They head down the hallway. ADAM LEAVITT Janet... my dreams are... (beat, intent) What did he whisper to you? Confusion from Janet. ADAM LEAVITT (CONT'D) In the briefing ... to get you to stop crying about Fran... before any of this... before we even got Airborne? What did he say to you? Janet looks up: Leavitt waiting... FLASH TO: KINGDOM 8/18/06 133A.147 EXT. SUWEIDI GRAVEYARD - DAY 147 The eight year-old Grandson. Tears in his eyes, standing in front of fresh graves. His AUNT kneels down next to him, tears flowing, in Arabic: AUNT Will you tell me what Grandfather whispered to you before they took him? He turns to his Aunt... BACK TO: KINGDOM 8/18/06 134.148 INT. WASHINGTON FIELD OFFICE - CONTINUOUS 148 Leavitt still waiting: ADAM LEAVITT Do you remember? Janet looks at Leavitt, PAUSES... JANET MAYES (ALT: RONALD FLEURY) (reluctantly) He said... "We'll kill them all." (alts: "We will win this." "We will end this." "We will finish this.") FLASH TO:149 EXT. SUWEIDI GRAVEYARD - SAME MOMENT 149 The boy quietly answers, in Arabic: GRANDSON "Don't worry: we'll kill them all." And in his saucer-wide brown eyes, shrink-wrapped in angry tears, we see the parts of the future that will burn.149A OMITTED 149A KINGDOM 8/18/06 135.150 EXT. WASHINGTON, DC PARK - TIME LAPSE 150 Sunlight shines TIGHT ON Fleury's face: stitches the length of his cheek remain. PULL OUT: Fleury and his son throwing a baseball. Lyla watches, standing by a tree. KINGDOM 8/18/06 136.Father and son throwing the ball back and forth. KEVIN FLEURY You stop the people that hurt Uncle Fran?Fleury stops, just staring at his little son. Tosses back theball. KEVIN FLEURY (CONT'D) Did you get the bad guys, Daddy?Fleury catches the ball, stares at his son.TIGHT ON FLEURY: He reaches and pulls his son close, holdinghim for what might just be forever... (alt: He hands Kevin Al- Ghazi's prayer beads.) KEVIN FLEURY (CONT'D) There's a lot of bad people out there... aren't there, Daddy? RONALD FLEURY Yeah, there are... (a beat) But you want to know something? KEVIN FLEURY What? RONALD FLEURY You're not one of them. (alt: There's a lot of good guys, too) Kevin smiles up at his dad. For the first time in a long while, Fleury smiles back. BLACK. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/unformated_scripts/Script_Klute.txt b/unformated_scripts/Script_Klute.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b049777e973047b15141e6b3b6204625c0fc116a --- /dev/null +++ b/unformated_scripts/Script_Klute.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +INT. DINING ROOM - TOM GRUNEMANN HOUSE - DAYCLOSE SHOT of TOM GRUNEMANN, attractive youngexecutive, sitting at the head of the dining roomtable carving a turkey for Thanksgiving Day dinner.There are joyous sounds of celebration. The CAMERAPANS around the table revealing the happy familyand guests. Among them are KLUTE and CABLE.Camera stops at Mrs. Grunemann who sits at the footof the table opposite her husband. She smilesacross at him with pleasure. We cut to TomGrunemann smiling back at her. We cut back to acloseup of Mrs. Grunemann looking back at herhusband with love. We cut back to Tom Grunemann'schair - only now it is empty. The joyous soundsdisappear on this cut. It appears that TomGrunemann has disappeared before our eyes. Onemoment he is there, and the next moment he is gone.The camera pans back down the table, only now it isempty except for Grunemann's children and Mrs.Grunemann. She is now dressed in something dark.She and the three children sit eating another mealin emptiness. She has changed from a joyous womanto a woman bereaved.INT. RESEARCH PLANT: ON ROSS - DAYThe industrial frontier. SPECIAL AGENT ROSS stepsinto frame, glancing (perhaps idly, a littleimpatiently) in this direction at some loudindustrial goings-on just beyond camera, thenreturns toward GROUP.The group includes CABLE and a YOUNGER FBI AGENTwith clipboard, to whom KLUTE is supplyingpreliminary data. KLUTE's manner is somewhatrumpled, awkward. KLUTE Klute. With a K. K - L - U - ROSS Are you with plant security, Sergeant? KLUTE (shakes head) Town Police. ROSS Then how are you involved? KLUTE (slowly) I know Tom Grunemann. ROSS (shortcutting again) You knew the subject Thomas Grunemann. How well? KLUTE We grew up together. Kids. ROSS Can you account for his disappearance in any way? KLUTE No. ROSS Did he recently appear to you agitated or depressed? (aside to younger Agent, recording) -- indicates no -- Did he voice to you grievance or discontent with his research work here? Indicates no. Moral or sexual problems or peculiarities? -- KLUTE No. ROSS Marital problems in general? Indicates possibly -- am I right Sergeant? KLUTE Everybody's got some, I guess. ROSS Did he ever mention specifically a girl or woman in New York? KLUTE No. ROSS Examine this letter please. (continues) We recovered that from the shredder -- the plant disposal and incinerator system. Grunemann apparently typed it Friday, before he left, decided not to send it, tossed it away. We've already contacted the New York Police; they think they know the girl in question.C.U. KLUTEKlute reads. We see a controlled incredulity andrevulsion. ROSS (CONT'D) He never mentioned this type thing to you? You didn't know he had these interests?INT. GRUNEMANN HOUSE: C.U. HOLLY - DAYHOLLY thrusts the letter back toward camera, towardKLUTE crying out - HOLLY My husband was not like that! My God, Klute. KLUTE It looks like he sent her quite a few of those Holly -- the girl -- she recalls six or seven letters like -- HOLLY (calmly) -- No. I mean sure a little rough stuff, but just what people usually -- No, I would've said we were pretty good. (pause) Johnnie I don't understand. I just don't understand.Klute nods. She is talking for both of them. Klutelooks out the window to the children playingoutside. CAMERA PANS out window to Klute's POV ofchildren playing on a cold winter day. The treesare stripped bare.EXT. RESEARCH PLANTTree lined area, lush and green - Summer.INT. RESEARCH PLANT: DIRECTOR'S OFFICE - DAYCAMERA pulls back inside window to Klute staringoutside, as if still pondering the fate of TomGrunemann. The group in the office includes ROSS(holding a report), TRASK, a New York detective,Cable, and the plant director, STREIGER. ROSS -- has disclosed no evidence of crime or criminal intent within the jurisdiction of this bureau, and since subject Thom -- CABLE (turns sharply, interrupts) It's been almost a year! Tom Grunemann's been missing for a year. And all the FBI has to offer is a report that must bore even you. ROSS (restraint) Well sir. STREIGER Are you closing the case? ROSS No sir, we don't state that. We're countin -- CABLE But you don't find it worth much effort. ROSS (injured dignity) Well Mr. Cable, you've got me here from the Bureau. You got Lieutenant Trask here from New York representing his department and I don't frankly consider -- STREIGER (moderating, suggesting) Why couldn't you ever find out anything from the girl? ROSS (refers the question) Trask -- TRASK (summarizes from notes) We first hold her under surveillance expectin your boy Grunemann to show up there. Didn't. Then we bagged -- we arrested her on a CP charge, convicted, two month's women's city prison, offer to reduce sentence, she cooperated. (counts) Four interrogations. She thought she remembered Grunemann -- from those letters from before, she made that connection -- but she hadn't seen him since and couldn't identify his photograph and she -- STREIGER Why not? TRASK Oh a good call girl, she'll turn six-seven hundred tricks a year. The faces get blurred. (resumes) And since then, recent months, she's reported several, you know, incidents: like breather calls, anonymous phone calls, also somebody maybe following her, watching her, things like that. So it's I guess you could say, conceivable Grunemann's still around there, just hangin around her, spooking her. But you know, that --He shakes his head, gestures doubtingly. Ross capsit. ROSS The subject got emotionallv disturbed; he just dropped out. There's thousands. STREIGER Inspector we understand your position; ours is a little different. We have an investment in Tom Grunemann. The Company has an investment, and we feel entitled to investigate for ourselves. ROSS Private investigation, you mean. Yes sir, of course you're entitled, and there's some very competent -- STREIGER Klute offered us his services; we've accepted.Pause. Ross and Trask look at Klute - more than abit startled - then at each other. Klute just looksuneasy. STREIGER (CONT'D) Klute knew Tom. He has a great many ideas about the case -- ROSS (sourly) Yes sir, we know he -- STREIGER We'd expect him to work in cooperation with you. He'd report to each of you and to our Company's New York office, to Pete -- Pete goes there on a regular schedule back and forth, and -- ROSS (tactfully) Mr. Streiger, speaking frankly -- we've appreciated the Sergeant's interest you know, all along. Here, locally. But New York, that's - well -- TRASK (to Klute, leniently) Ever done any missing person's work? ROSS Spent much time in the city? (to others) You see, I have to wonder -- speaking frankly; the Sergeant knows I'm only speaking frankly - CABLE You wonder why we thought of Klute? Frankly? He's interested.INT/EXT. WIDE SHOT: PENNSYLVANIA COUNTRYSIDE - DAYVerdant Pennsylvania farmland. Early morning. Nearat hand an open field set about with bee hutchesand patched with mist.A FIGURE, a shadow (Klute's actually) moves acrossframe from the left, blanking in. We reorient to -INT. BEDROOM - KLUTES HOUSE - DAYWe see that we've been looking out from the bedroomwindow of this house. Klute turns to rolltop deskin bedroom and picture of Tom Grunemann, picture ofBree Daniel, and other material he has collected onthe case. He puts them in his suitcase and closesthe suitcase. He shuts rolltop desk.INT. KLUTE'S HOUSE - DAYWe follow Klute through the house with suitcase. Heputs away a last dish, shutting off water, gas, andelectricity, and so on -- takes a last look around - reaches for the door handle. WE CUT TO --INT. COMMERCIAL AUDITION - SOUND STAGE - DAYA section of wall, a door coming open -- and theFIGURE of BREE entering and standing. We have gonefrom the warm sunlight of the country to mustvdarkness.She appears chic, poised, and perfect as a magazinepicture.But as she gets used to the darkness and her eyesfocus on a line of equally beautiful girls sittingand waiting in folding chairs along a wall, we seethat she is a great deal less certain of demeanor.Assailable. WE CUT TO -EXT. KLUTE'S HOUSEYARD, HOUSE, BARN - DAYKlute, stepping out, closes, locks and checks thehouse door, then moves on to his car -- a vintagePlymouth -- and tosses in his suitcase; and thentakes a last turn around the yard itself; propsopen the cover of a beehutch, and lets down therail gate of a sidefield. He approaches to rollshut his barn door -- and on this action we CUTagain TO --INT. COMMERCIAL AUDITION - SOUNDSTAGE - DAY DIRECTOR (O.S.) (hastily) Honey, no, we don't have too many.She slaps the cup down, hurls herself forward --SWISH PAN -- onto a MALE ACTOR, thrusting him downto the floor, her hands at his throat. As we WIDENTO INCLUDE DIRECTOR AND MORE OF SCENE, and as theDirector reads from script, supplying a narratorvoice - DIRECTOR (CONT'D) Now before it comes to that, let's have a look, et cetera, et cetera -- OK -Bree and the Male Actor relax slightly, as -ANGLE TO REVEAL ROOM, OTHERSWe reestablish the scene -- a few pieces of filmequipment -- and the congery of other ACTORS and ACTRESSES preparing to read for parts. As theDirector approaches, counsels Bree -- all of thisquick and consecutive -- DIRECTOR (CONT'D) -- Honey you make it look a little real. It should have, you know, that fun to it. (beat) BREE Strangle him to death funny? DIRECTOR Well we go from this into stomach diagrams. It can't be too -- look let's try it again from --- but then he glances at his watch, and at theothers waiting their turn. DIRECTOR (CONT'D) No -- just give us the faces at the end, would you?Bree and the Male Actor set their cheeks together,beaming half-moon smiles to camera, hold it for amoment, as the Director reads again - DIRECTOR (CONT'D) (reads) -- And another family saved by Elso tablets. OK -- (brightly) Thank you very much.-- and holds out his hands for their scripts, atthe same time as he summons from a list in hisother hand -- DIRECTOR (CONT'D) Pierce -- Danner -BREE passes a new group of beautiful girls sittingin line waiting their turn as she exits as brightlyas possible.EXT. NEW YORK SIDEWALK: PEDESTRIANS - DAYThey trudge along the sidewalk -- the herd, thelate-afternoon crush. A LONG-LENS shot, the crowdcompacted. We see BREE milling along with the rest.She maneuvers to a sidewalk PHONE BOOTH, enters. Wesee her deposit, dial.INT. PHONE BOOTH, BREE - DAYShe is connected (to her registry). BREE Bree Daniel, any messages? (waits -- none) OK, thanks.She waits for a moment. Then makes a curious, smallgesture of her hand -- deposits another dime, dialsagain, is answered. BREE (CONT'D) Trina? Bree. Do I? Oh no, just a commercial I thought I might get, that's all. (quickly, more brightly) Well I'd take a quick thirty, hon. Do you have a commuter for me? Wait.As she prepares to write it down, we CUT BACK TO -EXT. KLUTE'S HOUSEYARD: KLUTE - DAYKlute finishes rolling shut, and padlocks, the barndoor. He returns to his car, sits in (leaving dooropen) starts engine. Again -- one last time -- thelook around. Then he pulls the door shut, pullsout. And on this we CUT TO --INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR - DAYA GROUP -- middle-aged Couple, Child, Bellman withsuitcases -- wait to descend in elevator as BREEgets off. We TRACK with her along corridor to adoor. She checks number and knocks.REVERSE: THROUGH DOOR TO BREEA MAN opens the door. We neither see or hear himclearly -- he is foreground, defocused. His shirtis untucked. Bree cocks her head, greets himcutely. BREE Hullo.He mumbles some kind of greeting, steps back. Shepauses a moment in the door (casing, instantly) --then quite confident, friendly, provocative all atonce -- BREE (CONT'D) Ooh, I knew I'd like you.-- and CUT TO --EXT. CENTER OF TOWN: KLUTE DRIVING - DAYKlute's car draws through the business section oftown, moves on --INT. HOTEL ROOM: BREE - DAYC.U. BREE (the Man out of frame and unheard-from)as she bargains gaily -- and at the same time alittle watchfully. BREE Lover, that's got to be a little extra. I mean it sounds very exciting, what you speak of, you've got me all excited. But something special like that, you know it's got to cost a little more, mm?-- and CUT TO --INT. CAR: KLUTE DRIVING - DAYKlute has laid his jacket aside, rolled hissleeves, is eating the last of a vending machinesandwich. The CAR RADIO is on. He leans forward,tuning it from -- 1ST ANNC'R (energetic) --R - W - M, radio's voice is the Shippensburg Valley, on a beautiful clear warm Thurs ---- to -- 2ND ANNC'R (rural) -- Tucky Wonder Beans picking up a half cent over yesterday's price at--- and CUT TO --INT. C.U. ON BREE, MAN (HOTEL BED) - DAYThe Man's face is buried against her neck, herlabors over her. She cries out ecstatically,transportedly -- it would seem at the edge oforgasm -- BREE Oh lover, oh it's too much -- oh you thrill me -- yes, like that, it's -- oh it's beautiful, oh ---- and at the same time refers privately to herwristwatch. And CUT TO --EXT. WIDE SHOT: ACCESS RAMP OF TURNPIKE - LUSHHILLY COUNTRY - DAYKLUTE'S CARAs Klute's car drives onto the turnpike surrounded by green country, we ZOOM into a close shot ofKlute through the windshield of his car. And thenin what seems like a continuous shot we ZOOM backto a wide angle revealing Klute caught in theendless line of cars in a typical traffic jam atthe entrance to New York City, surrounded bysmoggy, grey, urban skies.INT. CITY MULTILAYERED PARKING BUILDING - KLUTE'SCAR - NIGHTKLUTE sits inside his car as it is mechanicallylifted into the air. It looks as if he is beingmanipulated by a robot.EXT. STREET: OUTSIDE THE BROWNSTONE - NIGHTBREE moves along street, returning home,apprehensive of the one or two other distantFIGURES. She turns in at one of the Brownstones.INT. STAIRWELL OF BROWNSTONE - NIGHTWe watch Bree as she mounts to the top floor, thedoor of her apartment, barren, isolated,frightened.INT. BREE'S APTARTMENT - NIGHTBREE unlocks the door, switches on a light, casesthe apartment for a moment before entering,securing chain-lock, putting aside her things.There is a RECORD PLAYER near the first interiordoorway. She switches it as she moves by. By timethe first record has dropped, she has the showerturned on, is getting rid of her dress. We CUT BACKTO --EXT. EMPTY STREET: KLUTE - NIGHTKlute walks, as before, carrying his suitcase. Wesee him slow, concernedly looking toward --INT. BREE'S APARTMENT: ON BREE - NIGHTBree sits on a studio couch, near the recordplayer, with a QUILT huddled over and around her,her back against the wall. The MUSIC is classical,curiously -- the sound of a HARPSICHORD. She ismore or less expressionless -- but tremblingviolently, shaking.FRONT WINDOW SIGN BEING REMOVED WHICH READS "FORRENT" - STORE - INQUIRE CRAWICZ, DAYINT. BREE's APARTMENT: BREE - DAYBree moves about energetically, preparing to setout on rounds. A KNOCK on the door. She startled,then approaches to door, to peep-hole, lifts lidaside.THROUGH PEEPHOLE TO KLUTE FACEKlute's face is somewhat distorted by the peepholelens; he is gazing mildly about the landing.BREE BREE (through door, curtly) What is it? KLUTE (O.S.) Miss Daniel? My name is Klute -- John Klute --She turns the door handle , parts the door aboutthree inches, looks through at him. He starts toenter. KLUTE (CONT'D) Can I talk to you?-- and the door crunches against its chain-lock. Hestops perforce, a bit startled. A pause. A slice ofBree's face looks coldly out at him. He summons asmile. BREE What about? KLUTE My name's John Klute. BREE You said that. KLUTE I'm an investigator. I'd like to ask you some questions about Tom Grunemann.She tightens again. BREE Who? KLUTE Tom Grunemann. He wrote you some letters. BREE (innocently) Gee. KLUTE He was a research engineer at the Tuscarora Laboratories in Pennsylvania. He disappeared from there last April. I've been hired to look for him. BREE Why? KLUTE You know what I'm talking about. Miss Daniel. BREE Honest? KLUTE Will you let me ask you some questions? BREE (gumbo-southern) Dew yew hayuv ah-dentifikyshun?He takes out a folded letter and a wallet andpasses them both through to her. Silence. Sheexamines them with care, then appears to soften alittle; even smiles slightly. BREE (CONT'D) You're not police or FBI; you're just a private investigator? KLUTE Mm. BREE And you just want to ask me a few questions? KLUTE Mm.She smiles again, hands the letter and wallet backout, closes the door (doesn't slam, just closes).Klute looks at it blankly for a time, starts toknock again, decides not to -- turns and descendsthe stairs.BREEBree listens through the door to his departing footsteps. They fade from hearing. She hastens toassemble her properties.EXT. FRONT DOOR - DAYKlute comes out door and descends the stairs at thesame even pace -- he walks into the vacant storebelow.INT. BASEMENT STORE - DAYIt had once been a Boutique that sold happyclothes. There are some psychedelic posters and afew remnants of its former identity. Klute'ssuitcase is propped open on a cot behind a counter.The ceilings are low, forcing Klute to stoop as heenters. He seems out of place and out of scale. Acase containing a tape recorder stands on thefloor. On the table are a FOLDER of Klute's notes,and a paper bag. Klute enters and deliberatelyresumes his settling in. From the paper bag he setsaside an electric FAN, then lifts out from theshopping bag a cheap tin ALARM CLOCK and beginswinding it.INT. BREE'S APARTMENT - DAYBree has shifted position to a window, is lookingdown at the street. She sees - and we hear - SOUNDOF BUS APPROACHING, distantly. She grabs herproperties, whips out the door.EXT. ON DOOR OF BROWNSTONE - DAYBree skids to a stop just inside the door, scansquickly out in one direction then the other (incase Klute has been waiting in ambush on thesidewalk) then races -- PAN -- to BUS AT CURB --makes it, pulls herself aboard --INT. KLUTE'S APARTMENT: KLUTE - DAYKlute has been watching from his window. We hearthe BUS PULLING AWAY. He turns back, plugs in theelectric fan. Then hoists the TAPE RECORDER,unsnaps the cover. We see clearly what it is.INT. AGENCY OFFICE - DAYBREE is showing her notebook to an AGENT. He leansforward courteously, occasionally stroking hisforehead with his fingertips -- a nice man with aheadache. BREE -- and I take acting classes with Lee Tainter -- AGENT -- Lee, yes -- BREE -- and I was in two of his workshop type productions, Uncle Vanya and the girl in Five Characters -- (indicates picture) -- here -- and then of course I have the modeling and the demonstrator work, the trade-fair work -- but naturally I feel ready for something more, well you know, sustain -- AGENT Well, thanks very much for coming in.She starts for the door -- he's already turningaway -- then ducks back, hands him one of herGlossies, laughing prettily at her ownforgetfulness. BREE (beautifully -- the business) Thank you very much.EXT. STREET - DAYBREE comes out, pauses with notebook to cross out,the call completed, checks the list of thoseremaining, sets forth again. We hear TRASK'S VOICEOVER, very quick, very clipped. TRASK (V.O.) Man, just a poor pretty little hooker, like to be an actress --INT. MISSING PERSONS BUREAU - DAYCLOSEUP photograph of dead man. It is replaced withseries of photgraphs of dead men. CAMERA pulls backto reveal KLUTE flipping through the file of theunidentified dead. TRASK (V.O.) What you lookin' to get from her? You think she's got Grunemann hid somewhere, the attic, feedin him soup? Or maybe he's hidin in a dark alley and he'll jump on her and you jump on him. And third place, even if she does know somethin' she's right, she don't have to talk to you. You don't have police power, you can't make her.KLUTE closes the file. KLUTE That's a lot of people to die unknown. TRASK Unknown, unidentified and unwanted. And there's more every day man, there's more everyday.As KLUTE slowly walks away we bring in TELEPHONERING and BREE VOICE, OVER answering. BREE VOICE Bree Daniel. (then) Yeah, hi hon.EXT. BREE APARTMENT - NIGHTCamera is looking up through lighted window outsideat BREE on phone. BREE Oh hon, I just don't know. I'm trying to stay out of it.EXT. KLUTE APARTMENT - NIGHTCAMERA pans down from BREE's window to KLUTE'swindow at the bottom revealing KLUTE at taperecorder. The TAPE RECORDER is going, its lightwinking. KLUTE holds headset against one ear, makesa note or two. We hear BREE's and other GIRL'SVOICES, UNDER, FILTERED. GIRL'S VOICE -- comes in with these other yulds maybe two or three times a year, and five big ones baby, just one evening. BREE VOICE Marta, thanks, and I'd love to party with you hon, but --Klute sets down the headset (we drop the VOICES farunder, INDISTINGUISHABLE), makes a note, and thumbsopen the box of a fresh reel; the present reel isnear the end. We establish a pile of ALREADYRECORDED TAPES. We CUT BACK TO --INT. BREE APARTMENT: BREE ON PHONE - NIGHT BREE Well try to get someone else Marty and if I change my mind -- sure hon, bye.She hangs up, starts away. The PHONE RINGS AGAIN.She tries to ignore it. It persists. She finallyturns back to answer it, and we CUT TO --INT. CASTING OFFICE - AD AGENCY - DAYCAMERA STARTS on huge photo montage of the Familyof Man and pans down to a group of beautiful girlssitting on a bench below. They are dwarfed by theenormous picture. Each one clutches an almostidentical portfolio of pictures in her lap. Camerapans down row of portfolios until it stops at BREE - impatiently waiting her turn. WE CONTINUE THETELEPHONE VOICES OVER, WILD TRACK STYLE. The MAN'SVOICE is thick with drink, and emotion. First theclick, then -- BREE VOICE Bree Daniel -- MAN'S VOICE Oh God baby, oh God I really love you. BREE VOICE That's nice; who is this? MAN'S VOICE I really love you baby, you know that?A CLICK, and the MAN'S VOICE CONTINUING, trailinginto helpless sobs -- MAN'S VOICE (CONT'D) Hello? Hello? Oh my God, hello?EXT. STREET: BREEBree comes out from the building (note possiblecostume change; not necessarily consecutiveaction), checks off on her list continues on herway -- as we CONTINUE WILD TRACK STYLE VOICES.Starting with a CLICK and -- BREE VOICE Bree Daniel. 2ND MAN'S VOICE (nicely) Bree -- Frank Hanley, you remember, Fayetterville? BREE VOICE Oh yeah, hi Frank, sure. 2ND MAN'S VOICE Well I'm in town, like to see you. BREE VOICE Well Frank that's awful nice but I'm out of action, sort of, you know --We FADE THIS CONVERSATION UNDER BUT HOLD,CONTINUING, as --BREE PASSES CAMERA -- and we PAN TO SHOT OF KLUTE,at corner, unseen by her and apparently insurveillance of her. Then he too turns out offrame, and we CUT TO --INT. PENN STATION - DAYCAMERA is looking down at an enormous gift packageon a platform. There is a sound of a recordedfanfare and with the pull of a string the packageis opened revealing a brand new LINCOLN CONTINENTALCONVERTIBLE. People applaud and the car starts torevolve. At the wheel of the car sits BREE. We CUTto a shot through the windshield of car --BREE'S POVA sea of staring faces revolves around her. Wecross fade with SPANGLER VOICE OVER (as ifrecalling a case record). SPANGLER (V.O.) Bree Daniel, Caucasian, twenty eight, good physical health, no narcotics record, presenting an unusually strong personality some ways, high intelligence, a high bracket call girl.EXT. WOMEN'S PRISON ROOF - CAGED IN RECREATION AREASPANGLER, a prison psychiatrist, sits on a bencheating a sandwich partially wrapped in wax paperand sipping from a carton of milk. He is obviouslya man pressed for time. KLUTE sits beside him.Across from them some prisoners are taking theirexercise. Through the metallic netting thatsurrounds them, we see the skyline of New YorkCity. It only dramatizes more the sense of beingcaged. SPANGLER -- Usual case history -- this isn't a medical confidence, it's all of them -- broken family, lonely, confused, crummy childhood, early promiscuity, formal prostitution beginning in her teens, income twenty-five to thirty thousand a year. (notes Klute's reaction) Oh they don't keep the money: they get rid of it, they get pimps. Why? (stabs at record) Why do you want to know all this? KLUTE I want to know how Tom Grunemann got mixed up in it. SPANGLER Not unusual. KLUTE Did she talk about him to you? SPANGLER About his letters -- that's all she remembered. Quite violent material, I'd say, obsessive, a quite sick man. But that's not unusual either. KLUTE Has she talked with you since prison? SPANGLER No. She had every good intention of it -- coming to me as a private patient, getting out of the life, devoting herself to an acting career. KLUTE I think she's trying that. SPANGLER Oh sure they try. The idea of a better life. But they don't really know much about life: They get confused -- or scared or frustrated or bored -- they pop back to the one thing they can handle. The trick. The trick. Men in bed. Not men in general, not life, not love, not even real sex -- it avoids all that. Just the trick, the transaction.INT. PENN STATION - DAYPOV world revolving around BREE through windshieldof car. The circular motion slows down and thenstops. Cut to BREE getting out of car and walkingoff platform. She looks a bit shaky. She is stoppedby one of the spectators. MAN (tapping her) We had a bet on - if you were real or not. I won.She looks at him in disgust and crosses to phonebooth.INT. PHONE BOOTH - DAY BREE (on phone) Marta --INT. CHURCH DISCOTHEQUE - NIGHTWe are in the interior of what was once a churchand is now a discotheque. Interior is paintedpurple; the record player stands on the altar overthe crowd. Pews are massed around the dance floor.Stained glass windows are lighted from behind andare circled with light bulbs that flash on and off.For all of its obviously bizarre visual quality,there is a sense of relaxation. It is a late nightgathering place of many who belong to the sexualunderworld of the city.BREE and the OTHER GIRL advance to a pew. A MANsitting there (the other girl's pimp) with a THIRDGIRL. BREE's companion greet him shyly, tenderly:she and BREE sit down, join in conversation.PULL BACK SLOWLY -- other pews, other girls and afew men, the sisterhood -- To --BAR AREA IN BACK (WHAT ONCE MUST HAVE BEEN THEVESTIBULE OF THE CRURCH)Among the people around the bar, pimps, whores, anda sprinkling of hopeful Johns and curiosityseekers. The camera picks a familiar face: CABLE.He watches BREE with a mixture of amusement andcontempt. A GIRL comes over to him and tries toproposition him. They appear to be discussingprice. Just as she thinks it is set, he walks away.INT. KLUTE'S APARTMENT - NIGHTCLOSEUP photograph of TOM GRUNEMANN pinned to alarge piece of beaverboard KLUTE has placed on awall. CAMERA PANS over various pictures and piecesof evidence KLUTE has pinned up in an attempt tomake some sense from the puzzle of TOM GRUNMIANN'sdisappearance. CAMERA PANS over to KLUTE sitting oncot looking up at the pieces of the puzzle. Thereis a heated TV dinner in front of him.The TAPE RECORDER reels start turning (soundpowered), the recording light starts winding (asBREE, above, dials). KLUTE pays it scant attention - he can catch up with the news anytime. He sitsmanfully in front of the TV dinner, starts peelingback the foil --INT. BREE'S APARTMENT: BREE - NIGHTShe holds the phone, is answered. Her voice morenatural, a little shy, a little covert. BREE Hi. Bree. (is greeted) Hi. Well I could come over tonight - if you'd like -- if there's no one else. (laughs diffidently) I really want to just talk to you.INT. KLUTE'S APARTMENT: KLUTE - NIGHTThe tape-recorder continues turning and winking asthe conversation upstairs continues. KLUTE looks atTV dinner. He reaches for the headset of thetaperecorder, holds it loosely against one ear. Heexhibits a measure of new interest. The TAPERECORDER stops running. He immediately rewinds, andstarts listening through it again. We CUT TO --EXT. GARMENT DISTRICT - NIGHTLarge, dark buildings -- a DIM-LIGHTED WINDOWshowing at an upper floor of one -- the streetotherwise by and large deserted. A TAXI draws in, aFIGURE IN EVENING DRESS (Bree) gets out, approachesthe building, glances around, either secretly orapprehensively -- presses a buzzer, waits, getsanswering CLICKS, enters the dark hallway of thebuilding, starts upstairs.EXT. ACROSS THE STREET - NIGHTKLUTE shifts into view, looking in the directionBree's gone, a little puzzled all in all. Hedoesn't immediately follow; he waits.INT. GARMENT BUILDING - CUTTING ROOMS - NIGHTWe look past RACKS OF CLOTHING, as BREE arrives upthe dark stairway into dark rooms -- the scene,mysterious, a little sinister. She seems fearful ofit herself, advances slowly, looking around, calls - BREE Hi? -_ANGLE PAST MR. FABER, TO BREEMr. Faber is SILHOUETTED for a moment, standing,watching her, from along an alleyway of garments.She sees him, is startled then relieved. BREE (CONT'D) Oh --He moves toward her.REVERSE ANGLE, TO MR. FABERMr. Faber is a man of 65 or so, rather handsome,and for this occasion very spruce, very erect, verynattily turned out. Bree complains cheerfully. BREE (CONT'D) You scared me, Mr. Faber.He smiles, kisses her cheek, tests the fabric ofher evening dress -- (in passing, as a matter ofexpertise). MR. FABER Good material, not too good cut. I'd do better for you.Then he turns, lifts down a WOMAN'S DRESS CAPE,carrying it -- graciously gestures her to precedehim --CORNER OF CUTTING ROOMA dim pool of light here. A private area here,sectioned off by rows of garments. A couch, rug,coffee table, a chair or two -- a place for Buyersto take their ease. BREE and MR. FABER enter. Hermanner is suddenly elegant, assured, regal; hisbefits a man of the world. He fits the cloak aroundher shoulders and gestures to the couch; she sits.He pours a glass of wine for her, for himself. Shespeaks with a neat continental accent -- doing itfairly well, really -- a member of theinternational set. BREE Oh thank you.He sits in the chair opposite, sips his wine. MR. FABER Enjoy. (then) Well -- BREE (diffident) It's good to see you. Well -- could we do it first and then just talk? MR. FABER Sure dear, yes. BREE Well -- well I'm just back. And -- I must tell you -- something quite wonderful. MR. FABER (intently) Yes? BREE And Cannes was quite fun, quite; and we played baccarat and chemindefer and there was a nice little Italian marquis quite enthusiastic for me -- but a young man can be so silly -- MR. FABER Mm. BREE And then one night -- at the gaming tables -- well I just saw him. A stranger -- looking at me -- and I knew suddenly that all my life I'd been --She hesitates strangely, her fingers at the neck ofthe cape. Faintly -- BREE (CONT'D) -- May I? It's so -- MR. FABER (quickly) Please --She stands, unloosing the cloak, letting it fall onthe couch. But she doesn't sit again -- begins tomove here and there about the enclosure, her handswandering about her dress and body -- an eroticrestlessness. BREE Not young; he wasn't young -- gray at the temples, he -- well actually he looked like you. MR. FABER (tensely) Yes? BREE And nobody could tell me who he was -- an exiled prince or a mercenary or a bullfighter or -- but I felt it stirring inside me, this -- this wild, pagan feeling --EXT. GARMENT BUILDING DOOR - NIGHTKLUTE arrives from across the street. It takes hima while (with a 'loid' probably) to slip the lock.He eases door open, moves inside --INT. CORNER OF CUTTING ROOM: BREE - NIGHTBREE is farther along in her narrative, morefervent in manner. MR. FABER sits at the edge ofhis seat, ducking his head now and then inpleasure, but making no move to molest her. BREE And next day at the beach -- our beach pavilion -- I saw him again, his eyes burning into me. I was helpless. Without his even speaking to me, without his even touching, I knew that somehow -- somehow --She casts away an accessory garment. Mr. Faberburns her with his eyes --INT. GARMENT BUILDING - CUTTING ROOMS - NIGHTKLUTE mounts into view at the head of the stairs,prowls along the aisles of clothing, looking --sees --POV PAST GARMENT RACKS TO MR. FABERKlute sees Mr. Faber first -- clearly a seniorcitizen -- sitting transfixed, fastened in someprivate dream. Then BREE drifts into view -- stands-- lets fall the evening dress about her ankles,poses -- drifts out of view again --KLUTEKlute watches in that direction a moment longer. Inhis expression a certain curiosity -- a prurience --but rather more strongly, disappointment, a measureof disgust. Not his affair. He turns away from it,into camera, and --EXT. BREE'S BROWNSTONE - NIGHTNear the entrance, outside the door to KLUTE'sapartment below. We open on BREE. She shoutsangrily, miserably -- BREE Whyn't you just cut out?We WIDEN TO INCLUDE KLUTE. Now she begins to getit. He turns, opens door to his room below. Shecomes slowly down steps.INT. KLUTE'S ROOM - DAYShe steps in the door, looks slowly around at hisvarious appurtenances -- the bed, the necktie overthe mirror, etc. -- and then, the TAPE RECORDER andthen the STACK OF TAPE BOXES. Softly, venomously -- BREE Oh you bastard.But then she adjusts -- a frightened but matter-offact hooker -- BREE (CONT'D) Is it the shakedown hon? You picked a loser, I just don't have it. KLUTE No, I'm look -- BREE (vehemently again) If I was taking calls full time would I be living in this kip? I'd be back on Park Avenue; I could support the whole National Guard! KLUTE (gestures upward) Could I ask some questions? BREE Or you'll get me shoved back in the brig you mean; another month with the bull-dykes.She seems to have expressed it; the balance ofpower. She turns, goes out, heads upstairs. Kluteunhurriedly takes up his folder of notes, thenfollows.INT. BREE'S APARTMENT - NIGHTBree disposes her belongings. Klute moves to table.There is a group of plants on the table that longsince died of neglect. He notices them and thedisorganization of the room without comment, openshis folder, rummages for the photographs. Then,exasperatedly -- BREE Look, I told the police everything: I don't even remember the schlub!Klute doesn't respond. Klute sets out a photographfor her to look at.INSERT: PHOTOGRAPH TOM GRUNEMANNKLUTE, BREE BREE They showed me that one. I understand it's Grunemann, but I told them, I just don't remember.Klute tosses down a second photograph.INSERT: SECOND PHOTOGRAPHTom Grunemann, Elaine Grunemann, two daughters.BREE, KLUTE BREE (cool) A family sort of man.Klute grunts, meaning 'yes'. She echoes his grunt,meaning we don't know what. He tosses another --INSERT: WIDE PHOTOGRAPH - COMPANY PICNICAn everybody-over-here, fellow-employees, sort ofpicture. (Including the figures of Streiger andCable among many others, male and female.) Theusual impedimenta -- picnic baskets, balls, bats, aheld sign: 'Tole-American'. KLUTE'S FINGERindicates -- KLUTE (V.O.) -- Tom, again.KLUTE, BREEShe looks at the picture briefly, at himquestioningly. KLUTE Company outing or picnic or something like that. BREE Isn't that sweet. (then) Well it could be any one of them bubi; I get to see them all.She separates from Klute, around the table (butremains standing, restless). Klute puts photoaside, prepares to take notes, as she pleads -- BREE (CONT'D) Look -- please -- will you just try to get it from my side? A year ago. I was in the life fulltime. I was living on Park with leather furniture and a million dresses. Then they dropped on me, the fuzz, they caged me -- they started asking me about a man, some man, I'm supposed to have seen a year before that. Two years ago, two. He could be in Yemen!She waits for Klute to respond -- he doodlespermissively on his pad of paper -- she goes on. BREE (CONT'D) A name. Grunemann. Nothing. And they showed me pictures like this and they meant nothing. Then they asked me, well had I been getting letters, from someone out there in Cabbageville -- KLUTE -- Tuscarora -- BREE All right, yes, I had been. Those sick, wild letters -- I'm watching you, gonna follow you, gonna punish you, kill you et cetera. Well, they said, all right that's Grunemann. So try to remember when you and he - when -- well I don't know, there was that dumper once, he sounded like that dumper -- (explains) Dumpers; they get their kicks beating you up. A man hired me once, then tried to really kill me - that'd be about two years ago.Without warning she wheels to the open windows, andshouts out full-voiced -- both startling andsomewhat intriguing Klute -- BREE (CONT'D) (shouts) OK Tommy-baby, Allie-Allie-in-free kid, I got the gumdrops.Turns around again, to Klute. Cheerfully -- BREE (CONT'D) You remind me of my uncle. KLUTE What? (then --) What do you remember about that -- dumper? BREE Nothing. Except he wasn't kidding. Usually it's a fakeout, you probably know. They pretend to tie you up, and you wear a dress with a cloth belt and they pretend to whip you or you -- (beat) Hell it's their money. I'll hang from the shower rod and whistle Maytime. Except this guy was really tripped out on it; he -- KLUTE But you can't say that Dumper was Tom Grunemann. BREE I can't say he was anybody!A brief pause. Klute sorts his notes. She may takeit that he's packing to leave -- hopes so anyhow.For an instant we see the undefended girlunderneath -- BREE (CONT'D) So -- OK -- that's all?Then again she changes manner -- remembering apractical problem, approaching it as a matter-offact hooker. BREE (CONT'D) Well could I have them back now hon? -- those tape recordings you've got downstairs -- OK? -- and if you want you can have a good time and I'll have a good time and-- KLUTE What about everything since?She draws back again. Up to now she's beenreasonably on top of things. Starting now we seeher driven toward the things she'd really rathernot talk about -- and increasingly more shaken. KLUTE (CONT'D) (prompts) Everything that's happened since Tom Grunemann disappeared. The phone calls and the -- BREE Just phone calls, right? They ring, you answer, they don't say anything, just blank. Kids getting kicks. Burglars looking for an empty apartment. I mean there is nothing that proves -- KLUTE What about the other things you've reported? -- (consulting notes) -- being followed on the -- BREE (interrupts -- awkwardly) Look -- I'm sorry -- I've led everybody wrong. I mean yes, I get those feelings, but that's just me, that's just feelings. (beat) I'm sure this will amuse you; I'm scared of the dark. And sometimes I get shook up, I hear people or -- well, I'll come out in the morning and think someone's been prying at my mailbox, or there's a little -- trash outside my door and I wonder if someone left it there for -- do you see? -- things other people wouldn't even notice. Well that's not real, it's just nerves; it's got nothing to do with --The PHONE RINGS. She startles. Then approaches withsome difficulty -- but then answers with completecalm in her Smith-girl voice. BREE (CONT'D) Bree Daniel. (listens. Brightly) Oh yes, Ted Carlin, how is Ted? (listens) Oh, well, thank you very much but maybe the next time you're in town? (listens) Well I just love Ted and I'd love to meet you -- you have a very nice voice -- but I just -- (listens, grows impatient) Well I'm having a chat with a very nice cop. Actually not a real cop; he's a private inves --A BUZZING from the phone; the connection abruptlybroken. She hangs up, recites. KLUTE Is that how you get most of your dates? Someone gives your name to someone else? BREE Most of them. KLUTE Is that how you met the Dumper? -- Someone else gave -- BREE How would I remember? KLUTE How else do you meet them? Pimps? (a beat) BREE (patient) You're very square. Pimps don't get you dates, cookie; they just take the money.Klute takes up the slip of paper previously givenhim by Trask. In the same manner as before -- KLUTE I have some names the police gave me. Frank Ligourin. Will you tell me what -- BREE (trembling) Look, I'm sure this'll amuse you too. Ilia trying to get away from all that. KLUTE What about the old gentleman the other night, Mr. Faber?She freezes again, looking at him. Then savagely -- BREE You saw that, goddamn you? You saw it? He's seventy. His wife's dead. He started cutting garments at fourteen. His whole life, he's maybe had a week's vacation, I'm all he has and he never, never touches me, and what harm in it, what --She chokes -- then goes on -- BREE (CONT'D) Klute, tell me, what's your bag? Are you a talker, or a button man or a doubler, or maybe you like them very young -- children -- or get your chest walked around with high-heeled shoes, or have us watch you tinkle? Or -- KLUTE (under) -- OK -- BREE -- You want to wear women's clothes, or you get off ripping things --She grabs up the company picture, raging on -- BREE (CONT'D) -- you perverted hypocrite square bastards. KLUTE OK.Something in his inflection -- very slight --cautions her. She falls silent as suddenly as shebegan. Then cheerfully -- BREE Gee I hope this doesn't make my cold any worse. KLUTE Tell me about Frank Ligourin. BREE (casual, pleasant) Mm? Oh, he was my old man. We broke up.She wanders away toward a bureau. Her shirt seemsto itch her; she scratches her ribs. Then opensdrawer, takes out a different shirt as -- KLUTE When? (beat) When did you and Ligourin break up?She pulls off her shirt, unhooks her brassiere anddiscards it, apparently quite unselfconscious.Klute reacts; then, carefully maintaining his cool - KLUTE (CONT'D) Mind not doing that?She turns to him in total innocence, holding theshirt rather carelessly in front of her -- a newattack. BREE What? This? KLUTE -- OK? BREE (ingenuously) I thought you could trick me for those tapes. Don't you get lonely in that little green room? Or let me get you someone; I have terrific friends, wild. KLUTE No thanks.At this point -- or about this point -- Klute takesnote of something. A little above her. He growsmore watchful, but containing it carefully. Wedon't understand the change in his manner -- oreven notice; she doesn't. In mock dismay -- BREE Gee. I've had men pay two hundred dollars for me -- here, you're turning down a freebie. (pause) You can get a perfectly good dishwasher for that.He has risen, is approaching her slowly -- carryinghis notes as if to check something. She is hopefulagain -- BREE (CONT'D) You've changed your mind? You do want to play? KLUTE (quietly, steadily) I don't want you to look up. There's someone on the skylight.She gasps, terrified -- immediately -- almostbeyond control. He taps the pencil on his notes. KLUTE (CONT'D) Easy -- pretend you're looking here- (more insistently) -- here.She manages to take hold of a corner of the notes,trembling. He goes on -- KLUTE (CONT'D) Now I'm going to walk around -- you just keep talking, straight through, straight through.He strolls away from her. His destination is thearea of the door -- out of view from the skylight --from where he can head for the roof. But he doesn'thead that way directly -- first takes a turn inanother direction, his bearing casual. Prompting -- KLUTE (CONT'D) Tell me about acting -- what are you doing tomorrow -- where do you go? BREE (manages, barely) I go on rounds. KLUTE Rounds, what are they? -- don't watch me, keep talking. BREE You go see agents -- or Equity calls, open casting calls. And ad agencies -- commercials -- you don't get work, you just go around.Klute has strolled out of view from above --instantly flattens himself against the wall, easesthe door open, about to slip and charge. As Breelabors on -- BREE (CONT'D) And they're always polite -- show people -- they say thank you very much. You lie there covered with blood, smiling, they say --INT. LANDING AND LADDER TO ROOF - NIGHTFOOTSTEPS across the roof above, as the watcherdiscovers Klute's ruse. Klute opens the door --climbs ladder to roof.EXT. ROOFTOPS - NIGHT-- Klute out, looking around --EXT. ROOFTOPS: PAST KLUTE TO FLEEING FIGURE - NIGHTThe figure -- the man -- scissoring over the lowwalls where one brownstone joins another. Klutegives chase -- over ridges, past water tanks,oddments of roof furniture --EXT. SEVERAL ROOFTOPS BEYOND - NIGHTThe FIGURE races to a roof door disappearing intoabandoned building.INT. STAIRWELL - ABANDONED BUILDINGCAMERA follows KLUTE as he cautiously makes his waydown the stairwell of the boarded up oldbrownstone. He gets to the first floor. He can seeno exit in the building. He opens door that leadsto a narrow staircase into the cellar.INT. CELLAR - ABANDONED BROWNSTONEIt is as black as a dungeon and as low. He lights amatch, but sees no one. There is a sound ofmovement coming from the floor above, He runs upthe steps to the floor above and sees a very faintlight coming through one of the closed apartmentdoors. Carefully takes out a gun and then with onequick movement he breaks through the door.INT. ABANDONED APARTMENTThe walls, ceiling, floors are entirely coveredwith crudely painted psychedelic signs and sayings.The room is lighted by some candies stuck inbottles. Sitting on a blanket on the floor areseveral teenaged boys and girls having a pot party.They have obviously made a clubhouse for themselvesin the abandoned house. It is a MOOT POINT whetherthey or KLUTE is more stunned at the sight thatfaces them. He puts his gun away in embarrassment.Again he has been made to feel like an awkwardpeeping tom in this hidden world of the city.INT. CELLAR - ABANDONED BUILDINGCAMERA wanders restlessly through the blackness andstops at a pinpoint of light coming through a low door. CAMERA goes through opening into long narrowfurnace room with the ceiling so low that anordinary man could not stand up. We hear the soundof breathing. CAMERA follows the sound through thedarkness revealing a sweaty man huddled in thecorner looking like some strange animal from apainting by Bosch. It is Cable.INT. BREE'S APARTMENT - NIGHTBree has wrapped herself in the quilt -- standingup against a corner shivering, immobilized. We hearKLUTE'S FOOTSTEPS DESCENDING -- she flinches -- heenters. KLUTE I couldn't get him.He sees her condition. Gently -- KLUTE (CONT'D) It's all right.He reaches to touch her -- she quails away fromhim. BREE Well do you think it was him? KLUTE What do you think? BREE Can't you get him? KLUTE Maybe, if you tell me the things you haven't. BREE (pause) You asked me where I got that date with the dumper -- Frank sent me on it. KLUTE Do you know where he got the dumper? BREE He never told me. KLUTE Well, let's go down and ask him.EXT. CENTRAL PARK WEST BUILDINGS - DAYA shot catching the edge of CENTRAL PARK itself --our first small view of greenery -- to the tall, belimousined APARTMENT BUILDINGS OF C.P.W. TheFIGURES OF KLUTE, BREE walking upstreet, turningunder one of the canopies -- (Klute carries azipper book-case).INT. APARTMENT HOUSE LOBBY - ON DOORMAN AT PHONE -DAYThe DOORMAN hangs up the brass house-phone, smilesand gestures them graciously into the (selfservice) ELEVATOR. We see Klute -- without makingtoo much of it -- taking in the mirrors and marblework.INT. ELEVATOR (MOVING): KLUTE, BREEShe breaks the silence. BREE What did you expect? Frankie still has a good string, three girls. Figure three hundred a week from each. KLUTE Is that what you gave him?Silence.INT. LIGOURIN'S APARTMENT: ON DOOR - DAYThe BUZZER sounding, FRANK LIGOURIN crossing toopen the door for BREE, KLUTE. Cheerful,hospitable, nice, unpretentious. FRANK Bree -- hi -- come in, come in.The point of this one brief shot -- Bree's face --in the instant after Frank has spoken and beforeshe enters, with Klute following. Her half-secondof hesitation. This is someone who gets to hersomehow -- probably always will.WIDER LIGOURIN'S APT: THREESHOT - DAYThe apartment is as expected -- but not overdone; acertain small amount of someone-lives-here litter.A few, large but not very good, ABSTRACTIONS on thewalls. There is a large TABLE covered over withphotographs and mock-ups of magazine pages, a feltboard or easel with lettering samples -- Frank'sprops really. BREE Frank -- Klute. FRANK (shakes hands) Hi. Come in. (leads them in, indicating table) I was just catching up some work -- mocking up the photographs. (to Klute) I used to be a photographer myself - Bree tell you? -- Before I got in the publishing. BREE Frank, he knows you're a pimp. He knows you were my pimp.Short silence. Then with the tact of a gentlemandealing with rude, difficult woman -- FRANK Well Bree, maybe you'd rather --He gestures gently to indicate outside. She nodsonce. He escorts her in that direction, OUT thedoor, closing it behind them.INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE LIGOURIN'S APARTMENT - DAYHe escorts her to the elevator, pushes the downbutton for her. In silence so far. Then, quietly --as one who knows the other's thoughts -- FRANK How's it been?She shrugs a shoulder at him, looks away. He goeson in the same quiet voice. FRANK (CONT'D) With me Bree it's eternally the same. Toward you. I guess you know that. BREE Yeah Frank, I know that.She yanks at the elevator doors. But the elevator'snot here yet. She turns away sharply into the doormarked "Stairway". He turns back to his apartment.INT. LIGOURIN'S APARTMENT - DAYFrank reenters, with the calm smile of troopchaplain. FRANK I've always respected Bree. (then) I'd like to make something clear. KLUTE I've just got a few -- FRANK I'd like to make something clear. I don't go after a girl; a girl comes to me. Her choice. Right?He gestures Klute to one chair, sits in another,waits calmly, attentively. KLUTE I'm looking for a man. Tom Grunemann. (no response, whatever) Bree thinks he may have been the dumper -- that call she had two years ago. She says you sent her on it. FRANK Two years ago? Sorry. KLUTE They tell me you use narcotics. Could I bring someone around to look at your arms? FRANK Look -- dad -- I may stand better with the cops than you.Klute waits. FRANK (CONT'D) OK, a family matter. Between the girls. I had two other cows -- (corrects himself) -- two other girls besides Bree. KLUTE She told me. FRANK OK and one of them Jane McKenna -- she blows a little jealous of Bree - you know? -- Bree comes first? And evidently she knew the freak --- that he was a dumper -- she conned me into passing him to Bree, you know, so Bree'd get hurt. I didn't know. Till afterwards. KLUTE Why didn't you tell Bree, afterwards? FRANK (a little shocked) You don't tell them. That one of their own in-laws laid a dumper on them? (shakes head) Peace in the family. (pause) Beyond that, I don't know. All she wrote. KLUTE I'd like to talk with Jane McKenna. FRANK (smiles) Would I be telling you all this? She copped out long ago. She committed suicide Baxter.INT. APARTMENT HOUSE LOBBY: BREE - DAYBREE sits, looks with curiosity at housewives herage -- bringing their children in from the park, asif trying to imagine what their lives could belike. KLUTE emerges from elevator.EXT. STREET (TWO SHOT) - DAY BREE Did you like my friend Frankie? KLUTE No. BREE Didn't he tell you what you wanted? KLUTE It didn't go anywhere. (then) But that's not why -- BREE About the dumper, didn't he tell you that? KLUTE It was Jane McKenna who sent you the dumper. BREE (coldly) Well -- she's dead.At the corner he slows, starts unzipping hisbookcase as if indicating a change of route. BREE (CONT'D) I thought you were going back to the apartment. KLUTE (he shakes his head) You said you wanted these.He hands over the TAPE-REELS. BREE Oh golly, oh just what I've always dreamed of, dirty phone calls. (then) How come? KLUTE You told me what you could. I guess I'm through with your part of it. BREE (grudgingly) Is there anything more I could -- KLUTE I don't see anything, do you? BREE What're you gonna do next? KLUTE Try some other ways. (starts off) BREE What do I do meanwhile? -- wait for that clown to fall through the skylight on me? KLUTE And I don't think that was Tom. BREE You said it was! KLUTE No, I said what did you think. BREE Oh -- wait -- oh I get it. You said that just to keep me scared. So I'd tell you everything I -- oh clever; oh you smart, tricky hick. KLUTE Well -- BREE (harshly) Hey, but did we get to you, Klute? A little? KLUTE Yeah, you got to me. BREE -- Us city folks? The sin, the glitter, the wickedness? KLUTE Oh. No. Not that way. I'd say it was more -- I don't know -- (hunts the word) -- too bad? Pathetic? BREE Goodbye.She turns smartly away, deposits the tapes inpassing in a litter box, departs. Klute looks afterher for a moment, then turns on his way. Then --EXT. POV THROUGH LITTERBOX IN FOREGROUND TO POV OFFIGURES OF KLUTE, BREE - DAYThis shot holds both in view for a moment, untilthey both disappear separately in the traffic.CAMERA moves in slightly on litterbox as a man'shand comes into frame and removes the tapes.INT. KLUTE'S APARTMENT: KLUTE - NIGHTKlute, in pajama bottoms, lies in bed. A miserablyhot humid night. KNOCK at the door. He answers.BREE stands in the doorway in bare feet. BREE What the hell do you mean, pathetic?She walks in past him, sits down on the edge of hisbed. KLUTE It's kind of late. BREE It got lonely upstairs. There's someone on the roof.He takes her seriously, starts to move. BREE (CONT'D) Oh, don't be a doo-doo. KLUTE Not much point to this, is there? BREE (placidly) Ezra, I'm lots better than you're used to. Tell me -- the other night, watching me with Mr. Faber -- wasn't your tongue a little bit hanging out? KLUTE Mm. BREE So you're not too different from him, or the chap on the roof, or Tommy-baby --He starts for the bed, as if to lift her onto herfeet. She takes off her robe and swings her legsup, and under the sheet. BREE (CONT'D) Look, if you don't use it somebody else just will. And you've done your whole bit with me, your entire duty, and so now this is my thing. So enjoy, Mr. Faber would say, enjoy.Under the sheet she unlooses her pajama bottoms,kicks them away, starts unbuttoning the shirt. KLUTE Bree -- thanks -- I don't want to. BREE Oh don't be all hypocrite. Or do you really like other kicks? Is it more just having power over someone? -- so you don't really need to --He tries to rebutton the pajama shirt. She catcheshis hand, thrusts it underneath. In grief and anger-- BREE (CONT'D) Who the hell are you, buttoning me up? QUICK DISSOLVE --UPSHOT, C.U.Their bodies lock together descending toward camera-- DISSOLVE --DOWNSHOT, C.U. SAME ACTIONHer hands slide about his shoulders. She islaughing softly, affectionately, mockingly -- BREE I knew it, I knew it, a killer. DISSOLVE --C.U., HER FACE-- triumphantly, contemptuously, orgiastically -- BREE Oh lover -- oh you thrill me -- oh, it's beautiful -- oh yes, yes -- oh like that, like that, yes -- DISSOLVE --FACESKlute gasps deeply -- entering orgasm. As soon asshe hears it, judges it, she drops her hands fromhis shoulders, stills her own movements, liesutterly passive, smiling calmly, letting him finishfor himself. He can't stop -- cries out -- criesout again, burying his face against her -- is done.Then he slowly raises up, shuddering, looking downat her. He knows what she's done to him, ishelpless to do anything back. He rolls slowly outof the embrace of her legs and lies silently --looking upward, very much as we saw him at start ofscene.FAVORIVG BREEShe waits, still smiling, for a while. But she'snot done with him yet. She rolls to lie with herupper body on his, trailing her fingers across hisface. Affectionately, as a good whore -- BREE (CONT'D) What's the matter hon? You were great. Terrific. A tiger. KLUTE Thanks. BREE Well what're you down about? You mean because you didn't get me there? (pause, comfortingly) You can't expect that. I mean Frank, yes, he'd get me there all the time -- but never with a John.She sits up, gropes her pajamas from the floor,puts them on. In the same fond tone -- BREE (CONT'D) And I'm sorry I can't stay and learn your special little games. And I certainly don't want you to feel bad about this -- losing your virtue all of a sudden -- because I sort of knew you would. As I said, like everyone, right?She has the pajamas and robe on, pauses near thedoor -- BREE (CONT'D) Besides - you can always tell yourself you made me come downstairs. Ta, luv.INT. THEATRE: READING SCENE - DAYA WIDE SHOT. An open casting call in an OffBroadway Theatre. Darkness, except for the worklight onstage. A small GROUP there -- onstage --including the figure of BREE. Just offstage, thefigures of DIRECTOR (JANG) and a PRODUCER. And therest of the theatre, the audience section, dottedwith the heads of ACTORS, ACTRESSES waiting fortheir turns. Bree's voice rings out across thegloom. BREE -- Why?CLOSER, ONSTAGEThe others stand rigid as statues, facing deadfront -- an experimental drama, clearly -- allholding scripts, as Bree hastens from one toanother, fiercely, imploringly -- BREE (CONT'D) Why -- please, why? -- Why lose, why look? Why hate and give and want and love? Why get, grieve, g -- JANG (loudly, cheerfully) Thank you very much.All break posture, start offstage, while Bree,caught in mid-stride, clowns it a little. BREE -- gug -- gug ---- then toward Jang, a bit succinctly, indicatingscript -- BREE (CONT'D) Why? -- I want to know what. JANG (laughs tolerantly) No, that was very good everybody. Do we have all your resumes? PRODUCER (from list) Booth -- Osman -- Zuff -- Anjeris Chaka.WIDER, near stage front.Bree shrugs, steps down off stage with the others.Bree finds Jang's hand out for her script, smileswanly, turns it over, continues on out of scene.She finds something - someone -- impeding her way.Looks up.PAST BREE TO KLUTEKlute has edged out into the aisle to intercepther.EXT. THEATRE ENTRANCE: GREENWICH VILLAGE - DAYBree comes out, turns. KLUTE You asked if there was anything more you could help me with. BREE When?Pause. Impasse. KLUTE I've checked the records of Jane McKenna's death -- I can't get anything special. But Frank Ligourin had another girl you said, besides McKenna and you. BREE Arlyn Page. KLUTE Did she and Jane McKenna know each other? BREE Frankie kept them in the same apartment: it cut his travel-time. KLUTE Then maybe Arlyn Page knew the Dumper too. BREE Arlyn had a very big habit - heroin - she's the one who started Frank. She's strung out now; you won't find her. KLUTE You could help me find her. You know the people. (as she turns away) I'll pay you a hundred dollars. BREE I can make that in a lunch break! (then) Look, Hiram, you're sure it isn't just me? -- you decided you liked it, after all, the other night; you'll hang around for seconds? KLUTE Don't worry.She examines him -- shrugs -- turns, proceeds alongthe sidewalk, Klute accompanying --EXT. DISCOTHEQUE - NIGHTIn the small hours. The same place seen previously,the gathering place. KLUTE, BREE arriving andentering.INT. DISCOTHEQUE - NIGHTKlute and Bree head toward the rear. Her arrivalcauses a little stir. She exchanges greetings withone or two, is watched by others. BREE Joanie -- Mike, hi -- (to another, a Negro girl) Hi Pat. PAT (giggles) Hey Bree honey, who you got? BREE A new daddy. I'n he cute?Bree leads on to where --PAST KLUTE, BREE TO TRINATRINA sits alone at a rear table -- anything but awhore in appearance -- a quietly beautiful,immaculately dressed woman of about thirty. BREE (CONT'D) Trina this is Klute. I told you about him. TRINA Oh yes Mr. Klute -- won't you both join me? (as they sit) And how do you like our fair city? There's so much here don't you think? The museums and the books and the foreign films -- Bree, have you seen the Godard film? BREE Uh uh. TRINA Oh you've got to. He does such fun things with imagery. And I've been reading The Fall -- (to Klute, enunciating carefully) -- The Fall by Ahlbair Camoo -- it's the same thing, you know the imagery -- BREE (patiently) Trina honey, he just wants to find Arlyn Page.Trina undergoes a change of demeanor. Flatly -- TRINA Why? She's a junkie. BREE (prods gently) She was with you after she left Frank. TRINA Well she's not now. (then quavering --) I did everything for Arlyn. I loved Arlyn I took her right into my apartment, my own sweet apartment on First. But she wouldn't stay off it -- the junk -- and I wept and I pleaded and I held her in my arms - and she started taking things, my things, and selling them for horse. My clothes. We could've had everything together, everything -- and then the bitch sold my mink!INT. ANOTHER LATE NIGHT SPOT - NIGHTWe dolly with KLUTE & BREE as they walk in front ofa row of tables. This night spot is totally blackexcept for a series of huge slide projections onthe wall in back of the tables. The slides, whichchange every few seconds are elegantrepresentations of the beautiful people living thegood life as seen in such magazines as VOGUE, TOWN& COUNTRY & HARPERS BAZAAR. The customers sittingin the darkness below provide a direct contrast tothe pictures in back. The silhouette figures ofBREE & KLUTE stop at a table seating three people,two call girls and a pimp. CAMERA moves in. FIRST GIRL Arlyn Page? SECOND GIRL You'll never catch up; she's grooved out. BREE Gil?The pimp looks distrustfully at Klute who reassures-- KLUTE I'm not looking for her personally - someone she might know about. PIMP (shrugs; to Bree) Try Janie Dale.INT. JANIE DALE'S PENTHOUSEIt is a very small penthouse. KLUTE & BREE stand inthe small living room waiting for JANIE DALE. Thereare two very casually dressed prostitutes sittingaround the living room. One sits at an uprightpiano playing of all things STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT.Another one sits on a couch talking to a WallStreet Broker who is spending his lunch hour. KLUTEfinds himself staring down into a pile ofpornography magazines on the coffee table. BREE isamused at his discomfort.JANIE DALE, the madame, who has been on the phonein the back, puts the receiver down and crosses tothe girl on the couch. JANIE looks and talks a bitlike Lauren Bacall. JANIE DALE (to girl on couch) It's old Mr. Clean from Cleveland. He wants to know when he can fly in and clean up the apartment and see you. I told him I have all the cleaning equipment and that he can come anytime, but it's up to you.GIRL on couch rises. GIRL You know he wants us to be dominant. JANIE DALE Tell him that he'd better have his ass in here by one o'clock on Monday afternoon or you won't let him clean the bathroom floor, and tell him the price has gone up twenty bucks -- Old Dutcn Cleanser's not as cheap as it used to be.She shrugs and turns to KLUTE & BREE. JANIE DALE (CONT'D) You wanted to know about Arlyn, honey? I had to let her go dear. Arlyn stopped being reliable. (explains to Klute) I deal with a high type client, business people, you understand? I can't send them someone that's all the time half zonked out. KLUTE Do you know where she went? JANIE DALE Try Momma Reese.THIS IS A CHEAPER APARTIENT THAN JANIE DALE'SThe girls look cheaper, and the customers, ratherthan Wall Street lawyers and brokers, look morelike out of town salesmen who stay at local motorinns.MOMMA REESE is older than JANIE DALE, heavier andwith no pretense at chic. She indicates that shehas not seen ARLYN in some time. MOMMA REESE Try Bill Azure. If you can find him.INT. EIGHT AVENUE BAR - ABOUT 4 IN THE MORNINGThis is a hangout where black and white pimps waitto meet their whores after their night of streetwalking. This streetwalker world is far removedfrom the world of the call girl or the world ofJanie Dale. CAMERA pans past a group of pimps atthe bar taking bet on whose girls have made themost money that night. CAMERA then goes on toreveal KLUTE talking to another pimp (Azure). Azurerepresents a clear step down from Frank Ligourin. We catch only part of their dialogue. AZURE -- a couple weeks then she'd drift off a couple of weeks, you know what I mean? KLUTE Have you heard from her recently? AZURE She liked me all right but she had what she liked better, you know what I mean?We START FADE SOUND as Klute repeats -- KLUTE Have you heard from her recently?-- and CUT TO --INT. LINGERIE SHOP: PROPRIETRESS, BREE, KLUTE PROPRIETRESS -- She'd come in and I'd let her have something. Why not; she'd been a good customer, a beautiful person, a beautiful beautiful person.Again we fade sound a little before picture, thenCUT TO --EXT. OUTSIDE ADULT MOVIE THEATER: KLUTE,STREETWALKERS - DAY OR NIGHTOutside Theatre or Bookstore - Peepshow; an 8thAvenue establishment. SILENT ACTION this (or VOICESUNDER). Klute confers with one girl who summons andconsults another. They seem to know of Arlyn --haven't seen her recently -- refer him elsewhere --EXT. APARTMENT HOUSE: MRS. VASEK, KLUTE - DAYA shabby place in a shabby neighborhood. Mrs.Vasek, the landlady, shifts barrels at the sametime that she barks at Klute, in heavy accent. MRS. VASEK The whore, yeah. I threw out. KLUTE Do you know where she went from here? MRS. VASEK Live like animals. Her and the man. Out. KLUTE (reacts) Was she living with a man?We see Klute persisting - DISSOLVEEXT. WIDE SHOT: SLUM STREET - DAYWe still HOLD WIDE to establish the scene. This isa genuine slum. We see Bree, Klute move alongstreet. We see Bree drop back a little, Klutewaiting for her to catch up.EXT. STREET: BREE, KLUTE KLUTE What's the matter? BREE (glances about) What the hell do you think's the matter. (then suggests) I could wait for you someplace. KLUTE If Arlyn Page is living with Tom Grunemann -- BREE (eagerly) -- Then you don't need me. KLUTE But if it's someone else I do.He starts on, simply assuming that she'll follow.(There is a degree of acquaintanceship in theirmanners now - a reluctant collaboration.) BREE You sure pull a lot of mileage out of a hundred dollars.-- and follows on. He checks numbers, then crossesstreet diagonally toward a half-framed house.INT. NEWARK HOUSE - DAYA downshot from second floor level toward the entryway where KLUTE & BREE appear. KLUTE strikes amatch to inspect the names of tenants. He and Breeclimb through stench and litter to the second floor-- a door. From somewhere near at hand come thesounds of someone RETCHING. A square of wood hasbeen sawed out of the door itself, removing handleand lock -- light sifts through. Klute hesitates,decides against knocking, pushes in.INT. ARLYN'S APARTMENT - DAYThe retching sounds are coming from the connectingroom. No one visible here. A very few barren piecesof furniture. We hear ARLYN'S VOICE ask from thenext room -- ARLYN (O.S.) Cappy?ARLYN enters rather eagerly. She sees Klute first,then Bree -- recognizes her -- retires flat againsta wall, holding one palm outwards to shield herface. She is unbelievably gaunt. Inside one elbow,looking rather like a birthmark, we see a laceworkof purple where her veins have pulped together. BREE Arlyn? Honey? (then) Look, it's all right.From the connecting room a MAN'S VOICE (Berger's)calling out hoarsely. BERGER (O.S.) Is it Cappy? Cappy? -- BREE Arlyn, it's all right.BERGER hastens, stumbles, into the doorframecarrying a CAR-RADIO with wires dangling, speaksbefore he sees them. BERGER Cappy, I got a radio!He stops for an instant face-to-face with Klute.Then turns, plunges out of view again. Arlyn breaksafter. ARLYN No --We hear the MUMBLE and WHISPER of their voices fromthe connecting room (as she reassures him). Breelooks inquiringly at Klute (is that Grunemann?): heshakes his head. Pause, then ARLYN reenters,wrapping her fingers together timidly -- wantingthem out -- her only purpose. ARLYN (CONT'D) Bree -- honey - please, we're waiting for someone. BREE Arlyn, he just wanted to ask some questions -- something you could help us about. ARLYN Can't you see I'm strung out? (cries out) Please, we're waiting for it -- he's got to have it! KLUTE We'll go. Just something you could tell us, first.Arlyn seems to accept the bargain. He indicates toBree to proceed, stands away a little. Arlyn coversher elbow with one hand. Bree manages as best shecan. BREE Honey, a couple of years ago, with Jane and Frankie? -- Jane sent me a Dumper -- ARLYN Please, if he sees you, he won't come! BREE Arlyn, just tell me, did Jane have a dumper, one of her regular Johns? ARLYN What about him? Yes. BREE Did he come around often?Klute hands Grunemann's picture to Bree: Bree showsit to Arlyn. Arlyn inspects it, then uncertainly,weakly -- ARLYN No. He was an older man hon. The dumper was older. KLUTE Do you remember his name? What can you tell me about him?We hear FOOTSTEPS - UNDER, DIMLY - mounting thestairs. Bree notices them first, Klute persistingwith Arlyn -- BERGER (O.S.) (shouts desperately) Arlyn, get them out. ARLYN Please, I am begging you. KLUTE It's important. ARLYN That's not the Dumper, that's all! He was an older man! KLUTE Can you give me any more description than that?Arlyn catches the footsteps, dodges past him towardthe door, intending to reassure -- ARLYN Cappy? ---- as the pusher, CAPPY, steps in. All of this isvery quick, simultaneous, a confusion of voices.CAPPY takes one look at Klute -- ARLYN (CONT'D) It's all right, they're all right ---- turns and runs. BERGER (O.S.) Cappy? -- Cappy?Cappy's FOOTSTEPS race away down the stairs. BERGERplunges out from the connecting room, stillcarrying the car radio, shouting, pursuing -- BERGER (CONT'D) Cappy it's all right! I got a radio -- don't run, don't --We hear him STUMBLE AND FALL on the stairs outside,the sound of body reeling down. Arlyn shrieks andraces after: Klute and Bree follow.INT. HOUSE: LOWER HALL - DAYWe see BERGER lying at the foot of the stairs. AsArlyn clatters down toward him, Berger sways uponto his knees. His nose is bloodied, he cries.Arlyn casts herself on her knees beside him, pullshis face against her, croons to him, soothes andtends him. ARLYN Oh baby -- no it's all right -- oh my baby baby baby --Klute and Bree are only a half-step behind. Kluteoffers to assist: Arlyn puts him away ferociously. ARLYN (CONT'D) Get out! (to Berger, again) Don't cry my baby; I'll find him, I'll get it. Baby, baby, don't cry. (to Klute savagely, incoherently) Leave us alone! Get out and get out and leave us alone! (to Berger) My honey, my baby, my baby --We DISSOLVE TO --INT. SUBWAY TRAIN: REFLECTION IN WINDOW OF BREE ANDKLUTE SITTING SIDE BY SIDECAMERA moves in closer so we only see reflection ofBREE looking at herself and at the world seeming tospeed by at an inhuman pace as the lights of thetunnel zoom past her face. What she sees is thefigure of a woman with life screaming past her outof control.INT. SUBWAYSUBWAY slows to a stop and a door opens. BREE sitswith KLUTE staring at the open door and thenwithout warning - gets up and runs off the train.The door closes, leaving KLUTE locked in the train.SUBWAY EXITSHOT of BREE's feet rushing up the stairs indarkness and then quick cut to her face as she hitsthe sunlight. She pauses for a moment - relieved tobe out of the darkness.EXT. ROOFTOP OF BREE'S BROWNSTONE - NIGHTCAMERA pans from night view of New York City toKLUTE sitting on the rooftop alone as if trying tocomprehend all he has seen, the mystery of TOMGRUNEMANN's disappearance in this world and themysteries of the behavior of BREE.SKYLIGHT INTO BREE'S APARTMENT - NIGHTAlongside of him the skylight of BREE's apartmentlights up. He looks through the skylight and seesBREE enter her apartment. He can hear BREE talkingto somebody, and then he sees that she is talkingto FRANK LIGOURIN.KLUTE watches through the skylight and hears bitsand pieces of the scene between BREE and FRANK. Hesees the same kind of symbiosis, the same kind ofparody of loving that he saw between ARLYN &BERGER. As the scene becomes more intimate heleaves.INT. CABLE'S (CITY) OFFICE: ON KLUTE - DAYThe pristine, antiseptic, elegance off CABLE'Soffice is in its own way as unreal and dehumanizedas the sexual underworld KLUTE has been exploringwith BREE, and KLUTE looks as out of place in theone as he does in the other. TRASK sits besideKLUTE facing CABLE who is impeccably dressed. He isthe total image of the executive in control. CABLE She wouldn't be reliable anyhow -- a narcotics addict. KLUTE I believed her, Pete. TRASK He's right you know. Waiting for the pusher, she'd tell you anything. KLUTE I believed her: the Dumper was not Tom Grunemann. CABLE All right, suppose it wasn't Tom Grunemann; where does that get you? KLUTE (smiles ruefully) It's where it doesn't get me. I've got nothing left that connects to anything. CABLE Then, close the case. KLUTE I better keep looking. CABLE Where, how? KLUTE (the best he can offer) I could try Arlyn Page again. She saw much more of the Dumper than Bree Daniel. CABLE You just finished telling me she had nothing to offer. Not Tom, you said, the Dumper was clearly not Tom. KLUTE It's got to make sense some way.CABLE'S SECRETARY appears for a moment tapping herwatch significantly. SECRETARY Mr. Cable -- they are meeting in Mr. Camara's office. CABLE Yes Evvie, thanks. Gentlemen, I'm sorry.They rise, dismissed. He sorts a paper or two,continues to Klute. CABLE (CONT'D) I'm flying back out to Pennsylvania Friday; I'll fill them in on things. KLUTE How is it back there? CABLE I think you're homesick. (reflects) I'll be out at my camp over the weekend. Nice right now, that touch of fall in the air, that skim of frost in the early mornings, very peaceful. (briskly again) John, I'll be back here again Thursday; I'll be in touch. Lieutenant, thank you.KLUTE and TRASK depart.CABLE closes the door and returns to his desk. Hepulls out a tape recorder from a drawer in hisdesk, rewinds it and turns it on. We hear aplayback of the previous scene with KLUTE andTRASK. He stands at the window listening with somesatisfaction; as if listening to what KLUTErevealed keeps him in control of the situation.EXT. WINDOW - CABLE'S OFFICE - DAYThe CAMERA pulls back from a CU of CABLE standingat the window to a wide angle looking at CABLEthrough the window. The window is 30 or 40 storieshigh. The wide angle lens almost makes the buildinglook like it is standing on point, and CABLE, a mansuspended in space.EXT. WIDE SHOT: DOCKS - DAYA TUGBOAT has pulled in. The SOUND of its heavyENGINES, IDLING, runs underneath this entiresequence. A POLICE VEHICLE or two has parked at thehead of the dock. We see several figures on therear deck of the tug, but it's not clear at thisdistance what they're doing. The POLICE CAR WITHKLUTE arrives. He dismounts and proceeds from dockto tug-deck.EXT. TUGBOAT DECK: GROUP - DAYTRASK glances toward Klute as he arrives, butdoesn't greet him. His attention, like the others,is directed downward andoff-scene (to the surface of the water actually,just outboard of the tug). We see beside Trask TWOUniformed Cops (SUGARMAN and SPENCE) and DECKHANDS.And we hear, along with the throbbing of theengines, a stirring about of the water and apeculiar third noise -- rather commingled with theengines -- which we can't at first identify.Klute joins the group, watches.SPENCE brings into view, and shakes out, a giantneoprene body bag. INSTRUCTIONS among the group ADLIB, UNDER -- TRASK (toward Klute) They were bringing a freighter down through Kill Van Kull; propellers washed it up on top.SUGARMAN brings into view a METAL BASKET attachedwith short ropes. He complains -- SUGARMAN Why didn't you bring it up on deck? DECKHAND Would you bring it up on deck?They slip the basket downward, out of frame (intothe water). DECKHAND (CONT'D) (to other) Mickey, get something. Get the eels off. SPENCE (calmly) They'll drop off theirselves when she comes out.We CUT TO -BERGER - DAYWe see Berger sitting huddled against the tugboatcabin -- we haven't seen him before -- with hishands bunched in front of his mouth. We identifythe noise which may have puzzled us before -- hisSOBBING.DOWNSHOT: SURFAICE OF WATER, BASKET, BODYWe catch a fleeting glimpse of the body beinglifted, just before it breaks the surface of thewater.FAVORING KLUTEKlute looks on as EFFECTS trace the processing ofthe body. SPENCE kneels down out of frame to slidethe bag around it. TRASK kneels down to make abrief examination -- straightens again. To Klute -- TRASK It'll go to the Examiner. But I don't see nothin that means nothin.We MOVE WITH KLUTE as he turns and moves away a fewfeet along deck. Here he stands. Then SUGARMANmoves into view holding a clipboard. Routinely -- SUGARMAN You help us with ID? We can't get nothin from him.He indicates the direction of Berger. Kluteexamines the clipboard data. KLUTE Arlyn Page was probably an alias. She went by the names Terry Arlyn and June Price. She may have been from Pittsburgh, someone told me. I can give you a list of people who knew her, if that would help to -- SUGARMAN No point, thanks. KLUTE Is he claiming the body? SUGARMAN Uh uh, that'd mean funeral expenses.He spits, moves back in the direction of the group;Klute continues to stand. BERGER moves in hisdirection. Brokenly -- BERGER Man could you help me?Klute doesn't understand his purport, reactsinstantly, sympathetically -- KLUTE Yeah, what? BERGER You know, help me out. That's my baby there, dead. I got to get up.Klute stares at him -- a quiet horror -- as Bergerinsists -- BERGER (CONT'D) Man you don't know what that does to me, my baby dead -- KLUTE -- You've got to get up. BERGER Yeah.Klute shoves a bill in his hand, turns away verysharply, off the tugboat.EXT. DOCK: KLUTE - DAYKlute walks a longer distance this time, sits downon one of the pilings of the dock. Watching him wesee what might be a profound awe and grief at allthese things -- but is, in fact, a good deal more.EFFECTS, O.S. as Police Vehicles are loaded, drivenaway and as tug toots, runs up engines, puts outagain.TRASK moves into scene, sits on another piling,looks at him speculatively. Silence. Then -- TRASK That's how the other one died, you know. In the water. KLUTE (nods) I looked it up.Then -- (we are assuming a complete understandinghere between Klute and Trask, non-verbal. WhatTrask is asking, in effect, is: is this meaningful?Do we both suspect the same man?) TRASK Well? KLUTE Yeah.INT. BREE'S APARTMENT - DAYIt is late afternoon, but BREE is in her pajamascurled up in her bed. There are some magazinesscattered around the bed and the television set ison an old movie. There are cracker crumbs in thebed and a cup of coffee and an open jar of peanutbutter with the knife sticking out of the jar onthe floor by the bed. It would seem that BREE hasspent most of the day in bed. She looks like anunkempt child. The phone is ringing, but she doesnot answer it. The phone no sooner stops than thedoor bell rings. Reluctantly she gets out of bedand goes to the door. She looks through the spyhole and sees Klute's face. She undoes two locksand an obviously new chain and bolt and opens thedoor. BREE Well hello -- come on in.He barely enters the room. His manner is cool andremote. KLUTE I thought you ought to know, Arlyn Page is dead. BREE How? KLUTE The same as Jane McKenna. BREE (she betrays no reaction) Thanks for the jolly news. I thought maybe you'd left town by now. You kind of just disappeared. But you boys from Tuscarora have a habit of disappearing, don't you?Klute looks around the disorderly room. The plantsin the windowsill have never been in worse shape.They look as if she deliberately let them die ofthirst. KLUTE The next few weeks I would like to know where you are all the time. BREE (harshly) Why? KLUTE Just let me know when you are going out and where -- BREE What if i go out on tricks - you wanna come along? You could sit and read the National Geographic. KLUTE How can you do it to yourself? BREE (coolly) I don't get you. KLUTE Ligourin: How could you do it? BREE I told you before, you wouldn't understand. KLUTE You're right, I don't understand. Explain it to me. (pause) You were scared. Arlyn Page, that scared you. Well it should; that's death. So what did you do, you ran straight for it, death. Ligourin kills women. BREE No. KLUTE No, no you're right, I'm sorry. He uses women; he lets them kill themselves. Is that how you want it? BREE Arlyn was a junkie; I'm not on junk! KLUTE No, you can find some other way. (beat) Explain it to me. Bree, show me any sense to -- BREE (screams, incoherently) You get the Christ out! You dumb stupid bastard, you don't know anything, you square, you get out! I don't have to show you anything; you get out!Klute goes.INT. KLUTE'S APARTMENT - DAYThe empty apartment. He enters, switches a light on(dusk), tosses aside jacket, bookcase, etc., thensits down on the edge of his bed, with one footpropped up on it.FOOTSTEPS and A RAP at the door. He looks up, butdoesn't move, doesn't answer. BREE opens it,enters. There are tear-tracks down her face, butshe's no longer crying. She tries to smile, triesto explain her wants. Then with the unhurried,graven composure of absolute desperation, she sitson the edge of the bed. BREE If I asked you something, would you not laugh? -- asked you to look at something?She pushes up her sleeve, points at tiny spot onher arm - a freckle. He peers at it then at herpuzzledly. BREE (CONT'D) (apologetic) I thought it was maybe changing shape or something.Klute looks at it again. Judiciously --He shows her a spot or two on his own forearm. Shecompares, is reassured. Embarrassedly, she tries tosmile. It is unsuccessful. She gets up and movesabout. Her manner in general is totally unguarded,honest, undramatic, searching. BREE (CONT'D) Look -- I hate everybody; and I'm sorry for everybody; and I'm scared all the time.He only grunts. A sound like 'OK' or 'all right' --an invitation to leave. But she won't be drivenaway. More urgently, helplessly: BREE (CONT'D) Look, I don't know either. It's like the only thing I know how to do -- I feel safe.She's left the door a little ajar. He widens it forher. KLUTE It's been a full day.She pushes it out of his hand, pushes it shut. Alittle more angrily: BREE Please. KLUTE We did this before. BREE No. (then) Well all right. But you want to and I want you to and we both know it and all right. KLUTE (evenly, slowly) I don't like getting splashed.She accepts it decently. Tries to smile again,nods. BREE OK ----- OKShe gestures, tries to find something more to say,moves by degrees toward the door -- and wouldsucceed in leaving. But then: KLUTE --- Bree ---Standing still, she starts again to cry -- andbravely to keep the crying to herself. The childbereft. He contends with himself, then crosses toher, puts his arms around her, soothes her hair. Acompletely asexual gesture at this point, a givingof comfort. She clings, trembles, burrows. Then --a SERIES OF DISSOLVES: The street outside, atdifferent times of night interposed, with Bree andKlute at different times of love, As Follows:EXT. THE STREET - DAYThe street as we saw it just previously... stilldaylight... still somewhat populated, but drawingtoward dusk. DISSOLVE:INT. KLUTE'S APARTMENT: BPEE, KLUTE - NIGHTDarkness now, or close to dark; the room heavilyshadowed. Bree and Klute sit together on the bed.He still strokes her hair. He has pulled a blanketaround her shoulders. The transaction is still notovertly sexual, but the tenderness is more overt.He rubs his cheek against her forehead. She herselfis quieter, comforted. She begins to stir againsthim. DISSOLVE:EXT. THE STREET - NIGHTThe street at night. Eleven o'clock, let's say.Some lit windows; a single car moving past. DISSOLVE:EXT. THE STREET - NIGHTAll the windows dark this time. The deepest night,just before the sky begins to lighten. DISSOLVE:INT. KLUTE'S APARTMENT: BREE, KLUTE - NIGHTKlute is alseep -- more or less -- on his stomach.Bree beside him lies awake. She trails her fingersabout his back. A rather tentative, exploratorybusiness. Her expression is more wondering thananything else -- what does she have here, and canshe get used to it? DISSOLVE:EXT. THE STREET - DAY (DAWN)The street's first stirrings. From not far off, thesounds of trash cans being collected. DISSOLVE:INT. KLUTE'S APARTMENT: BREE, KLUTE - DAY (DAWN)Klute half sits up in bed. Bree is fast asleep withher head pillowed on his midsection. Some humor inthis shot: he wants to move but doesn't want towake her. At a point he risks it, reaches out forsomething beside the bed. Her eyes openimmediately. He puts his hand on her face, tryinggently to press her back. KLUTE Go back to sleep.But she takes his hand -- and retains it -- rollsonto her back. Still relaxed, but a little moreseparate, thoughtful -- a mixture of the Bree we'veseen before and the Bree we've glimpsed, thepossible Bree. She observes: BREE I'm still scared. (beat) I mean different but still. (frowns) Look, I made it very clear from the start, you're a yokel, you don't excite me, you don't even interest me, and so I only have one question which is what the hell are you doing in my bed? KLUTE My bed.She grins, then starts to reach for him, stillreceptive -- then feels another (and genuine) pang,turns her head away sharply. BREE Oh!He looks at her with concern, but only caressesher. She manages to explain -- BREE (CONT'D) I am scared. The things I do. The things I could do to you. KLUTE Mm. BREE No, not just 'mm'. You don't know what I --He settles himself beside her, makes overtures. Sheresponds, but: BREE (CONT'D) Oh boy, say, you think you're pretty good. KLUTE Yup.She pretends to bite -- they tussle -- she feels asuddenly growing excitement, seizes him. Fiercely,welcomingly, full out. BREE Oh --And we cut directly to:INT. SPANGLER'S OFFICE: BREE, SPANGLER - DAYBree standing, angry, antagonistic, demanding. In away -- a Bree-like way -- she's seized psychiatryby the throat. BREE The son of a bitch seduced me!She waits. Spangler says nothing. BREE (CONT'D) I know: it's ridiculous. But it's tearing me up and I don't know why. And look, all right, I came here didn't I? And if I have to, I'll keep coming here, the works, and talk about my mummy and my daddy and I'll even pay for it, but will you kindly for God's sakes say something? SPANGLER (smiles) I'd just be guessing. BREE Guess! SPANGLER Maybe this wasn't just a trick. Maybe you're in danger of real love, real involve -- BREE (primly, distintly) I do not love him. SPANGLER (undeterred, suggests) You've spent your life avoiding this. You'll try hard to deny it; you're quite likely to destroy it. WE CUT TO:EXT. THE PLAZA OF LINCOLN CENTERSunlight is beaming on the graceful fountains andelegant architecture.Groups of cheerful tourists are admiring thecivilized monuments to man's search for culture.CAMERA pans to ugly street across the way revealingKlute approaching and entering a dingy warehousetopped by an absurdly placed copy of the Statue ofLiberty. This is the municipal storehouse.INT. MUNICIPAL STOREHOUSE - DAYThe abrupt cut from the bright sunlight leaves usin almost total darkness as we follow KLUTE. We arein a huge storeroom. As we grow accustomed to thedarkness we see bits and pieces of incongruousobjects scattered along Klute's path - old piecesof furniture, lamps, piggy banks, etc. - theremnants of the lives of the plundered, thedestroyed and the dispossessed. Some is stolenproperty, some evidence for homicide cases, andsome the unclaimed possessions of the unclaimeddead.A CUSTODIAN -- an ancient retainer sort, a civilservant, leads KLUTE into an old elevator cage.INT. ELEVATORKlute and Custodian as elevator ascends; looking upthe elevator shaft through the open cage we see aseries of doors hanging over space seeming to leadnowhere. The whole sequence has the feeling of adream of being lost in a black limbo.Klute and Custodian leave elevator on higher floorand walk down the long very low corridor past rowsof locked vault doors. The Custodian stops at oneand opens it. We are in a small dungeon-like roomfilled with banks of files from floor to ceiling.The Custodian counts to himself -- CUSTODIAN Four -- five -- what number'd I say? KLUTE Four ninety-seven, Jane McKennaCustodian finds it, unlocks for Klute's inspection.Reaches for paper Klute's holding. CUSTODIAN -- And I keep the authorization, please. KLUTE I thought there'd be more.Klute pokes through a small collection of personaleffects -- perhaps an ankle bracelet, rabbits foot,faded snapshot of a child, some letters, pitifulremnants of Jane McKenna's life. Klute closes thedrawer, and the front of the drawer is markedMcKENNA, JANE?Over the visual material of Klute's trip throughthe warehouse we hear WILD TRACK VOICE OVER bitsand pieces of BREE talking with the psychiatrist. BREE (V.O.) All right. Loneliness. (space) Well -- separated. From other people. Forgotten. (space) Well, as if I can be here, I can go through the motions, right? But the truth is, I don't belong. SPANGLER (V.O.) (prompts mildly) Don't belong? BREE (V.O.) (snappishly) Do you always have to repeat? SPANGLER (V.O.) Sorry. (then) BREE (V.O.) Well it's more than loneliness. Hate. People hating me -- and watching me and following and waiting to hurt me -- you know? I'm all screwed up. SPANGLER (V.O.) You think people hate you. BREE (V.O.) The truth is I hate them: they must hate me. All right, the money. (pause) All right, not the money. A kind of put-on. It gets things back together. (pause) Well let's say I'd go to one of these cattle-calls, a tryout. I mean before -- before I got this job -- and they'd always say thank you very much and i'd feel, you know, brought down. They didn't want me. SPANGLER (V.O.) Didn't want you. BREE (V.O.) (snaps) I said that. (resumes) Well, so you have a choice. You can either feel lonely -- you know, the hate -- or -- (then more rapidly, plunging) So you take a call and go to a hotel room and there's some John you've never seen before, but he wants you. He must, he's paying for it. (beat) And usually they're nervous and that's all right, too, because you're not; you know this thing. And then for a while, boy, they really pay attention, you're all there is. (beat) And it's not real and you don't have to even like them -- you can even hate them, it's all right, it safe -- you know?INT. PROJECTION ROOM - MISSING PERSONS BUREAUOn the left a portion of the original obsceneletter. On the right a series of comparisondocuments -- beginning with a portion of a personalletter. We hear TRASK'S, KLUTE'S VOICES OVER, andoccasionally cut to them as -- TRASK'S VOICE (skipping, summarizing) All right, there's Tom Grunemann, you're right, different margins, different spacing absolutely, sloppy, right. KLUTE'S VOICE Mm. TRASK'S VOICE All right, try this next guy.The right-hand document is switched.KLUTE, TRASKKlute reacts. TRASK Think this is our guy? KLUTE I don't know. It looks familiar to me. TRASK Thought it might. It's off an arrest report you typed two years ago. Man you wanted samples of everybody.Then -- with subdued satisfaction, switching theprojector again. TRASK (CONT'D) Now the next cat. Mm?SCREEN; DOCUMENTS TRASK'S VOICE Same margins top and sides. He does best with his middle fingers; you get fainter registration from outside keys like Q, A, L, P and like that. Next thing look around apostrophes, how he hits the space bar before --KLUTE & TRASK - STARING AT PROJECTIONS KLUTE But what reason could he have? What possible reason? TRASK Unless he was involved with Grunemann's disappearance. KLUTE I knew Tom never wrote that letter. TRASK What else do you know? KLUTE I never could believe that Tom was a split personality. I never believed he was a Dumper; and I don't believe he disappeared of his own volition; and I don't believe he's alive. TRASK We have some very tentative circumstantial evidence of freeky behavior, but there's no evidence of murder - there's not even a body. KLUTE I don't believe Tom's alive.As Klute talks he paces back and forth in thedarkness. He crosses in front of the lightedscreen; the letters projected on the screen rippleover his face. KLUTE (CONT'D) But why? Why?INT. MISSING PERSONS BUREAUKlute and Trask are seen entering from theProjection Room. In the background we see an oldblack woman sitting in front of the picture file ofunidentified dead, carefully studying each picture.In the foreground Klute sits down at a phone anddials. KLUTE Yes, Mr. Cable's office, please.CAMERA goes in close on Klute. CABLE'S VOICE (through telephone) John, how are you? KLUTE I'll be sending you on a report tonight. CABLE'S VOICE It's a beautiful day in Tuscarora - I don't envy you that humidity in the city. KLUTE It's not so bad.There is a silence. Both Klute and Cable seem to bewaiting for one or the other to make the next move. KLUTE (CONT'D) Would you like to know what's in it? The report. CABLE'S VOICE (obligingly) What's in it? KLUTE I think Tom Grunemann's dead. I've been a lot of places - I've asked a lot of people. I've found no proof he's around. I've found no proof he was ever around. CABLE VOICE How do you go from that to the idea Tom's dead? Suicide you're suggesting? He killed himself? KLUTE (plodding, unemphatic) He could've been murdered. CABLE'S VOICE I'm sure the FBI and the Police explored that possibility. KLUTE No. They never did, really. But that's what I'm going to recommend. The next step. Unless something -- CABLE'S VOICE Have you discussed this with them? KLUTE It's in the report. CABLE'S VOICE Do they have the report? Have you discussed it with them? KLUTE I wanted to give it to you first. CABLE'S VOICE All right. All right -- (then) John, just sit tight will you? I'll read your report, I'll discuss it with the others. I'll be back next Thursday, we'll talk the whole thing over then. Nothing til Thursday, all right? KLUTE All right. CABLE'S VOICE Thank you. Goodbye, John. KLUTE Goodbye, Pete.Klute hangs up. KLUTE (CONT'D) He was always at their house on holidays. Tom and Holly always had him, over on holidays. Tom felt sorry for him - his whole life was work. Tom felt sorry for him.The old black lady motions to Trask who crosses toher. She points to a picture in the file. She hasobviously found her missing person among thephotographs of the unidentified dead. She starts tostand but then sits again, obviously shaken.Klute crosses to her and gently helps her out ofthe chair. He sees in her face the same sense ofloss he feels for his friend.EXT. OUTDOOR MARKETS - EIGHT AVENUE - NIGHTKLUTE & BREEBree examining and feeling fruit in some imitationof a very shrewd and experienced housewife shopper.She is obviously enjoying her sense of domesticity,and Klute is amused by her enjoyment.OUTDOOR NURSERY - EIGHT AVENUE - NEXT TO MARKETThe nursery is an absurdly cheerful spot ofgreenery in the midst of the dirty chaos of theavenue.Klute and Bree wander through the plants. BREE I saw Mr. Faber. (beat) You remember Mr. Faber, don't you? KLUTE (controlledly) Yeah. BREE Is that all you have to say? KLUTE What am I supposed to say? BREE Well, I told him I wouldn't - uh - go there any more. (pause) I know it's tough to understand, but it wasn't easy. You see, he was nice to me. I mean, it wasn't just him. I got something out of it too I guess. Anyway, I told him I wouldn't go there anymore.She is like a child awaiting praise from herteacher. Klute says nothing. They continue walkingamong the plants and he picks up a few that she hadadmired. KLUTE Well, here's your gold star.Considering his contempt for all the dead plantlife he has seen in her apartment in the past, sheis pleased by this act of belief in her. BREE Spangler says we have a relationship. KLUTE What? BREE You and I -- a relationship. KLUTE I was wondering what that was. BREE (beat) Hell there's nothing so mysterious about the square life.EXT. BROWNSTONE ENTRYWAY - NIGHTBree, Klute approach unhurriedly along thesidewalk. She is holding his arm, HUMS to herself,enjoys the evening.INT. STAIRWALL - NIGHTWe follow them up.INT. ANGLE INTO BREE APARTMENT - NIGHTThe apartment is a shambles -- furnitureoverturned, decorations ripped from the wall,bedding scattered and ripped.INT. BREE APARTMENT - NIGHTKlute jettisons the grocery bags, thrusts himselfinside, looks quickly about, finds no one. Breefollows more slowly, whispering: BREE Oh Jesus. Oh Jesus. KLUTE Don't touch anything.He moves quickly to the rear of the apartment,looks at the rear window which has been brokeninward in a litter of glass -- then returns to thetable at the front of the apartment; his folders.Bree cracks wise, unsteadily. BREE You suppose he's a married fella?ANGLE TO TABLE; FOLDERSThe contents of the folders have been spilledacross the table and -- we ZOOM IN -- thephotographs of Tom Grunemann sorted out and rippedapart, Even the COMPANY PICNIC photograph has beenpainstakingly torn, specifically to destroy theimage of Grunemann in the front row.KLUTEHe stands, looking down, taking no notice as -- BREE He got in my clothing!Then a moment later, she cries out again, moresharply: BREE (CONT'D) Oh. Oh.He turns quickly. She is holding out, at armslength, a pair of her underpants. With a disgust soextreme she can only laugh. BREE (CONT'D) Oh look what he did in them. KLUTE Drop it.She doesn't respond. He seizes her arm, shakes thegarment back onto the floor. She starts to gag,slaps her hand over her mouth, starts for thebathroom. Klute yanks her back. KLUTE (CONT'D) Stay out of there.She twists free of his hands, backs away. The sameelementary terror we've seen before. KLUTE (CONT'D) Listen to me: It's all right. I've been expecting something. BREE (full out, vengefully) My God, I thought it was over. And here I am, daddy, right back at the start. KLUTE Bree -- BREE Right back at the start, right? KLUTE Go down in my room. BREE You said it was over, right? You said not to worry any more, all over, right?She's broken for the door; it's questionable thatshe's even heard him. He hasn't time to pursue --shouts again -- KLUTE Go down in my room and wait.Then he turns back into the apartment.INT. BREE'S APARTMENT - DAYA DOWNSHOT TO UNDERPANTS (as if from Klute's POV,connecting directly to the previous shot) -- then aFLASHBULB goes off and a hand and pair of tongsenter frame and flip the garment into a collectingbox and we widen to reveal that it's now daylightand the scene has been invaded by POLICETECHNICIANS. One is a photographer; another, afingerprint man, is spraying surfaces with a can offixative. In the foreground Klute and Trask aretalking with Ross, the FBI man. Ross is lookingthrough a dossier on Cable that Klute has compiled.Over the following conversation we show CLOSEUPS ofmaterial in the dossier. It contains photographs ofCable and his life from childhood to the present -including pictures of him with his mother andfather - she a very dominant looking lady and he avery passive looking man;also graduation pictures and pictures with hisformer wife taken when he was still a very youngman. They are the personal images of a life time. ROSS (to Klute) But if Cable killed Grunemann why would he get you hired to look for Grunemann? KLUTE Because he knew I couldn't leave the case alone. And this way at least he'd keep track of it. And me. ROSS What about Grunemann's letters to the girl, everything like that? TRASK Cable's letters, Cable's phone calls. Cable's everything else. He's been a Dumper a long time. He just passed off his own peculiar habits on the other man -- it kept things goin'. ROSS OK, pretend I believe you. Tell me how you get an indictment. TRASK Can't. Yet. Oh we got everythin' else: first rate evidence Cable typed those dumper letters to Bree Daniel. And Jane McKenna: Klute found a couple in her personal remains. We got dates of Cable's trips here coincidin' with phone calls to Bree Daniel, also the dates of death of McKenna and Page. We got some hints of his personal history. His father, unsuccessful salesman, committed suicide when he was 13. His mother pinned all her hopes on her son. He won a national science youth award at the age of eight. They had no money, but she hired special tutors for him in the summer time. She saw a good thing. He graduated from high school at 14 -- college at 16 -- no friends -- The kids in his class thought of him as a freak. He got his Ph.D. at 18 -- married at age 21 to his then employer's daughter. The marriage lasted 4 weeks. Her father had it annulled. She says he was impotent. World War II he got in bad trouble about a German girl, no details. We think we know why he killed Grunemann -- he found out Cable was a dumper; Cable couldn't take that. We think we know why he killed McKenna -- she wanted to blackmail him for it. All fine. But we got no body, no direct witnesses, we can't go any-damn-where. KLUTE That's the reason i told him we had no evidence Tom was still alive. We wanted to shake him into another phone call or another letter. It didn't work out just that way.The Technicians, meanwhile have packed to depart.The first Technician scoops the torn up photographsinto another collecting box. Trask retrieves thecompany outing photograph. TRASK Gov, want to leave me that one. How come he got to play with this one, anyway. KLUTE I left them here. I was doing some work here.Trask eyes Klute for a moment, as if a querying hisrelationship with Bree. Klute is clearlyunresponsive. Trask resumes. TRASK It's damn lucky you didn't have the dossier on Cable here. KLUTE Nobody's seen that. TRASK If we get anything from the lab, we'll have it by noon. And just think -- all he really had to do was write us a letter. ROSS Sounds to me you better shake him again. Put him in a spot he has to do something more -- but this time give him a time and a place to do it. KLUTE He called this morning from Tuscarora. Asked me to meet him at 3:00 at the downtown heliport. He's on his way to Chicago. TRASK He sure chalks up a lot of flight time.Klute starts gathering his papers we CUT TO --INT. STAIRWELL: BREE - DAYBree coming up the stairs meets the Technicianscoming down -- stands aside to let them pass --starts up again and comes face to face with Klute.On her part we see a wish to be reconciled -- ashyness mixed with defiance -- but Klute's manneris arduous. She smiles nervously, asks -- BREE Ah, Schmendrick -- what's the scam? KLUTE Those were police laboratory people, they've been over the apartment. BREE (mock delight) Oh zippidy-doo, they'll find my fingerprints. (then) Can I go in? I need some stuff.He nods; she starts by. Then -- KLUTE Where'd you spend last night? BREE With Trina. KLUTE I called Trina. BREE Maybe I wasn't there when you called. KLUTE Bree, what's actually happened? It wasn't that bad. BREE (cuts in harshly) How do you know how bad it was? KLUTE Why couldn't you stay here with me? BREE Because I didn't want to be touched! I didn't think you'd get that!Pause. Then, evenly -- KLUTE Trask wants to talk with you.She starts on, then turns back toward him -- ratherpleadingly -- BREE Hey -- look officer -- I can explain everything. It was just -- you know, everything all of a -- KLUTE Trask wants to talk with you.She continues on up; Klute continues down.INT. BREE'S APARTMENT - DAYEntering without greeting Trask (his manner is notuncivil but simply neutral, unreacting, Cop-like)she quickly gathers up a few properties, a changeof shoes. TRASK Miss Daniel, be sensible, you find another place till we get things cleaned up. BREE (brightly) Oh well that shouldn't take you more than another, oh, two and a half or three years, should it? TRASK A few more days. We know who did this. BREE So do I. TRASK No, not Grunemann. He's dead. The man that killed him -- also prob'ly Jane McKenna, also Arlyn Page.She spins around -- mute -- terrified. BREE (manages) Arlyn and Jane commited suicide. He said they commited suicide. TRASK Now there's a picture I'd like you to -- BREE You said someone killed them, you said you know who, you said that. TRASK Well we're pretty -- BREE Why isn't he locked up? TRASK We don't want to just lock him up; we want a conviction, we wanted him to do something more. BREE Is that why Klute didn't tell me? TRASK I guess he figured it was better. BREE What was better? I made better bait? TRASK No, that's not -- BREE Is that what he set me up for? Everything he's told me from the beginning? -- don't worry, don't -- TRASK (coldly) From the beginning I don't know why the hell he's messin with you. If he was me he'd know better. If he was even a city boy he'd know better. You're a whore Miss Daniel, that's the truth of it, right? Now somethin I'd like you to look at. BREE I don't have to look at anything. I don't have -- TRASK Here please.He coerces her to the table and unrolls the Companyouting picture. (We see the rip extending upthrough the image of Tom Grunemann in the frontrow.) BREE Oh no. TRASK Like for you to look for the man. BREE Grunemann? I've looked at him a --Trask has clamped his thumb over the torn image ofGrunemann, indicates with the other hand -- TRASK No. Not Grunemann. The Dumper. Just look around -- I said look for the Dumper.We see her comply -- her eyes moving over the rowsof faces. Then we see her stiffen, hear her gasp -- BREE Oh! ---- and WE CUT TO --INT. DOWNTOWN HELIPORT - DAYCable welcomes Klute. His outer manner is warm,voluble, congratulatory -- CABLE Sorry we had to meet here. But I'm pressed for time. KLUTE Well there's a couple -- CABLE I read your report. I had to go along with it -- the idea of this being a wild goose chase, Tom being nowhere around -- KLUTE Well as a matter of -- CABLE I've been up country, you know my summer place, my camp. I don't even have a telephone there. This morning they sent a messenger out, that you'd been trying to call me. KLUTE Yeah. CABLE I'm on my way to Chicago. Very important meeting tonight. Well -- any new developments? KLUTE Yeah, two things Pete, that -- CABLE You said Trask was arranging laboratory work. Police laboratory. Anything from that? KLUTE Yeah. It wasn't Tom. CABLE I'm sorry. I don't understand. KLUTE It wasn't Tom that broke in the room. CABLE It has to be Tom. You said he ripped up his own pictures, he -- KLUTE Not Tom. Whoever it was left a kind of souvenir, I told you, in her clothing. Semen. The laboratory got a blood group reading from that. The man was blood type 0; Tom was an AB. CABLE (slowly) Some mistake perhaps that -- KLUTE No. No mistake Pete. It doesn't prove who it was -- but proves it wasn't Tom. CABLE You must be discouraged. KLUTE (prosaically) Not too bad. This brings back that Dumper in the picture. CABLE That who? KLUTE Dumper, the man Bree Daniel mentioned and Arlyn Page knew and Jane McKenna knew. CABLE You said he was no possible connection with Tom. The Page girl told you that, not Tom. KLUTE Someone's been doing all these things. CABLE You were hired to look for Tom, not someone. KLUTE Pete, I've got a chance to buy Jane McKenna's black book. CABLE What? KLUTE Call-girls generally keep a book, you know, a list of their clients. Sometimes, if a girl retires, she'll even sell it worth good money. Jane McKenna had a black book; when she died it was stolen. I've been after it a long time. CABLE You were hired to look for Tom. KLUTE I'm meeting a man tomorrow night. He wants to meet me on East-River Drive -- he wants five hundred dollars for the book. Can you get that for me Pete?Sometime -- right along about now -- it privatelycomes to Cable that Klute may know everything andthat he, Cable, may be being trapped. CABLE I can't follow you. KLUTE Will the Company put up five hundred dollars to get Jane McKenna's list of clients? CABLE No. It's ridiculous. This has nothing to do with Tom Grunemann. KLUTE (shrugs, stolidly) It probably has the Dumper's name. It might give us some kind of new lead. (beat) I want a look at it anyhow. CABLE Klute, the Company's interest is Tom Grunemann. Solely and exclusively. You say you can't find Tom; all right, I'll see that you're paid off; the case is closed. KLUTE All right, but I'm going to see that list.HELICOPTER FLIGHT is announced over loud speakerand Cable and Klute walk onto field.EXT. HELICOPTER FIELDPeople are boarding helicopter. CABLE Why would they deal with you? You don't know these people.Klute is momentarily at a loss -- not a questionhe'd prepared for -- improvises. KLUTE No, but Bree does. She's negotiating for me. Bree Daniel.Cable takes an instant to compute the thing. Then -- CABLE I can talk it over; possibly I can get the money. When are you meeting the man? KLUTE Tomorrow evening, nine. East River Drive and 73rd Street. CABLE Suppose I meet you there a half hour before. KLUTE Just send me a money order. CABLE No, I'd -- like to be in on it.ATTENDANT comes over to motion Cable onto thehelicopter.Klute smiles awkwardly, raises his hand in agoodbye gesture. KLUTE Well -- CABLE Tomorrow. See you tomorrow night.INT. HELICOPTERCable sits down next to window. The helicopterbegins to rise. CAMERA goes into a medium closeshot of Cable against the helicopter window. Thehelicopter ascends in front of a very tall officebuilding made up of endless glass squares. Atelephoto lens brings the glass squares of thebuilding directly against Cable's head andshoulders giving us the feeling that Cable isalmost levitating by himself. As one floor afteranother disappears behind him we see an almostmanic exhultation in Cable's face; as if he is ontop of things once more.EXT. STREET OUTSIDE BROWNSTONE - DAYWe bring Klute along street, and into theBrownstone.INT. STAIRWELL - DAYKlute climbs the stairs to Bree's apartment --knocks. He waits. No answer. He calls once -- KLUTE Bree?No answer. He starts downstairs again -- then turnsback, unlocks the door himself, enters.INT. BREE'S APARTMENT - DAYThe room is still disordered. Bree and FrankLigourin look at him, silently. Bree has beenassembling armfuls of dresses to carry away withher. Frank sits nearby in a chair. Klute smiles alittle -- almost apologetically. KLUTE I'm always getting surprises.Bree doesn't answer. She sets the armload ofdresses over the back of a chair, moves aside toget others. Frank smiles cautiously, ruefully. Then-- KLUTE (CONT'D) I don't want you to do this.He still doesn't extract an answer. She returnswith other dresses. KLUTE (CONT'D) Please. I said I don't want you to do this. BREE (tight, small) Trask said I should move. Let's not make a thing of it.He continues to look at her; she continues togather possessions. Then trying to smile, to dealwith it casually -- BREE (CONT'D) Look, too much is going on here. I'm moving in with another girl, that's all. Just for a while. FRANK (helpfully) That's right. This other girl's got a very big apartment, big, plenty of room. (then) Look, it's not necessarily how it looks, right? It's --He thinks better of continuing. Klute looks fromhim back to Bree. He speaks gravely, spacing hiswords -- unable to speak any faster. KLUTE No. Please. Not with this son of a bitch.Frank rises, both nervous and offended -- butdealing with Klute as between civilized men.Smiling. FRANK Klute, let's handle it like grownups? I mean we're all grown up now, right? (ventures forward) -- we all respect each other, you know what I mean? -- I respect you, Bree respects you -- you could say, it just didn't work out between you and she. But you got to respect her too -- you know, her best interests, best for her --Klute hits him, pursues, recovers, and starts tobeat him. BLOOD thickly descends the side ofFrank's face, as he struggles away. Bree isscreaming. Bree grabs at him from behind. Hethrusts her off. But it allows Frank to break awaythrough the still-open door. Klute pursues.INT. LANDING AT DOOR - DAYFrank clatters down a stairs as Klute arrives inthe doorframe, and as Bree, behind Klute, screams -- BREE No!Klute is restrained -- restrains himself. Frank hasfaced around on the stairs, still bleedingextravagantly from his torn scalp. Earnestly -- FRANK Hey, I'm gonna get you dropped.Klute start's out after him -- Frank vaults awaydown the stairs -- we hear him stumbling andrunning -- Klute faces sharply around into theapartment.INT. BREE'S APARTMENT - DAYPAST KLUTE TO BREE. She is running away from himagain, to a corner of the apartment, fumbling at asewing basket. He starts in, after her. KLUTE (indistinctly) Please --TWO SHOTShe swings about as he overtakes her, holding apair of scissors -- simply and transcendentlyterrified. She strikes at him, slashing hisforearm. He and she stand in absolute silence. Helooks down at the stain of blood spreading throughthe fabric of his jacket sleeve. Then he turns outof the room and down the stairs.EXT. BREE'S BROWNSTONE - DAYKlute comes out of door -- goes down steps to hisown apartment. A passerby stops him for directionsand doesn't seem to notice the blood on his sleeve.Klute goes into his apartment.INT. BREE'S APARTMENT: BREE - DAYBree is in the middle of dialing the phone. Herhands are shaking; she misdials -- holds down thereceiver for a moment then starts again.INT. KLUTE'S APARTMENT: KLUTE - DAYKlute stands in silence for a moment or two -- thentakes rather more note of his forearm. (Noturgently but practically; it behooves him to stopbleeding.) He turns toward the bathroom, pullinghis jacket off with the other hand.INT. BREE'S APARTMENT: BREE - DAYBree speaks to the phone, trying to make a simplepoint, trying to keep her voice even. BREE -- until he gets back. (beat) Yes I heard you, I understand that. I said I'm going to come over, I'll wait until he gets back.She hangs up before the other party can object indetail -- takes up her purse and goes out, not evenclosing the door behind her.INT. KLUTE'S APARTMENT: BATHROOM: KLUTE - DAYKlute has knotted a hand-towel around his forearm,now uses teeth and fingers to pull the ends tight.Then -- intending to clean up -- he takes up awashcloth, reaches for the faucet --EXT. BREE'S BROWNSTONE - DAYBree comes out of door - goes down steps -hesitates in front of Klute's apartment strugglingwith the question of whether to knock. CAMERA pullsback to reveal we are watching her through thewindshield of a car in the parking lot across thestreet. CAMERA pulls back further to reveal theback of Cable's head as he sits in the car watchingher. Bree starts to knock on Klute's door but stopsherself and walks down the street. Cable's headmoves out of the shot. We hear the sound of the cardoor opening and closing. Through the windshield wesee Cable cross in front of the car and start tofollow Bree down the street.INT. KLUTE'S APARTMENT: BATHRO0M: KLUTE - DAYKlute finishes mopping up. SOUND OF TELEPHONE. Heturns back out of the bathroom and answers it. KLUTE Hello? (listens, then soberly - ) Trask, I don't get that.EXT. STREET: BREE - DAYBree is about a quarter block away from theBrownstone now, hurrying. She waves in thedirection of a cab, misses it, continues on. We CUTTO --EXT. STREET: CABLE - DAYCable stands looking after her, hesitates overchoice of action, decides to follow.EXT. STREET: FIGURES: PAST BREE TO CABLE - DAYWe establish the distance between them -- Cable 100or so feet behind her, unnoticed by her,maintaining about the same pace, not -- at thispoint -- trying to overtake (perhaps waiting forless populated surroundings) We CUT BACK TO --INT. KLUTE'S APARTMENT: KLUTE - DAYKlute continues his phone conversation, shortspoken. KLUTE Who told you, his secretary? (listens) Has someone checked his hotel? He always stays at the -- (then) I'll look around, I'll call you back.He hangs up. First he checks out the windows (but -if we want to be accurate - from mid room, withoutdirectly approaching the windows themselves). Thenhe secures a pistol from his jacket (and folds thejacket itself over his arm to conceal it, as amatter of public decorum), and goes on out.INT. STAIRWELL: KLUTE - DAYKlute's manner, over the next few minutes, exhibitsan absolute, untheatrical, care and competence. Aman -- Cable -- may in fact be hiding heresomewhere to kill him. He sets about checking thelikely places -- first of all the lower hallway,then the stairwell itself, moving steadilyunalarmedly up.At the top he notes -- but still without mainconcern that Bree's door is open. He calls ahead -- KLUTE Bree --INT. BREE'S APARTMENT: KLUTE - DAYHe enters, puzzles, starts checking around (quitethoroughly; she might be hiding from him). We CUTBACK TO --EXT. STREETS: BREE; FIGURE OF CABLE - DAYBree moves past CONSTRUCTION WORK, through one ofthose temporary pedestrian passageways. Behind her,nearer than before we see the FIGURE OF CABLE.INT. STAIRWELL - DAYKlute comes quickly back downstairs, back into hisroom, takes up the phone. Through the still-opendoor we watch him begin dialing -- then CUT TO --INT. SPANGLER'S (OUTER) OFFICE - DAYBree sits isolated on the waiting-room couch. Shemay have been here for fifteen minutes -- or anhour. She turns the pages of a magazine -- onehanded, without even lifting it from the coffeetable, with an absolute lack of interest, amechanical gesture.We hear FOOTSTEPS approaching directly toward wherewe are watching Bree sit. LELA (O.S.) Mrs. Daniel --WIDER - TWO SHOTBree looks up in a kind of frozen terror, as theSecretary smiles nicely -- lovingly down at her. LELA -- I have to close up now. Leave your name and number with his message service, Mrs. Daniel, and why don't you just go home and wait until he -- BREE No. LELA Well I have to close up now. BREE Look -- could I use your phone? LELA Yes indeed. BREE Look. I almost killed my -- I almost killed someone. LELA (the same tone, completely) Well I'm certain Doctor Spangler will want to talk with you; excuse me.Bree moves to the desk and telephone. But we movewith the Secretary as she moves into Spangler'sinner office and switches out the lights(establishing TIME CHANGE: dusk now) and as wehear, O.S., the sound of DIALING and BREE'S VOICE -- BREE (O.S.) Is Mr. Faber there? (beat) Mr. Faber Senior.INT. GARMENT BUILDING: FABER'S OFFICE: FABER - DAY(NIGHT)Mr. Faber's phone buzzes; he picks it up. FABER Yes? (then, glancing about) Bree?INT. SPANGLER (OUTER) OFFICE: BREE ON PHONE - DAY(NIGHT) BREE (haltingly) -- I'm -- I just have to talk to someone. I'm just a little way across town --FABER, ON PHONE (OFFICE) FABER Yes - yes dear, yes -- maybe half an hour, sure, yes.He hangs up. An ancient stirring, a kind oftriumph. He glances about, then tightens his tie.Then it comes to him, after all -- he takes note ofhimself -- he leans forward against his desk andrubs his forehead with old bony fingers. We CUT TO -INT. KLUTE'S APARTMENT - DAY (NIGHT)KLUTE on phone. KLUTE Trina, will you call me if you hear from, her? Will you check other people she might call? Yeah, if it wasn't trouble I wouldn't ask vou.He hangs up, immediately starts to dial again, thenpauses to check a list he's laid out by thetelephone. While he's doing this, his PHONE RINGS. KLUTE (CONT'D) Yeah? (then) Nothing yet, Trask; I'm going down the list. I've tried Spangler's office and Spangler's home; I just get his message service. I'll keep-- (interrupted -- listens -- then -- grimly) I may have steered Cable that way. I told him Bree was dealing for me, for Jane McKenna's book. Have you found any --He is interrupted again -- Trask wasting no wordson his end of things -- nods once -- KLUTE (CONT'D) Yeah.-- and depresses the receiver just long enough toclear the connection, and starts dialing again --We CUT TO --INT. STAIRWAY OF GARMENT BUILDING - DAY (NIGHT)Quitting time. As Bree enters from street level,employees are coming down the stairs, pushing pasther. She continues up on until at one point -- onemore officious or more communicative than theothers informs her -- FOREMAN Lady, it's closing up there. BREE What? FOREMAN We're closing up, quitting time, Fabers. BREE (unsurely) I have an appointment with Mr. Faber. FOREMAN Oh, yeah.He lets her pass, glances after her like theothers, continues on his way.INT. GARMENT BUILDING: FABER RECEPTION AREA - DAY(NIGHT)Bree arrives at the head of the stairs -- as stillothers press past her on their way down -- andcomes more or less directly up against the thicksetRECEPTIONIST. She is packing her purse, preparingto depart, looks somewhat challengingly at Bree --who sees no way to avoid the issue. BREE I have an appointment with Mr. Faber. RECEPTIONIST In there. (turns, bawls) Mr. Faber --Bree goes on nervously in the direction indicated,toward --A CORNER OF OFFICES: NATHAN FABERNATHAN stands bending over a bench with back tocamera, conferring with another man as Breeapproaches -- looking to us, as to her, exactlylike his father. We hear the Receptionist's VOICErepeating -- RECEPTIONIST (CONT'D) (O.S.) (CONT'D) Mr. Faber --As Bree nears him, he straightens and turns -- amuch younger man. Bree stops short, recognizing theerror. NATHAN Yes? BREE I'm sorry -- Mr. Faber Senior. NATHAN (calmly) My father went home about fifteen minutes ago; he wasn't feeling too good.She has already started away. He calls after herevenly -- NATHAN (CONT'D) Can I help you?She looks back quickly, smiles nervously -- BREE It wasn't important.But we hold on him for a moment as she continuesout of scene -- until he turns away to othermatters. Then --RECEPTION AREA: RECEPTIONIST, BREEBree returns toward Receptionist, awkwardly -- BREE Did Mr. Faber leave a message for me or anything? Mr. Faber Senior? Bree Daniel. RECEPTIONIST Oh, I thought that was for tomorrow.The Receptionist riffles through a stack ofassorted envelopes -- hands one out to Bree -- andpromptly takes her way off. Out. Bree starts toopen the envelope then and there -- but OTHERScontinue to move past her. She seeks a more privateplace.ROWS OF GARMENTSBree shelters herself out of sight from everyoneelse -- though we continue to hear INTERMITTENTVOICES, O.S. and continue to maintain the sense ofother presences.We see her open the envelope --CLOSER: BREE, ENVELOPEShe finds nothing inside but money -- billstotaling fifty dollars. We see her looking for amessage, finding nothing. It comes to her slowlythat she's been paid off and avoided. She bites herlips in pain. She pushes back out of hiding --RECEPTIONIST AREA-- back to the reception area again. (By now thisimmediate scene has emptied, though we catch sightof a figure or two at scene-start, moving throughthe background, and continue to hear an occasionalNOISE or VOICE O.S.)Bree looks about for someone -- then scouts for apencil, finds one in a desk (or bench) drawer,starts to readdress the envelope (to direct it backto Mr. Faber). Then she breaks off from that, takesup a PHONE instead, dials -- waits -- then -- BREE Bree Daniel. Has he called in yet? Well if he does, I'm at -- (reads phone) -- two seven eight, three one hundred, and I guess I can wait here five minutes; then I'll try from somewhere else. (impatiently) Just tell him Bree Daniel; he knows who.She hangs up, goes back to readdressing theenvelope. FOOTSTEPS are approaching in herdirection. She glances up apologetically. BREE (CONT'D) Mr. Faber, I just wanted to leave this for your father, and I wondered if you'd --She pauses --ANGLE PAST BREE TO CABLECable hastens toward her along a lane of garments.In this brief glimpse a ludicrous and terrifyingfigure -- a noise, a gesticulation (actually thegesture is arms out, palms downward, intended as aquieting gesture; and the hissing noise is intendedas a shushing). Bree cries out, turns to run -- BREE (CONT'D) Someone ---- as we immediately, even as she's turning, CUT TO--INT. KLUTE'S APARTMENT: KLUTE - DAY (NIGHT)Klute speaks quietly but with terrible urgency intothe phone (dealing evidently with an ethicallyskittish message service at the other end). KLUTE Did she leave a number? (beat) This is a police call; don't make me take time to prove it. Did she leave a number? What is the number? (beat) What is the number? --INT. GARMENT BUILDING - DAY (NIGHT)Cable and Bree. They are at some remove from thesite of Cable's first appearance; there are otherevidences of time-lapse. Cable's manner is that ofslightly-strained patience -- a civility -- anattempt now and then to smile. Bree watches hisevery slight gesture, quivers to make a break forit, tries throughout to buy time. CABLE Can't we talk together reasonably, just -- ordinarily? (beat) I know you're expecting some kind of -- extravagant behavior, but believe me -- do you believe me? -- BREE Yes -- all right -- CABLE -- We can talk -- BREE -- Yes. CABLE All right, then, an ordinary matter. I'm a quite well off man, I have a -- position to respect. I would feel personally uncomfortable to be connected with a -- certain kind of woman, I'm sure you understand. Do you? Well I'd like to buy Jane McKenna's book.He looks at her discerningly. She seems not to havefollowed his exposition. He tries patiently toclarify it. CABLE (CONT'D) Her black book, Jane McKenna's, her list of -- of persons. I was told you're negotiating for it on behalf of --The PHONE RINGS, an explosive noise. Bree startles.It has been put on night-ring, to sound all overthe loft, and the noise is deafening. But -- themost bizarre element is Cable's absolute lack ofresponse to it. It rings and rings as he talks andtalks -- in the same expository tone as before,without raising his voice. It drowns out most ofhis words -- at most we catch only odd phrases ofall the following -- but he seems not to hear itany more than the clamor of other things torturinghis soul. CABLE (CONT'D) That was what Klute told me -- you were negotiating for him to buy that list. And I'm in a position to pay a good deal more for it than he can. Do you understand? I'd like you to acquire it on my -- (beat) Miss Daniel, do you not understand? (beat) Miss Daniel, I can't tell whether you understand me. (beat - still reasonably) Is this something Klute just invented? Is this a trap for me, Miss Daniel; does Klute know about me?He turns and lifts a phone (one of the extensionphones situated around the loft) -- though up tonow he's given no evidence of even hearing theringing. He just stands holding the phone for atime, then lowers it back on the receiver. With asort of absolute quiet -- CABLE (CONT'D) You have no idea what I'm talking about. BREE Yes -- Jane McKenna's book -- I could make a phone call. CABLE No, you're frightened, you're pretending. Well -- Klute knows about me then. Does everybody know, can you tell me? BREE Yes. CABLE Then it doesn't matter what I do any more, does it?Pause. Then he shudders slightly. CABLE (CONT'D) You people know nothing about pain.We CUT TO --EXT. STREETS - DAY (NIGHT)We see Klute -- probably in MLS -- running alongstreet. He tries for a cab -- misses it -- haltsthe next by expedient of cutting bodily in front ofit. The Driver starts to lean out to object. Klutemashes him back inside, enters the cab. We CUT BACKTO --INT. GARMENT BUILDING - DAY (NIGHT)MLS, the two FIGURES: CABLE, BREE. They aresomewhat separated -- Cable has gone to look downfrom one of the arched windows of the loft, whileBree remains in place. She is a prisoner, we cansuppose -- when we cut closer we'll see her eyescontinually shifting, her mind calculating herchances -- but he hasn't molested her. He bears herno animus at this point. His manner is ratherquiet, undetermined. He feels some relief that thething is, in effect, over -- and some puzzlementabout what to do (with either her or himself) now.He returns toward her.CLOSER: BREE, CABLENearing her again, he gestures several times,apologetically, seeking words. CABLE I've got no idea what I shall do.He happens too close; she can't avoid shrinking. CABLE (CONT'D) I'm not going to hurt you, absolutely, I'm not. BREE Will you let me go then?He seems not to have heard the request. He sits fora moment. An intellectual interest, a curiosity.(Meanwhile, perhaps, we see her starting to slipher shoes off, in hopes of running.) CABLE It puzzles me so badly. I've done terrible things but I can't consider myself a terrible man. I've killed three people and I'd still want to say it was accident, do you see? BREE (tries again, slowly) If you'll let me go I could tell them what -- CABLE (unhearing, resumes) Tom Grunemann discovered me -- we were here on business together, he discovered me with Jane McKenna. Then I suppose it was the -- the contempt I saw in his face and the certainty that sooner or later he'd use it against me. Within the Company. I endured that as long as I could, do you see? BREE I'm sorry, I'm just frightened. Yes. CABLE Excuse me Miss Daniel? BREE I said yes, I see. CABLE (doubtingly) Oh no, I don't think -- BREE Tell me. I'll listen. (pause) I just want you to tell me.He rises, approaches her -- apparently taken in,credulous, grateful, wondering -- CABLE You're willing to listen? You want me just to keep talking?He hits her. CABLE (CONT'D) That's what you do, isn't it; you make a man feel accepted. That's what you all do. Your stock in trade a man's weakness.He hits her again. CABLE (CONT'D) Why don't you ask for mercy? My God, what mercy has anyone given me?INT. ELEVATOR - KLUTE ASCENDING - DAY (NIGHT)EXT. GARMENT BUILDING ROOF (DIRECTLY ABOVE FABERLOFT) - DAY (NIGHT)Klute has gun out - as he carefully makes his wayacross the roof. Man in hotel window across streetholding drink - watches him with amused curiosity.Klute spots entrance to stairway.INT. GARMENT BUILDING: KLUTE - DAY (NIGHT)Klute goes downstairs to back entrance of Faberloft. He slips inside. He hears THE SOUNDS OF THEBEATING -- a stirring of feet and indistinct impactsounds, a murmur of voices (but all quite muted,undramatic). He maneuvers through lanes ofgarments, trying to gain a line of sight. Heunderstands what's going on, strains to intervene,but can't disclose himself. At a point, he drops tohands and knees, slides underneath the garmentracks, drawing closer to Cable, trying to gainposition. We intersperse his progress with furtherBree-Cable fragments, as for instance --FRAGMENT: CABLE, BREE CABLE You're a person of no value, you have no value --KLUTE, SHIFTING CLOSERKlute works his way steadily closer -- understeadily increasing pressure, as the pursuit andbeating continue as SOUNDS, O.S. Even close at handthe noises are ambiguous -- the clatter offootsteps, grunts, a slap of flesh -- rather thandistinct. Once or twice we hear CABLE'S VOICEclearly enough to make out words -- CABLE (CONT'D) -- Is that contempt? Is it? (then) No, I'm the one who feels contempt.-- and once or twice a CRY from Bree.Klute tries to gain aim --P.O.V. TO BREE, CABLE-- but Cable is too close upon her, and they aretoo steadily in motion.KLUTEKlute moves on -- moves on -- gains position --springs.CABLECable catches the sound, whirls, screams --P.O.V. TO KLUTEKlute closes with him, knocks loose Cable's pistol - contends for it again, knocks it loose again.EFFECT -- under -- SIRENS.CABLE, KLUTECable breaks loose, backs a step -- backs anotherstep -- and then, turns and runs unhesitant againstone of the windows, exploding it outward with him,both frame and glass.EXT. WIDE SHOT: BUILDINGS - DAY (NIGHT)We see the body tracing its quick path down thedark side of the building.EXT. DOWNSHOT FROM LOFT TO STREET (KLUTE'S P.O.V.) -DAY (NIGHT)EXT. BASE OF BUILDING: CABLE'S BODY - DAY (NIGHT)The sound of SIRENS a little LOUDER.INT. GARMENT BUILDING: KLUTE, BREE - DAY (NIGHT)Klute turns from looking down, moves to where Breekneels on the floor. He hunkers down.In a gentle-enough VOICE, but matter-of-factlywithal -- as if to a child -- KLUTE Come on. (pause) Come on.(Note: also shoot in MSL, without dialogue, withSIRENS O.S. full up.) Then we CUT TO --INT. KLUTE'S APARTMENT - DAYKLUTE is packing to leave. We follow him about ashe carries clothing from closet and bureau, foldsit into his suitcase on the table. We hear thefamiliar FOOTSTEPS on the stairs. Bree's KNOCK. Helets her in, keeps on about his business. Hisexpression is sober; hers is quite tentative. BREE Hi.He doesn't at least expel her. She ventures in,sits on the table, swings her heels, watches himpack. His arm impairs him. At length -- KLUTE I got a call from Ross this morning. Cable owned a plot of woodland -- he'd go there on weekends. They found Tom Grunemann's body buried there. They've notified his wife. BREE Oh. (pause; then sharply --) Well it wasn't us city people that did it -- your fine rosy-cheeked country boy. KLUTE Mm. BREE You're going back? KLUTE Mm.Pause. She compresses her lips, slips down from thetable, starts smartly out of the room. KLUTE (CONT'D) Wait.She returns and sits on the table again, waits. ButKlute doesn't seem about to say anything more --goes on packing. BREE Well suppose I hadn't come downstairs. Would you just have folded up and sneaked away? KLUTE (slowly) No. I was going to come up. I wanted to ask you to marry me. (pause) BREE You wanted to, or you are? KLUTE I am. BREE You could at least look at me!He complies, stands and looks, folding a necktie.But now she finds she has to look away. Somewhatbrokenly -- BREE (CONT'D) Look -- yes. I mean thanks, but -- don't you think we better be realistic? KLUTE About what? BREE Look at me. I'm pretty and sort of clever and very well intentioned, and dear God I'd tear your heart out! KLUTE I don't think so.He resumes packing, continues through thefollowing. BREE How can you not think so? You know the things I can do. KLUTE (unclearly) They don't scare me any more. BREE What? KLUTE Doesn't scare me. I think we could handle it.Thereafter he guards his silence, staunchly goes onpacking, as she comes at the thing from varioussharp angles. BREE Please, I'm a city person. I'm sure it's just as good as here but I'm a city person, that's all, I am! (pause) Hell I know what it's like. I was in Jersey once: the frogs go bra-a p all night! (pause) What'im I supposed to do? Mend your socks and sing in the church choir? (pause, choking) ) Do you not believe I love you? I'm honestly, honestly just --He has almost finished packing -- returns towardthe suitcase with the tin CLOCK and electric FAN,tries to fit them in as conversation continues. BREE (CONT'D) Look, why should it be yes or no? Can't we keep it going and see? I mean we can keep in touch and visit each other and see. People do that, that's realistic. KLUTE OK. BREE (bitterly) You don't believe that either, do you? Why can't you see my side? KLUTE Can you use these?He sets the fan beside her, hands her the LOUDLYTICKING clock. She holds it in her lap, numbly.He's packed -- closes various drawers, leaving ingood order -- snaps the suitcase shut, lifts itstiffly down from the table. She remains sitting. BREE Can I carry something for you, to the car? (he shakes his head) Will you kiss me? KLUTE No. I'm sore.He moves to the door, pauses, half-smiles -- KLUTE (CONT'D) Well --She smiles back. He goes. We hear the entryway dooropening and closing.She slips down off the table. We CUT TO --EXT STREET OUTSIDE BROWNSTONE - DAYKlute is, let's say, about seventy feet on his waywhen she appears at the front door, calls afterhim. BREE Hey.He turns around and stops. He walks slowly back toher.CLOSER: BREE, KLUTEHe arrives in proximity to her. Then the followingevents in more or less the following order:He looks at her inquiringly. She responds bysitting down, plunk, on the grubby front step ofthe Brownstone.Having stood for some time -- during which she hasoffered only twitching motions of her hands -- hesets down the suitcase.Having set down the suitcase, but derived noanswer, he reaches out one arm, and leans againstthe building front.She nearly arrives at the level of statement.Fretfully, indecisively -- BREE Oh heck -- (pause) Oh heck --Then, as a man not to be dallied with, he picks upthe suitcase again. She looks at him strickenly,but it doesn't precipitate her into speech.He puts it down again.And then -- then, after all, goddamit, he reachesout, grabs her wrist, and simply hauls her along,suitcase in one hand, Bree in the other. As sheyanks, shouts, struggles -- BREE (CONT'D) I haven't decided yet! (beat) I haven't decided yet! (beat) I haven't decided yet! -- THE END \ No newline at end of file